Cuttino Mobley on Growing Up with Kobe, Playing with Hakeem & Barkley and Mentoring Yao

Cuttino Mobley joins All The Smoke for a wide-ranging conversation on life, hoops, and purpose. He talks about growing up in Philly around Kobe and Rasheed Wallace, getting drafted by Houston, and learning the game alongside legends like Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen. Mobley also shares stories about his tight bond with Steve Francis, mentoring Yao Ming and why he always carried Pippen and Eddie Jones’ trading cards in his wallet. He opens up about being forced to retire due to a misdiagnosed heart condition and shares unfiltered thoughts on why 90% of youth basketball coaches are doing it wrong. From NBA battles to spiritual growth, this episode is full of insight and heart.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back all the smoke. Excited about this one today.
Obviously one of my brother's known them for a long time.
We still actually play a little pickup ball from here
to there at the district, Man, one of the fastest
two steps, fastest first steps.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
In NBA history. Kid you not.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
But I think what I love most about this dude
is the father side. How much emphasis he puts in
on being a dad and being a present dad. And
obviously that's what I respect a lot. But man, welcome
to the show. Catino Mobley, appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
This is long overdue, bro. I mean, we like, we
literally hang out.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
And I've been doing the show for just just how
long I've been doing the show, I've done your show.
But you know, we finally caught up and to have
you come sit down. Man, how's everything going?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Good? Man? Life is? Life is really good? Man, I am.
I'm loving it. Man. I was just talking to my son.
We're driving in the car here. I'm just telling them
about just how life works and what true happiness is
things like that. And you know, the older I get,
the more kind of content I become right and all

(01:08):
material things, but yet also like the simplicity of life
and if you think about it right, like it's basketball,
like the great Ones, master the fundamentals, like the simplicity
Cole Jordan, a lot of those guys. And I think
that's the same method you should take when you live
in life.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I mean you think in the midst of it you
were making a bunch of money and doing whatever we want.
But I just turned forty five last month, and it's
it's I've never been more at peace and just appreciating
things and just kind of understanding life real real, it's real.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
It's super real. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
You used to have a spot out here in LA right.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
What was it called restaurant of club?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
What was it? Was it a restaurant of club? It
was both.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, we had everything.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
It was popping though.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
We had the beach house. Yeah, you have a beach
house on Sunday's is cracking.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Used to have a lot of Yeah, you used to
have a lot of festivities in the LA area. I
mean what was that like and where did that kind
of that idea come from? Because like you were the
one person like, hey, what's going on? Like you would
be able to line people up with with with a
good time.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
You know, the great thing about that was just meeting
different I guess, walks of life right coming from Philadelphia
and then moving you know, to all these different states,
whether it's college or pro whatever it was, and then
finally landing in La I felt that home right, and
I felt more at peace when I was close to

(02:34):
the ocean. That was just something I learned in my life,
right the older age and thirty years old. But it
was so much fun gathering people together and seeing the
happiness on them, right, and then if I can you know,
orchestrate all these things where listen, we're gonna do dinner now,
then we're gonna do this later, and we're gonna do this.
And on Sundays we have like you know, co ed

(02:55):
football and we're gonna you know, it's all the food
you can eat, and you know, just diffferent games and
whether you you know, it's like a casino royale that
was in my backyard on Sundays, and I mean you
had over four hundred people and at the right Paul
KG like everybody was coming to it and it was
just different games and different situations and different pockets withinside

(03:18):
the home on the beach that people actually gravitated to it.
I just I me personally, especially during that time of
my life. I love to bring everybody together and everybody
to be happy.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's dope. Fatherhood, what's that journey been like?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
It's a you know what's crazy about fatherhood, brother, is
that it's your teacher, like your children your teacher, right,
And whatever it is that you don't like about yourself
or you fear life, they'll show you quickly, whether it's commitment,
whether it's patience. You know, I have three boys, and

(03:56):
then I have my daughter, and you know I have
to I talked to her differently than I talk to
my boys. But then also too is I have to
walk that walk right because children actually don't listen to you.
They watch you. So the more I do, the more.
Like my oldest boys here with me now, he wakes
up super early. He'll be grabbing a book and he's

(04:16):
working on his life, and it's like he's watched those things, right,
So it's not for me to push him to do
those things. He just he gravitated into it. And then
you know, it's being a father. And of course we've
never been mothers, but being a father to me is
a hard position. Because of the stigma of how men

(04:39):
are supposed to process their feelings but yet still get
things done right. And I've learned the older I get,
the more I should tell you how I feel right
away so I can get that out now. Now it's
up to you to understand and how this environment should

(05:02):
go right, because I'm already because I'm what I'm doing
is I'm teaching myself boundaries. And when we were younger,
we didn't never have no boundaries, right, So you get
in yourself in the situations because you hold your tongue
or your emotions things like that. And I've learned if
I can just speak it quickly, I get it out
the way fast. And now you know what, I know,

(05:22):
it's not you reading my mind.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Is this in terms of being a father? Yeah, okay, yeah,
just off the rip.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
But yeah, I mean, because you have to talk to
your children like.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, right, no, you have to. I don't think you
could sugarcoat.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
The one thing about the twins is they're sixteen now,
and you know I used to kind of always tease
real conversations that I knew were coming down the line,
you know what I mean. I remember the first time
they saw me smoking. I think they were like eight
years old, and I put them to sleep and they
saw me down by the pool looking out the window.
The next day they're like, Dad, we saw you smoking cigarettes.
I'm like, shit, what you mean you saw me? Like

(05:54):
we saw you by the pool. I was like oh.
I was like, do I lie to them? Do I
tell them the truth? And I'm like, no, actually that
it was a joint. They're like, well, what's the joint?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Right?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Like, oh shit, like we you know how Daddy's knees
and back and I'm sore all the time. So instead
of drinking alcohol or taking a painkill of my stomacher
at all, smoke a joint and it helps the pain
go away and it helps me sleep.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And they're like oh okay. And then one of the
Carter's like, well I just sprain my ankle. When can
I smoke? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So again, teasing a conversation that I know, like at
sixteen now, like they know that their dad smokes, but
they also we've had conversations about what to do and
don't and and you know, and where they're at in
their life.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
And I think, to your point, you like, I had.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
A lot of friends that were protected up until they
got their freedom, and then once they got their freedom,
they went crazy crazy. So my whole thing is like,
let's let's give them, you know, the crumbs. They need
to be prepared for, like you said, life, Like you said,
you look at it as a game, but life is
a game.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, prepare them in that manner too. So I
definitely agree. You can't. You can't hold your son.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
And so what's funny is when you say that. We
literally just had this conversation in the car, and I
believe in making mistakes is fast as you can, right,
or doing things you know, Listen, I don't condone you know,
hard drugs. I don't condone those type of things. Now,
if you do it, it's your journey. Now hopefully you
do it when you get older. Now, if you do

(07:13):
do it when you get older. Of course, even when
you're younger, there's consequences, right. My dad's told me when
I was younger, you can make all the mistakes you want.
You just don't get to choose the consequences. Consequences are there.
That's just what it is. But we were having this
conversation to car, my son and I and I've been
more acceptable of it's okay to make the mistake, make
these mistakes, or say, if you want a shop and

(07:35):
you get a lot of money, you just want to
start buying stuff. Sooner or later it become boring, right things.
Do as much as you can now get it out
the way, so then now later on in life, you
won't be a prisoner to that feeling. And that's what
I believe in.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, absolutely both A you dads, I don't think it's
any secret that the system is broken, much different from
when we came up, and even when we were coming
up it was still predatorial, but now it's just fucking insane.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
What are your thoughts on it?

