April 27, 2024 • 23 mins
In this compelling episode of "Uncle Dad Talks", journey along as we explore the life of legendary tennis player and shoe game icon, Stan Smith. Joining the conversation is filmmaker Danny Lee, known for his captivating documentary "Who is Stan Smith?", providing a behind-the-scenes look into the life of an iconic personality resonating with every generation.
From insightful revelations about Stan Smith's impactful tennis career to his accomplished life beyond the court, this episode leaves no stone unturned. Guest host Tuna from "First in Tuna" podcast further enhances the experience, reflecting on the evolution of documentary films, the complexities of fandoms, and the astounding variety that podcasts and stories encompass.
Whether you're a staunch Stan Smith shoe enthusiast, a tennis aficionado, or a passionate storyteller, this in-depth conversation is bound to leave you intrigued. Embark on an exhilarating journey and discover firsthand the answer to the tantalizing question - Who really is Stan Smith?
A deep dive into Stan's past and present unveils aspects of his life that are as moving as they are motivating. From his revolutionary efforts in player unionization to his heartfelt philosophy about never retiring, listeners get to hear personal anecdotes about Stan's life and his unwavering connection to the sport.
Accompanying this exploration, filmmaker Danny Lee enthralls listeners with a first-hand account of the challenges and rewards of capturing Stan’s life on film. Many delightful surprises unravel like the involvement of Lebron James's production company in this project, underscoring how Danny's passion and respect for Stan's journey shines in every frame of the documentary.
Immerse yourself in the inspiring journey of a true sports icon and the filmmaker who had the honor of weaving his story into a deeply engaging documentary. Tune in for an episode full of inspiration, enlightenment, and a refreshing dive into sports history.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
The Stan Smith is perfection Stan's shoes set a standard,
it's just effortless timeless you could hear Jay-Z quoting that he's wearing
Stan Smith I think every community embraced that shoe hustlers drug dealers
wearing a Stan Smith was aspirational no one really knows when it began it feels
(00:26):
like it's always been around,
People only know Stan Smith as a sneaker.
Who's Stan Smith?
Who is Stan Smith?
Who the hell is Stan Smith? Stan is one of the great icons in history.
He held tennis on his shoulders for decades. He was a power player.
(00:49):
He seemed like he was seven feet tall. Girls were like falling over him.
He has lived an extraordinary life. He had been in some areas that were dangerous.
Stan Smith literally saved my life.
Boycotting Wimbledon was the greatest thing any player has ever done for the sport. He sacrificed.
(01:12):
That's who he is. On November 23, 1974, Margie and Stan got married.
He couldn't pick anybody better.
Without her, it would have been really difficult. Cole.
It's hard to think of him as an icon when he's worn the same mustache for 50 years.
He's a bigger deal now than he was when he won Wimbledon.
(01:36):
Jordan doesn't have his face on a sneaker.
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks.
With me as always is the ever so, Oh, he's not here again. That's right.
There is no Mike Hampton because Mike is too busy doing tropical things with tropical people.
And I am joined by another guest host who is filling the nice big shoes of our beloved Mike Hampton.
(02:05):
Give it up for Tuna of the podcast First in Tuna. What's up? How are you?
Rah, rah. The crowd goes mild. I'm happy to be here, man.
The crowd goes wild. Hell yes, they do.
Because you don't want to know why, I would argue that you're now the sexiest
person to take over the seat of Mike.
(02:25):
So there you go. Stop it. Have you seen Mike? Oh my gosh. That hair? Baby.
That hair. Hey, you got the facial hair, dog.
It's all glue on. It's all glue on. I individually glue the hair on.
Sir, how are you? and welcome to the guest host seat.
Dude, this is exciting. Getting a chance to meet new people,
(02:49):
getting to watch. Obviously, I'm not going to spoil who we got come on the show
today, but just the opportunity.
I love being part of the Uncle Dad Network, so this is honestly the blessing.
This is an honor, so I appreciate you, sir.
Oh, stop it. The blessing is all mine, sir, because having my friends involved
and having, because for those who don't know, you and I actually kind of go way back.
And you've been on the show a few times now. Actually, you were on the show
way early on. Early. It was on COVID days.
(03:13):
COVID days. I think you came on, and Mike wasn't even a host yet, I don't think, right?
He was remote. Yeah, you and I were in person and he was remote.
It was an interesting setup.
Right, right. Yeah. Oh, and then you and I went to an office to do this, I think. Yep.
Oh hell yeah yeah that was
that would have been like it was the george floyd episode right 20 2020
(03:34):
honestly yeah yeah if you guys want to listen to the old days if you guys haven't
go check it out there's so many episodes so you know the it's to see where we
have progressed has been insane and what i love about it is that there are certain
people who've been on this show who have popped up here and there originally
i remember i wanted to market you as the historian
and uh
(03:56):
but i wasn't wrong because now you're creating your own history my friend you
have your own podcast about something you're very passionate about and before
we kick off the show i just want you if you can tell our audience about your
show and why they need to go listen oh man i mean if you want exciting voice
and lots of graphics definitely don't watch or listen.
