Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sports Bubble, a production of iHeart Radio
Speaker 1: Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen Carp and I'm
Speaker 1: a sports fan and like my one year old when
Speaker 1: he plays with his mom in our backyard, I'm intensely
Speaker 1: watching bubbles. But amongst all the social media updates about
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard being alone at a DJ party and slightly
Speaker 1: unimpressive food plans, I think we're missing out on a
Speaker 1: big story. A Rod and JL are trying to buy
Speaker 1: the Mets. Sure, they're part of a large group that
Speaker 1: includes finance bros and Bradley Beale, Travis Kelsey and of
Speaker 1: all people, Mason Plumley, but still the Mets. Sure, the
Speaker 1: TV deal is great, but I can't imagine seeing these
Speaker 1: celebrities even traveling the Flushing let alone hanging at the games.
Speaker 1: I doubt Jennifer Lopez knows who Benny Agban Yanni is. Also,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be prime Mets behavior to sell the A
Speaker 1: Rod and JL then have them break up publicly and
Speaker 1: have to sit in separate sides of City Bank and
Speaker 1: never even promote they own the team so the other
Speaker 1: doesn't succeed and way l f GM here, I am
Speaker 1: still interviewing athletes and sports and superfessionals finding out how
Speaker 1: they're doing during this very weird time because someone has to.
Speaker 1: This is the sports bubble with Jensen Card. When people
Speaker 1: first started looking at sports for normalcy, I called foul.
Speaker 1: It's weird, and I never would have expected how much
Speaker 1: people look to televise competition to feel whole. But then
Speaker 1: I started thinking about my favorite TV show, Inside the
Speaker 1: NBA on T and T, and I realized maybe I
Speaker 1: needed sports more than I ever thought, because I really
Speaker 1: miss my ritual of watching it. And a major reason
Speaker 1: for that show's success and relevancy is today's guest, Kenny Smith.
Speaker 1: Kenny the Jet played ten years in the NBA, most
Speaker 1: notably for the Houston Rockets, where he won two championships
Speaker 1: alongside players like a Chemalai Juan and Clyde Drexler. The
Speaker 1: former u n C Tar Heels score just under ten
Speaker 1: thousand points in his professional run, and his career three
Speaker 1: point percentage still ranks him top fifty in the history
Speaker 1: of the NBA, and since his tremendous playing days, he's
Speaker 1: continued to give back to the game, becoming a premier
Speaker 1: broadcast voice alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Ernie Johnson.
Speaker 1: Where they might not only be the funniest force in
Speaker 1: working on TV, they've also helped guide a sports fandom
Speaker 1: through heavy subjects and social issues well beyond the court.
Speaker 1: With the NBA bubble ramping up, I talked to Kenny
Speaker 1: about the Woes email, Lebron's decision to keep his name
Speaker 1: on his jersey, and Kenny's upcoming virtual basketball camp, and
Speaker 1: I break the news of Russell Westbrook testing positive to him,
Speaker 1: which felt like quite a Woes bomb in itself. It's
Speaker 1: an honor to talk to Kenny, the Jets smith in
Speaker 1: the sports bubble Press one. Kenny, it's an honor to
Speaker 1: speak with you. I wanted to at least start with
Speaker 1: the idea that that with inside the NBA, on T
Speaker 1: and T, it's it's not just basketball talk. You guys
Speaker 1: have this incredible personality thing going on, and you've become
Speaker 1: so relevant and raw with talk about what's going on
Speaker 1: around the world. You're sort of a north star for
Speaker 1: a lot of people at time. I know that you've
Speaker 1: been quarantining pretty steadily, pretty strictly, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: know what you think, why are so many people rebelling
Speaker 1: against this idea of masks and science? Well, I have
Speaker 1: no idea because, um, you know, honestly, for me, who
Speaker 1: is you know, outside in public particularly you know, I'm
Speaker 1: an average criticism, I'm gonna have to wear it when
Speaker 1: maybe an hour a day, you know, if I'm out
Speaker 1: and if i'm Let's say, let's say, if everyone's right
Speaker 1: about hey, you didn't really need to wear math. Let's
Speaker 1: say you're right. I don't mean a convenued for an hour.
Speaker 1: What if you're wrong, you say, you kill people, The
Speaker 1: the the the risk out weighs the reward, you know.
