Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sillen and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in the Strait. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
Speaker 1: tuned in to K three Live. Today's guests on the
Speaker 1: show was one of the nation's top sophomore basketball players.
Speaker 1: He's a six five one and seventy five pounds shooting
Speaker 1: guard at the legendary Long Beach Polly in Long Beach, California.
Speaker 1: He is the number fourteenth ranked prospect in the country
Speaker 1: by ESPN. Let's welcome in, Jovanni. Rough to kJ Live.
Speaker 1: What's good, Jo, Vanny? What's up? Everything? Man? Everything you
Speaker 1: on the show. Happy new year, brother, first ball, Yes, sir, Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a new year man. New beginnings is a chance
Speaker 1: to start at the top of things. Man. But we're
Speaker 1: in the middle of the basketball season. Yeah uh, and
Speaker 1: you guys Long Beach Polly have played a hilicious schedule
Speaker 1: to start it out. Man, talk about talk to me
Speaker 1: about how this season has gone so far. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like there's been a bull's eye sort of a
Speaker 1: target on you that wasn't there last year as a freshman? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It definitely is a target because of my rank and
Speaker 1: who I am right now. But our coaches and our
Speaker 1: team are trying to keep me level headed. Is now
Speaker 1: that winning is you know the main goal? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: when you talk about winning, you you're playing at a program, man,
Speaker 1: that is notoriously one of the current your current coach
Speaker 1: as well as Shelton Diggs as well as the coaches
Speaker 1: from the past. I mean, I know, I went to
Speaker 1: creat high school. We played Long Beach Polly and it
Speaker 1: was always, you know, one of the biggest games of
Speaker 1: the year. Do you feel that pressure or that legacy
Speaker 1: or is that something that this generation the ballplayer just
Speaker 1: really isn't tuned into. Nah? Me, personally, I feel the pressure,
Speaker 1: but I don't think everybody else really realizes that. You know,
Speaker 1: we go to Polly like everyone's really gonna for us.
Speaker 1: Me personally, I kind of feel of it, and I
Speaker 1: feel like our coaches are trying to like let us
Speaker 1: know that, you know, like you're at Polly like lock in, Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you are. And and you guys got um a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity to play against some of the top talent
Speaker 1: not only in southern California but in the country. So
Speaker 1: far if all the players that you have faced because
Speaker 1: you faced bad like a murderous row. You're going against
Speaker 1: guys this year who has been who has it pressed
Speaker 1: you both so far? Uh? Sat Bernards Definitely, they gave
Speaker 1: us the hardest, the toughest match up. They were just
Speaker 1: good all around. I like Tony Bland and how he
Speaker 1: coached this team. I really like them. Yeah. Bernards is
Speaker 1: a nice little crew, uh, Tiger reasons and they got
Speaker 1: some upperclassmen that are very very good basketball players. What
Speaker 1: is it about this season that feels different than last season?
Speaker 1: Last year, you guys had senior leadership. This year it's
Speaker 1: a young team. You're pretty much the senior leader, if
Speaker 1: you will, quote unquote. It's been the biggest difference between
Speaker 1: this year's Polly and last year. It's just this year
Speaker 1: we're young. Last year we were all, like you said,
Speaker 1: it was senior whatever. We don't have that. This year
Speaker 1: we have two seniors and one of them plays the
Speaker 1: other ones kind of you know, just there. But it's
Speaker 1: definitely that I feel like we're not as maturity were
Speaker 1: last year, but hopefully we can get on track. How
Speaker 1: important is that maturity? Giovanni is somebody that's been a
Speaker 1: part of a team and played a major role. How
Speaker 1: important is maturity on the high school level for your
Speaker 1: team's success? Now, it's super important because if you're not
Speaker 1: mature and you're just in it for yourself or whatever,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna in nothing. And I feel like we
Speaker 1: can get like that since we're young sometimes, but we
Speaker 1: have some games where we're just rolling. Like we lost
Speaker 1: some good teams, but they were good losses. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the maturity means a lot. Now you're listed as a
Speaker 1: shooting guard. Uh, it's my I'm of the opinion I
Speaker 1: think that your natural well, you're position will end up
Speaker 1: being more of a of a of a combo guard,
Speaker 1: a guy that can handle the ball as well as
Speaker 1: shoot it. Are you comfortable playing sort of the lead
Speaker 1: guard maestro point guard position? Yeah? I just started doing
Speaker 1: that a couple of games ago and practice, our coach,
Speaker 1: Coach Shell, told me, I don't know, to start running
Speaker 1: the point more. Last year he wanted me to do it,
Speaker 1: but I kind of like backed off because I was
Speaker 1: like nervous, like I was a freshman. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to mess up my senior season, know whatever. So this
Speaker 1: year I'm really taking on that combo guard role. Yeah no,
Speaker 1: And I mean having the basketball in your hands, being
Speaker 1: able to make decisions, especially at high speeds under durest.
