Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and i' and this is cut to it.
Speaker 1: Good do it, Good do it. They's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it. Good do it. We asked the questions you
Speaker 1: always want to know, but no one ever asked, let's
Speaker 1: cut to it. You ain't heard them about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all what's up
Speaker 1: Joe Man. Oh, you know there's certain things when when
Speaker 1: they happen in our lives. And we've had conversations about
Speaker 1: different situations we've been in U G and I will
Speaker 1: go ahead. You ain't been in this one. But um,
Speaker 1: so Friday, Um, my significant other is gonna have a long,
Speaker 1: long day work. Kim, Kim, my wife. I knew you
Speaker 1: always gonna go there, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and put it on it. So she had a
Speaker 1: long she was gonna have a long day at work,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was gonna be a nice guy
Speaker 1: and go get her a cup of coffee just so
Speaker 1: I can drop it off. So you know, she um
Speaker 1: venty just checking. We make a little bit of money
Speaker 1: on the podcast, so I can afford that venty I
Speaker 1: got payments though, So so I go to our local
Speaker 1: establishment and I'm sitting out front with my back to
Speaker 1: the door. It's a beautiful day on Friday. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the door Starbucks flies open and a young
Speaker 1: man takes off like he's running a route, just gone
Speaker 1: out the door. So I'm like, um, it looked like
Speaker 1: maybe a slant because he came in front of me,
Speaker 1: put his foot in the connoy, and he was gonna cross.
Speaker 1: He crossed my face. I couldn't get no hands on
Speaker 1: outside five yards. I couldn't touch him. So then another
Speaker 1: guy comes out of Starbucks yelling, yo, yo, catch him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, you were too late. I'm catching him,
Speaker 1: like like this none of my business. So I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there and this guy's pacing man. I can't believe this
Speaker 1: has happened. Called the police, call the police, and like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not being on no subpoena lists, so
Speaker 1: I'm not calling no police. I'm just mind of my business.
Speaker 1: You've been around black folks way too much. Because because
Speaker 1: because the typical joe with a try to apprehend the
Speaker 1: feller and called the police, I'm not apprehending nobody. There's
Speaker 1: his family or friends. Like I watched, but like I
Speaker 1: want nobody get hurt, but so co I don't want
Speaker 1: to get hurt. Amen. So so uh you know the
Speaker 1: law enforcement in the in the town that a men
Speaker 1: shows up and that's going on in front of me.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, yo, Kim, coffee's gonna be cold because
Speaker 1: I'm watching this. I gotta see what's happening. You ready
Speaker 1: for this? Steve, forty two year old man lived in
Speaker 1: l A, lived in Charlotte, and this is what happened.
Speaker 1: This gentleman met another gentleman on a online site and
Speaker 1: was going to sell him a fifteen thousand dollar rolex
Speaker 1: on a online app cash money. Hope Up, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: let me put some boom in it. Put it, put
Speaker 1: the boom in it? What what? What? What site can
Speaker 1: you go on that you can say I got a
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollar rolex? Who wants to buy it? Not
Speaker 1: a good sight? I don't have that answer. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: just wonder, oh oh what what? What I derived from
Speaker 1: the situation was derided? What's what's the word derived? Steve?
Speaker 1: So you know what's I just want made out of it.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I hurt it right.
Speaker 1: What is the place of origin? Please, of rock in
Speaker 1: the interpretation of the situation gathered gathered, I wrangled all
Speaker 1: the information. Young man walks in with what I'll call
Speaker 1: a zip bank bag. I'm sure you know some of
Speaker 1: us have seen a little little, little, you know, vinyl
Speaker 1: bag you put money in. So he comes like a regist,
Speaker 1: like when you go like we work at a restaurant
Speaker 1: and you a bank bag. Yeah, a little ziplock, little
Speaker 1: leather thing like a pouch. Right, they call him mercs.
Speaker 1: Now he had a merse. So apparently this young man
Speaker 1: walked in with allegedly fifteen thousand dollars in this bank bag.
Speaker 1: He hands this bank bag over to this man. Is
Speaker 1: it a big bank bag? Small banker? This is part
Speaker 1: of the story. It wasn't. Are you trying to tell
Speaker 1: me to just listen? Just I want you to interact.
Speaker 1: You can actively almost said yes, I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out because just doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: Correct it done? Because I can tell you right now,
Speaker 1: anybody in this studio, if I handed you a bag
Speaker 1: with fifteen grand or I handed you a bag with
Speaker 1: I don't know, three hundred bucks in it. You're probably
Speaker 1: gonna know the difference if you never have fifteen and
Speaker 1: it's a lot, is not a lot? Well a lot
Speaker 1: if you put it in once, not for a fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollar rolex, fifteen thousand ones? You know what may
Speaker 1: that is. It's so apparently this man, this man hands
Speaker 1: this other individual this bank bag with fifteen thousand, which
Speaker 1: wasn't as he grabs the bag, he doesn't open it
Speaker 1: and count it. He just grabs the bags. So the
Speaker 1: purchaser says, hey, man, can I try that on while
Speaker 1: while you're standing there? And the guys like, sure, buddy,
Speaker 1: put it on. You know what happened next? Ghost. So
Speaker 1: I hate to be make this as a race, but
Speaker 1: I have to ask the following questions because I think
Speaker 1: it's really extremely important. It is important. Okay, there's a
Speaker 1: sketch of the artist of the sailance, so you can
Speaker 1: go ahead. The purchase, sir, was black? Correct? The seller
Speaker 1: was not black? Correct? Caucasian, I think they say on
Speaker 1: the report Caucasian. On the report you looked it up.
Speaker 1: You looked it up to absolutely. I watched the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So it was a young African American gentleman in a
Speaker 1: T shirt, pair of running shorts. Obviously some Jordan's. Oh
Speaker 1: here's the key question. What kind of georgane did you
Speaker 1: have on? Because man, at the rate you was saying,
Speaker 1: he was moving, Man, there's a few pairs that you
Speaker 1: just can't do that in. Well, they were four, so
Speaker 1: he had some side support. He was good, Yes, some
Speaker 1: ankles support because you knew he was cutting. So as
Speaker 1: this is going down, the officers looks at this the
Speaker 1: Caucasian male of middle age and says, sir, do you
Speaker 1: know it's not a real good idea to meet somebody
Speaker 1: to buy a rolex for fifteen thousand? He goes, well,
Speaker 1: I do now, so he starts describing this individual. Yeah, describe.
Speaker 1: So how did this end? How did the seller describe?
Speaker 1: Air quotes purchase, purchase, sir to law enforcement? So the height, wait,
Speaker 1: you know, what did he have on? And then he
Speaker 1: got to skin tone and the officer was an African
Speaker 1: American gentleman. So this white middle aged man was really
Speaker 1: trying to tap that dance around. He didn't know how
Speaker 1: to answer because he said he was African American. He
Speaker 1: didn't want to, he don't want to come off his races.
