Speaker 1: What up, y'all? All the Smoke is hitting the road.
Speaker 1: Will be in New York October seventh and in Philly
Speaker 1: October ninth. Make sure you guys come and kick it
Speaker 1: with us. We'll have Larry Johnson and some friends in
Speaker 1: New York and then we'll have a million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of game and Paul, George and Philly go to All
Speaker 1: the Smoke Productions dot com slash tour. Use promo code
Speaker 1: training at checkout for a buy one, get one free
Speaker 1: promo offer. Offer won't last long. We'll see y'all there.
Speaker 1: Welcome back All the Smoke, one half of All the Smoke.
Speaker 1: My brother Jack love you. Sitting in the dentist chair
Speaker 1: right now. He had to get some teeth pooled before
Speaker 1: he said his mouth started to smelling like dump drug juice.
Speaker 1: So wish out this episode out to you, bro. I'm excited, man,
Speaker 1: this is I've been trying to track this person down
Speaker 1: for a long time. Played against him for many years,
Speaker 1: never really talked, just competed against each other, and I
Speaker 1: always liked how hard he played. But then just kind
Speaker 1: of started to see him live his life through social medium,
Speaker 1: Like I knew how fucked with this dude, so long
Speaker 1: time overdue. Glad to finally sit down with you. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, Joe, Kim Noah Man, thank you, bro,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Yes, no doubt, I'm glad we were
Speaker 1: able to make this work. Man, Let's get to it. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the world lost a giant this week. Did Kimba Matumbo
Speaker 1: rest in peace and in love to his family. Your
Speaker 1: dad and him had the same agent. You've known him
Speaker 1: for a long time. Mentor on and off the court.
Speaker 1: Tough love kind of gave you the blueprint to your
Speaker 1: post career, if you would say so. Speak to obviously
Speaker 1: how instrumental he was in your life and just you
Speaker 1: know what he meant.
Speaker 2: To you did Kemba's somebody who meant a lot to
Speaker 2: a lot of people. So I want to choose my
Speaker 2: words like wisely, what a special you know in the
Speaker 2: basketball community, it's tough, but just all around the world.
Speaker 2: Just the patience that he had for people is what
Speaker 2: resonates the most. I remember going to Georgetown camp as
Speaker 2: a kid and getting to see him like early on
Speaker 2: in his NBA career and just always gave everybody the
Speaker 2: time of day. And you know, his whole thing was
Speaker 2: just about never forget where you're from.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think that's something that resonates for people all around,
Speaker 2: you know, just the guys from Kenshasa. He started playing
Speaker 2: basketball at eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: Crazy.
Speaker 2: He got to Georgetown University to be to be a
Speaker 2: medical student, a doctor. Coach Thompson sees him on campus,
Speaker 2: He's like, yo, you need to get your big ass
Speaker 2: in the gym. And you know what, and it was
Speaker 2: just what an honor to be around that guy. Got
Speaker 2: to spend a lot of time with him afterwards, you know,
Speaker 2: with the bal just being able to invest in a
Speaker 2: basketball league, with the NBA on the continent, just to
Speaker 2: be around him. Just what a special guy, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget the kember always.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I used to call that's my you know, it's you know,
Speaker 2: and I would come in just you know, t shirts,
Speaker 2: sweatpants like and he was like, if you if you
Speaker 2: around me, if you around me, just don't be dressing
Speaker 2: like that. You need to you know, this is this
Speaker 2: is business now tighten up. So that that's the energy
Speaker 2: that the Kembit, the Kemba had And it wasn't just basketball,
Speaker 2: It's like all around the world just people. Just really
Speaker 2: he deserved that love that he gets.
Speaker 1: Rest in peace. Yeah, definitely. Obviously more news hit. About
Speaker 1: a week and a half ago, one of your brothers
Speaker 1: decided to call it a career. Derrick Rose one of
Speaker 1: the most special athletes, uh, we've ever seen in this game.
Speaker 1: He put fear in the hearts of the best of
Speaker 1: the best in our league. Bro and you and you
Speaker 1: were right there with it. You got Chicago one year
Speaker 1: before him. He was your rook How did your guys
Speaker 1: relationship start? And I know it turned into a real
Speaker 1: brotherhood because I think I saw you officiated his his
Speaker 1: his way. We'll get to that, but tell me how
Speaker 1: all of it started.
Speaker 2: It was just a real blessing to be around Pooh.
Speaker 2: You know what do you call him?
Speaker 1: Pooh Pooh?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Okay, you know it's you know, as special as
Speaker 2: they come in terms of, you know, a real introvert
Speaker 2: at heart, somebody who could score thirty on you. But
Speaker 2: it just was scared of the postgame interview. He just
Speaker 2: didn't want he didn't want no part of the media.
Speaker 2: You know. He just was always true to himself. And
Speaker 2: you know, somebody who had an unbelievable talent, but just
Speaker 2: stayed real throughout and I think, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: even you know, when you're a second year player. He
Speaker 2: came in the year after before, I wouldn't call him
Speaker 2: my you know what I'm saying. He didn't have to,
Speaker 2: you know, give out all the gear.
Speaker 1: And he didn't have to do nothing of the difference
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 2: He was that nice. You know, he was that nice.
Speaker 2: He didn't have to just come into you at the hotel.
Speaker 2: You have no rookie duties, you know, other people exactly.
Speaker 2: I think our relationship grew, you know, obviously you want
Speaker 2: to win a championship so bad, but our relationship really
Speaker 2: grew smoking herb after he got hurt, you know. So
Speaker 2: he got hurt, and I think that you know, he
Speaker 2: was at the height of his thing, just you know,
Speaker 2: signed a huge deal with the Bulls, sign a huge
Speaker 2: deal with a Didas, but you know, had to sit
Speaker 2: out that year, and I think it was a real
Speaker 2: lonely time for him. Obviously. You know, I want to
Speaker 2: give a big shout out to his friends, his brothers,
Speaker 2: who you know, he keeps the same people from the beginning,
Speaker 2: you know, real tight circle. But yeah, our relationship really
Speaker 2: grew on the road, you know, putting putting that towel
Speaker 2: under the in the in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, now you're talking real ship, and these
Speaker 1: people don't know, Like bro smoking weed was a real
Speaker 1: job if you were smoking in the league, because it
Speaker 1: was just you get in trouble. So we had to
Speaker 1: get the towels. We had some people like to turn
Speaker 1: the shower on and get too fucking hot in there.
Speaker 1: But I always had the candles the intents. I bread
Speaker 1: up the plugging glades too, so my.
Speaker 2: Ship was smelling nice. You were organized.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, I'm a sophisticated smoker, but it was
Speaker 1: a real job. And then on top of that, we're
Speaker 1: taking these drinks to try to flush our systems. Like
Speaker 1: what was that? I mean, I love, no one's ever
Speaker 1: really opened up on the show like that to really
Speaker 1: let me know we can go there. So let's let's
Speaker 1: motherfucking go there.
Speaker 2: Brow this is this is all the smoke, right, this
Speaker 2: is all the smoke, So let's.
Speaker 1: Go let's talk. So I mean you were saying putting
Speaker 1: the towels under the door and just fellowshipping.
Speaker 2: Yes, So you know that's that was some real bonding times.
Speaker 2: You know when the guys would come in, I'm the best,
Speaker 2: and I think our relationship really grew off that, you know.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's weird that, you know, it was
Speaker 2: the height of his of his thing, and how how
Speaker 2: lonely you can be, and you know, you're around your
Speaker 2: teammates more than you're around your family, and you know,
Speaker 2: but you know, even though we weren't really supposed to
Speaker 2: smoke or anything like that, it was so important. It
Speaker 2: was so important to just be able to just detach.
Speaker 2: You know, this is this is big business is supposed
Speaker 2: to exactly, So to be able to share that and
Speaker 2: like really get to know each other. I mean it
Speaker 2: wasn't nothing fancy. We're in the bathroom talking shit, smoking
Speaker 2: a blunt, you know. So you know, I really cherished
Speaker 2: those times, and I think that our brotherhood really grew
Speaker 2: off that. And he was also somebody who always had
Speaker 2: my back.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: There was probably times where the bulls are like, oh,
Speaker 2: we could probably get some better for Jokim, and he
Speaker 2: was probably like, you know, I know, Pool was like, nah,
Speaker 2: that's that's my guy. And I think similar, you know.
Speaker 2: And when Pool was one of the most beloved figures
Speaker 2: and when he got hurt. You know, I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people turn their backs on him in his
Speaker 2: own city. So to be able to be able to
Speaker 2: support him through that, and I'm not I don't pretend
Speaker 2: to be the only person who was, but who was
Speaker 2: out there on the court with him and who had
Speaker 2: to deal with that, I cherished that time. I think
Speaker 2: it just all those tough times also made our relationships stronger.
Speaker 2: And then you know, being able to mediate his officiate
Speaker 2: his wedding.
Speaker 1: That's dope, bro. I've seen that ship. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: look at this, this is incredible. Where was it that?
Speaker 1: Where were you guys at?
Speaker 2: I was out here Beverly Hills Hotel.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was some fly ship, bro, It was fly.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what, that was the most uncomfortable
Speaker 2: ship I ever had.
Speaker 1: Nervous.
Speaker 2: I was nervous as hell, like a wedding.
Speaker 1: Did you smoke one first?
Speaker 2: I smoke one after I had I had to come right,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm trying to you know, first time doing it.
Speaker 2: It was my first time doing it, probably my last time.
Speaker 1: You know, this is it's a big business.
Speaker 2: You know, when when when Elena, you know, Mama Rose
Speaker 2: and they were like, okay, you wanna you're doing this.
Speaker 2: We need you for the don't fuck it up right.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a big moment for my guys,
Speaker 2: So I wanted to be right. You might. I didn't
Speaker 2: even smoke one before.
Speaker 1: Man, I waited till I should maybe just hit it
Speaker 1: two or three times. I got this ship. So what
Speaker 1: was he? I mean, I've got a chance, not as
Speaker 1: long as you did, but I got a chance to
Speaker 1: play with Covid, And I think there was a misconception
Speaker 1: on just who he was as a person off the
Speaker 1: court or even in the locker room. Covid with someone
Speaker 1: you could talk shit too. He's gonna talk back to you,
Speaker 1: he's gonna rap, he's gonna He's just a cool, down
Speaker 1: to earth duke. We've never really got a chance to
Speaker 1: see that side of d Is he like that or
Speaker 1: is he just kind of always cool?
