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Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris Johnson, and Chris is

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Speaker 1: having conversations with influencers in the sports world and entertainment industry.

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Speaker 1: Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now tuned in the kJ Live.

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Speaker 1: Today's guest is on the show. The eleven year NBA

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Speaker 1: veterans won an NBA Championship with the Miami Heat. Since

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Speaker 1: retiring from the game, he spends his time as a

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Speaker 1: analyst for the Gold State Warriors on the NBC Bay

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Speaker 1: Area Network and the program director for Kanye West's Dunda Academy,

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Speaker 1: a prep school based out here on the West Coast. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It was really a great pleasure and honor to interview

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Speaker 1: somebody that I've followed his entire career since he was

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Speaker 1: a youngster. Uh. Durrell, Right, welcome to the show, my man.

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Speaker 1: Let's sorry, appreciate you having I don't no doubt, man,

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Speaker 1: it's always great to talk to you. Man. Uh, you've

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Speaker 1: always been one of the guys over the years that

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Speaker 1: Uh it's one of the guys that represented the city

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Speaker 1: of Los Angeles in an excellent kind of man. And

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Speaker 1: you and your brother, your entire family, So we had

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Speaker 1: to get you on the show. Man. I guess what

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Speaker 1: I wanted to know. Man, A lot of people know

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Speaker 1: about you, but they don't really know about Durreil. Talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about where you were born, what you know,

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Speaker 1: section of the city of Los Angeles that you were

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Speaker 1: born and where you grew up. We want to be

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Speaker 1: the street term. I grew up in the hundreds south

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Speaker 1: central Los Angeles, Imperial on Western. The places that a

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Speaker 1: lot of people know is Southwest College. You know, the

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Speaker 1: old bowling alley, uh lucy stuff like that. So that's

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Speaker 1: where I grew up man and crazy childhood as far

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Speaker 1: as just where I grew up at and you know

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Speaker 1: where I where it took me, you know the things

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Speaker 1: that taught me. So definitely proud of where I'm from.

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Speaker 1: Uh definitely wasn't easy growing up in that area, just

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Speaker 1: because we've know about the gang cultures in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: And I just told my son, it's like I used

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Speaker 1: have to walk to school every day when I went

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Speaker 1: to Washington High School, and I'm walking through three to

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Speaker 1: four different hoods every single day. So it's a blessing that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I made it through all that and I'm

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Speaker 1: here because any day could have been my day, you know,

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Speaker 1: mistaken identity me being affiliated with certain people I grew

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Speaker 1: up with. So I love where I'm from. I rep

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Speaker 1: it hard, and I think we had a lot of

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Speaker 1: talent come out of that area. Absolutely. Uh, the south

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Speaker 1: central section of the city of Los Angeles has some

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Speaker 1: of the greatest athletes that we've ever seen across all sports,

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Speaker 1: legends of the game. Um, I guess one thing I

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Speaker 1: wanted to kind of drill down into man, when you

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Speaker 1: when you're you know, youngster, and you're walking through these

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Speaker 1: hoods and you have to worry about you know, what

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Speaker 1: color you wear, the school that was the era of that,

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Speaker 1: How what sort of advice? Who did you lean on

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Speaker 1: for direction and advice? Man telling you, hey, man, you

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Speaker 1: you know you can't you know, because I'm Michael much

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Speaker 1: of this, Babe. Youre walking through different hoods, but if

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Speaker 1: you were blue that day, one of them hoods is

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Speaker 1: a bloodhood. So it's like, so it's like, how did

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Speaker 1: that work? You know who and who taught you how

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Speaker 1: to move in those situations? Uh, your peers, you know,

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Speaker 1: having awareness and you know my parents, I had both

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Speaker 1: parents at home. I was one of the only kids

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Speaker 1: not you know, it was very few of us in

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Speaker 1: my neighborhood that grew up with both parents. A lot

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Speaker 1: of my friends grew up with single mother homes or

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Speaker 1: either live with their grandparents. Things that that nature. And

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Speaker 1: you know, when you grow up, it's a lot of

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Speaker 1: kids that's way more mature than you. They know a

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Speaker 1: lot more than you. Their parents are letting them watch

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Speaker 1: and learn stuff. Uh at your mom and dad might

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Speaker 1: be screening you from and you know, probably just not

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Speaker 1: ready to have that conversation about about certain things with you.

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Speaker 1: So you learn a lot of stuff from school and elementary.

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Speaker 1: I learned stuff because you know, a lot of my

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Speaker 1: friends either family are somebody you know, cousin friend, was

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Speaker 1: affiliated with something. So that's kind of where you learn

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Speaker 1: stuff from. Man. Uh you you kind of believe them

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Speaker 1: until you learn the real truth about a lot of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But a lot of the stuff that I learned from

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Speaker 1: my friends was dead on, like with section, what hood

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Speaker 1: is this? What they do over here? So that's kind

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Speaker 1: of how I learned at early age elementary about the

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Speaker 1: game culture and uh different sections and what they say,

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Speaker 1: the lingo, the terminology, the color ways, all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: So I learned that from my peers. And then you know,

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Speaker 1: being on those bikes, being outside, that's where you learn

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Speaker 1: how to be street smart and you know how the

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Speaker 1: awareness of what to do, not to do, and things

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Speaker 1: of that nature. So uh, definitely, my mom and dad

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Speaker 1: tried to let me know, you know, when certain people

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Speaker 1: are doing certain things, it's okay to be like, yo,

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting this one out. It's okay for them to say, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, as an l a term, you're square or

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Speaker 1: you've been a weirdo or whatever, because you don't wanna

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Speaker 1: interacting certain things. You know that's gonna get you in trouble.

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Speaker 1: So I think my mom and dad did an awesome

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Speaker 1: job with letting us know, like, hey, it is okay

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Speaker 1: if somebody think you a certain way because you don't

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Speaker 1: think that's cool. So I was super aware of a

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Speaker 1: lot of things. So yes, you know, I have a

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Speaker 1: lot of friends that you know, grew up in the game,

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Speaker 1: culture and relatives and stuff like that. I just chose

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Speaker 1: to stay active in sports. My mom and dad did

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Speaker 1: a great job with putting us in baseball, basketball, football

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Speaker 1: year around, so we always stay active, we always stay busy.

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Speaker 1: So they did an awesome job with that. In baseball,

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Speaker 1: i've heard you talk about it with your first love,

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Speaker 1: talk about why you love the game of baseball and

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Speaker 1: why you got into it. Well, if you know anything

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Speaker 1: about that area about Southwest, you got the batting cage

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Speaker 1: over there as well. So it's like that was right.

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Speaker 1: We lived there on the coulta sack. So I used

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Speaker 1: to run up, you know, the side of the freeway.

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Speaker 1: We had like a little entrance you could go through

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Speaker 1: if you knew, you knew, and that gets you to

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Speaker 1: the back and cage in like two seconds. So I

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Speaker 1: got the back and cage right there. I grew up

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Speaker 1: playing at Holly Park, and you know, your all your

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Speaker 1: people in your neighborhood, they played baseball because the park

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Speaker 1: was right there. You know, parents always going to keep

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Speaker 1: their kids active. So my dad was a big baseball head.

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Speaker 1: He played in high school at free My High. So

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Speaker 1: he wanted us to be baseball players as well. So

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Speaker 1: I was basically groomed to be a baseball player, me

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Speaker 1: and my brother. The line, whether that was in the

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Speaker 1: backyard hitting off the t soft toss with my dad

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Speaker 1: against a big old comforter he hung up on the

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Speaker 1: on the garage, or whether that's us playing catch, us

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Speaker 1: doing to Holly Park where even my dad are my

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Speaker 1: coach Randy Oldam who coached me for years doing pitching

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Speaker 1: practice in field batting. So it was kind of something

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Speaker 1: that I knew from day one. So you know, I

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Speaker 1: just stuck with it, stuck with it, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I really have so much fun. That's all My friends

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Speaker 1: playing baseball are people in my neighborhood played baseball. So

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Speaker 1: that's kind of how it was the number one sport

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Speaker 1: in our household because my dad was really influencing us

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Speaker 1: to be baseball players. And so you said, your dad

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Speaker 1: went to free Mont and played baseball, did he buy

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Speaker 1: any chance playing with Eric Davis? Because Eric Davis from

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Speaker 1: the Reds played a free Man. I don't know. Your

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Speaker 1: dad might have been younger though, Yeah. I think my

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Speaker 1: dad might be a little bit younger than Eric Davis.

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Speaker 1: So he missed playing with Eric Davis, but I was.

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Speaker 1: But he he let me know who Eric Davis was.

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Speaker 1: You know, obviously I knew who these dudes was when

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Speaker 1: they was in the league, but not knowing that these dudes,

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Speaker 1: Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry and all these dudes played

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Speaker 1: in my backyard, you know what I mean, So that

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Speaker 1: was inspiring. I used to want to be like Darryl Strawberry,

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Speaker 1: so it was pretty dope to know that they were

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Speaker 1: interesting kids that made it to the league. A quick

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Speaker 1: story about those two gentlemen that you mentioned. My dad

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Speaker 1: used to take me up to, uh this old summer

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Speaker 1: league called Joe Weekly's Run, Dunk and Shoot League and Crinshaw. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it was like the Drew before the Drews, like everything

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Speaker 1: before the everything, all the pros all and then all

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Speaker 1: the top local guys and back then, you know guys,

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Speaker 1: it was a lot of casts that could who but

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Speaker 1: didn't was Prop forty eight, didn't have the grades, you know,

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Speaker 1: went had to go to Juco, but had major respect

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Speaker 1: and put it down. So major time, major, big time

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Speaker 1: hoof man. I rolled up with my pop. We walk

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Speaker 1: in and on the gym entrance. Right, it's like two

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Speaker 1: red or one blue and one red of Mercedes being

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Speaker 1: five hundred that cl back in the day to the

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Speaker 1: big body Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry standard kind of

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Speaker 1: let's sitting out on front. Both of them got curls, okay,

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Speaker 1: both of them got the big the thick, the thick

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Speaker 1: link uh in the rock and full left, full headed

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Speaker 1: toe leather suits, bro level leather brother in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the summer, bast killer. And this will let you

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Speaker 1: know how big time the dudes was. They was posted

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Speaker 1: and they was posted. But but anyway, enough about them, guys,

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Speaker 1: what possition did you play? By the way, drill Well,

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Speaker 1: I grew up being a shortstop. We all know everybody

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Speaker 1: want to be a shortstop growing up, either want to

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Speaker 1: pitch or play shortstop. So I played shortstop. I was

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Speaker 1: really utility. I played a lot of shortstop, a lot

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Speaker 1: of bad catcher, and not pitched a lot. But once

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Speaker 1: I got older high school, I was a first baseman

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Speaker 1: in the right fielder because a scout told me the

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Speaker 1: first day of RB I reviving baseball in the inner City.

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Speaker 1: I played under the Dodgers organization. One two championships was

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Speaker 1: sponsored by Gary Sheffield. The first day I went out

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Speaker 1: and at this time I'm like six six and I'm

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Speaker 1: at third base, and the scout named Mr Butler. I

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Speaker 1: was like, what are you doing? Son from the White

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Speaker 1: Sox too. I was like, none, I played third bay.

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Speaker 1: He said no, you don't you say? He said, you're

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Speaker 1: a first baseman or right field you need to go

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Speaker 1: tell your parents about your first baseman glove. So that's

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Speaker 1: kind of high ventured over the first base. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: I was six six, So he was like, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: make yourself a lot of money if you can be

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Speaker 1: a first baseman at that height, or a right field

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Speaker 1: because I can already hit, so uh, you know, I

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Speaker 1: finished as off as a right fielder in the first basement.

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Speaker 1: What was your moment in your baseball career man? Were

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Speaker 1: you said? Was there a moment or was there just

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Speaker 1: a gradual kind of drifting away where you were like

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Speaker 1: I'm putting down the batting ball, and I'm picking up

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Speaker 1: this this rock, over this hoop rock, and I'm putting

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Speaker 1: on all my basket because because you know, as somebody

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Speaker 1: that came out as a high schooler, right, you didn't

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Speaker 1: have a lot of time to be doing a bunch

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Speaker 1: of stuff. So it happened really quick. You were baseball

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Speaker 1: for a minute, and then you got good at basketball apparently,

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Speaker 1: were you good at both simultaneously? Yeah, I think I

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Speaker 1: was getting better. I've always played on the black top outside.

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Speaker 1: I always had a court. I think my parents bought

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Speaker 1: me in court my seven years old for Christmas so

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Speaker 1: I always had a court. I always stayed active, never

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Speaker 1: really played on the team, uh like a tribal team.

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Speaker 1: But you know it was funny. I'm from you know

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Speaker 1: where I tell you I'm from, But I used to

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Speaker 1: go play wreck ball at St. Andrew's Park. If you

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Speaker 1: know any history, you know those size don't get all

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Speaker 1: my dad. That's where my dad grew up, playing in St.

