Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment and a strange now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
Speaker 1: tuned in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the show.
Speaker 1: Is a graduate of Morningside High School and played for
Speaker 1: one of the greatest basketball team in the history of
Speaker 1: southern California. He also played at a high level at
Speaker 1: Washington State, then on to Mexico State, and ended up
Speaker 1: playing pro for a few years in Israel, Austria and
Speaker 1: other countries. Let's welcome in Dominic Ellison to the show.
Speaker 1: What's up down Man? Thank you for having me brother.
Speaker 1: Everything is good, man, every everything is great. Bro. It's
Speaker 1: been a while since we've connected, bro Um. I talked
Speaker 1: to Stacey Bozeman, your high school teammate, your boy a
Speaker 1: few it's back. He was on the show, Man, so
Speaker 1: it was great to catch up with him. You actually
Speaker 1: came up on the podcast. It's nice to finally reconnect.
Speaker 1: Just got the news man l a Times front page.
Speaker 1: Your name, the head coach of your alma mater, the
Speaker 1: legendary Morningside High School. Talk about what that means to
Speaker 1: you and what your mission is at morning Side that
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's all about the mission, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and obviously it means a lot to me personally because
Speaker 1: you know it's it's rooted. Uh you know, I mean
Speaker 1: it's here. Uh. I was there, Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: was one of these young men trying to make it. Um.
Speaker 1: So my my, my admission, my initial and the most
Speaker 1: important mission here is giving back to the kids and
Speaker 1: and helping them with that same opportunity that was kind
Speaker 1: of bleak for me. You know, hopefully I can bridge
Speaker 1: that gap between what they don't know, you know now
Speaker 1: and what's ahead of them in the future. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know that's the main mission. The main mission is
Speaker 1: all given back. You know. It isn't about anything else, um,
Speaker 1: but to help these young men and women and student
Speaker 1: athletes you know, achieves to achieve their goal stair dreams.
Speaker 1: You know, this is solely about that. And then and
Speaker 1: on top of that, you know, going back home where
Speaker 1: it all started for me is really the magic. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it has to be special Man Morningside. Throughout history,
Speaker 1: so thirty forty fifty sixty years has always been regarded
Speaker 1: as as one of the top programs. My old college coach,
Speaker 1: Jim Herrick used to coach at Morning Side. A lot
Speaker 1: of people don't even know that. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: they were number one in the country, Jackie Robinson, all
Speaker 1: kind of dudes, and so a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know that. And then we fast forward and I'm sure
Speaker 1: there was guys in the seventies and eighties that I'm
Speaker 1: missing out. But but the era that I remember most
Speaker 1: vividly was your era when the you guys had two movies,
Speaker 1: the Morningside of five. But Hardwood Dreams was the first
Speaker 1: one that came out right or yeah, so so so
Speaker 1: Hardwood Dreams number one, Um, happened in ninety three and
Speaker 1: ninety three. We had just won the state in ninety two,
Speaker 1: brought some attention, and in ninety three they came and
Speaker 1: grabbed the story. Um that was Hardwood Dreams one. And
Speaker 1: I'm really close to the producers now after all of this,
Speaker 1: and uh uh tall as as Mike Tallers as producer,
Speaker 1: he actually did the Georgan story and you know, did
Speaker 1: all kind of crazy good stuff. So he's a good
Speaker 1: friend of mine. Um. He he had this idea of
Speaker 1: doing it every ten years and he learned this from
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you know, a predecessor he you know,
Speaker 1: so he does it every ten years. He came and
Speaker 1: you know around when we were twenty seven years old,
Speaker 1: you know I did the first one were seventeen and
Speaker 1: twenty seven, so that was Hardwood Dreams Number two. And
Speaker 1: then you know, we were like around thirty seven years
Speaker 1: old is when and the Morning Stide five show came
Speaker 1: out on ESPN and stuff like that. Um so it's
Speaker 1: been it's been like thirty years of that particular production
Speaker 1: following you know, you know, and it originally it was
Speaker 1: Spike TV, and then Fox picked it up and then
Speaker 1: now ESPN picked it up. So, um there's some momentum
Speaker 1: there for the program for the community. Obviously they're interested
Speaker 1: in continuing that story now because I'm you know, organically
Speaker 1: turning forty seven pretty soon here. So that's the ten
Speaker 1: years later after that, and it could be a special
Speaker 1: story you know, landing the job and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: continuing the legacy of like you were talking about guys
Speaker 1: like Jim Eric Um, guys like Carl Franklin, um, and
Speaker 1: then like a guy like me comes along. Um So,
Speaker 1: so it could be a good story. And to touch
Speaker 1: your point on Jim Herrick man, Um, you know, he
Speaker 1: recruited me because he was a coach. He recruited me,
Speaker 1: and I had really no idea that he was connected
Speaker 1: to the school and it could have been a story
Speaker 1: at that point. I had no idea kind of you know,
Speaker 1: piggyback that you're saying, like not many guys know, Jim
Speaker 1: Hereck wasn't what it was today. You know, demographic different,
Speaker 1: it was culturally different back in the deaths that it
Speaker 1: was different. Um. So Jim Herrick technically in my in
Speaker 1: my lifetime, in my readings, he put Morning Side on
Speaker 1: the map. Um. What people fail to realize is he
Speaker 1: had Morning Side having the number one team in the nation.
Speaker 1: I think they wanted like a forty five forty five
Speaker 1: game winning streak in the seventies UM, which obviously propelled
Speaker 1: his career. And then Carl Franklin Um basically came in
Speaker 1: after Jim Herrick, and Carl had guys like Byron Stard
Speaker 1: and Elden Campbell Um. And then he coached obviously stay
Speaker 1: sposed men and myself and Dwight Curry and the whole
Speaker 1: Morning Side five and Corey and Sean. Um he had
Speaker 1: all of us for for twenty he was there for
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years. Um, So these are two guys that
Speaker 1: has like, really did some good things at the school
Speaker 1: and put them put the put the school on the map. Um.
Speaker 1: And now it's my turn to see what I can
Speaker 1: do on the program. You know, put my put my
Speaker 1: print on the food program. So absolutely, man, I appreciate
Speaker 1: that you're giving us that breakdown. Playing for coach Herrick
Speaker 1: at u c l A. He would always bring up
Speaker 1: Morningside High School. You always say, Johnson, I bet you
Speaker 1: didn't know how coached that Morningside. I say what He's like,
Speaker 1: we were number one in the country, And I say what, coach?
Speaker 1: You want to know what? No one knows that I mean,
Speaker 1: removed a little bit from the nown generation. Um, they
Speaker 1: don't know who the morning Side five some of these
Speaker 1: kids now And I'm walking up Empis. Um. You know
Speaker 1: they don't know. I mean. So I'm here to bring
Speaker 1: that back and bring that energy back and re established
Speaker 1: that culture back to where it all began. Your childhood.
Speaker 1: I know your Inglewood guy. Were you born and raised
Speaker 1: in Inglewood? Where were you were part of the city
Speaker 1: of Inglewood where you born. So on paper, I was
Speaker 1: born in Los Angeles, but my my family lived and
Speaker 1: what they had with what they call, you know, the
Speaker 1: lower bottoms at the bottoms bottoms right for boys in
Speaker 1: the hood was shot and all that. So I was
Speaker 1: basically kind of born I was. I was created on Lawrence,
Speaker 1: which is in the bottoms, but basically born in born
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, but I was born in Ray. I
Speaker 1: was raised, I say, in Inglewood, you know, with q Um.
Speaker 1: Then went to Lane, you know, and then I did.
Speaker 1: I did hearthor in high school for my first two
Speaker 1: years because you know, just like the movie like Lorn
Speaker 1: and Side was just too much for moms and dad
Speaker 1: to be like, yo, you're gonna go over there, You're
Speaker 1: gonna get into trouble. So I had to Um. They
Speaker 1: wanted some diversity, you know, obviously, So I went to
Speaker 1: more Haartthorn High School for my first two years ninth
Speaker 1: and Tim gray Um played ball there and then um,
Speaker 1: you know, so ironically we played Hawthorn played morning Side
Speaker 1: and that big Las Vegas tournament way back in the day,
Speaker 1: and they were we were down by thirty at half
Speaker 1: and I was playing against Stace Bows man, all my
Speaker 1: friends were over there, all the other four were over there,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, you know, dude, I'm like, we're
Speaker 1: down thirty and uh. We end up losing that game
Speaker 1: by one. But to make a long story short, that
Speaker 1: next season, I was like my dad, I gotta go
Speaker 1: to Morningside, like this is this is basketball? Like did
Speaker 1: you see there was Ali? You've been on us? And
Speaker 1: I had to go there. And then um, for the
Speaker 1: next season, I went there. We ended up winning it's championship,
Speaker 1: state championship. UM, and I kind of sort of propelled,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of my stuff. So I went
Speaker 1: to ben Acute in morning side, excuse me, Hawthorne in
Speaker 1: morning side. And then after that, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: earned a scholarship to play for Kelvin Samson at Washington State.
