Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Silli and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in the strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
Speaker 1: too in to kJ Live. Happy New Year, everybody. Today's
Speaker 1: guests on the show is a California icon who's arguably
Speaker 1: the greatest athlete all around athletes ever race the field
Speaker 1: for the court simultageous late okay, in the state of California.
Speaker 1: It was all packed ted in basketball at the University
Speaker 1: of Southern California. Let's welcome in the boss, Stays bows Man.
Speaker 1: What's up, Stays? How's it going there? Man? Yes, same
Speaker 1: here brother. Man, it's been so long. Man, you're like
Speaker 1: one of the most like just low key dudes. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, nobody can find you on social media. You know,
Speaker 1: nobody like asked where Stacey is that? Man? Like he's
Speaker 1: on Facebook? That's it? What's up with that? Man? Why
Speaker 1: are you something little key dun Oh? Man? You know,
Speaker 1: I guess you are who you are. I've always been
Speaker 1: like that. Man. I try to keep a little profile.
Speaker 1: I try to staft the way just it's easier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, man, for sure. Man. One of the things
Speaker 1: I wanted to do today, brother's kind of just talk
Speaker 1: about your journey through athletics. Man. You you come out
Speaker 1: of a part of the country, man that has produced
Speaker 1: some of the greatest athletes to ever play, uh yourself
Speaker 1: included talk about your upbringing. Man. Where were you born
Speaker 1: with city, what neighborhood, and what influence did that uh
Speaker 1: neighborhood have on your growing up? I was born uh
Speaker 1: you know Marston Nazi seny four. I was actually born
Speaker 1: in the city of Corver City. I was actually born
Speaker 1: in Corver City. And uh, but I resided on Like
Speaker 1: you said, who burn eighty four? And I can't believe
Speaker 1: you found that man? And uh that's actually man over
Speaker 1: there is like like was that was like one the
Speaker 1: time like when like like a cracking and and games
Speaker 1: kind of like just kind of like kicked in, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like like a flare. So like
Speaker 1: every day it was like it was it was while
Speaker 1: over there either it was breaking in the houses and
Speaker 1: were fighting. But at some point we played throw up tackle.
Speaker 1: We played football in the streets. I'm talking about tackle
Speaker 1: on concrete. We're hitting cars. That's why that's why I
Speaker 1: developed a love for football over there though. I always
Speaker 1: wanted to be like Lin Swan, who was who was
Speaker 1: my childhood ado, and I just took it from there.
Speaker 1: So you're saying it was at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: crack era. But you're in the street playing football. Just
Speaker 1: talk about like what a day would look like. Man,
Speaker 1: you're coming from school, Man, dudes is on the corner.
Speaker 1: You had temptations there you I mean, dude slanking. You're
Speaker 1: seeing this stuff like and you're really seeing it, Like
Speaker 1: you might be walking down the street in the Allen
Speaker 1: and you've seeing some guy over there getting right, you know,
Speaker 1: hitting the hype, are doing whatever you're doing. Just we
Speaker 1: were we had so much energy, I think, like we
Speaker 1: couldn't say still. So we was either like for real
Speaker 1: like rocket cars, uh, school, sleeping at people's windows. But
Speaker 1: at some point we always find time for football and
Speaker 1: football and knowing that at some point throughout the day
Speaker 1: that I was gonna play football kept me on the
Speaker 1: right path. And man, I can't imagine what them games
Speaker 1: in the street must have looked like. Man, because you
Speaker 1: think of the cars, so you got to dodge the
Speaker 1: cars and traffic and then the dude you're playing against
Speaker 1: that's man, there's no We got cats out there like
Speaker 1: nine and cats out there like like fourteen. So that's real.
Speaker 1: It was wild man on the east side of the
Speaker 1: east Side. This is a cut over there, man. But
Speaker 1: thank god. You know, Mom's got a different kind of job.
Speaker 1: She was came a No On one operator. So we
Speaker 1: moved to the city of Englewood, and that's why I
Speaker 1: started playing organized ball. How how old were you when
Speaker 1: you moved to the wood most of the wood? I
Speaker 1: was eight years old? Okay, and you you played? But
Speaker 1: where did you start off with parking? What Rex Centers,
Speaker 1: the legendary Derby Park. Yeah, yeah, I went up there.
Speaker 1: I went up there to just that was a local
Speaker 1: park when we first moved over there. The first day
Speaker 1: we moved over, like a park around here. Go to
Speaker 1: the park and uh, we're just playing ball and stuff,
Speaker 1: and Cash is going to sign up for football. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what y'all doing it? I might so it's organized games.
Speaker 1: So I run home, grab mom's litter or somebody. Yes, free,
Speaker 1: come sign me. Yeah. Yeah, we get there. It's like
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. She looking at me like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: find that. That's why I signed up at uh and
Speaker 1: I started playing football for Derby Park for the UHLE
Speaker 1: with uh Incas. That was my first team in with
Speaker 1: incas so and and then not with the Incas that
Speaker 1: was this tackle was this flagg at first so straight
Speaker 1: tackle it first helmet everything. Now did y'all compete against
Speaker 1: like you know, Carson and all these other type of
Speaker 1: programs and stuff, Carson Landwood hard thing like all the
Speaker 1: uh the schools. Yeah, it was real. Who were some
Speaker 1: of the guys, man, Because because my dad grew up
Speaker 1: playing at Sportsman's Part, which Jesse Owens Park, so he
Speaker 1: always talks about him, James loft In, the old receiver
Speaker 1: from the Yeah, but they grew up together. But that's
Speaker 1: why I played basketball at Sportsman. I played Jesse Part. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: at Jesse, I wasn't kind of I wasn't nice enough
Speaker 1: to play at Darby. Okay, that's real. That's so I
Speaker 1: wanted Jesse. It just kind of more rough and rugged.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's what we worked with me. But
Speaker 1: were there any other cats? Were there any other cats?
Speaker 1: Like you know, guys, we may know that you came
Speaker 1: up with that at Darby too, Darby, like Curtis Conway
Speaker 1: was always my football bro. Jamel Holloway. It was something
Speaker 1: Lindsley Hunt. It was so many there's so many guys
Speaker 1: over there, man. But yeah, yeah it was pretty cool. Man.
Speaker 1: That's real. That's real. And so you're doing the football thing,
Speaker 1: you get in the morning side. What school did you
Speaker 1: start off at? What was your first elementary school? The
Speaker 1: mornings at our Inglewood with the war Online Elementary? Okay,
Speaker 1: And now was there a difference as far as the
Speaker 1: adjustment process as far as being from uh, growing up
Speaker 1: on the East Side and then going to Inglewood or
Speaker 1: was it good or was it cool? It was a
Speaker 1: big adjustment because casting Ingleod was kind of way a
Speaker 1: little bit more players were kind of late back, you know,
Speaker 1: Catt like you know, dressed and like, you know, I
Speaker 1: had outfits on like it was matching. It was matching
Speaker 1: and all that, you know, she was matching name brassed
Speaker 1: up and of my coming from you were just getting
Speaker 1: how he was getting it. You know. It was kind
Speaker 1: of a show. Shock in my first year was actually
Speaker 1: kind of rough for me to fit in because I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't I was almost always kind of little
Speaker 1: socially awkward and it was kind of really kind of
Speaker 1: rough me to fit in over there for the first year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one from me being uh pretty good ball, it would
Speaker 1: have been really really rough. I'll kind of cut that
Speaker 1: brother from me, you know. Yeah, man, I mean I
Speaker 1: hear that a lot. Man. A lot of guys that
Speaker 1: you know may have struggled with, you know, the ship
Speaker 1: part of the thing. They kind of gravitated towards just
Speaker 1: just hooping or just playing football, just doing one thing
Speaker 1: and then immersing themselves in that is that Does that
Speaker 1: describe what you kind of did or that's exactly what
Speaker 1: I did described to a tea And people probably didn't
Speaker 1: know that about me, But I was all flamboyant, but
Speaker 1: I was just the opposite, you know, so concentrating on
Speaker 1: the sport and actually, uh, you know, meeting dominicu Ellis
Speaker 1: and my best friend kind of kind of helped me
Speaker 1: out a lot. Yeah. How old were you when you
Speaker 1: were dime met man? Uh? Ten eleven? Wow? Two or something?
