Speaker 1: So look today we got Jokim now coming in here
Speaker 1: on KG certify them Gas. It'll be good to conversate
Speaker 1: and catch up with your stay tuned.
Speaker 2: I'm really happy to be here on the KG show.
Speaker 3: You know, uh, the demographic that we're targeted for sure,
Speaker 3: I might call this soft. There's nothing soft about facing
Speaker 3: your ship, you know what I mean. So I'm really
Speaker 3: excited to be here and uh talk to KG.
Speaker 1: I start KG Certified to have a platform to be
Speaker 1: able to bring not only young players, older players, players
Speaker 1: that you know built the built the game, so on
Speaker 1: and so on, but I built it for a platform
Speaker 1: of conversation. So you know, it's dope that we can
Speaker 1: actually go back to this time or the times where
Speaker 1: we played each other or a battle or whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, and be able to talk about it.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it's dope to have a platform
Speaker 1: to be to bring the guys over here and do
Speaker 1: just that.
Speaker 2: So that's what we're gonna do that.
Speaker 3: I only know KG from the Court. I don't know
Speaker 3: KG from the Court, So I'm excited for this. You
Speaker 3: know war you know Ultimate Warrior and uh, you know
Speaker 3: he got that chip. Nobody really like competing against this guy.
Speaker 3: But I loved it.
Speaker 2: It was It definitely made me stronger, and that's why
Speaker 2: I'm here today.
Speaker 1: In the art of competition. That's what it is. So
Speaker 1: you know, I think that I think that he understood
Speaker 1: where we were. I made it very plain and simple
Speaker 1: where we were in the art of competition. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm probably apologized during the day because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm never here to kill someone's spirit. I'm never here
Speaker 1: to kill someone's a fan appreciation of why.
Speaker 2: You were fans. You know, fans make the game. I
Speaker 2: really believe that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, fans, I'm fans of people.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm fans of sports. I'm
Speaker 1: fans of other athletes. So, you know, to kill his
Speaker 1: bob and all that, you know. But then I want
Speaker 1: to ask no question, like in a sense of what
Speaker 1: you want to what he asked me, which was what
Speaker 1: moved that show? Like what did you want me to do?
Speaker 1: You want me to stop the game and actually show
Speaker 1: you what move like? So yeah, but and all in all,
Speaker 1: Joe Kim was he was young, energy, he played hard,
Speaker 1: I respected and when we played he was a force,
Speaker 1: you know, he made his teams better.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it'd be dope to have a man to day.
Speaker 3: It's important to speak your truth, you know, and you
Speaker 3: know we have an opportunity more than ever now to
Speaker 3: to do it our way. So I think that's important.
Speaker 3: You know, as as competitors out there on the court.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you know you don't have time for that. It's
Speaker 3: not about content. You know, you're trying to get w's
Speaker 3: that's all it is. So now we can look back
Speaker 3: at the body of work and uh and really you know.
Speaker 2: Put our minds to it.
Speaker 3: How you doing, you're doing you're thinking it's good man,
Speaker 3: I'm good man, no complaints.
Speaker 2: First I wanted to show you is the move I
Speaker 2: caught it face.
Speaker 1: I think mental right, just like the boom you go
Speaker 1: forward right under lage. That's the move.
Speaker 2: That's what happened.
Speaker 1: That's the move.
Speaker 2: When that happened, come back down.
Speaker 1: It was like ages ago, like when like eighteen sixty
Speaker 1: four BC, I hit you with that move back then
Speaker 1: when to that side on the fire you asked me,
Speaker 1: what's up to get off my dig?
Speaker 2: That's how we wow. You see, that's how you did it.
Speaker 2: That's that's your story, that's your okay, let me see it.
Speaker 1: Okay, tell me from your perspective.
Speaker 2: What did you see? A. First of all, it wasn't
Speaker 2: light like that, you know, but it was sweet like that.
Speaker 3: No, you was catching the rock. Ha, I'm in your
Speaker 3: ship ha. Nothing nothing l like Okay.
Speaker 2: Then you know that knee started hurting at the end.
Speaker 3: Oh you had an ailment. Okay, you're oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: yeah yeah remember yeah yeah. So when I was catching
Speaker 3: at the elbow back, yeah, I'm dancing. Okay, that's what
Speaker 3: I remember.
Speaker 1: Okay. So obviously we had two perspectives of this whole thing,
Speaker 1: as as I can recall. I had to give you mine,
Speaker 1: right because everybody was like, yo, what's the movie talking about?
Speaker 2: So that was the move. Come sit down, man, let's
Speaker 2: let's do it.
Speaker 1: This is the moment of generosity. Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1: KG certified. I appreciate you, Bro, appreciate you man him
Speaker 1: man real yeah special yeah mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I'm happy we did this.
Speaker 1: Not real shit, it's needed, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But no, no, at the end of the day, just
Speaker 3: what you were talking about, you know, don't feel bad
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, that moment made me
Speaker 2: a better fucking player, No doubt I needed it.
Speaker 1: No, I'm telling you from a character standpoint, I get it.
Speaker 1: It was on the court whatever, and it was competition,
Speaker 1: but from a big bro ship like, yeah, if I
Speaker 1: if I can change well, I was, I don't want
Speaker 1: to say this, but yeah, if I can change anything
Speaker 1: about myself back then, I wouldn't have been so man.
Speaker 1: I was so fucking locked in, man, and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: trained so differently just to get to a point where
Speaker 1: it was like kill or be killed and it wasn't
Speaker 1: nothing in between. So when I would you know, it's
Speaker 1: what it is, you know what I'm saying. And when
Speaker 1: I heard that man fuck with me, I was like, damn, Bros.
Speaker 1: Bro was a bro fuck with me? Like oh Man,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, I'm gonna have to apologize to Bro.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: That's that's you know what I'm saying. But then I
Speaker 1: know two, you go through those life lessons man, and
Speaker 1: were not chopped before, you know what I'm saying, before
Speaker 1: all this and ship man, it's good to it's good.
Speaker 1: It's good to come into a platform be peace and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and chop. I gotta ask you, bro, Bro,
Speaker 1: you shoot this monf for like this, Bro, I saw
Speaker 1: you shut.
Speaker 2: The free though.
Speaker 1: Bro, when you get from when you get this, where
Speaker 1: you get the joint from?
Speaker 2: Give me on your all. After that playoff series, so
Speaker 2: we come back to Boston. I remember I had like
Speaker 2: four of.
Speaker 1: The word and I was like, I gotta jumping up,
Speaker 1: but you shoot that motherfucker. Listen, listen to the ball,
Speaker 1: y'all supposed to go twelve to six. It's supposed to
Speaker 1: spind like this. It's not supposed to go three to
Speaker 1: three to nine, three to three to nine, and I
Speaker 1: got it right here. It's not supposed to go like this.
Speaker 2: Joke.
Speaker 1: You the only nigga I know to take that take.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what this is. I got to
Speaker 1: consult with rich Gray and figure out what the axle
Speaker 1: of the ship. But nigga shot the ball sideways?
Speaker 2: How you do?
Speaker 1: How you doing three to nine on the twelve to six?
Speaker 2: I don't even know what to say. All I know
Speaker 2: is when that ship went in, though devastated, I.
Speaker 1: Was like, yo, it did haven't stated he was doing
Speaker 1: it like this.
Speaker 2: I was hit him with that.
Speaker 1: He was doing nothing. He was doing all this shit
Speaker 1: like man. So I looked at Rondo because every time
Speaker 1: I had a problem or I had an issue with you,
Speaker 1: I would go to Rondo a baby and then and
Speaker 1: don't be like, man, he been working on the ship. Man,
Speaker 1: he don't shoot that ship. I was like, well he
Speaker 1: not hit fort these motherfuckers, like, yeah, you might have
Speaker 1: to get up on that ship. Man, ain't getting up
Speaker 1: on that ship. After you hit three, then you hit
Speaker 1: the third one, you went, you know, let me get
Speaker 1: up on this ship. Fuck out here bashed with the bulls.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I love everything you've been doing.
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah we're working. We're working hard. Man. You know, purpose,
Speaker 2: purpose is strong, that's everything too is. But I appreciate
Speaker 2: you taking the time, you know and doing this is real.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was excited to do this because I don't think,
Speaker 1: at least for me, I haven't seen individuals that battle
Speaker 1: came back and have conversation. What a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know is that me and you and I had
Speaker 1: a conversation since all of that right there, right. I
Speaker 1: like to call it antics. I like to call it leverage.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're playing each other, you studying each other,
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure each other out. You know, you
Speaker 1: know you was no different from that, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I talked to Doc Rivers and uh Rajon
Speaker 1: Rondo and Big Baby. I think Big Baby and Region
Speaker 1: had actually played against you, either in college or whatever
Speaker 1: the situation was, and you know, it was more of
Speaker 1: a it was more of a conversation of what to
Speaker 1: expect from you. And then when I played you, it
Speaker 1: was a different experience. It was more talkative. I could
Speaker 1: tell right away your IQ was different. You had a
Speaker 1: different vibration. I could see you gathering the rest of
Speaker 1: the guys. So all the stuff that they was giving
Speaker 1: me was totally inaccurate. So that's why not to say
Speaker 1: I seen you as a threat or nothing like that.
Speaker 1: And I never anticipated or or uh meant for that
Speaker 1: to become off like it was light. Anything we did
Speaker 1: was always at a high volume. We battled at a
Speaker 1: high value, both mentally and physically, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: At the same time, too, when when when when I'm
Speaker 1: when I'm competing, just like when you competing, or at
Speaker 1: least it felt like this you hit destroyed. I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm here to like create doubt. That's that's that's one
Speaker 1: of my things. Like I was trying to destroy your will,
Speaker 1: but never in another in another stratus. For what I
Speaker 1: ever thought that you was a fan of mine. So
Speaker 1: you know, I come today and I say, I apologize
Speaker 1: for killing that light and because I'm because I take
Speaker 1: a lot of pride in being a big brother to
Speaker 1: all the young guys. You know what I'm saying that.
