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November 17, 2025 13 mins

Music artist and fashion designer J French joins The Fumble to explain why tennis is the most mentally and physically demanding sport of them all. Describing tennis as the “violin of sports,” J French breaks down how the discipline, body control, and solo mental challenge required to master the game sets it apart from sports like basketball or football. He also discusses his new clothing line, The Tennis Club Collection, and his passion for making tennis more accessible and cool in underserved communities. Plus, he shares thoughts on his favorite players—including Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, and Dustin Brown—and compares SGA vs. Russell Westbrook in a surprising NBA take.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
They need a cool salesman, they need they need a J.
French to talk about tennis instead of just you know,
I'm just being real, like like you need representation for
the sport to be accepted everywhere. I think if everybody
played tennis, people would get along better, they would understand
challenge differently.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's just different.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
We have a very special guest on the show with
us today. He is a music artist. You've heard his
songs on the NBA YouTube series Past the Rock. He's
also now a fashion designer, unveiling his new clothing line,
the Tennis Club Collection, honoring his first love, the game
of tennis. Please welcome J. French to the Fumble. Thank
you so much for coming.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
How you guys doing, man, It's nice to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
But Pete, I got to give you your flowers.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Man.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
So I had the chance to listen to a couple
of records man that I don't believe in bad days. Bro,
that hit me, That hit me in my soul, man,
like that is that's special's thank you, thank you, thank
you man. I don't I mean I know where you
draw from. Where I can assume where you draw from.
But right now, in this climate, making that kind of music.

(01:09):
It's kind of counterculture. Uh, why are you still why
are you still tracking that way as opposed to assimilating
to what the current sound is counterculture?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's actually with the culture, that's what the people actually want.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Like I'm with the trend.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Anything that's ignorant or talking about things that put people
in mental distress is counterculture because people don't really want that.
You listen to everybody talk on the internet all day
about everybody thinks they're gurus. Now, like this is the talk,
This is what is actually with the trend. Is what
I'm doing. Everybody else is off.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
I have this conversation all the time. And we'll talk
about sports in a second. But I say this about
while a who just dropped a new album. I think
Wile makes the music that people think Drake makes. Right,
I will stand and down that hill, you know what,
down the hill, you know what.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Wilet makes amazing music. He's an incredible artist. I love
while so much. They've been on songs together. They make
the same like like Drake is kind of like like
everyone's kind of looking for him right now something or
something like him right now, and he actually exists and
they just don't want to like that guy, like that

(02:21):
guy is really good and he's the guy you want
you you actually want to be making music right now,
and they just kicked him out of music and everybody's
kind of the top forty no rap artists like that
would not happen if Drake was if they didn't have
the last.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
I mean a man, Drake one of the greatest man.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
He hasn't grown up, he hasn't grown up, arrested development.
Let's talk about sports, because because this ain't the music podcast,
off line business.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
That they won't let me do it, won't let me
do it. So I was trying.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Let's talk about which is your first love? I know
Rodney has is going to ask you tons of questions
because he loves tennis too. I'm more of a pickaball myself.
But what wasn't about the game of tennis that you
fell in love with at such a young age?

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I was four years old when I got into tennis.
My mother put me in tennis at four, and I
played all the way up until like close to high school,
and then quit for a while and then got back
on it, of course, but tennis was just it was
It's the hardest sport to play. It's like the violin
of sports. So it's like you have to work a

(03:37):
long time just to know how to use that racket,
just to know how to hold that thing properly. Every
time you hit that ball. It's it's it's And I
played violin too, that's the irony. So when I'm playing violin,
I have to It takes a while to learn how
to contort your body to do this right. And tennis
is one of those sports that takes a while to
learn how to contort your body to be able to

(03:59):
to be able to get these off, to be able
to have a serve that that that is fast, to
be able to have a backhand.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
You have to learn these things one at a time.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's not like basketball, you know, where you just can
just pick it up and you you and your friends
can play. It's not like that. That's why you play pickleball,
because you know, tennis is a beast. I like pickleball,
and no disrespect to it. It's just I'm just saying
it's a different it's a more it's a different kind

