Speaker 1: We wanted to destroy Lebrun in the cass. Because of that,
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to see Anderson Barrage. I wanted to
Speaker 1: rip his hair off. I wanted to kill it with
Speaker 1: galskis of his name. Would all my life the grinding,
Speaker 1: all my life, sacrifice hustle back price. One slice got
Speaker 1: the Broner dice to sware all my life. I've been
Speaker 1: grinding all my life, all my life, then grinding all
Speaker 1: my life up, sacrifice, hustle back price. One slice got
Speaker 1: the broll dice to sware all my life. I've been
Speaker 1: grinding all my life. Hello, welcome to another edition of
Speaker 1: Club Sha Shake. I am your whole shouting sharp. I'm
Speaker 1: also the proprouder of Club Sha Shake and the guy
Speaker 1: that's stopping by for a conversation on the drink today.
Speaker 1: If an NBA champ, He's an Olympic gold medallist. He's
Speaker 1: a three time Defensive Player of the Year, four time
Speaker 1: first Team All Defensive Player, five time First Team All NBA,
Speaker 1: five time rebounding champ, two time block leader, eight time
Speaker 1: All Star Slam dunk champ, and mister Georgia Basketball in
Speaker 1: my state. Dwight Howard there's a title missing, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about that seventy fifth anniversary. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get into it right now. D White. I've been
Speaker 1: very outspoken and we talked about on my show Skipping.
Speaker 1: I talked about it on Undisputed that I believe that
Speaker 1: you that you should have been on that team given
Speaker 1: what I just read off. Forget how they feel about
Speaker 1: you where he didn't take it serious, YadA, YadA, yall,
Speaker 1: get all that, but based on your resume, you should
Speaker 1: have been one of the seventy five best players in
Speaker 1: NBA history. Are you surprised you're not? And when you
Speaker 1: got when you didn't hear your name called, what did
Speaker 1: you feel? I'm very surprised that I wasn't put on
Speaker 1: the list. When I saw that I wasn't on the list,
Speaker 1: I was really upset and I really was just wanting
Speaker 1: to say, like, you know, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: play basketball anymore? Like what am I playing for? Right?
Speaker 1: I've did all this stuff, I've accomplished all these things.
Speaker 1: I felt like I've been a great ambassador for the
Speaker 1: NBA in the game, believe, and I feel like that
Speaker 1: was just like a disrespect, like total disrespect and you know,
Speaker 1: even what you just said about you know, people saying like, ah,
Speaker 1: he didn't take it softer court. It's one thing, but
Speaker 1: what you did on the okay, for somebody to not
Speaker 1: take it serious, to have three Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: was like, did that? That's what I was about to
Speaker 1: allude to, Like, how could someone say I didn't take
Speaker 1: the game serious when the stuff that you're mentioning? Three
Speaker 1: time Defensive Player of the Year. I had to take
Speaker 1: defense serious enough to want to win it three times
Speaker 1: in the row, and I actually should have won it
Speaker 1: four times in the row. The last year I didn't
Speaker 1: win it because I asked for a trade and the
Speaker 1: media went on this world win about me wanting to
Speaker 1: leave Orlando, and the person who won was third team
Speaker 1: All Defense that year and I was first team. So
Speaker 1: it's like that don't even make any sense, correct. So
Speaker 1: it's just like a lot of things have been happening
Speaker 1: and I'm like me me taking the game serious. I've
Speaker 1: been playing for eighteen years. I have to take something
Speaker 1: serious in order to play that long. Do I like
Speaker 1: to have a good time? Yes, I'm doing something that
Speaker 1: I dreamed about doing since I was three years old.
Speaker 1: Of course I'm gonna smile and hal far What is
Speaker 1: it that the fans and the media get wrong about
Speaker 1: the White Howard? This is why I am in general,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I think that over the
Speaker 1: over period of time, has just been so many things
Speaker 1: that have been said about my character, how I am
Speaker 1: with teams, teammates. All these things have been like, you know,
Speaker 1: just crazy to me that people would even think that one,
Speaker 1: I'm a bad teammate, that I'm a cancer in the
Speaker 1: locker room, that I'm a bad guy, that I'm a diva,
Speaker 1: all these things that you're partner and one of your
Speaker 1: other shops said about me, you know, all the time.
Speaker 1: And I used to sit back and be like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to have a conversation with him to see
Speaker 1: where he would even think that I would be this
Speaker 1: type of person. Where he got that from? Yeah, where
Speaker 1: you got it from? You know, cause that's not even me.
Speaker 1: You know. I've always taken this game series, but I
Speaker 1: want to have fun doing it right. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: sit and be mad while I'm playing this sport. But
Speaker 1: I do take it serious. And obviously my resume shows
Speaker 1: that and my body shows that. I take what I
Speaker 1: do serious, so and I just think it's always been
Speaker 1: a misconception that the people in the media are just
Speaker 1: when I've been like a polarized character in the media.
Speaker 1: You know, where I can be loved, I could be
Speaker 1: hated based off if I left a team, or if
Speaker 1: I said something about this, or me and Kobe didn't
Speaker 1: work out, or just all these circumstances that people said
Speaker 1: I wasn't who I you know I am. Today you
Speaker 1: mentioned that you asked for a trade from Orlando? What
Speaker 1: was track? What was happening in Orlando that you felt that,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's time for me to move on, Well,
Speaker 1: on the with the team. I'm gonna start with the team,
Speaker 1: then I go personal with the team. I just felt like,
Speaker 1: we went to the finals, Why would you get rid
Speaker 1: of that team? Right? That didn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: I had no clue about it. No one asked me
Speaker 1: about it. Like, we just got to the finals. You
Speaker 1: don't throw away the whole team. They basically blew it up,
Speaker 1: and they blew it up, so, you know, I was
Speaker 1: really upset about it. But we did get Vince Carter back,
Speaker 1: We did get some really good pieces Matt barns and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But it's just like, we just got
Speaker 1: to the finals. Let us build, you add with around
Speaker 1: the teams, don't don't break it up like me and
Speaker 1: he don't have great chemistry. Me and Rashan and me
Speaker 1: and Jamir are two point guards that played in the
Speaker 1: place that Jamir skipped to my loop and Anthony Johnson,
Speaker 1: they did an amazing job. Why get rid of these
Speaker 1: vets and these people that are really grooming me and
Speaker 1: Jamir and the youngest on how to be real vets
Speaker 1: and players in the league, Like, why messed that up?
Speaker 1: So after that, you know, on the basketball, laying on
Speaker 1: the personally, and I'm like, man, you know what, I've
Speaker 1: been on the land though for eight years. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm not growing. I feel like I had a
Speaker 1: lot of yes people around me or just people that
Speaker 1: was had They come to you and say, the White
Speaker 1: this is what we're thinking. Yes, we went to the finals,
Speaker 1: but we feel in order for us to grow as
Speaker 1: a team and possibly get back to the finals, this
Speaker 1: is the direction. But because they cut you out of
Speaker 1: that process, they didn't ask. They just started rebuilding and
Speaker 1: that was just one part of it. But you know,
Speaker 1: for eight years. I had called in text and email
Speaker 1: the owner of the team, just to develop a relationship
Speaker 1: because I'm eighteen. I don't know anything about money, how
Speaker 1: to spend it, how to save it, how to do
Speaker 1: anything with it, and how to be a franchise player, right,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to talk to the person who drafted me.
Speaker 1: Never really had contact, you know. And when that situation happened,
Speaker 1: it is like, man, let me just go somewhere else
Speaker 1: and start fresh, right, And then it just blew up.
Speaker 1: It just seemed like the world went crazy after that.
Speaker 1: Could you have handled that situation? How do you think
Speaker 1: you handled that situation? About going about asking port trade?
Speaker 1: Could have been handled behind closed doors. Didn't do it
Speaker 1: behind closed doors. And that's the thing that people don't know.
Speaker 1: I went to oldest smith one on one. The first
Speaker 1: person I actually went to was Jamir Nelson, okay, because
Speaker 1: we got drafted together and that was my teammate and
Speaker 1: he was like my big brother, right, And I went
Speaker 1: to him and said, listen, Jamie, I want to get traded.
Speaker 1: It's not because of you staying and nobody on the
Speaker 1: team I love, y'all. I just want to change for myself.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's all. He said. Bet what you're gonna do?
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna go talk to the the oldest. I
Speaker 1: went and talked the oldest. I said, oldest, I don't
Speaker 1: want this public. I don't want want nobody knowing about this.
Speaker 1: I don't wanted to turn into a situation like how
Speaker 1: Lebron just had and the whole world is hating me
Speaker 1: because I wanted to lead this team. Just let me
Speaker 1: go somewhere and start first, he said, I got you.
Speaker 1: I thought they was gonna keep it private, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden they came out and said I wanted
Speaker 1: to get traded. And I hated this. I hated that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, damn, I never said none of this stuff.
Speaker 1: And then it just blew up. So that put So
Speaker 1: that has something to do with probably maybe the media
Speaker 1: and the fans turning on you because of what the
Speaker 1: way it was put the way, yeah, the way it
Speaker 1: was projected to the whole world. And with me, I'm
Speaker 1: not thinking like I should say something about it or
Speaker 1: do anything about it, because I know that I wasn't
Speaker 1: the person asking to get staying out of here or
Speaker 1: do this and do that. I just wanted to leave
Speaker 1: so I'm thinking it's gonna blow over. Then it start
Speaker 1: getting into the season, and then it's just coverage and
Speaker 1: just all these different negative things happening, and I'm like, dang,
Speaker 1: it's nowhere around it. Then I get hurt. So now
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is happening. Now I get hurt.
Speaker 1: And then now it's like I'm not trying to play
Speaker 1: because out the coaches here. So it's just too much
Speaker 1: going on. And you know, I just really really felt
Speaker 1: bad for the city because we did so much in
Speaker 1: the Orlando and I know personally in the community, I
Speaker 1: was doing so much and the fact that all these
Speaker 1: people had seemed like they got they turned on me
Speaker 1: because of what some people who wasn't even in Orlando
Speaker 1: was saying, and you know it, it was heartbreaking for
Speaker 1: a while. Was La the first on your list? I
Speaker 1: want to get traded? Okay, you made that a clear.
Speaker 1: You went to oldest mid LA wasn't on your list.
Speaker 1: La was not on my list at all. Where did
Speaker 1: you want to go? I wanted to go to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go to LA because I felt
Speaker 1: like I wanted to go somewhere who's n they've never
Speaker 1: won or they haven't had as many championships, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to help that team grow and be a champion.
Speaker 1: And when I wanted to play against Kobe because they
Speaker 1: just beat us, right, So I'm like, why would I
Speaker 1: want to go to LA. I don't want people to
Speaker 1: think I'm trying to follow behind Shad or do any
Speaker 1: of that. So yes, I wanted to go somewhere else
Speaker 1: and make my own name and statement there. And the
Speaker 1: Magic knew that. I told him I wanted to go
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn, and they sent me to LA. So once
Speaker 1: I got there, I was like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: just had back surgery. I was supposed to be out
Speaker 1: of year. I wasn't even supposed to play that season, right,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna just go play and see what happened.
Speaker 1: And it didn't work out as well as we wanted
Speaker 1: it to. You mentioned you're supposed to be out of year. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you're coming in three time Defensive Player of the Year,
Speaker 1: you finished second in the MVP voting. You are Perennial
Speaker 1: got his finning in the top five in the MVP.
