Latest / Club 520 Podcast / BEST OF 520: Jeff Teague’s crazy story of Tracy McGrady punching him, Adam Silver on Luka Doncic trade

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BEST OF 520: Jeff Teague’s crazy story of Tracy McGrady punching him, Adam Silver on Luka Doncic trade · Club 520 Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The volume.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Yo, yo, yo, your old fanatics. How y'all doing, How
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: y'all doing?
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Love is energy.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Y'all know what the time it is at this club
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: five twenty I'm your host. My name is DJ Wills,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Live in Fanatics, spects man one time for boom.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: We know the viobs twenty five dollars unlimited talk text
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: do or what they had with the T five gen
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Nation while y'all know what time of this? Come on, man,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: tap in and get you a phone. Man.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Still got my game with me up here. To my
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: far left, we got my dog Bishop be hearing out
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the pearlies.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: How you what nasty saying?
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: And what up? Fanatics? My boy? What's up? Baby? What on?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: What up?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Tapped in for show. To my right, my dog young
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Nacho Young team got you what what's good?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: We got a good one today, got a good one today.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Come on man, listen man, we got a special special
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: guest man. We couldn't imagine that we would have digitallemen
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: on our platform, but it's a blessing.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: We're about to have a dope conversation.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Were happy to share this moment, which y'all we have
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the one, the only, the commission mister Adam.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Silver joined the five twenty makes him noise.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir, yes, sir, the go go.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Sir. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasant thank you boss man. Hello, Yeah,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: energy energy, I love this.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: First and foremost. Who want to say thank you? We
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us or how you doing?
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: I'm doing great? This is incredible. I mean, I for
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: the fans, this must be fantastic. Just to the whole
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: environment here, I mean, congratulations to Michael Rubin.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: I can't believe what he's built for sure, I'm sure.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Listen, this is a blessing to have you on this stage. Obvious,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You got to walk across
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that stage. But for me and be here, it's our
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Draft night moment. Baby, Yeah I got I didn't. I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: didn't walk across the stage. I didn't go to the draft,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: but I got a chance to hear my name, Carl.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: It was pretty cool.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: You got a championship ring though.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a championship better than being drafted. Yeah,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: talk about it. I snuck out of there with one. Yeah.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Now, I wanted to ask you this question because everybody's
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: moment no is their dream to get across the NBA
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: say shake your hand and hold a jersey.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: What was it like for you the first time?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: And she got to be in that position and helps
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the draft as the commissioner, it was.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: It's it's it's emotional for me. It still is because
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: you know, for that moment to come into the NBA
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: for these players and just as importantly for their families.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: So when you're standing up on stage, particularly for you know,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: the top draft picks who are sitting there right in
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: front of you, you're staring at often at their parents,
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: their siblings, their friends. So it's it's truly emotional. I
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: mean I feel it along with them. And then when
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: the guys come up on stage, I mean, obviously some
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: of the best athletes in the world. They've already performed
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: at a high level in college and Europe or whatever else.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Like when I put my arm on them and I
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: shake their hand, they're often you can feel how nervous
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: they are. You know, it's it's such and I think
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: it's just a lot of them been holding in the
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: emotion and it's just a release because even if you're
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: projected to be the fifth pick or the fourth but whatever,
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: it is, the reality of that actually happening. So I'm
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: just saying, like I'm holding it together too. For a
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: lot of them, it's just and and it's I'll just
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: add it, it's a privilege to be up there. I
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: don't have any particular talent, you know, unlike a player,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: so I realize I'm fortunate to be part of the experience.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: Who was the first player you introduced to the NBA,
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: which I said, who was the first person you introduced
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: to the NBA? Like, what was your first pip?
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Oh man, I gotta think about that, because you know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: I was the deputy commissioner for several years and did
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: the second round as well, So I gotta think about that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: I can't remember who who the first player is? Is
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: like draftives.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you this question.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Obviously, you know legal background worked in the NBA as well,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: recipes obviously, like great David Stern. What was that moment
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: like when you found out that you were going to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: be the commissioner?
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Oh Man, I mean I again, I just remember feeling
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: how fortunate I was I had at that point, I
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: had already worked for the league for twenty years. Yes,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: at the time I found out I had worked for
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: David Stern that entire time, so I had a seat
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: in the room, so to speak, for a lot of
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: that had transpired over that time. And again I worked hard,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: but at the same time, I realized it takes a
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: fair amount of luck to be in the right place
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: at the right time. I saw it as tremendous responsibility
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: to carry this league forward off of all those great
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: players that had come before me, great commissioners, you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: David Stern being the most recent. So you know, it
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: was momentous, there's no question about it. But you know,
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: it takes a while to sink in you just again,
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: just and I still feel that even eleven years later.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Just it's an awesome responsibility because in addition to the
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: literally hundreds of millions of fans globally that for the players,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: their families, the tens of thousands of employees of the NBA,
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: you know, and now the w NBA that that we're
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: part of, it's you know, you you feel the weight
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: of the responsibility. And in this league, I mean, there's
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: there's incredible things that happen every day, but there's also
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: things that are risks to the business. You know that,
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: and it's ultimate responsibility working together with the players, with
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: the team owners to make sure the league continues to
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: operate smoothly. So I would say, I'm I'm all struck,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: but also feel that sense of responsibility most definitely.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I got a question were talking about draft night and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: you being up there calling names, and it's been some
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: nights where guys' names didn't get called in that first round.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, what's that feeling? Like?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Do you ever be like, man, I just hope, hope
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this kid gets called, because obviously I didn't go to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the green room, but I'll skip. That was a scary
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: feeling for me to be in a green room and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I get my name called. And we had some guys
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: go super super in the first round and be the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: last guy in a green room, Like, what's that feeling?
