Speaker 1: What up dies your boy Al Harrington and check me
Speaker 1: out on the Bootleg cav podcast Talking Everything by Yola
Speaker 1: who check us.
Speaker 2: Out Boulet CAV Show Special guests in here, NBA legend
Speaker 2: grew up watching this guy. Al Harrington is here, bab
Speaker 2: hey man, good to see you, bro, Thanks for having
Speaker 2: me Dougs the Cannabis. I would like to we're just
Speaker 2: telling you off camera, but you're like one of the
Speaker 2: og guys who really got into the weed game, and
Speaker 2: like did it the right way. You just celebrated ten
Speaker 2: years almost two years ago. Now that's crazy, yeah, bro, So,
Speaker 2: I mean we've seen a lot of celebrities come and
Speaker 2: go in the weed space, right, Like I was just
Speaker 2: thinking about this the other day, Like me and my
Speaker 2: boy were talking about like jay Z's weed. We're like,
Speaker 2: what happened to that?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: What happened to jay Z's weed? Like it was an announcement,
Speaker 2: it was this big deal and then it just went away, right,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? But like, I feel like
Speaker 2: you've done such a great job of just like diving
Speaker 2: in obviously see being a smoker, coming from the background
Speaker 2: you come from, like for you, Like, how does it
Speaker 2: feel to kind of look back, you have a as
Speaker 2: Your WE'D career almost matched your NBA career.
Speaker 1: Almost, bro almost. I'm at I'm at twelve in the
Speaker 1: week game and I played sixteen. Wow, so I'm getting close.
Speaker 1: But I think the first thing is like, I never
Speaker 1: considered my brand a celebrity brand, right, you know what?
Speaker 2: I So that's what's crazy is you kind of did
Speaker 2: do a little diving in to be like, oh, our
Speaker 2: hiringtens behind it.
Speaker 1: It was never led. That was never the intention, right right.
Speaker 1: The attention was always about my grandmother and really about
Speaker 1: just you know, the benefits and changing the stigma around.
Speaker 2: Your grandma's name. My grandmother's Okay, so that makes sense, okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the story goes pretty much. I
Speaker 1: had she had come to see me play. She was,
Speaker 1: you know, taking all this medication. Ask so why. She
Speaker 1: gave me a list of things. One of the things
Speaker 1: she said was glaucoma. I told her about an article
Speaker 1: I was reading literally two days before she got there,
Speaker 1: about how cannabis cured glacoma patients. She asked me, what's cannabis?
Speaker 1: I said, maryl want to weed. She laughed so hard,
Speaker 1: she was like, reefa you're trying to give me to
Speaker 1: smoke brief And I was like, well grandma, they said doctors.
Speaker 1: She's like no. The next day she comes I come
Speaker 1: home from shooting around and she's complaining, saying how she
Speaker 1: can't see. So I said, look, just try. This would
Speaker 1: be our secret. I won't tell nobody this, me and you,
Speaker 1: just you and me. You know, I was saying, I
Speaker 1: have my boy go to dispensary, bought some Vietnam cush
Speaker 1: was the strain that we brought back, had her try it.
Speaker 1: I took her downstairs.
Speaker 2: Where were you playing at the time, I.
Speaker 1: Was playing in Denver, going you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I took her downstairs. I went to my nap
Speaker 1: A hour and a half later. I had smoked weed
Speaker 1: at one time in my life and it was in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: and I was so paranoid that night. I was like,
Speaker 1: I never smoked weed again. That ass so like, fuck weed.
Speaker 1: I don't know why y'all smoke this shit type thing.
Speaker 1: So I said, to make sure she's not going down
Speaker 1: to you know, she's not dealing with the same thing.
Speaker 1: I go downstairs, knock on the door. I don't hear nothing,
Speaker 1: so I'm like, well, she must be knocked out, so
Speaker 1: I knock again, and I just opened the door. But
Speaker 1: when I opened the door, she's sitting at the edge
Speaker 1: of the bed and her back to the door. She's
Speaker 1: looking down. So I said, Grandma, how you feeling? And
Speaker 1: she she turns around and she's crying to She says,
Speaker 1: I'm healed. She said, you know, I haven't been able
Speaker 1: to read the words of my Bible went over three
Speaker 1: and a half years.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So I was like what she was like, everything is
Speaker 1: so bright, Like God gave me my sight back. So
Speaker 1: that's what inspired me to learn about cannabis and pretty much,
Speaker 1: you know, eight months later, I made my first investment.
Speaker 1: I bought a building in Colorado, and I started growing
Speaker 1: as a caregiver. So all the patients that I had
Speaker 1: either had like HIV or cancer, and whatever was left
Speaker 1: over that we didn't give to them, we sold to dispensaries.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And that's how I got started, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's always been about amazing, It's always been about her.
Speaker 1: It's always been about the power of the plant for me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Not you know, I still
Speaker 1: to this day haven't put anything with my image on it,
Speaker 1: my name on it for sure. For sure, it's all
Speaker 1: been about the plant.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy. I didn't. So what are the benefits
Speaker 2: of like someone has HIV of cannabis, Because I'm.
Speaker 1: Just saying it helps with like pain, appetite, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, because they deal with a lot of
Speaker 1: appet for you. Sure what I'm saying. Define the appetite
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest things. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yo, it's crazy. Tell me. Okay, so you get high
Speaker 2: in Phoenix because that's where I'm you. Guys played the
Speaker 2: Suns that night.
Speaker 1: So this is the reason, this is the reason why
Speaker 1: I got hogh bro. So I'm playing for Golden State.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the year before we had just were we believed team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had knocked off Dallas, Right, So the next year
Speaker 1: we come back better. We think, we really think we're
Speaker 1: gonna win a championship that year, right. So things that
Speaker 1: happened during throughout that season, like we had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to trade for Kevin Garnett, right, and they did not
Speaker 1: fucking make it. Katie the kid, Brandon fucking the kid
Speaker 1: that we drafted from North Carolina. They went like a
Speaker 1: draft pick. They weren't like young players, right, So it
Speaker 1: was gonna trade all these players for him. They were
Speaker 1: nagging the trade we ended.
Speaker 2: Up, but the Warriors said no.
Speaker 1: The Warrior said no, Bro, So we ended up bringing
Speaker 1: in Chris Webber. Okay, so Chris Webber comes in. But
Speaker 1: you know, at this point, Chris was a shell of himself.
Speaker 1: Ship shout out to the o G.
Speaker 2: The injuries really cooked him at the end, Bro.
Speaker 1: He ends up playing like twelve games for us, right,
Speaker 1: and out of those twelve games, we ended up winning
Speaker 1: like four out of four out of the twelve games.
Speaker 1: So come down to the end of the season, we
Speaker 1: need to win all the games to make the playoffs, right,
Speaker 1: So we last game of the season, we all we
Speaker 1: had to do was beat Phoenix. We knew we was
Speaker 1: gonna beat Phoenix because we had Monte Ellis who used
Speaker 1: to he averaged forty, but he averaged forty on Steve Nash.
Speaker 1: It was literally like give him the ball and let
Speaker 1: him bust Steve Nash the greatest. Like literally, that's how
Speaker 1: we beat them every game that year. Just gave Monte
Speaker 1: the ball, let him So we knew we were gonna win,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But we needed the Clippers
Speaker 1: to beat Denver.
Speaker 2: Oh so you you even if you won, you didn't
Speaker 2: control your destiny.
Speaker 1: Right, we just need But the night before though, we
Speaker 1: still so the night before the game, we need Denver.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, we need the Clippers to beat Denver.
Speaker 2: And this isn't good Clippers.
Speaker 1: This is not good Clippers. So obviously they lose. So
Speaker 1: now our season's over. Even if we win the game,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, right, So everybody's frustrated. You know, we
Speaker 1: thinking we're gonna build off of last year and you know,
Speaker 1: bearing well, you know, we got a good team, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And everybody they just start smoking.
Speaker 1: So they like, So I'm sitting in there and I'm
Speaker 1: having a drink. They're like, bro, you gotta smoke, dog, Like,
Speaker 1: come on, the season over, Bro, it's over. Like smoke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I smoke or whatever, And like I said, like
Speaker 1: thirty forty five minutes later, Bro, I'm like, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to my room.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I went to the room. Bro, I just felt
Speaker 1: like the room was closing the end of me. I
Speaker 1: felt like I was here at Sirens. I was just
Speaker 1: bugget you know what I'm saying. I didn't even go
Speaker 1: out that night like we go we know, we go
Speaker 1: out everywhere. I don't even go out. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm done. Just so that was my first experienced smoking weed,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I was like, I'm cool.
Speaker 1: And obviously you know that was weed from the bay,
Speaker 1: so you know it was something some real real It
Speaker 1: was some you know what I'm saying, not for somebody's
Speaker 1: first time, for sure what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So it just melted your face off and turned you.
Speaker 1: Oh I was finished?
Speaker 2: So you do you smoke now? I smoke every day.
Speaker 2: Oh good, I'm at right now to you. Yeah, bro,
Speaker 2: it's kind of crazy too because like did you see
Speaker 2: this recent clip of Patrick Beverly saying less than half
Speaker 2: of the league or no more than half of the
Speaker 2: league doesn't enjoy playing basketball. They're just in it for
Speaker 2: the money essentially, right, do you like? I feel like
Speaker 2: with like your era, it wasn't that way. I don't know,
Speaker 2: like And also do you like did you see did
Speaker 2: you see the clips?
Speaker 1: I saw it? I saw it.
Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
Speaker 1: I think he. I mean when you kind of look
Speaker 1: at what's going on, you kind of believe it, right
Speaker 1: for sure. I say that is just because the fact
Speaker 1: that they take all these rest days, just like you know,
Speaker 1: like to your point, our era, bro, like every game
Speaker 1: meant something right, every fucking game and something right. You
Speaker 1: understand what I'm saying, Like our mindsets was like every
Speaker 1: game determined, playoff, seating, all kind of stuff, right, what
Speaker 1: kind of contract you might get, Like now guys get
Speaker 1: paid when they hurt. They get guys that play, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty forty percent of the games over three years spin against.
