Speaker 1: November nineteen, two thousand four, fifteen years later. Uh. One
Speaker 1: of the something that will always be mentioned when they
Speaker 1: mentioned Stephen Jackson is the mouth in the Palace. But
Speaker 1: I want to take a look back because something a
Speaker 1: football version of that something what happened minus going in
Speaker 1: the stands of world. You know last week, um Myles
Speaker 1: Garrett on what Summer calling a questionable late hit hit
Speaker 1: hit Mason Rudolph late in the game. Game was already
Speaker 1: in hands. Guess Mason Rudolph took offense to it, try
Speaker 1: to pull his helmetoff, didn't work, got his helmet pulled off.
Speaker 1: Then he tried to rush him like he was really
Speaker 1: gonna do something to him, and then got bopped with
Speaker 1: the helmet, and uh, you know it's Miles Garrett's you know,
Speaker 1: life is probably changing right now, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean just from that incident. Uh, you know, if you
Speaker 1: could tell him anything or what he's thinking right now,
Speaker 1: take what would it be? What's the different time? You know? Um,
Speaker 1: when that happened with us, we couldn't we couldn't come
Speaker 1: out and speak social media on social media not like that,
Speaker 1: and we couldn't control out on there. If you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I think he has the outlets too
Speaker 1: say exactly what happened, to walk with people with the
Speaker 1: video that might not see the things that he saw
Speaker 1: actually actually being on the field. Um, a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, I think we we had to sit back
Speaker 1: and just take it. You know, with everything being on TV.
Speaker 1: These guys are thugs. Uh, these guys are rich babies.
Speaker 1: They shouldn't be in the NBA. I had never been
Speaker 1: in trouble with the law of my life before that brawl.
Speaker 1: I'd never been in the NBA fight in the game
Speaker 1: before that brawl. So so I think he is. I
Speaker 1: think he should just just stay quiet. But when he
Speaker 1: has his time to speak, say everything, don't hold back.
Speaker 1: He needs to come on here and he needs to
Speaker 1: come on all the smoke and say everything. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: if he really want to get a story off, I
Speaker 1: think the way the platform we created and the way
Speaker 1: all the players are respecting, I think this is the
Speaker 1: place for him because you know, we're not going to
Speaker 1: judge him. And at the same time, what we're talking
Speaker 1: to us we understand because we've been We've been there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it's I can't tell,
Speaker 1: I can't tell him another show he could go on
Speaker 1: and talk to what people can relate to him like
Speaker 1: we can. I feel you. So take me back to
Speaker 1: your journey getting to the Pacers. Well, in OH three,
Speaker 1: I won the championship with the Spurs. Um I was
Speaker 1: looking for my big contract after I had I had
Speaker 1: some big, big, big shots. But as you know now,
Speaker 1: you can see now the Spurs were favoring three guys, Gennobly,
Speaker 1: Tony and Tim Duncan. And Gennoble and Tony were up
Speaker 1: the same time I was up, you know, and uh
Speaker 1: I think they wanted to give them the big number
Speaker 1: of contracts and low ball me was like three years,
Speaker 1: nine million, and I felt insulted. You know, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had a championship without me, We wouldn't have made
Speaker 1: it out the Western Conference without me. And uh so
Speaker 1: I decided to go to Atlanta for one year, improved
Speaker 1: myself and around that time that year and Mike Brown
Speaker 1: took an assistant head coach job in Indiana with Rick Carlisle.
Speaker 1: And during the course of that year at Atlanta, you know,
Speaker 1: I was I think I was having a great year,
Speaker 1: but the second half of the season, I was like
Speaker 1: sitting six and scoring in the whole league, and um,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown can't call me up. We played him and
Speaker 1: he pulled him and Brick put me to the side,
Speaker 1: like we know he didn't get your contract this summer.
Speaker 1: Keep a level head. Finished the season healthy, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring it. You know, we're gonna give you the
Speaker 1: contract next year. So with knowing that that that helped
Speaker 1: me the rest of the season because I had to
Speaker 1: was put up numbers. Our team was shitty, We was trash. Uh.
