WEBVTT - 🎙️🏀 Corey "Homicide" Williams 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.680 Hi Legends, Welcome back to the Mason Cox Show. Now 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.320 today we've got a special guest. This guy has got 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.880 plenty of experience behind him. His resume is massive. He's 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.560 played in the NBA, he's played in the NBL, He's 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.279 been all over the world playing basketball, and now he's 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.279 one of the head commentators for the NBL here in Australia. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:24.640 He's a man with a lot of golden nuggets in life. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:26.439 He's a person that you can learn a lot from 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.360 in This chat is going to be amazing, But as 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:30.240 we always do, start off with the seven platforms. We 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:35.600 got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Like, heart, share, comment, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.240 everything else. Thanks so much everyone for getting this podcast 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.000 where we're at and we're so excited for where it's going. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.920 But without further ado, I will introduce the great man 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.080 that is Corey Homicide Williams, a person who's got a 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:49.040 hell of a resume. 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.159 I must say I will roll through some of it. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.000 Freshman nineteen ninety five ninety six help him value in 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:58.840 the NJCAA Men's Division two basketball Championships. JUCO First Team 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.640 All American is a sophomore player Alabama State Montgomery, Alabama 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.280 won d League Championship. Criminal Justice Degree NBL Commentatory, you 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.479 might start to understanding who this guy is on NBL 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.320 Overtime Creative Director of the Basketball sorry basketball for Footlalck 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:11.880 or Pacific. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:12.479 Hey man. 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.800 He even dropped twenty six points on Ronald Test one time. 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.640 He's won the twenty ten NBL MVP for the Townsville Crocodiles. Yes, 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:21.399 that is one of the greatest team names I've ever 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.959 heard in my life. And to be honest, I've got 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:25.520 a whole list of the teams he's played for, but 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.640 I think it's about three pages long, and it's Jamaican roots. Man, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.920 the great man, the myth that is Corey Williams. Thank you, homicide. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.960 Good to have you here much love man. How you doing, man, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.840 I'm great. Oh I'm better now. I feel like we've 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:42.600 got this story. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:43.360 Hey man. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:44.880 I I was reading up on you, a was doing 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.480 all this research. Man, there's it's hustle man. You're a hustleman. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:49.000 I love it. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.400 You make the most of empor every opportunity. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:51.600 Man. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.400 I'm excited to dive deeper into it. I'm excited to 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:55.280 dive deeper into it. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.440 I appreciate it, man, That's why I wanted to come here. 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.200 I'm obviously a fellow American who we now both you know, 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.520 call Australia home where we reside. And obviously you in 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.000 the game. I'm in the game in a different way. 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:09.720 But we're here. You know, we're doing it. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.400 We're making a life away from home, no doubt, which 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:12.760 is good. 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.640 I mean it's not easy. There's not always an. 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.280 Easy road, but not always an easy road. 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.799 You're going to make the most of the opportunities given 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:18.280 to you in life. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:24.720 And I feel like that we've done pretty well. Brother, 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.520 we are a lot to come. Man, I'm here now. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:29.040 I want to I know a lot about yourself. I 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:30.359 know some of the listeners probably need to get a 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:31.520 little bit of background on your right. 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.400 Let's talk about it. You grew up, man, you grew 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:34.640 up in New York. 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.160 Yes, I'm from the Bronx, New York born and raised. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.160 Now we say the Bronx right now, I know what 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.480 the Bronx says, but you need to tell people what 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:42.040 it's like. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:43.960 It was a daily life in the Bronx. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:50.120 Like the Bronx is a dangerous place. That ain't a 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.400 place you would want to grow up if you had 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.359 a choice. I put it like this. If you are 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.360 traveling and visiting New York, that is the borough they 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.680 will tell you do not go to. The only way 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.040 you go to the Bronx is if you're going to 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.800 watch the Yankees play. That's the first stop in the Bronx. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.800 From Manhattan. You're on the train. The first bridge you 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.480 cross that you stop in the Bronx first, that's the 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.919 stop Yankee Stadium. You go there. All the white people 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:25.800 get off the train, go to Yankee Stadium, go watch 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.000 the Yankees, and when that game is over, they get 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.520 their back. The ass is back on that train and 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.080 it's expressed all the way back to Midtown fifty ninth Street. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.960 That's true story. Yeah, I'm from there. Yeah, I'm from there. 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.720 You know it's serious where I grew up. A lot 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.880 of violence, a lot of drugs, lack of education, lack 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.920 of resources will have people do whatever it needs they 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.480 need to do to feed their family and take care 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.320 of themselves. And unfortunately that happens in a lot of 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.600 communities where there's lack of education and life of funds 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.080 and lack of employment. So these things happen. But lucky 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.880 For me, I had a loving mother. My father died 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:14.440 when I was three. She pushed education hard and accountability, 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.640 gave us responsibility. We knew if we messed up, we 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.200 getting our asses beat when we got home. So between 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:27.520 her disciplining her two sons and her daughter, I also 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.560 fell in love with basketball. So basketball saved my life. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:35.240 You know a lot of young athletes, boys and girls. 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.360 When you come from certain communities, you need direction at 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.360 a young age, you need discipline at a young age, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.280 and you need to be busy. That's why it's important 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.560 whether you come from a tough community or not. If 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.400 you have children, keep them busy because idle time is 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.520 the devil them. With less time, you have to be 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.680 sitting on your behind thinking of other nonsense to do, 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.280 the better off you'll be. So with all of that said, 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:06.159 just all of you out there that's listening. If you 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.320 have children, put them in sports, keep them busy, because again, 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:18.000 if you are My daily regimen was wake up, school, study, hall, 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:23.320 after school, practice, go home, shower, eat, sleep, so I 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.080 had no time to really be hanging out in the 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.080 hood getting in any trouble. A lot of my friends 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.920 didn't play sport, so they had idle time. A lot 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.080 of them got in trouble. So I'm telling you sports 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.560 and basketball specifically saved my life. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:38.799 Your mom was a nurse. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.440 My mother was a nurse. God blessed dead. My mother 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.160 died four years ago. My pride enjoyed my buddy cancer. 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.359 Man can't listen, Man, Kanser is no joke. You know, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.400 I'm very proud that you know the things that I 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.279 was able to do for her. And she's traveled the world. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.560 She saw a sunplay multiple countries, and she saw a 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.800 sun transition to life after the game. So she's rested 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.080 and having proud of all her children, no doubt, Heather Party, 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.840 She's been with me with street ball bounds, you know 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.400 what I mean, in the parks. She's real. Listen, this 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.440 story is this is not like the typical story. This 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.240 is real. Yeah, we used to be in those playgrounds together. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:19.360 It was real. 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:20.080 So what was a lot? 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.440 I mean, you got a single mother, yep, growing up, 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.680 you got two brothers, one brother and sister and sister. Yeah, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:27.400 now what was the luck on day? Like you were 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.120 allowed to leave the house. I mean we talked about 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.760 you know, being a very a place you don't want 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:33.719 to be out at night. Yeah, you know, like in 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.840 the day and were you allowed, Like what was the 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.000 what was what was the what was the life like 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.520 for you? What was the rules around the house living 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:42.320 in that kind of place. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.160 My father died when I was three, so my mother 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:53.200 a young mother, raising in schools, still in college, raising 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.800 her two sons, and it was a very rough environment. 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.840 I mean, like it could have gone either way. 0:06:59.839 --> 0:06:59.960 Man. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.039 Man, you'll do like sometimes, like till this day, I'm 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.360 so far from where it began. But I sometimes sit 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.320 back and I just laugh at myself, like, yo, dude, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.480 it could have gone either way. Like I'm just chilling 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.760 on my balcony in Australia, just catching a vibe, you 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.720 know what I mean, looking in the city, listening to 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.480 noises and traffic you know, and all of this, you know, 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.760 just life over here and just sitting back and it's like, yo, man, 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.640 could have gone either way. But growing up in New York, man, 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:39.920 it's like you got on this corner, you'll have like 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.640 the drug dealers on this corner. You got like the 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.800 stick of kids and the killers. Right, real talk this corner, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.960 you know, you might just have like the bums. That's 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.280 not really about nothing. The guys that and the girl 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.480 and the ladies that aren't going to amount to nothing. 0:07:57.920 --> 0:07:59.720 So this is just bad news to just hang with, 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:04.000 you know what I mean, drinking, smoking, the losers, and 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.160 then you'll have like a handful of people that's attempting 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:12.680 to try and get out. You know, it's literally amazed, 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.760 you know, growing up in the Bronx, it's amazed. So 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.480 what I do when I go home. I have friends 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.120 and I have families still in New York, and I 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.800 have some that are in the Bronx. And just because 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.640 like my life is different, doesn't mean I'm any better 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.960 than them. So I actually to get balanced, I go 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:32.640 back and chill and see them, right, I go see 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.280 them in the daytime. I can't be in the hood 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.160 at night. That's just stupid. But I go see them, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:43.000 and I just sit back in amazement and just say 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:51.640 to myself, like, dude, like you couldn't script where you 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:55.640 are today based off where it began, because those odds 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.720 to be where I'm at today based off of where 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:03.680 it began. There there's no bedding line on that because 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.560 it just doesn't happen, just doesn't happen. So it was 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.040 tough just just know man likes to basketball. Saved me 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.360 because of the fact that I represent my neighborhood with sport. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.240 I was one of the guys and my brother, we 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.720 were one of the guys that two of the guys 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.760 that they didn't bother us. They almost protected us, like, look, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.280 you know, you got a chance, you know what I mean, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.840 So we'll hold you down. Just don't be caught up. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.120 You know what, Tima at what time of the night, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.199 you don't need to be out here because of what 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.680 goes on. So just it's that type of environment because. 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.439 I always kind of think like it's almost like it's 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.880 a real community feel. Yeah, so the streets going to 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.000 look after certain people, you know, that's a bit like that. 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.040 And I was like, I was thinking that I wonder 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.680 if he was one of those that, you know, someone 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:49.360 sees you at the wrong time and I said, nah, 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:50.640 your mom, we're gonna as. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.360 No doubt, you don't need to be out here. What 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.199 are you doing? That type of So they protected us 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.199 in a sense because we represented the hood. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.959 Yeah you know, and you would you would represent getting 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:05.559 out of it too, no doubt, and you go back 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.920 now and you'd be like, Okay, I'll look at you'd 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:08.440 probably go back. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:09.800 You'd look at the people and create me. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.400 If I'm wrong, you probably go back, look at the 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.920 people and say, look, my journey is insane. I'll go 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:15.520 back to the States and I'm like, I'll talk to 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:16.920 people and that, man, how soccer going. 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.679 I'm like, shit, it's good, but no idea. I'm just thinking. 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.160 I'm like, man, man, I've come a long wife from 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.760 grew up, and that was nowhere comparatively to like what 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:28.920 you've had to go through going out. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:29.400 Yeah. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.720 Man, so that's just my neighborhood. Then you know that's 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.800 so as bad as you don't know how bad it 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:38.199 is if you're in it, you know what I mean. 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.640 If you're sitting in ship, you don't really know how 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.720 bad shit is because you've been sitting in the ship 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.520 from the gym, you know what I mean. So once 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:55.400 basketball has it is evolved me with my travels, the 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.720 ability of the game, what my talent and the scholarship 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.160 said I've gotten, and these opportunities that I've gotten forget 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.400 playing pro just to go see other things. So then 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.840 you can understand that fuck, I'm really sitting and shit, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.480 this is not how it's supposed to be. So that's 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.920 where the motivation began. That's where it begins. All right, cool, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.959 I see this more. I see there's green and passions. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.360 I see how people are living different. All right, How 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.000 am I gonna help get myself out of this situation? First, 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.280 thing's up, start working out right now. I got a 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.640 hoop at a junior level. I gotta start getting good 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.840 quick because I started at thirteen in New York. New 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.000 York's the mecca. Everybody's good. So I'm already behind the 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.360 eight ball, right, So it's like, all right cool. My 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.760 process was literally I'm looking at everything step by step. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.200 I can't look all the way down the road. I 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.160 literally got'ta be like, all right, cool, I'm here. I 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.840 gotta get to hear right now. I give the process, yo, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.079 the process, man, Like. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.120 We're gonna jump too far because I want to kind 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:02.920 of step through this because there's a lot a lot 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.840 to cover here now. I like to talk about moments 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.600 that change people's lives in whatever way, you know, whether 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.599 it be good, bad, ugly, whatever it is. Now I 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.000 think and listening to you and doing a bit of research, 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.880 there's you going to Catholic school in Harlem, I'm assuming 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.800 that was a massive change of direction for your your 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.040 life direction where the path was gonna go. Let's sorry 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.960 about that, well man, because your mom was all about 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:27.960 this is mom too on. 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.720 What you're making and education is huge to us in culture. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.839 So if nothing else, you're gonna go to school and 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.160 you're gonna get a job. You definitely gonna get the degree. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.839 You're gonna get a job, You're gonna work, and you're 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.880 gonna go to school. So I'm in middle school at 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.640 this point. This is your success is yes, success, I'm 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:53.400 like school things. You know, I'm like twelve, eleven twelve, 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.440 right thirteen. You start high school eleven twelve, So I'm 0:12:57.480 --> 0:12:59.600 like the class clown because I'm not the flyest dude. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.040 I don't have the best clothes on, and you know, 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.520 I'm not smooth, I don't have I'm none of these things. 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:06.240 At this point. 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.079 You are now though, yeah, got. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.640 A little you know that. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:13.520 We moved on up. 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:20.840 So my grades were bad. This is an era where 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:26.920 they will grade you on behavior versus if you're close 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.040 to a C or a D, they'll behave you on 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.320 your they'll grade you on your effort. That's what if. 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:33.640 So if your f it's bad and you in your 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:35.600 class clown. We're gonna give you a D. So my 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:40.720 report card was all read I was such a bad 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.280 kid in school, trying to be a class clown. In 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:49.200 junior high school, which is middle school. They told me 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.440 you can't even graduate. We're going to give you your 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.079 graduation papers. You can't go to the ceremony. I mean, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.800 you can graduate, You're not going to ceremony to the gown. 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.839 The most embarrassing moment in my life. That's the first 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.880 and last time I ever embarrassed my mother. I never 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:11.319 forget that. And I didn't get accepted to the schools 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:13.920 in high school that I applied to. How could I 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:18.040 My grades weren't didn't reflect or warranted me getting into 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.160 these schools. So the only school I was able to 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.480 get into was the Zone school, which is your local 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:28.440 high school. That's where all the killers, everyone bombs, losers 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.800 go to. So what what what route am I going? 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.000 If I go to that school, I'll be one of those. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.280 I would have been one of those, my mother said. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.360 So there was a school that I actually got accepted 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.200 to in the village Washington, Irvan High School. We get online, 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:47.880 but we go to orientation. I'm a kid from the Bronx. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:53.600 Now I'll go to the village. Right, I'm online for orientation. 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:58.000 It might have been about fifteen people in front of us. 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:04.280 Ten of them are girl. I said, oh man. My 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.360 mother said, oh you think, so let's go. We leave. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.400 I don't even get my ori into my school. I 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.280 d I'm like, where we going? She said, let's go. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:19.160 The next day we go to Harlem Infamous Harlem one 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:25.320 twenty fourth Street, Lenox Avenue. There is a small rectangular building. 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.320 Class of their senior classes eighty people. That's what graduates, 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.680 eighty to ninety people. It's how small a school is. 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.040 Catholic All Boys School, Rice High School is the name 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.880 of this school. Goes in, we see the dean all boys. 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.480 First thing, I'm thinking, what is this? 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:53.480 What is this? Go in? We see the d Dean 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.880 looks at my transcript says there's no way we can. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.840 We can let him in. Academically, he will fail, he 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.040 can't keep up. My mother begged the dean, please let 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.080 my son in. Dean looked at my mother, looked at 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.600 me and said, here's what I'll do. We'll let him in. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.720 We'll put him on academic probation for the first half 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.960 of the year, and if those grades pan out, we'll 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.280 keep going. If not, he has to leave done. She 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.640 found a way, found a way, found my mother found 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.760 a way. That school changed my life, gave me discipline. 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.440 A woman can never teach a boy how to be 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.080 a young man, how to be a man again, my 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.800 father was gone at this point. She needed help to 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:37.920 help her son. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:39.480 Yep, she's got work. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.880 Pays her tuition, pays my tuition. Little did I know 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.520 this was the number one high school in the nation 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.480 for basketball. Felipe Lopez went to Rice High School, so 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:56.720 this school was a basketball factory. I didn't go for basketball. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.960 I went for disciplinarian reasons. We need to straighten this 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.880 little one out to give them a chance. So once 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.560 I ended up going to the number one high school 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.639 in the nation, Oh my god, basketball and all I 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.879 gotta do is act right. Oh I'm good. I had 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.320 to be average all the way through for four years. 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:18.880 Be average. 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:23.240 So it wasn't about academically if I was able to 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:30.040 handle it, it was about discipline again. Accountability breedze responsibility. 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.960 You want to hoop, pass these classes and act right done. 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.720 Structure was what I needed. So again I said it earlier, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.520 wake up, go to school. After that, you got study hall. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:48.240 After that, you got practice, back home on the train, shower, eat, sleep, repeat. 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.160 Midweek and weekends you got games. I have no time 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.959 for trouble, and I'm laser focused because now I'm seeing 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:59.080 more exposure leads to expansion. I'm starting to expand more. 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.600 I'm not just in the hood anymore. I'm around some 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.520 of the illest people in New York City that ended 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.919 up going to this school. Some of them have become 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.320 multi millionaires because of hip hop. Hip Hop is in 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.400 our community. I'm a Jamaican growing up in the Bronx 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.040 that play basketball. Do you know how many things that covers? 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.160 Hip hop is the number one genre in the world. 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.960 So we got sports, we got fashion, you know what 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.720 I mean, we got music, We created the culture. Everything 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.879 we did shifts the culture in the world. This is 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.679 where I'm coming from, you know what I mean. And 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.480 it all comes from poverty. So it's like there was 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:39.320 a gift in being born into poverty. It is created 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.000 in my DNA certain things you can't even teach. 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:47.160 So grind opportunity as as it exposure leads to opportunities, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.080 leads to expansion. Expansion, sorry, exposure leads to expansion. I 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.760 like that, so you get to that's the first intro 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.600 into basketball, no doubt. Now what made you fall in love? Yeah, 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:58.920 you have friends that were doing it too at the 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:00.360 same time, and like it kind of just got into 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:01.880 it with him. Is that because I feel like that's 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.959 how sported. What happened was it was my brother. My 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.520 brother was the hooper, but he started having too much 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:08.679 issues with his knees, so he didn't love it like 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.359 I did. He more loved the lifestyle of it at 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.359 a young age. Right, So I was bored one day 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.640 because usually in my summers, like I told you where 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.720 we're from, it's crazy. So in the summers, my mother 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.560 would send me to Jamaica. So I would be in Jamaica. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:36.480 Oh some family your mom. 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:36.600 From man big big, big, big up, Jemmy cun Pete brothers, 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.480 no doubt, no doubt. So you know I would to 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:45.800 give my mother a rest because I energy wise, I 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.280 was all over the place. She was this close to 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:54.560 putting the lesha like I'm I was disclose, So to 0:19:54.560 --> 0:20:00.280 to give my mother rest. Sometimes my my father, my 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:06.200 father's family, my aunts, uncles, grandparents, they would take when 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.520 it's during the school week obviously with her, but on 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.320 the weekends, my brother would go hang out with the 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:14.720 grandparents and the aunts and all of that, and I 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:16.760 would just she would have one of us during the weekend, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.680 right because obviously work week us going to school, it's 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.840 a lot. But in the summers, I would go to 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.920 Jamaica with her family, like my aunt's and ugins down 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.880 now right, Yeah, definitely, So I'm at Jamaica all summer. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.240 So I never followed really American sport at a young age. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.760 I was kicking soccer balls in Jamaica, hanging out, going 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.800 to dance hall like I was partying since a little kid. Like, 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.960 you know, Jamaica. You know it's different, right, It's different. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.719 So I would just go with my uncles and stuff 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.480 like that and hang out with them. And one summer 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.520 I didn't go to Jamaica. I ended up seeing my 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.440 brother going to play basketball. So I was like, yeah, what. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:00.000 You doing today? Man? 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:01.920 Man, I ain't got nothing going on. What you're doing today? 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:03.879 He's like, I got a game. I was like, can 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:05.679 I come with you? He's like, yeah, come on. So 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.960 I went love it first sight. It wasn't it wasn't 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.159 even love. It was an obsession. Oh my god, I 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:13.879 don't know how to play this game. I gotta play it. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:15.880 So that's where it started. This was like at eleven. 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.600 This is like you go to a basketball court in 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:20.359 the community there, it is the place to be. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:22.240 Is what connects everything. 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.960 Rucker Park back in the day, which is just an infant. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.000 If you're in Melbourne, you know, paran summer gen paran 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:34.120 basketball court, right, just that that's done one weekend in Melbourne. 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.080 That's a weekend in the summertime. We do what you 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.640 see that weekend every day for the whole summer. It's 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.960 almost like seventy five basketball tournaments in New York City 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.760 in the summer. It's the mecca of basketball. So that's 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:51.920 where you wanted to be. That's we didn't care about. 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.720 We couldn't afford tickets to go to the Knicks, so 0:21:54.920 --> 0:22:00.119 streetball would be that was our NBA is entertainment. That 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.159 was entertainment, you know what I mean. Then on the 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.200 side of that, you got the DJ's playing music, you 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.560 got people out the break dancing. It's the culture. That's 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:10.520 what we grew up and this is what we created 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.520 in the hood. That was all entertainment. 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:16.920 Yeah, I love it. What's the weirdest thing you've seen? 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:19.320 This is going off track, but what's the weirdest thing 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.880 you've seen one of those basketball courts? I mean, because 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:23.919 they got like the hype man on the mic, you 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.600 got like everyone running around, someone dunks, everyone just like 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.520 collapses into the court. Like I think people have kind 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:31.399 of seen it, but they don't quite understand how just 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:33.400 crazy it is. Like I love that you shout out 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:34.120 France Summer Jam. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:35.720 That was really cool. I went to it last year 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.280 and unreal. Did the dunk contest to my family? 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:38.560 Man? 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.639 Yeah, yeah, absolutely my family. Yeah, I'll judge the dunk contest. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:43.640 Some of the guys are wildness. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:45.480 Yeah, man, it's actually good competition. 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.200 It's dopes. So that's the biggest and best street ball 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.159 tournament in Australia and they're actually so dope. They just 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.480 had their tenth anniversary. Jordan is sponsoring it this year. 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:59.919 You know, Jordan brand doesn't touch anything if it's not elite. 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.080 So for from where they started to where it is 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:08.400 today and Jordan is sponsoring that, that is huge. That's huge. 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:09.439 So what's what it is. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:11.919 So, so we go from you finding out through your 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.240 brother you kind of follow your brother in the footeps Dawson, 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:15.960 wha did that growing up into? You know, just you 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:17.840 follow the older brother what he does? You answered them 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:20.960 because you have an idolization towards the old older brother Thoms. 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:23.280 Now you get into how do you get into this 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:27.520 whole nj NJCAA men's Division two basketball championship. 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:29.720 So because this is not this is ninety five ninety six, 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:30.480 right right? 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:33.240 So I ended up going to Rice High School ninety one, 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:34.560 graduated ninety five. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.439 At this point, did you have people looking at you hit? 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:38.480 That's a good question. 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:40.359 Yeah, so at this point I know how it works, 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:41.879 like you're going to recruit it from there and then 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:42.280 it goes on. 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:45.520 So what happened was because I'm at the number one 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.159 high school in the nation, I had to work my 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.920 ass off to attempt to make a team. 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:53.840 Did you play in high school? Yeah? I played ice, 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:54.440 So you played. 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:59.639 I played freshman and I played JV junior varsity. I 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.399 got MVP of Junior varsity, which means I should go 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.360 to varsity for my junior senior year. We were so 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.000 stacked with talent in that school. They made a varsity 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:12.680 B team. A varsity B team. Who does that? That's 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:15.639 how much talent there was at that school. So I 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:19.680 ended up my junior year playing varsity. By right, they 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.960 went city in state. Felipe Lopez, he has the ESPN 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:27.399 thirty for thirty, The Dominican Dream. He was Lebron before 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:31.560 Lebron in high school. Go check it out The Dominican Dream. 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:35.080 ESPN thirty for thirty. Now we all know those thirty 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.840 for thirty documentaries are the real digit. Okay, then that's 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:41.159 the high school. That's the kid who was at our 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:43.200 high school, who put the high school on the map. 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:46.480 It's out balled out. So from there I played my 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:50.480 senior year varsity A. So obviously I had a lot 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:53.760 of development to do. So I wasn't even my best self. 