October 23, 2025 • 42 mins
NBA veteran and human-rights activist Olden Polynice sits down with Jimmy to talk about the “old school” Jazz culture under Jerry Sloan, what he learned from playing alongside legends, and how today’s NBA compares to the 80s/90s. Olden opens up about the realities of fame before social media, wild road stories, the explosion of player salaries, and why he thinks the league’s effort has dipped—and what he’d do as commissioner to fix it.
He also shares his improbable start in basketball (he didn’t pick up the game until 16), the professor-level value of listening, and life after the cheering stops: divorce, identity, and why therapy has been a pillar for him since college. We dive into his hunger strike for Haitian refugees, visiting detention centers with TV cameras rolling, and his belief that speaking up—athletes and citizens alike—changes the world one person at a time.
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Life in the Old School NBA with the Utah Jazz
06:30 Comparing Eras: 80s–90s vs. Today’s NBA
10:10 Lessons from MJ, Stockton, and Malone
13:15 From Player to Coach: Growth, Mistakes, and Apologies
16:30 Life After Basketball: Identity, Divorce, and Therapy
20:10 Activism and the Hunger Strike for Haitian Refugees
26:00 Speaking Out on Injustice: Courage and Responsibility
33:10 How to Fix the NBA & Restore Effort
39:20 Outro
He also shares his improbable start in basketball (he didn’t pick up the game until 16), the professor-level value of listening, and life after the cheering stops: divorce, identity, and why therapy has been a pillar for him since college. We dive into his hunger strike for Haitian refugees, visiting detention centers with TV cameras rolling, and his belief that speaking up—athletes and citizens alike—changes the world one person at a time.
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Life in the Old School NBA with the Utah Jazz
06:30 Comparing Eras: 80s–90s vs. Today’s NBA
10:10 Lessons from MJ, Stockton, and Malone
13:15 From Player to Coach: Growth, Mistakes, and Apologies
16:30 Life After Basketball: Identity, Divorce, and Therapy
20:10 Activism and the Hunger Strike for Haitian Refugees
26:00 Speaking Out on Injustice: Courage and Responsibility
33:10 How to Fix the NBA & Restore Effort
39:20 Outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Jimmy Rex Show.
Today on the podcast, we sit down with NBA star
Olden Polonies and this was a super fun interview for me.
You guys, He's a very open, very just fun conversation
to be able to have with an NBA star, somebody
I watched as a kid when he played for the
Jazz amongst other teams that he was on. Another thing
that's pretty cool about Olden's story is he's a Haitian
(00:23):
born NBA player and got himself in some trouble during
his time as a player for a couple of things
that he spoke out on. Pretty cool though, But this
was a real pleasure to sit down with him and
to chop it up. And so for U NBA fans
season right around the corner, I know you're going to
enjoy this. So without further ado, let's get to the show.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Bucked Up Supplements.
You guys, you know, doing these athlete podcasts it can
(00:46):
be a little bit draining sometimes because I usually do
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(01:08):
remember that it is sponsored by Bucked Up Protein Anywhere
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Speaker 2 (01:20):
Olden.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
How are you doing, man, I am wonderful. I'm on
this side of the dirt. I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Hey, that is a good sign. It's funny. I'm from
Utah and so I remember you played a couple of
years with the Jazz And yeah, I mean you played
in a lot of different places in the NBA teams.
What was your experience when you were playing in Utah
for the Jazz?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think what made it fun for me was playing
with stocked in them alone and being coached by Jerry Sloan.
And I go down to saying he's auguably one of
the greatest coaches, if not the best ever, And so
to me, that was a treat in itself. And I
told people after my first season I said, Man, I
wish I could have played my whole career in Utah.
(02:00):
They just played the game the right way. Everything about it,
you know, they came. The approach was the right way.
And I used the word professional. Everything about the Utah
Jazz back then was professional.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Was that Larry Miller or was that just all the
way down.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Jerry John Sloan, that's Jerry Soon. I had nothing to
do with Larry Miller, no disrespect, but that was all Jerry.
Jerry demanded respect, commanded respect and got the respect. And
I'll share a quick story. So my first game, first
regular season game, I forgot what happened. I got the
(02:36):
rebind through it the Stockton and John looks over and go,
what do you want? And I'm like he's asking Jerry
for a play. And I'm like, wait a minute. That's
in my head at the time. I'm like, that's John Stockton,
the greatest point guard in my opinion ever. So after
the game, I asked him, so you still look to
him for plays? You don't just take off and go.
He's like, he's the coach. I was like, Wow, that's
(03:00):
so dope.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
That's pretty cool. Well, I think a lot of people
just assume that all the teams are that professional and
that dialed in, and you had the unique operating to
play for so many teams.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Play for the unprofessional ones too.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, and so what what's that experience like when you're
with a team that just isn't dialed in like that?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It's very frustrating, you know, And me being who I am,
I want to show up and work hard and play,
but it's like, now I gotta babysit you. You know,
I got to make sure you're on time, doing things
the right way. That's not my job and my responsible
and that's not a coaching job responsible. You know, I've
been coaching for the last fifteen seventeen years and I
tell kids all the time, no coach has ever cut
(03:39):
a player. You know, if you're doing what you're supposed
to do, you're not going to get cut. But at
the same time, I should not be your motivator, you know,
you got to be your own motivation. Yes, and so
those are the things that I saw with them. These guys.
They didn't want to take days off. Jay, you said, yeall,
no call sit out, stock sit out. Nope, they right
out there playing. They didn't believe in all that stuff.
(04:02):
They were old school old.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
School today's NBA. Do you feel like, because you said
you do a lot of coaching and stuff now, is
it harder to get kids to buy into that kind
of mentality.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh yeah, definitely because they think they know everything. We
used to think we knew everything as kids, but we didn't,
and once we.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Set it to ourselves, like, realize, I.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Don't know as much as my dad and my mom.
Now everybody's gonna know it all. Everybody's an expert, and
so unfortunately, with social media and internet and everything else,
everybody's experts without the expertise.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, it's interesting how just being a NBA basketball player
has evolved from the time even when you played. You know,
you've got social media and you're so public, and a
lot of people feel like they have access to you
as well, which can be kind of a funny dynamic
because you don't know anything about them, and they can
sometimes know a lot about you.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
They know everything about us.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
They know how much we make, how many kids, we have,
how many girlfriends, who's sleeping with who? They know every
thing because everything's out there now, and so even back
then to a certain extent, like we used to travel
and this is something it's funny at hell because one
of the things that we did when we were on
the road and you got to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The fruit of your laby.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, sure, first thing we do is look over at
the phone, see if the red lighters on. Somebody was
gonna but they knew where we were, you know, and
it's like, of course, it's a crapshoot because you don't
know this person. Somebody leaves you a message, You're like, yeah,
I'm in the lobby, come see me.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It was that crazy. It was that crazy. But it
was like, but they always had access to us. And
I used to tell people this hard time. If I
get into something with somebody, that person's always going to
remember me, but I'm not gonna know who he is.
He can walk up slap me in the back of
the head who did that? But they'll always know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
They'll get their significance off telling the story of how
they got you into a problem instead of you have
significance because you are somebody doing cool things. Yeah, that's
pretty interesting. It is fascinating to think about where, you know,
in the eighties and nineties, you guys, probably I'm guessing
the NBA guys had a different lifestyle. They could live
and got away with a lot different things. Nowadays it
(06:13):
feels like, I mean, you just you got to be
able to bit more careful.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh yes, And I says all the time, I want
n in the NAIs. But any player that played in
the eighties nineties could not survive today. We couldn't survive
today the stuff we were doing. Yeah, you couldn't. There's
no way without naming names. What's the craziest thing you've
ever seen with teammates in the eighties and ninety one?
(06:37):
There's so much And Okay, I won't to explode. I'll
talk about my son.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Sure. I'm in a.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Restaurant in Beverly Hills, right, fancy restaurant, white tablecloth, everything,
white gloves, The young lady gets under the table.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It just starts different things.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was doing her thing. The power for me wasn't
that she was doing. It's the fact where we were
and the fact that it was like so accessible. So
it's stuff like that that happened all the time. That's
like one aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I always wonder like I walk into a place and
somebody goes, hey, let me buy your drink. Dude, I
can afford my own drink, but we get free stuff
all the time. And it's weird to me that dynamic.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's like, if I didn't want to spend money out,
I wouldn't spend money when I was out back then
none of us would.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So it's stuff like that. It's a weird mindset. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, nowadays, I mean, the average player, I think the
average NBA salary is like eleven million a year. It's
a crazy number. You guys didn't have that kind of
money with me. You guys kind of helped pave that
road for the players playing today.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, you know what's so funny about that? And I
used this story. People always ask me, are you upset
that these guys? I'm like, hey, I don't know. I'm
happy for them because I always got to remember when
I came in in eighty seven and my contract was
three hundred and fifty thousand for the year, what did
the guys from the fifties think? Hm, So you got
(08:12):
to remember that too, So it's all relative.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, it wasn't that many years before that the Magic
Johnson signed his crazy contract. It was only a million years.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Exactly, Come on, dude, they're making that a game.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's so true.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Literally, Shay Gilders is about to hit a million dollars
a game. Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I guess the last one was seventy three million
or something, so the next one will be.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's it's insane.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you think it's good for the game to have
so much of it be to the top, top players,
because I see how it's kind of hamstrung some of
these teams, like even the Rock you know, the Nuggets
are talking about not being able to pay you know
Joker right now because he'll probably his next contract will
be eighty you know, eighty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Facade. It's all a facade. Trust me, Joke is going
to get his money.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh I know he's getting paid.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I'll share this with you right now.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And it goes back again to our goat Michael Jordan
doing our lockout in ninety eight. Michael Jordan stood up
and said, hey, you guys need to negotiate the best
collective boggaining agreement for the rest of these guys. The
(09:22):
bottom guys make it so well, they're taken care of
more than anybody else. I'm gonna get my money, no
matter what contract you guys sign, I'm gonna get my money.