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: I'm Often it happens occasionally where there is a player
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: who's projected to go higher and drops for whatever reason.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: And often in some cases in between break in between picks,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: I'll walk down and just say hello to the player
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: and their family. I've you know, we have a lunch
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: in the day of the draft, so I've talked to
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: them and I see them before the draft, but also
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: just to remind them that nobody can predict the future
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: that I mean I think about you know, I mean
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: our MVP in Shay I forgot it. Only he's like
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: the eleventh pick or whatever. He wasn't a top ten pick.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Tyresee wasn't a top ten pick. But not only were
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: they not ten top ten picks, but they were both traded,
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: you know, and and and you have incredible players. You know,
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: Jokich was a second round pick. Ye young Man just
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: pointed out to me. You know, Traymond Green was a
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: second round pick. I mean, you have look at the
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: current finals. You know, you have players who are enormous
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: contributors who weren't.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Drafted at all.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: And so I always see it as my responsibility to
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: remind them that this is just one point in time
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: and you should take motivation from this. And again that
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: understandably these teams are making these decisions, but don't let
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: that sort of prediction be controlling on you and go
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: double down on your work, because there's a reason that
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: they're there, that they were projected to be there.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: And even if you know, if you think the NBA is.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: The four and fifty best players in the world, so
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: we have a relatively small draft compared like, if you
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: watch the NFL draft, how many rounds they have. It's
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: only a two round draft. So again I just remind them, like, yeah,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: it sucks in that moment, it feels embarrassing potentially, but
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: go get them. You know this, This isn't gonna determine
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: your faith.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Oh definitely.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You brought a very interesting point up. We're looking at
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the finals right now. Obviously Games seven will take places
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: very very soon. We have two small market teams, you see,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of the nerratives is just like, oh, the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: NBA is upset.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: We don't have bigger markets in that.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: We would love to have that conversation with you because
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: obviously it has been great basketball being played. The energy's
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: been high. You've been in both arenas, the fans there
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: seem happy. Is it just a narrative? It is just like, nah,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: y'all not really tuned in into the actual product.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: You know, I could say so much about that, A
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: few things. I'll say.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: One of the points I made the other night was,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm sure that a lot of NFL fans
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: here when the Steelers and the Packers play, you know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Pittsburgh and Green Bay Nobody says two small market teams. Instead,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: it's two storied franchises. And I want to emulate the
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: NFL from that standpoint. I mean our goal and we're
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: on our way there that whatever market it is, they
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: have passionate fans. They're competing for the championship. And just
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: like in Milwaukee where you won that championship, Jeff, you
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: know it's the story, isn't that it's a small market.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: It's the best franchises in the NBA, the best teams
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: in the world, competing for championships, and increasingly in a
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: digital world where the incremental difference between Indianapolis and Chicago
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: should become irrelevant because we have a global fan base.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: We have something like a two billion person social media community.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I mean something like seventy million people will have watched
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: the NBA Finals this year. So the fact that there
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: may be a million more people that live in one
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: market or another shouldn't be the issue.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: I accept that it's a narrative going in the other thing,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: I'll point out some of those markets are only smaller
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: relative to the size of other NBA markets. The mayor
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: of Oklahoma City pointed out that three hundred million Americans.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: Close to ninety percent of Americans live in cities and
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: towns that are smaller than Indianapolis in Oklahoma City, like
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: most of us, I'm from the suburbs of New York,
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: but I grew up in a town Ryan, New York
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: that had fifteen thousand people and so and my growing up, Yeah,
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: New York City wasn't that far away, but it seemed
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: like it was a million miles away.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: That was my town.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: When Little League season started, we had a Little League parade.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: My high school class only had a couple hundred people
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: in it. That was my world. So I think it owned.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: This small versus big market narrative only becomes relevant because
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: of historically how we've looked at things. But again, the
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: world's changing quickly. To me, if you're Jannis Tenakunpo and
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: you're in Milwaukee, you're globally known, and nobody's going to
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: convince him that if you went down the road to Chicago,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: then you can be that much of a bigger star. So,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: and I'm lastly saying, just having going back and forth
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: from Indianapolis to Oklahoma City and vice versa over the
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: last two weeks, the passion is unbelievable in those towns.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: I just came in from Indianapolis this morning. I mean,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: you're there. Every storefront has banners in it for the Pacers.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: Same thing in Oklahoma City. Every building has a huge.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Banner on it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Everyone's wearing merchandise. If you see on television, everyone's wearing
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: the team colors. It's like a college environment. And so
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: in some ways, when you're in those markets where that
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: are smaller, it captures people's attention even more than you know.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I live in New York City now, when when we
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: have teams in this town that are competing for championships,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: as big as that audience is, it's not as all
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: consuming as it might be in a so called smaller
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: market for sure.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I mean we were talking to a guy yesterday.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: He was telling us about how it was in New
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: York when they were just making the Eastern Conference finals.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what the narrative is because when
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you see all the people outside it was what a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: million people almost outside, you started thinking like, man, if
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: they was in the finals, what would that look like?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So I think that's worse, you know, talk about but
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to me being from Indiana and seeing how the Pacers
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: react and the fans are it's crazy.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I think it's beautiful for the league.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: And also, I mean when it comes to basketball, no
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: state is more closely associated with the game than Indiana.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: I know you're still coaching high school. Yeah, while they're
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: staying in Oklahoma City. I mean, it's this sport feels
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: endemic to those markets. It's as I said, it's not
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: there's the support for the thunder for the Pacers, but
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: also people just love the game in those cities and
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: states and you can really feel it. And I think
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: particular the way these finals are being played, just selfless
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: style the past first, I mean both teams. It's a
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: great defense, really physical. I think people are really eating
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: up these finals. They're just really enjoying them.
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: For sure, we'll be getting some expansion teams here soon
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: there what the expansion teams?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: How you feel about the you.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Know, I it's something we're going to look at. It's
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: more complicated I think sometimes than people realize, because I
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: think some people look at expansion that you're printing money.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: It's not because it's like if you own something, you're
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: selling an interest in it. If you're one of the
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: thirty owners in the NBA and just say you expand
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: by two teams, It's not that different than selling a
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: portion of your team to someone else, you know. Having
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: said that, there's so many great markets out there that
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: love the NBA. It's something we're definitely gonna look at.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Okay for sure, Yes, I now he said Seattle. Who
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: was just trying to figure out, like what cities would
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: be good to bring.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: A new team too.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Obviously they do the Summer League in Vegas, so it's
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: equipped for NBA basketball, So I know Vegas will probably
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: be a coolest spot.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Like you said, Seattle had a team already.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting. I mean, we had a team
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: in Seattle before. It's such an incredible market. Many of
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: my years that the NBA were spent when we still
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: had a team in Seattle. There's no doubt about the
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: love for basketball there. And Vegas. You just mentioned where
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: we are Summer League. I feel like we have a
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: team there. Yeah, you know, the the two weeks or
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: so that Summer League goes, it literally like it consumes
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: the whole basketball world. Those games when we first start
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: playing the Summer League, they are Those games were hardly
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: even on television. Now sports centers operating out of Las
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: Vegas studio shows there. You know, it's it's like they
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: I've never been to the Baseball Winter Meetings, but that's
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: what it feels like. You know, all the general managers there,
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: teams are doing deals, Guys who weren't drafted or there
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: the draft picks are there.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: They're selling out in the arena.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: So like, I feel like we already have a huge
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: presence in Las Vegas.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Definitely sure. I wanted to ask you a fun question.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I recently introduced somebody to the movie Eddie, and then
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: we watched Celtic Pride. So those old NBA movies that
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: used to integrate all the things between us, me and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the Spans fictional in the NBA. I want to know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: how does that happen? Is there a license into our
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: conversation that happens, because you know, you see a lot
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of things meet you and some of the players, some
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: not I would love to see. Is that's something that's
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: in the works future as a game is going we
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: get back into that. But how's a conversation or something
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: like that happened?
