December 1, 2024 • 44 mins
What if the pursuit of personal excellence could also be a journey of faith? Join us as we sit down with Cole Swider, a remarkable basketball player with a story that goes beyond the court. Raised in a basketball-loving family with a strong foundation in faith, Cole opens up about his upbringing in Newport, Rhode Island, and how his parents' values played a pivotal role in his life. From the high-pressure environment of the NBA, where he's played with teams like the Lakers and Heat, Cole shares how he navigates his spiritual path amidst the hustle and bustle of professional sports.
As we explore Cole's journey, we delve into the transformative power of using one's platform for faith and inspiration. Cole talks about shifting his motivations from personal success to glorifying a higher purpose, and how this perspective has reshaped both his career and his spiritual walk. By embracing faith as a guiding force, Cole demonstrates the impact of living in alignment with one's beliefs and the courage it takes to advocate for them, even in the face of criticism. His insights encourage us all to consider how our unique talents and platforms can contribute to a better world.
Throughout our conversation, we also touch on the significance of genuine relationships and maintaining faith in everyday life. Cole shares heartfelt anecdotes about balancing commitments and the value of authentic connections, illustrating how keeping spiritual practices at the forefront can lead to meaningful and lasting relationships. From navigating the delicate balance between contentment and complacency to the power of prayer and gratitude, Cole's journey serves as a testament to the resilience and hope found in faith. Listen in for a narrative that offers a roadmap to aligning with a higher purpose and embracing the challenges and blessings life presents.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to another episode ofCatching Up With Christians.
I'm your host, Coach DanMcCarty, alongside a dear friend
of mine, Cole Swider.
How are you doing today, man?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up, dan?
Good to see you, man.
It's been a while.
Got to see you the other day,but obviously we grew up
together, so it's great to seeyou.
Great to see you outside ofplaying 2K.
Exactly, you used to have somebattles playing 2K back in.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah man, it's wild man.
It's been a long road for bothof us, but it's been really cool
to watch your journey, man.
So if you wouldn't mind tellingthe people kind of a little bit
about who you are, where yougrew up and where you're at now,
no doubt, man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So, yeah, I grew up in Portia, Rhode Island, dan
knows, beautiful, beautifulplace to grow up.
Oh yeah, newport, rhode Island,is one of the gems I feel like,
especially in the summertime.
It's just a gem of a place togrow up.
Small town vibes, but we have alot of great athletes that come
(00:53):
from our town.
So grew up with two parents whowere college basketball players
.
They started the youthbasketball league in our town,
as you know.
So my dad handed me abasketball as soon as I was born
.
There you go.
Grew up with three youngersiblings Kylie, courtney, connor
.
Kylie and Courtney are bothplaying Division I basketball.
Kylie just graduated fromVillanova, now playing at
Stonehill in easternMassachusetts, and Courtney's at
(01:14):
Richmond University, and got alittle brother, connor, who you
know, who's a high schoolbasketball player and now going
into his senior year.
So grew up in a big family, bigbasketball family, and then,
yeah, I went to PortsmouthMiddle School, went to Melville
Elementary School, right Went toPortsmouth Middle School for my
(01:34):
freshman year, then went to StAndrews for my four years of
high school and ended upchoosing Villanova, went to
Syracuse and then I'm going tobe going into my third year in
the NBA.
So I played for the Lakers andHeat my first two years and just
trying to find a new home man.
So it's been an incrediblejourney, been able to grow in my
faith a lot and obviouslythat's why we're here to talk
(01:56):
about the faith, amen.
But obviously really great tosee you again, bro.
Yeah, it's been a blessing tokind of stay in touch over the
years yeah absolutely Me comingout to Summer League this year
we were able to connect.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, man, well, dude , there's so much to break down
there.
You know which is amazing.
You know talking about.
You know a little bit of thejourney, right For the listeners
that don't know I spent I wasborn in Rhode Island on and off
my childhood, but at the timewhen Cole was in eighth grade, I
was in fourth grade and one ofthe weird things about
(02:30):
Portsmouth Middle School was itwas fourth to eighth grade.
It was really weird and mybrother Grant was in seventh
grade at that time and mybrother Grant plays a lot of
sports and used to play in theyouth basketball league and it
was men amongst boys out therefor Cole man.
You know this dude was you knowalready like 6'2", 6'3" out
(02:51):
there hooping and dropping 30points in a rec league and a
half, you know.
And so it's kind of cool toreally witness that growth from
following you from that eighthgrade year to then.
You know, playing in highschool and then having to go to
Massachusetts to play right andget a little more competition
than in the small towns.
But, like you mentioned, youknow, rhode Island was a great
(03:13):
place to grow up in andPortsmouth was.
People don't realize thecommunity aspect to that place.
You know, I mean we were reallyonly there in portsmouth for
about a year and a half but I'vemet some of the people that I
still talk to this day.
One of my favorite teachersever, miss goss, if she watches
this, shout out to you um shot,mrs goss, jeff goss yes all of
(03:37):
them great people.
Um, that's probably the lasttime I enjoyed school just
kidding, but no exactly butthat's such an incredible
journey.
But, as you mentioned, whywe're here right is the faith
right, and one of the thingsthat really sparked this podcast
, as the listeners know, isreally talk about.
You know how you keep yourfaith at the forefront of what
(03:58):
you do.
You know, being a top tierathlete, you know, at all
different levels, you have togrind right.
I was talking to a guy the otherday.
He said if you want one area inyour life to grow, you got to
sacrifice in another right.
And one thing that I've got tosee over the years through just
continuing to keep up with youis one thing you did not
sacrifice or continue to work onwas your faith right Throughout
(04:22):
your journey in basketball.
So can you talk about maybesome things you maybe do on a
day-to-day basis, and maybethese are things you did now but
maybe you didn't do necessarilyat the beginning that you kind
of evolved with.
But what are some things maybeday-to-day basis that kind of
help you keep you grounded inyour faith?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
yeah, so I grew up I grew up in a faithful family
went to church every everySunday at St Mary's Church in
Portsmouth, rhode Island.
That was a great experiencegrowing up.
But you know how it gets Onceyou get into the weekends of a
sports family and everythinglike that, it turns into Sunday.
Church isn't as important asthe weekend basketball
(04:59):
tournaments and thankfully, myparents were unbelievable making
sure we were doing our prayersat night and everything like
that.
But we really stopped going tochurch all the time.
And then, once I got to acertain age, my parents kind of
made our decision to follow thefaith, so they introduced it and
then I followed it.
(05:20):
So I remember my senior year ofhigh school.
We had like a Bible study inthe basement of my dorm.
Oh, that's cool, and there waslike four or five of my
teammates, four or five of myfriends, that got involved in it
and it sort of sparked myinterest of really trying to get
into my faith.
But I still, for me, faith wassomething that I associated with
(05:42):
the church.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It wasn't something that was personal to me.
Relationship was yeah, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I went through my freshman year at Villanova.
Villanova is a Catholic school.
I would go to church every nowand then on a Sunday, but I
definitely wasn't living in away of God or Jesus and I didn't
understand what that was.
I wasn't reading the Bible.
I wasn't understanding allthose things.
We had a really good chaplainat the time.
His name was Father Rob, andFather Rob would come to us
(06:10):
before the games and read usabout a biblical scripture,
would give us some motivation,would incorporate God into our
everyday practice of life, andthat really opened my eyes of
what I could be in faith.
So I was going to Catholic Massevery single Sunday.
After that and my sophomore yearI was really, really struggling
(06:30):
on the court and I was a top 40player in the country coming
out of high school.
I had offers from Duke, indiana,florida, syracuse, xavier,
villanova obviously, and neverreally struggled a little bit
early on in my high schoolcareer but had a lot of success
after that, all-time leadingscorer at my high school.
(06:52):
Like I said, offers from allthose colleges and my freshman
year I didn't play as much.
My sophomore year I was reallystruggling in the preseason and
I identified everything that Idid with how I was playing on
the court with basketball andthat was God's way of coming
into my life and showing me thatI needed to surrender to him
(07:13):
and come to him.
So my sophomore year of college, I remember going to Father
Rob's office and we talked forthree, four hours and I was
crying and I wanted to identifymyself as more than just a
basketball player, identifymyself outside of being the star
player that I've always beenright, not not relying on the,
(07:35):
on the result, to feel how Ifeel every single day.
So had that conversation withhim after that.
That's when I really started totake the first steps in my
faith Over the years.
Sorry for the long-windedanswer.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, this is great.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We talk about the day-to-day practices.
After that I started prayingevery single night.
So after my sophomore I startedto pray every single night.
I remember that year wasspecifically tough because I
wasn't really sleeping, I wasreally struggling and that year
kind of set me up to um,progress, right, and and I had
an up and down year.
(08:11):
After that year I consideredtransferring and ended up
deciding to go back.
And that's when COVID hit andCOVID, like that, really made me
, made me get deeper in my faith, started reading, started
meditating, started to do allthese things.
In my my junior year of collegehad another tough year and after
that year I was really prayingand decided to enter the
(08:33):
transfer portal and end uptransferring to Syracuse.
And during that summer I talkedto a girl who played basketball
at Penn State and that was thefirst time where I went to a
non-denominational Christianchurch.
She brought me there and sheshowed me what it was like to be
a part of that type of church.
So once I saw that I was like,wow, I can really develop my
(08:55):
faith in this type of setting,with the music, with the worship
, with the praise, right, and itwas unbelievable just to be a
part of that, a part of thatsituation and part of that
culture, and after that I'vebeen able to find those churches
over time.
So, like you said, on aday-to-day practice, it's, it's
praying, it's reading the word,it's trying to involve my
(09:19):
friends and involve that I lovein following God and the Bible
and all these things right, andI think over the time I've been
able to be more like Jesus, bemore like God and actually live
the words that God has put.
So it's definitely been aprocess.
For sure, we talked about itbefore.
(09:39):
I think a lot of people use Godas a crutch, right, and there
was a time where I was doingthat, but now I feel like as if
I'm really living in the Word.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I love that.
I love that, you know, and Ithink, to all the listeners you
know, I love the aspect that heshared the journey.