Speaker 1: Let's stay on morning Stide for a second. I had
Speaker 1: a couple of questions about your experience there. When when
Speaker 1: we want to set the stage so that our audience,
Speaker 1: my audience can understand what the climate of high school
Speaker 1: was like in early nineties Los Angeles. For me, I
Speaker 1: was a Cresshaw, So first to start off my clear prep.
Speaker 1: Then my dad had this genius idea after my sophomore year,
Speaker 1: We're living in bell Air Dome. He's talking about, Man,
Speaker 1: you need to go to Cridshaw if you want to
Speaker 1: get recruited by d one because back because back then,
Speaker 1: don you remember small schools we didn't have that didn't
Speaker 1: have their respect. Nowadays, you can go high level. You
Speaker 1: can go straight to the league out of a small school.
Speaker 1: Back then, folks used to look at your level of competition.
Speaker 1: So Pops was like, Yo, go to cremon shop. So
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't really tripping, but I was kind
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, what's up with this? What was more inside?
Speaker 1: Like around the same time pressure, we had metal detectors
Speaker 1: on the way in bro we getting padded down. Hey man,
Speaker 1: I mean I would say that we were on the
Speaker 1: other side, literally right on the other side of Crenshaw.
Speaker 1: It was the same exact thing going on, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: you couldn't enter the game without law enforcement with metal detectives.
Speaker 1: It was serious. Um you know, um um. You know,
Speaker 1: off the court had a lot to do with you
Speaker 1: even making it too protice and and you know, we
Speaker 1: were just different. We were tougher. It was a little
Speaker 1: bit different. I mean, I don't even think so we
Speaker 1: were toughered in. I feel like some of the children
Speaker 1: are today, but our dads and it was even tougher
Speaker 1: than us, you know what I'm trying to say here, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a different era, man, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a lot. It was a lot more distractions
Speaker 1: with as um, with survival in the inner city, which
Speaker 1: is you know, you know they used the word bullying today,
Speaker 1: like I mean, what like it wasn't that was the
Speaker 1: way And that's what I tell folks about today, like
Speaker 1: how this bullying stuff? I like, Man, I wish I
Speaker 1: would have grew up. Ma, just just you wake up,
Speaker 1: you're walking out the house and somebody gonna say something
Speaker 1: to you that could be considered bullying. But you had
Speaker 1: to have thick skin and know how to respond. It
Speaker 1: was you had to mature really fast and control your emotions. Okay,
Speaker 1: emotions intact. You know, you have to understand the psychological
Speaker 1: part of what's going on here, and you have to
Speaker 1: make a decision whether you whether you was gonna go
Speaker 1: that way or not. The support systems from your pops,
Speaker 1: you know, Marcus and all of our pops, the bailies,
Speaker 1: you know, the el our our our support system had
Speaker 1: to be extremely strong first to go. And we dabbled,
Speaker 1: all of us, we all kind of we all kind
Speaker 1: of broke a window or we all kind of like
Speaker 1: grabbed the pistol or thought about it like okay, way,
Speaker 1: way wait. You know, I gotta make a decision. Um.
Speaker 1: But those support systems, you know, it was in place
Speaker 1: for us, and we were fortunately a lot of kids
Speaker 1: didn't have some of those support systems, and they drifted, um,
Speaker 1: and they drifted too far, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that the challenges then, like you're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, on the campus of morning Side
Speaker 1: and no offense take morning Side because I'm I'm representing
Speaker 1: morning Side. I mean, it was like a little yard
Speaker 1: for a minute. You know, you have to you have
Speaker 1: to you know, you don't don't walk that way and
Speaker 1: don't look that way. Um. You know, you just look
Speaker 1: straight and you go to practice and you just stay
Speaker 1: out of that kind of stuff. Um. These days that
Speaker 1: kids have their different challenges, you know, social media and
Speaker 1: you know, you know, being you know, extrovert or whatever
Speaker 1: the whatever they're into now, it's different. They have different
Speaker 1: stuff to think about. When we were in when we
Speaker 1: were in school, you know, we had to focus on
Speaker 1: something to not focus on something, which was the other stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, gangs, drugs, get you in school. All that
Speaker 1: was was was prevalent. And uh, we all had an outlet.
Speaker 1: If we didn't have that outlet of bouncing the basketball
Speaker 1: and that support system connected, we probably would have drifted
Speaker 1: as well. So you know, uh, kudos kudos to the
Speaker 1: support systems. And on that topic of support systems, um,
Speaker 1: the Bailey's and the Murray's and all these fathers and
Speaker 1: name my dad, everybody that you mentioned, they kind of
Speaker 1: kept us in check. But it was almost by It
Speaker 1: wasn't a direct keeping you in check, but it was
Speaker 1: just like you just had these people that had expectations
Speaker 1: of you, and so you knew like, you know, you
Speaker 1: saw Mr Murray, next time you saw him, you wanted
Speaker 1: to be, you know, in better shape than it was
Speaker 1: there or you wanted to look better and you know
Speaker 1: Mr o'bannitt whoever. It was like these were people that
Speaker 1: you actually I would leave and think about because they
Speaker 1: were affecting my life. I feel like it's gotten away
Speaker 1: from that a little bit. I feel like people nowadays
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get too deep into this topic.
Speaker 1: But to people nowadays, they take you know, you have
Speaker 1: your your own little unit of support and that's it.
Speaker 1: They're messing with these guys dad. They're messing with this
Speaker 1: guy dad because his dad might be trying to get
Speaker 1: him to play on my team and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: So politics, it's different. It came too far down and
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's like the NBA at the
Speaker 1: sixth grade level already. And you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Uh it is it's like a statue grab and what
Speaker 1: I want to preach and what I'm trying to do,
Speaker 1: and I gotta leave by example right because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm getting into this deep and I'm putting you know,
Speaker 1: my name, my reputation, things I've built on the line
Speaker 1: because I want to make some changes. You know, until
Speaker 1: we understand that aligning ourselves together as mentors, as colleagues
Speaker 1: and not trying to take from one another, we can
Speaker 1: build these communities back up. But if we are fighting
Speaker 1: and um not being transparent and not trusting one another,
Speaker 1: and we can't expect our next generations to be any
Speaker 1: better than what we're doing, you know. And I'm getting
Speaker 1: into mentoring. I'm getting into tutoring. I'm getting into like
Speaker 1: community activist stuff because you know, you know, it's my
Speaker 1: time and if I can use my small name or
Speaker 1: voice in the community, let's do it. And things like
Speaker 1: this help, right, because we can reach populations. But until
Speaker 1: we men together in these communities, were colleagues, we're brothers,
Speaker 1: we've been doing this. Let's let's let's try to come
Speaker 1: together and align ourselves and not trying to you know,
Speaker 1: app siadey and do siad Uh. Let's tell the truth.
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's work on it. Let's be perfectly productive,
Speaker 1: um and uh. And that's kind of how we change
Speaker 1: this stuff. So, you know, Fox Sports Radio has the
Speaker 1: best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
Speaker 1: our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
Speaker 1: listen live. I think also Dom is just realizing how
Speaker 1: our power or our influence or and not being cocky
Speaker 1: about it or anything like that, but understanding that we
Speaker 1: we do affect how this next generation sees things, thinks
Speaker 1: about stuff. They're looking to us for, you know, guidance
Speaker 1: at times, and so being a mentor takes a lot
Speaker 1: of there's a lot of responsibility associated with that. But
Speaker 1: I feel like as as guys like us basketball players
Speaker 1: that grew up in certain type of situations, we know
Speaker 1: all the right things to do now. Whether or not
Speaker 1: we've done them as a whole another story, But tell
Speaker 1: you what we know facts, We know what to tell
Speaker 1: these kids. We know what to tell them to keep
Speaker 1: them on the right track. And I'm very uh, I'm proud,
Speaker 1: uh pleased to hear that you're taking it upon yourself
Speaker 1: to give back because you had a career in business
Speaker 1: that I need you to just kind of talk to
Speaker 1: us about you for last ten fifteen years you're working
Speaker 1: in the business space. Talk a little bit about how
Speaker 1: what made you decide to transition from the corporate America
Speaker 1: in the high school basketball coaching. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: that's a really good and touchy subject. Number one. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, as a sports athlete and as a professional athlete,
Speaker 1: we all have these like dreams. These dreams, dreams don't
Speaker 1: really die, right, they just stay in alive. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of my dreams was to always be able to
Speaker 1: like run my own business because you know, coming from
Speaker 1: the inner city, you know, one of the things you
Speaker 1: you you kind of you know you internalized is like yo,
Speaker 1: you know, you know if I sit at the top
Speaker 1: I have to make, maybe I can make the most money.
Speaker 1: You know. It kind of just just straight ahead with that,
Speaker 1: right Like so it's like, you know, being a basketball
Speaker 1: player and we didn't make half the money. We didn't
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to make half the money that these
Speaker 1: guys are making the day and and when your dad
Speaker 1: and all that was playing, I mean it was a fraction.
