- Yo. Yo, yo. We live on location. We out here in La la Land y'all. We had to come out here to
Hollywood to get none other than the big ticket dog. We got one of the biggest baddest. One of the trendsetters
coming outta high school, - [Darius] Champion Hall of Famer. - Olympian, Champion Hall of Famer, jerseys up in arenas, multiple,
you know what I'm saying? Like look, we had to come out here. The man pulled up on us, KG, Big ticket 21 5. We in the building. On set. On set. - [Kevin Garnett] Yes sir. Yes sir. - [Richardson] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know about it. We got another one
straight outta high school. We appreciate you, bro.
- [Miles] No doubt. - First question we ask everybody, when you first got to the league, who was the first person to bust your ass? - [Richardson] Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - The first person to
welcome me to the league, as I call it, to bust my ass was Big dog. - Ooh, Glen Robinson.
- Ooh, Big Dog. - That high art. Yeah, the high art. - He's straight off,
coming off, getting 89. I don't know if y'all remember
Big Dog asked for a hundred. - [Richardson] Yeah.
- [Miles] Yeah. - Before he came.
- Yeah. Told him and I'm worth it.
- And I'm worth it. And all the old heads got
crazy, Scottie, Mike, everybody. Made everybody go on the uproar, so. - Dang, they rookied you here
for that. They penalized him. - [Garnett] Right.
That's what I'm saying. - He deserved it.
- But, he was killed. A lot of people didn't know
that Big Dog played full and five in high school, but had really, two and three skills. Like, he should have been a,
he should have been a three. But he slashed. I didn't have any problems
with no lid or none of that conversation when it came
to trash talk and all that. So, I was used to whatever. I had just seen him in IIT that summer. So, I watched him. You know we get to the league and, - Chicago program.
- [Garnett] Yeah, yeah. My bad, Chicago program called IIT. It's like the it of the it. If you got some game, you bring your ass in there
and you either gonna get booed or they gonna cheer for you. There ain't no middle ground, and there's straight killers in there. - At all. - Everybody with they guys, everybody in here. It's GD, Souls, Bees, Lords,
it's everything in there. - Whole lot hold a lot. - Aint no running from nothing. You understand?
- Yeah. - So, you know, you gotta go down there. If you in the city and you live down here, you in the city, you gotta come down here. So, I had just seen him, you know? We get into, you know, you know, Pre-season. We gotta meet in one of
these little towns like, I think it was either
Iowa or something in like, Billings, Montana or something. - It's always a grand town.
- [Garnett] Midwest. - He aint gotta give him some plugs. - And he was like, "Yeah,
welcome young fella." Man. Man, he was just talking that shit. And you know, I had never, I had never chased a nigga off screen. - Mhm.
- Yeah. - So, I played the three. So, I'm coming off screens getting hit, and he ain't putting it down. Boom. He going up, two
dribble pull ups, one dr-- Like all shit we ain't used to, right? And after it was over, I had like a little 10, and
to me that was a big deal. - Right.
- You know? - So, I was, you know what I'm saying? He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. This gonna be every night. This gonna be every time you see me. - Oh, he was talking like that? - And dog ain't no, you know? But he was on some like, "Yeah. Yeah, young fella, like this every time I see
you." And I said, I'm with it. I'm cool. All right, cool. You got this one. Speed up. We get to like maybe two months in it. You know, I got like 20
something games under me now. - [Miles] Yeah. - Yeah. I was knowing
how to get through that. I was getting my hand, and then slowly but surely,
you can see me kinda, like, not walk him down. But you'll see like I start
to understand his game. - Mhm.
- [Richardson] Mhm. - versus not knowing anything. But yeah, shout out to Big Dog, man. Cause you know, without that man, he pushed me to be better. - Yeah. We sat down with him. He one of them ones. One of my favorite. All time. - And then, you know what too, man? He don't get enough credit. They always, you know, no knock on Grant Hill or
no knock on Jamal Mashburn or none of them guys,
cause they was real too. But Big Dog is in that
same conversation with me, you know what I'm saying? He was one of them
threes who was versatile, you can slide him the four. Back when they wasn't even playing fours, you know, you had to be four. You had to be the Barkley, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, all these big strong - [Richardson] Strong. - Strong! - Gary Trent, boy. - Gary Trent ass niggas,
you know what I'm saying? Reggie Slater,
- Danny Fortson. - Danny Fortson. Yeah, these fours, these ain't fives. These fours.
- Big Maze. - Yeah. So, you know, all those guys, man. Big Dog could go down there
and actually, you know, hold his own, play them guys on defense and
then turn around and actually, you know what I'm saying, score the ball, so. - Yeah. We said that when we
had him on here though, man. Cause you remember after that when he did, when he held his hostage like that. Right after that, I want to say, did Zeke
Webb come in and do it? Then they changed, that's when they-- The rookie scale basically
started because of Big Dog. - Man, they threw the
rookie scale right in '95. I came in the league, he came in in '94. The next year, we had to play three years before you had a conversation.
- Yeah. - And then if you was really nice, they start talking to you
after the second year. - Yeah.
- And that's how it went. Yo, straight up. - That's crazy. - But yeah, shout out the Big Dog, man. - Yeah, shout out to Big Dog. - One of the best to do it, man. - South Carolina. Tell us about South Carolina, coming up in South Carolina. - South Cat, man, like, South Cat at the time, man. First off, I'm from
Greenville, South Carolina. - [Miles] Greenville. - And probably about like 11, 12, I moved from the hood to like the suburbs, which is called, Mauldin. One of the suburbs of Greenville, South Carolina is called, Mauldin. M-A-U-L-D-I-N. And it's like a little
country town, hick nothing, nothing's near. A couple high schools. And it's really, it's really like a bunch of
farmland, flat and everything. So, moving from like a
crackin' ass neighborhood, like that was in Greenville,
we called it two five. It's the district. And it's crazy, football, you playing football, you slap boxing. - Right. - You know, uphill Monte
circle, jump out boys, they, you know what I'm saying? Oh, this going. So you, - [Richardson] You in that area. - Right. So, I go here to where they wearing Polos, and you know they mom
and dads got good jobs. BMWs, niggas washing your cars. - You can leave your door unlocked. - Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You get to cut the grass, shit like this. So, I'm like, oh okay. Niggas got yards. So, it's a different way. My mom went from working in
the factory to doing hair. And it gave us a little better living to where we came down
here, or so I thought. We came down here and lived in a little suburb called Mauldin. That's where I first
learned to play basketball. Cause the guys down here,
they didn't play football. - [Miles] Yeah. They played basketball. But they was pretty boys. They wore here figures and polo. That's the first time I
seen Air Max and shit. - [Miles] Right, right. - And I'm like, Damn.
- Yeah. - Y'all dressed like white kids down here, you know what I'm saying? And then, you know, slowly but surely, I
was getting my ass beat when I first came to the
neighborhood in basketball. And then niggas stopped
picking me cause I was so bad. - Was you already tall at this point? - Nah, I was-- Everybody's
the same size, you know, everybody looking at
everybody, about sixth grade, you know what I'm saying? - Who put it in you, though? Like, who?
- I ain't gon' front man. I had this old school
nigga named West, man. Shout out to West, man. He used to always come out in the morning, and smoke a cigarette.
- [Miles] Yeah. - And then, you know, I had
to walk to the bus stop. So, on the way to the bus stop man, one thing I had problems with, sometime in the-- When I first started playing is that when the ball came up I wasn't
strong enough to hold it and I, you know, you're tryna dribble it. - Yeah. - I couldn't dribble. So, the first thing I wanted to do, - Sticks and bones.
- I just, Use sticks and bones. - Man, and this big white
kid lived across the street. He had the nice goal. So, we used to always play on his goal. But, I couldn't dribble. So, the first thing I wanted to do, I wanted to have some handle. So every morning, five o'clock, I'd get up and I would just, I had this-- We lived in this long
street called, Basswood. And I would dribble from
the top of that motherfucker to the bottom, y'all. And I would wake up everybody. It's five o'clock in the morning,
those mofo's gotta get up, come home for it, - Dun, dun. Garnett, go home. Quit dribbling that goddamn ball. I'm getting all that. I'm like, fuck all that. So, I come over here, I'll pick it up, pass they house and then
you know, go back at it. But this right here messing up, became, And then West be out there, "Pick your head up." And Derrick Coleman,
one his favorite player. You know how the old school niggas. - Yeah.
- "Pick your head up. Coleman, go see the floor. You can't see the flow
with your head there." Pick your head--" He would always say some
shit like that every morning. - That's sick. - So, that shit. Man, listen about two weeks I
had that bitch on the string. As soon as we went over
to Billy House to play, I pull it out and he was like, "Oh, shit! He could dribble!" And that's what drove me. That's what drove me. Seeing other people, other kids in the neighborhood
being able to shoot and do other things. And then slowly but surely,
I started getting better. But at the same time, I'm growing. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - I go home one day I lay in the bed. - You know my feet like right here. - I get out the bed, go do something. Two days later I come
back, my feet right here. Come back here, man, my legs right here. I look and it look like the world, it looked like the world, like the world was shrinking. Like, I'm big and small, what the fuck? I look up and I hit my
head and I was like, look through the mirror
and I couldn't even see my, I couldn't see my neck.