Speaker 1: But in the form of where we were in competing,
Speaker 1: that's what it was, and I understood it coming from
Speaker 1: you too, but I just wanted you to know I
Speaker 1: recognized your genius. I saw it, I respected it, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we battle, bro and it was nothing like that mental
Speaker 1: play because although you could see the physicals, you could
Speaker 1: see the little whatever's answers, but it was a whole mental,
Speaker 1: mental part of the game being played in front of
Speaker 1: everybody's eyes, and it was over everybody's head. So you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, take it takes a real wind
Speaker 1: to play that game, you know what I'm saying. Which
Speaker 1: that which was leads to my first question with you
Speaker 1: was was, No, I don't hear a lot about like
Speaker 1: your makeup or excuse me, your early beginnings. Could you
Speaker 1: take me to your early beginnings. I didn't know you
Speaker 1: you from New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm from New York.
Speaker 1: We're part of New York are Front.
Speaker 3: I'm from Hell's Kitchen, so midtown Manhattan. Yeah, I played
Speaker 3: a lot of tournaments uptown. I think playing in New
Speaker 3: York definitely like shape me. You know, my first year
Speaker 3: at Florida, I didn't play a lot and that was
Speaker 3: tough for me. So a lot of my homies uptown
Speaker 3: were like, yo, you gotta come and play in these
Speaker 3: street ball tournaments. So playing that Kingdome, playing at Rucker Park,
Speaker 3: shout out Roscoe Biggers, shout out a mass voice of
Speaker 3: you know on the mic. So it was just like
Speaker 3: for me, I think that that really shaped me. If
Speaker 3: it wasn't for playing with in those street tournaments, I
Speaker 3: don't think I would have been the player that I was.
Speaker 3: But before we even go any further, I just want
Speaker 3: to say, you know, this is this is a really
Speaker 3: special moment. I was like talking to some of my
Speaker 3: vets before I came on here, and you know, I
Speaker 3: realized that everybody had something to say and for me.
Speaker 3: I'm doing this for me right now, this is not
Speaker 3: for this, not for anybody else. And being able to
Speaker 3: talk to somebody that I grew up, you know, really,
Speaker 3: you know, admiring on the court, just the.
Speaker 2: Way you competed really shape my game.
Speaker 3: So uh, you know, I hear a lot of people
Speaker 3: like talking about you know, the moments when we were
Speaker 3: talking ship, when you were talking shit, and and you
Speaker 3: know that that moment right there, it turned me into
Speaker 3: an animal on the court.
Speaker 2: It made me definitely made me stronger.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I remember you Hinge shooting.
Speaker 3: That turnaround silver spoon ass nigga, you know, and you
Speaker 3: know I used to hear that from everybody, and that
Speaker 3: was another reason why I had to, you know, go
Speaker 3: even harder because I always had that that thing to
Speaker 3: prove because you know, Pops was a tennis player. So
Speaker 3: you know, I think that it made me who I am.
Speaker 3: And that's why today, right now, this moment right here
Speaker 3: is for nobody else but for me to be able
Speaker 3: to talk about this because you know, the demographics I'm
Speaker 3: trying to, you know, reach to might call this shit soft.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing soft about facing your past, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I'm proud of this. That's what sup man, That's
Speaker 1: what help. And I want you to know, man, just
Speaker 1: from growth, gotta go through those hard moments. Gotta go
Speaker 1: through those moments to where it does something to you
Speaker 1: and you and you're stimulated off of it. You know,
Speaker 1: I think today's game, or at least it looks like
Speaker 1: you know, things have to have a worth. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't care what you get paid. Once you get
Speaker 1: in between those lines. It's about winning and losing. No
Speaker 1: no one wants to be on the other end of losing,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I like to think
Speaker 1: that you know, still sharp and still you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, And if it wasn't gonna be me, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be somebody, you know what I'm saying. And then
Speaker 1: I like to think that whatever you took from this,
Speaker 1: you took and you actually dominated something else or you
Speaker 1: dealt with something else, And that's what this is. Somebody,
Speaker 1: our our our ready, our interaction and what we had.
Speaker 1: I had one when I was younger and then shaped
Speaker 1: me to the to the competitor and the person I was.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want to be known for it
Speaker 1: straight up, man, When all this gets stripped down of
Speaker 1: its purity and you at your baar and you're erected
Speaker 1: and you like, Hi, Yeah, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be labeled something, and I wanted to be known for
Speaker 1: a certain style. And I really believe still sharp and
Speaker 1: still you know what I'm saying. Talk about a little
Speaker 1: bit about what you learn from your father being a
Speaker 1: tennis player.
Speaker 3: Well he was competitive as hell too, you know, so
Speaker 3: in a different time too, right, in a different time.
Speaker 3: You know, he was playing in a white sport. You know,
Speaker 3: he was the only black guy. And today this year
Speaker 3: is his forty years since he won the French Open.
Speaker 2: So a lot of people say, you know, he pops
Speaker 2: shout out to Yannick, you.
Speaker 3: Know, doing his thing, still doing a lot of stuff
Speaker 3: with the kids in Africa, you.
Speaker 2: Know, building building, building, building, you know.
Speaker 3: But as a tennis player, you know, people always said,
Speaker 3: you know, oh it's the last it's been forty years
Speaker 3: since the Frenchman won, you know, the French Open. But
Speaker 3: people don't realize that. You know, he came from Africa
Speaker 3: and he left home.
Speaker 2: He left he left Cameroon when.
Speaker 3: He was eleven years old to go to so Arthur
Speaker 3: Ashwll saw him play in Africa, gave him a scholarship
Speaker 3: in an academy, and you know, but people don't realize
Speaker 3: the rifices that you have to make at an early
Speaker 3: age to have a shot to be called champ.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So I was blessed to be able to see that
Speaker 3: work ethic and the work.
Speaker 2: That goes into it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I think that even though my parents were weren't together,
Speaker 3: just seeing seeing the work ethic, and it's just like
Speaker 3: it's not just practice, it's it's a way of life,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So that's what I learned from my pops. That's dope, man,
Speaker 1: that's dope. Now, can you play tennis?
Speaker 3: I can't play tenna, I can't. But unlivable though, you
Speaker 3: can't lie me right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, a dull right right? But if if you can,
Speaker 1: you can return. You can get you can you get
Speaker 1: you can you can get into it like.
Speaker 2: A little eye, you got a little hand.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just sure like you can. We can go
Speaker 1: into exchange like you can carry an exchange, like you
Speaker 1: can hit back and know all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll fuck you up with that ship for sure.
Speaker 1: No, No, you'll fuck me up. You fuck me up
Speaker 1: in you know what I'm saying. I'm super competitive. You
Speaker 1: can't live me either, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I got shipped back here and all that. But I can,
Speaker 1: I can, I can lie. I can rally a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, if I get the right rhythm.
Speaker 1: You know, to marbles from the Hoodicine Valley, you need
Speaker 1: a marble who know how to hit the ball back?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You feel me? But show
Speaker 1: me that fourhanded you track? You see how that you
Speaker 1: see how that ship was coming over your son? Like
Speaker 1: I was like, what's my technique on that? Do I
Speaker 1: even I didn't know that John Jay Lucas. I didn't
Speaker 1: know Jay Lucas was a real tennis player like be
Speaker 1: Andy Roddick, like was in it and just chose basketball.
Speaker 1: Was that hard for you? Knowing that your father and
Speaker 1: probably was passionate fuck about tennis and actually actually like
Speaker 1: laid the groundwork for if you want to go there route?
Speaker 2: Was it hard?
Speaker 1: Was it hard for you to go for basketball to tennis?
Speaker 1: Or was basketball like your calling?
Speaker 3: I was born in New York, and you know my
Speaker 3: pops used to His agent represented Patrick Ewing, Oh okay,
Speaker 3: his agent Patrick His agent also represented Donald Shild Donald
Speaker 3: Dell representing Michael in the beginning as well Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3: So you know, I was to be around basketball at
Speaker 3: a young age. So I used to go to the
Speaker 3: garden and see the love that it got. And you
Speaker 3: know when I saw that energy, basketball is like a
Speaker 3: religion in New York back So for me, it was
Speaker 3: like I didn't like people comparing me at an early
Speaker 3: age all that stuff. So basketball was just kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, my sanctuary and my peace of mind. And
Speaker 3: you know, there wasn't no comparison or anything like that.
Speaker 3: But I learned a lot from from my pops work ethic.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what sport, but it definitely shaped me
Speaker 3: into the player that I became.
Speaker 1: Who do you credit for your basketball knowledge? In your build?
Speaker 1: And I know it's I know, you got to have
Speaker 1: a coach somewhere, especially in your early days when you
Speaker 1: go into high school, you're not in college yet. Who's
Speaker 1: your who's your coach? First time I got to ask
Speaker 1: you the Riverside.
Speaker 2: Now, I was Long Island Panthers.
Speaker 1: All the way left.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would gets the establishment exactly.
Speaker 3: But we had a squad though it was like Charlie
Speaker 3: Fell in the waiver, Uh, you know, we had.
Speaker 2: Lenny Cook.
Speaker 1: Lenny Cook. Shout to Charlie V too, yo, because many
Speaker 1: who else was on that team.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: We had Day on Merit doing a lot of good
Speaker 3: ship with the kids out there in New York. Shout
Speaker 3: out Day on merrit. We had a guy called Cameron too.
Speaker 2: He was nice.
Speaker 3: No, we had we had a squad. We had a
Speaker 3: squad Long Island Panthers. I had a coach called mister Green.
Speaker 3: He worked security at a b c D camp, so
Speaker 3: he used to take me with. I used to go
Speaker 3: with him to a b C D. I wasn't playing,
Speaker 3: but I could watch everything. I saw Lenny play against Lebron,
Speaker 3: and Lebron won that matchup. That ship hurt from the beginning, man,
Speaker 3: it was. It was tough from the beginning because Lenny
Speaker 3: was my guy.
Speaker 1: And Lenny's real too.
Speaker 2: Yo. He had a real game, real game.
Speaker 3: So he was the number one player in the country.
Speaker 3: You know, we're playing in all these street ball tournaments.
Speaker 3: I'm living with mister Green in the summer because my
Speaker 3: pop was always I didn't live with my father, so
Speaker 3: he was always like, yo, come in the summer, Like
Speaker 3: come hang with me in the summer with chill, go
Speaker 3: to Saint Bars, go on all these cool places. And
Speaker 3: mister Green is like, look, if you want to get
Speaker 3: if you want to get good at this basketball, then
Speaker 3: you got to stay with me. So I used to
Speaker 3: stay in his house and Flushing, stay on his couch
Speaker 3: all summer, and you know, playing in all these street
Speaker 3: ball tournaments. Man, for real, that's what shape me. You know,
Speaker 3: I came into New York. I came to New York.