Speaker 1: So I think that it's important to understand that as
Speaker 1: a citizen is just you know, you're sacrifice. And I
Speaker 1: think maybe being in sports. People have been in sports
Speaker 1: have sacrifice their personal game for the better or of
Speaker 1: the good of the team. And so for us, it's
Speaker 1: not unusual to do that. For me being on a
Speaker 1: championship team East Rockets, you know, number one team in
Speaker 1: the country in college, Like, you're you're okay with giving
Speaker 1: some of your individual things up for greater the good.
Speaker 1: I totally understand it. It's just it's so mind boggling
Speaker 1: to me, and I ask you about sort of the
Speaker 1: role of larger issues like politics and sports. This week,
Speaker 1: as I mean a large story is that a reporter
Speaker 1: we all call Woes and lovingly love his bombs. Uh,
Speaker 1: he gets suspended for two weeks for sending an F
Speaker 1: word laced email to a senator as a reply for
Speaker 1: being critical of social issues. A lot of people and
Speaker 1: players are standing up for woes. What what were your
Speaker 1: feelings when you read about the situation. Well, I just
Speaker 1: feel that there is a line of you know, personal,
Speaker 1: and there's a line of work, and sometimes those lines
Speaker 1: do glect. However, his personal emails, I don't know if
Speaker 1: he even ESPN email to send these things out. I
Speaker 1: don't know how that leaves in. At times, when you
Speaker 1: publicly make statements on your Instagram, Twitter, at times I
Speaker 1: could really reflect on your employer and and their news.
Speaker 1: So I understand that. But if he's sending a personal
Speaker 1: email about his personal political views to a personal senator
Speaker 1: at times, we got it bad. Yeah, it seems crazy
Speaker 1: for me, especially because I applaud so much of finding
Speaker 1: out personal beliefs of people, especially in the NBA. But
Speaker 1: I found it so messed up that it was basically
Speaker 1: you know, it was sent to his personal He responded
Speaker 1: with a personal. I mean if if employers or you know,
Speaker 1: any sports league start looking into people's personal emails as
Speaker 1: you know, a reflection of their employer, it does seem
Speaker 1: like a very slippery slope. Yeah. Yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: when you make it a public your point, then you
Speaker 1: do have an obligation to your family, your friends, and
Speaker 1: your employer in that order, like when you make it public.
Speaker 1: But if you do not make it public, you don't
Speaker 1: have an obligation regardless of what you're believe, if I
Speaker 1: agree with it or not, you don't have an obligation
Speaker 1: two to us at all, or your employer, or your
Speaker 1: fans or your press. Yeah, if you make it public,
Speaker 1: you do, which which brings us to the NBA bubble.
Speaker 1: This past weekend we saw finally some optimism from players
Speaker 1: in Orlando, whether it was Chris Paul playing corn hole
Speaker 1: or the MAVs having a DJ Balcony dance party. But
Speaker 1: right before we got on the phone, Russell Westbrook announced
Speaker 1: that he had tested positive for COVID and now obviously
Speaker 1: has to quarantine and not play. So what do you
Speaker 1: think morale is right now in Orlando for these players.
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, I would say if I
Speaker 1: would be I'm not obviously being in that bubble as
Speaker 1: a whole unique situation and told you have to tell
Speaker 1: you to be there if I was there again, I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm optimistic, but super cautious because we understand that
Speaker 1: this is the most contagious the virus that we've had,
Speaker 1: and it's the most beat in our life that period.
Speaker 1: So there's no question that out of bound, there's no
Speaker 1: you know, process that out of bound. So everyone is
Speaker 1: optimistically cautious, though, and here you have a guy who's
Speaker 1: you know, already down there or or right to be.
Speaker 1: I think it's just getting there um or whatever you
Speaker 1: and so you know, it's a it's an unbelievable, you know,
Speaker 1: scenario that one of the best players in the league
Speaker 1: has to be quarantining for minimum before teen days. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, I've heard you say in other interviews, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of how I feel about. You know, a
Speaker 1: rookie is going to have a different response to leaving
Speaker 1: his family and and sort of the risks than someone
Speaker 1: who has a full family has been in the league
Speaker 1: for seven eight years. But now with Westbrook and you know,
Speaker 1: sort of seeing some of the video from from the
Speaker 1: bubble and we're all laughing at it because it is
Speaker 1: it is funny to see, you know, JJ Reddick shot
Speaker 1: on a beer because he's bored. But do you think
Speaker 1: this overall bubble idea now not having Westbrook play and
Speaker 1: what will this championship mean? Was it the right thing
Speaker 1: to do? I don't. I don't think there's the right
Speaker 1: home thing, Like there is no equation that is comfortable.
