Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime. Hey man,
Speaker 1: we got a special guest today, Man North of the Border,
Speaker 1: Toronto Raptor NBA Champ Fleet Man, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Bro Yes, sir, thanks for having me. Man, glad to
Speaker 1: be here. Man, appreciate your time. Bro Jack, let's get
Speaker 1: to it. Let's go right to bleat. Just decide this tide.
Speaker 1: My homeboy said, been bleated, been bleat? What is French?
Speaker 1: Is that French? I think it's Dutch, but I really
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah that somebody told me it was Dutch.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna go with that. It's fancy playing the game.
Speaker 1: And when he scored and we say ben bleat, ben bleat,
Speaker 1: here we go back. So how the season going so far? Uh?
Speaker 1: And what does it like have to see I come back?
Speaker 1: The season going good? I mean we started off decent um,
Speaker 1: we just lost so not so good right now. But
Speaker 1: just having Pe back, getting him back in the flow.
Speaker 1: I think he missed the first teen games. Uh. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big part of what we do obviously,
Speaker 1: So just getting him back, working him back in and
Speaker 1: seeing kind of how the chemistry and the rotation is
Speaker 1: gonna go from there. Um, but I think we got
Speaker 1: a shot the team. Now half of the best gone.
Speaker 1: You know, you have Litry gone, you got the Mark gone.
Speaker 1: And it's a big change. But you been you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, coming from the bottom and now having
Speaker 1: that role as being a leader. You know, it took me,
Speaker 1: I think what eight years to my career time became
Speaker 1: a captain of a team when I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: stay with Matt. But having that role now, what what
Speaker 1: what changes for you? And what's your approach? Your approach different,
Speaker 1: It's a little different. I think I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: more mindful, like what I'm doing when I'm not talking,
Speaker 1: you know what i mean. Like I've always been vocal,
Speaker 1: since I've been playing, since I've been getting minutes, I
Speaker 1: was always vocal. But I think now like I'm just noticing,
Speaker 1: you know, it's more eyes and they're kind of watching
Speaker 1: your body language and things that you do when you're
Speaker 1: not speaking, Like all eyes is on you at all times.
Speaker 1: And it's different because like you said, we don't really
Speaker 1: got vets, you know what I mean. It's me Pascal.
Speaker 1: And then I think it's tragic and that's it. So
Speaker 1: it's like I'm teaching guys how to do layup lines
Speaker 1: and teaching them to plays and you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like, it ain't just on the court, it's
Speaker 1: it's everything and on the court off the court. And
Speaker 1: that's been probably the biggest challenges, just pulling guys along
Speaker 1: that don't really have uh point of reference or nothing
Speaker 1: to compare it to. This is really their first experience
Speaker 1: in the league. Yeah, Matt. Matt said it all the time.
Speaker 1: It's it's not the it's not what we came into.
Speaker 1: We came in league. It was a lot of vets,
Speaker 1: We had a lot of guidance, We had a lot
Speaker 1: of guidance. How did you find your game? You know,
Speaker 1: what made you fall in love with the game and
Speaker 1: who did you out of Lize Growing up? I was
Speaker 1: five years old when I first started really playing, and um,
Speaker 1: my dad was a hooper and then my brother, my
Speaker 1: older brothers three years older than me, so he got
Speaker 1: into basketball right before me. Um, so I was watching
Speaker 1: them and we would just you know, we would go
Speaker 1: out and playing the driveaway things like that. Um. And
Speaker 1: then like my first memories was. Um. I think it
Speaker 1: was the Lakers uh Sixers finals. You know, I was
Speaker 1: a little boy, and I just felt I just fell
Speaker 1: in love with Coke and fell in love with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and it was It was all she wrote after that.
Speaker 1: So Um, I really only was ever like a fan
Speaker 1: of Kobe growing up. Um, And as I got older,
Speaker 1: I started to to add different things from everybody. So
Speaker 1: I used to I used to get the Slam magazines
Speaker 1: and put them on my wall. You know, they had
Speaker 1: the big cutout, so I have Jay kidd Um, Kobe, Ai,
Speaker 1: uh d Will, all the like, all the guards, chaunts,
Speaker 1: all the guards that that. I felt like I could
Speaker 1: take something from that game. And I just put them
Speaker 1: on my wall in my bedroom and I watched the
Speaker 1: game go outside practice, you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: just try to add as much as I could. And
Speaker 1: it's just funny because I don't really have like the
Speaker 1: body type of an NBA player, but like I was
Speaker 1: adding the footwork and the and the angles and things
Speaker 1: like that, you know, the whole time. Born in Rockford,
Speaker 1: about ninety miles out of Chicago, What was it light
Speaker 1: growing up? You mentioned you had an older brother, What
Speaker 1: was your childhood, Like my childhood was split, so like
Speaker 1: my dad was killed when I was five, UM, so
Speaker 1: then it was just it was just me and my
Speaker 1: mom and my brother. We grew up kind of like
Speaker 1: on the white side of town. And then my mom
Speaker 1: met my stepdad when I was like ten, UM, and
Speaker 1: then we moved over to the other side of the town. UM.
Speaker 1: And my stepdad was a cop. So like I had,
Speaker 1: I had. I had both worlds. Like my biological dad
Speaker 1: was in the streets, my stepdad was a cop. So
Speaker 1: it's like I got to experience a lot of different
Speaker 1: things at an early age, and I've seen a lot,
Speaker 1: done a lot UM. But you know, the one thing
Speaker 1: that was always constant was just basketball. I just try
Speaker 1: to stay out the way. UM. And as I kept
Speaker 1: kept growing up, like I was safe at home. I
Speaker 1: always tell people I was safe at home. Home was
Speaker 1: was safe for me. But when I went outside, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I still had to manage and
Speaker 1: get it on my own. And so that's kind of
Speaker 1: like where my stripes as far as just life and
Speaker 1: being a man um growing up. You know, seeing fourteen
Speaker 1: year old boys getting killed like that, that was normal
Speaker 1: at that time. UM. And then as I got older,
Speaker 1: I started to look back like, damn, that show was
Speaker 1: sucked up. But at the time, you really don't know
Speaker 1: no better, you know what I mean. So I just
Speaker 1: always focused on on the game. And my parents they
Speaker 1: couldn't afford for us to go to school, so they
Speaker 1: just told us play basketball, get a scholarship, and go
Speaker 1: from there. But I always wanted to be in the NBA.
Speaker 1: You know, as early as I can remember. Talk to
Speaker 1: a little bit about your stepfather. Uh, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of his guidance your guys early morning workouts. Uh, and
Speaker 1: what he kind of steal did you from that kind
Speaker 1: of standpoint. Yeah, So he was, uh, he was like
Speaker 1: a military nut, you know what I mean. Like he
Speaker 1: was he joined military like nineteen, then he went boxing
Speaker 1: in the military, came back, started being a police officer. Um.
Speaker 1: And so he was real strict like and still in
Speaker 1: discipline and respecting morals and values and things like that.
Speaker 1: So a part of that ended up being, um, you
Speaker 1: know these basketball work grass, once we start taking basketball seriously,
Speaker 1: I'll wake us up, take us to the gym. And
Speaker 1: he didn't really know too much, but he was learning
Speaker 1: on the fly, like he was getting DVDs and all
Speaker 1: the things back then. We would watch the DVDs and
Speaker 1: learn the drills and go to these different camps and
Speaker 1: try to build just our our our knowledge up. And
Speaker 1: he really just took the time out for all of
Speaker 1: us boys. It was four boys in the house and
Speaker 1: he would just put us through the ringer. We was
Speaker 1: doing all types of workouts and you know, whether it
Speaker 1: was like doing just doing push ups to the setups
Speaker 1: or doing cone drills. We played one on one with
Speaker 1: waite vests on full court, and I was I was
Speaker 1: the you know, the little brother with my two older
Speaker 1: brothers because my younger brother he wasn't really into it
Speaker 1: like that, but the older two and they just be
Speaker 1: me up. We'll be fighting, you know, fist fighting. And
Speaker 1: that's just how I went. And that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: how like I got my toughness. Talk about your high
Speaker 1: school days at Auburn High School and Rock, Illinois. You
Speaker 1: have alburn to a twenty two game win streak, which
Speaker 1: was outing in the school's first Illinois High School Association
Speaker 1: findal forces nine to seventy five. How was it in
Speaker 1: high school? High school was cool? So again, like I
Speaker 1: come in, you know, I'm like the best talent in
Speaker 1: the city I come in. I got a great high
Speaker 1: school coach, old fashioned, uh coach, you know defense first
Speaker 1: teach you how to play man and man all of
Speaker 1: that stuff. In my ninth grade year, I thought I
Speaker 1: was supposed to be playing varsity. Hedn't let me play varsity. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So like I had to deal with all that, and
Speaker 1: my older brothers was both on the varsity team. I
Speaker 1: ended up playing varsity like halfway through the year and
Speaker 1: just just went from there. But it's a smaller town,
Speaker 1: so like the you know, the eyes ain't really on
Speaker 1: it like that. Everybody just go to Chicago UM to
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, get the talent. So we always
Speaker 1: had that chip and UM I just always just focused
Speaker 1: on winning and and we want a ton of games.