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Because obviously Miles is playing it and then the Twins
are playing it, But what are your thoughts on the currently?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know what's so when I'm watching it, it's it's
I would say ninety something percent of the coaches don't
know what they're doing right, and it's and again no
disrespect to them, but you didn't even have to take
a test to be able to be a coach, right,
It's like we've we've played this game and was coached

(08:28):
by some of the best. So if we've been battle
tested when it comes to that. A lot of these
coaches and and you know some of them, our fathers
just wanting to stay close to their kids or whatever
it is, moms whatever, wanted close to their kids. And
I understand that, but the expectations of the parent is
delusional to me, crazy right, Like it's just like you're
not even working out during the week. You may practice

(08:50):
once or twice during the week. Is that an organized
practice on your strengths? And then when the weekend comes,
you're gonna let your son daughter shoot or dribble in
a game like this when during the week they didn't
even practice that, That to me is mind boggling. I
have no clue. How do you get how do you
become successful in those te right? Draw up plays? And

(09:11):
why did you run this play? And how do you
talk to the kids and things happen? Like they're not
prepared for those things.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I think it's less about teaching and more about winning,
you know what I mean? They want to win, and
at the end of the day, it's kind of obviously
you want to win. But that's why I got in
this space, Like I've been teaching since I've been in
this space, like teaching how do you play in space?
How do you play without the ball in your hands?
And I feel like that's a deeper conversation. You're seeing
all these over the water kids come in knowing how
to play basketball as a team. I think we're so

(09:39):
locked in on putting your head down and how many
times can you cross someone over, that we forget the
real aspects of the game, the cutting, the screening, the flaring,
the slipping, the pick and roll. Like so it's just
like I've been teaching kids in this space, and I agree,
I probably, yeah, probably about ninety percent of these motherfuckers
don't know shit. And then the parents on top of
it are crazy. You couldn't tell no parent in the
gym or their child that they're not going to the league,

(10:01):
like everyone in that mind.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I'm there, okay, I think.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Who I was talking to, and I was saying that
they should ban kids from training with so called pro
trainers because the sense of entitlement, Like you think because
Matt Barnes Contino movie, whoever it is that will pro
and they're training with this person. All of a sudden,
when you train and you do the same, First of all,
you shouldn't be doing pro moves because grade school, high school,

(10:28):
even in college, you don't have that much spacing, So
you should learn to master the fundamentals as fast as possible. Right,
I don't know why you're doing the triple step bag
cross over here behind your back, Kyrie Irving, for what reason.
You're not even gonna get the ball that much, right,
So it's just I don't it's mind bothering to me

(10:48):
that kids are able to train with pros or with
that pro trainer and then all of a sudden, Oh,
I'm just as good as you. I'm gonna be I'm
like that. No, No, that's not how this one works. Pop,
It don't work like that. Just because I hang around
one buffet don't mean i'n be a billionaire.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Right for real? Literally, that's the same sh Philly upbringing.
Tell us a little bit about that. And when did
you find basketball?

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah? That's crazy, man.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I was blessed with four parents, right, stepfather, stepmother, mom, dad,
And I said that if anything my parents got right
was picking the right step parents for mend Yeah, man,
because they they love me like I was theirs. You
know what I'm saying. I never met I'm telling you, man,
I never went through life where I question if they

(11:38):
loved me or not. You know what I'm saying. My
stepfather loved me to the tea like well Shee Wallace
to tell you, I would war all of them. He
made sure all of me. He made sure everybody was
good all the time. You know what I'm saying. And
the love that he showed me and in love with
my dad showed me is like I want to be
like them, man, right, I want to be like them
or better. And you know, growing up in North Philadelphia,

(12:01):
of course it's rough. You fight and you do all
this stuff. But I started boxing early. It was boxing,
it was football, and then for football, I said, you know,
I'm starting in high school and football and I can't
even play freshman in basketball because I never played back.
I picked him a basketball at thirteen, fourteen years old, right,
So I didn't know how to play basketball, and it

(12:22):
was hard for me, right, and my ego, you know,
drove me to become better. But it was a struggle early. Right.
So my freshman had freshman JV in varsity. My freshman year,
I made the freshman team. I don't know why they
did it. But they put me on a freshman team.
I didn't play one minute bro until the end of
the season, and I got in the game and I
had four foules in two minutes. Like I was just

(12:44):
crashing on me, I was crashing in the people. It
was just, you know, just being a football player in
the boxer. It was like frustration, you know, not knowing
that things is going so fast. And then I said
to myself, I love this sport so much. And my
stepfather was like, listen, if you love it, you need
to really focus on. You need to watch film, you
need to train, you need to practice, you need to
do this. And then my sophomore year I started to

(13:06):
get better, but I didn't play varsity until my senior year. Really,
I was fourteen.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Back in the day, the normal age, but the age
is supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah, I was fourteen. I was fourteen years old.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I used to listen. I used to get my ass.
Boy man, these kids, these guys that were older than
me to play in varsity. They would beat me one
on one so bad. Every single time. I used to cry,
like I'm like a sophomore, like I can't get this,
this is crazy. I literally didn't know what to do.
And then I got bigger and stronger and faster, and

(13:45):
then before you know it now and I'm beating them consistently.
And then it grew from there. But you know, growing
up in Philadelphia, you know, on top of basketball, because
that kept me out of trouble because soon as you
leave the gym, you know, you got to get on
the bus. This shit happened, it's things is going on,
all that type of stuff. But I was very blessed

(14:07):
to have Alva Williams, Rashid Wallace, Jason Lost and a
lot of those guys, my cousin kam out Yard, Kyda Williams,
Like I used to have really solid individuals around me,
and it kept me from doing stupid stuff. Because my
older brother is serving three lifetimes, you know what I'm saying.
My dad's a two striker, you know what I'm saying.
So for me, it's like I going to see my

(14:31):
uncle in jail. At a very young age, I was like,
I don't want to be here though this is smaller
than my room, you know what I'm saying. Like I
was thinking like that at a young age where it
wasn't cool to do those things.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
And my uncle was always telling me that too. While
he was in prison. He's like, I can't wait to
get out. And it's funny because when he got out,
I was in Orlando, and you know, you're in the
gated community and I ain't even notice. When you're in
the gated community and a felon comes in, everyone has
to know it. So I had to Hell, I had
to tell everybody that my uncle, you know, yeah, you know,

(15:04):
he served twenty three years. What are you for a murder?
But he was the coolest thing to everybody, you know
what I'm saying, Like it was, it was just it
was a moment in my life where it's like, wow,
this is crazy, Like you know, this man getting out
and he's changed his whole life. He passed away some
years after that, but just to be in jail for

(15:27):
so long on a mistake of emotions, you know what
I'm saying. And that's what a lot of us. I
was telling my son that too, just like we men,
if you can't control your emotions, you in trouble.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Mmm.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
First and foremost, I had to learn the hard way
A few times. Was she you mentioned she he a
little bit older than you, same age. What was she
like back then?

