November 6, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of The Jimmy Rex Show, Jimmy sits down with one of basketball’s all-time greats — Ralph Sampson, four-time NBA All-Star, No. 1 overall pick, and one of only two players in history to win three consecutive National College Player of the Year awards. From his dominant years at Virginia to forming the iconic “Twin Towers” duo with Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston, Ralph opens up about the discipline, focus, and love for the game that defined his remarkable journey.
Ralph reflects on what it took to maintain motivation at the top, the evolution of the NBA, and how today’s game has shifted from the fundamentals that built its foundation. He also shares stories about playing through adversity, the legendary 1982 Chaminade upset, and his thoughts on the new era of NIL deals and college basketball’s changing landscape.
This is a powerful conversation about legacy, hard work, and perspective — from a man whose career helped shape modern basketball.
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Ralph Sampson joins the show
01:48 Winning three consecutive College Player of the Year awards
03:05 Motivation, discipline, and legacy in basketball
04:55 Traveling in the NBA and building the league’s foundation
06:20 The Houston years and forming the Twin Towers with Hakeem Olajuwon
09:00 The evolution of the NBA and positionless basketball
12:40 How analytics and the three-pointer changed the game
15:00 The history and impact of earlier generations on today’s players
16:40 The legendary Chaminade upset and the birth of the Maui Invitational
18:50 Thoughts on NIL, the transfer portal, and the future of college basketball
23:00 Legacy, lessons from Virginia, and final reflections
27:03 Outro
Ralph reflects on what it took to maintain motivation at the top, the evolution of the NBA, and how today’s game has shifted from the fundamentals that built its foundation. He also shares stories about playing through adversity, the legendary 1982 Chaminade upset, and his thoughts on the new era of NIL deals and college basketball’s changing landscape.
This is a powerful conversation about legacy, hard work, and perspective — from a man whose career helped shape modern basketball.
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Ralph Sampson joins the show
01:48 Winning three consecutive College Player of the Year awards
03:05 Motivation, discipline, and legacy in basketball
04:55 Traveling in the NBA and building the league’s foundation
06:20 The Houston years and forming the Twin Towers with Hakeem Olajuwon
09:00 The evolution of the NBA and positionless basketball
12:40 How analytics and the three-pointer changed the game
15:00 The history and impact of earlier generations on today’s players
16:40 The legendary Chaminade upset and the birth of the Maui Invitational
18:50 Thoughts on NIL, the transfer portal, and the future of college basketball
23:00 Legacy, lessons from Virginia, and final reflections
27:03 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 have one of the all
time great NBA players, four time All Star, mister Ralph Samson.
And the craziest thing about Ralph SAMs you guys, is
he was the three time National Collegiate Player the Year
fromnineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty three. Obviously All American
and everything else, but probably one of the top two
(00:24):
or three players that ever play college basketball. Only one
other person, Bill Walton, ever won College Player of the
Year three times, So give you a little bit of
an idea. It was a different game back then. They
stayed in college and did their thing. But also again,
four time NBA All Star and just an amazing human being,
and so somebody that I am so excited that I
was able to get this podcast and sit down with
the one and only mister Ralph Samson. Today's podcast is
(00:46):
brought to you by Bucked Up Supplements. You guys, doing
these athlete podcasts, it can 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
(01:07):
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 remember that it is sponsored
by Bucked Up Protein Anywhere Bucked Up Products for sold.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Ralph thanks to having you on the podcast, my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, boy, it's I think you're the tallest guest I've
had in a long time, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Maybe one of the tallest. Some tall so you may
get some more. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I mean, you've played in so many you know, you
had so many iconic moments in your life. You know,
I think you were the first ever three time national
Player of the Year in basketball, in collegiate basketball.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Take us back to.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
What was you know, in that kind of an environment
where you know you're the best, you're dominating everybody around you.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
What is it like to just be that much, just
be that good at the art that you're doing as
a human being.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, there's two three times Bill Walton with the first
that's right he was, and so Bill love Bill Walton
love that I love you or death. He's a great,
great man passed away obviously. But you know you can
get awards and accolades, you know, across the boy they
mean a lot in the scheme of things for a
legacy play in the end. But you don't play for awards.
(02:28):
You play to win. You play the win championships, and
you play to be the best you can. So my
everyday life, even today, is trying to be the best
I can and what I do. And you know the
fruit will rise up and grow and you pick it
from the tree and you eat it and you leave
that legacy. So three time College Play the Year, it's special.
You know. I could have came out of school in
(02:49):
high school and college and after the years yah stayed
and it wouldn't have been a three time College Player
the Year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
How difficult is it when you're already you know that
good at what you're doing. How difficult is it to
keep your motivation to push that much harder just because
you already have so much natural talent. I think a
lot of peoples when they have that much talent, you know,
they give half of their effort and it looks like
they're giving a full effort because they already have so
much talent.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So somebody like yourself, how do you stay so motivated
when you well, I.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Mean, you know, the cream rises to the top. You
you motivate every day. You can't just turn it on
and turn it off. You know it will come today
and don't put work in. So I worked hard and
wait room every day, eating every day, discipline and what
I do and wake up and go to sleep, and
on the road, whatever it was, I just try to
be the best I could without any distructions, which you know,
(03:40):
as part of the lifestyle of the professional athlete, you'll
get destruction. You got to figure out what to do
with them, right, and you've got to figure out to
focus on what you're doing and why you're really plan
and you're playing for the love of the game. You're
not playing because of the money, although the money is great,
and it's even more great now obviously, but that just
comes along with the territory. But you can play and
(04:00):
you can establish, you know, a certain acumen and a
certain lifestyle. And that's why you got different guys that
are Magic's Lebrons and Creams and whatever it be, Kobe
s and Michael. You got those that can withstand the pressure,
with stand the pain, put the work in. And a
(04:20):
lot of us did that no matter who you were,
especially when our days we played. You had no choice
because you get your ass beat if you didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, was it difficult back then? You guys traveled commercially
a lot. It's not like it was today. I mean,
being seven and four, how difficult was that to just
get around?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
We didn't know any different, you know, So yeah, I
mean we you know, they go back to back. We
played three games and three nights sometimes and that was tough.