Speaker 1: Got into the wood by teen eleven, that's right, that's right, man,
Speaker 1: because you guys, you guys had that that you guys
Speaker 1: had a couple of movies done on your hard hardwood
Speaker 1: dreams and they followed you guys from Pretty young Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well they followed us Hardwood Dreams, the first one. They
Speaker 1: followed us a whole senior in high school. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: but it was like every day though. It was like
Speaker 1: so that was getting stuff they were supposed to get,
Speaker 1: you know, about your house, you know, Friday, like camera like, hey,
Speaker 1: what you're doing? It not count? How did you? How
Speaker 1: did you adjust to that? Man? You know, you ego
Speaker 1: what you decided to go to Morningside and now you
Speaker 1: got cameras in your face? How do you? How did
Speaker 1: you adjust to that? I really didn't because for me,
Speaker 1: I never wanted to do it because this at that point,
Speaker 1: I don't want cameras following me around all the time.
Speaker 1: And it just made it the show everywhere you went,
Speaker 1: like every you know, just following you the class, follow
Speaker 1: you the lunch. It just put a lot of tension
Speaker 1: and pressure on you that that I didn't I didn't want,
Speaker 1: But it wasn't my decision towards the end because because
Speaker 1: it's part of a team and the team wanted to
Speaker 1: do it for publicity and stuff like that. So and
Speaker 1: I also think, man, it's it was at a time
Speaker 1: when that type of story was you know, it was
Speaker 1: really important to tell you know, you had other stories
Speaker 1: that they were doing documentaries of the inner city high
Speaker 1: school athlete and his plight. And I think that that
Speaker 1: it shared the light of a lot of things, man,
Speaker 1: about what people like yourself actually had to go through
Speaker 1: on the day to day. A lot of times we
Speaker 1: hear about this stuff, but once you see it, you know,
Speaker 1: on the big scre it kind of changes your perspective.
Speaker 1: But I think you guys, man, you guys had a
Speaker 1: you know, you guys had a hell of a run. Man.
Speaker 1: You guys were obviously one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: the country. What it was most memorable about that senior year,
Speaker 1: like a memorable game, a memorable moment when the cameras
Speaker 1: are on. Man. Uh, probably when we played our teaser man. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know you you with my career, I don't did
Speaker 1: a couple of game winners. You don't hit You're like,
Speaker 1: you're hitting game winners every game, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it was a big game of big stage and uh,
Speaker 1: I hit a three to win the game, and that
Speaker 1: was probably the most memorable as far as my senior
Speaker 1: as far as basketball. Wait, I think I remember hearing
Speaker 1: about that. You wait, that's the way you like. Then
Speaker 1: you get the rebound and dribble it out and sudd
Speaker 1: the rebound, dribble it out and why I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess I was just nervous, don't keep it real.
Speaker 1: I don't know why d over out because I could
Speaker 1: just put it right back in. Yeah yeah, but let
Speaker 1: it fly. And it was game and I was That's
Speaker 1: all I remember so much, so I was like, what
Speaker 1: was I doing? Like now, that was when you competing
Speaker 1: sometimes such stuff taking over and you just don't know
Speaker 1: what you and just happened, you know, Yeah? Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I mean I shot I hit a finger roll from
Speaker 1: about fifteen feet out the sports arena against my other day. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was doing. I just I
Speaker 1: just threw it up. I just do that thing up,
Speaker 1: same exact type of scenario. It was like. When I
Speaker 1: looked back, I'm like, what was I thinking? I'm shooting
Speaker 1: a finger roll from fifty feet in nine? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: But I got one question for you, man. I always
Speaker 1: want to ask you man, like I doesn't feel to
Speaker 1: go for a fifty ball in college? Oh man, it
Speaker 1: wasn't fifty man, it felt like it was thirty six.
Speaker 1: It felt like it was twenty five. In the first half.
Speaker 1: It should have been fifth, should have been fifty, but
Speaker 1: they stopped passing to too many seconds. But I know
Speaker 1: I felt good. Brother, Now I felt good. Man. That
Speaker 1: was against Kyle Sharif and them, man, but that was
Speaker 1: doing the heyday of the Pac ten man. That the
Speaker 1: live live time. Man. But people, but stay, but stay.
Speaker 1: Something I wanted to talk. I wanted to find out
Speaker 1: from you man during this time. Right, so you have
Speaker 1: Morningside man, you bother your star to sport athlete. I
Speaker 1: remember you, guys. I think you. Then you guys went
Speaker 1: state in football too. You want to state in football?
Speaker 1: But they askedly took the took the title back because
Speaker 1: we had a player that was alignment. Okay, back when
Speaker 1: they used to pop you for being too oh, nowadays
Speaker 1: you can be like twenty two and no problems, no problem,
Speaker 1: no problem, Okay, take it away. But but what I
Speaker 1: wanted to know, man, Like when we hear about guys
Speaker 1: your reputation in high school was like, oh, stay, you
Speaker 1: know he real with it. You know he's he's real.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to know how much of that persona
Speaker 1: or that reputation was real, and how much of it
Speaker 1: was kind of a legendary thing that people were just
Speaker 1: kind of saying and putting a lot on it, and
Speaker 1: how much of it was real. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: none's never hundred percent real when you're in the media,
Speaker 1: you know. But but I'll probably say it for the job,
Speaker 1: because you know, I was you know, I was actively
Speaker 1: in the gang and I was in the streets, so
Speaker 1: I can't think that's just who I was at that time.
Speaker 1: I think that kind of helped my toughness because on
Speaker 1: a day to day life in the streets, while I
Speaker 1: from Inglewood and the bottoms and stuff like that, it's
Speaker 1: it can get pretty rough. I can help me as
Speaker 1: far as, like, you know, as far as the basketball
Speaker 1: and football, because guys are out there in your best
Speaker 1: sentsians elbows here and you know, tripping you here and
Speaker 1: there and there. But you know, it just didn't really
Speaker 1: face me like that. What was that influence in your
Speaker 1: life that kept you on that path that straight and narrow,
Speaker 1: the one that was Staates, you know, going to college
Speaker 1: and he's gonna you know, be going to class and
Speaker 1: being eligible and playing and being an all pac twelve.
Speaker 1: Who what was the influence in your life that helped
Speaker 1: you stay on that path? It was it was for me,
Speaker 1: it was always my mom's wresting peace. She's just always
Speaker 1: I mean, even when I was messing up, Like my
Speaker 1: mom was a hit the block, people like, hey, when
Speaker 1: your moms just came right and I'm like what, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: where's she go? I'm like, all right, let me let me,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Moms is just she was
Speaker 1: always even like she just never quit on me, even
Speaker 1: because you know, you know how it is, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't always make the best decisions when you when
Speaker 1: you're young, you know, when you're youngster. So but in
Speaker 1: the bad time, she never quit on me. And it
Speaker 1: was bad always, so how much fight she had in
Speaker 1: her and I wanted to kind of make it right
Speaker 1: and try to get back on the right path, you know,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely. Uh. Talk about your recruiting process at this
Speaker 1: time as a two sport athlete, Man, I know you
Speaker 1: had some of the top schools in the country. The
Speaker 1: thing recruiting you, the thing I was kind of curious
Speaker 1: about was, you know what, like where were you real
Speaker 1: serious about going outside of s C obviously like to
Speaker 1: play and in what schools we're gonna let you play
Speaker 1: football and basketball? Well, Arizona was was a school I was, well, actually,
Speaker 1: I'll take that back. Connecticut was a school I wasn't
Speaker 1: about too. Man was on my trip I committed and everything. Man,
Speaker 1: you can't huh yeah, man uh. I went there. It
Speaker 1: was just I had such a great time and it's
Speaker 1: such a family atmosphere. It was just and Calhoun was
Speaker 1: just the best man. He was like he was I
Speaker 1: don't know, just so there's something a bottom and just
Speaker 1: just made you want to run through a wall, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like I was on my I
Speaker 1: was on my recruit trip. I'm like, man, that's school.
Speaker 1: Grab shoes. He threw me some shoes and I was
Speaker 1: hooping him. So it was I understood what I went
Speaker 1: there to day. It was gonna be about business and
Speaker 1: trying to get somewhere, and that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: That's why any other schools, you should come up to
Speaker 1: my school man and at lone with me, Like at
Speaker 1: least four or five times I'm sitting there with Luke.
Speaker 1: If you were the bottoms lou Lou Louia Jesse Evans Jesse. Uh.