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:57.600 I wasn't the best guy, wasn't all city, wasn't all state, 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:02.440 none of that. Far from that, still developing. So after 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:07.160 I graduated high school, what the coach did was there 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:11.120 was a my varsity be assistant coach knew a JUCO 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:17.440 coach looking for talent. JUCO is a two year university. 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:21.920 It's a community college. Usually it's for guys that are 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:26.040 getting second chances, think like Last Chance. You You ever 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:30.560 saw a documentary or the docuseries on Netflix called Last 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:34.720 Chance You check that out. They're usually at junior colleges 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:37.399 where there's really talented guys that messed up at a 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:39.840 young age, and to give them a second chance, they 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:41.840 got to go to JUCO. Show they can handle the 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:46.320 curriculum and get theirselves together and with a chance, if 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:48.359 they play well, they'll have a chance to go to 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:51.080 a four year university for their last two years. 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:53.080 The comfeter system basically. 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:56.960 So or if you are a talent that's not fully 0:25:56.960 --> 0:26:00.320 developed and still needs more developing, you go to a 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:03.439 junior college like myself at that point, I needed to 0:26:03.440 --> 0:26:05.399 go to JUCO. You think I could. 0:26:05.480 --> 0:26:09.160 Hell No, get me to hell about that Bronx anyway, 0:26:09.240 --> 0:26:11.520 bosure leading to expansion. 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:16.480 Okay, So now I go where Kansas City, Missouri? I 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:19.919 go to junior college. Yeah, that is city from the Bronx. 0:26:20.440 --> 0:26:24.320 Dude, Come on, man, the day you would have rocked 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:24.680 up there? 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:28.840 God, Yo, what this is Kansas This is a city exactly, 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:30.520 No disrespect to Kansas City. 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.880 We love Kansas City, right, but if you're comparing that story. Yeah, 0:26:33.920 --> 0:26:34.320 you can't. 0:26:34.359 --> 0:26:36.440 You compare that to the Bronx. That is literally the 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:37.800 opposite end of the spectrum. Yo. 0:26:38.000 --> 0:26:42.800 Just just to have that opportunity for school to send 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:47.360 me a ticket to go visit that was incredible in itself. 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:50.080 I'm like, yo, man, like, I'm really gonna go see 0:26:50.119 --> 0:26:52.520 a school they want me to. You know, they're interested 0:26:52.600 --> 0:26:55.440 in signing me to go to the school. My mind 0:26:55.520 --> 0:26:57.960 was already made up. I don't care what it looks like. 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:00.840 I'm out of here. I'm taking the ticket first there 0:27:00.880 --> 0:27:01.320 and just. 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:04.640 Needs to start. The process needs to start. So went. 0:27:05.280 --> 0:27:07.680 I agreed. I signed my letter of intent right there. 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:09.160 You have the train or anything with them. 0:27:09.240 --> 0:27:10.959 Yeah, I played, I played and all that. 0:27:11.080 --> 0:27:11.320 You know. 0:27:11.359 --> 0:27:13.880 A couple of the recruits that came from all over 0:27:13.920 --> 0:27:17.560 America that went, we all played different positions. I'm like, well, 0:27:17.600 --> 0:27:20.320 I signed best there. No, I wasn't the best there, 0:27:20.400 --> 0:27:23.119 but I showed what I can do either way. I 0:27:23.200 --> 0:27:26.480 signed while I was there. Right there, You ready to go? Done? 0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:27.000 Done? 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:29.320 I got a school, because that's a proud moment. That's 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:32.800 a huge achievement to get a scholarship. I had a 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:35.600 full ride, room and board, you know, so the process begins, 0:27:36.160 --> 0:27:39.760 went home, told my mother signed she said, I graduated 0:27:39.880 --> 0:27:43.160 high school and went to the ceremony. 0:27:43.200 --> 0:27:44.080 He got an invite. 0:27:44.119 --> 0:27:50.960 I got the invite and through the Kapan and the 0:27:51.040 --> 0:27:54.200 journey began. Yeh off to Kansas City, Missouri. One would 0:27:54.200 --> 0:27:57.240 have been super proud, super proud, super crowd. Yeah. So 0:27:58.119 --> 0:28:00.920 year one we win the championship stacked and at Juco. 0:28:01.040 --> 0:28:05.200 Here's the funny story. See, in junior college there's really 0:28:05.240 --> 0:28:12.520 no age limit to players. Yo, dude, dude. The guy 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:21.920 I was playing behind, I'm eighteen. The dude was twenty seven. 0:28:22.600 --> 0:28:26.720 That's yo, twenty seven seven For those out there, twenty 0:28:26.760 --> 0:28:27.719 three is when you graduate. 0:28:27.800 --> 0:28:30.520 Twenty seven is old man's status, Like twenty seven. 0:28:30.359 --> 0:28:32.920 Is like you should have a legit job, settled down 0:28:32.920 --> 0:28:33.560 with a family. 0:28:33.600 --> 0:28:36.520 But now what are you doing starting ball a Juco? 0:28:36.880 --> 0:28:37.640 Yo, dude. 0:28:38.640 --> 0:28:41.920 So I'm like you going in there going, I'm yo 0:28:42.240 --> 0:28:42.720 fresh meet. 0:28:43.040 --> 0:28:46.080 Just like, we end up winning the chip though I 0:28:46.160 --> 0:28:49.120 literally got no burn, I got little to no playing time, 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:52.280 and I couldn't be mad because these guys was getting 0:28:52.280 --> 0:28:55.400 it done. So all it did was continue to motivate 0:28:55.520 --> 0:28:58.560 me more. When I left high school. These guys were 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:00.960 so good that I played with the high school. I 0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:02.680 said to them in class when they like we sitting 0:29:02.720 --> 0:29:04.920 down like this, I said, look, I ain't that good 0:29:05.000 --> 0:29:08.600 right now, But one day I'm gonna be good. I'm 0:29:08.600 --> 0:29:11.080 gonna catch up with y'all and I'm gonna bust all 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:14.160 of y'all ass. And that's exactly what they did. They 0:29:14.200 --> 0:29:16.320 all laughed, you know what I mean, Because it's funny 0:29:16.320 --> 0:29:20.600 when you're not for good and you tell somebody who 0:29:20.800 --> 0:29:23.880 who's really good, that you're gonna bust they ass and 0:29:23.920 --> 0:29:26.280 be better than them. Of course you're gonna laugh at 0:29:26.280 --> 0:29:28.800 them because you can't see it, right. But that's the 0:29:28.840 --> 0:29:32.280 type of desire or motivation that I have within me, right, 0:29:32.320 --> 0:29:33.160 that's just in me. 0:29:33.400 --> 0:29:35.080 Right. It's a hustle. 0:29:36.320 --> 0:29:40.760 So fast forward. I get the juko, we win the championship. 0:29:40.800 --> 0:29:43.760 First year fresh first year, we win the championship Division 0:29:43.760 --> 0:29:49.200 two juco. Never forget this moment the coach. We're up 0:29:49.280 --> 0:29:53.040 literally like but winning the game. The game is one. 0:29:53.960 --> 0:29:56.800 We might be up like I think maybe twelve points. 0:29:56.800 --> 0:29:58.880 It might be like, I don't know, ten seconds left 0:29:58.880 --> 0:30:01.800 in the game. I didn't play all day. He puts 0:30:01.840 --> 0:30:02.400 me in the game. 0:30:03.320 --> 0:30:05.520 Why would you do that time. 0:30:05.640 --> 0:30:08.160 Why would you do this? 0:30:08.240 --> 0:30:13.720 And you hear it, you got she said, Corey, Corey, Yo, 0:30:13.960 --> 0:30:16.680 you know how humiliating that is, Like you might as 0:30:16.720 --> 0:30:18.480 well don't put the kid in. 0:30:19.280 --> 0:30:22.040 There's no reason to put the kid in. And I 0:30:22.080 --> 0:30:25.320 wanted to transfer. I wanted to transfer. After that, I 0:30:25.440 --> 0:30:28.959 was like, Yo, but where could I go? I had 0:30:28.960 --> 0:30:32.520 no options right, but in my mind, I'm like, anywhere 0:30:32.560 --> 0:30:34.840 got to be better than here if he's not playing me. 0:30:36.440 --> 0:30:40.280 And what happened. He got a head coaching job somewhere else. 0:30:41.480 --> 0:30:46.400 And the new assistant that came in said, be ready 0:30:46.640 --> 0:30:50.160 to the belief it's going through you this season coming up, 0:30:50.280 --> 0:30:52.240 because all of those guys were seniors on that team, 0:30:52.520 --> 0:30:56.240 so they were like, be ready because we're giving you 0:30:56.320 --> 0:31:01.080 the ball. All I ever wanted in my life was opportunity. 0:31:01.920 --> 0:31:05.840 I've never gotten a fair opportunity, and not kill it. 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:10.480 If I ever gotten an opportunity fair, I've exceeded expectations 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:14.640 and no one gives no one puts more pressure on 0:31:14.720 --> 0:31:18.280 me than me. So when I get these expectation, these 0:31:18.360 --> 0:31:22.160 these opportunities, I don't care about the expectations you have 0:31:22.280 --> 0:31:24.520 because it's not going to be higher than the expectations 0:31:24.680 --> 0:31:28.520 I have, right, so if I exceed my expectations, I 0:31:28.520 --> 0:31:29.840 don'et blew yours out the water. 0:31:29.880 --> 0:31:30.520 Now worried about you. 0:31:30.520 --> 0:31:31.680 I've even worried about. 0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:32.280 You, you know. 0:31:32.480 --> 0:31:36.280 So when I got that opportunity at JUCO a sophomore year. 0:31:37.600 --> 0:31:39.680 That year, I wrote a list down, because this is 0:31:39.720 --> 0:31:41.680 what I do. I write down my. 0:31:41.720 --> 0:31:43.160 Goals, break it down. 0:31:43.240 --> 0:31:46.360 I said, I'm gonna win the championship. I'm gonna be 0:31:46.360 --> 0:31:49.720 reaching sixteen MVP, I'm gonna be first team All American, 0:31:49.920 --> 0:31:52.840 I'm gonna lead the nation and scoring top five at least, 0:31:52.960 --> 0:31:55.479 and I'm gonna be the man on his team. And 0:31:55.560 --> 0:31:58.920 I achieved all of those things and we lost year 0:31:58.960 --> 0:32:01.600 two at a buzzer in the championship. 0:32:02.040 --> 0:32:03.880 It's a crush. 0:32:03.960 --> 0:32:09.600 I hit every target and I had I had several offers, 0:32:10.480 --> 0:32:12.720 and I went to a HBCU because that's where I 0:32:12.760 --> 0:32:14.800 want to go to. I went to Alabama State Montgomery, 0:32:15.080 --> 0:32:17.760 and I graduated. I had my associate's degree in arts 0:32:18.200 --> 0:32:21.280 and my favorite class was art history one on one 0:32:21.360 --> 0:32:24.800 and one on two. I loved art, just learning about art. 0:32:25.200 --> 0:32:27.760 And I failed it the first time and I enjoyed 0:32:27.840 --> 0:32:28.840 taking retaking it. 0:32:29.280 --> 0:32:32.080 It was my favorite class. Loved Juco. This is why 0:32:32.080 --> 0:32:33.200 you're such a fashionable fellow. 0:32:33.360 --> 0:32:35.440 I don't know, man, I think it's just the New York. 0:32:35.640 --> 0:32:38.120 The New York like really man like. There's a lot 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:40.479 of pressure growing up in New York. It's the fashion 0:32:40.520 --> 0:32:44.840 capital of the world. And you can't leave your house out. 0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:48.080 You can't leave outside your house without like looking cool, 0:32:48.320 --> 0:32:51.280 yeah or else. The jokes on you. You know what 0:32:51.320 --> 0:32:53.280 I mean, And it's an expression, and it's a form 0:32:53.320 --> 0:32:57.120 of uh extension of your personality. Before you talk, you 0:32:57.160 --> 0:32:59.480 know what I mean. Your style introduces you before you 0:32:59.560 --> 0:33:03.240 even you even talk, introduces yea, what I'm saying. I 0:33:03.280 --> 0:33:05.680 don't like as much as I like talking, I don't 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:07.680 like talking too much. I'd rather let the swag do to. 0:33:10.240 --> 0:33:10.920 Glasses. I'm looking. 0:33:13.560 --> 0:33:15.960 I want to ask you something about your youth before 0:33:15.960 --> 0:33:17.600 we get into the basketball side. Things were gonna talk 0:33:17.640 --> 0:33:20.760 about Rocker and everything else. But now your born name 0:33:20.840 --> 0:33:21.280 was Carrie. 0:33:21.440 --> 0:33:26.360 Carrie. Yep, let me tell you what happened. So my 0:33:26.400 --> 0:33:29.920 government name is Carrie because it is a lot of Jamaicans. Yeah, 0:33:30.400 --> 0:33:33.520 my government I'm still going to day. I've never officially changed. 0:33:33.560 --> 0:33:37.880 I would never officially change it. But what happened was 0:33:38.520 --> 0:33:43.120 as a Jamaican would say Carrie, Carrie, but in America 0:33:43.160 --> 0:33:48.960 they would be like Carrie. I'm like yooo. I'm like, yo, 0:33:49.120 --> 0:33:53.200 my name is Carrie. They like teacher Carrie Williams. I'm like, yo, 0:33:54.600 --> 0:33:58.640 my name is Carrie. How many times can you correct? Everybody? 0:33:58.680 --> 0:34:02.200 It's just like, yo, all right, man, my name is Carrie. 0:34:02.840 --> 0:34:04.760 So this is kindergarten. 0:34:04.840 --> 0:34:06.960 You want to come out You've been like, let's say good, 0:34:07.080 --> 0:34:07.760 let's see it. 0:34:08.200 --> 0:34:12.880 So from kindergarten all the way from five years old, 0:34:13.400 --> 0:34:18.800 all the way to middle school. When's middle school start eleven, 0:34:18.920 --> 0:34:24.160 eleven and thirteen, right, so five to ten carry carry, carry, 0:34:24.239 --> 0:34:27.600 carry care. They tease me my ball you carried, carry 0:34:27.640 --> 0:34:30.000 my bag? You know, kids a mean man, kids a meaning. 0:34:30.640 --> 0:34:34.080 So so then I get to middle school, grade eleven 0:34:34.120 --> 0:34:37.440 through thirteen, right, I'm sorry, age eleven to thirteen. Yeah, 0:34:37.920 --> 0:34:42.360 the first day teachers doing attendance carry Williams. I said, 0:34:42.680 --> 0:34:46.359 there's been a mistake. It's Corey changed the eight to Oh, 0:34:46.960 --> 0:34:49.800 it's been Corey over since you reinvented yourself. 0:34:49.840 --> 0:34:51.760 The day you got there, you were prepped right. 0:34:51.760 --> 0:34:54.600 Doing this shit again. We are not. We are stopping 0:34:54.680 --> 0:34:56.480 the new people in this room that don't know who 0:34:56.560 --> 0:34:57.360 I was before. 0:34:57.640 --> 0:35:02.600 We're gonna fix this shit before it starts now. So 0:35:02.680 --> 0:35:07.800 from then on, Corey, Corey just and Corey love that. Yeah, 0:35:07.600 --> 0:35:09.680 the only person that knew. 0:35:09.840 --> 0:35:11.560 Let me tell you. You wanna hear funny story? 0:35:11.560 --> 0:35:11.920 I hit it. 0:35:11.960 --> 0:35:16.520 So let me tell you. Uh So, back when Bogan 0:35:16.640 --> 0:35:17.480 was playing in the league. 0:35:17.640 --> 0:35:19.200 Yeah, so, uh Bogan. 0:35:19.280 --> 0:35:22.080 One day we were having because you know, Bog and 0:35:22.120 --> 0:35:23.759 I used to go back and forth something right. 0:35:24.320 --> 0:35:26.200 He likes to be a big controversial. 0:35:27.880 --> 0:35:30.480 Both We're gonna tell you what you feel straight and 0:35:30.520 --> 0:35:32.920 I respect it, you know, as I'm gonna tell you. So, 0:35:33.000 --> 0:35:35.440 I just feel in the space that I'm in like 0:35:35.480 --> 0:35:39.680 any other commentator, if you have an opinion and you're 0:35:39.680 --> 0:35:41.440 going to talk about it, you better be able to 0:35:41.760 --> 0:35:45.719 take it, so you know, it's all good. So I 0:35:46.080 --> 0:35:50.239 we're at MBL awards night, so I see him like 0:35:50.680 --> 0:35:56.360 some big fella. He was like, how you doing Carrie. 0:35:57.200 --> 0:35:57.640 Research? 0:36:00.520 --> 0:36:02.719 I was like, fuck this, I gotta go on the 0:36:03.680 --> 0:36:04.319 something on him. 0:36:04.480 --> 0:36:06.480 You gotta go do some research on his ass. 0:36:06.480 --> 0:36:09.160 Now, I said ship. So when he said it, I 0:36:09.280 --> 0:36:12.560 kind of planned it, like you know, like have a 0:36:12.560 --> 0:36:15.960 good night, walked off. I was like, funk, I gotta 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:17.719 get on the front foot of this. I can't have 0:36:17.960 --> 0:36:22.200 Boget say it. So then I think the next day, 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:25.839 I uh, I had to do MBO overtime, I think, 0:36:26.000 --> 0:36:29.200 and next day okay, yeah, So I just pulled it 0:36:29.280 --> 0:36:29.880 up there. 0:36:30.520 --> 0:36:30.680 Well. 0:36:30.680 --> 0:36:33.200 I was like, uh, yeah, man, I want to tell 0:36:33.200 --> 0:36:35.200 you guys something. Man, I'm gonna tell you all the story. 0:36:35.560 --> 0:36:38.000 And I brought up like an old story about my name. 0:36:38.120 --> 0:36:41.719 So at least on the now you now you're back 0:36:41.719 --> 0:36:47.200 in first fluch. Now you're back in first notice. Oh 0:36:47.280 --> 0:36:50.920 so he did his hed. I'd be I would be 0:36:51.040 --> 0:36:54.239 gobsmacked if someone did that. I was just like, oh, 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:57.239 Buget Man, Bugets good man, bug is good the best. 0:36:57.239 --> 0:36:58.560 He got a podcast happening too. 0:36:58.680 --> 0:37:00.960 M m. He's doing a lot, Man doing a lot. Yeah. 0:37:01.040 --> 0:37:03.440 Now you so you graduate? So you sorry, We're going 0:37:03.480 --> 0:37:05.759 to Alabama State. Now yeah, we've kind of a verge 0:37:05.760 --> 0:37:07.400 a bit. We're going to Alabama State. Now tell me 0:37:07.400 --> 0:37:07.719 about this. 0:37:07.880 --> 0:37:11.319 So we get into is D one Division one. I 0:37:11.360 --> 0:37:14.680 wanted to go to Historical Black College University HBCU. 0:37:15.520 --> 0:37:16.800 Can you tell people a bit like that? Because I 0:37:16.800 --> 0:37:19.080 don't think people understand kind of the history behind it. 0:37:19.200 --> 0:37:22.239 So what an HBCU is is back in the day, 0:37:22.520 --> 0:37:27.720 a long time ago, when obviously civil rights movement was happening, 0:37:28.560 --> 0:37:33.000 and there was a lot of segregation in America. Blacks 0:37:33.120 --> 0:37:37.440 African Americans could not go to schools where it was 0:37:37.480 --> 0:37:40.400 predominantly white schools. So what we did was make up 0:37:40.400 --> 0:37:44.560 our own colleges and universities, and it was historically black 0:37:44.600 --> 0:37:48.960 colleges and universities and real rich and culture and history, 0:37:49.719 --> 0:37:53.759 and a lot of our grandparents and great grandparents went there. 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:56.239 Now I kind of think about this. A lot of 0:37:56.280 --> 0:37:58.440 people have seen the movie Great Remember the Titans. 0:37:58.560 --> 0:38:02.200 Uh huh? Now, I think once that was Alabama, Obama? 0:38:02.760 --> 0:38:05.200 Talk about that one, You know that I went to 0:38:05.239 --> 0:38:09.640 Alabama State. Yeah, it was the same area. There's a 0:38:09.680 --> 0:38:12.560 lot of history here with the Civil Rocks and anything else. 0:38:12.760 --> 0:38:15.359 The Civil Rights movement was in Montgomery, Alabama. But like, 0:38:16.160 --> 0:38:20.560 why I went to an HBCU is because Bill Cosby 0:38:20.760 --> 0:38:24.000 had produced a show called The Cosby Show where it 0:38:25.000 --> 0:38:29.239 portrayed the black American family in a positive way. Because 0:38:29.280 --> 0:38:33.440 back in those days, there weren't anything on. There wasn't 0:38:33.480 --> 0:38:39.279 any positive portrayal of the black family on television. All 0:38:39.320 --> 0:38:41.440 we saw was a show called good Times and they 0:38:41.480 --> 0:38:43.879 were living in the projects and it was all bad. 0:38:44.040 --> 0:38:44.120 Right. 0:38:44.120 --> 0:38:47.800 It was a negative depiction of a loving African American family. 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:50.719 So what Bill Cosby did was flip it. He was 0:38:50.760 --> 0:38:53.520 a doctor on the show, his wife was a successful lawyer, 0:38:53.800 --> 0:38:56.839 and his kids all were incredible young kids. Right then 0:38:56.880 --> 0:38:59.600 they lived a fruitful life in Brooklyn, living in a 0:38:59.760 --> 0:39:04.000 very very nice brownstone. So again it made you see 0:39:04.200 --> 0:39:10.040 a positive black family on television doing incredible things, role models. 0:39:10.080 --> 0:39:12.000 So then the spin off to that show was a 0:39:12.040 --> 0:39:17.240 different world where his alma matera is Howard University, which 0:39:17.280 --> 0:39:25.120 is basically like the best HBCU in America. Right as 0:39:25.120 --> 0:39:28.520 far as it's pretty much like an uh, it would 0:39:28.520 --> 0:39:34.160 be like the Harvard or Yale of African American universities. 0:39:33.760 --> 0:39:35.480 HBC Grambling States one of them. 0:39:36.840 --> 0:39:39.800 Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of HBCUs. But Howard 0:39:39.920 --> 0:39:44.000 is like Jordan just sponsored Howard, so that lets you know, 0:39:45.760 --> 0:39:46.560 yeah legit. 0:39:46.760 --> 0:39:47.000 Yeah. 0:39:47.239 --> 0:39:52.600 So because of this TV series where they were showing 0:39:52.640 --> 0:39:57.879 the African American college experience, I was like, wow, all 0:39:57.920 --> 0:40:01.640 black college, man, this thing it looks beautiful. So I 0:40:01.800 --> 0:40:04.920 always wanted to go to an HBCU and they did 0:40:04.920 --> 0:40:09.560 a poll many many years ago why students ended up 0:40:09.560 --> 0:40:11.840 going to HBCUs, and a lot of them was because 0:40:11.840 --> 0:40:15.880 of the show bill Cosmic, So it just had a positive, 0:40:15.920 --> 0:40:18.360 a massive positive influence. So I wanted to go there 0:40:18.400 --> 0:40:20.480 and play basketball, and I had the opportunity to, so 0:40:20.560 --> 0:40:24.360 I took it. My junior year, I played because Okay, 0:40:24.480 --> 0:40:28.040 now for those listeners, when you lead junior college and 0:40:28.080 --> 0:40:29.799 you get an opportunity to go play at a four 0:40:29.880 --> 0:40:32.040 year UNI, you only have two years left. 0:40:32.440 --> 0:40:34.719 But these four years of eligibility is how we kind 0:40:34.760 --> 0:40:37.160 of So you have four years eligibility, first two JUCO 0:40:37.280 --> 0:40:39.600 and then you get opportunity to go up in the leagues. 0:40:39.719 --> 0:40:41.120 You go up to a better league and you get 0:40:41.160 --> 0:40:43.840 into Alabama Stike. Now, this is D one. This is 0:40:43.920 --> 0:40:45.759 legit Vision one. Legit is where it's at. 0:40:45.880 --> 0:40:46.640 This is where it's at. 0:40:46.640 --> 0:40:48.839 You've got two years of eligibility, got two years to. 0:40:48.719 --> 0:40:50.760 Try to make something happen. My dream is the NBA. 0:40:51.400 --> 0:40:53.759 My dream is the NBA. So I go in there 0:40:53.880 --> 0:40:58.960 and I my junior. First of all, I'm major in 0:40:59.040 --> 0:41:05.720 criminal justice and I specialize in juvenile justice. The reason 0:41:05.800 --> 0:41:11.320 being is because again I wanted to catch and not always. 0:41:11.360 --> 0:41:14.440 There's something in my eye I'm very passionate about till 0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:18.720 this day. I always want to catch. Wanted to catch 0:41:19.239 --> 0:41:26.000 that high school age thirteen to like eighteen nineteen, both 0:41:26.040 --> 0:41:29.960 male and female. This is a dangerous time for a 0:41:30.040 --> 0:41:33.920 lot of youth in the world, let alone in a city, 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:38.600 let alone black and brown children kids. Period. Here's why 0:41:39.640 --> 0:41:44.920 one mistake can alter your life for the worst. One mistake. 0:41:45.280 --> 0:41:49.799 So my whole thing was if I can come from 0:41:49.840 --> 0:41:54.280 where I come from and have become whatever I've morphed 0:41:54.320 --> 0:41:59.000 into right at that moment, I should be able to 0:41:59.160 --> 0:42:04.319 go into any community, regardless of his mind or not, 0:42:05.040 --> 0:42:07.880 and talk to these kids because of my real life 0:42:07.960 --> 0:42:12.480 experiences based off of the past, they instantly will be 0:42:12.520 --> 0:42:15.360 able to relate to me, you understand. So that's why 0:42:15.440 --> 0:42:20.120 I specialized in juvenile justice. And okay, I just want 0:42:20.120 --> 0:42:23.000 to explain it. Education. 