KJ Live - Ed Waters

On this week’s episode of KJ Live, Crenshaw High-School Boys Basketball Head Coach Ed Waters stops by and chops it up about growing up in South Central LA, how he fell in love with the game, and his basketball journey. Coach Waters shares some thoughts about his time playing college basketball at Eastern Washington, trying out for the Milwaukee Bucks, and the moment he realized that coaching was his calling. KJ and Coach Waters also reminisce about winning championships together at Crenshaw High-School, what he learned coaching with the legendary Coach Willie West and how the basketball culture in Los Angeles has evolved over time. #allball

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is kJ Live with Chris john Sillis and Chris
is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
entertainment industry. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now keeping k

(00:22):
J Live. Today's very special guest on this shows a
man I've known converting my entire life. He is a
big reason I'm the person I am today, the basketball
player and the human being. Please welcome in. Crinshaw High
School Varsity boys basketball head coach Ed Waters is in

(00:43):
the building. What's up? Hey, what forever? Let's go? Man. Hey, Hey, Hey,
I've been so glad to um have you on. People
don't know this, but we actually recorded pilot years ago
before podcasting was a bad me you Marcus, we were

(01:06):
remember that whole thing, but we recorded Hey the back
garage man, So we've been at this thing for a while.
But but I wanted to bring you on the show,
and because you know, I want to just talk about
in the beginning, just sort of how you got in
fell in love with the game. That's a lot of
the times I want to get people's respectives about the

(01:27):
foundations and the roots and why they chose this path.
We're a different breed basketball people. And so if you
could just expand on that force a little bit. What
started you off? Man? You know, to be quite honest
with you, Uh, my family moved to the West Side,
and the first thing I found out was that there
are a lot of a lot of sports going on,

(01:47):
a lot of athletes. I haven't had experienced that. And
we used to play. They used to play in the
alley over off of Vaness backboard on a garage. And
the problem from me us I was a left hander
who didn't have any skills. It's the worst combination ever.

(02:09):
No skills. Come on, no I had I had no skills.
It was the worst combination ever. So because I didn't
get picked ever, I got a basketball I went by
back there by myself. I was my own first personal trainer,
um and so uh. And as time went on and evolved,

(02:30):
I started getting picked. I become became the number one pick.
And when you're young like that, trying to guard a
left handers really really tough. People don't really figure out
what you can do. And so that part in terms
of player UH got me involved. And then I was
in a great vortex. I began to learn the game

(02:50):
between van as Park out of Bony Elementary and UH
and and Rancho Park and between those parts, this is
where I fell in love with the game. Who are
some of the contemporaries, some of your contemporaries, some of
the athletes that you came up with. I know, my

(03:11):
dad tells stories. I know if I think back into
my memory, I came up with a lot of dudes
that eventually, you know, made something out of themselves. On
the leg side. Who were some of the contemporaries that
you were competing against at that time? Well, you know
a lot of guys that I was competing against. Um
they were at UH coming up to Audubon Junior High
School on Saturday mornings. It was the greatest collection of

(03:37):
of athletes. And I mean some of your listeners may
and may not know a lot of the guys. But
the beautiful jump shot I had ever seen was Luther
Phil y'all who played in Loyal and he had a body,
he had the leg. And then you know Robert Johnson
who eventually played at Crenshaw and had a brother, Eddie

(03:58):
Johnson was the master of ceremonies that Autuba. He he
had great personnel and he had UH knew how to
pick the teams, and they ran the court. And for me,
I have to tell you, Chris that the open run
with guys that don't really know each other, it's the
greatest run today for me ever, because you're now just

(04:21):
dealing with i QS, guys guy accused names on the
board and guys that have accused. But at that time,
there weren't a lot of guys like going into the
n B A. Uh. Your dad was special man, uh
in terms of his track. But I still was around
a lot of great players, guys that were at fist,
guys who had some HBCUs before it was even popular,

(04:44):
and coming home in the summer, uh and getting and
getting that run. I really didn't start getting around guys
that were gonna end up going to the NBA and
two u c l A run in the summer. Your
dad and I would, uh, we'd have a two day workout.
We go to the beach and run and then go
straight to the gym and uh. And now we're talking
about Sydney, which you're talking about Grave, You're talking uh,

(05:08):
you're talking about all of it. Leon Wood, who's a
you know, a great ref bunch of guys like that. So,
you know, because of your dad, I began to get
connected to those type of situations and just you know,
build the love even more. How how has pick up
basketball changed from back then? Because typically I always think

(05:29):
I felt like pick up basketball was sort of a
microcosm how they're calling stuff or how the game is
played in the league. Um, back then, did you know
you guys call your own fouls? What score did you
go up to? Like? What was the sort of the
atmosphere pick up basketball back there? The atmosphere was that, uh,

(05:50):
guys were gonna do any and everything legal and we're
illegal to make sure that they didn't lose that game. Max.
So now you're talking about out, you're going to nine,
it's eight up, and everybody's calling fantom files, no foul.
They're not going back to the other end the eight

(06:12):
up game, which he's gonna take fifteen you know, ten
and fifteen minutes that that game is you know, depending
on who the person was, he going to twenty five
minutes an our guys arguing, guys just shooting the shot
a hand up, you fouled me, and big arguments out
of that. But it wasn't did he get violent at

(06:33):
all that were there fights back then? Or how did that?
How do how does this stuff handled? Back then? It
was It wasn't violent, but you had stuff like don't
trip if the dude who was calling the file was
not happy, there's one ball in the gym, he's taking
his ball at he's out, he's out, classic, take my

(06:54):
ball and go home, take to go home, or take
my ball and sit on the sideline and watch y'all. Yeah,
and then and then and then you know, people would
dive in, you know, because the guys that were he
was playing against didn't want the game to end like that,
and the guys that were with him didn't want the
game then like that. There was no violence. It was

(07:15):
really generational basketball at its finess and guys like me learning,
you know, and uh, they used to say pick up
a little man, pick up a little man, and uh,
I had guys calling me in like that. But there's
no violence. Yeah, that's great, that's great to know, because, um,
when I was coming up, I mean, I was privy
to those grown man runs and stuff, and a lot

(07:35):
of times would be a lot of talking and you know,
sometimes you see some stuff, some get them up. But
you know, now and then today in today's era, you know,
I like kind of how things have moved away from
all that, and uh, it's become it's become really just
about basketball and and and pajamas and all types of
stuff that they wear. But but no, I digress. But

(07:57):
um after Crenshaw. So wait, let me let me get
this straight. No, I want to know this because I've
always wondered about this. What is the origin of the
nickname Bosco? At the time, there was a h an
additive to to milk that turned it into chocolate milk,

(08:18):
and it was Bosco. But but at that time you
also have to know in terms of throwing shade, yeah,
you're dark skinned. You know. With now you know your
dark scared would not be hair. So it's another way
of saying you you real black. Wow. So that was
the thing back then. It was light scanned first. Dark

(08:38):
skin back then still absolutely like absolutely no, it's not
even a question. It was even worse. You know, as
the story goes, dark skinned really didn't flip to Michael
Jordan's Got Poplar Wow. Fact, that's kind of a real
real now now, all of a sudden, it was dark
and handsome and good look game and tall and ball headed.