(04:17):
No it's i'm passionate about football you know
that i cover four teams the four major fan bases
is here on the west coast so rams raiders not engine chargers but
the our niche is it's supposed to be accommodating for
the nerd like me and then the new you know the person that's just
getting into it or doesn't want that high level talk like just give me the basics
and just stay positive about it so yeah that's our whole angle that's football
(04:39):
friendly football friendly football for everyone i love that man i think also
too you know football can be a little intimidating for some right especially
people who are hardcore into it you know what i mean and you're like Well,
I think any fandom, any fandom can be intimidating, right?
Because it's like, you know what I mean? Well, then also innately,
it's just a complicated sport.
(04:59):
Like half the rules don't make any sense, even to us, man. I understand.
Totally. And so, you know, your show is a video podcast first and foremost, correct?
Yeah. Preferential to YouTube, but we are on Spotify as well.
Awesome. And so how does our audience find the data? Just type in First Antuna?
First Antuna podcast, baby. All right. Right, and then where can they follow you as well?
(05:22):
Instagram, tuna.daluna is the handle, and my Twitter is the underscore big underscore tuna.
You are the big tune, my friend. All right. So go check him out,
really, because seriously, you know, without these, you know,
because he's only been podcasting for a year now or two years.
That year would be pushing it probably like six or seven months.
You know, he's new to the game. And, you know, I will always try to say this as much as I can.
(05:47):
Podcasting is a great format for anybody who wants to be creative,
who wants to share their passions.
And, you know, because this is where Uncle Dad came from, right?
Came from originally talking about comic books. And now we are the show that
talks to all walks of life, including our guests today.
So what I will say is, if you have a passion, you have a dream,
you have something you're into, just go out there and do it.
(06:07):
I know Tuna will agree with us.
I know Mike would agree with that sentiment. So please get out there,
create. That's what we need right now. It's creation.
So with that being said, that kind of leads into our guest tab.
We have a legend coming on. arguably one of
the most iconic people in the shoe game one of
the most legendary players of the tennis world
(06:29):
period and i i don't think i could ever imagine that we would have a guest like
that on this show so without further ado i am so pleased to announce that we
have the legendary tennis player stan smith coming on along with the filmmaker
behind the documentary who is stan smith,
(06:49):
Danny Lee Pierce or sorry well I'm gonna call you Pierce Tuna whatever right.
Tuna what is your thoughts about our guests obviously
it's one of those names that's iconic you just kind of know about it from the
shoot you don't really think about who is this person so who is Stan Smith behind
the Stan Smith just like probably a lot of kids don't know you know who really
(07:13):
Jordan was or who Astoria is they just see the shoe and know the name brand being having a
chance to view the documentary beforehand man honestly my my first takeaway
is this is probably one of the greatest humans that ever lived like out of out
of humanity out of just pure doing the right thing all the time had no idea
about this story beforehand pretty remarkable,
(07:34):
It's crazy, right? And we've seen the shoes everywhere. And I remember the first
time I ever heard of that shoe was when I was actually in Japan.
And the Japanese, man, they were all about that shoe. Everybody was wearing Stan Smith shoes.
And I was like, what is the shoe? And they were like, oh yeah,
it's just a fashion shoe.
But I didn't realize, and it wasn't until maybe a year or two where I was like,
(07:57):
oh, that's a real person.
And I think that happens to a lot lot of people with that shoe
would you would you do you agree with that you think oh obviously even
way more than the shoes stan smith like i said jordan isn't
like the persachi or product like named after a family or a
person so it's like you take those things for granted you don't know the story
behind the brand yeah i guess
(08:19):
it's true right i mean there's a whole movie what called what is it house of gucci right
yeah that's true yeah you're right about
that so i'm very excited to have this guest on and
talk about their film i think what's so exciting about this is that it's you
know it's another documentary we just our past interview we did another one
with a trans filmmaker and now we're telling the story of a sports icon i think
(08:41):
what's really great about documentaries right now is that they're so i mean
documentaries have always been very,
variative right they're so they're all over everything right like pop culture
you know something important something you know at least something literally
about Did you see the documentary about Pepsi not awarding the Jets?
I got halfway through and I was like, this is ridiculous.
(09:04):
That's what I'm saying. Documentaries cover everything, right?
Yeah. And I think it's such a great time to be a documentarian.
So again, I can't recommend that enough.
Just get out there and watch these films because they're so ridiculous and in
the best ways, I think. So we'll be right back with our interview with Stan
Smith and filmmaker Danny Lee.
(09:25):
But before we go, you know, I got to tell you, what is my favorite thing to
do when I'm playing video games? Do you know what that is?
