Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
Speaker 1: tuned in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the show.
Speaker 1: He's a fixture among Southern California basketball. He's a god
Speaker 1: fearing educator, coach, teacher, mentor, and renaissance man. He was
Speaker 1: recently named assistant coach at the University of Missouri at
Speaker 1: Kansas City. Luther Waters is in the building. Luther, what's good?
Speaker 1: My brother? Hey, what's up? J howsn't It's going great? Man.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we connected, Bro. I saw the news.
Speaker 1: Actually I heard the news, um, and then kind of
Speaker 1: reached out to give you congratulations. But I said, man,
Speaker 1: let me talk to my boy, because you have your
Speaker 1: your some out that over the years I've really respected
Speaker 1: as someone that not only loved the game, loves the kids,
Speaker 1: but you take your job as an educator, as a teacher,
Speaker 1: as a mentor very seriously and you lead in the
Speaker 1: right direction. I kind of wanted to get you on
Speaker 1: the show, man, so people can hear your voice. Come
Speaker 1: on the platform and kind of introduce yourself to the folks.
Speaker 1: Bro Uh Luther, what part of I know you're from
Speaker 1: l A. What part of l A were you born
Speaker 1: and raised? And talk a little bit about your childhood
Speaker 1: in that environment that you grew up in. But site correction,
Speaker 1: So I was added on to the staff. So my
Speaker 1: official title is recruiting coordinator over at u m k C. Congratulations, congratulations,
Speaker 1: I'm there. You know, it only took twenty two years,
Speaker 1: but very very thankful for the opportunity. But um, I
Speaker 1: grew up in Guardina man Um right on a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty second in van Ness, uh, about two hundred
Speaker 1: yards from Raleigh Park. So so my child consisted of
Speaker 1: you know, running in with the sign up from the
Speaker 1: park to to play some hoops, you know, my mom
Speaker 1: right in the check for ten bucks and hopping back
Speaker 1: on my bike and riding back up there to drop
Speaker 1: off my registration. And it was really you know, at
Speaker 1: Raleigh and in that gardena community that I learned how
Speaker 1: to play for people, for people out there that might
Speaker 1: not necessarily be familiar with Raleigh Park. You tell us
Speaker 1: some of the guys, players, athletes over the years that
Speaker 1: came out of that area. I know it's a bunch
Speaker 1: of poo Jetter and but some other guys come up
Speaker 1: to mind. But Jetter grew up around the corner from me.
Speaker 1: Sir uh Poo. Richardson was there every summer. Rich and
Speaker 1: my favorite player of all time, Isaac Burbon. Oh they do.
Speaker 1: And look. I would get to the park at nine
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. They opened at ten. It's I
Speaker 1: can be first at the door, right, because you know
Speaker 1: in those days they opened the door. If you get
Speaker 1: there thirty minutes late, there's two hundred people outside. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not getting on. So I was probably about thirteam
Speaker 1: by the time I started playing on the big boy court,
Speaker 1: and Uh, Isaac was sat, Louke, just get there, put
Speaker 1: our name on the list and we're good, right. Um
Speaker 1: Julie Rousseaul A lot of people don't know that name.
Speaker 1: Yeah we know Juan Yeah. So Um, I would write
Speaker 1: everybody's name on the list. Um, Brent Summers. And I'm
Speaker 1: a young guy. So you gotta pick up ninety four ft.
Speaker 1: You gotta commit seven thousand a game, and you can't miss.
Speaker 1: So if they kicked the ball, team don't miss. So
Speaker 1: how you stay? Oh, that's how you that's how you say,
Speaker 1: that's how you stay on. But it was through those years, man,
Speaker 1: that I learned earned mentorship, I would say, in a way,
Speaker 1: because they mentored me indirectly. You know, I was a sponge.
Speaker 1: God didn't bless me with, you know, being six six
Speaker 1: and two hundred pounds and all of those physical gifts
Speaker 1: that other people have. And I learned at an early
Speaker 1: age that for me, my journey was gonna be based
Speaker 1: on my intellect because I and I felt that, yum,
Speaker 1: there were certain things that I could do that other
Speaker 1: people necessarily couldn't do on and off the court, in
Speaker 1: terms of being able to see things, in terms of
Speaker 1: being able to be vocal um, be positive, encourage people.
Speaker 1: I used to tell Isaac stop missing, don't miss, and
Speaker 1: he's looking at me like, who are you like, shut up?
Speaker 1: But you know, in those early years, man, there wasn't
Speaker 1: a day that went by that I was not there,
Speaker 1: you know, playing every day in and day out, and
Speaker 1: I and I'm forever grateful for that opportunity. And your parents,
Speaker 1: what type of influence were when you were during your
Speaker 1: childhood years, the foundation that they set for you. Colgini
Speaker 1: described their for US man. My parents are guys sent
Speaker 1: man UM. My father Vietnam VETT. My grandfather UM was
Speaker 1: a prisoner of war in the Korean War, passed. My
Speaker 1: dad was six. My grandmother was widowed with four children
Speaker 1: at twenty six years old. And my grandmother was tough
Speaker 1: as nails. You know, Excuses were not tolerated. UM. My mother, UM,
Speaker 1: hard working woman, married my dad at one. You know,
Speaker 1: we're a family at three. You know my siblings well.
Speaker 1: And I remember early on trying to make an excuse
Speaker 1: and Pops wouldn't having it. Like I vividly remember, you know,
Speaker 1: coming in from the playground over at Perchy Julie was
Speaker 1: the playground director at Perchy Right Elementary School, and you know,
Speaker 1: I remember somebody pushed me down and I might have
Speaker 1: been in third grade, and I came in house crying
Speaker 1: and my dad like looks at me, like what the
Speaker 1: hell are you doing in here? Like either you're gonna
Speaker 1: go back and fight or stay your gass outside to
Speaker 1: your mama, get home. I remember it was like that
Speaker 1: moment of okay, he made it okay to fail, meaning
Speaker 1: what we're not gonna do is not put forth our
Speaker 1: best effort. That's not tolerated. But what we are gonna
Speaker 1: do is be okay, irrespective of the results, as long
Speaker 1: as you put forth your best effort. So I remember
Speaker 1: going back over to the playground where my buddies and
Speaker 1: we were all the young guys and the middle school
Speaker 1: guys were like, push us down, and this is on
Speaker 1: the dump courts, right, But you have to learn how
Speaker 1: to fight and how to compete because you couldn't go
Speaker 1: back home, Like the street lights aren't on, so you're
Speaker 1: not allowed in the house, so you gotta figure it out. Um.
Speaker 1: But needless to say, my parents went back to school
Speaker 1: at the age of thirty, and I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: we had everything we needed, but I remember what spam
Speaker 1: tastes like. I remember what that block of cheese tastes
Speaker 1: like where you try and cut it and it wouldn't melt.
Speaker 1: You couldn't make a real cheese because it would get
Speaker 1: greasy that we wouldn't melt just right. Um. And I
Speaker 1: remember red beans and rising an oatmeal every day. I
Speaker 1: don't eat red beans right now because I ate it
Speaker 1: every day growing up. But through all of that, I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, it's never too late. You know it's never
Speaker 1: too late to hit the reset button. It's never too
Speaker 1: late to put your mind to something. It's never too
Speaker 1: late to do whatever your heart desires, as long as
Speaker 1: you're you're courageous enough to to put forth the effort.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the biggest thing I've taken from
Speaker 1: my parents. Put God first and and be willing to
Speaker 1: put forth your best effort, regardless of the results. I
Speaker 1: love hearing the lesson that were taught by your parents.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't necessarily like a lesson they had to,
Speaker 1: you know, sit you down and spend a bunch of time,
Speaker 1: but just something like, you know, you're coming home crying
Speaker 1: and they're not allowing you to sort of accept certain
Speaker 1: types of behaviors. I think I think that was a
Speaker 1: big way that my parents, your parents are parents of
Speaker 1: our generation, raised us through like tangible experience. Now you
Speaker 1: went through something, and now you gotta learn, you know,
Speaker 1: the hard way basically out. And I think that the
Speaker 1: way that style of parenting forced us to really use
Speaker 1: our ingenuity. Our brains are diligence and have to really
Speaker 1: you know, figure stuff out, as you said, And and
Speaker 1: there's something to be said for that a little there,
Speaker 1: especially when I look at today not to get too
Speaker 1: far off from tangent, but when I look at today's
Speaker 1: generation and and some of their behaviors and habits that
Speaker 1: they that they tend to do, I kind of view that,
Speaker 1: as you know, experiences everything, you gotta go through stuff,
Speaker 1: because they talk about a lot of stuff, they have
Speaker 1: an experience a lot of Today we get a lot
Speaker 1: of opinions based on from people that have never walked
Speaker 1: in the shoes of those people that that that's always
Speaker 1: just mind bottling to me. But again, I loved love
Speaker 1: to hear that. Let me actually this, your siblings, how
Speaker 1: much did they What kind of influence were they on you?
Speaker 1: Were they on that? Because I was a big brother,
Speaker 1: as I was the oldest, I was always kind of
Speaker 1: tough on my little brothers. All right, I'm on their
Speaker 1: head constantly. Right, I'm never giving them problems for nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm not letting them beat me in one on one
Speaker 1: video games, nothing. But I was trying to raise them
Speaker 1: to be super competitors. Did you did you have a
Speaker 1: sibling rivalry with your folks or how did that go?
Speaker 1: Candice man like you? I figured it was Cande man Um.
Speaker 1: You know there's only two years between us. You know,
Speaker 1: and I'm the baby of the group and uh mine you.
Speaker 1: Candice's friends were Kathy Bryce, Yeah yeah, legend, Michelle, Vicky
Speaker 1: Ruff and for those of you you know Crenshaw High
Speaker 1: School's girls basketball team, you could damn near beat the
Speaker 1: boys j B team. They don't know about Candy Canthy though.
Speaker 1: Like that's why they would be at the house. You know,
Speaker 1: I would be in the front and they would pull up.
Speaker 1: You know, Candis had a car, and you know Kathy
Speaker 1: would be Kathy and you know, just pick the ball
Speaker 1: up and just give you this work real quick. Um.
Speaker 1: But to to to like Candice's credit, man, Candice was
Speaker 1: my rebounding man. Like in the front yard. You know,
Speaker 1: I would be out there and she would come out
Speaker 1: and she was shagging balls. You know, you're not going
Speaker 1: hard enough. You gotta hold your follow through. You know,
Speaker 1: this is why you got cut in ninth grade. You know, man,
Speaker 1: Candice and make you cry, But it was coming from
Speaker 1: a place of love and comfort. So if you can't
Speaker 1: take criticism from your siblings, your parents, your boys, you
Speaker 1: can't take criticism from anybody, you know, which kind of
Speaker 1: leads us to That's part of what I think some
Speaker 1: of the young men are struggling with now. They don't
Speaker 1: have authentic friends number one. That's number one. That's the
Speaker 1: most important thing. Somebody that's gonna be keeping absolutely a
Speaker 1: hundred with you at all times. Yeah, we're human. We've
Speaker 1: all made mistakes. I've had to apologize several times people
Speaker 1: I love. But if they can't call me on my mistake,
Speaker 1: they're not really my friend, you know. And you know me,
Speaker 1: you know, I could just sometimes I can go all
Speaker 1: the way this way, but they're always has to be
Speaker 1: that voice of reason to say, you know what, lou,
Speaker 1: you're tripping you know whatnot That wasn't cool, bro. You know,
Speaker 1: that's really what fellowship and being a man, being a learner,
Speaker 1: being a teacher, being a coach is about. If you
Speaker 1: can't take somebody you know, giving you guidance, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe constructive criticism at times, then who are you to
Speaker 1: dish it out? You know? So when I look at
Speaker 1: coaching and teaching some of my best players, man um,
Speaker 1: there was this middle ground of respect. But they knew
Speaker 1: that they had my ear, you know. So if I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna listen to Josh Christopher, you know, the most
Speaker 1: recent in terms of what he sees and in terms
Speaker 1: of the actions that he sees himself being successful or
Speaker 1: who who the hell am I to just tell him
Speaker 1: what I think? I ain't on the floor, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think that's always been one of my gifts. Um.