Speaker 2: Laughing?
Speaker 1: But he's always kind of reserved.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think he's somebody who he he waits
Speaker 2: until you know, he needs to be comfortable, Okay, you
Speaker 2: know he's ah, he's a real introvert at heart, you know,
Speaker 2: so quiet. But I remember a rookie year like Brandon
Speaker 2: Jennings scored fifty five. So guys in the on the
Speaker 2: on the plane of talking about, yo, Brandon James got
Speaker 2: fifty five, he might get Rookie of the Year, and
Speaker 2: Poo's not saying shit. And like two years later, you know,
Speaker 2: we're having one of those smoke sessions and he's like, yo,
Speaker 2: I remember when guys were talking about Brandon Jennings getting
Speaker 2: the getting the Rookie of the year. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: That's that put that fire in there. And he didn't
Speaker 2: say a word the whole time, Right, that's the kind
Speaker 2: of guy he is. Like even my when I ended
Speaker 2: up retiring with the Bulls. You know, the Bulls were
Speaker 2: they brought in the guys, but they were giving me
Speaker 2: like that cheap the cheap liquor at the for the party.
Speaker 2: You know who put the money down right away for me.
Speaker 2: You know he but he'll do shit like that, but
Speaker 2: just not say nothing. You know, he doesn't want credit
Speaker 2: for anything, but just you know, class sag. I think
Speaker 2: you know what he represented for that city. Every time
Speaker 2: we you know, we laced them up. We felt like
Speaker 2: we had a chance. And you know there's something different
Speaker 2: about free agency, and you know, coming in and again
Speaker 2: your first checks together and I mean, I'm going all
Speaker 2: over the place. But Rookie year, rookie year, and he
Speaker 2: gets the Rookie of the Year. He got all his
Speaker 2: homies with him. We go out to the club. They
Speaker 2: don't let him in. They can't let him in the
Speaker 2: club because he's too young. Too young. He is the
Speaker 2: most famous person in the city, right, you know. So
Speaker 2: it's just like moments memories like that. That with the
Speaker 2: MVP MVP Ye're like m VP year, MVP year was
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, hope is a is a really
Speaker 2: powerful emotion, you know, and like when you play with
Speaker 2: talent like that and you feel like you can win
Speaker 2: any game, it's a special feeling. You know, you train
Speaker 2: that much harder. And that's what he represented, not just
Speaker 2: for us, but for the whole city, you know, And
Speaker 2: you know, it was it was Miami. It was Lebron
Speaker 2: to the heat and we really felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: we were the squad that could get them, you know,
Speaker 2: especially when we had that guy on our side. So
Speaker 2: it was just having Pool on our side before he
Speaker 2: got hurt was just it was superpower, superpower. You know.
Speaker 2: It was like almostly he had the turbo button and
Speaker 2: nobody else had the turbo button cheat.
Speaker 1: Is there one game that stands out or a play
Speaker 1: that stands out where you're just like God? I mean
Speaker 1: you got to see it in practice and the game
Speaker 1: every single day. Then you got to vibe with him
Speaker 1: off the court, like, is there one time you're just
Speaker 1: like God?
Speaker 2: Damn?
Speaker 1: Or it maybe several times? Wore he said that.
Speaker 2: I mean it was it was every night. I mean,
Speaker 2: the thing, the thing that was crazy. Just like you said, though,
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of the top guys show fear
Speaker 2: around him because they wanted to be friends with him,
Speaker 2: They wanted to be cool with him, and he didn't
Speaker 2: want none of that. You know. He was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: these are my colors. I'm not trying to be friends
Speaker 2: with none of you guys. None of you guys. He's like,
Speaker 2: these are my teammates and that's it. But I saw
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of the top guys who are
Speaker 2: dominating the game who came they didn't want no problems
Speaker 2: with that guy, No problem. I think there shout out.
Speaker 1: Got the hoop with Obama before We're just coming off
Speaker 1: the Kamala sit down, tremendous honor. How was it hooping
Speaker 1: with Obama?
Speaker 2: Before we even talk about Obama. Just I want to
Speaker 2: give you guys your flowers because that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: And you know, we're talking about stories about when we
Speaker 2: couldn't even smoke as players. Now you know, the biggest
Speaker 2: sports podcast right now, all the smoke. You know, you
Speaker 2: guys are really moving the culture forward. And you know
Speaker 2: you can talk about HERB and you're over here, you know,
Speaker 2: doing interviews with the next president of the United States.
Speaker 2: You know, it just shows how far we've come as
Speaker 2: a culture, especially when it comes to this HERB stuff.
Speaker 2: So you know, big shout out to you guys for
Speaker 2: what you guys are doing and and just the piff
Speaker 2: the thing is just it's so important. Like you're playing
Speaker 2: in front of twenty thousan twenty five thousand games over
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock, Like what you expect me to go
Speaker 2: to sleep at eleven?
Speaker 1: But they don't understand the schedule. I mean, you think
Speaker 1: about it. I mean back to backs. You're in Portland
Speaker 1: one night and you got a you know, a back
Speaker 1: to back in San Antonio. You get to San Antonio
Speaker 1: at one, you get to the room at two, Like
Speaker 1: it's I mean, everyone has their vice. I just I
Speaker 1: didn't judge nobody on their advice, but mind just happened
Speaker 1: to be smoking. I know, if I smoked some, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to sleep, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: it's just like it was crazy how hard they made
Speaker 1: it for that to happen. But I remember when I
Speaker 1: retired in seventeen, myself and Al Harrington like we wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of make it our goal to keep putting
Speaker 1: it in their ear. We would fly out to New
Speaker 1: York and talk to the MVPA, we would talk to
Speaker 1: the NBA and just kind of just keep it on
Speaker 1: their minds until they both got doctors and they said
Speaker 1: the PA's doctor came back with the positive sides of it,
Speaker 1: and the NBA doctor still kind of had the was
Speaker 1: on the other side of No, it's still bad, and
Speaker 1: they had to come meet to the middle. And then
Speaker 1: you know, obviously the bubble, you know, when the world
Speaker 1: stopped for COVID and they brought the bubble back, and
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking in my head, I'm like, bro, if
Speaker 1: they test these dudes before they come back in the bubble,
Speaker 1: there's eighty percent of the dudes are going to be
Speaker 1: not playing. So you know, I think the NBA kind
Speaker 1: of knew what they were dealing with. Let it slide,
Speaker 1: and then from here on out, you know, they haven't smoked.
Speaker 1: But like I said, I started smoking at fourteen, bro,
Speaker 1: and it just I knew I had a wild childhood.
Speaker 1: So it calmed me down, help me sleep, help me focus.
Speaker 1: But that's what I used instead of I wasn't someone
Speaker 1: who was going to take pills. I socially drink, but
Speaker 1: like we was something that was always just that's what
Speaker 1: I needed, and I was able to like be I guess,
Speaker 1: a functional smoker, someone who smoked for the game. I'll
Speaker 1: smoke before the game, go play the game, and then
Speaker 1: smoke when I get done, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And it was just kind of it. It saved me.
Speaker 1: Although I had some I veered off the plane a
Speaker 1: couple of times and got into some shit, Like I
Speaker 1: can only imagine how much more shit it would have
Speaker 1: been if I didn't have the weed at least kind
Speaker 1: of somewhat calm down, help me down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't even call it a vice at
Speaker 2: that point. Is you know something that a tool that
Speaker 2: can just help us just relax, you know, and in
Speaker 2: this madness, so shout out to you guys from making
Speaker 2: that possible.
Speaker 1: And I shout out to you for being the first
Speaker 1: person that really kind of was really telling me because
Speaker 1: I've had some other motherfuckers that I smoked a lot
Speaker 1: of we with during during the years, and they didn't
Speaker 1: want to really, so I ain't gonna push it, but
Speaker 1: I appreciate you opening.
Speaker 2: And we were smoking spice and all this garbage for that.
Speaker 1: Spice was horrible. What was that like, ten eleven, twelve?
Speaker 1: What was that back around twenty ten? Is was it?
Speaker 1: At the time? It was nasty words.
Speaker 2: Nasty shout out to Brad Miller bringing that nasty ass spice,
Speaker 2: shout out to the big duck bringing that nasty Indiana spice.
Speaker 2: It was over the locker room.
Speaker 1: Spice was bad. I see, I had a bad Internet.
Speaker 1: It wasn't me, but I've seen some bad shit happen
Speaker 1: on that. But anyway, Yeah, but we're past it. We
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about it no more. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: showing you the bags of our repertoire before you came
Speaker 1: and shot. We're gonna celebrate once we get downe. But again,
Speaker 1: let's talk, you know, let's talk Obama. You got a
Speaker 1: chance too. Yeah, what was his game like and what
Speaker 1: kind of person is he?
Speaker 2: I thought it was just it was special, man. You know,
Speaker 2: you get to play ball. I think it was his
Speaker 2: fiftieth birthday, you know, president of the United States, and
Speaker 2: I got to bring my mother and got to you know,
Speaker 2: it was a big year.
Speaker 1: How did it happen? You got they called you.
Speaker 2: Up to I got that email. It was a different
Speaker 2: it was a different kind of email, a different it
Speaker 2: was very presidential. I'm like, mom, Mom was at that.
Speaker 2: My mom checked this out. It said plus one. My
Speaker 2: mom was like, I'm coming, I'm coming. But it was
Speaker 2: really special just you're around the top guys and you
Speaker 2: have that moment, you get to have a real moment
Speaker 2: with the President of the United States, like as a human.
Speaker 2: You know, the guys like comes. He represents America, but
Speaker 2: he also you know, represents the Islands of Hawaii, represents Africa.
Speaker 2: You know, he's also in this deal with the with
Speaker 2: the NBA Africa. So it was a pretty surreal moment
Speaker 2: just to be able to you know, all the guys
Speaker 2: from his cabinet. They're off from Chicago, so you know,
Speaker 2: we're at the height of our thing. Top one of
Speaker 2: the top teams in the league. Obviously, poo just got MVP.
Speaker 1: And who went over there with you from your team.
Speaker 2: Just me and Pooh. But they also made it clear
Speaker 2: like don't you know I remember he was he was
Speaker 2: talking about my jump shot a lot, and it was
Speaker 2: like the guys were just like laughing a little bit
Speaker 2: too hard.
Speaker 1: Like don't get it sucked up. I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: like all right.
