"Bout that life " AAU Basketball and Life talk Episode 57 From Player to Coach: The Evolution of Marcellus Howard Part 2

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
From the YBA Phoenix Fitness 24-7 basketball facility in Rockland,
California, it's About That Life Podcast with your host, Coach C. Collins and Coach MJ.
Music.
Hey, welcome to About That Life Podcast. I'm Coach C. Collins.
Coach MJ could not be here for the episode today, but that's because that man's

(00:24):
out there busy working. working, but I wanted to appreciate you guys checking
us out, taking the time to listen.
Again, hit that HBO special, Help A Brother Out.
Before we get to our guests, let me knock our sponsors out real quick. Dr.
Dish is the best shooting machine on the market. I suggest you all check them
out when you get a chance.
They have the all-star, the rebel, the facility model. Go ahead and tell them

(00:46):
about that live podcast sent you, and they will hook you up with a discount.
Also, if you're looking for good AAU tournaments, rec leagues,
basketball camps, check out hardwood palace which is right next
door and also a partner of mine if you
are looking for a consistent aau run consistent rec run
if your kid is a beginner and just learning the game or if
they're advanced or just trying to sharpen their skills check out hardwood palace

(01:09):
talk to steve or grant and they'll hook you up and they'll shoot you a discount
as well with all that being said i want to get to my guests i've had a chance
to watch this young man mature in his field to
watch him from being a player to one of the pioneers of basketball content creation
to now basically he is his own enterprise and he's finding a lot of success in it.

(01:35):
Kids that I coach from all my grades, eighth grade, seventh grade,
sixth grade, they know this young man.
They know him as not only a basketball personality, but someone that they can
relate to and someone that they see as someone who's in the community,
which I think is huge because sometimes,
just be real, when somebody gets a little bit of celebrity status,

(01:57):
they kind of disconnect from the community.
So this man has definitely not done that.
Without further ado, let me reintroduce Marcellus Howard.
Appreciate you, my dog. I'm proud of you. Sir, we back.
We back. Zach. Well, and I'm glad he's here.
If you guys saw the episode before, we did do a video version,

(02:18):
but unfortunately, tape got lost.
So this is the cool part. Now we can actually do a video of it because I have
the audio for those who listen and who've been following the show.
But now we have a video for YouTube and whatnot.
So thanks, Marcellus, for making it out here. Anytime, man. Pleasure's mine.
Let's just want to do a quick rundown again. Check out the first episode because

(02:40):
I'm not going to give you guys this guy's whole bio, but he can do a quick rundown
of, you know, who you are in the basketball content world, in the basketball
world, those type of things.
If you don't mind for the for the new listeners who might be checking this out.
Yeah, man. Marcellus Howard, Sacramento, California. Been doing content since I was 15.
2011, I want to say I started. Now I'm officially a junior college coach.

(03:04):
I'm an old junior college. I used to play at for two years, and I'm assistant coach there.
I do basketball reactions, basketball challenges in the backyard.
That's what I'm known for primarily.
I have my own basketball talk show now called Sell on Air.
Nice. I'm on podcasts and one third of the ABC crew for the next chapter.

(03:24):
We do pre and post game shows for their seasons throughout the year.
I'm going to do out this throughout the longevity of the season,
however long, maybe two or three months. Right.
So you're like the basketball content renaissance, man. Absolutely. Yeah.
So let's, let's delve into it. This is always the first question I typically ask.
And obviously now that you're kind of removed from this, you know,

(03:45):
kind of being again, an outsider looking in.
And what, and, and the, you know, for those who listen to the show or check
us out, you know, the main premise is always talking about a you basketball,
the grassroots level, really trying to get parents, tips, kids,
tips, trying to sit you guys down with other people that are heavy in the basketball
world and field, the basketball community, as I like to say.

(04:06):
If from an outsider's point of view, what do you think of AAU basketball kind
of where it sits today and how it's functioning?
And, you know, what are your thoughts on it? Good or bad or both? You know what I mean?
I think it's amazing. Like what Drifty J, Ken Wilder, what people like that
have been doing for the community of basketball has been huge because,
yeah, they get five stars, four stars of playing on their team,

(04:28):
but they're bringing the community together every time they show out.
It's a great event for the kids. kids get to watch their favorite creators be
involved in a community that way while watching some high-level basketball.
And for the kids, they get to
play against those teams. It's a good opportunity and exposure for them.
It's a different type of exposure that we never had growing up.
We only seen it on like the Peach Jam level.
Right, right. The ESPN, if you made it there. Other than that,

(04:49):
it was if you had a mixtape, you get the exposure.
Or if, you know, like the live streams weren't really bringing a lot of views in. Right.
So now you have actual content creators giving these players platforms to grow
their brand with the NIL and everything like that. Yeah. So it's a beautiful thing.
And then glad you mentioned that because that was kind of my second question.
So with NIL and where it sits today, and obviously, like, yeah,
I just saw something recent.

(05:11):
Again, I should fact check it if it's true. But, you know, Coleman Hawkins from
our area, from Sacramento area, you know, originally went to Antelope High School.
And then obviously he was at Prolific Prep. And then now he's at Illinois.
Shout out to that kid. I've been trying to make some calls to get him on the show.
So, Coleman, if you're listening, if you ever check this out,
please come to the show. But I heard, I saw a report that he got like a million or two million.

(05:35):
Two million at K-State. That's crazy.
Yep. So I'm just, what do you think now kind of seeing the progression of NIL for these young men?
Like, what are your thoughts on it as far as good, bad evolution of it? What do you think?
I think it's more good than bad because for years, decades, these universities

(05:56):
were kind of leeching on players, making money off their jersey sales making
money off their you know ticket sales shipping off like.
Selling the games to certain brands to sponsor it and
kids getting only stipends just to pay for groceries and maybe some rent and
the other table if you got paid you know i'm saying that's unspoke of but yeah
i think it's huge i think it's beautiful thing because now we kind of have the

(06:17):
power yeah and the power is back into the kids hands which i like it because
these universities First, he's made so much money off kids.
I feel like the kids should have been making money.
So now it's come to fruition tenfold. And I'm all here for it.
I'm 100% for the NIL because I didn't get to participate in it.
I'm not a sore loser about it. I'm actually happy that it happened.

(06:38):
Right. Because if it didn't happen, I'd be upset. Like I said,
even before the show, even, but not joking, but not joking, you are kind of
one of the pioneers that helped put some of these things in place.
Because it was, you know, I mean, I guess you could, if you really want to go
all the way to the origin, you could say someone like the Michael Jordans,
the Bo Jacksons, they showed that, you know, athletes...

(07:00):
Just to be quite honest, young or O.J. Simpson, you know, all those guys,
just young black men could be very marketable.
And then you guys were the next step showing that it can be done through social
media and those platforms.
And so, yeah, I just kind of feel like for someone like you,
you look back at it now and you're like, man, I really was able to spark some

(07:20):
change in this world and in a good way. You know what I'm saying?
I'm a small, very, very, very, very, very small percentage of it.
You know, I'm like two bone horn. I'm just happy that the kid's getting paid
now. Good. What they deserve.
Do you think, so that circles back to the transfer portal, right?
Because obviously that's the next big thing too.
Do you think kids, so like, let's just give you an example.

(07:42):
Like, let's say kid wants to transfer because he might get, he or she might
get a more lucrative NIL deal than necessarily playing time or,
you know, things like that.
That I know, again, you can only speak from afar because you're not in that
position, but I can say my standpoint on it, I'm still a basketball purist.

(08:03):
I still say you go where you can play more so than worrying about the money,
but I totally understand if you need money, you need money. That's just reality.
I'm a kid from West Oakland, California, grew up in poverty.
I get it. You know what I'm saying? So if it were you, what do you think you
would lean more towards?
Would you lean more towards what's going to get you paid? or are you going to
lean more towards the...

(08:25):
Play time the the system the college the
the culture or is it kind of in the middle
for you here's where i stand i feel as if people will say
yeah i want to compete for you know and win games i
think they're full of it man i think if you have opportunity to make life-changing money
for your family that's never had money like that and you get to go
play somewhere while maximizing your physical abilities

(08:46):
i think 100 you should do that because
my thing is this if i go take a deal let's say
is worth 100 to 250 000 and i go play
for a team right i'm still not guaranteed to make it to the nba so i'm trying
to maximize as much as possible within that four or five years that i got to
play me i think that's more important than winning games and then not making
it to the nba so not to go find a corporate job or play overseas for pennies

(09:09):
on a dime so it's like i think you should maximize as much as possible while
still pursuing your dream because you can do that and i think that's the best
way to go about it because if i can make 250 000 to 300
,000 were playing for a team for a year or go to a winning team that's possibly
going to win a national championship.
I probably took a 300,000 because I want to be able to set my family up just
in case I don't end up making it deep in this basketball thing.

(09:29):
And then I can use that money to then be literally not a not a crutch,
but it will really give me a head start on my business that I want to start.
So that's what I would do personally.
OK. And I mean, the reality of it, too, what I explain to a lot of kids,
the purpose of trying to get a higher education is so you are,
are hopefully a productive member of society, making good money,

(09:51):
taking care of your family, right?
You know, that's the American dream, right? That's what we all want.
But how hopefully I have, you know, wife, kids, white picket fence,
whatever version that is for somebody, right?
That's ultimately a dream. And we live in a capitalist society, right?
That's just the reality of it. You know, it's those who can keep pushing forward
and have innovative ideas that usually end up making it ahead.

(10:14):
So I'm in total agreement with that.
There, there was this, there's this docu special that just came out talking about AAU basketball.
So overall AAU basketball in itself is like a, or youth sports in America is
like a $40 billion industry.
You know what I mean? Like it just is like all the youth sports,

(10:35):
you know, it's, it's a $40 billion industry.
Right. And, and there's those who have for sure capitalized on that.
Like you got Compton Magics and all those guys doing
their thing and the Oakland Soldiers and all that stuff right
right but then of course you got what I
would say my AU program is kind of a mid-tier you know we're
in that mid-tier not all the way top but not the bottom then you got the ones

(10:57):
that are up and coming and trying to make their way do you from your perspective
do you see that as inherently good or bad or do you just think it's just a part
of just this this country we live in and the world we live in.
In terms of what, like making money on kids?
Yeah, well, just making money in general. I mean, there's always gonna be some
level of capitalism in everything.