Right, this wasn't an overnightthing.
You know, this was a process.
I think sometimes, when wethink of the transformation that
we're hoping that God has onour lives, we hope it's
overnight.
Sometimes we got to wanderthrough the wilderness in order
(10:09):
to get, uh, receive thatrevelation for God and and um.
So I think that's superinspiring to the listeners, to
you know, um and see it's, it's,it's clearly worked out.
He's doing great things and anduh, not just, you know, in the
worldly perspective, but also inhis walk with Jesus.
You know, in the worldlyperspective, but also in his
walk with Jesus.
You know he mentioned that hefeels like where he's at now is
the best that he's been in hisspiritual walk, which is an
(10:30):
amazing part.
You know, one of the things Iwant to unpack there you know
you had a lot of, you know,decisions to make at a younger
age there and you know, with thetransferring and you mentioned
early on, you know your familyis pretty basketball oriented,
right, and when you were in theprocess of kind of surrendering
(10:52):
your life to God.
Right, and I'm sure you cancorrect me if I'm wrong, but
probably some of the motivationearly on playing basketball was
to be the best.
Right, you wanted to be thebest, and I know that's still
the case.
You want to be the best at whoyou.
You wanted to be the best, andI know that's still the case.
You want to be the best in whoyou can be, but also, I'm sure
now you want to use yourabilities to glorify God and
what you do.
(11:12):
So how was that shift?
You know, maybe in yourperspective, maybe in the
family's perspective?
Have they seen that change inthose type of things?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, I think, from a pure basketball standpoint, you
always want to be the best,yeah, and you always want to
strive to be better and betterand better.
But I think over in my walk ofmy faith, I've discovered that I
have the ability and theplatform to inspire other people
to become closer to God.
I remember I had a really goodpreseason game.
I had 17 points in the fourthquarter and that kind of
solidified my spot to make theMiami Heat this year.
(11:42):
And after the game I remembertalking to my Syracuse chaplain
and he said always glorify Godin the moments where you're
being successful.
And the only thing I can thinkabout in that moment I'm doing
the post-game press conferenceor the post-game interview right
after the game with a reporterand all I can think about is
give glory to God, give glory toGod, give glory to God, because
(12:04):
I wouldn't be here without him.
So every single time I do aninterview, every single time I
do something, I try and, like CJStroud, always starts this
post-game press conference Ijust want to give all credit to
my Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, and I like to say I usually
like to use the term like allglory to the man, above all,
glory to God and that'ssomething that I've I've tried
(12:25):
to do.
So if, if I can use my platform, if I can use my ability to
bring people closer to God andbring people closer to the word
and the spirit, um, then that'swhat I want to do.
I I would say that I think Godputs.
I have a.
I have unbelievable pastors.
Name is Chad Veach.
Um, he does Zoe church in LA,one in LA, one of the
(12:45):
non-nominational Christianchurches out there Unbelievable
church.
If any of you guys are in LA,that's an unbelievable church to
go to in downtown LA.
They do a bunch of theirservices at Miguel Contreras and
I was at VU conference in Miamiand we were in Miami walking
(13:06):
around with his son andsomething came upon my heart.
I was like God creates twotypes of people to have a
platform like me and inspire.
To have a platform like you andinspire with the story that you
have or it's to serve.
And Chad was like I agree withyou, but you can.
Also, when you serve, you can.
(13:27):
And Chad was like I agree withyou, but when you serve.
You can also inspire people inthat aspect, amen.
So being able to think aboutthose two things right and be
able to think about what God hasplaced on me and the blessings
that he's placed on my life totry and inspire and bring people
closer to him, it's taking thepressure off of the actual
result in basketball.
So trying to long way to answerbut wrapping that around no, I
(13:49):
love that To the end.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
No, and I love that.
And you know one thing I loveyou touched upon this and I have
an opinion that's fairly a lotof people are very against it.
It's using your platform toadvocate for what you believe in
.
But if we want to see change inthe world, especially more
people to follow Jesus right andto be saved and you know, be
(14:11):
true, you know followers of theway you have to use your
platform right and so manypeople out there, it's like I'm
just here to watch you play yoursport, be quiet.
I don't want to hear about thepolitics, I don't want to hear
about your religion.
I just want to see you hoop.
I just want to see you score atouchdown.
I just want to see.
And so, to my listeners, youknow if you're in a position, if
you're a leader, if you're anathlete, if you're in some sort,
(14:33):
if you are passionate aboutsomething and you're trying to
change the world for a betterplace and ultimately, you know
influence to help change thisworld into a better place.
And I think Cole does a greatjob of that with his you know,
athletic abilities and hissuccess in basketball.
So I love that you do that, man, because so much now in society
(14:56):
is totally against that.
Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, it's tough.
I mean, even when they go to CJStroud's interviews on
SportsCenter, they always takeout the part where he says all
credit to my Lord and Savior,Jesus Christ, and I get it right
, because they are a business atthe end of the day.
But that's a part of CJ Stroudthat we want to highlight.
That's a part of CJ Stroud thatwe want to.
(15:18):
For me, I want to give himcredit for yeah, and I think
that that's the side of him thathe wants people to see
Absolutely.
And I will never hide my faith.
I will never hide what.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm about.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, because that's truly what I believe in.
It's a huge part of who I am asa person.
And I'm only here because theman above Amen.
I'm only here and able to dowhat I do because the man above.
And at the end of the day,people are like, oh, but you
work hard.
Yeah, but God gives me theability to be healthy, to be
(15:54):
safe, to nourish my body, to putresources in front of me, to be
able to work hard, yeah, yeah.
Only reason I'm able to workhard is because of God.
That part, I just think.
It's when you you take pride isthe devil, yeah.
And as soon as you start tryingto take credit for what you've
done on this earth or whatyou've done in this world,
that's when you becomeunfulfilled.
Yep.
(16:14):
And I always say, like,insecurity is the devil as well.
And what do people try and hidetheir insecurity with?
Woman, yep, money, lust, money,drugs, drinking Drugs, alcohol.
And I've just noticed over thispast year, you're going to have
hard days.
You're going to have days whereyou don't feel like reading the
(16:37):
Word.
You're going to have days whereyou're like God.
Why is this so hard?
Why me?
I'm trying to be closer to you.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm trying to be closer to you.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I'm trying to be with you, god.
Not everything is going to bepurposeful.
The only fulfillment I've everhad in my life is when I gave up
to Jesus and over the past year, when I got let go from the
Lakers, that's when I was likeall right, god, I'm giving it up
to you.
I don't have the answers.
I don't want to be in thiscircle of praising you but doing
(17:04):
other things, going to theclubs or looking for lust or
doing all these things.
I just want to try and glorifyyou and have.
I stumbled.
Yes, I've stumbled.
Yeah of course we all do, butit's been the most fulfilling
I've ever been in my life and Ican truly say there's no regrets
over the past year in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I love that man and I think you know it's such a
valuable aspect you're talkingabout.
You know, I tell everybody, tothe people that are believers,
to the listeners, to people Iwalk around with.
Everybody's got a God-sizedhole in their heart, bro, and
you can try anything to fill it,and we named some of those
things earlier.
But until you truly get to thatpoint where you submit
(17:43):
everything to Christ, you'regoing to always feel unfulfilled
, you're going to always feelempty or some part of you is not
going to be full.
Right, and I think that's suchan important aspect is when you
get to that moment, it is trulyone of those best moments in
your life, because the stresscomes off right, these burdens
become lifted, these things inyour life just completely change
(18:06):
.
I was, as you know, a coupleweeks ago.
I was in new york with mybrother, grant, and, uh, we went
to a comedy show and in thecomedy show this guy did this
skit about religion and one.
It was a funny joke, but it wasso true and it resonates to
this is.
He said me and god are prettydope and I was like, oh okay,
where are you going with this?
He said me and him are closestwhen I'm 30 000 feet in the air
(18:27):
on an airplane and his joke ofthat was saying, well, you have
nowhere else to turn.
And then he knew that guy wasnot the pilot, he's got no
control of the situation orwhatever.
And when I turned around andtold my brother and because he
believes in a god notnecessarily, not necessarily
Jesus, but we have a lot offaith conversations and I turned
around and I told him I saidit's because every one of us hit
(18:50):
that point at one time but wehave nowhere else to turn.
And I was very fortunate to hitthat at a young age, because
you know my physical situation.
I was in so much pain,discomfort and all these other
things where I was like, okay,god, like I got to give it to
you, like I'm giving it to younow because I have nothing else
to turn to right, like the painmedications, all these other
things.
And for you, you know, yourbasketball career is such an
(19:12):
important part of your life andwhen you hit that in your
basketball career you're likeyou had nowhere else to turn.
There wasn't like you could goand you know, whatever the case
may be, there weren't any otheropportunities, alternatives,
right other than giving it toGod, and so I think that's such
an important aspect to that andI think that's incredible.
(19:35):
But, you know, I kind of wantedto talk about, you know, one of
the cool things that I admiredabout just you as an individual
and your faith walk.
You know, I mean grew uptogether for a short period of
time and but through the yearswe were able to keep in touch.
As you mentioned early on, youused to play some video games.
You used to play some NBA 2Kand things, but how do you, as
an athlete right, I mean spenttwo years this will be year
(19:59):
three in the NBA right, comingup here and spent the last two
years in the NBA, but you stillkeep up with all your old
buddies and the people from thehometown?
How do you balance that, man?
Because I know, as you continueto move on up, you work hard,
you're doing your things.
God's providing opportunitiesand great things but how do you
(20:19):
make sure that you just stayconnected with your loyal family
back home?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
and those types of things.
I just try and be genuine.
I try and be the person thatGod wants me to be.
And do I fall short of thatsometimes?
Of course, do I not respond tomy grandparents right after a
game sometimes yeah, that'ssomething I.
It's tough.
You get all these messages andrespond to my parents right away
(20:43):
and try and respond to thepeople that are close.
Like I said, I do fall short ofthat sometimes, but I've always
tried to be a genuine person.
I've always tried to show love.
I've always tried to securingthe man that you are and what
(21:06):
God has done for you in yourlife.