Speaker 3: I was speaking English like this with an accent. So
Speaker 3: you could imagine being like a twelve year old kid.
Speaker 3: You're playing with all inner city kids, playing with Lenny.
Speaker 2: All these guys.
Speaker 3: I would never get in the game, never, but I
Speaker 3: would just watch them, watch what I should do, watch
Speaker 3: what I can't do.
Speaker 1: And you soaking up, you soaking up culture, you soaking
Speaker 1: up New York. Listen, if you ever talked to a
Speaker 1: New Yorker straight up. I met Ray Kwan one time.
Speaker 1: Y'all thought I was a nigga from the hood, almost
Speaker 1: talking to me at law me probably like that sentence too,
Speaker 1: and he was talking God and he was you know,
Speaker 1: you know, real respect to the guard too. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, shout to Ray Kwan. But I'm imagine
Speaker 1: you soaking up all this New York verbiage and all
Speaker 1: this right right for real, So you're picking up on slang,
Speaker 1: how to do, how not to do?
Speaker 2: What today's mathematics knowledge.
Speaker 3: God, you know I love Ray Kwan two. So no,
Speaker 3: but New York, New York, man, I mean there's nothing.
Speaker 3: The culture out there is just it's on another level.
Speaker 2: So that's and you know.
Speaker 3: Being able to play all these street ball tournaments, that's
Speaker 3: a blessing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: You look at Chicago. You know, we're doing a lot
Speaker 3: of work in Chicago with the kids and stuff, but
Speaker 3: they can't even do that no more. They taking the playground,
Speaker 3: they taking the rims off the playgrounds and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: So just to have a basketball streetball culture, you know, DJs,
Speaker 3: DJs people on.
Speaker 2: The mic while you're playing in the trees.
Speaker 1: I played in New Yo. Like I'm a journeyman too.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 1: One of my my favorite things you should do is
Speaker 1: go play everywhere West fourth Rock, one hundred and fifty fifth,
Speaker 1: Dykman Basketball City, downtown, right where else they playing that?
Speaker 1: Because I won't to say, man I Gordon Malone took
Speaker 1: me to Brownsville, never ran never will you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, man, Steff, take me to Coney Island.
Speaker 1: I'm playing in the garden over there. Man, you hear me,
Speaker 1: You hear what I'm saying. I hear exactly what you can. Badgers, bro,
Speaker 1: you get them Badgers. The Badgers make you straight up.
Speaker 1: You got a favorite place to play in New York?
Speaker 1: Let me hear your park.
Speaker 3: My favorite part was Kingdome west of Kingdom Uptown, right
Speaker 3: in the middle of the projects. And after I didn't
Speaker 3: play my freshman year in college. I remember my homie Roscoe.
Speaker 3: He was like, Yo, you gotta play in these tournaments.
Speaker 3: Be this shit's gonna get you right.
Speaker 2: So I remember playing at Kingdome, voice of Harlem on them,
Speaker 2: like doing all this shit, Like what you're gonna do?
Speaker 2: What you're gonna do? You know what I mean? Everybody's
Speaker 2: smoking ones everywhere. You know what I mean. It's hostile.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: It's hostile. You need that environment. So now I'm I'm
Speaker 2: in there. Next thing, you know, I'm grabbing the rebound.
Speaker 3: Wow, I'm not passing it to the guard. I'm bringing
Speaker 3: up myself a button. Mad as hell.
Speaker 2: Adrian looking at me like, yo, pass me the fucking
Speaker 2: round on the point guard.
Speaker 3: But you know I used to like to get the
Speaker 3: rebound and bring that ship up myself. I got the
Speaker 3: whole crowd going crazy. That shit really got me hyped.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I didn't come from that environment, but to be able
Speaker 3: to play in that when I came back the next year,
Speaker 3: we end up winning the CHIP, getting the MVP.
Speaker 1: But it got me.
Speaker 2: Right Florida, right, why University of Florida. I love coach
Speaker 2: Donovan man.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, shut the coach Donovan.
Speaker 3: Man out Coach Donovan. Do you know the Irish dudes
Speaker 3: they got something. There's something in the water over there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: They they different but work at the crazy IQ. And
Speaker 2: you know what what I loved about Coach Donovan is
Speaker 2: he used to do our individuals himself.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what I mean. So y'all going through all, Okay,
Speaker 1: he jumping in there, jumping in there, he's starting, he's
Speaker 1: retiring to work out. He was like, I got the
Speaker 1: whole thing planned out. So I knew there was not
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: Of coaches that would that would do the individuals, you know,
Speaker 2: so that was big.
Speaker 1: That's huge too, and that's growth and it gives you
Speaker 1: confidence and continuity because now you know what he's thinking
Speaker 1: and what he's probably expecting.
Speaker 2: From you, right exactly. You know.
Speaker 1: The one of the things I watched you when you
Speaker 1: was in Florida. Uh, Like I said, I can't remember
Speaker 1: the first year, but your second year was so adamant,
Speaker 1: just how you and Al I forget. I know Corey
Speaker 1: Brewers on that squad too, and y'all had another guard
Speaker 1: or something, Toryan Green. Yeah, I'm going blank on all
Speaker 1: your names, but watched the continuity man. Torian Green was
Speaker 1: on that jo I'm watching. I'm watching y'all continuity and
Speaker 1: just to passing the Big Man, the Big Man and
Speaker 1: y'all looked like y'all have been together forever. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Talk about that team at Florida and what made y'all special.
Speaker 3: I think we loved being in the gym, you know.
Speaker 3: I remember I came into school, I had my two bags,
Speaker 3: and I met my college teammates in the gym right away.
Speaker 3: We're checking up one on one. I'm like, Okay, you
Speaker 3: know this is going to be good because we were
Speaker 3: in the lab. We were in the lab and we
Speaker 3: lived together that class just lived together, so you know,
Speaker 3: and the good thing was same shit.
Speaker 2: Coach Donald was like, yo.
Speaker 3: If you get the rebound, he didn't let the point
Speaker 3: guard come back and get the rock.
Speaker 1: So now we you know, well that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you know what, we were playing all summer,
Speaker 3: so we were like as freshmen.
Speaker 2: We were coming and we were playing.
Speaker 3: Against you know, David Lee, Matt Walsh, Anthony Roberson, and
Speaker 3: you know, we were competing with those guys.
Speaker 2: We were busting the ass. Actually, but that's another that's
Speaker 2: another story. But it was good. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: We were on it.
Speaker 3: We were on it and from the beginning and then
Speaker 3: after the second year we won the chip. We had
Speaker 3: so much fun playing together. You know what I'm saying
Speaker 3: that we did it again. That was crazy.
Speaker 1: When did you start to think about the league? When
Speaker 1: did you start?
Speaker 2: For me, it happened later. It happened later. So it
Speaker 2: wasn't until after we won that first chip.
Speaker 3: That people were like, okay, Joe, you can you know
Speaker 3: you're probably going to be a top three pick.
Speaker 2: It's time for you to go.
Speaker 3: But you know, I wasn't too worried about I didn't
Speaker 3: have to worry about you know, taking care of moms,
Speaker 3: taking care of pops.
Speaker 2: I knew they were all right. So when when Corey,
Speaker 2: Corey's situation was a little bit different, and when Corey was.
Speaker 3: Like, Yo, let's go back to school, Let's let's do
Speaker 3: this shit again, like we just we're having too much fun.
Speaker 2: You know, the league can wait.
Speaker 3: And I know that's a that's a rare position to
Speaker 3: be in, you know, especially when we had we had
Speaker 3: opportunities to go get some money right there, and and
Speaker 3: when Corey said that, we all decided to come back,
Speaker 3: and you know, it's I'll never forget those moments, those memories,
Speaker 3: you know, just the competition, being able to win trophy, bring.
Speaker 2: It back to school. It was wild.
Speaker 1: Man, have the bulls out in your back? Did it
Speaker 1: feel different?
Speaker 2: It did.
Speaker 3: It wasn't as fun to me, you know. The expectations
Speaker 3: sometimes were heavy, because you know, when you have when
Speaker 3: you're in the league, you know you can protect yourself
Speaker 3: being a little bit outside. You have your money, you know,
Speaker 3: you take your care of your family. But when you're
Speaker 3: in college, you know, we living in the dorm, so
Speaker 3: you got people coming at you from everywhere.
Speaker 2: So that was that was a lot at times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, y'all had no like shelter or nothing, nobody to
Speaker 1: kind of protect you from that. But then y'all students,
Speaker 1: y'all in every day, every day hustle and bustle.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean yeah, but you got the students knocking
Speaker 3: on the doors, you got students waiting outside your dorm.
Speaker 2: You know you're not protected. We lived, We lit as hell,
Speaker 2: so it was it was fire though it was fire.
Speaker 1: Are you following all the NIL stuff?
Speaker 2: Bro? The N I l shit, not really, to be honest,
Speaker 2: but I'm had for college. Huh.
Speaker 1: I said she was doing for college.
Speaker 2: I think it's good.
Speaker 1: I said, you fuck with it? No?
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, you know college was a great time.
Speaker 3: When I look at it, you look at how much
Speaker 3: how much money this shit is generating, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean? The annihilists just kind of putting a band
Speaker 3: aid on it.
Speaker 2: But the reality is.
Speaker 3: This tournament is generating billions of dollars and kids aren't
Speaker 3: getting paid on it. So the NIL is a good start,
Speaker 3: but to me, it should be more.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Are these players employees? These players the players start are
Speaker 1: playing in college swimming, softball, baseball, basketball, football, track, whatever
Speaker 1: you're doing stickball, goddamn whatever. Would you consider that an employee,
Speaker 1: not just a player, but an employee. They're working, they're
Speaker 1: working for well, yeah.
Speaker 2: One hundred. Everybody need everybody who's generating some bread needs
Speaker 2: to get paid. I think that's just that's just fair.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the standard to me, standard. Right. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: they call them players and don't call them employees. They
Speaker 1: would not label them that. You think players. Do you
Speaker 1: think the nil would hurt players in any way from
Speaker 1: their determination and wanting them to get to the next level.
Speaker 2: I mean, it shouldn't. It shouldn't.
Speaker 1: They might.
Speaker 2: I mean I've seen them many times.