(11:18):
Now, I don't think, again, I think coaches deserve to be paid,
period. That's just my standpoint.
You know, sometimes I think parents, and I've said this in numerous episodes,
sometimes I think parents take advantage of the emotions of us as people.
Because, you know, if I got a sixth grade kid, a 12-year-old I really like and
I really believe in this kid, I'll try to cut the parents some slack on,

(11:40):
you know, some of the fees and stuff.
But I think there's a lot of parents that try to push that envelope too far. You know what I mean?
Me and Marcus Kirkland, you know, we were talking about that with like,
you go pick a kid up for training and then the kid says he's hungry,
you know, then you go feed him.
And then the parents are like, oh, I ain't got it right now. You know, I ain't got it.
And you're like, wait a minute. I just, I saw, pick your kid up,

(12:01):
spend the gas, bought them some food and train them and brought them back to you.
And you're telling me you don't have the money to even pay for my service. Yeah.
Because, so that's where That's where I'm saying, that's where I think they take too far advantage.
But then there's those coaches and directors and trainers who I think take advantage
as well, where they're like, I'm gonna charge fourth grade little Timmy.

(12:21):
A hundred and fifty dollars an hour to train with me and
it's like what's what are you working on with that fourth grader that's 150
an hour you know what i'm saying like but i'm an exclusive trainer it's like
i get that i get that i'm not knocking your hustle but i don't think you got
to charge 150 for a nine-year-old you know i mean so that that's what i mean like do you think,

(12:42):
there's something wrong with money being made in sports outside of professional
leagues or is there Is there a lot of, do you, from your observation,
do you think there's a lot of corruption?
Do you think there's a lot more good than bad? I'm just curious,
again, because you're kind of on the outskirts looking at now. Yeah.
I have a different standpoint on that. Mine kind of goes far left field.

(13:03):
Okay. So what I'm about to say, just bear with me. Okay. No problem.
That's what I'm about to hear for. I do think there is a sense of corruption,
especially within youth sports and things like that, between getting money and
just favoritism and all these brand deals coming in and stuff like that.
Like, where's the money actually going? How's it being delegated?
How you're treating these kids.
But I go back to this. I always have this.

(13:23):
This is what I, I stand on this faithfully.
The service business is huge, right? And to me personally, I feel like if you're
in the service business, you should be ripping the benefits genuinely.
Not, not, not like trying to be take, take, take, take, take,
take, take as possible, but also serving. And I'm saying then,
you know, God provides and blesses you, whatever the case may be,

(13:45):
whatever religious standpoint. Yeah, no,
I think, for me, it goes further. I believe teachers are the culprit,
number one part of the corruption.
They get paid the least amount of money to raise and watch these kids.
And then after school, then they come into these basketball programs.
So it kind of filters into that.
Yeah. So it's like these basketball programs getting paid rightfully so as they

(14:07):
should, but I still feel like there should be a way to figure out how to get
teachers paid even more on that same level because they have just enough or
just as much responsibility as you have in this gym.
But they're in the classroom with them in the trenches every day as well.
So that's, that's where it's far left field, but it kind of makes sense to me.
So I think it's correct on both sides.
I like your standpoint and mainly it hits home for me because my mother was
a teacher. Yeah. She was a teacher in Oakland public school district for 29 years.

(14:31):
So, you know, she's, yeah, especially in Oakland of all places.
She started out at Oakland tech, then she was at McClymonds.
And so my mom started out as a math teacher and then eventually became a dean,
vice principal, principal, AD, then back to a middle school teacher.
So, and she retired as a middle school, she living life.
But I know the struggle, you know, I saw my mom's struggle and I do agree with

(14:56):
you on that. I like that a lot.
I mean, I guess, and teachers, unfortunately, teachers have always kind of got
the short end of the stick when it comes to necessarily getting financially stable.
And, and the reality is in where we living at today,
I mean, the average earning wage right
now is 50k right like somewhere between 40

(15:17):
and 50k yeah and let's be real we know we
in california 50k it just ain't cutting it man like right you know and and you
know i um i saw this meme they said uh they said you need two jobs in california
and a and a and a side hustle or be a criminal,

(15:39):
you know, so you got to work two jobs and be a criminal to survive in California.
And I was like, yeah, you might be right.
But no, I mean, it is, it is pretty interesting.
Well, switching gears. I want to talk to you about the WMU.
Um, and obviously the popularity of that, what, what is your overall take and thoughts on that?

(16:04):
WNBA, man, it's tough because they put a good product out there.
I don't think they market it well. Okay.
I think with the Kevin Clark, like the whole thing with that,
right. They actually did a good job with her.
So I'm saying if they did that same thing with a lot of these other players,
granted, Caitlin Clark puts butts in seats.
Simple as that. Yeah, it is this, this whole rookie class between the,

(16:24):
the Brinks, the Reese, Angel Angel Reese, Kalen Clark, like all this,
like this rookie class is freaking phenomenal.
It's actually bringing a lot of love back to the game of WNBA basketball that
people, I grew up watching the Monarchs win.
Yeah. I was a practice player for the Monarchs. I think we talked about that
last hour, but you know, wow.
I went, I played against Cheryl swoops. She was crazy.
I was, but I love the direction they're going.

(16:47):
I just think they have to figure out a better way to market the players more
because all we're seeing is a lot of Kalen Clark, which I love it.
I love it because they're bringing another ride to the game.
But i think also too you got to figure out a way to intertwine the
two and you know because like they they gave caitlin clark
such a rough schedule to start yeah which i don't think is fair right
right they're like putting up against all the juggernauts right away

(17:09):
and i'm like dang you can't even let her you know breathe a little bit and she's
a rookie like yeah at the end of the day there is a learning curve i do agree
with that when tarassi during when she's at that take or whatever like there
is a learning curve i don't care how good you are you know you everyone Everyone
can have the Magic Johnson story where you, you know, you come in as a rookie and win an NBA title.
That's just that's just not that's not common, especially nowadays. Right.

(17:33):
Well, then where where do you think the WNBA might be progressing now?
You know, if everything stays on the road, it is now. I see progressing to be.
I don't know. It's the part of marketing that I want to focus on is the time
of the season. It's during summer.
Which is like, it's a very odd time where people are usually free,

(17:53):
but not a lot of people know what time the games are.
NBA does a very good job at promoting games, national televised games, things of that nature.
I think they have to figure out a way to not put the season the same time as the NBA.
But I don't know, because during the summer, I tend to forget like,
oh, shoot, so-and-so is playing right now. I forget. I want to watch it, but I forget.
Well, because, too, people take trips. Right. You know, people are spending

(18:15):
time with their families. And, you know, sporting events are usually family events, right?
Right. But summertime is when people are ready to take vacations.
So you're right. That is an interesting argument because, yeah.
But I guess then what time is he? Because you couldn't put in winter because it's football.
That's what I'm saying. So it's, how can I say this? At the right time,
it's just not at the right time. Right, I know, right?

(18:37):
That's the time that makes the most sense. And it's cool because,
I mean, obviously the Bay Area, they're going to have the Valkyries.
Okay. Right? They're just making a new WNBA team there.
Fire. I mean, I think I hope what we'll see.
Hopefully there'll be some more WNBA teams progressively in the future.
Obviously, hopefully Sacramento gets one again. You know what I mean?

(18:58):
Which would be good to have.
But yeah, it is. It is a tough.
I agree with your argument is it is tough there with the timing of it because,
yeah, there's just a time in which people are available, but they're not available.
Right literally that's how it is so i
think yeah but what the direction they're going i think it's phenomenal i

(19:19):
think they're in the right direction caitlin clark has definitely helped a
lot yeah she deserves a lot of the credit not not the
she's been getting a lot of backlash from the vets and
all that which i mean like it's cool because you want to compete but at the same time
like i would be thankful like you know she's bringing more eyes to the
game of basketball which i love to play and it's funny because i've even
seen um you know just on my ig just social media browsing and if like I've have

(19:42):
friends of mine who used to play ball or whatever you know around my age and
even they've spoken out on their their social media platforms just saying like
we're not jealous of Caitlin Clark and but and it's like.
I judge actions, obviously more than words. And I'm like, you all might say
you don't have an issue with it, but when you're out on that court,
sometimes it looks like y'all are trying to really seriously hurt her.

(20:06):
And you could say, oh, well, it's just a basketball player. It's just coming
from basketball. I'm like, eh, okay.
I mean, you know, I can't, I can't tell somebody's intentions,
but when I see something recurrently happen over and over and over and over
again, I'm just kind of like, eh, I don't know. Oh, it makes it questionable. Right.
And I don't understand.
And I don't want I'm going to want to get into this territory, a man woman thing.

(20:31):
But, you know, I don't know. I don't know if it's because, you know,
some women resent they've been in the league longer and they haven't gotten
the popularity she's got.
Maybe there's some resentment because she is getting deals that they're not getting access to.
But I don't know, to me, they just just write, you know, just ride the wave.

(20:52):
Like, that's just that's my simple answer to it. Just ride the wave.
Like I was just the final thing on this is what on the USA team.
Right. They didn't they didn't pick her, obviously. And they were like,
you know, she's good, but she's not quite good enough. I mean,
Gilbert Arenas, obviously, he said a lot about that, which is,
I don't step into his territory.
His takes are wild sometimes. Gilbert Arenas, baby. Yeah, man, his takes are wild.