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Speaker 1: Andrew bro Yes, St Andrew Park. I'm a St. Andrew's

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Speaker 1: Park baby me Hassan Adams, very very red and a

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Speaker 1: bunch of others that came through there. But I played

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Speaker 1: at St. Andrew's wreck I was always one of the

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Speaker 1: top players make the All Star team every year. But

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Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I'm just doing this, but

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Speaker 1: I want to be a baseball player. So when I

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Speaker 1: when it came to that point where I had to

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Speaker 1: meet it in the middle and like, yo, what I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna do. Was my senior high school, I was still

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Speaker 1: playing that losing or one of the top players in

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Speaker 1: the area. The year before I was first I was

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Speaker 1: second team All Area. My senior year, I was second

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Speaker 1: team All Area as well. But a scout came in

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Speaker 1: my game and said that same Mr Butler. He said, hey,

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Speaker 1: it's time for you to put all your eggs in

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Speaker 1: one basket. We've got scouts, we've got different people accent.

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Speaker 1: What is the rail right gonna do? It's almost time

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Speaker 1: to get drafted. Are you gonna be a baseball player?

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Speaker 1: Are you gonna be a basketball player? Right there on

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Speaker 1: the spot, I told him, I'm gonna be a basketball player. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm getting all the attention off basketball. I got yu Con,

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Speaker 1: I got coach Henry Bibby coming up and see my

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Speaker 1: baseball game. It's not bad, he wanted me. Uh you know,

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Speaker 1: I got Jim Calhoun on the phone. I got Steve

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Speaker 1: Offered on the phone because he was at Iowa. I've

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Speaker 1: got I got all these schools recruited me now, and

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Speaker 1: I'm loving it. I'm like this is this is it?

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Speaker 1: Like my friends are all in the baseball I mean

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Speaker 1: on basketball teams now. So at that point, I made

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Speaker 1: my decision, and I would never forget telling my mom

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Speaker 1: and dad. They were lived. They're like, dude, you don't

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Speaker 1: make no decisions around here without uh, you know, consulting

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Speaker 1: with us. Like who are you to tell this dude

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Speaker 1: that you're not doing this no more? And I was like, Mom, Dad, like,

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Speaker 1: I'm I want to be a basketball player, and you know,

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Speaker 1: they were upset about it. And then they let me

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Speaker 1: kind of be be me and and be that young

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Speaker 1: adult that made a real big decision on the spot

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Speaker 1: to an MLI be scout, you know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: That was crazy. So they were definitely mad, and but

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Speaker 1: they ended up working out the end of the day.

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Speaker 1: What gave you that confidence to tell this Major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball scout? Because you know, I've been in front of

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Speaker 1: scouts and you know, I mean, we know how that

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Speaker 1: feeling is when you're in front of somebody that's in

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Speaker 1: the league and you're young too, Like, what gave your

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Speaker 1: confidence to tell him? Know the Baseball's I just felt

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Speaker 1: like I was trending in the right to direction for

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Speaker 1: for basketball, Like I said, I when I when I

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Speaker 1: tell you I was talking to these people. They were

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Speaker 1: coming to the school. Like I went to Kingwood Classic

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Speaker 1: with a Pat Barrier. You know that they had hardwood

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Speaker 1: is it Hardwood Calst Classic? And it was in Houston.

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Speaker 1: It was a tournament in Houston. So my coach let

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Speaker 1: me and my parents were super loyal let me go

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Speaker 1: and play with Pat Barry for one tournament and I

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Speaker 1: played with Marcus Johnson, Aaron to follow, Taylor King, all

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Speaker 1: these great players. You know what I mean. I mean

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Speaker 1: I'm still green, Like I played for independent team but

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Speaker 1: the last three years. So I'm going to play with

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Speaker 1: s C I'm getting all this gear, like I'm living

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Speaker 1: this like Lokia rock Star team. You know, everybody know

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Speaker 1: the history of s c A. So I'm like this

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Speaker 1: is little first day. I kind of put my imprint,

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Speaker 1: like yo, I'm one of them. Like I know all

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Speaker 1: y'all great players, but I'm gonna be out here playing hard.

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Speaker 1: And I was the leading school or the whole tournament.

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Speaker 1: All these schools was like yo, like who is this kid?

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Speaker 1: So after that tournament, I had day later, I had

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Speaker 1: Heary Biby. I had a coach Vaughn from Yukon. They

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Speaker 1: coming to the school to see me. I'm in person

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Speaker 1: like yeah, they're coming pulling up to the school Like

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Speaker 1: I'm like okay, So, like I got a chance at this,

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Speaker 1: you know, to go to college. The NBA is nowhere insight.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I can go to college. So that's when

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Speaker 1: I knew, like I had that confidence, like yo, I

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Speaker 1: got a chance to go play college basketball Yukon USC

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Speaker 1: Like I'm with it. So that's kind of where I

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Speaker 1: knew and had that confidence where I'm like, I can

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Speaker 1: get I could be done with baseball. Yeah, they make

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Speaker 1: a lot of money. But in the back of my mind,

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Speaker 1: I still being smart because I'm like, you got rookie ball,

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Speaker 1: you got hey, you got double A, you got triple A.

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Speaker 1: Now you're thirty five years old, you're probably first getting

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Speaker 1: your first taste of the league. I'm thinking like that

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Speaker 1: at that age, so I'm like, dude, I'd rather play

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Speaker 1: who yeah, coming out you comparisons to t Mat. I'm curious, though,

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Speaker 1: how much influence did Kobe Bryant have on your game

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Speaker 1: at that time, because my theories this real quick, real quick,

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Speaker 1: since you weren't on the typical circuit and everybody didn't

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Speaker 1: see you, right, so everybody, you know how we know

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Speaker 1: each other game. Once you start seeing each other on

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Speaker 1: the circuit, you know how it is. We started, we are,

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Speaker 1: we do our own scouting for So you went down

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Speaker 1: Kingwood and probably just absolutely turned it out because I

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Speaker 1: know what you were at six seven, six eight back there, yeah,

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Speaker 1: six seven right at that time? Were you booming? Were

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Speaker 1: you booming on foods. A lot back there, there wasn't yeah, ok,

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Speaker 1: brooming and a lot of a lot of midis. I

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Speaker 1: used to have a nice man, right, so I'm making

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Speaker 1: and that and that's crazy you say that because a

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Speaker 1: lot of my friends just say you play like Kobe.

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Speaker 1: I think the athleticism and just being so wrong and

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Speaker 1: just jumping in the air and just making decisions like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, where the tea mat came from. But I

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Speaker 1: had all a like Kobe stuff in me, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, just from watching the Lakers. I used

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Speaker 1: to sit there with my dad. Used to be like,

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Speaker 1: how are you a basketball player? You don't watch the basketball?

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Speaker 1: And I used to be like, you're right. So I

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Speaker 1: used to sit there with my dad and watch Laker games.

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Speaker 1: And you know, when you see somebody, you go mimic

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Speaker 1: that stuff. So the footwork, get into your spots, all

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Speaker 1: that type of stuff. I used to have a little

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Speaker 1: bit of Kobe in the as well. Yeah. Absolutely, So

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Speaker 1: you had every coach in the country, uh, pretty much

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Speaker 1: recruiting you, chewing interest in you. That must have felt great,

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Speaker 1: And this is why you're at losinger. Talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit so about just the losinginger tradition UM in basketball. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know a lot of people don't know that. You

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Speaker 1: guys have a number of first round draft picks, UM

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Speaker 1: and some high quality of professional athletes. Right. But let

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Speaker 1: me tell you this quick story before I get to

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Speaker 1: that and how that how the tradition even started. So, Uh,

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Speaker 1: my ninth and timer grade, I want to Washington High.

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Speaker 1: So that wasn't the goal. The goal was for me

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Speaker 1: to go to Palisades. My mom my dad wasn't feeling that.

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Speaker 1: And when I went to when I was gonna go

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Speaker 1: to Palisades, I was gonna play baseball, football, and basketball.

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Speaker 1: So I was in line to play all three sports.

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Speaker 1: They're like, I'm talking to the coaches everything. It was

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Speaker 1: all set end up not going there. So the next

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Speaker 1: thing was the goal maybe to like Sarah, go play

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Speaker 1: with Pool Jetter and all them didn't play well in

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Speaker 1: their tests. So my mom and dad was like, uh,

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Speaker 1: so I end up going to end up going to Washington.

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Speaker 1: Go to Washington for two years. Uh. Tried to play

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Speaker 1: basketball my freshman year, coach Andy Davis told me I

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Speaker 1: couldn't play varsity ninth grade. You gotta play j V.

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Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm not playing. So that was that.

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Speaker 1: I played baseball in my ninth grade year. Temth grade year,

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Speaker 1: roll around. Now I'm about to play varsity. I make

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Speaker 1: the varsity team. Now he got uh Andre Patterson, Wayne

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Speaker 1: Chamberlain and Twine Parker. You know what I mean, like

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Speaker 1: some real o g Yeah, like basketball, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean? Cedric Smith who played. He was the only

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Speaker 1: freshman to play that and that kind of was why

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Speaker 1: I was like, yo, say playing Varcy nineth grade, Well,

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Speaker 1: I can't play varsy so whatever, uh ten grade, come around,

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Speaker 1: make the team. I play one tournament at Beverly Hills

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Speaker 1: High School. Now I'm ineligible, so I can't play. Uh Now,

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Speaker 1: I gotta get my grades right. End up playing the

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Speaker 1: last game at Fairfax and the playoff game, but I

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Speaker 1: still play baseball. Was one of the best players in baseball.

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Speaker 1: Went oh in two and two years, we didn't win

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Speaker 1: one game on the baseball team. Pops like, we're going

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Speaker 1: we out, So that's what we try to get back

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Speaker 1: in Sarah. That didn't work out. The coach that Sarah said,

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Speaker 1: my boy coaches at losing your Joel Romero and he

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Speaker 1: can he had take him, and we want to talk

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Speaker 1: to Ramero, made it happen. Was like, the only thing is, Ramero,

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Speaker 1: you don't have to pick me up every day for school.

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Speaker 1: If you want me to come there, no problem. So

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Speaker 1: that's how I ended up at losing your coach, Romero,

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Speaker 1: Uh sent me, I mean came pick me up every

385
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Speaker 1: day for two years, took me, took me to school,

386
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Speaker 1: pick me up. I know that don't happen no more.

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00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:11,679
Speaker 1: Uh that's the old school stuff, when your coach come

388
00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 1: pick you up and things like that. So those car

389
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,119
Speaker 1: rides from school amazing, amazing because one of the things

390
00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,120
Speaker 1: he did he opened my mind up. You know, I'm

391
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Speaker 1: so West Coast. I really thought I was in the

392
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Speaker 1: Beak with snooping and the dog Pound and you know,

393
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:31,399
Speaker 1: death Row. I didn't listen to no East Coast music.

394
00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: He introduced me to jay Z the Blueprint too. We

395
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,880
Speaker 1: listened to that thing every day for a whole year.

396
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Speaker 1: So I'm like, dang, like I'm tripping on these dudes.

397
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Speaker 1: You know, I really think I'm I'm all the way.

398
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:47,560
Speaker 1: We don't listen to the East so no, yeah, And

399
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:49,600
Speaker 1: I want to know if he even know that, Like

400
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,119
Speaker 1: he influenced me to listen to more East Coast music,

401
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,159
Speaker 1: Jay Z and stuff like that. So the car rises

402
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 1: was great. You know, it was like he felt like

403
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,480
Speaker 1: he was like a big brother to me. If anything

404
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:03,720
Speaker 1: culturing merrow So get the Loosing your Day one. He

405
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:05,520
Speaker 1: see the basketball coach. He said, you want me to

406
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:07,520
Speaker 1: introduce you to the basketball coach. I was like, nah,

407
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,239
Speaker 1: I came here to play baseball at Washington and then

408
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,280
Speaker 1: work out. I'm focusing on baseball. He was like, man,

409
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 1: let's just meet him. So I'm like, all right, we're

410
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,520
Speaker 1: gonna meet him. So Travis show walked through. I meet

411
00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:20,320
Speaker 1: him and at this time six six He's like, yo,

412
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 1: you know, we love to have you, you know, come

413
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:26,159
Speaker 1: to a tryout or you know, open gym. Tuesday. I'm like,

414
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:27,919
Speaker 1: you know, I came here to play baseball, but I

415
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 1: come go. So Tuesday roll around. I go to the gym.

416
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:35,760
Speaker 1: My guy Derek Clark, uh Tweetie, who went to Curntshaw

417
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: High School as well, Uh was there. I go into

418
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,920
Speaker 1: to the open gym. I killed everybody and I was like, hey,

419
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,919
Speaker 1: show Walker, I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm gonna play two.

420
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play basketball as well. So that's kind of

421
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,680
Speaker 1: how that happened. Uh. And then you know our first

422
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:56,920
Speaker 1: year there of my Elevon grade year, weren't that good

423
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,440
Speaker 1: with eight gay teams. Uh, they let go show walks.

424
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Speaker 1: He found another job. Reggie Morris Jr. Rose in young coach.

425
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,280
Speaker 1: I think at that time Red was only twe two

426
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 1: years old when he coached. So he kind of came in,

427
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:15,199
Speaker 1: you know, not I don't want to say Rigan. He

428
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: came in like on something and we're turning this thing around,

429
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,280
Speaker 1: and I hit him with the I'm leaving going to Westchester.

