July 14, 2026 • 41 mins
Former NFL offensive lineman Ephraim Salaam is in for Rob, and he and Kelvin discuss what other sports teams in other sports leagues can learn from Spain’s run to the World Cup final, and use Jordan Walker’s comments about getting more Black kids into baseball as a backdrop into a conversation about why American athletes refuse to play multiple sports at a young age. Plus, Hidden Empire Film Group founder Deon Taylor swings by to discuss the film festival his company is putting on this weekend at the NBA Summer League.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We were talking about this a little bit yesterday, man,
and that is of course the World Cup and uh
of great matchup today. You hady she mad because you
know and bump it and bind you nothing. You didn't
do nothing by paying Frank Well, that's why I'll tell
you why in the second and France go down to
Spain in the semifinals, Spain moving on, which was a
(00:48):
lot of people's favorite. That actually, both of these teams
were a lot of people favorite heavy favorites as we
got into this tournament, but Spain was in it to neil.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
They end up getting to win there and head on
to the finals.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We have another coming up as well, England and Argentina,
so that should be a good one as well. So
do I I've enjoyed this real quick becose we start
to kind of get into it. I just got to say,
I have enjoyed the World Cup. I've watched way more
than I actually thought I would have. You asked me
three four weeks ago, whatever, I'm like, yeah, peeking here
and there, actually like purposely Saturday and Sunday. Man, I
(01:19):
was just all day laying around at the house whenever
I whenever I had a chance between the girl, my
daughter's let me. They watched it, a lot of them,
you know, I got you know, I got just turned five,
seven and nine.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh wait why was this? Who was that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And then you know why did we lose? And just
like into it more than I anticipating. So overall, I've
got to say, man, I've really enjoyed this. But what
I took away from this, Ephraim, is the same thing
that is applicable the sports you played NFL, we just
saw it happened in the NBA, and that is man. Ultimately,
if you can lock in and you can play defense,
you can win. Name the sport doesn't matter. And Spain
(01:55):
was able to do that throughout this tournament, and they
kind of did it without the fanfare too well. Outside
of their country, of course, there was other stories that
you know, we were more prominent and took the world
by storm in terms of notoriety, popularity. Yep lea me
and a mal Let's talk about him. Everybody's waiting on
(02:17):
his phenom. Eighteen year old, their best player.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
He's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yes sure, nineteen yesterday. Nice birthday win. I appreciate Mary
being on it. He's the one, right, he's the face.
He's about to.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Get the one score one goal.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's a compliment to you when your guy, because everybody
else if mbabe don't come through, if you see what happens,
he's been scoring three four goals, Holland, he looked great
but didn't come through.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
They lose, I mean all. And Robger knows because he's
been here all the weeks.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I've been saying to Alex, who's been here, that the
best part is for a casual like me. All the
names I've seen, the commercials, you see Holland, you see
all these names, you're kind of like, I know him,
but I don't know him to see them actually shine.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
It'll be like if you turn in the NBA playoffs
and step was dropping thirty five and Lebron and embiid
not embiid win being all these guys like, yo, wow,
these guys are really good. That's what I've been able
to see throughout this tournament, and I've enjoyed it. But
without yam all one goal throughout this tournament. They're right
there in the finals, and what would this be?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Three of the last three of the last four.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Now they've been in the three I think the last
three finals.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I mean yeah, last three finals now for them. So
what to me I'm seeing is the same thing is
consistent in all sports. It's boring as cliche coach said
it when you were twelve and you hated it. Defense
wins championships. Yeah, and it keeps you in games, and
it can travel literally around the world, and they can
have you in these opportunities where you got a chance
to win games. You might be able to steal some
games that you're like, how we pull that off? You
(03:45):
can dominate or you can control in a match like today,
you can equalize and really take away their best player
in BAP in this one and just really put your
force on it. And I see that. We see it
all the time in football. Sam Darnold, we talked about
them yesterday not being in the top ten. You said
he should be top ten quarterbacks in that ESPN list, right,
deserves it. But part of why I think people get
shunned them is because it's what defense is so good,
(04:07):
So they say, well it was the defense.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Was this defense good in Minnesota? U they were up
to the level of what they were this past week
they went the Seahawks. But okay, so, but no, he's
been a cop. You can look at the common denominator
between two teams now that had win fourteen games. Yeah,
one wasn't great when they got rid of him and
after and after they got rid of him, which I
was been yelling at Rob JJ McCarthy. I said, Bro,
(04:32):
you know I watched every time themselves in the face
right now. Yeah, absolutely, because I think there was a
part of them that was felt obligated.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We moved up to ten. We gotta do it, you
know the business in the sports. We gotta do it.
We gotta put no.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Sometimes you can go nah, JJ. We ain't saying you
gotta leave, but we gonna keep rolling with this. And
they had an opportunity to and they didn't want to.
But my point is defense travels. Defense wins your games
in the NFL. We just saw with the Super Bowl
NBA the next clamp down and finally find ways to
do that winby to have bad games and shut down.
And the Spurs, to their credit, that's what got them
to the finals, being a very good defensive team. To
(05:04):
be so young, you got the best player defensive player
in the league and one of the better defensive second best.
I think they were in a team throughout the season.
So that's all I saw, which is what got Spain
to the finals.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
And look, let's not make it like Mbope is the
only great player on the French team. They're actually loaded.
But styles make fights. The reality of it is they're loaded.
They were the favorites for a reason because im Bape,
although he may be the second greatest player in the world,
(05:35):
may be the greatest, because of his age and his
runway to continue to be great, he had help. He
had help, and Spain came out like you just mentioned
and unleashed defense. They took away specific things that they
didn't want friends to be able to capitalize on. That's
(05:55):
that's and look they beat them in the Euros Championships,
right they they knocked them out in the Euros. So
Spain came into this game as underdogs to the world,
but the reality of it in the locker room, they
knew that they can beat this team because they just
did it two years ago, right, And so there's this
(06:17):
thing that we don't know as fans. We're like, man,
we get caught up in the movement, we get caught
up in the hype. But you got to remember there's
a whole other team in that locker room. They know
exactly who they're playing. They've played them before and they've
beat them of the last few times that they've matched
up with them. So they came in at confidence, and
maybe French the French team and came in maybe reading
(06:40):
the little press clippings and feeling like it was a
foregone conclusion for them to repeat in the finals. It
didn't work out. Not to mention, let's add some context
to this. So right now, Spain, of course, they have
eleven goals so far. That's the most they've ever had
in a single World Cup since nineteen eighty six for them,
and the three more than they had when they actually
(07:02):
want it back in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yep, But then they have only a live one goal.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I mean now that that's the formula. I'll score eleven,
I'll only give it one. Look at you, I see Chris,
look clen the men. But one one goal and multiple
games like that's incredible. We know not expected that. You
know people are gonna put up two three goals a
game on you matches.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But you want to clean sheets. That is insane to
going to a game.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And have a clean sheet coming out of coming out
of on the other side of it. And look, I
have a model when I'm coaching my twelve twelve U team.
My model is if they don't score, they don't win. Right,
So I'll bring the kids up and I'll scream if
they don't score, and they all in unison say they
don't win. That's the model. If you hang your hat
(07:51):
on that, then no matter what I said, if we
score two points and they don't score any who wins
the game?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Right Right? That's the whole premise. And when you see
a team like Spain who.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Specializes and pays just attention to detail on the defensive
end of the pitch, it's it's a beautiful thing to see.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
It's it's not.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Eye dropping and it's not maybe like a casual fan
favorite to watch. We love the excitement, the up and down,
the shots on goal, we love all of those things.
But they were like, yeah, we're not doing none of that.
So we we got a game plan, we're gonna stick
with it, and they were able to execute and come
away with a huge, huge, huge win.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And what's funny is too, this is the third straight
final parents a Ram Jamal is eighteen.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yes, we just mentioned one goal. He got about six more. Really,
this thing is gonna get about six more to go.
And this is him right now with them looking four
years where he could be if he starts to produce more,
you know what I mean, Like all of a sudden,
he becomes one of the even bigger stars as we've
talked about throughout some of these other ones.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So kudos to them again getting it done. And now
we got to This is gonna be an interesting final
whoever we can get there, whoever ends up getting there.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
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Speaker 1 (09:54):
Join now, founder of the Hidden Empire film Group, friend
of the show, producing a million things, working hard. I've
been on zoom calls and I didn't even know I
was on them, but deon Taylor Jordan Us Now, what
up date?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
What's up?
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Brothers? How y'all doing?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Man?
Speaker 8 (10:11):
I'm good man, I'm actually here at the Summer League.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Man.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
So if y'all here or is the buzzing going off?
