Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sillis and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment industry. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now keeping k
Speaker 1: J Live. Today's very special guest on this shows a
Speaker 1: man I've known converting my entire life. He is a
Speaker 1: big reason I'm the person I am today, the basketball
Speaker 1: player and the human being. Please welcome in. Crinshaw High
Speaker 1: School Varsity boys basketball head coach Ed Waters is in
Speaker 1: the building. What's up? Hey, what forever? Let's go? Man. Hey, Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: I've been so glad to um have you on. People
Speaker 1: don't know this, but we actually recorded pilot years ago
Speaker 1: before podcasting was a bad me you Marcus, we were
Speaker 1: remember that whole thing, but we recorded Hey the back
Speaker 1: garage man, So we've been at this thing for a while.
Speaker 1: But but I wanted to bring you on the show,
Speaker 1: and because you know, I want to just talk about
Speaker 1: in the beginning, just sort of how you got in
Speaker 1: fell in love with the game. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: the times I want to get people's respectives about the
Speaker 1: foundations and the roots and why they chose this path.
Speaker 1: We're a different breed basketball people. And so if you
Speaker 1: could just expand on that force a little bit. What
Speaker 1: started you off? Man? You know, to be quite honest
Speaker 1: with you, Uh, my family moved to the West Side,
Speaker 1: and the first thing I found out was that there
Speaker 1: are a lot of a lot of sports going on,
Speaker 1: a lot of athletes. I haven't had experienced that. And
Speaker 1: we used to play. They used to play in the
Speaker 1: alley over off of Vaness backboard on a garage. And
Speaker 1: the problem from me us I was a left hander
Speaker 1: who didn't have any skills. It's the worst combination ever.
Speaker 1: No skills. Come on, no I had I had no skills.
Speaker 1: It was the worst combination ever. So because I didn't
Speaker 1: get picked ever, I got a basketball I went by
Speaker 1: back there by myself. I was my own first personal trainer,
Speaker 1: um and so uh. And as time went on and evolved,
Speaker 1: I started getting picked. I become became the number one pick.
Speaker 1: And when you're young like that, trying to guard a
Speaker 1: left handers really really tough. People don't really figure out
Speaker 1: what you can do. And so that part in terms
Speaker 1: of player UH got me involved. And then I was
Speaker 1: in a great vortex. I began to learn the game
Speaker 1: between van as Park out of Bony Elementary and UH
Speaker 1: and and Rancho Park and between those parts, this is
Speaker 1: where I fell in love with the game. Who are
Speaker 1: some of the contemporaries, some of your contemporaries, some of
Speaker 1: the athletes that you came up with. I know, my
Speaker 1: dad tells stories. I know if I think back into
Speaker 1: my memory, I came up with a lot of dudes
Speaker 1: that eventually, you know, made something out of themselves. On
Speaker 1: the leg side. Who were some of the contemporaries that
Speaker 1: you were competing against at that time? Well, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that I was competing against. Um
Speaker 1: they were at UH coming up to Audubon Junior High
Speaker 1: School on Saturday mornings. It was the greatest collection of
Speaker 1: of athletes. And I mean some of your listeners may
Speaker 1: and may not know a lot of the guys. But
Speaker 1: the beautiful jump shot I had ever seen was Luther
Speaker 1: Phil y'all who played in Loyal and he had a body,
Speaker 1: he had the leg. And then you know Robert Johnson
Speaker 1: who eventually played at Crenshaw and had a brother, Eddie
Speaker 1: Johnson was the master of ceremonies that Autuba. He he
Speaker 1: had great personnel and he had UH knew how to
Speaker 1: pick the teams, and they ran the court. And for me,
Speaker 1: I have to tell you, Chris that the open run
Speaker 1: with guys that don't really know each other, it's the
Speaker 1: greatest run today for me ever, because you're now just
Speaker 1: dealing with i QS, guys guy accused names on the
Speaker 1: board and guys that have accused. But at that time,
Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of guys like going into the
Speaker 1: n B A. Uh. Your dad was special man, uh
Speaker 1: in terms of his track. But I still was around
Speaker 1: a lot of great players, guys that were at fist,
Speaker 1: guys who had some HBCUs before it was even popular,
Speaker 1: and coming home in the summer, uh and getting and
Speaker 1: getting that run. I really didn't start getting around guys
Speaker 1: that were gonna end up going to the NBA and
Speaker 1: two u c l A run in the summer. Your
Speaker 1: dad and I would, uh, we'd have a two day workout.
Speaker 1: We go to the beach and run and then go
Speaker 1: straight to the gym and uh. And now we're talking
Speaker 1: about Sydney, which you're talking about Grave, You're talking uh,
Speaker 1: you're talking about all of it. Leon Wood, who's a
Speaker 1: you know, a great ref bunch of guys like that. So,
Speaker 1: you know, because of your dad, I began to get
Speaker 1: connected to those type of situations and just you know,
Speaker 1: build the love even more. How how has pick up
Speaker 1: basketball changed from back then? Because typically I always think
Speaker 1: I felt like pick up basketball was sort of a
Speaker 1: microcosm how they're calling stuff or how the game is
Speaker 1: played in the league. Um, back then, did you know
Speaker 1: you guys call your own fouls? What score did you
Speaker 1: go up to? Like? What was the sort of the
Speaker 1: atmosphere pick up basketball back there? The atmosphere was that, uh,
Speaker 1: guys were gonna do any and everything legal and we're
Speaker 1: illegal to make sure that they didn't lose that game. Max.
Speaker 1: So now you're talking about out, you're going to nine,
Speaker 1: it's eight up, and everybody's calling fantom files, no foul.
Speaker 1: They're not going back to the other end the eight
Speaker 1: up game, which he's gonna take fifteen you know, ten
Speaker 1: and fifteen minutes that that game is you know, depending
Speaker 1: on who the person was, he going to twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes an our guys arguing, guys just shooting the shot
Speaker 1: a hand up, you fouled me, and big arguments out
Speaker 1: of that. But it wasn't did he get violent at
Speaker 1: all that were there fights back then? Or how did that?
Speaker 1: How do how does this stuff handled? Back then? It
Speaker 1: was It wasn't violent, but you had stuff like don't
Speaker 1: trip if the dude who was calling the file was
Speaker 1: not happy, there's one ball in the gym, he's taking
Speaker 1: his ball at he's out, he's out, classic, take my
Speaker 1: ball and go home, take to go home, or take
Speaker 1: my ball and sit on the sideline and watch y'all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then and then and then you know, people would
Speaker 1: dive in, you know, because the guys that were he
Speaker 1: was playing against didn't want the game to end like that,
Speaker 1: and the guys that were with him didn't want the
Speaker 1: game then like that. There was no violence. It was
Speaker 1: really generational basketball at its finess and guys like me learning,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, they used to say pick up
Speaker 1: a little man, pick up a little man, and uh,
Speaker 1: I had guys calling me in like that. But there's
Speaker 1: no violence. Yeah, that's great, that's great to know, because, um,
Speaker 1: when I was coming up, I mean, I was privy
Speaker 1: to those grown man runs and stuff, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times would be a lot of talking and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you see some stuff, some get them up. But
Speaker 1: you know, now and then today in today's era, you know,
Speaker 1: I like kind of how things have moved away from
Speaker 1: all that, and uh, it's become it's become really just
Speaker 1: about basketball and and and pajamas and all types of
Speaker 1: stuff that they wear. But but no, I digress. But
Speaker 1: um after Crenshaw. So wait, let me let me get
Speaker 1: this straight. No, I want to know this because I've
Speaker 1: always wondered about this. What is the origin of the
Speaker 1: nickname Bosco? At the time, there was a h an
Speaker 1: additive to to milk that turned it into chocolate milk,
Speaker 1: and it was Bosco. But but at that time you
Speaker 1: also have to know in terms of throwing shade, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're dark skinned. You know. With now you know your
Speaker 1: dark scared would not be hair. So it's another way
Speaker 1: of saying you you real black. Wow. So that was
Speaker 1: the thing back then. It was light scanned first. Dark
Speaker 1: skin back then still absolutely like absolutely no, it's not
Speaker 1: even a question. It was even worse. You know, as
Speaker 1: the story goes, dark skinned really didn't flip to Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's Got Poplar Wow. Fact, that's kind of a real
Speaker 1: real now now, all of a sudden, it was dark
Speaker 1: and handsome and good look game and tall and ball headed.
Speaker 1: But prior to that, your dark skin, you got nappy hair.
Speaker 1: You don't have a real throw your bossco Hey, but
Speaker 1: Bosco was legendary. Man. I remember your game early on,
Speaker 1: and you were in stoppable, your shakes, your heasyes. I
Speaker 1: mean you're doing this stuff in the seventies and I
Speaker 1: mean heasy game for you floaters Euros. I mean I
Speaker 1: saw all that type of stuff you early on, when
Speaker 1: I'm like ten eleven, you know, I see you out
Speaker 1: on the run, bro, I saw all of that. I
Speaker 1: was in the building, and do not get it twisted.
Speaker 1: I had some weird stuff going on, and I think
Speaker 1: back to that. I got to wear my my lay
Speaker 1: up package had so many high arches. I was. I
Speaker 1: was announcing during games, you know, and at that time
Speaker 1: Elgin Baylor was my guy, and I'm making moves and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm announcing and I'm Bailor with a high arch.
Speaker 1: Good uh. And so I was announcing when I was playing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I became famous for a very high art
Speaker 1: layer package. You after crisch are you went to Eastern
Speaker 1: Washington right, yes, and talk about your experience in college
Speaker 1: playing college basketball, How what conference like what level was
Speaker 1: Eastern back then and what was the what was your
Speaker 1: coach like, I just want to hear about that. I
Speaker 1: never talked to you about that. But first of all,
Speaker 1: I want to give some flowers to my coach, Jerry Krauss,
Speaker 1: who has cancer. He is going to be inducted into
Speaker 1: the n C Double A Hall of Fame. Uh. He was.
