"Agent Zero" Gilbert Arenas Has No Chill With Q and D | Knuckleheads S2: E4 | The Players' Tribune

- Yo, live and direct from L.A., California, man. Live on location, man. We got the illest one. We got No Chill Gil. G.A., Gil Arenas in the building. Agent Zero, the Hibachi. Rockin' with the Knuckleheads, man. Y'all tune in, it's gonna gonna get real hot today. Let's go. - Yeah. (relaxed hip hop music) First question we always ask everybody. Like when you first got to the league, who was the first player to bust your ass? Like kill you? - See, you asked that question wrong. It's supposed to be the opposite. Who was the first person that got their ass busted by me? You know what I mean? That's the real, who-- - You can give us both. - Who got the No Chill Gil for 'em? - Who got that work? - [Darius] You can give us both. - Unfortunately, it was you guys. - [Darius] What? - Who got that work, I busted y'all ass. - Hold up, no, no, no, no. - Jeff McInnis. - Okay, say that. Say that. - Yeah, it was Jeff McInnis my rookie year 'cause you gotta remember, I started off on the bench. - Right, I remember. - Mookie Blaylock was in front of you. - Yeah, Mookie Blaylock, Larry Hughes, so by the time I got to really play, it was the Clippers. It was the Clippers. Yeah, Jeff McInnis, gave him a 32 piece. Yeah, gave him 32. I'm talkin' about cheesing, I was cheesing. - I remember we played each other at Golden State and you came out the game. You was like, "Man, yeah, I ain't playing, man. "They got Mookie Blaylock in front of me." (laughing) - I said, "Man, hey, as soon you get your opportunity, "just make sure you're ready." And it seemed like a week later, I think Mookie got hurt or something like that and you just came. - Yeah, that's what I said. It's just one of those things that it just, like somebody asked me like, "Yo, what'd you do?" I was like, "To be honest, God did all that." - [Darius] Yeah, you got the opportunity. - Mookie got kicked off the team. I don't know what the hell happened with Mookie. I just didn't see him no more. - Yeah. - Larry Hughes got hurt. I was the third option. They was like, "All right, rook. "We're gonna take you off the IR, put you in the game." So it's like, okay, and then by the time Larry Hughes got back, I was already feelin' myself. - Yeah, feelin' yourself. - But Gary Payton. - Ooh. - Gary Payton. - Uncle G. - It was seven minutes, seven to eight minutes of a ass whoopin' he was giving me. It was just one of those things where he had, what? 17 all on me in that first five minutes. Like, it was the first time in my career, especially early career, you know? When you early, you dominate in high school and college. - Was he talking shit? - No, nah, he wasn't saying nothing, that was the problem. That was the problem, he was just scoring. He was just scoring, so it was like I got subbed out. I ran off the court so damn fast, woo! Man, boy, that motherfucker nice. Like it was one of those things, I was like, "I don't think I wanna go in when he in." And then he got subbed out and Weeber came in. I don't know who he is, but I can go against him. "Coach, I'm ready." It was one of those. At half time when I got back in, he was like, "You lucky I ain't A.I. type. "I would've scored 50 against you." (laughing) Yeah, you right, you right, I ain't gonna lie. - He was posting you up? - Everything, it was like driving, posting. - Pull up. - Yeah, we would switch. He got the big man on him. He post him up. That's when I knew I was in trouble. Like he got Erick, Erick Dampier switched on him. He backed him up, spint, faked it. I'm like, woo. - It's not just me. - Yeah, yeah. Hoo, this ain't the NBA I'm ready for. - Yeah, I would get the opportunity to play against G.P. G.P. was like, and then as soon as we played against them, he instantly started talking, it was like, man, I've been watching this on, like when I was little. Watching him talk shit and do his thing. So when we played against him, he was talking shit, it got me hyped to play against him and go even harder. - See, I think as soon as I got on the court, like when we started, we got the ball, and he did that little smirk, it threw me off already. Oh, shit, I just like picked the ball up. Like, I'm not even near the dude. I just picked it up and threw it, like ah. I guess he already realized, okay, he done. I was scared of him, so he didn't need to talk nothing. - I didn't know you was born in Tampa. You was born in Florida, then you moved to California. - [Gilbert] Yeah. - You went to Grant High School. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Where the fuck is Grant? - Yeah, yeah. Valley Glen. - In the Valley? - Yeah, like Sherman Oaks. Van Nuys. - Where I used to stay. My first two years in L.A. I stayed in Encino. - Yeah, okay, so yeah, that area, like that Valley area. So my dad came out here to be an actor. So like you remember Mike Williams, football player? That was my best friend growing up. - Oh, okay. - You know, who went to USC? That was my best friend growing up in Florida. So we moved out here and then I got into the basketball thing. So back in the '90s, just that whole '90s era, they were bussing kids. So they was using the Magnet program to integrate schools. So they was bringing all the L.A. kids, Valley kids, moving 'em. So I was bussing. So I went to Hale Junior High, which is 40 miles away. Then I went to Birmingham and then my basketball skill was starting to kick in but coach already said he won't play me. Like I'm not good enough for his varsity, so I just was working outside the school that I lived across the street from, which was Grant. So I lived across the street from Grant, but I was going to a whole 'nother school. So I'm out there at like 6:00 in the morning, like yeah, he's talkin' about I ain't good enough. We gonna see, I'm gonna see him next year. I'm preparing to go back. - Yeah, for the next season. - And then coach seen me working out, and he was like, "Are you in high school?" I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna be a sophomore." "What school you go to?" I said "I go to Birmingham." "What are you doing here?" I said, "I live across the street." He was like, "Why you going to Birmingham?" "Magnet program." He goes, "All right, I didn't see you play?" I was like, "Oh, yeah, I was on JV, I didn't really play. "Played like eight minutes the whole season." He's all, "We're having tryouts. "You can try out for my team. "We're looking for a point guard." I'm like, "Okay, like a starter?" He's like, "Yeah, a starter." Like oh shit, word? I'm about to kill 'em on JV this year. He's like, "No, no, varsity. "You look good enough that you could make the varsity team." I ran home and told my dad, "Yo, the coach across the street "said I could make his varsity team." - [Darius] At this school. - My dad like, "You sure? "Like varsity or do you mean like JV starter?" Like no, he said varsity. I know the difference. I said, "I know the difference, he said varsity." - I made sure. - So they had a conversation. Tryouts, I actually beat out the dude, some dude from Tennessee. Beat him out for the spot, starting point guard. We had our first game, pre-season game, had 22 and then he was like, "You gonna be an NBA player." Get the fuck out of here, dog. You know, it's one of those get the fuck outta here. He was like, "Yo, you really gonna be if you wanna be." And then from that day when he told me that, I had to be at school at 6:00 a.m. Nutrition or yeah, is that what they call it still, nutrition? You get a 15-minute break between your second and third period? - I don't know the period though. - The late thing. - Far from the door. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, first period, second period, then you had like a 15-minute break for a snack. - What? - And then third, fourth, then lunch. - That sound like pre-school. Something they do with my kids. - That sound like "Saved By the Bell" or something. - You never had like-- - Nah, bro. - You had the little breakage. - We had lunch. - Nah, bro. - That's all? - We had lunch. - You had four straight periods, then lunch? - Yeah. - What? No wonder why y'all were so angry in Chicago. - [Quentin] Man. - Back then we had a break. We had a 15-minute break. - No. - So I had to go shoot free throws in the 15-minute break and then third, fourth and then lunch, I had to take jumpers at lunch. So I didn't really get to enjoy all that festivities of school like the other friends. - Yeah, no, I was chillin' at lunch. Not shootin' no damn jump shots. - I was leaving school going to get lunch. - Nah, nah, coach wasn't having that. - Yeah, we had off-campus lunch, so, you know. - Yeah, so the Valley school. So I was the first NBA player from the Valley. - From the Valley. - Yeah, from the Valley. - From there. - We was considered weak white boy players, I mean, c'mon. - Did y'all make noise? Like win state or go down to state? - What? - Did y'all go down to state? - It was white boy players, man. We was white boy players. - He was just an assassin. Their team wasn't that good. - We won seven games my first year on varsity, my 10th grade year and then the same team, the next year, we won 21 games. Played against Crenshaw in the playoffs. So they were first seed, we're 16th seed. so we like, "Oh, we made it to the playoffs, y'all!" - Got bopped. - They got bopped. I bopped the hell outta them, but we got creamed. I mean, I was the only black person on the team. Black, like got a little black in me and everybody else is black-white. You know, that's what it is, it's black-white. Or privileged black. - [Darius] Straight up. - And then from there, it was just Asians and white. Yeah, it wasn't really. - When you came out, why you choose Arizona? Could it have been somebody else? - Yes. - Okay, so-- - Tell the story. - Okay, so-- - You don't know this, but tell this. - Okay so, you gotta remember, it's the Valley. There ain't no, there ain't no athleticism here. So Northridge was the school that was going after me. So it was Northridge going after me and the dude who was recruiting me said, "I'm getting ready to go to Kansas State, "so you're gonna be my first recruit." I was, "All right." So Kansas State come