I was like what the fuck. Yeah, my mom was like, "Yeah you growing, boy. Goddamn, I gotta get some
new school clothes for you." Yeah it was, yeah, yeah. But, South Carolina was
a great place to grow up. It was safe. We didn't have public transportation, so it wasn't like buses and cabs. So, the reason why a lot of country boys are in better shape than city boys. I like to say this,
cause we walk everywhere. - Hmm.
- You know what I'm saying? You gotta get from here to there. You either catch a ride or
you had to walk over there. So, you in super shape
to be runnin', jumpin'. And then the parks was
just live, you know, I don't know what y'all park was like but. - Lit. - It was the only thing in
there that was cracking. So, you know, at our little
park called, Springfield, we used to go up there and
that's where I got better. Playing older players, college
players coming down there. Other cats from other subdivisions
coming down there playing and that's where we used to get it on. So yeah, Springfield, I like
to to say, it raised me. - What grade was it when it clicked? Like yeah, this is it for me. - Eighth grade. - I love, I love this. - Eighth grade. Shout to my dog, Buddy. He back in Minne, doing
his thing and shit. He used to always, that's when Sports
Center had just came out, and we used to always
record Sports Center. Watch the Michael Jordan - Straight up. - That's how you know it's old school. Y'all don't know nothing about that. These young boys, we was recording things. - Go to Sports center. Go to school, come home and
then watch Sports Center. Watch the highlights of Sports Center, and then go outside and mimic it. - And mimic it.
- That's right. That's right. - Straight up. - We used to call, we used to-- In my hood, we used to call, Hey, I'm Jordan today. I'm Dominique today. I'm-- Like, we calling out players. - [Garnett] Yeah.
- I'm him today. You can't even--
- [Garnett] Right. - You used him yesterday. - I'm Bobby Barkley today
then, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah, straight up.
- We did the wrestling. So, I dunno if y'all wrestle. I don't know if y'all wrestle, but. - Yeah! - I grew up a huge wrestling fan. - Me too. - Dusty Rose,
- Come on. - Rick Flair, all this shit.
- Come on. - All this is going on.
Right, right, right. Hood shit. - On the real.
- Wrestling who. You know what it is.
- All them actress, you know what I'm sayin? - Straight up.
- Uh uh, two plexes. - Josh would make the belts
outta cardboard and shit. - The cardboard joints. - Yeah. - Writing on them with markers. - You hear me now? You hear me now? But eighth grade, man. Eighth grade, I was like, I was like, yeah, I'm doing this. I'm playing. And it was more off of trying to be better than what was around me,
you know what I'm saying? - Yeah. You were saying people
that was better than you. - Well, I was seeing people
that I actually looked up to who could play like, you know. - Who's that one dude that
don't nobody know who he was. He ain't go there. But that was just your guy. and that was the guy you was
trying to be better than. And everybody in the
hood know he was good. He might not have played in
high school and all this stuff. He just might been the hood star. Who was it? - Reggie Goldsmith. Shout to my dog, Gold, man. Gold was like, Gold. Oh okay, I'ma paint Gold. Gold was like the older cat of everybody. - [Miles] Yeah. - When you think of Gold, he was like Mitch on paid in foot. - [Richardson] Right.
- [Miles] Yeah. - What you mean I'm broke baby. He had the cool ass, He had the cool ass, you
know what I'm saying? Kept all the girls, he
drove the Gold Zeke. - [Miles] Yeah. - He had the T-tops out of
it and he had the music, you know what I'm saying? And this one, it was popping, you know what I'm saying?
- [Miles] Yeah. - So, everybody be, "Oh man, Gold pop up." Everybody runnin' to him. He get out. And Gold was the only head at our park who would talk trash
to all the other niggas that came down to our park. "Nah, nah fuck outta here, nigga. Nah, don't talk to him like that." And he was nice with his hands. So, he had a lot of respect with that in the street. So you know, he wasn't
violent or none of that. But, he stood up for us. So, he was like our OG. So, when Greenville or
Simpsonville or some of the other little, you know, rivals
would come down and play. They come down there with like 10 deep. Three cars, you know what I'm saying? Pop out. Have they team, went and split up. I don't know how y'all do it, but when Nick catch Rods,
which means he's next, he already got his team. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - You know, sometime you pick
from the losers. Nah, nah. So, all that start happening. So, Gold was the one that
used to always, you know, stand up for us and give us that. And I would always watch how he just, how he just finessed everybody. How he was cool with these niggas, kept it street with these niggas, kept it cool with these girls, and just kept it all cool. You know what I'm saying?
- All together. - Man, all in all, busting everybody ass. Had game, had handle. - [Miles] He had one of the best games. - Man had three corner, and he talked that shit.
You got shoes on, don't you? Bring your ass out here? Yeah. And, niggas be, "Ooh." You know when the park
go, Ooh that's gold. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So, every day Gold and
Barron Franks was like my, my ceiling guy. - Those two. Yeah. - Yeah. Cause Barron Franks was this big ass. And we called him Bat,
cause he looked like a bat. And he was a bully ass nigga.
- [Miles] Yeah. He was just a bully,
hitting you in the head. He loved Charles Barkley. He loved Coleman.
- Yeah. Always got them type of guys. - He was just aggressive. Throw you in the gate, bully you, talk shit to you.
- He the one gets you tough. He the one gets you tough.
- He the one that was pushing me, but, Bat was, you know, your stereotypical big man too, you know. - Yeah. He was methodical back to the
basket and I started playing with it and you know, Kenny Anderson was
another favorite of mine. So, I used to watch all of Kenny. Kenny Anderson's right
down in Georgia Tech. So, I used to watch all that. And I used to, you know, I just had a handle
and I noticed that big niggas couldn't handle that handle like that. - [Miles] Mhm. - And you know, I could
say my range of time was probably like 10 to 12 feet. So, if I got in a post in 91 or, you know, you know, back to the bass, I would face or give you something
and I could always go off backboard cause I had a little touch. And I just start seeing that
being a difference in Bigs. And I was like, man. - Did you always shoot it
that high from way back early? - Well, I jumped. I used to have a little jumping ability, and then I used to shoot
it on the way down. But, if you watched me in high school, I always cocked the back,
- [Richardson] Right. - like that, just because I
ain't have the strength to, - Yeah. - In front, country niggas long. - Yeah. - I used to, you know,
it took me a minute. I didn't start fading until
I got to the goal, man. And, I had extras there who
would always tell me to extend and shit like that. But then early days, you know, them country niggas
jump high and they long too. So, you had to be creative back then. But them were some of the best days, man. Learning the game, growing up in the game. You know, having fears in the game, having doubts in the game and
then working on that shit. - [Miles] Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - You came up in the kind of
circuit that we came up here in how it used to be back in the day when you used to go to them camps. - Hell yeah. - And when you go to them camps, you see them dogs from
every state all around. Like who were some of them
dogs and some of them guys you was seeing like, yeah I gotta, I gotta bring my, every time I see them cause he won. - Man, I don't know if
y'all remember these guys. But, guys like Albert White. Albert White was from Michigan. - [Richardson] Oh, for real? - Y'all know Albert White Albert? - Hell yeah.
- I'ma tell you a story. Let me, look. Let me tell you how they,
- Small world, eh? - Let me tell you how they cheated, right? So, the first time I ever seen you, - Who cheated? - Just listen.
- Okay. - First time I ever seen him, right? This is like, I want to
say this summer like maybe, '93, '92, maybe. '93. We at UIC. I'm like, I'm a young boy, I'm like eighth grade. You know I'm playing with AU Butler, but you know, this is like
one of the tournaments where they got all of the
different age groups there. I wanna say it was Wolf
but it may not have been. But, it might have been Wolf. I can't remember. It was somebody. He talking crap. He running like-- They like-- We sitting over here at the
older people games, right? You know they got uh... Mikey Robinson, remember? He was like our goat for the Warriors. - Mhm.
- Mikey Robinson went McDonald's All-American guard from Peoria. - Yep. - So, I'm sitting over there,
we all meet, Cediel, Dee, we watching the older
guys that standing third buddy keep talking. He like, that's all right. Wait. Wait till that 757. He aint
talking about the plane, he talking about, this when they come in. It is him, Albert White, Tractor Trailer.
- Trailer. - They come in with like
five All-Americans, bro. - Michigan team. We're in Ohio, we're in Ohio.
- They coming. They coming to come play.
- Yup. - I said, man what? I'm like, so then, when
they finally show up it's like they got a whole, like they got half the McDonald's team. Everybody like the whole thing, like this one I'm first like
really finding out about rankings and who to top. I'm like, Yo, they coming with all of this shit? Like, and then when you see the game, bruh, that's why I said
y'all was cheating. Y'all was fuckin' cheating. I'm a white, six eight wing man. Got that boom in their face. - Strong as hell. He like Q. Probably about,
- Bigger than me. - But, he like wide.
- And 6'8". - Like, square.
- Yeah. - Gangster nigga, played the wing. - He went through it, right? - Yeah.
- Yeah, mhm. - Yeah, yeah. I lost to him. Him and Derrick Hood, man. - You remember D Hood?
- Bro, they had, - Yeah, D Hood.
- Man, D Hood. - Tractor Trailer too, though.
- Man, Tractor. - Like. - That's what I'm saying like, when I first got into camps, it was a bunch of niggas that probably, you wouldn't even know
that was even ranked, that were just all out, just like playing like Ruben
Patterson and niggas like that. - Yeah. - Just all out, right?