Speaker 3 (15:49):
She was the she bro. She was the same as
he is now. You know what what's crazy about she
that people don't know? It's he's better. Like you watch
him in the pros. She was super talented. But he
could have been a superstar if he wanted to. He
just grew up differently. He grew up where he was

(16:10):
a team guy, right lab the coach taught him the
right way. Is like like Lebron when he first came in,
he was getting you know, yeah, like if he's open,
pass it to him, if this is give it to
him this, get him open. Like she was that type
of person And I think that's just a personality trait, right,

(16:31):
it's just hard to be. There's a good selfish and
there's a bad selfish. Right, he had he had a
good selfishes about him where he knew how to play
and make everybody around him that much better, right because
he was number one, eighth grader, number one, twelve grader,
number one, He was number one and everything. He never
was number one, never number two, three four, He was

(16:53):
always number one, correct and you never you never saw
that in him, really like he was always everybody just
all of us bringing everybody together, even on the court.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
He was like that man, Cob is a couple of
years younger than you. Yeah, and he running with him
in the high school time we're out of Philly hooping.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Yeah, well in Philly hooping. Yeah. But never in high
school Cob was in I fear it was not like
a private like like kind of like with Notre Dame
and like Sierra can On. Now he was in like
that type of league. I was in the Catholic league
and then she was in the public league. So we
didn't play each other. One and two is I was

(17:32):
already three years older, four years older than Cob. So
Covid is your age now, okay two years old? Okay,
yeah yeah yeah yeah, so yeah cold forty seven watching
him we were younger. So we were this one time
we was at Saint Joe's right, and we used to
work out at Saint Joe's University, you know gym, And

(17:53):
after a while he would not work out with us.
He would go into the other part and then it
was a smaller gym and he would it was like
a little window and he would tape the window and
lock the door so we couldn't see what he was
doing by himself, by himself, by himself, bro. And I
sit there. And then when I got to the pros,

(18:15):
because he's always encouraged me, like yo, kill you know,
be aggressive. He used to always tell me that, always
tell me that. And then after a while, I started
getting better and better and better, and like I would
notice when I was about to play him, because he
would stop. We would stop talking for that week. We
wouldn't talk for that week. And then after I finished playing,

(18:35):
then to go back to talking. And I started to
understand that after my end of my first year, my
six second year started and I would ask him, you know,
about the family and anything like that, and it was
very short, right, it was like very short. I'm like, oh, okay,
I get it now, fratnizing, got you, Okay, We're not
friends today, gotcha all right? And then it spoke from there.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
You end up choosing Rhode Island. Was that your first choice?
Or you ever consider going anywhere else?

Speaker 2 (19:01):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (19:02):
No, man, So I went to Maine Central Institute, and
it was top in the country, I think when I
first got there. Sam Cassell went there, Kron Butler went there.
So we were top in the country, and we had
at the time, it was Rick Patino and Thompson and

(19:22):
everybody coming to watch us, right, And I had big schools, right,
Temple at the time. Temple was ranked top five at
the time. I think they were about to play Michigan
in the tournament and Kentucky and all these schools. And
I was actually scared to go to those schools because
in my brain, I was like, well, I'm either gonna
sit or am I good enough? Like it was an

(19:44):
aposter syndrome for me, you know, because I came from
Catholic League in Philadelphia. Even though at that time it
was a lot of pros. I was playing around, but
we didn't know we were pros, right, So there was
a bit of fear and imposter syndrome in me. I
wasn't a cocky kid. I just I was scared. So
my fear got me better. Right. So once I'm playing

(20:06):
now and I'm leading our team and we're topping the
nation in prep school, my confidence got better. But I
didn't get cocky. I was just still scared, right, So
I was living off of fear basically, right. And then
my boy Sean Colson, who was with me at Maine
Central Institute. You know, he was more cockier, more more

(20:27):
more confident with himself and everything, and he was a
really good player. He was like, yo, let's let's be
big fish in a little pond. And I'm like, all right,
I mean where you want to go. He's like, let's
go to Rhode Island A ten. They fourth, you know
at back at that time, you know, it was like
the fourth best conference, third fourth best conference in the nation.
So I'm like, all right, so yeah, we can, you know,

(20:48):
build them up. I'm like all right, Like I didn't
know nothing about nothing. I'm like, all right, let's go.
It's my guy from home with both a MCI, so
let's do that. So that's how Rhode Island came about.
And he left. Actually when Tyson Wheeler, they recruited Tyson
Wheeler also he left, and you mean rest is history
with me and Tyson and Tyson became my best friend,

(21:09):
you know, in college, and we made that little run.
Jim Herritt, Jim, I love him so much. Jim Herrick
was the best man. It's crazy as I think of now,
I think of all the nil deals and the dinners
and all the stuff that people are going through now
and it's like that man was a he was my
oracle in college. Man, ye're'mnna tell you one story. We plan,

(21:34):
we play Murray State and we beat them, commensally beat them.
So now we're watching Paul piercing them Kansas, they number
one in the country. Were watching them play Prairie View.
Paul all up, they jumping around and acting all silly.
And then I'm staying with coach and he was like,

(21:55):
you want to go to the NBA. I said, yeah,
of course. He's like, I need thirty. I need a
w in thirty on them. I said, I got your coach,
no problem. And we played Paul and them. It was
back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, but
it was it was a great game and we beat them.
And that's my first time really interacting with Paul because

(22:16):
after the game you'll see me like when he when
he lost and he was like kneeling down. At first,
I felt sad, and then after a couple of weeks,
I'm like, you getting drafted. I don't know what you're
sad about. You're about to be a millionaire, you know
what I'm saying. But uh, gym coach Eric, he didn't
talk basketball, though he talked about life, life like he

(22:39):
you know, made you read certain books and you know,
be a good man, and you know you're gonna at
this moment in time in your life, it's gonna be
certain obstacles, you know, get over him quick like all
these different little you know stories he would give us,
and I gravitate him to him the most because that's
just how I thought.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
You ended up scoring thirty You guys just won thirty Yeah,
thirty two and you beat him, yeah, yeah, knocked him
out the tournament.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah yeah, got him out of there, got him out
of there, got him out of there.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Four year player, second round pick. You're there? What are
your first thoughts?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
You know what's so funny? So we had a little
party at my crib and I was living in Mount
Airy shout out to Mount Area. So I was living
in Mount Area at the time, and all the family
members came over. Whatever you and uh. I thought that
the San Antonio Spurs was gonna pick me at twenty

(23:38):
I think they had twenty four. Remembery serving these correctly,
because they were like, we're gonna get you at twenty four,
and they picked Felipe Lopez and I'm like, damn, so
now I'm scared. Right, So Alvin there with me, like
all my boys are there with me. Whatever. I'm like,
I'm nervous. Now what I don't get picked? Oh my god,
this is crazy. Boom second round comes thirty one, thirty two,