(09:02):
But prior to that, your dark skin, you got nappy hair.
You don't have a real throw your bossco Hey, but
Bosco was legendary. Man. I remember your game early on,
and you were in stoppable, your shakes, your heasyes. I
mean you're doing this stuff in the seventies and I
mean heasy game for you floaters Euros. I mean I

(09:25):
saw all that type of stuff you early on, when
I'm like ten eleven, you know, I see you out
on the run, bro, I saw all of that. I
was in the building, and do not get it twisted.
I had some weird stuff going on, and I think
back to that. I got to wear my my lay
up package had so many high arches. I was. I

(09:47):
was announcing during games, you know, and at that time
Elgin Baylor was my guy, and I'm making moves and
I'm I'm announcing and I'm Bailor with a high arch.
Good uh. And so I was announcing when I was playing.
But yeah, I became famous for a very high art
layer package. You after crisch are you went to Eastern

(10:08):
Washington right, yes, and talk about your experience in college
playing college basketball, How what conference like what level was
Eastern back then and what was the what was your
coach like, I just want to hear about that. I
never talked to you about that. But first of all,
I want to give some flowers to my coach, Jerry Krauss,
who has cancer. He is going to be inducted into

(10:29):
the n C Double A Hall of Fame. Uh. He was.
He's a great researcher. Uh and at the time, he
was really kind of ahead of his time. With our package.
We ran a flex package. We pressed and uh, I
was a point guard. And two years ago, uh, they
took uh our team, our seventy seven team, and put

(10:51):
them in the Hall of Fame. And then they decided
to put me in the Hall of Fame. And congratulations,
congratulations brother, thank you. My assist record is no one
near it. The closest guy is probably four hundred assists
below me. And so it's just amazing that that that
still happens. But we're in a I A where in
the Evergreen Conference, and uh, you know, Central State was

(11:14):
our arrival. They're always going to the regional. I had
an All American on our team, Ron Cox, who ended
up being you know, an All American you're riding around
in vans all the way all over the state of California. Uh,
you can't hardly excuse me of Washington. You can't hardly sleep.
But interesting enough, the basketball swag was still going on

(11:39):
because people like Kenny Tyler red Gonzaga University, and so
we would go in there in the summer and have
these runs. And Kenny was a great guard that came
out of California. But it was very competitive, uh, and
we were always on top of the conference, either winning
it or in second place. And we had we had
an outstanding coach playing at Eastern which is what city

(12:02):
of the state of Washington, Cheney, which is about ten
or fifteen miles from Spokane, so it's close to Spokane.
But I find it really interesting just on how the
state of Washington Pacific Northwest the ball players that they
have been produced out of there in the last ten
to fifteen years. Some high level dudes, this Paolo Bancaro,
the number one pick chet home grin recently. Um, these

(12:23):
guys are from that area. Brandon Roy bring some names up,
and you had some ball players out there. What I
remember though, UM, something I remember, Uh, I always think about, UM,
this guy named ed Pepple and Mercer Island and just
and just when you because it was something about we
were playing them and you you were like aware, I
don't remember, but I just remember just that name is
always resonated. What is it about that area and basketball

(12:46):
man that made them, that makes produces so many good
basketball players and coach we we have we we have
something to learn in Los Angeles. And I not only
look at Seattle, but I look at uh Canada and
then and then go to European basketball, and there is
a there is a cooperation from the lowest level to

(13:10):
the highest level for development uh and and and that
has to do also with a cooperation that's that's non
competitive between on the a youth circuit. You know, it's
not me against you, it's us trying to get these
guys developed and help them get to where they want

(13:30):
to go. And I think in the cases of like
a Seattle, I think you have that great cooperation where
the AU is connected to the high school, which is
annected to the college, to the community, and you know,
and then outside of that, I've always admired Canada, uh
and and and and what ends up happening is it

(13:50):
has to do with where is your pride at and
so as you know, if somebody that played overseas, they
take this stuff really really seriously, no matter how big
is smaller country is. But behind that is a tremendous
pride that carries over uh. And that's something I think
we can learn more from in Los Angeles. Yeah, absolutely,

(14:11):
I feel like and I've talked to a number of
people on this podcast about that, from Jason Hart too,
others in the game, just about the developmental process of
basketball in l A in California in the United States.
A good friend of mine is a scout for the
Phoenix Suns. He was on the pod, but he was
just talking about how the system is broken some points
that you just brought up about that area, just on

(14:33):
how it's us against everybody else, not us against each other.
When you start fighting amongst each other, beefing, having these issues,
you know you're never gonna be able to cooperate and
and that at the end of the day, the kids
aren't going to get the work that they need to
be on the same page. No, you're absolutely right, man,
that that is such a trip. We definitely have a
long way to go out here now. After Eastern, didn't

(14:56):
you try it with the Bucks? I did. Um, I
was in the free agent camp and uh, it was
interesting because that summer, one of the great runs was
at Memorial Park in Santa Monica. And and so I
really had a lot of success up there. I walked
in the gym and guys would drop guys and put

(15:17):
me on the team. We would we would get on runs. Uh.
If I lost, I automatically got picked up for the
next run. But interestingly enough, the summer before I went
to Milwaukee, UM, Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper, We're all playing
up at Memorial and uh, and I had a lot

(15:39):
of success on a particular day, and they asked your
dad who I was. And uh, and so in asking
your dad, your dad, you know, really your dad is
the person that that introduced me to another level of
basketball people I probably would have never met. And going

(16:00):
up to U c. L A and playing I didn't
get to play all the time when I went up
to U c. L A. But I never missed going
and so and in this situation, uh, you know, he
was a course at the Bucks. I've been playing well
and also came out of Eastern heralded and so he
helped give me an opportunity. Uh. And at the time

(16:21):
Don Nelson was a coach, I was experiencing the craziest
thing ever with two days and not eating in between
the second one because I was sitting in the tub
and with ice have time to eat. And I had
to experience nothing like that. What was it? What was
the NBA training camp like back then? What was it like?
It was? The guys were guaranteed contracts, weren't They were chilling,

(16:46):
and then you had kind of these other guys and
he had some guys from colleges, some colleges, small colleges,
big college or whatever, and uh, but it was grueling.
It was unmerciful. Uh, it was grueling, and they were
just trying to see, you know, what you were made of.
We had all at Marquette University. And I remember when

(17:07):
Coach Nelson called me over, he said that called me over.
I ran over and he said, you know, thanks, you know,
thanks for coming and thanks for this. And I always
remember I walked out into the hallway of Marquette University
and I looked at the Christine Grass with you know,
some popes on it, and I just I settled that

(17:29):
I was okay, you know, and I didn't think that
I was gonna chase it, you know what I mean,
I was gonna chase it, I kinda And I end
up doing a couple of things in between that. I
went to Vegas when you know what's What's was now
the D League was that that was kind of starting
up then, and I went to Vegas and did some
stuff there and I and I did a couple of

(17:50):
things overseas, but I never really chased it because I
just saw what it did to a lot of guys
that didn't make it. M So when you say you
saw what it did, is it the mental an emotional
level of taxing and just the let down or the
grind of it all? And what do you mean by
what you saw what it did to other guys? You know,

(18:12):
you have different levels. You have guys that actually think
they can't miss and everybody's telling them that, and they've
had certain stuff and it's like this bro, It's like,
I know, the college program is listening to you at
six seven, but when you get to when you get
to the NBA tryout, you're not six seven. You're six

(18:35):
four six three ish, and it's it's a different it's
a different level, you know what I mean. And so
the guys read in the stuff that they didn't know
they're gonna go into. And then the biggest thing is
that you are walking around with the skill set that
you can no longer use in uh, in a high

(18:56):
level way. And that's a mind Blower's still a mind
glory for guys today. It's like, you got these tools,
you got this knowledge, but because you know, things didn't
go your way or you're older now and it didn't
and it didn't work out. And I remember Norm Nixon,
who uh you know, used to play for the Lakers
once championships. He told me, he told me I had

(19:19):
the game. He said, it's about timing. And that's another
part of it is, you know, timing, uh is so
huge when all things are considered, you know. And so
you have guys who you know, can't let go of
what didn't happen. Yeah, uh facts, because you work so
hard for so long. It's something and if you're lucky

