" Bout that Life Podcast" AAU Basketball and Life talk Episode 56 Dreams to Reality: Jordan Ford's Journey

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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. This is your host, Coach C. Collins.

(00:22):
I have not tapped in with you guys for a minute, and I know that I have to get
better at that because I've been just strictly very busy.
If obviously you've been supporting from day one, it's really appreciated.
I see my numbers keep going up on the audio side for sure. On YouTube,
I'm tapping in little by little by little.
For sure, on my personal YouTube, people have been subscribing,

(00:43):
liking, and sharing, and obviously on Instagram and TikTok as well.
So again, thank you for all that. I love when I hear feedback from people in
the gym. They come up to me like, hey man, I listen to your podcast.
I've learned a lot. Like I've been listening to a lot of people and your guests.
It's been helping my son, my daughter.
So please keep telling me that. Like, again, I do this not to be famous, not to make money.

(01:06):
I got a job. I got a nine to five. I ain't worried about that.
I do this to help you youth and you parents and coaches,
directors, anyone to help navigate this, this AAU system we've created to potentially
get the best out of your young athletes.
So before we get into the bulk of the show, let me give a quick shout out to my sponsors.

(01:28):
Shout out to Dr. Dish, best shooting machine on the market.
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(01:49):
My other sponsor, Hardwood Palace.
If you're looking for a good AAU tournaments, rec leagues, at basically any
level of basketball, even individual training, look up Hardwood Palace in Rockland, California.
You can't miss us. We're the only thing here and they'll be able to get you
in and out and get you some good quality basketball games.
So with being through all that, let me get to my guests.

(02:10):
I have watched this young man's career from afar for a while,
me being kind of Unk OG now, so I'm wearing that more and more.
But no, he's had a really good, solid career. He's still in the midst of his career.
Just got done doing basketball camp.

(02:31):
For YBA. Well, I shouldn't say for YB at YBA for him himself.
And I think he had a pretty solid turnout. That was your first camp, right?
Yeah. My first camp. Okay. So yeah. So we'll, we'll tap more into that,
but if for sure, if you're in Sacramento, if you're Sacramento Rocklin Folsom,
whatnot, you, you, you know, this guy really good, good with the people.

(02:52):
He's, he's kind of, in my opinion, a people's champ where everybody's out here rooting for him.
And obviously for you guys who are tapping in from the show from different states
different countries you'll get a feel of who he is today but without further
ado let me introduce Jordan Ford.
Thanks for being on the show brother I appreciate you having
me on the show yeah glad to be here okay so

(03:13):
let's get right to it first question I always
pretty much ask my guests before we get more into who
you are your basketball background things like that what do
you overall think of aau basketball
as it currently sits today in 2024 yeah
so aau basketball today i feel like there's some good things and there's some

(03:34):
bad things good things being that it's a great opportunity to be able to play
against some of the highest level competition like if we're talking high school
you know they got different circuits out there like like the EYBL circuit, for example,
which is going to attract some of the top talent.
And, you know, if you're just playing in your city, you're not necessarily going

(03:55):
to be able to tap in to that kind of talent and play against some of the guys
maybe from the East Coast, from all over.
And, you know, when I was playing in the EYBL, and I'm sure this is still how
it is today, but we were playing against, you know, future NBA guys every single night.
And, you know, just to build up that confidence and, you know,
to tell yourself, Oh, I can actually, I can really compete with these guys.

(04:18):
Like I have a, I have a chance to do something special.
And I would say going off of that though, some of the bad things that I notice,
you know, from, uh, AAU when you're small to even high school.
Sometimes we get caught in the trap of just rolling the ball out and just letting the kids play.
There's no real structure. It's kind of just you're putting a few plays here

(04:41):
and there, but you're really just rolling the ball out and trying to play games.
You think we're going away from teaching and development a little bit?
Definitely, definitely. I think there should definitely be some more teaching
and development, teaching kids how to play the game the right way,
especially at these higher levels. intervals, definitely got to start teaching

(05:01):
the kids how to play the right way.
Because if you look over in Europe, you know, you can tell the people that come
over to the NBA, they really know how to play the game the right way.
And, you know, I think we should, you know, treat our youth the same way and,
you know, just, just teach them how to play the right way. Okay.
And we'll get obviously more into the topics of that, but before we get more
into that, I want people to kind of get a general sense of who you are.

(05:23):
You can, you know, feel free, give me like a, you know, brief synopsis of your
basketball background, you know, obviously high school, collegiately.
Professionally, and your AAU experience as well.
So yeah, just, you know, tell the people who you are.
Yeah. So I'm Jordan Ford. I started playing basketball when I was four years
old, recreationally. And, you know, I started taking basketball really seriously.

(05:46):
I started training when I was eight years old.
My dad was my first trainer and, you know, we just basically,
we would pop in Gannon Baker videos and, you know, basically just do it yourself.
We take a look at that. We go to the gym for a couple hours and just train.
And from there, I ended up going to Folsom High School. So I'm from Sacramento
originally, and I played four years there.

(06:08):
And, you know, I worked hard enough to where I got a Division I scholarship to play at St.
Mary's College under Randy Bennett and had a great time there,
you know, did a lot of great things. And.
These past few years, I played a few years in the G League. I even had a stint in Greece.
Then this past year, I had my first NBA opportunity with the Sacramento Kings on a two-way.

(06:31):
So I'm just coming off of that and it's been great so far. Nice.
And so, well, what's the biggest tip?
And again, I'm going to have a series of questions like this,
but what's the biggest word of advice you can give to these young athletes that
are trying to essentially be where you're at?
Like, you know, how I try not to I try to give there is no 100 percent blueprint.

(06:56):
Right. I think we all know that. You know what I mean? There's no like,
oh, this is going to work no matter what you do, no matter what you are.
Obviously, there's a series of things that all have to fall in place and you
got to play at the right time. You got to show up at the right time,
you know, all that type of stuff.
But if there was like three things you could say to a kid, they say,
hey, you got to do these three things to give yourself the best chance.

(07:18):
What would those be? I would say the first thing is you have to believe in yourself.
You look at me, and I'm not the typical NBA player. I'm six foot.
I'm not crazy athletic. I just don't fit the NBA stereotype.
Type right there's been a lot of times you
know a lot of people aren't going to believe that you're going to
reach that dream so you kind of have to

(07:41):
have be a little delusional in a sense no
doubt and you know kind of tune all that stuff out and and
pretty much you know trust yourself trust your work and you know you got to
pretty much work harder than a lot of people it's going to be different for
me putting in the work at six foot not super athletic than it is for the 610
guy which is why the formula is different for everybody right so yeah believe in yourself.

(08:05):
It's going to take a ton a ton of
hard work a ton of sacrifice okay you know
you got to put you got to be a little bit obsessed with the game right if you
want to make it to the highest level that's what i tell people we got like yeah
hoopers have got to be a little weird you gotta you gotta have some make some
sacrifices and you know it's so easy to get distracted in so many different other

(08:29):
places but you know if you always put the work first and just focus on improving
yourself and getting one percent better every day then you know you'll find
yourself in a better place tomorrow and what's one one more thing that's two what's one more thing,
Let's see. Confidence, be ready, be obsessed with the work.
What would you say? What would you say? One more thing. These kids got to one more, one more thing.

(08:51):
I would say one thing that you can always control is your attitude.
So, you know, if your situation isn't working out, let's say you're on a team.
You're not playing as much like, you know, you get into college.
Somebody's playing in front of you. You know, that happened to me.
You know, you have to make sure that your attitude is still on point.
You never shy away from the work and because

(09:15):
you can only control what you can control you can't control
you know if the coach is playing you or all these other things
so i would say definitely you know whatever situation
you're in you have to make the most of it and control your attitude nice and
well talking about sacramento right and the and the landscape of basketball
culture out here i think i feel for sure in the in the last i mean you could

(09:38):
say you know pre-covid and for for sure, post-COVID,
I think Sacramento basketball has really been thriving, right?
You know, obviously with the Keens, when they, you know, made it to the playoffs
and been winning and things like that, and then even DP with the Sac State girls,
wasn't this past year, but the year before that, they won the conference.

