Kenyon Martin Drops by the Podcast | Knuckleheads S9: EP3 | The Players’ Tribune

yo yo yo we live on location we out here oh yeah black we in l.a you know that's why i live in california man we had to come way out here to tap in with our 2 000 draft classmate he went number one he went higher you do you can't talk no trash today baby we gotta look hey look we got the bad ass yellow boy from dallas texas in the building we got a all-star he was better defender than you too you can't tell your defense the other day neither so i'm just disrespect you all in there below cincinnati's finest in the building our homeboy appreciate you [Music] brother first off man we appreciate you being on the show bro you our god man same draft man i've been watching you since i've been in high school man but we definitely appreciate you definitely an honor man to be on presented by visible when you first got to the league who was the first person to bust your ass first person to bust my ass who gave me fits probably was larry johnson man like he had to change his game you know you're from dallas you know i'm looking forward to the matchup yeah you're in lv war number four all that you know what i'm saying so childhood i ate all that but you know i'm eager i came down you know i think defense you know y'all know me i'm trying to block it just take it whatever i can get pumped faking me fading away doing up and under i'm like i'm a pogo stick out there jumping at everything i got the the pleasure of guarding the footwork mike that wizard's mic yeah yeah so i got a little lesson um you know i was eager that that night as well overzealous those others yeah trying to get something off on them yeah yeah just yeah not like trying to stop him man you know i wanted to say i locked mike down yeah i'm saying it wasn't the boys might just say i did it you play basketball football and baseball i can tell you a athlete like a mug but slightly like but you play all three sports what what got you into all three sports and then chose basketballs like that's the one that i feel like i can succeed man i started hooping man um first sport was basketball i started hooping i got in trouble at school or something and fighting the son my mom said you're gonna do something besides get in trouble to the local wreck which is the local salvation army which is right by apartments we grow up i'm saying so we grew up hooping playing sports there so she wouldn't say you're going to do something besides get in trouble my sister was a cheerleader there already so she took me up to the gym man and like 10. dropped me off and i was like this is cool and then football season can't been okay you're gonna play football too baseball season came around you're gonna play baseball too like you're gonna do something besides get in trouble yeah so that was the message like you're gonna end it and it always stuck yeah and i'm saying like you're gonna do something besides get in trouble and just gravitated towards it man like when it was but but basketball was always the staple yeah like when football season after practice when you know without football pants on when he's supposed to be on the floor with cleats on they're gonna cleat zone or might be playing basketball doing football i'm saying so we out there hooping you know i'm saying doing baseball season same thing um so we always had access to the gym yeah no matter what season was no matter what it was we always had access to the gym man so um we had a coach named coach phillips like roy phillips growing up like he made sure like we had access to the gym so like he was the one to try to keep us off the streets and he succeeded like i'm saying something wasn't not everybody though did that make you be a late bloomer that that you played all the sports so you didn't you didn't focus all the way on basically i was just green just green didn't didn't didn't know nothing man like just who lucked up got an aau team like that all that was foreign to me man at what point did you pick out of them sports and just say i'm playing just basketball my sophomore year like my sophomore year was the last year i played all three like we in like so there was a private school that the guy from salvation arm was getting everybody into uh mr kennedy was getting everybody into this school so guys went there one state it was kind of easy basically it wasn't it was playing against lesser competition but we all from the hood and everybody went there so that was my last year playing all three so when i transferred out here after my sophomore year i went to a bigger school and i just played basketball like i didn't i wasn't thinking about nothing else you know when i got to college i hadn't asked hugs if i could play baseball but he was like you had a hoot you got the your college cause sensing that i'm like outside of cincinnati could have been anybody else that like honestly at that point nah so cincinnati was like no grades so cincinnati was that one yeah no grades man like i was getting recruited by certain schools that i thought i had a chance to go to you receiving letters from them saying the yukons the kentucky's the illinois all these other schools and and but when it was all said and done it was two schools that was like we'll make sure that you do something yeah it was temple and it was cincinnati yeah and i'm sitting there john changing them i remember like yesterday training like they was at the house and you guys are talking about that 5 a.m practice 6 a.m and i instantly lost entrance like i was like man i started playing with my niece yeah she was a baby at the time like i started playing i'm like i'm not going there like that not that early like no like that's who plays basketball at that time of morning i'm like nah and hugs and them stayed in there man i was like they're standing there and having my grades feel like there's a way you can go to school and still take your tests and so i i signed blind i was i signed before i took a visit yeah like y'all stay with me work with me i'm right [ __ ] yo yo you go ass though like yo that 96 class like the guys that's in like kobe and jermaine o'neill's like these guys in it like when did you get to the point where he was like oh man i feel like i can be one of them guys because i know them guys was always above you but like when you see them guys and be like man like i can play on that level man i had no idea like i said i lucked up and got on the aau team bro got an invitation to go to facts got an invitation to go to go to abcd before my senior year in high school right we ain't got a pot to piss in no wonder to throw it out of nothing i got no money for no plane ticket yeah you know how i got to newark man i got the jersey called a greyhound dog um you call the greyhound always to play today greyhound to go to abcd man like 22 hours on a bus yeah i'm six eight on a greyhound bus dog i'm saying yeah go to abcd i show up i don't know none of these dudes they foreign to me yeah they all there yeah gold j.o a bunch of names they all in the top whatever in the class team holloway all they do i don't know none of these dudes man i just show up to be me i don't i've always played why y'all saw me yeah that's how i've always played yeah every time i show up i do that yeah i'm blocking dunking playing hard and ready to throw them if it come to it yeah so i go to abcd sonny vaquero hear my story whatever you call the greyhound here man sonny got me a flight home bro like i played my way into a flight home man all right like i put notice on people like oh he got her doing something so the guy who i went to i thought with michael jocks he was a sophomore at the time six five guard we got a greyhound together like i got us a flight home dawg yeah right straight up real like real facts man so we go to abcd them dudes there kobe walking cold guy rescue so he walking around with a big radio playing around i'm like dude everybody follow him around all i'm like this dude number one playing y'all class i'm like what class are y'all talking about us going to sit in these classes taking these notes like he always present like you thought it was a real class this is facts man like yeah dudes from my neighborhood said they were going to who they was going today practice yeah after the au practice dude like who you play for yeah i'm like i'm going back home what you talking about right yeah he like well we got an aau team what is aau bruh yeah right he like we gotta practice tomorrow you gotta can you come back but ain't got no way out here they live that was our place playing on them from the hood ain't never been out there colin county it's far never been out there like can you come back like give me a ride you're like yeah yeah what school you go to i'm in between schools right this is all new so when i go abcd it's all formed man yeah cause i ain't heard about aau to 98. all foreign yeah all foreign i go to cincinnati husband stay with me i show up in 96 continue to take my test i'm enrolled in school continue taking my tests i found out i got eligible on my birthday my freshman year man december 30th found out i got eligible my birthday the team was in puerto rico playing in the tournament i didn't get to go because i wanted i couldn't i could work out but i couldn't play yeah so what was that like hell like you just had to just you could practice and work you need practice with the team though all you can do is work out work out so when i first got since man i graduated high school dog i left cincinnati two i left dallas two weeks after i graduated got a bus right now yeah i'm in cincinnati um i like hugs and him i graduated high school like he need to be here to prepare for his a-c-t-s-a-t and i haven't had my test score yet he can still prepare we got a tutor for him and he was just working out just doing that and that was during the summer the team left to go to some tournament in europe i went home man homesick they had a little summer job for us enough money man they was gone i left they come back to cincinnati looking for me yeah work man they come on his cannondale man he's right here there's a ticket waiting on him at the airport he need to get back no i'm not going back yes my mom and my sister both myself like yes you are yeah how was it when you found out you was eligible on your birthday oh man i was listen i could practice now i could go i could man who told you hugs them called me hugs called me like they were like let me tell him i guess he was like let me he called me was like got some news for you like he didn't say right like i'm like like you passed man you know emotional like things like that man i mean like i fought for this worked at it right didn't think you know where i'm from man to graduate high school a big deal i don't know how it is my immediate family never seen it never was tangible like so to graduate high school was a big deal mm-hmm i'm eligible to play college basketball now i got danny fortson over here yeah damn first team yeah damon flint like heard about him so i'm coming in i'm like ready like let's get it so i show up man it was it was it was it was fun at first man because i couldn't i wasn't no good yeah ran hard play it hard and run and jump we didn't get to have it all together shot 30 from the free throw line as a freshman dog yeah i break them free throws too oh listen listen imagine listen so put it in perspective you went to the league and couldn't throw a rock in those i was just i went to cincinnati so i had the spotlight wasn't that at first you had the spotlight on you at first you came in yeah so they want you to be everything that i couldn't shoot listen i none of that yeah i play you athletic i was that lit i couldn't dribble shoot your handle was way better than mike had ever been coming out man i