(19:39):
enough to be good at what you do, you feel
like you just deserve, you know, the opportunity because you
see some other guys that are there and look, we're
not hating on anybody that makes the lead. But you
see other guys that you know you can bust their
ass or you have bust at their ass, and you know,
given the same opportunity, you could perform in the center
of the fashion. Well, let's hope clarity on that you're

(20:01):
one of those guys acts no question, a lot of asks,
a lot of the guys, yeah, and let them know
that I'm either better than you or as good as you.
And so it's very challenging because I actually saw your
development and I and I you know, I felt that

(20:22):
your NBA player, thank you, and I appreciate that Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. You know me, for me,
when I look at myself and think back, you know,
I wasn't doing the right stuff. I wasn't doing everything

(20:45):
off the court that it takes. And I look back
and I have some accountability with that now, and I
know that because I was partying, I was living like
I was in the league, and I was going I
was going to I was going into freaking pre draft camp. Hey,
pre draft camp, I'm out at real night. And then
they got the undercoverage at the club, telling on me

(21:05):
every night, hanging out with me every night, dabbing me up,
so I know I didn't make the league. And a
little bit on the defensive side back then, you know,
it was like they had these prototypical twos and threes
that you know, you had to be a certain size
and you had to be able to guard in a
certain kind of way. So always but but at the
end of the day, and it was definitely, uh, it

(21:26):
was on me. Um. But back to the training camp.
I remember my first training my first training camp was
with the Timberwolves. During the locker, I'm in Minnesota with
Steph and KG and and the legendary Sam Mitchell, who
I have a Sam Mitchell. He's one of those vets.
He was one of those vets, dude that just rode
the rookies. You know, he rode the rooks. So he

(21:47):
was always, you know, making you do extra running in
the lines. He was calling you out in front of
flip you know flips. You know, he's making sure to
point out, Oh the young fella, didn't you know. He's
one of those types of dudes. So if you if
you were a French guy like I was, you have
no chance with a guy like Sam Metroid practice. But
but but but back to you, man, after walking through

(22:08):
that hallway at Marquette University, Man, it comes to that realization.
Was it then you decided to coach? Because I remember
your career and your life kind of took a different
type of journey where you kind of delved in politics
a little bit. But what what what was the epiphany
in that Marquette hallway? It's the coaching epiphany, wasn't there?

(22:30):
And you don't know how much of appreciation that you're
asking me this question because I don't get to share
it a lot. But what happened was is that when
I was at Eastern, we went to a medical facility
of some mentally challenged kids and our job was to
do kind of a mini camp there. And so we

(22:52):
went in and we were divided up and Chris, for
some reason, my my, uh my half of the court.
With these kids, they were the most excited about anything
I was told that they ever done. And I was
looking and I was just being energetic and clapping, and

(23:15):
you know, I was already a captain on Eastern, so
my leader skips leadership skills were there, and I just
put everything I could into those kids. And the facility
wrote a letter to Eastern about how I impacted those kids,
and I said to myself, I impacted some kids that
are mentally challenged. I connected with them in some way,

(23:39):
and that's when it started from me. M hm, And
how did you continue to go down that path of
helping affecting people? Like what was the next kind of
step phase of Edwaters development. I spent another year at
Eastern and I helped out on the coaching staff there,
and I was really really challenged because I was still

(23:59):
looking at things. It is from a player's point of view. Yeah,
you was expecting them to do stuff that you would
could do, but yeah, that part and I was tripping
off of you know, how I would handle discipline and
uh in some different ways too. I was looking at
that so I had an affinity for the player, but

(24:19):
I also had a respect for the coach, and I
remember that that kind of you know, going up, going away.
But my real kind of my real kind of time
is that I spent a lot of time volunteering. As
you know, I was at the inglewood Y m c A. Yeah,

(24:39):
the great days that we had there. I remember how
guys the hawk guys baby, and I remember having to
talk with you and I was I remember telling you
that that because nobody could really guard you because your side.
But I remember telling you that if you learn this
footwork on the inside, your game on the outside is
gonna be that. And you know, one of one of

(25:01):
your one of your your skills is footwork. UH. And
I take it all the way back to that, because
you were playing inside with us. I wouldn't let you
play outside. You weren't shooting any Jimmy, we're going, We're
going to the hall. UH. And from ole wood Y
m c A. A coach saw me there UH at
Washington and asked me to come over and coach the freshman.

(25:24):
I coached the freshman there and we won the league.
Crenshaw was in the league. We we uh, we we
won the league. I then connected with UH. With Crenshaw,
I coach with coach West for a couple of years.
And I left there and I got an assistance job
in Central Washington University in Ohio UH and Central State,

(25:49):
Central State, I mean, I'm sorry, Central State University. Yeah.
Uh and Uh Kevin Porter, who used to play in
the league was the head coach at the time, and
so I got that experience. Then I came back uh,
and I got with UH. I came back, I got
with Crenshall for a second stint. I would end up

(26:09):
doing three stints with West. So after my second stint
with Coach West, I went and took over at Jefferson
High School on the east side, and I couldn't get
any of my boys to come over there and help me.
I said, hey, man, I'm over on the other side
of Hooper. They can say in Hooper it's Hooper. But
I went over there and Chris. What we did over

(26:32):
there energized the entire community. Football was kind of the
thing over there. I had guys from the community playing ball,
and uh, I never I never forget. Crenchyall came to
jeff to play and they had, you know, Marcus Williams,
all the six six guys, and Uh, I heard it halftime,

(26:54):
Coach West went into his guys because we're only down there.
We we we're down only by three, only by three,
And they told me Coach West was going banana. So
I had a great time over there, and then I
left Jeff and came back over to Crenshaw. Uh with
with with coach, and eventually after you left, I took

(27:16):
over the head coaching position. Well if your first stint,
I believe that Crenshaw was with me, right, that was
our was that our era of yes? Yeah? Yeah, and
so that that that era because I had been in
Montclaire prep um, you know, I had. I was in Montclair.
Then I went to Italy and you know, I got
held back over in Italy and come back and repeat

(27:38):
the aid go here and go there. So I'm everywhere.
But then my dad, you know, he's like, why don't
you go to Crenshaw. I guess because Bob Webb, my
coach at Montclaire was retiring low key and so we
weren't really rolling with the next staff that we're coming
was coming in. So my dad at breakfast one morning,
just you know, comes up with this question kind of
you know, over pancakes, you know, what do you think
about transferring to Crenshaw, And I'm just I was just

(27:59):
kind like huh like, uh, I was, I don't know,
I've been chilling in bell Air. I was. I was
over at Montclair Prep for the last couple of years.
So I was kind of, you know, a little hesitant
about the Shaw. It wasn't It wasn't until he took
me down to the run. Uh where I got where
I got the hoop against them guys in the small gym,

(28:21):
and where I realized, like yo, I could really play
on this level. And you know, I decided to make
the move. Eventually, you know, we had a relationous run
at the Shaw. I wanted to ask you what was
your favorite memory of that first season together when we
were at Crenshaw. We we ended up winning state, finished
number five in the country. What was your favorite memory

(28:42):
of that season? Well, first I have to add in
that you should know that I was over Southwest College
at the time with with Joe week Uh and he
you know and uh and he didn't have a gym,
so it's practice as were at Crenshall. But I had

(29:02):
that job and Joe weakly told Southwest even though there
wasn't a position, they had to find a position for me.
And so it was my first paid coaching position. But
then you, Tremaine and Rico decided you were going to
Crunchhall and we're all being together a triple threat. I

(29:24):
left a paying job to come. I didn't realize that.
I didn't know that. I didn't know that I left
a paying job because because of you, guys, and and
and it started with you, you know, and then the
rest of them was apoll up. But I left a
paying job to come with that. So that that's gonna
be a great memory, just that process. But you know,