(04:29):
of commitment that that it takes to play it. And
it's and and if you look it up it's the
it's the it's the sport, the number one sport that
makes you live the longest while playing it right, so
it also enhances life. So my whole idea for tennis,
like the Umbrella Tennis Club, is like and I'm not

(04:51):
trying to do a promote or a plug and I'm
just saying, like, my whole idea for Umbrolla's Tennis Club
is just like the Umbrella Live Long Club. You know,
that's kind of what it is. More than more than
it is just about tennis. It's just about health, you know.
And that's why I promoted.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
So you know, see I get that because I played
the violin, so I can understand. Now here we go, Okay,
I got you.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
That was a great valoge I ain't on front. That
was a fire.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
Yeah, And everything you said about tennis, I feel like
it's spot on. I'm gonna they'll tell you I played
tennis four or five times a week. I'm addicted. I
travel around the world taking tennis lessons. It's just something
that I've built into the inner workings of my life
because it'll always by the luxury of something that I've
never experienced before, and that's a challenge that is completely

(05:41):
and solely that completely.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
And solely falls on my shoulders. Right.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
It's it's a lonely sport. It's one that has so
many mental hurdles. It's it's an all encompassing in sport.
Bro I've never I never played anything like that. Do
you think that those who grew up playing sports, but
tennis in particular, have a mental advantage over those who
did not.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Uh, definitely.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
It's the challenge that you have to go through early.
You have to have thick skin to even start to
even continue. The skin is thicker. It's just like there
is no off season with tennis. You know, you're playing
through winter, fall, spring, summer, no matter where you are, Like,
it's different for tennis.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Tennis players don't get enough credit for how amazing they are.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Seriously, did you grow up playing any other sports?

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Yeah? I grew up playing football.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Basketball started football was the fastest on my squad. It
was a tailback and a cornerback and a free safety
in football my whole life, almost but I played tennis
and it just wasn't popular in the hood where I
was at, so I didn't I was trying to not
take it as serious. But they were pushing me, and

(06:52):
you can't help but take it serious. So I was
trying to take football more serious and basketball more serious.
But tennis just always was my favorite on the lower
and I just didn't admit it because the shorts we
had to wear to play it, and because you know,
when I was growing up in the hood, so it's different.
You know, you gotta kind of hide that back in

(07:14):
the nineties, you know, when you're a kid, and it's
just it was just different, man. But after I grew up,
I realized how cool it was. And I'm just like,
they need a cool salesman, they need they need a
j French to talk about tennis instead of just you know,
I'm just being real, like, like you need representation for
the sport to be accepted everywhere. I think if everybody

(07:38):
played tennis, people would get along better, they would understand
challenge differently.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
It's just different.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
I would love to see these young brothers, Yeah, I
would love to see these young brothers in the hood
playing tennis using that actual tennis court in Compton instead
of you know, like instead of just using the basketball court.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, who is your favorite tennis star to watch right now?

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Dustin Brown, and I'm mad because he's not playing anymore.
He retired, but I think he'll be back. And and
my second is gelmn Fee gel Monfee is so underrated.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
That guy is.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
He's incredible because he's so unorthodox and he's he plays
like he knows he can win if he wants to.
And I love people that play like that. He's like
Alan Iverson out there. You know he's he's Dustin Brown
is the most skillful tennis player of all time, though
for sure he's beat Federal.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Oh well, what do you mean? What do you mean
that's a hot tea? What do you mean?