You know it's you know, it's real.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Are you checking in the game? They're letting you They're
letting you check in.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Man.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
They might need me bro this team that the teams
day down fifty one to seventy seven. That but Beg
might need to text me bro I might get in here.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
You got five minutes in you you can give them five.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
By get seven minutes and by getting fifteen points.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Man, liar, your son is a better adapted to do
that than you are.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Right now.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
It's always it's always your own come you know.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It's always people be the ones closest to you. D
all right, go ahead, I say, you guys, tell me
all the stuff you got going. I know you will
tell us about the film festival.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
There.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Look, let's let's get right into it, Dion. Let's talk
about number one, the partnership with you and the Summer League,
and then let's get into the Summer League Film Festival.
As a director, a writer or producer and someone who's
had a film company for well over twenty years, what's
the importance of the intersection between entertainment and sports and
(11:18):
you being on the forefront of that.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Well, you know, the the NBA Summer League is already
just a phenomenal event. I mean, I wouldn't be here
if it wasn't for Albert Hall and Warren and then
obviously Kevin Garnett and Mike. Two different forces that came
together that, you know, one build the Summer League, but
then to create the Summer League Film Festival, which I
(11:43):
think is phenomenal. Where we are now is basically it's
year three and we are seeing the outburst of athletes
going into film, athletes going into their own it content
creation across the board, and there's a ways even with
podcasts you watch you know, your show, you watch all
(12:06):
the smoke, you guys are understanding in a very very
cool way in a vacuum. This is all the ways,
which is you don't have to be Lebron anymore to
have a platform. Every athlete, every genre of athlete has
a platform and people are you know, they're they're buying it.
So what we're doing here with the NBA Summer League
is we created the Film Festival, which is inside of
(12:29):
Summer League. So if you come to the Thomas Macenter
and you come watch games, and you come up on Thursday,
Friday or Saturday, there's an active film festival happening during
the game. Just like Sun Dance. Just start south by
Southwest the same exact way, and there are athletes who
are debuting their documentaries. They're full of the feature film.
They are panels talking about what they're doing in the space,
(12:51):
and it's live.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Man.
Speaker 8 (12:52):
We got you know, four to five hundred people in
the room at any given moment, you know, all hovered
around the projector watching. It's a really, really amazing moment.
But what we're trying to lend to it right now
is our expert teams from doing this for twenty years
as a film company and doing it independently. What we're
teaching people is you don't have to ask for permission
(13:13):
no more. You got a phone, if you got an idea,
you got a little bit of money in your own
bank account, you've got no money in your bank account
and just want to do it. You can actually get
out here and do it without asking these people to please.
Is my story good enough for the world? Your story
is good enough and we're waiting for it. So that's
why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So some guys have jumped into the space and then
they become kind of the interview words if you will,
and what do you think about learning that? The art
form to it, you know, cause some guys just get
on it and they just talk. Some want to be
really good at the craft and they want to become interviewers.
What about that as far as understanding it and really
seeing how far they can take. I look at a
guy like Matt Barnes, for instance, I've seen just witness
(13:53):
his growth as far as just hey, I got a
guy who has an opinion turned to I'm really want
to be the person interviewing former presidents, not just athletes
and things of that nature.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
This is this is This is competition and sport as well.
So you as a director, you come in here, yeah,
you can just I want to make.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Movies, but at the end of the.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
Day, you are still competing. You still have to get
better at the crap. It is artistry that you have
to work on, you know, and it takes time to
do those things.
Speaker 7 (14:19):
You know.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
You look at Marty Scorsese or you know, you know
uh uh uh any director uh Steven Stilbert. These guys
are hidden hitting. You know, they're at their peak at
sixty five years old. This is when they're their best,
you know what I mean? So I think for Matt until.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You guys still hear me yet you we got you?
Speaker 8 (14:43):
Yeah, I think for Matt knows guys and anybody getting
into the space. I think what's great is you're gonna
have people that come in just to mess around, like
I'm gonna try this, and then you have people that
understand this is an art form and you have to
get better at being an interview You have to get
better at your podcast. You have to think, why am
I doing this? If everyone's talking about basketball? What makes
their podcast different?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
And there in lies kind of like the world that
we haven't been able to tap into as athletes, where
normally it would have been some guy doing the show
that probably never played but was a big fan and
he's interviewing you. Now it's intricate because now you have
guys who played fifteen twenty years. We're like, man, let's
talk about how I've felt in Game three and Game four,
what what happened to me injury wise? What happened to
(15:25):
my family? And you're seeing athletes on these shows with
other athletes open up. I seen the Chris Paul thing
recently where he was talking about he missed his family
doing this, you know what I mean? That probably wouldn't
have came from another person other than the athlete for
him to have to share that information. So it's an
amazing world, and it's a multi billion dollar world that
(15:47):
we have to get into now and create ownership before
we cannot own it.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Let's talk about ownership and the movement you and Hitting
Empires Film Group and Hitting Empire Sports Collective is trying
to champion in terms of athletes not only being able
to tell their stories, whether it be a documentary, scripted, unscripted,
anything that they want to be a part of. Talk
about your pushing your drive to have athletes understand the
(16:17):
ownership process in terms of owning their IP, owning the
piece of intellectual property that you want to talk about.
A lot of athletes have been told don't finance your
own movie, don't finance your own doc. Let somebody else
pay for it. What is the message that you're trying
to get across to those athletes.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Yeah, the message is quite simple, man, which is is
twenty twenty six and we are past the time of
you not being able to own and control what it
is you're doing. Only certain people are still subscribing to
what I like to call a slave mentality where it's like, oh, yeah,
don't invest in yourself, don't get the guy next to
(17:00):
you that's been with you for fifteen years, a job
working for you, I can do it better. We're trying
to break all of those generational curses right now. And
I'll tell you it's amazing for me doing this twenty
years and still be it. It's hard to people and
them still want to go work for someone versus bills
some of themselves. And that's the part that we're trying
to crack that cold, which is no man. Ownership and
(17:23):
creating IP and owning your IP is the ways. Being
paid today and not having nothing tomorrow is old news.
The reality is these shows, these movies, these podcasts. Yeah,
you go create it and you own creating on it
for a moment, did somebody come take it from you?
And then ten years down the line they fire your
ass and have somebody else in there working on the
(17:44):
thing that you made. That is how business usually works
and has been working forever. So we're just trying to say, look,
for twenty years, we've been doing it this way. We've
been creating our own brands, we've been making the own IP,
we own all of our content, and let us just
show you a little bit of how it works. But
I will tell you it's not for everybody because it
also means that you must invest in yourself. And it
(18:05):
also means that you got to take a little bit
of money and put it into yourself, and you have
to there's no guardrails. It's easy to go out and
ask for money. It's easy to beg people to please
believe in something that you have and invest in it.
But you'd be surprised. I mean, guys, I've encountered with
fifty sixty two hundred million dollars and they have a
project that literally costs two hundred grand and they spent
(18:27):
a year asking someone to get the two hundred grand.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I mean, I think subconsciously, and it goes as applicable
to so many things in life.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
They were like not me, or why me?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Or I'm not trained for that, or fear I don't
know even if you got the money, some people just
are scared to jump out on the limit, try something new.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think that can hinder that.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We are on the line with Deon Taylor and the
Odd Couple kelvin Washington, E for Salam who's in for
Rob who is of course he is the founder of
Hidden Empire Field Group. Let me ask you this, sports
right now, if you keep up with TV, is really
the only thing that's kind of saving TV right been
in billions to have the rights for the NBA, MLB, NFL,
so on and so on, for we see what the
(19:05):
world comes doing, for Fox doing big numbers. And then
of course you got the movies as well. When a
big time sports movie comes out a lot of people's
favorite movies or things like Remember.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
The Titans or this and that and you know major league.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Why do you think sports from a current TV standpoint
and just even from a film wise, why do we
love them so much?
Speaker 8 (19:26):
Because it's global and it transcends. Everyone understands in every
culture across the world win and lose. Everyone knows how
to win and lose.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Period.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
It doesn't matter where you at, It doesn't matter how
rich you are, how poor you are. You have won
and you have lost before. So that's what makes sports amazing.
It's also what makes horror movies the biggest genre in
the world, right because everyone understands fear. Everyone understands man
kicks door, man swings X. It don't matter what language
you see, you understand that, right right, right, So this
(19:57):
is why these things are able to actually exist and
work globally right now. You might not be a soccer fan,
but the hype around the World Cup and watching these
teams play each other, you will find yourself tuned. They're like, DN,
he almost got that. You understand the concept and you
understand what it means for people to win this game
or lose this game. So that's kind of the energy.
