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Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris Johnson, and Chris is

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Speaker 1: having conversations with influencers in the sports world and entertainment industry.

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Speaker 1: Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now tuned in to kJ Live.

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Speaker 1: Today's guest on the show two guys that have founded

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Speaker 1: a initiative based in the New York City area that

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Speaker 1: looks to bring back and restore the city as the

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Speaker 1: mecca of basketball. Let's bring getting Griffin Taylor and Jared

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Speaker 1: Fron of the program New York City. What's good, guys,

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Speaker 1: what's going on kJ? Good to be on here, man,

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Speaker 1: my pleasure. What's up kJ? Happy to be here, brob man,

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Speaker 1: everything is good. I'm joining the sum of those far fellas. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It's been a great summer. Just loved these finals that

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Speaker 1: just took place. Um, a lot of good basketball. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you guys had a dog in the fight,

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Speaker 1: but it was nice to see the Warriors get back

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Speaker 1: to the their sales and uh and not got another championship.

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Speaker 1: Which quick thoughts on on the finals from both of you. Jared,

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Speaker 1: you go first? Oh man? Um, you know look, I

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Speaker 1: was secretly rooting for the Warriors. UM. I don't know

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Speaker 1: how secret was, but I was. I was just happy

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Speaker 1: to see Clay, Steph and Drake you know, do it

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Speaker 1: without Katie and remind everyone that they're not going anywhere.

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Speaker 1: So um, that was. It was fun to watch Steph,

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Speaker 1: you know, get his own Finals m v P. And

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Speaker 1: you know, he's top ten all time. I don't even

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Speaker 1: really think there's there's any question about it anymore. Okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: top too. I g what's your thoughts on the situation's

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Speaker 1: gonna go. I'm gonna go even more aggressive to try

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Speaker 1: to get the sound bite, and I'm gonna say he's

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Speaker 1: top five all time because he changed the game of basketball.

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Speaker 1: I don't pretend I got enough best friends for die

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Speaker 1: hard Warriors fans, so I don't pretend to be one.

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Speaker 1: But um yeah, an echo Jay's point. You know, as

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Speaker 1: you get older, uh and I'm certainly getting older, you

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Speaker 1: appreciate things more and more. And I think we're still

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Speaker 1: in this window of appreciating greatness with Staff and and

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Speaker 1: Clay and you know, I think it was just great

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Speaker 1: to see them add the legacy and Jonathan Cominga's got

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Speaker 1: New York ties. Uh, so so that was cool as well.

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Speaker 1: Uh And um yeah, no, it just you know, it was.

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Speaker 1: It was a great finals, and I think the Warriors

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Speaker 1: deserved it. No, I think they did. I think they

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Speaker 1: went out and they earned it. They definitely did. This team.

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Speaker 1: They weathered all those storms that they went through in

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Speaker 1: the last couple of seasons. Man. And really, just like Steph,

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Speaker 1: I mean, he's incredible to me because I just all

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Speaker 1: the guys I've ever seen play, I mean, just his

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Speaker 1: ability to maneuver thirty forty ft out, just the level

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Speaker 1: of comfort he has, you know, a half cord and

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Speaker 1: through the legs behind the back, I mean the handle

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Speaker 1: you know when he's off the bounce but forty ft away,

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Speaker 1: it's just like dagn It's I mean it's not only that,

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Speaker 1: like he's running off picks, you can't catch your breath

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Speaker 1: for one second, the shots going up, Like I mean

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Speaker 1: you literally what where? What do you want him to do? Pick? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: It's it's crazy too. Everyone talks about his shooting and

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Speaker 1: he's the greatest shooter of all time. He might have

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Speaker 1: the crazy him and Kyrie, he might have the craziest

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Speaker 1: handle in the NBA. And and like it's crazy that alone,

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Speaker 1: and then also right after they want to I can't remember,

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Speaker 1: as Mark Jackson or Van Gundy who said it, but

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Speaker 1: you know the fact that when Katie came there and

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Speaker 1: Steph said, you know, hey, man, you know you can

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Speaker 1: take the last shot. You know this can be your team.

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Speaker 1: You can do whatever to do to get these championships.

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Speaker 1: How many guys who are already top ten, top all

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Speaker 1: time at that point in their career would be willing

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Speaker 1: to do that. And I think this championship kind of

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Speaker 1: gives him those roses and people recognize that. So it

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Speaker 1: couldn't be happy to do, no doubt. Man, Man, you're

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Speaker 1: aw some basketball officiados. I love it. I let us

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Speaker 1: see it. Man. Let's fast forward and talk about why

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Speaker 1: you guys are here today, which is one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons I wanted to bring you on. Shout out to

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Speaker 1: Gay Pleasant for hooking this up, but I wanted to

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Speaker 1: get just to the core, uh, the motivation inspiration behind

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Speaker 1: the program New York City that you guys uh co founded, Right,

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Speaker 1: I want to I want you guys. You guys can go,

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Speaker 1: you know Jared the Then Griffin just kind of tell

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Speaker 1: me what the the mission we're at your core for

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Speaker 1: this program? What is it gonna solve what are you

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Speaker 1: gonna how are you gonna help? Yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 1: think that's a great question. kJ. Um. You know, look,

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Speaker 1: Griffin and I uh grew up playing in in the

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Speaker 1: rec league, UM New York City leagues when we were

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Speaker 1: you know, eight all the way to sixteen, um, and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, we would battle against each other, and um,

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Speaker 1: we love the experience of being able to you know,

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Speaker 1: play play against other kids. But UM, I think we

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Speaker 1: felt even back then, not not that specifically me, I

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Speaker 1: definitely wasn't good enough Griffin at least want on to

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Speaker 1: have a D three college career, but um, there didn't

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Speaker 1: seem to be a place where, um there was kind

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Speaker 1: of like the central hub of basketball for New York,

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Speaker 1: right and in a city that claims to be the

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Speaker 1: mecca of the sport. Um, I kind of always felt

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Speaker 1: that that was crazy, that there was nothing where you

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Speaker 1: could just um, you know, be a part of this

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Speaker 1: great basketball culture, walk into a gym, get great instruction,

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Speaker 1: um have have you know, elite amenity is that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff, and um, you know so so really with

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Speaker 1: the impetus of it was we thought like, hey, why

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Speaker 1: are all these New York kids who are super talented

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Speaker 1: like not staying around. Why are they leaving to go

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Speaker 1: to the i mgs of the world, to the Oak Kills, right, Um.