Speaker 1: He did not want to come off his race, but
Speaker 1: he was already at a racist point because that brother
Speaker 1: stole his watch. So so officers, you know, either drop
Speaker 1: though here to drop the hard r at least once. Internally.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it could have
Speaker 1: been that internal chatter. So the officer says, well, what
Speaker 1: skin tone? Was he? Light skin? And this dude did
Speaker 1: not know how to answer this, so he lost fifteen
Speaker 1: now in our rolex, and now he's in the middle
Speaker 1: of maybe getting tas maybe if they didn't somebody. So
Speaker 1: this guy's like, well, I don't really understand how he said. Look,
Speaker 1: was he my skin tone? Or was he as dark
Speaker 1: as that brother over there? And there was a significantly
Speaker 1: darker gentleman sitting at a table and this dude, um, well,
Speaker 1: uh kinda, I guess I'll call him light skin. He's like, okay,
Speaker 1: light skinned African American gentleman. Jordan's running shorts T shirt
Speaker 1: got it. It was like the most rolling and a
Speaker 1: rolling It was the most stereotypical overview. But the moral
Speaker 1: of the story is like, how do you not know
Speaker 1: it's not fifteen grand? How do you know, as a
Speaker 1: great philosopher that I lived with named Boston Smith A K. Bam.
Speaker 1: He would say it this way stupid a man, that's tragic.
Speaker 1: It was quite the day. So the real question of
Speaker 1: the day is did you have to get another coffee
Speaker 1: or was Kim you just delivered the cold? Oh? I
Speaker 1: drank that one while I had to get another one. Hey,
Speaker 1: who do we have coming up next? On the Cut
Speaker 1: to It Podcast? We have in studio former Duke Blue
Speaker 1: Devil Ricky Price. Ricky is in the top one Duke
Speaker 1: players of all time to ever suit up for coach
Speaker 1: k and he currently owns Game Ready Skills and Development
Speaker 1: basketball camps for children here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the best three point shooter we have had on our
Speaker 1: show to date. Ricky Price on the Cut to It Podcast,
Speaker 1: So thank you for being here. Our first section is
Speaker 1: gonna get be called get iced up. If you know
Speaker 1: about Smitty Um, you know that we don't know where
Speaker 1: he's coming. He's got these all off the top. You
Speaker 1: can see a book and I see your face is
Speaker 1: nervous right now, but I don't know what's happening. He's
Speaker 1: about to hit us with it. So I got this
Speaker 1: little book is called the Life Little Instruction Instructional Book.
Speaker 1: And I was standing in line. You know how you're
Speaker 1: standing in line. I was standing in line in FedEx
Speaker 1: to ship something, and they were moving at the pace
Speaker 1: that generally FedEx generally doesn't move back. And so this
Speaker 1: little book was right there and I was looking at it.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I went to this FedEx because
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be quick. Man. I was in there
Speaker 1: about five minutes too long. So I picked up this book. Man.
Speaker 1: I started reading and they got a little things are here.
Speaker 1: So this is uh. I'm gonna say something then, and
Speaker 1: you tell me if this is good advice. Don't take
Speaker 1: medication in the dark? Bad advice? Take medication in the dark.
Speaker 1: Make sure you answer the question should you or should
Speaker 1: you not take medication in the dark? Well, I would
Speaker 1: think you need to know what it is that you're taking.
Speaker 1: You can see Ricky's over here taking pills. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was taking. He says, uh, Oh, I
Speaker 1: like this, So what do you think about this? Every
Speaker 1: year send your old ala mallar. I can't even Alma mater,
Speaker 1: Alma mater. A few bucks? Good advice, Yeah, have you
Speaker 1: done that I have? Oh yeah, not that they needed
Speaker 1: pretty deep right right. I think they do a great
Speaker 1: job financially. So my my couple hundred dollars didn't do much.
Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, Last one, how would you define success?
Speaker 1: Oh that's a loaded question. How much time do we
Speaker 1: have as long as you want? Well? I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: I think success is, uh, you know, achieving all your
Speaker 1: goals and aspirations. For me, that was through basketball. Um.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was able to do that, you know,
Speaker 1: as a high school All American, as a college basketball player,
Speaker 1: and then as a pro. And then I think success
Speaker 1: also is what you do after you're finished playing. And
Speaker 1: I think I'm reaching that too by you know, working
Speaker 1: with kids, uh, with the Game Ready Academy training that
Speaker 1: we're doing, and so you know, you're touching lives in
Speaker 1: a in a different way, and so you know, I
Speaker 1: would qualify successes um, reaching your goals and aspirations, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever they may be. All right, let you know, let's
Speaker 1: let's get right into it because I love asking it
Speaker 1: this way. Is where are you from? In a place
Speaker 1: you call your hometown? Los Angeles, California? Born in brett
Speaker 1: Um born and raised in l A, grew up in
Speaker 1: a Compton, carsonaria, and uh, you know, everything about me
Speaker 1: has an imprint of of that West Coast lifestyle. Ye
Speaker 1: you understand that, Steve, You understand a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't understand that. So you're talking about the Carson So
Speaker 1: first of all, um, you know, we're just gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and resonate on that a little bit and just
Speaker 1: kind of hover. So a lot of times like this
Speaker 1: is how I know. It's how I catch catch catching ninja.
Speaker 1: It aled not which what street you grew up on. Uh, Well,
Speaker 1: my parents are divorced, and so my dad lived in Carson.
Speaker 1: My mom lived in Compton, and so in Compton, I
Speaker 1: grew up on the corner of Wilmington and the Landra
Speaker 1: right next to the Compton Airport, and then further down
Speaker 1: in Carson, which was only attempt in the drive. He
Speaker 1: lived off of Wilmington and Avalon, which is right there
Speaker 1: by cow State, Domingus. So uh, no lives detected. Grew
Speaker 1: up on A hundred twenty six and Avalon. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 1: My my uncle, my late uncle, Frankie, uh was a
Speaker 1: lifeguard at Victoria Park. That's where I grew up I
Speaker 1: grew I grew up swimming in there, yes, playing basketball,
Speaker 1: slamming jam in Washington. Victoria Park was everything, everything and
Speaker 1: my my my mom actually graduated, uh raising two kids
Speaker 1: from from Domingus Hills. Okay, yeah, okay, she she went
Speaker 1: to l A Trade Tech, went there and then she
Speaker 1: and then eventually got a degree at uh uh Domingus.
Speaker 1: I like it. Both my parents met at u c
Speaker 1: l A. And then everyone thought that I'd probably go
Speaker 1: to u c l A for college. But I was
Speaker 1: a different breed. I want to get away from home,
Speaker 1: but I know, I know a little bit about the
Speaker 1: West coast. Yeah. So I learned how to swim at
Speaker 1: Victoria Park, but I maintained and spent my summers down
Speaker 1: the street from the house at Athens Park. Athens Park, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you lose your shoes in there, yes, yes. So we
Speaker 1: grew up in the in the eighties where you just
Speaker 1: a green and smiling. Yes, I mean it was a
Speaker 1: couple of places where you had to be super careful,
Speaker 1: you know, like you want to wear white, you know,
Speaker 1: gray and maybe black, no red, no blue. You know,
Speaker 1: you could get in trouble wearing those two colors, you know,
Speaker 1: or something off because you know, uh, people would, they
Speaker 1: would sweat you about that kind of stuff. I remember
Speaker 1: going slaws and swap meat and whatever you bought you
Speaker 1: had to put on before you walked out because if
Speaker 1: you walked out and holding it, you weren't gonna hold
Speaker 1: it for long. They were gonna check it on you. Shoes,
Speaker 1: t shirts. Seventh grade, Yeah, left ear. That's why I
Speaker 1: got my ear pierced Slawson. Boy. That big old green building. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right there, I was at Reverend. I was right there.