0:42:24.560 --> 0:42:26.800 I wanted to promote education. You want to get that 0:42:26.840 --> 0:42:27.600 one hundred. 0:42:27.320 --> 0:42:29.359 Percent, my mother told me. I said, ma, I want 0:42:29.400 --> 0:42:31.759 to play pro. She said, look, son, do whatever you want, 0:42:31.840 --> 0:42:34.600 just make sure you get that degree. I said, done. Smart, 0:42:35.680 --> 0:42:38.440 So junior yeah, I averaged sixteen. By the way I 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:40.280 looked at it was this is not a big university. 0:42:40.360 --> 0:42:42.600 So for me to really get a shot, I got 0:42:42.600 --> 0:42:45.160 to average twenty. I got to average twenty. If I 0:42:45.200 --> 0:42:49.400 average twenty again, I got a chance somewhere. Hopefully an 0:42:49.440 --> 0:42:54.480 agent would be able to see some potential and get 0:42:54.520 --> 0:42:58.280 me a shot somehow, bring me into like those spring 0:42:58.520 --> 0:43:01.319 combine camps and let me just go from there. This 0:43:01.400 --> 0:43:06.600 is how I'm thinking. Senior year comes, last year old 0:43:06.640 --> 0:43:12.000 really last year senior. This is it. Average sixteen, So 0:43:12.080 --> 0:43:14.480 two more buckets. I'm at a dub. I'm at twenty. 0:43:16.560 --> 0:43:16.719 Now. 0:43:16.719 --> 0:43:19.839 You know, with them small schools, what we start doing 0:43:19.880 --> 0:43:25.080 first we start playing against the Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, 0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:27.640 Oklahoma states of the world. Right, So what y'all do 0:43:27.760 --> 0:43:28.720 to those small schools. 0:43:28.880 --> 0:43:31.400 Y'all beat us about forty and fifty boys like me 0:43:31.520 --> 0:43:32.319 or playing in those guys. 0:43:32.400 --> 0:43:36.000 Yeah, so it's like I can't even make a basket 0:43:36.040 --> 0:43:37.759 around this guy, you know what I mean. So it's 0:43:37.760 --> 0:43:38.760 like we getting smacked. 0:43:38.840 --> 0:43:39.359 Favorite games. 0:43:39.360 --> 0:43:42.960 Alabama of course, just beat up on the little guys. 0:43:43.000 --> 0:43:48.080 So we lost literally of course we lost all of 0:43:48.080 --> 0:43:50.680 those games. Those are non conference those are non conference, right, 0:43:51.040 --> 0:43:53.560 so we lose me obviously, we lose all five of 0:43:53.600 --> 0:43:56.880 them six seven. Wee gets smacked because. 0:43:56.680 --> 0:44:00.200 Like universes like Oklahoa said, would pay you exactly to 0:44:00.760 --> 0:44:04.400 come be our homegun right, play exactly exactly get the 0:44:04.440 --> 0:44:05.319 refinancial thing. 0:44:06.600 --> 0:44:12.080 So with all of that, the coach says, man, we 0:44:12.120 --> 0:44:14.920 ain't gonna do shit this year. I might as well 0:44:14.960 --> 0:44:19.200 get the young guys ready. He pretty much splits time 0:44:20.320 --> 0:44:25.560 with the freshmen and sophomorees. I go from sixteen a game, 0:44:25.640 --> 0:44:30.239 I didn't average ten. My senior year is done. That's it. 0:44:31.480 --> 0:44:32.120 Dream is done. 0:44:32.239 --> 0:44:34.000 Where's Jamanda? At this point? 0:44:34.320 --> 0:44:38.560 Dream is done? I'm just like man, I gotta I'm 0:44:38.560 --> 0:44:41.480 still gonna make it. It's just not this way. 0:44:41.520 --> 0:44:42.320 It's gonna be harder. 0:44:42.440 --> 0:44:45.239 It's gonna be definitely harder. I don't know how I'm 0:44:45.280 --> 0:44:48.520 gonna make it, but I'm gonna make it. Here's what happens. 0:44:50.000 --> 0:44:52.600 I'm in the dor on one day, I never forget 0:44:52.880 --> 0:44:56.120 on the couch, and I'm on the bed reading Slam magazine. 0:44:56.160 --> 0:45:03.800 Slam is the Bible street ball, Okay, talking about guys 0:45:03.800 --> 0:45:06.960 getting opportunities from the playground to go to college. What 0:45:07.040 --> 0:45:09.720 it is you know so much talent guys that NBA 0:45:09.800 --> 0:45:15.160 players play in these parks. I'm like, well, I gotta 0:45:15.200 --> 0:45:17.000 go to the NBA. I gotta I gotta go kill 0:45:17.040 --> 0:45:19.680 street ball and get a shot to the NBA. Swear 0:45:19.719 --> 0:45:25.800 to god, how naive was I to actually believe that's 0:45:25.960 --> 0:45:29.640 all I had to do? No, one's never done that before. 0:45:30.600 --> 0:45:33.840 Here's the wild thing. How many teams in the NBA? 0:45:34.719 --> 0:45:37.800 Four thirty something thirty? 0:45:38.000 --> 0:45:44.720 How many players on each team? Fifteen fifteen, fifteen times thirty? 0:45:44.880 --> 0:45:48.160 Four hundred and fifty, four hundred and fifty players active 0:45:48.200 --> 0:45:56.000 in the NBA. So it's still a little mad old bless. 0:45:56.719 --> 0:45:59.359 Cut the four fifty and half, that's two twenty five. 0:46:00.640 --> 0:46:05.359 That's your top eight rotation, your top eight. 0:46:05.520 --> 0:46:08.839 Yeah, ridds are in games minutes, top eight, no matter what. 0:46:08.920 --> 0:46:13.480 Yep, two twenty five left. Cut that in half's two twelve, 0:46:13.600 --> 0:46:18.440 one twelve and a half, right, that's the next generation 0:46:18.520 --> 0:46:20.560 that's going to jump into this two twenty five. So 0:46:20.600 --> 0:46:24.200 that's like the new the Stars coming next. Because the 0:46:24.239 --> 0:46:28.000 top eight those are like the stars they set right, 0:46:28.000 --> 0:46:29.919 But some of those guys are on their way out. 0:46:30.040 --> 0:46:33.000 So that one twelve and a half is jumping in there. 0:46:33.200 --> 0:46:35.560 Right out of that one, twelve and a half left. 0:46:35.760 --> 0:46:39.920 You cut that in half fifty six, right, that's the 0:46:40.040 --> 0:46:44.319 draft class that just came in fifty six left, right 0:46:44.880 --> 0:46:49.640 out of that fifty six. How many billion people playing 0:46:49.680 --> 0:46:52.880 this game? How many people in the world billions. 0:46:52.920 --> 0:46:53.839 Playing seven to eight? 0:46:54.080 --> 0:46:58.000 Right? The world is big? The game now is now 0:46:58.080 --> 0:47:04.880 what not domestic? No more? Right, it's international, which means again, 0:47:05.560 --> 0:47:10.320 people everywhere want to get into that fifty six. College 0:47:10.400 --> 0:47:12.360 kids don't even know those numbers. You don't even know 0:47:12.360 --> 0:47:16.800 what you're fucking up against. Let alone a guy thinking 0:47:16.880 --> 0:47:19.400 he's gonna just be in the dome talking about getting 0:47:19.400 --> 0:47:24.279 in from street ball. No, one's never done. That's not 0:47:24.360 --> 0:47:29.200 even dude, you can't it's not you can't even fathom that. 0:47:29.200 --> 0:47:32.800 That's not even an angle. This is not to the world. 0:47:33.440 --> 0:47:38.880 This is garbage basketball. This is not organized. There's no structure, 0:47:39.520 --> 0:47:44.160 there's no coach where these guys from. You understand, this 0:47:44.280 --> 0:47:47.600 is not a credible source to go find talent. You 0:47:47.680 --> 0:47:52.040 understand this is where I gotta try to begin from. 0:47:52.840 --> 0:47:55.160 Yeah, dominate that to even be looked at. 0:47:55.640 --> 0:47:59.040 You're not even gonna get a look because it never happens. Yeah, 0:48:00.200 --> 0:48:03.560 I gotta figure this shit out. From the Park Graduate 0:48:03.600 --> 0:48:08.520 College back to New York. That's where it begins. It 0:48:08.560 --> 0:48:11.360 starts where Rocker Playground. So here's what I have to 0:48:11.400 --> 0:48:12.400 do again. 0:48:13.160 --> 0:48:14.719 So you're you're your back of my mom. 0:48:14.800 --> 0:48:17.359 Now I'm back home, back home, off first summer home, 0:48:17.400 --> 0:48:18.520 and you go, shit. 0:48:18.320 --> 0:48:20.719 I don't need to sort this out. 0:48:20.080 --> 0:48:21.720 Because I'm not coming back in this house. 0:48:22.440 --> 0:48:24.239 Were you one of those people was like, I'm never 0:48:24.440 --> 0:48:26.200 I'm gonna sort some shit out. I'm not going to 0:48:26.239 --> 0:48:27.759 live here for the rest. I'm not going to want 0:48:27.760 --> 0:48:30.000 to find a way no matter what I don't see. 0:48:30.200 --> 0:48:34.120 I don't see more. I saw more, went to college. 0:48:34.360 --> 0:48:35.920 You know what I mean. I started from the bronx. 0:48:36.600 --> 0:48:37.840 You don't want to take it up. You want to 0:48:37.880 --> 0:48:38.440 take a step back. 0:48:38.480 --> 0:48:42.320 I'm not going back to the hood. I went back 0:48:42.840 --> 0:48:45.279 to Kansas. I went to Kansas City. Then I went 0:48:45.320 --> 0:48:48.640 to Alabama. Right so, I'm got New York East Coast. 0:48:48.640 --> 0:48:52.160 Then I went to the midwest Kansas City, Missouri. Then 0:48:52.200 --> 0:48:55.799 I went down south to Alabama. Right now I'm back 0:48:55.840 --> 0:48:59.440 up top to New York. Okay, summer time. I'm way 0:48:59.520 --> 0:49:01.880 more developed than I was when I left high. 0:49:01.719 --> 0:49:06.200 School for four years in the gym, proper training, proper guys. 0:49:06.239 --> 0:49:13.520 Focus discipline in the weight room with a death wish list. 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:15.920 If your name is on that list, I have to 0:49:16.080 --> 0:49:19.040 kill you. I have no choice. I have no choice. 0:49:19.360 --> 0:49:22.759 I got no choice. This is it. This is it. 0:49:23.600 --> 0:49:26.560 You ever play against somebody that got no choice? Move 0:49:26.640 --> 0:49:29.160 the fuck out their way, Move out their way. So 0:49:29.200 --> 0:49:32.160 I was on that kind of mission right get to 0:49:32.200 --> 0:49:34.640 the park. I got a list of names. They don't 0:49:34.680 --> 0:49:36.480 know I'm coming for him. They number one. These are 0:49:36.520 --> 0:49:39.480 the best guys that play the point guard, shooting guard, 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:41.799 the wing position, right the top, on the wing, on 0:49:41.800 --> 0:49:44.000 the perimeter. These are the guys I'm going for and 0:49:44.080 --> 0:49:46.160 I'm looking for. I don't want to go up the ranks. 0:49:46.160 --> 0:49:48.120 That's gonna take too long, yep. I want to go 0:49:48.160 --> 0:49:50.839 for the top guys. I cut your fucking head off. 0:49:50.840 --> 0:49:54.759 Everybody else falling to play. My first game playing street ball, 0:49:56.400 --> 0:49:57.839 my name was Sea Homicide. 0:49:58.520 --> 0:50:00.560 Talk about a couple people's head off since. 0:50:01.400 --> 0:50:04.240 My second game. First game, I had forty something. Nobody 0:50:04.280 --> 0:50:07.080 knew me, and the guys that knew me, they're like, 0:50:07.080 --> 0:50:09.439 that's Corey from Rice, which means what I wasn't good 0:50:09.480 --> 0:50:12.040 back then, and what I told him in class, I'm 0:50:12.080 --> 0:50:13.520 gonna get good and I'm gonna come back and I'm 0:50:13.520 --> 0:50:17.160 gonna bust your ass. They laughed, never forgot till this 0:50:17.280 --> 0:50:19.920 day out of Let's see me see, let's see what's 0:50:20.000 --> 0:50:22.759 up now, because now it's even You know, why ain't 0:50:22.800 --> 0:50:26.040 no coach sweating you giving you all the minutes and 0:50:26.040 --> 0:50:28.920 at that time he needed to. Shit's even now now 0:50:29.040 --> 0:50:32.000 let's see what the fuck you about? That's that homicide. Shit, 0:50:32.200 --> 0:50:35.960 Let's see what's up. Second game thirty eight, they dropped 0:50:36.000 --> 0:50:38.880 to see it's been homicide. Since that's summer two thousand, 0:50:39.480 --> 0:50:41.680 twenty three years I still had that name. That shit's 0:50:41.719 --> 0:50:45.360 still reign fucking supreme. We don't have sneaker deals. 0:50:45.920 --> 0:50:48.000 You're the first ever street ball against sneaker deal. 0:50:48.080 --> 0:50:49.919 Sneaker deals, And let me tell you the sneaker deal, 0:50:50.040 --> 0:50:52.000 because there's many of them that had them before me, 0:50:52.239 --> 0:50:58.800 because there's the whole signature. I had a signature sneaker 0:50:58.840 --> 0:51:02.040 deal with K one next in Germany when my sneakers 0:51:02.080 --> 0:51:03.960 sold in foot Locker Global. 0:51:04.480 --> 0:51:04.560 Ye. 0:51:04.760 --> 0:51:08.200 All right, So when you see Lebron's Jordan's mellows, the 0:51:08.239 --> 0:51:10.120 one A SEVENS was there, which is the police cod 0:51:10.200 --> 0:51:14.120 for homicide. That's the name of my sneaker loyalties on 0:51:14.239 --> 0:51:17.759 it and all that even give you even more. I 0:51:17.840 --> 0:51:20.040 was balling in the NBL and got MVP of the league, 0:51:20.040 --> 0:51:23.560 balling in my own shoe. Come on, bro, come on man, 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:26.080 I'm gonna say that again. I'm gonna say that again. 0:51:27.400 --> 0:51:31.120 I was in the NBL that got MVP of the league, 0:51:31.760 --> 0:51:35.640 balling in my own shoe, solding foot locker in Australian footlocker, 0:51:35.640 --> 0:51:38.200 global with billboards all over the world. Who the fuck 0:51:38.280 --> 0:51:43.440 did that? Who did it? I'm a I'm a humble person, 0:51:44.080 --> 0:51:46.919 you understand. But I'm just telling you some real shit. 0:51:47.719 --> 0:51:50.520 You know what I'm saying. I'm definitely happy with it. 0:51:50.560 --> 0:51:53.360 But we having a real conversation where this shit begins. 0:51:54.320 --> 0:51:56.840 You understand what I'm saying, Like, come on, man, we 0:51:56.880 --> 0:51:59.279 don'e did this. There's nothing I've never done with this ball. 0:51:59.640 --> 0:52:02.160 They ain't not nine done. I've been in films, I 0:52:02.200 --> 0:52:04.799 have five magazine covers. I just said, sneak, I've been 0:52:04.840 --> 0:52:06.200 all over the world doing this. 0:52:06.320 --> 0:52:06.560 Man. 0:52:07.480 --> 0:52:09.239 You know what I'm saying. I'm very grateful for where 0:52:09.239 --> 0:52:11.279 this journey began. But I know the kind of work 0:52:11.320 --> 0:52:13.239 that this shit takes. You know what I mean. I 0:52:13.239 --> 0:52:15.120 don't play with my work. I don't play of my life. 0:52:15.800 --> 0:52:17.680 I know what it's take, what it takes to get 0:52:17.719 --> 0:52:19.719 to where I gotta get to. A lot of this 0:52:19.760 --> 0:52:21.439 ship was done no fucking help. 0:52:22.200 --> 0:52:25.040 None on the scenes know have real works done. 0:52:25.760 --> 0:52:28.920 So I have no problem doing what I need to do. 0:52:29.120 --> 0:52:31.520 I know how to do it. Sometimes it might take longer, 0:52:31.800 --> 0:52:36.200 but I'd rather go longer without help than with help. 0:52:36.320 --> 0:52:39.080 And in this bullshit help and it's people acting like, yeah, 0:52:39.080 --> 0:52:41.520 if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be here and 0:52:41.560 --> 0:52:43.840 all that nonsense. So you know, I just I just 0:52:43.920 --> 0:52:45.840 do the work, you know what I'm saying. The results 0:52:45.880 --> 0:52:48.160 come how they come, But I do to I've been 0:52:48.200 --> 0:52:50.520 putting in work for a long time, you know what 0:52:50.600 --> 0:52:53.160 I mean. And I'm I'm very grateful. Based off of 0:52:53.280 --> 0:52:55.759 street Ball, I got a shot funny enough, you win 0:52:55.800 --> 0:52:57.120 a rapt this Jersey own. 0:52:57.200 --> 0:52:57.880 That's a story. 0:52:58.080 --> 0:53:00.839 We'll get to the store now. It's not in is 0:53:00.880 --> 0:53:02.800 more to the professional side things. We're still in the 0:53:02.840 --> 0:53:03.600 street Ball state. 0:53:03.680 --> 0:53:05.719 Street Ballman on the super Ball it was it was 0:53:05.800 --> 0:53:07.719 really like some serious battles. 0:53:07.840 --> 0:53:10.040 The only I said home, saw the name and was 0:53:10.080 --> 0:53:11.719 this who gave it to you? Do you remember the 0:53:11.719 --> 0:53:15.000 actual person? So the MC and he just randomly said 0:53:15.080 --> 0:53:15.920 one day again. 0:53:15.880 --> 0:53:18.360 What happened was this, they gave me a name based 0:53:18.400 --> 0:53:20.480 on my style of play. It didn't start with that. 0:53:20.719 --> 0:53:22.440 In the first quarter, it was nothing. It was just 0:53:22.480 --> 0:53:24.880 a couple of buckets. Then it was like, wait a minute, 0:53:24.880 --> 0:53:26.880 like this dude is killed. He's a hard worker. We 0:53:26.920 --> 0:53:29.000 call him the hard Worker. Then the buckets just kept 0:53:29.000 --> 0:53:32.880 getting harder and harder. I was just buckets after buckets, 0:53:33.120 --> 0:53:38.319 three dunk mid range to the rack, layup left hand right. 0:53:38.520 --> 0:53:40.880 It was the names just get kept getting They like, yo, 0:53:40.920 --> 0:53:43.120 we gotta get this dude to name. We gotta give 0:53:43.200 --> 0:53:43.600 him a name. 0:53:43.640 --> 0:53:45.360 There's any others that floated around for it. 0:53:45.440 --> 0:53:48.879 It was like it was like the killer because he's 0:53:48.960 --> 0:53:52.120 killing them because we give like in New York, we 0:53:52.200 --> 0:53:55.440 give a name based on your style of play. Right, 0:53:55.480 --> 0:53:57.160 So the harder I kept going. The heart of the 0:53:57.239 --> 0:53:59.719 name kept going. So they kept like, as as I'm 0:53:59.760 --> 0:54:03.520 playing playing in this game, they're thinking of names to 0:54:03.560 --> 0:54:06.120 give me. As the buckets continue to keep piling on 0:54:06.200 --> 0:54:08.919 and on, so They're like, Yo, what should we call them? 0:54:09.000 --> 0:54:12.759 So there's people in the crowd screaming out names. So 0:54:12.800 --> 0:54:14.560 they're like, yo, what y'all think about this? And there's 0:54:14.600 --> 0:54:17.200 like another then another guy. So the names just kept 0:54:17.200 --> 0:54:21.640 getting harder and harder, like harder mean tougher, like stronger 0:54:21.680 --> 0:54:25.840 and stronger. Then a guy was like see murder. It 0:54:26.000 --> 0:54:28.000 was like, nah, see murders the rapper, We're not gonna 0:54:28.040 --> 0:54:31.040 call him at it. So the dude was like, see homicide. 0:54:31.080 --> 0:54:35.200 They was like, we like that, we like that. I'm playing. 0:54:35.239 --> 0:54:37.600 This is happening as I'm playing, but it's your hood. 0:54:39.400 --> 0:54:41.440 It wasn't even the hood. I was in Hall, I 0:54:41.480 --> 0:54:44.480 was in Harlem. It was Rutger. Rutgers in Harlem. Mild 0:54:44.560 --> 0:54:47.880 Is the Bronx. But these people didn't know me, you 0:54:47.960 --> 0:54:50.160 know what I mean. It's like, who's this unknown dude 0:54:50.320 --> 0:54:54.000 killing like this? But that's how it happened. 0:54:54.800 --> 0:54:57.879 You brought up, you said Rutger. Now, I've always wanted 0:54:57.880 --> 0:55:00.200 to play Rutger, always wanted. 0:55:00.080 --> 0:55:01.880 That's the Madison Square guard in the street ball call. 0:55:01.960 --> 0:55:05.200 I get absolutely fucking embarrassed, But one of these days 0:55:05.520 --> 0:55:08.839 will be the tallest white guy out there, right, Yeah, 0:55:08.880 --> 0:55:11.160 My brothers played there. My brother played one day. He 0:55:11.440 --> 0:55:15.399 all he brought was a Subway card. There was no 0:55:15.640 --> 0:55:17.719 no credit cards, no cast. 0:55:18.680 --> 0:55:19.200 No nothing. 0:55:19.440 --> 0:55:21.960 It can happened the Metro card in a pair of 0:55:21.960 --> 0:55:22.800 basketball shoes. 0:55:22.840 --> 0:55:24.160 They were out there for a day and played and 0:55:24.200 --> 0:55:26.359 balled out and they called him white Chocolate or something 0:55:26.360 --> 0:55:26.560 like that. 0:55:27.280 --> 0:55:29.480 Was just throwing all oops to him. Though white Dude 0:55:29.520 --> 0:55:30.080 dunk like that. 0:55:31.080 --> 0:55:32.400 I haven't been there yet, but it's all my It's 0:55:32.400 --> 0:55:34.360 on my bucket list, on my bucket list. Can you 0:55:34.440 --> 0:55:37.800 explain to people because Rutger has changed, Like, Rutgers become 0:55:38.040 --> 0:55:39.879 a lot bigger than what it was back in the day. 0:55:39.960 --> 0:55:42.719 Now it is internationally known. It is a place that 0:55:42.920 --> 0:55:43.719 NBA players go. 0:55:43.840 --> 0:55:44.439 It is nice. 0:55:44.560 --> 0:55:46.279 Is it's a lot nice than it probably was back 0:55:46.280 --> 0:55:49.160 in the day. They've got proper courts there and proper 0:55:49.200 --> 0:55:51.080 tournaments in the Drew League and everything else we're gonna 0:55:51.080 --> 0:55:53.000 get into. I want to talk about Rocker. Can you 0:55:53.040 --> 0:55:55.319 give me an explanation of what Rucker Park is? 0:55:55.560 --> 0:55:59.279 So Rutger Park is basically the most famous street ball 0:55:59.360 --> 0:56:02.520 court in the world. It's in Harlem. It's been epic 0:56:02.600 --> 0:56:04.680 from back in the day. See the history stems from 0:56:04.719 --> 0:56:07.960 Doctor j was out there playing, Wilt Chamberlain was out there, 0:56:08.120 --> 0:56:12.239 Tiny Archiball, two time MVP in the NBA. So these 0:56:12.280 --> 0:56:16.760 are legends from New York or from Philly that would 0:56:16.760 --> 0:56:19.640 come up to play because they knew like he's like, man, 0:56:19.680 --> 0:56:22.239 he's some bad We hear them. There's a park in 0:56:22.280 --> 0:56:25.919 New York where there's some bad dudes getting down. So 0:56:25.960 --> 0:56:28.279 it's like, yo, man, you need to come up. That's 0:56:28.320 --> 0:56:30.000 just what it was word of mouth back then, like 0:56:30.040 --> 0:56:32.520 this park, this park, this park. Then you had the 0:56:32.600 --> 0:56:35.040 legends like Pee Wee Kirkhlan system. Then you had the 0:56:35.120 --> 0:56:39.080 street So here's the mixture and combination of players that 0:56:39.200 --> 0:56:46.240 play at Rocke Park. You got the street baller who 0:56:46.640 --> 0:56:49.320 is not playing pro, has no inspirations of being in school. 0:56:49.360 --> 0:56:53.799 He's just a talented player who's in the park. Then 0:56:53.840 --> 0:56:57.040 you have the high schooler who has a promising future 0:56:57.520 --> 0:56:59.960 but he plays in there too. Then you got the 0:57:00.080 --> 0:57:02.520 guy in college that's a stud. Then you got the 0:57:02.560 --> 0:57:06.560 guy that plays overseas. Then you got the NBA guy. 0:57:07.160 --> 0:57:09.560 So when you put again, you got a pot of 0:57:09.600 --> 0:57:12.839 food and you seasoning it up. You have so much 0:57:12.880 --> 0:57:15.160 talent from so many different levels coming from so many 0:57:15.239 --> 0:57:18.240 different places. This is how you make up teams, and 0:57:18.320 --> 0:57:20.400 this is where the tournament, This is how the tournament 0:57:20.800 --> 0:57:23.880 is good, and this is how the competition is elite 0:57:23.880 --> 0:57:24.600 when you get there. 0:57:25.160 --> 0:57:25.360 Right. 0:57:25.840 --> 0:57:31.240 So, now a guy might think you rock up these guys. 0:57:31.240 --> 0:57:33.800 Ain't that good? You know this whole shit. Yeah, I'm 0:57:33.840 --> 0:57:35.920 in the NBA, I got a shitload of money, I'm 0:57:35.920 --> 0:57:38.160 better than you guys, and blah blah blah. Come up 0:57:38.200 --> 0:57:40.920 there and get your ass busted. You come out there 0:57:41.480 --> 0:57:45.160 and get your ass come out one like, don't come 0:57:45.160 --> 0:57:47.800 out there if you really ain't that because again we 0:57:47.800 --> 0:57:51.320 was talking about it earlier. If you take the top 0:57:51.880 --> 0:57:55.680 seven players off of an NBA team, a lot of 0:57:55.720 --> 0:57:58.680 everybody else, a lot of those players are specialty players. 0:57:59.080 --> 0:58:01.720 You might be a hell of a shooter. Can you 0:58:01.760 --> 0:58:04.760 shoot off the dribble? Or are you great coming off 0:58:04.760 --> 0:58:08.120 the screen? Which means you can't create your own shot? 0:58:08.200 --> 0:58:12.120 If you're great coming off a double curl? Right? Different? 0:58:12.600 --> 0:58:17.040 So can I put him in an unstructured environment and 0:58:17.080 --> 0:58:18.160 can he get busy? 0:58:18.680 --> 0:58:19.800 Probably not? 0:58:20.600 --> 0:58:22.480 That shit ain't for everybody, you know what I mean? 0:58:22.560 --> 0:58:26.120 So the playground basketball, it's art, That's what it is. 0:58:26.120 --> 0:58:28.880 It's poetry in motion. Is that's where you really express 0:58:29.000 --> 0:58:32.120 yourself with God got handles behind the backspin of a 0:58:32.120 --> 0:58:33.880 guy who's super athletic, you know what I mean. It's 0:58:33.920 --> 0:58:37.880 more free flowing, it's a little organized, it's a little structure. 0:58:37.960 --> 0:58:40.560 It is more free flowing and it's freestyle play. So 0:58:40.640 --> 0:58:42.440 that's why what makes it beautiful. 0:58:43.000 --> 0:58:48.400 You're not running, Yeah, run running. Horns come on. 0:58:49.520 --> 0:58:50.880 And the crowd will lets you know, like, yo, we 0:58:50.880 --> 0:58:53.040 ain't come to see that ship the fuck out of here, 0:58:53.400 --> 0:58:56.640 they'll tell you. So then you have the crowd atmosphere 0:58:56.840 --> 0:58:59.000 that brings it to a whole other level. And they're 0:58:59.120 --> 0:59:01.640 right on top of the So you're gonna get an 0:59:01.840 --> 0:59:05.600 NBA feel, not in an NBA arena. That's the best 0:59:05.640 --> 0:59:08.720 feel you're gonna get in the summertime. That's why the 0:59:08.760 --> 0:59:12.200 competitive guards and forwards and players love to play in that. 0:59:12.880 --> 0:59:15.320 Now you you play the street balls, we'll go back. 0:59:15.320 --> 0:59:17.400 So now you've given us an idea of Rucker. Now 0:59:18.240 --> 0:59:20.360 what kind of people are coming to Rutger? Yo, So 0:59:20.560 --> 0:59:23.360 tell me some stories here because I want I've heard stories. 