Speaker 1: I mean that's what gets you ready, and that's what
Speaker 1: you're I think you're built for. I watched you play
Speaker 1: in the E y B l U during the summer,
Speaker 1: and I just noticed that you have a unique ability
Speaker 1: to I think rise to the occasion. I think that's
Speaker 1: something that I noticed about you. I think you you
Speaker 1: rise to the occasion. You're able to step up and
Speaker 1: turn it on when needed. Now, sometimes when you play
Speaker 1: against teams that might not you know, bring the best
Speaker 1: out of you. You may you have, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: played to that level of competition. Now, how do you
Speaker 1: become a guy that's just that one guy all the time,
Speaker 1: no matter who you're playing with, you're going into absolutely dominant.
Speaker 1: I think it starts in practice for real. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like even if you are, like you're playing against
Speaker 1: the second team or whatever, and you know that you're
Speaker 1: better on the other team, you just got I like
Speaker 1: still go at them the same way, because it's like,
Speaker 1: if I don't do it in practice, when I get
Speaker 1: in the game, we played like a league opponent and
Speaker 1: we're playing like they have won a game. I'm just
Speaker 1: started sucking. But yeah, it's really starts in practice. No,
Speaker 1: it does, and it's it's your practice how you play.
Speaker 1: And we were taught at U C. L A And
Speaker 1: Crentshaw High School, both my alma manors, that practice was
Speaker 1: like our most important part of our basketball experience. So
Speaker 1: we had to give it all in practice. There was
Speaker 1: no being late. There was we were always in to
Speaker 1: everything the coach said, and we're pushing ourselves. I think
Speaker 1: pushing yourself is is the one of the toughest things
Speaker 1: you have to do, especially sometimes when you might not
Speaker 1: necessarily have the level of competition around you that may
Speaker 1: push you, but you have to take it upon yourself
Speaker 1: personally to push yourself. Take have some pride each and
Speaker 1: every day about how you go about your business. Man,
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about your recruiting. Now.
Speaker 1: I know that they're our team or schools that are involved.
Speaker 1: How do you when you're looking at schools right nowadays,
Speaker 1: how do you evaluate a program? It's a style of play,
Speaker 1: is it the coaching staff? Do you look at the
Speaker 1: number of guys that got in the league. Talk to
Speaker 1: me it's really about their style of play and how
Speaker 1: they coach. I'm not really worried about how many people
Speaker 1: they put in the league because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that's gonna be on me if I get
Speaker 1: to the league or not wherever I go. But it's
Speaker 1: really style of play because I know I play the
Speaker 1: right way, So I want to go to a program
Speaker 1: where like it's really all about fundamentals and they coach right.
Speaker 1: They don't just let people do whatever. They're gonna get
Speaker 1: on you, but they're still gonna show you love here
Speaker 1: and there. You know, Yeah, No, I do know. Um
Speaker 1: U c l A was a place that I love
Speaker 1: because it fits the mode of that what you were saying.