Speaker 1: He's a great researcher. Uh and at the time, he
Speaker 1: was really kind of ahead of his time. With our package.
Speaker 1: We ran a flex package. We pressed and uh, I
Speaker 1: was a point guard. And two years ago, uh, they
Speaker 1: took uh our team, our seventy seven team, and put
Speaker 1: them in the Hall of Fame. And then they decided
Speaker 1: to put me in the Hall of Fame. And congratulations,
Speaker 1: congratulations brother, thank you. My assist record is no one
Speaker 1: near it. The closest guy is probably four hundred assists
Speaker 1: below me. And so it's just amazing that that that
Speaker 1: still happens. But we're in a I A where in
Speaker 1: the Evergreen Conference, and uh, you know, Central State was
Speaker 1: our arrival. They're always going to the regional. I had
Speaker 1: an All American on our team, Ron Cox, who ended
Speaker 1: up being you know, an All American you're riding around
Speaker 1: in vans all the way all over the state of California. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can't hardly excuse me of Washington. You can't hardly sleep.
Speaker 1: But interesting enough, the basketball swag was still going on
Speaker 1: because people like Kenny Tyler red Gonzaga University, and so
Speaker 1: we would go in there in the summer and have
Speaker 1: these runs. And Kenny was a great guard that came
Speaker 1: out of California. But it was very competitive, uh, and
Speaker 1: we were always on top of the conference, either winning
Speaker 1: it or in second place. And we had we had
Speaker 1: an outstanding coach playing at Eastern which is what city
Speaker 1: of the state of Washington, Cheney, which is about ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen miles from Spokane, so it's close to Spokane.
Speaker 1: But I find it really interesting just on how the
Speaker 1: state of Washington Pacific Northwest the ball players that they
Speaker 1: have been produced out of there in the last ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen years. Some high level dudes, this Paolo Bancaro,
Speaker 1: the number one pick chet home grin recently. Um, these
Speaker 1: guys are from that area. Brandon Roy bring some names up,
Speaker 1: and you had some ball players out there. What I
Speaker 1: remember though, UM, something I remember, Uh, I always think about, UM,
Speaker 1: this guy named ed Pepple and Mercer Island and just
Speaker 1: and just when you because it was something about we
Speaker 1: were playing them and you you were like aware, I
Speaker 1: don't remember, but I just remember just that name is
Speaker 1: always resonated. What is it about that area and basketball
Speaker 1: man that made them, that makes produces so many good
Speaker 1: basketball players and coach we we have we we have
Speaker 1: something to learn in Los Angeles. And I not only
Speaker 1: look at Seattle, but I look at uh Canada and
Speaker 1: then and then go to European basketball, and there is
Speaker 1: a there is a cooperation from the lowest level to
Speaker 1: the highest level for development uh and and and that
Speaker 1: has to do also with a cooperation that's that's non
Speaker 1: competitive between on the a youth circuit. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not me against you, it's us trying to get these
Speaker 1: guys developed and help them get to where they want
Speaker 1: to go. And I think in the cases of like
Speaker 1: a Seattle, I think you have that great cooperation where
Speaker 1: the AU is connected to the high school, which is
Speaker 1: annected to the college, to the community, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then outside of that, I've always admired Canada, uh
Speaker 1: and and and and what ends up happening is it
Speaker 1: has to do with where is your pride at and
Speaker 1: so as you know, if somebody that played overseas, they
Speaker 1: take this stuff really really seriously, no matter how big
Speaker 1: is smaller country is. But behind that is a tremendous
Speaker 1: pride that carries over uh. And that's something I think
Speaker 1: we can learn more from in Los Angeles. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I feel like and I've talked to a number of
Speaker 1: people on this podcast about that, from Jason Hart too,
Speaker 1: others in the game, just about the developmental process of
Speaker 1: basketball in l A in California in the United States.
Speaker 1: A good friend of mine is a scout for the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. He was on the pod, but he was
Speaker 1: just talking about how the system is broken some points
Speaker 1: that you just brought up about that area, just on
Speaker 1: how it's us against everybody else, not us against each other.
Speaker 1: When you start fighting amongst each other, beefing, having these issues,
Speaker 1: you know you're never gonna be able to cooperate and
Speaker 1: and that at the end of the day, the kids
Speaker 1: aren't going to get the work that they need to
Speaker 1: be on the same page. No, you're absolutely right, man,
Speaker 1: that that is such a trip. We definitely have a
Speaker 1: long way to go out here now. After Eastern, didn't
Speaker 1: you try it with the Bucks? I did. Um, I
Speaker 1: was in the free agent camp and uh, it was
Speaker 1: interesting because that summer, one of the great runs was
Speaker 1: at Memorial Park in Santa Monica. And and so I
Speaker 1: really had a lot of success up there. I walked
Speaker 1: in the gym and guys would drop guys and put
Speaker 1: me on the team. We would we would get on runs. Uh.
Speaker 1: If I lost, I automatically got picked up for the
Speaker 1: next run. But interestingly enough, the summer before I went
Speaker 1: to Milwaukee, UM, Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper, We're all playing
Speaker 1: up at Memorial and uh, and I had a lot
Speaker 1: of success on a particular day, and they asked your
Speaker 1: dad who I was. And uh, and so in asking
Speaker 1: your dad, your dad, you know, really your dad is
Speaker 1: the person that that introduced me to another level of
Speaker 1: basketball people I probably would have never met. And going
Speaker 1: up to U c. L A and playing I didn't
Speaker 1: get to play all the time when I went up
Speaker 1: to U c. L A. But I never missed going
Speaker 1: and so and in this situation, uh, you know, he
Speaker 1: was a course at the Bucks. I've been playing well
Speaker 1: and also came out of Eastern heralded and so he
Speaker 1: helped give me an opportunity. Uh. And at the time
Speaker 1: Don Nelson was a coach, I was experiencing the craziest
Speaker 1: thing ever with two days and not eating in between
Speaker 1: the second one because I was sitting in the tub
Speaker 1: and with ice have time to eat. And I had
Speaker 1: to experience nothing like that. What was it? What was
Speaker 1: the NBA training camp like back then? What was it like?
Speaker 1: It was? The guys were guaranteed contracts, weren't They were chilling,
Speaker 1: and then you had kind of these other guys and
Speaker 1: he had some guys from colleges, some colleges, small colleges,
Speaker 1: big college or whatever, and uh, but it was grueling.
Speaker 1: It was unmerciful. Uh, it was grueling, and they were
Speaker 1: just trying to see, you know, what you were made of.
Speaker 1: We had all at Marquette University. And I remember when
Speaker 1: Coach Nelson called me over, he said that called me over.
Speaker 1: I ran over and he said, you know, thanks, you know,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming and thanks for this. And I always
Speaker 1: remember I walked out into the hallway of Marquette University
Speaker 1: and I looked at the Christine Grass with you know,
Speaker 1: some popes on it, and I just I settled that
Speaker 1: I was okay, you know, and I didn't think that
Speaker 1: I was gonna chase it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I was gonna chase it, I kinda And I end
Speaker 1: up doing a couple of things in between that. I
Speaker 1: went to Vegas when you know what's What's was now
Speaker 1: the D League was that that was kind of starting
Speaker 1: up then, and I went to Vegas and did some
Speaker 1: stuff there and I and I did a couple of
Speaker 1: things overseas, but I never really chased it because I
Speaker 1: just saw what it did to a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that didn't make it. M So when you say you
Speaker 1: saw what it did, is it the mental an emotional
Speaker 1: level of taxing and just the let down or the
Speaker 1: grind of it all? And what do you mean by
Speaker 1: what you saw what it did to other guys? You know,
Speaker 1: you have different levels. You have guys that actually think
Speaker 1: they can't miss and everybody's telling them that, and they've
Speaker 1: had certain stuff and it's like this bro, It's like,
Speaker 1: I know, the college program is listening to you at
Speaker 1: six seven, but when you get to when you get
Speaker 1: to the NBA tryout, you're not six seven. You're six
Speaker 1: four six three ish, and it's it's a different it's
Speaker 1: a different level, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: the guys read in the stuff that they didn't know
Speaker 1: they're gonna go into. And then the biggest thing is
Speaker 1: that you are walking around with the skill set that
Speaker 1: you can no longer use in uh, in a high
Speaker 1: level way. And that's a mind Blower's still a mind
Speaker 1: glory for guys today. It's like, you got these tools,
Speaker 1: you got this knowledge, but because you know, things didn't
Speaker 1: go your way or you're older now and it didn't
Speaker 1: and it didn't work out. And I remember Norm Nixon,
Speaker 1: who uh you know, used to play for the Lakers
Speaker 1: once championships. He told me, he told me I had
Speaker 1: the game. He said, it's about timing. And that's another
Speaker 1: part of it is, you know, timing, uh is so
Speaker 1: huge when all things are considered, you know. And so
Speaker 1: you have guys who you know, can't let go of
Speaker 1: what didn't happen. Yeah, uh facts, because you work so
Speaker 1: hard for so long. It's something and if you're lucky
Speaker 1: enough to be good at what you do, you feel
Speaker 1: like you just deserve, you know, the opportunity because you
Speaker 1: see some other guys that are there and look, we're
Speaker 1: not hating on anybody that makes the lead. But you
Speaker 1: see other guys that you know you can bust their
Speaker 1: ass or you have bust at their ass, and you know,
Speaker 1: given the same opportunity, you could perform in the center
Speaker 1: of the fashion. Well, let's hope clarity on that you're
Speaker 1: one of those guys acts no question, a lot of asks,
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys, yeah, and let them know
Speaker 1: that I'm either better than you or as good as you.
