Thaddeus Young | Fighting with ZBo, out of MTown, secret to 17 years, Underrated scorers 🤯

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Let the beat.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Whoa, I gave it after mound put me leave, Gonna
feel me first, see me bag, gonna do you worse,
Gonna get you hurt.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
That's what it fixing. All my bags still might pull
up me either.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Church, I go up and down, feel like hurt better.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
I'll go out like man.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Back at it, back at it, back at it again
with my man. Thad Man, seventeen year vet mister Memphis Man,
one of the best ever do is still doing it
that he is young here with my boy t A
after mug.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
What's up? That was always up though it was up.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Appreciated Man, you've been here with this man, give me
your time and this beautiful home of yours.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Man, appreciate that for having us bro y'all, y'all family. Man, y'all,
I grew up with y'all. Man family, y'all, y'all, y'all
put me in the game, man show. We had a
lot of battles. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Out of the battles, for sure. You look good. You're
still going man. That's why I was just saying earlier
when you came in, I thought you you know you
on end. But you say you're still going hard. You're
looking good. Man, you got the court, I said, Man, shit,
you still how long you want to go?

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Man? Honestly, man, I'm just going like until I can't.
I can't go no more. Like I got kids. My kids,
they as long as they cool with it. My wife
cool with it. I'm cool with it. So the biggest
thing is, man, just continue to do it my way.
I think that's the biggest thing. Like I'm doing it
my way. Like it ain't OVERTI I said. So Like obviously,
like guys like us, so as we get older, they

(01:37):
try to push us out and stuff like that. The
league is going towards, you know, younger guys and trending
towards that that model. So you know, for me, it's
it's just about a matter of just getting that opportunity,
to getting that chance and just making sure that when
I do touch the court or when I am out
there with those guys, just letting them know like I'm
still here.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
But like you said, like you know, the league, now
you got the youngsters ain't no older than some twenty five.
So a guy like you, a season vet and that
can still play and still can produce, you will be
good on the team with a great with a bunch
of great, you know, great young players, because you could
be that mentor you you know, you're a great, you know,

(02:13):
great guy, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
It's so a great leader. So I could see that
happening real soon. Bro, Yeah it happens, it happens, that'd
be great. I'd be very you know, thankful and grateful
for it. But you know, if it doesn't, then, you know,
I have so many other things going on that I
can focus on as well, you know, But until it happens,
I'm gonna continue to be at the crib, training, working out,

(02:35):
you know, you know, giving my kids the knowledge, giving
other kids that come around the knowledge, and just making
sure that you know, when we do have pros in
the gym that you know, I'm passing down the game.
And then also, you know, just continue to work on
my game. That's what it's about. Meanwhile, we're out the
mud man. You know, we want to we like to
dig deep. We like to you know, see how we
got to this point. Man. And uh, you know I

(02:56):
heard you grew up in New Orleans. Yep, so born
in New Orleans. I actually grew up in Memphis. I
grew up Oka yep. So, so I moved from New
Orleans due to a certain circumstances with my parents and
stuff like that. Both of them lost their jobs at
the same time, so we kind of forced to kind
of move, losing our home and stuff like that. So

(03:16):
my family basically like split, sister's brother, everybody kind of
went different ways. My brother actually stayed in New Orleans
for a little bit. Sisters kind of just kind of split.
One of my sisters actually took me with her, and
that's how I got the Memphis okay, and I went there.
I moved to Memphis when I was probably like ten
to eleven years old, and from then it was just
you know, trying to get the family back together. And

(03:38):
then like a couple of years later, my mom actually
came and she moved to Memphis. Then my dad moved
to Memphis, so we kind of like got the family
back together. Like as I got older, you got roofs
from walking homes out here, what they called walking home
yea man, tell us about those challenges growing up, because

(03:59):
you know, I've you know, that's a rough environment property obviously,
and how was you able to stay on the straight
path of you know, keeping it basketball because it's easy
to venture off into other things. How was you able
to keep that massive? Man, my mom was crazy as hell.
She wasn't going for all that. Like I like, that's

(04:20):
the that's the one person. Like like I've been taught
to fear nobody, but that's the one person I did fear,
you know what I'm saying. Like my mom like she
ain't playing. So Like like my mom used used to
go to work from like three o'clock, So like at
three o'clock, we're getting out of school. So I got
the whole day to myself to do whatever I want
when I want, right, So, like my mom would go
to work, and she was trusting me to be almost

(04:42):
like an adult every single day because my brother wasn't
living with us, my sisters they had their own place
and everybody kind of like moved off and did their
own thing. So like I just had to stay grounded,
like cause like getting in trouble and going to jail
and then your mom got to come pick you up
and stuff like that. Like I actually actually had got
in trouble and got picked up by the police. World

(05:04):
I couldn't believe in myself. It was a house in
the neighborhood, some guys that I was hanging with that
you know, we were just cool. We just lived in
the same neighborhood. It was super cool. And man, they
went into this house that was being remodeled and vandalized
the whole house. I was actually outside, I never even
touched the inside of the house, and a lady across

(05:25):
the street basically like pointing me out, saying I was
the lookout, and so the police came. I happened to
not go to school that day, and the police came
and picked me up from the house and picked all
us up, and that's how I ended up, Like I
ended up going and going into a juvie for a day.
I was like, I remember being I remember being in there, man,

(05:47):
with all those people, and then like, man, the only
thing I could think about was please don't let my
mom come pick me up. Please don't let my mom
come pick me up. Please let my daddy come pick
me up. First, I wanted Positic was gonna be crazy. Yeah,
she's gonna kill my So so that was like, that

(06:10):
was like one of the little stories that I had
kind of growing up like, but that that actually changed
me a little bit, just because like I realized that
I couldn't hang out with certain people. I realized I
couldn't do certain things, and then from there I just
kind of stayed on the straight and narrow and then
just kind of stayed like focus, focus, focus focus.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
You spoke about your dad, I heard your dad playing
the league or whatnot, and was that one of your
inspirations or did he push you towards the playing basketball.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Honestly, man, my dad didn't even push me towards playing basketball.
He was like I started off playing football. At first.
I was really good at football, and then as I
kind of got older, like you know, you start getting taller,
start he So it took like I got hit one
time and I was like, okay, you know I can
do this. And then next thing, you know, like I
played like four or five games like our middle school team,

(06:58):
and then man, somebody broke my collar bone and then
that was the last time I played for I remember
walking in the next day telling uh, coach Taylor. I
never forget he was one of my teachers. I walked in,
he was like, so, how you feeling. I was like, man,
he's like, why you got your gear? And game day?
I said, I'm being honest with my arm is in
the sling, I said, I appreciate the opportunity, but this
last time I'm playing. Here you go, he said, he's

(07:20):
just gonna quit on me. I said, yes, right, sat
down in my seat with a broken collar. Yeah. Yeah,
that was the That was the end of my football
football days. But I used to like like during like
after football practice and all that, I used to like
literally go to the gym every single day with my
pass on and play basketball. And then I just continued
to just play and play and play and just got better.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Man, Like, what's what was the difference? Like, describe the difference. Like,
I know you came to Myphis we was teen. That
was the difference that you can remember growing up, you know,
coming from Louisiana to Mythics.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Man, the biggest difference was like like like I wasn't
with my mom, so it was more so like I
felt like an outsider, right, Like You're coming into this,
this this new realm of people and you don't know them,
and you're trying to figure out like who's gonna be
your friends. You're trying to figure out like Okay, I'm
staying with my aunt, my uncle, I'm sleeping on the couch.

(08:13):
I don't even have a bed, you know what I'm saying.
But she she took but she took us in. And
I'm thankful for for my aunt Regina, God rest of soul,
my uncle Andrew for taking us, taking me and my
sister April in and basically saying, hey, y'all can stay
here until y'all get on your feet, or y'all can
stay here until your mom comes real business. So so
like growing up like that, it just taught me about

(08:35):
like tough times and taught me that, like you can't
take everything for granted, like you gotta like if you're
gonna go hard and you know, you gotta get it
out the mud like y'all said. So I think that
was the biggest thing for me. Like, but the difference
and all that was like like I got a chance
to like experience a lot of stuff at a young age,
and they kind of just translated over those experiences turned
me into who I am today. And man, ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Like growing up in Memphis and seeing like you know
how you are, You're very you know, I mean, you've
been rocking for a long time. You're a humble person
coming from you know, after mud, like you know, you
had a good core around you, Like who was like
you said, your aunt's like people in the neighborhood, they
you know, would take a village. So he came out,
good man, give your flowers for sure.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, man, I appreciate them. I I was. I was
very very blessed and thankful that I had people in
my life that would like like and stuff of like
try to use me. They would like pick me up
and make sure I'm doing the right things. Like like,
I was very fortunate to have somebody in my family
who was a lawyer who actually like came in my
life and basically like he did the same thing for

(09:39):
my dad. With my dad was like going through his
process right. And his name was ken of Carter. That
was like my uncle, and he was like basically like
just coming in. He was he said, look from this
day for when I was sixteen years old, we're going
to train, eat, sleep, and do everything like a pro.
So he paid for like all my stuff and was
taking care of me on workouts. This was sixteen sixteen. Yeah,

(10:02):
So like my dad, my dad was like he's seen
like okay, he's like man, he'd come to it and
he's like, man, this mother fuckering good. Like I got
to get somebody that could be around him because my
dad was working two jobs. So my dad was like
a school teacher by day and then he would do
another job while working with older people at night. And
then my mom she was working overnight as well. So

(10:22):
it was like I was on my own every single
day and I was just figuring it out. So he
had to like get somebody to kind of talk to
me about like hanging out with certain people doing certain things,
and you know, just because like you know, when you
get good in basketball and you you the king of
the hood, everybody, everybody, yeah, everybody coming around you. Like
so so the biggest thing for him was was putting

(10:44):
somebody that can like put a bug in my ear
and just saying like, look this how we're gonna think
about things. So I used to go like like like
he started like when I was really like fourteen, but
I didn't know like we was going into a process, right,
So like I would go to Mitchell at this point, right, Yeah,
I mean I say I was at Mitchell. I was
like before they got the new school, Like I was
in Mitchell when we didn't have any air. Yeah, like