(29:49):
your lay up, I mean it, it's still there. You
just see it happening, you know, you know, I gotta
tell you, man, you're your desire to be the best
and your passion is something I experence. It's still like

(30:13):
at the top three of my stuff in terms of guys,
because and and the craziest thing about you, which is
its super funny to me, it's like you did not
care if you were going to take every single freaking shot.
You cared about nobody, and I mean you, you had

(30:35):
no sympathy for nobody. You felt that you needed to
take every shot. And if you were gunning and they
were telling you, hey, you wouldn't hear none of that
next shot. But because of that, you were already always
ready for the big shot. Facts if you're get ready

(30:56):
for it, whine because that's how you treated it. I
can score or anytime, I'm gonna do that, and I
don't care how you guys feel, man. So that that
right there is another great memory for me, that passion
that lay up and that whole city. You can't you
can't single out anything with that first year because so

(31:18):
much happened, you know, so you know, Theermaine focus is there,
Rico is there. Rico I eventually we get up the
Central State to play before he went to Fresno. So
there's a lot of stuff going on there. It's just
that whole time. It's just a great, great experience for me.
Oh yeah, I mean that that was some of the
best time times in my life. Um, being at Crenshaw

(31:40):
for those two years, you know, just being immersed in
that Crenshaw culture, being you know, just that that whole thing,
rolling on the Shaw South sit trial. I mean it
was it was like so much fun. But the thing
that stands out for me, um, was just how hard
every thing was, Just how difficult, how taxing mentally and

(32:03):
physically practice was, our workouts are preseason conditioning. I mean,
it was the hardest thing I had ever experienced. I
literally my body. People don't remember this, but I actually
transformed my body during that training camp. I was if
you remember, like my first game against Garfield, if you remember,
I had to wear the short shorts. But I looked
back at those pictures. I looked back at those pictures.

(32:23):
I'm like, damn, I was in kind of decent shape.
But I didn't even realize. I didn't even realize it
because we were just I was just like waking up, like,
oh man, I got this ship today, like whoa. Because
we were we were running. We were run like three
miles and have to run the ridge. We'd come back,
come back to campus on the run, people in cars
following us and on the round was crazy. And and

(32:46):
then and then you remember, and then we get back
and we still gotta do more running, and we gotta
do callisthetics. We outside, we're doing publics, we're doing push us.
Coach Ducket got us on the jump ropes, We're doing
all types of stuff and that. And that's before it's
like three hours of stuff and then we go into
the gym and spend two hours on defense. It wasnbelievable.
But I'll tell you what, I'm make no mistake about

(33:08):
it that those y'all coaches on that staff. It was
my It was the sickest coaching experience I ever had.
It was the most taxing and it got the most
out of me I had never been. I had never
gotten so much out of me. That's what I did
with y'all and that whole crew. You you Coach West,
coach Ducket, coach Stevenson, coach you know, it's like nine
ten coaching manner. It would come through, but the whole crew,

(33:32):
it was a whole crew of men coaches that were mentors.
And you guys were talking to us after every practice,
so it would be your time, or would be coach Step,
it would be coach Duet, so somebody be talking to
us every day. So we're just getting this this positive
role model, super duper reinforcement. Keep stay on the right path,
don't be doing no bs, don't be spooning up no
on the rail man. That that that stuff that y'all did,

(33:56):
and I looked back on it now, those talks and
that that level accountability, man, is a lot of reason
why a lot of us, a lot of us stayed
out of a lot of trouble. And it kind of
kept our head on straight. Man. I really appreciate you,
uh for for that time in my life especially. Um.
I also remember and you talked about my passion for

(34:17):
the game, and I'll tell you where I got it from.
My passion for the game was based on the competition,
the environment of competition that I grew up in around you,
my dad, when we're being there in the summers and
every dog on thing was a dog on competition. Remember
we do the off brand, I mean think we put
tea and we've been doing stuff outside I mean any game,
We've been doing all type of other sports. Hey, it

(34:40):
was about winning. So I always wanted to beat you.
So I played one on one. Remember the wooden said
that we got to the fight. What's I remember? You
like being on top of me? Like I didn't remember
that home, I'm on the floor, I think a third
teen trying to kick you or doing all type of stuff.
But all that to be said, all those days of
the Front are bell air, Um, you know Front driveway

(35:02):
one on one games, didn't running the hill together and
then we remember, I remember we used to hit the
dudes together and you made it. You just showed me
you can make it. All the way to the top.
You passed out though you you were like passed up
for like thirty seconds that came back, but you made
it all the way to the top. So it's like
all those things that I was privy to, and you guys,
you know, we treated me like a brother. So I

(35:23):
was kind of involved in all that with y'all. That's
why I was so passionate about everything. Man. You guys
don't understand even at ingle one. Why going back to
that when you and my dad you talk about Bill
on Georgetown Dollar Bill, I still remember his game, dog
like I hold onto that like I held day Ron Bill,
like I held onto that. Like that drove me to

(35:44):
the level the level I gotta be back. I gotta
be nice for day Rod, I gotta be n for
Bill and so I So my career, I used to
treat things with the level of seriousness. So you know
every matchup I had, man, I was in there, it
was it was it was personal for me. Sometimes I
would go overboard, but my passion I was serious. Man,
I was serious. Man, I was definitely you were serious.

(36:09):
The word Oh lord, no, those are some good times, man.
Talk about just when coach West retired, Um and it
was a it was a process of trying to figure
out who the next coach was going to be. You're
involved in that. I just talking a little bit about
that process and how you felt when you were named

(36:31):
head coach at probably the most legendary program in high
school basketball. Well, the true thing about it is that
despite the fact that I came back over to Crunchhaw
uh for my third stint, kind of prior to it
was gonna happen. There wasn't this man, I want to

(36:52):
be the head coach at Crunshaw thing. What really was
happening was that there was an accreditation issue at that
was brought up at the school and I came to
a meeting, and when I learned about what it was
really about, the school was really actually on probation. West
Chester had been on probation too. That was not in

(37:14):
the news. We were in the news for because we're Crenshaw,
and that whole negative feel about where they were going
toward us was really really uh. It really got to
me and I asked Coach west if I could come back,
but for the first time in my third stent, he
didn't answer me like he normally did, and so fast forward.

(37:39):
I'm kind of chilling and waiting to see, hey, am
I gonna get back here? And then he tells me
it was like a godfather saying, I met your dad's marriage.
We're in the Marina del Ray at that spot getting married,
and Coach West was there. And right after your dad,
you know, I married, Coach West said I'll see you

(38:02):
the jim on. Uh nice coach, just like that and
so and then moving into that, and then of course
a lot of speculation, uh start happening around, you know,
who was gonna be, you know, the next person and
all that, and I mean you have folks like you know,
John Williams applied. I remember they talked about how thick

(38:24):
of Adosier he turned in with all of his stuff,
you know, of course, Maurice Duckett, who had been with
Coach all those years. I was coming off of what
was the only in the history of of l a
a j V championship, and we won a j V championship,

(38:47):
got you know, went down the city hall like we
were varsity, got acknowledged and we went, you know, twenty
six and old and so my and I was right there.
So that kind of had me in the midst, whether
I wanted to or not, I was real prevalent. I
was right there as assistant. I had been there, and
so a lot of stuff was going on. And what

(39:10):
you know, what's crazy and all this, Chris, is that
people have so many opinions about this position, about evolution
of this position, and people tend to think, for some
reason that they have some greater passion than I do
about crunch Yall High School. This is my neighborhood. I

(39:32):
went forty two out of buying Crunchyall. I mean when
and Coach West found me and Crunchyall because there was
no y m c A building. Crunch Yall was a
y m c A on Saturday, and he saw me
playing on the side court and told somebody, I gotta
have that, little man. And so when people are acting like,

(39:54):
you know, they're way more passionate about what happens here
and than me, I just look at it. But they
don't understand my My roots go go go, way way back.
I don't talk about it. But it's interesting that that that,
you know, what happened in that evolution, everybody had their
own coach. Everybody still has their own coach, but there's

(40:16):
things that's happened to me to let me know that
this is really where God wants me to be. I've
had you know, I had a health challenge and Gob said, no,
it's just the time out. You're rolling back, and uh
and here I am. Yeah, we're glad. You know that
was scary. Yeah, I don't think I talked to you.
I sent you a note, but I didn't talk to you.

