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Speaker 1: every moment more During Super Bowl fifty seven, what's up, everybody?
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Draymond Next guest as a guy
Speaker 1: who I actually had the opportunity to play against in
Speaker 1: college before the majority of you, um, we're basketball smart
Speaker 1: enough to even know its name because the name on
Speaker 1: the front of the jersey didn't quite match the talent
Speaker 1: in the name with the back of the jersey, and
Speaker 1: so because you can't look and see talent. It needs
Speaker 1: to be at Duke, it needs to be at Kentucky,
Speaker 1: it needs to be at Michigan State. You you miss
Speaker 1: out on the talent like this. However, like I said,
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to play against him and I
Speaker 1: saw firsthand how good he was from cand Ohio. Um,
Speaker 1: just a guy who I've gotten to know, Mr President himself,
Speaker 1: the Players Association, Soon to be an all star. C J.
Speaker 1: Mccull and, welcome to the show, my brother. Appreciate you
Speaker 1: had me on the show Man. It's a pleasure absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's let's get right into it. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: coming from cand Ohio your freshman year, you five too,
Speaker 1: But I know at that point you had to wiggle
Speaker 1: because it's just it's just in you, like, that's how
Speaker 1: you play, that's how your older brother to play, which
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know. Uh. CJ's older brother,
Speaker 1: Eric McCullum is has played in EuroLeague for ten years
Speaker 1: bucket getter. So that's just seating. But at five to
Speaker 1: going into your freshman year where or or your freshman year,
Speaker 1: were there any worries that your future of basketball wouldn't
Speaker 1: be quite what is shaped out to be just because
Speaker 1: you were smaller. Did you think I'm gonna hit my
Speaker 1: gros fur? There was times where I thought that my
Speaker 1: gross fur might come too late. You know, once high
Speaker 1: school starts, you know, everybody's taller than you. Girls is
Speaker 1: taller than you. It's hard to create separation in the games.
Speaker 1: The finishing around the basket is nearly impossible. You gotta
Speaker 1: have a crazy floater just because of the way they
Speaker 1: closed space. And I've seen that my dad, my dad
Speaker 1: Actuld graduated high school five eight and my dad is
Speaker 1: six three now, and I thought to myself, like, I
Speaker 1: hope that it doesn't take that long, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean for me to grow, because five eight might
Speaker 1: be too late my senior year, like it'll be hard
Speaker 1: for me to get scholarship. So that was the the
Speaker 1: only concern was that my grosberg would take too long,
Speaker 1: and I was worried about that. I started school early
Speaker 1: and I graduated high school seventeen, so I knew my
Speaker 1: talent was there. I knew I had the skill set.
Speaker 1: I worked, you know, harder than most, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of refined my skills. But I was just hoping
Speaker 1: that I would get tall early so that I could
Speaker 1: get a scholarship. And then kind of settled into the
Speaker 1: hype and at what at what point did you actually
Speaker 1: hit the grosper. So I was five to and I
Speaker 1: played three quarters jv too quarters varsity because that was
Speaker 1: when you're gonna play five quarters in Ohio and my
Speaker 1: brother you talked about he was the starting point guard,
Speaker 1: so I wasn't better than him, and I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: play over him, so I kinda watched and played at
Speaker 1: the end of the game. My sophomore year, I was
Speaker 1: five six eight pounds and yeah, like eight pounds and
Speaker 1: I was taller, so like that was cool, right, like
Speaker 1: being a little bit taller, like I didn't have to
Speaker 1: create as much space. But that's when I was really worried.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, damn only five six, I ain't
Speaker 1: got no scholarship offer. Nobody's really recruiting me. I'm coming
Speaker 1: off the bench on my varsity team, even though I
Speaker 1: probably should have been a starter. I'm coming off the bench,
Speaker 1: not really contribute hitting threes every now and then, like
Speaker 1: certified like high school role player, Like I think, like
Speaker 1: I'm better than Skip Bayliss, but like, but the point
Speaker 1: but the points per game wasn't like where it should
Speaker 1: be right for my skill set. So like that's where
Speaker 1: I was at. And then my junior year, I really
Speaker 1: dedicated myself to like shooting right because I could always
Speaker 1: shoot a little bit, but I was like, this is
Speaker 1: this is gonna be the separator for me is you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a good pastor, but I'm not a great pastor. Right.
Speaker 1: I could play defense, but I'm not a great defender.
Speaker 1: I got some athleticism, but it's not elite. So I
Speaker 1: was like, what can I do well to like get noticed.
Speaker 1: It's like, I gotta be able to shoot, and I
Speaker 1: gotta be able to drill, and I gotta be able
Speaker 1: to create shots off the bounce because that was my
Speaker 1: like superpower, so to speaker, it's like, I can do
Speaker 1: this better than everything else. So I really worked on
Speaker 1: that one, and the sum of my brother and I
Speaker 1: grew to five eleven. And when I got to five eleven,
Speaker 1: it was like the game was easy. At five eleven,
Speaker 1: it was very easy because I had been so small
Speaker 1: for so long. I got used to haffing to do
Speaker 1: everything harder. You know, creating space harder, you know, step
Speaker 1: backs got to be harder. Flow, there's gotta be more crips.
Speaker 1: You only get so many shot attests because you're so short.
Speaker 1: And I got taller. That made the game better. And
Speaker 1: actually my first career start, I broke the school record.
Speaker 1: I hit eight threes and I had thirty four points
Speaker 1: and I got a letter from Lee I the next day,
Speaker 1: and that's what I knew. It was like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: good enough to go to school at this size, but
Speaker 1: hope that can get bigger. And so you end up
Speaker 1: getting a letter from Lea High. But why, like ultimately,
Speaker 1: did you have more offers widely High in the end? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I went through this bolda Green was the
Speaker 1: first ohiwer school to offer me. Um, they all offered
Speaker 1: me first after I played that year out. So I
Speaker 1: go from averaging six points a game to twenty five.
Speaker 1: I five like basically five and five as a junior
Speaker 1: at five elevens and I go play for King James
Speaker 1: shottle Brun. I go play for his AU team that year,
Speaker 1: and that was my first time like really on the
Speaker 1: scene because I sat the bench for all the h
Speaker 1: red Like at five seven, I didn't really play, like
Speaker 1: I was like the third string point guard, well you know,
Speaker 1: second stream point guard don't really play because the start
Speaker 1: and played the whole game. So I would come in
Speaker 1: and pick up full court and run the offense and
Speaker 1: then go sit down. So I played like seven to
Speaker 1: ten minutes a night, like not really impacted the game.
Speaker 1: And that was my first year and I started playing
Speaker 1: really well. I played against John john Wall at a
Speaker 1: tournament at Williams, and I played well. I think I
Speaker 1: had twenty five and five, and obviously John was killing us.
Speaker 1: But everybody's watching because it's John. And I started getting letters,
Speaker 1: start getting recruited, and I actually lied. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: after the games, you get interviewed, and I lied and
Speaker 1: said I had an offer from Boise State and I didn't.
Speaker 1: They has just recruited me, and um, I got a
Speaker 1: few offers after that. I got a few offers out
Speaker 1: that I said, like the University of Ferment offered me
Speaker 1: and Boise State, and then I got like I had,
Speaker 1: Like at one point I had eleven offers. There's all
Speaker 1: small schools, so Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Bowling Green, um
Speaker 1: Lehigh offered, University Affirment ended up offering St. Francis, p
Speaker 1: a um a bunch mid majors. But I was getting
Speaker 1: recruited by like St. Louis, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Penn State.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because I really wanted to go to
Speaker 1: like I called it like a bigger conference, but like
Speaker 1: a more academic based school to where like I'm playing
Speaker 1: against these good schools, but like I can still play
Speaker 1: and still get playing time. Right, Like this is when
Speaker 1: Notre Dame wasn't that good. This is when Penn State.
Speaker 1: This is like Taylor Battle Days, like they was kind
Speaker 1: of becoming better, but they wasn't really like known for football,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So they ended up not
Speaker 1: offering me. I wanted to go to Akron University, right
Speaker 1: because it was down the street from the Creators, a
Speaker 1: small school like that. I can play them back and
Speaker 1: crib my cousin play football there, shock and train me
Speaker 1: since I was a kid. And this is when Schocker
Speaker 1: was on staff and Dan Brod looked me um in
Speaker 1: my face and said, I don't have any more scholarship offers.
Speaker 1: Zeke Marshall was our only scholarship for your class. Zeke
Speaker 1: was a seven ft seven ft blue chip center. I said, look, man,
Speaker 1: you can get me a scholarship. I'll come, but I
Speaker 1: can't read shot. I won't make it through school like
Speaker 1: I love basketball, and if I can't loop, I won't
Speaker 1: be able to be as locked in and engage and
Speaker 1: I can't do a year without it. I gave him
Speaker 1: two days. They didn't offer me. Took a visit to
Speaker 1: le High and at that point, like I started with
Speaker 1: eleven offers, guys start committing. You know how it goes.
Speaker 1: I go for the level offers to eight to six
Speaker 1: to five. I got three offers left, like guys just committing.
Speaker 1: I'm going in my senior season and Lee High was
Speaker 1: the school I was with me from the beginning. They
Speaker 1: was They was authentic, they was genuine. They kind of
Speaker 1: told me what my role would be. I knew I
Speaker 1: was gonna be in the Patrio League, so it was
Speaker 1: a good education. It was a six hour drive from home,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to be too close to home,
Speaker 1: so I was like, bad, I can still drive home,
Speaker 1: but you gotta really want to see me to come
Speaker 1: see me type of thing. And it ended up working out.
