Latest / In Search Of Excellence / Matt Barnes: Why Success Is Built on Failure, Resilience, and Hard Work | E152

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Matt Barnes: Why Success Is Built on Failure, Resilience, and Hard Work | E152 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Matt Barnes: Principal didn't believe you on the KKK tried to burn down your school. My sister comes to me again for the second time, crying with a couple of her girlfriends, and I can see the spit in her hair. And I'm like, what happened? She's like, you know, this boy called me a nick spit on me, and I got my hands on him, and I heard him while I'm suspended, they come and vandalize a school, hang a mannequin from the oak tree with my football jersey on a diet, watched it goes everywhere. The one thing that I was so thankful for was that she got to see me play. She was on the other end of, you know, for me to get an opportunity,
• 0:29
  Randall Kaplan: you didn't really tear up when you're back there in your hometown and, you know, you got your kids
• 0:33
  Matt Barnes: there. It's bittersweet, Randy, to be honest with you, because I've always been someone that nothing was ever handed to me. I didn't necessarily feel like I earned that ring because I got hurt going into the playoffs. So I shot the ball three or four seconds left, and after I hit it, there was 1.1 so I actually, I technically shot the ball so early. But the funny part was, and, you know, I went there and I saw these guys kind of collapsing on me,
• 1:02
  Randall Kaplan: walk, Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, entertainers, athletes, motivational speakers and trailblazers of excellence, with incredible stories from all walks of life. My name is Randall Kaplan. I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in all areas of our lives. My guest today is my friend Matt Barnes. Matt is a former professional basketball player who spent 14 seasons in the NBA. He's been an NBA analyst for ESPN Fox and NBC Sports. Is the co host of the very popular podcast all the smoke is the subject of the incredible documentary revolution, and is the star of the reality TV show the Barnes bunch. Matt is also the founder of athletes versus cancer, which he started after losing his mother to the disease 17 years ago. Matt, thanks for being here. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thank you for having me. Long time coming. We've been trying to connect for a while.
• 1:53
  Randall Kaplan: I'm glad we were able to well, I'm super excited for you to be here. Yeah, let's start with your family. You were born in San Jose, biracial family. Dad, Henry was black. Mom, Ann was white. You grew up very poor on food stamps. You had holes in your socks and shoes. Talk to us about the night you were seven years old looking out the window and what you saw with these undercover cops and what happened with your family at that point. You guys did your research, huh? Yeah, I was, you know, very mixed neighborhood.
• 2:23
  Randall Kaplan: Growing up in San Jose, black father, Italian mom, and my dad was a provider. Mom was a stay at home mom. So my dad would be a butcher by day, and in the evenings, he would hit the streets and, you know, sell drugs and make ends meet for our family the particular night you were talking about
• 2:43
  Matt Barnes: two guys that you know was working for him, came to the house and tried to rob us, and in the window, literally, as a child, I see my dad beat up two guys and take guns from both of them. And very shortly after that, we packed the family up and headed to Sacramento.
• 3:03
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back, because the two guys arrived.
• 3:06
  Randall Kaplan: Your dad were cops, undercover cops, and so I read the story about how he took their guns from it's kind of hard if two guys are pointing guns at them to actually take guns train police officers both. Then I think he beat the shit out of him
• 3:20
  Unknown: as well. Yes, my dad, man, grew up tough without love, and I didn't realize that until a lot older, you know, my dad and I didn't really see eye to eye until my mom passed. And I'm sure we'll get there at some point. So my dad was just one of those guys, obviously, in the 80s, it was, you know, less about guns and more just kind of about fighting, and that was something he thrived in. You know, we would go to the flea markets on the weekends, and probably three out of the four times we went we, you know, he would get in the fight. So it was something he enjoyed to do, I guess, as a pastime. And, yeah, I mean, literally, I'm sitting, I'm sitting in the curtain. So for me to this black stage right here, I'm kind of seeing what's going on. And did you hear the commotion? No, we'll just we I went to the wind. You know, I'm following my dad around, so I went to the window, and he was an unexpected not sisters are with my sister, but my sister. So if I'm so, my sister's maybe three or two.
• 4:10
  Unknown: She's two years older than my brother, yeah, so my sister's about five. So just following my dad around and peeking through the window, being a nosy kid, and just kind of seeing all this happen so fast, and the fact that he was able to do that unscathed was
• 4:26
  Randall Kaplan: crazy. Did you know at some point your dad was,
• 4:29
  Matt Barnes: I didn't really understand big drug dealer. I mean, not huge, you know, I think you know when, when, when, you know when you're younger, everything is bigger than life.
• 4:36
  Matt Barnes: He wasn't necessary. He was kind of a he was, you know, under several people. But you know, when you're smaller, everything is bigger than life. You know what I mean. So I didn't necessarily know what he was doing. But what I do remember growing up in the 80s. I was born, literally in 1980 that we always had the party house, you know? I mean, so there would be, you know, my parents were functioning drug addicts or. Or, you know, use drug functioning.
• 5:00
  Matt Barnes: Yeah, drug addicts may be the word. So we, oh, I saw a lot at an early age. I saw, obviously, it being used and sold and but didn't necessarily understand the magnitude, because it was all I know. So I kind of thought it was normal
• 5:15
  Randall Kaplan: when you're five years old. What kind of kid are you back then in that day? Um,
• 5:19
  Unknown: I'm a kid that's outside all the time. You know, I have a five just turned six, and he doesn't, you know, kids don't go outside anymore, which is unfortunate for several reasons. But I'm outside playing from the time I get out of school until, you know, right before it starts to get dark, and a bunch of neighborhood kids and just in the mischief, you know, we're playing in the creek and we're hopping the fence over by the freeway. We're playing football, we're playing tag, we're riding bikes. So just just, I think, a normal five year old kid in the 80s, the night
• 5:48
  Randall Kaplan: of the beat up the undercover cop stash, you guys ran into u haul, yes, you moved to Sacramento, yeah, back then it was basically all white, mostly white, cow town, farm town, yeah, and you're eight years old, you're in the third grade, you get to this all white school, and then a lot of racism happens. You tell us about a
• 6:08
  Unknown: ton of racism. First of all, when I get to this new school, I don't obviously understand that where I was coming from, I guess the the education wasn't up to par, because I went to this new school and I went from it was, I think it was second grade or third grade, back to the kindergarten class. So I'm this big old kid with little, tiny kids, and I'm seeing my classmates go to recess, and I'm in there writing my letters. I'm like, What the hell is going on in here? You know what I mean?
• 6:32
  Unknown: So obviously, educationally, I wasn't up to par When I got to here, when I got to Sacramento, but yeah, racism from the jump, unfortunately and for me again, being Italian and black, I grew up in a very mixed, biracial area in San Jose, so when we came to Sacramento, My neighborhood was still mixed, but the schools that my parents put me and I went to two elementary schools, Cambridge, heights and Charles Peck, they were predominantly white, and I never understood at The time. I never liked it. I never understood until I got older, I think, why they did it. But racism from the jump, so eight, nine years old, being called nigger and not being allowed to play particular games. And I was just like, I was I was devastated, because I'm just like, what? Like, I love sports, love being outside, but I wasn't able to play these games because of the color of my skin.
• 7:21
  Randall Kaplan: When was the first time you heard that word, um, what did you do when you heard it?
• 7:25
  Unknown: I didn't really know what to do at first, you know, I chased the kids around. I remember the first time it was what it meant first. I didn't really know what it meant, to be honest with you. I mean, again, it wasn't something that was flying around, because I was in in my old neighborhood. There was, you know, Vietnamese, there was blacks, there was Mexicans that, you know, there was kind of a rainbow of kids. So not necessarily knowing what it means, but I knew it was something bad because the kids were laughing, and when they said it, they would run. So I would just chase them and try to catch them. And it got so bad that I was fighting often and getting in trouble at this new school and getting suspended.
• 7:59
  Unknown: And I would, you know, and I finally told my parents what was going on. And my mom was a consoler and wanted to love and, yeah, well, it got there because of what I'm about to tell you.
• 8:11
  Unknown: But my dad is, is old school, and, you know, disrespect is met with combat, you know what I mean? So my dad would say, you know, they call you nigga, fight him. And my mom would, no, that's not there. But I always looked up to my dad from that standpoint. So I started getting in fights to kind of just, I guess, demand my respect at a young age. I didn't know I was demanding my respect, but obviously, you know, in hindsight, looking back, that's what I was doing. And I was getting in so many fights that my mom finally started coming to the school, and she would watch me on my breaks. So, you know, we had a little 15 minute break.
• 8:43
  Unknown: We'd have lunch, and then it'd be a 15 minute break before school got out. So she would be there during recess. And again, you know, charismatic, loving, loved kids. And you know, I think maybe after a year or two of her just kind of coming to make sure I stay out of mischief, they gave her a job as a yard duty. So she started off kind of just watching us as breaking at recess and ended up being a special ed teacher before she ended up passing.
• 9:10
  Randall Kaplan: The first time you had dinner at a seated table was with a white family, yes. So tell us about that experience and how you were feeling as somebody who had never had that.
• 9:20
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah,
• 9:20
  Unknown: I didn't, you know, again, I didn't know what I was missing or what was going on, because to me, it was the norm in San Jose. Everyone was pretty similar. But when I started going to these schools, and after I kind of had to fight my way to acceptance, I thought it was a pretty cool, fun loving kid, you know what I mean. So I started hanging out with some of these kids and really becoming close to some of them. And, you know, being able to go to their houses and seeing their have multiple cars and their own room and video games like all this is new to me. Like I didn't grow up with any of this. So, yeah, the first time I actually sat down at a family dinner table was with a friend of mine, Jeff and his family. And, you know, they had all the. Food in the middle and past this and past that, I'm just like, oh, okay, cool.
• 10:05
  Randall Kaplan: I have a scholarship student who was raised in foster care, and when I gave her the scholarship, it was in for my grandmother, who was raised in foster care as well. So we it was hard to actually get her to come to the restaurant, because she thought I was one of these guys online trying to kidnapping, yeah, but we, I was working with the guidance counselor, and again, nothing good had happened to her before ever I call her, you know, get a free ride to Michigan. It's
• 10:33
  Matt Barnes: hard to understand the goal. Really, oh yeah, yeah.
• 10:37
  Matt Barnes: Hung up on me,
• 10:37
  Randall Kaplan: yeah. Didn't believe it. So I had to call the principal of the school, and it was a whole thing to get her to have a phone call, and it was a whole thing to get her to drive to one hour drive from University of Michigan or from high school. She was actually in Lansing, living in her car. And then she brought this guy to dinner, a fancy dinner. She never in a restaurant before, so she looking around and didn't know how to use the fork or knife, and you could tell it's very intimidating for did you feel intimidated?
• 11:07
  Matt Barnes: I just kind of followed the lead, obviously, being a kid, I didn't put that much thought into it, as if I was introduced to it, maybe as a teenager. But, you know, just kind of follow the lead of my friend and his brother and the family was great. They accepted me, you know what I mean? And you know, one thing that was just tough for me was my parents fought a lot, and it was a way for me to kind of escape the noise and escape the violence and the yelling and the abuse.
• 11:34
  Matt Barnes: So I often kind of again, once I kind of found my acceptance, I would find friends that wouldn't mind me staying the whole weekend. Sometimes, you know, I would come home after school with them Friday and not, you know, go to school with them Monday morning and then go back to school, excuse me, then go home after that. So I was kind of always looking for a better opportunity. I guess I got a, you know, a taste out of the better life, and it was something that kind of really piqued my interest and I enjoyed. We love
• 12:03
  Randall Kaplan: our parents for better or for worse, most of us, yeah, they have floss, yes, bad flaws. Your dad was very violent towards your mom. He beat your mom, was arrested twice and went to jail twice. Yeah, it was, how did Did you ever see your dad beat your mom and what? What was your reaction when you know, physical with her? Luckily
• 12:19
  Matt Barnes: I didn't see I would hear it, because I would be, you know, up in my room at night when they would I would always hear the argument like this, yes, like covering, covering my head, or sometimes even getting under my bed and just kind of hoping that this would just stop, you know what I mean? And, and, you know, the more you grow, the more you just kind of understand the dynamics.
• 12:39
  Matt Barnes: And it just sucked. You know what I mean? And again, I didn't really get to crack into my dad, into his mental until my mom passed. You know, my mom, it'll it was, it was 17 years ago, probably, like a week ago, that she had passed from cancer. And when she had passed, I was in the NBA at the time, right the beginning of a season, and it was the first time that, you know, I saw my dad cry. It was the first time that He kind of broke down and apologized to me my brother and sister, and my sister was kind of the first one to kind of dig into, you know, kind of his, his, his, his childhood, and understand that, you know, he was beat by his mom and fed dog food and had to sleep on the floor like he had a terrible upbringing. So looking at that situation and being a little bit older, like obviously, you know you forgive and you forget and you forgive, you never forget. But you know, to me, it was never too late to be a father, because I felt like at that point, when I lost my mom, that I was gaining a dad, because he was starting to open up to me for the first time my life at 27 and just kind of understanding the childhood trauma and abuse he had gone through, and he had tried just transfer that to, you know, his family.
• 13:48
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back to high school, and we're as males.
• 13:53
  Randall Kaplan: I'm not being chauvinistic about this. We want to protect our sisters or our family friends, every family, I mean, not female, but it's usually not the female beating up the male, protecting the female. Yeah.
• 14:05
  Randall Kaplan: Your sister had two incidences, yes, you know, she was riding her bike, and someone called her bad word again. And then the senior year, someone spit on her, yeah, and so you took matters into your own hands again, yeah. Second time you did that, you got suspended for six days. Principal didn't believe you had the KKK tried to burn down your school. Walk us through that whole incident. And again, as a as a teenager, getting a lot of fights. What are you thinking at that point?
• 14:33
  Randall Kaplan: Well,
• 14:34
  Matt Barnes: luckily, the fights had kind of stopped after Elementary School. I mean, they were here and there, sprinkled in through just kind of what kids do in the neighborhood or at school. But I was a senior. I was literally two months away from going to UCLA, you know, a star. Yeah, I was the All American football player, all American basketball player. Just really excited about what was next. You know, being from, pretty much from a small town in Sacramento, I hadn't seen much.
• 15:00
  Matt Barnes: You know what I mean? So just excited about the opportunity.
• 15:03
  Matt Barnes: And my sister comes to me again for the for the second time. The first time she told me, you know, go tell the principal, go tell this, and hopefully they'll handle it. They didn't. So the second time she comes to me, I'm a senior, and I have an open fourth so I'm done after my third period. So she comes and finds me and is crying with a couple of her girlfriends, and I can see the spit in her hair, and I'm like, what happened?
• 15:22
  Matt Barnes: She's like, you know, this like, you know, this boy called me a nigger and spit on me. And I just saw red. I didn't really know, I didn't know how to, kind of and unfortunately for him, he was walking past. And, you know, I did what any big brother would do, you know? I mean, I got my hands on them and I heard him.
• 15:42
  Matt Barnes: And after that, we were dragged to the principal's office. And as I'm explaining, with my the spit still in my sister's hair, like this kid's been harassing my sister, calling her racial slurs, literally spit on her.
• 15:51
  Matt Barnes: Nah, his dad's a prominent they didn't believe us. His dad's a prominent lawyer in this city.
• 15:57
  Matt Barnes: He wasn't raised that way. And I'm just like so you see the spit, you know that I'm probably the biggest athlete to ever come out of the school outside of dusty Baker, two months away from going to UCLA, and you think, I'm just gonna beat this kid up for no reason. So pretty much, that's how they took it.
• 16:15
  Matt Barnes: Absolutely no support from them while I'm suspended. You know, they come and vandalize the school, hang a mannequin from the oak tree with my football jersey on a die. Nigger swastikas everywhere burned down a bathroom. And it was, it was crazy. The NAACP came out from LA to come down and support and for a while there was Rocky, you know, my, you know, they threatened to kill me, so we had moved to just a different area, and had around the clock security for a little while. And it was, it was really just an eye opening experience. And I think what was most hurtful about it was that I didn't have the support of a school that I kind of put on my back. You know what I mean? I did everything for that school, and, you know, dominated in football and dominated in basketball, and I think the one time I needed them outside of sports, I was met with we
• 17:08
  Randall Kaplan: don't believe you be different today.