(20:18):
But I just don't understand at this point why it's
taking us so long to understand ownership. And we've just
not been taught these things, man. So now we're kind
of waving this flag out here saying do it, do it,
do it, and we still have people like, oh, man,
I know how y'all doing it, Man, I did it before.
You've never done this. As a matter of fact, we've
been the only people in the marketplace for almost a
(20:41):
decade or two doing it at this level. So there's
very few people that we've met that could say, oh, yeah,
I've made thirteen fourteen independent films, four or five independent documentaries,
and oh, by the way, have set them up, licensed
them and still only im That's just not a language
that we speak in our coaches. So we're trying to
make sure that when we're done here, that there's seventy
(21:05):
d Odds and one hundred Hitting Empires and fifty more ephims.
That's what we need to do to actually grow it,
not be singular one person like, yeah, we did that.
We're not telling nobody how to actually do it. Part
of it is giving people the information so that they
could go win and then hopefully, if the intention is
right and you do it right, you could all win
(21:25):
and everyone can win together.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
That's great, And this is the last one we know.
I know you're busy.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
We'll let you go talk about a Hitting Empire sports collective, right.
We know about Hit Empire Film group and the success
you guys have had there theatrically with the films, but
talk about you putting together the sports collective. Who's involved
and what you aim to do with that division of
Hitting Empire.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
Man, we bought in some amazing executives like yourself, ephom
is here at the sports collective, NBA champion several, Arisa,
Lionel Benjamin, We've just brought in Christine who is you
know formly working for the w n b A, and
also Magie Johnson. We just have an amazing group Glenn
Big Baby Davis as someone who we know has some
(22:09):
ups and downs. This is why it's important to own
yourself is because when someone falls, we're able to pick
someone up versus looking at him like, man, I wonder
what he's gonna do, Like, no, we're gonna do you
a job. Man, you're smart, you're artist, You've been in
this space. So the collective is built on athletes that
are getting involved and wanted to actually educate, learn and
(22:30):
provide information to other athletes to be able to do this.
What's more interesting is is people that believing. But when
we're not looking for the biggest athletes in the world
to be a part of the company, we're looking for
the hungry as we're looking for the people that want
to go do the real work and get it done.
And it's important because we're watching now people copytat what
we're doing, except they don't have the entire formula of
(22:52):
how to do it. That's kind of always the thing
that you always I see, they got two cups of flour,
one cup of sugar, but oh yeah, they don't know
all of the rest of the recipe to make the cake.
So at this point I'm just sitting back watching multiple
companies say, oh, yeah, we're in the sports content space
and this is what we're gonna do. And all they're
really doing is right around asking people again for permission,
(23:14):
right around asking studios can they please finance something? And
then the moment that the studio says, no, get what
happens to that project?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
It just said, none happens.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
It's God, it's not gonna happen. Versus No, we believe
in it. We believe in this story. It's amazing. What
do we need to do to go do it on
our own and then take it back to the marketplace?
And oh, by the way, if it's not right for
their studio, then how do we take it out independently
so it wins. That's our whole another conversation that people
(23:44):
are not ready to have, but we've been doing for
a long time. And that's what makes us so dynamic
and so different in this space is we understand our culture,
we understand what we need to make, we understand what
we're doing, and we know how to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Period. Well period, then let's end it right there.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, I appreciate it for good stuff with you know,
y'all talk about athletes, athletes, athletes, former athlete, former I mean,
what about former high school athletes?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Can we can we get?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I told I told Kevin we got some stuff and
it works for him, saying, you know some former high
school athletes.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I'm reper for Rob g myself.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
I don't even know if USC Chris played, but dang
are here in this as well, Miss Mary Mac, I
don't know. You know, all athletes, it's something yeah, some
of us. You know, it's stopped at twelfth grade. That's
about it. You know, then we became church league champs
about here in these streets.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Man, come, let me.
Speaker 8 (24:33):
Let me tell you guys. One thing on that that's
the new sector. A you basketball like that is the
next trillion dollar business trying that they're trying to figure out,
same as Pop Warner football. Like, I'm trying to tell
you guys, this is where it's going. So it has
to be former athletes that get involved with this stuff
(24:53):
before these massive corporations come in. And actually, now all
of a sudden they've unionized what your kids, your kids
AAU team. They're making hundreds of millions of dollars off
of these kids. And we sit back with that's crazy right, No,
you we can do that. So it's amazing, bro. So
thank you guys so much for the time interview. Really
appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Man, Noah, no doubting it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Keep doing it, man, Proud of you, and just keep going,
keep educating, keep creating, and keep disrupting for sure.
Speaker 8 (25:23):
Yes, sir, Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Thank you so much, No doub appreciate you. Dion.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Do you have the All Star Game?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You had the home run derby last night, and Rob
Parker and I have had this conversation a few times.
I'm glad you're here to just kind of get your
thoughts on this where we are where baseball. You have
Jordan Walker, who won the All Star Home Run Derby,
and the idea of where we are when it comes
to specifically African Americans, not Afro Latina, but at blacks
(26:04):
here in America and where they are when it comes
to baseball. Here's what Jordan Walker, Saint Louis Cardinal winner
of the twenty twenty six home run.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Derby had to say about this.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
I want to be a role model for them, the
black kids, you know, and I want more black kids
in baseball.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So hopefully this, you know, raises some awareness.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know, I know a lot of them might playing
like basketball, football route. I want them to know the
baseball routes opening to them too. There's a lot of
good kids. You're athletic enough and mentally strong enough. Black
kids that can play this game. I don't want to
see them do it.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And that pleads to a great question, where are the
black kids that play baseball? Are they coming? You're meaning,
are they eight, nine, ten, eleven right now? When you
look at where they were historically, you're looking at the
era of the Obviously you took Jackie Robinson and you know,
to get this whole thing rolling, But you start looking
(26:52):
at the sixties, especially the seventies, the eighties and the nineties,
I mean you're looking at eras where you had eighteen
to twenty percent of teams. We're black, not teams, but
players in the league were African American and it was
just normal right to have a few guys on the team, four, five,
six guys, some guys on a team. You didn't even
think twice about it, and you were just looking for
the best athletes white, black and at that point Latino.
(27:13):
But it didn't matter. And then all of a sudden
there was a massive decline. And I mean when you
start to look at the numbers, it's staggering. Like a
half full of years ago, we were down a six
percent of the players. I mean, and it's just it's
is it because other sports? And the only conclusion I've
had seant to no. Mar Garcia Park had this conversation
with him and him speaking of spectrum. He's with sports
(27:35):
that LA obviously all under spectrum. He came across the
hall and joined my show and he was just talking
about so many things, him as a you know, a
local guy here in LA who's who's involved in baseball,
and he was talking about how one problem baseball is
starting to have is the same thing a lot of sports.
You know this as a coach, it's starting to price
people out. Oh yeah, and it's getting where gone other days?
(27:55):
You just played at john Smith High and you were good.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
There and that's all. What do it mattered now?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
If you aren't on this travel team that goes here,
this club team that travels, there's gonna cost this. Your
parents want to come, so they're gonna have to pay
for this into the room and you gotta And he
was saying, how it's getting to where it's only the
only people who have money, and that can be black,
doesn't matter, but it's becoming where you're you're limiting kids.
It's expensive, it's expensive. If you don't have money, you
can't play. And again that's not saying black people don't
(28:22):
have money, Clearly, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying
is you're already shrinking a pool that's already limited as well,
just based off population numbers.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
So now you're limiting even more.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And he was just saying how it's that and just
how we're not highlighting it to and going to those
neighborhoods and kind of spreading the love and joy baseball.
And so I just thought about that when I when
I heard Jordan Walker say that, I was like, Wow,
that's that's a great point for him to use this platform,
this huge moment to say, Yo, I'm trying to get
some more black kids to play the game. And I'm like, obviously, basketball, football, track,
(28:53):
and then those last kids who maybe are trying to
figure it out. It's between you get a little baseball here,
you get a little tennants here, you get you know
what I mean, You're kind of geting those last few
kids that are parts between the handful of other sports.
But the bulk is going to basketball. The bulk is
going to football, the maybe track as well. And you
got young kids who played baseball. Is this just I'm
(29:13):
young and I'm playing now, or is this a passion
I want to play throughout my scholastic career.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
So I talk about this a lot. And when you
talk about the scholastic career and all of that, one
of the things is number one. Baseball back up. You know,
in the seventies, eighties, early nineties used to be the
most popular sport in the country.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That is no longer the case.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
The strike early in the nineties really took a lot
out of baseball as a whole because it opened up
the door for college football and the NFL, and they
seize that moment, kick the door right, and they're not
giving it back right. So, my son, who's twelve, played
(30:01):
Both of my sons, the first thing they played was soccer,
and then baseball and my son when he was nine, Elijah,
they won the nine U championship Sherman Oaks Little League.
