Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime. Welcome
Speaker 1: back Man, season two of All the Smoke. We got
Speaker 1: a real special guys, what's up with your Brody with
Speaker 1: the virtual handshake? Don't tell you something I never told
Speaker 1: him about. I want to smoke. Welcome back to another
Speaker 1: edition All the Smoke. Jack was good. What's uping my
Speaker 1: bro How you doing? I tell you? Feeling better? Man?
Speaker 1: I can't call yeah, Man, I just had to slow
Speaker 1: my ass down. Luckily I got COVID tested. I didn't
Speaker 1: have COVID and just the doctor's house dehydrated. I needed
Speaker 1: to rest, so I arrested. I got my fuel back up.
Speaker 1: Now we're back in action. Man, what's going on? That's
Speaker 1: what happens when you've been a good dad, man, and
Speaker 1: boys dragging you right now? Man, everywhere all over the place. Man. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we got a man, a special guest, someone I saw
Speaker 1: firsthand the Lyns Sanity experience and with my Laker team
Speaker 1: or our Laker team went out to l A and
Speaker 1: he busted our ass. But man, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Jeremy Lynn, what's up with Sanity? Thanks for having me, guys,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun and everything good. Yeah, everything's good.
Speaker 1: I'm just in the bay, Okay, Yeah, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: in the bay. I'm in Plato, just staying in shape. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I finished the G League season, but since then, just
Speaker 1: kind of waiting for hoping for an NBA call it.
Speaker 1: There's you know, there's a week left right now, so
Speaker 1: that until the day. How so how old are you now?
Speaker 1: I'm thirty two, okay, so yeah, you definitely still got
Speaker 1: some time. Like, how did the G League season go? Well?
Speaker 1: For us? We finished second? Um? And then for me
Speaker 1: it was nice. I finished finished seventh and scoring in
Speaker 1: the league fourth and assists and then uh, you know,
Speaker 1: topping in the shooting and shooting efficiency. So it was
Speaker 1: good for me. Um, really good for me. Got career
Speaker 1: highs from the field and three and free throws. So
Speaker 1: that's not my video has been working on is my shot?
Speaker 1: Just trying to get it better. Um. You know when
Speaker 1: we play, uh, when we played played eight nine years ago,
Speaker 1: you guys are all backing up, sagging off forced me
Speaker 1: to shoot. So we have come a long way since then.
Speaker 1: You definitely took advantage of that ship anyway, let's get started. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, born and raised in uh Palo Alto talk
Speaker 1: to us about your childhood and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: heard your mom was really tough on academics, but you know,
Speaker 1: let you play basketball and then you definitely excelled in that.
Speaker 1: But talk to us about your upbringing. Um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: grew up in northern California and to some degree, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a bubble for sure. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I, like you said, for me, if it
Speaker 1: wasn't straight a's, I wasn't playing basketball. So you made
Speaker 1: sure I was getting I was, I was getting straight a's. Um.
Speaker 1: That was kind of just a family rule. And uh
Speaker 1: and besides that, you know, um, I it's interesting like
Speaker 1: my parents growing up, they were traditional in some sense,
Speaker 1: you know, so I did the whole piano, violin and
Speaker 1: and all these different things that every immigrant Asian immigrant
Speaker 1: kid was doing. But then at the same time they
Speaker 1: were really unique too because they they saw that me
Speaker 1: and my brothers we just loved basketball, and so they
Speaker 1: actually let us do it and they spent all basically
Speaker 1: all the money they're making was to go towards the
Speaker 1: house mortgage or like au basketball and stuff. Like that,
Speaker 1: and so they got a lot of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they got a lot of crap. And they were constantly like,
Speaker 1: you know, their friends, other Asian immigrants were like, why
Speaker 1: would you do this? Why would you spend all that money?
Speaker 1: That's crazy like that, and so they actually had to
Speaker 1: go through a lot just to even peer pressure of
Speaker 1: just to say we look, our children loved it, and
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do. And back then for
Speaker 1: Asian immigrant families, I was like ridiculous, Like it was crazy.
Speaker 1: And then next thing you know, um, I got a
Speaker 1: chance to play play in high school and go on
Speaker 1: to Harvard. By the time I made it to Harvard,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people are like, wait, so
Speaker 1: what other what other sports can we have our kids
Speaker 1: start playing so that they can make it to Harvard
Speaker 1: to um. So it was a really cool role reversal.
Speaker 1: But that was what it was like. It was like
Speaker 1: I had, you know, primarily a white school, and then
Speaker 1: I had my Asian church, and then I had like
Speaker 1: my basketball which were primarily all black friends and teammates,
Speaker 1: and so it was it was really unique experience. For sure,
Speaker 1: where did your love of basketball come from? My dad?
Speaker 1: So like when he came over. He came over while
Speaker 1: he was he had just graduated from college. Then he
Speaker 1: came over to uh Old Dominion, Virginia, and as he
Speaker 1: was just turning, you know, turning the channels on TV,
Speaker 1: he saw Kareem Abdul Jabbar and he fell in love
Speaker 1: with the sky hook. I swear, I couldn't even make
Speaker 1: this up as the most random story. But he just
Speaker 1: fell in love with the sky hook and he would
Speaker 1: go to the park and just work on it for
Speaker 1: like two to three hours a day. And he never
Speaker 1: played in the skyhook in general. Just the sky hook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just the skuy hook. I mean, dude, if you I'm serious,
Speaker 1: if you watched him play, like he will turn down
Speaker 1: an open lay up and then do a whole little
Speaker 1: like into the skyhook because it's a higher, higher like
Speaker 1: accuracy shot for him. Like it's absolutely ridiculous. And so
Speaker 1: he worked on that for three years and then he
Speaker 1: started to play pick up and then once we had
Speaker 1: a kid, Once he had kids and we had you know,
Speaker 1: me and my older brother and younger brother, he was
Speaker 1: just basketball all day every day. That's so does he
Speaker 1: still shoot the skyhook to this day? Oh, for sure,
Speaker 1: he's always you'll find him as you'll find him at
Speaker 1: your local uh, your local Senior rec center or at
Speaker 1: the twenty four hour y c A coming your way
Speaker 1: with the with the Jimings guy hook. So he definitely
Speaker 1: does that and put in h and still plays. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's funny as hell. Who were you watching play as
Speaker 1: a kid? Who inspired you besides your day to be honest,
Speaker 1: the only player um like, so my brother, my older brother,
Speaker 1: was always my role model. But in terms of actually
Speaker 1: like a role model of a player, like, the only
Speaker 1: person that I would say like genuinely inspired me and
Speaker 1: was a huge role model was Jordan's um and I
Speaker 1: as I got older at I had different bits and
Speaker 1: pieces because my games nothing like Jordans. I can't do
Speaker 1: ent of things Jordan does, And so I started watching
Speaker 1: a ton of other players, but in terms of the
Speaker 1: journey and the inspiration, like I did all my book reports,
Speaker 1: if I could on Jordan's And actually that's the crazy thing.
Speaker 1: It's like I actually really looked up to a lot
Speaker 1: of black athletes growing up, especially in the basketball world,
Speaker 1: but even like in boxing or other other sports. To me,
Speaker 1: I drew a lot from minorities, but it was never
Speaker 1: really Asian minorities. UM. And it wasn't until yeah uh
Speaker 1: Yeao came and he was playing in the bay UM
Speaker 1: and I remember at that time we didn't have that
Speaker 1: much money grown up, but we were just like me
Speaker 1: and my older brother like mom that you have to go,
Speaker 1: let us watch yao. And so we got eleven dollar
Speaker 1: nosebleedes at at Oracle, the o G Arena and Oakland
Speaker 1: and then we and then we snug down at halftime
Speaker 1: to the lower level and we were just like loving it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, yeah, I was not necessarily inspirational the
Speaker 1: sense that I felt like I could be coming because
Speaker 1: he was seven six and he was a center. But
Speaker 1: it was more just like also seeing another Asian that,
Speaker 1: you know, an Asian on the floor kind of opened
Speaker 1: my mind up a little bit. But from the jump,
Speaker 1: it was always MG. So like you said earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: you were you were lucky enough to to to play
Speaker 1: basketball in high school and actually really made a name.
Speaker 1: Um upset nashally rank Modern Day UH Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about your high school experience and kind
Speaker 1: of was it an eye opening experiant or did you
Speaker 1: always feel like you belong you know, I never when
Speaker 1: I was in middle school, I didn't even know if
Speaker 1: I play in high school. You know, I was my
Speaker 1: freshman year in high school, I was five ft three.
Speaker 1: Half the girls in school were taller than me, and
Speaker 1: I was just seriously, I was like I was the
Speaker 1: skinniest little if you look up, if you look up
Speaker 1: my my pictures in high school, like I was like
Speaker 1: this two. I was so skinny. I couldn't I couldn't
Speaker 1: do one pull up, Like I literally couldn't do a
Speaker 1: pull up. But I just knew how to play the game.
Speaker 1: And so you know, my body didn't really develop until
Speaker 1: I got to college and I started lifting, and that's
Speaker 1: when I started getting really explosive. But prior to that,
Speaker 1: like I didn't expect to be great in high school,
Speaker 1: Like I knew I was always one of the better
Speaker 1: kids in the area. But again I never had that,
Speaker 1: like I never had that like belief like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to high school.
Speaker 1: Im kill and then in high school, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to college. And I never and again the Asian immigrant experience,
Speaker 1: it's like the fact that I was playing in high school,
Speaker 1: I was celebrated like I was playing in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's like, dude, he's Asian. He plays on his high
Speaker 1: school team, like the yeah right, that's dope. So your
Speaker 1: senior year, you lead the Palo alto the thirty two
Speaker 1: and one record. Um upset, like I said, modern day
Speaker 1: by four to when this Division two state title a
Speaker 1: bunch of accolades come with that? When did you kind
Speaker 1: of start realizing that, Okay, well I did what I
Speaker 1: was supposed to do in high school. College is an
Speaker 1: opportunity now, yeah, I mean, you know, the recruiting experiences
Speaker 1: crazy man, like I was. I had to make my
Speaker 1: own tape. I sent it to a bunch of teams.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even get the Vision three schools to look
Speaker 1: at me. Um Like, I was trying to get Division
Speaker 1: three schools to just give me a chance, and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't even take the call. Um. So Harvard was really
Speaker 1: the only school that wanted me. It was Harvard and
Speaker 1: D one and then m I T and D three.
Speaker 1: No other schools really like wanted me to go play there.
Speaker 1: And Harvard can't you know, they're in the ivories, so
Speaker 1: they can't give athletic scholarships. And so I was like, look, mom,
Speaker 1: like I gotta go. I just want to play basketball.
Speaker 1: I have to go to Harvard UM to go play basketball,
Speaker 1: because for me, like I didn't Harvard was you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, academics was never like my passion. So it
Speaker 1: was like I didn't want to I actually want to
Speaker 1: go to Stanford. I want to play in the Pact
Speaker 1: Ten at the time, and I wanted to hoop with
Speaker 1: like in a better conference. But but then I kind
Speaker 1: of decided between the two schools. I was like, I
Speaker 1: can't go to D three. I was like, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter which D one. I just need a chance. Give
Speaker 1: me a chance to go compete at the highest level,
Speaker 1: which is Division one. Give me a chance and I'll
Speaker 1: do the rest in terms of like I'll see how
Speaker 1: good I can get and I'll see what can happen.
Speaker 1: And it's not I always have that degree to fall right. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean speaking to Harvard, obviously, that's a tremendous honor
Speaker 1: on the academic side. You made it work for basketball,
Speaker 1: But how hard was it balancing that kind of workload
Speaker 1: and being a student athlete, Because I know U c
Speaker 1: l A. I mean, there's nothing like the workload you
Speaker 1: probably got at Harvard, and that ship was tough. That
Speaker 1: was probably because I didn't go to class very much.
Speaker 1: But outside of that, when I did go to class,
Speaker 1: that ship was tough. Yeah. My brother and sister in
Speaker 1: law both went to U c l A. And so
Speaker 1: I would visit my brother at U c l A.
Speaker 1: And that was my dream school. That was that was
Speaker 1: my dream school. And uh, and I really really really
Speaker 1: want to go there. Man. We used to poop that
Speaker 1: went in until two am and go to puzzles, grab
Speaker 1: the clam chowder, bread bulls and do the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And and we would I would go within the class
Speaker 1: and but no, Harvard was a whole different level. Like
Speaker 1: when I out there, I remember I almost got put
Speaker 1: on probation my first year. Um, I had like a
Speaker 1: C minus and a C and some B mine like
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, you get put on probation for
Speaker 1: you to d And that's when I realized, like what
Speaker 1: I was going, what I thought was education, this is
Speaker 1: a whole different level. Like you can study as hard
Speaker 1: as you want, but like you know, like when you hoop,
Speaker 1: sometimes they're just guys where it's like they just had
Speaker 1: no matter how much do you train an amount how
Speaker 1: like they just have something different. And that's what it
Speaker 1: was like for everybody in the classroom. I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: I know that I know the textbook, I did the
Speaker 1: test in the homework, I did the readings, and these
Speaker 1: dudes are just at a different level. And um, I
Speaker 1: ended up. You know, I found my way. I got
Speaker 1: my g P up to a three point one by
Speaker 1: the by my senior year. I got my first day
Speaker 1: my second semester senior year, I got my first day
Speaker 1: in a class at Harvard. And that just goes to
Speaker 1: show like I had a four to g p A
Speaker 1: in high school, but in Harvard it was just a
Speaker 1: whole different beast. So um, yeah, it really was eye opening, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: these guys are are really geniuses. Mm hmmm. So you grund,
Speaker 1: you put in the work, you stay in college is
Speaker 1: the first time you start lifting weight, so your body
Speaker 1: starts filling out, you get your athleticism. What is it
Speaker 1: like in that process becoming a star over at Harvard
Speaker 1: because they're not really obviously known for turning out basketball players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's why I never felt like a star. Um,
Speaker 1: and I never did. I never did because you know,
Speaker 1: people didn't care, right, like even when I was at Harvard,
Speaker 1: I tell people to be like, oh, so do you
Speaker 1: like that. I was like, oh, I played basketball. They're
Speaker 1: like I was like, I'm on the basketball team, and
Speaker 1: they'd be like intramurals um or they would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't know we had a basketball team. No, I'm serious.