Speaker 1: So you still have this dream about being successful. And
Speaker 1: with that it's like fame and like being good at something,
Speaker 1: you know, making a little bit of money, you know,
Speaker 1: put your legacy on any on something. And I always
Speaker 1: wanted to do that. So you know, when I decided
Speaker 1: to unlace my shoes, and at twenty seven years old,
Speaker 1: I did a little earlier than a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You know. My last season, I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make them and I thought that the
Speaker 1: path was going overseas are playing in the C B
Speaker 1: A A B A uh, you know, workouts, individual private workouts,
Speaker 1: whatever was going going on, you know, whether it be
Speaker 1: with the Clippers or the Jazz. We had all these
Speaker 1: runs and I thought about it and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: every summer I had come back, I really don't have
Speaker 1: anything solid, you know, I have to wait till August
Speaker 1: to see what where this thing takes me. Every year
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know. Myns would say, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do next year? I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm actually waiting for a call, right, We're all waiting
Speaker 1: for that call. And that call comes in and you
Speaker 1: may not like that first call, but you don't know
Speaker 1: if there's a second or third call, and you have
Speaker 1: to make that decision. Facts they might be leaving at
Speaker 1: six in the morning the next damn day and I
Speaker 1: don't have it. I can't even say bye to anybody.
Speaker 1: So that kind of started to dwell on. You know, hey,
Speaker 1: I need some security in life. I started to mentally
Speaker 1: mature a little bit, and I said, you know what
Speaker 1: I wanna. I want to switch gears. And it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to switch gears basketball to business. And it took
Speaker 1: some grind because it really really really challenged me mentally.
Speaker 1: It actually it actually helped me to how I, you know,
Speaker 1: to figure out who I am because we all got
Speaker 1: to figure that out, right. And I went back and
Speaker 1: got my undergrad because I thought I was making a
Speaker 1: basketball It was a few credits short and New Mexico
Speaker 1: statement back finished that in two thousand and five, and
Speaker 1: then I said, you know, I gotta I gotta find
Speaker 1: some substantial what is that you know, and start research
Speaker 1: and stuff, which is the hardest part coming from you know,
Speaker 1: no experience, no job, the whole new industry. It's a
Speaker 1: whole new industry. You don't even know what time it is.
Speaker 1: You gotta find out everything from scratch, bro, you gotta
Speaker 1: learn it. All. People are asking me what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? And I'm like, I don't even know what
Speaker 1: I can do, Chris, I don't know. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what these job titles mean, you know, to be
Speaker 1: a director of operations, Like what does that mean? Um?
Speaker 1: And it was, it was. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: scattered research, you know, talking to a small business administration,
Speaker 1: learning this or how do you start this? Or what's
Speaker 1: an LLC? And I mean it got just it got
Speaker 1: just pieces flowing from everywhere. I said, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, I got to go back to school to
Speaker 1: learn this the right way, because that's my base, that's
Speaker 1: my platform. So I went back at thirty eight to
Speaker 1: get my Masters in Business and finance. That's what I
Speaker 1: was able to say, Okay, I can now have conversations
Speaker 1: in the corporate world about certain subjects. And it's just
Speaker 1: because you felt confident that you had a graphs of
Speaker 1: the information. Could this have been something dumb that you
Speaker 1: could have also learned though through mentorship or working you know,
Speaker 1: in corporate America, or did you specifically need to go
Speaker 1: back and learn from school? These are these are excellent questions.
Speaker 1: These are excellent questions because had I had I did
Speaker 1: this at twenty five, yes, I could have went through
Speaker 1: the corporate mentorship. I was that thirty eight. Time was chicken,
Speaker 1: and I was like, now, I took the route of
Speaker 1: not depending on how slow it I needed deadline, so
Speaker 1: I know if I finished this in two years, I
Speaker 1: can now do this. So time wasn't on my side.
Speaker 1: And that's an excellent question because that's the That's why
Speaker 1: I took the route because I needed it now and
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I'm not. I wasn a young puppy, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't have the time to get that
Speaker 1: ten years experience and count of cauld up the ladder
Speaker 1: like I get to come in with some sort of impact. Uh.
Speaker 1: The degree was one thing, but then there was a
Speaker 1: lack of experience, so I still had to start from
Speaker 1: the bottom. Yeah yeah, yeah, But I was an athlete,
Speaker 1: ex athlete, and uh, you know, I was very competitive
Speaker 1: and and I paid attention to detail, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's why I felt I was a really good basketball
Speaker 1: player because I did all the little things. And I
Speaker 1: ended up working my way up at this firm I
Speaker 1: started to do. I created a sports division that like,
Speaker 1: you know, manage athletes money at the firm. Like it
Speaker 1: was going great, and I said, you know what, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm making decent money, but I want but my passion
Speaker 1: wasn't there. So I brand stopping, did my own day
Speaker 1: and I did that for ten years. So I managed money,
Speaker 1: get all the reporting, get all the financial work, all
Speaker 1: the business management affairs for clients, you know, built a
Speaker 1: bio and did that for ten years. Um, and that's
Speaker 1: what I've been doing. Basically. Now I'm selling half business
Speaker 1: and I'm just going to concentrate on basically just getting
Speaker 1: distributions from the work I put in, you know, equity
Speaker 1: in the business. So I'll take a step back and
Speaker 1: leadership I'm not going to be the CEO anymore, basically
Speaker 1: sit on the board chair and an advisor. D like
Speaker 1: a retirement kind of thing. Uh but um, but but
Speaker 1: now I want to get active in the community, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to get active in the community, want to
Speaker 1: get act the sports, wanna get back. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of like the you know, a slope up and the
Speaker 1: kind of server a plateault. I've been doing that for
Speaker 1: about ten twelve years now. I left that firm in
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, and I've been independent doing my
Speaker 1: own stuff for about ten about ten years. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean when I saw you, they featured you, I think
Speaker 1: it was on the Morning Side five one where you know,
Speaker 1: they were showing you kind of in the office, hanging
Speaker 1: out with your with your colleagues and just the banter
Speaker 1: bro Like I know, I know you and we all chameleons. Okay,
Speaker 1: we all chameleons, and we've all me and you specifically
Speaker 1: have always been able to be chameleons. Like probably not
Speaker 1: a lot of dudes can in our area. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna keep it a hunted with you. Okay, so so too.
Speaker 1: But to see it and like just you was doing that,
Speaker 1: I forgot what you were doing, but it resonated with
Speaker 1: me so like, and this is gonna sound like some
Speaker 1: nerdy ship down, but this like you created an Excel
Speaker 1: sheet and you did something on the excel. You had
Speaker 1: your color coded and you had formulas, or you did
Speaker 1: something real fly Bro. When I first learned how to
Speaker 1: do that, I felt like and I didn't learn how
Speaker 1: to do it. I was thirty eight, thirty nine. I
Speaker 1: felt like the man, like I like I was. I
Speaker 1: had a winter from fifty You feel you feel like
Speaker 1: the man when you create a bomb massic seal sheet.
Speaker 1: Yes you understand. I'm watching it, though I'm like, I
Speaker 1: look at it. I'm speaking out over your Excel sheet, Bro,
Speaker 1: I swear I was on it. So everybody in the
Speaker 1: office was like, hey, look what the look what there?
Speaker 1: You know? Look, I was the only brother in the
Speaker 1: entire verb um, the only the only brother in the
Speaker 1: firm that worked on accounts. Um. The other brothers were
Speaker 1: in different areas of the firm, but they didn't work
Speaker 1: in the on the accounts which is the money you
Speaker 1: know room or you know other services? Should I say,
Speaker 1: and um, very very cool story is how I got
Speaker 1: that job? Is um? Coaching at brent With High School.
Speaker 1: You never know how things happened. I was an assistant
Speaker 1: coach at Brentwood High School and met a met a
Speaker 1: gentleman um Um that was uh that went to Brentwood
Speaker 1: and um, you know, he was coaching pro bono. Um,
Speaker 1: didn't need any stipend or anything like that. And through
Speaker 1: our season and we became like really really close. And
Speaker 1: I'm talking about like opposite cultures here one opposite cultures
Speaker 1: Morningside High School brent With School, like totally opposite. And
Speaker 1: he learned a lot from me from my culture, and
Speaker 1: I learned a ton from him and his culture. And
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, you know, life after basketball
Speaker 1: in transition of what I'm gonna be doing next, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of staying attached to it, but not really like
Speaker 1: full on like I'm gonna be now. And I was
Speaker 1: reaching out to resource and say, hey, man, you don't
Speaker 1: need a job. I'm trying to do this. I'm in
Speaker 1: school at the time. I was in my master's program,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, if you could make
Speaker 1: a call to anyone, anyone, I was just hungry. And
Speaker 1: he made a call to his cousin who knew the
Speaker 1: boss or the partner in charge at the firm that
Speaker 1: I ended up working for, and uh, he made the connection.