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Speaker 1: And the answer was like, there was nobody really doing

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Speaker 1: what we're trying to do on a large scale and

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Speaker 1: hasn't been um. And so we thought about this, you know,

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Speaker 1: years ago when we knew very little about the world,

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Speaker 1: and UM, you know, I got back together, you know,

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Speaker 1: coincidentally at a wedding last summer and still had the

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Speaker 1: same idea, and I realized that the hole in the

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Speaker 1: market was still there. I'm all that all that Griffin,

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Speaker 1: um continue to kind of like back that up. But

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Speaker 1: that I would say was the real start of of

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Speaker 1: where this this all began. Well, let's touch on that

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Speaker 1: for a second. Let's talk about that, because that's interesting

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Speaker 1: because there was a time when New York City was

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Speaker 1: the mecca and had all the players and you had

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Speaker 1: the guy they were there at the forefront of everything,

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Speaker 1: the moves, the style, everything was based out of New York. Now,

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Speaker 1: what identified a period of time that this that started

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Speaker 1: to dissipate or that sort of started to go away

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Speaker 1: Because I'm kind of confused. I always felt like, how

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Speaker 1: did them guys get so good in the first place,

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Speaker 1: How do you get to the Mardel? How did you

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Speaker 1: get like Ron Art? How do you get these guys

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Speaker 1: in the first place? You know what I'm saying? How

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Speaker 1: was it established? And then what happened? I guess if

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Speaker 1: you've got something for me on that, Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

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Speaker 1: So it's funny you said Lamar odom because an iconic

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Speaker 1: moment was when Lamar came to the Rutger the year

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Speaker 1: that jay Z had his team and the Rutger and

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Speaker 1: he did the sham God. Everybody knows what a legend

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Speaker 1: sham God is. Then did the tenth on the layoup

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Speaker 1: with jay Z and attendance with Lebron James standing up.

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Speaker 1: That's such a sick moment. That's and and I think

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Speaker 1: John Ran a couple of months ago did the same move,

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Speaker 1: laid it and then did the same dance as Lamar.

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Speaker 1: So you know that should tell you everything about New

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Speaker 1: York City basketball culture. Right rewind ten fifteen years from

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Speaker 1: that moment, and you got Chris Mullen and Mark Jackson.

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Speaker 1: We run fifteen twenty years from that, and you got

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Speaker 1: Dr J at the Rutger Um. New York had a

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Speaker 1: certain swagger. You turn on the Big East Tournament, more

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Speaker 1: than half the kids went to New York City High

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Speaker 1: School fifteen. So I mean you worked with with with

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Speaker 1: lab like you know years ago. UM. I think a

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Speaker 1: big reason why it was the Mecca was there was

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Speaker 1: two teams. There was Riverside and there was gall Shows

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Speaker 1: and everyone in the country knows at and you had

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Speaker 1: hundreds of kids vying for twenty spots. And if you

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Speaker 1: weren't on Riversider gauchos, you weren't. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you can curse or not on podcasts A s H

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Speaker 1: I t UM. So I think what's happened in the

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Speaker 1: last ten twenty years. I think Jared brings up a

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Speaker 1: good point. One is there's just not that many nice

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Speaker 1: gyms in New York right. The ones that are out there,

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Speaker 1: they're only reserved for NBA players. UM. And then you

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Speaker 1: look at these other states that are catching up to

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Speaker 1: US Jersey, they have huge high school's, huge campuses, huge gym's.

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Speaker 1: That's one factor. Another factor is, UM, there's more AU

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Speaker 1: teams and there are good players in New York. There's

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Speaker 1: more coaches saying they're quote unquote AU coaches not to

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Speaker 1: throw any shade at anyone UM, and you just have

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Speaker 1: a saturation in the market. Right, it's not the same

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Speaker 1: thing that it used to be UM. And then I

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Speaker 1: think three to Jared's point, like a lot of kids

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Speaker 1: who come up here that are super talented, they're going

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Speaker 1: to O Kill, They're going to you know, mont Ver,

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Speaker 1: They're going to i MG at a young age, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden you see them in March Madness

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Speaker 1: and you're like, damn, is that kid from New York?

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Speaker 1: You don't have that same kemba sham got kareem read

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Speaker 1: story where they come up all the way through. And

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Speaker 1: so the project that we're building is sort of designed

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Speaker 1: to address all that, starting with the construction the facility, uh,

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Speaker 1: and then how we're going about the business, which we

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Speaker 1: can both talk about a little more. Fox Sports Radio

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Speaker 1: has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch

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Speaker 1: all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com

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Speaker 1: and within the I Heart Radio app search f s

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Speaker 1: R to listen live. Now, how big is this facility

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Speaker 1: and what is this like, where is it going to

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Speaker 1: be located in? What is sort of I guess the

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Speaker 1: membership structure because obviously you guys are you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: a structure, right, a membership structure. But that or how's

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Speaker 1: that gonna work? Somebody can explain that, can Yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: so we are closing in on space. UM, we're we're

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Speaker 1: looking at somewhere between fourteen and sixteen thousand square feet. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're we're hoping that uh, this location, UM,

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Speaker 1: you know comes through for us. It's in Long Island City. UM.