Speaker 1: I was able to take them down state uh my
Speaker 1: senior year like you said, and um, I was just
Speaker 1: trying to get in school and also help help all
Speaker 1: my guys that I was playing with get in school
Speaker 1: as well. You stay loyal to your au team, the
Speaker 1: rock your rocker team. You don't want to You could
Speaker 1: have had an opportunity to go to the biggest team
Speaker 1: a you team in Chicago, what you child to child
Speaker 1: to stay lawal. A lot of people don't do that,
Speaker 1: but me, I was big on laws as well, knowing
Speaker 1: that I could have won other places. I went to
Speaker 1: Okaire my senior year. But a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: understand how how important it is and how the love
Speaker 1: you've been with people, especially people that you start with,
Speaker 1: and to give some success and leave them, that's just
Speaker 1: something that we don't do, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So what was your thought process we were staying loyal
Speaker 1: to your rocker team? Man? You said it, like it's
Speaker 1: just who I am, you know, as a man. And
Speaker 1: like I think I grew up really fast, so I
Speaker 1: was kind of more mature at that age. So like
Speaker 1: when they came and dropped the big bag, the big
Speaker 1: Defel bag with all the shoes and gear and all that,
Speaker 1: like that didn't really move me. Like I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: go leave my guys just because y'all have some fresh
Speaker 1: shoes and uniforms and they're really What it boils down
Speaker 1: to the most is two things. Number one was we
Speaker 1: was competing with them, Like when we go to the tournament,
Speaker 1: this team that I got, we were playing in the
Speaker 1: same championship game now win to lose whatever, the same
Speaker 1: scouts they beat there on them sundays watching them championship games.
Speaker 1: The schools come to see the championship Brackett, and we
Speaker 1: was always in those games. So I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: even if y'all are better than us, y'all ain't that
Speaker 1: much better than us. So I'm not leaving. And then
Speaker 1: number two was these are the guys that I'm rubbing
Speaker 1: shoulders where every day. It's one of my guys, Like
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna say his name on here, but this
Speaker 1: is this is the guy who was pulling pistols out
Speaker 1: for me. Like, how I'm gonna leave him? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like we walking out of school, How
Speaker 1: how can I leave him when we gotta walk these
Speaker 1: same hallways and you know, I'm dropping him off, you know,
Speaker 1: at his house, and he come pulling up to my house.
Speaker 1: I can't. I ain't gonna be there, look at him
Speaker 1: in his face if I'm leaving and going down the
Speaker 1: street to play for just a bigger name. When my
Speaker 1: goal was always the NBA. My goal wasn't to go
Speaker 1: to a power five school or a big school like
Speaker 1: I just was like, where can I go to play
Speaker 1: and get to the NBA? And it worked out for me.
Speaker 1: What college was recruiting you any member of stories from
Speaker 1: college recruitment. Yeah, So I had a lot of like
Speaker 1: mid majors early on my first couple of years. Um,
Speaker 1: I remember I went, I had two experiences, So I
Speaker 1: was getting I was getting those questionnaires that that they
Speaker 1: I don't know what they do now, but um, when
Speaker 1: I was in high school, they would sending these, uh,
Speaker 1: these questionnaires and you would get the letter and the
Speaker 1: letter would had a school name on it. So my
Speaker 1: first couple of ones was like Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Illinois. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I'm lit Like, I'm thinking this is
Speaker 1: an offer, so I'll never forget. I go to I
Speaker 1: go to Illinois for a visit. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: eight other guys there on a visit with me something
Speaker 1: looking like man, I thought this was just for me,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like eight other kids there,
Speaker 1: So we're cool. We go, we go to the little
Speaker 1: cookout and then Wisconsin. We went to Wisconsin and it
Speaker 1: was like fifteen guys on that visit and I never
Speaker 1: even talked to I think bo Ryan was a coach there.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I even talked to him while
Speaker 1: I was there. I talked to the assistant and then
Speaker 1: I just remember me and my mom, we was going
Speaker 1: we were supposed to go to the football game, um,
Speaker 1: and we just kind of we wasn't feeling the vibe.
Speaker 1: So we just told, all right, we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: the bathroom, and me and my mom we just did.
Speaker 1: We got in the car and we went home like
Speaker 1: we was like, we're cool, Like we're not We're not
Speaker 1: rolling like that. So after that, that was like my
Speaker 1: freshman year of high school. After that, I just started
Speaker 1: focusing on the schools that was really interested in me.
Speaker 1: So it boiled down to like Wichita State, Colorado State,
Speaker 1: and a few others, and then I committed early because
Speaker 1: I didn't like the recruiting process. So once I committed,
Speaker 1: and that's when like some other schools came along, Kansas
Speaker 1: and Virginia things like that, but I was already locked
Speaker 1: in with what you've been read. It did with the
Speaker 1: resurgence of Wichita basketball. I actually remember watching your your
Speaker 1: two thousand, twelve and thirteen seas and I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: who's this little light skinning European cat because I hear
Speaker 1: your last name and I obviously didn't know you couldn't
Speaker 1: respect this nig is out here killing. But y'all with
Speaker 1: thirty one and ooh uh for the first time Indivisional
Speaker 1: one history, you left them and assist. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it was never really about the big name. Your goal
Speaker 1: was to get to the league. So what was your
Speaker 1: college experience like? Because you put in a lot of
Speaker 1: work in college. Again, my college experience was great. And
Speaker 1: it's crazy because it's like it's the same pattern everywhere
Speaker 1: I went from high school, college and the pro. So
Speaker 1: when I when I went to Wichita, I was like
Speaker 1: a top one hunter recruit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm like the biggest recruit they had there. And I
Speaker 1: get there and the start of point guard was like
Speaker 1: I was eighteen from Malcolm Armstad, he was twenty three,
Speaker 1: He had just transferred from Oregon. He was like a
Speaker 1: fifth year senior, one of them type of guys and man,
Speaker 1: he used to bust my ass every day, like every day,
Speaker 1: and that was humbling for me because like I'm not
Speaker 1: ready yet, not ready yet, But I just kept working.
Speaker 1: I locked in with him. I learned a lot. Um
Speaker 1: and Greg Marshall, who was who was a great coach. Um,
Speaker 1: he taught me a lot about just you know, how
Speaker 1: to play the game the right way and how to win.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, I was able to learn that
Speaker 1: at an early point, you know, eighteen nineteen years old.
Speaker 1: So by the time I did get my chance that
Speaker 1: next year where I could run the show, I was sharp.
Speaker 1: I was already ready to go. And and it was
Speaker 1: you know, all she wrote after that, which is how
Speaker 1: I stayed is good at recruiting my sister. My sister
Speaker 1: was probably the top ten in the country, and she
Speaker 1: saw which stayed. Then they they recruited me and I
Speaker 1: almost went there. But one thing about that school, they
Speaker 1: do great. They do a good job at recruiting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a hell of an atmosphere and there's
Speaker 1: no football. Um, it's really nothing else. Like the basketball
Speaker 1: team is like a ProTeam. They really treated like a
Speaker 1: pro team in which it's all ten thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: people come out, sell out every night, preseason, exhibition, it
Speaker 1: don't matter. Um. And that's what drew it to me
Speaker 1: when I went on my visit. I went there and
Speaker 1: I could just feel the community. You know, they fly
Speaker 1: chartered like it's really like a big time program. Um people,
Speaker 1: you just gotta go there to see it, because when
Speaker 1: you think of Wichita, Kansas, you think of like Tumbleweez
Speaker 1: and Coyle Boys and stuff like that. Right, it really
Speaker 1: is not like that. Once you go on your visit there,
Speaker 1: it's it's decent. Jack, You know, goddamn well, you wasn't
Speaker 1: going to know, mother, I was going to which state
Speaker 1: because I was in junior college at the time, So
Speaker 1: it made it look good. And we had we had
Speaker 1: a lot of junior college guys too. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, you know, I got a
Speaker 1: chance to go to u C. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the time. To knock on these divisions are that
Speaker 1: you guys really don't play anybody during the regular season,
Speaker 1: who whoa, whoa. But then you guys get into the
Speaker 1: into the tournament and your team particularly made a run
Speaker 1: to the final four. What was that? What I mean,
Speaker 1: what was it like getting in the tournament and really
Speaker 1: starting to play these bigger teams and knocking them off. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a double edged sort. So it is true, like
Speaker 1: the talent level is a big gap in a talent level, like,
Speaker 1: let's not I I'm not gonna sit up here in
Speaker 1: a live But at the same time, the coaching is
Speaker 1: better and the attention to detail is better because it
Speaker 1: is less talent. So we were putting ourselves through the
Speaker 1: grinder all year with less talented teams. But like we
Speaker 1: were in every conference game, the other team know every
Speaker 1: player you're gonna run, they know all your tennessee'es, they
Speaker 1: know you scott a report like, it's just much more intense.
Speaker 1: So by the time we got to the tournament, man,
Speaker 1: we're playing these big power five teams and we we
Speaker 1: usually undersize. They got these big guys, they can't guard.
Speaker 1: They soft. You know what I'm saying. The coaching is
Speaker 1: not the game plan is not what it should be.
Speaker 1: So we're super locked in. When it's time to go,
Speaker 1: it's time to go. We're hungry because we've been waiting
Speaker 1: on this, Like we can't get these teams to schedule
Speaker 1: us during the regular seas and nobody wants to play
Speaker 1: us during the regular season, so in the tournament you
Speaker 1: can't run. So you know, we're just waiting on this
Speaker 1: all year. And add to the fact that we had
Speaker 1: a good collection of talent, especially in my four years there.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a few NBA guys, so um,
Speaker 1: we just we just relies on the moment and really
Speaker 1: just went out there like, you know, play like we
Speaker 1: needed it because we did. Did it ever cross your
Speaker 1: mind to to to leave early? Or was four years
Speaker 1: kind of I'm gonna take these four years and see
Speaker 1: what happens after. No, if like knowing what I know now,
Speaker 1: I would have been left. But I didn't really understand
Speaker 1: how it worked. So my sophomore year, I had a
Speaker 1: decent year, UM, and I remember I think it was
Speaker 1: me and uh Tyler Ennis and we had like identical
Speaker 1: stats and he was at Syracuse and I was at
Speaker 1: Wichita and he ended up getting drafted, I think in
Speaker 1: the first round. But um, I really wanted to leave
Speaker 1: after my sophomore year. That was the first time scouts
Speaker 1: and agents started to come around. But I missed a
Speaker 1: buzzer beater against Kentucky UM in the tournament, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, man, I can't let that be the
Speaker 1: end of my college career, Like that's crazy. So UM,
Speaker 1: I end up coming back. UM, and then my junior
Speaker 1: year again I wanted to leave again, but I was
Speaker 1: I was the man at Wichita, like I was living
Speaker 1: really good in school. We had a great program, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make it back to the final Force.
