WEBVTT - Dwyane Wade 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:06.640 One of your classmates teammates contemplating retire Lebron Lebron. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.400 You want to you want to get you get your doll, 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:12.200 get your let me get. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.280 Your Yeah, go there, go ahead, give me that, Give 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.280 me that all my life. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:21.400 Grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle peg Price won, Slice, 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:23.920 got the brow all my life. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:25.840 I'd be grinding all my life. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:30.000 All my life, the grinning, all my life, sacrifice, hustle 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.640 Peg Pryce one Slice got the Brons sat all my life, 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.400 I'd be grinding all my life. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.199 Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Shaha. I am 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.880 your whole, shining sharp. I'm also the propriet of Club Shah. 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.280 And the guy that's stopping by for a conversation and 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.000 the drink today is an NBA All time great. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:50.760 He's a three time NBA champ. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.880 He's a Finals MVP, a thirteen time NBA All Star 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.880 All Star Game MVP, eight time member of an All 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.360 NBA team, three time member of the All Defensive Team, 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.760 member of the seventy fifth Anniversary Team, two thousand and 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.520 nine scoring champ, Olympic gold medal medalist. He's the Miami 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.880 Heat leader in points, games, assists, still shot made shots taken. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.040 His number three is retired by Miami Heat and Marquette. 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.000 He's an Emmy Woman, New York Times bestselling author, executive businessman, 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.440 host of the game show The Cube on TBS, A 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:26.160 model once voted NBA's best dressed player. Father, philanthropist, husband 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.800 d Wade Did I get it all in? Bro? 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.680 I was looking he was a gonna come through the door. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.960 I ended up going. I was like, who walking through. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:42.319 The whole card? Relieve anything, y'all? D Wade? How you doing? 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:42.640 Brother? 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:44.000 Thanks for stopping by. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:45.720 Now, thank you for allowing me to come here. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.400 Man, this has been a year to make it. I 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.040 saw I DM you a couple of years ago. You say, hey, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.000 I'm gonna get to you, and I'm gonna get to you. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:57.640 And then I saw you at the premier of Redeemed Team. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:01:59.560 I said, Bro, did you forget about me? 0:01:59.600 --> 0:01:59.800 Said? 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.000 I forget about your A. I got some things going on, 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:03.560 but I'm gonna get to you. And then you hear, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.640 let's do this time. So I appreciate it. I appreciate 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.359 you getting it man. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.359 I'm great. That's that's the easy thing. That's easy thing, right, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.320 I'm great. And then everything else after that. 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.960 But uh man, I've just been living life and I've 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.560 been I've been learning how to live life differently than 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.920 the bubble of the NBA, which we all know is 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:23.600 you know when you know when you play sports, you 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:24.480 know you in this bubble. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:25.519 It's a great bubble. 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:27.840 And so the bubble got popped a little bit four 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.960 years ago, and so just sudjusting to life. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.840 Before we get started, Let's have a toast. This is 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.919 my Kanyac Laportier. Lest toast your career, Hall of Fame, career, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.200 one hall of Famer to another. And my Kanyac, you 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.000 have a wine a wine seller. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.200 All the best, bro, thank you, and he sent me. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.640 You send me this to my house, got this beautiful 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.400 glass and everything. So everybody out there when you send gifts. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.880 M hmm. Okay. I was going with my new rags. 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.400 I took it off in the car, really take it 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:04.120 might still got the lines on it. I was like, 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:06.160 I ain't even I ain't gonna do that. I ain't 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:06.720 gonna do that. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.239 You were a first ballot, unanimous hall of Famer. What 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.040 does the Hall of Fame mean to Dwayne Wade? 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.920 So I've been thinking about this because you know, we 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.920 all have dreams of places we want to be. And 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.040 even in the midst of those dreams, I can't say 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.800 you don't believe it more you do? You just you 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:29.959 put a plan together, you and you go attack tack it. 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.760 And so once I got the call from Jerry Colangelo 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.880 and said you are in the Hall of Fame, Like 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.440 I got that call, right, like, I just took a 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.080 moment just to like to myself, Man, I just was like, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:42.840 in a way. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.840 Right, like I know who I am, Like I've. 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.920 Been living with myself for forty one years, right, I remember, 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.160 you know how I grew up. I remember my dreams 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:54.560 and my hosts and sent them out loud, and how 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.400 many people told laughed them you or told me that 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.600 wasn't And so to be able to be like man, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.520 forty one years old, I've accomplished everything in a game 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.880 of basketball that I could ever dream of. And to 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.000 be able to kind of top it off the way 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.440 the way that I'm able to when my kids, being older, 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:11.880 understand a little bit. 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:13.480 Hall of fame is the ultimate validation. 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.680 It's the validation of it because it's the it's the 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.920 entire it's the entire body, your entire body of right 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.040 right right, and they say when you get done your 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.360 entire body of work, that you deserve to be with 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.320 the best. And so before it was the top seventy five, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.760 before I knew that was possible, which is incredible. The 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:32.160 Hall of Fame was like, all right, when I get 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.880 done with this career, I need to be I. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:35.320 Need to be in that. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.279 I want to be that first ballot right now. I 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.360 want to be that first battle ballot. Y. You know, 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.680 I'm not saying that about second, third, fourth, because you 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.279 know we all have our own route. But for me, 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:44.760 I was like, I want to be that first back. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:45.000 Right. 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:46.280 So, when. 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:49.680 When you were a kid and you're growing up in Chicago, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.920 you're like, okay, with the NBA at the forefront, did 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.640 you say, you know, I just want to do something 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:55.559 to take care of my mom. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.120 Was the NBA always at the front. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:04:58.360 Of your mind? 0:04:58.400 --> 0:04:59.560 The NBA was the only front. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.960 Like I played football, I may have played around with, hey, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:06.600 I want to be a I thought I wanted to 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.680 be a cop, but I really didn't. I was scut 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.359 of police and so I was like, oh, but I 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.200 like the I like the badge, I like the outfit. 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:14.479 When I was a kid, I might have told my 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:16.240 mom I wanted to be a doctor, in a in 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.200 a cop just because I thought those were the things 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.560 that she was going to support me in me telling 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.160 my mom as a five six seven year old kid, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.040 Hey mom, I'm gonna be the next Michael Jordan. I 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.480 want to go play for Chicago Buys. That's not realistic 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.560 in my community. Being a cop is realistic, right, And so, 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.640 but I always wanted to play an NBA because I 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.279 grew up at the perfect time with basketball and the 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.320 team that the city that I grew up in, Chicago, 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.280 Jordan was that the It was. 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.039 The hype, Eric Jordan Scottie. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.120 Did anything else matter? 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:49.880 No, Like I. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.880 Feel so lucky now, Like when when when the documentary 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.400 The Last Dance came out, I just feel so lucky 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.400 to like I was a kid in Chicago that knew 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.640 about all these stories that everyone knew about, right, and 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.560 so I was going back on my mind, like I 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.200 grew up on these stories before it was the social 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.800 media or things went viral. Dennis Ramin was down in 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.160 Chicago going viral right downtime, you know what I'm saying. 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.719 And so Chicago Boys was everything my dad put the 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.600 ball on me in my stepbrother's hands when we were 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:19.200 young and basketball became everything. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.359 Right, You're going in with Dirk no Whisky, Tony Parker, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.640 Greg Papa. You had great matchups against Dirk. You played 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.479 against Tony Parker NBA Finals, beating one. You grew against 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.480 Pap a lot. What does it mean to go with 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:36.200 like like, man, dirt. Everybody knows that dirt brought in 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.840 the stretch. When you see that one legged step back 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.280 is him. You see Tony Parker, the guy that can 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.920 penetrate and use the float game to the excellent Greg 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.080 Papovich ain't nothing needs to be said about him. 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:47.680 Do you do you think. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.200 About like, man, hey, I got I got a pretty 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:51.239 I got a pretty nice class. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.680 I'm going there with Oh well yeah yeah, I forgot 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:57.880 about power for everybody else that's not Paul. 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.000 I told Pa said, black community is Paul. 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.720 Yeah, it is power. Yeah yeah, you just dropped it. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.880 Hell yeah the way you. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:12.520 Paul Gasol, Pow, Becky Hammon, so many others, and so 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.680 if you know anything about my career, Shannon, the individual 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.920 is great. Right individually, I have to work for everything 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.120 that I that I wanted and I got but the 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.000 team is where I succeeded, right, right, that's what my 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:26.960 career when you look at it everything, it's like he 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.360 was on these great teams right where it's the Olympic team, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.840 where it's the team of Shaq Well Lebron with all 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:33.760 these guys and so to be on to be able 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.840 to retire and then to be able to go into 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.160 my next team or my next family would be the 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.280 Hall of Fame team, Right, I mean, I'm looking like, Yo, 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.200 what other Hall of Fame crew that looked like this? 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.520 That's that's that's I remember telling the guy, this is 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.920 the Hall of Fame is the ultimate fraternity. It's so 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.560 it's so select. If you if you a capita, not 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.760 to disrect them. They got ten twenty thousand members. If 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:57.480 you are to make a side five you're a cute dog, 0:07:57.520 --> 0:07:59.760 you got twenty five thirty thousand. If you an althle 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.040 sigma you aka. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:03.320 Man. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.280 Think about how many men have played and how few 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:07.080 have that jacket. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.520 Yeah, yeah, you're very elite. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.960 Now there's eight billion, there's seven billion, eight billion people 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.320 in the world. It's only about five or six hundred 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:15.480 they got a jacket like yours. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.120 So I'm ready to play, and I ain't. I don't 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.520 even know what sport I'm ready to play. 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.080 I'm just I'm getting warm up here. I'm like, yeah, 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:24.800 that's about it's fighting. You see. You don't got me 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:25.360 high up? 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:26.800 Yeah, you're right. 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:27.440 What would it be? 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.240 You see a lot of a lot of organizations with 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.880 their great players. It's not just enough for them to 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.680 hang their jersey in the arena, to put its statues outside. 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:38.959 You see, Dirk just got a statue. The Lakers are 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.040 with Kobe and Shock and all those greats. What would 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.400 it mean for d Wade to have a statue outside 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:45.800 the Miami Arena. 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.720 That's a tough question for me, man one, because. 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.560 Yes, when you get downe playing your game, when you 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.320 get done playing this game, you you're hopefully the goal 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.000 is to become a statue, right right, Like you want 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.880 to play and become a statue right right, because the 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.920 greats have a statue. Michael Jordan's had a statue, and 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.040 so yes, I want I want those accolades because I 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.760 saw others have them, right, But it's also a part 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.200 of me too, that's like, that's that's man given. It 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.040 could be taken away by man. I don't like getting 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.360 things that can be taken away by man, and so 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.559 I don't celebrate those and I don't look for those 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.959 because it's temporary, right. But you know, so if it's 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.880 given to me, I know I earned everything that is 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:31.679 giving that is to. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.800 Come, right, I've earned it already, and. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.840 So if they decide to give that to me, I mean, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.160 it would be amazing place where people can come to 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.679 the arena to Miami and see it and see it. 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:43.319 It's all something about being the first. 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.880 It will and being the first will open up the 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.840 floodgates for your d statue, right Lebron statue, Chris Boss. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.400 Statue, a Lines of Morning statue. You start building this legacy. 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.880 Getting no statue. I don't know, Pat Radigo, did that happen? 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.240 But we talked about that, which so. 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:07.320 When I was reading that you purchased a minority share 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.800 in the Utah Jazz and I'm like, why he Miami 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.920 Heat great? Why didn't he apports us sharing that? Why 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.560 go way out there? How did how did d Wade 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.640 Wade County Heat legend go across country and purchase a share. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:30.040 In a franchise relationships business opportunity? You know, at the 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.560 right time, for me, you know, Miami and I sometimes 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:34.040 you got. 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.640 To step away from you know, the. 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.720 Career, right too close to the career, too close to 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:41.800 not getting some of the things that I wanted, not 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.120 getting some of the things they wanted. And for me, 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.160 I wanted to step away and be able to build 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.360 and work on our relationship, which I think we've continue 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.280 to do. I wanted to be able to to support 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.839 the Heat without feeling that anything, without without feeling the 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.360 obligation when I'm feeling this whatever I felt in the 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.920 midst of the business of the game, and I needed 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.120 to get rid of that. And so I would have 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:06.600 jumped right back in it if I would have came 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.560 back into the fold, because I would have been once 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.120 again that same mindset, what I'm not doing, what I'm 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.520 not getting, what conversations I'm not a part of it. 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:16.520 I want to root for my team. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.640 I want to support Jimmy, I want to support you 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.960 d I want to support Spot without feeling any way 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.280 that I felt before. And so for me when it 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.000 came to basketball, when it came to like getting the 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.480 opportunity to learn what that side is like, I felt 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.520 it was better for me to learn with someone that 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.040 was that I built a relationship with it. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.599 I'm closer with from a business standpoint. 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.040 Because this is business now. This ain't bas this is 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.559 now business. And so I don't have a business relationship 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.920 in Miami with the ownership making not a business relationship. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.240 I have a business relationship with Ryan Smith and what 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.000 we're doing, you know what we've been able to do 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:50.240 in this small period of time. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:53.560 I could be wrong, Correct me if I'm wrong. 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.760 Does d Wade feel he gets the respect and the 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.600 appreciation that he deserves from the Miami Heat? 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.160 What do you mean from who in the Miami Heat? 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.719 Heat is a brand? He really is two peoples in 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:14.280 pat Rock, Okay, because you didn't leave temporary. Normally, the 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.040 historically great players don't leave vir free. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:18.959 I mean something happens, and I. 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:19.800 Think something happened. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.520 Yeah, check me if I'm wrong. 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:23.960 I'm looking. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.199 I'm sitting back having been a next professional athlete, and 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.680 I'm saying, man, this man he took less money to 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.240 get Lebron. He's taking less money and less money, and 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.240 you're telling him take less money and we're gonna go 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.840 get KD. Take less money. We're gonna go get X 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.720 Y M C. Take less money. Okay, I done take 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.400 less money. You didn't get any of those guys. 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:43.840 What you boy? What you got for your boy? Now? 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.319 Yeah, yeah, I had that mentality at one point. I'm 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.240 grown now though, that's his business. It's a cold world, right, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:52.760 and so a lot. Did it make you feel at 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.360 the time, Oh, it sucked. 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:55.480 I left. 0:12:55.760 --> 0:13:00.440 Yeah, I went through championships Wade County and and I 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.360 left right, and I left for you know, obviously a 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.000 few different reasons. But it hurt, yeah, And so I 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.959 believed I drunk the kool aid. Like most of the 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.600 young players come in. They drafted me. This is family. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:18.200 He coach my city. It ain't yours. It's not yours. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.520 And when it's time to make a decision, the business 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.360 had to make a decision. And unfortunately for me, the 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.400 decision that I wanted them to make at the time 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.840 I wanted them to make it, they didn't make. And 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.480 so it affected how I felt about everything that I 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:36.480 put into what I was told I came in. I'm 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.040 a grown man now, I understand this is business, and 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.560 so I don't feel a way. I will not allow 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.160 that to I cannot allow that to stay on my shoulders. 