It was amazing and he played one more year ten
and then after that season we got to the semi
finals and he lost. And after that season he said,
(30:22):
I think I'm done with baseball. I think I just
want to focus on basketball. And I'm gonna give you
guys what I think is happening and the correct assessment
of especially of you know African Americans and in youth sports.
Number one, if you have a multi sport athlete and
(30:45):
they're leaning to one of those sports other than baseball
being their favorite, whether it's football, where there's basketball. The
thing is, my son is a phenomenal basketball player. That's
what he wants to do. He wants to go to
the NBA. He'll have a shot. He's got the DNA,
he's going to be tall, he can play. He's got
to put the work in right. The problem with leaving
(31:07):
for three months and playing baseball is when you come
back to basketball, those same kids that you were better
than when you left are now better and now you're
catching up. This is a real thing when you step
away from something at that age for that long and
(31:29):
try to come back because these with these reclasses and
all of that. My son is as a real twelve.
He turned twelve three weeks ago. He's in the seventh grade.
There is a fourteen year old in the seventh grade
right now.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I'm not lying, I know.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
So you have a kid two years older than my
son playing in the same age group. That's the problem
with AAU number one. That's a whole nother tangent that
I'll get off on, you know, eventually. But so now,
he doesn't want to take those three months away from basketball.
He wants to continue to play and train so he
(32:09):
can continually get better and not be behind the eight
ball when it comes to coming back to a sport.
I know a kid who's tremendous, he's unbelievably talented. Plays
he's a pitcher, he's a quarterback, and he plays basketball.
He's not getting better at basket. Basketball is so technical
in terms of your skills have to increase dramatically, your
(32:35):
ball handling, you're shooting, it has to increase dramatically because
those are the jumps these kids are showing. Now, fast
forward to high school. What's the number one currency for
high school kid. The number one currency clout, clout, popular popularity, Yeah,
social media. Yeah, what are the sports that if you're
(33:01):
a great pitcher, are a great point guard, are a
great quarterback? Which is last on that list pitcher. Because
the way baseball is set up, you'll play games during
the school during school, kids will be in class that
no one will be at the games except for the
(33:22):
opposing team, parents and some scouts. That's the only people
that go to baseball games unless it's a night game,
and so on and so forth. Friday night lights, whole
town shut down to come play, to watch football, basketball
three times a week. Jim is packed on Friday night. Right,
this is what you're competing against. These athletes, these African
(33:43):
American athletes, who are good athletes, are now seeing the
currency shift with the other sports. Oh I'm good at baseball,
but everybody wants to see me play football. Everybody wants
to see me play basketball, and Major League Baseball has
a marketing problem.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Best player in Major League Baseball right.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Now, I mean Aaron Judge or Otani or you know
who's the best player I'm gonna go to because he's
pitching it. He's the best player he doesn't speak English.
How many commercials have you seen with Otani? I've seen
the new Balance.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
They're not tell me the kids who are not even
stars yet those first aj Debonnson just launched his commercial
and with his shoe already, John Moran has the hottest
shelling shoe.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He don't even play.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
That's big facts, But you understand that's what you're marketing to.
These kids are seeing that. These kids want to be
a part of that. They want to go to the
Nike E ybl they want to go play in three
sixty five, the Adidas circuit.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
I mean, I can't see what's happening. Let me give
you another example of this. LaMelo ball been injured. I've read,
I've read his games per play year. It is staggering, staggering.
How few he's played, shoe selling out the guys big
social media. Him and his brother's live streaming everybody like
(35:11):
they're select.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
They're huge.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Guess what you don't get as a kid on social media,
a big following doing baseball. That's just what it is,
all right now, Everything you said I get, and I agree.
Let me throw some counterpoints at this though. Who's the
best basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
He played baseball Lebron James till his junior After his
junior year, he cut because they hate you going to
the league. You might want to start. He played football.
Alan Iverson didn't even really like basketball like that. Football
was his favorite sport. For those of you don't know,
Bubba Chuck is what they call him. Bubba Chuck was
a quarterback. Have you ever seen Randy Moss center field?
(35:53):
Mister basketball, mister football, ran one hundred yards in two
hundred I believe ridiculous. Go look it up center field.
I mean looking like you think Aaron Judge is playing
the center field. Go watch him. My point is some
of the people we deemed the Dion Sanders best athletes ever,
bow jack, so on and so forth. They all play
(36:16):
multiple sports and we considered them the goats of their sports.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wilt Chamberlain running.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Track, Jackie Robinson was dagner better at tracking baseball basketball
than he was baseball. So like, why all of a
sudden did history Who's shown us the goats that we
all revere and we look up to, and we say
that's the standard.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Now we're like, not, I ain't the standard? No more.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
You gotta specialize and only do that. Like, when did
that happen? So you're telling me, and I'm not saying
you're wrong. Your kids are older than mine. I'm just
I'm gonna just be getting into that. I got young girls.
But like I'm like, man, so when did history change
when most of these guys John Elway, they said he
could throw a baseball from home play over out in
(36:58):
the center field. Like these guys that we look at,
the best quarterbacks, the best this they all play multiple sports.
I mean, look at all the Kyler Murray first number
one pick in baseball, number one picking football. So like,
when did all of the change where you have to
only play.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
One or you can get what I mean, you can't
survive now playing multiple sports at that level. The thing
that's really changed the landscape is nil. Now you don't
have to make it to the pros to get paid.
You don't these kids, So think about it. This is
a whole parents are strategizing. They're high school kids making nil.
(37:36):
Money is no longer make it to the league or bus.
So if you have a shot, if you have a
kid who can get drafted in baseball in the first round,
get drafted in football in the first round or get
drafted in basketball in the first round. Which one are
you picking? And you might say, well, I'm taking baseball
because he has a longer career. Guess what, how many
(37:58):
first round draft picks in baseball s been four years
in the minor leagues before they even get to the show.
That's big facts. It takes so long to get to
the spot. These aj Debonza, Darren Peterson, Peterson uh Carlo
cam Boozer said, they're all ready nothing else household names,
(38:22):
and if nothing else happened, they're set. They're already household names.
Who was drafted in the first round of the Major
League Baseball draft? And where are they right now? That's
what I'm talking about. Social media, nil and popularity you're
going to grab. We don't see any MLB commercials. We're
(38:43):
not inundated with these superstars in MLB like we are
in these others.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And it thinks also the infusion of pop culture. There's
not a lot of obviously the stars pop stars. I
mean you see not even just hip hop stars. You
see Taylor Swift at the Knicks game, and it's been
a whole move. It's a whole. It is a whole thing.
And but so going back to the original point. So
if you're you know, Jordan Walker, who obviously black player
(39:12):
doing his thing winning the home run there, it.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Was like him against the world out there in that
home run derby.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Huh like it Literally the way they kept flashing back
to the I was like, what is.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Happening right now? Saying I was like, hey man, what
is it?
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Literally felt like maybe you know, maybe because it Bryce
Harper and Philly and it was a.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Philly right, like it's it. But it looked it.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
Was optically did it look like the beginning of the Optically.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
It felt a little I was. I was really looking like, man,
they had the white wigs.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Just imagine, just imagine the pressure he was under and
to be able to perform like he did. Shot out
to him because that was like, brother, it is you
against the world out here. He had to hit the
home run on the last to get to get one
to break the tie.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah no, And like I said, look, credit to him
for doing it. And I credit him for saying, hey man,
it's a good sport. It's a great sport.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Gets get some more out there, and I just thought
it was interesting because last point I just like I
mentioned the numbers, I want to reiterate the numbers again.
So throughout I mentioned the seventies, eighties, and nineties kind
of the you know, the run where baseball was still
a big thing, big deal. You had up to nineteen
percent and sometimes in the seventies in certain cities they
got up to twenty seven percent of teams for the
(40:35):
players we're African American. Then the twenty tens it dropped
to eight percent, and then in the twenty twenties we
got down to six percent. So it's increasingly it's falling.
It's gone lower right now present day, where it's sitting
anywhere between two point six point two six point eight,
and so that's that's where to me is like, wow,
it's got interesting. Now obviously there's a whole different conversation diaspora.