Speaker 1: Uh uh in elementary school. Uh folks. Folks had their
Speaker 1: house on My grandparents had the house on hundred six
Speaker 1: and av Long's about uh two thousand seven and had it,
Speaker 1: I believe nineteen fifties till two thousand seven and live
Speaker 1: with my mom um Onto in Arlington. So right there
Speaker 1: there was reverend remember Reverend Cleveland, remember that guy. And
Speaker 1: they actually turned that church into a picking save And
Speaker 1: then there's something else. Now it's I think they're not
Speaker 1: they're not pavilion. Yes, he brought up Winch doughnuts the
Speaker 1: other day. I love them, man. That's the It was
Speaker 1: winchhows and then it turned into Duncan. So what's Coast guys,
Speaker 1: man is uh is different? They're they're different. What man
Speaker 1: growing up in the eighties, right, you from l A
Speaker 1: growing up in the eighties. Man, I'll be remissed because
Speaker 1: you're a little bit older than me. I'll be remissed. Man.
Speaker 1: I want to give you an opportunity to kind of
Speaker 1: just describe, um, you know, a guy who had obviously
Speaker 1: they were the force, but have both of your parents
Speaker 1: in your life? Uh, how difficult if it was? If
Speaker 1: it wasn't it wasn't you know, not everybody experienced, um,
Speaker 1: the misfortune and and and and some of that. But
Speaker 1: how did you grow up? And how did the eighties
Speaker 1: with that's when gangs are really gangs. That's when the
Speaker 1: crack epidemic was infiltrating the community, not the black community,
Speaker 1: not the white community, not the Latino community, the poor
Speaker 1: community in ways that people lost their lives, right. Families
Speaker 1: were broken up, people were killed over those little pieces
Speaker 1: of rock. How did it? How did it impact you
Speaker 1: as a young man who had who had a family
Speaker 1: that they went to college, they were well educated, they
Speaker 1: knew what it looked like on the other side of
Speaker 1: the one Tin Freeway. For a long time, I did
Speaker 1: not know what they looked like on the other side
Speaker 1: of the one Tim Freeway. M Well, that's a great question.
Speaker 1: I mean for me, Um, you know, I come from
Speaker 1: a middle class family. You know, both my parents worked,
Speaker 1: you know, they went to college, they made decent money. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm the only child, and so the focus was on
Speaker 1: me to be honest and really keep it simple as
Speaker 1: I gotta pass. I gotta pass. Wow, I gotta pass.
Speaker 1: Because I was that kid in the neighborhood who always
Speaker 1: had the basketball, dribbling my ball, holding it, trying to
Speaker 1: shoot on everybody's backboard if you had one, you know,
Speaker 1: over your garage. And I want to hang out with
Speaker 1: the fellas, you know, But for whatever reason God blessed
Speaker 1: her soul, they would never let me do it. They
Speaker 1: just saw that I had something and that you know,
Speaker 1: it couldn't be replaced, and so they never let me
Speaker 1: hang out. They never let me bang with them. They
Speaker 1: never let me get into dirt as they got into dirt,
Speaker 1: you know, and you can't go, you know, keep keep dribbling,
Speaker 1: keep shooting, keep working on your game. And I felt
Speaker 1: alienated because I wanted to hang out, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be down. I wanted to be cool, but you know,
Speaker 1: my path was different, and for whatever reason, they saw
Speaker 1: that and they gave me a pass. And so I
Speaker 1: channeled all my energy and the basketball, and so my
Speaker 1: friends became my teammates, the guys that I played with
Speaker 1: who had a common interest in goal, which was basketball.
Speaker 1: And so that was the bond that we had together.
Speaker 1: And that's how, you know, I kind of made it through.
Speaker 1: And I was a good student, you know, three point
Speaker 1: o student the whole way through. But it was it
Speaker 1: was Hoop that really, you know, kept me focused. I
Speaker 1: love cut to It and I love it even more
Speaker 1: when you download us and subscribe and you can follow
Speaker 1: us on social media too, Smithie, where where at at?
Speaker 1: Cut to It on Instagram? What about twitter? At? Cut
Speaker 1: to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online? And you can follow us that cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Uh yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother.
Speaker 1: Cut to a podcast dot Com. You take that and
Speaker 1: you fast forward and you get an opportunity to play
Speaker 1: a duke. What did that mean to you? And how
Speaker 1: did you go through that process because of your family?
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, that's like blasphemy around that time
Speaker 1: where you got the Obandon brothers to not go to
Speaker 1: USC or you got Bo Kimbell not to go to
Speaker 1: u c l A. Like, I'm just stating all these
Speaker 1: different people like Obandons, both Kimbell and Gathers that loyal
Speaker 1: like that are of the side of the country. That's
Speaker 1: what basketball was and you chose something else. How dare
Speaker 1: you right? Well that's a good question. Uh. What's funny
Speaker 1: is because my freshman year U c l A won
Speaker 1: a national championship and so I'm thinking to myself, I
Speaker 1: damn should make the wrong decision. And we played them
Speaker 1: that year and maybe this about twenty five and the
Speaker 1: breaks off he killed us and they had like you
Speaker 1: mentioned Ed O'Bannon, Charles O'Bannon, Tyus, Edney Toby Bailey used
Speaker 1: to play at Venice on the Beach before before it
Speaker 1: came a homeless population. So all my friends I grew
Speaker 1: up with you slamming jam with So I mean I
Speaker 1: was like, did I make the wrong decision. But again
Speaker 1: I said, I was a different breed. You know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to get away from home. I wanted to you know,
Speaker 1: be come a man by leaving to go away. UM.
Speaker 1: At the time, the A c C was the best
Speaker 1: conference in America. Uh, probably still is. UM. At the
Speaker 1: time we had coach k who was the best coach
Speaker 1: in America. Probably still is. And I had a chance academically,
Speaker 1: you know, to go to a top ten school in
Speaker 1: the nation. And so for me, you know, it checked
Speaker 1: all the boxes. And I don't want to challenge myself,
Speaker 1: you know, and get away and do something different. So
Speaker 1: how's the young man living in l A have those
Speaker 1: boxes that you're talking about, because those for me, I rarely.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to u C. L A until I
Speaker 1: went to University High School, which was at which you know,
Speaker 1: I only went to a couple of a couple of
Speaker 1: a couple of months at Emerson right, went to Paul Revere,
Speaker 1: but all I saw was Horseman Dorsey Centennial, Uh marco
Speaker 1: UH coach a little bit at Sarah. You know some
Speaker 1: of the folks I grew up with that Sarah Gardina
Speaker 1: banding a lock crunch yall I grew up a cross street,
Speaker 1: eating eating TV dinners on a on a on a
Speaker 1: white pale Fremont. I never thought about, first of all,
Speaker 1: I even know what tobacco role was. I never thought
Speaker 1: about places on the other side of the country. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't really know too much about Duke until I visited.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew for a fact that, uh, I
Speaker 1: watched college basketball a lot. Grant Hill was my favorite
Speaker 1: player in college. You know, he was my host on
Speaker 1: my visit. And yes, yes, the job exactly. They knew
Speaker 1: what they were doing. I mean, the visit was incredible.
