As the candles on the cake flicker for Sterling's 50th birthday, we sit together unpacking the layers of life that often go unspoken. Our conversation weaves through the joys and sorrows of hitting personal milestones, with Sterling divulging the poignant shift from child to caregiver as his parents age. The dialogue becomes an intimate mosaic of stories about the delicate dance of managing family, finances, and the ticking clock of business, resonating with anyone who's faced the tender role reversal with their own loved ones.
This episode isn't just a walk down memory lane; it's a deep reflection on the rugged terrain of life's journey. Together, Sterling and I grapple with the raw realities of loss and the sting of mortality, sharing tales that shaped our understanding of life's fleeting nature. We address the heavy cloak of grief that occasionally settles on our shoulders, the way it intertwines with our professional lives, and how we've learned to wade through the murky waters of emotional resilience—a topic that will leave you contemplating the depth of your own fortitude.
And as we chart the course of our personal victories, you'll hear us lay bare our battles with alcohol dependency. The triumphant moment Sterling decided to make a 2 year plan to become sober. We confront the challenges and celebrate the milestones, from weight loss to newfound clarity. This episode is a toast to the power of transformation and personal accountability, a testament to the strength found in vulnerability, and a nod to the continuous quest for growth. Join us on this heartfelt episode that's as much about honoring the past as it is about inspiring a future of deliberate and meaningful change.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Welcome to the your OpinionDoesn't Matter podcast.
This number here, episode 80,special man.
It's very special man.
You know.
Not only that, it's a greatnumber, I got a good friend of
mine you know who honored me,you know with partaking in this
(00:21):
podcast life of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know Sterling, I knew him for how many years we
knew each other Got to be goingon 30 plus years man 30 plus
years man.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
man, I'm great man, I can't complain.
God has blessed me and myfamily and I'm just.
It's a pleasure to be heretalking to you right now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's what's up bro.
That's what's up, bro, and yolisten you.
There was a little celebrationa couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, yeah, man, I reached the benchmark of my
bicentennial.
I officially turned 50 a fewweeks ago.
Yeah, I'm at that point in mylife where no more bullshit.
But it's a blessing still, andI'm happy to reach that mark,
because many people wasn't ableto see this and I just take it
(01:13):
as a blessing that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's what's up, man .
So, um, do you see?
How do you look at life now?
Like you, you know, you've seenthings.
We're not getting younger,we're getting older.
The aches and pains is gettingworse.
You know, I'm saying definitely.
What are we?
What are we doing and what arewe doing?
What is our plans?
I know you have a um, you havea son and a daughter.
What's going?
How's life?
How's life treating you?
(01:36):
How are you, um, preparing tostay for?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
them a little longer.
Yeah uh, my plan has alwaysbeen the same, is to live a
righteous life and keepeverything balanced along the
lines of family, finances,business, things of that such.
I just try to keep everythingbalanced because I believe life
is a balance and too much ofanything would tip the scale
(02:01):
over.
So therefore I try to keepeverything on an even keel.
If you understand what I'msaying.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I do I understand?
I understand that.
I understand that Me and youwas talking actually before the
podcast and actually we spokeabout certain things, probably a
week or so, in regards tohealth, health and like, and you
said something that was likeyou know, the statement is once
a man, twice a child, and youknow, and I'm like that is the
(02:30):
truth.
That is the truth.
I mean, if people don't reallyunderstand, elaborate, what does
that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, growing up I always heard the term people
talk about my mother would sayyou know, you're once a man and
twice a child and I didn'tunderstand it.
But now that I'm seeing myparents deteriorate and go into
a childlike state physically andmentally, I I get it.
(03:01):
Now, you, you understand,because of course, there was
once a child I wasn't there toexperience that, but I'm sure it
actually happened and then itbecame this colossal, godlike
people.
You know, my father was Zeusand my mom was Apollonia, and
now they're both in a stateright now where they're
(03:25):
deteriorating so much that youcan't even believe that these
people were so gigantic man, Iremember my mom.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
She used to be able to, like, I'll go my mom's room.
I say, mom, where's this orthat?
Oh, she'll be.
Like she made another room, sheback, oh it's over there under
the bed.
You know what I'm saying.
And then for me to lose my mom.
I lost my mom in 2016.
You know, I mean, it's like shewas going through that phase of
, you know, breaking down,breaking down, breaking down,
(03:55):
and you know it was rough.
It was rough.
The roughest time for me waswhen I graduated.
I graduated Winthrop, and wehad a ceremony over there by, I
think, by Clare Barton, overthere, that park, over there.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And she barely fell when she got out the car.
So my mom, she had multiplesclerosis, Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I didn't even know that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So then it just started.
It just started getting worse,started getting worse.
But then it's like, wow, I didn, and everything like that.
And then now, when I went awayto college, I came home on
(04:47):
Thanksgiving break, mind you, Iwas there.
When you're a freshman youcould go in early to the school,
like you go in as an August.
So I was out of Brooklyn, I wasin Florida, orlando, florida,
and I went there.
Now, you know, now I come backto visit my mom's is she's
(05:08):
eating, and you know, out of astraw, drinking out of a straw,
and that shit crushed me, kid,that was 1990, 90, 91.
That shit crushed me, kid, thatcrushed me.
And then you know, I wind upcoming home, I wind up coming
home, I wind up coming home.
I came home right after thatsemester was over.
(05:28):
I'm out.
I had to be back here, you knowfor a while.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Wow, I mean.
First of all, let me give youthe condolences of the loss of
your mom.
I know this is a very emotionalsubject for you and I can see
the emotion in you when you evenspeak about it, you know, and
you know it's tough, man, man,it's really tough and before
people used to talk about it andI didn't, really I couldn't
(05:54):
relate.
But now I'm actually goingthrough the same thing.
I mean not the same thing,exactly different scenario, but
my mom is actually going through.
I mean, I hate saying it, butshe's going through the first
stages of Alzheimer's and nowshe's beginning her short term,
memory is beginning to be shotand you know she keeps repeating
(06:18):
the same things over and overagain and you know you have to
be really patient.
But at the same time you try tolook at her and see the same
person that was there during thegood times.
You know you try to foolyourself, but then the reality
(06:39):
comes in and you realize she'sno longer that person and she'll
no longer be that person.
But you know, as I try to giveher the loyalty because she was
there for me, she provided forme, she was my sanctuary, she
was my hero.
So therefore I give her thatloyalty whenever she needs me,
(07:00):
I'm going to be there, you know,but it's really tough seeing
her.
You know the things we take forgranted, you know yeah, that's
a fact the things we take forgranted.
And now, sometimes not in frontof her, not in front of my wife
, not in front of my kids, Ithink about it and a tear comes
to my eye, you know, becauselife could be so joyous at
(07:23):
certain times and at theopposite end, it could be so
cruel.
And sometimes I say what did Ido to deserve to see my mom
deteriorate at this level rightnow?
And what could you do, man?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, man, I mean, that's the harsh reality, man.
It's a sad thing, man, I'msorry to hear about what's going
on with your mom and stuff likethat, and it's like it's uh,
it's more or less a reality.
Come to us now.
Like we, as we getting older,we seeing certain things that we
was, we I don't say we, we tookfor granted, but we, we didn't,
(07:57):
we didn't, we wasn't, we didn'tknow we didn't know.
Yeah, nobody prepared us no,yeah, we didn't know man.
We didn't know man, we didn'tknow man.
I was ice.
When I was young I used to bescared of going to the hospital.
My uncle was in the hospital.
I never went, like Monty, whyyou didn't go?
I'm like, no, I don't care.
My family understands that Igot some things with hospitals
and it's just what's going onright now.
(08:19):
Um, as far as I just came fromthe, my homeboy had a situation.
My homeboy passed away he had a.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
We had a barbecue for him, nigel, and then god bless
nigel.
I knew him very well.
He's a good brother.
God bless his soul.
There are very few people likehim and my condolences goes out
to his family yeah, same here.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
And um right, I was speaking to my homegirl who
lives like right around thecorner from him.
She was going to go to the.
She was wondering if I wasgoing.
I said yeah, I'm going.
And she says yeah.
She said I can't go because myfather got the same thing he has
, like he had like stomachcancer or something along the
(09:00):
lines.
I don't want to be wrong.
And then what wound uphappening?
Her father passed away two daysafter.
That's terrible man.
Two days after he was going togo to wake.
Her father passed two daysafter.
And then now let me tell youhow things were so depressing
for me.
(09:22):
A guy last year he got me intotwo schools to teach.
I was teaching chess.
I was an activity specialistfor two schools.
I was teaching chess.
I was teaching basketball.
I did the trifecta.
(09:42):
I was in a charter school.
I was the trifecta.
I was in a charter school.
I was in a private school and Iwas in a public school Same
time.
And it was because of him.
And what happened was that mebeing?
I'm going to tell you something.
There's certain things Ilearned about me going through
all of this.
I'm going to go back to what Iwas saying.
(10:03):
Of course, I said I tried toreach out to him, right?
Because I had another situationwhere I needed paperwork to
show okay, what day, when did Istart?
When did I start working there?
And I'm like, you know, I wouldtext him and he didn't text me
back and this was um earlyfebruary.
So me me being who, I think Iam like yo, what's wrong with
(10:27):
this guy, you know, I mean whyhe's not texting me back, you
know, or something, and that wasweek one, and then I skip a
week.
Now I know week two, I text himagain and then I even called
him.
I left him.
I said, um, you know, you canhit me back and now.
And now here's the thing aboutsaying why this is me saying,
(10:48):
why is this guy not calling meback?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And you probably jumped to the wrong conclusion
automatically.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So now I get a text early March from that phone
number.
He said, oh, you know, I didn'tknow him.
He used to go through my son'sphone but he's been in the
hospital since January 8th andme being I don't know me, being
selfish, saying why he's whenhe's there fighting for his life
(11:15):
.
And you know what, when shemessaged me back in early March,
he passed away late March.
He just passed away and mesaying this thing why, why, why
he didn't call me back.
Like why is this?
Why is that?
I learned something.
(11:35):
I learned that I learned that,listen, you can't be selfish.
You can't just say like who amI?
I'm just supposed to be thisguy.
Yo, why is this guy not callingme?
Maybe he got other pressingissues.
Why he didn't text me?
Maybe he got other things goingon which he did, or anybody.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You understand what I'm saying.
Yeah, but, man, that's why lifeis a learning experience and
before this happened, you neverhad the prior experience to
think that something like thatmight have been going on.
But now, due to this experience, you get a better understanding
and, like I said, nobodyprepared us for this part of
(12:14):
life, what I'm going through now.
I remember my homeboy one of myfirst homeboys Eddie.
He died when we was in ourearly 30s.
Everybody was shocked.
It was a big shock.
We survived it, but nobody toldus when we get to the late 40s,
50s, people are going to bepassing left and right.
It's traumatizing, yeah.
(12:35):
It's very traumatizing, andsometimes we have to desensitize
ourselves to this, because ifyou sit down and think about
things like this, you will loseyour freaking mind.
We losing people left and right, monty, especially at these
times, and now I imagine whatour parents have been going
through.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Well, think about it when we was younger, how much
parties we was at.
We was at shootouts separately.
We was there.
I know you was in the 90s thereOn a weekly basis.
And back then we was worryingabout, we basically wasn't
worrying.
The only thing that reallycould have happened to us was
(13:12):
just getting shot, gettingstabbed or something like that.
But then now, as we get older,the risk factors are kind of
lower.
In a way.
It depends Not risk factors,meaning the probability If
you're taking care of yourself,you're doing things right, but
who knows?
But it's like we're still inthat type of a jungle to me in a
(13:34):
sense, like we got to now.
Instead of bullets, we ducking,we ducking high blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Health-wise.
We ducking blood clots in thelegs and, like me, I had blood
clots in both of my both of mylungs wow, I remember you just
told me that I didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, you know, and then, and the thing about this,
mine is after surgery.
My fiancee had the same thingin her her lungs for one of them
and she didn't do no surgeries,her standing around working,
wow, yeah, so, yeah.