Speaker 1: And so it's very challenging because I actually saw your
Speaker 1: development and I and I you know, I felt that
Speaker 1: your NBA player, thank you, and I appreciate that Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. You know me, for me,
Speaker 1: when I look at myself and think back, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing the right stuff. I wasn't doing everything
Speaker 1: off the court that it takes. And I look back
Speaker 1: and I have some accountability with that now, and I
Speaker 1: know that because I was partying, I was living like
Speaker 1: I was in the league, and I was going I
Speaker 1: was going to I was going into freaking pre draft camp. Hey,
Speaker 1: pre draft camp, I'm out at real night. And then
Speaker 1: they got the undercoverage at the club, telling on me
Speaker 1: every night, hanging out with me every night, dabbing me up,
Speaker 1: so I know I didn't make the league. And a
Speaker 1: little bit on the defensive side back then, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like they had these prototypical twos and threes
Speaker 1: that you know, you had to be a certain size
Speaker 1: and you had to be able to guard in a
Speaker 1: certain kind of way. So always but but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, and it was definitely, uh, it
Speaker 1: was on me. Um. But back to the training camp.
Speaker 1: I remember my first training my first training camp was
Speaker 1: with the Timberwolves. During the locker, I'm in Minnesota with
Speaker 1: Steph and KG and and the legendary Sam Mitchell, who
Speaker 1: I have a Sam Mitchell. He's one of those vets.
Speaker 1: He was one of those vets, dude that just rode
Speaker 1: the rookies. You know, he rode the rooks. So he
Speaker 1: was always, you know, making you do extra running in
Speaker 1: the lines. He was calling you out in front of
Speaker 1: flip you know flips. You know, he's making sure to
Speaker 1: point out, Oh the young fella, didn't you know. He's
Speaker 1: one of those types of dudes. So if you if
Speaker 1: you were a French guy like I was, you have
Speaker 1: no chance with a guy like Sam Metroid practice. But
Speaker 1: but but but back to you, man, after walking through
Speaker 1: that hallway at Marquette University, Man, it comes to that realization.
Speaker 1: Was it then you decided to coach? Because I remember
Speaker 1: your career and your life kind of took a different
Speaker 1: type of journey where you kind of delved in politics
Speaker 1: a little bit. But what what what was the epiphany
Speaker 1: in that Marquette hallway? It's the coaching epiphany, wasn't there?
Speaker 1: And you don't know how much of appreciation that you're
Speaker 1: asking me this question because I don't get to share
Speaker 1: it a lot. But what happened was is that when
Speaker 1: I was at Eastern, we went to a medical facility
Speaker 1: of some mentally challenged kids and our job was to
Speaker 1: do kind of a mini camp there. And so we
Speaker 1: went in and we were divided up and Chris, for
Speaker 1: some reason, my my, uh my half of the court.
Speaker 1: With these kids, they were the most excited about anything
Speaker 1: I was told that they ever done. And I was
Speaker 1: looking and I was just being energetic and clapping, and
Speaker 1: you know, I was already a captain on Eastern, so
Speaker 1: my leader skips leadership skills were there, and I just
Speaker 1: put everything I could into those kids. And the facility
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to Eastern about how I impacted those kids,
Speaker 1: and I said to myself, I impacted some kids that
Speaker 1: are mentally challenged. I connected with them in some way,
Speaker 1: and that's when it started from me. M hm, And
Speaker 1: how did you continue to go down that path of
Speaker 1: helping affecting people? Like what was the next kind of
Speaker 1: step phase of Edwaters development. I spent another year at
Speaker 1: Eastern and I helped out on the coaching staff there,
Speaker 1: and I was really really challenged because I was still
Speaker 1: looking at things. It is from a player's point of view. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you was expecting them to do stuff that you would
Speaker 1: could do, but yeah, that part and I was tripping
Speaker 1: off of you know, how I would handle discipline and
Speaker 1: uh in some different ways too. I was looking at
Speaker 1: that so I had an affinity for the player, but
Speaker 1: I also had a respect for the coach, and I
Speaker 1: remember that that kind of you know, going up, going away.
Speaker 1: But my real kind of my real kind of time
Speaker 1: is that I spent a lot of time volunteering. As
Speaker 1: you know, I was at the inglewood Y m c A. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the great days that we had there. I remember how
Speaker 1: guys the hawk guys baby, and I remember having to
Speaker 1: talk with you and I was I remember telling you
Speaker 1: that that because nobody could really guard you because your side.
Speaker 1: But I remember telling you that if you learn this
Speaker 1: footwork on the inside, your game on the outside is
Speaker 1: gonna be that. And you know, one of one of
Speaker 1: your one of your your skills is footwork. UH. And
Speaker 1: I take it all the way back to that, because
Speaker 1: you were playing inside with us. I wouldn't let you
Speaker 1: play outside. You weren't shooting any Jimmy, we're going, We're
Speaker 1: going to the hall. UH. And from ole wood Y
Speaker 1: m c A. A coach saw me there UH at
Speaker 1: Washington and asked me to come over and coach the freshman.
Speaker 1: I coached the freshman there and we won the league.
Speaker 1: Crenshaw was in the league. We we uh, we we
Speaker 1: won the league. I then connected with UH. With Crenshaw,
Speaker 1: I coach with coach West for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: And I left there and I got an assistance job
Speaker 1: in Central Washington University in Ohio UH and Central State,
Speaker 1: Central State, I mean, I'm sorry, Central State University. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh and Uh Kevin Porter, who used to play in
Speaker 1: the league was the head coach at the time, and
Speaker 1: so I got that experience. Then I came back uh,
Speaker 1: and I got with UH. I came back, I got
Speaker 1: with Crenshall for a second stint. I would end up
Speaker 1: doing three stints with West. So after my second stint
Speaker 1: with Coach West, I went and took over at Jefferson
Speaker 1: High School on the east side, and I couldn't get
Speaker 1: any of my boys to come over there and help me.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, man, I'm over on the other side
Speaker 1: of Hooper. They can say in Hooper it's Hooper. But
Speaker 1: I went over there and Chris. What we did over
Speaker 1: there energized the entire community. Football was kind of the
Speaker 1: thing over there. I had guys from the community playing ball,
Speaker 1: and uh, I never I never forget. Crenchyall came to
Speaker 1: jeff to play and they had, you know, Marcus Williams,
Speaker 1: all the six six guys, and Uh, I heard it halftime,
Speaker 1: Coach West went into his guys because we're only down there.
Speaker 1: We we we're down only by three, only by three,
Speaker 1: And they told me Coach West was going banana. So
Speaker 1: I had a great time over there, and then I
Speaker 1: left Jeff and came back over to Crenshaw. Uh with
Speaker 1: with with coach, and eventually after you left, I took
Speaker 1: over the head coaching position. Well if your first stint,
Speaker 1: I believe that Crenshaw was with me, right, that was
Speaker 1: our was that our era of yes? Yeah? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so that that that era because I had been in
Speaker 1: Montclaire prep um, you know, I had. I was in Montclair.
Speaker 1: Then I went to Italy and you know, I got
Speaker 1: held back over in Italy and come back and repeat
Speaker 1: the aid go here and go there. So I'm everywhere.
Speaker 1: But then my dad, you know, he's like, why don't
Speaker 1: you go to Crenshaw. I guess because Bob Webb, my
Speaker 1: coach at Montclaire was retiring low key and so we
Speaker 1: weren't really rolling with the next staff that we're coming
Speaker 1: was coming in. So my dad at breakfast one morning,
Speaker 1: just you know, comes up with this question kind of
Speaker 1: you know, over pancakes, you know, what do you think
Speaker 1: about transferring to Crenshaw, And I'm just I was just
Speaker 1: kind like huh like, uh, I was, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I've been chilling in bell Air. I was. I was
Speaker 1: over at Montclair Prep for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of, you know, a little hesitant
Speaker 1: about the Shaw. It wasn't It wasn't until he took
Speaker 1: me down to the run. Uh where I got where
Speaker 1: I got the hoop against them guys in the small gym,
Speaker 1: and where I realized, like yo, I could really play
Speaker 1: on this level. And you know, I decided to make
Speaker 1: the move. Eventually, you know, we had a relationous run
Speaker 1: at the Shaw. I wanted to ask you what was
Speaker 1: your favorite memory of that first season together when we
Speaker 1: were at Crenshaw. We we ended up winning state, finished
Speaker 1: number five in the country. What was your favorite memory
Speaker 1: of that season? Well, first I have to add in
Speaker 1: that you should know that I was over Southwest College
Speaker 1: at the time with with Joe week Uh and he
Speaker 1: you know and uh and he didn't have a gym,
Speaker 1: so it's practice as were at Crenshall. But I had
Speaker 1: that job and Joe weakly told Southwest even though there
Speaker 1: wasn't a position, they had to find a position for me.
Speaker 1: And so it was my first paid coaching position. But
Speaker 1: then you, Tremaine and Rico decided you were going to
Speaker 1: Crunchhall and we're all being together a triple threat. I
Speaker 1: left a paying job to come. I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I didn't know that I left
Speaker 1: a paying job because because of you, guys, and and
Speaker 1: and it started with you, you know, and then the
Speaker 1: rest of them was apoll up. But I left a
Speaker 1: paying job to come with that. So that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great memory, just that process. But you know,
Speaker 1: your lay up, I mean it, it's still there. You
Speaker 1: just see it happening, you know, you know, I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, man, you're your desire to be the best
Speaker 1: and your passion is something I experence. It's still like
Speaker 1: at the top three of my stuff in terms of guys,
Speaker 1: because and and the craziest thing about you, which is
Speaker 1: its super funny to me, it's like you did not
Speaker 1: care if you were going to take every single freaking shot.