Speaker 1: That wasn't let me play both. That wasn't let me
Speaker 1: play both man. Uh, And she just put it on
Speaker 1: real thick man and man wrapped. Just I just got
Speaker 1: is connection with rap man. I still have to the day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was like for for a black man. For me,
Speaker 1: sending a black man that's successful and powerful just just
Speaker 1: did someth to men. Just it just like I just
Speaker 1: wanted to play for a rap you know. So I
Speaker 1: walking the keen speech, you know, it was it was
Speaker 1: more than sports and basketball and like fracturing my ankle
Speaker 1: my shin and you're in a football I missed like
Speaker 1: six games. I kind of understood that, like sports wouldn't
Speaker 1: be there forever, and that path for sports is night forever.
Speaker 1: But you as a person is like better yourself as
Speaker 1: a man, you know. And I just took to that,
Speaker 1: and I just had to play for rap. Oh that's real.
Speaker 1: I always wondered just kind of what's going on over
Speaker 1: the sc how the inner workings worked. You know. Obviously
Speaker 1: states were rivals at the time, and so it was
Speaker 1: like you wasn't really concerned about nothing but beating these dudes,
Speaker 1: and you know, you hated these dudes and and I'm
Speaker 1: one of the seven. I only one one again my
Speaker 1: fresh moan would be the uh at the at the
Speaker 1: sports and that ever since then donuts, Yeah I remember
Speaker 1: Mark was that the one Mark boyd and Ed got
Speaker 1: into it. Yeah yeah, and and just threw it to
Speaker 1: the ground. And what I thought me personally my eyes,
Speaker 1: I thought the man was the best high super basketball
Speaker 1: player I ever sing. Oh man, I can go on
Speaker 1: and on about it. First time I saw Ed, I
Speaker 1: was in the eighth grade. Dog. I walked in the
Speaker 1: gym and you know, he's taken off from the dieting
Speaker 1: on somebody and just I'm just like, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: And I came home and told my dad, man Ed Obannon,
Speaker 1: man Ed Obannon, Yeah, I've seen that, like an au
Speaker 1: gag was like him, Tracy Murray, uh Butler, Yeah, a game.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm glad I played football because like I
Speaker 1: could never be this good like they was like like
Speaker 1: they was out there like like like professor was in
Speaker 1: high school. Really yeah, it was crazy. So when you
Speaker 1: started off and you came in as a as a wing,
Speaker 1: right as just a straight up wing. By the time
Speaker 1: you were a senior, man, I remember you being at
Speaker 1: the one. How did that process of development go for
Speaker 1: you at SC as far as just coming in at
Speaker 1: a certain position, and then when you have a chance
Speaker 1: to be a professional, you had a coach that put
Speaker 1: you in a position. I think he felt like would
Speaker 1: be your best position as a pro right because you know,
Speaker 1: him may put me at the one, and uh, everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, he has a lot of basketball knowledge, but
Speaker 1: people probably don't know no no about him a lot,
Speaker 1: but he has a lot. He's one of every level
Speaker 1: of college player for john Wood and uh CBA Championship,
Speaker 1: the NBA Championship, so he has a lot, a lot
Speaker 1: of knowledge. He thought that that would be the best
Speaker 1: position that I feel, like further my basketball world and
Speaker 1: what she was like. So as I graduated, like so
Speaker 1: I left that seat. Everybody thought it was a point guard.
Speaker 1: It was like youtubo literally to play, you know, to win,
Speaker 1: you know how it is a lady united position, especially
Speaker 1: back then, especially back then, especially back then. Now anybody
Speaker 1: to get away right now because everybody's pretty mu us freelancing,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it's not really positions right now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but it was a little struggle at first
Speaker 1: to play my first like six or seven games playing
Speaker 1: with baby because he's the man a lot from the one.
Speaker 1: It's a different game from up top looking down there
Speaker 1: rather getting it, you know what I mean. You know
Speaker 1: people don't understand the angle the views on the court.
Speaker 1: Now you're looking at a whole another viewer, dudes on
Speaker 1: either side, except you know before you had other dudes
Speaker 1: on that side. It made life a little bit easier.
Speaker 1: But you did a hell of a job Man, first team,
Speaker 1: All packed ten. Kind of learning that new position just
Speaker 1: was the testament. I mean, you're one of the toughest
Speaker 1: dudes that we we had to play against. We always
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, oh ship, we got station them,
Speaker 1: and you know, you had to bring your a game.
Speaker 1: You had to come with all your good stuff or
Speaker 1: you know, you was getting ripped and you might get
Speaker 1: banged on. You know, something that happened that was gonna
Speaker 1: be embarrassing. Hey, when you look back on your time
Speaker 1: at s C Man and all the ups and downs,
Speaker 1: and you know, everything that was good and everything that
Speaker 1: was bad, do you think that it was you stayed
Speaker 1: too close to home to go to college. Do you
Speaker 1: think you would have been better off somewhere else or
Speaker 1: do you think that s C. It was all good
Speaker 1: for you to be in that C. It was it
Speaker 1: was honestly thinking personally, to be real with you, I
Speaker 1: think I said the one way college because I've been
Speaker 1: a little bit more focused because I've seen my first
Speaker 1: year I moved back home, like so I'll be I'll
Speaker 1: be playing the games and I'm right to the hood,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So like I didn't really
Speaker 1: really so it wasn't no, It wasn't no. Like the
Speaker 1: first time I've seen real work was when I was
Speaker 1: with you. It's just not before the Chris crazy like
Speaker 1: I was getting it and so I was like, so
Speaker 1: after that, That's when I've developed my work after that. Actually,
Speaker 1: But if I live in a way to school, I
Speaker 1: think I've been a little bit more focused on as
Speaker 1: far as the business part, as far as getting better
Speaker 1: as a player as an athlete. Yeah that that. You know,
Speaker 1: we all make our choices, man, But I would always think,
Speaker 1: like I asked myself the same question, if I didn't
Speaker 1: go to you shill and try to follow my dad's footsteps,
Speaker 1: if I would have went to because I had Kelvin
Speaker 1: Sampson at Washington State, I was rocking with Rick Majerison, Utah,
Speaker 1: I was rocking with and then George mccorney, Jordan mccorne,
Speaker 1: the Arizona State Bill Freeder. You know, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, yeah, I want to I
Speaker 1: want to see what's up with all that because they're
Speaker 1: gonna let me like handle it. And you know, back
Speaker 1: then I was the center and so being you know
Speaker 1: there you said, it was like, you're gonna play the
Speaker 1: center or whatever. They're like, yeah, you gonna come in
Speaker 1: and be you know, like a point forward. I was like, shoot,
Speaker 1: but I'm happy. But at the decision I made. Man,
Speaker 1: you know how it is when we look back on stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: right after UFC, you had a chance to do a
Speaker 1: couple of things. I remember you telling me this when
Speaker 1: I had you out of Qatar. Now you had I think,
Speaker 1: two situations, right, you had the Raiders and you had
Speaker 1: Chicago pre draft kind of at the same time. Or
Speaker 1: am I getting the chronoledge. It was like, right at
Speaker 1: the same time. It was like I went to the
Speaker 1: Raids camp right and two days in, like three days
Speaker 1: into that, the we Jack camp started, so I had
Speaker 1: to leave a day early. So they I was supposed
Speaker 1: to leave. They they came to me that morning and
Speaker 1: woke me up because I mean the meeting room and
Speaker 1: mind me. All this business stuff to me is is
Speaker 1: different man, because I'm I was like, I just want
Speaker 1: to hoop, but playball. I didn't understand this part of
Speaker 1: the game, you know. So they're telling me right there,
Speaker 1: and now they offer me to be on the practice squad.
Speaker 1: I think Pratt was eating like a hundred SENTI five
Speaker 1: thousand a year or something like that. I had to like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I'm I'm my flight leaving tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Chicago. I want to see. I had
Speaker 1: to put all that work in the basketball just to
Speaker 1: not like give it a like I thought. I thought
Speaker 1: I'd be quitting personally, and that's not what it was about.
Speaker 1: Any kind of about to do over. I probably would
Speaker 1: have signed that letter of right there the practor squad,
Speaker 1: they'll either signed with us or we'll do what you do.
Speaker 1: So I called my agent, and my agent I couldn't
Speaker 1: get to him. I'm like, I ain'tn't want to do that, man.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta gonna least see if I could
Speaker 1: make it or not. You know what, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I made that decision, and so you actually but you
Speaker 1: actually went through like a mini camp with the Raiders
Speaker 1: where you you actually were playing like dB or safety
Speaker 1: and from the man corner, which was from the left corner.
