Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Wow, well well, well, well
Speaker 1: you know when um I when they said I could
Speaker 1: guest host this show. Then they said, who's your dream guest?
Speaker 1: Don't don't say like it doesn't have to be realistic,
Speaker 1: just say one dream guest and then make a realistic list.
Speaker 1: And I said, Kareem abdual Jabbar. And let's let's pretend
Speaker 1: this is like a therapy session. I'm your therapist now.
Speaker 1: Of course, as everyone knows, Lebron James just broke one
Speaker 1: of your records and you were so gracious and there
Speaker 1: and everything. But how did it make you feel? I
Speaker 1: have to say, I'm pretty glad that my role in
Speaker 1: it was finished, you know, but Lebron worked real hard
Speaker 1: for it. He deserves it. He has spent his adult
Speaker 1: life as a premier athlete and done an exceptional job
Speaker 1: at it, and his heart is in the right place.
Speaker 1: I don't know you probably you may or may not
Speaker 1: know how he sent a whole school district to college. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a whole lot he could be doing with that tuition money,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, he could be on his own island,
Speaker 1: but you know that that's where its heart is. And
Speaker 1: so I got a lot of respect for him. I
Speaker 1: wish him will Yeah, you were so gracious and it's
Speaker 1: such a very zone absense of ego. And I heard
Speaker 1: you say and Jimmy Fallon like you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's like a burden's been lifted, you know, like it's
Speaker 1: done with that. I'm done with that, you know. And
Speaker 1: it was just I thought that was very interesting and
Speaker 1: and so cool and and you know, it's interesting how
Speaker 1: great the greats. You know, you're real tall, you're gifted
Speaker 1: at basketball. But what people don't realize is the the
Speaker 1: the work that's put into it. That you were the
Speaker 1: kid who had the keys to the gym after everyone
Speaker 1: went home and worked on that sky hook and you know,
Speaker 1: and it really is about getting that ten thousand hours
Speaker 1: and being dedicated. And I think that's something that kids
Speaker 1: don't necessarily put together when they see just a star
Speaker 1: or someone who's the goat. You know, it's pretty I know,
Speaker 1: that's not a question. I also want to point out,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm very happy for Lebron, but I
Speaker 1: will say that your points were scored two at a time.
Speaker 1: Mostly a lot of people don't put that together. But yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. I okay, let me ask you this, I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to ask it. But my best friend,
Speaker 1: Tall John, he's it's an unronic nickname. He's tall and
Speaker 1: he's six ten, and I remember he's very shy, he's
Speaker 1: not a performer. And I remember he told me I
Speaker 1: know what it's like to be famous, because when I
Speaker 1: walk into a room, people are like, look at the guy.
Speaker 1: You know, look what the guy is. You know, as
Speaker 1: an eighth grader who is seven feet tall, I bet
Speaker 1: you can relate to what it is to be famous
Speaker 1: in the way of it being very self conscious, you know,
Speaker 1: very kind of and you know, I remember seeing that
Speaker 1: like you were fourteen, you you were an eighth grader
Speaker 1: playing with the seniors because you were so tall and
Speaker 1: you it was one time you cried and that was
Speaker 1: what made you put on this game face that's kind
Speaker 1: of stoicism and in a way, that's kind of a
Speaker 1: survival skill. Do you think that's part of being this
Speaker 1: kid that was so tall at your news. I think
Speaker 1: at that time that's how I coped, you know, because
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to cope, you know. And I
Speaker 1: remember I was at age fourteen and I went to
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden to see a game, and the guy
Speaker 1: asked me for my autograph. I said, you don't know
Speaker 1: who I am. Oh, I know you are. No, you
Speaker 1: don't know who I am. And we went back and
Speaker 1: forth for it. I said, well, I'll get rid of
Speaker 1: this guy. And I signed my my name and he
Speaker 1: said this is some stupid name. You thought, oh, and
Speaker 1: evolved it up and he threw it away. And you know,
Speaker 1: talk about crushed egos, but you know that that's, uh,
Speaker 1: that's how you learn the ropes. You know, you gotta
Speaker 1: have to take your licks. You know, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not fun, but you know, being uh, the person that
Speaker 1: I am and what I wanted to do with my life,
Speaker 1: I've been able to do it since I've retired, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm you know, I was always a fan
Speaker 1: of your basketball, but I became moved to super fandom
Speaker 1: when just reading your writing and your your pieces and
Speaker 1: your sub stack and your you know you. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think of myself as someone who does odd jobs.