So it's like you know, we westill fight in the same fight,
but right now we're moreconscious of what's going on.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, we fight the same war, different battles.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, you understand what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Now the battles is not really out there on the
streets anymore, it's withinyourself.
Yeah, basically.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You understand, watching what you eat, that's
far.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, nutrition, exercise, mental stability.
You know Mental health is big.
You know there's a lot ofpeople out there suffering
mentally and they come out andthey look like you think
everything is good with them.
They're smiling and they'rejoking and they're socially fit.
But when they go home at nightthey're secretly fighting a war
(14:43):
that we don't know about andthey're crying themselves to
sleep, hoping that life givesthem a break or they're ready to
give up Definitely.
And you never know.
When you look at the averageperson and he looks like a
million bucks, you might evenenvy them, but you never know
what kind of demons they'refighting inside.
Never know, bro, never know, andthe happiest guy in the world
(15:08):
could be the most broken spiritin the world when he's by
himself.
And I noticed that a lot ofpeople that go through mental
health issues are socialbutterflies.
They're the life of the party,the guy that everybody loves,
and they say, oh, this is thegreatest guy in the world.
And he portrays that out in theopen because that's his defense
(15:30):
mechanism to keep you fromknowing what's really going on.
But then later on, when theparty's over and the lights are
cut and he's back home byhimself, he's slowly suffering
and we never know, until the daywe hear and we're all in
complete shock yeah yeah, and,and you know, sometimes you look
back, the clues were there, butyou never even paid any
(15:52):
attention to it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know facts facts and you know what I hear,
another another, um, anotherthing that happened.
I went to the park the otherday, like last year.
I went to the park with mydaughter and, um, my daughter's
five, and there there was thiskid that was probably like 11.
But he was like abrolic-looking kid and he was
extra, but then he wanted toplay with my daughter.
(16:15):
There was only two in the park.
I'm like he's too, my daughter.
She likes to play, she wants toplay, of course kids do.
I said Mecca, he's too big, he'stoo rough.
So now the mother, she'ssitting on the bench over here.
I told my daughter to go thatway.
The boy leaves from where he'sat and goes to where she's at to
play.
Now the mother says to me don'tworry, my son loves little kids
(16:38):
.
Don't worry, it's okay, he'sall right, but he's just.
You know, he was actually slow.
I don't want to call the wordslow.
I'm sorry.
I don't know the exact term ofthis.
This kid I think he had, Ithink he was suffering for, um,
autism, yeah, it might be.
It might be autism yeah and um.
So now she's telling me she's.
I said okay, yeah, she couldplay with him.
(16:59):
So now she's telling me she'stalking west indian lady.
She starts telling me about um.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, when you say when you say West Indian, what
do you mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
She's a West Indian woman, meaning that I could tell
, because in the area that I wasin there's a lot of real like
Americans.
Okay, so I could just tell byher accent.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
She was like Jamaican or something, Okay all right,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
So then now she'd be talking and she started talking
about a little bit of herselfand she just came from Arizona.
I said, oh, okay, nice.
She said yeah, because her son,her son last year, the year
before, two years before,committed suicide.
He was 18 years old smiled alot.
(17:38):
This, that and the third youwouldn't think nothing's wrong.
He put rocks in his book bagand he drowned in a pond.
He drowned in a pond not toofar from where they live, but
the thing about it is he wasgetting ready to go to college,
not trying to figure out wherehe's going to go and you thought
he was in the best place in hislife and everybody thought it,
yeah, and he had a bright futurehe had a recruiter come check
(18:01):
for him for the Army orsomething like that.
So she was trying to reach outfor him for two weeks she
thought that he just went andleft Wound up.
She found out two weeks laterthat her son drowned right up a
couple blocks from her in thepond.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, yeah, I could understand.
And, to be real, I thinkeverybody at some point in their
life contemplates suicide whenthings are going bad.
I'm not going to lie, I didwhen I was younger.
But I think, being from ourgeneration, yeah, at some point,
even if you're just trying tobe, if you're trying to get back
(18:36):
at your parents, you'd be like,oh, let me kill myself with
them, my parents, you knowthey'll be sorry for me, but I
did contemplate suicide, butnothing seriously.
Or they'll be sorry for me, butI did contemplate suicide, but
nothing seriously.
But I think we come from astronger generation where we was
raised by stronger parents andwe were more soldier-like, we
was brave.
But these kids now they're sofragile, yeah, and even though I
(19:00):
contemplated at times, I neverseriously thought, I never made
the attempt.
I just wanted to get back in myparents' house.
I'd be like, okay, okay, youdon't want me to, let me go
there.
So I said, what if you come andyou find me dead?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, then now you'll be sorry, I never said nothing
like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, well, maybe I'm a little off.
Back to the subject.
I'm saying like, andemotionally we was way strong.
Think about how our parentsused to talk to us back in the
days, especially coming fromWest End and household.
My mother used to say thingsboy, why you ain't going dead
somewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
My father used to tell me why don't you go back to
jail?
You know, I did one day in jail.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
He acted like I did.
A lifetime.
My father used to tell me yeah,you're going to end up in jail,
and you know, we took that and,instead of making us bring us
down, we built from that andbecame stronger and more
resilient.
But these kids right now yousay these things to them they
are so fragile and they're soeasily broken that they might do
anything.
So therefore, now the wholephilosophy of how we deal with
(20:04):
kids is completely different.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I remember when my father beat my ass one time, no,
twice.
When I actually like when I gotto elementary, I said from that
day that he's never going tobeat me again.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Not by me physically imposing my will, because I was
a little kid.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You didn't want to do anything.
Holy right I was set straight.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I said that ass-whipping did not feel right.
No more, it's not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I mean it's obvious to say that the youth now are
different from the youth we wasgrowing up with.
I mean we was talking aboutthis before we actually got on
there and we were saying, like,if you compare the kids now to
when we grew up, we had therespect factor.
So, to the point where we'veseen adults, we might have been
(20:48):
out doing our bullshit, messingaround, cursing, whatever, but
as soon as we see an adultpresent, somebody will say, hey,
relax, here, come, mrs Smith.
And then we'll all stop andwe'll say how you doing, mrs
Smith, and she'll say, hi, boys.
And then she'll go home andshe'll be like I like them, boys
, they're such nice boys.
But now these kids, they'reuncouth and they don't care if
they see an adult coming by andthey'll start cursing more and
(21:10):
being more disrespectful becausethey like that attention.
And the point I'm coming to Ithink the cause of all of this
is remember when we was growingup and we were have-nots and we
didn't have certain things, andwe said to ourselves you know
what?
I'm going to do my best to makesure my kids don't go through
(21:32):
what I have to go through.
And I think that was thebiggest mistake we made right
there, because with the nothaving, with the suffering, with
the persevering, brings thecharacter and the appreciation
of things that we did not have,so that we hold things more
(21:53):
sacred to ourselves now.
So now, these kids, they grewup, they never suffered, they
never persevered, they never hadnot.
So therefore, everything islike a joke to them,
everything's easy.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
They take nothing seriously if you understand what
I'm saying.
No, I do understand, I dounderstand, I do understand, and
it's a different time, man,it's a different time.
These kids now, man, it's likeI don't know man, I don't know
man, it's like the lack ofrespect is big time for the lack
of respect.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The whole system is against you everything's for the
kids.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You know, yeah, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know you can't, you can't win yeah, they empower
the kids, but by empowering thekids they guarantee the fall of
our nation, I believe youunderstand manhood manhood in
general manhood and it's likethere's no, there's no written
rule of manhood.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
No more out there well, you know manhood.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
There's a broad definition of man that's another
subject.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
you know it's a very sensitive subject now that right
right, right, right, right,it's a very sensitive subject
now that you got to be verycareful when you get into.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Oh, you're talking about with the pronouns.
You know that's another subjectI deal with now.
Working in a high school, you,he, but she wants to be called
(23:18):
she, please, and we have toremember all these things and it
can be difficult at times.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'll just call you by your name.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I ain't calling you by no, she yeah, but if you
don't know, sometimes you make amistake and if I don't know he
or she gets upset and makes acomplaint, you could be
reprimanded.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And it's a very slippery slope right now.
You got to follow those rules,okay, okay, okay, yeah it's a
different world.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
The world has transitioned.
It's not the world we lived inbefore.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, let's get into sports.
Man, I knew that was coming.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, let's get into sports man, I knew that was
coming.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Let's get into sports .
You see I'm repping the NewYork Knicks over here.
Our guys is doing work.
Yeah, Our guys is doing work,man.
What's your thoughts on theKnicks, man?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
The Knicks, I'm actually a fan now.
I never thought I would havesaid that before because you
know, came up in the, you know,the late 80s and 90s, the, the
Michael Jordan or Patrick Ewanera, and I was a Nick hater for
years because you know, mj wasmy man and to this day I believe
(24:21):
he used to go to basketball andthat my opinion could not be
swayed by anybody, includingLeBron fans.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
but to go right on, right, okay, so we, I really, I
really wanted to go therebecause I see you.
I see you, man, you are like a,you are the anti LeBron guy and
you are like the real anti guy.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I wouldn't say anti LeBron, I would just say pro
Jordan.
That's my description of it.
Uh, I'll tell you why.
I think most LeBron fans arefrom the demographics of maybe
30 years and younger, and Idon't think a lot of them
experience seeing Mike play.
(25:02):
Now, lebron is a uniquespecimen and he is unbelievable.
He has cat-like speed.
He jumps out of the gym.
He has cat-like speed.
He jumps out the gym, he has ahigh basketball IQ and he's a
really he's a once-in-a-lifetimeplayer.
I understand that he is great,but you cannot compare LeBron to
(25:25):
Mike because, unless you'veseen Mike play, lebron is good,
mike was unbelievable Mike wasunbelievable.
Mike was breathtaking.
You've seen Mike do things withthe ball that you didn't even
think was believable.
You understand what I'm saying.
Air Jordan, he transformed thegame, made it go global.
(25:46):
When you know, magic Johnsonand Larry Bird was holding it
down, four up and then Mike cameand he took it to another level
.
Now my whole thing with LeBronis he's good, he's great, but he
likes playing with too manysuperstars.
He jumps ships too much and helost how many final appearances.
I believe.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know the exact stats, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I believe, six, ten final experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
He lost ten times in the finals.
No no.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
He was in the finals ten times, won four times, lost
six times.
So to me, in order for you tobeat a GOAT, you cannot have
more losses on the big stagethan wins.
He had it ten times in thefinals.
Ten times, oh shit.
Times in the finals 10 times,oh shit.
I mean, don't quote me, we'regoing to do our research, but
(26:35):
he's been there at least 10times.
Damn.
Yes, six losses, four rings asopposed to MJ six final
appearances, six wins.
That percent, 1,000, hundredpercent, a million percent,
anywhere you put it, youunderstand.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, I mean I saw a post on Facebook and they had
some stats up there and you saidyeah, but they forgot to
mention the 400 games, extragames he played, or something.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I mean it's like yes yes, it seems like the press
have this.
I think everybody, the press,the sports press, the new
generation I think they'reexhausted with Mike being the
GOAT for so long.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
They're trying to have the baton pass.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes, they want to push something forward.
They want to push LeBronforward more, and there's a
major push.
But you know so.
Therefore they come with these.
You know, but you know so,therefore they come with these.
You know, lebron just surpassedmj with most 30 30 point games.
Mhm lebron has been in theleague 20 years.
(27:41):
Mj did this in 15 years.
So therefore is it reallyaccomplishment.
Stat man, stat man you know whatI'm saying.
Basketball is my thing.
You know, we go back to thebasketball, dave.
You know we love basketballBoth of us, yeah, so you're
speaking about the push.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Now what about his son, bronny?
Have you been following?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
him I've been.
I mean to me I'm going to keepit 100.
Bronny's trash to me, I'm goingto keep it 100.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Bronny's trash to me.
Listen, you see what you say,right, I had a discussion with
the homies.
They'll name be nameless andyou know them as well and I'm
telling them right, I said yobecause there was a game.
He was at Siena.
I mean enough respect to Bronny, james, bro, and I'm saying the
hype is too much around the kid.