0:59:23.440 --> 0:59:25.240 I want to hear them from you because you've actually 0:59:25.280 --> 0:59:28.040 lived and breathed this. Yeah, what are some stories of 0:59:28.640 --> 0:59:30.200 to give people a better idea? Because I feel like 0:59:30.200 --> 0:59:31.680 people we can say this all day, but if you 0:59:31.720 --> 0:59:34.160 get some like some stories, it's like, Okay, this is 0:59:34.200 --> 0:59:35.800 the extent of how bad it can get, and this 0:59:35.880 --> 0:59:37.040 is an extent of how good. 0:59:36.840 --> 0:59:37.200 It can get. 0:59:37.200 --> 0:59:38.919 That's exactly what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna start 0:59:38.960 --> 0:59:41.640 with the good. So on a good day, depending on 0:59:41.680 --> 0:59:44.160 who's playing. You know, back in those days, record labels 0:59:44.240 --> 0:59:46.520 used to own teams. So what they would do is, 0:59:46.560 --> 0:59:50.520 you know, with music with hip hop, the streets gotta 0:59:50.560 --> 0:59:53.720 love you, so you need the grassroots. You need the 0:59:53.280 --> 0:59:57.080 the urban communities and grassroots to fuck with you. They 0:59:57.120 --> 0:59:59.080 gotta fuck with your music. They really got to like 0:59:59.120 --> 1:00:02.000 your music. You would do is sign new and up 1:00:02.000 --> 1:00:05.720 and coming artists, bring them when your team plays and 1:00:05.720 --> 1:00:08.800 have them perform. And if they it's like it's like 1:00:08.840 --> 1:00:11.960 the Apollo, Like if you come out and you do well, 1:00:12.440 --> 1:00:16.040 all right, cool, we really might sign you. If you 1:00:16.080 --> 1:00:20.439 come out and do bad, a bad look for you. 1:00:20.760 --> 1:00:24.040 So that's how labels would It was like a feeder 1:00:24.080 --> 1:00:24.959 program for talent. 1:00:25.600 --> 1:00:25.760 Right. 1:00:25.760 --> 1:00:28.640 They would also have a budget, get really good players 1:00:28.920 --> 1:00:31.840 and stack their team. So Rockefeller had a team, jay Z, 1:00:32.320 --> 1:00:35.160 bad Boy had a team Puff right, Terror Squad had 1:00:35.160 --> 1:00:37.000 a team one of three years in a row. Fat Joe. 1:00:37.400 --> 1:00:42.280 All right, so they also they're rock they're superstars, right, 1:00:42.320 --> 1:00:46.120 they're millionaires. These are culture leaders and innovators right of 1:00:46.240 --> 1:00:50.320 music and hip hop culture. So jay Z's coming with 1:00:50.360 --> 1:00:53.360 Beyonce to a game at Rutger to a game at Rucker, 1:00:53.920 --> 1:00:56.960 Fat Joe's coming with j Lo in their prime the 1:00:57.000 --> 1:00:58.160 prom you know what I'm saying. 1:00:58.520 --> 1:01:00.960 So Clinton was there one I played the. 1:01:00.880 --> 1:01:02.640 Game when Bill Clinton was there. He was sitting next 1:01:02.640 --> 1:01:05.960 to Steph Marlberry and uh David Stern god by the day. 1:01:06.040 --> 1:01:11.880 Yeah, yeah, every post in the commission watching it, and 1:01:12.040 --> 1:01:14.080 the a TV sponsored Roker. 1:01:14.480 --> 1:01:16.919 Oh we'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get something. 1:01:17.000 --> 1:01:20.320 Okay, okay, sorry, So we got gosh the good story. 1:01:20.440 --> 1:01:22.760 I mean, the Poters showed up. I ain't got to 1:01:22.800 --> 1:01:26.920 say nothing else. Okay, let's go to the other Potus 1:01:27.040 --> 1:01:30.360 wasn't here for this day? Was security. I just yeah, 1:01:30.440 --> 1:01:32.000 take the day off. He said, we're gonna go back 1:01:32.000 --> 1:01:33.400 to the White House. Now, you guys do what you 1:01:33.480 --> 1:01:34.120 do on the daily. 1:01:34.600 --> 1:01:35.160 Okay. 1:01:35.480 --> 1:01:39.800 So it was one game I played and uh, at 1:01:39.800 --> 1:01:42.480 the time I was dating female. I had to sit 1:01:42.560 --> 1:01:46.680 in court side and we were playing. I played for 1:01:46.720 --> 1:01:48.919 the home team, which was the Polo Grounds, the big 1:01:49.000 --> 1:01:52.280 Project tall building. So it's you have no problems with 1:01:52.320 --> 1:01:56.000 our team. You don DIVA magazine, one of the biggest 1:01:56.080 --> 1:02:03.120 shout out magazine. That's that's like the street Bible, you know, 1:02:03.320 --> 1:02:06.520 So you don't want no problems with that team. We 1:02:06.600 --> 1:02:10.600 the home team, and the commission Houses is right there. 1:02:10.880 --> 1:02:13.440 So at our game, we easily got like one hundred 1:02:13.480 --> 1:02:16.280 and fifty people in the crowd. You don't want no 1:02:16.320 --> 1:02:19.680 problems with that team. Just come and play ball. You're good, 1:02:19.720 --> 1:02:24.280 You'll leave in one piece. We played a team that 1:02:24.400 --> 1:02:27.560 was from Westchester. So Westchester has a chip on their 1:02:27.560 --> 1:02:30.880 shoulder because in New York City we don't really respect 1:02:30.960 --> 1:02:35.320 Westchester because you have the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island. 1:02:35.760 --> 1:02:38.440 That's the five boroughs that make up New York City, 1:02:39.480 --> 1:02:43.520 west Chester, Yonkers, outside of the Locks and DMX, we 1:02:43.600 --> 1:02:47.040 don't really respect them because that doesn't count to us 1:02:47.120 --> 1:02:49.920 as New York City. So we look at you like corny, 1:02:49.960 --> 1:02:53.320 you know what I mean, Like you ain't down, you corny. 1:02:53.920 --> 1:02:57.360 So they came deep, maybe like forty to fifty people. 1:02:58.080 --> 1:02:58.520 Right. 1:02:59.080 --> 1:03:02.480 Cool. So now when the crowd, you got guys drinking, 1:03:03.280 --> 1:03:08.920 you know, guys might be smoking, and marijuana is legal 1:03:08.960 --> 1:03:12.120 in America, so you know they smoking or whatever, and 1:03:13.160 --> 1:03:17.240 it's a different type of environment. Right, trash talking ensues. 1:03:17.760 --> 1:03:21.480 This game is a good game. So there's some serious 1:03:21.600 --> 1:03:27.480 trash talking going on between the home team's crowd fans 1:03:28.280 --> 1:03:34.200 and they're fans. Yeah, something happens. I'm just subbing out 1:03:34.240 --> 1:03:36.560 of the game playing. I'm on the court. I'm on 1:03:36.600 --> 1:03:41.040 the court. I tell the woman I was with, I 1:03:41.120 --> 1:03:44.040 was like, yo, grab your bag, we out. It's about 1:03:44.040 --> 1:03:47.600 to go down. You could feel it. There's a certain energy. 1:03:47.800 --> 1:03:51.440 Something's about to happen. I have a third eye and 1:03:51.480 --> 1:03:54.560 a sixth sense. I can feel it. I can feel it, 1:03:54.560 --> 1:03:58.040 and I never go against my third I feeling and 1:03:58.120 --> 1:04:01.280 my sixth sense, and I never ever go I don't 1:04:01.320 --> 1:04:05.200 second guess it. I grab her. I'm like, yo, come on, 1:04:05.280 --> 1:04:12.439 we out. They start fighting. It was like maybe two 1:04:12.480 --> 1:04:16.160 on two. Then the fight went to like eight on four, 1:04:16.720 --> 1:04:20.280 and it was like twelve on fifty. Yo, there's two exit, 1:04:20.400 --> 1:04:21.280 three exit to get out. 1:04:21.280 --> 1:04:21.640 A rutger. 1:04:21.960 --> 1:04:25.160 Yeah, one exit was closed off anyway, so it's mainly 1:04:25.240 --> 1:04:29.240 two exits. Now I grab her, we start running that way. 1:04:29.520 --> 1:04:32.640 The whole crowd start going that way. I'm like, gotta 1:04:32.640 --> 1:04:35.040 get her out of here. We start going back that way, 1:04:35.200 --> 1:04:38.920 the whole crowd start going that way. We start going 1:04:38.960 --> 1:04:41.880 this way again. Everybody's going this way because the fight 1:04:42.040 --> 1:04:45.960 is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And by the 1:04:46.000 --> 1:04:48.200 time they went that way, we shook. We went this way. 1:04:48.400 --> 1:04:50.480 As soon as we got out those gates, you just 1:04:50.520 --> 1:04:54.640 start hitting gunshots. A couple of my teammates got shot. 1:04:55.280 --> 1:04:58.160 They wasn't shooting after them, at them, but a bunch 1:04:58.160 --> 1:05:00.640 of people shoot you shoot. They just shooting Lindley trying 1:05:00.680 --> 1:05:03.320 to hit whoever they was trying to hit. That's the 1:05:03.360 --> 1:05:04.320 other side of the park. 1:05:06.320 --> 1:05:07.640 How often do you think that happens? 1:05:08.000 --> 1:05:11.040 Not a lot, Not a lot now because now with 1:05:11.160 --> 1:05:15.439 these parks, there's too much money on the line, so 1:05:15.760 --> 1:05:19.280 they beef up security heavy. So after that had to happen. 1:05:19.360 --> 1:05:23.240 Nate Robinson was there. Yeah, okay, he was there after 1:05:23.720 --> 1:05:26.680 that incident. Nothing like that has ever happened again. 1:05:27.120 --> 1:05:29.440 Now you talk about a bit of money on the line. Now, 1:05:29.480 --> 1:05:31.560 I had a little assistant coach. I won't say names here. 1:05:32.480 --> 1:05:34.040 He loved the place a little bet. 1:05:34.360 --> 1:05:36.800 I've got a feeling we'll talk about his name after, 1:05:36.920 --> 1:05:38.240 but I feel like he might have been in one 1:05:38.280 --> 1:05:40.040 of these games. He locked to throw down a bit, 1:05:40.640 --> 1:05:42.240 he locked to put money on the line. Was there 1:05:42.360 --> 1:05:43.320 a lot of that going on? 1:05:43.800 --> 1:05:46.280 There was definitely a lot of those side bets, side bets. 1:05:46.440 --> 1:05:49.160 There's a lot of live side bets, like cash on 1:05:49.240 --> 1:05:54.440 the like. Look, man, these environments aren't aren't easy environe. Again, 1:05:54.560 --> 1:05:56.560 it's no different than like where I grew up. It's 1:05:56.640 --> 1:05:59.959 just it wasn't specifically these tournaments were in my hood. 1:06:00.000 --> 1:06:02.800 They were in different hoods. And his hood's way worse 1:06:02.840 --> 1:06:06.920 than my hood. And you know guys that you know 1:06:07.360 --> 1:06:09.640 threatedon you and be like listen here bee, it's fifty 1:06:09.680 --> 1:06:12.960 grand on this game. Yeah, stop playing around and win 1:06:13.000 --> 1:06:19.720 this game straight up in our timeouts, coming in money 1:06:19.760 --> 1:06:21.800 really on the line, like you don't want to lose, 1:06:22.000 --> 1:06:27.280 Like these games are serious, serious man, So just go 1:06:27.320 --> 1:06:29.160 out there and handle your business and if you post 1:06:29.160 --> 1:06:32.000 a win, you win, straight up. I've never been on 1:06:32.000 --> 1:06:33.000 the bad end of one of those. 1:06:33.760 --> 1:06:34.240 That's good. 1:06:34.360 --> 1:06:36.680 Yeah, it's like the thirty for thirty one about the 1:06:36.720 --> 1:06:39.000 referee and taking bribes and everything else and best. Yeah, 1:06:39.080 --> 1:06:42.560 that guy is kind of crazy. Oh my goodness, that 1:06:42.720 --> 1:06:45.640 was wild. Well I ask you this so we'll keep 1:06:45.680 --> 1:06:47.480 going the street books. I want to ask you in 1:06:47.600 --> 1:06:50.160 one tour. I know you've got a bit of animosity 1:06:50.200 --> 1:06:52.240 towards the end ones I do. I've seen a few 1:06:52.320 --> 1:06:52.840 videos of you. 1:06:53.040 --> 1:06:53.360 I do. 1:06:53.520 --> 1:06:54.240 I'm big on it. 1:06:54.440 --> 1:06:56.360 I'm not big on it at all, and I'll tell 1:06:56.400 --> 1:07:02.680 you why, go ahead. Yet, I didn't want to take 1:07:04.560 --> 1:07:09.200 the street ball route to attempt to jump start a 1:07:09.280 --> 1:07:12.720 career that didn't even exist. That was the only choice 1:07:12.720 --> 1:07:16.200 that I had. And unless you are really and truly 1:07:16.320 --> 1:07:23.400 from that type of culture, you'll you get how you 1:07:23.440 --> 1:07:26.440 want to understand that there's really talent. There's talent there, 1:07:27.240 --> 1:07:31.200 right if you're not from that. What anyone did was 1:07:31.280 --> 1:07:34.040 market themselves as the best street ball players in the world. 1:07:34.240 --> 1:07:37.680 Incredible marketing playing. That's why the tour was incredible, because 1:07:37.720 --> 1:07:39.160 gods are like, oh, they think they the best, we 1:07:39.200 --> 1:07:41.000 want to play against them. So when they would go 1:07:41.080 --> 1:07:43.880 to that city, guys would do the open run and 1:07:43.960 --> 1:07:47.440 play against them, and they're doing moves that aren't even legal. 1:07:48.240 --> 1:07:52.600 So when you got a guy whose name homicide streetball legend, 1:07:53.120 --> 1:07:55.480 how does the masses look at a guy like me 1:07:55.600 --> 1:07:59.560 without even seeing me? I must be one of them, 1:08:00.200 --> 1:08:03.760 so I would get looked. I would. I wouldn't get 1:08:03.800 --> 1:08:06.760 looks because I'm sorry, he's an and one guy because 1:08:06.760 --> 1:08:10.960 you know and one look again. The business model of 1:08:11.040 --> 1:08:15.160 what they did was incredible. They they had it. They 1:08:15.200 --> 1:08:19.639 had it, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. 1:08:19.920 --> 1:08:22.760 And a bunch of my friends at my basketball street 1:08:22.800 --> 1:08:24.960 ball brothers, a lot of them played in one like. 1:08:24.960 --> 1:08:29.760 I know them all, So it just it was very 1:08:29.760 --> 1:08:36.000 difficult for me because I had to myself, man, man bro, 1:08:36.200 --> 1:08:37.840 I'm trying to make it to the NBA. 1:08:38.479 --> 1:08:40.360 Because they all were done. You talk about like Professor 1:08:40.479 --> 1:08:44.720 Hot Sauce. They're because of the nickname, but legally a 1:08:44.720 --> 1:08:45.960 lot of stuff they were doing they didn't care. 1:08:46.000 --> 1:08:48.000 They just wanted to entertain that. They wanted to entertain 1:08:48.040 --> 1:08:48.360 the crowd. 1:08:48.400 --> 1:08:49.920 That's what they were there for what they were and 1:08:49.960 --> 1:08:51.639 I love them all, trust me, I love them all, 1:08:51.920 --> 1:08:56.120 but they were glow trotters. They're like street ball hall 1:08:56.200 --> 1:09:00.200 and glow trust versus a real hoopa. Some of them 1:09:00.240 --> 1:09:03.080 could hoop. But that role they were playing, that's globe trotters. 1:09:03.760 --> 1:09:06.160 So you were known for being a globe trotter. Right, 1:09:06.840 --> 1:09:09.479 It's like WWE and a real wrestler. It's like, dude, 1:09:09.520 --> 1:09:12.400 I'm like, I'm a real wrestler, but you're putting me 1:09:12.479 --> 1:09:16.120 with WWE like that. I just hated it. So we 1:09:16.160 --> 1:09:19.240 played against them. Like I lived in Denver. I was 1:09:19.280 --> 1:09:22.760 married and lived in Denver, right, but nobody knew I 1:09:22.840 --> 1:09:24.680 was living in Denver because they would always see me 1:09:24.680 --> 1:09:28.040 in the summers playing street ball all the time. So 1:09:28.520 --> 1:09:32.360 whenever I would come from playing overseas, I go to Denver. 1:09:32.560 --> 1:09:37.600 But then teams would fly me in to play tournaments. 1:09:38.680 --> 1:09:41.400 I would fly into New York. I would play my 1:09:41.439 --> 1:09:43.479 games at Rucker. I would play my games at Dykeman. 1:09:43.920 --> 1:09:45.519 So like you know, back in those days, you know 1:09:45.600 --> 1:09:47.080 they would they would pay you. They would take care 1:09:47.120 --> 1:09:49.080 of everything and pay you when you get there. Like 1:09:49.400 --> 1:09:52.160 if you were an elite street baller, you can make 1:09:52.160 --> 1:09:54.200 a good you can make some good money in the summer. 1:09:55.320 --> 1:10:00.800 So and one came to Denver. So my guy, because 1:10:00.840 --> 1:10:03.240 you know, the opposition, the opposition coach, they would always 1:10:03.280 --> 1:10:05.680 have to get a team from that city. Whatever they 1:10:05.840 --> 1:10:08.479 the city they went to, they come to them. But 1:10:08.560 --> 1:10:10.559 my man was like, they was talking shit on the 1:10:10.600 --> 1:10:12.559 bus and just like this, they were talking sit on 1:10:12.600 --> 1:10:15.160 the bus. My man, Mike was the coach. Mike was like, Yo, 1:10:15.640 --> 1:10:17.439 y'all keep talking that shit. Don't let me put the 1:10:17.439 --> 1:10:21.880 bat signal out. They like whatever, like who We're going 1:10:21.920 --> 1:10:24.400 to Denver next? Like who you got them? He's like, 1:10:24.479 --> 1:10:27.080 y'all keep talking that shit. I'm gonna put that bat 1:10:27.120 --> 1:10:29.760 signal out. It was like yeah, he said, you don't 1:10:29.760 --> 1:10:32.800 want me to say his name? It was like yeah, whatever. Who? 1:10:33.200 --> 1:10:33.559 He said? 1:10:33.600 --> 1:10:39.719 Homicide bus got silent. He's like, yeah, that's what I thought. 1:10:40.280 --> 1:10:42.639 Puts the bat signal out. Hit me up. I said, yo. 1:10:42.720 --> 1:10:45.519 He said, listen. I was just going to mini camp 1:10:45.560 --> 1:10:48.040 to go to Boston a couple of days before that 1:10:49.080 --> 1:10:51.479 and the Celtics, and I said, look, I don't know 1:10:51.520 --> 1:10:54.160 if I'm even gonna be there when y'all there. I said, 1:10:54.160 --> 1:10:56.360 I'm gonna tell y'all something. Y'all be picking them bums 1:10:56.360 --> 1:10:59.639 in the crowd, and that's why they be beating these teams. 1:10:59.680 --> 1:11:02.760 I said. The only way I'll play against an one 1:11:03.840 --> 1:11:07.400 is if you allow me to put my boys in 1:11:07.479 --> 1:11:11.439 the crowd, and you picked who I send. We set 1:11:11.479 --> 1:11:14.040 it up that way, so I had real ballers come 1:11:14.080 --> 1:11:17.000 to it, and you checked in and text them Mike 1:11:17.560 --> 1:11:20.120 before they got there, like, Yo, I'm the great shirt 1:11:20.160 --> 1:11:23.040 green shorts, this is me. So they picked it. It was like, 1:11:23.080 --> 1:11:25.679 all right, cool, we'll pick him, him, him, and one 1:11:25.720 --> 1:11:29.040 had no idea who these guys were. And if I 1:11:29.160 --> 1:11:34.080 was playing, yeah, I could pick three four guys straight up. 1:11:34.080 --> 1:11:36.480 So I picked up my whole crew that played overseas 1:11:37.479 --> 1:11:41.200 that lived in Denver. We played that game, beat them 1:11:41.240 --> 1:11:45.920 by twenty five. That's on YouTube. I'm saying, yeah, you 1:11:45.920 --> 1:11:48.000 know what I mean. That's when I was talking as shit. 1:11:48.080 --> 1:11:52.479 I said, listen, man, we gonna separate today the real 1:11:52.560 --> 1:11:55.760 from the bullshit went out there and beat the ass 1:11:55.840 --> 1:11:57.600 by twenty five. I love them all, but it's just 1:11:57.680 --> 1:11:59.760 real shit. I mean, it's what it is, and. 1:11:59.680 --> 1:12:00.400 This is a part of it. 1:12:00.479 --> 1:12:03.360 So then you're doing the street ball, right, So anyone's there, 1:12:03.400 --> 1:12:06.960 it's like, that's that's not really basketball, that's just entertainment. 1:12:07.400 --> 1:12:10.439 Holland someone had nothing to do with what I was doing, 1:12:10.479 --> 1:12:11.960 And you're over here with your own shoe lines and 1:12:12.120 --> 1:12:15.120 boys you know, check it out. I want to ask 1:12:15.120 --> 1:12:16.680 this actually before we go dream shoe, what do. 1:12:16.720 --> 1:12:18.360 You got my dream shoe? 1:12:18.360 --> 1:12:19.920 Because I know you are fashion out. We're gonna get 1:12:19.960 --> 1:12:21.880 into fashion for. 1:12:22.000 --> 1:12:26.960 Basketball, for lifestyle, lifestyle right now now the d Or 1:12:27.080 --> 1:12:31.400 Jordan's the d or Air Jordan ones. I got my pair, 1:12:35.200 --> 1:12:36.719 I got. 1:12:36.520 --> 1:12:39.040 My alright, so you're going to your street ball right 1:12:39.120 --> 1:12:41.320 at this point you're playing now, I want to ask 1:12:41.360 --> 1:12:44.000 you about this circumstance that now has probably led you 1:12:44.040 --> 1:12:46.519 to getting the opportunities NBA level. Right, so street ball, 1:12:46.520 --> 1:12:48.479 everything's gonna happen. It's kind of crazy, and you say, 1:12:48.880 --> 1:12:50.920 you know a bit of sliding doors moment, you know 1:12:51.080 --> 1:12:51.760 what was it again? 1:12:51.840 --> 1:12:54.639 Experience leads to exposure. Exposure leads to expansion. 1:12:54.760 --> 1:12:57.519 So exposure leads to expansion. I remember that one. 1:12:57.600 --> 1:13:00.639 But you get this opportunity to play against some bad 1:13:00.720 --> 1:13:04.200 dudes about our tests of the world. Now, tell me 1:13:04.200 --> 1:13:05.120 about this experience. 1:13:05.280 --> 1:13:10.400 Everybody gets an opportunity, whether they can identify it or 1:13:10.439 --> 1:13:13.200 not as on them, but you get an opportunity to 1:13:13.240 --> 1:13:19.280 elevate yourself one step closer to whatever right I am 1:13:19.520 --> 1:13:22.320 killing on this street ball circuit. For a couple of summers. 1:13:22.360 --> 1:13:24.920 It didn't all happen in one summer, right, So I'm 1:13:25.800 --> 1:13:34.640 killing I go to a playoff game at Rutger, this 1:13:34.720 --> 1:13:37.000 team I played against regular season. We lost to them, 1:13:37.040 --> 1:13:40.160 but I had about thirty seven. They had nobody for me. 1:13:41.040 --> 1:13:44.599 So they like, we got to get somebody to stop 1:13:44.640 --> 1:13:48.440 this motherfucker if we want to advance in the playoffs, 1:13:49.560 --> 1:13:55.479 I want to lay up blind. Who shows up the 1:13:55.560 --> 1:14:02.799 true warrior, not meta? World Peace on tests Indiana Pacer 1:14:03.360 --> 1:14:09.040 before this is this is Defensive Player of the Year. 1:14:09.200 --> 1:14:12.160 He just got This is August. It would have been 1:14:12.560 --> 1:14:15.400 he just got that in June, the defensive Player Year. 1:14:15.920 --> 1:14:19.160 So this is who I'm playing against. I'm not playing meta. 1:14:19.920 --> 1:14:23.120 This is the most dangerous defender. This is Queen's Bridge. 1:14:23.160 --> 1:14:27.800 One of Queen's Bridge. It's finest in his prime, the 1:14:28.000 --> 1:14:30.160 biggest test in my life because at this one, I'm 1:14:30.160 --> 1:14:33.200 gonna lay up line. I'm like, oh shit, I'm like, 1:14:33.560 --> 1:14:37.320 he only hit it. Call one person. I said to myself, 1:14:37.760 --> 1:14:39.639 I am a fucker. Will you claim you that guy? 1:14:39.720 --> 1:14:39.880 Right? 1:14:40.240 --> 1:14:40.599 That's it. 1:14:40.680 --> 1:14:42.479 That's the confidence man, I'll give you. 1:14:42.520 --> 1:14:48.200 Are the moment here it is chump ball and get 1:14:48.200 --> 1:14:55.000 the possession on the wing, go to the rack. Little body, 1:14:55.080 --> 1:14:58.679 body contact, I put it up, blocks that ship. Get 1:14:58.720 --> 1:15:01.560 that ship out of here. Fuck out here with that bullshit, 1:15:02.080 --> 1:15:05.679 I said, motherfuck, I'm coming right back. Get the ball again, 1:15:06.840 --> 1:15:12.760 sweet through one dribbled floor to bucket. I needed that 1:15:12.840 --> 1:15:20.479 basket bad because again I'm six three. Ron test a 1:15:20.560 --> 1:15:27.160 six to eight, crazy wingspan, super strong, and comes from that. 1:15:27.760 --> 1:15:31.599 He comes from that that street shit. So I'm he's 1:15:31.640 --> 1:15:34.599 playing against a small version of him. I'm playing against 1:15:34.600 --> 1:15:37.640 a bigger version of me. With that. Ronald Tess is 1:15:37.680 --> 1:15:39.519 the type of guy. After that game, he would have 1:15:39.600 --> 1:15:42.679 jumped on the train and went home multi millionaire. That's 1:15:42.760 --> 1:15:46.679 ron He's just different. That's how he works. I finished 1:15:46.680 --> 1:15:49.360 that game with twenty seven. That was the hardest. Twenty seven. 1:15:49.400 --> 1:15:51.599 He ripped me. He blocked my shots a couple of times. 1:15:52.520 --> 1:15:57.599 And that game they started double teaming me because one 1:15:57.640 --> 1:16:01.680 on one, the defensive player year couldn't stop me. In 1:16:01.680 --> 1:16:09.840 that game, we lost by two, but I won personally. 1:16:11.000 --> 1:16:13.960 What it did for me was if he couldn't stop 1:16:14.000 --> 1:16:16.560 me one on one, nobody. 1:16:17.080 --> 1:16:17.479 He's the best. 1:16:17.880 --> 1:16:21.439 He's the best. And the next and then I went 1:16:21.479 --> 1:16:24.960 overseas then I came back and that next summer they 1:16:24.960 --> 1:16:30.360 were still talking about all these regular other bullshit guys. 1:16:30.800 --> 1:16:34.479 I said, you know what, I'm gonna show these motherfuckers. 1:16:35.000 --> 1:16:38.920 I averaged forty that whole next summer and it was 1:16:39.040 --> 1:16:43.960 called the Summer Homicide. And after that rugg A Park game, 1:16:45.520 --> 1:16:48.040 they gave me MVP of the league. I got that, 1:16:48.080 --> 1:16:51.000 gave me MVP. That was the game changed the moment 1:16:51.040 --> 1:16:55.400 in my mind for me. But the game the game 1:16:55.439 --> 1:16:59.479 that changed everything. It's three games that changed my whole life. 1:17:00.439 --> 1:17:03.519 That was game one, runal Test. So that's the first game. 1:17:03.600 --> 1:17:08.320 Two next summer opening Day, Rucker Park. Jada Kisses Team 1:17:08.760 --> 1:17:18.280 Jada Kiss the Rapper, Dante Smith, Cleveland Cavaliet Champion j Smith. 