(40:57):
We can start talking Afro Latina, you know, that's a
whole other thing, but Latino. But but that was I
thought it was a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Less white players playing.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
Yeah, you know, so it's we could say American players
that period
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
four to seven pm Pacific seven to ten pm Eastern
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The
Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us every day on the iHeartRadio by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We were talking about this a little bit yesterday, man,
and that is of course the World Cup and uh
of great matchup today. You hady she mad because you
know and bump it and bind you nothing. You didn't
do nothing by paying Frank Well, that's why I'll tell
you why in the second and France go down to
Spain in the semifinals, Spain moving on, which was a
(00:48):
lot of people's favorite. That actually, both of these teams
were a lot of people favorite heavy favorites as we
got into this tournament, but Spain was in it to neil.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
They end up getting to win there and head on
to the finals.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We have another coming up as well, England and Argentina,
so that should be a good one as well. So
do I I've enjoyed this real quick becose we start
to kind of get into it. I just got to say,
I have enjoyed the World Cup. I've watched way more
than I actually thought I would have. You asked me
three four weeks ago, whatever, I'm like, yeah, peeking here
and there, actually like purposely Saturday and Sunday. Man, I
(01:19):
was just all day laying around at the house whenever
I whenever I had a chance between the girl, my
daughter's let me. They watched it, a lot of them,
you know, I got you know, I got just turned five,
seven and nine.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh wait why was this? Who was that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And then you know why did we lose? And just
like into it more than I anticipating. So overall, I've
got to say, man, I've really enjoyed this. But what
I took away from this, Ephraim, is the same thing
that is applicable the sports you played NFL, we just
saw it happened in the NBA, and that is man. Ultimately,
if you can lock in and you can play defense,
you can win. Name the sport doesn't matter. And Spain
(01:55):
was able to do that throughout this tournament, and they
kind of did it without the fanfare too well. Outside
of their country, of course, there was other stories that
you know, we were more prominent and took the world
by storm in terms of notoriety, popularity. Yep lea me
and a mal Let's talk about him. Everybody's waiting on
(02:17):
his phenom. Eighteen year old, their best player.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
He's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yes sure, nineteen yesterday. Nice birthday win. I appreciate Mary
being on it. He's the one, right, he's the face.
He's about to.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Get the one score one goal.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's a compliment to you when your guy, because everybody
else if mbabe don't come through, if you see what happens,
he's been scoring three four goals, Holland, he looked great
but didn't come through.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
They lose, I mean all. And Robger knows because he's
been here all the weeks.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I've been saying to Alex, who's been here, that the
best part is for a casual like me. All the
names I've seen, the commercials, you see Holland, you see
all these names, you're kind of like, I know him,
but I don't know him to see them actually shine.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
It'll be like if you turn in the NBA playoffs
and step was dropping thirty five and Lebron and embiid
not embiid win being all these guys like, yo, wow,
these guys are really good. That's what I've been able
to see throughout this tournament, and I've enjoyed it. But
without yam all one goal throughout this tournament. They're right
there in the finals, and what would this be?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Three of the last three of the last four.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Now they've been in the three I think the last
three finals.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I mean yeah, last three finals now for them. So
what to me I'm seeing is the same thing is
consistent in all sports. It's boring as cliche coach said
it when you were twelve and you hated it. Defense
wins championships. Yeah, and it keeps you in games, and
it can travel literally around the world, and they can
have you in these opportunities where you got a chance
to win games. You might be able to steal some
games that you're like, how we pull that off? You
(03:45):
can dominate or you can control in a match like today,
you can equalize and really take away their best player
in BAP in this one and just really put your
force on it. And I see that. We see it
all the time in football. Sam Darnold, we talked about
them yesterday not being in the top ten. You said
he should be top ten quarterbacks in that ESPN list, right,
deserves it. But part of why I think people get
shunned them is because it's what defense is so good,
(04:07):
So they say, well it was the defense.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Was this defense good in Minnesota? U they were up
to the level of what they were this past week
they went the Seahawks. But okay, so, but no, he's
been a cop. You can look at the common denominator
between two teams now that had win fourteen games. Yeah,
one wasn't great when they got rid of him and
after and after they got rid of him, which I
was been yelling at Rob JJ McCarthy. I said, Bro,
(04:32):
you know I watched every time themselves in the face
right now. Yeah, absolutely, because I think there was a
part of them that was felt obligated.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We moved up to ten. We gotta do it, you
know the business in the sports. We gotta do it.
We gotta put no.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Sometimes you can go nah, JJ. We ain't saying you
gotta leave, but we gonna keep rolling with this. And
they had an opportunity to and they didn't want to.
But my point is defense travels. Defense wins your games
in the NFL. We just saw with the Super Bowl
NBA the next clamp down and finally find ways to
do that winby to have bad games and shut down.
And the Spurs, to their credit, that's what got them
to the finals, being a very good defensive team. To
(05:04):
be so young, you got the best player defensive player
in the league and one of the better defensive second best.
I think they were in a team throughout the season.
So that's all I saw, which is what got Spain
to the finals.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
And look, let's not make it like Mbope is the
only great player on the French team. They're actually loaded.
But styles make fights. The reality of it is they're loaded.
They were the favorites for a reason because im Bape,
although he may be the second greatest player in the world,
(05:35):
may be the greatest, because of his age and his
runway to continue to be great, he had help. He
had help, and Spain came out like you just mentioned
and unleashed defense. They took away specific things that they
didn't want friends to be able to capitalize on. That's
(05:55):
that's and look they beat them in the Euros Championships,
right they they knocked them out in the Euros. So
Spain came into this game as underdogs to the world,
but the reality of it in the locker room, they
knew that they can beat this team because they just
did it two years ago, right, And so there's this
(06:17):
thing that we don't know as fans. We're like, man,
we get caught up in the movement, we get caught
up in the hype. But you got to remember there's
a whole other team in that locker room. They know
exactly who they're playing. They've played them before and they've
beat them of the last few times that they've matched
up with them. So they came in at confidence, and
maybe French the French team and came in maybe reading
(06:40):
the little press clippings and feeling like it was a
foregone conclusion for them to repeat in the finals. It
didn't work out. Not to mention, let's add some context
to this. So right now, Spain, of course, they have
eleven goals so far. That's the most they've ever had
in a single World Cup since nineteen eighty six for them,
and the three more than they had when they actually
(07:02):
want it back in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yep, But then they have only a live one goal.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I mean now that that's the formula. I'll score eleven,
I'll only give it one. Look at you, I see Chris,
look clen the men. But one one goal and multiple
games like that's incredible. We know not expected that. You
know people are gonna put up two three goals a
game on you matches.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But you want to clean sheets. That is insane to
going to a game.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And have a clean sheet coming out of coming out
of on the other side of it. And look, I
have a model when I'm coaching my twelve twelve U team.
My model is if they don't score, they don't win. Right,
So I'll bring the kids up and I'll scream if
they don't score, and they all in unison say they
don't win. That's the model. If you hang your hat
(07:51):
on that, then no matter what I said, if we
score two points and they don't score any who wins
the game?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Right Right? That's the whole premise. And when you see
a team like Spain who.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Specializes and pays just attention to detail on the defensive
end of the pitch, it's it's a beautiful thing to see.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
It's it's not.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Eye dropping and it's not maybe like a casual fan
favorite to watch. We love the excitement, the up and down,
the shots on goal, we love all of those things.
But they were like, yeah, we're not doing none of that.
So we we got a game plan, we're gonna stick
with it, and they were able to execute and come
away with a huge, huge, huge win.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And what's funny is too, this is the third straight
final parents a Ram Jamal is eighteen.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yes, we just mentioned one goal. He got about six more. Really,
this thing is gonna get about six more to go.
And this is him right now with them looking four
years where he could be if he starts to produce more,
you know what I mean, Like all of a sudden,
he becomes one of the even bigger stars as we've
talked about throughout some of these other ones.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So kudos to them again getting it done. And now
we got to This is gonna be an interesting final
whoever we can get there, whoever ends up getting there.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 6 (09:20):
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Speaker 7 (09:37):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
Speaker 6 (09:39):
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Speaker 7 (09:44):
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Speaker 6 (09:47):
Listen to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
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Speaker 7 (09:50):
Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Join now, founder of the Hidden Empire film Group, friend
of the show, producing a million things, working hard. I've
been on zoom calls and I didn't even know I
was on them, but deon Taylor Jordan Us Now, what
up date?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
What's up?
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Brothers? How y'all doing?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Man?
Speaker 8 (10:11):
I'm good man, I'm actually here at the Summer League.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Man.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
So if y'all here or is the buzzing going off?
