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Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris

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Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and

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Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now

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Speaker 1: tuned in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the show.

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Speaker 1: He's a fixture among Southern California basketball. He's a god

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Speaker 1: fearing educator, coach, teacher, mentor, and renaissance man. He was

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Speaker 1: recently named assistant coach at the University of Missouri at

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Speaker 1: Kansas City. Luther Waters is in the building. Luther, what's good?

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Speaker 1: My brother? Hey, what's up? J howsn't It's going great? Man.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad that we connected, Bro. I saw the news.

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Speaker 1: Actually I heard the news, um, and then kind of

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Speaker 1: reached out to give you congratulations. But I said, man,

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Speaker 1: let me talk to my boy, because you have your

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Speaker 1: your some out that over the years I've really respected

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Speaker 1: as someone that not only loved the game, loves the kids,

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Speaker 1: but you take your job as an educator, as a teacher,

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Speaker 1: as a mentor very seriously and you lead in the

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Speaker 1: right direction. I kind of wanted to get you on

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Speaker 1: the show, man, so people can hear your voice. Come

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Speaker 1: on the platform and kind of introduce yourself to the folks.

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Speaker 1: Bro Uh Luther, what part of I know you're from

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Speaker 1: l A. What part of l A were you born

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Speaker 1: and raised? And talk a little bit about your childhood

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Speaker 1: in that environment that you grew up in. But site correction,

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Speaker 1: So I was added on to the staff. So my

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Speaker 1: official title is recruiting coordinator over at u m k C. Congratulations, congratulations,

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Speaker 1: I'm there. You know, it only took twenty two years,

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Speaker 1: but very very thankful for the opportunity. But um, I

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Speaker 1: grew up in Guardina man Um right on a hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty second in van Ness, uh, about two hundred

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Speaker 1: yards from Raleigh Park. So so my child consisted of

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Speaker 1: you know, running in with the sign up from the

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Speaker 1: park to to play some hoops, you know, my mom

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Speaker 1: right in the check for ten bucks and hopping back

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Speaker 1: on my bike and riding back up there to drop

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Speaker 1: off my registration. And it was really you know, at

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Speaker 1: Raleigh and in that gardena community that I learned how

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Speaker 1: to play for people, for people out there that might

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Speaker 1: not necessarily be familiar with Raleigh Park. You tell us

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Speaker 1: some of the guys, players, athletes over the years that

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Speaker 1: came out of that area. I know it's a bunch

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Speaker 1: of poo Jetter and but some other guys come up

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Speaker 1: to mind. But Jetter grew up around the corner from me.

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Speaker 1: Sir uh Poo. Richardson was there every summer. Rich and

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Speaker 1: my favorite player of all time, Isaac Burbon. Oh they do.

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Speaker 1: And look. I would get to the park at nine

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Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. They opened at ten. It's I

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Speaker 1: can be first at the door, right, because you know

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Speaker 1: in those days they opened the door. If you get

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Speaker 1: there thirty minutes late, there's two hundred people outside. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're not getting on. So I was probably about thirteam

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Speaker 1: by the time I started playing on the big boy court,

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Speaker 1: and Uh, Isaac was sat, Louke, just get there, put

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Speaker 1: our name on the list and we're good, right. Um

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Speaker 1: Julie Rousseaul A lot of people don't know that name.

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Speaker 1: Yeah we know Juan Yeah. So Um, I would write

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Speaker 1: everybody's name on the list. Um, Brent Summers. And I'm

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Speaker 1: a young guy. So you gotta pick up ninety four ft.

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Speaker 1: You gotta commit seven thousand a game, and you can't miss.

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Speaker 1: So if they kicked the ball, team don't miss. So

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Speaker 1: how you stay? Oh, that's how you that's how you say,

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Speaker 1: that's how you stay on. But it was through those years, man,

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Speaker 1: that I learned earned mentorship, I would say, in a way,

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Speaker 1: because they mentored me indirectly. You know, I was a sponge.

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Speaker 1: God didn't bless me with, you know, being six six

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Speaker 1: and two hundred pounds and all of those physical gifts

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Speaker 1: that other people have. And I learned at an early

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Speaker 1: age that for me, my journey was gonna be based

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Speaker 1: on my intellect because I and I felt that, yum,

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Speaker 1: there were certain things that I could do that other

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Speaker 1: people necessarily couldn't do on and off the court, in

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Speaker 1: terms of being able to see things, in terms of

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Speaker 1: being able to be vocal um, be positive, encourage people.

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Speaker 1: I used to tell Isaac stop missing, don't miss, and

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Speaker 1: he's looking at me like, who are you like, shut up?

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Speaker 1: But you know, in those early years, man, there wasn't

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Speaker 1: a day that went by that I was not there,

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Speaker 1: you know, playing every day in and day out, and

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Speaker 1: I and I'm forever grateful for that opportunity. And your parents,

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Speaker 1: what type of influence were when you were during your

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Speaker 1: childhood years, the foundation that they set for you. Colgini

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Speaker 1: described their for US man. My parents are guys sent

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Speaker 1: man UM. My father Vietnam VETT. My grandfather UM was

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Speaker 1: a prisoner of war in the Korean War, passed. My

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Speaker 1: dad was six. My grandmother was widowed with four children

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Speaker 1: at twenty six years old. And my grandmother was tough

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Speaker 1: as nails. You know, Excuses were not tolerated. UM. My mother, UM,

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Speaker 1: hard working woman, married my dad at one. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're a family at three. You know my siblings well.

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Speaker 1: And I remember early on trying to make an excuse

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Speaker 1: and Pops wouldn't having it. Like I vividly remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: coming in from the playground over at Perchy Julie was

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Speaker 1: the playground director at Perchy Right Elementary School, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I remember somebody pushed me down and I might have

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Speaker 1: been in third grade, and I came in house crying

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Speaker 1: and my dad like looks at me, like what the

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Speaker 1: hell are you doing in here? Like either you're gonna

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Speaker 1: go back and fight or stay your gass outside to

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Speaker 1: your mama, get home. I remember it was like that

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Speaker 1: moment of okay, he made it okay to fail, meaning

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Speaker 1: what we're not gonna do is not put forth our

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Speaker 1: best effort. That's not tolerated. But what we are gonna

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Speaker 1: do is be okay, irrespective of the results, as long

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Speaker 1: as you put forth your best effort. So I remember

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Speaker 1: going back over to the playground where my buddies and

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Speaker 1: we were all the young guys and the middle school

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Speaker 1: guys were like, push us down, and this is on

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Speaker 1: the dump courts, right, But you have to learn how

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Speaker 1: to fight and how to compete because you couldn't go

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Speaker 1: back home, Like the street lights aren't on, so you're

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Speaker 1: not allowed in the house, so you gotta figure it out. Um.

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Speaker 1: But needless to say, my parents went back to school

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Speaker 1: at the age of thirty, and I remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: we had everything we needed, but I remember what spam

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Speaker 1: tastes like. I remember what that block of cheese tastes

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Speaker 1: like where you try and cut it and it wouldn't melt.

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Speaker 1: You couldn't make a real cheese because it would get

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Speaker 1: greasy that we wouldn't melt just right. Um. And I

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Speaker 1: remember red beans and rising an oatmeal every day. I

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Speaker 1: don't eat red beans right now because I ate it

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Speaker 1: every day growing up. But through all of that, I remember,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's never too late. You know it's never

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Speaker 1: too late to hit the reset button. It's never too

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Speaker 1: late to put your mind to something. It's never too

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Speaker 1: late to do whatever your heart desires, as long as

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Speaker 1: you're you're courageous enough to to put forth the effort.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the biggest thing I've taken from

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Speaker 1: my parents. Put God first and and be willing to

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Speaker 1: put forth your best effort, regardless of the results. I

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Speaker 1: love hearing the lesson that were taught by your parents.

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't necessarily like a lesson they had to,

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Speaker 1: you know, sit you down and spend a bunch of time,

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Speaker 1: but just something like, you know, you're coming home crying

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Speaker 1: and they're not allowing you to sort of accept certain

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Speaker 1: types of behaviors. I think I think that was a

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Speaker 1: big way that my parents, your parents are parents of

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Speaker 1: our generation, raised us through like tangible experience. Now you

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Speaker 1: went through something, and now you gotta learn, you know,

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Speaker 1: the hard way basically out. And I think that the

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Speaker 1: way that style of parenting forced us to really use

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Speaker 1: our ingenuity. Our brains are diligence and have to really

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Speaker 1: you know, figure stuff out, as you said, And and

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Speaker 1: there's something to be said for that a little there,

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Speaker 1: especially when I look at today not to get too

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Speaker 1: far off from tangent, but when I look at today's

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Speaker 1: generation and and some of their behaviors and habits that

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Speaker 1: they that they tend to do, I kind of view that,

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Speaker 1: as you know, experiences everything, you gotta go through stuff,

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Speaker 1: because they talk about a lot of stuff, they have

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Speaker 1: an experience a lot of Today we get a lot

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Speaker 1: of opinions based on from people that have never walked

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Speaker 1: in the shoes of those people that that that's always

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Speaker 1: just mind bottling to me. But again, I loved love

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Speaker 1: to hear that. Let me actually this, your siblings, how

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Speaker 1: much did they What kind of influence were they on you?

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Speaker 1: Were they on that? Because I was a big brother,

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Speaker 1: as I was the oldest, I was always kind of

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Speaker 1: tough on my little brothers. All right, I'm on their

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Speaker 1: head constantly. Right, I'm never giving them problems for nothing.

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Speaker 1: I'm not letting them beat me in one on one

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Speaker 1: video games, nothing. But I was trying to raise them

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Speaker 1: to be super competitors. Did you did you have a

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Speaker 1: sibling rivalry with your folks or how did that go?

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Speaker 1: Candice man like you? I figured it was Cande man Um.

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Speaker 1: You know there's only two years between us. You know,

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Speaker 1: and I'm the baby of the group and uh mine you.

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Speaker 1: Candice's friends were Kathy Bryce, Yeah yeah, legend, Michelle, Vicky

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Speaker 1: Ruff and for those of you you know Crenshaw High

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Speaker 1: School's girls basketball team, you could damn near beat the

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Speaker 1: boys j B team. They don't know about Candy Canthy though.

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Speaker 1: Like that's why they would be at the house. You know,

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Speaker 1: I would be in the front and they would pull up.

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Speaker 1: You know, Candis had a car, and you know Kathy

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Speaker 1: would be Kathy and you know, just pick the ball

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Speaker 1: up and just give you this work real quick. Um.

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Speaker 1: But to to to like Candice's credit, man, Candice was

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Speaker 1: my rebounding man. Like in the front yard. You know,

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Speaker 1: I would be out there and she would come out

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Speaker 1: and she was shagging balls. You know, you're not going

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Speaker 1: hard enough. You gotta hold your follow through. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is why you got cut in ninth grade. You know, man,

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Speaker 1: Candice and make you cry, But it was coming from

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Speaker 1: a place of love and comfort. So if you can't

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Speaker 1: take criticism from your siblings, your parents, your boys, you

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Speaker 1: can't take criticism from anybody, you know, which kind of

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Speaker 1: leads us to That's part of what I think some

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Speaker 1: of the young men are struggling with now. They don't

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Speaker 1: have authentic friends number one. That's number one. That's the

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Speaker 1: most important thing. Somebody that's gonna be keeping absolutely a

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Speaker 1: hundred with you at all times. Yeah, we're human. We've

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Speaker 1: all made mistakes. I've had to apologize several times people

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Speaker 1: I love. But if they can't call me on my mistake,

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Speaker 1: they're not really my friend, you know. And you know me,

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Speaker 1: you know, I could just sometimes I can go all

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Speaker 1: the way this way, but they're always has to be

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Speaker 1: that voice of reason to say, you know what, lou,

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Speaker 1: you're tripping you know whatnot That wasn't cool, bro. You know,

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Speaker 1: that's really what fellowship and being a man, being a learner,

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Speaker 1: being a teacher, being a coach is about. If you

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Speaker 1: can't take somebody you know, giving you guidance, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe constructive criticism at times, then who are you to

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Speaker 1: dish it out? You know? So when I look at

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Speaker 1: coaching and teaching some of my best players, man um,

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Speaker 1: there was this middle ground of respect. But they knew

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Speaker 1: that they had my ear, you know. So if I

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Speaker 1: wasn't gonna listen to Josh Christopher, you know, the most

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Speaker 1: recent in terms of what he sees and in terms

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Speaker 1: of the actions that he sees himself being successful or

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Speaker 1: who who the hell am I to just tell him

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Speaker 1: what I think? I ain't on the floor, you know,

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Speaker 1: And I think that's always been one of my gifts. Um.

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Speaker 1: If you remember Josh, when Josh was in ninth grade

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Speaker 1: and I was a JV coach, you know, there wasn't

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Speaker 1: much he could do athletically at that moment. But the

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Speaker 1: one thing he could do, he can knock down the

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Speaker 1: fifth for the jump shot the best of them at

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Speaker 1: that moment. Right. So, Josh, when when teams are playing,

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Speaker 1: don't want against us, this is what we're gonna do.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna flash high, turn face, look see what you got.

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Speaker 1: And I still remember that all these years later, right, Um,

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Speaker 1: But I knew that that's something he can do he

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Speaker 1: can bring to the team to help us win right now,

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Speaker 1: versus this is what he can't do in easier his limitations.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of folks look at when they're coaching,

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Speaker 1: they look at the limitations first versus your strengths. Um.

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Speaker 1: I always love playing for coaches that you know. I

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Speaker 1: was a big guy, couldn't move very fast, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: But they figure it out with me. Hey, Chris, let's

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Speaker 1: post him up ten fifteen times a game, get him going,

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Speaker 1: because they knew I get a couple of baskets, then

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Speaker 1: I can run a little bit faster. After a couple

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Speaker 1: of baskets, I could jump a little bit higher for

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Speaker 1: some reason. I don't know why, a little bit after

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Speaker 1: just everything just went for some reason. But now, but man, listening, man,

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Speaker 1: and being open to that, especially with this generation, and

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Speaker 1: I think of my show. I'm always just talking about

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Speaker 1: the errors because I come from a certain era, and

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Speaker 1: and then we always are comparing errors. We're not hating

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Speaker 1: on errors. Were not downing you know, this error or anything.

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Speaker 1: We're just noting some of the differences and trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out why things are the way they are. But

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Speaker 1: but your to your point about being open and understanding. Um,

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Speaker 1: why do you think that you had that type of

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Speaker 1: approach instilled in you at an early age? Where did

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Speaker 1: you learn that? Because because I remember even at Crenshaw,

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Speaker 1: you had a different energy and attitude about you. Your

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Speaker 1: aura was different than everybody else where. Do you think

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Speaker 1: that came from Luther? I think my dad, you know, um,

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Speaker 1: self confidence, Man, my dad is an alpha. You know,

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Speaker 1: you can't tell him that, you can't say that. He

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Speaker 1: he believes he can do anything. Um. And with my

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Speaker 1: dad being a teacher at the time, we were at

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Speaker 1: Crenshaw together and before that watching Joe weakly. You know,

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Speaker 1: I remember Coach As would not allow anyone in the

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Speaker 1: gym during practice, mom, dad, cousin, uncle, principal, nobody. And

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Speaker 1: when I was young, because my dad was, you know,

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Speaker 1: a teacher at the school and you know obviously was

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Speaker 1: with coach Garrett for twenty four years, I believe on

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Speaker 1: the football staff. Um, you know, I was a young

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Speaker 1: kid and nobody to watch me and coach Joe weekly

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Speaker 1: and Coach West allowed me to sit in the corner.