430
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:28,680
Speaker 1: Trevor Rees, Bobby Brown, Uh, Scott Cutley, Jonathan Smith, then

431
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 1: my homies. Now so I'm not going to play with

432
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,639
Speaker 1: the homies. I'm not coming back here. So you know,

433
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: they come have a meeting with my mom and dad like, yo,

434
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:37,679
Speaker 1: we need him here. My mom and dad was like,

435
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 1: he ain't going to know Westchester. He is there to

436
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,359
Speaker 1: play baseball. First off, he ain't going nowhere. So that

437
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:46,280
Speaker 1: set that and you know we got got it going.

438
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 1: Coach Morris came in and basically shipped the cold culture,

439
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,200
Speaker 1: and we were his first group, got all the way

440
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: to the semifinals loss, and then you know that's when

441
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: we blossom. The whole program. He had Russell Westbrook on

442
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: the JV team who was a freshman. Then you have

443
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 1: my brother Delon Right who was next in line. And

444
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: then the culture a Mere Garrett who played who pitches

445
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 1: for uh Cincinnati Red. So coach Morris basically grew that

446
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 1: culture with my group. Uh you know, going to the

447
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 1: semi finals and you know, making a lot of noise

448
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,240
Speaker 1: in that area, and then the list goes on as

449
00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,800
Speaker 1: far as the players are losing your sees. Now, So

450
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,679
Speaker 1: that's kind of a short story how it happened, and

451
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:33,880
Speaker 1: Reggie Morris was the person to get that whole thing booming.

452
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,960
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

453
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports

454
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,200
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.

455
00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: Search f s R to listen live. Now. You so

456
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: you hit your senior year, you still played baseball or

457
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:51,880
Speaker 1: did you had given it up by that point your

458
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,399
Speaker 1: baseball went through. I was still playing baseball. Hit. I

459
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 1: had my best year. I hit five foot team. I

460
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 1: led the team in triples and doubles. I was set

461
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 1: in the team and home runs. And like I said,

462
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: I had Henry Bibby coming to my baseball games to

463
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 1: recruit me. So I got the basketball coaches at the

464
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: baseball game, and so what made you decide to attend

465
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:18,159
Speaker 1: self Kent after losing? So now now I'm going to

466
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,920
Speaker 1: the A U circuit. Now I go to a B

467
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:22,800
Speaker 1: C D camp, I'm going to five star camp. I'm

468
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 1: going all these camps. So Eric Harden, who coached me

469
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: with the Paladin, said, hey, d right, if you go

470
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 1: to prep school, you will be able to go to

471
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,119
Speaker 1: the NBA the following year. Mine, you, I told you,

472
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: I never even thought about the NBA. I'm just excited

473
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:41,640
Speaker 1: that I might got a chance to go to a

474
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 1: major D one college. So he liked, you right, I'm

475
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: telling you, you're gonna go to all these camps. They're

476
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 1: gonna see you. Now, you're gonna see the East coach,

477
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 1: You're gonna see them. But if you can go and

478
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,840
Speaker 1: do what you just did this year and do that

479
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 1: on the East Coast, you're going to the league the

480
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: next year. And I remember going home and telling my

481
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 1: mom and dad. Coach Eric told me if I go

482
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: to prep school, I can go to the NBA. I

483
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: said it very casual like that, and it was like, yo,

484
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: you need to go to coach are he don't know

485
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, Like, that's some bs, that's bologning

486
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:16,480
Speaker 1: you going to college and you're not going to the

487
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:20,400
Speaker 1: NBA maketure. I'm just letting you know that now. So uh,

488
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: I had to find the prep school. My mom and dad,

489
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,960
Speaker 1: we all did our due dealings. Now, Sonny, but Carol

490
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: is in the picture now. Now, Sunny has been a

491
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: huge part of decision making in my house. You know,

492
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 1: he basically consulting the family and telling them, hey, I

493
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 1: think this is a good opportunity. I think this and that.

494
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 1: So I got I, you know, hold so much the

495
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 1: Sunny and Poum because they played a major part and

496
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: you know, me developing finding the proper prep school and

497
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: then giving my mom and dad that go to the least.

498
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: So that's kind of how South King came along. Raphael

499
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: Chelios did a great job with letting me know how

500
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,119
Speaker 1: they're gonna be able to develop me, how they'll be

501
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 1: able to get me qualified and and not qualified the

502
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 1: wrong way, the right way. As far as that you're

503
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,560
Speaker 1: gonna be in class, you're gonna take this. Yeah, we're

504
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 1: gonna get you right. You're gonna have options after you

505
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: leave here. So that's kind of how that came about.

506
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,400
Speaker 1: And it was one of the best decisions I've made.

507
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 1: Where did you Rockfield? Chill is who I met when

508
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 1: he was coaching with Lorenzo Romark the University of Washington

509
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: UM And then where did you meet Sunny? He was

510
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: at abc D. I met Sunday before abc D. Eric

511
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,200
Speaker 1: Hardon kept sending him my highlights tape you gotta get

512
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,680
Speaker 1: this kid in and and you gotta get this kid

513
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 1: and a B C D camp. He's the most Unstad's

514
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,919
Speaker 1: one of the best unsigned underrated player. He's send Sunny

515
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,679
Speaker 1: and sunny favorite line when he tells people how he

516
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: met me, it's like, yeah, this guy's hey, you coach

517
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 1: uh for whatever team? He always messes the name up

518
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 1: uh stead of staying of Paladins, he always say something

519
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 1: the wrong name. He kept calling me, kept emailing me,

520
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 1: and kept telling these people get in contact because it's

521
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,280
Speaker 1: some guy named the roll right was the best. I'm like, yeah, whatever, whatever,

522
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,119
Speaker 1: And then I never watched the tape. Somebody kind of

523
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: put the stamp on it. And that's how Sonny invited

524
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,919
Speaker 1: me to the camp. And uh, we know before that

525
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:22,360
Speaker 1: we met in person, met in person, and um, one

526
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: of the best days ever meeting him because when I

527
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,199
Speaker 1: met Sonny also met t J. Four. He was just

528
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,439
Speaker 1: fresh off of championship. You know, uh, you know, we

529
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: all know Sonny has a lot of great relationships with

530
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 1: you know, previous players, so kind of told me what

531
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 1: to look for and what was gonna happen when I

532
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: got the abc D camp and Sonny, you know, we

533
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,159
Speaker 1: build that relationship before abc D Camp and then I

534
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 1: go there kill it. And he also brought Team Mac

535
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: to one of my games just to see me. I

536
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:53,479
Speaker 1: saw he brought me over. This is Tracy. You know

537
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: a lot of people are comparing you guys. He's gonna

538
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,480
Speaker 1: watch your game. You better do good. So that was

539
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,160
Speaker 1: pretty It was a series of just kind of it's

540
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: crazy events that you took place for you. Uh, as

541
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: far as your your basketball journey was concerned. You got

542
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: Pat Barry, you got Sonny, and you're just and and

543
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: all and every stop you're turning it out. I mean

544
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,879
Speaker 1: that'sar familiarly what happens. Ultimately you turned it out and

545
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: every stop it didn't that if it was Sunny whoever,

546
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,680
Speaker 1: I the real right is turning it out. So if

547
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,880
Speaker 1: you go back with you now, I guess my question. Now,

548
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,719
Speaker 1: now that Raphael chili Is has given you the blueprint

549
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:29,640
Speaker 1: for how you know you're gonna develop you and get

550
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: your qualified et center for that year, there had to

551
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: be well, let me ask you this what you had

552
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: Baseball still kind of looming in the back picture. So

553
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,360
Speaker 1: that wasn't a deal where South Kent had a baseball

554
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 1: team to or how did that work? They did? But

555
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: you know, at this point, I had already burbally committed

556
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: to to the Paul so I kinda I kind of knew.

557
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: And then after the A B D abc D camp,

558
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,360
Speaker 1: a lot of like the word got it got out

559
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: like now he ain't going to college. He he got

560
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:00,920
Speaker 1: potential to go to the NBA. So buz started at

561
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: abc D. Can't because remember, uh, you got all the

562
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: hundreds of college coaches and then you got the NBA scouts.

563
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: So um, I get the South can they like baseball?

564
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: That's house and I'll be like cool with me already

565
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: that I'm like, I don't want to play. So when

566
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: I got the South camp, the word was already out,

567
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: like Yo, this dude going to the lead after the

568
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: after this year. So now what Eric Hardon told me

569
00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,800
Speaker 1: months ago, right after the losing your season and like

570
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: kind of the middle of au circuit, the word was out.

571
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: So when I got there, it was like, yo, you

572
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: I heard you might be going to lead after this,

573
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: and I kind of was like, yeah, I think, yeah,

574
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna happen. I don't know, I think

575
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen. So that's kind of how all that happened.

576
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: Like I was, my mind shifted. I was no longer

577
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 1: thinking I was going to cause my whole mindset shifted

578
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 1: to I'm going to lead now. So when I got

579
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 1: there and chills, you know whatever, he kind of knew

580
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 1: to like, yo, we're getting you prepared for the next

581
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 1: next level. How old were you at this time when

582
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: you're going from eighteen because I to seven team so

583
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: that put me in my right grade when I did

584
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: my post ride year. Okay, And so you go through

585
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 1: the season to South Kent now presumably believe the NBA

586
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 1: pre draft process is next, right, How talk a little

587
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: bit about that process for you and if you have

588
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 1: any crazy kind of stories from a crazy workout or

589
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 1: anything like that. Yeah, So during the season, though I

590
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: had like you know, the NBA scouts there, so we're

591
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: going all these big events. You know, Danny Yangs from

592
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: the Celtics. A lot of the heat people followed me.

593
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: Uh so I'm getting these different scouts at the game.

594
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: So so Danny is in the building. Yeah, they they're pulling,

595
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: They're pulling up. So that's how real is getting you

596
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: know what I mean, They're pulling up a lot of

597
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: times I didn't know what's going on to chills, Like

598
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 1: you know, scalt from six was here, scout from here

599
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 1: was here. I was like, really, he's telling me this

600
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 1: is after the game. Sare well, they know they I

601
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: just had thirty so they know. And so but once

602
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: you get to the pre draft workout is a funny story.

603
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 1: I tell her the had master of school, j R. Smith,

604
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: Josh Smith to bashing. He's all my homies because I

605
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: went to a D C D camp. I went to

606
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: the USA, so we I didn't. I'm in the group.

607
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: I'm in the click now like they I'm wanting them. Now.

608
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: I'm hearing they leaving school early to start getting ready

609
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: for pre draft camp. I'll go tell the head man,

610
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: I said, hey, all the high school kids, that's coming out.

611
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: They're going to pre draft camp. He like, that's cool.

612
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 1: You ain't gonna nowhere. You're gonna do it here because

613
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 1: you gotta finish school. Remember we set a goal. We

614
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 1: told your parents are gonna be qualified for college. So

615
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: if that don't have, you're gonna be qualified. I'm like, okay.

616
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: So the pre draft camp and uh, you know, all

617
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 1: the workouts were cool. The craziest stuff was just when

618
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 1: I did the two workouts in Boston, just all the

619
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: running and things of that nature. It was pretty simple

620
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,479
Speaker 1: because a lot of stuff that we did their chills

621
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 1: was preparing this for a lot of stuff. We questions

622
00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: that questions that teenager like why are we doing this?

623
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Once I got to those pre draft camps,

624
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: our workouts we were doing that, so nothing really crazy.

625
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: I did too. I did two workouts for Boston and

626
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: I did three from Miami. I did too in Miami,

627
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: and then they came to South Kemp to watch me

628
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 1: work out too, So that was pretty crazy for them

629
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: to come all over the South camp. Pat Riley, No,

630
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 1: it was what is uh cam? Oh, check camera, check camera,

631
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: there you go. The O G came and see me,

632
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: So that's who it was so that that that was

633
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 1: pretty crazy for them to come there. Yeah, that's crazy, man,

634
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: that you you got a crazy story. Man. That is

635
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: really because because you you from South Central, but you

636
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: went to South Kit You got all these league dudes

637
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: coming to see you. Man, you play, you didn't play

638
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: on the traditional route. You hit a couple of spots,

639
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: turned it out. You have a really, really teresting story.

640
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: But let's keep going, man, Let's keep going. Because I'm

641
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: fascinated with the heat and the heat culture, right, so

642
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: if I followed that organization for a while. I actually

643
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 1: met with Spokes back in two thousand and twelve at

644
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 1: the Heat offices. I was trying to sell them from software.

645
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: That's another story, but I was down there, down there

646
00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: the Heat officers. Man, I was chilling with sposing them.

647
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: It was crazy, but I just kind of was curious, man,

648
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: because we hear a lot about the heating culture and

649
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: how they you know, they stressed conditioning and physical toughness.

650
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: When you we're going through the pre draft process with

651
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: the heat, did you was the what could you get

652
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: a sense that it was a little bit different the

653
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,239
Speaker 1: way they did things down there, or wasn't following in

654
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: line with pretty much what everybody else was doing, because

655
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: now you know people talk. I did twenties six workouts.

656
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: Remember I didn't have no agent, so I kept that open.

657
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: So I had some random person scheduling these workouts. And

658
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: Sonny was his He was like, who was doing this?

