WEBVTT - KJ Live - Marques Johnson 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:09.840 This is kJ Live with Chris john S Allen and 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.600 Chris is having conversations with influencers in the sports world 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:20.440 and entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.560 not coo then to kJ Live. Today's guest on the 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.880 show was a five time and be a All Star, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.519 the first winner of the John R. Wooden Award. One 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.080 of the most classy individuals that we all have ever known. 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:41.040 Ladies and gentlemen, Let's welcome my dad, Marcus Johnson to 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.760 the show. What's up, m J? Well, I thank you 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:50.560 for that that positive introduction. Good classiest guys. Okay, I'll 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.600 take it. I'll take all of it. Yeah, you know, 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.280 You've always been one of the classiest guys. And everywhere 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.680 I've traveled around the world, man, whether it be basketball 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.040 journey or wherever I was, and and people got wind 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.320 that I was your son, Marcus john Today just have 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.720 this thing about your brother all over the globe. It's ridiculous. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.240 People light up, they remember you, they love you, and 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.360 they they always talk about how you represent yourself. I 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.720 want to know m J about how your week started, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.400 because I know that we're supposed to find out some 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.120 very important information this week, some very important news from 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:29.119 some very important people. Talk to me. Well, I'll let 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.520 I'll let this recording kind of do the talking initially 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:34.240 that we can follow up and talk more about it. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.000 So this is how my week started off on Monday. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.160 Let me let me queue it up here and here 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:49.520 we go. I'm Mr Johnson. This is John to Leiva 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.720 at the National Memorial Basketball or Fame calling. I'm sorry 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:55.760 to call and tell you today that you did not 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.240 receive the amount of required boats to be elected a 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:04.240 member of the However, you remain eligible for a future 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.560 of consideration, but I did want to reach out to 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.320 you and let you know that unfortunately, Uh, it's obviously 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.520 the number of US necessary this year. We will look 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.120 forward to your consideration next year, and I wish you well. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.240 Take care. All right, So that's my week started. I 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.639 got that phone call. That was interesting, Chris, because I 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.919 was actually doing one of my recovery meetings UM at 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:36.080 nine am specific standard time. Uh. This call came in 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:41.400 about that morning, and so when the when the name 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.440 Springfield flashed across the screen, I knew what it was, 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.600 but I didn't I didn't I didn't answer. I stayed 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:50.680 in my meeting, just trying to get my head right. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:52.359 I didn't know which way it was gonna go. Your 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.520 mind kind of racing at that point. Did I make it? 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.000 Did not make it? Is this the years? It's not 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.960 the year? And so I said, well, I listened to 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.480 this message after the meeting is over. Now. I don't 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.520 know if your phone ever does this to you, but 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:12.119 sometimes my phone delays voicemail messages for hours. You got 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.840 to clear some memory up on your phone, your memory, 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:21.680 clear memory, bro. Yeah, I got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.720 I got all kind of issues going on, and I've got, like, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.040 you know, I could I can tell you right now, 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.720 I've got us eight three sixty three voicemail messages and 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.560 thirty seven some kind of something else. But I'm gonna 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:41.640 me go to the uh to the I think that 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.240 the emails is something like I don't know, it's it's 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.440 like up about thirty thousand, third thousand, right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.880 so anyway, so, uh so I didn't I was not 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.720 able to retrieve the message from this gentleman who has 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.760 called me in the past. This is my second or 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.800 third tongue. I forget getting this phone call. But the 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.280 at the point is I couldn't find it. I couldn't 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:05.000 I couldn't retrieve the message, and so I thought, maybe 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:06.520 he didn't leave a message. But I thought that was 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:08.360 really unusual. So my mind is going to work. I 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:10.080 got one of those minds. So it's like, well, maybe 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:11.960 because he didn't leave a message, maybe he want to 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:13.840 tell me the good news in person. Maybe he didn't 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.919 want to leave, you know, the rejection message message like 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.240 he's done the last couple of times on a voicemail. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.120 So I'm thinking because of that made you know, so 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.600 I'm going all over the place with it. Then. But 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:26.560 then finally, so I tried to call the number back, 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.320 no answer, called it back. You know, I get obsessive. 