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Speaker 1: I remember, so I was sitting in a corner and

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Speaker 1: literally just trying not to breathe too loud because I

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Speaker 1: was terrified if they would would ask me to leave.

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Speaker 1: And I knew what my ceiling was athletic, and I

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Speaker 1: was okay with that. My parents never put this pressure

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Speaker 1: on me to get a Division one scholarship too, to

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Speaker 1: be something other than what God made me to be.

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Speaker 1: But in the respect, I knew you guys and your greatness,

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Speaker 1: and I appreciated that. So for me, looking at you know,

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Speaker 1: Tommy Davis, you know, looking at Ronnie Yards rest in peace,

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Speaker 1: you know, looking at Raymond, looking at Leon, looking at you,

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Speaker 1: looking at Trarain, looking at Rob Parker, how he can

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Speaker 1: defend the ball ninety four feet. When I tell when

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Speaker 1: I talked to my son about that team, He's like,

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Speaker 1: were they really that good? Like you have? No? I did,

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Speaker 1: And then watching like a Leon Watson and his journey.

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Speaker 1: His parents never complained when he was in ten of

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Speaker 1: eleventh grade and wasn't playing twenty eight minutes of ball game.

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Speaker 1: I was just very observant of Coach West, his mannerisms,

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Speaker 1: his approach um as a coach. I've always watched the

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Speaker 1: practice uniform ms and even to this day, Chris, I

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Speaker 1: fold them up. Remember how Coach Wes would make you

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Speaker 1: give give you the uniform at the end of practice.

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Speaker 1: And I took a level of pride when I got

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Speaker 1: on staff to wipe the floors down two Coach can

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Speaker 1: I watch the uniforms? He you know, coach I could

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Speaker 1: watch like. I took a lot of pride in whatever

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Speaker 1: he needed me to do. I was there. Coach Duckett,

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Speaker 1: hey man here you need a top. Hey, the curl.

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Speaker 1: The curl is sweating out the back of the shirt. Coach. Coach. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I took a lot of pride and being an asset.

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Speaker 1: I never wanted to be looked at as a liability

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Speaker 1: or somebody was you know, somebody that was asking for something,

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Speaker 1: somebody to give me a hand out. I was never

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Speaker 1: about that, Um, and I was perfectly content with that.

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Speaker 1: You found your lane early in the game, and then

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Speaker 1: you just stayed in your lane, and and you excelled

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Speaker 1: in that lane. It's funny when you mentioned, uh, taking

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Speaker 1: pride and the little things associated with coaching and uniforms

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Speaker 1: and things like that. When I coached with the Truth

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Speaker 1: and with the Pumps, Um, two places you've been as well.

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Speaker 1: I took pride in watching the uniforms and putting extra

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Speaker 1: downy and fabric softeners and making sure that you I

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Speaker 1: was on that, bro Like I'm like, I would take

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Speaker 1: pride in these kids uniforms because I wanted it to

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Speaker 1: look so sweet when they got it, that they felt

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Speaker 1: so good on and on it was soft. You know

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Speaker 1: it got on. They don't say I was on that too,

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Speaker 1: And I know we got that from coach And the

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Speaker 1: other thing too, was the sweeping of the floor that

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Speaker 1: you mentioned, Like, that's one of the most cathartic times

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Speaker 1: that you can have, especially when in an empty gym,

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Speaker 1: when it's just you and you hear the zinging of

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Speaker 1: the lights on and you're just thinking about today. You're

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Speaker 1: just going through that. Bro, I've had I've had those

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Speaker 1: same moments my brother, where I've been just taking taking

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Speaker 1: pride and sweeping and just treating it like some like

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Speaker 1: a whole sanctuary meditation type of thing. I think that

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Speaker 1: that's directly from Coach West though, for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I remember asking Coach once. I said, Coach, how can

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Speaker 1: you just sit there like that? You never get upset?

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Speaker 1: You know, It's like my first year coaching with him,

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Speaker 1: and I'll be there and my nerves to be shot.

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Speaker 1: Somebody didn't set the screen and you know, so and

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Speaker 1: so wasn't playing hard. I asked him that question once

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Speaker 1: and he said, Luca, you do your coaching and practice.

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Speaker 1: He said, if I'm up and I'm exerting all of

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Speaker 1: this energy, I don't never want to make my players

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Speaker 1: feel like I don't believe in them. I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: he said, if I'm panicking and I'm exuberant. My players

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Speaker 1: may feel that I don't believe in their ability to

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Speaker 1: sustain this run, to come back to make in game

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Speaker 1: adjustments by themselves. And it made perfect sense to me

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Speaker 1: because I mean, you know, I played for coach Dennis,

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Speaker 1: so when he was yelling, or you know, when I

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Speaker 1: was playing with Tiny, you know, I was you know,

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Speaker 1: as a kid. You know, Tiny yelled at you. You know,

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Speaker 1: you go getting nervous. But I remember Coach West saying that,

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Speaker 1: and I I developed that saying disposition to really try

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Speaker 1: and maintain a level of poise in the midst of

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Speaker 1: the storm. In my last comment on that, I learned

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Speaker 1: something from Mr Christopher Josh Christopher's dad. Um, I'm coaching

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Speaker 1: the truth. Uh sixteen, you were in the E y

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Speaker 1: b L. We're in peach Jawn. Um, we're playing against

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Speaker 1: no I'm coaching Kyle Supreme. We're playing against the Truth.

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Speaker 1: But coach I'm coaching against jay Crow. Jack Crow had

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Speaker 1: Jayla Green and you know that roster. Right, they ran

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Speaker 1: out to six something, Chris, And I'm sitting there and

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Speaker 1: I'm watching them and we're just getting read right, and

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Speaker 1: I can hear people behind me time out, time out,

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Speaker 1: time rout. And I heard Josh's dad over here. Everybody relaxed.

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Speaker 1: It's just a game. Kids are gonna be fine. And

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Speaker 1: he calmed me down right, and I was, so we

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Speaker 1: made it the halftime. We end up cutting it back

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Speaker 1: to eight. I never forgot that, so I stole it.

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Speaker 1: You know, now you know when team is gonna run

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Speaker 1: in different things. Everybody relaxed, It's just a game. And

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Speaker 1: what happens is it brings the stress level down regarding

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Speaker 1: the players, because if they're up and you know they're unraveling, well, hell,

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Speaker 1: they're not gonna be the best version of themselves. And

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Speaker 1: and that's something that I really observed with with Coach West,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I tried to take on that same entree. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

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Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports

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Speaker 1: Radio Com and within the I Heart Radio app search

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Speaker 1: f s R to listen live. Coach Willie West, you

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Speaker 1: know the the well he used to be the record

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Speaker 1: holder for state championships, but I think Gary McKnight beat him.

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Speaker 1: But eight state championship, sixteen city championships regarded as you know,

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Speaker 1: one of the greatest coaches in the history of high

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Speaker 1: school basketball and basketball in general. Um, I felt like

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Speaker 1: when Coach West was in practice, it was sort of

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Speaker 1: like his time to get everything out, so he would

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Speaker 1: get everything that was bothering him, every issue that he

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Speaker 1: had with anybody. On any little play, he was gonna

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Speaker 1: bring it up. He's stopping practice, he's getting in you

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Speaker 1: doing it. You know, he's yelling, he's making you, he's

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Speaker 1: making you feel this small right, So that happens in practice.

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Speaker 1: We get into the game and I've and it was

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Speaker 1: just the weirdest experience my first time playing a game

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Speaker 1: from Coach West after having practiced. My first game is

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Speaker 1: its Garfield and I was having a bad game my

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Speaker 1: junior year. We're playing Garfield first day. You know, I've

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Speaker 1: come from Monclare Prep. Luther had made the big transfer

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Speaker 1: between my sophomore and my junior year. Everybody had said that,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's only being successful because he's playing at

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Speaker 1: a small school. So now here I am. It was

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Speaker 1: a bunch of white people out of that school. Here

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Speaker 1: I am going into the heart of the city at

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Speaker 1: the Shaw. First game I get out there, I'm nervous.

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Speaker 1: I'm not making no shots. You know, I'm missing you know,

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Speaker 1: easy jumpers and everything like that. Coach West. First time out,

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Speaker 1: he comes over and I'm thinking he's about to scream

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Speaker 1: and yell. So I'm thinking it's about to be that

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Speaker 1: coach and practice. He kind of he kind of looking

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Speaker 1: at me, kind of gave me like this little smirk

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Speaker 1: like come on, like when you go play like he

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Speaker 1: just gave me like a look, and I was just

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Speaker 1: kind of like, I'm running back, like thinking he's about

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Speaker 1: to yell at me, and then when you look up,

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Speaker 1: he's smiling and like come like giving you like this

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Speaker 1: lift up. You just man, it just changed my whole thing. Man,

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Speaker 1: I was like, who is this guy? Yeah, it's it's

405
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Speaker 1: literally like you're like, who is this guy right here?

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Speaker 1: This is not the coach that that just was in

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Speaker 1: my you know what I'm saying, Yeah, I was in practice.

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Speaker 1: So I love Coach West for that style of coaching.

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Speaker 1: You're right it when you pan nick, when you're doing

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Speaker 1: all that crazy stuff, it creates that frenetic environment of

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Speaker 1: anxiety on a team, and you know how that goes

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Speaker 1: everybody's nerves. Now everybody becomes on edge. Now every mistake

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Speaker 1: is amplified. But um no, those are some serious lessons.

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Speaker 1: Let's get back to to your journey, Luther. As we

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Speaker 1: were talking about it, well you're at Crenshaw. I was

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Speaker 1: curious as to just describe that time of life, that

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Speaker 1: era socially, athletically, just l A just set the scene

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Speaker 1: for us in nineteen about that those years we're phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: You know, those are some of the best years of

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Speaker 1: my life. You know. Um. One of the things I

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Speaker 1: vividly remember is that we were all friends. So it

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Speaker 1: didn't matter if you played football, basketball, baseball, you would

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Speaker 1: just a guy or just a dude. There was a

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00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: level of camaraderie that we had that the teachers had.

425
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: Teachers didn't miss games, Chris I noticed, the security guards

426
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 1: didn't miss games. The principal didn't miss a game. The

427
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: entire community was a safe haymen for us. If it

428
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,359
Speaker 1: didn't matter if we were getting Miss Bird's class and

429
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:36,440
Speaker 1: go to Chris Burger or getting into your ninety five

430
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: black Camry and taking the cruise. I'll tell everybody to

431
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 1: a clock, though, I will tell to somebody about Margarita's

432
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 1: uh to the little Mexican spot. Margaret was I forgot

433
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:52,720
Speaker 1: the day, but it was a hitting up Margarita that lunch. Yeah,

434
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: it just didn't matter what was going on. We were

435
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 1: all truly friends and umbrellas. And when you go over

436
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:09,440
Speaker 1: to Manual Arts, same environment, when you went over to Washington,

437
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: same environment. So geographically, no matter if you went north, south, east,

438
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: and west. Those communities and especially in respected to the

439
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 1: ball clubs were like a community and it was a

440
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: right of safe passage. I mean I caught the two

441
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 1: ten through Inglewood by the way right to get the

442
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: crunchhaw every day, and I've never had anything to worry

443
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: about because as long as you had a backpack on,

444
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: everybody left you alone. Um. But I remember, man, just

445
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: it was a community. I remember getting that coach Dennis

446
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: is Lincoln mark four and there was so much armor

447
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: all on the seats, right. So, um, your first year

448
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: there was a game out in Orange County. You know Dennis,

449
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: we would run out of there like jump in there

450
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: and go get a burrito from Heralds and he would

451
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: be dipping that mark for so I'm sliding across the

452
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: seats with um and we will pull up right in

453
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: the nick of time. Right. Um. It was just a

454
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:22,160
Speaker 1: great time. Man, and I think that communal approach had

455
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the success um of the

456
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: ball club because as players, it was very clear, irrespective

457
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 1: of level as well, that you were a representation of

458
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 1: the community that you come from. If you put that

459
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 1: jersey on and you're out there doing something that's not

460
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 1: cool and somebody picks up a phone and causing all

461
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: I mean, there was gonna be some consequences that you

462
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: were gonna have to face. And as you know, in

463
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:57,399
Speaker 1: that day, everybody was replaceable, you know, so there was

464
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 1: a level of I would, I would, you know, positive

465
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: peer pressure amongst us to to go, you know, down

466
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: the right path. Yeah. Man, I think I was talking

467
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 1: to uh Dom Ellison. He just got named the head

468
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 1: coach at Morningside. Uh so he's gonna be on my

469
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: podcast pretty soon. So I introduced we were talking about

470
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,399
Speaker 1: that that that exact thing just on how people's parents,

471
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 1: the community, there's a level of peer pressure involved in

472
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: you keeping your head on straight because you knew, you

473
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: know how nowadays it's basically frowned upon it as a

474
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: say say, I'm somewhere and somebody's kids are acting bad.

475
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:37,679
Speaker 1: I say something to those kids about acting bad. They're not,

476
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: you know, it's we could be beef with the parents,

477
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: and man, don't be talking about kids. Back when we

478
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: were coming up and if if parents were out, we

479
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: were out somewhere we saw somebody's mama and then they

480
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: saw us acting up. We knew to be on our

481
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: best behavior or to straighten up. Or if somebody's mom

482
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: told us something, it wasn't you know, if you know,

483
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: we're respecting that because that's so and so's mom or dad,

484
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: and we know what time it is. And I think

485
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 1: that's been lost as we've gotten the law. The village

486
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: helping to raise the child was such an important factor

487
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: in people because there's times when parents aren't there and

488
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: you're gonna and you're gonna need these other folks to

489
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 1: be able to have the ability to say something man

490
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: incorrect or or constructively criticized without without it being taken

491
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: so personally. Um. The other thing too, I wanted to

492
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: touch on as far as just my experience as you're

493
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: talking about Crenshaw, Man, You're bringing up so many just

494
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: amazing memories and stuff. Man, I'm thinking about the black camera,

495
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about though after practices and when Coach

496
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: West would sit us all down for two man our

497
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: and our minimum talk. Bro So, I came from mont

498
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: Claire Prep. So mont Claire Prep coach Bob Webb, Howard Abrams,

499
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: my dad like tow there. You know, we didn't have

500
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: any type of talks more than probably five minutes after practice.

501
00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: Coach West set us down every day after practice, after

502
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 1: going hard, being at each other's throats, competing for positions

503
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: in one of the most prestigious spots in all of California,

504
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: and he'd have talk to us about life. Uh grades,

505
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: um decisions, we made, um choices, I mean, the whole

506
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: nine man. And for me, what that did is that

507
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: gave me just a perspective that I hadn't had in

508
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 1: my whole up to that point in my life, to

509
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: where I'm just I started just really valuing things differently.

510
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 1: I started looking at things differently. I started being a

511
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: little more thankful for what I had. It started to

512
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: make me realize that I was truly blessed. And I

513
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: started looking around, you know, and it's just like, damn, man,

514
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: I just started thinking about a lot of stuff, and

515
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: it was a lot about Coach West, and he really

516
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: helped established some character. He really helped establish some morals

517
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: and ethics and things in me that I want to

518
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 1: say I didn't have before, but I guess they weren't

519
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: at the forefront. Do you think Coach West would you

520
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: describe his influence on you in a similar fashion? Did

521
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: he insurmountable? I still talked to Coach. You know, I

522
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: make it a point to call him about once a

523
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: month check on him. You know, when we were in

524
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,959
Speaker 1: Arizona this past year, I was gonna go pick him up.