Speaker 1: Even like I told my professor in my English class,
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I have to I can't make
Speaker 1: this class because I need to go to have a
Speaker 1: game and playing the basketball team. And he's like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: you just tell your coach which games you can and
Speaker 1: can't go to, because you know, like we have we
Speaker 1: have class every Friday, and if you missed two do
Speaker 1: you get kicked out the class for for good? And
Speaker 1: so it was just like a very different experience. So
Speaker 1: I never felt like a star. I never felt like
Speaker 1: I was, you know, a lot to go to the NBA,
Speaker 1: even played professionally. Like. It wasn't until my assistant coach,
Speaker 1: Kenny Blakeney, who you know, he was a McDonald's All
Speaker 1: American and from um and and played the Duke with
Speaker 1: Grant Hill. But he was the one who was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: you can you can make it to the n b
Speaker 1: a Um and he's the one who put that belief
Speaker 1: in me. What what was the vibe like in Boston
Speaker 1: and slash Cambridge? What was the vibe black out there? Um?
Speaker 1: It was crazy. I mean they have like I don't
Speaker 1: know how many, like thirty universities in that small area.
Speaker 1: For me, Um, back then, like I had like no money,
Speaker 1: so I never left campus. Even just to like go
Speaker 1: to downtown Boston. You had to get on the T
Speaker 1: and need to pay you know, a couple of bucks,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't even worth it to me. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I I didn't really know anything about Boston. I
Speaker 1: just knew Cambridge. I just knew my my school and
Speaker 1: and it was just like I knew all the deals.
Speaker 1: So it was like, Okay, you know on Wednesday you
Speaker 1: might go to Kutobo or oh no, it's Monday, so
Speaker 1: like you could get a six dollar and large pizza.
Speaker 1: So I just kind of knew that little Harvard bu
Speaker 1: but I didn't know anything about the greater area. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like the I like the grind though just to
Speaker 1: now you'll be addressing the class of one on their
Speaker 1: virtual graduation. What kind of honor is that for you?
Speaker 1: It was I mean it's intense because you know when
Speaker 1: they sent over the invitation, first of all, I was
Speaker 1: like no, like me uh like again like I just
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting it. And then they sent over the list
Speaker 1: and then they're like, oh yeah, you know amongst the
Speaker 1: class day speakers, you know, there's there's Alpha or Hank, Aaron,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, mother Teresa. And I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not speaking now, like this is not normally
Speaker 1: you read that list and then like encourages you to speak.
Speaker 1: I was like absolutely not um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: my uh my sister in law was like dude and
Speaker 1: honor um. She talked me into doing it, and my
Speaker 1: and my sorry in my college coach coaching imacurate was
Speaker 1: also like you really should do it. And so I
Speaker 1: just felt like something that like, look, I won't be
Speaker 1: the most educated, but I can share from my heart
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm going to Your journey, your story
Speaker 1: is inspiring, so that's definitely something to share. Some congratulations.
Speaker 1: So two thousand and ten, Um, you unfortunately go undrafted.
Speaker 1: Talk about the process from going undrafted to ending up
Speaker 1: playing UH for an opportunity for your hometown team. The Warriors.
Speaker 1: I mean that was you know. I remember when I
Speaker 1: didn't get drafted. My my agent, Roger Montgomery, basically said, look,
Speaker 1: you have five games in Summer League. Uh, you either
Speaker 1: make it happen or you don't. But like, if you
Speaker 1: want to get to the NBA has got to be
Speaker 1: here in the Summer League. And this is where something
Speaker 1: for me, like phase has always been a big part
Speaker 1: of it. But I was injured and then like right
Speaker 1: before the Summer League training camp started, like the day before, um,
Speaker 1: I got cleared by the doctor. And then on top
Speaker 1: of that, at that time, I was playing for the
Speaker 1: mass and they had their last two picks for their
Speaker 1: last two years. Was ridan Wa at point guarded Dominie Jones,
Speaker 1: that shooting guard, and so I was kind of just
Speaker 1: like barely getting any time and in practice or in
Speaker 1: the games. And then all of a sudden, in our
Speaker 1: fourth game, Roddy while got hurt. So that's why I
Speaker 1: ended up playing in the whole fourth quarter. And we
Speaker 1: were playing against John Wall who was a number one pick,
Speaker 1: and that's the you know, and I got to go
Speaker 1: head to head with him, and um that's the only reason,
Speaker 1: you know, I had played pretty well, they ended up winning,
Speaker 1: but that's the reason why I got the contract, and
Speaker 1: so to come home to go to the state. I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys know what it's like to play
Speaker 1: in the base, so it was just a different level. Um.
Speaker 1: It killed me, to be honest, Like I wasn't expecting it.
Speaker 1: Like the anxiety and the pressure. It killed me, my
Speaker 1: rookie here, Like I didn't know how to handle it.
Speaker 1: Just playing at home and everybody every day just like
Speaker 1: hitting me up or just like focused in on what
Speaker 1: I was gonna do, which was nothing, my rookie here,
Speaker 1: But you hit on something that I think is interesting.
Speaker 1: And now it's obviously we're talked about and we're going
Speaker 1: to dive in deep into it later, but let's just
Speaker 1: hit it now. You've gone through some interesting phases in
Speaker 1: your life where you're at the top of the mountain,
Speaker 1: drop down, get back to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 1: fall a little bit, get back up there. You had
Speaker 1: to seek outside counseling, UM to kind of find out
Speaker 1: how to manage the ups and downs and everything that
Speaker 1: came with us. UM, considering we're in mental health Awareness
Speaker 1: month right now, talk to us about you know that
Speaker 1: journey and that process and how that's helped you. And
Speaker 1: the biggest thing for me was, um, you know I
Speaker 1: throw a young age, I was just like crazy bull dreamer, um,
Speaker 1: and you know I always had the biggest dreams, the
Speaker 1: biggest visions, and I would go for it and then
Speaker 1: and then it wasn't you know. Two years ago I
Speaker 1: went after so I had won the championship in Toronto. Um,
Speaker 1: and then that off season I didn't get a contract,
Speaker 1: and so I went overseas to play in China. When
Speaker 1: I went to China, I was the guy in terms
Speaker 1: of like like the lebron or the staff of that
Speaker 1: league and in the c B A and at the
Speaker 1: ball in my hands and everything. And and even though
Speaker 1: I was playing well, we were on one of the
Speaker 1: top teams, like and everything looked good on paper, in
Speaker 1: my mind, I was just like I was scared and
Speaker 1: I was like where is this stuff coming from? Like
Speaker 1: I was Sometimes in the fourth quarter, I would be like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I hope that uh, I hope that I don't shoot
Speaker 1: the last shot because what if I miss? Or oh
Speaker 1: I hope the coaches will put me in because you
Speaker 1: know what happens if I lose the game or or
Speaker 1: the pressure, and I was just like, what is going
Speaker 1: on with me? And this was coming off with two
Speaker 1: straight years of injury in Brooklyn, when I had like
Speaker 1: the perfect opportunity. I was a starting player. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, the considered the franchise player. I was in
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson system, like it was everything that I was.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was supposed to continue with the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks, and then I ended up getting two
Speaker 1: straight seasons of injury, and when I didn't realize, I
Speaker 1: recovered physically, but I recover mentally, and so I started
Speaker 1: to think, like everything is just a setup for a disappointment.
Speaker 1: Um every situation is going to end terribly or and
Speaker 1: I couldn't like process what was happening with me or
Speaker 1: what had happened to me, And so I got outside
Speaker 1: help to work through a lot of my Traumas I
Speaker 1: actually got to the point where I reconciled with a
Speaker 1: lot of people, I started making calls to all the
Speaker 1: people that felt like hurt me. Coaches, general managers, former players.
Speaker 1: Some of them hit me back, some of them didn't
Speaker 1: didn't hit me back, but the ones that didn't, I
Speaker 1: had like I had to visualize, you know, that was
Speaker 1: one of the things I had to visualize the reconciliation.
Speaker 1: What would look like, what would sound like, and that,
Speaker 1: and and he kept telling me, you had to get
Speaker 1: beyond your past if you want to get to where
Speaker 1: you want to get to in your future. And that
Speaker 1: was the biggest thing for why, you know, for me
Speaker 1: in the G League, why I shot career highs and
Speaker 1: everything while I was taught in the league, is in
Speaker 1: all these things I've done a bunch of things that
Speaker 1: never did before, was because I had been free mentally,
Speaker 1: and it was a lot the process, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was a journey. It was it was it was a tough,
Speaker 1: tough process. Well, it's crazy to think about it because obviously,
Speaker 1: when you went on your rand and kind of made
Speaker 1: your mark in the NBA, you were hitting game winners
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden, you were you were doing all
Speaker 1: the biggest things that everyone dreams of. But then fast
Speaker 1: forward to a situation and it kind of sounds like
Speaker 1: injuries played apart. Injuries put a lot of doubt in
Speaker 1: your mind. To now you're in the you know, the
Speaker 1: the Chinese League, trying to get back and you're doubting
Speaker 1: yourself obviously when you're one of the best players over there.
Speaker 1: So that that's how powerful the mind is. It's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy sometimes growing up. One of my coaches always
Speaker 1: told me he played professional baseball, and he told me
Speaker 1: the game is mental, and I was like, you have
Speaker 1: no idea what you're talking about. But I realized at
Speaker 1: the elite level, a professional level, like everybody has the skills.
Speaker 1: It's like the dude who can shoot seven times and
Speaker 1: miss all seven and not car and shoot the eighth,
Speaker 1: Like that's the guy who is different than the guy
Speaker 1: who misses his first three. And then like it's like
Speaker 1: I'm playing it safe from here, Like there's so much
Speaker 1: in the mind and I couldn't even begin to go
Speaker 1: into you guys all know, but for everybody else who
Speaker 1: may listen, it's like there's so much power into mind. No,
Speaker 1: it's crazy too because I'm I'm I've been coaching my
Speaker 1: kids since I retired, so I got them at like eight,
Speaker 1: just turning nine, and you know, now they're twelve, and
Speaker 1: that's what I'm trying to instill, like the most important
Speaker 1: is next. The mind is most the most important thing,
Speaker 1: Like it's because that shi it is powerful and it
Speaker 1: it's never really been discussed, but it's always kind of
Speaker 1: been known. And now, like I said, I love the
Speaker 1: fact that people are talking about because these conversations obviously
Speaker 1: helped the people we talked to, but then are also
Speaker 1: going to encourage and motivate other people to seek the
Speaker 1: help they need if necessary. So I think they're obviously
Speaker 1: very important. But back to this, uh, the warrior opportunity.
Speaker 1: What did that warrior opportunity? Outside of stress, you had
Speaker 1: a lot of your rookie year kind of set you
Speaker 1: up to do though. Um, you know, it made me
Speaker 1: believe I was Uh, it made me believe I could
Speaker 1: do it. Um. And I remember right when the season ended.
Speaker 1: At that time, we didn't know it was going to
Speaker 1: turn into the documentary. It was just gonna be this
Speaker 1: little you two thing. And uh, at the end of
Speaker 1: that season, we're going to the lockout and so I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, there's me a ton of time. We'll
Speaker 1: start filming a little YouTube thing. And in that YouTube,
Speaker 1: like after the season, I sat down and I said
Speaker 1: to straight to the camera and it's now in my documentary.
Speaker 1: But I said, like, I'm going to become a rotation player.
Speaker 1: IM gonna be a starting point guard and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna win a championship. And even though I played terrible,
Speaker 1: Like the one thing for me that I've always like,
Speaker 1: I've never come in And maybe it's an Asian thing
Speaker 1: in terms of how I raised. Maybe it was always
Speaker 1: coming in and just being like completely disrespected growing up
Speaker 1: as an Asian, Like no one ever wanted to hoop
Speaker 1: with me, no one ever want to choose me, no
Speaker 1: ever thought anything of me. But I always walked into
Speaker 1: situations trying to feel it out. I never came into
Speaker 1: a situation being like I'm about to destroy all these guys.
Speaker 1: And so I came into the NBA and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna feel it out. I'm gonna see if I belong.
Speaker 1: And that's the last thing you can do when you
Speaker 1: get to the NBA. If you're wondering whether you belong,
Speaker 1: it's over front. And so from for me in my
Speaker 1: rookie year, the biggest thing that taught me was I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I took a year to
Speaker 1: feel it out. I went down to the D League
Speaker 1: at that time. I killed in the D League, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it, I can do it, And that's what
Speaker 1: it taught me, but I didn't get to show it.