And that always stuck with me, and it made so
much sense, and he was right. The stars will always
(09:42):
get paid, but it's always the guys at the bottom
that get, you know, messed over.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, it makes a little bit trickier when's And that's
what made Jordan so popular amongst everybody. I mean, you
couldn't find anybody. I think him and Tiger Woods are
the only two athletes that everyone in their sport respected
them so much because everyone else got paid so much
more because of them. Yeah, everyone knew that. It was
like we all that, you know, we're all getting ours
because this person is elevating our sports so much.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And you know what else I loved about him. He
gave credit to the older guys that came before him.
He never looked upon it like you know, they always say,
you know, are you to go? He's like, I can't
consider myself to go because I never played against these guys.
These are legendary guys. But I became who I am
because of these guys. I learned from doctor j Bill Russell,
Oscar Robinson will I watched them so I was able
(10:33):
to pick stuff from them. So that's that's legendary stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Who did you grow up really trying to model your
game after or looking.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Up to nobody. I didn't play basketball when I was young. Really,
I didn't start playing until I was sixteen.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I was just trying to get a damn scholarship. I wanted.
I was like, how am I going to get to college?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And you just were tall and got up one summer,
by the grace of God, I shot up like eight inches.
And the next year, my sophomore year, the coach was like, Hey,
come try out for the basketball team. And I told him,
point blank, I don't play basketball. I don't know how
to play basketball. He's like, I'm going to teach you,
so long story short, he takes me under his wing
teaches me the game.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The following year, I'm an All American.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What were you doing up to that point? Did you
play other sports? You played football?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I played soccer, and I played checkers, and that was it.
That was the extent of my and I just went
to school in class.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Wow, you just wanted to get a scholarship, and I
just wanted.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I was the top student in my high school, but
I was not getting a academic scholarship. You know, that
was going to be enough to pay for school. So
that was my goal.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So being somebody that was you know intellectually, you obviously
did very well. Did you ever, you know, consider going
another route as opposed to going to the NBA or
playing basketball.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I wanted to be a lawyer. Really, that was the
life mission. I want to put bad guys in jail.
Growing up, that was that was my hopes and dreams.
I want to put bad guys in jail and so,
but then all of a sudden, the NBA came calling.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
You better be a real good lawyer to get the
Beverly Hills treatment.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, it was cool, but you know, I still think
about it even till today. Everything I watched on television
has like Law and Order, Good Wife, whatever it is.
Everything has courtroom scenes. You know, what's the best lawyer
movie ever? There's a good one that's lawyer movie. There's
so many, it's come on, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I think mine's probably a Time to Kill or a
few good men. Those are some good movies.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean, those have great scenes, you know, iconic scenes.
But as far as good lawyer movie, oh, man, I
like god, I'm going go and blame Matt Damon. Oh,
Matt Damon, Oh my god, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Mickey Rock.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Why can't I have mister Ripley?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Oh my god, why am I drawing a blank.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
On the title.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We'll edit this first. I came back Donnie Ray. They
killed Donnie Ray. They didn't give him the treatment. I
can tell you something about the movie. I come from
the title.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So what do you do? Like after you, you know,
finished playing, did you consider going to be a lawyer
at that point? You're just like, I got my money.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I can probably I didn't get my money per se,
but again it's all relative. But after basketball, I just
wanted to coach, you know. I wanted to help the
younger generation, and I found it very difficult. And it's
a funny thing. I ended up. I got a job coaching,
and after my first week of practice, I call all
(13:46):
my coaches and apologized to them.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Realize how big of a pinion he ask Hey.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Jerry, I just wanted to say, man, I'm so sorry.
I swear to God. I called everybody, and the ones
I think like six of them answered and I apologize
to every last one, all my main coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
What made you so difficult as a player.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I wasn't difficult as a player. I just didn't realize
how difficult the job was, okay, you know, and so
I had totally I mean I played for legendary coaches,
Casey Jones, one of my favorite people in the world.
You know, Don Cheney, Jerry of course, you know, Bernie
Baker's staff. It's the fact that I just didn't realize
(14:27):
how difficult the job was for them until I became
a coach. Like being a parent. You know, my kids
did it to me, like Dad, I'm sorry. I'm like, yeah,
you see how hard it is, right, being a dad parent.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It's one of the beautiful things of life is getting
older and being like I remember thinking about this with
I had some scout leaders that were these guys were
taking us out camping and whitewater rafting and doing cool stuff,
and they had real lives there. They were adults, They
had problems, they had things they were dealing with, and
once I got to be an adult, I was like,
oh my gosh, these guys poured into us so much,
(14:59):
and I was such a opin in the ass. You know,
they're literally volunteering and helping, and all of us were.
I remember telling them. I got a little emotional.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I called into my add is acting up right now
because I gotta find out. I gotta remember who the
hell that movie was, you know, Maker, rain Maker? Oh
my lord, rain Maker. I'm over here, like I can't
even listen to you talk right now.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I'm like, the name of this movement right maker? All
right now, I gotta go watch it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I don't think i've seen that one. My god, great,
it's a good one. All the junk gersher ones.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's one of my favorites. That's one of my favorites
all time.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's what's your favorite basketball movie? Who's Who's yours?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Still?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I can watch that every single day. I can watch
that every day, which I've done.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, it's been a minute since it came out, with
any good sports movies, you know, it's not like it
used to be. I feel like there hasn't been a
good basketball movie in a long time.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I don't care about none of that stuff. But all
I know is Hoosia's It's my number one, and I
don't argue with people. That's why, when when somebody, you know,
they ask who's the goat? And I tell them they're like, wow,
you asked me whom? My god, sure, it's not want
me to tell you who. That's something else. That's a
different question. So that's why I never understood that. Don't
(16:16):
ask me a question about what I like and then
you're like, oh no, no, no, no, that's not that's.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What I like.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So if you say who you like, Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that's well said. It's uh so. I mean being
in the NBA, you have such a high when you're playing.
You're playing in front of so many people. You know,
everywhere you go, you're getting special treatment. What's life like
after as an NBA basketball player once that kind of
goes away?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Oh man, great question. When the chewing stops, it's rough.
They don't prepare you for that at all.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Did they try to prepare you for that at all? No?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Okay no.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And those are some of the things that I have
issues with the NBA, Like they do a three day
little thing for the rookies, rookies symposia on whatever. That
doesn't do anything. It's just to appease whoever. It doesn't
do anything. You can't give them their future in three
days or two days, you know, one day of traveling,
one real day of doing stuff and then but no,
(17:15):
so they don't prepare you for it. When I, quote
unquote retired, I didn't have a job, you know, after
two thousand and four season with the Clippers. I literally
was getting up, getting in my car, driving to the
arena and realizing, oh, snip, I'm not under damn. I
(17:36):
got to turn around. I did that for a month,
like randomly, like I'm getting up getting dressed, go oh,
I got practice. Your mind is really warped in that moment,
and so it's tough. And then it's like everything else
that comes along with it. Now you're at home, and
(17:56):
if you guys don't like each other, some problem because
you got to remember, we're having kids, we're married, but
we're not seeing each other every day. So when we
do see each other, were making the most of it.