525
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: We were in the pandemic, so they don't want to

526
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: come out. But I still talked to Coach. I mean,

527
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: the impact he had on me was huge. Because I

528
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 1: was just a guy. He didn't have to embrace me

529
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: in the fashion that he did. Um When my career

530
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: took off from being a teacher to move into administration,

531
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 1: I remember we had a talk and I said, Coach,

532
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 1: I want to Coach, I want to be like you.

533
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: And he said, Luther, you don't want to be like me,

534
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,239
Speaker 1: you want to be better than me. Mind you, at

535
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: the time I might have been I might have been

536
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: around thirty, and I at that age I still couldn't

537
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:57,239
Speaker 1: understand what he was saying. Right, But he wanted me

538
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: to use my education to really carve out a path

539
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: for myself. You know, I had finished grad school at

540
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 1: the time. I had a job offer on the table

541
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 1: which was gonna double my salary literally, and I remember

542
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: talking to him and said, Coach, like, I'm not sure

543
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,240
Speaker 1: about this. You know, I want to be here and

544
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. And he he

545
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: was like, no, this is what you're gonna do, you know.

546
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 1: And he would always talk to me about, you know,

547
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: his experience to segregation, leaving Texas as a baseball player,

548
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 1: coming out to cows in l A because that was

549
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: the only place he could play. And he would always say, no,

550
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: you need to do this where my lens and my

551
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: dreams were only right here. I couldn't even see myself

552
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: moving further. And he always pushed me, no, like, there's more,

553
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: there's more for you to achieve, there's more for you

554
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 1: to do. Um in a very direct but um comforting way. Yeah.

555
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: Absolutely that he he his that was his style. That

556
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 1: was his approach. It was direct, it was in your

557
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: face sometimes it was really blunt, but it was you

558
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: knew it was what you needed to hear. You knew

559
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 1: he wasn't if he wasn't wasting time talking to you,

560
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: there must have been a problem. If he didn't pick

561
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: get on you about stuff, then you you really must

562
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 1: not be somebody he carried. But because that's how he

563
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: was as a coach, Um, And when I was thinking

564
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: about you mentioned U, Candy Bulls and coach Tiny Edmund

565
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: Fleano had got a shout out. Coach Timney Rick Stevenson

566
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,640
Speaker 1: rest in peace. Um. All those coaches that were around

567
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: that program around then. All those black men where men

568
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: of character, and they took their jobs as mentors very seriously.

569
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 1: Not one of them dudes that I could ever mintor

570
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: ever remember ever letting me down the wrong path or

571
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 1: you know, if I ever asked for advice, it was

572
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: always on the up and up. And I always remembered

573
00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 1: them and understood that that's what's needed for that supports.

574
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 1: You gotta have a whole crew of them type of guys.

575
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: With that being said, I remember with Coach ed you know,

576
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: with Coach ed Waters, of course we had a disagreement

577
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: that you know about, and it wasn't and and this

578
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 1: was my level of immaturity. It wasn't until he had

579
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 1: a health ailment and I got a call, and man,

580
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: whatever issue I had, whatever beef I had, all that

581
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: went out the window because all I was concerned about

582
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: in that moment was is he okay? You know? And

583
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: I remember going to the school or my niece who

584
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 1: plays at Alcorn States. She ended up graduating from Crunshat.

585
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 1: I went to the school and man, I just went

586
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: in his office and just just gave him a hug

587
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:46,200
Speaker 1: because I was genuinely concerned for him. Like the basketball,

588
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: the hoop, none of that mattered at that moment. But

589
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: to his credit, in that moment, he's like Luke that man,

590
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:57,719
Speaker 1: I love you like we're men. We're too out for men.

591
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 1: We are gonna disagree, it's inevitable, but in that we're

592
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 1: not too big to ever say, you know what, that's

593
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: my fault. You know, I should have handled this a

594
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,439
Speaker 1: little bit differently than what I did. And I think

595
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,320
Speaker 1: that's another thing that that's so lost man, Like now

596
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 1: it's all about what you think or what I think? Well,

597
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 1: who who gives a damn? Sometimes we have to be

598
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:28,759
Speaker 1: vessels to to listen and too mentor the next generation

599
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 1: asked too, these are some landlines that I stepped on

600
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: and be be open and honest about it. These are

601
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 1: some mistakes that I made along the way. But even

602
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 1: with that, it's okay. If I make a mistake, I'll

603
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:45,799
Speaker 1: be the first one to say, you know what, man,

604
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you know. And then then then

605
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,320
Speaker 1: you can then you're done, like you can take that weight,

606
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: that that burden off your shoulders, and it's up to

607
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: that person to either accept your apology and move on.

608
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 1: But I grew a lot man around on those men. Yeah,

609
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 1: you know Coach Garrett. Yeah, Coach Garrett. Garret's always a trip.

610
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:10,279
Speaker 1: You know how Coach Garrett is. So Coach Garrett used

611
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,960
Speaker 1: to always like he always he's always coming me. Man,

612
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 1: I wanted to fight Coach Garrey. I was at a

613
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 1: point where I was I was saying it. I was like,

614
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fight Coach Garrett. So I had to have

615
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,560
Speaker 1: I told like some people like, I'm gonna fight Coach Garrett.

616
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 1: So but it is. But then I realized. But then

617
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: I think me and him had a moment. Man. I

618
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 1: don't know what when it was, but it was like

619
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 1: one on one, it was just me and him somewhere,

620
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 1: and I just realized at the time it was just

621
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,880
Speaker 1: coach Garrett just doing his thing. If he wasn't messing

622
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,040
Speaker 1: with me, he didn't see nothing in me. Probably I

623
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: found out he respected me. And once I found out

624
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: Coach Garret respected me, though, I took anything he gave me.

625
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,439
Speaker 1: From that point it wasn't nothing no more. You feel

626
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 1: me with me. When I got my first assistant principal

627
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 1: ship at the school, I'm like, hey, coach, and I

628
00:36:56,239 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: remember he cussed me up. I I'm like, I was like,

629
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:04,760
Speaker 1: I played for you, Like this is a little there,

630
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:11,160
Speaker 1: like yeah, And I remember closing the door and we

631
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: had this big old argument and uh, I think that

632
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 1: was what he needed for me too, you know. And

633
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 1: then there was a mutual level of it. It was

634
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:21,800
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing. I called my dad, I'm so upset,

635
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, coaches tripping and and he

636
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: was like this, you know, but you learned, you know,

637
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 1: And then everybody fights their own battles. To man, you

638
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: never know what somebody's going through. You know, you don't know.

639
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: You you never know what somebody's going through. And with

640
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 1: somebody's six, you just never know. And I think in

641
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 1: this business that we're in, and and and and the

642
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,880
Speaker 1: situations that we're in just in terms of being in

643
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: close proximity to some great players and great young men,

644
00:37:54,400 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: it's viol that we mentor them and with love and

645
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:06,239
Speaker 1: with transparency, because if they're not gonna get it from us,

646
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,719
Speaker 1: they're not gonna get it anywhere. So we can't be

647
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 1: authentic and who we are, you know, the good, bad,

648
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 1: the ugly. Then how can we then foster that for

649
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:23,920
Speaker 1: Will Johnson? You know what I mean? Um, how can

650
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,400
Speaker 1: we foster that for Reese Waters? Like? How can we

651
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 1: foster that environment? And that's one of the things being

652
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: in l A that I'm unfortunate. You know, We've all

653
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: had quarrels, you know, because we're in a competitive environment.

654
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: But I think when the rubber hits the road, we

655
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 1: all want the same thing, and that is for our children,

656
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 1: for our community, for the players that that we've capsulated

657
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: to to be successful in whatever they do. Yeah, I

658
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:58,839
Speaker 1: think that you just hit the nail nail on the head,

659
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,839
Speaker 1: especially about l A. Our culture. Are are stuff out here.

660
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: Sure that may be beef, but at the end of

661
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 1: the day, like we are all rolling with each other.

662
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: I've seen I've seen that in different parts of my

663
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 1: Life's quick story about two thousand two, I'm playing overseason

664
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:19,279
Speaker 1: qatar Um. We're looking for another guard to come in, right,

665
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 1: I need another pro because I'm there, I'm the one professional.

666
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,319
Speaker 1: We need another pro. We're playing in like a big

667
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 1: Asian championship on the continent of Asia. So the other

668
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,200
Speaker 1: team got j R. Henderson and sham Guy Wells as

669
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 1: their pro Saudi Arabia. So I knew that was a

670
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 1: team we had to be, you know. So this is

671
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 1: before the tournament. So I'm like, yo, man, I gotta

672
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:37,719
Speaker 1: get my guy. I gotta get one of my guys

673
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: out here. So I ended up calling the Anthony who

674
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: called you know who told me Stace was working out

675
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,800
Speaker 1: Stays Bozeman so and Stays, you know, he's a blood

676
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,240
Speaker 1: with the Morningside with the USC I got. I actually

677
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: got a tech of getting it during a packed ten

678
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:53,399
Speaker 1: game because I called Stays a slab during the game.

679
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: I called Stays a slab door the game, bro, and

680
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: I gotta tech. Hey, Stace was looking at me like,

681
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: you're crazy the hell you? They don't even know what'sl like.

682
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: He was just so tripped out about it. But but

683
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 1: but anyway, the long story short, man, I talked to Stays.

684
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: We you know, it wasn't really no beef, but you

685
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: know how you gotta get awkwardness. Man, States came over there. Man,

686
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: we ended up winning the championship. Bro Me and Stays

687
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 1: in the back court. Man. We ended up making big

688
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 1: bank bonuses. They loved them. It was like Stacey's greatest

689
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 1: experience overseas. Man. But just shows you how this stuff goes.

690
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

691
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports

692
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app

693
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. When you're from

694
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:45,839
Speaker 1: l A, you have a certain like um kinship with

695
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 1: everybody else. You don't even have to know a dude.

696
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 1: Yeah you meet him or you run into him, and

697
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,799
Speaker 1: you know some people that know each other. Oh wait

698
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:54,759
Speaker 1: where'd you grow up? Oh yeah yeah before I was

699
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 1: over here. I'm like, oh, man, man to love. And

700
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things about being um this culture, man,

701
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 1: is that it's what you're talking about. It's kind of

702
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: what you're hitting at too. Man. It's like we're all

703
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 1: could be different dudes, but we all love the game,

704
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 1: and that's what we have in common. Bro and I

705
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 1: love that us for show. Yeah. Absolutely, San Josey State.

706
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: Why did you decide after graduating? Chris Shaw? Why did

707
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 1: you starting to go to San Jose State? And who

708
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:22,719
Speaker 1: else was involved as far as where you're looking at

709
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 1: continuing your academic and athletic career. So I had three

710
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 1: opportunities to be a preferred walk on. I had Sack State,

711
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: I have President State, and I asked San Jose State. Um,

712
00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 1: I was at the gym working out. I come back home.

713
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,360
Speaker 1: It's right after graduation and just turned seventeen eighteen, just

714
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 1: turned eighteen, and there was a bag at the door

715
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,399
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Mom, who's bad is at the door?

716
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, that's your bag. Like we're dropping you

717
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: off at school this weekend. And I was like, I

718
00:41:56,360 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 1: was like, where am I going? And she's like, well,

719
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: you know, we'll we'll go Sack State first, Fresno State second,

720
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:09,879
Speaker 1: we'll finish it sound Stay State right up to one

721
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,919
Speaker 1: on one, we'll choose, we'll pick one. So we're gonna

722
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,600
Speaker 1: do like a turnaround. And then they were gonna either

723
00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 1: drop me off coming or drop me off coming back.

724
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,359
Speaker 1: But it was very clear that I was not gonna

725
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 1: make it back to l A. So we stopped at

726
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: Sack State and pull up. I didn't even need to

727
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: get out the car because they were green and white.

728
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 1: It's like, that's no go. For those of you that

729
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 1: don't know, Dorsey was greening right, not at all. Got

730
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:46,400
Speaker 1: up to Fresnel, got out the car. Um Ray for

731
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 1: Austin was at Fresno City at the time, so I

732
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,719
Speaker 1: knew the plans and I remember getting out the car.

733
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 1: It was hot, it's like degrees and the helicopter little

734
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: plane is sprants stip so that was short. Got up

735
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,839
Speaker 1: to sad Jose. They were blew and gold. I didn't

736
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:14,640
Speaker 1: need to see no more. Pull up at the basketball office, Um,

737
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: who's the coach? Stan Morrison? Stan Morrison? And I was

738
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,359
Speaker 1: sold on Stan Stewart, who was also from l A

739
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 1: with the Morning Side and ended up playing at l

740
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: m U. Great dudes accepted me with open arms. Coach

741
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:34,879
Speaker 1: West made a call and I had a great experience,

742
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,920
Speaker 1: and I think it was through those years that I

743
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 1: really realized that I enjoyed being in the film room.

744
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the strategy behind the game. I enjoyed the

745
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:56,320
Speaker 1: player development aspect of it. Olivier St. John's turned me hide.

746
00:43:56,640 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 1: Um was there my freshman year, so Um, Tarik and

747
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time again, and he reminded

748
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: me of kind of how you were to some respect

749
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: being a great player, but just a humble dude off

750
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: the court. You know, a lot of people don't know

751
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 1: Tarie loves to play tennis. He was just really really

752
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:21,400
Speaker 1: good at basketball. His first love was tennis. I didn't

753
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: know that, yeah, man, so um and coach Morrison, to

754
00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: his credit during those years, was very open, very honest.

755
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 1: I remember he would pray before every game in public,

756
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: at the end of the bench. Before every ball game.

757
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:39,720
Speaker 1: He would go to the end of the bench, Neil

758
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: pray before every game, every game. When you saw him

759
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,200
Speaker 1: doing that, what kind of effect they have on you? Um,

760
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 1: be who you are, UM, run your own race. Um.

761
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: All the outside noise, because there was a lot of

762
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:02,040
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of noise, and in college anywhere,

763
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,839
Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Man, it never he never waved from

764
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: who he was and his core principles and what he believed.

765
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:12,759
Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna go to study hall, You're gonna

766
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:14,520
Speaker 1: do what you're supposed to do on and off the

767
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:17,959
Speaker 1: court and if you weren't going to do those things,

768
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: you weren't gonna play. Hence coach West. So we had

769
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 1: guys at San Jose State kJ you can go into

770
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: the recreational center and get get that work. There were

771
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 1: dudes that could not play on the collegiate team because

772
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 1: of several things that were better then the players that

773
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: were on basketball scholarship. I mean like and it wasn't

774
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 1: one of them too. They were like eight or nine

775
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:52,719
Speaker 1: news down there. And over the years what we learned was,

776
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:56,000
Speaker 1: you know, some of those guys were, you know, pushed

777
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 1: off the ball club. One guy was one of the

778
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:00,880
Speaker 1: best players I've ever seen to date. It was a

779
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 1: guy named Kendrew Johnson. He was from San Diego, went

780
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:08,800
Speaker 1: to a j C in Kentucky. Um, it wasn't nothing

781
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:12,160
Speaker 1: to do, couldn't do. He end up playing in Australia

782
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 1: for many years. But there was just a competitive environment

783
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 1: up there, man. And there was a group of black

784
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 1: professors that I attached to. My minor was African American Studies.

785
00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:30,760
Speaker 1: My major with social science with the emphasis and secondary education.

786
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to be a teacher and it

787
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 1: was just a great environment. You know, the professors would

788
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 1: come to the ball games, they would go to the

789
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: rec center and you know, play three on three with you.

790
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:45,160
Speaker 1: And it was just a very welcoming environment. And I

791
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,640
Speaker 1: think why I enjoyed it so much was because the city.