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: Well, the way it works, and I was at the
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: league for Eddie and Celtic Pride. And there's a division
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: of the NBA called NBA Entertainment that I used to run.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: And so when people and for anybody here today or
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: is listening to this, wants to make a movie involving
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: the NBA's teams come to us, I mean we try
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: to make it easy, you know, in es since we
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: come and say if you want a license.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: You know our logos or our name.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: You know, we want movies to ultimately be positive, of
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: course about the league.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: So you know, most people realize that.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: So it's not that we're not approving things that come
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: to us, but we'll have discussions with the producers and
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: the writers and the directors. But we want people to
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: be talking about basketball. We want them to be talking
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: about the NBA and the WNBA and all the things
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: we're doing. So, you know, I think over the years
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: we've learned to try to make it a bit more
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: turnkey for people who want to use our intellectual property
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: say please, you know, we to the extent that you
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: have a new angle and it maybe people want to
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: do something about mascots. It's not always just about the
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: you know, there was a movie called Like Mike something
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: they remember you know, there's you know, uh, the Michael
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Jordan Last Dance. You know that came out in the
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: middle of the Pandemics.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: The movie would common just right, just right.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mean.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: But also even like one of my favorite basketball movies
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: is Hoosiers, even though the NBA had nothing whatsoever to
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: do with that, Like any movie that's about the love
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: of the game is we think is really positive for us.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: So we're always encouraging people who want to do anything
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: around basketball. You know, I'm when I walk through this
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: fan festival, I want more tension focused on basketball. And
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: that's like my job is to get more people to
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: love this game.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Definitely, you say your favorit basketball is Hoosiers. That's very interesting.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Probably probably.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Come on, I haven't seen who's yours. Did you play
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: back in the day in high school or anything?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Did I play? Yeah, that's why I wear I played,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: but not well, I don't know.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you walked in. I was like, okay, you
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: might have said the screen and slips. I didn't know
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: you was that tall, I said. I was like, he
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: might have been a sniper.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Big gore back in the day.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: We might need you in the park and I'm in
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the office, thank you.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: So I had a question like when the like a
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: trade like Luca happens, right and it kind of shocks
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the league, Like what's it like in the league office?
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Like do y'all know, like whoa, this is about to
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: be wild?
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Or you know just before.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: I you know, first of all, say one of the
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: misnomers I think out there is that I have the
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: power to disapprove of trade. I don't think the only
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: what the league's role is, as you can imagine, in
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: a in a cap system and a set of rules
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: around trades. What happens is before the trade is known publicly,
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: although sometimes they're leaked or or or they're informally announced,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: but for a trade to be official, it gets called
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: into the league office. It's kind of old school, you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: where both teams have to get on the phone and
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: lawyers and people in basketball operations literally line up the contract.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: So if somebody make it up is making eight million dollars,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: you have to ensure that the other team has eight
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: million dollars of cap space in order to sign that player.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: You have to assure that it complies with all of
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: our rules. And so we get if assuming a trade
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: hasn't been leaked, A call will come into the League office,
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: a team will say we want to set up a
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: trade call.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Both sides will be on the call. It's a little
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: bit like anybody who's bought a home.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: And there's a closing, the closest thing where you've got
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: to make sure like you indeed have the title to
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: the house. Yeah, there's been an inspection and there's a contract,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: all those things, so there's in essence of checklist, and
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: then the trade becomes official. So we don't and because
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: the teams often in particular trades and Luca is a
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: good example where the teams are very secretive. They're not
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: necessarily tipping us off. We learned about it, I mean
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: we learned about it be ahead of the public, but
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: only it's usually only a question of hours because we
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: have to go through that official process of approving it.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: But not sooner than that.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Was that like when you've seen that come across where
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: you kind of shocked, like, yeah.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: I would only say, I mean because in many ways
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I'm a fan like others, and teams aren't necessarily calling
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: the league office for suggestions on player movement, So there's
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: the fan in me. That only because that's not a
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: player move that people were talking about or the shows
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: like yours were talking about. I was surprised from that standpoint.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you that question, obviously, what the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: game growing? Media is evolving, ever changing, right, You got
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: player podcasts, got independent stuff like that. What's one thing
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you think that the actual media outlets can improve that
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: could actually help the game. I know we get a
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: lot of criticism, but what's something that we could actually
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: help promote the game better or help progress?
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I'll just say kind of in
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: the same lane when I was talking about movies about
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: the NBA, I'm very appreciative of the amount of media
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: coverage we get. I recognize it's not all going to
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: be positive, but to me, as long as it's.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Genuinely from the.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: Heart and it's real passion and people aren't making up
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: stories about us, I appreciate it. And you know, it's
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: one of the things great about sports is people come
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: with their opinions. Yeah, and they like things, they dislike things,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: and we learned from that too, you know. And it's
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: we pay attention to social media, we pay attention to
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: traditional media. You get great ideas from there, I think
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: the only thing I'd add to the extent there's more
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: media that's educating fans about what goes into championship basketball.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: I think sometimes if you haven't been close to the game,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: and I've learned a lot over my time because I
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: didn't play at a high level to understand that it's
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: not just about effort. It's about the plays that are unfolding.
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: It's about the sophistication of the coaching, It's about the
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: sophistication of the scouting. I mean, I think sometimes like
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: understanding what goes into being an NBA.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Player, the amount of hard work, the amount of training.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: But also I think sometimes because the way our game
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: is called, you know, it's moving so quickly, even for
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: the best announcers, play by play announcers like Mike Breen
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: or the best color commentaries, the best color commentary, it's
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: moving so fast there's not necessarily time to explain everything
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: that's happening that you know, it's not just this guy
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: is off tonight, but he may be off because it's
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: incredible defense and what is the scheme and what is
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: that defense? So I think sometimes like those other shows,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: whether it's a pregame show, or halftime or it's an
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: afternoon show podcast, you name it about the NBA, just
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: to be talking about more about the game and what
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: goes into team basketball and what pros and what goes
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: into making the NBA and staying in the NBA.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, that's definitely got You always talk about how
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the NBA is a business and the fraternity and what
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: they do for the players after they leave the game.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: You want to indulge in that a little bit more.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously it's a bunch of programming now that it's
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: been coming into the league. When I first came in
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the league, theoie rookie transition and all those great things
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that you have to do when you first get in
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the league, I was wondering, how can we like, I'm
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: not gonna say better it. I think it's does a
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: really good job and everything is nice when you retire
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: from basketball, But is it anything like you would suggest
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: or some of the guys who might retire at the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: age of like thirty thirty one, is there anything you
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: can suggest to help them with that process.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: It's a great question. A few things.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: Number One, so for the first time we have a
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: former player who's running the players Association Andre Gudala, So
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: he's very attuned to the issues of not just former players,
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: but the transition for a player to go from being
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: on the floor to then the rest of their life,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: and to how they're going to use the skills they've
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: developed as a player, and what new skills they might
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: need to be successful whatever they choose to do, whether
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: it's to be in the media or to run business
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: or whatever else. The other thing Andre is doing is
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: building a closer relationship between what has been a separate organization,
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: the Retired Players Association and the union that currently represents
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: the players, because I think that can help with the
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: smooth transition as well. And then you mentioned the Rookie
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: Transition program, So that's a program for players coming into
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: the NBA, the transition of coming from college or Europe
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: wherever it is. Now the world's changing quickly because now
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: with nil deals and collectives, guys are now coming into
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: the league and the same thing for the women in
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: the WNBA now in many cases having been paid, so
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: they already have a certain sophistication around payments and being
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: you know, shoe deals and things like that. But so
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: they come in we have the training in I think
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: one thing that Andre is very focused on, and in
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: fairness and the Union leaders before him, is enhancing those
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: programs so that while you're a player, there's a lot
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: of different counseling on managing your money, managing your life,
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: you know, dealing with social media, all those things. And
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: the Union has done a fantastic job. There's a role
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: for our teams and a role for the league and
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: doing all those things. And then I think also where
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: Andre now, I think the focus is all right, what
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: more can we do for helping the players manage that transition?