could jump play hard block shots but that turned into the national play of the year so something had the hard work and and let me ask you about this because i just talked about to rube about this he said bobby huggins practice that some of the stuff that happened in bobby huggins practice should never be told or said on tv ever again in the history absolutely television mike calls hugs his job like dude you got to get into that but like just like them how hard was them bobby huggins practice because when you see y'all playing on the court you have some tough grinding so two things and get to it so two guys no fouls no out of bounds what know how to buy no fouls no out of bounds keep playing um makes sense keep playing man yeah let's go you know how these dudes get hit now and they look up and ain't nothing happened to him yeah listen if you do that in the bob huggins practice you grab this when you pull your hand down and you stop playing you didn't get back on defense your eyeball better be in your hand that's the only excuse you would have for not getting back from this emotion listen you got to have some extreme circumstances man like there's certain things that go on dog like it don't fly like people think they play hard you think you good you have let you play out and you come near and it's like i don't play hard at oh yeah but i had that what i'm saying like i brought that from the gate yeah so all i had all he had to do was help me get better yeah at the skill set of basketball i'm saying like you need to work on this move you need to work on this you need to work on that yeah and i was like okay what you put together your junior year to get to that level where you make an all-conference and then take another step your senior year to be national player of the year just inquired about the draft after my junior mm-hmm this freshman y'all saw me this freshman here he came in did what he did double double as a freshman all that yeah i'm like fresh get like but so it was a little motivation factor there yeah but i inquired about the draft and they told me i would have got drafted it was like late teens high 20s low 20s high teens so i got drafted in the first round because of what i did defense athletic they're like well we need to see more from him offensively i'm on the calls hugs calling people i'm i'm in the office get an invitation to go to usa basketball out in colorado springs for the world championships world so get that invitation that's going into your scene going into my scene get the invitation so you know they just bring people out to feel the roster roster so you got guys to compete i turned it down so i was one of i felt at the time i was just a filler they had their guys who they wanted yeah and they were just bringing guys in so they had guys to compete but you told us a good look to go anyway right he didn't need that i felt i needed he was going no matter what i went me and p michael go together we both make the first cut you know i i show up you know what i'm gonna do defensively oh you know what i'm gonna do i'm i'm everywhere i'm that yeah always been show up do that make the first cut cool go to dayton right outside cincinnati we got a little training camp today i make the cut now i'm on the team yeah right i'm like these supposed to be the best dude i know some dudes missing but like he's supposed to be the best dudes in college right now and i'm here looking around the room i'm like all right so we go to spain i lead that team who's supposed to be in the best players in college basketball and scoring and rebounding that was like 14 and like eight whatever it was you know them teams you know yeah like eight or seven i'm like i get back to cincinnati man and the light bulb just went off you know i know how to get it now man i went in daily daily nothing i probably didn't touch the rim dunking wise everything i did man yeah jump hook shoot from perspective of being in the same conference from one year to the next it was like oh love the hell this boy did like cuz like he said it went from you know he was expecting him to you know obviously he was gonna crash the rim he was gonna bang out beats but it went from like all right it's one of the hitting threes now like he you catching that thing swiping through driving on people right left hand like layups like it was like he still was doing all the other stuff so it was like hold up but then more than anything like he said it was like something changed in your confidence that was like oh no i'm i'm cold i never i never looked at my like scoring aspect i just like okay you gave me the ball around the rim i knew what to do with it yeah hugs told me to listen perfect this left shoulder jump hook like and i had that i did that already like i used to be the swing guy in our offense you swing i'm at the top of the key they swing and i'm the set the screen i was that guy yeah bro like i was him and for me to leave that team and scoring a rebound i'm like maybe i can yeah so my confidence man it just i watched you three years like when i got to high school i started high school as a sophomore and half ninth grade where i was from so larry hughes was was a freshman back then okay so i used to get free tickets because they wanted me to come to saint louis of course with my senior i made sure that i showed up to every cincinnati game because you may have loved it like oh i'm like yeah i gotta see them boy they got the black socks the black shoe they out there and they dunk all the time so i gotta see that absolutely so i seen your level of progression just go up and up when did you become the leader you would because i seen it was like yeah he was part of the team and it was like next you know i'm saying you talking to everybody and you know what i'm saying direct in traffic when did you become a leader in them years to to get to them because you became a leader when you was the national champion i mean we used the national pleasure it was it was hugs man like he let me be me like and talk about how you talk walking just do it whatever it took for me to be me he didn't like again you know how they said you got a dog like you don't try to like you got to keep like you don't tame that in like you yeah let them go and he did like he got it but he let me be me and from just the way i approached it yeah daily from practice to the workouts to the conditioning like everything man i was always and so by the time like my senior year came around like he didn't like here's some you know college coaches anything you do they make you run yeah on the line on the line on it so by the time i see your came around guys ain't doing what they supposed to i'm like no [ __ ] that we ain't running today like y'all well i'll bring it in listen man you must forgot to get it together that's what to do right here step back yeah this is what it is like you got it dudes get a lot of line in practice you got to see me yeah and dudes knew what it was up to that point yeah like from my freshman year oh man every year at cincinnati i probably shouldn't but i put my hands on somebody every year at cincinnati dog from freshman year on yeah starting senior starting center on the team at the time i'm a freshman he got lying i put my hands on him dog sophomore so people knew they know coming in so once you became the leader it really was this what it was this is where it's gonna be this is where we're gonna practice is where we're gonna play how about i say that's how they play and ain't gonna beat them you definitely play like that listen every time we go to play they come play us they go we go players to fight it's a fight at some point in the game you know what it's gonna be too much you already know we because cause they were playing playing we got man come on man like y'all from there right and we get to cincinnati and we're around eating weights for a living like we in that weight room dog and this it's a lifestyle like to go there and lift weights is a lifestyle if you don't do it you looked at like you right we was arrogant too why you ain't lifting dude what's wrong with you yeah so once you get that and you start seeing the results oh we're trying to bully everybody listen i mean i get it we was arrogant we came in we had a little number one recruiting class bunch of friends we did sweetheart i don't see him i bro i was really looking at everybody like like you remember them first like you know you play the first exhibition game athletes are actually whatever absolutely absolutely that first game out the gate like i'm sitting here chilling the whole preseason they going through this point guard our team from saying that he said here he called at home telling that he weak not the heat we cuz i need like we were four and some the year before it's really nothing there's nothing for me to prove that popcorn apart first game i had like 37 18. he was looking at me like yo like you true you you nice i'm like i like bro man when it's time we about to go like you got killers in this room with you so peep this he was there the game that i think got me drafted up i had a great senior year great great senior year yeah one game one game alone i think got me drafted number one we at depaul we down 17. [Music] his sophomore year this season now they they got the year under they built they playing great they they they there now they jump on us they're up 17 times y'all ring light number two at this yes absolutely yeah that was right number two hugs called timeout this is what he's saying the timeout and let me tell you what i heard during the timeout he like don't nobody shoot it unless kenyan touch it first so what in basketball terms is we gonna play through kenya you got to touch it first before anybody else shoot it right i heard shoot it every time [ __ ] lost his mind i scored 17 straight um they up 17 yeah i scored 17 straight bruh block on one end rebound score block score block rebound score score they missed somebody else get the rebound score and it was it wasn't just like one variety yeah yeah listen man that game is there i think number one like oh no bro you gotta understand first of all it was like at this point like you say like it was a lot of a lot of uh potential picks in that game like the scouts was at all any time that's two players it's not listen every time we played them it didn't matter we i think that game now that game was at that was out at the all state well i remember because i i threw it i threw the [ __ ] up at the end it was like a half second after the buzzer went in there they jumped on us and so jermaine tate get the steal he passed to me i'm dribbling up i give it to dj because dj ahead of me a little bit dj stop like i'm like shoot it so we asked him out the game he's like why you hesitate he likes [ __ ] i wasn't sure if ken touched it first like i passed it to you right like he made the game winning shot you know what i'm saying jumper yeah for for the life of me i don't know why he ain't going for the layup yeah that's how arrogant you are you that good of a score where you pull up for like an 11 like it's like that kd meeting like you pull up you like i'm like dude why you didn't go for the layup yeah i got that i was like oh okay but now that was the game man like we played it like it was it was a good yeah it was that let me ask you this the usa conference when you got there as a freshman it wasn't the same conference that you were it was when you was a senior like a lot of guys came from the larry hughes the boys down in charlotte yeah boys was nice too young and all little boys charlotte you can tell for them four years that you was there you can tell from when you first got into the conference where it was just a guy or two coming out the whole camera that might get picked to go in the league or a first