792
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: It was the first time I was able to catch

793
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 1: the bus or to train and go anywhere. You know,

794
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:57,240
Speaker 1: you can't do that in nobody. Um So, the freedom

795
00:46:57,320 --> 00:46:59,520
Speaker 1: and you know, being able to wear a boss the

796
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 1: Reds chat for the first time. You know, I'm a

797
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: baseball fan. I always love to wear hats. Well, well,

798
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 1: let's explain that real quick, because we have talked about it.

799
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: So there's growing up out here in l A and

800
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: certain areas of l A. You grew up your whole

801
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,600
Speaker 1: life in a certain area. You will never wear certain

802
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 1: sports teams clothes. For instance, I grew up early knowing

803
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:21,960
Speaker 1: never to wear no Astro stuff walking around in that

804
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:28,880
Speaker 1: brown and orange bro stay away from it. Francisco Giants

805
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:34,359
Speaker 1: can do it. The Giants. The Astros like that. Man

806
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 1: is on man like hey. But so when you let

807
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,719
Speaker 1: me ask you this specifically about that when you went

808
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,239
Speaker 1: to college, you have these liberties now, and it's gonna

809
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: sound like a minor thing. But to be able to

810
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 1: wear whatever you wanted to wear. What did that make

811
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: you realize about the place that you came from. It

812
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: made me realize that we grew up in an environment that,

813
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: to some extent was health on this side, but then

814
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:05,439
Speaker 1: on this side was very toxic. I had never been

815
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:12,000
Speaker 1: north of Rodeo until I was in my twenties. Like

816
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: I had never drove down Crunchhall Boulevard and went north

817
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:22,319
Speaker 1: of Rodeo until I was a grown man. Because the

818
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,360
Speaker 1: barrier for us was stopper, So you didn't go past Stoccer,

819
00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: right um, being able to like catch the bar to

820
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:35,320
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Giants games. Oh man, I'm in heaven.

821
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:39,640
Speaker 1: I got enough money for her a hot dog and

822
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 1: a beer. Ah, what can be better than this? Right um?

823
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,319
Speaker 1: But growing up, man it you know, as we we've

824
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 1: gotten older, we've learned that man, like, there was so

825
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 1: much that we were limited. Like I thought l A

826
00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:01,560
Speaker 1: was that five mile radios from Guardena Crenshaw. I didn't

827
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 1: know about Roland Hills. I only knew about my Claire

828
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 1: because of you, and going north on the four or

829
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 1: five and barely are crests over here? To our left.

830
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 1: I didn't know that this existed, m you know, which

831
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: is unfortunate. Like I didn't know about Third and Fairfax,

832
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:24,080
Speaker 1: Like I didn't know you know, you knew Pacific Palisades

833
00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: because of Palisades High School, but you didn't know Pacific

834
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:32,359
Speaker 1: Palace Sades, you know. So those are some of the pitfalls,

835
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:35,080
Speaker 1: I would say from how we grew up. But I

836
00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:37,080
Speaker 1: think all of us were kind of like that for

837
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:40,719
Speaker 1: the part. I mean, there definitely was a level of

838
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 1: limiting yourself or staying inside your comfort zone or not

839
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:48,600
Speaker 1: going to other zones because of danger. So those were

840
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,239
Speaker 1: kind of that's that's just what your your choices were

841
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 1: at the time. I just remember, you know, coming from

842
00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 1: Deep Valley and then I was living in bel Air

843
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:00,360
Speaker 1: and having spent a majority of my child hood it

844
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 1: was sixtieth and tenth to Alve and over in that

845
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 1: area with my mom. I just remember how when I

846
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:10,680
Speaker 1: came back to Crenshaw feeling kind of a couple of things.

847
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,600
Speaker 1: I felt a sense of familiarity because there's a lot

848
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:16,279
Speaker 1: of folks from Audubon and thirty Secret Stary School or

849
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,279
Speaker 1: these different schools I went to in my life where

850
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 1: they recognized me. So you'd have like thirty people in

851
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:22,839
Speaker 1: school that knew I went to all about everybody else

852
00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 1: thinking I'm the fresh prince of bell Laird that had

853
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 1: never been They thought I had never been to any

854
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 1: school or they like a lot of people didn't know

855
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:33,359
Speaker 1: I went to all the like they didn't know none

856
00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 1: of that. So they so people are treated me a

857
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:37,560
Speaker 1: certain way or they you know, responded to me a

858
00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 1: certain way. But my way of responding back was just

859
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,360
Speaker 1: we're touching on during this conversation, trying to be yourself. Yeah,

860
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 1: I always struggled my whole life, um with being myself,

861
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,960
Speaker 1: being the real version of me, because I was always confused. Man,

862
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it real. Like when I be with

863
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 1: my mom, you know, in the hood, I had to

864
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 1: be more black. When I go bell Air be arounding

865
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 1: white people, my dad. I had tried to be more

866
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: white because you've got white friends and you know, you

867
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,239
Speaker 1: don't want to show them the black stuff, and you

868
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:07,879
Speaker 1: don't want to be too white with the black people

869
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:09,439
Speaker 1: because they go to be looking at it. Oh this nerd,

870
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 1: and you know why you talk like that. So I

871
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:13,719
Speaker 1: was like always try to I had to change up

872
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,120
Speaker 1: my game, change up my voice, even dumb myself down

873
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:19,920
Speaker 1: to an extended Crunshaw dog, which I really thinking myself

874
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:22,279
Speaker 1: in an ask about not trying to seem too smart. Bro,

875
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 1: think about that, Luther. I'm sitting in class. No I

876
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,040
Speaker 1: don't know all that stuff. No, all the answers, but

877
00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 1: I'm like not raising my hand and ship because I'm

878
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:30,319
Speaker 1: just like, I don't want to seem like I'm just

879
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:33,840
Speaker 1: But these recent things I struggled with is I got older,

880
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,480
Speaker 1: you know, figure myself out. I dealt with a lot

881
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 1: of different issues and stuff. But that part of it,

882
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 1: uh growing up out here in l A. Just being

883
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,360
Speaker 1: from around so many different places in areas man for

884
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:47,799
Speaker 1: me personally, that's what kind of contributed to that. But

885
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:52,919
Speaker 1: when did you know education was gonna be your bread

886
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 1: and butter? When did you know in college? Like I

887
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 1: know you wouldn't do you're majoring in it, But when

888
00:51:57,800 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: did you like really know? I knew in high school? Um,

889
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 1: I knew in high school. So I was in the

890
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:08,359
Speaker 1: teacher training maggot at Crunchhawn and if you remember, Ms

891
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: Bird had a zoo on wheels. But who was our

892
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 1: biology teacher? So when we would take the goats and

893
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,080
Speaker 1: the you know, the snakes and the rabbits over to

894
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 1: the you know Angeles masa elementary school to you know,

895
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 1: show the kids and animals. I really enjoyed it. So

896
00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:25,839
Speaker 1: it was that maybe fifteen years old, and I knew

897
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:29,640
Speaker 1: I was gonna be a teacher. And I mean I

898
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:34,120
Speaker 1: was telling my son this the other day. Um, all

899
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:37,920
Speaker 1: I wanted in life was I wanted to be a teacher.

900
00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:41,799
Speaker 1: I wanted to make thirty grand a year. I knew

901
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:44,399
Speaker 1: if I made thirty grand a year, I'll be able

902
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 1: to buy my own truck. I'll be able to get

903
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:49,480
Speaker 1: my own apartment, and I'll be able to buy a

904
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,759
Speaker 1: television and have cable. So I knew if I had

905
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:55,879
Speaker 1: these five things. The last thing was I'll be able

906
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,160
Speaker 1: to get a bad chick. Because I got these five things.

907
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:02,080
Speaker 1: I got my own Scott, I got fast grade, I

908
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,719
Speaker 1: got the job. Is just how my opic. I mean,

909
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: it sounds simple, but it's it's really sad. My brain

910
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:12,759
Speaker 1: at that moment was these are the five things I

911
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:16,080
Speaker 1: need in life. So I never could even see over

912
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: the horizon because I was only focused on this little

913
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:25,759
Speaker 1: bubble based on Coach West Coach Dennis if you gotta

914
00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:29,879
Speaker 1: you gotta think about those men their life. They dedicated

915
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:35,839
Speaker 1: their life to a community and to a school, and

916
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: it it was it was only through adversity and being

917
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:46,920
Speaker 1: uncomfortable that I realized that God has another plan for me.

918
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:51,000
Speaker 1: But when you're going through this, you don't realize what's happening.

919
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: Right when I got transferred from Crenchhall High School, I

920
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,480
Speaker 1: tell um I was telling my wife and I were

921
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,279
Speaker 1: talking about this not too longer. I remember I was

922
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 1: driving down Crunshaw. They had just transferred the whole administrative staff, right,

923
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 1: and they said, Luther, you stay there and finished the

924
00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 1: master schedule and we'll figure out what we're gonna do

925
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:16,000
Speaker 1: to week. And I remember leaving word crying like I

926
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:18,520
Speaker 1: had to pull over because I couldn't see anymore. I

927
00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:24,239
Speaker 1: didn't cry at my grandmother's humor, right, I was so

928
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:29,920
Speaker 1: heartbroken on the bureaucratic change that had occurred because I

929
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,400
Speaker 1: knew it wasn't the best thing for the school. I

930
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:36,920
Speaker 1: knew it, right, I'm like, how could you remove the

931
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,400
Speaker 1: staff that knows where all the skeletons are buried, that

932
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: live in the community, that our vessels. How could you

933
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:48,480
Speaker 1: just move us out? Of here subjectively because you guys

934
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:50,680
Speaker 1: want to go in a different direction. It's around the

935
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:55,320
Speaker 1: time that the Christial Loss is accreditation. Yes, that was

936
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:58,799
Speaker 1: my design to Okay, I'm getting it now, you know.

937
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:02,880
Speaker 1: So he here, I am in the trenches and in

938
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 1: the war room so I can see what's going on

939
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:10,879
Speaker 1: and for it to actually be planned out and manifest

940
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: broke my heart literally. But in that I remember praying.

941
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:22,360
Speaker 1: I remember taking some time to myself and when Rico

942
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, my boy, j Hart want

943
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 1: to meet with you. You know, he's retiring from the NBA,

944
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:33,280
Speaker 1: and you know he's gonna be taking over Team Jennings.

945
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:38,480
Speaker 1: We're starting Team Jennings right and Kelly Williams Marcus Williams

946
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: dad is gonna be the director. That moment of depression

947
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:48,400
Speaker 1: and sadness turned into joy because now I'm entering the

948
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:54,120
Speaker 1: an arena based on my relationship with Rico that I've

949
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:57,320
Speaker 1: always wanted to do. And when I was at Crenshaw

950
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 1: had blinders on, so you know, coach duck it style.

951
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:03,200
Speaker 1: I'm in the gym before school, I'm in a gym

952
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:05,840
Speaker 1: at lunch, I'm in a gym after school. I'm in

953
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: the gym all summer. So I wasn't going to any

954
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:12,720
Speaker 1: a events. I wasn't shaking any hands, meeting anybody network,

955
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything. I was my optic. But when

956
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:21,040
Speaker 1: that happened in terms of that transfer for me UM professionally,

957
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:25,840
Speaker 1: it propelled me to another place that I was always

958
00:56:25,880 --> 00:56:29,799
Speaker 1: asking God to place you. But it wasn't comfortable, but

959
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:33,359
Speaker 1: you know, looking back on it, it was divine for sure.

960
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:37,799
Speaker 1: So you're at you're now coaching with j Hart and

961
00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: Team Jennings. At what point in your principal at vice principle,

962
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:43,560
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to at the time at a charter

963
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:45,759
Speaker 1: school excuse me, a charter school. So you're now you're

964
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 1: a principal, which is extremely impressive. I always wanted to

965
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 1: talk to you about your academic being administrator academically UM.

966
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:56,160
Speaker 1: One quick question before I continue to set the stage

967
00:56:56,160 --> 00:57:00,400
Speaker 1: on where you were at UM when you be came

968
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:07,520
Speaker 1: a principle. Did your experience as sort of a a

969
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:09,960
Speaker 1: guy that was in the end crowd or kind of

970
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:12,720
Speaker 1: was part of you know, a lot of times people

971
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:14,400
Speaker 1: that grew up to be principles in high school, they

972
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:16,960
Speaker 1: weren't part of the cool crowd if you will. So

973
00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:18,920
Speaker 1: you were you were in the crowd, so did you

974
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 1: And being in that crowd, you know a lot of

975
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 1: ins and outs. You know behaviors that high schoolers were pool.

976
00:57:26,520 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 1: Did that stuff help you? And how you performed your

977
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,800
Speaker 1: job gave me the cliff notes to the job exactly,

978
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,880
Speaker 1: dog Um. Once I became a principal, I think my

979
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:44,240
Speaker 1: biggest asset was understanding the kids. I was an advocate

980
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: of the kids. If it wasn't kid friendly, if it

981
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 1: wasn't about the kids, if it wasn't about them, I

982
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:55,280
Speaker 1: didn't want to hear it. It had to be about

983
00:57:55,320 --> 00:58:04,120
Speaker 1: the kids to a flaw. Um. Understand standing struggle, understanding depression,

984
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:09,400
Speaker 1: understanding the complexities of learning disabilities or master's is and

985
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 1: special education. So understanding that for this diamond to to

986
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:21,320
Speaker 1: take form, it can only take form through immense pressure.

987
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:27,480
Speaker 1: So the kids that we can all see that are

988
00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:31,760
Speaker 1: the valid victorians and the salutatorians. That's easy. That doesn't

989
00:58:31,800 --> 00:58:34,560
Speaker 1: mean they're gonna be successful because sometimes some of those

990
00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:38,400
Speaker 1: young individuals, when they experienced adversity, they can't bounce back.

991
00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:44,160
Speaker 1: Give me the kid that had a disability, Give me

992
00:58:44,240 --> 00:58:47,520
Speaker 1: the kid that came from a fractured home. Give me

993
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: a kid that has a temper on the court, Give

994
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: me a kid that has some baggage, and let me

995
00:58:56,120 --> 00:59:01,840
Speaker 1: unpeeled that onion. They're gonna propel further than the kid

996
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:06,560
Speaker 1: that had never experienced adversity, just based on their experiences.

997
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:10,120
Speaker 1: So as a principal, and I was a principal of

998
00:59:10,200 --> 00:59:14,560
Speaker 1: Compton as well, you can believe that. Um after I

999
00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 1: was at Roosevelt Middle School in the camp in California,

1000
00:59:16,880 --> 00:59:20,680
Speaker 1: had fIF kids. I remember, you know, being in a

1001
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:22,960
Speaker 1: board meeting for us. I mean I'm presenting in front

1002
00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:25,400
Speaker 1: of the board and there was a wishless you know,

1003
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:27,520
Speaker 1: what are some things that you want to fix at

1004
00:59:27,520 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 1: your school. I wanted sprinklers for the football field because

1005
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 1: the kids played soccer in the dirt. I wanted my

1006
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:40,600
Speaker 1: bathrooms repaired in the athletic facility because all the kids

1007
00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:43,400
Speaker 1: that were in the after school program and in the

1008
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:46,840
Speaker 1: various auxiliary sports would have to go on the other

1009
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 1: side of campus to use the restaurant. And the last

1010
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:55,000
Speaker 1: thing I wanted was um new technology for the kids,

1011
00:59:55,040 --> 00:59:58,320
Speaker 1: the Printhian smart boards where they can do manipulatives, you know,

1012
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:02,160
Speaker 1: on the board. And I remember I kind of got

1013
01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:04,400
Speaker 1: flat for it, you know, because other people are asking

1014
01:00:04,480 --> 01:00:08,080
Speaker 1: for you know, money, and you know, additional adults. I

1015
01:00:08,120 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 1: need more, I need an extra administrator, I need. I

1016
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:14,480
Speaker 1: didn't care about all that. Give me this so that

1017
01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:18,480
Speaker 1: the kids can enjoy their experience at school. And then

1018
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:21,600
Speaker 1: of the kids came to school every day, so we

1019
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:25,360
Speaker 1: didn't have bathrooms at worked, We didn't have books, teachers

1020
01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:28,880
Speaker 1: didn't have computers. We had a third field and the

1021
01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:32,240
Speaker 1: kids would play soccer and being big dust fall. But

1022
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:34,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, dang, we don't have all of these things,

1023
01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:38,080
Speaker 1: but these kids show up every day. They still come

1024
01:00:38,120 --> 01:00:42,200
Speaker 1: here every day. So I've always been one to to

1025
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:45,960
Speaker 1: look at it. The glasses have full versus half empty.

