Metta Sandiford-Artest on his Wild Rookie Year, Winning a Title with Kobe, and Mental Health

Ryan talks with Metta Sandiford-Artest aka "Ron Artest" about bringing bus loads of his friends to the NBA Draft, going head-to-head with Michael Jordan in his rookie season, how he decided to join the Lakers, the Mental Health journey that let him hit the game icing shot in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals, and how the future looks for Bennedict Mathurin in Indiana.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
How's everybody doing. I want to welcome you into a
very very special episode of NBA Rookie Life with Brian Hollins. Man.
I have on this episode a very very huge treat Man.
This is one of my favorite people on the planet.
Not a cousin, not a friend, not just a former
teammate of mine. Yeah, we were former teammates. Go look
it up. A brother. He's an NBA champion, an All Star,

(00:28):
All NBA Third Team, NBA Defensive Player of the Year,
All NBA Defensive First Team twice, All NBA Defensive Second
Team twice, All Rookie Second Team, none other than my
guy met a royal piece. Ron Our tests in a building,
ron what is going on with your brother.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Ryan Wills? Good Man?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I see you with the Rockets. Now you're riding your
sweet spot. Man, You're one of the best people to
do it in media right now.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Man, I appreciate that from you, Ronnie. Before anything, Before anything,
I got to give you your flowers. Man. I appreciate you, man,
because in my eyes, you're a mega star in the league,
and I feel like what sets you apart is like
you're always so complimentary of other people, of other players,
like You've never been afraid to speak your mind and

(01:12):
be like, man, I like your game, like you have
a great jump shot, like you're always and a lot
of stuff. You know, NBA players are kind of egotistical,
kind of on the you know, they have their own energy,
like you. Why is that Ron? Like, like I love
that about you. Bro It blew me away, Like I'm like,
how is Ron our test complimenting my game?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I think like I'm so competitive, and I mean, over
the years, I've been always competing against like Vans or
Kobe or Paris or Lebron, and it's been so much
not animosity, but we competitives. So when I'm in the league,
I'm not really trying to make friends, and when I'm
at the courts, it's like I want to be able
to appreciate people's game, Like you had a lot of
great attributes.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
You brought it.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
You had to be very effective in what you were doing,
and you was getting better and super active like you
had you did things other people going to do right,
and I appreciate those things. Now I'm kind of learning
to appreciate the players more because I ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Man, it took me a while.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
To get out of competitive mode because even when I
see the game, I just wish I could be in shape, right,
so I can go out there and see if I
could lock somebody up and see if I can post
them up. But you know, I want to also like
try to appreciate the work that people put in and
now it's other people's time, you know, and that type
of thing. So you know, I just appreciate, you know,

(02:28):
people's game.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, man, And like I said, Man, I just love
that about you. Ron. Now let's jump in the time
machine and go back. Man, you're the sixteenth pick to
the Bulls. Take me through draft day. Man, what was
that like? I mean you were dog at say yo yo,
Well those college basketball hit you were a dog bro.
I mean a big guard that could handle get up

(02:50):
and down. So talk to me, Ron.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah. Man.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know, I was nineteen when I got drafted and
it was incredible. Saint John's I was actually I was
turning twenty right. I got draft in June nineteen. I
was turning twenty in November, and I remember it just
being one of the best days of my life. Going
to the Chicago Bulls, where Michael Jordan is from, and
we all know the history of Michael Michael, you know,
he's like our lebron He's like I was Stephen Curry,

(03:14):
you know, And from that perspective, going to the Bulls
was like a dream.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
And I felt like I honestly, I felt like I
was good at that point.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Like I went to the Bulls, I felt like I
accomplished everything I needed to accomplish. That's definitely a dream.
And I wanted to go to the Knicks right before that.
That would have been more of a dream. But the Bulls,
you know, was just it couldn't get It couldn't get
no better than going to the Bulls, you know, with
the exception of going to the Knicks.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Now, where was your draft? Were you in New York
or where were you?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Man?

Speaker 3 (03:46):
I was in Oh yeah, so we were in DC? Really,
Elton Lamar, Baron Davis?

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Who else did?

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Ronald Curry was there, Trajan Langdon was there, Sean Marrian
Pamilton or a lot of guys is there?

Speaker 2 (04:02):
It was incredible.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Who went with you on draft day? Man? What were
the feelings like where you know, were you confident that
the Bulls were gonna pick you? Talk to me about
that experience, like the actual day was moms with you brothers.
I know, I know your brothers wrote y'all rode deep
you and your brothers. Man who was there with you
on draft day? So you guys were in DC for
the draft. I didn't even know this, Ron til you

(04:24):
told me today.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, we was in DC. I took two bus. I
went back to Queensbridge, you know, Queenslands Projects. I got
two buses and I brought a lot of my friends.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, the day of
the draft, you got two buses that went to the projects.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, we went to the project. We went to When
we went to DC, I was I was with about
maybe like forty fifty people from my neighborhood.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yes, yeah, we had was in the hotels and everybody
was in the stands. You know, we were just doing
what we do back home, and we wanted to just
show people like, yeah, yeah, we're from the hood.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
But also it was this is a proud.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Moment, and you know, we're just trying to make it
in life, and we're trying to be that next j
generation you know of success and sports. Was that, you know,
but yeah, it was an incredible experience. I actually spent
time with Baron Davis in the hotel. Actually, me and
Barron was up pretty late. I think Rico was there too.
Rico Hoines was there. Sure, yeah, Rico was there too.

(05:17):
It was a great experience.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
When your agent was there. What was the mindset? What
was he telling you? You know? Where you expected, like, hey, man,
I might be a fifth or six pick. You know.
Did you feel like you dropped a little bit? How
did that go? And were you just happy to get
drafted or like you know, me, Ron, I had a
chip on my shoulder. I'll be honest. Every team that
passed me by, including my own team to a degree,

(05:40):
had to get it. All the players, the all the forwards,
all the sinners. I was like him, him, him, I
was like Joe Kim Noah and look al hard for it,
like all them guys were on my hit list. What
was your mind did you feel you were overshadowed in
girafts like you know, man, I'm happy to get drafted,
like I'm here.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, I was. I was over you know.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
I think because how I played people wasn't really used
to it. I came into the league basically locking up
my offense wasn't the greatest but my defense was really
elite at nineteen years old, right, So from that perspective,
aggression and different things like that, I was projected to
go top ten. I was supposed to go top ten. Wow,
That's what I kept hearing. But then I dropped to sixteen.

(06:22):
I wanted to I wanted to at least go a loter,
you know. But then again I told my agent, please
leave me around for the Knicks, because the Knicks was
number fifteen.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Really, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
So I was telling my agent, please, like, don't let
nobody draft me the Knicks. The Knicks passed me at
fifteen and then sixteen the Blue take I was just like,
the Knicks took a good, good, good, good fellow named
Frederick Weiss.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
He was a good guy from France.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Was that hold On around? Was the target on that
man's back since they took Did you did you have
him in the cross heres? After that?

Speaker 3 (06:55):
I didn't really? Actually he never played in the league.
He never played one game with the Knicks.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Hold On.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
So the Knicks passed on roun Our tests for a
brother who never even played in the league.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
They ain't the only passing around a test. They passed
on everybody that came after me. They passed on a
ton of people. They passed on Gerobili, they passed on Genobii.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Man. Yeah, yeah, no, listen, it's never a person. We're
always trying to find something that spurs a is soing. Okay,
So a young twenty year old run our test man
loving the city and hold on, let me before I
go to my next question, why do you defend like that?