Speaker 1: What was Steph like back then, it was tough man.
Speaker 1: At that time, it wasn't really about step like the
Speaker 1: team was about David Lee, Monte Ellis um and and
Speaker 1: Durrell right had had a breakout year and step at
Speaker 1: that time, like in his second year, was just like
Speaker 1: he was getting benched a lot um and he talked
Speaker 1: about it, right. He was like, I was getting benched
Speaker 1: for for certain players that like you, you know, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't even recognize who they were anymore. But he was
Speaker 1: really going through it, and he was kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: getting jerked back and forth in terms of like playing
Speaker 1: time his leash. And I feel terrible for him because
Speaker 1: I was like, even through it all, you're still a reagam,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, eighteen points, twenty points or something
Speaker 1: like that, but it just felt like he was a
Speaker 1: scapegoat in a lot of ways. And and then on
Speaker 1: top of that, he started to struggle with his ankle,
Speaker 1: and so it was really tough year for him. But
Speaker 1: he was always like man, he was always you never
Speaker 1: could tell he was anybody like. He never treated himself
Speaker 1: above anybody else. That's the biggest thing that I had
Speaker 1: learned from him and his love for the game. His
Speaker 1: love for the game was really contagious, like you just
Speaker 1: knew this dude loves playing basketball. And then you know,
Speaker 1: two years two years after he was still struggle with
Speaker 1: ankle injuries. And then after that was when it was
Speaker 1: just like, okay, he just revolutionized the game. What happened.
Speaker 1: It's crazy because you remember early on, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember, but I mean, the fan base went
Speaker 1: crazy when they decided that Steff Steph was going to
Speaker 1: be the man they were going to build around, and
Speaker 1: they traded Monte and then, like you said, to hear
Speaker 1: and then he was thrown in a lot of trade
Speaker 1: rumors early on to to get him out of Golden
Speaker 1: State too. So to hear his beginning into where he's
Speaker 1: at now is just like it's almost night day. But
Speaker 1: it's dope to see because like you said, he believed,
Speaker 1: he's humbled and worked hard and overcame and became one
Speaker 1: of the greatest point guards we've ever seen. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it was, it was. It's incredible. It was
Speaker 1: cool to see and and for me, even like Monte,
Speaker 1: I love Monte, you know, like and he was amazing,
Speaker 1: and him and Stuff were really cool with each other,
Speaker 1: but the media kind of you know, picked them against
Speaker 1: each other, and and they always treated all of us
Speaker 1: like super well. So, I mean, you know, just sucks
Speaker 1: that it kind of was that that that breakup was
Speaker 1: seen as that. Yeah. No, it's because Monte wasn't the
Speaker 1: last from Art. I mean, you know, Monte was the
Speaker 1: last survivor from from our team, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And and and it was really playing well. So and
Speaker 1: I heard that too. I heard that him and Stuff
Speaker 1: actually did get along, but they tried to put them
Speaker 1: against each other. So for you to be there and
Speaker 1: see that and feel that too, that's unfortunate. Um, let's
Speaker 1: jump back. You know, obviously the Warriors have a tremendous
Speaker 1: and half for a long time Asian fan base. Um,
Speaker 1: what was it like for you? Although you know, obviously
Speaker 1: your first season didn't go as you playned, Um, I'm
Speaker 1: sure there was still a lot of love for you.
Speaker 1: What was it like at that time, because I mean,
Speaker 1: you think a handful bit five years ago you were
Speaker 1: playing high school in Palo Alto, you know, high school
Speaker 1: basketball in Palo Alto. Now you're a Golden State Warrior.
Speaker 1: What was that like for you? It was so crazy,
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't even I was just so happy about it.
Speaker 1: And and then once the season started, it was like
Speaker 1: everything that I thought it was about, like I got
Speaker 1: flipped upside down. And and it's weird because every time
Speaker 1: I check in the game, like I remember, like if
Speaker 1: the team was up ten in the fourth, I'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I hope the other team comes back so I'll get
Speaker 1: put in. That's how nervous I was, because every time
Speaker 1: I'll get put in the game, there was a standing oh.
Speaker 1: And every time I touched the ball, the crowd be
Speaker 1: like who you know? And it got to the point
Speaker 1: where I don't like what to do because I was
Speaker 1: catching the ball. I'll catch the ball, shoot at three
Speaker 1: and it would be an airball, and everybody like, you know,
Speaker 1: like I just had no I had no confidence. And
Speaker 1: and and that's the thing is like I had always
Speaker 1: been the biggest underdog my whole life, like always under
Speaker 1: the radar, whether it's in high school, was in college.
Speaker 1: Every story, every article is like where who is this guy?
Speaker 1: And where did you come from? All of a sudden
Speaker 1: people knew about me and we're expecting big things. I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to handle it, Like, I had no
Speaker 1: idea how to handle it, and I struggled with it
Speaker 1: in terms of like it was almost like you went
Speaker 1: from underdog to being like the target on your back
Speaker 1: that everyone's coming after. Like I don't want that. This
Speaker 1: Asian dude embarrassed me. That happened even in practice, you
Speaker 1: know where it's just like, oh, shoot, like I match
Speaker 1: up against Jeremy, Like, I better make sure you didn't
Speaker 1: get a bucket. No, that's the ship that happened in
Speaker 1: real games. I remember ship we put I mean we'll
Speaker 1: get there, but actually we'll just get there. Let's wait,
Speaker 1: we'll get there. If I'm not mistaken. You played in
Speaker 1: that UM we Believe versus the Dubs um Lockout game,
Speaker 1: didn't you? Yeah that's right then that game was so
Speaker 1: long ago, but I remember you played. I think a
Speaker 1: young Steph play. Didn't Steff play too? Yeah? Yeah, like
Speaker 1: J Watson and a few others. Yeah, David, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that was dope that I need to watch. I saw
Speaker 1: out some footage of that game, man, maybe like six
Speaker 1: months ago, and it was I want to say it
Speaker 1: was about stuff, but I just breezed through, But I
Speaker 1: need to check it out for that game was lit.
Speaker 1: That fucking gym was packed. That was a good aass game, Jack,
Speaker 1: You missed. You must have been busy. Yeah, I missed it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how you end up landing in New
Speaker 1: York with the Knicks. So, you know, first day, first
Speaker 1: day of camp, um, and I'm like, I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm having a great practice. I'm playing way better than
Speaker 1: people thought. The whole lockout for nine straight months. I
Speaker 1: worked out three times a day by myself for nine
Speaker 1: straight months. Like I'm saying, no, there are no breaks,
Speaker 1: nothing like it was clockwork. And so I came out
Speaker 1: the gates and I was killing in the first practice,
Speaker 1: and halfway through they're like, hey, you gotta go up
Speaker 1: staious what So I go up stairs and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna cut you because we're gonna extend
Speaker 1: an offer sheet. At that time in DeAndre Jordan's they
Speaker 1: didn't even get them. So I ended up getting cut
Speaker 1: for for an offer street, I guess. But then Houston
Speaker 1: picks me up and um, and then I get there
Speaker 1: and there's five point guards and so I'm just like
Speaker 1: who else is there at that time, they had Johnny
Speaker 1: Flynn go on drag Kyle Lowry um and then and
Speaker 1: then me and then two other guards point guards that
Speaker 1: were like kind of that ended up getting cut as well.
Speaker 1: But basically like they were like, wow, you played so well,
Speaker 1: we want to keep you, but we have fifteen guarantee spots.
Speaker 1: Just chill for Secon. We're gonna try to We're gonna
Speaker 1: try to trade somebody, um. And so they're trying to
Speaker 1: trade people, but no one will pick up at that
Speaker 1: time they're trying to get rid of I think it
Speaker 1: was Johnny Flynn. Alright, that's what my agent told me.
Speaker 1: But then I guess that that fell through, and so
Speaker 1: they ended up cutting me on Christmas. And that's you know,
Speaker 1: two days before or day before is when Iman Shumper
Speaker 1: got hurt with the Knicks, and so the Knicks picked
Speaker 1: me up because they had liked my my pre draft
Speaker 1: workout and they liked what I did in the D League,
Speaker 1: And so I went out to the Knicks and I
Speaker 1: was just like, man if I get cut again, it's
Speaker 1: over for me for professional basketball. Like I can't continue
Speaker 1: to go through this roller coaster of like the emotions
Speaker 1: and the anxiety and and all of that, and so
Speaker 1: I was really at my end. Um, I was really
Speaker 1: really really close to my end. And when my breakout
Speaker 1: came game came against him, that's when I was with
Speaker 1: the Knicks. Like that was the last game, that was
Speaker 1: a week before the deadline, and that was the last
Speaker 1: game of a back to back to back in the
Speaker 1: lockout season, Like there was that was the only time
Speaker 1: we had three in a row and we don't have
Speaker 1: one back to back to back, and it was it
Speaker 1: was a week before the deadline, and that's why they
Speaker 1: put me in there, like let's just give this guy
Speaker 1: a shot before we cut them. And that's how that's
Speaker 1: how it happened. And that's why I'm like, man, I'm like,
Speaker 1: the whole thing is a miracle from God. Like I
Speaker 1: can't even I can't even deny it. Yeah, where you
Speaker 1: go on one of the most historical runs, um, some
Speaker 1: would say in history. Um started with that game, But
Speaker 1: just talk to me. Where you kind of started getting
Speaker 1: your confidence and then obviously you see your swag go
Speaker 1: up because the game is going for you. You're doing
Speaker 1: this all in front of you know, the mecca are
Speaker 1: in the Mecca, you know, New York. Just talk to
Speaker 1: us what that experience went back from, like damn, if
Speaker 1: I get cut again, I'm done to like holy sh it,
Speaker 1: like they're saying my name around the world now. I
Speaker 1: mean it was you know. I always felt like, look,
Speaker 1: I can help because every time they put me in
Speaker 1: for garbage minutes, I would do really well because it
Speaker 1: was again as d'An tony system. It was like a
Speaker 1: billion picking rolls and as much space as you possibly
Speaker 1: could get. Then they sent me down to the to
Speaker 1: the D League and I played one game and I
Speaker 1: had like a twenty six point triple double or something
Speaker 1: like that, and so I was like, okay, like I
Speaker 1: think I'm ready, Like all that work that was put in,
Speaker 1: I think I'm ready, but I couldn't get the chance.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't expecting to do what I did, Like
Speaker 1: I was just ready to be like a solid backup
Speaker 1: twelve minutes a game type of guy. But then when
Speaker 1: everything happened, I was just like, I mean, it goes
Speaker 1: back to the mental piece, Like you're asking, like, what
Speaker 1: was it like, dude, I don't know what it's like
Speaker 1: because it's a blur. It's like when you have your
Speaker 1: thirty point games, forty point games, like it was like
Speaker 1: you don't even remember him, Like at some point you
Speaker 1: even know how many points you have anymore. You're just
Speaker 1: in the zone, right and it just it's flowing. And
Speaker 1: that's like the that's like the pinnacle of what each
Speaker 1: person and player wants to be, uh in terms of
Speaker 1: their mental headspace, where it's just like I'm not thinking.
Speaker 1: It's all instincts and I'm just I'm just doing what
Speaker 1: I know how to do, and it's it's muscle memory
Speaker 1: at that point. And that's what those games felt like
Speaker 1: for me. It was just like, dude, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's happening. Like after the game, I would go back
Speaker 1: and at that time, I'm still staying on my brother's couch,
Speaker 1: but I would be like screenshot. I'd be like I'm
Speaker 1: on ESPN. Oh, like, dude, screenshot, I gotta save it.
Speaker 1: I got, you know, Like I was just so not
Speaker 1: used to it and I was just sitting on I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, I can't believe I just scored twenty
Speaker 1: five points, like it's a great team. And then and
Speaker 1: now don't come back to the couch and I'm like
Speaker 1: and there's like half the couches folded clothes and the
Speaker 1: other half couch is like you know where you play?
Speaker 1: This is crazy, but it really was, Like it was
Speaker 1: such a wild experience and it went by the sad party.
Speaker 1: It went by so fast. And my biggest regret, and
Speaker 1: I always tell this to younger players, is you guy,
Speaker 1: enjoy where you're at today, because if you don't enjoy
Speaker 1: where you're at today, you won't enjoy wherever you're trying
Speaker 1: to get to. Even if you got it, you're gonna
Speaker 1: set a new goal, like always told myself, as long
Speaker 1: as I make it too, Yeah, as long as I
Speaker 1: make it to the NBA, I'm good. I don't even
Speaker 1: need to step on the floor. Then I get to
Speaker 1: the NBA and like no, hell no, Like this is
Speaker 1: not fun at all, Like I need to get on
Speaker 1: that floor. And then you get on the floor, and
Speaker 1: then it's all about proving yourself and then it's about
Speaker 1: all about staying there. And so if you're not learning
Speaker 1: how to be content where you're at today, you won't
Speaker 1: be content when you get to your destination. And that's
Speaker 1: what I had to learn the hard way through Lindsanity.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about off the court life. Um, just
Speaker 1: as far as the notoriety on SportsCenter, celebrities, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, that's everyone's are at those games. What
Speaker 1: were some of the one, maybe are two of the
Speaker 1: craziest things that happened to you kind of in your
Speaker 1: personal life because of how good you were playing during
Speaker 1: that span. First off, the crazy thing was just like
Speaker 1: a ton of hotels and places were just like hey,
Speaker 1: hitting the knicks up, Like, hey, does he want to
Speaker 1: I know he's on the couch, does he want to
Speaker 1: stay here? It's ten thousand allar rent, but we'll give
Speaker 1: it to him for free and parking, And so I
Speaker 1: was just like, yeah, yeah, let's go when yesterday, I'll
Speaker 1: sign the lease and then uh and then there's like
Speaker 1: another opportunity where it's like, hey, come signed some photos,
Speaker 1: take some pictures, will give you a BMW. So I
Speaker 1: literally did thirty minutes of work and I gotta be
Speaker 1: in W for the rest of the season. But it
Speaker 1: was just like it was just like that type of stuff.