1026
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:48,960
Speaker 1: We can all talk about what we don't have, you know,

1027
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:52,959
Speaker 1: but what you realize is sometimes when God puts those

1028
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:58,360
Speaker 1: things in your cup, still doesn't bring happiness. You know something,

1029
01:00:58,400 --> 01:01:00,320
Speaker 1: I want to make a million dollars. Okay, when once

1030
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:03,520
Speaker 1: guy gives you a million was next? Yeah, you know

1031
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:06,920
Speaker 1: we've all been there, um. But it was through that

1032
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 1: journey that I love the authentic approach to working with

1033
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:17,680
Speaker 1: kids because they're gonna tell you the truth. Kids will

1034
01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:21,440
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Um. Do you remember when we

1035
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:23,640
Speaker 1: were um when we had the l A Pump and

1036
01:01:23,720 --> 01:01:28,560
Speaker 1: Run team and Will was a freshman and we were

1037
01:01:28,600 --> 01:01:32,400
Speaker 1: playing in the Compent Magic Memorial Classic out in the

1038
01:01:32,480 --> 01:01:35,120
Speaker 1: ice somewhere. Remember that parent you know after the game

1039
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:38,440
Speaker 1: we lose the game. We were running week and actually

1040
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: Will was on the left hand side. He was come

1041
01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:43,200
Speaker 1: across on the down cross screen. We're gonna pin down.

1042
01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 1: We're gonna get him a three point shot at the

1043
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 1: top of the kams our best shooter. We used David

1044
01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:51,640
Speaker 1: Singleton at the time for the for the Dummio ran

1045
01:01:51,760 --> 01:01:53,880
Speaker 1: David on the false action. We're gonna hit Will over

1046
01:01:53,880 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 1: here coming out of the time out. You remember that

1047
01:01:56,200 --> 01:01:59,040
Speaker 1: parent a and we lost. We lost the game. They

1048
01:01:59,080 --> 01:02:01,160
Speaker 1: didn't run that in the vigil, didn't swing the ball

1049
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:03,520
Speaker 1: and run the set and trails going nuts. You know

1050
01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:07,320
Speaker 1: you're you were behind me and as I'm talking to

1051
01:02:07,360 --> 01:02:09,520
Speaker 1: the kids, you know, and that might have been. Was

1052
01:02:09,560 --> 01:02:13,880
Speaker 1: that the championship? It was It was probably big game.

1053
01:02:14,640 --> 01:02:18,280
Speaker 1: And I remember, like it's not. The kids fought the

1054
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 1: parent was come on, bro right, And I remember, you know,

1055
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:26,440
Speaker 1: as I'm being cussed out by the parents, I remember

1056
01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:31,240
Speaker 1: you were behind me, and you were like, hey, man,

1057
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:36,240
Speaker 1: you need to go down here. I'll never forget that,

1058
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:39,360
Speaker 1: you know. And one of my other partners was there,

1059
01:02:39,400 --> 01:02:47,440
Speaker 1: and um, that's what has alienated our community. It's become

1060
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:52,000
Speaker 1: more about what we want as adults versus was best

1061
01:02:52,040 --> 01:02:56,120
Speaker 1: for these kids. And being a high school coach for

1062
01:02:56,200 --> 01:02:59,840
Speaker 1: twenty two years, I've seen it, man. I've seen it

1063
01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: with the best, with the McDonald's, all Americans, and I've

1064
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:05,520
Speaker 1: seen it with the children that needed to go be

1065
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:08,720
Speaker 1: doctors or needed to you know, use their education to

1066
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:11,840
Speaker 1: carve out a way similar to what I did. Um,

1067
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:15,000
Speaker 1: this this notion of everybody getting the trophy, it's not real.

1068
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:18,880
Speaker 1: It's not reality. No, it's not. There's losers. People don't

1069
01:03:18,960 --> 01:03:21,640
Speaker 1: always finish first. There's a second place, third place for

1070
01:03:21,720 --> 01:03:25,280
Speaker 1: a reason, a reason. Yeah, so that's why there's competition.

1071
01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:28,840
Speaker 1: So whoever, the survival of the fittest is the way

1072
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:31,320
Speaker 1: I look at it. Uh. And you know that moment

1073
01:03:31,440 --> 01:03:34,200
Speaker 1: that in time, I've always remembered how you handled that

1074
01:03:34,400 --> 01:03:36,600
Speaker 1: really stood out. I know for me, I would have

1075
01:03:36,760 --> 01:03:38,840
Speaker 1: you know, I would have blew up. It's why I'm

1076
01:03:38,840 --> 01:03:41,840
Speaker 1: not a coach. But you And that's the That's why

1077
01:03:41,880 --> 01:03:45,919
Speaker 1: I respect coaches so much. I I admire coaches because

1078
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,439
Speaker 1: I know the type of stuff that y'all put up with,

1079
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:53,800
Speaker 1: the disrespectful moments, and you are bigger and better in

1080
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:56,200
Speaker 1: that moment. And that's why it's just like, man, I

1081
01:03:56,240 --> 01:03:58,960
Speaker 1: wish I had that strength, man like dang like. I

1082
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,520
Speaker 1: shout out to that dude for taking that from that

1083
01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: dude on the rail. As I've gotten older, like before,

1084
01:04:04,360 --> 01:04:05,680
Speaker 1: I us just think it was some punk stuff. But

1085
01:04:05,720 --> 01:04:07,360
Speaker 1: now when I got when I gotten older, and I

1086
01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 1: realized that being a punk is actually the opposite of

1087
01:04:10,240 --> 01:04:12,240
Speaker 1: what I always thought it was. You know, when you

1088
01:04:12,240 --> 01:04:14,120
Speaker 1: get older, you know what being a man is that

1089
01:04:14,240 --> 01:04:16,880
Speaker 1: you know, you just had this messed up idea stuff.

1090
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:20,200
Speaker 1: I started looking back on life and in different situations

1091
01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: and different people in my life, and I'm just like,

1092
01:04:21,880 --> 01:04:23,920
Speaker 1: man that dude. Shout out to him and the way

1093
01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:27,400
Speaker 1: he used to handle stuff. Fox Sports Radio has the

1094
01:04:27,440 --> 01:04:30,360
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of

1095
01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:33,920
Speaker 1: our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within

1096
01:04:33,920 --> 01:04:36,400
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to

1097
01:04:36,560 --> 01:04:40,440
Speaker 1: listen live. Um staying on the administration part of things

1098
01:04:40,720 --> 01:04:43,880
Speaker 1: you said twenty two years of of of of coaching.

1099
01:04:44,280 --> 01:04:46,760
Speaker 1: How many of that of those twenty two years? Why

1100
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:48,960
Speaker 1: you've been a coach where you've been. Have you actively

1101
01:04:48,960 --> 01:04:52,640
Speaker 1: been a teacher and administrator the entire twenty two yes? Wow.

1102
01:04:52,720 --> 01:04:56,440
Speaker 1: So so you're splitting time and you're and you're not

1103
01:04:56,600 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 1: somebody that's hands off for You're you're in the needs,

1104
01:05:00,600 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: okay of everything. So you're not only doing the coaching

1105
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:07,320
Speaker 1: the school part of things right after school or before school,

1106
01:05:07,320 --> 01:05:10,400
Speaker 1: you're actually handling other type of business. Talk a little

1107
01:05:10,400 --> 01:05:13,840
Speaker 1: bit about that grind, because I remember when when you

1108
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 1: first told me about Reese, just everything y'all was doing.

1109
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:18,960
Speaker 1: Just talk a little bit about the grind of that

1110
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:21,800
Speaker 1: and how that what that builds in you or how

1111
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:23,960
Speaker 1: does that affect you in your personal life? Does it?

1112
01:05:24,120 --> 01:05:28,040
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm curious that that's a derivative from

1113
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:32,560
Speaker 1: my father. So my dad, he's seventy five years old.

1114
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:37,200
Speaker 1: UM went back to school to get his bachelor's at thirty.

1115
01:05:37,640 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 1: My dad has a doctorate. My dad went to school

1116
01:05:41,320 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 1: for about ten years from thirty of actually early forties

1117
01:05:45,720 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: to get a bachelor's, two different masters degrees, and ultimately

1118
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 1: his doctorate. And throughout all of that he had not

1119
01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:57,920
Speaker 1: missed the football season. He so subconsciously I thought it

1120
01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:02,880
Speaker 1: was long. You know, you go to work, you you know,

1121
01:06:02,960 --> 01:06:06,120
Speaker 1: monitor the kids, and you know, and and your your

1122
01:06:06,160 --> 01:06:08,760
Speaker 1: team throughout their day and you know if they're get

1123
01:06:08,760 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 1: in trouble in class or you know they need tutoring

1124
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:14,240
Speaker 1: or whatever the situation is. And after work you go

1125
01:06:14,320 --> 01:06:17,720
Speaker 1: to the gym. My dad went to the field, and

1126
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:21,600
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought that's what everybody did. It never

1127
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:24,760
Speaker 1: felt like work to me because it was something that

1128
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:30,960
Speaker 1: I truly enjoyed and I believe it was it's my calling. Um,

1129
01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:34,120
Speaker 1: things changed for me, you know, as you know, I

1130
01:06:34,160 --> 01:06:37,800
Speaker 1: didn't get married, um early, I didn't have kids early.

1131
01:06:39,160 --> 01:06:44,320
Speaker 1: That's a direct correlation to that journey, right. Mind you

1132
01:06:44,880 --> 01:06:47,560
Speaker 1: I'm not aware of what's going on while I'm I'm

1133
01:06:47,760 --> 01:06:53,120
Speaker 1: in this right and throughout you know, I was working

1134
01:06:53,200 --> 01:06:58,600
Speaker 1: at average at twelve or fourteen hours a day. UM.

1135
01:06:58,760 --> 01:07:03,760
Speaker 1: Pam and I met many years ago, but had reconnected

1136
01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 1: when Reese was about six six years old. Maddie Pooh

1137
01:07:13,040 --> 01:07:18,480
Speaker 1: is four, Um, and as you know, that's my stepson.

1138
01:07:18,560 --> 01:07:21,840
Speaker 1: But I don't believe in stepchildren. Um. The Bible says

1139
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:26,920
Speaker 1: your father in three different ways biologically, of course, um

1140
01:07:26,920 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: by assignment is the second and the third is an

1141
01:07:32,600 --> 01:07:36,640
Speaker 1: individual that could give you father the advice. So as

1142
01:07:36,680 --> 01:07:40,280
Speaker 1: I was dealing with my own demons and dealing with

1143
01:07:41,160 --> 01:07:44,040
Speaker 1: I was considered a level of depression because I wasn't

1144
01:07:44,080 --> 01:07:45,920
Speaker 1: where I wanted to be. And you know, I had

1145
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:48,400
Speaker 1: checked all the boxes. I went and got all these degrees,

1146
01:07:48,480 --> 01:07:51,800
Speaker 1: I got all these student loans. My record was unblemished.

1147
01:07:52,400 --> 01:07:54,840
Speaker 1: Why can't I be the principal at crench On High School?

1148
01:07:56,520 --> 01:07:58,200
Speaker 1: You know? And I was told, oh, you look too young,

1149
01:07:58,320 --> 01:08:00,600
Speaker 1: so that I still wear my my grade here because

1150
01:08:00,600 --> 01:08:03,040
Speaker 1: of that, right, and you know, I was always clean cut,

1151
01:08:03,120 --> 01:08:07,240
Speaker 1: suited and booted. It started to build up levels of

1152
01:08:07,400 --> 01:08:11,840
Speaker 1: animosity internally for me, but I couldn't put my finger

1153
01:08:11,920 --> 01:08:17,080
Speaker 1: on why I wasn't happy. Right, So, to my wife's credit,

1154
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:21,920
Speaker 1: you know, she said, you know, God has another plan,

1155
01:08:22,360 --> 01:08:24,560
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't want to hear that. And

1156
01:08:24,640 --> 01:08:28,519
Speaker 1: she would tell me this for years, God has another plan. God,

1157
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:30,800
Speaker 1: You're You're bigger than that. You're great. You know. She

1158
01:08:30,920 --> 01:08:34,479
Speaker 1: was speaking positivity in me at a time where I

1159
01:08:34,479 --> 01:08:40,040
Speaker 1: couldn't even see it in myself. Right, and in this

1160
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:42,479
Speaker 1: you know sence, I'm a coach. I'm a teacher here.

1161
01:08:42,560 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 1: I have this ten year old kid that's coming up right,

1162
01:08:47,040 --> 01:08:50,800
Speaker 1: and I've always been cautious to not set a bad example.

1163
01:08:52,200 --> 01:08:55,200
Speaker 1: But as he got older, I said, well, I'm not

1164
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:58,040
Speaker 1: I don't want to be your mom's boyfriend. Now we're

1165
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:02,680
Speaker 1: about to get married. Were you brought so you absolutely

1166
01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:06,240
Speaker 1: I'm not about to lay up in your house and no, no,

1167
01:09:06,479 --> 01:09:09,240
Speaker 1: not not no, you know my mom might come kick

1168
01:09:09,280 --> 01:09:16,360
Speaker 1: my ass. That's I wasn't that dude. So I remember

1169
01:09:16,560 --> 01:09:20,479
Speaker 1: coaching Reese and you know, we we had after our

1170
01:09:20,520 --> 01:09:23,519
Speaker 1: group with with Tico and you know, David and Will

1171
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:26,720
Speaker 1: and all of those guys. Um, Jay Harper was like, look,

1172
01:09:26,800 --> 01:09:30,200
Speaker 1: let's put a team together with our guys, right. Little

1173
01:09:30,280 --> 01:09:33,240
Speaker 1: Jason was twelve, Reese was thirteen, My nephew was thirteen,

1174
01:09:33,680 --> 01:09:37,200
Speaker 1: and I was coaching those guys, and um, I was

1175
01:09:37,240 --> 01:09:41,240
Speaker 1: in cutching coach ducket mode. I was because now I

1176
01:09:41,280 --> 01:09:46,439
Speaker 1: got some personal equity in this, and I was pushing

1177
01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:52,320
Speaker 1: these kids so hard. Um Reese broke at thirteen. Mind

1178
01:09:52,360 --> 01:09:56,920
Speaker 1: you you know, he's an athlete and we're in the game,

1179
01:09:57,040 --> 01:09:59,120
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you know, if you know we didn't

1180
01:09:59,160 --> 01:10:02,679
Speaker 1: run a press, break, escape, dribble, attack the white side

1181
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:04,920
Speaker 1: of the floor. If they head you off, split it

1182
01:10:05,120 --> 01:10:06,839
Speaker 1: if you turn it over, and get back on defense.