(11:05):
we didn't have any air at the school. So it
was getting out the first three months of school for
literally like like three months for like at like eleven o'clock,
school was over and you just you just the rest
of the day just free because it was so hot
in the school. And then when it winter hit then
the heat work, so you can go to school now
to two or three o'clock. So, so they got a

(11:27):
new school when I got into like the eighth grade.
So when the new school came then that's when we
was just it was it was like regular schedule. So
so I had been in Mitchell since seventh through twelfth.
I was in the same spot the whole time. Most
people switched schools. Yeah, he stayed. He stayed right there, yeap,
no one, I mean yeah, it was crazy. Somebody tried
to actually burn down the school while we was in

(11:48):
it because because they knew it was getting a new school,
like they so, so where the school was, they built
the school where the parking lot is. No, they built up.
They tore down the old school. The parking lot was
was the old They tore down that and then built
the school right behind what the school was and then
put the parking lot as when they finished the new school,
and it's like fairy. It was like that we had

(12:11):
middle detectors in areathing. We had we had IDs like
had to had to pull up go straight through the
middle detector and like it was it was like that.
It was crazy.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
So so when you was so you wouldn't even think
about it. So the coaches is on you. You already
knew everybody there. They was like, yeah, that we waiting
for you to get to this wait before you get
to school.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Well I was I was like okay in like middle
school and then like I kind of just blew up
as I got older, Like but I was just working
on my game, just working on my game. Like my
high school coach, he can see like raw talent, like
God rest his soul to Jerry Johnson, like he was
the first one to tell my mom, Hey, he going
to the league. Yeah, that was going He was like,
he going to the league. He was like, I don't

(12:59):
know what you and my mom was like, it's only
four hundred motherfuckers in the league. He ain't. I don't
know about all this shit. Like he going to college.
That's how that's how my all talking. She was like,
was like I remember, like uh eight at the school.
He came to the he came to the house and
my mom was like, who the fuck are you because

(13:19):
because he was like, look, man, you can't take him
out of the school. Like he was like he's going
to be like a savior to this school. And I
was like, what this nigga talking about? And then she's like, man, look,
I don't know who you are, Rubben Basketing whoever? Man,
get the fuck off my couch. And league like she's like,
she's like, he might be going to the North Side
with his dad, cause my dad was coaching and teaching

(13:40):
at North Side. Like he might be going to North
Side with his dad. So I don't know what you're
talking about. And I'm like, I'm sorry about that, sir.
You know what I'm saying. But she wasn't having all that.
And then like as I got older, she started to
start believing in it a little bit more, you know,
and just because she started being able to come to
the games on certain days she was all on like

(14:00):
Saturdays and stuff like that. But yeah, it's like my
mom was she wasn't going for like this league talk
She's like, no, he getting a college degree and he
gonna make some money that way.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
So so when you where you going to those ABCD
camps and like, how did you get that notoriety of
getting ranked before?

Speaker 1 (14:17):
You know? Man, I just like I don't know y'all,
y'all familiar with like T King, Travis k Boy, so
T King he So I was playing for this this
one AU team and then they they just didn't have
the bandwidth to go out and play all these big
tournaments and stuff like that. And then like I was,

(14:38):
I was the type that didn't want to play with
all the all stars. So for a little bit, I
was just like, nah, I'm playing with I'm playing with you,
like coach of Vera like that was that was my coach.
I'm playing with you. And because like he had, I
went from one team to the next team to the
next team. But that was because I wasn't old enough
to do certain things on one of the teams. So

(14:58):
when he when I was taken to this other team,
which was Memphis Hooper's, which with coach Rivera, I was
under his wing for a little bit and he was
just like man like, like he came to me and said, look, man,
he said, I'm gonna tell you like this, I can't
take you where they can take you. So he was like,
I need you to go because I was playing for
two teams for a little bit, the All Star team
and the college just helped him out, and he was like,

(15:21):
I need to just go with them full time. And
I respect them to this day for that because that
literally changed my life, you know what I'm saying. That
changed everything about basketball with me because I was I
wasn't just a local star. I became national name because
I was able to go play with you know, all
the big niked tournaments and all that, and that just
show that show his Lord to you, you know what

(15:42):
I mean.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Like show your Lord's show your Lord. You know what
I mean, because you ain't want to be like, man,
I'm rock with you ship, I'm gonna go with them.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
So yep, that's real. Though, he like, man, I can't
he gotta go. That's exactly. I wasn't even in like
the one fifty at that time either. I was just
like coming on to this then, but summer of your
freshman year going yeah something like that. Yeah, And then
I just started like just bursting onto the scene, and
then I went from like like not even being in
the one fifty to like jump into the one fifty

(16:12):
and then like all of a sudden, I'm like top
ten in the country. And I was like, oh shit,
like any of your sophomore year, yeah, so it's like
this like going into junior year. Yeah, so with you
with the Nike camp your junior year so like so
like matter of fact, I didn't even like really go
to night camp and all that. I went to Adidas,
I went to the camp, so like, but like I

(16:33):
was playing all the tournaments. So I was playing all
the big tournaments and then like whoever, like whoever we
was playing against, I was like I'm at him, Like
who's who the big name? I'm at him, Oh you
had that man talent? Yeah yeah. I was like I
had that type of like toughness, Like I was like,
all right, like I'm chasing whoever's in front of me.
Like That's how it was for a long time. I'm like,
if they're in front of me, I'm chasing. I'm chasing them,

(16:53):
I'm chasing. I actually hated to be top ten in
the country. I didn't want to be top ten the
country because it because when you become top ten country,
like it's like the chase stops, like the target becomes
on your back, right, And like I'm cool with the
target being on my back. I'm a hand of mine.
But at the end of the day, I'm more so
I'd rather be the motherfucker's chasing the motherfucker. I want

(17:14):
him running from me, you know what I'm saying. And
that's that's just how I was like in high school,
Like I was like, man, I want the fucker running
from me. Like when it's time, like we go to
the top one hundred camp, I got to see all
of them, you know what I saying? Who was at
them camps that you were seeking? So my my high
school class was like deep. So we had Greg Golden,
Kevin Durant, they go and cook, Mike Conley, Javars Crittington,

(17:36):
DJ Augustine, Damien, James, Earl Clark, like we Stanley Stanley Robinson,
Like we had a lot of low pez plans like
Spencer Halls, like all them leaves everybody, you know what
I'm saying. So like all those dudes was in my
high school class. So like so like, yeah, I'm like
chasing them. You know what I'm saying. So and like

(17:58):
obviously like one in who was Gregg and uh and
Kevin Butt At the end of the day, like like
I think I finished like anywhere between three and five
in the class, but I only finished like five because
like that same summer it was doing like the last rankings.
I fucked up Michael real bad, so I didn't get

(18:19):
a chance to play. So so I didn't start playing
to the end of the summer. By the time that happened,
all the rankings had came out, and you know back
then they would only bring rankers out a certain time,
so it was just like like all right, it's whatever,
Like but I'm about to go, I'm about to go
into college and try to kill these getting rankings. Yeah yeah,

(18:40):
waiting for the ranking all that Street and Smith, Bob
giving Street Smith.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
You eventually became mister Tennessee. Uh, mister basketball Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
How did that?

Speaker 2 (18:52):
You know, let your vision go to say, like, you
know what, I got a shot at the league.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm like I'm lead down man. Honestly, like the mister
basket and all that shit, that shit didn't even matter
to me at once. I got to a certain point
because I was like so focused on like that was
just like all right, mister Tennessee. But I just got
so focused on to the point because I was playing
so many people out of the like out of the state,
and we was playing on national schedule that I was
just focused on that shit, you know what I'm saying.

(19:17):
I was more focused on all right, we're Kevin at
We're great, you know what I'm saying. Like that's just
how it was, like, you know what I'm saying, Like
because like at the end of the day, like those
are the dudes that's in front of me, Like in
the city, I'm I'm the guy. I'm the number one guy.
You know what I'm saying, I'm the number one guy. Like, yeah,
it's motherfuckers that's trying to go at me. And it
was some motherfuckers in high school that I was going

(19:37):
at me, and I was going at the air like that,
you know what I'm saying. I had some battles with
some motherfuckers in high school. But at the end of
the day, it's just like, shit, I'm them the motherfuckers
that I'm trying to go them motherfuckers that's on the rankers,
that's top ten I gotta go see him. I don't
know what they're saying. The one biggest matchup that I
had was this guy named Damien James. I think he

(19:58):
was like top fifteen and I was like top fifteen,
and at this time we both was like raising up
in the rankings. And by the end of the game, men,
me and this nigga walked up to each other and said, man,
you called as fuck head like you from off from Knockadoches, Texas.

(20:19):
And I was like, man, I remember that, I said, bro.
I said, I've been waiting to get your ass for
a long time, and he's like, I've been waiting to
get your ass too. Man. We finally faced off and
he was like man, he was like, you called cold too.
And we became like really good friends after that. So
just shipped like that like you build relationships. But you
like it's different basketball now, like everybody friends and they

(20:40):
let motherfuckers off the hook like like like I've been
I was taught, man, when you walked like my high
school coach was like, man, look when you motherfuckers walked
between these lines. He said, man, it is war like
because I had a military coach like he was from military,
and he was just like, man, look we're doing all

(21:01):
military ship. That's how we're gonna get ready and we're
gonna train. And I'm like, alright, coach, ain't no fragniz. Yeah,
he wasn't having that, like you ran like if during
practice you ran on this card. He called you a
bitch and the whole Oh yeah, that's tough love. He's
talking bad to like band coming through the gym. Hey
ben scout my court. Like that's how he was. You

(21:22):
know what I'm saying, Like he going crazy, But I
mean it showed us how serious he was. He meant
what he was were going. Yeah, he wasn't playing and
and and the good part was like like as a
he was like a father figure to all of us,
so like he he literally like picked us up, dropped

(21:44):
us off like he was like it was like he
was a father to all of us. And he and
he did he did not play tough notes. I like it.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I ain't gonna lie when I was growing up. That's
the only function that I can function. If you if
my coach weren't talking to me like that, I was thinking, ship,
he don't care. He want me to go on the
cone or something.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Man, they got me so prepared.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
He talking to me like that, he must think he
sees something in me, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
They got me so prepared for like college, and like
all the obstacles in front of me, Like it was
it was crazy, like all that shit was easy once
I got to where I needed to get to. Like
that's why, I mean, that's why I lasted so long,
just because like my high school coach was just so
fucking crazy and he was like he had pushed me
so much and so like I knew how like when
I had a little bit of adversity to fight through