Speaker 1: And I waited for two years and the guy that
Speaker 1: connected me with the partner in charge gave me a
Speaker 1: call and said, you know, are you still on the market.
Speaker 1: I said yes, and he said when you can you start?
Speaker 1: And I said tomorrow and he hired me. And that
Speaker 1: guy has been a mentor in my life. He's become
Speaker 1: a business partner. He's become an investor in my business.
Speaker 1: And I worked under him for seven years and then
Speaker 1: now he became a partner in my company, raised millions
Speaker 1: of dollars from my business, and now I have that resource. Um.
Speaker 1: And his name is King Colo. He works at the firm.
Speaker 1: I mean you know, Um, So through these small connections, man,
Speaker 1: you know, and if you keep your head on straight
Speaker 1: and you build, you know, something's happen. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know that job, My only job came through relationship,
Speaker 1: through basketball. So you just never know what happens in
Speaker 1: this world. Uh. You just gotta be ready, um, and
Speaker 1: you gotta keep up. UM. So I'm blessed and only
Speaker 1: tell that story because, um, you know the last ten
Speaker 1: years of my life has been a tribute to that
Speaker 1: small connection at Brentwood and that friend of mine who's
Speaker 1: still friends today that helped propel me and like, you know,
Speaker 1: help me in my life. Man. So that's as a
Speaker 1: touch you as a touch you on for me because
Speaker 1: it came through a very very small, small window. But
Speaker 1: my life for the last fifteen years. Oh yeah. Man.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the things that impact you the most they don't
Speaker 1: seem like they're big deal at first. I mean I
Speaker 1: had a situation that I got involved with the two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven with a tech company out of Salt Clito, California.
Speaker 1: But I met the guy through Steve Lavin. I happened
Speaker 1: to be working laughs Camp Basketball camp out in New York.
Speaker 1: This guy had an iPad, an iPhone app. He was
Speaker 1: trying to get off. You know, you can do the
Speaker 1: digital scouting, take photos, audio, man the whole night, you know,
Speaker 1: shoot it up to the cloud. You know that print
Speaker 1: out reports, PDF, shot charts. So he's he's trying to
Speaker 1: sell Lab on becoming sort of like a spokesman for
Speaker 1: this or being endorsed the product or whatever. So lab
Speaker 1: wanted me to come along because I had in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, I had tried to develop an iPhone
Speaker 1: video game with a company called Artificial Life out of
Speaker 1: Hong Kong. So we had t o Manny Pakia, you
Speaker 1: know all in talks to make some games. So I
Speaker 1: had to do a bunch of just downloading of research
Speaker 1: in my brain about you know, Apple, the Apple code,
Speaker 1: the iPhone? What time it was? Hi hi Hi I
Speaker 1: work So anyway, I'm well versed when by the time
Speaker 1: this meeting comes with this guy is named by that
Speaker 1: guy by the name of Greg. Greg gets is impressed.
Speaker 1: I have a command on everything he's talking about. This dude,
Speaker 1: hw tire me. I worked for him for seven and
Speaker 1: a half years after that, traveled all over the country
Speaker 1: when him went to the m I T Conference, Sloan
Speaker 1: Sports Analytics Conference several times. Bro. But just to your
Speaker 1: point about these small connections through basketball, it's like, if
Speaker 1: you're at the right place at the right time, and
Speaker 1: you understand how to deal with people in a positive way,
Speaker 1: you can get far. And that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that as a mentor, one of my first things I
Speaker 1: talked to kids about. Man, it's it's how to nourish, cultivate,
Speaker 1: and maintain lifelong relationships with folks. Man, it is, it
Speaker 1: really isn't. And you know I learned that late. Um,
Speaker 1: I can't lie me too, bro, me too, Bro. I
Speaker 1: really did, Like I really learned that late. And and
Speaker 1: that's okay. You know, once you learn it, you just
Speaker 1: hone it, you know. But but that's like, you know,
Speaker 1: that's part of message, you know, of giving back in
Speaker 1: the community and like telling these kids are important, you know,
Speaker 1: because I still got let me. I'm sure you've got
Speaker 1: all these relationships for twenty thirty years. I mean, look
Speaker 1: how we can do it. You know we can yesterday. Um,
Speaker 1: you know if I've seen your pops out and it's
Speaker 1: just like yesterday, these relationships don't really go anywhere. They
Speaker 1: just they just they just maintain that value. And uh
Speaker 1: and like you said, it can take you a long way.
Speaker 1: So I'm blessed to have that happen. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: being in this situation is a big deal for me.
Speaker 1: So I can pass along some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: we've been through. I mean, you know, if it ain't
Speaker 1: at us, you know, it's the next one, so it
Speaker 1: might as well be us. So yeah, I think teaching
Speaker 1: these kids about just insane work ethic is a good start,
Speaker 1: because you know, work ethic takes takes care of a
Speaker 1: lot of things. You know, you can cover up a
Speaker 1: lot of just you know, deficiencies and inefficiencies or whatever.
Speaker 1: But if your asses there, you clock it in and
Speaker 1: you're doing them twelve fourteen hours everyday consistency, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a level of respect for you that others won't get. Um.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk to I wanted to find
Speaker 1: out something. So Kelvin Sampson recruited me heavy at watching
Speaker 1: this state. Okay, he was rocking with me. He's rocking
Speaker 1: with my game. He was calling me all the time.
Speaker 1: I love that dude, I literally I was. I wanted
Speaker 1: to go because I loved him. I was curious, how
Speaker 1: not about the basketball park, because I always got a
Speaker 1: sense about Kelvin from a basketball's perspective, but I've always
Speaker 1: curious about how he handled you guys off the court
Speaker 1: as as a coach. How was your experience playing for
Speaker 1: him off the um? You know, I was seventeen and um.
Speaker 1: You know, when you are battling understanding who you are
Speaker 1: and someone challenges you, you don't know if it's for
Speaker 1: the good or bad. Right. Um, but but what you do,
Speaker 1: what you what coach did and still is from a
Speaker 1: basketball perspective, is you know you kind of like how
Speaker 1: to either love or hate to do. Because he was gonna,
Speaker 1: he was gonna get in your stuff, he demanded. He
Speaker 1: didn't all he really and he didn't get this. You
Speaker 1: didn't get this while you were like, you know when
Speaker 1: he's talking to you, you don't really get it like
Speaker 1: that because you're young. You're trying to figure it out. Um,
Speaker 1: but all he really, really truly wanted you to do
Speaker 1: from a basketball perspective, what's to play your hardest. And
Speaker 1: you know how hard that is to get out of
Speaker 1: a young man when he thinks he's nice, right and
Speaker 1: he he wants to turn it on. When he wants
Speaker 1: to turn it on, is going look, I get it,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't work here. You surrender you you have
Speaker 1: to surrender to me as a coach and excuse me
Speaker 1: as as a player. You have to surrender to me
Speaker 1: as a coach because there's no other way. And if
Speaker 1: you get as a young man, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: learning your much and you battle that you're like, man,
Speaker 1: oh man, why are you always on my head? You know,
Speaker 1: are you always on my back breath. But no, what
Speaker 1: he was doing is bringing out the best in you,
Speaker 1: because if you don't play hard, we won't know ever.
Speaker 1: And it's not a light switch. So on a basketball
Speaker 1: court with Kelvin did is he brought the best out
Speaker 1: of us because he demanded us to play hard. If
Speaker 1: you watch Houston University today, they play hard. They may
Speaker 1: not do a whole lot of stuff on offense, coach,
Speaker 1: don't don't don't kill me here, coach, if you hear this,
Speaker 1: a whole lot of stuff like other programs on offense,
Speaker 1: but you look at that rebounding category or loose ball
Speaker 1: category 's twenty on guys, they play hard. That's really
Speaker 1: their bread of us. Now, that guy confused with off
Speaker 1: the court because you didn't know if the dude liked
Speaker 1: you or loved you, because you were still in your feelings.
Speaker 1: You you was like, oh, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: should approach it do I'm I'm kind still mad at
Speaker 1: him because he made me run or he was talking
Speaker 1: about how soft thought was, which we can't do these days. Um.
Speaker 1: But then people tell you when a coach stops talking
Speaker 1: to you, you need to be worried. Yeah, you need
Speaker 1: to be worried. He was always talking with me. He cared,
Speaker 1: he carred, carried to care um, and I was, I was.
Speaker 1: I was a little young because I only had Kelvin
Speaker 1: for one year. Um, then Kevin Eastman came. Kevin alright,
Speaker 1: but it feels like I played for Kelvin for four years.