in, boom, boom, boom. I go there and and I'm like, they're like, "You're gonna play 1,000 minutes as a freshman." I don't know what the fuck that mean but whatever, but that's where I'm going, and then DePaul came in. So DePaul came in and he already hittin' me, like, "You're gonna be the starting point. "We got Quentin Richardson, we got Steven Hunter. "We got--" - Bobby Simmons. - "We got Bobby Simmons, so our team is nice." - Loaded. - "We added you, that's all we need. "We can do some damage." - Yeah. - So I'm like, all right. So my dad, like 'cause my dad and Pat Kennedy had some Florida ties, so it was like we there. So my dad's sister, his only sister was going to DePaul too. So I had family going to DePaul. So right before my trip, his mother passed, so he had to cancel my trip to DePaul. So I never got to go visit. Instead of me going to DePaul that weekend, I called Arizona and said, "I'll come." Like I could just come early. They said, "All right, come on through." So I go there, Richard Jefferson there, we having fun. We had some little scrimmage game, bust ass, like bust ass. For some reason, Michael Dickerson was there. All of them were there still training in the summer. That's the summer. - Right. - Yeah, so I'm just training 'cause I was wondering why the guy, I never understood why he was there 'cause I thought he was a football player. I was like, "Damn." - Well, Mike's strong. - I was like, "Damn, you's a football? "For a football player, you nice, bro." He's like, "I'm not a football player." I was like, "You're not a football player, what are you?" He's like, "Yo, I play on the team." And they was like, "Yo, Mike D." I was like, "You're Michael Dickerson? "You don't look the same on TV, bro." I said "My TV kinda small, so I mean, "I don't see all the muscles like that." - Yeah, nah, he stronger than a mother. - Yeah, so when I left, I told my dad like, "Yo, I think I can play there." I was like, "Yeah, I was whoopin' they ass." He was like, "Nah, man, they (chuckles), "nah, they pushing out pros, bro. "You don't wanna go there." "We gonna go to DePaul, everything's hooked up over there." And I was like, "But I like that though." It was like, DePaul is DePaul, I ain't been there. "But there," I said, "Right there is cool." So Lute Olsen was like "The first person between you, "a kid named Kevin Gaines and Jimmy Haywood, "between you three, whoever commits first, I want 'em." And that stood out to me because Kevin Gaines was like-- - The dude. - High recruit. - Right. - He was three, four in the country in the point guard. So he said whatever one of us goes. So is he saying I'm like on that level? - Yeah. - Right. - I don't know how to read this. So I'm like ah, fuck it, I'm going. They was like "Yo, they gonna redshirt you." but I said Jason Terry got redshirted. He went four years, then the NBA. So that means I redshirt, four years, NBA. I'm an NBA player. - Yeah. - I said right now and I started doing this. Right now I'm ranked 100, all right, you know? Those couple go, by the time I get to my fifth year, boy, I'll be like top 10. - So you was willing do the whole redshirt, full five years senior deal. - Yep, bro, I was ranked 100. Like when I got into 100, I was like what? I'm the man. But see, you gotta understand, when I did go to camps and I played against players like, like I never got to play against BD 'cause I never hit that A-squad. So you know how like AAU, they got like gold, silver and bronze. So my team, like I was with Dunleavy. So our team was like bronze and silver for the most time. So we never really hit that high, high level. So then it was like Tony Bland. So I got to play against Tony Bland, gave him 40 something. So like when I went up-- - Was Jason Williams around your time? - Yeah, but I didn't play against Jason Williams 'til we were at Jordan Camp. - I know that we first seen you, when I first seen you up close was at Jordan Camp. Like you stood out right away to me. - First of all, he was a fool. That was why he stood out before. - Yeah, I was a fool. - Anything goes. - That's true. - This man was a fool. A stone cold, he was in there man, whoopin' the little camper's asses. - Yep. - In whatever, ping pong. - Anything they wanted to play. - Pool. - Anything they wanted to play. - Whatever. - Yeah, I remember that. - They said "Hey man, you gotta go talk to Gil. "He in there," they said "He in there takin' the kids' money." I said "What you mean takin' the kids' money?" He said "Kids tryin' to gamble him." I said "He's not playin' 'em for real money." He was like "Yes he is." - I used to have a ball at Jordan Camp, man. I loved Jordan Camp. - That's why I said Jordan Camp was the best. - But seeing y'all, like you was the ones that stood out to me. You and especially like T.J. Ford, I remember when he came through and he played out there. But just when you got out there and hooped with us and hoopin' on that level, I know how 'cause we was coming every year and when y'all came, you kinda be knowing who's the next coming because we done seen it every year with all the college players who come and so forth on. But you was like extra, extra nice and that's when we got a chance to actually see you in person and meet you. - You know the funny thing about that, 'cause I played against Ruben Douglas. So I played against Ruben Douglas in high school. So he was the number one stud. - Right, I remember that. - In the Valley. - So and I was two, but he was averaging like 35. So he was at 35, I was at like 29. So we was first and second and then the next person was like 21. So we entered the Birmingham Tournament. So my coach wanted us to go against each other. So my coach said, "You gonna bust his ass. "It's the people he play against that makes him look good." And I'm like the people we play against make me look good. - Right. - Right? So we go against them and what's funny is one of my teammates already hit a lie on me. - He said, "Yo, Ruben said "he don't even know how you made varsity." He said, "He about to bop you today." What? He said he gonna do what? He said he don't know how I made varsity? Coach, I'm sorry. No one's getting the ball today, at all. Like, I'm not, coach said "I didn't plan on you playing." I mean "I didn't plan on you actually "passing the ball today, why would you pass? Like all right, at least we're on the same. Hit him for a quadruple-double, 46, 15, 12 and 10. So you know, that confidence. So that boosted me up. - Yeah. - So when I got to Jordan Camp, he's in Jordan Camp and I just went to Arizona and most likely I went there just 'cause of him. - Yeah. - Like ooh, if I can get there, I can steal his spot. Not realizing, but you know, that's the cockiness of-- - This dude is sick. - But you know, he's already played college basketball. So that's whole different from, so he's a whole different player. So when I went to Jordan Camp, it was more to test him out. - [Darius] Yeah. - So when I'm having like, he's on the other team and I'm with Jordan, I ain't got a sub really, there's only six of us. (hooting) So I'm out there givin' my business. So I'm just building the confidence. Like yeah boy, I can't wait 'til he get to go up against me. - Hey, the hoops used to be real in Jordan Camp. - That's when I first knew he could score. - Yeah. - When he was playing with everybody and he was getting to the bucket. I was like this mother, I was like damn. Like he, it was awkward a little bit 'cause you know how you took the wide steps before it was real, real popular for everybody to do. I was like he kinda awkward but man, he gettin' there and can't nobody stop him from gettin' there though. Like he'd get that head down and he would get like, 'cause you wasn't even shooting as much then. You was just attacking like a mother, I was like god, dog. - A lot of them guys was like, had bigger names than you. - Yeah, that's why I said everybody there. I was like the dude that didn't have the-- - That's why you stood out. - That was why it stuck out. We didn't know who you was. - We didn't know who you was. - What's so funny is that's how I got all the comments 'cause no one knew who I was. - Yeah. - So it was like one of those things where I have all upside. - Right. - Like you bust 50. - Ain't nobody expecting nothing from you. - You bust 50 from me and nobody know me, I give you 50, like yo, who was that? - Straight up. - So like I remember you two 'cause high school, coming straight out of, like he goin' straight out, like straight out? Like straight, like damn. And then you like looked down like yeah, he got all the Jordan gear, damn. You know, you gotta be special, special to have Jordan gear. So I'm over here like, you know how you saw like he got the Jordan gear? I knew I should've went to that school that got all the Jordan gear. So you just sittin' there readin' like okay, he's number one, okay. So I'm sitting here like damn, I hope I can do good so I can test where I'm at. Then I remember like the second here, Amar'e came in and I remember him just, like I remember asking like "Yo, "like AAU, what'd you do?" He was like "I came off the bench." - We were lookin' at him like he was an animal. - So it's like lookin' at all this talent, like damn. - I remember when Amar'e came in. - Where were y'all during my AAU year? Like I didn't see none of this talent, like dang. - But you was always with Adidas though. - [Gilbert] Yeah, I never left the West Coast. - See, we was with Nike, so we didn't see. I didn't go to ABCD. - Oh, yeah. - Or none of that stuff. - Yeah. - We was always in the Peach Jam. So you know, you couldn't see-- - Vegas Bigtime, that's y'all's. - See, that's so hard-- - 'Cause I was head seeking too, I was looking for folks. I wanted to play against everybody I seen on the Street Smith. Anybody names I'd seen above me, I was lookin' for 'em. Like if they in a tournament that we playing in, 'cause you wanted to play against 'em to kind of see who they is or at least see 'em. - Yeah, see that's crazy because I didn't know half the people that was in my draft class was actually the same age. Like Joe Johnson, so I'm like, I had to look at it like oh, you've always been nice. Like I'd never heard about you until we entered the