Speaker 1: Every day we get new information that actually contradicts sometimes
Speaker 1: what the information was before. I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: right way, Like, you know, besides, the opening as we
Speaker 1: opened up is like should we wear a mask or not?
Speaker 1: Like the information that comes in it's so contradictory and
Speaker 1: so diametrically opposed and the one that we've heard before.
Speaker 1: At times, there hasn't been a united front. There hasn't
Speaker 1: been one message that's comes from people we trust and
Speaker 1: say we're going to follow that as a nation. Uh So,
Speaker 1: now that's why you have spiking and so areas and
Speaker 1: all of those things, and that that's the most difficult
Speaker 1: part about being part of this is the uncertainty of
Speaker 1: the information and where you're getting it from. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: like even right before we got on the phone together,
Speaker 1: I was talking to my wife about Westbrook, and you know,
Speaker 1: I've heard from Gobert a little bit that he still
Speaker 1: has lasting effects. We've heard whispers that like, oh, these
Speaker 1: players could feel or anyone could feel the effects on
Speaker 1: their lungs for years to come. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: even know if that's a true statement. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hate putting anyone, let alone my favorite athletes in that predicament.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if that's the truth. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it goes away, I don't know if it
Speaker 1: sticks with you. I have no clue. It's a new
Speaker 1: it's a new violence. So no one knows where the
Speaker 1: long term round offlications are. And I like, even when
Speaker 1: you told me where, you're the first one to tell
Speaker 1: me that, I wasn't aware that he would, you know,
Speaker 1: a touch the probity. So like I'm learning this information
Speaker 1: as we're talking. And because there's so many other things
Speaker 1: between the social and jud you know, the spiking and
Speaker 1: Plauda and Texas, you know, and then like I live
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, what did it do in here and
Speaker 1: you know, you have young kids and and then all
Speaker 1: of sudden, West Lot like that's last on my Look,
Speaker 1: that's quite a time, quite a time. Uh, Well more
Speaker 1: at home for you. What what is the plan for
Speaker 1: you guys to return to Turner, to basketball, to the
Speaker 1: our favorite TV show? What is what? What's the role
Speaker 1: out for you guys? Well, you know, we we start
Speaker 1: doing home shows this month, and then they they're asking
Speaker 1: us to possibly, you know, to to continue that shows
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and then from there, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: right right after that, I don't know. And it's um
Speaker 1: an interesting time when you really don't know your schedule. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you kind of know it if you could propose schedule,
Speaker 1: but is it actually gonna follow through, you know, based
Speaker 1: on what's happening? That's crazy to hear. Even uh when
Speaker 1: it comes to inside the NBA. I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: also about you know, my favorite it with Ernie, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, he has faced you know, hot skins of
Speaker 1: foam in the past, and he is of a higher
Speaker 1: age group than the rest. I mean, is there concern
Speaker 1: over him jumping into anything quickly? Has it been talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of keeping him at Bay. I think
Speaker 1: we've all seen that this is not just age anymore.
Speaker 1: I think initially those were, you know, the first reports,
Speaker 1: but I know eleven year old kids in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: who have it, you know, so it's not an age
Speaker 1: thing anymore. I think we're all concerned, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: you know for Ernie of course, but we're all concerned
Speaker 1: for all about families and friends and what they you know,
Speaker 1: they have to go to um. You know. I've unfortunately
Speaker 1: had probably a more direct loss probably than maybe some
Speaker 1: of the other guys, because I'm from New York and
Speaker 1: that was where it initially came, you know, the episode
Speaker 1: of where it's kind of like first people were getting
Speaker 1: tested more and people were dying more. So for me,
Speaker 1: my thought process about this virus is a lot different.
Speaker 1: I think that maybe even everyone else that lives and
Speaker 1: work in Atlanta. You've talked about on on kind of
Speaker 1: a more surface level, You've talked about how you expect
Speaker 1: a lot of young teams to sneak in a possible
Speaker 1: championship here in Orlando. I wanted to know why you
Speaker 1: saw an advantage for those teams over like say a
Speaker 1: Lakers or Clippers who under different circumstances in a normal
Speaker 1: NBA playoff would be clear far and away favorites. Well,
Speaker 1: I think just because of the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: young players trained differently. They trained to be ready right now.