Speaker 1: You I feel very much kindred spirit with you. You know,
Speaker 1: you you write for Time magazine and then you've got
Speaker 1: your sub stack and then like you wrote for Veronica
Speaker 1: Mars and then you know, it's so cool. You know,
Speaker 1: you watch The Bachelor and you write it on pieces
Speaker 1: on it for you You would write for the Hollywood Reporter,
Speaker 1: and they were so thoughtful and um, they weren't just fluff,
Speaker 1: even the Bachelor stuff, because it is so fascinating to
Speaker 1: watch these people and to think about what's going on
Speaker 1: in their minds. And well, you know, my my manager,
Speaker 1: entering of Deles enabled me to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to express all of this and make it work as
Speaker 1: a as a limit. You know, getting paid for doing
Speaker 1: something that you love is like almost as good as
Speaker 1: playing basketball and getting paid. So yeah, you know there
Speaker 1: are people there are It's such a rare gem of
Speaker 1: a thing when you know, like singer songwriters, Like when
Speaker 1: someone can write beautiful songs and they happen to be
Speaker 1: great singers, like that's just such a wonderful, happy accident.
Speaker 1: And with you, with writing, you have all this experience,
Speaker 1: all these ideas, all this these you know, progressive thoughts.
Speaker 1: You're so introspective, and then on top of it, you're
Speaker 1: this like beautiful writer. You know, like the way you
Speaker 1: put words together, I find, you know, thrilling. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: Cole Porter was that talented in that he could write
Speaker 1: songs and write the lyrics for them and they go
Speaker 1: together like hand in glove. Very few people like that though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you're one of them. But did all? I did
Speaker 1: a lot of these. Hold on, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: do that one yet. Hold on, listen, I've got little
Speaker 1: notes for myself. Of course, there's this one I got
Speaker 1: to know Robin Williams did. Yeah, and you and him
Speaker 1: have you share the same you can? You share the
Speaker 1: same talent in that you can get people to laugh
Speaker 1: when they're hurting and h Robin was exceptional at that.
Speaker 1: And I'm so sorry he's going. He was a beautiful
Speaker 1: man and I missed him. But you've resived this spirit.
Speaker 1: You are much like how Robin with what being Billy
Speaker 1: Crystal started. Um, I can't remember what's called comic relief? Um.
Speaker 1: You you've been very active in activist. You've been an
Speaker 1: activist for a long time. What was that inciting incident?
Speaker 1: What got you? Well? For me, it was the murder
Speaker 1: of Emmett Till that bothered me and I couldn't understand it.
Speaker 1: I asked my parents to explain it. They didn't have
Speaker 1: the words. So I've spent my life since then trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to get us all to tamp
Speaker 1: down on the hatred and and to know and respect
Speaker 1: and love each other. That's where we gotta go, and
Speaker 1: we gots got there. Yeah, yeah, I think we all.
Speaker 1: I think we're so different and we're the same, you know.
Speaker 1: I was think like, we're just We're the same as
Speaker 1: this mug, this table. We're just molecules. We're not different.
Speaker 1: When people were one planet, we've got to take care
Speaker 1: of it and take care of each other. I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: I always think like when everything's get too heavy, I'm
Speaker 1: just like, come on, we're out space like nothing matters
Speaker 1: and we've got to blow the place up. Wait a minute, wait,
Speaker 1: whoa you know? Um, you know, I know you've been
Speaker 1: in a million things and you been doing you You're
Speaker 1: so vital to me. You're in your most vital, most
Speaker 1: exciting years. But it's going back to it. Because I
Speaker 1: watched the documentary Minority of One, which I really loved.
Speaker 1: I hope you're happy with it. I thought it was Spectacularum,
Speaker 1: thank thank you. I know why I said thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. They were clipping for me just because I
Speaker 1: asked a question. So well, Um, But when you did Airplane,
Speaker 1: it was kind of it was transformational for you because
Speaker 1: you had always been this kind of game facetic dude.