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.480 Let me carry it like a backpack because I learned 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.760 so much in Miami, so I can't just leave with 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.679 the negatives because the positive ill way the negatives. Even 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:58.079 though the negatives you know, yeah, I mean stafle in 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.280 my bank account, man, it's definitely my BANGK account. But 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.280 like it's still things in a sense. But the sting 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.360 is helping me in business, it's helping me in life. 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.480 So as much as I like the positive that I 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.320 learned in Miami and all the things that helped me 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.920 become a man, and all, I got to take the other. 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.800 Things that come along. I heard a little bit too 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:15.560 to come along. 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.320 With it because these things as well, it's helping me 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.840 become a better businessman. It's helping me ask different questions, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:21.320 it's helping me go into things. 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:21.800 A certain way. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.760 And so it's a lesson out there for everybody, right, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:26.400 and it was a lesson in it for me. And 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.360 so I have no ill attend. I come in that 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.520 arena and I'm who I am when I'm the same 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.680 person I am outside arenas who I am inside with everybody, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:37.800 because I appreciate my time there. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.040 How I have organizations been able to convince the fans 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.160 that whatever they do is business. Whatever the player does 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.360 is out of greed, selfish motivator. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.120 I don't understand that at the PR for the organization, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:53.000 they got the best PR. 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.680 You lead you being greedy, they do it. They did 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.800 what was best for the team. What about my team? 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.479 What about the way team? 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.240 Yeah, no, I have no idea how that's like, that 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.800 doesn't make sense, right, Like you can get traded, no 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.400 phone call, no nothing. You find out on social media 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.680 and you're gonna get your video and everybody gonna stand 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.640 up in chair. Right, but let you leave in free agency, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:17.840 and wat's what happened when you come back right from 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:18.720 most guys. 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:19.880 You're gonna get boomed. 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.040 Yeah, we talked about and so it's just a PR. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.080 It's just it's the way it's spent. It's the way 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:26.800 it is, right, and it's we can come out and 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:28.440 we can cry about as much as we want, right, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.200 but that's just the way it is. And so now 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.760 the players got controlled in the way that we have, 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:34.880 the way that the players have control because it's still 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.320 ran the owners still, yeah, we know what it is. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.440 The players have more control now, right, and now you 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.080 see the one likes the way the players are so 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.680 ain't no win, Ain't no win from either side? 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:44.920 Right? 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.280 When you get in the business, how do you approach 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.520 the business? You mentioned Ryan Smith, you're in business with him. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.240 How do you approach the business aspect like you do? 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.000 Do you approach it like you did the basketball asp 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.400 you put that kind of time, that kind of effort, 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.080 that kind of energy, because I'm sure you to be great, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.160 d way, you know this. You gotta eat sleep, breed basketball. 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.200 So now do you eat, sleep, breathe business? 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:13.440 I do. 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.280 I don't play basketball no more so my life, besides 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.960 being a parent and a son, and a father and 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.640 a husband and all these things, business is my life, right. 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.160 And so, as I like to tell people, is I've 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.200 been spending so much of my time trying to become 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.640 a Hall of fame athlete. And in the midst of that, 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.320 you have so many people that are put in place 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.880 to help you alone, and there's so many things that 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.200 you don't learn and you don't know. And so when 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.840 I retired, I didn't know much about business, right. I 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.920 didn't know much about all these things that I'm a 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.240 part of in business. So I took some time and say, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.200 all right, well, let me start learning, and so I 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.040 need to learn how to invest. 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.280 You'll invest just because it sounds good. 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.440 Yeah, that's that's your man. 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.040 And so when it comes to business, when it comes 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.520 to a Riot Smith and these certain individuals you tried 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.560 to link yourself with, I want to link myself with 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:04.879 people who want to want to teach me, right, Like 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.399 who's thirsty? Who understands that I want to learn and 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.359 you're willing to teach me. You're right to say, come 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.000 on in this right, open this. 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:12.080 Book up and let me show you. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.760 And so those are the partners that I look for 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.760 that I look that I look at because I know 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.800 I don't know everything. I ain't been to school in 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.680 twenty years, right, I ain't been in school in twenty years. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:26.520 But when you were there, it was like it wasn't 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:27.720 like you were going to get a fire. 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.960 I agree the way i'd be like broadcasting a journalists. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.159 But you're right, but you haven't been to school in 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.600 a while, so you really haven't had to apply yourself 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:41.840 like you're having to apply yourself now. 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:46.280 Right, And so I yes, now I know that I 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.719 can take the things that I learned in sports and 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.400 I can use those same tools apply them to how 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.520 I wake up in the morning, how I work out 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.120 in the morning, how like all the steps that it takes, 0:17:58.200 --> 0:17:59.760 because I had those same steps to try to be 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.159 great basketball. And the hard part is we want to 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.520 now you want to, like I want to be I 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.159 want to I see magic, I see I won't. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.520 See I want to see it. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:12.040 I'm like, oh, Kevin, just soda is coming for a 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.119 hundred man. Oh this like and and not like in 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.440 the hate like, oh, like that could be me, because. 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:19.960 That's how I look at it. Any time I see 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.800 somebody do something like, man, that could be me. I 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:23.600 wonder how you let me ask you this? This is 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.919 what I really want to know in business? Are people 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.399 willing to help you in business? Because like in basketball, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.520 were guys willing to give you information that could help 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.240 d Wade become a better player. So are people in 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.080 business willing to give you information like guys on the court, 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:41.120 like guys in the NBA. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.399 Yeah, once they realized that I was a player, so 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.120 once they took me serious, Okay, business the same thing, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.919 once they realize that you're serious about this, right, and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:50.400 it's not. 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.520 Just something right, like. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.560 Like people that have way more money than you and 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.160 I that's not sitting here. They don't have a lot 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.360 of time. You get a meeting with somebody, you get 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.440 fifteen to thirty minutes. You don't get three out of 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.399 the time is money today time is money, and so 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:06.520 they need to know that you're serious. It's like the 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.520 same thing when it came to sport, right, and so 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:10.399 I try to be I try to be serious. I 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.160 try to walk in with the knowledge and the information 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.119 and questions and questions and questions and questions because I 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:15.919 know I don't know everything. 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.640 Right, you're the host. You were talking about camera. You're 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:21.480 like never the million years that I think I was 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.600 going to be, No, but here we are. 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.560 What was it like? What made you have? What? 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.000 How did you come up with the idea and say, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.600 you know what game show? That's what I'm gonna be. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.760 Definitely not like that. No, it happened like this. Okay, 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.800 it was doing COVID. We on the Zoom. When I retired, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.520 I got into TV. I did T and T for 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:45.000 three years. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.320 I had a production company, fifty Knife in Prairie that 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.760 I started with Wonder Media, and so they came to me, 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.199 We're on the Zoom with the whole team and they're like, hey, 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.399 we got this amazing concept of the show called The 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.919 Cube that's been feminine the UK. I believe at that 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.240 time it was ten eleven years and so we. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:02.119 Talked about the show. 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:03.560 I got a chance to look at the thak, I 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:05.040 got a chance to go look at all the youtubes 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:06.280 and I was like, man, I love this show. 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.320 I want to be a executive producer. This is great. 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.959 So we shook hands on EP before we got off 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.239 the call. Eventually they said, oh, and we would love 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.480 if you can host, and I was like me, I 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:19.840 started sweating up. 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:23.960 Executive producers like you know. 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.400 And and then I So I took a few days. 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:28.760 And how it works is this if I'm scared to 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.040 do something, I ain't talking about like bungee jumping scared. 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:33.240 I'm talking about something that's attainable or something that I 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.440 want to do, Like I like, I actually want to 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.080 challenge myself. But when I retired, the first thing I 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.800 did was I took I took a voice lessons right 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:42.399 because I knew. I was like, man, one day, I 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.720 may I may have this, I may be in front 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.800 of the camera. I will have a microphone in my face. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.199 Let me learn how to project my voice. Let me 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:51.880 let me, let me take this uh, this Chicago tongue 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.720 that I have, let me learn how to get through 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.960 my words right. And so I was already prepared and 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:58.560 preparing myself for an opportunity. 0:20:58.720 --> 0:20:59.960 But when it came, I was scared. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:02.000 And then it took me a couple of days long, 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.320 as like, you can't be scared, and so I said, 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:05.640 I'll do it. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:07.639 As if everything you thought it would be. 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:09.360 More, I actually didn't think. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.679 I like it as much. I enjoy getting an opportunity. 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.760 I spent about three hours per episode with each contestant, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:18.919 each family, and I get a chance to sit there 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:20.960 for three hours on it, and one get to know 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:23.000 individuals that I will. 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:24.280 Never get to know, right. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.639 Two I get to you know, to be able to 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.200 help people get over this this fear. I see fear 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.080 when they in Q, I see nervousness. And so this 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.159 is a time whereas a leader, I get to step in. 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:36.880 I get to lead. So it's so many different things 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:38.600 that you take from sport or you take from your 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.480 life and in the show, and that three hours that 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:42.240 I'm sitting in front of them, I'm trying to help 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.560 them accomplish something that that I know is way harder 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:47.639 than they think it is, right, they don't know what 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:49.520 the game is really like. And also too, it's gonna 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:51.760 change communities, it's gonna change their lives, right, And so 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.000 I have an opportunity to to be a host of 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.320 a game show that you're gonna see is gonna change 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.080 people's experiences, but it also has the opportunity to change 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:03.120 your life. Ten thirty fifty thousand dollars change people's lives. 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.440 And so for me, man, it was like, I want 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:07.560 to bring joy to families. I want to bring joy 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.480 to you know, to living rooms when this pandemic ends. 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.480 And that's why I jumped into the Cube. And I'm 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:15.520 lucky that we on our second season. TV has brought 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:17.200 us back and hopefully we keep going. 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.760 For those that haven't watched the Queue, what's the concept 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:22.159 behind it? 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:27.840 So the concept is you have probably sixty seventy games 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:30.680 or versions of and they all and they all can 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:33.720 take place inside of this queube. Right, It's a plexiglass. 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.159 It's this big plexiglass that looks a little different than 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.600 this and inside this queue, which brings its own like 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:41.439 once you go in that door closed. It brings its 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.400 own level of like, okay, everything got small right, right, right, 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.240 cloth now I make clothing. Now my breathing is a 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.200 little different, right, And so it just brings its own 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.280 different challenges of all these different games, right, it's individual games. 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:55.920 It's games where you you tag your teammate in, y'all 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:57.640 got to come in, y'all got to do it together, right. 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.399 And the hard part about it is it may be 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:00.960 a game, and I just explained it like this. It 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:02.280 may be a game where you sit up here and 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:03.680 you got a ball, a piece of paper up and 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:05.200 let's say you got to throw it in the garbage camp. 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:07.600 You say, I can do that the way. That's not 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:08.480 hard shot? 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:10.080 How many how many lives are gonna take you to 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:12.240 do that? How many times are you gonna try to throw. 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:12.920 It and make it? 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:15.280 It may take you four Right now, you've lost four lives, 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:17.520 and so to be able to play this game, you 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.320 get nine lives, but you want to got you got 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:19.879 seven games? 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:21.359 Seven games? Not as I could do it. 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:23.800 You may spend four lives on one game on a 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:28.080 thousand dollars. And so the precision that you gotta have 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.320 the ability to be able to have no ego, because 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:34.000 it's some games when you come in at queue that 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:35.679 you are not good for, which your partners may be. 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:38.119 It's certain games that I know that you gotta that 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:40.040 you got a blind phone, you gotta walk through these 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:43.600 standing cone your shoulders too wide, you can't do. 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.199 You got to type in somebody else. So man, I 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:48.960 just I love it. 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.960 I love being able to sit across from individuals that 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:54.000 I never met, and by the end of that three 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.360 hours like we've connected and hopefully I've done my job 0:23:57.359 --> 0:23:59.240 as a host to help them reach their goal. 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:01.359 I'm looking at some of your hosts in the second season, 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:04.640 your wife Gabrielle, you and your La La Shaq, mind shopper. 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:05.960 What what is the guest? What? 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:06.240 What? 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:08.919 What? What was Shaq like? Because you know Shack think 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:09.719 he could do everything. 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:14.320 Shaq bust the cube open, he fell through the back 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:14.800 of the cube. 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:16.520 I didn't even know you can do that. 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:18.280 I know you can go through the cube. 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:20.920 That's what that was Shack. We had him, there was 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:22.960 his birthday. He didn't know what Shock din't know what 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:23.399 was going on. 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:24.520 He showed up. 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:26.080 He's like, man, flash what I'm doing. 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:29.479 I'm like, just enjoyed and then like he didn't want 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:31.760 to he want to stop, right, he we kept, he 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:34.120 kept asking for more tries and more tries, and like, Shock, 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:35.119 you can't keep git more. 0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:37.680 Tries because I need another life. I'll buy another life. 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:39.760 So Shaq was shocked. Man, he brought. 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:41.680 He brought a lot of excitement to it. He broke 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:44.399 a lot of our games. So like really he was like, 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:45.760 it's one of them. You will see on the commercial 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.240 where he's getting these balls out. He broke the sides. 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:50.359 Shock didn't realize that. 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:53.680 You don't know, but. 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:55.400 Man, I you know, like this was the first year 0:24:55.440 --> 0:24:59.680 we tried like adding Celeri because we had a lot 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:03.400 of people will call and hitting us. Sam, we can 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:05.640 do that, that's easy, and so he's like, all right, 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:07.399 so come on to the show. So we had a 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:09.080 few come and try and it wasn't ez easy as 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:09.480 they thought. 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:14.440 I'm looking at Melow Carmelo, Anthony just retired. What advice 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:18.400 would you give him about retiring? About retirement, what can 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:19.560 he expect? 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:22.399 He can expect it to be different, he can expect 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:26.080 it to be on him. You know, I know you 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:28.240 think basketball is on you, but you got a team, 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:30.200 you got a lot of teammates, you got coaching staff, 0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:32.439 you got trainers, you got everybody to get you to 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:34.240 the gym right every day. 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:36.400 You don't have nobody like that in retirement. 0:25:36.440 --> 0:25:37.760 You know, you still have your team, you see all 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:39.800 the people that love you, but like it ain't the same, 0:25:40.440 --> 0:25:44.119 and so every day you gotta them feet, got to 0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:45.080 hit that ground right. 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:47.359 And what you want a commissing that day has to 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:49.080 be on you and it has to be set by you. 