Speaker 1: You cared about nobody, and I mean you, you had
Speaker 1: no sympathy for nobody. You felt that you needed to
Speaker 1: take every shot. And if you were gunning and they
Speaker 1: were telling you, hey, you wouldn't hear none of that
Speaker 1: next shot. But because of that, you were already always
Speaker 1: ready for the big shot. Facts if you're get ready
Speaker 1: for it, whine because that's how you treated it. I
Speaker 1: can score or anytime, I'm gonna do that, and I
Speaker 1: don't care how you guys feel, man. So that that
Speaker 1: right there is another great memory for me, that passion
Speaker 1: that lay up and that whole city. You can't you
Speaker 1: can't single out anything with that first year because so
Speaker 1: much happened, you know, so you know, Theermaine focus is there,
Speaker 1: Rico is there. Rico I eventually we get up the
Speaker 1: Central State to play before he went to Fresno. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff going on there. It's just
Speaker 1: that whole time. It's just a great, great experience for me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean that that was some of the
Speaker 1: best time times in my life. Um, being at Crenshaw
Speaker 1: for those two years, you know, just being immersed in
Speaker 1: that Crenshaw culture, being you know, just that that whole thing,
Speaker 1: rolling on the Shaw South sit trial. I mean it
Speaker 1: was it was like so much fun. But the thing
Speaker 1: that stands out for me, um, was just how hard
Speaker 1: every thing was, Just how difficult, how taxing mentally and
Speaker 1: physically practice was, our workouts are preseason conditioning. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the hardest thing I had ever experienced. I
Speaker 1: literally my body. People don't remember this, but I actually
Speaker 1: transformed my body during that training camp. I was if
Speaker 1: you remember, like my first game against Garfield, if you remember,
Speaker 1: I had to wear the short shorts. But I looked
Speaker 1: back at those pictures. I looked back at those pictures.
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, I was in kind of decent shape.
Speaker 1: But I didn't even realize. I didn't even realize it
Speaker 1: because we were just I was just like waking up, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I got this ship today, like whoa. Because
Speaker 1: we were we were running. We were run like three
Speaker 1: miles and have to run the ridge. We'd come back,
Speaker 1: come back to campus on the run, people in cars
Speaker 1: following us and on the round was crazy. And and
Speaker 1: then and then you remember, and then we get back
Speaker 1: and we still gotta do more running, and we gotta
Speaker 1: do callisthetics. We outside, we're doing publics, we're doing push us.
Speaker 1: Coach Ducket got us on the jump ropes, We're doing
Speaker 1: all types of stuff and that. And that's before it's
Speaker 1: like three hours of stuff and then we go into
Speaker 1: the gym and spend two hours on defense. It wasnbelievable.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, I'm make no mistake about
Speaker 1: it that those y'all coaches on that staff. It was
Speaker 1: my It was the sickest coaching experience I ever had.
Speaker 1: It was the most taxing and it got the most
Speaker 1: out of me I had never been. I had never
Speaker 1: gotten so much out of me. That's what I did
Speaker 1: with y'all and that whole crew. You you Coach West,
Speaker 1: coach Ducket, coach Stevenson, coach you know, it's like nine
Speaker 1: ten coaching manner. It would come through, but the whole crew,
Speaker 1: it was a whole crew of men coaches that were mentors.
Speaker 1: And you guys were talking to us after every practice,
Speaker 1: so it would be your time, or would be coach Step,
Speaker 1: it would be coach Duet, so somebody be talking to
Speaker 1: us every day. So we're just getting this this positive
Speaker 1: role model, super duper reinforcement. Keep stay on the right path,
Speaker 1: don't be doing no bs, don't be spooning up no
Speaker 1: on the rail man. That that that stuff that y'all did,
Speaker 1: and I looked back on it now, those talks and
Speaker 1: that that level accountability, man, is a lot of reason
Speaker 1: why a lot of us, a lot of us stayed
Speaker 1: out of a lot of trouble. And it kind of
Speaker 1: kept our head on straight. Man. I really appreciate you,
Speaker 1: uh for for that time in my life especially. Um.
Speaker 1: I also remember and you talked about my passion for
Speaker 1: the game, and I'll tell you where I got it from.
Speaker 1: My passion for the game was based on the competition,
Speaker 1: the environment of competition that I grew up in around you,
Speaker 1: my dad, when we're being there in the summers and
Speaker 1: every dog on thing was a dog on competition. Remember
Speaker 1: we do the off brand, I mean think we put
Speaker 1: tea and we've been doing stuff outside I mean any game,
Speaker 1: We've been doing all type of other sports. Hey, it
Speaker 1: was about winning. So I always wanted to beat you.
Speaker 1: So I played one on one. Remember the wooden said
Speaker 1: that we got to the fight. What's I remember? You
Speaker 1: like being on top of me? Like I didn't remember
Speaker 1: that home, I'm on the floor, I think a third
Speaker 1: teen trying to kick you or doing all type of stuff.
Speaker 1: But all that to be said, all those days of
Speaker 1: the Front are bell air, Um, you know Front driveway
Speaker 1: one on one games, didn't running the hill together and
Speaker 1: then we remember, I remember we used to hit the
Speaker 1: dudes together and you made it. You just showed me
Speaker 1: you can make it. All the way to the top.
Speaker 1: You passed out though you you were like passed up
Speaker 1: for like thirty seconds that came back, but you made
Speaker 1: it all the way to the top. So it's like
Speaker 1: all those things that I was privy to, and you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, we treated me like a brother. So I
Speaker 1: was kind of involved in all that with y'all. That's
Speaker 1: why I was so passionate about everything. Man. You guys
Speaker 1: don't understand even at ingle one. Why going back to
Speaker 1: that when you and my dad you talk about Bill
Speaker 1: on Georgetown Dollar Bill, I still remember his game, dog
Speaker 1: like I hold onto that like I held day Ron Bill,
Speaker 1: like I held onto that. Like that drove me to
Speaker 1: the level the level I gotta be back. I gotta
Speaker 1: be nice for day Rod, I gotta be n for
Speaker 1: Bill and so I So my career, I used to
Speaker 1: treat things with the level of seriousness. So you know
Speaker 1: every matchup I had, man, I was in there, it
Speaker 1: was it was it was personal for me. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: would go overboard, but my passion I was serious. Man,
Speaker 1: I was serious. Man, I was definitely you were serious.
Speaker 1: The word Oh lord, no, those are some good times, man.
Speaker 1: Talk about just when coach West retired, Um and it
Speaker 1: was a it was a process of trying to figure
Speaker 1: out who the next coach was going to be. You're
Speaker 1: involved in that. I just talking a little bit about
Speaker 1: that process and how you felt when you were named
Speaker 1: head coach at probably the most legendary program in high
Speaker 1: school basketball. Well, the true thing about it is that
Speaker 1: despite the fact that I came back over to Crunchhaw
Speaker 1: uh for my third stint, kind of prior to it
Speaker 1: was gonna happen. There wasn't this man, I want to
Speaker 1: be the head coach at Crunshaw thing. What really was
Speaker 1: happening was that there was an accreditation issue at that
Speaker 1: was brought up at the school and I came to
Speaker 1: a meeting, and when I learned about what it was
Speaker 1: really about, the school was really actually on probation. West
Speaker 1: Chester had been on probation too. That was not in
Speaker 1: the news. We were in the news for because we're Crenshaw,
Speaker 1: and that whole negative feel about where they were going
Speaker 1: toward us was really really uh. It really got to
Speaker 1: me and I asked Coach west if I could come back,
Speaker 1: but for the first time in my third stent, he
Speaker 1: didn't answer me like he normally did, and so fast forward.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of chilling and waiting to see, hey, am
Speaker 1: I gonna get back here? And then he tells me
Speaker 1: it was like a godfather saying, I met your dad's marriage.
Speaker 1: We're in the Marina del Ray at that spot getting married,
Speaker 1: and Coach West was there. And right after your dad,
Speaker 1: you know, I married, Coach West said I'll see you
Speaker 1: the jim on. Uh nice coach, just like that and
Speaker 1: so and then moving into that, and then of course
Speaker 1: a lot of speculation, uh start happening around, you know,
Speaker 1: who was gonna be, you know, the next person and
Speaker 1: all that, and I mean you have folks like you know,
Speaker 1: John Williams applied. I remember they talked about how thick
Speaker 1: of Adosier he turned in with all of his stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, of course, Maurice Duckett, who had been with
Speaker 1: Coach all those years. I was coming off of what
Speaker 1: was the only in the history of of l a
Speaker 1: a j V championship, and we won a j V championship,
Speaker 1: got you know, went down the city hall like we
Speaker 1: were varsity, got acknowledged and we went, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: six and old and so my and I was right there.
Speaker 1: So that kind of had me in the midst, whether
Speaker 1: I wanted to or not, I was real prevalent. I
Speaker 1: was right there as assistant. I had been there, and
Speaker 1: so a lot of stuff was going on. And what
Speaker 1: you know, what's crazy and all this, Chris, is that
Speaker 1: people have so many opinions about this position, about evolution
Speaker 1: of this position, and people tend to think, for some
Speaker 1: reason that they have some greater passion than I do
Speaker 1: about crunch Yall High School. This is my neighborhood. I
Speaker 1: went forty two out of buying Crunchyall. I mean when
Speaker 1: and Coach West found me and Crunchyall because there was
Speaker 1: no y m c A building. Crunch Yall was a
Speaker 1: y m c A on Saturday, and he saw me
Speaker 1: playing on the side court and told somebody, I gotta
Speaker 1: have that, little man. And so when people are acting like,
Speaker 1: you know, they're way more passionate about what happens here
Speaker 1: and than me, I just look at it. But they
Speaker 1: don't understand my My roots go go go, way way back.