This could go so many different ways i think
you do know because i think they sponsor your show too uh rogue
energy yes let's go that's
(09:46):
right rogue energy you know what you're new to the rogue
energy game so let me ask how sell it to
me tell my audience about it oh plain and
simple it doesn't taste like poop let's
put it that way i've tried no seriously like
just being being a former athlete being active all the
time you try a lot of different products and it
(10:06):
a lot of them taste chalky or bad or just
have just the goofiest flavors this one has some unique flavors
for sure but they all taste good i'm a fan of the blue raspberry right now yeah
i like the it was a tiger's blood here's well i haven't tried that one yet i
mean come on i had to do that one first but yes rogue energy it's a really great
product and sir what is the website rogueenergy.com.
(10:32):
The guy who sponsors this show too and we struggle but
it's all right i barely remember my instagram name give me
yes rogue energy doctor go there i use
promo code uncle dad 10 for 10 off your purchase
it does go coincide with other sales
happening so if there's other things you see for sale go
do that really you won't regret it and you can even
(10:52):
get free samples right off the gate i don't know if the coupon code
works for the shipping but you know
go check it out rogue energy and of course when you're
in san jose after you're all hyped up you need
to come down you got to go to clandestine brewing in san
jose california where you can get the best beers in town arguably the
best brewery of the south bay truly just for macro products clandestine brewing
(11:16):
just literally type that in online it'll go take you straight to it remember
clandestine brewing secret is out all right are you ready sir to go conduct
our interview are they ready I know you do, sir.
I know you do. All right, everybody, we'll be right back after this break.
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Guidelines Smart Energy. Take control over rising energy costs. First off, hello.
I can't. I am so excited to speak to you right now. Both Danny Lee and of course, Stan.
(12:47):
It is an absolute honor and a pleasure to have you both on the show.
I think right out of the gate, I just have to ask Danny Lee,
actually, what really made you want to make a documentary about Stan Smith and
capturing literally a shoe icon and a tennis player icon? I think you just answered the question.
It's sort of, but thank you for asking. I mean, I think for me personally,
(13:10):
the man is iconic, right?
And the story and I, you know, it was really a challenge and a privilege to
be able to unpack all this history behind that shoot.
I'm pretty sure everyone on this zoom and 95
percent of people listening have either owned
a pair or definitely have seen a pair so it's this
(13:32):
ubiquitous name that's always been in pop culture but many of us don't know
what what the story is behind it so for me it was a great challenge and man
we're compressing so much to story and history and pop culture into 90 minutes
so as a filmmaker It was a challenge, but it was a well worth it. That's amazing.
Danny, obviously, beautiful work. Love the documentary. Stan,
(13:55):
beautiful work, existing and being a legend.
Question for Danny. Obviously, you kind of knew who Stan was.
When you jumped into this documentary, though, did you know,
and it's on how iconic it would be, having Stan's shoe be created?
Somebody my age, I think of the Michael Jordan era and how historic that shoe is.
Did you know that you were accomplishing telling the story of tennis this version
(14:17):
of michael jordan even before that story began yeah for sure i i knew that it
was a tennis shoe i knew that there was all this tennis history i knew he was
a champion i just didn't you know i think what surprised me what was the most
illuminating was discovering all this all this.
His humanitarian efforts, peeling back the layers of the onion,
(14:38):
his deep relationship with Arthur Ashe,
his relationship with Mark Mothabani, that young black tennis upstart from South
Africa, all these things that he'd done for the people that he never really touted, right? Right.
Like you're talking about, you know, tennis isn't tennis back then wasn't the tennis of today.
You know, Stan was traveling alone or if he was lucky, you know,
(14:58):
obviously Margie came along, you know, occasionally his agent would be there.
But like tennis was much different.
And, you know, tennis players weren't treated with the kind of respect and certainly
not from the federations.
They weren't making the kind of dough they were making today.
Day and so stan you know you
know was fundamental in unionizing tennis but also
(15:18):
he was one of the earliest you know
players to get endorsed and get all these deals and was
at the beginning of a gold rush in sports marketing that's
that was so cool to witness so all these little details i
just knew you know sort of cursorily you know
he was a champion in tennis but i didn't know how deep it
went and that was really a joy that was
(15:41):
one of the biggest joys of making this film is just going down that wormhole
man stan how does it feel to get that call like hey we're going to make a documentary
about how awesome you are well i didn't know if that was going to take place
it could have been a real accurate honest one but it turned no it was honest.
It's it's it's very awkward to have something like that you know done in your
(16:05):
life and you don't know what to expect really as to how it's going to come out.
And is it going to be, you know, as accurate as it could be,
or is it going to be, you know,
different in the wrong way who knows right you know
it's funny it's i i imagine like when you see your
life being presented like that does that ever just when
you're when you're just watching it do you ever feel like man i wish
(16:27):
i could go back and change maybe something i did then or do you just kind of
go i'm glad it went the way it did it reminds me i played a tournament one time
where they would broadcast the match that night you know they tape it and then
show it that night so you could actually see it yourself and so i would look
at that night i said i wonder if it's going to.