It's almost like vacation time.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You're basically the Disneyland down all of.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
A sudden, every morning you're still here. Did you go
through a rough patch? A rough patch? You know, just
trying to figure it out and maneuver. I ended up
getting divorced, like the same year I was done. And
so it's like stuff like that happens. You know, you
don't want it to happen, you don't even expect it
(18:34):
to happen, but it does happen.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
How'd you pull yourself out of that therapy? Really?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, you knew enough to know that you needed to
go to therapy.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Therapy. I'm big on therapy. I've been doing it since
University of Virginia days with doctor barbro Teller who said
I had the greatest sports.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Mind he's ever seen. Wow.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
And that's from somebody who's coached legendary athletes and it
was an honor here and that from him. But ever
since then in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've always done it.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I've always done therapy, whether it's marriage counseling therapy, whether
it's individual therapy, any kind of therapy.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I'm well, I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And one of the things so I run my day
job is I run a men's coaching program where we
help men. Basically it's not therapy but very much like
healing and group and you know, all the correct and
you know, it's funny because some people are afraid to
admit that maybe they don't have everything figured out, or
that things aren't exactly okay.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And that's weakness.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Unfortunately, it's weakness because we've been programmed, you know, by whatever,
you know, parental friends, whoever, that we're not supposed to
ask for help when we need it. And I always
say this, I was a well conditioned athlete physically, I
took kill my body. Why wouldn't I have a coach
(19:55):
for this? For my mind? Why wouldn't I I have
to have somebody, because this is the most important muscle,
you know, And so I didn't mind with people, Oh man,
you going to therapy?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Man? What saw you crazy? Yeah? I'm crazy?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Did teammates try to give you a hard time about that?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Sometimes teammates are going to be hard on you no
matter what. When I did my hunger strike, they laughed
at me, Hey, hungry, You.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Did that for Haiti?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, tell me a little why they did that for everybody?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Specific it being so, I've been.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
To Haiti a few times. I volunteered at an orphanage
there a couple of years ago, and it was striking
just how little economy and commerce was. It was just
like it was very difficult to see, uh, the people
suffering at that level is what I would say. But
what was it about Haiti that drew you to doing
that and doing the hunger strike.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I'm from Haiti number one, Yeah, I was born and
Haiti came two yes, when I was eight years old,
and it was just watching other celebrities fight for my
country and I'm like, wait a minute, I gotta do something.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Here's the crazy thing about all this. I didn't map out,
I didn't plan, I didn't do anything. I watched. It
wasn't breaking news, but it was current news that they
were showing Harry Belafani, Danny Glover, Richard Dryfor's, whole bunch
of Hollywood people. I watched them protesting and earlier in
(21:23):
the day, and we had a game that night, and
I was like, wow, thank you. I appreciate what these
people are doing for me. But I still didn't think about,
you know, other than just watching them on TV. So
I get to the arena and they asked, hey, so
are you ready for tonight's game? And the words just
came out my mouth. Because the US policies against the
(21:44):
Haitian refugees, I am going on a hunger strike effective immedia.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
You just accept that you hadn't pre planned it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Where did that? Where did that come from? How it
just came out my mouth?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Wow? How did people react to it?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
They were like, I just ask you, are you ready
for this mash up.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
To the middle of the season too?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
This is the middle of the season, So how is
you right before All Star?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
All Star weekend? We had maybe like three four games
before All Star break, and so I was like, the
reporters were stunned, and so I got dressed, played the game,
and then from that moment it had begun.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And I did ten days no.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Food at all, no food, obviously drinking water, but nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And that was the only thing I did. I did water.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And they say, if you want to do juices, you can,
you know, I mean based on because me, I was like,
I'm not going to do anything. They're like, you gotta
at least put liquids in your body. And so so
I played a game against Shaquille under hunger strike.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Who else did you feel the difference as far as
your energy level went, and you're just your strengthening to
be able.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
To hou zapped?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, who were you playing for at the time?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
How was that Detroit was apped?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Did your coach. I'd be like, this is overworld haters.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Dude, you think Kaepenick had it bad? My god, I'm trying.
I got the death threats, I got everything. I'm talking.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Were they you couldn't play as well because you weren't eating?
Were they mad?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Speak out politically? I played okay. It just wore me down,
got it, that's all. No, it's not like I played bad.
I played okay. You know the I was you know,
I didn't mind it. It's like it's just trying to
play games without any energy whatsoever, you know, from the food.
But what I hated the most was the league did
(23:39):
not have my back number one, and the players were
being so mean. Like I said earlier, they were like, hey, hungry,
want something to eat?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
They're just doing the layup line. I was like, man, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All good, damn. And so was there any outcome that
came out of that that?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, I got people freed from Guantanamo. Wow, went before
ComRIS and had laws passed. So yeah, we made a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Well Gosha of course, so we called her head when
we played in Miami. It's called the Chrome Detentions Center.
We find out where all the Haitians were being held
illegally Guantanamo Chrome Center. They were people in Texas and Louisiana.
They just hidden families, don't know where they are and
(24:24):
all that stuff. So those are people we're trying to get.
And again, I'm a human rights activists, human rights I
don't care if you Haitian, Dominican, Argentinian, whatever, I don't care, black, white, blue, purple.
I'm gonna fight for you. So call her head to
the Chrome Detention Center. But this became big news, ABC
and all. They sent CAMA crew because they said I
(24:46):
can come and visit the Haitians that were being held.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But when I show up, the CAMA crew's there, and god,
what's his name? One of the.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Top reporters at the time, Almen, Oh my god, Army
cut I can't remember his name right now, but I
think he was with ABC. So anyway, we pull up
and they're like, you can't come in with the cameras.
I'm like, what are you talking about? So I distinctly
remember the gate was here, and I took a step
(25:19):
across the line and all I heard was the two snipers.
Then I'm like, so I put my alls out. What
you're gonna do You're gonna shoot me. You're gonna shoot
me on camera keep rolling they want to shoot me,
and then the ward know, the head person come running out,
(25:40):
mister party, we didn't know, we didn't know you were
gonna bring cameras.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm like, this is news. We need to let the
people know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It's like, well, if you still want to go inside,
you can, but we can't let the cameras in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It was like, see all are hid and stuff, you know,
but I didn't get shot.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Thinkingness, well, I'm glad that you said that you're a
human rights active US. I think one of the things
that's hard for the modern NBA fan is, you know,
the NBA has kind of been really quiet on some
of these human rights issues. I mean, we see what's
going on right now in Gaza, for example, or too
much money the wakers in China, right and some of
these other things. When Darryl Maury Morley spoke out and
(26:17):
all of a sudden, you know, he's basically said delete
your tweeter else you're going to be, you know, banned
by the league. What's your take on it? Could the
NBA do a better job of like, well, the GAZA
for example, Like I feel like if nobody speaks out
in positions of power, like we have a modern degenis
going on right now.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It's a shame how we were selective in our in
our outrage and anger. And that's what I hate the most.
Don't be selective. Human rights, Like I said, human rights
is human rights? Is that a human being? Yes or no?
And that's why I tell people I don't do religion.
That's that's a waste of time, my guy.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
You gotta uh uh. I just believe and right and wrong.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Okay, I believe there's a high being, Okay, because there's
no way in hell we're the smartest in this damn universe,
so I. But at the same time, human rights is
what it is. Ninety nine percent of the people getting
killed had nothing to do with this. They made no decisions,
They have no power. They just casualties. And that's what
(27:25):
I don't like. And I don't like bullies.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Do you think it's the responsibility of these NBA players
to speak out, It's.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The responsiblity of everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Get appointed that more players aren't speaking out about GAZA
right now.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't like it when it's whomever. I don't like
it when everything is put on NBA players or athletes.
Our government officials need to step up and be men
and women and be responsible, because an athlete should not
be Why is there more emphasis on athletes doing stuff?
Is there so much expectation? And where in our government
(27:59):
offices shoes? There's none for them. We don't hold them accountable.
I don't like that, I.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Think, I mean for me, it's like, I know, the
government's not going to do their jobs. So like for example,
when you do how are you there? You and be
both man, you know, but like when you did your
hunger strike, it made a difference. And so I guess
not that it's the responsibility of you know, athletes or
stars or whatever to do that, but I think they
can make a difference. You put yourself out there if
you had to deal with some negativity that came your.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Way as an individual.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
The great line from the movie Too So it love
my favorite movie in the world with Sidney Pontier. It
is our duty to change the world, not as a mob. Individually.
If one person does his part, change happens.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It's beautiful. Well what uh so what do you do?
I guess you said you're coaching. Now, how much of
this part of you do you instill into the players
that you coach? How much do you try to teach them?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All this everything I can't use.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
It ain't nothing I can do with it, go to
ways I try to. But I will meet young people
all the time, young men and women, because I've coached
WNBA NBA players. At one point in time, I had
four hundred players I had trained, and a lot of
(29:18):
them were professionals. So, and the thing about it with
me is this, I will meet you, I will train you,
and I will do one specific thing. I will give
you my phone number, and I will say, call me
whenever you need my help, not just.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Suckers, call me.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
That's such an interesting thing, right, Well. One of the
things that you when you talked about therapy, you know,
I teach us to my men's group. It's like people
always say, if you ever need something, call me, or
if you're ever in a bad spot, call me. And
I always say, guys, when they're feeling that way, they're
not going to call you. So how can you, as
a coach, mentor therapist, leader, whatever it might be, you know,
reach those people? And unfortunately, people have to be willing
(30:02):
to ask for help. They have to be willing to
reach out. But one of the things that I do
is I always just try. I wake up with a
prayer every day and I say, God, lead me to
the people that need me, and then I feel like
I'm guided. So if somebody comes to my mind or
my thoughts, I'll reach out to.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
That person definitely. And I do that when it's from
a mental health standpoint or from I had a friend.