(28:31):
Yes, and it's not wearing it,it's not wearing it.
Yes, yes, so let me tell youwhat happened.
And there was a game he was asophomore and LeBron came there.
Drake came there Because Drakewas dealing with the star, the
star which was a senior.
He was dealing with his motheryes so he had the game and I'm
(28:52):
like they had the game, but I'm,but I'm seeing him play.
He's coming off the bench.
I'm telling the homies I say, yo, he's not that good man he's
not that good all of this hypeabout LeBron James' son is that
the whole gym was packed yes andso then I'm like you know what
they say.
They say your mom, you hating.
They say you hate.
And I say yeah, what are youtalking about, bro?
I said why?
(29:12):
I said why can't I?
Because then now they're sayingI'm comparing me to him as a
ball player.
I'm like what?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I'm glad you said that, because you know this.
This, this term hating, hasbeen blown.
Yeah wait, whatever happened toconstructive criticism?
You cannot.
You cannot give your opinion onanything if you don't agree
with what the person think.
They consider you hating.
Like if, man, we're both goingout and you come out with this
(29:41):
outfit and you're like yo, youknow how this outfit look and I
know the outfit looks like itdoesn't look good, and I say,
man, that's a bullshit outfitchange.
You could say, oh, you're justhating on me, sterl, but why
can't it be?
I'm not hating on you, I'm justtelling you how I feel.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How I feel right, right, and that the and, and.
It's weird, I'm telling you.
It's weird, it's weird for youto um, for weird to hear that
and the thing about you wouldpeople would only respect other
people's opinion.
You can't give your opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Because people are sensitive now and therefore, if
you don't agree with whatthey're saying, they find this
is their loophole to saysomething is wrong with you, you
can't be right, right.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And the thing about it is you said the same words.
You said that he's trash.
I said he's not that good.
Yeah, I see there's so muchpeople there.
There's so much people thatdeserved more.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He's taking somebody's spot.
I said that you're sayingronnie james is taking
somebody's.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I said the same thing I said the same thing about
that.
He's taking somebody's spot onthe all-american games.
He's taking somebody's spot atum, that, the trojans team.
I said the same exact thing andI'm making my point to.
I'm making my point to myfriends.
I'm like yo listen, the, the,it is what it is.
I'm not the only one that feelsthat way.
Yes, so it shouldn't be.
It should never be hate itshouldn't be hate, especially if
(30:55):
you didn't follow.
Especially I'm here, I'mtalking to these guys that y'all
don't even follow him, youdon't.
Yes, and I said that.
They saying but listen, it'sthe fact that he's getting his
attention, it's because of hisfather.
I said, yes, that's it, and Isay that he should he should
take advantage of it.
But it doesn't it doesn't meanit's going to equal up to the
hype yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And when I say brownie's trash, when I I mean
on on the nba division, onecollegian level.
I believe it's right.
It's probably better than Iever was and I took basketball
very seriously, you know it'sprobably better than we was, but
on a collegian nba level andwith the hype that he's going
along with, being that hisfather is LeBron James and
(31:36):
basically LeBron is carrying himwith the James name, you
understand, I just don't believehe's going to live up to the
hype.
I believe I watched him play, Iobserved his game.
He's undersized, you understand.
He's not.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
He's undersized, you understand.
He's not.
He's not outstanding inanything.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
He's not outstanding in anything.
He's not.
He doesn't have the explosivenephosis for it.
He doesn't have the jumpingability.
He's not a great shooter, he'sa pretty good.
He's all right defender, Ithink defending is the best
aspect of this game right now,but that's not going to get you
a starting spot on the NBA team.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, at his height, he's fundamentally sound.
He doesn't.
I mean he shouldn't be takingthis type of abuse, but this is
for the people, that these arefor the people who's saying that
we can't have an opinion?
Yes, what I'm saying is this heis a fundamentally sound kid.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And y'all need to give him a chance.
These cameras need to get awayfrom him.
They need to stay away from himand let him, let him.
Let him, let him get there, notto say he's not going to be
good, he's going to be good, butand I want him to take
advantage of of the nil deals,of course, and get like a two
million in your bank accountinstead of dad's money.
You take use that to youradvantage, yeah, but then, but
(32:51):
at the end of the day, listen,you put lipstick on a pig.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It's still a pig yes, yes, yes, and you know we have
to blame for all this.
It's actually lebron james.
Now I know it sounds like aspare cupade because I don't
like, but lebron james actuallycame out a few months ago and he
said brani can start on thelakers right now, and by him
doing that he put a, said Bronnycan start on the Lakers right
now, and by him doing that heput an unfathomable amount of
pressure on his son.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
A target, big-time target.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Made him a big-time target.
And when he's seen that, whenLeBron noticed that Bronny
wasn't making it on the mockdrafts and all this pressure was
on him, then he's like listen,you need to leave my kid alone
and let him be a college kid.
But, Brian, this is all yourfault.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, yeah, you shouldn't have been going to all
them games like that.
You shouldn't have.
You go to support your son, butyou don't make the hype around
him like this.
Yes, the hype is, even thoughit's your son, you can't control
it.
They're going to be hype aroundhim regardless, even if you
showed up to the game.
Yes, but I'm just saying it'sexhausting.
It's exhausting.
(33:49):
You should have spoke out aboutit years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
You should have spoke about it years ago and now,
just like Jordan's son, yes,Jeffrey.
Just like Jordan, you even knowhis name.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Jeffrey Jordan.
I'm a Jordan fanatic.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
It's like the hype was around him too.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Not as much as LeBron's.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, because.
Well, social media yeah, socialmedia and Jordan wasn't playing
at that time, yeah, so it'slike it's a big difference.
But yeah, he is really goingthrough it and I don't know it's
going to psychologically messhim up yes, now we're talking
about mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
It has to be affecting him mentally.
Yeah, knowing that your fatheris a big, big star and you got
big shoes to fill and you'retrying and it's not working
right now, it has to be taking astole on him mentally yeah, yo
listen it's.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
It's um, as I say, big shoes to fill man.
It's like this it's rough justbeing who you are but then
actually having a you're gonnagive you the shadow of somebody
else.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, yes, yes, I'll give you an example.
On a West Indian level, myfather was an outstanding domino
player and, from Grenada,caracal, one of the best.
He was vicious, I'm not goingto say world renowned, but very
well known by the Caracalcommunity.
(35:06):
Big up to my country, caracal,where my parents are from, and
his name was the Sheik.
People feared him.
He took the game seriously, sowhen it was time he tried to
teach me to play this game.
I didn't want anything to dowith it.
Ha ha, yeah, the pressure fromhim trying even to teach me and
(35:27):
you know what Stinion meant.
He was very harsh and he wasscreaming at me and he would
yell at me you need to do thisor you're not good enough.
And through all of that I'mlike you know what I'm done.
I don't want anything to dowith this and I chose a
different path.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I'm done, I'm done.
I hear you, man.
I hear you, man, it's kind oftough.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I didn't really have a pressure, suffocating pressure
.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, I didn't really have a pressure like that.
I had my father.
He wanted me to learn chess.
He was playing chess and Ilearned it.
I learned it and I wound upbeing better than him.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It's funny you say that because I'm very interested
.
I never learned a game of chess.
My brothers, they both are verygood at it.
They both are very good at it.
I might be the only one thatdon't know how to play chess,
but this is on my bucket listnow.
I need to learn to play chessand I need to be very good at it
.
Right, right right right, right,before we go any further, I'd
(36:21):
just like to give you yourflowers right now.
Man, I knew you for a long time.
You're an outstanding person,outstanding citizen and you're a
trendsetter of sorts, because Iremember you told me about a
few years ago.
You said Sterl, you know what?
I don't drink anymore.
And I'm like what do you mean?
(36:42):
She's like Sterl, I stoppeddrinking.
And I'm like Mont come on whoyou playing with.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I knew.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Mont for years and you know Mont, in more or less
words, was known as a drinker.
You know we hung out plenty oftimes.
You know we would pregame,Pregame.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We would pregame.
By the time we'd get to theparty, we was wet, we had a
great time, and the cycle wenton weekly for years and years
and for you to say, nah, listen,I'm giving this up.
I'm like I couldn't believe it.
But after doing my research,you've been liquor free for
(37:23):
quite a while now and you know,I want to commend you.
That's a great accomplishment.
Thank you, man.
Thank you, and you motivated meand I want to do the same thing
, but I'm um, I'm a victim ofsocial drinking.
Yeah, you understand, I've beena social drinker for many, many
(37:44):
years and I have then I want tostop, but I just don't know how
to go about it.
But you definitely motivate mefor me to take the first step in
that direction.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Right, thanks man.
Thanks man.
It was like a journey man.
It was a journey man.
I had to go through some thingshealth-wise and I went to the
doctor one day Actually, thismonth is going to be two years I
didn't drink.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So I went to the doctor two and a half years ago
and I was at the highest weightever.
I was 240.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
All that sugar, the sugar 240.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And I was like he says you got to do something.
I said and I wound up speakingto my boy, pete.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
You know, pete of course I know pete shout out to
pete.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
so he started telling me um, mind you, before that I
was hearing about this thing,that his diet, he was on, so
we're taking some suppressionshots and stuff like that, like
you know, drops.
So I said yo, bro, what can Ido?
I said yo, I want to lose thisweight.
Man, I got to lose like 20pounds, 30 pounds or whatever.
He said yo, man, there's thisdiet here.
(38:55):
But you got to be on point, yougot to weigh your food, you got
to do this, you got to do that.
And I said yo, I'm on it.
When I said yo, can I drink?
Can I drink while I'm on?
You want to drink Just a littlebit?
He said clear liquor.
But but, ma, you shouldn'tdrink.
Though you shouldn't drink andthe the.
I think the process was six oreight weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I said okay.
He said but if you're going todo it, but you shouldn't.
So I got two weeks in and Isaid you know what?
So, three weeks in, I'mfollowing the thing.
I see in progress.
I'm losing weight.
I said because I stopped.
I said I didn't, I'm notdrinking.
For two weeks.
I said I'm going to startdrinking again.
And then by the third week Isaid fuck it, I'm done.
I'm done drinking.
(39:37):
Wow by the time I got off that.
Um that diet I lost like 30 38pounds bro that's, that's.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That's awesome man 38 pounds man let me you.
My problem is I have a socialdependence on alcohol.
Yeah, Meaning that whenever Igo out to get-togethers, parties
, things of the sort, I need todrink.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Therefore I am seriously uptight.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Right, you could try it.
You wouldn't need to be uptightif you're relaxed.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I'm not a relaxed person.
I've never been.
I'm very shy.
I've always been shy.
I've always been a littleuptight, I'm always very serious
.
So therefore, when I get in asocial setting, I need a little
edge.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
To be on point, I used to do that too.
I used to have to drink just togo to the mall.
All these people like socialanxiety.
I couldn't be around people,bro, I mean me.
I'm like right now, like a lotof people would be shocked, like
, say, I'm going somewhere withmy fiancee and her friends like
(40:50):
her cousins they'll be, shockedto see me talking now, because
when I'm around them I don'ttalk.
I don't talk to people, period.
You know what I mean.
I don't really talk.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Likewise, when I'm sober, I really don't talk too
much either.
Again, there goes the socialdependency.
Now, when I'm around people, Idon't really talk, but then I
may have a few drinks and I'mtalking up a storm.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Right right, right, right right.
So then, that's one of theproblems.
That's one of the problems, andanother problem that I had with
drinking is that there wasalways gray areas.
There was gray areas when I'mdealing with people or certain
things.
It's like all right, I don'tremember certain shit.
Oh, mont's, this Mont was doingthis.
(41:31):
I'm like oh, mott said this.
I'm like yo, no, it's no moregray area, there's none.
I know what I say and this iswhat it is.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah and not too long ago I thought back.
You know, sometimes you havewhat we call a drunk night.
You know, you come home, youwake up the next day, then,
maybe a month or two later, youknow, somebody brings up that
night and they tell you thethings you did and you'd be like
what are you talking about?
Facts?
And when you really think aboutit, I've been drinking for what
(42:01):
?
