Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to another edition the Club Sha Shay. I
Speaker 1: am your hole. Shannon Sharp, also the proprietory of Club
Speaker 1: Sha Shay, the guy that stopped by the bar today
Speaker 1: to have a drink with me, is two time champion,
Speaker 1: NBA Champion, eleven time All Star, and Mister Basketball in
Speaker 1: the State of Texas in two thousand and two, Chris
Speaker 1: Bosh all my life, grinding all my life, Sacon fights,
Speaker 1: custle pack price, one slice, one got the swath all
Speaker 1: my life. I've been grinding all my life, all my life,
Speaker 1: and running all my life, Sacon fights, custle bag price,
Speaker 1: one slice got the dice, sware all my life. I've
Speaker 1: been grinding in all my life. Chris, how are you
Speaker 1: doing today? Bro? I'm good man. That's a that's a
Speaker 1: good one. You hit me with a throwback on that one. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take off in a different direction. Normally, when
Speaker 1: I talked to athletes, we started talking about their athletic career.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna talk about your music career that you
Speaker 1: started after you finish with the NBA. You're producing music.
Speaker 1: What made you go into music after your NBA career? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, first off, like I kind of got It
Speaker 1: felt like I got thrown out of a car going
Speaker 1: two hundred miles an hour. I was playing basketball. I
Speaker 1: felt that I was gonna get that second win in
Speaker 1: my prime into my twilight years, like most of your heroes,
Speaker 1: like you see time and time again, every year, it
Speaker 1: didn't happen, and I just kind of found myself trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, you know, like what am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: I never really thought about that. It was always basketball,
Speaker 1: a lot of people say. And then it was funny
Speaker 1: because everybody was like, oh, Chris, you're smart, you you
Speaker 1: know stuff, and you'll be fine. And it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know what I want to do. You guys have
Speaker 1: a mistaken In order to even do what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: I had to give my whole life to this thing.
Speaker 1: So there was never anything else. You know, you make
Speaker 1: grades so you can play basketball, you know. So I
Speaker 1: just kind of I found myself trying to search for something,
Speaker 1: and manny thing I knew. I had a guitar in
Speaker 1: my hand. I'm making new friends, talking about different things
Speaker 1: and and aspiring to do different things, and and you know,
Speaker 1: it was just all a lot of passion, a lot
Speaker 1: of love. So That's how I got there, and I'm
Speaker 1: start meeting some great people along the way. So you're
Speaker 1: on the you're producing or so you're producing music, you're
Speaker 1: writing music. Are you gonna actually do Are you gonna
Speaker 1: actually be in front of the microphone? No, sir, No sir.
Speaker 1: You know, I leave that to the pros. I just
Speaker 1: enjoyed the collaborative effort that it takes, really, like, you know,
Speaker 1: seeing songwriting. I was blessed to see songwriting at the
Speaker 1: professional level. I was pretty much like the kid going
Speaker 1: to a pro game and seeing a pro game get played.
Speaker 1: And I only did I get to see it, but
Speaker 1: they're like, hey, yo, kid, have a shot, you know.
Speaker 1: And I ended up getting a placement really quick with Gucci,
Speaker 1: Gucci Maine and a good friend of mine, Rico Love,
Speaker 1: and it just happened, you know. And and I said, man,
Speaker 1: if I if I don't continue going down this path,
Speaker 1: I'm a fool. So that was that was like four
Speaker 1: years ago. So I'm I've been, you know, steady working,
Speaker 1: putting that time into something else. You you mentioned Gucci
Speaker 1: Maine and you did a song with him in twenty seventeen, right,
Speaker 1: you did? You did? You did a collab or something
Speaker 1: with him. So yeah, So Rico and I wrote a
Speaker 1: song together. And you know, you write music all the time,
Speaker 1: you just kind of get into the flow. It's almost
Speaker 1: like practice. Like I equate everything to basketball now, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's a metaphor for me. So it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to the gym. Okay, I'm gonna hit the weights. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go get some shots up. All right, let's you know,
Speaker 1: just making sure you get to work in if you
Speaker 1: want to accomplish your goals. And that just came through.
Speaker 1: Rico is a good friend of mine. We're just hanging out.
Speaker 1: I played music for him, he writes to it, and
Speaker 1: it ended up getting on Gucci's album Mister Davis back
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen or early twenty eighteen, and so that
Speaker 1: was kind of that was kind of the hook for me,
Speaker 1: you know, just to be like, all right, that's that thing,
Speaker 1: you know, let's let's go that way regardless of you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's the feeling. It's knowing the spirit is there
Speaker 1: and following that. You know. So have you all have
Speaker 1: you always been musically inclined? I'd like to say so.
Speaker 1: My My family is a very musical family. I have
Speaker 1: cousins that are classically trained. My father can sing. We
Speaker 1: we always had to like join choir back in the
Speaker 1: day at church and stuff like that, you know, So
Speaker 1: it was it was more so, uh, just something you're
Speaker 1: always around and I always enjoy in music. I have friends,
Speaker 1: Like I continuously was trying to make beats, like when
Speaker 1: I was in high school. Then I think when I
Speaker 1: was in the league, I start trying to like early, early,
Speaker 1: I start trying to learn to play the piano. It
Speaker 1: was these incomplete you know, this other world that keeps
Speaker 1: calling you that you never go to, and it becomes
Speaker 1: when you're not You're good at basketball, so you can
Speaker 1: fit that down for a month or two, pick right
Speaker 1: back up and be good at it. But when you're
Speaker 1: not good at something, you have to fully devote all
Speaker 1: of your time, all of your energy, of your effort
Speaker 1: in order to become good at it. So if you're
Speaker 1: trying to learn to play the piano and you do
Speaker 1: it in four or five month increments, that's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: Not gonna work, and you have to get over yourself
Speaker 1: being bad. I mean right, yeah, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: a part of the process. That's been one of the
Speaker 1: things that I've really learned because people will you know,
Speaker 1: I only know that because I started playing, you know,
Speaker 1: my music for people, and not that it was bad,
Speaker 1: but they were looking at me like, oh, I thought
Speaker 1: it was gonna be whack. Man, I thought it was
Speaker 1: just gonna be okay, you all right? Yeah? Right, And
Speaker 1: I said, okay, So usually okay, you have to continue
Speaker 1: to you know, just like anything, homework on your craft, home,
Speaker 1: your craft. Just keep going, keep doing stuff, and it'll turn. Man.
Speaker 1: I mean that's just how I believe. How hard was
Speaker 1: it because like you said, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: get over the fact that you're not good at it.
Speaker 1: But you were always good at basketball. So basically, so
Speaker 1: everything that you've really ever done, you've been really good
Speaker 1: at it. And so now here you are starting from
Speaker 1: the bottom, and you know, you're not one of these
Speaker 1: top upper echelon songwriters or producers and you're basically starting
Speaker 1: from scratch. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a crazy thing, Shannon.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like you you feel immortal for so long, yes,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Yes, I mean, boys, so
Speaker 1: long you just and then all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: all right, cool. You're taking the kids to school, You're
Speaker 1: packing lunches. You know, you have to pick up new skills.
Speaker 1: I'm in the house like a few years ago. When
Speaker 1: I was first retired, I had to learn how to
Speaker 1: fix everything. I know. That just goes into being a dad.
Speaker 1: Like my dad fix it And I'm just like you.
Speaker 1: I got brought back into my skin so quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: So you have to go back to the work. That's
Speaker 1: the thing. That's the only thing that I remember, regardless
Speaker 1: of what happened in the NBA and in my career,
Speaker 1: I put the work in. You know. I know that
Speaker 1: I was, you know, in the gym all the time.
Speaker 1: So if I want to be good at something or
Speaker 1: if I want something to happen, you gotta put your
Speaker 1: time in. And yeah, but when when I when I
Speaker 1: think of athletes, I think of athletes, let's just say
Speaker 1: a basket in your case, a basketball player. Okay, he's
Speaker 1: gonna stay close to the game. He's either want to
Speaker 1: he wants to be Scott, he wants to be a
Speaker 1: player personnel. He wants to be a general manager. He
Speaker 1: wants to be a coach. He wants to own the team.
Speaker 1: You went totally away from basketball. This is as far
Speaker 1: as you can get from basketball if you possibly can imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, and you know, I know basketball will be there,
Speaker 1: but that kind of the music, that that's kind of
Speaker 1: what drew me towards it because it was so crazy
Speaker 1: and like I say, it was just a field. Man.
Speaker 1: I can't even describe it. It's like, yeah, I should
Speaker 1: be doing that, and and I told myself I was
Speaker 1: gonna follow my heart, so you know, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, that's kind of what gave it, you know,
Speaker 1: more allure because the game is there. I still watch
Speaker 1: every game I watch, I know, the Salary Cat, the CBA,
Speaker 1: I watched the guys, you know, but this is just
Speaker 1: it offered me a way to get in touch, you know,
Speaker 1: more with myself and kind of find out other things
Speaker 1: that I like, I know, we hooped right whoa man,
Speaker 1: We did it. My dad. We took me to every practice,
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours of it, you know, and
Speaker 1: it will continue one day. But you know, right now,
Speaker 1: I just want to really really pursue this endeavor and
Speaker 1: it's quite it's it's a lot, man, you have to
Speaker 1: learn a lot. It's more than just creatively doing things
Speaker 1: you have to as you know, you know how it
Speaker 1: is when you know you're taking those meeting meetings with
Speaker 1: the accountants and the agents and the managers and the lawyers,
Speaker 1: all those things fall into place too. What is it
Speaker 1: about basketball players? Probably more so than any other athlete?
Speaker 1: In music? You get Dame, you get Dame Lillard, Dame Dollar,
Speaker 1: you get him on Shrumpfort, you get Shot, you get
Speaker 1: Aaron Gore, and you get metal world peace. Even Allan
Speaker 1: Iverson tried to do something with the rap Coobe tried
Speaker 1: to risk his soul? What is it about basketball players
Speaker 1: in the music industry? Man? You know, that's a really
Speaker 1: good question. I think I think, for one, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of idle time. So when you're going on those
Speaker 1: bus rides, there's a lot of bus rides, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of practice. It's a lot of downtime with your teammates.
Speaker 1: If you're out of town for a road trip. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're in summer league, you're gonna be with your
Speaker 1: boys and there's gonna be a hotel room and it's
Speaker 1: the summer and you guys are hanging out, and I mean,
Speaker 1: rap was just so influential. I mean I remember from
Speaker 1: the minute I was listening to music, rap was everywhere,
Speaker 1: you know, so it had a huge influence on our life.
Speaker 1: And like, to be honest with you, you don't see
Speaker 1: you didn't see any black men at that time successful
Speaker 1: and much else. You know. So it's it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately in those times, which is much better now, but
Speaker 1: in those times, yeah, you I mean they write rhymes
Speaker 1: about it, but you know, you either play basketball or
Speaker 1: you were a musician, rapper or something that people you know,
Speaker 1: wanted to aspire to. And to be quite frank, it
Speaker 1: was cool. I mean the people that you wanted to be,
Speaker 1: like Tupac. Everybody wanted to be Tupac. And if you
Speaker 1: look at it, it's and also the flip side. You
Speaker 1: look at the rappers, you look at the entertainments, You
Speaker 1: look at Jay Cole, you look at you Change, you
Speaker 1: look at the game Nelly. You look at all these
Speaker 1: guys and they you know, yeah, they love football, but
Speaker 1: if there's something about the Lord of basketball that attracts
Speaker 1: them and vice versa, yeah, I think football. Football is
Speaker 1: like one of those things you find out pretty quick
Speaker 1: if you can or can't do it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like you find out real quick man basketball.