draft. - [Darius] Yeah. - So all these players, I'm like who the fuck are these? They're like "Joe Johnson's special." Who the fuck is Joe Johnson? Like in college, like you know I'm, I went to the championship, bro. Who the fuck is Joe Johnson, who the fuck is these players? - [Quentin] Right. - So like when we playing, you know like you don't know what upside looks like. When you're young, what the fuck is upside? Are you good right now? So we playing, I remember we went to, we were in Washington and we're playing like seven spots. They didn't touch the ball. Like I'd run that, second, next spot, run that. Third, run that. So I'm running every spot 'cause I got Joe, Lampley and Richard Jefferson. So I'm I'm the only point guard. So when we playing, one, I got the speed and everything on them. - Sean Lampley? - Yeah, Sean Lamp. - Sean Lamp. - So you know we're playing AAU Atlanta. So I'm just sitting there going. So I'm sitting here like oh, these players is trash bro. - You love to play against wings when you a point. - Yeah, that's what I'm saying, I'm playing against wings. I was like oh, these players is trash, bro. I said Joe, he can't jump, he ain't fast. So you know, I don't see what everybody see. But then when you get drafted and they be like "All right, Joe Johnson, 11." What? Richard Jefferson, 13, what? He was the fourth option on my team. - Yeah. - I said, you know what? They must've already called me, bro. They must've already, like 'cause I called it like at 10, 11. So they must've already called me. Like "Yo pop, where they pick me at?" He was like "You ain't been picked yet." I was like "You know they picked Richard Jefferson, right?" And he was like "Yeah, they just picked him." I was like "How did they pick Richard Jefferson? "I'm the number one scorer on our team. "I'm the best player on our team." - Yeah. - He is option three, four. - Yeah. - Right. - This don't even make no sense and just it's going, boom, boom, boom, boom and I'm just sitting here like who is Kendrick Perkins? Who is Romanovich? Who's Tony Parker? - Yeah. - Who are these people? - Yeah. - Like that's what I'm saying. I'm just sittin' like, like I'm like you know, I played college basketball two years. I know Joseph Forte, this is who, I know these guys. Like who? - Yeah. - This is horrible. - Who are the rest of these guys? - Yeah, who the rest of these guys? So like I went straight into anger and just starting working out, like nah, this ain't gonna, and then I remember we were playing Joe when he got to Phoenix and then that's when the first, like when he was with y'all and I was like-- - He was there before me. - He was there before you and I was sitting there like, okay, I can see. - The way he started to show. - Like show the one, two, like now you can see it. When he's off the ball, you couldn't really-- - Yeah. - 'Cause he's sittin' there waiting for it. - My year was like his coming out party. He was there a year before that. He had one year before I got there and he was starting to show but when I got there, (scoffs) took off. - That year when you put that ball in his hand and let him be more of the point call and call, you was like woo, this man is nice. - But watching him on TV and then seeing him in person is different 'cause he big as a mother fucker. - And that's what people don't understand. Like people look at Google-- - He's a real 6'8" country strong boy. - Yeah. People look at this Google height and think this is real. - Nah, he big. - Players grow once they get in the NBA. They're still growing 'cause they're so young. So you can't look at the Google height. So I'm like, you know-- - Or the weight. - Comin' in, Joe Johnson, 6'6", 6'7", no. - [Darius] Yeah. - That man big as hell. - That's how John Stockton was to me. I thought he was just like-- - Some little dude, right? - This skinny little white dude. Man he got on the court, legs big as a mother. - That's what I said, people think-- - Chopped, I'm like dang, he big as a mother fucker. - Yeah, that's what I said. - Run your back off. - You be thinking these players is doing this being this small? Like no, these players is big as hell. - Wait, with him getting drafted, I have to, him especially, I have to ask him, when you first got drafted and started getting that bread, what was the craziest thing you did with your money? 'Cause I know this is No Chill Gil. I know you got something spectacular. - You gotta remember, this is 2001. So you already know what was popping, the Escalade. That Escalade, you know that Escalade. - The 310. - Yeah. - 310 motoring. - 310. - Check me out with the suede with the TV and with the hoes. But you did too. - Exactly that. So you know, you got all y'all cars is there. - Yeah. - All y'all cars is there. So I'm like the suede on the roof? Gimme the suede on the roof, I want the suede on the roof too. Put it on the vine, I want the two TVs in the vine. - Did you have the TV come out-- - The TV come out the top. (laughing) I want the drop one in the middle and I want the two in the back headrests. So I'm sitting with six TVs, I want four 12s in the back. - He said four 12s, so wait a minute. You want the people behind you driving to see your TVs. - I want everybody, so I got the two here, the popup third, the one behind me, four and then the two reg, I get five and six, full 12. 'Cause I'm sitting there looking at everybody. They done sold me, they done sold me on it. The only thing I didn't put in the car was the mink floors Gary Payton had. I was like, that just sounds expensive and I don't know. - Yeah, he had the mink floor before Rolls-- - Way before Rolls Royce was doing it, GP had them things up in there. - That's what I said, so they was like the mink floor. I was like ah, I'm a just do the regular floor but I'll take that suede though. - That suede. - I'll take the suede. - Like weapons. Just six 12s. - Your face would vibrate, I didn't like riding with him. - Yeah, yeah, then you know that's when the chains was comin' out. So it was the long joints and we was doing all initials then. - Your initials or your name or your nickname or something like that. - Your birth certificate on there. - Yeah, yeah, I had the GJA chain about this big. - Yeah, I had a D-Miles 21. (laughing) Dave the Jeweler. - I love it. - Everybody going to Dave. - Dave, living rapport, yeah. And what's so funny is that's when earrings became cool. The big diamond. - The square ones. - The square ones. So I got my ears pierced, boom, just for a diamond. I got an earring, took that out, get me the big joint. The ear just hanging all down here. So when I got drafted, so I done spent probably 200,000, 300,000 before I got drafted. So imagine saying 32, 31. So I'm looking at the money chart, I'm getting a million here, 300... Oh, I'm broke. Oh, I'm done bro, I'm done. Like I don't really, how does this work? Like I'm done. So I had to get a financial... (laughing) I had to get a financial advisor and he was like "All right." Looked at the two purchases and everything, gave my dad some bread. So he was like "All right, "your first year check, that's gone." He said "That's gone, you already spent that. "You already spent some of your second year money. "Glad you got a two year deal." So he was like "So we're gonna budget "off your second year for both years." So all right, all right. He was like so, you gotta get an apartment that's about 2500. A house or apartment under 2500, you know, gas. So you're gonna have $400, you have $400 free money for the next two years and you can't go over it. - All right, 400, 400 easy. I had two pit bulls, the Escalade eating up money. Gotta drive, 400, dog, I was struggling. - And you gotta eat. - And I gotta eat, so what I used to do, like that first month, so what I used to do is when we got on the plane, my backpack, all that fruit, all the fruit, cookies, all that, I took all that. That was my meal 'cause I couldn't order room service. - Everything must go. - Yeah, so I couldn't order room service. So I'm just eating all the fruit and stuff and that's how I survived. - You was taking them Podium checks though. - Nah, you know, I lost that on the plane already-- - On Bourre. - Trying to get more money. I'm trying to gamble for more money. I'm trying to like, I got 168. If I can win like three games. - Bourre. - I'm good, you know? I'm good. - That Bourre hurt. - Yeah, so that's how I was read. Like I'm sitting' there like okay, they won't let me jump in now 'cause you know, I ain't got enough. So I gotta wait until somebody fall off and then try to hurry up and get a quick little lit and then I'm good and what ended up happening is I won, I won and had like 600. So Chris Mills, being the dickhead he is, he was like "Hey rook, we're gonna go to your room. "Since you the big baller now, "I need you to order pizza for the room "and we're gonna finish the game in your room." All right, cool, yeah, I got the money. So I'm ordering pizza, Larry Hughes is like "I don't want no pizza." So he orders room service, right? And I said "No, no, no, you can't order room service bro." - Yeah, Bug. - I was like "Nah, don't be ordering room service. "I gotta take some of this money home." He was like "Rook, chill out. "This is Larry Hughes, room," blah, blah, blah. "But can you send my food to this room?" All right, so the food come, he signs it. - This is creating a monster right here. I see the writing on the wall. - All right. Okay. "Yeah, room service, can I have two cheeseburgers, "four scoops of vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake, "three sodas, yeah, this is Larry Hughes, room 212 "but can you bring it to room," doo doo doo. Come. (laughing) Give it to her. She leaves. - She walk on off. - [Quentin] Look at your burger, everything is cool. - Chop, chop, chop, chop. Everywhere we went, boy. Two hamburgers, four ice creams. - They thought you was Larry, you switched names? - I'm Larry Hughes, bro. I'm Larry Hughes, man, I'm Larry Hughes. Oh, when he caught on it, oh, you talk about gettin' an ass whooping. I got bopped. I was like "Yo, why you say it's me?" "You're the only one "who will order four scoops of ice cream." - Every time. - Every time. And I'm just like, I said "Man, look. "I