• 17:11
  Randall Kaplan: Absolutely, way different. No one could get away with throwing bananas on the basketball. Tell us about the bananas on the court and what that was even about you're at a visiting Castle
• 17:23
  Matt Barnes: Rob I remember Castle Robles is a it was kind of a more heavy populated white cowboy area in the city, out right outside the city in Orangeville, and we're at this game, and next thing I know, I'm shooting free throws, and these guys are shaking Bananas. And then I kind of look around, because I'm obviously locked into the game, and there's kids throughout the kind of the place that have bananas, and I'm just like, like, what's going on right now? You know, this is 1997 so this is pre phones, kind of pre, like, you had to be there to see it, you know what I mean? And it was just, it hurt, but I didn't allow it to be hurt. It was more fire. And actually, after that game, my dad and I almost got in a fight with some of the kids that were wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hats that had the bananas like they thought that they can continue to talk. And that definitely wasn't gonna happen with me. But I got my fire from my dad, so we were ready to, you know, fight these five or six kids at this school until, you know, the police kind of intervened. But it was, unfortunately, in certain areas, it was, it was normal. People are taught to hate. They're not born. Yeah, absolutely, it's a taught trait, just like love is a taught trait. And unfortunately, not, you know, we saw it years before I came around. We I saw it as a teenager, and unfortunately, we still see it, you know, to this day. So it's it's a hard thing to swallow, you know what I mean? And me, not only did I get it from the white side, I would get it from the black side too, because I wasn't white enough for the white kids, and I wasn't black enough for the black kids.
• 18:55
  Matt Barnes: And I love my dad. His answer was to fight. You want your respect, you got to go get it.
• 19:02
  Matt Barnes: And I had to fight kids for calling me white boy. Black kids call me white boy, or white kids calling me nigger. So it was just a constant until I had fought enough that people understand, Okay, well, maybe we could still be racist or mess with people. Just don't mess with him, you know, I mean, because I had to, you know, I had to fight often.
• 19:20
  Randall Kaplan: Growing up, you saw a lot of drugs on a regular basis, coke, crack, crank marijuana, and you tried marijuana for the first time when you were 14 years old.
• 19:30
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. Explain how that happened and how it took off from there, my
• 19:34
  Matt Barnes: dad was again a provider, so he would work his long days or and work his nights, but he he was a cigarette smoker, and I remember I hated the smell of cigarettes, but I remember maybe the age of five or six, he was smoking something that didn't stick, like it didn't smell like cigarettes, and it would kind of just peak like, what's that smell as a little kid?
• 19:53
  Matt Barnes: Obviously, you know, not trying to as a little kid, but I would see it. He would smoke his little joints, and I'd just be like, I kind. Like that smell, obviously, much more than the cigar. I hate to this day. I'm a cannabis advocate. Smoke a lot of cannabis. I've never tried a cigarette one time or any of the heavier drugs. But, you know, cannabis piqued my interest at maybe I hate to even say it like 567, years old, because I like the way it smelled. And then fast forward to 14 years old.
• 20:18
  Matt Barnes: You know, took some of my dad's weed and tried it, got a terrible headache, but I wasn't took it. He didn't give it to I took it on a joint in the drawer. Took a nut, yeah, took took it and went and smoked and got a terrible headache and passed out by yourself. No friend, no. A friend of mine, a friend of mine, Jesse was with me, a little white kid that lived down the street from me.
• 20:40
  Matt Barnes: So he had a little, little rat tail. But rat tails used to be cool back in the day, you know, we dipped off and smoked it, and it gave me a headache. I wanted to go to sleep, but I wasn't a quitter, you know what I mean?
• 20:49
  Matt Barnes: So I tried it, I tried it. I tried it a couple more times, and kind of found that it kind of just, it mellowed me out. It silenced the noise. It helped me sleep better, and it helped me focus. So from right there, I wouldn't say I was hooked, because obviously I didn't have the money to be hooked, but I would socially smoke with my friends. I had a lot of majority of my friends from high score white so again, with my upbringing, and I saw everything under the sun. So they started dabbling in cocaine, and they started popping norcos and all these other pills that it just didn't interest me. But whenever we would smoke, I'd be like, I'm all for that. Bullying
• 21:28
  Randall Kaplan: is a problem that now has become a prominent issue in high school. And you look at today, a lot of the mass murderers of these multi schedule events, mostly people were bullied Absolutely. So the stats say that 20% of the students in high school are bullied. I was bullied as a kid.
• 21:44
  Randall Kaplan: I stuttered. I couldn't order in a restaurant who made fun of me, couldn't give a speech in class.
• 21:47
  Randall Kaplan: A lot of people who are bullied become bullies. How did that happen for you?
• 21:55
  Unknown: I wouldn't say I became a bully because I never looked for it, but I was just always ready for it if it happened, which is, I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I just kind of had a chip on my shoulder, you know, I was an underdog, you know, obviously all American football and basketball, but when you get to the big stage, I come out here to LA, I'm a, you know, I'm a small fish in a big pond, you know what I mean. So what is going to set me apart? How am I going to find time when I'm playing with five all Americans like, what is going to end? It was just that fire of trauma, abuse, racism, and I just think, you know, my parents raised a little dog, you know what I mean, I was outside from, I literally remember. I was thinking about this other day, like I played outside from, like, four or five years old until I went to college. You know, I was still, when I get home from school, in high school, I would still go out and find some hoop somewhere to hoop or, you know, go do something.
• 22:43
  Unknown: So I was just outside, and at that, you know, the the streets really raised me. And, you know, if you grow up outside, that's where you get, you know, your first kiss is out there, your first fights are normally in the neighborhood. You know, you play in the creek and you're building forts and you're climbing trees and you're so I was just one of those kids that grew up outside, and I think it all the stuff that happened to me, I kind of really hardened me. And it it really to me. It propelled me through college and allowed me to have an opportunity MBA, because, like I said, I was the one that wasn't supposed to make it. You know me. You had a we had the number one, the back to back recruiting classes for UCLA. 1997 class was, I think, to all Americans, but the number one recruiting class, and then my class had four McDonald's all Americans, and then me. So I was an all American, but these guys were higher ranked all Americans. They played in the big McDonald's game. But, you know, I was the one at all, both teams. My the sophomores that were sophomores when I was freshmen, like, I ended up, you know, having, you know, a longer career than all those guys. And I think it was just kind of my heart in the fire inside of me.
• 23:44
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back to high school. Freshman year of high school, or del campo High School, you play four sports, basketball, football, baseball and track, all American and football and basketball.
• 23:54
  Randall Kaplan: Football was
• 23:56
  Matt Barnes: your first my best sport. Yeah, first love and best sport. So,
• 24:00
  Randall Kaplan: and by the way, I've seen it. I've seen you play football. We were over my house one day for pickleball.
• 24:04
  Unknown: That's right, we were playing catch a little bit. I think
• 24:07
  Randall Kaplan: I'm pretty good.
• 24:07
  Randall Kaplan: You're throwing the ball around.
• 24:09
  Randall Kaplan: But man, remember your first pass? I think came in with, like, that, Whiz, yeah, see where I'm like, Holy shit, this guy hadn't even picked up a ball and, boom, there it is.
• 24:19
  Matt Barnes: Yeah, football, his talent? Yeah. God bless me with football. Football is what I played in the neighborhood early my dad was someone who was kicked out of the Marines and and and grinded his way to a try with the 40 Niners, and was one of the last cuts from the 84 team with Bill Walsh to the head coach so and then after that, that didn't work. He played in tackle leagues in the weekends and flag football leagues. So basketball didn't really spark my interest at all. You know, football was what we play. We play tackle on the grass. And then as we got a little bit older, we actually started playing tackle in the streets.
• 24:55
  Matt Barnes: So it was just, you grew up rough, you know, skinned up knees and elbow. And hips and everything. But it was just, I guess, a part of being the kids in the 80s, and as I continued to get bigger, I'm just like, okay, like, then I started getting stronger, and just football was easy to me. Like, basketball I picked up. Started taking basketball serious, probably seventh, eighth grade, because I kept getting bigger, but football was always my love and always my passion. Recruited to play both. But just by the time I was done growing, I didn't really see too many six, eight receivers in the NFL, and I just didn't know if there would be longevity there, so I chose basketball. But basketball was something I had to really, really, really work at to make At
• 26:31
  Randall Kaplan: what point did you realize, hey, I'm, I'm pretty good, and I'm probably better than everyone else I'm playing with.
• 26:37
  Matt Barnes: Well, I mean, I think to be able to get to UCLA, you have to be good, but great, yeah, I had to do a lot of learning there, you know. And this is before, like, I have obviously kids now, and, you know, they're training as young as six years old, you know. But back then, we didn't train, because in high school, like, I went from sport to sport. So there was never time to train.
• 26:53
  Matt Barnes: So, you know, just learning and understanding and watching and then obviously going to UCL. I think one of the greatest benefits, outside of how amazing the school is and the lifelong connections, was every summer, all the pros come up to the men's gym. So 17, just turned 18, and I'm out here in the summertime playing with COVID and Shaq and Paul Pierce and you name it, all these guys are in the gym on our campus. I'm like, holy shit. So that was kind of really like my crash course too.
• 27:20
  Matt Barnes: Okay, if you want to be able to play this next level, this is the level of competition. So I think we got a cheat code, because every summer, we were able to play against the best players in the world because they were on our campus, training and playing. You could just
• 27:35
  Randall Kaplan: kind of walk in there. So we, so we
• 27:38
  Matt Barnes: always played. We always played. No, we played as a team. So we would go in there as a team. So, you know, some we would play as a group, you know.
• 27:43
  Matt Barnes: So you got COVID on the other side, Shaq on the other side. So I've always, you know, Baron Davis and Earl Watson. When they would, they would, they would, they were our point guards, and they were our leader. So, you know, it'd be us, and, you know, then and a couple more guys, and we would go out there and we would hang we would definitely be able to hold our own, you know, I mean, we were a scrappy young team. And then my first year actually, was the 1998 NBA lockout. So as starting, I'm coming from Sacramento, small town. I'm in LA now, I get to play a little bit in the summer with these pros, and then the NBA goes into a lockout. And next thing I know, it's like, our games are like Leger games, you know? I mean, all the stars are coming to our games. Shaq and Kobe were coming to our games. Like the whole gym would stop when they would come in, they was just like, You know what? I mean, so it was kind of like a star studded event. But I'm like, damn, this is what LA is like, you know? I mean, like my first year, my crash course was, you know, we were the main center of attention and then the main attraction. Until the NBA started, we were out in the town, whooping it up and doing all we did. I'm not gonna lie, Randy, we were out there. We were having fun. I mean, I'm in Hollywood parties and going to premieres and meeting stars. And it was as fun as it was, I was still homesick my first year, so I'm trying to get home twice a month, you know, catch a ride with someone from NorCal. You know, you put on the bulletin boards anyone going up north, you know, in the dorms, and you'd find someone, and sometimes I'd ride with a stranger, you know, a student, but a stranger up north, I chip in on gas or, you know, you know, scrounge up enough money to buy a plane ticket, but I was still as much fun as I was having I was still homesick, because it just wasn't LA.
• 29:17
  Matt Barnes: Wasn't my lifestyle. You know what I mean? It became my lifestyle, but it wasn't my lifestyle to start.
• 29:24
  Randall Kaplan: We all have influence with people in our life that help shape our lives when we're younger. Could be mentors, coaches. Tell us about Steve Kenyon and the influence coach
• 29:33
  Matt Barnes: Kenya. He's my guy, man. I love Coach Kenyon, my football coach, and he was hard on me too, and that's what I appreciate. Actually pissed me off, because I should have been playing varsity as a sophomore, but he just wouldn't let me. He just wouldn't let me. But just a really good guy, hard nosed old school guy. He reminded me of Bud Kilmer from varsity blues, the coach from varsity blues, if anyone sees this go back in March, that was like my high school coach, just to it, great coach, great motivator. We always had really good teams, and he just took a liking to me, I think, because obviously I was so good. He saw something in me, and was just, you know, to this day, someone I still talk to, just golf with them in this past, you know, past summer. So Coach Kenyon is someone who will be near and dear to my heart when I actually won a championship with the Warriors.
• 30:18
  Matt Barnes: I retired after that year, so I wasn't there for the ring ceremony the beginning of the year. So the Warriors planned this ceremony for me to get my ring, and somehow they got a hold of coach Kenyon, and Coach Kenyon was the one that presented me my ring when I went back to Golden State and got my championship ring. So they surprise you that night. Yeah, Draymond called me out, but next thing I know, I'm like, What the fuck is Coach Kenyon doing out there? And he's the one, and I actually had bought rings for my twins too. So my twins are seven or eight at the time. And yeah, Coach Kenyon, you know, is the one that handed me my ring. So.
• 30:52
  Matt Barnes: It was perfect, special night too, as a 10 year anniversary of your mom's 10 year anniversary.
• 30:55
  Matt Barnes: Yeah, it was, a lot of things fell into place and it wasn't planned, which was crazy. You know, a lot of things fell into place that night. It happened to be the 10 year anniversary of my mom's death. My twins were there, young, young youngsters.
• 31:06
  Matt Barnes: They're 16 now, but I think they were seven or eight at the time.
• 31:10
  Matt Barnes: And, you know, to get the kind word from Draymond, and just, just to be able to be around those guys for a little while, it was dope. We're
• 31:18
  Randall Kaplan: gonna get to the championship and the ceremony.
• 31:21
  Randall Kaplan: But one thing that I noticed that I saw that video, it's, you didn't really tear up when you're back there in your hometown and you got your kids there and they're getting the rings. I mean, what? What were you feeling? You win the championship the year before, you're not playing, you go back and you sold out. You got it's
• 31:39
  Matt Barnes: bittersweet, Randy, to be honest with you, because I've always been someone that nothing was ever handed to me, and I've told this story before, but I didn't necessarily feel like I earned that ring because I got hurt going into the playoffs and I didn't really get a chance to play in the plays I had probably the worst in my entire career, the worst sprained ankle ever had. That thing ballooned up. I'm like, What is this like in the playoffs with a championship team, and my ankle is just a monster. I'm like, God damn. So I didn't even feel good until, like the Western Conference, I've played a few minutes here and there, and so it really but instead of, you know, obviously being an NBA vet at that time, you know, it's it's not, it's not an individual thing. It's not, it's not a time to pout. It was hard for me individually, but I would never show that. I would be in my practice, busting my ass and running, trying to get back in shape, making my ankle feel better, and then just being supportive for the guys, you know what I mean, to be there with Katie and Steph and clay and Dre and Iggy and all those guys and coach Kerr like, it was just such a dope environment to be in. So personally, it was really hard for me to accept that.
• 32:50
  Matt Barnes: Obviously, I'm almost eight years removed from that situation now. So obviously, now, when I look back, obviously my body of work, I think I deserved it, but I just thought in the moment that I didn't necessarily deserve that ring, because I kind of felt like I got a free pass. You know, I was court sized with the rest of the high paying people on the other side, watching this incredible team, night in, night out. Do what they do.
• 33:12
  Randall Kaplan: You had a productive career at UCLA, you made it to the Sweet 16 twice.
• 33:15
  Randall Kaplan: You Your coach was Steve Lavin, who you said, was a terrible coach,
• 33:21
  Matt Barnes: not maybe terrible might have been he just he was young. You know, lav was 30 when he got the job at UCLA. And you think about a 30 year old coach is normally in high school, or maybe even below that, but he's at a major institution at 30, and just he was learning with us, let's say that we were probably the most in shape. The one thing we didn't have to learn is how to run. He would run our asses to death, seventeens and nines, and we were definitely so 17. So a 17 is when you line up on one side the court, long way, but you go sideways, so you go 17 times and probably under a minute. So it's a really, it's a push, and then sometimes you would have to go nine sideways. Or if you do line drills, people know line drills, full core line drill. So we were probably the most in shape team in the country. I just felt in looking back and obviously talking like we didn't learn a ton from him. But I think again, what balanced that was being able to play in the summertime with all those pros, where it wasn't so much structure, you just got to go out there and hold your own. And I think that's what really helped our teams. We would have mediocre team on my freshman year team, I want to say we probably had six or seven pros, but we still never won a conference, never really made huge noise in the tournament, but it was still the college I say, outside of having kids, is, is, is the best. I put my college experience above my MBA experience, to be honest with you, because I have lifelong friends. Just loved UCLA to death, had a blast there. Let's
• 34:51
  Randall Kaplan: talk about going from college to the pros, and I'm going to start with some statistics now on the difficulty of doing that, there is roughly 500,000 high school basketball players, boys basketball players the United States at any one given time. Of these, roughly 16,000 will go on to play a college level that includes Division One, two and three. Of these 16,000 only 110 will ever play at least one NBA game.