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Speaker 1: We're still you know, working out the least negotiations and stuff,

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Speaker 1: but ideally will do it there. UM and UM, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be a membership business, right so um similar

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Speaker 1: to like an equinox or um, you know, crawn chenny

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Speaker 1: sort of gym. It's basically gonna be a gym membership

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Speaker 1: around basketball, right. UM will have one on one coaching

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Speaker 1: who love leagues, who have camps. Um, we'll have a

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Speaker 1: lot of these sort of you know ala carte programming

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Speaker 1: if you want to call it that, UM, that families

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Speaker 1: and their kids can take advantage of by um paying

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Speaker 1: either annualized or monthly dues. I think we were still

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Speaker 1: figuring out what that's gonna look like. UM, to have

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to you know, be able to use the

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Speaker 1: gym and call themselves a member UM and then you know,

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Speaker 1: use our our our facility and and our melodies UM

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Speaker 1: as much and as often as they want, uh UM.

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Speaker 1: And so that's kind of gonna be the basis of

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Speaker 1: the membership model. But UM, something that Griff and I

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Speaker 1: are really really proud of is we actually started a

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Speaker 1: charitable trust UM. And what we're hoping to do is

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Speaker 1: UM have corporations and individuals donate, and then we're earmarking

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Speaker 1: actually a certain percentage UM of our memberships for inner

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Speaker 1: city kids. So UM, you know, we haven't talked about

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Speaker 1: this yet. Carmelo Is is obviously UM a big part

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Speaker 1: of what we're doing, and UM we're hoping to work

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Speaker 1: with him to figure out, UM, which kids and families

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Speaker 1: are deserving uh to be in the gym. UM have

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Speaker 1: access to facility, might not be able to afford it,

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Speaker 1: but obviously UM are a talented enough but be our

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Speaker 1: our good people and UM have just as much you know,

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Speaker 1: claim and right to be there as anyone else. And

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Speaker 1: and we're hoping to really you know, UM, put put

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Speaker 1: everyone together and UH make make this UM you know,

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Speaker 1: equal opportunity and and and uh really UM have a

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Speaker 1: diverse group of kids in our gym. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: your team. You mentioned Carmelo is on it, J J J.

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Speaker 1: J Reddick, I saw is involved in some capacity book Richardson. Um,

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Speaker 1: just for minutes to talk about the team and what

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Speaker 1: everybody's kind of involvement is in the project. Yeah for sure.

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Speaker 1: So obviously, Um, you know Jared and I are the

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Speaker 1: co founders. Uh. You know Mellow somebody that was a

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Speaker 1: huge gift for us, right, you know he's wanted to

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Speaker 1: You see the clips of him working with high school

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Speaker 1: kids and how much he puts into it and how

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Speaker 1: much he cares and yelling at the rafts in the

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Speaker 1: Baltimore games with Will Barton next to him. Um, he

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Speaker 1: loves this. And um, you know with Kayen being uh

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Speaker 1: at Christ the King right here in Queens and you

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Speaker 1: know Mellow having wanted to build something great to give

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Speaker 1: back to the youth not only in Brooklyn but in

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Speaker 1: all of New York City. Uh, it just made a

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Speaker 1: lot of sense. Uh. You know, it's a partner with

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Speaker 1: him on this, and you know, we're lucky enough that

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Speaker 1: he believes in our vision and he really wants to

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Speaker 1: be involved. And uh you know we think he's going

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Speaker 1: to be a really integral part of the project moving forward. Um.

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Speaker 1: JJ is amazing. He's a great friend of Jared's. He's

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Speaker 1: got two young boys, right who are just getting into

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Speaker 1: that age where they want to get really good at basketball,

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Speaker 1: just like their dad was. And you know, he sees

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Speaker 1: a void in the market, right there's no real centralized

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Speaker 1: youth league in New York City. There's no hub where

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Speaker 1: he can go get them better every day. Um. Kenny

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Speaker 1: and kJ Smith obviously Kenny from left rack legend in

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Speaker 1: New York City. Um. kJ his son who played for

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Speaker 1: Damon at Pacific, then went and played at U n C.

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Speaker 1: Has just been such an integral part of the business,

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Speaker 1: connecting us with folks like Cole, Anthony uh and a

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Speaker 1: lot of other great people to get involved, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: and then on the grassroots level, right, you know, just

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Speaker 1: working with guys like Book. You know, Book has coached

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Speaker 1: twenty plus McDonald's all Americans. When he speaks, kids listen, right, um,

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Speaker 1: because he has the track record to prove it. Chad Babble, right,

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Speaker 1: who runs Made Hoops, that's Nike's you know, six to

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Speaker 1: eighth grade youth division. And Dad puts on the biggest

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Speaker 1: events in the country for the best kids. Darren Duncan,

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Speaker 1: who runs the Battle where Brownie Jr. Just played a

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Speaker 1: few weeks ago and Queens against all the best Try

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Speaker 1: State kids. Uh. But we're really building not only a

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Speaker 1: great team on the NBA side, And you know, I

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Speaker 1: think a big reason that New York has missed the

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Speaker 1: last twenty years is there haven't been that many role models, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, Sebastian Telfair, Lenny Cook, some of the guys

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Speaker 1: who maybe we're supposed to get to the NBA at

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Speaker 1: that level didn't. And so I think what we're trying

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Speaker 1: to do is bring in the NBA guys who have

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Speaker 1: ties to New York and show these kids you can

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Speaker 1: touch and feel what it's like to succeed at that level. UM.

