Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. That's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard him about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all you
Speaker 1: grabbing food today. Yes, that's what you're doing. See she
Speaker 1: is working well, Steve. I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1: I like the Yeah, how are you doing? I'm doing great? Man,
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting here thinking there was an incident. Man,
Speaker 1: this was a few years ago. Yeah, with your football camp.
Speaker 1: What about your last football camp that you did here
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, Right, it wasn't my last second of last
Speaker 1: one one up. I know it was a few years ago. Um,
Speaker 1: you gotta tell it though, but just in terms of
Speaker 1: starting beverage and happened with some of the kids. It's
Speaker 1: just a funny story, man. So so I used to
Speaker 1: do football camp here in Charlotte, and then also, uh,
Speaker 1: you're here too. As we go down, Um, I've done
Speaker 1: football camps UM on military basis as well. I've done it,
Speaker 1: and UM Cam Humphreys, which is overseas. Cam Humphreys is
Speaker 1: actually uh several miles away from the d militarized Zone
Speaker 1: near South Korea, right, So I've been in Hawaii, Frankfurt, Germany,
Speaker 1: so I've I've I've had the honor to serve the
Speaker 1: military's kids all over. But so I do. I But
Speaker 1: I always had a camp for about nine almost ten
Speaker 1: years here in Charlott that that I was doing, and
Speaker 1: so we had a lot of different sponsors that would
Speaker 1: come on board. And so one of our sponsors, UH
Speaker 1: for the for our camp was Sunny Delight. Now, if
Speaker 1: anybody has ever been in the South beverage sponsors, So
Speaker 1: if anybody has been in the South of North Carolina
Speaker 1: in July, is hot as fish grease. And when I
Speaker 1: say fish grease, you can put them until I drop
Speaker 1: that toy in there, and that grease is gonna be
Speaker 1: all over. So anyway, so we're out there and it's
Speaker 1: probably ninety five degrees with UH humidity, so it's equivalent
Speaker 1: to about a hundred into degrees hot. You're so hot
Speaker 1: on the pavement you can see the heat, the heat
Speaker 1: rising on the just going on the top of the asphalt.
Speaker 1: So we're out here about two d plus kids. And
Speaker 1: so we have a water break, not a regular water break.
Speaker 1: We have a sunny D. We're providing sunny D light
Speaker 1: to the children. And let me tell you what happened.
Speaker 1: Was sunny D man. Sunny D was sniper and these
Speaker 1: kids left and right. Why because sunny D is not
Speaker 1: real orange juice. So it's not sunny D has less.
Speaker 1: I think it has tim percent orange juice, the orange
Speaker 1: k the ninety percent of the other juice. It's stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's not a drink or juice. It's it's a drink.
Speaker 1: And we all know what happens when you drink too
Speaker 1: much drink. That he got to bubbling these kids. What
Speaker 1: they weren't passing out? You know how they were losing
Speaker 1: in the football camp. We were losing the kids by vomit.
Speaker 1: These kids, these kids were running routes, curling and just
Speaker 1: falling out. We had about twenty kids stopped. Now you
Speaker 1: gotta imagine when the kids stopped because you got bubble guts.
Speaker 1: I think I got it. I don't feel well, I
Speaker 1: don't feel so good. I made an executive decision no
Speaker 1: more Sunday Kids. And I love the financial commitment. I
Speaker 1: love the product. Kids out here hurting, but we got
Speaker 1: to get this Sunday out of here just for everybody.
Speaker 1: They weren't padded, It's just some shorts, two of shorts, right,
Speaker 1: It's just it's not full contact. That I don't believe
Speaker 1: having full contact. The way you introduced kids on plane
Speaker 1: is you don't. You let them gradually acclimate to getting hit,
Speaker 1: But you don't. You don't teach a little kid how
Speaker 1: to catch a football when he knows that the next
Speaker 1: lout kickly is playing middle linebacker on the field. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to keep up focus on the ball when
Speaker 1: you're about to get your ribs broken. Right, And Bro,
Speaker 1: we were losing kids. I'm talking about so that literally
Speaker 1: the next day, two day, two day came, three day.
Speaker 1: Cam we literally the next day, I said, Bro, we
Speaker 1: took all they d because it was not it was
Speaker 1: not providing the hydration. Dog Day was dying. We was
Speaker 1: losing kids left and around. I mean we had we
Speaker 1: lost twenty, like twenty kids just did not show up
Speaker 1: the next day like Sunny d took out You know
Speaker 1: what they talked about all the turf monster real it
Speaker 1: was awful. Over The sad part is you know, I
Speaker 1: gott drink the product. I don't drinking that product. I
Speaker 1: start and you know started, you toube and I don't start.
Speaker 1: You can get this. That's the lily stomach. It was hurt.
Speaker 1: Sunny D athletics and running around not not the best combo.
Speaker 1: Listen sunny D not ever ever, ever, ever ever show
Speaker 1: athletic sport and drinking after quenchy your thirsty was a
Speaker 1: sunny D would be your last sport. So that that's
Speaker 1: the sunny D story. But man tell her his day. Bro,
Speaker 1: it was my son. He was like, yeah, dadda. When
Speaker 1: I saw Kevin, I was like, yeah, I gotta stop
Speaker 1: drinking the sunny because it was free. So they gave
Speaker 1: us case case like we were giving it was like
Speaker 1: two D fifty kids. Each kid got two Sunnyds to
Speaker 1: take on. We had like four hundred sunny D's, but
Speaker 1: we dumped them. We had to dump the product because
Speaker 1: it was killing the kids. It was killing That'd be
Speaker 1: like I hate to say, that'd be like giving kids
Speaker 1: Mexican food to go play sports, like Bro can you
Speaker 1: imagine you drop this, bro? Can you imagine running a
Speaker 1: post route after eating a baby? Though I don't really
Speaker 1: want to? Probably you made that It's gonna be the last.