Speaker 1: I end up staying um all four years just because
Speaker 1: my experience was so um fun and good in college
Speaker 1: and I didn't really want to leave that to go, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to take a chance at the league when
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure should I feel that I was at
Speaker 1: U c L. I felt like I took a pay
Speaker 1: cut because I went to the league and then got
Speaker 1: cut and went to the it went to the motherfucking
Speaker 1: D League. I'd rather be at Westwood and this bulls exactly.
Speaker 1: You said, it's for real. You declapped the draft in
Speaker 1: sen you went undrafted. I know what that's like. I
Speaker 1: got I got drafted second to last pick and got
Speaker 1: cut and meet it. Didn't even get a chance to play.
Speaker 1: So I know it is that. Like you turned two,
Speaker 1: you turned down two offers to the D League too
Speaker 1: for two years. What was your mind frame doing all that? Like?
Speaker 1: Were you thinking like I still got a lot to
Speaker 1: prove on Maybe it's not for me. No, I was
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out an angle to get in
Speaker 1: the door, Like I saw, so you know I did.
Speaker 1: I really was just mad at my agent, to be honest,
Speaker 1: because I did eighteen draft workouts, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like I went into eighteen different teams in
Speaker 1: thirty days. So I was on the road for a
Speaker 1: whole month just trying to get a crack at it.
Speaker 1: And then like the day before the draft, he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you might not get a drafted, right, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the funk did I just do all
Speaker 1: that for? So, uh, we had to we had to adjust,
Speaker 1: and it was just a matter of like finding a
Speaker 1: good summer league team UM and seeing somewhere rock a
Speaker 1: showcase and and and get it off at UM. That
Speaker 1: team ended up being Toronto, and they was up front.
Speaker 1: They was like, listen, you know you got a chance
Speaker 1: to make the team. We're gonna bring you the training camp.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get a shot. And we're like, alright, bet
Speaker 1: that's it. That's all I need. And then everything just
Speaker 1: kind of kind of fell fell into my lap after that,
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately for him, but fortunate for me. The
Speaker 1: lone Wright had got hurt in summer league. You tore
Speaker 1: shoulder up, so he was out like six months. UM.
Speaker 1: Coach Casey he liked to keep three point guards, so
Speaker 1: I ended up being a third point guard UM at
Speaker 1: the time. And then once I got the training camp,
Speaker 1: it was it was a rap after that because I
Speaker 1: was too I was too hungry, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: they needed somebody to push Kyle, and I just ended
Speaker 1: up being that guy to come in the door first
Speaker 1: day and just you know, I was. I was at
Speaker 1: kyle neck and I think he respected it and everybody
Speaker 1: else respected it. You hear about how hard, how hard
Speaker 1: Kyle works, and uh, you know what kind of leader
Speaker 1: he is. What did you learn UM under him? UM
Speaker 1: as you were under not under him like that, but
Speaker 1: you like under his kind of tuledge as a young player,
Speaker 1: because like I said, he's known around the league for
Speaker 1: you know, the work he puts into, how hard he plays,
Speaker 1: and I love to hear from day one he was
Speaker 1: at his neck. Yeah, so like he was just the
Speaker 1: the ultimate pro in terms of that guy who is
Speaker 1: gonna do everything that you think you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: He gonna do that and something. So like I was always, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, apolished, come come in early, state late kind
Speaker 1: of guy. So I just remember, you know, training camp.
Speaker 1: I get there like two hours before practice. He already
Speaker 1: done working out with the Norman tech on his legs,
Speaker 1: so he hadn't been in there three four hours early already.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, damn, okay, that's what it taken. Now.
Speaker 1: He wasn't working the harder and camp, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. He was a vet, but he would come
Speaker 1: in super early, get his work done, and then you
Speaker 1: know he would chill. So. Um, I just learned like
Speaker 1: everything everything that I know really in the league. Like
Speaker 1: I learned a lot from Kyle, and not not really
Speaker 1: about my game, but just y'all know how to go
Speaker 1: like how to move um, business things, family things, um.
Speaker 1: You know how to work out, just your your routine,
Speaker 1: you know how to how to recover. Um. He just
Speaker 1: he just taught me so a lot and taught me
Speaker 1: so much. And it was him and him and DeMar
Speaker 1: so I kind of had like dying and na Yang
Speaker 1: because the Mars is totally different from Kyle um, and
Speaker 1: I just got the best of both worlds with both
Speaker 1: of them. I think what you said there's important though,
Speaker 1: because I kind of feel like, you know, as you're
Speaker 1: like a vet on the team. Now, although you learn
Speaker 1: from some O G s, the game doesn't have that
Speaker 1: very much anymore. And you said it wasn't someone about
Speaker 1: your game, it was everything else. And I feel like
Speaker 1: that's what gets sucked up and missing from some of
Speaker 1: these young players. They don't get a chance to learn
Speaker 1: everything else, how to care yourself, how to recover what
Speaker 1: dudes and don't, how to move. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, Jack and I brought it up earlier in
Speaker 1: the interview, I feel like that's kind of what's missing.
Speaker 1: So it's dope that you've got to learn under two
Speaker 1: pro pro and two bets. Yeah, it is what's missing.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, the guys who's making these
Speaker 1: decisions they don't know. So it's like these front office
Speaker 1: people they really don't understand that aspect of the locker
Speaker 1: room um, and they don't really care, like at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, because they are they're gonna let
Speaker 1: you trip and stumble and fumble. They're not even gonna
Speaker 1: say nothing. They're just gonna sit back. They're gonna they're
Speaker 1: gonna sit back and watch like, al yeah, he's an idiot,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna cut you when it's time to
Speaker 1: cut you or not extend you, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So they moved towards with the two way contracts and
Speaker 1: and they're moving towards giving these young guys opportunity, which
Speaker 1: is good as well, but there's a huge part of
Speaker 1: the game that's missing, which is like teaching these young
Speaker 1: kids how to be men and teaching them how to
Speaker 1: be mintside the n b A and um, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: it obviously because we have a really young team. But
Speaker 1: I'm just happy that I did have that. Like I
Speaker 1: had a lot of vets when I when I came
Speaker 1: into the league, when you gotta signed with the Raptors
Speaker 1: after some of the and uh did you ever think
Speaker 1: you have to go play in the D League? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they told me like that was you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So this high was presented, like fifty thousand
Speaker 1: for the training camps. I'm like, all right, cool, fifty gez,
Speaker 1: I'll take that. You know, no problems like fifty If
Speaker 1: you get cut, then you're gonna run the G League team.
Speaker 1: In my head, I'm like, I'm not even gonna make
Speaker 1: it that far. I'm gonna make the team. So I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't really think that far ahead. But when
Speaker 1: the opportunity came, I'm like, all right, man, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go down here, I'm gonna kill I'm gonna shoot thirty
Speaker 1: times and then I'm gonna come back. But we had Stacked.
Speaker 1: Stack was our coach. Stackhouse was our was our coach.
Speaker 1: So when I went down there, it was like I
Speaker 1: went back to college, you know what I mean. Stack
Speaker 1: wasn't He wasn't just letting me rock out, like shoot
Speaker 1: the ball a hundred times and just get to shoot
Speaker 1: off like. He was like, no, you're gonna play the
Speaker 1: right way. And um, me and him had you know,
Speaker 1: our back and force, and our relationship grew, and he
Speaker 1: just taught me a lot as far as like you
Speaker 1: know how how that era y'all era of basketball see
Speaker 1: the game. And he come from a long line of
Speaker 1: lineage of great coaches and people that he's played alongside.
Speaker 1: So I just got to soak up all of that game.
Speaker 1: But it made me sharp, like the G League made
Speaker 1: me made me. Uh that's really what made me like
Speaker 1: go play like I don't give a funk about nothing
Speaker 1: because I hadn't been down there. And when you're down there,
Speaker 1: you have to have that mentality like you can't you
Speaker 1: can't go down there trying to be cute and and
Speaker 1: and just get through the game because it's you can't win.
Speaker 1: Like if you go down there, you play the right way,
Speaker 1: you had ten points, thinking like, man, you only had
Speaker 1: ten points. If you go down there and you score forty.
Speaker 1: They being like it was the G League, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like that, so it's the way over.
Speaker 1: So that that kind of made my mind even more sharper.
Speaker 1: It just made me like, when I get my chance,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just go for it. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: had to experience that. Like I said, I got drafted
Speaker 1: and went to the it was the D League. Back
Speaker 1: in that ship was fucking terrible. I mean, there was
Speaker 1: already that chip of but I'm thinking I'm talking back
Speaker 1: oh too. So we were busting everywhere, nasty hotels, eating
Speaker 1: horrible and I'm just like, this is not for me.
Speaker 1: And that was like the all the fire I needed,
Speaker 1: Like after that funk that I was on mission, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It ended up, you know, playing
Speaker 1: fourteen years in the league. But it's sometimes it takes that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it takes that fire that fuck
Speaker 1: you either me or you, And you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's what made me appreciate everything. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I love you because I could tell you play every
Speaker 1: game like it's your last because you you had to
Speaker 1: get it out the mud. You weren't a lottery pick.