Speaker 1: I also took an official visit to Duke University in
Speaker 1: nine so they had just won a national championship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm hanging out with Grand Hill and them guys. Coach K,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, the Coach K's office. I'll tell you what,
Speaker 1: it was one of the great experiences of my life.
Speaker 1: They No, Coach K wanted me to walk on. He
Speaker 1: didn't want me. He wasn't gonna off for me a scholarship.
Speaker 1: He's gonna give you a preferred walk on. He said, hey,
Speaker 1: the next season, you know, you can earn a scholarship,
Speaker 1: because you know scholarships Joe Vannier a year to year.
Speaker 1: So he was telling me that the next season, I
Speaker 1: can earn a scholarship. I was just kind of like, coach,
Speaker 1: you know, you played me to the left up top
Speaker 1: fifty like I've got roblic Okay, I'm going to u
Speaker 1: c l A. But that experience and when you when
Speaker 1: you say programs that are fundamentality sound, those two come up.
Speaker 1: What programs have reached out to you or have shown
Speaker 1: some early interests in your high school career. Um, right
Speaker 1: now at the moment, it's Illinois, U c l A,
Speaker 1: USC Arizona, Stanford, Arkansas, a little bit of Virginia. Longby
Speaker 1: State offered. LMU offered. It's just schools like that. It's
Speaker 1: really West coast right now. Congratulations on the l m
Speaker 1: U and the Long Beach State offer. I mean, I
Speaker 1: remember my first offer. I believe it was you CSB,
Speaker 1: and I felt like a million bucks because it's nothing
Speaker 1: like knowing that there's a Division one or even a
Speaker 1: collegiate opportunity ready to take you on. That's a big
Speaker 1: responsibility on them, and they're they're putting a lot into that.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm gonna give you kudos, man for
Speaker 1: working this hard so far. Trust me, I know more
Speaker 1: offers are gonna roll in for you. Let's talk about it,
Speaker 1: no question, man, Let's talk about a couple of those
Speaker 1: programs that you mentioned. UM. Arkansas is a program that
Speaker 1: I I love. I've I've we um, I've watched them,
Speaker 1: followed them for years. UM when coach Musselman got the job,
Speaker 1: I definitely was paying a lot of attention. I know
Speaker 1: the last couple years they've got some players. What is
Speaker 1: it about Arkansas style of play that is attractive to
Speaker 1: Giovanni Rock? I feel like they let their guards go,
Speaker 1: Like you see this year Nick Smith, Anthony Black. Athney
Speaker 1: Black is someone I watched a lot. These are like
Speaker 1: eight point guard. A lot of him. People told me
Speaker 1: put me on him. I like how they let him
Speaker 1: go and like he's not selfish at all, He's just
Speaker 1: he's mainly a pastor for real. So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: like to let him go. Yeah, No, that's key man,
Speaker 1: letting you go, letting you play through mistakes. I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the big things that Uh, athletes always
Speaker 1: want out of a coach. Just let me, you know,
Speaker 1: don't pull me out when I messed up, man, just
Speaker 1: let me play, let me go, and the freedom to
Speaker 1: create and do some things. What is it about, say
Speaker 1: Illinois that picture interests as well as Big Tends on
Speaker 1: the East Coast, It's a whole different environ I mean,
Speaker 1: the coaches show love lies, so I like that. I've
Speaker 1: been watching teams. They're doing pretty good this season. They
Speaker 1: have a couple of losses, but in general it's like
Speaker 1: the same let their guards go, but they let them
Speaker 1: go to a certain extent, like they you don't want
Speaker 1: to like, you know, what's it going? Just let them
Speaker 1: mess up and stuff. You know. Well, yeah, this run
Speaker 1: run rampant. I had a chance to watch Illinois a
Speaker 1: couple of times this season. They smacked my U c.
Speaker 1: L A Bruins out in Vegas. Yeah that was a
Speaker 1: good game. Yeah it was. That was a good game. Man.
Speaker 1: I like I like that that one of the lefty.