Turn out the way it did when i actually played it or not so
(16:48):
uh the same thing with this with this documentary is
you just never know exactly what's going to turn
out you know and and i was just hoping for the best i
had some trust in in danny after getting to know him
and and understanding what he was getting at and that
that helped a lot to calm my nerves about that
but it was a little bit scary to put my
(17:08):
life out there yeah i bet this was
for you stan nice to meet you by the way the tension with
the association being one of the earliest instances of the player
power versus a governing body of a sport it was
something that resonated deeply with me as a former athlete and as
a historian as well what kind of helped you stay
mentally strong knowing how important defending your title was on your life
(17:30):
goal legacy would help you come that decision to put others before yourself
in that 11th hour well i thought it was the right thing to do at that particular
time we were really fighting for the players rights to be able to be independent
to not be controlled by the federations.
And so almost all the top players, except for the Eastern Europeans and college
players that were amateurs, stuck together.
(17:51):
We had about, I think it was 82 players in our association at the time,
a very new upstart union, basically, of players.
And we felt that if we were going to stay controlled by these federations,
then we weren't going to be able to reach our potential as amateurs.
As a tennis industry, really.
(18:12):
So that was, we felt it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to. I was ready to go.
We really stayed up to about 11.30 that night on Sunday night,
right before Wimbledon was supposed to start on Monday.
Made the final vote that we were not going to play.
They had to next day redo the whole draw and start on Tuesday.
(18:32):
He said, oh, on Monday, because it was, you know, there's 82 of us that were,
most of us were seated in the tournament, and they had to redo the scenes and
then redo the draw itself.
So it was a difficult time, but I felt pretty good about it. I mean, in general.
Thank you. Danny, when you're working on this project and you're working with,
(18:55):
you know, such an icon and you are creating the tale, do you have to kind of
run everything by stand first?
Or do you kind of make the decision like, okay, I think this is where this should
go first? Or what does that process look like?
Yeah, I think the precedent for documentaries when you're telling someone's
life story, especially when there's celebrity, is that a filmmaker needs to gain the trust first.
(19:19):
And that goes with scripted as
well. Everything. You just need to gain the trust of everyone around you.
You want to all be working together in unison. and thankfully stan was
not even in the edit bay no questions comments nothing he just sort of said
you know it's so organic it was like i trust you young danny do you think you
better not screw it up he didn't have to say that but i knew not to screw it up.
(19:47):
And yeah so he wasn't involved he saw a very damn near locked cut there was
one little note of trying to include one piece.
But other than that, he just had, you know, the utmost faith and I appreciate
that. I appreciate you, Stan.
Oh, that's so lovely. Yeah, this documentary was done with a lot of love,
(20:07):
a lot of passion on your end, Danny.
Question for you, Stan and Danny, feel free to jump in on this answer in case
there's something that you uncover in your filmmaking.
So, Stan, obviously, you've accomplished an unfathomable amount in your lifetime.
But what keeps you motivated now? And by that, I mean,
Stern's mentioned you travel around like you'll travel land
at 12 30 be at practice at 2 30 you have
(20:29):
the reputation of creating obligations when you don't
have to you do it out of humanity and it makes you such a great human being
it seems like so at this rate you know what keeps you going now well i you know
one of the books that's the most important book in my life is the bible i've
never seen anything in the bible talk about retiring and there's never i don't
get orders used and so i i don't even think about it.
(20:52):
I feel awkward when people come up to me and say, well, gee,
I got early retirement at 60 or even at 65 or whatever.
And I said, well, what's that like? Because I'm still involved with this company, Stan Smith Events.
We help corporations entertain their clients at major events.
And that takes up quite a bit of time and travel. You know, I go to all the
major tournaments and then we do other things as well.
(21:14):
And then I've got an academy that I go to every afternoon when I'm here in town.
It's about half the time.
And then I'm doing things for Adidas. And then we have this foundation that
runs the golf tournament, the
RBC Heritage Classic, which is a big golf tournament after the Masters.
And I've been involved with Boys and Girls Club and continuing the effort to
(21:35):
keep that going. And then I'm trying to spend time with my family.
We've now got, I think, with 17 grandchildren.
And so we're trying to figure out how to spend time.
In fact, today I'm going to go out with a couple of them onto the court because
we have a couple that are interested in tennis.
And so I'm going to help them a bit today with their tennis.
So I'm fortunate to have a variety of things that I'm involved in which make it.
(22:00):
Man, so what's so great about that is that you have this film and your whole
family can just keep sharing it forever.
You know what I mean? It's a never-ending, continuous legacy.
I mean, also, I guess you have the shoes too, right? So you always want to be
a part of your family's life. And I think it's incredible, right? You can carry that on.
And so I'm curious, when you're making this film, LeBron James was one of the producers of this.
(22:24):
Did LeBron James come out to you, Stan, or did he reach out to Danny?
Well, originally, their production company reached out to me.
They saw the book that I did that stands for Some People Think I'm a Shoe.
And they liked the book and they liked the idea of maybe doing a documentary.
And so that was the group that came to me. And then they said,
(22:44):
well, let's interview some guys to be the director. actor.
And I got a chance to see Danny and I saw some of the stuff he'd done,
you know, make sure that he wasn't, you know, a quack.