(22:31):
it because of him, you know what I'm saying. So
he he really just put me in a space where
like if my college coach, Paul Hill was yelling at me,
like I remember him calling my mom, was like I
don't know what to do. He doesn't respond when I
yelled at him. But it wasn't that I wasn't responding.
It was just I was like, ship like all right,
you just you didn't yelled at me. What's next? You

(22:52):
know what I'm saying. You want me to go run
some suicide. Let's do it, like like you know what
I'm saying, just tell me what you need me to do?
You Yeah, all you want it ain't that ain't like
my mind is numb to that ship. So I ain't
really got really phased by that.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
So, man, Joe, tell us about that process and picking
schools to go to college, because I'm pretty.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Sure you had everybody in the Yeah, man, that was
that was It was crazy. I actually was just on, uh,
run run your race. So I was on there with
the and we talked about that too. I had told him.
I was like, I actually committed to North Carolina and
they couldn't take my commitment. Yeah, they couldn't take my commitment,
uh because I like I told them, I said I

(23:32):
needed a week, like I had another visit coming up,
and I said I needed a week after that to
actually like like uh get my prest conference and all together.
It was like, well, first come, first ear because they
had one scholarship between two guys and that was me
and another guy from Tennessee, Brandon Wright. It'd be right. Yeah.
So so they was like, all right, whoever commits first.

(23:54):
I was like, ship, technically already committity, motherfuckers. I told
you I'm ninety percent sure coming, and it was like
you got to verbally say it, and I was like,
I'm verbally telling you. So so it was just like,
well it got to be like a Nationno. I was like,
all right, I can't like not going my last visit
and and then I can't not you know, fulfill my obligations.

(24:14):
That's just how I was taught, right, So I was like,
all right, whatever, So I go on my I'm not
I'm thinking, Brandon right, not gonna commit on the visit
this month? Fuck committed Friday night. I got damned. So
he stepped on camera. So so like so Royal Williams
called me, I'll never forget. He called me, I'm sitting there,
I got a two thousand and one in Paul, I'm messing.
I'm messing with my fifteens in the back. I'm trying
to fix them home. So so I'm trying to fix

(24:40):
them joints. And he called me. Man calls me for us,
all right, So I called he. I know, he's I'm
so sorry man, Brandon Wright committed. I was like, so
you can't take both fire. He was like no, he
was like first cup, first start. So he was crying
on the phone and all that, I was like, all right, Well,
it just made it a little ea for me to

(25:00):
make my decision. So after that, I was like, all right,
I'm going to Georgia Tech. But it was a process, though.
It was a processed like I had to change my
number like four or five times just because like so
many schools called me. And then once I finally put
my list out, then it was like, all right, it's
tying down a little bit. But the reason why I
held up my process is because I wanted my high
school teammates to be able to get all those schools

(25:22):
to come and see them. They gonna forever come and
see me as long as I'm open, right, and then
if I'm not open, then it's like all right, school
all of Like I had Duke coming to the hood,
you know what I'm saying. You know I had I
had Duke coming to the hood. I had North Carolina
coming to the hood, Kansas coming to the hood, Kentucky
coming to the hood, you know what I'm saying. So

(25:46):
so like my biggest problem, my thought process was all right,
ship Billy Donovan, Florida. You know what I'm saying. My
biggest process was like, all right, if I'm if I
keep my my my options open, everybody's still gonna come
and recruit. So if they come and recruit, then gonna
get a chance to see all my teammates. And that's
how it was, like, that's how guys was getting scholarships
and I and I was. I was a real firm believe.

(26:07):
I was like, shit, well I can go where if
I won't, but they can't, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm gonna open this sh it up and just
let them just do what they do. And I'm telling
them like, hey, we got to do coming today. What
y'all doing? You know what I'm saying, y'all hooping and
what because I'm trying to I'm trying to get them
into college bringing the gas. So I meaner shit, I

(26:27):
used to be shipped in class and mother fucker pulling
me out of class and meetings, you know what I'm saying.
So so I'm like, I'm like, man, like yeah, I
might not come there, but like you, I got a
shooting guard on my team. Colt as fuck, you know
what I'm saying. Like I'm helping them out. I didn't go.
I didn't I didn't even keep my recruiting up with
Florida because my high school teamate wanted to go. Then
I wanted to go into a different school than all

(26:48):
of my high school teammates because I wanted them to
have their own thing, and I wanted me to have
my mom. Like at some point we got to break up.
We can't always be together, and.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
I just want to One thing too, you're rating on
like Duke, Like you know, I give you flowers. Man,
you had an average four point three, graduated the four
point three g p A man, that's that's big, man,
you know what I mean, Like you said, coming in
hood and coming out the mug, coming out the get
on you being able to stay focused, you know, on
your school and have your mom and like you said,

(27:21):
your family. Man, I give you flowers four point three.
That's big. You could have went to Duke. You could
have went to Hip with a four point three.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's really impressed. I graduated with a one nine. I
was cool.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
I got it was all cool though I got out of.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
That glad you got. That's that's that's totally impressive. Man. Impressed. Yeah, man,
like in school like that was another thing to my
high school coach was like real big on like g
p A. So he was like, look, you know, trying
to go to college, I need all yourll GPA to
be a certain g p A. So I was like

(27:59):
helping my teammates. I had another guy on my team
and j Thornton. We called him Chill. He was helping motherfuckers,
like a guy named Michael Cagia. He was like our
point guard. So like we had motherfuckers helping motherfuckers, just
making sure that everybody was ready to play the game
and everybody was passing. So so like I took, I
took all my senior year. I took all college courses

(28:20):
like I was taking AP. So that's why my GPA
was so high, because uh, you know, you take an
AP class, it's like a five as opposed to a
four skill. So so I was already taking taking college
courses and had a bunch of college courses before I
even got to Georgia Tech. And that was the same
way with one of my other teammates too as well.
So we was taking like AP courses. So I could
have I really could have graduated if I went to

(28:41):
school that summer. That summer I could have went. I
could have actually went early, and I had and I
would have been just turning seventeen because I graduate high
Schoolhen I was seventeen. Damn. That's that's big. That's a big.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Meanwhile, you before we get to Georgia Tech, I want
to ask you about the All American game made Mickey D.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I'll be telling both.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
So y'all gotta y'all got y'all got a vibe with
that because I ain't. I ain't going to Mickey. I
think they selected me in the Windy's game. I was
in the window. I got selected to the Windy's Game.
But uh, y'all talk about that experience, man, somebody on that.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
But it was great, like like McDonald's man, that just
that whole experience been able to you know, go on
tour and see people and just go to the city
where was y'all game held at?

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Our game was in uh San Diego, Okay, on the
beach San Diego is going was crazy, man, Man, the
Mickey D's game, I'm not even gonna lie that was
like the most competition I've ever been around. Like we
was like like going crazy, going back and forth. Like
I remember one game, it had to be like seven

(29:47):
motherfuckers get knocked on like like we was because like
post outs there, so you like ship in the practice.
The practice is actually better than the games. So we're
going at each other and all this ship like anytime
we stepped on the court, like we would play them
games and motherfuckers just like like I remember watching uh
Ty Lawston and DJ Augustine go at it. Mike. Mike

(30:10):
was in that group with Javars, like like them top
to your point guards. All the fucker went to the league,
you know. And then you're talking about like me and
Kat going against each other, Chase Buttinger and uh and
Daykuon Cook going against each other like all like in
these games, we're just going crazy at each other. All
the bigs, like we had true Big so you had
Spencer Halls, you had Vernon Vernon Macklin, they called him

(30:31):
big Ticket. They were telling he was like the next
thing coming, like like KG, and then you had the
Lopez twins. So like we end up going at each
other like going crazy, and I'm like, man, this is
this is the best ship I've ever been a part of.
I remember like sitting back thinking that like damn, Like
like Wayne Ellison after knocking down motherfucker shooting the cover

(30:52):
off that. So so like I'm like, man, this is
like this like this ship is really like mind boggling
how good these motherfuckers is. I'm like, and I'm just
just being so I'm so grateful and thankful that I
was a part of such a great group of guys. Man,
all them guys was like like a one guys. We
all loved each other like it was no like hating

(31:14):
on each other. But when we got in between the
lines were like I'm about to fuck you up. That's
just how we was a competitive Yeah, just super competitive,
you know what I'm saying, talking shit. We get to
the room, were all talking shit to each other like
hey wait wait, wait to practice the amorrow, you know
what I'm saying. And that's how we was all throughout
our high school careers. Like we was all like that.
Like like I remember going to they used to have

(31:35):
this shit called USA Development Fest where they'll bring some
teams from overseas and then we'll play, well we'll take
four of our teams and play over here with them.
So that was in San Diego as well. I actually
end up getting hurt after like the second or third game,
but like them practice like how that shit was like
it was it was just crazy, like how like how

(31:56):
motherfuckers was going at each other, just going at each
other like and and I love that part. I love
the squad which is East. Yeah, I was on the
East team. Yeah, I was on the East and the
winning the game. No, we lost, we lost, we lost.
They had h Cook went crazy, Chase went crazy, K
played well, K went crazy, So so it was a

(32:18):
it was a really good game, uh, Kevin, and uh,
I want to say, Chase got m VP of that game.
And then we and then we had the Jordan.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Game as well, so like you playing in the Jordan
class thirteen, yeah, thirteen with respect on that then he's
young man.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Thirteen thirteen and Kevin the right, yeah to show his
picture his picture though, it's cool, Yeah they show here,
you know, twenty thirteen and.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Those is the two biggest games to me when I
was when I was growing up.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
And the whole summit, Who's well, it's not as big
as as it is not as it was, Like like
I don't really even pay attention to hoop something anymore.
I used to, but I was thankful that the hoop
Someng was in Memphis my year, so I got a
chance to be home year. I played in who Something?
It was Indianapolis? Okay, so perfect? Hoops?