(24:02):
thirty three, and I'm like, I'm now, Matt, I'm scared
as hell. Now you already know how that is. Right,
It's a commercial. I go outside, walk down the street,
I come back. I sit on my bed and watching
looking at the TV and it's yeah, throwing a commercial
Houston Rocket select Katina moby Do forty one.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Man, I you saw it on the bottom line, bottom
line we had.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
I jumped all the way down the flight of steps,
ran outside, ran all the way down the street the dog.
I was crying. It was the best feel in the world.
And then that's when Scottie Pippen and Rudy Tom Johnavan
hit me.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
So there's a there's a story involving a childhood wallet
and a phone call from Scottie like break that down.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Yeah. So, so manifestation is real. I believe it, bro
whether you whatever you're scared of. And I teach people
this now and then my journey and what I do
in life coaching. But I had Scottie Pippen and Eddie
Jones's basketball cards in my wallet and I used to

(25:00):
always keep them because they were my favorite because they
did so much. Eddie was a close friend of mine
because he went to Temple, but I just love the
way he played because he was a three level score.
And then Scotty, not knowing even knowing Scotty, just watching
how he played the game of basketball. He did everything
and I love that. So I get a phone call
and it's Rudy and Scotty, and I'm like, this is unbelievable,

(25:26):
not knowing about manifestation that there's not even in my
willlhouse at the moment. But then I look back at
it and I'm like, wow, everything I think of, everything,
I write down, everything I believe in, everything I visualize
will happen in my life. So then I tried my
best to control that destiny a lot more from there.

(25:46):
But Scotty was like, you're ready, and I'm like, yeah,
I'm ready. I'm ready. He's like, all right, I'll see
you in a minute. And I'm like, oh my god,
this is crazy. I couldn't believe it. I kept my
jersey on. I slept in my jersey for like three
or four days.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Where but this team's loaded though, this is Scottie Barkley,
really loaded dog.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
With legends legend no yeah for facts, yeah older legend
for fact.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
That completely changes just your whole trajectory kind of, you know,
having vets like that, like the league. I feel like
the league misses and I'm I don't even know what
they did for you, but I'm saying you have like
some legendary vets on that team.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
So all right, So this may seem corny, right, it's
just how I am in life. But when it comes
to this, first of all, I must have did something
really well, really good in the past life, because not
only did I have an amazing four parents, right that
there was no beating, no molestation, no nothing. There was
a lot of love, and of course I grew up tough,

(26:45):
but still right, there was a lot of that. But
then my career where you come into your rookie year.
Listen to this man, You come in your rookie year
and you have arguably the best three men at the time. Ever,
next to Larry Bird, you have arguably the best forever.

(27:05):
Next to Karl Malone at that time before Tim Duncan is,
Charles Barkley and then arguably the one of the top
three best centers ever in a kem Olajuwan on your team.
So God is saying, okay, you're gonna learn from all
three of them what to do and what not to do,
you know what I'm saying. Like, and then your very
first game you ever play, you have a game winner

(27:26):
top of the key three pointer, like, come on, like,
what are we doing here right like eight billion people?
And this is what you give me? Okay, I appreciate you.
I'm gonna try my best to do what I can.
Tell me a little bit about Dream Dream, that's my guy.
Dream would sit in the back bro on a plane
and do a lot of like practicing, like I think

(27:48):
it was Arabic. You can practice arab but Charles and
all of them, it's like you know when you're on
a plane, it's like the four seat thing where it's
like the four seats, yeah, and they like they gamble, yeah,
gamblers say whatever. I would sit like this is my
chair and this was dream chair right next to mine.
But it was like, you know, space, and then he
was on the other side, and Dream, to me, was

(28:12):
the most calming individual, very to himself, but yet very
aware of what's going on outside, knowing that Charles and
Scotty and all of them are gambling, or knowing that
this person is doing this, and knowing. But he stayed
in his own world. And if you wanted to come
in this world, he teach you. So I asked Dream, like, Yo,
what do you read all you want to know? Come on?
I got you, young fellow, Come on, and he would

(28:34):
teach me a little bit. It is. But I was younger,
I might dream. I can't be that discipline right now.
I like girls too much. Man, I'm you tripping man.
You know what I'm saying? Like that religion ain't good
for me right now now. I can't do that. You
got it, chair, But he used to like I just
went to Houston not too long ago, and we traded books.
I give him books. He gave me some books to read,

(28:55):
you know, things like that. But Dream was always my guy. Man,
he was you know again. The message was when I
went to the rockets was this is how you present
yourself as a man. Dream, This is how you train
as a pro Scottie and this is what you should
not do. Chuck.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Tell me about Chuck. I hear it.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Oh my god, listen, I love them all, you know
what I'm saying. I used to carry this little brown,
beat up bag and he had money in the bag,
like it's like a Duffel, not even a Chuck money.
And they would let me hang with them, right, And
it was a privilege, right. I kept my mouth shut
you chill out, And not that it was like bad stuff,
but it's just like when your rookies don't talk.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Just just be a fly on the wall.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Chill out. You don't even enter. I don't care if
they ask you a question, keep it short, shut up
that kind of thing, right, Whereas a lot of kids
now they want to talk more, act like they're part
of it, you know what I mean. But uh, Chuck,
I love Chuck man. If it wasn't for Chuck, you know, Scottie,
you know, dream like I wouldn't, I wouldn't be where
I'm at one. But Chuck was just he was a

(30:05):
people's person, always like that. He would sit at a
bar and talk to everybody and you know, just be
friendly and things like that. And you know, he was
about principal too. You can't just say anything because he
might toss you over the bar, bushing your heat. Like
Charles was that type of guy, right, but it was
a lot of the older I get. You put yourself

(30:26):
in situations to react right or not, and he would
put hisself in those situations where dream more conservative chilling
don't want no problems, so he stayed away from even
anything that would try to give him a problem, you
know what I'm saying. So I learned from all three

(30:47):
of them and that short period of time. But Chuck
is a very loving, like just good dude.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Man.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
He's such a good dude, and you know, I just
love watching him now to this day. It's just funny
to watch, you know what I'm saying. Pep, No no tipping, pipping.
He Scottie man. First of all, if it was for
Scotty Pippen, no one would know. Katino Mobley, I promised

(31:15):
to God, promised to God. He from the very beginning
was like, you gotta play him now, Matt, it's now, y'all.
Notice it's six contracts ahead of me. It's guaranteed contracts
ahead of me. My rookie year never played point guard
before put him in the game. Let him play. Now

(31:36):
that Rudy Tom j down beach, but also too is god.
That's that's Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson like big guards. So
if you can bring the ball up, all I want
you to do is bring the ball up. That's all
I want you to do. Don't get RiPP bring the
ball up, make it three, stay out the way. That's
your job your first year. And if Scotty liked small guards,
I probably would have never been known. But he liked

(31:57):
bigger guards. Right, So see, you had lined up for me,
and all I did do was just take advantage of it.
So I did that. But Scotty was practice at ten.
Scotty's in there like seven lifting. I'm in there with him,
just learning how to be a pro. What I she before?
She afterwards? Right, getting shots up after the practice, like
he taught me how to do those because sometimes dream