Speaker 1: Don't let that quarterback lead you into a messy situation.
Speaker 1: Oh man, we might have cut through it with our
Speaker 1: next guest man. Yes, sir, who do we have? Frank Kamensky,
Speaker 1: first round pick from Charlotte Hornet's currently playing with the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, graduate of Wisconsin University, back to back final fours.
Speaker 1: He won the Nate Smith Award, the Wooden Award. Frank Kamenski,
Speaker 1: You're gonna take part and get iced up. It is
Speaker 1: our own version of our Icebreaker. There random questions that
Speaker 1: we've selected. Smitty may or may not have a follow up.
Speaker 1: He may have a follow up. Have no idea that
Speaker 1: you have not to receive these questions prior not ann
Speaker 1: clue prior to this podcast. Have you no okay? I
Speaker 1: heard they were good? Oh, I heard they were all right?
Speaker 1: First one, your first concert? Um it was a Drake concert,
Speaker 1: oh telling of his age. So you have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to fight a bear or seventy five ducks. I think
Speaker 1: I'd rather go with fighting the bear, fighting fighting seventy
Speaker 1: of anything is just difficult. Okay. Plus I just got
Speaker 1: this image of seven ft tall find commins keep trying
Speaker 1: to fight ducks. How do you take your coffee black
Speaker 1: with a little bit of sugar? Favorite breakfast food, favorite
Speaker 1: breakfast food, pancakes? All right? And then Marvel the DC
Speaker 1: Marvel without question, although I think DC has DC has
Speaker 1: some good stuff, but Marvel's just topped the bottom is
Speaker 1: a way better. M Okay, no no argument on that one.
Speaker 1: Last few movies with trash, just it was absolute trash.
Speaker 1: So Kaminski, what nationality is Kaminski? It's Polish. Kaminski is Polish.
Speaker 1: But I've got everything. I'm like Irish, German, Polish, Serbian, Russian,
Speaker 1: I don't know we we come when we live in Chicago.
Speaker 1: All families are kind of like that. A lot of
Speaker 1: European stuff down down with the squirrel Franks. So where
Speaker 1: did your family? How does your family get to Chicago? Then? So,
Speaker 1: my dad's all four of his grandparents came from somewhere
Speaker 1: in Europe. Um his dad's parents came from Poland, and
Speaker 1: his mom's parents, his mom's dad came from Serbia and
Speaker 1: his mom's mom, I believe, I'm not quite positive where
Speaker 1: she came from. And then my mom's side of the
Speaker 1: family is all Ireland pretty much. Why have you been
Speaker 1: considering playing for the Serbian national team? You know, obviously
Speaker 1: the opportunity is it presented itself. I went and did
Speaker 1: the Basketball Without Borders trip for the NBA, which is, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, you go overseas and UM, you know, basically
Speaker 1: run a camp for the top European players. UM. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of the guys who are in the
Speaker 1: NBA have gone through that pipeline. UM. And it was
Speaker 1: in Serbia. And obviously I've been I played in a
Speaker 1: Serbian basketball league growing up. A lot of people know
Speaker 1: I have Serbian roots. So UM kind of felt the
Speaker 1: pressure while I was over there, UM, you know, considering
Speaker 1: I haven't played for Team USA or anything like that,
Speaker 1: UM to potentially play for Serbia. So you said you
Speaker 1: pay for a Serbian team when you were when you
Speaker 1: were younger. UM. So there's a league in Chicago. It's
Speaker 1: called the Serbian National Federation. UM. It's in Chicago and
Speaker 1: Northwest Indiana primarily, but the tournaments are pretty much nationwide. UM.
Speaker 1: They're held in different places. Um, you know, every single
Speaker 1: year they pick a different place. It's it's been in
Speaker 1: so many different places. It's even been in Canada a
Speaker 1: couple of times. Um, it's just one big weekend. Um.
Speaker 1: Everybody plays for their uh pretty much their church. Um.
Speaker 1: So my dad, you know, he's been playing it, played
Speaker 1: in it for a really long time. It was a
Speaker 1: Serbian church league. Yeah, essentially, um, you know, and there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of good players that have played in it,
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that have played Division one basketball. So, um,
Speaker 1: it was really good competition growing up. It's always fun.
Speaker 1: It's like a big weekend of like basically celebrating and
Speaker 1: playing basketball. So it is. It is essentially a giant
Speaker 1: church league because, um, the churches do a lot of
Speaker 1: sponsoring for this stuff. But I'll tell you right now,
Speaker 1: it's mainly about eating, drinking and then playing basketball. I
Speaker 1: was just doing the eating and playing basketball at that point.
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing the the drinking so much. I played
Speaker 1: in it for when I was in fourth grade all
Speaker 1: the way through my senior year in high school. So okay,
Speaker 1: fourth grade through senior of high school. None of just
Speaker 1: because you were extremely tall. None of those are legally
Speaker 1: drinking ages for this church weekend that you participated in.
Speaker 1: I'm sure if it was back in Serbia would have
Speaker 1: been a lot cooler than it would have been. Let's
Speaker 1: cut two. And what was it like going up in Chicago?
Speaker 1: And what part of Chicago? So we're from the South Side.