Speaker 1: It was nothing short of incredible. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting with coaching, with Coach k and the rest of
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, talking to Grand Hills, seeing the rest
Speaker 1: of the players, watching the tradition that they had on
Speaker 1: the basketball side. You know, for me, it was something
Speaker 1: that I wanted to be a part of. And luckily
Speaker 1: for me, in the recruiting process, you know, my dad,
Speaker 1: even though my parents were divorced, my dad was very
Speaker 1: much a part of my life, especially early on, and
Speaker 1: he was there for me at in the recruiting process
Speaker 1: and he was able to help me, you know, put
Speaker 1: together a so called box so you can check those
Speaker 1: boxes to see where it is you wanted to go.
Speaker 1: And so, um, you know, I had an idea of
Speaker 1: how I saw myself as a college basketball player and
Speaker 1: where I wanted to go. But um, you know, recruiting
Speaker 1: and visiting, it just became painfully obvious and clear that
Speaker 1: Duke was the place for me. Who else? What are
Speaker 1: the trips did you go on? Who are they up against? Um?
Speaker 1: So it was it came down to Duke in Kansas.
Speaker 1: My final five was Duke, Kansas, Arkansas, Cow in Arizona.
Speaker 1: And my first two visits were to Kansas and Duke,
Speaker 1: and I just I shut it down after that because
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was gonna get any better than that.
Speaker 1: And so Roy Williams was actually at Kansas at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, he just retired as a North Carolina coach.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you probably catch him on the golf course sometimes. UM.
Speaker 1: Good guy, great guy, actually one of the few uh
Speaker 1: good guys. And he's still you know every time I see,
Speaker 1: you know, one of you good guys that you and
Speaker 1: see or well, let me rephrase that you just said.
Speaker 1: It's just I'm an active listener. When I see that,
Speaker 1: I can't get anything by this guy, you said, one
Speaker 1: of the good guys, like WHOA. Well, listen, I mean,
Speaker 1: of course there's a there's a Duke qu and c rivalry. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's where it's from. Not saying no, I mean
Speaker 1: there's no ill will towards any I'm not talking about coach.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the particular coach. I'm just talking
Speaker 1: about sometimes former players, the guy who's been recruited, who's who,
Speaker 1: who's also now working at academy, dealing with young men.
Speaker 1: You see the uh food gaziness of recruiting. I've experienced
Speaker 1: it with my son, my oldest son. He plays soccer,
Speaker 1: and I just saw in the recruiting. I was bro
Speaker 1: this game is different compared to compared to when I
Speaker 1: when I played, Like when I played, it was like, look,
Speaker 1: you got three teams. You know you got five teams.
Speaker 1: You take three trips, right, take a trip that you
Speaker 1: know you want to go, Take a trip that you
Speaker 1: know damn well, you ain't gonna go to it, but
Speaker 1: you just know it's a cool school, right, and then
Speaker 1: your second the second choice. Now they've got five choices,
Speaker 1: five recruiting trips they get, they hosting and they get
Speaker 1: all of that stuff, yes, And so that's why I
Speaker 1: was saying it, not out of like hate or hate,
Speaker 1: but just more of you. You've seen it now being
Speaker 1: in the system, being raised in the system, raising up
Speaker 1: now young men and women through your program. So you see, like, man,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of false advertisements of course, of course,
Speaker 1: and I had to you know, fight against that and
Speaker 1: sift through, you know, the people who are you know,
Speaker 1: for gazy and the people who you know weren't as real.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, once you spend time with these
Speaker 1: coaches and talked to him, and Roy was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite guys. And even though I like Duke better
Speaker 1: than Kansas, at the time, I like Ray Wims better
Speaker 1: than Coach K. And so that's what made the decision
Speaker 1: so tough for me because I really had a great
Speaker 1: relationship with him, and I was I had a great
Speaker 1: relationship with Coach K too, but I just had a
Speaker 1: better one with Roy, and so I chose Duke, and
Speaker 1: I ended up having a good relationship with Coach K
Speaker 1: and now you know, we're still on great terms. But
Speaker 1: it was it was that, you know, Nip and Tuck,
Speaker 1: you know, they made the decision We've had some guys
Speaker 1: on here that have have talked about how influential Coach
Speaker 1: K was. How how was Coach K from your perspective,
Speaker 1: in your personality. That's a good question. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time in terms of XS
Speaker 1: and those, Coach K is comparable to just about anybody. Wow,
Speaker 1: he's not excellent on the X and O side there, guys,
Speaker 1: or maybe even better on the X and O side,
Speaker 1: then Coach K. What Coach K does better than anybody
Speaker 1: is that he's an incredible motivator. He gets guys to
Speaker 1: play above their level year in and year out. When
Speaker 1: you say above, break that down because you hear above
Speaker 1: that level when you go okay, he's he's squeezing the
Speaker 1: last part of the He squeezing and taking all the
Speaker 1: juice out of that fruit. But having to say it,
Speaker 1: a coach can make a guy play above that level.
Speaker 1: It's not squeezing the juice. It's actually growing, the growing
Speaker 1: in to where that that fruit is bigger, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to squeeze it hard. He just dabbling because
Speaker 1: it's so ripe and ready. Absolutely imagine Zion Williamson. He's
Speaker 1: already really really good and when he came to college,
Speaker 1: he was already really really good. Imagining him getting the
Speaker 1: coaching that he got from Coach k and Coach Kate
Speaker 1: talking to him and motivating him. And then what you
Speaker 1: saw was Zion whim and play above his level even
Speaker 1: better than when he you know, came to Duke Gas
Speaker 1: and he finished National Player of the Year. He was
Speaker 1: another one pick and and actually a human highlight. And
Speaker 1: so when you get Kyrie Irving and Zion Willimson and
Speaker 1: Marvin Bagley and you know, Shane Battier and Elton brand
Speaker 1: to play above their level, you know, you get wins
Speaker 1: and you get a good product, you know, in college basketball.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that coach k
Speaker 1: does best is motivating these guys to play, you know,
Speaker 1: up and beyond their level. When you go to college,
Speaker 1: you want to go to a school that's the right fit.
Speaker 1: And if you think you want to play at the
Speaker 1: next level, you want to go to a school that's
Speaker 1: gonna prepare you for that. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: right now Duke has the most NBA players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Duke and Kentucky their neck and neck, you know, they
Speaker 1: lead by a dozen where they have the most players
Speaker 1: in the NBA. And I think it's because those two
Speaker 1: programs really help, you know, the college athlete get ready
Speaker 1: for the next And so now you're running the same
Speaker 1: sets you running the NBA. You know. Coach k obviously
Speaker 1: was the USA men's basketball coach, won three gold medals,
Speaker 1: you know, as the Olympic coach. And he's running the
Speaker 1: same stuff with Lebron and k D that he ran
Speaker 1: with Zion and r J. Barrett and the rest of
Speaker 1: the people. And so it all translates. And so now
Speaker 1: when r J and Zion and Cam Reddish get there
Speaker 1: from that particular team, they're ready to go. They've been
Speaker 1: running NBA stuff, you know, so now when they get
Speaker 1: to the NBA, it translates for them. Defensively, it translates
Speaker 1: for them. Coach K, we're not running zone. Maybe if
Speaker 1: we get everybody in foul ta, we might have to
Speaker 1: go to a two three. He's running man to man defense.
Speaker 1: Why because in the NBA they played man to man defense.
Speaker 1: That that solo ball absolutely, and so so you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna situations are available. He wants you to exploit
Speaker 1: that and go for that. Why because in the NBA
Speaker 1: you're gonna be You're gonna have to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. And so the preparation is there for all
Speaker 1: the kids who come to Duke, and you know, if
Speaker 1: they do their one or two years and they play
Speaker 1: at a high level, I think they're ready to play.