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Ryan?

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Where did that come from? Cause you, like I, you're
one of the rare players. I see offensive clips and
then like you have defensive highlight clips. Okay, Like who
taught you to defend? And like why why defend? Because
that normally comes from somewhere.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Well, definitely like people from Tarlet Street. When I started
playing basketball on Mall, Deep Block, Prodigy.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
And Havoc Block.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
So that's like kind of way I really got the
knowledge and that if I wanted to stay on the court,
I had to defend.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
It was the only way I can stay on the court.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
As a kid, he wasn't gonna get on the court,
and if you wanted to stay on the court, you
had to win. So my defense became elite at a
young age, and then the men started to take me
to Uptown to Brooklyn to play basketball because I was
only thirteen fourteen, but I was locking up even men
at that time, you know what I mean. So when
I got to college, you know, I pretty much liked

(08:21):
a lot of people up in college.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
But it was kind of weird.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Because even when I got to college, I was an
architect major I was trying to make. I was actually
going to Miami or Notre Dame because I was major
in architecture. So but the only reason I went to
a math I was made architecture in math. So the
only reason I went to Saint John's was because it
was in New York. So then at Saint John's. You know,
but I think like the way I think about the game,

(08:43):
the things I like. Stephen Curry is a really great
shooter and an amazing all around player, and I feel
like on defense, I have a little greatness there in
terms of how I think about the where I think
with the ball. Is that what I wanted to accomplish.
That's where I spent most of my time at and
even in the summer times I would practice on my defense.
I'll do like forty forty five minutes of defense, running

(09:04):
slides before I even touch the ball.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Run practice defense for in this summer, young young runners,
for forty five minutes, you practice defense with no ball.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh for sure, I ain't touching the ball.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Before I get into the gym, I'm not even touching
the ball into forty time, finish all my drills, and
then once I finish my drills, then I get into.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
That bag, into that bag. Yeah, it was a you know, really,
I really enjoyed the I think what I enjoy most
out of basketball is the hard work. Like that's what
I really love.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's like running, you know how you are Ryan blood
that running at hustle?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Sure, yo, that that is gold. Okay, So you get
drafted to Chicago. Talk to me about getting drafted with
your teammates. Who were you there with the first guys
you met? Talk to me about that because people don't
know as a rookie that first time. You know, you
go through summer league. You first you go workouts, and

(10:01):
you go semmer the league and you get there at
all the vets are they Talk to me about your
first experience with the vets and what a young twenty
year old round our test was doing. How did you
integrate with the guys. Were you cool? You rough around
the edges at the time? How did that go? Man?
Cause I remember looking and I was like, where Derek
Anderson come from? And Charlotte he just showing up in camp. Man.

(10:21):
Hold on, that's so Ella Harrington showing up here. Man,
this is a whole different bump than I was used
to talk to me about that, and how did you
acclimating kind of fitting with the guys?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, man, I think like when I first got in,
you know, I was in the gym, I was still raw.
You know, I only averaged thirteen points in college, right,
So when I got to the league, it wasn't like
I had a package, but.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I was in there. I felt stale. I didn't feel
like I had it all.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
But I knew my defense was really good, but I
feel like my offense was not dead. So Pete Myers
was in the gym with me every day. Pete Mayas
really took my game to the next level when I
got into the NBA. Randy Brown Bill Kartway was also
an assistant coach before he took always a head coach.
So I had those guys at Dickie Simpkins, who was
to talk to us about the game. Charles Oakley was
also there with me. He gave me some suits one time.

(11:07):
He said, you got you gotta wear some suits. I
was like, but gave me Like he gave me about
twelve suits.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I wish I.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Still had them, you know, different things like manout out
the oak Man. I love old uh But yeah, it
was a It was a really good experience. And my
mim was always occupied. Even though when I got on
the court, I was working hard, but I was always
like scatter brain, you know, I'm always thinking about other things,
even when I actually I just couldn't sit still when

(11:36):
I got this.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I was always trying to find something to do.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I stay tuned, guys. We had some really cool stuff
coming up from Ron uh Man. He had a running
with a young Lebron James you may not expect, and
some heated rivalries with Kobe Bryant and some other moments. Man,
love it. Good stuff, guys, Stay tuned. We will be
right back on NBA rookie life. Did you feel pressure

(12:06):
drafted to Chicago running the wing, running the same wings
that Michael Jordan ran, And I know you had a
you know a relationship with Mike. Talk about that relationship
with Mike and what was that like and did you
did you kind of feel pressure going into the city
kind of coming after Mike Man, I don't.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I don't feel pressure. Could. I just want to be
the greatest? Right? My goal was to be the greatest.
I wasn't. I'm not the greatest, but that was for
sure my goals.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
For sure, when you're not doing the necessary things, it takes.
I felt like I could have been a little bit
better in terms of like my stats and things because
I was in trouble a lot. I missed games, different
things like that. I feel like if I stayed at Indiana,
if I stayed at Indiana, that means I could have
took twenty shots for three four five more seasons versus
going on other people teams, so average would have been up.

(12:52):
And if I stayed at Chicago, did that whole resume
I had is in Chicago. So from that perspective, I
got to imagine they would have made trade. We would
have been champions. Chicago didn't want to trade me. They
I kept I was getting in trouble, and then Jerry
Crouse came to me and said, actually, Bill Carlwright came
to me for the last straw. I was in my
room Miami and Bill Carlright said, hey, man, I need

(13:12):
you to get your act together. We want you here.
We do not want to trade you, but I need
you to get your act together. And I was like, okay,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Then the next day
I do something stupid, they trade me, and then the
same things happened in Indiana. Things from Chicago I was
happening in Chicago carried over to Indiana.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
So from that perspective, like I felt like, you know,
when I got to Chicago, I wanted to win a ring.
I didn't think I was going to be as good
as Mike, but I wanted to try at least, like
I wanted to try something special. I think it's always
worth trying, It's always worth just trying something out. My
defense was elite. My defense Mike, Mike had great defense.
And I think me and Mike defense is probably even honestly,

(13:51):
because Mike was a hell of a defender. But you know,
obviously his winning and his offense, you know, and and
his heart that kind of goes to the next level.
But I feel like I got something I am the first.
I'm the leader in the skills for the first two
years in Chicago. So that's actually cool because Mike is
super competitive, and I'm sure Mike could have had that award,
he would have taken it, but he got a bunch

(14:13):
of other things. You know, obviously he's very successful, and
I idolized Mike. I want to be like Mike, and
in order to if you want to be like Mike,
that means you want to be the best. And I think,
like you know, towards the end of my career, I
got to jumper like Mike. I woarred when I wore
number twenty three.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
That was for Mike. I got.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
I was an All Star in Mike's jersey. I was
Defensive Player of the Year in Mike's jersey. I was
thirteen or NBA in Mike's jersey. Mike's number and I
can say at least like twenty three did not mean
anything else but Michael Jordan.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah, anything else with Michael Jordan's man, I can't.
We can't gloss past that. What do you remember most?
Is there a game that stands out to you most
about being Defensive Player of the Year that year is
there a game or a moment where you were like
everything just clicked. What was it like or was there
a game where you like, like, yo, I locked it up,
Like I'm just like you, Like it's funny you talked