Turned out that he wasn't and we got along great. He did an unbelievable job.
That's amazing. Thank you guys both. We have to wrap up here,
(23:04):
but thank you guys so much for the time.
Stan, truly an absolute pleasure and just an honor to get to speak to you for a little bit.
So thank you. And Danny, keep up the great work because this documentary is
absolutely incredible. Thank you.
Thanks. Thanks, guys. You know, know i have a grandson named pierce so
uh he's a he's a lacrosse player so no
way i i still for the life of me i've never met another individual
with my name really really i thought it was one of one his real name is stanley
(23:31):
pierce as a matter of fact he goes by pierce well you put it that way i guess
he should go by stanley too i guess he's sticking with pierce that's awesome
i love it thank you guys so much okay take care thank you gentlemen.
The Stan Smith is perfection Stan's shoes set a standard,
it's just effortless timeless you could hear Jay-Z quoting that he's wearing
Stan Smith I think every community embraced that shoe hustlers drug dealers
wearing a Stan Smith was aspirational no one really knows when it began it feels
(00:26):
like it's always been around,
People only know Stan Smith as a sneaker.
Who's Stan Smith?
Who is Stan Smith?
Who the hell is Stan Smith? Stan is one of the great icons in history.
He held tennis on his shoulders for decades. He was a power player.
(00:49):
He seemed like he was seven feet tall. Girls were like falling over him.
He has lived an extraordinary life. He had been in some areas that were dangerous.
Stan Smith literally saved my life.
Boycotting Wimbledon was the greatest thing any player has ever done for the sport. He sacrificed.
(01:12):
That's who he is. On November 23, 1974, Margie and Stan got married.
He couldn't pick anybody better.
Without her, it would have been really difficult. Cole.
It's hard to think of him as an icon when he's worn the same mustache for 50 years.
He's a bigger deal now than he was when he won Wimbledon.
(01:36):
Jordan doesn't have his face on a sneaker.
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks.
With me as always is the ever so, Oh, he's not here again. That's right.
There is no Mike Hampton because Mike is too busy doing tropical things with tropical people.
And I am joined by another guest host who is filling the nice big shoes of our beloved Mike Hampton.
(02:05):
Give it up for Tuna of the podcast First in Tuna. What's up? How are you?
Rah, rah. The crowd goes mild. I'm happy to be here, man.
The crowd goes wild. Hell yes, they do.
Because you don't want to know why, I would argue that you're now the sexiest
person to take over the seat of Mike.
(02:25):
So there you go. Stop it. Have you seen Mike? Oh my gosh. That hair? Baby.
That hair. Hey, you got the facial hair, dog.
It's all glue on. It's all glue on. I individually glue the hair on.
Sir, how are you? and welcome to the guest host seat.
Dude, this is exciting. Getting a chance to meet new people,
(02:49):
getting to watch. Obviously, I'm not going to spoil who we got come on the show
today, but just the opportunity.
I love being part of the Uncle Dad Network, so this is honestly the blessing.
This is an honor, so I appreciate you, sir.
Oh, stop it. The blessing is all mine, sir, because having my friends involved
and having, because for those who don't know, you and I actually kind of go way back.
And you've been on the show a few times now. Actually, you were on the show
way early on. Early. It was on COVID days.
(03:13):
COVID days. I think you came on, and Mike wasn't even a host yet, I don't think, right?
He was remote. Yeah, you and I were in person and he was remote.
It was an interesting setup.
Right, right. Yeah. Oh, and then you and I went to an office to do this, I think. Yep.
Oh hell yeah yeah that was
that would have been like it was the george floyd episode right 20 2020
(03:34):
honestly yeah yeah if you guys want to listen to the old days if you guys haven't
go check it out there's so many episodes so you know the it's to see where we
have progressed has been insane and what i love about it is that there are certain
people who've been on this show who have popped up here and there originally
i remember i wanted to market you as the historian
and uh
(03:56):
but i wasn't wrong because now you're creating your own history my friend you
have your own podcast about something you're very passionate about and before
we kick off the show i just want you if you can tell our audience about your
show and why they need to go listen oh man i mean if you want exciting voice
and lots of graphics definitely don't watch or listen.
(04:17):
No it's i'm passionate about football you know
that i cover four teams the four major fan bases
is here on the west coast so rams raiders not engine chargers but
the our niche is it's supposed to be accommodating for
the nerd like me and then the new you know the person that's just
getting into it or doesn't want that high level talk like just give me the basics
and just stay positive about it so yeah that's our whole angle that's football
(04:39):
friendly football friendly football for everyone i love that man i think also
too you know football can be a little intimidating for some right especially
people who are hardcore into it you know what i mean and you're like Well,
I think any fandom, any fandom can be intimidating, right?
Because it's like, you know what I mean? Well, then also innately,
it's just a complicated sport.
(04:59):
Like half the rules don't make any sense, even to us, man. I understand.
Totally. And so, you know, your show is a video podcast first and foremost, correct?