• 35:17
  Randall Kaplan: That's a one in 3,333% chance point. Oh, 3% chance of getting there. Wow. So you got all these guys you coach right now, including your kids. We talked about a friend of our son. What are you telling these kids about the odds of make it? And how do you motivate them to keep going, to try to make it?
• 35:39
  Matt Barnes: You know, my thing is, is preparing these, these, these young men, you know, how do you be a productive young man and grow as a man and as an athlete, first and foremost? And then the other side I teach is the mental side. I'm so busy, I.
• 35:52
  Matt Barnes: Multiple hats and have a house full of kids, but also love coaching. I started coaching as soon as I retired. So, you know, I tell the parents, they got to get better on their own time as far as skill set, but when they come to me, I'm going to teach them the mental side of the game and how hard, because all those crazy numbers you say, not that some of those kids aren't good enough or the odds worked against them, but it's just a mental game. I've seen so many people better than me, and, you know, all stars, all Americans, that just never got an opportunity. And most of the time it's up here. You know, whether you, you know, you think you're a Kobe Bryant level score, or you think you're bigger than the Pro, where there's just a lot, there's so much shit that goes into it. So I say 90% of the game is mental.
• 36:29
  Matt Barnes: You know, once you get to that top level. And in whatever profession you're in, everyone could pretty much do everything.
• 36:35
  Matt Barnes: So what is going to allow you to either excel as a grow on to be a star, or just maintain in that league? And I just think it's your mindset and your approach to everything you do. And obviously, when you're younger, I got lucky where I came into when I came into the NBA, it was an older League. You know that there was bets that were, you know, I'm coming in at 2122 I got guys on my team that are 38 you know, 3840 years old. So whether they're playing or not, they're giving back to guys like me, helping me, you know, avoid pitfalls, and some of the horror stories you hear about the women are blowing all your money. So I came into a league that, you know, guys wrapped their arm around me, and one guy particularly was Chris Weber, you know, huge fan of Chris, big brother, almost a father figure to me in my earlier days of my NBA, because I wasn't really getting a chance to play. So I was, you know, debating, all right, I know I was really good at football. I'm gonna, I'm gonna start. And I would tell my agent, like, Hey, I'm gonna give this one more try. And I did it and I did it, and it didn't work. I'm gonna give this one more try, because I was in the NBA, I just wouldn't get a chance to play. And, you know, luckily, this one time, but one summer, this summer, so I played four years, and I didn't I played when I first started at the clippers, and then when I went to the kings, I went back to my hometown team, because I was playing there in the summertime with those guys, and I wanted to play with them, so I signed the deal there. But when I signed the deal there, Chris ends up getting traded to the 70 Sixers to play with Iverson, and I'm a throw in at that point, so I'm just I help fill out that trade. And when I go to Philly, I don't get any opportunity to play. So it's two years of cold weather and a lot of cannabis smoking, and I'm kind of doubting myself at that time, like I'm not getting any minutes. Am I good enough? What do I need to do to get out there? And Chris was someone who continued to just stay in my ear and encourage me to work. And I got a shooting coach, and I just put in a ton of work. And when I finally got a real opportunity to play that following year, I took advantage of it.
• 38:31
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back to draft night. So you're the 46th kick in the second round by the Memphis Grizzlies. Let's freeze frame it there before we go on from there. Was that a dream come true.
• 38:46
  Matt Barnes: To be honest with you, that night we had rented I befriended a guy that had a car dealership out there, and he used to give me some cars. He's moved on, rest in peace to Ray.
• 38:58
  Matt Barnes: So we're at his big old house pool, a bunch of people there, and I don't really know I worked out for a lot of teams, but I don't really know where I'm gonna get drafted, you know, I don't really have a sense of what's going on, you know, my agent says, you know, late first round, second round. So I'm like, okay, cool. First round comes, cool. So watching these pics, I mean, I'm watching, but, yeah, but I'm watching, but I'm acting like. I'm not like, you know, I'm just like, I don't want to seem like I'm pressed, you know what I mean, so I'm watching, but I'm not so your heart's beating out of your chest, yeah? Because I just the uncertainty, you know, maybe uncertainty. So I actually, you know, dip off at one point and smuggle joint, you know, like, I think it was after, like, the 33rd pick, 34th pick, and I'm seeing guys that I was better than and out played in college, and I'm thinking, like, Damn, what if I don't get drafted? How embarrassing? Like, I'm thinking, like, if I don't get drafted, how embarrassing is it going to be that all these people came out to support me, and lo and behold, the 46 pick to Memphis was a huge exhale.
• 40:00
  Matt Barnes: But then, as soon as I got picked, I was traded for Wesley person, and I forgot one other person. So I went from Memphis to Cleveland draft night, and from there,
• 40:13
  Randall Kaplan: you go to the D league, explain what the D league is, talk about the glamor and the 10 hour bus ride,
• 40:20
  Matt Barnes: no such thing. So I go to Cleveland and John Lucas, I still hurt a little bit because I just feel like he didn't give me an opportunity. I felt like I had a solid training camp, and even other guys on the team, you know, were super surprised, like, show like, when I got cut, I got cut maybe 10 days, two weeks in the training camp. And, you know, I'm getting hit up by veterans on the team, like, Girl, I can't believe they let you go. Like you did your thing, man, keep your head up.
• 40:45
  Matt Barnes: You know, you'll be back up here one day. So from there, I go back home, and it's, it's a huge. Bear Smith, you know, I mean, because I was supposed to be the one that made it, although I wasn't supposed to be the one that made it, I showed that I could make it so. And then, you know, I get drafted, and everyone thinks, oh, you're an instant millionaire. Like it.
• 41:02
  Matt Barnes: It doesn't work that way. So I get cut maybe two weeks into training camp, and then I get opportunity to go to the D league. This is before it was the G League. It was the second year in existence. So it was the NBA minor league program, kind of like a farm system for baseball, and it's obviously a lot bigger now, but when I got there, it was the second year.
• 41:18
  Matt Barnes: So I'm in Fayetteville, North Carolina. J Cole is from there, but I was back there when, before anyone knew what Fayetteville North Carolina was.
• 41:24
  Matt Barnes: And the funny part about it was, it was a it was a military or an army town or military, I'm not exactly sure what, but there was a big thing was an army base there, and there was always fights on the weekends. And I'd be like, Yo, why are they? Why is there always fights? And they're just like, you know, well, these guys are coming back home, and their women have been out running the streets, and then the husbands come home, and it's just when I tell you, every single time I went out, I saw two or three fights, I'm like, damn, this is crazy. So long story short, man, I'm grinding there, playing well. The coach has a son that went to North Carolina that was a highly touted all American, and I beat him out in training camp. I feel like I'm the best player on the team. I'm playing really well, but then I get hurt, and when I get hurt, it opens up the door for his son to come in and start and then once I got healthy, I was playing spot minutes, so I was looking at the G league or the D league as a pit stop. But you know, while we're there, we're staying in run down hotels and bus ride, nasty eight hour, 10 hour bus rides. If we did fly, it'd be like the La Bamba plane, like I'd rather walk than be on some of these planes that they had put us on. So it was just the early inception of the league, and it was, it was nasty, but really, that was what, you know, kind of sparked, really lit the fire in me, I guess, to be like, you know, I know I'm better than this. I know I can be on that next level. I just have to show it.
• 42:46
  Matt Barnes: So unfortunately, I didn't really get a chance to show it there. I showed it the first half of the season, I got hurt, and I didn't really play the much in the second half of the season, I the season the following summer. No teams are really biting. So I have to go to something called the ABA, I think is called a team in Long Beach. So this is where, you know, we're going to Juarez Mexico to play games. And as if the Long Beach jam, Long Beach jam, what a name Long Beach gym, going to Juarez, Mexico, and just all these oddball little gyms, terrible gyms to play in.
• 43:18
  Matt Barnes: Actually, our gym was cool, though we played in the pyramid at Long Beach State, but all the other gyms were nasty, and this is where Dennis Rodman and I first crossed paths, because he's trying to get back in the NBA. So one day, next thing, I'm like, Dennis Rodman walks into practice. I'm like, What the fuck is Dennis Rodman doing here with his with his pit bull and his entourage and the coach, like, Hey guys, we got a new player. I'm like, what Dennis Rodman? So Dennis is there, but unfortunately, I'm only with Dennis for, like, probably a week and a half, because I'm playing really well. I'm putting up big numbers. And, you know, once Dennis got there, I probably played maybe two or three games with Dennis, and then I got called up to the clip. To the Clippers for a 10 day and a 10 day contract is pretty much a tryout. You get 10 days to kind of show what you're worth. And my first 10 days went really good, played well. Then I got a second 10 day. Played well. And then after the second 10 They'd either have to let you go or sign you for the rest of the year. And luckily, Mike Dunleavy was the Head Head Coach of the Clippers at that time, decided to sign me for the rest of the year, and then that's when my journey
• 44:16
  Randall Kaplan: started. So you went to the kings the next year.
• 44:19
  Randall Kaplan: So
• 44:19
  Matt Barnes: that was a wrong move, to be honest with you. So I played with the clippers, and, you know, Mike Dunley gave me a huge opportunity, and I was playing a lot, and I should have stayed there. They wanted to re sign me for the minimum, but I'm from Sacramento, and keep in mind, this is the time when the Lakers and the kings are going at it. So I'm at UCLA, you know, born and raised a Laker fan, inherited the Kings because I moved there, so I'm kind of representing sac. You know, everyone's talking shit, and it's a big thing with COVID and Webb and all the Shaq and all these guys. So, but every summer when I'm not at UCLA, I'm going home, and Chris has me come up to the kings facility. So I'm training with these pros every you know, strength training and hanging out and, you know, getting to know him better. And Jason Williams at the time, then they traded Jay Whalen, got Mike Bibby, so I'm hanging out with all these guys. So after my first season with the clippers, I don't spend it in LA like I'm excited. I made it. I want to go home and blow the money I made and but while I'm training, I'm training at this facility. So, you know, Rick Adelman had asked me, like, what was going on? I was like, you know, there's some interest from the clippers. He's like, I really like what you've done this summer here. You know, everyone's been raving about the kind of person you're on, how hard you work. He's like, you want an opportunity to play here? And I'm just like, hell yes, I'm, you know, get a chance to play for my hometown team. So season comes. I'm backing up pages, still out COVID, just one of the greatest shooters of all time, but I'm still getting solid minutes. I'm getting, you know, 15 to 20 minutes a game until they decide to trade Chris, and they try to decide to trade Chris, I think, right before the all star break. So maybe. Be late January, early February, and I was heartbroken, heartbroken because, again, I'm playing for my hometown team. My family's coming to the game every night. I'm playing, I'm playing on a good team, and then all of a sudden, you know, I find out I'm a part of the trade that sent me, or excuse me, that sent Chris to Philly. And, you know, for two years it was tough out there. The
• 46:16
  Randall Kaplan: first game playing for the Kings, you had 17 points and I rebounds. How good did that feel?
• 46:22
  Matt Barnes: It felt great, you know, like I said, I put the work in, I genuinely put the work in, and had great mentors and older players around me that were encouraging me. And I just felt like, Man, what a dream come true to be able to come home and play for my hometown team. But this is where my hometown team is still a really good team. So it was just, you know, I stepped I remember that game was at Dallas too, and I, you know, Rick trusted me, and, you know, I knew what I had to do, and I went out there and played
• 46:46
  Randall Kaplan: well. He said you had to audition every single day for that role. Don't people in the real world have to do that as well? And aren't we only as good as we were yesterday, only
• 46:59
  Matt Barnes: as good as your last game? So when I said that, what I meant by that was because I was on one year deals, you know. So every, you know, I had to every night, not only was I playing for my team, but I was playing for the rest of the league to kind of see what kind of player i was. And again, I think I made a huge mistake by going to the kings, because they kind of got me on the carousel of, you know, obviously moving out to Philly, and then when you don't play, I think the thin line between having a long career, obviously, is a lot of mental but it's just opportunity. And I didn't get any opportunity in Philly, one of the coaches was mo cheeks, and he was an asshole, and kind of made it his goal to kind of fuck with me. Fuck with me, and that almost ended really bad for him. But, you know, I'm so I play with the clippers on a 10 day half the season, and then I take a jump to Sacramento, and I'm playing the first half of the season, then I don't play at all when I go to Philly. So the next year and a half, two seasons, I'm just sitting on the bench. I'm just there, and it's just like, so you know, after that season, I didn't really have no phones ringing. I didn't know, really know what I was going to do. So my UCLA teammate, Baron Davis, had just got traded to the warriors, and I was at home in Sacramento, and he calls me up one morning, like, Hey, we're going to play some pickup up here. Do you want to come up? I'm like, shit. All right, I'll drive down. So I take the hour and a half drive from Sacramento to the bay, go out there that that day and play really well, not knowing the head coach, Don Nelson, was watching. He was up in his office, and he was watching us play that day. And we get done, and you know, we're shooting some free throws after, and I'm literally about to walk out of the gym, and he comes down and kind of puts his arm around me.
• 48:34
  Matt Barnes: He's like, he's like, Hey, where are you going to camp at son?
• 48:36
  Matt Barnes: I'm just like, Coach, I don't know. I don't have nowhere. And he's just like, I really like what I saw today. He's just like, we have a full training camp roster. You know, we have 19 guys, 16 or 14 are guaranteed. 13 are guaranteed. I think 16 are partially guaranteed. He's like, I can't promise you anything, but if you come and show what you did today, day in, day out, I give you an opportunity. And to me, that was all I needed, because the coaches in Philly didn't even give me that opportunity.
• 49:03
  Matt Barnes: So when he kind of instilled that confidence in me, I just I was a man on the mission, and whether I had to fight you, slap you, or just play basketball like my I was going to make that team, so I ended up, you know, being the last, and I think I was the 20th guy coming to training camp, and beat out the three guys or four guys invited to camp, beat out their partially guaranteed guys. And I make that team. And to start that season, I'm at the end of the bench, but I'm happy to be there, and I know that this coach believes in me, so I know that I'm gonna get an opportunity, and as I would get these little minute, few minutes here, a few minutes there, I would make the most of it. I'd knock down a few threes, I would play defense, I'd get rebounds, I'd dive on the floor. And my leash became to get a lot longer. And I went from the last guy invited to camp to one of the last guys on the bench, to the first or second guy off the bench to starting all in the same year.
• 49:56
  Randall Kaplan: What a remarkable turnaround. Yes, must have felt pretty, pretty darn good.
• 50:00
  Matt Barnes: It was good, I mean, because again, I put the work in, you know? I mean, Randy, like I said when I was telling you about my championship ring, like nothing has ever been handed to me, like I had to grind for everything.
• 50:08
  Matt Barnes: And I think that's why I played so hard, and I appreciated absolutely every game I played in, because I knew it could be gone tomorrow, you know. So nothing was ever handed to me, so to be rewarded for my hard work and have a coach that believed in me, and then again, now I'm only an hour and a half away from home, so I'm not too far away from home, so I still got family coming to all the games. My parents are driving the hour and a half trip from Sac to the bay to come watch every home game. So I'm in a really good situation. Already talked about your mom
• 50:34
  Randall Kaplan: a little bit your mom a little bit. Your fifth year in the league, her mom was diagnosed with cancer.
• 50:38
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I think on November 1, she died, 26 days later, stage four, kidney cancer, but it spread all over. She was your
• 50:47
  Matt Barnes: She was my best friend. She was my she was my dog. My mom was my best friend, you know, and you know. Thinking back on it again, I think last week was the 17 year anniversary. The one thing that I was so thankful for was that she got to see me play because she was on some of those tough phone calls at night where Mom, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to play. I don't know if I'm gonna make it. Maybe I should go play football. I don't know what I'm gonna do, like she was on the other end of, you know, a lot of those conversations. So, you know, for me to get an opportunity, and that season that we had before the season where I, you know, grinded and made the warriors, we made NBA history that year.