But we didn't know any better. And you had to
be on the plane and the first thing smoking to
the next city, and you had to either have your
jersey with you and your shoes. If your bags got left,
you still could play. So there was certain moves we
(04:55):
have to follow. And that's just the nature of the
beach back in the day. I mean now it's you know, luxury, right,
and you play, you have chefs, you have private planes,
you have you have all these other things. But the
foundation of the NBA was built back in the day,
and you got to really look back at how it
was made and what was done, and the evolutionary game
(05:15):
is on good footing because they had the great foundation.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Well when you came out, you could have come out
as a junior and it was going to be between
one of the either the Clippers or the Lakers were
gonna draft you, I believe, and you ended up waiting
a year and come out and obviously the Rockets select
you with.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The number one pick. Did you want to go to Houston?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Is that a place that you were excited to play
at or do you wish that maybe you came out
the year before.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Well, I could have came out and the freshman, Okay,
and we went a n I T against Minnesota and
in Minnesota and kept McHale. So when I came out
of the freshman, he might not have gone to the
Boston Celtics. Yeah. And then the next year when I
came out there in Detroit, I want to Detroit. I
want to didn't want to play there, and then so
he goes Detroit and then I came out the other
(05:59):
year where they when it came to the Lakers. So
in hindsight, you know, it was always a corn flip.
Do I want to end up in Antiana or LA. Well,
if I know what I know today, I probably would
have come out, because the league is what it is
right right, and the league the chess game. They got
to put the right players on the right teams in
the right city to to make the league competitive, which
(06:21):
we understand. But I can't complain of what I did.
Houston was a great city. We ended up getting Chemo
large on the next year as well on playing Get
the twenty two Hours, So it was fun to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Were you excited to have another center? I mean, obviously
you knew you were going to be playing. It wasn't
like you were worried if you know it's going to
take playing time. But was that weird to have two
of the top centers in the entire leagues playing together
like that? Or was that made it that much more
interesting and fun?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Well, at that point, tell me, you know, you climbed
a lot of you were in the top certain league.
Kareem and the boys were doing their things, so you
know you had a chance to compete with that level,
and we knew we were good. We just need a
couple more pieces of guard here, a guard there, keep
the team together, which we did not do, and you
know it took a while then they won championships later,
but we knew we had a shot. And you know,
(07:08):
we had some adversity in that year, and I just
we had some interviews and some things where we said,
let us just let us play. You know, Bill fitzh
just let us go, and he would try to put
the range on us and do that. Nobody like, Okay,
we got to play, and you got to coach, sit
your butt down and let us do our thing. And
that's really what happens sometimes.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Was that the eighty five year when you guys made
it to the championship.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
No, that was a five six, But eighty four we
could have gone as well, but we lost some players
do to some other stuff. And you know, we've acted
on the verge if we didn't we a verge of
getting Norm Nixon at one point in time from the
Clippers and Debbie Allen know knowing me well because Debby
came to my house in Houston with Norm and my
(07:51):
mother was there and she took some fried chicken for
her and every time I come and play against the Clippers,
she on the silent saying fried chicken. I want some
of that fried Chicken. So it was fun. We'd got norm,
we'd have been I mean, we'd have been off the chart.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it's so interesting how things happen, and it forever
changes the way that your entire career plays out, like
whether you guys get that guy or not. Like you
talked about how the league kind of places players in
certain places. We saw that this last year, you know,
with Luca going to the Lakers. Are the players you
said that, We kind of just know that's part of
how it is. Are the players do? Is that how
the players feel? They're like, we know the NBA has
(08:24):
got to do certain things to keep certain markets valot viable.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, it's a business, and
you know when you start to get into it, as
you can get a little older in the league, the
younger generation, they just happy to be there, you know,
happy to be on a team, you know, happy to
make money, and they just riding away right right after
two or three years, then becomes real and when they
finally get that second contract, they got to make sure
they put the work in. It's a whole different ballgame
(08:48):
at that point, especially w eighteen nineteen year old kid
is coming into the league right now. But for us,
you know, we we knew it, and the league is
the league. I mean, pat to you and go to
your knicks. Perfect fit. Right from that standpoint, Magic goes
to l a Bird goes to Duncan goes Done, goes
to the Spurs. So you have to have parody in
the league and you can't just have one or two down,
(09:10):
although the Lakers and Boston did it, but that's the
way the league started. But I look at, you know,
a Jurwius Irving, which you know, I think it's the
most under respective player in the league from from the goat,
from the brand, because everybody, I don't care who you were,
wanted to be Julius serving and that transition from watching
(09:30):
him play myself, like everybody watched Juius. And I tell
people all the time, when you start to see somebody
like a Julia's dunking on somebody really hard and doing
this thing and dunking on people, not just letting the
lane be free, you nobody was doing that before Duncan.
Duncan only making it happen and it became good.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
What did it?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
How helpful was it for you in your career to
be playing with hikim Olajuan every day in practice and
pushing each other. Did that help elevate both of your
guys' games?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I mean I think, I mean, we very seldom played
against each other because we had to bond together very
quickly and so, but you know, we had two guys
that could play, and then we were able to build
a camaradery, especially like playing against Kareem, like you hold
him up, I'll go black to hook shots. So we
build that. He knew I was behind him, I knew
(10:22):
he was behind me. So we had to double dual
trying to figure that part out, which was special, and
there was probably never a team with two type of
players of that caliber in the NBA history. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Well, I mean the games, you know, it started changing
quite a bit. The centers quit being maybe quite as
important they thought, or so they thought, right, And now
I think that's coming back a little bit. What's your opinion,
how does the game evolved for the center position versus
maybe when you played.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, I mean there's no positions anymore. I mean you
can say here's starting at guard whatever, but the only
thing they've announced that anymore. Right, So there's the league's
position least point and you just got to know how
to play the game at a high level no matter
where you're on the court. You know, everybody shoots three,
they run to the corner, they draw and kick, and
(11:10):
you know, you got to know who your talented players
are to handle the ball. But it's no positions anymore.
And it's sad to see the game being played that
way sometimes because we like the art of the game,
and I don't think there's a lot of art in
a game anymore, just coming down shooting three and jack
up shots.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, yeah, as a fan, it's a little bit tricky
because I used to love watching.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
When you guys were playing. It was just much more aesthetically.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Pleasing on the eye to watch, you know, that form
of basketball.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And so I think a lot of fans.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I know, the ratings have been down a little bit recently.