Yeah. Preferential to YouTube, but we are on Spotify as well.
Awesome. And so how does our audience find the data? Just type in First Antuna?
First Antuna podcast, baby. All right. Right, and then where can they follow you as well?
(05:22):
Instagram, tuna.daluna is the handle, and my Twitter is the underscore big underscore tuna.
You are the big tune, my friend. All right. So go check him out,
really, because seriously, you know, without these, you know,
because he's only been podcasting for a year now or two years.
That year would be pushing it probably like six or seven months.
You know, he's new to the game. And, you know, I will always try to say this as much as I can.
(05:47):
Podcasting is a great format for anybody who wants to be creative,
who wants to share their passions.
And, you know, because this is where Uncle Dad came from, right?
Came from originally talking about comic books. And now we are the show that
talks to all walks of life, including our guests today.
So what I will say is, if you have a passion, you have a dream,
you have something you're into, just go out there and do it.
(06:07):
I know Tuna will agree with us.
I know Mike would agree with that sentiment. So please get out there,
create. That's what we need right now. It's creation.
So with that being said, that kind of leads into our guest tab.
We have a legend coming on. arguably one of
the most iconic people in the shoe game one of
the most legendary players of the tennis world
(06:29):
period and i i don't think i could ever imagine that we would have a guest like
that on this show so without further ado i am so pleased to announce that we
have the legendary tennis player stan smith coming on along with the filmmaker
behind the documentary who is stan smith,
(06:49):
Danny Lee Pierce or sorry well I'm gonna call you Pierce Tuna whatever right.
Tuna what is your thoughts about our guests obviously
it's one of those names that's iconic you just kind of know about it from the
shoot you don't really think about who is this person so who is Stan Smith behind
the Stan Smith just like probably a lot of kids don't know you know who really
(07:13):
Jordan was or who Astoria is they just see the shoe and know the name brand being having a
chance to view the documentary beforehand man honestly my my first takeaway
is this is probably one of the greatest humans that ever lived like out of out
of humanity out of just pure doing the right thing all the time had no idea
about this story beforehand pretty remarkable,
(07:34):
It's crazy, right? And we've seen the shoes everywhere. And I remember the first
time I ever heard of that shoe was when I was actually in Japan.
And the Japanese, man, they were all about that shoe. Everybody was wearing Stan Smith shoes.
And I was like, what is the shoe? And they were like, oh yeah,
it's just a fashion shoe.
But I didn't realize, and it wasn't until maybe a year or two where I was like,
(07:57):
oh, that's a real person.
And I think that happens to a lot lot of people with that shoe
would you would you do you agree with that you think oh obviously even
way more than the shoes stan smith like i said jordan isn't
like the persachi or product like named after a family or a
person so it's like you take those things for granted you don't know the story
behind the brand yeah i guess
(08:19):
it's true right i mean there's a whole movie what called what is it house of gucci right
yeah that's true yeah you're right about
that so i'm very excited to have this guest on and
talk about their film i think what's so exciting about this is that it's you
know it's another documentary we just our past interview we did another one
with a trans filmmaker and now we're telling the story of a sports icon i think
(08:41):
what's really great about documentaries right now is that they're so i mean
documentaries have always been very,
variative right they're so they're all over everything right like pop culture
you know something important something you know at least something literally
about Did you see the documentary about Pepsi not awarding the Jets?
I got halfway through and I was like, this is ridiculous.
(09:04):
That's what I'm saying. Documentaries cover everything, right?
Yeah. And I think it's such a great time to be a documentarian.
So again, I can't recommend that enough.
Just get out there and watch these films because they're so ridiculous and in
the best ways, I think. So we'll be right back with our interview with Stan
Smith and filmmaker Danny Lee.
(09:25):
But before we go, you know, I got to tell you, what is my favorite thing to
do when I'm playing video games? Do you know what that is?
This could go so many different ways i think
you do know because i think they sponsor your show too uh rogue
energy yes let's go that's
(09:46):
right rogue energy you know what you're new to the rogue
energy game so let me ask how sell it to
me tell my audience about it oh plain and
simple it doesn't taste like poop let's
put it that way i've tried no seriously like
just being being a former athlete being active all the
time you try a lot of different products and it
(10:06):
a lot of them taste chalky or bad or just
have just the goofiest flavors this one has some unique flavors
for sure but they all taste good i'm a fan of the blue raspberry right now yeah
i like the it was a tiger's blood here's well i haven't tried that one yet i
mean come on i had to do that one first but yes rogue energy it's a really great
product and sir what is the website rogueenergy.com.
(10:32):
The guy who sponsors this show too and we struggle but
it's all right i barely remember my instagram name give me
yes rogue energy doctor go there i use
promo code uncle dad 10 for 10 off your purchase
it does go coincide with other sales
happening so if there's other things you see for sale go
do that really you won't regret it and you can even
(10:52):
get free samples right off the gate i don't know if the coupon code
works for the shipping but you know
go check it out rogue energy and of course when you're
in san jose after you're all hyped up you need
to come down you got to go to clandestine brewing in san
jose california where you can get the best beers in town arguably the
best brewery of the south bay truly just for macro products clandestine brewing
(11:16):
just literally type that in online it'll go take you straight to it remember
clandestine brewing secret is out all right are you ready sir to go conduct
our interview are they ready I know you do, sir.