• 51:22
  Matt Barnes: You know, that was the year that, you know, my now co host, Stephen Jackson, he gets traded to our team the end of January, and we're at the bottom of the Western Conference, and we win like 19 out of 23 or 19 out of 24 games to steal the last spot in the playoffs. The Clippers lost, and we won and we were in.
• 51:42
  Matt Barnes: And then we were playing against Dirk and whiskey in the Dallas Mavericks. Dirk is the MVP that season. I think they win 67 games. But our coach, Don Nelson was the one that was over in Dallas first, and him and Mark Cuban had some kind of falling out before he left, so Nelly felt like that first round game or series against Dallas was our championship. I mean, he was on it. We were so well prepared.
• 52:03
  Matt Barnes: This is the first time that they ever put smaller players on Dirk. So myself and Steven Jackson were guarding Dirk, and we were slowing them down, and we were double teaming them, and we just frustrated the shit out of that team. So we were able to make NBA history, the first eight seed to be a number one seed in seven games. It happened before, but it never happened in seven games. So that happened, and then we ended up losing the next round. So my mom is a part of all that, you know, so she's in the crowd and, you know, hanging out. And my parents would even come out and sometimes go to the clubs with us after the games, like they were just so proud of me and happy that they're around. And I love the fact that she got to see that because again, as you said, that season hit, I'm going back to Golden State for my second season, and the season starts beginning of November.
• 52:48
  Matt Barnes: Back then she was, I remember, we just got on a plane. We had just got done playing the Supersonics, and I get a call from her as I'm stepping on the plane, and she's crying. I'm like, What the fuck is going on?
• 52:57
  Matt Barnes: And she's like, Baby, I'm sick.
• 53:01
  Matt Barnes: I'm like, what's wrong? She's like, I have cancer. I'm like, What do you mean, you got cancer? She's like, Yeah, and it's bad. Like, what's bad?
• 53:07
  Matt Barnes: She's like, it's stage four and it's all over my body. I'm like, Well, don't worry. You know, like, UCLA has one of the best cancer research programs.
• 53:15
  Matt Barnes: Research programs, like, I'm gonna get you. She's like, No, baby, it's not like that. I'm like, What do you mean? She's like, it's bad. I'm just like, so we kind of cry a little bit on that phone. And then as soon as I get back to the bay, I drive up there and kind of find out that it's spread all throughout her body. She had two huge, softball sized lumps in her chest, and the scan was so blurry that her whole upper body was just filled with cancer. So unfortunately, she passed, you know, in 26 days of being diagnosed, and that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. Because, again, our family had been through so much to get to that point. My parents, believe it not, were still together at that point, and I'd finally made it.
• 53:56
  Matt Barnes: And you know, my goal was, you know, my mom was, you know, telling me that okay, because I was, I used to tell my mom once I got a little older, like, Mom, this isn't for you. Like, why don't you leave? You know what I mean? But women back then were very dependent on the whoever brought the money home. It wasn't, there wasn't independent women back in the 80s and 90s, you know, where I came from. So my goal was always to buy my mom a house that was going to be my first thing to do. And when I finally started making the money to be able to do that, you know, I lost her.
• 54:25
  Randall Kaplan: We all have proud moments in our lives, things that are special. When we look back at our parents, I think back to my own situation, and my mom, when our company went public, she had put a little money in the company, and it was life changing event for all of us, for my grandmother, who grew up in poverty and foster care and used to sleep in closets, because back then, people would get paid to have a foster student, And they cheer like the help. I remember her coming out to see my house. You know, he been in my house saying thank you. And I remember thinking like, you know, making my grandmother proud was a huge moment in my life as well. Talk to us about the special memory of your Mohawk and what that meant to you guys.
• 55:12
  Matt Barnes: Um, yeah, I don't, I don't, to be honest, feeling know where it came from. I don't know where the idea came from, but I just wanted to change up going into that playoff situation the previous year before she died. And this Barber was really dope, and he's just like, let's try this. He's like, let's do a mohawk. I'm like, I don't want to hold the one, like, all the way down the back.
• 55:30
  Matt Barnes: That's that's not really my style. He's like, no, just do us do a half Mohawk. Like, what the hell is a half Mohawk? He's like, trust me, and I did this haircut. And when I tell you again, I wasn't the star on that team, I was definitely a prominent role player on that team. That haircut was so famous in the Bay Area. Man, it was crazy. They ended up calling it a faux hawk. Like, it's just.
• 55:52
  Matt Barnes: Forward. Part of my hair was up, and it was dope. And I think for maybe, like, the next two or three years, four years, every time I got to the playoffs, I would do it and kind of honor my mom. So that was cool. That was a fun time, man. That's when I first really, really jumped on the NBA scene. And I was known and recognized everywhere where I went, because I we had a team of misfits. You know what I mean? We were one of those teams that we were wild. And this is back, obviously, when cannabis is legal now in the league, but we were smoking weed every night in the clubs, every night drinking, having fun, hanging out, but then we would always bust our ass the next day in the game, like we were a team that hung out and kicked it and went hard off the court, but went really hard on the court too. So it was just a it was a special time in my life. And kind of really, although it was my fifth year into the NBA, I kind of felt like it was almost like my first year, because it was the first year I really got to play, and I kind of kind of became a household name after
• 56:45
  Randall Kaplan: that. If your mom were here today, what would you say to her? I had to give
• 56:50
  Matt Barnes: her a big hug. The crazy part about it is my mom loved kids. Loved kids, like I said when she used to come up and have to be the yard duty, because I was fighting so much everyone, all the girls. That's how I kind of started getting girls to like me, because they liked my mom. So your mom's so nice, and all the girls would hang around her as she was the yard duty. And you know, she just had such a great aura and energy about her. But I say all that to say that my mom passed November 27 2008 and the twins came the following year, almost a year, you know, after my mom passed. So the one thing I wish was she just would have got to see my kids. You know what? I mean. That's the one, not necessarily regret, but I just wish that, you know, as loving as she was and so motherly, that I wish that she would have got a chance to meet, you know, my twins.
• 57:42
  Randall Kaplan: I grew up in Detroit, as you know, grew up a pistons fan, and we won. We were a great team for many years.
• 57:48
  Randall Kaplan: Growing up in high school, the bad boys, yes. So we had Bill ambier. We had. Rodman, I didn't know he went to school in Palos Verdes. He went to school and beer was the only NBA player whose dad made more money
• 58:00
  Matt Barnes: than he did. Crazy.
• 58:00
  Matt Barnes: It was funny. So Mike, the twins, just played at Palos Verdes the other night, and I saw it. That's like, that bill and beers, like, oh yeah, he was the man out here. And then his family had a good money I didn't know that. Yeah, his dad
• 58:12
  Randall Kaplan: was a CEO of a big company. Okay, side side note here, so at a charity event, I bought a two on two with Rick mohore, right, and Rick Moore was part of the bad boys. He get in there. He had a big ass. He was a bruiser.
• 58:28
  Randall Kaplan: People out, yeah, Bruiser, yeah, getting the fight. And people hated him, yeah, playing against them. So super excited. And Rick Moore, and I guess was the assistant coach on a W NBA team with Bill ambier, so I get a note that he can't play, but Bill Amber can come over. And so I said, Okay, so I scheduled some of my boys from Detroit, country. They were Chris, yeah, Chris went there, right? Yes. So are you guys the same time? So he was a freshman at Country Day when I was a freshman at Michigan. Okay. Oh, so you guys miss the other about four years.
• 59:02
  Randall Kaplan: We miss each other. But the interesting thing is, as a freshman, he played at Chrysler, Country Day was in the finals division C is a small, you know, monster, tomahawking over as a freshman, sharing and everyone as a 1414, so Bill Amber comes out, you know, I call my friends from Detroit. You know, they fly in to see this. And it's now three on three, because I want to take advantage of the house.
• 59:30
  Randall Kaplan: Come on. Oh, you came to the house, yeah, came to my house and playing shit. That's dope.
• 59:35
  Randall Kaplan: So it was very cool. But the guy's like, 610 and he's not really in shape then, but it doesn't matter. Like, I'm six two and a half and I'm the tallest guy, yeah, so it's like, I'm playing against Bill.
• 59:47
  Matt Barnes: I don't think people understand, though, because, like, you'll see us on TV, and we all look the similar size, and you'll see a guy in the band. It's like, oh, he sucks. But to get next to us and to see us play with just regular people, like people don't understand how big, strong, fast and how good NBA players are, he
• 1:00:06
  Randall Kaplan: was. He's a monster, yeah. And the funny thing is, too, he was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, or down not Beverly Hill, the Beverly Wilshire hotel, before it became a four season. So you need a ride back. There's no Uber then.
• 1:00:20
  Randall Kaplan: So my friend Mark Borman had a Prius. And so the funny thing was, Bill lambir Getting into the Prius, like
• 1:00:30
  Unknown: the you go, send Indian style in the front seat, going
• 1:00:34
  Randall Kaplan: going back there. So you were a bad boy as well. I mean, you were a very controversial player. Yeah, people hated you when they played against you, yeah, but that was a good role for you.
• 1:00:44
  Randall Kaplan: You made it as that role player.
• 1:00:47
  Randall Kaplan: Well, they
• 1:00:47
  Unknown: loved that. They hated to play against me and loved to play with me. I. Just kind of figure when I got I feel like the chance for Golden State was kind of like my second opportunity, my second chance.
• 1:00:57
  Unknown: And by all means necessary, I wouldn't say that I took my first opportunity for granted, because again, I had to go through the D league and get to the league. But I think that two years of not playing really took it out of me, and when I got a chance to play again. It was just I was on fire, playing with my hair on fire. So I was just again, if I had to play basketball, if I had to protect my teammates, I was taught at an early age to protect your family at all costs. So I was I had a dad that my brother sister got in a fight. No matter what happened, if I didn't get into it or protect them, I was gonna get my ass whooped. So I've always been a protector, always.
• 1:01:33
  Unknown: So that's how I kind of translated that into the NBA.
• 1:01:36
  Unknown: You know, I lost probably close to 600 700,000 in the league.
• 1:01:41
  Unknown: And it was never because for being fine, for being fine, yeah, it was never really because guys were messing with me. It was always because I was coming to the defense of my teammates. So I was a guy that you just, you just knew that you had to work that night playing against me. I was gonna, you know, constant energy, I'm gonna rebound, I'm gonna knock down shots, I'm gonna play hard, physical defense, kind of, because I grew up watching the bad boys, the pistons, and I grew up, you know, watching magic. And I was a football player at heart, you know what I mean? So I love the physicality.
• 1:02:09
  Unknown: So I was just one of those guys.
• 1:02:12
  Unknown: Again, it's just like, you know, again. I wasn't the guy averaging 20 or 30, but I feel like I affected a lot of games just with my energy and my attitude and how hard I played.
• 1:02:21
  Unknown: So I was just someone that, you know, the teams just, you know, like, damn, I gotta deal with him tonight. That kind of thing.
• 1:02:28
  Unknown: You
• 1:02:28
  Randall Kaplan: had notoriety while you were playing as this controversial, angry guy, and there was an incident when you were playing for the magic where you fake ball fake in front of Kobe's face. Tell us about that moment. And then the moment where he called you from a vlog, yeah,
• 1:02:42
  Matt Barnes: it was, uh, it was interesting because, you know, I'm gonna back, put a little bit. So COVID, I got to UCLA in 9798 and COVID there in 96 and you know, it's well documented that, you know, Shaq was kind of the, you know, obviously the man at that point and gave COVID hard time. So we would always see COVID on campus at UCLA, like you would think he would have went there. He was eating there, hanging out there, getting the girls there, chilling there, working out there, playing. I'm just like, damn. So I used to, he used to come in and train in poly pavilion after we were done practicing. So I would sometimes go back in poly and just watch him. I'm just like, damn, this dude's only two years older than me. Like, he's fucking good.
• 1:03:17
  Matt Barnes: Like, I would just watch COVID.
• 1:03:19
  Matt Barnes: So it was an admiration at first, and kind of being able to see him and like, oh, la, la. We got to see him grow from like a boy to a man. So I was really a huge fan of Coby at first, because I just saw the work he would put in. His mother worked his ass off. So, you know, fast forward me making the league, and I'm finally starting to play like I didn't. I missed MJ by a year. So COVID was the man. So he was the one that, back in those those UCLA days when I was playing, he was a kind of the barometer, like, man, if I'm gonna be able to I gotta be able to guard someone like him. So, fast forward to 2009 Orlando, versus the Lakers the year before, they played in the finals, and the Lakers had got them, so they were expecting these teams to go back, and Orlando had reloaded. They got me, Vince Carter and Jason Williams in the off season, so we were expected to compete in the finals. So this is a march game. You know, playoffs starting April. So it was just a chippy early playoff pup. You know, they were dubbing it as a potential final preview, and we were just going back and forth.
• 1:04:21
  Matt Barnes: And knowing COVID, playing against COVID, COVID was a mental giant. I mean, obviously physically skilled, and worked his ass off and can scores. But he was also did a lot of just dirty COVID shit that the rest wouldn't call because he was COVID. He would elbow, grab, do all kinds of shit. And I just got he had elbowed me and my sternum and, like, knocked the wind out of me, and I wanted to, like, chase him down and beat him up at that point, like, literally on the court. But this one particular inbounds play, and it was dope, because we had COVID last interview on all the smoke, and we literally talked that. It was the first time we had ever talked about it, and I told him, like, I wanted to fuck you up. I wanted to fight you.
• 1:04:56
  Matt Barnes: And he starts, kind of started laughing, but the whole thing was, he was just doing shit that the rest weren't calling, and I was getting called for, and I was pissed off, so I was just like, I wanted to fight him. So, you know, the ball fake wasn't premeditated. It kind of just happened. We ended up winning. I had a big three down the down the stretch to clinch the game.
• 1:05:14
  Matt Barnes: Fast forward, end of the season, we're in the Eastern Conference Finals, and we lose to Boston.
• 1:05:17
  Matt Barnes: So Boston and the Lakers play in the finals. COVID gets his revenge from a previous years of losing to Boston. They win again. And then that off season, contracts got little funny. I was hurt. I was going to get a certain amount of money, and then when it was my turn to re up, that money wasn't there anymore. So I was a little disappointed that I felt like I had been lied to and let on. So I was open to moving because I wasn't. I didn't really, you know, want the money that was being offered at the time. So I'm talking to Pat Riley, and for context, this is the year that. It the under. You know, on the low that the Miami Heat are forming their big three. So LeBron is headed there, Chris Bosh is headed there. And I'm talking to Pat Riley, you know, talked to D Wade one time, and, you know, Pat's telling me, like, you know, our closing lineup will be, you know, Dwayne you, Mike Miller, Dwayne you, Mike Miller, Braun and Chris Bosh. And I'm thinking, like, we could do some damage with that lineup. So I'm thinking that I'm gonna go from Orlando, just up the freeway to Miami, and I get a call from a number I don't know. And people tell you now that even know me, like, I sometimes I don't answer numbers that I do know. But for some reason this day, I picked up the phone and it was someone, what's up is Matt there. I'm like, this. Matt was like, Who's this?
• 1:06:36
  Matt Barnes: He's like, it's COVID. Like, get the fuck out of you. Like, who's this? He's like, Nah, man, it's COVID. And then once he said it again, I was like, Oh, it really is COVID. I was like, What's up, man? He says, Ah, man, what's going on? I was like. I was like, congratulations on the championship. He's like, I appreciate it. And we kind of start talking, you know, he's like, anyone crazy enough to fuck with me is crazy enough? To play with me, like, what are you gonna do this season? So this season? So I kind of tell him, I might be going to Miami. He's like, Well, do you want to be a Laker, you know? And I told you, I was raised a Magic Johnson Laker fan. I'm like, hell yeah, I want to be a Laker. And literally, like, three or four days later, I was a Laker. Like, I had signed, flew out to LA, signed the contract, and, you know, that kind of began. And it was weird too, because even up to this day. Like some people like, oh, you you know, COVID didn't fuck with you, or you guys weren't just, like, if they knew how close we really were.