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: And then once I said, they become a retired player,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: because I often and Jeff you can speak this. When
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: you're right off the there may be a period of
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: sort of decompressing, taking some time. There's that change from
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: being on the road the whole time. Often guys are
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: getting reacquainted with their families or they you know, they've
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: they've had kids while they were playing and haven't been
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: around as much. So there's that period. But then now
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: you have essentially the rest of your life ahead of you.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: What kind of programs can we help provide to train people?
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: And I'll just say lastly, I mean there's also one
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: of the things that we put in place several years ago,
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: and and Michelle Roberts was head of the Players Association,
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: Chris Paul was president. Union's lifetime health insurance for guys
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: who played in the league, which is a huge deal,
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: and also enhancing the pension programs, the four oh one
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: K program, so that for somebody who has played, you know,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: a certain minimum threshold of years in the league, you
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: know to a certain extent, you'll be set. No, you're
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: gonna have health insurance. You know you're gonna have a pension. Now,
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: you know that that's not suggesting they should just be
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: satisfied with that. But on top of that, there's all
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: these other opportunities, and you're obviously a great example of
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: it of what can you then use that platform you
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: have by virtue of being an NBA player and then
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: building careers beyond what you accomplished on the floor.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: For sure, most definitely we talk about the NIO situation
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: all the time. I know you probably get asked this
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a million times. Is it a possibility to high school
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: players go back to the NBA straight?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Maybe? But the NIOL impact, you say, you got lesser
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: people in the drift. This year.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: If you think is that something is gonna be an
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: on one issue, is it's just a new transition period
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: because it's just new.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, when you think about it, we don't, as I said,
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: we only have a two round draft. And the fact,
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: I think it's really positive that some of these young
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: men are getting good information in essence and realizing that
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: they're unlikely to be one of the to be selected
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: in those two rounds. And if that's the case, and
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: they can remain in college and be paid and in
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: many cases paid significant amounts of money. That so, so one,
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: they're getting compensated for their skill and maybe even more
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: importantly to extent they want to be professional basketball players.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: They're getting real minutes, they're getting great coaching, and they're
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: continuing to train and improve at their craft. So it's
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: a win win for everybody. As opposed to losing eligibility
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: because somebody's convinced you that you're going to be a
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: top draft pick. Not getting drafted, you can't go back
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: to college and now you're going to play maybe in
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: Europe or Asia or something else, as opposed to really
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: honing your skill and having your best shot at playing
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: in the NBA and The other thing is if you're
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: not going to be drafted and you're going back into school,
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: it shouldn't be lost that you're also, you know, continuing
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: to get an education, because realistically, you may not have
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: an opportunity to play in the NBA. It may be great,
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: you know, it may to go play in Europe. There's
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: great basketball playing played around the world, but that may
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: you know, not compensate you at the same level as
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: being in the NBA. You may not be able to
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: do it for as long. So now you finish, you
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: play for three four years in Europe, whatever it is,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: but now you have a college education and then you
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: can go out and then pursue another career. So I
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: think the fact that some of those young men are
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: withdrawing their names is very positive to me. That just
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: means there's better information out there in the marketplace.
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: Will we ever get back to kids being able to
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: come straight out of high school? Like what that ever
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: be a thing again in ANBA?
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Do you think you know, we've talked about that, you know,
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: just so everybody understands, like, that's not a decision we
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: can make on our own. It can only it has
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: to be negotiated with the Players Association, and when we
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: last discussed it, I think that the general feeling from
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: the teams and the players is to extent that those
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: young players have that extra year. Honestly, whether it's in
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: college or are playing in Europe, it's better for the
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: league because they come in better skilled, with a little
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: bit more maturity.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: We've talked about obviously the All Star format possibly being
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the USA versus the world. We've got a lot of
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: great international players, a lot of than won VP recently,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: we've got camps around the world. Is there a possibility
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: that we could get an expansion saying that's not in
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the United States.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Well, we have the Raptors, of course, but you know,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: a little bit sail around the way down.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I know they're attached. It's not the same. Yeah, over time.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I mean, one of the things we've been looking at
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: the league, at the league is whether we can help
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: operate a new professional league in Europe. I mean, don't
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: get me wrong, there's incredible basketball being played in Europe,
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: and there's some really great teams, and you know, several
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: of our most recent MVPs have come from Europe. But
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: I think from a commercial standpoint, basketball professional basketball hasn't
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: been nearly as successful in Europe as the size of
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: the market might suggest. So that's one path I wouldn't
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: called expansion directly, but it's building off the NBA brand
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: and potentially doing more in Europe. To your direct question
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: about teams in Europe, I think over time it's definitely possible.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: Like I was in Paris last summer for the Olympics,
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, the interest was off the charts.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, to me, it was the hottest sport there.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: I mean like we were selling out every game, not
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: just the games involving USA, but you know, the gold
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: medal game was USA versus France.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: I mean the.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Game before the US Serbia game was some of the
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: best basketball I had seen. So there's great players, enormous interest.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: I think part of the limitation is on players' bodies.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: It's not just the length of the flight, but when
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: you're jumping multiple time zones, it's important guys get proper
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: rest for being on the floor. It's disruptive. You know,
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: there's people Remember there used to be supersonic jets that
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: went back and forth from New York to Paris. You
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: know the concord that there's some commercial airliners now who
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: are talking about restoring supersonic jets. I mean, I think
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: that if the traveler faster, honestly, that would be a
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: game changer.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: It would make it easier to do.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: But as I said, I think the next step is
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: to sort of plan a flag in Europe, potentially with
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: the European League, and then go from there. But I
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: think if any league could do it, you could easily
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: imagine teams in Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin. I mean it's
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: not for lack of interest, that's for sure.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Most so you can imagine having a back to back
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: in Paris. Man.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like you said, that flight would have been crazy,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: but it'd probably be a lot of fun.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Though. I think guys will be open to playing in Paris.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: I've seen guys go over there for preseason games and
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: exhibition games and they're like, it's cool to be over here.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: You got any adjustments that you would like to make
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: for the All Star the All Star Game, we want
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: to bring some new take something out, like how do
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: you feel about All Star Weekend?
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: Well, the weekend itself, which we're not judged on for
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: those who are there, is fantastic. I mean I think
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: anybody who was in the Bay Area in San Francisco
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: last year. I mean there's tons of events and parties,
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: and there's a fan festival kind of like this. I mean,
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: people love that experience there the game itself, as we've
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: not put our best foot forward, and I think the
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: players recognize that. We recognize that. So, as you mentioned,
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: we're talking about changing the concept, doing something maybe close
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: to what the NHL did in the four nation faceoff.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think it if it were just straight
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: up USA World, as much as fans would love that,
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure be fair to the players because roughly
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: thirty percent of the players are up from outside the
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: United States, so it wouldn't be fair to pick half
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: the team from thirty percent and the other from seventy percent.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: But I think we're looking I know we're looking at
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: different formats now talking the Players Association because we need
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: their agreement where we would use that concept again similar
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: the NHL did, where you'd create that passion around the
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: USA playing other countries, other regions.
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: In the world.