Speaker 1: We're White Sox fans, like right where the whites, the
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox play. The stadium is where my family
Speaker 1: grew up, a couple of blocks away. Um, when my
Speaker 1: parents started having kids and moved out into the suburbs,
Speaker 1: which is what a lot of Chicago people do. So
Speaker 1: I grew up in the suburbs. Um, Chicago is awesome,
Speaker 1: It's amazing. You know that. That's where I spend my summers. Um,
Speaker 1: I spent it in downtown Chicago. Um. You know, it's
Speaker 1: just a really fast paced city and it's what I'm
Speaker 1: used to. It definitely toughens you up though, being a
Speaker 1: Midwest kid, you know, having those seasonal changes. You know,
Speaker 1: Chicago is cold. You know, I'm out in Phoenix right now,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm spoiled because it's perfect weather.
Speaker 1: Minus it gets a little bit too hot here, but
Speaker 1: it's perfect weather. Y're around, so you know, Chicago will
Speaker 1: always have such a special place in my heart. What
Speaker 1: do you mean by a tough and jo up, It's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to describe just the way Chicago people are,
Speaker 1: you know, just like what you deal with, what you
Speaker 1: deal with with the weather, how cold it is, you know,
Speaker 1: just people's personalities, like they're they're tough people. I'm a
Speaker 1: West Coast guy, so it grew up in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so you're always in a hurry, you know, and and
Speaker 1: living here in Charlotte, and then you know, traveling to
Speaker 1: the East coast New York. You know, I'm always interested
Speaker 1: to hear how you know, different people, what do they
Speaker 1: mean by, you know, tough as far as in Chicago,
Speaker 1: because you know, you know, if you go to New York,
Speaker 1: you know there's some people in New York that can
Speaker 1: be pretty rude. But living here in the South, when
Speaker 1: you open a door for a lady or or a
Speaker 1: woman in New York, they think you're trying to rob
Speaker 1: the right. So that's what I'm trying to I'm trying
Speaker 1: to picture how how when you say it's tough, but
Speaker 1: it's what's tough Chicago style, the way everyone kind of
Speaker 1: fights for everything. You know what I mean, Um, everything
Speaker 1: is in Chicago. Everything is a competition. Everything no questions
Speaker 1: asked about it. Whether it's conversations, sports, you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: you whatever you have, everything is essentially like it's like
Speaker 1: a race to the finish line. You know. That's great
Speaker 1: when you're when you when you grow up playing basketball
Speaker 1: and playing sports, you know, having that competition you know
Speaker 1: pretty much everywhere you turn. You know, you can go
Speaker 1: play in a tournament, in a league and anything anywhere,
Speaker 1: and it's really good competition. You know. And then on
Speaker 1: the outside, like personality wise, you know, it kind of
Speaker 1: really prepares you to go out into the world and
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of for lack of a better word,
Speaker 1: you don't take ship from anybody just talking about you
Speaker 1: mean from Chicago. You can tell the pride and you know,
Speaker 1: you're a basketball player and there's a ton of successful
Speaker 1: basketball players, Dwyane Wade, Mark Aguar, you know, Derek Rose.
Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of these guys. And Steve talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, making you tough how and Frank comm I'm
Speaker 1: playing towards that, like you got a guy like you?
Speaker 1: How does Chicago even translating that? When you talk about
Speaker 1: how Chicago toughens it up. How did that help you
Speaker 1: tough enough when it came to playing basketball and playing
Speaker 1: this a au random robbin weekend drinking serbian fest. Um,
Speaker 1: I always I'll go back a little bit further. I
Speaker 1: always wanted to play basketball. You know, my dad played
Speaker 1: basketball overseas for a really long time. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: so basketball was kind of in my blood. Um, It's
Speaker 1: what I grew up doing, you know, watching my dad play. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it was the first sport I ever started playing.
Speaker 1: You know, it was the first sport I fell in
Speaker 1: love with. Um. But when you're in Chicago and you
Speaker 1: hear all these names, like you know, I can just
Speaker 1: remember I watched Derrick Rose played pretty much all the
Speaker 1: way through high school, in college and then get drafted
Speaker 1: by the Bulls. Um, you know, he was like an
Speaker 1: idol of mine. You know. You see all these great
Speaker 1: names that come out of Chicago and have played the sports.
Speaker 1: You know, I grew up. I was born in so
Speaker 1: I got to in my aunt work for the Bulls.
Speaker 1: So I got to see a lot of like Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's was like my first memories were you geeking out
Speaker 1: over the last dance. Then my uncle is in the documentary,
Speaker 1: so he's the My uncle was a guy that told
Speaker 1: Jerry Krause the trade for Dennis Robman. Oh so yeah,
Speaker 1: my my uncle is kind of responsible for some of
Speaker 1: that stuff. That's what I'm talking about. Uncle. You don't
Speaker 1: get that kind of behind the scenes access. Now I
Speaker 1: love it. You said that your dad played overseas. What
Speaker 1: did your mom do? My mom played volleyball and now
Speaker 1: she's a teacher. She played volleyball at Northwestern. I think
Speaker 1: they when the big champ can tip twice while she
Speaker 1: was there, So she had a really successful career there too.
Speaker 1: So athletics is basically my family. So how how are
Speaker 1: the family gatherings is corn hoole? Starting with the family
Speaker 1: fist fight. Everyone in my family is, like I said,
Speaker 1: extremely competitive. It's just like a Chicago thing. Like my
Speaker 1: dad still thinks he can My dad sixty five now
Speaker 1: he thinks he can still beat me in one on one.
Speaker 1: And I think even if he was in a well,
Speaker 1: even if he was in a wheelchair, he'd be saying
Speaker 1: the same exact thing. Won't smoke. So you guys playing
Speaker 1: each other as as you tried that out yet I
Speaker 1: won't do it. The last time I played him was
Speaker 1: in high school and I beat him badly and I
Speaker 1: told him I'm done. I'm done playing him. I don't
Speaker 1: want to play him anymore. I let him have it.