(15:03):
about Steph Curry going into a zone offensively. You said,
I went into those zones on defense, you know, and
I've not to your degree, but I remember, you know,
affecting a game or winning a game on defense, you know,
getting a block shot, blowing up another team's play, anticipating something,
you know, just owning a game. Talk to me about
that defensive Player of the Year that year, and if

(15:25):
there's a game or a moment that stands out for
you where you're like, no, I'm I'm here.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
I cann't believe it. Honestly, I was locking everybody up.
I'll go home and I'll just be like, my goodness,
I helped the game. I see people people would not
play it.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Most who were guys, who were guys that you were
guarding that you were surprised.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I can't mention your names because that's just disrespectful.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
No, no, no, not what all were doers? Ron We
know you're respectful, but who if they got this is
just paying homage.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
The reason I can't mention your name the people are
locked up because like I've done it so much over
the years, Like for example, I've talked about how I
locked people up, and then sometimes you put two and
two together and I just don't want to open those
cand of runs.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
But I can talk.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
You know, if you was in the league, people know
who was there, right, So I just don't want to
mention your names. I'm not trying to throw the shots,
but I was locked I mean the year I got
Defensive Player of the Year, all small forwards average six points, right,
so you know, so if you was a small forward,
he was probably getting only six points.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
But the exception of if you was averaging twenty or.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Twenty five, maybe you got seventeen, maybe you got fifteen.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know. One guy that was really tough with Rip Hamilton.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Rip Hamilton was really tough to god. Lebron James was
really tough to god.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
I got.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I got Lebron James probably I would say twenty percent
of the times, but he's like eighty percent, maybe seventy
five percent of the times. He played very well. I
wasn't I wasn't prepared. I could have got prepared for Lebron.
If if I'd have known he was coming like that,
if I didn't know he was coming like that, I

(16:58):
would have done things differently.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
But he was.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
I was not ready for that one.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
What specifically made Lebron tough for you? And at clearly everybody?
He's the leading scorer ever. Okay, he scored the most
points ever. So for everybody. Is there a move or
a moment that you saw from Lebron that was like, yo,
he is this is different? Or like I'm used to
a big guy that does this and he did that.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Is there a moment for you where like he got me? Man?

Speaker 3 (17:28):
He first step, he had the strength. And I knew
he had the strength because even when he was fifteen
years old, he had the strength. I played against Lebron
when I was nineteen. He's fifteen in the gym, so
I knew he was coming with something. When he got
to the league. He was strong, fast, he had handled,
he could pass.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
We see it.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
We see the guy, you know, and that's he's controlling
the whole game. Lebron can make it pass and shift
the whole defense. You know, I'm I'm not only a
lockdown defender. I'm also a health defender. So Lebron picking
you apart every which way, and you gotta constantly think.
I remember when he was coming in, I said, I

(18:06):
got I gotta get ready for this one. And I
was actually trying to stay in the East. I didn't
want to leave the East, honestly, but I kept getting
in trouble. But I wanted to be in the East.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
I would have loved play against Lebron in the playoffs,
and you know, who knows what would have happened.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Maybe we want a serious maybe we don't. But I
kind of regret that. I regret not staying in the East,
and think keeping a level head. Now, the bigger picture was,
you know, playing against Wade again in the playoffs, playing
against Lebron in the playoffs, you know, keeping a rivalry
going with Paul Pearson the playoffs and things like that.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
So you wanted, I've never heard Lebron you say somebody like,
it's crazy. You just said you wanted to play against
Lebron and to play not too many guys that target
that hold on. We got to rewind really quick. You
said you played against Lebron when he was fifteen years old.
How did that happen? Where was that?

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (18:49):
So I was in Chicago when I got drafted. Lebron
was in a gymeral great, great, super respectful kid man.
But he was fifteen fifteen years old. He was in
the gym sixteen to fifteen. Remember him just looking like
he was a pro, quite simple, he was a pro.
I thought he could have been the league at fifteen
sixteen years old. I mean, it was nothing but pros

(19:10):
in the gym.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Nothing of some of the guys that were there.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
I was dead. Barkley played a little bit.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
MJ play, Scotus played, Michael Finley played, Barkley played well.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I played against Barcley one time in the gym.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Man it was fun and it was like nothing but
pro Antoine Walker was in the gym.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Maybe even Tim Hardiway was in it. I think Tim
Hardaway was in the gym. I forgure. Yeah, Tim Hardie
was in that gyms.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
A couple of other people, Oh yeah, Elton Brown came
a couple of times, you know, like he was all there,
and then our Corey Benjamin would come.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well, Lebron played, Well.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
You had you, MJ and all these guys and Lebron
at fifteen played well.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Played well. Tell me, Man, I was like when I
seen that, well because I don't watch a lot of basketball.
I wasn't watch a lot of high school. But I
remember like, I'm like, okay, well get it here, he's
gonna be He'll be ready.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Wow, for sure he was all right. Ron. Now we
get to do something really cool on the show. It's
called the NBA Rookie Life Film Room. We get in
our time machine and we go back and we get
to see some stuff and we want you to put
on Ron. You do a great job coaching and giving
back with the community, so we want you to walk
us through some clips. This is for the hoop nerds,
the hoop junkies. Okay, we got a clip here where

(20:20):
young rookie run our test is guarding his id on
Michael Jordan. Man, so's you guard Michael Jordan in this moment? Ron, Ron?
This is all respect to the goat. There's no question here.
There's all in respect to him and Lebron. There's no
shade being thrown. Ron. We know the respect you half
of the game, but talk us through this moment where
I mean, you are guarding the life a young Ron
guarding the life out of Michael and you wearing the

(20:42):
Bulls jersey. So this has a certain feel for me.
Walk me through this game, Ron, and what were you
thinking going in? And man, what did it feel like
to kind of play good against Michael honorably like in.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
His house, a double foul on our test and Jordan's.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Well, Jordan not backing down, and you know they're banging
and popping each other pretty good.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
And that was a pretty good court chapter.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Jordan laid on him with our tell team really started Jordan.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Respectfully. He was thirty eight forty, but you know you
saw I picked him up there. I just wanted to
respect him with competition because you know, my I played
against Mike before this, and Mike asked me to come
back to the gym.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Because I was competing so hard and he was like yo.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
I was like sorry, you know, hey, sorry Mike, Sorry Mike,
and he was like nah, no, He's like come back,
come back, come back. And then so from that perspective,
when I played against Mike in the league, I know
what Mike like. Mike like competition. Mike is not back.
Even though he was older, he really enjoyed like going
at him because That's how he was going at me.
And then if you see us a couple of times
in the post, I was only nineteen twenty, nineteen twenty

(21:57):
or something like that, and we was like it was
playoff basketball because we carried that summer basketball over to
the league.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
But I'm sure Mike would have gave me fifty a
couple Look like he's running. He's a little slow right there.
Michael was at the end of his career, man, but
I'm sure I'm sure he would have blew a bought
me a couple of times, you know, in his prime.
I really respect Mike's game, especially after I played against
him at forty years old and he actually had one

(22:26):
game indianaway he gave us forty, and then he had
a game in Washington when he gave us about maybe
twenty five, and I was like, wow, at forty. At
thirty eight, I said, okay, he probably would have gave
me fifty.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Nobody ever gave me fifty in the league.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
And I think only forty twice, you know, maybe forty twice.
I think Lebron might might have had forty maybe, but
Kobe might have had forty one time.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
What were you thinking about guarding Mike. What was it?
Where were his tendency? You talked about competing and playing
hard against him? What were Michael's tendency that you to
pick up on her? How at least in this game
you had. It seems like he remembered you and came
at you later on. But in this game, what was
your mindset? What was your strategy?