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Speaker 1: And then on the grassroots side, getting the best guys

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Speaker 1: and and and and girls into the facility who have

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Speaker 1: coached the most successful kids in New York. I just

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Speaker 1: feel like we're building a powerhouse team, which is what

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Speaker 1: it's going to take to accomplish this project. Absolutely. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you guys have got some key pieces, some key figures,

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Speaker 1: some influencers UM that have respect in that basketball community.

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Speaker 1: Book richardter Is some ide that have tremendous amount of

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Speaker 1: respect for you know, spoke with him on my show. Um,

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Speaker 1: I had an interview with him on my show as well.

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Speaker 1: Um uh, let me ask you guys this now, when

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Speaker 1: this facility get built, are there gonna be weekends where

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Speaker 1: you work with like book and some or Chad and

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Speaker 1: bring in made hoops for a weekend, or you guys

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Speaker 1: have some a U stuff you're gonna do. Or is

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Speaker 1: it going to strictly be uh with with your current

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Speaker 1: your members and focus on that, or will there be

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Speaker 1: like larger camps and clinics that you guys might host

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Speaker 1: or you know, block off some courts? How many courts

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Speaker 1: first of all? And then and if you guys can

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Speaker 1: just touch on that for me, yeah, for sure. You

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Speaker 1: want me to take it ja or you got you

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Speaker 1: gotta cool. So in terms of the facility we're building

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Speaker 1: right um, we're gonna have one gorgeous regulation court and

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Speaker 1: it's gonna host big games. If you're on that court,

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Speaker 1: you're somebody. Um. The stadium seating map that we have

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Speaker 1: right now, we're gonna have about a thousand plus seats

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Speaker 1: in the bleachers and then we're gonna have court side

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Speaker 1: seats running up and down both sides of the facility

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Speaker 1: underneath one set of bleachers. We're going to have an

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Speaker 1: additional court. It might be a half court, it might

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Speaker 1: be a mini full court to service younger kids. We're

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Speaker 1: not sure yet, but basically a shoot around area as well. Uh.

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Speaker 1: In terms of how in terms of how we're going

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Speaker 1: to structure the business, in terms of how we're gonna

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Speaker 1: structure the court time, it's really split in three right.

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Speaker 1: Jared laid out our membership model really nicely. There are

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Speaker 1: hundreds of families who are willing to pay for instruction

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Speaker 1: that just haven't been able to get guys like Book

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Speaker 1: to work with or teach their kids or j j uh.

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Speaker 1: And that's gonna be a big part of what we're

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Speaker 1: going to be doing day to day during the week

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Speaker 1: is having that group instruction in those camps and those

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Speaker 1: clinics on the weekend. There's no real centralized youth basketball

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Speaker 1: league in New York City, right, which is crazy, So

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Speaker 1: we want to be the spot to have the dopes

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Speaker 1: youth league in New York. I think we haven't brought

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Speaker 1: up yet and we can nowur later. Uh. The Academy. Right,

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Speaker 1: we're literally building a prep school right here in New

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Speaker 1: York City so that kids that or team fourteen years

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Speaker 1: old don't have to go to Okale, don't have to

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Speaker 1: go to Montvert. They can have this facility, they can

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Speaker 1: have book they can have a top education right to

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Speaker 1: get ready to go to the n c A A UM.

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Speaker 1: And so the Academy team is going to be a

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Speaker 1: big part of the facility right when they practice, when

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Speaker 1: they have home games, UM. And then I think we

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Speaker 1: should host big events, right, maybe not an entire e

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Speaker 1: y b L circuit, but the championship of y b L,

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Speaker 1: or the championship of the Battle of even the championship

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Speaker 1: of the Catholic School League, right, which still holds weight

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Speaker 1: in New York. Because we're gonna have the facility, because

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have the seating, I think we're absolutely gonna

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Speaker 1: be able to do all that in that space and

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Speaker 1: kind of be the hub for all of it. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So it's until the vision would be to host like

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Speaker 1: high profile games, grassroots or or stuff like that at

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Speaker 1: your spot in Long Island City. How far is Long

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Speaker 1: Island City from like Brooklyn or where you guys grew

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Speaker 1: up in Queens area. I love that you think we

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Speaker 1: grew up in Queens or Bronx were No, did I

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Speaker 1: bea Bronx or we're Manattan boys. Baby, That's horrible, that's horrible.

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Speaker 1: That's horrible. But I'm ashamed. I'm I went to we

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Speaker 1: went to school in the Bronx. I mean, we'll take

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Speaker 1: that that. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't know better. I was. Actually when I was

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Speaker 1: living out there, I was staying in Soho, so I

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Speaker 1: was with great laugh, like near the world, but we're

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Speaker 1: the site of the old world tracing. But so I

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Speaker 1: kind of I would take this. I would take the subway.

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Speaker 1: Then I would take a bus to get to St.

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Speaker 1: John's every day. So it was like a forty five

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Speaker 1: minute to an hour ride just to go. So I'm

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Speaker 1: a little turned around. What time I fell asleep and

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Speaker 1: I ended up in far Rockaway, I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you guys know where that is, but

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Speaker 1: I woke up and it was like, we know, we

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Speaker 1: know where that is. It was sketchy, got definitely a

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Speaker 1: little off the beating bath. But Long Island City, how

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Speaker 1: far is that from like Manhattan, So it's about a

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Speaker 1: fifteen minute drive actually over the Queensboro Bridge, which the

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Speaker 1: way for families in Manhattan. Um, the families in downtown

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn can shoot right up the b que. It's also

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Speaker 1: about fifteen twenty minutes. Now you're asking how far? How far?