Speaker 1: He can have it. That didn't go well, he didn't. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, it's a competitive thing. It's it's just
Speaker 1: a competitive thing. Like my dad will always go around
Speaker 1: telling everyone he can still beat me in basketball, and
Speaker 1: I'll always be resentful. I'll always resent him for doing that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I gotta I got an awesome relationship with my dad. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're trying to keep it positive. Yes, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: keep it positive. I don't want to call him delusional
Speaker 1: or anything. But maybe I might be calling him delusional.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You have an awesome podcast, Pros and Joe's,
Speaker 1: and it was something on there that you said that
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about because it really gave
Speaker 1: transparency of who you are. And you talked about how
Speaker 1: why you try not to interact with people on social
Speaker 1: media a lot. But you said something that was a
Speaker 1: little bit of nugget for me, which is you talked
Speaker 1: about how some of these these grown men go on
Speaker 1: social media and talk about how a professional athlete is
Speaker 1: trash or and you'll see that this guy is he's
Speaker 1: twenty six years old or whatever however old he is,
Speaker 1: and he has three kids and he's talking about Frank
Speaker 1: or whoever it is, you know, any any basketball player,
Speaker 1: and he's and your and you said, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: how about you going to be a dad? And then
Speaker 1: you said something, your folks are um divorced, but they
Speaker 1: did the best they could and they instilled things into
Speaker 1: you that were really good. You know, my parents got
Speaker 1: divorced when I was really young. Um, I think I
Speaker 1: was in like third grade, and I got me my
Speaker 1: older sister and my younger sister. And at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was like so confusing because
Speaker 1: I was so young and like at that age, like
Speaker 1: especially in school, like people's parents aren't getting divorced where
Speaker 1: I'm from, Like the schools we went to, you know,
Speaker 1: I grew up going to private schools, and you know,
Speaker 1: it felt like everyone had like kind of this perfect
Speaker 1: family life, you know, with their parents and everything. When
Speaker 1: I was really young, this is how I felt. And
Speaker 1: you know, my home was kind of we were like
Speaker 1: the family that everyone was kind of talking about, like
Speaker 1: parents getting divorced, like tough situation, like how's it handling
Speaker 1: on the kids and everything, and um, you know, it
Speaker 1: kind of be it becomes part of your identity growing up,
Speaker 1: you know, living in a home where you know both
Speaker 1: of your parents. You know, I'm living in my mom's house,
Speaker 1: you know, not seeing my dad as often as I
Speaker 1: wanted to, you know, it's just really difficult. Um. But
Speaker 1: sports kind of became the thing that where, no matter
Speaker 1: what was happening, you know, with our family and everything,
Speaker 1: everything kind of felt normal. Like both of our parents
Speaker 1: were there cheering it's on. There was no fighting and
Speaker 1: arguing and sporting events. You know, my mom was coaching
Speaker 1: me in volleyball, my dad was coaching me in basketball. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's where everything just like felt comfortable and made
Speaker 1: sense and you didn't have to deal with all the
Speaker 1: external problems and fights and arguing and everything that goes
Speaker 1: into that. So you know, that's why I've kind of
Speaker 1: thrust myself so far into into basketball, or at least
Speaker 1: I did when I was younger, because it was really
Speaker 1: the place where I felt like the most normal because
Speaker 1: when you grow up in a house like that where
Speaker 1: your parents can't stand each other, um, makes things a
Speaker 1: lot easier for you. Takes a lot of the stress away.
Speaker 1: So you know, obviously things are way better now we're
Speaker 1: all grown up. They'll have our own lives, Me and
Speaker 1: my sisters, um, and my parents got their own thing.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, it's definitely definitely something that's been,
Speaker 1: you know, an identity of our family for a very
Speaker 1: long time. Well, I appreciate you sharing that, and I
Speaker 1: also think one of the cool things as you said
Speaker 1: something too, it sounds like you use your dad was
Speaker 1: your coach, so it was another way to steal some
Speaker 1: time with your dad always. Yeah, absolutely, So how much
Speaker 1: did your dad contribute to your basketball? I Q? I
Speaker 1: mean pretty much everything. Um, you know, he was always
Speaker 1: you know, my dad was always my coach. But he
Speaker 1: wasn't always like the head coach, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: He wasn't like the He always let other people coach
Speaker 1: me because you know, he always felt that it was
Speaker 1: best that I deal with other people as opposed to
Speaker 1: just dealing with him all the time. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know now that I think about it, like I
Speaker 1: see a lot of people like their parents are always
Speaker 1: like defending them, and like parents are always going to
Speaker 1: like coaches and saying like why aren't you playing my
Speaker 1: kid more or anything. But that wasn't that wasn't the
Speaker 1: way my dad did. And my dad was like, you
Speaker 1: gotta figure it out, like if you want to if
Speaker 1: you want to play, you gotta play better. If you
Speaker 1: want to do this, you gotta do this better. So,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad pretty much taught me everything you
Speaker 1: know in the sport and pretty much how to deal
Speaker 1: with all the problems that come with it, because you know,
Speaker 1: he had played basketball for so long, played overseas, played
Speaker 1: for in so many different situations, you know, whether good
Speaker 1: or bad, so he knew what it was like. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm really lucky I had that growing up
Speaker 1: because you know, it wasn't always all rainbows and sunshine
Speaker 1: from me. You know, I had a lot of growing problems.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of maturity problems when I was
Speaker 1: a kid. Obviously, Like I said, you know, when you
Speaker 1: grew up in a house like that, you kind of
Speaker 1: sometimes deal with maturity problems. Um, So it was just
Speaker 1: good to have him use sports as a way to