Speaker 2: So he got the ball and I remember like I
Speaker 2: ran like I was closed out on him, like I'm
Speaker 2: not letting you shoot. You're not getting nothing. He just
Speaker 2: needed to feel that a little bit. So that was
Speaker 2: my That was my moment on the basketball court.
Speaker 1: I think some people think sh it's sweet, you know,
Speaker 1: until you get up out like you guys are a
Speaker 1: lot bigger than you look on TV or faster strong.
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, no, I don't care if you're the president, bro,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be talking shit off camera. Before we started,
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I just had a son a month
Speaker 1: ago and you're expecting, and I just saw the way
Speaker 1: you lit up fatherhood to you. You have a boy
Speaker 1: on the way, you said.
Speaker 2: I got my son on the way. Two more months,
Speaker 2: two more months.
Speaker 1: You already have two daughters.
Speaker 2: I got one daughter, I got one son, you know,
Speaker 2: seven and five. I got Alex who's sixteen as well,
Speaker 2: from from my wife. But shout out to Lais. You know,
Speaker 2: she got two more months left.
Speaker 1: It's it's no joke, you know.
Speaker 2: You know, usually you know, you're on the road playing ball.
Speaker 2: So okay, I'm retired now, so I have a little
Speaker 2: more time to be here. Whatever it takes. If I
Speaker 2: got to be the Uber driver, I'm the Uber driver.
Speaker 2: If I got to take out the garbage, I'm taking
Speaker 2: out the garbage. You know, whatever it takes. But you know,
Speaker 2: I really hope, I really hope that this. You know,
Speaker 2: my girl six's one, so I really hope that we
Speaker 2: might she might have a Wemby and she might have
Speaker 2: a Wemby in there, you know, So I hope. I
Speaker 2: just hope that he loves hoop. My question was really
Speaker 2: to you because I see your twins are killing it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it was just more how did you kind of
Speaker 2: get them to play ball?
Speaker 1: It was a journey, you know. The twins started being
Speaker 1: able to move around with me maybe my last four
Speaker 1: or five years, so they got to be you know,
Speaker 1: Coobe was Uncle Cole. As soon as he met them,
Speaker 1: he started giving them shoes. So he was around that.
Speaker 1: He was around CP Blake and Lop City. He was
Speaker 1: around that Golden State Warriors team I finished with KDS,
Speaker 1: Steph and and that whole crew. So they always liked it.
Speaker 1: But they were kids, so they love video games. So
Speaker 1: they could shoot the ball and knew the game, but
Speaker 1: they didn't want to work on their games. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't in my homeboy G you know, you have talks
Speaker 1: about this like I'm not gonna they don't want to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna push them. It's not gonna they have
Speaker 1: to love it more than I love it. So I
Speaker 1: kind of just let him slide by until they kind
Speaker 1: of started seeing I coached started coaching them when they're
Speaker 1: about eight when I retired, and they went from the
Speaker 1: best player to kind of the middle of the pack,
Speaker 1: and I'd just be like, you guys, see like yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: and so sometimes we shoot. And then their tenth birthday,
Speaker 1: I took him to go see Code for a surprise
Speaker 1: birthday and he trained them, and I kind of think
Speaker 1: that lit the fire. Then about twelve and a half thirteen,
Speaker 1: they're like, all right, Dad, We're ready. So they're fifteen now, bro,
Speaker 1: And just when I tell you, like, it's just the
Speaker 1: most joy in my life when I just see them
Speaker 1: continuing to get better and they love doing it like
Speaker 1: their doll. They work out constantly now, so they fell
Speaker 1: in love with the with the journey, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it's just been fun. So I definitely
Speaker 1: hope you get that appreciate you get to get to
Speaker 1: get that ride and see what it's like.
Speaker 2: It's dope, man, because I'm seeing a lot of the
Speaker 2: guys kids are one of them getting really good. So
Speaker 2: is it the access of having the top trainers around,
Speaker 2: you know, the inspiration of having like, you know, the
Speaker 2: superstar players coming and say what's up? You know, there's
Speaker 2: so many. I'm a third generation athlete. My grandfather Will
Speaker 2: as a soccer player on a professional level in France
Speaker 2: and Team Sedon champion. You know, Pops is the man,
Speaker 2: last French guy to win the French Open, win a
Speaker 2: Grand Slam, only African to ever even be a top
Speaker 2: ten player, you know, So the journey, his journey was
Speaker 2: always interesting and I was blessed to see his work
Speaker 2: at THIC, you know, even though it was a different sport.
Speaker 2: You know, Pops would make me run before school. That
Speaker 2: was that was his thing, Like all right, you're gonna
Speaker 2: do something that's different because you know, I'm playing basketball,
Speaker 2: I'm from New York. You know, it's like all right,
Speaker 2: after a certain amount of time, it's like all right,
Speaker 2: silver spoon, this silver spoon that like yo, okay, like
Speaker 2: you guys got me fucked up, Like I gotta work
Speaker 2: at THIC. I'm gonna work hard. You're gonna see real work.
Speaker 1: I don't want to When did that kick in? Because
Speaker 1: that was my when I'm thinking, like I grew up
Speaker 1: on food stamps, holy shoes live you know, let family
Speaker 1: live with us. We live with family life. Twins grew
Speaker 1: up behind gates private school and have twenty pair of shoes,
Speaker 1: you know, like when did so? My my always concerned
Speaker 1: is like how am I going to make sure they
Speaker 1: understand first and pemos, it's not how everyone lives, but
Speaker 1: how am I get that dog in that fight in them?
Speaker 1: So I just had to keep being creative and find
Speaker 1: ways and they have it now. But when did that
Speaker 1: light turn off for you to be like now, fuck
Speaker 1: that this? Like you said, shit ain't sweet.
Speaker 2: It's funny. I think that me and Pooh's relationship came
Speaker 2: off that question because he was interested in that for
Speaker 2: his Oh really, so he was always interested like how
Speaker 2: how did you become? How you are? You know, having
Speaker 2: with your background, with your background, it's an interesting thing.
Speaker 2: But I'll say this, seeing the way that he trained,
Speaker 2: being able to see his training habits, but also like
Speaker 2: going back to Africa. You know, every year we went back,
Speaker 2: and it gave me perspective like, Okay, you are really blessed,
Speaker 2: and let's not forget, like okay, you let you get
Speaker 2: to live in America, like simple things hot water, you know,
Speaker 2: air conditioning, you know, wood floor, indoor courts, you know,
Speaker 2: high school's playing against you. It's like, yo, we have everything.
Speaker 2: So going back to Africa, there's none of those things,
Speaker 2: you know. So going back to Cameroon was definitely the
Speaker 2: biggest blessing my dad ever gave me because it gave
Speaker 2: me that perspective. And you know, before every game, that's
Speaker 2: where my mind went. It was just like my roots.
Speaker 2: Even though I never lived there, I got it. I
Speaker 2: got to feel it enough as a kid where I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, this is where I'm from. I'm never
Speaker 2: going to forget who I am and where I'm from.
Speaker 2: I think it just gave me my strength to just
Speaker 2: you know, push myself that much harder. And and also,
Speaker 2: like you know, people, people talk a lot of shit
Speaker 2: in New York. So for me, it was like, all right,
Speaker 2: I gotta let them know you're gonna respect me as
Speaker 2: a teammate because of how hard I go, and I
Speaker 2: felt like I had to. I showed that every single time.
Speaker 1: I still loved that. I love that. We were going
Speaker 1: to to touch on the b AL a little bit later,
Speaker 1: but since you spoke about, you know, what going back
Speaker 1: to Africa meant to you and getting to your roots,
Speaker 1: how did the b AL come about it? And for
Speaker 1: those who don't know what the b AL, can you
Speaker 1: briefly explain what that is? So?
Speaker 2: The BA is the Basketball Africa League. It's it's a
Speaker 2: partnership with the NBA. It's the NBA league in Africa.
Speaker 2: You know, since retirement, this has been the biggest blessing
Speaker 2: of my life. You invested in it, right, I'm an investor.
Speaker 2: I'm an investor with Louel dang as well. Obama's an investor,
Speaker 2: and the Kemba was an investor in it, and you know,
Speaker 2: just got to be around. First of all, the NBA
Speaker 2: is not going to let this fail. So just to
Speaker 2: be around that kind of high level energy, that high
Speaker 2: level that business, To be around the business like that,
Speaker 2: I think was really special. And you know, I just
Speaker 2: remember being at the height of my basketball career and
Speaker 2: I would go back to Cameroon and they would be like, so,
Speaker 2: so what do we do. That's a really tough question
Speaker 2: for somebody. I don't care if you're an All Star
Speaker 2: or at the height of your thing, Like, how are
Speaker 2: you supposed to answer a whole basketball ecosystem for a country?
Speaker 2: That was really tough. So when I had the opportunity,
Speaker 2: I built a court and I'm gonna do. Gallo Fall,
Speaker 2: who is the president of BAAL but who was a
Speaker 2: scout for the Dallas Mavericks at the time. We were
Speaker 2: always very close and he ended up coming to talk
Speaker 2: to the kids on my court in twenty ten. I
Speaker 2: don't really remember his words. I just remember that the
Speaker 2: opportunity was it was somewhere along the lines that the
Speaker 2: opportunities were going to be different in the future, and
Speaker 2: I just remember him talking and I'm you know, we
Speaker 2: see guys come and talk to the kids all the time,
Speaker 2: but I remember just being in tears and just the
Speaker 2: power of his words and just the way he spoke
Speaker 2: about it and just like him getting on a plane
Speaker 2: like it's complicated. You just from seneg got to Cameroon.
Speaker 2: You have to go through other countries and he ended
Speaker 2: up coming for us. And as soon as this opportunity came,
Speaker 2: you know, he called me and he was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: do you want to be an investor in in this league?
Speaker 2: I was I didn't even I didn't even ask what
Speaker 2: year was that? Uh, this was four years ago, so
Speaker 2: right after the Yeah, so you had to be a
Speaker 2: retired player. And you know, there's been the most amazing
Speaker 2: journey just being able to travel all these countries in
Speaker 2: Africa and you know, rest in peace to Cambi just
Speaker 2: being around him and seeing how how much joy he
Speaker 2: had and just you know as a trailblazer and all
Speaker 2: the work that he had to do to be able
Speaker 2: to you know, his with his voice like saying like
Speaker 2: you know, like squatch, in ten years, this is going
Speaker 2: to be a unicorn, this is going to be a
Speaker 2: ten X. Don't worry joke, don't worry, you know, just
Speaker 2: the pride that he had and being able to build it.