ain't got no money, man." - Brother was mad? - Yeah, he was mad but then he just let me live. He was like "Just keep it normal." - That's one of the coolest dudes I ever met. - That's what I'm saying. - I was about to say, yeah. - He was the coolest, he let me rock the rest of the year. He said "Just keep it normal, don't go out of your rate." I was like "All right, cool, appreciate it." - Don't order for everybody. - That's how it goes, that's Bug. - Boy, I was struggling, oh, that was rough. - So you got drafted to Golden State. You got Mookie Blaylock in front of you. I was gonna say I always remembered that with you and I used to just remember saying to you, "Like man, just wait your turn, bro." - Yeah, yeah. - "Be ready." And like you took off to the woods. - Back then, so, I was playing out of that, I think it was the mid-level exception. So the highest the Wizards can pay me was 49. So Denver already came in, 'cause I used to work out with Kiki VanDeWeghe. So he was the General Manager. So he already said "We gonna give you 50." - Yeah. - To come on over here, right? I think you guys had, I don't know how many free agents, like Elton Brand was a free agent. I think Corey Maggette was a free agent, Lamar Odom was a free agent. I think it was like four-- - They were first, yeah. - It was like three or four free agents on your team. And then I think the NBA came down and said y'all gotta sign back a player 'cause at that time-- - Don Sterling wasn't paying nobody. - He wasn't paying nobody. So they was like no, you have too many free agents to just say fuck it. So you gotta spend money. So what ends up happening is they come into play, 50 million and everyone's coming and then Bryon Russell opted out of his contract, his last year to go to the Lakers and then the salary cap went up. So they went to like 64 million and then he's already said "Hey, just, "the city's yours if you come here." So it was like it was the Clippers or the city. So mentally, I went to Washington. - You start killing in Washington. You caught like your niche in the game. You was one of the top point guards and a lot of the shots that these cats shoot right now, you was shootin' 'em first. Like shooting from the logo, turning around after you done shot the ball. Like they really wasn't seeing that in the league from other players. You was doing it, you'd see it from the highlights. What did you see, what changed in Washington? Because I know you left and you built a rapport with Bug, you built a rapport with Antawn Jamison. You know what I'm saying? What changed in Washington that it was like man, I'm getting better and better every year? - See, so when I came into the league, you gotta remember, point guard was still point guard. - [Darius] Yeah. - And if you was a scorer, they somehow push you to the two. - Yeah. - So Iverson. Iverson was a shooting guard. - Yeah. - Eric Snow is the point. - Snow was the point, yeah. - So what ends up happening is once I had success at the point guard scoring, the scoring mentality and I went to Washington, Eddie Jordan was more of, yo, yo, I had Mike Bibby in Sac as an assistant and as an assistant, I had Jason Kidd. - Yeah. - You know, they're not high volume scorers like you. - Yeah, they wanted you to facilitate and get other people the ball. - That's not my style, you know? So what ends up happening is he's like "Well, since it's a two guard front, "you and Larry share everything." So me and Larry, so my first All-Star, it was Larry's All-Star. - Yeah. - He broke his thumb that year. So once he broke his thumb, I had to take on that scoring and me taking on that scoring pushed me into the All-Star. But it was Larry who was the All-Star guard. - [Darius] Yeah. - So my first one would've been actually Larry and Antawn. - [Darius] Yeah. - We was sharing points, so between the two of us, we was averaging 40 points and between the two of us, we was averaging 10 assists. - Yeah. - And then the same thing with rebounds. When Larry left and went to Cleveland, we brung in Antonio Daniels, who's not a scorer. - [Darius] Yeah. - So basically I have the scoring position all by myself for the guard and that's when it's like well, since I'm coming downhill, I'm a two guard with the ball all the time. - Yeah. - Right. - And that's where the confidence comes because no one was coming at me. Back then, it was like okay, Marbury, Marbury's at the 18, 19, 20, you know? And he's averaging nine assists, so it was like he still has to defer to another guard. - Right. - Yeah. - Steve Francis. - Yeah. - Which was the mega stud but he was only averaging 16. - Yeah. - His highlight reel was what made him great. It wasn't the points he was throwing up but he had to defer to Cat. So you know, Cat is averaging 20. He's averaging 16, so it's like oh, I get the least of it. Even though this one's trying to embarrass me for 16 points. - Right. - Yeah. - He's gonna try to throw it off your head, throw it between your legs, you know? I don't have to worry about getting put 40 on. - Yeah. - You know? Then you've got Tony Parker who was still, Jason Kidd didn't really try to score. Steve Nash, when he was in Dallas, wasn't, you know? - They were facilitators. - I didn't really have to go against anybody who was gonna try to take my confidence away from me. So it was basically just me. - Yeah. - It was just me just comin' at everybody. So by the time I made my first All-Star, that confidence was just building and then it was like well I'm just the assassin for that point guard position. - Straight up. - 'Cause I didn't have to play against Iverson. - Enter Agent Zero, AKA the Hibachi. - Eric Snow's guarding me. So I'm just freelancing on Eric Snow and just sitting back on defense. Like hey, y'all better guard that Iverson dude. - For those who don't know 'cause you know, I'm privileged to the story, you've given me the story firsthand when we was in Orlando but for those who don't know, can you talk to 'em about the AmEx, the American Express card, the party that happened that went on in D.C.? The extravaganza from Miami to L.A. to D.C. - Okay so, at this point I had made, I'm a two time All-Star, right? Yeah, so I'm a two time All-Star and I'm trying to negotiate a deal with Adidas. So I'm still on my first deal with them. You know, 500,000. - Yeah. - So I'm like I want to be bumped up at least two mil. Like I'm a two-time All-Star and I'm two mil and they was like "(inhaling) Your name, "your name just ain't big enough. "So when we say name ain't big enough, "it's not your talent, it's your name." So Kemba, name ain't big enough. - [Darius] Yeah. - Isaiah Thomas, your name ain't big enough right now. Dam Lillard, ah. We know who you are but your name ain't star name. - Right. - Yeah. - So I'm like man, this is some bull. Like how do I get my name, how do I get a star name? Like how do I get my name out there? So I have a meeting with Sasha Jones. She runs the media for Washington and I was like I need to do something to just liven my name up outside of D.C. Like I need the world to know. She was like, so we're just going through ideas. So we're looking at the dates of how everything played out, when does All-Star start, you know? Then it was my birthday and it was like let's throw a birthday party, like a big one. Like a big birthday party and then I was like all right and then we're gonna do like black card invitations where you invite-- - Real titanium. - Like real. So we're sitting here like all right, so I call up Lil' Wayne first and Lil' Wayne was like "Ah, I don't do parties." Like damn. They was like "I don't like going in the club. "Like how much you making off of it?" And I was like "How much am I making?" - I'm paying for it. - I wasn't making anything. "Like the door, how much you making off the door?" I didn't even think about that, I don't know. He's like "Ah man, I'm a pass." All right, dang. So I'm calling all these artists. Pass, pass, pass. So I called Jay-Z's people and they were like, Jay-Z was like "Yeah, I'll charge you like 700,000." Like damn, 700,000 for a party? He was like "I don't want to go "but if you gonna pay it, fuck it, I'll take it." And I was like "Why wouldn't you wanna?" He's like "I don't do parties. "Like private events versus parties is different "because there's more liability on my name. "I could probably get you Beyonce for half a mil." And then he was like "You know what? "Call Puffy, Puffy loves parties. "That's his thing, so he can really help you with it." - [Darius] Yeah. - So I was like all, so you know, getting in reach with the Puffy people. Turn it down. I called his ass again and I said, "You the party people, so I need to know." Called 'em again, turned me down. I was like "Can you tell Puffy? "I will fly a helicopter on his lawn "to get this talk." I will do whatever it takes, I just wanted to have the conversation. - [Darius] Yeah. - We had the conversation and he's like "I charge 200,000." Okay, what else? "The venue needs to be private so no one makes money." Like what do you mean private? "Just invite only." - Yeah. - Oh, that's perfect 'cause I want to invite people with the black card. He was like "What?" I was like I want to create black cards, like the real black card as the invitation and we send it out to the people. It has their name on it and everything. He said "Ooh, that's nice." - Yeah. - So I said, "So, would you host?" He said "If you make it private, yes." It's private, done. "I'm your host." - Yeah. - "Wire the money here." Once his name got on it, everything was easy. So I went back to Lil' Wayne. "Hey, Puffy's the host," blah, blah, blah, "Its a private event." - Now you poppin'. - Okay. - Poppin' and then what ends up happening is because it was private and it was invite-only, that made it more interesting. Everybody and they momma wanted to go now. Now we're inviting mostly people from L.A. and Miami and New York. So I got half the tickets and then the club got half the tickets to give it to they invite list. So like right during December at that time, All-Star voting starts kicking in. So now at the party, right before the party, hey, we're gonna fill out these All-Star ballots, All-Star ballots, All-Star ballots and then what