Speaker 1: teach me pretty much everything about life. I mean, we
Speaker 1: all we often look about sports being an outlet, right,
Speaker 1: and it didn't matter outside of Chicago. You grew up
Speaker 1: on South side suburban, so it did it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: Sports was literally an outlet for you. Why was that
Speaker 1: so important? Like I said, sports was my escape from everything. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, no matter what was going on, you know,
Speaker 1: family wise, social wise, you know, anything, any problem I
Speaker 1: ever had. You know, when I played basketball, they all
Speaker 1: just disappeared. And you know, I got to just play
Speaker 1: the game that I loved. Got to do something that
Speaker 1: I love, you know, whether it's for an hour or
Speaker 1: two hours, you know, going for an entire week somewhere
Speaker 1: to play in a week long AU tournament, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, you know, you just get to escape
Speaker 1: from that. And now, like now that it's become like
Speaker 1: my career and what I do, basketball still that same
Speaker 1: outlet for me today that it was when I was fourteen,
Speaker 1: So it's just become part of who I am, and
Speaker 1: you know how I deal with a lot of problems.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm very I'm very very thankful that
Speaker 1: it's become that for me. Thanks thought, we gotta take
Speaker 1: a break reply, I'm going through this currently with my
Speaker 1: one of my boys right now, who is in the
Speaker 1: last year and a half year, has um basically grew
Speaker 1: about six inches in the Smith household. He's becoming the
Speaker 1: tallest of us. All I know all about that. How
Speaker 1: tall were you your freshman year in high school? I
Speaker 1: was six to my freshman year, okay, six six. By
Speaker 1: my sophomore year, I left high school at six ten,
Speaker 1: and then I grew. I grew another two inches my
Speaker 1: freshman year in college. What position were you playing when
Speaker 1: you were six to when you were a freshman? I
Speaker 1: was a guard when I first got into high school,
Speaker 1: I left playing like yeah, and then I went to
Speaker 1: playing I went from like playing like a two to
Speaker 1: my sophomore year, I was the four, and then the
Speaker 1: last two years in high school, I was the center,
Speaker 1: and then that's the position I played all the way
Speaker 1: through college. And then you know, when I got back
Speaker 1: to the NBA. Now I'm back to playing the four,
Speaker 1: which is always been the most comfortable position. But you know,
Speaker 1: basketball has kind of changed in this and that positions
Speaker 1: aren't really what they used to be. So you play
Speaker 1: basketball at Wisconsin, and in the first first two years
Speaker 1: you averaged you have his three points at one point
Speaker 1: six rebounds. Yep. Why what was going on there? Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: when I got to college, I still had a lot
Speaker 1: of physical maturing to do. Um, I wasn't I wasn't
Speaker 1: very strong. Um, I was skinny. I was still kind
Speaker 1: of growing into my body. Oh but um there was
Speaker 1: an I thought I was gonna red shirt, like right
Speaker 1: when I got there. That's what, honestly, I thought was
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But the coaches came to me and pretty
Speaker 1: much told me like, look, you have an opportunity to play. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be much, but pretty much every game,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a couple of minutes of game here
Speaker 1: and there, and that could be valuable experience for when
Speaker 1: it's your time to take over. And you know it was.
Speaker 1: I was just actually pretty much a backup for somebody
Speaker 1: who needed a break right before media time. Ons That's
Speaker 1: the best way I can describe it. Um, But I
Speaker 1: had so much maturing that I needed to do, both
Speaker 1: physically and mentally to be able to, um like take
Speaker 1: the leap two becoming what I became in college. Like
Speaker 1: I always knew I had something inside of me, Like
Speaker 1: like I knew I was going to be a good
Speaker 1: player in college. I didn't know which level I would
Speaker 1: take it to. But um, you know, that experience of
Speaker 1: having to fight for more and more and more as
Speaker 1: my career went on kind of made me hungry for
Speaker 1: when it was my opportunity. Junior year, you bust out nowhere,
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, your point game against North Dakota. Tell
Speaker 1: me about that, like you're you're almost like you're you're
Speaker 1: coming out party, like you you're breaking out. Tell us
Speaker 1: about that game, and then just how did it feel
Speaker 1: leading into it, and we'll get into your do you
Speaker 1: you're seeing you you were? I think people don't remember
Speaker 1: how awesome and amazing of a college basketball player you were.
Speaker 1: But we talk about that four or three point game,
Speaker 1: you know, the first I think we had like three
Speaker 1: games before my forty three point game, and I think
Speaker 1: I scored like I want to say, like sixteen points
Speaker 1: in like three games, and I just wasn't I just
Speaker 1: didn't like know my spots yet, Like I wasn't like
Speaker 1: truly comfortable like we had our years. Like in college
Speaker 1: you can go overseas and play like a like an
Speaker 1: exhibition tour, and I played really really well in those games,
Speaker 1: and it was like the leading scorer on our team.
Speaker 1: When the first three games of the season came along,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of struggled to get comfortable. Um,
Speaker 1: and then I just remember before that North Dakota game,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is like we're gonna beat this team.
Speaker 1: Just go out there and just play loose and play
Speaker 1: free and see what happens pretty much, and then I
Speaker 1: just started making. I just started like making everything. So
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. It was just that was
Speaker 1: like kind of the game where it all click in
Speaker 1: my mind that you know you are good and you
Speaker 1: know when you play like you know how to play,
Speaker 1: this is what the result can believe. That kind of
Speaker 1: gave me the confidence to like keep going forward and
Speaker 1: wanting more. What what kind of internal dialogue did you
Speaker 1: have that was holding you back? It wasn't that I
Speaker 1: wasn't playing well. I see. That's see with basketball, like
Speaker 1: sometimes you get obsessed with like points and rebounds and um,
Speaker 1: you know, assists and steals and blocks and all these things.