You're able to just be clear ina vision of all right.
These people are genuine.
These people want the best forme.
Me and you played 2K growing up.
Yeah, like I don't know, it'sjust fun, things like that where
if you can make an impact insomeone's life, do it that part,
(21:27):
that part, and if you can begenuine and find ways to make
time for things Like we had thisconversation before.
I used to make excuses of notbeing able to go to church and I
realized when you put God first, you can't skip church to watch
(21:47):
Sunday Night Football, youcan't skip church to.
I remember I had a conversationwhen I was a sophomore at
Villanova with my chaplain and Iwas like he's like, hey, did
you head to church?
This past Sunday I didn't seeyou there and I was like, oh man
, I had homework and thePatriots were playing.
(22:08):
So I was like, okay, I get it.
And him saying I get it.
I was like, all right, thatcan't happen anymore.
I need to find like churchesare non-negotiable Me, going to
church is non-negotiable Likepraying every night and and if
God's really the center of mylife, make him the center of
your life.
And yeah, there's some days Ican't go because of basketball
(22:30):
and travel and everything likethat.
But one thing I've tried to dois every single city I go to,
chad Veach my pastor in LA.
I'll ask him about a church.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
What church recommendation and?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
he'll always send me a church and he'll put me in the
first row every single time.
That's awesome, Like I was atLakewood Church.
Oh, that's awesome In the firstrow and hanging out with Joel
Osteen after and I was inwhatever like just different
cities.
Yeah, and Chad always puts mein touch with people.
That's amazing, and got superclose to the people at VU Church
(23:05):
in Miami.
Like I said, it's just been ablessing Just trying to really
be genuine in my relationshipwith God.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I think, you know, the genuineness that you show in
your relationship to Godultimately then turns into your
relationship with people, athousand percent people, right,
and um, you know, I, I've, I'vebeen god's very blessed me, uh,
in the aspect of being able tocoach, you know, and baseball
and things like that, and I'vebeen very fortunate enough to
know several athletes at alldifferent level, but I really,
(23:35):
um, in a way, healthy way,admire the athletes who, and
people who are just successfuland from a worldly perspective
in general, that are able to begenuine in their relationships.
Right, there's times you knowwhere I've questioned, you know,
people.
I'll be completely transparent.
As a handicapped person, peopleare just going to be nice to
you, to be nice to you, right?
(23:55):
So one of the things I had towork through growing up is like,
okay, are you just being niceto me because I'm in a
wheelchair?
Are we genuinely homies?
Are we genuinely right?
I'm in a wheelchair?
Are we genuinely homies?
Are we genuinely right?
Like, do you if I called youbecause to me?
People know this, the listenersknow this, my best friends, the
people in my life know that Ifthey called me, you know and
they need a shirt off their backor they need to bail out money,
like I got them.
(24:17):
Like that's the loyalty that Ihave with people, and so one of
the things that, like, I admireabout you in a healthy way, in
the sense of you know, obviouslythe Bible tells us not to have
idols and those types of thingsbut appreciate, you know, people
that are successful businessmen, athletes, whatever the case
may be on a worldly level butstill keep Christ at the center,
but in addition, is reallykeeping those genuine
(24:38):
relationship with people andstay on their word and those
types of things.
Because it's so easy and I wasguilty of it too, and I'm not
perfect either when you'recoaching or when you're doing
your job or whatever the casemay be, you get lost with some
people.
You're like, hey, I can, I canhelp you with that.
Right, I can do this with you,you know, um, but keep doing
what you're doing, man, keephaving those genuine
relationships and making animpact on people's lives, cause,
(25:05):
like you said, if you can justdo one thing for one person or
you know, when you meet them,you don't know what that trickle
effect is going to do for them,and I remember you didn't know
I was gonna be an nba player?
oh, not at all, bro.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I was in eighth grade , no and I didn't know you were
gonna be a big time baseballcoach and whatever all these
things, right.
But I think one thing that andyou you're making jokes about
handicapped people and beforeand everything like that and one
thing about you is that ifsomeone were to talk to you over
(25:33):
the phone, they would neverknow or never understand the
things that you've been through.
Just because's the ultimatelike prize as a person, when,
when you're able to be genuineand be real and be able to, to
talk to people about not evenyour experiences, but just give
(25:53):
them life, I think you do anunbelievable job and you have
every reason not to.
You have every reason to be madat the world, right, but you've
, you've always been the mostpositive person I've ever.
I've ever been around.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Even when you were in fourth grade and we were
playing 2K and you were talkingcrap to me, oh yeah man.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Those were the days, bro, and I just think that's
such an amazing quality that youhave I appreciate it and keep
inspiring man, Thanks man.
It's been unbelievable to watch.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I appreciate that and you know, I think, something
that you know God's given me asa gift, right, and you talked
about it.
You know, in a way you're likehaving that right to quote
unquote, be mad at the world,but you know, one of my favorite
Bible verses, right, and one ofmy favorite chapters in the
Bible is John, chapter 9.
And that talks about when Jesusheals a blind man on the
(26:41):
Sabbath and he's walking alongthe road with his disciples and
the disciples ask him, say Rabbi, they say why was this man born
blind?
Was it because of his sins orwas it because of his parents'
sins?
And Jesus turns around andtells him, no, he says it was,
so the power of me could be seenthrough him, and then heals the
blind man.
And so I believe that mysituation is for a reason,
because if people could see me,you know, glorifying God and
(27:04):
being positive and being who Godcreated me to be, then
hopefully that inspires otherpeople to want to, you know,
live their life for Jesus and dothe best with what they're
given.
And you know what I'll lastthing I'll say about that is we
also don't know what everybody'sgoing through, right, I mean
I've met some about.
I've met some of the mostsuccessful people in the world
and this is not a flex, this isjust to say that they've been
(27:24):
some of the most miserablepeople in the world and I've met
some homeless people that cometo our church that are some of
the most happy and most rootedin their faith people I've ever
met.
So I think, just understandingthat, be appreciative of what
you have and, you know, do thebest with what God's given you,
try not to compare about whatyou have and what other people
have and just embrace it.
(27:46):
Embrace what you have, becauseI think there's so many people
out there that would die to haveone aspect of your life,
whether it may be something youtake for granted or something
you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
People out there would love to have what you have
no doubt, and for you to beable to say that's just very
inspiring.
Just continue to be that light,continue to say that's just
very inspiring and just continueto be that like.
Continue to be that personbecause you inspire me, you
inspire me and I know, uh, Iknow with, with your
(28:15):
circumstances, seeing youstarting this podcast and
wearing jesus one and, and, andreally developing into the man,
into the man of faith that youare is, like I said, it's
incredible to watch and onlywants me to become stronger in
my faith and I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I think that's the most.
You know.
It's humbling to hear that in away, because it just allows me
to, you know, want to continueto just be a vessel for God,
being obedient.
You know, I always tell peoplelike people I held a workshop a
month ago about.
It was called Unshaken.
(28:46):
It was talking about, likehaving unwavering faith.
And one of the biggest questionsyou know people have in this
world is like what's my purpose,what's my meaning, what's my
why?
And one of the things that Italk about is like.
People are like well, how do Iknow I have a purpose?
Like, how do I find out mypurpose?
My first, out my purpose,that's my first thing is I say
you have to know you have apurpose, like, believe it,
because if you don't believe it,you you gotta believe you had a
(29:06):
person.
But the one thing is you gottabe available for god to reveal
that to you.
And then, once you reveal that,you gotta be obedient.
Right, how many people, myselfincluded, god uh prompts you to
go do something?
The spirit's like hey, go helpout that person, hey, go up.
But you're just like nah, youknow, college football sounds
good right now, or nah, like youknow, the hanging out with this
person sounds fun, but god'slike, hey, go check out that
(29:29):
homeless person right now.
They might need you.
Go wherever the case may beright, but it's okay.
We pray to god, say god use us,but he also wants us to be
obedient when he does call usright.
So I think that big aspect isthe obedience and just
continuing to strive, because Idon't have it all figured out, I
still struggle with my oldstuff every day, but every day,
you know, every day, I do try tochallenge myself and pray that
(29:51):
god, allow me to be used foryour good and just prompt that
obedience so I can continuallyserve you thousand percent man.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You couldn't have said any better.
I uh, even yesterday, beforethe summer league championship
Championship, I'm on my kneespraying in front of my bed, just
like God.
I don't know what you have instore for me.
I don't know what I can doright now.
I just want to thank you forputting me in this position,
thank you for giving me thislife, thank you for allowing me
(30:22):
to continue to play the gamethat I love around the people
that I love, and give me achance, even when it doesn't
seem fair and going through thesummer league.
You expect one thing, and Godjust shakes things up and is
like hey, even though you'reobedient, I'm going to keep on
testing your faith and keep onseeing if you're going to come
back to me and keep on seeing ifyou're going to read the word.
(30:44):
Keep on seeing if you're goingto keep on testing your faith.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto come back to me.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto read the word.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto follow me, even when it's not
easy.
Right that part, and God's thegreatest.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
That part bro.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And he continues to bless me, continues to bless and
I'm not saying it's ever goingto be easy or it's ever going to
be one of those things.
There's always going to bechallenges.
I remember we have a mentalhealth coach and Duncan Robbins
is one of my mentors and heliterally let me stay at his
(31:13):
apartment this year.
That's real Right, Two shootersin the same spot bro.
Two shooters, man, A lot ofshooting in one building right A
lot of you straight up.
And one thing that Duncan alwaystalked about was hey, when I
get that contract, everythingwill be good.
He gets a five-year $90 millioncontract.
I'm not trying to put hisbusiness out there, but it's
reported right.
(31:34):
And he was even more miserableafter the contract than before.
And with that comesresponsibility and comes more
pressure.
And it's one of those thingswhere it's like, yeah, you want
that, you want the financialsecurity, but at the end of the
day it's not going to make youhappy.
So what can you do on aday-to-day basis and finding
(31:56):
your relationship with Godthat's going to help you be
fulfilled and help people withthe gifts that God gives you.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
That part, that part and, I think, two things I want
to touch upon.