Speaker 1: Like I remember one time Jared Jeffrey's Landry and I
Speaker 1: went to eat and like there was like a window
Speaker 1: and it was you know, there was a street and
Speaker 1: the window, but like my back was faced to the street,
Speaker 1: but I guess somebody saw me. And when I turned
Speaker 1: when I turned back when we finished eating, and I
Speaker 1: turned back around, like there was like fifty kids the
Speaker 1: school next to next to the restaurant, and paparazzi and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And for me, when I get recognized
Speaker 1: given by one person, like I'll get nervous and I'll
Speaker 1: start sweating, like that New York experience. I was just like,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are people somehow long where I lived
Speaker 1: and dropping off cakes and like people like knocking at
Speaker 1: my door and not open it, thinking that it was
Speaker 1: like the ice, you know, people bringing up ice, and
Speaker 1: then like it'd be a fan and then the fan.
Speaker 1: I'll try to close the door and the family like
Speaker 1: put their foot in the door and be like no,
Speaker 1: like I'm not letting you close the door into you
Speaker 1: hit the photo with me like stuff like that. Like
Speaker 1: it was crazy. So you got a chance to battle.
Speaker 1: My teammate at the time, Kobe Um he had thirty four,
Speaker 1: you had thirty eight. You guys beat us. But I
Speaker 1: was I was saying earlier that was a night where
Speaker 1: he guarded you. I guarded you Fish guarded you, Steve
Speaker 1: Blake guarded you. None of us could do anything with it,
Speaker 1: and we were just like what the fuck, Like, we
Speaker 1: were like really mad that you went out there and
Speaker 1: had some big shots down the end of down the
Speaker 1: stretch to win. What do you remember that most of
Speaker 1: that battle about cope? I mean, I think the thing
Speaker 1: that I remember the most about about that game, or
Speaker 1: specifically about Kobe was just he never looked worried like
Speaker 1: we were. We were in control of the whole game,
Speaker 1: and he had a terrible first half. He ended up
Speaker 1: with thirty four, but he never looked worried, And I
Speaker 1: was like, what's wrong with this guy? Is he like
Speaker 1: a robot? You know? Like I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: expected him the game mad or to get you know,
Speaker 1: everyone knows the hype out a huge like hyped up game,
Speaker 1: and it was just like he was just like the
Speaker 1: whole game. And then he started hitting. And then in
Speaker 1: the third quarter he hit like five five jumpers in
Speaker 1: a row. Landry's plastered all over him. He's hitting all
Speaker 1: types of it, and I'm just like, okay, Like, if
Speaker 1: we're going to win this game, it's going to It's
Speaker 1: not gonna be because we're gonna stop him because he's
Speaker 1: gonna get his shot, and it's on him whether it
Speaker 1: goes in or not. If we're gonna win, it's we
Speaker 1: gotta get more buckets. We gotta get more buckets, and
Speaker 1: so um at that time, you know, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember getting nice it onto you at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. But at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: you gave me my right hand, and your whole team
Speaker 1: was giving me my right hand. So I appreciated it.
Speaker 1: So if they would get sneaking a couple just enough
Speaker 1: to be able to squeak out to win. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I remember the that arena, like I remember
Speaker 1: hitting a baseline three and that's about it. I've ever yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I've never I mean, I've been
Speaker 1: in the Raptors Arena when we were you know, on
Speaker 1: that championship run. But that shot and that night, I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't think I ever heard of arena
Speaker 1: louder than that. What was the electricity, like an image
Speaker 1: you during this time? And what kind of zone were
Speaker 1: you win? Man? I mean it was just pregame warmups.
Speaker 1: Like I said, like I get I get I get nervous.
Speaker 1: When one person recognized me, like pregame warm ups was
Speaker 1: like it felt like a game because there are so
Speaker 1: many people already there. There's so many reporters. Every time
Speaker 1: I do anything i'd be doing, they're doing my stationary
Speaker 1: ball handling, and like ten reporters like run over, tend
Speaker 1: like photographers run over and be taking photos and it
Speaker 1: was just like it was too much. Um it was
Speaker 1: it was a lot like each day, each game felt
Speaker 1: like three days. Like it was so mentally exhausting for
Speaker 1: me again, like not knowing what it was like to
Speaker 1: be in the spotlight, never really having one and not
Speaker 1: understanding how to I'm not saying enjoy it, like like
Speaker 1: I'm not by nature, like oh yeah, everyone take a
Speaker 1: picture of me. I'll never be that personality. But how
Speaker 1: can I enjoy it and aware where it's like I'm comfortable.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I have to be who everybody
Speaker 1: wants me to be. Yeah, like you managing and then
Speaker 1: you you take away the positives without letting the negatives
Speaker 1: destroy your entire experience, And that's where for me, Like
Speaker 1: I always tell the story, like three weeks later after
Speaker 1: my breakout game, we're in Chicago about to play d
Speaker 1: rows of the m v P d rows and I
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep, and all the anxiety that pregame anxiety you
Speaker 1: can't sleep, can't eat, all that came back because I
Speaker 1: was just trying to be who everybody else wanted me
Speaker 1: to be, and like that is just not like that's
Speaker 1: not a meaningful way to live in your life. And
Speaker 1: so it was finally to me, even though I was
Speaker 1: on the top of the mountain exactly, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the one thing about you guys, right, even like even
Speaker 1: like I mean, this is a hilarious story, but like
Speaker 1: I grew up a warrior stand and so when I
Speaker 1: was watching you guys do what you guys did, you
Speaker 1: know we leave and all that, you know, I remember
Speaker 1: even when I talked to Monte, he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like we were we were parted before every game, but
Speaker 1: then in the playoffs, were like we stopped partying, and
Speaker 1: then we didn't weren't playing, and then we started loose
Speaker 1: and were like we just start partying again. Like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying like I'm not saying everybody. Part of
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is there was there was something about
Speaker 1: you guys that everybody could tell like, Okay, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you're the A C. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: up you're going going up against, whether it was Dallas,
Speaker 1: whether it's Utah, it didn't matter. Like you guys were
Speaker 1: like a band of brothers and you were unapologetically you guys,
Speaker 1: And I brought the best out of you guys, even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't a championship, right, And I think like
Speaker 1: that's something that I had and have to continue to learn.
Speaker 1: And that's again as part of the Asian stereotype, of
Speaker 1: the Asian stigma of like, oh, we just trying to
Speaker 1: fit in, and it's like, no, man, when you played
Speaker 1: professional basketball against the best players in the world, there's
Speaker 1: nothing that you can do, Like you cannot come in
Speaker 1: with the fitting type of mindset, and if you want
Speaker 1: to stay at the top, you cannot come in trying
Speaker 1: to just just fit in. Absolutely, Jack, you know that's
Speaker 1: one thing I forgot. We did try to stop being
Speaker 1: us the funk were you doing? I forgot about that
Speaker 1: till he said that, because remember we went like, you know,
Speaker 1: we gotta chill out, let's lock in for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Remember that. I wonder, I wonder who said that. I
Speaker 1: know it wouldn't me. Definitely, definitely wouldn't me. I know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't nuts, it wasn't us. But hey, one thing
Speaker 1: about it, man, you are your best self when you've
Speaker 1: been your authentic self. Man, that's how it is. Man.
Speaker 1: One thing about does I think that's one people. That's
Speaker 1: one reason why people love us because what you see
Speaker 1: is what you get. We're not putting on we're not
Speaker 1: putting on the face. And you didn't make it being
Speaker 1: somebody else. You made it being you. So you know, man,
Speaker 1: that's how it should be. Talk to us a little
Speaker 1: bit about the situation there with Melo. Get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to play with Melo, obviously him being at home playing there.
Speaker 1: Once you started doing really good, you know how people
Speaker 1: do just how they tried to do Stephen Stephan up Monte.
Speaker 1: They try to kind of low key put you against him.
Speaker 1: But what was your experience in your relationship like with
Speaker 1: Melo when you guys got a chance to play together.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're spot on. It was it was
Speaker 1: And again at that time three I barely know how
Speaker 1: to answer an interview like a reporter's question. And then
Speaker 1: next thing, you know, the New York media it's like
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, that's oh that they took it that way,
Speaker 1: like whoa you know, And so for me like just
Speaker 1: learning the ropes of like how all that came to be.
Speaker 1: Like I never had any personal problems with Mellow, Like
Speaker 1: we had a lot of discs suestions about basketball a
Speaker 1: lot of times with me him stat and and t
Speaker 1: y Mr And Tyson Chandler, Like it would be us
Speaker 1: floor talking about like Okay, what does it look like
Speaker 1: to win? Then I got hurt, and then all three
Speaker 1: of them were reaching out to me like telling me
Speaker 1: how to you know, come back from a meniscus tear
Speaker 1: and how to you know, manage my body? And you know,
Speaker 1: that was just a situation where like I don't know, like, ah,
Speaker 1: to this day, I'm not sure what happened, Like do
Speaker 1: we get killed from the outside in or do we
Speaker 1: kill ourselves from the inside out? Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, like at that time, no one told me anything.
Speaker 1: I was so oblivious to the world. And like I
Speaker 1: remember even times when like I would get questions and
Speaker 1: calls from the higher ups, you know, in the next organization.
Speaker 1: They would be asking me. They would ask me these questions.
Speaker 1: I was like why and I'll just answer to them
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait, that doesn't Why am I telling
Speaker 1: them that? Like I didn't know, you know, And it
Speaker 1: was just like I didn't know how the game was played,
Speaker 1: and so for me, like, um, you know, to this day,
Speaker 1: I don't even know, Like I can't even give you
Speaker 1: a like I don't really have closure with that situation,
Speaker 1: to be honest, Like I have closured one since in
Speaker 1: terms of like when I went through my you know,
Speaker 1: and I got to help with my mental stuff, I
Speaker 1: reconciled across the board with all the people that could
Speaker 1: have hurt me and those types of things. But like
Speaker 1: I don't actually know what happened, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like I'm actually reading a lot of what happened. I'm
Speaker 1: reading from the news or picking up bits and pieces
Speaker 1: years after the fact in an interview that somebody said
Speaker 1: about something. I'm like, okay, so that happened. Uh, And
Speaker 1: it was just uh. I mean again, like I kind
Speaker 1: of blocked that out because I think of the sanity
Speaker 1: now was like a really happy memory, but the ending
Speaker 1: that we we had was I mean, it was sad.
Speaker 1: It was really sad. But I think the fact that
Speaker 1: they reached out to you at your lowest moment. Normally,
Speaker 1: when the athletes are hurt, that's our lowest moments. And
Speaker 1: the fact that they reached out to I think that
Speaker 1: kind of shows a lot because you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: as you know, you had to learn the hard way.
Speaker 1: The media is only there to do one thing, and
Speaker 1: that's caused destruction. Very rarely do you hear a good story,
Speaker 1: a happy story, you feel good story. It's more about
Speaker 1: creating division. And it's crazy to think like they're trying
Speaker 1: to create division amongst their own teams, and and in
Speaker 1: New York is not the only media. Media. Media does
Speaker 1: that in general. So, like I said, I think the
Speaker 1: fact that those guys you said, those guys reached out
Speaker 1: to you when you got hurt to kind of you
Speaker 1: know for a shottline. I think that says a lot
Speaker 1: about who you were in that situation. Yeah, no, I mean,
Speaker 1: and and media is like negativity cells, right, I mean
Speaker 1: we know that. And so it's it's just you know,
Speaker 1: and that's why you know, now with social media, you
Speaker 1: and what you gotta do and you had grown. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're controlling the area, so you can you control
Speaker 1: what you want to talk about and you tell the
Speaker 1: story the way you wanted to be told, And I
Speaker 1: think that's really important. Yeah, well, I mean that's what
Speaker 1: you know. We that's the one thing we kind of
Speaker 1: take pride and is for an opportunity like this, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, for you to tell, for our
Speaker 1: guests to tell their stories with without it being like,
Speaker 1: well let's try to pick something and flip it or
Speaker 1: do this like that's it's crazy, it's unfortunate. That's what
Speaker 1: media is about. And I think that's why we've been
Speaker 1: successful is because we just want people. We want to
Speaker 1: show people the other side of you know, their favorite
Speaker 1: athlete or there with their favorite celebrity, and and and
Speaker 1: and there's no hidden agenda behind it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So could people come here and speak freely
Speaker 1: because they know that's what kind of environment we've created. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I wanted. I'm not even gonna lie, I'll
Speaker 1: sit very honestly. I was pitching you guys. I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: get me on all the time. Hell yeah, So we
Speaker 1: appreciate that. What do you think could have been had
Speaker 1: it if he was able to stay? And then why
Speaker 1: it would have been so nice, man like it would
Speaker 1: have been. And that's the thing too, the weird thing.
