Speaker 1: This Yes, kJ Live with Chris Johnson and Chris is
Speaker 1: having conversations with influencers in the sports world and entertainment
Speaker 1: in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now cond
Speaker 1: in kJ Live. Today's guest on the show is an
Speaker 1: NBA agent and marketer for good Ones Sports. He's also
Speaker 1: the co founder of Movie in Souls and one of
Speaker 1: the most thoughtful and mindful twitters about the NBA that
Speaker 1: you will ever come across. His name as Nate Jones.
Speaker 1: Let's welcoming into the show something Nate, what's up? How
Speaker 1: are you doing, k J. I'm doing great man, Happy
Speaker 1: and honored to have you on the show. Brother. I
Speaker 1: followed you on Twitter for thirteen years or something stupid
Speaker 1: since since you're you remember the early days and Twitter,
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about how NBA Twitter has sort
Speaker 1: of evolved over the years. Dude. First of all, Twitter
Speaker 1: is just this whole life, this whole basketball life that
Speaker 1: I've lad is surreal. Like people don't know I grew
Speaker 1: I grew up in l A. But people don't know,
Speaker 1: Like how big U c l A Basketball, Cringshaw basketball
Speaker 1: was in l A coming up in the nineties, and
Speaker 1: like this dude is was one of the dudes like
Speaker 1: anyone that was younger was looking up to coming up
Speaker 1: because he was in the paper. He was going to
Speaker 1: u c l A. He's taking a shot of the
Speaker 1: city championship. People don't know. They gotta get they gotta
Speaker 1: give the O g s the ones that led it,
Speaker 1: you know, for us, Um they're flowers, man, coming up.
Speaker 1: I grew up in mid City, uh, you know, up
Speaker 1: the street from Midtown Shopping Center, rolling Wills right and
Speaker 1: on my on my street, there's a there's a cat
Speaker 1: name Marlon Garnett. Come on, come on, all right, and
Speaker 1: that's what got me heavy in the basketball right. So
Speaker 1: it's just crazy to see that, Like every everyone that
Speaker 1: I either looked up to or you know, younger than
Speaker 1: me or coming up before whatever, it is like they're
Speaker 1: all on this Twitter platform and we all kind of
Speaker 1: interact with each other, like even like a guy like
Speaker 1: Clarence Gains, like people that don't know who he is,
Speaker 1: like everyone that is anyone in the basketball world, from
Speaker 1: you know, in the league to marketing to college, high school.
Speaker 1: There's kind of that community there. So I feel real
Speaker 1: at home there. But the ear the early days were
Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's just people were just people were just
Speaker 1: having fun. Yeah, agenda, no agenda, and that you know,
Speaker 1: then it became like, you know, they're obviously there's finances
Speaker 1: attached to Twitter, and it's a platform for getting your
Speaker 1: you know, content off and whatever goals you have going there.
Speaker 1: And also I think it's just the way social media works.
Speaker 1: We have you know, outrage culture where everybody is like
Speaker 1: everyone's looking for something to be upset about and like
Speaker 1: tweet a thread every day versus just like you know,
Speaker 1: keeping it light, interacting with people and learning something. We
Speaker 1: think people are so outraged today. I mean we you know,
Speaker 1: we grew up in a time where obviously things were
Speaker 1: sensitive and things were sensitive nature, but it seems like
Speaker 1: things have increased. Nate, Why do you think that is?
Speaker 1: Is it because we hear about it more? Has it?
Speaker 1: Is it happening just as much as in the past
Speaker 1: where we hear any about it more? Now? Well, I
Speaker 1: just think it's like it starts with the way the
Speaker 1: platforms are designed. You know, the engagement aspect of it.
Speaker 1: You see how much is retweeted, you see the um
Speaker 1: you know, engagement on likes, comments, all that stuff, Like
Speaker 1: the big thing on Twitter now is oh, you got ratio,
Speaker 1: Like everybody is like why do you like? Why does it?
Speaker 1: I just think of the platform was never designed that
Speaker 1: way where there were never any like that consumer facing
Speaker 1: stats in terms of like what's happening with your content,
Speaker 1: and people are incentive biased to kind of like get
Speaker 1: those numbers up. I think the platform will be a
Speaker 1: lot different, a lot different when you look at the
Speaker 1: NBA right now and the play in and excitement with
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Man, I mean, this is our favorite time
Speaker 1: of the year. What what do you how do you
Speaker 1: view the plane or how did you view the plane
Speaker 1: when Silver introduced it last year? I mean last year
Speaker 1: was great. Lebron Stead, you know, we had a hit
Speaker 1: her what were your thoughts on it? Initiative? And I
Speaker 1: loved it because, you know, I think people will always
Speaker 1: complain about change, but changes is inevitable. The NBA now
Speaker 1: is the NBA. The three point line is a key
Speaker 1: part of basketball now. And you know, it was kind
Speaker 1: of like the gimmick and the A B A and
Speaker 1: now it's a key part of basketball. But it took
Speaker 1: someone having you know, the forethought to like or and
Speaker 1: the guts to to push something forward, you know, and
Speaker 1: and do something different. And I think that's what it's
Speaker 1: going to take in the NBA. We got to look
Speaker 1: at everything from UM the way fouls are called to
Speaker 1: you know, replayed UH time out to UH structure of
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Maybe there's a mid season tournament, maybe there
Speaker 1: is uh, you know, all kinds of different things to
Speaker 1: go about, to go about um changing the way we
Speaker 1: look at the game, even even rules. Maybe we change
Speaker 1: the way they the three pointer. Is that everybody now
Speaker 1: that the corner three is like a lady, it's so easy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe you take the corner three away like there's you've
Speaker 1: gotta constantly evolve. Otherwise we would still have the same
Speaker 1: game we had when Mike and those guys were playing. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: And we don't want to necessarily regress like that. Do
Speaker 1: you think the NBA should make sort of a I
Speaker 1: call it drastic, a drastic move, kind of like the
Speaker 1: NFL did to protect quarterbacks. Do you remember when the
Speaker 1: NFL kind of had that new rule and just you know,
Speaker 1: the one year I was watching the NFL, everything changed.
Speaker 1: I was like, they can't hit nobody no more, they
Speaker 1: cant do. Do you think the NBA should adopt something similar,
Speaker 1: like he's like we saw it with Marcus Smart, Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Mark spart making a clean play or whatever. He's diving
Speaker 1: for the ball going out the knees. You think the
Speaker 1: NBA should penalize plays that injured players or take that out?
Speaker 1: Was that too much of a fine? That's that's tough
Speaker 1: because number one, how do you even judge that? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: The intent of it onto, the intent of it all.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're taught from the time we first
Speaker 1: started playing basketball, if the balls on the floor, balls
Speaker 1: on the floor, go dive for everything on the floor.
Speaker 1: And if you don't, if you don't, and it's in practice,
Speaker 1: you on the line, right like, that's that's that's what
Speaker 1: you're that's a problem, right, Like, so where how do
Speaker 1: you go from that to two, Oh, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna find you for that. And how rare are
Speaker 1: these occurrences of someone getting hurt? Like that was just
Speaker 1: like a freak situation, and you know, it's what it
Speaker 1: is now that the I think the deals with protecting players, um,
Speaker 1: you know, putting their feet under um players when they're
Speaker 1: going for jump shots. Now that's something I you know,
Speaker 1: completely understand the issue with the issue that you have
Speaker 1: when you're getting at this level of basketball, in my
Speaker 1: opinion is you have basketball geniuses and they're doing nothing
Speaker 1: but focusing on how to manipulate the game constantly, Like
Speaker 1: people are on Harden and all hardened. Is like, this
Speaker 1: game is hard. I'm trying to figure out the best
Speaker 1: way to be my best self. I see the ways
Speaker 1: that I see the different ways that I can exploit
Speaker 1: the game, and I'm gonna go for it because this
Speaker 1: is about this is about winning in any way that
Speaker 1: I can win, I'm gonna go for it. And if
Speaker 1: people don't adjust, why is it my fault? I heard
Speaker 1: Chris Paul explained that the other other day, the same thing.
Speaker 1: The other day. He was talking about the rip through
Speaker 1: and he's like, I barely ever get Key goes, I
Speaker 1: barely ever get caught on the rip through foul because
Speaker 1: I know it's coming and I know what not to do.
Speaker 1: He goes, how come all these other players can't study
Speaker 1: you know the setup of what's coming where you know, okay,
Speaker 1: don't put your hand here. The us is most likely
Speaker 1: it's going to be a ripped through foul. That's what
Speaker 1: you do as a professional, you're just trying to exploit
Speaker 1: those situations. So it's hard for me to to knock
Speaker 1: what's going on. You see it in all walks of life.
Speaker 1: Every time something changes, someone figures out a loophole with it. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've seen it with agents that have negotiated
Speaker 1: contracts that have blown basically blown up the c b A.
Speaker 1: You know, they used to bird's rights used to be
Speaker 1: acquired after one year in basketball, and they got to
Speaker 1: get rid of that because people figured out, okay a lot,
Speaker 1: just tell the loophole. I'll go there and play for
Speaker 1: play for the league minimum, and next year they're gonna
Speaker 1: be my bag, like I got the birth rights right like.