Speaker 1: And I went out there for like, I loove there
Speaker 1: for like five days. They had drafted that's to you,
Speaker 1: the drafted up my boy one wrestling piece, Darrell Russell
Speaker 1: de Russ, the drafted the number one was gonna plan together. Actually,
Speaker 1: uh he was like he actually looked off from me. Man,
Speaker 1: I love man the rush used to be because that's
Speaker 1: Jelani McCoy's best friend. So he De Russ used to
Speaker 1: be in U c. L A messing with us all
Speaker 1: the time. Russ state look states. I gotta tell you this,
Speaker 1: the Russ De Russ saved my life one time. Man.
Speaker 1: I was over here, that's c messing with y'all with
Speaker 1: the football dudes or whatever. Man, but I was messing
Speaker 1: with it. Was like Willie McGinnis, a bunch of other
Speaker 1: than big big old day Royn Harris looking dudes just
Speaker 1: walking around big d man. So I almost got into
Speaker 1: it with Willie over there, and Daryl was like, had
Speaker 1: to save me. That I looked back at it now,
Speaker 1: like man, I've been that. It was about to get
Speaker 1: I was about to get up. Gilani was even like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you're tripping dog. I would I couldn't. I couldn't have
Speaker 1: your back that day. kJ He was like, yo, there
Speaker 1: was about when we did them, news was there was
Speaker 1: no was no joke. And I learned that. I learned
Speaker 1: after that, like hold on, man, but no, man, that's
Speaker 1: that's dope. But staying with that Raiders thing. Al David's
Speaker 1: hit you up, didn't. Yeah, Man, he want contacted me
Speaker 1: and offered me to come down there, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I hold up the first time because my homies to
Speaker 1: be playing and stuff. I'm like, man, stop playing. You
Speaker 1: thought if somebody else like come in my line with
Speaker 1: that man? So and then I meant to do that.
Speaker 1: The uh when I made him at the facilities, Oh my,
Speaker 1: like me god, man, like I've never been a person
Speaker 1: and his presence was like this presence was like yes,
Speaker 1: hunting like people was like pretty much stuff. But I've
Speaker 1: never seen it like that. Man. I've been around a
Speaker 1: lot of them. I've been a Maddick Johnson. I've been
Speaker 1: around a lot of like a lot of seen the
Speaker 1: presence like that before over my life. It was kind
Speaker 1: of intimidating. I'm not evenna lie and you had and
Speaker 1: you had to tell them, no, man, you walk away
Speaker 1: and you think that becauseid me if your first love
Speaker 1: my thing is gott it, if your first love is football. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know you had the tools and the talent.
Speaker 1: How do you, I guess reconcile saying you know, I
Speaker 1: know to the Raiders and then going to Chicago for
Speaker 1: the pre draft camp. You know, I came back to
Speaker 1: my senior year and I really hurt my ankle, like
Speaker 1: I just cut up one time, and to cut up
Speaker 1: and I just broke it, man, And I'm just like
Speaker 1: six seven games man pretty much in the end, I
Speaker 1: just I just always wrote it back to that. But
Speaker 1: I had and I don't have nobody really in my
Speaker 1: ear telling me like how you probably have pops, like
Speaker 1: you need to work to drible step back here, and no, son,
Speaker 1: you ain't. I started young. I'm gon to get it
Speaker 1: off right there. What I mean, I don't really had that, man,
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's important. That's important, too much, a good
Speaker 1: educated decision. I didn't. I didn't have that. And you
Speaker 1: you had worked so hard, man, you put all your
Speaker 1: eggs into the basketball basket. You know you don't. You
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of tape on football since high
Speaker 1: school for the NFL, So I mean it's sort of
Speaker 1: like I can I mean, although you do have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to raiders and I guess who's the coach like
Speaker 1: Bill Callahan and somebody. I could sense I could see
Speaker 1: you being like, you know, uh, down two picks. I mean,
Speaker 1: the zone part of it was kind of messing up
Speaker 1: a little bit because in the league, you understand cat
Speaker 1: might cross your face and you got a hand the mall,
Speaker 1: but you can't leave to your handym mall. You still
Speaker 1: responsible for your zone. Yea, it was. It was different
Speaker 1: with the zone part of that. That that breaks up
Speaker 1: a good point I want to tell me about just
Speaker 1: as a hooper, I'm just curious about this, like the
Speaker 1: ins and out, so like your playbook and football, like
Speaker 1: how much how long do you guys spend learning that
Speaker 1: stuff compared to like a basketball playbook batball? If you
Speaker 1: have a little meeting, watch a little film for maybe
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. Who you got you the little thing? You
Speaker 1: look like? Okay, this guy do this was that in
Speaker 1: football practice started at too. We're in the classroom at nine.
Speaker 1: We're in there from nine to twelve. Damn in the classroom.
Speaker 1: It's a real classroom. It's like we got chalked back
Speaker 1: back in our day. But you know it's like like
Speaker 1: we really like we really it was. It was really.
Speaker 1: It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot just
Speaker 1: to get to the fields. When we'll do that for
Speaker 1: three hours, we're gonna eat. From then we go eat,
Speaker 1: we'll come back and do the little treatment. Do you
Speaker 1: hit to feel that two o'clock. So that's a day.
Speaker 1: It's a day. It's a real day. And and the
Speaker 1: good ones day long after the two o'clock we go
Speaker 1: from two to four cats it the weight room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm man. And then some do. So that's
Speaker 1: what they talked about when they said, guys spend all
Speaker 1: day in the facility, like all day with football is
Speaker 1: not a game. You are a football player. So when
Speaker 1: they get pissed, when they get that kind of got
Speaker 1: into the basketball. The basketball is a little bit more player,
Speaker 1: you know, when they get piste off at guys like
Speaker 1: you know, JaMarcus Russell for instance, back in the day.
Speaker 1: He probably was getting out of there at about two.
Speaker 1: Wasn't putting no extra time and wouldn't putting no extra work.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like football, that's important. You gotta do
Speaker 1: that because that you're gonna be a better player off
Speaker 1: that study. Yes you might not even be better, but
Speaker 1: just to like, yeah, but it's in the terminology and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. You gotta be. You got to be
Speaker 1: in that class room. That's real. Eric Turner, Man, Eric
Speaker 1: Turner was like burping me, Dudell close, you got to
Speaker 1: sleep third. I'm like, thank you, because I wouldn't. It
Speaker 1: was all foreign to me. You know. Eric Turners in
Speaker 1: the Great Rest of Peace, the Great Safety out of
Speaker 1: u c L A number two pick in the draft.
Speaker 1: I remember he was one of the first real US
Speaker 1: football dudes growing up. I was like, oh, he clean.
Speaker 1: He wasn't play yeah brown, he was live. He comes
Speaker 1: back in the summer, you know, chains and business. I'd
Speaker 1: be like, who that Eric Turner? That Eric turn He
Speaker 1: was so cool though, man, he was like so cool. Man,
Speaker 1: he was he was cool. Yeah, So tell me about Chicago, man,
Speaker 1: who who was who was there in the pre draft? Man?
Speaker 1: This is you know you're all your eggs are in
Speaker 1: this basket. Man, who was there? Who would compete against?
Speaker 1: And funnything you're gonna laugh about this man, because we did.
Speaker 1: We was five now and we actually want the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But guess guess it was my black corporate When it
Speaker 1: was Sham guy, it was me and Sham got out.
Speaker 1: We played in. I'm like, yeah, you have coming to
Speaker 1: get that right. You worked him in relationships, man, that's sick.
Speaker 1: Same guy. Okay, y'all turned it off. It was it
Speaker 1: was me him and uh uh. Jenfry was our coach.
Speaker 1: Man was a rude dude. Man, he was. That's why
Speaker 1: I knew guy. Assistant coaches in the league's are really knowledgeable.
Speaker 1: In the head coach, they really pretty much running the team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the head coach is doing a game and
Speaker 1: all that, but the assistant coach is putting a lot
Speaker 1: of work in. Uh. I have I respect with Jenry
Speaker 1: after that camp. But it was fun though. Man. That
Speaker 1: was That was a year. I think Tim Duncan went
Speaker 1: number one that year and the jocking them came up there,
Speaker 1: but they didn't play the top chains or whatever. So
Speaker 1: it was him. Man, It was a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: because they're right there, like I'm talking about you shoot
Speaker 1: the jake, They're right here. Yeah, they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: like they want to know how it is. Man. They
Speaker 1: own it man. So and when when you perform or play,
Speaker 1: you know, in scenarios like that man with a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure, a lot of eyeballs on you. Man, well,
Speaker 1: how does it like how do you respond? Like what
Speaker 1: do you are you getting nervous and then kind of
Speaker 1: find your groove or do you kind of come out
Speaker 1: from jump Street and just you already locked in. I'm
Speaker 1: already locked in because I think it's like like i'd
Speaker 1: be like competing against the Scotch, like it's me against you,
Speaker 1: Like I tweaked my mind like y'all don't like me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna prove myself to make y'all like me. So
Speaker 1: it's like I kind of give myself an ass just
Speaker 1: saying they did something to me. Are they don't like me?