Speaker 1: As you become a season vet, you're trained to become
Speaker 1: better as the season goes on. And this feels more
Speaker 1: like an AU tournament than it does the continuation of
Speaker 1: the season. And I think the young guys, some of
Speaker 1: these guys are only two or three years we moved from.
Speaker 1: They're saying, oh, this is in the newsual environment, but
Speaker 1: and an you tournament like this being there all in
Speaker 1: one hotel, public teams there, this is what they grew
Speaker 1: up doing, most of these guys, So I think the
Speaker 1: comfort level might be different. And then the lack of
Speaker 1: home court advantage. Home court advantage is big for veteran teams,
Speaker 1: and because there's no home court advantage, I think that
Speaker 1: allows younger teams to play better in this environment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I totally see that. And I guess my thing
Speaker 1: too is like guys like Lebron, which we'll get into
Speaker 1: in a little bit, like they're dealing with much heavier
Speaker 1: things right now. I kind of think if you're uh,
Speaker 1: you know a rookie in the league, and you're just like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I play basketball and call of duty
Speaker 1: when I get back to the the hotel, it does
Speaker 1: feel like they have less on their mind to jump
Speaker 1: into this bubble. Yeah, and you know, when you have
Speaker 1: less responsibilities, you're worrying about you. They're the anxiety that
Speaker 1: other players are having from you know, typically you're worrying
Speaker 1: about who I have to God, Chrick, Paul, but Matthew,
Speaker 1: worrying about what I eat? Can I talk to this person?
Speaker 1: Can I play card in this room? Could I read
Speaker 1: this book because someone touched it? Then you if you
Speaker 1: have more responsibility, how my kids doing at home? How
Speaker 1: was my wife, my family, my mom my dad. So
Speaker 1: the younger you are, the unless responsibilities you have. So
Speaker 1: unless anxiety may have possibly in this environment, I know
Speaker 1: I have more. I have more anxiety year olds on
Speaker 1: right now, right right, Yeah, I hope. So I have
Speaker 1: a one year old, So I tend to think that
Speaker 1: I have way more neurosis, at least I hope. Back
Speaker 1: to basketball, you became a bit of a Twitter ratio
Speaker 1: last week when you placed Lebron as tenth best in
Speaker 1: the NBA You've talked about it enough. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: go too deep into it, citing sort of the change
Speaker 1: in gameplay over the years, a bit of an equalizer.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you on the other side of things,
Speaker 1: as a common just watcher of the game and super fan,
Speaker 1: I see dudes like Zion or Jonas or Dame and
Speaker 1: they're they're they're kind of these like health specimens, Like
Speaker 1: I can't believe they look like that. And then I
Speaker 1: see my dad's favorite players and I'm like, these dudes
Speaker 1: are sticks, you know what I mean. Like, I'm always
Speaker 1: shocked at how physical, beyond belief the game has become.
Speaker 1: With the competition being so much tougher than say, when
Speaker 1: we'll scored a hundred, wouldn't it be almost that Lebron
Speaker 1: has it harder or what am I missing in in
Speaker 1: in the expertise of it. Well, I would say that, yeah,
Speaker 1: athleticism is more on display. I don't think that it was.
Speaker 1: It's got much more, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So Michael Jordan was jumping from the foco box, right,
Speaker 1: so zac Lavini says, oh, I saw that, So now
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to jump on the d and
Speaker 1: put it between my legs, so you know, it's not
Speaker 1: it's justok, more on display because of the rules as well,
Speaker 1: because there's no hand checking and there's no flagrant foul rules.
Speaker 1: There's no you know, there's no suspension of games. So
Speaker 1: now you have freedom of movement, which puts your athletics
Speaker 1: as a more on display. It looks very similar if
Speaker 1: you want to am a luck of the or pick
Speaker 1: up game in in in the nineties, you would see
Speaker 1: this type of athleticism on display. So I just we're
Speaker 1: talking about threads of greatness now, you know, between Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and and and and Lebraun and Oscar Robbinson and Kareem.
Speaker 1: But I you know, I've seen Kaleem when he was
Speaker 1: Kareem the guy. You know that he paid it, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't look much different. And if you don't, I
Speaker 1: think that you know, these guys appear to be you know,
Speaker 1: Zion like however, are massive of around It's really not.