- Yeah. - I played up against a
bunch of post guys like that. Simmy and Sammy, these two seven foot twins
down in Myrtle Beach that was beating everybody shot up
and whatever, whatever. And, I came up in that and just, I was always trying to be
different from the post. Cause you know everybody
tell you know this. Man, you gotta put some
weight on you, big fella. You ain't big enough for
me in that, big fella. - I hated that. And that's what made me go
so hard, cause I hated that. - I don't really, I mean, I don't really need no weight. - I'm out here playing. Yeah.
- What you mean I ain't strong like nah, you ain't
strong enough to do that. I'm dealing with two-- - I used feel like I'm the
toughest outta everybody. Y'all talking about I ain't the toughest. - That used to drive me, man.
- Yeah. Straight up.
- You know what I'm saying? So, you know. Yeah, those those guys I-- But at the same time, when you play guys like that,
two things gonna happen. Those guys gonna either run
you the fuck out the gym, or they gonna make you better.
- [Miles] Yeah? - If you competitive, it's going to really drive you crazy. - If you ain't going. - [Garnett] That's what I'm saying, - If you ain't going, it's on. - You can't get back on
this court. Ain't no going. I gotta go.
- [Miles] Yeah. - I gotta scratch every time. It is what it is. But, playing in tournaments like that, and playing in camps like that, made me stronger to when I
went to go to A, B, C, D, and then went to Nike and some
of these more polished camps. - [Miles] Mhm.
- It was a little more simple. The talent was a lot better. - Yeah. - But man, from that rough
and tough and that grit shit, nah, nah, you gotta get those
from those little smart camps. - [Miles] Yeah. - [Richardson] When
did you decide to like, this was a possibility
for you to leave Mauldin, and to go to Chicago and play? Like, when did you first
see or meet like Ronnie and all of that? When was that even a possibility for you? - Tenth grade I went to
Indianapolis for the Nike Camp. - [Miles] Nike Camp.
- Yeah. And that was my first time meeting Fields and they put us on the same team. And then we had practice like, you know how you get the Nike and then you gotta put your stuff up. Then we got a meeting and all that shit. And then, they introduce
you to your coach. Yeah. My coaches were Wolf, William
Nelson and Ron Eskridge, which is Farragut's coach.
- Mhm. - But the guy that's running
the whole Nike is from Chicago. So, they stacked the team. So, I had Antawn Jamison, it was Antawn Jamison,
myself, Ronnie Fields, and I don't even remember who else. - [Richardson] What? But, at the camp it was like, I don't know if y'all
remember these niggas. But, Curtis Staples, Tyreke
Evans, Allen Iverson. - [Miles] Yeah. - Fuckin' Zendon Hamilton,
- Z Dot. - [Garnett] Y'all remember them? - Shout out to Z Dot. That's our guy, you know, he
played with us on the Clippers. - Man, Zendon was a bad
motherfucker in high school, boy. Z Dot. - Mark Blount, all these tall
ass, shot blocking ass niggas. Like, I'm going blank. But, all these niggas was at the camp. Raef LaFrentz, all these cats. Andre Patterson from Dallas. Just, Roger Gerald Ward, Toby Bailey, - [Miles] Toby Bailey. - Fuckin' Rickey Henderson. Like, all these cats was out there, right? So, I get in there and you
know, we had to practice and I think the first drill, somebody missed it and
Fields caught a tip, and it fucked everybody up. I had never, I had never seen, - That brotha used to levitate. - I had never seen somebody do that. And I was like, oh shit. And then you know, you get room, you know you got a room
with somebody or whatever, and we was roommates. And then after that man, we were just there seven
days just you know, whatever, whatever. And then AI got in. Actually, AI got in trouble,
and had to leave early. And that's when the stuff
happened with him in Virginia. And then it made, it was so crazy and
ironic that we all leaving on this early bus in the morning. And me and AI in the back just chopping. He was talking about what
he was about to go back to and what he was wanting
to do and all this. And then all of a sudden, when
he went back it all unfolded. So I, you know, I kind of had first dibs at
what he was about to go through. And it was so crazy
that the very next year, I get into some trouble in school. I got into a hard fight. And some kid got fucked up. And then they took us a bunch, kicked us outta school,
went to jail, all that shit. And then my mom was like, if you gonna have a
chance at NBA basketball, you gotta get the fuck off down here. Recruiting had just started. It was getting weird. Niggas tryna to give you bread, niggas just showing up.
- [Richardson] Right. - [Miles] Right. - Brotha was parked outside. It was crazy. - Was that camp where
you solidified yourself as like, "Yeah, I'm the one."
That's what put me on the map. Bob Gibbons after that was
like, yeah the best big man. Woo woo, Ron Mercer.
- [Miles] Yeah. - I didn't even know Ron Mercer. You know what I'm saying?
- [Miles] Yeah. - I seen Ron Mercer. Ron Mercer had some problems
with me or something from what was in the publication and shit. - [Miles] Yeah. - That's when I started reading like, I don't know if you saw--
- Yeah, we grew up. We had street Smith.
- Smith. - Smith have some
motherfucker's really war. - Sure did.
- Sure did. - Like, real shit. I don't know bout y'all,
but I took that shit little. - We all took that little.
- What? - It was like everybody, little people, like any one of these--
- Man. - If somebody gave you one of these, this shit was the only thing. You was like, what?
- I was looking for him. Every time there was--
- I was like, man, who is Shareef Abdur-Rahim? Who is this?
- Yeah. - Who is Robert Traylor? Who is all these niggas on it? And Tim Thomas and, I was just
looking at all these names that was in front of me
and I was like, damn. And then all of a sudden
Scholastic Sports came out and start showing like little
bits and pieces of guys where they was. So, I would see a nigga on film like, Oh shit. Damn. Tim Thomas standing
lookin' like he need me, like a little brother or somethin'. Goddamn. - [Miles] A go-getter.
- Damn, right. A super go-getter outta Patterson, you know what I'm saying? And, Andre Patterson down in Dallas. I was like, damn. So, it gave me kind of a window to see what the competition was. - Yeah.
- But then I wanted to see what I looked like against him. - You wanted test up against him? - Absolutely. I wanted to see it. - Whether there was a guard or not, - I didn't care.
- you wanted to test up, play against him. - I didn't care. But, me and Ronnie
became, not good friends, but really best friends after that camp. And that's what put me on the map. - [Miles] Yeah. - That camp, that Nike
Camp in Indianapolis. - You know, Chicago is different. - [Garnett] Yep, very different. - That Red West, like you always yell out. That's different.
- [Richardson] Yeah. - That's not no up.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's not the regular conference that you see in high school. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk about that Red West. - Going from where you played
at and how the atmosphere was to like, you see how this
atmosphere was down here. How was it, how was that for you, that adjustment? - Well South Carolina, cause now when you start to get good, now everybody at the park,
now everybody at your games. And then by the way, my mom didn't even know
I was playing ball. - Yeah. - Know what I'm saying? I had slept, you know what I'm saying? I did this for like two, three years. Had to kept it from her. And then yeah, it all hit the fan. But coming to Chicago, well, lemme just back up a little bit. In South Cat, you don't get
a name unless you do this. - Yeah. - You gotta play everywhere. - Yeah. - You gotta play at the YMCA on Saturdays. You gotta leave there,
go over here and play. You gotta go over to North
Greenville over here, in Travis rest they playing. - Yeah. So, I was known for that. - Man, they make your
territory everywhere. - Man, I'm over here on
the bike every morning. - Everywhere. - I'm everywhere.
- I feel you. That's how I was.
- Backpack, I'm everywhere, though. So, I'm getting respect from that. Like, oh okay. Yeah that's
the nigga from Mauldin. He woo woo. So, that changes to, Nah that's big fella. Big fella, he'll slap your shit. He'll dunk on your-- And you'll start getting that, right? I get in trouble, I go to the go. And the first thing we land is you gotta, first off, I'm getting, I gotta get a download
a Chicago one-on-one on how to survive. And that's when it hit me like,
boy, you'll be in the store. And a nigga come in
here and he'll clean you just cause you in the way. You gotta know A, B and C. You gotta know if his hat left or right. If it's pant stayin' like this, you gotta know over here's
this, over here's that. This means this, this means woo woo look, this where you live. - You don't walk down that street. - Look, this is K-Town. Down here's GD, down here's Lords. Look on this block, you woo woo woo. And you gotta know it, like on time. - Yeah. I'm like, damn, what the-- I just got here. My bag
ain't even on the ground yet. I just got here.
- Head on a swivel. - Man, nah. Nigga, this what it is
cause here you can die. And I was like, damn. And that's how Wolf said it. It wasn't no in between or nothing. And that was on the ride. You know what I'm saying? So, we get somewhere, But my mom hear this. My mom ain't even tripping. She's like, yeah. Yeah you know what? Yeah. Mhm. Yep, he need-- Mm. Yep, yep. He need that. Yep. Mhm. So, she on some like, on mom y'all, you know, mom shit.
- Mhm. - She go back in the airport and leave. So, I'm up here. So, you know, you in it.
And the first thing we do, we did a video for some niggas
who was shooting a video. And the video was called Booty Bounds. And they wanted some niggas
in the back of the background to hoop. So look, you can look this up girl, let me get y'all booty bound. - It sound like some BET
late night song, bro. - It was definitely, it was definitely some
BET late night shit. Shout out to Al and the white boy, everybody on the west
side of California, right. So, we get back there,
you know what I'm saying? What was dope is they
took us up to Madison, bought us a little outfit and shit. So, you know I had a
little Madison canal on, you see me. I'm like, oh this is, All right. Cool. - Little Cali feelin' or somethin'. - Right.