Speaker 1: You know, you can talk noise, you can sit up there,
Speaker 1: you can shoot at the park, you can play money
Speaker 1: if you want to. You know, you have some sort
Speaker 1: of connection with it, and it's you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a little closer. You know. Even when we were in
Speaker 1: high school and in college, the guys would come to
Speaker 1: the games, you know, coming to the games where it
Speaker 1: were a good time and and it kind of really
Speaker 1: starts that connection. And you know a lot of people playball,
Speaker 1: like I know J Cole and two Change for sure,
Speaker 1: they played u you know at a high level of basketball,
Speaker 1: so they understanding it's a good feeling, you know, you
Speaker 1: know hooping, you do that with your friends. Those are
Speaker 1: summer days. It's a lot of memories that go with that.
Speaker 1: And Master p almost almost made a basketball man p Man.
Speaker 1: You know the legend guys, guys who are always playing
Speaker 1: and it's just it's just ingrains so deep into the culture.
Speaker 1: You know that people were doing that really before. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know my dad we would go with friends and
Speaker 1: you know, playing pick up the same guys or musicians
Speaker 1: or something like that. The same dudes who around We
Speaker 1: all if you play ball, go play pick up at
Speaker 1: the park. You know you're gonna if you want to
Speaker 1: find a game, you'll find a game. You're even play
Speaker 1: with your friends. You know, it's just one of those
Speaker 1: social things too. So who are some of your obviously
Speaker 1: you if you're doing raps, So who are some of
Speaker 1: your favorite some of your favorite artists, some of your
Speaker 1: favorite rappers? Are are you not necessarily are you writing
Speaker 1: for some of not just rap? Are you writing for
Speaker 1: R and B? Are you writing for other genres? Or? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we do it all. We do it all. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't discriminate. Okay, Yeah, I mean, you know, music
Speaker 1: is music I grew up on. I mean even you
Speaker 1: know country music. I love country music. I love pop music,
Speaker 1: R and B. You know, Oh, I mean really everything,
Speaker 1: seventy soul. It's just so many genres of music. I
Speaker 1: never really try to limit myself creatively, and especially now
Speaker 1: with the way things are going, you kind of don't
Speaker 1: want to. You don't want to put a cap on
Speaker 1: yourself or what you could do. You know, I've worked
Speaker 1: with some with some great artists and songwriters, and the
Speaker 1: things that you get when you cross pollinate work with
Speaker 1: people you you never think you've worked with. The things
Speaker 1: that you get are kind of brand new. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of one of the things I love doing, and
Speaker 1: I never try to put a cap on on what
Speaker 1: it is. Do you know we rap quite a bit? Yes,
Speaker 1: we do, you know the artists that I work with,
Speaker 1: but we always challenge ourself to make timeless music that
Speaker 1: people want to listen to ten twenty years from now. Right,
Speaker 1: what what are some of the artists that you listened
Speaker 1: to before the game? For me, I couldn't listen to
Speaker 1: rap because it got me too amped up, and so
Speaker 1: I hadn't Actually, I had to listen to the opposite.
Speaker 1: I needed something to settle me down because I'm hot,
Speaker 1: strong to begin with, and so I was almost about
Speaker 1: to pass out before the kickoff? Where where you listen
Speaker 1: to I'm eager to listen to Sean Day, Maxwell, Michelle
Speaker 1: and Cello, you know something like that. I needed to
Speaker 1: slow it all the way back, man, I was, you're
Speaker 1: ready to go? Huh man Scott bringing down just enough
Speaker 1: to be like, all right, let's do it. Yeah, listen
Speaker 1: to two Pocket Biggie was having me about to pass
Speaker 1: out before the kickoff? Hey man, you gotta find That's
Speaker 1: what I love about it, you know, I was. I
Speaker 1: was kind of like that. It's funny like people would
Speaker 1: always listen what do you listen to before a game?
Speaker 1: It kind of goes in ways. I kind of get
Speaker 1: amped up, you know, in the regular season, and you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta find that thing. Playoffs. Yeah, I need
Speaker 1: to be calmed down and I need to think about
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. So I would listen to a lot
Speaker 1: of classical music, okay, you know, because it's it's almost like, okay,
Speaker 1: two hours before tip off, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: talking to nobody. I kind of want to get in
Speaker 1: my head and just think about what's about to happen
Speaker 1: so that I can do my job correctly. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: getting amped up that got that was like a that
Speaker 1: was a young guys thing. Yeah, but with Chris, I
Speaker 1: can understand you needed to get amped up because you're
Speaker 1: playing eighty two games. You playing every other night or
Speaker 1: every set night. So after a while, I'm only playing
Speaker 1: once a week and I know somebody trying to you know,
Speaker 1: I'm already pumped up because I know somebody trying to
Speaker 1: tear my head off. For sure. It's physical. It is physical.
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine, man, I couldn't imagine. I have so
Speaker 1: much respect for football, man, I don't know how you
Speaker 1: guys do it. Man, So you were all so did
Speaker 1: you Were you always the tallest kid in school? Or
Speaker 1: did you grow It was a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: So I was always the tallest kid, and then I
Speaker 1: kind of leveled off around seventh eighth grade. Okay, I
Speaker 1: was pretty tall, but not the tallest, right, not abnormally
Speaker 1: tall right. Then between ninth and eleventh grade, I probably grew,
Speaker 1: man about ten inches, what yeah, about nine ten inches
Speaker 1: in three years, and I went from you know, okay,
Speaker 1: basketball player, like yo, this kid might be something. I
Speaker 1: played a couple of games on varsity, even in my
Speaker 1: freshman year too. You know, man, he's a he's a prospect.
Speaker 1: So it happened pretty quickly. Okay, So you played against
Speaker 1: perk Kendrick Perkins in high school. Your team was forty
Speaker 1: and old. How many did you drop on perk? H? Man?
Speaker 1: About twenty if I'm not mistaken, I had twenty three points.
Speaker 1: Twenty three points, about twelve or thirteen rebounds, few blocks.
Speaker 1: Because you guys, you guys went forty and know that year,
Speaker 1: and you were you you were the number one team
Speaker 1: in the country, right, yeah, Yeah, it was like it
Speaker 1: was like the hood version of Friday Night Lights to
Speaker 1: be switchy. Man. It was we were not losing that game.
Speaker 1: You know, it was a really magical run. That was
Speaker 1: like that that was I mean, you know, I talked
Speaker 1: about it all the time with people I had a
Speaker 1: I was we were very blessed to have a magical
Speaker 1: run in my high school uh senior year. You know,
Speaker 1: we we were a public school that got ranked number
Speaker 1: one in the country. Uh you know one they said,
Speaker 1: they called it the mythical national Championship. So that was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. But we were you know, we were from
Speaker 1: South Dallas. Man. We we didn't know much else. We
Speaker 1: were just playing ball. Did you guys, So, did you
Speaker 1: guys have recruits? Were you like this IMG Academy or
Speaker 1: Oak Hill? Were you one of those schools? No, sir,
Speaker 1: basically everybody that was on your team actually went to
Speaker 1: that school. You didn't have guys coming in just obviously
Speaker 1: just to play basketball. No, from citywide in a city
Speaker 1: kind of feel kind of, but not on not on
Speaker 1: Oak Hill's level. No, No, not in that kind of context. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were not a privately funded school. This was Dallas
Speaker 1: Independent School District. You can look it up in Lincoln
Speaker 1: High School. You can look it up if you get bored. Obviously,
Speaker 1: at six eleven you win the state. You missed the
Speaker 1: basketball in the state of Texas. So obviously you had
Speaker 1: your pick. You didn't choose the blue blood. You didn't
Speaker 1: choose Carolina. You didn't choose Kentucky, you didn't choose cans.
Speaker 1: You chose Georgia Tech. Why tech Man For one, they
Speaker 1: had an African American head coach, black head coach. I
Speaker 1: was very into that. I was drawn to that. It
Speaker 1: was great. Yeah, Paul Hewitt, he was running a great program,
Speaker 1: turning the program around. It was very young, it was youthful.
Speaker 1: The blue blood programs were there. It just it just didn't.
Speaker 1: It just didn't. It just didn't attract me in that
Speaker 1: kind of way. And we really had a really great
Speaker 1: class and a lot of guys started getting picked up early.
Speaker 1: I believe North Carolina had three McDonald's, all Americans from
Speaker 1: our class, but they had Raymond Felton, Sean May I'm missing,
Speaker 1: George Williams, and Rashad McCants. I was in two years.
Speaker 1: They had four McDonald's, three from my class. So that
Speaker 1: was gone. Duke has Sheldon Williams, JJ Reddick, Daniel Ewing.
Speaker 1: You know, it just seemed to kind of all be
Speaker 1: uh going uh. You know, two guys that were very
Speaker 1: very good, very early, and they know where they want
Speaker 1: to go. For me, you know what, I had Florida
Speaker 1: and Texas and I just I don't know. I wanted
Speaker 1: to play in the ACC because I felt it get
Speaker 1: it gave me a better chance to make it to
Speaker 1: the league. So like in my mind, I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll go to Georgia Tech. Because if I want to
Speaker 1: go to the NBA, the ACC they don't have they
Speaker 1: there's an avoid at THEFORDA. They need to feel I
Speaker 1: can go play there. You know, people later told me said, dude,
Speaker 1: you were gonna play anywhere you went, right, But I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't have that awareness of myself at that time.
Speaker 1: So who would be your top five players to come
Speaker 1: out of State of Texas in high school basketball? Man?
Speaker 1: I mean me, of course. Okay, that boy, you only
Speaker 1: got four more to go. Gotta put big Perk in there. Okay,
Speaker 1: gotta put TJ Ford in there. Oh man, it goes quick.
Speaker 1: I gotta put LJ in there and Rishard Lewis. Wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know I'm missing some people. I know I'm missing somebody,
Speaker 1: but that's those are the biggest Texas. Texas is really
Speaker 1: not known for basketball. You are football mecca, and guys
Speaker 1: football the guys that really run fast in the for sure,
Speaker 1: all day every day. But you know, that was one
Speaker 1: of the best things that happened. I think, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just not thinking about it too even in my class.
Speaker 1: I know I'll get a lot for that, but I
Speaker 1: gotta put the Will and LaMarcus Altars in there too. Okay,
Speaker 1: but we were playing against each other. You know, those
Speaker 1: are my good friends, and you know it kind of
Speaker 1: not that it was overtaking basketball, but it was like
Speaker 1: in Texas if you were a sports junkie, if you're
Speaker 1: a high school sports junkie, that's like the perfect place
Speaker 1: for you. You follow careers, you get your information in
Speaker 1: the papers, you go and you go see every game
Speaker 1: because a lot of the times, the best football players
Speaker 1: the best basketball player too throughout a team. So you know,
Speaker 1: just the school spirit and just continuing sports just all
Speaker 1: through and then it'll tide you over the track and
Speaker 1: field man. Then you just keep it going all year.