Do you think that the NBA needs to try to
make that shift back and try to shoot less three pointers?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean they don't. That's the analytics of the game, right,
So everybody's thinking you can do that, and you have
these great analytic guys that really don't know basketball or
never played basketball, but they can say if you shoot here.
You make more here than you make over here, and
say Lebron James or Chemo Lodrono. Crime is playing against
(12:03):
you and you've got your block shots, which I've seen
a little bit of it. So it's going to have
to change a little bit. That's the nature of the beats.
In any sport, you got to add to it. Take away.
Baseball created the pitch clock, you know, just speed up
a game a little bit. So you're gonna have to
change it because the fans are the one to watch.
We also saw in the pandemic when there was no fans,
(12:25):
but you still have to play because there's a lot
of money. I'll stick at that point. But you got
to plead the fans, and they buy the merchandise, they
come to the games, they pay the tickets, and you
want the fans to be an arena. You can't have
the gyms empty. So you have to get it to please.
You know, everybody say old school fans, but also new
school fans, but they are the game because shooting three
is not going to keep keep flaying. Agree.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So if you were commissioner, what would you do differently?
How would you fix it?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I mean, you can't really fix the team to say,
don't shoot as many threes. You got to change some
of the rules a little bit. You got to try
to add some new stuff to it, maybe in the
G League and see if it works there and bring
it up to the NBA.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Does the league ever reach out to players like you
and ask for advice or opinions or just kind of
any any kind?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean, not me, but they may too, you know,
a magic or something like that, but or bird whatever.
But I think the league is the league, and they're
so powerful that they need our opinion. They got the
day's players and they really got to focus on that,
and I think, you know, like, okay, see this year
it's a set of stage for what needs to happen.
(13:28):
And the finals were really good to watch and re
call out a good friend of mine player when they'm
at UVA and we talk all the time about the strategy.
But play hard, you know, if you just play hard
like that did. But you can't play the hard eighty
two games. Yeah, it's true, and play all but if
you have some more structure you could, because the game
is much more less movement than that. But otherwise you
(13:49):
know the game is going to evolve and I think
every team now is going to try to use the
Indiana Pacers Oklahoma City model. Get some younger players, stry
to develop them more, keeps your key players boom, you get,
you get lucky. But I mean, okay, see it took
a long time to do that. Yeah, I mean they
had to harden than the ranch and you know before
and the Westbrooks, and they they couldn't do it then
(14:11):
right right now, they found their way to get it
done and they got to pay those ways which they
had done, and you got to keep them together. But
you still got developed coats now and you can be
to hunt it. Yeah, that you got the crown that
you had, you got to see what you can do
next year.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, you were part of the group of players that
really elevated the game and set it up for the
players that get to play today. It's got to give
you a sense of satisfaction knowing that because of what
you guys did, you've allowed I mean, the average player
now makes you know, eleven million dollars a year and
some of the salaries over seventy eighty million dollars a year. Now,
I'm guessing as a player that helped set that up.
That's pretty satisfying, you know, knowing that you took a
(14:45):
sport and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
At a time when it was fragile.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
You know, you had the Lakers Boston, but really the Rockets,
you guys were that third team. You beat the Lakers
in eighty five. You were right there and pushing those teams.
But I'm you know, how how do you feel just
overall when you look back as far as how your impact.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
On the game was or your legacy towards basketball?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, you know so, I mean not just when I play,
but you look at the game itself from you know,
the El Jabella's early on the Wild Chamblains and understand again,
think the young guy today, understand the history of the
game and look back at how it's built and and
what the giants and the pillars that they stand on. Right,
if you did that a little bit more, you would
(15:25):
understand that this guy here was really good, Honey Hawkins,
and I mean it was just great players, right, And
if you understand that, then it should be some way.
I think that some of these players spend the young
players have the league, tell them about the history and
understand what you're standing on, and maybe that'll help some
a little bit. I think the really students of the
game do that. Some of the young kids, especially the
(15:47):
foreign players, they have no clue that's going to ask,
how is it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Do you think it's difficult to have that legacy where
you have so many foreign players that don't know, you know,
the history of kind of what came before them alone.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Well, I mean, I'm sure some of them are looking
at video of them, but they don't know who.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, I mean the real Magic or Michael Well.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But I'm sure they've gone back and look at some
after you get a little bit longer in the league,
but you know Connie Hawkins or elgend Baal or you know,
you can see it, but you really don't know them
because you're so far away from the league and the
foundation of the league, right And even the kids in
the States are doing the same thing. So I think
that'd be more of that Hall of Fame. I think
(16:25):
it's doing some things of that nature as well. But
those young kids don't come there. But if they do that,
they'll understand the history and they'll be I think more
pride and what the game is about. In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, well, you've been part of some iconic games and
different things. One when you were at Virginia, you guys
actually suffered a huge upset to promenade it's a very
famous game. What's it like being on the other because
you hear, you know, the underdog, and everybody wants to
use that example, is like when the underdog can always win.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
But what's it like to be on the other side
of a game like that?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Well, I mean, you know, you can look at that
game as something special, and I'll take you to kind
of the evolution of that. We you know, we had
played we never went in the country and both poles,
we had played Michael and a CC guy. We had
played all the best schools leading up to the Georgetown game,
and we did that I kind of game and I
(17:17):
got at Brews and my left knee and it had
fluid in it, so we drained it, so you know,
I we're not going to play. And then we won
win that game. And then we go to Japan and
we beat I came a large one and then without
me playing in Houston and Houston and Louisville and Japan.
(17:37):
So we did that and so now we own a
really serious high and we circled back from Japan to
Hawaii and that's where we played shamanat so everybody's you know,
land on the beach, snorkeling, sunbathing. You know, we we
we got this game as easy, and you know, we
slipped and we got beat. And I tell people the
(17:59):
greatest thing that the game was like at nine o'clock
a night, so on these coaches, it was in the morning,
so nobody really knew until they woke up. Now, this
is not real. So anyway, but then we had to recover,
you know, and play the next game. So we were like,
let's just get home and relax and go the next game.
But we feel sorry for the next team we got
to play cause we're gonna be there, like you know,
(18:20):
like it's running water. So we had no choice, but
you know, yeah, and the other thing about that it
created the Mali Classic.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Thought it was crazy how it created the probably the
best preseason tournament you know out there that it's amazing.