• 1:07:19
  Matt Barnes: Like, he literally recruited me to the team. He recruited Ron our test the season before he's I guess he was just tired of dealing with us assholes. He's just like, I'm gonna get these two assholes on my team. So me and RON are Lakers now, but we really got a chance to just bond. You know, we went from, you know, an admiration I had for him because I saw his come up, and then obviously the respect I had because he was the best player in the league at the time. But you know, just day to day, seeing his work ethic and hanging out with him off the court and going out. And everyone used to say, like, Yo, COVID never went out. You used to get COVID. Want to go out with me, you know? I mean, every we had a I had a tradition.
• 1:07:51
  Matt Barnes: Every time I would we'd go on the road, like, as soon as I land, I'd go in the bathroom and put all the towels down to smoke, because I was smoked every time we landed. So COVID would hit me like, Oh, what are you about to do? You know, I'm about to smoke. He's like, when you're done smoking, let me know. Let's go do let's go get some food and let's go out. He smoke. No, he wouldn't. He told me, If we won a championship together, we would smoke. But we, unfortunately, we didn't.
• 1:08:13
  Matt Barnes: But for some reason, he took to me and and I think, you know, obviously we were super close teammates, but I think we became closer post career, because he started coaching Gigi and I was coaching the twins, so we would always go out to Orange County and play. And, you know, one time, yeah, so it wasn't a mama, then that was just OGP out there. Mom facility came later, but I remember, backtrack a little bit. I remember right when I remember right when I got to the Lakers, you know, COVID took the twins in like they were his, like it was always uncle.
• 1:08:40
  Matt Barnes: COVID probably say the twins were maybe four years old when they started getting every time COVID released Austin and no, this is Carter and Isaiah, every city, yeah, Austin's the new four year old area, four month old, yeah, five months, yeah, yeah. So, every time COVID released a shoe, the twins would get it. And then when they started playing basketball teams, he was in the whole team shoe. So, you know, fast forward me being retired now, and as soon as I retired, I want to start coaching my kids. So, you know, he'd be out in Orange County. We, you know, connect like, yeah, what time you guys, what time Gigi play tomorrow?
• 1:09:09
  Matt Barnes: What time do you guys play tomorrow? And it would be sometimes where we played two hours before we play the eight o'clock or nine o'clock game Gigi might not play till 11 or 12. COVID be there at eight o'clock in the morning. Watching these fucking eight year olds play like eight year olds is not too much fun to watch, but the fact that he would come and watch my kids play, it just it spoke volumes. And then obviously, you know, I'd go and watch Gigi play, and I surprised the twins for their 10th birthday with the with the surprise workout from COVID, I kept them home from school, and they were just, what are we doing? Super excited. They didn't know where we were going.
• 1:09:40
  Matt Barnes: Hour drive. They pass out on the way there. I tell them to wake up and they get out, and we go into this gym, and it's COVID, and they just, Oh, my God, dad.
• 1:09:46
  Matt Barnes: And he gave a he when I tell you, he worked them so hard, he made one of the twins cry. And I loved it. Like I didn't step in as a dad at all. I'm just like, take this shit, you know? I mean, this is one of the greatest ever do it, like, listen to what he's doing. And he just kind of really became, obviously, he was Uncle COVID to the boys, but just the way he loved my sons and supported them and always sent to this day, you know, Vanessa has kind of stepped up to where COVID left off. Vanessa still sends the boys shoes all the time. She just sent their whole high school shoes. So COVID and I were really close, and it broke my whole heart, you know, obviously that, you know, the world felt it. But, you know, to be as close as we were, and then to hear, you know, how it went down, and they were traveling to a game and all that kind of stuff. It just, it really to this. It still gives me chills to think about. It's just like, you know, you never think superheroes are gonna die. And you know, we all lost COVID much too soon. How are his kids doing today? To be honest, I don't talk to the kids a ton. You know, Vanessa and I will, you know, I'll text and reach out with we, you know, we maybe text once or twice a month, just out, I'll check in, you know, Hey, how are you and the girls doing?
• 1:10:50
  Matt Barnes: And, you know, kind of seeing the progress. Because they're kind of starting to build up COVID, continue to build COVID legacy on the Nike side, and doing stuff with Nike and stuff.
• 1:10:58
  Matt Barnes: So I'm always just kind of checking in and sending my love to her and the girls. And you know, from from the outside looking in, they look like they're doing great. Played
• 1:11:07
  Randall Kaplan: 15 years in the league. The average player plays 4.8 years in the league. You out lasted lottery picks. Yeah, and you said that is because you know what your role is. How important is it for anyone to be successful to know what their role
• 1:11:22
  Matt Barnes: is? I think that applies to life, to business, and then obviously to the game.
• 1:11:25
  Matt Barnes: I just think, you know, there's, there's, there's, there's special players. And I don't focus it on our game. There's just some guys that are God given monsters, you know, you look at Steph and you look at COVID, Michael Jordan, those guys are Kevin Durant. Can score 30 points in their sleep, you know, that doesn't wasn't necessarily my game, and I think that's where a lot of guys lose it, is they have an idea of what they want to be or what they think they can do, but sometimes the skill don't add up to that, you know? So I just found out early on with that Golden State team what my role was, what I like to score more points and took more shots, absolutely. But that just wasn't my calling. You know, I used to once. I had bounced around those first four years. Every time I got on the team, I would, you know, Coach, what are you looking for me to do? He would tell me, you know, I would go out and do that shit and play defense. You know, be tough note to be a death nose defender, rebound, get loose balls, give us 5050, balls, and knock down your shots, you know.
• 1:12:17
  Matt Barnes: So there was sometimes two shots, five shots, sometimes I get 15 shots. But whatever was, just be efficient with your shots and and play my role. So I just knew every time what my role was when I was out there, and that's why I played until I didn't want to play anymore, you know. Again, I was never I was a role player. I was a journeyman.
• 1:12:31
  Matt Barnes: But not too often do you get to go out on your own terms. And professional sports, sometimes it's, you know, you play until you're too old and you're a good player, and it's just time to go. Or sometimes the mental gets into it, or just sometimes they just don't want you in the league no more. But I was someone who was a bad boy, and I got to go out on my own accord, I was able to actually go out with two years left of my deal.
• 1:12:55
  Matt Barnes: So when I retired in 2017 I still had two years of being paid NBA money, and that's when kind of figuring out what was next, you know, kind of kicked in. We'll talk
• 1:13:07
  Randall Kaplan: about that in a minute, but I still want to go back. I want to talk about the we believe team. Yeah, in 2007 you were elected captain of the team that year. And I think we all see the C, the letter C on the jerseys, and I don't think we know how that happened. So what's the process of becoming captain? Is it? You know, you put your vote in a hat. No one looks at it. Raise
• 1:13:30
  Unknown: your hand. Normally, it's the best players. That's it. Normally, it's the best players, or just who the leaders are. But if you think back on how who decides, though, the coach, the coach picks a captain. But the crazy part is, if you think about how significant me having a C on my you know, being a captain was, I was the last invitee to training camp that year. I'm the 20th guy coming into training camp, and I even forgot I was a captain on that team. It's crazy. You said that like when it was all said and done, like I was a captain on a team that I wasn't even supposed to be on, you know what I mean? So it was just and what was funny about that, and I don't ever want to seem like I'm more than what I was, but wherever I went, I was always a voice that can talk to the star, but also was able to get guys to rally around me, because I led by example. I wasn't someone that was going to talk your face off or try to over talk because I knew what my role was, but I would play hard as fuck, and I would do anything for my team.
• 1:14:23
  Unknown: So I just think I always gained like you said, Guys hated to play against me, but they loved to play with me because I was a teammate that you wanted to go on the fox hole with, because I wasn't going to be if they mess with you. They mess with me. We know we're going to war today, and I just think I led by examples. That's why I had a I had a prominent voice, and I played with a lot of stars, but I was one of those few role players that had the respect from the stars as well. I
• 1:14:47
  Randall Kaplan: think everyone thinks to be successful in life, you got to be a superstar. But talk to all the non sports people, how important is it to just be a team player and be a part and contributor to the team? I
• 1:14:59
  Matt Barnes: always, even in business now, I like to be a small part of something big and then a big part of nothing. You know what I mean? I just I played my role, and that's important. That's very important. I felt like I was a blue collar worker in the NBA. I was one of those hard hat lunch pail type guys, and I was able to carry that, obviously, through the league, but into business, you know, being able to just understand and being a good person. I think one thing that gets overlooked, especially with professional athletes, is understanding how powerful being a good person is. I was someone that always shook hands, always took pictures, always signed autographs. Because, as you start, as I started going through the NBA, I realized, like all these people sitting around courtside, are people like you and the owners of Disney and big corporation people. So I just started realizing that, you know, my future could be sitting courtside tonight. So I was someone who, you know, I would let kids come out and rebound for me while I was. Warming up, I passed the ball to people, and especially too, because everyone thought I was a thug or a bad guy, so I kind of got to and this is you, I think most of this is pre social media. You mean, I didn't catch I caught social media, like my last three or four years in the league. So what ESPN said about me, or what the LA Times wrote about me was kind of like law, because I didn't have a voice at that time. You know what I mean. So to be able to show people the other side or the softer side, or just the articulate side or the gentle side, I knew how to kind of play that game early on and and I think I'm aspirational, because you know, most of the you know guys like Steph and LeBron and even COVID, like when the ball starts dribbling, like their stardom will lead them into whatever their next venture is, and they'll have a ton of success, and not because they don't deserve it, but they're going to get an opportunity because they're a star. I was able to get those same opportunities being a role player by doing everything I just told you, you know, doing shit the right way, and being respectable and showing respect and giving love and taking that extra moment to take a picture of maybe if I don't want to, or sign an autograph when I'm tired, I just kind of went out of my way to show the world that pre social media, that I wasn't this villain, that I kind of took on a villain persona, and just to show the person that it was almost like, it's funny. I'll backtrack a little bit. So after I bought fake COVID, I got death threats. People don't come to LA. We're gonna kill you, like all this kind of wild shit. And towards the end of my career, like I let the twins start traveling with me, and they were huge wrestling fans. They loved they were always they were always wrestling each other and doing wrestling tricks and shit.
• 1:17:28
  Matt Barnes: So I would take them on road trips, and they would be like, Dad, why do the fans boo you when they announce your name in the starting lineup? And I'm like, damn. Like, what do I tell them? And it just hit me, because they love wrestling. I'm just like, well, daddy always has to guard the best player. So Daddy, every night has to, he has to. I'm like, The Undertaker that takes on Hulk Hogan. You know, I mean, like the best players stars, or they're like, Hulk Hogan, but daddy's like, The Undertaker, so, oh yeah, you were black, and you go out there and it didn't, so I just kind of gave him that, like, I'm the guy that you don't want to see coming. I'm the guy that you boo for because, you know, I'm gonna go out there and try to, you know, make it, make it tough for the best player every night. So just them kind of seeing that, that and understanding that. But I was given that villain role, and at first it kind of hurt, because I didn't feel like I was a bad person. But then I was just like, shit, if just like, shit, if this is what it's going to take for me to last in this league, like, let me be a bad motherfucker then. So that's when I kind of started not caring as much again, like I would this is when I would now slap refs in the offseason, or excuse I had to slap a coach one time for in a summer league game in San Francisco because he was cussing at me from the sidelines, and people are like, What the heck? Like, I went over literally slapped him, like, I just kind of started being like, you want to be you want a bad guy. I'm gonna show you how to be a bad guy. So I kind of embraced that role, but at the same time, it was in me, but it wasn't who I was. So I really tried to, at times, as I was just saying, show people the full repertoire of who Matt Barnes was, was your
• 1:18:55
  Randall Kaplan: kids fly on the team plane? They
• 1:18:57
  Matt Barnes: got, yeah, they got to the what team was that? Yeah.
• 1:19:01
  Matt Barnes: So the team that was the dopest about it was the Golden State Warriors. At the very end, they were on the team playing. They were sitting up by the players.
• 1:19:06
  Matt Barnes: Coach Kerr will let them come and practice. I remember in the Western Conference Finals. I'm still getting treatment because I'm not healthy. We're playing against Houston, and next thing I know, look out there and the twins are shooting with Steph and KD like, on the court. I'm like, What the fuck are you like? I was about to call them back over, but Coach Kerr like, just let him, let him do it. So they're over here shooting in the Western Conference Finals. I remember there was one game they traveled before the playoffs came, and I was coming off the bench for that team, and we were in San Antonio, and I guess they wanted to start me on Kauai that night. So we were at Team breakfast. And that team breakfast after team breakfast, the team normally watches film, so we're going through it. And Coach Kerry even actually tells a story when he comes on my podcast, because I forgot about it. But the twins are in there.
• 1:19:45
  Matt Barnes: We're eating, and they're eating their pancakes and everything, and we start watching film, and Coach COVID goes tonight, Matt, you got Kawhi you're starting.
• 1:19:54
  Matt Barnes: And, you know, I'm 15 years Anna, all right, Coach, I'm ready. The fucking twins lost their mind like they put their forks down, jump up and down, smiling like, you know, daddy had won a championship already.
• 1:20:03
  Matt Barnes: So, you know, that was one of those times when you say, Do the kids get to that was the best part of my career, was the last three or four years that the twins were around everything.
• 1:20:12
  Matt Barnes: They were in the locker room with Coby. They were in the locker room with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and that lob city team. They were in the locker room with Steph Katie and clay.
• 1:20:20
  Matt Barnes: I remember we're in the was it Western finals, or second round of the Western finals against San Antonio, and we had just clinched, I think, the Western finals, and I got out of the shower, and I'm looking for the twins, and they're over in clay Thompson's locker, and clay is teaching them how to make paper airplanes. And I'm just like, these kids don't know how fucking lucky they are. Man, they're sitting here with one of the great issues of all time, and clay is folding paper airplanes out of the box scores, and they're throwing paper airplanes. All over the locker room. I'm like, yeah, these kids don't know how good they got it.
• 1:20:55
  Matt Barnes: You talked
• 1:20:56
  Randall Kaplan: about playing for the Warriors, one of the best organizations in the NBA.
• 1:20:58
  Randall Kaplan: How important is the quality of the organization in terms of contributing to being a winning organization? It's
• 1:21:06
  Matt Barnes: everything, because I got to see two sides of it when I went to the Warriors the first time. You know, I wouldn't, I don't want to say bad if you're an owner, but just not very good owners, and they didn't. They paid the wrong people and ran through coaches and always would sign the wrong free agents. And then I go back 10 years later, right before I retired into new ownership group, and Peter governor, yeah, like when I tell you, like everything was taken care of, like when I tell you, all they wanted you to do is focus on basketball, like they took care of your ticket requests. No matter how many tickets you need, they'll take care of it, food, all the treatment, like anything you can ever imagine, like when they think, when people think professional athletes and luxury, like some of it is not like when I first played for the clippers, like we practiced at Southwest college out here, and we had to keep the back doors open so people didn't rob our cars. Like when I first played with the clubs with Donna Sterling, it was trash. But fast forward back to goober and these guys, like, they just took care of everything. Even when it came to the playoffs. They chartered a whole entire private plane for our families, and took care of their hotels and flights and all this. And it was just like, it was such an amazing energy, like that warrior team. It was fun to go in on off days. Our entire team would be in there. I'd be on off day, or I'd have off days with other teams where no one would show up, not even me. You know what I mean, like. But with this Golden State team, they really caught lightning in a bottle for those three or four years where it was just you wanted to be around the team, the energy was great. They laid out the ultimate red carpet for you. But to answer your question, it all starts at the top. If you have, if you have faulty leadership, you won't go anywhere. Because I think it trickles down. And you know, especially being in business, you know, you're only as strong as your you know, your weakest piece. But I really think it starts at the top, and then these guys just did absolutely everything to make sure that all we had to do was focus on basketball. Well,
• 1:22:55
  Randall Kaplan: let's put down one level. Now, how important is a coach actually contributes your
• 1:23:00
  Matt Barnes: success? It's important. And I think there's different levels to it, because I've had guys that have been very hands on, like a Stan van Gundy, super huge X and O's guys. And whenever he talks, he starts foaming out of his mouth with the white shit. And you have to kind of do this, but he's really hands on. He wants to call every single play every single time. And I've got had guys like Phil Jackson that kind of sit back and let shit go, you know, I mean, if you're on the court, he trusts you. He's implemented his system, and he'll do his whistle if he needs to get your attention. Let's
• 1:23:26
  Randall Kaplan: go to December 10, 1995 you're playing the pistons. You're with the Grizzlies, my pistons. 1.1 seconds to go, and you drain, swish a three pointer half court, 47 feet away. Was that the highlight of
• 1:23:39
  Matt Barnes: your career? No, it was. It was probably the wildest so it was actually, so I shot the I want to say, I shot the ball with like three or four seconds left, and after I hit it, there was 1.1 so I actually, I technically shot the ball too early. But the funny part was, like, looking but I didn't know, because I was, you know, I grabbed the rebound, and our coaches are, like, screaming, call time out. But I just took off dribbling. I didn't hear him. I didn't care to hear him.