Speaker 1: You're good to go. So you go to Georgia Tech,
Speaker 1: you play in the ACC. What was it like playing
Speaker 1: those teams, because even though you chose not to join them,
Speaker 1: you felt the ACC gave you a better opportunity or
Speaker 1: a better pipeline to the NBA. So that meant you
Speaker 1: had to play well against the Dukes, against the North Carolinas.
Speaker 1: It was very humbling because despite how good I did,
Speaker 1: we were still getting crushed as a team. Just as
Speaker 1: a team, I wanted to win. You know, you want
Speaker 1: to win. You have a you have a certain uh
Speaker 1: fixation on how this season is gonna go, of how
Speaker 1: the school is gonna go. None of that happened for me.
Speaker 1: And you know, we we we you know, had had
Speaker 1: a couple of great moments, but it was just a
Speaker 1: tough year. Adjusting the college was really hard, you know,
Speaker 1: being away from home, going from Dallas to Atlanta. I
Speaker 1: undert it did, but let me tell you, brother, it
Speaker 1: did have it going on. That was not a good thing.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any money in my pocket, and you
Speaker 1: quickly learned how much competition it is for a pretty
Speaker 1: pretty young lady. And you know, in Atlanta. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh damn, you know, I don't have none
Speaker 1: of that stuff, you know what I mean. I was
Speaker 1: striking out left and right. So it was very humbling.
Speaker 1: So when you went to when when you went to Tech,
Speaker 1: did you know that you were like, I'm wanting done,
Speaker 1: or did you think that, you know what, I might
Speaker 1: stay a year, I might stay two years. Or was
Speaker 1: it because the evaluation that you got like I gotta go.
Speaker 1: It was because of the evaluation. I didn't know until
Speaker 1: later in the season, around the time about February, late February.
Speaker 1: That's when I was aware, because people tell you being
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, people gonna tell you, you know. So I
Speaker 1: was just keeping my head down and working right, you know,
Speaker 1: people start finding me and telling me that information, and
Speaker 1: my intent was to do two years. In my head,
Speaker 1: I said, okay too, and I'm gonna be man, I
Speaker 1: can have a shot. And it was kind of it
Speaker 1: was hard to take because I honestly, I wasn't ready
Speaker 1: to hear that. You know, I'm just man, We're losing
Speaker 1: and we not what are we doing wrong? And I
Speaker 1: have to get better and I'm thinking about the things
Speaker 1: to do to get better and then you know, people
Speaker 1: were telling me like, well, yeah, you can go number five.
Speaker 1: I remember that and number five, and I was just
Speaker 1: I didn't understand, you know, nah nah, not yet. It's
Speaker 1: like nah, because that meant you had to go I
Speaker 1: know what that means. I'm like, I'm just now starting
Speaker 1: to get used to Atlanta and college looking good. You don't, oh, man,
Speaker 1: the sun was shining changed up. Man, It's just you know,
Speaker 1: that stink of the season was off. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: next year we were Brent, which the guys went to
Speaker 1: the final, they competed for a national championship. We were
Speaker 1: looking around and saying, man, we might be we might
Speaker 1: be all right. But you know, it just it just
Speaker 1: came up and it was quicker than I anticipated. The
Speaker 1: two thousand and three draft, Lebron was regarded as universally
Speaker 1: He's going number one. Did you think you Carmelo Anthony's
Speaker 1: in that draft? Dark Darko Milichick is in that draft
Speaker 1: in d Wait though the most the high profile. Did
Speaker 1: you think you had a chance to move up to
Speaker 1: maybe number two, number three? I thought I could move
Speaker 1: up to number two. I wanted to play in Detroit
Speaker 1: because I have I have family in Detroit, Okay, And
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, you're young, you don't know nothing.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, man, they're taking dark Old, maybe I
Speaker 1: get if I work out for him. So I actually
Speaker 1: worked out for him, but they were taking dark Oh
Speaker 1: was a grown man at that time. They were. They
Speaker 1: were taking one through three. Pretty much was solidified. I
Speaker 1: didn't even I think I worked out for Denver, but
Speaker 1: that was pretty evident that they were gonna take Carmelo.
Speaker 1: I played Carmelo that year in college. They beat the
Speaker 1: crap out of us. They were pretty good, man. But
Speaker 1: you know, with with Lebron and Dwayne not not Lebron
Speaker 1: and Carmelo, I had never seen basketball players like that,
Speaker 1: so you knew they were going really and with Dwayne,
Speaker 1: nobody really knew. I didn't even hear of him until,
Speaker 1: you know, you hear a couple of things. I didn't
Speaker 1: really just like, no, no, until that Kentucky game at
Speaker 1: Me had with the triple double four. Yeah, and it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: but everybody thought he was gonna be lower mid and Miami.
Speaker 1: Miami worked them mount and they knew. But you know,
Speaker 1: after after after three was pretty much kind of like
Speaker 1: the question mark at the time. So so you didn't
Speaker 1: play any of these guys au ball, you play, you
Speaker 1: didn't go against Lebron? You yeah, Lebron actually, Uh it
Speaker 1: was ABCD camp in two thousand and one and too
Speaker 1: next New Jersey. He was, he was, he was the
Speaker 1: first team, well the first guy I played again. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of like they take three hundred kids from
Speaker 1: all over the country, right and divide him in the teams, right,
Speaker 1: And you just played like two games a day for
Speaker 1: a week. And the first game we played was Lebron
Speaker 1: And I remember Washington play like, yo, who is this guy? Oh,
Speaker 1: this is Lebron? Okay, I've heard it. Okay, I've heard
Speaker 1: this guy. Haven't heard his name, you know, I have
Speaker 1: not heard his name since. And then like we played
Speaker 1: each other a couple more times uh that year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, we played each other. That was. And then
Speaker 1: I played with Mellow actually at USA Basketball and Venezola
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and two. So watching Lebron played then,
Speaker 1: did you know he would turn out to beat this
Speaker 1: or he even better than you thought? He would be
Speaker 1: definitely better than you thought it would be. But like
Speaker 1: when when you know when your kids, right, this is
Speaker 1: you're just a it's a friend, right, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like yeh man, what's yeah. You were at the camp, right, yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: and then you're at the draft and then then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's like, okay, but right before that
Speaker 1: it was chosen one. I'm like, oh shit, you on
Speaker 1: the cover of sports. It was damn. But I remember
Speaker 1: when I got to Georgia Tech for my freshman year.
Speaker 1: They played on the ESPN in high school and that
Speaker 1: was kind of like, damn, that's crazy. And then it's like, boy,
Speaker 1: he's been hitting the weights. He looked, he took that
Speaker 1: next leap, and then you know, you don't see him
Speaker 1: for a year, and then the next time you see him,
Speaker 1: he's just transformed. So we knew right away that okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be the number one pick. But to be honest,
Speaker 1: you don't really think that far into it. You just
Speaker 1: you know, you it's all of us. This is cool.
Speaker 1: I went right into you know, trying to be great
Speaker 1: myself and for my you know, pouring all my stuff
Speaker 1: into the game. You get drafted number four overall, you
Speaker 1: go to Toronto. What were your expectations and what was
Speaker 1: Toronto like? I ma'am. I didn't have any expectations for
Speaker 1: Toronto because it was it was kind of shocking. Man.
Speaker 1: It was a culture shock. It was moving to a
Speaker 1: different country. I knew I was playing with Vince Carter.
Speaker 1: You're excited to move, You're excited to get it going.
Speaker 1: But then just that professional pace is very He's slow, man,
Speaker 1: and then you know, boom, You're you're throwing into the pan.
Speaker 1: You know, I really struggled when it got cold. When
Speaker 1: it started getting cold, that's when I started, you know,
Speaker 1: getting home sick. You know, I'm twenty five thirty games in,
Speaker 1: I'm getting smashed every day by grown man. The league.
Speaker 1: The league was a little, you know, a little different,
Speaker 1: a little different than it is now. You know, you
Speaker 1: could guys it was more physical and and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like two two ten, two fifteen. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: just getting my ass handed to me every day. So
Speaker 1: I was it was a struggle. It was a real struggle,
Speaker 1: and we weren't doing too good as a team. It
Speaker 1: was it was, you know, just an adjustment getting used
Speaker 1: to the NBA life. And and then socially, I was
Speaker 1: calling my friends every day back at Georgia Tech. They're
Speaker 1: going to the final four. I'm just like God, man,
Speaker 1: did I make the wrong I don't know if I
Speaker 1: made the right decision. Now I was going I was
Speaker 1: going through that in my head. But right you know,
Speaker 1: you know everybody has to go through it. We all
Speaker 1: have to go through it. And you know those are
Speaker 1: my years. Man. Did you ever think about bringing family out,
Speaker 1: maybe your mom, your dad, or someone that you're very
Speaker 1: familiar with, your close, close with to live with you,
Speaker 1: to be there to give you that sense of home.
Speaker 1: I had that. I did have that. I had a
Speaker 1: tremendous support at the time, always had someone with me.
Speaker 1: It's just they're not with you in that huddle, you know,
Speaker 1: and I with you on those road trips. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just just the grind of the season. It sounds a
Speaker 1: lot cooler playing on the road than it actually is
Speaker 1: when you first start. You gotta get used to it.
Speaker 1: It's a lifestyle adjustment you have to make. And being nineteen,
Speaker 1: let's say, being nineteen in the league full of grown guys,
Speaker 1: it's it was. It was a struggle, man, it was
Speaker 1: just different. Uh, Chris, I hate to bring bring this up,
Speaker 1: but January twenty second, two thousand and six, you happen
Speaker 1: to be on that team in which y'all COVID rest
Speaker 1: your soul again. Yeah, dropped eighty one. Everybody talks about
Speaker 1: Jalen Rose and you kind of get and you don't
Speaker 1: ever mention it, So you've done a great job. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: ain't nobody. Don't anyone remember that I was on the squad,
Speaker 1: So I ain't gonna break it up. I brought it
Speaker 1: up a couple of times, you know, just a couple
Speaker 1: of times, not a lot. It's more like a trivia thing.
Speaker 1: And then people say, oh, that is you. Oh you
Speaker 1: can watch the game and maybe not even notice me
Speaker 1: because I look a little different. I was pretty young.
Speaker 1: I was like twenty two, yeah, twenty two, twenty three
Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah, that was That was embarrassing, man,
Speaker 1: So what do you do? What do you remember about
Speaker 1: that game? And then when he got it going, did
Speaker 1: you ever think he would get to that plateau? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't, Okay, So like all I remember, I just
Speaker 1: like I remember halftime and a lot of people don't know.