Speaker 1: It was me, Bobby, Bob Sora, and Jayson Terry Yeah
Speaker 1: and the rest in peace. Jason call you. We had
Speaker 1: Kay as well. Um, it was a small team. They
Speaker 1: had no plans of winning. Terry Stouts was our coach
Speaker 1: at the time. But I was just putting up numbers
Speaker 1: and just just the fact that they came and told
Speaker 1: me that I was gonna get my deal that summer. Um,
Speaker 1: I knew the team was already good. They were one
Speaker 1: of the best teams in the East. And to be
Speaker 1: to know I was gonna be part of be a
Speaker 1: part of that was good. Especially so you end up
Speaker 1: getting your dealer fall in summer. I end up getting
Speaker 1: my six years, six years six year deal for thirty
Speaker 1: six but the equal out of being six years forty two. Okay,
Speaker 1: So now you're in Indiana with the team that had
Speaker 1: a bitter Eastern Conference accident the finals to the Pistons.
Speaker 1: So you didn't really come in that situation understand what
Speaker 1: kind of rival me what that was, did you? Well? I,
Speaker 1: I really the only robber I understood at that time
Speaker 1: was the Spurs and Lakers. And that wasn't the type
Speaker 1: of robbery that Detroit and Indiana like. This was some
Speaker 1: street chip that was not real. This is some back
Speaker 1: some jail prison beef basketball, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And uh, I walked into it, but I you know,
Speaker 1: I have respect, so much respect. She was like a
Speaker 1: big brother ripped man. Rip graduated in high school nine
Speaker 1: six McDonald's All America. So we were great, great friends.
Speaker 1: So the walking into that, I didn't know that I
Speaker 1: was gonna have to pick a side like that. To
Speaker 1: whether I knew I was gonna pick a side plant basketball,
Speaker 1: but to to to start a fighting a bra I
Speaker 1: didn't know ilays got to pick a side like that.
Speaker 1: So here we are, the end of the of the game.
Speaker 1: You guys got the game in hand, you have fifteen
Speaker 1: fifteen points. Uh to me looking at the play, hard
Speaker 1: foul Maybe maybe not. I mean it's Ron obviously Ben
Speaker 1: took offense to it. Um, you know, looked like being
Speaker 1: one of the bite runs head off they you know,
Speaker 1: you got did a good job of keeping them all separate.
Speaker 1: Ron gets here with something, he charges up in the stands.
Speaker 1: At that moment, what made you charge? Well, at that moment,
Speaker 1: my joenneral I was already in fight mode if you
Speaker 1: look at it, you know, like I just said, man,
Speaker 1: RiPP was cool. But at that moment when we was
Speaker 1: you know, we were up fifteen. We this was the
Speaker 1: game that was gonna separate us from everybody in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. We were fourteen and something. We like the
Speaker 1: best record, I think the best record league at the time,
Speaker 1: and we had beat almost all the big teams except
Speaker 1: Detroit and um. You know, at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: we were beating them, and I just knew that's someone right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, because during the whole game
Speaker 1: it was it was some disrespectful stuff said in the game.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the game, were at the
Speaker 1: free throw line, and uh, I'm shooting the free throw
Speaker 1: and I hear I hear somebody in the back saying
Speaker 1: you can get your file now. Wrong. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not really paying no attention. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But I'm not. You gotta think I'm not thinking about
Speaker 1: this is be from last year, like they was in
Speaker 1: a hard fought battle and the put the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: finals last year, and uh so I didn't really pay
Speaker 1: no attention. So I'm guarding Being. I just let him
Speaker 1: score and row come from out of nowhere and just
Speaker 1: push him. And Ben had just dealt with the death
Speaker 1: in his family at the time, somebody had passed. But
Speaker 1: not only that, we is busting their ass on national
Speaker 1: TV for the world to see. They were in their feelings.
Speaker 1: Trust me, we served him up, bro. We served him
Speaker 1: a nice shiny ass whipping with baby all I'm telling about.
Speaker 1: I'll take this ass whipping on national TV, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And when when when run five Ben,
Speaker 1: I think Being response was not only was he dealing
Speaker 1: with the death, but they just came in here and
Speaker 1: barrassed the ship out of you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So when that happened, okay, I'm thinking bout Okay, let's
Speaker 1: just break it up, trying to break it up. But
Speaker 1: as we're breaking it up, you got Lindsay Hunter, you
Speaker 1: got real Hamilton's. They still talking ship. So like I
Speaker 1: said it, you don't tell you already know it. They'll
Speaker 1: take nothing but a second from me. You gotta put
Speaker 1: no battery in my back. As soon as I saw that,
Speaker 1: if you look at the tape, I walked all around
Speaker 1: the whole circle and squared up. Took my jersey off,
Speaker 1: you know, so my punch could come out, flew out.