(10:00):
I think DP, even before he left and Lowe, before they left, they did a pretty
solid job at Sac State basketball.
You had Sac High win in sections you know back to
back like so you just kind of see sacramento basketball's
kind of in a nice spot right it's booming right now
from you for you again being a sacramento guy seeing the from the outside looking

(10:24):
in what what's what's your overall take where the basketball community sits
today i think i think it's in a good spot one thing that i've noticed is in terms of like,
kids that get some attention,
and they're really good, kids are really good.
Sometimes they'll go out of Sacramento and go to the different areas like LA or different spots.

(10:50):
I believe that you can make it anywhere if you're good enough,
you know, and I want to encourage, you know, the basketball community in Sacramento
to hopefully keep the talent in Sacramento, find a way to keep the talent here
in Sacramento so we can all, you know, come and enjoy,
you know, what we've what we brought to the table.
See, I'm not the only one that says this because you just echo what I say a

(11:12):
lot. Yeah. I mean, you know, me being in Sacramento, I've had offers to go play
in different, different places in high school.
And, you know, I thought there was nothing cooler than being able to play in
my hometown where the community could come and represent your hometown. Right.
I'm big on that. That's something I'm big on. And I, and I didn't grow up in Sac to be fair.
I grew up in Oakland, but even when I grew up in Oakland, I took a lot of pride representing Oakland.

(11:35):
Like, obviously I'm, I'm 41. I'm older than you, but like I was playing for
the Oakland rebels and I took a lot of pride. in doing that.
You know what I'm saying? So I can relate and get where you're coming from.
And Sacramento is my second home, my home now, and I represent the youth side
of it. So I'm a big proponent.
Me and Marcus Kirkland argue about this all the time.

(11:56):
He's like, go here. No, go here. I'm like, no, man, we got enough talent here.
And I think the high school kids, I think watching guys like yourself,
Jordan Brown, when he was here, Coleman Hawkins, right? Right.
Just all those guys. I saw Coleman when he was a freshman at Antelope.
And it's like I just see our our best talent always end up playing for somewhere else. Now I get it.

(12:22):
They have the platforms. Right. Like you said, the EYBLs and all that.
We don't have that here. I wish we did, but we don't.
That's what I'm competing for. Right. Even as an AAU director,
I'm trying to get to that stage.
Right. It's just what I what I always tell Marcus and I've said to him.
I said it takes if Ten kids ten just like top kids in the area just said, you know what?

(12:44):
Irregardless what everybody's offering us the soldiers blah blah blah we gonna
stick on one team out here we're gonna stick together and we just gonna beat
all these guys and Put us on that stage because right like you said if you just
if you're good enough you good enough I think that could get Sacramento over
the hump But the hard part is
everybody would have to put their resources together put their egos aside
You know what I mean? And I think that's the hardest part.

(13:05):
So not to cut you off. I'm just saying that's what I was thinking.
Like, I'm just glad to hear somebody else say it. Yeah, yeah,
definitely, definitely.
Your journey, you know,
be like you said playing in the g league and and you know making it to that level,
how much how hard is it like let's be quite frank how hard

(13:27):
how much work do you put in how many hours would you say you
know on a daily basis you put in on your craft and
and and into being successful
you know what i mean like i'm trying to trying to
give these kids and these parents a real idea of like
how much work it truly takes yeah i mean
it's it's it's a ton of work

(13:48):
it's a ton of work and it's it's not like you know
on and off right you know it's not on and off it's it's an everyday commitment
that you make to yourself okay um and basically i'll say on a daily basis i
mean you have team practice you have lift and then you have to make sure you

(14:09):
know, you get your skill work in.
And now that I'm getting older, it's like you have to make sure you take care
of your body, get treatment.
So like you could find yourself in the facility for like easily like five hours.
You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, yeah.
And if you want to come back at night, get some extra shots.
And I was saying, that's not even including your extra time.
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, a little guideline that I had when I was,

(14:31):
you know, middle school, high school, we had team practices. I had AU practice.
I had, you know, high school practice so usually those
would run for about two hours and then i would
make sure i got at least two hours of skill work
and that was my formula for me that's what worked and
then we played a bunch of games on
the weekends we were playing so many games just getting that

(14:53):
experience and i will say like you
want to find a team that that you can
develop on you know you don't want to be you
know sitting on the bench and you know not playing you want to find
the best situation for yourself okay and that's
going to help you advance your game so yeah
that would be some advice that i'll give okay and then so i

(15:15):
want you to reflect on your career thus far right you
know kind of again from high school collegiately professionally all of it what
keeps you going like what makes you you know outside of me obviously the dream
everybody wants to put on an nba jersey right and get out there and play but
outside of that when when you know when your body's tired when when you're sore,

(15:35):
when you're putting in, like you said, five,
six, seven hours a day, what makes you wake up the next day and say,
all right, time to do it again?
I've been doing this for so long and I love it. Like I love the game.
I feel like you don't really get this far without the love for the game.
So it's pretty easy for me to wake up and be like, okay, I'm gonna go play basketball today.

(15:59):
I love doing everything about it. I love the process of getting better.
Even like when I run into adversity, I'm like, okay, how am I going to get through this?
Like, I love the whole process of, you know, everything that comes with basketball.
Nice. And I want to also, well, before we talk more about professionally,
I kind of want your take now that you're out of college and you're seeing the

(16:22):
landscape of college and how it's changing.
Let's talk. Well, it's a two-parter question, but first let's talk about the transfer portal.
What, what are your thoughts on that? What is your outlook on that?
Because you you stayed at your college all four years, right?
I did Yeah, and that's nowadays doesn't seem to be the norm so for someone who
did the all four years and like you said you had a good career and and now you're seeing this this,

(16:47):
Thing take over where you know kind of people are all over the place year after
year and obviously there's some really good successful Stories like Jalen Wells,
Zac Chappelle, obviously things like that Kai, but you know,
that's not everybody's story, right?
So I'm just curious for someone who's removed out of it, but you're still young enough.
You were a part of that. What's your take on it, or what do you think about it so far?

(17:11):
I'll say this. I think that it's about time that the players do get compensated.
I've been pushing for that for a long time, and I'm glad that they're getting
what they deserve and everything.
With that being said i want to encourage the
kids not to make it all about the money okay and

(17:34):
you know you kind of got to find that balance of finding
that right fit for your future career but also you know if you can get compensated
with money like that's also a good thing i think that's a good thing for college
athletes but not to get blindsided by just you know this school is offering
from me this much. The school is offering me this much.

(17:54):
I think you have to, you know, keep in mind, you know, you want to play after
college, you want to be a professional.
So you're going to have to have the opportunity to go play and show what you
can do and find a place where you can really develop because,
you know, some, some quick money for three, four years, it's okay.
But you know, you, if you want to have a 15, 20 year career and you know,

(18:16):
you're going to have to make it out of college do you do you
think at some point the ncaa
or something's going to happen to where they regulate this transfer
portal they they have been making new rules like kind of to where okay like
for instance um i was coach barnes he talked about this on brandon barnes from

(18:36):
bakersfield i don't know if you've seen any of his videos but he talked about
out on his Instagram that college is now when they recruit kids, right?
They, if they enter the transfer portal, they still have to like keep that kid
until he finds another school, if that makes sense.
So it's like, let's say you're, you, you want it. Let's just say,

(18:58):
if you want it to leave St. Mary's, you say, okay, I'm going to enter the transfer portal.
St. Mary's is still obligated to keep your spot and keep your scholarship until
you find another home, which now the backlog, the quote unquote backlash that
it makes recruitment that much tighter.
Because now if I'm St. Mary's and I go look at a kid.

(19:21):
I know this kid is halfway in, halfway out. We don't know what we can do.
We don't know if we're going to – now I don't know if I'm going to take that
kid if he's halfway in, halfway out because I'm kind of stuck with him because
let's say he's unhappy and he's – but now he comes back, but I know I'm not
going to play him, but I'm stuck giving him that spot.
You know what I mean? Yeah, I really didn't know that was the case.
Yeah, that's another rule they just put in.