Speaker 1: But he scored fifty five points in the second half, right,
Speaker 1: that's like the stat that's like, that's the stagger. That's
Speaker 1: what's because you know what I mean, they think it
Speaker 1: was like okay, forty forty nah, yeah, fifty five. You know,
Speaker 1: I just remember we were up. We were in a
Speaker 1: very good team, but you were all big big, were
Speaker 1: up about fourteen sixteen points, and on the road, we're
Speaker 1: feeling great. He's got twenty six points, right, so I'm like, ah,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, Kobe can have fifty, don't matter as
Speaker 1: long as we win by you know. Man, I just
Speaker 1: remember he came out. It's like he couldn't miss it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it's it's like you just start
Speaker 1: watching him play because he started doing stuff you never
Speaker 1: see anybody do. Nobody was pulling up for three Steph
Speaker 1: Curry started pulling up for threes again. Nobody saw that
Speaker 1: back then. He was pulling up from that far, you know.
Speaker 1: And and the game the second half just started. It
Speaker 1: just the second half. He just come out shooting bo Okay,
Speaker 1: he hits like four threes in a row if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, and that's like twelve points. And then then
Speaker 1: he just start hitting everything. And we were bad defensively already,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't like there was a bunch of resistance.
Speaker 1: So It's like it was that perfect storm. Off. He
Speaker 1: hit every three, he hit every shot, and he shot
Speaker 1: a lot of free throws. Right. It was really the
Speaker 1: perfect storm. Oh it was a perfect storm. Man. He
Speaker 1: gave it to us, man, and that was That was
Speaker 1: a tough one, man. That was. And it was kind
Speaker 1: of like I just remember running back and forth, just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this can't be real. You kind of get stuck in
Speaker 1: a dream, all right, you know, like, can we stop this?
Speaker 1: I don't know. He just hit this fade away from
Speaker 1: over there. I've never seen that before. You just kind
Speaker 1: of get like, no way, Bob, my god, dang, this
Speaker 1: dude is killing. So the horn goes the horn goes off,
Speaker 1: and you look and you look up and it says
Speaker 1: eighty one. Did you like, is that a myth? Prier?
Speaker 1: Ain't no way, this man had eighty one points in
Speaker 1: big shan. I didn't even have to look. I just
Speaker 1: walked off. I knew, I knew what he had this
Speaker 1: last two free throw free throw, and then they took
Speaker 1: him out and I said, man, let's just get off
Speaker 1: the court. Let's just get out of here as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. Man. That was a Sunday afternoon yes. Let
Speaker 1: me ask your question. When Toronto won the title last year,
Speaker 1: what were your emotions, because you did start in Toronto,
Speaker 1: although you had your greatest success, greatest team success in Maamn,
Speaker 1: what were your emotions were you excited? You like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I played for that team. I'm happy for oh man.
Speaker 1: I was so happy. I was so happy for the
Speaker 1: city because nobody ever would have thought that would happen,
Speaker 1: that they even have the opportunity, just because that was
Speaker 1: the stigma for so long, and especially when I was there,
Speaker 1: that was the stigma that you would fight like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, can we compete for a championship here?
Speaker 1: And then it would start to kind of see through
Speaker 1: the city. But when I went, I got the chance
Speaker 1: the opportunity to work with the finals for Canadian Cables
Speaker 1: in up there, and so I went to every game
Speaker 1: and just to see the excitement. That's one of the
Speaker 1: things I wish I would have got more of was
Speaker 1: to see playoff basketball in Toronto. Phenomenal fans right, and
Speaker 1: to see their spirit and for them to experience that,
Speaker 1: not only experience it, but win it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: was so happy for those guys. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: know the trainers, the coaches, you know, the staff, the
Speaker 1: front office. The first thing they say when they see me, like, Yo,
Speaker 1: can you believe it? I'm like, I know, that's just great.
Speaker 1: I was just I was so so happy for those guys.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the times I really really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I got to go back and see all the old guys.
Speaker 1: You know, on those days I wasn't working pre game
Speaker 1: too much. I would go back to the locker room
Speaker 1: and in the equipment room and talk to my old
Speaker 1: equipment manager and the trainers and just you know, have
Speaker 1: a couple of beers and shoot the ship, you know,
Speaker 1: have some fun, and just to see those guys and
Speaker 1: that city have that opportunity and win it and have
Speaker 1: that forever. It's nothing like it. Obviously, Kawhi was a
Speaker 1: big part of that team in Toronto. Last year he
Speaker 1: moved on to the Clippers. Is there what was different
Speaker 1: between Kawhi last year in Toronto and Kawhi this year
Speaker 1: in LA Because it seems he had more talent in
Speaker 1: LA that he had in Toronto, but he didn't enjoy
Speaker 1: the same level of team success. Why do you think
Speaker 1: that was? You know, and I think it's the motivation.
Speaker 1: I think you can get to a complacent place as
Speaker 1: a team, It's it's not easy. And with those guys,
Speaker 1: they had to have the gap in between shutting down
Speaker 1: a season and the bubble, so there could have been
Speaker 1: many miscues there. But I think, you know, that kind
Speaker 1: of they kind of let that take them out of
Speaker 1: their rhythm and it's a hard lesson learned. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully those guys can learn from what transpired.
Speaker 1: But all in all, they still have the talent. They'll
Speaker 1: still be a championship contender. It will be harder next
Speaker 1: year because you know, you got guys like Golden State,
Speaker 1: who they're gonna you know, they got the Splash Brothers
Speaker 1: rested up, Draymond rested up in a high pick, you know, coming,
Speaker 1: So we'll see how that goes. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think it wasn't as much urgency. You know, they didn't
Speaker 1: play with the urgency. They didn't play with the edge
Speaker 1: that they needed one to put Denver Away into to
Speaker 1: really sustain their great play two thousand and eight. You guys,
Speaker 1: it's dubbed the redeem team because in two thousand and
Speaker 1: four they had lost the gold medal. Not only did
Speaker 1: they Uh, yeah, because they say, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: win up silboy, you win Lebron if you lose gold.
Speaker 1: They lost the golden medal they got, they got the broun.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaking, Argentina won the gold medal back
Speaker 1: year behind Manu yep in two thousand and eight. What
Speaker 1: was your focus? What were you guys focus going in
Speaker 1: to try and bring the gold medal home? Because you're
Speaker 1: not a basketball started in America, so we should never
Speaker 1: lose in basketball. Man. It was embarrassing, man. And like
Speaker 1: I didn't get the opportunity to play on the team
Speaker 1: in Athens, but I played in Tokyo in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six. We didn't win that either, you know. So
Speaker 1: it was getting to the point, you know where it's like, man,
Speaker 1: this is embarrassing. Yeah, we're supposed to be the world
Speaker 1: leaders in this MJ and those guys never lost. So
Speaker 1: we've got to We've got to fix this and we
Speaker 1: definitely can't lose in a way. It was just a
Speaker 1: very very serious atmosphere, I mean not only for basketball,
Speaker 1: but just the spirit of a nation. I mean, we
Speaker 1: talked to we talked to veteran people who were disabled
Speaker 1: or disabled lost their eyesight, re enlisted back into the military,
Speaker 1: you know, to fight for their country. Talking to two
Speaker 1: and three star generals, you know, it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was super super patriotic, super heavy, and I mean,
Speaker 1: Coach K I really want to say Coach K left
Speaker 1: the charge on that one because he knew the moment
Speaker 1: and how serious it was, not only as a leader
Speaker 1: in basketball and setting the precedent with that, but just representing,
Speaker 1: you know, the United States of America, having pride in
Speaker 1: that and not letting anybody kind of take that away
Speaker 1: from you. You know, just just wear it with pride.
Speaker 1: And we played pretty hungry. We were. We were ready
Speaker 1: to go that year. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So what are some of your best memories about the
Speaker 1: O E team? Obviously you're around some of your around
Speaker 1: d Wade Mellow, Lebron. You guys came in in the
Speaker 1: same draft in OH three, so you're very familiar with
Speaker 1: each other. Kobe was on that team also, Kobe was
Speaker 1: CDP three. So what are some of your best memories
Speaker 1: about that Besides winning? Obviously that was the greatest memory
Speaker 1: of winning. Yeah, but what are some of your behind
Speaker 1: the scenes memories hanging with Kobe. Of course going to
Speaker 1: the We went to the village quite a bit, I
Speaker 1: want to say, every other day. We had built this
Speaker 1: thing where we would play. The next day we practiced
Speaker 1: and then go hang out at the village. But just
Speaker 1: to hang out at the village, see the spirit of
Speaker 1: the games, talk to the people, you know, eat eat,
Speaker 1: eating the mess hall, you know, eat the same food now,
Speaker 1: and like seeing how big Kobe was, because you know, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Lebron is you know, Kobe's Kobe's the guy, and Lebron
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, he's the guy you can touch.
Speaker 1: You can't touch Kobe, right, Lebron you can touch kind of,
Speaker 1: and he's on his way and like he's one of
Speaker 1: the best in the world. But then Kobe was around,
Speaker 1: and it was it was just I mean, the way
Speaker 1: people reacted to that guy was crazy. But just getting
Speaker 1: to see some of that, getting to see how hard
Speaker 1: he worked, how much he put into the game, how
Speaker 1: good he how good he really is or was, and yeah,
Speaker 1: just hanging with the guys. Man, we had a good time.
Speaker 1: It was It was a lot of a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun on that trip, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I was twenty four years old. We
Speaker 1: were all yet. Bron was twenty three, Mellow was twenty four,
Speaker 1: d was twenty five. We were just just some you know,
Speaker 1: young guys hanging out when you guys are at the
Speaker 1: Olympics and oh eight, did you know that there was
Speaker 1: a possibility that you, d Wade and Braun might link
Speaker 1: up later that ever, I did not know. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Broun knew. I'm sure he knew because there, you know,
Speaker 1: he's a very calculated person. I was just happy to
Speaker 1: be one be on Olympics. I was trying to play right.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to give more minutes and and
Speaker 1: I was so concentrated on making Toronto a destination that
Speaker 1: was like my goal and focus as a franchise player.
Speaker 1: I truly truly believed that we could compete for a
Speaker 1: championship one day. I just had to keep doing what
Speaker 1: I'm doing, and you know, I was just fully into that.
Speaker 1: I really didn't start thinking all the way about free
Speaker 1: agency until I think it was that was it that summer,
Speaker 1: I think the summer before. Yeah, in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: we all signed our deals, So it was kind of
Speaker 1: out of my mind for whatever reason, I wasn't. I
Speaker 1: was just kind of kind of just compartmentalizing and just
Speaker 1: thinking about things that were in front of me. So
Speaker 1: how did so how did that come together? So how
Speaker 1: did you guys? You d Wade Lebron, Are you on
Speaker 1: the phone? Are you in a room? And you're like,
Speaker 1: obviously they're not coming to Toronto, so play. In order
Speaker 1: for you to play play to Lebron, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to make moved to the state. So how did this
Speaker 1: come about? So it kind of started out all cloudy.
Speaker 1: You know, free agency is crazy, but you know it
Speaker 1: was known that Miami was making moves to get enough
Speaker 1: cash space. That's pretty much what it came down to.
Speaker 1: Once the cash space was made. Yeah, a couple of
Speaker 1: phone conversations, you know, I mean, we're friends, we see
Speaker 1: each other, and at that time it was still just possibilities.