Speaker 1: You had taken a team to the championship. Now you're
Speaker 1: linking up with Kobe you're linking up with Pyle. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts? You're like, Okay, this is not my
Speaker 1: original plan. I didn't want to go. This is not
Speaker 1: my original destination. But you know what, Kobe Pyle another
Speaker 1: big defeat. Okay, I thought I was gonna win. I
Speaker 1: was happy. I was like, yo, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: go to La because we just played Kobe and I
Speaker 1: really wanted to beat him. Right, But I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is Kobe, right, so I'm finna bust my ass to
Speaker 1: get back in the gym him to come back and play. Right. Mind,
Speaker 1: You people don't know how bad this surgery was. Right.
Speaker 1: This doctor is the best doctor in the world for
Speaker 1: back surgers. He doctor Watkins. He said that my my
Speaker 1: herniated disk was the largest that he's ever had to
Speaker 1: pull out of someone. I couldn't even lift my calf.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do a calf raise. Okay, that's how bad
Speaker 1: it was. The doctor in Orlando told me that my
Speaker 1: career was over. I wasn't gonna I wasn't supposed to
Speaker 1: play anymore. Right. I came back in four months. It
Speaker 1: took a month and a half to get my nerves
Speaker 1: and my calf muscle to work. So I wasn't even
Speaker 1: supposed to play that year. And I came back and
Speaker 1: had average twenty two and twelve and thirteen, and people
Speaker 1: saying that I had a bad season for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to play and all that stuff, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I went out there and I thought
Speaker 1: I turned up and I wasn't even a hundred percent.
Speaker 1: I tore my label them in the whole process and
Speaker 1: played the whole season with a torn labor So it
Speaker 1: was like I all I wanted to do is come
Speaker 1: here and win, right, And when it didn't work out,
Speaker 1: just like damn, I feel like I was all by
Speaker 1: myself because it felt like when I got kicked out
Speaker 1: of the last game, everybody turned it on me like
Speaker 1: it was my fault. I was the reason the Lakers
Speaker 1: had a bad season. Magic Johnson said, if I can't
Speaker 1: get the Lakers to the playoff, then I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: a Laker. So I'm like, damn, this is crazy, right,
Speaker 1: But I just kept moving, kept moving. It didn't turn
Speaker 1: out the way you wanted to with the Lakers. Russ
Speaker 1: comes to the Lakers. He's a hometown kid. His dream
Speaker 1: is to play for the Lakers. He watched them win titles.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you could have shared with him
Speaker 1: to like, Russ, this is a different animal. You've got
Speaker 1: to win here. They don't care about what you've done elsewhere.
Speaker 1: They didn't care about my three Defensive Players of the Year,
Speaker 1: they didn't care about my all nbas, they didn't care
Speaker 1: about any of that. They needed to see three time
Speaker 1: defensive player of the Year. They needed to white how
Speaker 1: to get one of those awards. Here. They're gonna need
Speaker 1: to see you do what you've done other places here. See.
Speaker 1: I think that that be like the misconception where you
Speaker 1: have to allow that mindset. If you allow that mindset
Speaker 1: to take over you, you will not have a good season, okay,
Speaker 1: because you're thinking about what everybody else is thinking. And
Speaker 1: I felt like that's what he was doing. He's thinking
Speaker 1: about if he missed this shot, or he's hearing the
Speaker 1: crowd bull and they're buying him, and they're buying his
Speaker 1: family and all this stuff, and it's like, you gotta
Speaker 1: tune that out, right. I have went through the ringer
Speaker 1: with the la fast from leaving, coming back, leaving and
Speaker 1: coming back and then buoying me throwing basketballs at me,
Speaker 1: Jersey's all that stuff, But I understand, like they just
Speaker 1: really passionate about their team. They love their team. So
Speaker 1: people some people don't understandn't know how to express anger,
Speaker 1: even when it's a fan, right, you know, So I
Speaker 1: get it. So you gotta be able to just block
Speaker 1: all that hoing that out and go win and make
Speaker 1: them pay for saying anything about you. So when I
Speaker 1: got back and I played again, I made every fan
Speaker 1: eat their words about what they said about me, right,
Speaker 1: no matter if they thought that I did it in
Speaker 1: a bad way or however I left the first time.
Speaker 1: I made sure that the second time I played, they
Speaker 1: couldn't say nothing about the White how whether it was
Speaker 1: how he was on a bitch, how I acted with
Speaker 1: the referees, teammates, it was nothing they could say because
Speaker 1: I left it all out there on the line. So
Speaker 1: it turned out good. Do you wish you had got
Speaker 1: that kind of reception the first time around like you
Speaker 1: got the second time around. I think that I got
Speaker 1: that reception when I first got there, right, But I
Speaker 1: think because we lost that season and how the season went,
Speaker 1: it was just people were so upset because their expectations
Speaker 1: were so sold through the roof and you know, but
Speaker 1: that's every year with the lady. That's every year and
Speaker 1: I and I get it, you know. But that's why
Speaker 1: for me, I don't do the expectation thing. I go
Speaker 1: out there and stay in that moment and I live
Speaker 1: in that and that's how I'm able to, you know,
Speaker 1: keep pushing. We don't get back to basketball but this summer.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your You're you're wrestling. You're
Speaker 1: a big wrestling fan. You know wrestling. I think wrestling
Speaker 1: and originated in Georgia. Georgia Championship Wrestler. Doesn't get into
Speaker 1: better than that with Gordon Soul and Dusty Rose mister right,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah. I grew up following the circuit Savanna
Speaker 1: backslip Blacks by day yea, they used to come to
Speaker 1: a come to Glenville. So I'm a big wrestling fan. Also,
Speaker 1: when did you become a wrestling fan? Who's your favorite wrestler?
Speaker 1: I became a wrestling fan in the Macho Man Randy
Speaker 1: Savage phase. Uh he actually is my alias, my Randy Savage,
Speaker 1: So I love Macho Man Randy Savage. Uh he would
Speaker 1: probably be at the top for me. Then you got Goldberg, okay,
Speaker 1: Hogan Steing the Undertaker right, and the Big Show with
Speaker 1: the exception of the Big Show Goldberg and Hogan, all
Speaker 1: the Rep Savage dressed up, Sting dressed up. Uh, macho
Speaker 1: man dressed up? So what would the white hair the
Speaker 1: white Dwight Howard's character be? Who? Who? Who are you
Speaker 1: gonna be? What you you gonna put paint on? You
Speaker 1: gonna come back to the action figure? Okay? That way,
Speaker 1: I can wear any outfit I want them where I
Speaker 1: can dress up like g I Joe and be slow.
Speaker 1: I can dress up in the wrestling outfit. I can
Speaker 1: dress up in anything. Because I'm the action figure. Everybody's
Speaker 1: out there to see to be put on the show.
Speaker 1: So because you can put undertakers a very tall man,
Speaker 1: the Big Show was John Normous. Who U Hogan is
Speaker 1: fairly tam You got uh see you forgetting about Raven Simone.
Speaker 1: I'm not Raven Simone. Uh dang Simone. Uh oh oh
Speaker 1: h oh man. He passed away. Yes, yes, yes, yes, Ramon,
Speaker 1: Ramon Ramon. I don't know why I said Raven Smone,
Speaker 1: Razor Ramone, Razor Ramone that's exactly the all time the
Speaker 1: ultimate big guy Andre the John. Yes. Yes, So so
Speaker 1: what's your move? What? What? What's the White Howard move? Actually,
Speaker 1: I have a couple move. I've been a couple of
Speaker 1: moves I've been practiced and I have the de bo
Speaker 1: okay as the White and so when I'm doing this running,
Speaker 1: I thought a real strong elbow, which I threw a
Speaker 1: lot of in the basketball knocked the people out. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got the Superman punched with the basketball. Okay. I
Speaker 1: also have uh this kick that I do. It's like
Speaker 1: a real high kick, right, so I can do it
Speaker 1: from many different angles, but it ended up knocking a
Speaker 1: lot of people out. I've been doing stunts and practices
Speaker 1: just so you know, I've actually got some videos that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be putting out because you did I mean
Speaker 1: you've already you know, audition for the WW I did
Speaker 1: some tryout. Yeah. I went down to SummerSlam, right, and
Speaker 1: they had about seventy five people. They're trying they try
Speaker 1: us aren't in landa right, they are in Orlando, which
Speaker 1: was crazy that it's Orlando. So guys are trying out,
Speaker 1: they're doing promos and I'm watching it and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I believe I can go on stage and do what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Kill it right. So but the big one,
Speaker 1: you gotta have a persona. You gotta be able to talk. Yes,
Speaker 1: but that your boy was able to talk. Yes, all
Speaker 1: the guys to entertain you gotta be you gotta be
Speaker 1: able to entertainment. And let me go on stage. They
Speaker 1: let me go on stage. I get on stage and
Speaker 1: I kill it so bad that they asked me to
Speaker 1: come back the next day and do another one on stage. Okay,
Speaker 1: this time stephaniem Man is there. That's the Steos and
Speaker 1: also Triple Late. Yes, they both was like the White
Speaker 1: had the best promoi of everybody in there. If you
Speaker 1: call us and want to come to wrestling, were ready
Speaker 1: for so you get okay, Well how about this here?
Speaker 1: Shock also is a big wrestling fan. Yes, Shock the
Speaker 1: White twenty twenty three Summer Slam winn against the Superman nickname.
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it, so you said, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, twenty twenty three Summer Slam. We gotta guess
Speaker 1: what it's even bigger? What wrestlerman here is in La
Speaker 1: this year? Okay? Who the king of La Ka La
Speaker 1: let's go, Shack, let's go. Let's go. Hey, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go right now. Say say you'd be
Speaker 1: the referee you were in skip, I'm taking you down
Speaker 1: the way. That would be, that would be, that would
Speaker 1: do genormous rate Man what Superman Verse? Superman? You also had? Uh,
Speaker 1: they have this. I should teach this TV show that's
Speaker 1: gonna aar in January. Celebrities training special Forces? Yes, what
Speaker 1: was that like? Training to be a special Force? That
Speaker 1: was the hardest training I ever did in my life.
Speaker 1: You got a new final respect for those guys. Huh,
Speaker 1: I have. It's if it was something more than respect.
Speaker 1: That's what I have for anybody who's ever laced up
Speaker 1: those boots, trained at anything, for any of the services.
Speaker 1: Because what we went through was pure hell. And I
Speaker 1: don't want people to think that this was a show
Speaker 1: where after we finished filming we went back to our
Speaker 1: nice hotel and got a chance of get in the bed. No,
Speaker 1: it was no hotels, it was no beds. We're out
Speaker 1: in the desert, one hundred and fifteen degrees every day,
Speaker 1: forty fifty degrees at night, Scorpions in the saying all
Speaker 1: type of stuff, be getting chased by dogs, helicopters, getting
Speaker 1: set on fire, tear gas. I'm running up two hundred
Speaker 1: fifty foot towers, jumping down the back of 'em, jumping
Speaker 1: out of helicopters backwards, didn't put in the ocean, getting drowned,
Speaker 1: proof tests and doing everything like it was the hardest
Speaker 1: thing in my life. And then the hardest part was
Speaker 1: writing death letters to our families, right, that was the
Speaker 1: hardest thing that we had to do and then read
Speaker 1: it out loud. So we went through a bus load
Speaker 1: of emotions while I was there. We all built this bun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was really really real, like blood sweating, tears. And
Speaker 1: when people see this, I hope they understand that we
Speaker 1: could have died. This wasn't a show where it's a
Speaker 1: show where it's fake. We had to sign waivers. I
Speaker 1: could have actually passed away on this show, like for real, right,
Speaker 1: So that's why we had to write these letters, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't a fake show. It was the craziest thing
Speaker 1: I ever did. And people, even the staff, sergeants and
Speaker 1: the people was there was like why are you doing this?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, I want to I want to
Speaker 1: break myself. I wanna see how I could go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I want to see if I could go
Speaker 1: past that limit. And I got there and I was
Speaker 1: able to break past it. And it was the best
Speaker 1: feeling in the world because I went through I went
Speaker 1: through some shit there, like seriously, like I never cried
Speaker 1: so hard in my life over having to walk across
Speaker 1: the mountain with a little on the tight rope without falling.