Speaker 1: You weren't. It wasn't sweet for you, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And that's really for all of us on
Speaker 1: on on this screen right now, is the way we
Speaker 1: play was because of the way we brought up in
Speaker 1: this game. You know what I mean. I'm not even
Speaker 1: talking about childhood, but I'm talking about like it wasn't
Speaker 1: handed to us at the beginning. So that's why we
Speaker 1: can surpass some of these number one picks or lottery
Speaker 1: picks or first round picks because they're not hungry. They
Speaker 1: don't know what that other side is like exactly now
Speaker 1: you you said it and I got that. It's crazy
Speaker 1: because like, um, I never met an NBA player or
Speaker 1: seen an NBA game until I was THEMN there in
Speaker 1: my twenties, you know, when I was in college, so
Speaker 1: like I just had to study everything that I could
Speaker 1: get interviews, um DVDs. I remember they used to have
Speaker 1: an NBA Crossover DVD. I used to have that, UM,
Speaker 1: And I just remember I was a real young kid
Speaker 1: and I seen a I do an interview and he
Speaker 1: was talking about, like, you know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I could live, you know, knowing that I
Speaker 1: did in my way, And he said that, and then
Speaker 1: he also said, I go out there and play every
Speaker 1: game like it's my last. And like I remember, I
Speaker 1: couldn't have been none but like eight or nine years old,
Speaker 1: but like that's stuck with me to this day, and
Speaker 1: I really try to try to play like that. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I think that that makes a big difference when you're
Speaker 1: out there, because you're not you're playing it with a
Speaker 1: pure heart and you're really leaving it all on the line.
Speaker 1: And UM, it's not that many that do that, you
Speaker 1: know these days, but the ones that do that, those
Speaker 1: those are the special ones. They stand out. What was
Speaker 1: what was your welcome to the NBA moment? I had
Speaker 1: a few, but the first one was UM preseason, preseason. UM. Again,
Speaker 1: I was trying to make the team. It was like
Speaker 1: our second to last preseason game. We're playing the Clippers,
Speaker 1: uh CP Blake and all them. I was like, like
Speaker 1: I said, I was the third point guard. So you know,
Speaker 1: I usually ain't checking into like the second half of
Speaker 1: the game, and me and Kyle we're not really that
Speaker 1: that close at this time, so I didn't know he
Speaker 1: wasn't playing. You know, a guy's don't play all the
Speaker 1: preseason games. So we're standing in the huddle, um case,
Speaker 1: drawing up to play, and he write my name on
Speaker 1: the board just before the tip off, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: like fun, like, yeah, y'all, I wasn't gonna tell me
Speaker 1: I was starting. So so I'm I'm taking I'm taking
Speaker 1: my warm up is stuff all. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get ready. So I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: bet So now I'm out there. I'm nervous as hill
Speaker 1: and this Chris Paul. You know what I'm saying, this
Speaker 1: is this is CP for me. This is like this
Speaker 1: as good as it gets. So, man, he wasn't even shooting.
Speaker 1: I think he had like thirteen points at halftime. He
Speaker 1: was double crossing me, spinning me around. They used to
Speaker 1: run uh a little high the little high double drag
Speaker 1: at the top Blake in DJ, and he was rejecting.
Speaker 1: I was trying, man, I was spinning around. I was
Speaker 1: so lost, and I just remember being in the locker
Speaker 1: room at half time. I was just like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is this is a different level right here. He wasn't
Speaker 1: he wasn't even like trying to killed, but he knew
Speaker 1: that I was a rookie, so he was like he
Speaker 1: was letting me know, you know what I'm saying that,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't. It wasn't that many guys that's dummy
Speaker 1: like that, but CP definitely he got me. So outside
Speaker 1: of your team, I mean it may be what you
Speaker 1: just said, but outside of your teammate, any of your
Speaker 1: teammates who were you and off when you first came
Speaker 1: in the league. Definitely Um, Definitely, Brian Um, Definitely Katie Um,
Speaker 1: Definitely Steph Kyrie. Um. Yeah, those those guys. But it's
Speaker 1: like it was really my first half of my rookie
Speaker 1: year because I was on the bench. So when I
Speaker 1: was on the bench and I knew I wasn't playing,
Speaker 1: I could just I could just enjoy the game, like
Speaker 1: I ain't you know what I'm saying, I ain't even
Speaker 1: really in compete mode, Like when I'm on the court,
Speaker 1: I'm hating on everybody like man mass movement. I was
Speaker 1: like you know what I'm saying, I'm hating. But when
Speaker 1: I'm on the bench I'm watching, I'm like, yo, like
Speaker 1: these dudes they big, bro, Like this is like real giants.
Speaker 1: That was Portzingis when Portzinger still had his his buzz
Speaker 1: around him in New York. Um, just like seeing how
Speaker 1: big guys was and just how actil and just how
Speaker 1: special they was to touch. Um yeah it was, Uh
Speaker 1: it was. It was a lot of guys early on.
Speaker 1: But then once I started playing out, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't really look at it like that. Mm hmm nineteen,
Speaker 1: what was the team? Like headed into that season, we
Speaker 1: was all kind of like, uh, still trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, what it was gonna be because up until
Speaker 1: that point, like all we had heard was obviously we
Speaker 1: traded themar which was a big deal. You know, this
Speaker 1: is this is the martest is the realist dude that
Speaker 1: I've ever met in this world in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: the basketball world and professional world. Like this is a
Speaker 1: real dude. He gets it. Um we trade him. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, like how this this is how this goes?
Speaker 1: Like this the dude, this is the this guy dedicated
Speaker 1: his world to this team. And y'all trade him like that,
Speaker 1: and then the only thing we've seen was, ka, I
Speaker 1: don't want to come. You don't want to be here.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be here. So you know me,
Speaker 1: I'm looking like, what ship we don't want you? Damn bro,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be here? Like it is what
Speaker 1: it is, you know what I'm saying. But again, we
Speaker 1: didn't know. We never spoke him, I never met him.
Speaker 1: When he came, it was all love. He came and
Speaker 1: he worked his butt off. He was He's a special,
Speaker 1: special talent and special individual. And from the day, first
Speaker 1: day of training camp, we knew we had a chance
Speaker 1: to win the championship. Like when you know, you just
Speaker 1: know it's just a filling in the gym. Everybody know it.
Speaker 1: The trainers know it, you know what, the coaches know it,
Speaker 1: that the staff know it, and I think everything just
Speaker 1: aligned to that. And I think we made the trade
Speaker 1: for mircosol like halfway through, so that just added a
Speaker 1: little bit more um. But yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: one of them things where it's like we just had
Speaker 1: to make it to the end because we knew we
Speaker 1: had a chance from the outside looking in. Jack got
Speaker 1: to play with the young Kauai. I never got to
Speaker 1: play with him. I got to play against him. What
Speaker 1: does he like when you actually in practice and in
Speaker 1: the locker room and that kind of ship because he
Speaker 1: gives off one persona kind of similar to how Kobe was.
Speaker 1: And then when I got a chance to really know Kobe,
Speaker 1: it was night and day of what everyone thought of him. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: same the same thing. You got it. Like, like Kauai
Speaker 1: was super regular. He was super regular. Like now he
Speaker 1: ain't to do what that's gonna walk in the room
Speaker 1: and dap everybody, Hell, what's up y'all? What's going on? Like,
Speaker 1: he ain't doing that. But if you if you go
Speaker 1: to him and try to bust it up with him,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have a convo with you. And he's actually
Speaker 1: he's super funny. He's super regular. He liked to do
Speaker 1: all the ship that we like to do. He just
Speaker 1: don't tell nobody about it. He don't play social media
Speaker 1: and he don't he don't like doing a bunch of interviews. Um.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that I took from him was
Speaker 1: that he would come in and he would do his workout.
Speaker 1: And that's the only time that I saw like the
Speaker 1: robot thing where like he would I would see him
Speaker 1: take thirty pull up jumpers going right at the same speed,
Speaker 1: like like clockwork, clockwork, clockwork. He going the same speed.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. He's not going fast, He's
Speaker 1: just going at his page. He's getting to a spot,
Speaker 1: he pulling up. He going to a spot, he pulling up.
Speaker 1: He's not missing. So I'll just I used to just
Speaker 1: sit on the side and just watching work out, just
Speaker 1: to see like what this process was. He didn't practice
Speaker 1: a lot, you know what I'm saying. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: big shoot around guy, practice guy. But when it was
Speaker 1: trying to play man, he was. He's on a different
Speaker 1: level like and and the thing that I took from
Speaker 1: him the most was he put fear at everybody's heart
Speaker 1: on the other team. So when when we walk in
Speaker 1: that gym, we knew we had the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor almost every single night. And it's only probably
Speaker 1: one or two guys that I've seen felt like they
Speaker 1: had to, you know, have that edge with him. Um.
Speaker 1: But other than that, like he put fear in a
Speaker 1: lot of people's hearts. Who a lot of people think
Speaker 1: it's big dogs co I put fear in their hearts
Speaker 1: and I've seen that, you know what I mean. Early
Speaker 1: So social media was buzzing when when posting the postseason
Speaker 1: when he was bawling and you had your son, I know,
Speaker 1: that's what that's the reason we do it was that
Speaker 1: what what was your feeling doing that? I know that
Speaker 1: was extra motivation for you. But you know, social media
Speaker 1: was going crazy around the time. Yeah. So like I
Speaker 1: was struggling before that in the Philly series. You know,
Speaker 1: the Philly was a big a team. My minutes got
Speaker 1: poured down. I wasn't making I was getting like two
Speaker 1: shots a game. I wasn't making them. So now I'm
Speaker 1: like over fourteen in the playoffs. Yeah, you out of
Speaker 1: the rotation. So I struggled that series. We ended up
Speaker 1: winning this series. Um, my girl and my family was
Speaker 1: at home because we had I had my daughter in Toronto,
Speaker 1: but I had my son you know, at the crib,
Speaker 1: So they was in the States and I was in Toronto.
Speaker 1: So around that time when he got ready to come,
Speaker 1: I was able to go home be there for the birth. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, see my baby girl, see my family, and
Speaker 1: it just it just put me at ease. So when
Speaker 1: I went back. It was just time. It was time
Speaker 1: for me to play good obviously, but I think just
Speaker 1: mentally it put me at ease. And once once I
Speaker 1: got hot, it was it was over. And then it
Speaker 1: was like a perfect moment because up until that point,
Speaker 1: I don't think really co I was really chusting us
Speaker 1: like that because we wasn't giving him a real reason too.
Speaker 1: So once I started making shots his trust group, then
Speaker 1: he started drawing. He started like driving the pass instead
Speaker 1: of driving the score and drawing the d defense saying
Speaker 1: kicking out, and you know I was knocking him down.