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:52.480 That's that's the one thing I learned, Like when I play, 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:53.880 we got reake up calls on the road. 0:25:54.960 --> 0:25:56.040 I don't get a wake up. 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:58.400 Call, nobody telling me to get up and work out, 0:25:58.440 --> 0:26:00.000 to eat healthy, to do all these things. 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:02.080 That's this basic that is without the work. 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:04.320 This is just how how I'm gonna how I'm gonna 0:26:04.359 --> 0:26:08.119 maintain my body after retirement. On No one's telling you that, right, 0:26:08.440 --> 0:26:11.199 And so you got to realize that it's on you, 0:26:11.200 --> 0:26:12.320 you know what I mean. Like when I played with 0:26:12.359 --> 0:26:15.120 the team, I went and got my chest scans and. 0:26:15.119 --> 0:26:17.880 My EKG because it was scheduled right now. I got 0:26:17.920 --> 0:26:18.960 a schedule, you know. 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:19.320 What I mean. 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:21.639 So once you realize, like I woke up and there 0:26:21.680 --> 0:26:25.840 I said, oh, so this is all on me, all right? 0:26:25.920 --> 0:26:28.560 This familiar for me then, and so he got it. 0:26:28.960 --> 0:26:30.399 Do you think the white Howard should have been on 0:26:30.440 --> 0:26:33.960 the He only got seventy five slotes, maybe what five 0:26:34.000 --> 0:26:36.160 thousand guys that played in the NBA, maybe a little 0:26:36.200 --> 0:26:40.159 bit more, I said to say, But I don't know 0:26:40.200 --> 0:26:40.760 how it got. 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:42.399 He was a dominant big. 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:47.320 In multiple years, like three time Defensive Player of the Year. 0:26:47.280 --> 0:26:50.320 But not just like he got. 0:26:49.760 --> 0:26:52.480 Right, he was a dominant. He was dominant. 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:54.359 I really don't understand. 0:26:54.680 --> 0:26:56.240 Like I know a lot of people have a lot 0:26:56.240 --> 0:26:59.360 of things to say about Dwight Howard as his personality 0:26:59.560 --> 0:27:02.040 or whatever. Everybody would like to take a shot the right, 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:04.480 I mean, we all out here, everybody can take a 0:27:04.480 --> 0:27:05.360 shot at whatever they want. 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:07.560 But when it comes to that man actual work, that's 0:27:07.720 --> 0:27:08.280 body of. 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:11.040 What life and dislike. He got the backpack on. He 0:27:11.080 --> 0:27:13.160 tried hoop shots. But when the game, when they when 0:27:13.200 --> 0:27:13.760 they jumped the. 0:27:13.680 --> 0:27:17.640 Ball is undeniable. He took that team to the finals dead. 0:27:18.119 --> 0:27:19.720 This is I mean, and I'm not I'm like, I 0:27:19.720 --> 0:27:21.520 know what I'm saying that about. You can pick a 0:27:21.520 --> 0:27:22.680 lot of guys to be on this team. 0:27:22.760 --> 0:27:23.120 It's all. 0:27:23.720 --> 0:27:27.160 It's all subjective, right, depending on who's picking. But when 0:27:27.160 --> 0:27:30.560 you're talking about this, this generation, his last twenty five years, right, 0:27:31.840 --> 0:27:33.680 how many names can you think of? What the White 0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:36.159 Howard name is not in there? And I know T 0:27:36.359 --> 0:27:38.680 Max should be in there and other great players, but 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:40.920 that was the White how one for me was tough. 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:44.639 How difficult is it for you you have a son? 0:27:44.960 --> 0:27:48.439 Lebron has a son, now mellow Lebron has two sons. 0:27:48.520 --> 0:27:50.840 You have son, we're gonna talk about the later, have 0:27:50.960 --> 0:27:54.080 a son play. How difficult is it for your child 0:27:54.359 --> 0:27:57.480 that bears your last name to play the sport. 0:27:57.240 --> 0:27:57.919 That you played. 0:27:58.720 --> 0:28:02.880 Gotta be tough because you know you're getting Your dad 0:28:02.880 --> 0:28:04.720 would have made that. Your dad would have done this. 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:05.800 Your dad would have did that. 0:28:06.080 --> 0:28:08.520 Man, I didn't have that pressure. Did you have the 0:28:08.560 --> 0:28:14.480 pressure you had it from your brother? I never had 0:28:14.520 --> 0:28:16.120 that pressure like I had an older brother. It was good, 0:28:16.119 --> 0:28:18.080 but he wasn't Hall of Fame. He wasn't at a 0:28:18.119 --> 0:28:20.119 level of the Sharks. He wasn't at that level. 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:25.560 And so I have no idea what Zaire is experiencing 0:28:25.680 --> 0:28:28.160 from that standpoint, right, And I can't act like act 0:28:28.240 --> 0:28:31.840 like I know. But for me, and to me, like, 0:28:31.880 --> 0:28:35.520 none of that really matters when you're in between those lines, right, 0:28:36.400 --> 0:28:40.360 And so having a dad with this name or in 0:28:40.400 --> 0:28:42.400 this sport can get you in the door, can get 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:44.880 you looks, and also can get people to talk about you. 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:45.840 Yes, it worked. 0:28:47.080 --> 0:28:50.080 So for me, it's about what you do when you 0:28:50.120 --> 0:28:53.960 get between the lines. That's what all determines if you 0:28:54.000 --> 0:28:56.280 shut people up or you keep them talking, or you 0:28:56.360 --> 0:28:59.280 keep them talking. And so as I don't understand my 0:28:59.320 --> 0:29:01.880 son's journey, and that sympathized with, you know, I go 0:29:01.920 --> 0:29:03.280 and I look at my let me see what kind 0:29:03.280 --> 0:29:06.120 of hate he getting, right, I sympathize with this young 0:29:06.160 --> 0:29:08.240 man who gets hate for nothing. 0:29:08.280 --> 0:29:10.920 No one knows me. He's on his own journey in life. 0:29:11.000 --> 0:29:14.880 And he's been you know, whether it's me, whether it's Brownie, 0:29:14.920 --> 0:29:19.400 whether it's this player, this player, he's getting compared to them, 0:29:19.760 --> 0:29:23.760 and I'm just that's life at the same time, Right, 0:29:23.800 --> 0:29:26.520 You're going to be compared to a lot of different 0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:28.160 people if you if you want to do something great. 0:29:28.440 --> 0:29:30.320 I had had Ken Griffy or one time, and he 0:29:30.360 --> 0:29:33.280 said he kind of he always saw his go see 0:29:33.280 --> 0:29:35.760 his son's play, he said, but it was tough on him, 0:29:35.920 --> 0:29:37.640 he said, because if his son made a mistake and 0:29:37.720 --> 0:29:41.280 he struck out, the people in the stand will say, well, 0:29:41.280 --> 0:29:43.840 you're not your dad. And Griffy one day said, he said, 0:29:43.840 --> 0:29:51.400 well name five players who are so let me put 0:29:51.400 --> 0:29:56.280 that in my nose. We get that to my son. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:29:56.360 --> 0:29:59.720 he said, well name five players who are. But d 0:30:00.200 --> 0:30:02.320 just imagine, how do you think your life would do? 0:30:02.360 --> 0:30:06.440 How different would your life have been like today's kid 0:30:06.640 --> 0:30:10.800 with the social media aspect high school, college. You did 0:30:10.880 --> 0:30:13.440 have some social media later in your NBA, but I 0:30:13.440 --> 0:30:14.680 don't think you started with it. 0:30:15.320 --> 0:30:16.960 How different would your life have been? 0:30:17.840 --> 0:30:23.240 It's too much access. I got four kids now, it's 0:30:23.240 --> 0:30:24.080 too much access. 0:30:25.440 --> 0:30:27.720 You better have too much access. 0:30:28.640 --> 0:30:31.400 You can get to anybody because you got everybody number. 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:33.040 You know what It was the. 0:30:33.120 --> 0:30:34.840 Way back when you and I was growing up in 0:30:34.920 --> 0:30:37.760 high school and in college. If you saw a beautiful 0:30:37.800 --> 0:30:40.600 girl in Miami, you don't know if she was from 0:30:40.640 --> 0:30:42.400 Miami or where she was from. You might not ever 0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:45.280 see again. Now you just go on social media. You're like, 0:30:45.320 --> 0:30:47.160 oh she and I can get there or I. 0:30:47.120 --> 0:30:47.800 Can get it here. 0:30:48.280 --> 0:30:49.800 That's listen. 0:30:49.840 --> 0:30:52.400 I'm glad social media walning around as I was a 0:30:52.440 --> 0:30:56.240 young boy trying to focus on accomplishing something that only 0:30:56.400 --> 0:30:59.440 a few can accomplish. You know how focused and locked 0:30:59.520 --> 0:31:00.760 you can't have distraction. 0:31:00.880 --> 0:31:08.320 You can't the media like a Lebron like like Mahomes 0:31:08.400 --> 0:31:11.440 or Tom Brady or you talked to d Wade is different. 0:31:12.400 --> 0:31:14.320 I give these kids a lot of credit to be 0:31:14.360 --> 0:31:18.000 able to juggle both. Like I understand the great, the 0:31:18.040 --> 0:31:21.840 great things about social media. Yeah we get the benefits, yes, 0:31:22.240 --> 0:31:24.880 But on the on the other end, if you're trying 0:31:24.880 --> 0:31:26.480 to accomplish what I know a lot of these young 0:31:26.520 --> 0:31:28.360 men say or what they're trying, and they get up 0:31:28.360 --> 0:31:31.720 every day to work their ass off and accomplished this distraction, 0:31:34.560 --> 0:31:36.120 it's going to get in the way at some point 0:31:36.400 --> 0:31:37.920 when you're trying to go to that when you're trying 0:31:37.960 --> 0:31:40.320 to reach that penthouse level in your sport right. 0:31:40.600 --> 0:31:41.920 Right, like you can get you can get to the 0:31:41.920 --> 0:31:42.360 first level. 0:31:42.360 --> 0:31:44.680 You get in the lobby, Yeah, you're the hotel, but 0:31:44.720 --> 0:31:46.840 there's a special key card that goes to the penthouse, 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:50.040 right And it's a lot of sacrifice that you got 0:31:50.080 --> 0:31:52.160 to have to get to that penthouse level. And a 0:31:52.160 --> 0:31:54.840 lot of guys won't get there because of certain things. 0:31:54.840 --> 0:31:57.360 That's a distraction, and social media is a big distraction 0:31:57.800 --> 0:31:58.880 for the for the generation. 0:31:59.520 --> 0:32:03.400 How how many did you have to leave a whole 0:32:03.400 --> 0:32:06.480 lot of homeboys? Because everybody, you know, people say they sacrifice, 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:09.320 and you sacrifice a lot, Like as far as your time, 0:32:09.640 --> 0:32:11.840 you know, you didn't go to you missed a lot 0:32:11.840 --> 0:32:14.640 of your kids things, recitals and piano lessons or whatever 0:32:14.760 --> 0:32:17.040 the case may be. You sacrificed a lot of that. 0:32:17.440 --> 0:32:20.800 But sometimes I'm noticing guys won't sacrifice a homeboy. Man, 0:32:20.840 --> 0:32:23.240 he was there from the beginning. Man, I can't let 0:32:23.240 --> 0:32:25.640 my homeboy go pro. But he holding you back. He 0:32:25.720 --> 0:32:27.800 put you in a situation where you can't climb to 0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:31.120 the top because he's holding you back. Was it difficult 0:32:31.160 --> 0:32:34.200 for you to leave some of the homeboys even though 0:32:34.240 --> 0:32:36.280 you're like, yeah, bro, we grew up together. 0:32:36.640 --> 0:32:37.880 But where I'm ascending to. 0:32:39.200 --> 0:32:43.320 It was, and it is right, especially when you're young. 0:32:44.080 --> 0:32:46.120 When you're young, man, you growing up and you growing 0:32:46.200 --> 0:32:49.080 up in an improvished community, all you got is your homeboy, right, 0:32:49.200 --> 0:32:51.360 your family right, And so y'all all have the same 0:32:51.440 --> 0:32:55.520 dream together to a point where your dream become everybody right, 0:32:55.680 --> 0:32:58.440 right when you're the one who's and so man, when 0:32:58.480 --> 0:33:01.040 I made it, Man, my whole everybody was we made it, 0:33:01.880 --> 0:33:05.440 we in here, and so you carry that, You carry 0:33:05.480 --> 0:33:08.400 that mentality like, yo, we all here, we all made it, 0:33:08.800 --> 0:33:12.239 and you try to allow access for everybody, because if 0:33:12.280 --> 0:33:14.360 you're that person, you try to allow access to bring 0:33:14.400 --> 0:33:18.000 everybody with you. But we all know how that's gonna work. 0:33:18.040 --> 0:33:20.280 It's only gonna be. Man, if you lucky, you'll find 0:33:20.320 --> 0:33:24.080 a maver Carter in a bunch. If you lucky, if 0:33:24.120 --> 0:33:26.640 you're lucky, you'll find someone who wants more than what 0:33:26.920 --> 0:33:30.200 just they're giving. Because everybody, when you get into the league, 0:33:30.240 --> 0:33:32.440 you get in that situation, everybody loves what. They love, 0:33:32.440 --> 0:33:35.600 the sneakers, they they love, the outfits they get. How 0:33:35.600 --> 0:33:37.479 many people you're gonna find is gonna out go and 0:33:37.520 --> 0:33:39.760 be like, yo, thank you for getting us here. Now 0:33:39.760 --> 0:33:41.920 I gotta go get mine right away. I ain't talking 0:33:41.920 --> 0:33:44.640 about once is over and it doesn't happen often. And 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:46.880 a lot of it too, is you are not in 0:33:46.920 --> 0:33:49.040 a position where you come from enough to tell these individuals, 0:33:49.080 --> 0:33:51.480 hey man, I might be able to value a gift 0:33:51.720 --> 0:33:53.920 to say, you know, thanks for being my homeboy. You 0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:56.480 gonna watch you go even a car because we got 0:33:56.480 --> 0:33:58.600 it like that. But I can't take care of your 0:33:58.720 --> 0:34:01.600 entire life. That is that is for your entire life. 0:34:02.080 --> 0:34:04.400 And so that's a hard conversation to have when y'all 0:34:04.440 --> 0:34:05.560 all have a dream. 0:34:05.880 --> 0:34:07.400 Yeah, we all grew up. Man, I knew you were 0:34:07.400 --> 0:34:09.520 you to have anything. Man, you at my house. You 0:34:09.800 --> 0:34:10.560 sleep on my couch? 0:34:10.600 --> 0:34:13.680 Yeah, cause you feel like man, yeah, and if you 0:34:13.719 --> 0:34:15.719 don't got to. Most most times people get rid of 0:34:15.760 --> 0:34:17.120 stuff like this when they got a woman to come 0:34:17.120 --> 0:34:18.680 in and she'd be like, yo, he can't be sleeping 0:34:18.719 --> 0:34:21.160 on the couch your homeboy can't have to keep that 0:34:21.400 --> 0:34:23.200 because that's how it is, right. And it came it 0:34:23.239 --> 0:34:24.960 took my wife to come in and be like she 0:34:25.040 --> 0:34:27.080 was older woman that came in, like, what's going on 0:34:27.120 --> 0:34:27.719 in this frat house? 0:34:27.800 --> 0:34:31.200 Y'all got going on? What's something is doing room? 0:34:31.880 --> 0:34:33.239 You know what I'm saying. And I kind of have 0:34:33.320 --> 0:34:35.359 to like, oh, you're right, I'm with a grown woman. 0:34:35.400 --> 0:34:35.520 Now. 0:34:35.520 --> 0:34:37.080 I had to clear shop a little bit. And so 0:34:37.200 --> 0:34:39.799 sometimes it takes certain people to come in to show 0:34:39.840 --> 0:34:42.840 you like yo, like what are you doing right? And 0:34:43.000 --> 0:34:44.880 you know, hopefully it's not something that happens that's in 0:34:44.880 --> 0:34:46.400 a negative form to make you be like, oh, I 0:34:46.400 --> 0:34:48.319 got to get rid of. And it's not about getting 0:34:48.360 --> 0:34:50.960 rid of, it's like, hey, like I got here because X, 0:34:51.080 --> 0:34:52.960 Y and Z we all hear. Hey, you want to 0:34:53.000 --> 0:34:54.520 go to school, You want to do something for yourself, 0:34:54.560 --> 0:34:56.239 You want to do something for your family, for your kids. 0:34:56.239 --> 0:34:58.160 One day you're gonna have a daughter, Like and I 0:34:58.239 --> 0:34:59.919 just talked to my brother, say, you got a little girl. 0:35:00.600 --> 0:35:03.080 What you're gonna show her? She looking at you to 0:35:03.120 --> 0:35:05.279 see how it is that what man she wants? So 0:35:05.320 --> 0:35:06.000 what are you gonna do? 0:35:06.320 --> 0:35:07.520 You don't want to. You don't want her to be like, 0:35:07.520 --> 0:35:09.640 oh he get money from Uncle Dwayne. Where you need something? 0:35:09.880 --> 0:35:11.359 You want her to know that you get up every day, 0:35:11.560 --> 0:35:13.160 you go work and go grind and make sure she 0:35:13.239 --> 0:35:15.040 has what she needs. And that's what her man should do. 0:35:15.080 --> 0:35:17.200 Whatever it is, however, you want to raise your child. 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:22.680 And so that's that's how I approached it eventually, right, you. 0:35:22.680 --> 0:35:25.080 Got no dog in the fight through the lot been 0:35:25.120 --> 0:35:27.240 going over the last three four months with Jah Moran. 0:35:28.480 --> 0:35:32.680 If you, as a player or a player, what advice 0:35:32.719 --> 0:35:34.799 could you what advice would you give him? 0:35:35.040 --> 0:35:36.960 And what advice would you give him. If you were 0:35:37.000 --> 0:35:38.160 his father, this was your place. 0:35:38.239 --> 0:35:42.200 Ja Morant's Dwayne Wade's son, what advice? What would you 0:35:42.200 --> 0:35:44.800 tell him? 0:35:44.920 --> 0:35:49.640 I mean, that's that's obviously a tough question. But you know, 0:35:49.719 --> 0:35:51.600 I what I try to do with my kids is 0:35:51.640 --> 0:35:53.120 like I don't like, I'm not trying to I'm not 0:35:53.120 --> 0:35:55.120 gonna act like life. 0:35:54.880 --> 0:35:57.399 Is not gonna happen, right, Okay, you know what I'm saying. 0:35:57.480 --> 0:35:59.560 I'm not gonna act like some mistakes are not gonna happen. 0:36:01.040 --> 0:36:03.399 Try to minimize them, but you try to, right, that's 0:36:03.400 --> 0:36:06.520 our job to try to minimize, but they're gonna happen. 0:36:06.719 --> 0:36:08.160 Actually, you need some of them to happen. 0:36:08.239 --> 0:36:08.319 Right. 0:36:08.800 --> 0:36:13.520 So I'm not gonna make this about shame on you. Okay. 0:36:13.640 --> 0:36:15.319 This is a part of this journey that we're on. 0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:17.239 This is this is something that we can use as 0:36:17.239 --> 0:36:19.719 a learning lesson and learning too. And my question to 0:36:20.239 --> 0:36:23.400 anybody is what do you want for your life? And 0:36:23.440 --> 0:36:24.799 so if you sit and tell me, because I know 0:36:24.840 --> 0:36:26.320 what y'all probably won't. He wants to be one of 0:36:26.360 --> 0:36:29.120 the greatest, correct Now, you want to be one of 0:36:29.160 --> 0:36:32.200 the greatest. Okay, Now, let me open up the books 0:36:32.239 --> 0:36:34.000 to show you what the greats do and how they 0:36:34.040 --> 0:36:36.680 go buy their business and how they separate this in 0:36:36.760 --> 0:36:38.120 it like you know what I'm saying, it's more so 0:36:38.200 --> 0:36:38.680 of Sean. 0:36:39.080 --> 0:36:40.480 All right, let me open up the book. Who your 0:36:40.480 --> 0:36:41.279 favorite players? Oh? 0:36:41.320 --> 0:36:43.440 I love Kobe, I love Lebron, I love MJ. Let 0:36:43.480 --> 0:36:46.040 me show you what the guys that have a statue, 0:36:46.600 --> 0:36:48.879 This is how they did it, and the look they 0:36:48.920 --> 0:36:51.799 went through stuff. Right, All these guys, all of us 0:36:51.800 --> 0:36:54.719 go through something, right, Look how they And so it's 0:36:54.800 --> 0:36:57.000 just about showing the man like he's job's twenty three 0:36:57.080 --> 0:36:59.239 years old. Three, he's a young man who's supposed to 0:36:59.239 --> 0:37:00.960 make mistakes. Now, do we want him to make the 0:37:00.960 --> 0:37:02.879 mistakes that he made? Of course we don't. But that's 0:37:02.880 --> 0:37:05.319 not our we don't get to determine that, right, And 0:37:05.360 --> 0:37:08.479 so it's a it's a mistake twice, No we don't. 0:37:08.480 --> 0:37:09.759 But if you make it twice, we don't want to 0:37:09.760 --> 0:37:11.080 make it three times. We don't get rid of you 0:37:11.120 --> 0:37:13.200 because you make it twice. That's not how this works 0:37:13.320 --> 0:37:15.760 like this, we can't do that. And if I'm your father, 0:37:15.840 --> 0:37:17.759 that's not that's not my ministry. I'm here, I'm here 0:37:17.800 --> 0:37:20.120 for the long haul. And so if I'm your father, Okay, 0:37:20.160 --> 0:37:21.920 you've made the same mistake twice. You know what, I've 0:37:21.920 --> 0:37:23.799 done the same thing. I've made the same mistake twice 0:37:23.800 --> 0:37:26.359 in other instance as well. It just wasn't in front 0:37:26.360 --> 0:37:29.000 of the whole world. And so that's how I go 0:37:29.120 --> 0:37:30.920 in and that's how our parent my kids. It's not 0:37:31.000 --> 0:37:32.560 I don't go in with shame with you, because I 0:37:32.640 --> 0:37:35.200 know that when you got to make certain decisions, you 0:37:35.200 --> 0:37:36.880 can have a lapse for one second. 0:37:37.440 --> 0:37:38.960 It ain't even got to be a whole twenty four hours. 0:37:39.000 --> 0:37:39.759 It could be one second. 0:37:39.840 --> 0:37:44.520 Lapse changes a lot, and I've had them right, and 0:37:44.600 --> 0:37:47.200 so you know, I just think like, like, I don't 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:48.719 know j'all like that. So I wouldn't pick up the 0:37:48.719 --> 0:37:50.560 phone and be like, yo, young fell he not listening 0:37:50.600 --> 0:37:53.440 to me necessarily like that. That's not my ministry with him, 0:37:53.480 --> 0:37:56.360 but as someone who wants to see him go to 0:37:56.400 --> 0:37:58.560 the level that man. John Moran is my one of 0:37:58.600 --> 0:38:00.600 my favorite players to wise. If I'm gonna spend my cash, 0:38:00.960 --> 0:38:02.839 jians on my top three players that I'm gonna go 0:38:02.920 --> 0:38:06.280 spend my money on. And so you know, my conversation 0:38:06.320 --> 0:38:07.960 with him will be that what do you what do 0:38:08.000 --> 0:38:08.720 you want for your. 0:38:08.560 --> 0:38:17.840 Future one of your classmates teammates contemplating retire Lebron, Lebron, 0:38:19.360 --> 0:38:19.719 you want to. 0:38:19.680 --> 0:38:23.520 Know, you want to get your get let me get your. 0:38:23.600 --> 0:38:25.719 Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, give me that, give me that. 0:38:26.000 --> 0:38:28.279 Yeah, you know you're talking about the man just had 0:38:28.320 --> 0:38:33.000 forty ten and nine on Yeah, you don't hate Okay, Okay, 0:38:33.400 --> 0:38:35.080 I was gonna make sure we're talking about the same. 0:38:35.680 --> 0:38:38.759 But he's But he said, you know, nobody get weary. Man. 0:38:38.800 --> 0:38:40.680 You know it's getting hard and hard for me to 0:38:40.719 --> 0:38:42.680 summon it up. You know, I'm playing on this t 0:38:44.040 --> 0:38:47.920 give you a little week. There is the getting harder and 0:38:47.960 --> 0:38:49.840 hard for him to summers it up. And you know 0:38:49.880 --> 0:38:52.320 I ain't getting no younger. I need a little help 0:38:52.480 --> 0:38:55.239 here and there. So you didn't buy the part that 0:38:55.320 --> 0:38:56.520 Lebron was thinking about. 0:38:57.239 --> 0:38:59.240 All my money still in my pocket, I ain't buy nothing. 0:39:02.680 --> 0:39:04.440 It's the moment after the game, man. 0:39:05.640 --> 0:39:07.880 It's a lot like that, you know, Like obviously they 0:39:07.960 --> 0:39:10.280 where they came back from shout out to the Lakers, 0:39:10.280 --> 0:39:11.879 from making the moves that they made to help them 0:39:12.400 --> 0:39:15.160 make that push, and so yeah, the conversation in the 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:16.960 locker room may not be as funny no more, because 0:39:17.000 --> 0:39:18.760 you don't have a lot of comment with the next generation, 0:39:18.880 --> 0:39:21.480 right right, You get tired of the travel. The travel 0:39:21.520 --> 0:39:23.279 gets old because you ain't traveling around the world. 0:39:23.320 --> 0:39:24.560 You ain't going out to France. 0:39:24.719 --> 0:39:30.360 Yea a Sacramento, you know, go to Utah. 0:39:30.600 --> 0:39:32.759 Listen, it's only so many times that you want to 0:39:32.840 --> 0:39:35.160 keep doing that same route. So yes, when you look 0:39:35.200 --> 0:39:38.960 at all of that, it beats you down mentally. Physically, 0:39:39.000 --> 0:39:41.360 we know what it is. I mean, he's a physical specimen. 0:39:41.440 --> 0:39:48.520 But at the same time, physically it's gonna beat him down, right, Okay. 0:39:47.520 --> 0:39:48.399 That's it. 0:39:49.080 --> 0:39:50.239 I don't know. I don't know. 0:39:50.320 --> 0:39:51.080 I ain't gonna ask him. 0:39:51.080 --> 0:39:52.560 I'm gonna say, bro, you for real that that's not 0:39:52.600 --> 0:39:54.319 about that's not my But like I looked at I 0:39:54.320 --> 0:39:54.560 was like. 0:39:54.520 --> 0:39:56.600 Okay, I ain't buying that. I know what I know. 0:39:56.640 --> 0:39:59.160 Where after the season right now, would they asking you 0:39:59.200 --> 0:40:01.600 this question in this more? But also know when he 0:40:01.640 --> 0:40:04.239 get away and he go ahead to Mexico, he go 0:40:04.280 --> 0:40:05.959 away to the south of France, he on his yacht 0:40:05.960 --> 0:40:08.359 for the summer. He gonna look around and be like, okay, 0:40:08.400 --> 0:40:09.759 the King coming, the King coming back. 0:40:09.760 --> 0:40:10.399 I'm getting ready. 0:40:10.440 --> 0:40:12.560 How many more years do you think Lebron can play 0:40:12.560 --> 0:40:13.480 at this level, it's. 0:40:13.360 --> 0:40:16.760 Greatly because we've never nobody has ever been in their peak, 0:40:16.920 --> 0:40:19.440 regardless of sport, as lonely as this man has been 0:40:19.480 --> 0:40:20.080 in been in. 0:40:20.120 --> 0:40:22.520 This is prime, so to speak. 0:40:23.000 --> 0:40:26.560 Nobody's had a twenty year peak's injury. 0:40:27.120 --> 0:40:30.160 If he doesn't get injured, he takes care of himself. 0:40:30.200 --> 0:40:31.040 I mean, he's a. 0:40:31.040 --> 0:40:31.680 Look at him. 0:40:32.160 --> 0:40:35.080 First of all, let's look at one of his legs 0:40:35.080 --> 0:40:37.520 is two of mine put together. He ain't built like 0:40:37.880 --> 0:40:39.560 a normal person. 0:40:39.960 --> 0:40:43.440 Okay, so that was God gave him that blessing. You 0:40:43.560 --> 0:40:47.320 built different, and so he has the mental to continue 0:40:47.320 --> 0:40:50.399 to keep the mental strong. That's one of the hardest parts. 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:54.200 If you physically can play, mentally, you lose it quicker 0:40:54.200 --> 0:40:57.360 than even physical Sometime, like mentally I was done. I 0:40:57.400 --> 0:40:59.520 had I had two three more years at a certain level. 0:40:59.520 --> 0:41:01.360 I could ever about twelve to fifteen the game of 0:41:01.480 --> 0:41:05.360 the team off the bench. But mentally, because of the injuries, 0:41:05.480 --> 0:41:07.520 because of all the things that it beat me down 0:41:07.840 --> 0:41:10.799 where it wasn't I love the game, I can't wait 0:41:10.840 --> 0:41:15.120 to watch the game. But mentally, and so Lebron has 0:41:15.160 --> 0:41:17.560 been able to mentally tell himself. 0:41:17.080 --> 0:41:18.960 You're not tired, you're not injured. 0:41:19.120 --> 0:41:20.960 You're like he's been able to mentally do that, and 0:41:21.000 --> 0:41:22.600 now I've got a chance to watch it for four 0:41:22.680 --> 0:41:24.120 years like he would if he was hurt. 0:41:24.200 --> 0:41:24.760 He never would. 0:41:25.080 --> 0:41:26.879 He couldn't even talk that language in front of him, 0:41:27.120 --> 0:41:28.880 Like even if bro, you hurt, Now I'm not hurt. 0:41:29.520 --> 0:41:31.359 Your ankle hurt? No, not hurt. 0:41:31.760 --> 0:41:33.839 Because the mind is strong, right, his mind, and so 0:41:33.920 --> 0:41:36.320 that's why the strongest, that's one of the strongest twos 0:41:36.400 --> 0:41:39.080 is his mind. We know it from an IQ standpoint. 0:41:39.520 --> 0:41:40.840 You and I look at him like, oh man, he 0:41:40.880 --> 0:41:45.840 has a crazy IQ. No, he has an intelligent, strong mind. 0:41:46.120 --> 0:41:47.959 And so that allows him to keep going. 0:41:48.040 --> 0:41:50.400 And so long as his mind stay strong, which is 0:41:50.400 --> 0:41:53.000 obviously it gets hard and hard every year, right, and 0:41:53.040 --> 0:41:55.200 his body says strong. I mean he's he can average 0:41:55.200 --> 0:41:56.200 twenty plus for the next. 0:41:56.080 --> 0:41:57.920 Couple years of argument. 0:41:58.040 --> 0:42:01.160 He doesn't miss those games with the growing first year 0:42:01.280 --> 0:42:04.439 in LA, he doesn't hurt that ankle and missing Let's 0:42:04.440 --> 0:42:04.879 just say, for. 0:42:05.520 --> 0:42:07.920 You can't say that if I don't have three kne 0:42:08.040 --> 0:42:11.880 So we're doing ifs nown you the league, Yeah, I 0:42:11.920 --> 0:42:13.279 had one in college and two in the league. 0:42:13.320 --> 0:42:15.879 Yeah, we're doing if. Now, Okay, because we're doing if 0:42:16.000 --> 0:42:16.560 then let's talk. 0:42:16.560 --> 0:42:17.799 Okay, okay, how about this year. 0:42:19.239 --> 0:42:21.719 We're not gonna do our year here, Okay, if the 0:42:21.800 --> 0:42:24.399 ankle doesn't get hurt this year, the tendon this year. 0:42:25.200 --> 0:42:27.560 Do you think the outcome is different between them and Denver? 0:42:29.560 --> 0:42:29.919 I don't. 0:42:30.080 --> 0:42:36.120 I think the outcome is different between the Lakers. With 0:42:36.239 --> 0:42:39.200 him getting that time away. Actually, we got a chance 0:42:39.239 --> 0:42:41.759 to see them grow as a team outside of Lebron. Okay, 0:42:41.760 --> 0:42:44.640 we got to see a d grow at that level. 0:42:45.040 --> 0:42:46.759 Obviously when he's on the floor, we was like top 0:42:46.760 --> 0:42:48.600 five player in the league. Right, We got a chance 0:42:48.600 --> 0:42:51.440 to see what the d LO can bring and what 0:42:51.480 --> 0:42:53.000 all three can bring. 0:42:53.080 --> 0:42:55.520 He actually really grew. Ron's absence. 