Speaker 2: Like just it's a business that's in investing in people
Speaker 2: in Africa, investing in the people. You know, so many
Speaker 2: people think about Africa as just it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: the chembis from Congo. This is like the most exploited
Speaker 2: land in the world. People go there for the minerals
Speaker 2: and bounce you know, it's it's really real. So to
Speaker 2: be able to be a part of something where you're
Speaker 2: actually pouring back in the people. Like when you talk
Speaker 2: to these kids out there and you talk to them,
Speaker 2: it's not like how it's not like talking to the
Speaker 2: kids out here. You know, these kids have no attention
Speaker 2: spans out here. You talk to them for five minutes
Speaker 2: high at school, but their eyes open hungry. You build
Speaker 2: a court. I build a court in Cameroon this summer.
Speaker 2: We had six hundred kids go through that court. You
Speaker 2: might have one hundred and fifty kids on one court
Speaker 2: at a time. You throw a bounce pass, you gotta
Speaker 2: wait for forty people. You gotta wait forty kids before
Speaker 2: you can throw another pass. And I mean that's what
Speaker 2: that's what they're up against right and just to see
Speaker 2: the the fight in these kids. Man, it just it
Speaker 2: makes me go back every time. And now that we
Speaker 2: have the NBA platform, like, I really feel like the
Speaker 2: sky's the limits.
Speaker 1: No one has planning the flag as far as professional
Speaker 1: sports in Africa, right, Like soccer is probably the biggest,
Speaker 1: most watched. But this is an opportunity. I mean one
Speaker 1: point three if there's four times bigger than the United States.
Speaker 1: So if this catches fire, I think the King might
Speaker 1: have been underselling the ten X, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: this can be a monster if it, you know, continues
Speaker 1: to go to the right direction.
Speaker 2: Thank you man. You know that's that's the goal. You know,
Speaker 2: these are the fastest growing youth populations in the world.
Speaker 2: You know, the numbers don't lie. If they get if
Speaker 2: they get their courts and the education and everything that
Speaker 2: comes with what we know about the game, the sky's
Speaker 2: the limit. And I'm really proud to be a part
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: What do you think the game looks like if it
Speaker 1: continues to your vision, your team's vision, that the league's vision.
Speaker 1: Where do you feed the like in ten fifteen years?
Speaker 2: The next step is definitely pushing the grassroots. We need
Speaker 2: we need. We need more African stars, you know. But
Speaker 2: when you look at Joel and b and what he's doing,
Speaker 2: Joel started playing basketball at sixteen, seventeen years old. Like,
Speaker 2: imagine if you lower the hoops out there where the
Speaker 2: kids can go out there and do their thing. Imagine
Speaker 2: if there's investment in coaching and they start getting there's
Speaker 2: enough courts where oh you're getting individual workouts now too,
Speaker 2: or oh, the guys want to make trick, want to
Speaker 2: do trips to Africa and you know, teach a couple
Speaker 2: of coaches for a month. You know, That's really what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to push because I think I feel like
Speaker 2: a lot of the guys want to do it, and
Speaker 2: now we have a platform where you know, you can
Speaker 2: learn the continent is so special.
Speaker 1: Let's take all the smoke out there next summer and
Speaker 1: do a camp and everything and turn it out.
Speaker 2: That would be so dope.
Speaker 1: Let's do that, make that happen. I'll smuggle the piff,
Speaker 1: my guy. What about some of the other giants in
Speaker 1: Africa before the history?
Speaker 2: Yeah, common, yeah, what are your thoughts on the history?
Speaker 2: I think that's a great question. You know, first of all,
Speaker 2: I'm sure I really want to touch on what Lou did,
Speaker 2: because what Lou did this summer was was so special,
Speaker 2: you know, just being able to well, I want to
Speaker 2: give him his flowers because it also connects with like
Speaker 2: Minute Bull, they're from the same area. But just just okay,
Speaker 2: the guy gets to represent South Sudan is the youngest
Speaker 2: country in the world. It's got Soudan got its independence
Speaker 2: I think fifteen years ago. Sudan is also where Manu
Speaker 2: Bull's from minud Bowl was giving his checks to buy
Speaker 2: weapons to so that the people in the villa could
Speaker 2: protect themselves from from a genocide. Like I'm just getting
Speaker 2: goosebumps like that. I mean, it's like we're talking about
Speaker 2: all this stuff and it's just like this is the
Speaker 2: pioneers of Africa, Like this is what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a whole other level of of
Speaker 2: human rights. And you know, so that's that's loose, that's
Speaker 2: loose people, you know. And then for him to be
Speaker 2: able to you know, you hear the stories of Manewball
Speaker 2: and how much people loved him and appreciated him, his
Speaker 2: sons in the league, like but you know that was
Speaker 2: his his fight was weapons to protect his people and
Speaker 2: and now to be able to see, you know what
Speaker 2: the next general, the next couple of generations later to
Speaker 2: have a Luel Dang who build courts in his country
Speaker 2: and be able to represent his country on the biggest
Speaker 2: stage play against the US, make it a real game
Speaker 2: where they are competing their asses off. That was not
Speaker 2: for just for Southsidan. That was for the whole continent.
Speaker 2: Because now these young kids are looking at guys that
Speaker 2: look like they like Yo, that guy looks like me,
Speaker 2: to believe it, and you know you're talking about the
Speaker 2: inspiration for your kids. You know, that's what Luel's being
Speaker 2: able to provide for a whole continent. So like what
Speaker 2: Luell did this summer in the Olympics, like you just
Speaker 2: got to give him his flowers because you know, as
Speaker 2: a as a obviously he was my teammate, but for everybody,
Speaker 2: I just always wanted to give him. He deserves his
Speaker 2: flowers the work he put in. Shout out Royal Ivy.
Speaker 2: You know they brought in their high school coach who
Speaker 2: ended up coaching on the national team. It's just like
Speaker 2: real visionary shit. You know, it's not just oh, I
Speaker 2: have an idea, like I'm smoking one, Like have an idea.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right, I'm getting on a fifteen hour flight.
Speaker 2: I'm comfortable as hell. I made a lot of money
Speaker 2: playing here. But you know what, I'm going back. I'm
Speaker 2: doing what I gotta do because I have a vision.
Speaker 2: And and you get to see it. You got you
Speaker 2: get to see the product where they're playing against the
Speaker 2: US and it's a war out there. I mean, now
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a battle. It's a battle. That's dope. So
Speaker 1: when you hear and this is not even I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously Gilbert is an evil genius, my guy, but burnt
Speaker 1: out when you but you hear when you hear like
Speaker 1: kind of the jokes about what they were saying they
Speaker 1: got baskets and you know, in the fact they shoot
Speaker 1: on peach baskets and dirt no shoes. Is that ha ha?
Speaker 1: Or is that like knowing the grind? Is that fucked
Speaker 1: up to you?
Speaker 2: I think it was an important moment because there is
Speaker 2: a lot of ha ha going on.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like, look, I grew up. I'm blessed. I grew
Speaker 2: up in Paris, I grew up in New York City.
Speaker 2: I got to travel in Africa. So for me, it
Speaker 2: was never because you know these are this is my
Speaker 2: people too, like my mom's Swedish. I come from a
Speaker 2: lot of different places. But the reality is, yeah, there
Speaker 2: is a disconnect between black people in the inner city
Speaker 2: out here and Africa. And I think that that was
Speaker 2: a great lesson to be able to connect some of
Speaker 2: the dots. And you're like, look, you guys are pioneers
Speaker 2: and what you guys are doing, Like you know, your
Speaker 2: podcast is called all the Smoke. You had the president,
Speaker 2: the future president do your thing last a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago, like ten years ago. You couldn't even think
Speaker 2: about no shit like this. So we're on the same shit, like,
Speaker 2: you know, our thing is trying to bridge the gap,
Speaker 2: like we're trying to bridge bridge it. You know what,
Speaker 2: who brought his high school kids and he was like, yo,
Speaker 2: let's go to Senegal, Let's go to Africa. He got
Speaker 2: all the kids passports. You know he did that with
Speaker 2: his own money. It wasn't you know, he did that
Speaker 2: with his own money because he wanted to bring the kids.
Speaker 2: It was right after my wedding. It was the most
Speaker 2: powerful trip I've ever done. You know, you got kids
Speaker 2: who don't leave their blocks, don't leave their their neighborhood
Speaker 2: to be able to get that perspective and go into
Speaker 2: Africa and realize what you have. You know, it was
Speaker 2: a basketball trip, so the kids meet through basketball in
Speaker 2: a culture exchange. But the Tripbute was so much bigger
Speaker 2: than just basketball. It was life changing. You go to
Speaker 2: the slave castles, you know, you get to connect, you
Speaker 2: get to have new friends, You get to see where
Speaker 2: these guys, where these kids are playing. You're playing in
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten degree weather. Perspective, Man, yo, you
Speaker 2: got to indoor gym. You got to indoor gym. You
Speaker 2: get to get go play in front of your little girlfriend,
Speaker 2: your all your family. Like, don't take that shit for granted.
Speaker 2: Every African that comes across the pond because he's a tall,
Speaker 2: you know, raw goofy, like he can't really play that well,
Speaker 2: you know, but you know whatever, we take him because
Speaker 2: he can block shots. Like he's leaving. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of sacrifice. There's a lot of huge sacrifice that goes
Speaker 2: into that. So it's like understanding where people are coming
Speaker 2: from and like leaving your culture, leaving your people to
Speaker 2: come and try to live out your dreams. So that's
Speaker 2: what we're trying to do. When we're building the infrastructures
Speaker 2: and all this stuff in Africa, it's like you don't
Speaker 2: have to leave, you can you get you can play
Speaker 2: in front of your family.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously it's continuing to grow, but are there
Speaker 1: resources that are that are needed or is everything kind
Speaker 1: of planted and it now just has to grow.
Speaker 2: I think it's just chipping away every day, you know.
Speaker 2: I think that the I think that there's a huge
Speaker 2: value in just like the people on this side like yo,
Speaker 2: this at some point, like we can say whatever you want,
Speaker 2: that's the roots, that's the origins, that's that's home. Like
Speaker 2: you know, I know that that might sound weird to
Speaker 2: some people, but you know what, it's the truth. So
Speaker 2: to be able to connect with your roots, I think
Speaker 2: it's something that you know, both sides can definitely learn
Speaker 2: from and take in. You know, because you get to
Speaker 2: go you get to go to Africa, you get to
Speaker 2: see the roots and where you know what it looked
Speaker 2: like it's at one point. And you can also teach basketball,
Speaker 2: you know. I think that's the next step is like
Speaker 2: bringing in guys who can teach the game and the
Speaker 2: more we do that, that's when we get the diamonds
Speaker 2: in the dirt.