(19:42):
So I personally think it's going to lean towards NCAA is going to start making some regulations.
Regulations i don't you know i don't know when that's
going to be implemented but i could just see it happening little by little
yeah i mean i don't i didn't know that was the case yeah to where
you know the coach is forced to yeah they're kind
of i mean that puts them in a a tough position and i don't necessarily agree

(20:05):
with that so i mean i think there should be some regulations going on but yeah
that's that was news to me right now it's like the wild west so i mean that
it's gonna i I think it's going to be situated in a few years,
which is fine. Everything evolves. The game evolves.
Everything's evolved little by little. Now we're to a point,
I was joking with you about the show earlier, but now high school kids can get NIL deals.

(20:29):
You know, Mikey Williams obviously being the biggest, one of the bigger names
that started that process.
For you, do you think that's a good thing, bad thing? Like I'm a little leery
when it comes to high school kids because they're so much younger and immature,
obviously, even college guys.
Let's be real. They're not you're not 18 years old and all of a sudden,

(20:51):
you know, life, right? You got to figure things out.
But now you're giving 15 year olds, 14 year olds all this money. You know what I mean?
It's tough. It's tough, you know, because if your family is in a situation where,
you know, you could use that money, it'll it'll go a long ways.
But giving a kid, you know, that much attention and that much, you know, so early,

(21:12):
maybe they could lose track of, you know, all the hard work that they need to
put in and they think everything is easy or whatever it is, but I could definitely
see negatives and some positives to that.
Uh, let me ask you, so in AAU, cause I, I talk about this a lot too,
and, and, and this is kind of what circles back with a college as well.

(21:34):
In your opinion, do you think loyalty exists anymore in like a basketball or
college, or do you feel it's kind of half and half?
I mean, personally, I'll just tell you my take as far as a, you,
I don't think there's any loyalty anymore.
You know, I used to be, like you said, some pride in sticking with your coach
and your program and growing up together with your guys and represent that.

(21:56):
I kind of just think that's gone.
You know what I mean? I hate to say it. Yeah. I mean, even when I was,
I mean, I remember my days pretty,
clearly and it was, you know, you had guys going from team to team and,
you know, just jumping around trying to find, I don't know, better situations
or whatever it is, or, you know, they want to go out of town with this team
or whatever it is. I feel like.

(22:18):
Yeah, there's not much loyalty. But with that being said, if you have a chance
to, you know, play against higher competition, right?
So if you if you're playing on, you know, maybe a regular AU circuit,
and you're dominating that circuit, and you're like, man, I think it's time
for me to elevate my game.
And it's time for me to move on and play against, you know, some of the top talent in the country,

(22:44):
I think a player shouldn't be looked down upon for doing that because they're
trying to advance their game and trying to play against the best competition.
So I think you definitely do need to find the right situation.
But you shouldn't be hopping from team to team because that's just going to
build bad habits in the long run.

(23:04):
If you're just, it doesn't work out right away.
Oh, I'm going to hop to this team. I'm going to hop to this team.
I don't think that's That's good for anybody.
And then I don't know if you saw too, just because I want to speak on that.
Jamal Crawford's been a big, he's been talking a lot about you and I,
and I happened to meet him because we were playing on the made hoop circuit.
Right. So I ended up meeting him and a couple of other professional guys,

(23:28):
expo guys, um, coaching their kids. Right.
And I coached against his son and you know, he's been a big advocate of terms
of just saying parents got to chill out a little bit. Basically,
that's the quick version.
He's like, you know, let coaches do their job. Let kids go through the process.
Rondo had a good show when he was talking about it on all the smoke with Matt

(23:50):
Barnes and Steven Jackson. Like he was.
Even professional athletes are finding it frustrating to coach because so many
parents are kind of like so heavily involved.
And, and that's crazy. Cause it's like, you would think if anybody you would
listen to, it would be those guys.
If they can't get them to listen, then man, I don't know.

(24:10):
But yeah, I mean, sheesh, I feel like, you know, when the players are on,
on the court and the coach they're under the coach's control,
they should let the process just happen because it could also be bad for the
kid, you know, trying to listen to two different things, trying to listen to the coach,
trying to listen to their parents who might be screaming at them to do one thing.

(24:31):
They're like, they're kind of confused. I don't know what to do.
And yeah, I think, I think it's just, just bad for everybody involved.
You know, the coach has his plan for each kid and for the team.
And I think sometimes the parents, they want their kids to succeed so bad that
they, you know, mess it up a little bit by just, you know, trying to do a little bit too much. Right.
So yeah, I feel like parents should take a step back and you know,

(24:54):
when it's outside of the team, you can teach your kid, right.
Whatever you want to, you want to teach them, you know, some certain skills
that they need to work on.
That's fine. But when it's under the coach's control, just let the process happen.
Exactly. And I, and to be fair, cause again, I try to look at it from all sides.
I'm, I'm someone who tries to look at everything from every perspective.
So I say, okay, I'm a parent, right?

(25:16):
I got my, I got, I got kids, right? I got I've got three kids,
I have two sons, so it's like, okay.
If I'm judging the coach, right, I'm more judging, is my kid after,
let's say, six months, seven months, we're going to reassess.
If I commit to this team, I commit to this team through the ups,
downs, whatever, because I'm big on following through with my commitments.

(25:37):
If my kid is doing this, irregardless of how the record looks or if we're winning every game,
losing every game, whatever, if I see progression in my child and I'm noticing
he's responding to this coach,
then for me, I'm getting what I'm asking for, right?

(25:58):
But sometimes I think parents confuse winning with development.
And just because you win doesn't necessarily mean you're developing, right?
Because, you know, I talk about it in AU, and I'm sure you've seen it enough.
You can gather super teams.
You know what I mean? I could take the best kid from this team,
the best kid from this team, best kid from this team, put eight of the top kids

(26:20):
together in sixth grade because they're 12 years old, and we just go beat the
crap out of a bunch of 12-year-olds.
That doesn't mean redeveloped. That just means we won games because we're bigger,
faster, stronger, whatever the case may be.
Right. Right. I'm I'm a big proponent of at least eight the years from eighth
grade and below development should be the number one piece over everything.

(26:46):
And then, of course, high school, it's different because you are trying to get
to a certain platform, a certain stage where you can prove yourself to potentially play college ball.
So let's just say let's exclude senior year, junior year, but let's say at least
10th grade and below. Do you think that's fair?
Kind of my assessment where I'm just saying like development should be to me the primary piece?

(27:08):
100%. I think development is the most important thing for youth basketball.
You want to focus on getting as skilled as possible and getting as good as possible.
So when you do, you know, go to high school, you know, you can make a big impact
on your high school team and, you know, hopefully get a division one scholarship.
But if you're just stuck on a team, you know, let's say you have a super team

(27:31):
and, you know, you're not developing, you're not getting building the skills
to become that player you want to be, then that's going to hurt you in the long run. All right.
And let me ask you this, because I'm sure you ran into this when you were playing.
Oh, and just because we didn't even mention it.
What AAU teams did you play for? Or yeah, because we didn't mention that part in the show.

(27:53):
What teams did you play for so the guests can know your teams?
Yeah, so growing up, my first AAU team was Team Cal.
I was in the second grade. That was my first one.
From there, we went to my third grade year. I went to play for the Pharaohs.
Yeah, the Pharaohs have been around a long time. Yeah, they've been around a long time.

(28:15):
I played with the Pharaohs, and I was playing with two teams.
I was playing with the Yellow Jackets.
Another long standing program. People in SAC, if you don't know,
look those programs up. They've been around a while. Yeah, yeah.
So I was going back and forth between those teams. So sometimes I was playing
like eight games in a weekend, something crazy.
And one team would play up, so I would get some experience playing up.