Speaker 4 (08:39):
I'm telling you I think he's the most skillful player
of all time.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I think he is.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
What about on the women's side, The women's side is
just it's it's hard right now because I don't know
because Serena's coming back. I'm gonna be real, Like Naomi Osaka,
I think she could have been she could have had
that spot, but she went through some mental issues. I'm
being real. She was my favorite after.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Serena and Venus.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's fair, but my favorites are always gonna be Serena period.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
When Naomi Servi is on, she's still she's still top tier.
She just has those mental lapses sometimes where her serve
be just be a little off. But last year she
closed the year out really strong. I felt like, I
feel like next year she's gonna have a resurging year.
I'm looking forward to see what Taylor Townsend does in
twenty twenty six as well. Obviously, Coco Golf, I'm tired
of seeing Arena Sablenka just dominate.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
The women's fields.

Speaker 5 (09:31):
She's been kicking ass, but because she's so much bigger
and stronger, but her game, she's not as talented to
me as they are, she just overpowers them a lot.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So that's what it is.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
She plays by the book.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
She plays by the book really heavy, and I think
someone like Naomi Osaka doesn't play she has her own game.
And then Cocoke Goff is still developing her own game.
I'm watching her and real we watching her in real time.
We get to watch someone develop their own game, and
she's just getting better and better and better and better.
I'm loving Cocoke go Off too, I'm really loving her.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
She's still so young, You're right, I think, yeah, sometimes
we forget that she's so young.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
She's like twenty one years old, so she.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
Has a long road ahead of her for sure. Now,
real quick, you grew up in Oklahoma City? My correct
about that?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes, yes, sir? All right?

Speaker 5 (10:18):
So obviously the Thunder Winter Championship last year, right, and
this team with SGA feels it feels good this year
off to a great start as well. But who do
you think more defines the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise. Is
it this version of the team or is it the
KD and RUSS Oklahoma City definitely KD RUSS.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
No disrespect to.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
SGA, but like that franchise wouldn't have worked without them,
without that dynamic. At one point, these guys had a
MVP sitting on the bench. Coming off the bench, they
had hardened as a six man. At one point, they
were so deep they had to put talent on the bench.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
It was like, that's that's what defines, That's what makes
Oklahoma City Thunder. But Oklahoma City doesn't have much there
to root for, uh in that world, so of course
they're rooting for whatever. And uh, I think SGA. I
don't think he had anybody to play. I'm just being real.
You put the KD team up against this team, it

(11:22):
wouldn't even be a competition.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
KD team would smash them. Do you think that SGA
is better than Russell Westbrook?

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Hell no, not even. We're talking about the guy with
the record of triple doubles. We talk about the guy
that holds the record for triple doubles. We're talking about
one on one game, him versus him. West Book is
gonna murder him.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
He wouldn't murder It's not even a competition. He's way faster.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
I'm just being Real's way, he's faster, he's more agile,
he's more athletic altogether all the way around.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
He don't think he's more agile. I think SGA is
more agile.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Nah, Westbrook had better, he had better hops. He's shorter,
he could jump higher, he was stronger, more powerful, more faster.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
I'm sorry. And his and his three was wet too,
and he was you know, he had his nights.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
But I'm just being real. I could shoot the three.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
West could shoot. He wasn't KD with it, but he
could shoot.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
Well.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Are you okay? So are you an OKAC fan? Now?

Speaker 4 (12:27):
No, okay, I didn't think you were.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Who okay?

Speaker 2 (12:31):
So who are you rooting?

Speaker 1 (12:31):
For now, I'm not rooting for anybody. Oh basketball to
me is trash now. I don't even really watch it
that much anymore.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh yeah, I would argue with you hours.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
I love Oklahoma City, though, I'm glad they won. Hold
on before let me go on record saying this stuff.
I love Oklahoma City, I'm glad they won.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
I just don't care for the sport right now because
it's not that competitive like it used to be.

Speaker 5 (13:01):
It just isn't got you, so, Maria, that's a good point.
That's a great way to close this thing on out. Mario,
Yeah much.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
I love you guys.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Man, I'm right in here.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Man.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Hey, this is never gonna stop. Hey, this is never
gonna stop. I'm never gonna stop being like this. Man,
I don't care what goes on.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
H
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