Speaker 1: And I always say that's the best decision I ever
Speaker 1: made in my life. Was was going to Lehigh and
Speaker 1: my wife there. Um, I got to play the game
Speaker 1: I love. I got a degree. I majored in journalism.
Speaker 1: I won a couple of championships and that kind of
Speaker 1: that propelled me to learn how to carry a load differently,
Speaker 1: right like the academic load of course, LOA was crazy
Speaker 1: to be able to work out to how to lead
Speaker 1: a team to go through like being a freshman to
Speaker 1: being a man, and like what comes with that, what
Speaker 1: comes with empower and being a leader, How to lead
Speaker 1: by example? How to curse people out when I need to,
Speaker 1: Like I gave me the perfect balance on like what
Speaker 1: I felt like I was gonna need when this game
Speaker 1: is over. So I'm thankful for it. That's amazing, That's incredible.
Speaker 1: So you you finished out at Lee, how you win
Speaker 1: Patriot League Player of the Year twice? Um, then you
Speaker 1: go on to be the tenth overall pick by the
Speaker 1: Shrail Blazers at the time, the Trail Blazers had just
Speaker 1: drafted Dame with the six picker a year before. What
Speaker 1: was your mindset going in, Like, I'm sure you were
Speaker 1: here and you were too small to be a two
Speaker 1: card at that time, because when we came in the league,
Speaker 1: the league was really big. The league is smaller today.
Speaker 1: League was really big. Two centers essentially playing power for
Speaker 1: the center. You got power force planting three spots. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure you were hearing you were too small to
Speaker 1: play the two. But what was your mindset coming in
Speaker 1: knowing that they had just drafted Day with the sixth pick,
Speaker 1: and now they're dropping you with the tip. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: mindset was to just go be a hooper um Damon.
Speaker 1: I had talked. We actually got connected by a mutual
Speaker 1: friend after I broke my foot my senior year, So
Speaker 1: we had just been talking just I was asking about
Speaker 1: his rehab. What was it like in the league, Like
Speaker 1: you came from a small school. What should I be
Speaker 1: working on? Like can I still play in the league
Speaker 1: out of this broken foot? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: This is the point in time where like you get
Speaker 1: hurt and you just start thinking like damn, maybe this
Speaker 1: is it. Maybe I don't have to go Overseas. My
Speaker 1: brother was already over there, so I was just kind
Speaker 1: of coming to terms with if I got to go
Speaker 1: over to Europe, like I know what that looked like,
Speaker 1: I can go do that. And thing was like you're
Speaker 1: gonna be in the league, You're gonna be a lottery pick.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, bro, I just broke my foot, Like
Speaker 1: my senior season is over, Like I'm not playing and
Speaker 1: my body at work was there obviously, But you know,
Speaker 1: when we was coming out. It was like a crime
Speaker 1: to be in school that long, like they wanted to
Speaker 1: They wanted you to get in and out. And they
Speaker 1: even though I was younger than a lot of the
Speaker 1: the sophomores and freshmens, basically because I was one, it
Speaker 1: just felt like I stayed too long and I missed
Speaker 1: my window. And he was like, you're gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of your pick. And then fast forward, He's like,
Speaker 1: if you're there, we're gonna take you. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: like this is the franchise saying that they're gonna draft
Speaker 1: me from there. And we we got similar games, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I played to two because
Speaker 1: Marquees Hall, you know who works at Nankee. He was
Speaker 1: the point guard right when I was there. So I
Speaker 1: just slid at the two because it made sense, and
Speaker 1: I played a lot of one. And I was just like, look, man,
Speaker 1: I don't all in my hands. Will not in my
Speaker 1: hands like I just want to who I'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: I can be the man. I can play off the
Speaker 1: man like I'm not tripping. And I told I said
Speaker 1: that in my interviews when I did the draft process,
Speaker 1: and they like my demeanor. They like that Dame has
Speaker 1: solidified himself as a guy went to school for a
Speaker 1: long time. I was like, you play alongside Steph that mattered.
Speaker 1: And there was just a body of work from guys
Speaker 1: Eric Maynard, guys who have been in the league for
Speaker 1: a while, um George hill Right who went to school
Speaker 1: for a long time, so they knew they were mentally
Speaker 1: ready for different roles. And I just thought to myself, like,
Speaker 1: I gotta get to it, and then I'll never forgetting
Speaker 1: the league. It's crazy, dog. So I get drafted. My
Speaker 1: phone dies and I don't get to talk for a
Speaker 1: while to like nobody because my phone is dead. Be
Speaker 1: fast forward to rookie orientation and I'm sitting there, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I'm adding up the minutes in my head, like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's say I don't start. I back up
Speaker 1: Wesley managed too, so that that's let's call it twelve
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. And now back up day, let's call it
Speaker 1: another twelve minutes. I'm I'm gonna play about twenty two
Speaker 1: to twenty seven minutes a night in two different positions, right,
Speaker 1: because it's forty eight minutes. Didn't play thirty six, that's
Speaker 1: twelve If West Place thirty four. That's fourteen. Like, I'll
Speaker 1: take those twenty six minutes. I'm cool. We we trade
Speaker 1: for Moe Williams while I'm a rookie transition and I
Speaker 1: love Mo. But I was just like, damn toy, go
Speaker 1: my minutes, Like that's what I thought right away, Like
Speaker 1: twenty six minutes gonna look the same. And then I
Speaker 1: end up breaking my foot to last day of training
Speaker 1: camp again and the rest is kind of history, but
Speaker 1: it's a blessing the way that like kind of happened,
Speaker 1: right The mental anguish that I went through, the injury
Speaker 1: that I got my senior year kind of shifted my
Speaker 1: mentality of what's important, how to work and how to
Speaker 1: do stuff outside of basketball. And that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I fell into the stuff that I do today, is
Speaker 1: because I couldn't hoop during the most pivotal time of
Speaker 1: my life and I had to. I started meditating, I
Speaker 1: started going to yoga. I started really becoming more in
Speaker 1: tune with myself, with nature and with my mental side
Speaker 1: of things, because I was always focusing love then, but
Speaker 1: I didn't really have a plan, like to keep it
Speaker 1: a buck like it was it was hooping. I mazing
Speaker 1: journalism because I watched Stewart Scott and I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to work on TV one day and I
Speaker 1: want to talk about sports. Then I started figuring out,
Speaker 1: like how do I use this degree? Like how do
Speaker 1: I leverage this? And the injury really is shifted my mentality.
Speaker 1: So you you've you just led me to speaking of
Speaker 1: you about media. Um And what I've tried to learn
Speaker 1: in these interviews is like you allowed the person that
Speaker 1: your interview and you allowed him to guide the interview. However,
Speaker 1: because you've done so much in media, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to acknowledge for the listeners and for you who's who's
Speaker 1: an expert that that's been doing this way longer than
Speaker 1: I had, I'm going to acknowledge that I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: follow you right now because your media catalog is so
Speaker 1: deep that we gotta we gotta, we gotta speak about
Speaker 1: that and depth. And I really want to get to
Speaker 1: your your time with the Blazers in your NBA careers,
Speaker 1: I think it's been incredible, and quite frankly, the fact
Speaker 1: that you haven't been an All star's baffling to me.
Speaker 1: Um to like to average twenty points in this league
Speaker 1: year after year after year, and you'all team was having success.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like you were average with twenty points and
Speaker 1: y'all were eleven see Twilve c. Thirteen. See y'all was
Speaker 1: in success. Y'alls having success, and quite frankly, probably be
Speaker 1: the reason y'all didn't have more success, just because y'all
Speaker 1: kept meeting nuts Like I think we met you what
Speaker 1: two or three times in the playoffs? Yeah, like two
Speaker 1: straight years and year off and then another year basically yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I want to I want to continue to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about you and Damon, but also
Speaker 1: going to that but and se and all of that
Speaker 1: um that you said that that year was a blessing
Speaker 1: for you once you got hurt, and I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: it was a blessing because more Williams ended up playing
Speaker 1: a lot that year and then he end up moving on,
Speaker 1: So there was once you got healthy, there was a
Speaker 1: role for you to to slide right into. It. Is
Speaker 1: that why you feel like it was a blessing. I
Speaker 1: think it was a combination of things, like right, because
Speaker 1: that next year we traded for Aaron to follow and
Speaker 1: we signed Steve Blake, So I played a little bit more,
Speaker 1: but not as much as I felt like I should have.
Speaker 1: Watching my peers. You know that, watching my guy Michael
Speaker 1: Carter Williams, when working the year, watching my friends get
Speaker 1: five minutes a night, you had this envy and this
Speaker 1: jealousy in your heart, not not at them, but at
Speaker 1: the fact that they got a role that you felt
Speaker 1: like you you deserved on your own merit, you didn't
Speaker 1: have it. And I think it taught me to slow down.
Speaker 1: It taught me to be patient. It I I read more.
Speaker 1: I joke all the time I said I went to
Speaker 1: I went to a school major journalism, and I read
Speaker 1: more now and I did when I was in college.
Speaker 1: And when I got hurt, I started reading. I started
Speaker 1: really slowing things down because I couldn't think about you hurt,
Speaker 1: you can't really move, couldn't walk right, I'm on crutches.