(28:36):
And one team would play sometimes our own age group, and then we would play up just one grade.
So I was getting a lot of games and a lot of experience. And then after that.
I went to play with Play Hard, Play Smart.
Long-standing program. Yeah, yeah. Play Hard, Play Smart, ninth and part of my 10th grade year.
Okay. And then I got an opportunity to play on the EYBL circuit with the Oakland Soldiers. Nice.

(29:02):
So I took that opportunity just to advance my game and play against some top talent.
Can you talk about that Soldiers experience?
Like every kid's dream is to play.
I'm currently with Adidas, right? Right. So our top levels, the three SB,
you have Under Armour, they have the UAA Under Armour Association.
And then, of course, still Nike, YBL is the top of the totem pole.

(29:27):
Can you talk about that experience for some of these kids or,
you know, people listening like just just the competitive level of it,
the travel, the camaraderie, just the, you know, the overall fun you had with
it? Can you talk about that?
Yeah. So it's you know, it's it's a big difference.
It's a big difference. I was going from playing, you know, the regular circuit
and high school basketball.

(29:48):
And, you know, a lot of times I was the best player on my team and the other team.
Yeah. And so I go to play on the circuit and I'm like, man, we got some really,
really talented players.
I have, I'm playing with the number one player in the country.
Like, so I'm no longer like the main focus. I have to learn how to play with
these other guys, which is very, very important because, you know,

(30:10):
if you make it to the highest level, you're going to have to learn how to do that.
Playing it, playing your role, right? Playing your role. Yeah.
Playing your role and still trying to figure out a way to be, yeah.
Showcase what you can do. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, basically from there, um.
Sorry no no no you're fine just no that happens don't

(30:31):
don't feel like that i know i'm just saying um describe to
me what was like playing on that circuit or playing with those guys
on the eybl yeah i had a brain fart it happens bro but
uh no yeah basically playing on that circuit man
it was it was unbelievable our first game was against
arkansas wings i remember it pretty clearly and it

(30:51):
was against malik monk that was our first game i'm
like man like i don't know I don't know who this kid is
but everybody's everybody's talking about him and everybody's like
oh he's like a top five player in the country and I'm like okay
right yeah man he killed he torched us he torched us yeah he torched us he went
for like 30 and I'm like okay like this is the real deal yeah this is I instantly

(31:13):
called Rashid and I was like man my trainer is Rashid yeah I was like man like
we got a lot of work to do shout out to Sean yeah we got a lot of work to
do and yeah so from there it just
got my experience got better and better but it was definitely an adjustment period
for me okay yeah how did that how did that
feel if you can describe or remember that feeling to to go against a guy like

(31:36):
you said that just dropped 30 and i'm sure you guys did and tried everything
but if you know some guys just can get buckets like that right like how can
you describe what that what that learning process was like or what you felt
or or what you were feeling during that time?
Just like, you know, there's another level. Yeah.
There's different levels. Right. To see him for the first time,

(31:57):
it was like somebody that can really score, he can shoot, but you mix that with
a whole lot of athleticism. Yeah.
You're like, man, you got a lot of work cut out for you, so you got to make
sure you get a lot better and keep improving.
Yeah, but there was plenty of guys out there on the circuit that you're playing against.
You're like, man, I got another tough matchup tonight. Right, right. You got...

(32:19):
I played against De'Aaron Fox a few times too on the circuit,
which was the same thing, like super athletic, super skilled. Right.
So you got to find a way to just compete with those guys. Okay.
And yeah, well, funny enough, now these are your teammates. Both of my teammates.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
No, that's pretty good. I just, I always try to, on the show again,
I want to give kids the insight because again, I just don't,

(32:43):
they hear from someone like me, right? I'm coach, been coaching forever.
They're like, yeah, yeah, coach, you don't know what you're talking about,
right? Right. So that's what I like when I hear from guys like you who like,
nah, bro, it's tough at this level. It's very tough. Very tough.
Let me see. One last question before we move into our other segments.
For yourself, you know, what what five years from now, you know,

(33:07):
where would you like to see yourself or where where where would you like to
see your aspirations in terms of?
And it doesn't have to just be athletically, just, you know,
in the community and in your personal life, your family, just whatever.
Like, where would you like to see yourself in like five to ten years?
Yeah. Jeez, five to ten years.
I definitely want to still be playing basketball.

(33:31):
I want to be able to stick on an NBA roster. That's my goal.
Right. To play a long career in the NBA. So that's been my goal.
That's always going to be my goal.
No doubt. And then in Sacramento, I want to keep giving back to the community
and keep helping, you know, the kids and let them know that,

(33:52):
you know, things are possible with, you know, a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication.
And you can come out of Sacramento and make it to, you know,
wherever you want to go as long as you put the time in. But it's definitely possible.
Nice. I'm going to move into hot takes.
I want to throw some names at you. This is just kind of a little fun thing.

(34:13):
So because I want to throw some guys that I know, you know, you've worked out
with, you know, I mean, they listen to my show or been on my show or things like that.
But give me your first quick thoughts when I say their name.
Right. When I say their name, give me your first, you know, give me like three
or four or five words, whatever. Quick thoughts when I say these guys names.
Right. Yeah. Because like I said, they listen to the show. And I think it's

(34:35):
just fun to talk about because we know a lot of the same people. Kai Huntsberry.
Oh, man. Hard worker. Okay. Ghost Roberts.
Underrated and talented. Okay. Jalen Wells.
Sleeper of the draft. I love that. Let's see.

(34:55):
Well, you mentioned his name, Rasheed, Rasheed Sean. Just a warrior and the
best guy you will ever meet.
Nice. Let's see. Who else do I think? Oh, Gus, Gus Ormson.
He is, he is like the godfather of like pro basketball in Sacramento.
Yeah, very much. Very true. Let me see who else did I have on the list. Oh, Marcellus Perry.

(35:20):
Very funny and can't guard me one-on-one.
Um let's see uh Drifty J Drifty J
I'll say talented funny
and he puts some
he puts together some great AAU teams on this he does he does no doubt let me

(35:41):
see Ryan Sipens he is hard worker Booker teaches great skills in the community
and teaches more than just basketball.
It seems like he teaches a lot of great life lessons as well.
Nice. And Coleman Hawkins?
I think, is he entering the draft? He was, but he rescinded and he's going back to Illinois.

(36:09):
I don't know if you like know him, but I think you've seen his game.
Definitely. I've definitely seen his game. And skilled, man, freakishly talented.
Yeah. I've seen the kid, like I said, tall. He just got that prototypical,
you know, dembe. He can do a little bit of everything. Yeah, he does. Absolutely.
I think they have a couple more. Oh, Marcus Kirkland.

(36:32):
Oh, he's like a community guy.
One of the biggest community helpers that we have in Sacramento for basketball.
Just trying to do great things for the community.
Absolutely. And then Mickey from the Yellow Jackets. Oh, man.
Long time legend. I've known him for a very long time. Yeah. Yeah.
All right, good. No, I just wanted to get some of those names out.

(36:55):
And please, people, if you listen to this episode, go check some of these guys
out, man. Go follow them on IG.
These are good brothers, good people out here doing great work.
I am so into my
hot take segment I also wanted to talk
about the NBA right now you know we got
Celtics and in Dallas and it's rough for Dallas right now no doubt but they

(37:22):
are facing a great Celtics team you know did well I guess technically you shouldn't
say this but it shouldn't matter well growing up What was your favorite NBA team?
Definitely was the Sacramento Kings being from here. I always wanted to see the Kings be great.
And I became a Steph Curry fan as well. He was my favorite player growing up.

(37:44):
So by default, I would also root for the Warriors. Right. I'm a Warriors fan too.
Yeah, yeah. But I'm a Kings guy. Right, right. But I was here when we had Mike Bibby and C. Will.
I was around for that. I was so small. I was so small when that happened.
But I like to follow players, and, you know, Curry was my favorite player.
You know what I'm saying? And it was very, very cool to see what he does on the basketball.