Speaker 1: Or I just give myself sometimes because me personally, I
Speaker 1: had to play angry. Yeah. I mean, if I'm sitting
Speaker 1: out there, I'm just jolly jagging and is cool, it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be good for me. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of tweaked my mind to make to make up some
Speaker 1: kind of some kind of foundation that they don't like me. No,
Speaker 1: I mean that's it's actually something. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: done enough in today's athlete. I think you know, in
Speaker 1: our generation, we played a lot more angry. There's a
Speaker 1: lot different inspirations and motivation for why we performed on
Speaker 1: the court, why we went hard. You know, it was
Speaker 1: like some weird stuff going over. We were motivated by
Speaker 1: different stuff. And it's a trip. It's a trip to
Speaker 1: see today's generation. And let me segue really quickly because
Speaker 1: I got you here and Morningside guy, earlier this year,
Speaker 1: Inglewood beat Morningside in football like a hundred to nothing.
Speaker 1: I think you might have heard about that and saw that.
Speaker 1: You think about what you think about that? Man? What
Speaker 1: do you think that was too much? Or because it's
Speaker 1: a rivalry and because because you know about the Inglewood
Speaker 1: Morningside rival did you expect something like that to happen?
Speaker 1: Me personally, I was it was bananas. It was crazy
Speaker 1: to me that somebody would like it had a hundred
Speaker 1: some points whatever the high school football game. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what were we over there doing? We did we even
Speaker 1: got eleven players, and that's that's what I think. But
Speaker 1: on the on the flip of that, it's like I
Speaker 1: have no remorse for nobody's not with me competing. Like
Speaker 1: if I was a coach and I could beat you
Speaker 1: by two hundred, I'll just scored two hundred the hundred
Speaker 1: some points. I gotta stop him. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think English could have scored more points with they could have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would have. Yeah, I'm trying. I'll score. I'm trying
Speaker 1: toco a father. I don't know you. I don't care
Speaker 1: about none of your feelings, none of that. No, man's
Speaker 1: sports is an extra thing. You don't have to play it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that viewpoint, man. But it just shows that
Speaker 1: it's a shift now in the thinking. It's like we
Speaker 1: gotta stall people out. If I'm better than you, I
Speaker 1: gotta stall you out. Yeah that's what they are. I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to take your heart, eat your lunch, all that,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna need it tomorrow too. So every
Speaker 1: day of the week. Yeah. So, I mean sports is
Speaker 1: as far as the competition, it is a little different now.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit more sportsmanship, and though I get
Speaker 1: it personally, I had I was told opposite of that.
Speaker 1: I didn't have no before you after Chicago you got
Speaker 1: an invite or or I believe that was the order
Speaker 1: you got Summer League with the Rockets or how did
Speaker 1: how did that work? But uh, after after after that,
Speaker 1: I actually wouldn't play the C B A A. I
Speaker 1: came back that that's when the Rockets invited me to
Speaker 1: the to the camp. How was that experience inviting me
Speaker 1: the summlar You know, I summlarly here they buy like
Speaker 1: fifty people, but they only got one, like one or
Speaker 1: two looking at it. Yeah, it's like twenty dudes here,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, some dudes here on favor,
Speaker 1: some dudes here. I got there kind of because of
Speaker 1: my agent a little bit. And then Roger Rose was
Speaker 1: actually there anyway because they had drafted Rodger Rose in
Speaker 1: the first round the Uh so he was actually what
Speaker 1: the us when I was working out with him. So
Speaker 1: I want to I want to play summingly one of them.
Speaker 1: And I did pretty well man, And they, uh they
Speaker 1: were surprised and said were gonna write them back in
Speaker 1: the mint. The Vestan's camp that was the Vettor camptaing.
Speaker 1: Uh I actually started one game because uh so do
Speaker 1: Atlanta from Georgia. Last name was Anderson. His mom had
Speaker 1: passed awaye oh wow, and uh she went to the
Speaker 1: doctors for ordinary check up, man, and they did something
Speaker 1: some reaction and she passed away when she wrest from Clisia.
Speaker 1: And that was that was the time there was love
Speaker 1: to bring. That was away. That was the time. That
Speaker 1: was just my son. That was time there was love
Speaker 1: to bring. Uho Mabby off the bench. They started me,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, I had like thirteen points again, man,
Speaker 1: I played pretty well. Man who so it was so
Speaker 1: that was around the era and Cochino and uh Walk
Speaker 1: Williams and the weir. Yeah that all because my dog
Speaker 1: and uh Steve Francs was there, Mouchie Norris. Wow that's
Speaker 1: a nice little crew. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a nice little Yeah. It was some good dudes too, man.
Speaker 1: That it was like, that's the first time I've been
Speaker 1: around the star stet of people who didn't act like
Speaker 1: that and that like normal kind of cats, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean in the league. Catch me, yeah, big
Speaker 1: guy a little you you know. It was real cool, man,
Speaker 1: that was real cool. That's dope, man, that's dope. That
Speaker 1: with Houston. You you played a couple of preseason games
Speaker 1: and go through training camper and then they ended up
Speaker 1: releasing you the best practice and they tell me the
Speaker 1: whole time, I don't keep me. Yeah, man, what's you're
Speaker 1: going around looking for apartments for me? I'm because, like
Speaker 1: I went to camp. I'm like, okay, it's like and
Speaker 1: they do the hats that you make these kind of things.
Speaker 1: I'm not prepared my mind. I'm not gonna make it, okay.
Speaker 1: I mean I want to fall hard. I'm gonna go hard.
Speaker 1: That's just I go. But they tell me the whole time,
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep you for dim uh got my uh.
Speaker 1: I got half of my contract for the year for
Speaker 1: that year they had to do that. Give me as practice.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about be as practice. I'm going to the
Speaker 1: talk to you. I'm like some ice like na bro,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's no longer your ice. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Rudy was real cool, man. Rudy and I forgot them
Speaker 1: in the island, but really really was really cool about it. Man.
Speaker 1: They talked talked about thirty minutes. Man, we teach Rudy
Speaker 1: talk j okay, they're drinking that coffee and gin, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, Rudy Man really was cool. Man. They
Speaker 1: WoT me down easy, but I took that kind of
Speaker 1: hard man. Yeah. I went home and I posted the
Speaker 1: right to play the Brand Rappers and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm cool, I'm going to the career. I'm home about
Speaker 1: Monday number Yeah, and let's talk. Let's talk about those
Speaker 1: moments because I had those kind of moments to my
Speaker 1: playing career. Bro. When I got you know, i'll get
Speaker 1: hurt or got cut from somewhere and I get back
Speaker 1: home and I take me about a month and a
Speaker 1: half to get out of it. And I'm and when
Speaker 1: I and I used to you know what, we call
Speaker 1: it dissipate. So I used to do things that weren't
Speaker 1: necessarily good for me or my body. I'll pick up
Speaker 1: fifty eight pounds. Now I'm drinking, I'm blowing, and I'm
Speaker 1: doing all kind of extra stuff and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: jeopardizing the drug test. Now when I go back, it's like,
Speaker 1: you just be like, why is it, though, Why is
Speaker 1: it that we get sold in a downward spiral? Man?
Speaker 1: When we don't make it like in a cut situation
Speaker 1: bro especially cuts, like, Man, you are first competitors, it's
Speaker 1: hard to accept that you lose, Like that's actually what
Speaker 1: you did, you know what I mean. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of a hard thing to accept. Then you start throwing
Speaker 1: a pretty party about yourself and they're like, wow, there
Speaker 1: is this person, this coach is that. And then it's
Speaker 1: about a you know, thirty days, a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: the real you come out, the dog come back. You're like,
Speaker 1: hold up, man, I just gonna see and click about
Speaker 1: your upbringing, your parents and what they're instilled in you.