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Speaker 1: With traffic? Those are two questions in New York and

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Speaker 1: l A. Um. But but you always, we always understand

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Speaker 1: I talk about stuff. It's always a factor in traffic,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm giving it about thirty forty five minutes

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Speaker 1: of just whatever. And I always get myself an hour

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Speaker 1: before I go or an hour or two, just depending

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Speaker 1: on how far I gotta go. Yeah. Plus, I mean look,

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Speaker 1: I mean I don't know if you can see the

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Speaker 1: logo on Griffin sweatshirt, but our logo is inspired by

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Speaker 1: the subway lines, right, So we um there there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of public transportation from all different borrows that run

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Speaker 1: right into where hopefully this location is going to be.

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Speaker 1: So we feel like it's pretty central and easy to

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Speaker 1: get to. And it's a great point because like, how

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Speaker 1: far we really go to do something like this? Right?

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Speaker 1: I think that's that's something we really asked ourselves and

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Speaker 1: thought about a lot. I'd love to hear more about

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Speaker 1: the academy that you guys are building, just the foundation

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Speaker 1: of that that you haven't obviously there's an educational component involved.

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Speaker 1: Would like to hear about that as well. And you

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Speaker 1: do you plan on like joining New York City leagues

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Speaker 1: or you're gonna do like a total prep school league

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Speaker 1: as far as competitively speaking, Yeah, great questions. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: let gee, this is like his his bread and butter,

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Speaker 1: so I'll let him watch poetic Let's get I'll China later.

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Speaker 1: I'm flattered. Uh. Also, it's also the trickiest and most

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Speaker 1: challenging but rewarding part of the business. So I'll try

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Speaker 1: my best to tackle it. Um. I think something I

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Speaker 1: love what Jaredoise says is we know what we know,

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Speaker 1: we know what we don't know, right, um, And we're

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Speaker 1: still learning a lot about what this academy is gonna

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Speaker 1: look like. But the premise is this a lot of kids,

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Speaker 1: as you know, that grow up here, and we've mentioned

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Speaker 1: it three or four times, they leave at a young age,

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Speaker 1: right because there isn't that uh centralized school. Right. Whether

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Speaker 1: you want to call it an academy, whether you want

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Speaker 1: to call it a prep school. The point is that

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Speaker 1: competes on a national schedule. The Catholic schools in New

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Speaker 1: York City can only play the Catholic schools. The p

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Speaker 1: S a L can only play the p S a L. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like for examples, started kJ, Cole Anthony Right, there's a

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Speaker 1: great example of what we're trying to accomplish. Cole was

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Speaker 1: that Archbishop Um, I think until his junior year and

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Speaker 1: then you know, basically said to himself like, look, playing

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Speaker 1: against the Catholic schools is great, but like I need

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Speaker 1: this national exposure. I need to go play you know,

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Speaker 1: the Brownie sons of not Brownie's son, but um. That

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Speaker 1: was kind of his thinking, right, And his dad was like, look,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna go to oak Kill and get a real

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Speaker 1: prep school, you know, education and basketball experience and get

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Speaker 1: that national exposures so you can get recruited the way

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Speaker 1: that all these other kids are because there's just nowhere

427
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 1: in New York that does that. Right now, Sorry, Graft,

428
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 1: keep going, You're good. That's a great point. And so

429
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,680
Speaker 1: what we're doing, kJ is we're working closely with Chad,

430
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: and we're working closely with book right, and we're gonna

431
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:58,159
Speaker 1: work closely on it with Mellow because he has a

432
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 1: ton of experience in the space. And you know, we're

433
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,160
Speaker 1: gonna build New York City's first prep school academy team,

434
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,159
Speaker 1: and so on the educational side, we're talking to a

435
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,119
Speaker 1: few different independent and private schools that are top schools

436
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 1: in the city on creating an online only curriculum for

437
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:14,960
Speaker 1: the players on our team to actually go get those

438
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,159
Speaker 1: core credits needed to be n c A eligible. We

439
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,320
Speaker 1: think a big advantage of doing an academy in New

440
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 1: York City versus elsewhere where you see them is the

441
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,560
Speaker 1: education system here is second and none. And so if

442
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 1: we can get an online curriculum from one of those

443
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 1: schools for the kids, were automatically the best educational basketball

444
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,640
Speaker 1: academy in the country. And then from a competition standpoint,

445
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,760
Speaker 1: we're gonna look to identify, you know, twelve to fourteen

446
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,439
Speaker 1: and the most talented kids in the Tri State area. Right.

447
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,919
Speaker 1: A big reason we're doing an academy team versus an

448
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: AU team is there are a lot of AU teams

449
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: in the Tri state right, so we want to be

450
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: agnostic to all of them. We want to identify the

451
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 1: best kids. We want to give them the best education.