Speaker 1: Everything had to be slower and more methodical. And then
Speaker 1: my my appreciation of life shifted more, not just sport,
Speaker 1: but life. Like the things I took for granted, I
Speaker 1: stopped taking them for granted right away, and it shifted
Speaker 1: that part of me and the game was my game,
Speaker 1: right like I got like when I could get back
Speaker 1: to it, I got to it. I tightened my diet up,
Speaker 1: I started beating nutrition is. I started figuring out, like,
Speaker 1: all right, man, if you're gonna do this, you gotta
Speaker 1: be all the way in your career is only this long.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna get hurt, it's gonna be some stuff
Speaker 1: that you can't control. Everything else is gonna be how
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be. And I think that's what I did.
Speaker 1: But I was still piste off because the next year
Speaker 1: I only played like fifteen minutes a night, and I
Speaker 1: was bind Steve Blake leaning up, signing Aaron to follow,
Speaker 1: and the errand ends up Wesley Matthew, these terrorists Achilles
Speaker 1: Aaron and followed her to the shoulder and and they
Speaker 1: had to play and have a choice. And then I
Speaker 1: always said, I'll be ready when I get a chance.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I want blow a chance
Speaker 1: by not playing. I'll blow a chance by not being
Speaker 1: ready to play. So I just got ready. And when
Speaker 1: when the opportunity came, I said, I'm never gonna look back.
Speaker 1: And speaking of not looking back, you and Dame go
Speaker 1: on and have an incredible partnership. Make the playoffs, y'all.
Speaker 1: First playoff when we had Dame on the show and
Speaker 1: he talked about that first playoff series win that y'all
Speaker 1: want versus the Clippers and how much that did for
Speaker 1: yall partnership. What did you feel like in that moment
Speaker 1: that or even looking back on it, that winning that
Speaker 1: series against the Clippers, what did that do for you
Speaker 1: and Dame's partnership and moving forward to Blazers, it did
Speaker 1: a lot for our partnership, And I think it's solidified
Speaker 1: the fact got to get play together as two small guards, right,
Speaker 1: two guards who are ball dominant to guards who you know,
Speaker 1: control a lot of the offense, control a lot of
Speaker 1: the usage, have similar similar styles in terms of running
Speaker 1: pick and roll and running ice sole can catch you shoot.
Speaker 1: We kind of I'm gonna say we rever Luis games.
Speaker 1: That's too big of an adjecude. But I would say
Speaker 1: that we made it more popular and more common for
Speaker 1: two guards to be able to play together and be
Speaker 1: more accepted. I would say, for sure because of the success.
Speaker 1: Because if you don't have team success, none of this matters, right,
Speaker 1: And I probably don't get an extension, I probably don't
Speaker 1: get to stay there, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: But I will say that Dame always seen the vision.
Speaker 1: I didn't always see it. There was times where he
Speaker 1: would be like, we're gonna be starting together one day,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, bro, I don't play at all, Like
Speaker 1: I am watching. My game starts at three o'clock, Like
Speaker 1: I work out before the game, I run the stairs,
Speaker 1: Me and Will Barton play one on one, and I
Speaker 1: take a shower and that's basically my day. Like I
Speaker 1: come at seven o'clock like I already showered, like I'm
Speaker 1: just watching being a good teammate. He's like, we're gonna
Speaker 1: play one day. I'm like, bro, I don't see it.
Speaker 1: I don't see it. And then he always seen it,
Speaker 1: and sure enough it ended up happening, and that series
Speaker 1: was just, you know, for me, it was more about
Speaker 1: taking advantage of the opportunity being the like I love
Speaker 1: big moments. I love big games, and I think it
Speaker 1: brings out the best of me because I went to
Speaker 1: a school where we didn't have a lot of fans
Speaker 1: of games. Right, So when I got a chance to
Speaker 1: play out of Michigan State at ioua State when Royce
Speaker 1: O'Neil was there, not really so Neil, what's his name,
Speaker 1: Royce White, Royce White, Royce White. When he was there,
Speaker 1: Like that was just my moments where it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: people may never ever be able to see play again.
Speaker 1: They're only gonna judge you on this one moment if
Speaker 1: I get a chance playing front the ten thousand and
Speaker 1: twenty thousand. Whenever it was, I was like, this is
Speaker 1: this is what I was built for, this is what
Speaker 1: I trained for. And being in the playoffs is when
Speaker 1: everybody's watching your games, right, It's not like you get
Speaker 1: the late T and T slide or you know, you
Speaker 1: got a random Wednesday night in Portland, Like it's everybody
Speaker 1: that loves basketball is watching basketball. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that I rose to the occasion. And you know,
Speaker 1: after a slow start, I did for for a couple
Speaker 1: of years there what you still being with the Blazers?
Speaker 1: Um your name or not necessarily your name, but they
Speaker 1: kept coming up that like they gotta break it up,
Speaker 1: they gotta break it up, they gotta break them and
Speaker 1: c JF. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: And I think those may you started three years before
Speaker 1: you eventually got traded. Yeah, when when when those things
Speaker 1: first first started coming out that they needed to break
Speaker 1: it up and you retradeed. Was there ever a point
Speaker 1: in that like before it was inevitable, Like I think
Speaker 1: that last year was inevitable where you're like, yo, I
Speaker 1: think I may spoke to you before and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just waiting, like I know what's happening. But was
Speaker 1: there ever a point like during those years where hey,
Speaker 1: y'all were still playing well in competing, but everybody said
Speaker 1: it's not gonna work, they need to break it up.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a point for you during that where
Speaker 1: you felt like this is the year I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: traded and it still didn't happen, or did you always
Speaker 1: know that, no, it's not happening and then that's just
Speaker 1: noise on the outside. Um, I was in trade owners
Speaker 1: for about six straight years. I'd say, um, Bill simmon
Speaker 1: juice always. I joke about Bill all the time. He
Speaker 1: used to put me in trades all the time. He
Speaker 1: had me going to the cast. He hadn't going to Detroit,
Speaker 1: he hadn't going to Boston. Um, he had some trades
Speaker 1: that I thought, like, you know, I'm realized, I look
Speaker 1: at that be like that could work, or like it
Speaker 1: makes sense financially or if they're trying to do this
Speaker 1: like auld work. And I don't really read into too
Speaker 1: much besides the fact that I think there's only a
Speaker 1: few players in LEAD that are untradable. The rest of
Speaker 1: us are just ponds in this game and we're just
Speaker 1: a number and they got to figure out how to
Speaker 1: make the numbers work. But I felt like it was
Speaker 1: good to be wanted by more than one team because
Speaker 1: at some point, you know, the only person left in
Speaker 1: my draft classes on the same thing that was drafted
Speaker 1: by is be honest. It was me and your honest
Speaker 1: and now it's just yournest, Like that's the way it works.
Speaker 1: So I always looked and I thought to myself, first,
Speaker 1: she used to be mad, like you're mad at the
Speaker 1: fan base. You're angry, You're like, why don't they want me?
Speaker 1: And you kind of feel that way right when you're
Speaker 1: younger as you get older. I went through that for
Speaker 1: about a week, like dain't that's messed up? Like I
Speaker 1: worked so hard for him, like whateverever. And then I
Speaker 1: thought about and I was like, you're realistic, c J.
Speaker 1: Like every team's goals is to winning championship, right, fans
Speaker 1: are irrational at times. I'm an irrational Browns fan first
Speaker 1: of all, so I get it, that's just I'm an
Speaker 1: irrational Browns and I feel like we're supposed to compete
Speaker 1: for a championship even when we're not. And I think
Speaker 1: our fans and the fans that were there at the time,
Speaker 1: they were like thinking about it. They were like, we're
Speaker 1: paying these guys too much money, and we keep being honestly,
Speaker 1: kept running to the Warriors, right, we kept runningto y'all,
Speaker 1: And it was like, our team and our roster wasn't
Speaker 1: built to beat you guys, who we're be able to compete,
Speaker 1: but we weren't built to beat you guys. And how
Speaker 1: else were we going to be built to compete or
Speaker 1: beat you guys? Then to get get rid of the
Speaker 1: guy who makes the second most money in the team.
Speaker 1: So it's like financially, I started thinking about and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, if they if they're if they're planning,
Speaker 1: is they try to find more assets and they're not
Speaker 1: gonna trade Damed and like it's obviously going to be me.
Speaker 1: And I think for me, it was just more so,
Speaker 1: all right, just keep working in your game, do things
Speaker 1: the right way to be a leader and set the
Speaker 1: example and understand that this is the way the cards
Speaker 1: may fall for you. And I think that's the approach
Speaker 1: that I kind of had going forward. And I just
Speaker 1: always told my agent, like, be honest, we be transparent,
Speaker 1: let me know what's going on. And before Neil was
Speaker 1: let go um, I always had conversation with him and like,
Speaker 1: you know, just be honest with me, Like that's all
Speaker 1: I ever wanted honestly, Then I can take I can
Speaker 1: take honesty. I don't want to be lied to. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be betrayed, and at the very least,
Speaker 1: I don't want to find out things on Twitter, like
Speaker 1: just keep it a buck with me when I'm playing well,
Speaker 1: keep it a buck when I'm not keeping a buck.