659
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 1: They got you going to Boston. Didn't you come to

660
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: l A? Then you're going to Chicago, You're going back

661
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: to I was doing that, like I come back to

662
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: l A. Then I go all the way to Atlanta,

663
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: then I go to Seattle. Like it was no real structure.

664
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: What my but you know, I'm eighteen, I'm green, I

665
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: don't you know. So those conversations start, like, yo, who

666
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: you worked out for so far? Uh? You tell them

667
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: I went to Miami and went to Boston. Everybody was

668
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: like that Miami one right. I was like Miami Boston

669
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:18,800
Speaker 1: because of that running at the end in New Orleans

670
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 1: were the toughest ones. And then you think about it,

671
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 1: the running is just at the end, it's gonna see

672
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: what type of shape you in Miami, New Orleans. The

673
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: common denominic you got pat Riley, you got Byron Scott.

674
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:34,760
Speaker 1: So we all know Byron Scott took a lot of

675
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: that blueprint from what pat Riley did. So those are

676
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,959
Speaker 1: the two toughest ones. But my cardio and where I was,

677
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: you know, as far as in shape, it was easy

678
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: to me. I'm eighteen, I'm so excited to be here.

679
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: You couldn't. It was nothing I was complaining about because

680
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 1: I was so happy to be there, you know what

681
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: I mean. They saw like everything we did, I was

682
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: okay with it, like you know, I did it at

683
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: full speed. I didn't show no weakness to all the

684
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: cardio stuff. So I kind of think that's what really

685
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: made me do three workouts and then I didn't think

686
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: of it to the end, like damn, I did do

687
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,439
Speaker 1: three workouts with them. That me that might mean why

688
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,720
Speaker 1: they drafted me, right, they took They took you with

689
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: the with the nineteenth pick, the two downs, and in

690
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: four draft you were officially a first round To talk

691
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: about when you heard your name called or did you

692
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 1: know already? Did they did they call you already and

693
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: tell you? Yeah? So Calvin Andrews at the time was

694
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: my agent. You know, I signed with B d A

695
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: and Bill Duffie and Calvin Andrews and before they called me, um,

696
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 1: he called me into my kitchen. He was like, come

697
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: here right fast, d right. He was like, Miami just called.

698
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: They want to know you can handle South Beach. Mind

699
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 1: you've never been in Miami. Like that. I went there

700
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 1: and do my workout and I left. I'm like, yeah,

701
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, YEA can handle the Miami. So that that

702
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,359
Speaker 1: was that. Then a few picks later they end up

703
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: calling my name. I kind of got, you know, I

704
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: kind of set up a little bit like damn he

705
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: did is asking about Miami. Let me see, I did

706
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: do three workouts and then when they called my name

707
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: is a best feeling in the world. Man. Uh definitely

708
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 1: changed my life. I know a lot of people in

709
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 1: Miami were upset because they took me before Jamir Nelson

710
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: with that nineteen pick. And I know a lot of

711
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: people thought they needed a point guard for the Wade,

712
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 1: the kind of like match up in that back court.

713
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: And one of the first questions that asked me was like,

714
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 1: what how did you feel about the booze this and that.

715
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I was in the house with

716
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 1: full full of people that loved me. I didn't hear

717
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: no booze. It was all cheers. So uh, you know,

718
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: I didn't take that personal and I didn't care like

719
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't have control over draft me. But

720
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: that was definitely a big, big highlight of my career

721
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 1: and and like young life as well. You still remember

722
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,919
Speaker 1: your your rookie that first rookie training camp and when

723
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,600
Speaker 1: you had to go at you know, d Wade and

724
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 1: also of these guys who was it Eddie Jones And

725
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 1: I mean you had you had about eight six or

726
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: seven small forwards, so practice for you, That's what I

727
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 1: noticed kind of looking back on it, and I was like, man,

728
00:35:58,160 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 1: this dude had to go up and get some dog

729
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: in practice. Every single day was a challenge. My main

730
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 1: matchup was Rosco but arrest in Peace and Eddie Jones.

731
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 1: Uh and they they really got me to where, you know,

732
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 1: my career was, you know, competing at the high level.

733
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:14,799
Speaker 1: One thing about me, you didn't have to tell me

734
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,239
Speaker 1: to go hard, so like they used to have to

735
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: be like, yo, bro, you need to chill out. It's

736
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: a walkthrough. I'm busting Eddie Jones lip. He looking at

737
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 1: me like, bro, what's up with you? Man? You need

738
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 1: to chill out a little bit. I'm like what I do?

739
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 1: He's like, Man, my lift is bleeding because you're you're

740
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 1: going too hard. So I was one of those dudes

741
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 1: they used to have to be like, yo, slow down

742
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,280
Speaker 1: a little bit, young feller. But you know, I really

743
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: really had the opportunity to compete at a high level

744
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: against some of the greats, you know what I mean,

745
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 1: d Wade, Eddie Jones, Shannon Anderson, Derek Anderson, uh, in

746
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: my first few years. So they just kind of taught

747
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 1: me to rope to how to work and how to

748
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: bring it every single day. So that's something I really

749
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,920
Speaker 1: appreciate with those guys. And uh, you know some stuff

750
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 1: I try to install in the kids I coached. Now

751
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,760
Speaker 1: it's a rookie you peel O'Neil, Christian later and Alonzo

752
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 1: Morning we're on that heat team and that's that's that's

753
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:08,319
Speaker 1: an amazing trio for a lot of reasons. Three and

754
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: the greatest college stars that the game has ever seen,

755
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: and just American basketball folklore. I mean, yeah, Latner Zo,

756
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 1: I mean, those are some of the biggest legends. What

757
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,560
Speaker 1: was it like being around them and what kind of

758
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 1: dude today? You've got any stories from them? Brothers? Man?

759
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:29,759
Speaker 1: I got stories to days. But well, well you know

760
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 1: with Shock, it was a little bit different. You know,

761
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a Laker faner on up. I just

762
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 1: watched him win back to back to back championships. Then

763
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 1: I go get drafted by Miami and we go trade

764
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,600
Speaker 1: for him to three weeks after I'm drafted, so I'm like, wait,

765
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 1: what am I gonna be on a team with Shaq? Surreal?

766
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: You know, he's one of those dudes as bigger than life,

767
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 1: a big jokester. So once I was able to team

768
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:54,960
Speaker 1: up with him, you know, he kind of knew what

769
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 1: I was because we got mutual friends. My mom best friend.

770
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: My mom used to work for l AP So one

771
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,080
Speaker 1: of my mom's close friends was a detective for l

772
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 1: A p D. And they kind of took Chack under

773
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:08,839
Speaker 1: his wing, you know, when he wanted to be a

774
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: police officer, learned about the uh the four, so they

775
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 1: kind of connected us. So she told Shaq, this is

776
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:18,799
Speaker 1: my best friend son, so make sure you look out

777
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: for him. So he kind of came there already you

778
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:25,240
Speaker 1: know who I was because of her Marcella's so uh

779
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 1: it was cool because he took me on his wing.

780
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:31,240
Speaker 1: He treated me well always, you know, random like clown

781
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: stuff all the time. But the stories, you know, go

782
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 1: for days just being a big prankster, uh and just

783
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 1: being just a big brother man. But the funny thing

784
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:42,840
Speaker 1: is with with him and Zoe, He's always get on

785
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 1: He's a Zoe I'm five minutes better than you. You

786
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: just remember I was in the league five minutes before you,

787
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: because obviously he was the first pick and you know

788
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,960
Speaker 1: Zoe being a second pick. He's always joked on him

789
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:57,200
Speaker 1: about that. But it was always cool. Zoe was more

790
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: of that uh father figure. He didn't treat me like

791
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: a little homie. He used to treat me like he

792
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 1: was my dad. Like I used to say crazy stuff.

793
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 1: I'm eighteen nineteen joking, always doing wild stuff, and he's

794
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,360
Speaker 1: always been looking at me like what would make you

795
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 1: say something like that? You know, I'm like just goofy man,

796
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,080
Speaker 1: just saying anything, but everybody else laughing and Zoe serious

797
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 1: because I don't know what. So that was that was

798
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:24,919
Speaker 1: cool was because it was different, you know, a shock

799
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: I go over there, joke was tell me some real

800
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: stuff like you need to do this and that I'm

801
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: all right man. And then later he was just laid back.

802
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 1: He was just you know, uh, one of those dudes

803
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 1: that you know, he just wasn't that he wasn't It

804
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 1: wasn't nothing too crazy for him. He did pass me

805
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 1: the ball on my first bucket and made sure he

806
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: told me, hey, Brook, don't ever forget whoever who gave

807
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:51,400
Speaker 1: you your first assists. So I'd never forget that moment.

808
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: But three cool dudes. Uh took a lot of a

809
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 1: lot of advice from them, soaked it up like a sponge.

810
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk line up

811
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 1: in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox

812
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,239
Speaker 1: Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.

813
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 1: Search f s R to listen live. How your relationship

814
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: with the sv T Stan van Gundy it was, it

815
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 1: was whatever, you know, I was still a young fellow.

816
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: I think Stan really wanted Jamir Nelson as well. I

817
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,799
Speaker 1: think he, uh, you know, thought that that was the

818
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 1: right fit for them. So I don't want to say

819
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 1: that he treated me a different way because that didn't happen,

820
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, after you look back at it,

821
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: standards just like that with everybody. You know, He's just

822
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 1: about his craft and that's about winning, developing. So uh,

823
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: he definitely stayed on me. He used to hate when

824
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: I went left all the time. If you go left

825
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 1: one more time, I'm gonna find you. So that was

826
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 1: the one thing he's gonna say, if you go left

827
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:55,280
Speaker 1: one more time, you getting fine? Why was he keeping

828
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: on the list? I used to break every play. You

829
00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 1: know what I'm thinking. I'm coming from being a man.

830
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:00,840
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. You know, you gotta run a

831
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 1: play every single time. I used to think, Hey, it's

832
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 1: my moment right now, I don't play. I gotta show

833
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: you I'm trying to play. So he used to just

834
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 1: stay on me, you know, And I felt like the

835
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: older I got, and when he was away, like when

836
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,359
Speaker 1: he went to another team, I think we were even

837
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,360
Speaker 1: more cooler. You know how there's some people are okay,

838
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 1: but you see how much they benefit you and how

839
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,680
Speaker 1: much they helped you once they are gone, If that

840
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 1: makes sense like that, that's kind of how it was

841
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 1: our relationship with stand But we were always cool. Uh,

842
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 1: no hard feelings for him. He was just on me

843
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 1: all the time. And you know, as a young player,

844
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 1: you want you need people like that when you're a

845
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 1: vantage from your vantage point. What was the I guess

846
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 1: you know, the single most important factor behind you guys

847
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:49,800
Speaker 1: winning the championship in two thousands and six. The biggest

848
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,880
Speaker 1: thing was the leadership of Pat Roley, you know, staying

849
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,520
Speaker 1: you know, he stepped down. Pat came in and took over.

850
00:41:56,640 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: But it was a leadership. It was him holding everybody accountable.

851
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,919
Speaker 1: We had the same fifteen strong and we really meant that,

852
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 1: like we all on a rope together, like if our

853
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 1: brother do it, we all go go down doing it.

854
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:14,520
Speaker 1: So just him bringing us together, him motivating us, him

855
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 1: making us understand why those Showtime team were champions and

856
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: crowned at the end of the season. And he showed

857
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: us the blueprint and everybody followed that blueprint. Everybody believed

858
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: and you know, he played a major part in that.

859
00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 1: The way played a major part of that, just because

860
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: Shock told him, this is your team and we're gonna

861
00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: follow you. And I think with those two leaders and

862
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:42,279
Speaker 1: then you add a Shock and Gary Payton, uh, it's

863
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:44,640
Speaker 1: no way you can lose because everybody is on that

864
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:47,400
Speaker 1: same rope. I think that was the biggest thing, just

865
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: the leadership and the togetherness we have. Yeah, that team

866
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,759
Speaker 1: was tight and it was a you guys played as

867
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 1: a unit. But man, you guys, the way he kind

868
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: of took it to a new of the level at times.

869
00:43:01,719 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: And you played against the greatest, some of the greatest

870
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: of all time, right, where do you think, Yeah, and

871
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 1: I'm not getting saying give me a number or anything

872
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 1: like that. Where do you think, though, just d Wade,

873
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 1: where does his place of his all time greats of

874
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 1: a basketball the shooting guard position. I think he's the

875
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: top five shooting guard of all time just because of

876
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,600
Speaker 1: the credentials and before the lebron and for the Chris Boss,

877
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,319
Speaker 1: he actually put a team on his back and went

878
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: and told everybody I ain't going out, like yeah, yeah,

879
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:33,279
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that's what puts him

880
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 1: in that top five of all time. And I've never

881
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:39,839
Speaker 1: heard nobody argue that, like that's a fact. The way

882
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: he did it, uh, you know, on the both ends

883
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: of the floor. He was a bad boy. So I

884
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: would definitely put the way top five. Hey, yeah, that

885
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:50,799
Speaker 1: was that's fair. That's fair. Let me actually this one

886
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,879
Speaker 1: more thing on Miami. Now, what was what was spo

887
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 1: at this time? He was assistant Yeah, he was assistant

888
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: coach and he was more one on one with the

889
00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 1: way he did a lot of stuff with the way. Okay, okay,

890
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 1: and you played and you played with I mean you

891
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,680
Speaker 1: played for his assistants during your career. A number of

892
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 1: guys that have made it as head coaches in the NBA,

893
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: Stephen Silis, Lloyd Pierce Western Jr. Michael Malone. Is there

894
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: was there anything? And it's just a random question, but

895
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,720
Speaker 1: could you tell certain guys are built for this job

896
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:26,440
Speaker 1: more than the others head coaches? You just see the

897
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:29,120
Speaker 1: passion and all those people you just named that I

898
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,759
Speaker 1: played for all of those guys or they were assistant coach,

899
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 1: but the passion, uh, you know, the i Q and

900
00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,279
Speaker 1: just being there early, leaving late, always locked in on

901
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:42,439
Speaker 1: the film. Um always spoke up, you know what I mean.