Speaker 1: So that's that's just the way life is generally constantly
Speaker 1: that pushing pool in that regard. So I can't really
Speaker 1: knock those guys for that. And I can't really not
Speaker 1: you know, the direction of Adam Silver and these ideas.
Speaker 1: Like first when I heard it, you know about all
Speaker 1: the in season tournament and and you know, the play,
Speaker 1: and I was like totally turned off, dude, I was like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? But then after experiencing it last
Speaker 1: year now this year, I was I was super excited
Speaker 1: about it. I mean it was like, I don't know, wow,
Speaker 1: I was so excited about it this year. But we
Speaker 1: had some great matchups. Man, I feel like it's great
Speaker 1: for the last I mean, I guess what we're used
Speaker 1: to saying that last part of the season. NBA kind
Speaker 1: of gets a little tricky, you know, you know with
Speaker 1: the games scores and things, you know, guys playing and
Speaker 1: people sitting and this and that. This now incentivizes guys
Speaker 1: and teams organizations to compete to very basically extends the
Speaker 1: life of of the season. If you're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: you can have a debate about if they should continue
Speaker 1: a t eighty two games or not. Um, but if
Speaker 1: they're going to continue down the a two game route,
Speaker 1: you've got to figure out a way to make it.
Speaker 1: Some people that some teams and players organizations are are
Speaker 1: uh still locked in all the way as many teams
Speaker 1: as possible are locked in till the end of the season.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's done its job there. You have
Speaker 1: teams that were are vine for that that uh uh,
Speaker 1: you know, tense spot, whereas before it's like, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: it's eight I don't really have a shot let's pack
Speaker 1: it up, let's try to get that lottery pick. And
Speaker 1: and the funny the interesting thing about um, the play
Speaker 1: in two is you can still be a playing team.
Speaker 1: And if you don't make the if you don't like
Speaker 1: win the play in and get a playoffs plot, you
Speaker 1: still are a lottery team. So you're it's not like
Speaker 1: you're it's not like you're losing out, so you might
Speaker 1: as well go for it, right, Um, pretty cool, right there? Right? So,
Speaker 1: like I think, wait, so if they so, if they
Speaker 1: make it, they win to play in, there's still a
Speaker 1: lottery team where they're not they're playing. So it's it's
Speaker 1: if you qualify for the playoffs, you're still outside the lottery.
Speaker 1: But if you if but I'm saying, if you're let's
Speaker 1: say yeah, if you're a tense seed, you might as
Speaker 1: well make the play in. Get inexperience of a one
Speaker 1: game playoff. And even if the odds are like look
Speaker 1: at a look at a team like Charlotte, look at
Speaker 1: a team uh like um uh who's playing in the
Speaker 1: West Uh San Antonio. Right, those two teams the odds
Speaker 1: of them winning and making make winning two games and
Speaker 1: making the playoffs, you know it wasn't. The odds were
Speaker 1: pretty low. So at the end of the day, they
Speaker 1: get that experience of playing into playing, get the reality
Speaker 1: of you know, I watched Charlotte last night. It's like, okay, major,
Speaker 1: major reality check. Like LaMelo is, LaMelo is is as
Speaker 1: the goods to be a superstar, but the rest of
Speaker 1: the team, the reality is they might not be as
Speaker 1: good as everybody's hyping them up to be. So do
Speaker 1: you go down that road you pay the miles bridges
Speaker 1: of the world. Do you pay all these guys and
Speaker 1: continue down that road, or do you say, all right,
Speaker 1: let's have a heart heart reset around LaMelo, Like we
Speaker 1: we figured out that this isn't gonna work. We need
Speaker 1: to get a big in there. We need to we
Speaker 1: need to we need to be defensive oriented. We're not
Speaker 1: that right now. Um, okay, the funds to reality reality reallocate,
Speaker 1: the funds, reassess it, and like having that, you know,
Speaker 1: to two years of playings has basically told them what
Speaker 1: they showed them what they needed to know. Um and
Speaker 1: san Antonio already kind of knew where they were at,
Speaker 1: but at least they got the experience of playing in
Speaker 1: a high pressure situation in New Orleans, Like, I was
Speaker 1: actually impressive. They came back a little bit less. I
Speaker 1: turned the game. I was pretty I said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to bed, like CJ is killing these guys are about
Speaker 1: to fold whatever, And they didn't. They came back in
Speaker 1: the second half. So I was actually impressed with that.
Speaker 1: Hung around so that you know, those experiences you can't, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't really just like that. You just
Speaker 1: regard those, you know, it's it's a it's a huge experience.
Speaker 1: So and I like the one game I mean, you
Speaker 1: you have the experience as the highest level of n
Speaker 1: C Double A. With the one game situation, there's a
Speaker 1: lot on them. There is a lot on the line.
Speaker 1: There is nothing like that. There's nothing like that experience.
Speaker 1: And if there's a way, you know, over the course,
Speaker 1: I think it's tough because over the course, you know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing like a seven game series. Because over the
Speaker 1: course of seven games, unless there's injuries, you know who
Speaker 1: the better team. It's like the better team is gonna
Speaker 1: win out. And there's no debate about that. But the
Speaker 1: excitement of that one game situation, um, you know they
Speaker 1: can't run. No, it's how its gonna say, it's like
Speaker 1: the wild Card. It's like the Baseball wild Card in
Speaker 1: a sense, which especially with the Clippers in Minnesota. I
Speaker 1: mean the energy U with that game. I felt like
Speaker 1: I was watching like Baseball wild Card in October, you know,
Speaker 1: because when pat Ben went off and he did what
Speaker 1: he did in the moment, you know, part of me
Speaker 1: was like, damn, he really he really turned up and
Speaker 1: I started really thinking about it and letting it digest.
Speaker 1: It's like, wait a minute, man, we're kind of being
Speaker 1: whacked with this whole thing about coming down on cats only,
Speaker 1: like you can only celebrate championships. What are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on just that that aspect of our culture right now? Man?
Speaker 1: Context is everything in life, and I think that people
Speaker 1: are m We get hyped and we get win a
Speaker 1: big winned pickup game, right like like yeah, the environment,
Speaker 1: the environment at in Minnesota where they ain't been in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and you know, they've only been the playoffs
Speaker 1: once and how many years and now this team is
Speaker 1: actually you know, it's a homewor own team. They're winning.
Speaker 1: The crowd is on fire, and they came back, they
Speaker 1: were they looked like they were out of it out.
Speaker 1: That's the whole I think the way that the reason
Speaker 1: it was so turned up because Cat fouled out, so
Speaker 1: it's like it's over. It was hopeless. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: not thinking that's about to be a w bro. No wait,
Speaker 1: PG and them, you know they at there just they
Speaker 1: were balling. For me was p PG is is you know,
Speaker 1: outstanding when he's when he's got it going. So it
Speaker 1: was fun to watch. And and I don't knock those guys.
Speaker 1: I get I get why people made fun of it,
Speaker 1: because it's just you know, Twitter at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like people like to get their jokes off
Speaker 1: and whatever else. But in terms of like the serious
Speaker 1: like if people were being serious about it, that that
Speaker 1: is just like come on, man, like let these guys live,
Speaker 1: let them have their let them have their moment, let
Speaker 1: them have their you know, excitement. And the fans, the fans,
Speaker 1: if the fans, if the fans were just like not
Speaker 1: hyped and those guys are getting that way, I can
Speaker 1: see it. But like the fans were going crazy. It
Speaker 1: was a big moment for that organization. It's always about,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's about context. The context is it's
Speaker 1: one of the worst organizations performance wise in all of
Speaker 1: the NBA history, right, like for them to have that moment,
Speaker 1: give them that, give those fans that it's okay and
Speaker 1: it was good TV. It's it wasn't just good it's
Speaker 1: great TV. Yeah, great TV, great content, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I don't get that. I don't get why you
Speaker 1: would knock that. You see Pat dev you know, in
Speaker 1: the media room after and that was that was you know,
Speaker 1: seeing it within itself. Yeah, I always enjoy it. Kind
Speaker 1: of brings me to my next My other question I
Speaker 1: wanted to know about from you were on Twitter and
Speaker 1: you know you're you're outspoken about you know, how the
Speaker 1: NBA is doing it as far as pushing the media
Speaker 1: out the locker room. Why why is it so important
Speaker 1: for the media and players to have like this really
Speaker 1: like close close relationship. I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: describe as that. I would say I'm proof positive of it.
Speaker 1: I was basketball junkie, loved the game, love you know,
Speaker 1: I was never good enough to be you know, Division
Speaker 1: one player or anything like that, NBA potential pro any
Speaker 1: of that stuff. But I played the game in my
Speaker 1: entire life and I consumed every single piece of content.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's before the Internet and The way
Speaker 1: I got to know players was through pieces in s
Speaker 1: I and Sporting News on UM Sunday conversation and what
Speaker 1: you know, list goes on, right, Like that stuff came
Speaker 1: through Ship Curn's halftime interviews. People don't know, like he
Speaker 1: used to interview TV right, right, so he was interviewing
Speaker 1: the players from the other team the road. To imagine
Speaker 1: a home announcer interviewing the players from unheard of, but
Speaker 1: he was doing. That's how I learned about players. That's
Speaker 1: how I learned about the game, Like I was constantly
Speaker 1: consuming that and that comes from media people, from reporters.