Speaker 1: I don't talk about it. But it's interesting that that that,
Speaker 1: you know, what happened in that evolution, everybody had their
Speaker 1: own coach. Everybody still has their own coach, but there's
Speaker 1: things that's happened to me to let me know that
Speaker 1: this is really where God wants me to be. I've
Speaker 1: had you know, I had a health challenge and Gob said, no,
Speaker 1: it's just the time out. You're rolling back, and uh
Speaker 1: and here I am. Yeah, we're glad. You know that
Speaker 1: was scary. Yeah, I don't think I talked to you.
Speaker 1: I sent you a note, but I didn't talk to you.
Speaker 1: But I'm really thankful you know you're straight after that
Speaker 1: because I heard about that and it was like people
Speaker 1: were like shoop. You know, it was like everybody was shook. Bro.
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, thank god. Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
Speaker 1: all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
Speaker 1: and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
Speaker 1: R to listen live. Coach West Man, I mean, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you I always wanted just to reminisce about and
Speaker 1: just kind of give Coach West his flowers, just for
Speaker 1: giving me that opportunity to Shaw, pushing me at Crenshaw,
Speaker 1: holding me to a standard, not taking it easy on me,
Speaker 1: and then making some tough decisions that you know, he
Speaker 1: felt like probably was gonna teach me a lesson in
Speaker 1: the long term about respecting authority. UM that I needed
Speaker 1: to learn at that time in my life. You know,
Speaker 1: my senior year, we're down in Myrtle Beach. We stopping McDonald's. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, they're the decree is no soda. So yeah, wait,
Speaker 1: no soda. So I'm like, okay, cool, no soda. So
Speaker 1: the whole team going to the McDonald's, this and that.
Speaker 1: You know, I go get a high seat. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not soda, it's not carbonated high seat, the orange drink.
Speaker 1: And you know, Duckett, you know, Coach Duckett is like, y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all what you're doing, take that, you know, throw that
Speaker 1: away and this and that. And I'm like nah and
Speaker 1: this and that. So coach ended up benching me and
Speaker 1: ended up, um, you know, not being a good look
Speaker 1: for me because of disciplinary problems I should have avoided.
Speaker 1: But as I was so mad at him for a
Speaker 1: while about that, especially through college, I felt like it
Speaker 1: messed up by McDonald's game opportunity because we had all
Speaker 1: them voters down there for Myrtle Beach and I just
Speaker 1: had twenty one in the first game, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, I'm about the ball out. Um. But
Speaker 1: when I look back on it and having had kids
Speaker 1: and having you know, and you know and understand you
Speaker 1: know about authority and and and telling, and when it's
Speaker 1: respecting authority, it's like here, it's like period and so
Speaker 1: and and I kind of came to Coach with that,
Speaker 1: you know. I just and I just always appreciated Coach
Speaker 1: West for just just the father fit, just the way
Speaker 1: he welcomed me in because I was a little you know,
Speaker 1: at first it was a little nerves nervous to be
Speaker 1: at the show, but it was but he welcomed me
Speaker 1: in and he treated me like one of his own.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Coach West. And I just wanted
Speaker 1: to give him flowers man just for his contributions to
Speaker 1: the game. Man one of the greatest ever. Um. How
Speaker 1: many years you've been at Crinshaw. When you think about it,
Speaker 1: um at the Shaw and your track record, well, your
Speaker 1: your career record, it's tough to follow alleged a legend
Speaker 1: like Coach West. I mean you're talking about someone of
Speaker 1: the one eight hundred games, sixteen city championships, I believe,
Speaker 1: eight state championships. How do you reconcile following allegen. You know, um,
Speaker 1: you know, following Coach West was gonna be a big deal.
Speaker 1: I remember, Uh, I did a kind of gathering for
Speaker 1: him that had kind of like five people there, a
Speaker 1: lot of folks, and it was so funny because I'm
Speaker 1: looking around and these are all of the people who
Speaker 1: had so many opinions about who the next coach was
Speaker 1: gonna be. I'm sitting there with them and I'm looking around.
Speaker 1: And then I had an issue at that at that
Speaker 1: event because everybody wanted to speak, and so I separated,
Speaker 1: Like if you didn't go to the NBA, you couldn't
Speaker 1: get on this mike, you know, And and so I
Speaker 1: had so much stuff going on. But um, that has
Speaker 1: been a challenge for uh, not only you know, me
Speaker 1: as a coach, but for the players to in terms
Speaker 1: of the expectations and so. But what we what I've
Speaker 1: never done, is trying to make, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of excuses about you know, how we can succeed and
Speaker 1: what we're able to do. You have to understand that
Speaker 1: Coach West took over twenty eight years old. He was young,
Speaker 1: and probably his kind of disciplined aspects came from being
Speaker 1: in the South, from Texas because he you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of his characteristics reminds me of my stepdad who
Speaker 1: came from Houston, and you know, like it or not,
Speaker 1: there's another level of accountability and family that goes on
Speaker 1: in the South, and so Coach West. Uh. He was
Speaker 1: a disciplinarian, he was organized. This is a weird thing,
Speaker 1: but I just remember that he had great handwriting, probably
Speaker 1: because mine is terrible. No, he did, I've seen it.
Speaker 1: I he does. He had great penmanship, and that always
Speaker 1: set up because it's him and my mother to have
Speaker 1: some of the greatest penmanship. And I also think that
Speaker 1: it's something that it's some it's something that's a part
Speaker 1: of this it's a it's a something that's part of
Speaker 1: their success and somehow I don't know how to explain it,
Speaker 1: but that's that stuck out to me. But when he
Speaker 1: took over, of course, the the the school was at
Speaker 1: a great time civil rights and and the benefits of
Speaker 1: civil rights were evolved. Tom Bradley, first black mayor of
Speaker 1: l A was there. There was a lot of good
Speaker 1: stuff going on and then had you know, your pick
Speaker 1: of a litter from kids that were there, you know,
Speaker 1: And so his background in spending time at John Muir
Speaker 1: Joe weekly, being at UH, at Dinker Park UH and
Speaker 1: crunch y'all High UH erecting itself. A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: came together is as soon as the very first year UH.
Speaker 1: And he was taking over for Coach Ryan, who ended
Speaker 1: up going over to cow stead of l A. And
Speaker 1: after the West was successful, Coach Ryan wanted to come
Speaker 1: back and administration wasn't feeling it, and then UH it
Speaker 1: goes on from there and and one of the things
Speaker 1: I remember about him, and even at the way he
Speaker 1: trained your your the way he trained your dad, and
Speaker 1: it's something that I carried over was that he would
Speaker 1: be in the gym with your dad, just him working
Speaker 1: on stuff, you know. And Coach West was you know,
Speaker 1: a personal trainer as well as a coach. And I
Speaker 1: always said to myself when I was coming up, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter if I was in the gym with one
Speaker 1: kid or not. You know, it's just seeing that kid
Speaker 1: get better, UH, which which you know Coach Wes ended
Speaker 1: up doing. And then Coach West kept up with the trends.
Speaker 1: You know, he got the rebounding machine, he got he
Speaker 1: you know, he pass the pastor he had the passer,
Speaker 1: you know, in the spring ball would spring back off.
Speaker 1: He had he had the leaping machine, you know, and
Speaker 1: he and he had all of the things. You know,
Speaker 1: he was studying. Uh, he was studying U and L
Speaker 1: V and and they're they're they're running machine under Tark.
Speaker 1: And obviously our colors were close enough to U. C.
Speaker 1: L A. Where he took a lot of John Wooden's
Speaker 1: you know kind of stuff. He would go to the games. Uh,
Speaker 1: Coach West was a study of the game. And I
Speaker 1: and he went to basketball coaching clinics. And I remember
Speaker 1: when I was taking over his office. I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of copious notes, uh that that he left behind
Speaker 1: that and when you look at it today, it's still
Speaker 1: applies like when coach West. So things that stand out
Speaker 1: about Coach West. I remember first, I'll say my my
Speaker 1: junior year when he started tinkering with my shot. Um.
Speaker 1: He had me doing this thing called the shot pocket.
Speaker 1: And it's like catching it right here, and it's hey,
Speaker 1: don't bring the ball below hey. So so I would
Speaker 1: just go but look, it's catching it here and you
Speaker 1: go straight up and it's not like catch dip and
Speaker 1: then go up. Now that there's different philosophies nowadays. But
Speaker 1: for that, for me, that ended up changing the trajectory
Speaker 1: of my jump shot and I and I developed a
Speaker 1: butter jumper. When I got to U c l A.
Speaker 1: You know, I was like, I have one of the
Speaker 1: highest true shooting percentages of all time my sophomore year
Speaker 1: at U c l A. The only people that ranked
Speaker 1: with me or Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and like Adam
Speaker 1: Morrison like those, It's like sixty some point six three
Speaker 1: eight or something crazy. And I just started looking it up,
Speaker 1: like this is a couple of years ago. I started
Speaker 1: looking it up, like, damn, my true shooting percentage was high.
Speaker 1: And I started looking it up. I'm like, damn, step
Speaker 1: shooting was only sixty two and Clays was like sixty one.
Speaker 1: I'm like when I was in college, but Coach West
Speaker 1: showing me that little trick tapering my shot had me
Speaker 1: had me had me going cracking. And then it was
Speaker 1: my senior year, um in practice, I think he, I
Speaker 1: don't know where this came from, but he came up with.