Speaker 1: But that's not always an indicator of if you're playing
Speaker 1: well or not. Like in our first three games, like
Speaker 1: our team played significantly better when I was on the
Speaker 1: floor versus when I was off the floor. So like
Speaker 1: I was, I was still playing well. I just wasn't scoring.
Speaker 1: But you know, my whole basketball life, I've been like
Speaker 1: kind of a scorer. So um, you know that's one
Speaker 1: thing for me that always it shouldn't be, you know,
Speaker 1: an indicator of, you know, in my mind of how
Speaker 1: well I'm playing versus like not, but it always will be.
Speaker 1: It's something I talked about with my dad too. I
Speaker 1: was just playing way too tense, Like I wasn't loosing,
Speaker 1: playing free because you know, when I just play free
Speaker 1: and don't overthink things. Um, that's when I met my best.
Speaker 1: In those first couple of games. I was just like
Speaker 1: I wanted to play so well because I wanted to
Speaker 1: fit two years of being a backup into basically three games,
Speaker 1: as opposed to realizing it was gonna be a long
Speaker 1: season and I was gonna have my opportunity to the
Speaker 1: whole year. How does march madness? How does that impact
Speaker 1: kids today? You know, all my best memories are pretty
Speaker 1: much n C Double A tournament. Um, you know, it
Speaker 1: is the most it's the most fun you can have
Speaker 1: playing college basketball. You know it feels like it feels
Speaker 1: like that's when it feels like you become like a
Speaker 1: professional player, you know what I mean, Like when you're
Speaker 1: playing against um like you're playing in your conference schedule
Speaker 1: in everything, and you're playing against all these teams, like
Speaker 1: it's it's fun and it's really really great competition, and
Speaker 1: winning the Big Ten Championship is was, you know, up
Speaker 1: there on the top of the list of accomplishments in college.
Speaker 1: But just nothing really compares to playing in the n
Speaker 1: C Double A tournament, you know, just from you know,
Speaker 1: the traveling, you know, the teams you play against, you know,
Speaker 1: being in the region, the tournament, the selection show, the games,
Speaker 1: you know, having your basically your travel party, your families,
Speaker 1: they're just everything kind of it just feels it's just
Speaker 1: an atmosphere that everyone wants to be a part of
Speaker 1: so badly. And then you know, once you make it
Speaker 1: to the final four and you're playing in front of
Speaker 1: sixty seventy thousand people in football arenas, that's when it's
Speaker 1: that's when it's like it just like hits you that
Speaker 1: this is like this is like the peak of a
Speaker 1: lot of different things for you in your life. It's
Speaker 1: amazing you were the ninth overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 1: Take us through the drafting process for you being a
Speaker 1: ninth pick. So pretty much I played in the National
Speaker 1: championship game my senior year, so I'm in the last
Speaker 1: game of the season. So like some people would, you know,
Speaker 1: just the way pre draft workouts and pretty much I
Speaker 1: got back to campus and essentially left immediately to go
Speaker 1: train in Santa Barbara. Uh. For like I think it
Speaker 1: was like six weeks before the draft happened with the
Speaker 1: aging agency or is just just I knew who I
Speaker 1: was going to sign with once the season was over,
Speaker 1: So pretty much right when I got done, I signed
Speaker 1: with my agency the next day, and like two days later,
Speaker 1: I was pretty much on a plane and out of there. Um.
Speaker 1: And when you get out there, you know, you're obviously
Speaker 1: your training, you're going through workouts, um. And then you
Speaker 1: start workouts for teams pretty quickly after that. So I
Speaker 1: worked out I think for six teams because at that
Speaker 1: point you know pretty much you like there's no obviously
Speaker 1: there's no guarantee, but you know like what your draft
Speaker 1: range is. They give you essentially a draft grade, and
Speaker 1: mine was mine was lottery so um, I knew I
Speaker 1: was going to go somewhere, you know, one to fifteen.
Speaker 1: So you essentially start mapping out the teams do you
Speaker 1: think you fit in best for and you start working
Speaker 1: out for him. Um, and I ended up working out
Speaker 1: for six teams. I think if you work out for
Speaker 1: the one, yes and no. I didn't go to Charlotte.
Speaker 1: But agencies hold their big workout days, like they have
Speaker 1: their days where all the teams come in and watch
Speaker 1: you work out. There were scouts or executives from all
Speaker 1: thirty teams in Santa Barbara when we held like our
Speaker 1: pro day for our agency. I knew Charlotte had a
Speaker 1: lot of interest, so there was really not a huge
Speaker 1: reason to go to Charlotte and work out for them.
Speaker 1: So and then obviously they were the team that ended
Speaker 1: up drafting me, but they were at that workout in
Speaker 1: UM Santa Barbara, and I knew they had a lot
Speaker 1: of interest from there. It's stressful at the same time
Speaker 1: because like anything can happen, like a team can have
Speaker 1: I'm it's the same. I'm sure it's the same with
Speaker 1: the NFL. But like a team can have a player
Speaker 1: in mind that if someone before them takes that player,
Speaker 1: it completely changes the whole draft from then on out
Speaker 1: draft Knight was, I mean, it was I was losing
Speaker 1: it there for a little while. I just because you
Speaker 1: hear about trades and you know teams are trying to
Speaker 1: trade up, trade back. Um, you know this team is
Speaker 1: saying they're going to take you at this spot, but
Speaker 1: then you never know if that's actually gonna happen or not.