Speaker 1: The truth is, I think social media is awesome. I
Speaker 1: think some players do social media well, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, we know what it is. Social is just
Speaker 1: like flossing, right, like his players they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: post a fit pick and have a you know, you know,
Speaker 1: rapidly caption under it, some bars under it, and that's
Speaker 1: social media. Like you're supposed to get to know a
Speaker 1: player through that. No, Like you're not gonna you're not
Speaker 1: getting to know anything. You need a professional actually questioning
Speaker 1: them and you know, doing pieces on them and um,
Speaker 1: you know, even like this year Uh, you know, I've
Speaker 1: been working with Damarta Rosen his entire career. Our firm
Speaker 1: has been working with Damarta Rosen his entire career, and
Speaker 1: it's been awesome to see him, you know, get his
Speaker 1: flowers because people kind of wrote him off, UM, but
Speaker 1: it opened the door for UM. You know, some of
Speaker 1: the coverage this year, some pieces that have been done
Speaker 1: on him are like unbelievable, and it's it's coming from writers,
Speaker 1: writers that that sat down with him, or Taylor Rooks
Speaker 1: interviewing him. You know, Marine Fader did a piece on
Speaker 1: him like list goes on or you have these amazing
Speaker 1: UM storytelling pieces where you're getting know this athlete in
Speaker 1: a way that allows fans to connect with them. UM.
Speaker 1: And if you take that away, how is that going
Speaker 1: to happen? And I think people just get caught up
Speaker 1: in the like rumors and the rumors and gossip stuff,
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of that stuff is just
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, they just kind of like picking that
Speaker 1: out of like larger stories. It's the aggregation machine. It's right,
Speaker 1: like UM being counters. Yeah. Yeah, you know what's interesting though,
Speaker 1: have you have you been UM are you up on
Speaker 1: the ball sack sports deal man. I don't know who
Speaker 1: the dude is, but I think it's the dopest thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's like, it's incredible. It proves a point
Speaker 1: about how bad I think a lot of times when
Speaker 1: players hate media, they don't hate the media, they hate
Speaker 1: the aggregators. They're mad at the aggregators. The aggregators are
Speaker 1: the ones that not the people in the locker room.
Speaker 1: The aggregators are taking a piece of something, taking a quote,
Speaker 1: putting it, you know, stylizing it in um, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the format is for a graphic and putting it
Speaker 1: up and making it look official, real whatever else. And
Speaker 1: that's what the players getting mad at. You know, the
Speaker 1: uh that stuff is what gets retweeted, legion hoops, all
Speaker 1: this stuffs and stuff. That's the school trick. But it's
Speaker 1: achool Internet Like remember if they used to do that.
Speaker 1: What they used to call that back in the day.
Speaker 1: I forgot the term. But it's like the old school
Speaker 1: internet trick where you just like on the fake me
Speaker 1: out catfish on the It's like the oldest trick in
Speaker 1: the book. It's getting on ESPN, it's getting on major networks,
Speaker 1: got major talking it literally spewing out something ball sec
Speaker 1: put out with the fake quote like he did the
Speaker 1: one with Dame. He had something at the bottom. I
Speaker 1: forgot what he wrote, but it was just like no
Speaker 1: one read the box. Yeah, and then he you know
Speaker 1: what what I liked was he went back and he said,
Speaker 1: like basically doing this to prove a point and show
Speaker 1: that y'all will buy anything. There's no real investigation, Like
Speaker 1: none of this stuff is actual news. It's just you know,
Speaker 1: aggregating drama and packaging it in a way that again,
Speaker 1: like we talked about before, it's gonna get you. That
Speaker 1: gonna get you that engagement. So that's that's that's what's
Speaker 1: funny about it. But I think if players had an
Speaker 1: understanding that a lot of times they're getting upset at
Speaker 1: the aggregators more than they are the reporters themselves. Which
Speaker 1: is also funny because I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: the players follow all the aggregators they do, and they're
Speaker 1: always comment yeah, actually I see. I'm like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: don't notice this dude right here because some and the
Speaker 1: funny thing about a lot of the acreators is there's
Speaker 1: no one behind there's no face to it, no no
Speaker 1: one that has to answer for. It is just someone
Speaker 1: at all, right, and they're creating havoc. Okay, they are
Speaker 1: causing issues like it's also um when you see um
Speaker 1: on on uh the internet. We were on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: not only the fake quotes, but to your point about
Speaker 1: the media, I'm sorry, I was. I lost my thought
Speaker 1: that it's the the media guys when they're in the
Speaker 1: locker room and some of those quotes and those interactions
Speaker 1: and those moments, those are some of the biggest drivers
Speaker 1: of content on Twitter, like that part, not just when
Speaker 1: I'm just specifically, not even not even the big pieces
Speaker 1: and all that the post game, the quote, just that
Speaker 1: what just posting what someone just said in the in
Speaker 1: the press conference. I know, I look for that stuff
Speaker 1: and I gained I gained a lot of that, especially
Speaker 1: when the coaches talk like that's a high level piece
Speaker 1: of information. I think people are taking for granted that
Speaker 1: they could be really you know, gaining knowledge and data
Speaker 1: and understanding what really what time it is with that
Speaker 1: particular team and you know, have a real finger on
Speaker 1: the postle things, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, most
Speaker 1: reporters are Most reporters are pretty good, man. I think
Speaker 1: I think that it's just the idea of what a
Speaker 1: reporter is has been. And I'm not talking about just
Speaker 1: in media in general, but I'm talking about within sports
Speaker 1: and in the NBA particular. I think most of the
Speaker 1: most of media are pretty good. Um you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: there's there's there uh reporters that are out of bounds,
Speaker 1: and we all know who they are, right and players
Speaker 1: know who they are and what it is what it is.
Speaker 1: But I think throwing everybody under that bust and putting
Speaker 1: everyone in that bucket is not fair. And then I
Speaker 1: also think it's just a part of what I you know,
Speaker 1: when I talk about the NBA family, I like, no
Speaker 1: matter what role I'm in, I am pro NBA family, right,
Speaker 1: So not just obviously I represent and work with players,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna be on their side. But if all
Speaker 1: of us are only looking out for our own interests,
Speaker 1: we don't have a league. So if players say all right,
Speaker 1: we're done immedia, we don't want them around. Like whatever,
Speaker 1: there's a negative, there's negative consequences to that. Like, um,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about those things I think is important
Speaker 1: and having an education of how everyone is important to
Speaker 1: one another is a part of it. Right, like if
Speaker 1: there's a mutual mutual respect understanding how everybody like at
Speaker 1: the end, everyone likes to talk about them being partners
Speaker 1: your media partners, the players and partners with owners like
Speaker 1: all that stuff, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they're there if you're not treating each other as true
Speaker 1: partners in these in this situation, you just look at
Speaker 1: someone like like like like there's some kind of an
Speaker 1: and that like why not to deal with this dude,
Speaker 1: like whatever, Like the behavior, the behavior is so unprofessed. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So those those are things that I think that I
Speaker 1: think people just have to consider it. Um yeah. But
Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes it's and I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: everybody has to be Michael Jordan's But what I like
Speaker 1: about MJ is MJ realized what he was and what
Speaker 1: he what his responsibility was when he was playing, and
Speaker 1: then as um as he's retired now he's like, I'm
Speaker 1: showing up, I'm flying in right before whatever I gotta
Speaker 1: be too, I'm doing the minimum and I'm out of
Speaker 1: there and back on the golf course. But while he
Speaker 1: was playing, he's like, I'm in the face of the league,
Speaker 1: and um, I'm gonna make sure that if anyone ever
Speaker 1: runs into me, they haven't experienced that is of a
Speaker 1: certain level. I'm gonna talk to media and treat them
Speaker 1: with a certain respect, and you know all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And um, I think if if we started to have
Speaker 1: if more players and teams and everything else had that
Speaker 1: mentality versus just like we don't have to do that,
Speaker 1: or we have the power to get away from this
Speaker 1: or get out of this or whatever else, you know,
Speaker 1: do I think the league would be better off for that.
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. In this year's playoffs, though,
Speaker 1: do you think of most best equipped to make the finals?
Speaker 1: One team out the West is in one team on
Speaker 1: the East, Um, you know the out the West. I
Speaker 1: would say Phoenix is is to me is a well
Speaker 1: oiled machine. Book is like it's it's so interesting seeing
Speaker 1: Book and Chris Paul together. Um, because it's like Chris
Speaker 1: Paul obviously we if you've been around him or or
Speaker 1: um watched him, even if you're just watching him play,
Speaker 1: you know he wants to win more than anybody. And
Speaker 1: Book has that in him too, but people kind of
Speaker 1: doubted it because of the team that he had around
Speaker 1: him and and he's kind of been and holding that
Speaker 1: in for years, and like, you know, he has a list.