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm particularly excited about it. I'll just add,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: so next year, our All Star Game is moving to
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: NBC where it was in the old days, and we'll
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: be in the middle of the Winter Olympics. So on
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: the Sunday when the All Star Game takes place, for
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: TV watchers, they'll be watching the Olympics.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, all day, then you'll.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: Come to our All Star Game, and then after All
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Star Game, we'll be going back to the Olympics. So
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: I'd love to play off that theme that we'll be
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: smacking the middle, as I said of that Olympic competition.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: So I think it's a good time for us to
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: be looking at those formats.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: Okay, cool, cool, Yeah, Oh, I wanted to ask Pseudo,
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: so Lebron you know he's on his last.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Leg the league. Make sure you said that, not me.
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: I'm saying that who you think that can fill that
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: void of like the new face of the NBA.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Just like you know, I always say, like, you know,
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: we don't create those faces of the league office. They
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: earn it on the floor. It's interesting to watch these finals.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: Obviously Shay is our MVP. He was the scoring leader
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: this year, but again I mean he's he's having a
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: great final so far. But ultimately Lebron is a face
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: to the league, and Michael was and KD was, and
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: these guys and Steph because they win championships. I mean,
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: it's looking fairness to any individual player. It's also a
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: team sport, and Lebron made that point the other day
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: for sure, but look at sports are about competition, it's
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: about winning. And the great news is kind of like
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: what I was saying about the draft earlier. I don't
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: have to sit here and predict sort of who our
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: next face of the league is. They they earn it,
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: you know, they are established by what they do on
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: the floor, and it's it's great to see now that
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: this next generation. I think in a way it's the
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: best of all worlds because Lebron is still at forty
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: years old playing an incredibly high level.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Steph is playing an incredibly high level, so is Kevin.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: You know, so there it's wonderful to see that generation
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: still here mentoring this next generation, but ultimately ultimately that
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: that this next generation who want to take that mantle
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: from them again, that that's where the competitive juice is coming.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: They got to earn it by demonstrating they deserve to
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: be the face of the league by their performance on
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: the floor.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Gotcha, definitely.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask I think for all those basketball
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: heres in the off season, we get to see all
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the players playing different situations. Now when you're integrating the NBA,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: like having the Drew League on the NBA app, things
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: of that nature. Is that something that's like purposely saying, Okay,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: we're going to embrace every aspect of this game and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: keep growing. Or is this something organically guys, just like
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: you know what, if everybody's rocking with this, we might
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: as well include ourselves in that.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: I would say it's that's a case where it's definitely both.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, what's cool about the Drew League or Rucker
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: or anything else is that it's truly organic. I can
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: take zero credit for that, but then we can be
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: very intentional about it and say the NBA app is
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: a central repository of basketball of every you know, over time,
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: truly everything basketball, but right now anything involving NBA players.
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: NBA players are playing in those summer leagues, whether it's
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: summer leagues here in New York or in LA or
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: Drew or whatever else that you know. Especially one thing
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: about social media, it's not always fine. It's not always
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: easy to discover what you're looking for. If you think
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: about X or Instagram whatever else. Like those algorithms are
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: pretty good at feeding you more basketball you've shown interest
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: in it, But there's nothing like that ability to go
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: to the NBA app and that is identifying for you.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: If there's great basketball out there involving NBA players off
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: season or future NBA players, what's happening in your par asia,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: We're gonna deliver it directly to you and that and
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: that's a place where we're trying to get a lot
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: more sophisticated, but we want to take advantage of of
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: of all that great all that great content, all those
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: great games that are already out there.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Most definitely for sure. Now, listen, I got the jersey on.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I'm saying they got a lot of fans missed the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: classic jerseys. Is there a world where we could possibly
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: have the All Star Game back into the original uniforms
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: of the players.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm looking around there. There's a there's a
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: gentleman out there named Sally Raka, and he oversees all
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: of merchandising. So, Sally, you heard that shit? Are you
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: nodding your head? Yes, he's saying, yes, we're gonna we're
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: looking at that idea. No, it's we we go back
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: and forth like people want new Uniforny, they want Oh
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: but I love the idea of it, of the classic jerseys.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I love how you putting on the spot there by
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: start life.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: It's a you know, hey, you know the feedback from
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: our fans is critically important.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: So thank you everybody, most definitely, Well listen, Commission, We
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time and makes Norse in Mississippi one time, y'all,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for having me, most definitely one
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  Speaker 2: Or where they had Team g nationwide. But shure, we
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• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir man, we back at it again, man, another
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: episode of Club five twenty podcasts.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: I'm the host.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: My name is DJ Willis. Still got my brothers on
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: stage with me. To my left, we got my dog
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Bishop be here out the praileies.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: How you what saying? And Nacy what up? Fanatics?
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: What's that in fanatics? Vest? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: my right my dog young Nato young tig Gow you
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: what I'm chilling? I'll see you back there? Ford. What's so?
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: What's adding waiting for? Shore Man?
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Listen man, we have fanatics with it and we got
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: another wonderful guest man, long awaited guests man. We were
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: very talking about this episode Hall of Famer, when the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: codas a duel, we all grew up on his shoes,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Pure Hooper man, the one that all invented, t Max Trace, McGrady,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Big Dollard join us.
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: Hey, yes, sir man, make my younger get up and
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: greet me. Man, turn my mic on in this s
• 40:28
  Speaker 6: motherfucker man?
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: What up?
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Younger?
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: What's up?
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: Bro?
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: What's up.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Man, you remember you punched me. Let's get this swing
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: out this south.
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: The wa just get it out the way right now.
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: This dude right here, he used to play so much.
• 40:39
  Speaker 6: I just want to beat his ass.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Ain't too much. It's young, bro.
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: He just played entirely too much. Man, you're trying to
• 40:46
  Speaker 6: get back in the league.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: This league's playing.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Around too much. Say, I did play around a lot,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: but we had to get your side of the story.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, two sides to the story.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: So do you remember what happened? Y'all really believe to
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: you going that? He said, Really, I'm gonna tell you,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: I'm put it for you. So I used to mess
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: with back every day.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: And he used to be like, man, shut them like
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: shut up, always talking like so I used to mess
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: with him.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: He was the one day we was eating, I was
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: we was in the thing and I was sitting back
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: and he walked up. He was like, I was like,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I was hot. I ain't thinking nothing of it, Like, man,
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: what the Marvin? Like, what you're gonna do?
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: G initial ain't a young fellow's my little homie.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Y'all doing good things up here, bron We didn't watching y'all. Man,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: we're trying to man long awaited episode.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: We happy you could pull up.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Man, Like we said, we all big fans to you
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: for show Man grew up with the Sea Man's Man.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: We're gonna start first and foremost. We all love the
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: good feet game, and you got some legendary kicks, right,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: So what's it like?
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: You know how you came into the league, But what's
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: that moment with Tamates his first signature shoot?
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Just like that that kid?
• 42:00
  Speaker 6: Man?
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: You know, shit, we always a kid playing on a.
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: Playground and you was out there with your favorite player
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: hooping in them shoes.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: And for me it was MJ's, it was pips, and
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: then penny.