(32:18):
was on like a fast Charles may not even come
to practice, you know what I'm saying. And it bumped
heads with Scotti because he don't come from that. So
he was looking at Charles like, yo, dog, what are
you doing? Like we're total opposite. It's kind of like
Kobe and Shaq at the time. Right, It's like, you
can be the most dominant if you take care of

(32:40):
you and be more disciplined. You know. I don't know
Shaq and Kobe's actual interaction when it came to that,
but it's kind of that similar kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Can you feel the beef between them two.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yeah, especially when it came to games that we could
win with just them, right, forget all us young guys,
all young guys, just be just be out there. We'll
win the game. But I need you and your energy
to help me do this, you know what I mean.
So that's what Chicago and yeah, man, he's just professional
like this in the gym, lifting, shooting, dissecting games like

(33:17):
just the angles on a court defensively teach you and
you be sitting like wow, that's crazy, right, Like how
he did those things and he encouraged you to make mistakes.
Just keep doing it, keep don't worry about it. Shoot
the next one. Like those type of things.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Summer workout, summer training, you know, MJ. Scotti, Charles and
can you have a lot of great people around you, Tim?

Speaker 2 (33:38):
What were those summer sessions like.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
The best in the world. Houston, Texas in ninety nine
two thousand and two thousand and one. You couldn't. There's
no nothing x kg. It was nothing better than that is.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
That old boys runs Lucas Lucas. That's what that was.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yes, yeah, us about nothing, yep, yeah yeah. So yeah.
So what he would do is so Avery Johnson started
this one the five on five and it would be

(34:17):
Antonio mcdice, Tim Duncan, kg Me, Sam Gasell, Nick van Nexell,
Steve Francis. I mean, you name it. The top of
the top. People were playing in this gym and it
was only one court, one court to nine, so you
better have your a game, like we're not playing these games.

(34:37):
So not only were we playing physical and it was competitive,
but then we will work out afterwards, right, so teach
you how to be a pro early. And then John
Lucas would do He would have like five on this side,
five on the side and five in the middle. So
you score here, now you take the ball, now you
go over. Then the next five come on. He would

(34:58):
just rotate you like that, right, So he and then
he was he was amazing. I swear man, God loved
me so much and still to this day of course,
that he put me in that position early in life.
And the more I think about it, to have you
got John Lucas who's recovering at it, you have Scottie Pippen,

(35:21):
you have you have all walks of life at your
becking call so you can become your best version of yourself.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
That's what I feel like the game misses now, Yes,
is that that that guidance, that leadership, that that just
the og there to kind.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Of really loll down how it should be.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
All that's how we came into the game. All day
after your rookie year, they trade for Steve. What's what's
your guys connection like off the rip? Obviously you guys
grew tremendous chemistry on the court, But what was that
first interaction?

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Like you know it started actually at the runs Avery
Johnson runs it. So I'm gonna back it up a
little bit. Mike, Michael Dickerson and I were of the
back court. Fire Oh, fire.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Man, go look up. Michael Dickerson went to Arizona.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Listen, he was this This ball was so strong. He
was warming up the two twenty.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Five like a football player.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Bro nineteen ninety eight two twenty five warm ups. You
can forget about it. We used to slot box all
the time. That's my dude. So his father was tought
them boxing the whole thing. So we had that in common.
But when I tell you first of all, Mike, Chess
come way out here. Chess, come way out here. He
would warm up to two twenty five man. His pull

(36:36):
up game, he would his wonderable pull up game was
un it was unbelievable. Mike was amazing. We in the
summertime and we're in Maui after our rookie year. We
in Maui, Me, Mike GP, Jason Kidd, Doug who else,
Sean Kemp put it on. It was kind of like

(36:57):
he got ball Challenge or something like that, right, so
what do you know? What? You know what the Skills
Challenge is now? Doug Detland trimp started that in Maui
and he had sponsors and it did so well. I
won that event by just let y'all know. So in Maui,
the all the dribbling and shooting the whole thing. So

(37:18):
I won four out of the five and wins that
run the whole I won the whole thing. So then
they had the models there. The remember Tire Banks, the
supermodel at the time, and all these different that lifted
that bro. Debt lifted that bro that was debtlan Trimp,
and then the NBA took it and put it inside
the Skills Challenge up. So me and Mike are there
and we're rookies, right, we just having fun. We're in

(37:38):
Maui at the time, standing at the Grand Wall, shout
out the Grand Wall abs like top hotel in the world.
At the time. I get a phone call. I'm eating breakfast.
I'm with Tyson Wheeler because me and Tyson went out
there and it was Tyson was like, no, Tyson, get
the call. Tyson like, yo, Mike, Mike Dixon just got traded.

(38:00):
And I'm like what He's like yeah, And I went
over to Mike and Mike was like her ghost face. Bro.
That's the first time I saw like this is a business.
They traded, Mike got Steve, and I mean, I was sad.
But Mike was very reserved too, So he wasn't like

(38:22):
a he was conservative. He wasn't like a hang with
you all the time guy, but he was like my
he was my dude. But Steve came along in Maryland,
Philly East Coast. We just hit it off right away
bro right away, and then Avery put Steven out on
the team together, and we just worked our chemistry from
the very start. And his mom had passed when he

(38:44):
was twelve, so then my mom was there, and then
my family, and then his dad and his sister and
his grandmom, so we all joined. Yeah, it was all
family and his brothers. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Obviously instanct chemistry off the court. When did that chemistry
click on the court.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Because I knew how to play with other great players,
it wasn't difficult for me, right playing with Rashie Wallace,
Ivan Williams, Kobe, Eddie Jones erin McKee Again. I remember
I grew up on fear. So mine is just take
the scraps. Whatever they don't do, do crash the board.

(39:21):
Did they shoot the ball, that's a rebound and to
put back you get an open shot, make use of
it like that's my That was my mentality, and I
grew into more confident. But I just it was I
was just be more of a compliment, right, don't try
to compete, just be more of a compliment. Whatever he
don't do, when did you see him tired? Go at him?
Make him let him rest and they go back that

(39:43):
that was my my mindset.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Steve was different.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Oh god, the explosiveness of him coming out of Maryland
and the same time as bad. I was a bead
guy and obviously him and Steve was was neck.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
But before up to that point, we really hadn't seen
point guards like that. Now, you you've seen since, you've
seen the Russell Westbrooks and John Morants and Derrick Roses.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
But Steve was one of them, first ones.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
First ones, bro listen. He was so incredible. You ever
you played with somebody and then you learned something from
them in the game, like that was Steve for me,
Like crashing the boards just more effort than certain things
Steve would like. It was games where Steve would get
seventeen rebounds and Matt when we played. Now think about

(40:28):
this seven foot is all day long as they get paid.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
For real power forwards.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Yeah, Steve was literally getting fifteen seventeen rebounds some games
on people and I was sitting there like this, dude,
it's relentless. So when they talk about like Derreck Rose
and they talk about like you know, John Moran and
Russell and I love them. I love all of them,
but Steve was different too. Now that boy was see
him and BD those type of guards. You never seen

(40:53):
that before before those two, you never seen that before.
There wasn't no type of point cards doing it up
before Steve Francis and Baron Davis. It wasn't no guards
doing that.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Scary.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
They came in the same year, right at the same time,
pick and pick right.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yep, the whole thing. It's the crazy thing. It's not
even ay bonics. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
It's not even Steve just saked some shit about Bead
the other day on someone else's show, and I don't
know if b D responded yet, but it was funny.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
You have people laughing like they really.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
You don't even understand what he's saying.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I'm like, wait, what.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
What did you just say? But I'm sleepy, Do hit
me tomorrow. I don't feel like this mind game. It's
just crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeao, y'all franchise told the story about ruining the summer
vacation oh two because of y'all.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Do you remember that?