1:17:19.640 --> 1:17:24.200 J Smith is Kenny Sadafield was a starting point guard 1:17:24.280 --> 1:17:27.880 with the Denver Nuggets that year. That's their one two 1:17:27.960 --> 1:17:29.760 and three one team. 1:17:29.960 --> 1:17:30.760 Yeah. 1:17:31.640 --> 1:17:34.080 Four position was a guy named Ali Mo. He played 1:17:34.120 --> 1:17:37.440 within one New York streetball legend God Bless the Dead 1:17:37.640 --> 1:17:39.679 and the five Man. He got cut by the next 1:17:39.680 --> 1:17:43.519 couple of years before that big Strick legend. That's their 1:17:43.560 --> 1:17:48.920 starting five, forty five. I gave him forty five. That 1:17:49.040 --> 1:17:55.960 was on NBA TV. That game got me a shot 1:17:56.320 --> 1:18:02.679 to the NBA Scout assistant coach from the Raptors heard 1:18:02.680 --> 1:18:07.400 about that, and what was the difference between him anybody else. 1:18:08.160 --> 1:18:12.320 He coached at a college in New York City. Hmm, 1:18:13.080 --> 1:18:18.559 so he understood playground culture. He got it. He comes 1:18:19.160 --> 1:18:22.160 comes watching me play a Dykeman third game, final game, 1:18:22.920 --> 1:18:26.759 then we finished with street ball. Calls me that morning, 1:18:27.439 --> 1:18:29.719 how musid, what's going on? I'm like, yo, coach was happening? 1:18:29.840 --> 1:18:33.720 Coach Jim Todd? How you doing from Boston? No, I'm good, man, 1:18:33.760 --> 1:18:35.920 I'm good. What's going on? I'm in Jersey. I got 1:18:35.920 --> 1:18:38.240 a got a camp I'm doing and we got a 1:18:38.280 --> 1:18:40.400 golf a little bit. You got these street ball games today? 1:18:41.120 --> 1:18:41.639 I was like. 1:18:43.240 --> 1:18:46.240 Yeah. He's like, you're playing that Rutger Like nah, he 1:18:46.280 --> 1:18:48.400 said you're at Pro City. I mean, I said where 1:18:48.439 --> 1:18:50.280 you at? I said, I'm at Dykeman today. He said 1:18:50.280 --> 1:18:53.120 what time? Says seven? He's like, all right, I beat it. 1:18:53.160 --> 1:18:55.280 I see you later. I said, all right, coach, hung 1:18:55.320 --> 1:18:59.559 the phone up. NBA Scott NBA assistant coach. Yeah, now 1:19:00.080 --> 1:19:03.599 here you go, fork in the road. I don't give 1:19:03.640 --> 1:19:05.280 a fuck about the run on test. Shit that's in 1:19:05.280 --> 1:19:08.040 the past that led me to be confident to play 1:19:08.040 --> 1:19:10.599 against Jaye Smith and Dante Jones and them, right, get 1:19:10.640 --> 1:19:12.479 them the forty something. Shit don't matter. 1:19:12.520 --> 1:19:12.960 That's now. 1:19:12.960 --> 1:19:18.960 I'm here. Here's your moment. Guys like me don't get 1:19:19.080 --> 1:19:23.800 multiple chances. So these opportunities, you gotta do what exceed 1:19:23.920 --> 1:19:28.280 my own expectations because this shit don't happen again. Remember 1:19:28.280 --> 1:19:31.560 the dorm conversation, Remember the conversation and the dorm that 1:19:31.600 --> 1:19:35.120 I had with myself. Well, this gotta happen. I'm gonna 1:19:35.120 --> 1:19:37.519 make it to the NBA. This never happens. No one's 1:19:37.560 --> 1:19:42.920 done this before. Is your shot? Comes typical white dude, 1:19:42.920 --> 1:19:47.519 about six nine, golf shorts on polo, fresh from fresh 1:19:47.560 --> 1:19:52.160 from God or I'm just sitting there. 1:19:52.160 --> 1:19:54.200 I'm like, by god, who the hell what is he 1:19:54.280 --> 1:19:54.760 doing in there? 1:19:54.800 --> 1:19:57.960 He's hitting out the cage, out of the out the court, 1:19:58.280 --> 1:20:01.080 he's on the fence. They had just they just drafted 1:20:01.160 --> 1:20:04.519 Charlie Villa Nueva in the draft, right, so Charlie's next 1:20:04.520 --> 1:20:06.680 to them. They're just sitting there, just sitting watching like rag. 1:20:06.760 --> 1:20:09.080 Everybody just regular, like nobody did just walk down the 1:20:09.080 --> 1:20:13.439 streets just chilling. I didn't tell nobody he was gonna 1:20:13.439 --> 1:20:17.240 be there. Why. I didn't want nobody thinking they get 1:20:17.280 --> 1:20:22.160 any bright ideas, thinking this their chance. Fucking this opportunity. Yup. 1:20:24.840 --> 1:20:28.280 I had twenty five at I had twenty seven at half. 1:20:29.120 --> 1:20:32.880 In that game. They gave me a standing ovation at 1:20:32.960 --> 1:20:37.320 Dykeman Park. That's a big deal too, twenty seven. Dykeman 1:20:37.600 --> 1:20:40.360 is the best street ball tournament in the world right now. 1:20:40.520 --> 1:20:44.760 It's not Rock anymore, it's Dykeman. Yeah, I get a 1:20:44.800 --> 1:20:48.360 standing ovation second half. I know God was with me 1:20:48.400 --> 1:20:52.160 that day because at halftime usually in the beginning of 1:20:52.200 --> 1:20:56.120 any game, I get doubled. I had no double teams 1:20:56.640 --> 1:21:02.120 in that first half. Now I knew he gonna double 1:21:02.160 --> 1:21:06.639 me in the second half. Here's what you do, Pass 1:21:06.720 --> 1:21:09.160 it open man. For the whole game. I finished with 1:21:09.200 --> 1:21:11.080 thirty one. I only scored two baskets in the second 1:21:11.080 --> 1:21:15.120 half because they double me. But you know what, Jim 1:21:15.160 --> 1:21:17.600 Todd comes in after that game. He comes to me. 1:21:17.680 --> 1:21:21.280 He said, THEO game homicide. You know what impressed me most. 1:21:22.040 --> 1:21:26.439 I'm like, tell me, coach, he said, when they double team, 1:21:26.479 --> 1:21:29.080 you pass it open man. Have a good night. I'll 1:21:29.120 --> 1:21:34.479 be in touch role player. I wasn't dumb. Here's the 1:21:34.560 --> 1:21:39.880 difference between a typical street baller and me coming from 1:21:40.040 --> 1:21:44.040 organized basketball, knowing what my role would be had I 1:21:44.160 --> 1:21:48.799 made this team. I'm gonna be a twenty twenty player. 1:21:48.960 --> 1:21:50.759 You know what that is when you're in the game. 1:21:52.160 --> 1:21:53.599 You're only gonna be in the game when you're up 1:21:53.640 --> 1:21:56.160 twenty or you're down twenty. And what are you there 1:21:56.160 --> 1:21:59.360 to do? Steady that motherfucking shift. You go in there, 1:21:59.560 --> 1:22:01.519 you pay the trade, You kicked it open, man, you 1:22:01.560 --> 1:22:03.639 get a ball of Chris Bosh, you hit the ball, 1:22:03.720 --> 1:22:05.280 you get a ball to Jail and Rod. That's what 1:22:05.360 --> 1:22:08.880 you do. Play defense. That's it. This is how you're 1:22:08.920 --> 1:22:12.439 going to make this team or not. He went up 1:22:12.439 --> 1:22:14.760 there and he fought for me, and he told him 1:22:14.760 --> 1:22:17.920 because everybody else was looking at me, like, come on, man, 1:22:18.080 --> 1:22:19.760 fuck you talking about the street ball guy. What is 1:22:19.800 --> 1:22:21.840 he going to do in here? Come on, man? He said, 1:22:21.880 --> 1:22:24.439 I don't give a funk who you bringing here? How 1:22:24.479 --> 1:22:28.040 muside of bust stay ass. He fought for me With 1:22:28.160 --> 1:22:30.200 the presidents of Toronto. They was like, all right, let's 1:22:30.280 --> 1:22:32.720 just bring this guy in, just see how it goes, 1:22:32.720 --> 1:22:35.080 so we can shut his ass up or talk shit 1:22:35.120 --> 1:22:38.559 about him if he fails badly, right, and that's what happened, 1:22:38.560 --> 1:22:43.040 and get to Toronto. Now this shit is real, like 1:22:43.040 --> 1:22:44.240 like I give my shot. 1:22:44.640 --> 1:22:46.200 So we're in bed now, but I want to go back, 1:22:46.280 --> 1:22:47.680 so I want to talk about your confidence you had. 1:22:47.720 --> 1:22:49.880 I'm gonna play this audio clip because this audio clip, 1:22:50.240 --> 1:22:52.080 this thing is peak confidence. 1:22:52.120 --> 1:22:54.160 I feel like, I mean hit it. 1:22:54.640 --> 1:22:58.559 Corey Williams aka Homie MVP of last year, Corey, what 1:22:58.560 --> 1:22:59.599 do you gotta say about this year? 1:22:59.640 --> 1:22:59.760 Man? 1:22:59.760 --> 1:23:01.960 I got to say that I'm gonna finish Alley more 1:23:01.960 --> 1:23:03.719 at the end of this game, I should have thirty 1:23:03.880 --> 1:23:07.160 if he stays in this right here. Don't mistake if 1:23:07.160 --> 1:23:10.479 any boat caught me NBA TV. But just know that 1:23:10.600 --> 1:23:12.240 this is hard work out here. I had to score 1:23:12.280 --> 1:23:14.720 twenty six points on runod test to get it. You 1:23:14.840 --> 1:23:16.880 might not believe it. The tape ain't on the NBA 1:23:16.920 --> 1:23:18.760 TV to show it. What I'm telling you, That's how 1:23:18.800 --> 1:23:21.479 I got MVP ash It's not a game out here, 1:23:21.520 --> 1:23:24.320 trust me. I work hard. Ain't not being in the NBA. 1:23:24.560 --> 1:23:26.960 But that don't mean I'm not a good player exactly. 1:23:26.960 --> 1:23:30.280 He's out of NBA TV. That's like like nation Ward. 1:23:30.680 --> 1:23:33.320 Listen that that was on the NBA TV. That was 1:23:33.360 --> 1:23:37.080 the game halftime when I had forty five on Jo 1:23:37.160 --> 1:23:39.120 Smith and IM and Dante Jones, and I'm. 1:23:38.920 --> 1:23:40.360 Like, that's all Tom called. 1:23:40.400 --> 1:23:40.559 Man. 1:23:40.640 --> 1:23:41.720 You can hear the voice though. 1:23:41.800 --> 1:23:44.040 It's like, Man, put anyone in front of me, I'm 1:23:44.040 --> 1:23:44.960 gonna kill him. 1:23:45.360 --> 1:23:47.920 Listen, when your back is against the wall, your. 1:23:47.800 --> 1:23:50.120 Truest self shows. 1:23:50.680 --> 1:23:54.200 When your back is against the wall, your truest self shows. 1:23:54.280 --> 1:23:58.519 It reveals whether you know it or not. So you 1:23:58.520 --> 1:24:01.000 know I worked hard, man, and you know I had. 1:24:01.040 --> 1:24:03.360 You got to back yourself. Ain't nobody backing you. You 1:24:03.400 --> 1:24:07.160 got to back yourself, man. Supreme confidence is something that 1:24:07.760 --> 1:24:13.640 I've always had. And I haven't won every battle, you know, 1:24:14.080 --> 1:24:17.280 but that's how I've learned. And but I've never lost 1:24:17.360 --> 1:24:20.840 my confidence, you know what I'm saying. And again, as 1:24:20.840 --> 1:24:23.000 I said, in my life, every time I had a 1:24:23.080 --> 1:24:28.760 legit opportunity, I exceeded expectations. I know what I can 1:24:28.800 --> 1:24:31.599 do when I get the opportunity with whatever I really 1:24:31.680 --> 1:24:34.440 am sorting after straight. 1:24:34.240 --> 1:24:36.760 Up, at this point, you're shorting after the NBA. 1:24:37.280 --> 1:24:40.120 I'm shorting after the NBA in Toronto, Toronto. I'll have 1:24:40.160 --> 1:24:42.400 the experience. Here's how the ship went, and. 1:24:42.360 --> 1:24:45.680 Then you would be hyped right now, Man, I've done it. 1:24:45.840 --> 1:24:46.719 You talk about. 1:24:49.439 --> 1:24:50.640 Finally coming. 1:24:51.240 --> 1:24:53.360 I was training on some rocky ship. I was on 1:24:53.439 --> 1:24:59.559 the beach running. I'm talking about like like this is it? Yeah, 1:24:59.680 --> 1:25:01.240 you know, I mean, this is it. I signed the 1:25:01.280 --> 1:25:03.320 deal and I get up there. I signed the deal 1:25:03.320 --> 1:25:05.479 to go to training camp, and I go to camp, 1:25:05.640 --> 1:25:09.800 and now here's how the opportunity came even about. Yeah, okay, 1:25:11.280 --> 1:25:15.599 there was three point guards. They had Jose calderone they 1:25:15.720 --> 1:25:21.200 just signed from Spain. They had Mike James, and they 1:25:21.240 --> 1:25:23.840 had a point guard who's been like a from Philly 1:25:23.920 --> 1:25:28.240 named Alvin Williams. He was dope villanova. Alvin Williams official 1:25:29.680 --> 1:25:34.400 Alvin Williams. Knees was bad, Like he hadn't played in 1:25:34.400 --> 1:25:35.680 the last year and a half and they didn't know 1:25:35.720 --> 1:25:37.680 if he was going to be able to play this 1:25:37.800 --> 1:25:38.599 upcoming season. 1:25:39.040 --> 1:25:40.120 So he's coming in half injured. 1:25:40.240 --> 1:25:45.759 He's coming in already, yeah, more than half injured. Let's say, 1:25:45.840 --> 1:25:51.280 so you have a leg up on him, but just 1:25:51.360 --> 1:25:56.880 caught that. So they bring in three point guards just 1:25:56.920 --> 1:26:00.320 in case doctors say he can't play. Yeah, one of 1:26:00.320 --> 1:26:06.080 these three, Phil Spot myself. I'll go last. They bringing 1:26:06.439 --> 1:26:09.360 Tier Brown, who played with the Lakers the year before. 1:26:10.520 --> 1:26:13.240 They're bringing Robert Pack. Old school Robert Pack. He used 1:26:13.240 --> 1:26:16.880 to play with the with Sean Kemp and GP with 1:26:17.000 --> 1:26:24.360 Seattle Minnesota. Trusty Vet, a young young gun in Tier Brown. 1:26:24.640 --> 1:26:26.640 Let's just bring this street ball cat in. So it 1:26:26.760 --> 1:26:28.680 just shut Jim Todd up because we really gonna go 1:26:28.720 --> 1:26:31.520 for one of these two with experience in the NBA 1:26:31.680 --> 1:26:35.240 one hundred percent. So I'm in there and I'm sizing 1:26:35.320 --> 1:26:39.880 up this competition, and I'm like, if I go with 1:26:39.960 --> 1:26:43.040 this homicide shit, I'll be out here on the first 1:26:43.080 --> 1:26:47.000 thing smoking That plays into more Tier Brown because Tier 1:26:47.120 --> 1:26:50.479 Brown was like a homicide. He from Texas, Like he's 1:26:50.520 --> 1:26:53.599 a bucket ghetter and he played in the NBA last year. 1:26:53.880 --> 1:26:59.400 Legit right, Robert Pack too old, There's no way. But 1:26:59.479 --> 1:27:02.559 he's a VET because he's played in the league ten 1:27:02.640 --> 1:27:07.800 twelve years. So I'm picking up Robert Pack full court. 1:27:08.120 --> 1:27:10.799 I'm turning them three times before we get to half. 1:27:11.320 --> 1:27:14.599 Your whole ass gonna work. This ain't the matchup you 1:27:14.640 --> 1:27:20.360 want either side. Tea Brown. I know he gonna shoot 1:27:20.360 --> 1:27:22.720 his way out of this job because every time he 1:27:22.800 --> 1:27:25.800 touch it, it's going up. Now me, on the other hand, 1:27:25.840 --> 1:27:28.439 I'm understanding the dynamics again. I know I'd be a 1:27:28.439 --> 1:27:29.400 twenty twenty player. 1:27:29.479 --> 1:27:30.639 You know what the coach is looking for. 1:27:30.760 --> 1:27:32.800 I know it. So I'm like, let me just pick 1:27:32.840 --> 1:27:34.559 up full court. When I get the ball, run the 1:27:34.560 --> 1:27:36.600 offense and swing it. Go to the other corner. If 1:27:36.640 --> 1:27:39.519 it swings back, then I make a play. Look to create. 1:27:40.040 --> 1:27:42.400 That's how you do it. Shot clock going down, Look 1:27:42.479 --> 1:27:47.479 to create, that's how you do it. I stuck to this. Now, 1:27:47.520 --> 1:27:52.000 mind you, preseason starts. First game, I might have played 1:27:52.000 --> 1:27:54.120 outn't know, maybe five minutes ain't much you can do 1:27:54.200 --> 1:27:56.559 with this time. You can't try to go score forty 1:27:56.680 --> 1:27:59.520 five minutes. It's gonna go back and it's like yeah, 1:27:59.720 --> 1:28:01.960 So I'm like, fuck man, I hope I get a 1:28:01.960 --> 1:28:06.880 real opportunity play against Maccabi Tel Aviv. What happened today 1:28:06.920 --> 1:28:10.760 with Phoenix, that's what happened with Toronto. Mccaby beat us 1:28:11.200 --> 1:28:15.920 really in Toronto, right, so oh man, big deal. That 1:28:16.000 --> 1:28:18.760 might have been the first team that beat an NBA 1:28:18.840 --> 1:28:21.240 team back then. Tell you mccaby, And that's when they 1:28:21.680 --> 1:28:24.800 were super stacked winning euro League Championships back to back, 1:28:24.840 --> 1:28:27.200 like they were a big deal. They were a big deal. 1:28:27.760 --> 1:28:31.559 Then the third game we played against Boston, I got in, 1:28:31.920 --> 1:28:37.000 did not play well, didn't play well. So I'm like, fuck, 1:28:37.280 --> 1:28:39.160 I feel it in the air because they ain't making 1:28:39.160 --> 1:28:41.479 no cuts yet, you know what I mean. And I'm like, 1:28:41.840 --> 1:28:43.479 if you're gonna cut anybody, you're gonna cut the low 1:28:43.479 --> 1:28:45.680 hanging fruit. This is the easiest person to cuts me. 1:28:46.439 --> 1:28:49.880 So we are at dinner, I said, y'all put You 1:28:49.880 --> 1:28:51.960 don't even have no ego or pride at this point, 1:28:52.280 --> 1:28:53.920 so all you can do is go to the coach. 1:28:53.960 --> 1:28:56.120 I went to the coach, Sam Mitchell. I said, coach, listen, 1:28:56.960 --> 1:28:59.559 I know I haven't been playing the way I played 1:28:59.560 --> 1:29:03.280 in practice. Just don't give up in me on me, 1:29:03.800 --> 1:29:06.400 give me another shot. I'll be ready. He said, well 1:29:06.439 --> 1:29:09.000 you're still here, ain't you. I said yeah. He's like, 1:29:09.040 --> 1:29:10.519 all right, go eat, you have a good night. I said, 1:29:10.520 --> 1:29:11.200 good looking, coach. 1:29:11.880 --> 1:29:15.599 It's a little just like security. Okay, we're on where 1:29:15.600 --> 1:29:16.760 it alight. I got another shot. 1:29:16.760 --> 1:29:17.880 I got another shot coming. 1:29:19.720 --> 1:29:20.519 We play. 1:29:22.280 --> 1:29:29.280 The final moment, fourth one fourth, Yet we play New 1:29:29.360 --> 1:29:32.439 Jersey nets. This is the year Vince Cardi gets traded 1:29:32.439 --> 1:29:35.559 to New Jersey. Yeah, in that off season is when 1:29:35.560 --> 1:29:37.280 I got the opportunity. This the year he goes to 1:29:37.320 --> 1:29:40.479 New Jersey, comes back plays Toronto, New Jersey versus Toronto 1:29:40.560 --> 1:29:44.840 in Toronto. In that offseason when he gets traded, there's 1:29:44.880 --> 1:29:50.360 a guy named Lamar. Murray says to the media, if 1:29:50.400 --> 1:29:55.160 this organization is dumb enough to trade their franchise player, 1:29:55.600 --> 1:30:00.320 trade me too. Yeah, they trade him to New Jersey. 1:30:00.439 --> 1:30:03.360 See ya right, going to New Jersey. 1:30:03.479 --> 1:30:08.240 Right, he's out of there. We're down ten points. Vince 1:30:08.280 --> 1:30:12.040 works us easy twenty five minutes and like twenty twenty 1:30:12.040 --> 1:30:15.679 five points in like twenty minutes, balls out. We down 1:30:15.760 --> 1:30:18.599 ten points five minutes left. Back of them days, game 1:30:18.800 --> 1:30:23.040 is over. Back in those days, like you just you 1:30:23.160 --> 1:30:25.840 just lay down. It's done. It's pretty's over. Let me 1:30:25.880 --> 1:30:31.000 just roll. The guys that don't get no playing time out, 1:30:31.120 --> 1:30:35.679 they call, they say time out. They sub me Robert 1:30:35.680 --> 1:30:40.120 pack Tear Brown in three point guards yea together together. 1:30:40.880 --> 1:30:42.360 So I'm like, I feel it in the air. 1:30:43.160 --> 1:30:45.320 This is it. It's the opportunity. 1:30:45.800 --> 1:30:48.559 One shot and they didn't make no cuts yet. It's 1:30:48.600 --> 1:30:52.120 like three games left. You gotta start making cuts. So 1:30:52.160 --> 1:30:58.320 I'm like, this is it, man, time out, Take everything off, 1:30:58.400 --> 1:31:01.439 go in the game. Take the ball out. 1:31:01.720 --> 1:31:03.680 We all three of us can't run to the ball 1:31:03.720 --> 1:31:05.840 as point guards, right, So I'm like, man, let me 1:31:05.920 --> 1:31:08.840 just run the left wing, bring it up half court. 1:31:08.920 --> 1:31:11.679 Coach goes time out. I'm like, yo, you just caught 1:31:11.680 --> 1:31:15.759 time out. Yo. We sit down. It was a twenty 1:31:15.760 --> 1:31:19.680 second He said, whoever Lamar Murray's garden, give him the 1:31:19.720 --> 1:31:22.800 fucking ball and run run display what I forgot the 1:31:22.840 --> 1:31:25.639 play name? Who Lamar Murray was Guarden? 1:31:26.439 --> 1:31:32.479 You I want to payback. Looking straight at years, I. 1:31:32.439 --> 1:31:37.880 Said, oh shit, I'm about to get the ball. Oh 1:31:37.920 --> 1:31:45.040 what's on? Ran to play, got the ball, went went 1:31:45.320 --> 1:31:47.439 to the rack right because he's like six seven six 1:31:47.560 --> 1:31:51.200 eight again waste lower than Ron Ron's height. So I'm 1:31:51.200 --> 1:31:53.840 out here. I'm on the key and I ripped first, 1:31:53.880 --> 1:31:57.280 went to the basket, kick it to the corner. Charlie 1:31:57.479 --> 1:32:02.360 three down seven, bucket, went back the other way, steal, 1:32:03.200 --> 1:32:05.519 go back this way, foul, go to free throw line, 1:32:05.560 --> 1:32:08.559 split them down six. They come back, score time out. 1:32:08.600 --> 1:32:13.400 Something happens, We come back out. Long story short, we 1:32:13.439 --> 1:32:18.200 go to overtime, We win the game. You on him 1:32:18.200 --> 1:32:23.679 the rest of the game. I finished. Yeah, I finished 1:32:23.680 --> 1:32:26.719 with eleven points three. I'll never forget this stat line. 1:32:27.200 --> 1:32:32.840 Eleven three rebounds, two steals, three assists. You win the game. 1:32:34.680 --> 1:32:39.760 The next day, I go into practice, first guy in there, 1:32:40.000 --> 1:32:41.840 last guy to leave. This is just how I am. 1:32:41.880 --> 1:32:45.360 This whole experience. I go in there and I'm like, 1:32:46.520 --> 1:32:50.800 tear Brown named plate gone. I was like, the fuck, 1:32:52.080 --> 1:32:55.840 So wait a minute, Robert Pack named plate gone. They 1:32:55.840 --> 1:32:56.439 got cut. 1:32:57.479 --> 1:33:00.559 I said, on shit, we're going to start shoes that. 1:33:02.120 --> 1:33:04.479 There. I'm like, what the fuck? I said, let me 1:33:04.520 --> 1:33:06.439 look at what? You know? You pull up this little thing. 1:33:06.520 --> 1:33:07.600 Let me see if they shoes in it? 1:33:08.439 --> 1:33:13.240 Gone? I said, oh shit, you know what. Calm down, 1:33:14.120 --> 1:33:17.000 put your shit on, go upstairs, get on the shooting machine, 1:33:17.720 --> 1:33:25.679 start working. What happens Robert Pack? Now Robert Pack. Alvin 1:33:25.720 --> 1:33:32.360 Williams trying to play, couldn't even barely move. But back 1:33:32.400 --> 1:33:35.479 in those days, he probably had like twenty five million 1:33:35.520 --> 1:33:42.080 left on his deal. He's trying to play. Doctor said 1:33:42.120 --> 1:33:46.040 he could play. That's how I get waived. 1:33:46.520 --> 1:33:48.639 There wasn't There wasn't a lot of training trading back 1:33:48.640 --> 1:33:49.720 and forth as much as there is now. 1:33:49.800 --> 1:33:52.360 It wasn't no, you know what, we'll just wave the contract. 1:33:52.400 --> 1:33:55.719 You get paid to sit down. That's how I didn't 1:33:55.760 --> 1:34:00.719 make the team. I left there so happy, you know why, 1:34:01.280 --> 1:34:05.080 better for the experience. I beat out the competition that 1:34:05.160 --> 1:34:09.400 I was in. Robert pact Brown was my comp I 1:34:09.439 --> 1:34:12.439 have no NBA experience and I didn't get waved that 1:34:12.439 --> 1:34:15.599 that New Jersey Net game saved me. But my point 1:34:15.760 --> 1:34:18.840 is it wasn't because I wasn't good enough. It just 1:34:19.000 --> 1:34:22.479 wasn't the right It wasn't no spot available or Rose 1:34:22.520 --> 1:34:25.760 that will have been my spot. So that was my 1:34:25.800 --> 1:34:28.200 Toronto experience. Then I went to the minor league. Then 1:34:28.200 --> 1:34:31.080 I went to the Summer league. I did that whole circuit, right. 1:34:31.080 --> 1:34:36.639 I did the minor league, then I was it wasn't 1:34:36.640 --> 1:34:39.320 the D League. Then I went to the CBA right 1:34:40.000 --> 1:34:42.120 and then like I let it in triple doubles, like 1:34:42.160 --> 1:34:45.880 I was Rondo before Rondo, that type of player there. 1:34:46.080 --> 1:34:50.360 Then I went to Summer League with Indiana. Then I 1:34:50.400 --> 1:34:55.720 went to training camp with Denver, got waved. Then from 1:34:55.760 --> 1:34:59.200 there I went to the D League, won the championship. 1:34:59.320 --> 1:35:00.760 Then I went to some I'm a leagal gold in 1:35:00.840 --> 1:35:05.040 State and at that point, how does my resume look, 1:35:05.080 --> 1:35:07.680 I'm a fringe NBA player, you know what I mean. 1:35:07.720 --> 1:35:10.599 At that point, you can get a better agent. You're 1:35:10.600 --> 1:35:13.080 gonna get better money overseas, you know what I mean. 1:35:13.160 --> 1:35:16.320 Your resume now, like nobody's going to pay you money. 1:35:16.320 --> 1:35:20.200 You're not getting quality. If you work at McDonald's, if 1:35:20.200 --> 1:35:22.519 you work at a Fortune five hundred company is not 1:35:22.640 --> 1:35:26.200 going to hire you. If you work for a fast 1:35:26.200 --> 1:35:29.760 food company you have experience or retail, it's not gonna happen. 1:35:29.760 --> 1:35:32.160 You gotta have experience. So when I was having shit 1:35:32.280 --> 1:35:35.080 jobs in the beginning, I was having shit jobs, but 1:35:35.320 --> 1:35:39.880 again I knew where I started was where I wasn't 1:35:39.920 --> 1:35:41.320 going to end up. I knew I was going to 1:35:41.360 --> 1:35:42.400 be better. But at the end of the day, you 1:35:42.400 --> 1:35:44.920 got to start, you know what I mean. And you know, 1:35:45.000 --> 1:35:48.479 when you are the underdogs, you gotta work your ass. 1:35:48.520 --> 1:35:50.040 So if that's just what it is, you know what 1:35:50.080 --> 1:35:52.720 I mean. And if you ain't built like that, go 1:35:52.800 --> 1:35:54.920 get you a regular job. This shit ain't for the week, 1:35:55.680 --> 1:35:57.320 you know what I'm saying. Like people can look at 1:35:57.320 --> 1:35:59.000 me today and blah blah blah. They don't even know 1:35:59.080 --> 1:36:01.200 the work that I put in exactly. They have no 1:36:01.320 --> 1:36:04.840 idea what nor should they. But don't think this shit 1:36:04.920 --> 1:36:07.360 is overnight success. You know what I mean. Very grateful. 