One of the things that I trulybelieve in is you know, you hear
this saying that says, likeidle hands are the devil's
workshop.
My roommate explained this tome the other day.
It was a couple months agoactually now.
It blew me up, but it was so,it was so relatable.
He said it's not, because, ifyou think about it, if I'm
(32:25):
sitting on the couch eatingdoritos, playing my xbox all day
, not doing things for thekingdom, not trying to do the
best what god gave me, do youreally think that, like, the
devil's gonna be messing aroundwith you?
Probably not, but if you'retrying to go out to do the best
that God gave me, do you reallythink that the devil is going to
be messing around with you?
Probably not.
But if you're trying to go outto do the best for what God's
called you to do and go glorifyhim and go spread the word, the
enemy is going to be coming fullforce right and you're striving
to get that platform to be ableto secure your position and
(32:49):
those types of things to be ableto glorify God, and as you are
doing that, the enemy does comeharder because you are trying to
, you know, achieve these goalsfor his glory.
So I think one of those thingsis, unfortunately, in a way, you
know, the more you go after God, the harder it gets, but the
more rewarding it is for hiskingdom, and you know in that
(33:10):
way as well.
And then I think one of theinteresting parts I think is so
important you talked about likeachieving that, like a contract
right as dunking in and thesethings.
I was meeting this guy at churchand and, uh, he was basically
just talking about all thesethings that he had been
achieving in the money, in thecars, and all he was like bro,
great, and you know he's like.
(33:31):
Well, what are your goalsfinancially?
I said, bro, god's, god's goingto provide for my bills, that's
all I care about.
I do what I love.
I get to serve at my church, Iget to coach baseball for a
living, get to host a podcast,and Lord's going to provide
whatever case.
That means I don't, money's not.
It like that for me.
That's just never really beenmy thing.
And but what I told him he'slike, well, you don't want to
(33:58):
get complacent.
I said there is a differencebetween contentment and
complacency A thousand percent,and a lot of people don't
realize that.
A lot of people think like, oh,when you're content, it means
you have to be complacent.
No, god still wants me tostrive to be the best version of
myself, to be able to coach theathletes as best as I can, to
lead them to Jesus and mentorthem and do all these things.
But in addition, if I only had,you know, let's just use
finances if I only had a littlebit of money and it just barely
covered my bills, then I'm goingto glorify God in that because
(34:20):
I'm content, right, but thatdoesn't mean I'm not going to
work harder to provide for myfamily, provide for what my
needs are, whether it'sfinancial, whether it's whatever
the case may.
Be y'all, but don't confusecontentment with complacency.
God's going to provide for you.
Be y'all, but don't confusecontentment with complacency.
God's going to provide for you.
Um, and I think how would yousay in the professional field?
(34:41):
Well, we'll just use likeathletes as an example.
Do you think there's a lot ofconfusion with contentment and
complacency there?
Like when people try to getinto the mindset of being
content and then they feel like,oh, I'm going to become
complacent, someone's going topass me up or whatever the case
may be on that.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Well, I think a lot of the time we think about what
we're doing right and, at theend of the day, it's not about
me that part it's about God andit's about glorifying him.
And every single day I workhard, I try and do the right
things, I try and put myself inthe best position to be
(35:16):
successful right.
But as I said earlier, like Godhas allowed me to do this, God
has allowed me to be healthy, towork hard, to train and
everything like that.
So it's never about me at theend of the day and me being I'm
not content at all.
Like I want to strive to be thebest player I can possibly be.
(35:39):
But I also think for God,reaching your potential is
glorifying him and that's all Iwant is just to reach my
potential and whatever mypotential is, God has written
that for me and me just doing mypart, glorifying God in every
aspect that I can, working ashard as I can because of the
gifts that he's given me to 6'8and 6'3 parents, right.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
The parents that love me unconditionally, the
grandparents text me after everysingle game, all those things
that he's blessed me with thebody, the physical, the mental,
all these things he's blessed mewith.
Let me maximize these things,that part, and then glorify what
he's able to do in my life,because there's so many things
that are out of our control.
That part you can't control howmany people watch this, that
(36:22):
part.
But what you can control is theability to have us sit down
here, set up a conference room,set up the microphone and
everything.
Yeah, exactly For us to havethis conversation to hopefully
affect one person.
Exactly, that's it.
Just one person, yep, and ifmore people, that's a bonus.
Amen.
So I just try and be a vesselman.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I try and do the best work that God allows me to do
that part, that part, and Ithink that's such a great way to
put it really, just to reallyencapsulate just ultimately
being a vessel for God,regardless of where you are, and
I think that's just such animportant piece.
You know, through that journeyand he these things up is I like
(37:12):
to what are three hobbies orthings people might not know
about you other than basketball?
And then, who did you kind ofgrow up trying to mimic your
game after, like, who issomebody you looked up to?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, no doubt my favorite player ever was LeBron
James.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And people say God isn't real.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
In 2018, I remember being in my dorm room watching
LeBron go through the playoffsyeah, being so motivated by the
way he was playing.
I would go to the gym after hisgames and I was like I need to
help LeBron, I need to helpLeBron, and then I get to be
teammates with him.
That's cool.
Five years later, that's socool.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
He's still hooping to this day, bro.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Still ho, that's cool Five years later.
That's so cool.
He's still hooping to this day,bro, he's still hooping.
It's just still mind-blowing tome that I was able to meet my
idol.
Yeah, but in terms of guys thatI mimic my game after there's
the Kyle Corvers, there's theDoug McDermott, there's the
Duncan Robinsons, there's theJoe Harris's.
So those are the guys that Itry and mimic my game after and
(38:17):
then just trying to add my own,my own flavor.
My yeah, because I know, at theend of the day, like you can
try and be like those guysyou're always gonna be your own
person right, yeah, um, and whenI talk about hobbies, I've
really gotten to reading.
Okay, uh, trying to trying toread as many books as possible,
like I love watching Netflix,hanging out with friends Okay,
(38:39):
yeah, trying to just help peopleout.
I really enjoy meeting newpeople and conversating, like
you said, trying to lead peopletowards God man, he's been such
a blessing in my life to be ablejust to like I was at VU
Conference, not to go off topic,but I was at VU Conference and
(39:01):
the song Worthy is your Name, oh.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I love that song bro.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
I listened to that this morning and I'm on my knees
with one of my teammates nextto me, his wife, drew Smith, and
Marley Okay, marley Smith, hiswife.
I'm on my knees with them.
Right next to me, a pastor fromDallas, texas, is sitting right
in front of me that I connectedwith through Chad, on my knees,
just thinking about the lastyear, putting my hands up and
(39:25):
just like crying, likehysterically over the blessings
that he's placed on my life andjust being in that moment,
having that one-on-one feelingwith God and them putting their
hands on my shoulders andworshiping.
Those are the things that Icherish more than anything
(39:49):
Having those one-on-one momentswith God man, just super blessed
and thankful and, um, when itcomes to hobbies, I just, I just
want to.
I want to help people have thatfeeling and help people have
that encounter with God, becauseit was just such a powerful
moment that it makes me want tojust continue to follow, follow
(40:11):
God and follow his message andcontinue to bring my friends and
family closer to him that'sawesome.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
That's awesome.
Well, I think you're doing agreat job of that.
You know, I think that's soamazing.
You know, um, last thing wewrap up with here before we pray
out is I always like to uh, youknow, uh, give you an
opportunity to kind of, maybe,what are some things maybe that,
uh, the listeners could bepraying for you about?
Or, uh, what are some thingsthat, in addition to what do you
(40:37):
have coming up, what are somethings maybe you're working on?
Obviously, this is a big momentfor your career at this point,
but maybe you're working onthings on the side, maybe that
you could turn them on to orshout out your podcast and all
the things that you're workingon.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, we've been taking a little break from the
podcast.
Okay, I really wanted to focusthis offseason on on just being
present and being in the momentof of, where my career is right.
Um, so we're taking a littlebreak from the podcast, but, um,
so, with 60 minutes on on theclock, before every single nba
game, we have a chapel, and youactually went to, yeah, the
(41:12):
meeting that we just had invegas with all the n NBA
chaplains and a bunch of peoplewho came.
But during every single chapel,they ask for our prayer request
.
I always ask for mental clarity.
I ask for just my mental healthand just being in the moment,
and I think a lot of the timeswhen I've struggled is when I
(41:34):
try and I'm worried about thethings I can't control, if
that's the minutes of shotsgoing in, if that's all these
things, I'm at my best when I'min life and on the court, when
I'm just able to be in themoment, live and live fearlessly
, like without fear.
So if people can just pray forme in that aspect, if people can
(41:55):
just pray for my continuedblessing upon God, just to be
able to have this platform toaffect people and I truly I mean
this.
I want to leave it up to God.
If my path isn't for me to playbasketball, then I want
whatever God wants from me and,as hard as that may be, I truly
(42:16):
believe that that will leave methe most fulfilled and leave me
with the purpose that I wasmeant to have.
That part, yeah, this is a hugeoff-season for me.
I've battled for two years totry and put myself in a position
to gain a contract, sohopefully this off-season I can
land that contract.
So just continue to pray forhealth and safety, absolutely,
(42:39):
and the ability to just followmy dreams and goals and continue
just to be able to affectpeople.
I love that Would be my prayerrequest, that's awesome, bro.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
I love it.
Well, let's end this thing outwith prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, I justwant to thank you for this
opportunity, god.
I want to thank you forfriendships, god, that you have
put in our lives.
That just you just know, lord,you know you put it on our
hearts when people were supposedto be in your life, and
especially for a long time.
Lord, and I just pray overCole's life right now.
(43:09):
God, we are just so thankful forall the blessings that you have
been able to give him and allthe lessons that you have been
able to teach him, god.
But just the sincerity throughthis story, god, and the
vulnerability that he's beenable to open up with the
listeners, god, we just praythat the listeners were just
able to be impacted here tonightor whenever they listen to this
(43:29):
, god, and just that they knowthat the listeners are loved and
chosen and called and that youhave a plan and purpose for
their lives, God.
God, I just pray that you remindthem that, whatever may be up
against them right now, that youare greater than that, god.