Speaker 1: You know, at that love on basketball i Q wise,
Speaker 1: they're good. Now, are there some guys who are just
Speaker 1: a little bit slower than others. Absolutely, of course you're
Speaker 1: going to see that. But for the most part, these
Speaker 1: guys come prepared. You do your one or two years,
Speaker 1: you have um your tutelage, you know from coach King
Speaker 1: and the rest of the coaching staff, and you're ready
Speaker 1: to go to the next level. What was your experience
Speaker 1: on that different style of culture when you got to
Speaker 1: do well. I think it was important. You know, a
Speaker 1: winning culture and a winning mentality is very very important.
Speaker 1: I think in all sports, and so at Duke, they
Speaker 1: create a culture that is about winning, and it starts
Speaker 1: with practice. Everything in practice is charted. It's charted, and
Speaker 1: so deflections, wins and scrimmages, and they promote winning on
Speaker 1: every situation. So just on a basic you know, let's
Speaker 1: run a suicide sprint. They want to see who wins
Speaker 1: that box out drill? They want to see who wins that. Alright,
Speaker 1: three on three, they want to see who wins that.
Speaker 1: And the people who are winning everything they want to
Speaker 1: put together because these guys are the most competitive. So
Speaker 1: Coach K in most great coaches, breed competition and that's
Speaker 1: where it starts when you want to build a great culture.
Speaker 1: I think he's got to start with with a competitive
Speaker 1: spirit that you have to instill in your players. You
Speaker 1: sit here and thinking, you you brought up coach Gays
Speaker 1: last year. I'm sitting next to two professional athletes that
Speaker 1: former for formal professional athletes that that played a while,
Speaker 1: but you still you still play? I mean I thought
Speaker 1: he just versued my bubble. Like so sixteen eleven, the
Speaker 1: crazy story is, uh, I played in several training camp situations,
Speaker 1: made it through a preseason, but never played in a
Speaker 1: full eighty two game season. So the answer is no, um,
Speaker 1: but nine years overseas as a professional athlete. So I
Speaker 1: looked at Coach k it's like forty two forty three
Speaker 1: coaching and for him to walk away, what's that mindset
Speaker 1: gotta be like for him? From you knowing him, how's
Speaker 1: he how's he okay with going home and sitting reading
Speaker 1: coffee in the morning. Good for him, I mean, good
Speaker 1: for him. He's done so much for the college basketball game.
Speaker 1: He's done so much for the kids that he's coached,
Speaker 1: and he deserves this moment to be able to step
Speaker 1: away from the game seventy plus years old. I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you identify at seven years old with incoming
Speaker 1: eighteen year old? You know, imagine those conversations that he
Speaker 1: was having, you know what I'm saying, Like, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to an eighteen year old? What are we talking about?
Speaker 1: You know? But he's he's he's made the adjustment and
Speaker 1: done it for so long. And I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing last year, I think was COVID and Roy talks
Speaker 1: about this too. COVID was such a strain on these
Speaker 1: coaches last year. I think last year one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Duke didn't do so well. We spent the
Speaker 1: whole year trying to keep coach healthy, trying to keep
Speaker 1: coach from not getting COVID because he falls into that
Speaker 1: demographic of people who, if they got it, had underlying
Speaker 1: conditions and were older, could possibly die, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And so I think we spent so much
Speaker 1: time trying to keep our guys healthy, but most importantly
Speaker 1: trying to keep him healthy, that we lost sight of
Speaker 1: some of the other stuff. I'm not making any excuses,
Speaker 1: You're just talking about the reality of of that. The time,
Speaker 1: absolutely and and so for Duke, I think it was tough.
Speaker 1: And then at some point, like if you're seventy plus
Speaker 1: years old, you've already done thirty plus years. Do I
Speaker 1: want to deal with this? Do I want to deal
Speaker 1: with COVID? Do I want to deal with the transfer proto?
Speaker 1: Do I want to deal with what? What? What? Do
Speaker 1: I want to deal with this? I've done my time
Speaker 1: and so you know, God bless you know, God bless him.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm happy for him that he saw the
Speaker 1: light and he wants to step away. Now we have
Speaker 1: a great coaching waiting John Shire, and um, you know
Speaker 1: he can go home and spend time when his god kids,
Speaker 1: walk his dog and you know, be a grandfather, be
Speaker 1: a husband and just relax. You you said you didn't
Speaker 1: have a NBA career, but you know you played professionally overseas.
Speaker 1: We and Ivory on here and she Ladder, Yes, she
Speaker 1: talked about Yes, she talked about her experience overseas. How
Speaker 1: was your experience overseason? What what places did you play?
Speaker 1: And how is that for you? It was incredible. Look,
Speaker 1: your goal as a basketball player is to be a
Speaker 1: professional basketball player. Obviously, if you can play in the NBA,
Speaker 1: it's the ultimate of the ultimate, and I gotta taste
Speaker 1: of that in summer leagues and preseasons. But I still
Speaker 1: got paid for playing basketball, which is awfully, you know,
Speaker 1: which is pretty good. So I played, you know, two
Speaker 1: years in France, you know, Slovenia, Amsterdam, China, you name it,
Speaker 1: venezuela passport full of stamps, and so basketball has offered
Speaker 1: me a great opportunity to see the world and see
Speaker 1: places that I probably would never see if I wasn't
Speaker 1: playing the game. When you first started playing overseas, what
Speaker 1: was your mind set? I was disappointing because I felt
Speaker 1: like I was an NBA player and I deserved to
Speaker 1: play in the NBA. But the reality sets in, I'm
Speaker 1: not in the NBA. This is where I'm at, So
Speaker 1: let me make the best of this. We go here.
Speaker 1: But why are you disappointed? Well, I mean, listen, I
Speaker 1: mean I can't front and lie my goal as a kid,
Speaker 1: was always to play in the NBA. I remember visualizing
Speaker 1: and imagine myself, you know, being in the NBA playing
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day and having my mind. I mean I
Speaker 1: had visually I dreamed about this and the fact that
Speaker 1: I came shorten that department. You know, it kind of
Speaker 1: stings and hurts initially, but then you have to move
Speaker 1: on there. Okay, what are we on to next? And
Speaker 1: so you know, that's what I was able to do.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, getting overseas for the first time,
Speaker 1: it's just it's like it's it's a bit much like
Speaker 1: this is so different than when I'm used to no
Speaker 1: b et you know, no uh no things that I'm
Speaker 1: used to, you know, at the house, I mean, everything
Speaker 1: is so much smaller. Why is my washer and dryer
Speaker 1: the same stackable stackable? But but it's the same. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's sure. I don't know how to drive a stick.
Speaker 1: They just gave me a stick. What am I? How
Speaker 1: am I going to drive this car? Oh? Look at Oh? Sorry,
Speaker 1: the free car they gave you wasn't good enough. Don't
Speaker 1: look around in the room. I'm talking. It was good enough,
Speaker 1: but they could have got me automatic. You know what's
Speaker 1: funny though my first year. You know, in Europe everyone
Speaker 1: drives a stick. Yeah, it's not. No one really has
Speaker 1: an automatic. So I got a brand new car. It's
Speaker 1: a stick, and within a week I started burned the clutch.
Speaker 1: I stripped the games, burned the clutch. Done miraculously. A
Speaker 1: week later I had an automatic. Yeah, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: should have just gave me that. From the beginning. We
Speaker 1: went out to go through all this. So you go
Speaker 1: to so first first team was France, Slovenia, Sylvenia. Where's that?