1:36:07.520 --> 1:36:10.720 Everything I got I earned. I put my work up 1:36:10.720 --> 1:36:14.400 against anybody starting from where I started, No handouts, no nothing. 1:36:15.320 --> 1:36:17.720 I'm very proud of where this shit begin and I 1:36:17.800 --> 1:36:19.639 know what it takes. As many people would have quit. 1:36:20.120 --> 1:36:22.639 Oh yeah, taken my route. So you know that's how 1:36:22.760 --> 1:36:24.960 you know, I'm very grateful should be part of the journey, 1:36:24.960 --> 1:36:25.360 no doubt. 1:36:25.640 --> 1:36:28.000 People look at a different waymen, no doubt. Say, you know, 1:36:28.080 --> 1:36:29.280 I'm pretty proud of where I come from. 1:36:29.320 --> 1:36:30.000 Well, I've been able to do. 1:36:30.240 --> 1:36:33.240 No doubt from the BX all day. I weigh at 1:36:33.280 --> 1:36:35.200 like a badge of honor. I've been all over the world. 1:36:35.280 --> 1:36:37.320 I lived all over the world. You know, I'm very 1:36:37.360 --> 1:36:41.639 grateful that I have an opportunity now to help build 1:36:41.800 --> 1:36:47.680 help a brand, build themselves out of the rubble. You 1:36:47.720 --> 1:36:50.160 know what I'm saying. That's the NBO was dead. He 1:36:50.280 --> 1:36:54.360 was dead, Larry Kesselman. Grateful for his vision because without 1:36:54.360 --> 1:36:57.160 his vision, I wouldn't be here. You know what I'm saying, 1:36:57.240 --> 1:37:00.360 Offer me the opportunity. I was like, Yo, just blow 1:37:00.400 --> 1:37:00.880 the ship up. 1:37:01.640 --> 1:37:02.040 I want to. 1:37:02.080 --> 1:37:04.080 I want to look at this because I've actually written 1:37:04.120 --> 1:37:06.040 down some of these teams still. Now I'm gonna I'm 1:37:06.040 --> 1:37:07.800 gonna you talk about resume rot We're gonna go through 1:37:07.840 --> 1:37:11.839 these teams. Dakota Wizard, he's manging off, Dakota Hey, Harlem 1:37:11.880 --> 1:37:12.639 Globe Trotters. 1:37:12.840 --> 1:37:14.160 No, no, no, no, let's get this. 1:37:14.200 --> 1:37:16.400 Now, we're gonna go back. We're gonna go back to, 1:37:16.400 --> 1:37:22.519 go back to. You're part of the tour. You're on 1:37:22.560 --> 1:37:22.920 the bus. 1:37:23.560 --> 1:37:24.439 I was on the circuits. 1:37:24.520 --> 1:37:28.559 Yeah, Club San Carlos, Brooklyn Kings, South Korea prorem Pro 1:37:28.640 --> 1:37:31.240 team tryout, and then you go to Brazil do minyas Uh, 1:37:31.240 --> 1:37:33.920 Sweden eight Stockholm, and then you go Denver Nuggets rookie 1:37:33.920 --> 1:37:34.360 for agent Cam. 1:37:34.400 --> 1:37:36.920 You got Chinese Basketball Association. I might pronounce this wrong, 1:37:37.000 --> 1:37:39.320 Union Hung Hung Hey. 1:37:39.600 --> 1:37:43.080 New Jersey Flyers, west Chester Wildfire, Toronto Raptors, Austin, Toro's 1:37:43.120 --> 1:37:49.480 shout out to Austin, Texas, sell Betold Baskets. 1:37:49.040 --> 1:37:50.960 Numburg, Noomburg and Germany. 1:37:51.120 --> 1:37:55.320 Yep, Yeah, Sioux Falls, sky Forest, South Dakota sou Falls, 1:37:55.680 --> 1:38:00.719 Venezuela for fock. Can you name this one? Something to Mageria, I. 1:38:00.600 --> 1:38:01.400 Forgot the name of. 1:38:03.720 --> 1:38:05.920 Goutais. I don't even know. 1:38:07.680 --> 1:38:08.880 Guaya Caries or something. 1:38:08.960 --> 1:38:13.920 Yeah, Indiana Pacers, France for call it basketball Schule, I 1:38:14.040 --> 1:38:19.919 mispronouncing everything, Golden State Warriors, Townsville, Crocodile's kk Uha, Russia 1:38:20.040 --> 1:38:27.040 until Night, Trotemundo's Day, Carabobo and. 1:38:27.760 --> 1:38:30.559 Venezuela, Melbourne Tigers, Lebanon. 1:38:30.640 --> 1:38:35.439 You played for Biblos Club, bejec Broops Club. 1:38:35.920 --> 1:38:37.840 Oh, you're just gonna just got have to roll with 1:38:37.880 --> 1:38:38.479 this one, al. 1:38:40.720 --> 1:38:46.599 Dad Tree, Tripoli and tadm On com On zook Zo 1:38:47.080 --> 1:38:53.559 and then Puerto Rican team called the Parts Day. Did 1:38:53.600 --> 1:38:57.040 you think you would played for those kind of You 1:38:57.080 --> 1:38:59.360 went all over, man, you traveled the world. Now this 1:38:59.400 --> 1:39:01.639 is me, So I'm gonna bring this back to my situation. 1:39:01.720 --> 1:39:03.679 Whenever I first came to IFL, I had no idea 1:39:03.680 --> 1:39:05.519 what the hell this thing was. Man, I thought it 1:39:05.600 --> 1:39:08.120 was these. I thought it was one of these where 1:39:08.160 --> 1:39:10.120 I've never heard of it. I don't know what it is. 1:39:10.520 --> 1:39:12.519 There's a good chance this thingm I fault on my 1:39:12.600 --> 1:39:15.320 land in some Venezuela town I don't know how to pronounce. 1:39:15.840 --> 1:39:18.519 And that's what I thought IFL was. Now you've been 1:39:18.560 --> 1:39:20.920 all over the world. Man, you've done it. You've played 1:39:20.920 --> 1:39:23.519 in some amazing places. You played for some crazy teams 1:39:23.520 --> 1:39:26.400 and all kinds of different places. Man, what's your favorite 1:39:26.439 --> 1:39:30.080 place that you've been? Because I love travel, what was 1:39:30.120 --> 1:39:32.280 your favorite place that you went? And you're like, man, 1:39:33.080 --> 1:39:35.600 I could live there. That experience was amazing. 1:39:35.320 --> 1:39:37.720 You know, it's crazy. 1:39:37.160 --> 1:39:39.160 Besides the home glop trotter. 1:39:39.479 --> 1:39:42.920 Yeah, yo, the New York National was being shout out 1:39:42.920 --> 1:39:45.679 to them. That's how it started. I wasn't home, baby, 1:39:46.080 --> 1:39:52.960 I'll never forget where it started. All of these experiences 1:39:53.000 --> 1:39:56.400 that I've I've had, I've taken one thing at least 1:39:56.439 --> 1:39:59.679 from them all, and it's all shaped me. Like Iraq 1:39:59.800 --> 1:40:01.800 wasn't on there. I was in Iraq, play right, and 1:40:01.840 --> 1:40:05.799 the coolest thing about something like that. But the coolest 1:40:05.800 --> 1:40:09.040 thing about Iraq was that's where like I started watching 1:40:09.080 --> 1:40:11.639 Game of Thrones, you know what I mean, Like that's 1:40:11.640 --> 1:40:16.679 one of the illest TV series ever. I started watching 1:40:16.680 --> 1:40:19.800 Game of Thrones because I wouldn't dare go outside, you 1:40:19.840 --> 1:40:22.000 know what I mean? Like isis was really? It was 1:40:22.040 --> 1:40:25.960 really happening, you know So what Like I called myself 1:40:26.000 --> 1:40:28.600 a basketball mercenary, you know what I mean, that's what 1:40:28.680 --> 1:40:31.720 I was, and it's allowed me to see so many 1:40:31.800 --> 1:40:34.519 incredible parts of the world. You just it makes it 1:40:34.560 --> 1:40:40.400 made me a more well rounded individual. It made me 1:40:40.520 --> 1:40:45.800 just see how people live. You know, you see people 1:40:45.840 --> 1:40:49.479 living well, you see people not living well. Iraq was 1:40:49.520 --> 1:40:53.200 an eye opening experience. You know, I've seen like six 1:40:53.280 --> 1:40:57.679 year old kids selling cigarettes and phone credit. Parents can't work, 1:40:57.720 --> 1:41:00.639 so the money a six year old kid makes, its 1:41:00.720 --> 1:41:04.559 feeding the family. Just a different perspective on life, you 1:41:04.600 --> 1:41:08.479 know what I'm saying. That's a rack. But I also partied, 1:41:08.720 --> 1:41:12.200 you know, in homes of sheikhs in Dubai. You know 1:41:12.200 --> 1:41:14.599 what I mean, like just just a whole nother. It's 1:41:14.680 --> 1:41:17.120 just two different ends of the size of the spectrum. 1:41:17.200 --> 1:41:22.920 You know, I've appreciated there's three parts, three places specifically 1:41:23.720 --> 1:41:28.680 that have played an incredible part of my life. Obviously, 1:41:29.000 --> 1:41:33.960 New York we know this. Australia played a significant role 1:41:33.960 --> 1:41:36.639 in my life when I played here in the NBL. 1:41:36.720 --> 1:41:39.400 I played here four years. But it was one thing 1:41:39.479 --> 1:41:45.040 I was really truly fighting for that I did not 1:41:45.280 --> 1:41:52.320 know I really needed it. Again, I didn't. I didn't 1:41:52.320 --> 1:41:56.120 plan on being like known for streetball, right I didn't 1:41:56.400 --> 1:41:59.360 plan on it. It's an incredible thing, but that wasn't 1:41:59.360 --> 1:42:01.320 the goal. It wasn't to be a shoot Bowl legend. 1:42:01.560 --> 1:42:05.000 I wanted to be a certified pro and obviously the 1:42:05.080 --> 1:42:08.400 ultimate thing you can do is win a championship right 1:42:08.439 --> 1:42:13.960 as a pro athlete. But the other thing that was 1:42:14.040 --> 1:42:19.080 equivalent was equivalent to that for me was when I 1:42:19.120 --> 1:42:22.960 got MVP of the league, because it then allowed people 1:42:23.040 --> 1:42:28.280 to know that this street ball is actually a professional athlete. 1:42:28.479 --> 1:42:32.640 So I would be It's kind of like if you 1:42:32.640 --> 1:42:35.240 didn't graduate college, like they would just look at you 1:42:35.320 --> 1:42:39.120 like a basketball or you know, whatever sport you played. 1:42:39.320 --> 1:42:41.439 It's like, y'a, I'm a scholar. I got two degrees, 1:42:41.600 --> 1:42:43.360 you know what I mean. But you can't say that 1:42:43.400 --> 1:42:46.800 if you don't have them, right. So it really cemented 1:42:46.840 --> 1:42:50.880 me for me personally as a professional athlete because it's 1:42:50.920 --> 1:42:53.720 a professional league and you can't just call me a 1:42:53.760 --> 1:42:56.800 street ball player. I'm so much more than that. I 1:42:56.880 --> 1:43:00.960 just needed to use that platform to get to where 1:43:01.000 --> 1:43:04.960 I am att currently, you know, and now it's just 1:43:06.160 --> 1:43:10.360 not even a professional athlete anymore. You know, I'm a commentator, 1:43:10.400 --> 1:43:14.400 I'm an analyst, you know, I'm just a connoisseur of 1:43:14.400 --> 1:43:17.519 the game. You know, I'm not one thing. You know, 1:43:17.560 --> 1:43:20.240 I never wanted to ever be looked at as one thing. 1:43:20.439 --> 1:43:24.160 I'm many things. I've morphed into so many different things. 1:43:24.520 --> 1:43:27.960 And without this journey, man, I could not have been 1:43:28.000 --> 1:43:31.360 able to do any of this. Man, So I'm very grateful, man, 1:43:31.439 --> 1:43:32.840 I really really am. 1:43:33.000 --> 1:43:35.880 Then you talk about the first Australia everything, and you 1:43:35.920 --> 1:43:37.759 come over here and you play for the Townsville Crocs. 1:43:38.240 --> 1:43:40.760 At that time, you were rocking a hell of a haircut. 1:43:42.680 --> 1:43:43.160 Yeah you have. 1:43:44.280 --> 1:43:48.240 You had the the Spottle we like I had one 1:43:48.280 --> 1:43:51.040 eight seven in my head. Next, like I was really 1:43:51.720 --> 1:43:54.800 you know, I was really on my rock star ship. Man, 1:43:55.080 --> 1:43:57.519 you were really enjoying it? Like were you enjoying there? Like, 1:43:57.600 --> 1:43:59.920 I'm in a beautiful place in Australia. I guess this 1:44:00.080 --> 1:44:03.200 amazing after my place? I found my place? What made 1:44:03.200 --> 1:44:05.760 you fall in love with the Plus it was a 1:44:05.800 --> 1:44:07.880 style of play first of all, Like again, you know, 1:44:07.920 --> 1:44:11.439 I'm here for business first. I never lose sight of Listen, man, 1:44:11.479 --> 1:44:13.920 I could play in a shithold town or beautiful town. 1:44:14.000 --> 1:44:16.960 What am I here to do? Work? I never lose 1:44:16.960 --> 1:44:18.840 sight of that. I gotta get busy on this court, 1:44:19.040 --> 1:44:23.120 or it'll be short lived. Whether it's beautiful or it's shit. 1:44:23.320 --> 1:44:25.920 You understand, I'm there to do a job. Like I said, 1:44:26.160 --> 1:44:27.800 I'm a basketball mercenary. 1:44:28.360 --> 1:44:28.599 Right. 1:44:29.360 --> 1:44:32.400 If you ain't adding value or producing, you're getting the 1:44:32.439 --> 1:44:34.400 fuck up out of there. They don't care if you 1:44:34.520 --> 1:44:38.720 love how beautiful a places you helping me win? Are 1:44:38.760 --> 1:44:40.760 you adding value to what the fuck I got going on? 1:44:41.520 --> 1:44:44.280 If you adding value, where you can stay the minute 1:44:44.320 --> 1:44:47.400 you don't a you can go. So I never lose 1:44:47.400 --> 1:44:50.320 sight of that, right. The best thing that happened was 1:44:52.040 --> 1:44:56.040 my agent knew with my style of play, what country 1:44:56.040 --> 1:44:58.880 would suit best at that point in time. A lot 1:44:58.960 --> 1:45:03.000 of times agents just treat talent like cattle and they 1:45:03.040 --> 1:45:06.760 get their commission and the kid's career is off to 1:45:06.800 --> 1:45:09.760 a bad start because they didn't place the kid in 1:45:09.800 --> 1:45:13.240 a position where he could shine best or have their 1:45:13.280 --> 1:45:17.599 potential to shine best. Systems are important and Townsville Crocs 1:45:17.600 --> 1:45:20.400 at the time, I fit right in the style of 1:45:20.439 --> 1:45:24.160 play in this league was my style of play, West 1:45:24.200 --> 1:45:29.160 Coast type of offense. We're running and gunning the team. 1:45:29.640 --> 1:45:31.960 We were underdogs. I mean we're in Townsville, you know, 1:45:32.120 --> 1:45:35.599 obviously now living here, I understand the layout. How if 1:45:35.640 --> 1:45:39.360 you're in a star started town like a Sydney or Melbourne, 1:45:39.479 --> 1:45:43.320 you're more coveted. And if you're in like a Queensland 1:45:43.400 --> 1:45:47.000 type of town, you know, people like your slow, right, 1:45:47.360 --> 1:45:51.680 But if you in them Townsville, it's like, man, we 1:45:51.680 --> 1:45:55.120 don't respect any type of basketball going on up there there. 1:45:55.160 --> 1:45:57.840 They can play tough, but we're gonna beat them eventually. 1:45:58.040 --> 1:45:58.240 Right. 1:45:58.960 --> 1:46:03.360 So my old thing was again, that's basically sleeping on 1:46:03.400 --> 1:46:06.200 this team, not respecting the players or the organization and 1:46:06.280 --> 1:46:09.120 think it's a walk in the park where under dogs. 1:46:09.600 --> 1:46:12.200 That fits perfect with who with me at the time, right, 1:46:12.240 --> 1:46:15.760 So okay, okay, listen, here's what we're building. Let's prove 1:46:15.800 --> 1:46:20.320 them wrong. So it worked out well. I was there 1:46:20.360 --> 1:46:24.240 for three seasons. I signed my first deal with them, 1:46:24.439 --> 1:46:26.400 and then after five games they wanted me to sign 1:46:26.439 --> 1:46:27.000 a two year deal. 1:46:27.120 --> 1:46:30.599 Wow. Four games, Yeah, that's a big deal. Big deal. 1:46:30.880 --> 1:46:34.400 So was there any team you specifically hated a bit 1:46:34.439 --> 1:46:36.759 more than others, Like, let's say, hypothetically, maybe Perth. 1:46:37.280 --> 1:46:40.600 Listen, Okay, so it was a love hate relationship. You know, 1:46:41.200 --> 1:46:45.599 it's kind of like, uh, Perth or stuff. They were 1:46:45.640 --> 1:46:49.120 really physical. I respected them, but like I was just like, yo, kay, 1:46:49.160 --> 1:46:51.519 none of y'all really guard me, you know what I mean? Like, 1:46:51.520 --> 1:46:53.519 it's not I'm not worrying about the guy on me 1:46:53.680 --> 1:46:55.920 that's guarded me. I'm worrying about the other two guys 1:46:55.920 --> 1:46:59.280 that's helping. I'm gonna blow past you. But how can 1:46:59.320 --> 1:47:01.240 I get to the bus get with these two other 1:47:01.320 --> 1:47:04.120 guys they're waiting. So it was a good team and 1:47:04.360 --> 1:47:08.400 we had a love hate relationship. And you know, I'll 1:47:08.439 --> 1:47:12.200 tell you a quick story about that. Yeah, we lost, boy, 1:47:12.280 --> 1:47:18.719 maybe about forty forty against Perth, and the following week 1:47:19.280 --> 1:47:23.280 we played them in the single game elimination finals. 1:47:23.160 --> 1:47:23.760 It's in Perth. 1:47:24.160 --> 1:47:27.840 In Perth, so we lost by forty in Perth. Crowd 1:47:27.960 --> 1:47:30.599 gave it to me. Coaches like you stink. Sit down, 1:47:30.920 --> 1:47:34.000 crowd giving it to me, right, And I'm like, never 1:47:34.040 --> 1:47:36.479 forget this moment because you deserve it. You didn't show up. 1:47:36.520 --> 1:47:39.720 You didn't show up, You stink, you didn't show up. 1:47:39.920 --> 1:47:43.719 You'll be back in like five days. Refocus we go again. 1:47:44.720 --> 1:47:48.080 Came back. Obviously, if you just beat a team by forty, 1:47:48.439 --> 1:47:52.400 you think this is an easy win. John really ten 1:47:52.400 --> 1:47:58.160 to three points made broke history in finals history, the 1:47:58.200 --> 1:48:01.439 most three point is made in the playoff. I finished 1:48:01.439 --> 1:48:03.760 with like what twenty eight or thirty? 1:48:04.080 --> 1:48:04.800 Right? We win? 1:48:05.720 --> 1:48:08.360 I get it, We get a deflection, we get a steal. 1:48:08.400 --> 1:48:10.120 At the end, they throw it to me. I go 1:48:10.200 --> 1:48:13.800 down the court, dunk it, run around the arena, took 1:48:13.840 --> 1:48:16.360 my shirt off, run around the arena, got to the 1:48:16.479 --> 1:48:17.320 got to the camera. 1:48:17.520 --> 1:48:20.400 Now hold up talking off the flight right. 1:48:21.120 --> 1:48:24.160 Where with the jail man? Good night? 1:48:24.320 --> 1:48:28.680 For why how the sun Raims get It's what we 1:48:28.720 --> 1:48:30.880 have heard town. 1:48:31.800 --> 1:48:35.800 We knock off the Perth Cast Challenge stadium. 1:48:36.600 --> 1:48:40.640 That is exactly how we said, Hi, this is what 1:48:40.760 --> 1:48:43.120 we're about. This is what we fuck it about. 1:48:43.360 --> 1:48:47.280 Crock Nation was born right there, and they threw everything 1:48:47.320 --> 1:48:49.920 they could at me. They threw everything in that arena 1:48:50.000 --> 1:48:54.439 they could at me. Almost insinuated a riot. But you 1:48:54.479 --> 1:48:56.280 know it was just a great way to say the 1:48:56.320 --> 1:48:58.080 Perth man like, fuck you. 1:48:58.479 --> 1:49:02.439 Yeah, I love it. Yeah, absolutely, just giving it to people. Absolutely, man, 1:49:02.479 --> 1:49:03.400 there's nothing better in life. 1:49:03.560 --> 1:49:06.639 Never be a hostile territory, beating him in the hostile 1:49:06.760 --> 1:49:08.960 territory and then give it to him after to let 1:49:09.040 --> 1:49:09.960 him know that, just toppened. 1:49:10.040 --> 1:49:13.960 Yeah, like they were in disbelief. Is shocked. I don't 1:49:13.960 --> 1:49:17.679 think nothing like that has ever happened before in the sport. 1:49:18.000 --> 1:49:20.560 Yeah, I was like on my Westbrook shit, you know 1:49:20.600 --> 1:49:21.040 what I mean. 1:49:21.040 --> 1:49:23.960 Like I was on my Westbrook shit. And you know 1:49:24.080 --> 1:49:28.960 it it worked well. You know, we lost game three 1:49:29.200 --> 1:49:31.519 to go to the Grand finals. So and the next 1:49:31.600 --> 1:49:33.679 year we lost game three to go to the Grand 1:49:33.720 --> 1:49:36.200 Finals and we were on the road. Obviously, you know 1:49:36.200 --> 1:49:40.280 how it is man home court advantages, it's a big deal. 1:49:40.600 --> 1:49:45.760 And we overachieved with the team that we had, so 1:49:45.800 --> 1:49:48.120 it still was like a win, you know what I mean. 1:49:48.160 --> 1:49:50.280 I didn't win a championship with them, but I still 1:49:50.320 --> 1:49:52.800 won the point, you know what I mean. Point. Yeah, 1:49:52.920 --> 1:49:54.960 we'll get into the NBA. Obviously your commentator for the NBA. 1:49:55.000 --> 1:49:56.960 Everyone knows this, you know. Let's get into a bit 1:49:57.000 --> 1:49:59.679 of I want to say, how far has it grown 1:49:59.720 --> 1:50:02.040 since plud Leaps and bounds. 1:50:02.720 --> 1:50:04.519 Since I've been here in the last eight years, I've 1:50:04.560 --> 1:50:07.479 seen a huge, huge difference. You talked about whenever LaMelo 1:50:07.600 --> 1:50:09.280 came over and started playing, how big that was on 1:50:09.280 --> 1:50:11.720 the international stage. Arjett Barrett, all these kind of people 1:50:11.760 --> 1:50:13.960 have come over. How much have you seen from your 1:50:14.000 --> 1:50:16.640 own personal perspective, how big of a change it's been 1:50:16.680 --> 1:50:18.479 in the NBL in the last twenty years. 1:50:18.520 --> 1:50:28.120 Like the biggest change in the NBL is Larry Kesselman visionary. 1:50:29.120 --> 1:50:36.519 I'm obviously a very successful businessman and went into his 1:50:36.600 --> 1:50:40.439 pockets getting invested. You know, you know how it is, man, 1:50:40.560 --> 1:50:42.360 Like a lot of people talk it, man, A lot 1:50:42.360 --> 1:50:44.920 of people don't back it up and walk it. You know, 1:50:45.160 --> 1:50:47.000 it's so many people, Ah, you should do this, you 1:50:47.000 --> 1:50:51.080 should do that, put your money up. He did. You 1:50:51.120 --> 1:50:53.559 know what I mean, There's so many people with opinions, 1:50:53.560 --> 1:50:57.760 but ain't nobody taken action? Right? He did? That was 1:50:57.800 --> 1:51:00.200 first and foremost, before I even I wasn't even here, 1:51:00.760 --> 1:51:07.880 you know, and ever since, I truly respect him. You know, 1:51:07.920 --> 1:51:10.400 I'm the kind of person man. I've been around billionaires. 1:51:10.439 --> 1:51:13.439 I've been around multi millionaires, dude's worth whatever. Like, I've 1:51:13.479 --> 1:51:18.439 been around around enough. Right, money don't impress me. How 1:51:18.479 --> 1:51:22.600 you treat people impresses me. And your work ethic impresses me. 1:51:22.840 --> 1:51:25.000 Like you can have it, But what's your work ethic? 1:51:25.040 --> 1:51:27.400 And how do you treat people? And that's why I 1:51:27.439 --> 1:51:32.320 truly respect him. He treats everybody with respect. He's super 1:51:32.400 --> 1:51:36.560 humble and he works his ass off. You know, I 1:51:36.600 --> 1:51:39.120 always tell the story, but his day is that he 1:51:39.160 --> 1:51:41.880 didn't even know I would see him early in the 1:51:41.880 --> 1:51:46.880 morning going to work. Billionaire going to work. You know 1:51:46.880 --> 1:51:49.280 what I'm saying. He's full on, he's hands on, he's 1:51:49.320 --> 1:51:51.960 on top of it. He's passionate and cause you know, 1:51:52.000 --> 1:51:53.400 a guy like that, he can kick his feet up 1:51:53.400 --> 1:51:56.400 and just let it whoever he hires to run operations, 1:51:57.040 --> 1:52:00.200 you know, doing rightfully. So like he's earned the right 1:52:00.280 --> 1:52:02.639 to have a successful life, and he kicked back when 1:52:02.640 --> 1:52:05.800 he wants. But he's truly passionate about it. And I 1:52:05.840 --> 1:52:08.120 think that's really truly, to be honest with you, the 1:52:08.160 --> 1:52:12.160 biggest reason that I remain still working here with the 1:52:12.280 --> 1:52:16.080 NBL because it starts from the top, you know what 1:52:16.080 --> 1:52:18.880 I mean. He's going hard, you know what I mean. 1:52:18.880 --> 1:52:21.360 They offered me the roll, they offered me the job, 1:52:21.800 --> 1:52:24.880 and it was a successful I think that it was 1:52:24.920 --> 1:52:28.280 a great opportunity because I love Australia. It's dope, it's 1:52:28.320 --> 1:52:32.639 super dope. People are super cool, it's a it's an 1:52:32.680 --> 1:52:36.200 incredible vibe here. You know, I'm safe here. I don't 1:52:36.200 --> 1:52:41.040 have no problems. I literally have no problems here with nobody. 1:52:41.040 --> 1:52:43.920 It's been nothing beloved. You know, this is a place 1:52:43.960 --> 1:52:46.439 where just put your head down and do the work, 1:52:46.560 --> 1:52:50.200 you can become successful. You know there's opportunity here and 1:52:50.360 --> 1:52:52.320 you got to put the work in. But ah, you 1:52:52.400 --> 1:52:54.840 ask for his opportunity, right, That's all lot have asked for, right, 1:52:57.120 --> 1:53:01.280 you know what I mean. So Australia is dope. It 1:53:01.280 --> 1:53:03.240 has come a long way. So to sit back when 1:53:03.320 --> 1:53:08.200 we were there in the early days and it's like, Yo, 1:53:10.880 --> 1:53:14.679 here's what I need to do. I need to become 1:53:16.120 --> 1:53:19.439 a Hall of Famer within my role. I don't care 1:53:19.439 --> 1:53:22.760 about your role. That's for you to do. I don't 1:53:22.760 --> 1:53:25.920 care about your role. I'm going to do my role 1:53:26.960 --> 1:53:31.200 to the best of his ability every day. So whether 1:53:31.280 --> 1:53:37.280 it's I'm talking some shit to Perth and red on 1:53:37.439 --> 1:53:39.639 me and were going at it all right, that might 1:53:39.680 --> 1:53:42.320 be a part of it. Do I come out with 1:53:42.360 --> 1:53:47.800 some strong opinions? Yeah, but people are talking it ain't 1:53:47.800 --> 1:53:48.320 about me. 1:53:49.080 --> 1:53:51.120 So the conversations and credit headlines and anything else that 1:53:51.160 --> 1:53:51.639 comes with it. 1:53:53.760 --> 1:53:57.320 And on top of it, I'm believing what I'm saying though, 1:53:58.160 --> 1:54:04.720 But the thing is in Australian sport culture, they'll cut 1:54:04.760 --> 1:54:06.760 you down. I need to cut each other down if 1:54:06.760 --> 1:54:10.599 you start talking too much. So the best thing is 1:54:11.200 --> 1:54:17.519 I ain't Azzi outside who played in this league that's 1:54:17.640 --> 1:54:20.080 valid and certified, so they can't be like, yo, who 1:54:20.120 --> 1:54:22.479 the hell is this big mouth America? Where's he from? 1:54:22.720 --> 1:54:25.320 That's homicide. He was the MVP of the league. Validation 1:54:25.560 --> 1:54:29.960 right there. So if I'm saying like yo, step your 1:54:30.000 --> 1:54:33.680 game up, man, I ain't the stephen A. Steven Ain't 1:54:33.680 --> 1:54:36.880 never played. I love stephen A, but he never played. 