I pray that you remind themthat you are the light in the
darkness, that you are a waymaker, that you will make a way,
even though it looks like theremight not be a way.
(43:51):
God, god, I pray that youcontinually go before them.
And, god, we just pray for Coleand continue the mental clarity
right now.
And God, you just provide himwith these next steps, whatever
that looks like.
God, we just pray that yourwill is done, god, and
regardless what happens, we justpray that your peace that you
put upon him, that suppresses,like you say in the Bible,
(44:11):
surpasses all understanding.
God, we just thank you andpraise you, jesus In the Bible
surpasses all understanding God.
We thank you and praise you,jesus.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen,amen, amen.
That was great, dan, let's goAlright, explosive.
There you go, there we go.
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to another episode ofCatching Up With Christians.
I'm your host, Coach DanMcCarty, alongside a dear friend
of mine, Cole Swider.
How are you doing today, man?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up, dan?
Good to see you, man.
It's been a while.
Got to see you the other day,but obviously we grew up
together, so it's great to seeyou.
Great to see you outside ofplaying 2K.
Exactly, you used to have somebattles playing 2K back in.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah man, it's wild man.
It's been a long road for bothof us, but it's been really cool
to watch your journey, man.
So if you wouldn't mind tellingthe people kind of a little bit
about who you are, where yougrew up and where you're at now,
no doubt, man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So, yeah, I grew up in Portia, Rhode Island, dan
knows, beautiful, beautifulplace to grow up.
Oh yeah, newport, rhode Island,is one of the gems I feel like,
especially in the summertime.
It's just a gem of a place togrow up.
Small town vibes, but we have alot of great athletes that come
(00:53):
from our town.
So grew up with two parents whowere college basketball players
.
They started the youthbasketball league in our town,
as you know.
So my dad handed me abasketball as soon as I was born
.
There you go.
Grew up with three youngersiblings Kylie, courtney, connor
.
Kylie and Courtney are bothplaying Division I basketball.
Kylie just graduated fromVillanova, now playing at
Stonehill in easternMassachusetts, and Courtney's at
(01:14):
Richmond University, and got alittle brother, connor, who you
know, who's a high schoolbasketball player and now going
into his senior year.
So grew up in a big family, bigbasketball family, and then,
yeah, I went to PortsmouthMiddle School, went to Melville
Elementary School, right Went toPortsmouth Middle School for my
(01:34):
freshman year, then went to StAndrews for my four years of
high school and ended upchoosing Villanova, went to
Syracuse and then I'm going tobe going into my third year in
the NBA.
So I played for the Lakers andHeat my first two years and just
trying to find a new home man.
So it's been an incrediblejourney, been able to grow in my
faith a lot and obviouslythat's why we're here to talk
(01:56):
about the faith, amen.
But obviously really great tosee you again, bro.
Yeah, it's been a blessing tokind of stay in touch over the
years yeah absolutely Me comingout to Summer League this year
we were able to connect.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, man, well, dude , there's so much to break down
there.
You know which is amazing.
You know talking about.
You know a little bit of thejourney, right For the listeners
that don't know I spent I wasborn in Rhode Island on and off
my childhood, but at the timewhen Cole was in eighth grade, I
was in fourth grade and one ofthe weird things about
(02:30):
Portsmouth Middle School was itwas fourth to eighth grade.
It was really weird and mybrother Grant was in seventh
grade at that time and mybrother Grant plays a lot of
sports and used to play in theyouth basketball league and it
was men amongst boys out therefor Cole man.
You know this dude was you knowalready like 6'2", 6'3" out
(02:51):
there hooping and dropping 30points in a rec league and a
half, you know.
And so it's kind of cool toreally witness that growth from
following you from that eighthgrade year to then.
You know, playing in highschool and then having to go to
Massachusetts to play right andget a little more competition
than in the small towns.
But, like you mentioned, youknow, rhode Island was a great
(03:13):
place to grow up in andPortsmouth was.
People don't realize thecommunity aspect to that place.
You know, I mean we were reallyonly there in portsmouth for
about a year and a half but I'vemet some of the people that I
still talk to this day.
One of my favorite teachersever, miss goss, if she watches
this, shout out to you um shot,mrs goss, jeff goss yes all of
(03:37):
them great people.
Um, that's probably the lasttime I enjoyed school just
kidding, but no exactly butthat's such an incredible
journey.
But, as you mentioned, whywe're here right is the faith
right, and one of the thingsthat really sparked this podcast
, as the listeners know, isreally talk about.
You know how you keep yourfaith at the forefront of what
(03:58):
you do.
You know, being a top tierathlete, you know, at all
different levels, you have togrind right.
I was talking to a guy the otherday.
He said if you want one area inyour life to grow, you got to
sacrifice in another right.
And one thing that I've got tosee over the years through just
continuing to keep up with youis one thing you did not
sacrifice or continue to work onwas your faith right Throughout
(04:22):
your journey in basketball.
So can you talk about maybesome things you maybe do on a
day-to-day basis, and maybethese are things you did now but
maybe you didn't do necessarilyat the beginning that you kind
of evolved with.
But what are some things maybeday-to-day basis that kind of
help you keep you grounded inyour faith?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
yeah, so I grew up I grew up in a faithful family
went to church every everySunday at St Mary's Church in
Portsmouth, rhode Island.
That was a great experiencegrowing up.
But you know how it gets Onceyou get into the weekends of a
sports family and everythinglike that, it turns into Sunday.
Church isn't as important asthe weekend basketball
(04:59):
tournaments and thankfully, myparents were unbelievable making
sure we were doing our prayersat night and everything like
that.
But we really stopped going tochurch all the time.
And then, once I got to acertain age, my parents kind of
made our decision to follow thefaith, so they introduced it and
then I followed it.
(05:20):
So I remember my senior year ofhigh school.
We had like a Bible study inthe basement of my dorm.
Oh, that's cool, and there waslike four or five of my
teammates, four or five of myfriends, that got involved in it
and it sort of sparked myinterest of really trying to get
into my faith.
But I still, for me, faith wassomething that I associated with
(05:42):
the church.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It wasn't something that was personal to me.
Relationship was yeah, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I went through my freshman year at Villanova.
Villanova is a Catholic school.
I would go to church every nowand then on a Sunday, but I
definitely wasn't living in away of God or Jesus and I didn't
understand what that was.
I wasn't reading the Bible.
I wasn't understanding allthose things.
We had a really good chaplainat the time.
His name was Father Rob, andFather Rob would come to us
(06:10):
before the games and read usabout a biblical scripture,
would give us some motivation,would incorporate God into our
everyday practice of life, andthat really opened my eyes of
what I could be in faith.
So I was going to Catholic Massevery single Sunday.
After that and my sophomore yearI was really, really struggling
(06:30):
on the court and I was a top 40player in the country coming
out of high school.
I had offers from Duke, indiana,florida, syracuse, xavier,
villanova obviously, and neverreally struggled a little bit
early on in my high schoolcareer but had a lot of success
after that, all-time leadingscorer at my high school.
(06:52):
Like I said, offers from allthose colleges and my freshman
year I didn't play as much.
My sophomore year I was reallystruggling in the preseason and
I identified everything that Idid with how I was playing on
the court with basketball andthat was God's way of coming
into my life and showing me thatI needed to surrender to him
(07:13):
and come to him.
So my sophomore year of college, I remember going to Father
Rob's office and we talked forthree, four hours and I was
crying and I wanted to identifymyself as more than just a
basketball player, identifymyself outside of being the star
player that I've always beenright, not not relying on the,
(07:35):
on the result, to feel how Ifeel every single day.
So had that conversation withhim after that.
That's when I really started totake the first steps in my
faith Over the years.
Sorry for the long-windedanswer.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, this is great.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We talk about the day-to-day practices.
After that I started prayingevery single night.
So after my sophomore I startedto pray every single night.
I remember that year wasspecifically tough because I
wasn't really sleeping, I wasreally struggling and that year
kind of set me up to um,progress, right, and and I had
an up and down year.
(08:11):
After that year I consideredtransferring and ended up
deciding to go back.
And that's when COVID hit andCOVID, like that, really made me
, made me get deeper in my faith, started reading, started
meditating, started to do allthese things.
In my my junior year of collegehad another tough year and after
that year I was really prayingand decided to enter the
(08:33):
transfer portal and end uptransferring to Syracuse.
And during that summer I talkedto a girl who played basketball
at Penn State and that was thefirst time where I went to a
non-denominational Christianchurch.
She brought me there and sheshowed me what it was like to be
a part of that type of church.
So once I saw that I was like,wow, I can really develop my
(08:55):
faith in this type of setting,with the music, with the worship
, with the praise, right, and itwas unbelievable just to be a
part of that, a part of thatsituation and part of that
culture, and after that I'vebeen able to find those churches
over time.
So, like you said, on aday-to-day practice, it's, it's
praying, it's reading the word,it's trying to involve my
(09:19):
friends and involve that I lovein following God and the Bible
and all these things right, andI think over the time I've been
able to be more like Jesus, bemore like God and actually live
the words that God has put.
So it's definitely been aprocess.
For sure, we talked about itbefore.
(09:39):
I think a lot of people use Godas a crutch, right, and there
was a time where I was doingthat, but now I feel like as if
I'm really living in the Word.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I love that.
I love that, you know, and Ithink, to all the listeners you
know, I love the aspect that heshared the journey.
Right, this wasn't an overnightthing.
You know, this was a process.
I think sometimes, when wethink of the transformation that
we're hoping that God has onour lives, we hope it's
overnight.
Sometimes we got to wanderthrough the wilderness in order
(10:09):
to get, uh, receive thatrevelation for God and and um.
So I think that's superinspiring to the listeners, to
you know, um and see it's, it's,it's clearly worked out.
He's doing great things and anduh, not just, you know, in the
worldly perspective, but also inhis walk with Jesus.
You know, in the worldlyperspective, but also in his
walk with Jesus.
You know he mentioned that hefeels like where he's at now is
the best that he's been in hisspiritual walk, which is an
(10:30):
amazing part.