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, this game, I was still raw defensively.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Keep in mind I didn't add the technique that I had,
but Tim Floyd gave me more technique. So hey, I
was just trying to beat him to the spot. You see,
I'm missing layups.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I was very like, not that great, but I was
just trying to beat him to the spot, compete, and
the main thing was hard.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
I wasn't really I ain't have much technique. It was
more like, okay, man the man.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
You know, we ain't the Lions then, and I'm gonna
do my best to lock you up.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
I love what you said, and I think that goes
this is second Herd. We just talked to Vernon Maxwell
and I thought, it's the craziest thing that the people
that elbowed Mike and hit him and got into him
like he would come to you and say like, hey, man,
like do that again. So you said, Michael Jordan, actually
you got kicked out of the run for playing too hard,
if I'm not mistaken, And then Michael says, nah, bring

(23:57):
Ron back, make sure Ron comes and you're you're the
And for people who don't know, when NBA players play
summer basketball, they like the coast, just get a workout, moves.
But Michael liked to compete and what we are those
things he would say to you, right.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, Mike wasn't talking to me because Mike.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think Mike was surprised when I because when Mike
in the summertime, he was much better than he was.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Than you seeing right now.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Keep that in mind, much better than what he was
that was two years before this. But I think like
he was talking trash to the other guys, but he
wasn't talking trash to me.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
He was still going to work in the summer time.
He still scored. But I think he was like I
was a nineteen year old lion, So I think I
think he was.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
I think he really respected it. And he said something
in the newspaper when it came out of his work.
I told my family. I told my dad, I'm like, yo,
look at what Mike said in a news article. You
can look it up to He said, you're run Test
is one of my favorite players. I'm like what because,
like I said, well, Mike said, this is on in
a Chicago tribute. And the reason I don't have it

(24:56):
now because anytime I go online, I can search. But
every year it's getting deeper and deeper and deeper in
the s c O.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
But but it's in there. It's in there.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
How did you feel when you saw that article?

Speaker 3 (25:10):
It was crazy? It was crazy because he's my favorite player.
I got his shoes on right now.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Shoes. You're kidding me.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
And I'm like, yo, this is the one time in
the lifetime opportunity that I got a chance to compete
against somebody that I saw on television and go at
him and bring that you know that Queen's Bridge. Mike's
from Brooklyn, but he's in North Carolina and he's tough.
We know Mike's tough, and uh, I was able to
bring you know, from all my people from queensmanth projects.

(25:38):
You know, I was able to bring that, you know
to Mike and and and and and I tried my best.
I tried my best to compete, you know, as hard
as I can. But I could go on and on
about Mike.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
You know, hey, look right, you don't found out you
didn't play so hard. You found out young young around
with the Baldi Man.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Fourteen fourteen had fourteen points, not bad.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
That is great a rookie. I can I can only
imagine this kid. That's that's really cool stuff about the
goat Man. Shout out to Michael Jordan. I think finding
out more that he's one of those stars, because you know,
you can't you can't go in the gym now and
compete with these guys. They don't like the bump. Mike
liked the bump. Okay, so you gotta love that man.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Mike liked the bump. I was in. I was in
the gym.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Me.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I don't think anybody nobody was guarding Mike. Howis garden.
Let's start right there in the gym.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
But I wanted to get Mike ready because I knew,
you know, before Mike had to take a little break
on the summertime. I thought he's gonna come back and
aris thirty five, I did the mask. I'm like, he's
in the gym. I couldn't even stop. Keep in mind,
I couldn't stop him.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
All the time.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
I did hold I did help. I held him scrollers
for a day. If he you know, he could always
you can always chatting person about that. But but but
that one day, I had a great day against Mike.
But other than that, Mike was playing well. Mike was
not losing games. He was hitting the shots, scoring on me. Also,
by the way, you know, he was just incredible.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Well, let's go down and I need you to break
down some more film run. Let's let's stay. I need
I need coach Ron, I need Coach Meta. We'll go
We're looking for coach Meta with with the panda shirt
on and the panda shoes. Okay, that's what I'm looking for.
You compete against Michael, but you got to play with
the next closest thing and being the amazing being Bryant.

(27:19):
God bless his family, God bless Kobe. I got chills
right there. Man, we talk about being so it's a
whole different frequency when you talk about being man, God
bless them. Break down some some clips here. Let's let's
take a dive into Kobe Bryant. Man, I know this
is always a cool one. Ron. You win championships with Kobe.
That's like your brother, that's like family. That's a whole different.
You got a whole different Kobe. Uh energy there, and

(27:42):
let's get back into the NBA Rooky Life film room
and break down some stuff.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Our task. Boy's still turn off man, he guys turn
it up, blub We got a bee set out. Now
let's call follow our task. He's got his Corey. Put
guy block by our task straight to the white public
states with the body you'll have to the line looking
at the three point tests called me a good look
at three.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Burns? Are tests that not just the largest leader of
the game.

Speaker 6 (28:12):
For the Lakers playing them with eighty five eighty Well,
Donalogue must not be that bad all of a sudden.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Now our test though, has a real serious look on
his face. But keep smiling. Please. You're one of the
fiercest guys that we ever seen go at Kobe. So
when you were here one of the rockets, you're playing
against Kobe in the playoffs, you got the you got
the rockets are man. Shout out to the city tatted
in the head, Tell me why that was, and then
talk to me about this player, What do you you
are letting you're getting at this point, you're getting those

(28:40):
and those with being right here man and you going
at him. You know you got some offense now and
your gay man, you are the guy here in So
talk me, talk me through through this play Man and
the rocketsar and the head man come over, so break
break this one down for me against Being and what
I mean this was he was on another planet when
at this point in his career to talk to me
here run.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Being was incredible. So it's the thing about Being. If
you don't bring your a game on defense for me,
then you're gonna get a hing. You already know.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
So I've never had a game where I was relaxing
against Being. I might have had a couple of nights
where I went out way. I was like, I should
not have went out tonight, But that was just being.
Being is so competitive and he's not really intimidated, you know,
And and he's quicker, he could score.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
His game is tight. So it wasn't much I could do, Like,
once you get up, it's over. You ain't you ain't
blocking now, he ain't missing much.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
You said he wasn't easily intimidated. Now, are some players intimidated?
Why is that a factor? I I knows the defender,
but explain to somebody who might not know.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, some players just you can't do nothing right.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
If I'm guarding you and you're not Kobe or whatever,
you're not talented like that, what you're gonna do?