Speaker 2: Super still get the super max, you know what, Like
Speaker 2: shout out the ion eating.
Speaker 1: And listen, he's a great player.
Speaker 2: When he's playing. He's like the most he might I
Speaker 2: think offensive. He's the most efficient play in the NBA
Speaker 2: when he's healthy. I think two years ago he was
Speaker 2: the most efficient.
Speaker 1: Well in China. Shot broken't garden guys like guys literally
Speaker 1: won't play on the game.
Speaker 2: Said people will have like literally you've been in the
Speaker 2: league for four years and you played thirty or forty
Speaker 2: percent of your games and they maxed you out, Like.
Speaker 1: So now to that point, it's like how do you
Speaker 1: love the game? You know what I'm saying, Like you
Speaker 1: like you off your rookie contract. You just made two
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars, Like what do I care about the
Speaker 1: rest of my career? You know what I'm saying. It
Speaker 1: takes special players that are thinking about legacy and thinking
Speaker 1: about chasing records. You understand what I'm saying that I
Speaker 1: think that will show through and those will be the
Speaker 1: guys that will like enjoy throughout the rest of their careers,
Speaker 1: especially as being like true hoop fans. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But I definitely agree with him. Man, I
Speaker 1: think that these guys are more and nemor with the
Speaker 1: lifestyle over the game. Right, Like I said, like back,
Speaker 1: I was give you one more example, like when I
Speaker 1: was coming up, like you couldn't get hurt, bro, because
Speaker 1: you had like a guy behind you.
Speaker 2: That was like what they just needed that.
Speaker 1: So like if I rolled my ankle, but I got
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Bender who hasn't played in ten games, but
Speaker 1: he killing in practice every day. He just I gotta
Speaker 1: play on a bum ankle, bro, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan Benue, Yeah, Like so it's just changed now
Speaker 1: was like you go out, you sit for two months,
Speaker 1: you come right back your spot right there. Don't matter
Speaker 1: what the person was doing in front of you, they'll
Speaker 1: trade him first. Oh you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I have to agree with him, Bro, I think he
Speaker 1: might be right about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think too, because, like I have two
Speaker 2: kids that both like play, they love basketball, you know,
Speaker 2: but there's so much that there's something to be said about,
Speaker 2: like the AAU shit, and then also like TikTok and
Speaker 2: Instagram making a lot of these like sixteen seventeen year
Speaker 2: old kids super famous and rich and rich before they
Speaker 2: even get to the NBA. So they're like when I
Speaker 2: watch the draft sometimes and I see like dudes I
Speaker 2: see as fuck like grabbing their hat. I'm like, bro, hot,
Speaker 2: Like what's up with all this jewelry? Like shout out
Speaker 2: to Scoot Henderson, who I heard is absolute hooper. I
Speaker 2: heard is gonna be a I heard he's got a
Speaker 2: generational talent. I heard he's amazing, like and I heard
Speaker 2: he's got the right mind state. But he was so
Speaker 2: iced down the whole family. I was just like, what's
Speaker 2: the like, g Like, bro.
Speaker 1: He's been making money for two years because he was
Speaker 1: he went to the JIT overtime thing. But you know,
Speaker 1: once he did that, he knew he was never going
Speaker 1: to college, so now he could do all kinds of deals.
Speaker 1: You say, he had KUMA ads before he even got
Speaker 1: you understand what I'm saying. Like, so to your point,
Speaker 1: because of this name, image and likeness thing, which really
Speaker 1: means now it's legal. That's what they really should stand for.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, These kids are gain access
Speaker 1: to money. And I mean even like the kid Mikey Williams, Like,
Speaker 1: for sure, from what I've heard, he's not even an
Speaker 1: NBA talent, that's what I heard. I never seen him play,
Speaker 1: and you know whatever, I think.
Speaker 2: I met him at ATACA when he was like fifteen.
Speaker 1: Bro, he's made already made like fifteen million dollars.
Speaker 2: And you know, shout out to him. I know he's
Speaker 2: dealing with whatever he's dealing with. But you see something
Speaker 2: like that and you're like, the Internet is the component
Speaker 2: that might have fucked this kid's career up. Yeah, they're
Speaker 2: like too much fame, too early, too.
Speaker 1: Much fame too early, And that's what you know, and
Speaker 1: obviously that's where all of this shit is that's what
Speaker 1: media does, right. He kneels you up to tear you down,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So even that perspective of
Speaker 1: just like you know, TikTok Instagram, like it's making kids
Speaker 1: famous that aren't even that good. It's just it.
Speaker 2: That's what you know. What I really enjoyed was I
Speaker 2: just watched all the smokes podcasts this morning. I threw
Speaker 2: on they had an episode of Austin Reeves drop and
Speaker 2: to see, like his perspective, he purposely didn't want to
Speaker 2: get drafted. He said that the Detroit Pistons wanted to
Speaker 2: draft him at forty two, right, but him and his
Speaker 2: team had a tier of teams that he could fit in, right,
Speaker 2: And he said, well, once we fall past this number
Speaker 2: in the second round, it's going to be a two
Speaker 2: way contract no matter what.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So when they wanted to draft him, his agent called
Speaker 2: him and said, well, okay, we have a plan. We
Speaker 2: want to go undrafted. So he decided he bet on himself, right,
Speaker 2: because he knew the Lakers had interest, and he said
Speaker 2: there was two teams that they had as the one
Speaker 2: tier that he could fit in and like really thriving
Speaker 2: them as the Bucks and the Lakers, So he really
Speaker 2: liked bet on him self and like.
Speaker 1: But that's smart. I mean second round picks a lot
Speaker 1: of times, and it's too. I don't fully understand the
Speaker 1: two way contract thing because I wasn't in when that
Speaker 1: was right what I'm saying, But when I was in
Speaker 1: a second round pick, you only got one never really
Speaker 1: none of these were guarantee, but.
Speaker 2: Like, there's no guarantee.
Speaker 1: It was really like two years my era, it was
Speaker 1: really like a two year guarantee. But you think about it,
Speaker 1: if you got a two year guarantee. I was a
Speaker 1: first round pick. I had four years guaranteed, so it
Speaker 1: took me two more years before I could get to
Speaker 1: some money. Right, So if you're good in your first
Speaker 1: your first year or two, you'll beat out the guy
Speaker 1: that was the first round pick, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because you'll get you'll get to a contract faster if
Speaker 1: you bet on yourself.
Speaker 2: To your point, sometimes, like when you see certain guys
Speaker 2: because I look I looked at like, uh, because I've
Speaker 2: been watching a lot of your older interviews and stuff,
Speaker 2: and I obviously watched you play. I always thought you
Speaker 2: were like I would say, like you were like one
Speaker 2: of those guys who like would play the suns or
Speaker 2: play like a like a team and you just like
Speaker 2: be on sports. You're like, yo, fucking out here anything
Speaker 2: like forty two tonight, Like you were you, you had
Speaker 2: like fucking you were a bucket getter, bro, and uh
Speaker 2: the pay structure now, oh well, you see, Like I
Speaker 2: think of a guy like Jeremy Grant and the deal
Speaker 2: he just got. And Jeremy Grant's a good NBA player,
Speaker 2: but you know he's not an All star, you know,
Speaker 2: But I think of Jeremy Grant, I'm like, I think
Speaker 2: he signed for a buck eighty, maybe a buck sixty
Speaker 2: something like that. God bless him, God bless him. Shout
Speaker 2: out to you get that money. But I'm like, yo,
Speaker 2: you're the kind of guy who in twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: could have got like a buck eighty.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, hands down, bro, Like to your point, like, god,
Speaker 1: just average twelve thirteen points?
Speaker 2: What's happen? It's insane.
Speaker 1: They got to spend the money? Is the TV? All
Speaker 1: the TV all the media stuff is like taking off crazy,
Speaker 1: you see, Like I think Tatum will be the first
Speaker 1: guy that's going to get I think my Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown.
Speaker 2: It's Brown.
Speaker 1: He about to get seventy million years Jaylen Brown, I
Speaker 1: think get seventy million a year. That's crazy, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So even like when Dame signed that deal and they
Speaker 2: were like I was like, wait the fifth or sixty
Speaker 2: what them? Fuck?
Speaker 1: So now like to your point, like now, just being
Speaker 1: like the tenth best player on your team, bro, you
Speaker 1: get you guaranteed ten to fifteen million dollars, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So the game has changed a lot now.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta pour everything I got into my
Speaker 1: son's I got two little boys, seven and five. Like, hey, god,
Speaker 1: I hope we get some of that money.
Speaker 2: If one do you make it. We're chilling.
Speaker 1: We're chilling.
Speaker 2: One man. It's crazy too, because like what I appreciated
Speaker 2: about you is like you really loved playing the game.
Speaker 2: And when I look at like your career, obviously you
Speaker 2: had a very successful NBA career, but at a certain
Speaker 2: point in time you even like went and played in China,
Speaker 2: right right.
Speaker 1: So that was at the end.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but I'm saying, like, you don't go and
Speaker 2: play a China at the end unless you just love
Speaker 2: the hoop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love a game. That's what, Like to your point, Like,
Speaker 1: as I was coming up, that's all I could think
Speaker 1: about was Basketballight you know what I'm saying, Like if
Speaker 1: somebody told me to shut up and Joebil might have
Speaker 1: listened at that point, I'm saying what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how much I love a game. Everything
Speaker 1: that I did was around trying to get better, trying
Speaker 1: to feel better. So that's why I like, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of my teammates and a lot of my
Speaker 1: older friends, like anytime there's like any type of new
Speaker 1: technology of a surgery or a diet, they always hit
Speaker 1: me up because they know I've tried, like everything I've
Speaker 1: always I just wanted to play better. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to be better. I wanted to feel better. I want
Speaker 1: to you know, I just want to be the best
Speaker 1: that I could be at all times. And you know
Speaker 1: when I got towards the end, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a batch knee surgery and I had got a staff
Speaker 1: infection from the surgery. Didn't know I had it ended
Speaker 1: up getting my bloodstream, you know, could have died from it.