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Was the ship done? I mean I was m v
P at all them games. You would never know McDonald's.
I don't even get it. They put the people in
VP them they stopping my name and be like, damn,
go to two thousand.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Over man, y'all put some respect on my guys.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Come on, as we move forward through the process, you
could you could continue to tell us about your time
and in Georgia Tech, Like how was that experience?

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Being man? I mean Georgia Tech was cool, you know obviously,
like it's tech. You in downtown in Atlanta, so you
already know what's up. Like I remember, I remember Zo
used to come down and hoop with us, Like to
come hoop with him and Quintel queen. Come about.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Man, everybody's being alant, Magic city nights, mad city, eybody
that's hot Atlanta, get to work.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
He always like always like he was like he was
like to the Georgia TA. I was like, damn was
waiting on? Is it? Man Z said? This always took
me like like this man, we've been waiting out, I
gotta go to class in the sea study G Tech

(34:39):
was g Tech was smooth. Man. It was. It was
like the first I knew I wasn't staying after the
first year though, Oh yeah, Like I just knew that.
Like I knew after that first that first week, I
was like, hell, no, I'm not doing this ship again.
Like the workouts was so crazy, like coach was crazy
as fun, and it was just like, man, this ship

(35:00):
was just it was like it was structured like pro shit,
like as far as I workouts and all that. But
I was just like, man, we're doing so much shit.
Then you got to add school on top of it.
And George ta is a hard fucking school. School is hard,
first of all, as hard as fuck to get into,
you know what I'm saying. Sometimes I don't even know
how I got into that. Man, I'm a smart motherfucker.
So so I was just like, man, look like I

(35:23):
had told. I remember telling one hour coach, I said,
look after this year, man, if I'm playing basketball, it's
gonna be for some money. I said, I Am not
playing another day of basketball without getting some money for it.
I said, I said, Man, So after this year, y'all,
I'm a holler y'all and he was like, well, you
gotta work. I said, I'm out of here, and so
like so like after that, man, I just continued to work,

(35:46):
like going to the gym late at night, sleeping in
the gym. Uh like just just working like like cause
like school, man, that school is hard. Man, it's hard.
It's a great school. Don't get a wrong, great people,
great school. It's just hard, just hard. It's hard on athletes.
He was winning up here. I was the first year
of want of done out, the first year they made
the rule. So they made the roof. I guess they

(36:08):
made the roof for us not to go.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Would you would You probably would have considered going out
of high school if that.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Was all gone. It was all gone. When we found
out we found out, we was at I remember we
were sitting at the round table at in Virginia at
the top one hundred camp and they they the rule
popped up on the ticker on ESPN, and man, it
was like it was like the room just stopped, like
time stopped. Quiet with the guys, yeah, because it was

(36:39):
a whole bunch of motherfuckers that was going to the league,
especially at I Draft class, you know what I'm saying
two thousand and six, like like, sh at least ten
fifteen motherfuckers gonna try to make that jump. And so
it's like it's ten, ten fifteen people trying to make
that jump. And then you talking about you got a
younger class right behind that that you got oj Mail
and Billy Walker and all of them they trying to
make the jump too. So it's like, yeah, the wrong

(37:01):
gonna stop, you know you, Like damn, like I was
about to go try to make a meal ticket, you
know what I'm saying. So so so when that happened,
you just kind of just sitting there and you and
like I'll never forget man, we just all was just
sitting there, was like damn, like this fucked up like
like something. Some niggas even I think I felt like
they was about to cry, you know what I'm saying.

(37:23):
Cash when you coming from different circumstances and like you
ain't got that type of money, and then you know
you got a chance to go and make it, like
and they take that from you. You're like, damn, like
this fucked up, Like can we appeal this ship or something?
You know what? But you know it happened, and I'm
thankful that I got a chance to go to college
and experience it, you know what I'm saying. But I'll

(37:44):
be in your eighteen right now, right now. What was
that draft process? Like, man, it was, it was, it was.
It was a it was a hard draft process just
because like man, like I was so young, and then
some of those guys have in college for like two
or three years, so they were a little stronger and
stuff like that. But the good thing was like I

(38:05):
was able to hold my own because I actually I
had skill and I was a tough motherfucker, you know
what I'm saying. So so, but I'm not gonna lie.
It was one motherfucking the draft that everybody was like, damn,
it's cold, and that's l Thornton. Thornton played it up floor. Yeah,

(38:26):
he was called, was running from him like it was crazy.
Like they I remember the Sixers called and it was like, man,
it was like maybe three days for the draft. It
was like, hey, man, we want you to come do
a second workout. We loved your workout so much the
first I said okay, And at this point I had
worked out El Thornton five times already. Yes, so they

(38:49):
was like, they was like, yeah, man, we're gonna have
a couple of guys coming in bone they set me up,
trying to set me up for the kill Thornton had
already and whooped all I asked in the free draft workouts.
So they was like, man, I was like asking who coming.
It was like, Oh, you're gonna be you on l
hell no. And they ended up picking me twelfth. A

(39:16):
good move. That was the one person that was the
one that was the one person I knew if it
was at that time, because I was like, I was
just just like I was eighteen, you know what I'm saying,
And he was twenty two already. Fucker was a red shirt,
you know what I'm saying. He had been.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Jumping out the gym man Dominique Wilkins.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
So I'm like, man, it's a grown ass man you
want me to go play against. I'm already about to
go into the league against grown ass man, you know
what I'm saying. So now funk that. I said. Look,
I did thirteen workers. I said if if they if
they don't pick me, or if somebody don't pick me
after thirteen, then I don't know what else to say.
I did what I was supposed to do. I worked
out for the teams, I played well. I did what

(39:57):
I was supposed to do. Hey, and they ended up
picking me twelve.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Ye talk about that experience on draft night, man, I
know it was life changing, man, honestly, man, Like I
loved ary bit about like my draft night, because like
I chose to go the other way, Like.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
I could have went to the green room and all that.
I didn't even know you didn't go. I didn't even go. Yeah,
I didn't even go to the draft like like they
I had got the inviting and all that. But I
was just like, man, I'd rather spend it with my family.
I'd rather spend it with all the people because obviously
everybody can't make it to New York, right. And one
of the most incredible experiences obviously was walking past that stage.
But my most incredible experience is me hugging my mom

(40:35):
and us both crying together, you know what I'm saying. So,
like my name comes up like they picked me or whatever,
and that crazy pot was I thought I was going
like sixteen or seventeen or eighteen or something like that,
cause like Detroit had like promised me at like sixteen.
So I was like, all right, I know I'm going
at sixteen. But then man, I get the phone call
from the sixers at twelve, and I'm like, damn, I'm

(40:56):
a lottery pick. What the fuck this happened? So then
like it's just a burse, like it's just like I
just started crying angle. I was a big baby that day.
I got drafted, and I hugged my mom and I
don't think he had hit her yet, and we both
are just crying, and man, it was just it was
just one of the experiences where I was like, damn,
like this shit really happening. Like and then but from

(41:17):
that day forward, I was like, all right, I did
the hard I did. One of the hard parts was
just getting there, right, But I was like, all right,
now the hard part is really just staying there. So
then from that day for I was like, all right,
my mind set different, Like it's got to be different
than it was when I was in high school. Like
I got to do whatever it takes to stay there
for a long ass time.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
The second half of the season is here, and the
race to the playoffs is heating up. On priss Picks,
the best place to cash in on your favorite sports
and you know we're rocking with Priss Picks. Prasspicks is
the best place to get real money sports action. You
just picked more or less on at least two players
with a shot to win up to a thousand times
you catch. Prosspicks is the best place to win cash
while watching sports.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Joint over ten million users to sign up. Today. We
got Milwaukee versus La.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
I'm taking Luca more in points and I'm taking Gianni's
more in rebounds in steady. Download the app today, use
cold Mud get fifty dollars instantly after you play your
first five Atlanta price pis run your game. What was
it like playing in Philly? Man, that's a tough nose town. Man,
I ain't gonna lie. They hard they fans, I ain't
gonna lie they fans is tough.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Yeah, that shit was different. Like I remember, uh, like
getting off the plane and I was like, Man, this
is a dirty ass c then but then I was
like man, but I was like, man, this is my fucker,
hard nose ass city too, you know what I'm saying.
And that's what in the blue collar culture of like Philly.
I was like, that's what I got embraced, like I

(42:44):
got embraced the hard nose mentality and like getting drafted there,
Billy King drafted me, taking me and you know, telling me, hey,
like you're gonna be here for a long time. I
ended up being there for seven years of my career,
so that was the longest stint and then I was
actually the last one everybody, So so that was like,
that was like one of the things that I was

(43:04):
like man like, like I like, I'll tell Billy in
the phone, like my I promise you, I'm I'm gonna
do everything in my power to to to give you
all I can. You know what I'm saying, just because
like I already knew what it would take like to
continue to stay in the league. So so like I
was very thankful for that. Like being in Philly, it
kind of became like my identity, like from what the

(43:25):
city brings, like like like the motherfuckers, let you know
when you're sucking up. You know what I'm saying, They
boud yo ass you know what I'm saying, And they'll
tell you some ship. I remember being in the parking
lot and they drinking dot. Hey, hey, iggy, fuck you
you ain't ship.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Like and I'm like, damn, look when when you come
out of the back right to fence right up there
on the top, like I'm like, damn, I gotta go hard.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
And then the same fan tell me that I love you,
and I'm like thanks, you know what I'm saying. But
it's just like, man, like the mentality they bring, you
have to embrace that, right and they love they love
motherfuckers who embraced their mentality, their blue collar mentality. Who
gonna come come to work every single night? And that's
what I did, Like I just came to work every

(44:11):
single every single night. You know, you know, you know
the the the best way to put it is, you know,
you know you have to be available. You know. That's
how you survive in the league, just being available. And
and like I used to tell people all the time,
like look, if if I can't walk, goddamn, that's when
I can't play. It's not like that, like I didn't.