Speaker 2 (29:48):
So it's not even like intimidation. You just can't go
to it.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
My feet too quick, I'm too strong, and my hands
is too quick. You know, it's not much you could
do with that. But Kobe can do it with anything.
Look at the handle, moving the ball out the way,
be back. He's just a smart player.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Miss Kobe man. It was. It was great competing against him.
He pushed me a lot.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
And actually, you know, I remember the year in Indiana
where we lost to Detroit. The year when Detroit won,
the only thing we was thinking about was the Lakers.
I mean, actually we wasn't even think about the Lakers.
We was think about the championship. If you listened to
Steve Jackson, listen to me and Jamaine, we Ain't never
mentioned nobody's name. We said we're gonna win that year
and we're gonna uh. We felt like we should have

(30:30):
won and we never was worried about respectfully respectfully, but
we wasn't worried about any team. We never mentioned, you know,
shout out to the big bro Shack. We never mentioned Shaq.
We wasn't really worried about Shaq, even though obviously shocked Shack.
But at that time, we wanted to win a championship
and we said, were just gonna run through everybody.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
You know. So when I came back before that year,
if I was playing against the Lakers my my prime.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Year, you would have saw like it would have been
a little bit different. Id that out, but this was
I was really good offensively here. Ever, I think I
have a twenty five in the series, took him in
the game seven. I was playing really well in the series.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Now you and you and being mixed it up? How listen, man,
how did y'all get into it? I obviously we know
it's all within the rem of basketball. You're getting physical
with and referee Hop said, man, what was this? Here?
Was this just hey man? This is playground round, This
is just hey. I got to try to get in
his head. I got to beat him to the spot.
What's what's going on here?

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Exactly? Beat him to because The thing is if you
have Bean gets the ball in the post, same thing
like Mike.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
This is the same thing you see here is what
you saw. Well, me and Mike was doing in the
gym when I was nineteen. If you let them get
to the spot, they gonna score.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
So I cannot move, sir. Right, It's like you have
to go.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
You have to go around me, and I'm not even
let you get around me. You're gonna have to work
everything every single time. You gotta work. And I respect
being that much, you know. And he wasn't as big
as me, even though he was just as physical, it
wasn't as big, you know, with a guy like lebron On.
You know he's uh physical right and kind of meaning,

(32:05):
well he's kind of He's not as mean as like
a Kobe, but he can get mean when he won.
So I was just trying to utilize my advantages against
Kobe because that's all I had was my advantages. I
couldn't even square him up because too many options. So
I had to actually give him a lane and try
to cover a force him to like yeah with somebody.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
But you see he beat me on the first drove
or the second joke. You know, so he was he
was in attack mode.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So yeah, at this point Kobe was so quick. You
were just like listen, I had to get physical with him.
And it sounds like, why it seems like you're sending
Kobe left? Why is that you you you were sending
him into traffic or having to play the team defense here.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I said, I sent people left so I could take
the ball.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
I gok Kobe a couple times with that, but I
normally would send people left because I had a better.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Chance of taking the ball with when somebody was to
go left.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Why is that?

Speaker 3 (32:54):
I just my left hand was so quick and I
would tip it, deflect it. You know, for some reason,
I can get I can wrap around your back, take
the ball from your back. You know you think you
think you're still dribbling in the ball, and I got it,
like what? So that's why I was always send people left.
Man right was not wasn't my strong point.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
So you felt like pretty much to chase Kobe around,
you couldn't move the way you wanted. You're I mean,
you were a bucket man. You were getting buckets here,
you were scoring, you were competing, but you just felt
like at this point you couldn't move it to sixty
the way you want or like to play against Kobe
per se.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Because and I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
I couldn't really move at two forty. I mean I
was never too forty two fifty five. I actually two
fifty five is even pushing it to two fifty five.
I could probably I would probably have done better, but
I hear I was about to sixty maybe two sixty eight.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah five, yeah, small forward.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
When I got to the Lakers, I lost some weight.
I got down to two fifty actually, and at my
in the playoffs, I got down to two fifty. I
was actually I came into the Lakers that next year
after this, I was like two sixty.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Well, Lebron, speaking of that next year, let's let's get
to it. Man, you won. You're competing his Kobe, and
as similar to Michael, he falls in love with the
guy who's hitting him and bumping them and elbowing him.
Did Kobe give you that call in free agency? Because
we're gonna look at the play here, I want to hear,
did Kobe's reach out to you to say, like and
this is like kind of crazy to me, Like Hey, Ron,

(34:27):
I know we just almost spot, but come play with me.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Man.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
How did that happen?

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Well, a call came from uh Mitch cump Check, actually
David Bowman. The first call was David Bowman, my agent,
and he said, Hey, the Lakers looking at you. He said,
the Lakers want to speak to you.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I said, for what. That's exactly why.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I a lot for what?

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, you know what I mean, beat us.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
We I'm gonna go somewhere where they beat us. And
then respectfully, I almost went to the calves respectfully, but
I was a little bit.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
I was a little bit hurt because Lebron Lebron.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Rookie years first game against me, he gave me twenty right,
that's a lot of points against me, right, And he
gives me twenty five and he goes to the Indiana
first row.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
There was a lady sitting about four rows in maybe
I mean five four seats in, and he was like,
is this your best defender?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
His back was turning me, looking on the baseline, and
I saw that, so I wanted to fight, like right away,
right we got I'm like, we gotta throw hands now.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
So by in my mind I'm like I'm like, yeah,
I'm like, woll this kid, this kid is really good.
I thought about it for a second.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I was like, oh, man, I'm like, yo, this kid,
this young seventeen year old kid, just said, is this
your best defender?

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Right? Even though I got him a couple of times
after that, he got me more. But I got them
for a couple of times. How many people can say that?
And then when I was supposed to go to the calves,
it was still in my mind. It was still in
my mind. Man, I said, no, I'm not I can't
play with Now.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Did Lebron reach out to you or was that just
the general man?

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Lebron's incredible human being. Man, Lebron's one of the greatest
humans that we've seen in this league have. Lebron is
also a great teammate. He's also very intelligent. The objective
for Lebron is to be the greatest, and he's not
only doing it on the court, he's doing it off
the court. He's reaching out, he's doing what he gotta do.
And also he's a genuine friend. From what I see,

(36:20):
he reminds me of JAMAI on R. Harrington is a
genuine guy, you know me, So from that perspective. You know,
he's Lebron's trying to do whatever it takes to win,
and people hate on him for that, but you got
to respect it. Like so, you know, from that perspective,
I didn't go there. I wanted to go back to Indiana.
And then when Indiana didn't take me, I didn't want
to come to the Lakers. I was trying to go

(36:42):
back to Indiana. And then everybody says, so much happen.
I said, listen, I'm in my prime. I'm still locking up.
Look what i just did against the Lakers. I'm nice,
I'm nice man, and they was like not. And so
then I try to go to Detroit. Right, so my
David Bama he called. He called up Joe Dumas. I said,
I want to go into the Lions.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Then you tried to go to Detroit as.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
They should have picked me. You wild, you know, I
like you know, you know, I like that action.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
I like I like the thing happened between you and Detroit.
You tried to go and play for the Pistons.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, man, you know, I loved the line. I'm always
in the Lions. I've been in the Lions down the time.
But I wanted to go.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Back because I thought, like, I'm going to try to
go to Indiana. If not, then trying to go to Detroit.
When Detroit said no, I told my agent I want
to go to Greece because there was nobody else I wanted.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
To play with. Honestly, now I want, I want, I
want to compete. That's it, you know.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
And and then then the Lakers called back. Then the
Lakers called called us, and David Bauma said, hey, the
Lakers is on. I was like, for what he was like,
they want to sign you?