I look on his Twitter and I hope he doesn't
get upset. I won't say his name. Yeah, but he's
talking about this. This ain't worth being here anymore. I
could tell he's suicidal. So I reach out. Hey, man,
(30:36):
I love you so all I said, I'm here, I
love you. Anytime you need to talk, I'll stay on
the phone as long as you want. I'll talk to you.
And he's like, man, thank you, blah blah blah. But
point being in that aspect, yeah, I'm going to reach out.
But for basketball training, I'm just trying to give you
advice and.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Help you, and they don't reach out.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I've been doing just to If you have any kind
of questions about dribble drive step back.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
You don't even want that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Hell, what is that? Why do people not Why aren't
people better at you know, taking advantage of the opportunities
that are in front of them like that.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Because they all believe they're going to get better by
playing two K. I'm serious. Yeah, they think through osmosis
are playing two K, that's how their game is going
to get better and improve. It's like the dumbest thing.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Well, you must have had a hell of a high
school coach to take you at sixteen years old. I mean,
you'd never play basketball.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
No, I was a hell of a student. It didn't
matter who the coach was. I was ready, willing, and able.
That's the key, because I'm a proponent of listening. I
think that is the number one skill set to have,
and I'm one of the best listeners there is. And
so whatever he said to me, I process and I did.
Nowadays again, I will tell a kid, hey, I want
(31:58):
you Oh my god, I'll go back and tell the story.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Then you'll understand. I'm not even going to say it
that way.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I had a little kid, take two dribbles with your
right hand, cross it over, put it in your left hand.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Take two dribbles here, go one dribble, cross over, three dribbles.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Eli, take two dribbles with your right hand, cross it over,
two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
With your left hand. Five dribbles over here.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I'm like, that's how it is, and that's the problem.
They don't know how to listen. They can hear me,
but they don't know how to listen. And that frustrates people.
And it's like, if I have to tell you something
ten times, you gotta find something else to do in life. Basketball,
(32:49):
ain't it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, well, you see how many guys have the talent,
But it's those that are as committed as you're saying,
the ones that learn how to listen. It's to Kobe.
I mean, you know, anybody you study this Lebron Kobe,
these guys that truly become the greats. That's the thing
that makes them stand out. It's not that they were
always that much more talented. I mean, yeah, they had
some gifts, but it was because they just learned and
they were so teachable and they listened to the coaches.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
And that's the greatness. And that's to all the players
that played. People forget we have We've had less than
six thousand people play in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And the funny thing about it, we've had a lot
of names in that's six thousand that played one game
and they included.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So it's like we can them out.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah, you've really had So if you go to like
guys that played like more than a year, more than
three years, more than five shrinks. You know, like I
was fortunate to play all the years I played now
in over a thousand games. Jordan didn't play a thousand games,
and so and again that number grows smaller. So to me,
(33:57):
we are all and with greatness we became great. So
that's why don't get caught up in the goat conversation.
You know, who's the greatest of all times? I'm like
every last one of them. If you think about it,
Bob Coozy is a goat. Yeah, because he was doing
stuff back then and people and see that's the thing
(34:18):
we look at We look at them back then. That's
why I was upset with JJ Reddick. Don't make them
stupid comments because you're using twenty twenty eyes to judge
nineteen fifty. You can't do that because in nineteen fifty
that was current. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, it's like when people try to say, Babe Ruth
couldn't play in today's modern Major League Baseball. I like
that guy had more home runs than the entire league
combined it one year.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You couldn't go back there. Ain't playing that with that
dumb mindset. Sure, it's like no, but they made those
statements because they know we can never figure it out,
so they just throw stuff out. It's like me saying
I'm better than well Chamberlain because we can never prove
it technically, you know. But at the same time, I
have to appreciate everybody for what they did. Those men
(35:03):
were doing stuff, doing the civil rights movement, wearing canvas
converse shoes, traveling by bus, couldn't stay in the same hotel.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Even in the early eighties, they were still traveling commercially.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I sat in middle seat, my rookie year, first shoe
years man, rookie year. They you know, rookie hazing. They
did that on purpose. They put your right in the
middle seat.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
You literally had to sit in the middle seat.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And damned lady over here with a crying baby, some
fat guy over here like this at.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Seven feet and they're thinking, I just got put next
to this ginormous man.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But it was part of the deal. It's part of
the hazy.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
You know. You had to carry and we didn't have
VC all. We had the big heavy projectors. You had
to carry, but you did it. Nowadays, these guys they
have massuits, they have chiropractice, they have a chef, they
have a soioux chef, they have this guy, that guy,
they have cry out, they have they.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Have everything now, private planes.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
It's interesting though, because more players seem like they get
hurt now than when you guys are playing, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And that's and I cannot understand how that's happening. With
more technology, you guys get hurt more. That's some insane stuff.
We played through everything.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Are you talking about the pistons? Man stop them?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Breaks his nose during the game. I can't remember who
hit him. Time out during the time, I doc resets it,
sticks cotting up his nose, goes back out on the court,
had the surgery the next day, didn't miss a game,
met us on the road, didn't miss a game. Who
(36:55):
does that in today's NBA breaks a nose and doesn't
even miss doesn't even go on the locker room.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's like back then, they were looking for reasons to play.
Now sometimes it looks like they're looking for reasons not
to play.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, and it's a shame, but they get paid more.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So if you were the commissioner, we can kind of
make this their last question here. But if you're commission
what's one or two things you do immediately to one
year deals? Always one year deal? Tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's like anything else. One year deals. You got to
earn your deal every year, every year. That's going to
make the game so much better because now I'm not
resting on my laws and the fact that I have
a five year, four year guaranteed one hundred and fifty
million dollars. I got to earn my job every year, okay,
and so I didn't have my stats dropped, my pay drops,
(37:42):
my stats go up. It's got arbitration in baseball, you know,
similar with that you put up numbers because you haven't
noticed most NBA players have their best season right before
the new contract. Here, Well, make it one year deals.
You guys will play hard every damn year. I promise
you nobody's gonna be sitting out.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Well, as a fan, you notice the players aren't playing
as hard for me. The game's not nearly as enjoyable
to watch today as it was. And I'm not just
the old guy or whatever. I'm a young guy still
like me and my friends had season tickets for five
years on the front row, Like I love the NBA
I used to, and it's harder to watch now. It's
like you can tell the efforts not the same. When
you guys were playing, it was like every night you
got your money.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well it's not so much. And they're trying to say
they're motality. I'm like, you lost your damn mind. First
of well, you're not motalic, because I always asked this question,
how come nobody can do what Doctor Jay used to
do today? How come no one can do what George
Gervin did back in the days. They can't replicate none
of that. Sure, that's true, and so to me, you're
not getting better. The technology is different, that's all. You
(38:44):
just have more access to stuff, and you have access
to the main thing, the videos of these fools that
were doing it before you, that you.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Can take from.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Sure, you learn from them, you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Learn We all learn from somebody. There's no Kyrie without Hardaway,
there's no Tim Hardaway, without Isaiah Thomas. There's no Isaiah
Thomas without Bob Coosey and I can go down the
line in anybody.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, so one of your contracts, get him to play
a little bit hard one year deal, so across the board,
I like that period. Do you think the game will
get back to where it's as fun to watch as
it used to be. I mean, it's just tough as
a fan. I just don't enjoy it as much anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
We're not evolving anymore. With devolving, and I think Lebron
was the catalyst of everything, and so, in my personal opinion,
so we went from the beginning of basketball, to the
merger of the ABA, to Magic and Bird saving the NBA,
to Jordan taking us global, to Shaq and Kobe to
(39:45):
all these guys now, and then to Lebron, and I
think that's the pinnacle. If you notice he's he's writing
this thing out. I was on a podcast weacently and
they asked me, how long do you think he's gonna play.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
I say he's gonna play five more years, and people
are like years.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I'm like, man, the dude ain't even started his stealing
years yet.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Like the you dinastasms of the world and all that.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
You know, we get about three, four or five years
of those he hasn't even done that. You know, he's
still right now one of the best conditioned athletes in sports.
Right now, he's got twenty two years in. That's some
insane stuff. So to me, with devolving, you know, Lebron
(40:29):
is the top. So we went like this, we went here,
we had Lebron. So once Lebron leaves, everything drops.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah, it feels like the league is having a hard
time finding that next guy.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
It's gonna drop.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I guarantee it, because they're not as good anymore and
they don't have any mentors. Yeah, your vet's now twenty one.