(40:36):
But I'm really thankful you know you're straight after that
because I heard about that and it was like people
were like shoop. You know, it was like everybody was shook. Bro.
So I was like, oh, thank god. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Coach West Man, I mean, I'll

(41:00):
tell you I always wanted just to reminisce about and
just kind of give Coach West his flowers, just for
giving me that opportunity to Shaw, pushing me at Crenshaw,
holding me to a standard, not taking it easy on me,
and then making some tough decisions that you know, he
felt like probably was gonna teach me a lesson in
the long term about respecting authority. UM that I needed

(41:25):
to learn at that time in my life. You know,
my senior year, we're down in Myrtle Beach. We stopping McDonald's. Um,
you know, they're the decree is no soda. So yeah, wait,
no soda. So I'm like, okay, cool, no soda. So
the whole team going to the McDonald's, this and that.
You know, I go get a high seat. You know,
it's not soda, it's not carbonated high seat, the orange drink.

(41:46):
And you know, Duckett, you know, Coach Duckett is like, y'all,
y'all what you're doing, take that, you know, throw that
away and this and that. And I'm like nah and
this and that. So coach ended up benching me and
ended up, um, you know, not being a good look
for me because of disciplinary problems I should have avoided.
But as I was so mad at him for a
while about that, especially through college, I felt like it

(42:06):
messed up by McDonald's game opportunity because we had all
them voters down there for Myrtle Beach and I just
had twenty one in the first game, and so I
was like, yo, I'm about the ball out. Um. But
when I look back on it and having had kids
and having you know, and you know and understand you
know about authority and and and telling, and when it's
respecting authority, it's like here, it's like period and so

(42:28):
and and I kind of came to Coach with that,
you know. I just and I just always appreciated Coach
West for just just the father fit, just the way
he welcomed me in because I was a little you know,
at first it was a little nerves nervous to be
at the show, but it was but he welcomed me
in and he treated me like one of his own.
So shout out to Coach West. And I just wanted
to give him flowers man just for his contributions to

(42:49):
the game. Man one of the greatest ever. Um. How
many years you've been at Crinshaw. When you think about it,
um at the Shaw and your track record, well, your

(43:10):
your career record, it's tough to follow alleged a legend
like Coach West. I mean you're talking about someone of
the one eight hundred games, sixteen city championships, I believe,
eight state championships. How do you reconcile following allegen. You know, um,

(43:42):
you know, following Coach West was gonna be a big deal.
I remember, Uh, I did a kind of gathering for
him that had kind of like five people there, a
lot of folks, and it was so funny because I'm
looking around and these are all of the people who

(44:02):
had so many opinions about who the next coach was
gonna be. I'm sitting there with them and I'm looking around.
And then I had an issue at that at that
event because everybody wanted to speak, and so I separated,
Like if you didn't go to the NBA, you couldn't
get on this mike, you know, And and so I

(44:22):
had so much stuff going on. But um, that has
been a challenge for uh, not only you know, me
as a coach, but for the players to in terms
of the expectations and so. But what we what I've
never done, is trying to make, you know, a lot
of excuses about you know, how we can succeed and

(44:44):
what we're able to do. You have to understand that
Coach West took over twenty eight years old. He was young,
and probably his kind of disciplined aspects came from being
in the South, from Texas because he you know, a
lot of his characteristics reminds me of my stepdad who
came from Houston, and you know, like it or not,

(45:07):
there's another level of accountability and family that goes on
in the South, and so Coach West. Uh. He was
a disciplinarian, he was organized. This is a weird thing,
but I just remember that he had great handwriting, probably
because mine is terrible. No, he did, I've seen it.

(45:27):
I he does. He had great penmanship, and that always
set up because it's him and my mother to have
some of the greatest penmanship. And I also think that
it's something that it's some it's something that's a part
of this it's a it's a something that's part of
their success and somehow I don't know how to explain it,
but that's that stuck out to me. But when he

(45:48):
took over, of course, the the the school was at
a great time civil rights and and the benefits of
civil rights were evolved. Tom Bradley, first black mayor of
l A was there. There was a lot of good
stuff going on and then had you know, your pick
of a litter from kids that were there, you know,

(46:09):
And so his background in spending time at John Muir
Joe weekly, being at UH, at Dinker Park UH and
crunch y'all High UH erecting itself. A lot of stuff
came together is as soon as the very first year UH.
And he was taking over for Coach Ryan, who ended

(46:31):
up going over to cow stead of l A. And
after the West was successful, Coach Ryan wanted to come
back and administration wasn't feeling it, and then UH it
goes on from there and and one of the things
I remember about him, and even at the way he
trained your your the way he trained your dad, and
it's something that I carried over was that he would

(46:54):
be in the gym with your dad, just him working
on stuff, you know. And Coach West was you know,
a personal trainer as well as a coach. And I
always said to myself when I was coming up, it
didn't matter if I was in the gym with one
kid or not. You know, it's just seeing that kid
get better, UH, which which you know Coach Wes ended

(47:17):
up doing. And then Coach West kept up with the trends.
You know, he got the rebounding machine, he got he
you know, he pass the pastor he had the passer,
you know, in the spring ball would spring back off.
He had he had the leaping machine, you know, and

(47:40):
he and he had all of the things. You know,
he was studying. Uh, he was studying U and L
V and and they're they're they're running machine under Tark.
And obviously our colors were close enough to U. C.
L A. Where he took a lot of John Wooden's
you know kind of stuff. He would go to the games. Uh,

(48:00):
Coach West was a study of the game. And I
and he went to basketball coaching clinics. And I remember
when I was taking over his office. I've got a
lot of copious notes, uh that that he left behind
that and when you look at it today, it's still
applies like when coach West. So things that stand out

(48:26):
about Coach West. I remember first, I'll say my my
junior year when he started tinkering with my shot. Um.
He had me doing this thing called the shot pocket.
And it's like catching it right here, and it's hey,
don't bring the ball below hey. So so I would
just go but look, it's catching it here and you

(48:46):
go straight up and it's not like catch dip and
then go up. Now that there's different philosophies nowadays. But
for that, for me, that ended up changing the trajectory
of my jump shot and I and I developed a
butter jumper. When I got to U c l A.
You know, I was like, I have one of the
highest true shooting percentages of all time my sophomore year

(49:06):
at U c l A. The only people that ranked
with me or Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and like Adam
Morrison like those, It's like sixty some point six three
eight or something crazy. And I just started looking it up,
like this is a couple of years ago. I started
looking it up, like, damn, my true shooting percentage was high.
And I started looking it up. I'm like, damn, step
shooting was only sixty two and Clays was like sixty one.