Speaker 1: That's a small country right next to Croatia in Austria.
Speaker 1: I didn't know where it was either. Had I had
Speaker 1: to go to Google to do my research. No, stop lying.
Speaker 1: You did not Google back then, I didn't Google. But look,
Speaker 1: you looked at an atlas whatever, whatever, Google, whatever the
Speaker 1: Google equivalent was. I did that. You went on my Space?
Speaker 1: Who is once? You got Italy here, um, Austria, Croatia here,
Speaker 1: and in Slovenia, so that in the Baltic region right there?
Speaker 1: All right, so you got there? What was that? What
Speaker 1: was what was your experience other than they gave you
Speaker 1: a stick? It was clums were smaller. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: playing for a EuroLeague team. Um, you know, people don't understand.
Speaker 1: I mean, NBA is the best competition in the world,
Speaker 1: but Europe is not too far behind. And a lot
Speaker 1: of their players, you know, are coming to the end.
Speaker 1: You can see how good they are. I mean, how
Speaker 1: good is Luca. I mean he's from Slovenia, you know,
Speaker 1: and they were known for having some really really good
Speaker 1: basketball players, you know, back in the day. And so
Speaker 1: the basketball was different because you know, it was more physical,
Speaker 1: you know, more technical, you know. And and here in
Speaker 1: the States you earn you have to earn your points
Speaker 1: in the paint. You have to earn your points in
Speaker 1: the paint, you know. Um, here in the States, everything
Speaker 1: was more athletic, more up and down. You got to
Speaker 1: get out in transition. Not so much in Europe. You know,
Speaker 1: they ran offense just about every time down and so
Speaker 1: it takes away I was a really really good athlete
Speaker 1: and I like to get up and down, jump and
Speaker 1: dunk and do stuff like that. And it takes away
Speaker 1: some of your game because now everything is in the
Speaker 1: half court and you got to get used to the
Speaker 1: physical nature. It's almost like playing a Big ten basketball
Speaker 1: like against Michigan State every night. That's what it's like.
Speaker 1: You know, Michigan State's gonna grind you out. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna run as much. They're gonna they're gonna be physical
Speaker 1: with you. That's how European basketball was. God, hey Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. So you got your camp. Now you
Speaker 1: do your academy. You know, tell tell us about your academy,
Speaker 1: and and and what the purpose? What is the true
Speaker 1: purpose for you? Right? You know you're doing basketball, you
Speaker 1: are investing in kids. In August we celebrated our tenure anniversary.
Speaker 1: So I've been doing this for ten years, working with kids,
Speaker 1: skill development training, spin, agility training, We do camps, we
Speaker 1: do clinics, um um uh team but corporate team building events,
Speaker 1: all these things surrounded by basketball. How how do you?
Speaker 1: I'm always interested? How do how does because I don't
Speaker 1: get it in basketball? Because I don't really know. How
Speaker 1: do I judge a good trainer? In basketball. Because I
Speaker 1: can watch a football player, I can watch a football trainer.
Speaker 1: I can tell you know to some degree, is this guy,
Speaker 1: you know a gimmick? Guys, this guy really you know,
Speaker 1: standing like this and do this. I'm gonna make his
Speaker 1: his forty faster all this stuff. But yeah, you can.
Speaker 1: But making the kids forty faster and that boy still
Speaker 1: can't catch, just mean he does. He's just a fast
Speaker 1: grew up. Right. We know he can get from point
Speaker 1: A to point B. He can get from point A
Speaker 1: to point C because he's gonna drop it at B.
Speaker 1: So how do you know for untrained I like myself
Speaker 1: in another sport. How do you know? And what would
Speaker 1: you categorize it's a good trainer. What the biggest thing is?
Speaker 1: You know, if you're talking about age groups, especially with
Speaker 1: young kids seven eight, nine years old, the emphasis should
Speaker 1: be fundamentals. You know, you should be teaching these kids
Speaker 1: how to pivot, you know, catch the ball on their
Speaker 1: follow through, make sure you leave your follow through every
Speaker 1: time on your shot. You know, being able to step
Speaker 1: into all your passes, defensively, stay in the stance. These
Speaker 1: are all the things that you should be working on
Speaker 1: if you're a good trainer at that level. Now as
Speaker 1: you get to those school in high school, you can
Speaker 1: start talking about more advanced things, you know, offensive breakdown moves,
Speaker 1: how to get open off screens. But really, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is is do you make corrections or
Speaker 1: do you let things just pass? So we have an
Speaker 1: hour workout session. Okay, and you make two or three mistakes.
Speaker 1: I know you make the mistake. A parent is there watching,
Speaker 1: knows he made a mistake. But as a trainer, you
Speaker 1: never say anything. You gotta stop correct and teach, all right.
Speaker 1: Another thing is you need to, you know, not so
Speaker 1: much get on your players all the time in terms
Speaker 1: of yelling and screaming at them, but when they do
Speaker 1: something good, congratulate them, praise them for what they're doing. Right,
Speaker 1: And so now the player gets to see both aspects.
Speaker 1: All right. So he got on me about doing this,
Speaker 1: but he said, I did a good job because I
Speaker 1: did this, So I need to stay away from doing
Speaker 1: this and I need to do more of this, all right.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, you know the proofs into putting. You know,
Speaker 1: I think you have a good trainer. If he's starting
Speaker 1: to get results. You know, so now when he's playing
Speaker 1: in his AIRU game is how school games and he's
Speaker 1: now you know, I got a text yesterday. The kid's
Speaker 1: name is Kneeling Nieling. He hit three threes in the
Speaker 1: game yesterday. One step back jump shot, one shot faking
Speaker 1: blow by, and then another wide open three. Well, it's
Speaker 1: crazy because in our training session just the day before,
Speaker 1: these are all the things we worked on, and so
Speaker 1: now he gets into his game situation and now he's
Speaker 1: actually he's actually able to do those things. And so
Speaker 1: these are the tell tell signs. You know, we're not gimmicky.
Speaker 1: We're not about you know, throwing, you know, juggling balls
Speaker 1: and cones and dribbling, you know, three basketballs at one
Speaker 1: time will in the game situation, you only play one ball,
Speaker 1: So why are we dribbling in three while we trying
Speaker 1: to juggle three? And so you see a lot of
Speaker 1: guys doing stuff like that, and you're like, you know,
Speaker 1: what are we doing. There's a lot of trainers out there,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of good trainers out there, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot of bad trainers out there too. And
Speaker 1: what you want to do is you want to have
Speaker 1: a good a guy who understands and those who has credentials.
Speaker 1: You know, he preferably a guy who played in college
Speaker 1: or professional because those guys seem to know you know
Speaker 1: about the game. You know, if you know what your
Speaker 1: what what what what journey or what role you'll have
Speaker 1: to have to travel ros or pros and the NBA
Speaker 1: or pros overseas. And the last thing is the mentorship.
Speaker 1: All right. Now, I don't sell this. It just happens.