Speaker 1: Favorite places in Africa to travel, favorite cities or favorite
Speaker 1: thing to do out there when when outside of basketball.
Speaker 2: My favorite thing to do when I go to Africa,
Speaker 2: I really enjoy going to Yong Day because that's where
Speaker 2: where Yo Day and Cameroon. So Yong Day is for me,
Speaker 2: is my great grandfather's land. It's where my great grandfather
Speaker 2: is buried. It's where my grandfather is buried. It's where
Speaker 2: I'll be buried. It's where my father will be buried.
Speaker 2: It's where my grandmother build a school, all on the
Speaker 2: same land where I build my basketball court. So when
Speaker 2: I go back, these are my childhood memories. We're also
Speaker 2: an hour drive away from from the beach and KB,
Speaker 2: you know it's Clay. Actually, Klay Thompson did a camp
Speaker 2: shout out to Slay Thomas this summer. Right this past summer,
Speaker 2: he came to Cameroon. He put in some work with
Speaker 2: the Clay real quick.
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I want you to finish. Did
Speaker 1: you guys, you and really know each other?
Speaker 2: Not really?
Speaker 1: He's how fucking cool is he's?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know him that well, but we
Speaker 2: connected on some reggae.
Speaker 1: You guys, he's he's a vibe dude.
Speaker 2: He's a vibe dude. I can tell you he's a Yeah.
Speaker 1: Shout out, Clay, shout out. How was that? I think?
Speaker 2: You know, I wasn't there. I wasn't there when he came.
Speaker 2: But try to set him up. My dad has a
Speaker 2: little boat out there. I saw he was doing work
Speaker 2: with the kids. So I was like, Yo, take the clay,
Speaker 2: take the boat. He took tom boat out. He took
Speaker 2: the boat out, but I heard the waves were crazy.
Speaker 2: So they went out and they were like, now we
Speaker 2: out bring back out here. That was cool. Rwanda. Kigali
Speaker 2: is a very special place. You know. Kali is a place.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's great because there's just so
Speaker 2: much interesting things to learn, you know. You know, we
Speaker 2: do a lot of going to Kigali. I went there
Speaker 2: with the ba l for the first time just to
Speaker 2: see how clean and organize the country is. It is
Speaker 2: just like everything they tell you about Africa. It's the
Speaker 2: complete opposite. You know, this is the most organized country.
Speaker 2: Everybody got health care, education, I mean, it's just next
Speaker 2: level and you know, all you hear about when you
Speaker 2: think of Rwanda as a genocide that happened there is
Speaker 2: and but what their reconciliation story and the way they
Speaker 2: were able to bounce back from from that kind of pain.
Speaker 2: You know, I think there's a lesson there that, you know,
Speaker 2: we can really learn from on this side. You know,
Speaker 2: just how do we how do we come together after
Speaker 2: so much pain? You know, So, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: the kind of the lessons and what we can learn
Speaker 2: from from Africa is it's it's hard to put in
Speaker 2: the words, but I'm just blessed to be with this platform.
Speaker 2: I'm able to travel all around and not just go
Speaker 2: where my where my family's from. But there's just so
Speaker 2: much to see. You know. You you go up to
Speaker 2: the you go up in the north, it's Morocco, it's Algeria,
Speaker 2: you go you go to the you got the Pyramids,
Speaker 2: and then you go to South Africa. It's like the
Speaker 2: music is crazy, you know, it's the Zulu warrior energy.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh you give me, like damn. This ship
Speaker 2: kind of reminds me of New York, Like it's just
Speaker 2: the tough and like you'll go to the club and
Speaker 2: you'll be like the's going on. Man, This is crazy
Speaker 2: out here. So it's just Africa special, man, that's what's up.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Gainesville, Florida. I heard that place as special. You were
Speaker 1: there in a in a in a heavy time and
Speaker 1: we will get to the back to back championships. But Tebow,
Speaker 1: Cam Newton, Aaron hernandez uh what was that dot called
Speaker 1: on Netflix about the football team Swamp Kings. I mean
Speaker 1: you were you you were in the swamp. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about your experience at Florida. Obviously the back to
Speaker 1: back championships, but just life in that ecosystem because there
Speaker 1: was a lot of professional athletes the time you were there.
Speaker 2: No, Gainesville, that time was as special as it come.
Speaker 2: You know, it's your first time leaving home, being away
Speaker 2: from your family, and you know we had there was
Speaker 2: all those guys that you mentioned where we all lived
Speaker 2: in the same dorm in the same place. You know.
Speaker 2: The stories are like where do I start? Where do
Speaker 2: I start? But I actually watched the documentary not long ago,
Speaker 2: and there was a moment in that documentary where one
Speaker 2: of the kids got caught smoking a joint and they
Speaker 2: kicked him off the team and he went home and
Speaker 2: he got killed and urban Meyer touched on it and
Speaker 2: he was like, you know what, I have to live
Speaker 2: with that as the leader of this shit. I have
Speaker 2: to live with that knowing that I kicked off a
Speaker 2: kid and this happened. So he was like, never again,
Speaker 2: will that happen to any of my kids. I will
Speaker 2: never kick one of my if I recruit them, they're
Speaker 2: staying with me. And I think that it gave them
Speaker 2: a bond that you know, it allowed them to go
Speaker 2: all the way and win a championship. It's deep, you
Speaker 2: know we were able to obviously, you know my roommate
Speaker 2: was Al Horford and Corey Brewer and Toryren Green, Lee Humphrey,
Speaker 2: see Rich Walter Hodge, like these guys are still some
Speaker 2: of my closest friends today. And it was so we
Speaker 2: win the championship after sophomore year, and this is my
Speaker 2: first time where people were like, yo, you could be
Speaker 2: a top pick. You know, it's time for you to go.
Speaker 2: It's time for you to go to the NBA. And
Speaker 2: I love those guys so much and I love what
Speaker 2: we had so much that we ended up going back
Speaker 2: to school another.
Speaker 1: Year because you al who else could have left all
Speaker 1: through you guys.
Speaker 2: And we ended up staying another year because you know,
Speaker 2: you can't. Chemistry is just something you can't. You can't deny.
Speaker 2: You can't deny when when you're open, you're getting the ball.
Speaker 2: You know, your guys tendencies just you just love hooping
Speaker 2: with the guys so much and the brotherhood just becomes
Speaker 2: it's like second nature, you know. And I'm really proud
Speaker 2: of that that, you know it was. It was not
Speaker 2: about the money, and we showed it. You know a
Speaker 2: lot of people say, oh, it's not about the money, no,
Speaker 2: but you know what, let's run it back. There was
Speaker 2: no nil shit. We were paying money, We were paying
Speaker 2: the Lloyd's of London the insurance to stay. You know,
Speaker 2: that's what those years meant to us. You know, you
Speaker 2: can there was real sacrifice in it, and I think
Speaker 2: you know you can't. Those years were as special as
Speaker 2: they come.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you know, back to back champs and in the bonds.
Speaker 1: But you know, we went to school right over the
Speaker 1: hill in Westwood at U c. L A. And although
Speaker 1: I had a ton of fun playing basketball, I probably
Speaker 1: had more fun not playing basketball. What were those Knights like?
Speaker 1: Any stories you could share? I don't want to get
Speaker 1: nobody in trouble. I mean we mentioned some heavy names.
Speaker 1: You ever see t b out there smoking the joint?
Speaker 1: What's happening? Like, would you see out there that you
Speaker 1: can speak on?
Speaker 2: It was wild? T Bow was not wild at all. No,
Speaker 2: he was. It's what made him him though. You know
Speaker 2: he was probably like on Fridays, he was probably reading
Speaker 2: his Bible and he was serious. He was We had
Speaker 2: a class together. He was always doing the extra credit.
Speaker 2: You know. I was like, yo, like you're a square bro,
Speaker 2: like extra credit. But you know, but like talk about
Speaker 2: like his competitive spirit. You couldn't You couldn't deny that,
Speaker 2: you know, especially Okay, you're going to school in the South,
Speaker 2: you know, that was a real that was crazy to me.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, you're going down University Avenue and
Speaker 2: that's like the main main road on campus and you
Speaker 2: got the black kids on one side and you got
Speaker 2: the white kids on one side party and it's just
Speaker 2: like nobody mixed. And that to me that it was
Speaker 2: just like we were able because of the sports thing
Speaker 2: to crossover. It bridged a little bit more, you know,
Speaker 2: And that's the power of sports and what we do
Speaker 2: on the platform that we have is like you win,
Speaker 2: it becomes so much bigger than rich, poor, black, white,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. You know, you're able to do something
Speaker 2: that's bigger than bigger than you, bigger than you.
Speaker 1: Before we started, you told us about uh, you got
Speaker 1: arrested out there though, because you had a little dube.
Speaker 2: In your pocket. That's right.
Speaker 1: This is after your first year in Chicago.
Speaker 2: So it's my brook after my rookie year. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm feeling myself. I'm I'm feeling myself. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: going back to school, you know, I have it back
Speaker 2: to school, and I'm in the club, having a good time.
Speaker 2: I'm smoking in the club, and I got a little
Speaker 2: doobie left in my pocket, and I guess somebody saw
Speaker 2: because as soon as I got out there, as soon
Speaker 2: as I got out the club, I got arrested. I
Speaker 2: mean that was a pretty tough moment because you know,
Speaker 2: you you turn on the TV, then you see your
Speaker 2: name on the ticker arrested for we you know, we
Speaker 2: actually just it was the day before we found out
Speaker 2: we got the number one pick. So it was like
Speaker 2: there was such a high around the bulls we had
Speaker 2: the number one pick, and then it's like, I fuck
Speaker 2: it up with getting arrested with a fucking half a
Speaker 2: joint in my pocket, and it was it was, it
Speaker 2: was tough. And then I realized. I was like, yo,
Speaker 2: the cops were just like they were rough in me.
Speaker 2: They were tough too, And I was like, whoa what?
Speaker 2: Like I just went back to back championships and you
Speaker 2: guys are arresting me over half a joint? Like, what
Speaker 2: the fuck is going on? And I found out later
Speaker 2: that after our second championship somebody who was drinking, driving
Speaker 2: drunk and a cop got killed. Oh really, so they
Speaker 2: were the cops were high alert, high alert. They were pissed,
Speaker 2: and they made they made an example out of me,
Speaker 2: you know what. And I got in the program, and
Speaker 2: you know, that was my introduction to the program. You know,
Speaker 2: shout out Dirk, Cliff, out Cliff. You know.