Speaker 1: If you remember Josh, when Josh was in ninth grade
Speaker 1: and I was a JV coach, you know, there wasn't
Speaker 1: much he could do athletically at that moment. But the
Speaker 1: one thing he could do, he can knock down the
Speaker 1: fifth for the jump shot the best of them at
Speaker 1: that moment. Right. So, Josh, when when teams are playing,
Speaker 1: don't want against us, this is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: You're gonna flash high, turn face, look see what you got.
Speaker 1: And I still remember that all these years later, right, Um,
Speaker 1: But I knew that that's something he can do he
Speaker 1: can bring to the team to help us win right now,
Speaker 1: versus this is what he can't do in easier his limitations.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of folks look at when they're coaching,
Speaker 1: they look at the limitations first versus your strengths. Um.
Speaker 1: I always love playing for coaches that you know. I
Speaker 1: was a big guy, couldn't move very fast, et cetera.
Speaker 1: But they figure it out with me. Hey, Chris, let's
Speaker 1: post him up ten fifteen times a game, get him going,
Speaker 1: because they knew I get a couple of baskets, then
Speaker 1: I can run a little bit faster. After a couple
Speaker 1: of baskets, I could jump a little bit higher for
Speaker 1: some reason. I don't know why, a little bit after
Speaker 1: just everything just went for some reason. But now, but man, listening, man,
Speaker 1: and being open to that, especially with this generation, and
Speaker 1: I think of my show. I'm always just talking about
Speaker 1: the errors because I come from a certain era, and
Speaker 1: and then we always are comparing errors. We're not hating
Speaker 1: on errors. Were not downing you know, this error or anything.
Speaker 1: We're just noting some of the differences and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out why things are the way they are. But
Speaker 1: but your to your point about being open and understanding. Um,
Speaker 1: why do you think that you had that type of
Speaker 1: approach instilled in you at an early age? Where did
Speaker 1: you learn that? Because because I remember even at Crenshaw,
Speaker 1: you had a different energy and attitude about you. Your
Speaker 1: aura was different than everybody else where. Do you think
Speaker 1: that came from Luther? I think my dad, you know, um,
Speaker 1: self confidence, Man, my dad is an alpha. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't tell him that, you can't say that. He
Speaker 1: he believes he can do anything. Um. And with my
Speaker 1: dad being a teacher at the time, we were at
Speaker 1: Crenshaw together and before that watching Joe weakly. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember Coach As would not allow anyone in the
Speaker 1: gym during practice, mom, dad, cousin, uncle, principal, nobody. And
Speaker 1: when I was young, because my dad was, you know,
Speaker 1: a teacher at the school and you know obviously was
Speaker 1: with coach Garrett for twenty four years, I believe on
Speaker 1: the football staff. Um, you know, I was a young
Speaker 1: kid and nobody to watch me and coach Joe weekly
Speaker 1: and Coach West allowed me to sit in the corner.
Speaker 1: I remember, so I was sitting in a corner and
Speaker 1: literally just trying not to breathe too loud because I
Speaker 1: was terrified if they would would ask me to leave.
Speaker 1: And I knew what my ceiling was athletic, and I
Speaker 1: was okay with that. My parents never put this pressure
Speaker 1: on me to get a Division one scholarship too, to
Speaker 1: be something other than what God made me to be.
Speaker 1: But in the respect, I knew you guys and your greatness,
Speaker 1: and I appreciated that. So for me, looking at you know,
Speaker 1: Tommy Davis, you know, looking at Ronnie Yards rest in peace,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at Raymond, looking at Leon, looking at you,
Speaker 1: looking at Trarain, looking at Rob Parker, how he can
Speaker 1: defend the ball ninety four feet. When I tell when
Speaker 1: I talked to my son about that team, He's like,
Speaker 1: were they really that good? Like you have? No? I did,
Speaker 1: And then watching like a Leon Watson and his journey.
Speaker 1: His parents never complained when he was in ten of
Speaker 1: eleventh grade and wasn't playing twenty eight minutes of ball game.
Speaker 1: I was just very observant of Coach West, his mannerisms,
Speaker 1: his approach um as a coach. I've always watched the
Speaker 1: practice uniform ms and even to this day, Chris, I
Speaker 1: fold them up. Remember how Coach Wes would make you
Speaker 1: give give you the uniform at the end of practice.
Speaker 1: And I took a level of pride when I got
Speaker 1: on staff to wipe the floors down two Coach can
Speaker 1: I watch the uniforms? He you know, coach I could
Speaker 1: watch like. I took a lot of pride in whatever
Speaker 1: he needed me to do. I was there. Coach Duckett,
Speaker 1: hey man here you need a top. Hey, the curl.
Speaker 1: The curl is sweating out the back of the shirt. Coach. Coach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I took a lot of pride and being an asset.
Speaker 1: I never wanted to be looked at as a liability
Speaker 1: or somebody was you know, somebody that was asking for something,
Speaker 1: somebody to give me a hand out. I was never
Speaker 1: about that, Um, and I was perfectly content with that.
Speaker 1: You found your lane early in the game, and then
Speaker 1: you just stayed in your lane, and and you excelled
Speaker 1: in that lane. It's funny when you mentioned, uh, taking
Speaker 1: pride and the little things associated with coaching and uniforms
Speaker 1: and things like that. When I coached with the Truth
Speaker 1: and with the Pumps, Um, two places you've been as well.
Speaker 1: I took pride in watching the uniforms and putting extra
Speaker 1: downy and fabric softeners and making sure that you I
Speaker 1: was on that, bro Like I'm like, I would take
Speaker 1: pride in these kids uniforms because I wanted it to
Speaker 1: look so sweet when they got it, that they felt
Speaker 1: so good on and on it was soft. You know
Speaker 1: it got on. They don't say I was on that too,
Speaker 1: And I know we got that from coach And the
Speaker 1: other thing too, was the sweeping of the floor that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Like, that's one of the most cathartic times
Speaker 1: that you can have, especially when in an empty gym,
Speaker 1: when it's just you and you hear the zinging of
Speaker 1: the lights on and you're just thinking about today. You're
Speaker 1: just going through that. Bro, I've had I've had those
Speaker 1: same moments my brother, where I've been just taking taking
Speaker 1: pride and sweeping and just treating it like some like
Speaker 1: a whole sanctuary meditation type of thing. I think that
Speaker 1: that's directly from Coach West though, for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I remember asking Coach once. I said, Coach, how can
Speaker 1: you just sit there like that? You never get upset?
Speaker 1: You know, It's like my first year coaching with him,
Speaker 1: and I'll be there and my nerves to be shot.
Speaker 1: Somebody didn't set the screen and you know, so and
Speaker 1: so wasn't playing hard. I asked him that question once
Speaker 1: and he said, Luca, you do your coaching and practice.
Speaker 1: He said, if I'm up and I'm exerting all of
Speaker 1: this energy, I don't never want to make my players
Speaker 1: feel like I don't believe in them. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he said, if I'm panicking and I'm exuberant. My players
Speaker 1: may feel that I don't believe in their ability to
Speaker 1: sustain this run, to come back to make in game
Speaker 1: adjustments by themselves. And it made perfect sense to me
Speaker 1: because I mean, you know, I played for coach Dennis,
Speaker 1: so when he was yelling, or you know, when I
Speaker 1: was playing with Tiny, you know, I was you know,
Speaker 1: as a kid. You know, Tiny yelled at you. You know,
Speaker 1: you go getting nervous. But I remember Coach West saying that,
Speaker 1: and I I developed that saying disposition to really try
Speaker 1: and maintain a level of poise in the midst of
Speaker 1: the storm. In my last comment on that, I learned
Speaker 1: something from Mr Christopher Josh Christopher's dad. Um, I'm coaching
Speaker 1: the truth. Uh sixteen, you were in the E y
Speaker 1: b L. We're in peach Jawn. Um, we're playing against
Speaker 1: no I'm coaching Kyle Supreme. We're playing against the Truth.
Speaker 1: But coach I'm coaching against jay Crow. Jack Crow had
Speaker 1: Jayla Green and you know that roster. Right, they ran
Speaker 1: out to six something, Chris, And I'm sitting there and
Speaker 1: I'm watching them and we're just getting read right, and
Speaker 1: I can hear people behind me time out, time out,
Speaker 1: time rout. And I heard Josh's dad over here. Everybody relaxed.
Speaker 1: It's just a game. Kids are gonna be fine. And
Speaker 1: he calmed me down right, and I was, so we
Speaker 1: made it the halftime. We end up cutting it back
Speaker 1: to eight. I never forgot that, so I stole it.
Speaker 1: You know, now you know when team is gonna run
Speaker 1: in different things. Everybody relaxed, It's just a game. And
Speaker 1: what happens is it brings the stress level down regarding
Speaker 1: the players, because if they're up and you know they're unraveling, well, hell,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be the best version of themselves. And
Speaker 1: and that's something that I really observed with with Coach West,
Speaker 1: and you know, I tried to take on that same entree. Yes,
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 1: f s R to listen live. Coach Willie West, you
Speaker 1: know the the well he used to be the record
Speaker 1: holder for state championships, but I think Gary McKnight beat him.
Speaker 1: But eight state championship, sixteen city championships regarded as you know,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest coaches in the history of high
Speaker 1: school basketball and basketball in general. Um, I felt like
Speaker 1: when Coach West was in practice, it was sort of
Speaker 1: like his time to get everything out, so he would
Speaker 1: get everything that was bothering him, every issue that he
Speaker 1: had with anybody. On any little play, he was gonna
Speaker 1: bring it up. He's stopping practice, he's getting in you
Speaker 1: doing it. You know, he's yelling, he's making you, he's
Speaker 1: making you feel this small right, So that happens in practice.
Speaker 1: We get into the game and I've and it was
Speaker 1: just the weirdest experience my first time playing a game
Speaker 1: from Coach West after having practiced. My first game is
Speaker 1: its Garfield and I was having a bad game my
Speaker 1: junior year. We're playing Garfield first day. You know, I've
Speaker 1: come from Monclare Prep. Luther had made the big transfer
Speaker 1: between my sophomore and my junior year. Everybody had said that,
Speaker 1: you know, he's only being successful because he's playing at
Speaker 1: a small school. So now here I am. It was
Speaker 1: a bunch of white people out of that school. Here
Speaker 1: I am going into the heart of the city at
Speaker 1: the Shaw. First game I get out there, I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm not making no shots. You know, I'm missing you know,
Speaker 1: easy jumpers and everything like that. Coach West. First time out,
Speaker 1: he comes over and I'm thinking he's about to scream
Speaker 1: and yell. So I'm thinking it's about to be that
Speaker 1: coach and practice. He kind of he kind of looking
Speaker 1: at me, kind of gave me like this little smirk
Speaker 1: like come on, like when you go play like he
Speaker 1: just gave me like a look, and I was just
Speaker 1: kind of like, I'm running back, like thinking he's about
Speaker 1: to yell at me, and then when you look up,
Speaker 1: he's smiling and like come like giving you like this
Speaker 1: lift up. You just man, it just changed my whole thing. Man,
Speaker 1: I was like, who is this guy? Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: literally like you're like, who is this guy right here?