ends up happening is after the party, my name's so big for throwing this extravagant party because I rented out-- - Yeah, give 'em the rundown. - Two Four Seasons, all the rooms at the Four Seasons. - Do you hear this? - Both the Four Seasons, every room. So basically you didn't have to do nothing. You already had a free room, everyone came and then JetBlues. So I hooked up with JetBlue and then there were times from Los Angeles where you can pick that flight and it was free coming through. So basically everybody from Los Angeles, they got on one or two, three JetBlue flights and came and then you had a free room. So every day was, and then the Four Seasons, it had my name on their pillow. Like it was just-- - They hear me. - It was really, so I figured, so I spent about two mil on this whole event. But the idea was to get so big for All-Star that I can get that two million back for Adidas in a contract. And what ended up happening is right before, it was like three days before they cut off the All-Star, D.C. made another push, I was down 200,000. I beat Vince Carter by 200,000. Because the name was ringing so much, everybody was just like get him, get him, get him and then that's how I became a starter going into Vegas. - That's crazy. - 'Cause of the million dollar party. - 'Cause most of the money was basically buying out every room and then all the flights. - So wait, I can't remember the one detail. I know you wanted to get lowered into the top of the club in the, what was it, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Did that happen? - No, no, no. - They wouldn't allow it. - It was just, they didn't, they was like it's too late to try to figure out how to bring you down, like I was gonna-- - You wanted to come in-- - In the car. - In the Lamborghini. - Like drop me down. - And drop you off. - 'Cause I had my Lambo. - He said boom. - So basically you crane me up. - Crane him in the crane. - Crane me up and then drop me into the party. - And you was safe with doing that? - It just seemed baller, dog. It just seemed baller, dog, I ain't gonna lie. It just seemed like baller. - And look, so all of that and then Adidas cashed you out. - Yep and then when I got to Vegas, so I didn't even get to enjoy Vegas 'cause we was negotiating. So this is my negotiation. So I told my dad and the staff, I was like "Listen. "Whatever number they come out with first, "I'm gonna be mad." - No matter what happens. - I'm gonna be mad and I'm gonna walk out and y'all gonna be like "What?" (laughing) Then I'm gonna walk out and leave. So I was thinking maybe they gonna start off at a million. So I mean it would be real, right? So what ends up happening is they was like "Yeah, you know, "you did it, your name is hot. "You are a legit superstar name. "So we're gonna reward you with what you wanted. "The $2 million deal for eight years." 'Cause I was asking for two, it was like two for five. "$2 million and we're gonna give you three more years." I was excited, like yo. 'Cause they gave me three more years on it though. Then they gave me three more years. So I was like "See, this is what "I'm talking about, they bullshitting, I'm out." And then walked out. The sad part is after I walked out and slammed the door, in the hallway, man I'm like goddammit. They gonna take this deal off the goddamn table, I know. I should've just took that deal. I'm a walk back in. If I walk back in, I seem weak. So I'm sitting there in-- - Fighting with yourself. - Sitting there fighting just in the hallway by the door and then I hear somebody getting ready to open the door, so I just bounce out, like oh shit and then just walk and walked in my room and I was like please, please just call. Please just call, just please just call. So what happened is my rep Zack called and said, "All right, Adidas said sorry. "What number do you want and I can go back to them with it?" Five million, five million a year for eight years. That's what I want. He said "All right, I'm a go tell 'em." They leave and I'm like if I would've said two, then that was, if I said three, then two's the same thing. If I say five, maybe they say hell no and come back with three. Okay, I should win. They came back, five. It was like deal. - Gangsta. - I was like "All right, cool." And I signed the deal. - And they gave you your own shoe. - Uh-huh. I already had my own shoe. - [Darius] Oh, you already had your own shoe. - I already had my own shoe already. - Okay. Everybody not blessed to get a nickname. You got a nickname, they was calling you Hibachi. They called you Agent Zero. When you heard them, was you like, like everybody call you by this, so-- - Yeah, what's so funny, it was crazy. Especially the Agent Zero one because it didn't have nothing to do with basketball. It was, y'all remember MySpace? - Yeah. - You had the top eight. - Yeah. - So someone, I had a computer person do straight 50. So I had 50 like girls just, and then I called 'em my Secret Service. - [Darius] Yeah. - So that was the name of it, the Secret Service. So when I got to Washington, I was calling myself the Black President. Black President O-one. So somebody said "You like an Agent. "You like the Agent, like Agent Zero." Like damn, that's a nice. So that's what they were calling me, Agent Zero. And then the name just like-- - Agent Zero. - That's a nice name and then boom, it just took off. - Which one you like more, Agent Zero or Hibachi? - So Agent Zero's, the nickname Hibachi was just something I just said. I was like, so every time my shot was on fire, "Hibachi." And that was where that came from. - [Quentin] Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And then people would just be like "Oh, he's the Hibachi." - When you started taking range, when you started stepping back farther and farther from the three point line and shootin' 'em in the game, like you the only one really shooting these shots at the time that we playing in. Like I said, you see it normal now. Like I watched the clip on Damian Lillard and he was like, that last shot in the playoffs, he was in his range and he by the logo. - Yeah. - You know what I'm saying? The three point line is that far back but you was shooting it, what gave you the confidence? I know when your coach seen that shit, I know he's like ain't nobody else doing this and you shootin' 'em in the game. - You remember when it was like this program called Synergy? - Right, I remember Synergy. - So you're looking at Synergy and looking at the spots and then it was like all right, you were 60% from this spot. Like you know, like three feet behind and then my percentage was higher three feet behind the three point line. So I was like why? Why is my, this is a further shot. Why am I shooting? So you start playing in the game, like in the summer. So come up in a game and get to that spot and see what happens. Realized the defense wasn't there. They're waiting for you at the three point line. So here, I'm not guarded, so it's a free shot. Once I got closer to the three point line, you pick up. - Right. - And then what I started doing is realizing, I just started training my shots back here and knowing that no one's gonna pick up there. So when I'm in that range, you're not there, I'm letting it fly and that's how that came. - So talk about, I want to understand how you went from, obviously when you was in Golden State, we played you four times a year, I saw you when you wasn't playing 'til when you got your chance 'til like you said, when you got to the Wizards, you was hoopin' with the Bug. Then it went from that to, trust me, I had to guard you. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know this. It went from just okay, he was still a problem. But it went to supernova where you hittin' 50s, 60s, you gaming people and tellin' 'em you 'bout to do it before you do it, you talking. Like where did that whole entire confidence come from where you went from not even top 100 to trying to, you know what I'm saying? Thinking man, I'm a go to school for five years to now I'm staring Kobe down. You talkin' in the crib now like "I'm 'bout to take his ankles. "I'm 'bout to do this to him, I'm crossing him today." Then you goin' out there and putting buckets up. - Especially as a scorer, you know who the defenders are, right? Like these guys are great defenders. They're the top of the top. So what ends up happening as an offensive player, mentally, okay, these guys are gonna give me a problem. - Yeah. - Right? The Bruce Bowens, you, Kobe, all these guys, the Jason Kidds, they're gonna-- - Accept the challenge. - It's gonna be a war. - Yeah. - You heard him say me in there? - So when you have, you gotta remember 'cause you're-- - I was a defender bro, don't do me like that. - That man wasn't no defender, bro. - Let the Hibachi speak. - Yes, he was. They put him in as a defender. - Let him speak. - 'Cause you gotta remember, as a point guard, Jeff McInnis wasn't gonna guard me. The guards, so I had to go against bigger bodies. - That don't mean he's a defender. - Allow him to speak, let the man talk. - He was a defender. - Nah, bro. - This is the man who was putting 60 on people and he's telling you that I was a defender. Why won't you believe him? - So what ends up happening is once you have success against a defender, like wait a minute, did I just hit him for 40? And he's two. If he's ranked the second, like he's All First Team in defense, I just gave him 40, that means Second Team ain't shit. Third Team ain't shit. That means the rest of these, they're bums. - Yeah. - So now I go into the game, everybody's beneath me. I just rocked the second guard on All First Team. The rest of y'all are not good enough. - Yeah. - Larry Hughes is Second Team, First Team. I gotta work against him every single day. - He was nice on defense. - He was. - Now every day I can score on him makes it harder for everyone else. So once he left, oh, it became oh, the swag is up. When we played them in the playoffs, "Hey bro, you 'bout to get worked, you know that right? "I already know your defense. "I got a whole new offense, baby." I got a whole new offense, I got awesome new stuff. So then I had success against him in the playoffs. I averaged 32 against Cleveland with