So, we get in here, Ronnie like, Yeah this
right here California, this where the travelers at. Oh, this is over here. You know, Ronnie, big
deep ass, grown man voice. - Yeah. - Nigga, we kids. He got quiet. Big deep voice, Oh this over here. - Nah, like a grown man.
- Yeah. Right, right. So, we get to playing, and the niggas we playing
against, start like to, I don't wanna say for real, but you know, they wanna do whatever. So, it turned into a real game
like some two on two shit. - Behind the video. - So, you know, I don't even know what to, I don't even know what to call it. But, I wanna say me and
Ronnie just transformed start dogging these niggas. He throwing a lot. Boom boom. And the next thing you know,
there's a crowd out here. It's about maybe, um, about 300, 400 people out here. People making noise on the gate, looking. All stunting around, niggas talking shit. Or this nigga that running
out here just woo woo woo. That's no way, we in a five-on-five. Man, I don't know if I was
just angry or I was just, I don't even know. But I threw the nigga's shot. Shit outta here. No! Peace.
- No. - Mine! Fuck outta here. I was just, and Wolf was like, Yeah,
don't let that nigga score. And then we were on the video shoot. And Wolf was like, Nah, let these niggas know. So, I was just out here just
dunking on niggas, out letting, Blowing spit, and all
type of wild shit, right? And he was like, I'm gonna take you down to
Kennedy King on the south side. We gonna play in that little, they got a little summer
league down there, we're gonna jump down there. And I played Derrick Chievous. I don't know if y'all
know Derrick Chievous. - Yeah. - They call that nigga the "Band-Aid" man. Nigga played with a toothpick
in his mouth the whole game. It was killing me, right? Yeah. Welcome to Chicago, young fella. Keep working. I walked out, man, on the south side. Them niggas, "Boo! Take your country trash back home. Nigga, you suck. Nigga, you stink. Nigga, this Chicago. Nigga, you ain't shit. Wolf was like, "Come on, it's all right. All right we--" Nah, fuck that. Nah, fuck that. Nah, fuck that. Nah, fuck that. I'm playing tomorrow. He
said nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. You see that? They won't-- Nah, fuck that. I'm playing who tomorrow? "Rashard Griffith." Oh yeah, I'm playing. I don't even know who
that is, but I'm playing. - That's big Shard, Tommy Hamilton. - This like the king of kings down here. I don't even know nothing. The big fella y'all big
and everything, right? Yeah, I didn't give no fucks. I came and I gave that nigga that work. Man, that nigga stood up, gave me a standing O, and that's how I got
introduced to Chicago. But I was with it from day one. I was like, Oh yeah, this. Yeah, this is different from
South Cat but yeah the ball, it's still the same shit. You know what I'm saying? - Tell me when, I don't have to ask if, tell me when was the first
time that like you was playing and like you definitely descramble. Like, when was the
first time you saw like, Oh wait, this motherfucker
tried to like do some shit. Like to hurt me or something like, tryna to do some dirty shit. I know it happened at some
point in the Red West. I know it happened. - Like when you play, like, I'ma tell you something, I'll tell y'all this story. I'm sitting here thinking
when you say this and I'm thinking about
how we used to practice, Wolf would never let us
practice against each other. He would bring all the
old niggas from Farragut, from like 16.
- Yeah. - You was getting fucked up then. - Man, Darren Woods, rest in peace, LZ. All the CVL niggas that went to Farragut would come up there, super
deep and scrimmage us. Scoop, like all these
niggas would come up there, and all these Ogs.
- All the history. Right.
- All the history. - Would come up there. Fouling, going, none of you cutting you. Niggas about to scrap. All this. So, when we played Marshall, we played Western House,
- [Miles] Western House. - all these little scrappy fucking teams. It was like, oh nah. - Bro, Western House,
biggest man was my height. - [Garnett] Yeah, yeah. - Center 6'5". - But he had heart, he had-- I forget his name, start with an E... Elmer or some shit like that. The light-skinned nigga. - They come in about
four 6'1" and small as-- - They gon' show as the whole game. - All of them can jump.
- All of 'em can jump. They got Little Jimmy. Little Jimmy Sanders, talkin' shit. - All of 'em can jump. They fast.
- Like Western House, man. Like--
- They rebound. - That was just grimy. Like the answer to your question man, I can't even say, I would just remember playing
people like Whitney Young or playing motherfucking Marshall
or Lincoln or something. And they just had little grimy team that them niggas gon' undercut you. They gon' trap you. They doing all this shit. We ain't doing nothing
but throw it on top. Lobbing, dunking you, swatting your shit, talking shit right back. And then we got the
essays traveling with us. We got the whole farrier
200 D when we go somewhere. - [Miles] Yeah.
- [Richardson] Definitely. - I remember y'all came
down to St. Louis and play. That was the first time I
got a chance to see you. - Voshon. - How you and Ronnie was
dunking in that joint. Y'all... y'all tore it up in there. - Listen. That's the night Wolf knew that
we had pro scouts in there. He was like, "Hey,
- [Miles] Yeah. - bring the ball up." I was like, "What?" "Bring the ball up." I was like, "Initiate?" He's like, "Yeah, I want
you to initiate the offense. I want these scouts to see you. Yeah, they gonna go crazy on that." Voshon had like three seven foot niggas. - Oh yeah, Voshon. - Then they had, Voshon
had like a six nine nigga at the point. I was like, damn. Ron like, "Man, we finna beat the shit
outta you bitch ass niggas. You niggas don't want
none this of this shit. We from Chicago, goddamn it. We West Side. Fuck y'all bitch ass niggas down here." And then Wolf looked
back on the buzzer like, "Hey man, y'all, y'all hold that shit down, man. We ain't going down East Saint. And then we ain't stopping
at no stop lights either. Keep going. No stopping, no stoplights." - Y'all couldn't stop at East Saint? - No, we-- Look. We went through East Saint
and didn't stop at no lights. That was the advice we got. Straight to the joint.
- Tell me this. How was it seeing a young,
you know, God bless the dead, my classmate, Michael Wright? He was a freshman black with y'all boys. - Yeah, Black was a, Rest in peace to Mike Wright. Man, I called him Black. - That was a good dude. - We were playing practice. Yeah one-on-ones after, cause he wanted to play one-on-ones a lot. And if you know Black,
super diesel, super strong and all lefthanded, he ain't going right. - All left. - I don't care. So what? Block it there. And then he ain't got no
jump but he gon' you know? - Yeah.
- Yeah, rebound that thing. - So man, I used to storm him every day, "You ain't good enough nigga." And then just talk crazy to him. And what I didn't know is
that he was doing this, Yeah. He would go home, be mad
and lift all the weights. - Straight up. - You know Mike from the village? - I know.
- Yeah. - Man, Black from the village. Y'all ain't even know what that
is. The village don't even, it ain't even around no more.
- Yeah. - But, the village got one
way in and it had one way out. So, when you went in there
to hoop, it was all Gds and they in there working. So, you know, you had to get permission going there and all that shit. And then you know somebody
get foul hard in here the whole building don't notice. So, yeah it w-- That's what I can't explain about Chicago, that some of the atmospheres you play in actually make you tougher.
- Yeah. - Or give you a certain
pedigree that you are able to, I learned how to finesse and
I learned how to get us outta situations by being in this situation. We the only Hold on. Make sure everybody cool.
- I say that all the time, like we have a lot of
disputes and arguments about, "Oh, well, California or LA got this." And I'll be like, okay they
get the name and they players and doing it and I'm cool. I say, "That's cool." I say, "But I'ma stay right
here with my Chicago crew cause when the hit the fan gimme TA." - Facts. - You know what I'm saying? Give me D Rose.
- Will Bynum. - Give me, you know what I'm saying? Give me Bynum. Give me Antoine. Give me-- I'm tellin' you everybody that I'ma name. Every single person been in
some of the most craziest situations that you could ever think of and they did rose out of it.
- Yup. And they who they are.
- Yup. Yup. And I know it cause I was with 'em, I done seen heard about it
or experience the same shit. - [Garnett] Facts.
- And I'ma go with that. - Facts. - Because I know when the goddamn-- Is the shit always going hit the fan. - [Garnett] Always.
- At some point. I don't care what's going on. And I'ma go with them resilient
motherfuckers that I know that is going, whether we gotta fight. - Yeah. - Whether we gotta do this or do that. Like you said figure your weight. - [Garnett] Facts.
- Man look, we gon' get there. - I call it finessin'. Like, that helped. That right there helped
me be an NBA leader. When I got to the league man
I was able to give my opinion and then be silent.
- [Richardson] Yeah. - I knew when to talk, when not to. I kept shit over here. I was always listening and
asking the OG questions. - You knew how to be around
grown folks and all that stuff. - Absolutely, man, absolutely. - So, it was a easier adjustment cause I've been hooping with grown folks, and been around them for so long that I know how to adjust with them. - And them street niggas, they different. - Yeah. - You know, they really
run this whole shit. You know when they say
something, that shit is law. - Straight up. - In that era, they really
rock with the athletes. - Yup.
- They kept you outta-- - They really took care of us. The athletes like, "Hey, hold up, man. Leave shorty alone."