Speaker 1: You know, if you were in them, you can rocket lockerroom.
Speaker 1: You saw you know, the athleticism and Rarning Maxwell, the
Speaker 1: keep Alijaan and and those guys like that. You go, well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look that much different. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: Championshill looks like Darren Collinson, you know, and like they're
Speaker 1: not really that much different. Um so some of god
Speaker 1: he used to play football and now play basketball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that may be it, but in terms of overall athleticism,
Speaker 1: it's not that much different. I think it's just more
Speaker 1: consistent that these guys jump. But I don't think it's higher.
Speaker 1: I think they just do it more consistently. Well. Uh,
Speaker 1: speaking of Lebron, you know, he's been in the news
Speaker 1: all week regarding the idea of the league approved protests
Speaker 1: sayings for the back of the jerseys. He has decided
Speaker 1: not to go with it. Anthony Davis has followed suit. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some players I think we'll be hearing about in the
Speaker 1: next couple of days will also agree that it doesn't
Speaker 1: resonate with their own missions. Much like Lebron said, I
Speaker 1: think we live not only in COVID times, but with
Speaker 1: obviously people starting to wake up to the racial divide
Speaker 1: thanks to so many things, but to the unfortunate murder
Speaker 1: of George Floyd. What was your reaction, because I feel
Speaker 1: like I've changed my thoughts on it. At first, I
Speaker 1: was like, well, that sounds like a cool thing to do,
Speaker 1: put them on the back of the or is he's
Speaker 1: And then as I listened to Lebron, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want anything to be uniform right now. I
Speaker 1: think everyone should make their own personal choices. And I
Speaker 1: guess I'm just very confused at what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the jersey situation. Well, I think that I do
Speaker 1: like the idea that guys have that opportunity to do it.
Speaker 1: I would have liked to for them to admit certain
Speaker 1: things individually if they didn't see one of their quotes
Speaker 1: that they wanted on the twenty two lists, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's happened. I have to be, you know,
Speaker 1: be careful that I'm not a hundreds in sure, but
Speaker 1: I think that you know this awareness there are guys
Speaker 1: like Lebron. He doesn't have to always wear something on
Speaker 1: the back of his jersey to get his political message ahead.
Speaker 1: But there are guys on the team that they do.
Speaker 1: They don't have the same breach socially and politically that
Speaker 1: he does, so this helps us get their message, of course,
Speaker 1: So I think it's both and it's hard to stannable
Speaker 1: and no one, no one is forced or I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone's obligation ever is to to jump in a cause.
Speaker 1: But if you should be aware of it, and you
Speaker 1: should be able to say that, let me say you don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're obligation to start a cause. I
Speaker 1: think your obligation is to know what your cause is.
Speaker 1: And because we all don't have the same mental um
Speaker 1: imagination to create programs and so you know what, man,
Speaker 1: I would love to help kids, but I don't even
Speaker 1: know what to do. I gotta said that all the time.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's a program that you should do.
Speaker 1: You should research that. You do obligation and research it
Speaker 1: and figure out where do you want to land. Your
Speaker 1: job is to create the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Speaker 1: That's not your obligation, right, you could seek it out
Speaker 1: and figure out maybe I'll support that. You know that
Speaker 1: is an obligation. Yeah, And you obviously played with with
Speaker 1: Jordan's uh and we're friends with him, and he obviously
Speaker 1: at a different approach towards politics and social justice that
Speaker 1: you know has kind of come under scrutiny and he's changed.
Speaker 1: It seems like he's making a bit of a one
Speaker 1: eight there. Have you been impressed as a fan watching
Speaker 1: Lebron becomes this sort of north star for politics and
Speaker 1: social justice. I just don't think we were in the
Speaker 1: same place that we're at. I don't think we're in
Speaker 1: the same place to compare what Michael or Mohammad Ali
Speaker 1: or even Lebron is doing, because they're all different. Like
Speaker 1: Mohammed Ali is the ultimate of what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: So I think that then to say, well, Lebron doesn't
Speaker 1: do it, momma a leave, did you know? I think
Speaker 1: it's just it's a different time and Lebron is great
Speaker 1: at using social media platform where if he tweets something
Speaker 1: right now, millions of people know instantly. Where the news
Speaker 1: cycle is so different in the nineties, like time it
Speaker 1: got back to the whole news cycle. It's not news anymore.