(44:32):
I didn't play play through plenty of injuries and all that,
just because like I know, like my teammates needed me,
you know what I'm saying. And I and I learned
that from high school. Always being there for your being
there for your brothers cover for your brother. Like that's
just how That's just my man, my mindset, my mentality,
and it's still that that way to this day.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Speaking of being available, what position are you naturally because
I ain't gonna lie play it on teams, But you
played the three and I played on team. I saw
you sticking z Bo and Mark. I just seen played
on team. Are you sticking me? What's your natural position?
I think my natural position is like three four four three.
You know, I was like one of the first to

(45:09):
kind of like hybrids like push the ball up and
all this other shit, right yeah, and you know, but
I'll say that's like my position. But like the last
like four or five years of my career, like motherfucker's
been playing me at the center spot, right, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
But that's what honestly like me personally, Like I feel
like I'm a positionless player. I feel like I can
play all over the court and do whatever you need
from one through five just simply because I can guard
every position. I can handle the ball, I can make
the reads, I can make the plays, you know what
I'm saying. Like I can do every single thing. You
know what I'm saying, so I'll probably say the least position.

(45:46):
I can probably play as the two obviously because I
don't shoot the ball at a hot clip. But at
the end of the day, like I can't make them,
you know what I'm saying. So show you the knock down,
you know. So it's just it's just about that, right,
I mean, you know, I want to talk about it.
You know, I got fourteen fifteen thousand, I down, got
damn points. You know what I'm saying. That fat, and
that's that's what I would playing Rand for me, you

(46:07):
know what I'm saying. So that's even harder.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's interesting right there, that part you just said, that
part you go. Boat used to say, Man, we're gonna
go get it.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
By all that we're gonna we're.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Gonna put in all our energy and going and getting
it had that many points, bro.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
I did not even know that.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
That's not somebody and I'm talking about flowers to that
because I'm a part of that game where you ain't
got a drama place for me. Boat the same way, Hey,
well we're gonna get it.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah, the last baby, the.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Only motherfucker who get a bucket or get a rebound play.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
He wanted to play for him, but one for him.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
When he gets the bucket, he's smacking his own ass
like that himself on last like good jobs, Like what's
wrong with bro?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Bro? A lot of mother fuckers scared of Boat. He's
motherfucker that was scared of his I was like, man,
fuck him, man, Man. I was like, Man, just hit,
just hit that nigga first. Man, that's what you did.
I was like, Man, you gotta hear him first. Man,
Now running ship out of his ass, that's all you
gotta do. I was like, then you got him, I say,

(47:12):
I said, Now he's still gonna course, I said, but
you're gonna have just a minute of his ass and
you beating him up and down the court.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Man, listen, man playing against shoot. I had to get
my rest because I know you nun. I'm like, damn today,
nun stop a't gonna pick and pop shoot pump fakeas.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Shoot it left drive.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Might you think he liked but that nigga hit then
elbow nigga fighting back, That's what.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
I like about to kill.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Like your size is deceiving, Bro, but you can you
cann't battle with like you said, you're playing the center.
You could battle with just anybody, so that I always
love that about you.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
But I mean, honestly, man, it's more so about like
like anybody can do that. It's just being a dog,
you know what I'm saying. You got all that mentality.
Like my my my mindset was always I'm like, I'm
a dog. I'm being I'm being a motherfucker on this court.
You know what I'm saying, Whether I'm guarding fucking shock
out there, like obviously you know I can't go check,
you know what I'm saying, But they gonna get you.

(48:04):
But he gonna know I'm there. I'm saying like I'm
I'm gonna punch his ass a couple of times. You
know what I'm saying, make him mad? You know what
I'm saying. I like, that's just how I am, you
know what I'm saying, Like like the mindset, like the
alcum of mentality, the dog mentality, Like that's how I've
been my whole life, my whole career.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Speaking of that, your rookie, your rookie year, you made
ranks and your rookie year, rookie team, how did that feeling.
Did they give you any drafts and say you know
I belong in this league.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Man. Honestly, like my rookie year, it was just so
up and down, like like accolades is cool, like all
that shit is cool. But I'm more so like always
on the part of like trying to win basketball games,
like I feel like like I feel like those are
good to have, like a trophy is good to have,
but like like I want the ultimate trophy, right which

(48:52):
I still don't have, which is the championship. And that's
the biggest thing, like I've never cared about. Uh, Like, yeah,
you want to make all star teams and ship like that,
but that's cool. I just I'm more so trying to
win as many games as possible to get to that,
to get to that goal ball, and so like that's
the only thing I've really cared about is getting to

(49:12):
the goal ball and making sure like I like like
I'm there for my team to win games, like I
don't I don't really care about all rookie team and
like that. That's that's just eighteen seventeen, eighteen years ago. Off. Yeah, no,
I understand. I understand.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Meanwhile, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, probably one of your best years,
I would say, how did it? How do you feel
about getting traded at the day, like did did you?
Did you understand the business of basketball at that time?

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Or yeah? I was actually pissed. I had to stay.
I had to stay that whole that they year prior
of because they had I mean I was the last one.
So like so like like we after we had I
don't know if you you might have been still on
the team with Boston. Uh when we played them and
it was the game with game seven to get to

(49:58):
Eastern Conference Finals what Uh? I think this was like
Drew Holidays first or second year or something like that.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I think it passed ten eleven. Yeah, I was a myth.
We was turning up myths.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
So so so like we played them, Ray was on
the team. So I don't know if we played with Ray,
but yeah, Ray was on the team. So like man,
we they made the movie Uncut Gems about it. So
so we was playing them and that was really like
where I was like, all right, we can really do something.
But then the next thing you know, they start making

(50:37):
all these changes. So dre leaves, Drew gets traded, Evan
gets traded, Spencer gets traded. Like there's just a doctor.
Remember you know what I'm saying. So like, but like
they're saying, like they're telling us, we feel like y'all
peaked out, And I'm like, what the fuck we peaked out?
I'm fucking twenty two years old? You know what I'm saying,
How Like, how am I peaking up out? You know

(51:00):
what I'm saying? How is the team peaking out when
we're all we haven't all of us haven't even reached
our prime yet, We're all still young. You keep this
team three or four years, you never know what can happen, right,
And so, like the team, they break the team up
and then it just goes downhill from there and then
like I'm the next thing. No, I'm looking I'm in
my seventh year and I'm playing with you know God like,

(51:23):
like I love these guys up and I'm playing with
James Anderson and Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims. You know
what I'm saying, Like to do that? I can't like
sound like they were trying to process. That was that
was that was That was the first year before the
process got there, you know what I'm saying. So so

(51:44):
I'm like, man like, like, how can like it's like
I remember telling somebody it was like me bringing a
butter knife to a gunfight every single night. That's how
I felt. And I couldn't believe it. And I was like,
y'all serious. And then they had trade for me on
the table the same year. They could have they traded
Evan Spencer and Alam. They could have traded me to

(52:06):
Houston and Phoenix, and they held me hostage. I remember
walking in next day telling Brett Brown. I said, Brett,
I said they should have traded me. I said, from
here on, everything y'all want me to do, it's optional.
And he was like, I understand. He was like I'm sorry, man,
but he I mean, he knew he was taking So

(52:27):
it was just like all right, whatever. And after that
she got traded to the Pacers. Huh, No, I got
traded to Minnesota. Trade to minnstthan we actually would have
had a pretty good team. Everybody wouldn't have fucking got hurt,
Thanks Ricky. No, but Rick Rick got hurt in like
the first three or four games. Then Kevin Martin went down.
He was acting like twenty yeah, big Peck went Big

(52:53):
Peck went down. He went down. So we was depleted
team from get go. And that was zach Lavine and
wigs first year, and so we started going into a flip,
started going into we're gonna teach these guys how to
play big peck man. They packed strong in them all,
you ain't. He's strongest here with with small feet the.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Former Yeah strong, Yeah, I know him. He was a
hard filing motherfucker too. Yeah, I had squad. I know
he was in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Ship. I was out there about February. I got there.
I got it. Then that's when you went yeah, okay, no, no,
I went Uh. I went from there to uh Brooklyn. Yeah,
I was in the KG trade. KG got back to
Minnesota that way. Okay, Yeah, So I went to Brooklyn,
played in Brooklyn for a year and a half. They

(53:49):
Billy King was there. He had drafted me, so you
already know he's about to pay me. Yeah, so he
gave me the bag. Yeah, okay, the four year fifty. Yeah.
Then we then we went from there and then went
went to Indy and then we had we made a
little run in Indy. That was the time with the patients,
and I loved it, man. I actually didn't want to leave.

(54:10):
I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to leave,
but they they they didn't want to pay me.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
Indiana Basketball State got some great fans. Man love the basketball.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Love the fans, loved the organization, love everything about everything.
When we were there, Uh just simply because like that
was one of the first That was the second team
that I really felt where I had a real brotherhood
with a bunch of guys like me, Victor Oladipot, Darren Collinson,
Cory Josel, like all of us, Like I just felt

(54:41):
like a family. Like Miles Miles was there. He was
young Miles like it was. It was. It was a family.
And that was like not the first year, but the
second year I was there. Because the first year we
had all Vets and these these niggas was crazy. These
niggas was wild. All Vets, I'll talk about. We had
Monte Mante actually stayed twenty thirty. Boy, shut up, you

(55:07):
already know Mante crazy. Then we had c J. Miles,
We had uh, Rodney Stuckey stuff, Aaron Brooks, uh El
Jefferson big Like you want big as on the same team, yeah,
big man back. All came came to the place together.
They's not him like a three year thirty or soth
We came together.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
To orthodox playing for I know y'all, y'all had fun
playing with each other. Oh man, Hey, I know y'all
had fun playing.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Oh man. He he wanted the funniest motherfuckers elf. He man,
first thing he is. He came in and say, hey, man,
throw met the ball. Man, don't bullshit with it. Hey,
big so you got it? You got it. Let that
big out man all right hand. He ain't shoot with
no other hand. Oh, and he had it. He tried

(55:55):
to work on the other Sideay, he doesn't. He doesn't.
I've watched him work out. I'm I'm sitting there talking
to it like I'm sitting talking to Paul George, like, Yo,
this motherfucker. I just noticed he ain't used his left
hand the whole work. I was like the same, sounded
like me going left. All I'm going left. We don't