Speaker 1: He probably has a list, like and even if it's
Speaker 1: not officially written down, like man, this person said this
Speaker 1: about me or whatever else. And now he has a
Speaker 1: squad and he's he's ready, like he's going for blood.
Speaker 1: So um, I love seeing those two to play together.
Speaker 1: And I also think about the Lakers had a trade
Speaker 1: for Chris Paul, so you're gonna get see Kobe and
Speaker 1: Chris Paul play together. And there was kind of some doubts,
Speaker 1: you know, even in my own mind, like can these
Speaker 1: guys can needs to get along? And they figure it out.
Speaker 1: They're both headstrong individuals. But when I see Book and
Speaker 1: not to say Book is on Kobe's level, but when
Speaker 1: I see Booking and CP together, it's almost like we
Speaker 1: got a little taste of that, right, like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: two dogs, two competitors that you know in the game
Speaker 1: was crunch time. They know how to get it done.
Speaker 1: So it's been fun to watch that. And then out East, Um,
Speaker 1: the East is a little tougher. I think if Robert
Speaker 1: Williams didn't go down, I would have the Celtics coming
Speaker 1: out of the East. Oh man, I mean if you want.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard for people because you know, once
Speaker 1: you get it's just like anything in life, once you
Speaker 1: get branded, that's that's what people are gonna think of you. Right.
Speaker 1: So the Celtics earlier in the year, obviously we're struggling.
Speaker 1: People are saying, oh, he maybe maybe over his head,
Speaker 1: maybe Jayson Tatum and and Jalen can't play together all
Speaker 1: that stuff. They shook up the roster and they locked
Speaker 1: in and defensively they are just based like what you know,
Speaker 1: especially when Rob, when Rob Williams is healthy, they're just
Speaker 1: they're switching everything. Nothing throws them off. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: Dallas ended up beating beating, uh, the Celtics and the
Speaker 1: and the game the Celtics and MAVs played like a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. But Rob Williams was switching out on Luca,
Speaker 1: like Lucas he's gonna still, he's still, he's gonna do
Speaker 1: his thing because he does his thing versus everybody. But
Speaker 1: like usually a center or a power forward coming out
Speaker 1: and switching on Luca is going to be like they
Speaker 1: have zero shot like that type, that type of versatility.
Speaker 1: And then I think having you know, high octane scores
Speaker 1: and Jason and Jalen. Uh, Marcus Smarts found his home
Speaker 1: as a point guard. I think he's um, you know,
Speaker 1: uh like that's the position he probably should have been
Speaker 1: playing the whole time versus just kind of being either
Speaker 1: a backup point guard or a shooting guard next to
Speaker 1: a point guard. Um, he's doing his thing. And uh,
Speaker 1: I like I like the trade with getting Derek White. Um.
Speaker 1: I like their squad a lot um and I think
Speaker 1: they're you know, having Horford and Williams, that they're healthy
Speaker 1: when they play and home court and when they play Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: That's a good um. You know, that's a good package
Speaker 1: to be able to try to go at you honest with. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: if Williams isn't available, I don't know if they're stopping
Speaker 1: like that's well, I don't know if anybody can stop,
Speaker 1: be honest. But because you know brook back, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that always changes the dynamic for the Bucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just don't know how healthy Brooke is. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm on. That's what I'm wondering about like coming back
Speaker 1: from we saw it with surgery BAKA last year, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: he like he wasn't. He wasn't the same after that
Speaker 1: back surgery. So wondering how much book Brooke could could
Speaker 1: provide because Brooke is people don't realize, like I think
Speaker 1: they again, brand stick with you, Right, So when Brooke
Speaker 1: first came to the league, you weren't thinking of him
Speaker 1: as a defensive like player at all, not at all.
Speaker 1: But you weren't and you weren't thinking of him as
Speaker 1: a three point shooter not at all. Completely revamped his game.
Speaker 1: That's what do you do. That's what he defended. Guy,
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. Look Brooke when he was at Stanford,
Speaker 1: I think they played at Stanford. Dude, I would have
Speaker 1: never thought in a million years that Brooke. I think
Speaker 1: he had a hundred threes last year some something insane
Speaker 1: for something footer, but I would have never thought. But
Speaker 1: that's just a testament to him figuring it out, figuring
Speaker 1: out what was gonna make him stick and working on
Speaker 1: that stuff. Man, breaking you know, breaking that foot a
Speaker 1: few times that like I think that woke him up,
Speaker 1: Like all right, I probably got to figure this out.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm stick in the league, I gotta
Speaker 1: revamp my game. The the game is changing. This is
Speaker 1: the probably a way to do it. And he's he's
Speaker 1: skilled enough to pull it off. And then defensively, him
Speaker 1: and Yannice together, Brooke is such a good uh anchor
Speaker 1: that allows Joannice to be this ultimate romer where Yeah,
Speaker 1: so see what we saw last year, especially in the finals,
Speaker 1: when Yannest was able to do when he's a roamer.
Speaker 1: You see it on the biggest stage. He's up there
Speaker 1: and square on folks on that week side. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean that exactly. So if you know, if
Speaker 1: Robert Williams doesn't come back, I think I have. I
Speaker 1: think I got Milwaukee coming out of the East. So
Speaker 1: it really is going to depend on if Robert can
Speaker 1: come back and and and really impact the game like
Speaker 1: he was before he got hurt. Because that Celtics. I
Speaker 1: dont think people realize how good the Celtics. I forget
Speaker 1: where they were ranked like for the first half of
Speaker 1: the year, but they weren't close to first, and they
Speaker 1: finished first, like way above everybody else in defense, Like
Speaker 1: that's how good their defense got. You think Philly hasn't
Speaker 1: you don't think Philly has a chance at all? Or
Speaker 1: what do you think going on out there? Man? Because
Speaker 1: no one is really picking Philly at this point. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's very hard to put it
Speaker 1: all together after a mid season trade to begin with
Speaker 1: um and and also you know, wonder I don't think
Speaker 1: James Harden has watched up like some people have been saying.
Speaker 1: I think, if anything, I think he might be still
Speaker 1: struggling with his hamstring injury. We kind of saw the
Speaker 1: same thing happened with Chris Paul a few years back,
Speaker 1: where people, you know, his last year in Houston, people
Speaker 1: were like, I don't know, man, he might have he
Speaker 1: lost the step, you don't have it anymore. And really,
Speaker 1: you know, he disclosed it like he just was dealing
Speaker 1: with that hamstring injury that he first injured out in uh,
Speaker 1: that he injured in Houston during the Western Commerce Finals
Speaker 1: the year before. So like he comes back from that,
Speaker 1: but he's not. You know, he hasn't changed. He hasn't
Speaker 1: fully changed his diet, his workout routine, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So he had to reset everything, and you kind of
Speaker 1: saw that new, new and improved Chris Paul for Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City in the first two years in in UM in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: and he's been like m DP level type player over
Speaker 1: that time, like one of the best point guards in
Speaker 1: the league over the last three years. And four years
Speaker 1: ago people were saying he was washed. So I think
Speaker 1: he might be. Hamstring is no jokes. I think I
Speaker 1: think I think that, um, you might be seeing that,
Speaker 1: which because you don't go from we saw James last
Speaker 1: year when he first got to Brooklyn before the hamstring injury,
Speaker 1: and he was explosive as hell, like he's still still
Speaker 1: getting moving, get into the basket, doing his thing. He
Speaker 1: had not you don't just go from that to struggling
Speaker 1: with and we know he has a hamstring injury. So
Speaker 1: I think that's a part of it. So I'm wondering
Speaker 1: if you know, a summer where they're able to figure
Speaker 1: out their whole roster around them UM and and give
Speaker 1: James time to really put himself together, because it's hard
Speaker 1: to like it's hard to re engage your body like
Speaker 1: that mid season, you know, or in the middle of
Speaker 1: the season, the playoffs all that stuff. So that's my
Speaker 1: main concern with them is just you know, if if
Speaker 1: James is able to and maybe he's just maybe he
Speaker 1: was is coast and he's about to turn on the
Speaker 1: switches about to turn on and we don't. It's not
Speaker 1: a hamstring thing, and we'll we'll see it. But you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think a player of his caliber just loses
Speaker 1: a step like that or slows down like that within
Speaker 1: a year just doesn't happen. There's something else going on.
Speaker 1: So UM be interesting to see. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I still have UM. I think they have, like the
Speaker 1: tow two of the best players in the East. UM,
Speaker 1: just like Brooklyn has two of the best players in
Speaker 1: the East. But you gotta have a full team. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they have the depth and the versatility
Speaker 1: that UM both Milwaukee and and uh Boston have when
Speaker 1: they're fully healthy. Yeah, the depth, the depth really stands up.