Speaker 1: They got a lefty that is like nice nice and
Speaker 1: were shooting it. And I'm familiar with the sky Clark
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah. I had a question about how you
Speaker 1: know someone in your class views and local. Being from
Speaker 1: the city of Long Beach, how do you view the
Speaker 1: fact that U C, l A and USC are bouncing
Speaker 1: to the Big Ten Conference? How does that resonate with you? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's not like a big deal to me,
Speaker 1: But I feel like competition wise, it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: But maybe I wish they could have stayed out here
Speaker 1: a little longer. But competition wise, I feel like big talents, right,
Speaker 1: would that be something It's like location or where in
Speaker 1: who people are playing? Is that something that matters to
Speaker 1: you a lot? Or are you focused on what is
Speaker 1: this coach and coaching staff and school are gonna do
Speaker 1: for me? How can I leverage this situation? I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about who I play. Yeah, I'm not really worried
Speaker 1: about who I play. I feel like location doesn't matter
Speaker 1: because basketball can take you around the world. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to see everywhere. So it's really the coaching firm. Now,
Speaker 1: that's a great that's a great way to view it, man,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of l A guys that just
Speaker 1: hate the code. I'll keep it real so they'll turn
Speaker 1: down opportunities if it's cold and this and that. You know, brothers.
Speaker 1: K just go put on, you know, a big bubble
Speaker 1: jacket and get a beatie. You know, it's easy later
Speaker 1: up with dude, want to be like, No, man, too colde.
Speaker 1: I'm not messing with that. I'm like, all right, bro,
Speaker 1: so you're not like that Javan. I like the rain
Speaker 1: all that? Okay? Cool? Cool, that's uh, that's good to know.
Speaker 1: Um in the era nowadays of the n I L
Speaker 1: the name image and likeness, which is something that is
Speaker 1: so kind of brand new to my generation because it
Speaker 1: was always illegal to get that off. So you know,
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was never legal to really
Speaker 1: get this off. Now it's legal. How does someone at
Speaker 1: your age look at that? Are you actively like worried
Speaker 1: about that, or you're worried more about just being the
Speaker 1: best basketball player you could be and then the n
Speaker 1: I L will come? Or you like, do you even
Speaker 1: think about the n I L. No, I don't think
Speaker 1: about the n I L. I have people hit. My
Speaker 1: parents are talking about n I L s. It's it's
Speaker 1: a blessing, of course, But I'm just focused on the
Speaker 1: basketball park getting better because I know, like one day
Speaker 1: the money will come, you know, But it's a blessing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It is a blessing. I think, Um, we
Speaker 1: live in an era now with social media and you know,
Speaker 1: you have following ing and there's ability to like make
Speaker 1: money because you have followers. So a guy that stands
Speaker 1: out for me is Jared McCain out at Corona Centennial. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he's got like a million TikTok followers. You
Speaker 1: know he's going to duke. He's out here doing his
Speaker 1: thing and he's balling and so so the key is
Speaker 1: it's always you gotta ball. Also, it's not just n
Speaker 1: I L talk and getting bags. I need thirty pieces.
Speaker 1: I need you know, triple doubles. I need a championship.
Speaker 1: I mean that's to me. I come from that era,
Speaker 1: like you know, you gotta actually produce. But I love
Speaker 1: the opportunity that it gives the young athletes today to
Speaker 1: maximize off their talent. Fox Sports Radio has the best
Speaker 1: sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
Speaker 1: shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
Speaker 1: When you look at your game, Rovini and you evaluate yourself,
Speaker 1: what does that process look like? Do you watch filming
Speaker 1: yourself are you revisiting the game and thinking play by
Speaker 1: play and what you could have did better? Give me
Speaker 1: some insight into how you break down your game. I
Speaker 1: really watched the losses because really this year, all of
Speaker 1: our losses, I haven't really performed, you know, to them
Speaker 1: my best. But I look at what I what I
Speaker 1: could have done, what I did. You always want to
Speaker 1: look at the good stuff, you know, you want to
Speaker 1: put yourself down. But I feel like it's just all effort,
Speaker 1: Like rebounding. He was talking about triple doubles and stuff.