round so now it's guys in every team how was it to see the usa conference changed from that now only changed from that to be one in the powerhouse conference and have the national player of the year come out their car you know there's always looked at like conference usa yeah who want to play in that yeah like it was always looked at as that but to be like mentioned with these because we wanted to smoke they you know like we wanted all smoke yeah like teams wouldn't play us yeah like we wanted to play the kentucky the syracuse the yukons like and when we played these teams like we brought it to the doorstep yeah like we were like i play i'm one and on against caroline i'm one and on against duke like i'm like when we got the chance yeah putting foot to ass man like we wanted smoke so we wanted them dudes to know man like we here yeah and to be mentioned and now we got like like you said me there now national player you got a guy like you come in like player in the comments double double as a friend like demar coming in to the league yeah coming in like so now we put it on the map so it meant something yeah it meant something to go to that man and and to be at like and to be the the forefront of that in cincinnati you know what i'm saying like that that set the president for a lot of teams like they there and a lot of them dudes went there [ __ ] [ __ ] we can go hoop in this conference man like it ain't a bad conference so how was it for you to be you know like you said that senior year you didn't came from from fighting to get your eligibility to becoming now you like the national player you're your team top two teams in the country about to be a number one seed you break your lit i remember being at the tournament and you know i'm saying we watching the games i'm like i'm like like what like when they really announced that's what's going on like if we saw you know you get hurt whatever everybody know after the tournament it's only a few months from the draft and all this and you already projected like top five top pick whatever all of that so like how is that for you when that happens [ __ ] one word [ __ ] it was devastating like you said it was like everything up to that point like flashed before like my childhood like the eligibility stuff like all of that and when hugs came on the floor when i didn't get up cause you know i always get up you know me like you know i'm tough as nails like i always get up and he said when i didn't get up like he knew something was wrong and he came out there and all i kept saying man was not now right that's all i i just kept repeating it man not now man it's the first game of the conference tournament like and i'm like just right what what nah this can't be man this can't be like not right now man he's just like he's just like he's gonna go in the back and it wasn't just like people here like he broke his leg he broke his leg he broke his leg i'm like yeah i broke my leg but i tore the ligaments in my ankle um ain't know that so that was the real that was the thing the clean breaker could have been cool but cool but what took so long for me to come back and all that like i tore the ligaments in my ankle so people don't know like if you're not in the medical field you wouldn't know this your ligaments wrap around your bone right right so when i tore my ligaments it was wrapped around your fibula which is the small one so it popped it it's like a vibration mm-hmm so when you hit something you know the vibrator then you gotta right so that's what happened to my bone but people just really broke his leg no i told the ligaments in my ankle they had to put a screw in my ankle right that so i go to the hospital all that listen gee dog i go to the hospital man listen y'all hurry up man like i gotta get back to it you know i'm trying to get back to the games yeah but i got to show my guys i'm good like hurry up i'm rushing to people at the hospital man i'm done but we'll do what y'all put the cast on this [ __ ] man let's go hey i just like let's go i'm like i get i go back to the game dog i go back to the arena watch them dudes lose to st louis man we just beat st louis on senior day about 40. like three days ago we just beat them about 40. yeah i asked dj man what the hell was y'all man we can't play that hurry we can't go out here and compete like like the big brother did i mean like the big brother went to prison yeah like we ain't get like it ain't the same how was how was your mental when you the draft process cause i remember seeing you in orlando and i think it was me mike miller and somebody else working out all of us me dj you yeah just seeing like the guys and the guys that they ran because i to me like i watched them saying you was clear-cut posed have been the number one player it was only ifs cause you got hurt like oh man we might not pick him number one you don't know he's gonna get the pig too and that too you know what i'm saying like but clin clear cut the season you had like you looked like a pro you were strong enough he was big enough he was athletic enough to go straight in and like more than anybody yeah but when you got hurt like how was that to just see you know still going visit these teams and see these guys like us and mike miller you know all these guys there how was that process to you because you know we were talking about [ __ ] oh he's number one he got his ass out here we got in his ass too but you know it was eye opening yeah made you sit back and see it at another angle yeah like yeah like he did all of this but they still looking at me like he ain't going like you hearing it i'm here like ain't gonna be the same ain't gonna jump the same yeah all right okay yeah as soon as i get this [ __ ] buddhist as soon as i get this boot off as soon as i do this as soon as i can but it wasn't it wasn't easy man and to hear it and then like these are facts like the nets was gonna take you though yeah like i don't know if you know this no we know they were going to take you they tell you it was a 50-50 chance about this yeah they were thinking about taking you because of the aids and my injury all that like and i was like i was agitated should have been i'm saying like from high school yeah what i did i dare him like he can't do what i do he ain't dizzy i but i was like but so what what was the the the relaxing moment in all of it stu jackson told me i went to visit vancouver mm-hmm he was like listen if the nets do something stupid by not taking you you god you least you won't get past two right yeah so when they think about taking you i said please yeah thinking i'm saying look me getting drafted was the furthest thing from my imagination as a kid and when i got to cincinnati i didn't grow up dreaming of playing the nba dog this is a dream so i'm here and to be potentially the number one and if not the number one the number two pick right let's get it how did it feel to finally hear your name number one pick new jersey next kenya martin like how did that feel like from like you see my reaction man my head just i put my head on the table bruh yeah like we all grew up you grew up in chicago you grew up in st louis we all grew up in an environment man in a way that like you know you know man a lot of people don't make it out a lot of people don't have success stories a lot of people don't don't get regular job nine to five to take care of themselves yeah and me and my mom my mom never had a car my mom never had a house my mom never owned anything up to that point bruh except her name and for me that moment bruh for me like like how does it like they lifted the world off your shoulders lifted the world off my shoulders bruh like in that moment and from the then then the injury the childhood the test score the father ain't there it was like i'm crying on the interview y'all man go back and look i'm i'm not all right i'm crying man like real like it's real like dawg you know the most money i had seen up to that point pell grant money dog yeah give us seven hundred dollars and then another 18.75 though yeah total 2500 yeah and ain't that's the most money i had ever seen and you get drafted and like it changes yeah like in that moment it changes and it's like like you can exhale okay but now it's time to go to work i definitely feel like you you know everybody want to be the number one pick and everybody won't be picked but i definitely felt like it wouldn't even been a question if you wouldn't have got hurt it wasn't even been thought of because like man like i keep on saying like man it's just that that year you had and just how you ended out man you you seemed more mature you you seemed more ready you seen more than anybody in our draft but it was that it was that period where the you know the the culture was the high school kid that's when y'all was thriving yeah the six nine six eight six ten long lengthy they could dribble they could like they they was looking for the next t-mac kobe that was the hot thing there that's what made you you're so intriguing man you went like [ __ ] wild [ __ ] you remember you called me he called me like bro what should i do i said bro you top five on every mock draft there is what are you talking about are you stupid he came on the visit to deep like yeah we're gonna go kick it but you ain't going here i was surprised dj came yeah i was too yeah they said he had to get stronger like that's the only reason he came they said he's not physically ready to play i wasn't supposed to be there after my first year i suppose a gun they picked that like you went first he went third i was sitting back there is the funniest thing ever bro every award i went up to they get new company yeah freshman of the year mvp year freshman year new comedy all this stuff in the conference i'm like wondering like what the hell this boy doing back here yeah i didn't understand him coming back either but you know it was him his homeboys the paw was treating him too good he was taking the pay cut he was taking the pay cut going tonight oh listen listen i'm born and bred shy town man i felt like it was sammy sosa then me mj had retired it was sammy sosa then we was the biggest thing stay at home bro i was on the cover of the espn zone i was on flag pose all the way down the block with the pin heads i was i was demanding them what that's the crib i'm with you i kind of like you know i can only imagine the feeling i can only imagine the feeling boy but listen cause listen dawg as we know actually that's i got hurt my senior year and we know that [ __ ] could have went listen yo hey no no it was it was one of the things man just to be there and be around all that and and to go number one and then in minnesota [Music] y'all understand we all understand that we're the last draft not to be in new york city yeah minnesota but at the point well guess what i went to new york the next day so right we all doing the photo shoots at the draft i'm like yo this is going to be man i'm like yo yeah but yeah we show up man jersey them years man i'm like but getting drafted man was was that moment for me it was the it was probably the people asked me about my career was the best moment of my career and i'll say draft day like by far it wasn't it's not even it's not even close right like anything else after that point was it was icing on [ __ ] sunday yeah i'm saying everything else is that's that's toppings yeah like i got yeah we here cherry on top because like when you think about it when we growing up that's the vision you see annually every single year it don't matter like you might miss this you might be like even if you you don't know the draft who got drafted what they was there the number one pick every time you gonna know that yeah you might miss the whole wrestler you're gonna know who the number one pick is yeah yeah like