You ain't, no damn Vett. At twenty one, my vet
was thirty eight with a wife and kids in a
mortgage life lessons.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Well, well then I sure appreciate it, Matt. This has
been a really fun interview. Just a blast to talk
with you. And yeah, best of luck on everything. Thank
you so much. I appreciate all right, my friend, all right,
thank you again for listening to The Jimmy Rex Show.
If you liked this episode, please do me a quick favor.
Just go online, leave us a review. Subscribe to our
show both on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. And
(41:22):
if you would share this with somebody else. Also, if
you're looking to make a real change in your life,
or if you have a man in your life that
you know, could you know just use a brotherhood or
some men around him to help him level up in
every area of life. I encourage you to look at
we are the day. This is my men's coaching program
I started several years ago and we have been able
to help close to one thousand men now that have
(41:44):
joined this program and had a life changing, transformational experience.
Several of these episodes we talked to members of this group.
We talk about this group and if you are interested
in learning more, go to join what That's joined watt
dot com.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Jimmy Rex Show.
Today on the podcast, we sit down with NBA star
Olden Polonies and this was a super fun interview for me.
You guys, He's a very open, very just fun conversation
to be able to have with an NBA star, somebody
I watched as a kid when he played for the
Jazz amongst other teams that he was on. Another thing
that's pretty cool about Olden's story is he's a Haitian
(00:23):
born NBA player and got himself in some trouble during
his time as a player for a couple of things
that he spoke out on. Pretty cool though, But this
was a real pleasure to sit down with him and
to chop it up. And so for U NBA fans
season right around the corner, I know you're going to
enjoy this. So without further ado, let's get to the show.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Bucked Up Supplements.
You guys, you know, doing these athlete podcasts it can
(00:46):
be a little bit draining sometimes because I usually do
five or six in a day. I got to la
and take advantage of my opportunity to be able to
get these amazing guests. And when I'm doing it, I'm
trying to stay hydrated, but I'm also trying to stay
in shape, and so Bucked Up Protein they come with me.
I actually found them at a gas station out there
and took a few every single day while I was
doing these podcasts. So as you listen today's podcast, just
(01:08):
remember that it is sponsored by Bucked Up Protein Anywhere
Bucked Up Products for soula.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Olden.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
How are you doing, man, I am wonderful. I'm on
this side of the dirt. I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Hey, that is a good sign. It's funny. I'm from
Utah and so I remember you played a couple of
years with the Jazz And yeah, I mean you played
in a lot of different places in the NBA teams.
What was your experience when you were playing in Utah
for the Jazz?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think what made it fun for me was playing
with stocked in them alone and being coached by Jerry Sloan.
And I go down to saying he's auguably one of
the greatest coaches, if not the best ever, And so
to me, that was a treat in itself. And I
told people after my first season I said, Man, I
wish I could have played my whole career in Utah.
(02:00):
They just played the game the right way. Everything about it,
you know, they came. The approach was the right way.
And I used the word professional. Everything about the Utah
Jazz back then was professional.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Was that Larry Miller or was that just all the
way down.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Jerry John Sloan, that's Jerry Soon. I had nothing to
do with Larry Miller, no disrespect, but that was all Jerry.
Jerry demanded respect, commanded respect and got the respect. And
I'll share a quick story. So my first game, first
regular season game, I forgot what happened. I got the
(02:36):
rebind through it the Stockton and John looks over and go,
what do you want? And I'm like he's asking Jerry
for a play. And I'm like, wait a minute. That's
in my head at the time. I'm like, that's John Stockton,
the greatest point guard in my opinion ever. So after
the game, I asked him, so you still look to
him for plays? You don't just take off and go.
He's like, he's the coach. I was like, Wow, that's
(03:00):
so dope.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
That's pretty cool. Well, I think a lot of people
just assume that all the teams are that professional and
that dialed in, and you had the unique operating to
play for so many teams.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Play for the unprofessional ones too.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, and so what what's that experience like when you're
with a team that just isn't dialed in like that?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It's very frustrating, you know, And me being who I am,
I want to show up and work hard and play,
but it's like, now I gotta babysit you. You know,
I got to make sure you're on time, doing things
the right way. That's not my job and my responsible
and that's not a coaching job responsible. You know, I've
been coaching for the last fifteen seventeen years and I
tell kids all the time, no coach has ever cut
(03:39):
a player. You know, if you're doing what you're supposed
to do, you're not going to get cut. But at
the same time, I should not be your motivator, you know,
you got to be your own motivation. Yes, and so
those are the things that I saw with them. These guys.
They didn't want to take days off. Jay, you said, yeall,
no call sit out, stock sit out. Nope, they right
out there playing. They didn't believe in all that stuff.
(04:02):
They were old school old.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
School today's NBA. Do you feel like, because you said
you do a lot of coaching and stuff now, is
it harder to get kids to buy into that kind
of mentality.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh yeah, definitely because they think they know everything. We
used to think we knew everything as kids, but we didn't,
and once we.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Set it to ourselves, like, realize, I.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Don't know as much as my dad and my mom.
Now everybody's gonna know it all. Everybody's an expert, and
so unfortunately, with social media and internet and everything else,
everybody's experts without the expertise.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, it's interesting how just being a NBA basketball player
has evolved from the time even when you played. You know,
you've got social media and you're so public, and a
lot of people feel like they have access to you
as well, which can be kind of a funny dynamic
because you don't know anything about them, and they can
sometimes know a lot about you.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
They know everything about us.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
They know how much we make, how many kids, we have,
how many girlfriends, who's sleeping with who? They know every
thing because everything's out there now, and so even back
then to a certain extent, like we used to travel
and this is something it's funny at hell because one
of the things that we did when we were on
the road and you got to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The fruit of your laby.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, sure, first thing we do is look over at
the phone, see if the red lighters on. Somebody was
gonna but they knew where we were, you know, and
it's like, of course, it's a crapshoot because you don't
know this person. Somebody leaves you a message, You're like, yeah,
I'm in the lobby, come see me.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It was that crazy. It was that crazy. But it
was like, but they always had access to us. And
I used to tell people this hard time. If I
get into something with somebody, that person's always going to
remember me, but I'm not gonna know who he is.
He can walk up slap me in the back of
the head who did that? But they'll always know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
They'll get their significance off telling the story of how
they got you into a problem instead of you have
significance because you are somebody doing cool things. Yeah, that's
pretty interesting. It is fascinating to think about where, you know,
in the eighties and nineties, you guys, probably I'm guessing
the NBA guys had a different lifestyle. They could live
and got away with a lot different things. Nowadays it
(06:13):
feels like, I mean, you just you got to be
able to bit more careful.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh yes, And I says all the time, I want
n in the NAIs. But any player that played in
the eighties nineties could not survive today. We couldn't survive
today the stuff we were doing. Yeah, you couldn't. There's
no way without naming names. What's the craziest thing you've
ever seen with teammates in the eighties and ninety one?
(06:37):
There's so much And Okay, I won't to explode. I'll
talk about my son.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Sure. I'm in a.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Restaurant in Beverly Hills, right, fancy restaurant, white tablecloth, everything,
white gloves, The young lady gets under the table.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It just starts different things.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was doing her thing. The power for me wasn't
that she was doing. It's the fact where we were
and the fact that it was like so accessible. So
it's stuff like that that happened all the time. That's
like one aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I always wonder like I walk into a place and
somebody goes, hey, let me buy your drink. Dude, I
can afford my own drink, but we get free stuff
all the time. And it's weird to me that dynamic.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's like, if I didn't want to spend money out,
I wouldn't spend money when I was out back then
none of us would.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So it's stuff like that. It's a weird mindset. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, nowadays, I mean, the average player, I think the
average NBA salary is like eleven million a year. It's
a crazy number. You guys didn't have that kind of
money with me. You guys kind of helped pave that
road for the players playing today.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, you know what's so funny about that? And I
used this story. People always ask me, are you upset
that these guys? I'm like, hey, I don't know. I'm
happy for them because I always got to remember when
I came in in eighty seven and my contract was
three hundred and fifty thousand for the year, what did
the guys from the fifties think? Hm, So you got
(08:12):
to remember that too, So it's all relative.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, it wasn't that many years before that the Magic
Johnson signed his crazy contract. It was only a million years.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Exactly, Come on, dude, they're making that a game.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's so true.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Literally, Shay Gilders is about to hit a million dollars
a game. Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I guess the last one was seventy three million
or something, so the next one will be.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's it's insane.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you think it's good for the game to have
so much of it be to the top, top players,
because I see how it's kind of hamstrung some of
these teams, like even the Rock you know, the Nuggets
are talking about not being able to pay you know
Joker right now because he'll probably his next contract will
be eighty you know, eighty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Facade. It's all a facade. Trust me, Joke is going
to get his money.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh I know he's getting paid.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I'll share this with you right now.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And it goes back again to our goat Michael Jordan
doing our lockout in ninety eight. Michael Jordan stood up
and said, hey, you guys need to negotiate the best
collective boggaining agreement for the rest of these guys. The
(09:22):
bottom guys make it so well, they're taken care of
more than anybody else. I'm gonna get my money, no
matter what contract you guys sign, I'm gonna get my money.