You know it's you know, it's real.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Are you checking in the game? They're letting you They're
letting you check in.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Man.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
They might need me bro this team that the teams
day down fifty one to seventy seven. That but Beg
might need to text me bro I might get in here.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
You got five minutes in you you can give them five.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
By get seven minutes and by getting fifteen points.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Man, liar, your son is a better adapted to do
that than you are.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Right now.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
It's always it's always your own come you know.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
It's always people be the ones closest to you. D
all right, go ahead, I say, you guys, tell me
all the stuff you got going. I know you will
tell us about the film festival.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
There.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Look, let's let's get right into it, Dion. Let's talk
about number one, the partnership with you and the Summer League,
and then let's get into the Summer League Film Festival.
As a director, a writer or producer and someone who's
had a film company for well over twenty years, what's
the importance of the intersection between entertainment and sports and
(11:18):
you being on the forefront of that.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Well, you know, the the NBA Summer League is already
just a phenomenal event. I mean, I wouldn't be here
if it wasn't for Albert Hall and Warren and then
obviously Kevin Garnett and Mike. Two different forces that came
together that, you know, one build the Summer League, but
then to create the Summer League Film Festival, which I
(11:43):
think is phenomenal. Where we are now is basically it's
year three and we are seeing the outburst of athletes
going into film, athletes going into their own it content
creation across the board, and there's a ways even with
podcasts you watch you know, your show, you watch all
(12:06):
the smoke, you guys are understanding in a very very
cool way in a vacuum. This is all the ways,
which is you don't have to be Lebron anymore to
have a platform. Every athlete, every genre of athlete has
a platform and people are you know, they're they're buying it.
So what we're doing here with the NBA Summer League
is we created the Film Festival, which is inside of
(12:29):
Summer League. So if you come to the Thomas Macenter
and you come watch games, and you come up on Thursday,
Friday or Saturday, there's an active film festival happening during
the game. Just like Sun Dance. Just start south by
Southwest the same exact way, and there are athletes who
are debuting their documentaries. They're full of the feature film.
They are panels talking about what they're doing in the space,
(12:51):
and it's live.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Man.
Speaker 8 (12:52):
We got you know, four to five hundred people in
the room at any given moment, you know, all hovered
around the projector watching. It's a really, really amazing moment.
But what we're trying to lend to it right now
is our expert teams from doing this for twenty years
as a film company and doing it independently. What we're
teaching people is you don't have to ask for permission
(13:13):
no more. You got a phone, if you got an idea,
you got a little bit of money in your own
bank account, you've got no money in your bank account
and just want to do it. You can actually get
out here and do it without asking these people to please.
Is my story good enough for the world? Your story
is good enough and we're waiting for it. So that's
why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So some guys have jumped into the space and then
they become kind of the interview words if you will,
and what do you think about learning that? The art
form to it, you know, cause some guys just get
on it and they just talk. Some want to be
really good at the craft and they want to become interviewers.
What about that as far as understanding it and really
seeing how far they can take. I look at a
guy like Matt Barnes, for instance, I've seen just witness
(13:53):
his growth as far as just hey, I got a
guy who has an opinion turned to I'm really want
to be the person interviewing former presidents, not just athletes
and things of that nature.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
This is this is This is competition and sport as well.
So you as a director, you come in here, yeah,
you can just I want to make.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Movies, but at the end of the.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
Day, you are still competing. You still have to get
better at the crap. It is artistry that you have
to work on, you know, and it takes time to
do those things.
Speaker 7 (14:19):
You know.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
You look at Marty Scorsese or you know, you know
uh uh uh any director uh Steven Stilbert. These guys
are hidden hitting. You know, they're at their peak at
sixty five years old. This is when they're their best,
you know what I mean? So I think for Matt until.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You guys still hear me yet you we got you?
Speaker 8 (14:43):
Yeah, I think for Matt knows guys and anybody getting
into the space. I think what's great is you're gonna
have people that come in just to mess around, like
I'm gonna try this, and then you have people that
understand this is an art form and you have to
get better at being an interview You have to get
better at your podcast. You have to think, why am
I doing this? If everyone's talking about basketball? What makes
their podcast different?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right?
Speaker 8 (15:04):
And there in lies kind of like the world that
we haven't been able to tap into as athletes, where
normally it would have been some guy doing the show
that probably never played but was a big fan and
he's interviewing you. Now it's intricate because now you have
guys who played fifteen twenty years. We're like, man, let's
talk about how I've felt in Game three and Game four,
what what happened to me injury wise? What happened to
(15:25):
my family? And you're seeing athletes on these shows with
other athletes open up. I seen the Chris Paul thing
recently where he was talking about he missed his family
doing this, you know what I mean? That probably wouldn't
have came from another person other than the athlete for
him to have to share that information. So it's an
amazing world, and it's a multi billion dollar world that
(15:47):
we have to get into now and create ownership before
we cannot own it.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Let's talk about ownership and the movement you and Hitting
Empires Film Group and Hitting Empire Sports Collective is trying
to champion in terms of athletes not only being able
to tell their stories, whether it be a documentary, scripted, unscripted,
anything that they want to be a part of. Talk
about your pushing your drive to have athletes understand the
(16:17):
ownership process in terms of owning their IP, owning the
piece of intellectual property that you want to talk about.
A lot of athletes have been told don't finance your
own movie, don't finance your own doc. Let somebody else
pay for it. What is the message that you're trying
to get across to those athletes.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Yeah, the message is quite simple, man, which is is
twenty twenty six and we are past the time of
you not being able to own and control what it
is you're doing. Only certain people are still subscribing to
what I like to call a slave mentality where it's like, oh, yeah,
don't invest in yourself, don't get the guy next to
(17:00):
you that's been with you for fifteen years, a job
working for you, I can do it better. We're trying
to break all of those generational curses right now. And
I'll tell you it's amazing for me doing this twenty
years and still be it. It's hard to people and
them still want to go work for someone versus bills
some of themselves. And that's the part that we're trying
to crack that cold, which is no man. Ownership and
(17:23):
creating IP and owning your IP is the ways. Being
paid today and not having nothing tomorrow is old news.
The reality is these shows, these movies, these podcasts. Yeah,
you go create it and you own creating on it
for a moment, did somebody come take it from you?
And then ten years down the line they fire your
ass and have somebody else in there working on the
(17:44):
thing that you made. That is how business usually works
and has been working forever. So we're just trying to say, look,
for twenty years, we've been doing it this way. We've
been creating our own brands, we've been making the own IP,
we own all of our content, and let us just
show you a little bit of how it works. But
I will tell you it's not for everybody because it
also means that you must invest in yourself. And it
(18:05):
also means that you got to take a little bit
of money and put it into yourself, and you have
to there's no guardrails. It's easy to go out and
ask for money. It's easy to beg people to please
believe in something that you have and invest in it.
But you'd be surprised. I mean, guys, I've encountered with
fifty sixty two hundred million dollars and they have a
project that literally costs two hundred grand and they spent
(18:27):
a year asking someone to get the two hundred grand.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I mean, I think subconsciously, and it goes as applicable
to so many things in life.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
They were like not me, or why me?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Or I'm not trained for that, or fear I don't
know even if you got the money, some people just
are scared to jump out on the limit, try something new.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think that can hinder that.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We are on the line with Deon Taylor and the
Odd Couple kelvin Washington, E for Salam who's in for
Rob who is of course he is the founder of
Hidden Empire Field Group. Let me ask you this, sports
right now, if you keep up with TV, is really
the only thing that's kind of saving TV right been
in billions to have the rights for the NBA, MLB, NFL,
so on and so on, for we see what the
(19:05):
world comes doing, for Fox doing big numbers. And then
of course you got the movies as well. When a
big time sports movie comes out a lot of people's
favorite movies or things like Remember.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
The Titans or this and that and you know major league.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Why do you think sports from a current TV standpoint
and just even from a film wise, why do we
love them so much?
Speaker 8 (19:26):
Because it's global and it transcends. Everyone understands in every
culture across the world win and lose. Everyone knows how
to win and lose.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Period.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
It doesn't matter where you at, It doesn't matter how
rich you are, how poor you are. You have won
and you have lost before. So that's what makes sports amazing.
It's also what makes horror movies the biggest genre in
the world, right because everyone understands fear. Everyone understands man
kicks door, man swings X. It don't matter what language
you see, you understand that, right right, right, So this
(19:57):
is why these things are able to actually exist and
work globally right now. You might not be a soccer fan,
but the hype around the World Cup and watching these
teams play each other, you will find yourself tuned. They're like, DN,
he almost got that. You understand the concept and you
understand what it means for people to win this game
or lose this game. So that's kind of the energy.