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: Came along, and that's all I wore when I had,
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: you know, an opportunity to get some pennies. But then
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: when I it came along with I got my shoe,
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: and then it wasn't. It wasn't to the point I
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: saw my shoe had it in hand, award. But when
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: you go out in public and you see kids or
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: your fans with your shoe, that's the validation right there.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: That's like, damn, Doug, I made it.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: What's crazy seeing somebody with your jersey or see somebody
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: with the sneaks song noh, the sneaks because anybody in
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the NBA gonna have a jersey. Everybody can have them sneaks, everybody.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Can have it on.
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: See that black and blue colorway, crazy oog color way.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: And what's crazy is you know what I'm saying.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: You had like eye kind of moments in your shoes,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Like you know what I'm saying, the TMAC once the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: All Star moment off the backboard, Like yeah, when you
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: see that, you just see like moments Like when we
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: look at other peoples shoes, we think of moments. So
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: for you to have your first couple of signatures are
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: like crazy moments in them. It just kind of like
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: submitted it all in. Our moms want to ask you,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: what's your favorite shoe that you designed? What's your favorite
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Tmax shoes? Uh?
• 43:12
  Speaker 6: For me, it's the three point five And a lot
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: might not know about the three point fives. I ward
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: those when I was on the USA team was a
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: qualifying team, but about three point five. But because they
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: don't know, I'll say the t MAC threes threes was
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: the most the fire that we still selling to this day.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: The t MAC three is you know what I'm saying,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: always got me a whooping in my household because I
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: asked my mama about two pair of shoes so I
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: can missmash them, and she was like, yeah, we ain't
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: going for that, most definitely, man. But listen, man, before
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: we get to the episode we got to get for you, man,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: shout out to.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Temm Me John Me John John.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir, be here. Tell the people they need to
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: do for you, sir, man, just wear draws, rid them draws.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know, ain't no white draws.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Then they got the Elastic Man, the Sindo band for
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Man for today. It's how it takes the ball handling matters.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Pauls on the court. But I'm talking to get drugs.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Keep your balls hand over.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: To me, little pouch in the front.
• 44:09
  Speaker 8: Hey, yo, just to get him together right there? Yeah yeah, yeah,
• 44:14
  Speaker 8: yeah yeah yeah. Great drums is like great fans. Shout
• 44:19
  Speaker 8: out to Tommy John.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Hey, hold.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Tommy Dunn.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Bro Man, you know we're rocking heavy with y'all, man,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: but you've been going crazy recently. Man.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: We got to talk about it instantly. You about to
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: say it.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, you brought up and we ain't gonna get to
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: inho be messy, but you brought up Indiana pace the
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: lessen man. What the code is a lace up at
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the CT for the Pacers our dog Jamal intend Sir.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: We heard the back and forth conversation about Kyrie.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: That's cool. We ain't gonna get to that, but it's
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: dope to hear players, especially who is around, show love
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: that people who don't get like recognition.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: All the time.
• 44:54
  Speaker 6: I'm glad you said that because that was the sole
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: reason for for me saying that. I know I'm gonna
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: trust me. I know basketball, bro, and I know Kyrie
• 45:04
  Speaker 6: is the best when it comes to handles.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: It's two of my best.
• 45:08
  Speaker 6: And I'm on record of saying this, it's Kyrie and
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: his skipped to my lout, my old teammate, then the
• 45:13
  Speaker 6: two best like for me. But yeah, when I get
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: an opportunity to highlight somebody that's in my generation of basketball,
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: my era, I'm gonna take the time to do that.
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: The thing is, people don't know my agenda when I
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: said that, so of course I expect that reaction, and
• 45:31
  Speaker 6: it's the reaction that I wanted, right, because I'm highlight somebody.
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: Like when you look at Jamal and Tinsley bro people
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: and comparing him to Kyrie, Yeah, they're gonna laugh at that,
• 45:43
  Speaker 6: but you go over and really see what that motherfucker
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: did when he was a rookie. It ain't too many
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: casts that had twenty three assists when there was a rookie.
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: So although you might laugh that he's not compared to Kyrie,
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: he's still somebody you can learn to and appreciate his game.
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: So using Kyrie was my man, go, you gotta use
• 46:01
  Speaker 6: somebody like that. And then the trigger words is yeah
• 46:04
  Speaker 6: he better he got mad at us, right, It's it's
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: it's the Internet game, bro.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's all I did. So shout out to
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: Jamal in Tensley.
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: Man.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Now these young folks know who he is.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: That's like looking in the crowd and you still see
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: people with t Mac jerseys and stuff like that.
• 46:19
  Speaker 6: What is that like?
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Because I don't never see a tea anybody tea, but
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: like to see that, like, what's that like?
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: You know tea man?
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: I It's love bro, you know, And I don't take
• 46:34
  Speaker 6: it for granted. I appreciate every time I see somebody
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: with a T Mac jersey on anything T Mac. You know,
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: even twelve years after being retired, that shit still does
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: something to me because.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: I appreciate their appreciation of me, and I'm always gonna
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: show love.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: That's the best one right there? Which one? That ping
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: stripe from right here to Buddy Strikes was tough.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you the next one, what's your favorite?
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Because you got a lot of iconic jerseys, know what
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. You got the Raptors, you got Orlando, you
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: got Houston. What's your favorite jersey?
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: Me? That purple, That purple Raptors jersey is fire. Oh yeah,
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: I'm talking about like, out of all jerseys, that purple
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: Raptors fire the rookie year.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the one. Yes, that's the one.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: That's That's that one. Now you look at today's the NBA, right,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: A little bit of a difference between you. You play
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit more freedom. We've got the finals going
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: on right now, Game seven. Okay, see Pacers, I want
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: to ask you if you could play for either one
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: of those teams right now? Where are you pulling up
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: to Indiana?
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Indiana?
• 47:35
  Speaker 6: I mean I First of all, they got a freaking
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: great coach. Rick carlyle Is is probably one of the
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: best basketball minds in the game right now, and we're
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: seeing that every night.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: But I like that cohesive. They don't have a superstar,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: so I like that cohesive.
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: I like that they do it by committee and integrate
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: somebody like me that could get buckets consistently.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: With what they already have great shooting.
• 48:00
  Speaker 6: You got great predntrators and ask someone that could get buckets.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: I like my chances most definitely.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: And you got both those teams. Obviously, with all stars superstars,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of role players. Do you see
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: the league gravitate more towards that, because I know back
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: y'all that you had the higharchey was a little bit different.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: You had like two or three guys took the majority
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: of shots. Everybody on the fiel their roles. Now with
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: both these teams, you got some offen bitch who can
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: go shoot sixth threes and it's all gravy.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah, I love it.
• 48:21
  Speaker 6: I love it because in today's game, there's a lot
• 48:24
  Speaker 6: more hoopers, you know what I mean. There's not guys
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: that just do one specific thing right, one thing. That's
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: really great. You got these guys. Man, they could score
• 48:34
  Speaker 6: on both sides of the body. They could do multitude
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: of the things on the basketball court coming off your bench.
• 48:39
  Speaker 6: When I you know, when I played shit, you had
• 48:41
  Speaker 6: somebody that Joe can only he's.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Only a guy that could shoot in the corner. That's it.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Like you just stationary pieces.