Speaker 1: I mean, he had brought like a note of like
Speaker 1: Ralph Miller at Oregon State and the two guard front
Speaker 1: was it or or what was that It was something,
Speaker 1: but it was sick. It was he read one four
Speaker 1: one fo Yeah. Yeah. And and actually what we call
Speaker 1: Ralph Miller called it three lane rush. When you're passing,
Speaker 1: you got run around the cone and get back. We
Speaker 1: had another nack Ducket had another name for. But he
Speaker 1: got a lot of tenants from Ralph Miller, who was
Speaker 1: a great coach of course at the time. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And that stuff was always impressive just for a coach
Speaker 1: to come in like he had been just in the
Speaker 1: lad thinking about this all night long, or Chris, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put Chris over here. I got. It's like he
Speaker 1: was like masterminding stuff. And it really resonated through the
Speaker 1: excitement he would have when he taught us. He would
Speaker 1: have this extra peppin hist step when he was teacher
Speaker 1: mode when he was teaching this stuff. He'd be jogging
Speaker 1: around and Chris, you know, he would get into it.
Speaker 1: And that, to me, that always resonated to have such
Speaker 1: a legendary coach that hands on with it. Um what
Speaker 1: in your opinion, and as you've seen, the game sort
Speaker 1: of evolved from our my era when I was in
Speaker 1: high school to coaching up till today. What do you
Speaker 1: think has been just the biggest difference and change in
Speaker 1: high school basketball from eras of the nineties two thousand's
Speaker 1: when you were at Jefferson and you know, starting your
Speaker 1: early princh your career until two thousand and twenty two. Today, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's uh, there's so much emphasis on
Speaker 1: personal training. And I mean, and when you start talking
Speaker 1: about this, one of the things that I would would
Speaker 1: like to see happen when you start talking about the
Speaker 1: comparisons of whether it's players or whether it's processes, is
Speaker 1: that there are no absolutes in this. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't want coaches and guys the day to say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what you do. It is small sided games.
Speaker 1: And at one on one Bro, we always had small
Speaker 1: side of games. Was hey, we all supposed to meet
Speaker 1: up at the spot, but everybody ain't there yet, So
Speaker 1: me and you're gonna play one on one, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? I was playing one on one like
Speaker 1: place please please? And then because I was running away
Speaker 1: from my chores. You know, I leave the lawnmower on
Speaker 1: one side, I'd be by myself. But guess what I'm
Speaker 1: working on my game by myself, you know, my own
Speaker 1: personal training. But what what today is is that there
Speaker 1: is the the the access to knowledge, it's tremendous and
Speaker 1: uh and the the access to uh watching games, the
Speaker 1: access to uh so many different philosophies. I mean, you
Speaker 1: got the highest level and then you've got some of
Speaker 1: the highest level coaches at the D three level, you know,
Speaker 1: who are doing a crazy amazing stuff. Their five outs
Speaker 1: looks like some some some stuff you haven't ever seen,
Speaker 1: and so kind of the big difference is really the
Speaker 1: expansion of the knowledge and the opportunity. You know, I
Speaker 1: used to go to library to look up stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: sit in front of the computer now and do do
Speaker 1: do that same thing. So that big obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta qualify when you start talking about
Speaker 1: the athleticism, because there have been some guys that's what. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's one of my big things. Man. You just
Speaker 1: can't say, hey, it's so athletic. No, crinch yall had
Speaker 1: some guys, you know, please that Louisville you know, Dunking,
Speaker 1: you know, Tremaine, Stevie, Stevie Thompson. I mean, uh, we've
Speaker 1: we've had some athleticism. So let's let's just not throw
Speaker 1: everything out and just recognize each other's stuff and and
Speaker 1: combine it. And what's what What's what's interesting for me
Speaker 1: is that the terminology has changed, but a lot of
Speaker 1: the stuff, it's stuff that was was was being done.
Speaker 1: There is this big push now that one on one
Speaker 1: basketball is number one way to uh to learn the game,
Speaker 1: that three on three basketball is the greatest way to
Speaker 1: learn the game because you get more reps and you
Speaker 1: and you have more spacing. And then the whole thing
Speaker 1: about the best way to learn the game is to
Speaker 1: play the game. And so now in scrimmages, coaches are
Speaker 1: are are tinkering but really trying to get out of
Speaker 1: five on five, which you could get and setting up situations.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a situation the other day. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start from a dead ball and and and and
Speaker 1: and how are we gonna deal with that? You know,
Speaker 1: So setting up situations and trying to give kids information,
Speaker 1: uh that that's important, but it's more challenging because people
Speaker 1: kind of say it kind of off handedly, but there
Speaker 1: there are some attention spaning issues, uh, and you have
Speaker 1: to really really figure out, uh, how you're gonna keep
Speaker 1: you know the attention of your players, how you're gonna
Speaker 1: get them to buy in and uh and I think
Speaker 1: it's more challenging it used to be. You're going to
Speaker 1: do exactly what I tell you to do. There's no
Speaker 1: questions to it. And everybody understood that that. Everybody's lining
Speaker 1: up like in the army today because kids have so
Speaker 1: many different experiences between a you, between traveling and uh
Speaker 1: and and and those type experience. When they get back
Speaker 1: to the high school plane, they you know, they've done
Speaker 1: some things and they're trying to see, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of how this measures up. So it's a good and
Speaker 1: a bad with everything, but nothing is absolute. We need
Speaker 1: to figure out how to combine the two, you know,
Speaker 1: and we need to quit age discriminating against against each other.
Speaker 1: You you can't hear me. You're you're you're listening, but
Speaker 1: you can't hear me because you think I'm back from
Speaker 1: another era. But I'm actually saying some things that can
Speaker 1: have some value. And I need to listen to you
Speaker 1: too so I can see the value out of what
Speaker 1: you're saying. We're still challenged to get to that point.
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best boards talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. And look, here's
Speaker 1: my thing about this stuff, Like I know that when
Speaker 1: I was coming up, I definitely we definitely had some
Speaker 1: age stuff going on with y'all generation, But there was
Speaker 1: never this level of disrespect of your generation. Like we
Speaker 1: knew what time it was with y'all because having been
Speaker 1: in the gym's been in the workouts, been up and
Speaker 1: close and seeing it and it's like, oh no, this
Speaker 1: is real ship right here. So for for the people today,
Speaker 1: it's sort of characterized the players back then as plumbers,
Speaker 1: is you know, repair men, and you know they weren't,
Speaker 1: you know, having second job. It's the funniest, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: But but my thing about it is, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: that's a complete disrespect of of people that played this
Speaker 1: game at a high level. And that's the part I
Speaker 1: don't like. I think on the high school level. You
Speaker 1: made a great point when you said, hey, it used
Speaker 1: to be you're gonna do what I say, you do
Speaker 1: when I say it. The power of the head coach
Speaker 1: has been sort of you know, I don't dilute it
Speaker 1: if you will because of you know, the parental involvement.
Speaker 1: Look for me, two thousand five, I was coaching the
Speaker 1: Bourbon Day. We had a great group. Are Allen Gerard's
Speaker 1: got Gerard's name, but we had a great group. But
Speaker 1: those kids were locked there. The personalities of those kids
Speaker 1: were sort of like, they're gonna listen to what we
Speaker 1: said as coaches. It wasn't a lot of it wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of talking back, it wasn't a lot of questioning. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is pre this is pre YouTube, this is pre
Speaker 1: social media. So I also got a chance to coach
Speaker 1: my son, William, a lefty at Palisades in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, fourteen or fifteen and sixteen. So I got
Speaker 1: to see ten years later just how the mindset of
Speaker 1: the kids shifted. Everybody knew everything now they got you know,
Speaker 1: everybody knows that. No, they know more than you. Everybody
Speaker 1: knows everything. I'm just like, well, I know everything. Then
Speaker 1: why the hell are we not reading it in the day? Well, well,
Speaker 1: and and and also there's some definitions to disrespect. Uh
Speaker 1: So a kid may not say a thing to you,
Speaker 1: but he ain't running as hard as he could and
Speaker 1: not because he's tired. No, it has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with that. That's his message. You know, I kicked the
Speaker 1: kid out of a practice yesterday because of that message,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, no one kid
Speaker 1: can can can be the definer of your program, and
Speaker 1: if it is, you're gonna fail. The kids sent me
Speaker 1: a long text of apology the other day, and probably
Speaker 1: he was dealing with someone who had never told him no,
Speaker 1: and who had never told him that his ship may stay.
Speaker 1: And so you know, these different levels of respect. Disrespect
Speaker 1: goes on. But I've been very, very fortunate in my
Speaker 1: tenure the yesterday and always kind of looking at things
Speaker 1: because they have been, you know, repeatedly doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest problems I have in coaching right
Speaker 1: now in the practice session is that when you're in
Speaker 1: drills and the next guy up doesn't go when he's
Speaker 1: supposed to because he's thinking about all kinds of randomness,
Speaker 1: and then the guy after him does the same thing,
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, oh, we didn't you hear me say that.
Speaker 1: That's one thing. But what I did yesterday and I
Speaker 1: never ever do this, I said. I called him over
Speaker 1: to the white board, I said, look, we've got three hundred.
Speaker 1: We've played three hundred and sixty six games, you know
Speaker 1: in my tenue with my staff, and um we've won
Speaker 1: two and so we've lost. And I said, I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to tell you guys that I am this great coach,
Speaker 1: but I'm just trying to tell you I do know something.