Speaker 1: You know, I had to stay in the hospital. Pick line,
Speaker 1: the whole shit, and you know, it ate away all
Speaker 1: the articulating cartilage in my knees. So what that is
Speaker 1: is pretty much like what protects the bone. And you
Speaker 1: know I'm bone on bone, so I actually need a
Speaker 1: knee replacement. I've been able to avoid a knee replacement
Speaker 1: because of cannabis. You know what I'm saying. I've been able.
Speaker 1: That's why I.
Speaker 2: Smell a lot of helps with all the information and pain.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've been able to have an unbelievable
Speaker 1: quality of life retire. But when the China the opportunity came,
Speaker 1: it was because of Stephan Marbury, who was who was.
Speaker 2: Like a god there. Yeah, people don't understand, like a
Speaker 2: lot of people. By the way, go watch this documentary.
Speaker 1: I bought it.
Speaker 2: Stephan Marber is one of my favorite NBA players ever.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, I was cold blessed when
Speaker 2: the Sun's traded for him. I was very excited. But yeah,
Speaker 2: in China, he was I think they have a statue he.
Speaker 1: Got a statue of in Beijing of all places, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And you know he called me
Speaker 1: and he was like, are you done? And I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm not done. Man, I'm waiting on a couple of teams.
Speaker 1: You know, Houston. Maybe you know James Harden was trying
Speaker 1: to get me to Houston and different things like, but
Speaker 1: he had Mike dan Phony as his coach, so that
Speaker 1: wasn't going to happen. But uh so it shots fired
Speaker 1: for sure. But uh he he called me and he
Speaker 1: was like, yo, I got a couple of teams over here.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So he gave me a
Speaker 1: list of teams and I was like, what is it.
Speaker 1: He was like, The one I picked was Fujin, the
Speaker 1: fujiin Sturgeons. And the reason why I went there was
Speaker 1: because of the weather and it was close to Hong Kong.
Speaker 1: So he was just like whenever you get a day off,
Speaker 1: he was just fly to Hong Kong and eat regular
Speaker 1: food and then come back to thing. And I ended
Speaker 1: up being a fifty six days.
Speaker 2: I couldn't make it's the future, six nights literally, fifty.
Speaker 1: Six days, bro, fifty six days. It was the day
Speaker 1: when I was flying in, I knew I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: make it.
Speaker 2: I was just look, you could just tell yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you're like this ain't I can't do this.
Speaker 1: It's just like at the you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like I say, all money ain't good money.
Speaker 2: Listen, early in my radio career, my first full time job,
Speaker 2: I did afternoons at a station in Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: Oh shit.
Speaker 2: And as soon as I got there, I said, well,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be here longer than a year. So
Speaker 2: I said, this shit is cool, but I ain't for me,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I told the general manager, which was this lady named Ricky,
Speaker 1: who knew nothing about basketball. So I was like, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna win no game because the other thing about China,
Speaker 1: which is cool. So you know, I had like a
Speaker 1: three million dollar contracts only for three and a half months, right,
Speaker 1: so it's really no time. But you also you get
Speaker 1: paid a bonus every time you win, and like my
Speaker 1: bonus was five thousand dollars cash. Every wind that Ricky
Speaker 1: literally comes after the game. It gives me cash. And
Speaker 1: after like the first a couple of preseason games, I
Speaker 1: was like, bro, I'm not gonna make any extra money.
Speaker 1: We suck.
Speaker 2: Who are these guys on this team?
Speaker 1: Like how did you put this team together? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I went to her like maybe
Speaker 1: after the third game of the season, and I was like, Ricky,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you to a Thanksgiving. You gotta find
Speaker 1: my replacement, you know what I'm saying. So I got
Speaker 1: up out of there. I laid it home on Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 1: I kissed the ground when I got home. O bullshit,
Speaker 1: And uh, you know that was my China experience.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Dwight Man. Dwights out there shooting threes?
Speaker 1: I got some other shit going on. I saw the
Speaker 1: other today you.
Speaker 2: Got I mean, listen man, allegedly because I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: you never know with the Internet what's doctored, and you know,
Speaker 2: so I don't want to put.
Speaker 1: That on them, like why they're doing that to my man?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't want to put that on Dwight because
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's the thing, because again it's
Speaker 2: the Internet. I saw the screenshots.
Speaker 1: Look it looks crazy.
Speaker 2: It does look pretty crazy. And also if that's what
Speaker 2: he's into, whatever, God bless it. Shout out to Dwight. Uh,
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, uh what was well? First
Speaker 2: of all, I am a die hard Sons fan. I
Speaker 2: have well Lebron's might goat. But I have a over mic. Yes, okay,
Speaker 2: but see I have like a I have son's toys.
Speaker 1: I got you, I gotta.
Speaker 2: Okay, why did you play for Mike d'antni ever? Was
Speaker 2: it in New York?
Speaker 1: Yeah? New York?
Speaker 2: Okay, why Mike Dan? Phony? What was your experience with Mike?
Speaker 2: Because I have heard very mixed things, mostly very negative
Speaker 2: things about Mike.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I won't go into hell of detail,
Speaker 1: but you know it just you know, I just respect
Speaker 1: coaches that just tell you the truth all the time.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Don't talk shit behind my back,
Speaker 1: don't tell me one thing and then tell somebody else
Speaker 1: or you know what I'm saying. So that's the phony
Speaker 1: part of it. The other thing was like I may
Speaker 1: be wrong, and like I said, you know, the one
Speaker 1: thing I say about athletes, you know, we don't have
Speaker 1: a real concept of reality, right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's what makes us special. That's the reason why there's
Speaker 1: thirty million, three hundred million people that played basketball and
Speaker 1: inspire to be pro three hundred it is only four
Speaker 1: fifty you know what I You know, that's it's the
Speaker 1: reason for that. I just felt like we could have
Speaker 1: been a better team if we like attempted to play defense.
Speaker 1: Like we literally never did anything for defense, like nothing,
Speaker 1: never practice a rotation like nothing. So I'm just like,
Speaker 1: how do you expect us to win if we can't defend?
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying. And we used to tell
Speaker 1: him that, and you know, one time, you know, Larry
Speaker 1: Hughes fell out of the rotation because me and Larry
Speaker 1: went to him before practice one day was like, yo, coach, listen,
Speaker 1: we understand, like defense isn't a priority. But you know,
Speaker 1: we talked to all the players and we're all willing
Speaker 1: to come in thirty minutes before practice.
Speaker 2: Defense, but we want to fucking win.
Speaker 1: Bro in New York, Bro like we like and he
Speaker 1: like got all emotional and upset and offensive and like
Speaker 1: you think it's defense, just like talk, you think it's defense.
Speaker 1: We're like, yes, we can't defend nobody. We don't know rotations,
Speaker 1: we don't communicate, yes, And he got all pissed off,
Speaker 1: and you know that that just really frustrated me, and
Speaker 1: it just made me not like him as much as
Speaker 1: a coach. Now obviously I got numbers under him. You
Speaker 1: know what, I'm saying, which is his style as seven
Speaker 1: seconds or seven seconds is wide open, is about getting
Speaker 1: as many shots as fast as you can, which can
Speaker 1: be considered bad basketball, you know, depending on who you are.
Speaker 2: I never want to ring and he's never wont to ring,
Speaker 2: and that's then it makes for great regular season records.
Speaker 1: And then you just keep getting jobs. You understand what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like the league and that's what we could
Speaker 1: cover that another time too. It's just like they keep
Speaker 1: recycling the same coaches, and what do you think you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a different result? Why? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So that's a whole nother thing. Don't get me started.
Speaker 2: So what years were you with the Knicks?
Speaker 1: I think I was there two thousand and ten and eleven.
Speaker 1: I got traded this so I got traded there. I
Speaker 1: think in two thousand and ten.
Speaker 2: Was that like a Mari's first year?
Speaker 1: No? Amari came right after me.
Speaker 2: Okay, should you Were you on the team with mariy? No?
Speaker 1: I never played with or Mellow. I left there, went
Speaker 1: to Denver with Mellow, and then Mellow got traded halfway through.
Speaker 2: The and then you ended up playing with like Landry Fields,
Speaker 2: and like no I played, it was who was all
Speaker 2: the random? Nick? Uh?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: I played? My era was when I was there. It
Speaker 1: was like some thimas had came back for a second.
Speaker 1: Tracy McGrady played with us for a second.
Speaker 2: Racy McGrady played on the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: The Knicks Nuggets is it was was a very underrated guy.
Speaker 1: It was Mellow Kenya Martin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but when Melow got traded, you played the year
Speaker 2: after with with those guys, right with those guys?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, so that was j R. Smith? What's my damn?
Speaker 1: What's my uh ty? Lawson? Aaron?
Speaker 2: What was the light skinned dude that the Knicks traded
Speaker 2: to the nick or that they traded into the Nuggets.
Speaker 2: But he was like kind of like borderline like you again,
Speaker 2: this guy could be an all star fall play for UCLA.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about there was like a forward? Was that
Speaker 2: a small forward? He was a part of that Nick
Speaker 2: Smellow trade?
Speaker 1: Oh Gallinari, No, that's who came. Wilson Chandler. Wilson cham okay, okay,
Speaker 1: yeah that's my dog.
Speaker 2: Shouts to Wilson Chanler.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Wilson.
Speaker 2: Bro what would you consider your because you've been a
Speaker 2: part of some dope teams obviously shout out to the Pacers.