Speaker 1: This is not the coach that that just was in
Speaker 1: my you know what I'm saying, Yeah, I was in practice.
Speaker 1: So I love Coach West for that style of coaching.
Speaker 1: You're right it when you pan nick, when you're doing
Speaker 1: all that crazy stuff, it creates that frenetic environment of
Speaker 1: anxiety on a team, and you know how that goes
Speaker 1: everybody's nerves. Now everybody becomes on edge. Now every mistake
Speaker 1: is amplified. But um no, those are some serious lessons.
Speaker 1: Let's get back to to your journey, Luther. As we
Speaker 1: were talking about it, well you're at Crenshaw. I was
Speaker 1: curious as to just describe that time of life, that
Speaker 1: era socially, athletically, just l A just set the scene
Speaker 1: for us in nineteen about that those years we're phenomenal.
Speaker 1: You know, those are some of the best years of
Speaker 1: my life. You know. Um. One of the things I
Speaker 1: vividly remember is that we were all friends. So it
Speaker 1: didn't matter if you played football, basketball, baseball, you would
Speaker 1: just a guy or just a dude. There was a
Speaker 1: level of camaraderie that we had that the teachers had.
Speaker 1: Teachers didn't miss games, Chris I noticed, the security guards
Speaker 1: didn't miss games. The principal didn't miss a game. The
Speaker 1: entire community was a safe haymen for us. If it
Speaker 1: didn't matter if we were getting Miss Bird's class and
Speaker 1: go to Chris Burger or getting into your ninety five
Speaker 1: black Camry and taking the cruise. I'll tell everybody to
Speaker 1: a clock, though, I will tell to somebody about Margarita's
Speaker 1: uh to the little Mexican spot. Margaret was I forgot
Speaker 1: the day, but it was a hitting up Margarita that lunch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just didn't matter what was going on. We were
Speaker 1: all truly friends and umbrellas. And when you go over
Speaker 1: to Manual Arts, same environment, when you went over to Washington,
Speaker 1: same environment. So geographically, no matter if you went north, south, east,
Speaker 1: and west. Those communities and especially in respected to the
Speaker 1: ball clubs were like a community and it was a
Speaker 1: right of safe passage. I mean I caught the two
Speaker 1: ten through Inglewood by the way right to get the
Speaker 1: crunchhaw every day, and I've never had anything to worry
Speaker 1: about because as long as you had a backpack on,
Speaker 1: everybody left you alone. Um. But I remember, man, just
Speaker 1: it was a community. I remember getting that coach Dennis
Speaker 1: is Lincoln mark four and there was so much armor
Speaker 1: all on the seats, right. So, um, your first year
Speaker 1: there was a game out in Orange County. You know Dennis,
Speaker 1: we would run out of there like jump in there
Speaker 1: and go get a burrito from Heralds and he would
Speaker 1: be dipping that mark for so I'm sliding across the
Speaker 1: seats with um and we will pull up right in
Speaker 1: the nick of time. Right. Um. It was just a
Speaker 1: great time. Man, and I think that communal approach had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the success um of the
Speaker 1: ball club because as players, it was very clear, irrespective
Speaker 1: of level as well, that you were a representation of
Speaker 1: the community that you come from. If you put that
Speaker 1: jersey on and you're out there doing something that's not
Speaker 1: cool and somebody picks up a phone and causing all
Speaker 1: I mean, there was gonna be some consequences that you
Speaker 1: were gonna have to face. And as you know, in
Speaker 1: that day, everybody was replaceable, you know, so there was
Speaker 1: a level of I would, I would, you know, positive
Speaker 1: peer pressure amongst us to to go, you know, down
Speaker 1: the right path. Yeah. Man, I think I was talking
Speaker 1: to uh Dom Ellison. He just got named the head
Speaker 1: coach at Morningside. Uh so he's gonna be on my
Speaker 1: podcast pretty soon. So I introduced we were talking about
Speaker 1: that that that exact thing just on how people's parents,
Speaker 1: the community, there's a level of peer pressure involved in
Speaker 1: you keeping your head on straight because you knew, you
Speaker 1: know how nowadays it's basically frowned upon it as a
Speaker 1: say say, I'm somewhere and somebody's kids are acting bad.
Speaker 1: I say something to those kids about acting bad. They're not,
Speaker 1: you know, it's we could be beef with the parents,
Speaker 1: and man, don't be talking about kids. Back when we
Speaker 1: were coming up and if if parents were out, we
Speaker 1: were out somewhere we saw somebody's mama and then they
Speaker 1: saw us acting up. We knew to be on our
Speaker 1: best behavior or to straighten up. Or if somebody's mom
Speaker 1: told us something, it wasn't you know, if you know,
Speaker 1: we're respecting that because that's so and so's mom or dad,
Speaker 1: and we know what time it is. And I think
Speaker 1: that's been lost as we've gotten the law. The village
Speaker 1: helping to raise the child was such an important factor
Speaker 1: in people because there's times when parents aren't there and
Speaker 1: you're gonna and you're gonna need these other folks to
Speaker 1: be able to have the ability to say something man
Speaker 1: incorrect or or constructively criticized without without it being taken
Speaker 1: so personally. Um. The other thing too, I wanted to
Speaker 1: touch on as far as just my experience as you're
Speaker 1: talking about Crenshaw, Man, You're bringing up so many just
Speaker 1: amazing memories and stuff. Man, I'm thinking about the black camera,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about though after practices and when Coach
Speaker 1: West would sit us all down for two man our
Speaker 1: and our minimum talk. Bro So, I came from mont
Speaker 1: Claire Prep. So mont Claire Prep coach Bob Webb, Howard Abrams,
Speaker 1: my dad like tow there. You know, we didn't have
Speaker 1: any type of talks more than probably five minutes after practice.
Speaker 1: Coach West set us down every day after practice, after
Speaker 1: going hard, being at each other's throats, competing for positions
Speaker 1: in one of the most prestigious spots in all of California,
Speaker 1: and he'd have talk to us about life. Uh grades,
Speaker 1: um decisions, we made, um choices, I mean, the whole
Speaker 1: nine man. And for me, what that did is that
Speaker 1: gave me just a perspective that I hadn't had in
Speaker 1: my whole up to that point in my life, to
Speaker 1: where I'm just I started just really valuing things differently.
Speaker 1: I started looking at things differently. I started being a
Speaker 1: little more thankful for what I had. It started to
Speaker 1: make me realize that I was truly blessed. And I
Speaker 1: started looking around, you know, and it's just like, damn, man,
Speaker 1: I just started thinking about a lot of stuff, and
Speaker 1: it was a lot about Coach West, and he really
Speaker 1: helped established some character. He really helped establish some morals
Speaker 1: and ethics and things in me that I want to
Speaker 1: say I didn't have before, but I guess they weren't
Speaker 1: at the forefront. Do you think Coach West would you
Speaker 1: describe his influence on you in a similar fashion? Did
Speaker 1: he insurmountable? I still talked to Coach. You know, I
Speaker 1: make it a point to call him about once a
Speaker 1: month check on him. You know, when we were in
Speaker 1: Arizona this past year, I was gonna go pick him up.
Speaker 1: We were in the pandemic, so they don't want to
Speaker 1: come out. But I still talked to Coach. I mean,
Speaker 1: the impact he had on me was huge. Because I
Speaker 1: was just a guy. He didn't have to embrace me
Speaker 1: in the fashion that he did. Um When my career
Speaker 1: took off from being a teacher to move into administration,
Speaker 1: I remember we had a talk and I said, Coach,
Speaker 1: I want to Coach, I want to be like you.
Speaker 1: And he said, Luther, you don't want to be like me,
Speaker 1: you want to be better than me. Mind you, at
Speaker 1: the time I might have been I might have been
Speaker 1: around thirty, and I at that age I still couldn't
Speaker 1: understand what he was saying. Right, But he wanted me
Speaker 1: to use my education to really carve out a path
Speaker 1: for myself. You know, I had finished grad school at
Speaker 1: the time. I had a job offer on the table
Speaker 1: which was gonna double my salary literally, and I remember
Speaker 1: talking to him and said, Coach, like, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: about this. You know, I want to be here and
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. And he he
Speaker 1: was like, no, this is what you're gonna do, you know.
Speaker 1: And he would always talk to me about, you know,
Speaker 1: his experience to segregation, leaving Texas as a baseball player,
Speaker 1: coming out to cows in l A because that was
Speaker 1: the only place he could play. And he would always say, no,
Speaker 1: you need to do this where my lens and my
Speaker 1: dreams were only right here. I couldn't even see myself
Speaker 1: moving further. And he always pushed me, no, like, there's more,
Speaker 1: there's more for you to achieve, there's more for you
Speaker 1: to do. Um in a very direct but um comforting way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that he he his that was his style. That
Speaker 1: was his approach. It was direct, it was in your
Speaker 1: face sometimes it was really blunt, but it was you
Speaker 1: knew it was what you needed to hear. You knew
Speaker 1: he wasn't if he wasn't wasting time talking to you,
Speaker 1: there must have been a problem. If he didn't pick
Speaker 1: get on you about stuff, then you you really must
Speaker 1: not be somebody he carried. But because that's how he
Speaker 1: was as a coach, Um, And when I was thinking
Speaker 1: about you mentioned U, Candy Bulls and coach Tiny Edmund
Speaker 1: Fleano had got a shout out. Coach Timney Rick Stevenson
Speaker 1: rest in peace. Um. All those coaches that were around
Speaker 1: that program around then. All those black men where men
Speaker 1: of character, and they took their jobs as mentors very seriously.
Speaker 1: Not one of them dudes that I could ever mintor
Speaker 1: ever remember ever letting me down the wrong path or
Speaker 1: you know, if I ever asked for advice, it was
Speaker 1: always on the up and up. And I always remembered
Speaker 1: them and understood that that's what's needed for that supports.
Speaker 1: You gotta have a whole crew of them type of guys.
Speaker 1: With that being said, I remember with Coach ed you know,
Speaker 1: with Coach ed Waters, of course we had a disagreement
Speaker 1: that you know about, and it wasn't and and this
Speaker 1: was my level of immaturity. It wasn't until he had
Speaker 1: a health ailment and I got a call, and man,
Speaker 1: whatever issue I had, whatever beef I had, all that
Speaker 1: went out the window because all I was concerned about
Speaker 1: in that moment was is he okay? You know? And
Speaker 1: I remember going to the school or my niece who
Speaker 1: plays at Alcorn States. She ended up graduating from Crunshat.
Speaker 1: I went to the school and man, I just went
Speaker 1: in his office and just just gave him a hug
Speaker 1: because I was genuinely concerned for him. Like the basketball,
Speaker 1: the hoop, none of that mattered at that moment. But
Speaker 1: to his credit, in that moment, he's like Luke that man,
Speaker 1: I love you like we're men. We're too out for men.