Larry Hughes on it. - [Darius] Yeah. - Y'all can't tell me nothing. How y'all gonna tell me y'all gonna stop me when the top two guards didn't have no chance? - [Darius] Yeah. - So that's when the confidence because remember, it's all confidence. - People don't never speak about the work you put in off the court. Like how I always used to see you at the practice facility, shots, shots, shots. Like even when you got hurt, you was at the practice facility puttin' in the work that people don't see. Speak up on like the work you put in, the reason that you had these three amazing seasons in a row is because you was puttin' this work in in the gym and you was feeling it, it felt good all the time. - Like people who are at the top, people who succeed, all of us, we have, it's like to make it to the NBA, there's a bottom line of hours you gotta put in. - Straight up. - There's no I'm better than you. No, you have to put in the bottom line of hours. Some gotta put in way more hours than others just because they're not as gifted. - Yeah. - But you still gotta put in some work. So when people are like "Iverson didn't practice." Listen. - [Quentin] That's ridiculous. - Iverson wouldn't have been Iverson if he didn't practice. No, when he was at that level at that particular moment in his career, he probably wasn't practicing that much. But the man had to be in that gym doing what he doing. - Straight up. - Because he is doing what he's doing in that game. - Exactly. - You just don't, like I'm gonna just sit around and just do this. - I feel like, I grew up the same way Iverson did. We didn't have weight rooms, a weight program or nothing about no body regiment. Playing basketball, playing with guys that's on a higher level than us, that was experience for us and we learned from our mistakes. Like I learned from my mistakes by playing with OGs and I can't make a mistake. I'm the youngest dude out there. One of the biggest dudes out there but I'm the youngest dude out there. As soon as I make a mistake, OGs are like "Man, "I shouldn't have picked this young mother fucker." You know what I'm saying? - Yeah, that's how it is. - So I feel like he came up where he didn't go in nobody's weight room. But he was so athletic and he knew how to play football and basketball where he did it off experience. You know what I'm saying? Everybody don't get that but you, you put the work in. - You know it's like I'm watching Kobe, going to the gym watching Kobe. Going to the gym watching Ray Allen there. Seeing what veterans, what does the greats do? You gotta remember, no one tells us how to be great. - Nobody, it's a secret, nobody wanna say shit. - Right, no one tells you shit. You're in the Clippers organization and who's telling you, "Yo, hey rook, "don't follow these dudes." - Yeah. - We gonna go in the gym, we gonna get 300 shots up. At midnight, you ain't sleepy? Let's go to the gym, we're gonna get 300 shots up. Come to the gym, no one's telling you nothing. - Your body gotta be strong, you gotta go in the weight room-- - I'm just following what the vets are doing. - You gotta get your rep, we policed our own. We couldn't even buy liquor at the grocery store. So we kinda policed our own. - But that's what I'm saying. You're sitting there as a young guy trying to figure out like, I want this but I don't know how to get it. So where do I go? I'm looking around an arena, I'm the only one there. But am I not doing enough? - Yeah. - So I don't have this, so I gotta call, "Hey, what is Kobe doing over there?" "Oh yeah, he waking up, in the gym at three o'clock." No, he ain't. "Yeah, he is." I'll take a cab, let's go, let me see. Sittin' there, oh, he here. - Wow. - Oh, he really here. So you see him, now I get to watch him, how he works. Let me see how he works. - Yeah. - Okay, he's in a full sweat. Man, this mother fucker, is he playing today? He going through a full game live battling, getting hit, going. Like oh, okay. - Whole jersey, tee shirt, everything. - Yeah, jersey. - And soaking wet. - Like body, like two, let's go, fouling, let's go. Get up. - Yeah. - Like come on, harder. - Yeah. - This mother fucker's intent. And then come out in a game, get your 30-something. Like doing the same move 300 times, 400 times. So I'm writing this down, trying to figure out all right, I gotta put this in 'cause this is what he's doing. All right, what is Ray Allen doing? All right, Ray Allen, pick and rolls, going hard, line drills up and down. Like okay, man, okay. And you're just seeing and this is what the All-Stars-- - The best do. - The superstars is doing. So now going into my fifth year, I had an idea of what great players are doing. They're putting in extra time. They're really challenging themselves because everything is so game-like, when it comes to the game, it becomes easy. - Yeah. Kinda repetitive. - That's what I learned but I had to learn that just making one phone call that I was just being nosy. - Ain't nobody gonna be just giving you the information. - [Gilbert] That's what I didn't realize. - That's why I be trying to give the young cats all the information that I got. Be like "You need to know all this." Whether you take it or you apply it or at least somebody then had told you that heard it before. - Right. - You know what I'm saying? - And you know why, like did you hear my comments about Devin Booker? - [Quentin] Yeah. - It wasn't the comments about him, it was like yo. - [Quentin] That young mentality, they don't get it. - It's the young, but we don't know. No one knows until someone tells us and that's why I wrote it, wrote it more for look, you're gonna learn this at 25. I'm giving it to you now at 22 because no one's gonna give it to you. So I'm giving it to you now at 22 so you understand the mentality that the better you get, the more you're gonna get doubled. You're gonna be playing in games where you're never gonna see one player. So you might as well start training now and the only way you can train is here. - Yeah. - Doing it. - Doing it in these games 'cause practice, your coach ain't saying "Oh, we gonna double Devin Booker." No, you're working on the other team's players. So the only time you're gonna see real doubles is in the game, which is too late. - And when you the best player and you've got the ball in your hands so much, you really not sometimes playing against the defender. You playing against the coach's strategy. The coach's strategy is against you. So you gotta learn how to get it all the time. - That's what I said but you gotta remember how we practice, you never doubled Corey Maggette in practice. - Right. - No, we're working on going against Kobe or going against this person. So we're not necessarily doubling the star player. He's just practicing. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? He's just practicing. You're doubling the opposing player who's Kobe. - [Darius] Yeah. - So y'all can run on how y'all gonna play. So technically you never learn how to go against a double until you're in a game and what ends up happening? First time somebody comes, like ah shit. - Yeah, I don't know how to handle it. - Now you're defeated. - Yeah. - Now you're defeated. That's why that summer, that's why when I was watching Kobe and I told, this is how you supposed to train. 'Cause you're gonna learn it. Don't get me wrong, you're gonna learn it. I'm just giving it to you two years early because I started realizing the reason we don't tell each other our secrets, 'cause we're still competing. - Competing. - Competing. - We're still competing. So I'm not gonna tell you how I work. - Yeah, or no, I'm not gonna work with you. - Yeah. - Exactly. - But when y'all wanna run five on five-- - I'll come out there and work with you. - Bust your ass. - And even if I do work with you-- - [Quentin] I'm still gonna hold back on certain shit. - I'm not gonna do my regimen. - Nah. I'm working on some shit out here. - Oh, y'all doing Chris Johnson? Okay, I'll jump into Chris Johnsons. We do the little together but I'm not gonna do what I do that got me better. - Exactly. - I'm gonna go by his program because that's what you doing. - Yeah. - And then when you leave, like "Yo Chris, I need to add some extra more shit." I'll fake leave and come back. I'll leave, "All right guys, see y'all tomorrow." Leave and then come back. Like "Shit, I was just bullshitting." - Who did you pattern your game after? Who you seen and was like man, I want to be like him? - 'Cause you was a move stealer. You was a move stealer. - I grew up on Penny Hardaway. But there was a point where I'm not gonna be 6'7" with all this bounce. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? So I was like really trying to just take-- - Moves from everybody. - From everybody. So what I did is like during the season, Will Bynum used to love when I came to Chicago. During the season, if you did a move, like bop, bop, bop, wrote it down, I go back and look at that time when you did it. That's what I used to do, watch the time, point it to the director, write that down. Here, write down the time, I'd go back, look at that move and be like all right, the D-Miles. - Yeah. - Right? And then I would just have this whole book. The Crawford, oh, boom, boom, boom. So at the end of the season, I've got this big blue book full of all these moves and then in the summer, I'm workin' on 'em. So it's like I'm crafting all my talent around all the NBA players. Because it was like-- - Anything he like. - Yeah, it's like anything-- - He talked about this when he came to the Magic. He used to talk about it all the time. Like "I'm a move stealer." - I'm a move stealer. I'm just stealing, 'cause you gotta remember, just like a computer or laptop or iPhone. - [Darius] Yeah. - You have to update it. - Yeah. - The only way you update is if you see something. Like I gotta update, so I've gotta look at, you gotta remember we don't have the same skill level. - That's what I was 'fin to say 'cause every move don't fit you. Like I take moves, like Steve Smith was a move that I added to my repertoire. - [Gilbert] Smitty. - That's part of my game but every move that I was getting or I seen or I was trying to get, it didn't fit me. - The Smitty didn't fit me unfortunately. - What's so funny is it didn't have to fit, long as your body understands that motion. - Yeah. - Like I did the Euro, I did the Euro, practicing all the steps of the Euro. Never actually tried it in a game. - [Darius] Yeah. - I used to spend the summer doing floaters. Never did a floater in a game. But it's in you, you done built it in and you might need it at some point and when you do decide to do it, it's not foreign. So all I'm doing is just bending my body, learning how to do stuff. Like all of Jamal Crawford's stuff, oh, I done put that all in a game. It's all in there, just never had to use it. - [Darius] Use it, yeah. - Because you gotta remember, whatever your natural talent is, that's what you go to. - Yeah, that's what you go to. - But when he pushes up to me and you bop-- - Yeah. - You took that move somewhere, you just applied it just now on a pressure. 