Speaker 1: Nobody really thought because you know, I believe there were
Speaker 1: still moves to be made and all that stuff. So,
Speaker 1: you know, it was just kind of a pipe dream
Speaker 1: at the time, but it was on the radar. And
Speaker 1: you know, my agent, the late grade Henry Thomas, me
Speaker 1: and him at me and Dwayne at the same agent.
Speaker 1: You know, so I kind of everybody put me in
Speaker 1: a position where it's like Chris, if you come, for sure,
Speaker 1: we're going to get one of it. You know. So
Speaker 1: that's like New York, New Jersey, Chicago, that's what they're
Speaker 1: telling me. In like for me, they were putting me
Speaker 1: in the middle of it. And I mean so in
Speaker 1: the other words, you were the man. You you were
Speaker 1: the one that was going to connect the dots because
Speaker 1: if you come, one of the other was definitely coming.
Speaker 1: That's that's what they were trying to sell me on.
Speaker 1: Never believed it any any part of the day and
Speaker 1: like guys, I don't know, but they that's definitely what
Speaker 1: was being sold to me quite a bit. But you know,
Speaker 1: it was just it was a slow burn. You know,
Speaker 1: the free agency period happened once I heard the possibility.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was pretty evident to me. I was
Speaker 1: on board the welcome when the Heat had their welcome
Speaker 1: party and you guys are on stage and it's the
Speaker 1: power of techniques are going off and they're probably fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand people in Heat arena and lebron is saying not one,
Speaker 1: not two, not three, not four? Are you like, hop bro,
Speaker 1: Let's hold this thing. Let's get it and then we'll
Speaker 1: get to two to three to four. What's going through
Speaker 1: your mind when you hear him say that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Tell him, Oh yeah, I was taking yo, give me
Speaker 1: all the gas. Wasn't even thinking about how that would look.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even aware. I mean, it was just everybody
Speaker 1: was having so much fun, to be honest, man. And
Speaker 1: it kind of not that it did. It didn't get flipped.
Speaker 1: We definitely should have been smarter. It was just like
Speaker 1: in the context the question was asked, and then he said,
Speaker 1: we're not here to win, not one, but of course
Speaker 1: you gotta hey man, they're gonna pick up. They're gonna
Speaker 1: just nudge that over, pick that part up. And yeah
Speaker 1: you did. Kind of we did. We were all there
Speaker 1: counting all the way up to ten or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we were feeling so good man. We had
Speaker 1: no idea and at the same time, like we weren't
Speaker 1: seeing the aftermath of the night before, right, you know,
Speaker 1: we went straight to parties and stuff, So we were
Speaker 1: totally least on my end, I was totally unaware of
Speaker 1: the perception and how it was taken. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: if we would have known that, and how good and
Speaker 1: how hard it is to win a championship. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: might would have We probably would have said some some
Speaker 1: different stuff, you know, and you come on. The crowd
Speaker 1: was like they had gass. Oh we were gas yea.
Speaker 1: By the time he got the eight, it was a
Speaker 1: standing ovation. But you you mentioned you didn't see the
Speaker 1: backlash that had happened the night before because once you
Speaker 1: guys said once you guys did you did? You went
Speaker 1: straight the parties. But you go, you your beloved Lebron
Speaker 1: was beloved d Wade, and now you guys combined and
Speaker 1: you're the most hated team and all maybe in the
Speaker 1: history of basketball outside of the Bad Boy Pistons. But
Speaker 1: you go from beloved to hate it overnight. That's what
Speaker 1: kind of that's what kind of threw me off. And
Speaker 1: that's what kind of that was my naive nature at
Speaker 1: the time, just being a younger guy. Everybody loved me
Speaker 1: in Toronto. I was not threatening. I'll give you twenty
Speaker 1: and ten to night. You know, we may get the
Speaker 1: ape seeds, seventh seeds. We'll get you guys out of
Speaker 1: here in five man. Chris, you boy, you can play,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and it wasn't threatening. And
Speaker 1: you know, prior to that, I want to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, you know, and I tell you,
Speaker 1: everybody was so nice because free agency was coming up,
Speaker 1: and so you kind of get in this mode of
Speaker 1: just thinking, oh, yeah, they're my friends or yeah nobody,
Speaker 1: not even putting yourself in their position and saying, oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: they're a fan and they're a Bulls fan. So if
Speaker 1: you don't go to Chicago, they're not gonna like that. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I think for everybody, for all
Speaker 1: of us, we kind of Dwayne and Lebron had some
Speaker 1: experience with it. I had none, So I was just
Speaker 1: steadily playing catchup and and you know, just catching those
Speaker 1: straight bullets. Man, how difficult was it because, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you go from being a twenty ten guy, a guy
Speaker 1: that they're running the offense through, to all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's Lebron, d Wade, d Wade, Lebron, not Chris. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's a little something for you. How difficult was that
Speaker 1: for you? It was very difficult, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: because in my mind I thought, I said, man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get my touches here, and they're gonna be making
Speaker 1: plays for me because Dwayne and Lebron can pass so well, right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the leading scorer. Man, I'm gonna average.
Speaker 1: My game is gonna continue to go up. I average
Speaker 1: twenty five last year twenty four point who I probably
Speaker 1: have twenty six at least. Yeah, it wasn't like yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not like that. And then and then even in that,
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure it out as a team. I'm
Speaker 1: running a whole different playbook. I don't like nobody. I
Speaker 1: mean we're getting when it's knew, nobody likes it. And
Speaker 1: then we're trying to figure out how to play with it,
Speaker 1: like yeah, with each other. And then like it's so loud.
Speaker 1: Every game is like a playoff game. So learning on
Speaker 1: the fly it's not really working. So we're going back
Speaker 1: to old habits. It was bad, you know, it just
Speaker 1: it just kind of snowballed into this situation where we said, okay,
Speaker 1: as a team, this is what we have to do.
Speaker 1: And to be quite frank, man, I mean they were
Speaker 1: so they were so amazing. Just said what they did.
Speaker 1: I said, all right, cool, you know they I mean
Speaker 1: I would see Lebron get a block, get the rebound,
Speaker 1: push it, kick it up and and cast alley. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Okay, I can't do that. D Way doing
Speaker 1: all those Euros steps and getting the steels in the
Speaker 1: back court. They they just did things that I could
Speaker 1: not do. So I pretty much it was pretty evident
Speaker 1: as far as like how I would affect the game
Speaker 1: and where I would fit in with that team. You
Speaker 1: guys don't get off to the best start at seventeen
Speaker 1: games in you're nine and eight. Yeah, how much truth
Speaker 1: is it that d Wade and Lebron wanted spoil Gone
Speaker 1: and pat Riley to come down? We were you in
Speaker 1: on it? Nah? Yeah, never was never a thing that
Speaker 1: was just that was so it was getting so crazy, man,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, that was one of the
Speaker 1: things that we didn't, you know, expect coming because you know, hey,
Speaker 1: we gave us full a rough time. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to give your coach a rough time in
Speaker 1: this situation. Nobody's happy, right, But yeah, the fans in Miami,
Speaker 1: they started it started at the home games, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, people were just like, we want Rayles Riles
Speaker 1: pretty much had to We had to have a whole
Speaker 1: team meeting about that and just like, hey, I'm not coaching,
Speaker 1: you know, this is our team. And him doing that,
Speaker 1: we knew that. Okay, this is what we're working with.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be any any kind of wishy washy
Speaker 1: kind of stuff over here. He's the coach. He's ready.
Speaker 1: You know, We're good to go. How difficult was twenty
Speaker 1: eleven because you guys were a favorite to beat the
Speaker 1: Mavericks and it does not go. You win Game one,
Speaker 1: you're up by fifteen at one point in time. In
Speaker 1: Game two, they go on a twenty two and twenty
Speaker 1: two two, They go on to twenty two five runs
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, so they win and they end
Speaker 1: up winning the game and win that series. Yea? How
Speaker 1: difficult was that? And what would the off season like?
Speaker 1: The off season was long because it was the lockout year, right,
Speaker 1: So not only did we lose, but it's like, damn,
Speaker 1: we are we even gonna get another chance to even
Speaker 1: redeem ourselves? Probably, I don't know, we'll see. But it
Speaker 1: was embarrassing. It was hard. We were shameful, I mean
Speaker 1: every what we're wrong, what we're wrong. We just weren't ready,
Speaker 1: We just weren't read. They were better than us. We
Speaker 1: didn't Psychologically, we didn't play well. Our offense was stagnant.
Speaker 1: Lebron didn't play well. I didn't play well. Nobody played
Speaker 1: with a coaching staff hell or the popcorn. Man. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he was like, I didn't get them the popcorn
Speaker 1: like I you know, but it just, you know, one
Speaker 1: thing I learned from that you have to gain experienced
Speaker 1: as a team and then as an individual. And unfortunately
Speaker 1: sometimes that requires pain. And we understood as soon as
Speaker 1: we lost how important it is to pay attention to
Speaker 1: the small details, to play with that, to play with
Speaker 1: that pain, you know what I mean. And you get
Speaker 1: into the moors, and you got to give credit to
Speaker 1: the Maverige, to Jason Kid, Jason Terry, Dirk Navinski. They
Speaker 1: were very steady, and they picked us apart, and they
Speaker 1: were always a step ahead and as far as like
Speaker 1: what we were doing, so we were always catching up
Speaker 1: to them. And I mean, they seized the moment. Man.
Speaker 1: You gotta give them credit. They played well and we
Speaker 1: did not. Did you feel like, Okay, Lebron obviously is
Speaker 1: the best player, but he goes to d wade home.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like, look, I don't understand I might
Speaker 1: have more money than you, but when I'm in your home,
Speaker 1: I need to act accordingly. Feel that Lebron was holding
Speaker 1: back because he was in Miami and this was d
Speaker 1: Wade's castle. Oh yeah, for sure, that was that was
Speaker 1: all of our things. I didn't want to step on
Speaker 1: their toes. Lebron definitely didn't want to step on these
Speaker 1: toes because he had developed his pretty much developed his
Speaker 1: style of play at the time. So you know, that's
Speaker 1: a ball dominant style, to be honest with you, So like,
Speaker 1: I know for sure he didn't want to. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, yo, this is d Wade, He's the franchise guy.
Speaker 1: It took them having a conversation to pretty much say,
Speaker 1: hey man, you know you do your thing. We're you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're we're in behind, We've got your back. We're
Speaker 1: going to allow you to be the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. And that pretty much was the conversation. It
Speaker 1: was off and running. After that, you had this epic,
Speaker 1: these epic battles with the Celtics. You're down, I mean
Speaker 1: you would go up to oh they win the next three,
Speaker 1: walk us through game six? What would because you had
Speaker 1: just lost the previous year to the Mavericks, right, you
Speaker 1: can't lose. You can't lose again. Oh my god, it's over.