Speaker 1: When my jersey took they're gonna hinder my punches. I
Speaker 1: pulled my jersey out, square up, Nobody run up, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So in that that moment, I'm
Speaker 1: in fight mode, you know what I'm saying. And there's
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of stuff going on. But what what
Speaker 1: really egged everything on? They didn't do a good job
Speaker 1: of getting being off the court. He kept doing she
Speaker 1: threw something, kept throwing stuff, kept throwing stuff at Wrong
Speaker 1: was cool, but people don't know wrong. Was told that
Speaker 1: in this session to find a place when you get
Speaker 1: to black about to explode, find a place to calm down.
Speaker 1: Wrong with laid on the table pus it put. It
Speaker 1: was the craziest thing ever. But he put the headphones on.
Speaker 1: He found this happy place, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: So he was cool. It's still a whole lot of
Speaker 1: pushing going on at that time. No, you know what,
Speaker 1: Like I said, Ben still throwing stuff. So by that
Speaker 1: time when the cup come, I'm just in survival mode.
Speaker 1: And once I saw my teammate go yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: think twice. Now I felt like I was back in
Speaker 1: Port Author and went in the club when somebody threw
Speaker 1: a punch of one of my homeboys. This is all
Speaker 1: out braught. Now I'm in Sacramento at the time, and
Speaker 1: we're just coming at a halftime. Um, I think we're
Speaker 1: playing Memphis. And I turned back and look and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: that's a fight. Damn. They're in the stands. So we
Speaker 1: called the whole team pretty much, the whole team comes
Speaker 1: back in the locker room, and I wanted to say
Speaker 1: we're late out to the second half because we're in
Speaker 1: there watching this all go down. So Ron gets up
Speaker 1: in there. Ron initially get points out the wrong dude right,
Speaker 1: He grabs the wrong dude wrong, and then out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: he run his dude. Someone throws something Ron, and then
Speaker 1: that's once Ron is hanging up with this dude, and
Speaker 1: then that's where you come in and clean old dude out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what people don't know, Matt. When I go in the stands,
Speaker 1: I go up and initially grabbed heron. This is why
Speaker 1: I hate why I got labeled, you know. And I
Speaker 1: went up that actually grab you see me, I turned
Speaker 1: to grab Ron. As I grabbed Ron, another fan throw
Speaker 1: another beer in his face. Come on, man, you come here.
Speaker 1: You gotta pay for that. Let me look at your
Speaker 1: whole face. And he's lucky that they grabbed me because
Speaker 1: I was find the Lewis man at him and stump
Speaker 1: him out. Make his teeth touched the curb. I was
Speaker 1: gonna stump him out. You what I mean, because I
Speaker 1: was in fighting more. I was a survival mode. You
Speaker 1: gotta think at that point, we didn't run into the stands.
Speaker 1: So what people don't know is where the rental was.
Speaker 1: That's not Detroit, That's nowhere close to Detroit. We would
Speaker 1: have been in Detroit, a lot of players would have
Speaker 1: been knocked out prior damn the dead in there. But
Speaker 1: where we were, you know, when we got into the stands.
Speaker 1: It wasn't it wasn't going crazy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We were really clearing people out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But the fact that my my my teammates that came
Speaker 1: grabbed me and pulling me off, you know, that kind
Speaker 1: of saved me some money too, because I was gonna
Speaker 1: hurt the dude. Well that's what people don't I think,
Speaker 1: you know, not to make light And I kind of
Speaker 1: laugh here and there because it's it's happened so long
Speaker 1: ago and and we've been able to joke about it since.
Speaker 1: But on a on a serious tip, people don't understand, like,
Speaker 1: as players, you can't just say anything or do anything
Speaker 1: to us just because they're players. That I mean, we
Speaker 1: hear the crazy. I mean, and you talk together. We
Speaker 1: heard so much racial so many racial slurs, and throughout
Speaker 1: my career, people have says stuff and I'm like, it
Speaker 1: would make to play through it and yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You you're big, No, like that's you
Speaker 1: don't you don't disrespect men like that, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And I think there's a there's some kind
Speaker 1: of understand that people think, oh it just because we
Speaker 1: bought up, paid a bunch of money for this ticket.