Speaker 1: I know something and everybody that wants us to be,
Speaker 1: you know, on top of the mountain. I it got
Speaker 1: described to me by a guy who was evaluating, you know,
Speaker 1: our program, our team. He said, well, you know, Crenshaw
Speaker 1: is not on the mountain, but you're on the hill,
Speaker 1: you know. I said, Okay, we laughed about that at
Speaker 1: what that man. But everybody wants us to be on
Speaker 1: the mountain. And so when I was talking to my guys,
Speaker 1: we were talking about where we are are what we
Speaker 1: could do without dousing their confidence, because that's a huge
Speaker 1: thing that you have to really, you know, deal with
Speaker 1: with young black men that you can't take away their confidence.
Speaker 1: And if you get on them, you gotta find a way,
Speaker 1: uh to bring to bring them back up. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a double edge, like you gotta be able to pull them,
Speaker 1: you know, criticize them constructively and also big up them,
Speaker 1: you know when they do do something right. That's something
Speaker 1: I definitely learned that I didn't do a lot of.
Speaker 1: I was just Mr. Negative negative Nelly. I was always fighting,
Speaker 1: you know. He it was. It was a frustrating coaching
Speaker 1: your son and is one of the most frustrating things
Speaker 1: that there is for a man that has played the
Speaker 1: game to do, because because he's he comes from you,
Speaker 1: and so you hope and you and you wish that
Speaker 1: he would think like you, like you guys would be
Speaker 1: connected mentally, so he'd be out there doing what you're
Speaker 1: telepathically sending him in his head right now, but he's
Speaker 1: doing something completely different, and so it's just like that
Speaker 1: part was frustrating, But we learned, and I like what
Speaker 1: you said with situations creating situations to communicate to this generation,
Speaker 1: you gotta give them stuff in small doses, and you
Speaker 1: gotta and you gotta, you gotta set up sit you wastions,
Speaker 1: so we can't really give you the whole action. We
Speaker 1: gotta give you, guys this quick hitter. We did give
Speaker 1: you this little quick action right here, and then they're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna lock into that because once they sometimes
Speaker 1: and and what I struggled with was just the retention
Speaker 1: aspect of things. UM. Sorry, I got this flashlight. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but the retention aspect of everything, It's like, dang,
Speaker 1: I thought I just went over that. Um I found
Speaker 1: myself saying that a lot. And these kids, they didn't
Speaker 1: really retain the information when I was coaching. But again,
Speaker 1: the kids evolved, the game evolves, and uh, I think
Speaker 1: it's in a good place uh today. UM, do you
Speaker 1: think in your heart of hearts that french Shaw High
Speaker 1: School can return to sort of that that mountaintop? And
Speaker 1: I know you guys have won a city championship? Okay
Speaker 1: in your tenure, can you win an open division championship?
Speaker 1: Can you win another state championship? Or is that even
Speaker 1: or do you do you even think of it that way? It?
Speaker 1: Or those long term goals or how do you approach that? We?
Speaker 1: You know, uh, this growing aspect not only in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles but around the country. Two uh and and you
Speaker 1: see it of course in football, to get all of
Speaker 1: the best teams in the best spot in one place.
Speaker 1: I mean that's how your Open Division started. You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the best eight teams and then you
Speaker 1: left something. Uh, you know for the other schools in
Speaker 1: your Division one. We a core one, you know, two
Speaker 1: back to back Division ones. They did not say it
Speaker 1: wasn't added to the other six team. We have eight team. Now,
Speaker 1: I didn't know you want back to back where I've been.
Speaker 1: I remember the one Okay coach. Yeah, we went back
Speaker 1: to back and that's when they said, wait, man, we
Speaker 1: gotta change up some things in this movie, and so
Speaker 1: and so and so what happens is is that we
Speaker 1: still talk about state, We still talk about open um.
Speaker 1: You have coaches who really don't want to go to
Speaker 1: the open for certain reasons. The open division, you know,
Speaker 1: depending on how you may finish up, it's always gonna
Speaker 1: guarantee you a state birth, you know. So you have
Speaker 1: to look at it like that. Uh, you know, people
Speaker 1: don't want to be eight and have to play one.
Speaker 1: But with all that being said, the beauty about this
Speaker 1: game is actually those matchups and those aspirations and those
Speaker 1: abilities and crunch winning and open and crunchhaw going to
Speaker 1: a state when everybody think that that's not possible. And
Speaker 1: so that's one of the beauties of this game. And
Speaker 1: I've been in underdog situations, Uh, and a lot of
Speaker 1: my own basketball career or whatever. And so, uh, that
Speaker 1: challenge is something that we talked about. We you know,
Speaker 1: we're breaking huddles one, two, three state you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're breaking holes and and and one thing about this
Speaker 1: generation in terms of retention is that you need short,
Speaker 1: sweet messages like that. You know, the when we won
Speaker 1: the uh my first championship, our matra was united. We
Speaker 1: standing about it, we fall We said that every single day,
Speaker 1: you know, and that carried over to something. So you
Speaker 1: need these short messages. In politics is about messaging. Stopped
Speaker 1: to steal that thing? That's that that seems so simple,
Speaker 1: but the relation of it so uh is killing. But
Speaker 1: our goal, Chris, is to to win state championship. What
Speaker 1: I'm encouraged by is this, for some reason, while everybody
Speaker 1: has talked about the lack of enrollment at our school,
Speaker 1: and kids are going here, kids going there, just in
Speaker 1: the basketball program, right now, I have graduated like thirteen
Speaker 1: families who kept sending the next kid there. Uh and
Speaker 1: right now I have um, I have seven ninth graders
Speaker 1: in our program when people are saying they're not coming
Speaker 1: to school. And another very very interesting thing that we're
Speaker 1: actually gonna get some playoff of you know, working on
Speaker 1: the article now, Chris. Between the girls basketball program and
Speaker 1: the boys basketball program, they're like twelve siblings, you know,
Speaker 1: one place girls basketball, the other one places. Well, we
Speaker 1: got three girls that that came in to you know,
Speaker 1: all together on transfer status. That's another family. I'm benefiting
Speaker 1: off of families because one mother told me, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: see how you treat the ninth grader before I decided
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna saying the other two. And that's happened
Speaker 1: with me. And with that right now, I've got this
Speaker 1: synergy there that speaks totally against what the news is saying,
Speaker 1: what people are saying, We got people connected. I got
Speaker 1: an unbelievable group of parents and it's because of that
Speaker 1: that I feel that people kids, somebody's gonna return to
Speaker 1: the school. One thing I can always say, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: using your platform for this, But if you come to Crunchyhall,
Speaker 1: it's like not even any question, and you can who
Speaker 1: that you you gonna you go to ball. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like all of these guys are there and
Speaker 1: you're you're fighting against all of these guys. A Mark
Speaker 1: Lamar Harris came to me in one year from View Park,
Speaker 1: hadn't played any ball, no confidence. And because it's not
Speaker 1: all of these guys there, he's player of the year
Speaker 1: in his first year. Yeah. Now because and now he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's gonna he's gonna end up graduating
Speaker 1: from Cumberland College in Kentucky, having a having a great career.
Speaker 1: But it's uh so, so it's a place where guys
Speaker 1: can come and they're they're gonna ball out. Not because
Speaker 1: I'm not pitching it. It's just the reality of you know,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of guys you know, you I
Speaker 1: got you know, half my team's never even played on
Speaker 1: the AU team, you know what I mean. It's like that,
Speaker 1: that's like that's like real stuff. Yeah. No. And and
Speaker 1: to leave you on this note, one of the one
Speaker 1: of those guys that you did have Kevin Bradley Jr.
Speaker 1: kJ Bradley UM watching his game. His development is it's
Speaker 1: been really a revelation. Yeah, he's a big time back
Speaker 1: football player and I feel like he really has a shot.
Speaker 1: Just talk talk about kJ a little bit, man, And
Speaker 1: and can you replace somebody like that? You know, you know,
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're really Guard University. You know, you go,
Speaker 1: you go down the line and it's super unbelievable. Kevin Ali,
Speaker 1: Marcus Williams, you know, and so and so what happens
Speaker 1: is is that kJ had a different challenge because his
Speaker 1: dad was player of the year back to back place.
Speaker 1: Imagine you're going to crunch y'all. Your dad is back
Speaker 1: to back player of the year and uh, and you
Speaker 1: got the same name as him, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so they didn't come to Crunchhall the first year
Speaker 1: because of that. His dad didn't want that pressure. But
Speaker 1: the kid was always coming up after school and just
Speaker 1: sitting there because his dad was on my staff and
Speaker 1: the kids still in the seven eight grade and he's
Speaker 1: sitting there and and and me and him, are you know,
Speaker 1: clowning and whatever? Because you know, Chris and you get
Speaker 1: back to the mind Angelo, people remember how you make
Speaker 1: you feel, and so you know, this kid felt a
Speaker 1: certain way. And when I met with met with him
Speaker 1: and his mom, Uh, they said they were coming to
Speaker 1: Crenshall because of me. After that conversation. But at the
Speaker 1: bottom of it was that his dad didn't want to
Speaker 1: push him anywhere. His mom, you know, went to Palisade
Speaker 1: so that thought is in there and then and then
Speaker 1: there there's him. And so he ends up saying telling
Speaker 1: his dad this is where he wanted to go, and
Speaker 1: his dad stayed out of him. I called his dad
Speaker 1: and told him he he was coming to crenchyall. He
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. You know what, we thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna be a big challenge. But what you what what
Speaker 1: what you had in him is what you don't have.