Speaker 1: If you what what would your mindset? What was the
Speaker 1: Keys mindset? And did you know Lebron was gonna have
Speaker 1: an epic night? I didn't know he's gonna have an
Speaker 1: epic night. Oh mind from my mind, I was hurt,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a torn growing. I could play,
Speaker 1: but I knew I couldn't give much, so I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give as much as I can give. And
Speaker 1: I was coming off the bench. I think I was
Speaker 1: our plan. I was gonna I knew I was probably
Speaker 1: gonna play eighteen twenty minutes, right, So that was my
Speaker 1: you know, focus is playing with this pain and hopefully
Speaker 1: something could come out of it. Because you got the
Speaker 1: first series right against Indiana. You missed the first series. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I came out. I probably played six minutes and missed
Speaker 1: the whole series and then missed the first five games
Speaker 1: of this particular series with Boston or first four, and
Speaker 1: I came back game five and then we lost. But
Speaker 1: I mean it was just kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things where we just kind of had to believe. Man,
Speaker 1: you had to believe we weren't really thinking too much
Speaker 1: about the possibilities. It was more so just like, all right, cool, Boston,
Speaker 1: we're going to Boston. Let's get it done. You just
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat dinner, I'm gonna do shoot around, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this. I you know, That's all I was
Speaker 1: focused on. And then about midway through the first quarter,
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter, I noticed Bron like, God,
Speaker 1: he hasn't miss am I tripping, you know, And then
Speaker 1: just say we're playing well. And then okay, man, he's
Speaker 1: hitting everything. We're not even running in any place. You know,
Speaker 1: I can just focus on defense. Right, we get some stops,
Speaker 1: he's gonna take care of the rest. That's great. That
Speaker 1: makes it easy on everybody. And then we were just
Speaker 1: in a good rhythm defensively as a team. You know,
Speaker 1: the couple times that he did get off the ball,
Speaker 1: we scored and you know, we were able to get
Speaker 1: out of there. But like I mean, it was it
Speaker 1: was a crazy experience. I mean, before you know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've been in one of those games right where
Speaker 1: you could just hear a pin drop. You know, it's nothing.
Speaker 1: It was nothing to say. There was no hype speeches.
Speaker 1: It was It was just you know, let's go out
Speaker 1: here and go and then you know, it's just one
Speaker 1: of those moments. Gosh, it's like, man, this dude is
Speaker 1: hitting everything. Are you man? Are you when we're up twenty?
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a good dream, but like every dream,
Speaker 1: like am I in Boston up twenty right now? Are
Speaker 1: we about to get out of here alive? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1: And that kind of gave us, you know, some it
Speaker 1: reinvigorated us for a game seven. You mentioned that was
Speaker 1: game six. All that did was promise you another game.
Speaker 1: You still weren't out of the woods because you have
Speaker 1: Game seven and it's in your building, which would have
Speaker 1: been even worse had you lost Game six, because you
Speaker 1: would have got the l in your building for sure.
Speaker 1: It didn't even Hey, once you get there, it doesn't
Speaker 1: even cross your mind. It's like, hey, we're at the crib.
Speaker 1: It don't matter. We whoop your ass on the moon.
Speaker 1: Let's go. So you you play, Okay, see you lose
Speaker 1: the first game, you win the second one. Okay, what's
Speaker 1: going through your mind at the beginning of the series,
Speaker 1: And did you like, okay, we got we've gotten drolled.
Speaker 1: Now we're going home for three games, and we're not
Speaker 1: coming back to okay See. Oh yeah, I definitely, I know.
Speaker 1: I felt that in my spirit. We didn't play particularly
Speaker 1: well Game one. We knew that we turned the ball
Speaker 1: over a line, and when you get when you get
Speaker 1: that far, you don't freak out. You don't get that
Speaker 1: far just to freak out over one game. You recognize,
Speaker 1: we recognize the mistakes that we were making as a team,
Speaker 1: and we knew we could play much better, and you know,
Speaker 1: knowing kind of trying to get in okay See's head.
Speaker 1: They were all in their early twenties. I know how
Speaker 1: I was. When we won Game one. I thought we
Speaker 1: were gonna win it, so naturally you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: let up in game two, just that little bit of
Speaker 1: let up or change the ties a little bit. We
Speaker 1: kind of knew that, so we said, okay, let's get
Speaker 1: game game two, and then once we get that, once
Speaker 1: we got that game, I said, Okay, we're not coming back.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just how I feel. We were a
Speaker 1: tremendous home team, I think one of the best home
Speaker 1: teams in the league, and we were just totally confident
Speaker 1: at home. So going back, we just knew we had
Speaker 1: a chance to run them all off. And you didn't
Speaker 1: know this at the time, but you beat a team
Speaker 1: that would later go on to have three regularly the
Speaker 1: MVPs and a guy that won two finals MVP crazy.
Speaker 1: We knew they were good, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: kind of you know, playing them was very difficult. You know,
Speaker 1: even back then early twenties, it was like and and
Speaker 1: I think Westbrook put on like fifteen pounds after that series.
Speaker 1: You know, they took it to another level. Individually. We
Speaker 1: knew that they were gonna be a problem. We knew
Speaker 1: there were a problem coming into that series. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody didn't really get used to the hardened thing until
Speaker 1: Houston right doing that with okayc you know hard and yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he was sixth Man of the year. But
Speaker 1: did you know Harden would be this? I mean, it's
Speaker 1: one thing that's okay, yeah, he would be good. But
Speaker 1: to beat this, I got an average thirty six, I
Speaker 1: got a averages thirty five, he leads the league, gonna
Speaker 1: see us, but got I mean the fifty point fifty
Speaker 1: point triple double. Did you know he could beat this? No? No,
Speaker 1: we knew. It's like, yo, he's gonna be he's cold,
Speaker 1: he's bad. He can be a franchise player somewhere else.
Speaker 1: But if they stay together, you can fill in the blanks.
Speaker 1: And then when he went to Houston, oh man, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty good. But yeah, what he's uh, the
Speaker 1: things he's been able to do, I mean, he's inspired,
Speaker 1: he's he's done a whole other thing with the game
Speaker 1: of basketball nobody else has seen before. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody saw that coming. I think he gained his
Speaker 1: confidence and then with whatever that crazy creativity that he's
Speaker 1: gotten his brain, he started figuring things out and it's like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, I can do this. And he's almost he's
Speaker 1: almost unguardable with that step back three. So I don't
Speaker 1: know how you you defending. Yeah, you don't know either.
Speaker 1: You're just in the whole game. How do we defend
Speaker 1: this guy? And so you win that one and then
Speaker 1: the next year you go the Spurs, you lose game one.
Speaker 1: Tony Parker hit that miraculous shot lebron got indeed, up
Speaker 1: shot clocks wid it down somehow he throws it up,
Speaker 1: it rolls around and it falls in. You guys lose.
Speaker 1: What's going through your mind? You're like, oh my goodness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my goodness, it's cool. But that's not okay.
Speaker 1: See now that's not duck in the parking nobly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you don't want to. You want to
Speaker 1: lose it, but you don't allow yourself to. It's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: we lost that one, all right, Hey we cannot lose
Speaker 1: game too. That's just and and you know, we start
Speaker 1: identifying the problems and what we need to fix right away,
Speaker 1: and we were able to have a great game. But
Speaker 1: you know, in that particular moment, you just try to
Speaker 1: you know, in the finals, you have to have a
Speaker 1: very long outlook on the series. So you know, not
Speaker 1: that it gives you peace, but just saying, okay, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what we need to do. We identify these mistakes,
Speaker 1: we correct them, let's have a better game next game.
Speaker 1: You still you get one game, and because you got
Speaker 1: to get one in order you to come back to Miami,
Speaker 1: you get the one game you come back three two.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about game six. What's your mindset? What
Speaker 1: are you feeling going in the game six? When it
Speaker 1: it's nothing, I mean, it's kind of you have to
Speaker 1: fight that deja vu kind of feel because we were
Speaker 1: in the same situation with the Mavericks. We knew our
Speaker 1: backs were against the wall. We didn't expect it, did
Speaker 1: not expect it at all, you know, but we're here
Speaker 1: and so you know, winning two games at home or
Speaker 1: just winning one game at home it was the focus.
Speaker 1: But we never lacked confidence. It was always you always
Speaker 1: want to approach that situation with confidence. You you know,
Speaker 1: being beat down after being in San Antonio and and
Speaker 1: dealing with that home crowd, with their home crowd for
Speaker 1: a week and a half. You know, being away from
Speaker 1: your home, it's a difficult thing, but you know it
Speaker 1: refreshed this and you know, you just get ready for
Speaker 1: the battle. Man, That's all you can do. Get your
Speaker 1: mind right. It's not about the exs and those you
Speaker 1: go through those things, but it's not about that. It's
Speaker 1: just about the preparations. It's about doing what you do
Speaker 1: and going out there and competing at the highest level.
Speaker 1: You start the fourth quarter of game six, you're down
Speaker 1: ten are You're thinking, like, man, this San Antonio. We
Speaker 1: know they're gonna execute demonstration. This is not a young team.
Speaker 1: They're well coached. They're gonna be where they're supposed to be.
Speaker 1: They're gonna execute their offense like they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: You allow yourself to like, damn, how did we get
Speaker 1: ourselves in this situation to gets that team? Na, we
Speaker 1: were good at throwing away the situations. I mean, we
Speaker 1: were probably the best fourth quarter comeback team by far
Speaker 1: in the league that year. So we had confidence. I mean,
Speaker 1: we didn't want to be there, but you know, not
Speaker 1: all is law, right, and you know, our second group
Speaker 1: with Lebron, they played amazing basketball. They always got us going,
Speaker 1: even in the regular season. So it was just one
Speaker 1: of those things where you trust your guys. You trust
Speaker 1: the second group la by Lebron. You know that they're
Speaker 1: gonna get you back in it. And once they get us,
Speaker 1: once we get back in and we've we've got to
Speaker 1: either sustain it or overtake the lead. And that's the
Speaker 1: But that's one of the habits that we had built
Speaker 1: up all year, you know, having that faith in each other.
Speaker 1: Right you're down and if basically it's come down to this,
Speaker 1: a misshot and a rebound, see Lebron pulls up. You're
Speaker 1: tracking the ball. What's going through your mind? The ball
Speaker 1: fill your mind with watching the ball, man, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you watch the play of slow motion the way
Speaker 1: that they played at Tony Parker read at the play
Speaker 1: and he on top of my screen boris d I
Speaker 1: did not see him. They both went and contested lebron
Speaker 1: shot that allowed me pretty much a free pass to
Speaker 1: crash the boys, and I watched the flight of the
Speaker 1: ball so with no Kim Duncan because Pop had made
Speaker 1: it kejic effort strategy to take Duncan out of the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know that's always a what if thing, but
Speaker 1: they have been doing that all year. You know, that's
Speaker 1: this is their late game package. This is what they
Speaker 1: always do. But that allowed me a free run to
Speaker 1: the basket while I'm watching the ball. And so any
Speaker 1: rebounder can tell you if you get to watch the
Speaker 1: flight of the ball and nobody hits you nine times
Speaker 1: out of ten, you're gonna know or your instincts are
Speaker 1: gonna take over and you're gonna be able to be
Speaker 1: there when the ball is there. You know. Great rebounder
Speaker 1: told me, Hey man, it was old schooler too. He's like,
Speaker 1: hey man, trick the rebounding is getting there before the
Speaker 1: ball gets there, right, Yeah, you're right with you track
Speaker 1: the ball, you grabbed the rebound, with the with the
Speaker 1: arena as loud as it is, How do you know?