You know, one of the things Iwant to unpack there you know
you had a lot of, you know,decisions to make at a younger
age there and you know, with thetransferring and you mentioned
early on, you know your familyis pretty basketball oriented,
right, and when you were in theprocess of kind of surrendering
(10:52):
your life to God.
Right, and I'm sure you cancorrect me if I'm wrong, but
probably some of the motivationearly on playing basketball was
to be the best.
Right, you wanted to be thebest, and I know that's still
the case.
You want to be the best at whoyou.
You wanted to be the best, andI know that's still the case.
You want to be the best in whoyou can be, but also, I'm sure
now you want to use yourabilities to glorify God and
what you do.
(11:12):
So how was that shift?
You know, maybe in yourperspective, maybe in the
family's perspective?
Have they seen that change inthose type of things?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, I think, from a pure basketball standpoint, you
always want to be the best,yeah, and you always want to
strive to be better and betterand better.
But I think over in my walk ofmy faith, I've discovered that I
have the ability and theplatform to inspire other people
to become closer to God.
I remember I had a really goodpreseason game.
I had 17 points in the fourthquarter and that kind of
solidified my spot to make theMiami Heat this year.
(11:42):
And after the game I remembertalking to my Syracuse chaplain
and he said always glorify Godin the moments where you're
being successful.
And the only thing I can thinkabout in that moment I'm doing
the post-game press conferenceor the post-game interview right
after the game with a reporterand all I can think about is
give glory to God, give glory toGod, give glory to God, because
(12:04):
I wouldn't be here without him.
So every single time I do aninterview, every single time I
do something, I try and, like CJStroud, always starts this
post-game press conference Ijust want to give all credit to
my Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, and I like to say I usually
like to use the term like allglory to the man, above all,
glory to God and that'ssomething that I've I've tried
(12:25):
to do.
So if, if I can use my platform, if I can use my ability to
bring people closer to God andbring people closer to the word
and the spirit, um, then that'swhat I want to do.
I I would say that I think Godputs.
I have a.
I have unbelievable pastors.
Name is Chad Veach.
Um, he does Zoe church in LA,one in LA, one of the
(12:45):
non-nominational Christianchurches out there Unbelievable
church.
If any of you guys are in LA,that's an unbelievable church to
go to in downtown LA.
They do a bunch of theirservices at Miguel Contreras and
I was at VU conference in Miamiand we were in Miami walking
(13:06):
around with his son andsomething came upon my heart.
I was like God creates twotypes of people to have a
platform like me and inspire.
To have a platform like you andinspire with the story that you
have or it's to serve.
And Chad was like I agree withyou, but you can.
Also, when you serve, you can.
(13:27):
And Chad was like I agree withyou, but when you serve.
You can also inspire people inthat aspect, amen.
So being able to think aboutthose two things right and be
able to think about what God hasplaced on me and the blessings
that he's placed on my life totry and inspire and bring people
closer to him, it's taking thepressure off of the actual
result in basketball.
So trying to long way to answerbut wrapping that around no, I
(13:49):
love that To the end.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
No, and I love that.
And you know one thing I loveyou touched upon this and I have
an opinion that's fairly a lotof people are very against it.
It's using your platform toadvocate for what you believe in
.
But if we want to see change inthe world, especially more
people to follow Jesus right andto be saved and you know, be
(14:11):
true, you know followers of theway you have to use your
platform right and so manypeople out there, it's like I'm
just here to watch you play yoursport, be quiet.
I don't want to hear about thepolitics, I don't want to hear
about your religion.
I just want to see you hoop.
I just want to see you score atouchdown.
I just want to see.
And so, to my listeners, youknow if you're in a position, if
you're a leader, if you're anathlete, if you're in some sort,
(14:33):
if you are passionate aboutsomething and you're trying to
change the world for a betterplace and ultimately, you know
influence to help change thisworld into a better place.
And I think Cole does a greatjob of that with his you know,
athletic abilities and hissuccess in basketball.
So I love that you do that, man, because so much now in society
(14:56):
is totally against that.
Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, it's tough.
I mean, even when they go to CJStroud's interviews on
SportsCenter, they always takeout the part where he says all
credit to my Lord and Savior,Jesus Christ, and I get it right
, because they are a business atthe end of the day.
But that's a part of CJ Stroudthat we want to highlight.
That's a part of CJ Stroud thatwe want to.
(15:18):
For me, I want to give himcredit for yeah, and I think
that that's the side of him thathe wants people to see
Absolutely.
And I will never hide my faith.
I will never hide what.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm about.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, because that's truly what I believe in.
It's a huge part of who I am asa person.
And I'm only here because theman above Amen.
I'm only here and able to dowhat I do because the man above.
And at the end of the day,people are like, oh, but you
work hard.
Yeah, but God gives me theability to be healthy, to be
(15:54):
safe, to nourish my body, to putresources in front of me, to be
able to work hard, yeah, yeah.
Only reason I'm able to workhard is because of God.
That part, I just think.
It's when you you take pride isthe devil, yeah.
And as soon as you start tryingto take credit for what you've
done on this earth or whatyou've done in this world,
that's when you becomeunfulfilled.
Yep.
(16:14):
And I always say, like,insecurity is the devil as well.
And what do people try and hidetheir insecurity with?
Woman, yep, money, lust, money,drugs, drinking Drugs, alcohol.
And I've just noticed over thispast year, you're going to have
hard days.
You're going to have days whereyou don't feel like reading the
(16:37):
Word.
You're going to have days whereyou're like God.
Why is this so hard?
Why me?
I'm trying to be closer to you.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm trying to be closer to you.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I'm trying to be with you, god.
Not everything is going to bepurposeful.
The only fulfillment I've everhad in my life is when I gave up
to Jesus and over the past year, when I got let go from the
Lakers, that's when I was likeall right, god, I'm giving it up
to you.
I don't have the answers.
I don't want to be in thiscircle of praising you but doing
(17:04):
other things, going to theclubs or looking for lust or
doing all these things.
I just want to try and glorifyyou and have.
I stumbled.
Yes, I've stumbled.
Yeah of course we all do, butit's been the most fulfilling
I've ever been in my life and Ican truly say there's no regrets
over the past year in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I love that man and I think you know it's such a
valuable aspect you're talkingabout.
You know, I tell everybody, tothe people that are believers,
to the listeners, to people Iwalk around with.
Everybody's got a God-sizedhole in their heart, bro, and
you can try anything to fill it,and we named some of those
things earlier.
But until you truly get to thatpoint where you submit
(17:43):
everything to Christ, you'regoing to always feel unfulfilled
, you're going to always feelempty or some part of you is not
going to be full.
Right, and I think that's suchan important aspect is when you
get to that moment, it is trulyone of those best moments in
your life, because the stresscomes off right, these burdens
become lifted, these things inyour life just completely change
(18:06):
.
I was, as you know, a coupleweeks ago.
I was in new york with mybrother, grant, and, uh, we went
to a comedy show and in thecomedy show this guy did this
skit about religion and one.
It was a funny joke, but it wasso true and it resonates to
this is.
He said me and god are prettydope and I was like, oh okay,
where are you going with this?
He said me and him are closestwhen I'm 30 000 feet in the air
(18:27):
on an airplane and his joke ofthat was saying, well, you have
nowhere else to turn.
And then he knew that guy wasnot the pilot, he's got no
control of the situation orwhatever.
And when I turned around andtold my brother and because he
believes in a god notnecessarily, not necessarily
Jesus, but we have a lot offaith conversations and I turned
around and I told him I saidit's because every one of us hit
(18:50):
that point at one time but wehave nowhere else to turn.
And I was very fortunate to hitthat at a young age, because
you know my physical situation.
I was in so much pain,discomfort and all these other
things where I was like, okay,god, like I got to give it to
you, like I'm giving it to younow because I have nothing else
to turn to right, like the painmedications, all these other
things.
And for you, you know, yourbasketball career is such an
(19:12):
important part of your life andwhen you hit that in your
basketball career you're likeyou had nowhere else to turn.
There wasn't like you could goand you know, whatever the case
may be, there weren't any otheropportunities, alternatives,
right other than giving it toGod, and so I think that's such
an important aspect to that andI think that's incredible.
(19:35):
But, you know, I kind of wantedto talk about, you know, one of
the cool things that I admiredabout just you as an individual
and your faith walk.
You know, I mean grew uptogether for a short period of
time and but through the yearswe were able to keep in touch.
As you mentioned early on, youused to play some video games.
You used to play some NBA 2Kand things, but how do you, as
an athlete right, I mean spenttwo years this will be year
(19:59):
three in the NBA right, comingup here and spent the last two
years in the NBA, but you stillkeep up with all your old
buddies and the people from thehometown?
How do you balance that, man?
Because I know, as you continueto move on up, you work hard,
you're doing your things.
God's providing opportunitiesand great things but how do you
(20:19):
make sure that you just stayconnected with your loyal family
back home?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
and those types of things.
I just try and be genuine.
I try and be the person thatGod wants me to be.
And do I fall short of thatsometimes?
Of course, do I not respond tomy grandparents right after a
game sometimes yeah, that'ssomething I.
It's tough.
You get all these messages andrespond to my parents right away
(20:43):
and try and respond to thepeople that are close.
Like I said, I do fall short ofthat sometimes, but I've always
tried to be a genuine person.
I've always tried to show love.
I've always tried to securingthe man that you are and what
(21:06):
God has done for you in yourlife.
You're able to just be clear ina vision of all right.
These people are genuine.
These people want the best forme.
Me and you played 2K growing up.
Yeah, like I don't know, it'sjust fun, things like that where
if you can make an impact insomeone's life, do it that part,
(21:27):
that part, and if you can begenuine and find ways to make
time for things Like we had thisconversation before.
I used to make excuses of notbeing able to go to church and I
realized when you put God first, you can't skip church to watch
(21:47):
Sunday Night Football, youcan't skip church to.
I remember I had a conversationwhen I was a sophomore at
Villanova with my chaplain and Iwas like he's like, hey, did
you head to church?
This past Sunday I didn't seeyou there and I was like, oh man
, I had homework and thePatriots were playing.
(22:08):
So I was like, okay, I get it.