Speaker 1: And it's scary. We ninety feet in the air. You're
Speaker 1: gonna see raw emotions everything. So I can't wait. Man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be awesome for people to see what's the
Speaker 1: white doing right now? Right now. I just got back
Speaker 1: from Burning Man. I don't know if you ever heard
Speaker 1: of Burning Man. Burning Man is uh, this big celebration
Speaker 1: of life. It's in the desert. Ninety thousand people from
Speaker 1: all around the world come together and they just celebrate life.
Speaker 1: They build these big pieces of art. They have these
Speaker 1: big concerts where these DJs come and it's forty fifty
Speaker 1: thousand people just celebrate at one time and you meditate,
Speaker 1: break up with the sun. They have sunrise ceremonies, they
Speaker 1: have sunset ceremonies, and it's just a big gathering for
Speaker 1: people to come together and just spread love and great energy.
Speaker 1: So we just got back from there. But a man,
Speaker 1: I've just been really just trying to grow spiritually, you know.
Speaker 1: That's That's the best thing that I could possibly do,
Speaker 1: is just continue to grow and continue to try to
Speaker 1: adapt to everything that's going on around me. What about
Speaker 1: on the basketball front. On the basketball front, well, I've
Speaker 1: been playing for eighteen seasons, and it seemed like after
Speaker 1: this season, it's really hard for me to get a job,
Speaker 1: you know, which is yeah, because I'm watching media day
Speaker 1: started for some team what Friday, Saturday and then going
Speaker 1: on Sunday started today. Okay, we see these media day
Speaker 1: everybody's talking in the media's there, and you're sitting here
Speaker 1: doing an interview with me. What's the emotions going through
Speaker 1: the White Howard's body? Like, damn, I should be there
Speaker 1: if somebody's can't. I had. I had that feeling all summer,
Speaker 1: like I really can't believe how disrespected you know, I
Speaker 1: feel the top seventy five. It really made me feel
Speaker 1: like I ain't even wanna play no more. To be
Speaker 1: honest with I was like, why am I playing? I
Speaker 1: just spent eighteen years going hard as I can for
Speaker 1: the NBA fans, myself, these teams, these organizations, breaking records,
Speaker 1: doing all these different things, and then I get punched
Speaker 1: in the face like that, why am I even doing this?
Speaker 1: This disrespectful That's how I felt, you know. So like
Speaker 1: now I'm like, man, I did so much great things
Speaker 1: this summer. I know, whatever doors I need to go through,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the best. Whatever. Whatever my next, if
Speaker 1: it's a team, if it's a new career, whatever it's
Speaker 1: gonna be, I'm ready to walk through it. So I
Speaker 1: would love to play more. I can still play, but
Speaker 1: whatever happen is gonna happen as a starter of minutes.
Speaker 1: I mean, back up, I mean, what are you looking for?
Speaker 1: I mean you and I talked the other night. We
Speaker 1: were at the premier of the UH the Redeem Team
Speaker 1: premier and you and I talked, had conversations with Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Have you Celtics Robert Williams is out now, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be out eight to twelve weeks. A guy that can
Speaker 1: come in to defend the rim playing the pick and roll.
Speaker 1: H Brooklyn. They need a real protective They got classic,
Speaker 1: but they got they need a real protector. I actually
Speaker 1: talked to Brooklyn. Like I went to Brooklyn. They traded
Speaker 1: me from Charlotte, went to Brooklyn. They told me that
Speaker 1: they didn't wanna they didn't wanna win at that time,
Speaker 1: so they felt they felt like they should wave me
Speaker 1: because they didn't wanna win. I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: The team doesn't wanna win, right, so I get waved.
Speaker 1: I end up getting to the Lakers and winning. So
Speaker 1: this time around, I asked to come to Brooklyn. I
Speaker 1: talked to them. They say they need a big that
Speaker 1: can shoot, and I'm like, when y'all just had a
Speaker 1: big that can shoot? So it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't understand it. You know. I felt like that
Speaker 1: would have been a great pick up, a big that
Speaker 1: could protect the rim, play good pick and roll defense, rebound,
Speaker 1: rebound the pick and roll with KD, Kyrie and Ben Simmons.
Speaker 1: I felt like that would have been lead thal with
Speaker 1: me in it because I'm gonna get I know for sure,
Speaker 1: KD and Kyrie are gonna get the most wilde open
Speaker 1: shots they could possibly ever get coming off a pick
Speaker 1: from me. So and I feel like that would have
Speaker 1: been good. I felt like my uh presence on defense,
Speaker 1: it's something that would have been necessary. And then you know,
Speaker 1: just the fact that I've been in the league for
Speaker 1: eighteen years going on nineteen, I understand basketball on a
Speaker 1: different level. So I felt like I could have helped
Speaker 1: that team out a lot. What about Boston. Boston's the
Speaker 1: same way, they got a lot of young talent. I
Speaker 1: felt like I could have been to Bill Russell in
Speaker 1: this era. You know, with that team, you know I'm
Speaker 1: all about defense. I understand it on a different level.
Speaker 1: Bill Russell was one of my heroes. One of the
Speaker 1: first books I read in high school was Russell Rules.
Speaker 1: That was by Bill Russell. So I felt like me
Speaker 1: going to the Celtics and helping them get that back,
Speaker 1: that championship pedigree they was right there last year. I
Speaker 1: felt like me being a VET helping out some of
Speaker 1: those young guys, those young bids. It ain't like I'm
Speaker 1: trying to come in and play thirty five forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: But I can give a team twenty twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: and give you a good twelve or fifteen points and
Speaker 1: ten rebounds, and make sure the benches hype, make sure
Speaker 1: everybody on the team is ready to go every day.
Speaker 1: I can do all that. That's what I've been doing
Speaker 1: for eighteen years. So you know, if it was an
Speaker 1: opportunity and a team that I really wanna win, put
Speaker 1: the White in. What about the defending champ of the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's perfect. I've been a warrior my whole life.
Speaker 1: I started out at my school as a warrior. They
Speaker 1: need a big I know they have Cavon Looney, and
Speaker 1: I know they have the young boy Wiseman, but I'm
Speaker 1: the White Howard. The Wiseman can learn so much from
Speaker 1: me because he's headed in that direction of being the great,
Speaker 1: a great big man, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I felt like, even in that situation playing with all
Speaker 1: shooters like that Steph, the way he gets open with
Speaker 1: me setting screens, He's gonna get more wide open play,
Speaker 1: the same way Draymond and the picker roll me and him.
Speaker 1: Me being able to teach Wiseman how to play defense,
Speaker 1: how to block shots. I see him as a person
Speaker 1: that's similar to David Robinson in his size and athletic sism.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that I could really teach him.
Speaker 1: So I mean, that's another good team as well. So
Speaker 1: right now you're just in a holding pattern. You're hoping
Speaker 1: you want, you want to play, I would see nineteen.
Speaker 1: I would love to play season nineteen and go out
Speaker 1: on top. You know what I'm saying. I would definitely
Speaker 1: love to do that. That would be amazing and get
Speaker 1: a parade like I deserve. I ain't never had no
Speaker 1: parade in the NBA, even after we won the championship.
Speaker 1: Right was in COVID, so you didn't get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to celebrate like you wanted to celebrate. So, for the
Speaker 1: sake of argument, if this thing, if a team doesn't call,
Speaker 1: are you okay with not playing another down, another dribble,
Speaker 1: another minute in the NBA? And you're ready to move
Speaker 1: on to say something else w or whatever it is
Speaker 1: the White Howard wants to do? Are you okay with that?
Speaker 1: I am. I've been playing since I was three years old. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I know that basketball one day has to end, and
Speaker 1: there's other things that can be done. Right again, I
Speaker 1: would love to finish my career with a parade on
Speaker 1: a good team and ended like that instead of hour
Speaker 1: and ended last season. But man, you know, I've been
Speaker 1: blessed to play eighteen seasons in the NBA so far.
Speaker 1: I went from a not for someone not being able
Speaker 1: to when I wasn't even supposed to be here. My
Speaker 1: mom lost seven kids. I won't but almost the size
Speaker 1: of a large Fiji bottle, and I end up being
Speaker 1: seven feet tall and making in the NBA. So I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Go back, you say your mom had seven she lost
Speaker 1: seven kids. Yes, you're not the only child, are you?
Speaker 1: You know what? I'm sair, But she lost seven kids
Speaker 1: and I was supposed to be the eighth one to die.
Speaker 1: But I just so happy to make it. So I
Speaker 1: was so happy to make it an NBA and played
Speaker 1: eighteen seasons so far, and I'm grateful whatever the universe
Speaker 1: gives to me. You mentioned last year the season did
Speaker 1: not go the way you anticipated. What the hell happened?
Speaker 1: I hold you responsible, you spo. You sposed to hold
Speaker 1: it together. You're supposed to be to glue in the
Speaker 1: locker room. You're absolutely right, But also I needed some
Speaker 1: minutes on the floor, right. I'm not just talking selfishly,
Speaker 1: but I felt like I could have really helped that
Speaker 1: team last year. And you're absolutely correct. I was supposed
Speaker 1: to be that guy in the locker room. I just
Speaker 1: don't think it worked out the way we all wanted
Speaker 1: it too. I think that every team was gunning for us,
Speaker 1: and they gave us their best shot every night, and
Speaker 1: that uh, we didn't get a job done, and it sucked.
Speaker 1: It have left a bad taste in my mouth all summer.
Speaker 1: I probably spit ten million times just thinking about how
Speaker 1: bad we lost and how much time was put into
Speaker 1: that season and to put into every season, but just
Speaker 1: for us to come together, and I really felt like
Speaker 1: it was embarrassing, right, yeah, thirty three wins with y'all roster,
Speaker 1: even though you know, like I said, you know me
Speaker 1: jokingly saying, I wish I couldn't have played more. But
Speaker 1: even if I didn't play, we still had who we had, right,
Speaker 1: and we still should have been better. So you know,
Speaker 1: I take my part in it. You know, I could
Speaker 1: have been a lot better on whatever they needed me
Speaker 1: to be. But and they're not in good last year,
Speaker 1: and it really was an embarrassment, you know, some days
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, we don't even we shouldn't
Speaker 1: even put on this jersey like this. Did do you
Speaker 1: guys have a team meeting? Did you discuss, like, man,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Did you try to hold guys accountable.
Speaker 1: What transplanted? You got Lebron James wherever you rank him
Speaker 1: by most estimation, he's a top five player all time.
Speaker 1: You got Russ, who's a top who's an all in,
Speaker 1: who's a a top seventy, who's an all in seventy
Speaker 1: five Anniversary team player? Uh a d all though A
Speaker 1: D was Nick, You're right, you should have been on
Speaker 1: that team. But you guys have more than enough. Those
Speaker 1: three guys right there, regardless of whoever else could got,
Speaker 1: shouldn't be more than thirty three games. I agree. I
Speaker 1: just felt like some things could have been tweaked. We
Speaker 1: could have switched some things up, but it just wasn't
Speaker 1: meant for us to win. And it sucked. Man. I
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to play with Russ and Mellow and yeah
Speaker 1: Mellows on the Anniversary team now. I couldn't wait for
Speaker 1: it to happen again. And it's like I didn't. I
Speaker 1: felt like we was fighting, fighting it so much. You
Speaker 1: know how like people say you grasped a saying if
Speaker 1: you hold it too tight, you know, you know it's
Speaker 1: gonna fall out if you don't hold it up. It's
Speaker 1: I feel like that's how it was like I felt
Speaker 1: like it didn't mean enough like it should have right.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is just my opinion. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't speak on anybody else, but I just felt
Speaker 1: like it should have meant more to all of us
Speaker 1: and we could have done more. I could have done more.