1183
01:10:07,360 --> 01:10:09,240
Speaker 1: So I was pushing them too hard at thirteen, and

1184
01:10:09,280 --> 01:10:12,840
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, he started talking back, and he

1185
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:15,280
Speaker 1: looked like he wanted to kick my ass. Right, So

1186
01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:17,680
Speaker 1: after the game, we go outside and he's crying and

1187
01:10:17,720 --> 01:10:21,639
Speaker 1: I'm emotional, and his mom got between us and he said,

1188
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:25,920
Speaker 1: when you yell at me and makes me nervous, I

1189
01:10:25,960 --> 01:10:29,759
Speaker 1: don't like when you're young at me. And I said,

1190
01:10:30,120 --> 01:10:38,240
Speaker 1: I'm tripping, right, I apologize. I haven't yelled since maybe

1191
01:10:38,320 --> 01:10:44,400
Speaker 1: a better coach. So at that moment, regarding Reese and

1192
01:10:44,400 --> 01:10:48,720
Speaker 1: and those guys, I started talking. I started having conversations.

1193
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:53,880
Speaker 1: So I would tell him, hey, man, you ain't gonna

1194
01:10:53,880 --> 01:10:57,639
Speaker 1: be aggressive. You don't start scoring that ball, We're gonna

1195
01:10:57,680 --> 01:11:03,120
Speaker 1: lose his motherfucking game. Yeah that's a great and he

1196
01:11:03,160 --> 01:11:08,240
Speaker 1: would he would go okay. Or if I yelled Reese,

1197
01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:14,200
Speaker 1: he would just to acknowledge I hear, I got it.

1198
01:11:14,560 --> 01:11:17,600
Speaker 1: And as he got older, he would just kind of

1199
01:11:17,760 --> 01:11:19,439
Speaker 1: look at me, and I knew what to look mean

1200
01:11:19,520 --> 01:11:21,599
Speaker 1: and look me as I got it. Now, you could

1201
01:11:21,640 --> 01:11:26,880
Speaker 1: sit down I got right the one thing that I

1202
01:11:27,040 --> 01:11:33,120
Speaker 1: credit him with. I'm blessed that he trusted me because

1203
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:38,120
Speaker 1: he didn't have to. And I'm blessed that I had

1204
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:42,280
Speaker 1: the opportunity to have other people around me that have

1205
01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:46,360
Speaker 1: been to where Rees said he wants to go. So

1206
01:11:46,560 --> 01:11:50,720
Speaker 1: Jason jay Hard shout out to him. He had a

1207
01:11:50,800 --> 01:11:56,479
Speaker 1: huge influence in regards to the plan. He would always say, Lou,

1208
01:11:56,520 --> 01:12:01,000
Speaker 1: it's not rocket science, just getting the gym right, just

1209
01:12:01,040 --> 01:12:03,640
Speaker 1: getting the gym. So at times where I may have

1210
01:12:03,760 --> 01:12:09,120
Speaker 1: question my ability, right now, bro, you good at rocket science,

1211
01:12:09,240 --> 01:12:13,080
Speaker 1: stay in the gym. And through that, having guys like

1212
01:12:13,160 --> 01:12:17,519
Speaker 1: Gilanni White and you know Joe White, Reese would be

1213
01:12:17,560 --> 01:12:19,559
Speaker 1: where he is. This whole way road set up. This

1214
01:12:19,640 --> 01:12:24,679
Speaker 1: is jollanniding the um. Gilanni has been like a brother

1215
01:12:24,760 --> 01:12:31,840
Speaker 1: to Rees. Having guys around that are supportive in terms

1216
01:12:31,960 --> 01:12:38,080
Speaker 1: of your son and the journey is insurmountable. Having jay Crow,

1217
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:42,840
Speaker 1: I went from Kyle Supreme being a coach on in

1218
01:12:42,920 --> 01:12:49,439
Speaker 1: that program. When it folded, jay Crow allowed me to coach.

1219
01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:52,840
Speaker 1: He didn't have to do that. And when I said

1220
01:12:52,840 --> 01:12:55,640
Speaker 1: he allowed me to coach, he didn't. He didn't bother me.

1221
01:12:56,439 --> 01:13:01,599
Speaker 1: He spoke positivity, He spoke encouragement, he spoke confidence into

1222
01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:06,360
Speaker 1: those kids. He he understood the big picture. Yeah he does.

1223
01:13:07,080 --> 01:13:11,519
Speaker 1: He really does that. So Jay Crow and Jay Hart,

1224
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:17,080
Speaker 1: and you know, I've met fifty coaches because of James.

1225
01:13:17,160 --> 01:13:19,960
Speaker 1: I've met everybody. You know. We and Jay would final

1226
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:23,679
Speaker 1: fours and in and out of gyms, and he always

1227
01:13:23,720 --> 01:13:28,000
Speaker 1: introduced me to people, you know, Mike Brown and you know,

1228
01:13:28,160 --> 01:13:30,240
Speaker 1: just all kind of people. Man. And he didn't have

1229
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:32,639
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, I didn't play ten years

1230
01:13:32,680 --> 01:13:37,320
Speaker 1: in NBA and and breaking things down for me in

1231
01:13:37,479 --> 01:13:40,960
Speaker 1: small pieces where I can see it, you know. And

1232
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:46,639
Speaker 1: it wasn't always easy, but it was always out of love. Yeah, man,

1233
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:50,120
Speaker 1: Like I got a great j Hart story, dog like

1234
01:13:50,320 --> 01:13:52,800
Speaker 1: I got to so like, Jay Hart has always been

1235
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:55,559
Speaker 1: something since he was about ten or eleven, always rolled

1236
01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:58,080
Speaker 1: with him. But I met him, I think I was.

1237
01:13:58,200 --> 01:14:02,720
Speaker 1: He was probably thirteen him and losing me. Man. Look,

1238
01:14:02,880 --> 01:14:05,040
Speaker 1: look they came out to A B C. D and

1239
01:14:05,080 --> 01:14:08,880
Speaker 1: Irvine in like O. So they were twelve thirty or eleven,

1240
01:14:08,880 --> 01:14:10,559
Speaker 1: I don't know how old they were. They were kids

1241
01:14:11,040 --> 01:14:13,280
Speaker 1: and they were getting a four thirteen fourteen. They were

1242
01:14:13,320 --> 01:14:15,719
Speaker 1: getting my attention because I was sit fifteen or sixty.

1243
01:14:15,760 --> 01:14:18,280
Speaker 1: I was a sophomore. They're getting my attention from standing

1244
01:14:18,360 --> 01:14:20,839
Speaker 1: up top, you know, like chritis, Chris, Chris, it's losing

1245
01:14:20,920 --> 01:14:22,760
Speaker 1: Jay Hard. But his kids like what's up. They just

1246
01:14:22,800 --> 01:14:24,439
Speaker 1: wanted to say what's up. So, you know, I'm like,

1247
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:27,120
Speaker 1: what's up, what's up? Giving him to what's up or whatever.

1248
01:14:27,560 --> 01:14:29,760
Speaker 1: So so fast forward through life, you know, we grow,

1249
01:14:29,800 --> 01:14:31,720
Speaker 1: I go to U C. L A. And j Hard go,

1250
01:14:31,920 --> 01:14:34,280
Speaker 1: you know, he does his thing, Syraki lose what does

1251
01:14:34,320 --> 01:14:38,639
Speaker 1: his thing? And we're older later on in life, and um,

1252
01:14:38,680 --> 01:14:41,800
Speaker 1: it's around two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight,

1253
01:14:42,160 --> 01:14:45,839
Speaker 1: and I'm in Atlanta and I'm chilling my little brother mcconan.

1254
01:14:45,920 --> 01:14:49,400
Speaker 1: He had just caught a case man of involuntary man slaughter.

1255
01:14:49,479 --> 01:14:51,600
Speaker 1: He accidentally shot his best friend on the day he

1256
01:14:51,640 --> 01:14:54,360
Speaker 1: graduated high school. So we had I went down to

1257
01:14:54,400 --> 01:14:56,920
Speaker 1: Atlanta to be there for a sense of support for him,

1258
01:14:56,960 --> 01:15:00,000
Speaker 1: you know, helped bill him out the whole nine. Um,

1259
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:01,800
Speaker 1: I get it. So I find out the Clippers, he's

1260
01:15:01,800 --> 01:15:03,360
Speaker 1: with the Clippers. J Hard with the Clippers. I find

1261
01:15:03,360 --> 01:15:05,920
Speaker 1: out Jay Hart's coming to the town to play the Hawks.

1262
01:15:06,680 --> 01:15:08,840
Speaker 1: So I hit up Jay Hart just kind of hitting

1263
01:15:08,880 --> 01:15:11,280
Speaker 1: him with just a not really expecting to get hit

1264
01:15:11,320 --> 01:15:13,120
Speaker 1: back a message j oh yeah, I see you all

1265
01:15:13,160 --> 01:15:14,439
Speaker 1: here in the A T L. You know, I'm out

1266
01:15:14,479 --> 01:15:16,040
Speaker 1: here with my bro. Man. We out here chilling, you

1267
01:15:16,080 --> 01:15:20,160
Speaker 1: know how at me this dude Jay Hard. First of all,

1268
01:15:20,160 --> 01:15:22,160
Speaker 1: he left us some sick ass tickets to the game

1269
01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:24,000
Speaker 1: where we're in the sweet and all that. But then

1270
01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:27,439
Speaker 1: after the game he made sure like we go to dinner. Man,

1271
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:29,080
Speaker 1: He took us out, Me and my little brother mcconnen.

1272
01:15:29,120 --> 01:15:30,599
Speaker 1: We go to dinner, then we go to the club

1273
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:33,880
Speaker 1: with all the clippers. I mean, it was like a fun,

1274
01:15:33,960 --> 01:15:36,400
Speaker 1: unbelievable night, bro. And but think about it. So I

1275
01:15:36,439 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 1: got my little brother sixteen, he was just in jail, bro,

1276
01:15:39,800 --> 01:15:41,640
Speaker 1: and and I was reaching out to Jay Hart to

1277
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:43,640
Speaker 1: kind of help try to help bring his spirits up.

1278
01:15:44,640 --> 01:15:47,240
Speaker 1: Hart looked out like that bro on love on l

1279
01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:49,920
Speaker 1: a straight up love and I and this but that

1280
01:15:50,040 --> 01:15:53,800
Speaker 1: just kind of it captures the essence of who he is.

1281
01:15:55,200 --> 01:16:00,479
Speaker 1: It's a great and and blessed you know he um.

1282
01:16:00,520 --> 01:16:04,639
Speaker 1: I mean man for years bro me ja little Jason.

1283
01:16:05,280 --> 01:16:09,720
Speaker 1: I mean we just sent the gym, you know, ten

1284
01:16:09,840 --> 01:16:16,080
Speaker 1: thousand hours right, and you know, despite my career. The

1285
01:16:16,160 --> 01:16:21,320
Speaker 1: shift for me Reese was fifteen in ninth grade, and

1286
01:16:21,479 --> 01:16:23,760
Speaker 1: uh we we would go to the gym at four

1287
01:16:23,920 --> 01:16:28,720
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, come back home about six thirty,

1288
01:16:28,960 --> 01:16:33,520
Speaker 1: take a shower, go to school, go to school, practice,

1289
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:39,080
Speaker 1: go to practice, go home, get a quick bite, take

1290
01:16:39,120 --> 01:16:43,680
Speaker 1: a shower, back to the gym. We did this from

1291
01:16:43,920 --> 01:16:47,240
Speaker 1: through middle school, probably up to about this sophomore year.

1292
01:16:47,640 --> 01:16:51,120
Speaker 1: So one one evening, I fell asleep, you know, you know,

1293
01:16:51,160 --> 01:16:53,680
Speaker 1: I fell asleep, just tired. And he came up and

1294
01:16:53,720 --> 01:16:56,280
Speaker 1: he woke me up and he said, can we go

1295
01:16:56,320 --> 01:16:57,840
Speaker 1: to the gym? I said, yah, let me get up,

1296
01:16:57,840 --> 01:17:01,000
Speaker 1: and he said, nice, okay, I'll just go in the backyard.

1297
01:17:01,320 --> 01:17:03,679
Speaker 1: And I felt bad, right, I was like, oh my god,

1298
01:17:04,400 --> 01:17:06,400
Speaker 1: I don't have an energy to to get him back

1299
01:17:06,439 --> 01:17:08,639
Speaker 1: to the gym. And my wife would be like, oh,

1300
01:17:08,680 --> 01:17:12,160
Speaker 1: he's okay, And in that moment, I said, Babe, I

1301
01:17:12,160 --> 01:17:17,680
Speaker 1: gotta do something else, like all right, he's special, you know,

1302
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:20,000
Speaker 1: and you know I'm you know, I'm as big as fan,

1303
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,840
Speaker 1: you know, completely biased and unapologetic about it. You know,

1304
01:17:23,880 --> 01:17:26,680
Speaker 1: I believe he's a lamba in the garage during the

1305
01:17:26,680 --> 01:17:30,719
Speaker 1: summer that you gotta take out and hit phi, talk down.

1306
01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:35,439
Speaker 1: Can't nobody tell me you ain't that exast thing? Slice bread? Right?

1307
01:17:36,240 --> 01:17:39,840
Speaker 1: But he backs it up with his work ethic. Like

1308
01:17:39,880 --> 01:17:42,560
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like this before out of a

1309
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:44,960
Speaker 1: high school age kid. You know, this dude is kind

1310
01:17:44,960 --> 01:17:48,360
Speaker 1: of low key different and unless you know him, you

1311
01:17:48,400 --> 01:17:53,800
Speaker 1: don't really know him, right. But I saw him transform

1312
01:17:53,880 --> 01:17:56,280
Speaker 1: his body during the pandemic and put on eighteen pounds

1313
01:17:56,320 --> 01:18:00,920
Speaker 1: of muscle. I saw him cut out call arms, cut

1314
01:18:00,920 --> 01:18:07,000
Speaker 1: out bread, cut out juice, sugar on his own, Like

1315
01:18:07,240 --> 01:18:10,160
Speaker 1: now I'm not eating that, No, just water, mom, I'll

1316
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:12,599
Speaker 1: eat the meat sauce. Now, I can't have a posta.

1317
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:17,480
Speaker 1: Like I got him the Mamba Mentality Book when Christmas

1318
01:18:17,479 --> 01:18:19,400
Speaker 1: some years ago. You know, I thought it would be

1319
01:18:19,400 --> 01:18:23,559
Speaker 1: a nice little token, like he's taking this ship to Like, like, dude,

1320
01:18:23,560 --> 01:18:26,360
Speaker 1: you need to like get out the book. Like you're

1321
01:18:26,400 --> 01:18:29,680
Speaker 1: not Kobe. Like you don't have an attritionus, Like you

1322
01:18:29,720 --> 01:18:32,160
Speaker 1: don't have a chef, Like you don't have a you

1323
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:34,839
Speaker 1: don't have a besige that Like I'm like, bro, Kobe

1324
01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:39,559
Speaker 1: had these things to help. Look, you don't have none

1325
01:18:39,560 --> 01:18:42,760
Speaker 1: of that. You gotta go to class at SC. But

1326
01:18:43,360 --> 01:18:45,920
Speaker 1: with all of that being said, man, his work ethic

1327
01:18:46,200 --> 01:18:53,120
Speaker 1: and his approach is different for a nineteen year old kid. Yeah,

1328
01:18:53,240 --> 01:18:56,640
Speaker 1: and I've had to try and balance him with just

1329
01:18:56,720 --> 01:19:00,120
Speaker 1: gonna be nineteen today. Man, call you boys, go have

1330
01:19:00,160 --> 01:19:04,240
Speaker 1: a burger and some fries and go catch a movie. No, man,

1331
01:19:04,320 --> 01:19:07,200
Speaker 1: I'm me and j White working out. I'm over here

1332
01:19:07,240 --> 01:19:09,720
Speaker 1: at Valley Ridge. You know, I gotta I gotta get

1333
01:19:09,720 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 1: my run in. I mean, it's it's it's an obsession.