(21:15):
But overall, he was just saying, like, who cares?
Like, if she good or not, you know she's gonna put butts in the seats and it's
gonna make everybody else more marketable, makes it everybody else look good.
Would you agree with that? I do, I agree with it. I agree.
If you could find a place for Christian Laettner,

(21:36):
on the dream team right find a place for yeah and clark i mean what jj reddick was with,
kobe and his i mean you know what i mean like and
then i also too like ain't what angel reese is doing she's actually dominating
right yeah playing great basketball as a rookie and then i want to also shed
light on asia wilson i mean she might be the greatest basketball player i've
ever seen in in in a woman's game right that's up there with the likes of tarassi

(21:59):
stewart suber all all those greats.
Asia Wilson is like, she's the real deal. I've watched her play,
and I said, like, that's a good brand of basketball right there. Good brand.
And, like, for me, I definitely try to encourage what I've been trying to push
for now, especially in my AU program.
I do try to push some of my young boys, and especially the girls,

(22:22):
because, you know, we have a girl side of YBA.
And I really try to push them to say, you guys should watch the WNBA more.
You should support them. because, you know, we just all inherently,
we were going to watch the NBA more, especially because we obviously have an NBA team here.
They're going to watch the Sacramento Kings, right? That's their, their lens to all that.
But it's like, I try to encourage these young girls, these young,

(22:46):
young women to go support the WNBA because that's just the reality of it.
Again, y'all could take this as a hot take. I don't think it's hot take.
I think it's just pretty common sense. But it's like if you women out there
want to see your fellow women athletes thrive, you got to go to the games. That's it.
You got to go to the games or are watching on TV like TVs look at ratings.

(23:07):
They do like just so you in case people were kind of ignorant to this,
you know, like one point in a rating
means about think like one million or something like that or watching.
Right. So that's how networks look at viewership. And so if,
if they're seeing, oh, we have a WNBA game going and it has three points,
then they understand, okay, 3 million people are watching it.

(23:29):
That's something they can build off of.
Just complaining about some of these things that have been talked to like a
dead horse about, oh, the pay gap or, you know, women's basketball need to be paid like men.
It's like you guys got to understand the money, the revenue has to come from
somewhere. It's coming from somewhere.
Right. So I encourage a lot of people all the time, but especially young,

(23:52):
young girl, young women athletes, go watch some WNBA, go support them.
Just watching the games helps. Going to the games helps. So I say,
especially when the Valkyries in the Bay start up, like go to those games.
It's a two hour drive. Just take the two hour. You'll do it for the Golden State Warriors.
You know you would. So take the two hour drive and go watch the girls,

(24:13):
like go watch the women's and go support them.
So that's my old soapbox deal right there. I feel that.
I wanted to talk about the USA thing. The one sec.
Gotta do my sound effect for this one. Okay. Okay. Hot take for this one.
Okay okay so like we're talking about
a little bit before the show so there's been some controversy

(24:36):
with the usa 17u team
okay uh the the word the key word being used is nepotism i'll allow you guys
to kind of look that up but the quick version is a lot of people are basically
just saying because there's a lot of nba players kids sons on that team that
basically basketball is become,

(24:57):
become a semi elitist sport now, you know, very similar to what tennis used
to be before the Williams sisters were there.
Right. Or, you know, golf right before tiger woods and, and just,
you know, basketball has become more and more of that elitist type group in
there. And there's the argument of.
There's one side of it where the people are like, that's not fair.

(25:21):
They're getting looked at before my kid, you know, it used to be the trenches sport.
It used to be you grew up, you know, in the most impoverished places.
You rose up from, you know, the ashes of poverty to become great.
You know, there's story after story of that guys in the league.
We all know that the DeMar DeRozan's all that shit. Right. Right.

(25:41):
Right. It's like, but now, you know, you got Boozer's kids, you got Reese's
son, you got Bryce James, you got, I mean, the list goes on.
Hello, I mean, and now Carmelo's son. Yeah, like the list goes on and on, right?
Do I, so in case you guys are listening or curious, do I have a personal problem with it? Not at all.

(26:01):
I don't have a problem with it at all. I think like, and Marcel is most likely
to agree with me on this one, you know, sports aren't meant to be fair.
They're meant it's inherently meant for the best competitors to get ahead and
if an NBA player's kid has advantages that unfortunately your kid might not
it's on kind of your kid to figure it out and overcome it because that's how

(26:23):
a lot of us got here. You know what I mean?
And of course, yes, let's also make this clear.
You have to be born with some genetic gifts, but let me give you guys an example.
If you're watching or you're watching this on YouTube or watching this live, I'm 6'5", right?
Marcellus, how tall are you? 5'8", 5'9", I'm a good dad. Exactly.
But we both play college. You understand what I'm saying? So as my,

(26:46):
and I'm 41 years old, so it was very different for me than even it was for him. But so was.
My road a little easier because I was a 6'5 wing forward guard. Sure.
Is his road maybe a little harder? Sure. But we both got there and we both had
to figure it out, right? Through the trenches, right?
Right. If I could have had a dad who was in the NBA and could make some phone

(27:10):
calls and, you know, do some things like, could that road been a hell of a lot easier?
Absolutely. Right. So I don't know. Just what's your take on all this or where
do you sit on your side of the argument on any of this?
I guess like i'm piggybacking what you said basketball or sports
in general professional sports is not a fair it's not
a fair game sports aren't a fair game if you

(27:30):
have resources of course i would definitely if i if i had
all the resources like the bronze game so i would make sure my kids have those
resources now i'm not handing it out they still gotta work yeah ronnie and bryce
still work carmelo's son still work you know the boozer twins like it still
work so it's still work at the end of the day but if i have the resources and
the connections to speed

(27:51):
that process up and make it easier on them while they're still working hard.
I mean, you'd be a fool not to, right? There's no handouts no more.
So, I mean, that might look like a handout to you, but their parents have worked
hard to put their kids in a position that they didn't have to go through,
which is paying it forward.
And the kids are taking the opportunity to be the best version of themselves.
There's a lot of NBA players with sons that didn't pan out. Yeah. I mean, one of the goats.

(28:14):
Yeah. Michael Jordan. Yeah. That's the right. I mean, that's obviously a key one.
Both his sons, you know, and one, Only one really made it to college,
right? Yeah, one play, I think, at Central Florida or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, South Florida or something like that.
But, yeah, I think it's not a shoe-in.
No. Just because you have the resources doesn't mean you're guaranteed.
You still got to put the work in. Like, Gilbert Arena, son, is freaking phenomenal. Yeah.

(28:36):
I had a chance to play, or my team played against at Made Hoops against Jamal
Crawford, son. Oh, J.J. Crawford. Hey, real deal.
Will Conroy, Jr., real deal.
Oh, and my sixth grade played against Isaiah Thomason.
But they'd be in the gym working. They'd be in every team he plays for.
They're in that facility working with him. Yeah.

(28:58):
I mean, it's, you know, again, my advice to parents, kids out there,
like you can't get around the work.
And yes, there are going to be those around you that have certain advantages
and certain odds that you don't.
But I mean, if you really want to really look at the other side of it,
think about all the guys that are making it from overseas.

(29:20):
Right. But like, think about the hurdles they have to go through.
You know what I mean? You guys think Giannis, I mean, when they come out with
probably Giannis' 30 for 30 story, I mean, that dude went through a hell of
a lot to get where he's at.
And, you know, Lucas, all of them, you know what I'm saying?
So it's like, don't, is, can it from, I guess, the outside look in just look

(29:42):
like, oh, NBA players, kids just have it easier. year.
I talked about that a lot with Stiakovich son, Andre, when he was on the show,
we talked, we talked about that straight up.
I just said, you know, how do you feel about it? What is your perception of,
Oh, you're just an NBA player or something like, and he was very,
very mature young man, but he was very candid with it.
He was like, yeah, people think I have advantages and all that,

(30:04):
but they don't realize like how much work I put in.
They don't know that I'm in the gym six, seven hours a day.
And yeah, my dad provides me with trainers and all that stuff,
but But I still have to do it.
Right. Right. So that's that's my word of advice for you guys is,
man, don't worry about what the next person is doing.
Just stay in your lane. And, you know, when you get on the court at the end

(30:28):
of the day, you're all basketball players. Right.
And it's just who made a made a better man win. Yep. Right.
Like you get on the court, man, is what it is.
You know i mean like and i'm pretty sure you you know you have story after story of where you,
you're oh you're against such hey i don't care right you know i mean i line
it up right you know like that's just how it is like so with um with the progression

(30:53):
of where basketball seems like it's going right there's a quote-unquote elitist
and all this that circles me back to,
there's the argument of overseas players i don't know if you've seen that one
how they're saying Like overseas players are taking over the league or whatever.
So slowly but surely, because there's more, they, they spend more emphasis on

(31:13):
practice than games, right?
Do you have any stance points on that or any thoughts on that?
I think that's the best formula to be successful.
The thing with AU culture growing up, we would play three games a day every weekend.
It seemed like, and if you lose, you might play one on the Sunday,
the championship, whatever the case may be.
The more I look at their product, you got to think they play,
well, once a week, maybe twice a week practice throughout the rest of those days.

(31:37):
You're actually able to fine tune a lot in between those games,
you know, so you're not just playing, playing, playing, playing,
playing, barely practicing.
So you're not really getting better necessarily for the long term,
which our culture is doing.
We play so much, practice so little, but they practice so much,
play so little. And their product has been very dominant as of late.
I think I think that's kind of right on the wall to show that it works. Right.

(32:00):
But the NBA can't do that financially. We can't go from an 82 season to a 50
game season with more practice.
Right. I get that. But I'm saying more so from the development standpoint,
they develop so much better because they're actually able to work and practice more than play.
And I saw all my teams, for instance, all of them practice at least two days a week.
And again, that's really like three to four hours. Right. Which ain't much in a week.

(32:22):
Obviously, I encourage my kids and my families do more, do extra.
Obviously, I train, train with me, just put in work. Even if it ain't with me,
just put in work, please.
But what I see in a you culture again is just me, you know, being in the heart of it.
You know, kids are kids and parents jump from team to team. They are always
looking for the next best thing.

(32:43):
You know, they're always they'll put their kid on three or four different teams.
And me, I tell my parents and kids, I think a kid only needs two.
And that's just my personal. I think a kid needs like a, a work hard team,
which is usually they're like elite team or whatever.
I hate using that word, even though I'll cut why, because everybody's elite.
Right. But like, I'm just saying that's, they're like super competitive team

(33:05):
where they got to fight for minutes.
They got to fight for position, you know, they, they really got to work.
And then they have their, their experiment team. I call them their experimentation
team, which is, you know, kind of like, let's say you have a D one team,
you're a seventh grader.
You got your D one travel, super elite team. Then you got your like local at
home division two, division three team where you can get in your bag a little

(33:26):
bit, try different things, experiment, right?
Because you're the best player on that team, right? I think that's all a kid needs.
But nowadays, I mean, there's a lot of basketball whores out there.
There's a lot of Jersey collecting.
Like, you know, do you have a opinion or a standpoint on that?
Or if you had, you know, if it was your son or daughter, you know,

(33:46):
how many teams, what do you think is the best process for that child,
your child, to become the best basketball version of themselves?
So two-part answer. The first part is, I might sound crazy saying this.
I honestly, I have a son. I hope he doesn't want to play basketball.
Okay, fair enough. But if he does want to play basketball, I'll provide everything I can for him.