Speaker 2 (37:42):
The miss coup truck down the line.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Spoke to Mitch. Next morning, I have breakfast with doctor bus.
I briefly spoke the magic and that was it. Kobe
is not I say that because Kobe did not call me.
Kobe is not calling to pick you, right unless you're
like Pau. Kobe spoke to me as I said, yes,
because Kobe.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
He's playing chess. That's my guy.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
He like me and Kobe like a marri image in
terms of competition in heart, and uh, he ain't gonna
call me to pick.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Me on his team.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
You came to his team, team, I came to his team.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
But it was a you know, it's just I mean,
I'm just happy I have I have a lot of
different experiences and other players, and I'm I'm I'm grateful
for him.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Did he finally call you on the phone after you signed?
What was that first conversation that you guys.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Had Kobe called me? I love Cobe because he called
me briefly, Yo, we're gonna go to work. Hey, don't
be getting in trouble.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Get serious. Boom boom boom, and that was it. I
ain't see Kobe until training camp, which was how I
would like it and how he likes it.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
You know, we just came to practice. Was it wasn't
no lunch, it wasn't no hey, how you doing what
you're doing after this? And it was like, nah, I'm
coming to practice tomorrow, getting ready for this game, and
I'm gonna see you later. You know, I really respect
him for that.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
So your relationship with him through as you guys competed
and played together in practice.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Our relationship only strictly grew from the basketball called coffee,
and it ain't nine l We had nothing else in
common but competition.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Stay tuned, man, we have some cool stuff and even
bigger than basketball. We're here one of the greatest moments
in Ron's career. But Ron responded in an interesting way
and pointed towards an issue that we all need to
take a little more look at. Stay tuned, we'll get
to it. Really cool stuff, man, life changing stuff here
from run our test. Well, I need you to break

(39:39):
down this play where your relationship with Kobe really grew.
It's one of the biggest shots in Laker history that
you end up knocking down. I meta take me into
the film room. What is going on here on this play?
Right here with everything on the line, Ronen Ryan looking

(40:02):
a little more tests. That's a three.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Like this five six, and it's really simple, you know,
just like just do whatever you've been practicing.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
And you can see here there's a little bit of space,
kind of getting his vision take. He comes at me
and move out the way it is. It's just simple basketball.
It wasn't really nothing spectacular. It was you know, he
he went left. I kind of took up from space.
He came back right. I kind of created some space.
Little Jack kind of got Paul just a nudge back
a little bit, and then once I.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Saw Paul foot go back.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Usually the shot you're open when somebody's gone backwards, can't
go forward and backward at the same time. So you
can say he almost blocked the shot, but it was
already have been really difficult for him to block the shot.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
You talked about this shot. Did you practice this your
jab pull up? Let a three fly? And you don't
know what Kobe's going to because he could shoot over
the double team, He's that good. And we've seen moments
you've dove in and gotten rebounds. But you're like, did
you just feel like, you know what if he comes,
I'm ready? What what was that thought there? Because he
trust you with it? You know, Kobe, don't trust Kobe

(41:07):
feel like his shot over double team is better than
some other people's shots, So what what? What else was
there that we didn't see? And he's celebrating for you,
he knew he trusted you.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Well.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
You know, prior prior to my my you know, my my,
my history of the league, I was on the verge
of being the Hall of Famer, and even the year
before this, I was averaging twenty five in the playoffs
against them, you know, lad I had shots against them,
the Lakers before this that I was you know, clut
shots so well, from that perspective, I didn't I didn't
have opportunity to be like a third string on this team.

(41:39):
It was Kobe Powell and everybody else, right, So from
that perspective, I just had to stay ready, to staying rhythm.
And you don't have a lot of room to think about, Oh,
I don't know if I should do this. You've been
practicing long enough, right, this is you know, I've been
playing ball for a long time.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
So just staying with him, same things you do in
the park. Have fake jab shot you know it's not
it's not spectacular, but it put us up six.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
No, this was a huge shot and obviously amazing look
and really never forgotten. And Ron, I think the history
that Combs isn't just in the shot. The shot is
a huge part of it, but it's what you talked
about afterwards, what you went on.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Thinking in my face, he said, I'm just calm and
relaxed after that shot. He said that, I ain't even smile,
I ain't chair, I'm.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Just like, you know what, we're going to the club.
Vege this you already know.

Speaker 5 (42:28):
Ron.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
On a night where Kobe Bryant, this best attribute from
must of the night was rebounding. What kind of satisfaction
do you and how take that you were able to
support him tonight.

Speaker 7 (42:38):
Well, first of all, I want to thank everybody in
my hood.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Thank you, what my warriors buck felt say, my wife,
kem Shot.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
My family and my kids, everybody.

Speaker 7 (42:47):
I definitely want to think about doctor doctor santhy mom,
I psykias.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
She really helped me relax a lot. Thank you so much.

Speaker 7 (42:55):
It's so difficult to play all the stuff or so
much emotion going on in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
She helped me relax. I thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
Down that three.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Yeah, I was a huge shot you late three.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yes, no question, dude.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh Ron again, I'm.

Speaker 7 (43:10):
My single coming out now talking to me, I got
a singles, go champions, I did song go champions class shoo.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
I'm gonna let him go, guys, and the singles coming out.
I'm sorry, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yeah, man, it was it was. It was a moment
where I just said, you know, I'm gonna keep it real.
This is what I wanted my whole life. It was
a champion. I wanted the MVP.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
I did want the MVP in the finals, and I
did want the MVP for the league. I almost got
the MVP in the league, people will hate. But when
you go back to two thousand and four, I finished
number six, and I finished number six and MPP voter,
but and I was at twenty three years old. But
I say that because when I got into the brawl,
I thought that the basketball guys would never ever like,

(43:50):
you know, let me get back there again. So I
kind of I kind of accepted the fact that, you know,
I'm not gonna get to the finals. After the bra
I said, I'm a getting there again.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
I said, you can't do you know, bad things and
then expect to get there. So I was trying to
work on myself. And then you know, from from therapy and.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Sacramento to Houston to Indiana, everything, everything came down to
this moment.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
I said, oh wow, I'm not MVP, but I'm a champion.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
And I had a big I had. I was probably
in DPAT Game seven, but I had a big game.
So I wanted to just you know, be real vulnerable
at this point in time. And honestly, I called my therapist.
She's from Houston, my sports therapist, and I called it
a night before.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
I said, I need you.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
I have so much anxiety because you got to keep
in mind people on my career. I got to keep
in mind. And my first playoffs with Indiana, I got
suspended in the playoffs. He played against Boss. I got
spended one game in Detroit. They went to the finals.
I got suspended in game six. Me I elbow Rige Hamilton.
I got Richard Hamilton. Then in Sacramento, I got suspended

(44:55):
game two right missus Spurs.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
He took them to game six. That was a close
serious Houston. I got suspended in game five. You see
what I'm saying. Every time I'm in the playoffs, you
know when when when it counts the most, I had
no concept of what do you call it?

Speaker 6 (45:14):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (45:15):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
You know what what do they call it?

Speaker 4 (45:16):
Like?