Speaker 1: So I just hate how it ended, you know, cause
Speaker 1: it it shouldn't have been like that. But when you
Speaker 1: look at it, the white you bring a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: and you know, ever team, the pieces need to fit.
Speaker 1: You brought guys in to play roles that they really
Speaker 1: never played before. I agree that's the hardest part. You
Speaker 1: asking Meller to play defense. Fellow, ain't no defender? Uh,
Speaker 1: Trevor Reaser is in your seventeen eighteen gone. I mean
Speaker 1: you're asking guys that. I just think, like for Trevor,
Speaker 1: I think he was just put into some bad positions.
Speaker 1: He had just came off of surgery and you put
Speaker 1: him in playing the four? Are the five? Are you?
Speaker 1: When you have him and Lebron in? That's not fat
Speaker 1: of Trevor And it's really not fat of lebron right
Speaker 1: to have him at the five like this. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: great because he can score in the offense is gonna run,
Speaker 1: you know, a certain way. But then now you're asking
Speaker 1: him to check Steven Adams or Trevor to check both
Speaker 1: of these guys, and that Trevor is strong. He might
Speaker 1: be scared, but he's strong and he'll fight. But come on, yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: that ain't That ain't fair to him and coming off
Speaker 1: an injury, right, and you want him to shoot threes
Speaker 1: like you just gotta gotta be a little bit better,
Speaker 1: That's all. How surprised are you that Lebron is playing
Speaker 1: as well as he is in your nineteen, that he
Speaker 1: had the type of season that he had, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1: We came in together. I see his work ethic, I
Speaker 1: know how he works. His trainer is the best. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's been with him from day one. So you know, Lebron,
Speaker 1: he put in the work. He's always working. He's always
Speaker 1: as Mike with him. He's always, you know, doing whatever
Speaker 1: he needs to do to stay right. So I'm not
Speaker 1: surprised at all. You know, I think you know what
Speaker 1: he's doing. He could play to it. He just feel
Speaker 1: like he don't want to just play no more old on.
Speaker 1: So you think this man theoretically could play at the
Speaker 1: level that he played that for another two three four years.
Speaker 1: If he wanted to, I could do that, but I
Speaker 1: need a team an opportunity. But Lebron, for sure he
Speaker 1: could if Lebron wanted to play five more years and
Speaker 1: he didn't tax his body like sometimes he y'all taxing
Speaker 1: the many Lakers? You you and Laker right. I am
Speaker 1: not the coach. My name did not say coach on
Speaker 1: the back or neither did I call out who played
Speaker 1: or who didn't? Well, I mean, I'm sure, Frankie V.
Speaker 1: The objective was to try to play Bron somewhere between
Speaker 1: I would say thirty and thirty three minutes. No, the
Speaker 1: objective was to play Broun the whole season, every game,
Speaker 1: every practice. Come on, man, you had to get burn
Speaker 1: the man out like us. I'm not the coach. I
Speaker 1: didn't think that Lebron should have been playing that many
Speaker 1: minutes early anyway, only because he's been playing for nineteen seasons. Yes,
Speaker 1: we know what you're gonna get out of Lebron. Get
Speaker 1: everybody else into it, so when Lebron is there, we
Speaker 1: all hot. But if you taxing Lebron, you taxing ad,
Speaker 1: You taxing Russ Now the main three print players is tired.
Speaker 1: Just look at how the season when those guys played
Speaker 1: the whole first quarter and then they might rest with
Speaker 1: one minute left or two minute left in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: then go back in in the second quarter, play the
Speaker 1: whole second quarter, then play the whole third quarter, not
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. Because if you go back and
Speaker 1: watch the games, how did we lose all these games
Speaker 1: by the time the fourth We lost in the fourth quarter?
Speaker 1: Why because a D's tired or he was he might
Speaker 1: have been injured, because for team causes injuries. Are Lebron
Speaker 1: is tired, so now his shots are short, or he
Speaker 1: don't have the legs to get to the basket. Are
Speaker 1: Russ is tired because the whole game he played two
Speaker 1: hundred miles an hour trying to get to the basket.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't a balance, Like I'm not saying, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna put Daser in the game, let's say, or
Speaker 1: whoever put these other guys in so you could get
Speaker 1: these guys a little break, right, so now they can
Speaker 1: go in and kill. But they was playing too many
Speaker 1: minutes and they over exerted, they sell, and so I
Speaker 1: felt like that was a big issue. For for the
Speaker 1: team right there, Like, you don't need these guys playing
Speaker 1: big minutes right now? This is why we became a team,
Speaker 1: right you watch the new edition. They added Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder, came back, They got some different pieces. What
Speaker 1: are your expectations for the Lakers this year? I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about the Lakers no more because I
Speaker 1: ain't on the team. Would you be willing to go
Speaker 1: back to the Lakers. I would have went willing to
Speaker 1: go back to the Lakers. I've been willing to go back.
Speaker 1: They told me every time, we're not gonna get nobody
Speaker 1: over thirty year contract, a multiple year contract. Okay, And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, dang, I just helped y'all win a
Speaker 1: NBA championship. Y'all could get your boy a meal or two,
Speaker 1: or get me a meal, right, I don't want a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of minutes. Give me twenty minut it. Don't
Speaker 1: let me ball out? Right? And you played You played
Speaker 1: big for the White I gave you credit. You know me,
Speaker 1: You played big for me and that championship run you
Speaker 1: was huge. You held your own against a yoke. You
Speaker 1: had to play, had to play big minutes. Against Yoke,
Speaker 1: you came in, you rebounded, you played big minutes against BAM.
Speaker 1: Against Miami, you played well. I was surprised that they
Speaker 1: didn't give you that to bring you back, and then
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, then you go to Philly. You
Speaker 1: played well in Philly, and then you come back. Why
Speaker 1: do you think they did that? I personally think that
Speaker 1: it came from me leaving the first time, So it
Speaker 1: was like a hint, give you back. But I don't
Speaker 1: want to believe that. But I don't know, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, I felt like I should have been there.
Speaker 1: I felt like whatever they asked me to do, I
Speaker 1: did it. You know. I came in, I played my
Speaker 1: role to the tea. I didn't complain about it. I
Speaker 1: didn't make any issues. Even last shit, the thing where
Speaker 1: a D was blown out of proportion, and I felt
Speaker 1: like that was wrong for the people to twist it
Speaker 1: and turn it like it was me and them not
Speaker 1: knowing what was really going on and how we ended
Speaker 1: up getting that out the way. I just felt like,
Speaker 1: oh that was it was messed up. So now it's
Speaker 1: putting me in a position like I'm in now where
Speaker 1: teams may feel like I don't know about the white
Speaker 1: what I don't. I don't remember what transpirt with you
Speaker 1: me and A D. Yeah, oh the argument you guys have. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and they don't know what
Speaker 1: happened and all that, and it came back like it
Speaker 1: was it was my fault, right, but you and A
Speaker 1: D worked it out, right, man, we talked right after that, right.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying it was is what it is?
Speaker 1: Your first stant you mentioned like, okay, Kobe beat you
Speaker 1: the first go around. Now you get an opportunity to
Speaker 1: play with Kobe. Kobe was very very hard on you.
Speaker 1: Well it wasn't. You don't think that was hard on you, No,
Speaker 1: see hard on me. Well, I think he said that.
Speaker 1: He's what he said. It made him appreciate playing with
Speaker 1: Shot and with I guess he didn't really like your
Speaker 1: work ethic. It's no way he could say he didn't
Speaker 1: like my work ethic. There's no way. There's no way.
Speaker 1: There's no way. There's nobody in the NBA who could
Speaker 1: play or say something about Dwight Howard work ethic. It's
Speaker 1: no way. My body is better now than it was
Speaker 1: when I came into the league. Who can say anything
Speaker 1: about my work ethic like that, tell me my body
Speaker 1: is better than it is now. I can jump the
Speaker 1: same way I jumped now, then I jump when I
Speaker 1: was eighteen. Work ethic ain't nobody out worked Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: The back didn't rob you of anything. The back robbed
Speaker 1: me of opportunity. I didn't have no opportunity after that
Speaker 1: because people were saying my back was the problem. Right,
Speaker 1: But I came back and shoulder, I could still play.
Speaker 1: I won a championship with a bad back. Two times
Speaker 1: I had backs and came back and played for the
Speaker 1: Lakers and bust ass. The first time I came back,
Speaker 1: I averaged twenty two and thirteen or twenty two and
Speaker 1: twelve after back surgery. Then the next time I come
Speaker 1: back and we win the championship. So it's like people
Speaker 1: just be saying stuff, were not really paying attention to
Speaker 1: what they're talking about, Like when I don't If Kobe
Speaker 1: said that, he must have been talking about in another
Speaker 1: context because when it comes he called me soft win.
Speaker 1: I was playing against each other, right, No, y'all was
Speaker 1: played together. No, we was playing against each other when
Speaker 1: he said this. Okay, were in Houston and he was
Speaker 1: in LA with that because you had left because you
Speaker 1: turned out contract. I did not turn out a max.
Speaker 1: What max comes? You didn't turn out? You didn't. You
Speaker 1: went to the You went to Houston. I went to Houston.
Speaker 1: You didn't have a max contract offer from the Laker.
Speaker 1: No out, No, let me tell you. Also this everyone
Speaker 1: was saying that they put billboards all over LA. That
Speaker 1: didn't happen either. It wasn't billboards. I'm not gonna just
Speaker 1: say anything bad about I don't want the Lakers to
Speaker 1: think that I'm disrespecting it. But none of that. A
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff wasn't happening. So there was no
Speaker 1: contract to stay with the Lakers the first time you
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. So you went to Houston because Houston
Speaker 1: gave you the max. I went to Houston because I'm
Speaker 1: looking at James Harden back then. I see that's what
Speaker 1: I see. I see a young menace. I see somebody
Speaker 1: that I could grow with, because we dame there close
Speaker 1: to the same age. Right, I'm a little bit older
Speaker 1: than him. But this perfect That's what I'm looking at it.
Speaker 1: And you got Chandler Parsons, he's a young guy, he
Speaker 1: could shoot. You got Jeremy Lynn. He was playing good.
Speaker 1: You gotta hold a younger group of people in Houston.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, you know what, Hakim down there? People
Speaker 1: saying I don't know how to post up, which I
Speaker 1: used to kill in the posting Orlando, So how can't
Speaker 1: I post up now? All of a sudden, So I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I can go to Houston and work
Speaker 1: with Dream every day. Right. I didn't see Dream that
Speaker 1: much when I worked out there because he was never there.
Speaker 1: But it was somebody else who I worked with, and
Speaker 1: I ended up having an awesome time in Houston. We
Speaker 1: ended up making it to the Western Conference finals. Okay,
Speaker 1: it wasn't nothing wrong with that. It just me and
Speaker 1: Kobe at that time didn't work out. Me being soft.
Speaker 1: Why didn't it work out there? Why didn't it work out?
Speaker 1: We was both in two different points in our career,
Speaker 1: and one me can't do it by myself. I had
Speaker 1: back surgery and came back and bust. First of all,
Speaker 1: I was I think I was. I think I led
Speaker 1: the league in rebounds, I was second a third in blocks,
Speaker 1: and everybody was saying I didn't have a I didn't
Speaker 1: have a good season. That don't make sense, right, Kobe
Speaker 1: to a different place now because Orlando you were the
Speaker 1: man La Kobe, so you're not gonna get the same
Speaker 1: opportunities in LA that you were getting in. So now
Speaker 1: everybody's saying, why didn't work out with you and Kobe?