- No, no. - "Man get the fuck out. Hey shorty, get your ass around here. What you been doing in
this area right now?" You know what I'm saying? So, like that was what we grew up in. - Ever since Ben Wilson man, and that situation went down with him. I think,
- They cuff. - the street guys start
cuffing guys and start like giving them direction. Because a lot of the kids too,
didn't have a lot of script. And believe it or not, a lot of these kids didn't have parents. A lot of these kids didn't have no mom. They grandma raising them.
- Yeah. - They out here and you know, they out here on the court letting it out. You know what I'm saying? But yeah man, I thank God for the go, man. The go got me ready for the league, and it got me ready for life, so. - Who gave you the, where you can express
yourself on the court? - That's what,
- Like, when was that? I'm talking about that's when it all came in intuition,
like yeah like, man, yeah. Like, holler. Cause I came from that era
where you holler when you dunk and you scream, you talk your noise. - Man. - But who gave it, where
you can just really, just express yourself between these lines? - Yeah, in South Carolina I
had a coach named Duke Fisher. He was a old white coach
who coached football, but he had a passion for basketball. He went to North Carolina. Used to always talk about Dean Smith, and always talk about North Carolina. You know, North Carolina got a system. - Ha, ha.
- Go down, Seth pick, come up. So, we come up in that. So, any hot dogging,
blocking, yelling, oh no. - They don't want no parts in that. - He in your face. You might get slapped,
you might get benched. Sit your ass down. It's like some southern shit. Like, no we don't do that shit. So, you know, if you
watch my tape in Mauldin, I would go dunk the ball, run back. You know, block the shot, run back. You know it was nothing. Wolf was like, "Hey man." You know, Wolf talking to
you like one of the guys, "Hey man, block his shit and
then let him know about it." - Straight up.
- "I ain't on that, man." Like man, "No, I ain't
ask you, motherfucker! Block the man's shit, man!" And then, I was almost like, you know, you got that little homie? And, your little homie really wanna cuss? And you like, what you wanna say? - Yeah. - "Mhm, motha fucka." - Go ahead. What else you wanna say? "Ass." "What else you wanna say?" "Goddamn." I was like that. And Wolf was like, I mean, you know, you got something you want to get out, man, let it out. Man, don't be holding that in here. He's like, "You right." So, when I would get on the court I would always be like, "Peace." When I blocked your shot,
I would always say that. Like, "Peace," like, "I gotta peace out." Like, "Peace! No! Mine! Fuck outta here! Fuck outta here! No!" So, I would be blocking
shots, grabbing it, putting it in the rim. And he gave me that freedom of expression. I'd bring the ball up on
another big and I see him. So, he started to help me
like, really express myself through the skill. Cause he saw what I would work on after at practice and all the things
I wanted to be better at. He was like, "Man you gotta
start implementing that into the game. You gotta do
that shit with some energy man." So, I would do it with that. - Yeah. "Nah you ain't going hard. Do it over." And then that
shit used to really p-- "Nah, do it over man. That's how you gonna do it?" And the more he kept doing that, it was just turning me. And Wolf knew how to actually ignite me and then he would get
the fuck out the way. You know, one night I was just super sick and didn't feel like playing, and he was like, "You think Michael Jordon gonna sit down when he's sick?" Like, he would do shit like that. - Right. You know what I'm saying? - Ain't this ain't the right time. - And I'm like, man I'm
sick as fuck right now. Wolf, I can't even stand up. "Well get some water and then
let me know if you don't wanna play then just walk out. Just let the team down. They got--" I'm like, oh really. - The innuendo. - But he knew I was gonna go anyway, cause I'm scratching,
you know what I'm saying? Every time. And then Wolf would take
us on a Saturday till we, we wouldn't have no time on the Saturday. Saturday wake up, get some breakfast, drop all the way out South Side. Play at Kennedy King. Come back, get some
lunch, go to Malcolm X. Go down on Roosevelt, Boys Club. And then go all the way
over to Lacell Courts. Get some dinner. Come back, watch tape on somebody
like Ben Wilson or Big Dog or Chris Webber or some shit. Cause he had tapes all day. I don't know bout y'all coach,
my coach had tapes for days. - Nah, tapes in Chicago.
- All the time. - So we sit there and by the time, it's nine o'clock. You're drained.
- Yeah. - Ain't no time for no game. There ain't no girl.
- You goin' straight to sleep. - Man, you sleepin'. Next thing you know,
boom, it's Sunday morning. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah. So, I thank
God for that structure. But, Wolf was the first person
to gimme that expression and to actually tell me it
was okay to be like this. - But when you start making it okay, now, that shit ain't okay for everybody. - [Garnett] No. - That shit rubbed a lot
of people the wrong way. What kept you in it? Like, fuck that. I'm finna express myself all the time. This how I'm in it. I'm intense like that. - I'm standing on it. - Whatever you do-- - Sometimes you can shy away from it. Like, oh I can't beat myself. - No, no, no.
- Not in that environment. Not in that environment. - Not in that environment, but at the same time too, I'm not like what happened in the go, I'll be honest, I get-- - Not just in the go but I'm talking bout when you get to the league like-- - That's what I'm trying to tell you, where I started, when you know, you stand on whatever you want. - Yeah. - Man, get that shit
outta here. What you say? Nigga, get that shit outta here. - Straight up.
- Right. - And this nigga play football. - Yeah. - It is what it is out here, dog. I'm out here with four other niggas who gonna go with me out here. So, I ain't tripping.
- [Richardson] Exactly. - And then in the go,
just like you said bro, it's structure out here. And I show up, you know,
I'm talking about the essays that come from Farragut, but I'm also talking
about who with Ronnie. Who with Frank? Who with us? And then you know, once the neighborhood got behind us, man, it was over, man. - People really gotta understand,
like I swear to you bro, that Red West like bro it's
times we done went into Western House and like
the hood like, you know, - Facts. - the guys, they there doing the warmup. Standing there like, yeah. A'ight, yeah. And you gotta be like, it
don't matter if you like, like the first time it
happened, I'm a sophomore. I'm like, oh shit. I'm like, what? I'm like, I was kinda looking
around like then I said go through the layup, I'm back. You standing there. I'm like hold up man, fuck you. We from the 100s, all of us, nigga. Fuck this West Side. All this shit. We coming in here, we running the whole West
Side and we all from the 100s. - It was cute. - Y'all some suckers. And that was how we was. You know me, D Gates. Cause D Gates and Cordell
played against you. - Facts.
- They was there as freshman. - Yeah.
- I came sophomore. - Yeah.
- So I'm like, I'ma be the crazy one then, like, fuck it. - For y'all who don't know
what the Wild 100s are, those are super projects. Projects that got-- - Man, just the South Side of Chicago. - Oh, that's South Side. Shit, that's South Side.
- South Side, you know. - That's where it's at.
- Yeah. - At what point that year did you say, "All right, I'm outta here"? Like, cause like you said,
college is all over you. - Nah man, I was having problems
with this fucking test man. That fucking SAT shit. I couldn't-- - So, you wanna go to Michigan, right? - I was going to Michigan. As soon as I got my grade, as soon as I got everything,
I was going to Michigan. Even though when I went for my little... When I went for my visit, I went to go see a Michigan State game and got
to meet Webb and everybody. And it was a dope experience. But, I guess it was just how I was living. I was, you know, my mom had left us up there. So, it was me and my younger sister. And I was, you know, having
responsibility and yeah, I wasn't moving like no high school kids. So, when I went up to
Michigan to go hoop, you know, they was like, oh yeah, we gotta go ask the assistant coach and get the keys and da da da. And I was like, can we go over here? Like, oh yeah, we gotta go get the duh. And, just, how they had to go, how they was moving, I wasn't
moving the same like that. - Wasn't moving like that. Yeah. - So, like I'm gotta ask
the nigga to go eat, like. It's like, man.
- Yeah. - And that always bothered me. Not even the structuring of it, just that I had to go get
permission to go do X, Y, and some of the simplest shit, right? - Yeah.
- And I was like, man, I ain't really thinking like y'all. Then I would hear some
of the conversation. I be here sitting here, listening. - He like, I don't do that
shit at the crib, like. - Like, that's goofy as hell.
Like dude, y'all real kids. Oh, you got a mom and a dad? Okay, you can call them and do-- Okay, you can get-- Okay. So, my mentality was totally
different from the kids that was in college right away. And yeah, I just, at the time I didn't even know how to even fathom none of that. But, I told the story, man. I come back from... Matter of fact, this is either
before I go to McDonald's, Yeah, this before I go to McDonald's, but, I get my test and
I didn't pass that mofo. I was in like the worst mood. Now, I remember this. My homeboy came up there said, "Man, let's go down to the multiplex, man. You know, Jordan be down there playing." This the year Mike didn't play. So I was like, man, I ain't gonna play no fucking mama. Fuck the plex, man. They ain't even gonna let
us in that motherfucker. Nah, nah, nah.
- So close. - Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. So, we go down there, and MJ in that motherfucker. And there's about 200 people in the glass just sitting there watching.