Speaker 1: Did you know Ray was gonna be back there? How?
Speaker 1: And even if you didn't know you he said, Chris
Speaker 1: or seebe whatever he'd called you, how did you hear that?
Speaker 1: I heard him, man, That's the only thing I heard,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, and they're crazy, Yes, the
Speaker 1: only thing I heard. I didn't hear anything else. And
Speaker 1: in my mind it went a line slower. But when
Speaker 1: I watched it on replaying, there's no way I could.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I distinctly heard him, and I
Speaker 1: could see his eyes and his facial expression running back
Speaker 1: like backpedaling, and so you know, just the body took
Speaker 1: over then what it needed to do, and and his
Speaker 1: took over and shoot and we were able to live
Speaker 1: to play another day. Man, we still had to play
Speaker 1: over time after right. You know, they were crushed, you
Speaker 1: you know they were crushed for sure, they were for sure.
Speaker 1: That's that thing, like we let's move in right now
Speaker 1: and win this game. And then that's like then you
Speaker 1: still got game seven to play after that. So it
Speaker 1: was that's what Ray Allen hit the greatest shot forget
Speaker 1: the you know the that's the greatest shot given the circumstances.
Speaker 1: And how does how does he backpedal? He does not
Speaker 1: look if you look at Ray, he never looks down.
Speaker 1: He has to, like trade. He trained himself that he backpedal. No,
Speaker 1: I'm far enough back, I'm not gonna step out of bounds.
Speaker 1: Let that shot go. And it's pure for sure. I
Speaker 1: don't know him. If you ever had that moment in football?
Speaker 1: Have you ever had that just moment where after the game,
Speaker 1: you're just like it could be hours, it could everybody's gone,
Speaker 1: You're still in your uniform, just stare just like, you know,
Speaker 1: what just has happened? Yeah, what just happened? And me
Speaker 1: and Ray were just kind of like that, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I said, man, do you practice that shot? He said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I practice that And ever since that day, I practiced
Speaker 1: that shot every day every day. That became a part
Speaker 1: of my routine, practicing craziest shots because you never know
Speaker 1: when you got to break the glass and use it.
Speaker 1: And that's what I tell and that's what I tell people,
Speaker 1: is that when you see these guys take these shots,
Speaker 1: they practiced them. Steph Curry just did all of a
Speaker 1: sudden start pulling up from the timeline. Everybody shooting these
Speaker 1: logo shots now they become routine. Whereas Chris, when you
Speaker 1: first got into the league, you only attempted that shot
Speaker 1: the end of the shot clock or the end of house.
Speaker 1: Not the only time you attempted that for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: Or he's shooting that shot now with eighteen seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot. It's like the backup, like whoa young cello?
Speaker 1: So you're two times, you went two and three years,
Speaker 1: you go back twenty fourteen doesn't end like you wanted.
Speaker 1: Lebron makes his decision, he goes back to Cleveland. What's
Speaker 1: your feeling. Did you feel that Miami was a total
Speaker 1: success or did you feel like you guys got cheated
Speaker 1: or you left something on the table? Oh, we definitely
Speaker 1: left something on the table. I mean in my mind,
Speaker 1: I you know, I will always feel like it's an
Speaker 1: unfinished story. But sometimes the best stories are unfinished. You know.
Speaker 1: It was it was a four year just shooting star,
Speaker 1: you know, and we wanted to continue it, and you know,
Speaker 1: we've I've had a lot of time to think about it.
Speaker 1: I've even talked to Pat about it, and we both like,
Speaker 1: you know, I couldn't imagine if my hometown didn't like me.
Speaker 1: I couldn't you know, I couldn't imagine that at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, feelings hurt. You have to get over the
Speaker 1: fact that it is free agency, right. He didn't demand
Speaker 1: the trade, he didn't fill his obligation. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: and it's like, Okay, it kind of hurts, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's just like him. You get used to playing a
Speaker 1: certain way and and you know, be Frank. I mean
Speaker 1: to be Frank. You know. Man, he's fun. He's a
Speaker 1: great dude. We've been knowing each other since we're seventeen
Speaker 1: years old. The team dynamic was great. It's Lebron James.
Speaker 1: You're playing with the greatest player, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. And I knew that things were gonna change,
Speaker 1: But then I think it reinvigorated everyone. I think for
Speaker 1: me it was able. You know, I was able to
Speaker 1: you know, just move forward as my career, you know,
Speaker 1: or what I thought my career was going to take
Speaker 1: off too. It kind of gave me a fresh kind
Speaker 1: of outlook on the league and what I could be
Speaker 1: and as well as Dwayne and the organization too, and
Speaker 1: for him, I mean, and it kind of hurts too, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're going over there, kay Love over there
Speaker 1: and they just got kay Love Kyrie. I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: they're pretty good. They're pretty good. So you know, you
Speaker 1: feel a certain type away. But you know, we we
Speaker 1: had plenty of conversations since then, you know, and more
Speaker 1: than this was also gonna be your opportunity to go
Speaker 1: back to being Toronto Chris Bosh. Yeah, sure a guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna be twenty and ten. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you get the diagnosis at the All Star Game.
Speaker 1: You're on vacation with your wife, you're vacationing, and you
Speaker 1: get these blood clots. What's going through your mind? And
Speaker 1: at that point in time, did you say, you know
Speaker 1: what this thing might be career ending? Or did that
Speaker 1: thought never crossed your mind? It never crossed my mind,
Speaker 1: but we knew it was there. I just thought I
Speaker 1: was gonna beat it because twenty fifteen had happened, and
Speaker 1: then twenty sixteen had happened at the same exact time
Speaker 1: with no pain this time. The first time I was
Speaker 1: just out. I was in the hospital for two weeks.
Speaker 1: I was bed ridden. I had surgery. It was really bad.
Speaker 1: The second time was just yeah, you have blood clots
Speaker 1: and that was it. And you know it was psychologically
Speaker 1: it was just super tough to deal with. We were
Speaker 1: I think we were number two, second or third in
Speaker 1: the East at the time, and we were kind of
Speaker 1: and I talked with Pat about this too. We were
Speaker 1: looking around like, man, yo, we I think yo, I
Speaker 1: think we can make a run for one. We're hitting
Speaker 1: the marks. If we after All Star break, we can
Speaker 1: we can if we can lock up this two seed
Speaker 1: and hopefully we can lock horns with the calves. I'll
Speaker 1: take I'll take that any day, and just you know
Speaker 1: just how cool that is, that how great of a
Speaker 1: storyline that would be. That was my motivation every day.
Speaker 1: And like you were saying, being having that Toronto spirit
Speaker 1: about me and leading the team, I was. I was
Speaker 1: all for that. It was me and Duane. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that just wasn't meant
Speaker 1: to be. Man. So when the doctors tell you, say, Chris,
Speaker 1: it's over. Yeah, we recommend, and that's normally how they
Speaker 1: give it to you. If you were if you were
Speaker 1: my son, I would advise you not to do this anymore.
Speaker 1: Consider the ramifications that could possibly come along with this.
Speaker 1: So when you and your wife sit down and you
Speaker 1: finally come to the ultimate decision, what what, What's what's
Speaker 1: going on? What's going on? I mean, how difficult of
Speaker 1: a decision was that it took a couple of years
Speaker 1: to get there. I tried. I tried my hand in
Speaker 1: finding a way to play again for a while, and
Speaker 1: I just ran out of gas. You know, you're trying
Speaker 1: to find a doctor to tell you would be okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much. You know, I'm looking for that one please,
Speaker 1: and I'm just going different places. And you know, we
Speaker 1: fought because I felt, I mean, there was nothing that
Speaker 1: was you know, physically, there's nothing physically you can't see.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not the key leads, it's not a
Speaker 1: torn anything. It's something. It's an invisible killer. That's what.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good. We can play, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: breathing great. There was no uh, there was nothing happening,
Speaker 1: no pain. It just really messed me up, man, And
Speaker 1: and I just kind of, you know, I tried and
Speaker 1: I tried, and it just eventually I had to come
Speaker 1: to the realization. And you know there wasn't a singular conversation,
Speaker 1: but just to be honest with you, when I saw
Speaker 1: Gordon Hayward dislocate his ankle, R took whatever fight I
Speaker 1: had left in me, it was gone. Because remember Dwayne
Speaker 1: and Lebron were played in that game, right, Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I hadn't watched basketball any of the year before, and
Speaker 1: I said, yo, I'm playing this year. Let me get
Speaker 1: back connected with the game. First five minutes that happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know I knew right then, like, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that can happen to me. Man, I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna play anymore. And heaven forbid that happen.
Speaker 1: You know, you're worse. You spent four years playing with
Speaker 1: Lebron and you're watching him do what he does in
Speaker 1: year seventeen. How do you think he's been able to
Speaker 1: maintain this level of play because we've never seen a
Speaker 1: guy played this well this late into their career. We
Speaker 1: can debate Chris, we can debate who's the gold, who's
Speaker 1: had the seasons all we want to, but we can't
Speaker 1: debate this. Nobody has ever played this well this late
Speaker 1: into an NBA career. You know, what man, He puts
Speaker 1: so much into his body so early. Everybody is just
Speaker 1: now being able to kind of see the benefits that
Speaker 1: he's reaping. But he's put in the work. He was
Speaker 1: stretching twice a day, had a trainer, was doing all
Speaker 1: the things when we were in our early twenties. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing him and he has a guy that stretches
Speaker 1: him and they're doing tissue work and all this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Even if I wanted to do it, I
Speaker 1: don't even know where to start, right, you know. So
Speaker 1: just his foresight back then to take care of his body,
Speaker 1: do the right things, invest in himself. Now he's reaping
Speaker 1: the benefits. Now he can combine that want and that
Speaker 1: drive with physically actually being able to do it and
Speaker 1: compete for championships. And you know, Mike Jordan, man, he
Speaker 1: you know, we it was all real to us, Mike
Speaker 1: Jordan and Kobe. They were playing very well at thirty six,
Speaker 1: you know. So he's thirty five. I know he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: at least until thirty six plus one more. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he wants to play this way until he's thirty seven
Speaker 1: and this sewer he's had after that. But I mean
Speaker 1: he's put the time in, he's put the work in,
Speaker 1: he's made the sacrifice, and now he's able to, you know,
Speaker 1: keep playing bat ball at that level. What do you
Speaker 1: think Lebron's greatest actribute is his longevity, his durability. Never
Speaker 1: seen anything like it. Play like a guy that plays
Speaker 1: every night. Every night he plays, you know, and just
Speaker 1: that has allowed him to be able to do the
Speaker 1: things that he does. I mean, you know, obviously we
Speaker 1: can talk about talent, we can talk about the things
Speaker 1: he can do, but unless you're out there on the court,
Speaker 1: you can't do it. He's he's on a tremendous job
Speaker 1: and taking care of himself and really dedicating himself to
Speaker 1: the stretching, the treatments, the weight room, uh, you know
Speaker 1: those other things you don't see eating the rest of
Speaker 1: the eating. You know, all of those things that allow
Speaker 1: you to perform on the court, but nobody sees. People
Speaker 1: always talk about his basketball IQ. Explain to people what
Speaker 1: basketball IQ wheels, because there are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that can play. And I don't want to get into
Speaker 1: the name, but you, like Bruh, you have no idea.