Speaker 1: And then it's just that they don't. They just get
Speaker 1: thin and and not a lot of contributions. But would
Speaker 1: Joel and be playing probably gonna well, everybody's saying Yoki,
Speaker 1: but he you know, he should have got some Maybe
Speaker 1: people for sure you got yo Ki, you got dunk Chick.
Speaker 1: Don't look at duncan not just name how far is
Speaker 1: the gap widening between like the top players in the
Speaker 1: league being international and like the next star that's born
Speaker 1: in American soil, Like who is the next American player
Speaker 1: that can unseen one of these three guys in your
Speaker 1: opinion the book, I mean, who was like next coming
Speaker 1: down the line that could be potentially in conversation for
Speaker 1: the n B A man you us wise, like you
Speaker 1: know you got you still look if step didn't if
Speaker 1: step didn't go down, you still were gonna have like
Speaker 1: Steph was gonna be in the mix. You know, I
Speaker 1: always think like I always think by guy Dame's gonna
Speaker 1: have a chance. Kauai is Kauai. If he's healthy, he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a chance. Lebron the team situation is was
Speaker 1: jacked up. But if he's help. But if the team
Speaker 1: is healthy and Lebron has the year he has, he's
Speaker 1: in the conversation. Um, I think, you know, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: could should be getting m VP consideration tomorrow. The year
Speaker 1: he had in Chicago before all the injuries went. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he still consistently played the same way. But the
Speaker 1: team starting to fall off because you know, their defensive
Speaker 1: backbone fell apart right, Um, due to all those injuries happening,
Speaker 1: but you know, he had a unbelievable year. Like there's
Speaker 1: so there's a ton of US based players, but I
Speaker 1: just think situationally, um and and also like the time
Speaker 1: and time and uh years into their career, like Yokich
Speaker 1: is a young player. Donchers is a young player too,
Speaker 1: But I mean correlatively speaking, right, yea, Janice is Janice
Speaker 1: is a young player to me, is the best player
Speaker 1: in the league right now to me, if if people,
Speaker 1: oh and obviously Kevin obviously Kevin durant Is is is
Speaker 1: m VB candidate every year. But again, these guys have
Speaker 1: to stay on the biggest issue, especially when you have
Speaker 1: the miles on you, is staying on the floor and
Speaker 1: your team being one of the you know, better teams
Speaker 1: in the league. So I guess my point is kind
Speaker 1: of on the lines of your point about these guys
Speaker 1: being so young they're VP level. They got like basically
Speaker 1: the top three spots right there in the argument for
Speaker 1: the top three spots year for the next ten, twelve,
Speaker 1: fift He's like, who do who? Who do? Who's going
Speaker 1: to see these dudes? Man Zion, Like what superstar I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think of manage there another and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying damn, but like a young younger girl young, well,
Speaker 1: I think this. I think this crop that just came
Speaker 1: in for the two thousand twenty one draft class of
Speaker 1: special I think talent wise, Jalen Green is out of
Speaker 1: this world. He just has he just has to figure
Speaker 1: out how to play at the NBA level. But like,
Speaker 1: talent wise, that is crazy. Um, Kate Cunningham is like
Speaker 1: he's like a mini Dunchet in a lot of ways, right, so,
Speaker 1: like he's gonna be He's gonna be good. It's and
Speaker 1: it's kind of ironic that he's out in Detroit as
Speaker 1: like that was like Grant Hill stopping grounds another like
Speaker 1: point forward type. Um, so they're getting a new, smooth,
Speaker 1: new version, you know, not nothing to like flashy or
Speaker 1: whatever else. He just nice, just nice and knows how
Speaker 1: to play the game. And he's he's he's obviously not
Speaker 1: as big as Dontres dontress is. I saw do move
Speaker 1: Drew how I don't think people realize how much of
Speaker 1: a rock Drew Holiday is and he he just moved
Speaker 1: through Holiday like it was nothing. I've always been amazed
Speaker 1: that Donte's strength and size bro, Like how he just
Speaker 1: able just he'll get when he was getting your shoulder,
Speaker 1: Like the first couple of years he was doing this move,
Speaker 1: he was just hitting dudes with the shoulder. But dudes
Speaker 1: like whoa, you know what I'm saying and hitting you
Speaker 1: with the step back. But that part of it is crazy. Man.
Speaker 1: These guys don't real understand how strong NBA players are. Man. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: so you know Dontress is a big dude. But but um,
Speaker 1: I think Kate has a lot of his game to him.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley, he hasn't even figured out offense yet. Like
Speaker 1: he's just he's he's like that help defender type that
Speaker 1: and you know to be a to be uh first
Speaker 1: year player and have defense kind of figured out on
Speaker 1: that help side and he's gonna be He's gonna be phenomenal. Um.
Speaker 1: Scotty Barnes, Scott Barr, Scottie Barnes. You know what's interesting
Speaker 1: about Scottie Barnes, He's got a lot of Scottie Pipp
Speaker 1: into his He's got a lot of Scottie Pipp into him,
Speaker 1: Like he could be that type of that type of
Speaker 1: guy like a bit like so I love watching him
Speaker 1: play basketball. That Toronto is actually pretty good. It's Philly.
Speaker 1: Better not sleep on Toronto. They beat him. Hey, I
Speaker 1: like to if any team's gonna upset anybody, I know,
Speaker 1: I know the Nets. Everyone is expecting Nets ups maybe
Speaker 1: you know, possibly uh beating this. Yeah, because they have
Speaker 1: because they got kept. I mean I'm talking about like
Speaker 1: the general audience, not like the real audience, because because
Speaker 1: they have Kyrie, you can't ever doubt Kyrie and Katie
Speaker 1: and those those guys are you know they can they
Speaker 1: each can put up fifty anytime they want, right, Um,
Speaker 1: But Toronto real deal. They just play modern basketball at
Speaker 1: a high level. You know, tons of tons of length,
Speaker 1: ability to switch has been Yako has been killing our
Speaker 1: guy to Todd rappers are every time I shouted you
Speaker 1: let him know. Right. But yeah, but but they kind
Speaker 1: of doubted Sam coming into the year and he's he's
Speaker 1: completely showed everybody that he's still a real deal. Scottie
Speaker 1: Barnes doing his thing. It's crazy that they have. You know,
Speaker 1: usually teams just want one player like that, that, that long,
Speaker 1: versatile guy they could do multiple things, and they think
Speaker 1: they got two of them, you know, like just very unique.
Speaker 1: So they're they're fun to watch. Um, you know, Jalen
Speaker 1: Sugs we didn't even get to really see, like he's
Speaker 1: in Orlando, so he's kind of under the radar. I still,
Speaker 1: you know, I liked him coming in, so I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see what he's going to be able to do.
Speaker 1: What about trade? What about tred Oh you're talking about
Speaker 1: ye trade? Yeah, I was just talking about this year's class.
Speaker 1: But Trey Young is is fantastic. Um. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: it's sometimes super tough with with guards that are as
Speaker 1: small as him to like figure it out. But I
Speaker 1: wonder how he does it. Like I'm always one of
Speaker 1: those dudes that amazes me. Every game I've seen him,
Speaker 1: he'll do something like damn, you really hit that? Like
Speaker 1: every time. It's in him. You know, he's is his
Speaker 1: dad you know, played Division one and worked with him
Speaker 1: and you can tell he loves the game and he
Speaker 1: just has a natural feel for it and it's in it. Man,
Speaker 1: It's just like, what can you do? That's a high, high,
Speaker 1: high skill level. He's he's taking advantage of mistakes and
Speaker 1: he's been he's built for it. You've been preparing for
Speaker 1: it his entire life, and that's that's what you're seeing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's a there's a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: Trey Young. The other thing about the m v P
Speaker 1: two is, you know, guy like Trey Young, you think
Speaker 1: about it. A lot of it has to do with
Speaker 1: the situation that they're in though, right Like if Trey,
Speaker 1: if Atlanta doesn't ever pick up or get a chance
Speaker 1: to be a real championship competitor, competitor, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: hard for Trey Young to win an m v P. Like,
Speaker 1: you gotta be for the most part, you gotta be
Speaker 1: in the mix unless you have like you know, you
Speaker 1: have a season like yokich where like they don't have
Speaker 1: any of their other like complimentary players star as whatever,
Speaker 1: and he's just going crazy still and he's the main
Speaker 1: reason they're winning. Um, it's gonna be hard for media, fans, etcetera.
Speaker 1: To recognize you in that way. So I think that
Speaker 1: that as much as the talent of the player, has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with it. Um, how well you
Speaker 1: agree with your kiss MVPN this year? Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I I think that there are I think that there
Speaker 1: are so many different avenues to go down, Like I
Speaker 1: think if Yo kich One, I don't know how you
Speaker 1: can argue against it. I don't um if inbid one,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you could be like, well he
Speaker 1: shouldn't be m v P. Well yeah, he's put up
Speaker 1: MVP numbers. Be honest, the team fined, they're in the
Speaker 1: there in the third seed, and they had injuries the
Speaker 1: key players throughout the year, and he still did his
Speaker 1: thing like he to me, he's like modern day shack
Speaker 1: um don Ch. Obviously, like they had a slow start
Speaker 1: and we're figuring it out, but you know that pours
Speaker 1: the end of the year, they had a chance that
Speaker 1: they had a chance to get potentially get the third seed. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I think you can go about in a variety of
Speaker 1: different ways. But I think people because Yokich is not,
Speaker 1: like he's not interested in any of the media, marketing,
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. Like he's just low key a
Speaker 1: hooper and trying to get and trying to get to
Speaker 1: his horses in Serbia in the summer. You don't care
Speaker 1: about none of this, um dog. So that's that's what
Speaker 1: I call him. I call him Larry Joe Yoki because
Speaker 1: to me, he plays like he People say that Don
Speaker 1: Chech plays like bird and I'm like, that's lazy man.