Speaker 1: We can say and do what we want to you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, I mean talk is
Speaker 1: one thing. You know, you go up and you know
Speaker 1: they start throwing stuff and doing stuff like that's a
Speaker 1: whole other thing. So you know, when I initially saw them,
Speaker 1: just like, damn, that's gonna be some trouble. But I
Speaker 1: was thinking, like I understand it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you can't in the heat of the moment, you
Speaker 1: know someone's throwing a fan of throwing something at you
Speaker 1: like that ship should never happen. There's no amount of
Speaker 1: money that you can pay me that. While I allow
Speaker 1: to belittle me when I show everybody respect, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not accepted it. You know, in no shape befo him,
Speaker 1: especially now in any other place, any other setting. Throwing
Speaker 1: a beer and somebody faces, you're going to jail. You're
Speaker 1: going to jail for that. And if if you're in
Speaker 1: the bar, somebody through a beer in your face and
Speaker 1: you hit them back, you get off because that's the defense.
Speaker 1: But me, I get thirty games and find them to
Speaker 1: three million dollars. We'll talk to me about that. How
Speaker 1: did that. I mean that that split second. You know,
Speaker 1: being a great team and having your man's back change
Speaker 1: you career wise, financial leads take us through that. Well,
Speaker 1: having the game of basketball taking from me, I think
Speaker 1: that's the lowest ever been in my life. Thirty games, huh.
Speaker 1: Just you know the fact that I can't play basketball
Speaker 1: like that ship took as it took a lot out
Speaker 1: of me. And um just sitting at home smoking with
Speaker 1: the home is playing football in the snow, trying to
Speaker 1: find something to do. It was nothing that can give
Speaker 1: me what basketball game me. So that that was a
Speaker 1: big turn in my life, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to get back so back. It made
Speaker 1: me appreciate the game like I was in high school,
Speaker 1: like I was in middle school again. So it was
Speaker 1: a blessing in disguise. Besides being fined and losing the
Speaker 1: money and all that it brought me, it gave me
Speaker 1: the love back for the game from being away from
Speaker 1: it so long. You feel like it costs you. You
Speaker 1: know some stuff though as far as All Star games
Speaker 1: and man, I mean, I think that's probably the only
Speaker 1: thing I regret, man, because like I was, I was
Speaker 1: labeled a bad guy of helping my teammate. And um,
Speaker 1: I know a's at least two or three years in
Speaker 1: my career. I was definitely All Star, deserved to make it,
Speaker 1: but I got labeled by referees, I got labeled by coaches.
Speaker 1: You know, Um he was even the time when I
Speaker 1: was in Charlotte, and um I got to Charlotte, there
Speaker 1: was a decent team, but they were at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the East. As you know, I get us to
Speaker 1: the playoffs, you know, and around around All Star time,
Speaker 1: Geral Wallace made it. But when General Wallace made it,
Speaker 1: everybody on the team, from the coach to MJ and
Speaker 1: m for like, what, Jack is the reason why we're here.
Speaker 1: You know, we're happy to get up, but Jack is
Speaker 1: the reason why we're here. And to the point where
Speaker 1: you know, MJ made a call, you know, like we know,
Speaker 1: we know it's more than just basketball now because look
Speaker 1: at look at his numbers. Look at where we had
Speaker 1: now since he's been here, and uh even further too,
Speaker 1: and Golden State and gold State, you had the year
Speaker 1: that you should have been an All Star. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know, starting when I first got there, starting off
Speaker 1: those seven games to spend it that hurt. That hurt me.
Speaker 1: That hurt me, you know what I'm saying. But MJ
Speaker 1: had made that call and Paul Pierson got hurt, so
Speaker 1: it was a spot they gave it to David Lee.
Speaker 1: My numbers was ten times better than his. They weren't
Speaker 1: even in the playoffs, So at that point I knew
Speaker 1: it was because of that. So that type of ship
Speaker 1: hurt because you know how hard we work, and you
Speaker 1: know how many people, our people already count us out
Speaker 1: and we had to prove ourselves every night anyway, So
Speaker 1: that all that from the brawl, that's just still hurt
Speaker 1: to this day. How what was life like off the court?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you probably star the love people
Speaker 1: love me for it, Like like all I hear is man,
Speaker 1: I wish I had a friend like you. I need
Speaker 1: a friend like you, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 1: and I and I appreciate that because I'd rather be
Speaker 1: known for somebody that's being a good friend of being
Speaker 1: an asshole or dick. You know what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm label that's being a good teammate. And if me
Speaker 1: going in the stands says the standard of what a
Speaker 1: teammates should be, I rocked with it. I was always
Speaker 1: taught growing up to protect my brother and sister at
Speaker 1: all costs. Like they fight, you fight. That's why I
Speaker 1: grew up fighting my whole entire life. It was just
Speaker 1: it was second nature to me. Tell me what it
Speaker 1: was like for you. What triggered what? What in your
Speaker 1: past trigged you to react the way you did during
Speaker 1: the braw iran Um, Well, you know, just growing up
Speaker 1: and put off the Texas. You know, everybody know everybody.