I know you do. All right, everybody, we'll be right back after this break.
This episode is brought to you by Skyline Smart Energy. It's a new year,
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Guidelines Smart Energy. Take control over rising energy costs. First off, hello.
I can't. I am so excited to speak to you right now. Both Danny Lee and of course, Stan.
(12:47):
It is an absolute honor and a pleasure to have you both on the show.
I think right out of the gate, I just have to ask Danny Lee,
actually, what really made you want to make a documentary about Stan Smith and
capturing literally a shoe icon and a tennis player icon? I think you just answered the question.
It's sort of, but thank you for asking. I mean, I think for me personally,
(13:10):
the man is iconic, right?
And the story and I, you know, it was really a challenge and a privilege to
be able to unpack all this history behind that shoot.
I'm pretty sure everyone on this zoom and 95
percent of people listening have either owned
a pair or definitely have seen a pair so it's this
(13:32):
ubiquitous name that's always been in pop culture but many of us don't know
what what the story is behind it so for me it was a great challenge and man
we're compressing so much to story and history and pop culture into 90 minutes
so as a filmmaker It was a challenge, but it was a well worth it. That's amazing.
Danny, obviously, beautiful work. Love the documentary. Stan,
(13:55):
beautiful work, existing and being a legend.
Question for Danny. Obviously, you kind of knew who Stan was.
When you jumped into this documentary, though, did you know,
and it's on how iconic it would be, having Stan's shoe be created?
Somebody my age, I think of the Michael Jordan era and how historic that shoe is.
Did you know that you were accomplishing telling the story of tennis this version
(14:17):
of michael jordan even before that story began yeah for sure i i knew that it
was a tennis shoe i knew that there was all this tennis history i knew he was
a champion i just didn't you know i think what surprised me what was the most
illuminating was discovering all this all this.
His humanitarian efforts, peeling back the layers of the onion,
(14:38):
his deep relationship with Arthur Ashe,
his relationship with Mark Mothabani, that young black tennis upstart from South
Africa, all these things that he'd done for the people that he never really touted, right? Right.
Like you're talking about, you know, tennis isn't tennis back then wasn't the tennis of today.
You know, Stan was traveling alone or if he was lucky, you know,
(14:58):
obviously Margie came along, you know, occasionally his agent would be there.
But like tennis was much different.
And, you know, tennis players weren't treated with the kind of respect and certainly
not from the federations.
They weren't making the kind of dough they were making today.
Day and so stan you know you
know was fundamental in unionizing tennis but also
(15:18):
he was one of the earliest you know
players to get endorsed and get all these deals and was
at the beginning of a gold rush in sports marketing that's
that was so cool to witness so all these little details i
just knew you know sort of cursorily you know
he was a champion in tennis but i didn't know how deep it
went and that was really a joy that was
(15:41):
one of the biggest joys of making this film is just going down that wormhole
man stan how does it feel to get that call like hey we're going to make a documentary
about how awesome you are well i didn't know if that was going to take place
it could have been a real accurate honest one but it turned no it was honest.
It's it's it's very awkward to have something like that you know done in your
(16:05):
life and you don't know what to expect really as to how it's going to come out.
And is it going to be, you know, as accurate as it could be,
or is it going to be, you know,
different in the wrong way who knows right you know
it's funny it's i i imagine like when you see your
life being presented like that does that ever just when
you're when you're just watching it do you ever feel like man i wish
(16:27):
i could go back and change maybe something i did then or do you just kind of
go i'm glad it went the way it did it reminds me i played a tournament one time
where they would broadcast the match that night you know they tape it and then
show it that night so you could actually see it yourself and so i would look
at that night i said i wonder if it's going to.
Turn out the way it did when i actually played it or not so
(16:48):
uh the same thing with this with this documentary is
you just never know exactly what's going to turn
out you know and and i was just hoping for the best i
had some trust in in danny after getting to know him
and and understanding what he was getting at and that
that helped a lot to calm my nerves about that
but it was a little bit scary to put my
(17:08):
life out there yeah i bet this was
for you stan nice to meet you by the way the tension with
the association being one of the earliest instances of the player
power versus a governing body of a sport it was
something that resonated deeply with me as a former athlete and as
a historian as well what kind of helped you stay
mentally strong knowing how important defending your title was on your life
(17:30):
goal legacy would help you come that decision to put others before yourself
in that 11th hour well i thought it was the right thing to do at that particular
time we were really fighting for the players rights to be able to be independent
to not be controlled by the federations.
And so almost all the top players, except for the Eastern Europeans and college
players that were amateurs, stuck together.
(17:51):
We had about, I think it was 82 players in our association at the time,
a very new upstart union, basically, of players.