Speaker 1: And Neil was always like that. He was always very
Speaker 1: quite frank, like things weren't going well, he would tell me,
Speaker 1: and things were going well, he would tell me. And
Speaker 1: when Joe was in that position, and I told Joe
Speaker 1: the same thing, and keep it keeping a buck with me,
Speaker 1: like I'm a professional. The whispers allowed than they've ever
Speaker 1: been before. I can feel the tension, I feel the
Speaker 1: vibe shifting. I feel it like that's what I think
Speaker 1: I told you. I was like, yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is inevitable, like it's about to happen. I just don't
Speaker 1: know where, and I don't know when. I kind of
Speaker 1: got my family ready, I got everything kind of lined up,
Speaker 1: and I took my agent. It's like it's time, Like
Speaker 1: my time here is up, Like start having like not
Speaker 1: just inquiring conversations, but productive conversations. We're like we're not
Speaker 1: asking what kind of tell him like this is what
Speaker 1: it's looking like for us? And uh And thankfully Portland
Speaker 1: was great about the dialogue, the back and forth, and
Speaker 1: they handled everything first class. And I'm thankful that we
Speaker 1: were able to put something together where it was usually
Speaker 1: beneficial right to get off my money there to go
Speaker 1: pay and able to go pay NERD pay some other
Speaker 1: guys to get Josh hard. They get some great, you
Speaker 1: know assets, and then I think because of my trade,
Speaker 1: they're able to sign Grant, which was a huge pickup
Speaker 1: for them as well. And I always say, like, divorces
Speaker 1: don't always have to be messy, right, Like my parents
Speaker 1: got divorced and they get along better now and they
Speaker 1: didn't his married, Like divorces can end well and cordial
Speaker 1: if you handled it properly. I think we handled that
Speaker 1: divorce really well. Gus, it's great. Did you have any
Speaker 1: say so or know that it was going to be
Speaker 1: New Orleans? Yeah? I knew, Um, I knew. I knew
Speaker 1: I was going to New Orleans. Um. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of conversations about teams behind closed with the countil
Speaker 1: my agent. UM. What I felt like was the best
Speaker 1: fit for me, my career where I wanted to go, um,
Speaker 1: for my wife, my son who had just been born.
Speaker 1: He was I left after this four week appointment and
Speaker 1: I just felt like with the young talent, obviously you
Speaker 1: got to planet in Zion, and in Zion you got
Speaker 1: b I was a mega mega star. You've got great pieces,
Speaker 1: young players. Got Willie who you know Willie really well,
Speaker 1: great god, little human motivator. You got Griff, You've got trading.
Speaker 1: You gotta swin. So I'm talking and I'm having all
Speaker 1: these conversations, and I'm like, this is perfect. We've got
Speaker 1: a young up and comming team. You need a player
Speaker 1: like me who can play different roles. I can score,
Speaker 1: I can lead, I can get off the ball and
Speaker 1: chill and like watch you go to work like I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not going to force my way into stuff
Speaker 1: Like I know how to play whatever way we need
Speaker 1: to play. And most importantly, I gotta winner's DNA to
Speaker 1: where like I won at every level. I ain't win
Speaker 1: a championship, but I wanted high school, I wanted college,
Speaker 1: and I've consistently got into the playoffs nine years in
Speaker 1: a row. This will be tense straight so it's like
Speaker 1: I know what to do to kind of to kind
Speaker 1: of figure it out and thankfully and pull the trigger.
Speaker 1: And I'm thankful to being the worlds. I love it.
Speaker 1: I think we're changing the culture, fan base is shifting
Speaker 1: what we want to accomplish the shifting, and um, I'm
Speaker 1: a big part of that and this team is a
Speaker 1: big part of that. Well, when you when you went
Speaker 1: to New Orleans, did you spect to be full time
Speaker 1: point guard? Because that's something different for you and your
Speaker 1: career and you had ever done those first what nine years?
Speaker 1: That was a part of the reason why I wanted
Speaker 1: to be there is because I wanted to play a
Speaker 1: different role. I wanted to really tap into all my tools,
Speaker 1: on my resources, on my work, and I think it
Speaker 1: was like I was in training, right, you know in
Speaker 1: Portland's right, I got to train alongside one of the
Speaker 1: greatest players ever, right, top seventy five, just had sixty
Speaker 1: the other night, like a certified killer. I got to
Speaker 1: see what that was like. Right, what is the mentality,
Speaker 1: what is the work ethic? What time is he working out? Like?
Speaker 1: How does he get ready for every game every night?
Speaker 1: Like I got to see I got to work alongside
Speaker 1: and we work out together, vacation together, but still my
Speaker 1: homiet to this day. And then I got to go
Speaker 1: play a certified score role like just score, go, get buckets, catching, shoot, running,
Speaker 1: pick from up when he goes out of the game,
Speaker 1: run the offense, and like, I got to see what
Speaker 1: that was like, and I was like, Okay, that was
Speaker 1: a really cool experience for me. It changed my outlook
Speaker 1: on basketball. It helped me grow. This is a role
Speaker 1: where somebody's got to score somebody as I don't, So
Speaker 1: somebody take the inter shot in the game somebody's I
Speaker 1: might not, but I've been prepared for this role in
Speaker 1: nurture for this role. Incapable of being the full time
Speaker 1: point guard. I'm capable of being a full time shooting gun.
Speaker 1: I'm capable of playing both I think my skill set
Speaker 1: compliments on the ball, off the ball, and the ability
Speaker 1: to shooting have a basketball i Q makes the game
Speaker 1: so much easier when you play alongside guys who know
Speaker 1: lot of space properly. Had think the game is just
Speaker 1: really easy coming in as a leader of this team, Um,
Speaker 1: when you're traded to the team Zion, I think at
Speaker 1: that time, it's hurt missing the entire season last year
Speaker 1: and struggling with Wait, you know, the reports are coming
Speaker 1: out that they struggling a way. You know they can
Speaker 1: somebody catch a picture every now and then. They looked
Speaker 1: a little heavier, and you know he's having knee injuries,
Speaker 1: foot injuries, which I'm not necessarily gonna say being overweight
Speaker 1: at that time was what did it, but it definitely
Speaker 1: didn't help it. And you know, coming in there and
Speaker 1: understanding that number one is number one, pick number two
Speaker 1: generational talent, but could possibly struggle with way these shoes
Speaker 1: did you take on that challenge and coming in there
Speaker 1: and say, I have to do what I need to
Speaker 1: do to teach this second year guy who was a
Speaker 1: superstar making hundreds of millions of dollars already, but I
Speaker 1: need to teach him about diet. I need to teach
Speaker 1: him about taking care of his body. I need to
Speaker 1: teach him these things so that he can't be available
Speaker 1: on the floor. Was that something that you had to
Speaker 1: take on? And going to New Orleans with such a
Speaker 1: young team, especially with a young guy like Zion, that
Speaker 1: was something that I was surely going to take on.
Speaker 1: But I didn't force it right, Like I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be the old head that preaches, because I know
Speaker 1: what that looks like, right. You know how it's like
Speaker 1: when every time you see somebody telling you about what
Speaker 1: it was like back in the day, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be that guy. I was more
Speaker 1: like show first than I tell. So it's like I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna say nothing. I'm gonna read the room. I
Speaker 1: don't really know these guys like that. I know I'm
Speaker 1: from Afar, but I'm gonna just work how I work,
Speaker 1: do what I do, eat what I eat. I show
Speaker 1: up at the same time I work out at these times.
Speaker 1: I get my body working at these times, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna see what what a what a real professional looks like.
Speaker 1: And then once they see that, like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: howth c J is he is very blunt. He just
Speaker 1: very honest. Jay's he's himself yesterday, today, tomorrow. He sees
Speaker 1: something he don't like, he speaks on it. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: don't say nothing. Sometimes I say too much. It's like
Speaker 1: they was gonna be able to get to know me better.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go out to eat first. We did all
Speaker 1: that stuff before I started trying to preach, just like no.
Speaker 1: I came here and I said it from day when
Speaker 1: I said, look, man, i've been in the playoffs eight
Speaker 1: straight years. It's gonna be nine and we're not in
Speaker 1: no position to make the playoff at this point, right
Speaker 1: Like I said, Look, I work a certain type of way.
Speaker 1: I love this game, give everything I got to this game,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna walk away from it. I want
Speaker 1: you to challenge me. I want you to coach me.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you start or if you're last.
Speaker 1: Get on the bench. If you see I'm not doing
Speaker 1: something right, you tell me I'm not running the play
Speaker 1: right because I don't run into the place. Tell me
Speaker 1: you help me. And that's kind of how I get down.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna challenge y'all. I want you to challenge me.
Speaker 1: And I sat out and I think that changed the
Speaker 1: the perception of what they thought about me, because I'm
Speaker 1: sure they had this idea what I was like as
Speaker 1: the president, all of that stuff. And then it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: like c J, he's first of all, he got real game,
Speaker 1: but second of all, like he talks when he needs
Speaker 1: to talk. Yeah, he keep it one hundred with me.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna sugarcoat nothing. If I see something I
Speaker 1: don't like, I'm gonna tell him. I'm changing stuff with
Speaker 1: in the organization that I may not like or may
Speaker 1: not think is what we should have. And I'm saying
Speaker 1: stuff and then I'm delivering. It's not like I don't
Speaker 1: just make up stuff like he's going to record saying
Speaker 1: like CJ got somebody for everything I do, and I'm not.
Speaker 1: I don't just make it up, like I really look
Speaker 1: out for people and make sure they're smooth and in
Speaker 1: this case, um our lockers right beside each other. Besides
Speaker 1: selling the bus. He comes back to the team. We
Speaker 1: start talking and I'm just getting a normal, like a
Speaker 1: surface level, right like I broke my foot three times
Speaker 1: with certain did you use like just general stuff like
Speaker 1: how's your rehab going, what you're doing what phades you in? Now?