Speaker 1: Because you spend so much time with these kids, they
Speaker 1: begin to follow you, they begin to to hang on
Speaker 1: your every word. And now it opens up opportunities to
Speaker 1: talk about um, your studies, you know, what you're doing
Speaker 1: in the classroom, girls, the pitfalls of dealing with girls, drugs, crime,
Speaker 1: and all these others. And now you've got a chance
Speaker 1: to really imprint yourself on these kids because you've cultivated
Speaker 1: relationship with them and their parents. And now you cannot,
Speaker 1: like build a really strong individual. Maybe we want to
Speaker 1: look train with you a little bit. Basketball can't prove
Speaker 1: them a jumper, though, Well, you'd be surprised just to
Speaker 1: hear your passion and to sit here and see you
Speaker 1: talk about it. Something you've been doing for ten years
Speaker 1: that when you started, you didn't even really know, this
Speaker 1: is what you wanted to do. Yeah, and then it
Speaker 1: turned it into that. You know, and I haven't seen
Speaker 1: your rules and regulations for your camp or anything, but
Speaker 1: you have a young man or woman walked in with
Speaker 1: the U n C shirt on. Do they pay more
Speaker 1: or do you still so you don't pay more? But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you run extra sprints, fork for sure,
Speaker 1: you know. So if everyone's running, you know, just two
Speaker 1: up and backs, you're gonna have to run four because
Speaker 1: this baby blue is a different type of blue that
Speaker 1: I like. I like the darker shade. Yeah. Well, people
Speaker 1: don't understand, man, that college stuff when you're in charge
Speaker 1: or you got that Mike and somebody else's from the
Speaker 1: opposite school like that, that real rival. Man, it just
Speaker 1: sits with you a whole lot different. Well, I didn't
Speaker 1: realize the verytime I got here, coming from l a
Speaker 1: USC u C, l A Celtics Lakers. Yeah, we might
Speaker 1: be the biggest two ribalties that that that we knew,
Speaker 1: you know, Duke Carolina. You see it on ESPN, but
Speaker 1: once you get here and live it, it's real. Well
Speaker 1: I'm I'm Utah and I'll talk um on the network
Speaker 1: and every so often. You know, I gotta talk about
Speaker 1: a b y U guy. Well, I'm not I'd be like,
Speaker 1: right right, he could be throwing a million first downs
Speaker 1: in touchdowns. I'm like, yeah, it's not that good. Was
Speaker 1: just decent. I want to I want to share a
Speaker 1: quick story about that because we joking. We just about it.
Speaker 1: But Steve and I had the opportunity to go speak
Speaker 1: to a local college football team here, and you know,
Speaker 1: Steve went up and shared some good stories with him
Speaker 1: and the team and the coach. You know, we're showing
Speaker 1: some love to us, and they gave us some gear.
Speaker 1: But facts here. Steve sat there and said, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate the gear. But he had his U TIHI down
Speaker 1: because it was Utah b y U week, and he
Speaker 1: told the coach, no disrespect, but I'm wearing this hat.
Speaker 1: The coach stood there and said, that's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get at this program. You're wearing that hat because
Speaker 1: it means something to you just a hat. So it
Speaker 1: was really really cool that a joke turned into a
Speaker 1: learning moment for all his Well, I wasn't joking. I
Speaker 1: was it was dashes. I want my Utah hat. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: it's big week. We played b y U. I had
Speaker 1: I had a lunch wager with a fellow b y
Speaker 1: U Guy Derwin Gray Uh pastors at Transformation Church every year.
Speaker 1: He's like, what you what we're doing? Back of chips?
Speaker 1: You know. It's just kind of like Utah. You know,
Speaker 1: he went to b y y'all with the Utah. We
Speaker 1: live here in Charlotte, and so you know, I'm getting
Speaker 1: text from him every day. What y'all gonna do today?
Speaker 1: I'm like, what y'all gonna do? And so when I
Speaker 1: spoke to the school and like, hey man, we we
Speaker 1: we gave his gear, and I'm like, man, you put
Speaker 1: in the bag I put in the back seat. And
Speaker 1: then you know, maybe another day yesterday, but today and
Speaker 1: it was Friday? Was it Friday night? Was Friday night?
Speaker 1: You taught me while you were playing Saturday? Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: I'm not taking off my gear. It wasn'tn't happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, there's some there's some great robberies and sports,
Speaker 1: you know, Yankees, Red Sox, Ohio State, Michigan, Utah, b
Speaker 1: y U. But Duke Carolina, Man, I can't. It's a special.
Speaker 1: It's something that but but every school, big or small,
Speaker 1: you have that robber. It means something to you. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I and I respect coach Italy for that,
Speaker 1: and it was awesome, but it was also like I
Speaker 1: was like, man, Coach, I can't do that, you know.
Speaker 1: Um And and my school isn't big, but it's my school.
Speaker 1: You know. They eight it took a chance on me,
Speaker 1: you know, and so I want to anyway I can
Speaker 1: repay them. I try, absolutely, absolutely, Rick, We've come to
Speaker 1: the last section of our podcast. Here, We've got a
Speaker 1: cut more questions for you and learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more about you. Um. We hear you're writing a book
Speaker 1: right now. So where are you at in the process
Speaker 1: and what inspired you to write It doesn't have pictures.
Speaker 1: It will have pictures. They'll be black and white. Oh
Speaker 1: okayture costs more, printing costs. The printing costs. Uh. But no,
Speaker 1: you know, this was something that was kind of inspired
Speaker 1: by COVID sitting at home, you know, lockdown. And people
Speaker 1: have always told me, because of my storytelling abilities, that
Speaker 1: I should write a book, and so you know, I
Speaker 1: thought about it, and I thought about some more and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what I'm gonna go ahead and
Speaker 1: do this. And so the book is really about success
Speaker 1: in leadership, you know, the five pillars. You know that
Speaker 1: I've been of the game ready, um, you know, program
Speaker 1: on and then kind of like a memoir of my
Speaker 1: career as a basketball player, you know, going all the
Speaker 1: way back to my days in California, you know, to
Speaker 1: where we are now. And so when you put it together,
Speaker 1: you're getting you know, a very you know, strong, emotional
Speaker 1: um book that is filled with you know, nuggets to
Speaker 1: you know, get you better at being a better leader
Speaker 1: and being more successful. And so you know, we're right
Speaker 1: there at the end. I have a co writer at
Speaker 1: Lease Williams who I'm working with, and we're finishing up
Speaker 1: the last two chapters you know as we speak, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna go to editing, and then you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to print and then you guys to
Speaker 1: both get a signed copy and I expect you to
Speaker 1: be at the book signing as well. We were told
Speaker 1: what we were doing. Yeah, this is this is this
Speaker 1: is like you know, to repay for me coming on
Speaker 1: the podcast. Can that happen? I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: take the question is are they actually doing book signings
Speaker 1: like in in person. Now, well, you know, by the time,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be funny. I'm literally like thinking
Speaker 1: about like books. I mean I read books. I read
Speaker 1: them all. I listened to audio books and also just
Speaker 1: ordering them and sit there and read them. And I
Speaker 1: can't remember the last time I heard a book sign, right,
Speaker 1: And so we have to be very weird that obviously
Speaker 1: COVID is still you know, I'm just talking about just overall,
Speaker 1: like well, yeah, I mean there are some people who
Speaker 1: are avid readers and who really want to see and
Speaker 1: hear from, you know, certain individuals. And I know that
Speaker 1: with the following that I have, especially in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: people want to hear the story. I mean I would
Speaker 1: hope that I would get at least fifty people to
Speaker 1: come out. You know, you got to you got two
Speaker 1: right here, I got five. I better come to well
Speaker 1: you production staff that cut to it, well, the production
Speaker 1: that one books to that. So if I mean not
Speaker 1: a problem, fine, um is that charity. We gotta give
Speaker 1: you our so scarity number after right, or you charge
Speaker 1: you can't give us a book and then give us
Speaker 1: a bill like yeah, here's my cash a number. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to divulge in the title, yet
Speaker 1: I'm kind of keeping it close to the vest. We're
Speaker 1: going around three different options. Um and so ask me
Speaker 1: again and about a month and I might have a
Speaker 1: clearer answer for you. Thank you. I respect that. Thank
Speaker 1: you off, Mike, I tell you though, these No, that's
Speaker 1: twice today today. Okay, how old you get? These jokes
Speaker 1: are always funny? Just guess yes they are. Yeah. Now
Speaker 1: that you you know, writing a book, got your academy,
Speaker 1: how do you want to right the last chapter of
Speaker 1: your journey? That's a great question. I already want to
Speaker 1: do more motivational speaking as well. I've done a lot
Speaker 1: of that over the past couple of years. Obviously the
Speaker 1: last year and a half or so, no one's done
Speaker 1: a lot of that. But I want to. I really
Speaker 1: want to do more motivational speaking and team building. Um
Speaker 1: and so you know that's something that then I al
Speaker 1: really feel passionate about. And I want to continue stay
Speaker 1: on the path with with coaching. You know, I love
Speaker 1: working with kids. I love helping you know, kids reach
Speaker 1: all their goals and aspirations. And if they love the
Speaker 1: game as much as I do, I feel obligated that
Speaker 1: I'm then I'm wanting to help you. Luckily, in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: there's a grid's a great lane for basketball. Basketball is
Speaker 1: king of football, not soccer. Basketball is the number one
Speaker 1: sport in North Carolina. I don't know what you're talking
Speaker 1: about on soccer. Oh, soccer is big two man. Soccer
Speaker 1: is crazy. Soccer is big two football here maybe not
Speaker 1: so much. But basketball. Every kid has a hoop, every
Speaker 1: kid is playing, every kid wants to go to do
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Every kid has asked for playing a professional
Speaker 1: and these parents understand that, and you know, they want
Speaker 1: their kids to achieve their goals, and they know that
Speaker 1: them are not going to be able to get in college.