Speaker 1: I feel I can average triple double if I just
Speaker 1: put in the effort to go rebound on the offensive boards.
Speaker 1: You and my teammates involved stuff like that. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know those are things that it's It's definitely the first
Speaker 1: part of it all is just recognizing things you can
Speaker 1: do better as basketball As basketball players. Sometimes, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't we get sensitive about ourselves our game. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't want to watch film because of how we
Speaker 1: might look. But it's the best move is to be
Speaker 1: brutally honest with yourself at all times and listen to
Speaker 1: those people close to you, around you that have known
Speaker 1: you for a long time and that are telling you
Speaker 1: things that that you know you you don't want to hear.
Speaker 1: I know, I never used to want to hear nothing.
Speaker 1: My my dad had to say, I never wanted to
Speaker 1: hear nothing, my mom, I don't want to hear nothing, like,
Speaker 1: don't tell me nothing. And my dad played in the league. Bro,
Speaker 1: if my dad was in the league and all types
Speaker 1: of stuff, and I did my dad like that, like, no,
Speaker 1: you don't know what you're talking about. Man. You played
Speaker 1: ten years ago, twenty years ago. Man, So but the
Speaker 1: reality is he did, and the reality is I should
Speaker 1: have lifted. But back to you, um, the E y
Speaker 1: b L. I wanted to talk about that because I
Speaker 1: coached on the E y b L in sixteens several
Speaker 1: years ago. With the truth, did you feel like, did
Speaker 1: the E y b L experience for you didn't give
Speaker 1: you uh confidence going into this season or was confidence
Speaker 1: already there from the freshman year? No. Confidence was definitely
Speaker 1: there from the freshman year. But when I came back
Speaker 1: from the y b L, I nobody in this area
Speaker 1: really was playing y b L. So I was like,
Speaker 1: if I can hang over there, when I come back there,
Speaker 1: I should be dominating. So it boosting me up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you looking forward as far as um we talked
Speaker 1: about college. Are you looking forward to like locking in
Speaker 1: a major? Um? Do you have like interests outside of
Speaker 1: basketball as far as you know what you're gonna do?
Speaker 1: Is it business? Is it you know? Law? Maybe history?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Talk to me about your interests outside
Speaker 1: What is your long term kind of thought process on
Speaker 1: what you want to be after the ball stops bouncing,
Speaker 1: after the ball saws bouncing. I feel like I want
Speaker 1: to stay in the basketball room, even if it's like
Speaker 1: a now scene, you know, doing what you you interview
Speaker 1: people like this is cool? Yeah, I like stuff's history
Speaker 1: is cool too. I don't know if I can see
Speaker 1: myself as a historian. I want to basketball circle. Yeah. Sorry,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite subject in school? Oh? It's history? You're
Speaker 1: like his what what I wanted? Saw? I was a
Speaker 1: history major U. C. L A. And I'm fascinated with history.
Speaker 1: What is it about history that you like so much? Like?
Speaker 1: Why history? It's you're learning about at the path us
Speaker 1: to why certain things and today's day happens. But it's
Speaker 1: really my teacher, Like it's all about the teacher. The teachers,
Speaker 1: cold cold everybody, and he teaches. Well, you're gonna like
Speaker 1: to subject. I don't good teachers this year. Shout out, shout,
Speaker 1: what's your teacher history teachers name? Give him shout out.
Speaker 1: He might be listening, Mr Scott, what's something? Mr Scott? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know he'll be listening. Um. When when you look
Speaker 1: at the NBA, when I was coming up, when I
Speaker 1: was your age, I did not think about the NBA.
Speaker 1: The NBA was not something that I'm just like, look
Speaker 1: so far away from me. It's a lot closer to
Speaker 1: guys nowadays. It's a lot more reachable and attainable, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, When you look at the n B A,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on it? How do you view it?