Speaker 1: We are gonna disagree, it's inevitable, but in that we're
Speaker 1: not too big to ever say, you know what, that's
Speaker 1: my fault. You know, I should have handled this a
Speaker 1: little bit differently than what I did. And I think
Speaker 1: that's another thing that that's so lost man, Like now
Speaker 1: it's all about what you think or what I think? Well,
Speaker 1: who who gives a damn? Sometimes we have to be
Speaker 1: vessels to to listen and too mentor the next generation
Speaker 1: asked too, these are some landlines that I stepped on
Speaker 1: and be be open and honest about it. These are
Speaker 1: some mistakes that I made along the way. But even
Speaker 1: with that, it's okay. If I make a mistake, I'll
Speaker 1: be the first one to say, you know what, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you know. And then then then
Speaker 1: you can then you're done, like you can take that weight,
Speaker 1: that that burden off your shoulders, and it's up to
Speaker 1: that person to either accept your apology and move on.
Speaker 1: But I grew a lot man around on those men. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know Coach Garrett. Yeah, Coach Garrett. Garret's always a trip.
Speaker 1: You know how Coach Garrett is. So Coach Garrett used
Speaker 1: to always like he always he's always coming me. Man,
Speaker 1: I wanted to fight Coach Garrey. I was at a
Speaker 1: point where I was I was saying it. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fight Coach Garrett. So I had to have
Speaker 1: I told like some people like, I'm gonna fight Coach Garrett.
Speaker 1: So but it is. But then I realized. But then
Speaker 1: I think me and him had a moment. Man. I
Speaker 1: don't know what when it was, but it was like
Speaker 1: one on one, it was just me and him somewhere,
Speaker 1: and I just realized at the time it was just
Speaker 1: coach Garrett just doing his thing. If he wasn't messing
Speaker 1: with me, he didn't see nothing in me. Probably I
Speaker 1: found out he respected me. And once I found out
Speaker 1: Coach Garret respected me, though, I took anything he gave me.
Speaker 1: From that point it wasn't nothing no more. You feel
Speaker 1: me with me. When I got my first assistant principal
Speaker 1: ship at the school, I'm like, hey, coach, and I
Speaker 1: remember he cussed me up. I I'm like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I played for you, Like this is a little there,
Speaker 1: like yeah, And I remember closing the door and we
Speaker 1: had this big old argument and uh, I think that
Speaker 1: was what he needed for me too, you know. And
Speaker 1: then there was a mutual level of it. It was
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing. I called my dad, I'm so upset,
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, coaches tripping and and he
Speaker 1: was like this, you know, but you learned, you know,
Speaker 1: And then everybody fights their own battles. To man, you
Speaker 1: never know what somebody's going through. You know, you don't know.
Speaker 1: You you never know what somebody's going through. And with
Speaker 1: somebody's six, you just never know. And I think in
Speaker 1: this business that we're in, and and and and the
Speaker 1: situations that we're in just in terms of being in
Speaker 1: close proximity to some great players and great young men,
Speaker 1: it's viol that we mentor them and with love and
Speaker 1: with transparency, because if they're not gonna get it from us,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna get it anywhere. So we can't be
Speaker 1: authentic and who we are, you know, the good, bad,
Speaker 1: the ugly. Then how can we then foster that for
Speaker 1: Will Johnson? You know what I mean? Um, how can
Speaker 1: we foster that for Reese Waters? Like? How can we
Speaker 1: foster that environment? And that's one of the things being
Speaker 1: in l A that I'm unfortunate. You know, We've all
Speaker 1: had quarrels, you know, because we're in a competitive environment.
Speaker 1: But I think when the rubber hits the road, we
Speaker 1: all want the same thing, and that is for our children,
Speaker 1: for our community, for the players that that we've capsulated
Speaker 1: to to be successful in whatever they do. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that you just hit the nail nail on the head,
Speaker 1: especially about l A. Our culture. Are are stuff out here.
Speaker 1: Sure that may be beef, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like we are all rolling with each other.
Speaker 1: I've seen I've seen that in different parts of my
Speaker 1: Life's quick story about two thousand two, I'm playing overseason
Speaker 1: qatar Um. We're looking for another guard to come in, right,
Speaker 1: I need another pro because I'm there, I'm the one professional.
Speaker 1: We need another pro. We're playing in like a big
Speaker 1: Asian championship on the continent of Asia. So the other
Speaker 1: team got j R. Henderson and sham Guy Wells as
Speaker 1: their pro Saudi Arabia. So I knew that was a
Speaker 1: team we had to be, you know. So this is
Speaker 1: before the tournament. So I'm like, yo, man, I gotta
Speaker 1: get my guy. I gotta get one of my guys
Speaker 1: out here. So I ended up calling the Anthony who
Speaker 1: called you know who told me Stace was working out
Speaker 1: Stays Bozeman so and Stays, you know, he's a blood
Speaker 1: with the Morningside with the USC I got. I actually
Speaker 1: got a tech of getting it during a packed ten
Speaker 1: game because I called Stays a slab during the game.
Speaker 1: I called Stays a slab door the game, bro, and
Speaker 1: I gotta tech. Hey, Stace was looking at me like,
Speaker 1: you're crazy the hell you? They don't even know what'sl like.
Speaker 1: He was just so tripped out about it. But but
Speaker 1: but anyway, the long story short, man, I talked to Stays.
Speaker 1: We you know, it wasn't really no beef, but you
Speaker 1: know how you gotta get awkwardness. Man, States came over there. Man,
Speaker 1: we ended up winning the championship. Bro Me and Stays
Speaker 1: in the back court. Man. We ended up making big
Speaker 1: bank bonuses. They loved them. It was like Stacey's greatest
Speaker 1: experience overseas. Man. But just shows you how this stuff goes.
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. When you're from
Speaker 1: l A, you have a certain like um kinship with
Speaker 1: everybody else. You don't even have to know a dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah you meet him or you run into him, and
Speaker 1: you know some people that know each other. Oh wait
Speaker 1: where'd you grow up? Oh yeah yeah before I was
Speaker 1: over here. I'm like, oh, man, man to love. And
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things about being um this culture, man,
Speaker 1: is that it's what you're talking about. It's kind of
Speaker 1: what you're hitting at too. Man. It's like we're all
Speaker 1: could be different dudes, but we all love the game,
Speaker 1: and that's what we have in common. Bro and I
Speaker 1: love that us for show. Yeah. Absolutely, San Josey State.
Speaker 1: Why did you decide after graduating? Chris Shaw? Why did
Speaker 1: you starting to go to San Jose State? And who
Speaker 1: else was involved as far as where you're looking at
Speaker 1: continuing your academic and athletic career. So I had three
Speaker 1: opportunities to be a preferred walk on. I had Sack State,
Speaker 1: I have President State, and I asked San Jose State. Um,
Speaker 1: I was at the gym working out. I come back home.
Speaker 1: It's right after graduation and just turned seventeen eighteen, just
Speaker 1: turned eighteen, and there was a bag at the door
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Mom, who's bad is at the door?
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, that's your bag. Like we're dropping you
Speaker 1: off at school this weekend. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: was like, where am I going? And she's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll we'll go Sack State first, Fresno State second,
Speaker 1: we'll finish it sound Stay State right up to one
Speaker 1: on one, we'll choose, we'll pick one. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: do like a turnaround. And then they were gonna either
Speaker 1: drop me off coming or drop me off coming back.
Speaker 1: But it was very clear that I was not gonna
Speaker 1: make it back to l A. So we stopped at
Speaker 1: Sack State and pull up. I didn't even need to
Speaker 1: get out the car because they were green and white.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's no go. For those of you that
Speaker 1: don't know, Dorsey was greening right, not at all. Got
Speaker 1: up to Fresnel, got out the car. Um Ray for
Speaker 1: Austin was at Fresno City at the time, so I
Speaker 1: knew the plans and I remember getting out the car.
Speaker 1: It was hot, it's like degrees and the helicopter little
Speaker 1: plane is sprants stip so that was short. Got up
Speaker 1: to sad Jose. They were blew and gold. I didn't
Speaker 1: need to see no more. Pull up at the basketball office, Um,
Speaker 1: who's the coach? Stan Morrison? Stan Morrison? And I was
Speaker 1: sold on Stan Stewart, who was also from l A
Speaker 1: with the Morning Side and ended up playing at l
Speaker 1: m U. Great dudes accepted me with open arms. Coach
Speaker 1: West made a call and I had a great experience,
Speaker 1: and I think it was through those years that I
Speaker 1: really realized that I enjoyed being in the film room.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the strategy behind the game. I enjoyed the
Speaker 1: player development aspect of it. Olivier St. John's turned me hide.
Speaker 1: Um was there my freshman year, so Um, Tarik and
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time again, and he reminded
Speaker 1: me of kind of how you were to some respect
Speaker 1: being a great player, but just a humble dude off
Speaker 1: the court. You know, a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: Tarie loves to play tennis. He was just really really
Speaker 1: good at basketball. His first love was tennis. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that, yeah, man, so um and coach Morrison, to
Speaker 1: his credit during those years, was very open, very honest.
Speaker 1: I remember he would pray before every game in public,
Speaker 1: at the end of the bench. Before every ball game.
Speaker 1: He would go to the end of the bench, Neil
Speaker 1: pray before every game, every game. When you saw him
Speaker 1: doing that, what kind of effect they have on you? Um,
Speaker 1: be who you are, UM, run your own race. Um.
Speaker 1: All the outside noise, because there was a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of noise, and in college anywhere,
Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Man, it never he never waved from
Speaker 1: who he was and his core principles and what he believed.
Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna go to study hall, You're gonna
Speaker 1: do what you're supposed to do on and off the
Speaker 1: court and if you weren't going to do those things,
Speaker 1: you weren't gonna play. Hence coach West. So we had
Speaker 1: guys at San Jose State kJ you can go into
Speaker 1: the recreational center and get get that work. There were
Speaker 1: dudes that could not play on the collegiate team because
Speaker 1: of several things that were better then the players that
Speaker 1: were on basketball scholarship. I mean like and it wasn't
Speaker 1: one of them too. They were like eight or nine
Speaker 1: news down there. And over the years what we learned was,
Speaker 1: you know, some of those guys were, you know, pushed
Speaker 1: off the ball club. One guy was one of the
Speaker 1: best players I've ever seen to date. It was a
Speaker 1: guy named Kendrew Johnson. He was from San Diego, went
Speaker 1: to a j C in Kentucky. Um, it wasn't nothing
Speaker 1: to do, couldn't do. He end up playing in Australia
Speaker 1: for many years. But there was just a competitive environment
Speaker 1: up there, man. And there was a group of black
Speaker 1: professors that I attached to. My minor was African American Studies.
Speaker 1: My major with social science with the emphasis and secondary education.
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to be a teacher and it
Speaker 1: was just a great environment. You know, the professors would
Speaker 1: come to the ball games, they would go to the
Speaker 1: rec center and you know, play three on three with you.
Speaker 1: And it was just a very welcoming environment. And I
Speaker 1: think why I enjoyed it so much was because the city.
Speaker 1: It was the first time I was able to catch
Speaker 1: the bus or to train and go anywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't do that in nobody. Um So, the freedom
Speaker 1: and you know, being able to wear a boss the
Speaker 1: Reds chat for the first time. You know, I'm a
Speaker 1: baseball fan. I always love to wear hats. Well, well,
Speaker 1: let's explain that real quick, because we have talked about it.