452
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 1: They're going to be coached by book guys like Chatt

453
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,479
Speaker 1: will help us with the schedule, and then they're actually

454
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: going to compete nationally on behalf of New York, right

455
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 1: against the other top powerhouse teams in the country, kind

456
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,160
Speaker 1: of restoring the city's reputation that hey, we still are

457
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: in the Mecca and we still got the talent here

458
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,399
Speaker 1: um and we really think, no disrespect to St. John's,

459
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: but we can be New York's team right Like on

460
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,359
Speaker 1: Friday nights at the facility, that's a hot ticket because

461
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: the nationally ranked Academy team is playing a home game

462
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: in New York. So we're really excited about the potential

463
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: to the Academy holes. Wow, that's a so on behalf

464
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: of New York restoring the Mecca. That means you go

465
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: have some dudes out there there. Y'all gotta have some guys,

466
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:32,200
Speaker 1: so some you know what I mean, you gotta have

467
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, we you know Griffin was at the

468
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: Battle a few weeks ago. The amount of talent just

469
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: specifically on New York teams that was in that building, Um,

470
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:44,640
Speaker 1: you know they were they were given it to Brownie's

471
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,640
Speaker 1: son like there there is that there's some dogs who

472
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 1: are still here in the city. Um, you know, look,

473
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: we we think that kind of one of the bigger

474
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: problems is on Griffin mentions earlier, there's a big fracture

475
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,479
Speaker 1: and there's a large amount of teams um in AU

476
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: in New York, right, so you don't get all of

477
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 1: the talent on one team. You get one guy here,

478
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 1: one guy there. Right, those teams don't end up making

479
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 1: big runs because they're just not deep enough. But if

480
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: we can kind of unite everyone and say, look, you

481
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 1: can play for your AU teams, but come play or

482
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: high school ball for us, and and show everyone what

483
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:21,679
Speaker 1: still exists in the city. Like, that's kind of the

484
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:23,639
Speaker 1: you know, the the lofty goal that we're trying to

485
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,120
Speaker 1: put together a nationally um competitive team that that can

486
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 1: go go go out there and try and win championships.

487
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 1: I saw, no. I mean, you guys obviously have the

488
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 1: right pieces in place to start that. I think in

489
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,679
Speaker 1: order just to go and develop something like that, you

490
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: have to, you know, start young. So if you get them,

491
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: you know, the youth development, you know, it's all about

492
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: developing dudes when you get into when we were in

493
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,240
Speaker 1: sixth grade or fifth grade man, and then seeing it

494
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 1: all the way through that to me is the best way.

495
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: And if you really want to have that special, special

496
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 1: kind of feeling with championship team U C l A

497
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: that I play going. We had a bunch of homegrown

498
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 1: town and what that did was it endeared us to

499
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:05,720
Speaker 1: the fans. It made us kind of like, you know,

500
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: l A's team. Man, we got so much love. It

501
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 1: was almost like we were, you know, Lakers or you know,

502
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:12,439
Speaker 1: we're so you know, we were almost like you know,

503
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,199
Speaker 1: pro team out there just because of the fans, and

504
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: you're nailing a cage. I like the program that's a

505
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: special name to us because we look at college basketball,

506
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: right and everyone always talks about Duke's got a great program.

507
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 1: You see How's got a great program? Right. Kids are

508
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: just coming in young, build them up, then they go

509
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: next next wave. Right with our membership model, you know,

510
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: starting with young kids right, um, all the way up

511
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: through our high school team. Like the hope is that

512
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: it will feed into each other. And you know, when

513
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: you're ten, eleven, twelve, really starting to figure out what

514
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: kind of basketball player you are, we're gonna have them

515
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: in the gym getting them better understanding their game and

516
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: hopefully preparing them to you know, hopefully be ready to

517
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 1: join the team when you know, when they get to

518
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 1: be that high school level. And um, you know in

519
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: the namesake like making a program that's dope, that's super

520
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: were dope. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk

521
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at

522
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart

523
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: Radio app search f s R to listen live. So

524
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 1: you let's touch on you guys backgrounds just for a

525
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 1: little bit. Um is far on the basketball in business side,

526
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 1: So you guys are both pretty accomplished. Just wanted to

527
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,400
Speaker 1: get an idea of you know what you guys careers

528
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,359
Speaker 1: have looked like up to this point, and you know,

529
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: and just kind of why. I mean, I know you

530
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: guys are passionate about this, but why at this time

531
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: of your life did you decide to jump over here?

532
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 1: I guess we could start with Jared Yeah, sure, Um

533
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: great questions. Uh quick background, So you know, I grew

534
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 1: up in New York, went to Riverdale Country School. Um,

535
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,640
Speaker 1: I won a state championship my senior in soccer. It's

536
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,680
Speaker 1: pretty much my biggest athletic accomplishment. I figured I needed

537
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,679
Speaker 1: to get that out there. It's no problem. Yeah, UM

538
00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: went undergraduate University of Pennsylvania. UM. You know, I got

539
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 1: a great education. Was very lucky to attend that school.

540
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,920
Speaker 1: And UM, I have always wanted to work in sports. UM.

541
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: You know. I worked for Jeff Schwartz UM and Excel

542
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: when I was a sophomore in college as an intern

543
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,440
Speaker 1: the year they had Blake Griffin. So that was cool. UM.

544
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,199
Speaker 1: And you know when I graduated, I really wanted to

545
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: be an agent. UM. That didn't work out, but I

546
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 1: did end up getting a job working for the Miami Dolphins,

547
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: UM in their corporate marketing department. So it wasn't, you know,

548
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 1: necessarily what I was looking for, but it was a

549
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 1: sports job and I got to see how a franchise

550
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,360
Speaker 1: runs right, specifically on the business side. UM. Came back

551
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: home and actually worked in real estate for a few years. UM.

552
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 1: And then for the past five or six years, I've

553
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: actually been at a startup. It's a sports ticketing company

554
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: actually called Fivo, and UM I've run investor relations for

555
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: them for three or four years now. So UM, that

556
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,959
Speaker 1: actually is like a good segue to now right. I

557
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,160
Speaker 1: feel like I've put a lot of great things together

558
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: on my resume that actually are are culminating in doing

559
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 1: something like this, Like like you said, passion. You know,

560
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 1: to me, I always wanted to do something that I

561
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 1: loved waking up every day knowing that I'm gonna be

562
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: excited to go to work. And you know how many

563
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: people actually get to say that, right? Um, I feel like,

564
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: you know, I've had a successful career. I'm thirty thirty five,

565
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: my wife's about to have our first kid. You know,

566
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: I feel established. I feel like my network, um is

567
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: as really uh one of my major assets and the

568
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 1: ability for me to reach capital and also get to

569
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: the sorts of people that um really are our stakeholders

570
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: in New York. That that's that's really coming at the

571
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: right time now to be able to kind of put

572
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: all of this together. Um. So for me, you know,

573
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: that was it. Plus I just love basketball. I mean

574
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 1: I watch any any basketball at any level at any time.