(56:22):
fix it. Come on, man, that's funny. Man. That's three
three hundred plus Moll talking about talking about Hey, me
and him going left, nigga going right.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
It's exactly the same way. Your time in Indiana. You
probably say that was your best experience in the league.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
No, my best experience in the league was was Philly
just because like I had spent so much time now
and like playing with those guys and growing we all
grew up together, so like you know, me, lou Will
and Raka Dollar, like we was growing up like first
four or five years, just growing up together. So it
was that was like the best experience because I was

(57:02):
like learning one how to go from being a team
to actually being a man, you know what I'm saying.
By the time, Like when I got there, it was
just me. When I left there, I got them, I
had two kids and a wife, you know what I'm saying.
So I learned how to be a man throughout that
course of time in Philly. So that's why that was
my ultimate experience. Indy was obviously like a second just

(57:25):
because like the cohesiveness of the team, the brotherhood of
the team.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Who you had problems with the league problems Mellow, Mellow,
Mellow by far.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Everybody asked that question. Mello is by far the hardest
flood I've ever had. The guard shout out to mellow. Man.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Dirt and dirt those two definitely a problem. Those two
made what made mellow and dirt so difficult though.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Man so Mellow. Mellow was difficult just because man, he
lived the whole game like it's on fakeers, just trying
to get a bucket the whole game. You know what
I'm saying. At least you can depend on Dirk to
pass a little bit, you know what I'm saying, Mellow
trying to get to it. He gonna jab you, jab,
you shot. You know what I'm saying. He gonna go
from the jab to the bully ball. Then he on

(58:14):
the free throw line with the getting the rebound fuck
out of here like all that, you know what I'm saying.
He just like he knows how to impose his will
on the game, and I think that's what made him
much tougher. And then he's getting picks and screens and
shit set for him. So like in New York, you
might hit three or four screens before he even gets
the ball. By the time you get get out the screen,

(58:35):
shit you did because you tired. And now he just
taking advantage of all that, you know what I'm saying,
eating up the space. And then like in Denver, you
know I played in both Mellow and Denver Ship. That
baseline Mellow was crazy. That logo Mellow was stupid. You
know what I'm saying. He might he might, Yeah, he might,
he might. He might shot fake you you jump and
go past and dunk that bitch on the whole team,

(58:55):
you know what I'm saying. So, so that's why he
was like so much tougher than everybody else to guard,
because you never knew what you were gonna get. He
had so much ship to his game, and he just
he can shoot from all over the court. Dirk, he
just talling everybody tall, got the one leg fade like
Crui spinning, He's spinning it and doing all the phase
and ship and you're like, damn, like you can't really
stop this ship, like you just got to hope and braes,

(59:17):
you know what I'm saying. Then he's shooting threes, he
coming down to transition, letting it just fly high release.
So like but by the time I got the dirt dough,
he wuldn't beat me off the dribble, you know what
I'm saying. So, but he just was tough on the
post just because he just make shots. Cruise. Yeah, So
like like those are two that was hard to guard.

(59:38):
Was hard to guard too, Lewis. He was tough. He
was tough guard, Orlando super tough guard, like you couldn't
couldn't stop the faise, couldn't stop the fade away tough guard.
So those are like three tough guard guys that that
I had problems with. Yeah, some dogs too.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
So so right right after that where you went. We
went to Chicago after that, right yep? So so not
in my city.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
And you was in.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Now listen which one of them cities you enjoyed for
real real Between Shot and Indiana.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
They both them up. The Shot got way more to do.
It's way more to do in the Shy, like like
Indy Indy is is. If you you super focused on
who Indy straight basketball, straight basketball, you you arena to
the house. You know what I'm saying, Arena to the house.

(01:00:31):
Because I stayed. I stayed all the way out in
like uh, Westfield and Islands, so I was Fishers and
all that, So I was I was on out. I
think matter of fact, I think our house was across
the lake from your house. Yeah, so yep, so so
so that was that was cool because I got a
chance to just really focus and lock in on basketball.
Then you get to the Shy, You're still focusing, locked

(01:00:53):
in on basketball, but there's just so much other ship
you can do with the family and all that, so
you know, it kind of takes away from the basketball
I expected. And then we was shitty as fuck too,
So really it really was something different.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
And a by that time, like this, Like what I
what I noticed about you? You talked about the GPA
smart Sauer. Were you planing when you put your mand
set on just start thinking about business or like, cause
I know we winding down into your career. I just
wanted to know, like, at what point were you thinking

(01:01:25):
about business early, like lad in your career or like
how did they come about?

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Man, after I got I'd probably say like after I
got the first bag. Once I got my first bag,
my first contract, I just started like focusing and locking
in on a bunch of business stuff. So like I
started diving into some real estate stuff. And like I said,
I was fortunate enough to have people in my family
who had did certain things. They like weren't my immediate family,
but there was like cousins and uncles and stuff that

(01:01:51):
had did some stuff and knew some stuff. So so
I would just learn from them. And my uncle, who
was a lawyer, he has a daughter that is is
a big time developer in Louisiana, so I would like
just get a crash course on real estate from her
because she knows everything about it. She's actually my business
manager now. And then my uncle was the lawyer part
of it, so he can look at all the contracts

(01:02:13):
and then he can do all the different deals and stuff.
And then it was just kind of felling place from there,
just building the team out and then started thinking about business.
I'd probably say like around like a year five or six,
but I was still locked in on the basketball side
of it. But I was like paying attention to what
was going on with my money and paying attention to
what was going on, and I asked a lot of questions,
Like I started asking questions when I was nineteen years old,

(01:02:35):
and that's how I started learning. Because my biggest thing
was I said to myself and my family, is I
want to be able to run my own empire by
the time I'm twenty five years old. Because like most
of the basketball careers, right, they don't last past four
or five years. So I was like, all right, by
the time I'm twenty five, I want to be able
to run my own empire, and be able to make

(01:02:56):
as much money as I can off the court through
running my own power, and then that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, I asked they simply because obviously I knew about
the Shoot three sixty yep. And you do a lot
for the community in Memphis, and I just want to
know how did those ideas come about?

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Like so, the shoot three sixty investment came from actually
Fred Jones, boy Fred, my Boyfred. Yeah. So Fred Fred
pulled me aside one day of the game in Indy
because they had one in Indie, and he was like,
I just need you come by the gym, just check
it out. So I go by the gym, I check
it out, and then man, both of my kids they

(01:03:35):
you know, my son TJ. He was, he's the older one.
He was like, he ran straight to the machine and
started playing. I was like, I'm so, if you can
get kids to do that as soon as you walk
through the goddamn goddamn door, Yeah, I'm so so. I
told him. I said, man, when y'all have another raise,
just let me know. And then I end up investing
into the corporate side of it. And then once I'm

(01:03:56):
invested into the corporate side. I went from that to
open it up my own location in Memphis, and then
we just opened up a second location in Memphis and
expanded it to five courts So so yeah, that's how
we kind of got into the shoot three sixty thing.
And then it like I became I started like advising
them on certain things and helping them with like certain

(01:04:16):
strategies and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
That three sixties it's be a gang of kids, and
they got one in La you know, the gyms, it'd
be crowded every time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
So yeah, it's a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
So talk to us about your venture and the capitals
group venture capital.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Yeah, so man started doing venture capital probably like ten
like ten years ago, started my own VC firm, refem Ventures,
And since then, you know, we've invested into you know,
two three hundred companies or whatever, just through funds, fund
of funds and some direct investments and stuff like that.

(01:04:52):
But just having access to a bunch of different people,
like all these people that come to games and stuff
like that courtside, going to a lot of tech events
and stuff like that, and then just like looking at
some of the people who've like had some big exits
and stuff like that. I was able to kind of
get in with them and then just kind of like

(01:05:13):
piggyback off of stuff that they was already doing. And
then I realized that, like I needed to put a
process in place, So I just ended up putting the
whole process in place where I investment analysis kind of
like do the due diligence on different days for us
and stuff like that. And all they do is sit
in the office and that's what they do. They go
through all these different deals. We get like fifty sixty

(01:05:33):
deals a month where we can look at and see
what we want to invest. So it's actually worked out
pretty well. We have some really good investments, some really
good stuff in the pipeline that's getting ready to come
up to go public or to get bought out and
stuff like that, and then we also have some stuff
that's like up and coming that's really good as well.
One of my investments is the cost drink that y'all.

(01:05:56):
That y'all y'all, it's very tasty shut out is it called? Yeah,
man bus show, Yeah, Costos little a little bit of old. Yeah,
we got the Costos little right there. You consoo ship

(01:06:18):
fire Yeah, we so we saying that's a guy named
Lance Collins. He uh yeah, he did uh core water
and body armor and all that stuff. So so he's
one of the guys who got like James Harden and
Kobe into those deals. So he's the he created this
Costos little he got an energy drink accelerator Recover one eighty.

(01:06:40):
So I've invested into all those He's like, I mean,
he got the cheat sheet on it Zen water as well,
so cheat sheet on the drinks or whatever. But do
a lot of different things from investment standpoints.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Let's talk about your program. You got a fire program
you've been doing. I've been causing head hectic around the
a you've seen for a couple of years now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Yeah show yeah, man, team that has been really good.
I mean I think this year will be a really
good year as well. I'm just happy that my kids
have transitioned into the program. Like I told my kids,
I was like, look, I'm not making a team for y'all.
Y'all got to play y'all way into this motherfucker. Man,
this ain't no. You turned his age and I'm gonna
just do a team for you know, you you transition

(01:07:26):
your way into the program. So my oldest son just
transitioned his way into our older side of the program,
and then my youngest son transitions his way into the
younger side. So so, but it's it's been really good. Man.
We've had a bunch of pros over the course of
the last thirteen years. Oh yeah, yeah. And then we've
had a bunch of guys that you know, they're making
a ship ton of money right now in IL right now.

(01:07:48):
So do you care to show who these players that
went pro? And I want? Actually? Oh yeah, og, yeah, yeah.
He's got first PLO O G. John Collins played for US,
Terrence Davis who made the league. He's played for US.
We got Jalen Hood Shafino, he's in the league right now.