Speaker 2: I feel like the Pacers were like one of those
Speaker 2: teams that when I think of the best teams that
Speaker 2: never got a ring, I think of the Pacers. I
Speaker 2: think of them. I think of the Suns, you know,
Speaker 2: I think of a couple versions of the Suns. Uh,
Speaker 2: fuck my life, and then I just you know, but
Speaker 2: but the Pacers, I feel like legit were like talently
Speaker 2: if you look at the roster, like one through eight
Speaker 2: or nine, like the best team in the league a
Speaker 2: couple of years in a row.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, when I first came into the league. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I first came in the league, it
Speaker 1: was the year after you know, Mike did the push
Speaker 1: off to Reggie and hit the shot, you know, to
Speaker 1: win that series. So you know, they were so mad.
Speaker 1: They were licking their wounds. They thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: we would winning the next year, no bullshit. So it
Speaker 1: was a lockout year when I came in. So they
Speaker 1: were so focused that they had training camp. Training camp
Speaker 1: started when training camp was supposed to start, because Reggie
Speaker 1: was like, so whenever the season do start, we'll be
Speaker 1: in better shape than anybody. So We literally they had
Speaker 1: us all there. Everybody was there except for I think
Speaker 1: Jalen Rose and Dale Davis, but everybody to a man
Speaker 1: was there.
Speaker 2: It was Rick Smith's on that team.
Speaker 1: Rick Smith was on the team too, so Bro we
Speaker 1: did doing all. He was in and out of the
Speaker 1: practice during that time. He had bad feet. So we
Speaker 1: worked our ass off up until like maybe Thanksgiving, and
Speaker 1: they were like, we'll look like shit at about to happen.
Speaker 1: And remember it didn't start until like January or the
Speaker 1: next year or whatever. But at that time, the league
Speaker 1: was all about vets, so it was like who had
Speaker 1: the best vets at that time, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And we just ran into the Knicks and Larry Johnson
Speaker 1: had that four point play.
Speaker 2: Four point play was crazy, you know what I'm.
Speaker 1: Saying, And that pretty much knocks us out the box,
Speaker 1: takes our momentium away. But then the next year, man,
Speaker 1: we get to the finals, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We get to the finals, but we ran into a
Speaker 1: fucking unbelievable Kobe Bean Bryant and fucking shock that you
Speaker 1: can't do nothing with, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: even we I'm gonna tell you this funny thing about
Speaker 1: that here we thought we had a a series altering
Speaker 1: moment when Jay Rose Jalen Rolls stepped under Kobe and
Speaker 1: made him roll his ankle.
Speaker 2: You guys were like we like you guys were kind
Speaker 2: of excited, like.
Speaker 1: Hey, chance, this was old school basket Yeah, sit your
Speaker 1: bitch aw yes all that Like that was like everybody
Speaker 1: in the locker room like, yes, we got this motherfucker
Speaker 1: out type shit and fucking Kobe plays the next game
Speaker 1: and not only kept it movie had like thirty six
Speaker 1: or something were.
Speaker 2: You would you like, did was that on the on
Speaker 2: purpose thing? You'll see guys always try to slide under
Speaker 2: the landing?
Speaker 1: Well, Jay Row said, I mean I think he's said
Speaker 1: it himself. He did it on purpose. M Yeah, like
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you don't know that you're going
Speaker 1: to make him roll his ankle, but you hope something happened,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And uh, like I said,
Speaker 1: during that time, it was no hose bars. It was
Speaker 1: just like Survival of the Fittest, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would say that it was done on purpose.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming throughout that series you had to have like
Speaker 2: eventually kind of ended up on Shack by accident. Maybe
Speaker 2: there was no.
Speaker 1: Hours I was about to have back surgery.
Speaker 2: Did you ever? Did you ever?
Speaker 1: Like I guarded Shack though?
Speaker 2: What was it like guarding because because there always he
Speaker 2: is the most dominant player of all time and peak Shack,
Speaker 2: I just I just you know, I don't know what
Speaker 2: you can do, really, bro.
Speaker 1: You pray. So when he was in Phoenix, the big
Speaker 1: Cactus bro he was. He was rolling down the lane
Speaker 1: and I rotated over to take a charge. And when
Speaker 1: I got there, he had already made the commitment and
Speaker 1: I just closed my eyes and I said God please,
Speaker 1: and he hit me and fell on time of me.
Speaker 1: But you know, it just didn't hurt. I was like surprised,
Speaker 1: like boom, And I opened my eyes and he's looking
Speaker 1: right at me.
Speaker 3: He was like, you're look at you from Jersey. Other
Speaker 3: than that, I would have killed you. He's like looking
Speaker 3: that on top of me, like you're look at you
Speaker 3: from Jersey. I was like, thank you, big fella. But
Speaker 3: guarding Shaq was it was impossible, bro. But you know
Speaker 3: when I'm guarding him, we got a double team them,
Speaker 3: So it's just like I'm just holding them holding them
Speaker 3: up as much as I can. And this is my
Speaker 3: golden state days. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We play small balls, so that means now he gotta
Speaker 1: guard me on that.
Speaker 2: You're like the big gun on the team.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So but we have success.
Speaker 1: Like I said, we beat him every time. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But Shaq, Shaq was a low bro.
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Speaker 2: get back into the interview. What about just like on
Speaker 2: the perimeter, hardest guy you ever had to defend, where
Speaker 2: you were just like, give me the hardest guy and
Speaker 2: then the most underrated guy where you were like fuck this,
Speaker 2: I don't think people understand how good this guy is.
Speaker 1: So my top three I guarded everybody.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 1: Kobe, I got it, Brian, you know, I got it. Mike,
Speaker 1: the old Mike, Mike, Mike. Yeah, that Mike. I got
Speaker 1: it that Mike. No, that's not that Mike, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: That's so that's his last All Star game.
Speaker 1: Is it? Okay? All right? Yeah? So that Mike so
Speaker 1: obviously all tough to guard, right, But the guys that,
Speaker 1: like I was just like fuck Grant Hill before the ankle.
Speaker 1: So it was like my first two first two or
Speaker 1: three years before the ankle, Like you knew he was,
Speaker 1: You knew he couldn't shoot, you knew he didn't want
Speaker 1: to shoot. You gave him space, and he still could
Speaker 1: blow by you. He had he had the quickest first step.
Speaker 1: Like what I'm saying, like I guarded Mike's Mike was older,
Speaker 1: but I guarded Kobe's first step like I felt like
Speaker 1: I could get to Kobe, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: his ship by you. It just was the quickest shit.
Speaker 1: The other person for me was Paul Pierce, and Paul
Speaker 1: was because obviously Hall of Fame, a great player, but
Speaker 1: it was something about this game that you felt like
Speaker 1: we was guarding him. He was always off balanced, so
Speaker 1: you're thinking like he's like falling, but then he just
Speaker 1: goes straight up or you think he's falling and he
Speaker 1: just keeps going straight you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: it was just and it was tricky. It was like jankie,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So that would be two,
Speaker 1: and then three was Zach Randolph Yo. Z BO was
Speaker 1: beat Bro and z BO was because when you got
Speaker 1: done playing against z Bo, you felt like you just
Speaker 1: had a street fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he just was he physical.
Speaker 1: He on you all game. Like I used to feel
Speaker 1: like I would be on offense and he's still on me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Zbo, rotate Bro, you on defense, Like why
Speaker 1: do you still while your body still on mind? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So those would be the three
Speaker 1: in my career that I felt like, was this the toughest.
Speaker 2: What's crazy too? We were talking about the Pacers. You
Speaker 2: actually were with the Pacers two different times, so like
Speaker 2: the second because you came the year after the the.
Speaker 1: The Palace.
Speaker 2: You were you were there the year after, and I
Speaker 2: feel like that was the year where because Ron didn't play,
Speaker 2: And I think I do feel like at a certain
Speaker 2: point in time, ron ar Test might have been like
Speaker 2: a top three guy in the league, maybe for like
Speaker 2: a half a season. Yeah, and then all I mean.
Speaker 1: As Stephen Jackson say, I don't know if you ever
Speaker 1: heard him say this, but Steve says he thinks he's
Speaker 1: the best two way basketball player ever.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, peak ron our Test was very underrated.
Speaker 2: I don't think people remember it.
Speaker 1: The right ro He was so fucking good dog, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was so. He was tough like the motherfucker. He
Speaker 1: did miss games, like he had heart surgery, played a
Speaker 1: day after played wad towards thumb surgery. They he took
Speaker 1: the cast off in the locker room played.
Speaker 2: And this is all while also kind of trying to
Speaker 2: have a rap career for people who don't remember, Bro.
Speaker 1: He was he exactly like it wasn't It wasn't even
Speaker 1: like he was just locked in on basketball all the time.
Speaker 1: He was doing so much other ship and he was
Speaker 1: that good. But to your point, the year that I left,
Speaker 1: they traded me for Steven Jackson. Right that team, I
Speaker 1: think if they didn't have the mouts in the Palace
Speaker 1: they win the championship, that that's.
Speaker 2: The year that That's the year in my head that
Speaker 2: I think, like, damn, like that team.
Speaker 1: Bro, they were going they were gonna win sixty plus
Speaker 1: games for we had just won sixty games a year before,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like they were about to
Speaker 1: and and I'm even saying that with me leaving the team,
Speaker 1: I feel like I was on the team we made
Speaker 1: even better. But like that that team, they had everything,
Speaker 1: they had everything, they had every stacked, they had everything.
Speaker 1: They were gonna win that year.
Speaker 2: But can you tell me what's it like to have
Speaker 2: Reggie Miller as a teammate Because he's supposed to be
Speaker 2: the greatest smack talker ever him, Gary Payton, Jordan, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to do. But people say he was
Speaker 2: kind of like a tough guy, you know, like to
Speaker 2: play againis in terms that he would just talk about
Speaker 2: your fucking kids, like he didn't give a fuck, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he talked shit. But Reggie the ultimate competitor.
Speaker 1: If you wasn't a pacer, you was like for real
Speaker 1: to op, like for real to op. Like he had
Speaker 1: no other friends on other teams. That's amazing, Like he
Speaker 1: had that mindset first person in the gym, last person
Speaker 1: to leave for real, not just you know, you hear it. Literally,
Speaker 1: the first person in the gym I used to have
Speaker 1: as a rookie, I used to have bring donuts and
Speaker 1: orange juice, so you know, just say practices at eleven.