Speaker 1: And and D'Antoni also left shortly after two. But if
Speaker 1: we had kept the whole squad together, like we would
Speaker 1: have been really really good. Um Like at that time,
Speaker 1: it was just like I mean, amr was you know,
Speaker 1: um the you know thirty and night. Oh it was
Speaker 1: an easy like fresh out of Denver like most lethal
Speaker 1: the most lethal like mid range. So it's over and
Speaker 1: then and enticon. I mean, when we had all the pieces,
Speaker 1: we had the system. We just needed a little bit
Speaker 1: of time for people to stay healthy and for us
Speaker 1: to be able to figure it out. But we never
Speaker 1: got that opportunity. And that's you know, always you know,
Speaker 1: that will always be a huge what if. To me,
Speaker 1: it will always be a huge what if. But you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of stories, a lot of careers you know,
Speaker 1: have that, but man, that one that would if I'm
Speaker 1: like dude, we could have had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: what if. Um So, like you said, you're not really
Speaker 1: sure how it ends, but you land on your feet,
Speaker 1: headed to Houston with a multi year contract making you
Speaker 1: a millionaire before but outside of the basketball park, you know,
Speaker 1: you we've kind of got is obviously humble beginnings. Your
Speaker 1: parents did what they could to get you in basketball,
Speaker 1: to take care of you. Like you said, when you're
Speaker 1: on your Harvard campus, you didn't venture out much because
Speaker 1: you don't have much pocket change. So now you're sitting here,
Speaker 1: you signed a three year, twenty five million dollar deal.
Speaker 1: What kind what What was your first thought or feeling
Speaker 1: when it came to you and your family? Um, after
Speaker 1: the journey you've been on. When I graduated from college, Um,
Speaker 1: like I was ready to go and do the pre drafting,
Speaker 1: and and my mom and dad they knew that I
Speaker 1: wasn't eating until I was full. Like they knew that
Speaker 1: I was trying to save money. So it was just
Speaker 1: at that time, it was like five dollar subway foot long, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, And and that's what I was trying to
Speaker 1: feed myself. But I wouldn't eat till I was full
Speaker 1: to save as much money. And my mom said like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm giving you two years to chase your your basketball dream.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about where the money came from. Um, it
Speaker 1: wasn't until you know, a couple of years ago. Actually
Speaker 1: it wasn't ntil I was thirty years old. When my
Speaker 1: mom finally told me, said that money came from my retirement,
Speaker 1: my four oh one kid, and so like that's when
Speaker 1: I say, like my parents gave it everything. Like they
Speaker 1: put themselves through so much debt. My grandmother paid for
Speaker 1: one year of tuition for me at Harvard. And so
Speaker 1: when I landed that contract, to me, it was just like, dude,
Speaker 1: family first, Like I got a doubt, like to this day,
Speaker 1: like right now I'm in my parents house and so
Speaker 1: I don't even have my own place, and and it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, it's always been something that's all about family
Speaker 1: first and uh. And to be honest, when I got
Speaker 1: that contract, it didn't even feel like it was mine.
Speaker 1: M m m m. That's deep. So your first season
Speaker 1: with the Rockets, you play eighty two games, UM back
Speaker 1: when eighty two games was what you were supposed to play,
Speaker 1: UM similar stats. What was it like in that new surrounding.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're in Houston now, I'm not sure who
Speaker 1: is is D'Antoni the coach there is that when he
Speaker 1: got there at that time, it was McHale And then
Speaker 1: you know, we just picked up hard in two and
Speaker 1: and Harden was like the okay, see hearted and then
Speaker 1: he became like the herd and herded um where it
Speaker 1: was just like, you know, ridiculous, And so I got
Speaker 1: to witness that and be on his team for that
Speaker 1: first year. But that was tough, man like, because the
Speaker 1: ball you know, for me at that time, I only
Speaker 1: really knew how to go right and play the point
Speaker 1: guard position. Now all of a sudden, it's like I
Speaker 1: need to work on my shooting, my off the ball cutting,
Speaker 1: I need to work on my defense. I need to
Speaker 1: work on all these aspects of my game that I
Speaker 1: never had to And that took me, you know, three
Speaker 1: or four years until really, I would say Charlotte was
Speaker 1: when I got to a place where I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going left easy, I'm playing great defense. I'm one
Speaker 1: of the top defensive rated guards on my team, you know.
Speaker 1: Form for the rest of my career, I was one
Speaker 1: of the top. You know, I felt like I picked
Speaker 1: some up defensively there. I felt like my shot came
Speaker 1: a long way. But it was like in Houston, it
Speaker 1: took those two years in Houston in that year in
Speaker 1: l A to really really work through a lot of that.
Speaker 1: What was it like seeing James is transition? You mentioned, Okay,
Speaker 1: see James too, Rocket James. What do you think chained
Speaker 1: and made him Rocket James? As you can see like
Speaker 1: day to day being your teammate and what was that
Speaker 1: the biggest dude, the biggest thing. And this is why
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep going back to the mindset. But like
Speaker 1: he wanted it and he knew he could do it.
Speaker 1: Like when he showed up, it was like when he
Speaker 1: showed up, he knew what he knew what he wanted
Speaker 1: to accomplish, and he knew what he who he wanted
Speaker 1: to become. And that's what I felt from him. That's
Speaker 1: what I saw from him. And so it wasn't like hey,
Speaker 1: I'm here and like I'm sixteen a night, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping to take the next step. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: this is my team, this is my everything, and like
Speaker 1: that's and and and for me, you know, my biggest
Speaker 1: regret about going into Houston was that, like I was like, no,
Speaker 1: they'll put me on the billboards, don't put me on
Speaker 1: don't put don't don't put me in the promotional don't
Speaker 1: don't you know, Like I was just like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I haven't proved myself for long enough yet
Speaker 1: and it was just like a differing viewpoint or differing
Speaker 1: mindset coming in. And so you know, I actually learned
Speaker 1: a lot from the confidence and the work ethic that
Speaker 1: that James really exuded. I mean I worked really, really hard,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, but it was still like again,
Speaker 1: it was that concept of like, let me just feel
Speaker 1: it out, what it's like to be a franchise player,
Speaker 1: let me just feel it out was like too, you know,
Speaker 1: And and that was, you know, not not ideal. You
Speaker 1: must have forgotten that. And he was what was it
Speaker 1: that he was? They used to have an Asians on
Speaker 1: the billboards in Houston, That's what I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: the Rockets that used to that. Man, the Rockets are
Speaker 1: used to having an Asian on the billboards in front
Speaker 1: of the arena. Man, you got it. You should have
Speaker 1: been at home. I mean, I mean, it's not about
Speaker 1: it's not about it's not about who. It's not about
Speaker 1: whether there was an Asian on the billboard. It was
Speaker 1: the fact that it was me on the billboards that
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you should nothing. But y'all, y'all
Speaker 1: had opened the door for you, so you're supposed to
Speaker 1: come in and pick up what you left and that's
Speaker 1: why that's why I wish I did it better. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying is like, man, like, did you
Speaker 1: feel any of that pressure? Obviously, Like I said, your
Speaker 1: guys fan base travels well, but it's huge in Houston
Speaker 1: because of the footprint that. Yeah, Maye, did you feel
Speaker 1: any pressure coming to play in the team he became
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer with Honestly, I didn't feel pressure
Speaker 1: from that end because I was already getting like at
Speaker 1: that time, you know, the year before, I was the
Speaker 1: most Google the most popular person on the planet and right,
Speaker 1: and that's that's where the pressure was really coming from.
Speaker 1: Was just like can he do it again? And dada
Speaker 1: and to me like, oh man, I just wish I
Speaker 1: stopped asking the questions that everybody else was asking me
Speaker 1: and I started asking my own questions, Like I wish
Speaker 1: I really like took control of like, look, this is
Speaker 1: who I am and this is what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: and I'm just getting started and uh and and uh. Man.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't so much about you know, coming in
Speaker 1: yus you know behind you know, behind it, in his
Speaker 1: shadow or anything like that. Yeah, I love it so
Speaker 1: you're off to the Lakers two thousand, two thousand and fifteen.
Speaker 1: You get there when Kobe is kind of battling and
Speaker 1: up and down through injuries. I tell people, you can
Speaker 1: play other places, you may even win other places, but
Speaker 1: there's nothing like being a Laker. Did you feel that
Speaker 1: um coming in and putting on that uniform? Oh? For sure.
Speaker 1: And and it sucked because we ended up being the
Speaker 1: worst team in later history with the most losses. And uh,
Speaker 1: that was a dark year, man. That was that was
Speaker 1: a really really dark year in terms of just what
Speaker 1: we thought the expectations were going to be because at
Speaker 1: that time we as a Nash. So Nash goes down
Speaker 1: before the season even starts, and then uh, and then
Speaker 1: Cole goes down midway through the season, and then and
Speaker 1: then me, Me and Cole actually had like a good
Speaker 1: number of run ins to Um about you know, about
Speaker 1: how we were playing and things like that. But you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of it has made like the virality of
Speaker 1: certain clips of like him yelling at me, Nick Young
Speaker 1: and j Hill you know, in practice, or b waving
Speaker 1: him off in the game or things like that. But
Speaker 1: it was it was a mult of us year. Talk
Speaker 1: to us about some of the run ins, because I've
Speaker 1: seen some run ins. I want to hear what yours
Speaker 1: are like, because you were someone who had the ball
Speaker 1: in their hands as well. And obviously there's an infamous
Speaker 1: clip and you waving him. But talk to us about
Speaker 1: some of the head button you guys had him. What
Speaker 1: kind of understanding you eventually came to. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: and this is I've never told this story to this
Speaker 1: day and not you know, but I'm like wondering if
Speaker 1: I should you could you should all the smoke and
Speaker 1: all the smoke talk to us. Now. At that time,
Speaker 1: he was coming back from injuries and then he was
Speaker 1: also going through some injuries. But he was like he
Speaker 1: you know, he was like thirty five year old Kobe
Speaker 1: with the twenty five year old Kobe mine and so
Speaker 1: like he had it in him that he wanted to
Speaker 1: prove to the world, like all the report who said
Speaker 1: he couldn't come back from his achilles or other injuries,
Speaker 1: like he had this like like intense level of like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna prove you wrong to the reporters. And so
Speaker 1: he was shooting like you know, there are games are shots,
Speaker 1: and they were you know, it got to the point
Speaker 1: where there are a few games where he had shot
Speaker 1: us out of the game, and and again it was
Speaker 1: just he was at a point where he was going
Speaker 1: through so many tough injuries at an age that his
Speaker 1: body couldn't keep up with the demands. And so that's
Speaker 1: where like me and the rest of the team, like
Speaker 1: we we had different different thoughts. And so I remember
Speaker 1: I would go head to head with him, and we
Speaker 1: would like because he doesn't sleep, like he slept like
Speaker 1: two or three hours a night, and then I would
Speaker 1: be up because we would lose. So when we lose,
Speaker 1: like I would always be up at like three or
Speaker 1: four and I would be watching films. So we'd be
Speaker 1: texting at three in the morning, four in the morning,
Speaker 1: like like arguing with each other, conflicting with each other.
Speaker 1: And it got to the plane where I was like,
Speaker 1: I told him this is how it started. I said
Speaker 1: it look your your Kobe, like I'm coming and trying
Speaker 1: to learn from you. Okay, So like I'm okay with
Speaker 1: anything as long as you talk to me like like
Speaker 1: a man, like in terms of like don't talk down
Speaker 1: to me like I'm a boy. Talk to me like
Speaker 1: a man and respect me. And then you know, he
Speaker 1: had always said, like, you know, everybody just says what
Speaker 1: I want him to say, Like it's very rare that
Speaker 1: somebody actually stands up to me. And so for me
Speaker 1: in that situation, as we're going back and forth, I
Speaker 1: finally had enough. That's why I waved him off that
Speaker 1: one time too, because I was like, you know, I've
Speaker 1: seen like I don't want to go down this path again.
Speaker 1: We gotta get something else going, we gotta get some
Speaker 1: ball movement. But basically, like after that text message conversation,
Speaker 1: we're going back and forth with each other, like we
Speaker 1: didn't speak for the last four months of the season,
Speaker 1: like nobody knew, nobody on the team knew. But for me,
Speaker 1: that was like something I was willing to accept because
Speaker 1: I said what I needed to say to him and
Speaker 1: if he didn't like that, and he didn't and he
Speaker 1: was like I'm not going to engage in or like
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna talk to you anymore, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, I can I can live with that.
Speaker 1: At least I said what I need to say. On
Speaker 1: the flip side, there were times when I was younger
Speaker 1: in my career where things would happen to me and
Speaker 1: he didn't say what I should have said, you know,
Speaker 1: and and that was what like basically, then you would
Speaker 1: end up getting pumped. But the cool thing about this
Speaker 1: story is we didn't speak for the last four months
Speaker 1: of the season, and then the next year was his
Speaker 1: final year and that's when I was with Charlotte and
Speaker 1: I was playing really well, and in the middle of
Speaker 1: the game is when we buried the hatchet and we said, like,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's over. And so we started talking
Speaker 1: to each other. We were asking about each other's families
Speaker 1: like we were before and then and then even after
Speaker 1: the game, we started texting again. He was giving me
Speaker 1: some advice on my game, and my whole thing the
Speaker 1: whole time was like, I look, I'm not saying I'm
Speaker 1: better than you. I'm not saying any of that. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: when you talk to me, don't top down to me.