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: Now you can interchange with these type of players that's
• 48:51
  Speaker 6: playing the game today.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: I like how you said that.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Would you think your game obviously you could score them
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: in bunches, You can score any kind of way. You
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: think your game with a trans better now than it
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: did back then. I mean, yeah, come on, team, No,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: I'm being really. I mean, you average, so you probably
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: would have averaged forty.
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: I'm not gonna be arrogant at save forty. In my mind, yeah,
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: I feel I can score forty.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I mean real lately, I think I.
• 49:17
  Speaker 6: Shay average thirty two this year in a wide open league,
• 49:22
  Speaker 6: wide open game. I averaged thirty two. When that shit
• 49:24
  Speaker 6: was tight, score was seventy eight to eighty. You see
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: what I'm saying, and only shot like four or five threes.
• 49:31
  Speaker 6: Put me in today's game where I can shoot ten
• 49:33
  Speaker 6: eight to ten threes, and I'm gonna get to the
• 49:36
  Speaker 6: free throw line because I'm gonna get to my spots.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: That's deb near a forty piece. Yeah, probably average, that
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: might be a forty. And you had that mid range.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: I we was in Atlanta used to shoot the MIDI
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: used to like, yeah, you probably average forty. I'm thinking
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: about it, like thirty two back, Yeah, you probably gonna average.
• 49:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah. I mean it's it's an easy game, now, bro,
• 49:59
  Speaker 6: you defensively like now I. They want to try to
• 50:03
  Speaker 6: add the physicality to it. But if you can't touch
• 50:06
  Speaker 6: me when I got the ball in my spot, like
• 50:08
  Speaker 6: you got to back up and get me. Nah, I'm
• 50:10
  Speaker 6: gonna shoot right up. I ain't even got to put
• 50:12
  Speaker 6: the ball on the flo. I'm gonna shoot right on
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: your right, in your face. People don't realize how tall
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: you are.
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: You you like sixteen.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Y'all know.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: They had me guarding him one time when he was
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: in Detroit. Did you lock it sh it up?
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: Hey?
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: No, he went straight to the block. They like, just
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: picky ld.
• 50:33
  Speaker 6: Sick up, smart man. I couldn't move really, you you said,
• 50:41
  Speaker 6: you know what's crazy? Tied for him to be so good.
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: I identify him when I look at Magic Johnson play basketball.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: I see ty Reese a little bit. Okay, well, here's
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: what I mean by that.
• 50:55
  Speaker 6: When you watch Magic play dominant right hand player, dominant dominant,
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: you don't really see them do too much on his
• 51:02
  Speaker 6: left side of their body. Tyres is the same way.
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: If you only could be dynamic on the right side,
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: and you got two killers that can play both sides
• 51:13
  Speaker 6: all over the court, you think you're gonna beat me
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: being dominant on one side.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: So for him to for Tyre's to be great, Tyree's.
• 51:20
  Speaker 6: Gonna have to If you're gonna have four points, damn it,
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: you gotta accumulate for your team at.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: Least forty points. That has to be the accumulation.
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: You can't have four points and only accumulate like twelve
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: points for your game. Now, if you want to be
• 51:35
  Speaker 6: a superstar, I'm fine with four points, but give me
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: fifteen assists, give me eight rebounds. That right there, to
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: me is like a Jason Kidd. That's a match like
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: that's having an end print and you don't have to
• 51:48
  Speaker 6: score that much.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Gotch.
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: But you can't give me four seven, six, nah fan nah,
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: I respect it.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Teammate when I'm making on this. You know, two years
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: ago they trying to make their jokes about Jaylon Brown
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: and said his left hand is the strongest. But you
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: know what he did, He went and got paid and
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: got a chip. They all talk about got het got
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: a left hand. He ain't gonna left cool. They ain't
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: gotta have a left fit and raised that banterrup killing.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Jaylen Brown, I noticed, like your little brother,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: It's like, who reminds you of you in the league
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: right now? Like me, the only person I really see
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: that kind of remind me of you was like Kevin Durant.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: The way y'all score the ball is really kind of similar.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: That's that's that's really it. I mean, it ain't too many.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I used to think Paul George, but then when I
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: watched PG, y'all kind of a little different. But like
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: you and KD, y'all do the rocker hanging dribble, pull up?
• 52:37
  Speaker 6: Why why why?
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: PG?
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: What?
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: He was a little more like pinned down shoots he
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: tried he tried today. Funny like that.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: I like that. I like you froight. But speaking of
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: comparison to somebody youngster is coming up. I've seen a
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: lot of people do a lot of you know, comparisons
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: for as Bailey to say, you know, best case scenario,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: he could be a really he could be close to
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Tracey McGrady.
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: How do you feel about that? I like a the
• 53:15
  Speaker 6: Bailey's game. I actually want to see him in and
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: play this year. The kid has tremendous upside, smooth about
• 53:22
  Speaker 6: six six seven, six eight, got a nice shot.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: Tough shot maker.
• 53:26
  Speaker 6: You gotta be a tough shot maker if you want
• 53:28
  Speaker 6: to be compared to me, you got to be able
• 53:29
  Speaker 6: to make tough shots. And I think he he's going
• 53:31
  Speaker 6: to be able to developing that creativity off the dribble.
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: Needs to get better, but he has the potential most definitely.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: Obviously, you know you went straight out of the high
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: school to the league with the nil situation. Now you
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: know you do a lot of mentoring you around these kids.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: What's the advice that you give them?
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: With you know what I'm saying, you could possibly make
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: more money going back to school than being a first
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: round pick.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: You saying what would I do?
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: I know what you do it.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: I'm saying, what advice did you get the youngest man?
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: Honestly, I think you got to have people around you
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: that that understands finances, you know what I mean, because
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: given high school kids, you know, to five million dollars,
• 54:11
  Speaker 6: that's tough to have for them on their mental I
• 54:14
  Speaker 6: was eighteen years old coming out of high school, signed
• 54:17
  Speaker 6: a twelve million dollar deal, but I still kept my drive,
• 54:20
  Speaker 6: like I didn't let that effect where I wanted to
• 54:23
  Speaker 6: go with my game. And I think a lot of
• 54:25
  Speaker 6: these kids now, Man, I'm hearing them, it's like they
• 54:28
  Speaker 6: feel like they made it.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: When they get their money, bro, it takes a little
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: bit of that drive away.
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: And I don't think these kids have that same type
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: of drive or you know, and enthusiasm to reach the
• 54:42
  Speaker 6: highest level of basketball within themselves. You know what I'm saying.
• 54:47
  Speaker 6: When they get this money, I think they lose a
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: little bit of that. And it's strong and important that
• 54:52
  Speaker 6: they have people around them that can understand the money
• 54:56
  Speaker 6: and what to do with it, but also keep them
• 54:58
  Speaker 6: level aheaded and keep them focused on the task that hand.