Speaker 1: If I got there at nine, he was already there, bro,
Speaker 1: So I had to like try to beat him because
Speaker 1: he was the one that wanted the donuts. Like, you
Speaker 1: understand what I'm saying. So I'm like having to be
Speaker 1: at the gym at like eight thirty in the morning
Speaker 1: just to kind of get there the same time as him.
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying. As far as on the court,
Speaker 1: like you said, like I said, like ultimate competitor, he
Speaker 1: didn't really really he didn't really talk shit unless you
Speaker 1: said something or like somebody on the bench said something.
Speaker 1: That's how all them guys were. That's how Mike was,
Speaker 1: That's how Kobe was, Like.
Speaker 2: Don't if you give me some mammuit shit.
Speaker 1: They just want they just you know, like most times,
Speaker 1: like I always say, like when we're playing games and
Speaker 1: shit like that, which is kind of dope, Like you know,
Speaker 1: it could be it's twenty thirty thousand people going crazy,
Speaker 1: but you don't hear it, it's like a silence that
Speaker 1: we play with. You understand what I'm saying. But the
Speaker 1: only thing we do here is what's on the court
Speaker 1: and what's on the benches. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So Reggie just wait for somebody to hear him take
Speaker 1: a shot and be like, Oh, that's off. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He like, Oh, it's off. Oh just
Speaker 1: anything to get them going, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: If you ever have like a personal gripe, because I'm
Speaker 2: real close with a lot of NBA guys and like
Speaker 2: some of their managers and stuff, so they'll give me
Speaker 2: like heads up, like like I'll know certain players will
Speaker 2: never play with each other, right if it's up to them, right,
Speaker 2: whether it's over a girl or whether it's over something
Speaker 2: you said, like for example, like I've heard that like
Speaker 2: because of something Dennis Shrewder said to Devin Booker, he'll
Speaker 2: never play for the Sons. Oh wow, And it's it's
Speaker 2: it's kind of out there, like Devin Booker went and
Speaker 2: saw him in the locker room and he was on
Speaker 2: the rockets because he said some shit about his girl.
Speaker 2: You know, people kind of know about it. But like
Speaker 2: he'll never be on the suns, right, did you ever
Speaker 2: have something like that with a guy? And I'm sure
Speaker 2: you got over it, but like where you just were like, man,
Speaker 2: I really don't fuck with that dude for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Maybe he says some shit on the court.
Speaker 1: Nah, I didn't personally, Nah, And you know, and at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like you know, if the
Speaker 1: sons really want they shrewder like they have just come
Speaker 1: to Amend's right, you understand what I'm saying, Like you
Speaker 1: could say that as much as you want what.
Speaker 2: It feels so weird now because so many NBA guys
Speaker 2: are dating the same chickstias. And I'm sure it was
Speaker 2: always we here.
Speaker 1: Nah, it wasn't. Well maybe it was we just it
Speaker 1: was no social No.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, the social media makes it where
Speaker 2: it's like everyone's falling the same chicks now, so the
Speaker 2: same chicks getting flown out out and there's a lot
Speaker 2: of random like background beefs over just girls that are
Speaker 2: for everybody, right, which is weird. It's super weird.
Speaker 1: I was so weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super weird. I was gonna say, obviously, Viola
Speaker 2: is very successful endeavor, but You've always pivoted outside of
Speaker 2: just getting your basketball check. I remember when you and
Speaker 2: Stephen Jackson launched your shoe line, Proteges, and the whole
Speaker 2: point of it was like to provide like a very
Speaker 2: affordable shoe, right, like for kids to work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I just you know, I think that, like
Speaker 1: even when you make it, like you can't forget where
Speaker 1: you come from, right, And you know, I just thought
Speaker 1: about like when I was a kid, I love Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's right, but I couldn't afford to spend one hundred
Speaker 1: and something dollars for Jordan's right, right, And at the time,
Speaker 1: Patrick Ewan had sneakers, right that was like half the price.
Speaker 2: And chem elajah Wan had the shoes at Walmart, the
Speaker 2: Spaldings and had some shoes too.
Speaker 1: So like I thought about that, and like that I
Speaker 1: those and I felt empowered. I felt good. I felt
Speaker 1: I felt dope showing his showing up to school instead
Speaker 1: of like with jeepers or you know, shit that had
Speaker 1: no name, you know, and like especially where I come from,
Speaker 1: and I think where a lot of us come from.
Speaker 1: Like you get in powered by what you wear. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Your appearance it gives you more
Speaker 1: confidence and different things like that. So I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about that, and you know then Stephan Marbury wants
Speaker 1: to get it. And Steph is like a big brother
Speaker 1: than me, you know what I'm saying, And he's always
Speaker 1: I say, I tell people a lot of times like
Speaker 1: a lot of the swag I got I got from Steph.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying from early. You know, he
Speaker 1: like during that lockout, I'll tell me about He let
Speaker 1: me come stay with him for two months and he
Speaker 1: you know, I watched some lyft weights and hoop every day,
Speaker 1: and he showed me a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 1: what it takes to really survive and if I want
Speaker 1: to be good. You know. So his shoe had came out,
Speaker 1: you know, the deal fell through with Stephen Barry. They
Speaker 1: did some bullshit and undersold the shoe from and different
Speaker 1: things like that, and you know, he decided to go
Speaker 1: to China and everything. So I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's still a void here, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And you know me stack in fact, Joe actual Joe
Speaker 1: is also a part of it. He had a shoe too,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know those two of my brothers, they support,
Speaker 1: you know, all the endeavors, and you know, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to make something that you know, kids could wear
Speaker 1: because you know, they just unfortunately everybody can't afford Lebrons
Speaker 1: and Jordan's right everything. So if other NBA players can
Speaker 1: come together create a shoe you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that they could feel good about wearing. You know, it's
Speaker 1: more of them than others, you understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it was a huge success until you know, once again,
Speaker 1: a bad partnership. You know, one of the things I
Speaker 1: learned in businesses you got to know who you get
Speaker 1: in business with, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: feel like if I didn't have a bad partnership, I
Speaker 1: think it will probably still be you know in uh
Speaker 1: who we was Kmart you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I remember, yeah, Yo, you you got to
Speaker 2: have a pretty crazy collection of like pees shoes in
Speaker 2: terms of just player exclusives. What is like your most
Speaker 2: coveted pair of kicks where you're like, yo, if I
Speaker 2: put these on stock X, worst comes to worst. I
Speaker 2: you know, I could pull a little something.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be honest, bro, I haven't I haven't
Speaker 1: seen my shoes and probably about storage there in storage.
Speaker 1: I haven't but I haven't been to the storage in
Speaker 1: ten years. Wait.
Speaker 2: You had a bunch of shoes and some of them
Speaker 2: I probably fell apart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they probably. That's why. That's why I haven't went.
Speaker 2: To get any like the terror squad or the Tarah squads.
Speaker 1: But they but they got some new ones coming. Fat
Speaker 1: Joe just they called me the other day, He's gonna
Speaker 1: send me the new ones. Okay, but yeah, I had
Speaker 1: to I had the patent leather ones with the red
Speaker 1: ts on them or whatever. Then I think I had
Speaker 1: to pay with the black ts on them as well.
Speaker 1: But y'all had those what else? Some of like the
Speaker 1: dopest pees that like, uh.
Speaker 2: Because did you have like a cause, you know, for
Speaker 2: people who don't know, like a lot of guys do
Speaker 2: have shoe deals, even if you don't like hear about it,
Speaker 2: Like could you have like a.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a Nike contract, but you know they
Speaker 1: paid me not a lot of money, and you know
Speaker 1: we would get like an allotment up to like maybe
Speaker 1: one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth
Speaker 1: of product every year every year, so you would get
Speaker 1: your pees mad pees made or whatever. So like for
Speaker 1: most of my career, I always had like a Nike
Speaker 1: that was part of like the Force Division called it
Speaker 1: at that time, and I would have like my own
Speaker 1: colorway with my you know, with my logo on it
Speaker 1: or the logo that I made for or whatever. Yo.
Speaker 2: When you were with the Nugget, George Carl was the coach.
Speaker 2: George Carl is a wild guy on Twitter. God bless him.
Speaker 2: His Twitter's lit. You know what I'm saying, he don't.
Speaker 1: George Carl is a good fuck for people who.
Speaker 2: Have not been paying attention. What was it like playing
Speaker 2: for George Carl because took the Sons to the final?
Speaker 1: I fuck with George because he told me because he's
Speaker 1: exactly who he is. He's not phony. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know what you're getting, you know exactly what you're
Speaker 1: dealing with. So my first, my first running with him
Speaker 1: was he had called me in, he had called me
Speaker 1: into his office and he wanted to talk to me,
Speaker 1: and he was asking me like, uh, He's asked me
Speaker 1: like maybe why didn't I rebound at a higher clip?
Speaker 1: And he had all these books behind him, and like
Speaker 1: the one book that stood out to me right. It
Speaker 1: was like it was like it was called nigger, right,
Speaker 1: and you know, he had it up there or whatever.
Speaker 1: So that me the wrong way just reading that right.
Speaker 1: So then it kind of made my whole conversation with
Speaker 1: him kind of like I felt little funny but whatever.
Speaker 1: So it was just in there or whatever, and he's
Speaker 1: like asking me all these different things and then we
Speaker 1: you know, so then we start kind of going at
Speaker 1: it a little bit. And then what he said to me,
Speaker 1: he was just like, well, you know, I've won fifty
Speaker 1: games a year for the last five years. How many
Speaker 1: games have you won? That was coming from the Knicks, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm like, shit, win win, But I'm just like,
Speaker 1: how many games did you play? Right? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I'm saying all I have to say
Speaker 1: was he was the type of coach where when we
Speaker 1: won games it was because of him.