Speaker 1: And I'm ready to listen, and I'm ready to try
Speaker 1: to help this team in whatever way it is possible.
Speaker 1: And for me that was a big step because you know, again,
Speaker 1: growing up in the Asian culture, it's like don't you know,
Speaker 1: don't don't step, don't step on the toes of the
Speaker 1: boss or whatever. But from me, I'm like, I got
Speaker 1: to a point where I was like, look, this is
Speaker 1: who I am and this is what I need to
Speaker 1: do as a player. And I feel like, actually him
Speaker 1: not talking to me, I feel like that was actually
Speaker 1: a signing respect. Like he was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm pissed at you, but I actually respect you because
Speaker 1: you actually said something to me versus like so many
Speaker 1: other people won't. And that's one of the next year,
Speaker 1: the next season, when I was in Charlotte, like, he
Speaker 1: was like, I mean we taught you know, it was
Speaker 1: just like it like never happened. And he was just like,
Speaker 1: We're back to normal. How your family? How can I help? What? What?
Speaker 1: What advice can I give you? And that was and
Speaker 1: that was my experience with him, and I learned a
Speaker 1: lot and I grew a lot. I love it. I
Speaker 1: love it. That's a great story. Glad you shared it here.
Speaker 1: How did you? How did you land in Toronto? So
Speaker 1: I went through two straight years of injury and then
Speaker 1: I ended up in Atlanta. I got traded to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: At that time though Atlanta, um I had shown that
Speaker 1: I was healthy and I was picking up a lot
Speaker 1: of buzz and so I had asked for a buyout
Speaker 1: because at that time, Atlanta was one of the worst
Speaker 1: teams in the Eastern Conference, and the Raptors were really,
Speaker 1: really interested, so they were It was like right the
Speaker 1: day after the trade deadline, you know, that's when all
Speaker 1: the buyouts start to happen. And I'm in the middle
Speaker 1: of the game and i don't know anything about anything,
Speaker 1: and I'm just playing and Lowry is just like defending me.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey man, you come to you rolling with us?
Speaker 1: I'm like what he's like during the game, Yeah, during
Speaker 1: a game, he's guarding me. He's like, hey, you're rolling
Speaker 1: with us, and I'm like, oh man, what And I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. He's like you're coming over right,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what are you talking about? And then
Speaker 1: it was until after the game. I found him after
Speaker 1: the game, was like, hey man, what are you talking about.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, like, I thought you can get a
Speaker 1: buy out and come, you know, come hoop with us.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, like, I haven't had that
Speaker 1: conversation with anybody. I didn't know you guys were interested.
Speaker 1: But that's how it started. And then I found out like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Toronto was really interesting me that whole time, But everyone
Speaker 1: was waiting to see what happened in the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and it never got to me UM, And so I
Speaker 1: asked for a buyout and then I went to Toronto
Speaker 1: because that was a team. You know, they were a
Speaker 1: top contending team and they wanted me and they had
Speaker 1: a position for me. You know. That's fun, dope and
Speaker 1: funny at the same time. The fact that he's I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you know Lowry being one of their main players,
Speaker 1: he knows what the team is trying to do. So
Speaker 1: he's telling you during the game, like, yeah, you're coming
Speaker 1: to funk with us, not even that he's guarding me. Man,
Speaker 1: He's going He's like, you're you're with us? Right? I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? What was it like being
Speaker 1: on that team once you get there, witnessing the shot
Speaker 1: becoming a champion UM for a franchise that had never
Speaker 1: won UM kind of like an underdog situation, kind of
Speaker 1: like your journey throughout sports in your life. What was
Speaker 1: a culmination of all that for you? And what did
Speaker 1: it mean? I mean, on one hand, it was so heavy,
Speaker 1: like do you made history? First Asian American ever been
Speaker 1: put you know, to win a championship, Like it was
Speaker 1: like there was a weight of like the the what
Speaker 1: that moment meant, and you know, I had gone through
Speaker 1: the sanity, So at that time I was trying to
Speaker 1: really embrace itself every thing in because a lot of
Speaker 1: times when you accomplished stuff, you don't realize what you did.
Speaker 1: Like I don't think you guys realize what you guys
Speaker 1: did for the Bay in that moment, right, like you
Speaker 1: were just like focused on the second round. But like
Speaker 1: then years later you're like, oh my goodness, like the
Speaker 1: impact that it had, Like I didn't realize it at
Speaker 1: that time. That's what I was trying to avoid. So
Speaker 1: on one hand, it was like, wow, let me just
Speaker 1: soak this in, like this has never been done before.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, though, it sucks because I was
Speaker 1: DMP And that's actually the start of when I realized, like,
Speaker 1: hey man, I had some mental I have some mental
Speaker 1: like trauma. That is not right. Because when I got
Speaker 1: to Toronto, I had ten games to be able to
Speaker 1: solidify a position and to really like work into the rotation.
Speaker 1: And the biggest knock on me then was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he just gets really down on himself. When he misses
Speaker 1: his shots and stuff like that, and so like it
Speaker 1: was like for me, it wasn't about skill. There's the
Speaker 1: assessment of me was like, oh, it's about it's about
Speaker 1: where he's at mentally. And that's when I realized those
Speaker 1: two years of injury, like they were having some real
Speaker 1: effects on me. That that that year in l A
Speaker 1: or the time in Houston, the time when I went
Speaker 1: from the top of the world, literally the top of
Speaker 1: the world too, Like I lost my starting position, then
Speaker 1: I started losing playing time, and then I lost a
Speaker 1: lot of fans, and then I lost a lot of endorsements,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, you know, like that
Speaker 1: whole downward and then I and then I finally get
Speaker 1: you know, in a great position, and then I get injured.
Speaker 1: You know, Like that whole thing like really weighed on me.
Speaker 1: And and in Toronto's when I started to see the
Speaker 1: cracks in the foundation and so from one end it
Speaker 1: was amazing and on the other end, it really hurt.
Speaker 1: And that's the last time I ever stepped foot on
Speaker 1: the NBA floor. And I haven't been able to I mean,
Speaker 1: I haven't even been able to get training. Like I
Speaker 1: I said, like hey, I'm gonna come as a non guarantee.
Speaker 1: I would come on a ten day. I will come
Speaker 1: in training camp and fight my way. I would give
Speaker 1: me any opportunity to prove myself. I have not been
Speaker 1: able to step foot in any NBA facility since that time,
Speaker 1: even though for me mentally, i've you know, I'm in
Speaker 1: such a different place. And even in the G League,
Speaker 1: I killed, I absolutely killed in the G League, and
Speaker 1: I still can't touch an NBA facility, And that, to
Speaker 1: me is what's heartbreaking. Is like, man, that championship, that's
Speaker 1: the last time I've ever got a chance to really,
Speaker 1: you know, be a part of the NBA um and
Speaker 1: where I was in where I am now, Like I'm
Speaker 1: a whole different person and a whole different player, but
Speaker 1: I don't get a chance to to show that. And
Speaker 1: that's what that's what is like the bitter sweetness of it. Man,
Speaker 1: We're hoping you get an opportunity to, like you said,
Speaker 1: there's still some time here and then if not this season,
Speaker 1: next season. But it's it's crazy because that mental state
Speaker 1: of mind is absolutely everything, absolutely everything. I mean, Jack
Speaker 1: was a killer. Jack didn't give a fun how many
Speaker 1: shots he miss he was going to keep shooting. But
Speaker 1: it takes a certain type of mindset to get that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and be able to and
Speaker 1: that's what a lot of people don't understand. There's just
Speaker 1: all the ups and down to come, like listening to
Speaker 1: your story now and getting to know you better during
Speaker 1: this interview, like you've literally been to the top of
Speaker 1: the world, and then you literally just told us now
Speaker 1: you can't step. You haven't had an opportunity to step
Speaker 1: on another NBA floor, you know, and since you won
Speaker 1: a championship, so to be, it's high the most google
Speaker 1: person you know to to to go head to head
Speaker 1: with Cobe, beat him at the garden to talk, you know,
Speaker 1: going back and forth with him, like you've really seen
Speaker 1: all the upstals in between. And I think the fact
Speaker 1: that you're still here and kind of getting better, as
Speaker 1: you said, mentally is the most important because there's probably
Speaker 1: several times, you know that could have been enough for you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I said, you've seen everything, man,
Speaker 1: So we just want to commend you that you know
Speaker 1: you you stuck this fucking thing out, man, and God
Speaker 1: willing you get another opportunity. But even if you don't. Man,
Speaker 1: at least your mental health is stable now, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what's most important. Yeah, And seriously, man, like
Speaker 1: I've come, it's gotten to the place where like I'm
Speaker 1: like almost coming as a beggar. Like you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked to you know, g ms, I've talked to you
Speaker 1: know owners, I've talked to you know, the commissioner, I've
Speaker 1: talked to Max players. I mean, I've been like a
Speaker 1: exhausting every opportunity just to get a chance to prove myself.
Speaker 1: That's why the g League bubble, when they said they're
Speaker 1: gonna have a Glee bubble, I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's do it. I just need to show you guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been in this position for the majority
Speaker 1: of my life of just like trying to get my
Speaker 1: foot in the door. And and then like and that's
Speaker 1: and that's like something that's so interesting about it is
Speaker 1: like I've seen both ends of the spectrum and so
Speaker 1: now it's like, man, it's like I'm in a great
Speaker 1: place mentally, and I just want to enjoy it. Man Like,
Speaker 1: I just want to enjoy everything about the journey because
Speaker 1: one day, like I mean, you guys know, like everybody
Speaker 1: always told me it goes by so fast, and it
Speaker 1: really really does, it really really does. Yeah. Absolutely. You
Speaker 1: once mentioned, Um, Steph and Westbrook were some of your
Speaker 1: toughest guards. Do you have any stories Um matching up
Speaker 1: against either one of them? You know, because I used
Speaker 1: Steff personally, so there was never like, you know, any
Speaker 1: any you know, We've always had a lot of respect
Speaker 1: for each other. But the one story that I always
Speaker 1: tell about Steph that like why I say he loves
Speaker 1: the game so much is my rookie year, Like Steph
Speaker 1: was going through all types of ankle injuries and we
Speaker 1: were playing our eighties second last game of the season,
Speaker 1: and at that time they were giving me playing time
Speaker 1: because we were already a lottery team and Steph had
Speaker 1: rolled his ankle the day before and he was like
Speaker 1: could barely walk and he literally like hobbled on and
Speaker 1: played the last game of the season. And I was like, well, one,
Speaker 1: I was like, why are you playing? Like give me
Speaker 1: some like let me get my thirty five minutes tonight.
Speaker 1: But but on the other hand, I was just like, dude,
Speaker 1: like that is intense, Um, like you love the game.
Speaker 1: In terms of Westbrook, like we've never had We've never
Speaker 1: had run ins, but like the way that Westbrook looks
Speaker 1: at me, it just I just it just made me
Speaker 1: feel like he hated me. And I've never spoken to
Speaker 1: him like we we talked to Chapel and stuff, but
Speaker 1: just like and just the way he looked at everybody
Speaker 1: were just like we were talking Chapel and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: us up, you know, like and pray for each other whatever.
Speaker 1: And then we get on the floor and then I
Speaker 1: like go to like dap the other team, and then
Speaker 1: I will dap him and he would just be like me,
Speaker 1: mugging me and everybody else in the world, and I'm
Speaker 1: just like, oh, he's just like there's a switch for
Speaker 1: him when he starts shooping like he hates everybody's the
Speaker 1: way he moves. What do you think of Steph and
Speaker 1: Russ's growth and amazing performances this season. I think I
Speaker 1: think Steph is just doing whatever the hell he wants
Speaker 1: right now. It's like they're just looking for him every possession,
Speaker 1: every second. He'll he'll have three opportunities or he'll look
Speaker 1: for shot three times, not give it, and then he'll
Speaker 1: just get up, you know, past it, and then everybody
Speaker 1: will go set a bunch of screens for him, Like
Speaker 1: he is literally changing the game, man, Like that's happening
Speaker 1: in front of us. He's literally changing the game. Like
Speaker 1: I hope people can appreciate it. And then with Westbrook,
Speaker 1: like I mean, I just don't understand why he's so
Speaker 1: it's hard to say like that an m v P
Speaker 1: is underrated, you know, but like people do people realize
Speaker 1: what he's doing, Like they don't. They don't get it.
Speaker 1: Do you know how many games would take for me
Speaker 1: to get rebounds in a game like that? Probably takes
Speaker 1: like ten games for me to get like he does normal,
Speaker 1: like your numbers are normal for a point guard. Point
Speaker 1: guards get two or three rebounds a game. Like this,
Speaker 1: dude is going out there and grabbing plus twenty rebounds,
Speaker 1: plus twenty assists, plus twenty points. It's just it's insane,
Speaker 1: but he makes it look easy. So I think people
Speaker 1: don't appreciate how hard it is. Yeah, they don't appreciate.