Speaker 3: Like people get contracts, people get money, It makes them
Speaker 3: sawce sometimes all back fall back. It depends on the
Speaker 3: person's personality, you know what I mean, And what's going
Speaker 3: on with that person too, right, Yeah, Like you just
Speaker 3: said your situation was different for court bro. He probably
Speaker 3: have to do things a little different because of his
Speaker 3: situation exactly. But now it's taking you away from the
Speaker 3: important shit, and that's putting that block word, elbow word, shooting.
Speaker 2: Being in the court, being on the court.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually said, man being a friend was talking
Speaker 1: and uh, he asked me, he said, you think giving
Speaker 1: guys bread at an early age is a bad thing.
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know, we all are different,
Speaker 1: you know, and I didn't want to generalize, but I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't think it's a bad thing for
Speaker 1: someone like you. Think of kids that you know, a
Speaker 1: middle class and don't have that, you know, struggle and
Speaker 1: no shit like that. They still got, you know, come
Speaker 1: out great people. They still out, you know, come out
Speaker 1: with professionals and stuff. So it's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: But I understood what he was saying, does it not
Speaker 1: give them them instead of anymore? So I was like, nah, listen,
Speaker 1: I always say, man, if you really want to see
Speaker 1: if someone loves something, give them everything, give them a
Speaker 1: boat load of money, see if they still work hard.
Speaker 1: Because I'm telling you, once you get in between them lines, man,
Speaker 1: don't nobody give a fuck about what you made. If
Speaker 1: anything's a bigger target on, you're bad right.
Speaker 2: That thousand a thousand percent.
Speaker 3: But that being said, you know it's big business. You know,
Speaker 3: that's why you play hard. You know, you work your
Speaker 3: ass off to be able to be in those positions.
Speaker 3: You know, we bless this games giving us a lot.
Speaker 3: But for sure, I mean I think if if kids
Speaker 3: have opportunities to make money, they should make as much
Speaker 3: as they camp.
Speaker 2: For sure, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: I believe that too. So, you know, it's crazy hearing
Speaker 1: you talk about New York. You know, I lived in
Speaker 1: Chicago for some time, came out of high school there.
Speaker 1: When you when I hear you talk about New York,
Speaker 1: it's dead ass mirroring. I mean a straight mirroring of Chicago.
Speaker 1: A ton of hood tournaments, north Side, west Side, south Side,
Speaker 1: you know, High Park, east Side, like wherever you can
Speaker 1: find a game, and you can get into some of
Speaker 1: these places and play, that's where you play at. And
Speaker 1: then playing in some of those environments gives you those
Speaker 1: badges that I was talking about. So when you get drafted,
Speaker 1: you go through the draft process, you get to Chicago,
Speaker 1: does it feel like New York?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Parts of it?
Speaker 2: To me?
Speaker 3: It was to me, Chicago was rougher a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: You know, that's real, that's reality too, that's you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, I think that I've been studying a lot
Speaker 3: of conflict resolution, you know, in Chicago, working with a
Speaker 3: lot of angels out there who changed their lives, doing
Speaker 3: work with the kids, you know, the kids who are
Speaker 3: you at risk of the bullshit. So shout out Kobe
Speaker 3: Williams for all the work, you know, just being able to,
Speaker 3: you know, teach me. I feel like, you know, when
Speaker 3: you play for the Chicago Bulls, you have a responsibility
Speaker 3: to this wherever you're playing, you have responsibility to that.
Speaker 2: City, community, to that community.
Speaker 3: So looking up to you, to me, all that stuff
Speaker 3: was the biggest blessings that you know, the most impactful
Speaker 3: stuff I ever did was not on a basketball court.
Speaker 3: It was, you know, working with these violent prevention groups
Speaker 3: and really just going in there, even though I didn't
Speaker 3: come from that world, just really going in there and
Speaker 3: listening and using my position as a Chicago bull player
Speaker 3: to you know, do basketball tournaments bring the guys together?
Speaker 3: Because it's a divided city. There's a lot more than
Speaker 3: a lot more than New York is. You know, when
Speaker 3: you say, oh, I'm from the Bronx, people aren't saying.
Speaker 2: Oh, he represented it, he's with that group.
Speaker 3: Or you say oh, I'm from Brooklyn, you're not saying,
Speaker 3: oh he's this, he's that, he represents that set.
Speaker 2: You know, in Chicago, it's like that.
Speaker 1: No, I was like that right in some of the
Speaker 1: yester years of older times. It was a huge migration
Speaker 1: of the blacks that came from the South trying to
Speaker 1: get a better life. And when they got to these
Speaker 1: bigger cities, just like New York, just like Philadelphia, just
Speaker 1: like in Chicago, they fell upon really really hard times
Speaker 1: and in some instance where the police wouldn't even come
Speaker 1: to the nahborhoods because it was so bad in some
Speaker 1: of these rural areas that the neighborhood had to actually
Speaker 1: band up and protect the neighborhood. So then all the
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you have these neighborhoods come up
Speaker 1: with these little street games and they neighbor them street games,
Speaker 1: called them street communities, street groups, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call them, but they was real protectors of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: When the women and stuff were to get you know,
Speaker 1: robbed of the persons and stuff, they went to the
Speaker 1: local who ran this neighborhood to go handling the situation,
Speaker 1: and vice versa. Same thing with small businesses, windows getting busted,
Speaker 1: you know, the little petty theft things in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Keeping the neighborhood clean came from these these city groups
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until the soldiers came back from war.
Speaker 1: Now guns and drugs are introduced, creatures of habit would
Speaker 1: the last to get resources, all the stuff compiled and
Speaker 1: you got an environment now. But these street groups never
Speaker 1: went anywhere. If anything, they unified, there was communative and
Speaker 1: when they became problems, when they had all a strategic
Speaker 1: structuring and they all want the build on something to
Speaker 1: make their communities better. You know what I'm saying, we
Speaker 1: can all sit here and talk about the definition of
Speaker 1: what that looks like. I hear what you're doing back
Speaker 1: in Chicago. Talk about some of well I think you
Speaker 1: just tested on a little bit, but talk about what
Speaker 1: you're doing in Chicago with gun prevention, with bringing these
Speaker 1: groups together to at least start dialogue, because I feel
Speaker 1: like when you start a dialogue, a lot of these
Speaker 1: groups look at themselves as they are different going into
Speaker 1: the dialogue, and once the dialogue starts, they see that
Speaker 1: they're very much alike, They're very much on the same page,
Speaker 1: and they're very much parallel in their efforts to make
Speaker 1: something better. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I want
Speaker 1: you to speak a little bit on what you're doing
Speaker 1: back in Chicago, because I think it's not only what's needed,
Speaker 1: but I think it's so important for people to hear.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that doubt and salute you too, King for that.
Speaker 3: Appreciate that real shit.
Speaker 2: You know. We're working with.
Speaker 3: A lot of violence prevention groups and being able to
Speaker 3: bring them together through sports, through basketball, so we do
Speaker 3: the basketball League. It's not about getting the top talent,
Speaker 3: it's about bringing the guys together and giving them a voice.
Speaker 2: You know. Obviously there's a lot of hardship.
Speaker 3: In the neighborhood, and if we can bring them together
Speaker 3: as much as possible, I think a lot of beauty
Speaker 3: can come out in the unity, you know, and being
Speaker 3: able to talk, and.
Speaker 2: Because everybody's just so divided.
Speaker 3: So I think that one thing that was really important
Speaker 3: was just being able to bring the guys and come
Speaker 3: to the game, give them tickets, you know. I think
Speaker 3: that that also gave me a lot of strength when
Speaker 3: I was playing, because I knew I was playing for
Speaker 3: more than myself, you know, And that's why when I
Speaker 3: played in Chicago, I think it just definitely I knew
Speaker 3: I was I knew I was I had My purpose
Speaker 3: was stronger than ever and still to this day, look
Speaker 3: I'm done playing, I'm still on it. And you know,
Speaker 3: the reality is the violence isn't getting any better.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm not trying to come over here.
Speaker 2: I'm not going out there preaching to anybody, but you know,
Speaker 2: it starts with just doing shit like this.
Speaker 3: Like you know, when I'm walking in the street I'm
Speaker 3: in New York, people might be like, yo, fuck KG
Speaker 3: and they don't even know the situation. I'm hearing people
Speaker 3: like talking about a moment that happened twenty years ago,
Speaker 3: you know, And I want the I want people to know, Look,
Speaker 3: this is about conflict resolution, and you guys are dealing
Speaker 3: with with shit on a much bigger sk scale.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're.
Speaker 3: Talking about nobody dying, nobody's dying when you're playing basketball,
Speaker 3: you know, so when your cousin's getting killed, you're talking
Speaker 3: about conflict resolution.
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's real.
Speaker 3: Perspective, Like how do you how do you diffuse the
Speaker 3: situation without somebody getting killed or somebody going to jail.
Speaker 3: So the reality is the violence is not getting better.
Speaker 3: But there has to be a bigger investment in the
Speaker 3: community and bring guys together and get letting them talk
Speaker 3: their shit out. You know, it's not about It's not
Speaker 3: about me. I don't like coming into environments like that
Speaker 3: preaching and telling them about my It's not about my story.
Speaker 3: This is about the guys coming together. And if I
Speaker 3: can help bring the guys together, I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 1: I love that, Bro. If you need any help with that,
Speaker 1: let me know, BRO. I'm interested in not only bringing
Speaker 1: people together, but starting to talk and changing the script.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 1: Script needs to be changed. I feel like these young
Speaker 1: kids are looking for or have an all the ology
Speaker 1: of an idea that they want to believe in but
Speaker 1: don't know how to execute it. I think the old
Speaker 1: heirs want to help these young guys but don't know
Speaker 1: how to go about it. And I think when you
Speaker 1: get them together, it's beautiful because you get an older
Speaker 1: generation and new generation coming together. I can't say that everybody,
Speaker 1: or it doesn't always feel like they want them to
Speaker 1: to be together. Sometimes it feels like you won't, you
Speaker 1: won't you want it at odds, or it's felt like
Speaker 1: it's promoted to be at odds. And anything that can
Speaker 1: change that narrative or anything that can change that script,
Speaker 1: I'm all for. So let me know, BRO. Real ship
Speaker 1: real ship.
Speaker 2: I love. That's that's why I came here for.