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh yeah? So all right, so I didn't know about them.
You know, I'm still playing hard, you know what I'm saying.
I'm still whatever. I don't know in the back office
were trying to get y'all mean.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
You don't know. I don't know. I don't know none
of that.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Yeah, I don't know none of that. So boom, these
start kind of explaining to us. You know, we get
this kid, this that and whatever, and I'm like, Chinese kid,
how big is he? Seven six?

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Really?

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Is he good? At the coach? He said yeah. So
he starts showing us films, this, that and whatever. So
we had plans to like summertime, we out, we were
ready to go have fun. No, you cancel all that.
Y'all mean coming. I said, come on, coach, come on,
I play too hard for this. I gotta go rest.
Y'all mean coming, cancel all your plans. I'm like, god,

(42:45):
damn it. So y'all show up. So y'all to me
is like akima lachuwan, like very still, stoic, steady, right,
nothing really wrapped. If it does rattle, you don't know it.
So one time, not one time, but through a course
of a period of time, just getting to know y'all,

(43:06):
he's not really dominating like dunking the ball and things
like that, right, And I'm looking at him like, dog,
you too big? Like I'm from I'm from Lord, Philadelphia.
So I'm like, yo, you need to be you need
to like break somebody neck. So I'm cussing out, cussing out.
It's little guards blocking a shot. It's like stuff like that,
and I'm like, this is crazy though, I can't deal

(43:27):
with this, But I loved him because he was just
a good dude. Were playing Atlanta Bro and Theo Ratler
was I think he was on a THEO man. He
blocked the shot maybe twice after that, y'all mean put
him in the basket. I don't know how many times

(43:48):
I can't just really get it down. Ye Dunk had
a technical file on y'all, a talking file on y'all,
and his teammates love it. He was, so maybe he's
mad at me. I don't know, he's probably mad at me,
because you know how I get, I get a little crazy.
I don't mean to. I just I'm passionate, you know,
But he maybe he's mad at me. But we came

(44:10):
back and beat them, and y'all mean showed me a
different version of himself, and from then on, y'all was
just like like dominate every and what people don't understand
about y'all. He can pass the ball like Joker. He
could have done that. It's just our offense didn't. If
he say he have Rick Adelman for a fact, he

(44:30):
would have seen more of y'all. Me like that Chris Weber,
that Brad Miller passing. He had all of it.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
I remember, I want to say, I remember watching his
first matchup against Shack and he held his own right game.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
He blocked shacked twice, shot twice.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah, And I was.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Sitting there looking like, yup, that's him. Yeah, we can
go far with this dude. Like he he turned it
up a notch.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Tell us about that team? I mean, what what? What?

Speaker 3 (44:54):
What?

Speaker 2 (44:54):
What? What? Tell me about that team? So that team
to me, you guys starting five.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
It was me, y'all, Steve, Jim Jackson, and calval Cato.
That was our starting five. Right. So we were actually
at that time we were third in the history of
NBA defense efficiency. Right. We were stopping everybody. But the
only thing is is that coach will stop us on

(45:25):
the offense, right, instead of us letting us play on offense.
He played kind of like that pat Riley back in
the day possession ball. So with seventy something possessions. That's it.
We're gonna make this ugly where if you have talented
individuals on the other side, now you're making us think, right,

(45:46):
but the offense is not about thinking when it comes like,
it has to be that more fluid, you know, and
especially when you have people that can score easy. So
we were thinking more just a lot of that. But
so that team to me, we played the Lakers nine
times that year. Damn five to four, Lakers nine times
that year, and Lakers went on to win. I mean

(46:06):
to lose in the championship against Detroit, but I love
that's my favorite team. When it came to comfort, feeling
comfortable defensively right, and didn't having enough firepower offensively, if
Jeff because that was Jeff's first Jeff ben Gunny's first year,
so he was a little more strict because me and Steve,

(46:28):
he was like, yo, you're like maniacs. You guys are crazy.
You guys do anything right. And later on in life
he understood that he should have had more patience when
it came to that, But at that time, Steve and
I were out of control. We were we were bro
we were out of control, like we were.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Idiots talking about what was it? Five shake?

Speaker 3 (46:50):
One shake, one shake, two shake, Yeah, one shape, two shakes.
We put you on an island. So whoever it is,
whoever's cooking, whoever you know. The thing what Rudy would
do is if you if Matt, if you score, I
don't care if if you me and Steve, if you score,
we are giving it back to you. Let him do
him again. We got you do him again? Kill him?

(47:12):
You tired my turn? That's what we would do. So
we would call one shake to shake, and we'll be in.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
This.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
How Steve would some of Steve it wasn't as serious
because he'll shake somebody. He'll come miss the shot, come back,
we up to or down one. He'd be like, yo,
see I killed him. I'm like, dog, would you concentrate
on winning the game? What's the matter with you? Are
you crazy?

Speaker 2 (47:38):
With that?

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Wiggle? Was crazy?

Speaker 2 (47:42):
And he put Troy Hut in the trick bag all
the time.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Dog. He came over to the bench afterwards, He's like, Yo,
that was crazy, wasn't it. I got him on the
first one, he bit the second one.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
How you do that?

Speaker 3 (47:54):
But he's sitting on the bench telling me this. I like,
in the middle of the game. Man, I swear so coach,
you come over like yo, all right, end of the game.
He like ya, who won it? Steve was like, I
don't even feel like good cat you want it this time?
Like that's that was. That was our team. That's how
it was. Mouchie, you you want it.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I don't forget about.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Muchie Nars is crazy. Muci Nars was crazy. Bro our team.
But our team was insane. It was insane and I
was the only one listen for me. Dog, I wasn't
as crazy, but I was a part of the craziness mix.
It was just crazy Moocie Dog. He would have half
his hair braided and then it was a fro on
this half. He would have glitter when we come from