Speaker 1: Like it's like when you've been doing it for longer
Speaker 1: or like for a long time, they just get used
Speaker 1: to it and it's like it's like okay, steps Stepp
Speaker 1: hit eleven threes or at forty nine points and twenty
Speaker 1: nine minutes. Like, look, man, that's not normal. Even if
Speaker 1: it's normal for stuff like that's just not normal. Don't
Speaker 1: talk down on these players or like even with Westbrook's
Speaker 1: like he just tied the big Old for triple levels
Speaker 1: I think, or something like you know, it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: like this is history, Like the most recent crop of
Speaker 1: players and in the last like five to ten years
Speaker 1: have just absolutely shattered some of the existing like records
Speaker 1: that have lasted for decades like and so it's just
Speaker 1: we have to keep in mind when we're talking about it,
Speaker 1: like this stuff is revolutionary, like what Lebron is doing,
Speaker 1: Like people will like they need to appreciate that. And
Speaker 1: like I think that's something that we saw with Kobe
Speaker 1: where it was just like when when he's gone, like
Speaker 1: you appreciate him more, but like did he get all
Speaker 1: the respect that he deserved earlier? And that's a lot
Speaker 1: of and that's a lot of these players, man, And
Speaker 1: that's and that's actually what makes a narrative. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think even m J when I watched and think
Speaker 1: about what he went through, like went through a little
Speaker 1: bit of in terms of like younger in his career
Speaker 1: was like we didn't know like how good he was
Speaker 1: gonna be. And so there's always an element of like
Speaker 1: players are kind of underappreciated while they're in their primes.
Speaker 1: Facts James one of them to James Harden as well. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: coming from lynsanity to where the Knicks, um go back
Speaker 1: to ur Now, I wouldn't want they go back, just
Speaker 1: go back to the bottom of the league. Seeing their
Speaker 1: rise again and and what Julius Randall and these guys
Speaker 1: have been doing, Tims have been able to do. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on the Knicks, I mean easily the
Speaker 1: biggest surprise, Like I played, I played with Julius Randall
Speaker 1: in l A that year with Cope and and uh,
Speaker 1: I mean he has come such a long way and
Speaker 1: I love Okay, so not even just that, Like Tims
Speaker 1: got fired multiple times, right, Like Julius Randall went through
Speaker 1: a lot and kind of came out of no where.
Speaker 1: Derek Rose went through a bunch of injuries in it.
Speaker 1: And that's why, like you can't really ever count somebody out,
Speaker 1: Like you really don't know until like it's all about
Speaker 1: opportunity and timing and so like it didn't work out
Speaker 1: for them in in previous situations, but now in the
Speaker 1: right situation, as long as a player continues to stay
Speaker 1: confident and keeps pushing forward, like you don't know what
Speaker 1: they're capable of accomplishing. And that's why I think it's
Speaker 1: so easy to just count people out, Like across the board,
Speaker 1: it's like, Oh, he's sucked last year, so he's done.
Speaker 1: Like it's like, no, dude, Like these dudes are like
Speaker 1: prime like that. I think for me, it's like, look
Speaker 1: at the players who consistently find ways to overcome hurdles,
Speaker 1: or the coaches that consistently find ways to overcome obsticles,
Speaker 1: like like there's something to be said about the persistence
Speaker 1: of like a pursuit of excellence, great powerful mind. Coming
Speaker 1: towards the end, we're gonna switch lanes though, and and
Speaker 1: and talk about what's been going on the country of
Speaker 1: late um. These Asian hate crimes, you've you've spoken them.
Speaker 1: We we witnessed um Um it's been crazy. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on just kind of where we are as
Speaker 1: a country and and in this particular, uh, these these
Speaker 1: incidents that can continue to happen. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: really sad um and I'll say, like it starts with dialogue,
Speaker 1: it starts with empathy and listening. Like that sounds really stopped, right,
Speaker 1: Like that sounds really like Okay, everybody's staying. But but
Speaker 1: really what it looks like what I'm saying is when
Speaker 1: like when police brutality was happening, like at the height
Speaker 1: of the the like the uproar, when black lives matters,
Speaker 1: you know, all that, all those situations, like it mattered
Speaker 1: to me, but it didn't hit home like this one
Speaker 1: is hitting home right now. Will stop Asian hate. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that it has to be a perfectly
Speaker 1: equal experience, but I am saying, like I even learned
Speaker 1: a lot from like, hey, I need to have more empathy.
Speaker 1: Like I tried to do a lot of things in
Speaker 1: certain situations, but I still didn't have Like I didn't
Speaker 1: really understand all that. I didn't have the conversations that
Speaker 1: I needed to have. I didn't feel the depths of it.
Speaker 1: I didn't do enough research, like and that's why I like,
Speaker 1: I think right now, it's like if we're going to
Speaker 1: really make progress, like each person has to look in
Speaker 1: the mirror and say, like where do I like, where
Speaker 1: do I stand where where can I help? And where
Speaker 1: can I learn more? If we could all start with
Speaker 1: learning a little bit more, we're talking a little bit
Speaker 1: less or judging a little bit less, I think we'd
Speaker 1: be in a much much better place. And and that's
Speaker 1: why I like, for me, like now that it's really
Speaker 1: really hit home in a different way, Like I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like, man, if I could rewind the tape five years,
Speaker 1: like things would have looked differently. I would have done
Speaker 1: a lot more and done it much better and had
Speaker 1: a different sense of urgency because these are real, live
Speaker 1: to real people getting stabbed, burned, killed, and uh, and
Speaker 1: we need more empathy, like we we need to start
Speaker 1: talking in in in a healthy direction. I think, what
Speaker 1: you hit it on the head, and you have to
Speaker 1: even because you'll never experience the exact obviously, every i'd say,
Speaker 1: every ethnicity goes through something when it comes to minorities
Speaker 1: being killed, hated on, discriminated or whatever the situation. Maybe,
Speaker 1: but until you try to just not even walk a mile,
Speaker 1: like they say, just try to, you know, just try
Speaker 1: the shoes on, see what it's like, to understand what
Speaker 1: it's like to be in those situations, will never go anywhere,
Speaker 1: because I think you said it perfectly. It's just like,
Speaker 1: you know, I understood and I supported the Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter movement, but it didn't register with me, like these
Speaker 1: Asian hate crimes? Do you know what I mean? So,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure some African Americans can say the same
Speaker 1: thing about the Asian hate crimes, like damn, that's sucked up?
Speaker 1: Why is that happening? But it doesn't hit home because
Speaker 1: we're over here getting killed by this, this and that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So I think until everyone
Speaker 1: takes a step back and wants to have more of
Speaker 1: an understanding of what I think minorities as whole we
Speaker 1: go through and we all have our own issues. Obviously,
Speaker 1: African American issues date back to to to the beginning
Speaker 1: of this country, and we continue to be killed and
Speaker 1: and unfairly judged and all kinds of crazy ship. But
Speaker 1: there are other ethnicities that go through their version of
Speaker 1: what's tough for them. So until we all open up
Speaker 1: and have that collective understanding and dialogue, will probably stay
Speaker 1: stuck in this neutral position. You know, when I came over,
Speaker 1: and this is a sad part. When I came over,
Speaker 1: all I knew all I knew about you know, African
Speaker 1: Americans was what Hollywood told us. And so you know,
Speaker 1: for me, it's like every time, you know, when we're
Speaker 1: growing up, you know, my parents would be like if there,
Speaker 1: if they're if a black person would walking on the street,
Speaker 1: it would be like, oh, lock the door, right, Like
Speaker 1: that's all we knew, that's all we saw. It wasn't
Speaker 1: until I started playing. Once I got to elementary school,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of black teammates. Once I got
Speaker 1: to middle school, high school, had a ton of black teammates.
Speaker 1: And then I started going to you know, East Palo
Speaker 1: Alto to picking them up, and then they became like
Speaker 1: lifelong friends. And then all of a sudden, just by
Speaker 1: pure exposure, my my perspective and my parents perspective completely changed.
Speaker 1: And now it's like like when I was with the Rockets,
Speaker 1: my mom was getting brunched with like Pat BEVs mom
Speaker 1: and James Harden's mom, and they became they were like
Speaker 1: legitimate friends and like eating together. And it all came
Speaker 1: from exposure because you actually took a little bit of
Speaker 1: time to step in someone else's shoot shooes. And I think,
Speaker 1: like that's the powerful thing and the sad and the
Speaker 1: sad thing about it too. Right now, it's like if
Speaker 1: we can't really get to a place where we're having
Speaker 1: healthy dialogue or trying to like listen, like, it's not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Because the truth is, there has been racist
Speaker 1: things done in both directions, whether it's the Asian towards
Speaker 1: the Black community or the Black towards the Asian Like
Speaker 1: that is true. Like I even when I started playing well, like,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of really hurtful things that were
Speaker 1: said about me even as I played in the NBA.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that you know, I've experienced
Speaker 1: in terms of like, Okay, the black community. I felt like, like,
Speaker 1: for example, one of my favorite athletes like would always
Speaker 1: come to the game and helped me, and I had
Speaker 1: to confront him and I was like, dude, you inspired me, man,
Speaker 1: like I drew from like you like and and they
Speaker 1: just hated on me but had never spoke of me.
Speaker 1: I've never done anything to them. And and then on
Speaker 1: the flip side, like there's a lot of anti blackness
Speaker 1: that needs to be addressed in the Asian community as well.
Speaker 1: And so I'm and that's what basketball has done for
Speaker 1: me is just put me in this middle ground where like, man,
Speaker 1: I've experienced certain things from from black players and black
Speaker 1: teammates that like I'm like that really hurt me. And
Speaker 1: then like on the flip side, I also know that
Speaker 1: I've been a part of even what the things and
Speaker 1: the stereotypes that I've had about certain people like before
Speaker 1: I actually got to know them, and that that that
Speaker 1: healing has to happen through dialogue and through empathy, and
Speaker 1: you can't go into it. You can't go into a
Speaker 1: conversation on on the defensive, right, like that's not gonna
Speaker 1: get it done. If you really want to go and
Speaker 1: have a real conversation and have your perspective expanded, like
Speaker 1: you have to go in from a place of empathy,
Speaker 1: like no, for real, like let me listen to you,
Speaker 1: like let me not just for me, Like I learned
Speaker 1: Asian American history and it made me piste off because
Speaker 1: I was just like, why isn't this stuff being taught?
Speaker 1: And this is super shady. But then I haven't had it,
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't gone and done the research I
Speaker 1: need to really learn the African American history or even
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm not gonna get into all of
Speaker 1: it but just even tapping into the surface of like
Speaker 1: the prison system or incarceration or the things like that,
Speaker 1: and how systemic these things are. Like I had to
Speaker 1: go into these places to learn without any preconceived notions,
Speaker 1: in a place where I'm really trying you to listen
Speaker 1: and have empathy and not try to prove myself or
Speaker 1: defend myself. Like that has to happen, and that's where
Speaker 1: real healing can can come. And from the dialogue, we'll
Speaker 1: start to have awareness, accountability, and change. Like that's how
Speaker 1: I've always seen it. I completely agree. You spoke on
Speaker 1: your time in the n b A and and some
Speaker 1: things were said. You were recently called the coronavirus when
Speaker 1: you're playing in the G League. But I like the
Speaker 1: road you take. You didn't necessarily call the players out
Speaker 1: in public. I think, if I'm not mistaken, you had
Speaker 1: a conversation with them, when you guys sat down and
Speaker 1: had you know, had talks. What was that like, Um,
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's it's it's been a crazy last
Speaker 1: two years. But what was that like just to kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of energy coming towards you on the
Speaker 1: court again? Yeah, I mean, you know, and this is
Speaker 1: why I went in a different route, right, Like, so
Speaker 1: you know, for me, when I was with in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and I had dreadlocks and there is and I wrote
Speaker 1: a piece on appropriation and and um, and I remember
Speaker 1: when Kmart had said some things and then I responded
Speaker 1: to him and then me and him spoke it out
Speaker 1: on the phone and it was amazing, right, like that
Speaker 1: reconciliation pieces amazing. But what is one thing that happened
Speaker 1: to this day, Like when when Kmart will post stuff,
Speaker 1: he will get racist comments, he will be called the
Speaker 1: N word. He like, there will be things where people
Speaker 1: are really trying to take him down for something that
Speaker 1: happened years ago. And that's just not okay, right, Like
Speaker 1: that's not We're not moving in the right direction if
Speaker 1: that's the case. And so that's why when this whole
Speaker 1: second situation happened in the G League, I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying the name because I don't know, just
Speaker 1: do like having to deal with racist Like that's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, the anti blackness and stuff like that is
Speaker 1: like so if if we're upset about certain certain racist
Speaker 1: things happening, word, we're gonna do turnout and be racist
Speaker 1: like that just doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: race you are, Like, that's not solving the issue. So
Speaker 1: the point is about building awareness and then building up
Speaker 1: and learning how it can heal and go in the
Speaker 1: right direction. And so for me having a conversation with
Speaker 1: the player in the G League, we actually spoke and
Speaker 1: had a great conversation. He was like, I've been in
Speaker 1: the boat, man, I don't know anything about what's been
Speaker 1: going on. I haven't been on social media. I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to get into the NBA. And then he's like,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until that that I started looking up all
Speaker 1: these things that happened to the Asian American community. I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry, man, Like, I didn't know it was like that.