Speaker 1: No real you know what I'm saying. I want you
Speaker 1: to know that, man, and man, I love what you're
Speaker 1: doing with Africa. Man, I see the African League, bro,
Speaker 1: talk about it? Man, what you is that a real thing?
Speaker 2: It's coming, It's coming.
Speaker 1: I saw your I saw you're real. I saw your
Speaker 1: real you know you're in your team sent me. I
Speaker 1: was like, it had Obama endorsing it, it had it
Speaker 1: had the lead talk about the African League.
Speaker 3: Man, Well, it's something I'm really proud of, you know,
Speaker 3: just to be a part of a of a league.
Speaker 2: So now you look at it. You know, when you're
Speaker 2: a competitive when you're in it, you don't look at
Speaker 2: the big picture.
Speaker 1: You don't look at the wide scope.
Speaker 2: Of you in it.
Speaker 3: And now it's like, okay, I'm a part owner of
Speaker 3: a league in Africa. This is really special because I
Speaker 3: would go back in the summers, you know, at the
Speaker 3: height of my career and there's so much work to
Speaker 3: do and now you know you're you're alone and it's
Speaker 3: like you can't change your culture, like you can't do
Speaker 3: this shit by yourself.
Speaker 2: So now it's.
Speaker 3: About bringing you know, your network bringing all the people
Speaker 3: together to do this ship. But when this opportunity came
Speaker 3: to be able to be a part to invest in
Speaker 3: n BE Africa, for me, it was no brainer.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is exactly what I'm looking for.
Speaker 3: You know, but basketball is not a big part of
Speaker 3: African culture yet. But you know, you look at Joel
Speaker 3: mb he probably the MVP of the league right now,
Speaker 3: but the reality is he started playing basketball at sixteen
Speaker 3: seventeen years old.
Speaker 2: So imagine when they lower the hoops and they got the.
Speaker 3: Little shorties, wait till these young African boys come in
Speaker 3: with the hot.
Speaker 2: Hesy right to put their own li on it exactly.
Speaker 3: So we don't have that yet. That's not there yet.
Speaker 3: So the league is great. You know, the NBA has
Speaker 3: invested a lot of you know, a lot of big
Speaker 3: leaders are invested. Now I'm at the table with the
Speaker 3: big dogs, so I'm learning a lot. I'm learning a
Speaker 3: lot about business. But at the same time, it's like, yo,
Speaker 3: let's really focus on the grassroots.
Speaker 2: And what I'm hoping for is like, you know.
Speaker 3: OG's who are done playing, who want to give their
Speaker 3: you know, their experience, their leadership, Like we can go
Speaker 3: and do that. And the reality is we're so blessed
Speaker 3: in America. People don't realize, like Cameron got one indoor
Speaker 3: court in the whole country.
Speaker 2: One in the whole country.
Speaker 3: So now you start building infrastructure where you have the
Speaker 3: ogs coming in and really showing these kids how to
Speaker 3: really hoop.
Speaker 2: It's a rap.
Speaker 1: How they building it? Are they building it from legos
Speaker 1: like Nigeria, Cameroon, a coach some of the bigger South Africa?
Speaker 1: Are they starting with some of the bigger the bigger countries.
Speaker 3: Right now there's two there's three big arenas. So they're
Speaker 3: in Senegal, you know where there's probably the two best
Speaker 3: academies for the kids on the continent to learn. So
Speaker 3: a'm au Galla Fall who's the president of he was
Speaker 3: he was a scout for Dallas.
Speaker 2: I saw that, so we were we were, we were.
Speaker 3: Tight coming up. You know, I almost went there to
Speaker 3: play with Dirk when I came in, but we always
Speaker 3: kept our relationship and you know, when he became the
Speaker 3: president and there was an opportunity, I jumped on that.
Speaker 3: But right now, the big structures, the big stadiums are
Speaker 3: in Rwanda, in Senegal and in Egypt.
Speaker 2: But we still have we got ways to go, We
Speaker 2: got ways to go. But the talent is there, for sure.
Speaker 1: I saw, I saw it on the rail. I saw
Speaker 1: I saw obviously on the social media, and I see
Speaker 1: a bit some pieces I saw Ja cole Go in
Speaker 1: the league play. Do you see, matter of fact, on
Speaker 1: the scale of one to ten, when it comes to skill,
Speaker 1: what's the what's what? What's what's Africa? The continent as
Speaker 1: we know basketball And by the way, basketball right now
Speaker 1: is the international. It's a European sport right now.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: The moves that's in the game, the euros the flopping
Speaker 1: don't look American. And then the best players are European.
Speaker 1: Give me a take on that. You agree with that.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of great European talent, but
Speaker 3: I mean there's the talent is coming from everywhere man,
Speaker 3: and it used to just be States States.
Speaker 2: So it's not like that no more so. But what
Speaker 2: people in the States have to realize is, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't care where you're from. You have everything here.
Speaker 3: You got everything, you got the best facilities in the
Speaker 3: world are here, the best coaching is here. But I
Speaker 3: feel like the kids are are spoiled as hungry, not
Speaker 3: as hungry as the world. As the world, the world
Speaker 3: is hungrier. So that to me, that's where I want
Speaker 3: to put my I want to put my energy. When
Speaker 3: I'm talking to it shorty, he's not looking at me like, oh,
Speaker 3: he's not playing no more like you know, I don't
Speaker 3: care about my Instagram is not going to be as
Speaker 3: lid as it was when I'm not trying to hear
Speaker 3: all that shit I want to when I'm talking to
Speaker 3: you about basketball, I want you to be one hundred
Speaker 3: percent in it. And yo, I haven't experience in this shit.
Speaker 3: I played against the best players in the world. And
Speaker 3: if you hungry and you really want it, I want
Speaker 3: the kids out there to really have an opportunity. So
Speaker 3: that's what this league is showing these kids. They don't
Speaker 3: have to fly all the way to the States to
Speaker 3: go to you know, boarding school or.
Speaker 2: Go play NCAA. You don't have to do we're just
Speaker 2: talking about NIL.
Speaker 3: There's a league out there, a professional league, and you
Speaker 3: don't have to leave home. So obviously, you know, Africa
Speaker 3: is a huge continent. There's a lot of different cultures.
Speaker 3: You know, South Africa's culture is very different from the
Speaker 3: North uh, you know in East West Vice it's all different.
Speaker 3: But the reality is when you lower the hoops and
Speaker 3: you let these kids play and they get the good coaching.
Speaker 2: It's a rap. Imagination takes over imagination.
Speaker 1: Soccer still huge over there.
Speaker 2: Soccer is huge.
Speaker 1: Soccer sotillners, right.
Speaker 2: They winners. But same thing.
Speaker 3: It's like, yo, the guy, and we got to invest
Speaker 3: in the in the structures, do you know?
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 3: It's like just if we can invest in this. But
Speaker 3: to me, it's like my purpose is stronger than ever,
Speaker 3: more than when I was playing. It was like when
Speaker 3: I was playing, I was representing the Bulls. I was
Speaker 3: representing my team, and I try to do that to
Speaker 3: the best of my ability. Now it's not about me.
Speaker 3: It's just Okay, I have my experience, but I'm watching.
Speaker 3: I know what it looks like. I know what a
Speaker 3: good practice looks like. I know again better looks like,
Speaker 3: you know, because I lived that for most of my life.
Speaker 3: But and I saw that I did that in Europe,
Speaker 3: you know, starting to play basketball in France. The same
Speaker 3: same facility as where Victor winbin Yama, same place that
Speaker 3: he's coming up. So that's why I started playing and
Speaker 3: so I saw, I saw the grassroots and what it
Speaker 3: looks like in Europe.
Speaker 2: America as well.
Speaker 3: You know, we talked about that New York City streetball
Speaker 3: term all this stuff, and now Africa, it's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: they're building slowly but surely. But when the investment starts
Speaker 3: coming in and people really see, like, yo, if we
Speaker 3: put this you know, if we put this time in
Speaker 3: right now, this next generation from over here is going
Speaker 3: to be on another level because they're hungry.
Speaker 1: Greater than the G League.
Speaker 2: No, not yet.
Speaker 3: It's not better than NCAA. I wouldn't say it's better
Speaker 3: than the Super Raw Raw Raw, but.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing.
Speaker 3: It's like you look at African dudes when they come in,
Speaker 3: right and they come to America.
Speaker 2: First of all, what's their job? The dirty work?
Speaker 3: You set, the screens, you roll, you don't rebound, don't
Speaker 3: ask for the don't you dare ask for the ball.
Speaker 2: That narrative that's changing. You got Embiid was about to
Speaker 2: go m VP.
Speaker 3: You passing, you better passing the ball every fucking time
Speaker 3: down the court.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: See Il come come down with dribble pump pump, fake
Speaker 1: one dribble, pull up right hand hook you got Jannis
Speaker 1: who a year or your ass to death and put
Speaker 1: you in the rim like Shaq like yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: totally different. The whole narrative is changing, the whole narrative.
Speaker 1: But the resources are not all the way there. But
Speaker 1: the time and the equity and the investment has been
Speaker 1: there for those players to be like this, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 1: I mean it worked out with Cold. Johanna's worked out
Speaker 1: with me. You know, Johanna's worked out with other NBA
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd, Jannis has had the investment. Think about m B.
Speaker 1: M B got not one year, he said, out two years.
Speaker 1: Think about their investment on on Africa and the players
Speaker 1: that come out of there in the time usually oh
Speaker 1: you know this and in the times where because I'm
Speaker 1: a little older than you, but bro, you don't get
Speaker 1: two you get two years for you can get two
Speaker 1: years two years meaning somebody was like nah, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: gonna wait on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but in the league that's a different thing once
Speaker 3: they're already there that I see what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Those investments are making I'm expecting listen, all the fun
Speaker 1: you got to work out with COVID.
Speaker 2: Nah.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, you're gonna be different at some point. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on it to hit so that. So I'm saying,
Speaker 1: when you drop those resources in there, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's gonna be something. I look at it. I see
Speaker 1: Africa being greater than the China League, and I say
Speaker 1: that because of the sourcing right there. Once you start
Speaker 1: throwing the imagination, start teaching, you start teaching little things
Speaker 1: like getting your head up and identifying in the Once
Speaker 1: you start really getting through the nuances and tangibles that
Speaker 1: really make the game, the details those kids, imagination starts
Speaker 1: taking off for sure. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: that's what needs to happen.