Speaker 1: Did you do this? Did you do that? It's like
Speaker 1: I can relate, Ma, I did it three times? Like
Speaker 1: I know what you're going through mentally. Do you've got
Speaker 1: a therapist? Like how's your day to day? Are you
Speaker 1: structuring your days now that you're not playing? Like do
Speaker 1: you have a routine? So I'm just hitting with just
Speaker 1: like generals, I'm not I'm not I'm not telling them
Speaker 1: what to do. I'm seeing what you're doing. And then
Speaker 1: as I progresses, then I get more comfortable. We get
Speaker 1: more comfortable. Now I'm like, this is why I think
Speaker 1: you should be doing. It's your life, like I always
Speaker 1: tell them, like I don't need nothing for none of all.
Speaker 1: I'm not bragging and sign three deals like I make
Speaker 1: good money. I make good money off the court, Like
Speaker 1: I don't. I do this because I want to, not
Speaker 1: because I have to. I want to get the best
Speaker 1: out of you. I want to get the best out
Speaker 1: of you. I want all you are to make as
Speaker 1: much money as you're supposed to. I'm maximizing what he did.
Speaker 1: My column is supposed to be in all phases of life.
Speaker 1: I want you to maximize what you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: and you're still thing. It's a lot of higher than
Speaker 1: a lot of ours. So I just want you to
Speaker 1: get there, It's all I'm saying. And I don't need
Speaker 1: no bread from you. I don't need nothing. I just
Speaker 1: want you to be available and I want to see
Speaker 1: you be able to say that when you when you're done,
Speaker 1: see you come to the buck with me. He gave
Speaker 1: me a lot of gyms. I took him with me,
Speaker 1: and I took my talent and I ran with it.
Speaker 1: And I think now he's doing it. Obviously he's got
Speaker 1: a little injury right now, but they're all They all work,
Speaker 1: and that's what I love to see, Like lay or
Speaker 1: lose whatever, do you work? Do you care? Do you
Speaker 1: apply to yourself? Are you maximizing your days? And this
Speaker 1: is one of the best organizations in terms of fun,
Speaker 1: Like they made the game fun like and that's what
Speaker 1: I love to be around. The locker room is fun,
Speaker 1: the flights is fun, Like you really really get down
Speaker 1: with these guys and we're not really faking the fun,
Speaker 1: like we really mess with each other. Turn every Thursday
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Speaker 1: And speaking of Zai and your team with the Pelicans
Speaker 1: in your row, Uh, guy's got on to an incredible start.
Speaker 1: Uh what three weeks ago, three three or four weeks
Speaker 1: ago was number one, number two in the West and
Speaker 1: now currently in the midst of a losing street. How
Speaker 1: How how is the mood around the team and what
Speaker 1: has to be done? Obviously health is important and you
Speaker 1: guys have been deemed up. We kind of went through
Speaker 1: our injury injury spot as well. And you guys been
Speaker 1: deemed up. Finally gotta be out back after missing thirty
Speaker 1: three games. But how is how is the mood around
Speaker 1: the team now with such a young team you're riding now?
Speaker 1: How your number one, number two in the West. Everybody's
Speaker 1: feeling good, and now you've lost six in a row.
Speaker 1: I think maybe one or two games about five hundred.
Speaker 1: What's the move like now, especially with trying to push
Speaker 1: young guys who hasn't been there and get them to
Speaker 1: understand what it needs to be. I think the move
Speaker 1: definitely shifted when we start losing games because we're not
Speaker 1: used to that. Right, Like we was winning. Things are
Speaker 1: going well, you know, we number one, number two in
Speaker 1: the West like Roland. Then we start getting some injuries.
Speaker 1: We started dropping some closed games. Guys that ain't normally
Speaker 1: used to playing thirty minutes is playing thirty minutes. Guys
Speaker 1: that ain't used to play in twenty is playing twenty
Speaker 1: And I think it changed the rotation and the body
Speaker 1: started to kind of feel the season right. Forty something
Speaker 1: games and eleven day road trip, come back, lose more
Speaker 1: games than you think you're supposed to drop a game
Speaker 1: in Orlando, like it starts to Domino, and I think
Speaker 1: it was mentally exhausting but also physically exhausting from the season.
Speaker 1: But we had conversations, and I think that the message
Speaker 1: is the same, Like when everything is going well, I
Speaker 1: don't judge people on that. I judge't know how they
Speaker 1: act when everything is going wrong, like when everything is
Speaker 1: hitting the fan. That's true, true testimony, that's the true character,
Speaker 1: that's the true, true character, traits of what you really
Speaker 1: what you really made of. And I think this is
Speaker 1: great for us. I was like, we was winning games.
Speaker 1: They was like, oh, this is this, you know, championship contenders.
Speaker 1: And I was like, six months ago, y'all said, we're
Speaker 1: barely gonna finish over five hundred. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like, y'all victims at the moment. I said,
Speaker 1: we can't be victims at the moment. This is a season.
Speaker 1: This season as ebbs and flows, good days, bad days,
Speaker 1: losing streets, winning streaks, just as quick as we win
Speaker 1: seven lose seven. So you gotta stay locked in on
Speaker 1: the goal, stay locked on the task of each day,
Speaker 1: just getting better, stacking you good days. Some days you
Speaker 1: gotta rest, some days you gotta chill. Some days. We
Speaker 1: gotta celebrate our victories. Right privately, I think we at
Speaker 1: that stage now where you didn't dropped a couple of games,
Speaker 1: but now we understand, like alright, b Eyes back, Nazis
Speaker 1: bag Z is getting closer. Like we just lost our
Speaker 1: rook Dice into an injury, but it'll be back soon.
Speaker 1: It's like we're gonna be whold, and we need to
Speaker 1: be whole right now. We just stay afloat, stay afloat,
Speaker 1: get a home seed and we will figure it out.
Speaker 1: Were healthy and we got we got one out there,
Speaker 1: we got fourteen out there, we got three out there.
Speaker 1: I like our chances, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: it's just like, let's let's just learn from this season, right.
Speaker 1: Everybody adjusted new roles. He used to playing outside your role,
Speaker 1: and then you get back used to playing your role.
Speaker 1: And when we come together collectively, we're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: But you gotta remember what this felt like because losing,
Speaker 1: losing can continue to see ban and you start to
Speaker 1: have a loser's mentality and we can't have that. Like
Speaker 1: it's hard to win an NBA. And when you start
Speaker 1: falling in the winds, like you think it's normal. It's not.
Speaker 1: It's really hard, Like it's hard to close the team out.
Speaker 1: It's hard to be up for the entire game and
Speaker 1: close them out down to stretch, like it takes real
Speaker 1: talent and execution and focus. And now I think we're
Speaker 1: getting to that point where it's all coming together. Even
Speaker 1: though we lost that game the other night against the
Speaker 1: Nuggets by one point, I think I missed game. When
Speaker 1: I miss the game, when it miss the heat. And
Speaker 1: then we come back, you know, we're up against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: They go on like a sevent team to two run
Speaker 1: in a quarter and we end up coming back and losing.
Speaker 1: My four or five agets shown him. It's like it
Speaker 1: looks like that that that line of error is very thin,
Speaker 1: Like you got that margin in victory is very thin.
Speaker 1: You gotta lock in. And that's a fact. I think
Speaker 1: that's something that we've been figuring out this season as well.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, every year it's a different team, man.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, we still have that first five six
Speaker 1: guys that won a championship last year, that's won several
Speaker 1: championships or seven guys, but then we got a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys who haven't really played much um who we
Speaker 1: haven't really played much together. And also youth and the
Speaker 1: mistakes that you make as a young team. It takes
Speaker 1: a while to grow through those. And I feel like
Speaker 1: right now y'all are starting to see a little bit
Speaker 1: of that. Is that accurate? Yeah, I think we're starting
Speaker 1: to see it for sure. And I wouldn't even compare
Speaker 1: it to the We don't got the championship DNA, right,
Speaker 1: but we got a little taste of success, and not
Speaker 1: on that level of small taste turning the table, went
Speaker 1: into playing games taking the son so I think should
Speaker 1: have been seven games. We should have win seven games
Speaker 1: and had to play seven seven game series on their core.
Speaker 1: But we got a taste of success, right, And then
Speaker 1: we got to see, like, start the season off, we
Speaker 1: beat Brooklyn in Brooklyn by like, and we start playing
Speaker 1: well as a whole, and we're looking like we can
Speaker 1: really play with some of the best teams in the league, like,
Speaker 1: and you start to get a taste of like what
Speaker 1: success it looks like, and then you get humble and
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, we got a chance to be really good,
Speaker 1: but we gotta do these things consistently, and like you
Speaker 1: said before, we can't have small mistakes linger right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're supposed to be low man, you've got to
Speaker 1: be the low man when Anthony Edwards coming down the lane,
Speaker 1: because if you get there too late, you getting punched
Speaker 1: on right. And if you don't meet a good passing
Speaker 1: role man early, he's gonna pick you apart like Joker,
Speaker 1: you got a meeting earlier. Hes gonna hit the lib
Speaker 1: to Aaron Gordon or he gonna throw it right to
Speaker 1: the corner. Is a three like And if you get
Speaker 1: putting a series against these teams, the whole point of
Speaker 1: a series is to figure out the weakness and exploit it.