- Right. - And Mike in there. And I see some hood
niggas in there with him. I see Carl Harrison there,
- Per, as usual. - I see a couple other, you know, hood niggas I know in there. And then I'm with, you know,
I'm with three motherfuckers. You know what I'm saying? I'm with the guys. So you know, we show up in here, we all here watching. And when I came in there, you know my guys say
what up to Carl Harris, he know us West Wide. Right. So, we go in here, whatever. So, as soon as we get in
there, Mike like hit the glass, like let the big fella in. So I'm like, oh shit, throw my shoes, man. Got my shoes, suit up. Soon as I get in here,
- Immediately. - I'm a big man. You know D, when you in high
school you play big, man, you ain't chasing no guards. I might play a 21 or 32, somebody, hit a guard or something. But I ain't organizing here. You know, I'm in here
posting up, got post moves, all this shit, man. He put me right on Scottie. And Scottie was like, man, y'all put this young
puppy ass nigga off him, man, let me get it. And when he clapped, the echo in the room, you know, this is my first
time in front of these niggas. damn, I'm in here with Scottie. MaAnd then his face was like, man, little like he shot this
big long ass 3 deep. So much that I looked at that motherfucker and did I barely hit that. I'm like, damn, I looked, Like, man. Almost like the face of
like some easy work man. When I saw his face, I was like, And just my natural
reaction, I called for it. MJ threw that motherfucker. And I took two dribbles, came and gave him a little
move and I let my shit go. Man, my shit hit-- Dog, I thought I had won the championship. I looked. Look, I was so gassed. I jumped and said, "I don't know what you
think this is, nigga." He was like, "What? Nigga, what?" And he shot me the ball, I shot him back. Nigga pushed up and said, "Nigga, I had these
niggas kill you in here." Man, them niggas jumped up. Carl Harris like, "No young fella, you can't do that in here. No young fella. No! Hey! No! Carl Harris got that under control. Fuck is you talking about
the niggas off? Game over. Jordan's like, "Young fella, I love you. Young fella. Yeah, yeah!" But he got the fuck outta there. I looked up and I had
fucked the whole runup. I had fucked the whole runup. Niggas was getting ready to up. You know what I'm talking about? Like, we ain't here just wilding, right? And I felt like this, I was like, "Damn. See man, this why I
ain't wanna come down here. I was already in a shit mood." Like I'm all in my head with it. But what I did know in
the corner over there I saw a purple ass jacket and
some feet and it was Zeke. Yeah! Yeah! That was Scottie Pippen, boy. Boy, you crazy boy. Man, Joe. Boy, I just saw you play
against Scottie Pippen. Well, you can go to the league. When he said that boy, everything stopped y'all. I looked at that man. I
said, what you just say? - It's Isaiah. - Zeke was like, yeah come here. Lord, we sat there for two hours. And I can actually repeat
what he said verbatim. When he told me that shit. - Had you playing
McDonald's or anything yet? - No, I ain't went to McDonald's yet. - Mm. - I leave there. I go home. As soon as I get home, on the front of my little door, cause at this time, I now
got myself an apartment and all this shit. I got like this little pink thing. - You feel me? - And I'm like, what? Look, I see what the shit say. I rip it off, come in the joint. I'm like, oh fuck. Now, my head's spinning. And Wolf didn't go down here with me. When Zeke gave me the conversation, I come back home, I see
this shit on my door. I ripped the off my
door. I slammed the door. At the time, just me and my young sister. She's like, what's wrong? I said, nothing. Went up cause Wolf laid downstairs. I went downstairs, knocked on his door. He said, "What's up man?" I said, "Man lemme holler
at you for a second." He said, "What's up?" I said, "Man look, write this down. Tomorrow I need you to call David Falk, this nigga and this nigga." And I named like three agents
that you know Zeke gave me. I said, "I want you to call
these guys and let them know that yeah, I'm gonna forego
my college eligibility, and I'm going to the league." - Hmm.
- And Wolf was like, "Man, get your fucking
ass outta here, boy. Boy, you tripping, boy."
- Right. You want something to eat? And when he saw I wasn't
laughing and I was deadass, "Nah, nigga, write this down. Write this down." And I had never took a
tone like that with him. And I was looking at him deadass. And he was like, "You hear what you're saying, man?" I said, "I hear what I'm saying. I need you to write this down." And he saw my face. And then I took him
through the conversation. This and this is what we're gonna do. Next day at school, we did the same thing. One of the motherfuckers
out of the four people called me back. And then he took me through the process, restart the process. You gonna go right here, you
gotta take a couple workouts, probably gotta leave
school a little early. Come over here. And we had to do it around
school, cause it's a school year. And niggas not even taking me serious until I get into the first workout. And the first workout, was basically, I couldn't
travel and go everywhere. So, I had people had to come here. But we had the physical. So, a lot of teams was
coming into Chicago anyway. So, that helped me.
- Mhm. - Yeah, Moody Bible. - So, niggas didn't have to travel, right? So they would go at the Moody Bible. They skipped Moody Bible, come down, see my little workout. So, I got like the first, the first day I got picks 11 through 22. I didn't even get the whole day. I just got those teams and
they came through and they sat. And I remember Pat Riley being
one of the people in there. And you know, I ain't never worked out or did nothing like this. You know, Wolf take us
through workout, play, - Never went through that.
- not like this, right? I ain't never went 90 minutes. Didn't know it was gonna
be 90 minutes. I showed up. I didn't really, I didn't really get the
stretching that I just came in. I was in awe of just, you know,
- How they look. - the people that I'm seeing. I'm like, damn there's
a lot of them passing. I know that's Dale Harris. So, I'm in here just noticing it. But all these GMs and shit. Danny Ainge, Kevin K-- So, I'm in here like, oh shit. So, I'm like, damn. So, it then hit me like,
damn nigga, you're here. - Right. - Kiwane Garris. - Shot down.
- Shout out to Kiwane, yo. - Western House, West Side.
- Shout out to Kiwane, man, Kiwane. - U of I's finest. - Straight up, I called him. I said, "Hey man, can you
come pass the ball to me?" You know what I'm saying? Cause I just need a guard to
go up and do some of the stuff cause I was by myself. And then I had an instructor who was just walking me through this shit. So, he was like, "Okay. All right look, just
gonna do this real cool. Just, you know, it worked
out a hundred times. Just listen to what I'm saying." So, I was like, "All right." So, I heard Pat Riley. "Okay Goddamn, what the
fuck are we doing here? Goddamn, we're here watching
the high school guy, what the fuck is this?" So, I hear, So, all the little minions laughed. And the guy was still talking to me, and they was kind of in the background. So, I saw the nigga mouth moving. But, I just heard him.
- Right. - I took everything personal, man. You know what I'm saying? I took everything personal.
So, I was like, "Oh, word. Okay." Nigga came to the workout, knew he was gonna see a high school kid, but he don't know why he here?" So, I played with that. Like, I was just steaming. So, the first, you know, dribble up and down, it
was just some basic shit. So, all the he was telling me was basic. Two dribble pull up. Put a
jump at the free throw line. Wasn't no hard shit, D.
- Mhm. - This the shit that I did. But man, I looked up and
there was 90 minutes. They wanted me to see how long I could go, see, you know, my range. And all that from 15 to
17, I was smacking it. And then I wanted see the
jumping, all this shit. So, I was dunking this mofo. Trying to dunk. Didn't even have to
dunk it this many time. But I was dunking this mother. You don't know why you in here, huh? Duh! You don't know why you in? Duh! Duh! Okay, that's enough. Duh! I was dunking and boom,
I dunked that motherfucker and I was like, Yeah! Fuck you mean, why I'm in here? You don't know why you
in here, motherfucker? And I look behind him, my niggas goin, Just gassing me. Okay, good work out y'all. - Right, right, right, right. - And that's when I know I had something. Kevin McHale walked
all the way down there. He was in this big ass like high rise, like the niggas didn't wanna, on some subliminal shit.
- [Richardson] Right. - You feel what I'm saying to you? He walked all the way down. Then he just start
chatting, "Hey, what's up? Kevin McHale, hey. Yeah, I
love your footwork big fella. Hey, hey. You know if you
come here, you can challenge. You know, the writing and teaching. I was like, holy shit. This nigga gave me the, and it was just coming so fast
y'all that I couldn't catch it all. And I was like, oh wait, what? What'd you say? Because I knew I had another workout. So, the only thing I did
catch it, he was like, when you come around you
wanna square your shoulders with the rim cause sometimes you coming in and you shooting across your body. And I was like, oh wow. Okay. And then the next day I applied that shit. But, after the first workout
I knew I had something. After the second workout, I
knew I was getting picked. - You got dogs in your class. There was a lot of dogs in your class. Like... And you gotta kind of extend
yourself from everybody else. Especially to go straight
outta high school. Like, how was that from
extending yourself? Like for me, cause I
wasn't ranked number one. - Right. - They had me like 11, that's why-- But every time they seen me
or if I had the opportunity to play or play on TV or play against them, where I seen them in
McDonald's or whatever, I was trying to get it.
- Get it. Facts.
- You know what I'm saying? But with you, like I said, you got a bunch of dogs in your class. A bunch of guys that may had good careers. - Yep. - In the league, how was
that to like extend yourself past them and actually go? Cause like you the first. You not the first to actually go, but you the first of the
new era to change that. It's different from you.
- It is. - It's never been done. When you walked in that locker
room and you played against everybody in the NBA,
everybody gave you that look. - Right.
- Cause I felt that look, and I wasn't even the first like you. - Mhm.
- You know what I'm saying? They like, yeah. But you know how it is,
- Yeah. - Somebody else can take
your job every year. - Facts, facts. Every time somebody-- - They looking at you like man,
we ain't giving you nothing. - Man, listen it started at the physicals. You know, cause what they do is they put everybody in front of you, and you know, they put
that 135 under now the 145. And you know, high school niggas, we not even lifting like that. We never lift. - Did you achieve any reps? - I got two reps. That shit, I went up two. That shit was so fuckin' heavy. - Zero.