Speaker 1: It's not even news. It's like so it's a different environment.
Speaker 1: You know, Uh, there are people, you know, even when
Speaker 1: Rodney King happened, it took weeks for people to even
Speaker 1: see the video, like weeks. You know, people say, oh,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that yet, you know, like what you
Speaker 1: hadn't seen the Rotney King because you have to wait
Speaker 1: for the eleven o'clock news to kind of show it again,
Speaker 1: so all day you don't have an opportunity to see it.
Speaker 1: Right now, that information has passed instantly around the world.
Speaker 1: That's why George Floyd around the world there was protests.
Speaker 1: It wasn't protests just an American so you know, they
Speaker 1: were all protesting injustice. So it's just a different that
Speaker 1: everyone lives in. Because imagine if mom and Ali who
Speaker 1: was able to move the needle without any kind of
Speaker 1: social media, imagine if he lived in miss Era, the
Speaker 1: changes he could have made. He talked like a Twitter account. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: I did want to ask you what you expect to
Speaker 1: see I mean with these hopefully, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: even with breaking news just before we talked, but you
Speaker 1: know with these games starting pretty soon, like do you
Speaker 1: expect to see showing of protest you? Is that what
Speaker 1: we're gonna just is going to become the norm for
Speaker 1: each game. I think that the norm is no NORMA
Speaker 1: norm is out of the window, you know, because most
Speaker 1: of the norm that was there before a lot of
Speaker 1: us really didn't like you kind of we're able to
Speaker 1: move in it and be successful in the in that norm,
Speaker 1: but meanly like it. So that I just I think
Speaker 1: when I hear norm, an old norm, a new norm.
Speaker 1: I just feel that there is no norm. It is
Speaker 1: a collection uh thought provoking incidents that now can be
Speaker 1: solution based. More with Kenny Smith after this. Right now,
Speaker 1: Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure are most vulnerable
Speaker 1: populations like students who are out of school, the elderly
Speaker 1: individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue
Speaker 1: to have access to food and other needed resources during
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network
Speaker 1: is committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America,
Speaker 1: and their greatest need is donations and support of local
Speaker 1: food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion
Speaker 1: of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and
Speaker 1: we hope that you can join us in this effort
Speaker 1: to find out how you can help Feeding America dot
Speaker 1: org backslash COVID nineteen. Now the rest of my conversation
Speaker 1: with Inside the NBA on T and T S. Kenny Smith.
Speaker 1: You've said recently that it's somewhat inevitable that one day
Speaker 1: you'll join a front office for an NBA team, And
Speaker 1: I always am so depressed by the numbers of African
Speaker 1: Americans working behind the scenes in the NBA, and I
Speaker 1: want to know, obviously, you'd be a great addition to
Speaker 1: any team. I want to know what other black basketball
Speaker 1: minds that are out there that you think have not
Speaker 1: gotten the chance. They so deserve someone with a basketball mind,
Speaker 1: someone that would just be such an addition to a
Speaker 1: team to wear a suit and help out that just
Speaker 1: hasn't gotten that chance. Well, here's the scenario that I
Speaker 1: look at it instead of looking at a particular individual
Speaker 1: or individuals. Sports, for some reason, the only profession where
Speaker 1: they take your tenure, the experience, and your expertise, and
Speaker 1: when you finished playing, they say it doesn't count. You
Speaker 1: have to start in the mil If I was If
Speaker 1: I was for Amazon twenty years and I took that
Speaker 1: Amazon team from a team that was starting not doing
Speaker 1: well to all of a sudden, we're a championship team
Speaker 1: for multiple years. Can I leave Amazon. I'm the most
Speaker 1: sought after consultant in the field. But when you leave
Speaker 1: the sport, they go, well, now you you got to
Speaker 1: cut films. You know it's on the film like like like.
Speaker 1: Because the information that I've acquired over the twenty years
Speaker 1: of being the player twenty years at TNT between runners,
Speaker 1: um agents, general managers, and players and owners that have
Speaker 1: called me for information and or guide it. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: on an infantry level thought process, like meaning I see
Speaker 1: things from that point of view, but I also see
Speaker 1: it from a bird's out point of view, which they
Speaker 1: can only see it at. So I know how this
Speaker 1: decision is gonna affect not only the player, but the agents,
Speaker 1: the runner, and the mom and the dad. The decision
Speaker 1: you're making about this person going into the bubble, I
Speaker 1: know how it affects every element of the person that
Speaker 1: is going into bubble. That is an experience that no
Speaker 1: one else who says, did you do your homework and
Speaker 1: say I'm gonna be I'm really gonna be a student
Speaker 1: of analytics. I'm going to be a student of you know, business.