Easily 35 plus years, Right,Think about all these moments
I've lost in my lifetime and mymemory due to alcohol right,
yeah when you really think aboutit.
It's freaking sad.
I would like to.
I would like the moments back.
You understand what I'm sayingright right, right right.
I mean, it's a double-edgedsword at the same time, you know
(42:22):
you're having fun, but you're,you're losing.
You're losing out on mental, alot of memories, whether it was
good or bad, and, like you said,that gray area that bothers me
now and that's part of themotivation that made me want to
stop.
Now I don't know if I couldstop as fast as you.
You understand what I'm saying,but I have a plan.
(42:44):
It took time for me, I don'tknow.
I see myself in a two-year plan.
You know, sometimes we got totake baby steps.
You know Liquor drinking.
As for me I'm sure for you it'sgenerational.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I come from a generation of drinking.
We got West Indy and Brevity.
We got West Indy.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's like it's not easy.
Yeah, this is the party.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, my father was drinking from the time he was 12
years old.
Right, right, right he put thedrink in my hand when I was 12.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right, right, right, but I'm going to change the
cycle.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I'm going to put the drink in my son's hand.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Right, yeah you know, yeah, and you're going to, you
want to change, right, but thenit's like, damn, my
environment's the same.
Yeah, how can I change if my?
But you just got to have thisthing inside of you, bro, like
right now, since I've been goingthrough all of this stuff with
the funerals and stuff that I'vebeen going through, and I got
to go to this other guy'sfuneral on Thursday, I just fast
(43:37):
, I'm coming off my fast today.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Seven-day fast.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Water, fruits and vegetables.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Seven days.
That's awesome, you know what Imean Cleaning.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
you got to you know you got to you start somewhere.
But I think that you don't needa two-year plan, bro.
You don't need a two-year plan,bro, or you could start.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
You know how you could start To me when you got
the urge, drink wine, take it,take it, wean it down.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
You mean yeah, go from liquor to wine Dry.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Dry yourself out.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
In a sense.
I mean, I can't tell you how todo it because you're a drinker
and I was a drinker.
Nobody would have been able totell me how to do it.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Nobody.
You would have told me 10 yearsago man would not be drinking
any alcohol at this point.
I would have bet any amount ofmoney in this world and I would
have thought that would havebeen a guaranteed win.
Right, you, you, you.
I don't want to make you morethan it is, but you really did
your thing, man.
I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Thank you, man.
And I was one of the infamousdrinkers.
Infamous drinker, Infamous man.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I don't know if I should say that, but you know,
part of the play name was DrunkMutt.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Drunk Mutt, yeah he said yo that's Drunk Mutt.
I was like that's Drunk Mott,I'm like damn.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Drunk Mott.
Damn, my name is gettingtarnished out here.
Somebody talk about who youmind.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
you talk about Yo Drunk Mott, oh yeah all right,
my name is getting tarnished outthere, boy.
All that time got me to getwhere I was going.
But yeah, man, I'm in a, you'rein a better place.
I'm in a better place.
Man and um and I, I was it wasit started getting bad?
Because when you start to drink, you had a purpose.
When I started drinking, mypurpose was get drunk, go to
(45:17):
parties, get on girls of course,I think that was everybody,
everybody's plan.
Get on girls but then now what Ifound myself doing, since I'm
in a relationship, pardon me, Iknow where you're going.
I don't have a, I don't need togo out and get no girls.
I have one, yeah, but I Istopped socializing, but then I
had a.
I had a.
I had my office I used to go toand I used to go get my
(45:40):
supplies to go in my office.
My supplies was a pint of vodkaand four nips and I'm sitting
in my car.
My office is my car.
I used to sit outside in thecar and be like yo, I'm going to
go to my office and I startedme getting smashed when I'm
inside them.
(46:01):
You know, I'll do it aroundalmost when they're about to go
to sleep and then I'll go rightback in and I'll go to bed, yeah
.
And then I felt that was not agood thing.
Man, I used to have nips allover.
My daughter would find a nip.
I'd be like but it's closed.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, so what would you say you was drinking on a
daily basis?
Speaker 1 (46:19):
No, I would drink probably like three, four times
a week.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Wow, three, four times.
That was pretty bad.
Yeah, I'm not even going to lie.
I started drinking just becauseI thought it was manlike In my
early teens.
I see my father and all myuncles and I thought, in order
to be a man, this is the thingyou had to do.
(46:45):
And then, once I started, Ibecame dependent and I slowed
down tremendously now to thepoint where you know, like I
said, I'm a social drinker.
When I'm going out, things aresuch.
But if I'm in the house,sometimes if I'm in the house
and I'm watching a game, I get adrink, a few beers, a few shots
(47:05):
just to loosen up.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
But I realize at this point in my life.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I really don't need this.
It's detrimental to loosen up.
But I realize at this point inmy life I really don't need this
.
It's detrimental to my health.
You know I could put my energyinto something more progressive.
So therefore, I just want tomove into something more
positive at this point in mylife Right, so I'll challenge
you, I'll challenge you, I'llchallenge you, not this month.
(47:28):
Yeah, not this month, not thismonth.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
No, challenge you.
I'll challenge you, not thismonth.
Yeah, not this month.
Not this month.
No, I'm gonna challenge you.
I'll challenge you to go amonth without drinking.
I'll challenge you and you pickthe month, whatever month it'll
have to be a winter month no,we know we gotta pick it within
the next four months.
You pick it within the next fourmonths.
Pick a month and you can do it,bro.
You're the type of guy that Iknow you, you know you grounded,
(47:53):
and you know this won't be forme.
This is for you, this is foryou and you can do it bro.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, and I know I need to stop.
And I talk about another aspectthat people probably don't even
talk about when it comes, and Idon't mean to blight myself,
but you know, when we drink wethink we could drive.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I got it on my mind and I'm sure a
lot of close calls man.
I caught a DUI.
And you know what, when I'm inDUI class, I had a class over at
the Boutillery over downtownBrooklyn, over there.
You know what the guy wassaying.
The guy I mean there was abunch of people with DUIs he
says, listen, 90% of y'all aregoing to be back.
(48:38):
That's what he said in thatclass.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Repeat offenders yeah .
Speaker 1 (48:41):
I said you got me effed up.
I didn't tell him that, but inmy mind I said I'm never coming
back.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, and I used to drink and drive over and over.
Well, I think we all, I thinkwe all, I think we're all over
over 200 times I used to drink,I think.
I think the the numbers higherthan that for me too.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Me too, I'm just I'm gonna say, yeah, I just wanted
people to know how bad it was,how much times I was drinking
and driving.
But but, um, yeah, I made a, Imade, I made that decision.
That know, you could get lockedup for, like say, you come home
in an Uber and you was drunkand then you go to your car.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Just to check something.
Yeah, yeah, I know somebodythat I happened to.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, my brother called the DUI by sleeping in
the car.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yeah, I heard cases like that.
Yeah, and, like I said, whenwe're drunk we think we could
drive.
I was at the point where Iactually think I drove better
when I was drunk.
But you know, my reality wasdistorted.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
And I'm sure that I was driving way worse, but that
was a way for making me feellike you know, continue driving
drunk.
You know, right right, foolmyself, but I realize it's a
problem.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Right, right, but in your own time you're going to
find, you're going to find.
I tell you, the only reason Igot out of it is because I was
trying to lose weight.
I said, listen, this is theperfect time.
I used to, I used to, I used tolike.
I don't want to say I wish Iused to be like yo.
I want the tell me somethinglike yo, you gotta stop drinking
to force me.
But it's, I think it's.
(50:12):
I think it's probably best foryou to surrender.
Then they make you surrenderbecause of health reasons, of
course, of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
When you think about it, that's absolutely true.
I don't want the doctor to tellme you know you need to stop
drinking now or you're gonna.
I have a friend.
I have a friend of mine who'sbeen drinking for years.
I didn't know how severe it was, I'm not going to bring up his
name, it's not important, but hewas drinking for years.
We knew he drank.
So recently he got into anaccident and he woke up in a
(50:41):
hospital.
And then, when he woke up in ahospital, he's like what
happened there was like he wasin a major car accident and he
was like the doctor said youdrink, don't you?
He's like, yeah, he's like, didyou just try to stop?
He tried to stop cold turkey.
It didn't agree with his body.
(51:03):
He had a seizure.
The doctor says I said how longyou been drinking?
He said I ain't going to lie,I've been drinking at least a
fifth every day, Damn, For thelast 20 plus years.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Every day.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah.
So when he tried to go coldturkey, it sent a shock to his
body, gave him a seizure, andthe doctor actually told him you
cannot stop drinking coldturkey, you have to wean
yourself up slowly because yourbody is so dependent on you
drinking for all these years Wowman and from that you know.
(51:39):
I like to say I learned lessonsfrom other people's mistakes
and that just gave me a realitycheck.
That hit me Right, you need tostop.
That's saying you know, and I'mnot judging him, you know, I'm
not that bad.
I'm not judging him.
He probably had his own reasonswhy he did that.
But that that's giving memotivation to want to stop so
much that your body is dependenton it and if you try to stop,
(52:04):
you get seizures.
He never had seizures prior tothat damn, it's like yo, man.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
It's like people depend like.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Heroin addicts yeah, or sex addicts yeah, yeah, yeah,
they're going to go into shock,yeah, yeah.
And you know what?
Sometimes we tend not to think,but alcohol is a drug.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
It's a hell of a drug man.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Yeah, it's a hell of a drug.
It's a drug.
Sugar is a drug.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Salt is a drug.
Too much of it is a drug.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Too much of anything is bad for you, Mont, yeah man.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
And that's the truth, man, and you know I'm going to
be with you as your journey.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yeah my sponsor.
You can be my sponsor.
Check out, bobby, I'll be yoursponsor.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
I'll be your sponsor.
Mont to sponsor.
Right, the people are going tobe like what Mont?
Four people, how he going tosponsor what Facts?
They're going to be like yo,what is this guy?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
But you know what happened.
Being doing that we mightmotivate more people who want to
do the same thing.
Yeah, you understand.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Follow us, like I said you inspire who?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
you motivated and I thought when I heard I called
you a little while ago and I waslike your mom, what up, blah,
blah?
And I said I always ask you,always ask him if I'm still I
said you still have it.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
He's like nah, man, I was like wow, yeah, yeah, you
saw me like a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
Yo, mom, you still good, you still good, yeah, yeah
, yeah of course, of course it'snot easy.
Yeah, it's not easy.
It's not easy, man, if you didit.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
You can do it, I can do it.
You can do it because hey,listen, because we got in it for
the certain reasons yeah, to besocial.
We want to all.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, and we're socially set.
We have our family now.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
We got our family man .
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You understand, we have our family now.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I ain't chasing trim like I used to be.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
Likewise, likewise, you know, yeah, I'm saying.
And we're not trying to impressanybody, or you know we don't
need to be the life of the partyanymore.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
You know we don't.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
We don't need all that shit.
We're grown.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
Definitely, definitely, definitely In
closing.
You know we usually give, youknow we say our parting words,
you know.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:18):
You know well, my parting words is that, in time,
in certain times in life, achange is inevitable.
Of course, either you're goingto make it on your own or you're
going to be forced to make it.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
But to transition to our adulthood, we need to see
signs and we need to take heedto certain things and we need to
pay attention.
Yes, pay attention and move.
Feel the breeze and you movewith it, before the storm come
and sweep you off the floor andpush you to where you was
heading anyway.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
That's right.
That's right.
Life is about progressing, andas you get older, it's essential
that you progress in life.
Like a wise man always said, ifyou're doing the same thing now
that you was doing 20 years ago, you haven't grown a bit.
Speaker 1 (55:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
And I've seen tremendous growth within you.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
You too, you too, my bro Likewise.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
And I think we've both grown on a positive level.
And you know, I think in ourfuture the sky's the limit.
As long as we keep going in theright direction and taking
accountability for what we doand we learn from our stakes and
we're teaching our youth that'sgoing up, you know the right
way to live life.
So again I like to give youflowers, mont, right now.
(55:43):
Mont, I love everything you'regoing.