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.400 So called it back about twenty times, and doing the 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.840 course of the day, I would catching one of these times, uh, 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.240 no answer, Not really twenty, maybe five or six times, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.520 but it still upsets, but still says I want to 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:40.719 if I want to find out, I want to know 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.880 for sure what went on. So finally that afternoon, about 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.040 four or five o'clock in the early evening, I looked 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.400 at my voicemail messages and that message popped up, that 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.080 number popped up. Then that's when I actually listened to 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.960 um the rejection message. So it was just it was 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.680 just a kind of a weird day. But hey, you know, 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.000 it is what it is. What are the great ones 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:09.040 like yourself, people that have really cemented their place in 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.200 basketball history? Okay, because you have, and you can talk 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.120 to your peers, you can talk to anybody that knows 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.080 the game or had followed you. There's no question you're 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.479 one of the greatest to ever play the game. Why 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.200 is it so important to receive the validation of the 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.520 end of the Basketball Hall of Fame for you? Well, 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.919 I mean, actually it's really interesting. Um. One thing that 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.000 I realized is that you're in there. Well, well no, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:43.680 but with the passing of my mother, your grandmother, grandmommy, 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.040 my mother of Medea is what we called it when 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.440 I was really young, and I got embarrassed about how 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.080 country sounded that name was when I was about six 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.520 years old. So I went diametrically opposed to that polar 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.800 opposite to the mother from Medea to mother. The six 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.839 kids were t me in the first good grades media. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.200 What is that way? Ware yaf you? Anyway, So the 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.839 thing that I realized, Chris, is that you know when 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.719 she had her stroke October seventeen and was that Daniel 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.640 Freeman Hospital, Marina del Rey. I'm sitting in the emergency 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.320 room with her. She's teetering on the brink. The beepers 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.960 going on. Sometimes it's the you know, elongated beep that 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.240 gets me thinking that maybe it's over with. And so 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:28.960 one of the things I'm doing with her, Man, I'm 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.960 praying with her, and I'm praying like an old country 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.440 Louisiana Cozie preacher. You know, that's her side of the family. 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.480 All these Couzins, my grandfather a Couzine, my cousin Richard 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.920 Lee Arthur, they're all great preachers, and my mother's all 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.839 my grandmother and my mother will always say, you should 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:45.760 you should have been one of those preachers, and and 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.720 so we'll get more into that later. But I tried 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.080 to do everything. They say, well, you know, God has 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:52.840 calling you, but like, well, I got the phone off 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.000 the hook. You know, I'm not doing all kinds of 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.240 stuff not to but anyway, so I mean, I'm in 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.760 the room with her right because I'm preaching. I'm like, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.320 come on, you got to hold on, you got to 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.120 hold on. We got one more trip to make. We 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.600 got a trip to Springfield, Massachusetts to make together. You 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.760 came with me to Milwaukee a couple of years ago 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.720 to get that number eight put up in the raptors. 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.760 We got one more trip to make. Ma dear, hold on, 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.280 please hold on, And she would like lift her hands 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.160 up in a semiconscious state and say hold on, hold on. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:26.200 And so this is this is the interaction between her 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.320 and all in this emergency room when she's she's teetering 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.920 on the brink between life and death. My point is 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:42.360 is that she died January, and it's almost like I 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.800 wanted to have her experience me being selected as a 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.640 Hall of Famer that was so important to her. Whenever 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.600 we have a conversation about it, Chris, I'd always tell her, 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.960 I'm cool with where I am in my life. I'm 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.360 almost twenty years sober. I got, you know, real solid relationships. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.880 Most of the people that I'm close to in my life. Um, 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.320 you know, I love what I'm doing, my job, the 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.600 creative stuff that I'm doing as a writer, as an actor, 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.920 as a all that stuff. Man, I'm so cool with 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.800 right now that if I don't make it, I tell her, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.960 you know, I'm okay. And she would always say, don't 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:20.720 put that out there. You know you're gonna you're gonna 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.120 make it. This is gonna be She was always so positive, 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.560 you know how she was. So My point is, man, 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.200 is that that I don't really feel like I need 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.240 to trust me. If it happens, I'd be ecstatic, I'd 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.680 be really happy. But I'm at a point now, man, 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.640 where you know, my initial reaction when I got to 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.760 this phone call was actually like, you know, I need 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:46.760 to you know, I wouldn't even be objectionable to saying, 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:48.560 you know, take my name off the ballot. You know, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:50.920 I mean that that was my initial reaction. Now, your 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.440 brother just side, Josh and other people have talked to 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.160 be sent and and they're like, no, no, Dad, don't, don't, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.280 don't do all that. Don't do all that. But what's 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.440 the point, Because think about it like this, If there's 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.400 a lot of there's a there's a humiliation associated with 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:06.720 your name being on the ballot for thirty something years. 