And that always stuck with me, and it made so
much sense, and he was right. The stars will always
(09:42):
get paid, but it's always the guys at the bottom
that get, you know, messed over.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, it makes a little bit trickier when's And that's
what made Jordan so popular amongst everybody. I mean, you
couldn't find anybody. I think him and Tiger Woods are
the only two athletes that everyone in their sport respected
them so much because everyone else got paid so much
more because of them. Yeah, everyone knew that. It was
like we all that, you know, we're all getting ours
because this person is elevating our sports so much.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And you know what else I loved about him. He
gave credit to the older guys that came before him.
He never looked upon it like you know, they always say,
you know, are you to go? He's like, I can't
consider myself to go because I never played against these guys.
These are legendary guys. But I became who I am
because of these guys. I learned from doctor j Bill Russell,
Oscar Robinson will I watched them so I was able
(10:33):
to pick stuff from them. So that's that's legendary stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Who did you grow up really trying to model your
game after or looking.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Up to nobody. I didn't play basketball when I was young. Really,
I didn't start playing until I was sixteen.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I was just trying to get a damn scholarship. I wanted.
I was like, how am I going to get to college?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And you just were tall and got up one summer,
by the grace of God, I shot up like eight inches.
And the next year, my sophomore year, the coach was like, Hey,
come try out for the basketball team. And I told him,
point blank, I don't play basketball. I don't know how
to play basketball. He's like, I'm going to teach you,
so long story short, he takes me under his wing
teaches me the game.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The following year, I'm an All American.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What were you doing up to that point? Did you
play other sports? You played football?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I played soccer, and I played checkers, and that was it.
That was the extent of my and I just went
to school in class.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Wow, you just wanted to get a scholarship, and I
just wanted.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I was the top student in my high school, but
I was not getting a academic scholarship. You know, that
was going to be enough to pay for school. So
that was my goal.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So being somebody that was you know intellectually, you obviously
did very well. Did you ever, you know, consider going
another route as opposed to going to the NBA or
playing basketball.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I wanted to be a lawyer. Really, that was the
life mission. I want to put bad guys in jail.
Growing up, that was that was my hopes and dreams.
I want to put bad guys in jail and so,
but then all of a sudden, the NBA came calling.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
You better be a real good lawyer to get the
Beverly Hills treatment.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, it was cool, but you know, I still think
about it even till today. Everything I watched on television
has like Law and Order, Good Wife, whatever it is.
Everything has courtroom scenes. You know, what's the best lawyer
movie ever? There's a good one that's lawyer movie. There's
so many, it's come on, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I think mine's probably a Time to Kill or a
few good men. Those are some good movies.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean, those have great scenes, you know, iconic scenes.
But as far as good lawyer movie, oh, man, I
like god, I'm going go and blame Matt Damon. Oh,
Matt Damon, Oh my god, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Mickey Rock.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Why can't I have mister Ripley?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Oh my god, why am I drawing a blank.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
On the title.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We'll edit this first. I came back Donnie Ray. They
killed Donnie Ray. They didn't give him the treatment. I
can tell you something about the movie. I come from
the title.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So what do you do? Like after you, you know,
finished playing, did you consider going to be a lawyer
at that point? You're just like, I got my money.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I can probably I didn't get my money per se,
but again it's all relative. But after basketball, I just
wanted to coach, you know. I wanted to help the
younger generation, and I found it very difficult. And it's
a funny thing. I ended up. I got a job coaching,
and after my first week of practice, I call all
(13:46):
my coaches and apologized to them.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Realize how big of a pinion he ask Hey.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Jerry, I just wanted to say, man, I'm so sorry.
I swear to God. I called everybody, and the ones
I think like six of them answered and I apologize
to every last one, all my main coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
What made you so difficult as a player.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I wasn't difficult as a player. I just didn't realize
how difficult the job was, okay, you know, and so
I had totally I mean I played for legendary coaches,
Casey Jones, one of my favorite people in the world.
You know, Don Cheney, Jerry of course, you know, Bernie
Baker's staff. It's the fact that I just didn't realize
(14:27):
how difficult the job was for them until I became
a coach. Like being a parent. You know, my kids
did it to me, like Dad, I'm sorry. I'm like, yeah,
you see how hard it is, right, being a dad parent.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It's one of the beautiful things of life is getting
older and being like I remember thinking about this with
I had some scout leaders that were these guys were
taking us out camping and whitewater rafting and doing cool stuff,
and they had real lives there. They were adults, They
had problems, they had things they were dealing with, and
once I got to be an adult, I was like,
oh my gosh, these guys poured into us so much,
(14:59):
and I was such a opin in the ass. You know,
they're literally volunteering and helping, and all of us were.
I remember telling them. I got a little emotional.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I called into my add is acting up right now
because I gotta find out. I gotta remember who the
hell that movie was, you know, Maker, rain Maker? Oh
my lord, rain Maker. I'm over here, like I can't
even listen to you talk right now.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I'm like, the name of this movement right maker? All
right now, I gotta go watch it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I don't think i've seen that one. My god, great,
it's a good one. All the junk gersher ones.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's one of my favorites. That's one of my favorites
all time.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's what's your favorite basketball movie? Who's Who's yours?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Still?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I can watch that every single day. I can watch
that every day, which I've done.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, it's been a minute since it came out, with
any good sports movies, you know, it's not like it
used to be. I feel like there hasn't been a
good basketball movie in a long time.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I don't care about none of that stuff. But all
I know is Hoosia's It's my number one, and I
don't argue with people. That's why, when when somebody, you know,
they ask who's the goat? And I tell them they're like, wow,
you asked me whom? My god, sure, it's not want
me to tell you who. That's something else. That's a
different question. So that's why I never understood that. Don't
(16:16):
ask me a question about what I like and then
you're like, oh no, no, no, no, that's not that's.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What I like.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So if you say who you like, Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that's well said. It's uh so. I mean being
in the NBA, you have such a high when you're playing.
You're playing in front of so many people. You know,
everywhere you go, you're getting special treatment. What's life like
after as an NBA basketball player once that kind of
goes away?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Oh man, great question. When the chewing stops, it's rough.
They don't prepare you for that at all.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Did they try to prepare you for that at all? No?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Okay no.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And those are some of the things that I have
issues with the NBA, Like they do a three day
little thing for the rookies, rookies symposia on whatever. That
doesn't do anything. It's just to appease whoever. It doesn't
do anything. You can't give them their future in three
days or two days, you know, one day of traveling,
one real day of doing stuff and then but no,
(17:15):
so they don't prepare you for it. When I, quote
unquote retired, I didn't have a job, you know, after
two thousand and four season with the Clippers. I literally
was getting up, getting in my car, driving to the
arena and realizing, oh, snip, I'm not under damn. I
(17:36):
got to turn around. I did that for a month,
like randomly, like I'm getting up getting dressed, go oh,
I got practice. Your mind is really warped in that moment,
and so it's tough. And then it's like everything else
that comes along with it. Now you're at home, and
(17:56):
if you guys don't like each other, some problem because
you got to remember, we're having kids, we're married, but
we're not seeing each other every day. So when we
do see each other, were making the most of it.