Speaker 1: I can't learned that. No one could ever learn those
Speaker 1: twenty years and those ten years in the NBA. So
Speaker 1: tho ye's no one could ever learn that, And so
Speaker 1: that is where to me, it seems it's inevitable, and
Speaker 1: there's a long list of people that have it. I
Speaker 1: just feel, um, you know, not to to my horn,
Speaker 1: but I'm just at the top of that list. When
Speaker 1: it comes to the experience from television, I could tell
Speaker 1: you how what your team is the kidding so what
Speaker 1: they say, how it affects the biggest companies in the
Speaker 1: media like Turner and ESPN, How it effects is that
Speaker 1: what you're about to say? Where do you get that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm all for it. Uh a question.
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna get into the Jet Academy, which
Speaker 1: I which I love. But uh, do you ever think
Speaker 1: about politics ever cross your mind? I Mean, your mom
Speaker 1: always says, you know you're gonna be the first black president.
Speaker 1: That's about it. When you're when you're like, you could
Speaker 1: be the first black president. But I've never thought of
Speaker 1: it as a political aspiration. I just think that, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never never do at all. Right, I'm just placing
Speaker 1: it into your head. All right, all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the Jet Academy. You've been holding basketball camps for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, and now with the changes all around us,
Speaker 1: you've had to call an audible tell us what the
Speaker 1: classes in are gonna look like. Well, what it is
Speaker 1: is that it's the first virtual basketball training mechanism and
Speaker 1: sports training. Because we're gonna venture out to WHOA. That's
Speaker 1: why wear the Academy. It's basically myself I Holt every
Speaker 1: week with three young Victola Deepo, Temba Walker All NBA
Speaker 1: All Star, h w n B A n d P
Speaker 1: Briana Stewart, Brittany Grinders w NBA alf Saw will be
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer. And what we do is where your
Speaker 1: personal training four hour and a half. And what differentiates
Speaker 1: it is it's live. It does live on demand afterwards,
Speaker 1: but it's live and you get to consume information the
Speaker 1: way we consume it now. You can ask questions live,
Speaker 1: you can upload your video if at forty eight hours,
Speaker 1: we kind of answer it and say, hey, you're doing
Speaker 1: this right. It's the way our kids consume information. They
Speaker 1: don't pop in a DCR tape. They don't even like
Speaker 1: going to a demand link all the time if it's
Speaker 1: not live. They don't really all the time like consuming
Speaker 1: the information that's there because they want to interact with it.
Speaker 1: And that's what we've done. We have some great partners.
Speaker 1: Big Shock had the Big Shock code. You put in
Speaker 1: Big Shock, you get a great discount, American Express giving
Speaker 1: a study five dollars off if a card older comes
Speaker 1: on We've got some great partnerships come in as well,
Speaker 1: and it's the first of its kind. It works on
Speaker 1: any device anywhere, or you needed Wi Fi service and
Speaker 1: or tell you the services. That's it. And you could
Speaker 1: be in a park, you could be in the gym,
Speaker 1: you could be in your backyard, you could be in
Speaker 1: your living room or in your room and annoy your
Speaker 1: mom a bout the ball in your room. So you
Speaker 1: could do anything of that nature and be part of
Speaker 1: this and where your personal trainer is go an hour
Speaker 1: and a half a day. Yeah, it's so impressive how
Speaker 1: you guys kind of change it around. I know you were, Uh.
Speaker 1: I read that you were inspired by d Nice in
Speaker 1: the Versus series by Timberland and Swizz Beats. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've I've been so blown away by all of the
Speaker 1: creativity on social media and this is just another sort
Speaker 1: of great example of it, considering how much of the
Speaker 1: Internet is just garbage people usually. Yeah, I think again,
Speaker 1: it's consuming information that you're the way you're consuming it
Speaker 1: now and producing it, but at the same time making
Speaker 1: it appropriate for the actual movement of your daily life.