Speaker 1: So just that I got my brother back and my
Speaker 1: brother's keeper attitude, that's just around the neighborhood with your friends.
Speaker 1: But when I lost my older brother, I was like
Speaker 1: ship five minutes away, and um, he was jumped by
Speaker 1: a couple of guys, end up beating him, hitting them
Speaker 1: with bottles and pipes and ship and end up getting
Speaker 1: eighteen stables in his headway. Eventually, as soon as the
Speaker 1: ambulance got to was already brain dead. And just knowing
Speaker 1: that I was that close and couldn't get there, you know,
Speaker 1: I know, should we both probably would have been dead,
Speaker 1: I probably would have saved his life. I don't know
Speaker 1: how I would have played out, but just knowing how
Speaker 1: small my city is and how much we were together
Speaker 1: and I couldn't get there. That made that not only
Speaker 1: I was already that type of guy, but that made
Speaker 1: me become more of a brother to you and everybody else,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So when that situation with
Speaker 1: Ron like your brother, I have to Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's what I say. Throughout my career, like I
Speaker 1: treat my teammates like family. I was always taught to
Speaker 1: protect my family. So anytime if you look at all
Speaker 1: my funds throughout my career, people were never funking with me,
Speaker 1: it was because I was protecting the Blake or CP
Speaker 1: or taken up for Kobe or taking up for my teammates.
Speaker 1: Because if you funk with one and you fuck, you
Speaker 1: know what you sunk with all of us. And I
Speaker 1: think that's why we hit it off instantly, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean we had when you were in the
Speaker 1: in the broad I didn't know you, but I'm just like,
Speaker 1: damn like everyone star, that's a real motherfucker right there,
Speaker 1: like some of that as your back. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: obviously some ship I would have, did you know? So
Speaker 1: when you came to Golden State and I've seen your
Speaker 1: lips were a little bit dry. I knew you've been
Speaker 1: smoking dope. I was like, okay, so this is the
Speaker 1: dude that fights any smokes will that this is the
Speaker 1: match made of heaven. And I think we kind of
Speaker 1: hit it off from there on out because we are
Speaker 1: very similar in our upbringing and our thought process, in
Speaker 1: our wearing our heart on our sleeve and will die
Speaker 1: for our brother literally or physically, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's refreshing to see. And unfortunately, before,
Speaker 1: like you said, you couldn't tell your story. So you've
Speaker 1: been labeled as this thug or this gang bang or
Speaker 1: this this and that, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: that was something I also had to learn to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well the labels, if they don't know me, I don't
Speaker 1: give a funk what they think. But that's easier said
Speaker 1: than done, and it's a process, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: like you said, you were labeled for being a thug,
Speaker 1: for having your brother's back if he could have possibly
Speaker 1: went up there by itself and really got hurt, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole different story. So the fact that
Speaker 1: you went up there and tried to help, but you
Speaker 1: get a bad rap for it. I know that stuck
Speaker 1: with you and burned for a while. It did. It
Speaker 1: didn't like, you know, just being the game being taking
Speaker 1: away from me, and people saying this about you, your
Speaker 1: kids hearing this, you know what I'm saying, Your mama
Speaker 1: hearing this, and you know that, ain't you? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? You know you were just being a
Speaker 1: good brother, good teammate. It was. It was sucked up
Speaker 1: for a while. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like you said, I had the attitude where should I
Speaker 1: had to call somebody to get some fox to give
Speaker 1: because I don't have no you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I ran out of box to give and and and
Speaker 1: I became a better person after that. Fifteen years later,
Speaker 1: knowing what you known, you would have sacrificed and lost
Speaker 1: thirty games, three million possible All Star selections, bad reputation.
Speaker 1: Would you do it again again? Right now? For him
Speaker 1: holding the camera, for him holding the my film camera,
Speaker 1: we go somewhere together, I do it again. That's the
Speaker 1: type of personally I'm I didn't. I didn't do it
Speaker 1: for recognition for people to say, here a real motherfucker.
Speaker 1: That's just how I am. It's just how I was taught,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'll do it again. I just regret. I
Speaker 1: just we're go losing them Mann me getting back. Uh
Speaker 1: huh oh h h oh h h m hmmm