(01:08:11):
Khalil Ware in Miami, he played. I was talking about
him early. He got him. Yeah. Upsides crazy, yeah, upside crazy.
Then we got some kids that's actually getting ready to
go in this year. We got a kid that's came
out of nowhere, Labaron uh Feylan from Alabama. He's gonna
probably be a probably a top twenty pick. So got

(01:08:34):
some kids that's doing really well in college as well,
like probably four to fifty kids that are doing really well.
So so it's been, it's been. It's been really good
for the program, and just to have a bunch of
kids that's that's came through the program that's done very well,
that's continuing to do very well. And then these kids
are actually able to make a lot of money. Like
we got Jaspel Johnson who's getting ready to go to Kentucky. Man,

(01:08:57):
he's probably gonna make you know, one or two billion
dollars next year before he gets there. So just those
type of things like putting them in a position to
where they can they can excel and exceed expectations. Your
homie running that right, Hey hah. So my best friend,
we've been best friend since you know, seventh I was
in the seventh he was in eighth grade. We played

(01:09:17):
on the same teams together, so we played on the
same junior high team and then went through same as
Norton Hurt. He's been running for the last you know,
thirteen years. And the crazy part was the program was
actually started because of him. He wanted he I was like, bro,
what you want to do? You know what I'm saying.
I went to I was like, you know, I'm being
being a big home I'm being being a homie. So

(01:09:39):
I'm like, what do you want to do. He was like,
I want to coach. So I'm like, okay, are you coaching?
He was like yeah, I've been coaching h with JJ
bon Bone. And I was like, all right, well, like
you got a team he was like yeah, And then
we end up having a team. And then our first
group was these kids that we had laguro Vic went
to Kansas, Christiosa who played at Florida and yeah, yeah

(01:10:07):
so and Learron Black and all those guys. So that
was that was our first group of kids that we had,
and they they really they set the culture for Team that,
Like I'm appreciative to them to this day, because team
that does not be Team that in the culture part
of it without those those guys Christiosa and Leron Black.
They set the tone from day one with Team that,

(01:10:29):
like this is the way these groups started. So so
when we got Christian them we only had we only
had like a fourteen fifteen yearld group. But then now
it's grown to where we have we go all the
way down like third grade. So I got to get
my boy over there. So we got we got from
through my gym. We have a team called reform sports

(01:10:49):
because my gym used to be named reform sports, be
for I transitioned it to shoot. So reform sports goes
from third grade all the way up to like uh fifth,
sixth grade and then past that. That's when you go
into team thad culture, right, because you got to have
a feeder program to do all this stuff. And so
like the parents got together and wanted to start the
younger groups. So it was like, all right, cool, y'all

(01:11:11):
can do the younger groups, and we just transitioned them through.
So that's how we and it's a year round process
with us. Like they get a chance to come to
the gym and trying twenty four, they can go twenty
four seven if they want to. My gym is always
gonna be open for kids who want to work. Man.
That's big bro for the community.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
You don't know how many lives you affecting, bro, just
by having that access open. Bro, I give you your
man done. It's the flowers, brocause that's big man. I
ain't gonna lie just even just to be you know,
been he played that long in the league and had
that man said to come back and still think about
the less fortunate order even the guys that won't even

(01:11:47):
pursue that career that we in. You know what I'm saying.
So I salute that bro real.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
So shout out to my boy Herd Man heard been
doing a great job running your program.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
Man, Yeah, he be on the man. He makes sure
he take care of the kids. I think that's one
of the biggest things man is just taking care of
the kids, but not being delusional with the kids either,
Like he's he's one of the realist people that they
can be around. You know, you got a lot of
people that's telling them they stay that herre not gonna
do that. And another thing about us too, like, man,
sometimes when we treat this ship like the NBA man

(01:12:17):
were putting we put motherfuckers on ten days, Like all right,
you mean you ain't you ain't produced this last time.
We got to find somebody else. Jump. I love that
because because some of these kids accountability early though. You
got to play well. You gotta play well otherwise. I mean,
you know, for us, we're a Niker program. So with
us being Nike eybl like that puts us in a

(01:12:39):
position where we got to have great teams and good
teams you know every single year, right, like like uh,
last year or the year before or whatever ship we had.
We end up having like eight kids in the top
one hundred on our team. And we had and we
actually told a kid who's probably gonna be a potential
top ten pick, don't come back. So that's to tell

(01:13:00):
you how much how much like we're not bullshing with this.
Hold them accountable though, Yeah, we make sure we do that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
Y'all do y'all do a camp. Y'all get a hundred
kids free at your school every year. That's an annual thing, right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
Yeah. So so I grew I actually grew up in
that camp. So the camp was called Cholvey Metro Basketball
and back in the day, that was the first camp
I went to. My high school coach took me to
the camp because he was working the camp. He was
like one of the directors. So they called me, and
this camp has been going for like thirty years or whatever.
So they called me and was like, hey, man, we

(01:13:36):
would like you to you know, sponsor you know, Mitchell's
camp or whatever. You have like four hundred kids come
boom boom, and then we'll pay for everything. And then
I'm like, oh, you know, I'm gonna find a time
and make sure I come or whatever. I just need
to be able to pick my day. So so they
basically like put me on a like put me on
the board and told me like all right, like you

(01:13:58):
can pick your days. We'll have your camp up or
whatever and then it'll be fully free. Will take care
of everything. And I was like, I'll get all my
sponsors to do a bunch of stuff. So so at
my camp, we give away iPads, PlayStations, like all types
of stuff, like just just because like these kids man
like like being in the hood, they don't have this
access to this type of stuff. They don't have access

(01:14:18):
to guys like us. So when I'm I'm coming back
and I'm giving back, like I'm making sure I'm giving back,
you know what I'm saying, Like, all right, you had
a great camp this week. And it's not because you
had a great camp scoring wise, because you was a
great camper. He was a great person, he was a
great leader. So all right, you win the PlayStation. Then
we play games and stuff like that, like where people
can win stuff. But it's a I try to create

(01:14:41):
this ultimate experience for all these kids because I know
I didn't have a lot of this stuff when I
was growing up, and I just want to make sure
that like they know that, like I'm here for them,
Like you have any questions you want to ask me
things like I'll sit there and talk to kids all
day and just tell them, like my journey in my store,
it's real spill.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
So it's dope, man, Dad, you God damn it, man,
God damn Hey, what was.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
Your off the mud moment in the NBA out the
mud moment in the NBA? Uh? Man? Uh? I probably
said my first year when I first got to the league,
I was the twelfth pick and I didn't I didn't
even play. They were playing the twenty first pick over me,

(01:15:26):
Jason Smith, which granted he was he was good as well,
but the pick and pop guy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah, they were playing Jason Smith over get
his as out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Yeah, they were playing him over me. And then but
like I mean, granted, like Jason was, Jason was decent,
you know what I'm saying. He had a decent career.
He could play, you know for but he, uh, he
was playing over me. So I was just like, man, like,
I was like real down about that. But but the
adversity part of it I realized, like, Okay, this is

(01:15:57):
gonna change if I just keep working. And exactly what
I did. So like and I think at that time
like I had a great vet and Reggie Evans, Reggie
big shout out great vet and Reggie Evans and uh
and he and he was like, he was like, bro,
he was like, you just gotta work. And I watched.
I watched Reggie ass work every single day.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
That's so crazy. I was just talking about Reggie the
other day. That was one we see each other.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
What we battle? Boy him like pitch boy. He don't
want he man. He the one who he told me
what to do against you. He was like, he was like,
he was like, man, he was like, hey, what z
bo dog. You gotta he said, Man, you gotta run
his ass and you gotta hit his every single time
he catched them all ball he said, Man when he
because he catched him off for you in trouble, He said,

(01:16:47):
if he's still your ass, you in trouble. I said,
I said, man, so what I'm supposed to do? He said, Man,
you run his ass And then he said, man, just
just hit him and push. Come on, man, he said, man,
you almost He said, you almost gotta fight this moll
fucking man, I said, Ship, I said, I said, you know,

(01:17:07):
I ain't got no problem fighting, so we're gonna do it.
You with this, but you know he ready to fight man, Reggie, Reggie,
Reggie got his teammate's back. You know what I'm saying.
That's why. That's why, like I wasn't afraid to fight nobody,
because I know he comes straight. You know. Me and Reggie.
I was in Seattle. We Seattle, Nigga. We walking out.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
The and he walking out here. I'm like, nigga, So
we about to score up in niggas Seattle, about to
squirrel the boy. Man, we about to score up in
the middle of the court.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
Res like, get out of here. That's my boy.

Speaker 3 (01:17:40):
Like Reggie Ate shout out to reg Man.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
I love that GUYE real. I had some real vets, man,
when I first came in. That's what really got me
through a lot of a lot of the bulls. Ship
and then like Larry Brown hollered at me too. Larry
Brown did a good job of like keeping me, keeping
me like solid because he was like in the front
office when I first went to the Sixers, So he
was like, man, he was like, you're not playing right now.
Don't worry about that. Ship. He was like, you're gonna

(01:18:08):
be playing about a couple of months. He was like,
we're try Like that's like that's how Larry talk. He
was like, and he was like, we're gonna We're gonna
turn the curve at some point and he was like,
you're gonna play And I was like all right. He
was like, just stay with it. Just keep doing what
you're doing because at that time, like you know, when
you're a young guy and you're playing in practice, the
mofics ain't let you on the court, but you're like,

(01:18:29):
I got you. That's that's what you gotta go on
for yourself. And like, man, how fuck you, I'm playing
right you get out. We're gonna stand right here together,
you know what I'm saying. So you got to establish
your positions. I used to be so I learned that early,
just establishing who I was early and just letting them off,
you know, like, you're not about to punk me. Which

(01:18:50):
NBA team can you stand young right now? Ship?

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
All of all, what y'all wait on? Good locker room clean?