Speaker 1: You're your neighborhood. Then you get back to it, man,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's not an easy transition, and and
Speaker 1: and and everybody isn't going for no man, it's not
Speaker 1: his cutthroat man, and us shadow your whole thing. I
Speaker 1: mean talk about though, because we had a similar experience, man,
Speaker 1: where the NBA draft and you know, I thought I
Speaker 1: might have been a second round pick. You Tak Jazz
Speaker 1: were talking about something. You know, I had a couple
Speaker 1: of little fifty two fifty three, you know, towards the
Speaker 1: end of the dreams as I was like, okay, I
Speaker 1: might be up in there right right right, But you
Speaker 1: don't hear your name called stas that moment, man, that
Speaker 1: moment when you don't hear your name called, you know
Speaker 1: the draft is over for that year. Just describe it, man,
Speaker 1: Just describe the feeling. Bro Uh. I never experienced dying
Speaker 1: or death for anything like that, but it's almost like
Speaker 1: living like like you know, living death a little bit man,
Speaker 1: because because because time stopped for you, because it's like boom,
Speaker 1: not only my broke. I don't have a plan. I
Speaker 1: don't know what I mean, like what's my next moves?
Speaker 1: Like what I'm supposed to do now? So it's on
Speaker 1: the shell, shocking it. You don't have no kind of direction.
Speaker 1: Many people, thank god, thank god I had the age
Speaker 1: and I had your own Stanley. Who who would work
Speaker 1: with me and who would help me out? Who was
Speaker 1: trying to find places to play and who you know,
Speaker 1: if I was downing my love, who might throw me
Speaker 1: a couple of dollars? You know? It was a really
Speaker 1: good dude. Man. That's awesome, man. That's and people sometimes
Speaker 1: they don't really understand Jerome Stanley, who was Keyshawan Johnson's
Speaker 1: agents who signed cash Is Stanley uh got signed for
Speaker 1: ten day, I think last week or two cashes in
Speaker 1: the league playing. But people don't understand, um how important
Speaker 1: it is to have an agent or somebody like that
Speaker 1: in your corner. At those times, I had a guy
Speaker 1: by the name of Jerome Henderson. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember Big Roaning. He's big O O G O
Speaker 1: G six leven O G wrong. Yeah dog. But hey,
Speaker 1: but after I didn't get draft, he he was in
Speaker 1: my head every day, man about working out, about getting
Speaker 1: about taking any little job. He sent me to Russia.
Speaker 1: He sent me to the RuSHA for like tan rax.
Speaker 1: He sent me here for like fifteen and you know
Speaker 1: he was just like, man, you just gotta go, get
Speaker 1: on the plane. But just get on the plane. If
Speaker 1: I if I gotta gig, just get on the plane.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what it did, stays was keeping me going,
Speaker 1: and it kept me working and I had now I
Speaker 1: had a light at the end of the tunnel, bro.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the that's something that it's very
Speaker 1: important when you were in a position like we were
Speaker 1: in with trying to scratch and call and trying to
Speaker 1: make it. I mean, look look at nowadays, man, these
Speaker 1: guys signing these ten day contracts and guys that have
Speaker 1: been out the league for two and three uh, two
Speaker 1: and three years and that are just now getting back
Speaker 1: in the reason that they're in a position to get
Speaker 1: back in the league is because they didn't give up.
Speaker 1: They didn't give up. It's because they kept in shape
Speaker 1: and they kept borrowing. But but people don't get how
Speaker 1: hard it is. Man. So I usually got a shape
Speaker 1: so quick, man, and I didn't like, I didn't get
Speaker 1: like it to be to get back in shape, man,
Speaker 1: real shape. It's like why am I here killing? Like
Speaker 1: why am I doing all this? And like what am
Speaker 1: I doing it for? Yeah? No, it makes no sense
Speaker 1: to you, and you're just doing it, Like what the
Speaker 1: hell am I doing? But because one of them years, man,
Speaker 1: I like, I'm like flicking. Man, I stopped working up
Speaker 1: and went back to that seat. Yeah, three classes that semester.
Speaker 1: Uh team and uh, the CBA called me a team
Speaker 1: in Michigan called me, gave me a thousand a week
Speaker 1: and some reason why I had completed a semester, passed
Speaker 1: all my classes. I was going back to finising semester
Speaker 1: semester and I left. I should have stayed finished my
Speaker 1: school man, Man, that's so crazy because I'm in love
Speaker 1: with that game so much. Man. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say no, man, especially when you love it. Man,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say no an opportunity. Man, It's like
Speaker 1: it's like the great I treated all my opportunities like
Speaker 1: if as if I was in the NBA, is if
Speaker 1: this was the league? You know, you know you feel
Speaker 1: me stays. It's like, I'm not tripping on where it
Speaker 1: is and where it's that. I'm trying to go over
Speaker 1: here and just dominated uh, where did you go though?
Speaker 1: Where did you play after you got released from the
Speaker 1: Hot Rockets training camp? Where did you end up? I
Speaker 1: went to, uh, I'm going home for a minute, and
Speaker 1: it was for Mars. I was like, you can't just
Speaker 1: you can't be here. You gotta do something. I'm like,
Speaker 1: so I want to Grand Rappers, Grand Rappers Michigan play
Speaker 1: for the Grand Rappers. Whoops. Actually was a good professional
Speaker 1: organization as far as the ship A check some time,
Speaker 1: good departments we had to you gonna teams, Yeah about
Speaker 1: check don't catch it to the morrow like, well you
Speaker 1: talk what I was? I was a quant city that
Speaker 1: happened to be one time. Isaiah Thomas and bought the
Speaker 1: CBA when I was hest the league. So yeah. But
Speaker 1: but but to his credit, the checks world on time.
Speaker 1: We had to go to like tow there's two check
Speaker 1: cashing places in town that we can go to. And
Speaker 1: I go to one of these. You know, they take
Speaker 1: their little fifteen dollars off my top, but I get
Speaker 1: my brand. And for me, I was like you, like,
Speaker 1: I just love a game. So wherever I'm at, it's
Speaker 1: the league and I'm going and I'm maxing out. Yeah
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I'm treated like this league. I'm
Speaker 1: not even have enough ball. Yeah, I'm getting paid to
Speaker 1: do this and do this anyway. How long did that?
Speaker 1: How long did that last for you in the cb A,
Speaker 1: How long did you do the cb A thing? For that? Man?
Speaker 1: I would I was for about my seven years. Man.
Speaker 1: That was my like, that was my little situation. I
Speaker 1: go this c b A okay and not gonna venezuela.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, don't pick up me some maxition money and
Speaker 1: then I'll try to get a cool job somewhere. Begin
Speaker 1: know the next year, if I about to make the lead.
Speaker 1: That was my whole thing. Yeah, yeah, you like a
Speaker 1: lot of of us, that was our thing too. I
Speaker 1: hate to see. I try to find somebody here. It
Speaker 1: was it was because port member Puerto Rico, Venezuela. Go
Speaker 1: get you somebody after the scene. It's lucky you twelve
Speaker 1: months in a month and I mean it's vity so
Speaker 1: it's out there the months. It's it's a nice place.
Speaker 1: Were you in Caracas? Were you know this? Man? How
Speaker 1: was it? How was it? It was crazy, man, because
Speaker 1: as well as not like one of the places you
Speaker 1: just go and just be walking around. Now, it's real
Speaker 1: property over there. It's it's it's real property. Its sad sometimes,
Speaker 1: o man, you got this. It's a dog infestation over there,
Speaker 1: like a gang of dogs running a run as well.
Speaker 1: But I had about guard so it was cool. But
Speaker 1: that's real. But being from l a man, being from
Speaker 1: from from the hood in l A. When you go
Speaker 1: to a place like Venezuela and you see that type
Speaker 1: of that next level I want to say next level poverty,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it's I've seen it's the next
Speaker 1: level of poverty. I've seen some stuff where it's like
Speaker 1: damgn I ain't never seen a ship like this back
Speaker 1: in the mouth. What what would be your perspective? How
Speaker 1: did that change or affect you as as a person
Speaker 1: in your perspective on the world. Oh, it just it
Speaker 1: made me appreciate who I was and the things I
Speaker 1: had a little more. Man, it made me appreciate, appreciate
Speaker 1: it have been actually been an American, because you know,
Speaker 1: I've been a black man in America is not always
Speaker 1: the thing to be or it's not always gravy. So
Speaker 1: it just it just gave me a new a new
Speaker 1: foundation of being American and loving who I am and
Speaker 1: where I come from. Because I'm like, wow, it was
Speaker 1: like something like some days I'll be walking to my room. Man,
Speaker 1: I bought a couple of chickens. Man, I was giving
Speaker 1: them out to people, man, because people was really sitting
Speaker 1: there like drinking from the from the uh from the street.
Speaker 1: It was. It was it was like it's bad, man,
Speaker 1: It's bad. It's real bad. Yeah. No, man, that's deep.