Speaker 1: Is it something I know it's obviously the place you
Speaker 1: want to play, but is it Is it one of
Speaker 1: those things where it looks like something that is almost
Speaker 1: an impossible dream? Or do you feel like you have
Speaker 1: the confidence that if you work hard enough, you can
Speaker 1: attain it. No, feel like the NBA for me is
Speaker 1: very possible, but I'm very far right now. But if
Speaker 1: I keep working hard, I feel like one day I
Speaker 1: was seeing myself. Who's your favorite player and team right now?
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. This is you ain't there from you from
Speaker 1: Long Beach. Hold on, you talk about Jason Tatum Tatum?
Speaker 1: What about j J. Tatum's game is so nice right now?
Speaker 1: The way he gets to his spots and I feel
Speaker 1: like he's a little inconsistent here and there. But when
Speaker 1: he's on, he's like unstoppable. It feels like but Luca,
Speaker 1: Luca might might have got him. Yeah, that's interesting. But
Speaker 1: Da Donovan Mitchell has seventy one the other night. It's
Speaker 1: it's been some crazy stuff going on. Do you think that?
Speaker 1: And he obviously you you weren't. You weren't born when
Speaker 1: the league was more of a physical league and there
Speaker 1: was more of an emphasis on physicality and big men
Speaker 1: that were true big men and stuff like that. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like the nb A right now do you
Speaker 1: feel like if you could have, if you could look
Speaker 1: back on the eighties and nineties and on YouTube, do
Speaker 1: you feel like the NBA right now is less physical
Speaker 1: then it was back then. In your research and the
Speaker 1: things that you have watched and seen, talk to me.
Speaker 1: I need to hear your perspective, man. I feel I
Speaker 1: feel like it's still physical to a certain extent, but
Speaker 1: I feel like back then it was physical and like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain it, the players wanted
Speaker 1: everyone to see how physical it is. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's these days, like it's still physical, but it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, don't do that type stuff now. That's a
Speaker 1: great point when you say when you said the players
Speaker 1: they wanted to know everybody, Hey I'm physical, Hey man,
Speaker 1: I'm out here the boy. Yeah, because it was it
Speaker 1: was it was all about intimidation and nowadays it may
Speaker 1: be just as physical. But I think the intimidation, bullying,
Speaker 1: trying to punk dudes aspect has been kind of taken
Speaker 1: out of the game. Now. Dudes are actually folk ist
Speaker 1: on basketball like it should have been. Yeah, when you
Speaker 1: watch them old days and you look at guys in
Speaker 1: our era, I mean in the current era, do you
Speaker 1: ever do the comparison thing? Man, when you look at
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan's or Kobe and like he says, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron now or anybody like that, do you ever compare
Speaker 1: players from different eras? Do you ever think about that stuff?
Speaker 1: I think when I'm talking to my friends, you know,
Speaker 1: it's always you know, who's better Michael or Jordan's or
Speaker 1: not Michael Michael Lebron, but me personally, I never compared
Speaker 1: because I was I wasn't alive to see it live.
Speaker 1: I didn't see none of that, So I just stay
Speaker 1: in the present time. So that's key man. And you've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of basketball. You've been to a lot
Speaker 1: of a few programs, and you you know you'd be
Speaker 1: in the You be in the mix since you've been young,
Speaker 1: which is great. It's a great experience to be able
Speaker 1: to see that stuff up close. Uh impersonal. So you
Speaker 1: so when you but you don't have a goat, you
Speaker 1: don't have the greatest all time that you just say, hey,
Speaker 1: he's the greatest for me, it's Lebron right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And why I haven't seen enough Jordan to say it's
Speaker 1: Jordan's so, but why is it Lebron? Just just breakdown?