It's almost like vacation time.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You're basically the Disneyland down all of.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
A sudden, every morning you're still here. Did you go
through a rough patch? A rough patch? You know, just
trying to figure it out and maneuver. I ended up
getting divorced, like the same year I was done. And
so it's like stuff like that happens. You know, you
don't want it to happen, you don't even expect it
(18:34):
to happen, but it does happen.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
How'd you pull yourself out of that therapy? Really?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, you knew enough to know that you needed to
go to therapy.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Therapy. I'm big on therapy. I've been doing it since
University of Virginia days with doctor barbro Teller who said
I had the greatest sports.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Mind he's ever seen. Wow.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
And that's from somebody who's coached legendary athletes and it
was an honor here and that from him. But ever
since then in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I've always done it.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I've always done therapy, whether it's marriage counseling therapy, whether
it's individual therapy, any kind of therapy.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I'm well, I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And one of the things so I run my day
job is I run a men's coaching program where we
help men. Basically it's not therapy but very much like
healing and group and you know, all the correct and
you know, it's funny because some people are afraid to
admit that maybe they don't have everything figured out, or
that things aren't exactly okay.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And that's weakness.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Unfortunately, it's weakness because we've been programmed, you know, by whatever,
you know, parental friends, whoever, that we're not supposed to
ask for help when we need it. And I always
say this, I was a well conditioned athlete physically, I
took kill my body. Why wouldn't I have a coach
(19:55):
for this? For my mind? Why wouldn't I I have
to have somebody, because this is the most important muscle,
you know, And so I didn't mind with people, Oh man,
you going to therapy?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Man? What saw you crazy? Yeah? I'm crazy?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Did teammates try to give you a hard time about that?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Sometimes teammates are going to be hard on you no
matter what. When I did my hunger strike, they laughed
at me, Hey, hungry, You.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Did that for Haiti?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, tell me a little why they did that for everybody?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Specific it being so, I've been.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
To Haiti a few times. I volunteered at an orphanage
there a couple of years ago, and it was striking
just how little economy and commerce was. It was just
like it was very difficult to see, uh, the people
suffering at that level is what I would say. But
what was it about Haiti that drew you to doing
that and doing the hunger strike.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I'm from Haiti number one, Yeah, I was born and
Haiti came two yes, when I was eight years old,
and it was just watching other celebrities fight for my
country and I'm like, wait a minute, I gotta do something.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Here's the crazy thing about all this. I didn't map out,
I didn't plan, I didn't do anything. I watched. It
wasn't breaking news, but it was current news that they
were showing Harry Belafani, Danny Glover, Richard Dryfor's, whole bunch
of Hollywood people. I watched them protesting and earlier in
(21:23):
the day, and we had a game that night, and
I was like, wow, thank you. I appreciate what these
people are doing for me. But I still didn't think about,
you know, other than just watching them on TV. So
I get to the arena and they asked, hey, so
are you ready for tonight's game? And the words just
came out my mouth. Because the US policies against the
(21:44):
Haitian refugees, I am going on a hunger strike effective immedia.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
You just accept that you hadn't pre planned it.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Where did that? Where did that come from? How it
just came out my mouth?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Wow? How did people react to it?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
They were like, I just ask you, are you ready
for this mash up.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
To the middle of the season too?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
This is the middle of the season, So how is
you right before All Star?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
All Star weekend? We had maybe like three four games
before All Star break, and so I was like, the
reporters were stunned, and so I got dressed, played the game,
and then from that moment it had begun.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And I did ten days no.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Food at all, no food, obviously drinking water, but nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And that was the only thing I did. I did water.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And they say, if you want to do juices, you can,
you know, I mean based on because me, I was like,
I'm not going to do anything. They're like, you gotta
at least put liquids in your body. And so so
I played a game against Shaquille under hunger strike.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Who else did you feel the difference as far as
your energy level went, and you're just your strengthening to
be able.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
To hou zapped?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, who were you playing for at the time?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
How was that Detroit was apped?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Did your coach. I'd be like, this is overworld haters.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Dude, you think Kaepenick had it bad? My god, I'm trying.
I got the death threats, I got everything. I'm talking.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Were they you couldn't play as well because you weren't eating?
Were they mad?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Speak out politically? I played okay. It just wore me down,
got it, that's all. No, it's not like I played bad.
I played okay. You know the I was you know,
I didn't mind it. It's like it's just trying to
play games without any energy whatsoever, you know, from the food.
But what I hated the most was the league did
(23:39):
not have my back number one, and the players were
being so mean. Like I said earlier, they were like, hey, hungry,
want something to eat?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
They're just doing the layup line. I was like, man, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All good, damn. And so was there any outcome that
came out of that that?
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, I got people freed from Guantanamo. Wow, went before
ComRIS and had laws passed. So yeah, we made a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Well Gosha of course, so we called her head when
we played in Miami. It's called the Chrome Detentions Center.
We find out where all the Haitians were being held
illegally Guantanamo Chrome Center. They were people in Texas and Louisiana.
They just hidden families, don't know where they are and
(24:24):
all that stuff. So those are people we're trying to get.
And again, I'm a human rights activists, human rights I
don't care if you Haitian, Dominican, Argentinian, whatever, I don't care, black, white, blue, purple.
I'm gonna fight for you. So call her head to
the Chrome Detention Center. But this became big news, ABC
and all. They sent CAMA crew because they said I
(24:46):
can come and visit the Haitians that were being held.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But when I show up, the CAMA crew's there, and god,
what's his name? One of the.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Top reporters at the time, Almen, Oh my god, Army
cut I can't remember his name right now, but I
think he was with ABC. So anyway, we pull up
and they're like, you can't come in with the cameras.
I'm like, what are you talking about? So I distinctly
remember the gate was here, and I took a step
(25:19):
across the line and all I heard was the two snipers.
Then I'm like, so I put my alls out. What
you're gonna do You're gonna shoot me. You're gonna shoot
me on camera keep rolling they want to shoot me,
and then the ward know, the head person come running out,
(25:40):
mister party, we didn't know, we didn't know you were
gonna bring cameras.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I'm like, this is news. We need to let the
people know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It's like, well, if you still want to go inside,
you can, but we can't let the cameras in.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It was like, see all are hid and stuff, you know,
but I didn't get shot.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Thinkingness, well, I'm glad that you said that you're a
human rights active US. I think one of the things
that's hard for the modern NBA fan is, you know,
the NBA has kind of been really quiet on some
of these human rights issues. I mean, we see what's
going on right now in Gaza, for example, or too
much money the wakers in China, right and some of
these other things. When Darryl Maury Morley spoke out and
(26:17):
all of a sudden, you know, he's basically said delete
your tweeter else you're going to be, you know, banned
by the league. What's your take on it? Could the
NBA do a better job of like, well, the GAZA
for example, Like I feel like if nobody speaks out
in positions of power, like we have a modern degenis
going on right now.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It's a shame how we were selective in our in
our outrage and anger. And that's what I hate the most.
Don't be selective. Human rights, Like I said, human rights
is human rights? Is that a human being? Yes or no?
And that's why I tell people I don't do religion.
That's that's a waste of time, my guy.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
You gotta uh uh. I just believe and right and wrong.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Okay, I believe there's a high being, Okay, because there's
no way in hell we're the smartest in this damn universe,
so I. But at the same time, human rights is
what it is. Ninety nine percent of the people getting
killed had nothing to do with this. They made no decisions,
They have no power. They just casualties. And that's what
(27:25):
I don't like. And I don't like bullies.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Do you think it's the responsibility of these NBA players
to speak out, It's.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The responsiblity of everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Get appointed that more players aren't speaking out about GAZA
right now.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't like it when it's whomever. I don't like
it when everything is put on NBA players or athletes.
Our government officials need to step up and be men
and women and be responsible, because an athlete should not
be Why is there more emphasis on athletes doing stuff?
Is there so much expectation? And where in our government
(27:59):
offices shoes? There's none for them. We don't hold them accountable.
I don't like that, I.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Think, I mean for me, it's like, I know, the
government's not going to do their jobs. So like for example,
when you do how are you there? You and be
both man, you know, but like when you did your
hunger strike, it made a difference. And so I guess
not that it's the responsibility of you know, athletes or
stars or whatever to do that, but I think they
can make a difference. You put yourself out there if
you had to deal with some negativity that came your.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Way as an individual.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
The great line from the movie Too So it love
my favorite movie in the world with Sidney Pontier. It
is our duty to change the world, not as a mob. Individually.
If one person does his part, change happens.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It's beautiful. Well what uh so what do you do?
I guess you said you're coaching. Now, how much of
this part of you do you instill into the players
that you coach? How much do you try to teach them?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All this everything I can't use.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
It ain't nothing I can do with it, go to
ways I try to. But I will meet young people
all the time, young men and women, because I've coached
WNBA NBA players. At one point in time, I had
four hundred players I had trained, and a lot of
(29:18):
them were professionals. So, and the thing about it with
me is this, I will meet you, I will train you,
and I will do one specific thing. I will give
you my phone number, and I will say, call me
whenever you need my help, not just.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Suckers, call me.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
That's such an interesting thing, right, Well. One of the
things that you when you talked about therapy, you know,
I teach us to my men's group. It's like people
always say, if you ever need something, call me, or
if you're ever in a bad spot, call me. And
I always say, guys, when they're feeling that way, they're
not going to call you. So how can you, as
a coach, mentor therapist, leader, whatever it might be, you know,
reach those people? And unfortunately, people have to be willing
(30:02):
to ask for help. They have to be willing to
reach out. But one of the things that I do
is I always just try. I wake up with a
prayer every day and I say, God, lead me to
the people that need me, and then I feel like
I'm guided. So if somebody comes to my mind or
my thoughts, I'll reach out to.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
That person definitely. And I do that when it's from
a mental health standpoint or from I had a friend.
I look on his Twitter and I hope he doesn't
get upset. I won't say his name. Yeah, but he's
talking about this. This ain't worth being here anymore. I
could tell he's suicidal. So I reach out. Hey, man,
(30:36):
I love you so all I said, I'm here, I
love you. Anytime you need to talk, I'll stay on
the phone as long as you want. I'll talk to you.
And he's like, man, thank you, blah blah blah. But
point being in that aspect, yeah, I'm going to reach out.