Speaker 2: When we lost games, it was because of the play.
Speaker 2: He didn't take any accountability, you know what I mean none.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like that was the type
Speaker 2: of coach he was.
Speaker 1: And I said, even through all of that, bro, like
Speaker 1: he's actually a friend of mine, Like I actually still
Speaker 1: like him.
Speaker 2: Did you guys?
Speaker 1: Ever talk about the book. Never got a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about the book. I thought it was very interesting
Speaker 1: that he had it in there like that, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was about, but it was you know,
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as soon as I'm leaving his office, I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is this book? Yeah, I know, I should see
Speaker 2: the cont then we might really have interesting.
Speaker 1: I was already mad, and I even think about like
Speaker 1: looking to see what the what the book said. But uh,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, like I like George, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, he had his run ins with all of
Speaker 1: us at some point, but you know, I think that
Speaker 1: his intentions was always to win, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: which is west what we're all there for, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And you know, I would say he
Speaker 1: was a teacher of the game. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, He taught.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, you played really good at Dember too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I like. The first year was that
Speaker 1: year and the next year with Mellow left, is that's
Speaker 1: when me and him actually became really cool, right. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying was that next year was when
Speaker 1: we started to jail or whatever. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, you know, if George calls me and say
Speaker 1: let's go to lunch and then I'll go Okay.
Speaker 2: So we got Allen Iverson in the league game. Finally,
Speaker 2: finally you got the Iverson here. Yes, sir, I kind
Speaker 2: of saw you a little bit of you guys talking
Speaker 2: about you, kind of you know, reaching out to him
Speaker 2: to do this talk about like for you, because you know,
Speaker 2: I can't think of another player who I'd like to
Speaker 2: see have a strain than Ai. You know what I'm
Speaker 2: saying for you though, Like were you an out always
Speaker 2: close throughout your playing years or was it something where like,
Speaker 2: you know, you guys got closer after.
Speaker 1: So I would definitely say we got closer after. But
Speaker 1: whenever we saw each other was always love. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was obviously seeing each other off the court. A
Speaker 1: lot of times it was in like clubs and you know,
Speaker 1: shit like that. So you know, you kick it, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, have some drinks, talk about whatever was going on,
Speaker 1: and you know, kind of go from there. But I
Speaker 1: think that the one thing that I will say is
Speaker 1: like with Chuck, was that when he came in, he
Speaker 1: really revolutionized the game, right and.
Speaker 2: Cause you came in, he was what two years in
Speaker 2: when you got drafted or like.
Speaker 1: With ninety six ninety eight. Yeah, yeah, so two years
Speaker 1: in and at that point, bro, he was just changing
Speaker 1: the game. The jewelry, the tattoos, the braids, the.
Speaker 2: Clothes made people buy reboxing.
Speaker 1: The cars, you know what I'm saying. Like when we
Speaker 1: would play, when we would play against them, we all
Speaker 1: would be sitting on the bus waiting to go down
Speaker 1: the ramp to see what car Allan Iison drove that
Speaker 1: dam you know what I'm saying. Like he was like
Speaker 1: he was you know, he was like showing us like
Speaker 1: how you really want to live. Like you know, like
Speaker 1: when I came in, I'll say, like the Vets was
Speaker 1: you know, they were all Vets, so they would you know,
Speaker 1: they were wearing suits on the Tea was on the team,
Speaker 1: so like you know, they driving, they got like one car.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. They was just the conservative
Speaker 1: guy conservative and they weren't making as much money either,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. That kind of made sense.
Speaker 1: But so that was the kind of the way that
Speaker 1: they saw the world. So when they talking to me
Speaker 1: as a young guy, that's how they see in the world.
Speaker 1: That's how they're telling me, and then Alan Irison and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, shit, i'd rather ball like that.
Speaker 2: Did a lot of the Vets like in the league
Speaker 2: not like him because of that energy he was bringing.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, I never heard nobody
Speaker 1: say that they didn't like him.
Speaker 2: I was just because you know, I feel like, like
Speaker 2: you said, like back then, it was a different league.
Speaker 2: It was very like, you know, shit, a lot of
Speaker 2: the great players played a very long time, and they
Speaker 2: were I.
Speaker 1: Think the I think the Vets they more would talk
Speaker 1: shit around the contracts, not your personal lifeful like what
Speaker 1: you did or how you drove, how you dressed. You'll
Speaker 1: be more like this motherfuck's got a hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: It's almost got eighty million dollars. And you know, you're
Speaker 1: comparing the stats and it's almost like how I could
Speaker 1: be I could be a you know, and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say they were bitter, but you know, I get
Speaker 1: it because they were literally making one two million dollars
Speaker 1: and then now guys making twelve or fifteen, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And you know, I could easily be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy making thirty million dollars, averaged more than that.
Speaker 1: That was kind of that was more like the way
Speaker 1: that they would be talking. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But I think for the most part, everybody, I think
Speaker 1: you had to support Ai because I think that the
Speaker 1: way he was doing it is the way you really
Speaker 1: wanted to be for sure. He was like the first
Speaker 1: person that was really himself, Like, that's what was telling
Speaker 1: me to fit into a box. You gotta do this,
Speaker 1: you gotta do that, you gotta look this way, you
Speaker 1: gotta walk this way, you gotta eat this, you gotta
Speaker 1: Alan came in and was like all that.
Speaker 2: I feel like it was like him and Steph. That's
Speaker 2: why I like Steph too, because Steph always had he
Speaker 2: had that chain with the s on it. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: one booming you and I used to they.
Speaker 1: Went in competition with each other. They were them too.
Speaker 2: They definitely were.
Speaker 1: Because I love each other. But they was in competition,
Speaker 1: both of them.
Speaker 2: But I would have my rebox and my the and
Speaker 2: ones were more affordable shouts and one ogn one shorts
Speaker 2: and T shirts with the like guy holding the rim
Speaker 2: and ship on the back. Man one was litt I think,
Speaker 2: and one's still the.
Speaker 1: Thing now it's coming back. Well's that, but they're definitely
Speaker 1: coming back. I'm seeing more ads on like this thing
Speaker 1: called Clash TV in New York. Right, what I'm saying
Speaker 1: they pushing.
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Speaker 2: was again, Hooper? You love this shit? You did Big Three,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think Big Three is super dope.
Speaker 2: I enjoy it. I think I wish the NBA would
Speaker 2: embrace it more because I do think it's like a
Speaker 2: really cool office season thing.
Speaker 1: You know, Like.
Speaker 2: What for you, what was what was it like being?
Speaker 2: Would you start the season two of it? I did
Speaker 2: the first two seasons, like though, just because you know,
Speaker 2: there were some old heads out there, there was some
Speaker 2: younger dudes couldn't get in the league, Like, like, how
Speaker 2: serious was the competition level in the Big Three?
Speaker 1: So it was? It was. It was pretty serious because
Speaker 1: remember we all competitors, right, and then in this environment
Speaker 1: was playing I think, yeah, but in this environment you
Speaker 1: couldn't get you couldn't hide, right. So, like I'll say
Speaker 1: this about my career, right, I feel like I could
Speaker 1: have been a lot better, right if I got a
Speaker 1: different different opportunities, right, especially when I was younger.
Speaker 2: Like maybe if the Spurs or something, yeah.
Speaker 1: Or if I was maybe the second go to guy
Speaker 1: on the team instead of the third or four. You
Speaker 1: understand what I'm saying. Like, so now when you get
Speaker 1: to this three on three thing, it's like you can't duck.
Speaker 1: So it's like, and I'm using Mario as an example,
Speaker 1: even though like we have no beef or nothing, but
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, when I played against Mario and the Suns,
Speaker 1: he was getting touches. I had it just more guard
Speaker 1: and I just had to get my open threes. But
Speaker 1: in this Omar, you gotta guard me now one on one.
Speaker 1: So now it was different and I'm gonna bust your ass.
Speaker 2: And he wasn't the greatest defensive no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Just using him as an example, like he did great,
Speaker 1: and I'm just using him his example, but I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: like I could go at him in this environment compared
Speaker 1: to during the season. I had to fit the mole
Speaker 1: and play the role because Baron and not the way
Speaker 1: for Monte had to wait for stack Jack before I
Speaker 1: could get mine. You understand what I'm saying. So that
Speaker 1: was the biggest thing that I think even Allen experienced immediately,
Speaker 1: because it was like he had been busting everybody asked
Speaker 1: his whole career. Now he can't high he gotta he
Speaker 1: got a guard. So album only played two weeks. He
Speaker 1: stopped playing cause he was like, I can keep letting
Speaker 1: these dudes go with me. I can't. I'm not.
Speaker 2: Everybody was going to him because honestly, like I remember,
Speaker 2: that was the big grab when Big three, like A,
Speaker 2: he was the.
Speaker 1: No, he was the face of it. It was only him,
Speaker 1: for sure. He's the reason why Big three is Big three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was it was ai A. I made the
Speaker 1: Big Three. You know, he was the number one person,
Speaker 1: he was the lead person. Blah blah blah blah. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, in that environment, I killed.
Speaker 1: So like we won the first year, we didn't lose
Speaker 1: a game we went. We went undefeated and won it
Speaker 1: the first champions the first year championship. And then the
Speaker 1: second year, uh, we didn't play as well we had,
Speaker 1: Like Rashan mckantz came back as a character forgot about
Speaker 1: Yeah he can. But the first year all I was
Speaker 1: telling everybody to hold him.
Speaker 2: Like he's trained to make a roster guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, But Cole and that we were shocking
Speaker 1: Kobe in the Big Three. That's why I kept calling
Speaker 1: us shocking Kobe because nobody got.
Speaker 2: Us, we talked about some of the What was your
Speaker 2: favorite coach you played for? Was it played for Larry Bird?
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, Larry. So like Larry, Larry got mad at
Speaker 1: me from the day I met him. I missed my
Speaker 1: flight for my press.