boy no for that to happen bro like and honestly i didn't even want to go to new jersey i didn't want to go to the nets man they were bad right yeah they were like but they're more people but yeah that is true like so all three of the teams so what so what was in the making was what i was hearing was orlando was trying to trade and get the number one pick you know they had five ten thirteen yeah pick keon mike miller and someone else so they were trying to package that up and you know they had just signed tracy mm-hmm and grant right now i'm thinking she's got i mean grant man let's go of course that didn't work out and now i'm battling these guys man and it was not it was it was i was really i wanted houston to move up for me i wanted to play with rudy t man i seen like steve friends them out there they playing all eyes so far i need some of that so you just trying to hesitate crosstalk and right now all day tell me how was it when you get to when you get to new jersey and you you get with that thing how did you feel like you fit in right away you took off you know what i'm saying obviously you got jay kid like searching for that still first i mean no that's right yeah steph first that's right that's right y'all had a nasty one two points so you could hear it with steph but the man steph didn't mesh well for other reasons but it was like my rookie year man you know i came in like you like like like they said man i came in with i was mature already like i was yeah he's 20 20. i i didn't behave like a rookie yeah i'm saying like from my upbringing the thing i had been through i wasn't in awe of nothing [ __ ] he was a grown man i showed up ready who i want to who and like you wasn't like most of us come in we was teenagers already 20 plus yeah i was 22 so it was like let's go and so i and and i had real vets mm-hmm like i had like johnny so i learned a lot man from them dudes and then just certain things certain situations watching them dudes handle business and do certain things carry briefcases and always on the farm like what you get done man so i want to know who like i'm here to who so we won 26 games um i got actually i broke my leg again in march i rookie year like i think that that's why i didn't mike miller did orlando win mike he won't look in here but i came in second and i got hurt in march yeah you're playing boston mill palazzo trying to steal the ball from behind and meet me in my land break my leg same bone different spot almost a year to the date almost a year to the date so that happened rookie my rookie year finish that out that summer i go get in the lab all that i'm at the rucker i'm just watching i ain't playing i'm at the rocker watching phone ringing ringing ringing um they called my sister like brad like yo come here i'm like what they they just traded steph i'm like all right he like now they just traded stuff for jake i said what mm-hmm i'm like get out like j kid like straight up oh like straight up trade jk stefan like i'm gonna like get to play with jk boy you know i'm from dallas he got drafted the dallas like i'm there when they three j's like this is oh yeah so i'm in oh i'm like oh they just traded for jk if i ever was jealous of you i was jealous cause you had jake here the way he used to throw them lives off the backboard like like he threw the balls that used to always just holler at the point going like man just throw it you know what i'm saying like he threw them ball like how was it like his pace how he pushed it the way the style of play the leadership like how was that fit but he didn't have to leave me no you got to leave me i'm right right there with you straight up you run fast i run faster straight you run through that wall i'm gonna beat you too hold up like like we never like people understand like we never had a conversation on how we were gonna play like do this never it was just all instinctual reading he is who he is internally i am who i am internally and it worked yeah like he everywhere defensively i'm everywhere defensively yeah he's smart as hell as a basketball player i'm smarter than a basketball player it just worked don't you feel jk pulled the one mvp absolutely we won 52 games in my second year yeah we won 26 rookie here 52 the second year yeah and he was the one biggest difference and took you out to the ship we got swept we made it to the envy that don't matter playoffs don't matter no it don't matter it's regular season doubled our win total definitely double okay we drafted rj he was a rookie we drafted jason's card he wrote but jay kidd was that changed everything and we that is him me care look like it was how was that to be like in your second year to be on that stage you you know you in new jersey it ain't new york but you know it's still the east coast big huge market and y'all had it y'all had it jumping from being the worst to like we're in the playoffs in this big game it was like i had a crowd in the presence then i ain't know nothing different like my rookie year they know us like all that losing like you know i'm coming from there we went in 20 26 27 games and losing three fourth games every year i'm winning program losing foreign to me though yeah so my rookie year like i don't like this i always played the same way yeah so now let's go to second year now we're winning regularly it's like it's way tonight this is a better feeling here how how was it to to experience that you know that that finals and you know that you know to play against your second year and you playing against shaq and kobe in the finals like you just was watching him on the big screen you're before and finally exactly surreal just like i remember game one walking out of the staples at the time like walking out and how bright it was mm-hmm like a stage you gotta see uh you know normally you know you're going regular the regular games it ain't they don't look like that yeah tv they got all of this it's everywhere and it's it's like i'm looking at getting ready for your pregame warming up for like still on the on just chairs this go out and you don't play that well game one yeah cause you you play okay but you don't play that well in game one and you go game two you play better it's like okay this we here now we're down now we're down two games okay we're going home i played better in game three just individually as a team we play better but still lose now we down three games we're not getting sweat like this ain't gonna happen whatever i gotta do we ain't getting sweat i come out come out game four so i got better every game so game four i come out first quarter on the tear seventeen in the first like we going back and forth we update up back and forth back and forth back and forth of course they end up winning at 35 for the game and hold that [ __ ] no it's too much man yeah too much like that's when i like you talking about and that's why i like you never seen watching the game now and watching just other things and and people add i have these conversations with people like people like who's the one player that could play in shaquille o'neal man most dominant force they've never seen oh they don't understand it man y'all seeing this picture that's circulating when you're fighting all of us on everybody the our team is in the picture the whole fire he the only one in the picture like this he got anne williams jersey keith [Laughter] lucia standing there jay kidd looking back and i'm swiping i'm jump i'm thinking he's going to [ __ ] it back yeah right like he normally do yeah i'm swiping from behind yeah of course i missed it because he didn't bring it all the way back he hooked it's the best one of the best pitchers in sports history man i'll say that about [ __ ] man shaq i've never seen a dominant player like that never will like that's crazy how dumb and i i hate to because like elijah is like my guy you know they say you know a lot of what did he do he got in there but i'm saying that that like a shot that's a young chef elijah that's a young shag right yeah but she can learn from it dog you don't understand man like they uh people don't have no they think they say joel and be dominant yeah no disrespect no disrespect his skill set is amazing amazing that dude they'll find out they'll fall you should have put the laughing emoji after that these are just jokes no one means this for real no you didn't stand a chance at all go ask good listen he should go ask keith kloss yeah go ask him because you built just like keith yeah and you didn't stand a chance because he beat up he man held the one physically stronger david roberts and he man holiday rise man everybody all the time man listen man we throw that thing in the postman tumble what you gonna do what you gonna either you gonna double me or not so i'm gonna wait to see the end result is gonna be domination you gotta double him dog because he'll score every time just the people and you put in like real perspective and he got cold that's what the deal is he beats you up all game and then the last two minutes if it's close he got any will and passer yeah will and powerful very willing passer decent passer for rebounding listen listen man yeah and it hurt when you bump into it so that's all so so so who's dunked on shaq straight up do you see them coming yeah so it was one i mean that's the one that was like so of course we all didn't try you me athletic guys all that no no he don't do that he put his hand straight up in the air yeah and turn his body this way into you and uh magetti felt ain't gonna knock the wind at you because it hurt listen one thing you would not do is try it again at all listen i took your whole fear out of it listen absolutely you don't see you coming yeah you catch them off catch them like this wait for we already know yeah you throw it so pick your poison yeah so we gotta dub him now you forced to play bean one-on-one curtains come on hit you with the you know yeah yeah then now we scrambling now okay you might do a decent job on being now shaq throwing that thing around now derek fisher is five for eight from three robert horry four four four seven devin devin george three for four from three because like it is you're like what do you do tell me this the difference between like year one and two we all there at the all-star game in the rookie sophomore game kicking and having a good time you know we all representing year four you make the real all-star game yes tell me the different vibes from that like from when you there as the you know the rookie the little junior game the little junior game and then you get to make that big game you walk in that room with all of them dudes just the who's who or the guys or the guys like what's that feeling like honestly i should have been a year before so i've i failed [ __ ] by time but no but it's to see them dudes man and to like you watch this like you watch like this is the if you had 17 in the game you got some [ __ ] up to that point yeah i'm like yo i need to approach it you're like okay this be you so all right cool so i just when i did what i'm supposed to do but having him there you know he's coming down it was an exciting no where i'm gonna be i'm not but it was like it was that finals moment it was like that first it was that first finals game you all got down this line like i was more nervous probably in that than i was for the finals mike was there what i'm saying right yeah i was more nervous for that man then then because it was like this is supposed to like yeah that was what mike was in yeah i mean no it wasn't mike see it was in atlanta that was your fault that was mike and they put sharif on the team yeah because it was in atlanta and they needed a representative for me we number one team in the conference man numbers was almost identical third and fourth year so tell me the story