I love the direction in lifeyou're going.
I love love that you becomeyour own man.
You made major decisions tochange your life for the better
and you know you are motivationto me and to people around me.
My brother, ricky, really looksup to you too, and I just hope
you keep doing what you're doingand keep motivating me and
(56:05):
people around you.
Thank you so much for invitingme to your platform.
It was an honor to be here, tosit and speak with you and chop
it up.
You know, and I hope in thefuture you invite me and we'll
have more talks of course Iappreciate you, man.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
I want you to be a frequent flyer all right brother
, always love, love, love thisis the, your opinion doesn't
matter.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Podcast yeah, your opinion don't matter.
Welcome.
Welcome to the your OpinionDoesn't Matter podcast.
This number here, episode 80,special man.
It's very special man.
You know.
Not only that, it's a greatnumber, I got a good friend of
mine you know who honored me,you know with partaking in this
(00:21):
podcast life of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know Sterling, I knew him for how many years we
knew each other Got to be goingon 30 plus years man 30 plus
years man.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
man, I'm great man, I can't complain.
God has blessed me and myfamily and I'm just.
It's a pleasure to be heretalking to you right now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's what's up bro.
That's what's up, bro, and yolisten you.
There was a little celebrationa couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, yeah, man, I reached the benchmark of my
bicentennial.
I officially turned 50 a fewweeks ago.
Yeah, I'm at that point in mylife where no more bullshit.
But it's a blessing still, andI'm happy to reach that mark,
because many people wasn't ableto see this and I just take it
(01:13):
as a blessing that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's what's up, man .
So, um, do you see?
How do you look at life now?
Like you, you know, you've seenthings.
We're not getting younger,we're getting older.
The aches and pains is gettingworse.
You know, I'm saying definitely.
What are we?
What are we doing and what arewe doing?
What is our plans?
I know you have a um, you havea son and a daughter.
What's going?
How's life?
How's life treating you?
(01:36):
How are you, um, preparing tostay for?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
them a little longer.
Yeah uh, my plan has alwaysbeen the same, is to live a
righteous life and keepeverything balanced along the
lines of family, finances,business, things of that such.
I just try to keep everythingbalanced because I believe life
is a balance and too much ofanything would tip the scale
(02:01):
over.
So therefore I try to keepeverything on an even keel.
If you understand what I'msaying.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I do I understand?
I understand that.
I understand that Me and youwas talking actually before the
podcast and actually we spokeabout certain things, probably a
week or so, in regards tohealth, health and like, and you
said something that was likeyou know, the statement is once
a man, twice a child, and youknow, and I'm like that is the
(02:30):
truth.
That is the truth.
I mean, if people don't reallyunderstand, elaborate, what does
that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, growing up I always heard the term people
talk about my mother would sayyou know, you're once a man and
twice a child and I didn'tunderstand it.
But now that I'm seeing myparents deteriorate and go into
a childlike state physically andmentally, I I get it.
(03:01):
Now, you, you understand,because of course, there was
once a child I wasn't there toexperience that, but I'm sure it
actually happened and then itbecame this colossal, godlike
people.
You know, my father was Zeusand my mom was Apollonia, and
now they're both in a stateright now where they're
(03:25):
deteriorating so much that youcan't even believe that these
people were so gigantic man, Iremember my mom.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
She used to be able to, like, I'll go my mom's room.
I say, mom, where's this orthat?
Oh, she'll be.
Like she made another room, sheback, oh it's over there under
the bed.
You know what I'm saying.
And then for me to lose my mom.
I lost my mom in 2016.
You know, I mean, it's like shewas going through that phase of
, you know, breaking down,breaking down, breaking down,
(03:55):
and you know it was rough.
It was rough.
The roughest time for me waswhen I graduated.
I graduated Winthrop, and wehad a ceremony over there by, I
think, by Clare Barton, overthere, that park, over there.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And she barely fell when she got out the car.
So my mom, she had multiplesclerosis, Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I didn't even know that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So then it just started.
It just started getting worse,started getting worse.
But then it's like, wow, I didn, and everything like that.
And then now, when I went awayto college, I came home on
(04:47):
Thanksgiving break, mind you, Iwas there.
When you're a freshman youcould go in early to the school,
like you go in as an August.
So I was out of Brooklyn, I wasin Florida, orlando, florida,
and I went there.
Now, you know, now I come backto visit my mom's is she's
(05:08):
eating, and you know, out of astraw, drinking out of a straw,
and that shit crushed me, kid,that was 1990, 90, 91.
That shit crushed me, kid, thatcrushed me.
And then you know, I wind upcoming home, I wind up coming
home, I wind up coming home.
I came home right after thatsemester was over.
(05:28):
I'm out.
I had to be back here, you knowfor a while.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Wow, I mean.
First of all, let me give youthe condolences of the loss of
your mom.
I know this is a very emotionalsubject for you and I can see
the emotion in you when you evenspeak about it, you know, and
you know it's tough, man, man,it's really tough and before
people used to talk about it andI didn't, really I couldn't
(05:54):
relate.
But now I'm actually goingthrough the same thing.
I mean not the same thing,exactly different scenario, but
my mom is actually going through.
I mean, I hate saying it, butshe's going through the first
stages of Alzheimer's and nowshe's beginning her short term,
memory is beginning to be shotand you know she keeps repeating
(06:18):
the same things over and overagain and you know you have to
be really patient.
But at the same time you try tolook at her and see the same
person that was there during thegood times.
You know you try to foolyourself, but then the reality
(06:39):
comes in and you realize she'sno longer that person and she'll
no longer be that person.
But you know, as I try to giveher the loyalty because she was
there for me, she provided forme, she was my sanctuary, she
was my hero.
So therefore I give her thatloyalty whenever she needs me,
(07:00):
I'm going to be there, you know,but it's really tough seeing
her.
You know the things we take forgranted, you know yeah, that's
a fact the things we take forgranted.
And now, sometimes not in frontof her, not in front of my wife
, not in front of my kids, Ithink about it and a tear comes
to my eye, you know, becauselife could be so joyous at
(07:23):
certain times and at theopposite end, it could be so
cruel.
And sometimes I say what did Ido to deserve to see my mom
deteriorate at this level rightnow?
And what could you do, man?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, man, I mean, that's the harsh reality, man.
It's a sad thing, man, I'msorry to hear about what's going
on with your mom and stuff likethat, and it's like it's uh,
it's more or less a reality.
Come to us now.
Like we, as we getting older,we seeing certain things that we
was, we I don't say we, we tookfor granted, but we, we didn't,
(07:57):
we didn't, we wasn't, we didn'tknow we didn't know.
Yeah, nobody prepared us no,yeah, we didn't know man.
We didn't know man, we didn'tknow man.
I was ice.
When I was young I used to bescared of going to the hospital.
My uncle was in the hospital.
I never went, like Monty, whyyou didn't go?
I'm like, no, I don't care.
My family understands that Igot some things with hospitals
and it's just what's going onright now.
(08:19):
Um, as far as I just came fromthe, my homeboy had a situation.
My homeboy passed away he had a.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
We had a barbecue for him, nigel, and then god bless
nigel.
I knew him very well.
He's a good brother.
God bless his soul.
There are very few people likehim and my condolences goes out
to his family yeah, same here.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
And um right, I was speaking to my homegirl who
lives like right around thecorner from him.
She was going to go to the.
She was wondering if I wasgoing.
I said yeah, I'm going.
And she says yeah.
She said I can't go because myfather got the same thing he has
, like he had like stomachcancer or something along the
(09:00):
lines.
I don't want to be wrong.
And then what wound uphappening?
Her father passed away two daysafter.
That's terrible man.
Two days after he was going togo to wake.
Her father passed two daysafter.
And then now let me tell youhow things were so depressing
for me.
(09:22):
A guy last year he got me intotwo schools to teach.
I was teaching chess.
I was an activity specialistfor two schools.
I was teaching chess.
I was teaching basketball.
I did the trifecta.
(09:42):
I was in a charter school.
I was the trifecta.
I was in a charter school.
I was in a private school and Iwas in a public school Same
time.
And it was because of him.
And what happened was that mebeing?
I'm going to tell you something.
There's certain things Ilearned about me going through
all of this.
I'm going to go back to what Iwas saying.
(10:03):
Of course, I said I tried toreach out to him, right?
Because I had another situationwhere I needed paperwork to
show okay, what day, when did Istart?
When did I start working there?
And I'm like, you know, I wouldtext him and he didn't text me
back and this was um earlyfebruary.
So me me being who, I think Iam like yo, what's wrong with
(10:27):
this guy, you know, I mean whyhe's not texting me back, you
know, or something, and that wasweek one, and then I skip a
week.
Now I know week two, I text himagain and then I even called
him.
I left him.
I said, um, you know, you canhit me back and now.
And now here's the thing aboutsaying why this is me saying,
(10:48):
why is this guy not calling meback?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And you probably jumped to the wrong conclusion
automatically.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
So now I get a text early March from that phone
number.
He said, oh, you know, I didn'tknow him.
He used to go through my son'sphone but he's been in the
hospital since January 8th andme being I don't know me, being
selfish, saying why he's whenhe's there fighting for his life
(11:15):
.
And you know what, when shemessaged me back in early March,
he passed away late March.
He just passed away and mesaying this thing why, why, why
he didn't call me back.
Like why is this?
Why is that?
I learned something.
(11:35):
I learned that I learned that,listen, you can't be selfish.
You can't just say like who amI?
I'm just supposed to be thisguy.
Yo, why is this guy not callingme?
Maybe he got other pressingissues.
Why he didn't text me?
Maybe he got other things goingon which he did, or anybody.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You understand what I'm saying.
Yeah, but, man, that's why lifeis a learning experience and
before this happened, you neverhad the prior experience to
think that something like thatmight have been going on.
But now, due to this experience, you get a better understanding
and, like I said, nobodyprepared us for this part of
(12:14):
life, what I'm going through now.
I remember my homeboy one of myfirst homeboys Eddie.
He died when we was in ourearly 30s.
Everybody was shocked.
It was a big shock.
We survived it, but nobody toldus when we get to the late 40s,
50s, people are going to bepassing left and right.
It's traumatizing, yeah.
(12:35):
It's very traumatizing, andsometimes we have to desensitize
ourselves to this, because ifyou sit down and think about
things like this, you will loseyour freaking mind.
We losing people left and right, monty, especially at these
times, and now I imagine whatour parents have been going
through.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Well, think about it when we was younger, how much
parties we was at.
We was at shootouts separately.
We was there.
I know you was in the 90s thereOn a weekly basis.
And back then we was worryingabout, we basically wasn't
worrying.
The only thing that reallycould have happened to us was
(13:12):
just getting shot, gettingstabbed or something like that.
But then now, as we get older,the risk factors are kind of
lower.
In a way.
It depends Not risk factors,meaning the probability If
you're taking care of yourself,you're doing things right, but
who knows?
But it's like we're still inthat type of a jungle to me in a
(13:34):
sense, like we got to now.
Instead of bullets, we ducking,we ducking high blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Health-wise.
We ducking blood clots in thelegs and, like me, I had blood
clots in both of my both of mylungs wow, I remember you just
told me that I didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, you know, and then, and the thing about this,
mine is after surgery.
My fiancee had the same thingin her her lungs for one of them
and she didn't do no surgeries,her standing around working,
wow, yeah, so, yeah.
So it's like you know, we westill fight in the same fight,
but right now we're moreconscious of what's going on.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, we fight the same war, different battles.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, you understand what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Now the battles is not really out there on the
streets anymore, it's withinyourself.
Yeah, basically.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You understand, watching what you eat, that's
far.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, nutrition, exercise, mental stability.
You know Mental health is big.
You know there's a lot ofpeople out there suffering
mentally and they come out andthey look like you think
everything is good with them.
They're smiling and they'rejoking and they're socially fit.
But when they go home at nightthey're secretly fighting a war
(14:43):
that we don't know about andthey're crying themselves to
sleep, hoping that life givesthem a break or they're ready to
give up Definitely.
And you never know.