Speaker 1: You can just put the ball in the hoop, but
Speaker 1: you don't understand angles. You don't understand game time situation.
Speaker 1: You don't file a guy, a guy that's struggling to
Speaker 1: shoot the ball. You don't find him on a three
Speaker 1: point shot. Right, you don't give the guy, you don't
Speaker 1: give up the faceline to the right head. The guy
Speaker 1: on the right side thinks of that nature. So talk
Speaker 1: about Lebron's basketball IQ, Well, I mean he's he's made
Speaker 1: that commitment to to mentally dive into those things that. Okay,
Speaker 1: this particular player he's really good at, you know too, dribble,
Speaker 1: pull up, going left, make sure you force him right,
Speaker 1: and then you store that in your brain because you're
Speaker 1: gonna play these guys. If I'm playing Bradley Bill, I
Speaker 1: need to be able to call on a drop what
Speaker 1: his best move is, right to dribble, dribble, step back,
Speaker 1: watch the film, dribble left, step back three, that's his move.
Speaker 1: You know. So you get to a level and then
Speaker 1: you start just dissecting guys quickly and you keep storing
Speaker 1: that information. Then you get to the team. Okay, now
Speaker 1: you get to the coach. Yeah, this coach runs this
Speaker 1: set these kind of plays. Okay, this you know this situation,
Speaker 1: you know, just storing information and just recalling it quickly, quickly,
Speaker 1: and like, I was always envious of Lebron because for
Speaker 1: his whole career he's had the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: He's six eight and he can see over everybody, you know,
Speaker 1: so he's like, has the ball in his hands and
Speaker 1: he can watch the offense move right. I'm a post guy.
Speaker 1: It's always something behind somebody behind you. Somebody's behind me
Speaker 1: that I can't see, so you know, Lebron might be looking.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's behind me. You know, I gotta
Speaker 1: watch films, so, you know, just him being able to
Speaker 1: do that for his entire career and combining all that
Speaker 1: information and just living in it. You know, of course
Speaker 1: you're gonna you know, you're gonna be a sure you
Speaker 1: are you surprised that he's playing this well this late,
Speaker 1: and that he had the Lakers one game away from
Speaker 1: being world champs. Oh no, not at all. I mean
Speaker 1: as soon as he went to LA I figured they
Speaker 1: would have a shot at it. As soon as they
Speaker 1: got a d they were you know, they were my
Speaker 1: favorites to win it. I mean, you know, just combining
Speaker 1: those tremendous talents and then building that team around it
Speaker 1: and having guys like Frank Vogel, guys like Jason Kidd,
Speaker 1: you know, guys like Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee with their
Speaker 1: championship and finals experience, you know, coming in and leading
Speaker 1: that locker room. I mean, you knew that they were
Speaker 1: gonna be prime to win one. Uh, they have a chance.
Speaker 1: They're on the press because of it. Now. They just
Speaker 1: got to finish it and we'll see if they're able
Speaker 1: to have a run. D Wade said. Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: Lebron James all time best teammate. Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 1: I disagree he's being humble, I you know, but not
Speaker 1: the best, not the best. And I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I only say that because what I watched
Speaker 1: Lebron and Dwayne do. I haven't seen anything since it
Speaker 1: was It was entertaining. You know, it's they're throwing lives
Speaker 1: off the backboard, They're doing stuff you played nerfball with
Speaker 1: with your friends in the little league. You know. Just
Speaker 1: the effect that they had on the culture of things
Speaker 1: and on the game and the way that they were
Speaker 1: able to combine their styles on it doesn't really make
Speaker 1: any sense. They're too most of the ball dominant dominant
Speaker 1: D look. Actually, Lebron and a D are better fit
Speaker 1: because d Wade and Lebron were both ball dominant D.
Speaker 1: Wade had to sacrifice more than a D ever did
Speaker 1: because Lebron is really starting the offense through a D
Speaker 1: now for sure, absolutely, and he's doing that and they
Speaker 1: can run a screen and roll with AD. We never
Speaker 1: ran screening rolls until late with you know, with Lebron
Speaker 1: and D. But like just the way that they were
Speaker 1: able to combine their forces and figure things out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just feel that they that was that was just
Speaker 1: a great compliment and it was entertaining and just so
Speaker 1: much so fun to watch. You It was just all good,
Speaker 1: you know, it was. It wasn't gonna be anything in
Speaker 1: the media, it wasn't gonna be anything on the court.
Speaker 1: You were just gonna watch some amazing basketball. Does it
Speaker 1: help that d Wade and Lebron were such good friends?
Speaker 1: Lebron and A D are such great friends. Does that
Speaker 1: really help with how well they mentioned how well they played,
Speaker 1: because they they can say things to one another that
Speaker 1: another team may probably would be unwilling to say and
Speaker 1: not say. Because they talk about how D Wade Hill
Speaker 1: Lebron accountable Lebron Hill d Wade Accountable vice versa with
Speaker 1: Ada and Lebron. Do you think that that type of
Speaker 1: relationship helps, Oh yeah, of course. I mean you have
Speaker 1: to you have to respect the person that you're playing with.
Speaker 1: You have to be a friend. I mean, you have
Speaker 1: to care because let me tell you when it's when
Speaker 1: when it's like game six or something and you're dead
Speaker 1: tired and you have nothing left to give and there's
Speaker 1: still two quarters left, and there's a loose ball. Matter
Speaker 1: of fact, Lebron through the loose ball. And if if
Speaker 1: I don't like him to a certain degree, you through that.
Speaker 1: BRONA get you know, I didn't throw it. You gotta
Speaker 1: go get it, man. And and you have to be
Speaker 1: able to sacrifice for each other, and you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta stay that. That's a huge part of being a team.
Speaker 1: You have to come together as a team. You gotta
Speaker 1: be that solid unit and you know, you just have to.
Speaker 1: It helps when you like each other because yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to have some uncomfortable conversations some days, and
Speaker 1: yeah you might have to tell your teammate, yo, you
Speaker 1: need to play better, right, And you're not given I
Speaker 1: need more, or you're not that was bull or you know,
Speaker 1: just to just to keep people accountable. I think that's
Speaker 1: hugely important. And if you like them, it's it's it
Speaker 1: makes it easier. What would a fourth ring for a
Speaker 1: third team do for Lebron James? Oh, it would be great.
Speaker 1: I mean, he you know the way I see it,
Speaker 1: it's it's a story still being told. You know, I
Speaker 1: have a little bit of experience with championships. I know
Speaker 1: you just want to get there. So actually winning another
Speaker 1: one would be of course, anyone you get as tremendous
Speaker 1: winning it this year in particular r Ip Kobe, you know,
Speaker 1: and winning it for the Lakers, that's a whole you
Speaker 1: know other thing. Yeah, it's just I mean just Brian
Speaker 1: has a whole and this is just me talking. It's
Speaker 1: not him. He just has a whole other outlook on
Speaker 1: the game. He's thinking of it as a totality, not
Speaker 1: so much as a city, a person, a place or
Speaker 1: a thing. He's like, oh, man, I want with the Lakers, Wow.
Speaker 1: And then with the Heat backed it back. Oh, and
Speaker 1: then brought one to Cleveland. I mean just it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a whole body of work and and I know
Speaker 1: he's he probably has a number in his head that
Speaker 1: he could get to. That's possible because he were ahead.
Speaker 1: But Chris, you you heard what they said. Lebron went
Speaker 1: to the Lakers to retire, spend his last couple of years.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be close to Hollywood. He wanted to act.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to be Michael Jordan. He wanted to
Speaker 1: be Michael B. Jordans. He wanted to You heard it all.
Speaker 1: You heard it all. This is what they saying about
Speaker 1: the man. He came to retire, the historic season that
Speaker 1: he had just put up, coming off the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: he said he going to LA to retire. Nah, I
Speaker 1: don't think so, not that he'll won't retire in LA.
Speaker 1: But if they win this fourth one, uh, that's the
Speaker 1: start of a run. And you know he's in his
Speaker 1: mind they're going to do this, uh you know until
Speaker 1: I mean contract. You know, obligations are one thing, but
Speaker 1: you know, if they can sign a d they're definitely
Speaker 1: gonna try to really really capitalize on on on their situation.
Speaker 1: So I see him continuing to compete for a few years.
Speaker 1: Everybody asks you this, You played the game, you didn't
Speaker 1: get it. I don't think you've got an opportunity. You
Speaker 1: might have played. You might have called Jordan, you called
Speaker 1: George last in the year after, Yeah, yeah, yeah. You
Speaker 1: saw the last dance, the last I mean the last
Speaker 1: dance you played with Lebron on you played in the
Speaker 1: air with Lebron. When it's all said and done, who's
Speaker 1: gonna be the goat? Man? Really? Man, that's just a
Speaker 1: tough situation. I mean, you know, you can't really quantify it.
Speaker 1: What Lebron has done, it's in its own category. But
Speaker 1: Kobe did with Jordan, Kareem Bill. I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to really kind of you know, people get very selective.
Speaker 1: Well he only did oh well, and well these are
Speaker 1: feats that I feel that never will be. I don't
Speaker 1: think everybody, nobody will be six and on the finals.
Speaker 1: It just ain't gonna happen, right, that's crazy ten finals
Speaker 1: and counting, you know, I don't think nobody's gonna do that.
Speaker 1: They both have a bunch of MVP, They've got all
Speaker 1: the trophies, you know, those guys Kobe and everybody's talking
Speaker 1: about the goat. I'm just trying to get in the building,
Speaker 1: you know what. I mean, it's gonna be. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot to be said if he win finals MVP.
Speaker 1: He has four finals MVPs with three different locations, which
Speaker 1: means he would have led three different teams to the ultimate.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be. It's gonna it's gonna be tough to
Speaker 1: hold him out that conversation. Let me tell you something, man, Man,
Speaker 1: it will be scholarly debates over this for decades. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and you know I know
Speaker 1: Lebron wants it that way. He Jordan was our hero.
Speaker 1: You know, we all watched Jordan. We all know that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what I'm up against, and man,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. But for him to actually
Speaker 1: create a lane for his own self and then they say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: he is arguably the greatest of all time, it's nothing
Speaker 1: else to talk about, Chris Man. I really appreciate it. Broth,
Speaker 1: thanks for sitting down with me and sharing your thoughts
Speaker 1: about your career and your new music career. Congratulations on
Speaker 1: back and when you win that Grammy for Best New Producer,
Speaker 1: Best New Saul, come back and visit your boy for sure.
Speaker 1: For sure, I appreciate that, man. Thanks a lot, Thank
Speaker 1: you brother. All my life and running all my life.
Speaker 1: Sacrifice Hustle Bay The Price Wanna Slice, got the broller
Speaker 1: dice to swap all my life. I've been running all
Speaker 1: my life, All my life and running all my life.
Speaker 1: Sacrifice Hustle Bay the Price Wanna Slice, got the broller
Speaker 1: dice to swap all my life. I've been running all
Speaker 1: my life.