(38:07):
Yeah. And, yeah, they just played good basketball, so I enjoyed watching it.
Have you ever had a chance to, like, meet Curry or talk to him or work out with
him or any of that type of stuff?
Yeah, so he came to St. Mary's and did an open gym with us.
Nice. Which was super cool to meet him and, you know, play against him.
Yeah. I think we found out the night before, and we're like,

(38:27):
oh, my God. Like, Steph's going to come play with us. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
From that experience did you kind of did he talk about
like his work ethic and you know kind of or did
or could you just see it kind of just playing against him
or playing you're like oh yeah you could tell this guy puts in work almost definitely
so i i also worked his high school camp okay

(38:47):
the steph curry camp yeah like a counselor yeah
and you know he let us work out with his
trainers a few times and we were able to see like
behind the scenes like what he was doing and like we
watched him work out and we watched him you know coming in
taking care of his body and yeah basically just not skipping
any steps so yeah no i

(39:08):
mean it was great and you know just to talk to him and we played
against him a couple times this past year yeah of course i said what's up to
him you know he remembers me that's life camp and stuff yeah no it's uh and
obviously speaking of which you know it was all over social media stuff he came
to fold some lifetime for marcus's open run so shout out to Marcus again,

(39:30):
doing, doing, like you said, community things and things like that.
So, and which was really cool. And then Ken, Ken Baysmore, he,
he helped orchestrate that as well and quarterback that.
So shout out to you guys and, and doing great work there, you know,
for you going into this, this next season.

(39:50):
Um is there some like milestones for
yourself that you kind of pushing for and trying to make happen
for yourself yeah for this next season you know
it starts with with summer league having a good summer league and yeah you know
just showing teams what i can do on the court and that i can help an nba roster
yeah and that's pretty much my goal get on the nba roster and make sure that

(40:13):
i try and stick and you know my goal every time i step on the floor is to try to help the.
Team win yeah so just do what i can to contribute
to wins so for summer league just just so there
i mean so you're basically gonna fly out to vegas and
and stay there for a while is that
basically how it works i mean just over like you fly to

(40:34):
vegas do your thing up there play your games and then kind
of see where the chips fall is that kind of how it works yeah so i
think we play about five or six games in
las vegas and yeah you pretty much you
know play maybe a game every two or
three days and pretty much
it's a platform for a lot of guys that are

(40:54):
on the brink of the nba and trying
to get you know right use this as an opportunity to get on rosters
yeah and yeah you pretty much play for
i think we're out there for 10 to 12 days and you know make
sure you stay out of trouble and right you
know you really gotta gotta lock
in on on the task at hand and that's something

(41:16):
you know that the oakland soldiers really put
into my head and you know every we would be traveling a lot right
and they're like yo like this is a business trip this is not this ain't just
going like of course there's elements of fun but it's yeah definitely this is
a business trip like we're here for business we're here to you know handle the
task and you know they were treating us like pros nice at a young age which was which is dope.

(41:40):
So can you explain, because I think, again, it helps to hear insight from guys
like yourself that are in these positions working your butts off.
I always tell kids, even at the collegiate level, you have to play your role.
You have to establish a role and then kind of expand from there.

(42:01):
Is it pretty much, like you said, similar at the professional level?
Like you you play your role and of course, they want to see you excel at your role, but,
From there, you know, you you obviously try to showcase who you are,
you know I call it like the Jeremy Lin effect right you being ready for your
Jeremy Lin moment and you know Be ready to show up right is is that kind of

(42:22):
the the process that's been for you or still?
Feels like it's that for you. Definitely like you you do have to play your role
on any team that you're given but I,
At the professional level, the team knows why they brought you there.
And basically, they're bringing you in there because you're bringing something to the table.
So whether if you're one of the best shooters, they want you to shoot.

(42:44):
You're one of the best playmakers. They want you to play make.
So they pretty much know what you bring to the table and they kind of expect
you to be able to bring that.
So trying to find a way to transfer your game from college to,
you know, the next level is basically just doing what you did previously because
they know why they brought you there. Absolutely.

(43:07):
I wanted to get circle back with a you a little bit with you.
So I'm sure you saw this and dealt with this too. When you played a you basketball,
you know, reclassing is a big thing right now.
It seems like more and more reclassing is happening. I mean,
even as far as like second graders, third graders, it's, it's,
it's going on and it's going on heavy.

(43:28):
Like, because, because, you know, I hate to circle it back to the pandemic,
but a lot of those things are part of it to blame is because,
you know, colleges are looking for older kids, right? Let's,
you know, that's a good memory.
Colleges are overall looking for older kids, right? Right.
So people work, I think, kind of seeing the system and they're like,

(43:49):
well, if I reclass my kid in fourth grade, you know, and they're a year older
now, they're going into their freshman year college at 19 years old or 20 years old. Right.
Even some are doing obviously the prep schools, you know, to hold off their years or.
Go to a Juco in gray shirt and then red shirt and then finally play.

(44:11):
You know what I mean? So you just have kids pushing off, pushing off,
pushing off. But I'm not a huge fan of reclass.
I'll just be real. I'm a big advocate of this on this show. Some people agree
with me. Some people don't.
I just think it's kind of a cheat code. My thing is, especially when I see teams,
and I've ran into this, you know, I'll go take my kids to, like,

(44:32):
a national tournament in Vegas, right?
Bigfoot, right? Something like that. We might make it to the championship.
Last year we did, actually. My seventh grade made it to the championship.
We ended up, and this is my sixth grade.
At the time, they were sixth graders. So this is my 12-year-olds.
And the championship was a 16-year-old.
What good is that doing? Exactly. And they won, okay, because they had a 16-year-old

(44:56):
and a couple 14-year-olds going against my 12-year-olds.
And I have their seventh grade. Now I have a legit, high-level 13-year-old team.
There's no whole backs, reclass.
But I've just seen it gotten, it's gotten really bad. I mean,
you're talking like there's rules.
I did the Adidas circuit and I, and I'm going to probably do a video on it.

(45:17):
Cause I screenshot their rules. I mean, it made hoops as well.
You can be 16 years old in eighth grade.
So now you have 17 year olds entering high school as freshmen of 17 year old
freshmen. That rule needs to change.
Right. I was just, I'm just curious your thoughts on it or someone from the
outside looking in, you know what I mean? Like what's your overall take on something like that?

(45:40):
Yeah, so reclassifying was happening even when I was, it was a huge thing when
I was coming up in AAU and you know, everybody was doing it, so.
Our philosophy was like, there's no need to. And I'm, I was super skinny.
I was super, you know, if anybody could use a reclassify, it would have been me.
So I'm like, so we're like, man, like, should we do it?

(46:05):
And we're like, nah, like, honestly, like we don't, we don't need to do it because
we're so focused on the skill and, you know, I will be good enough if I just
keep working and keep progressing and keep focusing on that skill and not skipping any steps.
Steps so i just feel like you don't really need to do it and it's so funny because.
Like the college they want them older

(46:27):
but the nba wants them younger right that's that's
it's funny you mentioned that because i was seeing i just talked about that
one of my friends i said it's weird because yeah the pros don't want you super
old yeah and i was like so when we're thinking about reclassifying it's like
my goal is to make it to the nba right i don't want to be a year older coming out of college. Right.

(46:49):
Why would I, why would I want to do that to myself? I want to be as young as
I can entering, you know, the draft.
Cause I think some guys are having a hard time with that. Cause,
cause again, you got like, you know, I think back in March madness this past
year, you know, some guys were like 26, 27 years old, you know,
and granted, they're probably not going to play in the league or whatever.
Maybe they go overseas, whatnot, but yeah, it's pretty hard to be a 27 turning

(47:14):
28 year old, trying to make it to the league at that point. You know what I
mean? It's almost, yeah, it's almost impossible.
It's almost impossible. So that's just a really interesting point you bring
up, because that's one thing I was thinking too.
I said, you know, the NBA, they want the youth, or the younger guys,
so they can develop and mold you guys.
You look at Gwen Bonana, right, is a great example, you know.