It's kind of funny because you know, I had the
chance to interview Buster Douglas on my podcast, and you know,
Mike Tyson, obviously that's another giant upset you hear about
same thing. He kind of was just kind of ex
over in Japan actually ironically, and he was just having
a good time and yeah, yeah, next thing, you know,
(18:49):
there's there's.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Some good lessons in there.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
One thing that you know, I think a lot of
fans are disappointed about, I would say, is there's not
this college game like there used to be. Like when
you played, it is such iconic basketball. It was this
fun to watch NCUBA as it was you know, the NBA.
Now the tournament's still the tournament. But during the season.
I don't think many people I don't watch any NCAA basket.
I don't think many people do. It's just not like
it was because you don't get to know the players.
(19:12):
I mean, you knew you were, you know, by the
time your freshman year was done, and so you got
three years to follow you and really get into it.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And that's what's going to happen now with NIO and
the portal. You know, Virginia would get all new players.
If some stays, some go, you'll never know who they are.
You'll never have that bond with the player. And I
think it's going to hurt college basketball, but also could
hurt the NBA basketball. Of course, if you go and
(19:42):
you play and you decent instead of eighteen ninetye old
kid coming in from wherever they're come in from. You
always have you have a following, and social media can
help them do that as well. But you have a following,
you have a fan base. And so I come to
UVO any USI versity and then I don't like it
going to Portal. If I have a chance and get
(20:02):
to the league, we'll see if I go to another
school because I make money and I don't mind making money.
I think this should have been down a long time ago.
But to get to the next level it could be
very hard. I think a player don't have to stay
at the school and develop their game at the institution.
That could be high. They acclaimed, but you know they
you I mean, it's it's it's it's it's it's just crazy.
(20:26):
It's just a point.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, it feels like they almost like need contracts in
the NCAA so that the players. You know, I don't
know if you ever had one of these moments when
you were a freshman, maybe where you're like, oh, if
you could have transferred, maybe you would have. It gets
tough and nowadays, you know, if the coaches can't even
coach them the way they want to, because if they're
too tough, the.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Kid can just bounce to the next school or whatever
he's going to do.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
You don't want that kid anyway, you know. I mean,
you can't take the tell a coach coaching and you
get out. And then the secondly is about the money.
You know, and somebody offers you more money, right, you
go take it. Yeah, but that guarantee that you're in
an NBA probably not because you'll you'll, you'll, you'll kind
of fade away once you get to the big boys.
And then you can't go to the team and say
(21:06):
I want to be traded because I'm not playing, you know,
the contract, you might be timp man on the bench.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, and what are you gonna do overall? Do you
think nil is good for the college game?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It will be. I don't think it is quite there yet, yeah,
but I think it will be. They gonna put some
guardrails on it and try to understand what real they
need to be done. I mean, kids are making a
lot of money. Yeah, I'm at b y U fan.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
We got a kid, you know, a JA bound, so
he's going to make and I think six million this year.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, we always want to go back and play No
again as well, get to little George up something. I
go back. What could I have made when I've played
a Virginia college experience might have been little different. I
might be a little bit different, But then that gonna
be educated. They jumped from school to school, you know,
by there at Virginia and the school for two years,
(21:53):
and that goes so often. How many credits come over
and then you know, do I get my degree or not.
It's just it's a nightmare. It's gonna be. It's a
true nightmare. So I'm fearful of the kids coming out
of school that don't make it to the league and
don't have ANIO. They might stay and get their degree,
but they're wanted to bounce them around whatever. They'll never
get their degree. And they only get any degrees right
now anyway in basketball even and some you know, little
(22:16):
stuff that keep them eligible, right and that's been historical,
and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I'm guessing you have a lot of gratitude for your
college experience when you got to do the full experience.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So would you trade that for any amount of money
that you could have made? Leave into the NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Sooner probably probably, uh, you know, I mean you look
back and you know. So I stayed just because I
was on track to graduate too, and I was having
fun and I needed to develop my body for the
game that should it came out maybe my second year,
because I was ready. We went to the Final four,
and then my body was ready, my mom was ready.
(22:48):
But I was having fun, I was on track, and
then I didn't know what team I was gonna play
if I didn't want to play in an I a different
teams I didn't want to be at.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So I couldn't just played with a coin flip. For you,
it's more about just making sure you're landed in the right.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Space, great spot and a coin flip with me like
that's iffy.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And you had to decide before they flipped the coin
to decide which team was going to be there.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, I wish they flipped it out there. Who got
the first face?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You'd have been at the Lakers. That's a whole different career,
different program.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, I sure appreciate the time that you gave me
to do this interview. It's it's you know, to sit
down with the ledgend of the game and yeah, it's
fun for me. I'm a student obviously a basketball You
can tell most of these things we're talking about happened
before I was old enough to watch it live. But
I I just always have appreciated greatness. And that's why
I started with that question, is like, you know somebody
that's that good at their art, that's truly the best
(23:37):
in the world at that moment. I just am fascinated
with that mindset and how that person, you know, evolves
and keeps working to become even a better version of themselves.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
And for me, it started early in life, so with
parents and good parents and working hard farm work to
going to school and building a fundamental base around you.
And you know, mother always would say, make your eighty
percent better than somebody one hundred percent, And so that
sticks with me today. And so that's the way we
kind of was raised. My mother played basketball and high
(24:10):
school in college a little bit of Virginia State, and
they played three on three, you know, they needed the
offense or defense. Then she was on offense all the time.
So we saw it and my parents we also saw it.
In my high school coach was great and saw my
college coach as well, and they just let me be me,
but also guided me a direction where I could be
(24:33):
successful but also be smart enough to have the people
around me that I needed at that point in time
in high school, in college and then mowed me because
that wouldn't wait rooms in high school. We had to
create our own. We had a weight room in college
and it was not big like they have today, and
all the technology were there, so we had to create
some stuff and we had great people around there that
(24:54):
did that. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you stay tight with the Virginia basketball program? They
had a couple of crazy years there.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
They lose to this sixteen seed and then they win
the national championship the year later. It's probably fun, isn't
alarm to be able to experience the highs and lows
of that.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Things happened for a reason, you know, you lose that
sixteen seed, which was Ryan Oldham coach Odam's son, that
was my coach. Oh really yeah? And now right over
the head coach at UVA. Oh wow, okay, and so
so I appreciate the evolution that if they'd hire somebody
else that probably would have been not pleased, but also
(25:27):
a little bit further removed from the school because they
should have done the right thing. Yeah they did, you
know what all the other Senegans anyone talk about. But
they have to do the right thing at those universities
and respect not only the students, the student athletes and
the school because there's history in these schools and if
you don't respect that in the day's market, you're going
(25:48):
to destroy our schools in this country. And so at
Virginia we got Ryan Oldham that he's going to bring
the basketball program to a different level. Tony Bennett, don't
get me wrong, it was great. I love him. My
death title. He loses sixteen, but he loses. He comes
back pre season, puts a note in the middle of
(26:08):
the floor in the arena, dig it up and say
we're going to do this. We're gonna win a national title,
puts it in the floor, seals it up, and they
pulled out at the end of season after they won
a national title. So it had evolved and it's been
fun and the crazy part about it. And we had
a picture hanging on myself at the school and the
(26:30):
national title game, uh, and the parade and the announcement
that became the UVA was all put together and the
other was on my official visit announcement all off account
of was DJV my mother's birthday as well. So it
kind of all works in some way, shape or form.