Speaker 1: And so you do Venezuela and the c b A
Speaker 1: for about seven years. How what point in your career
Speaker 1: did I give you that call? Man? And when when
Speaker 1: I tried to when I asked you to come to
Speaker 1: the Qatar, oh know, and I was like I was like,
Speaker 1: bug about that. I'm like Christian, I'm just stopping you
Speaker 1: might get down. Are you talking about? Wait? Why are
Speaker 1: you so burnt down? Why why are you so down?
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know that. We was just something something.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, you can't compete harder than me, Yes,
Speaker 1: I can. And just I was like, so, like, knowld on,
Speaker 1: let me see what's ups. I'll never walk away with
Speaker 1: money and at leastee, what's up? So I hit you back.
Speaker 1: You're like words like so they're giving me sixteen or
Speaker 1: eighteen just to come. I'm like stopping man in the
Speaker 1: middleways balled over there, like stopping, bro, I get over there, man,
Speaker 1: you over the I'm like, oh quit, you're here and
Speaker 1: the cut getting it up. It was a nice situation.
Speaker 1: It was a nice situation. It was hot as hell,
Speaker 1: but money and a lifestyle. Man. I was in Dubai. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we was in Dubai early before. It was like trading cap.
Speaker 1: It was for the whole month. We was there for
Speaker 1: like a month. They were there chilling for like a month.
Speaker 1: I was a little jealous of you, Alaser spirit and
Speaker 1: that team, and the team was like we sure did
Speaker 1: I still jump out the gym. I forgot his name,
Speaker 1: but y'all seen, you're seen. Was like, man, yeah, he
Speaker 1: just retired. He just retired. People like Stringy Long talking
Speaker 1: about just retired. Just retired like two years ago to
Speaker 1: three years ago. He just retired. Man, he was amazing.
Speaker 1: He wanted They want another championship with Todd Day. Todd
Speaker 1: Day came over there after me and you like they
Speaker 1: brought Todd Day over there. They want another one. They
Speaker 1: want another one in the two thousand and five and
Speaker 1: they're like the big three on three champions So Qutar
Speaker 1: is now the like the top three on three and Asian. Yeah. Man, yeah,
Speaker 1: the basketball just kind of like they ain't want them
Speaker 1: before we won one, right, No, man, they hadn't won anything.
Speaker 1: I think the best finish was the year before. Man,
Speaker 1: we made it to the championship. But man, that year
Speaker 1: two thousand one, Man, I tell you what, Man, that
Speaker 1: team when when I when you joined the crew, man,
Speaker 1: it just took us to a hold of the type
Speaker 1: of level. Um. It was definitely they say that that
Speaker 1: was like the best team that they ever had over
Speaker 1: there with the team with men you we were sitting
Speaker 1: but I can do there was like sixt six. We
Speaker 1: had a real because now then we could play in
Speaker 1: our our normal positions at the time. So now you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about doing too much over here
Speaker 1: trying to grab boards. We cant like lock dudes up, Dude,
Speaker 1: I can come off the screen and just come off
Speaker 1: this pick like one of the best professional experience I had.
Speaker 1: Like like I went over there to a good team.
Speaker 1: I got to play my role, fifteen same points, play
Speaker 1: great defense, get the shooters to score. It was. It
Speaker 1: was a utiful thing, man, like forty like thirty days
Speaker 1: or something like that. Oh beautiful thing. I'm forget about. Man.
Speaker 1: I never told you thank you for that, man, to
Speaker 1: slep you for that. It's all good. Thank you brother,
Speaker 1: Thank you brother. I always wanted to talk to you
Speaker 1: about that. Man. So then after Qatar, Man, after Qatar,
Speaker 1: you come back to America, what did you get into
Speaker 1: you at that point, I think, Qatar, I'm still I'm
Speaker 1: still playing, like I'm still doing the same thing. Man.
Speaker 1: I did that same I did that same scenario. It
Speaker 1: so I retired, man, And when did you retire? What
Speaker 1: did you shut it down? I don't even remember. I was.
Speaker 1: I was in a cb A playing for the plan
Speaker 1: for Minnesota. Mayhem. Uh. I went to close on on
Speaker 1: this dude right in the corn and the dude blue
Speaker 1: by me. I'm like thirty four to dude blue by me? Right?
Speaker 1: He do with my little check I normally dudes they
Speaker 1: call that because now because you can't hear, you can't check.
Speaker 1: Lu was no more right, man, dude was just like
Speaker 1: getting blind me, like with the ease man talking to
Speaker 1: me crazy. You know I'm not to talk and ship.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what, I looked up. I was
Speaker 1: on the bench. Now I'm sweating. Man. I looked around.
Speaker 1: I said it's time and like once I can't compete
Speaker 1: and stop dudes like I wanted to. It was. It
Speaker 1: was it was time to go, man, because man, people
Speaker 1: saying my whole thing, like I came to the gym.
Speaker 1: I'm like, who supposed to be the superstar? Okay, I
Speaker 1: need that. You are getting nothing today? Right? If you
Speaker 1: get something's gonna because I slipped up or you. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened. You shouldn't have got that. Like
Speaker 1: that was my whole thing, come to the gym and
Speaker 1: I didn't do that. No more saying you don't even
Speaker 1: want to play if you can't do that you know,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be out there no more. Want
Speaker 1: to be out there was over and after you retired, Like,
Speaker 1: what did you get into did you? How was the
Speaker 1: adjustment I guess into being in the real world, because bro,
Speaker 1: that is one of the I talked about it all
Speaker 1: the time with all all my guys. Man, just that transition,
Speaker 1: because because look, unless you transition, this is my theory stage,
Speaker 1: unless you transition into basketball related career right directly where
Speaker 1: you can use the skill set that you gained the
Speaker 1: last twenty something years, then everything else is gonna be
Speaker 1: a little tricky. Listen. It was like I was just
Speaker 1: not being born, damn you know. I mean it was
Speaker 1: like I was so self shock man. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: I'm like anybody doing nothing for you, Like nobody give
Speaker 1: a gamble no more. It was like it was like
Speaker 1: self shocking, man. It was like really shelf shocking. Man.
Speaker 1: I struggled, man for a minute, for a minute, man,
Speaker 1: I actually got to some trouble and up being incarcerated
Speaker 1: for like a year, like a year some change, uh,
Speaker 1: And I got out of jail. Man, my mom had passed.
Speaker 1: My mom passed. It Just people understand for me that
Speaker 1: was my whole world. Man. I was I was just
Speaker 1: my that was my heartbeat, and her passion kind of
Speaker 1: just like I don't know, it's just kind of like
Speaker 1: matured me and woke me up. Man. I went back
Speaker 1: to school for jobs. I took the money she left me,
Speaker 1: and I moved to Minnesota. Get him to my Uh.
Speaker 1: My kid was out here about the nine was out
Speaker 1: here about a little house and talking about here. You know,
Speaker 1: it's dirt cheap to get something out here. So and
Speaker 1: then I started working as a counselor at UH this
Speaker 1: place called a learning center. And so as a counselor,
Speaker 1: you work with UH kids all the time, of all ages,
Speaker 1: of all social economic backgrounds or how does that work?
Speaker 1: From school? It's like, it's not we have them back
Speaker 1: at home. We called them SCROP. It's like an alternative
Speaker 1: high school for kids that you know, lacking their credits,
Speaker 1: are maybe a little older because we had couple kids
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you knows old just graduating, which is
Speaker 1: a great thing. And they stuck with it. So it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a school like that, man, And people think
Speaker 1: things a bad school for bad kids, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It's just for kids. It was a little extra help.
Speaker 1: You look, actually helping got a lot of potential if
Speaker 1: they if they get that help and they can't, got
Speaker 1: a lot of potential. And yeah, and I was kind
Speaker 1: of mad at myself and I stereotyping before I got there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't start learning. I'm like, oh, I was just
Speaker 1: as bad as other people staying type my bad Like,
Speaker 1: you know, not bad at all. I just misunderstood. Now
Speaker 1: that's dope that that you you know, are dedicated to
Speaker 1: your purpose, now to giving back man and help him
Speaker 1: change lives. Brother, I wanted to ask you about with
Speaker 1: you being in Minnesota, uh, you know the George Floyd trial,
Speaker 1: the whole situation up there, Man, what was it like?