• 1:24:03
  Matt Barnes: I was just ready to get out of Detroit. And, you know, I went in, and I saw these guys kind of collapsing on me, so I pulled up from half court, ended up draining it, and then look at the clock. You know, after the team calls timeout, I'm like, oh shit, there's still, like, 1.1 seconds, like, I shot the ball too early. But it was a cool moment. You know what I mean, to be able to, you know, obviously, anytime you hit a buzzer beater, to win a game is dope, but you know, my buzzer beater was a little bit too early,
• 1:24:29
  Randall Kaplan: one of the most notorious and worst moments, I think, in the history of professional sports, was something called the mouse at the Palace of Auburn Hills, crazy. So during that event, does your home dance? City, town, yeah, my hometown, the Pacers were playing the pistons, yes. And fans were getting all over. Some guy was there and went up in the fan went up in the stand. I mean, he's 12 rows deep when he starts beating on a fan. Crazy moment. Matt is a great guy, by the way. I know he was a friend of yours. Is a friend of mine. He lost a salary, a whole year salary. It was just huge money. Then $3 million today, you see a lot of fan involvement and drawing of fans on the court. You see it at football games, people throwing beer. You saw it at a football game this past weekend, a Detroit Lions fan. Best team in go lions. I'm a Detroiter saying something to the Green Bay coach. How far is too far? Can people who are sitting court side be trash talking the players? And at what point does it get too much. I think
• 1:25:34
  Matt Barnes: it's that there's no line there anymore. And I'm all for fan interaction. I think it makes the game better. But I think last five, seven years, obviously the situation at the in the palace was crazy. But I think people feel like I'm paying all this money for this ticket. I can do whatever I want here. And obviously you. Alcohol to that kind of mindset, and you see unfortunate situations, fans saying whatever. I mean, you could talk trash all day, but I think now it's personal shots, and obviously they're recording when they say it, so if they get a reaction, they can go viral.
• 1:26:05
  Matt Barnes: So I just, you know, I feel like athlete, or, excuse me, I feel like fans. Some, this is not a blanket statement, but some fans look at us like they try to poke us like caged animals at the zoo, like, let me see if I can say some wild shit to make him respond, and I'll film him and I'll go viral. Let me throw something and see if I can hit him, and I can tell this story to everybody. So it's a scary line, because obviously you never want to see something like the malice in the palace. But you know what? Fans are crazy these days, and I think and a majority of fans are just good fans. And if you want to scream and yell and cuss at us, you know, as an away team coming into your home gym or home field, I love it, but when it starts getting personal, then you're taking personal shots and saying just the most disrespectful stuff, and then when you're throwing stuff, hopefully, fingers crossed, it doesn't happen. But that's how people get hurt. You
• 1:26:56
  Randall Kaplan: can say, Hey man, you fucking suck. You could fight. You can't talk about family,
• 1:27:01
  Matt Barnes: family, kids, all that kind of you should have saw how much shit was talked after the Derek Richards situation initially, you know what I mean.
• 1:27:07
  Matt Barnes: So it's just like you gotta there has to be some, you know, rhyme or reason to it. But I mean, what kind of rules do you implement if you're, you know, if you're a owner of a team, or if you're an owner of a stadium or an arena like, it's hard to kind of where's the line to draw. So, I mean, you hope just, you know, the morals of a person would understand, or the character of a person. But like you said, I mean, sporting, which is supposed to be fun, and then you go, and you add a little bit of alcohol to that and enhances the experience, and you a little bit more braver than you normally are, and you say some wild shit. So unfortunately, it kind of is what it is. I don't see a solution for it, to be honest with you. I know people who do get caught throwing stuff or, you know, doing some stuff, get banned or kicked out. But I had a couple situations, you know, during my career where if I would have got my hands on someone that would have said something or through some it would, it would have been problems. So obviously, you don't want to see that. We you know, you want to come out and cheer for your team or cheer for your players, and everyone make it home safely. But that definitely is a problem. And to be honest, the rain, I don't know how to fix it, or if there's actually even a solution for it. Let's,
• 1:28:10
  Randall Kaplan: let's talk about money. And I'm going to go through some numbers here as well. On on the money, you made little over $35 million over the course of your career. At the beginning, you made three to 500,000 your first few seasons, pre tax, you blew a lot of that.
• 1:28:23
  Randall Kaplan: You said at the end of each summer, the money today is crazy. In the NBA, you got $76 billion new contract for the NBA over 11 years, the players get by collective bargaining 51% of all basketball revenues. So that's an increase this year to last year, and every season, 160% more revenues. We're going to see the first 100 million dollar salaries by the 2032 2033 season, Luca doncic is going to be the first salaried NBA billionaire. If you look back to your career 22 years ago, when you started, would you ever would have thought you're going to see players making $100 million a year in salary?
• 1:29:08
  Matt Barnes: No, no, but I, you know, I credit that to, obviously, David Stern's vision of being able to highlight individual players in a team sport. His goal was to always make this game global. And if to do that, he needed to ride the back of stars and, you know, magic. And Larry kind of started it. And then MJ came, and then COVID came, and Braun came, and all the young, great players today, and Adam Silver has done a great job of, kind of continuing his vision to grow the game globally. You see a huge European influx, you know, I think European players, and one of the last four or five MVPs, though, not mistaken. I think it's beautiful. You know, I'm not one of those older guys, like, oh, you know, fuck these younger kids. And, like, I love it because, partly because I have five sons, you know what? I mean, so, or excuse me, six sons. Now, you know, so hopefully one of them will catch lightning in a bottle and be able to kind of tap into that.
• 1:30:02
  Matt Barnes: But if you think, you know, I made a little bit, you know, 35 million, like, Guys are getting paid more than one year now, you know, I mean, like you said, and then the next five years, the guys are gonna be making $100 million a year, which is insane, but I just think it shows the growth of the game. And, you know, it's really a global sport now, and and the odds to make it are crazy. You know, I just, I feel like we live in, obviously, this social media driven era where negativity unfortunately outweighs the positivity. But you just hear so much negativity about professional athletes that, but if you understood how hard it was to especially basketball, like every, literally, every kid in the world now dreams to play in the NBA. And you know, you gave some statistic earlier, but it's just like you're you're better off getting struck by lightning than making it in the NBA. So, you know, my hat's off to all these guys that play this game and who continue to grow. Of the game.
• 1:30:53
  Matt Barnes: Would I like to see a little bit more defense, absolutely. But you know, these guys are super skilled and super talented, and the money is reflecting that.
• 1:31:01
  Randall Kaplan: I think people have a tremendous misconception of what comes down to the bottom line of an NBA players. Jason Tatum, just signed the biggest deal in NBA history, five years,$315 million contract, $62.8 million a year. So let's go through what comes out of that.
• 1:31:17
  Randall Kaplan: You've got 23 point 2 million in federal taxes. You've got 4.7 million in a jock tax. That's you got extra tax for the privilege of being a professional athlete. You've got$8.1 million escrow and agent fees. You've got $1.4 million in FICA and Medicare deductions.
• 1:31:38
  Randall Kaplan: Your take home of that $63.8 million is $25.2 million the players get 40% of the contract value, insane.
• 1:31:50
  Matt Barnes: And people understand that, like I and I think it's dropped a little bit.
• 1:31:52
  Matt Barnes: It used to be half. We used to say, they say, we used to get half, but any number you see, you chop it in half, and then now it's chopping in half and take 10 more percent. It's crazy, especially living in California to California, it's nasty out here with tax. But it just is what it is. It's crazy.
• 1:32:10
  Matt Barnes: But also, I don't, you know there was a stigma, not necessarily a stigma, but you know, guys back before me, and even guys I played with, like, going broke was a big thing with professional athletes, but I think financial literacy is a huge part of professional sports now, and it's almost cool to be aware and invest. And what are you in? Like, when I was in the league, and they're, you know, when I came in the early 2000s we were talking about women, cars, rims and jewelry, you know, with that Golden State team, by the time I was leaving, they were talking about Silicon Valley and investments and opportunity, and who's coming to the game tonight, and what fund is going to be there. I'm like, holy shit. I wish this would have started a little bit earlier. You know what I mean, like to be financially aware is really cool now, which I think is great, because these kids are making a ton of money and a ton of opportunity and understanding that, you know, they're, they're their own business. They're a walking business every day. So, you know, we, you know, you're one of your producers. Asked about n, i, L, S and all this kind of stuff like, these kids are getting crazy money, starting at a very early age now. So I'm glad that there's some, there's some, there's some guidance and some education coming with that, because it's a ton of money. Let's
• 1:33:19
  Randall Kaplan: talk about female WNBA basketball players, Caitlin Carl, Caitlin Clark, has completely changed the nature and popularity of women's basketball. The NCAA Women's finals last year, 18 point 9 million viewers. Men's final, 14 point 3 million viewers. It was the most watched finals of any men or women's game, professional game since 2019
• 1:33:44
  Matt Barnes: Wow. I love it. I think it's great. The growth of the women's game, it's been huge. And it's, you know, there's a there's a handful of women, but I think Caitlin Clark is leading the charge. They said she was her said she was responsible for like, 32% of the revenue boost in the women's game this year, which is incredible, very humble, very hard working girl who took a lot of shit at the beginning of the season. I think there was a lot of jealousy, because people say what they want. No, it's not this. You can see it. You don't have to say stuff. Sometimes you can see it. And I remember I made a comment, she was just getting beat up, and it just disgusted me that her teammates didn't have her back because I was one of those guys, you touch COVID, you touch CP, like I'm on your head. You know what I mean, in the fact that this girl, night and night, I was getting beat up, and her teammates weren't even helping her off, off the court, like they were just kind of, and I'm just, and I made a cut, and it went super viral. This guy said it got almost over a billion impressions that, how do you not have your your teammates back, you know, how do you not and and, you know, I think as the season wore long, they kind of started, you know, having her back more, and then she started coming into her own, you know, you hear all these, she can't do this on this level. This is a whole different level. This girl is special. She can shoot the ball like Steph. She can pass the ball, and she's a competitor. And she really just came out, I think she won an award the other day, and she came out and said, Do you know that the all this is coming off the backs of black women in this sport? I don't remember the exact quote. I don't want to butcher the quote. You can look it up. But she it up, but she pays homage to who deserves to be paid homage. I think she does everything right, and that alone will bother people, you know what? I mean, they want to kind of try to find a flaw in somebody. And I think Caitlin Clark has been a huge, huge instrumental key to just shining a light on a game that needed more light shined on it. You know, these girls are extremely talented, but I think they get knocked because they're not athletic. But I would argue that some of these women are more skilled than the men, because we get away with athleticism and strength in our game. These women don't get it. These women have to be skilled to be able to, you know, succeed in their game. So, you know, my hats off to not only Caitlin, but this entire. Our league. I think it's beautiful. It gives my daughter something to aspire to. You know, she's a basketball player, and it just gives hope to a lot of young girls now that you know that professional sports, and particularly basketball, is an option, and you know, if they're fortunate enough,
• 1:36:07
  Randall Kaplan: a lot of controversy, should she be on the US Olympic team? I think people are just waiting to destroy her if she opened her mouth. I think we all wanted to see her on the team, because we all wanted to see her play. I think all the fans wanted to see her play. Then there's all.
• 1:36:21
  Randall Kaplan: She's now one of the best 12 players in the US. And they asked her, they asked her, and she said, whatever they decide.
• 1:36:29
  Randall Kaplan: They decide, basically, I don't deserve to be there. I'll get my chance in four years, Class Act
• 1:36:34
  Matt Barnes: and again, that bought the fact that, and I hope for No blunders at all. But she just handled everything so well.
• 1:36:42
  Matt Barnes: You know, whether that's her or her peer, PR team or just being raised the right way, she answered every question the right way. She didn't give nutty but nobody no click bait or a reason to hate on her, like she just, she was a humble star in the making. And I definitely think they made a mistake not putting her on the team, because she's much watching. Then she just brings so many eyeballs to the sport. And it was just, you know, you see, you see, there was a lot of jealousy from women, whether they be Hall of Famers that are still playing, or vets or even young people.
• 1:37:09
  Matt Barnes: And it's just like, you know, they wanted to kind of show what the deal was, but she showed through hard work and dedication and being a good person, man that you know that she is, and she's gotten, gotten all the credit that she deserves. I mean, that's not to say that, you know, I'm a big fan of Angel Reese, too, and the lane she's been able to carve out for herself, and then, like the Asia Wilsons and the women that have been carrying this league for years. I just think that people needed to understand that, you know, Caitlin was the vehicle that brought more eyeballs. You know what? I mean, like it because of her, you know, things will change in this game, you know. And you hear changes like, you know, private planes for some teams now, and she's selling out arenas wherever she goes. So, I mean, I'm all for the growth, you know, or the NBA has gone through, you know, extreme growth over the, you know, the last 30 plus years, and the fact that I think the WNBA is coming in their 28th and 29th year. And, you know, they have pretty much a new logo, you know, I mean, she is the the face of the league. I'm not saying she's the best player. I think one day she could possibly be the best player, but she's definitely, probably the face of the league and one of the most popular athletes in the world.
• 1:38:13
  Matt Barnes: And, you know, I'm just happy for her and the rest of these women that they're starting to get the eyeballs and attention, and at the end of the day, that's going to drive up revenue, 338,000
• 1:38:23
  Randall Kaplan: over four years.
• 1:38:23
  Randall Kaplan: 78,000 per year. The average salary and WNBA is 147,000 average. It's crazy. MBA, 14 point 3 million this year. Are we ever going to see salaries? I mean, you can be, I not saying it this way badly. Say a it's back in the day, we'd say he's a scrub, right? I mean, but average players making $14.3 million a year, unbelievable. So are we ever going to see women's salaries get it to the millions of dollars a year.
• 1:38:54
  Matt Barnes: I think millions. I think low millions. I think so.
• 1:38:58
  Matt Barnes: I think the game has continued to grow and and, you know, you just have to, you have to get more eyeballs on the game. And I think that's what they're starting to do. I think they're, you know, the more sponsors are interested in these women now.
• 1:39:09
  Matt Barnes: And I do think that the salaries will grow. I don't think we'll ever see and I hope, I would love to be proved wrong, but I don't ever see us getting I don't think off straight basketball. I don't think they'll ever be like a ten million a year salary in the WNBA, but I can definitely see it getting to, you know, three, four, possibly 5 million a year.
• 1:39:31
  Matt Barnes: And again, I hope I'm wrong, but the 10 thing, I hope these women continue to climb the ladder and make as much money as you possibly can. But I just think, you know, they're definitely on the right track. Now, if you look back and you're 28 at the NBA, where they were in year, 28 of the WNBA were there, where there's a lot of similarities.
• 1:39:45
  Matt Barnes: And you know, you see how much this game has grown in the last 30 years. And again, I think Caitlin Clark and Andrew Reese and this, this young crew that have come are going to spark the minds of a lot of young women around the world, and they're going to continue to grow the
• 1:39:58
  Randall Kaplan: game. You've talked about life after basketball. Tell us about meeting with Brian Daly and that aspect of your career, and how basically, you didn't think it was going to happen. Something just kind of came. I didn't
• 1:40:12
  Matt Barnes: know what was going to happen. You know, when I first retired, I was a huge cannabis advocate, so I was flying back and forth to New York to, you know, talk to the NBA and the Players Association about just studying the plant more and understanding the benefits from the plant. Lo and behold, in 2020 they finally started stopped. They finally stopped testing. So I like to say that, you know, maybe my visits did pay off a little bit, but then I didn't really know what I really wanted to do. I meant a few small investments that were, you know, that they were kind of starting to turn but I knew that I wanted to do something. Someone had nudged me into getting into media. You know, you're always so well spoken in your interviews. You should try doing sports media.