(34:06):
I'm never going to force it on him. Second part of it, I'm going to more so focus on the work.
Because playing so many games didn't work for me. So I can only go from experience.
So for him, I think the work, playing a little bit, but also just more of the
work, working on your body.
I mean, watching a lot of film and all that stuff, I think it's going to play
more dividends than playing a lot of games.
Because I can still have him go to open gym, open runs, still play.

(34:29):
It's the best of the best. He doesn't have to necessarily travel and play all over the world.
Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh grade. You know what I mean?
Also, although I do think basketball, you have to play for a while to acquire a lot of skill.
But that doesn't mean travel and just put all
these miles on your body as a kid same for like youth football tackle football
i think it's beyond it's just beyond me to put my five six seven year old and

(34:52):
tackle football yeah from that age no it doesn't make sense but for basketball
i can see it but for me if i have a kid if i'm blessed with a son or a daughter
they want to play basketball i would provide them and say hey these are the
pros and cons of playing so much and practicing and you You know,
I give them, you know, the whole whole spill rundown.
But I would promote working more than just going out and playing, in my opinion.

(35:13):
Yeah. And I did because I did like a small, you know, one of my car videos on
that talking about that, like talking about the why do travel basketball.
Right. And and the biggest thing I provided, I just said, listen,
it's not I don't think you need to travel, you know, to these crazy destination like twice a month.
Okay, we'll go to Miami, then we go to Texas, then we go to Vegas,

(35:36):
then we go to like, you don't have to do all that.
But like, for me, I plan it out like, let's say once every two months,
once every three months, we're gonna take a big trip to kind of see where we measure up, right?
Let's just like, for instance, I'm taking my fourth, fifth graders to LA this weekend.
This is their first like trip period like this, you know what I mean?
I've taken them to the Bay a little bit and Sacramento.

(35:59):
Let's say they go out there and they get, you know, they go two and two or,
you know, two and three or whatever, the kind of that middle tier.
Then we take that information. We say, okay, this is how we did on the national level, right?
When we played against teams from all over and that gives me something as a
coach to give them to strive for and build upon.
Right. And then two, three months we circle back, we do something big like that again, right?

(36:20):
Or if we're lucky enough, something big like that comes to us at the grounds
or, you know, something like that. So that's what I use it as.
I use it as a measuring stick to kind of see the progression of where my kids
are at and for them to see it, too, because let's put it like this.
Let's say my kids like I have a really good seventh grade group.
I played them at freshman last weekend.

(36:44):
Keep in mind, freshman. Right. And this is my 13 year old.
We beat both teams by 60.
You know what i mean so it's like how can i get
them because they are i got this one kid named ken
he's like six five true 13 year old not a whole
bag nothing like that this kid he's really good he's
really good his his dad actually played professional so but he's under a lot

(37:06):
of people radar because his dad's like he ain't got no he ain't getting no social
media till 16 all that stuff which is fine so i'm like cool but like basically
you know with this group i have to to get them out there a little bit, because they got to see,
like, you know, last time we went to LA, we did the Adidas championship,
we lost in the championship.
You know, now, granted, we played a team that clearly had some older kids.

(37:29):
I tell my kids, so the fuck what? You just got to deal with it.
You know what I mean? You just got to play.
And we ended up, I think, losing by like 11 or something like that.
And I still said, this was a great weekend because every game we played was a battle.
We didn't win by like a, I think the biggest margin we won by was six.
Every fucking game was a battle to that championship. So I said, that's a good trip.

(37:50):
Irregardless of taking home the trophy or not, that's a good trip.
Yeah. Because if I just put them at hardwood every weekend, and keep in mind,
I played them at freshman and we're still winning by 50. I can't,
I can't have my 13 year olds going against 16 to 17 year olds.
Cause now we're talking about physical danger, right?
Cause even though they're good basketball players, they're good for their age.
They're still in 13 year old bodies. Right.

(38:12):
I don't want a 16 year old, 17 year old going full, you know,
steam at one of my 13 year olds.
Right. So that, that's my recommendation for you coaches and, and a,
you guys, if you're trying to figure out why to travel in my
opinion just use it as a measuring stick to see the progression of your
team right so i think that that's the best way

(38:33):
to do it i like that i appreciate that that's
right i said i try to teach on the show a little bit or give as much advice
as i can yeah so for you well let's talk about what's you know new and up up
and coming with you i mean like like you said you you've been doing your podcast
you do your reaction channels you do i mean i i see it From afar,

(38:55):
you do the three-on-threes, the commentating, the everything.
I mean, again, I strongly suggest check out the first episode years ago when we did that.
Yeah. And see where he's at now in this episode. And you guys will see,
like, now you kind of get where.
And just so, like, my relationship with him, I coached him.

(39:15):
I was an assistant coach at ARC where he's coaching now with Georgie.
And I was his coach for a time there before I progressed into this AU side of things.
Things so for me watching him go from that to where
he's at now is amazing but i definitely would say for you
guys who are watching and checking it out check out that first episode
and then come back to this one and you'll see like all the progression you've
made but you know what what's new what's the next step

(39:38):
or what what what you got in the works a lot of things right now just run through
it coaching of course on the side to eat up a lot of the free time i have and
then like i said getting into this commentator role into this hosting into to
this analyst role because I really love talking basketball. Like,
that's really what I love to do.
So I watch a lot of, every day I'm watching Stephen A.

(39:59):
Every day I'm watching like J.J. Rick. I'm watching, I'm really studying,
more so I study a lot of Stephen A because he's been doing it the longest.
I think he's the greatest at what he does.
Whether you agree or disagree with what he says, he's really good at being an
entertainer and knowing a game.
And then aside from basketball right now, I'm getting into government contracting.
Okay. So I just, waiting to get my cage code.
I just sent the rest of my documents in literally an hour before I came here. Thank you.

(40:23):
Yeah, so basically what people don't, long story short, what government contracting
is, it's, let's say Chris provides a fencing company, he builds fences,
and the government is seeking out some fence work for a year.
And I'm like, hey man, what would you charge for X, Y, and Z to do it for a year?
You give me your price, cool, I throw my money on top, I'm the middleman,

(40:44):
delegating a contract, I write the proposal, send it to the government,
they accept it, now we're locked in for a year, getting automatic payment every single month. Nice.
And then your invoice, the subcontractor invoiced me. I paid him.
Yeah. And yeah. So you're basically working the middleman. That's it.
But I'd rather do something like that where I can make money because you can
get a limited amount of contracts.
I know someone right now who has like 35 active two-year contracts.

(41:06):
Wow. So now you have more freedom. I rate freedom.
No, no, no. I rate success based on free time. So however much free time you
have, I feel like that's how successful you really are. Because if you're working
18, 20 hours a day, per se, over-exaggerating, are you really that successful?
Because a lot of your time is delegated to your business.

(41:28):
When you really want a lot of your business to delegate the free time for you.
So I don't want to have to work all these hard hours to make the money.
So doing the government contracting, been studying that with my boy,
Yussi. We've been studying that literally on the phone.
By week, we would have long hour conversations, checking in,
making sure we get all stuff together. But it's a fun process.

(41:49):
And it's something new and if I can attack that which I know I mean if I can
kill that which I know I'm going to conquer it that's going to help a lot in
terms of freeing up a lot even more free time to do what I want to do so.
That's what's new I mean yeah like because that's one thing I was going to ask
you is kind of being in the in the,
the tier of the content creator, basketball content creator space,

(42:11):
if you had to give or gauge a strong shelf life for that, right?
Like, you know, just like anything, just like in the rap game,
just in sports or whatever, everything has a, you know, you know,
a time period you have your prime and then you maximize the hell out of that.
And then eventually you, you're going to, you know, the next person's going
to step up and you're going to go into your retirement phase or whatever.

(42:32):
So for content creation, what would you think is like the most or the best shelf
life you can get out of that?
It depends on what you do. Okay. If you're going to do solely basketball,
there's a shelf life, right?
That's why I challenge people. If you're going to do strictly basketball,
man, you have two to three years to figure out another niche with another niche
within basketball to the elevator brain.
You can't just do, let's say I'm doing basketball training for two years.

(42:55):
I'm recording it as video proof or using it as content.
Two years later, I can't and say, okay, I'm gonna do the exact same thing for
the next two years, it's not gonna work that way because time grows,
kids grow, everything evolves.
So for me, it's like I look into, like I was doing stuff in the backyard,
then I elevated right to reactions and then I went from reactions to a basketball
talk show. Then that, in the middle of that, I had a podcast.

(43:16):
I see a lot of people that do what I do and they're so caught in the middle
of like, well, this has been working for me, so I'm just gonna spam this for two, three, four years.
And I'm like, you're not maximizing your audience because then you're gonna lose their retention.
If you're doing the exact same thing over and over and
over so you can't you know it's like beating it's it's like
punching a brick wall it's not gonna move eventually it's never gonna move

(43:37):
right you know like you might be like you like getting somewhere and after
a while you yeah you know hands is broken and all that
because you're literally doing all the work that you were originally doing you're
not progressing to get past that brick wall you know find a way around everybody
want to go straight through without finding their ways around it yeah to still
maximize their profit within this business and that's very huge I was even talking

(43:58):
to Drifty J about that I was like with the AU stuff like there's gonna be.
A time scale with that right I don't know how long it could be 2 to 5 to 10
years but you also have to understand how to elevate your brand so it's not just that the whole time.
Add different sources of revenue to what you're doing in the content space.
So to answer your question, yeah, it just depends on what kind of content you do.