Speaker 1: And it's like if you if you're not gonna lock
Speaker 1: in the way you're supposed to lock in a regular
Speaker 1: season where you're just playing a team on the random Tuesday,
Speaker 1: then how I'm gonna trust you to lock in, you know,
Speaker 1: in the playoff series when you know we might have
Speaker 1: to go back to Phoenix and we got nights off
Speaker 1: in Scottsdale, you know what I'm saying. So it's like,
Speaker 1: y'all gotta have this level of focus and be willing
Speaker 1: to sacrifice at a different level. And that doesn't just
Speaker 1: mean going out or not going out, because that's not
Speaker 1: even what I'm talking about. You gotta be willing to
Speaker 1: sacrifice and say today, I'm not gonna work out because
Speaker 1: I'm playing more minutes than I ever played before in
Speaker 1: my career and I don't want my body to be
Speaker 1: hurt tomorrow. So I'm just gonna shoot three throws. Or
Speaker 1: I'm really focusing on film and I'm gonna get better
Speaker 1: at film today. And I think that's the next step
Speaker 1: that we gotta take from a growth standpoint, and I
Speaker 1: think we're getting there absolutely respect that. Um. Speaking of basketball. Uh,
Speaker 1: you recently, well that's what year, year and a half now,
Speaker 1: you became the president of Players Association. Number one, how
Speaker 1: has it been sitting in that role? Uh? And number two?
Speaker 1: How long do you plan on staying in that role?
Speaker 1: It's the two first. I don't know how long I
Speaker 1: plan on standing in this role. Um, I'm unsure. Obviously.
Speaker 1: I like to molde whoever is going to be next
Speaker 1: to kind of spend some time with them and allow
Speaker 1: them to kind of understand how it works, similar to
Speaker 1: how the NBA has done things with a deputy commissioner.
Speaker 1: I think that's important that your change your hands should
Speaker 1: be smooth and they should be well equipped. I think
Speaker 1: I want to get to that point first before I
Speaker 1: do that, So I don't know what the timeline is
Speaker 1: on that. But the first part of your question is
Speaker 1: it's been an honor to serve, you know, on behalf
Speaker 1: of the players. There's been some great moments. It's not
Speaker 1: so great moments. Obviously, when you're in a position of power,
Speaker 1: I have to make decisions. Your decisions are for the
Speaker 1: betterment of the group, but the group isn't always going
Speaker 1: to be happy, right and having to deal with COVID,
Speaker 1: having to deal with a lot of different situations that
Speaker 1: we've had to deal with hasn't been ideal. But it's
Speaker 1: been a lot of tough learning moments that I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: going through. UM I've enjoyed the dialogue, the conversation that
Speaker 1: I have to have on behalf of the players and
Speaker 1: alongside the NBA. UM I think we're working on developing
Speaker 1: more of a partnership, more of a collaboration that's group
Speaker 1: decision making. UM. I think the dialogue has improved from
Speaker 1: endous league since my rookie year or two now ten
Speaker 1: years ago. And UM, I think obviously we're in CBA
Speaker 1: talks going through negotiations now, but we're in a much
Speaker 1: better state then I would say a lot of other
Speaker 1: major sports in terms of how we speak to each other,
Speaker 1: in terms of relationships. A lot of players have with Adam,
Speaker 1: a lot of relationships the players have with Mark Tatum.
Speaker 1: I think we're in a much much better space. And
Speaker 1: I think Tonik has done a fantastic job of organization
Speaker 1: and allowing us to continue to make strides, and the
Speaker 1: great work that Michelle has done. I think, um, Michelle
Speaker 1: was incredible by the way. I thought she did an
Speaker 1: amazing job. And you know, and and stepping in that role,
Speaker 1: like I think CP did a really good job in
Speaker 1: the row a president for I think, man, what was
Speaker 1: he the president for like eight years or something like that.
Speaker 1: He didn't he didn't two bids, and I thought he
Speaker 1: thought he did a really good job. But there's a
Speaker 1: topic that never comes up in discussion, and I quite
Speaker 1: frankly don't understand that. So I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about it, which is the players not being able to
Speaker 1: participate in ownership with these scenes like you see, the
Speaker 1: evaluation is that these teams and you can look at
Speaker 1: the Warriors for us, take the Warriors for example, seven
Speaker 1: billion dollar evaluation. When when the when the ownership group
Speaker 1: bought this team in uh two thousand eleven, which was
Speaker 1: a year before I was drafted, plays first year, steps
Speaker 1: third year, so five million dollar team, it's now seven
Speaker 1: billion dollars. Players are to participate at all, not say
Speaker 1: not now you can't structure something to be part owner
Speaker 1: after or anything. What do you make of that conversation
Speaker 1: and players not being able to participate in ownership and
Speaker 1: it also never really coming up. Yeah, I will say
Speaker 1: that it's coming up the conversations. I've been a carry out.
Speaker 1: I was elected in this role in and COVID maybe
Speaker 1: August three, so I'm I'm going on two years. I think.
Speaker 1: So these are things that I think about constantly as
Speaker 1: a person who believes in equity and empowerment and ownership
Speaker 1: and ways to create generational wealth. But also the fact
Speaker 1: that a lot of these teams are owned by funds
Speaker 1: or a portion of it is owned by funds. I
Speaker 1: think where it's indirectly ownership. I think those are all
Speaker 1: discussions that were currently having. I think it's more so
Speaker 1: like you talked about, how do you structure it like,
Speaker 1: for instance, the Steph Curry situation, right, I don't like
Speaker 1: the valuation of what it was compared to what it
Speaker 1: is now based on him being there and all that
Speaker 1: stuff is crazy. And I think you know, you guys,
Speaker 1: your your owner would argue that you know, he's paid well,
Speaker 1: and he has paid well, he's paid extremely well, and
Speaker 1: he performs and he does his job. But a lot
Speaker 1: of that success off the court for the Warriors is
Speaker 1: due to him. UM merchandise sales, those restaurants that you
Speaker 1: got around that arena um the I think you'll have
Speaker 1: your own media now, I'm not mistaken where they basically
Speaker 1: chronicling this season for y'all behind closed doors, I think
Speaker 1: like it might be the owner of the media company.
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's a lot of ways in which the
Speaker 1: generating income that you guys aren't able to take part
Speaker 1: in and we're not able to take part in as
Speaker 1: any And I think for us, it's about she teaches
Speaker 1: be trying to figure out what that looks like, and
Speaker 1: it's not we're not trying to take advantage of anybody.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to be able to figure out what's
Speaker 1: considered a fair share. UM and how does that share
Speaker 1: paid out In the event that Steph Curry does have
Speaker 1: enough money right to potentially partaken in in an ownership play,
Speaker 1: what does that look like for him? And can he
Speaker 1: do it? And like you talked about before, can you
Speaker 1: do it down the road? Like what does that look
Speaker 1: like strategically if you structure it? And I think I
Speaker 1: don't have the answer obviously if I didn't, it would
Speaker 1: be done already. But just the dialogue is what's important,
Speaker 1: because you need to understand both sides issues and why
Speaker 1: both sides feel like change is necessary. And I think
Speaker 1: for us as players, um, that's the next step for us,
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan's being the only player to own a
Speaker 1: team and arguely the greatest player of all time if
Speaker 1: not egre it is. It's kind of a problem because
Speaker 1: there's plenty of other athletes from other sports, plenty of
Speaker 1: other African Americans minorities who have money, but they don't
Speaker 1: have the access. They might have the power, mainly because
Speaker 1: many of these organizations and franchises our own and their
Speaker 1: passed down from generation of generations. So if we don't
Speaker 1: get one person of color in one of these positions,
Speaker 1: how do we get the next person of color in
Speaker 1: the position. You know what I mean, I think not
Speaker 1: to just bring race into a general but for us
Speaker 1: as as black athletes over of the league, like it's important.
Speaker 1: We make a lot of money and we want to
Speaker 1: figure out ways to make money for our kids in
Speaker 1: the generations that come after us, especially if we're helping
Speaker 1: boost these franchises the way Steph Curry is boosting the franchise. Yeah, No, definitely,
Speaker 1: And like you said, I think Joe has He's paid
Speaker 1: a lot of money, like as ownership group, they paid
Speaker 1: and so you respect that. But then I'll look I'll
Speaker 1: look at it and say, yes, they half faid, but
Speaker 1: they're also able to cover that. They're also able to
Speaker 1: cover those expenses from revenue. They're not covering those expenses
Speaker 1: by going to take a loan out against that seven
Speaker 1: billion dollar evaluation as if it's no, that's still just
Speaker 1: sitting there and you're able to cover salaries and X,
Speaker 1: Y and z the revenue and so there's still that
Speaker 1: long term play that you're just not able to participate
Speaker 1: in it. And I'll take it even a step further
Speaker 1: if an owner, if an owner is in an investment
Speaker 1: and you know, they're either leading the investment order high
Speaker 1: up on the cap table, we can't invest in that
Speaker 1: same investment. And so that right there already essentially limits
Speaker 1: the great investments that you can take partner because they're
Speaker 1: going to get access to the best investments. Why were
Speaker 1: Number one? A lot of them these days come from
Speaker 1: tech backgrounds, venture backgrounds, et cetera. But also number two,
Speaker 1: if I am a CEO of a company, and if
Speaker 1: I'm a CEO of a company and I want to
Speaker 1: do something with the Warriors or I wanted something I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make, I'm gonna open my round up to Joe
Speaker 1: let Up, I'm gonna open my round up to Peter
Speaker 1: Goober why for the relationship? And so then that limits
Speaker 1: what players can do as well. And so are we
Speaker 1: making any progress as far as that were? Like, I
Speaker 1: think that's an old route that was put in way
Speaker 1: back in the day, and it's like one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's just lazy to leave it there because
Speaker 1: the times have changed and players are making more money
Speaker 1: to where you can sit on those same cap tables
Speaker 1: that owners. So is that something that we're making progress
Speaker 1: in because I think that's something that definitely needs to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely of the business mindset, as you can attest to that.