(47:36):
Uh just even on a side note speaking of him i never got i
didn't get to see him in person this year i mean i'm sure you saw him right
or did you physically say like how tall is
this guy when we played against him he didn't play actually oh he didn't yeah
he didn't play but i saw him in summer league this past year and i i walked
i just walked right by him because their team their team room was like next

(47:58):
to ours yeah yeah and yeah the dude's mask he's ridiculous i see them like i I've seen a video.
You know, I haven't seen it. I didn't get to go to a Kings game this year because I was so busy.
But I look at him like, damn, he makes tall guys look small. Small.
Very small. And it's so funny to see. I mean, he's one of the best defenders

(48:18):
in the NBA right now. Yeah. And as a rookie.
And it's so funny to see. I keep seeing, like, highlights.
These are literally highlights of people going in and not shooting layups.
Right. Just to circle back out. And they're like, they have an open layup.
And they're like, nah. No, I'm not even going to try it. I thought that was ridiculous.
I saw him and Anthony Davis standing next to each other, and I'm seeing him

(48:39):
and Joel Embiid when they first did it.
I'm just like, he makes Joel Embiid look average height. Definitely.
Man, and that is one of the biggest dudes in the NBA. Yeah. One of the biggest
dudes in the world. Right. And I'm like, he's making him look, I mean. Small.
It's funny because that's what everyone says. They say, that's the future of the NBA.
Everybody's going to be looking like that. like the honest and all that guard

(49:02):
skills too yeah what do you what do you think of,
the overall evolution of basketball and the nba and guys being very multi-talented
multi-skilled you know big man who can shoot you know guards who can post up
like just just all of it like what what's your overall look or opinion of it

(49:23):
i just think that's where the game is going you know the.
What's being pushed is, you know, skill sets. Like if a bigger player,
a taller player can have a guard skill set, that's just going to give them so
much more of an advantage.
You can't, I mean, when Vamiana, you can't block his shot, KD,
like you're not going to, you're not going to block KD's shot. Right. No, you're not.

(49:45):
Yeah. So it's like, if they can pull up on you or, you know,
get to their spot and pull up, there's really nothing you can do to stop that.
So, So, I mean, it makes sense. I think all taller players should learn how
to be guards and learn how to, you know, play with the ball in their hands and
learn how to shoot and do all these other things.

(50:05):
So one thing I do and what I teach, I actually teach a lot of my guards post-work
and it's to help them with footwork.
You know what I mean? Because I think that's the easiest.
I think that's the easiest natural way to transition and learn footwork is by posting up.
Right. Because bigs, especially when they're younger, right?
They kind of have to learn that because they can't really, you know, do it.

(50:27):
You try to like, for me, I teach my bigs how to dribble and stuff like that,
but we do it in a controlled environment and practice.
And of course, if they have the opportunity in the game.
I'm screaming, I'm dribbling the ball, dribble. Because I know the bigger picture.
They got to get comfortable with that.
But also, I make a lot of my guards post up.

(50:48):
Two things, two reasons why. One, they need to learn how to guard a post.
Because that's one thing I've noticed in coaching youth.
Guards generally don't know how to guard the post. Once they get posted up, they're stuck.
Because they have no clue. They've never done it. And then on top of that,
to me, it's like, I could teach a jab step,

(51:09):
you know, the pivots and all that on the wing, but I think you learn it better
and the post area because that's how you score in the post is all footwork. Right.
So if you can translate it there into wing ability, right, that that's what I do.
So I'm just curious for you being a point guard and things like that.
Do you think that's a good thing for guards to learn how to post and all that

(51:32):
stuff? I think it's fantastic.
It's fantastic because that's one of the first things I learned is,
you know, we started learning up and unders when I was, I was one of my first
training sessions, learning how to do up and unders and footwork.
And, you know, when a guard gets into the paint, they technically become a post.
All the footwork in there is post footwork, being able to step through,

(51:54):
being able to go up and under, being able to pivot.
So I think it's very, very valuable. And you see guys like Jalen Brunson. in today's game.
I mean, he posts up a lot, but his footwork is unbelievable.
And he plays off two feet, really well. He plays off two feet. He uses his pivots.
He uses his step-throughs. And I mean, it's a huge advantage for guards to learn

(52:15):
how to, you know, basically have that post footwork. Exactly.
And be able to finish at the rim.
With, and it's also what I find
interesting too, with the evolution of the game, Do you agree that kids?
You know even younger and younger kids are getting skilled in,

(52:36):
faster than even what you did for sure of what i did back in the day i you know
do you think they're getting gaining skills quicker because of obviously trainers facilities.
Social media right you have
all this free information you know youtube all that stuff
do you think kids are getting skilled fast at
a faster rate i think so okay i think so i mean

(52:58):
they have so many tools that they
can use they have social media they have youtube they
have you know all these trainers and you know
all the information is out there for them to do
what they want with it right if they want to you know
see a move all they have to do is type it into youtube and yeah it's
right there in front of them and you know they choose to do what they want with

(53:20):
it and i think a lot of kids are realizing that and taking advantage of that
that my only concern i guess what piggybacking off that is obviously old heads
you you know you hear us say it all the time I'm not going to lie. I say it kind of myself.
Basketball is getting softer and softer right now. I'm not going to say on the

(53:41):
professional level because I've been to NBA games.
It don't look soft to me. I will say defense is more at a disadvantage than
it used to be back in my era.
Right. You know, that's what I would say. But I don't see the game as softer. Right.
But it's like I give example like things that annoy me. I see fifth graders trying to flop.

(54:02):
You know what I mean? like you're you're 10 years old like what
are you doing you don't need to be worrying about flopping play tough figure
out how to play tough you can learn that skill set
later on you know what i mean i i i or i see kids um younger and younger kids
there's a lot of footage controversial footage to a degree of kids taunting
each other and you know doing too much on the court and all that stuff that's

(54:25):
what i say is i think the negative side of all this social media information and stuff like that.
Just curious if you, if you had seen some of that stuff or if you have a take
on any of that or an opinion on any of that.
Definitely. Definitely. I mean, you know, the kids are pretty much copying what
they see NBA players, you know, their favorite college players,
favorite high school players do.
Right. And, you know, having that stuff in front of them is,

(54:49):
it could be a disadvantage.
And, you know, you see, you know, our kid will hit a three, you know,
he hits the green, he hits the gritty, you know what I mean?
I'm like, oh, okay. Like, Like, what are we doing?
And you're nine years old. Yeah, get back on defense, bro. Like,
what kind of habits are we building? We're gritting after threes.
Yeah. I mean, I mean, there's, there was even that when, when I was younger too,

(55:11):
social media obviously took that to another level, but you know, we just,
as kids, you know, we, we watched a lot of NBA and we see our favorite players
do certain things and we're like, oh, like, you know, my goal is to be like,
you know, Kobe Bryant, things that Kobe Bryant does.
And yeah, I mean, kids are going to do what they see.

(55:33):
And that's why I put it on the coach and the parents, like you got to,
you know, reign them in you got to control you know
their egos like hey chill out we don't do that like yeah
and i know they they play a lot of 2k so right
they got the things where you know you hit the shot now like do
these little dances and stuff like i want to be like 2k right that's that's
this yeah that's just the way day we live in i wanted to ask you a few more

(55:57):
things before we get out of here so you're you're your trainer shine right he's
been on my show multiple times Is Rasheed still your primary trainer?
Or I'm sure you work with a few, but is he still like your main guy you work with? Yeah, he is. Okay.
Can you talk to me about that relationship of player and trainer and going through the years together?

(56:20):
Because we talked about it when he was on the show with me and Andre Stiakovich.
And we even brought up like Phil Handy and LeBron. And, you know,
just when you see that relationship between a trainer and a player and how,
you know, important it is in your success, you know what I mean?
I just wanted you to kind of talk about that from your perspective.

(56:42):
Yeah, I mean, Rasheed or Shine is like my older brother.
Yeah. And, you know, I've known him for such a long time since I was 10 years old.
And just to have somebody, you know, in my life that, you know,
I can go to, let's say, like I said, like that when I was playing on the UIBL
and I'm like, man, like I got a wake up call. I'm like, yo, like.