But for basketball training, I'm just trying to give you
advice and.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Help you, and they don't reach out.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I've been doing just to If you have any kind
of questions about dribble drive step back.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
You don't even want that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Hell, what is that? Why do people not Why aren't
people better at you know, taking advantage of the opportunities
that are in front of them like that.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Because they all believe they're going to get better by
playing two K. I'm serious. Yeah, they think through osmosis
are playing two K, that's how their game is going
to get better and improve. It's like the dumbest thing.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Well, you must have had a hell of a high
school coach to take you at sixteen years old. I mean,
you'd never play basketball.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
No, I was a hell of a student. It didn't
matter who the coach was. I was ready, willing, and able.
That's the key, because I'm a proponent of listening. I
think that is the number one skill set to have,
and I'm one of the best listeners there is. And
so whatever he said to me, I process and I did.
Nowadays again, I will tell a kid, hey, I want
(31:58):
you Oh my god, I'll go back and tell the story.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Then you'll understand. I'm not even going to say it
that way.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I had a little kid, take two dribbles with your
right hand, cross it over, put it in your left hand.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Take two dribbles here, go one dribble, cross over, three dribbles.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Eli, take two dribbles with your right hand, cross it over,
two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
With your left hand. Five dribbles over here.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I'm like, that's how it is, and that's the problem.
They don't know how to listen. They can hear me,
but they don't know how to listen. And that frustrates people.
And it's like, if I have to tell you something
ten times, you gotta find something else to do in life. Basketball,
(32:49):
ain't it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, well, you see how many guys have the talent,
But it's those that are as committed as you're saying,
the ones that learn how to listen. It's to Kobe.
I mean, you know, anybody you study this Lebron Kobe,
these guys that truly become the greats. That's the thing
that makes them stand out. It's not that they were
always that much more talented. I mean, yeah, they had
some gifts, but it was because they just learned and
they were so teachable and they listened to the coaches.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
And that's the greatness. And that's to all the players
that played. People forget we have We've had less than
six thousand people play in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And the funny thing about it, we've had a lot
of names in that's six thousand that played one game
and they included.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So it's like we can them out.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah, you've really had So if you go to like
guys that played like more than a year, more than
three years, more than five shrinks. You know, like I
was fortunate to play all the years I played now
in over a thousand games. Jordan didn't play a thousand games,
and so and again that number grows smaller. So to me,
(33:57):
we are all and with greatness we became great. So
that's why don't get caught up in the goat conversation.
You know, who's the greatest of all times? I'm like
every last one of them. If you think about it,
Bob Coozy is a goat. Yeah, because he was doing
stuff back then and people and see that's the thing
(34:18):
we look at We look at them back then. That's
why I was upset with JJ Reddick. Don't make them
stupid comments because you're using twenty twenty eyes to judge
nineteen fifty. You can't do that because in nineteen fifty
that was current. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, it's like when people try to say, Babe Ruth
couldn't play in today's modern Major League Baseball. I like
that guy had more home runs than the entire league
combined it one year.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You couldn't go back there. Ain't playing that with that
dumb mindset. Sure, it's like no, but they made those
statements because they know we can never figure it out,
so they just throw stuff out. It's like me saying
I'm better than well Chamberlain because we can never prove
it technically, you know. But at the same time, I
have to appreciate everybody for what they did. Those men
(35:03):
were doing stuff, doing the civil rights movement, wearing canvas
converse shoes, traveling by bus, couldn't stay in the same hotel.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Even in the early eighties, they were still traveling commercially.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I sat in middle seat, my rookie year, first shoe
years man, rookie year. They you know, rookie hazing. They
did that on purpose. They put your right in the
middle seat.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
You literally had to sit in the middle seat.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And damned lady over here with a crying baby, some
fat guy over here like this at.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Seven feet and they're thinking, I just got put next
to this ginormous man.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But it was part of the deal. It's part of
the hazy.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
You know. You had to carry and we didn't have
VC all. We had the big heavy projectors. You had
to carry, but you did it. Nowadays, these guys they
have massuits, they have chiropractice, they have a chef, they
have a soioux chef, they have this guy, that guy,
they have cry out, they have they.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Have everything now, private planes.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
It's interesting though, because more players seem like they get
hurt now than when you guys are playing, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
And that's and I cannot understand how that's happening. With
more technology, you guys get hurt more. That's some insane stuff.
We played through everything.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Are you talking about the pistons? Man stop them?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Breaks his nose during the game. I can't remember who
hit him. Time out during the time, I doc resets it,
sticks cotting up his nose, goes back out on the court,
had the surgery the next day, didn't miss a game,
met us on the road, didn't miss a game. Who
(36:55):
does that in today's NBA breaks a nose and doesn't
even miss doesn't even go on the locker room.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's like back then, they were looking for reasons to play.
Now sometimes it looks like they're looking for reasons not
to play.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, and it's a shame, but they get paid more.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So if you were the commissioner, we can kind of
make this their last question here. But if you're commission
what's one or two things you do immediately to one
year deals? Always one year deal? Tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's like anything else. One year deals. You got to
earn your deal every year, every year. That's going to
make the game so much better because now I'm not
resting on my laws and the fact that I have
a five year, four year guaranteed one hundred and fifty
million dollars. I got to earn my job every year, okay,
and so I didn't have my stats dropped, my pay drops,
(37:42):
my stats go up. It's got arbitration in baseball, you know,
similar with that you put up numbers because you haven't
noticed most NBA players have their best season right before
the new contract. Here, Well, make it one year deals.
You guys will play hard every damn year. I promise
you nobody's gonna be sitting out.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Well, as a fan, you notice the players aren't playing
as hard for me. The game's not nearly as enjoyable
to watch today as it was. And I'm not just
the old guy or whatever. I'm a young guy still
like me and my friends had season tickets for five
years on the front row, Like I love the NBA
I used to, and it's harder to watch now. It's
like you can tell the efforts not the same. When
you guys were playing, it was like every night you
got your money.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well it's not so much. And they're trying to say
they're motality. I'm like, you lost your damn mind. First
of well, you're not motalic, because I always asked this question,
how come nobody can do what Doctor Jay used to
do today? How come no one can do what George
Gervin did back in the days. They can't replicate none
of that. Sure, that's true, and so to me, you're
not getting better. The technology is different, that's all. You
(38:44):
just have more access to stuff, and you have access
to the main thing, the videos of these fools that
were doing it before you, that you.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Can take from.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Sure, you learn from them, you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Learn We all learn from somebody. There's no Kyrie without Hardaway,
there's no Tim Hardaway, without Isaiah Thomas. There's no Isaiah
Thomas without Bob Coosey and I can go down the
line in anybody.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, so one of your contracts, get him to play
a little bit hard one year deal, so across the board,
I like that period. Do you think the game will
get back to where it's as fun to watch as
it used to be. I mean, it's just tough as
a fan. I just don't enjoy it as much anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
We're not evolving anymore. With devolving, and I think Lebron
was the catalyst of everything, and so, in my personal opinion,
so we went from the beginning of basketball, to the
merger of the ABA, to Magic and Bird saving the NBA,
to Jordan taking us global, to Shaq and Kobe to
(39:45):
all these guys now, and then to Lebron, and I
think that's the pinnacle. If you notice he's he's writing
this thing out. I was on a podcast weacently and
they asked me, how long do you think he's gonna play.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
I say he's gonna play five more years, and people
are like years.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I'm like, man, the dude ain't even started his stealing
years yet.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Like the you dinastasms of the world and all that.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
You know, we get about three, four or five years
of those he hasn't even done that. You know, he's
still right now one of the best conditioned athletes in sports.
Right now, he's got twenty two years in. That's some
insane stuff. So to me, with devolving, you know, Lebron
(40:29):
is the top. So we went like this, we went here,
we had Lebron. So once Lebron leaves, everything drops.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah, it feels like the league is having a hard
time finding that next guy.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
It's gonna drop.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I guarantee it, because they're not as good anymore and
they don't have any mentors. Yeah, your vet's now twenty one.
You ain't, no damn Vett. At twenty one, my vet
was thirty eight with a wife and kids in a
mortgage life lessons.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Well, well then I sure appreciate it, Matt. This has
been a really fun interview. Just a blast to talk
with you. And yeah, best of luck on everything. Thank
you so much. I appreciate all right, my friend, all right,
thank you again for listening to The Jimmy Rex Show.
If you liked this episode, please do me a quick favor.
Just go online, leave us a review. Subscribe to our
show both on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. And
(41:22):
if you would share this with somebody else. Also, if
you're looking to make a real change in your life,
or if you have a man in your life that
you know, could you know just use a brotherhood or
some men around him to help him level up in
every area of life. I encourage you to look at
we are the day. This is my men's coaching program
I started several years ago and we have been able
to help close to one thousand men now that have
(41:44):
joined this program and had a life changing, transformational experience.
Several of these episodes we talked to members of this group.
We talk about this group and if you are interested
in learning more, go to join what That's joined watt
dot com.
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