(44:21):
Like for me, my shelf life, I give myself two years before I have to elevate
and try something else. Just because I want to challenge myself.
And I'm never going to know unless I try. And you've been good about that.
I mean, anyone who can see, again, you've been very consistent and good about doing that.
And, and I, people who listen to my show or know, you know, my kind,

(44:44):
I try to be good about trying to get my content out, but obviously my main niche is coaching, right?
Just coaching and helping the next generation, helping the kids.
This is just a side project for me. You know what I mean?
And it's a side project I enjoy because I am fortunate enough to sit down with
people like you who can hopefully give these young guys some tips and help them

(45:06):
progress in their field. And understand, again, I say this on the show all the time.
This is why I do this, because I want to give you guys, I guess,
the free game, the advice to hopefully help the next set of parents, the next set of kids.
And I want to give you guys people who are not who are living it.
You know what I mean? They're not just talking about it. They're living it.

(45:27):
So, you know, Marcellus is a great example for you guys to, you know,
kind of look at and observe and say, hey, you know what? I might want to try this space.
Let me see his formula. Let me see what worked for him. Let me pick his brain and take pieces.
I said it when Ryan was on the show from a touch shooting.
I said, I do this to humanize you guys. You know what I mean?
Because they know Marcellus, the personality. Right. But I want people to know

(45:51):
Marcellus, the person, the human.
I think, too, also an ad. Yeah. Just quick thing as a part of that shelf life and just work ethic.
I think to be successful as an entrepreneur and in this life,
you have to have a very high risk tolerance.
Like your pain tolerance, some people have a high pain tolerance,
but for risk, you have to have a high risk tolerance because you're going to
fail more than you succeed. Absolutely. And I think people will...

(46:15):
One ounce of adversity and say, oh, I'm gonna go back to what's comfortable.
It doesn't work that way. You gotta be able to take risk every single day.
Every minute of the day, you gotta take a risk with something because you never
know what you might be good at that you never knew you were good at.
So you try it. No, a hundred. Well, like you said, that's where faith and family
and hopefully those reinforcements.
And if you have a, if you're lucky enough to have a really good group of friends

(46:38):
and people who really care about you and want to help you, like that's where
that that comes through well let me oh i'm gonna get this sorry if you're watching,
phone real quick that's good i memorized most of my questions but i got a great job,
yeah yeah that's what i was like hey bro yeah exactly see my girl i memorized

(47:03):
a lot of it but i was like okay i gotta i gotta get do better as far as uh remembering
everything right right Let me see.
Oh, sorry, Joe, my phone. Okay.
Okay. Oh, okay. So my next question is for your audience, you know,

(47:25):
in general, especially obviously the kids.
Love, love your stuff. You know, they just love your content in general,
but, you know, well, the biggest thing I was going to say, how do you keep your energy up?
I mean, how do you just, you know, I know for me, there's days I don't feel
like getting out of that damn bed.
So I can only imagine for you, but you know, what, what's still keeping you
motivated, keeping you going, you know, obviously again, I, I like when I watched

(47:50):
you at the Fox deer and Fox camp and, you know, obviously shout out to Marcus.
I know you went to his free camp and I think that was really good Marcus what
you did there man it's like how do you how are you keeping your energy up and
you know staying motivated to do this day in and day out man it's simple man.
No one's gonna do it for me so I had that mindset every

(48:11):
day I wake up no matter what I do I know if I give
a half she's my language a half-assed effort that could
be the one time someone watches me for the first time and they say I don't like this
guy yeah so I always keep that in mind like
there could be a first time viewer out there what are they gonna think of me
after they watch this video i gotta be high energy i gotta be entertaining and
somewhat gotta be kind of funny right the reaction video is kind of like your

(48:33):
own stand-up comedy show in a way yes so you have like your own little like
i have my own little thing i do in the intro midway through and the outro and
stuff like that so that part i think that's what keeps me going and secondly
i'm very good at maximizing time so what you may see looks like a lot of work
but i might maximize it and compartmentalize it in like a two to three hour
span right so if i just spend two or three three hours a day on something rather

(48:55):
than working an eight hour job, I can do that.
Okay. I can do that. Right. So that, that, that's, I keep the high energy.
Of course, a lot of water intake.
I work out every day now. So good. All my endorphins is super high.
You know, what about your diet? Do you try to, I'm vegan. I've been vegan since 2019.
Oh wow. Even when I was on a show last time I was vegan. Yeah,
you were. Yeah. I think you did mention that. Okay, good.

(49:17):
Yeah. So I've been vegan. I'm on, man, been working out every single day since December 28th.
Weightlifting, cardio, put on about 16 pounds, just all natural.
But yeah, that's how I keep the energy up. I wake up knowing,
one, I have to serve my wife.
Yes. Right? So that's something I always look forward to. Smart man. Right?

(49:40):
Shout out to my wife. I love her. But yeah, I think waking up knowing that I
get to serve someone who loves me unconditionally, I think it's one of the most
influential things and is motivational for me. So that's that's 90% of the battle right there.
I wake up knowing that I get to serve others and my wife and everything else is a choice.
You gotta choose to have effort in anything you do.

(50:02):
So how I'm feeling can't overweigh the choice. Right.
You know what I mean? No, I get it. And that's makes sense. Like, yeah.
If that makes sense, how I'm feeling, yeah, how I'm feeling can't overweigh
how I choose that. No doubt.
I mean, well, like in our space, in this basketball community,

(50:23):
and this is a question I'm, you know, one of the bigger questions I want to
ask you too, because me and Marcus talk about it a lot.
I definitely feel, and maybe you might feel it in your lane too, but I don't know.
I just feel like you guys don't necessarily have some of those same issues.
But like in the AAU basketball world, in the training world,
I just deal with a lot of hate and sack, you know, people just kind of hating

(50:46):
on each other or, you know, talking bad about each other and just all that type of shit, man.
And, you know, I don't like it. I don't participate in it. I don't.
Again, everything I say, even if it's negative or, you know,
me just giving constructive criticism, what not my critique or whatever my opinion.
I do it on the show. I do it to people's faces. is, you know,

(51:08):
I talk as a man to another man and I never, I'm never in a disrespectful way,
but I'll just say, Hey man, I don't like the way you move with this.
That's you, that's your thing. But this is just my opinion about it.
But there, it just does seem to have this, um, feel that Sacramento is just
really divided in that, in that sense with a you and all that stuff.
Um, is you have any thoughts on that or how we can maybe ever bridge that gap

(51:31):
if, if ever, if possible, I mean, just curious of your thoughts or outlook on
it. Yeah, Sacramento, that's my culture. It's pretty terrible.
I say that because I've been to Seattle twice in the past, like three,
three and a half years. Every time I go out there, I work out with...
Conroy senior and i work out with marquise chris and i got the opportunity to
work out with it and it's just the environment they provide for their basketball

(51:55):
community they don't care,
who's training the kid where he's from if the gym is open and he wants to get working.
Anybody's welcome to pull up and i think that's what is
missing from the sacramento hoop
scene we don't have that mecca like if i
pull up to seattle right now even though will conroy's not out there i'm i'm
sure he'll make sure i'm good right regardless of where

(52:17):
he's at because he's now at usc congrats my dog jamal jamal
carver's there too yes yeah jamal yeah jamal carver
nate robinson it all those guys like they every event
they pulling up showing love for their guys in the community and i'm like that's
what we're missing but i think the way to bridge the gap is it's kind of to
be involved in the community so now i'm actively involved into the arc i mean
to the junior college arc so it's like i can i can go and help that community

(52:42):
right and then And we have people in the high school scene, like my guy, Barry.
And then we have my boy, Drew Cobb, who was at Sheldon, but he now just got
another opportunity in SoCal, which is can't pass up opportunity.
He got, God bless him immensely.
But I'm saying even he can help filter in from Sacramento because now he has
a way of like, hey, I'm at this certain stature out here.
I'm not going to give you information now because he'll probably announce it

(53:04):
himself, but it's a really big opportunity for him.
So i think that's the best way to do it is be in
the community be involved be in the scene as much
as possible to help the community and then you can bridge the gap
yourself like i can start the own culture i you can start you know i'm saying
so it's like we can all start our own thing but we have to have someone who's
very in the city in the community at these places right we didn't have that

(53:28):
at ar we normally had that at juco in general in sacramento so i wanted to change that whole scene.
My thing is I, when I recruit kids, I tell them this, I say,
Hey, to be quite frank with you, I don't care where you play.
If I can help you go play somewhere, I'm going to do that. You don't got to play for me.
AAR for me to help you. Right. If you're a Sacramento kid, specifically,
I want to help you regardless of where that's at. Go play for the best case scenario.

(53:50):
Like go play where, you know, is best fit for you. Where are you going to play?
But then the day, if I can help, you need my help. Reach out.
You got my number, right? If
I'm recruiting you, It's not just for a transaction to come play for me.
I genuinely want to see you play at the next level.
And that's my goal being an AR.
It's not just to worry solely about the AR guys, but to worry about everybody
in the city. Right. I think that's how you bridge the gap.

(54:12):
No, it makes sense. I mean, it's pretty interesting because,
you know, I talked about this my last episode with Jordan Ford.
I got to push that episode out.
But we talked about we're in a real interesting spot when it comes to.
College basketball and professional, because colleges right now basically want you to be older, right?

(54:33):
They want you to be, you know, 19, 20, 21, 22.
Cause look at, you know, the NCAA last year, you know, you got 27 year olds,
28 year olds, 26 year olds. Right.
But the NBA still wants you young because you have the Wimbinyas who came in
at 19, you know, they still want you young.
So it's very, it's very tricky right now because obviously reclassing is a huge

(54:55):
thing. that's just a part of AU and a part of basketball culture.
And yet, quite honestly, I tell parents, if you reclass, you're more or less
hurting your kids' chances to make it to the pros.
But obviously we know that's a very, very astronomically small percentage of people that make it.
But, of course, there's still some of those who think, like,

(55:17):
no, my kid's going to the league and stuff.
So me and Jordan talked about just how that interesting dynamic of colleges
want you older, but pros want you younger.
So I was like, I guess the right formula would be, okay, reclass my son in sixth grade.
And then when he gets to high school and hopefully he's killing it in high school,
reclass him up like Cooper Flagg did, right?