Speaker 1: So there's growing up out here in l A and
Speaker 1: certain areas of l A. You grew up your whole
Speaker 1: life in a certain area. You will never wear certain
Speaker 1: sports teams clothes. For instance, I grew up early knowing
Speaker 1: never to wear no Astro stuff walking around in that
Speaker 1: brown and orange bro stay away from it. Francisco Giants
Speaker 1: can do it. The Giants. The Astros like that. Man
Speaker 1: is on man like hey. But so when you let
Speaker 1: me ask you this specifically about that when you went
Speaker 1: to college, you have these liberties now, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: sound like a minor thing. But to be able to
Speaker 1: wear whatever you wanted to wear. What did that make
Speaker 1: you realize about the place that you came from. It
Speaker 1: made me realize that we grew up in an environment that,
Speaker 1: to some extent was health on this side, but then
Speaker 1: on this side was very toxic. I had never been
Speaker 1: north of Rodeo until I was in my twenties. Like
Speaker 1: I had never drove down Crunchhall Boulevard and went north
Speaker 1: of Rodeo until I was a grown man. Because the
Speaker 1: barrier for us was stopper, So you didn't go past Stoccer,
Speaker 1: right um, being able to like catch the bar to
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Giants games. Oh man, I'm in heaven.
Speaker 1: I got enough money for her a hot dog and
Speaker 1: a beer. Ah, what can be better than this? Right um?
Speaker 1: But growing up, man it you know, as we we've
Speaker 1: gotten older, we've learned that man, like, there was so
Speaker 1: much that we were limited. Like I thought l A
Speaker 1: was that five mile radios from Guardena Crenshaw. I didn't
Speaker 1: know about Roland Hills. I only knew about my Claire
Speaker 1: because of you, and going north on the four or
Speaker 1: five and barely are crests over here? To our left.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that this existed, m you know, which
Speaker 1: is unfortunate. Like I didn't know about Third and Fairfax,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't know you know, you knew Pacific Palisades
Speaker 1: because of Palisades High School, but you didn't know Pacific
Speaker 1: Palace Sades, you know. So those are some of the pitfalls,
Speaker 1: I would say from how we grew up. But I
Speaker 1: think all of us were kind of like that for
Speaker 1: the part. I mean, there definitely was a level of
Speaker 1: limiting yourself or staying inside your comfort zone or not
Speaker 1: going to other zones because of danger. So those were
Speaker 1: kind of that's that's just what your your choices were
Speaker 1: at the time. I just remember, you know, coming from
Speaker 1: Deep Valley and then I was living in bel Air
Speaker 1: and having spent a majority of my child hood it
Speaker 1: was sixtieth and tenth to Alve and over in that
Speaker 1: area with my mom. I just remember how when I
Speaker 1: came back to Crenshaw feeling kind of a couple of things.
Speaker 1: I felt a sense of familiarity because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of folks from Audubon and thirty Secret Stary School or
Speaker 1: these different schools I went to in my life where
Speaker 1: they recognized me. So you'd have like thirty people in
Speaker 1: school that knew I went to all about everybody else
Speaker 1: thinking I'm the fresh prince of bell Laird that had
Speaker 1: never been They thought I had never been to any
Speaker 1: school or they like a lot of people didn't know
Speaker 1: I went to all the like they didn't know none
Speaker 1: of that. So they so people are treated me a
Speaker 1: certain way or they you know, responded to me a
Speaker 1: certain way. But my way of responding back was just
Speaker 1: we're touching on during this conversation, trying to be yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I always struggled my whole life, um with being myself,
Speaker 1: being the real version of me, because I was always confused. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it real. Like when I be with
Speaker 1: my mom, you know, in the hood, I had to
Speaker 1: be more black. When I go bell Air be arounding
Speaker 1: white people, my dad. I had tried to be more
Speaker 1: white because you've got white friends and you know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to show them the black stuff, and you
Speaker 1: don't want to be too white with the black people
Speaker 1: because they go to be looking at it. Oh this nerd,
Speaker 1: and you know why you talk like that. So I
Speaker 1: was like always try to I had to change up
Speaker 1: my game, change up my voice, even dumb myself down
Speaker 1: to an extended Crunshaw dog, which I really thinking myself
Speaker 1: in an ask about not trying to seem too smart. Bro,
Speaker 1: think about that, Luther. I'm sitting in class. No I
Speaker 1: don't know all that stuff. No, all the answers, but
Speaker 1: I'm like not raising my hand and ship because I'm
Speaker 1: just like, I don't want to seem like I'm just
Speaker 1: But these recent things I struggled with is I got older,
Speaker 1: you know, figure myself out. I dealt with a lot
Speaker 1: of different issues and stuff. But that part of it,
Speaker 1: uh growing up out here in l A. Just being
Speaker 1: from around so many different places in areas man for
Speaker 1: me personally, that's what kind of contributed to that. But
Speaker 1: when did you know education was gonna be your bread
Speaker 1: and butter? When did you know in college? Like I
Speaker 1: know you wouldn't do you're majoring in it, But when
Speaker 1: did you like really know? I knew in high school? Um,
Speaker 1: I knew in high school. So I was in the
Speaker 1: teacher training maggot at Crunchhawn and if you remember, Ms
Speaker 1: Bird had a zoo on wheels. But who was our
Speaker 1: biology teacher? So when we would take the goats and
Speaker 1: the you know, the snakes and the rabbits over to
Speaker 1: the you know Angeles masa elementary school to you know,
Speaker 1: show the kids and animals. I really enjoyed it. So
Speaker 1: it was that maybe fifteen years old, and I knew
Speaker 1: I was gonna be a teacher. And I mean I
Speaker 1: was telling my son this the other day. Um, all
Speaker 1: I wanted in life was I wanted to be a teacher.
Speaker 1: I wanted to make thirty grand a year. I knew
Speaker 1: if I made thirty grand a year, I'll be able
Speaker 1: to buy my own truck. I'll be able to get
Speaker 1: my own apartment, and I'll be able to buy a
Speaker 1: television and have cable. So I knew if I had
Speaker 1: these five things. The last thing was I'll be able
Speaker 1: to get a bad chick. Because I got these five things.
Speaker 1: I got my own Scott, I got fast grade, I
Speaker 1: got the job. Is just how my opic. I mean,
Speaker 1: it sounds simple, but it's it's really sad. My brain
Speaker 1: at that moment was these are the five things I
Speaker 1: need in life. So I never could even see over
Speaker 1: the horizon because I was only focused on this little
Speaker 1: bubble based on Coach West Coach Dennis if you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta think about those men their life. They dedicated
Speaker 1: their life to a community and to a school, and
Speaker 1: it it was it was only through adversity and being
Speaker 1: uncomfortable that I realized that God has another plan for me.
Speaker 1: But when you're going through this, you don't realize what's happening.
Speaker 1: Right when I got transferred from Crenchhall High School, I
Speaker 1: tell um I was telling my wife and I were
Speaker 1: talking about this not too longer. I remember I was
Speaker 1: driving down Crunshaw. They had just transferred the whole administrative staff, right,
Speaker 1: and they said, Luther, you stay there and finished the
Speaker 1: master schedule and we'll figure out what we're gonna do
Speaker 1: to week. And I remember leaving word crying like I
Speaker 1: had to pull over because I couldn't see anymore. I
Speaker 1: didn't cry at my grandmother's humor, right, I was so
Speaker 1: heartbroken on the bureaucratic change that had occurred because I
Speaker 1: knew it wasn't the best thing for the school. I
Speaker 1: knew it, right, I'm like, how could you remove the
Speaker 1: staff that knows where all the skeletons are buried, that
Speaker 1: live in the community, that our vessels. How could you
Speaker 1: just move us out? Of here subjectively because you guys
Speaker 1: want to go in a different direction. It's around the
Speaker 1: time that the Christial Loss is accreditation. Yes, that was
Speaker 1: my design to Okay, I'm getting it now, you know.
Speaker 1: So he here, I am in the trenches and in
Speaker 1: the war room so I can see what's going on
Speaker 1: and for it to actually be planned out and manifest
Speaker 1: broke my heart literally. But in that I remember praying.
Speaker 1: I remember taking some time to myself and when Rico
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, my boy, j Hart want
Speaker 1: to meet with you. You know, he's retiring from the NBA,
Speaker 1: and you know he's gonna be taking over Team Jennings.
Speaker 1: We're starting Team Jennings right and Kelly Williams Marcus Williams
Speaker 1: dad is gonna be the director. That moment of depression
Speaker 1: and sadness turned into joy because now I'm entering the
Speaker 1: an arena based on my relationship with Rico that I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to do. And when I was at Crenshaw
Speaker 1: had blinders on, so you know, coach duck it style.
Speaker 1: I'm in the gym before school, I'm in a gym
Speaker 1: at lunch, I'm in a gym after school. I'm in
Speaker 1: the gym all summer. So I wasn't going to any
Speaker 1: a events. I wasn't shaking any hands, meeting anybody network,
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything. I was my optic. But when
Speaker 1: that happened in terms of that transfer for me UM professionally,
Speaker 1: it propelled me to another place that I was always
Speaker 1: asking God to place you. But it wasn't comfortable, but
Speaker 1: you know, looking back on it, it was divine for sure.
Speaker 1: So you're at you're now coaching with j Hart and
Speaker 1: Team Jennings. At what point in your principal at vice principle,
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to at the time at a charter
Speaker 1: school excuse me, a charter school. So you're now you're
Speaker 1: a principal, which is extremely impressive. I always wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you about your academic being administrator academically UM.
Speaker 1: One quick question before I continue to set the stage
Speaker 1: on where you were at UM when you be came
Speaker 1: a principle. Did your experience as sort of a a
Speaker 1: guy that was in the end crowd or kind of
Speaker 1: was part of you know, a lot of times people
Speaker 1: that grew up to be principles in high school, they
Speaker 1: weren't part of the cool crowd if you will. So
Speaker 1: you were you were in the crowd, so did you
Speaker 1: And being in that crowd, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: ins and outs. You know behaviors that high schoolers were pool.
Speaker 1: Did that stuff help you? And how you performed your
Speaker 1: job gave me the cliff notes to the job exactly,
Speaker 1: dog Um. Once I became a principal, I think my
Speaker 1: biggest asset was understanding the kids. I was an advocate
Speaker 1: of the kids. If it wasn't kid friendly, if it
Speaker 1: wasn't about the kids, if it wasn't about them, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to hear it. It had to be about
Speaker 1: the kids to a flaw. Um. Understand standing struggle, understanding depression,
Speaker 1: understanding the complexities of learning disabilities or master's is and
Speaker 1: special education. So understanding that for this diamond to to
Speaker 1: take form, it can only take form through immense pressure.
Speaker 1: So the kids that we can all see that are
Speaker 1: the valid victorians and the salutatorians. That's easy. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're gonna be successful because sometimes some of those
Speaker 1: young individuals, when they experienced adversity, they can't bounce back.
Speaker 1: Give me the kid that had a disability, Give me
Speaker 1: the kid that came from a fractured home. Give me
Speaker 1: a kid that has a temper on the court, Give
Speaker 1: me a kid that has some baggage, and let me
Speaker 1: unpeeled that onion. They're gonna propel further than the kid
Speaker 1: that had never experienced adversity, just based on their experiences.