1334
01:19:14,560 --> 01:19:19,880
Speaker 1: So when our couple with guy gave him six five

1335
01:19:19,920 --> 01:19:27,040
Speaker 1: and three quarters to ten with his work ethic, the

1336
01:19:27,120 --> 01:19:31,120
Speaker 1: sky's a limit. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports

1337
01:19:31,160 --> 01:19:34,000
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows

1338
01:19:34,000 --> 01:19:37,240
Speaker 1: at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I

1339
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:40,320
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live.

1340
01:19:41,280 --> 01:19:43,960
Speaker 1: What do you think his next big jump evolution as

1341
01:19:44,000 --> 01:19:50,559
Speaker 1: a player is, specifically, um, being a leader. He doesn't

1342
01:19:50,600 --> 01:19:55,200
Speaker 1: deal with people m hm similar you know you know

1343
01:19:55,280 --> 01:20:00,000
Speaker 1: how mold people person yeung and going to any room.

1344
01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:05,920
Speaker 1: He's fine. Josh not not quite more reserved when he

1345
01:20:05,960 --> 01:20:09,400
Speaker 1: was younger, just kind of a lot more the scene

1346
01:20:09,960 --> 01:20:16,000
Speaker 1: stated himself, that's Reese. He doesn't do anything. His his

1347
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:20,439
Speaker 1: two best friends were the two oldest players on the team. Um.

1348
01:20:20,520 --> 01:20:24,080
Speaker 1: The next step in terms of his maturation is being

1349
01:20:24,160 --> 01:20:30,120
Speaker 1: vocal um, being a created a courageous leader with his voice. Um.

1350
01:20:30,280 --> 01:20:34,599
Speaker 1: People will gravitate towards him because of the work, but

1351
01:20:34,920 --> 01:20:40,280
Speaker 1: he doesn't allow people in. Good Um. The next step

1352
01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:44,640
Speaker 1: for him, in my opinion, would be allowing people in,

1353
01:20:45,840 --> 01:20:49,840
Speaker 1: you know, allowing people in and get them to understand

1354
01:20:49,920 --> 01:20:54,160
Speaker 1: that it's my mother in law, hekay, get them, get

1355
01:20:54,200 --> 01:20:57,760
Speaker 1: them to understand that you didn't just roll out the

1356
01:20:57,800 --> 01:21:05,400
Speaker 1: bed and shoot forty four set from three. Season ended phenomenally.

1357
01:21:06,360 --> 01:21:08,439
Speaker 1: It didn't look like that during the first quarter of

1358
01:21:08,520 --> 01:21:13,479
Speaker 1: the year. And he grew up a lot man. You know.

1359
01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:17,439
Speaker 1: I used to think that he could make a make

1360
01:21:17,479 --> 01:21:24,160
Speaker 1: the transition into the NBA earlier. I've had to learn

1361
01:21:24,720 --> 01:21:27,479
Speaker 1: how to let God do his work and be patient,

1362
01:21:28,439 --> 01:21:32,880
Speaker 1: you know. And I got guys Jason, Chris c J.

1363
01:21:33,160 --> 01:21:36,439
Speaker 1: You know, Jason assistant b G. Brandon graham Ville shout

1364
01:21:36,439 --> 01:21:39,160
Speaker 1: out to him and these are my these are my friends,

1365
01:21:39,240 --> 01:21:42,400
Speaker 1: these people I love. They're like Louke he all right,

1366
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:47,960
Speaker 1: just and looking back on his freshman season, I can

1367
01:21:48,040 --> 01:21:52,200
Speaker 1: definitely say that as a parent who is also a coach.

1368
01:21:52,520 --> 01:21:55,559
Speaker 1: So I have my own set of eyes. I've had

1369
01:21:55,600 --> 01:21:58,880
Speaker 1: to learn how to. You know, when you played three

1370
01:21:58,920 --> 01:22:02,880
Speaker 1: minutes against Kyle, you're not gonna get the pillow. When

1371
01:22:02,880 --> 01:22:07,080
Speaker 1: you called my phone, when you played eight minutes against Stanford,

1372
01:22:07,880 --> 01:22:09,640
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get the pillow when you called I

1373
01:22:09,680 --> 01:22:12,360
Speaker 1: love you, but I can't give you the pillow because

1374
01:22:12,360 --> 01:22:14,960
Speaker 1: you said you want to go to the beat. Right,

1375
01:22:16,200 --> 01:22:19,760
Speaker 1: So after that road trip, he's sitting. You know, when

1376
01:22:19,800 --> 01:22:21,559
Speaker 1: you get that text from the kid and you know

1377
01:22:21,640 --> 01:22:25,680
Speaker 1: that something's wrong. He I got this text, and he

1378
01:22:25,920 --> 01:22:29,040
Speaker 1: gets off the plane. He comes right to the house. Right,

1379
01:22:29,320 --> 01:22:31,800
Speaker 1: he's sitting in the living room. You know, he gave

1380
01:22:31,800 --> 01:22:34,080
Speaker 1: me that look. I only saw this look two or

1381
01:22:34,080 --> 01:22:36,840
Speaker 1: three times over the course of the last twelve years, right,

1382
01:22:38,200 --> 01:22:44,320
Speaker 1: And that look was of discussed of pain, of um

1383
01:22:44,520 --> 01:22:48,679
Speaker 1: not understanding what's going on. And I had to fight

1384
01:22:48,720 --> 01:22:51,000
Speaker 1: back my tears and suck it up because if I

1385
01:22:51,000 --> 01:22:54,960
Speaker 1: if I break now, I give him an excuse. So

1386
01:22:55,760 --> 01:23:01,720
Speaker 1: my rebute was, I guess you ain't good enough. He

1387
01:23:01,760 --> 01:23:05,160
Speaker 1: looked at me like I've lost my fucking mind. You

1388
01:23:05,160 --> 01:23:08,240
Speaker 1: mean I ain't good enough? There you go, I said, well,

1389
01:23:09,640 --> 01:23:14,439
Speaker 1: I guess you ain't good enough. Obviously you ain't good

1390
01:23:14,520 --> 01:23:19,439
Speaker 1: enough because it's not obvious if it's close. Any coach

1391
01:23:19,560 --> 01:23:23,680
Speaker 1: is gonna go with his familiar people. They're gonna go

1392
01:23:23,800 --> 01:23:28,080
Speaker 1: with the experience, they're gonna go with the I've been

1393
01:23:28,120 --> 01:23:32,960
Speaker 1: here before. I'm gonna go with I'm comfortable with this, dude,

1394
01:23:32,960 --> 01:23:38,040
Speaker 1: And I don't really know you like that yet. So

1395
01:23:38,200 --> 01:23:44,599
Speaker 1: his response was, don't answer the phone. If anybody calls you,

1396
01:23:45,960 --> 01:23:49,520
Speaker 1: don't answer the phone. I'm gonna go to practice tomorrow

1397
01:23:49,960 --> 01:23:56,559
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna bust somebody's ass. Okay, Okay, that's what

1398
01:23:56,600 --> 01:23:58,880
Speaker 1: you do because you said you want to go to

1399
01:23:58,920 --> 01:24:02,000
Speaker 1: the NBA. So night in and night out, I mean

1400
01:24:02,080 --> 01:24:13,200
Speaker 1: what we got, John CP three, Devin Booker, Desmond made Holiday, whatever, whatever.

1401
01:24:14,240 --> 01:24:23,559
Speaker 1: Studs are like phenomenal monsters. Dogs like their unicorns, their unicorns.

1402
01:24:23,600 --> 01:24:25,479
Speaker 1: So if that's where you say you want to go,

1403
01:24:26,360 --> 01:24:29,720
Speaker 1: you gotta be a unicorn. You can't be good, you

1404
01:24:29,760 --> 01:24:33,160
Speaker 1: can't even be great. You gotta be a unicorn. And

1405
01:24:33,200 --> 01:24:38,320
Speaker 1: it starts with your mindset. That was the biggest growth

1406
01:24:38,360 --> 01:24:42,640
Speaker 1: area for him and for me this year, and in

1407
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:48,360
Speaker 1: talking with other parents of collegiate athletes and always try

1408
01:24:48,400 --> 01:24:52,400
Speaker 1: and keep some distance between us, just out of respect.

1409
01:24:52,880 --> 01:24:54,840
Speaker 1: You know, I don't ever want to give anybody what

1410
01:24:54,880 --> 01:24:58,439
Speaker 1: I think because what I think doesn't matter, and I

1411
01:24:58,560 --> 01:25:02,160
Speaker 1: just try and give encouraging words of just stay positive.

1412
01:25:02,880 --> 01:25:05,840
Speaker 1: You know, you can't give him a pillow. You know,

1413
01:25:06,120 --> 01:25:10,080
Speaker 1: it's tough. It's a roller coaster and in those loads,

1414
01:25:10,560 --> 01:25:14,200
Speaker 1: you have to tend toes down. You gotta remember why

1415
01:25:14,240 --> 01:25:16,599
Speaker 1: they're here now. They if they're just saying they want

1416
01:25:16,600 --> 01:25:19,599
Speaker 1: to go get a four year degree, great, you shouldn't

1417
01:25:19,600 --> 01:25:21,760
Speaker 1: be worried about it. They're playing or not, it doesn't matter.

1418
01:25:22,280 --> 01:25:23,680
Speaker 1: But if you're saying you want to go to the

1419
01:25:23,760 --> 01:25:26,720
Speaker 1: NBA and play at the highest level, hey man, the

1420
01:25:26,800 --> 01:25:30,880
Speaker 1: twelve dude on that bench is it's a monster. And

1421
01:25:31,120 --> 01:25:33,040
Speaker 1: you know, if you think you're gonna go into somebody's

1422
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:37,320
Speaker 1: training camp at years old and take somebody's job, they

1423
01:25:37,360 --> 01:25:39,360
Speaker 1: got a wife and kids at home. Man, you got

1424
01:25:39,360 --> 01:25:42,880
Speaker 1: something else coming because because them dudes is ready to

1425
01:25:43,320 --> 01:25:47,200
Speaker 1: die on that floor. So if you're not cut from

1426
01:25:47,200 --> 01:25:50,519
Speaker 1: that cloth, it's cool. It ain't no beat. I wouldn't

1427
01:25:50,560 --> 01:25:54,080
Speaker 1: cut from that cloth, right Your dad is one of

1428
01:25:54,080 --> 01:25:58,280
Speaker 1: the best players in the world, right, Like, so you

1429
01:25:58,400 --> 01:26:02,320
Speaker 1: got it up close and personal. Everybody wasn't blessed with that.

1430
01:26:03,120 --> 01:26:04,760
Speaker 1: But if you say that this is where you want

1431
01:26:04,800 --> 01:26:07,679
Speaker 1: to go. Bro, Hey, man, you gotta be wired different

1432
01:26:09,400 --> 01:26:13,960
Speaker 1: and and through that, I think through that pressure, through

1433
01:26:14,000 --> 01:26:19,840
Speaker 1: the adversity through it's not fair. Yeah, it ain't fair.

1434
01:26:20,680 --> 01:26:25,800
Speaker 1: That's when you actually grow because that you judge of

1435
01:26:25,800 --> 01:26:29,479
Speaker 1: a man's character. Ain't when everything is cool. It's some

1436
01:26:29,600 --> 01:26:34,320
Speaker 1: stuff ain't cool, But you can find out who people

1437
01:26:34,800 --> 01:26:39,200
Speaker 1: really are. M hm. You know. And uh, that that

1438
01:26:39,280 --> 01:26:43,360
Speaker 1: was that was a big growth area for both of

1439
01:26:43,479 --> 01:26:46,519
Speaker 1: us this year. Man. Yeah, absolutely, Man, you didn't. You've

1440
01:26:46,520 --> 01:26:49,280
Speaker 1: done a heck of a job. Uh, you and his

1441
01:26:49,360 --> 01:26:52,840
Speaker 1: support system have done a heck of a job. Um

1442
01:26:52,880 --> 01:26:55,200
Speaker 1: from what I saw on the court and for what

1443
01:26:55,240 --> 01:26:58,439
Speaker 1: I've witnessed in the tournament. And did he do you

1444
01:26:58,479 --> 01:27:00,439
Speaker 1: play well towards the end of the season two or

1445
01:27:00,439 --> 01:27:02,160
Speaker 1: with the game of the year was in the tournament,

1446
01:27:02,200 --> 01:27:05,439
Speaker 1: you know, the second half of the year. But that

1447
01:27:05,520 --> 01:27:08,120
Speaker 1: tournament is where he against my I think it's Miami

1448
01:27:08,720 --> 01:27:12,200
Speaker 1: against them guys, those guards, those those guys are regarded.

1449
01:27:12,280 --> 01:27:14,400
Speaker 1: You know. That wasn't just against no punks, you know

1450
01:27:14,439 --> 01:27:16,240
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like that was against a good squad

1451
01:27:16,720 --> 01:27:19,000
Speaker 1: that had a game plan and he came in there

1452
01:27:19,080 --> 01:27:22,000
Speaker 1: and and turned out the game. In my opinion, looking

1453
01:27:22,040 --> 01:27:24,880
Speaker 1: forward to seeing more out of reach next year. The

1454
01:27:24,920 --> 01:27:29,479
Speaker 1: Trojan aside, I'm roll, I'm rolling, Okay, I am rolling.

1455
01:27:29,760 --> 01:27:35,080
Speaker 1: Uh little. How has the last twenty two years off

1456
01:27:35,080 --> 01:27:40,839
Speaker 1: your experiences from coaching, playing college, growing up, being a mentor,

1457
01:27:41,320 --> 01:27:47,640
Speaker 1: being an administrator, an educator, have they prepared you for

1458
01:27:47,760 --> 01:27:52,240
Speaker 1: this next journey, next chapter of your life? You know?

1459
01:27:53,200 --> 01:27:56,519
Speaker 1: For years, I um always tried to carve out a

1460
01:27:56,640 --> 01:28:03,160
Speaker 1: niche to become argettable at the next level, and you know,

1461
01:28:04,439 --> 01:28:08,680
Speaker 1: I just couldn't quite get in. And this opportunity that

1462
01:28:08,800 --> 01:28:14,080
Speaker 1: I have coach menzies Um, it's heaven sent man, and

1463
01:28:14,200 --> 01:28:17,479
Speaker 1: it fell out the sky, you know. And I believe

1464
01:28:17,520 --> 01:28:25,000
Speaker 1: that my value is really rooted in the process, understanding

1465
01:28:25,640 --> 01:28:32,640
Speaker 1: the process, understanding what these players need to be successful

1466
01:28:33,200 --> 01:28:39,960
Speaker 1: men on and off the court. I think far too often,

1467
01:28:40,600 --> 01:28:43,920
Speaker 1: unfortunately in our society, we look at the the NBA,

1468
01:28:43,960 --> 01:28:46,280
Speaker 1: and we look at Major League Baseball, look at the NFL,

1469
01:28:47,280 --> 01:28:52,320
Speaker 1: and the goal to get there is based on monetarily

1470
01:28:52,320 --> 01:28:55,799
Speaker 1: what it can provide you. There's a lot of unhappy

1471
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,840
Speaker 1: people in the NBA, man, in all of these professional leagues.

1472
01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:03,880
Speaker 1: The value for me is we all have to make

1473
01:29:03,880 --> 01:29:06,559
Speaker 1: money to live, all right, That's just one piece of it.