• 1:40:49
  Matt Barnes: Yeah, I think back when I played there was this line in the sand.
• 1:40:52
  Matt Barnes: Like we didn't really fuck with excuse my language. We didn't really mess with the media because we didn't have a rebuttal to whatever they would change. You know, they could take our words and do whatever with it. And what they said was it, you know, fast forward social medias into play now. And so I just wasn't really quick to jump in the media space. But, you know, someone was really persistent on and pushed me into doing it. And once I did it, it, it opened up my eyes and really changed my life. It changed my post career trajectory. You know, did a little bit of fox that was with ESPN for almost three and a half four years.
• 1:41:22
  Matt Barnes: Learned a lot about the business of media. And so Brian Daly comes into my life in 2000 I retire in 2017 I meet Brian Daly. And it was random, because, again, I was doing ESPN at the time, and I did a documentary for Showtime. I was speaking for DeMarcus Cousins documentary. And the producer after he's like, Hey, I heard you want to start a podcast. I'm like, how did you hear that? But yeah, I do. He's like, You need to meet with my friend Brian Daley over at Showtime. I'm like, like, Showtime, like the network. They're like, yeah, they just started a digital component called Showtime basketball. I think you'd be a great fit. I'm like, Well, shit, I'm all for it. So he connects the dots. He flies out. Out here. We meet at the Lowe's hotels in Santa Monica. We took two or three shots at tequila. I pitched them a man cave barber shop, conversation with cameras on it, and I had to smoke. I wanted to be able to smoke. I wanted to be the first athlete on TV, like, really smoking. And he was all for it. And next thing you know, we're shooting a pilot, and we're off to the to the races. So at the time, we really didn't know what we had.
• 1:42:41
  Matt Barnes: All the podcasts weren't new at the time, but sports podcasts were fairly new at the time. I want to say, like we were the second one to maybe kind of jump into space. And, you know, I always show left to the knuckleheads because I think they were a little bit before us. But before us. But I really feel like we came in this space and kicked open and started a whole new wave of sports media, not just basketball, but sports media, like when I came in to the podcast space, you could probably count, or in the whole entire world, you could probably count the sports podcast on your hand. On one hand, there may have been 2345, at the most. And if you look at it now, who doesn't have a podcast in the sports space, you know? I mean, so we were one of the originators. You know, they like to call us the OGS of the space, but I just love the fact that we're here again. Because, and people say, you know, the space is watered down, but I don't necessarily look at it as being watered down, because I feel like every player in this space has their own unique journey, their own unique story and their own unique way of telling it.
• 1:43:39
  Matt Barnes: And if I'm a fan, although I love the Stephen A and shout out to Stephen, I think he's about to get a record breaking 120 $1 million dust my guy. Let me, let me borrow some. But, you know, I'll take some of that, right, seriously. Like, as much as I love these guys, like they didn't play it at this level, you know. So if I'm a fan, I'm thinking like, I want to hear it from a guy that actually did it, you know, although there's a place for these guys that didn't, that are well spoken and versed in the subject. But if I'm a down, hard, hardcore fan, I love the fact that I can listen to me and stack. I can listen to Draymond. I can listen to Paul George. I can listen to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. I can listen to Pat Bev and the list goes on of JJ Redick was great before he jumped on and took the Lakers coaching job. So you're just getting a unique perspective. You're allowing the players to create our own narratives, and we're giving opportunities to all our brothers and sisters to tell their own stories. So we were able to turn all the smoke podcasts our first year award winning podcast. Four years after that, we were able to turn it into a whole company. So we launched all the smoke productions in January one of 2024 and signed a nice, healthy deal with Draft Kings, and we've been on the move since. So we've created about four or five shows. I have a slate of former NBA stars. We've gone vertical in the NFL space. We just launched our boxing space with Andre Ward and Roy Jones, so they're heading that side. We're going to get into golf in 2025 so we've just, you know, we want to be, in the next three to five years, one of the most authentic, real brands that are telling these stories. And I think we're off to a great start. But, yeah, I really It all started with, you know, obviously me jumping into sports media with ESPN and Fox, but you know, Brian Daly taking a chance on me. And, you know, when Paramount came in about a year and a half ago, they were coming in and you're hearing, no, they're gonna, you know, they're gonna take over Showtime. Or we're not really sure. So we're thinking, like, Damn, we started something good. Are we gonna be done? So when that you kind of, you start, you kind of you start hearing the uncertainty? I'm like, Well, no, I'm going to start my own company, and regardless, we're going to be straight. So I started with myself and Jelani McCoy all the smoke productions. And then when Showtime went under, I got Brian Daley, the guy that gave me the opportunity to come and be the third co founder with us, and we launched all. Smoke productions.
• 1:45:53
  Matt Barnes: What's
• 1:45:53
  Randall Kaplan: your advice to everybody who wants to want to take a chance on them? What should they be doing? You got
• 1:45:59
  Matt Barnes: to take a chance on yourself first. You got to believe in yourself, particularly if we're talking this pod in multimedia space. I mean, there's a ton of talking heads now. There's any subject you can find a podcast on it now, but to me, I don't think it's, it's, it's oversaturated, because if you can talk and you have a unique story, they're gonna, you know, your voice will be heard. So study, prepare for this. You know, this is a real people think, oh, podcasts like podcast. You know, podcasts are work. You gotta do a lot of research. You gotta get a building, you gotta have all kinds of different cameras. You gotta have great producers. But again, I was someone who learned the front and back side. I learned this side of it, and I learned your side of it, but I also learned the business side of it, and understanding what our worth was, and being able to be the first one to got. I got our podcast paid for the digital and audio that hadn't been done in the space before. So I got an I Heart deal and a Showtime deal to double up our revenue. So there's just, you know, being a student of the game, you know, humbling yourself and understanding, man, you got to put the work in in this space if you want to make it.
• 1:47:01
  Randall Kaplan: Back in the 80s, 40% of NBA players were doing cocaine. Who and the statistics say as high as 70% were doing cocaine. According to The Washington Post, are drugs still a problem in the NBA? No,
• 1:47:16
  Matt Barnes: and that's not to say some of these recreational drugs that aren't allowed in the game aren't happening, because we don't know what everyone does with their own time, but I just know, again, I was an advocate for this plant. You know, obviously I always tip my hat to Ricky Williams, because I think he was before his time. You know, he pretty much lost his career with the mammy offense for kind of standing up for cannabis and the benefits of it.
• 1:47:38
  Matt Barnes: But I just think this plan is tremendous. And again, there's several different ways to use it. I think it, you know, this plan has something for our children, all the way to our grandparents, and I love that the professional sports league, if I'm not mistaken, none of the three major sports in the United States test for it anymore, football, baseball and basketball. I think it's not a banned substance anymore. So I just think it's a great alternative, because we all know the biggest epidemic we have is the opioid epidemic, and firsthand can tell you that, and I didn't even play football.
• 1:48:17
  Matt Barnes: Football guys said that it was worse than what we had. But they will give you absolutely anything to get you back on that court, whether it be toward all Vicodin, anything you can imagine, oxy cotton, the voucher, the via tracks that they used to tear it like they will give you anything to get you back out there. But then at the same time, if you smoke weed back when I was playing, you risked your career, you risked the fine. You risk being suspended. So I think the game has come a long way in that space, I would say, Now, from that 80 statistic, I'd probably say like, yeah, 75 80% of guys do use it. Now, it was really high when I was playing, but it was kind of like an unspoken word, like you kind of just knew who smoked on each team, and if you would kick it with them, you guys would rally up. But it was kind of like you really had to be prepared, because you get four random drug tests. So you know me, and you go out tonight after a game, and we go grab dinner, and then after we go back to the room and smoke a joint, we could get tested the next morning and be like, oh shit. So it was a, it was a full time job. I used to have to keep a drink from GNC on me. That would flush my system, and I would pay my trainers at the beginning of the season. Like, you know, tell me if I'm if I'm gonna be up. So the drug program got hip to that. So they wouldn't give us the players, and they wouldn't give the players names. So they would just say hey, like, hey, you know, we're coming to test your team today. So I had to prepare every time that, every time the drug people came to our team, I had to prepare like I was being tested. So it was a whole process of down in this drink that made you want to throw up, and then drinking a bunch of water, and then you'd pee a bunch of times, and then for like six hours, you had a window of clean pee. And that got me through my entire career.
• 1:49:49
  Randall Kaplan: We talked about COVID. Did the last interview before he passed on your show.
• 1:49:51
  Randall Kaplan: Who are your favorite podcast guests? Top three,
• 1:49:58
  Matt Barnes: COBE Snoop, who else had me rolling? Probably Jamie Foxx. He just had a new Netflix special shout out. What had happened was, you know, obviously Coby for several different reasons, and the fact that it was supposed to be a two part. You a two part show. The first part we shot with him was like 40 minutes, so we were supposed to actually do a part two. And, you know, obviously his untimely death, we weren't able to do that. So that's something I always hold near and dear to my heart. Snoop was the one that kicked the door open.
• 1:50:28
  Matt Barnes: So although I told Brian Daley at the beginning, we have to be able to smoke, he said it was cool. But Showtime, you know, Showtime legal said, Get out of here. Like you guys aren't smoking. So we couldn't smoke on our show for the longest time, until Snoop came and smoked, like, eight months on our show, and we're like, fuck it. If Snoop's doing it, we're gonna do it. And we that was the first time we smoked on camera, and we haven't looked back since. So Snoop kind of opened the door shut out. He. Opened the door for us to be able to smoke on the show. And then we caught Jamie Foxx during the pandemic, and I think that's where all the smoke really took off. We started showing, you know, air in two shows a week when everyone was looking for content, and we got Jamie on a remote interview, but he just had us laugh in the entire time.
• 1:51:09
  Matt Barnes: So those are three that come to mind quickly, but if I think back to more. You know, I just feel ran out in this space. I'm so lucky because I'm a fan of almost all the people on the show, and I just get an in depth look at their lives more than I would. And that's what I was so proud about the COVID interview, is because I knew the world got to know fans knew Black Mamba.
• 1:51:30
  Matt Barnes: They didn't really get to know Kobe, the dad, the business man, the locker room teammate. And I always, you know, I we pride ourselves on humanizing our guests and being able to show our fans the side that they don't always get to see. So, you know, I'm so lucky that I get to sit here and interview people and get paid good money for it, and just get to learn more about interesting people. That's
• 1:51:50
  Randall Kaplan: one of the benefits of my show as well. I mean, I get to meet amazing people, to know you better, and, yeah, be able to get to know Mike Tyson, Kiki Tyson, and some of these other people. Mark Cuban, it's been, just been, I'm gonna
• 1:52:02
  Matt Barnes: flip it on you.
• 1:52:02
  Matt Barnes: What would have been your your favorite interviews, because I know I saw your list is pretty cool too. Yeah. I
• 1:52:07
  Randall Kaplan: mean, you asked me, right when, when, when I made for the first time, and I said, it's like trying to pick your favorite kids. Yeah, right.
• 1:52:11
  Randall Kaplan: And when I say to people is I have different people from all walks of life. So I've got the corporate guys, the big CEO of Goldman, Sachs. I got the private equity guys, David Rubenstein. I've got venture capitalists like Tim Draper. I have athletes on my show, actors. I have the world's greatest bowler. I had the number one and number two, male number one male and female pickleball players on my show, and it's, I don't have a favorite. And what's interesting to me, Matt, is some of what I think are my worst shows that I really didn't like at all. When I asked people, oh, that was my favorite show that you did, and I'm not going to mention one in particular, but I was just knocking my head against the wall like, this is the most boring show in the world. This guy is no personality in the world. People love trying to get him to laugh. And I've got people who love that show. And I thought I did a terrible job, and I thought he was terrible.
• 1:53:07
  Randall Kaplan: So it's never know, but you know, I have a wish list too.
• 1:53:11
  Randall Kaplan: I'm sure
• 1:53:13
  Matt Barnes: you have one too.
• 1:53:13
  Matt Barnes: Of course, some of the people you hope to get, like, I want to get
• 1:53:19
  Randall Kaplan: Elon Musk would be, and I'm my number one. The other rock would be, would be way up there. Yeah. I mean, Tom Brady is up there, obviously, as
• 1:53:30
  Matt Barnes: well. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, curry is on
• 1:53:34
  Randall Kaplan: the list as well. You know, it's my list is very long. I have people in the medical field, government in the field. George Peterson, Tony Robbins, is top five for me. I like him, and I will nail him this year. I've got a list. I'm very motivated, hit list, the 2025 hit list. I've got the 2025 hit list we're getting here the end of the show, I want to talk about some of the things that make us successful. One of the things that's contributed most of my success is something called extreme preparation, where someone may prepare for a podcast one hour. I'm 14 on average for my show, wow. How has extreme preparation contributed to your success? And can you give some examples?
• 1:54:18
  Matt Barnes: I mean, I thought you did great today. I mean, you were probably one of the most prepared people that I've sat down with, for you to know, from birth to current. Matt Barnes like that, and I'm sure you're like this with all your guests, man, it's very impressive, and it's appreciated because, again, you've asked me questions that I haven't been asked before. So I always appreciate readiness and people that really put the work in preparation, I think eliminates fear. You know, when you put the work in, I feel like you could take on anything, and I think that the discipline I learned as an athlete has transitioned to so many different walks of life, but particularly life after basketball, I think. And that was one thing COVID And I talked about too, we just like, you know, we take the discipline to get up at five in the morning and jump on the track or get in the right room, and now we get up at five and we're jumping on emails and making sure we, you know, we reach back out to people and, you know, stay on top of that. So I've been able to take the discipline that took me to the top of one professional space and applied it to this next space, which is, which is media, and for me to be the the bad guy the NBA or the role player, the journeyman, to be one of the most trusted and top voices in Sports Media, I don't, I don't take that for granted, but I owe that to preparation and dedication and really just trying to apply myself and challenge myself. You know, I want to be, you know, one of the best in this space. I don't have to be the best, but I just want to be one of the best.
• 1:55:48
  Matt Barnes: And I think more important is being one of the trusts. It, you know, to be able to have a wide range of voices, from COVID to a Kamala Harris to rock is on my hit list, too, Jack. I just think the range of people we had speaks to you know, how well we've done and how we've continued to elevate and grow our show in a very saturated market. So preparation is key to life, to being a father, to business, to being an athlete. I mean, the last thing you want to do is is to be under prepared, and that shows when you are under prepared, but it also shows when you're prepared. So it's not something I take lightly. It's something I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm not gonna lie, give you 14 hours, but I definitely will put the work in to help create the rundowns and change what I don't like and add stuff that I do like, and really make sure that I'm prepared for each and every interview we sit down and do, one
• 1:56:47
  Randall Kaplan: of the things that I think makes us successful, and really a lot of people don't talk about is one of the challenges that you have gone through in your life. You had an incident with Eric Fisher that was very unpleasant, highly publicized. So I'm going to talk about him, the first one where he was dating your ex wife and you didn't know about it. He was a former teammate. He drove 90 minutes to
• 1:57:11
  Matt Barnes: no see him. Kanye West made that an urban legend, but go ahead.
• 1:57:15
  Randall Kaplan: Okay, then, then, then you drive 90 minutes.
• 1:57:18
  Randall Kaplan: You're gonna, you're gonna correct me on that, yeah. And you go, there's a barbecue in the backyard. You go, beat the shit out of them, basically. And here you are, years later, where he is a second father to your kid and a coach. So my question to you is, how important is letting bygones be bygones and heavy forgiveness and our success and our mental
• 1:57:38
  Matt Barnes: health, huge, huge growth. I mean, you know, hate is a hairy, heavy burden to carry for anybody. It's an added weight. It's an added stress that's not needed. But forgiveness. I don't, I don't hate anybody, you know, I think we're all here for a small amount of time and trying to figure it out the best way we can. You know, the Derek situation was unfortunate. You know, I only drove 15 minutes Kanye rap that I drove 90 minutes and 90 miles and turned it into an urban legend. But you know, what I'm very proud to say is, you know, that incident happened at the beginning of one season, and by the following summer, with it was water under the bridge. You know what I mean? And I think the key to that was, you know, I'm always my most important. I didn't like the fact that he dated my ex wife and but I was willing to forget that. But the fact that he was around my kids and didn't tell me was what really bothered me. So, you know, when that first happened, I'm always, you know, I'm talking, how's everything, and everything's good. And, you know, and it got to a point where, you know, the boys was like, like, how do you feel about Derek? She's like, Dad, we love Derek. He's great.