Speaker 2: That's what needs to happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, but you you you walk to the
Speaker 3: market out there and you might see a dude that
Speaker 3: looks like he never touched the basketball.
Speaker 2: He he looked like you, bro, just like me. He
Speaker 2: looked just like you.
Speaker 3: She never touched the basketball before, you know what I mean, never, never, ever.
Speaker 1: He's sixty eleven, motherfucker. All that purple, black, green, all
Speaker 1: that blue, all that shit, right, Super Melani, right, super,
Speaker 1: don't even know what does it?
Speaker 2: What is this?
Speaker 3: What is that Are you serious? That's the that's the
Speaker 3: reality of the thing. So now we're building a course.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of people doing a lot
Speaker 3: of dope shit. We just got to keep it up
Speaker 3: and keep building.
Speaker 2: Damn.
Speaker 1: That's twenty years behind, twenty years behind, twenty years behind,
Speaker 1: twenty years. Damn. How you speak? How you speak? That up?
Speaker 1: Camps involvements because I know they I know the NBA
Speaker 1: does something over there, right or they go over every year.
Speaker 1: I know Tumble used to be bigger than I'm shout
Speaker 1: out Tumble, shout out shut. What's what's the guard from Toronto?
Speaker 1: I'm going blank on this name? Helped me rich? What's
Speaker 1: the what's the African? Yeah? Yeah, I see him sending
Speaker 1: a huge charge. So every every year. Now, I think
Speaker 1: we need to put the investment of these camps flo
Speaker 1: some of the old HEAs over let them because you
Speaker 1: know they know us. And then it's so it's so
Speaker 1: hard on some of these young guys who are playing.
Speaker 1: You play the whole season. I know you don't want
Speaker 1: to take your summing and go over to Africa. Then too,
Speaker 1: I think that script is gonna start changing, right for that.
Speaker 3: That's the reality at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 3: taking your time, just giving your time, and that's that's
Speaker 3: the most important thing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We get some of these ogs to come over there,
Speaker 3: that means a lot. It goes a long way, does
Speaker 3: and these kids they appreciate it on another level. So
Speaker 3: that's really what my focus on more than you know,
Speaker 3: the investment in the league. All that stuff is great,
Speaker 3: but focusing on the grassroots part.
Speaker 2: If we get this piece right.
Speaker 3: Then the league is only gonna blossom, you know. So
Speaker 3: you know, I love I love talking about this with.
Speaker 2: The guys and see, really who who's into it?
Speaker 3: Sometimes I talked talk to guys about it and they're like, man,
Speaker 3: they're not interested. But the guys who are and who
Speaker 3: were like, yo, I want to know about my heritage
Speaker 3: a little bit. You know, it's deep, you know. Going back,
Speaker 3: we did a beautiful trip with d Rose last summer.
Speaker 3: We brought his high school team to Senegal, so he
Speaker 3: was playing against the best competition in Africa at the
Speaker 3: NBA Academy and it was like the cultural exchange was beautiful,
Speaker 3: you know. So being able to have do that trip,
Speaker 3: I had just got married. I was on my honeymoon.
Speaker 3: Who was like, Okay, I want to do this trip
Speaker 3: to Africa. I'm not missing that shit.
Speaker 2: So we went. It was awesome.
Speaker 3: We went to go visit the slave castles, you know,
Speaker 3: and then it became a trip that was bigger than basketball,
Speaker 3: you know, because now you got kids from Chicago coming
Speaker 3: in competing against the guys in Africa. They in Africa,
Speaker 3: they looking around there was and the same thing. It's like,
Speaker 3: you don't even have to preach, you don't have to
Speaker 3: say because they're just you know, taking in this experience.
Speaker 2: They're coming back to their neighborhood and they're like, yo, inspired,
Speaker 2: how is Africa?
Speaker 3: And they can they have They have a real story
Speaker 3: to tell, you know, So talk about perspective.
Speaker 2: That was. That was one of the dopest things I
Speaker 2: ever did in my life, to be honest.
Speaker 1: That's so you gotta go through it. Ship, You got
Speaker 1: to go through the whole shot and do that. By
Speaker 1: Farragut would do something like that, man. So now I
Speaker 1: got to ask the question is the is the It's
Speaker 1: the ideal is to bring like, uh, some African teams
Speaker 1: over in the summer and have them play some of
Speaker 1: some of the talent in Chicago and get kind of
Speaker 1: that experience and back and forth.
Speaker 3: I mean, to me, that's that's my dream, that's the move,
Speaker 3: that's what that's the move.
Speaker 1: Benm GM are you listening. We're gonna sponsor that idea.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the Nor's Art International certify you
Speaker 1: hear me, Yes, talk about it, man, Nod's Art Foundation.
Speaker 1: You know, shout the Nords Art. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: y'all doing big things, No doubt I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Man. I love that name. Man to talk about a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 3: What's nord ar uh Noah's Ark is a foundation I
Speaker 3: started with my mom's.
Speaker 2: You know, mom was on the West side.
Speaker 1: Shout the mom exactly.
Speaker 3: Mom was, you know, knocking at the Major Adams Community Center.
Speaker 2: Mom.
Speaker 3: Mom does a lot of art therapy with the kids.
Speaker 3: So my mom was very hands on in the work
Speaker 3: in the community. She would come out when she came
Speaker 3: visit me watching him play. She would always go to
Speaker 3: the community and do.
Speaker 2: Do work with the kids with the art.
Speaker 3: And then you know, I was doing these basketball tournaments
Speaker 3: with with the Ogs, and to me, I always I
Speaker 3: always loved the Vets. You know, the Vets to me
Speaker 3: was probably the most. It was amazing getting the knowledge
Speaker 3: from them. You know, I think about you know, Kurt Thomas,
Speaker 3: you know Keith Bogan's even scal. Scal used to come
Speaker 3: in and talk about about you all the time, like, Yo,
Speaker 3: there's so this is how, this is how, this is
Speaker 3: what KG used to be.
Speaker 2: I'll be like, man, I'm nobody trying to hear that
Speaker 2: ship right now.
Speaker 1: Man, it was just a motivation, some insight. Shout the
Speaker 1: White Mama.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the White Mamba. But you know, before
Speaker 2: before we get out.
Speaker 3: Of here, I just want to also talk about, you know,
Speaker 3: the motivate TIBs man. And you know, I know we're
Speaker 3: talking about Noah's Ark, but let me let me finish
Speaker 3: on no good Good take your.
Speaker 2: Time, but Noah's Ark. It has been special.
Speaker 3: But you know, we're really focused on the work in Chicago,
Speaker 3: and right now it's about this basketball tournament that's starting
Speaker 3: up this summer using the twenty eight violence prevention groups.
Speaker 2: Come together.
Speaker 3: We got South Side going on, we got the West
Speaker 3: Side going on. Bring the guys together, have the conversation.
Speaker 3: It's more than just basketball. When I talk the basketball
Speaker 3: part is cool. We're bringing we're doing that, but all
Speaker 3: the programs that are going to come in the conversations
Speaker 3: that are going to come after. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3: And that's that's my mission right now. My purpose is
Speaker 3: stronger than ever. And yeah, man, I'm fucking really hyped
Speaker 3: to be here right now because like we're talking about,
Speaker 3: we're talking about conflict resolution. You know, I want people
Speaker 3: to know I'm about I'm handling mine right now, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. People are going to go in
Speaker 3: the street and say they can say whatever they want.
Speaker 2: This one was for me.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I love it. Are
Speaker 1: you watching? Are you watching the NBA? You're keeping up
Speaker 1: with it?
Speaker 2: For sure?
Speaker 1: All is it bug Is it bugged out to watch?
Speaker 1: Still going?
Speaker 2: It's not bugged out.
Speaker 3: It's bugged out that I'm rooting for Boston a little bit.
Speaker 2: I want him to get it.
Speaker 1: You're getting this, yo, y'all hit us. We got the
Speaker 1: whole room.
Speaker 2: You heard this right right?
Speaker 1: Say that again? Nah?
Speaker 2: Just but mostly I can't. I want to now for
Speaker 2: I want hor Fee to get one bad.
Speaker 3: You know, he deserves it, the fact that he can
Speaker 3: still go playing at a high level, and you know
Speaker 3: he's making that team go.
Speaker 2: You know, and and it's always the importance of having
Speaker 2: like the right O G.
Speaker 3: And that's more than just basketball. That's in life, like
Speaker 3: having having guys that you could talk to. Has been
Speaker 3: through every situation. He's that guy.
Speaker 2: So really proud of him. The way he's handling his business, and.
Speaker 1: It's on that three ball really changed everything for him.
Speaker 1: He started. He's you know, it's weird that it got
Speaker 1: it got it got preached to us to stay away
Speaker 1: from it, right she I'm trying to think of big
Speaker 1: Sta shot the three now a lot, not a lot, right,
Speaker 1: I'm going blank. Apologies Dirk Dirk, but I'm watching the
Speaker 1: Red the re emergence of a guy like Brook Lopez
Speaker 1: goes to the Lakers, start shooting the three, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, he's having a whole nother career, right man.
Speaker 1: Al Horford's in that same category. The three ball has changed.
Speaker 1: And then last year I watched him change the cold
Speaker 1: course of why the Celtics and destroy it or if yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he he destroyed in that series. To me, he actually,
Speaker 1: you know, but then when you look at Al, he
Speaker 1: took it. It was a year in Okay, see where
Speaker 1: he didn't play, where he had the whole year to
Speaker 1: just not only work out but be on a roster
Speaker 1: still be here. How long do you think al continues
Speaker 1: to play? If you know how well?
Speaker 3: So I was my college roommate, and you know, I
Speaker 3: think if his approach is his approach is definitely the same.
Speaker 3: You know, he's even in college, he was probably like
Speaker 3: the most professional person that I ever been around.
Speaker 1: It's always been big like this for as long as you
Speaker 1: know him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he got bigger.
Speaker 1: For sure, I know that, but he's always been in
Speaker 1: a like a a bigger person.
Speaker 2: Yes, like center, you know.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's funny because when we were in college,
Speaker 3: I was playing top of the key.
Speaker 2: He was the one who was playing in the post.
Speaker 3: You know. But you know he's he's an all around
Speaker 3: player and just like you said, you know he got
Speaker 3: that three ball, but more than just basketball. I think
Speaker 3: like when I talk to like some of the guys
Speaker 3: talk to Jalen Brown, all started a little bit and
Speaker 3: just like the respect that he gets from.