1474
01:29:07,400 --> 01:29:10,680
Speaker 1: But there's so many different avenues to get there. It

1475
01:29:10,760 --> 01:29:15,720
Speaker 1: doesn't have to come this direction, right. So for me,

1476
01:29:16,680 --> 01:29:20,719
Speaker 1: you know, having the ability to be in the trenches,

1477
01:29:21,360 --> 01:29:25,480
Speaker 1: having the ability to you know, lock in the synergy

1478
01:29:25,520 --> 01:29:29,960
Speaker 1: and look at players and right evaluations based on what

1479
01:29:30,120 --> 01:29:34,360
Speaker 1: my optics are telling me, and working with guys asked

1480
01:29:34,400 --> 01:29:38,120
Speaker 1: to how they can become their first best versions of themselves.

1481
01:29:38,439 --> 01:29:42,519
Speaker 1: How do you be a good teammate? You know, how

1482
01:29:42,560 --> 01:29:46,800
Speaker 1: can you be a good asset to this program? You

1483
01:29:46,840 --> 01:29:50,000
Speaker 1: don't know what that relationship of bubble and to twenty

1484
01:29:50,080 --> 01:29:52,400
Speaker 1: years down a line, I met coach coach Menzies twenty

1485
01:29:52,479 --> 01:30:01,080
Speaker 1: years ago. Um, using each opportunity and treating it with

1486
01:30:01,120 --> 01:30:07,360
Speaker 1: the utmost respect is my value, you know, understanding that

1487
01:30:07,920 --> 01:30:11,479
Speaker 1: you know, it's okay to look like ship. Sometimes it's

1488
01:30:11,520 --> 01:30:14,679
Speaker 1: all right, it's gonna happen, But what are you gonna

1489
01:30:14,720 --> 01:30:19,840
Speaker 1: do about it? Yeah? I think my value is a

1490
01:30:20,000 --> 01:30:25,479
Speaker 1: very authentic approach to the total student athlete because I

1491
01:30:25,520 --> 01:30:29,479
Speaker 1: can relate on so many different perspectives. I was never

1492
01:30:29,520 --> 01:30:31,360
Speaker 1: the best player on any team. I ever played for.

1493
01:30:32,080 --> 01:30:35,040
Speaker 1: But I know I knew how to appreciate those who work.

1494
01:30:36,120 --> 01:30:39,719
Speaker 1: I was never the smartest dude on the coaching staff,

1495
01:30:40,520 --> 01:30:46,080
Speaker 1: but I knew how to ask relevant questions, you know.

1496
01:30:46,200 --> 01:30:47,880
Speaker 1: I mean, if it's something I want to know, I mean,

1497
01:30:47,920 --> 01:30:50,040
Speaker 1: I've called you. You know, kay jack Man, what you

1498
01:30:50,080 --> 01:30:54,200
Speaker 1: think you know? I wasn't an All American that you said,

1499
01:30:54,280 --> 01:30:57,600
Speaker 1: a bro and in my on the right path? What

1500
01:30:57,640 --> 01:31:02,000
Speaker 1: are your thoughts? I think far too often we don't

1501
01:31:02,040 --> 01:31:07,080
Speaker 1: ask any questions, like we were not humble enough to

1502
01:31:07,080 --> 01:31:11,000
Speaker 1: to to pick up the phone and call and say,

1503
01:31:11,120 --> 01:31:15,680
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on this particular issue? Resupposed to

1504
01:31:15,720 --> 01:31:18,760
Speaker 1: be a professional athlete. I wasn't a professional athlete, but

1505
01:31:18,800 --> 01:31:21,160
Speaker 1: I know a whole bunch of people that were. So

1506
01:31:21,240 --> 01:31:24,839
Speaker 1: you know what, hey man, you can call Mr Johnson.

1507
01:31:25,320 --> 01:31:30,320
Speaker 1: He has a he has in his Cyclopedia Library of Wisdom.

1508
01:31:30,320 --> 01:31:33,479
Speaker 1: He could drop on you. Hey man, call this guy

1509
01:31:33,560 --> 01:31:35,960
Speaker 1: over here. He gives you a different perspective on this.

1510
01:31:37,200 --> 01:31:40,320
Speaker 1: I think that's my value, man. And now being a

1511
01:31:40,360 --> 01:31:43,960
Speaker 1: successful entrepreneur and being able to give back in the

1512
01:31:44,040 --> 01:31:47,400
Speaker 1: way that I'm giving back, and being able to see

1513
01:31:47,439 --> 01:31:51,240
Speaker 1: the things that I've been very fortunate to see gives

1514
01:31:51,280 --> 01:31:56,760
Speaker 1: me a very unique perspective because my journey was so

1515
01:31:56,920 --> 01:32:01,280
Speaker 1: different than most people. Most collegiate coaching staffs and auxiliary

1516
01:32:01,280 --> 01:32:08,440
Speaker 1: staff members were former players, were kin to somebody, Their

1517
01:32:08,680 --> 01:32:13,120
Speaker 1: relationships were forged will before they decided they wanted to

1518
01:32:13,160 --> 01:32:17,880
Speaker 1: take this journey. Mine was Mine has come through a

1519
01:32:18,120 --> 01:32:24,920
Speaker 1: very authentic approach, and I was unapologetic about getting there.

1520
01:32:26,400 --> 01:32:30,519
Speaker 1: You know, Um, Coach menzies Is is giving me an

1521
01:32:30,520 --> 01:32:35,040
Speaker 1: opportunity to learn to see, to witness, to grow to

1522
01:32:35,120 --> 01:32:38,120
Speaker 1: be wrong so that I can take that knowledge. And

1523
01:32:38,640 --> 01:32:41,920
Speaker 1: Laura knows what's next. You know, maybe I'll become a

1524
01:32:42,120 --> 01:32:44,639
Speaker 1: high school coach back in my region at some point.

1525
01:32:45,320 --> 01:32:47,880
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll coach the the the eight year olds at

1526
01:32:47,920 --> 01:32:51,040
Speaker 1: the local y M c M. I'm gonna be coaching somewhere,

1527
01:32:52,479 --> 01:32:58,800
Speaker 1: you know. But those experiences only add value to what

1528
01:32:58,920 --> 01:33:03,200
Speaker 1: you can give the net generation. Absolutely, absolutely, I think

1529
01:33:03,200 --> 01:33:06,800
Speaker 1: you're well equipped for your your new role. Brother, Um,

1530
01:33:06,920 --> 01:33:12,639
Speaker 1: you bring character, the advanced knowledge of the game, a

1531
01:33:12,680 --> 01:33:17,640
Speaker 1: major work ethic that's unrivaled, and you you've been around greatness.

1532
01:33:17,720 --> 01:33:20,800
Speaker 1: There's something to be said for being around greatness, being

1533
01:33:20,840 --> 01:33:23,880
Speaker 1: able to pick up the phone talk to being involved

1534
01:33:23,960 --> 01:33:27,679
Speaker 1: in great programs, or being a part of championship teams

1535
01:33:28,160 --> 01:33:30,320
Speaker 1: as a coach, as a player, or whatever you've been

1536
01:33:30,360 --> 01:33:32,280
Speaker 1: around at all. So I have no doubt in my

1537
01:33:32,320 --> 01:33:35,080
Speaker 1: mind that you're gonna flourish and be successful. I want

1538
01:33:35,080 --> 01:33:37,799
Speaker 1: to thank you, my brother, for coming on my platform.

1539
01:33:38,560 --> 01:33:43,120
Speaker 1: Thank you sharing your story, sharing your basketball journey. Um,

1540
01:33:43,160 --> 01:33:45,599
Speaker 1: it was a long road for you, a little through

1541
01:33:45,600 --> 01:33:48,760
Speaker 1: twenty two years of grinding. But as you say, it's

1542
01:33:48,840 --> 01:33:52,680
Speaker 1: never too late. Is there anything that you want to

1543
01:33:52,760 --> 01:33:56,960
Speaker 1: leave our audience with shoutouts, any words, or anything at all?

1544
01:33:57,600 --> 01:33:59,680
Speaker 1: You know. First of all, you know, I want to

1545
01:33:59,720 --> 01:34:03,599
Speaker 1: thank God for his grace and truly blessed me. I'm

1546
01:34:03,640 --> 01:34:05,960
Speaker 1: living a dream. You know. I couldn't have wrote this

1547
01:34:06,040 --> 01:34:09,160
Speaker 1: down on a piece of paper. My dreams didn't even

1548
01:34:09,360 --> 01:34:13,960
Speaker 1: stretched this far. Um, thank God for my friends. Man.

1549
01:34:14,680 --> 01:34:18,360
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of you guys, and through

1550
01:34:18,439 --> 01:34:23,080
Speaker 1: that it hasn't always been smoothed, you know, but accepting

1551
01:34:23,120 --> 01:34:25,599
Speaker 1: me for who I am, the good and the bad,

1552
01:34:25,760 --> 01:34:30,559
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I definitely I'm proud of you. You know.

1553
01:34:31,920 --> 01:34:35,800
Speaker 1: You know, I am thoroughly proud of you, you know,

1554
01:34:35,840 --> 01:34:38,760
Speaker 1: because I know the journey. You know, I was there,

1555
01:34:38,800 --> 01:34:42,599
Speaker 1: I was able I could see, you know, and seeing

1556
01:34:42,640 --> 01:34:48,400
Speaker 1: how you've reinvented yourself, how you saw something in yourself

1557
01:34:48,920 --> 01:34:53,120
Speaker 1: that other people may not have seen. Right, Um, even

1558
01:34:53,200 --> 01:34:58,160
Speaker 1: Josiah Man like ship dope, you know, like I'm you know,

1559
01:34:58,200 --> 01:35:04,160
Speaker 1: I watched why and then look, hey, j being unapologetic

1560
01:35:04,240 --> 01:35:07,560
Speaker 1: about what your last name. Your last name is Johnson.

1561
01:35:08,960 --> 01:35:11,719
Speaker 1: Everybody else can have an issue with that. Your last

1562
01:35:11,800 --> 01:35:16,160
Speaker 1: name is Johnson. You are a descendant of Marcus Johnson.

1563
01:35:17,000 --> 01:35:21,439
Speaker 1: Everybody can't embrace that. That makes other people feel a

1564
01:35:21,479 --> 01:35:26,680
Speaker 1: certain kind of way, man, and being comfortable in that,

1565
01:35:27,400 --> 01:35:31,040
Speaker 1: Like I've been watching, man, and I can see the joy.

1566
01:35:31,200 --> 01:35:34,840
Speaker 1: I can see the happiness. I can see it, you know,

1567
01:35:34,960 --> 01:35:37,360
Speaker 1: especially as you were going through the journey trying to

1568
01:35:37,400 --> 01:35:41,240
Speaker 1: figure out your niche um and just shout out to

1569
01:35:41,320 --> 01:35:44,360
Speaker 1: anybody out there that's that's willing to to be a

1570
01:35:44,360 --> 01:35:48,519
Speaker 1: renaissance man. You don't have to follow the narrative. What

1571
01:35:48,680 --> 01:35:52,799
Speaker 1: is happiness? Happiness is subjective, What is joy? Joy is subjective.

1572
01:35:52,800 --> 01:35:57,599
Speaker 1: It's based on somebody's opinion. Right, it's never too late, man,

1573
01:35:58,280 --> 01:36:03,320
Speaker 1: And why not? You know, why not? Man? You just

1574
01:36:03,360 --> 01:36:06,120
Speaker 1: reminded me of something talking right now, because the very

1575
01:36:06,160 --> 01:36:09,360
Speaker 1: first time I went live, Bro, you were on my comments.

1576
01:36:09,439 --> 01:36:12,120
Speaker 1: I remember that first one I did, Brother, I just

1577
01:36:12,680 --> 01:36:14,880
Speaker 1: forgot about it, but now I just remember that you're

1578
01:36:15,120 --> 01:36:16,880
Speaker 1: You're on my very first live I did on I

1579
01:36:16,960 --> 01:36:19,080
Speaker 1: G and the very first live. A lot of people

1580
01:36:19,080 --> 01:36:20,920
Speaker 1: didn't see it, but I was kind of you know,

1581
01:36:20,960 --> 01:36:22,360
Speaker 1: I was in I was in a funny little place

1582
01:36:22,400 --> 01:36:24,080
Speaker 1: at that moment. I could have went I could have

1583
01:36:24,160 --> 01:36:26,160
Speaker 1: went either way, Bro, I could have went either way.

1584
01:36:26,200 --> 01:36:28,639
Speaker 1: But it was people like you and my comments. People

1585
01:36:28,760 --> 01:36:31,719
Speaker 1: who's remember this peer pressure thing we talked about earlier,

1586
01:36:32,040 --> 01:36:34,679
Speaker 1: we got we got people watching and peer pressure. Coach

1587
01:36:34,720 --> 01:36:37,880
Speaker 1: O Luther's on my coach Moose's. Moose came in, Luther

1588
01:36:38,040 --> 01:36:40,400
Speaker 1: came in. So it's like two cats. You know, you

1589
01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:44,040
Speaker 1: wouldn't think would affect you at that moment, but honestly,

1590
01:36:44,200 --> 01:36:46,880
Speaker 1: you guys had a tremendous amount of effect on me

1591
01:36:46,920 --> 01:36:50,240
Speaker 1: in that very moment to where I went right instead

1592
01:36:50,240 --> 01:36:51,800
Speaker 1: of very left. My brother, I just want to let

1593
01:36:51,800 --> 01:36:55,160
Speaker 1: you know that, like it really resonated your words that night, Bro,

1594
01:36:55,640 --> 01:36:58,400
Speaker 1: and just how your approach to to to that night. Brother,

1595
01:36:58,479 --> 01:37:01,040
Speaker 1: I appreciate. Man, that's crazy, Like just remember that dog,

1596
01:37:01,800 --> 01:37:05,280
Speaker 1: I was like kJ going live what are you talking? Hey?

1597
01:37:05,320 --> 01:37:07,519
Speaker 1: I was going that night. I ended up to leave

1598
01:37:07,560 --> 01:37:11,800
Speaker 1: that my boy. Man, we holler at my boy, see

1599
01:37:11,800 --> 01:37:17,080
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I just remember those times kJ.

1600
01:37:17,320 --> 01:37:21,599
Speaker 1: I remember those times man. And you know, hey, man,

1601
01:37:21,840 --> 01:37:24,839
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you, bro. You know your back injury,

1602
01:37:24,960 --> 01:37:28,720
Speaker 1: you know limited your career, you know you know. But

1603
01:37:28,840 --> 01:37:31,840
Speaker 1: guy got a plan, man, he does. I got a plan.

1604
01:37:32,080 --> 01:37:35,120
Speaker 1: So I'm proud of you man and the work that

1605
01:37:35,160 --> 01:37:38,439
Speaker 1: you're doing and afforded me an opportunity. A lot of people.

1606
01:37:38,439 --> 01:37:40,920
Speaker 1: You guys know my story, my friend, but people don't

1607
01:37:40,920 --> 01:37:43,479
Speaker 1: know where I came from. When I'm about Everybody need

1608
01:37:43,560 --> 01:37:45,040
Speaker 1: to know them, man, They need to know who Luther

1609
01:37:45,080 --> 01:37:47,360
Speaker 1: Waters his brother, because you're somebody that we can all

1610
01:37:47,439 --> 01:37:51,080
Speaker 1: learn from and be inspired from. My man. Seriously appreciate

1611
01:37:51,120 --> 01:37:54,680
Speaker 1: you man much love alright, brother, thank you for coming on.

1612
01:37:56,320 --> 01:37:59,320
Speaker 1: I will my brother, Ladies and gentlemen, Luther Waters