(49:27):
I'm like when I was in college, but Coach West
showing me that little trick tapering my shot had me
had me had me going cracking. And then it was
my senior year, um in practice, I think he, I
don't know where this came from, but he came up with.
I mean, he had brought like a note of like
Ralph Miller at Oregon State and the two guard front

(49:49):
was it or or what was that It was something,
but it was sick. It was he read one four
one fo Yeah. Yeah. And and actually what we call
Ralph Miller called it three lane rush. When you're passing,
you got run around the cone and get back. We
had another nack Ducket had another name for. But he

(50:12):
got a lot of tenants from Ralph Miller, who was
a great coach of course at the time. Yeah. Absolutely,
And that stuff was always impressive just for a coach
to come in like he had been just in the
lad thinking about this all night long, or Chris, I'm
gonna put Chris over here. I got. It's like he
was like masterminding stuff. And it really resonated through the
excitement he would have when he taught us. He would

(50:34):
have this extra peppin hist step when he was teacher
mode when he was teaching this stuff. He'd be jogging
around and Chris, you know, he would get into it.
And that, to me, that always resonated to have such
a legendary coach that hands on with it. Um what
in your opinion, and as you've seen, the game sort
of evolved from our my era when I was in

(50:54):
high school to coaching up till today. What do you
think has been just the biggest difference and change in
high school basketball from eras of the nineties two thousand's
when you were at Jefferson and you know, starting your
early princh your career until two thousand and twenty two. Today, Well,
you know, there's there's uh, there's so much emphasis on

(51:16):
personal training. And I mean, and when you start talking
about this, one of the things that I would would
like to see happen when you start talking about the
comparisons of whether it's players or whether it's processes, is
that there are no absolutes in this. You know, I
don't want coaches and guys the day to say, hey,

(51:38):
this is what you do. It is small sided games.
And at one on one Bro, we always had small
side of games. Was hey, we all supposed to meet
up at the spot, but everybody ain't there yet, So
me and you're gonna play one on one, you know
what I mean? I was playing one on one like

(52:00):
place please please? And then because I was running away
from my chores. You know, I leave the lawnmower on
one side, I'd be by myself. But guess what I'm
working on my game by myself, you know, my own
personal training. But what what today is is that there

(52:21):
is the the the access to knowledge, it's tremendous and
uh and the the access to uh watching games, the
access to uh so many different philosophies. I mean, you
got the highest level and then you've got some of
the highest level coaches at the D three level, you know,

(52:42):
who are doing a crazy amazing stuff. Their five outs
looks like some some some stuff you haven't ever seen,
and so kind of the big difference is really the
expansion of the knowledge and the opportunity. You know, I
used to go to library to look up stuff, you know,
sit in front of the computer now and do do

(53:02):
do that same thing. So that big obviously, you know,
you gotta you gotta qualify when you start talking about
the athleticism, because there have been some guys that's what. Yeah,
that's that's one of my big things. Man. You just
can't say, hey, it's so athletic. No, crinch yall had

(53:23):
some guys, you know, please that Louisville you know, Dunking,
you know, Tremaine, Stevie, Stevie Thompson. I mean, uh, we've
we've had some athleticism. So let's let's just not throw
everything out and just recognize each other's stuff and and
combine it. And what's what What's what's interesting for me

(53:47):
is that the terminology has changed, but a lot of
the stuff, it's stuff that was was was being done.
There is this big push now that one on one
basketball is number one way to uh to learn the game,
that three on three basketball is the greatest way to
learn the game because you get more reps and you

(54:08):
and you have more spacing. And then the whole thing
about the best way to learn the game is to
play the game. And so now in scrimmages, coaches are
are are tinkering but really trying to get out of
five on five, which you could get and setting up situations.
I mean, we had a situation the other day. We're
gonna start from a dead ball and and and and

(54:30):
and how are we gonna deal with that? You know,
So setting up situations and trying to give kids information,
uh that that's important, but it's more challenging because people
kind of say it kind of off handedly, but there
there are some attention spaning issues, uh, and you have
to really really figure out, uh, how you're gonna keep

(54:55):
you know the attention of your players, how you're gonna
get them to buy in and uh and I think
it's more challenging it used to be. You're going to
do exactly what I tell you to do. There's no
questions to it. And everybody understood that that. Everybody's lining
up like in the army today because kids have so
many different experiences between a you, between traveling and uh

(55:20):
and and and those type experience. When they get back
to the high school plane, they you know, they've done
some things and they're trying to see, you know, kind
of how this measures up. So it's a good and
a bad with everything, but nothing is absolute. We need
to figure out how to combine the two, you know,
and we need to quit age discriminating against against each other.

(55:41):
You you can't hear me. You're you're you're listening, but
you can't hear me because you think I'm back from
another era. But I'm actually saying some things that can
have some value. And I need to listen to you
too so I can see the value out of what
you're saying. We're still challenged to get to that point.
Fox Sports Radio has the best boards talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports

(56:04):
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
search f s R to listen live. And look, here's
my thing about this stuff, Like I know that when
I was coming up, I definitely we definitely had some
age stuff going on with y'all generation, But there was
never this level of disrespect of your generation. Like we
knew what time it was with y'all because having been

(56:26):
in the gym's been in the workouts, been up and
close and seeing it and it's like, oh no, this
is real ship right here. So for for the people today,
it's sort of characterized the players back then as plumbers,
is you know, repair men, and you know they weren't,
you know, having second job. It's the funniest, it's hilarious.
But but my thing about it is, it's like, man,

(56:47):
that's a complete disrespect of of people that played this
game at a high level. And that's the part I
don't like. I think on the high school level. You
made a great point when you said, hey, it used
to be you're gonna do what I say, you do
when I say it. The power of the head coach
has been sort of you know, I don't dilute it

(57:08):
if you will because of you know, the parental involvement.
Look for me, two thousand five, I was coaching the
Bourbon Day. We had a great group. Are Allen Gerard's
got Gerard's name, but we had a great group. But
those kids were locked there. The personalities of those kids
were sort of like, they're gonna listen to what we
said as coaches. It wasn't a lot of it wasn't
a lot of talking back, it wasn't a lot of questioning. Okay,

(57:29):
this is pre this is pre YouTube, this is pre
social media. So I also got a chance to coach
my son, William, a lefty at Palisades in two thousand
and six, fourteen or fifteen and sixteen. So I got
to see ten years later just how the mindset of
the kids shifted. Everybody knew everything now they got you know,

(57:49):
everybody knows that. No, they know more than you. Everybody
knows everything. I'm just like, well, I know everything. Then
why the hell are we not reading it in the day? Well, well,
and and and also there's some definitions to disrespect. Uh

(58:10):
So a kid may not say a thing to you,
but he ain't running as hard as he could and
not because he's tired. No, it has nothing to do
with that. That's his message. You know, I kicked the
kid out of a practice yesterday because of that message,
because at the end of the day, no one kid

(58:30):
can can can be the definer of your program, and
if it is, you're gonna fail. The kids sent me
a long text of apology the other day, and probably
he was dealing with someone who had never told him no,
and who had never told him that his ship may stay.
And so you know, these different levels of respect. Disrespect

(58:52):
goes on. But I've been very, very fortunate in my
tenure the yesterday and always kind of looking at things
because they have been, you know, repeatedly doing the wrong thing.
One of the biggest problems I have in coaching right
now in the practice session is that when you're in
drills and the next guy up doesn't go when he's

(59:14):
supposed to because he's thinking about all kinds of randomness,
and then the guy after him does the same thing,
and you're thinking, oh, we didn't you hear me say that.
That's one thing. But what I did yesterday and I
never ever do this, I said. I called him over
to the white board, I said, look, we've got three hundred.

(59:35):
We've played three hundred and sixty six games, you know
in my tenue with my staff, and um we've won
two and so we've lost. And I said, I'm not
trying to tell you guys that I am this great coach,
but I'm just trying to tell you I do know something.