(55:37):
To get him back on track age-wise.
With you being at the JUCO level, and we're circling back with that is,
you know, D1s, especially top tier D1s, they're not taking high school kids,
not very many, right? Right.
Again, unless you're an NBA players kid or, you know, you're really just that good. Right.
So I've stated this on this show and said it numerous times that,

(56:01):
you know, Juco is the new D1.
You know, I mean, a lot of kids that might as supposed to be at a division two
or mid tier D1 or whatnot, they're going to most likely go junior college,
which makes junior college that much more competitive, that much harder.
Absolutely but at the
same time now even more competitive because

(56:21):
these spots are just that much harder to get how are
you like learning like you're learning Kurt
being a being now a junior college coach being a part of that field just kind
of learning the player development all all the stuff that you're going to learn
as a coach yeah you know how how are you how are you taking all this in and
adjusting and learning and seeing all this transpire around you It's been kind of crazy.

(56:45):
It's been actually an easy adjustment period because I didn't go into a cold feet. Yeah.
Ever since I stopped playing, I've been watching more film than ever.
So it's like, I've been learning.
I thought it was just for no reason. I was just like, I just love watching basketball
more after I was done playing, which is weird.
But Georgie called me like April, might've been the second, third day of April.
And he's like, Hey man, what are you doing up this early? I was like,

(57:06):
Oh man, I'm up six, six a.m. every day. I walk the dog, go to the gym,
work out. So that's my schedule for the morning.
And he was like, okay, well, have you thought about coaching? And I was like,
yeah, when I have a kid, it eventually i might dibble and dab in
it he's like well man the position opened i want you to be my my lead
assistant and i was like okay i was
like interesting okay i was like let me i mean okay let

(57:27):
me you know long story short i was like let me go ahead and digest this
talk with the wife and just see what's best fit because it's
not a lucrative job no no you're not you're not
getting rich you're not getting rich doing this but my thing was
i'm huge in the serving business this as a man of god i
love serving kids in position that
i was in in that exact uniform in that
exact gym under that exact same coach so i said

(57:50):
who can relate better than a player who's played at
the you know the highest level of arc i was one
of the best players in the program's history yeah that can
help these guards because a lot of juco you're gonna
get a lot of guards rather than a lot of bigs i can help them
reach the next level that they want to get to so i sat
that with the lily for like three three weeks and i called him back and
i was like man i was like let's just do it i jumped off

(58:13):
the bridge and did it and i haven't regretted it since nice i
haven't seen that one dollar from it i don't even ask i haven't even
done my paperwork yet i'm just there every day
every tuesday and thursday we practice because it's off season right now right
but it's just it's so gratifying to see them get better it's not for my own
gratification right i mean it's it's not for my own how can i say it satisfaction

(58:33):
i just i i love genuinely seeing them get better at the game of basketball because
a lot of them think they know what it takes.
I tell them this. I remember at the end of practice one day,
I was telling them if you want to be a point guard at the next level.
Point guard you have to be the most selfless person on the floor absolutely
the the oh me like
head down all that as a point guard automatically to

(58:56):
the bench because you have to worry about the four
guys are you i mean they're out there with you right the bench what
the coach wants and how to read a game and react because
it's all so fast yeah so i tell them that there's
no time to feel sorry for yourself you come very dead last
in the pecking order while also being first
in the pecking order in a sense so a lot of them have

(59:17):
to understand that like i'm like there's no time for the
my bads it's next play we're gonna get it right even if you make a mistake right
there's no time for that so you gotta keep going that that's kind of what i'm
teaching them even like when your guys brent right now they're just all teaching
them like you're gonna make mistakes absolutely but there's no time for my bad
the moment you're saying my bad you're wasting a split second getting back on
defense and coach george you're not gonna like that so We know, we know.

(59:39):
He'll motherfuck you if you don't get back on. Immediately. Immediately.
But yeah, I think jumping into this has been one of the biggest blessings.
Yeah, because I'm huge in the service business. So this is fun.
And they're actually going to let me document the whole season.
Oh, nice. So it's going to be like a ghetto version of Last Chance U.
Hey, Deshawn will appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

(01:00:00):
So like they're letting me record everything on the road, locker room, all that.
So that's going to be very, and it provides more exposure for the kids.
It's after a Netflix season, it's actually keeping up per season.
So there's going to be more film for them to send out to coaches,
which I think is going to be phenomenal.
And that's the name of the game. That's one, well,
you know, got a few more questions to ask you, but that leads into my next question

(01:00:22):
was, you know, with the way basketball and media have now become very intertwined,
you know, between highlight tapes and the different exposure sites.
Like a ball is obviously ball is life being the biggest one,
but you could say ball is life over time.
Simply basketball in our NorCal area, you got Beach City Hoops for the SoCal area, like these.
And, and again, that's another, in my opinion, a,

(01:00:46):
Capitalism at its best. People are finding their niches and finding ways to
financially make things work for themselves.
Right. And have good, you know, businesses.
This this is what, you know, the idea is small business makes this economy function.
Right. So I'm all for it. But but but like I said, now a day's basketball and

(01:01:11):
highlight culture and media are very intertwined now. You know what I mean?
Even more, in my opinion, more so than a lot of sports, you know,
even even though it was a joke. But it got to the point where,
you know, referees are making highlight tapes.
I saw that. So I'm just saying that just shows how ingrained media and basketball are now. Right.

(01:01:32):
Could be a good thing, could be a bad thing, obviously, depending on your perspective.
But I will I just want to speak on this aspect of it.
Do you think kids especially you know youth kids are playing more for those
highlight tapes rather than playing to win the game because i'll say in the
au youth side of it i see that sometimes,

(01:01:53):
coach uh brandon barnes i
don't know if you've seen some of his stuff the coach from bakersfield state he
talks a lot he talks in
the car yes he's another really good dude
um me and him actually really become friends we've become pretty close in terms
of just art we speak in the same language but in a different space right so

(01:02:14):
i'm talking to you he's talking college but our views are very similar but he
literally talked a video about this saying you know dude's coming up for a dunk,
i'm watching guys literally in live periods move out the way because they don't
want to be on someone's highlight tape and he's like that's a surefire way to
get cut for me yeah because i want I want the guy that's willing to go up, play defense.
Like if he's trying to dunk it hard, I'm trying, I'm trying to block you just

(01:02:37):
already said match aggression with aggression. Right.
And I will say, even for me on the youth side, I am noticing more and more that
kids are kind of trying to shy away from defensive plays because they don't
want to be on someone's tape. Right.
Curious your thoughts on that type of shit or those type
of things you know what i mean i think we have
the content creators has it has a

(01:02:58):
little bit to do with that i'll say that i definitely
will say a lot of kids want the highlight tape so that their
favorite content creators might see it react to it comment on it
and all that and i think that's kind of hurting in basketball
a little bit but also adding a little bit of parody to it i don't know i
think it's a little bit of fun of games because i i don't
want the game to be so serious all the time at a young age be a

(01:03:19):
kid be a kid absolutely but there's also a time and place
i get that but i i'm all for kids being kids and
we get to college and high school when you're trying to do that all right bro yeah
you know now you have to figure out like what are you really doing
it for as a kid you're you know you're seeing you're
doing what you're watching right so you're seeing these kids
celebrate a certain way you're naturally going to gravitate towards that

(01:03:40):
so i can't even knock them for it right as part of how social media has
been so maybe it's up to the parents maybe to say hey no social media
no youtube until a certain age yeah and then they might not
even react that way so yeah i'm huge on
kids being kids yeah but as soon as you get to like that 14
15 16 all right if you really want to be you really
want to play college basketball you got to take this a little more serious
a lot more serious i would say there was no time for celebrating when i was.

(01:04:03):
Playing college at absolutely not yeah unless you're at the d2 level no yeah
no not a chance because that while you're doing all this yeah and then you look
at the coach and then you look at the at the scores table, someone's already right there.
Right there waiting for you, like, yeah, you know, yeah. Come have a seat, man.
With, yeah, with the basketball culture, well, what are your thoughts on like,

(01:04:25):
because obviously Drifty and Kim, and they've kind of made fun of doing this,
what are your thoughts on these troll teams?
Because I'm going to be real with you, because I had to coach against them a few times.
It pisses me off, all right, I'm going to be real. When they playing the game?
Like when they're playing, like it's a, you know.
Like it's a normal hardwood weekend. Now it's not like now if it's a big event

(01:04:46):
or something like that, like you said, when Drifty and those guys get these
five-star guys and they're doing – I'm fine with that. Totally fine with that.
But I mean like let's be real. It's a copycat program.
There's guys that are going to copy you, copy him, copy – and so they come in to these games.
They put numbers on their T-shirts and these markers and they just got some

(01:05:08):
guy filming and they're just doing a bunch of dumb shit, taking a half-course.
Like, I'm taking my kids to really play a game.
Win or lose, we're trying to learn. We're trying to, you know,
experiment, things like that.
Unfortunately, because they see guys like Drifty and yourself and any of these
guys do this and get some views and some, you know, notoriety from it.
Oh, I got to fucking copy and try it too.

(01:05:30):
It pisses me off. You know what I mean? I'm just going to be honest with you.
It pisses me off. It's like I remember one game.
I stopped playing the game because we were up like, Like it was like 65 to five
and they were just throwing these hook shots from half court and just kind of
one kid started barking on the ground like a dog. You know what I mean? And yeah, it's funny.

(01:05:50):
Like, but I'm like, OK, yeah, now you're just wasting my parents time.
And then what sucks is because Hardwood doesn't necessarily know you just you
you log in your team on the website and you just put in a name. They don't know.
So I don't know. I'm just curious for someone who has seen and been a part of that.
What do you think about all that? it's tough that's what
the kids love to see but if you're paying

(01:06:12):
money to be at a tournament that's kind of what you want to pay to play in so i
see both sides of it yeah i i don't i don't really have a strong stance on them
because i haven't seen it so so much right but i will say it's like wwe you
know don't try this at home i agree with you on that i'm telling you man like
my parents was ready to beat the hell out of their kids they was like i don't
pay my entry fee i I done done all this.