(20:18):
But I just don't understand at this point why it's
taking us so long to understand ownership. And we've just
not been taught these things, man. So now we're kind
of waving this flag out here saying do it, do it,
do it, and we still have people like, oh, man,
I know how y'all doing it, Man, I did it before.
You've never done this. As a matter of fact, we've
been the only people in the marketplace for almost a
(20:41):
decade or two doing it at this level. So there's
very few people that we've met that could say, oh, yeah,
I've made thirteen fourteen independent films, four or five independent documentaries,
and oh, by the way, have set them up, licensed
them and still only im That's just not a language
that we speak in our coaches. So we're trying to
make sure that when we're done here, that there's seventy
(21:05):
d Odds and one hundred Hitting Empires and fifty more ephims.
That's what we need to do to actually grow it,
not be singular one person like, yeah, we did that.
We're not telling nobody how to actually do it. Part
of it is giving people the information so that they
could go win and then hopefully, if the intention is
right and you do it right, you could all win
(21:25):
and everyone can win together.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
That's great, And this is the last one we know.
I know you're busy.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
We'll let you go talk about a Hitting Empire sports collective, right.
We know about Hit Empire Film group and the success
you guys have had there theatrically with the films, but
talk about you putting together the sports collective. Who's involved
and what you aim to do with that division of
Hitting Empire.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
Man, we bought in some amazing executives like yourself, ephom
is here at the sports collective, NBA champion several, Arisa,
Lionel Benjamin, We've just brought in Christine who is you
know formly working for the w n b A, and
also Magie Johnson. We just have an amazing group Glenn
Big Baby Davis as someone who we know has some
(22:09):
ups and downs. This is why it's important to own
yourself is because when someone falls, we're able to pick
someone up versus looking at him like, man, I wonder
what he's gonna do, Like, no, we're gonna do you
a job. Man, you're smart, you're artist, You've been in
this space. So the collective is built on athletes that
are getting involved and wanted to actually educate, learn and
(22:30):
provide information to other athletes to be able to do this.
What's more interesting is is people that believing. But when
we're not looking for the biggest athletes in the world
to be a part of the company, we're looking for
the hungry as we're looking for the people that want
to go do the real work and get it done.
And it's important because we're watching now people copytat what
we're doing, except they don't have the entire formula of
(22:52):
how to do it. That's kind of always the thing
that you always I see, they got two cups of flour,
one cup of sugar, but oh yeah, they don't know
all of the rest of the recipe to make the cake.
So at this point I'm just sitting back watching multiple
companies say, oh, yeah, we're in the sports content space
and this is what we're gonna do. And all they're
really doing is right around asking people again for permission,
(23:14):
right around asking studios can they please finance something? And
then the moment that the studio says, no, get what
happens to that project?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
It just said, none happens.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
It's God, it's not gonna happen. Versus No, we believe
in it. We believe in this story. It's amazing. What
do we need to do to go do it on
our own and then take it back to the marketplace?
And oh, by the way, if it's not right for
their studio, then how do we take it out independently
so it wins. That's our whole another conversation that people
(23:44):
are not ready to have, but we've been doing for
a long time. And that's what makes us so dynamic
and so different in this space is we understand our culture,
we understand what we need to make, we understand what
we're doing, and we know how to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Period. Well period, then let's end it right there.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, I appreciate it for good stuff with you know,
y'all talk about athletes, athletes, athletes, former athlete, former I mean,
what about former high school athletes?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Can we can we get?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I told I told Kevin we got some stuff and
it works for him, saying, you know some former high
school athletes.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I'm reper for Rob g myself.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
I don't even know if USC Chris played, but dang
are here in this as well, Miss Mary Mac, I
don't know. You know, all athletes, it's something yeah, some
of us. You know, it's stopped at twelfth grade. That's
about it. You know, then we became church league champs
about here in these streets.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Man, come, let me.
Speaker 8 (24:33):
Let me tell you guys. One thing on that that's
the new sector. A you basketball like that is the
next trillion dollar business trying that they're trying to figure out,
same as Pop Warner football. Like, I'm trying to tell
you guys, this is where it's going. So it has
to be former athletes that get involved with this stuff
(24:53):
before these massive corporations come in. And actually, now all
of a sudden they've unionized what your kids, your kids
AAU team. They're making hundreds of millions of dollars off
of these kids. And we sit back with that's crazy right, No,
you we can do that. So it's amazing, bro. So
thank you guys so much for the time interview. Really
appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Man, Noah, no doubting it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Keep doing it, man, Proud of you, and just keep going,
keep educating, keep creating, and keep disrupting for sure.
Speaker 8 (25:23):
Yes, sir, Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Thank you so much, No doub appreciate you. Dion.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm Eastern,
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Do you have the All Star Game?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You had the home run derby last night, and Rob
Parker and I have had this conversation a few times.
I'm glad you're here to just kind of get your
thoughts on this where we are where baseball. You have
Jordan Walker, who won the All Star Home Run Derby,
and the idea of where we are when it comes
to specifically African Americans, not Afro Latina, but at blacks
(26:04):
here in America and where they are when it comes
to baseball. Here's what Jordan Walker, Saint Louis Cardinal winner
of the twenty twenty six home run.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Derby had to say about this.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
I want to be a role model for them, the
black kids, you know, and I want more black kids
in baseball.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So hopefully this, you know, raises some awareness.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know, I know a lot of them might playing
like basketball, football route. I want them to know the
baseball routes opening to them too. There's a lot of
good kids. You're athletic enough and mentally strong enough. Black
kids that can play this game. I don't want to
see them do it.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And that pleads to a great question, where are the
black kids that play baseball? Are they coming? You're meaning,
are they eight, nine, ten, eleven right now? When you
look at where they were historically, you're looking at the
era of the Obviously you took Jackie Robinson and you know,
to get this whole thing rolling, But you start looking
(26:52):
at the sixties, especially the seventies, the eighties and the nineties,
I mean you're looking at eras where you had eighteen
to twenty percent of teams. We're black, not teams, but
players in the league were African American and it was
just normal right to have a few guys on the team, four, five,
six guys, some guys on a team. You didn't even
think twice about it, and you were just looking for
the best athletes white, black and at that point Latino.
(27:13):
But it didn't matter. And then all of a sudden
there was a massive decline. And I mean when you
start to look at the numbers, it's staggering. Like a
half full of years ago, we were down a six
percent of the players. I mean, and it's just it's
is it because other sports? And the only conclusion I've
had seant to no. Mar Garcia Park had this conversation
with him and him speaking of spectrum. He's with sports
(27:35):
that LA obviously all under spectrum. He came across the
hall and joined my show and he was just talking
about so many things, him as a you know, a
local guy here in LA who's who's involved in baseball,
and he was talking about how one problem baseball is
starting to have is the same thing a lot of sports.
You know this as a coach, it's starting to price
people out. Oh yeah, and it's getting where gone other days?
(27:55):
You just played at john Smith High and you were good.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
There and that's all. What do it mattered now?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
If you aren't on this travel team that goes here,
this club team that travels, there's gonna cost this. Your
parents want to come, so they're gonna have to pay
for this into the room and you gotta And he
was saying, how it's getting to where it's only the
only people who have money, and that can be black,
doesn't matter, but it's becoming where you're you're limiting kids.
It's expensive, it's expensive. If you don't have money, you
can't play. And again that's not saying black people don't
(28:22):
have money, Clearly, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying
is you're already shrinking a pool that's already limited as well,
just based off population numbers.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
So now you're limiting even more.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And he was just saying how it's that and just
how we're not highlighting it to and going to those
neighborhoods and kind of spreading the love and joy baseball.
And so I just thought about that when I when
I heard Jordan Walker say that, I was like, Wow,
that's that's a great point for him to use this platform,
this huge moment to say, Yo, I'm trying to get
some more black kids to play the game. And I'm like, obviously, basketball, football, track,
(28:53):
and then those last kids who maybe are trying to
figure it out. It's between you get a little baseball here,
you get a little tennants here, you get you know
what I mean, You're kind of geting those last few
kids that are parts between the handful of other sports.
But the bulk is going to basketball. The bulk is
going to football, the maybe track as well. And you
got young kids who played baseball. Is this just I'm
(29:13):
young and I'm playing now, or is this a passion
I want to play throughout my scholastic career.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
So I talk about this a lot. And when you
talk about the scholastic career and all of that, one
of the things is number one. Baseball back up. You know,
in the seventies, eighties, early nineties used to be the
most popular sport in the country.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That is no longer the case.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
The strike early in the nineties really took a lot
out of baseball as a whole because it opened up
the door for college football and the NFL, and they
seize that moment, kick the door right, and they're not
giving it back right. So, my son, who's twelve, played
(30:01):
Both of my sons, the first thing they played was soccer,
and then baseball and my son when he was nine, Elijah,
they won the nine U championship Sherman Oaks Little League.