Speaker 1: And that's really when we took off. Before you got
Speaker 1: to the finals, you played the sixes. What what was
Speaker 1: going through the mind of Kauai put up that final
Speaker 1: shot in game seven? Like we all knew he was
Speaker 1: taking a shot. We knew the ball was going to him,
Speaker 1: but the job. Did you expect him to force it
Speaker 1: like he did? Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah we knew,
Speaker 1: We knew what we knew what it was. Uh we
Speaker 1: he liked that right baseline, Um getting to that spot.
Speaker 1: I was more so surprised that they let him get
Speaker 1: that far, you know what I'm saying, Like I was
Speaker 1: thinking they was gonna trap him. He was gonna have
Speaker 1: to try to shoot over a double team. I pass it,
Speaker 1: but he ended up getting all the way over there.
Speaker 1: I was like on the bench when he shot at
Speaker 1: and um, it looked like it was off at the
Speaker 1: like from my angle when they bounced a couple of
Speaker 1: times and went then it was just for me. In
Speaker 1: my head, I'm thinking, like, yes, I get another series
Speaker 1: to redeem myself. If this ship would have ended here, boy,
Speaker 1: that would have like my whole my whole trajectory would
Speaker 1: have ain't you know what I'm saying. As far as
Speaker 1: like that would have been my playoffs experience, I would
Speaker 1: have never got the chance to have a great series
Speaker 1: of Milwaukee have a great finals. Like you know, we
Speaker 1: might not have be calling me NBA Champ today if
Speaker 1: if we don't get out of that series. So, um,
Speaker 1: I was just happy. I think everybody was just happy
Speaker 1: because that was a tough, tough, tough Philly team. Um
Speaker 1: and he made that shot and again that's a that's
Speaker 1: a special dude, I special m hm. So you definitely
Speaker 1: get to get a chance to find your rhythm. Now
Speaker 1: you're in the finals against the Dynasty and someone you
Speaker 1: looked up to coming to lead the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: What was your mentality at that point, Well, the conversation
Speaker 1: going into it, because I had guarded stuff a few
Speaker 1: times before, like in the regular season, and had like
Speaker 1: some success. And when I say success, like I got
Speaker 1: him better than most people guard him, I still ain't.
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna sit up here and I locked I
Speaker 1: locked stuff up. I ain't gonna say that, but I
Speaker 1: guarded him better than most people do. Like I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna go under when it's when I
Speaker 1: need to go over. I'm not gonna fall asleep and
Speaker 1: let him get a while open shot. So like, um,
Speaker 1: they came to me like you're gonna you're gonna guard stuff.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be your assignment. Just do the best you can.
Speaker 1: Like all right, bet, And I watched a ton of
Speaker 1: film I've seen where guys go wrong. We had a
Speaker 1: great game plan. Obviously Kevin wasn't out there, so that
Speaker 1: changes things. Now we're really gonna load up, and then
Speaker 1: you know when Clay went down, Now we're really gonna
Speaker 1: load up. And and if you could beat if you
Speaker 1: could beat us by yourself, you deserve it. Bro. But
Speaker 1: I don't think that that that team that we had,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like one person that could have beaten. So, um,
Speaker 1: I just try to lock in on my assignment. And
Speaker 1: me being so locked in defensively it made me more
Speaker 1: aggressive on offense because I was working too hard. So
Speaker 1: when I got the ball, I'm like it, I gotta
Speaker 1: get my shirt off because I'm working way too hard
Speaker 1: on these things. Hey, so you mentioned, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: k d being out, but then he comes back. I
Speaker 1: forget what the game is for and he came off,
Speaker 1: came in, you know, and he was cooking, you know,
Speaker 1: like he had never been injured. With your guys mindset
Speaker 1: knowing that game that Katie came back started playing one
Speaker 1: than obviously he went down a game, But what was
Speaker 1: your guys approach knowing that? Okay, man, they got they
Speaker 1: got another weapon back this game. Yeah, but we had
Speaker 1: to adjust a little bit as far as game plan goes, obviously,
Speaker 1: but um me personally, I was just like, now we
Speaker 1: got a special dude. This dude is special to to
Speaker 1: go from. Not I think he came out, he made
Speaker 1: like four threes in a row. We knew he wasn't
Speaker 1: a hundred percent, so we was gonna test him when
Speaker 1: he switched. We was gonna drive him, like test his
Speaker 1: leg out things like that, and I think that's actually
Speaker 1: how he end up getting hurt blows out on Surge
Speaker 1: and surge you know, attack them. Um. So we were
Speaker 1: just trying to test him and make sure that, you know,
Speaker 1: if he was gonna be out there, we're just gonna
Speaker 1: make him work. Um. But nah, he gave him a
Speaker 1: boost in that game five, uh that they needed and
Speaker 1: they end up winning that game obviously. But no, Kevin, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he on a different level for sure. Just yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a he's an animal. Yeah. So you guys end
Speaker 1: up taking a series for the two and bring the
Speaker 1: first championship back to Toronto? What was that feeling? Like?
Speaker 1: It was crazy? It was like that all the emotions
Speaker 1: that you can think of, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: when you win one and just you go from like
Speaker 1: your personal journey to you know, your childhood to everything
Speaker 1: you've been through up to this point to professionally. Um,
Speaker 1: I had struggled, you know what I mean. I was
Speaker 1: on social media when I was struggling, So I was
Speaker 1: getting like all the death threats and you ain't ship
Speaker 1: and all the comments and all that, and then to
Speaker 1: be able to turn it around and and to win one,
Speaker 1: like you know, you just feel like you proved everybody
Speaker 1: wrong in life. And um for a city like Toronto
Speaker 1: where we come home to the parade and there's two
Speaker 1: million people or whatever, it is like it's just it's
Speaker 1: just like stuff that they make movies about. And just
Speaker 1: to be in that moment and to be a part
Speaker 1: of it, not to just be in it, but to
Speaker 1: be a part of it, to score in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: to make the big shots, to big plays. Like coming
Speaker 1: from where I come from, that was that was crazy
Speaker 1: and it's something that I never get And it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm trying to work so hard so I
Speaker 1: can get back and do it again because it was
Speaker 1: such a such a crazy moment. M hm. So you
Speaker 1: guys are able to close out into the bay, you
Speaker 1: guys get off to Vegas to enjoy yourself, then head
Speaker 1: home to the parade. Uh. Any stories that stand out
Speaker 1: to you that you can share, I know some stories,
Speaker 1: can't you can share it with us? Yeah? I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: like when we just just from the parade standpoint, like
Speaker 1: I just remember, it was it was like a morning
Speaker 1: parade like a nine. We got on the bus at
Speaker 1: like eight or nine o'clock and um, you know, we
Speaker 1: really was only going, like you know, on the regular day,
Speaker 1: maybe what ten minutes, you know what I mean, from
Speaker 1: where we started at to where we get to end
Speaker 1: up being like a four hour trip. You know, they
Speaker 1: had to stop the bus. People was running on the street.
Speaker 1: We're drinking, and before you know, we get onto the
Speaker 1: stage for the thing and it's just only like one
Speaker 1: o'clock or something like that, and we wasted. Like I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: I ain't even know you could like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I don't even know you could do that
Speaker 1: much in that little time. But we're on the bus
Speaker 1: and it's just like it's funny, man, because that's why
Speaker 1: I keep like a lot of my close friends and
Speaker 1: family around from when I was a little boy, because
Speaker 1: they keep me grounded. So it's like coming from where
Speaker 1: I come from to be on the bus with it's me, Kyle, Lowry,
Speaker 1: Drake and Kauai. You know what I'm saying. I got
Speaker 1: my girl, I got my my girls, my mother in law,
Speaker 1: I got my brother. Like we on that's that's the
Speaker 1: bus that we on you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: it's just like, man, you can't you can't make that
Speaker 1: stuff up. And you know, just enjoying it, man, because
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to do. It's real hard to do.
Speaker 1: Like a championship parade, man, we all, we all had
Speaker 1: a chance to experience that championship parade. I I vividly
Speaker 1: remember me still being drunk from the night before after
Speaker 1: the game, so I don't even remember too much of
Speaker 1: the parade because I was hung over my body. I
Speaker 1: still have my uniform onto. It's nothing like it, man.
Speaker 1: That's that's probably one of the best best moments you
Speaker 1: know of my life. For sure. You mentioned being on
Speaker 1: the on the bus of Drake just for a moment.
Speaker 1: How important is he to not only the team and
Speaker 1: and and and funking with y'all, but just the city overall.
Speaker 1: I don't think we've seen a person be such an
Speaker 1: ambassador for one place like we've seen Drake. And he's
Speaker 1: got his hands with your team. I've seen him just
Speaker 1: called out of I called Adam Silver out said he
Speaker 1: wants a w NBA team, Like what what what is
Speaker 1: it like being around him? In the energy he brings
Speaker 1: to you guys, he's just an icon. He's just an
Speaker 1: icon really like in the world. And I think that
Speaker 1: he's so much of a nice dude and just a
Speaker 1: genuine dude that when you're around him, you don't really
Speaker 1: notice it, you know what I'm saying, Because he really
Speaker 1: a fan for real, like and not in a bad way,
Speaker 1: Like he really is a fan of the game. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a fan of his team. He comes from this city,
Speaker 1: Like you could see the you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: This dude got his he got his owl right here
Speaker 1: like on the on an NBA team, Like he got
Speaker 1: a core, he got a jersey, like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, that's that's unheard of. And Um, to come from,
Speaker 1: you know, the hometown where he comes from, to do this,
Speaker 1: and to do it with his team and his family
Speaker 1: and his friends that he that he grew up with,
Speaker 1: Like it's just inspirational for me. I think it's the
Speaker 1: blueprint for what a lot of guys should be striving
Speaker 1: to do. Um. And he goes out into the world
Speaker 1: and he reps it, and um, he's just a huge
Speaker 1: ambassador for not only the game, but obviously for this
Speaker 1: city and for Toronto. And I think I I caught
Speaker 1: the wave like at a great time in my first
Speaker 1: six years because I could see the growth, you know,
Speaker 1: from year to year. Um, they did the Slam magazine
Speaker 1: with DeMar and Kyle, and then it just it just
Speaker 1: started building and building from there, and I just kind
Speaker 1: of been in the middle of it. In the championship
Speaker 1: was like the peak of that. And then you know
Speaker 1: at the games, he just he wilding out. He's a
Speaker 1: he's a fan man. He over He's trash talking, talking
Speaker 1: crazy to the players, to the revs. He rubbing you know,
Speaker 1: Nick shoulders during the game, like he just he just
Speaker 1: having fun. So like he just he just enjoyed him
Speaker 1: and just like like a playground friend. So the following season,
Speaker 1: Kauai announces he's not returning, He's gonna join the Clippers.