902
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 1: Some assistants don't really speak up, but the dudes were

903
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 1: speaking up. He used to dude that Pool you to

904
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: the side, like Hey, we need to do this and this, X,

905
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: Y and Z. And out of all those guys, I

906
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: think the next one on the list is dander David

907
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:57,160
Speaker 1: Vanderpool Penderpool. Yo. You know what I mean saying, same

908
00:44:57,239 --> 00:44:59,560
Speaker 1: guy that going that same category with these dudes. You

909
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: just but the thing was supposed just his passion and

910
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:07,319
Speaker 1: I he uh the attention to detail and holding people accountable,

911
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,880
Speaker 1: things of that nature. Where you see him as a

912
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:12,040
Speaker 1: head coach, you like, I ain't surprised, Like people are

913
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: you surprised. I'm not surprised at all because I saw

914
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: it do I saw him do it every single day.

915
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 1: What you and from what I gather you what you

916
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: see is the work is what ultimately all of them

917
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 1: guys kind of have in common. Locked into the field

918
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 1: on the court and then asking questions and not afraid

919
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 1: to talk that those are two huge things. I think

920
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: that a lot of times you get intimidated a little bit,

921
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:35,759
Speaker 1: don't want to say nothing, but man, you raise your

922
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,040
Speaker 1: hand and say something. Man, you got to man, because

923
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 1: a lot of coaches think their opinion doesn't matter because

924
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: the head coach is locked in his whatever scheme the system.

925
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 1: You gotta say something, especially when you the assistant coaches

926
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,520
Speaker 1: have better relationships with the head coaches because how it goes,

927
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: they expend more time with us. So you gotta speak

928
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:55,759
Speaker 1: up sometime. And that's when you get the trust from

929
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:58,600
Speaker 1: your players that come to you openly and tell you

930
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 1: stuff so they could go I could make this short.

931
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: The team is doing better, so I think those are

932
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,560
Speaker 1: the guys that that wasn't afraid that you know, uh,

933
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:10,960
Speaker 1: what's therapeen? Absolutely, and then after Miami he signed with

934
00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, where in two thousand eleven under

935
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,360
Speaker 1: head coach Keith Smart, you had a career high and

936
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: pretty much every statistical category jump made a big time

937
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 1: jump sixteen and a half points a game, which was

938
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,319
Speaker 1: I believe Steph's second season in the league, So it

939
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 1: was early on um at this at this point in

940
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: your career playing with Steph Curry, what was your opinion

941
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: of him? Sort of if you could take yourself back

942
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 1: to Darrell in two thousand eleven, what was your opinion

943
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:43,760
Speaker 1: of him at that time? Worked? That boy just gonna work.

944
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 1: He's gonna work, and you used to have to tell

945
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,840
Speaker 1: him that. You know, me and Monte led the league

946
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:51,919
Speaker 1: that year. We know we're top five in the league.

947
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: It was him or Lull dang in him and then me.

948
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,000
Speaker 1: I think we're the top three and minutes Uh played

949
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 1: that year, so you know, we were we were serious

950
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: about our rest. Yeah, we worked on our craft, but

951
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:04,960
Speaker 1: we had the rest. Uhould be like Steph, like you

952
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 1: little relaxed young feller. We got a game tonight in

953
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:11,879
Speaker 1: there in the full sweat getting to it. So I think, uh,

954
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,799
Speaker 1: just seeing the work he put in, that was the

955
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,280
Speaker 1: one thing that used to always be in the background,

956
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 1: and this young feller be in the gym. Uh So

957
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 1: I think now seeing him, it's not a it's not

958
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:25,520
Speaker 1: like oh wow, like he's this big time player. You know.

959
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 1: I remember he worked, he worked on his craft. He

960
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: wanted to be better. So, uh, that was my my

961
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:33,320
Speaker 1: main thing, Like, this kid has a lot of potential.

962
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,319
Speaker 1: If he can stay healthy and keep working like he does,

963
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 1: he's gonna be one of the best players in this league.

964
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 1: So you can see it then, because what physical tools like,

965
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:48,400
Speaker 1: what nuances to steps game, like the things that Hooper's

966
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:50,279
Speaker 1: kind of recognized. What were some things that you kind

967
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,319
Speaker 1: of saw, you know, I don't know if maybe the

968
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:54,799
Speaker 1: way you know he's able to pull hesitated, I don't know,

969
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: maybe it's a technical thing. But did you see like

970
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 1: little nuances to his game that you said, yeah, that different,

971
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: super crappy around the basket, he defended in different ways.

972
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: He had the handle, he had the i Q, he

973
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 1: could play, he could play make very underrated playmaker, and

974
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 1: then he can shoot, you know, what I mean, did

975
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,680
Speaker 1: we know that the game was changing that what with

976
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 1: shooting being the number one option? Now, we didn't know that.

977
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 1: But he had all those tools and those attributes. He

978
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 1: just had to put it together. Yeah, and that no,

979
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 1: So you guys thirty six and forty six that season,

980
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,000
Speaker 1: I think you guys said they decided to make a

981
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:34,399
Speaker 1: change and the head coach bringing Mark Jackson the draft, uh,

982
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:41,279
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson amongst others. Um, you averaged with nine ten

983
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: points a game that year. Now at the time I'm

984
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 1: looking at the articles, they say he took a step

985
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:49,360
Speaker 1: back as far as your game. They used the word regrets.

986
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 1: What did Clay's arrival have anything to do with you?

987
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:55,040
Speaker 1: Sacrifice and sort of what you were doing out there?

988
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:57,719
Speaker 1: Or was this something that you know, you just you

989
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: can't really explain why or was it not in the play?

990
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:04,760
Speaker 1: It's key play why The biggest thing is to change,

991
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 1: you know, having Keep Smart who let me go, and

992
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: then having Mark Jackson who let me go. But you

993
00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: know it wasn't the same style of play. You know,

994
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,799
Speaker 1: it wasn't as free. You know, Keith Smart was under

995
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 1: then Don Nelson. So that means we gotta get up

996
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes. We gotta running gun, so I

997
00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 1: had way more attempts and way more opportunities to average

998
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 1: sixteen points. You know, I'm playing forty minutes a game,

999
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,319
Speaker 1: shooting the ball almost seventeen times a game, shooting eight

1000
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: threes a game that you know, there's a lot of

1001
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 1: opportunities there. So but Mark, you know, he kind of

1002
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 1: wanted me to still be myself. I got off to

1003
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 1: a slow start, so I was kind of behind the

1004
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: needle on everything. Then you know, I caught rhythm at

1005
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: things of that nature, but it was just different. You know,

1006
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 1: my minutes got cut a little bit. We also have

1007
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:53,440
Speaker 1: Brandon Rush. Brandon Rush is playing behind me. He was

1008
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 1: playing good, so sometimes he had finished the game. Yeah,

1009
00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:58,960
Speaker 1: as a starter, you want to finish the game. But

1010
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:01,800
Speaker 1: you know, as a as a teammate, a team player

1011
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 1: like I am, you understand, Hey, he playing better than me.

1012
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:06,600
Speaker 1: Y'all playing me right now and that, And that's just

1013
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,760
Speaker 1: how it happened. So I wouldn't definitely say I definitely

1014
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 1: wouldn't say because Mark Jackson came or Klay Thompson. No,

1015
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,359
Speaker 1: I just didn't, uh, you know, meet those expectations that

1016
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 1: I said in the beginning the season, which happened, so

1017
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:25,000
Speaker 1: definitely I wish I did better. Still, you know, was

1018
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:27,680
Speaker 1: one of the top guys in the league with threes

1019
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: made a year before. I led the lead in threes

1020
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 1: made the following year. I still think I made a

1021
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:36,279
Speaker 1: hundred some of threes. I wasn't as satisfied as I

1022
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:37,960
Speaker 1: was a year before, because obviously you want to do

1023
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,680
Speaker 1: the same thing. But I felt like, you know, maybe

1024
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 1: I grew the situation. So I was definitely happy I

1025
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 1: got a fresh start and was able to you know,

1026
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,239
Speaker 1: move on from you know, to go to State Era

1027
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:53,839
Speaker 1: and go to Philly. Yeah. Absolutely, One last thing, did

1028
00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:57,600
Speaker 1: you ever think that these two Stephan Clay would be

1029
00:50:57,600 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 1: regarded as the greatest shooting that court and NBA history?

1030
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:03,839
Speaker 1: Was there anything? Was there ever a moment in your

1031
00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:06,400
Speaker 1: practice of you ooping against you know, how you can

1032
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,320
Speaker 1: hoop against somebody, you might sell do hit fourteen threes

1033
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 1: on it, you know, so you'd be like walking away.

1034
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,000
Speaker 1: Nobody else saw it. But you know, was there ever

1035
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:16,719
Speaker 1: a moment like that? It was never a moment, But

1036
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:18,880
Speaker 1: I know Clay used to kick me and be rushed.

1037
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: But at the three point practice, we do these drills.

1038
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 1: You gotta shoot for a minute each spot, Like you know,

1039
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm getting out hitting seventeen or eighteen, be

1040
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:31,920
Speaker 1: rushing in seventeen or eighteen. Then Clay come and hit

1041
00:51:31,960 --> 00:51:35,120
Speaker 1: twenty four in a minute. He's like, dang, like, and

1042
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,400
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, bro, I'm not We're not even missing

1043
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 1: like that, We're hardly missing. So I just tell you

1044
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:43,840
Speaker 1: how high the clip he will shooting. He wasn't missing

1045
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,839
Speaker 1: at all. So he's like, damn, Like this young dude

1046
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: is a rookie. He's shooting the ball like that. So

1047
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 1: he showed signs he's so flashes to being a good player,

1048
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:56,439
Speaker 1: but not a great player, you know, because it's still

1049
00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:00,440
Speaker 1: super laid back. Clay used to get there to fifteen

1050
00:52:00,440 --> 00:52:04,080
Speaker 1: minutes before practice starts, still got stuff all in this

1051
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: I don't speak to nobody. So you're like, yo, you know,

1052
00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:09,920
Speaker 1: if he can get here a little bit early. But

1053
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:12,080
Speaker 1: he one thing I can't say. He had stayed behind,

1054
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:14,399
Speaker 1: you know, after you know, when you're vet, you're gonna

1055
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:19,239
Speaker 1: get it in before practice, after practice. You know, we're

1056
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:20,640
Speaker 1: trying and tell him, like, yo, bro, you need to

1057
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:23,400
Speaker 1: start getting here a little bit earlier. And Clay was

1058
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:26,319
Speaker 1: okay and never did it. He'd get his work after,

1059
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,440
Speaker 1: but teach his own like it's a new lead. Now

1060
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,959
Speaker 1: guys got what they prefer. When we came in the league,

1061
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: I was in the league with older players. Me and

1062
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:37,320
Speaker 1: the Montes came out of high school, so we was

1063
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: with a whole different era. He coming in with a

1064
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: new era. I think this is my like seventh year

1065
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:45,839
Speaker 1: in the league. He like, when you get here, when

1066
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:47,440
Speaker 1: I get here, I get to work in when I

1067
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:50,600
Speaker 1: when I get it in. So it worked out. So

1068
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:52,439
Speaker 1: I was our biggest thing, like if he could start

1069
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 1: getting here a little bit earlier and taking this crap

1070
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:56,720
Speaker 1: a little bit serious, he could be a good player.