(26:52):
Just got to understand it and you gotta appreciate it
because when the national title was hard, oh.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, Well, thank you so much for your time, so
a pleasure, and thank you again.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Back due, all right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Glad, 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
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(27:25):
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(27:46):
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Watt dot com
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Jimmy Rex Show.
Today on the podcast, we have one of the all
time great NBA players, four time All Star, mister Ralph Samson.
And the craziest thing about Ralph SAMs you guys, is
he was the three time National Collegiate Player the Year
fromnineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty three. Obviously All American
and everything else, but probably one of the top two
(00:24):
or three players that ever play college basketball. Only one
other person, Bill Walton, ever won College Player of the
Year three times, So give you a little bit of
an idea. It was a different game back then. They
stayed in college and did their thing. But also again,
four time NBA All Star and just an amazing human being,
and so somebody that I am so excited that I
was able to get this podcast and sit down with
the one and only mister Ralph Samson. Today's podcast is
(00:46):
brought to you by Bucked Up Supplements. You guys, doing
these athlete podcasts, it can 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
(01:07):
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 remember that it is sponsored
by Bucked Up Protein Anywhere Bucked Up Products for sold.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Ralph thanks to having you on the podcast, my friend.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, boy, it's I think you're the tallest guest I've
had in a long time, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Maybe one of the tallest. Some tall so you may
get some more. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I mean, you've played in so many you know, you
had so many iconic moments in your life. You know,
I think you were the first ever three time national
Player of the Year in basketball, in collegiate basketball.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Take us back to.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
What was you know, in that kind of an environment
where you know you're the best, you're dominating everybody around you.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
What is it like to just be that much, just
be that good at the art that you're doing as
a human being.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, there's two three times Bill Walton with the first
that's right he was, and so Bill love Bill Walton
love that I love you or death. He's a great,
great man passed away obviously. But you know you can
get awards and accolades, you know, across the boy they
mean a lot in the scheme of things for a
legacy play in the end. But you don't play for awards.
(02:28):
You play to win. You play the win championships, and
you play to be the best you can. So my
everyday life, even today, is trying to be the best
I can and what I do. And you know the
fruit will rise up and grow and you pick it
from the tree and you eat it and you leave
that legacy. So three time College Play the Year, it's special.
You know. I could have came out of school in
(02:49):
high school and college and after the years yah stayed
and it wouldn't have been a three time College Player
the Year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
How difficult is it when you're already you know that
good at what you're doing. How difficult is it to
keep your motivation to push that much harder just because
you already have so much natural talent. I think a
lot of peoples when they have that much talent, you know,
they give half of their effort and it looks like
they're giving a full effort because they already have so
much talent.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So somebody like yourself, how do you stay so motivated
when you well, I.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Mean, you know, the cream rises to the top. You
you motivate every day. You can't just turn it on
and turn it off. You know it will come today
and don't put work in. So I worked hard and
wait room every day, eating every day, discipline and what
I do and wake up and go to sleep, and
on the road, whatever it was, I just try to
be the best I could without any distructions, which you know,
(03:40):
as part of the lifestyle of the professional athlete, you'll
get destruction. You got to figure out what to do
with them, right, and you've got to figure out to
focus on what you're doing and why you're really plan
and you're playing for the love of the game. You're
not playing because of the money, although the money is great,
and it's even more great now obviously, but that just
comes along with the territory. But you can play and
(04:00):
you can establish, you know, a certain acumen and a
certain lifestyle. And that's why you got different guys that
are Magic's Lebrons and Creams and whatever it be, Kobe
s and Michael. You got those that can withstand the pressure,
with stand the pain, put the work in. And a
(04:20):
lot of us did that no matter who you were,
especially when our days we played. You had no choice
because you get your ass beat if you didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, was it difficult back then? You guys traveled commercially
a lot. It's not like it was today. I mean,
being seven and four, how difficult was that to just
get around?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
We didn't know any different, you know, So yeah, I
mean we you know, they go back to back. We
played three games and three nights sometimes and that was tough.
But we didn't know any better. And you had to
be on the plane and the first thing smoking to
the next city, and you had to either have your
jersey with you and your shoes. If your bags got left,
you still could play. So there was certain moves we
(04:55):
have to follow. And that's just the nature of the
beach back in the day. I mean now it's you know, luxury, right,
and you play, you have chefs, you have private planes,
you have you have all these other things. But the
foundation of the NBA was built back in the day,
and you got to really look back at how it
was made and what was done, and the evolutionary game
(05:15):
is on good footing because they had the great foundation.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Well when you came out, you could have come out
as a junior and it was going to be between
one of the either the Clippers or the Lakers were
gonna draft you, I believe, and you ended up waiting
a year and come out and obviously the Rockets select
you with.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The number one pick. Did you want to go to Houston?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Is that a place that you were excited to play
at or do you wish that maybe you came out
the year before.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Well, I could have came out and the freshman, Okay,
and we went a n I T against Minnesota and
in Minnesota and kept McHale. So when I came out
of the freshman, he might not have gone to the
Boston Celtics. Yeah. And then the next year when I
came out there in Detroit, I want to Detroit. I
want to didn't want to play there, and then so
he goes Detroit and then I came out the other
(05:59):
year where they when it came to the Lakers. So
in hindsight, you know, it was always a corn flip.
Do I want to end up in Antiana or LA. Well,
if I know what I know today, I probably would
have come out, because the league is what it is
right right, and the league the chess game. They got
to put the right players on the right teams in
the right city to to make the league competitive, which
(06:21):
we understand. But I can't complain of what I did.