since i heard that they they made you stop doing this when you used to turn into the badass yellow boy and you used to you know what i'm saying like the bad ass yellow boy i used to love that all the time like it was on fire did they say did they say something to you so it was on fire because they found out what it said like once i did the sports illustrated cover and they read it then they just was your tattoo actually said bad ass yellow boy what was wrong with badass yellow boy you know for the light skins out here no individuality thing man that was just like they didn't want it you had to don't nobody if you did it again oh man that was a movement right now and again you know if it was people who we was playing or what the situation was or the answer it was worth it i give it to him every time yeah i give it to you it was that man what what year did you feel that you was like one of the most elite defenders at your position and not just at your position in the league because you switched on guards and everything but what year did you feel like man i should be making these all defensive teams i should be [ __ ] from the beginning to be honest with you you the guys that guard the best guy in it you in the era of the power 4 was like probably the most dominant position at the time never made all defensive team bro where did you feel it though all right just look at it just look at it man you're in you're out dawg from day one who did not guard yeah i'm saying who did night guard you know what i just saw i guarded listen man we come out of timeouts they talk yo you got a.i yeah i gotta go chase reggie around i gotta go bang with the davis boys i gotta go guard lj i gotta chase allen houston and spree whale around right yeah dog i gotta guard ellen i gotta guard [Music] switch to pick and roll cp got him yeah paige is coming off chase him around you you who who who and you ain't never made it listen and it bothers me that's correct cause you listen you line them up listen line them up you play it against me you played last minute every year you played against love you played against me you played against me bro listen dog line all of them up yeah hall of famers or not yeah line them up and you go to all them every position when that night when you had to play against kenyon lee martin senior man bringing that heat what was it i want to know yeah what was it man what was the approach what did you think was go and how did it go yeah you definitely have time to mug come on man how we played you better you better though cause and it's like i look at i mean i right now i've never played one possession against nuka dodgers not one and i can tell you what he like to do what he don't like to do every tendency he's dead he could possibly be the feather you can do on the floor you can't do that i'm taking that i'm talking to my wife the other day i'm pausing the game explaining to her [Laughter] this is explaining why cp struggling right now how they defend him what they making him do [Laughter] i did this i do this man you know my son called me early in this rookie year he getting ready to guard paul millsap his match up in the locker room right before the game yo paul mill said my magic man what i need to do against it i need the plan straight up right well ucla before he declared all that you get ready to play courtney get it no disrespect to y'all team made all that corey easy guard for him yeah don't let him get into your body keep him left make him put the ball in the left hand don't admit he went out then did exactly what i told him he was like and it worked yeah right yeah so just imagine me playing the tim duncans and kobe's and the elton dog these dudes man great score is good at their position man it ain't gonna be easy you take something away some of these guys you ain't gonna yes about kobe what made kobe so special you take something away he got 10 other things that he want to do a lot of guys they like that not at all taking their two favorite things away they got a long night and that's what made him because you know you studying them and you go you take every boom kind of counter you do counter yeah footwork spin kind of fake left hand off the glass yeah i heard that i told you don't do that again man yo dude don't do that again man that's a bad look disrespectful disrespectful man don't do that again they used to run the little pitch up the little pistol player they pitch it up they come back i'll sit on it come off i'm on top of the right hand he crazy one of the things i used to like when i used to watch you play though it used to be funny and i always bug up laughing to it like the beginning of the game or something like you playing against a kg or a duncan or just anybody you're a fighter as hard on the swiping you'll look at them just to see their reaction and to see the ones that get mad at the ones they're just going to walk to the free throw line and i used to be cracking up like i know why you doing you're trying to see what they temperature taking your temperature dog see what it's gonna be today if i'm gonna get you mad and you're gonna be rougher than feathers it's gonna be one of them you ain't never used to get duncan to get out of the car never you turn around walk away every time ever i used to hate that about it everything's good no i'm not going to do no no tell me never like that's like he didn't he don't want that man listen that matchup made me really really concentrate on tendencies and guard people dog but i never could force him in to do what i want him to do right it made me meet him early free throw line try to force him to his spot to be bigger than me way more than me might not know it's too much defense can talk he might not know about this defense stuff you know like but for him like he made me like he he's the he's the one yeah like at that so we're talking about fours and the guys who he's the one yeah you're the one i used to see kg and duncan and i feel like kg took harder shots it was like man you just that was a tough shot i feel like duncan his his selection just was no i'm i'm shooting a high percentage if you block it or if you stop it i'm still going for this high percentage but kg like you can kind of feed him into taking that tough fade away behind the backboard type yeah is that the difference between them this is going like kg for me was an easier guard to your point yeah like because it was that like i could make you do this because you're trying to get it off like you're going to take this shot because you're trying to get it off and i can live with this one see i'm going to get to that boom boom be gone don't don't like it too much swiping that you know i'm playing at the ball all right gotta play the game he just he just steals same same speed same action i'm gonna get to this and if i make it i make it i miss you get your hand on it but it's gonna be this and that was like that was the chess match yeah like they don't understand that the game within the game it's always that when you coming from where you come from you know how your family grew up the history of your family to hear you finna make a hundred million dollars you finna sign a 100 million dollar contract the martin family kenyon martin finish signing a 100 million dollar contract like man what was like what was that like you couldn't believe it like they want to give me a hundred see some numbers like that bruh like i said the most money man for college all that was twenty five hundred dollars man and before that it was 207 i found found some money downtown dallas 275 dollars when i was in high school oh was that you did a signing trade to go there yeah they was gonna lose me for nothing right so that listen who you know come out for all-star appearance number one all-star year we top three teams in the car two three teams in the conference cause i remember this being a big thing they didn't resign you and y'all would have the whole vibe then offered me nothing danny give you an offer the year before right you're before going into my fourth year into our fourth year yeah they offered me six for 66. a lot of young fellas hit that now they was trying to offer this man he was a top pick he was all-star six for 66. like y'all getting fo for 200 now like just think about it so the going rate in my position i thought was like 80 at the time mm-hmm guys getting four the all-star they get 80 whatever it was so i'm thinking get at least 80. you come to 66. i turn it down i'd already got already took the four for your option so there's i'm not obligated turn it down let me play it out i make the all-star team dog there you go what fat joe say yes today it's not today's prices you know what i'm saying so and that's what yeah that's what it was it's a kiki called like i waited listen this is facts man i waited waited waited free agency started waited waited waited days going by days going by phone don't ring bruh no i'm not expecting a weather team to call yeah i've been expecting my team yeah i'm waiting on as we sit here in 2022 i'm still waiting on it they ain't called bro car i called jay kid first like listen j they ain't calling off me nothing man like they ain't called i don't know what to tell you okay man but they ain't doing it go get your money bro hmm and then kiki can't call it kiki brandon went to atlanta visit it was like atlanta cool nice place to live but they wasn't offering what i was hearing denver was gonna offer i was on my i was gonna go visit utah i was on my way there at the airport it was like boozers just signed for the 66 that i turned down no i wouldn't so they got him for that i detoured i went to vegas yeah that was a blessing for bosom went to vegas i met pooh chilling you know going back and forth like we had this number let me call you back get a call back we're at this number i'm gonna call you back the third call with this number i i right man stop playing with these people straight up when they check they might be before they change their damn mind all right man stop playing with these folks man like send this over no this is the day of you young guy y'all know about fax machines yeah right they faxed my contract over and where i was thinking how long you been doing it like drake said i'm before you before i signed i was just sitting on the table man honey undone just you're just looking at just zeros on that year just stacking this ain't real man like this ain't real ain't nobody doing this yeah for me i know dude i'm my assistant at the time boy if you don't sign that paper man i'm like dude no i'm not signing this right now man i gotta this gotta absorb this yeah let me ask you this though so once you signed it i like to ask like when you got that bag i've seen some of this [ __ ] so you know i'm pretty a little bit like i won't you know you could tell you know the blessings and everybody that what what did kate might do i'm not this ain't about you know obviously you didn't talk about how mama didn't have this didn't have it he was where it was like you look back on even now you like i kind of acted down so we i'm in jersey you know jay kidd is jake head already yeah kid pulling up at everything everything right we all had that one vet he pulled up one day i'm like what is that pull up in the ass of martin van gaal he's about to say yeah i don't like the vanquish i'm like this is what mike mike finley spoke of for those that are loyal listeners right you know this is what finley spoke of they called mj's attention jk pull up in that thing i'm like oh [Music] like i'm balling like how much is that like 200. who is paying for a car bet so that summer is the summer [Laughter] i'm in dallas it's the aston martin dealership in dallas numbers coming through i'm like i'm gonna get this all right on my way to the dealership right