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.520 You feel like every year they're just gonna put you name. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.679 Your finalance to say no, so I don't and I'm 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.200 not gonna say there's there's humiliation I'm gonna ask you, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.440 is there some sort of like, you know, I won't 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.800 call a humiliation, but it's like they put you in 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.480 the ballot every year and they never select you, and 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.480 it's thirty years down the line, will you ever be selected? Like? 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.680 Did you do something to Jerry co Angelo? Like what 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.400 is going on? Well, outside of sweeping the Phoenix Suns 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.160 in the first round of the playoffs, you're Walter Davidson over. 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.600 I hope we forget I hope we've forgotten about outside 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.719 of that. No, no, but but but it's funny you say. 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:47.920 I mean, so, first of all, I mean I love 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:49.680 my been on the battot. I mean I just found 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.920 out that I was kind of eligible to be on 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.839 the battot. It was maybe ten fifteen years ago ago. 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.280 Maybe Okay, if you're retired, Okay, you're right. Yeah, they 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.440 don't have they don't automatically put you on. You've got 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.559 to you have to apply and and and and send 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.640 in your credentials. And it was this whole process that 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.720 I had to go through just to get on the ballot. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.800 So so you know, I didn't even I waited around. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.680 I retired about nineteen nineties or so, so I waited 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:23.160 around fifteen years and I was wondering why I never 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.880 got any consideration. Well, you you have not because you 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.480 asked not. And finally somebody told me it's like no, man, 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.160 you got you got to call him up and say, look, 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.120 I want to be placed in nomination. And when you 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.280 do that, they send you a form. They have some 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:37.240 people that look over your form, make sure that you're 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.320 worthy in terms of what you did five All Star 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.080 games in ten years, twenty points seven rebounds forces the game, 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.320 but a lot of the first team All Pro you know, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.000 one of top five in the world my second year 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.440 in the league in three years old. So so they 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.480 were automatically like, oh, yeah, you're more than worthy of 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.640 being placed the nomination. So that was about about about 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.320 ten twelve, about ten twelve years ago that that happened. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:02.719 And so in the process I've been a finalist. I 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:04.520 want to say, this is my second or third time 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.080 I forget. But and so it's not so much the humiliation, 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.360 you know, to me, that wouldn't describe it aptly, I don't, 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.920 you know. It's more like you feel like you're at 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:22.280 the mercy of people that you don't know if they 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.600 have a good sense of what you really did as 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.840 a player, if that makes sense. I'm not sure who 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.720 the voters are, who the voters are, what their context 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.400 is it pre Michael Jordan there was no real basketball 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.760 but being played, or do they give the short trip 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.800 to that era of basketball. I don't know. I don't 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.079 know if that's the case. I don't know if that's 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.439 the case, because they all year to year they put 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.079 in guys. You know what I'm saying from you, So 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:48.880 I don't think that's the case. I really, you know, 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.200 And I've had this conversation with other basketball people about 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.000 you specifically not being in the Hall of Fame, and 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.440 it's sort of one of those things like they're bringing up. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.720 There's a Sean Mirian the other day got in trouble 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.720 on I believe it was the Twitter spaces. He jumped 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.440 in on a conversation and brought up the fact that 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.560 his career totals were as something like twenty one points 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.680 eleven thousand rebounds, and he gets no talk of Hall 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.880 of Fame yet. Chris Weber career total seventeen thousand and 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.760 eight thousand boards. You know, everybody's pumping that up and 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.160 they're talking about Chris's career averages and this and that. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.520 I think a lot of it has to do with 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.080 who your contemporaries in the league were at that time 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.960 and how people are judging you against those guys, and 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:40.600 so I think there's a disconnects somewhere with the voters 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.840 and actual data about how dominant or how or the 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.680 impact that you had on the game. Okay, well, a 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:54.880 couple of points to that observation. First point, my second 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.000 year in the league, and you know this by road, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:05.200 you know, average twenty points to six at um. One 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.400 of my advanced analytics was one of the tops in 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.440 the league. I don't know if it was the you know, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.600 replacement player thing or the war thing. One of them 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.920 was like up there, one of the tops in the league. 