Speaker 1: They know that, but they don't care. It's the journey
Speaker 1: that they're interested in. So you're talking about the journey
Speaker 1: of the kids, and percent will not make it just
Speaker 1: the status. What are you saying from you? You know,
Speaker 1: prior to COVID and your team building, why is that
Speaker 1: such a profitable business for you, especially with North Carolina
Speaker 1: and Charlotte. How many companies are moving here. I'm always
Speaker 1: intrigued because I've started to get some of that, and
Speaker 1: you know, not to the level you are, but I'm
Speaker 1: just interested like I will meet or do you know,
Speaker 1: identified a few company zoom and always do like we'll
Speaker 1: end up somebody asked me a question and the CEOs
Speaker 1: on there and I and I realized at some point
Speaker 1: through the process, I'm like, this dude's the CEO or CFO.
Speaker 1: He has no ability to think outside of the lane
Speaker 1: of business. It's amazing. You know, there's so much synergy
Speaker 1: in between sports and corporate America and what it takes
Speaker 1: to build a team, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: so you have to have certain principles that you rely on,
Speaker 1: like Coach k built his Dude program on and those
Speaker 1: same principles can be used in corporate America. And so
Speaker 1: I do consulting work with do corporate education and they
Speaker 1: do just that team building. We've been doing that for
Speaker 1: the last eight years. And then you know with Game
Speaker 1: Rate that do my own stuff on side, and so
Speaker 1: so now you know, we take you through some basic
Speaker 1: basketball drills. Okay, corporation corporations and so now a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys have never or ladies have never played
Speaker 1: basketball before, and now they're thrown into something that they've
Speaker 1: never done before. So they're uncomfortable, they're very uncomfortable because
Speaker 1: they're the head honcho of their business, of their group,
Speaker 1: and now and they can't make a sandwich. They can't
Speaker 1: make a sandwich, let it on a layup. And so
Speaker 1: now I thought you in some basic basketball drills. But
Speaker 1: in order to get through these drills, you have to
Speaker 1: use each other to push each other through, all right,
Speaker 1: and you have to do it as a group. You
Speaker 1: have to you have to do it as a team.
Speaker 1: And so now we're building team chemistry, we're building camaraderie.
Speaker 1: And now there's a there's a there's a sense of
Speaker 1: we can do this, but we can do it together,
Speaker 1: not individually, but we can do it together. So you've
Speaker 1: got like a basketball escape room. Basically, Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: just off to come. I mean, basically that's what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's you. You're just getting away. You're
Speaker 1: out of your your room of a reason, and you're
Speaker 1: doing something very uncomfortable, and you're using your compadres, your
Speaker 1: co workers to help you through. How do you handle
Speaker 1: how do you handle a CFO who has wanted this
Speaker 1: to be a team building for the group, And you
Speaker 1: realize the CFO, who's a point guard, is the reason
Speaker 1: why the team isn't efficient, can't score points, can't grab
Speaker 1: a rebound and even line up for free throw. What's crazy?
Speaker 1: As we experienced that with the guy. We did a
Speaker 1: group in Paris and uh CFO. He's very very very animated,
Speaker 1: very raw ra but sometimes it was overbearing for his
Speaker 1: coworkers and so you know, they didn't see the end result.
Speaker 1: They just saw him yelling and screaming, and they needed
Speaker 1: him to lead more than the screen more and be
Speaker 1: less competitive in certain aspects. They gravitated towards that a
Speaker 1: lot better than his style of leadership, and he had
Speaker 1: to learn through our program that he needs to lead differently.
Speaker 1: And if and if we can reach that guy and
Speaker 1: reach all these people and teach them how to lead differently,
Speaker 1: then their corporation is going to be better and as
Speaker 1: a result, everybody wins. I mean, you can look no
Speaker 1: further than this room. I mean, you have a team
Speaker 1: of guys right here. Even though you guys are the
Speaker 1: point guys and the people hear you. Without these guys
Speaker 1: on the production, it's not gonna happen. Basketball no different.
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about Steph Cray making ten threes, but what
Speaker 1: about the screen that was set for him to get
Speaker 1: multiple screen. Absolutely, you know that falls by the wayside.
Speaker 1: But Draymond said, a couple of those and now he's
Speaker 1: responsible for five of those threes. Now go to state
Speaker 1: one by fifteen going away, Steph had thirty five or
Speaker 1: forty and Draymond doesn't get but he does because the
Speaker 1: people who understand it, to understand the game, they see
Speaker 1: that his value on the team, all right, and so
Speaker 1: we all have value. We just gotta figure out what
Speaker 1: that is. Man, Appreciate you coming in. Appreciate you being
Speaker 1: in studio. Man was it was. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Anytime you guys don't want me to come back out,
Speaker 1: we'd love to be back. Thank you, Thank you. You
Speaker 1: are a unique person. You are well worth it, you
Speaker 1: are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Senior. I'm Gerald Little John and this just cut
Speaker 1: to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That
Speaker 1: is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It, Executive producer Steve Smith,
Speaker 1: singer co host Gerard little John, talent and booking manager
Speaker 1: Joe Fusci. Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show
Speaker 1: from Balto Creative Media. Cut To It is produced by
Speaker 1: Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek,
Speaker 1: Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all snow