(48:39):
different cities, all on his face. Like Mooch was crazy.
Our team was just insane. It didn't it didn't matter.
It didn't. Yeah, he couldn't sleep for because he couldn't sleep.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
That was move.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
That was move. But we just some crazy. Listen. Our
team was so crazy at that time. You meet a
girl in the city, you can bring it on the plane.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
No hose barred, no listen.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Bro no, no, we ain't nobody have wives yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
You because you can never old dude, you could never
bring work on the plane.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Listen, brought the work on the plane. I needed to
want to work on the plane. Bro that I was sitting,
I'm just staring at her, like you even know what
you're doing? What are you getting yourself into? This is crazy.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I've never heard work coming on the team playing crazy
bro work in the family rooms.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
It was I think we messed it up, That's what
it probably was. They stopped it all. They stopped it all.
They stopped. And you've seen the older women looking at
you that I'm telling you right now, Mama. Yeah, y'all boring.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Over there, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
I G Lately you've been talking to your IG fans
deeply about.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Women and life.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
And that's one thing I've always liked about you too,
just the you're a deep thinker and you've really been
on that. Right now, talk to us a little bit
about what you've been on lately, just that spirit, that
energy and yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Yeah. So so I go to my calling right being
single lectually for the next from now five years. But
I go to my calling right there is I don't
I'm not a prisoner to my emotions. Right, And I
think that's satisfying to me. So when I'm speaking to individuals,

(50:46):
I'm speaking I was there once, right, So I most
qualified the person I used to be to coach. Right.
So when I'm watching certain people go through so things,
all I'm doing is trying to And again, this is
no hatred towards women as, no hatred towards moms, no

(51:06):
hatred towards whatever it is. It's just that I'm giving
you my experience. And I think if I can help
men really focus on their emotions and their actions, it
helps you better in life. So when I'm speaking, I
want everybody, male and female to be their best version
of itself. Right, And we get in situations in life

(51:32):
like for me, I can't blame my kid's mother for
the things that happen in life because I chose her.
I could have walked away and never had children. Right,
whether it's my oldest or the youngest kids mom, it's
not their fault, right, it's my situation that I didn't
have boundaries in or I didn't do this, or I
didn't do that. So when you choose these individuals, where

(51:54):
were you at mentally? Right? So now we have to
stake more accountability. You turn the ball over and a
guy ain't catch the ball, he missed layups right? Whose
fall is not his for not catching it, it's yours
for throwing it? Right? So I look at life like that,
so now and I have to be more accountable and
more understanding that. Okay, I chose that, so now I
have to live with that. How do I limit those mistakes? Okay,

(52:17):
now I gotta stop thinking. Then I gotta pray about
this one. Okay, don't do that because this can happen. Yeah,
it may not happen, but this the percentage of this happened.
If you drive drunk a whole bunch of times, yeah
you might not get but then guess what, sooner or
later it's gonna catch up to me.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Do you limit the mistakes on your side though? And
your faults?

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Obviously being understanding that you put yourself in a situation.
But we're still constantly evolving, and.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
So how do you manage that?

Speaker 3 (52:43):
I think for just it's just for me, right, I
think when you have if you have a why, how
does it matter? Right?

Speaker 2 (52:53):
So?

Speaker 3 (52:54):
My why is my kids? Right? And I've been through
the fight, whether it's my oldest at time where you know,
I'm bumping hands with his mom when he was younger
to her and I love her to death now right,
and then my youngest right bumping hands with it and
spending all this money and I get custody the kids
and blah blah. It's like, all right, they showed you,
just like Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley and the chem

(53:15):
Olajawan and Rudy Tom Johnavic and all these people showed
you and said I love you. The universe said, I
love you. This is what I'm giving you. Right, the
universe still says, I love you. I'm going to give
you difficult situations so you can learn from It's not
just always good. So I think that's with me, is
that it's my my Why is my kids?

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Back to basketball quick? The Clippers. You were on one
of the early teams that kind of broke through in
l A. What was that team?

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Like?

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Funny as hell?

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Though, this is what.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
You're six five six, yes, yes, Sam Cassell, sham Boy Elton,
brand Corey mcgetty, Chris Chrish. Chris was the smartest person
off the court and probably the slowest on the court.
Like I love Chris. He had all the game but

(54:11):
couldn't pass out the double team to struggle. I don't understand.
I never understood that. But Chris is super smart. That
team was a really good team. We had a Sean Livingston,
my guy. Shout out to Sean. I love him so much.
Like he was. He was special, especially if he have
his injuries.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Like sure before his injury.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
No, I gave him the ball, I stripped the ball,
threw it ahead to him, He's on the break, tears
his knee up. So I don't know if it was
the energy what. I don't know what the hell happened,
but that was just it was crazy that that happened.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
What was he like prior to his injury, because he
was young, fresh out of high.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
School, Sean was he was super mature. He was like
older than his age. Always listen right, stayed chill like.
He wasn't like very like a lot of young guy
especially back then being all American and not just a
high schooled American, but like top point guard in the country,
and it's like so much stuff going on and living

(55:10):
in LA and he wasn't that. He was very chilled
and you know, very stoic, very you know, like confident
with himself. Right. Oh yes, Oh so that was Seawan.
That was Shawn and always picking your brain, asking you
certain stuff like that was showing, so you know that
was that was to this day, it's my guy. I

(55:30):
haven't spoken to him in a while, but that's that's
my guy. But we we had a team. You know,
Rashid Wallace hated Mike Dunlevy, right, call him Mike dumb Levy, right,
he hated him, hated him. A couple of guys did.
And I didn't hate Mike, right, Mike was my guy,
but Mike overthought the game and the team that we had.

(55:56):
We could have went farther if he didn't get in
a way with himself. Sometimes coaches get in their own way.
People do in general, but especially when you were a coach,
like I think personally, just to say this one and
I could be so wrong. The way Duke played when
they had the lead, and then the way they played
when Cooper went out, it's totally different the way Houston

(56:19):
played when they had the league and then in the
second half the way they played. Right, It's like you
focus more on defense opposed to like really score and
it's like you sometimes you overthink it and getting your
own way. Detroit Lions coach, you getting your own way,
and Mike got in his own way with our team,
and the next year guys got injured. I think Elton

(56:42):
towards something happened. Yeah, something happened and we missed. That's when,
y'all we believe.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
So you guys had it was in your court. Like
if you guys won, we were out yep, and you
guys happened to lose.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
It should have been a ta yep.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
So it was five games left. I popped my half
against New York Elton's out, pop my calf. When you
have to win one game, we won none of them.
And then you guys get it.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
In the last game and we beat the Yeah pre Dallas, Right,
you guys lost to who'd you guys lose to? It
was the team you guys are supposed to beat too.
We couldn't believe we heard you guys lost.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
I don't even know, but I was out.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, it was past forward a little bit health issues.
Talk to us about that. I mean, you had to
step away from the game. Twenty point a game score,
clutch defense, you did it all, and you know you
didn't get to go out on your term, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Yeah, yeah, you know, Listen, I appreciate it. Listen to
We have a brotherhood, right that they can't erase, right
that I always have. I love this fraternity we have.
But it was a misdiagnosis, right, and I didn't know that,
so I came into the league. It was called hypertrophy
cardio myopathy, which is HCM. The academic is HCM, and

(58:00):
at that time, early on ninety eight ninety nine, it's
athlete's heart right mixed with the thickness of the heart.
So this is your heart. The walls there thicker, so
the blood can't flow through, and if it doesn't flow
through to the brain cuts off and then you can
die automatically. Well, that wasn't my issue mine, just athletes