Speaker 2: Conference, so he was just he just already was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just he like being like, being late is
Speaker 1: the worst thing you could do with him. It's being late.
Speaker 1: He does not play that ship. So literally, the first
Speaker 1: time I met him walking into the office and he
Speaker 1: was like, I don't play that late ship. Before he
Speaker 1: said Hi, happy to have you on the team, He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't play that late ship. That's some bullshit. And
Speaker 1: I felt like he always held that against me the
Speaker 1: two years I was there. But Larry was not a
Speaker 1: coach per se. He was a game manager. We had
Speaker 1: a guy you had you.
Speaker 2: Have like like Chris Mullen and all you still.
Speaker 1: Got to run plays and all right, right right. He
Speaker 1: never did that, Like he never wrote in two years,
Speaker 1: never wrote an X oh really never once. He had
Speaker 1: Rick Carlile, our offensive coach, great coach by the way, yep,
Speaker 1: and then we had the coach Brendan Malone.
Speaker 2: So he just had like coordinators. Yeah exactly, and he
Speaker 2: was he just subs. He just turned around like you
Speaker 2: get this person, That's what he would do. But my
Speaker 2: favorite coach was so I would say my best X
Speaker 2: and O coach was Rick Carlile.
Speaker 1: Shout out to carl Like, bro, whatever he draws up
Speaker 1: works every time. You're gonna get an open shot for sure,
Speaker 1: every time. But he's back in Indiana, right back in Indiana.
Speaker 1: But my my, my favorite coach that I enjoyed playing
Speaker 1: for was where I had when we had the least
Speaker 1: amount of success. Was Mike Woodson.
Speaker 2: Mike that was in it. Oh that's right, you were
Speaker 2: with the Hawks for.
Speaker 1: Because I got traded for Stephen Jackson when the Malice
Speaker 1: in the Palestine. So that was my That was my
Speaker 1: favorite coach And the reason why I liked him so
Speaker 1: much was once again, man, I'm just a huge I
Speaker 1: you know, I'm huge on like integrity and just like
Speaker 1: just being straight up with people. And like I just
Speaker 1: felt like the two years I was with him, he
Speaker 1: never lied to me once. Bro. He told me, whether
Speaker 1: I liked it or not, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He told me what was the truth, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: for that Joe Johnson was on that team. Joe Caine
Speaker 1: the next year. My first year, No, Joe. First year
Speaker 1: was like second year had Joe. Second year we had Joe.
Speaker 1: First year was like me Antoine Walker kept it.
Speaker 2: Scoring team bro.
Speaker 1: And then we had old rookies. We had like Josh Smith,
Speaker 1: Josh Childress.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Josh Childress Man, one of the greatest
Speaker 2: frozen NBA history. Uh, Kevin Willis had to be like fifty.
Speaker 2: But you know he played so long. He played so long,
Speaker 2: it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yo.
Speaker 2: Did Joe Johnson ever like confide in you how he
Speaker 2: felt about how the Suns did, Because I felt like
Speaker 2: if we would have kept Joe Johnson, I feel like
Speaker 2: we might have had a championship. We let Joe Johnson
Speaker 2: just walk because.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, but he came, I mean.
Speaker 2: And then he goes to the Hawks and then they
Speaker 2: become a perennial playoff team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was one of the most underrated players, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying of his time for sure, But hey, man,
Speaker 1: I so Joe was a monster.
Speaker 2: Did you guys ever trade back and forth about, like
Speaker 2: later on how much you guys didn't like Mike D'Antoni nah.
Speaker 1: I want to say, me and him never had a
Speaker 1: conversation about Mike, but I might hit him up and
Speaker 1: ask him.
Speaker 2: Though, Okay, so what was it?
Speaker 1: What was like did you really hate this guy? Well?
Speaker 2: Look, man, obviously the so can you kind of break
Speaker 2: down because I I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 2: understand a lot of the business model when it comes
Speaker 2: to the weed game. I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: think it's like like we're talking off the air. It's
Speaker 2: like you're getting the weed game and you just print money,
Speaker 2: which is not the case. So many companies they they're
Speaker 2: here for six months, they're here for two years, and
Speaker 2: then they're gone. Like you said, you're twelve years in
Speaker 2: for you guys. Are you guys strictly distro wholesale? You
Speaker 2: guys don't have a dispensary license, do you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So my company got a bunch of layers to it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, because a lot of markets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a bunch of markets we're in. I think
Speaker 1: we're in like ten markets total, in a variation of
Speaker 1: different like ways. Right, So for the Viola brand, you know,
Speaker 1: we have cultivated or operated in California, Oregon, Michigan, and Colorado.
Speaker 1: To your point, now, the ustry has changed so much.
Speaker 1: I think that as set light approach, which means to
Speaker 1: what you said, focusing on wholesaling, focusing more on just
Speaker 1: the branding, you know, the cell through and different things
Speaker 1: like that is probably the way to go if you're
Speaker 1: trying to scale a brand, almost like the kind of
Speaker 1: cookies model. Yeah, but even that's difficult because then you
Speaker 1: got to have a hell of a procurement team and
Speaker 1: make sure like the quality control is right, quality control,
Speaker 1: it's everything right. But you know, so either way, it's
Speaker 1: very difficult both ways. Right. We also have started opening
Speaker 1: up some retail locations through a like sister company that
Speaker 1: we have called Village. You know, so Viola owns a
Speaker 1: percentage of Village and all of the Village locations are
Speaker 1: named Viola.
Speaker 2: So we have, yes, do have short fronts. See, yeah,
Speaker 2: so we have two.
Speaker 1: We have two in Missouri, we have two in Illinois's
Speaker 1: about to open up. We have one in Jersey we're
Speaker 1: about to open We're about to open one up in Maryland. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we hope to get something going down in
Speaker 1: Florida and then also New York. Working on New York currently.
Speaker 2: Is it crazy for you to go to New York
Speaker 2: as a kid from the East Coast and see how
Speaker 2: open the whed? Like, have you been in New York
Speaker 2: City recently? Of course, it is like the craziest shit
Speaker 2: I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: It's like like people think like it's federal legalization.
Speaker 2: People think like California is like everyone's out here smoke.
Speaker 1: We No.
Speaker 2: You go to New York and you're just walking in
Speaker 2: the park and there's a bunch of dudes with fold
Speaker 2: up tables selling drugs.
Speaker 1: It's crazy New York cops.
Speaker 2: Or you go to the store to buy a juice
Speaker 2: and a sandwich and the guy behind the back he's got.
Speaker 1: All kind of weed and shrooms and it's fucking wide. Yeah,
Speaker 1: New York and it happened like this. New York is
Speaker 1: definitely the wild wild West. They decriminalized and everybody, just.
Speaker 2: White people just don't care. They're just like, hey, dude.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, is prohibitions great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta you gotta take advantage of the contrast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy, you know, to your point, Like I remember
Speaker 1: there was a point like you said, you you know,
Speaker 1: you rode through the city. I mean one time, I
Speaker 1: had got some weed in New York and I was
Speaker 1: still playing with it the summertime, and I got pulled
Speaker 1: over and I just picked up a couple of ounces
Speaker 1: from somebody and it would have my whole car stinking,
Speaker 1: and I was so scared. Yeah, and the cop took
Speaker 1: my stuff and everything, and you know, I told them
Speaker 1: it was a new drug, that's why the plate was
Speaker 1: wrong whatever. And he literally gave me my license and
Speaker 1: insurance back and was like, stop smoking in the car.
Speaker 1: I hadn't even smoked. It was just you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But he could have literally locked me up
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, you know what I'm saying to like
Speaker 1: to your point, now, I could be blazing. He pulled
Speaker 1: me over, like what's up? You want to hit this?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So it's definitely changed a lot.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that the New York program
Speaker 1: on the legal side is probably gonna be one of
Speaker 1: the best in the industry. I think because of the
Speaker 1: way that they are trying to make sure that legacy
Speaker 1: people that were disapportionately affected by the Warren drugs car
Speaker 1: like winners and that are participating in the beginning and
Speaker 1: not in the you know, later like most states, because
Speaker 1: most states they give all these big companies the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Then they say, okay, now we're gonna let you know
Speaker 1: the people that you know, the poor people get in.
Speaker 1: And I always say, like I use the comparison, it's
Speaker 1: like playing against the Warriors and spotting them twenty thirty
Speaker 1: points and go out and plays just literally what happened,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So when New York they're
Speaker 1: doing it, you know totally, they're doing it the right way.
Speaker 1: They're rolling it out properly, and I'm excited for the
Speaker 1: New York market. I think it's gonna be probably the
Speaker 1: biggest in the country.
Speaker 2: What were Did you ever have to dodge piss tests?
Speaker 1: No? In the NBA, No, I didn't. I didn't smoke until,
Speaker 1: like I told you that one time. And then my
Speaker 1: last year in the league, I was just using more
Speaker 1: CBD and stuff like that. I always wanted to keep
Speaker 1: my record clean just in case, because you know how
Speaker 1: they say they don't keep tabs on all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but they do, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And then you get like a stigma on you that's
Speaker 2: like kind of unfair. Then they talk about it on
Speaker 2: a sports center. It's like, who cares, it's.
Speaker 1: Weeds weed, like, you know, especially now it's now okay.
Speaker 1: And then you know they allowed it in the bubble
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, right.
Speaker 2: You had one of your facilities be legally raided in Detroit, right, correct?
Speaker 2: So what can you give me a breakdown what happened there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so pretty much, you know, and how long ago
Speaker 1: was this? This was I think six years ago now.
Speaker 1: But what happens is like in all these states, you know,
Speaker 1: you go through this whole process, right, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, unfortunately, it's still like regular state
Speaker 1: workers that are responsible for a lot of the information
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. And like even when
Speaker 1: I apply for licenses, like, bro, I'm literally giving my
Speaker 1: every bank account, every lease, every this that like all
Speaker 1: these different states, these people have all my information. Bro,
Speaker 1: you don't see what I'm saying. So you go through
Speaker 1: that whole process, and you know, you get these permits,
Speaker 1: you get all these different things to operate, and you know,
Speaker 1: certain things happen. So what happened for us was, you know,
Speaker 1: someone jumps off the bridge. Our facility is right next
Speaker 1: to the Ambassador bridge that goes from Detroit into Windsor, Canada.