it's another dealership before the aston martin dealership i don't know what rolls royce is i'm hood kenyon don't never seen this thing what is that u-turn on the way to the asmr dealership u-turn it's when the phantom first came back it's on the showroom floor 2004 big grill in the showroom floor he opened the front door no the door suicide and he opened the other one oh [Laughter] man i got the same financial advisor i had when i was rookie today man i called justin bass on the phone like jb i asked i'm on the phone asking dude how much you say it is he say three i need you to wire right now right now 349 000 to this listen man this place right here i didn't even make it to the aston martin dealership didn't forgot about it uh man i stepped in that thing man it had that peanut butter gus he said come an umbrella too i said i'll get the really man he said this how you coming you poke thing umbrella coming out i'm like listen now let me ask you how'd that feel straight out the showroom oh this could tell me nothing bro by just doing that like like coming from like you said you can find 200 shave out all the most money you go buy brand new something off the showroom floor couldn't tell chess poker i was really number one picked in okay i made it now i'm man so i'll go to denver right the car gets to denver and ain't nobody ever seen nothing like this the car pulled up at the pepsi center everybody in the arena coming out looking at the car right looking at the car looking at the car no i'm excited about the car right but i live in denver no disrespect to them i love them but the weather this is denver this car is too much because every time i drove it it's like showstopper so fast forward all-star weekend that year my first year in denver all star weekend is in them that was the most the car got dro that that weekend coming out in the spring is the bentley gt and the flying spurs fair right see i could add on to this story so i'm i got the ben i got the phantom there's a bender dealership and then right guard driver he like man we'll do something with you if you my brain get there so i had i wanted this car right when i got rid of the phantom i had 900 miles on it what that's it 900. i drove my [ __ ] like a box chevy yo most of y'all guys did not me so i get rid of the phantom right he wanted to buy it i traded him right got both got the bentley gt and the ferrari 360 spike yo hey listen he ain't the real bad actor bad dog listen i'm in denver i'm i'm turning down i'm you know mellow in his second year you know no no i'm i'm the dog i'm the right guy to do it i'm gonna make my turn now he might be leading all the scoring guys but listen i'm him let me ask you this though because i remember a story what what car was it that j.r put the popcorn in and you was gonna kill them you they wouldn't even tell you who it was because they knew you was for real gonna do something you ain't found out that it was him until how much long later and just tell me the whole story so i was in a suit i didn't play that game the car was it was a range rover white interior white range white and chair bad phone so bad form so you know so this is how so you do that [ __ ] these are facts true story it's april fool's day right mm-hmm we gotta shoot around y'all know that time of year because we we indole so april fools day we all i tell jim gillin our team trainer it's april fools so right guys name on the board some guys that's indulged some guys that don't say it's test day so we had a shoot around i remember this thing certain guys i know that dude they're shooting around you know when you when you're trying to piss [ __ ] you ain't that you drinking water gatorade water you know that's right water gatorade so you soon this is done you can go bam bam bam you can't wait for it so i put dude's name on the board we go to shoot around and come out ain't no names on the board no piss man it's april fool's ha ha ha kiki we got a game at night i'm in a suit i don't play so you know i got suit on so i don't keep that in my pocket i put everything on my locker see my keys wallet all that so jr puts the the ball boy who i find that was the ball boy up to it you go get my key out my locker and go put this [ __ ] in my car so after the game you know i don't play so i'm the first one out the locker room i'm going home i'm i ain't soon so i'm gonna go do my thing i'm walking out to the parking lot and i hit my unlock button and it don't unlock you don't what yo it didn't mean work put some more popcorn always knocked my car but he forgot to lock it oh you've got a lot going on it's already unlocked he forgot to lock my car back so i'm i'm thinking that i'm not locking my car but i'm not whatever i get in the car [ __ ] just spill out oh popcorn i left the door open and walked back to the vlog as ears turned the [ __ ] around man imagine i'm in the suit man i go in there and put on some shoes dogs [Laughter] go in my locker put on some basketball shoes guys enough doing post game interviews by now they let the media man i go back in that mud man who was in the locker room who took my key out my locker and went so outside the locker room there's a camera above the locker room there's a camera but y'all watching everything i need to know who's in here during the game i can't believe i'm hit so they go clean the car i go home listen y'all got a certain amount of time dawg y'all get this [ __ ] off my car get it out of my car and end it i don't even know who did it now he was there clean my car and let me know who did it phone ring so i'm listen i'm i'm on it man so now it was the ball boy and he he off top he first 48. such-and-such put me up to it [Laughter] oh he's seen right [Laughter] let's do the address come on man because he had just moved i knew he stayed previously but he just you know he moved on the golf course because when he started swinging him thing he moved on the golf course so i like what's his address now can you not can you can you please no [Laughter] [Music] i want i need to go over that right now i need to go talk to this man man i listen it's lucky they didn't because this is young ignorant canyon man like badass yellow boy where the next time you see no one knows what's not that i did because they what they they like they replaced my um interior on my truck and i bout to say like can you confirm or deny like was it weeks later and was just turning on air conditioning and popcorn no no no they took the truck team took it and replaced they did everything send it to the dealership made sure it got replaced and what i got they took it out of his check i'm saying whatever the repairs was and all they took it out of this check because they yeah knock it i was going to do something bad with jr though um yeah you do that [ __ ] to rookies you don't do and and everybody in the whole organization was like why him of all people that you can pick to do this too why him because y'all know how everybody knew after that point man i'm confrontational man i don't ain't no chill no nothing like that you and i paid hard money for that brother man you don't do that man so listen like we can go in further but it would i would it would have been bad had i got his address that night it would have been an nba incident for the ages i just say that it would have been one of them like for them for like man listen exactly exactly what you just said why him like when i heard about the story i was like okay like it that is it's not no i'm like people that don't know they still know don't do that like you know like that's just like we might not even know who you might just see a clip like oh i'm not going to really you don't really want to try pranks and [ __ ] with them right right and then and them dudes knew in the locker room like i didn't move that way like i wouldn't allow for a joker hi kind of guy my locker was separate from everybody's doing that i didn't let nobody sit in the locker next to me but two people in history oh yeah reuben patterson and demar johnson yeah natty boy but nobody allowed to sit next to me so this is facts let's uh come on man like nah we ain't doing this yeah i know i tell this thing up dawg they knew it and they like man why him so so the ball boy that did it so i told him straight up i bet not see him around the pepsi center and i told him straight up if you see me anywhere in denver you need to go the other way so you really gave the little ball boy ptsd man yeah i threatened him threatening his life man crazy they begged me not to do nothing to him because i got to see him every day and we got to work together but you gonna get terrorized oh yeah i'm gonna do something to you they better move you're not allowed you're not allowed here no if you see me in a restaurant a bar the grocery store you better leave i'm saying on site you see you see the new denver nuggets they well put together with a lot of talent like they got like if anybody can get a trade to get any of them them boys over there they got a lot of talent it reminds me of y'all think man y'all had y'all had chauncey at point guard at one point y'all had andre at point guard at one point y'all had a.i always kept like so much talent in denver like what what do you think that y'all couldn't just really just jump over there it can be one point word in that phrase man like just putting together talent yeah not putting together a team mm-hmm like nothing more nonetheless i'm saying that's always real yeah just accumulate names because guys had a decent career yeah not what we need as a team to compete and be successful and possibly compete for a championship yeah like when chauncey came chauncey settled everything the most there had been and since i've been there yeah i'm saying because he had been there he knew what it'd take he knew time score situations he knew to get everybody else involved first three quarters let melo do his thing periodically during the first three in the fourth quarter it's 7-15 you know what i'm saying yeah y'all get y'alls before but this is going to be a me and melo show you know what i'm saying and melo gonna lead yeah and then chauncey knew that so he he implemented that and certain things that he would do during the course of the game that would and not letting george [ __ ] [ __ ] up and not so yeah it was that man mello posed playoffs yeah absolutely i know i i think he owes the one rookie yeah we all know they they they value individual stuff more than team accolades and [ __ ] it's weird to me situational yeah lead scorer but took that team who he was in the basement yeah that's why they had the third pick yeah you know what i'm saying no that's made the playoffs so in my opinion yeah so i got that his second year and he was like came into his own i'm saying like doing this thing but it was just like we just accumulated talent man you're and you're out you're in you're out so and not the right coach for what we had this round with chauncey got there of course because john's like i said chauncey made us yeah he leveled it out a little bit it was dope having somebody there who was like dre was great like i love andre miller mm-hmm wasn't strong enough as a leader point guard you know you got a verb you got to be a super he's an introvert you got to be a certain way y'all so great loving yeah like fearless as a point guard one of the most underrated players at that position throughout our game don't get the respect he deserved it was gonna never work with chuck and mello yeah and you add jr to the fray myself nae nae like it just wasn't gonna work yeah yeah i'm saying 30 and 30 at night i was like man who else getting the who else getting the ball dude both of them got third and then and then it's like i said dude that was sitting in the second chair with no help yeah i'm saying then