575
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: My wife has routinely hit me with the clicker and said,

576
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: I can't listen to another basketball game. So, um, you know,

577
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 1: for me, this this is this is where my heart

578
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: is for sure. Yeah. Um, A lot of parallels honestly

579
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: in terms of the why. Um, In terms of my background,

580
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: I grew up in New York. Uh. My mom was

581
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: a blues musician, which is super dope. Ye. All the

582
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: talent skipped to generation, so I knew I'd have to

583
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: do something different. Um. I grew up in Manhattan, went

584
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: to high school in the Bronx. Uh played Division three basketball.

585
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,120
Speaker 1: I thought Year would just say he played college basketball,

586
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: but he had to say Division three college basketball. Wait,

587
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 1: where where'd you go to? Where'd you play? I've played

588
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,479
Speaker 1: at a school called Alfred Uh, and I was I

589
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: was the worst player on the team. So let's skip over.

590
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 1: Let's skip over those you were there, bro, That's all

591
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: that matters that I was there. Um. Coming out of college, Uh,

592
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: you know, I spent most of my twenties working on

593
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: a really cool shopping app called Fancy. That's actually how

594
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 1: I connected with LAB. We worked with tons of NBA players,

595
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: tons of entertainers. They were investors in the app, they

596
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: were customers. Um. I started out packing boxes in the

597
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 1: mall room. I ended up running business development there. Um.

598
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: So I made a lot of connections, brand partner connections,

599
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,920
Speaker 1: NBA connections, music connections, and kind of always connected the

600
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: dots on that, Uh, through having my own consulting agency

601
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: the past couple of years where do the same thing. UM.

602
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: I think more relevant to this conversation is my first

603
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,320
Speaker 1: unpaid job out of college was helping Greg Marius, who

604
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 1: recently passed away five years ago, run the EBC at

605
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: Rutger Park tournament. UM. And so I would be in

606
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: Soho and then I would go up to Harlem every

607
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: night and help him run that street ball tournament. And

608
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 1: I really fell in love with New York City grassroots basketball. UM.

609
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: I went from that to to gm NG and putting

610
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 1: teams and Dykeman and gersh and every single major streetball tournament,

611
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: bringing James Harden in French Montana and Clarie Kardashian to

612
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: come watch the games. Uh. It was really my life, uh,

613
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: you know, culminating in putting teams in the TVT tournament

614
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 1: on ESPN every summer. Uh. You know where I've met

615
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: a lot of St. John's guys. So um, you know,

616
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 1: I think this project is really the culmination of, you know,

617
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: ten plus years of living and breathing New York City

618
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: grassroots basketball and then some of my connections from my

619
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: day work Um, and to Jared's point, you know I

620
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 1: think why now? Well, Um, you know, I always know

621
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: someone in life is always going to have more money

622
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: than you. In my case, a lot of people are

623
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: gonna be better looking than you. Uh. You know, someone's

624
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: always going to have more than you, right materially, But

625
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: you could always leave the biggest impact and legacy doing

626
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: the stuff that you love. And we love New York

627
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: and we love basketball, and if we have the chance

628
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 1: to be the guys to bring both back, Um, that's

629
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 1: something that I'll spend every waking moment of my life doing.

630
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 1: And I think I'm blessed to found a business partner

631
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,760
Speaker 1: who feels the same way and really wants to do

632
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: the same thing. That's dope. That's super dope. Y'all are

633
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: locked in, man, y'all sound locked in. I'm just I'm

634
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: just curious. Uh. Also, like some more details. I don't

635
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:06,440
Speaker 1: know if you guys how much time you guys got,

636
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: but you know, I just wanted to kind of pick

637
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 1: your brain. You say, state of the art facility. Um,

638
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: what does that mean? Like state of the art facility,

639
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: like in today's language? What does that mean to you guys?

640
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: State of the art you got the dick cool for sure.

641
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 1: So I think you gotta look at kids, right that

642
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: are top kids and basketball playing kids, and what they

643
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: want and what they like, right, And so you want

644
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 1: to you want to build a gorgeous court, right, you

645
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: want your to be state of the art. You want

646
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: to have a cool street artist come in and design

647
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: it with your logo so it feels super dope. Um.

648
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: I think we want to have a juice bar, right

649
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: because you know right now, in the past decade, there's

650
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: a certain kick in terms of being healthier down at

651
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 1: a younger age. So you tell kids when they walk in,

652
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: you know, we don't have Derrito's in here, we don't

653
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: have Captain Crunch in here. You know, we have juice, right, Um,

654
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 1: and maybe some middle ground and too. Um. I think

655
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 1: having a turf training area, right, you know. I think

656
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: when we've talked to parents right that have elite kids,

657
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 1: one thing they ask is not who the basketball coach

658
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: is gonna be. They definitely ask that who's the strength

659
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: and conditioning coach going to be? You know what I mean?

660
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 1: So you know from Cardio to cry out two waits

661
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 1: to all that it's really important for us to the cryo.

662
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: You gonna have a cryod chamber up in there. We're

663
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: gonna have a cryod chamber. You're well, man, yeah, yeah,

664
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: better head let you lead with that. Do you know

665
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 1: how sick of cryo chamber is at this time of life?