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, it's me Kobe, Pal, Steve Nash, all
Speaker 1: these guys have These guys didn't even play. Steve Nash
Speaker 1: was hurt. Kobe ended up getting hurt, so he didn't
Speaker 1: even played. U Power was hurt a little bit, but
Speaker 1: he he had my grains all type of stuff. We
Speaker 1: just had a team with a whole bunch of guys
Speaker 1: who was hurt. So I like, this year almost a
Speaker 1: day the same thing. So again you saying it's my fault.
Speaker 1: That ain't even cool. You just said it was my
Speaker 1: fault this year, guys, Okay and I and listen, you
Speaker 1: can ask any person who worked in that facility about
Speaker 1: I tried my best to keep whatever whatever we could do.
Speaker 1: I sage the whole facility as much as I could.
Speaker 1: I was around as much as like we really tried.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that when we got on the court,
Speaker 1: it wasn't it wasn't there. It just didn't mash. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. But this whole Kobe thing, let's get
Speaker 1: back to that. I want you to clear it up.
Speaker 1: You saying that Kobe called me soft, Well, he said,
Speaker 1: Kobe said he appreciated Shock more when he got D
Speaker 1: White hotward, he appreciated Shock more when he got D White.
Speaker 1: How but then he also say Shack was lazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go back and let's yeah, let's put all these people.
Speaker 1: Maybe Shack was lazy and I didn't work hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe both of you were lazy. Both of us was lazy.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know I could. I don't know how
Speaker 1: he could ever say where he could say I was lazy?
Speaker 1: Is right? Because you was coming out of back surgery.
Speaker 1: Because the thing is when he when you went to Kobe,
Speaker 1: you had the back surge. Donse's right right before, right
Speaker 1: before the seas and also during that same season, after
Speaker 1: every practice, I was the last person there, trying to
Speaker 1: get in better shape, trying to work on my game
Speaker 1: every day. You might ha had apartment yet, so you
Speaker 1: might have needed place to stay where in La No
Speaker 1: I did. Oh, the thing was all right? Remember this
Speaker 1: that year who our coach was Okay, so it's Dan Tony,
Speaker 1: a big man's coach coach. So now if we would
Speaker 1: have had Phil Jackson, we probably would have had a
Speaker 1: different type team. I'm not saying Dantoni is a bad coach,
Speaker 1: and I don't want him to think that, but I
Speaker 1: felt like Phil would have been perfect for me and
Speaker 1: Kobe at that stage in our career. Right. I think
Speaker 1: when Kobe was trying to call me soft, he was
Speaker 1: talking about my mentality. It's no way, I'm not big
Speaker 1: and I'm not I'm allowing bullshit to affect me on
Speaker 1: the court. Right, That's why you're soft. You're allowing this
Speaker 1: shit to affect you. That's what he was saying, This
Speaker 1: little dude, not my play, Like you allowed the man.
Speaker 1: You're allowing the rest to get at you like this, right,
Speaker 1: you allowed to meet it Because that game that he
Speaker 1: did that we was up by like thirty points. Go
Speaker 1: back and look at it. I got the rebound, the
Speaker 1: whole everybody else was already down the floor. It's just
Speaker 1: me and Kobe. I hit him with a boat boat,
Speaker 1: hit him with another boat boom? Did everybody come over
Speaker 1: there trying to break us up? And I don't like,
Speaker 1: come on, bro, like really, But see, he knew what
Speaker 1: he was doing. That's why he said, Yeah, you're soft. Mentally,
Speaker 1: I just fucked you up for the rest of the
Speaker 1: game because now what you're thinking about trying to fight
Speaker 1: me and wrestle with me instead of saying, all right here,
Speaker 1: Pat gonna go run and play, get down the court.
Speaker 1: That's what he was talking about. I don't want to know.
Speaker 1: Oh he a soft person? Are soft? Like? You can't
Speaker 1: be soft? And when defensive Player of the Year three times, right,
Speaker 1: you can't. You can't playing the NBA like this and
Speaker 1: the way we played back then and be soft. That's
Speaker 1: just not who I am. But mentally he was, he
Speaker 1: was a hundred than ten percent correct. Why am I
Speaker 1: letting the rest? Why am I letting? Yeah? Why didn't
Speaker 1: do that? Huh? Why do you let the ref bother you?
Speaker 1: Because I'm watching how everybody else get calls, and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: I want calls like that. You don't know you're right,
Speaker 1: But see that's what I'm saying in my head. I'm thinking, like, bro,
Speaker 1: this man just slapped the hell out of me. I
Speaker 1: can't even see y'all ain't gonna call nothing. No, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna call it. You know what I should have said,
Speaker 1: bet all right, I'm gonna go out and finish the
Speaker 1: next one right instead of word about it. So he
Speaker 1: was saying mentally, I'm soft in that aspect because man,
Speaker 1: Kobe don't had plenty of conversations before that on the phone, right,
Speaker 1: So he ain't that? Ain't it? Are they innosimilarities between
Speaker 1: Lebron and Kobe from the way they go about their
Speaker 1: leadership style or the innsimilar? Different? Two different? Lebron is
Speaker 1: not Lebron is is he gonna talk? He's boyish, He's
Speaker 1: gonna let it be known how you feel, what do
Speaker 1: you think? All that stuff? Kobe only gonna do that
Speaker 1: when he gets to that point right before that, it's
Speaker 1: something going on. The way he'd go about it is
Speaker 1: give him the ball, and that's how he gonna show
Speaker 1: everybody how he feels. Right, Lebron different? Lebron. Can he
Speaker 1: know he could go score when he wants to. But
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like he'd be wanting to toil around
Speaker 1: and play because I've been playing against him for so
Speaker 1: long so last year, like I'm just watching sometimes on
Speaker 1: the bench, I'm like, I know he's just torn around
Speaker 1: right now, because I know he could go hard and
Speaker 1: do this and do that. But it's like I think
Speaker 1: that might be the difference. Like Kobe's like he gonna kill, kill, kill, kill,
Speaker 1: kill kill. Even after they did, he goes still keep
Speaker 1: trying to like it was, what's that movie? Uh uh,
Speaker 1: it's some dang it Tina Turner Okay and her husband.
Speaker 1: He said, if you die, I'm gonna kill you. Right,
Speaker 1: That's how Kobe is. He gonna keeping he gonna keep going. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But Lebron like he just he's a he. Lebron too nice.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say he too nice, but I think that
Speaker 1: they just got a different type of killer mental like
Speaker 1: Lebron like it's a one John Wick and the other
Speaker 1: James Bond. Yeah, john Wick is Kobe. It's Kobe. He quiet,
Speaker 1: like for real because John Wick don't really talk that
Speaker 1: much at talking doing all that acting. He's just going
Speaker 1: to kill. Because I were watching The redeem like I said,
Speaker 1: at the Redeemed Team premier, and we see the difference.
Speaker 1: Kobe is like kind of like to himself. He opened
Speaker 1: up as it. But Lebron is Lebron is like getting there.
Speaker 1: We had his birthday celebration for Kobe, then they're like
Speaker 1: they're really two different people, and then they always get
Speaker 1: compared together because of their greatness on the court, right,
Speaker 1: And I feel like people should stop comparing them because
Speaker 1: it kind of puts like a it pissed him against it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I hate it because like we should not be
Speaker 1: putting none of them. He's great. So anybody that's doing
Speaker 1: this against each other, like competition is one thing. When
Speaker 1: we're playing against each other and were talking trash, that's different.
Speaker 1: But like, nah, don't take away from his greatness to
Speaker 1: talk about his greatness. Like Lebron is did some great
Speaker 1: things and Kobe has done some great things too, and
Speaker 1: let's celebrate both of their greatness because looka Lebron has
Speaker 1: done in his eighteen years. He's accumulated the wealth of
Speaker 1: he's a billionaire now why he's still playing, So let's
Speaker 1: celebrate him for that. All the things that Kobe and
Speaker 1: Jordan have paved the way for someone like for Lebron
Speaker 1: to do, right, and now there's another one that's coming
Speaker 1: after Lebron who's gonna do more because he's seen what
Speaker 1: it takes to be that goat. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: only a few are called to be that goat. Everybody
Speaker 1: else might be called to be something else. So that's
Speaker 1: why these are the goat people. Lebron, who, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: You grew up in Atlanta? What was growing? And you
Speaker 1: grew up your church kid? I think your pop father's
Speaker 1: a minister. My dad was, No, he was a cop.
Speaker 1: He was called my granddad was a minister. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: even the cop granddad of minister. You in church a lot? Huh? No,
Speaker 1: I had went to a church school school. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I was. I was around the church a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could say a little bit. But what was you?
Speaker 1: What were your upbringing? Like? Really? I stayed in a
Speaker 1: college park, Georgia, So then where we stayed at was
Speaker 1: really really bad. And uh, we couldn't go down the
Speaker 1: street to the gas station. We could see the gas
Speaker 1: station from my house, but we couldn't go down the street.
Speaker 1: That's how crazy it was. So I just homed in
Speaker 1: on my basketball skills. After that, I got a Magic Johnson,
Speaker 1: a VHS tape and I plugged it in every day
Speaker 1: and that was that's how I worked on my skills.
Speaker 1: So I could stay away from, you know, everything else
Speaker 1: that surrounded me, and I wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: I could be one of the people that could come
Speaker 1: back and say, Yo, you could make it like this,
Speaker 1: you can do it. And you know, that was just
Speaker 1: my mindset. At teen years old. I wrote down my
Speaker 1: goals to be the number one pick in the draft,
Speaker 1: to be the top player in high school. Uh, just
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of goals of coming to the NBA,
Speaker 1: and I did them. So one thing I learned real
Speaker 1: fast growing up is a powerful power of manifestation, you know,
Speaker 1: really believing in yourself, really writing your goals down and
Speaker 1: your vision. And every day, every day I put it
Speaker 1: above my bed and I just sit above my bed.
Speaker 1: We'll sit at the edge of my bed and watch
Speaker 1: it and just imagine if falls in the NBA and
Speaker 1: I was the first pick in the draft, and what
Speaker 1: would it be to come out of this area that
Speaker 1: I was at to to be an NBA champion And
Speaker 1: like all that stuff, I was thinking about it every
Speaker 1: day I went. I wanted to meet Wood Chamberlain. That
Speaker 1: was my favorite player. When did you start growing? Were
Speaker 1: you a normal size kid? I was a little I
Speaker 1: wasn't big at all till I was about five nine,
Speaker 1: five ten, and I broke my leg growing up to
Speaker 1: dunk on somebody. I was just learning how to dunk.
Speaker 1: I went to go try to dunk, and dude kind
Speaker 1: of blocked it and I fell. When I hit the ground,
Speaker 1: my leg just you had that little ball surgery now
Speaker 1: and then when they saw your ball to make you taller. Now,
Speaker 1: I had the same thing that Paul George had. So
Speaker 1: his growth plate broke. A growth plate they had pop,
Speaker 1: so they put it back in. They put two screws in.
Speaker 1: And while I was in my cast, I went from
Speaker 1: five eight to five eleven to six to eleven? What yeah, crazy?
Speaker 1: How you growing foot? Man? I don't know, man, it
Speaker 1: was I guess it was me going to church. We
Speaker 1: were till when I was in the church, I literally
Speaker 1: I promised you man, like God, I ain't gonna do nothing,
Speaker 1: no more pleasing. And so I was literally man. People
Speaker 1: would see me in church every Sunday and be like, yo,
Speaker 1: like you wasn't here? Did? My clothes were shrinking? It
Speaker 1: was crazy. I went from five eight to five eleven
Speaker 1: to six to eleven in a year. In a year.