Speaker 1: Where you got surprised at all? Did you kind of
Speaker 1: know what the vibe was with him posted you know
Speaker 1: he's gonna be in and out. Um, No, we was
Speaker 1: following it, like y'all. Like again, I wasn't a dude
Speaker 1: like me and Coole. I wasn't really like super tight,
Speaker 1: So I wasn't the guy who was gonna like keep
Speaker 1: chasing him like Hey, what you're doing. What's going on? Bro?
Speaker 1: I just respected him. We had a mutual respect him
Speaker 1: and Cole was a little bit closer. Um, So we
Speaker 1: was following it like everybody else. I knew he was
Speaker 1: meeting with us, he was meeting with the Clippers. It
Speaker 1: was a couple of things. I couldn't see him going
Speaker 1: to the Lakers, but I could see the Clipper thing happening. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think I was in the club. I think
Speaker 1: it was my best friends bachelor party or something. I
Speaker 1: was in the club like the night before for a
Speaker 1: and see. And we got a text. We got a
Speaker 1: group text, you know, from Kauaio. Ay, y'all, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going home. Was like, alright, bet. Thirty seconds later
Speaker 1: the tweet star coming out that he was going to
Speaker 1: the Clippers, Like all right, I mean, you can't do
Speaker 1: nothing but respective, man, thank you for you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, the year that you gave here. He was
Speaker 1: number professional. He carried us a lot, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I learned a lot. Yeah, I learned
Speaker 1: a lot from him. And you just gotta keep it
Speaker 1: a hunted at all times. Man. He was. He was great.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. You can't be mad at him for that.
Speaker 1: I think that if he did would have came back,
Speaker 1: we would have won a couple of them, like at
Speaker 1: least a back to back for sure. But the first
Speaker 1: thing I thought about was all right, best time to
Speaker 1: get paid now. I don't have to like try to
Speaker 1: try to like, oh yeah, I gotta play my role
Speaker 1: for a winning team. No, it's time to take a
Speaker 1: step up. Like he's leaving. It's time for me to
Speaker 1: take a step up and grow. So um, it's nothing
Speaker 1: but love for Kauai always. I want to take us.
Speaker 1: I want to take a step back though, because, like
Speaker 1: you said, you spoke to our brother about our brother Damar,
Speaker 1: and I think he gave so much to that franchise
Speaker 1: and it just happened to be, you know, he gets traded.
Speaker 1: You guys win, but before you guys win this championship
Speaker 1: and he gets traded, what was the energy like and
Speaker 1: what was your thought process, because you're fairly young in
Speaker 1: the process, like, what was it like? Because you said
Speaker 1: he was a consummate pro, someone you looked up to,
Speaker 1: someone you so game up from, someone that did so
Speaker 1: much for that franchise. What was it like when he
Speaker 1: was actually traded, well, I was hurt, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean personally, like I was hurt, Like I really you know,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those guys who like I you know,
Speaker 1: I told you like my high school stories and all,
Speaker 1: like I put my heart into this for real every day.
Speaker 1: And the guys that I get close to, like the
Speaker 1: is gonna be my guys for life, is not just
Speaker 1: for fake or for work, because we play together, like
Speaker 1: so that's really my guy, Like that's really my big brother.
Speaker 1: So and I was with him invaded, so like some
Speaker 1: of the stories that he told about how I went down,
Speaker 1: I was with him like for some of that, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So when that happened, it was
Speaker 1: just like damn, Like it's a cold game, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And at the same time, I missed
Speaker 1: this dude because he did a lot for me. He
Speaker 1: did a lot for me and I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from and I felt like it really wasn't his funk,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: a big trade guy, and maybe I'll get there as
Speaker 1: you know, I get older in this league, but I'm
Speaker 1: not really big on trades like that because there's so
Speaker 1: much going on in the business of basketball that it's
Speaker 1: easy to just point out one player or you know,
Speaker 1: a player and say we need to trade. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't a fan of the trade. Um, obviously it worked
Speaker 1: out and they looked like genius is after the fact,
Speaker 1: But no, I was. I was just I was upset,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I was hurt behind that
Speaker 1: because this is this is, this is the guy for us,
Speaker 1: and he was so much of a real dude that
Speaker 1: it was just like, damn, how could you? How could
Speaker 1: you trade him? But you know what I'm saying, we
Speaker 1: end up winning championship off of it. So when you
Speaker 1: look back, um, you have a different memory of it.
Speaker 1: But in that moment, yeah, I was. I was a
Speaker 1: little funked up behind album. Yeah, yeah, it makes I
Speaker 1: know you're worth. November twenty twenties, you signed eighty five
Speaker 1: million dollar deal for four years. You made history by
Speaker 1: signing the largest contract and undrafted players ever received. Un rich, bitch,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Run it up. What was
Speaker 1: your feeling? What what was your feeling that day? Because
Speaker 1: I know, like I said, we we as Hooper was
Speaker 1: we can remember, you know, certain instances of situations in
Speaker 1: our life, you know, where we get that call and
Speaker 1: saying we got that money, that we signed our line,
Speaker 1: our name on the contact, and we when we know
Speaker 1: we got the money. What was your feeling like the
Speaker 1: day you got the eighty five millions out of contract? Man?
Speaker 1: Like I was in heaven like like like it was
Speaker 1: just an out of body experience. Um, knowing what I
Speaker 1: put into the game and all the sacrifices that I
Speaker 1: made and just doing it with integrity and just trying
Speaker 1: to be a real soldier like all the way through.
Speaker 1: Like it was a lot of times I could have
Speaker 1: done a lot of sucking ship that I never did.
Speaker 1: So it was like to be rewarded for that, Like
Speaker 1: that's something that that made you feel proud of myself,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like I don't really give
Speaker 1: myself a lot of paths on the back because I'm
Speaker 1: so focused on where I'm trying to get to. But
Speaker 1: I was just I was just like there was an
Speaker 1: out of body experience, you know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: had all my boys with me. We drove up, we
Speaker 1: met him in Chicago and we signed the paper. UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. That was It was a crazy moment and
Speaker 1: just negotiating process. You know, I learned a lot as
Speaker 1: far as how free agency goes and how they even
Speaker 1: get to those numbers and things like that. So, um,
Speaker 1: I know my worth and I felt like I was
Speaker 1: worth a lot more. So I also had to I
Speaker 1: also had to have that you know realization where we
Speaker 1: see a lot of guys you know, strike out because
Speaker 1: they're thinking like that ain't the number right. So it's
Speaker 1: like you know what I'm saying. I had that moment
Speaker 1: where it was like I can't, I can't say no
Speaker 1: to this, like we'll we'll worry about the number on
Speaker 1: the next one. So as I signed it, and you know,
Speaker 1: that was like the biggest day of my life for
Speaker 1: for me and my family and just having that generational wealth.
Speaker 1: You know, I got two children, I got a big family.
Speaker 1: I take care of a lot of people. So I
Speaker 1: know what I could do with that money, and I
Speaker 1: know what that money means for my city, for my
Speaker 1: family and going forward for generations, Like I know, I
Speaker 1: know what that's gonna do. And it just it allowed
Speaker 1: me to be like a real NBA player now because
Speaker 1: up until that point. I was just I was just grinding, grinding,
Speaker 1: grind and trying to get a big deal so I
Speaker 1: could like relax, you know what I'm saying, so I
Speaker 1: could sleep at night because what I got before it
Speaker 1: was like it was cool. But you know, this is
Speaker 1: the first time I felt like I got my due
Speaker 1: respect and um, you know, my appreciation, and they showed
Speaker 1: that with the with the deal. So I mean it's
Speaker 1: almost been a year. I mean we did November now
Speaker 1: you know it was when you signed it. But I'm agetting.
Speaker 1: Like I said, being a fan of you when your
Speaker 1: approach and not really knowing your upbringing in your grind,
Speaker 1: it made me feel that much better now even knowing
Speaker 1: what you went through that you got that bread, because
Speaker 1: like I said, there's there's always the underdogars, and rarely
Speaker 1: do the underdogars to get to eat the way you ate,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So we just definitely want
Speaker 1: to give you a shout out and the congratulations man,
Speaker 1: because you're your journey is more attainable than the Lebron
Speaker 1: James or Kevin Durant type journey. Like you were a
Speaker 1: real blue collar grind you got it out the mud
Speaker 1: type motherfucker, and you can be very inspirational for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. Man. So again, we wanted to congratulate
Speaker 1: you on that money, man, because like you said, that's
Speaker 1: that's like tarm wealth and that's just the first one
Speaker 1: you got. At least another another two coming up. Yeah, facts, now,
Speaker 1: that's that's what it is. And it's just like I
Speaker 1: do this for a lot of people. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I don't really speak for everybody or like
Speaker 1: you know, my story is not for everybody, but the
Speaker 1: people that it is for like this is you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's the motivation and it's the inspiration to just
Speaker 1: keep doing it this way and trying to do it
Speaker 1: the right way. And just like it is light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel, because I mean, you guys
Speaker 1: know how this game is. It's a dirty game, and
Speaker 1: you could get mixed up and caught up in a
Speaker 1: lot of the the bullshit, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: just it was just a blessing. It's just a blessing. Man.