1071
00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,000
Speaker 1: So he you know what I mean. So that's kind

1072
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 1: of how we we saw Clay. And then once I

1073
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 1: left and he got more of a role, you can

1074
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 1: see like, Okay, he could be really really good. Absolutely,

1075
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 1: and he definitely. They both blossomed into the Splash Brothers

1076
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:13,280
Speaker 1: and then so and then you you dipped from Golden

1077
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 1: State and then went to Philly with Doug Collins. You

1078
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,839
Speaker 1: have there four l a dudes on that roster, Nick Young,

1079
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:23,120
Speaker 1: Justin and Drew Holiday. How was that and then you

1080
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:28,239
Speaker 1: had Kwammy Brown. How was that experience in Philadelphia? Man,

1081
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:30,200
Speaker 1: that was a roller coaster, to be honest with you,

1082
00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 1: just the Philly man being in Philly. Uh, that team

1083
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: they kind of built it around Andrew buying them, so

1084
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:39,640
Speaker 1: that's why they want to go get me. Jason Richardson,

1085
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:42,800
Speaker 1: Nick Young, they needed ass shooting around his big fella

1086
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:45,719
Speaker 1: who was gonna cause double teams and you don't have

1087
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:47,759
Speaker 1: to kick it out for somebody. So that was the

1088
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:51,560
Speaker 1: whole thing. So now we're teaming up with Evan Turner,

1089
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday that he is, Young, Spencer Hall, they were

1090
00:53:55,719 --> 00:54:02,879
Speaker 1: already there. So myself, Clay, I mean myself Nick uh

1091
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 1: kuam a, we're gonna be coming off the bench. Ja

1092
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:09,399
Speaker 1: Richard b starter. But Andrew Wiggins was hurt. I mean,

1093
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:12,359
Speaker 1: Andrew Biinen was hurt that whole year. So it did

1094
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:15,319
Speaker 1: we didn't meet expected expectations. So we heard a lot

1095
00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:20,280
Speaker 1: of those blue birds early, you know how feeling Yeah,

1096
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 1: So man, it was tough sometimes because you be in

1097
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:26,120
Speaker 1: the first quarter down seven or eight, ay boom, you

1098
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:28,439
Speaker 1: and Doug Colline like y'all hear that, Like that's that's

1099
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: for us because we're not you know, doing what we're

1100
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: supposed to be doing. So it was it was a

1101
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:35,239
Speaker 1: roller coaster, to be honest with you. I enjoyed my

1102
00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:38,120
Speaker 1: time there, but you know that one year was more

1103
00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 1: than enough for me. Yeah, and then you finished your

1104
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:46,920
Speaker 1: career importantly with the trail Blazers before retiring. I guess

1105
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:49,319
Speaker 1: one of the thing I'm curious about is what was

1106
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:51,000
Speaker 1: the When was the moment you knew that it was

1107
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: time to shut it down? Well, when I went to Europe.

1108
00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 1: You know, I got those four years in Europe. So

1109
00:54:56,200 --> 00:55:00,200
Speaker 1: I did China, I did Germany, I did Russia, and

1110
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:03,520
Speaker 1: then I did like a quick stint in Bosnia. Um,

1111
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 1: but I just knew, like, this is not what I

1112
00:55:05,640 --> 00:55:08,320
Speaker 1: want to do. No more Like I gave the game everything.

1113
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,960
Speaker 1: My body wasn't responding the way I would want it

1114
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 1: to respond. My my kid was getting ready to be

1115
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:17,719
Speaker 1: an eighth grader, and I'm an eighth grader and a

1116
00:55:17,719 --> 00:55:21,239
Speaker 1: seventh grader. I'm like, this is the time when you know,

1117
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:24,680
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about when my my childhood. Which way you go?

1118
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,120
Speaker 1: You either do the streets or you do the sports. Obviously,

1119
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:30,040
Speaker 1: my kid don't grow up, didn't grow up how I

1120
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:33,520
Speaker 1: grew up, so let's make that loud and clear. Uh So,

1121
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:36,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is the time where you either gonna

1122
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 1: veer off and do something or you're gonna pick the

1123
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 1: sports now. So I'm like, it's so important for me

1124
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:43,879
Speaker 1: to be a father because when I went and play

1125
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 1: those four years in Europe, my family was living in

1126
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: the States. So I'm like, I gotta be there from

1127
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,600
Speaker 1: my kid, you know, I gotta be that father figure. Yeah.

1128
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:55,880
Speaker 1: I'm doing a great job. I'm providing. I'm I'm telling

1129
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:58,120
Speaker 1: what he needs to do through FaceTime, but I need

1130
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 1: to actually be there and make sure he's doing the

1131
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 1: right thing and be that, you know, that that figure

1132
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: for him. So that's when I kind of, you know,

1133
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:07,360
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, it's over. I told my wife.

1134
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,919
Speaker 1: My wife was like what. Everybody was like, wait, what?

1135
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:12,480
Speaker 1: Like you got so much more left? Like I was like,

1136
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:14,719
Speaker 1: but I don't want to play basketball anymore. And I

1137
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: think a lot of that has to do with not

1138
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:19,240
Speaker 1: only just being a father and being around for my kids,

1139
00:56:20,239 --> 00:56:21,920
Speaker 1: A lot of that has to do with me being

1140
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:25,359
Speaker 1: a baseball player of my whole life. So I love basketball,

1141
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:29,000
Speaker 1: but I didn't love basketball like you know, some of

1142
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,919
Speaker 1: my peers like a Bobby Brown a pool jetter. They're

1143
00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:35,480
Speaker 1: still hooping the thirty eight thirty seven still want to

1144
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:37,680
Speaker 1: hoop me. I'm like, I'm cool, you know what I mean.

1145
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:40,319
Speaker 1: I got everything out of it. I'm good. So that's

1146
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I felt to like, y'all love basketball,

1147
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:45,880
Speaker 1: but I didn't love it like that. So I felt

1148
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 1: like I was okay with walking away. Yeah. Wow, I

1149
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:51,840
Speaker 1: mean that's a heck of a decision because when especially

1150
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:54,279
Speaker 1: when you still got some left in the tank but

1151
00:56:54,880 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 1: you don't love it like that, and then the odyssey

1152
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:01,920
Speaker 1: of of traveling and playing over can definitely leave a

1153
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:07,440
Speaker 1: bad taste in some people's mouths. I've played in Russia, Turkey, France,

1154
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,239
Speaker 1: and then uh I hit a groove in Qatar, which

1155
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:12,680
Speaker 1: is right in the Middle East, right next to Dubai,

1156
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:15,680
Speaker 1: and uh I spent four years out there and that

1157
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,640
Speaker 1: was probably my favorite experience. But you miss out on

1158
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 1: so much at home, and I can't you cannot overstate

1159
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 1: the importance of a father being home in those four

1160
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 1: performidable years seventh grade or adolescents and kind of that

1161
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen, you know, everybody be real bad. You know,

1162
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:35,400
Speaker 1: that's where you be real bad right, So that I

1163
00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:38,200
Speaker 1: was like, we need a dude around here. I didn't

1164
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:40,280
Speaker 1: do that trip, but now I totally get it, man,

1165
00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 1: And and that's that's a that's a great decision. Fox

1166
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:46,040
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.

1167
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:49,280
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot

1168
00:57:49,320 --> 00:57:52,360
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

1169
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:57,080
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. What made you decide to

1170
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 1: start your own AU program? So with with that, that's

1171
00:58:01,880 --> 00:58:06,760
Speaker 1: a great question. I just know, man, I just know

1172
00:58:06,840 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 1: what goes on with AU basketball. I feel like, um,

1173
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,760
Speaker 1: the state of AU basketball is in a bad state.

1174
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 1: The reputation for AU basketball isn't isn't good. The representatives

1175
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:25,520
Speaker 1: for AU basketball aren't there, and I felt like we

1176
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: needed more people like me to be in there. So

1177
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:30,920
Speaker 1: now you see the Russells, and you see the E.

1178
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:34,480
Speaker 1: Y d. L. You see the John Walls, the Bradley Bill,

1179
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:38,200
Speaker 1: you see these guys as in basketball create their own

1180
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:42,439
Speaker 1: teams because it's important to see the guys you want

1181
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:46,080
Speaker 1: to be like, either being a program director, even being

1182
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 1: the sponsor, or being me the coach. So I felt

1183
00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:54,000
Speaker 1: like it was needed. I felt like, you basketball sometimes

1184
00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:56,080
Speaker 1: can be a joke because a lot of people are

1185
00:58:56,120 --> 00:58:58,840
Speaker 1: just rolling the basketballs out. So I felt like, Uh,

1186
00:58:58,840 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 1: these kids need to learn how to play the basketball

1187
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 1: the right way. I can't help everybody, but the small

1188
00:59:04,040 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: group of kids that's in my program, I feel like,

1189
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:09,680
Speaker 1: I could you help them succeed the dreams that they

1190
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:13,160
Speaker 1: want to pursue and the things that I reach. So

1191
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: I was like, what's what's better than me being a

1192
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:18,160
Speaker 1: director of coach and coaching my son and some of

1193
00:59:18,160 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 1: the top talent in this area. So that's kind of

1194
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:23,800
Speaker 1: what led me to do it after seeing my son

1195
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 1: playing for different teams, and you know, I really wasn't tripping.

1196
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 1: I want my kid to be good later. I don't

1197
00:59:29,560 --> 00:59:31,600
Speaker 1: want my son to be good right now. I wanted

1198
00:59:31,640 --> 00:59:33,760
Speaker 1: to be solid. I wanted to be out. I got

1199
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:36,040
Speaker 1: a deer looking at me through the window, which is funny,

1200
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:39,520
Speaker 1: where do you live? Where you live, I'm in the

1201
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 1: I'm in the boonies and the all in the interview

1202
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 1: looking at I just don't want to run through my window.

1203
00:59:47,800 --> 00:59:52,160
Speaker 1: So I'm like, what you're looking at? Right? So yeah, so, uh,

1204
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:55,200
Speaker 1: you know, it's a long term goal for my my kid.

1205
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: I wanted him to be like me in the line.

1206
00:59:56,880 --> 00:59:59,720
Speaker 1: I want him to be that late bloomer or hit

1207
00:59:59,760 --> 01:00:02,560
Speaker 1: that surfers when he's supposed to. Now he finally hitting

1208
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:05,440
Speaker 1: the stride of being a good player. So I'm like,

1209
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:09,200
Speaker 1: how can't we make a make an impact in the

1210
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:11,960
Speaker 1: in the community and help these young fellers get to

1211
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:13,720
Speaker 1: where they need to be. And I was like, man,

1212
01:00:13,720 --> 01:00:16,000
Speaker 1: we gotta start our own program and I gotta be

1213
01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 1: a part of it. I gotta be there every single day.

1214
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:19,920
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what made me want to be

1215
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:23,560
Speaker 1: a program director and also a coach. Awesome man, And

1216
01:00:23,720 --> 01:00:28,000
Speaker 1: how did the Donda the Donda Academy opportunity to get about? Oh? Man,

1217
01:00:28,040 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 1: my guy, just little boy. I don't know if people

1218
01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:32,320
Speaker 1: are familiar with him. He runs one of the biggest

1219
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:36,200
Speaker 1: meme pages for our culture. And I say culture because

1220
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:38,120
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that we go through an

1221
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:42,320
Speaker 1: African and African American community and other communities. But it's

1222
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:45,640
Speaker 1: a lot of relationships stuff, you know, things like that.

1223
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:49,600
Speaker 1: And he and I became cool years, probably about a

1224
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:52,400
Speaker 1: year and a half ago when he probably had maybe

1225
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 1: two thousand followers, and I watched them grow as this platform.

1226
01:00:57,080 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 1: So now he has like five or six million followers

1227
01:01:00,280 --> 01:01:03,160
Speaker 1: within a year. So we became cool because we're always

1228
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:05,920
Speaker 1: laughing at you know, the stuff I posed. He posed

1229
01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:11,320
Speaker 1: and uh, seeing he had this platform and he needed

1230
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:13,240
Speaker 1: to do more than just be a mean guy. Right.

1231
01:01:13,720 --> 01:01:16,200
Speaker 1: So myself and my wife are kind of like connectors

1232
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,960
Speaker 1: and we've had businesses. We know so many people. So

1233
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:22,240
Speaker 1: I reached out to justin like, yo, bro let me

1234
01:01:22,280 --> 01:01:26,440
Speaker 1: and my wife, um let me and my wife manage

1235
01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:29,080
Speaker 1: you you do a podcast? He was all in. He

1236
01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 1: was like, man, I got all these big companies reaching

1237
01:01:31,120 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 1: out to me, but they don't want to give me ownership.

1238
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:38,920
Speaker 1: And you know, now, like as the community, like we

1239
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: we gotta be a little bit smarter about the things

1240
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:43,360
Speaker 1: we do and the things we signed. So the number

1241
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:45,840
Speaker 1: one thing should be ownership, especially if you deserve that

1242
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:49,080
Speaker 1: you're putting that work in, You deserve deserve ownership, and

1243
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:51,480
Speaker 1: it's important for our people to know that, Like, YO,

1244
01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:55,560
Speaker 1: get ownership, own your stuff. Don't lest somebody just hang

1245
01:01:55,640 --> 01:01:58,040
Speaker 1: something over your head and say I got this opportunity

1246
01:01:58,080 --> 01:02:00,800
Speaker 1: but not looking out for you. Because you bring value

1247
01:02:01,360 --> 01:02:03,760
Speaker 1: just like they bring value. So make sure you're being

1248
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:06,400
Speaker 1: uh taking care of as well. So that was kind

1249
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: of the plan didn't fall through, I mean didn't follow

1250
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:13,840
Speaker 1: through or it fell through, end up doing his own thing. Whatever,

1251
01:02:14,040 --> 01:02:19,560
Speaker 1: all good. We remain friends. So Kanye West hires him

1252
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 1: to be his main marketing strategy guy because he understands culture,

1253
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:28,680
Speaker 1: he understands our community. So Kanye hired him to be

1254
01:02:28,840 --> 01:02:31,880
Speaker 1: his marketing guy. Kanye came up with a bright idea

1255
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:34,240
Speaker 1: to start a a I mean a basketball program now

1256
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:37,200
Speaker 1: to AU program, but the school that can compete with

1257
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:40,000
Speaker 1: the other high schools around the area. So he was like,

1258
01:02:42,240 --> 01:02:44,280
Speaker 1: reach out to some people. They was reaching out to

1259
01:02:44,320 --> 01:02:47,520
Speaker 1: all these coaches and Justin was like, I know the

1260
01:02:47,600 --> 01:02:52,880
Speaker 1: perfect person, the real right. He said, he just had

1261
01:02:52,880 --> 01:02:56,000
Speaker 1: an AIRU team for him. In two years. They had numbered.