Speaker 1: So as a principal, and I was a principal of
Speaker 1: Compton as well, you can believe that. Um after I
Speaker 1: was at Roosevelt Middle School in the camp in California,
Speaker 1: had fIF kids. I remember, you know, being in a
Speaker 1: board meeting for us. I mean I'm presenting in front
Speaker 1: of the board and there was a wishless you know,
Speaker 1: what are some things that you want to fix at
Speaker 1: your school. I wanted sprinklers for the football field because
Speaker 1: the kids played soccer in the dirt. I wanted my
Speaker 1: bathrooms repaired in the athletic facility because all the kids
Speaker 1: that were in the after school program and in the
Speaker 1: various auxiliary sports would have to go on the other
Speaker 1: side of campus to use the restaurant. And the last
Speaker 1: thing I wanted was um new technology for the kids,
Speaker 1: the Printhian smart boards where they can do manipulatives, you know,
Speaker 1: on the board. And I remember I kind of got
Speaker 1: flat for it, you know, because other people are asking
Speaker 1: for you know, money, and you know, additional adults. I
Speaker 1: need more, I need an extra administrator, I need. I
Speaker 1: didn't care about all that. Give me this so that
Speaker 1: the kids can enjoy their experience at school. And then
Speaker 1: of the kids came to school every day, so we
Speaker 1: didn't have bathrooms at worked, We didn't have books, teachers
Speaker 1: didn't have computers. We had a third field and the
Speaker 1: kids would play soccer and being big dust fall. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, dang, we don't have all of these things,
Speaker 1: but these kids show up every day. They still come
Speaker 1: here every day. So I've always been one to to
Speaker 1: look at it. The glasses have full versus half empty.
Speaker 1: We can all talk about what we don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: but what you realize is sometimes when God puts those
Speaker 1: things in your cup, still doesn't bring happiness. You know something,
Speaker 1: I want to make a million dollars. Okay, when once
Speaker 1: guy gives you a million was next? Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: we've all been there, um. But it was through that
Speaker 1: journey that I love the authentic approach to working with
Speaker 1: kids because they're gonna tell you the truth. Kids will
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Um. Do you remember when we
Speaker 1: were um when we had the l A Pump and
Speaker 1: Run team and Will was a freshman and we were
Speaker 1: playing in the Compent Magic Memorial Classic out in the
Speaker 1: ice somewhere. Remember that parent you know after the game
Speaker 1: we lose the game. We were running week and actually
Speaker 1: Will was on the left hand side. He was come
Speaker 1: across on the down cross screen. We're gonna pin down.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get him a three point shot at the
Speaker 1: top of the kams our best shooter. We used David
Speaker 1: Singleton at the time for the for the Dummio ran
Speaker 1: David on the false action. We're gonna hit Will over
Speaker 1: here coming out of the time out. You remember that
Speaker 1: parent a and we lost. We lost the game. They
Speaker 1: didn't run that in the vigil, didn't swing the ball
Speaker 1: and run the set and trails going nuts. You know
Speaker 1: you're you were behind me and as I'm talking to
Speaker 1: the kids, you know, and that might have been. Was
Speaker 1: that the championship? It was It was probably big game.
Speaker 1: And I remember, like it's not. The kids fought the
Speaker 1: parent was come on, bro right, And I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: as I'm being cussed out by the parents, I remember
Speaker 1: you were behind me, and you were like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you need to go down here. I'll never forget that,
Speaker 1: you know. And one of my other partners was there,
Speaker 1: and um, that's what has alienated our community. It's become
Speaker 1: more about what we want as adults versus was best
Speaker 1: for these kids. And being a high school coach for
Speaker 1: twenty two years, I've seen it, man. I've seen it
Speaker 1: with the best, with the McDonald's, all Americans, and I've
Speaker 1: seen it with the children that needed to go be
Speaker 1: doctors or needed to you know, use their education to
Speaker 1: carve out a way similar to what I did. Um,
Speaker 1: this this notion of everybody getting the trophy, it's not real.
Speaker 1: It's not reality. No, it's not. There's losers. People don't
Speaker 1: always finish first. There's a second place, third place for
Speaker 1: a reason, a reason. Yeah, so that's why there's competition.
Speaker 1: So whoever, the survival of the fittest is the way
Speaker 1: I look at it. Uh. And you know that moment
Speaker 1: that in time, I've always remembered how you handled that
Speaker 1: really stood out. I know for me, I would have
Speaker 1: you know, I would have blew up. It's why I'm
Speaker 1: not a coach. But you And that's the That's why
Speaker 1: I respect coaches so much. I I admire coaches because
Speaker 1: I know the type of stuff that y'all put up with,
Speaker 1: the disrespectful moments, and you are bigger and better in
Speaker 1: that moment. And that's why it's just like, man, I
Speaker 1: wish I had that strength, man like dang like. I
Speaker 1: shout out to that dude for taking that from that
Speaker 1: dude on the rail. As I've gotten older, like before,
Speaker 1: I us just think it was some punk stuff. But
Speaker 1: now when I got when I gotten older, and I
Speaker 1: realized that being a punk is actually the opposite of
Speaker 1: what I always thought it was. You know, when you
Speaker 1: get older, you know what being a man is that
Speaker 1: you know, you just had this messed up idea stuff.
Speaker 1: I started looking back on life and in different situations
Speaker 1: and different people in my life, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: man that dude. Shout out to him and the way
Speaker 1: he used to handle stuff. Fox Sports Radio has the
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
Speaker 1: our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
Speaker 1: listen live. Um staying on the administration part of things
Speaker 1: you said twenty two years of of of of coaching.
Speaker 1: How many of that of those twenty two years? Why
Speaker 1: you've been a coach where you've been. Have you actively
Speaker 1: been a teacher and administrator the entire twenty two yes? Wow.
Speaker 1: So so you're splitting time and you're and you're not
Speaker 1: somebody that's hands off for You're you're in the needs,
Speaker 1: okay of everything. So you're not only doing the coaching
Speaker 1: the school part of things right after school or before school,
Speaker 1: you're actually handling other type of business. Talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about that grind, because I remember when when you
Speaker 1: first told me about Reese, just everything y'all was doing.
Speaker 1: Just talk a little bit about the grind of that
Speaker 1: and how that what that builds in you or how
Speaker 1: does that affect you in your personal life? Does it?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm curious that that's a derivative from
Speaker 1: my father. So my dad, he's seventy five years old.
Speaker 1: UM went back to school to get his bachelor's at thirty.
Speaker 1: My dad has a doctorate. My dad went to school
Speaker 1: for about ten years from thirty of actually early forties
Speaker 1: to get a bachelor's, two different masters degrees, and ultimately
Speaker 1: his doctorate. And throughout all of that he had not
Speaker 1: missed the football season. He so subconsciously I thought it
Speaker 1: was long. You know, you go to work, you you know,
Speaker 1: monitor the kids, and you know, and and your your
Speaker 1: team throughout their day and you know if they're get
Speaker 1: in trouble in class or you know they need tutoring
Speaker 1: or whatever the situation is. And after work you go
Speaker 1: to the gym. My dad went to the field, and
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought that's what everybody did. It never
Speaker 1: felt like work to me because it was something that
Speaker 1: I truly enjoyed and I believe it was it's my calling. Um,
Speaker 1: things changed for me, you know, as you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't get married, um early, I didn't have kids early.
Speaker 1: That's a direct correlation to that journey, right. Mind you
Speaker 1: I'm not aware of what's going on while I'm I'm
Speaker 1: in this right and throughout you know, I was working
Speaker 1: at average at twelve or fourteen hours a day. UM.
Speaker 1: Pam and I met many years ago, but had reconnected
Speaker 1: when Reese was about six six years old. Maddie Pooh
Speaker 1: is four, Um, and as you know, that's my stepson.
Speaker 1: But I don't believe in stepchildren. Um. The Bible says
Speaker 1: your father in three different ways biologically, of course, um
Speaker 1: by assignment is the second and the third is an
Speaker 1: individual that could give you father the advice. So as
Speaker 1: I was dealing with my own demons and dealing with
Speaker 1: I was considered a level of depression because I wasn't
Speaker 1: where I wanted to be. And you know, I had
Speaker 1: checked all the boxes. I went and got all these degrees,
Speaker 1: I got all these student loans. My record was unblemished.
Speaker 1: Why can't I be the principal at crench On High School?
Speaker 1: You know? And I was told, oh, you look too young,
Speaker 1: so that I still wear my my grade here because
Speaker 1: of that, right, and you know, I was always clean cut,
Speaker 1: suited and booted. It started to build up levels of
Speaker 1: animosity internally for me, but I couldn't put my finger
Speaker 1: on why I wasn't happy. Right, So, to my wife's credit,
Speaker 1: you know, she said, you know, God has another plan,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't want to hear that. And
Speaker 1: she would tell me this for years, God has another plan. God,
Speaker 1: You're You're bigger than that. You're great. You know. She
Speaker 1: was speaking positivity in me at a time where I
Speaker 1: couldn't even see it in myself. Right, and in this
Speaker 1: you know sence, I'm a coach. I'm a teacher here.
Speaker 1: I have this ten year old kid that's coming up right,
Speaker 1: and I've always been cautious to not set a bad example.
Speaker 1: But as he got older, I said, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: I don't want to be your mom's boyfriend. Now we're
Speaker 1: about to get married. Were you brought so you absolutely
Speaker 1: I'm not about to lay up in your house and no, no,
Speaker 1: not not no, you know my mom might come kick
Speaker 1: my ass. That's I wasn't that dude. So I remember
Speaker 1: coaching Reese and you know, we we had after our
Speaker 1: group with with Tico and you know, David and Will
Speaker 1: and all of those guys. Um, Jay Harper was like, look,
Speaker 1: let's put a team together with our guys, right. Little
Speaker 1: Jason was twelve, Reese was thirteen, My nephew was thirteen,
Speaker 1: and I was coaching those guys, and um, I was
Speaker 1: in cutching coach ducket mode. I was because now I
Speaker 1: got some personal equity in this, and I was pushing
Speaker 1: these kids so hard. Um Reese broke at thirteen. Mind
Speaker 1: you you know, he's an athlete and we're in the game,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you know, if you know we didn't
Speaker 1: run a press, break, escape, dribble, attack the white side
Speaker 1: of the floor. If they head you off, split it
Speaker 1: if you turn it over, and get back on defense.
Speaker 1: So I was pushing them too hard at thirteen, and
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, he started talking back, and he
Speaker 1: looked like he wanted to kick my ass. Right, So
Speaker 1: after the game, we go outside and he's crying and
Speaker 1: I'm emotional, and his mom got between us and he said,
Speaker 1: when you yell at me and makes me nervous, I
Speaker 1: don't like when you're young at me. And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm tripping, right, I apologize. I haven't yelled since maybe
Speaker 1: a better coach. So at that moment, regarding Reese and
Speaker 1: and those guys, I started talking. I started having conversations.
Speaker 1: So I would tell him, hey, man, you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: be aggressive. You don't start scoring that ball, We're gonna
Speaker 1: lose his motherfucking game. Yeah that's a great and he
Speaker 1: would he would go okay. Or if I yelled Reese,
Speaker 1: he would just to acknowledge I hear, I got it.