Houston was a great city. We ended up getting Chemo
large on the next year as well on playing Get
the twenty two Hours, So it was fun to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Were you excited to have another center? I mean, obviously
you knew you were going to be playing. It wasn't
like you were worried if you know it's going to
take playing time. But was that weird to have two
of the top centers in the entire leagues playing together
like that? Or was that made it that much more
interesting and fun?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Well, at that point, tell me, you know, you climbed
a lot of you were in the top certain league.
Kareem and the boys were doing their things, so you
know you had a chance to compete with that level,
and we knew we were good. We just need a
couple more pieces of guard here, a guard there, keep
the team together, which we did not do, and you
know it took a while then they won championships later,
but we knew we had a shot. And you know,
(07:08):
we had some adversity in that year, and I just
we had some interviews and some things where we said,
let us just let us play. You know, Bill fitzh
just let us go, and he would try to put
the range on us and do that. Nobody like, Okay,
we got to play, and you got to coach, sit
your butt down and let us do our thing. And
that's really what happens sometimes.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Was that the eighty five year when you guys made
it to the championship.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
No, that was a five six, But eighty four we
could have gone as well, but we lost some players
do to some other stuff. And you know, we've acted
on the verge if we didn't we a verge of
getting Norm Nixon at one point in time from the
Clippers and Debbie Allen know knowing me well because Debby
came to my house in Houston with Norm and my
(07:51):
mother was there and she took some fried chicken for
her and every time I come and play against the Clippers,
she on the silent saying fried chicken. I want some
of that fried Chicken. So it was fun. We'd got norm,
we'd have been I mean, we'd have been off the chart.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it's so interesting how things happen, and it forever
changes the way that your entire career plays out, like
whether you guys get that guy or not. Like you
talked about how the league kind of places players in
certain places. We saw that this last year, you know,
with Luca going to the Lakers. Are the players you
said that, We kind of just know that's part of
how it is. Are the players do? Is that how
the players feel? They're like, we know the NBA has
(08:24):
got to do certain things to keep certain markets valot viable.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, it's a business, and
you know when you start to get into it, as
you can get a little older in the league, the
younger generation, they just happy to be there, you know,
happy to be on a team, you know, happy to
make money, and they just riding away right right after
two or three years, then becomes real and when they
finally get that second contract, they got to make sure
they put the work in. It's a whole different ballgame
(08:48):
at that point, especially w eighteen nineteen year old kid
is coming into the league right now. But for us,
you know, we we knew it, and the league is
the league. I mean, pat to you and go to
your knicks. Perfect fit. Right from that standpoint, Magic goes
to l a Bird goes to Duncan goes Done, goes
to the Spurs. So you have to have parody in
the league and you can't just have one or two down,
(09:10):
although the Lakers and Boston did it, but that's the
way the league started. But I look at, you know,
a Jurwius Irving, which you know, I think it's the
most under respective player in the league from from the goat,
from the brand, because everybody, I don't care who you were,
wanted to be Julius serving and that transition from watching
(09:30):
him play myself, like everybody watched Juius. And I tell
people all the time, when you start to see somebody
like a Julia's dunking on somebody really hard and doing
this thing and dunking on people, not just letting the
lane be free, you nobody was doing that before Duncan.
Duncan only making it happen and it became good.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
What did it?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
How helpful was it for you in your career to
be playing with hikim Olajuan every day in practice and
pushing each other. Did that help elevate both of your
guys' games?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I mean I think, I mean, we very seldom played
against each other because we had to bond together very
quickly and so, but you know, we had two guys
that could play, and then we were able to build
a camaradery, especially like playing against Kareem, like you hold
him up, I'll go black to hook shots. So we
build that. He knew I was behind him, I knew
(10:22):
he was behind me. So we had to double dual
trying to figure that part out, which was special, and
there was probably never a team with two type of
players of that caliber in the NBA history. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Well, I mean the games, you know, it started changing
quite a bit. The centers quit being maybe quite as
important they thought, or so they thought, right, And now
I think that's coming back a little bit. What's your opinion,
how does the game evolved for the center position versus
maybe when you played.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, I mean there's no positions anymore. I mean you
can say here's starting at guard whatever, but the only
thing they've announced that anymore. Right, So there's the league's
position least point and you just got to know how
to play the game at a high level no matter
where you're on the court. You know, everybody shoots three,
they run to the corner, they draw and kick, and
(11:10):
you know, you got to know who your talented players
are to handle the ball. But it's no positions anymore.
And it's sad to see the game being played that
way sometimes because we like the art of the game,
and I don't think there's a lot of art in
a game anymore, just coming down shooting three and jack
up shots.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, yeah, as a fan, it's a little bit tricky
because I used to love watching.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
When you guys were playing. It was just much more aesthetically.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Pleasing on the eye to watch, you know, that form
of basketball.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And so I think a lot of fans.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I know, the ratings have been down a little bit recently.
Do you think that the NBA needs to try to
make that shift back and try to shoot less three pointers?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean they don't. That's the analytics of the game, right,
So everybody's thinking you can do that, and you have
these great analytic guys that really don't know basketball or
never played basketball, but they can say if you shoot here.
You make more here than you make over here, and
say Lebron James or Chemo Lodrono. Crime is playing against
(12:03):
you and you've got your block shots, which I've seen
a little bit of it. So it's going to have
to change a little bit. That's the nature of the beats.
In any sport, you got to add to it. Take away.
Baseball created the pitch clock, you know, just speed up
a game a little bit. So you're gonna have to
change it because the fans are the one to watch.
We also saw in the pandemic when there was no fans,
(12:25):
but you still have to play because there's a lot
of money. I'll stick at that point. But you got
to plead the fans, and they buy the merchandise, they
come to the games, they pay the tickets, and you
want the fans to be an arena. You can't have
the gyms empty. So you have to get it to please.
You know, everybody say old school fans, but also new
school fans, but they are the game because shooting three
is not going to keep keep flaying. Agree.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So if you were commissioner, what would you do differently?
How would you fix it?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I mean, you can't really fix the team to say,
don't shoot as many threes. You got to change some
of the rules a little bit. You got to try
to add some new stuff to it, maybe in the
G League and see if it works there and bring
it up to the NBA.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Does the league ever reach out to players like you
and ask for advice or opinions or just kind of
any any kind?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean, not me, but they may too, you know,
a magic or something like that, but or bird whatever.