Speaker 1: I think it's important that we have the right exposure, right.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the things we've seen historically is
Speaker 1: that you know, athletes and people who have money, but
Speaker 1: not necessarily the right education behind it, investing the wrong things.
Speaker 1: And I think for us, it's not just about deal vetting.
Speaker 1: It's about making sure that you have the right deal flow, um, constructive,
Speaker 1: productive deal flow, and but potentially being able to invest
Speaker 1: alongside owners. It gives you another layer of due diligence
Speaker 1: that we may not always have or may not always use.
Speaker 1: And I think that's important and important part of the
Speaker 1: structure that you know we're working towards is it's not
Speaker 1: just about investing alongside your owner, it's about them kind
Speaker 1: of explaining deals to you. Why this is a good deal,
Speaker 1: why this is not a good deal, the stage of
Speaker 1: the deal, capital calls. What's a capital call? How often
Speaker 1: they're gonna come back? What serious is this? Is? This?
Speaker 1: Is this a safe round? Do I get a discount?
Speaker 1: What's my discount? You know what I mean? I think
Speaker 1: being able to explain the lingo similar to how we
Speaker 1: would explain a play. One of the things I think
Speaker 1: is most fascinating about other sports is when I watch
Speaker 1: a football player breakdown and play. I played football, but
Speaker 1: I can't speak to football the way that a professional
Speaker 1: athlete can when they break down a play. I think
Speaker 1: that's so great. But I think we have that same
Speaker 1: mindset when it comes to finance and be able to
Speaker 1: speak to lingo with somebody else who can empower us
Speaker 1: and encourage us and teach us. And I think we're
Speaker 1: working towards a lot of stuff that I you know,
Speaker 1: I can't really speak to because you know, president of
Speaker 1: the p A, but the conversation and dialogue is going strong.
Speaker 1: It's it's definitely business focused. You know. I knew about
Speaker 1: the the Basketball Africa League, you know, when it was
Speaker 1: coming out, and I tried to invest in the Obviously
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed and that's not even the NBA, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't invest in that and part take in the
Speaker 1: upside of that and the potential upside. So it's like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of issues that I have personally as
Speaker 1: a as a as a player, and personally on behalf
Speaker 1: of all the players that we're trying to resolve. And
Speaker 1: I think we will be able to resolve because, like
Speaker 1: you said before, it just makes sense, right, It just
Speaker 1: makes sense for us to be able to partake in
Speaker 1: some of the upside, be able to invest in things
Speaker 1: that are have a higher likelihood of being successful, like
Speaker 1: we should want our players too, and the owners obviously
Speaker 1: and the governors, they definitely want their players to be
Speaker 1: a part of it. They're just trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: um structurally, what that would look like going forward. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And like I said, I think you're doing an incredible
Speaker 1: job as the president. Um, I appreciate so you know,
Speaker 1: as a player, UM, I thank you because it's it's
Speaker 1: a very unforgiving job, Like it's a thankless job, and
Speaker 1: I all the time this is a very thankless job.
Speaker 1: And I'm thankful for your eight years and service because
Speaker 1: now I know what you went through. I didn't understand
Speaker 1: it before. Now I truly know. And another note, who's
Speaker 1: your team rep. Make sure Cavan is at Utah for
Speaker 1: at least to tell me this at least a day.
Speaker 1: Need them for a day. Okay, yeah, we need we
Speaker 1: need a rep from the Warriors there. Please tell him
Speaker 1: the whole fight, hotel, whatever he needs there on me
Speaker 1: the once to dinner in Park City. I don't care
Speaker 1: about I need them there. I'll definitely let him know. Uh.
Speaker 1: And like I said, a man who were a many
Speaker 1: has something gets you out of here. I know a
Speaker 1: little man probably getting up in a minute and you
Speaker 1: gotta eat you on the Central Central Times. So appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming on. But before you get out of here,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to ask you about media, Like I
Speaker 1: remember when you first started doing media and you came
Speaker 1: to the NBA Finals. We actually had a conversation, remember absolutely,
Speaker 1: and we were we were covering the NBA Finals and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, c J, Like that's cool, that's dope,
Speaker 1: But it's a respecting that you gotta give to you
Speaker 1: sitting here talking to players about the finals. You ain't
Speaker 1: You haven't quite gotten to the level that you need
Speaker 1: to get to to have those conversations. And he was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is something I want to do. And then you
Speaker 1: kind of stepped back a little bit, became c J
Speaker 1: McCullough respected around the league where everybody respected. Then got
Speaker 1: back into it. What's in your mindset um from there
Speaker 1: to where you are now in the media aspects of things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think my understanding of media has definitely shifted. Have
Speaker 1: been involved, like you said before, And it's funny because
Speaker 1: you know, I broke my foot in my rookie year
Speaker 1: and I got pitched a lot of stuff and I
Speaker 1: had to decline a lot of it because I was
Speaker 1: becoming more known as a journalist and I was as
Speaker 1: an NBA player. I thought it was like just a
Speaker 1: bad look, and the fact that I had to debate
Speaker 1: that is crazy, right in society in which I'm doing
Speaker 1: things that better myself, I'm actually using my degree. I
Speaker 1: enjoy this craft, I get paid for it, and it
Speaker 1: gives fans a different side. I mean, I had to
Speaker 1: question whether or not I should be doing it because
Speaker 1: I was hurt. I couldn't play my sport, and I
Speaker 1: thought the perception would be that I'm not taking my
Speaker 1: craft seriously, even though I take my craft more seriously
Speaker 1: than this league as I do all these other things. Right,
Speaker 1: So I took a step back, like you said before,
Speaker 1: and even when I was doing the finals and stuff
Speaker 1: that I was only covering certain stuff that I felt
Speaker 1: like I wanted to be a part of from an
Speaker 1: exposure standpoint, but also to be honest, I want to
Speaker 1: know what it was like to be in the finals.
Speaker 1: I had never played in it, I never watched it
Speaker 1: as a kid, and I wanted to see what it
Speaker 1: was like to like to divide the aura, like what
Speaker 1: goes into it, and obviously playing and covering it is different.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's a shame to say that I've
Speaker 1: covered more finals than i've been in right, Like I've
Speaker 1: been covering finals for years through ESP and other different partnerships.
Speaker 1: But I think what I've learned most is that it's
Speaker 1: okay to to not know everything about the sport that
Speaker 1: you play, and it's okay to have an opinion on
Speaker 1: things and to be quite frank in your judgment and
Speaker 1: your and the way you assess the game. But what
Speaker 1: I've tried to do as a player is I never
Speaker 1: attacked players right like you'll see me on the first take,
Speaker 1: Like I stand up for whoever, I'm standing up for Katie,
Speaker 1: I'm staying for kai whatever, because I know them. I
Speaker 1: know them personally, I know how they work, I know
Speaker 1: how they think about the game of basketball and know
Speaker 1: what it means to them. And I could be I
Speaker 1: could be critical, right of let's I'm gonna tell them,
Speaker 1: For example, because I know Jason, right, Jason has to
Speaker 1: turnovers in the finals. I can say like, look, Jason
Speaker 1: had a lot of turnovers and like what whatever. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say he played poorly or that
Speaker 1: he wasn't ready to play, because I know him, I
Speaker 1: know how he prepares, I know how much this means
Speaker 1: to him. And I think far too often one of
Speaker 1: the things I don't like about sports is how players
Speaker 1: will play this game. They're retired, and they'll go talk
Speaker 1: about it, and they'll talk about it in a way
Speaker 1: that's the more lizing to the player, and I don't
Speaker 1: like to do that. I hate that. I hate to
Speaker 1: make it more than what it is. I like to
Speaker 1: be quite frank, like if he if he can't shoot,
Speaker 1: he know he can't shoot right, Like we know who
Speaker 1: can shooting, leg who can't shoot. I'll talk about the percentages,
Speaker 1: allow whatever whatever, Like I'll say in a way that's like,
Speaker 1: motherfucker can't shoot right. But I'm not gonna go out
Speaker 1: and say that. But I think when you do it
Speaker 1: that way, you're handling it as a professional. These are
Speaker 1: my peers, right, I still got to see these guys
Speaker 1: in the day. They basis I know what the game
Speaker 1: means to them. But we all know what our weaknesses are,
Speaker 1: right like, we all know what they are. And I
Speaker 1: think there's a way to criticize the game and critique
Speaker 1: a player in a way in which your educ getting
Speaker 1: the fan. You're pointing out facts, but you're not bashing.
Speaker 1: You're talking about facts of the matter. Like I said
Speaker 1: it on my podcast in the season, like I was
Speaker 1: shooting the ball very poorly, the worst I shot the
Speaker 1: ball in my entire career. I didn't talk about how,
Speaker 1: you know, I had, you know, messed up my finger
Speaker 1: on my index finger and on my middle my middle
Speaker 1: finger on my shooting hand. But I didn't make excuses.
Speaker 1: I just said, I'm shooting the ball the worst I've
Speaker 1: ever shot in my career. And if the smide wanta
Speaker 1: talk about me on TV, they would be able to
Speaker 1: say that, frankly, but it wouldn't because I wasn't prepared,
Speaker 1: I wasn't working hardly, because ship just wasn't going in,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the things I've learned about the sport, one of
Speaker 1: the approaches I've tried to take it. I know there's
Speaker 1: no right answer for everything that I do, and some
Speaker 1: people might not be mad like I had the balls
Speaker 1: and tell this beating y'all and I know you personally,
Speaker 1: but what I wasn't gonna do is talk about you
Speaker 1: behind your back and I tell you to your face.