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Keep things in perspective, think of the big man, keep
be aware. I had no awareness of my legacy.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
That's on the lie.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
So now I call my therap person. I said, Yo,
I need you here because I'm like, I fel like
I'm go against suspended. I feel I got too much anxiety.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
So she flew in, went to shoot around, and then
I met with her after shoot around for like maybe
like forty five minutes, and you know, so I was
breathing you know, breathing through everything.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
And that's why even when I made that shout, I
was even excited, cause she's what we what we worked
on was finishing the game until zero zero and make
zero zero on the clock and just.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Breathe, breathe your way through it, breathe your way through it,
breathe your way through it.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
So from that perspective, I just wanted to give a
shout out to my therapy because yeah, I feel like,
you know, I don't know if I am that relaxed
without talking to her.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Honestly, Ron you you're, honestly, in this moment a pioneer
because now the awareness of mental health and kind of
figuring yourself out. You know, back in the day, we
was just be like, man, it's not wrong with you
you or who you are, it is what it is.
Or we didn't you know, even as men. Honestly you
didn't talk about it. But I love that you, on
the biggest stage, on the biggest moment, had the humility

(46:29):
to not be bigger than the things that you had
gone through and stepped forward and said, man, thank you,
like I needed help, Like like you are the biggest,
you are the biggest, strongest, guy probably on the court
right here, and you said I need a help. You
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
In this game, I probably was the strongest guy.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah right right.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Big Baby was in this game too, He's pretty strong.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Yeah yeah. But you're you're saying I needed help, and
I think from a mental perspective, that's big and a
lot of athletes now are starting to reach out and
do that. What what type of feedback did you get
from this after this moment, after saying this, It was.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Crazy because you know, I was always doing filante. I
wasn't doing business at this point. I was doing more filante.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I was always wanted to give back.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
And actually in two thousand and seven, I was gonna
work on a YouTube series and I was in Sacramento
and I was trying to work on a mental health
piece on YouTube. But at that time, you know, people
just don't listen. They see the defender of the elbow.
Like right now, I managed three I got four CTOs,
six data scientists, I got fun I got you know,
I managed three dev shops. I read one hundred and

(47:32):
thirty page contracts, all that stuff, right, I managed aws
GitHub like all types of technology went back to school
for all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
But people don't realize that.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
So when I when I was trying to do social impact,
I wasn't trying to apply that part of my mind
to business. I was trying to apply that part of
my mind and social impact. So I felt like I
wasn't really getting a lot of help, you know, on programming.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
I want.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
I don't want to go and put out a reality
show with my family getting dry.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
I want to do none of that.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
I want to talk about entrepreneurship, mental health, social impact.
And you know, from that perspective said, okay, I'm here,
let me be most vulnerable in this moment, and it was.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
It got forty million people watching. Therapists that I never
met called me, and.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
To this day it's non stop the request I get
to do mental health stuff.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Speaks and Adaman Bermuda.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Right now I'm going to speak on a mental health
panel after this is non stop and you're talking about
twelve years ago.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I don't even know how long ago it is.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Two sides around on test is that social impact side,
and it's that aggressive side. But I want to bring
the light, you know, that social impact side.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Ron before we get you out of here, band, your
legacy and your impact that I've seen you give back
to the kids. I've seen you get back to the streets.
I've seen you get back to the kiwy brother. That's why,
that's why you know we rock together. We get back
to those kids. Man, I love you for it.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
You never You've never been too big for anything. But
I want you to give back to someone's stay and
in your footsteps. Another Indiana rookie who had himself a
heck of a year, and we need let's bring coach Ron.
We've seen Activist wrong. We need to bring coach Ron
back before we get out of here, break down this
play from Benedict math and man because it was near
the end of the shot clock that he didn't take

(49:15):
it well loose Matharell Gooding aartime. I can tell you that,
oh my, oh you know good arn time. This is
just electric here. You were great, you water Jersey man.
This young kid is following in your footsteps in Indiana.
What's going on on this play?

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Talk to me Ron, Yeah, he's gonna sur pass my footsteps.
So you can see if everybody's in that old school
Indiana defense, you're playing against the Knicks. But you can
see here the anticipation, high screen and roll, you know,
a little stunt defense to offense immediately two dribbles, you know,
and way more athletic than I was. But you can
see you got a kid that is defensive minded and

(49:54):
offensive minded.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Rob how about this, like you said, athletic, how many
guys do you know? Oh, and he doesn't know that
he's necessarily in the clear or go hit this windmill
in game? I don't know if I've seen this too much.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Run that was incredible. I would not have done that.
That's a fast break.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
I mean you you're talking about excitement on defense and
excitement on office, you know, and that's I mean, you
have to do that on.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
The fast break.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
If you can do it, do it for sure, for sure,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Look at that nice defense on one two three from
the dottis.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
What do you what do you see from Benedict mathurin
moving forward? Man? Where do you think that that that
he could be because you played the small forward position.
You talked about playing on both ends of the floor.
Where could his ceiling be in Indiana?

Speaker 3 (50:38):
I think he got a chance to bring these guys
back to where they belong because he's young. He can
play both sides. He's scorn on anybody. His body's ready,
so I think he's gonna only get bigger. You see
people like Gianni's coming and then body just explode. If
this guy continue to work on his body in his game,
Indiana gonna be in good hands.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Absolutely, man, Absolutely, And like I said, man, there's not
too many people hitting wind mills, but he's got a
big flare. Man. He plays with a big attitude. You
know Indiana as that city, how did they how do
they embrace the you know, the energy? Is this kind
of like more like you said, kind of throwback? Could
this guy have played Benadet played on your Indiana teams?

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, the rookie would Yeah he was a rookie. We
would put him in the game. I would bet you
on maybe seven eight man, but he would have for
sure helped us out because he could play. I would
love being on the wing with him.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Absolutely, Ron Man, you you gave so many gyms today.
Like we said, it's the NBA Rookie Live Podcast. Before
we get out of here. If you could talk to
and you putting in the work, brother, So if you
could talk to a young nineteen twenty year old rounar
tests and or you could give advice to your younger
self or some of these younger guys in the league
right now that that need that ron ar ted. It's

(51:54):
a metalworal piece tutelage. What would you say to them? Man?
Would you give back to them? What would your message
be talking to sit down, sit young run on tas
down to like you know, pull them come here young man,
let me let me talk you man. What would that
message be?