When you look at the averageperson and he looks like a
million bucks, you might evenenvy them, but you never know
what kind of demons they'refighting inside.
Never know, bro, never know, andthe happiest guy in the world
(15:08):
could be the most broken spiritin the world when he's by
himself.
And I noticed that a lot ofpeople that go through mental
health issues are socialbutterflies.
They're the life of the party,the guy that everybody loves,
and they say, oh, this is thegreatest guy in the world.
And he portrays that out in theopen because that's his defense
(15:30):
mechanism to keep you fromknowing what's really going on.
But then later on, when theparty's over and the lights are
cut and he's back home byhimself, he's slowly suffering
and we never know, until the daywe hear and we're all in
complete shock yeah yeah, and,and you know, sometimes you look
back, the clues were there, butyou never even paid any
(15:52):
attention to it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know facts facts and you know what I hear,
another another, um, anotherthing that happened.
I went to the park the otherday, like last year.
I went to the park with mydaughter and, um, my daughter's
five, and there there was thiskid that was probably like 11.
But he was like abrolic-looking kid and he was
extra, but then he wanted toplay with my daughter.
(16:15):
There was only two in the park.
I'm like he's too, my daughter.
She likes to play, she wants toplay, of course kids do.
I said Mecca, he's too big, he'stoo rough.
So now the mother, she'ssitting on the bench over here.
I told my daughter to go thatway.
The boy leaves from where he'sat and goes to where she's at to
play.
Now the mother says to me don'tworry, my son loves little kids
(16:38):
.
Don't worry, it's okay, he'sall right, but he's just.
You know, he was actually slow.
I don't want to call the wordslow.
I'm sorry.
I don't know the exact term ofthis.
This kid I think he had, Ithink he was suffering for, um,
autism, yeah, it might be.
It might be autism yeah and um.
So now she's telling me she's.
I said okay, yeah, she couldplay with him.
(16:59):
So now she's telling me she'stalking west indian lady.
She starts telling me about um.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, when you say when you say West Indian, what
do you mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
She's a West Indian woman, meaning that I could tell
, because in the area that I wasin there's a lot of real like
Americans.
Okay, so I could just tell byher accent.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
She was like Jamaican or something, Okay all right,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
So then now she'd be talking and she started talking
about a little bit of herselfand she just came from Arizona.
I said, oh, okay, nice.
She said yeah, because her son,her son last year, the year
before, two years before,committed suicide.
He was 18 years old smiled alot.
(17:38):
This, that and the third youwouldn't think nothing's wrong.
He put rocks in his book bagand he drowned in a pond.
He drowned in a pond not toofar from where they live, but
the thing about it is he wasgetting ready to go to college,
not trying to figure out wherehe's going to go and you thought
he was in the best place in hislife and everybody thought it,
yeah, and he had a bright futurehe had a recruiter come check
(18:01):
for him for the Army orsomething like that.
So she was trying to reach outfor him for two weeks she
thought that he just went andleft Wound up.
She found out two weeks laterthat her son drowned right up a
couple blocks from her in thepond.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, yeah, I could understand.
And, to be real, I thinkeverybody at some point in their
life contemplates suicide whenthings are going bad.
I'm not going to lie, I didwhen I was younger.
But I think, being from ourgeneration, yeah, at some point,
even if you're just trying tobe, if you're trying to get back
(18:36):
at your parents, you'd be like,oh, let me kill myself with
them, my parents, you knowthey'll be sorry for me, but I
did contemplate suicide, butnothing seriously.
Or they'll be sorry for me, butI did contemplate suicide, but
nothing seriously.
But I think we come from astronger generation where we was
raised by stronger parents andwe were more soldier-like, we
was brave.
But these kids now they're sofragile, yeah, and even though I
(19:00):
contemplated at times, I neverseriously thought, I never made
the attempt.
I just wanted to get back in myparents' house.
I'd be like, okay, okay, youdon't want me to, let me go
there.
So I said, what if you come andyou find me dead?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, then now you'll be sorry, I never said nothing
like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, well, maybe I'm a little off.
Back to the subject.
I'm saying like, andemotionally we was way strong.
Think about how our parentsused to talk to us back in the
days, especially coming fromWest End and household.
My mother used to say thingsboy, why you ain't going dead
somewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
My father used to tell me why don't you go back to
jail?
You know, I did one day in jail.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
He acted like I did.
A lifetime.
My father used to tell me yeah,you're going to end up in jail,
and you know, we took that and,instead of making us bring us
down, we built from that andbecame stronger and more
resilient.
But these kids right now yousay these things to them they
are so fragile and they're soeasily broken that they might do
anything.
So therefore, now the wholephilosophy of how we deal with
(20:04):
kids is completely different.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I remember when my father beat my ass one time, no,
twice.
When I actually like when I gotto elementary, I said from that
day that he's never going tobeat me again.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Not by me physically imposing my will, because I was
a little kid.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You didn't want to do anything.
Holy right I was set straight.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I said that ass-whipping did not feel right.
No more, it's not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I mean it's obvious to say that the youth now are
different from the youth we wasgrowing up with.
I mean we was talking aboutthis before we actually got on
there and we were saying, like,if you compare the kids now to
when we grew up, we had therespect factor.
So, to the point where we'veseen adults, we might have been
(20:48):
out doing our bullshit, messingaround, cursing, whatever, but
as soon as we see an adultpresent, somebody will say, hey,
relax, here, come, mrs Smith.
And then we'll all stop andwe'll say how you doing, mrs
Smith, and she'll say, hi, boys.
And then she'll go home andshe'll be like I like them, boys
, they're such nice boys.
But now these kids, they'reuncouth and they don't care if
they see an adult coming by andthey'll start cursing more and
(21:10):
being more disrespectful becausethey like that attention.
And the point I'm coming to Ithink the cause of all of this
is remember when we was growingup and we were have-nots and we
didn't have certain things, andwe said to ourselves you know
what?
I'm going to do my best to makesure my kids don't go through
(21:32):
what I have to go through.
And I think that was thebiggest mistake we made right
there, because with the nothaving, with the suffering, with
the persevering, brings thecharacter and the appreciation
of things that we did not have,so that we hold things more
(21:53):
sacred to ourselves now.
So now, these kids, they grewup, they never suffered, they
never persevered, they never hadnot.
So therefore, everything islike a joke to them,
everything's easy.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
They take nothing seriously if you understand what
I'm saying.
No, I do understand, I dounderstand, I do understand, and
it's a different time, man,it's a different time.
These kids now, man, it's likeI don't know man, I don't know
man, it's like the lack ofrespect is big time for the lack
of respect.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The whole system is against you everything's for the
kids.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You know, yeah, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know you can't, you can't win yeah, they empower
the kids, but by empowering thekids they guarantee the fall of
our nation, I believe youunderstand manhood manhood in
general manhood and it's likethere's no, there's no written
rule of manhood.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
No more out there well, you know manhood.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
There's a broad definition of man that's another
subject.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
you know it's a very sensitive subject now that right
right, right, right, right,it's a very sensitive subject
now that you got to be verycareful when you get into.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Oh, you're talking about with the pronouns.
You know that's another subjectI deal with now.
Working in a high school, you,he, but she wants to be called
(23:18):
she, please, and we have toremember all these things and it
can be difficult at times.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'll just call you by your name.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I ain't calling you by no, she yeah, but if you
don't know, sometimes you make amistake and if I don't know he
or she gets upset and makes acomplaint, you could be
reprimanded.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And it's a very slippery slope right now.
You got to follow those rules,okay, okay, okay, yeah it's a
different world.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
The world has transitioned.
It's not the world we lived inbefore.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, let's get into sports.
Man, I knew that was coming.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, let's get into sports man, I knew that was
coming.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Let's get into sports .
You see I'm repping the NewYork Knicks over here.
Our guys is doing work.
Yeah, Our guys is doing work,man.
What's your thoughts on theKnicks, man?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
The Knicks, I'm actually a fan now.
I never thought I would havesaid that before because you
know, came up in the, you know,the late 80s and 90s, the, the
Michael Jordan or Patrick Ewanera, and I was a Nick hater for
years because you know, mj wasmy man and to this day I believe
(24:21):
he used to go to basketball andthat my opinion could not be
swayed by anybody, includingLeBron fans.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
but to go right on, right, okay, so we, I really, I
really wanted to go therebecause I see you.
I see you, man, you are like a,you are the anti LeBron guy and
you are like the real anti guy.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I wouldn't say anti LeBron, I would just say pro
Jordan.
That's my description of it.
Uh, I'll tell you why.
I think most LeBron fans arefrom the demographics of maybe
30 years and younger, and Idon't think a lot of them
experience seeing Mike play.
(25:02):
Now, lebron is a uniquespecimen and he is unbelievable.
He has cat-like speed.
He jumps out of the gym.
He has cat-like speed.
He jumps out the gym, he has ahigh basketball IQ and he's a
really he's a once-in-a-lifetimeplayer.
I understand that he is great,but you cannot compare LeBron to
(25:25):
Mike because, unless you'veseen Mike play, lebron is good,
mike was unbelievable Mike wasunbelievable.
Mike was breathtaking.
You've seen Mike do things withthe ball that you didn't even
think was believable.
You understand what I'm saying.
Air Jordan, he transformed thegame, made it go global.
(25:46):
When you know, magic Johnsonand Larry Bird was holding it
down, four up and then Mike cameand he took it to another level
.
Now my whole thing with LeBronis he's good, he's great, but he
likes playing with too manysuperstars.
He jumps ships too much and helost how many final appearances.
I believe.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know the exact stats, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I believe, six, ten final experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
He lost ten times in the finals.
No no.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
He was in the finals ten times, won four times, lost
six times.
So to me, in order for you tobeat a GOAT, you cannot have
more losses on the big stagethan wins.
He had it ten times in thefinals.
Ten times, oh shit.
Times in the finals 10 times,oh shit.
I mean, don't quote me, we'regoing to do our research, but
(26:35):
he's been there at least 10times.
Damn.
Yes, six losses, four rings asopposed to MJ six final
appearances, six wins.
That percent, 1,000, hundredpercent, a million percent,
anywhere you put it, youunderstand.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, I mean I saw a post on Facebook and they had
some stats up there and you saidyeah, but they forgot to
mention the 400 games, extragames he played, or something.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I mean it's like yes yes, it seems like the press
have this.
I think everybody, the press,the sports press, the new
generation I think they'reexhausted with Mike being the
GOAT for so long.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
They're trying to have the baton pass.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes, they want to push something forward.
They want to push LeBronforward more, and there's a
major push.
But you know so.
Therefore they come with these.
You know, but you know so,therefore they come with these.
You know, lebron just surpassedmj with most 30 30 point games.
Mhm lebron has been in theleague 20 years.
(27:41):
Mj did this in 15 years.
So therefore is it reallyaccomplishment.
Stat man, stat man you know whatI'm saying.
Basketball is my thing.
You know, we go back to thebasketball, dave.
You know we love basketballBoth of us, yeah, so you're
speaking about the push.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Now what about his son, bronny?
Have you been following?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
him I've been.
I mean to me I'm going to keepit 100.
Bronny's trash to me, I'm goingto keep it 100.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Bronny's trash to me.
Listen, you see what you say,right, I had a discussion with
the homies.
They'll name be nameless andyou know them as well and I'm
telling them right, I said yobecause there was a game.
He was at Siena.
I mean enough respect to Bronny, james, bro, and I'm saying the
hype is too much around the kid.
(28:31):
Yes, and it's not wearing it,it's not wearing it.
Yes, yes, so let me tell youwhat happened.
And there was a game he was asophomore and LeBron came there.
Drake came there Because Drakewas dealing with the star, the
star which was a senior.
He was dealing with his motheryes so he had the game and I'm
(28:52):
like they had the game, but I'm,but I'm seeing him play.
He's coming off the bench.
I'm telling the homies I say, yo, he's not that good man he's
not that good all of this hypeabout LeBron James' son is that
the whole gym was packed yes andso then I'm like you know what
they say.
They say your mom, you hating.
They say you hate.
And I say yeah, what are youtalking about, bro?
I said why?