1:54:36.920 --> 1:54:39.040 So that's why a lot of guys be on him 1:54:39.400 --> 1:54:42.920 because you never did this. I did it, so God, 1:54:43.160 --> 1:54:46.240 I have that credibility and validation there, you know what 1:54:46.320 --> 1:54:51.400 I mean. So with me coming in, let's really turn 1:54:51.440 --> 1:54:54.800 this up to a million. Let's amplify this thing. You know. 1:54:56.200 --> 1:55:00.560 So again, I just always wanted to make sure I 1:55:00.600 --> 1:55:05.080 saw spots that needed filed all over this board. Let 1:55:05.080 --> 1:55:07.000 me be the ones feeling it, even if you can't 1:55:07.040 --> 1:55:08.840 see it. I know what needs to be filed because 1:55:08.880 --> 1:55:11.400 I know as a player what's missing and what could 1:55:11.400 --> 1:55:13.440 be done better. So let me do it. 1:55:13.600 --> 1:55:15.120 Being in the industry, you know, you know the back. 1:55:15.080 --> 1:55:19.760 End of the I know, I know it. So I'm 1:55:19.840 --> 1:55:22.760 just uh glad to be a part of the journey 1:55:22.800 --> 1:55:25.960 and seeing it come to fruition. You know, I really am. 1:55:26.080 --> 1:55:29.120 It's beautiful and what happened today is you know, a 1:55:29.120 --> 1:55:32.040 part of it, you know, I mean, it's it's it's incredible. 1:55:32.840 --> 1:55:34.680 What's the biggest opportunity for growth for the NBL. 1:55:37.040 --> 1:55:39.040 Exposure leads to expense. You know what I think needs 1:55:39.080 --> 1:55:42.680 to happen. It's time hit Asia Pacific, go get a 1:55:42.720 --> 1:55:45.400 team and in the Philippines, the n. 1:55:46.920 --> 1:55:48.280 Here we go. I went there once. 1:55:48.560 --> 1:55:51.040 They thought I was like just dirt to whisky, rolling 1:55:52.440 --> 1:55:54.040 duncan front of the whole town came out. 1:55:54.080 --> 1:55:54.560 It was wild. 1:55:55.000 --> 1:55:57.560 Exposure leads to expansion. I think this should be like 1:55:59.280 --> 1:56:02.480 an Apac league like you have euro League. Let's do 1:56:02.600 --> 1:56:06.320 a pac League. Let's get a team and Indonesia. Right, 1:56:06.480 --> 1:56:08.520 Let's get a team in the Philippines. Let's get a 1:56:08.520 --> 1:56:11.680 team in Korea. Let's get a team in Japan. But 1:56:11.800 --> 1:56:15.680 mind you you can get imports. Look this is what 1:56:15.720 --> 1:56:18.560 your league does. Like that's just me off the off 1:56:18.600 --> 1:56:22.440 the top of my head. Yeah, it's big, that's that's 1:56:22.480 --> 1:56:25.800 that's light. It's now with this league popping the way 1:56:25.800 --> 1:56:28.520 it is, you know how things are when you a startup. 1:56:28.760 --> 1:56:31.160 Nobody wants a part of it. Everybody watches from a 1:56:31.240 --> 1:56:33.320 fire that ain't gonna work, that ain't gonna work. Oh 1:56:33.360 --> 1:56:36.800 shit is working? Oh oh now I want to be 1:56:36.840 --> 1:56:41.480 on Okay, Well this is how you use this opportunity. 1:56:42.160 --> 1:56:46.080 Exposure leads to expansion. Everybody seeing it. Now we expand. 1:56:46.720 --> 1:56:48.760 I'm hitting a pack. That's what I'm doing. 1:56:48.840 --> 1:56:51.360 Yeah, I like it. I think it's possible. 1:56:51.720 --> 1:56:58.040 All right, Larry Kesselman put the out there to take it. 1:56:58.760 --> 1:57:03.320 We'll see what happens on our sets. Now, people from America. Ron, 1:57:03.360 --> 1:57:06.120 So you have Big God's graduating high school coming over, 1:57:07.160 --> 1:57:08.160 Lebron's kid. 1:57:08.480 --> 1:57:12.480 Bronnie, any chance there's a chance, Bill, there's a chance. 1:57:12.960 --> 1:57:14.480 You reguly might come to them NBL. 1:57:14.760 --> 1:57:19.839 Look Brownnie, here's what I believe. Obviously, our honest opinion, 1:57:19.840 --> 1:57:26.880 as always, the face of the NBA is Lebron Pops right. 1:57:30.120 --> 1:57:34.320 It would be a business decision for the NBA to 1:57:34.440 --> 1:57:38.840 not allow that to happen. So do I think it's 1:57:38.840 --> 1:57:44.320 gonna happen. No, But there's a chance because if the 1:57:44.520 --> 1:57:46.560 face of the league, first of all, a couple years ago, 1:57:46.640 --> 1:57:48.960 Adam Silva said, they've done a fantastic job there. If 1:57:49.000 --> 1:57:51.840 I had a kid, I'd send my kid there. So 1:57:51.960 --> 1:57:54.920 you got the president saying that, how ain't gonna tell me? 1:57:56.000 --> 1:57:58.360 The face of your league is saying that. Following suit 1:57:58.440 --> 1:58:01.880 to the president and then census on there, do you 1:58:01.920 --> 1:58:04.880 know what kind of wave and domino effect that would 1:58:04.920 --> 1:58:07.640 be way bigger than Mellow ball. Mellow set the tone 1:58:07.680 --> 1:58:10.200 with that, you know what I mean, because he solidified 1:58:10.280 --> 1:58:13.480 that platform as that's for real. And what they what 1:58:13.560 --> 1:58:15.920 Adam silver did as soon as Mellow did that and 1:58:15.920 --> 1:58:17.400 they got Rookie of the Year, you know what they did. 1:58:17.880 --> 1:58:20.560 G League I Knite we created you know why that's created. 1:58:20.680 --> 1:58:23.240 You know why overtime elites created. But more important league, 1:58:23.520 --> 1:58:27.280 G League I Knight. We're gonna stop our American kids 1:58:27.280 --> 1:58:30.960 from taking their ashes to Australia. That's the NBA n 1:58:31.080 --> 1:58:35.120 X Star event effect, that serious effect to a point 1:58:35.160 --> 1:58:39.800 where when them kids get drafted from the next Star's program, 1:58:40.320 --> 1:58:43.280 they don't even say where they just came from. They 1:58:43.320 --> 1:58:47.200 say the city they're from. They never did that before. 1:58:47.560 --> 1:58:49.919 They don't want to even give those three little letters 1:58:50.440 --> 1:58:52.680 props because what you're doing right there on the biggest 1:58:52.680 --> 1:58:57.000 stage when for your outside of the finals, draft day, 1:58:57.160 --> 1:59:00.520 you're validating another league. Someone can't do that. See what 1:59:00.560 --> 1:59:02.080 I'm saying. This is the type of ship going on 1:59:02.160 --> 1:59:03.160 that people don't even get. 1:59:03.520 --> 1:59:07.320 Yeah, so you think, okay, we'll go back to this. 1:59:07.480 --> 1:59:11.160 Now Tasmania. We love Tasmania. We love it, love Touzy, 1:59:11.280 --> 1:59:14.640 love it, big fantusty. Now last year, well we could 1:59:14.640 --> 1:59:17.160 probably say b breakout team of the year. I think 1:59:17.600 --> 1:59:22.760 everyone be agreeing on that. Easy, easy Ron. What's your 1:59:23.240 --> 1:59:25.240 you have? You been a supporter of them from day 1:59:25.280 --> 1:59:27.000 one day when I was I told him he's gonna 1:59:27.000 --> 1:59:31.000 win fourteen games. They would everybody like, look when I 1:59:31.040 --> 1:59:32.280 say these things. 1:59:32.240 --> 1:59:34.280 Are they? They must watch team this year? Now? 1:59:34.320 --> 1:59:35.840 I must must watch team this. 1:59:35.800 --> 1:59:38.120 Year because I love brus CON's my boy. 1:59:38.280 --> 1:59:42.880 It's King Cotton, King Cotton, That's what I thought, real 1:59:43.800 --> 1:59:44.320 King Cotton. 1:59:44.720 --> 1:59:47.120 Alright, you and your prom would you lock his eyes down, 1:59:48.600 --> 1:59:51.760 he'd be he'd be a guy that he's too little 1:59:51.960 --> 1:59:52.920 and he's a mosquito. 1:59:53.080 --> 1:59:54.880 I wouldn't even want to guard him till the fourth court. 1:59:54.920 --> 1:59:56.960 I would have to save some energy to guard him 1:59:56.960 --> 1:59:59.360 because he's gonna run all It's like Garden Steph Curry, 1:59:59.640 --> 2:00:02.520 like these guys just and I gotta go get mine 2:00:02.520 --> 2:00:04.560 over there. I'm gonna lock you up. I'm gonna go 2:00:04.680 --> 2:00:07.960 lock up with you the last five minutes, you know 2:00:08.000 --> 2:00:10.040 what I mean. So that's when I would Okay, it's 2:00:10.040 --> 2:00:13.000 time to it's how the shit gonna go. I couldn't 2:00:13.000 --> 2:00:15.160 guard him for forty minutes and then still get it's 2:00:15.200 --> 2:00:18.440 too tired. I'll be too tired. I would look that's 2:00:18.520 --> 2:00:22.760 that'll be a guy prior me right now. Against Bryce, 2:00:23.480 --> 2:00:25.120 I would lose sleep over the night before. 2:00:26.520 --> 2:00:29.040 Wow, no one else in the lake, no one else, 2:00:29.160 --> 2:00:32.920 just Bross, just Bryce. You sleep over him, I'll. 2:00:32.800 --> 2:00:35.960 Be like no one else. I gotta god this guy. 2:00:36.160 --> 2:00:38.560 Mom fuck, I got it. You know what I would 2:00:38.600 --> 2:00:43.560 do all week? I get rest. I'm not going to dinners. 2:00:43.760 --> 2:00:48.400 Ain't no going out. You know. There's certain matchups that 2:00:48.400 --> 2:00:51.080 that you know, it's like this, ain't no walk in 2:00:51.080 --> 2:00:54.560 the park. I gotta get ready for this because the 2:00:54.600 --> 2:00:57.880 way I'm coming, he coming. But the other thing, the 2:00:57.920 --> 2:01:02.000 thing is he don't have to guard me. I gotta 2:01:02.000 --> 2:01:03.280 guard him exactly. 2:01:03.840 --> 2:01:03.960 Now. 2:01:04.000 --> 2:01:05.440 I want to ask you this. This is another thing 2:01:05.480 --> 2:01:07.800 I'm really interested in I found. I'll do it research. 2:01:08.040 --> 2:01:10.040 I found an amazing story. Aaron Baines. 2:01:11.840 --> 2:01:12.600 Do you know him. 2:01:13.160 --> 2:01:14.880 I don't know Aaron Baines, but. 2:01:15.360 --> 2:01:19.480 His story and what he's gone through phenomenal and what 2:01:19.520 --> 2:01:21.760 he's doing now coming back. I'll wish him all the 2:01:21.800 --> 2:01:24.880 best because I love those just like no one gives 2:01:24.920 --> 2:01:26.720 me a chance and like life's on the line kind 2:01:26.760 --> 2:01:28.640 of thing and I'm gonna fought my way through to 2:01:28.640 --> 2:01:29.120 make it work. 2:01:29.200 --> 2:01:33.520 Yeah. Man, First of all, it's just glad to see 2:01:33.560 --> 2:01:35.320 him in the league, but glad to see him back 2:01:35.360 --> 2:01:37.840 playing basketball, you know what I mean. Obviously we love 2:01:37.880 --> 2:01:41.160 what we do. I saw him in preseason and he 2:01:41.320 --> 2:01:43.720 was smiling and he was so happy. You know, obviously 2:01:43.760 --> 2:01:47.640 after coming back from the things he's come back from, 2:01:47.800 --> 2:01:49.720 you'd be happy too to be playing the game again 2:01:49.800 --> 2:01:52.320 that you love. So I wish him the best and 2:01:52.360 --> 2:01:55.680 I look forward to covering him this season because once 2:01:55.680 --> 2:01:57.920 he shows he's able to play again, you know he'll 2:01:57.920 --> 2:01:59.280 be back to the Big Show next year. 2:02:00.120 --> 2:02:02.000 So good to see him back there, no doubt the 2:02:02.040 --> 2:02:04.200 Big Show. The boys in the Big Show, we got 2:02:04.200 --> 2:02:09.520 giddy and Mills with his fellows, which one would you 2:02:09.800 --> 2:02:10.400 want to have the. 2:02:10.320 --> 2:02:14.200 Most successful season this season? Only big Patty Mills. Guy. 2:02:14.360 --> 2:02:14.840 All love him. 2:02:14.920 --> 2:02:18.160 He's like from a his moral standards and everything like 2:02:18.200 --> 2:02:22.560 he does everything person like that. That man has represented 2:02:22.640 --> 2:02:24.400 his country better than any other person I've probably met. 2:02:24.480 --> 2:02:31.040 Yo, dude like me, Patty Mills is there needs to 2:02:31.040 --> 2:02:36.600 be a statue of him already, like it should have 2:02:36.600 --> 2:02:38.240 been built already. But it definitely have to get in 2:02:38.280 --> 2:02:42.600 the bronze. But what he stands for is like he's 2:02:42.840 --> 2:02:47.400 he's he's on some Martin Luther King type shit for 2:02:47.440 --> 2:02:49.280 this country, you know what I mean? Like I look 2:02:49.320 --> 2:02:52.000 at him like like that, like he's an incredible human. 2:02:52.480 --> 2:02:55.840 I would love to see him win another championship with 2:02:56.440 --> 2:03:01.240 Brooklyn because I rock with Brooklyn anyway. Getty young man, 2:03:01.240 --> 2:03:03.680 he got plenty of time. But Patty Mills time is 2:03:03.720 --> 2:03:05.840 running out, running out in the NBA, and I think 2:03:05.880 --> 2:03:09.600 that he'll retire at some point. You know, he's still 2:03:09.640 --> 2:03:13.680 going or whatever, but he has less time playing in 2:03:13.760 --> 2:03:17.040 the NBA than obviously Giddy. This is year too forget you. 2:03:17.040 --> 2:03:19.560 I would love to see Brooklyn winning chip and him 2:03:19.560 --> 2:03:20.080 winning chip. 2:03:20.920 --> 2:03:24.080 You think the Olympic team will ever beat America's Olympic team. 2:03:24.240 --> 2:03:27.720 No, we were ain't supreme. I don't even I don't 2:03:27.720 --> 2:03:28.440 even play the game. 2:03:28.800 --> 2:03:32.920 Everyone always asked me that he's not gonna like go 2:03:33.000 --> 2:03:35.800 for Australia, and I was like, yeah, he's doing that. 2:03:37.520 --> 2:03:42.400 I'm not stupid, all right, because I know the Women's 2:03:42.400 --> 2:03:44.919 World Cup was just here. Yeah, and you got Australia 2:03:44.960 --> 2:03:48.560 one third. Yeah, Jackson played the last game. Oh my god, 2:03:49.920 --> 2:03:50.760 drops a thirty p. 2:03:52.520 --> 2:03:53.880 Just literally just throw him to the post. 2:03:54.440 --> 2:03:56.720 I'll take care of the rest thirty piece. 2:03:57.800 --> 2:03:58.640 You watched the whole thing. Go. 2:03:59.240 --> 2:04:01.480 Actually I didn't watch that game. I was doing I 2:04:01.520 --> 2:04:03.400 was on foot locker. Dude, you're watching the US side 2:04:03.400 --> 2:04:05.960 win the championship after you know you as Yeah, we 2:04:06.000 --> 2:04:08.640 handed what we handle, you know, you know it is 2:04:08.680 --> 2:04:09.280 what it is. 2:04:09.800 --> 2:04:12.880 Oh man, you bet Brendan Stewart person like to be honest. 2:04:12.880 --> 2:04:16.240 Stewart, she's she's dope from New York, from Syracuse. Obviously 2:04:16.240 --> 2:04:19.800 went to Yukon. She's the best female player in the 2:04:19.840 --> 2:04:23.440 game right now, super humble, super cool. It was fun 2:04:23.480 --> 2:04:26.080 to work with her that Sunday at foot Locker. I mean, 2:04:26.800 --> 2:04:28.880 in the last ten years, there haven't been a signature 2:04:29.920 --> 2:04:33.760 sneaker out for a woman. She has that now and 2:04:34.240 --> 2:04:36.680 shout out to her man like women's we need to 2:04:36.680 --> 2:04:40.760 do a better job of backing women and everything. Really 2:04:40.760 --> 2:04:44.400 to be honest with you, but definitely in sports. 2:04:44.800 --> 2:04:48.520 Word yeah, foot locker stuff only get a little shutucks. 2:04:48.560 --> 2:04:50.560 I know, I know you've running the joint for foot locker. 2:04:51.080 --> 2:04:53.840 No no, no, I saw you in Sydney and you 2:04:53.880 --> 2:04:56.520 were just hi. You just you just kicked back this 2:04:56.600 --> 2:05:00.520 man so good in lots good, lots good. Tell me 2:05:00.520 --> 2:05:01.040 what's doing that. 2:05:01.120 --> 2:05:04.400 We're working hard, man, you working hard, You working hard. 2:05:06.760 --> 2:05:10.080 He's just storytelling. All we want to do is just 2:05:10.160 --> 2:05:17.240 push sneak of culture basketball culture forward and lifestyle forward 2:05:18.560 --> 2:05:22.160 using you know, the platforms that we have we are. 2:05:23.360 --> 2:05:25.360 Storytelling is big with a lot of the things that 2:05:25.400 --> 2:05:28.360 we do, and we just we just tell a story 2:05:28.360 --> 2:05:31.040 about products. You know, we do rollouts and products. We're 2:05:31.040 --> 2:05:33.200 more important. We're doing a lot of giving backs. We're 2:05:33.200 --> 2:05:35.720 doing collaborations where we partner with n b. 2:05:35.880 --> 2:05:38.920 L and NBA stars coming through too. 2:05:39.080 --> 2:05:41.480 Yeah, we have NBA stars. Dame Lillard came through. We 2:05:41.560 --> 2:05:44.560 got hip hop stars coming through. Working on something big 2:05:44.640 --> 2:05:47.880 right now. Actually with a New York artist might be 2:05:47.960 --> 2:05:55.840 coming through soon. So footlock of Fridays where we do 2:05:55.920 --> 2:05:59.120 install activations where we air drop and giveaway gift vouchers 2:05:59.680 --> 2:06:03.600 to you know, the patrons in the Star Just turn 2:06:03.640 --> 2:06:05.880 your air drop on, we play some music, we hire 2:06:05.880 --> 2:06:08.720 the DJs, and we just we vibe out. I think 2:06:08.760 --> 2:06:14.040 there's a lot of community activity happening more the last 2:06:14.120 --> 2:06:19.160 year and a half, we just sponsored Australian Junior Championships 2:06:19.360 --> 2:06:21.560 for the next five years. We announced that with Basketball 2:06:21.600 --> 2:06:27.720 Australia where under fourteens, under sixteens, under eighteens, under twenties 2:06:27.720 --> 2:06:31.560 and schools. We're sponsoring these national tournaments. So all the 2:06:31.560 --> 2:06:34.560 big players of Lauren Jackson's, Andrew Bogis, Patty Mills, they 2:06:34.600 --> 2:06:38.040 all played West juniors. I know, obviously we could both 2:06:38.040 --> 2:06:44.680 agree two important elements in basketball so to speak, let 2:06:44.680 --> 2:06:47.680 alone every other sports grassroots. That's where you find the 2:06:47.720 --> 2:06:51.200 love of the game and where you begin to elevate 2:06:51.280 --> 2:06:54.920 your play is junior level. So for foot Locker to 2:06:54.960 --> 2:06:59.920 be heavily sponsoring those two areas in basketball is huge 2:07:00.480 --> 2:07:01.880 and they're investing a lot in it. 2:07:02.920 --> 2:07:05.960 Yeah, what's next for you? What's next? Brother? 2:07:07.800 --> 2:07:13.840 It's time for some ownership be ownership, Yeah, be trying 2:07:13.880 --> 2:07:20.400 to own some own some stuff. B I don't think 2:07:21.280 --> 2:07:21.760 does not. 2:07:23.360 --> 2:07:23.880 Think about that. 2:07:23.920 --> 2:07:29.120 I think, uh, it's just just ye different time to 2:07:29.160 --> 2:07:31.800 get a company is and ownership be like that's the 2:07:31.840 --> 2:07:38.520 next level, you know. I think in evolving as a human, 2:07:38.520 --> 2:07:44.200 first you gotta find your passion right, recognize your passion right. 2:07:44.440 --> 2:07:48.480 Become a pro add it right, become a rock star 2:07:48.520 --> 2:07:53.160 in that profession. You send the elevator down, You help others, 2:07:53.320 --> 2:07:54.880 you know what I mean, and where you can, like 2:07:54.960 --> 2:07:59.440 you invest. So ownership comes, man said, listen. Exposure leads 2:07:59.440 --> 2:08:01.640 to expansion, and you know, when you do well, opportunities 2:08:01.680 --> 2:08:04.320 start coming your way. And you gotta find ways on 2:08:04.360 --> 2:08:07.280 how to we all get fifteen minutes. I'm telling you, man, 2:08:07.320 --> 2:08:10.960 we all get fifteen minutes. It's on you to how 2:08:11.040 --> 2:08:15.000 you extend your fifteen straight up? 2:08:15.680 --> 2:08:17.320 Would you call the team? 2:08:17.520 --> 2:08:24.920 I wouldn't want a team to own MS. 2:08:24.920 --> 2:08:29.600 You're talking about this business? 2:08:30.600 --> 2:08:32.480 I like you, man, you go from the top. 2:08:32.600 --> 2:08:33.000 That s it. 2:08:33.200 --> 2:08:36.160 That's it, you know, Like as he say, I ain't 2:08:36.160 --> 2:08:36.960 here to fuck spider. 2:08:37.800 --> 2:08:39.680 Yes, that's my favorite. 2:08:39.720 --> 2:08:44.280 Say what the fuck of it? 2:08:44.320 --> 2:08:45.280 The first time I heard it? 2:08:45.920 --> 2:08:49.320 Use it all the top, you know, So it's just 2:08:49.360 --> 2:08:53.360 a matter of just again. Man, what I've learned is 2:08:54.440 --> 2:09:00.240 you have to identify your strengths, find spaces where you 2:09:00.320 --> 2:09:05.080 add value, and where you add value like amplify your value. 2:09:06.440 --> 2:09:09.840 Other people will begin seeing the value that you add 2:09:11.080 --> 2:09:14.880 and inquire about your services. Then it's on you to 2:09:14.960 --> 2:09:18.680 figure out what that package you look like for you 2:09:18.760 --> 2:09:22.240 to work with them or not, you know what I mean. 2:09:22.280 --> 2:09:24.840 And when you get at a stage where it might 2:09:24.880 --> 2:09:29.400 not be everything might not be transactional for cash, give 2:09:29.400 --> 2:09:31.080 me equity. I love this. 2:09:34.120 --> 2:09:36.160 It's all that stuff. Yet you know what I mean. 2:09:36.400 --> 2:09:43.000 So you know again man, Like what I've learned is again, Look, 2:09:43.000 --> 2:09:44.960 you're not gonna be in that seat forever, now that my. 2:09:45.640 --> 2:09:47.800 This light ain't gonna be on you forever, now that my. 2:09:48.400 --> 2:09:50.880 So when when that seat is gone and the light 2:09:51.000 --> 2:09:53.640 is off, the fuck you got to show for yourself. 2:09:54.520 --> 2:09:56.520 You got a lot, man, that's the ship I'm on. 2:09:56.840 --> 2:09:58.760 You know you have more to go to Tho Sons 2:09:58.760 --> 2:10:04.600 of Scratch Baby were rolling bro unreal man. Well, I 2:10:04.680 --> 2:10:07.200 want to say this because I've mardy for a long time. Man, 2:10:07.240 --> 2:10:09.720 You've worked your ass off and like doing research on 2:10:09.760 --> 2:10:11.280 you talking to you here, Man, You're one of those 2:10:11.280 --> 2:10:13.960 people in life that just makes shit happen. And there's 2:10:13.960 --> 2:10:15.400 people that sit there and watch people do it, and 2:10:15.400 --> 2:10:17.600 there's people that actually do it. You talk about being 2:10:17.600 --> 2:10:18.960 in the mud and get yourself out and then be 2:10:19.000 --> 2:10:20.800 able to make something from opportunities and everything else. 2:10:20.800 --> 2:10:22.040 I feel like you're doing that to the max. 2:10:22.080 --> 2:10:22.200 Man. 2:10:22.280 --> 2:10:23.920 I have so much respect for those type of people 2:10:23.920 --> 2:10:24.320 in life. 2:10:24.480 --> 2:10:27.880 You bring others with you, your mentality, your positivity, everything else. Man, 2:10:27.920 --> 2:10:31.520 It uplifts everyone else too. You're saddest man. And I 2:10:31.600 --> 2:10:33.840 just want to say a massive thank you, bro, from 2:10:33.880 --> 2:10:36.520 myself to you. Apprecieople like you in this world man, 2:10:36.560 --> 2:10:38.720 that make us all better. So I appreciate it. 2:10:38.760 --> 2:10:38.920 Bro. 2:10:39.080 --> 2:10:41.040 I want to say a massive thanks man, and I 2:10:41.080 --> 2:10:43.640 appreciate you coming on the podton some some crazy stories 2:10:43.640 --> 2:10:46.360 and wacky stuff from traveling the world to the NBA 2:10:46.440 --> 2:10:47.840 in the street ball of New York. Now, I just 2:10:47.880 --> 2:10:49.400 want to say massive thank You've come a long way. 2:10:49.440 --> 2:10:51.520 You should be really proud of everything you've done. Man, 2:10:51.600 --> 2:10:53.040 thank you, But that sounds of it. Man. 2:10:53.040 --> 2:10:54.360 I'm even more excited for the future. 2:10:54.400 --> 2:10:54.640 Man. 2:10:54.840 --> 2:10:57.760 I'm excited, man, you know, I just look, you help 2:10:57.800 --> 2:11:00.000 others when you can. This is what I want to 2:11:00.240 --> 2:11:03.200 leave y'all with. Help others when you can, especially when 2:11:03.560 --> 2:11:07.520 it costs you nothing. You know, I'm able to be healthy, 2:11:08.520 --> 2:11:11.240 happy in this world. My daughter's in college playing volleyball, 2:11:11.360 --> 2:11:15.160 healthy now and happy because when I can help others, 2:11:15.280 --> 2:11:19.720 I do it. The universe does not fuck around the universe, 2:11:19.760 --> 2:11:22.600 don't play. So when you can help others, and even 2:11:22.760 --> 2:11:27.120 sometimes it might cost you help, you know what I mean, 2:11:27.160 --> 2:11:30.280 because at some point you needed help along the way, 2:11:30.280 --> 2:11:33.120 and somebody had I didn't get it by myself, you know, 2:11:33.240 --> 2:11:35.800 somebody at some point had to give me an opportunity. 2:11:35.880 --> 2:11:37.400 You know what I'm saying. It's on me at that 2:11:37.480 --> 2:11:40.240 point what I do with it. So that's why I'm 2:11:40.360 --> 2:11:44.320 always willing to give my time when I can, because 2:11:44.400 --> 2:11:47.640 I understand the blessings that I have and that have 2:11:47.800 --> 2:11:48.360 come my way. 2:11:49.680 --> 2:11:51.440 Word, your mom, be real, fucking bro. 2:11:51.640 --> 2:11:53.560 Man, that's my lady. Be I talked all the time 2:11:54.520 --> 2:11:55.200 you here right now. 2:11:56.320 --> 2:11:57.080 Oh, I appreciate that. 2:11:57.160 --> 2:12:00.720 Th much, love my bro much love, Thanks so. 2:12:00.680 --> 2:12:03.800 Much everyone for listening. Obviously amazing chat. Check it out 2:12:03.840 --> 2:12:10.160 seven platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Subscribe, 2:12:10.320 --> 2:12:13.720 like comments, share with everyone. This is an awesome, awesome, 2:12:13.800 --> 2:12:16.600 epic chat, so if you can share it, there's some 2:12:17.120 --> 2:12:19.640 absolutely golden nuggets out of this thing. I think you'll 2:12:19.680 --> 2:12:20.800 get in life and be able to use it in 2:12:20.840 --> 2:12:23.480 the future. So thanks again for listening everyone, and keep 2:12:23.560 --> 2:12:25.480 listening in for the rest of the episode. 2:12:25.600 --> 2:12:29.160 See I have a great day.