Speaker 1: By the time I ended my ninth my ninth grade year,
Speaker 1: I was six to eleven. I was the tallest person
Speaker 1: on my team. Did you think he would gonna grow
Speaker 1: some more? You're like, man, I might be seven two
Speaker 1: seven three. I was thinking I was gonna grow some
Speaker 1: more because my knees hurt so bad, like it, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was. It was just like pain
Speaker 1: in my knees every time I moved, walked, whatever I did,
Speaker 1: it was just pain. So yeah, and then the doctor
Speaker 1: was telling me take some vitamin uh uh D capsules
Speaker 1: and C capsules and stuff for all. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. Did you always want to go straight
Speaker 1: from high school to the NBA? Did? That was always
Speaker 1: my goal? That was always my plan. So college wasn't
Speaker 1: even you didn't you didn't you want in college? I mean,
Speaker 1: North Carolina can Chucky, dude. Then wasn't even your radar.
Speaker 1: I did not want to go to college. I felt
Speaker 1: like it was gonna be waste of my time in
Speaker 1: the waste of the school's time. And teammates they're like,
Speaker 1: I ain't wanna just go from one year and then league.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to go to the league out of
Speaker 1: high school. I wanted to be like KG. It's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite players all time. I wanted number twelve
Speaker 1: because I wanted to be the reverse of twenty one.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to come out of high school. That
Speaker 1: was my dream fulfill that. So if I ask you
Speaker 1: who was your Mount Rushmore players to go straight from
Speaker 1: high school to the NBA, you got cobe Lebron, KG, myself.
Speaker 1: You only get four. Now you keep naming you only
Speaker 1: got four and by Rushmore. Okay, that's it. Damn t
Speaker 1: mac ain't make it, mar starting mind make it. Sorry.
Speaker 1: Cob Lebron knows the play. They gotta go on there
Speaker 1: there and then shoot me and uh kg, I gotta
Speaker 1: put my favorite player on there. You're right, you're right,
Speaker 1: you're right looking at your your Gatorade National Player of
Speaker 1: the Year, your name Smith, prep Player of the Year ward,
Speaker 1: your co MVP with J R. Smith, and the McDonald's
Speaker 1: All American game, one of the thirty five greatest all
Speaker 1: McDonald's All American. You go to that game and you're
Speaker 1: looking around like, okay, did you know you had to
Speaker 1: put it down in that game? Like because people say, man,
Speaker 1: I went this little private school, little class say school,
Speaker 1: little a school, daggs. I think before they before out
Speaker 1: that game, they already knew who I was, so that
Speaker 1: game was just like a solidified statement game, and then
Speaker 1: me and JR just took off. Jr. I was throwing
Speaker 1: crazy lobs, shooting all type of threes, and I was
Speaker 1: trying to go dunk everything and block everything, and it
Speaker 1: just ended up working out great for both of us
Speaker 1: because we both wanted to go to the league and
Speaker 1: that was kind of like our our measuring stick, Like, yo,
Speaker 1: we can do this and then get better and better
Speaker 1: and better every day from practicing. It's the need for
Speaker 1: us to go to college. Right eighteen years old, you're
Speaker 1: a multi millionaire. What's going through your mind? Like, damn, man,
Speaker 1: there's more money. I ever thought I was gonna have
Speaker 1: it one particular time. And what was the first thing
Speaker 1: you bought? First thing I bought was I got my
Speaker 1: mom a house and I got me a laptop, which
Speaker 1: is dumb after I go back and look at it, like,
Speaker 1: why did I get a laptop? You like, out of
Speaker 1: all things to first buy, I bought myself a laptop.
Speaker 1: But I really just think I did it because my
Speaker 1: dad was like, the white you need to save your money.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Dad, I just got some money. Let me
Speaker 1: buy something. And I bought a laptop stupid, like I
Speaker 1: ain't on a car first on no jewelry. I bought
Speaker 1: a laptop and it was one of them small mini laptops.
Speaker 1: Like I was stupid, stupid, like was not thinking. So
Speaker 1: you bought your mama house Not in College Park. No,
Speaker 1: I bought her a house in Fabrin, Georgia. Okay. So
Speaker 1: they sport they well, they have that house there, but
Speaker 1: they live on my farm. I have a farm in Georgia, okay,
Speaker 1: in North Georgia, okay, and they live out there. You
Speaker 1: got familis on there? I do you got some Texas
Speaker 1: long horns? I have a couple of the real big
Speaker 1: black angers, okay. And then I have some donkeys, chickens,
Speaker 1: ducks halls. So you got a farm farm? Yeah? How
Speaker 1: many long horns you got? Oh man, I just had
Speaker 1: about six new births. Okay, so spat about total right now?
Speaker 1: Pably about seventy five different types of cattle. Okay. I
Speaker 1: got one black angles, red angles Charlotte, and Mama don't
Speaker 1: don't have a Bramah bull, no Brahma bulls yet? What
Speaker 1: about red angles? Her? No, I just got in the
Speaker 1: long horns. You've got all long horns and black angers.
Speaker 1: I got a couple of cats, any beet cattle, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: got a couple. But because that's what your angles is for,
Speaker 1: I want to I want to do more just because
Speaker 1: of the season. It's like my dad takes care of
Speaker 1: certain things. But now it's like, man, I got some
Speaker 1: really good ideas for the farm. Oh, I'm actually starting.
Speaker 1: I have a garden at my house too, So I garden.
Speaker 1: I have squash, I have water mill, and I have pears.
Speaker 1: I have apples. I have bell peppers in Georgia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you grow apples in Georgia? I got everything.
Speaker 1: I got figs, I got blueberries. You got a farm farm?
Speaker 1: It's no, it's my garden at my house. And I
Speaker 1: have a rose garden with like twelve different types of flowers. Right, So,
Speaker 1: so you got chickens too, I got chickens. When I
Speaker 1: get back where assually about to start the plant for
Speaker 1: the fall, for turnips and collars and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: You sell that stuff when you just eat it. This year,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be selling it and I'm gonna be eating
Speaker 1: it and using it for my diet with my kids. Okay,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Ah, so you you live in a
Speaker 1: whole list that you from the earth you're eating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what I really want to do is trying to really
Speaker 1: teach people that. You know, a lot of people ask
Speaker 1: me how to keep my shelf myself in shape. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's one thing. But also I want my kids
Speaker 1: to be self sufficient, learn how to live and eat
Speaker 1: off the land. Right. We don't know the state of
Speaker 1: what America is gonna be in seeing, so I feel
Speaker 1: like we all need to learn how to grow our
Speaker 1: own food. We don't know what they're putting in these foods.
Speaker 1: They're making three D chicken, right, people, we're eating fake food.
Speaker 1: So like we need to start eating the right food
Speaker 1: so our kids can grow and we can actually feel love. Again,
Speaker 1: it's food that we eat. It's all process, So it's
Speaker 1: not you know, when your mama cook food, you great.
Speaker 1: You know the person that you love the most they
Speaker 1: make that good food. You could feel it. You know,
Speaker 1: we need that. I'm looking at you in the land though,
Speaker 1: and you're the first player to come directly out of
Speaker 1: high school and play all eighty two games. You're the
Speaker 1: youngest person in the NBA history of the average of
Speaker 1: double double in the regular season. You're the youngest player
Speaker 1: to average ten rebounds in the season, the young person
Speaker 1: the youngest person evercored twenty rebounds in the game, the
Speaker 1: youngest person to do twenty more points together twenty rebounds
Speaker 1: in the game. All NBA Rookie First Team Youngest for
Speaker 1: one Rookie of the Year. Yeah, you feel you got robbed. Yes,
Speaker 1: But he had a great year. I hain't on front.
Speaker 1: He had an awesome year. He really set the tone
Speaker 1: and for me after that were like I used to
Speaker 1: want to destroy a mecca over for Yeah, And it
Speaker 1: was only because he said something like kind of disrespectful
Speaker 1: to me one time in the elevator, what do you say?
Speaker 1: And it was that All Star weekend and I think
Speaker 1: everybody's about to go party or whatever. It was just
Speaker 1: getting back going up the hotel elevator to go to
Speaker 1: the rooms, and I was like, yeah, I'm about to
Speaker 1: just go back and chill. It was like all years
Speaker 1: about to get your bob and it just go reading.
Speaker 1: And so I took that as like him like making
Speaker 1: a little joke about me, because I because I'm a Christian, right,
Speaker 1: So I was like all every time I played him
Speaker 1: twenty twenty? Would that would that All Star game in Denver? Yes? No,
Speaker 1: this was where was this? That? This? And that one
Speaker 1: might have been in Denver? Or in Louisia, uh, New Orleans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was one of them. And when he said that,
Speaker 1: it like triggered me. After that, I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give him twenty rebounds and twenty points every time
Speaker 1: we played them. And I did it. You did that, yeah,
Speaker 1: cause you feel that because not only that, but he
Speaker 1: had he felt he got you got your war two
Speaker 1: hunh that rookie of the year that I didn't even
Speaker 1: care about that no more. After he said that, I
Speaker 1: was like, for the rest of my career, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to give him twenty and twenty just for disrespecting
Speaker 1: me like that. Well, you mentioned that you didn't buy
Speaker 1: anything of significance. I think the greatest thing you did
Speaker 1: you brought your mama house, my mom and dadd a house.
Speaker 1: But you said you didn't buy anything. Now, you're known
Speaker 1: for your cars. I was after that and when it
Speaker 1: got crazy on my cars, yeah, but I do got
Speaker 1: a crazy car now. So so you started out, was
Speaker 1: the first car that you bought yourself? First car bought myself.
Speaker 1: Had to bend the rolls. Damn, you ain't even get
Speaker 1: no starter car. You ain't get no BMW, no no Mercedes,
Speaker 1: no Raine Rover. How you start with that? I mean,
Speaker 1: so when you get the roles, where you go from there?
Speaker 1: A space ship? The Mayback, I had fold made backs.
Speaker 1: How about the four Yes, Mayback was sending me madebacks
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you guys, but they were sending me madebacks,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about these madebacks. Was fired. They sending
Speaker 1: in made backs with like this big air condition in
Speaker 1: the middle or you can just press a button and
Speaker 1: it's just seeing fresh air throughout the whole thing with
Speaker 1: yea like some type of paper read that come out
Speaker 1: the land alone with the back where you can open
Speaker 1: up the back. Yeah, like like like uh dj cally yes,
Speaker 1: But now I got a it's called the bribe at
Speaker 1: six by six and so it's that's the wagon. It's
Speaker 1: the big one. Yeah, yes, that elevated like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: wheels on the back. Oh yeah that one. And I
Speaker 1: got that from Dubai. That one was this is my
Speaker 1: last car purchase one point two and after that, I
Speaker 1: was like that's it. So how many cars is in
Speaker 1: the fleet. Now I have that car and I have
Speaker 1: the color, and then I have the other rolls Roys.
Speaker 1: I got two bikes in the van. But that's it.
Speaker 1: Eight eight e. I got a truck. You one guy,
Speaker 1: You need eight cars. I got five kids. They ain't
Speaker 1: able to drive. Yeah, you ain't got no kids. They
Speaker 1: got d van in the truck and the other truck.
Speaker 1: And then you do realize when they get old enough
Speaker 1: to drive, they not gonna want that. Why not? How
Speaker 1: old are your oldest kid right now? Fourteen? Okay, so
Speaker 1: they don't want no truck. No, not that true. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they're not gonna want a truck. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna go truck. That's cool. But what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: value you of old truck so they can have this
Speaker 1: old truck. You ain't got no old schools. No, I
Speaker 1: had an old school man, my dad. He blew the
Speaker 1: truck up man trying to drive it. He tried to
Speaker 1: drive it every day, like every day truck. He trying
Speaker 1: to drive it fast and then set it down and
Speaker 1: it just blew up. The only thing left was the
Speaker 1: dog on door handler. Come on, tripping man, fox tripping
Speaker 1: want my car back Orlando. Obviously you were big. You
Speaker 1: go to Orlando, you know, the comparison's gonna stop gonna. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I liked it, you know, I felt like he was
Speaker 1: the most dominant player. And every day I put on
Speaker 1: my jersey, I said, I'm gonna dominate, dominade, dominade, dominate,
Speaker 1: and shoot. I wanted to whatever Shack did. If that
Speaker 1: was dunking on everybody, I wanted to dunk on everybody.