Speaker 1: He don't. To me, he doesn't. He doesn't play like
Speaker 1: Bird like they have way more stuff than Bird. To me, yeah,
Speaker 1: Donke is just off the bound though, like Bird. You
Speaker 1: know Bird, I mean Bird had a little handle. But
Speaker 1: when I see what I know of Lucan, when I
Speaker 1: see Luca, I'm always seeing him on the pill bringing
Speaker 1: it up and get some dudes, you know, having to
Speaker 1: shake off the fenders. So that that's for Rakes, that
Speaker 1: comparison to me, what are your thought though? Yeah, he
Speaker 1: Luca plays like Luca plays like James Harden with the
Speaker 1: up and under like you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: they play the exact same way, except Luca. You look
Speaker 1: what goes in the lane and it has the up
Speaker 1: and under moves and all that, like he gives. He's
Speaker 1: giving you that. James ain't doing that. James is like
Speaker 1: I'm euro step in or I'm I'm your euro stepping
Speaker 1: going to the cup, or I'm doing a floater in
Speaker 1: the lane. But that or throwing a lob like that's
Speaker 1: that's his game. So um. But but lucas a lot
Speaker 1: of the same stuff, except he's he's you know, he
Speaker 1: gets in the lane, he's gonna give you a little
Speaker 1: he's giving you the post move, he's giving the up
Speaker 1: and under all that stuff. Um and then Yo kich
Speaker 1: Yo kich is just like man, he's he's like playing
Speaker 1: chess out there, man, And it's just he's a definitely
Speaker 1: savant man. And and he has this move he does
Speaker 1: where he's so interesting because um, Magic used to have
Speaker 1: a go to pass that I would be like, damn,
Speaker 1: how the hell does he do this? And and and
Speaker 1: so Magic would come down like he like he was
Speaker 1: he was going like free throw line extended, come down slow,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he would throw like
Speaker 1: two men are coming and throw the pass through two
Speaker 1: people into the post perfectly. The worthier to to kareem
Speaker 1: like lay up everything. Like I think people just look
Speaker 1: at it like, oh, it's not that difficult. It's almost
Speaker 1: like Lebron finding the corner, like turning the corner. He's
Speaker 1: turning in the corner and he's finding a corner. Three
Speaker 1: shooter open and your life. And I think the average
Speaker 1: person is looking at that, Oh that he just made
Speaker 1: like a simple pass and that's like unbelievable off off hand,
Speaker 1: left handed pass, like there's nothing He's fighting the corner boom,
Speaker 1: no problem. And then Yokich has this thing where he's
Speaker 1: in the post and as soon as he sees the
Speaker 1: double coming from the from the corner three, he's throwing
Speaker 1: this unbelievable like the past, that only baseline, that only he,
Speaker 1: that only he, that only he can make, the only
Speaker 1: he can make, Like he's so fun to watch. Like honestly,
Speaker 1: I wish I had a chance to market Ki because
Speaker 1: I think I could do things that are figure out
Speaker 1: ways to like tell his story and do funny stuff
Speaker 1: um to get people interested in him. But like if
Speaker 1: he like, let's put it this way, if he played
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, people would be hyping the hell out
Speaker 1: of him. If you play for the Lakers and Knicks, Celtics,
Speaker 1: any of those teams, he would be getting hyped like
Speaker 1: crazy beyond Like right now, I think people just think
Speaker 1: he's like a hipster MVP vote or media m v
Speaker 1: P vote and they don't realize how good he is,
Speaker 1: like Brod's next level. I don't know if I've ever
Speaker 1: seen like somebody like with his limited physical ability that
Speaker 1: is so dang on effective, Like I just have not
Speaker 1: seen that, like the way because you remember like I
Speaker 1: think it's probably first or second year. I mean I
Speaker 1: was looking at him like, dang, like he's a project.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought it was a project, bro. But
Speaker 1: but then all of a sudden, he hit an he
Speaker 1: turned the corner, and he start getting more Burton. Then
Speaker 1: he just start turning stuff out. He's a natural. Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
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Speaker 1: s R to listen live. It's it's you know, how
Speaker 1: we how we think about you know, how we think
Speaker 1: about Lebron in terms of like I think people are like, man, Lebron, Like,
Speaker 1: Lebron is not one of those drills guys where you're like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he's like like Kobe, Like Kobe was very
Speaker 1: much uh like I'm in the gym and I'm working
Speaker 1: on these moves and He's got every every move, every counter,
Speaker 1: every like whatever. And Lebron is like, obviously he works
Speaker 1: on his game and continue to improve over his you
Speaker 1: know now going into his twentieth year, but he's more
Speaker 1: of a natural player. And Yokich is one of those
Speaker 1: guys like he's like a great comparison. That's a great comparison.
Speaker 1: Like he's he's a he is a natural like this,
Speaker 1: It's just comes to him. He sees things when he
Speaker 1: reads everything so freaking quick. That's what I noticed about him.
Speaker 1: It's like before like the ball of being the air
Speaker 1: on the post, He's already saw out the periphery. Dude
Speaker 1: is coming. So when he touches his hand, he's like
Speaker 1: already flipping it. I'm like, dag, yeah, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: in that like I said that Larry Bird, that Larry
Speaker 1: Bird magic h Lebron like natural feel for the game ability,
Speaker 1: Like you see a guy like Yannice, like Janice worked
Speaker 1: his way into being this, Like like obviously he's a
Speaker 1: freaking nature athletically, but he had to he had to
Speaker 1: develop his game like this dude, yo kitchen is like
Speaker 1: he's had big, big soft hands and touch and and
Speaker 1: peripheral vision and feel for the game. Like as soon
Speaker 1: as he got on a basketball court, I think people
Speaker 1: don't coming down just you just you just some people
Speaker 1: just have it. Lebron was diving people up, like even
Speaker 1: though he was a freaking nature in high school, people
Speaker 1: are like, damn, how did he learn in the past
Speaker 1: like that he didn't learn he's that's a natural. That's
Speaker 1: a gift, that's a God given gift, is what it is, right,
Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of that's kind of the way
Speaker 1: I look at Yo. But I can't really take his
Speaker 1: m vps away from him at all that because dude,
Speaker 1: I watched I watched this. I watched the Blazers and
Speaker 1: Nuggets like every single game during the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: And you know, I know Dame's mentality, you know, pretty
Speaker 1: closely working with him and get you know, getting a
Speaker 1: very good understanding. I already knew what he was coming
Speaker 1: within that that pivotal Game five of that series, and
Speaker 1: you know, he dropped fifty like making crazy three is
Speaker 1: doing Like he was like, this is this this game
Speaker 1: is the series. So I'm putting it all on the
Speaker 1: floor right now, Like if we lose this game, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be very hard for us to win this series.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm going for the kill. And that's what
Speaker 1: he left out there. But what people people see Dame's
Speaker 1: performance was unbelievable. But the reason they didn't win that
Speaker 1: game is because they had zero answer for Yoki Zero,
Speaker 1: like and I'm not just scoring, diving. He's doing everything
Speaker 1: crazy threes, He's hitting, He's hitting threes. And the past
Speaker 1: that I told you about the dagger for the game
Speaker 1: was that past he hit somebody in the corner and
Speaker 1: it was like like Covington was coming down for the
Speaker 1: help and as soon as he saw coming to move
Speaker 1: for a second he hit, he hit the corner and
Speaker 1: it was that was it. Like, yeah, man, these playoffs
Speaker 1: are gonna be live as heck man, all these matchups, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm totally looking forward to it. Man. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: really have a team either way. I want the Bucks
Speaker 1: to win. I like the Bucks. I mean, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: forbish reasons you know, of course, Bro, I ain't rolling
Speaker 1: with the Bucks. Okay, they were retiring my dad Jersey.
Speaker 1: They flying this out there, rolling with the Bucks, Bro, Man,
Speaker 1: I respected the last three family looked out. Huh yeah, man,
Speaker 1: the whole crew over there. So it's like I'm rolling
Speaker 1: with the Bucks. So that's kind of where I'm going.