• 1:58:34
  Matt Barnes: And I was just like, amazing.
• 1:58:34
  Matt Barnes: And that's all I needed to hear to, you know, go and squash the beef. You know, I mean, because it wasn't about how him and my ex wife are now married, and it was never about that. It was about my kids and them being the priority and the pride and joy.
• 1:58:47
  Matt Barnes: They were my only two kids at the time. So the fact that my boys loved them, it gave me, to me a path to go mend the bridge.
• 1:58:53
  Matt Barnes: And you know, I was the first one to kind of reach out to him.
• 1:58:57
  Matt Barnes: And you know, we both set our pieces and shook hands. And you know, people know that's we're going on 10 years now, since that happened, and it still talked about like it happened yesterday. But he is my kid's stepfather. He's their head high school basketball coach. I coached him in the summer, and he's one of their dads. And, you know, I was so real when we squashed the beef, I was still playing. I'm just like, bro, you see my kids more than I do.
• 1:59:20
  Matt Barnes: Like, you have to be that Guiding Light that father figure teach them discipline, manners, morals, and it's gonna take a village to raise these boys. And it's, you know, your job, and my ex wife's job and my job at the time, I was single, and now I have a fiance to kind of raise these and be productive, good young men in this world. And that is, to be honest, that's probably one of the proudest things that I think I've accomplished, was to be able to turn that into a good situation, because people have died over shit like that for less, you know what I mean. So for us to be able to have the issue, we had to be able to squash it and to him to be such an integral part of my kids life, and him treat them so well that they love him now. And I have no issue with that. I encourage it.
• 2:00:07
  Matt Barnes: I just say especially for me, because, like I said, I was, I was the one that was ready to go at all times. You know what I mean, but for me to kind of exhale and understand the bigger picture, and it was always for my kids and the kids my the kids saying that they love him and they like him, kind of gave me the okay to Okay. Well, he as long as he's good to my kids, I'm good with them as
• 2:00:26
  Randall Kaplan: parents, the only thing we care about, really, is the emotional, which is not often talk about as much as it should be in physical well being of our kids, anybody who does anything nice for our kids is something that we appreciate as parents absolutely. And I feel like there's no nothing better than you can do as a favor to a friend of making some cool, special moments. Yes, you know for your kids, could you remember?
• 2:00:52
  Matt Barnes: Remember for so long. You know, I remember the first autograph I got from a professional athlete was Jawan Howard. Think I was 16. I went to a Kings game, and then he was nice enough to pick me out of the crowd. And so I just think these small dresses, and I think I mentioned it earlier in this, all these people sitting around the court, you know, I mean, I'm their kids. If they're their kids, I'm, you know, messing with them and letting them come rebound for me, or let them take a shot, and it's just this is stuff that they're going to remember for the rest of life.
• 2:01:16
  Matt Barnes: And you never know how small that small gesture could come to come full circle. You know, at an unexpected time,
• 2:01:23
  Randall Kaplan: we see nepotism in the real world all the time.
• 2:01:26
  Randall Kaplan: At our companies, there's no such thing as nepotism. It's a complete meritocracy. Is Bronnie really the product of nepotism, after throwing down 4.1 points a game in an unremarkable single season at USC, where there were five players at least on the team better than he is.
• 2:01:43
  Matt Barnes: If he is, I'm okay with it, because we live in a world filled with it. And if anyone deserves to have that kind of carpet rolled out for their kids, it's LeBron, what he's been able to pour into this game the last 20 years, to be a star who over exceeded the hype, to be a high school sensation and still again. Knock on wood.
• 2:02:01
  Matt Barnes: I hope there is no slip ups. You know, how do you were the face of a league for so long? And there is, there's no bad dirt on him, like he's always done things above board the right way. He's looked out for his friends. He's done everything given this game, everything.
• 2:02:17
  Matt Barnes: He's the leading scorer, top five in assists. He's just been so great to this game. I love the fact that he has given but what I will say is he's given his son this opportunity. But I think his son knows that, you know, Daddy's not going to be around for too much longer, you know what I mean, so he's going to have to put that work in, and I think he will to be able to be a night in, night out guy. I think people are looking at it wrong. If you think bronny is going to be the next coming of LeBron, he's not. I think bronny can be a very solid and have a good long career being a solid role player. He's got a high basketball IQ, he shoots the ball, he plays defense, he plays hard. He can find the space in this league, but he's going to have to work his butt off. But off. But if it is nepotism, I love it, because I've always, we've always seen it at all different levels. You know, we see owners handing the teams down to their kids all the time, and other opportunities in business that happen, but you never had the chance to see it in the NBA, and we got a chance to see it in the NBA. And as a father, I love it. I was playing, I started playing pickup basketball game maybe two summers ago, and I started having my twins play with grown men, because I wanted them to get prepared for high school.
• 2:03:21
  Matt Barnes: And I remember there was one day just this past summer where we were on the court and the twins were with me, we were kicking everybody's ass. And I just imagined, like, this is so dope, and I'm playing in a small pickup gym in Chatsworth. I couldn't imagine doing this on the biggest level, and it just really made my admiration grow for what Brom was able to do and have a chance to play with his son.
• 2:03:40
  Randall Kaplan: So tell us about the documentary about Tupac that you CO produced, and tell us about the poem The Rose that grew from concrete, and why that made you so emotional, man,
• 2:03:49
  Matt Barnes: Tupac is just one of those. I wish I got them on my hand. Here is one, is one of my favorite people, huge Tupac fan, and just the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations he had been through, you know, with the way he was raised and what he stood for, I feel like the world would be different if he was still here. I think he was that powerful. I think he was a leader of men and women. He was before his time, and he made great music. I think Tupac made a he had a song for every human emotion we have. I mean, he can have you ready to shoot somebody, ready to fight someone, but he also has you, you know, caring for single mothers and your mom and again, everything in between that. So he was just so his range was crazy, not to mention a great actor. I think he would have been a star in Hollywood had he had more time. So I just think he was a well rounded black man that I looked up to, and a lot of people looked up to. And again, obviously, I think caught up in this, this la street gang life, which is absolutely no joke. If you're not in it, stay out of it. If you're in it, try to get out of it. It's it's it.
• 2:04:58
  Matt Barnes: You know, it's taken too many people, but I think he got caught up in the in the LA street life and La street politics. And, you know, he was taken from us too soon. So great man. Wish he was still here. Got a chance to work with his or his estate, and a couple projects that I've done, and, you know, made friends with the people Tom Wally and the whole crew that runs that shout out, you know, to them, you know, they're great. And, yeah, just always be a fan of Tupac. Talk to us about the poem that rose that crew.
• 2:05:31
  Matt Barnes: Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's, you know, you never think that, you know, a rose can grow through concrete. And I think it's just a metaphor for kids that grow, you know, being able to flourish through a lot of bullshit. And I was someone who was able to flourish through violence, drugs, abuse, poverty, and. Make it. And I think that's a, you know, a symbol of, you know, roses are supposed to grow in dirt and be watered and then have the right amount of sun.
• 2:05:58
  Matt Barnes: And you know, for rose to grow through concrete, you know, it means you were, you were meant to be here. And, you know, again, Tupac had, you know, sayings and poems and songs for every emotion.
• 2:06:12
  Randall Kaplan: You're a great dad. We've talked about our families before. We've had several conversations, lots of texts about our kids. You're you've called your family the black Brady Bunch. Yeah, you've got athletes in your family. And what's interesting, you've got two twins who want to play pro basketball, and you've got another son who wants to play football and wants to buy you a bunch of Lamborghinis if he makes it. Yes, Ashton, so how good are your kids, and are they going to make it? And what's your advice to parents who push their kids and really shouldn't be doing it?
• 2:06:43
  Unknown: Um, I wasn't one who pushed my kids at all. You know, I don't think, I think today, that everything is so sport specific, and you're in one lane, and you have to make it, and if you don't train in that sport, you get behind. I was someone, as you said, I played all four sports growing up, and I think every sport contributed to the one. I was blessed to be able to play professionally, so I never pushed my kids. You know, the twins, they were around the game a lot, so they had a good high IQ, they could shoot the ball, but they didn't want to. They're six. They just turned 16 about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, they didn't start working out until they're almost 13 years old, because that's not they didn't want to, and I wasn't gonna You better go do like, and I started coaching them when they were about eight years old, and I'd have parents tell me, oh yeah, my kid works out six days a week. I'm like, that's more than I worked out as a professional. Like, you're making this you're making it a job too early. I think a lot of times parents would try to vicariously live through their kids in sports. And I just think it's it's nasty. This whole American sports system is crazy.
• 2:07:35
  Unknown: It's year round. Now it's too many games. Kids don't learn enough. And I think that's why I said earlier. Like you see this European influx, and these European players coming over to have a success, because we live in a country where a kid will play six basketball games, three on Saturday, three on Sunday.
• 2:07:52
  Unknown: Overseas, these kids will practice five days a week and play one game on the weekend. So these kids really understand the game. Coming over here, our kids are very talented and skilled, but they lack IQ and an understanding of the game. So I just feel like you know that this system is crazy to get to your point when my kids make it, I hope so, if that's what they want to do, regardless, I'm going to be supportive, but it takes a lot of hard work. And now that they are they, you know, they have the dedication and the drive to want to do it, I'm putting them in position.
• 2:08:23
  Unknown: You know, not only do I work with them, but I find them, you know, the best trainers around to, you know, help, hopefully fulfill their dreams. And it's dope, because although my dad was there, he wasn't there, like I never played catch with my dad or shot hoops with my dad when I was little. So that shit didn't exist for me. So every opportunity I get now I'm with him. I'll take him to train.
• 2:08:42
  Unknown: I'll watch him train. I'll train him. You know, the little Ashton, he just turned six. You know, if he wants to go out and, you know, in the side yard and shoot some hoops, I'll do it.
• 2:08:51
  Unknown: You know, my step kids all play sports. So I just want to, really want to be a present father. I think, you know, Fatherhood has been the greatest thing to ever happen to me, and I learned a lot of things not to do, you know, from my childhood.
• 2:09:03
  Unknown: And I just tried to apply and be the best father I possibly can to be present. You know, money is great, but time is more important. And, you know, again, not only teaching my kids how to be solid athletes, but be solid citizens and good people,
• 2:09:19
  Randall Kaplan: there's no better investment, I think, that we can make in ourselves than in our kids. If you have kids, and someone told this to me before I had kids, and they said, you'll really understand the meaning of life once you have kids. And for all the people out there are listening and watching the show who don't have kids. I'm telling you, there's no truer statement that anyone has ever said to me in my life.
• 2:09:41
  Matt Barnes: I think, not only life, but true love. You know, obviously you can love your spouse and then and but when you see your child being born and start to see them grow like, I've never experienced that type of love, like, I'm obviously in love with my fiance and ready to get married. I love her to death. She puts up with my crazy ass. But to have a child like, I feel like you never know true love until you have a child, it's the best,
• 2:10:04
  Randall Kaplan: amazing. All right, we're at the end of our show now. I always finish my show with a game I call fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play? Yes. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is believe in myself. My number one personal goal is continue to be a great father. My number one professional goal is to
• 2:10:22
  Matt Barnes: be the best production multimedia agency in the game. My
• 2:10:29
  Randall Kaplan: financial goal is to
• 2:10:31
  Matt Barnes: be able to have my kids and grandkids comfortable when I leave. My biggest regret is not signing a prenup in my first marriage.
• 2:10:41
  Randall Kaplan: I love that one.
• 2:10:41
  Randall Kaplan: My biggest fear is
• 2:10:45
  Matt Barnes: I don't have a biggest fear, to be honest with you. I think that God has prepared me for whatever has thrown my way and I got to handle it the. That's my abilities. The proudest moment of my career is proudest moment of my life is becoming a father.
• 2:10:57
  Matt Barnes: The
• 2:10:59
  Randall Kaplan: craziest thing that happened in my career is, man,
• 2:11:03
  Matt Barnes: a girl was in my closet when I got to Phoenix, in the hotel room, in a hotel room, she got in, she got in my room, and she was in the closet. Was she naked? No, but she was attractive when I had to kick her out initially, but it ended, I ended up messing with her a couple months
• 2:11:19
  Randall Kaplan: later. I've never told that the stalker becomes relator, yeah, all right, that's a you have to put a disclaimer out there to all the women watching this show. Probably not a good idea, man. Oh yeah, that bad business. The funniest thing that's happened in my career is, oh, we're
• 2:11:35
  Matt Barnes: in Miami, and I wasn't playing a lot, and I got in at the end of the game, and we was a blowout, and I was pissed. I was even in there, and I went to close out on someone kind of half assed, and they shot faked, and the three point line had jumped up and tripped me and like I fell into the stands. So I was pissed. I was embarrassed. My teammates were making fun of me. But now I look back on it was funny.
• 2:11:55
  Randall Kaplan: The best advice I've ever received is,
• 2:11:59
  Matt Barnes: man, if you don't believe in yourself, who's gonna believe in you? 10 years from now, I'm going to be doing, 10 years from now, I'm going to be coaching my kids and making great content. 20 years from now, I'm going to be doing 20 years from now, I'm gonna be on a big lake house, drinking lemonade, smoking joints and watching my grandkids run around. If
• 2:12:20
  Randall Kaplan: you could pick one trait that contributes to somebody's success, what would it be discipline? If you could pick one trait that contributed to your success, what would it be belief, the one thing I've dreamed about doing for a long time, but haven't, is just
• 2:12:36
  Matt Barnes: continuing to win financially. I want to continue just to make a bunch of money.
• 2:12:40
  Matt Barnes: The
• 2:12:41
  Randall Kaplan: best player currently in the NBA is jokic.
• 2:12:47
  Randall Kaplan: The best player of all time is I'm
• 2:12:50
  Matt Barnes: gonna leave it up to you guys. I throw LeBron, Michael Jordan and COVID.
• 2:12:53
  Matt Barnes: However they land is up to you.
• 2:12:56
  Randall Kaplan: If you could go back and give your 21 year old self one piece of advice? What would it be you
• 2:13:03
  Unknown: can't take care of everybody. If
• 2:13:05
  Randall Kaplan: you could meet one person in the world, who would it be, to be honest
• 2:13:08
  Matt Barnes: with you, I want to have a conversation with President Trump.
• 2:13:11
  Randall Kaplan: My next question was going to be, if you were President Trump today, what's the first thing you would do when you got into office
• 2:13:20
  Matt Barnes: in racism? I don't even know if that's even possible. That's what I try to
• 2:13:25
  Randall Kaplan: do. The one question you wish I had asked you but didn't, is, I think
• 2:13:29
  Matt Barnes: you did a great job today. Man, you were prepared.
• 2:13:31
  Matt Barnes: You asked me everything. Are there
• 2:13:33
  Randall Kaplan: any questions that you want to ask me on my own show? That's a new thing I'm doing on the show here. I
• 2:13:38
  Matt Barnes: want to learn how to make as much money as you so you don't have to talk about it now. But I need a mentor, man, let me get under your wing and learn from you. I
• 2:13:46
  Randall Kaplan: appreciate that.
• 2:13:46
  Randall Kaplan: I love mentoring. I love coaching. You're an amazing guy.
• 2:13:48
  Randall Kaplan: Appreciate that. I'm excited to play pickleball together. I mean, we got
• 2:13:52
  Matt Barnes: to do that. We got to do that. I'm definitely excited. I mean, it's been a pleasure, man, for us to kind of meet through a mutual friend, and us to kind of hit it off the way we did without knowing each other at all before it's it's something I really value. And definitely looking forward to learning some more from
• 2:14:05
  Randall Kaplan: you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting the families together too. Yeah, let's do it. Appreciate it.
• 2:14:09
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you. Appreciate it. No doubt. You