Speaker 1: There was just so many scenarios playing in my head
Speaker 1: in me like the kind of person I am, I
Speaker 1: like just cut and dry, straight to the point. I
Speaker 1: don't like the guessing game. And that was the biggest
Speaker 1: guessing game I was ever playing in my life, and
Speaker 1: I felt like I had no control. When I got
Speaker 1: drafted and my name was finally called, it was like
Speaker 1: just a big like breath, like finally like a breath
Speaker 1: of fresh air, you know what I mean, Because I
Speaker 1: had been so on edge for like a week, Because
Speaker 1: like you're in New York for like five days leading
Speaker 1: up to the draft doing all this stuff, you're just
Speaker 1: kind of like on edge, or just my personality type,
Speaker 1: I was on edge like pretty much the whole time
Speaker 1: I was there. Just wanted to hear my name called
Speaker 1: and figure out where I was going to be going.
Speaker 1: Describe your relationship with basketball today. Basketball is everything for me. Um,
Speaker 1: it's I don't want to say it's like who I
Speaker 1: am because there's so many different aspects of my life
Speaker 1: that make me who I am. But UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't get the same amount of enjoyment out of
Speaker 1: like a lot of things that I do basketball. So
Speaker 1: you know, I just you know, I'm twenty seven now
Speaker 1: and five years in. Um, I want to play this
Speaker 1: game for as long as I can. UM. I've always
Speaker 1: told like my friends and my family like basketball, just
Speaker 1: like for me. You know how Vince Carter just played
Speaker 1: until he was forty and twenty two, twenty two years.
Speaker 1: You know that's gonna be me. You know it might
Speaker 1: not be in the NBA, but I'm gonna be playing
Speaker 1: basketball until I physically can't anymore. Like that's just how
Speaker 1: much it means to me. Like it's It's taken away
Speaker 1: so many of the problems that I've ever had in
Speaker 1: my life and been like a like it has been
Speaker 1: an escape for me and it still is, Like I said,
Speaker 1: so you know, I want to keep that a part
Speaker 1: of my life for as long as I can. As
Speaker 1: I was listening to you talk, you said You're gonna
Speaker 1: play as long as you possibly can. It sounded like
Speaker 1: another comiskey. I know that sixty five years old, I
Speaker 1: am my father's son. I'll say I will say that
Speaker 1: I will play basketball. Even if I'm hunched over and
Speaker 1: walking up and down the court, I'm still gonna get
Speaker 1: out there and fire up a couple three. So I
Speaker 1: like that for me playing football. I hated football at times,
Speaker 1: I literally frank I hated sometimes the competitiveness. I hated
Speaker 1: how it made me feel. At times. I hated the
Speaker 1: fact that thurs Days I got up pretty piste off.
Speaker 1: You hated the competitveness. I hated the competitiveness because of
Speaker 1: what it what I had to awaken inside of me.
Speaker 1: A lot of the childhood issues or things that I
Speaker 1: experienced at a young age that I don't believe young
Speaker 1: men should experience. But it was what God decided to
Speaker 1: hand in my path, and it built calcul and to
Speaker 1: build a little bit of um hardening of my heart.
Speaker 1: But in that, you know, the the butterfly, the calipular.
Speaker 1: I woke in with something that I'm pretty proud of.
Speaker 1: The day is there times where you wake up, you know,
Speaker 1: upset at yourself or upset at basketball. Absolutely. I think
Speaker 1: if you love something enough, it frustrates you beyond anything that. Um.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people can understand, Like you
Speaker 1: even touched on it, like sometimes you've got to be
Speaker 1: in such whether it's a good or a bad mental place. Um,
Speaker 1: whatever drives you or whatever motivates you. Sometimes everything that
Speaker 1: motivates me isn't positive things. A lot of it's negative stuff.
Speaker 1: Like you know, way either way I'm viewed like the
Speaker 1: politics of the situation I'm in, you know what, what
Speaker 1: something that's going on in like my personal life, you know,
Speaker 1: all those things like it's not fun waking up and
Speaker 1: like going to playing a game when you know that
Speaker 1: you've got to be piste off about something to get
Speaker 1: yourself into a place where you feel like you can
Speaker 1: go out and like you've got something to prove. Like
Speaker 1: that's not always the most fun thing in the world.
Speaker 1: You know, that aspect of it is very difficult at
Speaker 1: time because it's just it's like sometimes like it's a
Speaker 1: cloud over like your entire life. I can relate, you know,
Speaker 1: I also revel in that because you know, like when
Speaker 1: you go in there and you've got problems or you've
Speaker 1: got something that's motivating you, and you go out and
Speaker 1: you have a great game, Like the feeling of reward afterwards,
Speaker 1: like the the freshness you feel, or the relief that
Speaker 1: you feel. You know that that's something I live for.
Speaker 1: I know you were enjoying it. So it's not good.
Speaker 1: But we need to take a little time. We gotta
Speaker 1: pay some bills, use a bathroom, and wash your hands,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back in a moment. You're one of
Speaker 1: the most decorated college basketball players of all time, but
Speaker 1: you're still motivated by the small things. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting to hear from you what continues to mot
Speaker 1: devate you and not just being drafted and being in
Speaker 1: the NBA. You're continually motivated day over day and not
Speaker 1: letting these accolades define you. The accolades are what they are. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I've always said this. You know, they're they're great,
Speaker 1: They're amazing. I'm happy I accomplished them, but that's not
Speaker 1: what I've kind of set out for. The thing that
Speaker 1: motivates me, the driving factor in the back of my
Speaker 1: head is I want to win a championship. You know,
Speaker 1: the one thing in college that I didn't get to
Speaker 1: add to my resume was national champion. I went to
Speaker 1: the two final fours in a row, played in the
Speaker 1: national championship game and ended up losing both times. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to finish with a championship. I don't have
Speaker 1: one yet. That's something that motivates me daily. Oh cut tour.