Speaker 1: They're looking for the body. Allegedly, the coastguard comes past
Speaker 1: our building. They smell weed. They call the city or
Speaker 1: the police. The police call the city. The lady at
Speaker 1: the city who's in charge is on vacation, so they
Speaker 1: talk to like her assistant, nook sit the paperwork, Oh
Speaker 1: had I don't have that address anywhere on any files.
Speaker 1: The gang unit exercises a warrant on the building. The
Speaker 1: gang unit. The gang unit, they come in. They dress regular.
Speaker 1: So I'm at home. My aunt calls me and she says,
Speaker 1: I think we're getting robbed. I look on the camera
Speaker 1: and everybody got on regular clothes, bro. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, y'all. So I'm like, you know, you know
Speaker 1: the procedure, go lock go lock, y'allself in the back.
Speaker 1: I'm looking on the camera. She's still looking on the
Speaker 1: camera because the camera's in that back room. Then we
Speaker 1: see a paddy wagon that comes by. That says Detroit police.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, oh, Auntie, it's the police. Cool, you
Speaker 1: got all the paperwork, Just go open the door. At
Speaker 1: this point, they're ramming the door. She opens the door
Speaker 1: before they have to bust it down, and she's trying
Speaker 1: to give them the paperwork, and all I see on
Speaker 1: the camera is just an ar go to her face
Speaker 1: in the paperwork, fall or whatever. So they back her
Speaker 1: into the door and they all running through the door.
Speaker 1: They ramming the other door down on the other and
Speaker 1: just still ramming, ramming and ramming, and then like literally
Speaker 1: three minutes later, the cameras is cut, So now I
Speaker 1: can't see anything. So now I'm nervous as hell, you know,
Speaker 1: or thinking like what happened? Like you know, I'm still me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to jail. You understand what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And long story short man, it was just
Speaker 1: some mix ups at the city level, and you know,
Speaker 1: they had to let everybody out.
Speaker 2: Did they pay for any of the did they damage
Speaker 2: your shit?
Speaker 1: They've damaged all of our shit. They took all of
Speaker 1: our equipment. What they did was they put us on
Speaker 1: the news that night with our address forty four to
Speaker 1: seventy three West Jefferson Avenue. And they left the warehouse open,
Speaker 1: so allegedly someone comes in there with equipment that know
Speaker 1: how to take down lights and know how to take
Speaker 1: HVAC off the roof and they just completely wiped us
Speaker 1: out over two days, because it took me two days
Speaker 1: to get there. You know what I'm saying. By the
Speaker 1: time I got there, my warehouse was empty.
Speaker 2: Well, you know they say this about Detroit. They will
Speaker 2: gut a fucking a house out there. They'll take the
Speaker 2: copper out that motherfucker they'll take. Detroit is known for
Speaker 2: that shit. It like, if you got a house in
Speaker 2: Detroit and it's not occupied, good luck.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 1: You need but to get all my ship like you
Speaker 1: need it, ladders, you need it.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, it was probably the police, probably like one
Speaker 2: of the cops cousins.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Bro, they got us, Bro, So it's probably
Speaker 1: so whoever out there got our equipment and we started
Speaker 1: your growing all that. You'll can send us a little
Speaker 1: thank you of something, man, because you know they got
Speaker 1: state of the art equipment.
Speaker 2: Bro, was like all the equipment being able to suit.
Speaker 1: We're in a probably we're in a lawsuit still after
Speaker 1: all this time, Jesus, and still you know they have
Speaker 1: like this immunity because they're police. It's just it is
Speaker 1: all bad, bro, Bro.
Speaker 2: How much frustration do you have dealing with weird Listen? Man,
Speaker 2: the marijuana industry is full of a lot of weirdos, yes, sir,
Speaker 2: very much. Guys out of the culture, Guys who never
Speaker 2: were involved in weed in their life, corporate dudes. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've dealt with it a lot where I'm just like,
Speaker 2: these are the fucking weenies that are making decisions at
Speaker 2: some of these companies. And then that's when you see
Speaker 2: like certain like brands like fall like fall Off or
Speaker 2: even like dispensary brands that are like really big brands,
Speaker 2: but it's like a bunch of weirdo, like you know,
Speaker 2: VC guys running them. Like like for you being a
Speaker 2: guy who you know obviously cares about the plant, cares
Speaker 2: so much about this, like the benefits of weed and
Speaker 2: just the culture and all that shit. Like, is it
Speaker 2: frustrating dealing with some of the weird ship that you
Speaker 2: have to do because I talk to Burner about the
Speaker 2: sh all the time. Berner deals with a lot of weirdos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's very frustrating, But it's just part of
Speaker 1: the business, bro. You know, we're still pioneering the industry,
Speaker 1: and to your point, there's a lot of people that's
Speaker 1: gonna come and go, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: you gotta it's all gonna weed itself out, and you
Speaker 1: just got to be a part of the process, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So yeah, i'd be frustrated, but
Speaker 1: not that frustrated, you know what I'm saying. I've kind
Speaker 1: of gotten used to it, you know. I think that
Speaker 1: once again, also because of my background being yea so much,
Speaker 1: I'm a pro exactly, so for me, I guess it
Speaker 1: doesn't bother me as much. But to your point, yes,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of weird shit going on in industry,
Speaker 1: a lot of weird people in it. And like I said, bro,
Speaker 1: we'll see how long it takes to weed it all out,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a while.
Speaker 2: How many shelves are you guys on?
Speaker 1: We're in California, in cally On, Cali, So we went
Speaker 1: to approach like small batch product or whatever. So we're
Speaker 1: probably about twenty five stores. Okay, Yeah, what's the biggest
Speaker 1: market for viola right now? It's Michigan, Michigan. Michigan's booming, Yeah, Michigan.
Speaker 1: And then I would say second is Florida. Oh shit.
Speaker 1: We did a partnership with a company called Flowery that's booming.
Speaker 2: Dope and then, So what I like about what you're
Speaker 2: doing is like introducing new strands, new partnerships. Have you
Speaker 2: because I know you had did Berner's Roundtable, No, I
Speaker 2: haven't done. So you guys, you guys did an interview
Speaker 2: or something that I haven't set. It's on YouTube.
Speaker 1: I watched it, and yeah, did I maybe I dea
Speaker 1: I smoked that much.
Speaker 2: It's just like it was probably like five years ago,
Speaker 2: four or five years ago.
Speaker 1: I did an interview with Berner, not I don't know.
Speaker 2: If it was an interview. Was you guys chopping it up?
Speaker 1: I've done. I've done some like zoom stuff with him.
Speaker 2: During Maybe I'm am I tripping hold on, let me see,
Speaker 2: because I swear to god, I thought I saw this.
Speaker 2: I thought you were sitting. Oh, I know what he's
Speaker 2: talking about. I did at uh right here interviews Al Harrington.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was way back in the day. You're right,
Speaker 1: we did that right here on Sunset. I know I'm
Speaker 1: not crazy on Sunset. You're right. I forgot. I forgot.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, like, have you got any advice
Speaker 2: from a guy like Burne in terms of like he's
Speaker 2: done such a good job of like building out like
Speaker 2: the franchise model on the on the you know, on
Speaker 2: the dispensary side, and then obviously introducing the strains constantly.
Speaker 2: That's why I thought it was dope he did the
Speaker 2: Irish ship because I was like, oh, that's that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now yeah, yeah, we talk all the time every
Speaker 1: time we see each other. Like the last time I
Speaker 1: saw him, well, I saw him when he did the
Speaker 1: Rika Bad Thing here in Cali. Before that where we
Speaker 1: actually got a chance to sit in the trailer and
Speaker 1: talk for about an hour, was down in Atlanta for
Speaker 1: the Revolt conference. But yeah, so he's always just you know,
Speaker 1: giving me his perspective what's going on. And you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing that I would say, like it's consistent
Speaker 1: every time we talk. It's all about the quality of
Speaker 1: the week always. You know what I'm saying, Like, you
Speaker 1: find good week, make a cool bag of herself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and like kind of keep
Speaker 1: it simple, stupid kind of so you know, big shout
Speaker 1: out to burn the big shot, big shout out to
Speaker 1: what he's done. He's definitely you.
Speaker 2: Know, well listen whatever wherever you're at, well, not wherever
Speaker 2: you're at, but this is I smelled the Irish. That's
Speaker 2: just gush. Shout out to Viola. I appreciate you pulling up,
Speaker 2: man and talking and thanks for having me. Congrats on
Speaker 2: the twelve twelve years.
Speaker 1: Twelve years and this ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah man, hey, so go support. And then for people
Speaker 2: who don't know, like, what's the Instagram? Where can people
Speaker 2: kind of find.
Speaker 1: Them with check out? Yeah, our instagram is at Viola
Speaker 1: you know, we have so have some other tags outside
Speaker 1: of that, but go to a Viola first. He'll get
Speaker 1: you there. Viola Brands dot Com is the website. And
Speaker 1: if you want to get some of this cool ass fire,
Speaker 1: y'all got real merch, Yeah, go to Viola Goods dot com.
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of new ship dropping over the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. We got sneakers, We did a
Speaker 1: collabor we're doing a collab with lambeau Keine on some
Speaker 1: merch on some T shirts and hoodies. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So go check it out.
Speaker 2: Bro boom my guy, Al Harrington, appreciate you pulling up, Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: thank glad we got to make it happen.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir boom Hey.
Speaker 2: This interview is brought to you by our good folks
Speaker 2: at Hardan, all right, shout out to the hard Dean
Speaker 2: family in Las Vegas. Makes you follow them. Hardan Underscore
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Speaker 2: got another interview coming soon