Speaker 1: I talked to Kelvin last week. Um, you know, Kelvin
Speaker 1: at forty at forty six. I love Kelvin because now
Speaker 1: I get it. Yeah, he is better off the court
Speaker 1: then he is on the court because he cares and
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't you draw, You can't really put
Speaker 1: those together from a basketball perspective at seventeen and off
Speaker 1: the court because you're like my child, dude. You know
Speaker 1: it's like you know your parents like, oh, go talk
Speaker 1: to your teacher after class, right, good place you with
Speaker 1: the teacher. You'll learn more. And you know, talk to
Speaker 1: my teacher. It was the same thing with Kelvins. I
Speaker 1: want to start. I want to stay farther, farthest away
Speaker 1: from him. When I was younger because I felt I'm
Speaker 1: mad at this dude. You know, if I if I
Speaker 1: just dudes, gonna talk to some ship. But as you
Speaker 1: grow older. You know, if you look at his staff today,
Speaker 1: they all us. They all like, if if you know,
Speaker 1: like you was coaching, like you was coaching, you would
Speaker 1: be with you would be with Lavatory, you would be
Speaker 1: whoever you were with. And he's a family dude. He
Speaker 1: takes care of his own. He cares about his players.
Speaker 1: All of us have relationships with Keilsman. Um. And I
Speaker 1: only have one year with him, um, and it feels
Speaker 1: like it feels like I've been in with the dude
Speaker 1: for four years. He he claims, you know that I
Speaker 1: was the best point guard he's ever had bart regardless
Speaker 1: of whoever went to the NBA or not. He just
Speaker 1: feels in his heart and I was one of his
Speaker 1: best point guards, which is attribute to the honor for
Speaker 1: me because he's a Hall of Famer. Um. So that
Speaker 1: was the thing Like off the court, the dude is,
Speaker 1: the dude is like his heart is huge for for
Speaker 1: his dudes, you know what I mean. He's really he's
Speaker 1: really a true dude. And uh, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: and I'm pleasing honor to say that. You know, I
Speaker 1: can call coach right now and you know, and it's
Speaker 1: like it's like a mentor it's like a big brother,
Speaker 1: it's like an uncle, like he can't do anything in
Speaker 1: his power to help and assistant support when a lot
Speaker 1: of guys may not pick up the phone, you know
Speaker 1: they too be He's he's big time. Now, you know
Speaker 1: he's big time. He's different than it was. But he
Speaker 1: was coaching at Watchington State, I'll tell you that. But um,
Speaker 1: he's really earned his positions. Mason decisions, and you know
Speaker 1: it's cost him in certain places, but you know, we
Speaker 1: all gotta pick up and keep it rolling in. And
Speaker 1: I'm proud of coach, absolutely glad to see him get
Speaker 1: a second chance. And and this time around he's he's
Speaker 1: actually he's really shocked me. She shocked the hell out
Speaker 1: of me. And I knew Houston had the resources, and
Speaker 1: I knew Houston was like an up and coming situation,
Speaker 1: but I did not realize there's be in the final
Speaker 1: four last or two years ago whenever they made it,
Speaker 1: and then last year they looked great in the tournament.
Speaker 1: Big big time job by by Coach Sampson. Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. Now, after Washington State, you
Speaker 1: went to New Mexico State and played for a year,
Speaker 1: then you finished in New Mexico and now you're on
Speaker 1: the NBA radar are and you're looking at playing professionally.
Speaker 1: What was how far did the NBA journey take you?
Speaker 1: Did you get a training camp where you playing next
Speaker 1: ahibitions season? And then how like how important was it
Speaker 1: to you personally to make the league? You know, So
Speaker 1: I'll take it back, like you know, I was uh
Speaker 1: my my sophomore year, I led the pack and assists
Speaker 1: and that I felt was like the hottest time of
Speaker 1: my career. Yeah, right, Like although I went on to
Speaker 1: play pro and I had a couple of tea in
Speaker 1: the league and the workouts, I think the hottest time
Speaker 1: of my career was was during that sophomore season and
Speaker 1: that had three individual workouts on campus at Washington State
Speaker 1: and the first was the Supersilis because they were the
Speaker 1: closest to the campus and uh Casey came down and
Speaker 1: worked me out with uh with Tim who was Tim's
Speaker 1: last night had me like, I mean, he was the
Speaker 1: workout king at that time. So I got a taste,
Speaker 1: you know, but I was only like eighteen. I just
Speaker 1: turned eighteen. As the song where I was young, because
Speaker 1: I you know, I was young and Tim, I had
Speaker 1: Tim and Casey and they put it on me and
Speaker 1: then I was like, oh, ship, like this is a
Speaker 1: different level. So that was the first workout, and then
Speaker 1: I had another workout by Utah, and then I had
Speaker 1: a workout by the Spurs, all in the same like
Speaker 1: three weeks before weeks span and they worked me and
Speaker 1: Isai Fontein now uh Mark Hendrickson. Oh yeah, so that
Speaker 1: was kind of like our thing and uh, three different positions,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh. And we had the workouts so that
Speaker 1: I felt was the hottest. And then um, I transferred.
Speaker 1: And then when I transferred, I felt like, Okay, now
Speaker 1: I'm in my right class because I was up a season.
Speaker 1: I wasn't supposed to be in ninetything supposed to me.
Speaker 1: So then I went to the Mental State. I had
Speaker 1: an okay season. Um I got a Newcomer of the Year. Uh,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the pack. It was different playing against
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd and Tias and Bresen and Stays and Cameron
Speaker 1: Murray and you know, it was just Salon and uh,
Speaker 1: I did okay, but I don't. I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was powerful enough to get drafted, right, So you know,
Speaker 1: I did what everybody else. They got an agent and
Speaker 1: I was told, okay, you might be in the second
Speaker 1: late second rounder. Um. If not, you know, we have
Speaker 1: these trade agreements and again, get you in the camp
Speaker 1: and all that kind of like secondary stuff. So it
Speaker 1: wasn't just a clear dog you're gonna get drafted, um,
Speaker 1: And a lot of us have to do that. So
Speaker 1: after that, once I realized I wasn't gonna you know,
Speaker 1: walk in there there, I was like, okay, what's planning
Speaker 1: B And I was talking to a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that were similar in that similar position of you know,
Speaker 1: on the borderline of making to the NBA, but then
Speaker 1: there's still life after, you know, there's still a career here. Um.
Speaker 1: And they were telling me, look, you know, you need
Speaker 1: to concentrate on, you know, making a substantial amount of
Speaker 1: money over a period of time. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: the NBA route, but now you're a professional, you know,
Speaker 1: you can go overseas or you can try to stay
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues. And and my decision, like other people,
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: to because we only have the c BA at the time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like the D League, wasn't like the G League.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like all this other stuff. We had the
Speaker 1: c B A and the CBA was paying you know,
Speaker 1: two three hundreds a week for our max and I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, I felt like I like like I
Speaker 1: was like, I felt like I needed to do more
Speaker 1: than that. Um. So I went overseas and I got
Speaker 1: a first opportunity in Israel? How was that? How was that?
Speaker 1: Sperience in Israel? Israel was you know what man is?
Speaker 1: You know, we didn't have Google, we didn't have YouTube.
Speaker 1: So I had to pick up a damn Encyclopdu classic
Speaker 1: at the Botanica without oh you know, you know moms
Speaker 1: at a mom yeah, yeah about stack And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: where is this place at? And I had to pick
Speaker 1: it up and I was like old pictures. So I
Speaker 1: had no idea exactly what was going on. So when
Speaker 1: I got there, um, and UH kind of learned the
Speaker 1: history and the culture because Israel's deep um and the culture,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's when like that's when it's like
Speaker 1: like my exposure went to like another level. It was
Speaker 1: like wow, okay, you know, here's America, but like, wow,
Speaker 1: here's customs different over here. There's a culture is different
Speaker 1: over here, the values are different, you know. And then
Speaker 1: um and then there was you know, um, you know,
Speaker 1: you know all these beautiful women in Israel, um that
Speaker 1: we have no idea what goes on in all these places.
Speaker 1: The Mediterranean Sea is there, you know, it's eighty five degree,
Speaker 1: you can see to the bottom of the water. And
Speaker 1: then you know there, you know, you know, there's you know,
Speaker 1: the people look different. It was it was hot, you know,
Speaker 1: and they spoke English, spoke English in Israel, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, it's like one of the best kept secrets.
Speaker 1: So to this day. Um, I took a lot of
Speaker 1: what I learned that first year in Israel, UM, and
Speaker 1: I internalized that because they're you know, they got strong culture,
Speaker 1: you know, they got strongly, they got they got some
Speaker 1: real good values and uh try to you know, come
Speaker 1: over here where we're at and still those Um. So
Speaker 1: that was my first gig and then UM I left there.
Speaker 1: I actually like I did really good and like one
Speaker 1: of these like tournaments and then one of the agents
Speaker 1: or sponsors from a team in Austria. It was like,
Speaker 1: we'll pay you to get out of this contract and
Speaker 1: come Austria and play for us. And I was just
Speaker 1: like this is it? So I left that team and
Speaker 1: went to Austria. How was Austria. It's next to Germany,
Speaker 1: right yeah? Okay, so yeah, so Austria was a different
Speaker 1: beast you know, um, you know, um it was. It was.