(57:05):
We need to get in the gym and get better. Like we got to do something,
we got to, we got to keep improving or, you know, in college,
you know, we might go on like a little losing streak or something.
I'm feeling like, you know, like, you know, I want to win.
I want to win, do all these things. And I have somebody to call,
you know, outside of basketball, you know, just to, just to talk about it and,
you know, just to get some advice from he's been, he's been great.

(57:27):
And even outside of basketball, like he's, he's always there for me,
you know, teaching me life skills and stuff like that.
So, um, I think the relationship between, you know, a trainer and a player is super, super valuable.
And for you being, you know, a Sacramento guy, a community guy,

(57:48):
how has that been for you?
You know what I mean? Like, you know, like, and again, this is just me not necessarily
knowing you, but kind of seeing you from afar.
You seem kind of similar to myself. I'll say this, where it's like you're an
introverted extrovert.
Like, you know, like you, you seem like the type of dude you like to,

(58:09):
you know, chill in the house, you know, be around people that you're comfortable with, things like that.
But sure, you know, step out, go hang out every now and then and things like that.
But you're not you're not the guy throwing bottles in the club every night.
You know, I mean, and that was me, too.
That's just never been my thing. So, you know, when you do get a chance to step
out in the community, when you do talk to kids, when you do like this camp you

(58:31):
did this weekend and stuff.
How how has that journey been for you? How's the response felt for you?
You know what I'm saying? Oh, it's, it's felt really good. I think.
Growing up here in Sacramento and being able to make it where I did.
My word holds some weight because
a lot of times people want to understand the process of how to do it.

(58:51):
And so a chance that I can get to come and do my own camp and give back and
just teach is super valuable to those kids.
Kids and i remember when you know
i was in their shoes i was pulling up to camps yeah you know
sacramento just trying to just trying to improve my skills
and that's what the the camp is all about trying to

(59:14):
get kids out of their comfort zone maybe try some new things that they
haven't tried yeah and you know just introduce it
to them and it was so cool to see at the
camp we would try something some of the stuff is pretty difficult
yeah and the kids they'll be struggling with it
that first and of course you know doing this and then 10 minutes
go by and you're like oh like they're doing it good now right

(59:34):
they're doing it good yeah yeah so like it's stuff that they
can take home i encourage everybody to bring notebooks and pens so they can
write down everything good and you know just take it home and work on it by
themselves did you get a chance to like talk to the parents and stuff too a
little bit or you know just introduce you know say what's up to them i'm sure
they were like, you know, like,

(59:56):
hey, this is great. Like, thanks for helping my kid.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely throughout the camp, you know, I'll stop parents just
to say what's up, thank them for, you know, bringing their kid to the camp.
And, you know, they would tell me, you know, it's great.
Like, I appreciate you like being so hands-on and, you know, teaching.
And so, yeah, definitely like I felt like I got good feedback from the parents

(01:00:16):
and it's definitely something I want to do again. Nice.
Do you ever get a chance to like.
You know go to Folsom or you know talk go check
out a high school game or any of that stuff do you ever do you try to
you know talk to those kids and and give
them some feedback and things like that sometimes not
as much as I probably should I should probably do that a little more well I

(01:00:38):
mean you're you're gonna be on the road you still have your own career I just
you know just when you can you know what I'm saying yeah yeah I did have a kid
Gavin Sykes you know he's he was at Capital and now he's at Modesto.
He's at Modesto, yeah. Yeah, he's at Modesto now.
You know, I would go check out some of their games and, you know,
I try to, you know, talk to him and make sure, you know, everything's good,

(01:00:58):
try to give him some advice.
No. Yeah, so that's like my little guy, my prodigy. He's not so little anymore.
Right. But I knew him, he was so small. That's what's up, man. No, that's good.
Like, let me see. I think I got a couple more things to ask you. Yeah.
So now with, I want to talk about college, you know, D1 ball, right?

(01:01:18):
Right, because that's been your experience and you've seen, I do think kids
nowadays and parents are included in this.
And even quite honestly, some AU coaches and directors, we're guilty of this as well.
I think sometimes they're too invested on the like D1 or bus mentality. Yeah.
I, you know, I've met players that are division three that are phenomenal basketball players.

(01:01:44):
I've met NAI guys who are phenomenal basketball players. I've met Juco guys
that are great basketball players, D2, whatever, right?
And to me, it circles back to kind of what I think we both agree on is you got to find the right fit.
You got to find the right fit. It's not just about the level, right?
You know, I saw that. It was a clip with Curry when he was on a podcast,

(01:02:07):
the one where they like, I think it's called Hot Wings, where they eat chicken
wings and talk and whatnot.
And he, he asked him, he said, you know, do you regret not going to like,
you know, a power five school?
And he, and he, and Curry was like, no, like, cause then I wouldn't have the,
the reps and experience in the things that, you know, being at Davidson that
helped me become this or like, or, or Dame Lillard, you know, where he, or he was at.

(01:02:31):
And I'm just, I'm just curious, or, you know, if you could speak to some of
these kids and parents that it's not just D1 or bus.
And even if it is D1, it does have to be a D1 that fits, right?
100%. Like, even if you have a D1 where it's not a good situation,
don't feel like you have to go to that D1 right away.
You could go D2, you could go JUCO.

(01:02:55):
And, you know, if you go to National JUCO and you have a great year,
you can get even better offers and get you know a place that fits you better
so it's definitely not d1 or bust.
Like you said, there's a lot of great D2, D3 players. Yeah.
And you can always, from there, you can always make that step up. Right.

(01:03:16):
As long as you're improving and getting the reps that you need to improve your game.
And I wanted to talk to you about, because this is another hot subject right
now, women's basketball. Right. The WNBA.
Obviously, Kaitlyn Clark, Angel Reese, this rookie class, and just how much
attention it's now getting.

(01:03:38):
I remember, and again, this is the old man in me talking,
you know, I remember when the Monarchs were here, you know, when we had the
Sacramento Monarchs, you know, the Warriors are getting the Golden State Valkyries,
right? They're getting the Bays, getting a women's team.
What do you look at when you see the WNBA and things like that and potentially,

(01:04:03):
hopefully, where it can evolve to?
What are your thoughts on all that?
Yeah, I think the WNBA and women's basketball is in a super great place right
now. Just getting the attention.
It was so fun to watch Kaitlin Clark and Angel Reese, that rematch.
I think everybody was like into that, like ready to watch.

(01:04:24):
And like, we were turning off the men's game to watch, you know,
these games that they were playing.
And I think that's super special. And, you know, these, these women,
they have, they can really play, you know, they're super fundamental.
They can really play and they can really get down. And it's so fun to just watch
them compete because they, they compete really, really hard.

(01:04:45):
So I enjoy watching the women's games play. And yeah, I'm just excited to see it keep growing.
I wanted to talk about to Coach Brown.
What's he seems like it seems like a good dude just like a good brother,
you know hard-nosed coach kind of a little bit Old-school right things like

(01:05:07):
that Has your experience with coach Brown been cool like overall good?
I mean obviously I don't want you saying a negative I'm just saying like you
know, but he just he does he seems like I met him briefly when he was at Hardwood
Palace He was here for I think his nieces game or something like that And he
said what's up to me and we got a chance to talk briefly,

(01:05:27):
but he just seemed like a really good brother I'm just curious, um,
your, what, you know, your thoughts of, of him as a coach and the team as a
whole and, you know, just, you know, how, how do you feel about everything?
Yeah, no, Coach Brown was, you
know, an amazing coach, especially to be my first coach on the NBA level.
Yeah. I think it was, it was perfect. And one thing that I like about Coach

(01:05:49):
Brown is he's not afraid to coach anybody that's in the gym.
So it's like, you know, from the first player to the 18th player,
and I really appreciate it when he would take the time to tell me I did something wrong.
I want to be coached and I want to improve and if I want to stick in this game,

(01:06:09):
I got to be able to take criticism.
I appreciate everything that he's done and I think the Kings are in a very good
spot going forward and I appreciate all the relationships that I've made with the team.
And it's just great to, you know, compete with NBA players that are on a high level.