It was amazing and he played one more year ten
and then after that season we got to the semi
finals and he lost. And after that season he said,
(30:22):
I think I'm done with baseball. I think I just
want to focus on basketball. And I'm gonna give you
guys what I think is happening and the correct assessment
of especially of you know African Americans and in youth sports.
Number one, if you have a multi sport athlete and
(30:45):
they're leaning to one of those sports other than baseball
being their favorite, whether it's football, where there's basketball. The
thing is, my son is a phenomenal basketball player. That's
what he wants to do. He wants to go to
the NBA. He'll have a shot. He's got the DNA,
he's going to be tall, he can play. He's got
to put the work in right. The problem with leaving
(31:07):
for three months and playing baseball is when you come
back to basketball, those same kids that you were better
than when you left are now better and now you're
catching up. This is a real thing when you step
away from something at that age for that long and
(31:29):
try to come back because these with these reclasses and
all of that. My son is as a real twelve.
He turned twelve three weeks ago. He's in the seventh grade.
There is a fourteen year old in the seventh grade
right now.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I'm not lying, I know.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
So you have a kid two years older than my
son playing in the same age group. That's the problem
with AAU number one. That's a whole nother tangent that
I'll get off on, you know, eventually. But so now,
he doesn't want to take those three months away from basketball.
He wants to continue to play and train so he
(32:09):
can continually get better and not be behind the eight
ball when it comes to coming back to a sport.
I know a kid who's tremendous, he's unbelievably talented. Plays
he's a pitcher, he's a quarterback, and he plays basketball.
He's not getting better at basket. Basketball is so technical
in terms of your skills have to increase dramatically, your
(32:35):
ball handling, you're shooting, it has to increase dramatically because
those are the jumps these kids are showing. Now, fast
forward to high school. What's the number one currency for
high school kid. The number one currency clout, clout, popular popularity, Yeah,
social media. Yeah, what are the sports that if you're
(33:01):
a great pitcher, are a great point guard, are a
great quarterback? Which is last on that list pitcher. Because
the way baseball is set up, you'll play games during
the school during school, kids will be in class that
no one will be at the games except for the
(33:22):
opposing team, parents and some scouts. That's the only people
that go to baseball games unless it's a night game,
and so on and so forth. Friday night lights, whole
town shut down to come play, to watch football, basketball
three times a week. Jim is packed on Friday night. Right,
this is what you're competing against. These athletes, these African
(33:43):
American athletes, who are good athletes, are now seeing the
currency shift with the other sports. Oh I'm good at baseball,
but everybody wants to see me play football. Everybody wants
to see me play basketball, and Major League Baseball has
a marketing problem.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Best player in Major League Baseball right.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Now, I mean Aaron Judge or Otani or you know
who's the best player I'm gonna go to because he's
pitching it. He's the best player he doesn't speak English.
How many commercials have you seen with Otani? I've seen
the new Balance.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
They're not tell me the kids who are not even
stars yet those first aj Debonnson just launched his commercial
and with his shoe already, John Moran has the hottest
shelling shoe.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He don't even play.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
That's big facts, But you understand that's what you're marketing to.
These kids are seeing that. These kids want to be
a part of that. They want to go to the
Nike E ybl they want to go play in three
sixty five, the Adidas circuit.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
I mean, I can't see what's happening. Let me give
you another example of this. LaMelo ball been injured. I've read,
I've read his games per play year. It is staggering, staggering.
How few he's played, shoe selling out the guys big
social media. Him and his brother's live streaming everybody like
(35:11):
they're select.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
They're huge.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Guess what you don't get as a kid on social media,
a big following doing baseball. That's just what it is,
all right now, Everything you said I get, and I agree.
Let me throw some counterpoints at this though. Who's the
best basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
He played baseball Lebron James till his junior After his
junior year, he cut because they hate you going to
the league. You might want to start. He played football.
Alan Iverson didn't even really like basketball like that. Football
was his favorite sport. For those of you don't know,
Bubba Chuck is what they call him. Bubba Chuck was
a quarterback. Have you ever seen Randy Moss center field?
(35:53):
Mister basketball, mister football, ran one hundred yards in two
hundred I believe ridiculous. Go look it up center field.
I mean looking like you think Aaron Judge is playing
the center field. Go watch him. My point is some
of the people we deemed the Dion Sanders best athletes ever,
bow jack, so on and so forth. They all play
(36:16):
multiple sports and we considered them the goats of their sports.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wilt Chamberlain running.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Track, Jackie Robinson was dagner better at tracking baseball basketball
than he was baseball. So like, why all of a
sudden did history Who's shown us the goats that we
all revere and we look up to, and we say
that's the standard.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Now we're like, not, I ain't the standard? No more.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
You gotta specialize and only do that. Like, when did
that happen? So you're telling me, and I'm not saying
you're wrong. Your kids are older than mine. I'm just
I'm gonna just be getting into that. I got young girls.
But like I'm like, man, so when did history change
when most of these guys John Elway, they said he
could throw a baseball from home play over out in
(36:58):
the center field. Like these guys that we look at,
the best quarterbacks, the best this they all play multiple sports.
I mean, look at all the Kyler Murray first number
one pick in baseball, number one picking football. So like,
when did all of the change where you have to
only play.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
One or you can get what I mean, you can't
survive now playing multiple sports at that level. The thing
that's really changed the landscape is nil. Now you don't
have to make it to the pros to get paid.
You don't these kids, So think about it. This is
a whole parents are strategizing. They're high school kids making nil.
(37:36):
Money is no longer make it to the league or bus.
So if you have a shot, if you have a
kid who can get drafted in baseball in the first round,
get drafted in football in the first round or get
drafted in basketball in the first round. Which one are
you picking? And you might say, well, I'm taking baseball
because he has a longer career. Guess what, how many
(37:58):
first round draft picks in baseball s been four years
in the minor leagues before they even get to the show.
That's big facts. It takes so long to get to
the spot. These aj Debonza, Darren Peterson, Peterson uh Carlo
cam Boozer said, they're all ready nothing else household names,
(38:22):
and if nothing else happened, they're set. They're already household names.
Who was drafted in the first round of the Major
League Baseball draft? And where are they right now? That's
what I'm talking about. Social media, nil and popularity you're
going to grab. We don't see any MLB commercials. We're
(38:43):
not inundated with these superstars in MLB like we are
in these others.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And it thinks also the infusion of pop culture. There's
not a lot of obviously the stars pop stars. I
mean you see not even just hip hop stars. You
see Taylor Swift at the Knicks game, and it's been
a whole move. It's a whole. It is a whole thing.
And but so going back to the original point. So
if you're you know, Jordan Walker, who obviously black player
(39:12):
doing his thing winning the home run there, it.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Was like him against the world out there in that
home run derby.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Huh like it Literally the way they kept flashing back
to the I was like, what is.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Happening right now? Saying I was like, hey man, what
is it?
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Literally felt like maybe you know, maybe because it Bryce
Harper and Philly and it was a.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Philly right, like it's it. But it looked it.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
Was optically did it look like the beginning of the Optically.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
It felt a little I was. I was really looking like, man,
they had the white wigs.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Just imagine, just imagine the pressure he was under and
to be able to perform like he did. Shot out
to him because that was like, brother, it is you
against the world out here. He had to hit the
home run on the last to get to get one
to break the tie.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah no, And like I said, look, credit to him
for doing it. And I credit him for saying, hey man,
it's a good sport. It's a great sport.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Gets get some more out there, and I just thought
it was interesting because last point I just like I
mentioned the numbers, I want to reiterate the numbers again.
So throughout I mentioned the seventies, eighties, and nineties kind
of the you know, the run where baseball was still
a big thing, big deal. You had up to nineteen
percent and sometimes in the seventies in certain cities they
got up to twenty seven percent of teams for the
(40:35):
players we're African American. Then the twenty tens it dropped
to eight percent, and then in the twenty twenties we
got down to six percent. So it's increasingly it's falling.
It's gone lower right now present day, where it's sitting
anywhere between two point six point two six point eight,
and so that's that's where to me is like, wow,
it's got interesting. Now obviously there's a whole different conversation diaspora.
(40:57):
We can start talking Afro Latina, you know, that's a
whole other thing, but Latino. But but that was I
thought it was a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Less white players playing.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
Yeah, you know, so it's we could say American players
that period
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