Speaker 1: And as he got older, he would just kind of
Speaker 1: look at me, and I knew what to look mean
Speaker 1: and look me as I got it. Now, you could
Speaker 1: sit down I got right the one thing that I
Speaker 1: credit him with. I'm blessed that he trusted me because
Speaker 1: he didn't have to. And I'm blessed that I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to have other people around me that have
Speaker 1: been to where Rees said he wants to go. So
Speaker 1: Jason jay Hard shout out to him. He had a
Speaker 1: huge influence in regards to the plan. He would always say, Lou,
Speaker 1: it's not rocket science, just getting the gym right, just
Speaker 1: getting the gym. So at times where I may have
Speaker 1: question my ability, right now, bro, you good at rocket science,
Speaker 1: stay in the gym. And through that, having guys like
Speaker 1: Gilanni White and you know Joe White, Reese would be
Speaker 1: where he is. This whole way road set up. This
Speaker 1: is jollanniding the um. Gilanni has been like a brother
Speaker 1: to Rees. Having guys around that are supportive in terms
Speaker 1: of your son and the journey is insurmountable. Having jay Crow,
Speaker 1: I went from Kyle Supreme being a coach on in
Speaker 1: that program. When it folded, jay Crow allowed me to coach.
Speaker 1: He didn't have to do that. And when I said
Speaker 1: he allowed me to coach, he didn't. He didn't bother me.
Speaker 1: He spoke positivity, He spoke encouragement, he spoke confidence into
Speaker 1: those kids. He he understood the big picture. Yeah he does.
Speaker 1: He really does that. So Jay Crow and Jay Hart,
Speaker 1: and you know, I've met fifty coaches because of James.
Speaker 1: I've met everybody. You know. We and Jay would final
Speaker 1: fours and in and out of gyms, and he always
Speaker 1: introduced me to people, you know, Mike Brown and you know,
Speaker 1: just all kind of people. Man. And he didn't have
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, I didn't play ten years
Speaker 1: in NBA and and breaking things down for me in
Speaker 1: small pieces where I can see it, you know. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't always easy, but it was always out of love. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: Like I got a great j Hart story, dog like
Speaker 1: I got to so like, Jay Hart has always been
Speaker 1: something since he was about ten or eleven, always rolled
Speaker 1: with him. But I met him, I think I was.
Speaker 1: He was probably thirteen him and losing me. Man. Look,
Speaker 1: look they came out to A B C. D and
Speaker 1: Irvine in like O. So they were twelve thirty or eleven,
Speaker 1: I don't know how old they were. They were kids
Speaker 1: and they were getting a four thirteen fourteen. They were
Speaker 1: getting my attention because I was sit fifteen or sixty.
Speaker 1: I was a sophomore. They're getting my attention from standing
Speaker 1: up top, you know, like chritis, Chris, Chris, it's losing
Speaker 1: Jay Hard. But his kids like what's up. They just
Speaker 1: wanted to say what's up. So, you know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what's up, what's up? Giving him to what's up or whatever.
Speaker 1: So so fast forward through life, you know, we grow,
Speaker 1: I go to U C. L A. And j Hard go,
Speaker 1: you know, he does his thing, Syraki lose what does
Speaker 1: his thing? And we're older later on in life, and um,
Speaker 1: it's around two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: and I'm in Atlanta and I'm chilling my little brother mcconan.
Speaker 1: He had just caught a case man of involuntary man slaughter.
Speaker 1: He accidentally shot his best friend on the day he
Speaker 1: graduated high school. So we had I went down to
Speaker 1: Atlanta to be there for a sense of support for him,
Speaker 1: you know, helped bill him out the whole nine. Um,
Speaker 1: I get it. So I find out the Clippers, he's
Speaker 1: with the Clippers. J Hard with the Clippers. I find
Speaker 1: out Jay Hart's coming to the town to play the Hawks.
Speaker 1: So I hit up Jay Hart just kind of hitting
Speaker 1: him with just a not really expecting to get hit
Speaker 1: back a message j oh yeah, I see you all
Speaker 1: here in the A T L. You know, I'm out
Speaker 1: here with my bro. Man. We out here chilling, you
Speaker 1: know how at me this dude Jay Hard. First of all,
Speaker 1: he left us some sick ass tickets to the game
Speaker 1: where we're in the sweet and all that. But then
Speaker 1: after the game he made sure like we go to dinner. Man,
Speaker 1: He took us out, Me and my little brother mcconnen.
Speaker 1: We go to dinner, then we go to the club
Speaker 1: with all the clippers. I mean, it was like a fun,
Speaker 1: unbelievable night, bro. And but think about it. So I
Speaker 1: got my little brother sixteen, he was just in jail, bro,
Speaker 1: and and I was reaching out to Jay Hart to
Speaker 1: kind of help try to help bring his spirits up.
Speaker 1: Hart looked out like that bro on love on l
Speaker 1: a straight up love and I and this but that
Speaker 1: just kind of it captures the essence of who he is.
Speaker 1: It's a great and and blessed you know he um.
Speaker 1: I mean man for years bro me ja little Jason.
Speaker 1: I mean we just sent the gym, you know, ten
Speaker 1: thousand hours right, and you know, despite my career. The
Speaker 1: shift for me Reese was fifteen in ninth grade, and
Speaker 1: uh we we would go to the gym at four
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, come back home about six thirty,
Speaker 1: take a shower, go to school, go to school, practice,
Speaker 1: go to practice, go home, get a quick bite, take
Speaker 1: a shower, back to the gym. We did this from
Speaker 1: through middle school, probably up to about this sophomore year.
Speaker 1: So one one evening, I fell asleep, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I fell asleep, just tired. And he came up and
Speaker 1: he woke me up and he said, can we go
Speaker 1: to the gym? I said, yah, let me get up,
Speaker 1: and he said, nice, okay, I'll just go in the backyard.
Speaker 1: And I felt bad, right, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't have an energy to to get him back
Speaker 1: to the gym. And my wife would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's okay, And in that moment, I said, Babe, I
Speaker 1: gotta do something else, like all right, he's special, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know I'm you know, I'm as big as fan,
Speaker 1: you know, completely biased and unapologetic about it. You know,
Speaker 1: I believe he's a lamba in the garage during the
Speaker 1: summer that you gotta take out and hit phi, talk down.
Speaker 1: Can't nobody tell me you ain't that exast thing? Slice bread? Right?
Speaker 1: But he backs it up with his work ethic. Like
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like this before out of a
Speaker 1: high school age kid. You know, this dude is kind
Speaker 1: of low key different and unless you know him, you
Speaker 1: don't really know him, right. But I saw him transform
Speaker 1: his body during the pandemic and put on eighteen pounds
Speaker 1: of muscle. I saw him cut out call arms, cut
Speaker 1: out bread, cut out juice, sugar on his own, Like
Speaker 1: now I'm not eating that, No, just water, mom, I'll
Speaker 1: eat the meat sauce. Now, I can't have a posta.
Speaker 1: Like I got him the Mamba Mentality Book when Christmas
Speaker 1: some years ago. You know, I thought it would be
Speaker 1: a nice little token, like he's taking this ship to Like, like, dude,
Speaker 1: you need to like get out the book. Like you're
Speaker 1: not Kobe. Like you don't have an attritionus, Like you
Speaker 1: don't have a chef, Like you don't have a you
Speaker 1: don't have a besige that Like I'm like, bro, Kobe
Speaker 1: had these things to help. Look, you don't have none
Speaker 1: of that. You gotta go to class at SC. But
Speaker 1: with all of that being said, man, his work ethic
Speaker 1: and his approach is different for a nineteen year old kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I've had to try and balance him with just
Speaker 1: gonna be nineteen today. Man, call you boys, go have
Speaker 1: a burger and some fries and go catch a movie. No, man,
Speaker 1: I'm me and j White working out. I'm over here
Speaker 1: at Valley Ridge. You know, I gotta I gotta get
Speaker 1: my run in. I mean, it's it's it's an obsession.
Speaker 1: So when our couple with guy gave him six five
Speaker 1: and three quarters to ten with his work ethic, the
Speaker 1: sky's a limit. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
Speaker 1: at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live.
Speaker 1: What do you think his next big jump evolution as
Speaker 1: a player is, specifically, um, being a leader. He doesn't
Speaker 1: deal with people m hm similar you know you know
Speaker 1: how mold people person yeung and going to any room.
Speaker 1: He's fine. Josh not not quite more reserved when he
Speaker 1: was younger, just kind of a lot more the scene
Speaker 1: stated himself, that's Reese. He doesn't do anything. His his
Speaker 1: two best friends were the two oldest players on the team. Um.
Speaker 1: The next step in terms of his maturation is being
Speaker 1: vocal um, being a created a courageous leader with his voice. Um.
Speaker 1: People will gravitate towards him because of the work, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't allow people in. Good Um. The next step
Speaker 1: for him, in my opinion, would be allowing people in,
Speaker 1: you know, allowing people in and get them to understand
Speaker 1: that it's my mother in law, hekay, get them, get
Speaker 1: them to understand that you didn't just roll out the
Speaker 1: bed and shoot forty four set from three. Season ended phenomenally.
Speaker 1: It didn't look like that during the first quarter of
Speaker 1: the year. And he grew up a lot man. You know.
Speaker 1: I used to think that he could make a make
Speaker 1: the transition into the NBA earlier. I've had to learn
Speaker 1: how to let God do his work and be patient,
Speaker 1: you know. And I got guys Jason, Chris c J.
Speaker 1: You know, Jason assistant b G. Brandon graham Ville shout
Speaker 1: out to him and these are my these are my friends,
Speaker 1: these people I love. They're like Louke he all right,
Speaker 1: just and looking back on his freshman season, I can
Speaker 1: definitely say that as a parent who is also a coach.
Speaker 1: So I have my own set of eyes. I've had
Speaker 1: to learn how to. You know, when you played three
Speaker 1: minutes against Kyle, you're not gonna get the pillow. When
Speaker 1: you called my phone, when you played eight minutes against Stanford,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get the pillow when you called I
Speaker 1: love you, but I can't give you the pillow because
Speaker 1: you said you want to go to the beat. Right,
Speaker 1: So after that road trip, he's sitting. You know, when
Speaker 1: you get that text from the kid and you know
Speaker 1: that something's wrong. He I got this text, and he
Speaker 1: gets off the plane. He comes right to the house. Right,
Speaker 1: he's sitting in the living room. You know, he gave
Speaker 1: me that look. I only saw this look two or
Speaker 1: three times over the course of the last twelve years, right,
Speaker 1: And that look was of discussed of pain, of um
Speaker 1: not understanding what's going on. And I had to fight
Speaker 1: back my tears and suck it up because if I
Speaker 1: if I break now, I give him an excuse. So
Speaker 1: my rebute was, I guess you ain't good enough. He
Speaker 1: looked at me like I've lost my fucking mind. You
Speaker 1: mean I ain't good enough? There you go, I said, well,
Speaker 1: I guess you ain't good enough. Obviously you ain't good
Speaker 1: enough because it's not obvious if it's close. Any coach
Speaker 1: is gonna go with his familiar people. They're gonna go
Speaker 1: with the experience, they're gonna go with the I've been
Speaker 1: here before. I'm gonna go with I'm comfortable with this, dude,
Speaker 1: And I don't really know you like that yet. So
Speaker 1: his response was, don't answer the phone. If anybody calls you,
Speaker 1: don't answer the phone. I'm gonna go to practice tomorrow
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna bust somebody's ass. Okay, Okay, that's what
Speaker 1: you do because you said you want to go to
Speaker 1: the NBA. So night in and night out, I mean
Speaker 1: what we got, John CP three, Devin Booker, Desmond made Holiday, whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1: Studs are like phenomenal monsters. Dogs like their unicorns, their unicorns.