Speaker 1: I wake up every day. I'm super blessing and humble
Speaker 1: to be in this position. But again, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm very ambitious and I want to I want to
Speaker 1: do a lot more personally and you know, as far
Speaker 1: as family and just you know, winning more and doing
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of more ship. Do you ever reflect
Speaker 1: back on your draft party now where you were passed
Speaker 1: over in two different rounds, not really getting the respect
Speaker 1: or opportunity and now kind of look back like yo,
Speaker 1: Like like you said, I think sometimes as players in
Speaker 1: the moment, I think you said earlier, we never really
Speaker 1: get to appreciate what we accomplish, what we go through
Speaker 1: because we're so caught up in the moment. But were
Speaker 1: you able to just kind of take a step back, like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I know I'm here and I've made it. I got
Speaker 1: a lot more to do, but I just did some ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like confirmation. Like it's just like um validation,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Because when you that guy
Speaker 1: that's getting looked over your whole life, you always thinking like, man,
Speaker 1: they don't know what they're talking about. Man, they they
Speaker 1: need to look at me. Like you always think that,
Speaker 1: but you never really know until you prove it. So
Speaker 1: when I go back and I look at that draft class,
Speaker 1: in my head, I'm like, how did they not know?
Speaker 1: Like how did they not see that? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I deserve to be one of these sixty
Speaker 1: guys Like it was sixty guys. Bro Like, it's not
Speaker 1: sixty guys better than me, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And um, it was it was. You know, you just
Speaker 1: take it with a grain of salt. And if I
Speaker 1: could go back and do it again, I wouldn't change
Speaker 1: the thing like I would do it all over again
Speaker 1: because all of those things they may who I am
Speaker 1: and you know, it's all just a part of the journey.
Speaker 1: But definitely, for sure I looked back like I knew
Speaker 1: I was right the whole time, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: But you feel crazy in the moment because you want
Speaker 1: that validation from from somebody else. And so I would
Speaker 1: just tell people just to you know, if that's what
Speaker 1: you believe, you just gotta believe it intil you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, til the end. There's nothing else you
Speaker 1: could do. Mm hmmm. Now we're gonna do a little reflecting,
Speaker 1: uh for you. But you're the first player in Raptors
Speaker 1: history to scored thirty and ten in a playoff game.
Speaker 1: What does that mean to you? I mean, Vince Carter,
Speaker 1: Damar Kauai, Kyle. None of them ever did that. When
Speaker 1: you hear that you're the only one, what does that
Speaker 1: mean to you? Again, I'll be so caught up in
Speaker 1: my own world, I don't even be paying attention to
Speaker 1: some of these things. Like I just you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to win the game, Like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: win the game by any means necessary. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'll be able to look at the accomplishments when I'm
Speaker 1: older and sit back and tell my kids about it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, things like that. But um,
Speaker 1: the only one that I really was was stuck on
Speaker 1: was the fifty four because uh, because I knew I
Speaker 1: watched the Mars. I think he had fifty two, So
Speaker 1: I watched him have fifty two, and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: I remember watching him like dam I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that one day, and so I remember that one.
Speaker 1: But the yeah, I don't know, man, I just I
Speaker 1: just go out there and try to try to win
Speaker 1: every game and and play my ass off. Sometimes I do,
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't. M And then one more. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you mentioned the franchise scoring mark at fifty four,
Speaker 1: but you also had a three point thirty nine consecutive games. Again,
Speaker 1: probably didn't pay too much attention to it, but to
Speaker 1: to to really have that kind of streak, I mean,
Speaker 1: all that ship is dope, and like you said, you
Speaker 1: can you can sit back and look at it a
Speaker 1: later time, but definitely understand and appreciated the moment as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably just more so like the work, because like I
Speaker 1: really do the same thing, like every day, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, off days, no days, Like I come in,
Speaker 1: I got my work routine, I come in before practice,
Speaker 1: I work out, get my treatment, practice whatever, shoot around.
Speaker 1: So like just the constant work in the hours that
Speaker 1: I put in in the off season, Like I ain't
Speaker 1: not running around doing a bunch of wild ship, Like
Speaker 1: I'm really working on my craft and trying to get better.
Speaker 1: Um and I think it's one thing that keeps me ahead,
Speaker 1: especially at my size, is like I just gotta keep
Speaker 1: sharpening up my tool set and and just keep trying
Speaker 1: to get better each year because you can, like when
Speaker 1: you get when you sign that eight five, Like there
Speaker 1: was a there was a few days where I just
Speaker 1: sat back like shoof, like I'm good good, Like I
Speaker 1: can average zero points for the next four years. They
Speaker 1: can't rip that contract up, bro, like they they got
Speaker 1: to play on the first and fifteen. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's just something inside of me that just wants to
Speaker 1: keep getting better. So when I do these accomplishments, it's
Speaker 1: more so like it makes me feel good because I
Speaker 1: know I worked on these things, um to get there.
Speaker 1: M hm. Obviously you're someone that could people could look
Speaker 1: up to with your journey, as we touched on earlier,
Speaker 1: but what kind of advice would you give to someone
Speaker 1: who's been on your path? Just to keep going? You
Speaker 1: gotta be you gotta be a sick oh man. You
Speaker 1: gotta be like you gotta have the You gotta be
Speaker 1: that guy that people talk bad about, like who do
Speaker 1: he think he is? Why do he think he's so good?
Speaker 1: Like why does he had that much confidence? You have
Speaker 1: to be that guy and you can't. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't advise nobody to be an asshole, but
Speaker 1: I think that you should definitely be confident and be
Speaker 1: respectful in the same breath. But you gotta just had
Speaker 1: his own waiver and feel And you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I get validated by the work, like I said, because
Speaker 1: when I step on the court, it's I know, it's
Speaker 1: not too many guys that worked harder than me. So
Speaker 1: when I'm on the court with Katie, yeah, i feel
Speaker 1: like I'm the best player on the court. Now, I
Speaker 1: might be crazy, but guess what, that's gonna allow me
Speaker 1: to even compete in the same breath and have some
Speaker 1: of them same moments. So when I'm when I'm matched
Speaker 1: up on stuff, yeah, i feel like I'm just as
Speaker 1: good as him. And that's just that's just my mindset
Speaker 1: when I'm on the court, and we can argue about
Speaker 1: it all day after the fact, but for them two
Speaker 1: and a half hours, when you in between the lines,
Speaker 1: you've gotta have that type of belief and and that
Speaker 1: type of dog and you otherwise you don't stand a
Speaker 1: chance out there. Facts, not at all. Me and Matt,
Speaker 1: we've consider ourselves as being as real as possible because
Speaker 1: it's not really a situation that in life, especially as
Speaker 1: an athlete, that we haven't been through, we haven't touched on,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, from making mistakes to all
Speaker 1: the good things to fatherhood, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And and and balance in life. We both contested that,
Speaker 1: tell me, how do you balance life and we know
Speaker 1: we're also being a father, but also you know, trying
Speaker 1: to perfect the crab every day and get better. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a process. It's a process. Man. I ain't
Speaker 1: definitely having figured it out in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: making sure that everything straight all the time. Like I stumbled.
Speaker 1: I had my ups and down just like anybody. But
Speaker 1: I think I just pride myself on being a real
Speaker 1: man first and foremost, Like just being a man first
Speaker 1: before anything, a father first before anything, and then everything
Speaker 1: else after that. I could figure it out. So I
Speaker 1: got a great support system. Um, you know, my girls
Speaker 1: should take care of the house, take care of the
Speaker 1: kids flawlessly. I got a great family. Um you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I keep my brothers and my friends
Speaker 1: and my homies real tight. We got a real tight circle.
Speaker 1: So I got a great support system. I don't have
Speaker 1: too much you know, bullshit that I gotta deal with
Speaker 1: as far as distraction goes. Um, and they understand everybody
Speaker 1: play their position. But like I've always been a leader
Speaker 1: so ever since I was a little kid, I've always
Speaker 1: been a leader. So I kind of got that part
Speaker 1: of my life like in order. So when stuff do come,
Speaker 1: our way we can handle it, how we handle it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, I go out there, when
Speaker 1: I go to work, I'm at work. I take care
Speaker 1: of my business. I'm gonna take this ship as far
Speaker 1: as I can take it by being myself, and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll live the rest of it however it go.
Speaker 1: But I really got it zipped up in terms of
Speaker 1: like just the organization and like I'm able to have
Speaker 1: these conversations. That's the biggest thing I would say is
Speaker 1: just being able to be a man allows me to
Speaker 1: communicate and have real conversations with people that are uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: You've been known for your crossover. That's something you've been
Speaker 1: doing since you were young as a As time passed,
Speaker 1: as your game grew, you just act start adding it
Speaker 1: to your to your game now. I always had that
Speaker 1: used to be way more wild. Like I told you,
Speaker 1: I grew up. I was an AI guy, Kobe Gut
Speaker 1: the super Big Left the right Um, Me and my
Speaker 1: brothers we used to watch and One. We had the
Speaker 1: N one mix tapes. We had the N one mixtape.
Speaker 1: Will plug the and one mixtape and watch it go
Speaker 1: in the backyard practice all the moves come back out
Speaker 1: go back in and watch it, you know, and practice
Speaker 1: so like I used to be a lot more like
Speaker 1: street ball to me. But um, as I got older,
Speaker 1: I started trying to polish it up a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And you just gotta have you guys, gotta have a
Speaker 1: lot of tricks in your bag at my size, man,
Speaker 1: And you know you keep the fundamentals and the footwork
Speaker 1: with the feet, but um, you know, I just try
Speaker 1: to just try to keep adding things and having different
Speaker 1: tools to be able to get that separation. How tall
Speaker 1: are you? I'm six ft six one with shoes on. Yeah, crafty,
Speaker 1: crafty man. What if Steve Nash say when you call
Speaker 1: him crafty, is that another word for just calling me white? Basically?