Speaker 1: So if I'm gonna go on TV and talk about
Speaker 1: how I think the word's gonna lose and why, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you when I see you like I did
Speaker 1: say that, I think I think you'all gonna lose. And
Speaker 1: when you when you're supposed to say like what you
Speaker 1: said to me, like that's what you're supposed to it.
Speaker 1: Because as you know, I always keep it real. And
Speaker 1: I love sports. I love talking about sports. I love
Speaker 1: the way it's playing. I love the way guys prepare.
Speaker 1: I think it's art. And for me to be able
Speaker 1: to get compensated to do stuff I would do for
Speaker 1: free anyway, I think it's a blessing. And to be
Speaker 1: able to use my degree right to go to school
Speaker 1: major journalism minor mask com to cover lee high sports
Speaker 1: like I covered field hockey, I cover tennis championships. I
Speaker 1: cover a track and field football name of sport that's
Speaker 1: not men's basketball I covered it to be able to
Speaker 1: do it now. It's like it's a it's a blessing,
Speaker 1: honor and privilege, and I just want people to know
Speaker 1: because they don't understand. Like they see me work for ESPN,
Speaker 1: they see me doing this stuff and then like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's just doing this because he loop. It's like, No,
Speaker 1: I did this to get a degree, like I got
Speaker 1: my credited hours. I did an internship unpaid, just like
Speaker 1: a lot of these journalists. I just got to the
Speaker 1: top a little bit faster because I'm an expert and
Speaker 1: I play. But I think it's cool that I'm in
Speaker 1: this spot, and I think it's cool to other players
Speaker 1: like yourself are doing it because it's fun. But I
Speaker 1: think the fan appreciates our knowledge of the game and
Speaker 1: the way we can time reiterate that to them. No,
Speaker 1: I definitely agree with you, you know, in a sense
Speaker 1: as you know what you're saying, Like how like it's
Speaker 1: baffling to me how former players get up there at
Speaker 1: times to talk about players. It's almost like like, bro,
Speaker 1: you are one of us, and you get up there
Speaker 1: and talk like you weren't that same player in the
Speaker 1: locker room that hated when someone was talking about you
Speaker 1: like that, that talked about those very people that were
Speaker 1: talking about you or us like that when when you
Speaker 1: were sitting in the locker room and now you go
Speaker 1: on TV and do that same thing. Like to me,
Speaker 1: it says a couple of things when when when people
Speaker 1: analyze or lack thereof one, you're just lazy, Like you're
Speaker 1: taking the easy way out, and it's very easy to
Speaker 1: just go bash somebody like because you just say reckless
Speaker 1: ship and you get you know, nowadays people are chasing
Speaker 1: clicks and you know, they're chasing the online traffic, and
Speaker 1: so I think number one, it's just lazy. But number two,
Speaker 1: I don't think people are like these people are very
Speaker 1: capable of analyzing the game of basketball. Like you know
Speaker 1: some of these guys that go up there and they
Speaker 1: were players. Wasn't you're a smart player, like it wasn't
Speaker 1: like you you benefited off really knowing the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: And so you go up there and like do lazy
Speaker 1: to me, lazy analyzing because you can't break down the
Speaker 1: exits and those you can't break down c J's mindset
Speaker 1: or why c J would rather you bring this guy
Speaker 1: into the pick and roll and not that guy though
Speaker 1: in your mind that guys are better defending though, but
Speaker 1: I like the way he guards this pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and so I'm trying to get to this. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're capable of doing that. And to me,
Speaker 1: I never want to see anyone lose their job, like
Speaker 1: or lose their livelihood. But a part but but one
Speaker 1: of my goals in this is to make that type
Speaker 1: of ship is stink and if that means you lose
Speaker 1: your if that means you're gonna lose your job, but
Speaker 1: then you better get to learn and how to analyze
Speaker 1: and study and and building relationships because I think like
Speaker 1: that stuff is getting tired in our game. Man, Like
Speaker 1: nobody want to hear you just go bash somebody and
Speaker 1: you really can't even break down a why. And so
Speaker 1: I think that's important for us moving forward in this craft.
Speaker 1: And like, like I said, that's one of my motivations
Speaker 1: in this is to make that style of reporting, analyze
Speaker 1: and um journalism. Is to make it extinct, because there
Speaker 1: is a way, like you said, there's a way of
Speaker 1: being very critical and not bashing someone like these people
Speaker 1: start these people have started bashing like people as human beings,
Speaker 1: like because of how you play the game at basketball.
Speaker 1: That's insane to me, Like it never used to be
Speaker 1: that way, or was it. I don't think so. I
Speaker 1: think now it's gotten worse because we see it everywhere,
Speaker 1: Like you got the Twitter and you got the Instagram,
Speaker 1: Like it's instantly in our phones, right, it's instantly accessible.
Speaker 1: And now we see it more often. And it's just
Speaker 1: like the Russell Westbrook situation, that stuff he used to
Speaker 1: piss me off because you don't like Russ the way
Speaker 1: he plays, just say you don't like the way he plays.
Speaker 1: But to talk about him as a person is just
Speaker 1: disrespectful because I know Russ. Russ is a good dude. Russell,
Speaker 1: you could beat his team and he'll take a picture
Speaker 1: with your grandma after the game. And there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that I do that, not a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that have stopped taking picture after a loss,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, Like take a picture of
Speaker 1: my little cousin. That's a good human being, does things
Speaker 1: the right way off the court, good father, good husband,
Speaker 1: all those things. So when people attack the character, like
Speaker 1: if you don't like the way he played, just say that,
Speaker 1: Just say that you don't like the way they play
Speaker 1: and say why you don't like the way they play
Speaker 1: and throw some stats out there. But when they start
Speaker 1: challenging people's character and say they're not a good teammate
Speaker 1: or whatever, it's like, how do you know what a
Speaker 1: good teammate looks like if you're not in that locker room?
Speaker 1: Did you ask his teammates? Did his teammates say he
Speaker 1: wasn't a good teammate? Do you gotta source? That's like
Speaker 1: out there, that's the stuff that I didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: like that I've seen historically, But outside of that, like,
Speaker 1: I respect the crap, but I think you know the
Speaker 1: same way I approach your basketball, right, like you're gonna
Speaker 1: go on TV, like you need to be prepared, like
Speaker 1: do your work, do your work and understand what you're
Speaker 1: breaking down. And I think that's what was cool about
Speaker 1: covering the finals is because, like I had played against y'all,
Speaker 1: I guarded stuff. I'm chasing Clay, I'm getting hit by
Speaker 1: screens from you, like I know what it's like. So
Speaker 1: when they say, like, I don't understand how he's getting open,
Speaker 1: it's like, no, these are some of the best players
Speaker 1: in the world. They're trying to stop this. It's just
Speaker 1: hard to because there's so many reads, there's so many
Speaker 1: ways in which the game flows. Hit this, hit the
Speaker 1: pitch posts, and they're like, oh, why is he Why
Speaker 1: is he on the top side, And it's like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe that's the coverage. Maybe he's supposed to be on
Speaker 1: the top side. Maybe you're supposed to for uhim. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't want step shooting three and you would
Speaker 1: rather him finished around the basket. It's like, why are
Speaker 1: they switching. It's like, well, you can sit in and
Speaker 1: drop if you want to. Oh, you're gonna hard heage
Speaker 1: with the seven pointer and think that they're gonna not
Speaker 1: turn the corner. It's like people don't really think the game.
Speaker 1: And it's like that's why I was like, look, if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this, like I'm gonna go on TV
Speaker 1: and talk about it, but I only want to talk
Speaker 1: about the stuff that I know. And it's like I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about rumors. I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about like I want to break down the game
Speaker 1: and get out of there. Absolutely, that's my approach. Man,
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here, Like I said, I know,
Speaker 1: you gotta go my teammate, your teammate just named Allstar starters. Uh, Steph,
Speaker 1: it's an obvious one. Zion just named and Allstar start
Speaker 1: How does that make you feel? Like? How big is
Speaker 1: that for him? How big is that for New Orleans?
Speaker 1: How big is that for your organization? It's really really dope, man.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about it. I'm happy for him. I know
Speaker 1: the work that he put in to overcome what he
Speaker 1: went through last year. And I'm not just talking about
Speaker 1: the physical aspects of it. I'm talking about the mental
Speaker 1: aspects of the injury and the way people kind of
Speaker 1: critiqued him and scrutinized him. Um. Happy for the progress
Speaker 1: our team is making in this city, and I think
Speaker 1: it'll be great for him. Hopefully he's healthy, you know,
Speaker 1: asap and back out here with us. But I'm happy
Speaker 1: he's gonna be representing us in New Orleans for sure. Man.
Speaker 1: It's a blessing to be his teammate. And Uh, this
Speaker 1: is a gamer, man, He's a gamer. Shows up any
Speaker 1: hoops gamer. That's dope, man. C J, my brother. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for coming on Mr President himself. Looking forward
Speaker 1: to coming back on your pot whenever we got time
Speaker 1: to do it. Bro, but thank you so much to
Speaker 1: coming on the Draymond Green. You show an incredible interview,
Speaker 1: your insight on the Players Association being a president, your
Speaker 1: insight on media, and then also just sharing your story
Speaker 1: like for me as an under your underdog man and
Speaker 1: for me as an underdog myself, I can always respect
Speaker 1: and appreciate hearing that journey, So thank you for coming
Speaker 1: on and sharing it with myself with our listeners and subscribers.
Speaker 1: See you soon, bro, Thanks for everything. My dog yes, sir,
Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on. I'll tapped in about my
Speaker 1: pot too,