0:42:55.680 --> 0:42:57.719 The best thing that happened to the Lakers, right was 0:42:57.800 --> 0:43:01.120 Lebron's absence because it allowed him to not have to 0:43:01.160 --> 0:43:03.480 depend on him right, Right, Because when you got a 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:06.080 great player, you depend on that great player, right, And 0:43:06.160 --> 0:43:08.319 so they had the rock and they had something to 0:43:08.360 --> 0:43:10.520 play for in the middle of that, and so I 0:43:10.560 --> 0:43:13.320 think it was great for the Lakers, and that allowed 0:43:13.360 --> 0:43:15.239 him to come back. And if you seen when he 0:43:15.280 --> 0:43:16.680 came out, he was a different player than it was 0:43:16.719 --> 0:43:18.920 where he went out. Even though his numbers were still big, 0:43:19.320 --> 0:43:21.920 he wasn't leading the charge as much. Right right, He 0:43:22.000 --> 0:43:24.839 was allowing Reeves, he was allowing a d and all 0:43:24.840 --> 0:43:26.440 these guys to do their thing, and he was just 0:43:26.680 --> 0:43:28.840 kind of a shadow box until he needed to be Lebron. 0:43:29.280 --> 0:43:32.239 And so it was beautiful to watch d Wade. 0:43:32.280 --> 0:43:33.840 I think you did something not a whole lot of 0:43:33.840 --> 0:43:34.440 guys could do. 0:43:35.000 --> 0:43:35.640 Sacrifice. 0:43:35.840 --> 0:43:39.200 You sacrifice. Now it's one thing to sacrifice if we 0:43:39.280 --> 0:43:43.000 come together. But I'm already established here. I've already won 0:43:43.040 --> 0:43:46.440 the finals MVP. I've already demand here. And you asking 0:43:46.480 --> 0:43:48.040 me to come, you coming in my house and asking 0:43:48.040 --> 0:43:50.840 you to share, You have me sharing. You want us 0:43:50.880 --> 0:43:52.399 hitt the head of the table when that's my head 0:43:52.400 --> 0:43:54.080 of the table. Now you want me to get out 0:43:54.120 --> 0:43:58.839 of my bed. You gonna get the big bed. How 0:43:59.000 --> 0:44:01.680 were you able to do? Everybody can't do that the 0:44:01.760 --> 0:44:04.400 way everybody say that now you know, everybody to get 0:44:04.440 --> 0:44:06.080 in front of the camera, it is, oh, yeah, you know, 0:44:06.600 --> 0:44:11.080 I sacrifice all day, but you know deep down everybody 0:44:11.120 --> 0:44:15.520 can't do what you did. How and why? 0:44:15.680 --> 0:44:17.879 Well, why it's easy? I wanted to win. 0:44:18.280 --> 0:44:19.480 Everybody say they want to win. 0:44:19.760 --> 0:44:20.960 Well, they be. 0:44:20.960 --> 0:44:25.319 Lying, Okay, all right, we said, now what's the action? 0:44:26.080 --> 0:44:29.680 And so I wanted to win. And the reason I 0:44:29.680 --> 0:44:31.799 wanted to win because when I came in the game, 0:44:31.920 --> 0:44:34.640 this is what was said to be in this breath, 0:44:34.719 --> 0:44:38.880 in this conversation, you have to win championships. Every generation 0:44:39.080 --> 0:44:41.880 is different than the conversations surrounding guys is different. I 0:44:41.880 --> 0:44:44.440 didn't have the Steph Curry range. I didn't have the 0:44:44.560 --> 0:44:47.359 dame like I wasn't gonna put up thirty thousand points, right, 0:44:48.160 --> 0:44:50.680 so for me to put my name and sign my 0:44:50.760 --> 0:44:55.000 name in heaven, I wanted my game to be accumulation 0:44:55.120 --> 0:44:57.000 of it all. But it needs to be winning. It 0:44:57.000 --> 0:45:00.040 needs to be led by winning for me, right, And 0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:04.080 so that wasn't a facade. And when the opportunities came, 0:45:04.160 --> 0:45:08.080 I always put myself in a position to do that right. 0:45:08.200 --> 0:45:10.960 And so you can ask anybody who work with me, 0:45:11.600 --> 0:45:13.360 maybe most people who walk in the room with me 0:45:14.000 --> 0:45:16.920 in the meetings, and it could be a meaningful weight enterprises. 0:45:17.080 --> 0:45:18.799 I don't sit at the head of the table. I 0:45:18.880 --> 0:45:20.880 like to sit in the middle, like to sit in 0:45:20.880 --> 0:45:23.000 the seats in the middle. I like to be amongst everybody, 0:45:23.040 --> 0:45:24.160 to have conversations with everybody. 0:45:24.160 --> 0:45:25.480 I don't want to be at the head. It's lonely 0:45:25.520 --> 0:45:28.120 at the head of the table. And so when Lebron 0:45:28.200 --> 0:45:30.279 came and C became, I was like, Oh, you want 0:45:30.280 --> 0:45:30.680 to sit. 0:45:30.520 --> 0:45:32.000 At the head. Cool. 0:45:32.040 --> 0:45:33.960 I'm gonna go where I'm comfortable. Because here's the thing. 0:45:34.000 --> 0:45:35.719 I haven't been a star of my whole life. I 0:45:35.760 --> 0:45:39.319 played so many roles my entire basketball career, and I 0:45:39.320 --> 0:45:41.319 think that's one of the reasons why I look at 0:45:41.360 --> 0:45:43.120 myself as one of the greatest players, because I didn't 0:45:43.120 --> 0:45:44.920 do it one way. I showed you how to be 0:45:44.920 --> 0:45:47.560 great in so many different ways and so many different times. 0:45:47.560 --> 0:45:50.359 My game change and evolved so much right and so 0:45:50.480 --> 0:45:53.719 to me, that's greatness as a basketball player. And I 0:45:53.760 --> 0:45:56.120 wonder challenge myself throughout my career to see if I 0:45:56.160 --> 0:45:59.399 could do stuff different, like, Okay, thirty points a game, 0:45:59.560 --> 0:46:02.920 the League one did that, What's next? Finals MVP got 0:46:02.920 --> 0:46:05.279 that did like I'm all about like what's next? And 0:46:05.320 --> 0:46:09.000 so when the opportunity came in twenty ten, I was like, Okay, 0:46:09.040 --> 0:46:12.040 this is another challenge for me to play with somebody 0:46:12.040 --> 0:46:14.120 I never thought i'd play with someone I admire so much, 0:46:14.120 --> 0:46:15.400 but how can I play with the guy that I 0:46:15.480 --> 0:46:16.400 know is ball dominant. 0:46:16.680 --> 0:46:19.360 When I become ball dominant, right, pick on my challenge. 0:46:19.719 --> 0:46:21.439 And so I just learned how to play off the ball. 0:46:21.520 --> 0:46:24.000 I learned, Well, you want you see the back cuts? 0:46:24.160 --> 0:46:26.200 Yeah, you got a budget, you got a bunch of 0:46:26.480 --> 0:46:29.399 yeah game you like. 0:46:31.640 --> 0:46:32.960 You run an old Prinston. 0:46:33.960 --> 0:46:35.879 James mcga and you know what to go back real quick. 0:46:35.880 --> 0:46:37.600 I'm sorry because I didn't say this. We talk about 0:46:37.600 --> 0:46:39.680 the Hall of Fame when you talk about Dirk cast 0:46:40.160 --> 0:46:43.440 changed the game for his position, right like, right now, 0:46:43.480 --> 0:46:45.600 you got people the stretch, you got people in the gym, 0:46:45.640 --> 0:46:47.160 right now putting that try to get that one tight 0:46:47.280 --> 0:46:51.400 hit right Tony Parker, I felt like Tony Parker was 0:46:51.400 --> 0:46:52.960 amazing point guard, but he was like a he was 0:46:53.000 --> 0:46:55.240 like a big man because when he got in the post, 0:46:55.600 --> 0:46:57.640 his footwork was crazy. When he got in the paint, 0:46:57.840 --> 0:47:00.400 his footwork was crazy, like he got you up and 0:47:00.480 --> 0:47:02.960 numbers all there, right, and so just just amazing to 0:47:02.960 --> 0:47:05.000 see like a point guard, but when he got to 0:47:05.040 --> 0:47:07.040 the paint, he became one of the best big men 0:47:07.040 --> 0:47:10.200 in the game. A lot of people don't know that Powell. 0:47:11.400 --> 0:47:13.280 When I played with I played with Powell one time 0:47:13.800 --> 0:47:18.680 and we got invited to Barack's President Barack Obama's forty 0:47:18.760 --> 0:47:21.200 ninth birthday powder party at the White House, and I 0:47:21.200 --> 0:47:23.080 got a chance to play with Powell. 0:47:23.320 --> 0:47:24.720 Kobe was like, don't get used. 0:47:24.560 --> 0:47:25.000 To it. 0:47:26.640 --> 0:47:29.880 Was hitting me with I was like, oh, Kobe, this 0:47:30.000 --> 0:47:33.200 is easy. I gotta throw the shack. You actually getting 0:47:33.239 --> 0:47:39.279 it back. So I just wanted to throw that out 0:47:39.280 --> 0:47:40.120 about the Hall of Famers. 0:47:40.120 --> 0:47:42.160 Man just so honored to be in a class with 0:47:42.239 --> 0:47:44.400 guys who changed the games for their position. 0:47:44.640 --> 0:47:46.000 I think I was one of the guys who. 0:47:45.840 --> 0:47:49.320 Came in and evolved and evolved, evolved the game in 0:47:49.440 --> 0:47:51.560 my position and gave it just a little different. 0:47:51.560 --> 0:47:54.120 Look, where are you on this, because somehow it has 0:47:54.160 --> 0:47:57.920 gotten skewed over the years because they've taken away from it. 0:47:57.920 --> 0:47:59.600 It's like, if you don't have a ring, you can't 0:47:59.600 --> 0:48:01.360 be great, d Wade. I believe you could be a 0:48:01.360 --> 0:48:03.319 great player and not have a ring, because they are great. 0:48:03.360 --> 0:48:06.400 There are players that have multiple rings that aren't great players, 0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:08.359 and there are great players that don't have any ring. 0:48:08.680 --> 0:48:12.000 So when did this happen that if you don't have 0:48:12.080 --> 0:48:14.720 a ring you're not a great player. When did that happen? 0:48:14.840 --> 0:48:18.400 With it two thousand and five? When did this happen? 0:48:18.840 --> 0:48:21.320 I don't know when it happened. You know, man, a 0:48:21.360 --> 0:48:23.040 lot of people have what we have right here. A 0:48:23.080 --> 0:48:26.040 lot of people have a microphone, and their microphone is powerful. 0:48:26.560 --> 0:48:28.560 And so someone said this alone the way. 0:48:28.520 --> 0:48:30.600 And you said enough, people started believing, like, yeah. 0:48:30.719 --> 0:48:35.719 It makes no sense, Like here it is, okay. So 0:48:35.880 --> 0:48:37.880 I won a championship in the NBA, I didn't win 0:48:37.920 --> 0:48:40.440 in college. They went in high school, so far and 0:48:40.480 --> 0:48:43.160 so on. So does that make me greater than Carmelo? 0:48:43.239 --> 0:48:47.200 Because Carmelo wanted college. Cammello probably wanted a couple state championship, right, 0:48:47.239 --> 0:48:50.719 Like it's different times. We have an opportunity because of 0:48:50.760 --> 0:48:53.520 our talent, because our team, But that time is there 0:48:53.560 --> 0:48:57.840 for you, right and you try to strike that doesn't 0:48:57.880 --> 0:49:00.759 happen just because you're a great Playerization you gotta do 0:49:00.800 --> 0:49:02.959 they part right. You got to put the right team 0:49:02.960 --> 0:49:04.839 around you. You gotta put the right talent around Like if 0:49:04.840 --> 0:49:07.200 you look at Alan irvs in the Philadelphi's seventy six ers, 0:49:07.440 --> 0:49:09.680 they put the they structured the right team around him 0:49:09.719 --> 0:49:11.759 to give this many chance to be his to be 0:49:11.840 --> 0:49:13.840 his individual great self. 0:49:13.719 --> 0:49:16.399 Take the ball out and they did. 0:49:16.400 --> 0:49:20.000 They roll. Hey, you block shots at the rim? Yeah, yep, 0:49:20.080 --> 0:49:21.279 ex know, if he throw it. 0:49:21.160 --> 0:49:24.080 To you, you better shoot ten to fifteen feet only 0:49:24.680 --> 0:49:26.799 like they played their roles right and so but it 0:49:26.800 --> 0:49:28.760 took the organization, It took the gym and to everybody 0:49:28.760 --> 0:49:30.560 to make sure there was the right talent around Ai. 0:49:30.880 --> 0:49:32.560 So you're telling me Ai is not great if he 0:49:32.560 --> 0:49:34.239 don't make the finals run, or if they don't bring 0:49:34.320 --> 0:49:36.960 in my tumble, if they don't bring in these guys 0:49:36.960 --> 0:49:39.399 to open the floor for him to defend for him, 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:43.120 all these things. And so the concept of a great 0:49:43.160 --> 0:49:45.200 player is not great because he didn't win a ring. 0:49:45.320 --> 0:49:47.480 Everybody can't win a ring. You'll have a different champion 0:49:47.560 --> 0:49:48.759 every year. 0:49:48.800 --> 0:49:50.799 And that's what it was, that defeat. Now, the rings 0:49:50.800 --> 0:49:53.560 would be meaningless if everybody won one. What's the value 0:49:53.560 --> 0:49:53.719 in that. 0:49:53.880 --> 0:49:54.840 There's no value in it. 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:57.960 That's why it's such premium on it because everybody can't 0:49:57.960 --> 0:50:00.359 get one. It doesn't matter how great you are. You 0:50:00.400 --> 0:50:02.719 will not walk away with a ring just because you're great. 0:50:02.719 --> 0:50:04.360 It's players that are way greater than me, and they 0:50:04.400 --> 0:50:07.399 won't walk away with three rings. Right, That doesn't mean 0:50:07.480 --> 0:50:09.399 that I'm greater than that, I'm better than them because 0:50:09.400 --> 0:50:11.759 I have three rings, right, or because another player has 0:50:11.760 --> 0:50:13.879 one or two, because you got players that got rings 0:50:13.880 --> 0:50:16.040 that ain't even didn't do nothing to get those rings, 0:50:16.080 --> 0:50:16.759 so they make them. 0:50:17.080 --> 0:50:19.600 That's not how it goes. Now, I understand that. 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:23.960 Okay, when you start talking about that pyramid, Okay, now 0:50:24.000 --> 0:50:25.919 it's third, second, third rings map. 0:50:26.040 --> 0:50:28.000 Well, because here we go, let's go back to the hotel. 0:50:28.400 --> 0:50:31.400 It's a different room, right, Like it's a hey, we 0:50:31.560 --> 0:50:34.719 all great, Yes, what you say one ring group is 0:50:34.719 --> 0:50:36.759 going over here? Okay, we'll just say that who got 0:50:36.800 --> 0:50:37.280 three rings? 0:50:37.280 --> 0:50:37.440 Going? 0:50:37.640 --> 0:50:38.239 You know how it go? 0:50:38.800 --> 0:50:41.320 And so I got a card for the three rings. 0:50:41.360 --> 0:50:43.399 I can have conversations with a couple of guys in there, 0:50:43.800 --> 0:50:45.600 but I can't go to the four or five. It's 0:50:45.640 --> 0:50:48.000 certain rooms I can't even go in, right, So it's okay, 0:50:48.280 --> 0:50:50.000 doesn't take away nothing from your greatness. We can all 0:50:50.000 --> 0:50:52.240 sit in the room of the top seventy five, top hundred, 0:50:52.400 --> 0:50:55.160 But then they gonna separate you from the rooms of champions, right, 0:50:56.480 --> 0:50:56.960 but your. 0:50:56.800 --> 0:50:58.520 Team's gonna be in that with you. They don't bring 0:50:58.600 --> 0:50:59.360 champions in. 0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:01.680 One person because it's not golf it's not tens and 0:51:01.760 --> 0:51:03.759 so far. So your team got to come into the 0:51:03.760 --> 0:51:06.560 two six Miami Heat. And so if they haven't put 0:51:06.560 --> 0:51:09.239 a team around you that allows you to be there, 0:51:09.280 --> 0:51:11.920 or if your time and hasn't hit, it's timing. Michael 0:51:11.960 --> 0:51:14.839 Jordan came around and messed everybody timing. Yes, Lebron James 0:51:14.880 --> 0:51:17.319 been in the finals ten to twelve years, how many 0:51:17.320 --> 0:51:20.400 opportunities do you get? Doesn't And so I hate that 0:51:20.480 --> 0:51:23.359 notion because that doesn't mean that Dame or and I'm 0:51:23.360 --> 0:51:24.920 not saying he won't get one, but right now that 0:51:25.040 --> 0:51:25.440 Dame is not. 0:51:25.600 --> 0:51:26.640 You can't tell me Dame. 0:51:26.560 --> 0:51:28.879 Is not one of the greatest players that we've seen 0:51:28.920 --> 0:51:31.800 play this game. If he walk away with no rings, 0:51:31.840 --> 0:51:34.480 does that take away where we've watching Dame? Not for me, 0:51:34.640 --> 0:51:37.560 not individually. It just means it doesn't. Now we know 0:51:37.640 --> 0:51:39.960 if he got the right team, he's not selfish. We 0:51:40.000 --> 0:51:42.680 know Dame gonna make sure other guys eat right. But 0:51:42.719 --> 0:51:45.080 he hasn't had the team that has allowed him at 0:51:45.080 --> 0:51:47.200 the right time to be better than the Lakers. 0:51:48.120 --> 0:51:49.960 Need to be more selfish. When he had that seventy one, 0:51:50.000 --> 0:51:52.000 I said, you need to be more selfish, you need 0:51:52.000 --> 0:51:55.120 to get eighty that night they started telling you like, nah, 0:51:55.360 --> 0:51:59.160 But let me ask you this. When you played with Lebron, 0:52:00.840 --> 0:52:04.359 you see him from a distance, Was he better up 0:52:04.400 --> 0:52:06.399 closed than you thought? Even you thought he was from 0:52:06.400 --> 0:52:06.880 a distance? 0:52:08.360 --> 0:52:10.920 One? He was better in practice and I thought he 0:52:11.000 --> 0:52:11.640 was in the games. 0:52:12.200 --> 0:52:12.279 What. 0:52:14.880 --> 0:52:18.000 I didn't get a chance to watch the other goats 0:52:18.200 --> 0:52:20.799 because it's multiple goals to pro in what era. But 0:52:20.840 --> 0:52:22.759 I did get a chance to watch this era. One 0:52:22.800 --> 0:52:24.920 of this era's goats, which is Lebron, Kobe's won and 0:52:25.000 --> 0:52:28.400 Lebron's one. And when I saw him in practice, it 0:52:28.440 --> 0:52:29.279 was a separator from. 0:52:29.200 --> 0:52:32.640 Me of good to great to goats. 0:52:34.719 --> 0:52:37.200 You cannot do the things that he did and how 0:52:37.239 --> 0:52:37.839 he did it. 0:52:38.520 --> 0:52:42.120 And so so we take it for granted. Of course, 0:52:43.000 --> 0:52:43.640 of course we do. 0:52:44.719 --> 0:52:46.600 And it's not that we won't have another great player 0:52:46.600 --> 0:52:50.400 to come along. We just will not have another n Right, 0:52:50.480 --> 0:52:54.080 we're still talking about Jordan all these years because we took. 0:52:53.920 --> 0:52:55.920 It for granted in the moment right now. 0:52:55.800 --> 0:52:59.160 It's like it's like when you watch when you watch 0:52:59.320 --> 0:53:01.480 the dunk contest with you there, sometimes you can't see 0:53:01.520 --> 0:53:03.439 what really happened, right, You got to look everybody looking 0:53:03.440 --> 0:53:06.239 for the instant replay slow motion, slow down, actually see 0:53:06.239 --> 0:53:06.640 what happened. 0:53:06.840 --> 0:53:07.400 That's what happened. 0:53:07.400 --> 0:53:08.520 When your career ends. 0:53:08.960 --> 0:53:11.680 As a Lebron career ends, we're gonna actually start looking 0:53:11.680 --> 0:53:13.560 at seeing what happened and what he actually did. Right 0:53:13.840 --> 0:53:16.200 and now we're gonna be like oh, because right now 0:53:16.280 --> 0:53:18.080 we're in it and we send it in fast motion 0:53:18.239 --> 0:53:20.200 and we can't really see everything that he's accomplishing. 0:53:21.040 --> 0:53:23.480 If they were to redraft the two thousand and and 0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:28.600 your class, the two thousand and three class, obviously, Lebron's 0:53:28.600 --> 0:53:29.440 gonna go number one? 0:53:29.640 --> 0:53:32.680 Where's d Wade going if they redrafted? So we had. 0:53:32.719 --> 0:53:38.360 Lebron one dark old Mellow cb U if they redraft, 0:53:38.400 --> 0:53:39.879 So we redrafted. 0:53:40.080 --> 0:53:43.279 Like redrafted after the career, like where we redraft? What 0:53:43.360 --> 0:53:47.040 point are we redrafted in? Like now was we sitting 0:53:47.080 --> 0:53:47.560 here or. 0:53:50.040 --> 0:53:50.279 Yeah? 0:53:50.320 --> 0:53:50.719 You know what? 0:53:52.680 --> 0:53:56.400 Yeah, let's do I think even if we redrafted, Lebron's 0:53:56.400 --> 0:54:02.080 gonna go number one. We we agree with that. So yeah, 0:54:02.200 --> 0:54:02.800 we go back. 0:54:02.680 --> 0:54:05.120 And look at everybody's career. Okay, where do you think 0:54:05.160 --> 0:54:12.520 you going? Where I should have went? Probably if you 0:54:12.520 --> 0:54:14.960 could do it to Denver? 0:54:15.200 --> 0:54:17.399 Denver, so you should have been a third pick. 0:54:17.680 --> 0:54:20.400 Yeah, Mellow should have been a second pick and not. 0:54:20.520 --> 0:54:21.759 And Chris Boss was a fourth pick. 0:54:21.840 --> 0:54:23.759 But you know, when it comes to bigs, is about 0:54:23.760 --> 0:54:26.360 what team needs that kind of big, right, So obviously 0:54:26.400 --> 0:54:27.880 Toronto needed them. 0:54:27.800 --> 0:54:28.920 Miami Heat needed a big. 0:54:28.960 --> 0:54:31.120 They would have drafted Chris Bosher Toronto and take them 0:54:31.200 --> 0:54:33.000 right right, I would have went to the Heat. 0:54:34.440 --> 0:54:37.800 So if you do it all over, I would probably 0:54:37.800 --> 0:54:39.240 go third to Denver. 0:54:39.400 --> 0:54:42.960 Right. Yeah, there's been a lot of speculation. I think 0:54:43.040 --> 0:54:46.200 Mellow brought it up. So don't get mad at me, 0:54:46.640 --> 0:54:51.520 Mello said. He said, don't get mad, Mello said. 0:54:51.560 --> 0:54:53.279 Bello said he should have been Rookie of the Year. 0:54:53.920 --> 0:54:55.880 He should have been rooky. I heard that you. 0:54:56.880 --> 0:54:58.759 So I ain't trying to start nothing, he said it. 0:54:58.840 --> 0:55:02.720 Well, he said, at least cold, it's an argument. Yeah, 0:55:02.880 --> 0:55:05.200 he had an argument then, and he has an argument now. 0:55:05.480 --> 0:55:08.400 Takes nothing away from Lebron and the regular year. But 0:55:08.480 --> 0:55:09.960 let's look at what Mellow did over there in the 0:55:10.000 --> 0:55:10.640 Western Conference. 0:55:11.280 --> 0:55:14.400 On the game, six rebounds the game, almost three assists, 0:55:14.400 --> 0:55:16.440 shot forty four percent from the floor, and his. 0:55:16.400 --> 0:55:18.640 Team made on the playoff team playoff team. 0:55:18.920 --> 0:55:22.120 Lebron was twenty one twenty one point. 0:55:21.960 --> 0:55:25.600 Nine five and a half rebounds six and sists, shot 0:55:25.640 --> 0:55:27.680 forty three percent from the floor. Team didn't make the 0:55:27.719 --> 0:55:29.080 playoff co work here of the year. 0:55:30.520 --> 0:55:31.040 It should have been. 0:55:31.080 --> 0:55:32.799 It should have been because they get it for Grant 0:55:32.840 --> 0:55:33.800 Hill and Jason Kidd. 0:55:33.880 --> 0:55:36.080 Yeah, y'all showed us that y'all can do it right. 0:55:36.440 --> 0:55:37.319 Co work here of the year. 0:55:37.719 --> 0:55:41.759 If we're going by the numbers and how everything is, like, right, Like, yeah, 0:55:41.880 --> 0:55:44.719 Lebron had more assists. Yeah, but when you look at it, 0:55:44.800 --> 0:55:46.400 he's doing this on a ready. 0:55:46.160 --> 0:55:47.520 Made playoff team, which is harder. 0:55:47.640 --> 0:55:49.920 Right, Lebron's doing on an eighteen year old kid that's 0:55:49.920 --> 0:55:51.080 coming in to save a franchise. 0:55:51.160 --> 0:55:51.399 Right. 0:55:52.840 --> 0:55:55.320 They both deserved it, right, Yeah. 0:55:55.239 --> 0:55:56.839 Mellow line, Yeah it could have been. 0:55:56.840 --> 0:55:59.640 Okay, Yeah, listen, Mellow ain't trying to take nothing away 0:55:59.640 --> 0:56:02.520 from Bron, right. Mellow is like, but I know I 0:56:02.600 --> 0:56:06.759 put the same effort level work in, but y'all didn't 0:56:06.760 --> 0:56:07.839 want to. They don't want to give it to him. 0:56:07.840 --> 0:56:11.920 He and he was warning to do rags they want. 0:56:11.920 --> 0:56:14.839 They won't mess with Mellow at that time. But I mean, 0:56:14.840 --> 0:56:16.759 if you look at it at that time, it's it's 0:56:16.760 --> 0:56:18.600 been a few times. What it's All Star games where 0:56:18.600 --> 0:56:20.640 a certain times you're like, oh, two people, should they 0:56:20.640 --> 0:56:22.120 deserve it and it's okay to code. 0:56:22.160 --> 0:56:24.400 Sometimes you think they'll be code m vps. 0:56:28.520 --> 0:56:30.680 Well, I don't know that the games changes so much 0:56:31.360 --> 0:56:33.080 what they do one from the East versus and one 0:56:33.120 --> 0:56:33.640 from the West. 0:56:33.760 --> 0:56:38.320 No, why not? Well that I mean they don't. You 0:56:38.320 --> 0:56:40.799 don't know what baseball do. It happened like American League 0:56:40.880 --> 0:56:43.520 MVP and National League MVP. Football don't do it. You 0:56:43.560 --> 0:56:45.640 have one m v P. I don't think they'll do that. 0:56:45.719 --> 0:56:46.840 But it's not why not? 0:56:46.920 --> 0:56:49.319 It's not equal? You don't play every team equally. You 0:56:49.320 --> 0:56:51.360 don't like it's not so why are you giving out. 0:56:51.520 --> 0:56:53.760 You think the West plays different than the East. 0:56:54.200 --> 0:56:57.359 They play at a different time, for sure, No they do. 0:56:57.440 --> 0:57:00.000 It's different. Like why not have an East versus? 0:57:00.160 --> 0:57:02.359 Like I understand how it's been, But if we break 0:57:02.360 --> 0:57:04.640 this down right now and all these new awards that's 0:57:04.640 --> 0:57:07.000 coming up, why not reimagine this thing that ain't. 0:57:06.880 --> 0:57:08.960 Really got no new award They just gave him from names. 0:57:09.280 --> 0:57:11.239 You know, you got the labbird in the Magine doctor 0:57:11.280 --> 0:57:11.839 the ward you got. 0:57:12.320 --> 0:57:14.360 No, but you get MVPs for Eastern Commerce Finals. I 0:57:14.360 --> 0:57:16.920 didn't get an MVP for East Commerce finals. I just 0:57:16.920 --> 0:57:19.400 got it for the NBA fight. So like their new awards. 0:57:19.440 --> 0:57:21.240 Now at it, it's more you got more. 0:57:21.480 --> 0:57:24.120 Man, Yeah, Lebron would showing up being none questions Lebron 0:57:24.160 --> 0:57:25.920 got you would have ten Eastern conferences. 0:57:26.120 --> 0:57:28.000 Yeah, it'll be a lot. Like you get some scoring Chameman. 0:57:28.080 --> 0:57:29.000 They given all these awards. 0:57:29.040 --> 0:57:30.800 They can clutch award how many times? 0:57:30.800 --> 0:57:32.080 And fourth quarter I was in there, I was the 0:57:32.200 --> 0:57:33.680 leading scorer. No, I mean awards I have. 0:57:33.920 --> 0:57:34.200 Wow. 0:57:34.480 --> 0:57:38.439 So if we're reimagining things, then let's reimagine it. Let's 0:57:38.440 --> 0:57:39.959 give an MVP off for the East and the MVP 0:57:40.040 --> 0:57:40.600 off for the West. 0:57:42.640 --> 0:57:46.240 Shock comes to Miami. You're already solidified as a player. 0:57:46.880 --> 0:57:49.480 How easy was it for you? How accepting were you 0:57:49.560 --> 0:57:53.280 of shock? Like man, and we're getting shot. 0:57:53.480 --> 0:57:56.000 It's shocked. I would be a fool. 0:57:57.680 --> 0:57:59.320 I would have been a fool, and I would still 0:57:59.360 --> 0:58:01.920 be a fool if I didn't come in all ear 0:58:02.080 --> 0:58:05.840 my ears opened, my eyes buck white and listening to everything. 0:58:05.920 --> 0:58:08.400 That one of the greatest players, I mean at that time, 0:58:08.440 --> 0:58:10.880 he already had three rings on the fifty Greatest Players 0:58:10.920 --> 0:58:13.920 of all time so far and so on. So I 0:58:14.040 --> 0:58:18.840 was like this, yes, yes, hey, that's why I went 0:58:18.880 --> 0:58:22.240 the ball right. Oh yeah, listen, he let Shaq is 0:58:22.240 --> 0:58:24.080 a very honest man to me, and our relationship is 0:58:24.080 --> 0:58:26.480 a one two punch. He came in, he sat down 0:58:26.680 --> 0:58:28.320 just like this. We sat down and it was very candid. 0:58:28.360 --> 0:58:32.640 It was very short. He was like, listen, Flashes, is 0:58:32.640 --> 0:58:36.120 your team? Wait one flashit. He eventually got to that, 0:58:36.680 --> 0:58:38.960 I'm going to help you become one of the greatest 0:58:39.320 --> 0:58:41.480 to play this game. I'm going to help you be 0:58:41.480 --> 0:58:44.920 a superstar. When I asked for the ball, throw it. 0:58:44.880 --> 0:58:50.360 To his hand, it was we had a real easy relationship. 0:58:50.720 --> 0:58:53.320 If Shaq did like this to that right hand, turn five, 0:58:53.400 --> 0:58:56.520 get shocked the ball? What you want? You want a lie, 0:58:56.600 --> 0:58:59.720 big fellow, I have nothing to like. Shaq helped me 0:58:59.760 --> 0:59:02.080 and sold me, like my confidences. I walked out on 0:59:02.120 --> 0:59:02.439 that court. 0:59:02.520 --> 0:59:04.720 It's, you know, like when I got the NBA the 0:59:04.800 --> 0:59:05.960 Miami Heat that we want nothing. 0:59:06.240 --> 0:59:07.240 Nobody was checking for us. 0:59:08.040 --> 0:59:09.720 When I walked out there my second year and Shaq 0:59:09.840 --> 0:59:12.000 was walking out there, my shoulders got a little bag 0:59:12.000 --> 0:59:15.160 of test my big you see my big brother, right, 0:59:16.120 --> 0:59:18.400 you know what I mean? And so he helped me 0:59:18.440 --> 0:59:20.880 so much. He took my career that was probably gonna 0:59:20.880 --> 0:59:21.520 go like this. 0:59:23.080 --> 0:59:23.680 Right away. 0:59:24.000 --> 0:59:26.440 And it was the confidence that he gave me. Think 0:59:26.480 --> 0:59:28.520 about him, man, one of the greatest evers say is 0:59:28.560 --> 0:59:29.040 your show. 0:59:29.440 --> 0:59:32.120 I'm gonna back you up. I got you and everything. 0:59:32.360 --> 0:59:33.120 Man, I'm looking at you. 0:59:33.160 --> 0:59:35.080 In your third season, you lead the Heat to the 0:59:35.160 --> 0:59:38.200 to the championship, You're the finals, MVP, and y'all went 0:59:38.240 --> 0:59:41.080 four straight. You go forty two, thirty six, forty three, 0:59:41.240 --> 0:59:41.840 thirty six. 0:59:43.640 --> 0:59:45.160 It's a bad boy. 0:59:44.880 --> 0:59:48.919 Forty forty two, thirty six, forty two in game three, 0:59:49.360 --> 0:59:52.160 thirty six, in game four, forty three, in game five, 0:59:52.320 --> 0:59:53.040 thirty six. 0:59:52.880 --> 0:59:54.959 In game six, the haters gonna say, I shot twenty 0:59:54.960 --> 0:59:55.520 three throws. 0:59:55.600 --> 0:59:58.640 Yeah, big points. 1:00:00.560 --> 1:00:03.000 You were you were you were attacking, you attacking the back, 1:00:03.120 --> 1:00:04.360 you and you are attacking food back. 1:00:04.400 --> 1:00:05.560 Well, I want to jump shooting fool. 1:00:05.560 --> 1:00:07.880 I'll tell you that I was gonna get in one 1:00:07.920 --> 1:00:08.400 way or the other. 1:00:08.520 --> 1:00:09.680 So what's going through your mind? 1:00:09.680 --> 1:00:11.280 Because that one game, I don't know if it was 1:00:11.280 --> 1:00:14.240 Game three or Game three, you guys were down, and 1:00:14.280 --> 1:00:16.560 I remember you saying like, Man, I ain't. 1:00:16.320 --> 1:00:16.840 Going out like that. 1:00:17.040 --> 1:00:19.000 I ain't gonna like I ain't going No, that ain't 1:00:19.000 --> 1:00:19.560 about to happen. 1:00:20.400 --> 1:00:23.040 No, First of all, you want you one thing we 1:00:23.080 --> 1:00:24.160 all want where we come from. 1:00:24.200 --> 1:00:25.320 We want some stripes in the hood. 1:00:25.400 --> 1:00:26.080 Yeah, exactly. 1:00:26.280 --> 1:00:28.280 Back at the crib, I need my stripes. 1:00:28.360 --> 1:00:28.600 Right. 