Speaker 1: We have this thing we call deep three. How lonely
Speaker 1: is playing professional sports sometimes very lonely, you know, especially
Speaker 1: when you're on long road trips and you know, you
Speaker 1: know me, I don't have a girlfriend. I don't have fiance,
Speaker 1: I don't have a girl. UM, I just got one
Speaker 1: friend that lives with me. Um. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: far away from your family all the time, UM, it's
Speaker 1: definitely difficult. UM, it can get very lonely. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm lucky in the sense that, you know, I have
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are always coming out, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, come to games, hanging out. You know, my
Speaker 1: dad's close to the retirement. UM, so that's something I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to. Is you know, soon my dad will
Speaker 1: be out here and then hopefully some of my family
Speaker 1: will follow wherever I am, so you know, it can
Speaker 1: definitely get really lonely. But you know, the lucky part
Speaker 1: of the money situation is you can afford to have people,
Speaker 1: you know, especially people that are important to you, be
Speaker 1: there when you need them. Why is being authentic so
Speaker 1: important to you? You know, just being who you are
Speaker 1: is you know, being unapologetically being yourself is something that's
Speaker 1: always been extremely important to me. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: ever want to change and do another person to appease someone,
Speaker 1: you know. I feel like, at this point in my life,
Speaker 1: I am who I am and if you don't like
Speaker 1: me and you go. If you don't get along with me,
Speaker 1: if if we don't see eye to eye, that's just
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna I'm not going to change
Speaker 1: who I am to make everyone happy, because I just
Speaker 1: feel like, at this point in life, you can't make
Speaker 1: every you can't satisfy everyone, you can't please everyone. Um,
Speaker 1: you gotta do what makes you happy and you're comfortable
Speaker 1: and you to be able to live the life that
Speaker 1: you want to live when you hang up those sides
Speaker 1: six teams, What do you want people to say about
Speaker 1: Frank Kamiski? Oh, that's deep, That is a deep question.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's that's hard to answer at this point. Um,
Speaker 1: you know whole. I hope that one day that you know,
Speaker 1: at least the people close to me, the people who
Speaker 1: truly know me and understand me, can sit there and
Speaker 1: say he got the most out of everything that was
Speaker 1: either given to him or he earned. UM. I think
Speaker 1: that's important, UM, because you know, obviously everybody's dealt a
Speaker 1: different hand in life. You know, I'm fortunate enough that
Speaker 1: I was dealt the height and athletic abilities that I have. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a god given talent and I'm very
Speaker 1: thankful for it, and I feel like I've utilized it
Speaker 1: very well up until this point. But I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you know, every stage of success or
Speaker 1: every stage of you know, what I've done in life,
Speaker 1: that I've handled it correctly. I think that's the most important,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, how I treat people, I've given back,
Speaker 1: you know, how I've pushed myself forward in my career,
Speaker 1: how hard I've worked. I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: you know, when it's all said and done at you
Speaker 1: can all look back and say that I did the
Speaker 1: right thing at every step. I worked my hardest and
Speaker 1: I got the most out of the situation that I've
Speaker 1: been dealt. And and I think I hope other people
Speaker 1: perceive me as just, you know, a good guy who
Speaker 1: loves playing basketball. I think if everyone saw me that way, No,
Speaker 1: I don't need really any other like gratification, you know.
Speaker 1: I hope I have that championship that I was talking
Speaker 1: about and I can add that to my resume. But um,
Speaker 1: as long as people know that I'm a like a
Speaker 1: good person who just loves playing the game, that that's
Speaker 1: good enough for me. Was there a point in your life?
Speaker 1: You know? Can I finish the question? Continue? And from
Speaker 1: the top, was there pointing your life you were playing
Speaker 1: to escape? And what were you escaping from? Sports helps
Speaker 1: you escape everything. You can unplug all together. I don't
Speaker 1: care if life is good or bad. You get to
Speaker 1: be whatever you are dreaming about at that moment. You
Speaker 1: get to act it out in real life. That's why
Speaker 1: sports is so captivating. That's why sports is such an
Speaker 1: entertainment business. That so many people, so many sponsors, so
Speaker 1: many fans, dumped so many dollars into it because I
Speaker 1: was always trying to escape, the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is we were poor, we were on section eight on
Speaker 1: food stamps. Mom was in some bad relationships and it
Speaker 1: reflected us and it impacted us every freaking day of
Speaker 1: the week. So yeah, I thrived in sports. Sports was
Speaker 1: the only place that I can let my hair down
Speaker 1: and and and press forward and kicking, hit and run
Speaker 1: and jump in. I wasn't being looked at the wrong way,
Speaker 1: and so I I really love sports. I think sports
Speaker 1: is one of those places that you can be yourself
Speaker 1: for that moment. You can have dialogue and conversations in
Speaker 1: your head and no one gets to judge. Here. You
Speaker 1: can even respond in a way at times that in
Speaker 1: real life is not appropriate, but as sports, it's called passion.
Speaker 1: Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior, That Is Me
Speaker 1: is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: From Cut to It Executive producer Steve Smith, singor co
Speaker 1: host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: social media manager Peyton Smith. From Balto Creative Media, Cut
Speaker 1: to It is deduced by Brian Faltaschevitch and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, production manager Sarah Pollock.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then, we're about to let you.
Speaker 1: Now it's all