But I think the league is the league, and they're
so powerful that they need our opinion. They got the
day's players and they really got to focus on that,
and I think, you know, like, okay, see this year
it's a set of stage for what needs to happen.
(13:28):
And the finals were really good to watch and re
call out a good friend of mine player when they'm
at UVA and we talk all the time about the strategy.
But play hard, you know, if you just play hard
like that did. But you can't play the hard eighty
two games. Yeah, it's true, and play all but if
you have some more structure you could, because the game
is much more less movement than that. But otherwise you
(13:49):
know the game is going to evolve and I think
every team now is going to try to use the
Indiana Pacers Oklahoma City model. Get some younger players, stry
to develop them more, keeps your key players boom, you get,
you get lucky. But I mean, okay, see it took
a long time to do that. Yeah, I mean they
had to harden than the ranch and you know before
and the Westbrooks, and they they couldn't do it then
(14:11):
right right now, they found their way to get it
done and they got to pay those ways which they
had done, and you got to keep them together. But
you still got developed coats now and you can be
to hunt it. Yeah, that you got the crown that
you had, you got to see what you can do
next year.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, you were part of the group of players that
really elevated the game and set it up for the
players that get to play today. It's got to give
you a sense of satisfaction knowing that because of what
you guys did, you've allowed I mean, the average player
now makes you know, eleven million dollars a year and
some of the salaries over seventy eighty million dollars a year. Now,
I'm guessing as a player that helped set that up.
That's pretty satisfying, you know, knowing that you took a
(14:45):
sport and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
At a time when it was fragile.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
You know, you had the Lakers Boston, but really the Rockets,
you guys were that third team. You beat the Lakers
in eighty five. You were right there and pushing those teams.
But I'm you know, how how do you feel just
overall when you look back as far as how your impact.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
On the game was or your legacy towards basketball?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, you know so, I mean not just when I play,
but you look at the game itself from you know,
the El Jabella's early on the Wild Chamblains and understand again,
think the young guy today, understand the history of the
game and look back at how it's built and and
what the giants and the pillars that they stand on. Right,
if you did that a little bit more, you would
(15:25):
understand that this guy here was really good, Honey Hawkins,
and I mean it was just great players, right, And
if you understand that, then it should be some way.
I think that some of these players spend the young
players have the league, tell them about the history and
understand what you're standing on, and maybe that'll help some
a little bit. I think the really students of the
game do that. Some of the young kids, especially the
(15:47):
foreign players, they have no clue that's going to ask,
how is it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Do you think it's difficult to have that legacy where
you have so many foreign players that don't know, you know,
the history of kind of what came before them alone.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Well, I mean, I'm sure some of them are looking
at video of them, but they don't know who.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, I mean the real Magic or Michael Well.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But I'm sure they've gone back and look at some
after you get a little bit longer in the league,
but you know Connie Hawkins or elgend Baal or you know,
you can see it, but you really don't know them
because you're so far away from the league and the
foundation of the league, right And even the kids in
the States are doing the same thing. So I think
that'd be more of that Hall of Fame. I think
(16:25):
it's doing some things of that nature as well. But
those young kids don't come there. But if they do that,
they'll understand the history and they'll be I think more
pride and what the game is about. In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, well, you've been part of some iconic games and
different things. One when you were at Virginia, you guys
actually suffered a huge upset to promenade it's a very
famous game. What's it like being on the other because
you hear, you know, the underdog, and everybody wants to
use that example, is like when the underdog can always win.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
But what's it like to be on the other side
of a game like that?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Well, I mean, you know, you can look at that
game as something special, and I'll take you to kind
of the evolution of that. We you know, we had
played we never went in the country and both poles,
we had played Michael and a CC guy. We had
played all the best schools leading up to the Georgetown game,
and we did that I kind of game and I
(17:17):
got at Brews and my left knee and it had
fluid in it, so we drained it, so you know,
I we're not going to play. And then we won
win that game. And then we go to Japan and
we beat I came a large one and then without
me playing in Houston and Houston and Louisville and Japan.
(17:37):
So we did that and so now we own a
really serious high and we circled back from Japan to
Hawaii and that's where we played shamanat so everybody's you know,
land on the beach, snorkeling, sunbathing. You know, we we
we got this game as easy, and you know, we
slipped and we got beat. And I tell people the
(17:59):
greatest thing that the game was like at nine o'clock
a night, so on these coaches, it was in the morning,
so nobody really knew until they woke up. Now, this
is not real. So anyway, but then we had to recover,
you know, and play the next game. So we were like,
let's just get home and relax and go the next game.
But we feel sorry for the next team we got
to play cause we're gonna be there, like you know,
(18:20):
like it's running water. So we had no choice, but
you know, yeah, and the other thing about that it
created the Mali Classic.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Thought it was crazy how it created the probably the
best preseason tournament you know out there that it's amazing.
It's kind of funny because you know, I had the
chance to interview Buster Douglas on my podcast, and you know,
Mike Tyson, obviously that's another giant upset you hear about
same thing. He kind of was just kind of ex
over in Japan actually ironically, and he was just having
a good time and yeah, yeah, next thing, you know,
(18:49):
there's there's.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Some good lessons in there.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
One thing that you know, I think a lot of
fans are disappointed about, I would say, is there's not
this college game like there used to be. Like when
you played, it is such iconic basketball. It was this
fun to watch NCUBA as it was you know, the NBA.
Now the tournament's still the tournament. But during the season.
I don't think many people I don't watch any NCAA basket.
I don't think many people do. It's just not like
it was because you don't get to know the players.
(19:12):
I mean, you knew you were, you know, by the
time your freshman year was done, and so you got
three years to follow you and really get into it.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And that's what's going to happen now with NIO and
the portal. You know, Virginia would get all new players.
If some stays, some go, you'll never know who they are.
You'll never have that bond with the player. And I
think it's going to hurt college basketball, but also could
hurt the NBA basketball. Of course, if you go and
(19:42):
you play and you decent instead of eighteen ninetye old
kid coming in from wherever they're come in from. You
always have you have a following, and social media can
help them do that as well. But you have a following,
you have a fan base. And so I come to
UVO any USI versity and then I don't like it
going to Portal. If I have a chance and get
(20:02):
to the league, we'll see if I go to another
school because I make money and I don't mind making money.