you make that trade then so i love melody everybody know i feel about melo i think if they don't send chauncey with mello to new york we still compete mm-hmm we still compete mm-hmm i'm saying yeah i love me love metal or death you can't replace 26 27 tonight but i think we could we had enough they took everything back johnson what else come on man ray fell and they gave y'all everything to get mellow like y'all they keep maybe wilson chandler oh now you have to give him the same position you give us galinari and keith johnson and we keep shots okay still be cool because we got jr we still got guys at the score chances can score mm-hmm you would put me in position we know i you know slouching this league i know how to go get a bucket yeah we got nae nae steal we got guys that the ball is moving freely and we but well that was a bad deal anyway you know everybody know that they cuz because they could have kept all of that and just added mellow and then he's the bad guy in this like mellow never said he wanted out but then he never said he wanted to stay you know how that goes what i'm saying you know that goes it was playing the political game yeah i played just i'm saying but it was like no i think man we could have definitely did somehow we had had put a team together instead of just accumulating talent tell me like you you didn't you you've done a lot it comes what you accomplished in the league like does anything compare to seeing your son [Music] be drafted now playing in the nba and he he's carving out his own path to having his own success nothing not even my draft day right not draft day not signing the max deal not making it to the finals not making the all-star team nothing nothing compares to that that moment for him right we it was it was up in there i'm saying we all everybody's mistake is this is that it was up in the air or whatever but for that moment to be real and us to have that moment and like firstborn man right i mean i remember like when i first met you had the tattoo yeah on your you know what i'm saying so it's for him to be living out his childhood dream yeah i never had that i never knew what it was to dream big like that yeah right he's saying something that you ain't never seen before been around something you ain't never been around for him to do it man and and just the joy i felt for him yeah i'm saying i've never been that i never besides the day that they were born all six of them was born yeah like nothing else excite has excited me in life like that yeah man i'm i'm i'm i'm proud of him man i'm excited for him because it's what he wanted yeah so what he wanted is what he's put blood sweat and tears into what i'm saying so for him to be doing it man and not just be doing it but be really good at it yeah boy can go and i'm like yo i was gonna watch him work out last night i said man like you [ __ ] really good dog how do it feel like to see some of the highlights and it's like he not even taller than me but he looked like me out there like you hear the commentator say different stuff and it's just like if you just watch like he come out of nowhere getting lives getting blocks getting rebounds and it's like yo like like we didn't stay here and watch games literally on a patio with the career channel like how crazy it is bouncy like kenny was like how stupid crazy is that like how did that feel to see your son out there like being that explosive doing some of the stuff that you would do out there so he was younger right you know you got the pool you got the basketball goal in the swimming pool all right you know you tell kids don't do it but they [ __ ] doing it anyway they were running and jumping jumping right he was younger like he used to run and wish to be in dallas man he used to be running taking off dunking that thing in the pool i just be like yo tell my partner you sit outside yo like who they look like you can't be like who i'm actually just like josh smith man you're watching right nine ten years old i'm like watching though so they used to be out on the basketball goal in the court outside they lower the goal and my nephew they take i'm like yo man look at this boy man hey like wait to listen i should tell him at the time and wait till he get old and it translates right as he got older and he was in high school he started saying i'm like yo kj dawg i gotta see this i'm telling people y'all got to see this man i'm glad stupid athlete and it was like right before my very eyes i'm watching me and i'm like that's the way people used to look at me and i never knew i never thought of myself as that until people start like no you get off that floor when i came to his high school game that one year his senior year and i was just like man yeah like okay okay more he might got a little bit more the thing up here man he bouncy and everything like peep this man like and for him to play out here on that team and and everybody like you know he's not he can't shoot he don't do that man to see this boy playing high school man all the stuff that people seeing now in the league nice to sit back because we have the game like this dog yeah people like man yo boy yeah because i said i just sit front row at every game every wherever he played or whatever it is if i could sit on the first row of the game i'm i'll sit fir i just hit that dog and just beat it off no he had a dunk as a sophomore man a lob got to still do threw that thing up man and everybody in the gym it was one of them vince carter olympic jump over it was one of them everybody in the gym was like yeah and they caught me by surprise because i seen him dunk but i ain't seen him do that yeah like it was a real body it was like one of them and ones like he walked off poked his chest out i was like okay yeah i got about i gotta get my swag together because i don't know like like my kid's a little bit they grow up to be hooper like i ain't but i'm not about to be sitting there 2.0 there is no chill with me at the game okay just so you know but i'm watching but i'm sick but in that moment it caught me off guard but everything else i'm loud in it watch your head put it on his head out there showing you wait what's your name he said i'm i'm looking at me like crazy i'm like and he's doing it and he's backing it up yeah yeah i'm hyping it up he's backing him up i'm like but out here man he's doing it throwing that thing up he people like well he don't shoot the ball back he can shoot it but why would i do anything different if you don't make me do it hey listen what i'm about to say like people get into this i don't know which candy is he he act like he both man he's gonna either hand he's gonna throw that thing up i don't know so when it started as he started he started he was used to shoot with two and remember like yesterday and this is true story we're at the park so we're working on those left hands i'm cheating so this is the time i'm starting to see you really serious about it so we had you just need to come off this leg for this hand this leg with his hand and he's having a hard time i'm like no because he's shooting jump shots and i'm starting to realize both of them and that moment i said you need to pick one like you got to pick one you can't shoot with both hands you got to pick one you got to pick one that's i'm thinking because the way he is you jump off his right leg so i'm thinking he's finna think i'm not lifted dirty left [Music] left right leg right leg right leg he like so i'm like dude so now you see him do stuff in the gym you work it out and his fluid like he dribble that thing he can whip that thing over but the right with the left right all right dude shoot jump shot left-handed he going in my hand like but i'm like dude do you you don't know how special this could be you put the time in at work at this man and that's what we had now like we using what he what he has because that's an advantage you shooting that thing right handed and you hard left like there's no question about he's going left there's no like how you go out there yeah have you hung the nba jersey up in the crib yet not yet i'm waiting to build my house in dallas man or wherever we're gonna build it not yet we got him yeah hanging on got that powder blue joint man but you never think that man your family will put out two nba stars not even thinking we have one chance like that's not the only one is is two y'all in the league just to see your name on the back of that jersey and see your youngest boy i mean your oldest boy playing that in this game man this i'll be i'll be excited and i'm i'll be treating everybody every nba kid like it's my key i'll be so excited you know how hard it is yeah i'd be so excited to see them especially after you actually had a daddy or somebody who then went somewhere little boy to go back through there so just the thought process that that comes with all of it right if he's hooping and you think he has a chance why isn't there more guys who had sons in the league like why isn't there more like why why why why i don't know because you can name them there's more now lineage now but then it has been before and i'm saying like and you can name it one that was before and you wonder like why why like what he dudes got sons like why they ain't there i heard they who why ain't that why they didn't make it why they didn't make it why didn't make it and the only thing that i could gather is it's the obvious what i'm saying it's how they growing up it's the things that you implement in them yeah and the things that you allow are not allowing and if you if you've got time enough though if you've got time to get that that is definitely key but i think more than the time because it's the honest conversations it's being honest with them and and giving them that they're real what you had i'm saying and for me it was it was it was just that for kj like it was be truthful with it be honest with you riding be as big be i'm his biggest cheerleader i'm his biggest critic you know what i'm saying i praise him praising praise and praise and praising and now here it comes the god shot fire and he takes it because you understand where it's coming from it comes from a love for and it's that and telling him that what i just stated like there's guys that had sons before you that didn't make it dog for these reasons a lot of them you grew up in the valley [Music] you grew up on a private school you ain't never missed a meal your lights ain't never been off in your house you ain't never had a fist fight your shoes ain't never been too small you ain't never had holes in your sock i'm saying it's all these things i'm telling him and he's looking at me like these are things that you have to endure to get to that point i'm like yeah yeah you got it good and easy like this hey i'm the first man i'm the first millionaire you don't have a pool like how you don't have a pool all right it's like like so when i tell my kids now that my youngest like like i didn't go up around my dad they like you you don't know your dad right like no they like wow like that's foreign to them yeah so just being honest with the man and and and i tell kj all of the gifts that you have athletically with that knowledge your best attribute is you listened mm-hmm like you listened of course i don't know it all bro but i know what hard work looked like and i know what it'd take to get there i don't know much about life and i ain't never had a whole lot but i know what to take the hard work and i know what it takes to get that rest of your journey he can't do nothing but listen you went from not even being the top player to the number one draft pick no you can't all-star like he could have easily you could easily tuned it out how was your experience in china because like it wasn't you know during that lockout it was a handful of guys