(29:12):
I said why can't I?
Because then now they're sayingI'm comparing me to him as a
ball player.
I'm like what?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I'm glad you said that, because you know this.
This, this term hating, hasbeen blown.
Yeah wait, whatever happened toconstructive criticism?
You cannot.
You cannot give your opinion onanything if you don't agree
with what the person think.
They consider you hating.
Like if, man, we're both goingout and you come out with this
(29:41):
outfit and you're like yo, youknow how this outfit look and I
know the outfit looks like itdoesn't look good, and I say,
man, that's a bullshit outfitchange.
You could say, oh, you're justhating on me, sterl, but why
can't it be?
I'm not hating on you, I'm justtelling you how I feel.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How I feel right, right, and that the and, and.
It's weird, I'm telling you.
It's weird, it's weird for youto um, for weird to hear that
and the thing about you wouldpeople would only respect other
people's opinion.
You can't give your opinion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Because people are sensitive now and therefore, if
you don't agree with whatthey're saying, they find this
is their loophole to saysomething is wrong with you, you
can't be right, right.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And the thing about it is you said the same words.
You said that he's trash.
I said he's not that good.
Yeah, I see there's so muchpeople there.
There's so much people thatdeserved more.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He's taking somebody's spot.
I said that you're sayingronnie james is taking
somebody's.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I said the same thing I said the same thing about
that.
He's taking somebody's spot onthe all-american games.
He's taking somebody's spot atum, that, the trojans team.
I said the same exact thing andI'm making my point to.
I'm making my point to myfriends.
I'm like yo listen, the, the,it is what it is.
I'm not the only one that feelsthat way.
Yes, so it shouldn't be.
It should never be hate itshouldn't be hate, especially if
(30:55):
you didn't follow.
Especially I'm here, I'mtalking to these guys that y'all
don't even follow him, youdon't.
Yes, and I said that.
They saying but listen, it'sthe fact that he's getting his
attention, it's because of hisfather.
I said, yes, that's it, and Isay that he should he should
take advantage of it.
But it doesn't it doesn't meanit's going to equal up to the
hype yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And when I say brownie's trash, when I I mean
on on the nba division, onecollegian level.
I believe it's right.
It's probably better than Iever was and I took basketball
very seriously, you know it'sprobably better than we was, but
on a collegian nba level andwith the hype that he's going
along with, being that hisfather is LeBron James and
(31:36):
basically LeBron is carrying himwith the James name, you
understand, I just don't believehe's going to live up to the
hype.
I believe I watched him play, Iobserved his game.
He's undersized, you understand.
He's not.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
He's undersized, you understand.
He's not.
He's not outstanding inanything.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
He's not outstanding in anything.
He's not.
He doesn't have the explosivenephosis for it.
He doesn't have the jumpingability.
He's not a great shooter, he'sa pretty good.
He's all right defender, Ithink defending is the best
aspect of this game right now,but that's not going to get you
a starting spot on the NBA team.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, at his height, he's fundamentally sound.
He doesn't.
I mean he shouldn't be takingthis type of abuse, but this is
for the people, that these arefor the people who's saying that
we can't have an opinion?
Yes, what I'm saying is this heis a fundamentally sound kid.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And y'all need to give him a chance.
These cameras need to get awayfrom him.
They need to stay away from himand let him, let him.
Let him, let him get there, notto say he's not going to be
good, he's going to be good, butand I want him to take
advantage of of the nil deals,of course, and get like a two
million in your bank accountinstead of dad's money.
You take use that to youradvantage, yeah, but then, but
(32:51):
at the end of the day, listen,you put lipstick on a pig.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It's still a pig yes, yes, yes, and you know we have
to blame for all this.
It's actually lebron james.
Now I know it sounds like aspare cupade because I don't
like, but lebron james actuallycame out a few months ago and he
said brani can start on thelakers right now, and by him
doing that he put a, said Bronnycan start on the Lakers right
now, and by him doing that heput an unfathomable amount of
pressure on his son.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
A target, big-time target.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Made him a big-time target.
And when he's seen that, whenLeBron noticed that Bronny
wasn't making it on the mockdrafts and all this pressure was
on him, then he's like listen,you need to leave my kid alone
and let him be a college kid.
But, Brian, this is all yourfault.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, yeah, you shouldn't have been going to all
them games like that.
You shouldn't have.
You go to support your son, butyou don't make the hype around
him like this.
Yes, the hype is, even thoughit's your son, you can't control
it.
They're going to be hype aroundhim regardless, even if you
showed up to the game.
Yes, but I'm just saying it'sexhausting.
It's exhausting.
(33:49):
You should have spoke out aboutit years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
You should have spoke about it years ago and now,
just like Jordan's son, yes,Jeffrey.
Just like Jordan, you even knowhis name.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Jeffrey Jordan.
I'm a Jordan fanatic.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
It's like the hype was around him too.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Not as much as LeBron's.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, because.
Well, social media yeah, socialmedia and Jordan wasn't playing
at that time, yeah, so it'slike it's a big difference.
But yeah, he is really goingthrough it and I don't know it's
going to psychologically messhim up yes, now we're talking
about mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
It has to be affecting him mentally.
Yeah, knowing that your fatheris a big, big star and you got
big shoes to fill and you'retrying and it's not working
right now, it has to be taking astole on him mentally yeah, yo
listen it's.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
It's um, as I say, big shoes to fill man.
It's like this it's rough justbeing who you are but then
actually having a you're gonnagive you the shadow of somebody
else.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, yes, yes, I'll give you an example.
On a West Indian level, myfather was an outstanding domino
player and, from Grenada,caracal, one of the best.
He was vicious, I'm not goingto say world renowned, but very
well known by the Caracalcommunity.
(35:06):
Big up to my country, caracal,where my parents are from, and
his name was the Sheik.
People feared him.
He took the game seriously, sowhen it was time he tried to
teach me to play this game.
I didn't want anything to dowith it.
Ha ha, yeah, the pressure fromhim trying even to teach me and
(35:27):
you know what Stinion meant.
He was very harsh and he wasscreaming at me and he would
yell at me you need to do thisor you're not good enough.
And through all of that I'mlike you know what I'm done.
I don't want anything to dowith this and I chose a
different path.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I'm done, I'm done.
I hear you, man.
I hear you, man, it's kind oftough.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I didn't really have a pressure, suffocating pressure
.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, I didn't really have a pressure like that.
I had my father.
He wanted me to learn chess.
He was playing chess and Ilearned it.
I learned it and I wound upbeing better than him.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It's funny you say that because I'm very interested
.
I never learned a game of chess.
My brothers, they both are verygood at it.
They both are very good at it.
I might be the only one thatdon't know how to play chess,
but this is on my bucket listnow.
I need to learn to play chessand I need to be very good at it
.
Right, right right right, right,before we go any further, I'd
(36:21):
just like to give you yourflowers right now.
Man, I knew you for a long time.
You're an outstanding person,outstanding citizen and you're a
trendsetter of sorts, because Iremember you told me about a
few years ago.
You said Sterl, you know what?
I don't drink anymore.
And I'm like what do you mean?
(36:42):
She's like Sterl, I stoppeddrinking.
And I'm like Mont come on whoyou playing with.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I knew.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Mont for years and you know Mont, in more or less
words, was known as a drinker.
You know we hung out plenty oftimes.
You know we would pregame,Pregame.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We would pregame.
By the time we'd get to theparty, we was wet, we had a
great time, and the cycle wenton weekly for years and years
and for you to say, nah, listen,I'm giving this up.
I'm like I couldn't believe it.
But after doing my research,you've been liquor free for
(37:23):
quite a while now and you know,I want to commend you.
That's a great accomplishment.
Thank you, man.
Thank you, and you motivated meand I want to do the same thing
, but I'm um, I'm a victim ofsocial drinking.
Yeah, you understand, I've beena social drinker for many, many
(37:44):
years and I have then I want tostop, but I just don't know how
to go about it.
But you definitely motivate mefor me to take the first step in
that direction.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Right, thanks man.
Thanks man.
It was like a journey man.
It was a journey man.
I had to go through some thingshealth-wise and I went to the
doctor one day Actually, thismonth is going to be two years I
didn't drink.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So I went to the doctor two and a half years ago
and I was at the highest weightever.
I was 240.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
All that sugar, the sugar 240.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And I was like he says you got to do something.
I said and I wound up speakingto my boy, pete.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
You know, pete of course I know pete shout out to
pete.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
so he started telling me um, mind you, before that I
was hearing about this thing,that his diet, he was on, so
we're taking some suppressionshots and stuff like that, like
you know, drops.
So I said yo, bro, what can Ido?
I said yo, I want to lose thisweight.
Man, I got to lose like 20pounds, 30 pounds or whatever.
He said yo, man, there's thisdiet here.
(38:55):
But you got to be on point, yougot to weigh your food, you got
to do this, you got to do that.
And I said yo, I'm on it.
When I said yo, can I drink?
Can I drink while I'm on?
You want to drink Just a littlebit?
He said clear liquor.
But but, ma, you shouldn'tdrink.
Though you shouldn't drink andthe the.
I think the process was six oreight weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I said okay.
He said but if you're going todo it, but you shouldn't.
So I got two weeks in and Isaid you know what?
So, three weeks in, I'mfollowing the thing.
I see in progress.
I'm losing weight.
I said because I stopped.
I said I didn't, I'm notdrinking.
For two weeks.
I said I'm going to startdrinking again.
And then by the third week Isaid fuck it, I'm done.
I'm done drinking.
(39:37):
Wow by the time I got off that.
Um that diet I lost like 30 38pounds bro that's, that's.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
That's awesome man 38 pounds man let me you.
My problem is I have a socialdependence on alcohol.
Yeah, Meaning that whenever Igo out to get-togethers, parties
, things of the sort, I need todrink.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Therefore I am seriously uptight.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Right, you could try it.
You wouldn't need to be uptightif you're relaxed.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I'm not a relaxed person.
I've never been.
I'm very shy.
I've always been shy.
I've always been a littleuptight, I'm always very serious
.
So therefore, when I get in asocial setting, I need a little
edge.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
To be on point, I used to do that too.
I used to have to drink just togo to the mall.
All these people like socialanxiety.
I couldn't be around people,bro, I mean me.
I'm like right now, like a lotof people would be shocked, like
, say, I'm going somewhere withmy fiancee and her friends like
(40:50):
her cousins they'll be, shockedto see me talking now, because
when I'm around them I don'ttalk.
I don't talk to people, period.
You know what I mean.
I don't really talk.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Likewise, when I'm sober, I really don't talk too
much either.
Again, there goes the socialdependency.
Now, when I'm around people, Idon't really talk, but then I
may have a few drinks and I'mtalking up a storm.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Right right, right, right right.
So then, that's one of theproblems.
That's one of the problems, andanother problem that I had with
drinking is that there wasalways gray areas.
There was gray areas when I'mdealing with people or certain
things.
It's like all right, I don'tremember certain shit.
Oh, mont's, this Mont was doingthis.
(41:31):
I'm like oh, mott said this.
I'm like yo, no, it's no moregray area, there's none.
I know what I say and this iswhat it is.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah and not too long ago I thought back.
You know, sometimes you havewhat we call a drunk night.
You know, you come home, youwake up the next day, then,
maybe a month or two later, youknow, somebody brings up that
night and they tell you thethings you did and you'd be like
what are you talking about?
Facts?
And when you really think aboutit, I've been drinking for what
(42:01):
?
Easily 35 plus years, Right,Think about all these moments
I've lost in my lifetime and mymemory due to alcohol right,
yeah when you really think aboutit.
It's freaking sad.
I would like to.
I would like the moments back.
You understand what I'm sayingright right, right right.
I mean, it's a double-edgedsword at the same time, you know
(42:22):
you're having fun, but you're,you're losing.
You're losing out on mental, alot of memories, whether it was
good or bad, and, like you said,that gray area that bothers me
now and that's part of themotivation that made me want to
stop.
Now I don't know if I couldstop as fast as you.
You understand what I'm saying,but I have a plan.
(42:44):
It took time for me, I don'tknow.