(01:06:33):
It just helps you elevate your game to a high level and you can't help but get better.
Nice. No, that's good. Like I said, he just seems like a good guy.
When you were playing with the Stockton Kings.
Was Bobby Jackson, was he coaching you during that time?
Or was, yeah, he was your coach at that time as well, right?

(01:06:54):
Yeah, Bobby Jackson was my coach last year.
How did you enjoy that, learning from, you know, a Sacramento King vet like
that and that relationship?
Yeah, I mean, it was super cool because I've known Bobby for a long time.
His son played AAU as well, so sometimes we'd play against their team.
And yeah first time i met bobby i think i was about 10 years old yeah

(01:07:17):
and yeah for him to end up being my
coach on the professional level has been you know
great he taught me a lot and yeah i
mean it was super cool because we play the same position yeah and he's able
to you know tell me things you know this is pretty much what you need to keep
working on to make it in the nba like he's And his word holds a lot of weight

(01:07:40):
because he's done it. He did, six man a year.
He's an undersized guard like me, and he's been in the position that I want to hopefully get to.
So, yeah, it was just, you know, when he would talk, I would try to soak it
all in and just listen and learn from him.
Oh, yeah. When I had him on the show, it was really cool.
Because it's funny because, you know, people like – because we took a picture

(01:08:07):
next to each other, right? And, you know, like I'm six, four, six, five.
And people saw how much they were like, they're like, oh, Bobby Jackson was
like, I was like, no, man.
I said, and I remember, like I said, when he was dropping 20 off the bench and,
you know, things like that.
And it's like for him to do that at that level. And he was going against like
Kobe, T-Mac, all those guys and doing what he did.

(01:08:28):
It was just like, man, it just, it puts it in perspective to people.
Like, there's a lot of talent out there, bro. So there's a lot of talent.
Oh, yeah, this pretty much be my last question to you.
With basketball becoming such a worldwide sport now, right?
Outside of soccer, basketball is now, you know, the number two sport in the world.

(01:08:52):
It still was baseball, but just recent polls have kind of showed that obviously
in Latin country baseball is still number two after soccer or football,
as you guys in other countries would call it.
But basketball is right there, man. It's number two. It's worldwide.
It's obviously got every country has their own league. You got Australia with the NBL.

(01:09:14):
You got, you know, China has their own league. Like it's really become this
national powerhouse entity and everybody, you know, the Philippines love basketball.
Shout out to Sean Chambers. And while he's doing with the Philippines,
I mean, it's become a world wide love sport.
Which also though makes it extremely competitive right because

(01:09:36):
now you're competing with the world right you know and and
what what do you
see with all this again because i'm always interested
in perspectives you being a playing at the
highest level competing at the highest level
seeing guys from all over the world you know all
over the globe fighting for these spots and and going at each other but obviously

(01:10:00):
getting the best out of each other like what's your perspective on all this
or what do you what are your thoughts on all this or what do you see coming
out of all this i mean i think i think it's great you know for basketball to
be spreading and you know see.
Everybody have such a love for the game um i think that's great for the game
in all parts of the world and yeah i think it's great i think the nba is going

(01:10:23):
to get you know a lot more competitive
and even you know college people are going to want to come yeah over
here to the united states to play and hopefully get that
nba contract and yeah it's just going to
keep getting more and more competitive so i'm looking forward
to seeing you know where the game will be at in 10
20 years yeah it's gonna be crazy yeah have you

(01:10:43):
ever thought of um once you're done playing yourself
getting into the coaching game or the training game have you ever
thought of doing that type of stuff i think about it i definitely do think
about it getting into training i love i love
the skills aspect of basketball like that is one of my favorite things
ever just to you know if i can help a player get more
skilled and get more confident in their game that's probably the

(01:11:06):
most joy i would get out of you know teaching and giving back i think i don't
think i'm there yet with like coaching in terms of like you know as i get older
and older i'd be like man okay i think i could see myself you know coaching
and and i think i will probably get there at some point Yeah.
Well, I mean, like I said, I'd never, bro, I never thought of myself as a coach.

(01:11:29):
I never thought of myself as a coach, but you know, I, it's keeps you connected to the game. Right.
You know, but, but it's fun, at least even for me, it's really as fun to watch
young kids become young men or young girls become young women and evolve in
the game and thrive in it.

(01:11:50):
It really for me brings a lot of joy you know what i mean like i was really
close to kai i was kai's you know hey you coach for a long time and to watch
his progression to what he did in north texas and you know now he's playing
overseas and all that you know that's for me that's that's,
what it's about you know right and and you find a lot of joy out of that.

(01:12:14):
Marcus brings this up a lot and it just popped in my head, but I was curious your thoughts, too.
We spoke about it briefly earlier, but just about Sacramento as a community
coming together and working together and kind of getting rid of egos or,
you know, being like, I'm the best coach, I'm the best trainer,
I'm the best, you know, getting rid of all that shit and just being like,

(01:12:35):
let's work together and really help the community thrive.
Do you think that's ever going to be possible?
If it is, do you think, do you have any ideas on how we could make that happen
or any thoughts on helping Sacramento as a basketball community work together, thrive together?
You got any ideas, thoughts on that one? Yeah. The one thing I can say is,

(01:12:58):
you know, to put the focus on the kids that are trying to develop and because
this is their dreams to try and,
you know, make it to wherever they want to make it to division one,
division two, NBA overseas.
This is all for them. So I think if we can find a way to put that focus on them
and, you know, maybe, you know, you work with them for a few months or whatever

(01:13:22):
it is, and, you know, they want to get a different look because like I said,
it's about finding the right fit.
So if they can find the right fit and that's better for them,
I think once we put that focus onto them, it'll be, you know,
much smoother and, you know, you could kind of be at peace with,
okay, like they're making the best decision for them. All right.

(01:13:42):
Do you have, oh, do you have any closing thoughts?
Cause yeah, I think that that's it for me, but like, do you have any closing
thoughts or anything you want to get out there or, or any upcoming,
any things that, that you could think of or any tips for parents,
kids, whatever, whatever, whatever your closing thoughts are.
Yeah, I mean, I'll just say, you know, growing up in Sacramento,

(01:14:03):
I just want to thank everybody for showing support to me.
I feel a lot of love coming from the city.
And yeah, it's definitely felt and I appreciate it.
And to the kids to let them know, remind them that they can do anything that

(01:14:24):
they set their mind to, whether it's basketball, whether it's something else
that they want to accomplish.
But anything that you put your mind to and you really lock in, you can get it done.
So you just have to believe in yourself because not all the time will somebody
believe in you. No, no doubt.

(01:14:46):
Well again uh jordan man i i
appreciate you taking the time to do this i do of course thank you
for having me no no worries um for those listening if
you stayed till the end of the show you're a
real one uh i will have links to
jordan's instagram uh please follow him uh definitely you know see his journey

(01:15:07):
support him uh he's doing great work again i will try to keep Keep getting content
out to you guys and keep pushing for more and more people to come to this show
and give you guys insight, give you guys information.
Again, hit that subscribe, hit that like button. Do the HBO special, help a brother out.

(01:15:28):
You can DM me. You got all my links and everything right there. I do answer questions.
I do try to provide information. I know I get hit up by a lot of AAU directors
and people just trying to figure out the best fit to navigate for them.
So please feel free to reach out
shout out to Coach Barnes at Bakersfield man always appreciate your support
and everything you've been doing so keep striving and keep pushing there Marcus

(01:15:51):
again congratulations for getting Steph Curry to your runs and keep doing your
runs keep getting these guys together because I see a lot of high level guys out there hooping,
Jordan included you guys keep doing your thing,
did you have any shout outs or anything like that you want to get out there
real quick I'll make a shout out to my mom my mom smart man,

(01:16:14):
again thank you for checking the show out thank you for supporting it's much
appreciated stay safe out there take care of your body.
Music.

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