• 55:02
  Speaker 6: And that's improving as a basketball player because you nowhere
• 55:05
  Speaker 6: near where you're going to be in five to ten
• 55:07
  Speaker 6: years definitely.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: And you talk about this all the time because Seee
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: is a coach, right now then I Yo, it looks good,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: but it could stunch your growth. Where you you get
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: this money now, you can jeopardize some money later. But
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: it's crazy how y'all talk about as professionals, but they
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: take advice from other people who ain't even got to
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that level yet. It's like they forget the main thing.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Like the goal is to make it to the NBA.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Like that's the goal. I tell all the kids that
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I come in contact with, like, Okay, you can get
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: this money. That's great, you can help your family right now.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: But the goal is to make it to the league.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Like two million dollars. Believe it or not, it go
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: kind of yeah, it's not a lot. I used to
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: think people was crazy when they said that. I'm like,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: two million dollars, you crazy, I'd be good for life.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: But in that world it goes kind of quick though.
• 55:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're trying to keep up with the Joneses. Then
• 55:53
  Speaker 5: when you run out your money, then your family looking
• 55:55
  Speaker 5: at you like what's the next? Now you even to
• 55:57
  Speaker 5: fuck your whole self up in your career, so I'll
• 55:59
  Speaker 5: get it.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be the first thing is they take care
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: of everybody.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: Else with that money.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: They stressed out and now they don't get no more money.
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: It's scary, man, It's a scary situation, you know what
• 56:07
  Speaker 6: I mean, because these guys are so fragile, and it's
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: glorified on social media, so that's all they see. Yeah,
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: they're consuming all this information being social media, and they thing, damn,
• 56:21
  Speaker 6: I'm getting this money. Like I got a lot of
• 56:22
  Speaker 6: money in my pocket. I'm rich now, Nah, bro you
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: you ain't nowhere near that. You can blow that shit tomorrow.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Now you talked about you came into the league at eighteen,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, got you some chicken, but
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: now you're responsible. But what was your first like wild
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: out purchase? Was like, all right, I'm on that today.
• 56:38
  Speaker 6: My first wild out purchase. Honestly, my wife like because
• 56:46
  Speaker 6: listen on, look man, man, look, let me explain. All right,
• 56:52
  Speaker 6: let me explain. Let me explain.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: So I'm crazy, like you married. Yeah, you broke bread,
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: broke bread. Let me tell you so, I always like
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: Biggie was my favorite artist.
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: Back then, and Biggie used to talk about Lexus land Cruiser. Okay,
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: so I always wanted a Lexus land Cruiser.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: Bro.
• 57:21
  Speaker 6: So when I graduated high school, I drove to Raleigh,
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: cause that's I was in Durham, North Carolina.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: I drove to Raleigh.
• 57:28
  Speaker 6: I'm at the Lexus JYP dealership looking to get my
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: land Cruiser. I see this this female that's the receptionist.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: I was like, damn.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: So I had to go talk to him to see
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: what's up.
• 57:41
  Speaker 6: After that, this is the time where before the draft,
• 57:44
  Speaker 6: I'm driving. I'm going around touring all my teams. Man,
• 57:48
  Speaker 6: so I got connected with her. The Bulls are playing,
• 57:51
  Speaker 6: we go to dinner, watching the NBA Finals. I felt like,
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: this is gonna be my wife.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Bro.
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: I'm traveling from city to city, calling her on the
• 58:01
  Speaker 6: on the flight, on my flight checking in. That's when
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: they had phones on the plane. So I'm swiping my
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: credit card calling this woman. This was nineteen ninety seven, fan,
• 58:12
  Speaker 6: it's what twenty twenty five?
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: Still married as four years later? So yeah, louis.
• 58:22
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: Invest him ninety seven ninety seven? Dog ow old? Was
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: he ten ninety seven? How old are you?
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: I'm thirty seven ninety seven. I was seven, Yeah, I
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: was ten. Now I gotta ask a questions. Did you
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: still buy the car? I still bought the car?
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah?
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Where is it that now, Oh, I sold it out.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: That's just man. That motherfucker probably crushed somewhere in the
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: junk yards.
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: I wanted to ask you, did you and Vince ever
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: have any one on one matchups?
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: Nah? Never?
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: Nah, we didn't.
• 58:55
  Speaker 5: Where did uh tell me about your one on one league?
• 58:57
  Speaker 6: Man?
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: How that's so?
• 58:58
  Speaker 6: I started my one on one in twenty twenty two,
• 59:01
  Speaker 6: and it's really just based off of my story and
• 59:06
  Speaker 6: how I got to where. You know, I ended up
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: being nineteen ninety six junior in high school, one of
• 59:13
  Speaker 6: the best players in Central Florida. No one really knew
• 59:16
  Speaker 6: about me and outside of my region. This guy from
• 59:20
  Speaker 6: Adidas comes to my high school and he has a
• 59:25
  Speaker 6: camp that wants me to attend.
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: This camp.
• 59:28
  Speaker 6: I go to ABCD. We all know about the ABCD camp.
• 59:32
  Speaker 6: Lamar odam top high school players. I make a name
• 59:35
  Speaker 6: for myself on this platform, right, It's not that anything
• 59:39
  Speaker 6: changed about me. It's just a platform that I got
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: on and they created, you know, some buzz for me.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: Ended up being the number one player in the country. Well,
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: for these kids.
• 59:51
  Speaker 6: Out here that it is being overlooked, probably had some
• 59:56
  Speaker 6: you know, turbulent times on their journey. Basketball who knows
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 6: somebody in the family probably died.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: He had to step up as a man and take
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: care of the family. You just don't know what their
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: role was.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 6: For these cats, I wanted to create a platform for
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 6: those type of dudes that get overlooked. And one on
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 6: one basketball is not for everybody. It's a lot of
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 6: talent out there, Jeff. You know it's some cats on
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 6: your block where you come from, nice as hell at
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 6: one on one so and to me, we all grew
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 6: up playing one on one basketball.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: That's the pure essence of our sport.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 6: So creating that that that foundation for these guys, that platform.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 6: I wanted to create stars through one on one basketball.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 6: And that's what OBL is really about, just really giving
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 6: guys another chance, giving them.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: A hope to live out their dreams. Because we all
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: come from places. It's like such and such could have
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: made it. But such a such could have did this,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: but so from somebody else, have another outlet, maybe not
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: the most traditional roud because you never know what they
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: got going on, but a chance to make it to
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: feed their family from basketball. That's always a good look show.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: So check us out.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 6: OBL started a YouTube channel week We're going on five
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 6: part series right now. We got four souls out and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 6: you can see what I'm doing with these guys. Man,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 6: they I think they appreciate that. We need to come comment.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 6: Tell you one of them, bro, y'all come do it, bro,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 6: I want to comment.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Let's come out here acting food. Next one, I'm for
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: real sal pull up all right, so WAC love that?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: So most definitely man make some moist team at one
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: time for the one time Mac wear.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: Them drums, Mat and Neal size boy and they ain't
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: thaying and that little pouch should I walk around the
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 5: beach with them?
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 6: Walk around the beach? Well, that's on you saying, don't
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 6: shirt on with just these just the drowns?
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: Are you out of podcast?
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: On the respect man, y'all wearing them boxes for Showman
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: on top of mobawke you.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: Doing your appreciate y'all? Yeah, give it up, give it up,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: give it up again?
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 6: Club five twenty Okay on the big stage, I was
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 6: holding it down.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: Hey, I don't know what they're doing, but hey, don't worry.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 8: Be back here one forty five for the shub park
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 8: Off podcast with Cee see Sabathia.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: We're gonna be going all day, all week.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: The volume