And we felt that if we were going to stay controlled by these federations,
then we weren't going to be able to reach our potential as amateurs.
As a tennis industry, really.
(18:12):
So that was, we felt it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to. I was ready to go.
We really stayed up to about 11.30 that night on Sunday night,
right before Wimbledon was supposed to start on Monday.
Made the final vote that we were not going to play.
They had to next day redo the whole draw and start on Tuesday.
(18:32):
He said, oh, on Monday, because it was, you know, there's 82 of us that were,
most of us were seated in the tournament, and they had to redo the scenes and
then redo the draw itself.
So it was a difficult time, but I felt pretty good about it. I mean, in general.
Thank you. Danny, when you're working on this project and you're working with,
(18:55):
you know, such an icon and you are creating the tale, do you have to kind of
run everything by stand first?
Or do you kind of make the decision like, okay, I think this is where this should
go first? Or what does that process look like?
Yeah, I think the precedent for documentaries when you're telling someone's
life story, especially when there's celebrity, is that a filmmaker needs to gain the trust first.
(19:19):
And that goes with scripted as
well. Everything. You just need to gain the trust of everyone around you.
You want to all be working together in unison. and thankfully stan was
not even in the edit bay no questions comments nothing he just sort of said
you know it's so organic it was like i trust you young danny do you think you
better not screw it up he didn't have to say that but i knew not to screw it up.
(19:47):
And yeah so he wasn't involved he saw a very damn near locked cut there was
one little note of trying to include one piece.
But other than that, he just had, you know, the utmost faith and I appreciate
that. I appreciate you, Stan.
Oh, that's so lovely. Yeah, this documentary was done with a lot of love,
(20:07):
a lot of passion on your end, Danny.
Question for you, Stan and Danny, feel free to jump in on this answer in case
there's something that you uncover in your filmmaking.
So, Stan, obviously, you've accomplished an unfathomable amount in your lifetime.
But what keeps you motivated now? And by that, I mean,
Stern's mentioned you travel around like you'll travel land
at 12 30 be at practice at 2 30 you have
(20:29):
the reputation of creating obligations when you don't
have to you do it out of humanity and it makes you such a great human being
it seems like so at this rate you know what keeps you going now well i you know
one of the books that's the most important book in my life is the bible i've
never seen anything in the bible talk about retiring and there's never i don't
get orders used and so i i don't even think about it.
(20:52):
I feel awkward when people come up to me and say, well, gee,
I got early retirement at 60 or even at 65 or whatever.
And I said, well, what's that like? Because I'm still involved with this company, Stan Smith Events.
We help corporations entertain their clients at major events.
And that takes up quite a bit of time and travel. You know, I go to all the
major tournaments and then we do other things as well.
(21:14):
And then I've got an academy that I go to every afternoon when I'm here in town.
It's about half the time.
And then I'm doing things for Adidas. And then we have this foundation that
runs the golf tournament, the
RBC Heritage Classic, which is a big golf tournament after the Masters.
And I've been involved with Boys and Girls Club and continuing the effort to
(21:35):
keep that going. And then I'm trying to spend time with my family.
We've now got, I think, with 17 grandchildren.
And so we're trying to figure out how to spend time.
In fact, today I'm going to go out with a couple of them onto the court because
we have a couple that are interested in tennis.
And so I'm going to help them a bit today with their tennis.
So I'm fortunate to have a variety of things that I'm involved in which make it.
(22:00):
Man, so what's so great about that is that you have this film and your whole
family can just keep sharing it forever.
You know what I mean? It's a never-ending, continuous legacy.
I mean, also, I guess you have the shoes too, right? So you always want to be
a part of your family's life. And I think it's incredible, right? You can carry that on.
And so I'm curious, when you're making this film, LeBron James was one of the producers of this.
(22:24):
Did LeBron James come out to you, Stan, or did he reach out to Danny?
Well, originally, their production company reached out to me.
They saw the book that I did that stands for Some People Think I'm a Shoe.
And they liked the book and they liked the idea of maybe doing a documentary.
And so that was the group that came to me. And then they said,
(22:44):
well, let's interview some guys to be the director. actor.
And I got a chance to see Danny and I saw some of the stuff he'd done,
you know, make sure that he wasn't, you know, a quack.
Turned out that he wasn't and we got along great. He did an unbelievable job.
That's amazing. Thank you guys both. We have to wrap up here,
(23:04):
but thank you guys so much for the time.
Stan, truly an absolute pleasure and just an honor to get to speak to you for a little bit.
So thank you. And Danny, keep up the great work because this documentary is
absolutely incredible. Thank you.
Thanks. Thanks, guys. You know, know i have a grandson named pierce so
uh he's a he's a lacrosse player so no
way i i still for the life of me i've never met another individual
with my name really really i thought it was one of one his real name is stanley
(23:31):
pierce as a matter of fact he goes by pierce well you put it that way i guess
he should go by stanley too i guess he's sticking with pierce that's awesome
i love it thank you guys so much okay take care thank you gentlemen.
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