Speaker 1: But my man, Nate, I love chopping up the game
Speaker 1: with your brother. But yeah, man, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about you're the company you co founded, Movement Souls. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind it. Talk about the copy. I want
Speaker 1: to chop it up about that. It's crazy everything that's
Speaker 1: everything that's good that's happened to me. Um, you know
Speaker 1: that's good in my professional life has come from a
Speaker 1: love of the game. I love basketball, and um you
Speaker 1: know that interest, that intrigue, all of that has kind
Speaker 1: of built my career. And a lot of my best
Speaker 1: friendships and things like that have come from playing basketball
Speaker 1: teammates all that stuff, camaraderie in in that space. And
Speaker 1: this was born of the same thing I was I
Speaker 1: was hoping. I had like I was dealing with like
Speaker 1: a what do you call it, like a hip flex
Speaker 1: or injury. So I didn't hoop for a while, and
Speaker 1: then I got back to it, like, man, I'm about
Speaker 1: to I'm about to be going hard, got new gym membership, everything,
Speaker 1: and I would starting and play crazy. And then I
Speaker 1: had like my like my feet were killing me, like
Speaker 1: planet fasciitists, and it just kind of it kind of
Speaker 1: how to you know, make a light bulb go off
Speaker 1: in my head? And I started thinking about, wait a minute, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I remember when you know this
Speaker 1: player had this issue and they you know, they were
Speaker 1: fitted for like customer orthotics, so they found an over
Speaker 1: the counter orthotic for them or in soul for them.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is like generally, when I think
Speaker 1: about it, most of the players in the league, we
Speaker 1: don't wear their shoes out the box. They wear UM.
Speaker 1: They have either customer slotics or like you know, some
Speaker 1: kind of like premium in soul. And then when you
Speaker 1: go down the line, um, you know, I would. I
Speaker 1: never really was looking for it before, and I never
Speaker 1: really thought about it for myself. But I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I've been playing ball in my whole life. No one's
Speaker 1: really marketed like this type of product to me. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I've been marketing to you know, the crowd
Speaker 1: that's you know, influenced by these players for fourteen years now,
Speaker 1: and I don't I've been in all kinds of footwear
Speaker 1: meetings with brands and things of the nature, and the
Speaker 1: INSOL has not been on the on the the agenda
Speaker 1: for or the even the product roadmap for the consumer
Speaker 1: roadmap for how they interact a retail. So I was like, damn, man,
Speaker 1: like untapped, my unchartered. And then you know what's happening
Speaker 1: in business A lot is you know, do you have
Speaker 1: these boomer brands been around forever and they kind of
Speaker 1: have aged out with that boomer generation. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you look at like in the market that I'm man.
Speaker 1: I don't consider them a competitor because they market the
Speaker 1: different people. But like Dr Schulz brand, it's the brand
Speaker 1: of record, uh, you know for my grandmother, my grandmother's generation,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody, it's like and when you think when
Speaker 1: you think of Dr Schulz though, you know, obviously it's
Speaker 1: a hundred year old brand. It's old, sleepy distributed through
Speaker 1: CVS all that stuff. But UM Trim to Fit looks
Speaker 1: like a medical product. There's nothing aspirational about it at all,
Speaker 1: you know, studying the whole global marketplace and understanding how
Speaker 1: professional athletes work. You know, some of my investors have
Speaker 1: worked with UM. You know, one of my investors used
Speaker 1: to do the Run the Mountain de Tour and he
Speaker 1: was telling me every single skateboarder, pro skateboarder has insuls
Speaker 1: and orthotics. Just the kids that that aspire to be
Speaker 1: like them have no idea. And then the same thing,
Speaker 1: you know, basketball, same thing, football, same thing, so like
Speaker 1: go across the go across the board, Tennis, same thing.
Speaker 1: So I see an opportunity to kind of come in
Speaker 1: as a new age brand that understands that consumer. UM
Speaker 1: bring a you know, great product to the market, not
Speaker 1: a superficial product. The products we've developed have been done
Speaker 1: in conjunction with the top UH pro Sports UH poietry
Speaker 1: firm out there, firm called Footcare Express out in Florida.
Speaker 1: Almost all the fellas that have customer orthotics, but they
Speaker 1: go exactly the teams. The team. They might not know
Speaker 1: they have them from there, but that's that's who's doing
Speaker 1: them for them. UM. So we built an over the
Speaker 1: counter product that you know, for the I would say
Speaker 1: for about eight of the population of athletes is gonna
Speaker 1: work UM for them. The sock liners that they put
Speaker 1: in shoes are completely inadequate. And when you think about
Speaker 1: athletes and the journeys that they're on now, even guys
Speaker 1: that don't really have a chance, you know, guys and
Speaker 1: girls that don't have a chance to make the pros
Speaker 1: or even Division one, they're still on these journeys where
Speaker 1: they're paying, they're playing all these hours starting at an
Speaker 1: earlier age. You know, you're playing more basketball than ever. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, even though they're indoors now and a lot
Speaker 1: of us were outdoors playing. They're playing way more. They're
Speaker 1: playing way more hours, way more games. They got trainers,
Speaker 1: they're doing all kinds of stuff, and you're seeing uh
Speaker 1: this preponderance of overuse injuries. Right, So, UM, the amount
Speaker 1: of time that they're playing is not going to change,
Speaker 1: but what could change is UH knowledge on how they
Speaker 1: prepare their body and how they protect their bodies. So
Speaker 1: our brand is all about that, and eventually we want
Speaker 1: to become Dr Schulz the generation Y and z UM
Speaker 1: so that includes like casual, We have a casual product
Speaker 1: eventually coming out. There's a whole deal. UM honestly have been.
Speaker 1: We we launched December one, UM, you know with with
Speaker 1: product and UM opened up our website. Director, I've totally
Speaker 1: been blown away by the response so far. I knew
Speaker 1: it was gonna be I knew we had you know,
Speaker 1: we have a long road ahead of us, but I
Speaker 1: did not expect us to have um the reaction that
Speaker 1: we've had to date. So it's been fun. I mean
Speaker 1: to the reaction I think has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with you know, it's it's a useful product that hasn't
Speaker 1: like we you have to go through a process to
Speaker 1: get authotics. I know you used to have to get
Speaker 1: the mold and it cost a ton of money. So
Speaker 1: for you guys to create this situation where you can
Speaker 1: like walk in and you get them quick and that
Speaker 1: whole situation, that that is just beautiful, That it is magnificent.
Speaker 1: And then something I don't know, I know you guys
Speaker 1: have thought about it, but something that I took from
Speaker 1: this as a former athlete is that the earlier you
Speaker 1: start wearing authotics and balance yourself out, all that you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about later down the line having
Speaker 1: that funny walk. I got the funny walking, now the
Speaker 1: funny hit walk with all the game. You don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about different issues with your back or you
Speaker 1: you won't have uh, those issues as much if you
Speaker 1: if you're balanced out these are athotics or in your
Speaker 1: life at an early age. Yeah, So that's that's what's
Speaker 1: so interesting. When you talked to the players and talked
Speaker 1: to most of the guys, they go, I didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about this. UM like we just did. Dame was
Speaker 1: just doing media from move like earlier this week with
Speaker 1: three different outlets. UM. Hopefully that stuff is gonna gonna
Speaker 1: drop soon. But he was. He was talking about like
Speaker 1: I didn't really think about this or no any of
Speaker 1: this stuff until like I got to a certain level
Speaker 1: and then I started to deal with particular injuries and
Speaker 1: then I had to start thinking about it. But because
Speaker 1: like I wish I would have known any of the guys,
Speaker 1: they all say the same thing. Chris Paul swears by
Speaker 1: swears by orthotics, right, and you know he's he's like,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have known this at an earlier age.
Speaker 1: And and someone like him who's probably more invested in
Speaker 1: the grassroots basketball than any like active player right now, Um,
Speaker 1: he's the perfect platform for him to like, you know,
Speaker 1: use the knowledge he has and bring it down to
Speaker 1: those kids that he influences. So yeah, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: really what we're trying to do is provide that that
Speaker 1: pro level knowledge and access and products that um, you know,
Speaker 1: uh could really help these younger athletes. But you know
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the hard that's I think we're I
Speaker 1: think a lot of our business so far has been
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of kids and younger athletes purchasing it,
Speaker 1: but the easier cell has been to people that are
Speaker 1: familiar with UM in Souls and orthotics, like they like
Speaker 1: our product because they think it's the best. They've try
Speaker 1: it and they love it and they rave about the
Speaker 1: reviews on our side are amazing. But the hard part
Speaker 1: is going to be getting those younger a younger generation
Speaker 1: to where like, we know you're familiar with made Hoops,
Speaker 1: which is really really interesting because chat chat is chat.
Speaker 1: That's my dude. It's so awesome to see because you
Speaker 1: you see all the former pros out there with their
Speaker 1: kids now, so like your guy Matt Barnes is out
Speaker 1: there with this Twins coaching up. So so like the
Speaker 1: Twins have move In Souls now because we we we
Speaker 1: did UM we did a partnership with Made Hoops where
Speaker 1: for their West Coast and East Coast championships may all
Speaker 1: the champs from each division pairs of insuls. So it
Speaker 1: was just awesome to see the kids interacting with them
Speaker 1: get the positive response. A lot of the kids ended
Speaker 1: up following us after like just all that. So that's
Speaker 1: the hard The hard work is going to be educating
Speaker 1: the parents and the kids around why they need the
Speaker 1: product and UM going forward that way, Well, I think
Speaker 1: you guys are doing doing it the right way. I
Speaker 1: mean you signed Jaded Williams, who's one of the top
Speaker 1: high school talents going to u C l A to
Speaker 1: n I L partnership. I believe she's she's endorsing it. Uh.