I see myself in a two-year plan.
You know, sometimes we got totake baby steps.
You know Liquor drinking.
As for me I'm sure for you it'sgenerational.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I come from a generation of drinking.
We got West Indy and Brevity.
We got West Indy.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's like it's not easy.
Yeah, this is the party.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, my father was drinking from the time he was 12
years old.
Right, right, right he put thedrink in my hand when I was 12.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right, right, right, but I'm going to change the
cycle.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I'm going to put the drink in my son's hand.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Right, yeah you know, yeah, and you're going to, you
want to change, right, but thenit's like, damn, my
environment's the same.
Yeah, how can I change if my?
But you just got to have thisthing inside of you, bro, like
right now, since I've been goingthrough all of this stuff with
the funerals and stuff that I'vebeen going through, and I got
to go to this other guy'sfuneral on Thursday, I just fast
(43:37):
, I'm coming off my fast today.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Seven-day fast.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Water, fruits and vegetables.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Seven days.
That's awesome, you know what Imean Cleaning.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
you got to you know you got to you start somewhere.
But I think that you don't needa two-year plan, bro.
You don't need a two-year plan,bro, or you could start.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
You know how you could start To me when you got
the urge, drink wine, take it,take it, wean it down.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
You mean yeah, go from liquor to wine Dry.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Dry yourself out.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
In a sense.
I mean, I can't tell you how todo it because you're a drinker
and I was a drinker.
Nobody would have been able totell me how to do it.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Nobody.
You would have told me 10 yearsago man would not be drinking
any alcohol at this point.
I would have bet any amount ofmoney in this world and I would
have thought that would havebeen a guaranteed win.
Right, you, you, you.
I don't want to make you morethan it is, but you really did
your thing, man.
I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Thank you, man.
And I was one of the infamousdrinkers.
Infamous drinker, Infamous man.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I don't know if I should say that, but you know,
part of the play name was DrunkMutt.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Drunk Mutt, yeah he said yo that's Drunk Mutt.
I was like that's Drunk Mott,I'm like damn.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Drunk Mott.
Damn, my name is gettingtarnished out here.
Somebody talk about who youmind.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
you talk about Yo Drunk Mott, oh yeah all right,
my name is getting tarnished outthere, boy.
All that time got me to getwhere I was going.
But yeah, man, I'm in a, you'rein a better place.
I'm in a better place.
Man and um and I, I was it wasit started getting bad?
Because when you start to drink, you had a purpose.
When I started drinking, mypurpose was get drunk, go to
(45:17):
parties, get on girls of course,I think that was everybody,
everybody's plan.
Get on girls but then now what Ifound myself doing, since I'm
in a relationship, pardon me, Iknow where you're going.
I don't have a, I don't need togo out and get no girls.
I have one, yeah, but I Istopped socializing, but then I
had a.
I had a.
I had my office I used to go toand I used to go get my
(45:40):
supplies to go in my office.
My supplies was a pint of vodkaand four nips and I'm sitting
in my car.
My office is my car.
I used to sit outside in thecar and be like yo, I'm going to
go to my office and I startedme getting smashed when I'm
inside them.
(46:01):
You know, I'll do it aroundalmost when they're about to go
to sleep and then I'll go rightback in and I'll go to bed, yeah
.
And then I felt that was not agood thing.
Man, I used to have nips allover.
My daughter would find a nip.
I'd be like but it's closed.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, so what would you say you was drinking on a
daily basis?
Speaker 1 (46:19):
No, I would drink probably like three, four times
a week.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Wow, three, four times.
That was pretty bad.
Yeah, I'm not even going to lie.
I started drinking just becauseI thought it was manlike In my
early teens.
I see my father and all myuncles and I thought, in order
to be a man, this is the thingyou had to do.
(46:45):
And then, once I started, Ibecame dependent and I slowed
down tremendously now to thepoint where you know, like I
said, I'm a social drinker.
When I'm going out, things aresuch.
But if I'm in the house,sometimes if I'm in the house
and I'm watching a game, I get adrink, a few beers, a few shots
(47:05):
just to loosen up.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
But I realize at this point in my life.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I really don't need this.
It's detrimental to loosen up.
But I realize at this point inmy life I really don't need this
.
It's detrimental to my health.
You know I could put my energyinto something more progressive.
So therefore, I just want tomove into something more
positive at this point in mylife Right, so I'll challenge
you, I'll challenge you, I'llchallenge you, not this month.
(47:28):
Yeah, not this month, not thismonth.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
No, challenge you.
I'll challenge you, not thismonth.
Yeah, not this month.
Not this month.
No, I'm gonna challenge you.
I'll challenge you to go amonth without drinking.
I'll challenge you and you pickthe month, whatever month it'll
have to be a winter month no,we know we gotta pick it within
the next four months.
You pick it within the next fourmonths.
Pick a month and you can do it,bro.
You're the type of guy that Iknow you, you know you grounded,
(47:53):
and you know this won't be forme.
This is for you, this is foryou and you can do it bro.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, and I know I need to stop.
And I talk about another aspectthat people probably don't even
talk about when it comes, and Idon't mean to blight myself,
but you know, when we drink wethink we could drive.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I got it on my mind and I'm sure a
lot of close calls man.
I caught a DUI.
And you know what, when I'm inDUI class, I had a class over at
the Boutillery over downtownBrooklyn, over there.
You know what the guy wassaying.
The guy I mean there was abunch of people with DUIs he
says, listen, 90% of y'all aregoing to be back.
(48:38):
That's what he said in thatclass.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Repeat offenders yeah .
Speaker 1 (48:41):
I said you got me effed up.
I didn't tell him that, but inmy mind I said I'm never coming
back.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, and I used to drink and drive over and over.
Well, I think we all, I thinkwe all, I think we're all over
over 200 times I used to drink,I think.
I think the the numbers higherthan that for me too.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Me too, I'm just I'm gonna say, yeah, I just wanted
people to know how bad it was,how much times I was drinking
and driving.
But but, um, yeah, I made a, Imade, I made that decision.
That know, you could get lockedup for, like say, you come home
in an Uber and you was drunkand then you go to your car.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Just to check something.
Yeah, yeah, I know somebodythat I happened to.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, my brother called the DUI by sleeping in
the car.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yeah, I heard cases like that.
Yeah, and, like I said, whenwe're drunk we think we could
drive.
I was at the point where Iactually think I drove better
when I was drunk.
But you know, my reality wasdistorted.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
And I'm sure that I was driving way worse, but that
was a way for making me feellike you know, continue driving
drunk.
You know, right right, foolmyself, but I realize it's a
problem.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Right, right, but in your own time you're going to
find, you're going to find.
I tell you, the only reason Igot out of it is because I was
trying to lose weight.
I said, listen, this is theperfect time.
I used to, I used to, I used tolike.
I don't want to say I wish Iused to be like yo.
I want the tell me somethinglike yo, you gotta stop drinking
to force me.
But it's, I think it's.
(50:12):
I think it's probably best foryou to surrender.
Then they make you surrenderbecause of health reasons, of
course, of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
When you think about it, that's absolutely true.
I don't want the doctor to tellme you know you need to stop
drinking now or you're gonna.
I have a friend.
I have a friend of mine who'sbeen drinking for years.
I didn't know how severe it was, I'm not going to bring up his
name, it's not important, but hewas drinking for years.
We knew he drank.
So recently he got into anaccident and he woke up in a
(50:41):
hospital.
And then, when he woke up in ahospital, he's like what
happened there was like he wasin a major car accident and he
was like the doctor said youdrink, don't you?
He's like, yeah, he's like, didyou just try to stop?
He tried to stop cold turkey.
It didn't agree with his body.
(51:03):
He had a seizure.
The doctor says I said how longyou been drinking?
He said I ain't going to lie,I've been drinking at least a
fifth every day, Damn, For thelast 20 plus years.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Every day.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah.
So when he tried to go coldturkey, it sent a shock to his
body, gave him a seizure, andthe doctor actually told him you
cannot stop drinking coldturkey, you have to wean
yourself up slowly because yourbody is so dependent on you
drinking for all these years Wowman and from that you know.
(51:39):
I like to say I learned lessonsfrom other people's mistakes
and that just gave me a realitycheck.
That hit me Right, you need tostop.
That's saying you know, and I'mnot judging him, you know, I'm
not that bad.
I'm not judging him.
He probably had his own reasonswhy he did that.
But that that's giving memotivation to want to stop so
much that your body is dependenton it and if you try to stop,
(52:04):
you get seizures.
He never had seizures prior tothat damn, it's like yo, man.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
It's like people depend like.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Heroin addicts yeah, or sex addicts yeah, yeah, yeah,
they're going to go into shock,yeah, yeah.
And you know what?
Sometimes we tend not to think,but alcohol is a drug.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
It's a hell of a drug man.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Yeah, it's a hell of a drug.
It's a drug.
Sugar is a drug.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Salt is a drug.
Too much of it is a drug.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Too much of anything is bad for you, Mont, yeah man.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
And that's the truth, man, and you know I'm going to
be with you as your journey.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yeah my sponsor.
You can be my sponsor.
Check out, bobby, I'll be yoursponsor.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
I'll be your sponsor.
Mont to sponsor.
Right, the people are going tobe like what Mont?
Four people, how he going tosponsor what Facts?
They're going to be like yo,what is this guy?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
But you know what happened.
Being doing that we mightmotivate more people who want to
do the same thing.
Yeah, you understand.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Follow us, like I said you inspire who?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
you motivated and I thought when I heard I called
you a little while ago and I waslike your mom, what up, blah,
blah?
And I said I always ask you,always ask him if I'm still I
said you still have it.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
He's like nah, man, I was like wow, yeah, yeah, you
saw me like a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
Yo, mom, you still good, you still good, yeah, yeah
, yeah of course, of course it'snot easy.
Yeah, it's not easy.
It's not easy, man, if you didit.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
You can do it, I can do it.
You can do it because hey,listen, because we got in it for
the certain reasons yeah, to besocial.
We want to all.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, and we're socially set.
We have our family now.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
We got our family man .
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You understand, we have our family now.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I ain't chasing trim like I used to be.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
Likewise, likewise, you know, yeah, I'm saying.
And we're not trying to impressanybody, or you know we don't
need to be the life of the partyanymore.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
You know we don't.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
We don't need all that shit.
We're grown.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
Definitely, definitely, definitely In
closing.
You know we usually give, youknow we say our parting words,
you know.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:18):
You know well, my parting words is that, in time,
in certain times in life, achange is inevitable.
Of course, either you're goingto make it on your own or you're
going to be forced to make it.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
But to transition to our adulthood, we need to see
signs and we need to take heedto certain things and we need to
pay attention.
Yes, pay attention and move.
Feel the breeze and you movewith it, before the storm come
and sweep you off the floor andpush you to where you was
heading anyway.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
That's right.
That's right.
Life is about progressing, andas you get older, it's essential
that you progress in life.
Like a wise man always said, ifyou're doing the same thing now
that you was doing 20 years ago, you haven't grown a bit.
Speaker 1 (55:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
And I've seen tremendous growth within you.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
You too, you too, my bro Likewise.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
And I think we've both grown on a positive level.
And you know, I think in ourfuture the sky's the limit.
As long as we keep going in theright direction and taking
accountability for what we doand we learn from our stakes and
we're teaching our youth that'sgoing up, you know the right
way to live life.
So again I like to give youflowers, mont, right now.
(55:43):
Mont, I love everything you'regoing.
I love the direction in lifeyou're going.
I love love that you becomeyour own man.
You made major decisions tochange your life for the better
and you know you are motivationto me and to people around me.
My brother, ricky, really looksup to you too, and I just hope
you keep doing what you're doingand keep motivating me and
(56:05):
people around you.
Thank you so much for invitingme to your platform.
It was an honor to be here, tosit and speak with you and chop
it up.
You know, and I hope in thefuture you invite me and we'll
have more talks of course Iappreciate you, man.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
I want you to be a frequent flyer all right brother
, always love, love, love thisis the, your opinion doesn't
matter.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Podcast yeah, your opinion don't matter.
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