Speaker 1: And people can check it out at jet Academy camp
Speaker 1: dot com. Uh. It's awesome and they can add the
Speaker 1: big shock code correct to to save money. I can
Speaker 1: do that, will use your m X and you'll save
Speaker 1: money as well. Jet Academy camp dot com again. Jet
Speaker 1: academy camp dot com where you go sign up, put
Speaker 1: the big Shot code in or use your MX and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm joining. I love it well. I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you one last thing. You know, like you said, the
Speaker 1: call of a team's front office may eventually pull you
Speaker 1: from the Turner broadcast, no matter how much I hope
Speaker 1: that doesn't happen, but deep inside hope it does. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go through some names of people who might
Speaker 1: send in their resume if you were to leave an
Speaker 1: empty chair on the show. I wanted you to tell
Speaker 1: me if you think they'd farewell on inside the NBA
Speaker 1: as a replacement. Alright, First I have I have moving
Speaker 1: him from courtside to the studio. He's a controversial voice.
Speaker 1: Reggie Miller, Reggie's great game day. I love I love
Speaker 1: watching You're looking at the Reggie at the game. So
Speaker 1: Reggie the game by very good. Okay, this guy just retired.
Speaker 1: He's an animal of how how long he played, But
Speaker 1: what a basketball mind with Vince Carter could come on
Speaker 1: the show with us right now, we were honest, we
Speaker 1: could put a fip chair up there at six ft away.
Speaker 1: I don't have to leave. Okay, that's a good one,
Speaker 1: all right, this one. He's become quite an impressive podcaster,
Speaker 1: and I love his voice. I did not think I would,
Speaker 1: even as a Clippers fan, I never saw myself rooting
Speaker 1: for the media presence of Matt Barnes. I would love
Speaker 1: to see Matt Bond dominate like NBA TV, because he's
Speaker 1: got like a a persona that I'd like to see
Speaker 1: every day more than i'd like to see once a week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would like he's like a radio show, okay, because
Speaker 1: he's gonna be topical. I'd like to hear him on
Speaker 1: the topic a lot of times on our show. We're
Speaker 1: one week away, and sometimes the topic that is hot
Speaker 1: on Thursday is not hot on the following on Thursday.
Speaker 1: I love to hear Matt Bonds take on things as
Speaker 1: they happen. Okay, very I listen. I've surprised again of
Speaker 1: how much I love hearing Matt Barnes talk. All Right,
Speaker 1: this one is a little crazier. It's for times that
Speaker 1: we want to go on an acid trip. What about
Speaker 1: the addition of Bill Walton. Yeah, just I think he's
Speaker 1: great and and and college basketball is where he lives.
Speaker 1: To me, you know, what he does for a coup
Speaker 1: of basketball in the Pac twelve is like perfect. He's
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. But he's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: I laugh every time he's on. Okay, my other one.
Speaker 1: This is my last one. And I think this is
Speaker 1: the most realistic to me because I think that he
Speaker 1: brings a great game mind. And let's he'll let Shack
Speaker 1: and Barkley do their thing. Uh, Kevin Garnett. But we've
Speaker 1: got Kevin. Kevin was there already. Okay, Well we're interestingly enough.
Speaker 1: You know, Area's twenty one. Yeah, I'm still aware of
Speaker 1: those shirts. I create the word the cug button for him.
Speaker 1: I listen, I'm trying to. I'm trying to. I saw
Speaker 1: him an uncut gems. I'm just trying. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: fancy him up a bit. Put him at the desk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I missed Kevin Man. He is the most enthusiastic person
Speaker 1: about life that I've ever met. H I've never met
Speaker 1: anyone that more enthusiastic about life. So I've missed him,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, maybe we'll agree on him. But luckily
Speaker 1: we do not have to replace you. This is all
Speaker 1: fictitious because I do not want you to leave. I
Speaker 1: do want you to stay healthy and safe. Though. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you talking to me, and I hope next time
Speaker 1: we talk, I don't break another name with positive CODVID
Speaker 1: tests again. I feel bad about that now, Okay, thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Kady. Take care. The Sports Bubble is produced
Speaker 1: and distributed by tree Fort Media. The show was executive
Speaker 1: produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me
Speaker 1: Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer and
Speaker 1: sound supervisor, with production and editing by Jasper Leak additional
Speaker 1: production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hayley Mandelberg.
Speaker 1: Our theme music is composed by Spilkus. If you've enjoyed
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Speaker 1: on a sports Bubble, links to the socials, and for
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Speaker 1: Bubble is a production of I Heart Radio and tree
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