WEBVTT - Ralph Sampson: The NBA’s First Unicorn 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.159 We'll go back all the smoke Pump Galla twenty twenty 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.120 five and Jack, we gotta go a Texas More Time 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.600 All Star Hall of Famer, one of the greatest college 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:10.840 basketball players of all time, someone who was way before 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.040 his time as far as his skill set, and Spencer 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:15.920 Haywood said, we got to get this man to not 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.160 be modest and make him talk his shit. So that's 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:20.759 what he's going to do today. Man, Welcome to the show. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.400 Ralph Samford, h appreciate you, man, thank you for coming in. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.480 Your game at seven four was something that hadn't necessarily 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:31.880 been seen, but you didn't really get to utilize it 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.519 as much as you would have got to use it 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:37.280 in today's basketball. But how did with your size and 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.400 skill set, how did you develop into some called you 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.440 like a three man in a five body. 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.760 You know when you're growing up in six seven in 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.720 ninth grade, I mean go back, I hated basketball initially. 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:51.760 Oh really, I. 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.240 Mean because you only score sixteen points in a game. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.640 I had sixteen points in the first quarter. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.640 So it give me this rule. Talking about this. 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.200 You know, and you know you play and you're tall, 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.960 and you know you got your little coordinated and so 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.840 when I was coming up, that's the way the roots were. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.000 So I played baseball and that was a really good pitcher. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.520 But as I grew, I through side arm and the 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.319 ball would do like this, m nasty grow a little 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.040 bit and gets black. The ball goes and hits the 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.360 kid in the head. You know, so you got to 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.440 go to first base. My mother like, okay, great, catch 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.560 the ball with my ungloved hand, like you fool, you 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.440 need to catch with the glove more the left film 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.600 like it's the most boring and shit ever done. And 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.800 so I got up of baseball, got the basketball, and 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.199 then start to develop the game at that point in time, 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.360 and then could never get the ball. But I had 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.560 a lot of cousins and people that played in the neighborhood. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.000 We played there every day in the neighborhood, so you know, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.280 you know how to get you're young, and you get older, cousins, 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.480 you can't play now with the big boys and you're 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.200 playing the last game. The freaking lights go out and 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.600 you got to go home. So you know, we did 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:00.800 all that. So but I played every day. I couldn't. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.200 I didn't know how to swim. You don't just go 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:04.240 to pool sit with my aunt. 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.760 Most y'all don't I can get out the water. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.360 I ain't getting the ocean. Ocean. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.800 I got able to stand up when I get tired, exactly, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.799 I'm not even to play with that. And I don't 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:17.800 need to go to the deep end. 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:19.359 I can run in it. It was all good. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.079 But we did all that where we played every day, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.160 and then you got in the game. There was no au. 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.280 There was five star and go to five star. They 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.720 playing outside the food not good. I'm not gonna do that. 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.079 I got food and I got a good competition. Well, 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.480 we would play, play, play, and then when I got 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.360 in the in the ninth grade, my coach put me 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.560 on JV to develop it and they moved me up 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:45.040 at the end of the year and we went to 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.120 the state championship. And so with that, I could never 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.680 get the ball. So you dribble it, get it, drive 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.920 it down, turn it over. So he made me in 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.560 practice every day against the fastest guy there. If I 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.880 could dribble and practice, I could dribble in the game. 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:01.480 That's where it started. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.320 You played in the traditional game. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.400 We're back to the basket centers, but with the game 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.920 now with stretch fives, and pace and space. Do you 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.760 think your game would have been more acclimented for this 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.720 game or today's game or any era? 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.200 Probably any? I mean I love the era we played 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.520 it because you know, if I played. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:25.639 In the day there, I came out in middle school, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.200 and today's era, I came out middle school, I wouldn't 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:29.280 have to go to finish high school. 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.120 But when you come in and the league was. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.520 Tough, you know, and you had to have the power 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.080 forward in the center. And so I knew at one 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.680 hundred and ninety pounds. So coming out high school, college, 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:43.680 I need to go to college and get my way, huh. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:45.960 And I did that about my second year. But I 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.760 wouldn't ready to play artists Gilmore. I wouldn't ready to 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.960 play you know, the bad boy the boys, you know. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.320 I mean one of my good friends, bat Marie Lucas. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.640 He taught me a whole lot about the game, and 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.160 he was a sweet guy, right, but he would play. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.280 We played against the Lakers, he played on the team. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.840 He comes to center court, he'd take his freaking elbow 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.480 and punched me in the chest. I'm like, motherfucker, you know, 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.360 we want to fight right there? And then we got 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.240 to really get a camaraderie over the years, and he said, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.440 I couldn't catch you, so I better hit you the 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.600 first because I'm going to catch you anymore. Right, So, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.280 but he taught me a lot about that. Artists was 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.479 my first NBA game. He taught me a lot. Artists 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:26.840 would pick me up. He would pick a kem up, 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.440 left hand and this moving. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.040 And what he wanted to do. That's crazy, the strongest. 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:36.400 Human effort, like your freaking hand, right. But you know, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.240 you learn from those guys, and so we stayed in 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:40.520 and you did what you had to do because she 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:41.880 wasn't quite ready for that beating. 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:43.720 And you know, it's not like that today. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.479 Obviously a tremendous gift and opportunity being seven four. But 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.080 what was the worst part about being so tall as 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:52.039 a professional athlete. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:53.839 I mean, it's just the lifestyle you got to figure 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:58.160 out right from the Fortunately my mother was counting at 0:04:58.160 --> 0:04:59.000 a pants factory. 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.279 Okay, getting clothes was hard. Shoe size was hard. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.720 Every year you twelve, you got to twelve, you got 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.520 to fifteen, you got a fifteen. It grew every year 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.000 until seventeen. Shirts was okay, but pants and shorts, you know, 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.559 I think an eyeball. Figure it out. And I college 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.240 high school because made us wear like pole of shirts 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.000 and we would wear it and he would make thee 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.560 wear the color that I had to the game, so 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.360 we would coordinated. It only had like two or three 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.159 pair of pants, but we had jeans. My mom made 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:28.840 sure I had everything I needed. My dad as well. 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:34.719 But you got to adjust to doorways, beds growing up, 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.800 great uncles. We had a room and had a regular bed, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:40.279 but you couldn't find a mattress. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.640 Okay, so but my uncles. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.880 Came and made the frame longer, but it was a 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:46.680 gap in the end. So my feet at least hangover 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.360 to do different things what I had to do to 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:52.480 do creative. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.520 Harrisonburg Va upbringing, DMV talk about your bringing. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.479 It was fun. So in our family had a farm. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.120 It's been a hundred years in the family. So going 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:03.920 through the farm was good because you could feel the 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.839 legacy a family. My grandfather was in World War One, 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.440 uncles were in World War Two and the Vietnam War. 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.280 Twelve siblings and my mom is one of those twelve. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.640 So that was fun. Family reunions and stuff like that. 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.039 But the neighborhood, you know, and it was the hood, 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.480 but it was the neighborhood. I had cousins on every corner. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.320 They could play that, we worked together, whatever, and so 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.680 we created the hood and nobody came. No Caucasian people 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.560 would come through the hood back then. They were coming 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.320 to outskirts and they you know, some guys dating a 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.000 girl and she would come in through the hood. She'd 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:39.960 drive a car so fast up the street that she 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.400 had to get out the hood. Right, So it was 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.640 just that way. But we protected everybody, and nobody came 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.640 and messed with it, right, Not big cousins and all that, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.840 for sure. But coming up was fun in Harrisonburg because 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.360 the family and friends, high school coaches, and we could 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.760 go anywhere, Charlottesville, Richmond, we could travel. But that was 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.400 the best time of my life, really growing up because everybody 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.360 respected everybody, but we competed. Family is still farming now. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.200 I'm doing some farming stuff now. We're still farming, but 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.680 but my uncle is a little older and you can't 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.080 farm anymore like you used to. 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:14.160 So we kind of rented out. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.360 But I'm doing some farm stuff in the agricultural world, 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.520 creating the fun and doing some stuff with the General's 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:24.560 farming and hydro product farming as well. So we got 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:25.560 to do something body of food here. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.040 Yeah, because we're getting shipp from overseas. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.880 We don't know what it is. You got to go 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.239 to the store. You got whole foods. Okay, great, that's cool. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.960 But then you go to a local markets in the hood, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:37.400 I mean where that's coming from. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.840 But whole food there's something about about whole foods with 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:41.880 some of their stuff wasn't as whole as they claimed 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:43.760 it to be, No, exactly. 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.320 Yeah, and they had some I wanted visitors and there. Yeah, 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.880 they got some rodents in there for sure. Arguably the 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.360 most heavily recruited college basketball prospect of your generation appeared 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.600 on the cover of Sports Illustrated six times in four years, 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.680 which is bananas. When did you start getting recruited and 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:04.040 was they offering you that bag? 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:04.440 Back then? 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.240 It wasn't a bag looking like what the trash bag. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:14.360 I like that, like the track, I like the trash bag. 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:15.320 I like the Chad bag. 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:16.640 I like the chat big bag. 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:17.760 Yes, that's a big bag, Hemp. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.280 But my mom and dad took care of that. So 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:23.800 I know a lot more now than I did back then. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.280 Right, So Sports oil Street was cool. 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.640 You know, you don't expect to do that, You just 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.160 it just happens in that era. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:32.800 How were you not to cut you off? Howard you 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.040 the first time you're on the cover of Sports Illustrating. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:42.280 Twenty six times twenty after my freshman year college. Next year, 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.520 freshman year, we go to n I T. We beat 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.000 You're in LV with Sid Green and those guys as well. 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.600 We beat Kept McHale and Randy Bruin, those guys. If 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.960 I came out that year, the year Red arc Back 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:55.800 came to the house with a million dollars in the briefcase, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.280 put it on the kitchen table and said, you can 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.240 play with the Mighty Boats and Celtics if you come 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.160 to out this year. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:04.440 Kevin McHale went it, going. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.160 To the Yeah, you would have changed the course of 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.880 history for them, but it's every year. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.240 Yeah that if it had changed the next year man 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.679 Isaiah and there was the first two high school athletes 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:20.040 to make a Pan American Olympic team. 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:19.080 And Puerto Rico. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:20.719 So you go back and look at Bob Knight was 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.040 the coach and Ca Sheffey was an assistant. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:23.960 Coach, and so the story is there. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:25.640 I go early and. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.240 Work out a train and g Sheffey was teaching me 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.040 how to do the Bob Knight system. 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:31.320 Right. 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:36.360 Bob Knight gets in into the practice and he called 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.800 me out as a young kid. If you can't make yours, 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:42.880 can't make it from the baseline and baseline and back 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.840 in ten seconds, I'm senior, ass home. I made it 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.439 in seven. Oh shit, I run. I made it in seven. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.440 So he tried to leave you an example. But go 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:51.920 back in history you can see it. We did in 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:54.760 Puerto Rico. Check us out. Were in Portobeve getting read 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.240 play a game. We're going to practice and we had 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.280 the time like one o'clock to be on court. The 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.120 girls team with like ten minutes over. So Bobby goes 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.400 down and talks to the police officer and they got 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.200 to get off the court. And he's screaming and howling, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.920 he's moving his thing whatever and death like this smacks 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.400 the cop and smacks the cop. So we got to 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.559 come out of the Olympic village and go get some 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.079 questioned in a hotel because now we got security and 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.920 you have to look it up at this everybody, the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.040 whole thing, he's smacking smacking people. So man out, they're 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.559 trying to figure it out. But going back to the story, 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.760 but I came on my secondyeary we went to the 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.880 national title. We got beat by North Carolina. Indiana won 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.280 the national title that year, the year that Raakan got shot. 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.680 If I came out that year and Isaiah like, who's 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:42.840 coming out? You know we didn't have cell phone, we 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.560 call had each other's home number. You're coming out, You're 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.680 coming out. I'm coming out. But he might not have 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.559 gone to Detroit. And then next year the same thing 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.559 with the Lakers and working Wow, but they came out. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:55.840 But if I didn't know, I gotta flip. I'm gonna 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.040 go to the Lakers. I'm gonna go to Indiana. And 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.840 we know how the league is, right, how the packet 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.040 you want to end up in New York, how the 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.040 Magic end up in the Lakers, and how the Bird 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:05.559 end up in. 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.439 Celtics, How Lebron and one click Cleveland. 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:09.640 It's a chess game with the league, right, they know 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.959 they got You got to have those teams, right, you 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.360 gotta hold those rivaleries. So some people might say it's fixed, 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.200 and maybe it may not be. I can't say that 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:18.760 it is or not. But the league is the best 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.240 thing in the world basketball, which we know we're knowing 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.680 love right, and the game is the game. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.280 So you had from you, I mean probably earlier, but 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.560 starting your freshman year in college. Each year you could 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.440 have left. What kept you coming back? You just didn't 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:32.360 feel like you were ready yet? 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.040 Well, first year I wasn't ready. Okay, you know I 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:35.480 came in and I came in to college one hundred 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:35.959 and ninety. 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.120 Pounds, so all and you said, read the airback came 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:39.760 to this is supposed to be later, but you already 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.160 spoke on some might as well just run with it. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.040 He came to the hospital a million dollar briefcase. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.360 You just so. 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:46.680 Potentially picking you up. What pick would that would have 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.440 would have been that they have the number one pick? 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.040 And so he felt you were ready for the number 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:52.520 one pick. You just didn't feel like you were ready. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:53.439 It's the number one pick. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.920 Okay, you're going there with chief pair. Yes, a lot, 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.079 it's a lot in mL card. My body wasn't ready. 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.400 I mean today they like they take a guy like 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.480 and bebe and all that. Okay, you're not quite ready. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.640 We're not gonna play you a develop you. We're gonna 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.000 sit you on the sideline like today. 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.760 They didn't care about that red all that suitcase. One 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.480 of them was gonna stay here, both of yah, just 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:17.400 walk both leaving. 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.560 Okay, the bridge canes opened right, and there's one hundred 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.280 dollars buildings, but you don't know what's under it because 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.480 you want let you touch it. But you know there's 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.680 pressures of been coming in the house. And you know 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.040 it had Larry Fitzgerald there. I mean mister Fitzhera owned 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.640 owned the team as well. But you know, here's what 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:42.240 it is. Wow, coming into college one and then after 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.960 my first year about two or five, so I still would. 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.760 I gained eighteen pounds between my freshmen and sophomore year. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:50.280 Then a wait rom every day. 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.640 Your era of basketball didn't have au so it was 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.960 five star and stuff like that. How is it, you know, 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:00.240 moving through that to try to be seeing was there 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.319 any hall of famers that coming up around the time 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:02.599 with you? 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.400 There was fiveter would I never played, never played bombs Stars. 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.480 That was the first one I went to, so I 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.240 would go to. I went to Kentucky basketball camp at 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.200 our back was there, et et cetera. But one that 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.800 we went to first was called Bill croninra That started 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:21.160 all the recruiting services. So we go to Millersville, Georgia, 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.360 and my high school coach drives me to Georgia in 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.840 the back of his station wagon, you know. So it 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.040 was he's driving doing this thing. You get there, I'd 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.440 go to sign in and there's no Ralph Sampson on 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.320 the roster. There's the Wayne Sampson, but no Ralph Samsons. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.120 All the names were just messed up, right, So check in. 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.080 We get there and they pull you aside. You go 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.440 by the rule. They say, well, here are the rules. 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.360 If you see somebody run across the court and they 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.920 get the ball, don't mind them, just let them do 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.280 their thing. So we were then we're in the mental institution, 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.920 oh ship, and so they have people in the stands 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.760 and they would go get the ball and just run around, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.320 and I'm like, okay, what were we doing. But between that 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.840 and the and the sleeping quarters were military barracks. 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.440 So you want to go take a dump, It's like, 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:06.240 we're sitting right. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.719 Here next to you. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.680 No aggredition, no nothing. So that's the first one. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.280 But the likes of the team were there, James Worthy 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:21.120 are there, Thomas, Dominique, Wilkin, Antoine Car, Clark, Kelboll. I 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.960 mean the list was massive, right, and we all played 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.640 and we had a union where like everybody don't know 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:34.520 Antoine Car with the baddest dunker in the league at 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.040 that point in time. But he'd do some stupid ship, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.720 right and so you know, we got a little heavier, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.200 but and he would we do dunk contests. Okay, here 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:46.080 one you you you win it, We do it. But yeah, 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.440 he had funky stuff. I mean he would, I mean 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:58.440 he had. Dominique was good, but he couldn't compete with Cary. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.400 You got a little heavier the same, but yeah, took 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:02.920 it off in that level. But he was a bad boy. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:05.840 What are your thoughts on whole backs in high school 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.120 and what age did you arrive at Virginia. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.920 He came out of high school and I went I 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.240 was eighteen, eighteen going to high school, going to Agenda. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.440 So eighteen going to my nineteenth birthday. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.800 You believe in this six year senior ship. Now MONTHU 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.120 thirty years old, still a freshman just to be good 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:25.400 in basketball. 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:26.480 At ju Co rule they changed. 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.040 Yeah at four years that come back and go to 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:35.880 record school four years you ninety twenty seven, twenty the 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.760 last year year before one of the college teams was 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:45.360 older than the NBA team. A yeah, alb and still lost, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:46.040 still lost. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.120 That's crazy everybody. And your team got kids. 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.120 And retirement already and they losing. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.080 In the c A tournament. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:54.080 That's crazy, bro. 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.040 But I mean this the system broken. So you know, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.760 I feel sorry for the high school kid. Yeah, that's 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:02.600 never go get recruited to make it go. 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:03.720 My son's going through. 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:03.960 It right now. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.080 Yeah, you know what's his name. Platino came out and said, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.280 I'm not recruiting. High school kids are not going to 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.320 help you win. And I'm thinking that's so ass backwards 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.800 because colleges for young kids coming in trying to figure 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:16.680 it a way out, and now you've got twenty five, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.240 twenty six, twenty seven year olds. And I don't even 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.440 blame the players because it's the system that's broken. And 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.400 I don't blame the coaches because their jobs are on 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.240 the line if they don't win. So naturally, you think 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:26.920 an older kid is going to help me more than 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:27.960 a seventeen makes. 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.240 Us think that it's okay, yeah, making that money, but 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:30.880 it's still. 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.000 Funy giving guys out of college that play sports another opportunity. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:35.400 The guys. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.240 You know, they got certain guys in jail that got 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.200 a bad hand and they probably want to need a 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.280 second chance. I would rather give those guy guys an opportunity. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.440 It's somebody forty years old, you know what I'm saying. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.440 Well, I just think the Cats ain't gonna go pro anyway. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.000 I think the I think the cap should be twenty four. 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.440 I think twenty four. I mean that's what six years 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.520 removed from high school. If you can't figure it out 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.880 as far as sports goes, go back and get your degree. 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.080 And do whatever you want you want to do. 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.120 But I mean, I just think college the point of 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.240 colleges to help develop young kids coming out of high school. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:04.880 And that's not what I mean. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:06.520 You know, the high school coaches are not like they 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:06.960 used to know. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.439 They're not teaching. So you got gods out there to 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:11.920 run the AU teams. I don't know the fun of 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:13.800 the game at all, So they wanted they just want 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:15.919 to get one to go to pro and right the 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.960 right way. But the sad part is I did a 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.080 tournament this year and we had forty two teams from 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.520 Australia forty two that the Australian government paid for them 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.000 to come in the States and go to the major tournaments. 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.360 They paid the freight, their their chaveel bill was crazy, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:34.960 and then their food bill the tournament was fitty grand. 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:36.440 But they want those kids to come over and play 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:36.960 with these states. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.160 Yeah, now we got to get kids to go over 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:39.760 there to play. 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.200