Speaker 1: Maybe protecting yourself in some way Airplane enabled me to
Speaker 1: make fun of my image and laugh about it, and
Speaker 1: it got people they stopped thinking about that as who
Speaker 1: I was. And it was right around the time we
Speaker 1: won a World CHAMPI lpionship. That helped. But it feels
Speaker 1: like it unlocked something in you where you were able
Speaker 1: to not be how other people define you. Right, And
Speaker 1: I had like a certain fear of exposing myself at times,
Speaker 1: you know, just my inner thoughts and emotional feelings. Really,
Speaker 1: I was worried about sharing tho us and I've gotten
Speaker 1: over that. So we tend to have shame around our
Speaker 1: own feelings and we forget that's all we are, right,
Speaker 1: We're just people like everyone else. You know, That's how
Speaker 1: it works. I'm going to put my face in your hand,
Speaker 1: but I know that's I was just gonna end this,
Speaker 1: but I just want to keep going. But I'll end it.
Speaker 1: But I just want to keep going, but I'll end it.
Speaker 1: How did you know what I really want to ask
Speaker 1: you about? Is um also your friendship with with Bruce Lee.
Speaker 1: You know, I just to so well, you know it
Speaker 1: should because when I met Bruce Um, I wasn't really
Speaker 1: uh you know, a hot shot professional athlete and he
Speaker 1: was working as uh cato in the Green Hornet and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to study Chinese martial arts. And a
Speaker 1: guy sent me over to him who knew him, and said, hey,
Speaker 1: try and work this with Bruce. And the way he
Speaker 1: really showed me how powerful his art was when you know,
Speaker 1: he had me punching kick a bag. He get behind,
Speaker 1: put his weight behind it and said punch and kick
Speaker 1: it and I did. He said, hm, that was interesting.
Speaker 1: And then he had his wife come out and he
Speaker 1: told me, all right, you put your weight behind the bag,
Speaker 1: and I did, and she kicked the bag and my
Speaker 1: my body flew off a it and I I gotta
Speaker 1: learn that. No, it has just learned how to control
Speaker 1: your inner forces in a way that uh enable you
Speaker 1: to deal with someone who might be trying something wrong.
Speaker 1: You know, if you learn how to move and uh
Speaker 1: say no, no, I do, but I do know it's
Speaker 1: it's it's harder to talk about it than it is
Speaker 1: to do it, you know, So if you if you
Speaker 1: have the time and inclination. I do you know what's
Speaker 1: really good, uh that you can do on your own? Taichi?
Speaker 1: Great exercise? Here you go. I don't know, I'm just
Speaker 1: making it up from what I see people do in
Speaker 1: the po Keep doing that for a couple of months
Speaker 1: and you'll notice an increase in strength and balance and
Speaker 1: endurance and stuff. Yeah. I love Bruce Lee. You know
Speaker 1: what he reminds me of you with him is just
Speaker 1: the idea of be like water to the name of
Speaker 1: his movie. Yeah, to adjust to any circumstance, to sprout
Speaker 1: or your planted to. You know, when water is in
Speaker 1: a teacup. It's the shape of a teacup when water.
Speaker 1: All that stuff and boost was all about. He was
Speaker 1: all about brotherhood, you know. And for a long time
Speaker 1: Chinese people didn't like him teaching people who weren't Chinese.
Speaker 1: But Bruce said, hey, you know, I've learned things from
Speaker 1: people who weren't Chinese that maybe they might have wanted
Speaker 1: to keep quiet, but they shared it. And that was
Speaker 1: his attitude about it, and it made it possible for
Speaker 1: the exchange to happen. I know, That's how it was
Speaker 1: with me and him, you know, Our friendship was based
Speaker 1: on that, and it meant something. And those are mitzvahs.
Speaker 1: They're generous. There's a wonderful way to learn. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and that's how I think of you. You know, it's
Speaker 1: mister Rodgers and you or my tattoo. Explore more shows
Speaker 1: from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily
Speaker 1: Show wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show
Speaker 1: weeknights and eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central, and stream
Speaker 1: full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a
Speaker 1: Comedy Central podcast