- Zeke couldn't even lift it off the bar.
- Zero. - How heavy was that shit? Listen, listen. - Bro, I'm not lifting that shit. - If it weren't for-- Listen, real shit.
- Yeah. - It was on some ego shit with me. - Yeah. - I damn near broke my shoulder
trying to get to that mofo. - Tryna get your skills. - I was like, Cause you know you gotta
take it off. Oh hell no. I'm like, Oh hell no. All the niggas like, Oh-- - Everybody around.
- Okay, young fella. Let's get it, young fella.
- Yeah. - I got Shiv.
- And all of the other campers around.
- Shiv, Stack. All these, Scottie, all these
motherfuckers right here. All these I watched in college
are sitting here watching me. Lou Roe, everybody. - Yeah. - Man, I got that motherfucker up. - Damn.
- Got it straight up. - He just said Lou Roe. Lou
Roe was so goddamn strong. - I didn't even let that come on. I just got in there. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Then, I'm all like this deep. - Hey, that's a demoralizing situation. - I put that bitch up. And then the guy's arrogant, stinking ass. "Oh, that's two. Now, I can get two." Okay. - I get on the treadmill. - I guess we'll let that beat too. - I get on the treadmill, I'm dying on the treadmill. - Oh, he got up off that shit too. - Listen, listen, man. It made me rethink everything. So, I sat down and then
they start roasting me. Stack start, and then all the guys start roasting me. All they did, they start roasting me. Man, you need to take your
ass to college, nigga. You missing out on all the honey. Ah, you ain't even know what you doing. - We ain't do him like that.
- So, listen. - But he definitely got zero reps in. Get off the treadmill, like I ain't-- - Listen, they was talking so crazy to me, and just making me feel like shit. And Scotty Thurman came up to me, he was like, "You know
everybody joking, right?" And I was kind of like
on that like mad shit with a tear come out,
mad kind of like shit. And I was like, I'm gonna be better than these ni-- I was just on, I was super on, I was hot. They had jones me. They ain't had no comebacks.
- Taking everything personal. - I just, I did. You know what I'm saying? Cause I was like, I'm it.
If I fuck this up man, niggas behind me ain't even gon' have it. So, I was thinking like that, right? And I was kind of feeling that. And then Scotty Thurman was like, "Boy you gonna be ready. You gonna be better
than all these niggas." "Cause you care. You care. Some of these niggas, they
don't care like this, nigga. You care.
- Straight up. - And I was like, hat you talking about? He's like, "You gon' see." And when I got in the camp, it started all like unfolding. Because now, some niggas was
project to go four or five. Now I'm in here, I went five. So that means somebody else had to go six. - Right.
- So all this is happening. What I don't know, is
everybody from Antoine Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Steph, AI. Everybody that I know that's
in my class at home like this. Let's see what this nigga do, man. What? Oh, I could do that. What? So, everybody's seeing me do it. Like, I'm giving them confidence. Next, 96. It's really the cut. That's really everybody, that's everybody I'm with. - That would've been crazy,
be on that slam pitch. - But, to be the first
to go through the door and then take all the hits, set up the structure for
everybody to come next. I took a lot of pride in that. Cause now I can go up to D,
because to a high school kid, it's like a, it's almost like special ops. Like, you made the league.
- Yeah. - But then you got the high school kids. And if you can survive that, that gave you your own
kind of rank on that shit. You know what I'm saying? Cause there's only so many.
- Y'all got your own pat. - We got our own little special
ops pat that did, you know. - Yeah. You know a lot of success,
to be on that side. - Straight up. Because my theory too Joe, is that, when they start promoting all
the four year college kids and Laettner came in and
Grant Hill and Mashburn. I'm just being one hundred. Those guys went up to a point. Them guys was getting in trouble, them guys didn't have the
best character that you know. Some of them guys got hurt
early in they careers and shit. - Yeah. - Guess who took that league over, man? Guess who came up and
just stepped up, man? All them high school guys. All them high school guys
you loved or you doubted, or you say you didn't like. Next thing you know man, some of us was some of the
better players in the league and it started growing like that. You know what I'm saying? Next thing you know you
got Kobe in this bitch. Then you got T-Mac in this bitch. Then you got Dwight. Then you got D. Miles. Then you got Sikma. And I mean, Bron had a whole, he had a whole table of
scales that he could sit back and saw what worked and what didn't work. And then having D Miles in
Cleveland when you get there. - [Richardson] Yeah. - You got somebody that
actually went through what you're going through. - D Mile was rocking
with him his senior year. D Mile right, y'all was cool. - He was coming up there
practicing with y'all and shit, eh? - Yeah. Nah he was, I used to
go over there with them. Shit, he was the show of the town. - Facts.
- We won 18 outta 82, so. Nobody was at our games. They was all at his games. - That's when y'all
had them black, silver, and orange jersey. - Yeah.
- Chris Mills and shit. - Yeah. - That's the name from Texas? Shot blocking shots.
- Chris Mills, yeah. - Yeah, Chris Mills. - Y'all say what y'all want
but Chris Mills go try to block everything, you know what I'm saying? But yeah man, that was the early
parts of all that shit man. And I did have to go through something to actually get to something. And I really believe that. Like, I don't just believe
the fairytale goes like you show up and it's just Ta-da. - Yeah. - You gotta go through some shit. And going through that
shit give you stripes, and give you extra skin and
extra covering to where, man Joe, if I didn't go
through some of that shit through the go man, I don't know if I could
have survived some of that early on shit that went on in
the, you know, in the league. - Yeah.
- Straight up. - Tell me how it was for you to like, you know, you got to be at the draft, to be coming outta high school
to hear your name called. Just to be hearing David Stern. Like, what was that moment like? We, like every player, you know, that's our biggest moment before all the other biggest moments. - All that shit you went
through in high school. - But like, that kick it
off. Like how did that, what was that like for you,
when you was sitting there, and you like-- - That shit was in Toronto, y'all. - Right. - My draft was in Toronto.
- [Richardson] That's crackin. - [Miles] You had your
passport and everything. - At that time you could
have a driver's license to get through the border. - Oh damn, you ain't even
have to have a passport. - Man, that's how old this shit is. - That's throwback for real.
- I get up here, I'm like, Damn, what's this Europe?
- Right. - Like, nah this Canada. This shit was clean. The water tastes different. You know what I'm saying? They candy balls wasn't Snickers, it was Snick.
- [Miles] Right. - You know what I'm saying? - They had, you know what I'm saying? They had Cuke versus Coke. It looked like some other shit. - You could change the money and all that. - Get that money bag, boy.
- Straight up. - Get that change.
- You get that funny money. - It's like, what's goin' on? - Next thing you know,
like what the hell is this? Right. So, I was on some like just, man. Problem was man, now, when you get a look
success cause you know I goddamn been through the blizz, right? You now went through the jungle. Now you come out on the other end. Now here come everybody wanna, now everybody wanna go to draft, now he your best friend. And man listen, I'm gonna
tell y'all something. Man, one of the things
I got down real early was the word, "No," and "Nah." - Let him know. - And then I learned, "Fuck nah." - Listen up.
- You know what I'm saying? Straight up.
- Generation now, listen up. - I didn't have no
problem saying, "Nah, nah. Nah, I'm cool. I'ma go up here with uh, uh, uh, uh. And then, yeah. And yeah, that's how it went. But going to the draft
was a fucking blizzard. It was like, I didn't
wanna spend no money. I ain't wanna, You know, especially money
I didn't have yet, so. - Yeah. - So, I was super conservative. I got that G Trent had the lime suit on, and he had the woo woo woo. They was going out to the joint. All the draftee was
going to the strip joint. Yeah, yeah. Fella, you can't get in here, young fella. - He can't go.
- You can't come in here. Yeah okay here the party
over here got alcohol here. Yeah, young fella, you
can't come in here either. - Damn.
- I was like, damn. Okay, I'm gonna go try
to throw my own shit. Oh yeah, we're gonna shut this down man. Yeah, young fella. Yeah. So, I was like, oh shit. This is what this finna be like. That's when I was like,
okay, it's all good. We're gonna have a good
time at the draft. We did. Got drafted. I came off and I had never
seen that many people. I had never seen that many
people like clap for a nigga. You know what I'm saying? I came in there and they was
all clapping and whatever. And it hit me. Got teared up, up there. The great um... Craig Sager did an interview with me. And he was all cool with it. Slowed everybody down,
got everybody off me, let me talk, gave me a
second, and all that shit. It was just a memorable place. But, after that man, it was just go. You know what I'm saying? Because after that I get to Minnesota, - Get thrown in the fire.
- I get thrown in the fire. But, I love Kevin McHale for
the fact that he actually structured a structure
for me that worked for me. It wasn't something of that
he had used for anybody else. You know, my boys got come on trips. My boys got to come to practice. They got to sit in practice.
- He made you comfortable. - He made me comfortable
with people that knew me, and put me around place. And then he's like, look, this north Minneapolis over
here, it's like Chicago. - [Miles] Yeah. - South Minneapolis just
like Chicago over here. East Saint Paul is like Chicago. But the rest of it is like this. This where the rich people live at. And Kevin Mcall kind of gave
me Minneapolis as gauge. "Yeah, I'ma put you with Jimmy and Terry. They great guys. They producers, they
produce Janet Jackson music. Prince live out here too. He does music. You know Prince?" And then he start putting
all these Kirby Pucketts, and Chris Doman, and
John Randall and just, Cunningham, Randall Cunningham. He just start putting this
little group for me together. Kirby Puckett, rest in
peace to my dog, man. One of the best ever, because he was like their superstar. So, he started telling me, you know, because JR
and Christian Laettner, they had had their run-ins and shit with, you know, troubles and shit.