Speaker 2: The guys, that's that's dope to me. You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, he's a good o G. And you know
Speaker 3: he's been in this situation. So now he's fighting for
Speaker 3: you know it's the end of It's who knows, he
Speaker 3: could probably play for a little more, but you know,
Speaker 3: just to be in that position to be able to
Speaker 3: wake up in the morning.
Speaker 2: And you know, I got the playoffs today. I got
Speaker 2: a playoff game. Like, that's the ship I missed the most.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, those moments of just you know
Speaker 2: you in layup lines. I mean that that to me
Speaker 2: is like those.
Speaker 3: Moments playing against y'all. Like I could, like hear the
Speaker 3: in the air tonight, I can hear that song.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I'm those layup lines. I was so crunk, I couldn't
Speaker 3: even feel my legs. Bro, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It was just super super It was the best. It
Speaker 2: was the best.
Speaker 3: So those moments is what I missed the most. This
Speaker 3: is the time of the year that I missed the most.
Speaker 3: And you know, I really hope hor if he gets one.
Speaker 1: Playoffs exposes everything. You can't hide anything, ain't nothing new.
Speaker 1: They know what you love to do, they know they
Speaker 1: know your catalog of moves. And I actually think that
Speaker 1: this is when players get better because you got it.
Speaker 1: You can't go with the A and B, right, So yeah,
Speaker 1: my CND is nice too, though, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I want to this is where I want to
Speaker 1: see like the real nice players or the players. So
Speaker 1: we got on like higher levels, go to another level
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 2: And those those playoffs.
Speaker 3: Man, it's like you think that the you know, you
Speaker 3: get to the league and you think that the season
Speaker 3: is what the NBA is all about, you know, But guys,
Speaker 3: there's so many games that it's hard to play at
Speaker 3: that level every night.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I think some guys do it, but as a whole,
Speaker 3: when you get to the playoffs, I mean that first
Speaker 3: time I.
Speaker 2: Hit the playoffs is against you. Guys. You will hurt
Speaker 2: that series, but that series, like it change.
Speaker 1: My life great. Serious, by the way, it was hard
Speaker 1: watching that ship. It was hard sitting there and not
Speaker 1: being able to physically contribute. When you give me your
Speaker 1: assessment on today's game, man, like you're still young enough
Speaker 1: to be understanding of these young guys.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The funny clip I love on the internet is when
Speaker 1: y'all in summer, y'all in the summer playing and y'all
Speaker 1: double double booker. He was like, man, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: work on my game, man, Like ain't no double team
Speaker 1: in summer, Like, yes it is, and you just kept
Speaker 1: moving like on some O G ship. What's your assessment
Speaker 1: at the young generation right now? Man?
Speaker 3: I think that the game is just is different. The
Speaker 3: kids are just way more polished. Man's say, everybody's better.
Speaker 3: And the difference between yes, skill wise, but one through
Speaker 3: eight you're the first seed against the A seed.
Speaker 2: These games are close.
Speaker 3: Like the talent you the fifteenth guy on the roster,
Speaker 3: the difference is not that big. You know, these guys
Speaker 3: are getting better. I think the talent is is better
Speaker 3: and it's just different. You know, guys, if you can't
Speaker 3: shoot the ball, you're.
Speaker 1: Not playing no more. Fus, you're not playing no more.
Speaker 1: You need the three balls. The difference in generations, I
Speaker 1: think so it's made the big not so traditional. You're
Speaker 1: traditional big right now. I don't give a fuck. How'm
Speaker 1: nice you're on the box. If you can't shoot the
Speaker 1: floating three, if you can't take it, if you can't
Speaker 1: take the trail three or make a three in the corners,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be I'm talking about like six
Speaker 1: for ten type shit. You gotta be like sixty percent
Speaker 1: from those two and he giving it to you. You
Speaker 1: ain't doing shit in on defense. Try They're not having
Speaker 1: bigs come up no more and actually be up. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry comes off of the top screening roll. You're you're
Speaker 1: in the paint like it's no ice. They don't push
Speaker 1: things to the side no more, like MANE forty five, Like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, what the fuck? Come on man, it's
Speaker 1: Crealy been fighting in the locker room bro for real,
Speaker 1: Like like like yeah, but it's all designed for a
Speaker 1: different audience, and this different audience shit to be hyped
Speaker 1: up like that. They're selling offense and then come playoff times.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're selling defense because I'm so hyped
Speaker 1: in you know what, me and my homies be sitting
Speaker 1: here watching the TV. Man, it'd be like one forty
Speaker 1: you know forty.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It does trip me out, Like yesterday, I'm watching the
Speaker 3: game and I'm seeing like I'm not even gonna whatever.
Speaker 3: He gets the offensive rebound. You you got, you got
Speaker 3: Chris Paul on you, you got like you got small
Speaker 3: guys on you throwing that ship out for a three.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, you come on man and go up.
Speaker 1: Analytics, Go up analytics.
Speaker 2: That that bugs me out. That trips me out.
Speaker 1: If you was commissioner for for two years, what would
Speaker 1: you change? Damn, it's a tough question. Lord, gotta have
Speaker 1: you on your toes.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I changed, Yeah, first thing you changed in day one.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm happy that they changed the piff that. I
Speaker 3: think that the weed thing was great. Really, I'm really.
Speaker 2: Happy about that. Guys can just at the end of
Speaker 2: the night relax, can relax.
Speaker 3: See, we didn't have that, and so I'm happy that
Speaker 3: they did that.
Speaker 1: That ship took a lot of careers too, bro a
Speaker 1: lot of careers, and they never did anything about drinking
Speaker 1: and all. That ship took it out of locker room.
Speaker 1: But I start drinking such a bigger, harsher habit than
Speaker 1: than anything else in our obviously harder drugs, the harder drugs.
Speaker 1: But I was watching motherfuckers get drunk on every night
Speaker 1: and me, what like, nah, because you need to live
Speaker 1: on in your kidneys and all that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm glad they actually relaxed on that guys
Speaker 1: can actually have solutions to some of these elements that
Speaker 1: they have. Because you know, nobody wants to say this,
Speaker 1: but anxiety is a real thing. Some of these conditions
Speaker 1: are a real thing. You know, uh as ain't gonna
Speaker 1: fix but so much, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I totally get it. Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think that that was that one
Speaker 3: was really important because I don't think people realize game.
Speaker 3: You know, you're playing a game at the highest level.
Speaker 3: You got twenty twenty thousand people going crazy. You know,
Speaker 3: you think with that kind of adrenaline being on the court,
Speaker 3: you think that you're going to sleep at twelve o'clock
Speaker 3: just all the game's over, it's time to go to bed,
Speaker 3: Like I can't. I couldn't shut it down. I couldn't
Speaker 3: shut it down. So I'm happy that guys have, you know,
Speaker 3: have that outlet to just be able to calm down,
Speaker 3: meditate on it, and get some resting. I think the
Speaker 3: rest is the most important thing. You know, guys, guys
Speaker 3: are getting hurt left and right.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: You see how they talking about sixty five games, and
Speaker 1: you see how they are you a fan of Loaves management?
Speaker 3: Not really, but I mean it's tough, man. I mean
Speaker 3: everybody's different.
Speaker 2: You know. It's like you look at how people are
Speaker 2: talking about Kawhi and shit, Yo, Homie's fucked up. Homies
Speaker 2: fucked up.
Speaker 3: So that's that's load management, just because it wasn't my way.
Speaker 2: You know, it wasn't the way we were raised.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, you know, I
Speaker 3: can't I can't be over here just because it wasn't
Speaker 3: my way and say you know what's right and what's wrong.
Speaker 3: You know, some guys need that shit for real. So
Speaker 3: is it hurting the game or is it helping the
Speaker 3: game or hurting the game? Would you say load management?
Speaker 1: Load management?
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of analytics in it that's
Speaker 3: just taking taking away the soul of the game. You know,
Speaker 3: listen to the guys like sometimes like yo, sometimes you
Speaker 3: got to play through Ship so and and you know what,
Speaker 3: that's how you get your respect. Like when I when
Speaker 3: I go around in Chicago and people are talking to
Speaker 3: me and they're like, Yo, thank you for your services.
Speaker 3: That's not because that's because I was playing through ship.
Speaker 3: You know, That's because I was battling in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: You're not going to get that because you got a
Speaker 3: big contract or you know, just because you were a
Speaker 3: good team. No, you gotta you gotta fight through that
Speaker 3: shit times. But sometimes the guy, I think there's a
Speaker 3: lot of like nerdy ship going on where people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know you're you're in the red. They're putting all
Speaker 3: kinds of stuff to get data and all this. You know,
Speaker 3: listen to the guy, man, just listen to the guy.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I think it's it's it's too much.
Speaker 1: I know you, I know you spoke through him earlier.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: First off, shout out for you being a ambassador of
Speaker 1: the game for the French team. Shout out to you
Speaker 1: being the ambassador for the Chicago Bulls. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Those are those are real key points. People
Speaker 1: just don't get those real ship. That's respect to you.
Speaker 1: Talk about Victim a little bit. Man, is he is he?
Speaker 1: What is he? As advertised? I see I see him
Speaker 1: do one legged threes? I see him. First off, he's
Speaker 1: how tall is bro man? Bro seven seventh for really?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like seven four look like a seven four k.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like long win biggest wingspan NBA in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Right away, you shoot them.
Speaker 2: You can shoot that for real and we'll see. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of expectations on him.
Speaker 3: I hope that he gets a good coach, he's surrounded,
Speaker 3: he's in a good environment.
Speaker 2: You know how that can be early on.
Speaker 3: So if he's in a good environment and a good structure.
Speaker 3: I don't know him well enough to really know you know,
Speaker 3: who's going to be coming with him when he gets
Speaker 3: to the league and stuff. But you know, when you
Speaker 3: come in you are top pick, you know you're going
Speaker 3: to a not great team. Then that's why these playoffs
Speaker 3: are so important, because when you have that playoff energy
Speaker 3: from the locker room, and you know the guys that
Speaker 3: played in it, they can.
Speaker 2: Be like, yay, we fucking around right now, it's January.
Speaker 3: But when that ship, when April may come, you know,
Speaker 3: that's a whole different animal, you know. So that's why
Speaker 3: you're in the weight room more that I mean that
Speaker 3: playoff series.