Speaker 1: You know, Rico, Rico, Rico, you said all the time,
Speaker 1: you gotta have some crafty. You gotta have some crafty.
Speaker 1: You got to you got to. Man. Ship is playing
Speaker 1: up there with all them trees and them giants. Man,
Speaker 1: you gotta figure something out. You're gonna be over there
Speaker 1: with a suit and tie on. But you guys, uh,
Speaker 1: you guys picked up one of my homeboys, one of
Speaker 1: my brothers, on your coaching staff this year, Earl Watson.
Speaker 1: He was my U c l a point guard, great career. Uh,
Speaker 1: but to me, one of the best basketball minds in
Speaker 1: the game. Have you got to sit down and kind
Speaker 1: of develop a relationship with him yet? Yeah? Me and
Speaker 1: Earl Man, we we communicate every day. I'm chasing him
Speaker 1: around the gym, like, yo, yo, tell me what's up man?
Speaker 1: What I need to be doing, Like where I need
Speaker 1: to get to it. He's telling me different things that
Speaker 1: I never that I never heard before, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Twenty seven years old, I'm still learning, Like, Yo,
Speaker 1: just get to this angle on the floor. No, when
Speaker 1: you get here, turned this way and you could score
Speaker 1: at this spot on the floor. Like just different little
Speaker 1: simple things that he got. You know, he's got a
Speaker 1: great wealth and knowledge that that he's giving me the game.
Speaker 1: And he's not loud, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: him we talked, but no, he's been great for me,
Speaker 1: and I think that he really gonna help me take
Speaker 1: my game to the next level because I'm a guy
Speaker 1: that I want to be coached, like I want people
Speaker 1: to tell me when I'm doing something wrong or tell
Speaker 1: me where I could be doing something better at From
Speaker 1: the day he got here, I went straight to him.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, but I don't know who you coached before,
Speaker 1: but you can come to me tell me everything that
Speaker 1: you see, because because I want to learn it all.
Speaker 1: I think that's dope because he had that the same
Speaker 1: relationship with Devin Booker. Booker still to this day credits
Speaker 1: Earl for his development in his mind set. In Earls
Speaker 1: one of those real sharp minds man. So I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy them, because I have a feeling he's gonna
Speaker 1: get another head coaching job soon. But it definitely suk
Speaker 1: up the game where you can from him. You know
Speaker 1: for sure he's sharper Ship. Yeah, um, I mean Ship,
Speaker 1: you're only six years in, but you're a vat Uh
Speaker 1: do you have a young player you enjoy watching now?
Speaker 1: And it's so who is it? And why um in
Speaker 1: the league? You know how? I like? I like LaMelo man.
Speaker 1: I like LaMelo man like, and there's not really nothing
Speaker 1: to do with his game or anything. I just like
Speaker 1: his swag, Like his swag is crazy, like LaMelo. I
Speaker 1: love LaMelo And uh, what's the other boy? Uh Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards in Minnesota? Like they swag is just so crazy, man,
Speaker 1: That's what I was speaking about like they don't care
Speaker 1: about nothing. They do their interviews, they talking how they
Speaker 1: talk in real life, and they reviews, They carrying it
Speaker 1: every day and it's like nothing you can do but
Speaker 1: respect it, you know what I'm saying. And I think
Speaker 1: that with that talent and you know the way that
Speaker 1: the game is going, I think it's just gonna keep
Speaker 1: getting more better and better. Um, But there's a lot
Speaker 1: of guys I actually you know, obviously, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: a shout out to my rook, Scotty Barnes, who who
Speaker 1: has Yeah, he's been bawling in his first you know,
Speaker 1: ten of eleven games, and just the spirit and the
Speaker 1: energy for the game that he has. He's a really
Speaker 1: good kid and he really loved the game and he's
Speaker 1: just happy to be here. And I hope that that's
Speaker 1: something that he never loses because his talent level is crazy.
Speaker 1: Love it now. Question you mentored, Anthony Edwards? Can you
Speaker 1: give me and Jack your point of view? And he
Speaker 1: dunked on your teammate, My goodness, Hey, where's your teammate now?
Speaker 1: Is he alive? The first thing, the first thing is
Speaker 1: Nicky did was rubbed his head and rubbed his eyes like, oh,
Speaker 1: ship go. So so I'm gonna do this as best
Speaker 1: as I can, because because because you is actually my man.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm real hard on him, but he my man.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna tell you. I've been telling them, Yo,
Speaker 1: you gotta be early outside the box when you go
Speaker 1: be the help on the low. Man, you got to dog.
Speaker 1: You can't keep waiting what you're waiting on. You gotta
Speaker 1: meet him outside the box because when these motherfucker's jump,
Speaker 1: they're not coming down, man. And so I have been
Speaker 1: telling them. So I was on the I was, you know,
Speaker 1: for the COVID rules. They spread the bench out so
Speaker 1: I was actually behind the goal so I couldn't see,
Speaker 1: but I was looking up. I was looking up at
Speaker 1: the jumbo trying man. They threw that there. Man, that
Speaker 1: boy jumped over him so hard, and I was just like, damn,
Speaker 1: I thought he like broke his neck or something. I
Speaker 1: was looking and I just just like I was just
Speaker 1: shaking my head, like, man, I told you, I told
Speaker 1: you gotta be early. You got a right early. So
Speaker 1: we we you know, we joked with him all the
Speaker 1: time about it. He was a good sport and he
Speaker 1: was like shout I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: going every time. That's what he said. I respected. I
Speaker 1: respect that you're yeah, you got your as dunked on,
Speaker 1: but I respect all right, man, Well here we go. Man,
Speaker 1: we're winding down to the end of the interview. Let
Speaker 1: you get on with the rest of your day. We
Speaker 1: got quick hitters. First thing to come to mind. Let
Speaker 1: us know toughest player you've had a guard to date, Kyrie. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're call nice, nice one. I'm probably my favorite. Uh,
Speaker 1: top five guards of all time, point guard, point guards,
Speaker 1: top five point guards all time. Yeah, my bad. Let's
Speaker 1: and so I'm gonna say this first before I give
Speaker 1: you my answer. I'm not going that far back because
Speaker 1: I'm a young I'm a young guy. Like I'm not going.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say Isaiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas, I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say, uh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say CP three mm hmmm, I'm gonna say steph
Speaker 1: mm hmmm. I'm gonna say uh damn. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: uh oh, y'all killing me with this one. I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, yeah too. I would put a on their
Speaker 1: AI two, I ain't eating the point Guard. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put uh. I'm gonna put Chauncey Billups in there,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna put uh, I'm gonna probably put I'm
Speaker 1: gonna probably put Jay Kidd in there. Yeah, sila'na probably
Speaker 1: put Ja Kid in there. I'm not putting Magic in there,
Speaker 1: Magic six nine, I love Magic. I'm not putting them
Speaker 1: on my point Guard list. Um, but he definitely on
Speaker 1: the greatest all time list, but not not my point guardless. Yes, nice.
Speaker 1: What album can you listen to and repeat with no
Speaker 1: skips album? Probably some Rose I'm gonna say, Rick Ross Uh,
Speaker 1: tough on don m nine about to drop another album
Speaker 1: soon too. I can't wait coming out risk. So five
Speaker 1: dinner guests dead are live? Five dinner guests? Yeah, Prince Um, Tupac, Muhammad, Ali, Nice, Um,
Speaker 1: Malcolm x Uh. That's four right, any one more? Um,
Speaker 1: Kobe Man, that's the main one. That's man. That's probably
Speaker 1: one of our best ones right there. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring the weed. We're gonna enjoy that dinner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be nice. You're gonna learn something. Uh, this
Speaker 1: is a title I used to hold, but I passed
Speaker 1: it on to my young fellow. Top three hairlines in
Speaker 1: the NBA right now. Jason Tatum said, you're in his
Speaker 1: top three? What's your top? He's definitely top three? Yeah,
Speaker 1: me Tatum and DJ Augustine. Oh you know what's out
Speaker 1: throwing there? DJ? I'll played with DJ Augustin. He take
Speaker 1: his ship serious, ye, Paul George, No, no, no, c DJ,
Speaker 1: we got the same, Barbara Houston, DJ takes his hair serious, bro.
Speaker 1: He official official, Paul Hey, Paul George hairline still sitting
Speaker 1: on his eyebrows though. Yeah, that's all I can't put.
Speaker 1: I can't put p G in there because it's too low,
Speaker 1: like he don't gotta get that much work, like he
Speaker 1: could just keep it. Yeah, anybody could ask that up.
Speaker 1: All right, last question, man, if you can have one
Speaker 1: guest on All the Smoke, who would it be before you?
Speaker 1: And sir you have to help us get your answer
Speaker 1: on this show. He looks just like you. He's the
Speaker 1: ambassador of your team. Just go ahead. They called him
Speaker 1: the boy and calling the boy. Yeah, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: Jake to do it. I'm gonna tell him. I can't
Speaker 1: guarantee he gonna do, but I'm not. You ain't gotta
Speaker 1: guarantee it. Yeah, that's all we are. I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna shout out, shout out Nico and shout out Rocks. Hey,
Speaker 1: they both didn't hit me the last two weeks. I
Speaker 1: talked to both of them, So I'm using all my
Speaker 1: poor I'm going through you. I'm going through Rocks and
Speaker 1: I'm going through Nico. I'm passing. I'm gonna pass the
Speaker 1: word Alonge Man. Yes, sir, well fred Man. We appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. Brother, We look up to, we admire you.
Speaker 1: Were happy for you man. Keep leading the way you
Speaker 1: keep doing it the right way and the best to
Speaker 1: luck the rest of the season. Help me, no doubt.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate you Man, Appreciate you, bro. Yeah that's
Speaker 1: a rap. Fred Van Fleet. All the smoke you can
Speaker 1: cass us a Showtime Basketball YouTube in the I Heart
Speaker 1: platform Black Effects. We'll see y'all next week. This is
Speaker 1: All a Smoke, a production of The Black Effect and
Speaker 1: Our Heart Radio in partnership with Showtime