666
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: To be able to have access to kJ, we gotta

667
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: leave some surprises. Okay, let the cat out, all right.

668
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: I got excited about that. Now, now you're good. And

669
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 1: then you know, I think we want our locker rooms

670
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: to be state of the art as well. Um, you

671
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: ask what state of the art means. I keep saying

672
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: state of the art, but um, you know, I think

673
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 1: you look at like you know, NBA two K and

674
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: a gaming room in a film room, right, and even

675
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 1: potentially a classroom depending on how much office space we

676
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 1: have to compliment the gym. Um, you know, what we

677
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 1: really want to do is build a place where look

678
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 1: go ahead, Jay, yeah, I mean just in college level man,

679
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:13,239
Speaker 1: Like we we are trying to you know, emulate a

680
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: Duke a Kentucky that kind of you know, top tier

681
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: equipment that kind of look um almost like our own

682
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 1: mini little stadium, you know, little MSG whatever you wanna

683
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: call it. That's that's really what we're what we're arriving for. Dope.

684
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: I've seen I've seen like a couple of stadiums, smaller

685
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: that kind of like that one down in Atlanta. I

686
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 1: think that group has one that's sort of cool and

687
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: they've got some stuff. So that's kind of where I

688
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: was getting at the state of the art I kind

689
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: of had. I was wondering it was going to look

690
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: like that or not not look like that, but just

691
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: have all the bills and whistles, which it sounds like

692
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: it will. Um. I think that's that's a huge plus.

693
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 1: The other thing I was also curious about as far

694
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: as like the training curriculum or the actual is there

695
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,319
Speaker 1: a training curriculum that you guys are gonna put your

696
00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,919
Speaker 1: stamp on that, you know, Book or whoever your coach

697
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: is are are going to kind of implement with the

698
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 1: guys or you know what, did you guys have thoughts

699
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:09,080
Speaker 1: on regarding that? You know, I think that's a great question. Um. Like,

700
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,319
Speaker 1: like Griffin said earlier, we know what we know and

701
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,359
Speaker 1: we know what we don't, and I think we'll leave

702
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,759
Speaker 1: the basketball instruction and training up to the professionals. But

703
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: you know, again, Book has been doing this for decades, UM,

704
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: and it clearly works. So you know, we'll lean on

705
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: him a lot. We'll lean on Chad Um and the

706
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: other coaches too. Yeah. We we definitely want to make

707
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 1: something that's ours, um. But I'm sure they'll take from

708
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 1: from many of the years of playing and and a

709
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 1: lot of the things that are going on across the

710
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: country and um make it ours and uh yeah, Well,

711
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 1: Griff and I will be at the gym, you know,

712
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,839
Speaker 1: definitely yelling and hollering, but we will we will be

713
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: firmly out of the way when it comes to basketball instruction.

714
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:51,840
Speaker 1: Well absolutely, I mean that's that's the way, that's the

715
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:53,840
Speaker 1: way to do it. That's how you you know, you

716
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:56,919
Speaker 1: actually let people who you hire to do the job

717
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: do the job. I mean, that's just comes down at

718
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: that's dope. UM. I guess one more question. I had

719
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: something you guys touched on earlier about UM kids in

720
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: the inner city scholarshipping. I believe it was what you

721
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: guys said, how many kids and what is your idea

722
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: or vision behind that initiative? UM. Yeah, I don't wanna,

723
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: you know, put our foot in our mouth. I don't

724
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 1: think we have a number yet decided. Um, like I said,

725
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a percentage, and we definitely are gonna

726
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: earmark UM a large amount of that UH for inner

727
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,919
Speaker 1: city scholarships. UM. You know, we'll talk to Mellow, We'll

728
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,160
Speaker 1: talk with with the team and try and figure out

729
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: we would love to have a nice balance of UM,

730
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 1: you know, scholarship kids and and paid members. So it

731
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:44,440
Speaker 1: really feels like like a family in there. But I

732
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: don't think we're specific yet on what that looks like.

733
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 1: But UM, you know, the idea is, you know, UM

734
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,600
Speaker 1: Griffin and I are both very blessed to have grown

735
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 1: up in Manhattan attended UM is bron Science Private. Griff

736
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,880
Speaker 1: I went to private school. Grip everyone to public, but

737
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:02,360
Speaker 1: Bronx sign is one of the best schools in the

738
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: country right, UM, specifically in the city. And UM, you know,

739
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: I look back on my life and and feel so

740
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: blessed to be in the position where I'm at UM

741
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,680
Speaker 1: and all the resources that I was UM able to

742
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: use to get where I'm at and not. It's it's

743
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: not lost on me that a lot of kids don't

744
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 1: UM and specifically in the inner city. UM. There are

745
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 1: plenty of smart, hard working kids who just don't have

746
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: the financial means to accomplish these things with the resources

747
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: that you know, people like UM, I was given when

748
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 1: I was growing up, so it was really important to

749
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: me to figure out a way to give back. UM.

750
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 1: You know, my family has been extremely philanthropic my whole life,

751
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 1: and and UM, they've instilled in me from a very

752
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,240
Speaker 1: early age, like you know, it's great to do well,

753
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: but do well and do good at the same time. UM,

754
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 1: And you know I feel very strongly about that. Absolutely

755
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:02,439
Speaker 1: absolutely wells UM. I appreciate both of your times today.

756
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I have a really good understanding.

757
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: I hope the audience has an understanding what you guys

758
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 1: mission is and the motivation and the inspiration behind it.

759
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 1: And we're looking forward to supporting and getting behind the program. UM,

760
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. Jared Fphron and Griffin Taylor