Speaker 1: And then I shared some stuff, but it was just
Speaker 1: that was real, right like, and we really got to
Speaker 1: each other. We really learned from each other and our
Speaker 1: perspectives changed. Um. And that's why you know I went
Speaker 1: that rout. I commend you, Broth because a lot of
Speaker 1: people are are scared to scared to speak on these
Speaker 1: types of subjects because they would be afraid to frint
Speaker 1: offend people and say different things. But like you said,
Speaker 1: the conversation has to be had, and that's the only
Speaker 1: way we're gonna make make any type of way and
Speaker 1: get to what we're trying to go because we all
Speaker 1: trying to get to the same place of equality. And
Speaker 1: you just saying something that touched you. Man, it's funny
Speaker 1: you said that a lot of people should never get
Speaker 1: to the point where it was happening to their own
Speaker 1: race to take other people's place. Serious, if you care
Speaker 1: about the other race, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: we should all care about each other equally, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. That's one reason another reason why we
Speaker 1: gotta have a conversation. And we gotta reteach. We gotta
Speaker 1: reteach what we was taught. I was never taught. I
Speaker 1: never heard my mom ever say lock the doors with
Speaker 1: somebody come by, you know what I'm saying, Never in
Speaker 1: my life. And I lived in the ghetto, so and
Speaker 1: now I and I grew up in the house of love.
Speaker 1: And that's why I say me, you, me, you, j
Speaker 1: me and everybody else who stand on the side of love.
Speaker 1: We gotta re teach people. We gotta we we gotta,
Speaker 1: we gotta change the narrative because we can stand together,
Speaker 1: we all can stand in the same room and respect
Speaker 1: each other. But a lot of people wasn't taught that
Speaker 1: we gotta reteach people that money. I mean seriously, because
Speaker 1: because to me, like what's really sad, was really heartbreaking
Speaker 1: is when we start to compare experiences looks like this
Speaker 1: years at that and it's hard for me in this situation,
Speaker 1: like like and for me, like one of the situations
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with right now that I feel like i'm
Speaker 1: doing with it's like the glass ceiling, right Like, it's
Speaker 1: this the whole thing about Asians can't get to a
Speaker 1: certain place in there in an employment because there's a
Speaker 1: glass ceiling or the bamboo ceiling as they call it, right,
Speaker 1: and so and I can sit here and I can
Speaker 1: talk about that, and then it's but it's not my
Speaker 1: experience versus somebody else's experience, because everybody's is different. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, if we talk and we compare
Speaker 1: and then we try to like minimize each other's experiences,
Speaker 1: what are we doing. We're just taking attention. We're taking
Speaker 1: attention off. The real issue is a system that makes
Speaker 1: us feel that way. And so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: we're talking about how each one of us is hurt
Speaker 1: and how each hurt compared to the other person's hurt,
Speaker 1: when we should really be talking about the system and
Speaker 1: what's going on there and how things need to change.
Speaker 1: Is what you're saying. Re teach what has been taught. Love.
Speaker 1: We all we all got the same goal. But if
Speaker 1: you think about it too, I mean, we're really all
Speaker 1: minorities here, you know what I mean. So why are
Speaker 1: we at each other throat head neck when, like you said,
Speaker 1: the system in place is supposed to make that happen
Speaker 1: to and we're falling right into the trap. What we
Speaker 1: need to you know, unify, conversate and move forward together
Speaker 1: because like I said, I think we saw, you know,
Speaker 1: we saw what happens when we unify. When we unify,
Speaker 1: it's scary. People get scared when we unify, especially if
Speaker 1: we're educated and we unified. It's just like we've all
Speaker 1: fought to get to where we're at now and in
Speaker 1: the world's finally listening, like what's next, Like the next
Speaker 1: thing is to become unified and and have a universal
Speaker 1: message for all of us because we're all in this
Speaker 1: like one way or another. Yeah, And that's and that's
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I wanted to be on the show.
Speaker 1: To be honest, it wasn't talk about my career all
Speaker 1: the other stuff. Like it's because like people don't realize,
Speaker 1: like you know, like there's so much to learn from
Speaker 1: me talking to And that's the one thing that kind
Speaker 1: of feel bad about the podcast situation is like I
Speaker 1: wish like you guys had the floor like two thirds
Speaker 1: of the time because like there's so much like an
Speaker 1: learn from you guys right there. There's so much in
Speaker 1: learning and through listening and like I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just everybody and you guys deal with it. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're an athlete or whatever, and so like
Speaker 1: they there's all these boxes that everybody's trying to put
Speaker 1: everybody in. But at the at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like it really does come down to like having true,
Speaker 1: real conversations and relationships and that's what's gonna change it
Speaker 1: all the way across the board. Like that has to happen,
Speaker 1: um And so you know, I'm like super grateful that
Speaker 1: you guys allow me to do this, and I know
Speaker 1: you guys wanted me to come down to l and
Speaker 1: I couldn't make it. But yeah, it's it's amazing, and
Speaker 1: I hope you guys continue to do what you're doing
Speaker 1: and even to some of the guest other guests that
Speaker 1: you guys have like it's awesome. What you gotta doing?
Speaker 1: You know what I gotta I gotta tell this story now.
Speaker 1: And Brian would be mad Brian from Showtime. This weekend, bro,
Speaker 1: we was at the Civil Rights Museum and Alan Novice
Speaker 1: in Classic and there was a lot of people around
Speaker 1: and it was this one Asian reporter and he was
Speaker 1: nobody wasn't talking to him, so uh and UH, I
Speaker 1: think some kind of way Brian and my photographer got
Speaker 1: it on camera, but I never posted it for no
Speaker 1: for no for no game. But I walked up to him,
Speaker 1: like what's up. Bro. He ended up driving down from
Speaker 1: Indiana and uh we I end up talking to him,
Speaker 1: end up exchanging numbers with him and uh and and
Speaker 1: told him anything he needs as far as the obs
Speaker 1: and Classic, Uh to call me and uh I get
Speaker 1: him in anything he needed. But I'm saying that to say,
Speaker 1: this is the type of world we gotta get rid
Speaker 1: of of discrimination. You know what I'm saying, This is
Speaker 1: why I love being who I am, because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the person to knock all this stuff down,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And and and it's funny
Speaker 1: we're talking about it because this just happened this weekend,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So this is the type
Speaker 1: of stuff that we gotta knocked down and come together. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I was able to to to reach
Speaker 1: out to him and make him feel involved in that
Speaker 1: weekend because I've seen how he was getting uh uh
Speaker 1: put pushed out kind of not not being treated like
Speaker 1: every other but everybody else that was there, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's the stuff that we are
Speaker 1: still dealing with today. But all it took was you
Speaker 1: to to extend your hand and your words. It wasn't hard.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying it wasn't hard. It wasn't hard, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're still going through that today. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But I said, like, how far did it go to?
Speaker 1: Where you know, you find out he came down from Indiana?
Speaker 1: You gotta changing numbers. But it just started with you
Speaker 1: out of just your heart. Just let me go how
Speaker 1: they're do real quick? You mean, because I see what
Speaker 1: it was just it was just sation. Hey, MLK is
Speaker 1: smiling down on you. Yeah. Hey, but Jeremy, on's some
Speaker 1: real ship. I think, you know, we can talk off live,
Speaker 1: but maybe we can put some sort of like all
Speaker 1: the Smoke round table together where we can get you know,
Speaker 1: us US three and some some people have either been
Speaker 1: affected by it or been a part of it or something.
Speaker 1: And like I said, continuing these conversations because these are
Speaker 1: the conversations that need to be had. And you know,
Speaker 1: one thing, we we pride ourselves on his versatility over
Speaker 1: here at all the smokes, so we can give you,
Speaker 1: you know, anything that's needed. So we'll definitely further this
Speaker 1: conversation offline and see if we can put up together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can get Julius Adaman, Miles Leonard, we can get
Speaker 1: all little on two. It's a conversation. But no, hey,
Speaker 1: I managed because it means a lot to me. It
Speaker 1: really does. And that's why I like being playing basketball,
Speaker 1: Like say, like man, it saves me. Otherwise I'd just
Speaker 1: be I would just be a Hollywood. I would just
Speaker 1: be listening to what Hollywood said about black people, and
Speaker 1: that is um. So like I just yeah, let me know,
Speaker 1: because we will we'll get your information. Yeah, we'll see
Speaker 1: what we'll we'll talk with the team, but you know,
Speaker 1: if we should be able to knock that down. All right,
Speaker 1: now we're on the quick hitters. First thing to come
Speaker 1: to mind, drop it off. If you can pick any
Speaker 1: four current NBA players to go play a pick up
Speaker 1: outside game with you, So you plus four, who would
Speaker 1: it be? It would be Lebron's steph uh, K D
Speaker 1: and A D. You got you guys. You guys are losing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just gonna pass and stand in the
Speaker 1: corner and there you alright, give give me your top
Speaker 1: five most impactful Asian athletes of all time? Five I
Speaker 1: mean uh yeah, I mean um Naomi Osaka, um nice, Hey,
Speaker 1: don't be bad, don't be bashful. You should be in there,
Speaker 1: no bullshit, alright, alright, alright, we'll throw myself in there.
Speaker 1: But uh does what Bruce Lee did count as being
Speaker 1: an absolutely? Both they both athletes, that's what? Yeah? Hey, good, okay,
Speaker 1: let me throw a name at him. See if he
Speaker 1: remembers me and gaybatur No, he played with me for
Speaker 1: the seven Tonio Spurs. He was nice, yes, yes, on
Speaker 1: my chat on he's playing points I think on the
Speaker 1: championship year he was on tap. He has a ring
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, No, it was a Yeman point
Speaker 1: of championship. But he played with us on the side
Speaker 1: tel first. He was like six ten, almost three hundred
Speaker 1: pounds he was, but he had footwork. He had great footwork.
Speaker 1: He had great footwork. Hey, that Bruce Lee and Jackie
Speaker 1: Chan and that was that was nice. Definitely impactors. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: the Drunken Masters top five all time. Cut it out
Speaker 1: for to start playing like that. You see that Jackie
Speaker 1: Chan is one of the best athletes ever. If you
Speaker 1: can relive one moment in your basketball career, which moment
Speaker 1: would it be and why? Man, I wasn't really gonna say, uh,
Speaker 1: my favorite shot in my whole career was at base
Speaker 1: on three point in front of your guys best but
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that. But I respect hold on
Speaker 1: to that one because when he said earlier that shot
Speaker 1: in me, I knew exactly what shott he was to.
Speaker 1: He said, I hit a baseline drum. Was like, no,
Speaker 1: you hit a baseline jumper right next to our bench
Speaker 1: in that quarter. I remember that ship. I remember that
Speaker 1: question was a dagger. Like, now you can say that
Speaker 1: first shot that was dope. That's because it was your shot.
Speaker 1: If you could one message on a billboard, what would
Speaker 1: it be? Empathy? That would be it empathy or hope,
Speaker 1: either one of those because to me, like going through
Speaker 1: this situation with no hope, like we're not gonna make
Speaker 1: it through to the other side. So empathy or hope
Speaker 1: all caps, ooh, put some put some nice whatever pictures
Speaker 1: behind it. If you can host one guess on All
Speaker 1: the Smoke, who would it be? But before you answer
Speaker 1: this question, you have to help us with your answer.
Speaker 1: I have to help I have to help you with
Speaker 1: So whoever you whatever your answer is, you have to
Speaker 1: help us get that person on. So who would you
Speaker 1: like to see on the Who would you like to
Speaker 1: see on the show? And if you're answer, you have
Speaker 1: to help us get your answer. So it's got to
Speaker 1: be somebody, you know. Yeah, I mean I think it
Speaker 1: would be cool for you guys to talk to Adam
Speaker 1: Silver because when I spoke to him and I had
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation with him, he was like so
Speaker 1: different and more normal and like just the way he
Speaker 1: viewed like very wise, like beyond like what I expected,
Speaker 1: far beyond what I expected, or what like you know
Speaker 1: I had gone through the lockout and so I had
Speaker 1: seen a lot of the way that the MVP A
Speaker 1: and the NBA had his beef. But that would be
Speaker 1: a great conversation. I feel like I like that. I
Speaker 1: know you thought about Adam Silver. Yeah, me neither. He
Speaker 1: texts me. He text me doing all this stuff the
Speaker 1: last year and have some real nice stuff. So I
Speaker 1: would love to talk to him, reach back out to him. Well, Jeremy, Man,
Speaker 1: thank you. Uh, we appreciate you. Uh. Your run will
Speaker 1: never be forgotten. Like I said before, though, Man, outside
Speaker 1: of all the basketball ship, it's good to see that
Speaker 1: you you know, you you're mentally stable, because I think
Speaker 1: that's what's most important. Um, what you're doing in this
Speaker 1: social justice space. Um, like I said, you had to happen,
Speaker 1: had to happen to your people for you to understand.
Speaker 1: But to me, it's never too late to get an
Speaker 1: understanding or want to learn. So again we commend you
Speaker 1: for that. And um, like we said before, man, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put some sort of round table together, so make
Speaker 1: sure we get your information and man, let's continue this conversation.
Speaker 1: But thank you for being on the show. Jack, great show.
Speaker 1: Jeremy We appreciate you. You can catch you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I'll reach out and try to get you guys numbers.
Speaker 1: I'll shoot you guys in text later. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Thank you for sure. For sure, you can
Speaker 1: catch us on Showtime Basketball, YouTube, and the I Heart
Speaker 1: platform Black Effects. We'll see you all next week. This
Speaker 1: is all a Smoke, a production of The Black Effect
Speaker 1: and Our Heart Radio in partnership with Showtime