Speaker 1: It was slower in Israel. Like I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: what about this dude? Like I was just like I
Speaker 1: was just pop it and now not. It was a
Speaker 1: lot more structured, um, a lot more and it was historical.
Speaker 1: Um you know the people of Deutsche you know, it was.
Speaker 1: It was different. It was cold, you know, it was
Speaker 1: freezing colde Now I was like I felt like I
Speaker 1: was back in Pullman, Washington. Where that I mean I was,
Speaker 1: I mean not okay, hold on, I was I could
Speaker 1: do it Like I was like, yo, I thought I
Speaker 1: was in Cali. I was just in Cali and Israel,
Speaker 1: you know. But then I was like yo, back to
Speaker 1: the snow. So it was cool. I had the basketball
Speaker 1: was very good. Um, we had some really good goods
Speaker 1: and you know, I enjoyed it. I became you know,
Speaker 1: one of the you know locals, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I became a part of your community. And again another
Speaker 1: good learning experience, man um, and I enjoyed my time.
Speaker 1: We ended up winning the championship there um and uh
Speaker 1: that's when I kind of got like my fever again.
Speaker 1: Was like, yo, you know, you win a championship in Europe,
Speaker 1: you might get a look. These days you would a championship,
Speaker 1: you might get a look in the league. Back then,
Speaker 1: it was a little tougher. They weren't. They weren't in
Speaker 1: the building as much as they are now. The game
Speaker 1: the game, right, We're right, it was we were coming
Speaker 1: through that era where it was very athletic. Yeah, everything
Speaker 1: just went from fundamentals and skills to is raw athleticism.
Speaker 1: And that was that transition from you know, the Norm
Speaker 1: Nixons and the magics and the and then it went
Speaker 1: to like, you know, like the guys that could just
Speaker 1: bounce the Vince Carter's and you know all these just
Speaker 1: it was a bounced erain, remember that, right, I mean
Speaker 1: the layoff guys couldn't pull up jump shot, guys couldn't
Speaker 1: dribble with their left hand, but they could jump and
Speaker 1: and and they were long. So the game changed and
Speaker 1: and then and nowadays we kind of lost. We kind
Speaker 1: of lost a little bit. I feel personal needs to
Speaker 1: be personally kind of feel like we lost a little
Speaker 1: bit of skill set. And now that's why we got
Speaker 1: a lot more Europeans in our league because they have
Speaker 1: less athleticism. He then being able to compete now and
Speaker 1: not to knock their athleticism, but they played the game differently,
Speaker 1: that for a fact, because you played. Yeah, but anytime
Speaker 1: a guy like Yoki and Dunche can dominate the NBA,
Speaker 1: Yo Kitchen Duncan are the two most dominant dude. They
Speaker 1: they be serving dudes and they make you look bad.
Speaker 1: Give you fifty eighteen and sixteen dogs against whoever you're
Speaker 1: putting over there, Janice, it don't matter. It's like how
Speaker 1: it trips me out. But I think it's a credit
Speaker 1: to what you exactly what you're saying. It's a it's
Speaker 1: an i Q also associated with the back with their
Speaker 1: game too, like they have an advanced i Q. They
Speaker 1: were taught certain principles about the game that weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: emphasized with us. And I think that you said it
Speaker 1: perfectly that's why they've caught up so quickly and are
Speaker 1: now dominating the league. But after Austria, So you win
Speaker 1: a championship in Austria, how you're about, Well I was,
Speaker 1: and I won that championship. Is but you retired three
Speaker 1: years later? What happened in between Austria and retirement? So
Speaker 1: I went back to uh Ramagan, back to Israel for
Speaker 1: a short period, and then um, I was I was
Speaker 1: supposed to go to Spain to play, and then it
Speaker 1: was that call situation again. It was like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: trying to negotiate a little bit more money. Um and
Speaker 1: but you got this window and Austria had called me
Speaker 1: back again saying we want you back. Because I left
Speaker 1: Austria to go to try to, you know, make some money.
Speaker 1: I think I played and the IBL. Sorry after after Austria,
Speaker 1: I played so long ago. After Austria, I played in
Speaker 1: the IBL for the Demon Dragons with that like idea
Speaker 1: of staying local, staying in the States and being brought
Speaker 1: up for attending and you know, Stace was doing that.
Speaker 1: Guys was doing that, and I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I just won the championship. My name is Ringing. I'm
Speaker 1: actually putting up like thirty forty in the Long Beach
Speaker 1: summer leagues. You know, I'm like, I'm this was my
Speaker 1: hot time after college and uh um. I ended up
Speaker 1: playing the idea for a year, thinking that I would
Speaker 1: get uh you know, brought up as a for a
Speaker 1: ten day. I did that for a year. We actually
Speaker 1: went to the championship. I think we lost championship or
Speaker 1: something like that. But then after that, that's when I
Speaker 1: went back overseas and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to the n b A. I'm twenty
Speaker 1: five years old, and if I had not made it
Speaker 1: after I won the championship year, It's probably not gonna
Speaker 1: be my day. So I had a couple of tryouts
Speaker 1: again for the Lakers. I had tryouts for UM. I
Speaker 1: think it was like the Lakers and the Bulls and
Speaker 1: I at that time, you know, like you were talking
Speaker 1: about earliers. You know, you and I have a different
Speaker 1: you know, mindset about how how we pick up on things.
Speaker 1: And my antennas went up, and I go, Okay, even
Speaker 1: if I do get a couple of coffee in the NBA,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be playing minutes. I'm gonna be on
Speaker 1: a practice squad. I'm gonna be you know sort of
Speaker 1: you know, in the background, I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I want that. Um, I basically want to continue
Speaker 1: learning myself and going overseas. Being there for eight months
Speaker 1: by yourself, you learn yourself. And I just said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna finish my career overseas. So I did that,
Speaker 1: went back to Austria for another two years, and um,
Speaker 1: my last year, I came back and played in the
Speaker 1: A B A for the I don't want to say
Speaker 1: the L A Stars or yeah, something like that. And
Speaker 1: then after that, I was like, I'm not going back overseas.
Speaker 1: So that's when I was like, I'm going back to school.
Speaker 1: And I think I went back to school to get
Speaker 1: my undergrad and psychology in two thousands before and I
Speaker 1: was a rat. Yeah, so that's kind of like my
Speaker 1: my journey. You know. I played you know, three or
Speaker 1: four years overseas something like that, five years overseas and
Speaker 1: in a couple of minor league years, um, and figured out, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I need to like establish myself
Speaker 1: in America like absolutely live coming home in the summers,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, like everybody else bringing as much
Speaker 1: cash money as you can back home, but I don't
Speaker 1: have like a residence, you know, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: living with moms or you know, like trying to you know,
Speaker 1: live with a chick for that period of time. And
Speaker 1: to my back and that gout played out. Oh yeah, personally,
Speaker 1: it just got you get tired of that. You get
Speaker 1: tired of that. I need a life. I need to
Speaker 1: be established. Where am I living at? You know, you know,
Speaker 1: I need a woman like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I start to think about life. Um. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I cut it short and went back to school, man,
Speaker 1: and then, um, you know, as we touched on earlier,
Speaker 1: that kind of started my journey. Man. Being overseas, there's
Speaker 1: always that level of loneliness that kind of takes over
Speaker 1: when you especially when you are gone for extended periods
Speaker 1: of time and you have all this time to be
Speaker 1: thinking about yourself and learning yourself and basically free time
Speaker 1: to do nothing but time to kill. That's it. You
Speaker 1: got time to kill, to the next practice, to the
Speaker 1: next meal, whatever it is. So I guitar. I learned
Speaker 1: a lot about myself over the course of four years,
Speaker 1: you know, playing over there overseas, and then I also
Speaker 1: realized when I got back home, just how far behind
Speaker 1: uh in certain areas, man, because everybody's you know, let's
Speaker 1: just like the workforce, and you touched on it earlier.
Speaker 1: You got your degree, but no experience, and they won't
Speaker 1: experience if you just like a guy that just came
Speaker 1: out of college. So like they're looking at you, man,
Speaker 1: you ain't got no mentorship, like you ain't did an internship. Man,
Speaker 1: you was playing basketball? Like, how does that kind of trend?
Speaker 1: And that's the same things I ran into where lack
Speaker 1: of job experienced equated to being passed over for opportunities.
Speaker 1: But once like you talked about that one foot in
Speaker 1: the door. Hey, hey, hey, that one foot in the door, bro.