(59:57):
I know something and everybody that wants us to be,
you know, on top of the mountain. I it got
described to me by a guy who was evaluating, you know,
our program, our team. He said, well, you know, Crenshaw
is not on the mountain, but you're on the hill,
you know. I said, Okay, we laughed about that at
what that man. But everybody wants us to be on

(01:00:18):
the mountain. And so when I was talking to my guys,
we were talking about where we are are what we
could do without dousing their confidence, because that's a huge
thing that you have to really, you know, deal with
with young black men that you can't take away their confidence.
And if you get on them, you gotta find a way,
uh to bring to bring them back up. Yeah, it's

(01:00:41):
a double edge, like you gotta be able to pull them,
you know, criticize them constructively and also big up them,
you know when they do do something right. That's something
I definitely learned that I didn't do a lot of.
I was just Mr. Negative negative Nelly. I was always fighting,
you know. He it was. It was a frustrating coaching
your son and is one of the most frustrating things

(01:01:03):
that there is for a man that has played the
game to do, because because he's he comes from you,
and so you hope and you and you wish that
he would think like you, like you guys would be
connected mentally, so he'd be out there doing what you're
telepathically sending him in his head right now, but he's
doing something completely different, and so it's just like that
part was frustrating, But we learned, and I like what

(01:01:25):
you said with situations creating situations to communicate to this generation,
you gotta give them stuff in small doses, and you
gotta and you gotta, you gotta set up sit you wastions,
so we can't really give you the whole action. We
gotta give you, guys this quick hitter. We did give
you this little quick action right here, and then they're
gonna they're gonna lock into that because once they sometimes
and and what I struggled with was just the retention

(01:01:47):
aspect of things. UM. Sorry, I got this flashlight. I
don't know why, but the retention aspect of everything, It's like, dang,
I thought I just went over that. Um I found
myself saying that a lot. And these kids, they didn't
really retain the information when I was coaching. But again,
the kids evolved, the game evolves, and uh, I think
it's in a good place uh today. UM, do you

(01:02:08):
think in your heart of hearts that french Shaw High
School can return to sort of that that mountaintop? And
I know you guys have won a city championship? Okay
in your tenure, can you win an open division championship?
Can you win another state championship? Or is that even

(01:02:29):
or do you do you even think of it that way? It?
Or those long term goals or how do you approach that? We?
You know, uh, this growing aspect not only in Los
Angeles but around the country. Two uh and and you
see it of course in football, to get all of
the best teams in the best spot in one place.

(01:02:50):
I mean that's how your Open Division started. You know
you're gonna get the best eight teams and then you
left something. Uh, you know for the other schools in
your Division one. We a core one, you know, two
back to back Division ones. They did not say it
wasn't added to the other six team. We have eight team. Now,
I didn't know you want back to back where I've been.

(01:03:10):
I remember the one Okay coach. Yeah, we went back
to back and that's when they said, wait, man, we
gotta change up some things in this movie, and so
and so and so what happens is is that we
still talk about state, We still talk about open um.
You have coaches who really don't want to go to

(01:03:32):
the open for certain reasons. The open division, you know,
depending on how you may finish up, it's always gonna
guarantee you a state birth, you know. So you have
to look at it like that. Uh, you know, people
don't want to be eight and have to play one.
But with all that being said, the beauty about this
game is actually those matchups and those aspirations and those

(01:03:57):
abilities and crunch winning and open and crunchhaw going to
a state when everybody think that that's not possible. And
so that's one of the beauties of this game. And
I've been in underdog situations, Uh, and a lot of
my own basketball career or whatever. And so, uh, that

(01:04:18):
challenge is something that we talked about. We you know,
we're breaking huddles one, two, three state you know, yeah,
we're breaking holes and and and one thing about this
generation in terms of retention is that you need short,
sweet messages like that. You know, the when we won
the uh my first championship, our matra was united. We

(01:04:43):
standing about it, we fall We said that every single day,
you know, and that carried over to something. So you
need these short messages. In politics is about messaging. Stopped
to steal that thing? That's that that seems so simple,
but the relation of it so uh is killing. But

(01:05:05):
our goal, Chris, is to to win state championship. What
I'm encouraged by is this, for some reason, while everybody
has talked about the lack of enrollment at our school,
and kids are going here, kids going there, just in
the basketball program, right now, I have graduated like thirteen
families who kept sending the next kid there. Uh and

(01:05:29):
right now I have um, I have seven ninth graders
in our program when people are saying they're not coming
to school. And another very very interesting thing that we're
actually gonna get some playoff of you know, working on
the article now, Chris. Between the girls basketball program and
the boys basketball program, they're like twelve siblings, you know,

(01:05:55):
one place girls basketball, the other one places. Well, we
got three girls that that came in to you know,
all together on transfer status. That's another family. I'm benefiting
off of families because one mother told me, I'm gonna
see how you treat the ninth grader before I decided
if I'm gonna saying the other two. And that's happened

(01:06:17):
with me. And with that right now, I've got this
synergy there that speaks totally against what the news is saying,
what people are saying, We got people connected. I got
an unbelievable group of parents and it's because of that
that I feel that people kids, somebody's gonna return to
the school. One thing I can always say, I'm sorry

(01:06:39):
using your platform for this, But if you come to Crunchyhall,
it's like not even any question, and you can who
that you you gonna you go to ball. You know,
it's not like all of these guys are there and
you're you're fighting against all of these guys. A Mark

(01:07:00):
Lamar Harris came to me in one year from View Park,
hadn't played any ball, no confidence. And because it's not
all of these guys there, he's player of the year
in his first year. Yeah. Now because and now he's
you know, he's he's gonna he's gonna end up graduating
from Cumberland College in Kentucky, having a having a great career.

(01:07:24):
But it's uh so, so it's a place where guys
can come and they're they're gonna ball out. Not because
I'm not pitching it. It's just the reality of you know,
there's not a lot of guys you know, you I
got you know, half my team's never even played on
the AU team, you know what I mean. It's like that,
that's like that's like real stuff. Yeah. No. And and

(01:07:45):
to leave you on this note, one of the one
of those guys that you did have Kevin Bradley Jr.
kJ Bradley UM watching his game. His development is it's
been really a revelation. Yeah, he's a big time back
football player and I feel like he really has a shot.
Just talk talk about kJ a little bit, man, And

(01:08:06):
and can you replace somebody like that? You know, you know,
we're you know, we're really Guard University. You know, you go,
you go down the line and it's super unbelievable. Kevin Ali,
Marcus Williams, you know, and so and so what happens
is is that kJ had a different challenge because his

(01:08:30):
dad was player of the year back to back place.
Imagine you're going to crunch y'all. Your dad is back
to back player of the year and uh, and you
got the same name as him, you know what I mean.
And so they didn't come to Crunchhall the first year
because of that. His dad didn't want that pressure. But
the kid was always coming up after school and just

(01:08:53):
sitting there because his dad was on my staff and
the kids still in the seven eight grade and he's
sitting there and and and me and him, are you know,
clowning and whatever? Because you know, Chris and you get
back to the mind Angelo, people remember how you make
you feel, and so you know, this kid felt a
certain way. And when I met with met with him

(01:09:14):
and his mom, Uh, they said they were coming to
Crenshall because of me. After that conversation. But at the
bottom of it was that his dad didn't want to
push him anywhere. His mom, you know, went to Palisade
so that thought is in there and then and then
there there's him. And so he ends up saying telling
his dad this is where he wanted to go, and

(01:09:35):
his dad stayed out of him. I called his dad
and told him he he was coming to crenchyall. He
couldn't believe it. You know what, we thought it was
gonna be a big challenge. But what you what what
what you had in him is what you don't have.
And most of your player an unbelievable Jim rat. I mean,
that's another difference, Chris, between back then and now. I'm

(01:09:56):
not I've had guys come to open run. Is they
got their shoes in their hand and they come in
the door and they don't look like it's all that
they bounced. They bounced, they show up, they show up,
and then if it doesn't look, yeah, they don't. They
don't see any guys that's raped and they don't see
any happened so much. And I have a great open