1:00:28.760 --> 1:00:30.480 I'm sitting there and I'm like, we ain't getting we 1:00:30.480 --> 1:00:31.720 ain't about to get beat like this. 1:00:32.240 --> 1:00:34.360 I know everybody back in Chicago, but I know they 1:00:34.440 --> 1:00:36.840 watching this game, right, And I just through that time, 1:00:37.040 --> 1:00:38.680 I was just thinking of everything. I'm like, nah, I 1:00:38.680 --> 1:00:40.320 ain't going out like this. If I'm gonna go out, 1:00:40.360 --> 1:00:43.760 I'm about to go out letting these things fly. This 1:00:43.840 --> 1:00:46.160 ball about to go up, baby, I'm gonna tell you that. 1:00:46.440 --> 1:00:49.040 And then they start going in. But just the mentality 1:00:49.040 --> 1:00:52.120 to say, you know what we hear. I don't know 1:00:52.160 --> 1:00:53.760 because I'm young, so I don't I don't know if 1:00:53.760 --> 1:00:55.720 this is gonna happen again, I'm not even thinking that way. 1:00:56.000 --> 1:00:58.440 But what I do know is if we go down three, oh, 1:00:59.240 --> 1:01:02.840 it's probably it's probably over. And so we get so 1:01:02.920 --> 1:01:06.080 when we came out of that huddle down thirteen at 1:01:06.080 --> 1:01:10.440 the crib, I was like, well, our young fella, all 1:01:10.480 --> 1:01:13.919 the things you told yourself if you get this opportunity, yeah, 1:01:14.000 --> 1:01:17.080 flash all these cool nicknames it's time to do it. 1:01:18.720 --> 1:01:21.360 Did you know you were gonna have that type of 1:01:21.440 --> 1:01:24.040 night going into the game, because sometimes you can tell, 1:01:24.160 --> 1:01:27.840 like man the way to shoot around and warm up. 1:01:27.880 --> 1:01:29.600 I felt really good, so you kind of get a 1:01:29.640 --> 1:01:32.280 feeling that something special might happen. 1:01:32.360 --> 1:01:34.720 Well, so a lot of people, I mean doesn't make 1:01:34.760 --> 1:01:37.400 it like it doesn't make me a hero or hit 1:01:37.520 --> 1:01:40.720 work at all. But I was sick when I was 1:01:40.720 --> 1:01:43.600 sick in the round before, and so once we got 1:01:43.600 --> 1:01:46.360 to the first two games versus Dallas, I was still sick. 1:01:47.320 --> 1:01:48.160 We got a butt beat. 1:01:48.440 --> 1:01:50.400 But if you watch my numbers, I had like twenty 1:01:50.440 --> 1:01:52.760 five twenty nine, Like I was in that range. Maybe 1:01:52.800 --> 1:01:54.760 not high percentage, but I was in that range, and 1:01:54.760 --> 1:01:57.560 I was I was like out there figuring things out right. 1:01:57.640 --> 1:01:59.040 I was like, Okay, this is where I can tag, 1:01:59.080 --> 1:02:00.600 this where I can get my spot, so far and 1:02:00.640 --> 1:02:02.720 so on. So by the time we got to game three, 1:02:02.840 --> 1:02:05.280 now we're home, confidence is a little bit more. I'm 1:02:05.280 --> 1:02:08.840 feeling better physically, and so once I got to that 1:02:08.840 --> 1:02:10.800 that moment, like I was able to kind of pick 1:02:10.840 --> 1:02:13.280 the game apart because I've already had a doses of 1:02:13.320 --> 1:02:15.400 two other games of how y'all guarded me in the 1:02:15.440 --> 1:02:17.720 fourth and so now it was about me. Just changed 1:02:17.760 --> 1:02:19.600 my mindset of not doing the same thing, and so 1:02:19.800 --> 1:02:21.600 maybe I attacked a little different, Maybe I attacked a 1:02:21.640 --> 1:02:25.040 little sooner. All these things started changing as the series 1:02:25.080 --> 1:02:27.240 went on, and so it really is a boxing match, 1:02:27.600 --> 1:02:29.560 and they did us like this. The first two games 1:02:29.560 --> 1:02:31.720 they kept us at like this, and then a game 1:02:31.720 --> 1:02:33.920 three they were they were hitting us right, and so 1:02:33.960 --> 1:02:35.720 I had to kind of change my disposition. Had the 1:02:35.720 --> 1:02:37.360 Floyd Mayweather on them, I had to go a different 1:02:37.360 --> 1:02:39.640 show with the b and kind of change up, trying 1:02:39.640 --> 1:02:41.560 to change it up. And then we got a couple 1:02:41.560 --> 1:02:42.640 of calls, We got a couple. 1:02:42.480 --> 1:02:44.920 Of shots to fall change the entire series. 1:02:45.400 --> 1:02:48.040 Were you surprised that the Lakers traded Shot to the Mami? 1:02:49.680 --> 1:02:53.280 Uh? Yeah, because I didn't really like it was at 1:02:53.280 --> 1:02:56.200 social media. I didn't really know about the beef, the 1:02:56.320 --> 1:02:58.680 internal beef that people talk about. I still don't know 1:02:58.960 --> 1:03:00.720 Shot and I didn't talk a lot of that wasn't 1:03:00.720 --> 1:03:03.160 our relationship, and so so he didn't. 1:03:03.160 --> 1:03:06.600 So when you when he got there, he like Lakers there, 1:03:06.840 --> 1:03:08.160 he wanted he wanted to do another. 1:03:07.960 --> 1:03:10.160 Ring, but he wanted to be first. 1:03:10.440 --> 1:03:14.720 Yeah, he was not. It wasn't no secret Kobe can't 1:03:14.720 --> 1:03:17.520 get a ring before me. It wasn't no secret. 1:03:17.520 --> 1:03:19.560 In Miami, we all knew, Like I remember it was 1:03:19.640 --> 1:03:22.480 we were, uh we were sixteen games into the first 1:03:22.480 --> 1:03:26.240 season Miami. He ten and six Los Angeles Lakers maybe 1:03:26.320 --> 1:03:27.760 either tennt six or nine to seven. 1:03:28.040 --> 1:03:32.280 Check fact check me. We had a meeting led Bashack. 1:03:32.440 --> 1:03:35.120 He went the fuck off because we had the same 1:03:35.200 --> 1:03:37.840 record as the Lakers at that time. 1:03:37.920 --> 1:03:39.520 You know what we did. We're on the twelve game 1:03:39.560 --> 1:03:41.320 winn the Street, lost one or two. 1:03:41.360 --> 1:03:43.040 We went on a ten game win the Street, and 1:03:43.080 --> 1:03:44.680 we end up having the best record in the league 1:03:44.680 --> 1:03:45.240 for a long time. 1:03:45.280 --> 1:03:47.880 But like, he didn't want to be at the same 1:03:47.920 --> 1:03:48.760 pace as the Lakers. 1:03:48.800 --> 1:03:51.360 He didn't come here to be average, right, and so 1:03:51.680 --> 1:03:54.480 like he demanded something out of us that allowed obviously 1:03:54.480 --> 1:03:56.080 that pushed us to help us win that championship. 1:03:57.240 --> 1:03:59.960 So how excited was he to get that ring before Kobe? 1:04:00.280 --> 1:04:03.360 You heard his dis track they have with this record 1:04:03.400 --> 1:04:08.520 that came out he did, So there you go. Let's 1:04:08.520 --> 1:04:11.480 go back and look at the lyrics of the distrack you. 1:04:11.520 --> 1:04:14.320 Got compared with, because when he came there, they're like 1:04:15.120 --> 1:04:16.640 d Wade about to be the next Kobe. 1:04:16.760 --> 1:04:18.000 Yeah, man, I ain't like that. 1:04:18.080 --> 1:04:18.800 You ain't like that. 1:04:21.680 --> 1:04:24.560 Oh why would I like that? I don't want that. 1:04:25.520 --> 1:04:27.720 You don't want you don't want that pressure. You want that. 1:04:27.880 --> 1:04:29.200 I ain't want that. That smoke. 1:04:29.600 --> 1:04:32.000 Kobe got three rings at this time. 1:04:31.840 --> 1:04:33.720 He's twenty twenty four years old. 1:04:33.800 --> 1:04:36.600 Yeah, he got three rings, Like I played the way 1:04:36.640 --> 1:04:37.880 I played because I. 1:04:37.800 --> 1:04:39.200 Watched Jordan Iverson and Kobe. 1:04:39.320 --> 1:04:41.440 Right now, you're talking about IM, like, don't put me 1:04:41.480 --> 1:04:43.560 there yet, I'm two years in the league, right, And 1:04:43.600 --> 1:04:46.800 so they did, and it become like like I'm still 1:04:46.800 --> 1:04:49.600 a kid who was like, I sickly still want Kobe's. 1:04:49.280 --> 1:04:52.600 Autographic, Yeah, asking for the shoes at the back of you. 1:04:52.800 --> 1:04:55.040 I'm secretly like I don't even want to push up 1:04:55.040 --> 1:04:55.560 on him too much. 1:04:55.600 --> 1:04:56.480 Yet I'm like, I don't know. 1:04:57.120 --> 1:04:59.200 And so as I was trying to find my foot 1:04:59.280 --> 1:05:00.840 in the league, I said, going to lead they Now 1:05:01.040 --> 1:05:03.280 they're now pinning me with one of my favorite players, 1:05:03.480 --> 1:05:05.400 I guy that I only played once the year before 1:05:05.520 --> 1:05:06.840 because he was injured the second time. 1:05:07.440 --> 1:05:09.520 And so now it's this inner beef. 1:05:09.720 --> 1:05:11.440 That we don't even that I don't even know that's 1:05:11.480 --> 1:05:13.880 there that I didn't calls that the media has called. 1:05:14.320 --> 1:05:15.640 And so now we ain't talking each other. 1:05:16.960 --> 1:05:17.240 He come. 1:05:17.400 --> 1:05:18.080 I mean, I'm not. 1:05:18.040 --> 1:05:20.360 Saying he wasn't, but it's gonna be a little extra 1:05:20.680 --> 1:05:23.680 because y'all say that he next, I'm gonna show y'all's 1:05:23.800 --> 1:05:26.840 that's Kobe. And so what it did do is it 1:05:26.920 --> 1:05:28.840 fast checked me. It brought out a little bit in 1:05:28.920 --> 1:05:31.840 me because like I knew that my goal. I was like, 1:05:31.880 --> 1:05:34.080 all right, right, he got he has to look at 1:05:34.080 --> 1:05:36.320 me as an equal, not saying that that he thinks 1:05:36.320 --> 1:05:38.080 I'm on his level, but he has to get some 1:05:38.160 --> 1:05:40.240 sleep the night before he plays me. He has to 1:05:40.280 --> 1:05:42.080 guard me. You got to pick me up ninety four 1:05:42.080 --> 1:05:44.200 feet whatever it is. I need to respect from him. 1:05:44.600 --> 1:05:46.600 And so that's that's how I took it. I didn't 1:05:46.600 --> 1:05:48.479 take it as oh, yeah, I am the next code. 1:05:48.480 --> 1:05:49.160 I'm in this role. 1:05:49.240 --> 1:05:52.360 No, I ain't young had that that's Kobe. 1:05:53.120 --> 1:05:53.280 No. 1:05:53.640 --> 1:05:56.960 And so I think I built my own sidekick role, 1:05:57.400 --> 1:05:58.880 like to call you a sidekick. 1:05:58.480 --> 1:06:00.520 I think I build my own lane of how right? 1:06:00.640 --> 1:06:01.919 How my signe kicked ten year. 1:06:01.920 --> 1:06:03.880 Was I'm looking at your season in two thousand and eight, 1:06:03.880 --> 1:06:05.480 two thousand and nine you became the only player to 1:06:05.440 --> 1:06:07.560 score two thousand points, five hundred six, one hundred and 1:06:07.560 --> 1:06:08.840 fifty steels, one hundred blocks. 1:06:10.360 --> 1:06:12.800 You won't the scoring title. Do you feel you should 1:06:12.800 --> 1:06:13.880 have won the MVP that season? 1:06:14.120 --> 1:06:18.240 Of course? But also understand why Lebron won it. 1:06:19.000 --> 1:06:21.600 I think they won sixty seven games, sixty two games, 1:06:21.640 --> 1:06:24.400 and the evers roughly the same, Like I understand it, 1:06:24.400 --> 1:06:26.880 but like as an individual, brother, Yeah, that was my opinion. 1:06:27.000 --> 1:06:30.360 How different would Dwayne, how different would your basketball life 1:06:30.480 --> 1:06:34.520 be if you had a regular season NV peeling would 1:06:34.520 --> 1:06:36.000 you would you look at your career any different? 1:06:36.040 --> 1:06:39.880 No, I've just been in a few more conversations hearing it. 1:06:40.080 --> 1:06:41.880 Well, right now, they got you as the third bread 1:06:41.960 --> 1:06:43.880 shooting guard behind Jordan and Kobe. 1:06:43.920 --> 1:06:44.880 Would you agree with that? 1:06:45.360 --> 1:06:48.959 I don't care, Like until the next person come along, 1:06:49.000 --> 1:06:52.080 they make me the fourth for the fifth, it doesn't 1:06:52.080 --> 1:06:56.240 matter like I Yeah, we're talking in the barbershopping, were 1:06:56.240 --> 1:06:58.680 talking about rankings. Yeah, I want my name to be 1:06:58.800 --> 1:07:01.080 mentioned with great So if you tell me I'm third, 1:07:01.360 --> 1:07:03.320 I'm not first, so I'm mad about that. 1:07:03.480 --> 1:07:05.080 But if you tell me i'm third, I can respect 1:07:05.080 --> 1:07:06.200 the top two that's in front of me. 1:07:06.320 --> 1:07:09.400 Right, but also too, I understand it's all subjective as well, 1:07:09.760 --> 1:07:12.800 is it? West was Iris in the Two Guard? Do 1:07:12.880 --> 1:07:14.120 you love James Harden's style? 1:07:14.200 --> 1:07:15.200 Do you love this? Like? 1:07:15.520 --> 1:07:16.480 I mean what we're doing here? 1:07:16.800 --> 1:07:19.240 So for me, like to be mentioned with the greats 1:07:19.320 --> 1:07:21.320 is all I ever wanted to put a number on it. 1:07:22.680 --> 1:07:25.400 The number moves right. Maybe I know we're thinking right 1:07:25.440 --> 1:07:27.280 now that that Jordan and Kobe when it's in its 1:07:27.440 --> 1:07:28.000 in stone. 1:07:28.320 --> 1:07:31.120 But like these, nobody pass Jordan Kobe. I don't think. 1:07:31.160 --> 1:07:32.800 I don't think nobody. I don't think they're gonna let 1:07:32.840 --> 1:07:34.040 anybody pass Jordan. We not. 1:07:35.640 --> 1:07:37.840 I know one thing about us. Our generation ain't gonna 1:07:37.880 --> 1:07:38.000 let it. 1:07:38.000 --> 1:07:39.720 We ain't gonna let this nobody come along, because we're 1:07:39.720 --> 1:07:42.120 gonna fight and defeend Jordan Kobe forever forever. 1:07:42.400 --> 1:07:42.600 Right. 1:07:42.920 --> 1:07:45.280 So for me, man, it's like in my position, like. 1:07:45.720 --> 1:07:47.520 And I'm very honest, I was a very great player 1:07:48.200 --> 1:07:51.920 from from my abilities. I maximize all my abilities, That's 1:07:51.960 --> 1:07:54.360 all you can ask, right, I maximize it. Because of injury, 1:07:54.400 --> 1:07:56.280 I didn't I wasn't able to get to the level 1:07:56.320 --> 1:07:59.600 that I knew I could get to. Right my mind, 1:07:59.720 --> 1:08:03.120 I'm in goat level of my mentality and my talent. 1:08:03.840 --> 1:08:06.360 Wade doesn't have. D Way doesn't tear his knee injury, 1:08:06.600 --> 1:08:09.000 doesn't tears me in college. D Wade doesn't have the 1:08:09.000 --> 1:08:13.560 two knee surgeries in the NBA, and he played sixteen seasons. 1:08:14.000 --> 1:08:16.880 What's d Waighte numbers you? 1:08:16.880 --> 1:08:20.680 You're doing your goat conversation with me, You're doing what's 1:08:20.720 --> 1:08:23.120 your bad? 1:08:23.520 --> 1:08:25.760 Yeah? Yeah, so I'd have had a gold Bans on 1:08:25.800 --> 1:08:26.760 what I'm talking about, d Waighte. 1:08:27.400 --> 1:08:29.439 Well, maybe, like I said, we're talking about if you 1:08:29.479 --> 1:08:31.680 take away the injuries away, I'm still playing basketball right 1:08:31.680 --> 1:08:34.080 now if I want to wow, right, because it's the 1:08:34.479 --> 1:08:36.680 injuries and everything in the mental right, But if i'm 1:08:36.760 --> 1:08:38.960 if I'm healthy enough, like I could, I know, I 1:08:39.000 --> 1:08:42.000 just like you understand some about my game multiple ways, 1:08:42.080 --> 1:08:44.240 right right, I played the game ault away, so even 1:08:44.320 --> 1:08:45.720 right now when I got older, I went to it, 1:08:45.800 --> 1:08:47.519 I had another game and still was effective as an 1:08:47.560 --> 1:08:48.160 old player. 1:08:48.400 --> 1:08:51.400 So in my mind, you motherfucking right, I was one 1:08:51.439 --> 1:08:51.680 of them. 1:08:51.720 --> 1:08:54.640 Do like you couldn't tell me in six seven o 1:08:54.760 --> 1:08:57.400 eight that I wasn't going to where I wanted to go, 1:08:57.520 --> 1:08:58.400 right right? 1:08:58.560 --> 1:08:59.320 Like why why not? 1:08:59.520 --> 1:08:59.960 I'm ten? 1:09:00.439 --> 1:09:02.200 Like the league is not it's not hard for me. 1:09:02.240 --> 1:09:04.760 I'm averaging thirty a game in the NBA, right and 1:09:04.840 --> 1:09:06.800 so far and so on. I'm you know, and I 1:09:06.840 --> 1:09:08.720 already wanted I already want to find his MVP. I 1:09:08.760 --> 1:09:10.479 already won a championship in my third year. 1:09:10.520 --> 1:09:10.960 I did that. 1:09:11.040 --> 1:09:15.080 So in my mind, I'm very confident and quietly cocky 1:09:15.120 --> 1:09:16.400 about where I'm going. 1:09:16.560 --> 1:09:19.280 Right, and then injury started boom boom boom, right, and 1:09:19.320 --> 1:09:21.080 that it humbled me real quick. 1:09:21.200 --> 1:09:22.160 When did you realize? 1:09:22.200 --> 1:09:26.440 When did you realize that you, possibly because of the injuries, 1:09:27.000 --> 1:09:29.400 wasn't going to reach the ultimate player that you wanted 1:09:29.439 --> 1:09:30.960 to become, that you was gonna have to Like, Okay, 1:09:31.000 --> 1:09:33.320 I'm a great player, but I know I had so 1:09:33.439 --> 1:09:35.960 much more in me if I didn't have this injury. 1:09:38.960 --> 1:09:41.559 I mean, as you get older, so somewhere in that Big. 1:09:41.400 --> 1:09:45.240 Three era where you didn't look the same that twenty 1:09:45.240 --> 1:09:46.800 fourteen that lad Lebron. 1:09:46.880 --> 1:09:49.840 I wasn't the same. Ain't no, look I was. I 1:09:49.880 --> 1:09:52.559 was getting shots all before all the game really, oh man, 1:09:52.720 --> 1:09:55.360 So we'll do documentary later, okay, like all the all 1:09:55.360 --> 1:09:58.000 the knee injections and the shots and all that stuff. 1:09:58.000 --> 1:09:59.400 Man to get out there and perform like I did 1:09:59.439 --> 1:10:00.760 a lot of those things to be able to get 1:10:00.760 --> 1:10:03.320 out there. My body had felt like it got I 1:10:03.360 --> 1:10:06.880 got by mac Truck, and that's how I was playing 1:10:06.920 --> 1:10:08.760 right now. I was doing everything to medicate myself to 1:10:09.080 --> 1:10:13.080 be out there. And so yeah, I realized that at 1:10:13.080 --> 1:10:14.720 a point, man, I think it was one time, like 1:10:14.920 --> 1:10:16.439 you just over the years, like when I used to 1:10:16.439 --> 1:10:20.160 get past somebody, one step, I'm at the rim and body, 1:10:20.200 --> 1:10:22.240 I'm putting you in the rim. Right then it became 1:10:22.320 --> 1:10:23.920 one step, I don't even get to this floater. 1:10:24.400 --> 1:10:25.120 One step, let me. 1:10:25.120 --> 1:10:25.719 Get to the side. 1:10:25.720 --> 1:10:27.080 Step I can't even get back. 1:10:27.400 --> 1:10:29.960 It's the same. So like you, you know these things. 1:10:30.040 --> 1:10:31.640 If you're a person who get out the shower in 1:10:31.680 --> 1:10:33.479 the morning, you actually look in the mirror at yourself, 1:10:33.760 --> 1:10:35.800 you know who you are, you talk to yourself in 1:10:35.800 --> 1:10:38.120 the mirror like I do. So I knew over the time, 1:10:38.160 --> 1:10:41.320 I was like, oh, I'm losing a little of these steps. 1:10:41.720 --> 1:10:43.120 I'm not as explosive, I'm. 1:10:43.040 --> 1:10:44.720 Not as this, And that doesn't mean I can't still 1:10:44.760 --> 1:10:46.479 be great and I can't play this game. But I 1:10:46.520 --> 1:10:49.479 started to see it, and so it for me once 1:10:49.520 --> 1:10:52.839 I started doing it, I'm like Okay, like, who's up next, Lebron? 1:10:52.880 --> 1:10:55.880 You do more? I do a little because you know 1:10:55.960 --> 1:10:58.360 that you can't. You can't carry that same load no more. 1:10:58.479 --> 1:10:59.040 It ain't the same. 1:10:59.080 --> 1:11:00.760 I can't get to that rim point two second nine 1:11:00.800 --> 1:11:02.400 is zero point four point five. It's a little different. 1:11:02.400 --> 1:11:04.719 They can close in on me. I can't be as great. 1:11:04.760 --> 1:11:07.160 And so like all these little things, I started to understand, 1:11:07.200 --> 1:11:09.840 and I started to like, Okay, calculate, take a step back, 1:11:10.040 --> 1:11:12.120 move your game this way, go to the post, go 1:11:12.160 --> 1:11:14.400 to mid range on like all these things right, and 1:11:14.439 --> 1:11:17.080 so like, you gotta be You gotta be mentally sharp 1:11:17.080 --> 1:11:18.800 in this game if you want to stay a long time. 1:11:18.880 --> 1:11:21.400 It can't just be about the physical as you know. 1:11:21.760 --> 1:11:24.760 How did how did you recruit Lebron to get him? 1:11:24.760 --> 1:11:26.439 To convince him? I ain't. 1:11:28.160 --> 1:11:28.479 More of this. 1:11:29.400 --> 1:11:31.559 I ain't recruit Lebron. I don't. 1:11:31.600 --> 1:11:34.280 I didn't recruit Lebron. What do you mean? 1:11:34.600 --> 1:11:36.599 I mean? So, how'd you give you to Miami? Could 1:11:36.640 --> 1:11:38.040 I know Pam Riley recruited? 1:11:40.000 --> 1:11:42.479 No? Well, god recruit. 1:11:43.439 --> 1:11:45.439 I was just I was just what did. 1:11:45.320 --> 1:11:47.080 You What did you tell him? What did you tell Lebron? 1:11:47.400 --> 1:11:48.040 What did you tell you? 1:11:49.120 --> 1:11:51.800 You told you made some promise and something no I 1:11:51.840 --> 1:11:53.760 didn't like. 1:11:54.080 --> 1:11:56.000 I don't think no one would ever believe how all 1:11:56.040 --> 1:11:56.599 this happened. 1:11:58.160 --> 1:12:00.599 Well, it's gonna be hard because it's gonna take multiple 1:12:00.600 --> 1:12:01.240 people to tell you. 1:12:01.479 --> 1:12:03.400 Because I have a perspective. Lebron has a perspective. 1:12:03.479 --> 1:12:07.080 We'll give you since you here, I have you would 1:12:07.120 --> 1:12:10.240 I get you perspective, but you give us, you give us. 1:12:10.240 --> 1:12:11.559 How it played out to you. 1:12:12.240 --> 1:12:14.640 How it played out to me was once again as 1:12:14.680 --> 1:12:17.840 I started off, as we're as stars in this league. 1:12:18.200 --> 1:12:21.559 You're determined and you're you're picked on or you're lifted 1:12:21.640 --> 1:12:23.240 up by the championships you win. 1:12:23.960 --> 1:12:26.800 And so you got a young player like Lebron who 1:12:27.040 --> 1:12:28.120 he knows what. 1:12:28.040 --> 1:12:29.880 He needs to do to be at the level that 1:12:29.920 --> 1:12:32.800 he is today, and so he knew at that time 1:12:32.840 --> 1:12:36.040 that he couldn't probably do it there right at that moment, 1:12:36.640 --> 1:12:39.639 and so enter, what can I do with that? 1:12:39.840 --> 1:12:42.680 Who can I do it with? Previous years before that, we. 1:12:42.680 --> 1:12:46.040 All signed the same contract, so we can give ourselves flexibility, 1:12:46.080 --> 1:12:48.240 not saying hey, we're gonna play together in three years, 1:12:48.240 --> 1:12:51.800 but let's give ourself flexibility. And so that flexibility was like, 1:12:51.800 --> 1:12:53.880 oh shit, you wade a free agent. Oh, Chris Boss. 1:12:54.280 --> 1:12:57.160 So we everyone started thinking different around that time, and 1:12:57.200 --> 1:12:59.479 for me, it wasn't like it wasn't real until the 1:12:59.520 --> 1:13:01.320 Miami to got a call from my agent got a 1:13:01.320 --> 1:13:03.960 call from the Miami Heat, and they let us know 1:13:04.000 --> 1:13:06.760 that they actually put money aside or they can figure 1:13:06.760 --> 1:13:08.280 out a way to get three max players. 1:13:08.400 --> 1:13:10.160 Because at first it was just two Max players. 1:13:11.040 --> 1:13:13.040 So the conversation changed when the Miami he made that 1:13:13.120 --> 1:13:14.360 call to say we can get. 1:13:14.280 --> 1:13:16.400 Three max players. And then Lebron and I got on 1:13:16.400 --> 1:13:19.800 the phone and I just leave it at that. It's 1:13:19.800 --> 1:13:20.719 a lot of things that. 1:13:20.880 --> 1:13:22.519 Happened that Oh okay. 1:13:22.840 --> 1:13:24.600 And so then we got on the phone and we 1:13:24.600 --> 1:13:26.800 got on the phone because Lebron called and said, hey, 1:13:27.240 --> 1:13:29.120 let's get on the phone, just like we did three 1:13:29.160 --> 1:13:33.240 years ago prior to that. Lebron, my agent, Henry Thomas, 1:13:33.240 --> 1:13:34.439 his agent, the ty Leon Rose. 1:13:34.439 --> 1:13:35.240 We got on the phone. 1:13:35.320 --> 1:13:38.160 We talked about the contract situation, We talked about the 1:13:38.160 --> 1:13:40.240 five year deal versus a three year deal, the benefits. 1:13:40.520 --> 1:13:42.439 At that time, we were working together because we were 1:13:42.439 --> 1:13:42.960 all new at this. 1:13:43.280 --> 1:13:44.719 Right we're young dudes who friends. 1:13:44.760 --> 1:13:47.200 Wow, So we were working together and like, yo, you're 1:13:47.240 --> 1:13:49.080 twenty you're this age, you'll be this age when that 1:13:49.080 --> 1:13:51.200 deal is up. You older, you needed short, shorter deals, 1:13:51.240 --> 1:13:52.439 you can get more money like this. 1:13:52.479 --> 1:13:53.240 Time we were talking. 1:13:53.640 --> 1:13:55.760 We were young guys, but we had a different view 1:13:55.840 --> 1:13:58.360 on things, and so we kept talking throughout the process 1:13:58.439 --> 1:14:01.719 and when free agency came, another conversation, and a conversation 1:14:01.880 --> 1:14:04.320 led to huh. 1:14:03.720 --> 1:14:07.080 We could do what we could play together? And they 1:14:07.120 --> 1:14:07.920 just went from there. 1:14:08.600 --> 1:14:10.320 Do you even though they say we got a deal 1:14:10.360 --> 1:14:13.240 for three match contracts, did you think this was like? 1:14:13.479 --> 1:14:16.920 Could this be a reality? Could this be realistic? No? 1:14:18.040 --> 1:14:20.639 We didn't see it at that time, right, We didn't 1:14:20.640 --> 1:14:24.680 see especially players, free agents, guys, three guys, a. 1:14:24.680 --> 1:14:27.040 Good team, who they want? Where were they doing that at? 1:14:27.560 --> 1:14:29.840 A team had to go get an older agent, superstar 1:14:30.120 --> 1:14:31.840 or someone else and package them together. 1:14:31.840 --> 1:14:33.800 And that's what we did with the Celtics when they 1:14:33.800 --> 1:14:36.120 got Guard that. 1:14:36.200 --> 1:14:38.599 You got lucky, You drafted some guys and some guys, 1:14:38.680 --> 1:14:39.120 you know what I mean. 1:14:39.360 --> 1:14:41.439 You get a Kareem, You get Kareem the magic Magic. 1:14:41.640 --> 1:14:44.439 Kareem's there, he win the final when the irregular season MVP, 1:14:44.760 --> 1:14:47.519 they drafted Magic and then two years later that Daves 1:14:47.560 --> 1:14:49.400 worded with the first you go, how that happened? 1:14:49.600 --> 1:14:52.320 How he how you win the finals? 1:14:52.360 --> 1:14:55.080 And did you get you know what I'm saying different 1:14:55.120 --> 1:14:57.760 time back then, as we stayed on winter time, they 1:14:57.760 --> 1:14:59.600 were doing corn flips and all in the back like 1:14:59.640 --> 1:15:01.840 it was so like. 1:15:02.160 --> 1:15:02.920 I never first of. 1:15:02.880 --> 1:15:04.840 All, I never imagined and I don't know if people 1:15:04.880 --> 1:15:07.080 believe me. I never thought Lebron and I would play together. 1:15:07.439 --> 1:15:09.960 I had a meeting with the Miami Heat about this before, 1:15:10.080 --> 1:15:12.439 two years before we ever played together. Was do you 1:15:12.520 --> 1:15:16.120 think And I was like, zero points zero zero zero zero, 1:15:16.439 --> 1:15:19.519 zero point one percent chance that would ever play together, right, right, 1:15:19.600 --> 1:15:21.439 And because there was a lot of conversations out there, 1:15:21.800 --> 1:15:24.080 and I never I never thought it was until I 1:15:24.120 --> 1:15:26.720 sat with him face to face and I see that 1:15:26.880 --> 1:15:28.519 it wasn't about scoring titles no more. 1:15:28.560 --> 1:15:28.920 For him. 1:15:29.240 --> 1:15:31.160 It wasn't about all the things that you know, the 1:15:31.160 --> 1:15:33.680 commercials and MVP's and all the things he had. He 1:15:33.800 --> 1:15:36.360 had that, but he was still empty inside and he 1:15:36.439 --> 1:15:39.040 wanted and needed something else for his career. And me 1:15:39.120 --> 1:15:40.640 being one of his good friends, me be one of 1:15:40.680 --> 1:15:42.200 the best players in the league, me being a free 1:15:42.200 --> 1:15:45.200 agent at the same time, me being in a nice 1:15:45.200 --> 1:15:48.280 city at the same time, it was attractive and it 1:15:48.320 --> 1:15:49.960 was sexy, and so we had an opportunity to sit 1:15:49.960 --> 1:15:50.640 down and talk about it. 1:15:51.120 --> 1:15:53.200 What did you think when you heard Lebron say not one, 1:15:53.400 --> 1:15:57.439 not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, 1:15:58.520 --> 1:15:59.200 not seven. 1:16:00.600 --> 1:16:01.080 Yeah, I didn't. 1:16:01.120 --> 1:16:01.479 I didn't. 1:16:01.520 --> 1:16:05.679 I didn't take it seriously. Anybody out there who took 1:16:05.720 --> 1:16:08.160 that serious? Like, come on, guys, like we were having. 1:16:08.000 --> 1:16:11.160 A parade, right you paid, there's a media you dot. 1:16:12.479 --> 1:16:14.840 You know, we in that with our fans, like we're 1:16:14.840 --> 1:16:18.280 in that talking that one. You know what I mean? 1:16:18.320 --> 1:16:20.879 When that we jacket we're doing we do when the crib. 1:16:20.720 --> 1:16:22.880 With our homies. You know, you put a little sauce 1:16:22.880 --> 1:16:23.360 on yourself. 1:16:24.320 --> 1:16:25.240 You had a little too. 1:16:25.360 --> 1:16:27.080 That's what he did. He had a little sauce, you 1:16:27.080 --> 1:16:27.479 know what I mean. 1:16:27.520 --> 1:16:29.639 And then that sauce became Oh, we're gonna hold him 1:16:29.640 --> 1:16:32.200 to it, that's all. Like we never we never say 1:16:32.240 --> 1:16:33.840 were about to win seventh straight, but we knew he 1:16:33.920 --> 1:16:36.880 was gonna be a problem. 1:16:36.920 --> 1:16:39.920 The Big three, the hate and the vitry all you got. 1:16:40.400 --> 1:16:41.240 Yeah, it was nasty. 1:16:42.320 --> 1:16:44.439 Have you ever seen anything like it before or since? 1:16:45.880 --> 1:16:46.519 Not in that way. 1:16:47.439 --> 1:16:51.000 I never actually never seen hate. I heard about hate, 1:16:51.439 --> 1:16:55.760 heard about it from my ancestors. You know stories about 1:16:55.800 --> 1:16:57.920 my ancestors. I heard about it from my mom and 1:16:57.960 --> 1:17:02.920 my uncles. Never seen hate until Lebron decided to come 1:17:02.920 --> 1:17:06.439 to Miami. Then I started seeing hate up close. And 1:17:06.520 --> 1:17:09.519 hate is an ugly thing. And so it was a 1:17:09.760 --> 1:17:11.519 like for us man like, I think a part of 1:17:11.600 --> 1:17:15.240 us didn't understand, like, we're still young young men who. 1:17:15.080 --> 1:17:16.400 Are playing this game of basketball. 1:17:16.720 --> 1:17:19.400 We're boys, were traveling playing together, our kids get to 1:17:19.400 --> 1:17:21.840 grow up together, like we're excited about this, and then 1:17:21.880 --> 1:17:23.559 on the outside, everybody in the world is calling us 1:17:23.560 --> 1:17:27.519 all these things. And so it wasn't a joyous year 1:17:27.560 --> 1:17:31.439 to play basketball at all. And I think that was 1:17:31.439 --> 1:17:33.040 the one thing coming out of that year, even though 1:17:33.040 --> 1:17:34.600 we lost in it. And I always say, one of 1:17:34.600 --> 1:17:36.080 the best things that happened to us is that we 1:17:36.120 --> 1:17:37.559 lost in the finals. That well, one of the best 1:17:37.600 --> 1:17:40.160 things that happened to us media wise is that we 1:17:40.240 --> 1:17:41.920 lost in the finals. Because if we're the one in 1:17:41.960 --> 1:17:44.679 the finals in twenty ten, we was gonna be jacket. 1:17:45.880 --> 1:17:46.439 It was nothing. 1:17:46.479 --> 1:17:47.600 No one was gonna be able to say to us, 1:17:47.640 --> 1:17:50.200 we were going to be two, and so it humbled us. 1:17:50.200 --> 1:17:52.200 It put us at our level and allowed us to 1:17:52.240 --> 1:17:53.559 focus on what was real. 1:17:53.600 --> 1:17:56.120 And while we got together, it was reported that you 1:17:56.200 --> 1:18:01.839 guys all went went away. You you you. I think mellow. 