Speaker 1: It was like explained to explain people to the if
Speaker 1: you don't know what the NBA a drug program is,
Speaker 1: I don't even like to call a drug weed program.
Speaker 1: What is it? What you gotta do?
Speaker 2: Well, you just get pissed tested all the time, and
Speaker 2: you got a guy just looking at your dick and
Speaker 2: like making sure that the watchers it's the worst. It's
Speaker 2: the worst. It doesn't get worse than that, like honestly,
Speaker 2: like that's one thing.
Speaker 1: I don't wish that on any man, to be a
Speaker 1: drug test got person. The way they stare at you
Speaker 1: like it's almost like they enjoyed it. It was weird.
Speaker 1: It was weird energy brom trying to say it was
Speaker 1: so weird. And I did that bitch a lot.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 1: I was in there two times with it fail and
Speaker 1: I admitted I told on myself two times, like I
Speaker 1: got my and got my ship because we have to
Speaker 1: carry the drink around. Oh so you snitch on yourself, yeah, twice,
Speaker 1: but they got me out, so you know, you only
Speaker 1: get three strikes. Already had two, so I'm just like, fuck,
Speaker 1: but I made They were the homies, Cliff and Dirk Fellas.
Speaker 2: I'm coming home, I'm coming home.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to have the drink. So we
Speaker 1: got we go to gen C and ask like, hey, what,
Speaker 1: you know what, what's the best way to flush weed?
Speaker 1: I was just up front with them, and you know
Speaker 1: me at the time of playing for the Lakers and
Speaker 1: some of the biggest teams are like, what the fuck,
Speaker 1: but what's the best what's that I'm about to get
Speaker 1: drug tested by the league. What's the best drink? And
Speaker 1: it was never on the shelves. There was always something
Speaker 1: let me always underneath the cabinet by the register. And
Speaker 1: I used to buy them ships by like the Costco boat.
Speaker 1: But it was like a real job smoking because we
Speaker 1: had to, you know, I had to sometimes I have
Speaker 1: to do cardio after the game or steam room and
Speaker 1: eat clean and just always sweat that ship out you
Speaker 1: and then always have your drink.
Speaker 2: That's that's you know. Those that just brought me back.
Speaker 2: I'm getting like, I'm just like I'm sweating and stuff.
Speaker 2: It was just it was it was fucking stressful.
Speaker 1: Imagine just being able to smoke freely now.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the guys.
Speaker 1: Man, shout out to the guys.
Speaker 2: They living there, They let you, guys are living a
Speaker 2: good life.
Speaker 1: I heard there was a room or somewhere and not
Speaker 1: to cut you off. In Brooklyn, there was there was
Speaker 1: like a smoking bus. I don't know if anyone can
Speaker 1: confirm that in the in the comments if you ever
Speaker 1: see this, but I heard, and I'm just like, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine there was a smoking bus.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the guys smoking good. Just know it
Speaker 2: was tough that that high hit different when you know
Speaker 2: that drug test come at any moment, man, So shout
Speaker 2: out to you guys. You guys are living a good life.
Speaker 2: It was a lot more stress stressful ten years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hell yeah. Ricky in Chicago, who are your vets?
Speaker 1: Ninth pick by the Chicago Bulls?
Speaker 2: My my vets. I had Ben Wallace, OG, I had
Speaker 2: O G. Ben Wallace who used to wear a headband
Speaker 2: on his arm.
Speaker 1: That's how big his arms were.
Speaker 2: But that had been on his arm that we had.
Speaker 2: Shout out. Then later on shout out to shout out
Speaker 2: to Brad Miller.
Speaker 1: That's we had it for all Star.
Speaker 2: I know, I know you guys are cool, and I
Speaker 2: want to give give Duck his flowers because you know,
Speaker 2: I wasn't a post up player. I didn't you know,
Speaker 2: I was an energy guy. But Duck, you know, Duck
Speaker 2: was the type of guy who would come out the
Speaker 2: game and put a dip in his mouth. You know,
Speaker 2: like there's levels to this. This ship a dip in
Speaker 2: your mouth during the game and still get buckets.
Speaker 1: Hey, Brad had gang too. I don't think people give
Speaker 1: him enough credit. Brad had gang.
Speaker 2: A lot of games. Yeah, and you know it was
Speaker 2: for me. It was just I'll never forget it was
Speaker 2: after practice. I had a shitty practice. I didn't really
Speaker 2: have a real role. I wasn't getting minutes like that.
Speaker 2: He got his big dip in his mouth. I don't
Speaker 2: understand half the shit he's saying. He's at the top
Speaker 2: of the KINI He's like, Joe King, listen, you're never
Speaker 2: going to be a post player. Doug, what are you
Speaker 2: doing down there? He's like, just come up here, get
Speaker 2: the ball at the elbow, dribble hand off if they
Speaker 2: if they overplay, throw the back door pass. He's like,
Speaker 2: it's going to open up your game. Just trust me.
Speaker 2: That changed my life.
Speaker 1: That became that became your game.
Speaker 2: It changed. It changed my life. You know, people like, okay,
Speaker 2: you're retiring now. People forget that. People have that, They
Speaker 2: forget yo. I had seasons where I had five dimes
Speaker 2: a game, like, you know, I don't want to toot
Speaker 2: my own horn. That's a lot of.
Speaker 1: Fucking dimes, especially for a center.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And that all came from just a OG.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't come from a coach. It came
Speaker 2: from a OG being there and taking the time with
Speaker 2: a young player and and really giving me, teaching me game.
Speaker 2: So I want to give my og Brad Miller Flower
Speaker 2: v Rad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had him in an All Star in Indiana.
Speaker 1: It's my god, we smoked a lot of week I'm
Speaker 1: sure you smoked a lot of weed together. Year two,
Speaker 1: first playoffs since nine. You played the defending champs, the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, Crazy game seven series, most overtime, most overtimes
Speaker 1: ever in the playoff series, rookie d Rose against Rondo
Speaker 1: Gordon KG was injured, but he was still talking shit
Speaker 1: from the side. Yeah, what was that talk to me
Speaker 1: about that? That series and that energy around it.
Speaker 2: Honestly, that series changed my whole career. You know, you
Speaker 2: think that what you think you're doing something with the
Speaker 2: regular season and it's a long season. Guys are talking
Speaker 2: about money, and guys are talking about what's next. When
Speaker 2: the playoffs hit, there's none of that ship like, it's
Speaker 2: back to competition. That's ros's form to be able to
Speaker 2: be in that position of being able to play against
Speaker 2: the defending champs who had a crazy Game one. I
Speaker 2: played well Game one. It just it's it's set the tone.
Speaker 2: What Ben Gordon did that series. Shout out Ben Gordon like,
Speaker 2: oh the ray Allen, Ben Gordon going at it. It
Speaker 2: was me and me and Kendrick Perkins talking mad, mad shit.
Speaker 2: You know, that series set the tone. I was like,
Speaker 2: I was like okay. After that, I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: in weight room every day in the summer. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm not playing around anymore. I want this feeling. I
Speaker 2: want to win a championship. And you know this. That's
Speaker 2: why when I see the young guys when they make
Speaker 2: the playoffs, I know that's a good thing because they're
Speaker 2: going into it takes. They're going into that that off season.
Speaker 1: Like oh yeah, a different point of view.
Speaker 2: It's a different perspective. Yeah. So yeah, that that series
Speaker 2: was That series changed changed the whole career.
Speaker 1: That's dope. When you look back on those Bulls teams,
Speaker 1: you guys were at the top of the East a
Speaker 1: lot of times, but there was that dude over there
Speaker 1: in Cleveland and then Miami.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that guy.
Speaker 1: You said some funny shit, then you say some shit
Speaker 1: like who wants to No one's ever talked about going
Speaker 1: on vacation in Cleveland. Do you regret anything that you
Speaker 1: said about Cleveland?
Speaker 2: You like it.
Speaker 1: You think Cleveland's cool.
Speaker 2: I mean I never heard anybody say I'm going to
Speaker 2: Cleveland on vacation.
Speaker 1: Hm, what's so good about Cleveland?
Speaker 2: I was pissed.
Speaker 1: Well, oh shit talked to us about some of those battles.
Speaker 2: The toughest thing about that one was that was after
Speaker 2: I think game one game Yeah, that was after game one.
Speaker 2: So you say that about Cleveland, you still got to
Speaker 2: play in Cleveland the next day, so you can't imagine
Speaker 2: how real. And you got Shock in there, you gotta
Speaker 2: I was, you know, I'm going ahead to head with Shack.
Speaker 2: Thank god it was older Shack. When you when you're
Speaker 2: playing for a championship, you got you gotta go through
Speaker 2: the best. And Lebron James was the best. And sometimes
Speaker 2: during you know, you could see how my heart was
Speaker 2: in it a two thousand percent, like there was no faking,
Speaker 2: and Lebron was so talented and so good. Sometimes I
Speaker 2: felt like it was you know, he would get he
Speaker 2: would start dance, and it was just like it, it's
Speaker 2: me off, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm trying
Speaker 2: to win. It never happened. I'm still processing, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, we're competitors. Man, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, this is the business of competition. And
Speaker 2: you know, people still talk to me about the Cleveland
Speaker 2: thing and they think it's funny. But I think there
Speaker 2: was a lot of hurt. But it was real hurt,
Speaker 2: Like you know what, like, yeah, you beat us, you know,
Speaker 2: so it's like fuck you and your whole city. You know,
Speaker 2: Like that's basically what it was. And it look, I'm
Speaker 2: saying that in the most respectful way. Like I'm saying
Speaker 2: in the most respectful way. You got to give the
Speaker 2: guys flowers. The guys all time great, greatest I've ever
Speaker 2: played against. I'm always going to shout out Michael Jordan,
Speaker 2: but you know, you get to play with your son
Speaker 2: this year. You know, I get got to give Brin
Speaker 2: his flowers. Absolutely respect to him. That's what's up.
Speaker 1: I heard you got a good story about Stack talking
Speaker 1: crazy to the rest.
Speaker 2: Oh man, you're gonna like this one. It was I
Speaker 2: think it was my second year in the league, and
Speaker 2: it was early and you know, we're at the free
Speaker 2: throw line. The game was done. Bulls win free throws
Speaker 2: the end of the game, and Catfish Tony Brothers. But
Speaker 2: I called him Catfish because he looked like a cat fish.