Speaker 1: And most of your player an unbelievable Jim rat. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's another difference, Chris, between back then and now. I'm
Speaker 1: not I've had guys come to open run. Is they
Speaker 1: got their shoes in their hand and they come in
Speaker 1: the door and they don't look like it's all that
Speaker 1: they bounced. They bounced, they show up, they show up,
Speaker 1: and then if it doesn't look, yeah, they don't. They
Speaker 1: don't see any guys that's raped and they don't see
Speaker 1: any happened so much. And I have a great open
Speaker 1: run with the last open run I had Tuesday, Tuesday night,
Speaker 1: No it was it was during the summer. It was
Speaker 1: a Tuesday night, lady uh, And we ran it like
Speaker 1: twice a week, just open run. Guys in town that
Speaker 1: whatever generational going against all of the stereotypes of black
Speaker 1: men getting together having fun, no fights, no nothing going on,
Speaker 1: everybody respecting me when I got to break the calls
Speaker 1: and and all that. But kJ was one of those guys.
Speaker 1: kJ has earned the absolute right. kJ was working out
Speaker 1: three times a day during the summer morning. Then you
Speaker 1: come over with us and any go to another trainer
Speaker 1: and just think he's doing that stuff for like the
Speaker 1: last two or three years, you know, and wanting to
Speaker 1: do that, and it was just a matter of time.
Speaker 1: As you know, many players uh in the city are overlooked.
Speaker 1: There are some preconceived The biggest preconceived notion is that
Speaker 1: the players are not gonna be helped. I've got a
Speaker 1: kid in u c l A right now who played
Speaker 1: for me for four years and got into u c
Speaker 1: l A with a four point two. Damn they don't
Speaker 1: They don't know that the way from U. L A.
Speaker 1: And so like people, you can't go to college if
Speaker 1: you don't have the academics. So the academics must be
Speaker 1: there because guys are going to college. But but but
Speaker 1: speaking of kJ, he stayed down, he grinded and uh,
Speaker 1: he never got upset. He felt dish, you know, but
Speaker 1: he never got upset and he kept doing the same
Speaker 1: thing that UM that he's been doing. And this is
Speaker 1: one of the the guys that you know, earned it
Speaker 1: and he's just not gonna do anything to get better.
Speaker 1: So matter of fact, I think Santa Barbara offered him
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, uh, setting up for a big I
Speaker 1: think Long Beaches on his tip. He played in the
Speaker 1: Jamboree j C Jamborees is one of the great places
Speaker 1: to recruit. His team went three and one, UM, and
Speaker 1: so he's you know, he's he saw it after Now
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. No, definitely, I
Speaker 1: mean we I saw him the Drew League against men
Speaker 1: and he was absolutely destroying people. Uh. This his pace,
Speaker 1: the control, you know, the stop and go that the has,
Speaker 1: you know, just the stuff, and then the smooth nature
Speaker 1: of everything that he does. I mean it's like, really,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't get excited over a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: but if I do see a guy game that I
Speaker 1: like a lot, Like I get excited, and kJ is
Speaker 1: one of those guys that that I truly got excited about.
Speaker 1: But man, I think it's dope what you just talked about.
Speaker 1: The academics. The kid that got the four point two,
Speaker 1: that's that U c l A. That's that's something that's
Speaker 1: overlooked in the big misperception. Misconception of the city guys
Speaker 1: is that you know, everybody's gonna be a non qualifier, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Where you're in, you're proven that stereo type Brown. You
Speaker 1: had another player, Kevin Brickway. I believe he graduated recently,
Speaker 1: right or was it one of the Brickway brothers or Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's almost he's almost four years ago. First of all,
Speaker 1: with them, all three of them are college graduates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I coached all three of them. One went to
Speaker 1: San Diego State, one is at Irvine. Now. Yeah, Kevin
Speaker 1: went up to Regions full scholarship forty eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, uh and still was not totally developed. Now
Speaker 1: he has since he spent three years there, he has
Speaker 1: since uh left there. I think he's gonna end up
Speaker 1: at Uh. He's got like two years. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna end up in San Francisco State or something or
Speaker 1: something like that, and uh and uh and so no,
Speaker 1: he said he's gonna be all state. Easy. I take
Speaker 1: that you used to be Hayward Beautiful campus if you've
Speaker 1: been up there, but uh, yeah, he's there. The greatest
Speaker 1: story for me so far is uh is Cedric Lockridge.
Speaker 1: Cedric was uh. The streets were calling him all of
Speaker 1: his life. He got into crunchhaw. He's the streets were
Speaker 1: still battling him. He graduated and went up to Lankston
Speaker 1: and tried to walk on. That didn't work out. He
Speaker 1: called me. You know, he's two years out of school.
Speaker 1: He called me one day and I said, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: He said, Man, coach, I gotta get out of here.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking about my life right now. I called
Speaker 1: Imperial Valley College two years ago. I said, when you
Speaker 1: go up there? But I said, there ain't nothing to
Speaker 1: do up there. He said, that's exactly where I need
Speaker 1: to be. He went up there and led the state
Speaker 1: in scoring, and then he had like a grip of
Speaker 1: division two's and divisions three on his tip. And he
Speaker 1: ended up signing with Southern Alberta or University. And I said,
Speaker 1: why did you choose them? He said, because I want
Speaker 1: to play international basketball. And they had about four guys
Speaker 1: that went international. And I went to his barbecue, Chris
Speaker 1: about two weeks ago. I mean, I mean, I'm teary
Speaker 1: eyed because he made it. Man, he's he's in Canada.
Speaker 1: Now that's a great story. Man. That that see, that's
Speaker 1: what that's the beauty of this game. Where basketball can
Speaker 1: take you where a commitment and then where right leadership
Speaker 1: mentoring can take you as well. I mean, I had
Speaker 1: a kid and you remember the Maria, so I went
Speaker 1: to do oh man, he's one of my favorite so
Speaker 1: he was one of my favorite all time stories. So
Speaker 1: when I had him with the pumps, I had to
Speaker 1: fight for him to get I had him in l
Speaker 1: with the pumps, but I had to fight for both
Speaker 1: of them. But yeah, I had both of them, so
Speaker 1: and I was picking l up and so I was
Speaker 1: thinking them up too, but he offered like something forty
Speaker 1: eighth in Hoover, I can l up dropping him off. Look,
Speaker 1: So that's why that's why just like I saw Lamar
Speaker 1: this summer, I don't know if I sent you the video,
Speaker 1: but that he had that um, he was viral. He
Speaker 1: went viral this summer. I don't know if he saw
Speaker 1: the video. So I saw that I saw doing that.
Speaker 1: But Mark, But back to the Maria, So I hadn't
Speaker 1: heard so the Mari. I coached him up. And this
Speaker 1: is the kid that was eligible one year of high
Speaker 1: school basketball at North bad He had struggled with great
Speaker 1: he hadn't played competitively. He was you know, look, uh Hilliard.
Speaker 1: So I did. I did Nabons game, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it was a city championship or something during that
Speaker 1: crew in two thousand and fifteen. I did their game
Speaker 1: and then I saw the Maria and I was just like,
Speaker 1: who is this dude? He was just six or four
Speaker 1: just out there. I was like yo. So after the game,
Speaker 1: I interviewed him as player of the game, and right
Speaker 1: after we cut off camera, I'm like, yeo, man, I'm
Speaker 1: coaching the pump team. Man, you're trying to run with
Speaker 1: me this summer. What's happening? So I swoop him up
Speaker 1: right there. Um, so fast forward, So he plays for
Speaker 1: my team. You know, I mean, this is a guy
Speaker 1: that three six on the Ball Brothers. He did a
Speaker 1: three sixt we playing the Ball Brothers. He three sixty
Speaker 1: and like looking at LaVar running by. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: just he was just an unbelable town. So fast forward too,
Speaker 1: I believe one I hadn't heard from the mari A
Speaker 1: I had. I didn't know what Maria was up to.
Speaker 1: I know he went to Juco and I didn't know anything.
Speaker 1: And then I'm reading on the on the internet. I
Speaker 1: think ESPN he set like a record for rebounds by
Speaker 1: a guard in the game Division one basketball at Or Roberts.
Speaker 1: He had like eighteen rebounds in the game. They make
Speaker 1: the tournament. This fool graduated from Oral Roberts. He's at
Speaker 1: Dominus right now getting his master's degree, and he's got
Speaker 1: think he's gotta getting married. I think he's getting married. Man.
Speaker 1: It's but it makes you just on the inside, bro,
Speaker 1: Like when you talk about teary eyed. These are the
Speaker 1: type of dudes. These situations. If you see where these
Speaker 1: kids go through and what they have to overcome, man
Speaker 1: to make it, man, and when they make it, it
Speaker 1: is the most amazing feeling. And just to be humble
Speaker 1: to know that, you know, I might have had a
Speaker 1: little bit of something, dude, then put and put them
Speaker 1: in certain places and people. Man, it's just it's just
Speaker 1: it makes everything all worth everything, honestly, guys. So man,
Speaker 1: I feel I feel you on that you're doing that
Speaker 1: that good work over there, and keep it up. Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you today taking the time. Brother. We spent
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half on. I know we'd
Speaker 1: go an hour and a half more. I know you
Speaker 1: got stuff to do, coach, but best of luck. Uh
Speaker 1: this year, I hope I'm gon stopped by a few games.
Speaker 1: I'm getting back into the high school thing, so I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come through back to the show. I haven't
Speaker 1: been to a game in a while. I need to
Speaker 1: come see you. Um. But but man, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for coming on, my brother. Thank you for having me. Man,
Speaker 1: it's been fantastic. And uh, I'm proud of you. I'm
Speaker 1: proud of what you you're doing here, and I'm proud
Speaker 1: of the time you put in the wheel, as difficult
Speaker 1: as it may be, because you know, also he comes
Speaker 1: from you, so you learned something about yourself in that process.
Speaker 1: So so have a good griet man. Thank you again,
Speaker 1: all right, and talk to you later. Brother, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Edwaters