(01:06:34):
Right, right, right. I'm like, hey, man, I don't know.
Before we get out of here, I did want to talk to you, okay?
You know, Mark's a Lakers fan. Got to talk about the Lakers.
Okay. We got to talk about this. Okay.
So we have JJ Redick as the head coach. Yes, sir. He signed a four-year deal, if I'm correct. Yeah.
There was definitely one meme and argument that I personally thought was pretty

(01:06:59):
good outside of, and this is outside of his experience and all that shit. We'll get into all that.
But it was, they were talking about Sam Cassell and how he's been an assistant coach for years.
I think they said 15 years. And he's won rings on teams and stuff, obviously.
But yeah, I think that if there's anybody obviously deserving,
it doesn't necessarily mean they have to be the Lakers job.

(01:07:20):
I'm just saying in general, you got a guy like this who's been working his butt
off and probably deserves a head coaching spot.
But then obviously, J.J. Redick kind of fast forward and whatnot.
I don't know what to make of this because, again, I've listened to his podcast,
me personally. I've listened to his shows because I'm always listening to different
podcasts to try to enhance myself.

(01:07:41):
He is intelligent, very, very intelligent, very articulate person.
He does understand the game at extremely high level. Right.
But how will that equate to an NBA team in the locker room? I don't know.
You know, so I don't really I guess I'm not a Laker fan anyway, but I'm a Warriors fan.
But I guess I don't really have a strong standpoint on it. But I am.

(01:08:01):
It's interesting. interesting that's just what i say it's just interesting it's
tough because i saw the sam casale thing and immediately what i thought was
it's kind of childish yeah but they probably were like you
know what we're not gonna hire a celtics coach i know
right you want a championship i'm not gonna hire that is true that's probably
what they're like they're like anybody but sam sam has to go somewhere right

(01:08:21):
he goes somewhere else so that's immediately what i thought but with jj reddick
i think it's super dope because i think he's a player's coach yes like in a good way Yeah.
Think he's gonna have a good sense of culture there because i think people are
gonna respect him although it might be a little weird because your best player
and coach had had a podcast yes past tense because now they don't because he's
a coach of course right but i think it's something

(01:08:43):
new and i think if they see out
the contract it'll make sense if they give them
one or two years and like yeah we're done then you know right
for for jj good payday yeah i go right back to esp
and do whatever you know i can do whatever i want to do now but i think
i i like it personally i i actually like that because
i think what mark mark jackson had a

(01:09:04):
similar similar he was a commentator and you
know as a coach you know espn personality what
you call it and then he jumped on the warriors and right basically sparked what
our dynasty became so no i i agree i just yeah i think it's gonna be interesting
yeah i i've seen some reports saying that the lakers think that they got like
a eric spolstra-esque type of mind which i can see yeah also too it's it's a very

(01:09:29):
first time coach into the hardest professional team to coach in sports, not just in basketball.
I think the Lakers are the hardest professional team to coach for because of
everything that comes with it.
You have arguably the greatest player of all time on the current roster.
You have the fan base, you have the pressure of winning banner 18 to tie the Celtics now.
So it's like, it's all this, or is it 18 or 19, whatever it is.

(01:09:51):
I think they have Celtics have 18.
So it's like Lakers have 17. Right. So to tie the Celtics now.
So it's a lot of pressure.
I mean, it makes for good entertainment. Yeah, no, no doubt. It makes sense.
Literally, it makes sense. Right. Money. It does. It's sports entertainment.
So that's what I'm saying. I get it. Like, and what about the whole,

(01:10:12):
and everybody's talking to this, beating it to a dead horse.
I hate to even kind of comment on this, but I feel like, I guess I got to jump
in this on this one a little bit is obviously Bronny.
Today's the day. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like hey it's so many you know kids are like
oh he's he's nba ready or he's
not nba ready you know everybody has these takes on it look man

(01:10:34):
i don't know what the hell's gonna
happen to this young man i just think you know he's gotta
stay his lane stay his course right do
you think he would end up on the lakers from a
financial standpoint it would make sense you're gonna
going to put way more butts in seats seeing brawn and brawny yeah
on the floor right at the end of the day sometimes the entertainment

(01:10:56):
business is just that exactly right so
sometimes it has to make dollars and cents will he
get drafted though not sure because they hold i believe the 17th no something
like that and the 55th pick or something along that nature i don't know i pray
he gets just drafted in general because yeah just hearing your name called is

(01:11:18):
probably one of the greatest things to experience.
I was able to hear DJ, my boy DJ Wilson, in 2017 when he got drafted,
we were all in the hotel room at the Sawyer and just hearing his name called,
I'm like, I can only imagine him right now.
We see it live and you know he he walks out the room while yeah i'm collected

(01:11:38):
i'm just like in his mind he's probably thinking like this is i'm top 17 drafted
like you know this is and then yannis became yannis so the situation was the
best of course but anywho i i think i think brawny,
i i give him this an analogy different players payton watson average i believe
three points uh ucla came off the bench but he's also six eight can't teach

(01:11:58):
it can't can't teach that yep brawny's about six one six two average about the
same amount of points i'm like some players are just meant for the professional basketball scene.
Peyton Watson wasn't really a great college player because he was meant for the NBA.
You know, another person I thought of, too, in that same vein is O.J. Mayo. Yeah.
He, like, he was a solid college player, but everyone said his game was more

(01:12:22):
predicated for professional level.
And obviously, he did do well in his prime, unfortunately. Got kicked out of
the league for whatever reason.
But, you know, like, he, during his time, O.J. Mayo was, you know,
his game was built for the pros.
Yeah, that's another interesting storyline to see where that ends up going.
I'm rooting for him. Yeah, me too. Just like I'm rooting for Jared,

(01:12:44):
Kane, Jalen Wells. Yeah, that's what I was going to say, Jalen.
And the cool part is I've been talking to Jalen. Yeah.
He said he's down to do the show, which is great. Like, thanks,
Jalen. Shout out to you after the draft, obviously.
And I told him, I said, hey, do you focus? I get it, man. And like,
so I just, but that's just really cool to see a Sacramento kid like that.

(01:13:06):
His, you know, his roads.
Yeah. High school player of the year to Sonoma state. Right.
Washington state to the league. Right. Like that.
He's guaranteed getting his name called. I don't know his first,
second round, but he's getting his name called. I agree. I agree.
And it's like, people don't know how, they just don't understand how hard that road is. You know?
So that's the big reason why I want him on the show. Cause I want him just to

(01:13:27):
talk about it. Just say, look, man.
You think this was easy like let me make this very clear
to you like how hard you got to work absolutely it sacramento
itself i think is in a good basketball spot in
terms of you know just the different options
we have out here the the you know we have a million au teams which you can say

(01:13:47):
is good or bad but you know where you just we have a lot of um a lot of good
stuff right period you know going on in sacramento basketball but outside of
speaking about the divided part or whatnot,
what would you like to see, if anything at all, you know, kind of push to the
forefront in our basketball community in Sacramento? I would love a Sacramento Hoop Fest.

(01:14:11):
Sure. However that looks, make it happen. IT does it every year. It's called the Zekand.
He brings like NBA players to play and then you could.
That's for you. Yeah, thank you. And then you could like pay a fee to get your
team in the tournament, play three games, but you get the opportunity to play
against NBA players and you're playing in the city. It's free for the fans to come watch.
We need something like that, of that stature, of all ages, come together and

(01:14:35):
just celebrate basketball Sacramento style.
We don't have that. We don't have that. I think that's what we're lacking. Yeah.
That's going to build the community immensely. I agree. And then shout out to
Gus because I almost forgot to mention that.
Oh, yeah. The Pro-Am League, the SPDL, which is going on right now.
I saw a lot of cool, you know, highlights and stuff from that.

(01:14:57):
And obviously it's all in that said, uh, fortune high school.
Yeah. It just ended, just ended, uh, this past week. Yeah. So,
you know, shout out to you guys who hooped out there.
I saw DT, saw Ryan, saw Kent Bay.
So all you guys, man, like, you know, keep doing your thing,
man. Like, it's just, it's just good to see that level of basketball being played out here.
Again, it's, like I said, it's just an interesting spot and in a good spot,

(01:15:19):
you know, at the, At the same time, we just gotta see what's the next evolution gonna be.
Is there, do you yourself think at some point, like you said,
maybe, you know, when you have kids yourself and whatnot,
but could you ever see yourself maybe wanting to step into this AU game and,
you know, maybe coach in this arena or are you just going to kind of wait and see?

(01:15:43):
I always say I never leave no stone unturned. So I would love to try everything
just to make sure that it's not that.
Like if i always have my speculation
au but i definitely want to try it some way
down or some time down the line just just say
okay i tried it and i like if i like it i'll keep doing it but
if i don't then i at least say you know i tried it right that's my

(01:16:03):
biggest regret not trying to pursue
play pro basketball for a year right i tried it right
so that's why i always said never leave no sun until i want to try everything
before i say nah that's not for me
no makes well let me paraphrase not everything i
get what you're
saying i know exactly everything uh just

(01:16:24):
so that makes sense to my moral beliefs i'll say that okay there we go i want
to clarify that one let me see oh well my kids keep wanting to stare at you
because they see you don't know kids like goats so i want to also well what
was it we're talking about it was one more goddamn question I said,
my kids made me lose my train of thought. That's all good. What, son? What?

(01:16:45):
Hi, son. Hi.
See, this is the type of energy he brings. They just want to stare at him like, what's he doing there?
No, with your level of success and what you've been able to do with your platforms
and the people you've been able to reach, I mean, is it still exciting for you?

(01:17:09):
Like, you know, just going out there, traveling, shaking hands,
just meeting people, talking to people.
Is it still feel, you know, just as invigorating as day one of when you started
noticing like, oh, people really starting to notice who I am.
Do you still get that same feeling?
Same feeling. Never changed. It's a responsibility.
I have a responsibility out there to be the same person no matter what.

(01:17:30):
Never let none change you. so for me it's another opportunity to
always be my best self when i see kids or
even adults that mess with the content or what
i'm doing like that's cool that's awesome but at the end of the day it's
not always about me it's more about how i impact them right so if
i can impact them anyway i think that's the most important thing so that's the
dopest part about it's not shaking hands taking pictures it's actually having
a conversation with them yeah i'm not a type of person that does like a quick

(01:17:52):
transaction i want to have a conversation with you see what you like see what
you don't like yeah and make you feel like more of you know like how can i say
this when you You meet your favorite stars. Yeah.
Basketball, football, celebrities, actors, whatever. And you'll ask to take
a picture. It'd be like a quick transaction.
I don't want to be that. I want to be a person that actually gets...
What's your name, man? What do you like to do? You know, what do you like to
get involved with? I don't want to be that...