Speaker 3 (52:06):
I would say, you know, there's a lot of athletes
out there that don't get the opportunity to set up
generational wealth plans, you know. And I know we have
a lot of financial advisors different things. A lot of
athletes are doing well. But I would say, set up
a generational wealth plan, you know, because basketball is easy
no matter what you do, no matter how you think,
if you work hard and you work in your craft,
you're going to get better. So I say that part
is going to be okay, really trust the fact that

(52:27):
working in the gang going to be straight. But the
other piece, empower your mom, empower your dad, you know,
make sure you keep them around you when you're talking
to your financial advisors, because what happens is if you
are just working with you know, some other people you
don't know that's really talented and smart people. Then they
get all the knowledge, they get all the resources. You
got to get some of that back to your family, right,

(52:47):
So when you retire your aunt here, your or your
or your brother or your sister could have learned something.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Empower your family do. And I love what.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Lebron did with his friends. But you know, friends family.
We don't call them hang on is in the hood.
We don't call them. We call them our family. We
don't call them baggage. We call them our family. And
you know, keep empowering. I'm not saying give, give, give,
or what I am saying is empower your people.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Man. Blessing is Ron and Ron before we get you
out of here, man, the one thing we do. You
took a moment brother. For those who don't know Ron,
the first thing as soon as I hit him and say,
he said, how fast can I get on? Man? God
bless you, Bro. But what you've done for me in
my career and just the impact you had on my
life and the humility that you show me, I can't
I can't thank you enough of that. And I love

(53:35):
the way that you give back to the kids. It's
all our big community, man, that you helped with. But Ron,
where can we support you? You have many initiatives, so
take your time with them. Where can we support the
things that you have going and get behind and follow
and fund and donate. Where can we help you out?
Then give us the law? I know you got left, Ron,
So how can we support you? Because we thank you

(53:56):
for rocking with us here today?

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Man, Now, thank you. I really appreciate. I got our
test Management group.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
It's a data driven social impact accelerated app and working
on for quite some time.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
We have many different verticals.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
You're here about us, so the social impact is the
big initiative, so we will be doing We are working
on our first ad tech product, which I really want
try to support at some point in time. For sure,
we're actually about the science. I got the Sports agency also,
so we're actually about the science, big baby.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
I'm really happy about that.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
What's what's the name? Roy? Oh?

Speaker 3 (54:27):
The Sports agency is Yes sports that's the entity is
kind of created. Uh, we have full agents on our
platform right now. I'm doing a lot of great things
in tech. You know a lot of you know, investing
and a lot of accelerating. You know, I'll just talk
about what I'm doing. I don't really need anything right now.
But if anybody wanted to donate to Artists University, that
all you can. But I'm I'm managing three CTOs. My

(54:49):
son is also a CTO. You know, I got about
six data scientists on the team. I got three depth
shops that I'm working with, so.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Dat I'm sorry, Ron, I know we don't know what
is the data scientists man? Give me that Layman's man.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
A data scientist is so you can make decisions based
off data.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
A lot of US athletes we don't make decisions based
off data sometimes and we always using other people platforms.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
The problem with that is the data is the key.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
So you can if you can organize your data in
a way where it can then become IP intellectual property
for you, right, But some people don't understand what that means. So,
you know, I want to just kind of take you
from a different perspective. I started this seven years ago.
I was a math major, so it was I knew
it wasn't gonna be hard for me to tackle this.
But I went in the same way I played defense,
you know, and now I'm doing this type of work,

(55:33):
you know, creating partnerships.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
I can manage tech.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
I know, I understand how to you know, build architectures
now and work with different debts and backend developers now.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
And you know, it's about time I want to.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
I wanted to always be able to get you know,
work with athletes and not always need because it cost
a lot. Everybody's always asking athletes for money. Everybody always
asking athletes for money. Well you know what, now you
got somebody who ain't gonna charge it, you know, because
athletes are creative and we can you know, from a
business plan to financial modeling to a data implementation strategy
and just different things like that. And you want to

(56:04):
know something, I'm still from tell Street from the hood.
I got this golfed on. But honestly, I like from
this perspective because you know, I'm able to, you know,
help athletes in a way where I want things I
wanted to do in my career when I was nineteen,
I wanted to do my own shoe and nobody, I remember,
nobody was able to help me. Nobody was able to

(56:25):
help me give me the steps, you know, and so
many athletes are so created because all we do is
playing basketball, and when we finish playing basketball, we want
to do other things. Well, if we don't have the experience,
we didn't do internships, you know, we don't have that experience. Right,
Inflation is coming right when you're still giving your family
members money. Inflation is happening where your money is working

(56:45):
against you and.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Different things like that.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
So from napis I got, I got CPAs, I got
in house CPAs. We do have a business management, we
do tax account and all that stuff in house that
I have now. But so just you know, I'm just
doing stuff like that now, keeping my head down, you know,
and I really love what I do.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Sports math, all right.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Digital analytics try to you know, figure out how to
market product scale products and then figure out how to
sell the product, how to sell a company.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
You know.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
So I got two companies that's public right now. One
is pb F f F on the stock market. Another
one to ce Urge on the stock market guide in
pre ipo, and now we're prepping a couple more. So
this you know, I'm hoping that everything keep going.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
How is going?

Speaker 3 (57:26):
You know this year and that year is a year
where things are the work that I've been doing for
seven years, behind the scenes, starting the surface. It's great
when I'm able to talk about it because I'm stuck
in the computer all day.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
No, n we love you, man. Thank you for coming out. Man.
I like when you get to share your story, and
I think so many more people need to know how
dope you are behind the scenes. You know, like you said,
people like to just vision you in one moment of
what you are, and you've been so much more to that, man,
and you you're still giving back and blessing and helping people. So,
my brother, anything I can ever do for you, you

(57:59):
know it. And thank you again for jumping right on. Man.
For those who don't know, Ron was like, hey, Ron,
I need you. Ron was like, when.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
You know what I told you though I said years ago,
I said you got a feature in media. I told
you that years ago, you know. So I'm like, I'm
saying I'm happy.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
You're doing it, and I think like you could be
doing other things, but it seemed like you're happy, and
I believe that this is right in your lane.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
So for those who don't know, Man, when I first started,
I gotta say this before we get out of here.
I was scared doing media. I was still in player mode.
Player mode. Is everybody played well, everybody did great, you know,
and I was nervous and I remember I was doing
a radio show and I wasn't being myself. And one
time me and Ron did a show together and it

(58:43):
was like, you know, we would do like an afternoon
show and everybody would be nervous because you feel like
everybody was, and we did like an eight o'clock show
where like it felt like nobody was listening at least,
and Ron was just being Ron, like yo, this is
this happening and not and like we just started having fun.
And I promise you from that day forward, Ron, you
changed my career. Brother. A lot of people, a lot

(59:04):
of people don't know that I started to be myself
and just have fun and enjoy it because I remember
I was nervous and everything and you were just you
and I was like, Ron is being Ron? Like so
I thank you so much for that, brother, And a
lot of people don't know that. But if you you
showed me the way man in media and not that like,
but you should just how to be myself. And man,

(59:25):
I can't think people't even know that you were doing radio,
also in TV all those things.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Yeah, Man, thanks a lot, man. I salute you Man.
I can't wait to see what's next for you.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Hey, blessing to you brother. Thank you again. We'll talk
soon and anything you need and let's get up soon
with my brother.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Absolutely wow.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
We appreciate you guys for hanging around and even more
so man. Big ups on NBA Rookie Life, big round
of repulse for Ron our test my brother. Thank you
again Ron for coming out. But more importantly, man, we
can't do this without you, guys. Make sure you like, follow, subscribe,
run us man, tweet at us man, let us know
you listening. Let us know your favorite part of the episode.
If you are listening, this is a test, man, we

(01:00:05):
have a test. If you listening, you heard this episode.
Let us know about it man, and shout out to
Ron our test. Let him know how much you appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
We need you guys to make this keep going. Love
you guys. I appreciate it again. Like follow, subscribe, spread
the words, spreads of love, Tweet about us whatever it
may be. We will talk soon. I'll see you next
week on NBA Rookie Life with Ron Hollins. Peace,