And him saying I get it.
I was like, all right, thatcan't happen anymore.
I need to find like churchesare non-negotiable Me, going to
church is non-negotiable Likepraying every night and and if
God's really the center of mylife, make him the center of
your life.
And yeah, there's some days Ican't go because of basketball
(22:30):
and travel and everything likethat.
But one thing I've tried to dois every single city I go to,
chad Veach my pastor in LA.
I'll ask him about a church.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
What church recommendation and?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
he'll always send me a church and he'll put me in the
first row every single time.
That's awesome, Like I was atLakewood Church.
Oh, that's awesome In the firstrow and hanging out with Joel
Osteen after and I was inwhatever like just different
cities.
Yeah, and Chad always puts mein touch with people.
That's amazing, and got superclose to the people at VU Church
(23:05):
in Miami.
Like I said, it's just been ablessing Just trying to really
be genuine in my relationshipwith God.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I think, you know, the genuineness that you show in
your relationship to Godultimately then turns into your
relationship with people, athousand percent people, right,
and um, you know, I, I've, I'vebeen god's very blessed me, uh,
in the aspect of being able tocoach, you know, and baseball
and things like that, and I'vebeen very fortunate enough to
know several athletes at alldifferent level, but I really,
(23:35):
um, in a way, healthy way,admire the athletes who, and
people who are just successfuland from a worldly perspective
in general, that are able to begenuine in their relationships.
Right, there's times you knowwhere I've questioned, you know,
people.
I'll be completely transparent.
As a handicapped person, peopleare just going to be nice to
you, to be nice to you, right?
(23:55):
So one of the things I had towork through growing up is like,
okay, are you just being niceto me because I'm in a
wheelchair?
Are we genuinely homies?
Are we genuinely right?
I'm in a wheelchair?
Are we genuinely homies?
Are we genuinely right?
Like, do you if I called youbecause to me?
People know this, the listenersknow this, my best friends, the
people in my life know that Ifthey called me, you know and
they need a shirt off their backor they need to bail out money,
like I got them.
(24:17):
Like that's the loyalty that Ihave with people, and so one of
the things that, like, I admireabout you in a healthy way, in
the sense of you know, obviouslythe Bible tells us not to have
idols and those types of thingsbut appreciate, you know, people
that are successful businessmen, athletes, whatever the case
may be on a worldly level butstill keep Christ at the center,
but in addition, is reallykeeping those genuine
(24:38):
relationship with people andstay on their word and those
types of things.
Because it's so easy and I wasguilty of it too, and I'm not
perfect either when you'recoaching or when you're doing
your job or whatever the casemay be, you get lost with some
people.
You're like, hey, I can, I canhelp you with that.
Right, I can do this with you,you know, um, but keep doing
what you're doing, man, keephaving those genuine
relationships and making animpact on people's lives, cause,
(25:05):
like you said, if you can justdo one thing for one person or
you know, when you meet them,you don't know what that trickle
effect is going to do for them,and I remember you didn't know
I was gonna be an nba player?
oh, not at all, bro.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I was in eighth grade , no and I didn't know you were
gonna be a big time baseballcoach and whatever all these
things, right.
But I think one thing that andyou you're making jokes about
handicapped people and beforeand everything like that and one
thing about you is that ifsomeone were to talk to you over
(25:33):
the phone, they would neverknow or never understand the
things that you've been through.
Just because's the ultimatelike prize as a person, when,
when you're able to be genuineand be real and be able to, to
talk to people about not evenyour experiences, but just give
(25:53):
them life, I think you do anunbelievable job and you have
every reason not to.
You have every reason to be madat the world, right, but you've
, you've always been the mostpositive person I've ever.
I've ever been around.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Even when you were in fourth grade and we were
playing 2K and you were talkingcrap to me, oh yeah man.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Those were the days, bro, and I just think that's
such an amazing quality that youhave I appreciate it and keep
inspiring man, Thanks man.
It's been unbelievable to watch.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I appreciate that and you know, I think, something
that you know God's given me asa gift, right, and you talked
about it.
You know, in a way you're likehaving that right to quote
unquote, be mad at the world,but you know, one of my favorite
Bible verses, right, and one ofmy favorite chapters in the
Bible is John, chapter 9.
And that talks about when Jesusheals a blind man on the
(26:41):
Sabbath and he's walking alongthe road with his disciples and
the disciples ask him, say Rabbi, they say why was this man born
blind?
Was it because of his sins orwas it because of his parents'
sins?
And Jesus turns around andtells him, no, he says it was,
so the power of me could be seenthrough him, and then heals the
blind man.
And so I believe that mysituation is for a reason,
because if people could see me,you know, glorifying God and
(27:04):
being positive and being who Godcreated me to be, then
hopefully that inspires otherpeople to want to, you know,
live their life for Jesus and dothe best with what they're
given.
And you know what I'll lastthing I'll say about that is we
also don't know what everybody'sgoing through, right, I mean
I've met some about.
I've met some of the mostsuccessful people in the world
and this is not a flex, this isjust to say that they've been
(27:24):
some of the most miserablepeople in the world and I've met
some homeless people that cometo our church that are some of
the most happy and most rootedin their faith people I've ever
met.
So I think, just understandingthat, be appreciative of what
you have and, you know, do thebest with what God's given you,
try not to compare about whatyou have and what other people
have and just embrace it.
(27:46):
Embrace what you have, becauseI think there's so many people
out there that would die to haveone aspect of your life,
whether it may be something youtake for granted or something
you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
People out there would love to have what you have
no doubt, and for you to beable to say that's just very
inspiring.
Just continue to be that light,continue to say that's just
very inspiring and just continueto be that like.
Continue to be that personbecause you inspire me, you
inspire me and I know, uh, Iknow with, with your
(28:15):
circumstances, seeing youstarting this podcast and
wearing jesus one and, and, andreally developing into the man,
into the man of faith that youare is, like I said, it's
incredible to watch and onlywants me to become stronger in
my faith and I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I think that's the most.
You know.
It's humbling to hear that in away, because it just allows me
to, you know, want to continueto just be a vessel for God,
being obedient.
You know, I always tell peoplelike people I held a workshop a
month ago about.
It was called Unshaken.
(28:46):
It was talking about, likehaving unwavering faith.
And one of the biggest questionsyou know people have in this
world is like what's my purpose,what's my meaning, what's my
why?
And one of the things that Italk about is like.
People are like well, how do Iknow I have a purpose?
Like, how do I find out mypurpose?
My first, out my purpose,that's my first thing is I say
you have to know you have apurpose, like, believe it,
because if you don't believe it,you you gotta believe you had a
(29:06):
person.
But the one thing is you gottabe available for god to reveal
that to you.
And then, once you reveal that,you gotta be obedient.
Right, how many people, myselfincluded, god uh prompts you to
go do something?
The spirit's like hey, go helpout that person, hey, go up.
But you're just like nah, youknow, college football sounds
good right now, or nah, like youknow, the hanging out with this
person sounds fun, but god'slike, hey, go check out that
(29:29):
homeless person right now.
They might need you.
Go wherever the case may beright, but it's okay.
We pray to god, say god use us,but he also wants us to be
obedient when he does call usright.
So I think that big aspect isthe obedience and just
continuing to strive, because Idon't have it all figured out, I
still struggle with my oldstuff every day, but every day,
you know, every day, I do try tochallenge myself and pray that
(29:51):
god, allow me to be used foryour good and just prompt that
obedience so I can continuallyserve you thousand percent man.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You couldn't have said any better.
I uh, even yesterday, beforethe summer league championship
Championship, I'm on my kneespraying in front of my bed, just
like God.
I don't know what you have instore for me.
I don't know what I can doright now.
I just want to thank you forputting me in this position,
thank you for giving me thislife, thank you for allowing me
(30:22):
to continue to play the gamethat I love around the people
that I love, and give me achance, even when it doesn't
seem fair and going through thesummer league.
You expect one thing, and Godjust shakes things up and is
like hey, even though you'reobedient, I'm going to keep on
testing your faith and keep onseeing if you're going to come
back to me and keep on seeing ifyou're going to read the word.
(30:44):
Keep on seeing if you're goingto keep on testing your faith.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto come back to me.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto read the word.
Keep on seeing if you're goingto follow me, even when it's not
easy.
Right that part, and God's thegreatest.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
That part bro.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And he continues to bless me, continues to bless and
I'm not saying it's ever goingto be easy or it's ever going to
be one of those things.
There's always going to bechallenges.
I remember we have a mentalhealth coach and Duncan Robbins
is one of my mentors and heliterally let me stay at his
(31:13):
apartment this year.
That's real Right, Two shootersin the same spot bro.
Two shooters, man, A lot ofshooting in one building right A
lot of you straight up.
And one thing that Duncan alwaystalked about was hey, when I
get that contract, everythingwill be good.
He gets a five-year $90 millioncontract.
I'm not trying to put hisbusiness out there, but it's
reported right.
(31:34):
And he was even more miserableafter the contract than before.
And with that comesresponsibility and comes more
pressure.
And it's one of those thingswhere it's like, yeah, you want
that, you want the financialsecurity, but at the end of the
day it's not going to make youhappy.
So what can you do on aday-to-day basis and finding
(31:56):
your relationship with Godthat's going to help you be
fulfilled and help people withthe gifts that God gives you.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
That part, that part and, I think, two things I want
to touch upon.
One of the things that I trulybelieve in is you know, you hear
this saying that says, likeidle hands are the devil's
workshop.
My roommate explained this tome the other day.
It was a couple months agoactually now.
It blew me up, but it was so,it was so relatable.
He said it's not, because, ifyou think about it, if I'm
(32:25):
sitting on the couch eatingdoritos, playing my xbox all day
, not doing things for thekingdom, not trying to do the
best what god gave me, do youreally think that, like, the
devil's gonna be messing aroundwith you?
Probably not, but if you'retrying to go out to do the best
that God gave me, do you reallythink that the devil is going to
be messing around with you?
Probably not.