Speaker 1: You guys were at the Classic and Damien also, which
Speaker 1: is something that I noticed and this is just me
Speaker 1: seeing and it and I'm like, yeah, okay, Nick, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then just all just all the dog on Hi selfish.
Speaker 1: You've got dudes taken and posted man testimonials real not
Speaker 1: like paid anything, real life. Yo. Man, my feet feel great.
Speaker 1: I'm posting this tell by the way they're posting bro
Speaker 1: that people really love. Yeah. You know, it was so
Speaker 1: crazy so that I had somebody accused me of like
Speaker 1: not disclosing that was somewhere and I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: I didn't, I am not. I don't operate that way.
Speaker 1: So we had So there's a there's a cat named
Speaker 1: Dwayne Washington that went to Yeah, he went to Sierra
Speaker 1: Canyon in Ohio state and he's actually he just signed
Speaker 1: a full deal with He was on a two way
Speaker 1: but now he's got his full contract. He got the
Speaker 1: full Yeah. Yeah, this country signed right at the end
Speaker 1: of the athlete. Yeah, that's that's a real dope. But
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is Um during one of the guys
Speaker 1: that I um, you know, it's just it's just years
Speaker 1: and working. It's I'm kind of cashing in on um,
Speaker 1: my name, my reputation, my contacts, all of that within
Speaker 1: the basketball space. A trainer friend of mine that trains
Speaker 1: uh uh Dwayne named von Compton. Out in Phoenix, I
Speaker 1: was out shooting Chris paul Um for our brand shoot
Speaker 1: for for a Move, and Vaughan kind of helped us
Speaker 1: set up the gym that we use for for Chris
Speaker 1: um amazing home gym out in Scottsdale. The gentleman owns. Uh.
Speaker 1: Guy's name is Brett Hart, a big, big time huh. No, No,
Speaker 1: we were. We were making jokes about us, like the
Speaker 1: best best was, but yeah, no, it's it's it's he
Speaker 1: he's a uh he's made I don't want to say
Speaker 1: how much money he's made because I would be guessing,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's pretty substantially based on his house
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. He uh made his fortune in
Speaker 1: staffing like staffing for State Farm, like State Farm and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But he's a big basketball fan and
Speaker 1: had this has this gym that Vaughan often uses the
Speaker 1: train players. So we shot Chris Paul there. I gave
Speaker 1: him all the all the uh uh crew, production crew,
Speaker 1: everybody there. I was giving them insuls to try out.
Speaker 1: I gave Von insuls for him to try out. He
Speaker 1: wears the same size as Dwayne. Dwayne comes to train
Speaker 1: with him during All Star break and goes, man, my
Speaker 1: feet are killing me. He's ad. Vaughan's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I got something for you. I think you wear the
Speaker 1: same size, and he gives them to him and he
Speaker 1: Dwayne hits Vaughan like, yo, I'm like loving these whatever.
Speaker 1: I see a picture, h I'll I'll send it to you.
Speaker 1: But it's the picture of him walking to the bus
Speaker 1: and he's got a package our insults in his hands.
Speaker 1: So I posted that on Twitter and someone was like, man,
Speaker 1: why don't you disclose when you paying these dudes to
Speaker 1: do whatever? And I'm like, I did not pay this dude.
Speaker 1: He this was a completely organic thing. He's walking in
Speaker 1: with it because so what it is. You know, after
Speaker 1: the fact, I reached out to him, I sending more product,
Speaker 1: but I've never paid him. He's not one of my guys.
Speaker 1: It's just organic, you know, organic things. So just just
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out, man, And I think we
Speaker 1: have a real potential to build something special. And it's
Speaker 1: been fun. Man. Yeah, I think the testimonials will go
Speaker 1: a long way for you guys. I mean, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, really getting to like the grassroots, the high
Speaker 1: school kids. On the educational tip, Like, dude, I went
Speaker 1: like when I and I'm just gonna tell you, when
Speaker 1: I finally got some insuls in college, Bro, I started dunking,
Speaker 1: Like I went dunking before you know what I'm saying it,
Speaker 1: Like I went from not doune to being able to
Speaker 1: like two foot jump stock really but just doing stuff fast,
Speaker 1: getting back quicker, moving quick. I'm like, what the hell
Speaker 1: is going on? You have this revelation and you've been
Speaker 1: your body, You've been playing kind of off ballance your
Speaker 1: whole life. Yeah, you get these dog so yeah, but man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm excited about that, man, And uh, I wish
Speaker 1: you the best with that, brother than you that's your
Speaker 1: You're one of the good guys in the industry. My man.
Speaker 1: You hear yourself at a very high level. Bro, You
Speaker 1: somebody respect and somebody that you know is gonna just
Speaker 1: be very, very successful whatever you do, man. And likewise,
Speaker 1: it's it's just it's just so interesting how like I said, man,
Speaker 1: stuff comes full circle. I used to watch obviously I
Speaker 1: watch you that uh the watch Crunshaw games. But I
Speaker 1: would read about in the paper and then I would
Speaker 1: see you at u c l A, watch you at
Speaker 1: u c l A watch games. Then people don't know
Speaker 1: about the men's gym. You didn't grow up in LA
Speaker 1: in the nineties, you don't know about the men's gym. Um.
Speaker 1: Obviously there's still NBA workouts and things like Rico Hynes hosts, right,
Speaker 1: but it's not the same as when it was open
Speaker 1: to everybody, and you know, you would come there on
Speaker 1: a Saturday or or during the summertime, during the week,
Speaker 1: and on the court on the left side, it's just
Speaker 1: you know, random high school players or whoever was trying
Speaker 1: to get a run. The same thing on the court
Speaker 1: far court, on the right side, the middle, middle court
Speaker 1: was we were all watching y'all with probably funny that
Speaker 1: was everybody that was on the U c l A team.
Speaker 1: And then you know former current pro so you you
Speaker 1: would get everybody from Reggie Theist to to Magic to uh,
Speaker 1: you know guys, and then Kobe and Kobe would be
Speaker 1: there with his two sisters. Hey with came through though.
Speaker 1: That's when it got it got ugly. Kobe came through
Speaker 1: use because he started off. He came first. He came
Speaker 1: to the Wooden Center. Yeah, and it kind of did
Speaker 1: work over there, you know, just just monstering us. And
Speaker 1: then he's like, moved it over to the Med's gym.
Speaker 1: They're like Christian because I didn't come the day he
Speaker 1: came the first day, like, man, you need to come
Speaker 1: play against Cobe. Man, this dude. So I finally get
Speaker 1: down there, man, and so we're in the middle court.
Speaker 1: It's magic Kobe. I think it's like, uh, who else
Speaker 1: Don McClain, you know, you know, but I'm matched up
Speaker 1: against Kobe, so you know, play happens. Kobe tips dunks
Speaker 1: on me. My dad is actually in the gym, he said.
Speaker 1: Dad used to always be in the gym. Your dad
Speaker 1: used to be working out Josiah and then working out
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, so my dad, my dad sees it.
Speaker 1: I look at my dad. I'm all embarrassed. He's like
Speaker 1: he looks at me like like you know, you're like,
Speaker 1: get into it with Kobe a man, du the next thing,
Speaker 1: I know, Magic gotta break it up. But it's just
Speaker 1: that just growing up in that man, being around that
Speaker 1: Nate and understanding you're watching you been just in that atmosphere, bro,
Speaker 1: because it's like it was like it was just it
Speaker 1: was surreal. Yeah, man, it's so so you know, the
Speaker 1: point I was trying to make is just like everybody had,
Speaker 1: Like you're a part of the influence on me as
Speaker 1: a as a you know, basketball fan, basketball consumer, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, businessman in the basketball space. So you know,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your contribution to the game. I think not
Speaker 1: enough people give all the people that have influenced them,
Speaker 1: you know, credit. So it's great to see. It's great
Speaker 1: to see your Daggett and his flowers. It's great to
Speaker 1: see you getting your flowers. It's great to see Joe
Speaker 1: popping off. Like everybody that I know in the basketball space,
Speaker 1: I love seeing everybody win. So um yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's cool. But the Kobe thing, people don't realize
Speaker 1: that Kobe used to roll in with his sisters. Man,
Speaker 1: he's his sister seems to go everywhere with him, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: rolling in with his sisters. Man. So yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: uh because you forget he was really like he's literally
Speaker 1: a kid old yeah man, so um but yeah man,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's been good knowing you over the years
Speaker 1: and and wish you much success. And I appreciate the
Speaker 1: platform to talk about all this stuff. And I'll call
Speaker 1: on anytime you want. Oh man, I'm definitely gonna have
Speaker 1: you back, my brother, you know, man, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Nate Jones