his life the fact that went over the time how was that experience bro right like i was dealing with all them injuries in denver and all that that time in denver coming off that and hearing we don't know when they gonna hoop again and all that man i'm going to go who they want to offer me what three million chains tax free but i'm gonna go get that one d way first thing smoking so it was an experience it was cool like i was i was there a short amount of time though i was only up for three months bruh i remember you got up out of there because i think wilson had to stay alone they all had to stay like man listen shout out to andy miller bro like andy will land they restructured that contract and did they thing and manipulated and flipped some things amazing during the chinese new year some things you know i was man i was back home by christmas we played against josh powell i played against jp i thought man i'm i'd admire i'm see at the airport you're like what i'm i'm out of here i was going to leave the game before i played against him they offered me 100 000 to play in one more game oh you gotta get that i give you services listen bags by the door so so one of the things that i heard from like wilson and people he was like he was like the food was crazy because i'm like man i love trying to be like they ain't like the chinese food we used to here you a real it's not a real octopus the whole thing the whole head on it and everything the shrimp put the head on and everything so the thing for me and i'm this is me coming from the lifestyle that we're accustomed to as bad [Laughter] i wasn't going the world without it so i so before i went i had a chef in place i had a chauffeur and translator my sister that was working for me at the time the team paid him i didn't have to come out of pocket i want him to be there so they paid him for me so there was an italian restaurant in the city that i was in we took the head chef he wanted the moonlight breakfast lunch and we was going the road he cooked my food and put it on dries my translator we got to the hotels we're staying at here go tell the front desk where we need to talk to in mandarin i need you to warm this food up however they need to do it and and i just i i i was good oh you so look he lived the presidential time my wife like she put you know the city i was in there's muslims and all that so they don't sell pork i had oh she put two suitcases together full of stuff that i like little hormel bacon in the box microwave that thing on the paper put some of that shipped all that out listen i was good listen so the house i stayed in was most guys stay in the dorms they stayed in the hotel the dorm so the house i stayed in was the owner's old house usually there's like a conference and all that but it's big oh man he was out there living like the like that turned the top floor i was in into my suites and all that listen so my roommate listen dawg this is y'all love stories and facts and all that on this so we're going the road my room that i like so there's a bathroom that was outside of my room that was my bathroom at first i made a statement or something something happened where the bell i needed the bathroom i wanted i made a statement of something that it would be nice to have a bathroom in the room right we're going like a three game road trip i come back back from in the room waiting for the bathroom then swapped it out but they built the bathroom in the room man plumbing and everything i'm like yo damn listen man i could put a pair of socks in the in the hamper my uniform with watch me i can just take my socks off from just like walking by and toss the socks in the thing as i'm going to my room and come back and put some more stuff in it and the socks gone they didn't wash the one pair of socks no and that's what when you going other you play dudes living out there and i'm like yo y'all living horribly you know but it was only three months man it was it was definitely an experience a positive experience but um i wanted the hoop bruh like i didn't know lockout was going to end and none of that man i wanted to who and that's and left there had a chance to go join miami made the decision to join the clippers and yeah i'm saying when you when you start joining them other teams it was like man was it did it feel like man i'm putting myself in today [ __ ] like i get there and it's just like man all this [ __ ] going on yeah especially the clipper situation you're looking at all this talent in here and you like y'all tripping in here like [ __ ] tripping yeah y'all really like dude like nah like we could be good but on the plane i'm like man i could have went somewhere else this is something i want to ask you like uh you went through a history of knee injuries i went through a history of knee injuries and you know i'd be sentimental to the guys who had a ninja because it's like i'll be trying to explain to it's a mental drain sometime year after year they like you got your kids right on your knees that you mentally you gotta take care you gotta ice down you gotta you know what i'm saying make sure you rehab and then strengthening and all that just tell us about the perseverance like because you had an early knee injury but you played this long career and they don't know the weight room the hard work the icing down the the time and the minutes you put towards your knees to just get out there and perform and play or have this long career that you didn't have you see people like d rose and these a lot of these guys like man i be looking them guys like bro i know what you're going through man you got to be there an hour two hours early to get prepared for practice let alone a gang yeah the only [Music] people i don't know if y'all know this i had two micro facts i had one one and one on each knee right after the first one on my left knee like my rehab process i was dealing with the team and all that man and like i put my career in jeopardy like i wasn't right i was in pain struggling trying to fight through it and like challenging bruh mm-hmm like can i do this like you want to you know your will mm-hmm so i did that played 56 games the next year i played the first two games of the season and i had to get microfracture on my other on my right knee um over compensate mm-hmm played a whole year on one leg now that's why i got mine wore that other one down three on one two one so doing that and doing all this time i'm dealing with tendinitis chronic tendinitis in my left knee on top of the mic the botched micro fracture surgery i got chronic tendonitis in my left knee now i gotta go get surge on my right knee now he's like draining right all of it so all-star weekend in vegas that year i'm out i gotta go get my left knee cleaned out right after all-star work so now i'm i'm i'm rehabbing both next season i'm feel like i'm okay now i'm on minute restriction mm-hmm okay play more than 20. yeah no i'm more i'm ready no you're not yeah 20 minutes so now that that process there was the most challenging thing man i'm working i'm at it and you tell me i can't play yeah that's why i used to feel like that's the most disrespectful thing out of the whole [ __ ] it's like man you know know mentally and physically what i didn't went to to even get to this point to get on this court and put my jersey on didn't i get out here and you just like yeah i don't want to play you i thought i was going to play you this game i don't want to play this game i'm going to let you just sit i'm just going to let you dress up or you're on limited minutes so i'm only going you're going to play me 16 man no i don't play with the [ __ ] six get me about here so and then you d then then you have a head coach that don't know how to manage the minutes so now you're playing all your minutes basically in the first half you're like what about this half yeah so now it's like so steve has a lot of strength conditioning guys everybody's seen a little muscle yeah i remember like dylan he saved my career and i felt that steve has crazy i felt that saved my career because he cared mm-hmm like he gave a [ __ ] and the rest of the guys did not all the medical staff they could care less mm-hmm feeding the anti-inflammatories go try to play get in there shot go try to play do this go try to play but steve took the time to learn about the injuries learned about the rehab i needed to do learn about this and he implemented it and he didn't let me deviate from it like can you have to be on his mental restraints i'm like no they can't go talk to k like so i dealt with him and it was him and him and him he dealing with my doctors outside out of the facility and all that and so the two micro fracture surgeries getting the knee scoped and then having the chronic tendonitis having to get that repaired like i had to get my patella completely put back together and okay i did that so i could do this yeah but it was draining like mentally man and sitting at home guys playing you around you don't want to go to the facility because it's it's that it's eating at you like you want to be out there [ __ ] looking at you man you making this amount of money and you ain't even playing man yeah this dog it's it's a lot and they don't know that people don't get it people don't get it though no that's why when i see d rose and what he was going through and his stuff it was like man bro i fear you brother they don't even know it's time for you to get back on and have any type of success i felt why he cried when he had that 50 points against minnesota like yeah i don't know how that works his words went through i didn't bust in my ass to get here man to even get the opportunity to do this again bro they don't understand that people understand that man they think he's just like nah bro he's an emotional dude boy he went through mental rollercoaster to get back to where he's at out of all the teams you play for and teammates you can have if you can put four other players that you want to play with to make your ultimate starting five of the teammates you had who would beat them forward the player but jesus definitely j kid i know i don't shake it isn't that j kid [ __ ] [ __ ] it you know mellow you j kid melo my five i'm gonna go with tyson chandler man big tyson new york um [Music] i'm gonna go with johnson johnson oh chauncey j kid melo tyson and you um sound over fire i like that i like that fire i like the bracket on some of these people's five fives they see what fives are you win now i gotta do a little bracket i like these fives yeah yeah guys that five killer ones yeah we can compete there's had like i love listen i don't get wrong i love something i love chuck to death i love marcus camby i love but i forgot you played camp yeah yeah yeah yeah the league and blocks and rebounds and all that movies but was i like what tyson brought to the i like tyson's intensity man yeah i like i like like what was with the [ __ ] it was my first time in my career that i was somewhere where somebody behind you got you no i didn't even have to be the voice i didn't have to be the we [ __ ] and that's what we're going to do guys right i've always been that and when i got there he was doing it i was like man this is high it's cool tell them tyson like yeah but it was like no it wasn't that like that was welcoming man like i love like i like what you brought to the table in that regard yo that's a wrap we appreciate the bad ass yellow boy pulling up on us live on location number one 2000 draft class mate long time coming we live on location kmart in the building you know it bad ass yellow boy [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Players' Tribune

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Id: j1LcRP8s5ek

Length: 113min 18sec (6798 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2022