Speaker 1: But he took offense to it like I was trying
Speaker 1: to disrespect him, And I'm like, bro, why you're the
Speaker 1: most dominant player that ever played basketball? Here? Did you
Speaker 1: have conference that you? Did you have a conference that
Speaker 1: you and Shacks that I have had a conversation with him,
Speaker 1: but not about that because I didn't think that he
Speaker 1: really felt a certain way about me until like I
Speaker 1: start seeing more and more interviews. Right, Oh, he's not
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer. I don't think he should have Vince,
Speaker 1: he should have bad. I'm like, day, Shack got a
Speaker 1: problem with me. So I don't know what it is
Speaker 1: or why he got an issue with me. But did
Speaker 1: he think because you adopted the Superman moniker? How did
Speaker 1: I adopt it from who I mean, it's not his,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. And the first Superman was Kurt Ramms.
Speaker 1: If you really want to get technical, Kurt Ravers was
Speaker 1: a Superman before Shocks. So did we both get it
Speaker 1: from him? Right? Or did we get it from Clark kick? Right? Like?
Speaker 1: Is it really that serious? It's a nickname, right, And
Speaker 1: I got the nickname Superman from Soldier Boy because he
Speaker 1: had a someone called Superman. And uh, it was a
Speaker 1: couple of things that happened in practice. When I was
Speaker 1: in Orlando. I used to live crazy weights, right, So
Speaker 1: how much could you ben my highest? Bitch something? Four? Yeah,
Speaker 1: four thirty something something, yeah something. I was in Orlando,
Speaker 1: and you didn't be dad basketball on the web on
Speaker 1: like two pounds, right, That's what my free throws was
Speaker 1: like that. Now your free throws was like that. It
Speaker 1: was because the bitch freens. I'm telling you, I was
Speaker 1: bitch pressing so much, man, for real, That's why I
Speaker 1: stopped because I literally was, yeah, your shoulders, your shoulders,
Speaker 1: I mean I couldn't. I couldn't shoot the ball, right,
Speaker 1: I was like this, It's all like, man, let me
Speaker 1: chill out and do some yoga and get right right.
Speaker 1: I used to bitch over four hundred some pounds and
Speaker 1: that's all I did that going to gym, bench press,
Speaker 1: do uh leg curves, uh squats, biceps. Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: you were That's all I did at first, and then
Speaker 1: once I learned how to train, Like after I had
Speaker 1: my back surgery, I have a doctor uh in uh
Speaker 1: Atlanta's name is doctor Clayton Gibson. Change my my whole
Speaker 1: life from the inside out. How I how I thought,
Speaker 1: the food I ate, you know what I put in
Speaker 1: my body to drink everything. This guy was just like
Speaker 1: a god seeing you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: was just glad I was able to meet him and
Speaker 1: he was the one who actually got me. Right after
Speaker 1: I had my back surgery to come back to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I lost thirty pounds in thirty days. Are you vegan?
Speaker 1: I mean, do you eat me? No? I'm not vegan, okay,
Speaker 1: but I might have to go vegan because I found
Speaker 1: out that some of the U were the strongest tribe
Speaker 1: or the strongest people on earth, were vegan. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: and let me try it. I want to try it out.
Speaker 1: What were they vegan by choice? Yeah, because they might
Speaker 1: have not had the opporunity to getting no meat. No,
Speaker 1: they did, but they just knew. Like for example, gorillas,
Speaker 1: they don't eat no meat and they're the strongest. You
Speaker 1: gonna eat forty pounds of grass. Let's go, people be
Speaker 1: killing me that basically. Yeah, that ain't mean that you
Speaker 1: ain't grass. But I'm just saying elephant, he only eat
Speaker 1: but what he eat and as strong as the looking
Speaker 1: leaves and people. But they got vegetables and fruit and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Eat that meat, the white you grew
Speaker 1: up eating meat, Look at it. Do you know what
Speaker 1: happened once once you the meat that you eat? Do
Speaker 1: you know what happened when they kill these animals? That
Speaker 1: stress from those animals. Yeah, it's getting transferred to you.
Speaker 1: That's why we have all these mental issues that we're
Speaker 1: having in our country right now, because the foods that
Speaker 1: we eat, even all the process stuff, that stuff sends off.
Speaker 1: What happened when you when you plug when you plug
Speaker 1: that vest about the vine, nothing happened. It ain't stressed, No,
Speaker 1: because where's it coming from? Like an apple? What is
Speaker 1: the appolong? He's on a tree? What else he's gonna
Speaker 1: be growing? And then stop it from don't get right?
Speaker 1: So what you you know, you're about the farm and
Speaker 1: all that. I'll see. The good thing is if you're
Speaker 1: eating food from farm to table, then yes, I could
Speaker 1: understand and meat like that. But if we're getting it
Speaker 1: from the three D source, if we're getting it from Google, right,
Speaker 1: and you eat what you're about to eat it from
Speaker 1: three D, you about to eat it from the from
Speaker 1: from farm to table, right, That's correct. So I would
Speaker 1: do that, That's what I'm saying. I would do that,
Speaker 1: but not just going out every day and getting you know,
Speaker 1: crazy types of pork and all that stuff. How special
Speaker 1: could you? And h T Mac and Grant Hill? Oh
Speaker 1: my god man, And I was trying to it really
Speaker 1: hurt me that tea. Max said that he didn't want
Speaker 1: to play with nobody from high school. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: didn't you say you came from high school? Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not going to play with somebody from high school. It's
Speaker 1: so much stuff I could have learned from just you know,
Speaker 1: learn from him and then Grant Hill. But I just
Speaker 1: felt like, and I could understand it now that I'm older,
Speaker 1: you want to play with an older person because of
Speaker 1: the minds right, And I'm like, broh, Now I could
Speaker 1: play with a younger guy because I could show him
Speaker 1: the right type of mindset to have. Because I didn't
Speaker 1: experienced it from the top to the bottom. I know
Speaker 1: what it takes to get to the top, and I
Speaker 1: know what happens if you at the bottom, and then
Speaker 1: what you gotta do to stay in the league. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I don't mind playing with
Speaker 1: a younger guy on the team because I believe I
Speaker 1: could help him. I think that a lot of those
Speaker 1: guys back then did not have patience to want to
Speaker 1: be with a younger guy. And I get it because
Speaker 1: after the season you don't and you put it in
Speaker 1: all this work. You're like, man, why did I just
Speaker 1: do all this for it? Like why? But you know
Speaker 1: it's it's a learning process. So I just, you know,
Speaker 1: looking back on the novel to be a lot better
Speaker 1: now when you look back. You guys, Nike had built
Speaker 1: this big promo. It was the muppets Lebron and Kobe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you ruined it. I ain't ruined. You did ruined it.
Speaker 1: I got my own puppet right at home, right at
Speaker 1: my dogs of this stuff. But I still got a
Speaker 1: puppet at the house, and I'm glad I'll ruin it,
Speaker 1: cause that one ain't right. They pissed our whole team off,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad we went out there. We showed Lebrun
Speaker 1: in the calves that held all the puppet gotta go
Speaker 1: for real, because I'm like, how y'all gonna have a
Speaker 1: whole Nike commercial about Lebron and Kobe in the finals
Speaker 1: and they ain't even in the finals yet, And we
Speaker 1: took so much. We took that, did we? We wanted
Speaker 1: to destroy Lebrun in the in the calves because of that.
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to see Anderson barratge. I wanted to
Speaker 1: rip his hair off. I wanted to kill it. Got
Speaker 1: easks his name was you dropped forty and fourteen? Telling
Speaker 1: you I couldnt wait to get on the floor. Then
Speaker 1: I tried to break the goal in Cleveland. That's why
Speaker 1: the shot clock came down. I wanted to was Ben
Speaker 1: Wallace on that team that year? I think it might
Speaker 1: have been every big man they had because they want
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna get my own puppet. I brought
Speaker 1: my own puppet to our gym, and I had my
Speaker 1: own puppet that practice I don't want to do. It's
Speaker 1: like that that was I was I was kind and
Speaker 1: you wanted to see that. That's messed up. You're from
Speaker 1: Georgia and you wanted to see two people that ain't
Speaker 1: even close to Georgia play in the finals. When you
Speaker 1: I want to see I mean you sometimes you want
Speaker 1: to see. I mean, can you imagine Can I see
Speaker 1: a bird and magic? Can you imagine not seeing federal adult?
Speaker 1: I mean something. You just gotta see the white and Kobe?
Speaker 1: What what is it talking about? That's paid part you,
Speaker 1: that's paid for. You wanted to watch me and Kobe
Speaker 1: scrap bad y'all that you went out there bad y'all got.
Speaker 1: But that's only because I'm gonna give you. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you what happened. What happened Kobe, Bryant, Lamar Oldham, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Derry Fisher, Pall Gasol and Andrew buying them and Phil Jackson,
Speaker 1: they had experience that we didn't have. They knew what
Speaker 1: it took, they knew they knew what to do at
Speaker 1: all the right moments in the game. And for us,
Speaker 1: I felt like at that time we were so young
Speaker 1: and inexperienced that we didn't know how to handle the moment, right,
Speaker 1: because mind you just the finals. You got this big
Speaker 1: the big trophy on the court, big air trophy, you
Speaker 1: got all these fans. We're the only team playing in
Speaker 1: the world besides the Lakers. So it's like it's all
Speaker 1: new for us, right. They knew how to handle that
Speaker 1: whole situation. We had just got up in it. So
Speaker 1: for us, we all excited. And then I think a
Speaker 1: couple plays kept us out from winning that lay up
Speaker 1: with Cordy Leaders. Yeah yeah, yeah, Algasol goaltended. If you
Speaker 1: go back and look, I think he gold tended it right.
Speaker 1: That play right there cost us might have cost us
Speaker 1: a serious I believe we would have won that game.
Speaker 1: We would have won a serious if that was game one,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, right, a game two, Game two,
Speaker 1: I think game two. But you know what, Kobe him
Speaker 1: did it. Man, Derek Fisher hit that three to put
Speaker 1: the dagger in. But man, after that game, I sit
Speaker 1: down and watched him celebrate, and I was like, Man,
Speaker 1: if I get back to the Finals, I'm we're not losing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure I do whatever I can to
Speaker 1: where our team is no doubt that we're gonna win, right.
Speaker 1: I had Lamar ol him on my podcast and he
Speaker 1: say he knew they would be you guys when he
Speaker 1: saw you joking in the court. Do you think people
Speaker 1: took your personality because you you you are a fun loving,
Speaker 1: you're an outgoing guy, and til your personality and held
Speaker 1: that against you. Yeah, because you're the same guy that
Speaker 1: was joking up and down the court when you won
Speaker 1: three defensive players the year. So it don't make no sense,
Speaker 1: but but I get it. That's again, like I said,
Speaker 1: there's these older guys and the perception that they've had,
Speaker 1: people's perception kicking him become every everyone's reality. Right. So
Speaker 1: they see that I'm laughing, having a good time, and
Speaker 1: in their mind, they probably thinking he ain't really focused
Speaker 1: on basketball. He thinking about everything else. But in turn,
Speaker 1: when I'm training and practicing, that's when I'm not laughing
Speaker 1: and smiling because I'm really locked in on getting better
Speaker 1: the court. When I'm out there in front of the fans,
Speaker 1: that's the showtime. That's when I'm out there at my greatest.