Speaker 1: You see, you're if you're from l A. So you've
Speaker 1: seen the riots. You was there with Rodney King, So
Speaker 1: you know Rodney Kings. And that's what I'm sounds like
Speaker 1: I'm in I'm in the paint. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Everybody else, I'm getting it. So what we were using protesting,
Speaker 1: we was looking it was you was out to go
Speaker 1: get something. It wasn't no ye wash. This one is
Speaker 1: a little bit more, a little bit more political and
Speaker 1: hit it hit home a little different because I was
Speaker 1: I was I'm grown man, and I was a black man.
Speaker 1: And to see uh black man broad day, like get
Speaker 1: strangled to death in the middle in the street. It's
Speaker 1: just like it's just something I'll never forget. Man, Like
Speaker 1: that image and something like somebody say George Floyd, I
Speaker 1: just think of him being strangled with death right there
Speaker 1: on that street corner and it was just bananas. Man.
Speaker 1: I applaud all the young people in Minnesota because that
Speaker 1: was the majority of the people who was protesting, and
Speaker 1: that was really protesting. That wasn't a lotting, It wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to come up. It was actually really protesting for
Speaker 1: a cause, and it was it was, it was. It
Speaker 1: was an amazing thing to see. But also now I
Speaker 1: look back on it, like right now, like there's nothing
Speaker 1: that's changed. Yeah, kind of angry, but you still don't
Speaker 1: want to give up the fight, but it makes you
Speaker 1: kind of ain't. But being a father of three, obviously
Speaker 1: your father and you're raising kids that are gonna be
Speaker 1: the leaders of the next generation, what type of message
Speaker 1: do you tell them as a father just about being
Speaker 1: comfortable in their own skin and being African American in
Speaker 1: this day and age, what do you tell your kids?
Speaker 1: How do you tell them, especially because I have too
Speaker 1: by racial kids and I have one kid that's not
Speaker 1: by racial I just and I just tell them that, like,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna get pulled from to different side of
Speaker 1: about racial kids. You're gonna get pulled from too different
Speaker 1: sides at the end of the day, Like you have
Speaker 1: to love yourself and choose yourself and you are who
Speaker 1: you are and never be ashaming yourself. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, people gonna like you, People not gonna
Speaker 1: dislike you, and it's okay. Everybody's not gonna like you.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna like everybody, and it's okay. But you
Speaker 1: still have to live yourself and act with a certain
Speaker 1: kind of respected dignity and take pride in yourself. I
Speaker 1: tell my son in California camera, so now all the time,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely stays. Uh. One more question then, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you go. Man. I want to know if
Speaker 1: you could go back in time time somehow and meet
Speaker 1: your thirteen and fourteen year old self stay supposed to
Speaker 1: what would you tell yourself back then, I can go
Speaker 1: back in time, I would tell myself that education in
Speaker 1: school is more important. I thought it was, and more
Speaker 1: important education in school was relationships with people networking because
Speaker 1: like everybody know me and always talking about me, but
Speaker 1: like I don't know nobody, Like I don't I can't call,
Speaker 1: I don't network, I don't call people. That part of
Speaker 1: my life. I thought, I think I would work on
Speaker 1: it a little better, Like the networking and building relationships
Speaker 1: with people. Like you said that after the after basketball
Speaker 1: and after career stuff, like right now you can kind
Speaker 1: of transferred into I see you with the podcast. I'm like, okay, nice,
Speaker 1: you know, just just to have a supporting crafty enough
Speaker 1: to do something different, I would I would tell myself
Speaker 1: that the uh education is way more important. I actually
Speaker 1: thought it was. So yeah, that's a dope message. Man. Man,
Speaker 1: you had an amazing career. Man, this is a story.
Speaker 1: Was Your stories are awesome too, bro, because it's one
Speaker 1: that you know talks about resiliency, man, and making it
Speaker 1: out of a tough situation. I don't think people really
Speaker 1: understand how hardness to make it out of those situations, man,
Speaker 1: when you don't have your father around and it's just
Speaker 1: you and moms. Man, I have a lot of admiration
Speaker 1: for the for the young brothers like brothers like yourself
Speaker 1: and others that have made it out of that situation.
Speaker 1: Bro Um And I think right now, my papers, I
Speaker 1: we started talking regularly about two years ago. My Papers
Speaker 1: is my dude right now. So you just you started
Speaker 1: talking to your popsic year about two years ago. Damn,
Speaker 1: how's that? Bed? How's that? How has that been to reconnection?
Speaker 1: Do you feel differently as a father or does it
Speaker 1: not really bother you at all? It's almost like a
Speaker 1: question man asked that you always had a question in
Speaker 1: your life or where you came from, what you look like,
Speaker 1: because I had a father figured my life named L. R.
Speaker 1: Ross Senior, Like that was my dude. You know, we
Speaker 1: looked out for me the whole time and he just
Speaker 1: that was my dude. But you always wondering who you
Speaker 1: come from and why you act a certain way, walk
Speaker 1: in a certain way. A lot of questions was answered,
Speaker 1: and uh, I just you know, as far as being
Speaker 1: a relationship with him, I kind of just forgave him.
Speaker 1: Like as a kid, you're thinking, like, well, why my
Speaker 1: father and like why like what do I do? Like
Speaker 1: I do something to the dude. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: like it was like a weight off my shoulder for forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Actually so todly about me. So I'm glad I did.
Speaker 1: And he's a cool dude. Man, cool dude. He's gonna
Speaker 1: come to minute started to see you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's been some people like, hey man, we might come
Speaker 1: in the summer. We gotta we gotta figure that out.
Speaker 1: I ain't trying to resonate, but it's not feeling this
Speaker 1: compass right now. It's probably like seven degrees right, seven
Speaker 1: and eight degrees, Bro, that's so cool on that where
Speaker 1: we come from. We come from the palm trees. And
Speaker 1: you know it's sunny right now. I'm looking outside. Hey,
Speaker 1: I got the sun. I got a mountain right here.
Speaker 1: I'm chilling. Here's the thing I would say that I'm
Speaker 1: most I'm most upset about my whole careers. Like everybody
Speaker 1: always talked about football with me. I mean, I get
Speaker 1: I played football, but I think I never get enough
Speaker 1: credit for being a basketball player, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like I was off ten in the conference world. It
Speaker 1: was like real guards in this conference. It's like if
Speaker 1: you played the pack tim back when we play it
Speaker 1: was a different kind of cont absolutely every night you're
Speaker 1: talking about high level guys to high draft picks, lottery picks,
Speaker 1: number two pick, Mike Bibby, all type of Jason Terry
Speaker 1: are coming off the bitch, first rounder, coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: So like it stays yeah, it states you was out
Speaker 1: there having drawing the toughest defensive assignment probably every single
Speaker 1: time you stepped on the floor. So you got to
Speaker 1: really be up in all these dudes like a lot.
Speaker 1: Like that's the thing people gotta stand about you. Your film,
Speaker 1: your film from college. That's why I had so much
Speaker 1: confidence in in Qatar bringing you over. They were like,
Speaker 1: where did he play? I'm like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: I know, I know what time it is. My guy,
Speaker 1: like I seen him in the past, Tim Dog Like,
Speaker 1: I know what he eat. Locking dudes up, Bro, He's
Speaker 1: luck it, dudes up. So you did it, man, and
Speaker 1: its it's a credit to your game and the athlete.
Speaker 1: That's why I say, man, you were you were incredible athlete. Bro.
Speaker 1: To do that in football, Bro, and then to be
Speaker 1: all packed hit in that era. Bro, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: think about think about the two sports stars that you
Speaker 1: came up with. Okay, guys like Antonio carry on or
Speaker 1: guys like you know, there were other guys that were dope.
Speaker 1: They didn't take it to the level. Man. They weren't
Speaker 1: all packed ten and in the heyday of the conference, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: So that that's I think that's set you a part
Speaker 1: and why we're gonna look at you and revere you
Speaker 1: the way we do. Bro. We know, I think people
Speaker 1: realize it, Bro, people give you that love you still
Speaker 1: talked about, Bro, like you be on Twitter. Hey wait
Speaker 1: till I come out with this pod on Twitter, They're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, I wonder what happened to Stays and
Speaker 1: this is that? Yeah. But I was always a little
Speaker 1: key guy man, like I didn't really want too much
Speaker 1: pressing headlines. Man, I don't want to do this ball man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what's up. Bro. But man, you be good Man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your your time today. Brother. Man. I love
Speaker 1: to do this again at some point. Man. You stay safe, man,
Speaker 1: and good luck and everything you're doing. Bro. Man, your
Speaker 1: family Man's always love and appreciate, always appreciate you. Stays
Speaker 1: Bosh