Speaker 1: So if that's where you say you want to go,
Speaker 1: you gotta be a unicorn. You can't be good, you
Speaker 1: can't even be great. You gotta be a unicorn. And
Speaker 1: it starts with your mindset. That was the biggest growth
Speaker 1: area for him and for me this year, and in
Speaker 1: talking with other parents of collegiate athletes and always try
Speaker 1: and keep some distance between us, just out of respect.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't ever want to give anybody what
Speaker 1: I think because what I think doesn't matter, and I
Speaker 1: just try and give encouraging words of just stay positive.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't give him a pillow. You know,
Speaker 1: it's tough. It's a roller coaster and in those loads,
Speaker 1: you have to tend toes down. You gotta remember why
Speaker 1: they're here now. They if they're just saying they want
Speaker 1: to go get a four year degree, great, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be worried about it. They're playing or not, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: But if you're saying you want to go to the
Speaker 1: NBA and play at the highest level, hey man, the
Speaker 1: twelve dude on that bench is it's a monster. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you think you're gonna go into somebody's
Speaker 1: training camp at years old and take somebody's job, they
Speaker 1: got a wife and kids at home. Man, you got
Speaker 1: something else coming because because them dudes is ready to
Speaker 1: die on that floor. So if you're not cut from
Speaker 1: that cloth, it's cool. It ain't no beat. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: cut from that cloth, right Your dad is one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world, right, Like, so you
Speaker 1: got it up close and personal. Everybody wasn't blessed with that.
Speaker 1: But if you say that this is where you want
Speaker 1: to go. Bro, Hey, man, you gotta be wired different
Speaker 1: and and through that, I think through that pressure, through
Speaker 1: the adversity through it's not fair. Yeah, it ain't fair.
Speaker 1: That's when you actually grow because that you judge of
Speaker 1: a man's character. Ain't when everything is cool. It's some
Speaker 1: stuff ain't cool, But you can find out who people
Speaker 1: really are. M hm. You know. And uh, that that
Speaker 1: was that was a big growth area for both of
Speaker 1: us this year. Man. Yeah, absolutely, Man, you didn't. You've
Speaker 1: done a heck of a job. Uh, you and his
Speaker 1: support system have done a heck of a job. Um
Speaker 1: from what I saw on the court and for what
Speaker 1: I've witnessed in the tournament. And did he do you
Speaker 1: play well towards the end of the season two or
Speaker 1: with the game of the year was in the tournament,
Speaker 1: you know, the second half of the year. But that
Speaker 1: tournament is where he against my I think it's Miami
Speaker 1: against them guys, those guards, those those guys are regarded.
Speaker 1: You know. That wasn't just against no punks, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like that was against a good squad
Speaker 1: that had a game plan and he came in there
Speaker 1: and and turned out the game. In my opinion, looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing more out of reach next year. The
Speaker 1: Trojan aside, I'm roll, I'm rolling, Okay, I am rolling.
Speaker 1: Uh little. How has the last twenty two years off
Speaker 1: your experiences from coaching, playing college, growing up, being a mentor,
Speaker 1: being an administrator, an educator, have they prepared you for
Speaker 1: this next journey, next chapter of your life? You know?
Speaker 1: For years, I um always tried to carve out a
Speaker 1: niche to become argettable at the next level, and you know,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't quite get in. And this opportunity that
Speaker 1: I have coach menzies Um, it's heaven sent man, and
Speaker 1: it fell out the sky, you know. And I believe
Speaker 1: that my value is really rooted in the process, understanding
Speaker 1: the process, understanding what these players need to be successful
Speaker 1: men on and off the court. I think far too often,
Speaker 1: unfortunately in our society, we look at the the NBA,
Speaker 1: and we look at Major League Baseball, look at the NFL,
Speaker 1: and the goal to get there is based on monetarily
Speaker 1: what it can provide you. There's a lot of unhappy
Speaker 1: people in the NBA, man, in all of these professional leagues.
Speaker 1: The value for me is we all have to make
Speaker 1: money to live, all right, That's just one piece of it.
Speaker 1: But there's so many different avenues to get there. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to come this direction, right. So for me,
Speaker 1: you know, having the ability to be in the trenches,
Speaker 1: having the ability to you know, lock in the synergy
Speaker 1: and look at players and right evaluations based on what
Speaker 1: my optics are telling me, and working with guys asked
Speaker 1: to how they can become their first best versions of themselves.
Speaker 1: How do you be a good teammate? You know, how
Speaker 1: can you be a good asset to this program? You
Speaker 1: don't know what that relationship of bubble and to twenty
Speaker 1: years down a line, I met coach coach Menzies twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. Um, using each opportunity and treating it with
Speaker 1: the utmost respect is my value, you know, understanding that
Speaker 1: you know, it's okay to look like ship. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: all right, it's gonna happen, But what are you gonna
Speaker 1: do about it? Yeah? I think my value is a
Speaker 1: very authentic approach to the total student athlete because I
Speaker 1: can relate on so many different perspectives. I was never
Speaker 1: the best player on any team. I ever played for.
Speaker 1: But I know I knew how to appreciate those who work.
Speaker 1: I was never the smartest dude on the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: but I knew how to ask relevant questions, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, if it's something I want to know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've called you. You know, kay jack Man, what you
Speaker 1: think you know? I wasn't an All American that you said,
Speaker 1: a bro and in my on the right path? What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts? I think far too often we don't
Speaker 1: ask any questions, like we were not humble enough to
Speaker 1: to to pick up the phone and call and say,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on this particular issue? Resupposed to
Speaker 1: be a professional athlete. I wasn't a professional athlete, but
Speaker 1: I know a whole bunch of people that were. So
Speaker 1: you know what, hey man, you can call Mr Johnson.
Speaker 1: He has a he has in his Cyclopedia Library of Wisdom.
Speaker 1: He could drop on you. Hey man, call this guy
Speaker 1: over here. He gives you a different perspective on this.
Speaker 1: I think that's my value, man. And now being a
Speaker 1: successful entrepreneur and being able to give back in the
Speaker 1: way that I'm giving back, and being able to see
Speaker 1: the things that I've been very fortunate to see gives
Speaker 1: me a very unique perspective because my journey was so
Speaker 1: different than most people. Most collegiate coaching staffs and auxiliary
Speaker 1: staff members were former players, were kin to somebody, Their
Speaker 1: relationships were forged will before they decided they wanted to
Speaker 1: take this journey. Mine was Mine has come through a
Speaker 1: very authentic approach, and I was unapologetic about getting there.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, Coach menzies Is is giving me an
Speaker 1: opportunity to learn to see, to witness, to grow to
Speaker 1: be wrong so that I can take that knowledge. And
Speaker 1: Laura knows what's next. You know, maybe I'll become a
Speaker 1: high school coach back in my region at some point.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll coach the the the eight year olds at
Speaker 1: the local y M c M. I'm gonna be coaching somewhere,
Speaker 1: you know. But those experiences only add value to what
Speaker 1: you can give the net generation. Absolutely, absolutely, I think
Speaker 1: you're well equipped for your your new role. Brother, Um,
Speaker 1: you bring character, the advanced knowledge of the game, a
Speaker 1: major work ethic that's unrivaled, and you you've been around greatness.
Speaker 1: There's something to be said for being around greatness, being
Speaker 1: able to pick up the phone talk to being involved
Speaker 1: in great programs, or being a part of championship teams
Speaker 1: as a coach, as a player, or whatever you've been
Speaker 1: around at all. So I have no doubt in my
Speaker 1: mind that you're gonna flourish and be successful. I want
Speaker 1: to thank you, my brother, for coming on my platform.
Speaker 1: Thank you sharing your story, sharing your basketball journey. Um,
Speaker 1: it was a long road for you, a little through
Speaker 1: twenty two years of grinding. But as you say, it's
Speaker 1: never too late. Is there anything that you want to
Speaker 1: leave our audience with shoutouts, any words, or anything at all?
Speaker 1: You know. First of all, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: thank God for his grace and truly blessed me. I'm
Speaker 1: living a dream. You know. I couldn't have wrote this
Speaker 1: down on a piece of paper. My dreams didn't even
Speaker 1: stretched this far. Um, thank God for my friends. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of you guys, and through
Speaker 1: that it hasn't always been smoothed, you know, but accepting
Speaker 1: me for who I am, the good and the bad,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I definitely I'm proud of you. You know.
Speaker 1: You know, I am thoroughly proud of you, you know,
Speaker 1: because I know the journey. You know, I was there,
Speaker 1: I was able I could see, you know, and seeing
Speaker 1: how you've reinvented yourself, how you saw something in yourself
Speaker 1: that other people may not have seen. Right, Um, even
Speaker 1: Josiah Man like ship dope, you know, like I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I watched why and then look, hey, j being unapologetic
Speaker 1: about what your last name. Your last name is Johnson.
Speaker 1: Everybody else can have an issue with that. Your last
Speaker 1: name is Johnson. You are a descendant of Marcus Johnson.
Speaker 1: Everybody can't embrace that. That makes other people feel a
Speaker 1: certain kind of way, man, and being comfortable in that,
Speaker 1: Like I've been watching, man, and I can see the joy.
Speaker 1: I can see the happiness. I can see it, you know,
Speaker 1: especially as you were going through the journey trying to
Speaker 1: figure out your niche um and just shout out to
Speaker 1: anybody out there that's that's willing to to be a
Speaker 1: renaissance man. You don't have to follow the narrative. What
Speaker 1: is happiness? Happiness is subjective, What is joy? Joy is subjective.
Speaker 1: It's based on somebody's opinion. Right, it's never too late, man,
Speaker 1: And why not? You know, why not? Man? You just
Speaker 1: reminded me of something talking right now, because the very
Speaker 1: first time I went live, Bro, you were on my comments.
Speaker 1: I remember that first one I did, Brother, I just
Speaker 1: forgot about it, but now I just remember that you're
Speaker 1: You're on my very first live I did on I
Speaker 1: G and the very first live. A lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't see it, but I was kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I was in I was in a funny little place
Speaker 1: at that moment. I could have went I could have
Speaker 1: went either way, Bro, I could have went either way.
Speaker 1: But it was people like you and my comments. People
Speaker 1: who's remember this peer pressure thing we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: we got we got people watching and peer pressure. Coach
Speaker 1: O Luther's on my coach Moose's. Moose came in, Luther
Speaker 1: came in. So it's like two cats. You know, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't think would affect you at that moment, but honestly,
Speaker 1: you guys had a tremendous amount of effect on me
Speaker 1: in that very moment to where I went right instead
Speaker 1: of very left. My brother, I just want to let
Speaker 1: you know that, like it really resonated your words that night, Bro,
Speaker 1: and just how your approach to to to that night. Brother,
Speaker 1: I appreciate. Man, that's crazy, Like just remember that dog,
Speaker 1: I was like kJ going live what are you talking? Hey?
Speaker 1: I was going that night. I ended up to leave
Speaker 1: that my boy. Man, we holler at my boy, see
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I just remember those times kJ.
Speaker 1: I remember those times man. And you know, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you, bro. You know your back injury,
Speaker 1: you know limited your career, you know you know. But
Speaker 1: guy got a plan, man, he does. I got a plan.
Speaker 1: So I'm proud of you man and the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing and afforded me an opportunity. A lot of people.
Speaker 1: You guys know my story, my friend, but people don't
Speaker 1: know where I came from. When I'm about Everybody need
Speaker 1: to know them, man, They need to know who Luther
Speaker 1: Waters his brother, because you're somebody that we can all
Speaker 1: learn from and be inspired from. My man. Seriously appreciate
Speaker 1: you man much love alright, brother, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1: I will my brother, Ladies and gentlemen, Luther Waters