Speaker 1: I'm having a good time. I'm a dunk, block shots
Speaker 1: and have a good time. Why am I out there mad?
Speaker 1: Like I'm an m M A fighter. That's not who
Speaker 1: I am. I can't go out there and be that
Speaker 1: way and im and it's crazy that I've had to
Speaker 1: and I still have to express that to people, Like
Speaker 1: what I I that's this is just who I am.
Speaker 1: Do you think you're a good leader? Do I think
Speaker 1: I'm a good leader. I think I'm a better leader
Speaker 1: now than I've been in the past. I think that
Speaker 1: there are some things that I could have worked on,
Speaker 1: But I also think that I at those times I
Speaker 1: didn't have the proper guidance to be able to lead.
Speaker 1: But I think I'm a I'm a good leader. Did
Speaker 1: you ever have problems connecting with your teammates? Did you
Speaker 1: ever have problems with your teammates? Uh? I don't think
Speaker 1: I really had a lot of problems with my teammates
Speaker 1: like people said that I did. But knowing Orlando, we
Speaker 1: were very close knit in Houston the same thing, we
Speaker 1: was very close knit. We didn't White y'all close knit.
Speaker 1: Why do you and James Harden fault out? Did y'all
Speaker 1: fall out? I don't think man and James was close, Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: And I don't know what happened. Can you want because
Speaker 1: pick it rolled me and James harding to pick it roll,
Speaker 1: He'll bucket get a pick it roll, stepping down to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to figure that out too. Since I
Speaker 1: left Houston, why is he acted like this? Because I
Speaker 1: left La gold play with him? So it wasn't like,
Speaker 1: so how soon did you notice a shift or a
Speaker 1: change in his attitude towards you? I would kind of say,
Speaker 1: like in our second season together, and I was just like, dang'
Speaker 1: like I feel like we're competing against each other when
Speaker 1: we should be. Did you talk? Did you have a
Speaker 1: conversation with him? I didn't. That's what that was. That
Speaker 1: was my fault. That was my fault. And I actually
Speaker 1: I had a conversation, but it was kind of too late,
Speaker 1: and I could have been I could have been better
Speaker 1: at talking than him, but I chose to go around
Speaker 1: him and we talked to other people, which now the
Speaker 1: message coming from other people, yeah, it's gonna get lost
Speaker 1: in translation. So I could have been better that For one,
Speaker 1: it's been the older guy and knowing better, right, And
Speaker 1: two just if really want to win, really squashing that better,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But I didn't know how
Speaker 1: to at the time, because I didn't really know how
Speaker 1: to talk to him like that when it seemed like
Speaker 1: it had gotten to that point where when we first
Speaker 1: got there it was cool, but then after you know,
Speaker 1: it got to that point, it's just like, dang, how
Speaker 1: do we not even not even talking? No more like
Speaker 1: we decided to come down here together, like I wanted
Speaker 1: to come see us when championships and us grow. But
Speaker 1: you know it didn't happen that way. So I'll put
Speaker 1: that on me, right, I'll put that part on me.
Speaker 1: Where would you rank yourself as an all time great
Speaker 1: defensive big man? As an all time I'm great defensive
Speaker 1: big man? Yeah, I gotta be top three? Name three
Speaker 1: better besides probably Bill Russell. I got three defensive player
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the years, I mean yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you just look at the war, you you like
Speaker 1: your defensive probits better than a La Juan How many
Speaker 1: he got? He got one? Okay, David Robinson how many
Speaker 1: he got? Well, if that's the case, so Ben Wallace,
Speaker 1: Ben Wallace got folded, the Kim Big got four, so
Speaker 1: they got more? We right there? No, No, you said
Speaker 1: top three I got? I named I name guys they got,
Speaker 1: all right, you're right, you're right, all right, all right,
Speaker 1: So I like Dream, Okay, Dream. I think he's top,
Speaker 1: and so I would go with me Dream and probably uh,
Speaker 1: Dennis Rodman, you left Being Russell up. All right. Please
Speaker 1: nobody think I'm saying Bill Russell Kate played defense. I
Speaker 1: just believe that with the error that we have. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. I like Bill Russell too,
Speaker 1: but he not in that group because he Bill Russell. Okay,
Speaker 1: he by himself. Okay, you say you have a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old son. How many kids do you have? Now? Five?
Speaker 1: You have five kids, old is fourteen, oldest fourteen, the
Speaker 1: youngest is eighty. Had five baby mamas. One of them
Speaker 1: passed away right before the bubble. Uh so my youngest
Speaker 1: son has been living with me since then. And ever
Speaker 1: since I've been in the league and had kids. You know,
Speaker 1: people have always tried to find a way to make
Speaker 1: it seem like I not a good father and I
Speaker 1: don't take care of my kids and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And that that's one of the things too that I
Speaker 1: back then that I should have addressed and talked about.
Speaker 1: But I just like, why my kids know I love them?
Speaker 1: And that's all that matters. But it just sucks that
Speaker 1: people would be so caught up in somebody's life life
Speaker 1: like that, that they would sit up there and make
Speaker 1: up lives and make and pass judgments on situations that
Speaker 1: they have no clue on. How difficult is it to
Speaker 1: be professional athlete and to be a single parent as
Speaker 1: hard as ill having to travel all the time and
Speaker 1: leave my son, you know what I'm saying. And when
Speaker 1: his mom died, he was six, so that's a very
Speaker 1: critical age. Yeah, really didn't he really didn't understand, you know,
Speaker 1: because when she first passed away, he's he's saying to me,
Speaker 1: they dad, my mom died, but they took her to
Speaker 1: the hospital. She's gonna be back. So in his mind
Speaker 1: he's thinking, and I understand it, she's coming back, because
Speaker 1: that's what when you go to the hospital, you're gonna
Speaker 1: come back. They go, they gonna help you. So I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: how do I even express this to him and tell
Speaker 1: him that? So it took me a while to really
Speaker 1: like get him to have a better understanding. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: and it just made our relationships so much better, you know.
Speaker 1: And now it's just like that time that we've had together.
Speaker 1: It's really bunded us to a point where the other kids,
Speaker 1: my other kids is like, man, like Dad, we we
Speaker 1: need we want you to like please cauld we live
Speaker 1: with you. Like it's it's just amazing to see if
Speaker 1: my kids are getting a lot older now, so just
Speaker 1: the different personalities and me being able to talk to
Speaker 1: them about my experiences and uh, it's just so different.
Speaker 1: It's just so different. I'm glad that, you know, even
Speaker 1: though I have five children, I had to experience them
Speaker 1: and having different moms. I'm glad I have these kids
Speaker 1: because it's the best thing in the world. Man. So
Speaker 1: it's a blessing to be able to have children and
Speaker 1: the person analyzies that they have all of them. My
Speaker 1: daughters are really just starting to get into volleyball, okay,
Speaker 1: and like you, they tall. My daughter is eleven and
Speaker 1: twelve and they at my shoulders and I'm seven feet Wow,
Speaker 1: that's tall. And my son is eight and he's right
Speaker 1: here in my in the middle of my chest. So
Speaker 1: it's like, my kids love sports, but they can do
Speaker 1: it all. I feel like I almost got like the
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard version of the Jackson five. So like I've
Speaker 1: been really coming up with some ideas of like what
Speaker 1: I can do to see them really really be successful
Speaker 1: in life. And I want to really help them with that.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to to really doing that. Have
Speaker 1: you thought about, well, you know what if I don't
Speaker 1: play basketball, if last year year eighteen was my final year,
Speaker 1: have you thought about the transition to maybe coaching your kids?
Speaker 1: Obviously you have more time to spend with the kids,
Speaker 1: and have you thought about that? Yes? I would. I
Speaker 1: love that being able to coach them and being able
Speaker 1: to really like pull that greatness out of them. You know,
Speaker 1: I believe that every person on earth has greatness inside
Speaker 1: of them. Right, we have that energy built up. It
Speaker 1: just would need someone to call help us call on
Speaker 1: that greatness, help us pull that greatness out. And with
Speaker 1: my kids, I can see it. I see what it.
Speaker 1: I know what it would take because I had to
Speaker 1: go through the ringer to get to where I am today. Right,
Speaker 1: So they have a perfect example of what to do
Speaker 1: and what not to do because I've experienced so much
Speaker 1: in the league where they know they can do this
Speaker 1: and be successful and do this and not be successful.
Speaker 1: And I've had the opportunity to in a blessing to
Speaker 1: experience it been having even the bad things I've experienced,
Speaker 1: Like you just alluded to somebody coming out and making
Speaker 1: a statement and saying, I'm like this, or you know
Speaker 1: my situation when my kids moms, you know all these things?
Speaker 1: Or could could you hate that like one of your
Speaker 1: kids mom? It became so public and you wish you
Speaker 1: had that situation. Look, we we we we we can
Speaker 1: handle this. One's in the bed with us. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was just me and you. Why why are you putting
Speaker 1: all these other people in our situation? Because they're not
Speaker 1: gonna ever understand it. They're not gonna see from the father,
Speaker 1: they're not going to see the mother's point of view,
Speaker 1: they're not going to see the child's point of view
Speaker 1: unless they've experienced it, right, And the people that experienced it,
Speaker 1: they gonna tell you the same thing that I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: Don't let the people out in the public into your
Speaker 1: private business because they will ruin you. And they were
Speaker 1: ruining the kid's minds, right, And I don't think sometimes
Speaker 1: people really understand that until it's a situation and they
Speaker 1: have to experience it for themselves, and now they're like,
Speaker 1: I wish I never did this, I should have did
Speaker 1: it this way. But then it's okay, now we know,
Speaker 1: let's keep this private. Let's keep this between me and
Speaker 1: me and you, because our son, our daughter is the
Speaker 1: most precious in this moment. Let's not forget what what
Speaker 1: we're actually our purpose is. So yeah, it just takes
Speaker 1: a lot of times with the kids, moms. They haven't
Speaker 1: experienced nothing like this before. Bil with an NBA player,
Speaker 1: dealing with the fame, the fortune or whatever that whatever
Speaker 1: may come with being a sports figure. Yeah, they never
Speaker 1: dealt with that, you know what I'm saying. So obviously
Speaker 1: for on a woman's side, on a woman's standpoint, they
Speaker 1: dealing with, you know, being they could feel rejected, they
Speaker 1: could you know, feel like the people online are talking
Speaker 1: about them, so they they're hurt about this, and now
Speaker 1: they want to you know, hurt, people might want to
Speaker 1: hurt somebody else. It's just so much going on, and
Speaker 1: it's like, yo's keep it private, man. You don't you
Speaker 1: don't want all these people in your business because they
Speaker 1: really don't care. Yes, And that's the thing that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't really get until they actually get
Speaker 1: into the situation and see, these people don't care. No,
Speaker 1: they don't. They only they only doing this because they
Speaker 1: want that gospel. They want to have something to talk about. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the white I really appreciate you're stopping by and give
Speaker 1: me a couple of minutes of your time. Yet, if
Speaker 1: this is if last year was your last season, congratulations
Speaker 1: on eighteen great years. Thank you so much. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be in the Hall of Fame in five years from
Speaker 1: when you do hang it up. So congratulations on unbelievable.
Speaker 1: One George boy to another, Yes, sir, down South Georgia boy.
Speaker 1: Maybe all my life and grinding all my life, sack fights,
Speaker 1: hustle back rice one slice, one got the sad all
Speaker 1: my life. I've been grinding all my life, all my life,
Speaker 1: and grinding all my life and out second pice, tustle,
Speaker 1: bade the price and want a slice, got the broiler,
Speaker 1: dice to swap all my life. I've been running all
Speaker 1: my life.