Speaker 2: Simple he started talking it with like a pit bull.
Speaker 1: We'll go ahead.
Speaker 2: Anyway, his whole career we called him catfish, so shout
Speaker 2: out to Catfish. But he started him and Stack start
Speaker 2: like talking ship. But you know, Tony liked to talk.
Speaker 2: He used to like to talk shit. But he'll still
Speaker 2: give you a tech type type of guy. But Stack
Speaker 2: was just I guess he got Stack on a bad
Speaker 2: day and normal one and Stack went in talking about
Speaker 2: how much more money he had that it was just
Speaker 2: like he violated him so crazy. I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I never saw a ref get violated the
Speaker 2: way that Stack did Catfish. So if Stack, I just
Speaker 2: want you to know, at that moment right there, it
Speaker 2: was shocking. This is twenty years ago. I'm still shocked
Speaker 2: about what you did. You didn't have to do like that.
Speaker 1: Oh shit, he said the way he did Catfish. Oh shit,
Speaker 1: current NBA Nicks, you got your old coach TIBs over there.
Speaker 1: They just made the trade for Julius Randall and Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony town. Steven Chando was in that trade as well.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on the Knicks and and and TIBs and with
Speaker 1: what should what should we expect for them this year.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think they're up there. You know, obviously
Speaker 2: when the Knicks are good, it's a whole other thing.
Speaker 2: You know. It's like, probably my biggest regret is just
Speaker 2: not being able to get a chance in the Garden
Speaker 2: in the you know, nothing better. So but I'm from
Speaker 2: New York, so I see the energy around and how
Speaker 2: excited people are about their team. You know, it's tough
Speaker 2: to see Julius Randa leaf because he was a real
Speaker 2: dog out there. I just love what the energy that
Speaker 2: he brought, the way he played.
Speaker 1: And he was one of kind of the first All
Speaker 1: Star to come to New York in a minute, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Sure, So yeah, definitely shout out
Speaker 1: to Julius.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Julius, and then just just Jalen Brunson. Though.
Speaker 2: It's like the stability, the stability that he brought to
Speaker 2: not just the organization but to the whole city. It
Speaker 2: was like calm everybody, calmed down. It I got this.
Speaker 2: We're going to play at my pace like nobody's gonna
Speaker 2: rush me. And I think, you know, you go to
Speaker 2: the Garden now and it's just like, you know, they're
Speaker 2: playing at his pace and Tricky Ricky has shout out
Speaker 2: to his pops, you know who was you know, one
Speaker 2: of the assistant coaches with Tims with the Bulls. He
Speaker 2: was my guy. And just to see him and just
Speaker 2: see the pride that he gets to watch his son
Speaker 2: play on the biggest stage. I mean, he's walking around there.
Speaker 2: He's walking around there like his shit don't stink.
Speaker 1: Hard to tell me. It's hard to tell him right now,
Speaker 1: I already know already shout out to the Brunson's nothing
Speaker 1: but love for them, and you know they got a
Speaker 1: real shot to win the chip this year. Your tenure
Speaker 1: with the Knicks didn't go as great as you planned.
Speaker 1: And I heard when you went back for the first
Speaker 1: time a few years ago, you're a little nervous. But
Speaker 1: how was what happened on your way out of New
Speaker 1: York And how was it going back for the first time.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, last time I got to be a
Speaker 2: part of the organization. The last time I was with
Speaker 2: the Knicks, I got in a fight with the coach
Speaker 2: with horna scheck, you know, argument or hands, argument close,
Speaker 2: got close, Yeah, I mean it got really close.
Speaker 1: And Doc Rivers almost had one of those you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Not a good feeling to be in that position because
Speaker 2: you know, you just don't know if you're ever going
Speaker 2: to get to play. You know, you had the height
Speaker 2: of your you know. I mean, look, I wasn't but
Speaker 2: could still throw it all away. But you see, like
Speaker 2: this could be over. You know, I had to come
Speaker 2: back from you could you fight a coach like you
Speaker 2: might not come back. It's just the reality of the thing.
Speaker 2: And it was a really tough moment. And you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't get to play, and I didn't know how
Speaker 2: it was. You know, I could if I could just
Speaker 2: like even go to the garden and just enjoy a game,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to take away from from
Speaker 2: the guys or and it was just it was a
Speaker 2: real blessing to be able to go there. You know,
Speaker 2: I've been going there since I was a kid, right,
Speaker 2: so I grew up in Knicks fan and they showed love.
Speaker 2: Though they showed love. It was nice, man, It was
Speaker 2: nice to be back in there. Yeah, shout out to
Speaker 2: the Knicks.
Speaker 1: How when you were there in your tenure, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I think the front office has kind of cleaned
Speaker 1: up and they're definitely on the right track. Now, how
Speaker 1: dysfunctional you were coming from a solid situation in Chicago.
Speaker 1: How dysfunctional was the front office at the time, and
Speaker 1: just kind of the moves and the coaching situations. How
Speaker 1: was that while you were there?
Speaker 2: You know, I wouldn't even blame it on the coaches.
Speaker 2: I think it was just everybody. I actually loved the guys.
Speaker 2: We had a great team of like great group of guys.
Speaker 2: We just we just weren't good, you know, so plain
Speaker 2: and simple. Uh, it was that it was injuries. Uh,
Speaker 2: it was. I wouldn't even only put it on the
Speaker 2: front I wouldn't put it on the front office. It
Speaker 2: was just you know, when you're playing, when you play
Speaker 2: New York and things are good, New York is the microscope.
Speaker 2: When it's good, it's great. But when you're on that
Speaker 2: microscope and you sucked, it's nasty out there. So I
Speaker 2: got to live that. It's unfortunate, but that's what happened.
Speaker 1: That's part of life. You said you wanted to be
Speaker 1: a little bit of Lottie in a little bit of
Speaker 1: the Kimbe. That's kind of from a defensive standpoint, great
Speaker 1: Lotti from ahead of the curve where the game kind
Speaker 1: of is now where bigger players are making plays with
Speaker 1: the ball. As we mentioned earlier, you had a couple
Speaker 1: of season where you're at five assists. What was it
Speaker 1: like kind of being one of those guys that you know,
Speaker 1: we're in the in the in the transition of big
Speaker 1: is being able to pass the ball and make plays
Speaker 1: instead of just being on the block.
Speaker 2: Well, it's also having a coach that believes in you.
Speaker 2: You know, as crazy as as Tibbs was, you have
Speaker 2: to understand, like the year that he came to Chicago's
Speaker 2: was his first year as a head coach, so it
Speaker 2: was his first time really.
Speaker 1: Getting coming off the bench from Boston.
Speaker 2: Coming off the championship run in Boston, and he was
Speaker 2: the defensive guy, so now he had he had the keys.
Speaker 2: It was my contract year. So TIB's whole thing was,
Speaker 2: you know, if you want this contract, you know you
Speaker 2: got it. You're not going anywhere this summer. You're working
Speaker 2: out with me. So if you know there's not a
Speaker 2: lot of head coaches that work out there, guys, Tibbs
Speaker 2: was that guy. He was working you out, he was
Speaker 2: making sure you're doing runs. Was it too much? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Was he wildent? Yes? He was. But you know what
Speaker 2: one thing about Tibbs is it was going to be
Speaker 2: organized and you were going to come prepare it. And
Speaker 2: you know what, when the game, when shit gets real,
Speaker 2: that's all you want from your coach. And you look,
Speaker 2: when who got hurt is when I really had an
Speaker 2: opportunity to have the ball in my hands and be
Speaker 2: able to make plays. And Tibbs gave me that opportunity.
Speaker 1: Twenty fourteen Defensive Player of the Year, Your man Matumbo
Speaker 1: actually presents you with the award? What is that mean
Speaker 1: to you?
Speaker 2: It was? It was bittersweet because I lost my mentor,
Speaker 2: I lost my childhood coach a couple of days before.
Speaker 2: So I was just I was mourning. I didn't you know,
Speaker 2: it was tough to be able to block that one
Speaker 2: up that was like a father figure to me. And
Speaker 2: the Kembe came in. I had no idea that he
Speaker 2: was going to present me with the award, and it
Speaker 2: just it just gave me a little bit of peace
Speaker 2: of mind in that in that tough moment. And like
Speaker 2: I said, man, the Kembe had the biggest heart, you know,
Speaker 2: and he touched on He touched on a lot of people,
Speaker 2: a lot of people around the world are giving him
Speaker 2: his flowers and condolences to his family, but we really
Speaker 2: lost a giant among giants. And for him to be
Speaker 2: the person who gave me my award, you know, at
Speaker 2: the height of my thing, Like, you know, I couldn't
Speaker 2: be more proud to have him be that guy special
Speaker 2: moment to share with them special moments.
Speaker 1: Foundation in Chicago curbing gun violence. Talk to us a
Speaker 1: little bit about that and what that is.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I just having played in Chicago for
Speaker 2: ten years, those were the best moments of my career,
Speaker 2: and you know, I always wanted to do something in
Speaker 2: the community and give back. I think that I was
Speaker 2: raised that way. You know, my father was that way,
Speaker 2: and you know I started a foundation with my mother
Speaker 2: where we started a basketball league called One City shout
Speaker 2: out to Kobe Williams, who you know works for Cure
Speaker 2: of Violence, and brought in all these guys from around
Speaker 2: the city, different groups, and we have twenty eight violence
Speaker 2: prevention groups playing basketball against each other on Saturdays, sages
Speaker 2: sixteen to twenty five. Okay, so we have the guys
Speaker 2: we were able. After my career, I went to go
Speaker 2: see the governor and you know, I told him like, look,
Speaker 2: I've been I've been investing a lot of my own money,
Speaker 2: you know, through my sponsors and all this in your city.
Speaker 2: You know, can you can you help me build this league?
Speaker 2: So he gave me some money, and you know we're
Speaker 2: able to pay our participants. We use the basketball and
Speaker 2: the money as the hook to bring him in the gym.
Speaker 2: And you know, these are guys who might be going
Speaker 2: going at it in the streets, but now you've got
Speaker 2: to see each other every Saturday. We got the worst
Speaker 2: workshops going. We got uh job education, certain jobs. So
Speaker 2: it's like it's moving step by step and I'm really
Speaker 2: proud of the league that we're building. We got four
Speaker 2: hundred participants and you know, we just want to keep growing.