Speaker 1: While Lebron is the greatest of all the time. I
Speaker 1: feel like he's a winner. People want to bring up
Speaker 1: his finals record or whatever, but I feel like he's
Speaker 1: a winner that can get his teammates better. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the fact that he's six eight, two sixty
Speaker 1: and you know play, Yeah, it's it's pretty crazy. I
Speaker 1: was around for Michael Jordan's I. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: came up, you know, loving Mike. I met Mike first
Speaker 1: time probably I was ten, ten years old at All
Speaker 1: Star Game. Uh. And then I had like a lifetime
Speaker 1: of between the ages of life, fourteen and twenties five
Speaker 1: where you know, I'm bawling against him at the Space
Speaker 1: Jam Jordan's dome, or I go up to his camp
Speaker 1: and uh, we're you know, we're hooping against each other.
Speaker 1: You know. So I've guarded Mike, I've played against Mike. Um.
Speaker 1: I definitely think Mike is you know that guy. I
Speaker 1: think he transcended basketball. I think it was much more
Speaker 1: than just stuff on the floor with Mike. It was
Speaker 1: his swag, it was his flair. It was the first
Speaker 1: time our generation had ever seen anything like that. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so that's what kind of made it Mike. But
Speaker 1: also I think a guy that doesn't get a lot
Speaker 1: of well he does in certain factions, Kobe Bryant. I
Speaker 1: think Kobe for me, it's it's pretty crazy how unstoppable
Speaker 1: Kobe was at his peak. Um. And how if you
Speaker 1: watch Kobe, you should watch a ton of Kobe because
Speaker 1: the way he's he's able to he was able to
Speaker 1: adjust his body in the air and the shots I think,
Speaker 1: I don't. I never see anybody hit more difficult shots
Speaker 1: on a consistent level in Kobe, you know them threes
Speaker 1: with like four or five hands up. I mean, dude
Speaker 1: would be doing crazy stuff. So for me, and then
Speaker 1: to go through what he went through, and and at
Speaker 1: the peak of his career, and to be faced with
Speaker 1: the pressure of of personal and private type things in
Speaker 1: a public way and still to be able to perform
Speaker 1: and to steal average thirty something throughout all of that.
Speaker 1: That just spoke to his level of mental fortitude. Man,
Speaker 1: And I think that his name definitely is somebody that
Speaker 1: needs to be, you know, talked about. Um Man, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about something that ain't got to do
Speaker 1: with basketball, Man, I want to talk about what's your
Speaker 1: favorite shoes to rock off the court? Man? Were you
Speaker 1: chilling at the house? Bro? Because look I just look,
Speaker 1: because look when I was coming up, man, we had
Speaker 1: flip flops. That was our leisure attire. Right nowadays, though
Speaker 1: I see the ugs, I see like all kind of
Speaker 1: with the fur in them. I see these little crazy
Speaker 1: furry shoes. Talk to me about the shoe retired man
Speaker 1: off the court man. What's your what's your favorite shoes
Speaker 1: to chilling Bro? Now, it's definitely the ugs. Like you said,
Speaker 1: I didn't actually what our inside. Yeah, I'm not a
Speaker 1: big you like Jordan's stuff. I'm not big on that.
Speaker 1: I never asked for that. Everyone knows me knows I'm
Speaker 1: not a big shoe guy. But I like, I'm like
Speaker 1: flip flops stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: always good to take care of the puppies. Man. If
Speaker 1: your feet got to be comfortable because we all need
Speaker 1: feet all the time and they hurt, I saw, I
Speaker 1: totally get it. Music. Music is a big part of
Speaker 1: what we do. Now. What type of music do you
Speaker 1: listen to? And who are some of them? If I
Speaker 1: found you in the locker room at Long Beach, probably
Speaker 1: being pre game listening to music, what is playing in
Speaker 1: your AirPods? Bro? And rap? All straight? If I wrap
Speaker 1: but old school old school rap, m w A like
Speaker 1: gotta rap, new new age baby face Rade King von
Speaker 1: a little baby king Vid Okay, so what kwando Rondo? Okay? Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: bad joke, bad joke. I just read up about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: he straight faced me. I know, a bad joke. No,
Speaker 1: but King Von my son put me on King Von
Speaker 1: years ago. He was all on King Vaughan and just
Speaker 1: Von this and vines that. As I finally listened to
Speaker 1: Von Vond was that dude, Man, I gotta keep it real.