1:18:02.080 --> 1:18:05.360 I think Chris, Paul and Lebron and all your families 1:18:05.360 --> 1:18:10.120 went away and you had a conversation with Lebron about 1:18:10.320 --> 1:18:11.040 it's okay, Bro. 1:18:12.280 --> 1:18:12.839 It's okay. 1:18:14.120 --> 1:18:16.720 I need you to be I need you to be you. 1:18:16.760 --> 1:18:20.360 No, I mean, that's not how it happened. Well, first 1:18:20.400 --> 1:18:23.559 of all, it wasn't a CPA, it wasn't mellow. It 1:18:23.680 --> 1:18:29.240 was the trip that everyone's talking about was just my wife, I, Savannah, Lebron, 1:18:29.479 --> 1:18:33.120 and a couple other friends of ours. Okay, And that 1:18:33.280 --> 1:18:35.160 was the trip where we started having different conversation. 1:18:35.200 --> 1:18:36.160 That was right after we lost. 1:18:36.160 --> 1:18:37.840 We had a couple of weeks away, and then we 1:18:37.840 --> 1:18:41.240 had this trip plane and we start having different conversations 1:18:41.280 --> 1:18:44.400 about while we lost, how we lost. 1:18:44.560 --> 1:18:45.240 And I just was. 1:18:45.160 --> 1:18:47.000 Sitting there as I always do, I sitting there listen, 1:18:47.160 --> 1:18:49.960 and I listened to I heard Lebron talk and everything 1:18:50.000 --> 1:18:50.800 that I was getting from. 1:18:50.760 --> 1:18:52.679 Lebron and that year, even though he had a great year, 1:18:52.800 --> 1:18:53.439 and even in that. 1:18:53.439 --> 1:18:58.320 Moment, was still hesitation, and so I for me, I 1:18:58.400 --> 1:19:00.360 was like, Okay, if we're going to reach the level 1:19:00.439 --> 1:19:02.920 that we're going to reach, and how I can help 1:19:03.000 --> 1:19:05.519 us it is to take that that hesitation out of 1:19:05.520 --> 1:19:07.920 one of the game's greatest players, because I watched him 1:19:07.920 --> 1:19:10.519 play and I know what he plays, how he plays 1:19:10.520 --> 1:19:11.240 when he has no. 1:19:12.200 --> 1:19:14.120 I shot two in a row. D Wade ain't the way. 1:19:14.880 --> 1:19:16.640 Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean, Like, it's it's 1:19:16.720 --> 1:19:18.639 human nature, a d waiting how to bucket in a while. 1:19:18.680 --> 1:19:21.680 Let me, no bro, press on you that dude, Go 1:19:21.720 --> 1:19:24.120 be that dude. We're gonna do what we gotta do 1:19:24.160 --> 1:19:26.599 to make sure that you good and we good. Because 1:19:26.600 --> 1:19:28.720 this is ultimately about what we all sat down and 1:19:28.760 --> 1:19:29.479 said we want to do. 1:19:29.800 --> 1:19:31.320 We said we want to win rings. 1:19:31.560 --> 1:19:34.200 No one said that when I need an extra endorsement 1:19:34.640 --> 1:19:35.760 or you needed extraly this. 1:19:35.800 --> 1:19:36.719 We wanted to win rings. 1:19:36.720 --> 1:19:39.080 So for us to win rings in this day of age, 1:19:39.400 --> 1:19:40.519 you have to be who you are. 1:19:41.320 --> 1:19:43.120 And that's besides Kobe. 1:19:43.160 --> 1:19:45.240 It's the game's greatest player, right And so I can't 1:19:45.280 --> 1:19:46.800 stand in the way of that. I can't let my 1:19:46.880 --> 1:19:48.840 ego and my price center with it. And I said 1:19:48.880 --> 1:19:50.840 I was doing it in the beginning, but it was 1:19:50.880 --> 1:19:53.080 always like, hey, first year, I think we both ours 1:19:53.080 --> 1:19:55.679 twenty five a game. It was kind of even same shots, 1:19:56.000 --> 1:19:59.160 this same this, same possessions, coach, don't need to worry 1:19:59.160 --> 1:19:59.479 about that. 1:19:59.520 --> 1:20:00.639 You don't need to worry about that. 1:20:01.280 --> 1:20:03.960 I've always played around multiple players, I figured out. 1:20:03.960 --> 1:20:04.919 And that was our conversation. 1:20:05.040 --> 1:20:07.280 It happened after the trip that happened in the actual 1:20:07.320 --> 1:20:10.440 in the gym one day. It was Lebron coach Fizdale 1:20:10.760 --> 1:20:12.800 and myself and I told him right there I was, 1:20:12.920 --> 1:20:14.439 and I just remember the look on his face. He 1:20:14.479 --> 1:20:18.519 was kind of like puzzled looking at me, like you 1:20:18.640 --> 1:20:21.800 for real? And I was and so but at that point, 1:20:21.880 --> 1:20:24.000 I'm saying like it had to be bigger than me, 1:20:24.600 --> 1:20:27.160 which was hard to do because we all come in 1:20:27.400 --> 1:20:30.559 like check the name on the back. But I just 1:20:30.560 --> 1:20:31.840 had to look at myself in the mirror and say, 1:20:31.880 --> 1:20:33.800 this is not why you playing with Lebron, James and 1:20:33.880 --> 1:20:35.760 Chris Bosh. You're not playing with them to check the 1:20:35.840 --> 1:20:37.880 name on the back. You play with them to check 1:20:37.920 --> 1:20:38.840 the rings on your fingers. 1:20:38.920 --> 1:20:39.280 Correct. 1:20:39.400 --> 1:20:40.280 And so let's get to that. 1:20:41.360 --> 1:20:45.160 What happened in the math series, y'all better. 1:20:50.240 --> 1:20:53.479 Mm hmm, we got. 1:20:55.880 --> 1:20:57.720 You look at that a little bit. 1:20:57.880 --> 1:21:00.960 I mean the honest We got all aiden, got all coached, 1:21:02.160 --> 1:21:04.080 and if you go back and asks the players, you 1:21:04.160 --> 1:21:06.320 go back and the expo he got. The coaching staff 1:21:06.360 --> 1:21:09.559 got all coach and the players got all played. When 1:21:09.560 --> 1:21:14.599 it came down to winning. We didn't close our games, right. 1:21:14.640 --> 1:21:17.200 We had game you had a sixty boy lead Game. 1:21:17.040 --> 1:21:18.120 Two at home. 1:21:18.400 --> 1:21:19.200 We're fifteen. 1:21:19.840 --> 1:21:21.720 You don't lose that. We don't close our games. But 1:21:21.760 --> 1:21:23.439 that's bad. That's players and that's coaches. 1:21:23.560 --> 1:21:23.760 Right. 1:21:24.040 --> 1:21:26.840 And so we got all coached by Rick Carlile and 1:21:26.880 --> 1:21:27.840 his staff, and. 1:21:27.800 --> 1:21:31.360 We got all played by uh Dirk and Jason Terry 1:21:31.800 --> 1:21:33.360 and JT J. 1:21:33.600 --> 1:21:33.840 Kid. 1:21:33.880 --> 1:21:35.680 But that little J. J. 1:21:35.840 --> 1:21:39.800 Barreer, Nobody give him credit. JJ Barreer was the one 1:21:39.800 --> 1:21:40.240 who changed. 1:21:40.520 --> 1:21:43.040 We didn't have no answer for him. We okay, Dirk, 1:21:43.080 --> 1:21:44.479 you know what you're gonna do. Let's just u d 1:21:44.640 --> 1:21:46.280 make his shots tough, make it hard on him. He 1:21:46.600 --> 1:21:48.320 try to make him not shoot fifty percent, make him 1:21:48.320 --> 1:21:49.800 have an off night, but he's still gonna get twenty. 1:21:50.000 --> 1:21:52.080 Jason Terry going right, you can't stop them, right. We 1:21:52.160 --> 1:21:54.280 knew all these things, but no one playing for little 1:21:54.320 --> 1:21:56.320 JJR to come off the bench. And do what he 1:21:56.400 --> 1:21:59.360 did right. And I look at him, I say, from 1:21:59.400 --> 1:22:01.920 a not from an MVP as an award, but from 1:22:01.720 --> 1:22:05.280 as a player who really helped push that series over. 1:22:06.000 --> 1:22:07.519 I give it to JJ because we didn't have no 1:22:07.560 --> 1:22:08.080 answer for him. 1:22:08.120 --> 1:22:08.360 Wow. 1:22:08.720 --> 1:22:13.480 And so we as a team, like obviously Lebron struggled. 1:22:13.560 --> 1:22:17.320 We talked about the everge seventeen points a game, players 1:22:17.320 --> 1:22:20.879 struggled and what sucked about it is because of everything 1:22:20.920 --> 1:22:22.479 that was talked about and all this, But at the 1:22:22.560 --> 1:22:24.960 end of the day, me as a leader, spoil as 1:22:25.000 --> 1:22:26.960 a head coach, we got to do a better. 1:22:26.840 --> 1:22:28.519 Job to make sure that he's not struggling. 1:22:28.760 --> 1:22:30.599 How are we getting him the ball in certain places 1:22:30.640 --> 1:22:32.479 to make it easier for him, because you know, as 1:22:32.479 --> 1:22:33.880 a player, all you need is one thing to go 1:22:33.920 --> 1:22:35.160 your way and to turn everything around. 1:22:35.360 --> 1:22:37.280 We didn't do enough of that for a guy who 1:22:37.320 --> 1:22:39.160 was struggling. For whatever the. 1:22:39.120 --> 1:22:41.479 Reason is, we all have had our struggles, and so 1:22:42.080 --> 1:22:44.040 as a leader I looked at him myself, I was like, 1:22:44.080 --> 1:22:44.720 you didn't do enough. 1:22:44.800 --> 1:22:46.439 D like and you will see a clip. 1:22:46.439 --> 1:22:48.280 Well, I'm cursing brown out, I'm in his ear, I'm 1:22:48.280 --> 1:22:50.600 talking to him, but that probably won't the way I 1:22:50.640 --> 1:22:52.639 should have done it. Maybe I should have done something 1:22:52.640 --> 1:22:56.559 else right, And so we were more talented, but they 1:22:56.560 --> 1:22:57.960 were a better team. 1:22:58.280 --> 1:22:59.920 Pat. I saw Pat Riley say so. 1:23:00.120 --> 1:23:02.519 Think that players came in his office and the manner 1:23:02.640 --> 1:23:05.200 that they fired that he fired the coach. It would 1:23:05.240 --> 1:23:08.519 reported you and yeah, I saw that. 1:23:08.640 --> 1:23:09.760 Yeah, you didn't do that. 1:23:09.800 --> 1:23:10.840 I don't remember doing it. 1:23:10.880 --> 1:23:11.040 Now. 1:23:11.080 --> 1:23:12.960 I'm not saying I didn't, but I don't remember doing that. 1:23:13.439 --> 1:23:13.760 I don't. 1:23:13.920 --> 1:23:16.280 I mean I knew coach Bowl at that time two 1:23:16.360 --> 1:23:19.439 years in. The one thing is is when when Lebron 1:23:19.520 --> 1:23:22.439 decides to talk about everything on his documentaries or whatever 1:23:22.479 --> 1:23:24.960 he decided to do, he would talk about what we 1:23:25.160 --> 1:23:28.679 talked about Riley as a coach versus Spore as a coach. 1:23:29.000 --> 1:23:31.559 And I'm meeting before we even played together. And one 1:23:31.560 --> 1:23:33.880 thing I told him, you don't want Riley to coach 1:23:33.960 --> 1:23:36.080 his team. 1:23:36.280 --> 1:23:38.320 Ain't got nothing to do with Pat love them. You 1:23:38.360 --> 1:23:39.639 don't want Ridley to coach his team. 1:23:39.680 --> 1:23:39.800 Bro. 1:23:41.880 --> 1:23:44.920 And even though was not experienced, and we needed a 1:23:44.960 --> 1:23:47.080 coach that was experienced so we can win championship right away. 1:23:48.040 --> 1:23:50.160 We're ready, We're gonna deal, We're gonna We're gonna help 1:23:50.240 --> 1:23:51.879 him grow. 1:23:53.200 --> 1:23:54.639 Now you don't want Godfather to come down. 1:23:55.200 --> 1:23:55.519 I did. 1:23:55.560 --> 1:23:57.400 He did it in two thousand and six. I experienced it. 1:23:59.000 --> 1:24:02.320 And you ready for him to go back? Yeah, what 1:24:02.360 --> 1:24:05.080 did you think that? What do you think past saw 1:24:05.160 --> 1:24:09.479 and Eric to say, you know what, No, this is 1:24:09.520 --> 1:24:10.880 the guy. He can get it done. 1:24:10.960 --> 1:24:11.120 Well. 1:24:11.240 --> 1:24:13.040 He's turned himself into one of the best coaches in 1:24:13.040 --> 1:24:13.400 the NBA. 1:24:13.560 --> 1:24:15.880 Well if you see, that's once again why you don't 1:24:15.880 --> 1:24:18.160 listen to players at times, because if you listen to me. 1:24:18.280 --> 1:24:19.880 When they first hired Spae, I was like, what are 1:24:19.880 --> 1:24:22.599 you doing? This is the this is the wrong decision, right. 1:24:22.760 --> 1:24:25.080 I remember when Mickey and and Nick Harrison set me 1:24:25.120 --> 1:24:27.599 down and said, hey, we're we're bringing up up Spoe 1:24:27.640 --> 1:24:29.439 from them like spose in the video room and then 1:24:29.520 --> 1:24:30.840 he sat behind a bench and they was like, hey, 1:24:30.840 --> 1:24:33.160 we're gonna hire from within and and it's gonna be 1:24:33.240 --> 1:24:33.719 er exposure. 1:24:33.760 --> 1:24:37.120 And I was like, I'm looking for a big name coach, 1:24:37.160 --> 1:24:37.880 maybe I'm a star. 1:24:38.000 --> 1:24:42.559 I'm like, who we're gonna get Dog? And I knew I. 1:24:42.520 --> 1:24:44.960 Had a great relationship with because Will worked me out. 1:24:45.000 --> 1:24:47.320 He was my workout guy, right, So I liked Spo, 1:24:47.720 --> 1:24:49.880 but I didn't know as a coach, and so when 1:24:49.880 --> 1:24:52.960 he first got there, he was a terrible coach, but 1:24:53.040 --> 1:24:55.840 he was a great guy to prepare you. He was 1:24:55.840 --> 1:24:58.599 gonna work his ass off. No one was gonna outwork him, 1:24:58.840 --> 1:25:00.519 no one was gonna be more prepared to him. 1:25:00.760 --> 1:25:03.800 He just had to learn when the called timeouts, what 1:25:03.840 --> 1:25:06.200 plays to run out of timeouts, what league game like, 1:25:06.360 --> 1:25:07.040 all these things. 1:25:06.920 --> 1:25:08.800 That you got to learn as a coach. As a 1:25:08.840 --> 1:25:11.600 star player, I had to go to with coach. And 1:25:11.600 --> 1:25:13.559 that's why our relationship is what it is today because 1:25:13.600 --> 1:25:17.800 we went through this right, We went through thank you, this, 1:25:17.880 --> 1:25:20.040 and we went through all of it because the journey 1:25:20.160 --> 1:25:21.719 right of a young coach, and so. 1:25:22.040 --> 1:25:24.519 The whole we walked in and try to get him fired. 1:25:24.920 --> 1:25:26.680 I don't know if I was in that meeting. 1:25:26.920 --> 1:25:30.120 But maybe I was. I don't know. I don't remember that. 1:25:30.240 --> 1:25:31.519 I don't remember trying to get him fired. 1:25:32.240 --> 1:25:37.120 Lebron leaving Miami. Did you guys have a conversation? Did 1:25:37.160 --> 1:25:39.599 you know he was thinking about leaving Miami? And did 1:25:39.640 --> 1:25:41.040 you think he'd go back to Cleveland. 1:25:43.120 --> 1:25:45.360 I didn't know he was thinking about it right away. Man, 1:25:45.400 --> 1:25:46.760 we just had a four year run. That was not 1:25:46.800 --> 1:25:50.360 what I was thinking about I didn't think Cleveland was 1:25:50.400 --> 1:25:53.800 on the on the docket at all. Right, Once that 1:25:53.880 --> 1:25:55.559 letter came out four years probably, I was like, well, 1:25:55.560 --> 1:25:56.160 it's over for them. 1:25:56.880 --> 1:25:57.519 I appreciate that. 1:25:57.600 --> 1:26:01.200 Yeah, yeah, And so I was when we went into 1:26:01.280 --> 1:26:02.519 free agency that summer. 1:26:03.040 --> 1:26:06.800 I didn't think that we were we wasn't coming back, right. 1:26:06.840 --> 1:26:08.600 I thought we was going to retool, right, this is 1:26:08.600 --> 1:26:13.200 what teams do, they retool. And so once I started 1:26:13.240 --> 1:26:16.880 hearing the noise on the outside and I started hearing Cleveland, 1:26:16.960 --> 1:26:19.920 I started seeing things, I was like, oh, it's some 1:26:19.960 --> 1:26:25.800 true to the noise, some truth tot And I didn't 1:26:25.840 --> 1:26:27.599 even know it was a thing because we never talked 1:26:27.600 --> 1:26:32.280 about Hey, that was never our conversation. And so when 1:26:32.320 --> 1:26:35.160 I did get the information from him that he was 1:26:35.200 --> 1:26:38.200 headed back to Cleveland, I mean I took it like 1:26:38.200 --> 1:26:40.120 I'll take everything else. I took it on the chain 1:26:40.920 --> 1:26:42.320 because I'm not a selfish guy. 1:26:42.400 --> 1:26:42.840 I mean I do. 1:26:42.920 --> 1:26:45.519 I have selfish acts and selfish moments, but my whole 1:26:45.520 --> 1:26:47.640 being is not selfish. And so that's what that man 1:26:47.720 --> 1:26:50.080 want to do for his life. Like I support him 1:26:50.120 --> 1:26:51.760 doing it. I just got to now figure out my 1:26:51.800 --> 1:26:55.200 life because I had a whole different plan for how 1:26:55.240 --> 1:26:56.080 I wanted mind to go. 1:26:56.760 --> 1:26:57.360 And you know. 1:26:57.320 --> 1:26:58.840 One thing I told him in that moment we were 1:26:58.840 --> 1:27:01.639 sitting outside the plane. I think even the Cara crew 1:27:01.680 --> 1:27:03.360 might have got us talking because we had just flew 1:27:03.360 --> 1:27:05.760 back in from Vegas before the announcement was made the 1:27:05.840 --> 1:27:08.160 next day and we're sitting out there and I told him, 1:27:08.160 --> 1:27:12.599 I said, man, listen, everybody's gonna win no matter what 1:27:12.640 --> 1:27:14.559 do you do. If you stay here, we all win. 1:27:15.160 --> 1:27:16.960 Lebron James stays in Miami and we win. You go 1:27:17.000 --> 1:27:19.760 to Cleveland, Cleveland's gonna win. Ultimately. You gotta do what's 1:27:19.800 --> 1:27:21.679 best for Lebron right. And so if this is what's 1:27:21.680 --> 1:27:25.120 best for Lebron, James, Savannah, James, Bryce and Brownie and 1:27:25.240 --> 1:27:27.599 Missouri wasn't at that stage. If this was better for 1:27:27.800 --> 1:27:31.320 your family, you got my If you're looking for blessing 1:27:31.320 --> 1:27:32.320 for me, you got my blessing. 1:27:32.439 --> 1:27:34.120 Right, I'm not gonna hold you back. 1:27:34.920 --> 1:27:35.080 Now. 1:27:35.080 --> 1:27:36.800 I gotta go deal with my side because I had 1:27:36.840 --> 1:27:37.879 a whole different mentality. 1:27:37.880 --> 1:27:39.439 I opted out of my deal. I did all these 1:27:39.439 --> 1:27:40.040 things because. 1:27:39.840 --> 1:27:42.120 I'm like, hey, we retooling, right, And so a lot 1:27:42.120 --> 1:27:43.920 of people like to say, like, was it a part 1:27:43.960 --> 1:27:46.360 of me. That was a little pissed. Yeah, I'm human. 1:27:47.280 --> 1:27:48.880 I don't want to lose the best player in the game. 1:27:49.080 --> 1:27:50.960 What do we do? Why did we lose him? Right? 1:27:51.640 --> 1:27:53.880 And also too now I got to figure out my future, 1:27:54.520 --> 1:27:56.759 right because I've given up a lot of my stardom 1:27:56.760 --> 1:27:59.920 and not giving up my place for you to for 1:28:00.040 --> 1:28:01.439 you step in and have lead us. 1:28:02.080 --> 1:28:03.559 And so it took me a while. 1:28:03.600 --> 1:28:05.840 And Brian and I had a conversation later once before 1:28:05.840 --> 1:28:07.599 I got to Cleveland about that moment and how I 1:28:07.600 --> 1:28:10.640 felt right like and how he felt. We sat down 1:28:10.680 --> 1:28:12.800 his man and we talked about that moment and we 1:28:12.840 --> 1:28:13.519 moved on from it. 1:28:14.840 --> 1:28:16.679 That was a difficult time for you because you gave 1:28:16.760 --> 1:28:20.240 up twenty million dollars that wasn't repaid to you. 1:28:21.200 --> 1:28:25.200 Yeah, you don't get money back. Hey, money don't come back. 1:28:25.200 --> 1:28:28.680 People. You can make more, but you ain't getting that. 1:28:29.280 --> 1:28:30.439 You ain't gonna get I don't care. 1:28:30.560 --> 1:28:33.439 Nobody tell y'all you can't recruit that money. 1:28:33.520 --> 1:28:36.440 No, the current. 1:28:36.200 --> 1:28:41.439 Miami heat, I've never seen it, d Wade. I'm a 1:28:41.479 --> 1:28:42.040 little older you. 1:28:42.040 --> 1:28:44.160 I'm a lot older to you, and I followed the 1:28:44.200 --> 1:28:46.439 game probably longer than you've been alive. I've never seen 1:28:46.439 --> 1:28:48.639 anybody like Jimmy Butler. I've never seen a guy play 1:28:48.720 --> 1:28:50.880 one way in the regular season and then play another 1:28:50.880 --> 1:28:51.519 way in the playoffs. 1:28:51.560 --> 1:28:52.200 I've never seen it. 1:28:53.080 --> 1:28:55.599 Need not at the levels he No. 1:28:55.760 --> 1:29:00.160 Yes, how does a guy that's you know, I mean, 1:29:00.200 --> 1:29:02.400 he's a good player, don't get me wrong, But if 1:29:02.439 --> 1:29:04.760 you look at a playoff you're talking about history. He's 1:29:05.120 --> 1:29:07.800 he has historically great playoff game. 1:29:08.760 --> 1:29:09.559 How does he do that? 1:29:09.680 --> 1:29:10.000 Yes? 1:29:10.680 --> 1:29:12.960 Well, I mean I don't know how he doesn't. But 1:29:13.040 --> 1:29:16.280 what I would say, what I learned you guys are 1:29:16.280 --> 1:29:19.240 welcome for me going to Chicago. By the way, what 1:29:19.360 --> 1:29:21.599 I say what I learned about Jimmy when I got 1:29:21.600 --> 1:29:23.200 a chance to be around him in Chicago for the 1:29:23.280 --> 1:29:28.760 season is some players lead with their IQ. Lebron will 1:29:28.800 --> 1:29:30.840 break down a whole fourth quarter few every play in 1:29:30.840 --> 1:29:32.280 the press conference, and you're like, oh, man, he's the 1:29:32.280 --> 1:29:35.040 smartest basketball player because he has a high IQ. Jimmy 1:29:35.080 --> 1:29:37.439 Butler don't lead with his IQ. Jimmy Butler leads with 1:29:37.479 --> 1:29:40.599 his toughness. Jimmy Butler is one of the smartest basketball 1:29:40.600 --> 1:29:43.760 players that I've ever been around. Right, It's just it's 1:29:43.840 --> 1:29:46.439 just how you decide to look at it. So when 1:29:46.479 --> 1:29:49.519 the playoffs come, everything slows down, right, you get to 1:29:49.600 --> 1:29:51.479 learn everyone Tennessee and all this, so you ain't got 1:29:51.560 --> 1:29:54.920 to be traveling playing a different one opponent. This is 1:29:54.960 --> 1:29:56.920 one of the smartest players that I've ever been around. 1:29:57.439 --> 1:29:59.719 Also too, in the midst of being a smart player, 1:30:01.040 --> 1:30:04.080 some players have that switch that they can turn on. 1:30:04.560 --> 1:30:07.479 Everyone doesn't have it, but certain players have it. Jimmy 1:30:07.560 --> 1:30:10.599 Butler has shown us over his career, and you go 1:30:10.640 --> 1:30:12.360 back in all the playoffs, You're like, oh, damn, Jimmy 1:30:12.439 --> 1:30:14.120 was in that Eastern Conference final. Jimmy was and that 1:30:14.200 --> 1:30:18.479 Jimmy wasn't that He's been a part of teams, he 1:30:18.560 --> 1:30:20.000 saw players he likes. 1:30:20.240 --> 1:30:22.360 He's a student. He watched Derick Rose. 1:30:22.600 --> 1:30:25.120 He watched me when I came into Chicago, like he 1:30:25.280 --> 1:30:27.600 was everywhere I was at. Jimmy was at because he 1:30:27.640 --> 1:30:31.760 wanted that knowledge, right, and so you put his work ethics. 1:30:31.360 --> 1:30:32.800 That he has that is second or nine. 1:30:33.880 --> 1:30:37.240 You put the confidence that Miami give them to say, hey, 1:30:37.400 --> 1:30:39.880 you the guy right, like, think about it. All we 1:30:39.960 --> 1:30:43.240 want sometime is to be seen. Yes, Miami was like, yo, Jimmy, 1:30:43.520 --> 1:30:45.599 you watched this off. Oh I see you you. 1:30:45.640 --> 1:30:48.360 Crazy, all right, you go crazy, match at crazy, Let's 1:30:48.360 --> 1:30:48.800 go do this. 1:30:49.000 --> 1:30:51.439 You give him that confidence. And also too, you give 1:30:51.479 --> 1:30:54.600 someone who's smart. And also and Jimmy's like Jordan in 1:30:54.640 --> 1:30:57.719 the sense in this way, he's always looking for something 1:30:57.760 --> 1:30:58.599 to piss him off. 1:30:59.320 --> 1:31:00.880 So in the New York Serious I was like, oh, 1:31:01.360 --> 1:31:03.120 he had Tis. He's all about Tis. 1:31:03.120 --> 1:31:04.760 He then made some stuff up about what Tim did 1:31:04.880 --> 1:31:06.280 him when Timson did. 1:31:06.120 --> 1:31:06.760 Everything for him. 1:31:06.800 --> 1:31:09.679 He made something Tims pissed him off in practice of Minnesota, 1:31:09.720 --> 1:31:11.479 and he was like, it was ain't about the Knicks, 1:31:11.800 --> 1:31:14.760 It's about Tibbs. So he has that he can go 1:31:14.840 --> 1:31:16.920 to that level where he can zone out and focus 1:31:16.960 --> 1:31:21.040 on one thing or somebody, and so he just it's 1:31:21.160 --> 1:31:22.120 everyone can't. 1:31:21.920 --> 1:31:23.439 Do that, right, He has a switch. 1:31:23.640 --> 1:31:27.599 Right. They say he's a tough teammate. To have coaches 1:31:27.680 --> 1:31:30.920 saying he's a tough player to coach, why. 1:31:33.240 --> 1:31:38.080 Because he gonna do it his way, you know, to 1:31:38.120 --> 1:31:39.800 be coaching, we got to do what the coach say. 1:31:40.960 --> 1:31:43.160 That ain't Jimmy don I'm not saying he's. 1:31:43.000 --> 1:31:45.920 A bad player, like a bad teammate or a bad person. 1:31:47.160 --> 1:31:50.120 Jimmy knows the game. Jimmy knows the work he puts 1:31:50.120 --> 1:31:52.320 in the game, right, he's very committed to that. 1:31:52.439 --> 1:31:53.519 No one is going to work me. 1:31:53.840 --> 1:31:55.559 No one is gonna know this better than me, not 1:31:55.680 --> 1:31:59.240 even you, coach, So you can't just throw something out 1:31:59.240 --> 1:31:59.719 there at Jimmy. 1:31:59.720 --> 1:32:00.280 He's going to. 1:32:00.240 --> 1:32:02.280 Challenge you on He asked you why we do it 1:32:02.080 --> 1:32:04.880 that it gonna challenge you, right? And you you want 1:32:04.920 --> 1:32:07.160 your you want your best players to challenge you. That's 1:32:07.160 --> 1:32:09.599 how it makes your better coach. But when you get 1:32:09.600 --> 1:32:12.040 a reputation in a space that they don't want you 1:32:12.080 --> 1:32:12.840 to challenge right. 1:32:13.439 --> 1:32:17.000 Now, you're a problem, your bad. Yeah, you go into 1:32:17.080 --> 1:32:19.840 a situation where they're like, oh, you're challenging me, let 1:32:19.840 --> 1:32:21.960 me challenge you back. Okay, that was a good challenge. 1:32:22.000 --> 1:32:23.559 Tap it up, let's go. And that's what he found. 1:32:23.640 --> 1:32:25.840 So he found a home in a place that they 1:32:25.880 --> 1:32:30.360 both got a little. Miami ain't for everybody, and Jimmy 1:32:30.360 --> 1:32:34.040 Butler is not for everybody, and so Minnesota, Philly, Chicago 1:32:34.479 --> 1:32:37.720 they experienced Jimmy is not for everyone because Jimmy is 1:32:37.720 --> 1:32:38.639 going to challenge you. 1:32:38.840 --> 1:32:40.200 He's going to challenge your organization. 1:32:40.240 --> 1:32:41.679 And now I said, he's gonna walk in and say 1:32:41.840 --> 1:32:44.559 demand players he's going to challenge you to play at 1:32:44.600 --> 1:32:45.080 his level. 1:32:45.080 --> 1:32:46.680 He's going to challenge you to be where he is. 1:32:46.640 --> 1:32:49.000 And work how he works and all these things, and 1:32:49.080 --> 1:32:50.599 so no one likes to be challenged. 1:32:51.000 --> 1:32:52.280 You a problem if you challenge me. 1:32:53.280 --> 1:32:58.080 You mentioned earlier that you were very, very surprised that 1:32:58.200 --> 1:33:02.000 Lebron went back to Cleveland, given that the letter that 1:33:02.120 --> 1:33:04.720 Dan Gibber, the owner who had worked so closely with 1:33:04.840 --> 1:33:07.519 Lebron James, with the things that he said, because now 1:33:07.520 --> 1:33:09.400 all of a sudden, it's not about basketball, you've made 1:33:09.400 --> 1:33:12.759 it personal. How is Lebron Lebron is a very forgiving 1:33:12.800 --> 1:33:15.280 person because there are guys that's taking shots at it 1:33:15.520 --> 1:33:18.000 that he's willing to embrace again like, oh now we 1:33:18.320 --> 1:33:19.559 may we cool later for that. 1:33:20.240 --> 1:33:23.040 How is he able to forget because you know we don't. 1:33:23.120 --> 1:33:24.840 We're not. Most people aren't. 1:33:24.520 --> 1:33:29.400 As forgiving or as forgetful as he is, especially when 1:33:29.400 --> 1:33:31.200 you say, look, if you say something to me in private, 1:33:31.320 --> 1:33:33.360 just me, and you know, okay, cool, like I don't 1:33:33.439 --> 1:33:33.880 rock with you. 1:33:33.840 --> 1:33:34.519 No more but cool. 1:33:34.800 --> 1:33:36.519 But when you put it out there for twenty five 1:33:36.600 --> 1:33:38.800 one hundred million people to read, nah, I can't rock 1:33:38.840 --> 1:33:39.599 with you on that level. 1:33:39.640 --> 1:33:41.720 No, more Bron, Yeah, bigger man than me? 1:33:42.080 --> 1:33:42.519 Yeah? 1:33:42.640 --> 1:33:43.000 How do he? 1:33:43.160 --> 1:33:47.280 I'm penny, Yeah, how did he set that aside? 1:33:48.840 --> 1:33:49.160 I don't. 1:33:49.160 --> 1:33:51.840 I don't know, like, And that's why I never thought 1:33:51.840 --> 1:33:53.880 Cleveland was in play, right, you know what I mean? 1:33:53.920 --> 1:33:55.600 Not saying that I never thought he was gonna be 1:33:55.640 --> 1:33:58.200 a Miami forever like you want thinking that way, But 1:33:58.240 --> 1:34:00.720 I never thought Cleveland was in play because I'm and 1:34:00.760 --> 1:34:02.120 so if I was going off for how I would 1:34:02.120 --> 1:34:02.559 have done it. 1:34:02.640 --> 1:34:05.280 No, I'm not coming back to you. But at the 1:34:05.280 --> 1:34:10.439 same time, man Lebron has a journey and it's. 1:34:10.320 --> 1:34:14.120 Bigger than a letter that Dan Gilbert could put out. 1:34:14.240 --> 1:34:17.680 It's bigger than what someone's sitting across the table from. 1:34:17.720 --> 1:34:21.720 You may say it's bigger than because when you like, 1:34:21.840 --> 1:34:25.439 he's been King James since he was twelve years old. 1:34:26.240 --> 1:34:28.400 He has had a vision for how he wants this 1:34:28.520 --> 1:34:28.760 to go. 1:34:28.920 --> 1:34:31.160 And if you allow all these individuals to get in 1:34:31.160 --> 1:34:34.000 the way of your vision, then it becomes theirs. What 1:34:34.040 --> 1:34:35.920 they want for your career, that's what he wants for 1:34:36.000 --> 1:34:38.080 his right And so I looked at that move going 1:34:38.120 --> 1:34:41.799 back to Cleveland. Is this man, first of all, bigger 1:34:41.800 --> 1:34:45.720 man than me in that moment to go back. But 1:34:45.800 --> 1:34:48.600 it wasn't about Dan Gilbert. It wasn't about the Cleveland Cavaliers. 1:34:48.640 --> 1:34:50.760 It's about Lebron James and his family and what he 1:34:50.800 --> 1:34:53.719 wanted to accomplish and how he see his career going 1:34:54.120 --> 1:34:57.080 and so to be able to fly higher than most people, 1:34:57.600 --> 1:35:00.320 right like Lebron playing has been at forty thousand since 1:35:00.320 --> 1:35:03.960 he took off, right like mine, here's some turbleines we landed. 1:35:04.080 --> 1:35:05.960 Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, I landed my play. 1:35:06.000 --> 1:35:08.280 Back at twenty nineteen. He's been at forty thousand and 1:35:08.439 --> 1:35:10.800 higher since he started. And so to be at that 1:35:10.920 --> 1:35:15.080 level you have to look above, and he looked above 1:35:15.439 --> 1:35:17.880 and got what he needed for his career, right yeah. 1:35:19.240 --> 1:35:21.559 I think the most interesting thing that you I'm sorry 1:35:21.560 --> 1:35:25.439 in his community because that was important. I promise, yeah, 1:35:25.520 --> 1:35:27.479 and I say that and I'm sorry interrupt, but I 1:35:27.520 --> 1:35:29.640 say that to say when he went back, he implemented 1:35:29.680 --> 1:35:31.160 something that was bigger than basketball. 