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
The team that actually can use me, they you know,
they didn't re sign me back, so for sure. For show,
how was your time in Toronto? My time in Toronto?
He said he would, Oh Toronto, Oh yeah, show. I'm
gonna lie. Being in Toronto is kind of tough. Yeah,
it's it's it's tough to It's cool to visit, be

(01:19:25):
there for like four or five days, that's cool, But
to live there, yeah, it's tough. It was. It was tough.
It was tough on my family, Like you can see
my son behind the kid was ready to come home.
Almost like you had a disadvantage, like we have to

(01:19:45):
go through the airport every single time. Like you got
to go through the airport? Is the customs part of it?
Like like you mean to tell me I just paid
for the package and I got to pay you more
money to get my package from you, Like, come on, man, customer.
Then getting stuck at the border, man, I got stuck
at the border for three four hours. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
Every time I come with the team, I come in
Toronto with the team, they pulling me in t a
to the back.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
Every time. They didn't want to let us do that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:13):
They had a hundred questions for I hold on, man,
they told me don't even come bro, look mad.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
It's cold as hell while they read your name. That
motherfuckers shaking you like god, damn, man, we ain't found
my yet.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
I prom on the guy I listen Toronto, I like
kicking this nightclub.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
I couldn't see myself playing that man. Listen. Yeah, I
was there for two years. That was. That was tough.
I ain't gonna lie and I had resigned there, resigned
back there was. That was tough. Yeah, my kids, my
kids was hurting my wife. My wife was like, look,
she said that you come back here. She said, you
might come back by yourself. We're gonna stay at the crib.

(01:20:58):
We're gonna stay at the house. Damn. She told me
that about Minnesota too. Though, well, you're gonna go.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Off that Speaking of your kids though, you know obviously,
uh you got Shorty over there point gods status and
uh you know you got two boys just playing. How
does it feel watching them on the side lands now
they're having all the answers to you got the cheat
hode for them to go.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
Honestly, man, it's been it's been one of the greatest
experiences ever, like getting a chance to like like really
dial in and lock in on your kids and see
what they how like they're growing up and stuff like that,
because like when we're playing, you know, we ain't really
around to like watch the growth of it about it.
But like now, like I got like a lot of time,
Like the last three or four years, I've had a
lot of time on my hands because I wasn't playing

(01:21:43):
as much, you know, So so like now I can
take him to the gym. I'll take my youngest son
to the gym and they can come to practice with
me and do certain things like that they up age
now where they're not gonna be in away, right, and
then like they so they get a chance to see
firsthand how we working as players, and then they get
a chance to see firsthand how I work down the gym,
and then we get the train together because they cannot

(01:22:04):
move and do certain things now right and then were
and then like we break down like like he's a
very smart basketball player, and we break down a lot
of film and we break down a lot of a
lot of stuff. Already, like we'll be staying in the
kitchen and I'll be like, man, tell me every single
thing you can do off off off of pick and roll,
and then he'll walk me through every single thing if
pick and roll over the big Ronake, Snake dribbles all

(01:22:31):
like he's walking me through all that, Like, but he's
also watching the games, like he had a chance to
watch the games and continue to grow, like like he's
been the ball boy and ship like that, you know
what I'm saying. So he's watching and analyzing the game
from a certain standpoint, and it's just like like I
asked him, like who you who you, who you want
to be or who you like in the league, And
I don't want him to say guys like Paul George

(01:22:54):
and all them. And it's not no nack to Paul George.
I love Paul George. That's my guy. But at the
end of the day, he is already in what he's
already gonna do. His game ain't change, right, and he's
very talented, So I would rather him say guys younger
guys like Brandon Miller's and stuff like that. So like, hey,
like you can evolve with Brandon Miller as you watch

(01:23:16):
his game continue to grow. His game continues to grow.
As Brandon Miller add stuff to his game. T J
add stuff to his game because he watching Brandon Miller
continue to at some point, Brandon gonna be an all start.
He got it in them, you know what I'm saying.
So so like so like that's just one example, you know,
and it's a lot of guys around the league that's young,

(01:23:37):
up and coming stars that he can watch and continue
to give up. Like he was telling me, like off Toronto,
who he like Off Toronto. He was like, I like Scotty,
And I was like, I said, Ship, you could be Scotty.
I said, you you already bigger than most point guards.
You six three, Ship you you you're probably gonna probably
be in the six eight above my dad six eleven.

(01:24:00):
Like I'm sick safe, you know what I'm saying. So
he got genetics. You know what I'm saying. My youngest
son got genetics too. So it's just like I'm telling him, like,
you can be that. You know what I'm saying. You're
like Scotty continues to grow his game. He's still young
enough to where he's going to continue to grow his
game probably, Yeah, I say you can. You can grow
yours too. So so like I'm telling him to watch

(01:24:21):
the younger guys because some of these older guys are
already stuck in their games like they already doing what
they doing, you know what I'm saying, and their game
ain't changing. So you want to be able to evolve
your game on the course time because one thing about
the league, the league, the league evolves, right, it changes
into a different phases and it goes into different different
different ebbs and flows. So like at one point you

(01:24:43):
need the two bigs to win a championship, right, you
don't need that anymore, you know what I'm saying. So
that's that's my example of like the game is continuously
evolving and changing as we continue to go. So that's
how I want him to be. I want him to
get with players and look at players that's going to
be able to evolve and change their game over the
course of time and adjust with the league.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
And with that it takes a lot of you know,
watching basketball, seeing actions, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
So the fact that you watch film with him and
break down like that, that's impressive.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
I like that. Yeah, we do. We do a lot
of that, like because like I don't like even his film,
Like we'll watch certain things of what he do. Like
I watched certain clips because my wife is she she's
always like having all the clips, so we'll watch certain clips,
but for the most part, I really don't like, really
like watching the clips with him because I'm just letting
him play basketball. But I like watching players who's like

(01:25:38):
getting better in the league because because it's certain things
that they gonna they they're doing that he don't know.
So if I'm able to teach him that and get
that and add that part as a part of his game,
then it's gonna it's gonna make his game grow.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
Experience is always the best teacher, man, So you look,
he got it right there?

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Is she right there? So yeah, we're trying to figure out.
We're trying to figure this thing out now. I mean
he's getting ready to go into the ninth grade next year,
so we're trying to figure it out, like, Okay, do
we start the prep school process or do we regular
high school? We continue to keep them home school, you
know what I'm saying, just work on developing. They got
a team that plays competitively and they play like forty games.

(01:26:22):
Damn this is new. Yeah, they feel like forty games.
So so like for like us, like we're trying to
figure that process out, Like like they like a certain school,
him and his mom. I like a certain way, but
Nike is also trying to give me to do certain
certain things, probably with the eybl scholastic stuff. So I

(01:26:42):
don't know right now. So we're just trying to figure out.
And then like you got dynamic preparre with Jamaine, you know,
So it's a lot of different things that can that
can shake out. We got a little time, like right now,
he's trying to focus on Jamie eyb l Right now,
jo got a good, good thing going on over there too. Yeah,
I might I might have your things going on too.

(01:27:03):
I might have have a little situation going on to
what's your advice.

Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
To the up and coming generation on how that longevity.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
In the league. Man just continues to like taking care
of your body and making sure, like man, you're paying
attention to what's going on with the league. Like a
lot of people just just hoop and think they're just
gonna be able to continue to do the same thing
over and over. But if the game changes and evolves,
like you have to change your game and involved with
the league. And then another thing is like you got

(01:27:32):
to be able to like make sure like like you're
paying attention to like the players that's coming in like
behind you because the league is getting younger and younger
and younger. That's the biggest thing with the league getting younger,
Like like they come to take jobs, so you got
to figure out how to keep your job now, you
know what I'm saying. So that was a lot. Yeah,

(01:27:54):
like every single year, like they I mean, they used
to tell us every single year, it's six new motherfuckers
coming in. But now it's more than that. You know
what I'm saying. It is. I ain't gonna lie many
trade dead lane.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
I used to play bro like right around like you know,
the last week of trade dead line. I used to
keep I used to come to practice. I used to
have my phone in my tights because I ain't known
know what the gym say. You know what ship was
always look at that motherfucker when I go get some
Gator rad up. They ain't talking about nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
I'm cool. I see all after the break man, most
of my trades came in like the summer though, Yeah,
in the summer. In the summer, so I think I
got traded. Well, I got traded twice during the season,
so yeah, so boy, I got traded foth times.

Speaker 3 (01:28:47):
It's about the same with me too, So.

Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
It was two and two. But it's easier when it's
the summer, like you can see it coming, you get
that phone call a little bit so on. You know
what I'm saying. It's hard. It's hard to doing the season.
I heard some stories man being traded, I being traded.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
Lay up line, Yeah, traded right, lay up line. But
I've seen it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
Yeah all that. We're gonna pack that up for you come.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
That's the business though, man, and it's and it's good man,
Like I said, you get to you get to prep
your son for that early since that's the journey.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
Yeah. No, we we've been man like. I showed him
the uh projected like salary cap for like his year's drift.
This motherfucker said, he said, how much? Is that? What
he said? Man, I almost threw up in my mouth.
I'm about to go downstairs and work up right now,
like he said, about to go downstairs. I came down

(01:29:51):
here possible, I said, trying to get to it. I said,
you trying to if you really want this, because I'm
gonna be I'm a firm believe, like I tell them
straight up, like, look like I know you got all
these friends and shit like and they want to hang out,
they want to do certain things. You want to do
certain things. But if you really talking about taking this
shit serious, it starts now, Like you got to start
taking this shit serious now, I say, because it's motherfuckers

(01:30:14):
that's training and they doing all this shit right now,
so you don't want to be behind and if you yeah, so,
so you gotta start doing it. And like he taking
shit seriously, like he set up his own workouts, Like
I'm teaching them that type of responsibility. Him and my
youngest son. They set up their own workouts with the trainers.
So when the train so so like they'll get up,
they get up at eight o'clock in the morning, they

(01:30:35):
come down here, they lift, then one goes on the
quart at nine, then one goes on the quarter at ten. Yep.
So so they set up their own stuff, like I
got try. I'm trying to have them like if you
really want this, me and your mom, we shouldn't have
to say, hey, it's time to go trying, it's time
to go workouts. No, you set your own ship up,
it's right. So that's what they So that's what they do.

(01:30:56):
They got phones, they text, we got a uh we
got a group text with with Shane. It's called Daily
Daily Grind schedule and I put the I put the
grind schedule in there, and then they set up the
times on where they want to go.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
Real deal, man, that was a good episode. But I
ain't gonna lie though that great hospitality.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
Man. I appreciate you and this nice joint on y'all
welcome anytime. Y'all, y'all are family. Brother, appreciate having in
your home.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Man out the mud man Dad, you know Meph's finest.
We here man we signing out. Man love you did