(01:10:18):
run with the last open run I had Tuesday, Tuesday night,
No it was it was during the summer. It was
a Tuesday night, lady uh, And we ran it like
twice a week, just open run. Guys in town that
whatever generational going against all of the stereotypes of black
men getting together having fun, no fights, no nothing going on,

(01:10:41):
everybody respecting me when I got to break the calls
and and all that. But kJ was one of those guys.
kJ has earned the absolute right. kJ was working out
three times a day during the summer morning. Then you
come over with us and any go to another trainer
and just think he's doing that stuff for like the

(01:11:03):
last two or three years, you know, and wanting to
do that, and it was just a matter of time.
As you know, many players uh in the city are overlooked.
There are some preconceived The biggest preconceived notion is that
the players are not gonna be helped. I've got a
kid in u c l A right now who played

(01:11:24):
for me for four years and got into u c
l A with a four point two. Damn they don't
They don't know that the way from U. L A.
And so like people, you can't go to college if
you don't have the academics. So the academics must be
there because guys are going to college. But but but
speaking of kJ, he stayed down, he grinded and uh,

(01:11:49):
he never got upset. He felt dish, you know, but
he never got upset and he kept doing the same
thing that UM that he's been doing. And this is
one of the the guys that you know, earned it
and he's just not gonna do anything to get better.
So matter of fact, I think Santa Barbara offered him
two weeks ago, uh, setting up for a big I

(01:12:11):
think Long Beaches on his tip. He played in the
Jamboree j C Jamborees is one of the great places
to recruit. His team went three and one, UM, and
so he's you know, he's he saw it after Now
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app

(01:12:32):
search f s R to listen live. No, definitely, I
mean we I saw him the Drew League against men
and he was absolutely destroying people. Uh. This his pace,
the control, you know, the stop and go that the has,
you know, just the stuff, and then the smooth nature
of everything that he does. I mean it's like, really,

(01:12:55):
I don't I don't get excited over a lot of guys,
but if I do see a guy game that I
like a lot, Like I get excited, and kJ is
one of those guys that that I truly got excited about.
But man, I think it's dope what you just talked about.
The academics. The kid that got the four point two,
that's that U c l A. That's that's something that's
overlooked in the big misperception. Misconception of the city guys

(01:13:17):
is that you know, everybody's gonna be a non qualifier, etcetera, etcetera.
Where you're in, you're proven that stereo type Brown. You
had another player, Kevin Brickway. I believe he graduated recently,
right or was it one of the Brickway brothers or Yeah,
he's almost he's almost four years ago. First of all,
with them, all three of them are college graduates. Yeah,
and I coached all three of them. One went to

(01:13:39):
San Diego State, one is at Irvine. Now. Yeah, Kevin
went up to Regions full scholarship forty eight thousand dollars
a year, uh and still was not totally developed. Now
he has since he spent three years there, he has
since uh left there. I think he's gonna end up
at Uh. He's got like two years. I think he's

(01:14:01):
gonna end up in San Francisco State or something or
something like that, and uh and uh and so no,
he said he's gonna be all state. Easy. I take
that you used to be Hayward Beautiful campus if you've
been up there, but uh, yeah, he's there. The greatest
story for me so far is uh is Cedric Lockridge.

(01:14:21):
Cedric was uh. The streets were calling him all of
his life. He got into crunchhaw. He's the streets were
still battling him. He graduated and went up to Lankston
and tried to walk on. That didn't work out. He
called me. You know, he's two years out of school.
He called me one day and I said, what's going on? Man?
He said, Man, coach, I gotta get out of here.

(01:14:44):
But I'm talking about my life right now. I called
Imperial Valley College two years ago. I said, when you
go up there? But I said, there ain't nothing to
do up there. He said, that's exactly where I need
to be. He went up there and led the state
in scoring, and then he had like a grip of
division two's and divisions three on his tip. And he
ended up signing with Southern Alberta or University. And I said,

(01:15:08):
why did you choose them? He said, because I want
to play international basketball. And they had about four guys
that went international. And I went to his barbecue, Chris
about two weeks ago. I mean, I mean, I'm teary
eyed because he made it. Man, he's he's in Canada.
Now that's a great story. Man. That that see, that's
what that's the beauty of this game. Where basketball can

(01:15:30):
take you where a commitment and then where right leadership
mentoring can take you as well. I mean, I had
a kid and you remember the Maria, so I went
to do oh man, he's one of my favorite so
he was one of my favorite all time stories. So
when I had him with the pumps, I had to
fight for him to get I had him in l
with the pumps, but I had to fight for both
of them. But yeah, I had both of them, so

(01:15:53):
and I was picking l up and so I was
thinking them up too, but he offered like something forty
eighth in Hoover, I can l up dropping him off. Look,
So that's why that's why just like I saw Lamar
this summer, I don't know if I sent you the video,
but that he had that um, he was viral. He
went viral this summer. I don't know if he saw
the video. So I saw that I saw doing that.

(01:16:14):
But Mark, But back to the Maria, So I hadn't
heard so the Mari. I coached him up. And this
is the kid that was eligible one year of high
school basketball at North bad He had struggled with great
he hadn't played competitively. He was you know, look, uh Hilliard.
So I did. I did Nabons game, you know, I

(01:16:36):
think it was a city championship or something during that
crew in two thousand and fifteen. I did their game
and then I saw the Maria and I was just like,
who is this dude? He was just six or four
just out there. I was like yo. So after the game,
I interviewed him as player of the game, and right
after we cut off camera, I'm like, yeo, man, I'm
coaching the pump team. Man, you're trying to run with
me this summer. What's happening? So I swoop him up

(01:16:59):
right there. Um, so fast forward, So he plays for
my team. You know, I mean, this is a guy
that three six on the Ball Brothers. He did a
three sixt we playing the Ball Brothers. He three sixty
and like looking at LaVar running by. I mean, he's
just he was just an unbelable town. So fast forward too,
I believe one I hadn't heard from the mari A

(01:17:19):
I had. I didn't know what Maria was up to.
I know he went to Juco and I didn't know anything.
And then I'm reading on the on the internet. I
think ESPN he set like a record for rebounds by
a guard in the game Division one basketball at Or Roberts.
He had like eighteen rebounds in the game. They make
the tournament. This fool graduated from Oral Roberts. He's at

(01:17:40):
Dominus right now getting his master's degree, and he's got
think he's gotta getting married. I think he's getting married. Man.
It's but it makes you just on the inside, bro,
Like when you talk about teary eyed. These are the
type of dudes. These situations. If you see where these
kids go through and what they have to overcome, man
to make it, man, and when they make it, it
is the most amazing feeling. And just to be humble

(01:18:03):
to know that, you know, I might have had a
little bit of something, dude, then put and put them
in certain places and people. Man, it's just it's just
it makes everything all worth everything, honestly, guys. So man,
I feel I feel you on that you're doing that
that good work over there, and keep it up. Man,
I appreciate you today taking the time. Brother. We spent

(01:18:25):
about an hour and a half on. I know we'd
go an hour and a half more. I know you
got stuff to do, coach, but best of luck. Uh
this year, I hope I'm gon stopped by a few games.
I'm getting back into the high school thing, so I'm
I'm gonna come through back to the show. I haven't
been to a game in a while. I need to
come see you. Um. But but man, I appreciate you
for coming on, my brother. Thank you for having me. Man,

(01:18:46):
it's been fantastic. And uh, I'm proud of you. I'm
proud of what you you're doing here, and I'm proud
of the time you put in the wheel, as difficult
as it may be, because you know, also he comes
from you, so you learned something about yourself in that process.
So so have a good griet man. Thank you again,

(01:19:10):
all right, and talk to you later. Brother, ladies and gentlemen.
Edwaters