Speaker 1: And then and that's a testament to us and folks
Speaker 1: that are cut from the cloth that we are, that
Speaker 1: all we need is an opportunity, okay, and to get
Speaker 1: in these rooms stats we so called couldn't handle and
Speaker 1: don't know how to whatever. Okay, put me there and
Speaker 1: let's see how that's go end up. And I think
Speaker 1: that you you're you're a perfect example of that type
Speaker 1: of situation of my brother. Um, yeah, was there any
Speaker 1: moment during the retirement when you're so young and back
Speaker 1: in school. Was there any moment that you said, man,
Speaker 1: I kind of want to get back out there. We're
Speaker 1: still playing pickup, we're still standing in shape. Did anything
Speaker 1: come up to where you kind of had to make
Speaker 1: another serious choice in life? Okay, talk to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wasn't done physically. I was done physically and emotion mentally.
Speaker 1: I was done because you know, I had not achieved
Speaker 1: what I was set out to do. And that's what
Speaker 1: I busted my butt to do. Was too you know,
Speaker 1: I made every meeting and I made every job. What
Speaker 1: I did not do and I could live with it
Speaker 1: is I didn't do as much as I should have
Speaker 1: done when it comes to like, you know, the little
Speaker 1: things like touching the line, drinking milk, chicks not party.
Speaker 1: I didn't do that, So I wasn't rewarded, all right.
Speaker 1: I slacked because I thought I was good. I though
Speaker 1: I could turn it on, so I can. Now. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of us have to live with some
Speaker 1: of this, and we got to understand, like, did you
Speaker 1: really truly do everything everything every That's a great way
Speaker 1: to put it, what I mean, And you can fool
Speaker 1: yourself by saying yes, but I saw and I know
Speaker 1: guys that they hid more than I did. They weren't
Speaker 1: as talented, they may not have been as good, but
Speaker 1: they were because they did all that other stuff. What
Speaker 1: I just kind of kept it at a certain level. Um,
Speaker 1: and kudos at oh, but that that's kind of like
Speaker 1: the the maturity, right, Um so I I I had
Speaker 1: some like I had some some some days where I
Speaker 1: was twenty seven years old, twenty eight years old, I
Speaker 1: would go and play around or play with guys that
Speaker 1: were still doing it. Stace was still doing it. Um.
Speaker 1: I would go to the real Run and playing the
Speaker 1: real Run and guys will be like, dumb, you can
Speaker 1: go right now. And I'm like, I'm tired of hearing that.
Speaker 1: Guys like b D you know, got domb like yo,
Speaker 1: like BD is my duty like you was a kid, Paul,
Speaker 1: like all these guys like man, you can go now,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm tired of hearing that. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I'm gonna I'm just here to hoo
Speaker 1: because I love a who but like I've I've it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, thats like you know what, I go get
Speaker 1: a contract and make right now and throw this throw
Speaker 1: this mindset out the win and get back to this.
Speaker 1: But then I was like, nah, you know, I've come
Speaker 1: too far with making a decision to to stop, not quit,
Speaker 1: but to stop. And I was challenging, man, because I
Speaker 1: know guys that continue to do it until they were
Speaker 1: thirty seven, and I had a tenure head start on
Speaker 1: them in terms of what we were talking about, transition
Speaker 1: into real life, you know, being able to do Excel
Speaker 1: search and use the computer in today's society, I mean,
Speaker 1: attach p attach a PDF to an email. We take
Speaker 1: those things from granted because we bounced and we was rocking,
Speaker 1: and we competed, and we worked on our bodies, you know,
Speaker 1: and we worked on our mind, worked on our image,
Speaker 1: you know, we worked on our persona to the media. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean we were we were entertainers. So we had
Speaker 1: to transition to you know, doing different skills you know.
Speaker 1: Um and uh, you know guys that didn't stop when
Speaker 1: I stopped. When they did stop at a later age,
Speaker 1: they had to they had to do the same thing
Speaker 1: as Idea. So you know, I just made a decision
Speaker 1: to uh, to unlace mine a little earlier and to
Speaker 1: get into the real work, Like I had no idea
Speaker 1: about you know, interests, interest rates, real estate, like I'm
Speaker 1: eating real estate, eat literate at the time, like I
Speaker 1: couldn't have I couldn't have conversations with adults that you know, uh,
Speaker 1: tax returns, writing this off? What do you what do
Speaker 1: you mean right? What are you talking about? What do
Speaker 1: you mean? Tell room people watched my my laundry. I
Speaker 1: don't do that kind of stuff. I don't book my
Speaker 1: whole I don't book my rental car. I don't. That
Speaker 1: was like a lost skill and U and then when
Speaker 1: you hang it up, you're like, oh, I gotta do
Speaker 1: everything myself now I don't even know what is this?
Speaker 1: And so that you know, with that, with that, like
Speaker 1: you said earlier, Chris was a big one. The confidence.
Speaker 1: As I started to learn more and get more confident
Speaker 1: in the real world, it allowed me to go out
Speaker 1: and raise money, started business. Do what you're doing, like
Speaker 1: I had to really had to learn how to walk
Speaker 1: again after sports. That's how I put it. So saying
Speaker 1: attach a PDF like that was a mystery. It sounds easy,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like people in the business world who
Speaker 1: has been working since they're eighteen nineteen years old, and
Speaker 1: we didn't like what a PDF, Like I said, yeah, yeah, um,
Speaker 1: so that that's that's that's that's been my that's been
Speaker 1: like the advantage. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
Speaker 1: talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
Speaker 1: at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
Speaker 1: And I think that your competitive nature, are competitive nature
Speaker 1: as athletes come out when we get placed in those
Speaker 1: corporate settings, because what you what you realize about the
Speaker 1: corporate setting is, yeah, I work with a bunch of
Speaker 1: white dudes and white with white women too. I was
Speaker 1: the only brother, but they all wanted were wanted to
Speaker 1: be athletes. They all had a drive. They all was
Speaker 1: competitive more than me about stuff they knew. They know
Speaker 1: about everything. Like in my particular situation, I was surrounded
Speaker 1: by people that were sports heads. So the culture was
Speaker 1: always we're trying to beat each other on sales on this,
Speaker 1: We're trying to beat each other a month in who's
Speaker 1: getting the bonus we got two tickets, five tickets to
Speaker 1: the Giants game, or whoever sells the most of this
Speaker 1: month stuff like that. And so now I'm getting geeked
Speaker 1: because yeah, I'm like, wait a minute. Now we can
Speaker 1: have a little fun. And I think that's the part
Speaker 1: where our athletic prowess comes out as adults and while
Speaker 1: you're working in that type of setting. But make no
Speaker 1: mistake about it, Bro, when I first started and had
Speaker 1: to relearn everything, teach myself how to walk again, it
Speaker 1: takes hours and hours and hours of studying, research, knowledge,
Speaker 1: soaking up YouTube video, soaking up how to do? I
Speaker 1: was on I was MR. How to do I'm not
Speaker 1: asking nobody because I'm embarrassed, don't I'm embarrassed. I don't
Speaker 1: want to ask a grown person how do I know?
Speaker 1: It's like a super question that you're supposed to know this.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta go. Yeah, I get I go.
Speaker 1: Great There to BRO. A lot of us are and
Speaker 1: some of us, you know, are are not coming out
Speaker 1: with that, and they probably it's the it's the it's
Speaker 1: the trust and yourself, like you know, some people don't
Speaker 1: grow up with that trust and that an exposure. You know,
Speaker 1: some people don' grow up. It's supposed to be scared
Speaker 1: to say I don't know what you mean? You know,
Speaker 1: you can use a word. And I'm sitting there like
Speaker 1: going shaking my head yes, but I no clue. And
Speaker 1: if I'm if I have a trust in me, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, hold on, Chris, what does that word mean?
Speaker 1: And I'm not afraid for you to judge me if
Speaker 1: I don't know that. So a lot of US sports
Speaker 1: athletes have to cross that barrier, you know, And I'm
Speaker 1: saying like, I don't know what. I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means, man, or I need to know some help,
Speaker 1: you know, I've I've had to experience that, um and
Speaker 1: now now it's a part of me. It's like I
Speaker 1: wish I would have known that when I was a
Speaker 1: little younger, like we always do that, you know. I
Speaker 1: wish i'd have known how big resources was. And you
Speaker 1: know that old thing about it ain't what you know
Speaker 1: is who you know? Like you gotta keep those resources
Speaker 1: in time. You know you do. It means the world
Speaker 1: to you and and and them as well. You know,
Speaker 1: you just never know. I think the thing that I
Speaker 1: realized the most out of my transition in that whole
Speaker 1: situation was just how how little I knew and how
Speaker 1: much pride I had because I didn't want people to
Speaker 1: know serious. I'm like, bro, pride is some stuff. Dog,
Speaker 1: you know you you will miss out on a lifetime
Speaker 1: of stuff because you got some pride about X, Y
Speaker 1: or Z. So I used to have this pride. I
Speaker 1: don't want to tell people or I wanted I wanted
Speaker 1: to act like I knew everything all the time talking
Speaker 1: about but but but but here's what you learned that
Speaker 1: asking questions is the move. Like asking questions is the move,
Speaker 1: dog like, that's the moves. But we're sitting here thinking
Speaker 1: it's like it's like a death sentence if you ask
Speaker 1: a question or don't ask no questions. No, man, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to ask a million questions a million times a day.