But if you're trying to go outto do the best for what God's
called you to do and go glorifyhim and go spread the word, the
enemy is going to be coming fullforce right and you're striving
to get that platform to be ableto secure your position and
(32:49):
those types of things to be ableto glorify God, and as you are
doing that, the enemy does comeharder because you are trying to
, you know, achieve these goalsfor his glory.
So I think one of those thingsis, unfortunately, in a way, you
know, the more you go after God, the harder it gets, but the
more rewarding it is for hiskingdom, and you know in that
(33:10):
way as well.
And then I think one of theinteresting parts I think is so
important you talked about likeachieving that, like a contract
right as dunking in and thesethings.
I was meeting this guy at churchand and, uh, he was basically
just talking about all thesethings that he had been
achieving in the money, in thecars, and all he was like bro,
great, and you know he's like.
(33:31):
Well, what are your goalsfinancially?
I said, bro, god's, god's goingto provide for my bills, that's
all I care about.
I do what I love.
I get to serve at my church, Iget to coach baseball for a
living, get to host a podcast,and Lord's going to provide
whatever case.
That means I don't, money's not.
It like that for me.
That's just never really beenmy thing.
And but what I told him he'slike, well, you don't want to
(33:58):
get complacent.
I said there is a differencebetween contentment and
complacency A thousand percent,and a lot of people don't
realize that.
A lot of people think like, oh,when you're content, it means
you have to be complacent.
No, god still wants me tostrive to be the best version of
myself, to be able to coach theathletes as best as I can, to
lead them to Jesus and mentorthem and do all these things.
But in addition, if I only had,you know, let's just use
finances if I only had a littlebit of money and it just barely
covered my bills, then I'm goingto glorify God in that because
(34:20):
I'm content, right, but thatdoesn't mean I'm not going to
work harder to provide for myfamily, provide for what my
needs are, whether it'sfinancial, whether it's whatever
the case may.
Be y'all, but don't confusecontentment with complacency.
God's going to provide for you.
Be y'all, but don't confusecontentment with complacency.
God's going to provide for you.
Um, and I think how would yousay in the professional field?
(34:41):
Well, we'll just use likeathletes as an example.
Do you think there's a lot ofconfusion with contentment and
complacency there?
Like when people try to getinto the mindset of being
content and then they feel like,oh, I'm going to become
complacent, someone's going topass me up or whatever the case
may be on that.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Well, I think a lot of the time we think about what
we're doing right and, at theend of the day, it's not about
me that part it's about God andit's about glorifying him.
And every single day I workhard, I try and do the right
things, I try and put myself inthe best position to be
(35:16):
successful right.
But as I said earlier, like Godhas allowed me to do this, God
has allowed me to be healthy, towork hard, to train and
everything like that.
So it's never about me at theend of the day and me being I'm
not content at all.
Like I want to strive to be thebest player I can possibly be.
(35:39):
But I also think for God,reaching your potential is
glorifying him and that's all Iwant is just to reach my
potential and whatever mypotential is, God has written
that for me and me just doing mypart, glorifying God in every
aspect that I can, working ashard as I can because of the
gifts that he's given me to 6'8and 6'3 parents, right.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
The parents that love me unconditionally, the
grandparents text me after everysingle game, all those things
that he's blessed me with thebody, the physical, the mental,
all these things he's blessed mewith.
Let me maximize these things,that part, and then glorify what
he's able to do in my life,because there's so many things
that are out of our control.
That part you can't control howmany people watch this, that
(36:22):
part.
But what you can control is theability to have us sit down
here, set up a conference room,set up the microphone and
everything.
Yeah, exactly For us to havethis conversation to hopefully
affect one person.
Exactly, that's it.
Just one person, yep, and ifmore people, that's a bonus.
Amen.
So I just try and be a vesselman.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I try and do the best work that God allows me to do
that part, that part, and Ithink that's such a great way to
put it really, just to reallyencapsulate just ultimately
being a vessel for God,regardless of where you are, and
I think that's just such animportant piece.
You know, through that journeyand he these things up is I like
(37:12):
to what are three hobbies orthings people might not know
about you other than basketball?
And then, who did you kind ofgrow up trying to mimic your
game after, like, who issomebody you looked up to?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, no doubt my favorite player ever was LeBron
James.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And people say God isn't real.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
In 2018, I remember being in my dorm room watching
LeBron go through the playoffsyeah, being so motivated by the
way he was playing.
I would go to the gym after hisgames and I was like I need to
help LeBron, I need to helpLeBron, and then I get to be
teammates with him.
That's cool.
Five years later, that's socool.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
He's still hooping to this day, bro.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Still ho, that's cool Five years later.
That's so cool.
He's still hooping to this day,bro, he's still hooping.
It's just still mind-blowing tome that I was able to meet my
idol.
Yeah, but in terms of guys thatI mimic my game after there's
the Kyle Corvers, there's theDoug McDermott, there's the
Duncan Robinsons, there's theJoe Harris's.
So those are the guys that Itry and mimic my game after and
(38:17):
then just trying to add my own,my own flavor.
My yeah, because I know, at theend of the day, like you can
try and be like those guysyou're always gonna be your own
person right, yeah, um, and whenI talk about hobbies, I've
really gotten to reading.
Okay, uh, trying to trying toread as many books as possible,
like I love watching Netflix,hanging out with friends Okay,
(38:39):
yeah, trying to just help peopleout.
I really enjoy meeting newpeople and conversating, like
you said, trying to lead peopletowards God man, he's been such
a blessing in my life to be ablejust to like I was at VU
Conference, not to go off topic,but I was at VU Conference and
(39:01):
the song Worthy is your Name, oh.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I love that song bro.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
I listened to that this morning and I'm on my knees
with one of my teammates nextto me, his wife, drew Smith, and
Marley Okay, marley Smith, hiswife.
I'm on my knees with them.
Right next to me, a pastor fromDallas, texas, is sitting right
in front of me that I connectedwith through Chad, on my knees,
just thinking about the lastyear, putting my hands up and
(39:25):
just like crying, likehysterically over the blessings
that he's placed on my life andjust being in that moment,
having that one-on-one feelingwith God and them putting their
hands on my shoulders andworshiping.
Those are the things that Icherish more than anything
(39:49):
Having those one-on-one momentswith God man, just super blessed
and thankful and, um, when itcomes to hobbies, I just, I just
want to.
I want to help people have thatfeeling and help people have
that encounter with God, becauseit was just such a powerful
moment that it makes me want tojust continue to follow, follow
(40:11):
God and follow his message andcontinue to bring my friends and
family closer to him that'sawesome.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
That's awesome.
Well, I think you're doing agreat job of that.
You know, I think that's soamazing.
You know, um, last thing wewrap up with here before we pray
out is I always like to uh, youknow, uh, give you an
opportunity to kind of, maybe,what are some things maybe that,
uh, the listeners could bepraying for you about?
Or, uh, what are some thingsthat, in addition to what do you
(40:37):
have coming up, what are somethings maybe you're working on?
Obviously, this is a big momentfor your career at this point,
but maybe you're working onthings on the side, maybe that
you could turn them on to orshout out your podcast and all
the things that you're workingon.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, we've been taking a little break from the
podcast.
Okay, I really wanted to focusthis offseason on on just being
present and being in the momentof of, where my career is right.
Um, so we're taking a littlebreak from the podcast, but, um,
so, with 60 minutes on on theclock, before every single nba
game, we have a chapel, and youactually went to, yeah, the
(41:12):
meeting that we just had invegas with all the n NBA
chaplains and a bunch of peoplewho came.
But during every single chapel,they ask for our prayer request
.
I always ask for mental clarity.
I ask for just my mental healthand just being in the moment,
and I think a lot of the timeswhen I've struggled is when I
(41:34):
try and I'm worried about thethings I can't control, if
that's the minutes of shotsgoing in, if that's all these
things, I'm at my best when I'min life and on the court, when
I'm just able to be in themoment, live and live fearlessly
, like without fear.
So if people can just pray forme in that aspect, if people can
(41:55):
just pray for my continuedblessing upon God, just to be
able to have this platform toaffect people and I truly I mean
this.
I want to leave it up to God.
If my path isn't for me to playbasketball, then I want
whatever God wants from me and,as hard as that may be, I truly
(42:16):
believe that that will leave methe most fulfilled and leave me
with the purpose that I wasmeant to have.
That part, yeah, this is a hugeoff-season for me.
I've battled for two years totry and put myself in a position
to gain a contract, sohopefully this off-season I can
land that contract.
So just continue to pray forhealth and safety, absolutely,
(42:39):
and the ability to just followmy dreams and goals and continue
just to be able to affectpeople.
I love that Would be my prayerrequest, that's awesome, bro.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
I love it.
Well, let's end this thing outwith prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, I justwant to thank you for this
opportunity, god.
I want to thank you forfriendships, god, that you have
put in our lives.
That just you just know, lord,you know you put it on our
hearts when people were supposedto be in your life, and
especially for a long time.
Lord, and I just pray overCole's life right now.
(43:09):
God, we are just so thankful forall the blessings that you have
been able to give him and allthe lessons that you have been
able to teach him, god.
But just the sincerity throughthis story, god, and the
vulnerability that he's beenable to open up with the
listeners, god, we just praythat the listeners were just
able to be impacted here tonightor whenever they listen to this
(43:29):
, god, and just that they knowthat the listeners are loved and
chosen and called and that youhave a plan and purpose for
their lives, God.
God, I just pray that you remindthem that, whatever may be up
against them right now, that youare greater than that, god.
I pray that you remind themthat you are the light in the
darkness, that you are a waymaker, that you will make a way,
even though it looks like theremight not be a way.
(43:51):
God, god, I pray that youcontinually go before them.
And, god, we just pray for Coleand continue the mental clarity
right now.
And God, you just provide himwith these next steps, whatever
that looks like.
God, we just pray that yourwill is done, god, and
regardless what happens, we justpray that your peace that you
put upon him, that suppresses,like you say in the Bible,
(44:11):
surpasses all understanding.
God, we just thank you andpraise you, jesus In the Bible
surpasses all understanding God.
We thank you and praise you,jesus.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen,amen, amen.
That was great, dan, let's goAlright, explosive.
There you go, there we go.
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