'Cause most moves come from reaction, it's reacting. Like if you're dribbling right and I cut you off, you're gonna do something. - Yeah. - Just reacting and pop, pop, pop, you know? And then it's like okay damn, where did he get that from? - 'Cause it's really basic. It's not really a lot to basketball. It's basic but it's a lot to basketball if you know what I mean. - [Gilbert] It's reading. - Yeah. - This is what I wanna ask you 'cause I know you somebody who really, really watch this and can get in depth. What dudes do you love to watch right now in today's game? What dudes would you pay to go see because you like whatever they doing that much and how they doing it? - Russ, all day. Like I'll go see Russ just 'cause no matter if you spend 20,000 on a floor seat, he gonna give you the energy that you gonna be like all right, okay. I paid for this energy. I'm gonna go see Dam, I'm gonna go see Curry. Kyrie, like just for the entertainment part, Kyrie. Because I know that shake and bake, like if he score 20 points, it's all shake and bake 20. It's a shake and bake 20. So it's like, but at the end of the day, I'll watch everyone because everyone brings something different. You know what I mean? Today's game is, it's not as bad as we want it to be. - I don't think it's bad, I love it. - Like Harden, like when people say, I asked a ref, I said "Can you tell me why Harden moves pass?" And he says "Okay, "a Harden move is let's say a 70-30. "70% of the time, it's legit, "30% of the time, he's traveling." - Right. - Yeah. - "But in real time, because it's 70-30, "I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. "I can't just prejudge that one actually right there. "Was it traveling?" 'Cause you gotta remember, when he goes, he's stepping. Now I gotta, like how many steps was that? - [Darius] Yeah. - So it's like one of those things that's like how many? And he said "We can't do that." - Yeah. - We just gotta look at it. So when he does it and steps, it's like unless it was like boom, boom boom boom boom, travel. Other than that, I have to let the play go. - 'Cause they don't look down, they go off body motion. If your body look like you can get, nah, you can't get from there to there. - Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. But I can't prejudge that he traveled because he did get from there to there. So you gotta remember, the refs, we're looking at the play, so we're sitting there, okay, it's a 70-30. So for the most part, he's doing it legit. Sometimes he get a little anxious. So when he's in real time and he does it, I can't judge it that fast. But what I do is say well, he's moving away from the basket. So the defense has an advantage because he's moving away. He's not moving towards the basket, he's moving away from the basket. So I'm not gonna help you out by just sitting here blowing the whistle every time he does a step. - [Darius] Right. - So it's like well, you know where he's going. He's going back there somewhere. You know? So I mean he's just making harder, he's making harder shots than easier shots. So you just let it slide. - Could you see yourself in this league and how many 80s you would give to this league with now, like 'cause when you came in, like you said, it wasn't popular for you to be a point guard and be in scoring. Like now, that's what it is. - That's what it is. - If you a point, you better have a clip on you. So you see how the volume of threes, like you would-- - It's so hard, it's hard to say like oh yeah, I would kill and score 50 and 60 every time. Like I would just fast forward and say all right, I'm like Dam. I'm like Harden where I'm three or the free throw line, three or the free throw line. - Yeah. - But because I scored different, like I'll post up. - That's what I'm saying. - I'm mid range. I'm doing all this, like I can say I would be really successful, like 35. Because I can see someone doing it, that that was my game. - It was your game. - But other than Harden, I didn't dribble as much to get that bucket. So my buckets was a lot faster. - Yeah, you-- - But to say that I would average 40, I don't know. - You real north-south, you don't be dribbling side to side. - Yeah, that's what I said, I just go but you gotta remember to score that much, you have to put that much more energy into it. - Yeah. - You know? And that's just where I don't like, then your team has to be bad or just good enough to be okay but you can score all the shots, you know? So it still plays a lot. - But there's no mid range. It's either you shootin' long threes or you layin' the ball up. There's no mid range, I feel like the mid range players in the KDs, the Kawhis, they stand out a little bit more 'cause they can hit that. - It was kinda like that. You know, Rip stood out a lot because he was mid range. - [Darius] I'm talkin' about in today's game. - But even in our game, you gotta remember. Ray Allen was either shootin' a three, curling. But we had more offensive play. Our shooting guards were more offensively. - Yeah. - You know, there were back picks, down picks, zippers up. Dwayne Wade zippered up to that pick and roll. You know, you had more plays than you do now because now it's more ball-dominant. - Yeah. - Free flowing. - If my shooting guard is a scorer, we just give him the ball. So C.J. McCollum plays more as a point guard scorer than he does a shooting guard scorer. So you rarely have the Klay Thompson, there's not a lot of Klay types where you gonna have to run around and get these back screens. Most of those, if you can score, okay. Here you go, you go downhill on everybody. So it's a different game. - You and Nick Young, y'all got a bond and a friendship like me and Q got a bond and a friendship. - Y'all is thicker than we are though. Y'all is thick. - Yeah. But where'd that come from? Like man, y'all be hilarious on the internet. - When he got to Washington, I'm just coming back. But you know how you see talent? - [Darius] Yeah. - And then it reminds me of when I was in that goofy personality, that fun, you know, you don't know better? - Yeah. - You know? When you're a young kid and you come into an NBA where everyone's older. - Yeah. - You're trying to bond with, I'm trying to bond with someone. - [Darius] Yeah. - So our personalities clicked 'cause we're two goofballs. So now I was trying to teach a goofball how to be serious and when to be serious. So now the older guys who are serious, "Come on man, you too goofy." - Yeah. - You know how like, "Come on man, take this shit serious." - Right. - They start lookin' at you different. - Yeah. - So now it was just like no, don't worry about them. It's us, we the scorers on this team. Now you tryin' to bring him along. You gonna be the future, we gonna get rid of them. (laughing) We gonna get rid of them, we gonna trade them. That's how we was bonding. So like on the road, he's with me. It's just you two, y'all don't leave. - [Darius] Yeah. - From basketball and I always told people, you're not really enemies in basketball. There's no enemies in basketball 'cause either we ran against you in AAU, we played against you in AAU, we had the camp together, we were roommates together, we was down the hall. - Somewhere along the line. - Somewhere along the line, you are-- - Part of this. - You became friends and it's like even in the summer, like people like "Y'all don't fight? Y'all pretend to fight?" I was like yeah, because at the end of the day, we might have to train together in the summer. We got the same trainer. - I might get traded to your team or something. - That's what I'm saying, so you don't know. It's moveable pieces. - [Darius] Yeah. - So you don't really have that real grudge. - [Darius] You don't. - It's just a moment grudge, like oh, this one got me in the game. I'm gonna get him back. But two weeks later, you play against him in a game, y'all ain't beefing like that. - Not at all. - Somebody else did something, I'm mad at him now for that. So you guys are brothers. So when you got that bond, it's hard to let that bond go because I've known you longer than really I've known my wife. Even though we together 10 years, I'm with you more. - Yeah. - Right. - 'Cause we on the road together, we playin' together. We practicing together. - Spending a lot of time. - It's like "Yo, hey, you wanna vacay?" "Ah, let's go vacay." "Hey babe, we gotta go train "in Fort Lauderdale for like three weeks, we'll be back." You just be sittin' there lying. Like even though you ain't doing nothing, you just want to be with your, you know? You just want to hang out with your boy. - Be with the fellas, don't have to call or nothing. - You ain't gotta call, there ain't no pressure of trying to be perfect. Like you sittin' there talkin' and you don't want to say, like nah, nah, don't say nothing. You know, you got them calling you off. Like "You remember that time we was in Miami?" Like "No, no, no, don't do that." - Not now. - Not now. - I see your jersey collection. Your jersey collection is stupid from all the jerseys that you got. From all them jerseys that you got, which one was like the one that you remember the most that stood out more than any of 'em? - That boy got a million jerseys. - He got a million jerseys. - You know, it's so funny. I don't have one jersey I like the most 'cause like, like I got you guys' Clipper jerseys. It's the relationships. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? It's the relationships. - The memories. - Like somebody wanted to buy some of my collection, so I was like all right, cool. So you know how you're going through and I realized all the jerseys I gave away, people would die for. - Yeah. - But I had no connection with it. - Right. - Like I had no connection with these jerseys. It was like the Wilt Chamberlain 100. - [Darius] Yeah. - Like "Why would you give that away?" I didn't know that mother fucker. - Right. - You know? I didn't know him. - Yeah. - When I'm 50, 60, 70 years old, I want to be able to look at the wall and remember a game from this. So Dr. J's and some of these Jordan jerseys and all those greatest 50, you can have these. - Yeah. - I see you when you do your giveaway, I be like man, what the heck? So that kinda answers that for me why you give those away. But like that does 'cause I, you, like I say that a lot, I wish that I had did that more when I was in the league. You were one of the people, 'cause I can remember like you say asking me for your jersey and I can remember thinking like, man, I'd never ask none of these jokers for their fucking jersey. Like for real. - Definitely was the attitude. - You know how I was, I was too much I'm at you. I would never give you the pleasure of thinking-- - I want your autograph-- - Don't want your damn jersey. - That's what I'm saying. - And now I wish that I had really did that 'cause of just what you saying. - You know what's so funny? Everyone used to look at me stupid. 'Cause I asked anybody. - Yeah. - "Yo, can I get your autograph?" And they'd take it like, "Come on, dog." - Right, right. - "Like who is this for?" "It's for me." Either I'm gonna win and I'm gonna ask it or you gonna win and I'm gonna ask. One of these, I'm gonna get the jersey, goddammit. It took me like four years to get a ticket jersey. Iverson, whew, what? So I had to get Iverson before the game 'cause if one of us, you know, it was just one of things that I just thought about it like you know what? This game is gonna be over at some point in life and I want to be able to just reminiscence, reminiscence on just, you know like yeah, I remember when I first seen him at the Jordan Camp. - Yeah. - I thought he was audacious with the long joint. Like he was a point guard. Like that's like, I can't, George Mikan, I don't fuckin' know him. - Right. - That's why when somebody asked and I'm just looking at the jersey and it's like T.J. Ford, nope. There's all these jerseys, like nope, nope, nope and dudes are like "You really giving me these?" Like yeah, I don't know them people. - I used to tell my mom, my mom would be like "Yeah, get so and so autograph for me." I'd be like I ain't 'fin to be asking all these fools for their autograph. - Real talk. - I used to have to tell my mom, like no, I feel weak. - That's what I'm saying, I didn't have the ego because I wasn't, when I was, like it was like I'm down here. So it's like, eh. So when I'm scoring 40 and 50 and I'm asking, they'd be like "Okay, shit dog. "Okay, he wants my jersey." - Yeah. - Thank you. I got all the Clippers, I got Kaman, Barrett. Like I got what's happening. That's why I said it was more of the when I look at it, I have a memory of it. - Yeah, the memory of it. No Chill Gil podcast. Like what made you be in the podcast world? 'Cause now we in the podcast world too and I watch your show like all the time. - And enjoy it. - And enjoy it. What made you kinda get out to where you feel like need to kinda just be yourself and speak your mind on the podcast? - What's funny is when the idea came, 'cause you listen to people's podcasts and just be like all right and then you watch ESPN and just be like, they just saying, they don't say what's real. - [Darius] Yeah. - You know, that ain't how we think and that ain't what we do. - How did y'all come up with that? - Yeah, yeah, you're like who? And then you see ex players on there and you be like-- - Why you talkin' like that? - Why are you talking, yeah. - Why you talkin' like that? - Like say something that really means something. - Is you reading that? - Yeah. And you be like yo, how are you helping? What information are you giving to the public that's coming up? Nothing. You just talkin' about pass the ball, you dribble too much and they made a rule for dribbling too much because of you. - Yo. - Like you didn't play no defense, Charles. You should not actually mention defense in a segment 'cause you didn't play it. So you just sound phony to me. So when I'm doing the podcast and we're just speaking on basketball, just like do it with unbiased decision making. Say it unbiased, you can't be biased. You can't tell somebody don't shoot that shot and all the shots you shot was bad. - Yeah. - Or looked bad. Like you just gotta be real about it. Like on defense, like yeah, I didn't even really look at that. I can't sit there and talk about somebody else, how they play defense when I didn't even look the defense. - Straight up. - You know what I mean? So I can't tell you you are a bad defender. - Yeah. - If I'm, I was last in my category. You know what I mean? You above me, mother fucker 'cause you play defense. - [Darius] Yeah. - So once I got into it and people liked it, it was like all right. So when I started having guests, it was the same thing with you guys. I'm not here to make you look bad. Like we're having conversation. - Yeah. - This ain't, I'm not media where I have no idea about what you go through. - [Darius] Yeah. - So I'm gonna ask you these questions 'cause, like nah, I know what you went through. I know what you don't want to talk about, talk to. So we just gonna have conversation so you can just talk and we can relate. - Be yourself. - Yeah. - Express yourself the way you want to express yourself. Ain't no pressure. - If I think, me thinks something like you, that might irritate somebody, I'll just have it taken out. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? - New free agency. What you think about it, what you think about the Clippers? Or better yet, who you think gonna win the championship this year? - Lakers. I mean they're just, they're big, the whole team is you. The whole team is versatile. You have, I mean they can do a lineup that would kill, LeBron at the point, Kuzma at the two, Anthony Davis at the three. You can go JaVale and Dwight. In hindsight, you could be like oh, they'd get killed. Where? Not on defense, on defense you got all 6'10" and above just locking down. Play like a zone type and just say oh, go to the basket. You got five freak athletes jumping trying to block that shot. You can't guard it 'cause for one, the point guard, whoever you got, Chris Paul, Kyrie, you gotta guard 'Bron. - Yeah. - You gotta guard 'Bron or you gotta guard Kuzma. You know what I mean? So their lineup is so big that no one's paying attention to it. No one's paying attention to how big this team really is and how athletic this team really is. Then you got the Clippers, you got two small forwards that are great at both offense and defense. - [Darius] Yeah. - Most likely you're gonna have to put 'em at the two and three. - Yeah. - Because you don't wanna go three and four, you become smaller, so you put 'em at the two and three. They're gonna lock down. - [Quentin] One through three is done. - They got one through three locked down, weak four and five a little bit. I mean weak five. But at the end of the day, they're still an average height team. - [Darius] Yeah. - I would like Scottie Pippen to get the job over there. Because-- - The head coach job? - Those two player, or be on that bench. - Yeah. - Because those two players are you defensively. - [Darius] Exactly. - Now you can give them the tricks that they need to take their defense to the next level. - [Darius] Yeah. - You know what I mean? I mean that's why I said it's one of those things where they still have to figure it out but right now, I like Lebron and them. - What you think about the Wizards now? John Wall, Bradley Beal. Like what you think about them? - They're in a tough situation because your franchise guy, John Wall has been injured for the last couple years and then you got Beal emerging as the next head of that organization. So it's like you gotta be careful because as a business, obviously we're gonna get rid of John Wall, bring somebody else in. As a business, you gotta understand, you throw the guy that's been holding this city down, you throw him to the wayside, it sparks up every other free agent. Like damn, if they can do that to John Wall, I don't know if I wanna go there. - Yeah. - You know? You have no loyalty. So it's a fine line. - It's a fine line. - Players talk. Information gets out. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? Now players is actually thinking about everything now. First it's I'm just gonna go for the big dollar. Now everything is the big dollar. - [Darius] Everything is the big dollar. - So now you want to be careful on how you treat your players. So with Tommy Sheppard there, which is a good dude, he knows that relationships are way more important than business. - [Darius] Yeah. - So we'll see what moves he makes. - So you know about this time, we wanna wrap up. We definitely appreciate you for coming through. For being with us, man. - No problem, no problem. Thank y'all for having me. - Got the special edition, the Knuckleheads special, that Hennessy VSOP. - Oh, for real though? - For the homeboy. - Y'all know I'm never gonna open this, right? Y'all know I'm gonna get you the special glass and everything. This is my first one. - You feel me? - Ah, man. We appreciate it, bro. - Hennessy, y'all hear him? He say he gonna put it up there now. - I'm never gonna open this bottle, man. I'm serious though, like one day 15, 20 years from now, you know one person's still got his Hennessy bottle. That'll be me. (relaxed hip hop music) (dinging)

Channel: The Players' Tribune

Views: 1,245,480

Keywords: Gilbert Arenas, Knuckleheads, Knuckleheads Podcast, Quentin Richardson, Darius Miles, The Players Tribune, NBA

Id: gKMe63QzWQI

Length: 82min 1sec (4921 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019