1262
01:02:56,200 --> 01:02:59,040
Speaker 1: We were numbered like a team team in the country.

1263
01:02:59,640 --> 01:03:01,640
Speaker 1: We feel is just the year off the number two

1264
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:04,160
Speaker 1: team in the country. He's like, I've been watching him

1265
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:06,360
Speaker 1: grow as AU program and they're like one of the

1266
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:09,200
Speaker 1: best teams in the country. Let's hire him. So I'm

1267
01:03:09,240 --> 01:03:11,800
Speaker 1: on a two day I'm on a twelve day vacation

1268
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,160
Speaker 1: in south of France. They called me day two like,

1269
01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:15,880
Speaker 1: we need you to to get to l A. I want

1270
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:17,440
Speaker 1: you to meet Kanye you want to do with school.

1271
01:03:17,440 --> 01:03:19,240
Speaker 1: I'm like, bro, I'm in the south of France of

1272
01:03:19,320 --> 01:03:22,680
Speaker 1: d Way Gabriel Union, my wife having a grand old time.

1273
01:03:23,160 --> 01:03:25,600
Speaker 1: I ain't coming back in before another ten days, so

1274
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:29,280
Speaker 1: that's don't have to wait. So he calling me every day. Man,

1275
01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:31,960
Speaker 1: you gotta get back, you gotta get back. So the

1276
01:03:32,040 --> 01:03:34,280
Speaker 1: day I get back, Justin calls me like, I gotta

1277
01:03:34,320 --> 01:03:37,040
Speaker 1: zoom set up tomorrow. We need you ya get on

1278
01:03:37,120 --> 01:03:39,800
Speaker 1: a zoom with you. Ye like where I want to

1279
01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:43,120
Speaker 1: create my school. I want to create U basketball team.

1280
01:03:43,120 --> 01:03:45,320
Speaker 1: I want to compete with all the schools. Can you

1281
01:03:45,360 --> 01:03:47,920
Speaker 1: help it? Can you make it? Can you make this happen?

1282
01:03:48,280 --> 01:03:50,000
Speaker 1: I said, oh yeah, I said next year we're gonna

1283
01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: have the best team. I'm put all the resources, coach

1284
01:03:52,680 --> 01:03:56,240
Speaker 1: and everything. They was like, na, we want to start today.

1285
01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:59,280
Speaker 1: I'm like what, I'm like, people are in school already,

1286
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:02,080
Speaker 1: people are on their team. It's not gonna happen. It

1287
01:04:02,200 --> 01:04:04,439
Speaker 1: was like, no, it can't happen, So find a way.

1288
01:04:04,680 --> 01:04:07,160
Speaker 1: And I was like, let's do it. So that's kind

1289
01:04:07,160 --> 01:04:11,200
Speaker 1: of how I came became the program director. Uh, Donda,

1290
01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:13,960
Speaker 1: and it's been crazy and you and you, so this

1291
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:17,240
Speaker 1: program Donda now you guys have we at five six sevens,

1292
01:04:17,280 --> 01:04:20,120
Speaker 1: five stars or you guys got a heck of a roster.

1293
01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:22,160
Speaker 1: I know, I've seen the names, and I've seen the highlights.

1294
01:04:22,320 --> 01:04:23,760
Speaker 1: I was watching it. I was watching the game the

1295
01:04:23,800 --> 01:04:26,880
Speaker 1: other day. Uh missed the lamp at the buzzerd but

1296
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:29,200
Speaker 1: didn't get it. But but hey, he should he should

1297
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:31,560
Speaker 1: have talked. He should have? Should you should? I mean

1298
01:04:31,600 --> 01:04:34,400
Speaker 1: you're telling you talked to him? Yeah, you gotta boom that.

1299
01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:38,280
Speaker 1: But it's an exciting situation. You guys played uh Veritas

1300
01:04:38,360 --> 01:04:40,520
Speaker 1: Prep earlier this year. I'm familiar with their program, so

1301
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:44,160
Speaker 1: I got to see some highlights. I'm curious, how does

1302
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:46,240
Speaker 1: you know you're sitting behind the eight ball taking that

1303
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:49,040
Speaker 1: job man, and trying to build a program like today

1304
01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:52,480
Speaker 1: with it, you know, within a matter of months. I mean,

1305
01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:55,400
Speaker 1: is it a testament to the team you built, the

1306
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:57,920
Speaker 1: resources you have around the country? How did how did

1307
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:00,480
Speaker 1: you get it to this point so quick? Uh? As

1308
01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:04,200
Speaker 1: the resources when you're dealing with somebody like a Kanye West, Um,

1309
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:05,920
Speaker 1: a lot of people and it's a lot of people

1310
01:05:06,000 --> 01:05:09,320
Speaker 1: think like the budget is unlimited, like you just we're

1311
01:05:09,320 --> 01:05:11,320
Speaker 1: just about to run it up. No, you know, we

1312
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:14,560
Speaker 1: had a budget to get things done, and we had

1313
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:16,520
Speaker 1: to go do the research. I had to put my

1314
01:05:16,560 --> 01:05:19,080
Speaker 1: head down and do the research when it came to school,

1315
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:23,640
Speaker 1: you know, going after different schools like k twelve who

1316
01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:27,040
Speaker 1: we use and we been, uh potentially became partners. So

1317
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:30,560
Speaker 1: we're partners with Kate twelve. Uh. Where they live at,

1318
01:05:30,600 --> 01:05:33,320
Speaker 1: where they're gonna work out at, who's going to be

1319
01:05:33,400 --> 01:05:36,000
Speaker 1: the nutrition is all these things. I had to use

1320
01:05:36,080 --> 01:05:40,160
Speaker 1: my resources. So me being that connector me being you know,

1321
01:05:40,240 --> 01:05:42,959
Speaker 1: one of the guys from l A that's as well

1322
01:05:43,040 --> 01:05:46,919
Speaker 1: known as known for doing all these crazy things and

1323
01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:49,800
Speaker 1: things of that nature. I just reached out to people

1324
01:05:49,840 --> 01:05:52,680
Speaker 1: that I knew that had these things that can host us,

1325
01:05:52,760 --> 01:05:55,520
Speaker 1: like a Frink Robinson who became the coach. He has

1326
01:05:55,560 --> 01:05:59,960
Speaker 1: the district And see me by I mean chat's work

1327
01:06:00,200 --> 01:06:01,960
Speaker 1: was the coach. I was trying to figure out coach.

1328
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:06,040
Speaker 1: So it's Frankie Frank Robinson. Anybody know Frankie has been

1329
01:06:06,080 --> 01:06:10,400
Speaker 1: having a gym called the District. That's where they go exactly.

1330
01:06:10,440 --> 01:06:12,640
Speaker 1: So that's where they practice, that, that's where they do

1331
01:06:12,840 --> 01:06:15,840
Speaker 1: weight lifting, that that's where they do a bunch of

1332
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 1: things that so, uh, that's kind of how I built

1333
01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:22,560
Speaker 1: this thing with my resources and also Kanye's resources, his

1334
01:06:22,680 --> 01:06:25,520
Speaker 1: name and the budget that we were able to to

1335
01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:28,160
Speaker 1: use to make this come to what it is today.

1336
01:06:28,520 --> 01:06:32,040
Speaker 1: And then you know, my god, Samir at Slam reaches

1337
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: out like, yeah, we want to do uh, we want

1338
01:06:35,120 --> 01:06:38,520
Speaker 1: to do uh Donda, we want to feature them. I'm like, okay,

1339
01:06:38,520 --> 01:06:40,120
Speaker 1: we can do it. What y'all want to do. We

1340
01:06:40,160 --> 01:06:41,720
Speaker 1: want to put them on the cover. We want the

1341
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:45,080
Speaker 1: best two players and Kanye on the cover. It was like, no,

1342
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:48,720
Speaker 1: we want the whole team on the cover because we

1343
01:06:48,720 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 1: don't want it to be an individual It's not the NBA.

1344
01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: If it's the NBA is different. But these are high

1345
01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:57,000
Speaker 1: school kids, like showcase all of them and Slam was

1346
01:06:57,080 --> 01:06:59,840
Speaker 1: like no problem. And it was like in Kanye's gonna

1347
01:06:59,880 --> 01:07:02,560
Speaker 1: be on there with them, He's gonna pose with him.

1348
01:07:02,600 --> 01:07:06,640
Speaker 1: So uh, the Slam just dropped yesterday. Uh. I know

1349
01:07:06,720 --> 01:07:08,840
Speaker 1: that the kids are super excited about that. It's like,

1350
01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:10,680
Speaker 1: come on, I was. I was in the back and

1351
01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:13,280
Speaker 1: in the punks section of the Slam magazine when I

1352
01:07:13,280 --> 01:07:16,240
Speaker 1: was in high school and super excited. These kids are

1353
01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:19,760
Speaker 1: on the cover of the Slam magazine with Kanye West,

1354
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:24,680
Speaker 1: really but that just showed you the value that these

1355
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:27,880
Speaker 1: kids bring and and with this program is bringing to

1356
01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:31,480
Speaker 1: them as well. So it's definitely a great partnership. And

1357
01:07:31,520 --> 01:07:35,680
Speaker 1: the best part is that, you know, Kanye Inged, they

1358
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:41,040
Speaker 1: hired excellent basketball people. Let them do the basketball part

1359
01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:43,320
Speaker 1: of everything exactly. And I think that has a big

1360
01:07:43,400 --> 01:07:45,640
Speaker 1: reason why you got so competitive so quick, because there's

1361
01:07:45,640 --> 01:07:47,800
Speaker 1: no way you guys should be the competitive that quickly.

1362
01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:49,560
Speaker 1: Let me come on, I mean it just came out

1363
01:07:49,560 --> 01:07:52,600
Speaker 1: and came out the gates. Just we're gonna get hey

1364
01:07:52,640 --> 01:07:55,280
Speaker 1: and so give you all some time, man. So that's awesome, man.

1365
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:59,400
Speaker 1: And then, um, so talk about this one more question. Man.

1366
01:07:59,600 --> 01:08:01,320
Speaker 1: I'm a at you go, because we've been on this

1367
01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:03,240
Speaker 1: thing for a while and this kind of flow, bro.

1368
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:05,520
Speaker 1: But I got one more thing, and I just kind

1369
01:08:05,520 --> 01:08:08,680
Speaker 1: of want to know about as far as this year's Warriors, now,

1370
01:08:08,760 --> 01:08:14,160
Speaker 1: Draymond Clays back, Draymond has been hurt. There's no light

1371
01:08:14,200 --> 01:08:15,680
Speaker 1: at the end of the tunnel was the quote that

1372
01:08:15,920 --> 01:08:18,559
Speaker 1: they had to day. As far as his return um

1373
01:08:18,800 --> 01:08:21,840
Speaker 1: surprise team, do you think that this team, well, do

1374
01:08:21,880 --> 01:08:23,479
Speaker 1: you think that the second first of all two parts,

1375
01:08:23,479 --> 01:08:25,559
Speaker 1: do you think that the second unit, the bench mob

1376
01:08:25,920 --> 01:08:28,080
Speaker 1: as as I've heard you as you called him, are

1377
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:31,679
Speaker 1: experience enough to carry this this team to a deep

1378
01:08:31,680 --> 01:08:35,760
Speaker 1: playoff run. And do you think that Clay Thompson is

1379
01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:39,680
Speaker 1: going to round into form and become a shadow of

1380
01:08:39,720 --> 01:08:42,439
Speaker 1: his former self. Yeah, I think Clay Thompson me back

1381
01:08:42,439 --> 01:08:44,559
Speaker 1: to itself. I think it's all about him getting his

1382
01:08:44,640 --> 01:08:48,400
Speaker 1: legs back under him, getting back into the routine. It's

1383
01:08:48,400 --> 01:08:50,080
Speaker 1: hard when you missed two and a half years of

1384
01:08:50,120 --> 01:08:53,000
Speaker 1: basketball and you just want somebody to beat them. Like

1385
01:08:53,080 --> 01:08:55,720
Speaker 1: I've meant through surgeries, it wasn't two years is a

1386
01:08:55,760 --> 01:08:57,960
Speaker 1: couple of months. It took me a minute to get

1387
01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:00,519
Speaker 1: back to myself. So to see where Clay Iimepson is

1388
01:09:00,600 --> 01:09:03,800
Speaker 1: right now averaging fourteen fifteen points at the missing all

1389
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:07,479
Speaker 1: that time, it's still impressive. Yeah, you know, he's probably

1390
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:10,479
Speaker 1: not the same player he was right now when he left,

1391
01:09:10,600 --> 01:09:13,519
Speaker 1: But I think eventually more reps he gets, the more

1392
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:16,840
Speaker 1: time he is on the court, the more they expanded,

1393
01:09:16,960 --> 01:09:20,360
Speaker 1: expand his minutes hed get back to that. So definitely

1394
01:09:20,360 --> 01:09:23,360
Speaker 1: think Clay Thompson's gonna be back to the old Clay Thompson.