Speaker 2: I want to just talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 3: It's just that first playoff series just shaped my life, man,
Speaker 3: and that's my basketball career. You know, just playing against Perk,
Speaker 3: I was getting pushed, I was getting pushed around, and
Speaker 3: and that summer I remember I was like, okay, like
Speaker 3: that's not happening, no more, that's not happening. It motivated
Speaker 3: me like crazy. I remember you know even I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm in my house. I'm smoking them like yo, I'm
Speaker 3: putting the blunt down like I gotta focus. I gotta
Speaker 3: stay focused. We got we gotta go back because that feeling,
Speaker 3: there's no better feeling that I'm going back doing my
Speaker 3: push ups.
Speaker 2: You know, Celtic Circle on the calendar. Real shit. I
Speaker 2: love the real shit.
Speaker 1: This is a platform for all the older cats, all
Speaker 1: the cats I banged against, all the casts, I played
Speaker 1: against all the casts. I respect all the cast got
Speaker 1: something positive going on. I'm here to echo what they're
Speaker 1: doing on this. You know, I'm so I got partners,
Speaker 1: don't have no boss in this, And so I left
Speaker 1: turning at that experience that came over here and got
Speaker 1: with showtime. And we're just building something. So I wanna
Speaker 1: I want to. I want to. I want to keep
Speaker 1: doing that. But I'm watching Dough, I'm watching you, I'm
Speaker 1: watching Baby, I'm watching Ta, I'm watching Perk. I'm watching
Speaker 1: a bunch of young cats under me come under this
Speaker 1: and want to be in this and do it a
Speaker 1: whole other way. So you know, we're just trying to
Speaker 1: We're trying to be a door Mars can come through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because right now, if you ain't going to ESPN, you're
Speaker 1: going to turn and you sitting there like in limbo.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I see Gill doing this thing.
Speaker 1: I see Knuckleheads Queue and the three Miles doing anything.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So everybody, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: I'm trying to bring us all together and do something
Speaker 1: on a bigger joint, you know what I'm saying. Not
Speaker 1: just have it be over here, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And that's how this is.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of the younger generation man or
Speaker 1: generation that was younger. And one of my favorite matchups
Speaker 1: that I enjoy watching was the Rondo Derek Rose match.
Speaker 1: And you know, my perspective was just like yours. I
Speaker 1: was always seeing it from like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And I was watching these two great point guards be great.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about playing with Derek Rose man
Speaker 1: his greatness.
Speaker 2: I mean, Derek is.
Speaker 3: You know, he's it was. It was awesome playing with
Speaker 3: that guy. You know, just what he represented to that
Speaker 3: city of Chicago looked like it too, looked like y'all
Speaker 3: have chemistry, and.
Speaker 2: He was just like, you know, he's a quiet guy.
Speaker 3: But you know, every time he stepped onto the floor,
Speaker 3: you know, we felt like we had a chance to win.
Speaker 3: So that was he gave everybody around, not just the team,
Speaker 3: but the whole city. Was so much confidence, you know,
Speaker 3: just his talent alone, just the way he approached the game.
Speaker 3: He never ran from no matchups. You know, I remember
Speaker 3: his first year. It was a funny story. Uh you know,
Speaker 3: he Kirk Heinrich was our best pick and roll defenders.
Speaker 3: So he's going Nash and Vinnie deln There was like, yo, Kirk,
Speaker 3: you got you got Steve Nash. And Who's like, nah,
Speaker 3: I got Steve. Nah, I'm the point guard. I'm not
Speaker 3: running from no matchup.
Speaker 2: So the whole the whole locker room quiet as hell.
Speaker 3: But that's the kind of guy, and like who was
Speaker 3: not taking no for that as a rookie, as a rookie,
Speaker 3: So that's the kind of energy he had. He didn't
Speaker 3: want to run from no matchup, you know. And he
Speaker 3: was about this this he was all all about this
Speaker 3: hoop ship. And he was the quiet guy. I was
Speaker 3: a loud guy. So we were kind of you know,
Speaker 3: we even though we came from completely different worlds, we
Speaker 3: mashed like we were brother we're still brothers to this day,
Speaker 3: and that's something I'm proud of. It's like, Yo, it's
Speaker 3: not about I'm proud of our brotherhood with those teams.
Speaker 3: You know, like Luall Dang, shout out Luall Dang. All
Speaker 3: the work that he's doing in South Sakdan president of
Speaker 3: his country in basketball.
Speaker 2: They just qualified for the World Cup doing real, real,
Speaker 2: real real ship shot him up d Rose too.
Speaker 3: It's like just to see the ship that he went through,
Speaker 3: the adversity that he went through with his injuries, and
Speaker 3: just to see him at peace with the game the
Speaker 3: way you know, his role as a OG with the
Speaker 3: younger guys, like that goes a long way. Like he's
Speaker 3: not playing as much now, seeing him just being there,
Speaker 3: being supportive, being there with the guys, and you know
Speaker 3: the guys are looking at like, Yo, if he can
Speaker 3: handle it and handle his ship like a like a
Speaker 3: man and handle his adversity like a man. Yo, They
Speaker 3: the guys on the knicks are seeing that every day.
Speaker 3: That goes a long way. So you know, I appreciate
Speaker 3: that guy, not just as a hooper and the greatness
Speaker 3: that he was as a hooper, but the way he's
Speaker 3: handling his ship.
Speaker 1: He shocked he's still in the league.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nothing shocks me with that guy. Nothing shocks me
Speaker 3: with that guy. But I just like, I like his mindset.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that people in his position there's
Speaker 3: there could be a lot of He could be bitter
Speaker 3: about a lot of shit because you know, the injuries
Speaker 3: probably robbed him of some of his greatness. But to
Speaker 3: see him at peace with it is what I'm the most.
Speaker 2: Happy because that's my brother. At the end of the day,
Speaker 2: win to lose, I don't give it.
Speaker 3: It's more about seeing him happy. That's what I care about.
Speaker 1: Love that, that's what's up. And I'm not. I look
Speaker 1: at bro as lord great and when you're great, you
Speaker 1: just don't put that out It just don't go nowhere.
Speaker 1: You know you're great for a reason. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of times in between what's between your ears, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So when I watch him play the
Speaker 1: other night, Tims threw him in there. Tim and Tims
Speaker 1: still together, by the way, right, they gonna they gonna
Speaker 1: go forever. Right when I've seen Tims threw him in
Speaker 1: there for like two seconds, he got the joint through
Speaker 1: the lib like it was just I'm just in Central Park.
Speaker 1: I'm just chilling like, yeah, man, make shout to d
Speaker 1: ros Mamber huge, huge d rolls.
Speaker 2: It's not over. It's not over either.
Speaker 3: Keep it going, b Tis Tis Tims might not be
Speaker 3: playing him right now, but he might be somewhere.
Speaker 2: No, you never know.
Speaker 1: Listen, it's good to have him right there where you
Speaker 1: can put him in there. Ain't he ready, he's sitting there.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. On go so yeah, shout
Speaker 1: to d ros Man. It's my dog man. I gotta
Speaker 1: ask you just, bro, would you ever get into coaching?
Speaker 2: He no, have no.
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's like you got a lot of knowledge, Bro.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of energy, you got a lot
Speaker 1: of vision, you got a lot of knowledge. Man, you
Speaker 1: gotta some of that ship. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I know it's I heard you just say you got married,
Speaker 1: if you got kids with at some point you gotta
Speaker 1: pass this down. And I'm sure you do this to
Speaker 1: when you know dealer with your you know your African
Speaker 1: teams and everybody else. But I want to know that
Speaker 1: would you go back to Florida, take a take a
Speaker 1: coaching job, or would you.
Speaker 2: I don't mean there's.
Speaker 3: Too much politics and coaching, you know. I actually I coached.
Speaker 4: All Star game, the rookie Sophomore game, and there was
Speaker 4: a kid on Houston and I didn't play him at
Speaker 4: the end of the game, and he should have.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was an All Star game.
Speaker 3: But I got competitive and I was like trying to
Speaker 3: win the game. I leave, I leave the arena and
Speaker 3: I see he's walking with.
Speaker 2: His grandma and I'm like, oh, ship.
Speaker 3: And Grandma comes to me, how you not this is
Speaker 3: the All Star Game. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Speaker 3: You don't play my son.
Speaker 2: And I was like, my grandma, you know what, You're right.
Speaker 2: I should have played. It was an all Star game.
Speaker 3: And he's like, Grandma, chill, Grandma chill, And I should
Speaker 3: have you know, I should have put him at the
Speaker 3: It was the All Star game. Everybody deserved to play
Speaker 3: in the All Star Game.
Speaker 2: But that's the kind of man. That shit fucked me up, though, He.
Speaker 1: Just fucked me up, Like, dang, grandma, you tell grandma
Speaker 1: you're trying to win that motherfucker Grandma trying to win it.
Speaker 1: That's drove right right, We got right in your ship.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, What's next for you?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: What's next for me? Mean, I gotta throw this before
Speaker 1: you even answer that. My bad not to cut you off,
Speaker 1: excuse me, but Bro, you got a personality. Bro, you
Speaker 1: have a fuck with content podcast. Man, what's what's next
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 3: Look, that's another reason why I'm here. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out. You know, I got my
Speaker 3: purpose work in order. I know a lot of my
Speaker 3: energy is going to go on that. But at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, I love what you're doing right now.
Speaker 3: You know the content is you know, it's the future,
Speaker 3: you know, because we need it.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: It's like there's too much bullshit on the internet. You know,
Speaker 3: we need to have the ogs come in there speak
Speaker 3: their truth and you.
Speaker 2: Know, give it. Give the guy. This is a this
Speaker 2: is a great platform.
Speaker 3: I'm just like really happy to be here and be
Speaker 3: able to talk about this stuff. I'm hearing people talking
Speaker 3: about things that wasn't their story. This is our this
Speaker 3: is there is a moment that happened between me and you,
Speaker 3: So being able to talk about this, I think it
Speaker 3: goes a long way, and it's just bigger than what
Speaker 3: happened between the lines, So I'm not really happy we
Speaker 3: were able to do this because to me, this is
Speaker 3: what it's all about.
Speaker 2: That's not respect.
Speaker 1: That was great. That was great.
Speaker 2: That was great.
Speaker 1: Certified for real, certified, ain't no outro man certified