I think this should have been down a long time ago.
But to get to the next level it could be
very hard. I think a player don't have to stay
at the school and develop their game at the institution.
That could be high. They acclaimed, but you know they
you I mean, it's it's it's it's it's it's just crazy.
(20:26):
It's just a point.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, it feels like they almost like need contracts in
the NCAA so that the players. You know, I don't
know if you ever had one of these moments when
you were a freshman, maybe where you're like, oh, if
you could have transferred, maybe you would have. It gets
tough and nowadays, you know, if the coaches can't even
coach them the way they want to, because if they're
too tough, the.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Kid can just bounce to the next school or whatever
he's going to do.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
You don't want that kid anyway, you know. I mean,
you can't take the tell a coach coaching and you
get out. And then the secondly is about the money.
You know, and somebody offers you more money, right, you
go take it. Yeah, but that guarantee that you're in
an NBA probably not because you'll you'll, you'll, you'll kind
of fade away once you get to the big boys.
And then you can't go to the team and say
(21:06):
I want to be traded because I'm not playing, you know,
the contract, you might be timp man on the bench.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, and what are you gonna do overall? Do you
think nil is good for the college game?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It will be. I don't think it is quite there yet, yeah,
but I think it will be. They gonna put some
guardrails on it and try to understand what real they
need to be done. I mean, kids are making a
lot of money. Yeah, I'm at b y U fan.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
We got a kid, you know, a JA bound, so
he's going to make and I think six million this year.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, we always want to go back and play No
again as well, get to little George up something. I
go back. What could I have made when I've played
a Virginia college experience might have been little different. I
might be a little bit different, But then that gonna
be educated. They jumped from school to school, you know,
by there at Virginia and the school for two years,
(21:53):
and that goes so often. How many credits come over
and then you know, do I get my degree or not.
It's just it's a nightmare. It's gonna be. It's a
true nightmare. So I'm fearful of the kids coming out
of school that don't make it to the league and
don't have ANIO. They might stay and get their degree,
but they're wanted to bounce them around whatever. They'll never
get their degree. And they only get any degrees right
now anyway in basketball even and some you know, little
(22:16):
stuff that keep them eligible, right and that's been historical,
and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I'm guessing you have a lot of gratitude for your
college experience when you got to do the full experience.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So would you trade that for any amount of money
that you could have made? Leave into the NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Sooner probably probably, uh, you know, I mean you look
back and you know. So I stayed just because I
was on track to graduate too, and I was having
fun and I needed to develop my body for the
game that should it came out maybe my second year,
because I was ready. We went to the Final four,
and then my body was ready, my mom was ready.
(22:48):
But I was having fun, I was on track, and
then I didn't know what team I was gonna play
if I didn't want to play in an I a different
teams I didn't want to be at.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So I couldn't just played with a coin flip. For you,
it's more about just making sure you're landed in the right.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Space, great spot and a coin flip with me like
that's iffy.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And you had to decide before they flipped the coin
to decide which team was going to be there.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, I wish they flipped it out there. Who got
the first face?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You'd have been at the Lakers. That's a whole different career,
different program.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, I sure appreciate the time that you gave me
to do this interview. It's it's you know, to sit
down with the ledgend of the game and yeah, it's
fun for me. I'm a student obviously a basketball You
can tell most of these things we're talking about happened
before I was old enough to watch it live. But
I I just always have appreciated greatness. And that's why
I started with that question, is like, you know somebody
that's that good at their art, that's truly the best
(23:37):
in the world at that moment. I just am fascinated
with that mindset and how that person, you know, evolves
and keeps working to become even a better version of themselves.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
And for me, it started early in life, so with
parents and good parents and working hard farm work to
going to school and building a fundamental base around you.
And you know, mother always would say, make your eighty
percent better than somebody one hundred percent, And so that
sticks with me today. And so that's the way we
kind of was raised. My mother played basketball and high
(24:10):
school in college a little bit of Virginia State, and
they played three on three, you know, they needed the
offense or defense. Then she was on offense all the time.
So we saw it and my parents we also saw it.
In my high school coach was great and saw my
college coach as well, and they just let me be me,
but also guided me a direction where I could be
(24:33):
successful but also be smart enough to have the people
around me that I needed at that point in time
in high school, in college and then mowed me because
that wouldn't wait rooms in high school. We had to
create our own. We had a weight room in college
and it was not big like they have today, and
all the technology were there, so we had to create
some stuff and we had great people around there that
(24:54):
did that. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you stay tight with the Virginia basketball program? They
had a couple of crazy years there.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
They lose to this sixteen seed and then they win
the national championship the year later. It's probably fun, isn't
alarm to be able to experience the highs and lows
of that.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Things happened for a reason, you know, you lose that
sixteen seed, which was Ryan Oldham coach Odam's son, that
was my coach. Oh really yeah? And now right over
the head coach at UVA. Oh wow, okay, and so
so I appreciate the evolution that if they'd hire somebody
else that probably would have been not pleased, but also
(25:27):
a little bit further removed from the school because they
should have done the right thing. Yeah they did, you
know what all the other Senegans anyone talk about. But
they have to do the right thing at those universities
and respect not only the students, the student athletes and
the school because there's history in these schools and if
you don't respect that in the day's market, you're going
(25:48):
to destroy our schools in this country. And so at
Virginia we got Ryan Oldham that he's going to bring
the basketball program to a different level. Tony Bennett, don't
get me wrong, it was great. I love him. My
death title. He loses sixteen, but he loses. He comes
back pre season, puts a note in the middle of
(26:08):
the floor in the arena, dig it up and say
we're going to do this. We're gonna win a national title,
puts it in the floor, seals it up, and they
pulled out at the end of season after they won
a national title. So it had evolved and it's been
fun and the crazy part about it. And we had
a picture hanging on myself at the school and the
(26:30):
national title game, uh, and the parade and the announcement
that became the UVA was all put together and the
other was on my official visit announcement all off account
of was DJV my mother's birthday as well. So it
kind of all works in some way, shape or form.
(26:52):
Just got to understand it and you gotta appreciate it
because when the national title was hard, oh.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, Well, thank you so much for your time, so
a pleasure, and thank you again.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Back due, all right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Glad, 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
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
(27:25):
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
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
(27:46):
interested in learning more, go to join what That's joined
Watt dot com
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