1:35:31.360 --> 1:35:32.800 That's when you was like, I see you. 1:35:33.000 --> 1:35:36.280 He implemented, I promise, he implemented the schools, which now 1:35:36.320 --> 1:35:40.160 has implemented the housing. And it was about the community 1:35:40.200 --> 1:35:42.400 of Cleveland that he wanted to He wanted them to 1:35:42.400 --> 1:35:45.679 feel like winners, right, And in the midst of it, yeah, 1:35:45.680 --> 1:35:47.840 we all have. I feel is about how and why 1:35:48.040 --> 1:35:50.200 because that's we're human. But if I'm looking at it 1:35:50.200 --> 1:35:53.080 from his standpoint, I'm like, oh, I see you, you. 1:35:53.479 --> 1:35:55.600 You up here. We all was like, we all was 1:35:55.680 --> 1:35:57.560 down here looking up like, Bro, you shouldn't. 1:35:57.160 --> 1:36:02.320 Do that, right the Wade, I think you're a phenomenal 1:36:02.320 --> 1:36:05.599 basketball player. You've accomplished a lie, But I think your 1:36:05.600 --> 1:36:11.760 greatest accomplishment is the way you've embraced your child wanting 1:36:11.800 --> 1:36:15.240 to transition. That's not an easy thing to do, because 1:36:15.280 --> 1:36:17.920 we all have. If you have a daughter, you have 1:36:17.960 --> 1:36:19.960 an idea what you think your daughter was going to 1:36:19.960 --> 1:36:21.840 be or what you wanted to become. If you have 1:36:21.880 --> 1:36:23.360 a son, you have an idea of what you want, 1:36:23.439 --> 1:36:25.040 especially if you played sports. I want my son to 1:36:25.040 --> 1:36:27.280 play sports, either the doctor. If I'm a doctor, I 1:36:27.360 --> 1:36:29.920 want my son to be a doctor, lawyer, YadA, YadA, YadA. 1:36:31.320 --> 1:36:37.360 But for you to embrace Zaia, to embrace her journey, 1:36:38.320 --> 1:36:41.640 how did you come to because obviously you had to 1:36:41.640 --> 1:36:45.200 sit down and you had a conversation. She comes to 1:36:45.240 --> 1:36:48.599 you when she sits down and she says, Dad, this 1:36:48.640 --> 1:36:51.639 is how I'm feeling. This is how I'm thinking. And 1:36:51.680 --> 1:36:57.320 you say, what, well, it's not my journey. 1:36:58.400 --> 1:37:02.240 Like, I'm not that selfish. I can't make your journey 1:37:02.320 --> 1:37:05.960 in your life about me, right, Like, I just can't 1:37:05.960 --> 1:37:09.920 do that. Yes, And I was telling someone this the 1:37:10.000 --> 1:37:13.679 other day when Zaia was born. She was born May 1:37:13.840 --> 1:37:19.439 twenty ninth, which is Carmelo's birthday, right right, birthday to 1:37:19.479 --> 1:37:22.880 my brother. Toast to my brother on his retirement. By 1:37:22.880 --> 1:37:25.439 the way, told some this this right. 1:37:25.280 --> 1:37:34.240 Here, listen about this fire. So if y'all go look 1:37:34.280 --> 1:37:34.599 at it. 1:37:35.280 --> 1:37:40.120 I have Zion Lebron, has Bryce Mellow, has Kanye all 1:37:40.160 --> 1:37:43.479 within about a two three week span, all that kids 1:37:43.520 --> 1:37:44.439 on girl hooping together. 1:37:45.320 --> 1:37:48.639 Oh we we all, Well we're gonna have three we all. 1:37:49.520 --> 1:37:51.880 So yeah, like obviously I had a boy. I had 1:37:51.880 --> 1:37:53.519 another boy that was my second boy in the room. 1:37:53.520 --> 1:37:55.559 I'm like, okay, this is what we do with hooping family, 1:37:56.760 --> 1:37:59.439 and see what happens when you start making plans for 1:37:59.439 --> 1:38:00.519 other people out right. 1:38:01.120 --> 1:38:03.439 That's her journey, that's her journey. But you played that, 1:38:03.560 --> 1:38:03.920 you played. 1:38:04.000 --> 1:38:05.479 Oh you couldn't tell me we were't gonna be on 1:38:05.520 --> 1:38:07.559 the circuit right now, babe. We were hooping, We got 1:38:07.560 --> 1:38:09.519 weaved in the bag, you got to wear waves on. 1:38:10.439 --> 1:38:11.240 We're doing it too. 1:38:12.680 --> 1:38:15.640 Then I got to meet my child, and a lot 1:38:15.680 --> 1:38:19.120 of people like to talk about Zia's transition. To me, 1:38:19.240 --> 1:38:22.960 Zaia hasn't transitioned into anything but a kid and now 1:38:22.960 --> 1:38:25.760 a young going into a young adult. I've watched her 1:38:25.800 --> 1:38:27.760 go through life. It hasn't been no transition for us. 1:38:28.120 --> 1:38:30.720 It's been a transition for the world. But for us, 1:38:30.800 --> 1:38:33.880 I see the same kid that I've seen since May 1:38:33.920 --> 1:38:38.040 twenty ninth, two thousand and what seven, nothing has changed. 1:38:38.320 --> 1:38:41.080 Did you know where their signs? 1:38:41.479 --> 1:38:41.679 Yeah? 1:38:41.840 --> 1:38:44.280 Did she? Because you know, boy, if you play with trucks, 1:38:44.320 --> 1:38:45.400 girls play with dogs. 1:38:45.560 --> 1:38:48.280 You know, girls dress up, boys do this. So you 1:38:48.400 --> 1:38:50.559 saw signs at a very early age. 1:38:50.720 --> 1:38:52.720 Yeah, that much. 1:38:53.760 --> 1:38:56.479 He's not like what I'm thinking a boy should be 1:38:56.640 --> 1:38:58.360 or what I was when I was that age. 1:38:58.439 --> 1:39:00.400 Yeah, I mean think about this. I mean, you're in 1:39:00.400 --> 1:39:02.280 the locker room. I'm in the locker yea right, we 1:39:02.320 --> 1:39:05.120 don't we we we ignit. I'm say ignit. 1:39:06.160 --> 1:39:10.000 And so I come from a culture of men throwing 1:39:10.040 --> 1:39:14.080 around the F words, yes, yes, around the gay word, yes, 1:39:14.600 --> 1:39:18.160 just like it's high by right, just throwing it around. Right, 1:39:19.000 --> 1:39:24.160 And so I have a child at home that we're basketball, baseball, 1:39:24.200 --> 1:39:27.160 we're doing what you do, Hey, let's play this. I 1:39:27.200 --> 1:39:29.400 have a try to home. It's like I don't want that. 1:39:29.920 --> 1:39:31.519 I want to take I want to go that. I 1:39:31.560 --> 1:39:33.679 want to take dance lessons. Okay, well let's go to dance. 1:39:34.160 --> 1:39:36.519 I would try to home when I come home. She 1:39:36.640 --> 1:39:38.920 got the shirt wrapped around her head like it's like 1:39:39.000 --> 1:39:41.719 long hair. I gotta try at home that I'm watching, 1:39:42.760 --> 1:39:46.160 we're certain things that's different than what I would buy 1:39:46.200 --> 1:39:50.160 for my son, right, right. And so this is at 1:39:50.160 --> 1:39:52.240 three years old. So I'm in my home my wife, 1:39:52.280 --> 1:39:56.240 and now we have a conversation about it. And for me, 1:39:56.320 --> 1:39:57.280 instead of walking in and. 1:39:57.200 --> 1:39:58.320 Say hey, stop that ship. 1:39:58.400 --> 1:40:00.360 Cut that ship, like like people got to do that. 1:40:00.439 --> 1:40:02.200 I got to stop you when you're doing when you're 1:40:02.200 --> 1:40:05.040 doing something for you that they don't like. 1:40:05.479 --> 1:40:06.160 Right, So instead of. 1:40:06.160 --> 1:40:07.800 Me walking in the room and say you stop that ship, 1:40:08.240 --> 1:40:11.040 it was my job to sit back and say, okay, 1:40:11.520 --> 1:40:12.439 let's have a conversation. 1:40:12.520 --> 1:40:13.680 Was alight and let's see where this goes. 1:40:13.960 --> 1:40:16.639 And so my first conversation with her is about hey, 1:40:16.920 --> 1:40:18.760 understanding what you like to wear? And how you like 1:40:18.800 --> 1:40:23.200 to be in the house right outside of his house. 1:40:23.200 --> 1:40:26.000 They're not ready for that, right right. I don't even 1:40:26.040 --> 1:40:28.320 know if we were ready for that. And so we 1:40:28.439 --> 1:40:30.360 slowly just let her be who she wanted. 1:40:30.160 --> 1:40:30.760 To be in our home. 1:40:30.880 --> 1:40:32.360 Is that your first wife or this God? 1:40:32.600 --> 1:40:34.479 This is what God be? 1:40:34.560 --> 1:40:37.479 Who you want to be in our home? And we're 1:40:37.479 --> 1:40:38.000 gonna watch it. 1:40:38.040 --> 1:40:41.160 We're gonna learn alone this journey because at that moment, 1:40:41.240 --> 1:40:43.840 I think, you know. And the thing that's a blessing 1:40:43.880 --> 1:40:45.439 in my life is that I that I that I 1:40:45.439 --> 1:40:47.519 got with my wife at the time I got my wife, because. 1:40:47.320 --> 1:40:49.760 It exposed me to the world. It exposed me to 1:40:49.840 --> 1:40:50.400 friends I have. 1:40:50.479 --> 1:40:53.559 Some of my best friends are Jason and the There. 1:40:53.720 --> 1:40:56.360 Well everybody knows it's my style of Jason. His husband 1:40:56.439 --> 1:40:58.120 is a there. I got a chance to be exposed 1:40:58.120 --> 1:41:00.400 to them early. And we all have our thoughts about 1:41:00.439 --> 1:41:03.880 like how we perceive people who you know are gay, right, 1:41:03.880 --> 1:41:05.200 who are man and man? 1:41:05.800 --> 1:41:07.240 It was a woman and woman, we like that, but 1:41:07.320 --> 1:41:09.479 this man and man we have our perception, right. 1:41:09.840 --> 1:41:11.880 So I got a chance to spend time with him, 1:41:11.920 --> 1:41:13.800 being around them, a vacation with them, all this and that, 1:41:13.840 --> 1:41:17.800 and I'm like, what the perception that I had, It's 1:41:17.800 --> 1:41:19.320 not even a question in my mind. 1:41:19.560 --> 1:41:21.479 That was my friends. I don't look at them. I 1:41:21.520 --> 1:41:24.599 don't look at they're they're married, they love each other, 1:41:24.840 --> 1:41:27.479 they argue like we argue all the same nothing. 1:41:27.600 --> 1:41:28.439 So that's their life. 1:41:28.760 --> 1:41:31.920 I had experience. And so in the midst of that 1:41:32.000 --> 1:41:34.839 experience through the world because I was out of my community, 1:41:34.920 --> 1:41:36.479 I was out of what my uncles and my dad 1:41:36.479 --> 1:41:39.240 and everybody you told me, I'm now looking at the 1:41:39.280 --> 1:41:41.400 world and I'm looking at my child. And so I 1:41:41.439 --> 1:41:44.559 got a chance to watch my child nine years before 1:41:44.600 --> 1:41:48.559 the world even heard about Zia. So when everyone started 1:41:48.560 --> 1:41:50.880 telling me what my child is, I'm like, how you gonna. 1:41:51.840 --> 1:41:52.840 I've been with a whole while. 1:41:53.840 --> 1:41:55.559 And I talked to my child. Do you talk to 1:41:55.560 --> 1:41:56.439 my child? Because I do. 1:41:57.120 --> 1:41:58.599 And so I sat down and talked to my child 1:41:58.640 --> 1:42:01.000 about as she was growing up, about the things she wanted. 1:42:01.400 --> 1:42:02.880 And I tried to make sure that the things that 1:42:02.920 --> 1:42:05.360 she wanted, what she would work hard at, was presented 1:42:05.360 --> 1:42:08.080 to her, not what I wanted. And that's the problem 1:42:08.200 --> 1:42:11.240 with us is we're gonna and and and I would 1:42:11.280 --> 1:42:14.800 like to say this because of the NBA or because 1:42:14.840 --> 1:42:16.719 of my basketball talents, and because of all these things, 1:42:16.720 --> 1:42:18.599 I've been put in a position where I actually could 1:42:18.640 --> 1:42:20.800 wait and allow my kids to grow up and I 1:42:20.800 --> 1:42:22.920 don't have to say, hey, I need help with. 1:42:22.880 --> 1:42:25.240 These bills, Hey you gotta do this. You got to 1:42:25.280 --> 1:42:26.120 be that because. 1:42:25.840 --> 1:42:28.840 Some communities, some households, they have to do that because 1:42:28.880 --> 1:42:31.280 of their circumstances. We don't have time to figure out 1:42:31.320 --> 1:42:32.760 who you want to be and what you want to do. 1:42:33.280 --> 1:42:36.280 We had that figure out your time, right and then 1:42:36.320 --> 1:42:38.360 now you get you get kids who's later in their life. 1:42:38.479 --> 1:42:40.559 They didn't have their relationship with their parents early on 1:42:40.640 --> 1:42:43.719 because their parents had to make them whatever the culture was, whatever. 1:42:43.479 --> 1:42:45.599 The time was. Our time was different. 1:42:46.120 --> 1:42:47.920 So we had an opportunity to sit back and say, 1:42:47.920 --> 1:42:49.920 you know what, I don't want all. 1:42:49.840 --> 1:42:52.720 My kids to be exactly the same anyway. So you 1:42:52.760 --> 1:42:55.439 know what, my three year old son at this time, Zaia, 1:42:55.880 --> 1:42:57.640 let me live Zion, let me see what, let me 1:42:57.680 --> 1:42:58.640 see what Zion want to do. 1:42:59.280 --> 1:43:04.000 And slowly but surely Zaia started growing and we started 1:43:04.000 --> 1:43:10.479 watching ain't not a second of this is Zia like. 1:43:10.520 --> 1:43:11.760 That's why it's funny to me. 1:43:11.800 --> 1:43:14.200 I'm like in the world, I'm like everybody on the outside, 1:43:14.200 --> 1:43:16.120 I got something to say, And the inside. 1:43:16.320 --> 1:43:17.320 We're talking about school. 1:43:18.120 --> 1:43:21.200 We're talking about like like I sit down with my child, 1:43:21.240 --> 1:43:23.320 we talk about Hey, okay, so the doctor said this, 1:43:23.400 --> 1:43:25.799 what do we gotta do, Like, let's talk about your health, 1:43:26.200 --> 1:43:28.800 Let's talk about what the future looks like. I'm talking 1:43:28.800 --> 1:43:31.400 about real life things, right, because everybody on the outside 1:43:31.400 --> 1:43:33.760 got a pursu aout that gossip, because. 1:43:33.520 --> 1:43:35.080 The gossip is we all the same. 1:43:36.479 --> 1:43:38.640 Tell me, let's go into all these communities in LA 1:43:38.680 --> 1:43:41.439 and you're gonna see everybody's different, Everyone lives different, everyone 1:43:41.560 --> 1:43:45.479 is different, everyone loves different. So because I'm an athlete, 1:43:46.200 --> 1:43:48.320 and because you know I had a I have a 1:43:48.400 --> 1:43:51.799 boy at birth, y'all expect that this boy is supposed 1:43:51.840 --> 1:43:53.719 to do x y Z, just like Zaire had expectation. 1:43:53.800 --> 1:43:55.720 Y'all expect him to be the NBA superstar because I 1:43:55.760 --> 1:43:57.880 had him and blah blah blah. So everyone else on 1:43:57.920 --> 1:44:00.360 the outside have the expectations of my family and my key. 1:44:01.000 --> 1:44:03.040 How you're gonna have expectations of my feeling and my 1:44:03.160 --> 1:44:05.120 kids when I'm still learning and I'm still. 1:44:05.200 --> 1:44:06.880 Trying to still trying to figure it out. 1:44:07.240 --> 1:44:08.720 I'm trying to figure it out because I didn't grow 1:44:08.800 --> 1:44:11.879 up in this in this environment. So let me check myself, 1:44:12.280 --> 1:44:14.040 because if I make it about me, I'm gonna have 1:44:14.080 --> 1:44:16.599 a kid that's gonna go through life, that's gonna be miserable, 1:44:16.760 --> 1:44:21.120 there's gonna go through life. I think the statistics on kids, 1:44:21.479 --> 1:44:23.760 especially in the transgender community, when it comes to suicide, 1:44:23.760 --> 1:44:26.680 it's very high. Right when you don't be when you're 1:44:26.720 --> 1:44:29.599 not seen, when you're not seeing, just as a person 1:44:29.600 --> 1:44:31.439 who get up every day and work hard and grind, 1:44:31.479 --> 1:44:33.519 you got a problem with it, right, You got a 1:44:33.520 --> 1:44:35.160 problem when no one sees you. So I got a 1:44:35.200 --> 1:44:36.680 kid in my house that I can't see and I 1:44:36.720 --> 1:44:39.439 don't take time to look at and see, then this 1:44:39.600 --> 1:44:42.840 kid is gonna feel unloved and on wanting from from 1:44:42.880 --> 1:44:45.160 the father who's mother. 1:44:45.560 --> 1:44:48.680 You guys know my situation right. My ex wife is 1:44:48.760 --> 1:44:50.920 very public, very public. 1:44:50.840 --> 1:44:51.280 Very natural. 1:44:52.040 --> 1:44:53.320 I'm the parent in the house. 1:44:53.960 --> 1:44:55.720 I have to see you, I have to hear you, 1:44:56.680 --> 1:44:59.519 and so my child and I have a very open, honest, 1:44:59.720 --> 1:45:04.080 straight for right between the eyes relationship about the journey 1:45:04.439 --> 1:45:07.479 who you are, what you're experiencing, because I don't know, 1:45:08.040 --> 1:45:10.360 because I've never experienced that and it was never shown 1:45:10.360 --> 1:45:13.280 to me that it was Hey, it was never it 1:45:13.360 --> 1:45:14.120 was never presented to me. 1:45:14.400 --> 1:45:16.120 And so being in a position that. 1:45:16.160 --> 1:45:20.960 I'm in as a father, it's my job to understand, 1:45:20.960 --> 1:45:24.479 to be able to say, Okay, everybody, I don't want 1:45:24.560 --> 1:45:27.080 y'all commenting on my life. I don't want y'all comment 1:45:27.160 --> 1:45:29.760 on my daughter's gender, my daughter's sexuality. 1:45:29.800 --> 1:45:30.639 That's not what I want. 1:45:31.080 --> 1:45:33.439 But because we're public figures, and because I know it's 1:45:33.560 --> 1:45:35.559 other kids in the world like Zion, as other dads 1:45:35.560 --> 1:45:37.559 in the world like me, and it will be forever 1:45:38.240 --> 1:45:42.040 because we all are not the same, right, then I allowed, 1:45:42.120 --> 1:45:44.160 then I share a little bit of her journey, a 1:45:44.200 --> 1:45:46.479 little bit of our journey, because we're both going to 1:45:46.520 --> 1:45:48.160 the journey that native one of us knew we will 1:45:48.200 --> 1:45:51.080 be on, right like this, this entire journey, And so 1:45:51.600 --> 1:45:53.640 I don't think about I think about the safety of 1:45:53.720 --> 1:45:54.080 my kid. 1:45:54.400 --> 1:45:56.000 I think about the safety of other kids in the 1:45:56.040 --> 1:45:56.719 trans community. 1:45:57.000 --> 1:45:58.840 I think about, you know, how the world is trying 1:45:58.840 --> 1:46:02.720 to hush and and and exile entire community like you 1:46:02.840 --> 1:46:05.040 do not exist as black people. 1:46:05.160 --> 1:46:06.760 Do we know about that? We do? 1:46:06.960 --> 1:46:09.680 Damn right, we do. And we the main ones that 1:46:10.040 --> 1:46:11.519 are talking about the trans community. 1:46:11.560 --> 1:46:13.840 We the main ones that won't open and accept and 1:46:13.920 --> 1:46:16.639 we want the world accept us, like what are we doing? 1:46:17.280 --> 1:46:19.760 And so I'm playing a different plan field that most 1:46:19.800 --> 1:46:23.240 people who comment on my life because I understand the 1:46:23.280 --> 1:46:26.519 position that I'm in a lot of black families in 1:46:26.560 --> 1:46:29.960 the communities they don't see or hear, don't get a 1:46:30.080 --> 1:46:32.200 chance to hear these stories from us, don't get a 1:46:32.280 --> 1:46:35.880 chance to see these things from us. And so, yeah, 1:46:36.560 --> 1:46:38.080 I'm sure to a lot of people, I look crazy. 1:46:39.640 --> 1:46:41.360 I don't care about looking crazy to y'all, I care 1:46:41.360 --> 1:46:42.920 about making sure that I'm there for my kids. 1:46:43.000 --> 1:46:45.280 How difficult is it not to have the support of 1:46:45.360 --> 1:46:48.479 the other parent with what Zaia is going through? And 1:46:48.560 --> 1:46:50.559 I think the thing is that that probably what Zaia 1:46:50.640 --> 1:46:55.080 wants most is for her parents to understand the journey 1:46:55.120 --> 1:46:58.920 that she's chose to embark upon and be accepting of 1:46:59.040 --> 1:47:01.479 that journey that she and barking a pun and you 1:47:01.760 --> 1:47:05.479 have accepted it, jumped on this thing with both feet. 1:47:05.560 --> 1:47:08.240 But it seems like he's getting some resistance from a mother. 1:47:08.720 --> 1:47:10.559 Is that difficult for you because you see it's hurting 1:47:10.600 --> 1:47:10.920 the child. 1:47:11.040 --> 1:47:14.439 It's difficult. It's difficult for me. So I can't even 1:47:14.479 --> 1:47:15.800 imagine what it's like for her. 1:47:15.880 --> 1:47:17.200 Did she talk to you about it? Does she have 1:47:17.280 --> 1:47:18.320 a relationship with her mom? 1:47:19.160 --> 1:47:21.400 She has whatever relationship that she wants to have. I 1:47:21.600 --> 1:47:24.280 assume she's sixteen years old. Yeah, you know she's getting older, 1:47:24.479 --> 1:47:27.519 and so you know the relationship is controlled by phones. 1:47:27.560 --> 1:47:29.760 Now she lived my mother doesn't live here, right, she 1:47:29.880 --> 1:47:30.519 lives in my home. 1:47:30.960 --> 1:47:31.400 But you don't. 1:47:31.720 --> 1:47:33.920 You don't force Zaia to pick up the phone and 1:47:34.000 --> 1:47:36.000 call her mom. You don't force the mom to like 1:47:36.080 --> 1:47:38.120 call cause you know sometimes you know kids like did 1:47:38.160 --> 1:47:40.559 you call you that? Ever, my daughter came to live 1:47:40.600 --> 1:47:42.280 with me, My oldest daughter came to stay with me, 1:47:43.000 --> 1:47:45.200 and her mom would get into it, you know how 1:47:45.240 --> 1:47:47.880 women get into it, and she'd go, day what I 1:47:47.920 --> 1:47:49.120 call her? I said, no, we're not gonna do that. 1:47:49.600 --> 1:47:51.960 Pick up the phone and call you whatever you got 1:47:52.040 --> 1:47:53.840 going on, no matter how you mad at her, she's 1:47:53.880 --> 1:47:55.400 mad at you. We're not gonna do that. 1:47:56.520 --> 1:47:57.160 You don't do that. 1:47:57.640 --> 1:48:02.080 They don't have that relationship. That's a different relationship. It 1:48:02.160 --> 1:48:03.240 got to be both ways. 1:48:04.320 --> 1:48:09.760 And you're talking about a kid like isaiahs. She's way advanced, way, 1:48:10.240 --> 1:48:12.040 she's way above everybody. 1:48:11.720 --> 1:48:12.120 Thinks she is. 1:48:12.400 --> 1:48:15.560 You're talking about a kid who has experienced something that 1:48:15.840 --> 1:48:18.519 I don't even know about when it comes to the 1:48:18.640 --> 1:48:20.240 relationship that she's. 1:48:22.120 --> 1:48:23.519 Had to try to have with a mother. 1:48:23.920 --> 1:48:25.800 She's been living with me since she was two and 1:48:25.840 --> 1:48:29.679 a half three years old, and as I said very openly, 1:48:29.840 --> 1:48:33.200 like my wife ain't any part of all this. And 1:48:33.360 --> 1:48:35.320 so what I will do is I will give credit 1:48:35.400 --> 1:48:38.920 to my wife who has stepped in and stepped out 1:48:40.080 --> 1:48:43.719 and become a figure, not a mother, that's not a mom, 1:48:44.560 --> 1:48:44.960 you know what I mean. 1:48:44.960 --> 1:48:46.840 I know it's titled step mom bonus moms. 1:48:47.160 --> 1:48:51.840 She's become a consistent figure in her life and as 1:48:51.880 --> 1:48:55.080 a woman who she they can have conversations and talk 1:48:55.120 --> 1:48:57.960 about things that I just can't help her with in 1:48:58.080 --> 1:48:58.679 the midst. 1:48:58.560 --> 1:48:59.920 Of all of what's going on. 1:49:00.320 --> 1:49:02.280 Like I only know what I know, and I only 1:49:02.360 --> 1:49:04.000 know what questions I can go out and ask, right, 1:49:04.960 --> 1:49:07.000 But they have different conversations that I can. 1:49:07.120 --> 1:49:07.559 It's different. 1:49:07.640 --> 1:49:11.120 Trust, So you know, for you know, I remember watching 1:49:11.200 --> 1:49:13.800 my dad step up and be a stepdad, and I 1:49:13.840 --> 1:49:15.080 didn't I just knew it was a lot of other 1:49:15.160 --> 1:49:15.599 kids around. 1:49:15.600 --> 1:49:18.000 I ain't know really what it meant, right, But to be. 1:49:18.320 --> 1:49:22.880 That's a heroic position to be to step in to 1:49:23.040 --> 1:49:27.559 someone else's child. Yeah, become an important figure in their lives. 1:49:27.720 --> 1:49:30.599 And she has been in this journey because I would 1:49:30.640 --> 1:49:32.840 be lost if it was just men ziay out here 1:49:32.880 --> 1:49:34.760 on this journey, right. And so to be able to 1:49:34.800 --> 1:49:36.280 have not only my wife, to be able to have 1:49:36.360 --> 1:49:39.600 our community, it allows us to be able to go 1:49:39.760 --> 1:49:41.719 through all this feeling like we have armor. 1:49:41.840 --> 1:49:43.960 You might be the biggest de sire in yourself, might 1:49:44.000 --> 1:49:47.519 be the biggest advocate for the trans community because who 1:49:47.640 --> 1:49:50.960 you are, and you can put someone famous because like 1:49:51.040 --> 1:49:53.160 you said, they'll hurry like man, nobody know who you 1:49:53.200 --> 1:49:54.840 guys are. Nobody even cares about you. 1:49:55.160 --> 1:49:57.120 But you give it a face, you give it a name. 1:49:57.840 --> 1:49:59.360 Let me ask you this the wade I mean, because 1:49:59.400 --> 1:50:01.200 like you said, you had zias issues two and a 1:50:01.240 --> 1:50:05.479 half in zaire your oldest son. How was it being 1:50:05.560 --> 1:50:08.000 in the NBA and being a single path. 1:50:09.160 --> 1:50:11.160 Well, I mean, first of all, I had, My community 1:50:11.320 --> 1:50:14.599 is large, it's not noning. Ever, like I didn't get 1:50:14.640 --> 1:50:15.080 divorced and. 1:50:15.200 --> 1:50:16.479 Like, yo, let me get them kids. 1:50:16.840 --> 1:50:20.360 Yeah, I was like, let me get these get in 1:50:20.479 --> 1:50:22.880 these straights, getting these Miami Street. 1:50:24.680 --> 1:50:27.439 At getting these Miami be nice. I'm like that what 1:50:27.720 --> 1:50:30.320 I got? What the two kids at the crib? 1:50:31.360 --> 1:50:36.000 Yeah you said? It changed everything? And for me, man, 1:50:36.120 --> 1:50:37.040 I wrote a book about it. 1:50:37.280 --> 1:50:40.599 You know how my life became bigger than basketball because 1:50:40.640 --> 1:50:42.360 at that moment when I had to fight for custody, 1:50:42.360 --> 1:50:44.599 because it became I had to fight for crusty, because 1:50:44.600 --> 1:50:46.840 it wasn't just hey, joint cussy, let's raise these kids. 1:50:48.280 --> 1:50:50.519 It became for me it was like, Okay, what's the 1:50:50.600 --> 1:50:52.920 most important thing in your life? It's basketball more important 1:50:52.920 --> 1:50:53.599 than your kids. 1:50:53.640 --> 1:50:55.840 For you to get them the wade you played, You 1:50:55.960 --> 1:50:59.639 an NBA player, You're a professional athlete. For the judge 1:51:00.360 --> 1:51:02.519 just say nah the kids going with him? 1:51:02.600 --> 1:51:04.599 Do you know what that means? 1:51:04.880 --> 1:51:08.840 I know, I know. Yeah, I dealt with it all. 1:51:09.640 --> 1:51:10.439 I've dealt with y'all. 1:51:10.760 --> 1:51:15.320 Hey, for a father to get custody of the kids, 1:51:15.800 --> 1:51:17.639 it's not a it's not an easy task. 1:51:17.840 --> 1:51:19.600 It's not and I mean it's a lot of you know, 1:51:19.640 --> 1:51:21.080 a lot of things I could say about that, but 1:51:21.280 --> 1:51:24.840 I'm very thankful that I did get custody at the 1:51:24.880 --> 1:51:28.840 time I did, especially being Zia's father. There's been a 1:51:28.960 --> 1:51:29.880 way different journey. 1:51:30.520 --> 1:51:34.120 Yeah, bazire if because it seems like your your ex 1:51:34.280 --> 1:51:37.360 is not as accepting of her situation as you are. 1:51:37.520 --> 1:51:39.360 My age don't live in my world neither. She don't 1:51:39.400 --> 1:51:40.000 live in our world. 1:51:40.479 --> 1:51:44.040 Understand, But she doesn't understand. She's not she's not she's 1:51:44.120 --> 1:51:47.640 not exposed to, like you said, your stylists and her 1:51:47.720 --> 1:51:50.080 husband and his husband and some of the community that 1:51:50.160 --> 1:51:53.160 you've been exposed to since Iia has undertaken this, this 1:51:53.400 --> 1:51:55.000 this transition to try in the world. 1:51:55.760 --> 1:51:57.840 And I go everywhere, I go to communities all around 1:51:57.840 --> 1:51:58.120 the world. 1:51:58.160 --> 1:52:02.160 I see I see difference in everywhere and everybody see different. 1:52:01.920 --> 1:52:05.840 Ways that husband and wife live. It's so many different ways. 1:52:05.920 --> 1:52:07.160 Yeah, I'm fibe. I don't care what you do. 1:52:07.280 --> 1:52:11.000 I'm vibing you cool, husband, husband, you cool, We cool, 1:52:11.439 --> 1:52:13.759 and you you all some stuff. 1:52:13.880 --> 1:52:16.080 I'm some stuff too. I'm a vide right. 1:52:16.240 --> 1:52:18.920 So if she's not, she's not exposed to the life 1:52:18.960 --> 1:52:20.439 that I've been able to do. Well, it's a lot 1:52:20.439 --> 1:52:22.559 of people that I know that's not exposed. Now they 1:52:22.640 --> 1:52:26.599 become accepting of it because the love for me, my family, Zia, 1:52:26.840 --> 1:52:28.320 or just because they feel like they need to be 1:52:28.520 --> 1:52:31.360 just to stay in the fold. But when it comes 1:52:31.400 --> 1:52:34.280 to how I'm able to love and accept from what 1:52:34.439 --> 1:52:37.320 I learned growing up. It's because of my experiences and 1:52:37.560 --> 1:52:39.559 where I've been people that I've been able to. 1:52:39.600 --> 1:52:40.519 Get connected to you. 1:52:40.880 --> 1:52:42.559 If you haven't been able to do that, if your 1:52:42.640 --> 1:52:46.519 passport ain't stamped, if your relationships ain't larger than the 1:52:46.600 --> 1:52:49.160 ones you grew up with in your community, you're gonna 1:52:49.160 --> 1:52:51.560 stay at a certain level of thinking and how it 1:52:51.640 --> 1:52:54.640 should be. The world looks so different than it did 1:52:54.680 --> 1:52:57.280 when I grew up in Robins, Illinois, and so the 1:52:57.360 --> 1:53:00.160 world is colorful, man, it's beautiful, it's unique, and my 1:53:00.280 --> 1:53:02.519 daughter's a part of that colorful, beautiful, unique world, and 1:53:02.600 --> 1:53:04.760 so why not embrace her just like I want to 1:53:04.800 --> 1:53:08.240 be accepted. I want to be embraced, right like we 1:53:08.360 --> 1:53:10.400 all want to be embrace and accepted. 1:53:10.040 --> 1:53:10.519 For who we are. 1:53:10.760 --> 1:53:13.240 And so I don't When I look at my daughter, 1:53:13.240 --> 1:53:14.840 I look at someone just like me, that's trying to 1:53:14.840 --> 1:53:17.320 be accepted, that's trying to learn, that's trying to grow, 1:53:17.439 --> 1:53:21.400 that's trying to exist in this world. And I don't 1:53:21.439 --> 1:53:24.040 look at gender. I don't look at sexuality. I don't 1:53:24.080 --> 1:53:26.400 look at her choices and how she want to be 1:53:26.479 --> 1:53:27.240 when them doors closed. 1:53:27.240 --> 1:53:29.720 I don't want to know what you do. She don't 1:53:29.720 --> 1:53:30.400 want to know what we do. 1:53:31.400 --> 1:53:33.280 You know what I mean? And so it's my job 1:53:33.360 --> 1:53:35.600 to make sure alone this journey she's growing up, that 1:53:35.760 --> 1:53:36.439 I sit with her. 1:53:36.520 --> 1:53:39.160 I have conversation with her doctor about Hey, how does 1:53:39.240 --> 1:53:40.479 this journey affect my daughter? 1:53:40.560 --> 1:53:42.320 How does it affect her her mind? How does it 1:53:42.360 --> 1:53:45.240 affect her physical? How does whatever it is? I need 1:53:45.320 --> 1:53:46.920 to learn this stuff of sitting there like, nah, nah, 1:53:47.000 --> 1:53:49.880 you ain't. You ain't do that? Why would I do that? 1:53:50.479 --> 1:53:50.960 Why would I? 1:53:51.600 --> 1:53:53.759 She gonna get to her life real soon, she'd be eighteen, 1:53:54.200 --> 1:53:58.040 it's happening. So why would I stunt your growth as 1:53:58.080 --> 1:54:00.000 a as a human being while youre living under my room? 1:54:00.040 --> 1:54:01.439 Before? I know one day you're gonna better do what 1:54:01.479 --> 1:54:02.920 you want to do. So this is, this is what 1:54:03.000 --> 1:54:04.320 you want to do. You wanna play sports, you want 1:54:04.360 --> 1:54:05.120 to dance, you want to do this. 1:54:05.880 --> 1:54:07.799 Let me help you do it because we have resources, 1:54:08.200 --> 1:54:10.280 we have people we can contact, We have people that 1:54:10.320 --> 1:54:11.840 you know what I mean, that could open up doors. 