Speaker 1: That is a normal type of thing. Man. People just
Speaker 1: got to explain themselves. My my boss used to explain
Speaker 1: himself a thousand times a day on these calls, bro,
Speaker 1: because everybody's like, oh, we didn't understand that, or he'd
Speaker 1: be on the webinar. We're like, what was that? It's nothing,
Speaker 1: that's part of it. But but why do we walk
Speaker 1: around thinking that it's a net it if connotation to
Speaker 1: to ask a question or ask for help? Why is that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were it's a stigma, you know, it's a stigma
Speaker 1: because we feel lesser and you know, in our society,
Speaker 1: that's when we were deemed to feel as lesser and
Speaker 1: not knowing stuff. So we don't we feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy got one up on me, or you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna take advantage of me, or he doesn't respect me.
Speaker 1: And our culture, respect is big, you know, are we
Speaker 1: you know flaws and do all this stuff. Respect is big,
Speaker 1: So we feel a little less respected if we ask
Speaker 1: the question that we may not know, we might we
Speaker 1: might feel like this dude is gonna make make fun
Speaker 1: of me. But what you're doing, brother, is your your
Speaker 1: growth is there's growth and development here too. You know.
Speaker 1: They're that word learned. If you look it up, it
Speaker 1: means that I didn't know before now, but now I do.
Speaker 1: Now I learned. So if you don't, if you don't
Speaker 1: understand how to learn, you know, you're beating yourself. You know,
Speaker 1: you're beating yourself. And again it's maturity, right. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk to someone that's you know, sixty five years
Speaker 1: old and you tell him, hey, man, look man, yeah,
Speaker 1: i'm developing the stages and and he's like, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: been where you've been at he has, he has been there.
Speaker 1: He had to make that disc around those time and
Speaker 1: when he was twenty one and he was nineteen and
Speaker 1: he was thirty five. Um, it's the same thing we're
Speaker 1: going through. So you know, UM, we have to be
Speaker 1: cognizant of of understanding that. You know, it's not wrong
Speaker 1: to educate yourself. It's actually your duty to do so,
Speaker 1: thank you. You don't know what you don't know. I
Speaker 1: can't help you until you tell me how I can
Speaker 1: help you. So if you can ask some questions, you
Speaker 1: can use the resources that are out there for you
Speaker 1: that you don't know can help you because you don't
Speaker 1: know what you need. You don't know what you want.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was running my business, I used
Speaker 1: to you know, I used to take it personal because
Speaker 1: I was in my own grind, you know, and I
Speaker 1: want people around me that care for me to help me, right.
Speaker 1: But instead of me understanding how they can help me
Speaker 1: or or or delegating exactly what I wanted them to
Speaker 1: do to help me, I wanted them to just get
Speaker 1: involved and figure it out just the part it is,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna figure out how to help me. And
Speaker 1: it was like no, no, no, you gotta tell me
Speaker 1: what they're doing. I'm like I can't tell you what
Speaker 1: to do. I need you to learn, And it was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, you understand what I'm saying. One can
Speaker 1: help you unless you understand what it is you're trying
Speaker 1: to do, and agent asking questions clears that up because
Speaker 1: it gives you information and it allows you to make
Speaker 1: an informed decisional So you know, we gotta be better
Speaker 1: at that, you know, we you know, we just gotta
Speaker 1: be better. Open up and tuck that pride that probably
Speaker 1: ain't gonna do nothing for you. If you get busy
Speaker 1: and do what you do and and and do like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like what you're doing, and
Speaker 1: just get busy, that prode to go away. It's just
Speaker 1: pride is like a uh, like a momentary sense of
Speaker 1: gratification that validates maybe a feeling or behavior that you
Speaker 1: have that typically isn't positive. So it's like trying is
Speaker 1: always associated with like you validated some negative bs. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying in your own mind. But the pride,
Speaker 1: I think that's what I think of it as I
Speaker 1: don't really the other two percent obviously, But dude, it's
Speaker 1: a trip and I'm glad that you're in a position
Speaker 1: though now as as as head coach and mortacide high
Speaker 1: my brother, to affect this next generation to undo some
Speaker 1: of this mental conditioning that this our generations have seen.
Speaker 1: So now this that hopefully that your kids and these
Speaker 1: kids that you affect or come into contact with the
Speaker 1: Morningside Man, they can go into the world equip with
Speaker 1: these tools. You need them early on sixteen seventeen eighteen
Speaker 1: you need for me, And this is kind of how
Speaker 1: you need to be financially literately at fifteen sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 1: You need to understand about taxes, paying your taxes, voting
Speaker 1: and all that you need to be on that. And
Speaker 1: then you gotta understand about you know, like retiring when
Speaker 1: you start working, when a four oh one k is,
Speaker 1: we're started thinking about social security, were starting about retirements,
Speaker 1: are thinking about different things you can do. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like we as I won't say we, but I
Speaker 1: would say that a lot of Black culture in America
Speaker 1: is not equipped with these these types this type of knowledge,
Speaker 1: and it always kind of contributes to why we don't
Speaker 1: move up vertically at the pace that we were all
Speaker 1: like to Absolutely, it's a disconnect. It is it is
Speaker 1: um you know, we can figure out. You know, it's internal.
Speaker 1: A lot of this stuff is also internal. You know.
Speaker 1: We gotta we gotta do better. That's it. We gotta
Speaker 1: take responsibility. We just gotta. And that's what we were
Speaker 1: talking about the sports ro with this alliance with kids
Speaker 1: and sports as you know, until we figure that part out,
Speaker 1: we are, we're not gonna go up at that pace
Speaker 1: or that right. You know. But guys like you were
Speaker 1: in place with Voice and you know, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: got me out there too, and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to teach one, you know, kind of the next generation
Speaker 1: we do have. That's my home office. It's okay, that's okay,
Speaker 1: that's okay. We're dog we're dog friendly over here, all right,
Speaker 1: we're dog friendly. And kJ Live bro hold on like
Speaker 1: he's not gonna stop just one second. Definitely dog fairly here.
Speaker 1: kJ Live had Dominicue Ellison is in the building. Amazing
Speaker 1: conversation about the responsibility of mentors to the next generation.
Speaker 1: Dum played at Washington State, New Mexico State, worked in
Speaker 1: Corporate America for ten or twelve years, and recently accepted
Speaker 1: the head coaching position at Morningside High School. We've had
Speaker 1: an incredible hour and change of conversation. Dom Man, I
Speaker 1: just want to tell you I appreciate you for coming
Speaker 1: on this platform, brother, sharing your story, sharing the journey.
Speaker 1: For those that are out there that are gonna be
Speaker 1: listening that don't know who Dominic Ellison is, now they
Speaker 1: can have a better idea my brother. Listen, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: honored to be on the show. Um. You know, for
Speaker 1: all the listeners, you know, Chris is a brother of mine.
Speaker 1: Mad love and respect for Chris. We we we've been
Speaker 1: knowing each other for a very very long time. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of his journey. Man. He's always been like
Speaker 1: an incredible dude. Uh, He's always been an incredible brother. Um.
Speaker 1: And and when I I'm not really a big social
Speaker 1: media dude, and you know, since I've taken this position,
Speaker 1: you know obviously that comes with it, right And UM,
Speaker 1: the first opportunity that I saw all you had a podcast,
Speaker 1: I had to reach out. UM. And again, it's not
Speaker 1: about me, It's really about your brother, because you You've
Speaker 1: been a special dude in my life and my brother.
Speaker 1: So congratulations to you. I've always followed your journey, UM,
Speaker 1: and you continue to inspire all of us and you
Speaker 1: always got something going on that we can respect and support.
Speaker 1: So appreciate your listeners. Man, this is this is the
Speaker 1: one of a kind dude. So I appreciate you much love,
Speaker 1: much love, my brother, and best of luck and morningside
Speaker 1: and anything else. My brother. Yeah, we gotta get you
Speaker 1: out to a game. Man, I'll be there. I'll be
Speaker 1: i'mna come through, bro, I'm gonna check it out. I
Speaker 1: would come to the eagle Wood game. Come on, it'side
Speaker 1: eagle Wood. I'm well, I'm gonna wear a blue jacket.
Speaker 1: There you go. Hey, that's what hey. But that's what
Speaker 1: I did back to the day. That's what I did
Speaker 1: back in the day, bro, But it was a different time,
Speaker 1: so I had to kind of hide. I was with Rico.
Speaker 1: I was sitting up at the time. Oh, I'm up there, high.
Speaker 1: I had on the blue jacket, but I had like
Speaker 1: a sweatshirt over here, like nope, walk you in your royalty,
Speaker 1: We walk you right in. Oh. I appreciate that. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to it, Pops. I said, Hi, man, hug
Speaker 1: Pops and hugged the family. Men. Hope everybody's well again.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for happening Ladies and Gentlemen Dominic Ellison