Speaker 1: He had that er, he got that energy about it
Speaker 1: that it gets you just you just get turned up.
Speaker 1: And I'm an old man, so I told you can
Speaker 1: understand what you're going through about it as well. Man Um,
Speaker 1: we talk a little bit about just your dad or
Speaker 1: your dad played he was city playered the year he
Speaker 1: played college and bro I had the same thing with
Speaker 1: my pop, my pop hoop and I went to the
Speaker 1: same high school as him. Is there any pressure as
Speaker 1: far as from a legacy standpoint? Do you ever feel like, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta you know when you wake up, man, I
Speaker 1: got a ball, I got a hoop. But does that
Speaker 1: stuff kind of just not even registered to you. No,
Speaker 1: I don't feel no pressure. I feel like my my
Speaker 1: pops he lets me know like there's no pressures. You know,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do in life. But I still
Speaker 1: just want to be into the ones for real. That's
Speaker 1: all I think about. Now, when's it lot? Have you played? So?
Speaker 1: Have you played him? And once recently and not recent, okay,
Speaker 1: because you know your dad could go. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know, but your dad, you know, he used
Speaker 1: to raise y'all both raised up on y'all jumper the
Speaker 1: same kind of way, like get all like this high
Speaker 1: off the ground. No, seriously, I see, I'll see a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities. I didn't beat my dad in one
Speaker 1: on one till I was nineteen years old and I
Speaker 1: was a freshman at U c l A. And I
Speaker 1: have been playing him since I was twelve, and so
Speaker 1: he uh, he didn't let me win. Man for like
Speaker 1: seven years. Bro, he was like a thousand and two
Speaker 1: hundred and old against me, and then I finally beat him. Man,
Speaker 1: trust me when I tell you it definitely made me
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, I was doing something when you
Speaker 1: finally beat him. Man, Um, what about your mom? Man?
Speaker 1: How about how much is your mom meant to everything
Speaker 1: that you've been doing? Man? As far as just from
Speaker 1: from everything, how how much does she mean in your
Speaker 1: life now? My mom meets the world to me. You know,
Speaker 1: she's in that basketball world too. Sometimes she'd be trying
Speaker 1: to tell me, like stuff I need to work on.
Speaker 1: I kind of just I gotta go back to my
Speaker 1: room and remember like she's actually like in the world too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, she does everything for me and my little brother.
Speaker 1: That's great, man, that's great. Always you know, respect moms man,
Speaker 1: because that was the sacrifice and the and the love
Speaker 1: that they do. Man, It's it kind of goes unseen
Speaker 1: and unheard, but it's that stables every single day. You know,
Speaker 1: we were putting up, running our hard hat, grabbing our
Speaker 1: lunch pail, and we're checking in and checking out. So man,
Speaker 1: that's that's really dope. Man. It reminds me of when
Speaker 1: I think about k D. I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen Kevin Durant at the m v P acceptance
Speaker 1: speech when he kind of lost it. But it just
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about, man, That's that that moment
Speaker 1: in life is really what it's all about. What Jovanni,
Speaker 1: I had you on man for a while. Man, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you stopping you bro. Now are you about to
Speaker 1: go work on your game right now? It's raining outside
Speaker 1: right now. I was gonna go out like it's Josha,
Speaker 1: but I I just gotta go to the gym later,
Speaker 1: probably like eight o'clock. I'm waiting for I live back
Speaker 1: to school. Okay, okay, yeah, Man, keep that up. Man,
Speaker 1: stay locked into the gym work. Bro, keep getting it
Speaker 1: in and keep doing what you've been doing. Man's it
Speaker 1: was really exciting to have you on the day and
Speaker 1: chop it up with you. Bro. I appreciate it. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, Giovanni Rough