1:54:12.200 --> 1:54:15.679 And so for me, man, it's parenting is not making 1:54:15.760 --> 1:54:16.599 you in my likeness. 1:54:17.240 --> 1:54:19.920 You look like me, That's enough. It but you're not me, 1:54:20.320 --> 1:54:21.560 and so I gotta get to know you. 1:54:21.880 --> 1:54:24.280 And a lot of parents either don't want to do 1:54:24.360 --> 1:54:27.640 it because that's actually been a parent, can't do it 1:54:27.960 --> 1:54:32.520 because of circumstances, can't do it because once again circumstances 1:54:32.560 --> 1:54:34.400 of how community gonna look at you, how the man 1:54:34.440 --> 1:54:35.040 gonna look at. 1:54:34.920 --> 1:54:35.400 You at work? 1:54:36.720 --> 1:54:39.360 Like I understand the journey. I understand that everyone can't 1:54:39.440 --> 1:54:41.040 just be accepted and open arms about it. 1:54:41.080 --> 1:54:43.040 I get it. But also in the midst of just 1:54:43.160 --> 1:54:45.880 understand that you're stunning the growth of your kids. 1:54:46.840 --> 1:54:49.240 We have a small window when we have an impact 1:54:49.280 --> 1:54:52.680 on our kids' lives, right small, A small a small 1:54:52.720 --> 1:54:53.880 window that's ending in my life? 1:54:53.960 --> 1:54:56.640 Was I she turned sixteen? Yeah, as we go on, 1:54:56.760 --> 1:54:59.400 I'll still be but that impact and that voice that. 1:54:59.400 --> 1:55:01.160 I have fun of your Ruth, she'll be out on 1:55:01.200 --> 1:55:01.480 your own. 1:55:01.840 --> 1:55:04.120 And then so what am I teaching her? What lesson 1:55:04.120 --> 1:55:05.560 is I'm gonna teach her about the world that she's 1:55:05.640 --> 1:55:08.520 going out in. That the world only looks this way. No, baby, 1:55:08.800 --> 1:55:11.600 the world is unique. The world is colorful. So my 1:55:11.760 --> 1:55:13.760 daughter is gonna she's going on on this world and 1:55:13.840 --> 1:55:17.600 she's finding people that that looks like her that talks 1:55:17.680 --> 1:55:19.800 like her, that has the same dreams as her, the 1:55:19.880 --> 1:55:21.520 same thoughts as her. Just like I did the NBA, 1:55:21.600 --> 1:55:23.640 I found people that was connected with me and that 1:55:23.800 --> 1:55:27.160 was my community. And so we just got it's just 1:55:27.240 --> 1:55:29.960 a different community than me. And and that's just I 1:55:30.080 --> 1:55:30.880 just look at it different. 1:55:30.920 --> 1:55:31.120 Man. 1:55:31.640 --> 1:55:33.080 Man, you you still on there? I mean, you be 1:55:33.160 --> 1:55:35.520 blown up there the man, I'm I'm listening. 1:55:35.560 --> 1:55:37.240 I don't know how I'm always in pop culture. 1:55:37.280 --> 1:55:41.080 Man, you are you and Gabby my wife? 1:55:41.200 --> 1:55:43.440 Your wife? Because she made the comment about you and 1:55:43.560 --> 1:55:47.240 her split fifty to fifty you can you can. 1:55:47.120 --> 1:55:47.640 You get into that? 1:55:47.760 --> 1:55:51.680 Can you clarify what you mean? Come that's bad into 1:55:51.720 --> 1:55:53.240 that little that's that's very unique. 1:55:53.560 --> 1:55:56.760 I've never heard of a situation, especially a married couple. 1:55:57.120 --> 1:55:57.960 O can we daity? 1:55:58.360 --> 1:56:00.720 I think it might be you know, hey, I got 1:56:00.800 --> 1:56:03.280 the movie ticket, You get the popcord and the cabby. 1:56:03.600 --> 1:56:05.160 You know what, they take it out to dinner. You 1:56:05.600 --> 1:56:08.680 you leave the tip, you do the valet. But she's 1:56:08.760 --> 1:56:10.720 like fifty to fifty household, and I think she kind 1:56:10.720 --> 1:56:13.320 of explained it. But you gotta be y'all got you 1:56:13.360 --> 1:56:14.160 here so you get. 1:56:14.920 --> 1:56:16.080 You know what I was saying. I was like, you 1:56:16.120 --> 1:56:18.760 know what's crazy when you have it's think pieces that's 1:56:18.800 --> 1:56:22.400 going around the world about me and my wife. 1:56:22.520 --> 1:56:22.680 Right. 1:56:22.840 --> 1:56:25.240 And I haven't said I haven't given no color to this, right, 1:56:25.360 --> 1:56:27.480 but it's think pieces going around about me as a man. 1:56:27.640 --> 1:56:27.760 Right. 1:56:28.280 --> 1:56:30.280 And I'm like, that's make that man make his Wife's 1:56:30.280 --> 1:56:32.200 been fifty the man is there? 1:56:33.640 --> 1:56:35.440 So the same thing, too deep with that gonna lie? 1:56:35.800 --> 1:56:36.600 You saw the same thing. 1:56:36.720 --> 1:56:37.920 Yeah, well you make up as I see how you 1:56:38.000 --> 1:56:39.640 gonna make that woman pay? He got all that cheese, 1:56:39.680 --> 1:56:40.480 he makingna pay fifty? 1:56:40.520 --> 1:56:43.400 All right, So let's talk about it. I'm talking about it. 1:56:44.640 --> 1:56:46.800 So the whole fifty to fifty concepts. 1:56:46.880 --> 1:56:49.280 Okay, So I understand what fifty to fifty means, right, 1:56:49.400 --> 1:56:52.920 Fifty to fifty means that everything in life. You got 1:56:52.960 --> 1:56:54.880 your half and I got my hat, and we're gonna 1:56:54.880 --> 1:56:56.720 put this shit together, try to make a hundred. 1:56:56.600 --> 1:56:58.920 Right, Okay, we're bout to about with the groceres you 1:56:58.960 --> 1:56:59.840 put in the hood that I put it. 1:57:00.000 --> 1:57:02.280 That's how fifty fifty goes. That is not how our 1:57:02.320 --> 1:57:06.560 relationship works, all right. We don't see everybody think fifty fifty. 1:57:06.600 --> 1:57:08.280 They think, hey, if he getting a sign wich you 1:57:08.280 --> 1:57:11.240 got to put fifty percent on that. He got one hundred, 1:57:11.280 --> 1:57:13.760 two hundred. Whatever people think I got, that's not how 1:57:13.800 --> 1:57:17.000 it works. Fifty to fifty in our household is. 1:57:17.600 --> 1:57:19.600 First of all, let's say I have twenty to fifty 1:57:20.080 --> 1:57:23.760 responsibilities and my wife have twenty to fifty responsibilities. 1:57:24.000 --> 1:57:26.880 And when I say that, that means she has a mother, she. 1:57:26.920 --> 1:57:29.400 Has a sister's, she has her dad, she has her 1:57:29.520 --> 1:57:31.400 she has a lot of things that she's responsible for. 1:57:31.760 --> 1:57:34.240 Right, you know what she does, she pays one hundred 1:57:34.280 --> 1:57:34.760 percent of that. 1:57:35.080 --> 1:57:35.920 Right you know what I do. 1:57:36.120 --> 1:57:38.600 I pay one hundred percent of my life. When our 1:57:38.680 --> 1:57:39.440 life come together. 1:57:39.840 --> 1:57:43.200 My wife is a working actress who spends time away 1:57:43.240 --> 1:57:46.040 from the family to go work. 1:57:45.920 --> 1:57:46.600 Do our bild. 1:57:47.880 --> 1:57:50.680 We decided together because I think I said one time 1:57:50.760 --> 1:57:51.400 we was in Miami. 1:57:51.480 --> 1:57:53.600 I said something about it be in my house that 1:57:53.760 --> 1:57:54.200 I paid for. 1:57:54.600 --> 1:57:54.880 Oh. 1:57:54.920 --> 1:57:56.440 Wife looked at me. She was like, you will never 1:57:56.520 --> 1:57:58.480 say that to me again when it's something that we share. 1:57:59.080 --> 1:58:01.480 And so my wife was like that when we move 1:58:01.560 --> 1:58:02.600 to La I. 1:58:02.640 --> 1:58:04.920 Got half on it. You will never say my house again. 1:58:05.080 --> 1:58:08.560 Wow, she said, you can say that in arena, And 1:58:08.680 --> 1:58:13.080 so in our life at home, fifty to fifty. We 1:58:13.160 --> 1:58:16.560 purchased it together, right, our daughter. Anything that goes on 1:58:16.720 --> 1:58:18.880 our daughter, fifty to fifty, we share it together. Now 1:58:18.960 --> 1:58:20.760 it's some things I pick up or something she picked up. 1:58:20.800 --> 1:58:21.760 But she does something I does. 1:58:21.880 --> 1:58:24.680 I do something. Right, if we take a if we. 1:58:24.720 --> 1:58:27.520 Take a yacht trip, we could do it fifty to fifty, 1:58:27.600 --> 1:58:29.640 or I can do it myself. But my wife is 1:58:29.680 --> 1:58:32.760 a working woman, right, She's a boss and an independent 1:58:32.800 --> 1:58:35.760 woman her own life. She's like, I'm gonna put you 1:58:35.800 --> 1:58:38.120 know what, that little two hundred, that little two hundred 1:58:38.320 --> 1:58:40.040 that she was gonna spend on this, I'm gonna throw 1:58:40.080 --> 1:58:41.840 something else on that We're gonna go on a bigger trip. 1:58:41.880 --> 1:58:44.040 We gotta ball out, like this is my wife, right, 1:58:44.160 --> 1:58:45.720 Like I don't know about y'all, but I like having 1:58:45.720 --> 1:58:47.800 a wife. That's like, that's cool, you can do that. 1:58:48.320 --> 1:58:50.640 The house we live in, thank God, and hidding heels 1:58:51.360 --> 1:58:54.440 nice house, right whatever millions, we could have had a house, 1:58:54.640 --> 1:58:57.120 a nice house on my fifty percent too, right, it'd 1:58:57.160 --> 1:58:59.200 been nice. She was like, no, let me put something 1:58:59.200 --> 1:59:00.640 else on and let us live a little different. 1:59:00.720 --> 1:59:02.200 Oh, they got a little bigger. 1:59:02.720 --> 1:59:05.160 So we probably shared three things in our life that 1:59:05.200 --> 1:59:08.200 were fifty fifty on right. Everything else, I'm one thousand 1:59:08.280 --> 1:59:10.720 percent and she's one thousand percent right. And so we 1:59:10.960 --> 1:59:14.080 decided that certain pieces of our life we would share 1:59:14.200 --> 1:59:14.400 in it. 1:59:14.520 --> 1:59:15.240 But d Wade, that. 1:59:15.280 --> 1:59:15.920 Works for y'all. 1:59:16.560 --> 1:59:20.520 Why why does it matter if it's seventy five twenty five, 1:59:20.840 --> 1:59:23.200 if it's if it's eighty five fifteen. 1:59:23.200 --> 1:59:24.040 That's your life. 1:59:24.240 --> 1:59:27.440 Why everybody is so consumed what goes on in everybody 1:59:27.480 --> 1:59:29.440 else household when they household f up? 1:59:30.440 --> 1:59:32.760 Well, listen, that's a whole nother story. And that's just 1:59:32.840 --> 1:59:33.960 the word I go to sleep. 1:59:34.000 --> 1:59:36.040 They're like, oh, man, you see that d Wade making 1:59:36.040 --> 1:59:37.600 his wife. I mean, I was just saying. I was 1:59:37.640 --> 1:59:38.040 just joking. 1:59:38.400 --> 1:59:40.480 I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish I could 1:59:40.520 --> 1:59:42.640 make my I don't make my wife do anything. First 1:59:42.640 --> 1:59:44.480 of all, if I could, we wouldn't been the headlines 1:59:44.480 --> 1:59:46.960 all the time. I'd be like, when you stopped talking, 1:59:48.080 --> 1:59:49.280 you know what I'm saying, my wife is. 1:59:49.320 --> 1:59:49.960 She gonna respond? 1:59:50.080 --> 1:59:52.040 Now you say something, you say something, you get out 1:59:52.040 --> 1:59:52.680 of the pocket with us. 1:59:52.680 --> 1:59:54.880 Listen, if my wife had this microphone way before I did, 1:59:55.520 --> 1:59:57.360 y'all been watching Bring It On for a long. 1:59:57.240 --> 1:59:59.760 Time, right, She been bringing it on for a long time. 2:00:00.320 --> 2:00:03.280 So like when she say fifty fifty and people take 2:00:03.320 --> 2:00:05.520 a clip of it, yeah, I understand. Like I listen, 2:00:05.600 --> 2:00:07.919 I listened to all the things pieces I laugh. I'm like, okay, 2:00:07.960 --> 2:00:08.760 that's the point right there. 2:00:08.760 --> 2:00:10.160 I get that, but that ain't how we live. 2:00:10.200 --> 2:00:11.160 But I understand your point. 2:00:11.440 --> 2:00:14.040 They took it in this little interpretation that. 2:00:14.160 --> 2:00:17.040 You're fifty fifty everything. Now, it don't work like that. 2:00:17.160 --> 2:00:20.360 I do all right for myself, but in certain moments 2:00:20.400 --> 2:00:22.920 that we want to do better together, we do better together. 2:00:22.960 --> 2:00:25.040 And what And first of all, listen, I told my wife. 2:00:25.080 --> 2:00:26.760 I said, hey, baby, listen, you're not about to be 2:00:26.840 --> 2:00:29.440 taking all this time away from the family building your 2:00:29.480 --> 2:00:30.760 wealth while I'm spending all mine. 2:00:30.920 --> 2:00:31.040 Right. 2:00:32.520 --> 2:00:33.720 I don't know where they do that at. 2:00:33.880 --> 2:00:35.040 All I know is you know what I mean? She 2:00:35.200 --> 2:00:37.120 come home, be like baby, it was good. I'll move 2:00:37.160 --> 2:00:37.560 on from you. 2:00:37.640 --> 2:00:40.280 And I have spent all my cheese. Shene build all 2:00:40.320 --> 2:00:46.480 her You know what, I told us how many kids 2:00:46.480 --> 2:00:48.600 I have before we started? I asked wives, like all 2:00:48.680 --> 2:00:51.000 kind of stuff, right when cheese go all over the place. 2:00:51.320 --> 2:00:53.280 She's just building on her cheese and I'm spending on mine. 2:00:53.520 --> 2:00:57.600 Listen why they do that at you know what way talking? 2:00:59.720 --> 2:01:01.080 You know what in that bob? 2:01:01.080 --> 2:01:02.560 You know what I'm saying. Oh, now, I ain't do 2:01:02.640 --> 2:01:04.720 this by myself though, I been have a little wig. 2:01:06.240 --> 2:01:09.920 About So everybody think fifty to fifty means that, hey baby, 2:01:09.960 --> 2:01:11.680 I need Hey baby, I'm gonna go get this sandwich. 2:01:11.920 --> 2:01:13.640 You got, you got, you got ten dollars on it. 2:01:13.800 --> 2:01:15.840 Right, come on, y'all, y'all got y'all gotta y'all gotta 2:01:15.840 --> 2:01:17.440 be come on man like, y'all gotta stop this. 2:01:17.520 --> 2:01:19.000 You're gonna stop this small thinking man. 2:01:19.040 --> 2:01:21.480 Right, I'm glad you cleared that up. But she did. 2:01:21.600 --> 2:01:23.920 She's like, yeah, I signed the prenup because what are 2:01:23.920 --> 2:01:25.800 you have before he met me? Is what a you 2:01:25.840 --> 2:01:26.640 ha before he met me? 2:01:26.720 --> 2:01:26.800 Now? 2:01:26.880 --> 2:01:29.040 What we accumulate together, that's what we got. 2:01:29.400 --> 2:01:32.680 But what we rock with? Yeah, yeah, and what she 2:01:32.880 --> 2:01:33.840 has like and that's the thing. 2:01:34.560 --> 2:01:34.720 Now. 2:01:35.040 --> 2:01:36.480 Now I told her the same way. 2:01:36.560 --> 2:01:37.520 I'll signed a prenump too. 2:01:37.760 --> 2:01:40.680 Right. You a millionaire, you got money, you work hard 2:01:40.680 --> 2:01:41.880 for yourself. You should. 2:01:42.000 --> 2:01:43.640 I think everybody, I think everybody should have. 2:01:43.600 --> 2:01:45.400 A prenumb Why not you're getting assurance, don't you. 2:01:45.920 --> 2:01:47.840 Because your people? I mean, I ain't happy when I 2:01:47.840 --> 2:01:49.520 didn't have anything. I said, I'm gonna sign a prenup. 2:01:49.600 --> 2:01:51.120 They're like, Sean, why are you gonna sign a product? 2:01:51.160 --> 2:01:52.720 You ain't got nothing. I say, so, if I leave, 2:01:52.720 --> 2:01:54.040 I want one hundred percent of my nothing. 2:01:54.360 --> 2:01:56.080 I don't want fifty nothing nothing. 2:01:56.480 --> 2:01:58.560 I don't want nothing. I want all of But what 2:01:58.680 --> 2:02:00.920 I don't want to do is if she decided to 2:02:00.960 --> 2:02:02.720 move on from me, she got two hundred and I. 2:02:02.760 --> 2:02:04.600 Got ten, exactly exactly. 2:02:04.680 --> 2:02:06.960 I've been spending all my money and all these dance recitals, 2:02:06.960 --> 2:02:10.040 all these games, all these trips, everything, and I just stable. 2:02:10.160 --> 2:02:13.800 Oh man, take care of everything I do. I take 2:02:13.800 --> 2:02:15.600 care of my mama. I take care of my daddy. 2:02:15.880 --> 2:02:17.680 I take care of boom boom boom boom boom. 2:02:17.960 --> 2:02:19.400 When it comes to me and my wife, I take 2:02:19.440 --> 2:02:21.640 care like this and another thing. We're go on trips, 2:02:21.720 --> 2:02:23.840 were on all this stuff, y'all see the big trips. 2:02:24.000 --> 2:02:25.320 Now my wife will put it on a big trip. 2:02:25.560 --> 2:02:28.080 It's a whole calendar year where I had to step 2:02:28.120 --> 2:02:29.760 in and I have to make sure that the relationship 2:02:29.840 --> 2:02:33.080 is spicy, that is sexy, and my credit card gets 2:02:33.120 --> 2:02:33.880 used through everything. 2:02:34.640 --> 2:02:37.000 You feel me? Yeah, so yeah, we fifty fifty and three. 2:02:37.160 --> 2:02:38.800 I got about fifty to one hundred things that I 2:02:38.920 --> 2:02:41.840 paid for that I'm responsible for everybody, So thank y'all 2:02:41.880 --> 2:02:42.480 for the thing piece. 2:02:44.600 --> 2:02:50.280 You have a Zobbie, your youngest daughter Kavea Cavia that 2:02:50.840 --> 2:02:53.880 you through surrogency, and you said that you and your 2:02:53.960 --> 2:02:56.280 wife had a lot, a lot of miscarriagters and you 2:02:56.360 --> 2:02:58.360 had a conversation with her. You sided that one night, 2:02:58.400 --> 2:03:00.840 say maybe come on that I can't keep putting you 2:03:00.880 --> 2:03:05.839 through this because you saw the pain and the anguish 2:03:06.200 --> 2:03:09.720 that it was causing her, and she's hurting. You're hurting 2:03:09.800 --> 2:03:12.000 even more because you know how bad she wants to 2:03:12.040 --> 2:03:14.960 be a mother. Yeah, being the step mother is fine, 2:03:15.200 --> 2:03:17.720 but there's something about your own. 2:03:17.920 --> 2:03:20.840 Yeah, and you saw the pain that it was causing her, 2:03:20.880 --> 2:03:22.280 and you said, baby, we ain't. 2:03:22.120 --> 2:03:23.040 Got to do this no more. 2:03:23.360 --> 2:03:23.600 Yeah? 2:03:23.800 --> 2:03:24.200 What was that? 2:03:24.360 --> 2:03:24.520 How? 2:03:25.520 --> 2:03:25.640 How? 2:03:25.760 --> 2:03:26.760 What was that conversation? 2:03:27.040 --> 2:03:27.080 Like? 2:03:27.960 --> 2:03:28.959 It was a tough conversation. 2:03:30.080 --> 2:03:31.840 As a man, you want to you want to stay 2:03:31.880 --> 2:03:33.400 out the way and get out the way when it 2:03:33.480 --> 2:03:35.880 comes to this whole birthday conversation about. 2:03:35.720 --> 2:03:40.320 Kids because you won't do much right a minute job. 2:03:40.880 --> 2:03:42.960 You don't do much, so you know. 2:03:43.080 --> 2:03:45.160 It took me a long time to even say that 2:03:45.240 --> 2:03:47.960 to my wife because I knew what was important for 2:03:48.080 --> 2:03:49.920 her and also knew what was important for us. 2:03:50.360 --> 2:03:50.480 Right. 2:03:50.600 --> 2:03:52.520 She knew I wanted a daughter, she knew I wanted to, 2:03:52.760 --> 2:03:54.920 you know, to grow my family. She knew I wanted 2:03:54.920 --> 2:03:57.640 to grow our family. Once we start having conversations about right, 2:03:58.440 --> 2:04:00.960 a family, right, and to watch her go down the 2:04:01.040 --> 2:04:03.360 journey if anybody know the journey. 2:04:03.160 --> 2:04:07.080 It's a lot of shots. Yeah, it's a lot of 2:04:07.160 --> 2:04:07.760 doctor physics. 2:04:07.800 --> 2:04:10.080 It's a lot of things to make you feel like 2:04:10.240 --> 2:04:13.200 you're not like that, you're not a whole person, that 2:04:13.280 --> 2:04:15.160 you're empty, that you don't have this, that you don't 2:04:15.200 --> 2:04:15.440 have that. 2:04:15.520 --> 2:04:17.960 It's a lot of because did you feel less than 2:04:18.000 --> 2:04:18.280 a woman? 2:04:18.360 --> 2:04:18.680 Because you. 2:04:20.320 --> 2:04:23.360 But it's a lot of steps leading to that that 2:04:23.480 --> 2:04:26.160 make you feel less than right because it. 2:04:26.160 --> 2:04:27.360 Could take someone over here like this. 2:04:27.800 --> 2:04:28.880 You can have twelve kids. 2:04:29.760 --> 2:04:33.360 And so being there, all the conversations with the doctors, 2:04:33.760 --> 2:04:36.480 all the conversations with my wife, all the pain, all 2:04:36.520 --> 2:04:39.160 the helping her take shots, all of watching her take shots, 2:04:39.160 --> 2:04:43.320 all watch for five years. The miscarriage is that at 2:04:43.360 --> 2:04:44.760 the end of the day, for me, I was like 2:04:44.800 --> 2:04:47.040 baby like I married you. I want to go down 2:04:47.120 --> 2:04:48.800 this journey of life with you. We don't know how 2:04:48.880 --> 2:04:50.000 long this jurney gonna last. 2:04:50.520 --> 2:04:52.600 And so what is what this is doing is this 2:04:52.680 --> 2:04:54.760 is taken away from you. Is putting your. 2:04:54.720 --> 2:04:59.800 Health in harm's way. This picture don't work without you. 2:05:00.600 --> 2:05:03.880 So if it's no you, it ain't no expending this family. 2:05:04.560 --> 2:05:06.560 And so it became a point where it started becoming 2:05:06.640 --> 2:05:08.760 dangerous for her to continue to keep doing all the 2:05:08.840 --> 2:05:09.800 things she was doing. 2:05:10.040 --> 2:05:10.840 For all the years. 2:05:11.440 --> 2:05:13.760 And so that was a hard conversation for me to 2:05:13.840 --> 2:05:16.560 have because I'm not doing nothing. I'm just holding your hand, 2:05:16.800 --> 2:05:19.640 I'm just supporting, just listening. My body is physically not 2:05:19.760 --> 2:05:21.760 going through any of these things. And so I don't 2:05:21.760 --> 2:05:23.920 want to step in in the way of our dreams 2:05:23.960 --> 2:05:26.720 and your journey. But the end of the day, the journey, 2:05:26.760 --> 2:05:30.480 don't this picture. Don't this picture Now, we got to 2:05:30.520 --> 2:05:32.640 have a star in this movie, and you the star 2:05:32.760 --> 2:05:37.120 in this movie. And so she listened because that's what 2:05:37.200 --> 2:05:37.600 it was about. 2:05:37.640 --> 2:05:40.320 It was about getting to the ultimate goal of having 2:05:40.520 --> 2:05:43.840 you know, ourmericle chap, having our daughter right. And every 2:05:43.920 --> 2:05:46.120 day I look at my daughter, man, I smile at her. 2:05:46.280 --> 2:05:49.720 Because she don't even know how how much work went 2:05:49.800 --> 2:05:51.960 into getting her here, how much her mother wanted her, 2:05:52.000 --> 2:05:54.800 how much her her dad wanted her, and everybody around, 2:05:54.880 --> 2:05:57.680 the doctors and the surrogate mother and all the people 2:05:57.720 --> 2:05:59.760 that helped her, helped us get to this point where 2:06:00.160 --> 2:06:03.120 to every day wake up and hear daddy and hear mommy. 2:06:03.200 --> 2:06:03.760 From my daughter. 2:06:03.960 --> 2:06:05.600 Right, I'm gonna get you out of here on this one, 2:06:05.680 --> 2:06:09.000 d way, there was some infidelity in the relationship, or 2:06:09.120 --> 2:06:12.800 there's something that transpired, Was it harder for you to 2:06:12.880 --> 2:06:15.120 sit down and have a conversation and to tell her 2:06:15.240 --> 2:06:19.360 that something had happened outside the relationship? Or losing the finals. 2:06:22.200 --> 2:06:26.360 Way harder to have a conversation with my now wife right, 2:06:27.640 --> 2:06:30.280 who wasn't at the time, but my now wife about it, like, 2:06:30.720 --> 2:06:31.160 you try to. 2:06:31.160 --> 2:06:34.000 Think of everything possible. 2:06:33.640 --> 2:06:35.480 Because you think about what you're gonna say, and you're 2:06:35.480 --> 2:06:37.080 also thinking about how she's going to react. 2:06:38.760 --> 2:06:41.480 Yeah, I mean, you're thinking about it all. It's all scary. 2:06:41.880 --> 2:06:42.040 One. 2:06:42.360 --> 2:06:47.120 The whole situation is scary enough. Your public figure, that's yeah, yeah, 2:06:47.520 --> 2:06:50.240 but you you've heard you know that this is going 2:06:50.320 --> 2:06:53.920 to it's gonna hurt that you've been building a relationship 2:06:53.960 --> 2:06:58.120 with and a life with Right And no matter what 2:06:58.240 --> 2:07:00.120 people say on the outside or what people want, the 2:07:00.160 --> 2:07:02.360 thing this and that like ultimately, like you gotta sit 2:07:02.480 --> 2:07:04.080 with you, and you gotta sit with this person and 2:07:04.160 --> 2:07:04.880 this is who you're gonna be. 2:07:04.880 --> 2:07:05.200 With, right. 2:07:05.560 --> 2:07:07.840 And I had to had to sit with my wife 2:07:07.880 --> 2:07:10.720 about this, well my now wife about this, and had 2:07:10.760 --> 2:07:11.800 this conversation. 2:07:11.640 --> 2:07:13.880 You told her before it came became public. Yeah, yeah, 2:07:13.920 --> 2:07:16.560 yeah I did, because I don't know d way that 2:07:16.640 --> 2:07:18.240 she just stuck with you that thing to come public 2:07:18.280 --> 2:07:19.640 and you ain't have the conversation with her. 2:07:19.880 --> 2:07:21.520 Man, Listen, let me tell you, I couldn't. I couldn't 2:07:21.520 --> 2:07:23.320 have gotten through that moment without her sticking with me, 2:07:24.360 --> 2:07:26.360 you know what I mean. Like it was a weird 2:07:26.520 --> 2:07:28.360 in the playoffs, I think even in going into the 2:07:28.400 --> 2:07:30.720 finals at whatever you was, man. 2:07:30.600 --> 2:07:32.080 That was that was a rough time for me. 2:07:32.160 --> 2:07:32.240 Bro. 2:07:32.480 --> 2:07:33.640 So you got a lot on your mind. 2:07:34.200 --> 2:07:36.280 You got a lot on your mind. You're keeping you know, 2:07:36.600 --> 2:07:39.440 you're keeping something from people you love, right, And it's 2:07:39.520 --> 2:07:43.200 heavy at night when it get quiet, yeah us just 2:07:43.240 --> 2:07:46.360 you and your thoughts. Yeah, them thoughts is loud and 2:07:46.440 --> 2:07:48.080 you and it gets it gets loud up here. 2:07:47.960 --> 2:07:48.680 In his mind. 2:07:48.680 --> 2:07:50.800 And so it came to a point where yeah, way 2:07:50.880 --> 2:07:54.360 before you know, and I tried to pussy foot around it. 2:07:54.840 --> 2:07:57.240 I tried to break up with her. Hey, you know 2:07:57.440 --> 2:07:59.400 things has been bad lately. Hey, we've been having a 2:07:59.400 --> 2:08:01.720 little this is relationship anyway, Like I tried to all that, 2:08:03.720 --> 2:08:08.320 she kept showing up. And so it hasn't been perfect. 2:08:09.480 --> 2:08:14.160 It would never be perfect. But that was nine years ago, right, 2:08:14.240 --> 2:08:17.480 and we're still we go to therapy. We've been to therapy, right, 2:08:17.560 --> 2:08:20.280 We've had shouts about it, We've had a regular conversations 2:08:20.280 --> 2:08:23.040 about it, and so it's been something that is going 2:08:23.080 --> 2:08:24.480 to continue to be something that I have to work 2:08:24.520 --> 2:08:27.640 at and work on. It doesn't go away because years 2:08:27.720 --> 2:08:31.160 come or because I say I'm sorry or whatever it is. 2:08:31.520 --> 2:08:33.800 And so is that the hardest part of any way 2:08:34.040 --> 2:08:37.440 to know that you've done this, and it's probably always 2:08:37.520 --> 2:08:39.640 gonna be a source of contention, It's always gonna be 2:08:39.680 --> 2:08:41.240 something that to possibly be brought up. 2:08:41.520 --> 2:08:43.520 It might be ten years from now, it might be fifteen. 2:08:43.800 --> 2:08:46.839 You guys might be seventy five years old, and you still. 2:08:46.760 --> 2:08:49.000 Might have to well when it comes to my wife 2:08:49.040 --> 2:08:51.720 and I, Yeah, that's that's hard. We got to always 2:08:51.760 --> 2:08:55.840 it's always there. But when it comes to my son, 2:08:57.080 --> 2:08:59.600 that's hard for him. This is gonna always be there. 2:09:00.120 --> 2:09:03.560 He's done nothing, sustained as on him for no reason, right, 2:09:04.400 --> 2:09:07.200 And I think about that more than you know, Like 2:09:07.280 --> 2:09:08.880 we're dopts and we're gonna get. 2:09:08.800 --> 2:09:11.400 Through it, or we ain't gonna get through right, we're 2:09:11.560 --> 2:09:12.400 adults in this space. 2:09:12.720 --> 2:09:16.560 This is a young kid who has already got a 2:09:16.720 --> 2:09:21.040 negative impact next to his name, and he hasn't even 2:09:21.120 --> 2:09:22.840 had a chance to complish, right, And they already got 2:09:22.880 --> 2:09:24.480 a negative next to his name because of how he 2:09:24.560 --> 2:09:25.480 was brought into this world. 2:09:26.600 --> 2:09:27.400 And I think about that. 2:09:27.720 --> 2:09:30.760 I think about my you know, son that bears my name, 2:09:31.520 --> 2:09:33.040 and I think about my wife, like of course I 2:09:33.040 --> 2:09:34.320 think about I think about all my kids. 2:09:34.360 --> 2:09:36.280 I think about it all. But ultimately, what I do 2:09:36.480 --> 2:09:38.880 know is at the end of the day, this is 2:09:38.960 --> 2:09:41.960 my family. This is my story. We gonna get through this. 2:09:43.440 --> 2:09:46.680 How we gonna get through, But we're gonna get through it, 2:09:47.160 --> 2:09:52.800 you feel me? And so you know, I think you know, time, distance, space, 2:09:53.080 --> 2:09:55.600 it doesn't help it, but it makes it. 2:09:58.320 --> 2:09:58.960 It allows you to. 2:09:58.960 --> 2:10:01.040 See things differently when you have time away from it. 2:10:01.440 --> 2:10:03.920 And so my wife and I nine years later, are 2:10:04.280 --> 2:10:05.920 in a different space where we're able to have different 2:10:05.920 --> 2:10:10.040 conversations about that moment, about the future of my son, 2:10:10.240 --> 2:10:12.320 about how we want to incorporate, how we want to be, 2:10:13.280 --> 2:10:17.760 And that's just one aspect of this long journey, right 2:10:18.760 --> 2:10:19.600 But ultimately. 2:10:19.360 --> 2:10:23.440 For me, it's all about making her understand that. 2:10:25.840 --> 2:10:29.760 I'm continue to grow, continue to you know, to work 2:10:29.760 --> 2:10:34.800 on myself, not understand, but show her right, and she's 2:10:34.800 --> 2:10:37.200 showing me. It goes both ways. But in this instance 2:10:38.000 --> 2:10:40.560 but also too at the same time, love my kids. 2:10:42.240 --> 2:10:44.920 This is my story, and I didn't ask for it 2:10:45.000 --> 2:10:45.360 to all. 2:10:45.320 --> 2:10:45.800 Be this way. 2:10:47.200 --> 2:10:49.360 I don't know what's coming in the future, but right 2:10:49.440 --> 2:10:52.440 now this is all mine, and so as good as 2:10:52.480 --> 2:10:55.240 it looks or as bad as it seems, it is mine. 2:10:55.760 --> 2:10:58.240 And I'm thankful to even have the good in my life. 2:10:58.360 --> 2:11:00.000 And I'm also thankful to have the things that's little 2:11:00.040 --> 2:11:02.120 want comfortable to talk about and deal with an experience, 2:11:02.560 --> 2:11:05.400 because that makes you live a full life, right And 2:11:05.560 --> 2:11:07.840 so that's all I'm trying to do, is trying to 2:11:07.880 --> 2:11:09.360 figure out a way to live a full life together. 2:11:10.360 --> 2:11:14.240 Congratulations on the Hall of Fame and congratulations on the wine. 2:11:14.360 --> 2:11:16.520 Wine sellers, go ahead and get you a couple of bottles. 2:11:16.960 --> 2:11:18.280 D Wade appreciate you, brother. 2:11:18.080 --> 2:11:19.240 Thank you. I appreciate it. 2:11:20.680 --> 2:11:24.920 All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, bad 2:11:24.960 --> 2:11:27.960 the price, want to slice, got to brow the dice, 2:11:28.200 --> 2:11:30.960 swap all my life. I'll be grinding all my life. Yeah, 2:11:31.360 --> 2:11:32.000 all my life. 2:11:32.360 --> 2:11:33.040 Grinding all my. 2:11:33.120 --> 2:11:37.960 Life, sacrifice, hustle, bad to price, want slice, got to 2:11:38.040 --> 2:11:39.960 brow the dice, the swap all my life. 2:11:40.040 --> 2:11:41.360 I've been grinding all my life.