1395
01:09:23,840 --> 01:09:25,880
Speaker 1: And with this bench, I think it's the perfect fit.

1396
01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:30,200
Speaker 1: I think Otto Porter Jr. Gary Payton, the second Jordan's Pool,

1397
01:09:30,800 --> 01:09:34,920
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga, These are the right pie Andre Goodal, he

1398
01:09:34,960 --> 01:09:37,559
Speaker 1: can't forget about him. These are the right pieces for

1399
01:09:37,720 --> 01:09:41,040
Speaker 1: this team because I think the previous years they didn't

1400
01:09:41,080 --> 01:09:42,960
Speaker 1: have the right fits like they did when they were

1401
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:45,760
Speaker 1: winning those championships and when they were a dynasty. So

1402
01:09:45,800 --> 01:09:48,439
Speaker 1: now I think with the with that bench, and then

1403
01:09:48,479 --> 01:09:51,760
Speaker 1: you add a Andrew Wiggins, you add a Caban Looney,

1404
01:09:52,200 --> 01:09:54,840
Speaker 1: everybody fits perfect. Now you got your big three there.

1405
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:57,320
Speaker 1: And then you add a guy like Andrew Wiggins who

1406
01:09:57,360 --> 01:09:59,800
Speaker 1: was a former number one pick. Somebody gets you fit

1407
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:02,120
Speaker 1: in the twenty every night. Then you go get a

1408
01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:05,000
Speaker 1: number the former number three pick who's made and had

1409
01:10:05,040 --> 01:10:07,280
Speaker 1: a contract over a hundred million dollars in out of Porter,

1410
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:09,760
Speaker 1: who I think are the two biggest X factors on

1411
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:11,960
Speaker 1: this team. So I think they could go deep and

1412
01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:14,800
Speaker 1: in his in his playoff running and potentially won the

1413
01:10:14,920 --> 01:10:17,920
Speaker 1: championship because they are the number one defensive team in

1414
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:20,760
Speaker 1: the NBA and too, they're gonna put it on the

1415
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:24,760
Speaker 1: line every night. Yeah, it's curious how the Warriors that

1416
01:10:24,880 --> 01:10:27,720
Speaker 1: will continue to perform moving forward. If Draymond has a

1417
01:10:27,800 --> 01:10:31,800
Speaker 1: Lympic absence. I feel like that Clay some of his

1418
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:35,680
Speaker 1: slow starts attributed to Draymond not being there because you know,

1419
01:10:35,960 --> 01:10:38,960
Speaker 1: you know as well as anyone that Draymond on offense

1420
01:10:39,600 --> 01:10:42,720
Speaker 1: is is like one of the just I mean, back

1421
01:10:42,760 --> 01:10:45,200
Speaker 1: in the day the bulls, the Rodman would swing the ball.

1422
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:47,600
Speaker 1: I don't remember the triangle, but they always probably he

1423
01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:49,800
Speaker 1: moved that thing like a hot potato so fast it

1424
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:52,719
Speaker 1: would just he would help the continuity the offense. Draymond

1425
01:10:52,800 --> 01:10:55,280
Speaker 1: is like Roman times ten because of the back of

1426
01:10:55,320 --> 01:10:58,240
Speaker 1: the back door threats on the diamond. Then the nuance

1427
01:10:58,280 --> 01:11:01,200
Speaker 1: of knowing these two shooters, like the back of his

1428
01:11:01,280 --> 01:11:03,559
Speaker 1: hands and how they want to curl, then when they're

1429
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:05,679
Speaker 1: getting their feet set, you know, to do that quick

1430
01:11:05,720 --> 01:11:08,439
Speaker 1: one to like and then make sure the pass is there.

1431
01:11:08,479 --> 01:11:10,840
Speaker 1: I think that, to me has been one of the

1432
01:11:10,920 --> 01:11:14,600
Speaker 1: biggest factors in Clay's slow start. I remember saying, and

1433
01:11:14,680 --> 01:11:17,360
Speaker 1: also what what stuff struggling a little bit? You know,

1434
01:11:17,400 --> 01:11:22,559
Speaker 1: he's been uh, you know, for for me or for

1435
01:11:22,840 --> 01:11:25,200
Speaker 1: anybody else. He hasn't been shooting a well, he's still

1436
01:11:25,200 --> 01:11:28,360
Speaker 1: shooting thirty seven cent from three point line, which is

1437
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:31,160
Speaker 1: still pretty amazing. But we all used to for d

1438
01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,360
Speaker 1: for two for three, and I think just how he

1439
01:11:34,439 --> 01:11:37,439
Speaker 1: sets sets his guys up, like you mentioned, and also

1440
01:11:37,600 --> 01:11:41,000
Speaker 1: the the offense that they run. That offense is uh

1441
01:11:41,280 --> 01:11:44,320
Speaker 1: around more of a Draymond for him to be a facilitator,

1442
01:11:44,360 --> 01:11:47,160
Speaker 1: and it's more of that old school basketball where you pass,

1443
01:11:47,280 --> 01:11:50,600
Speaker 1: you move, uh, you come together, split actions and you

1444
01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:53,400
Speaker 1: go different ways. It's all about reads. So when you

1445
01:11:53,479 --> 01:11:56,080
Speaker 1: got somebody that's not used to play that position playing

1446
01:11:56,080 --> 01:11:59,200
Speaker 1: that position, it's hard to get those guys. Uh, there're

1447
01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:01,320
Speaker 1: shots where they like it. So I think once Draymond

1448
01:12:01,400 --> 01:12:03,400
Speaker 1: is back, a lot of those things that they're struggling

1449
01:12:03,439 --> 01:12:05,559
Speaker 1: with right now and it is a little funk, will

1450
01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:10,320
Speaker 1: definitely be a lot better. Yeah, I think a lot

1451
01:12:10,360 --> 01:12:13,120
Speaker 1: of these guys to the experience that they're getting GP

1452
01:12:13,280 --> 01:12:16,719
Speaker 1: two Jordan's Yes, I've got them waiting. I've been waiting

1453
01:12:16,760 --> 01:12:20,439
Speaker 1: for Wiseman just for I've been waiting from Wiseman forever,

1454
01:12:20,520 --> 01:12:22,639
Speaker 1: just to kind of see, you know what with him

1455
01:12:22,640 --> 01:12:26,640
Speaker 1: and cominga with the Lungdon those young legs, how they

1456
01:12:26,640 --> 01:12:29,000
Speaker 1: could potentially help you know, well, they are going to

1457
01:12:29,240 --> 01:12:32,400
Speaker 1: help roster in a rotation, you know what. I mean,

1458
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:34,439
Speaker 1: when you got to too young uns in that next

1459
01:12:34,479 --> 01:12:37,720
Speaker 1: to ye man, it make all the differences that they

1460
01:12:37,880 --> 01:12:41,400
Speaker 1: close out. It never recovers that, you know, And I

1461
01:12:41,439 --> 01:12:44,000
Speaker 1: think that's something that Warrior has been lacking the last

1462
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:46,120
Speaker 1: few year is just the athleticism. You know, you got

1463
01:12:46,160 --> 01:12:50,040
Speaker 1: Draymond Clay and Steph they ain't the most athletic guys.

1464
01:12:50,479 --> 01:12:53,560
Speaker 1: But then you ask somebody like a Jordan Pool Wiggins,

1465
01:12:54,040 --> 01:12:58,839
Speaker 1: uh cominga Wiseman. Those are athletes, GP two. Those are athletes.

1466
01:12:58,880 --> 01:13:01,360
Speaker 1: So you need at you know, when it's time to

1467
01:13:01,439 --> 01:13:05,840
Speaker 1: rebound the fan Like you said, multiple uh possessions and positions.

1468
01:13:05,840 --> 01:13:09,680
Speaker 1: So I think that's what's gonna separate them absolutely. The

1469
01:13:09,760 --> 01:13:12,200
Speaker 1: last thing, man, and before we sho shoot off the interview,

1470
01:13:12,479 --> 01:13:18,439
Speaker 1: I read your letter to your younger brother telling them,

1471
01:13:18,439 --> 01:13:20,439
Speaker 1: you know, to walk away from the card table and

1472
01:13:21,640 --> 01:13:24,519
Speaker 1: chill out of viavy. Yeah. I was curious as I

1473
01:13:24,560 --> 01:13:26,080
Speaker 1: was reading that thing, man. That was a beautiful letter.

1474
01:13:26,080 --> 01:13:28,519
Speaker 1: By the way, I was curious when I was reading

1475
01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:31,280
Speaker 1: that thing, Man, if you could pin a letter to

1476
01:13:31,439 --> 01:13:35,479
Speaker 1: your younger self right when you were six, what would

1477
01:13:35,520 --> 01:13:37,479
Speaker 1: you tell your younger self or would you tell yourself

1478
01:13:37,520 --> 01:13:41,320
Speaker 1: any differently? Yeah, it's it's some things that I did

1479
01:13:41,400 --> 01:13:44,120
Speaker 1: that to be honest with you, I don't have many

1480
01:13:44,160 --> 01:13:47,759
Speaker 1: things that I can say I regret because that obviously

1481
01:13:47,760 --> 01:13:49,920
Speaker 1: everything is a learning lesson, and a lot of my

1482
01:13:50,040 --> 01:13:53,840
Speaker 1: lessons were very minimum, so that that's another great thing.

1483
01:13:53,920 --> 01:13:56,600
Speaker 1: But that that just shows you the foundation in the

1484
01:13:56,720 --> 01:14:01,479
Speaker 1: circle around me that helped me accountable, not only myself

1485
01:14:01,479 --> 01:14:04,200
Speaker 1: but the people around me, hoping me accountable and not

1486
01:14:04,320 --> 01:14:07,040
Speaker 1: having too many people around me just saying yes to everything,

1487
01:14:07,439 --> 01:14:09,479
Speaker 1: Like I got real people in my corner that's gonna

1488
01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:13,120
Speaker 1: tell me your d right, you tripping? So uh. That's

1489
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:16,200
Speaker 1: that's something I think I installed in my life early on,

1490
01:14:16,479 --> 01:14:20,120
Speaker 1: and and one of those people was my wife. So uh.

1491
01:14:20,160 --> 01:14:22,240
Speaker 1: But if I if I had to say something, I

1492
01:14:22,240 --> 01:14:26,240
Speaker 1: would just be like, Yo, it's a long race, a marathon. Um,

1493
01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:29,280
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot of ups and downs. Um.

1494
01:14:29,360 --> 01:14:32,639
Speaker 1: I think the people that successful the people that can

1495
01:14:32,720 --> 01:14:35,000
Speaker 1: go through those ups and downs, you know what I mean,

1496
01:14:35,080 --> 01:14:38,200
Speaker 1: and take a few bumps, yeah, and know that it's

1497
01:14:38,200 --> 01:14:40,800
Speaker 1: all good. Like you got another day to seize the

1498
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:44,000
Speaker 1: moment the carpet d M sees the moment and just

1499
01:14:44,120 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 1: don't dwell in the past like you gotta move on.

1500
01:14:47,640 --> 01:14:50,240
Speaker 1: Every day is a new challenge. So I think that

1501
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:52,519
Speaker 1: are some of the things because sometimes, you know, I

1502
01:14:52,600 --> 01:14:54,960
Speaker 1: used to be in a phone. I kind of premeditate,

1503
01:14:55,160 --> 01:14:58,719
Speaker 1: not premeditate, but pre determined what's gonna happen. I put

1504
01:14:58,880 --> 01:15:02,000
Speaker 1: bad things in you to birds my mindset. What was off.

1505
01:15:02,280 --> 01:15:04,400
Speaker 1: I'll be like, yo, x Y Z is gonna happen.

1506
01:15:05,040 --> 01:15:07,599
Speaker 1: And when I get there, x Y and Z happened.

1507
01:15:07,680 --> 01:15:10,479
Speaker 1: Like why am I surprised at that happened? I said

1508
01:15:10,479 --> 01:15:13,000
Speaker 1: it was gonna happen instead of being like, no, we're

1509
01:15:13,000 --> 01:15:15,280
Speaker 1: gonna do it like this, this and that and you know,

1510
01:15:15,400 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 1: more positive vibes. So I think that right there limitates

1511
01:15:19,040 --> 01:15:21,519
Speaker 1: a lot of bad days that I have because my

1512
01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:25,640
Speaker 1: mindset is different. So I would definitely say mindset is

1513
01:15:26,040 --> 01:15:30,640
Speaker 1: one of them. Have a positive mindset, Uh, be coachable,

1514
01:15:30,920 --> 01:15:35,360
Speaker 1: Always be coachable and just live man, have fun and

1515
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 1: build those relationships as they go along. Way. Why is words,

1516
01:15:40,040 --> 01:15:43,000
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. Durrell right, thank you so much, my

1517
01:15:43,040 --> 01:15:45,680
Speaker 1: brother for Jordan's show. That's certain. Thanks for having me