(01:18:14):
Too good to have a conversation with you because that's not serving that's
not fully serving so i want to be able
to provide entertainment and then if i see you in person i want
to be able to serve you and you know for your needs and ask you
like you know what you what you're interested in that could have that little
conversation could have motivated them to change their whole life they could
have been going through some crazy that day that i don't even know about right

(01:18:35):
but the conversation i'm not saying i'm that strong of a personality where like
no but you never know yeah like an impact never know we can impact any like
you can impact somebody too there's there's There's no follower amount that,
you know, that limits that.
It's just, you can impact anybody on a conversation day to day and then they're who you are.
So that's how I always go about it. So it's never a dull moment.
I love it. I love it every single, every single time.

(01:18:56):
So, and then two more questions, then we'll wrap this up.
But one is, so Jamal Crawford had a really, you know, he went semi-viral or
should say not even semi, he did go viral for, it was after like the Made Hoops winner season,
he he made a post talking about how parents have made a you basketball, you know, difficult.

(01:19:17):
And he said, you know, he's, he's kind of stated, alluded to kind of what you
were talking about as far as, you know, there's a lot of problems in a you basketball.
There's a lot of great things, but there's a lot of problems.
Right. He said, but at the forefront, it's really parents and parents not just
kind of letting the process happen.
And, and, you know, again, I was talking about it when Jordan was on the show, just how crazy it is.
It's like even former NBA guys are having the same complaints as myself.

(01:19:39):
And it's like, if you're as a parent arguing with Jamal Crawford,
who's played the game at a high level, can play the game or Isaiah Thomas or
like the highest level, like if you're arguing with them, like they don't know what they're doing.
Like, I don't stand a chance, you know what I'm saying? So it's like,
if you were able to send a message to these parents,

(01:20:02):
because again, they even might look at what you do and say, you know,
oh, my kid wants to kind of go the same path as Marcella's over here doing the
content creation and the YouTube channel and the reaction stuff.
Like, what would be something you would say to the parents or advice maybe you
can give to the parents to help ease their minds or help let this process work?

(01:20:24):
I always say this let the person who's working work like I don't come into your
job and tell you how to coach and what to do you know what I'm saying so I think
it has to come with that same,
energy but it's tough because basketball is one of the most intimate sports
in the world you can see all the facial expressions you can literally at one
moment someone can come diving into the crowd on you so you have the you thought

(01:20:45):
you have the right to say however you feel about these players and these coaches
whatever the case may be but my thing is is if I have a kid and I hope I hope
I can stand to this when I have them because I don't know what if I don't know
what so I'd have a kid. I don't know.
But if I put him into an organization where he's being coached,
I'm going to let the coach coach him. And then.
And I'm going to say my piece, once we leave, I'm a firm believer in that.

(01:21:07):
Like, wow, I don't believe in voicing my opinion because I've seen it.
I've been a part of it, you know.
I've been a part of families like that. And, you know, even my dad, he's a tough lover.
And he'll let me know how he feels about how I'm playing right then and there.
So for me, it's like I'm not going to put added pressure onto my kid.
He has his coach yelling at him. Then he has me yelling at him.
I might be giving him a different message than what the coach is giving him. It's a lot.

(01:21:28):
So I think parents need more self-control.
At all levels to understand that the coaches have to coach, whether you agree with it or not.
You put your kid in that program for a reason, whether it be junior,
I mean, whether it be AAU, high school, middle school, whatever, even college.
Yeah, you have to let your kid grow in that field.

(01:21:51):
And then you can give your input in a car on the way home. I think that's when
it's not required, but I think that's when it should be accepted.
Constructive criticism while they're playing, even to coaches
my college coach always said there's a 24-hour grace
period yeah he would actually allow parents to come talk to him
right after 24 hours though yes so if you disagree
with how i'm coaching your kid in college yeah in college by

(01:22:13):
the way which is pretty long scholarship if you have
a way that if you feel a way that i'm coaching your kid we can
have a discussion 24 hours never after a
game right and usually after 24 hours parents tend
to cool down yeah because emotions are high emotions are high that's
that's just my message to parents man let your let your kids grow in
all facets especially me going junior college because i know

(01:22:34):
i'm going to deal with it this year with parents thinking their kids should be
playing and of course i'm i'm brutally honest so for me
i don't need a 24-hour rule i was like i'll come tell
you respectfully i'm like look this is this is what's happening since you want
to yell at me on the court we can have a literally adult conversation we can
go to a separate room where the case may be but have a have a legit conversation
because i don't want this conversation to die down and continue up with the
next game that that's how i am yeah but i do like the 24-hour rule because it

(01:22:57):
doesn't give you time to cool down I think just attack it head on and say,
hey, what are you upset about your kid for?
You know, I think having dialogue is big, too. But yeah, parents,
man, I think you got no time and place.
And then my last question for you is for the kids, for the kids or athletes
who are either going to listen to the show, check it out on YouTube,
maybe saw a little bit of the live whatnot.
Not, whatever space they want to do in this basketball spectrum,

(01:23:22):
whether it be as a player.
Content creation, basketball reactions, you know, street hooper,
whatever, like, cause you've kind of, again, just done it all quite honestly.
What advice could you give them or what advice would you give them?
You know, you're sitting down with your, what you say, your 15 year old self,
you know, what advice you giving to them?

(01:23:45):
What would I tell my 15-year-old self as advice? I think a good thing for me,
like a good rule of thumb would be always have a high level of preparation in whatever you want to do.
Whether that looks like for you, whether it's storyboarding,
whether it's writing down something in a journal, preparation is the best way
to succeed. But that looks different for everybody.
So I would always say be prepared for every single thing in life,

(01:24:07):
although you can't be prepared for every single life at the same time.
But control what you can control. there's no there's
nothing in life outside of your emotions that
you can actually control stuff may happen
in business where you might have a down month a down week your content
may not be as successful as you thought it would be but
the one thing that you can literally control

(01:24:29):
in life is the way you respond and react and
how you and and yeah how you respond and react
verbally verbally physically in public i
think that's very huge because everybody lets their
emotions get the best of them even in this business like i've been
there i've been there where i'm like man like it's hard because you put
your passion into right my passion i'm competitive right don't be

(01:24:51):
too competitive to where it gets in your in in the way of of
your own success i've been there but yeah i
would definitely say control what you can control which is your emotions to
every every situation and then lastly i
think i would say is you know i got through this in there i don't know everybody's religious
beliefs of course well i'm christian we share that
yeah for sure i would always say whatever you

(01:25:11):
praise to or you pray to i definitely keep them first keep
god first and for me that that's what's been working for me and my family um
ever since i've been married i've been being i've been blessed immensely it's
like honoring god while honoring my wife so my my advice to kids why i'm saying
that is if you honor your craft like you honor your relationship with the Lord,
or however higher believing you believe.

(01:25:32):
I truly do believe it's not a prosperity gospel.
I think you'll reap the benefits if you stay loyal and you have the faith with
the work to go along with it.
It's kind of like sanctification and justification all mixed into one. So yeah.
So kids out there, can't cheat the work though. I'll tell you that. Can't cheat the work.
It don't work that way. You can't buy no box and expect to see the success.

(01:25:56):
You got to go through every emotion every feeling with
this business you dig what i'm saying and it ain't for the
week and then when you make it out oh man celebrate go
ahead and pull you up some apple cider or something you know i mean i don't drink
so go ahead and play some apple cider and celebrate all victories that's what
i never did until later in the game i didn't i didn't celebrate all my wins
because i was like what's next what's next celebrate every single win whatever

(01:26:18):
that is maybe it's going out to get ice cream going on a walk with you with
your spouse with your friends going to the hoop been playing the part anything
celebrate everything you do i love it yeah,
And I also have breaking news, by the way. Go ahead. We have breaking news.
Breaking news. Right? Two part. Okay. Mikel Bridges to the Knicks. Oh, wow. Right? Yeah.

(01:26:44):
Just happened just now, 30 minutes ago. What?
OG Ananobi intends to sign a five-year, $212 million contract with the New York Knicks.
Oh wow he's staying a nick playing with michael bridges they just traded for
the nicks are freaking loaded they are they are it's gonna be interesting and

(01:27:09):
to do the math on that you know i'm saying i want to give you the math on that
the volume is about 42 million a year.
Now i'm gonna give you even further a trivia question who was that paid more
like who is getting paid more than in the nba i have a list of names right here
literally right like currently Currently,
in the 2024-2025 season, he's going to be paid an average of $42 million.

(01:27:30):
Well, Jalen Brown was the most paid, right? Right.
So, is he getting paid more than him? No. No, it's $42 million.
He's now, I'll give you the names. He is now being paid more this next season
than DeAndre Ayton, Desmond Bain, De'Aaron Fox.
Jason Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, SGA, MPJ, Jamal Murray, Brandon Ingram,

(01:27:50):
Zion, John Morant, Darius Garland.
Those players make between 34 to 36
million He's making 42.4 million
He has now entered into the top 25 contracts era
That's crazy That is insane Also shout out to Malik Monk Thank you for taking
less Because you're definitely worth Way more than that Shout out to him man

(01:28:14):
He got a great 78 million dollar contract But he decided to stick it out I'm
going to stay loyal to the process
and he's here man so I appreciate that I appreciate you man
have me on no thanks again Marcellus for uh coming through again
I will have links in the description to
his social media so please go follow him see his journey he's
all over TikTok he's all over YouTube he's much bigger than

(01:28:37):
myself but uh but no I still appreciate um
you being here as always man it's always good to see you right guy um
I'm very proud of you as always very proud
of your success and as I get older and grayer
i will still be proud of your success how are you again i'm 41 damn oh good

(01:28:57):
um but no thank you guys for listening if you uh stayed heard the whole episode
check out the whole episode you're a real one again do the hbo special hit that
subscribe help a brother out and we are out peace.

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