(58:20):
heart right mixed with hypertension. And I didn't find it
out until two thousand and ten. Right, But at that time,
I'm signing contracts every single year because I had the
number one cardiologist in the world. His name was Anthony Pacifico.
He passed away on a private jet back in like
four So after that it was problems for me. No, Well,

(58:43):
not with the Clippers, but it was a problem for
me if I had to go anywhere else because he
had just greenlit. Okay, the Clippers is fine. Five clippers
is fine. And it shocked me because I never thought
of it being an issue, and I had I was
a symptomatic that means do you have no symptoms? Right.
It wasn't like I was passing out, I had to

(59:04):
take medicine. It was none of that. So I was
heartbroken for a little bit because I thought I had
a lot more in the tank. And actually my very
last game I ever played was against OKAC. I had
twenty seven and I was just getting in the groove
and it was me and BD on teams together. The
first time I was on team with BD, and you know,

(59:26):
I was in revenge I was like kind of like
a revenge tour of like you know that last year.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
At this point thirty one oh man.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Yeah, thirty one, yeah, thirty one, thirty two uncost thirty two.
But I was in that revenge tour of like I
got I got a point guard with me that going
to run the floor and give me that ball because
Bed loved to pass it. And after four games that
was the fourth game just with the Knicks. Right, No, no, no,
I was Clippers still Clippers. Yeah, I was the Clippers.

(59:55):
So I got traded to the Knicks and then they
shelfed me. The Knicks shelf me so with a Nick
shelf mean it put me in a you know again manifestation. Right,
I didn't want to leave La, So I'm like, you
know what, my mom was just retired, like there's no
reason they be you know, I was thinking, I was
thinking it. So when thinking that, now you gotta be

(01:00:18):
careful what you wish for because now this situation can
do that to you. So that situation occurred, and I
just start going to you know, I had to go
to Mayo, and then I had to go to Minnesota,
and I had to go all these places to get
like these different health I don't know, tests or whatever,
and then come to find out I'm here at U

(01:00:38):
C l A. And then I'm at Cedars. And then
my doctor at Cedar says, you know what, go to
the eye doctor and let him check your eyes. So
then I go to the eye doctors, Oh, you have hypertension.
But he only found it out because the guy at
Cedars saw my dad's history and they said let's check
if it's that, because seeing hypertrophic car their miopathy. What

(01:01:01):
it does is it's the thickening of the walls in
your heart. And like I said before, the circulation doesn't
go up if you have that, it stays forever. If
you don't have it, and it's maybe ah CM. I
mean it may be hypertension mixed with like athletes's heart.
The walls would become thinner because your muscles of hearts
and muscle, and it expands right if you work out more.

(01:01:23):
But if you don't have it, it shrinks back down
to normal, which minds did. So there's a certain amount
of genetic genes that carry if you have ACM. I
had none of them, so I had to go at
U C l A. I had to go there just
so with my kids so I can understand that my
kids they don't pass it on to them. So that's
how I had to find it out. But it took
a year and a half, almost two years to find

(01:01:44):
all that out. It was. It was a tough thing
for me because now I'm watching guys play and knowing
I can play. But yeah, in the back of my
head they're saying, if you play you're gonna die And
I'm like, wait what Yeah, so it was it was
tough for me.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
What was that transition like for you?

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
It was hard, man, because I as much as I
wanted to be a businessman, I wasn't ready to actually
jump right into it. It's kind of like, yeah, you
want to be a dad, but then all of a sudden,
the baby's hea is like, I don't even know what
this really means. Now, this is crazy, right, Like, I
gotta take care of this, right, I gotta take care
of me. I gotta be the best version of myself.

(01:02:21):
So he could you don't know that You're just like,
every single day you're trying to figure it out. And
that's just a parrot in general, right, So that was
like being a new parrot to something and that you
really have to focus.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
On quick hitters first need to come to mind. Let
me know. Top five lefties of all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Time James Harden, Chris Mullen, Mano Genobili, Nick van exel O.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Damn, that was impressive.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
That was impressive, And I mean David Robinson of course.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Geez hey, we just saw a highlight table Dave Roy
put in our group chat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
That motherfucker was cold. I mean I remember seeing him.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
God, he was insane.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
David Robinson was so good, bro, Oh he.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
Was insane though he was insane watching him.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
MJ. Kobe Bron Rank.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
Yeah, old Mike though you know I love Kobe so much.
You can't tell me nothing. I'm sorry. Growing up, Mike
was my goal, right, Mike was the guy. But you
ever watched Weird Science And I know this is a
quick hitter, but you ever watched Weird Science and you're like,

(01:03:34):
you gotta build someone. You build Lebron. You don't build
Kobe or Mike. You build Lebron. And that's why I
think Lebron is there's Lebron, there's Kobe in this mic.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Really, to me, I've never heard that order before.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
I'm not mad at that interesting one album you can
listen to on repeat.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Tanklan, thirty six Chambers, Dead or Alive, Muhammad Ali, Sidney Potier,
John F. Kennedy, Dick Gregory, and then I would say
Frank Sinatra, solid.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
It's special, bro. I mean, you don't really understand a
lot of what he went through for like America, for people,
and that's why they silenced them. But just his intelligence
and then he comes from that background of political background.
So what he saw explaining those things is the perspective

(01:04:42):
of itself. To me is like, Okay, I get it.
Why you did this right because he could have went
the other route. He could have Yeah, it's easier to
do the other thing right. It's like the bushes right
where it's like you're Republican, you gotta stay like this
you got today. He He's like, Nah, I'm cool. Nah,

(01:05:03):
I'm gonna use gold as a reserve. I want to
go to just certain things. You just want to listen
to him, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
One guest you would like to see on our show.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
That's how YA had everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
I've been talking to your man help me. You still
talk to Steve?

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, helping guess.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
I tell him, brother, we'll fly you out, put you up,
come fuck with us.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Yeah yeah, Steve would be great. You just never know
what Steve gonna say. Steve, then you got a sense
of some of that ship. You'd be talking in alien
codes and ship. Uh yeah, but no, I love so.
So there's different people that I listened to on a

(01:05:46):
regular basis, and I think, did you do Mack move?

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
We just did Craig Hi just too not too long ago.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Yeah, both of them. But yeah, you know I don't
know Gino. No Gino from Yukon.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Yeah, the greatest coaches ever. Yeah you're talking about Geno.
Davis was like, we don't want to interview that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
Yeah, no, Gino coaches. I think he's special. Yeah, the
way he The reason why I say that is because
he's been dealing with females his whole life and being
able to get the best out of.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Them and hold them accountable about the way he had
them women playing man.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
Like But you think about it like this though, relationship wise, Yeah,
different holds women accountable like he's able to do that
and say, I don't care about your kid, your tears,
do what I told you to do, stop being selfish
like those. I would love to pick his brain. I
want to hear how.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Do you do that some of those principles in life?

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
Yes, God damn it, Esuise, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Cat Man. I appreciate your time. Congratulations on just an
amazing career. And that's the man you are overall, always
a stand up dude to me, man, and I wish
you nothing but the best.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Thank you, no doubt yes, it's a wrap.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
You can catch this on all the Smoke Productions YouTube
and the DraftKings Network.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
We'll see y'all next week.