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.960 First team All Pro bump, dr j Off, the first 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.920 team up ros me, Elvin Hayes. I think George Gerban 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.760 got a Kareem or somebody Moses below and somebody if 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.679 to get the other guys. Okay, that was my second year, 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.280 and so I was on the trajectory George Gervian and 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.800 I and will be Free. We were topped three scores 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.360 in the league. We had conversations together. On one occasion, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.680 it send up, you know, doing what we do, talking 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.240 about who was gonna leave the league and scored that 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.600 next year, who's gonna at And I'm like, I'm coming 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.480 with thirty. Y'all better be bringing thirty or better. Right, 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.920 So this is this is the mindset. And so I'm 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.839 twenty three years old. I'm coming off a twenty six 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.800 points a game. We went into my third year. Uh. 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.560 Don Nelson, the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, brings me 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.199 into the office, sits me down and says, m j U, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.520 great year last year, before this, this is before my 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.640 third year. Uh, you know, what do you think? What 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:10.520 are you looking forward to this year? Or something to 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.800 that effect. I'm like, I'm played on the average a thirty. Coach, 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.200 I'm that's gonna be my goal to get out there 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:20.680 shoot you know, good, solid percentage and average thirty. And 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.600 He's like, no question in my mind that you can 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.640 do that. I know you can do that. That's the 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.640 score is not a problem for you. But here's what 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:30.160 I want you to do. I want you to average 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.160 between twenty and twenty one points a game, seven rebounds, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.160 play solid defense, and that's kind of the vision I 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.800 have for my team with Brian Winners and Bobara Near 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.440 hadn't gotten there yet. But we had Junior Bridgeman in 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:44.360 Sydney Mono Creep and you know, just a lot of 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.360 guys that could score, you know, between fifteen and eighteen 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:53.440 nineteen points a game. And so my quandary was, well, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.000 do I accept this request, do I ask for a trade? 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.800 Do I just tell him no? And and and rocked 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.200 the boat. But you know me, my dad was a coach. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.760 I played for Willie West to Crinchhall High School. The 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.880 greatest coach in in high school basketball history who was 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.920 also in the Hall of Fame nomination and should be 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.000 in the Hall of Fame, played for John Wooden. You know, 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.160 tend You know, I've got great coaches in my background, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.240 and I always respect to a certain point. And Don 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.280 Nelson I respected a lot back in those days because 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.640 he helped me a lot um just just with the 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.080 little work that he put into my game. Helped me 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:28.920 go from you know, twenty points a game as a 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.720 as a rookie to twenty six with adjustment in my 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.880 jump shot. And so I went along with it. Now, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.760 So that's that's that's number one. So so the point total. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.800 It's funny Eddie Johnson I did did his uh serious 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.600 radio show, and uh he had the he had the 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.800 he brought up the comparison status. Chris, Yeah, Marcus. I 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.360 was looking at me and you head the head, and 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.200 guess who came out of head when we, uh, when 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.880 we matched up, like the fifty and twenty times we did, 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.480 I actually outscored you by three ten to a point 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.840 or whatever it was. And so I didn't get into 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.560 the context of way like Eddie, look, you know I 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.080 was asked in that score were you asked? And not score? 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.120 And the other point that that I should have put 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:10.760 up with him. And so after that I looked up 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.360 me and Larry Bird and we played against each other 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.360 like I don't know, fourteen sixteen times and some of 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.640 those games with the Clippers when when when you know, 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.120 my my deal was way off. But I think I 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.000 outscored Larry Bird and he had to hit matchups between 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.320 just being him. So anyway, so that's number one. I mean, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.760 so so the point total. So instead of just under 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.479 fourteen thousand points, if I would have been allowed to 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:36.240 let my natural scoring proactivity manifest itself like it was 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.800 on the trajectory to do so easily get another six 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:46.360 thousand points, that's what that's twenty thousand points. Okay, that's 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.880 number one. Number two. I got hurt. You know, at 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.960 thirty years old. November twentieth, nineteen eighties six, I would 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.800 just turned thirty, so I had another five years. You know, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.200 you never know. Back then in the league, you guys 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.320 played a little longer two you know, adjustment to games five, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.040 six years, seven years. Maybe that I could have been 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.199 one of those guys who would have gotten traded to 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.919 a contender after a couple of years. But the Clippers 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.480 and and you know, come off the bench at average 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.960 fifteen sixteen and be that guy for another five or 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:17.879 six you know what I'm saying. I mean, very easily. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:19.480 So you never know what could have happened and what 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.639 might have happened. But the point is my career was 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.879 cut short. So I played just about ten years. So 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.480 everything I did five all started games in ten years 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:29.680 is based on a ten year period as opposed to 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.960 I think the official amount of years. Because I was 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.720 actually on the Clippers active roster two years I didn't play, 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.000 they give me twelve years which is which is beauty, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:42.560 which is beautiful? For for for pension and you and 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.560 your service service and all that. But actually I don't 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.200 even play, so that's always my response to that. But hey, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.760 you know, like it is what it is. It is 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.119 what it is. But I mean, it's a very intriguing coundrum, 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.600 and a lot of times we don't get to hear from, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.399 you know, the guy that's being read Jack, and we 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.600 always hear from the guys that have made it and 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.840 have reached the pinnacle. But thank you for sharing sort 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.440 of where your mindset is at with this NBA Hall 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.240 of Fame thing. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.080 talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.320 at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.399 Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.520 I had a question though, while you were talking about that, 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:28.000 when you George Gervin world be Free. You know, that 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.760 era of the eighties, that era of basketball, it's it's 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:34.959 it's been a lot has been said about it, you know, 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:36.600 like like, look, let's talk about this for a second 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:41.040 winning time. The HBO series they're depicting, they're depicting sort 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.120 of this wild wild West kind of a wild wild West. 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.439 That's sort of an interesting thing because Jerry West has 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.159 been you know, the butt of all this negative the 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.080 negative depiction. But was it really like that back then? 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.560 MJ was the league in the eighties, really you know, 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:02.439 dominated by drugs and just lack of organization and just 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.320 craziness throughout. Is that a lot of this what they're 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:09.760 showing us on winning time and the things we've heard, 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.879 is there a lot of sensationalism going on? What's a 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:18.240 combination of both, Man, It was definitely a period um 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:23.560 in this country in the eighties. We're cocaine you starting 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.640 in the late seventies through the eighties and probably even 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:32.240 to today for what I understand, but it kind of exploded. 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.720 I mean, snowfall was real. That's what I like to say. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.240 That that the serious snowfall of ef fact that I 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.280 love talking about my boys sat but but that that 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.320 stuff that was going on in the eighties, the c 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:49.480 i A just you know, pouring cocaine into the inner 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.680 cities of Los Angeles and Detroit and you all these 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.359 places and taking the money that the that that was 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.640 made and the buying arms for the for the countrys 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.400 of the Sandinistas, or whoever it was they were supporting 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.679 back down in there. I guess that was real Oliver, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.160 straight Ali North, it was. It was straight Maxine Waters, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.679 who was a dear, dear uh mentor and friend. Her 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:16.679 son he had and I have been best friends since 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:19.840 nineteen eight at out of Bond Middle School. And he's 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.760 a coach of crunchy'all right now. But she she brought 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.879 it to the forefront back in the eighties when it 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.320 was happening. But everybody thought she was just you know, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.040 chicken little, just just you know, just trying to make 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.720 excuses for for the weaknesses of the black community because 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.160 they couldn't stay await I'm telling you, man, where where 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.280 where you grew up? Where we lived in the Beau 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.439 Park Windsor Hills area. I mean I went to school 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:47.640 with you know, Ray Charles as kids, and I could look. 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:53.080 But you know, man, it was real snowfall, that whole 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.719 dynamic and and to that point, I know of a 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.320 lot of players, look that I got high. I went 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.840 back in those days. I know coaches Chris that have 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.040 admitted to me long after the fact that they were 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.200 doing cocaine back in those days. I'm not gonna name 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.679 any names. But there's been coaches that I know we 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.320 talked about this, that we're doing cocaine. So that that 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.640 that that this gives you an idea. Now everybody wasn't 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:21.919 doing it. I mean there are some guys who were 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.480 able to do it, not do it anymore, didn't like it, 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:30.840