Speaker 1: So he said something about t A getting involved.
Speaker 2: Shout out to TA. He's our commissioner, commissioner one city.
Speaker 2: Don't get it twisted. We got Tony Allen. And when
Speaker 2: Tony talks to the kids, man, it just hits difference
Speaker 2: because he's he grew up in that. So to have
Speaker 2: Tony involved and it just shows a lot about who
Speaker 2: he is too. You know, it's not this is not
Speaker 2: Joe Keem's thing. This is this is our thing. He's
Speaker 2: the commissioner. We make decisions together. We want to get
Speaker 2: one in Memphis asap. And you know, I couldn't be
Speaker 2: more proud. You know, obviously, like we met through, you know,
Speaker 2: we built, we build our relationship through because we were
Speaker 2: going at it in that Boston series and to be
Speaker 2: able to like work together now so dope, you know.
Speaker 2: So shout out to Tony Allen, the commissioner of One City.
Speaker 1: To Yay, to yay. I'm gonna tell you some power forwards.
Speaker 1: Give me a couple of words on each of them.
Speaker 2: Dirk Nowitzky too easy. It's too easy. It's too easy
Speaker 2: for him. You know. I saw him last year. I
Speaker 2: have a funny. He was like he couldn't he could
Speaker 2: barely wh he couldn't walk. He's like, man, I'm like,
Speaker 2: what's wrong?
Speaker 1: Bro?
Speaker 2: He goes, man, I should have never played that last
Speaker 2: That last year fucked me up. And he was like
Speaker 2: it was twenty and I was like, damn. He's like,
Speaker 2: how many years did you play? I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I played thirteen, but it was really twelve. And he's
Speaker 2: like the way you played basketball and the way I
Speaker 2: played basketball, it's different sport. Yeah, different sport.
Speaker 1: He was special.
Speaker 2: Kevin Garnett KG dog Dog talked a lot of shit,
Speaker 2: but I think that just the intensity of the game
Speaker 2: was always better when he was when he was on
Speaker 2: the court.
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan.
Speaker 2: The big, fun fundamentals, quiet but competitive as hell too.
Speaker 2: You could just tell he's just somebody who just he
Speaker 2: wasn't drinking after the game, he wasn't partying, he wasn't
Speaker 2: you know, smoking mad doobies. That you could just tell
Speaker 2: he was just he was somebody. It was probably easy
Speaker 2: for him to go to sleep at eleven after the game.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: That's what I think was one of those special ones.
Speaker 2: He was one of those.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis just just all around talent. I mean he
Speaker 2: really has the full, full, full game. You know, handles shot,
Speaker 2: you know he can he can win just with his defense,
Speaker 2: but he can also get buckets. I mean, he can
Speaker 2: really do it all.
Speaker 1: Give me five guys. You think you've seen that had
Speaker 1: an unorthodox jumper.
Speaker 2: New Bull had a weird jumper. The Ken Bay wasn't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the prettiest. Give me some Sewn Marion, Sean Marion.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Sean Marion, but I mean he got
Speaker 2: it done though.
Speaker 1: You know Reggie Miller wasn't pretty.
Speaker 2: Oh Reggie's pretty enough, Like we're not gonna, we can't,
Speaker 2: we can't put him in like the ugliest jumpers not
Speaker 2: come on.
Speaker 1: Michael kid Gil Chris.
Speaker 2: It was crazy. That was crazy. That was crazy, Ken
Speaker 2: Karen Martin and he was nice, was wet and three.
Speaker 2: We're not saying yeah, but you know what, there was
Speaker 2: something about like having an ugly jumper that was so
Speaker 2: demoralized if it goes when it goes in and you
Speaker 2: look at the bench on the other team and they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: like fuck.
Speaker 1: You shoot him down. Ship that's best food spot in
Speaker 1: New York.
Speaker 2: I'm a big Chinese food guy.
Speaker 1: Okay, give us a spot. We West, we West, we West,
Speaker 1: uh Downtown.
Speaker 2: Downtown we West? Come on, you can't we West top?
Speaker 2: What big general child chicken guy.
Speaker 1: One album you could listen to front to back with
Speaker 1: no skips.
Speaker 2: Illmatic, Illmatic, and then give Bob his flowers to survive.
Speaker 2: We Catch a Fire, all the Bob albums you don't
Speaker 2: even have to skip.
Speaker 1: You plus five for a good dinner in a smoke session,
Speaker 1: dead or alive.
Speaker 2: Five people We're gonna start with Bob. You know the gong,
Speaker 2: thinking of the gong, you know, for sure give give
Speaker 2: Bob Marley. Uh, he's number one, for sure, number two.
Speaker 2: I would put Pack in there. I'd love to hear
Speaker 2: his stories. I'm sure he would have a lot to
Speaker 2: say with all his bullshit that's going on right now.
Speaker 1: Talk to him.
Speaker 2: This African revolutionary, he was the president of Brekin Fesso
Speaker 2: told my son Cara, putting him up, yeah, I would
Speaker 2: put him two more. I would put Madiba Nelson Mandela
Speaker 2: up there. I would love to hear what he has to.
Speaker 1: Say, especially with a little tree in him.
Speaker 2: That would be crazy. And then King Selassie not familiar,
Speaker 2: king of kings, you know, write that name down, King
Speaker 2: King Selassie I ethiop the king of king. When Marcus
Speaker 2: Garvey said that somebody will come in from the east,
Speaker 2: the king will rise from the east. This is what
Speaker 2: the all the rosters know, you know. And then Marcus
Speaker 2: Garvey did the prophecy, he said the prophecy, and then
Speaker 2: we got Selassie. He's the only Ethiopia is the only
Speaker 2: country that never got that never got conquered. Ethiopia. He's
Speaker 2: the king of the King of Kings, King Selassie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's my five.
Speaker 1: That's dope. Have you ever pop smoke? If you're a
Speaker 1: smoke with j Pops.
Speaker 2: He's not a smoker. Unfortunately. He's a big dream. He's
Speaker 2: a drink guy. He's a drink guy. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know he he all he fought for it. So
Speaker 2: Pops was like fighting for the guys who was getting
Speaker 2: in trouble, especially in France. It just wasn't his thing.
Speaker 2: I'm like, Dad, you don't even smoke, Like, why are
Speaker 2: you always talking about weed on TV and stuff? But
Speaker 2: he always he was for the people. He was for us.
Speaker 2: So shout out to Pops man.
Speaker 1: Last question. One guess on all the smoke, but you
Speaker 1: got to help us get on. And there's only been
Speaker 1: outside of you. There's been one other person I've been
Speaker 1: chasing and he's your homie. And I'm not asking even
Speaker 1: big just put it in here, just like man, I fuck.
Speaker 1: I went through his career, he got a bunch of weight,
Speaker 1: we smoked and then he got me off the seattle.
Speaker 2: He's a cool dude. You should go fuck with him
Speaker 2: that you don't even have to say who it is.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do my best. Comes to la a lot,
Speaker 2: but he's definitely yeah, you know he's I will say
Speaker 2: this being around him was one of the biggest blessings
Speaker 2: of my career. As great as he was as a Hooper,
Speaker 2: he's an even better Humanston And you know, big shout
Speaker 2: out to Pool. You deserve all your flowers, and you know,
Speaker 2: the next step in your career, the next step in
Speaker 2: your life is going to be even bigger because there's
Speaker 2: so much more than just a Hooper.
Speaker 1: Hell of a run, bro. Yeah, man, that's a wrap. Man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. It was really a pleasure, Bro,
Speaker 1: to get a chance to get to know you on
Speaker 1: a deeper level. Man here, but like we said, we
Speaker 1: got our official coffee table books. I want to give
Speaker 1: you this.
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's what's up man.
Speaker 1: We also got some merk from my guy Ray.
Speaker 2: We got you.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is some of New York. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show off your merk. So it's just some of
Speaker 1: this is some hats you give away or rock and
Speaker 1: then we're going to New York next week. Okay, the
Speaker 1: official New York hat. New York wants all the smoke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: got you all the hell yeah with it.
Speaker 2: This is the best one right here, this ship right here,
Speaker 2: Look at this man.
Speaker 1: We got your Chicago tour shirt. He's in you all
Speaker 1: the O. You think he's in New York. I don't
Speaker 1: means this. Come on, man, come on man, what we
Speaker 1: got oh ship? New York wants all the smoke?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we got you laced with some gear, a
Speaker 1: couple of different colors and sizes. Oh more, bro, here
Speaker 1: you go you guys lights bro.
Speaker 2: Oh man, come shining. Bro. We can't we can't leave
Speaker 2: you over. This is like the book is amazing, but
Speaker 2: the lighters, bro, like come on, like yo, tell yeahre
Speaker 2: appreciate your respect, bro.
Speaker 1: Thank you man. That's the rack New York seven board
Speaker 1: because you and l D member kill Larry.
Speaker 2: John Drin.
Speaker 1: Let's go ask where we should go and y'all flooded it. Man,
Speaker 1: So we appreciate the love.
Speaker 2: It's like that, y'all coming out and showing us love.
Speaker 1: We appreciate y'all were calling on all our fans for
Speaker 1: this one. Jack, This is special man. Over five years
Speaker 1: of working two hundred episodes.
Speaker 3: Releasing October eighth, is the All the Smoke Coffee table
Speaker 3: book been working hard on it. We're super excited. We
Speaker 3: used guys to see it. But October eighth, we're releasing our.
Speaker 2: First All the Smoke Coffee table Book.
Speaker 1: Three hundred pages, have never before seen pictures, untold stories,
Speaker 1: and highlights of our five year journey with All the Smoke.
Speaker 2: But before it releases, you can get yours on pre
Speaker 2: sale now.
Speaker 3: Just go to our ig bio, our searching Amazon All
Speaker 3: the Smoke Book, and we might have some surprises in
Speaker 3: the book for you, so.
Speaker 1: You don't have to wait till October eighth to get
Speaker 1: yours pre order. Years now, so we can run up
Speaker 1: on that best sellers list. Man, we need you guys
Speaker 1: to help. Man, we ain't asked too many favors, were
Speaker 1: asking it for a favor now, Man, Perfect Holiday Book,
Speaker 1: Birthday Book, Coffee table Book, Dennis Book, Jim Book. Put
Speaker 1: that book anywhere. Man, it's versus Till All the Smoke
Speaker 1: Coffee Table Book. So go get your book now. It's
Speaker 1: available on Amazon or in the link in our bio