- Yeah. - And he was just like, "Man, you gotta win this town
over by staying off the radar. And if you don't get in no
trouble, they gonna love you. And especially if you
can play a little bit." So, if you notice, I never got in no shit. Never, never ever. Never ever. None of my crew, none of that shit. Because we all understood
what was on the line if we was to fuck this opportunity up. And they understood it. - How was it the first
time you met Prince? Did you used to like hang
and kick it with Prince? - Yes. Let me tell y'all some crazy shit. - First time I met
Prince, man, I was in a-- - I heard a lot of stories
about Prince and shit. What was that like? - First off, dude loved basketball. - Yo, he was a hooper! - Had a hooper.
- He was a hooper. - Talking shit. - That guy was in the
yearbook and everything. - He probably like AI. He was quick and shit.
- Yeah. - He had a big studio called Paisley Park where he had like a half court in there. And yeah he motherfucker,
would let people come in there and he would be in there busting your ass, talking crazy and everything. Plus he knew the flow. He knew that you know
if you shot over here, it wouldn't hit the--
- Right. - And all this other shit. But yeah, he loved ball. So anytime, he wouldn't come out a lot but when he would come out, he would just shut the club down. He would always get this
little one back room and then he'll like summon you. And he had this big gigantic
ass, one white bodyguard, Chris or something like that. Baldhead white guy used to
always go with him and shit. And he would always come get you, "Hey, the artist," cause he wouldn't call
him Prince, he said, "The artist wants to talk to you." We go back there and I'll talk to you. Dog, just like I'm looking at D Mouse, man that man used to have
like a little orange, you know you ever look
into like the light, like if you put your hand
in front of the light you'll see like just like-- - Like a glow?
- Yeah. - Lord, I swear he would sit there, and he had a glow about him. He'd be talking with a
deep ass voice like this, almost like it was-- And I was like, looking at this nigga like. And he be saying some real shit. - Isn't he like this? Isn't he like this?
- Oh no, The nigga little as shit. And he in this velvet chair. - Yeah. - Legs crossed.
- He brought his own chair. - Fly ass outfit, collar pop. And he might be sitting
there and he'll go, "So, what do you guys
do for like pregame?" He asked you some shit like that. I'm like what do you, what do you mean? "Like what are you guys
eating for pre-game? Like is it, is it healthy? Like, do you eat healthy?" "I would think that if
you was burning calories, you would eat something
that was more meat." Like that's the kind of shit he asked you. He wanted to hear your POV
in the game and how you, "Okay, so a guy like Karl Malone, is that intimidating to you?" "He would be intimidating to me." Like... But then he'll get on some nigga shit. And he'd be like "Hmm", you know, "Do you have good financial
people around you? Make sure you have very, very, I have some great financial people that can actually help you with," And then he'll get on here, "Cause these motherfuckers are s--" And then he'll start
off real professional, end up on some nigga shit. "Cause these motherfuckers
will steal your shit." And then he like, And he was always cool with my crew, he was always, you know,
- Yeah. - Cause some motherfuckers, you know, nah don't let them in here just, I just want to, you know what I'm saying? But he was always consistent,
he was always cool. He always, always said the same shit, man, at the end of his conversation. "Make sure you're working
harder than anybody else." That, "That's what's gonna
outlast everybody else. Everybody ain't gonna work. If you work your ass off every day, man, good things gonna come out of that." And I used to always feel, "Yeah, you guys gotta
come out to Paisley Park." So, after we would leave the club, club leaves at like 2, 2:30. We'll go out to Paisley Park, like, three to like six in the morning. You wake up breakfast in here. He trying to, you know what I'm saying?
But this is what artists do. They stay up, they make music all day. Like, nah man. This is something, I gotta, I gotta actually get home.
- Right. - You know what I'm saying? This? Nah, I can't do this. Nah. Especially now, during the year. But yeah, Prince was
another level of everything. - You at Minnesota, when you feel like, Ah yeah, I can really be here? Like, did it take like half
of the season and be like, nah, I can kinda sink my teeth in, into what's going on, and I
can understand the game more and know where I can shine at. Because now you know them plays, you know where you get your shot. Cause you get the same shot for real damn near every night. You might maneuver a little bit, but you know you getting
the ball right here or, - Yeah.
- You can get your shot off right here or I get a few post up. - Yeah. - When did you know like, Yeah, cause like at the
time you get in there, you got Karl Malone,
MVP called Karl Malone. - MVP Karl Malone, MVP Charles Barkley. - [Miles] Shawn Kemp. - David Robinson. - [Miles] You know what I'm saying? - Oh man this real, the West is so real. C Web is still in Washington at this time. - [Miles] Yeah. - Yeah, it was real talk. But then you had guys like
Roy Tarpley down in Dallas who people don't even really fucking know. That was crazy.
- Crazy. - Vin Baker who was killing, - Vin Baker.
- Vin Baker was tough. - like Vinny B was a problem, you feel me? But I started to have some like confidence in like, my ability when-- First you gotta go through
like the first 30 to 40, and get your ass kicked. And just fuck it all up, right? But I can say after every
practice, never missed a practice, I would always practice and
then after practice Kevin McHale would make the bigs play one-on-one. Don't matter if you hurt or not. It don't matter, come on. And we call it the cage. And, there ain't no
fouls called in the cage. You know what it's like. You know what I'm talking,
- [Both] Mhm. - Y'all know exactly
what I'm talking about. When you go work with the guards, and then the next day you
go work with the bigs. And it's a totally different worker. You know what I'm talking about? - Yeah. - Only niggas in the
league know that though. So, that's why I'm saying it like that. We go down here and each day we play, I can honestly say whether I
got beat or I won the drill, I feel like I'm getting better. Cause, the physicality of the league, no one actually, you can never get, you can't get that from nowhere. You gotta get that from the league, cause these guys are not
walking around on the street this big, this agile,
this strong and this good. So, you may play a nigga in the street, and he just may be, you know,
- [Miles] Outta shape. - Outta shape, and he big as hell. But he don't know how to ride. He don't know how to deny you. He don't know how to
front, he don't know this. - He got no IQ on it. - A NBA nigga know how to do all this, you know what I'm saying?
- [Miles] Yeah, I feel you. - Yeah. - And he's strong enough. And he know that the shot clock going. So, I had a bunch of that going on, a bunch of what I didn't
know being used against me. And once I downloaded that shit, and I started seeing like
the playbook start to change from Christian Laettner to
you know, JR Rider to Gugs - Gugs. - To now, they trade
Laettner, they trade JR And now, oh shit. Kevin got 45, 45 twists 45 this. And then now I got like six plays. I'm like what? Like that don't happen. They don't rearrange the
playbook and then put your name in these sets if they not
confident or whatever, but. So, I say about for like
four years I used to play one-on-one after practice
and that's what made me, I think sped up my, my betterment or me
actually getting better. But then it was things
that I wanted to do. Like, I never had a left hand. I used to always work on my shit, but never could find it
in the game to use it. - Yeah.
- If I'ma dunk on the nigga, I'ma dunk on the nigga,
one hand or two hand. I ain't finna try him if I-- You know what I'm saying?
- Right. - And I used to always get
caught in between wanting to use some of the stuff that I work on, and then just using the shit that works. - Because you know it's gonna be money. Yeah.
- Kevin McHale helped me simplify all that. You thinking too much. You know, he's six eight, you're six 11, just turn and shoot. So, I started getting to that quicker. And then start watching
Webb, Juwan Howard, some of the guys that
was in my same class, not looked the same but they was, I was seeing growth with myself and I was seeing them
grow a whole other way. You know, Webb got stronger, started dunking that motherfucker. And then he got the little
short hood, she put the three, - He still getting that jump on. - Man, Lord. When you got the fucking, when you got the 15 footer and
you got the straight up jump, - That's a problem. - Ooh, that's a big man. - So, Kevin McHale helped
develop the face up for me. And then off the face up, I started learning how to
use handle in the face up. Then if I backed up a little bit and gave myself a couple feet, I can actually get to the
basket in two dribbles and give you a move crossover. And I was at the rim. And then when he was
telling me to lay it up, I was like, fuck that. I'm finna put this on. I'm finna dunk this motherfucker. Fuck that shit. So, I started to like take
what I was learning from him and puttin' kind of my own mix on it. Where he would actually
go up under and come under and finish with the left, I used my right and just, you know? And once I started seeing that, that's what started giving me confidence. Then I start looking in
these facing these eyes and I was like, nah, everybody, everybody ain't on the same... Everybody don't want the-- You know what I'm saying? I was like wow, nah, nah. And it's a more of a bully league. - Definite. - And if you can actually carve
out your own little square and stand on it, - If you wasn't then go.
- people respect it. And that's what I learned day one. - One of my favorite, like, I'm one of the dudes that like when during this all this time, I'm on NBA live, as soon as the draft go, I'm creating all the players.
- Oh yeah. - Putting 'em on the teams and all that. Like one of my favorite teams real talk, like was when Steph
came to the team, right? - [Garnett] Oh yeah. - And it's y'all that
young cause you know, back then it's an old ass league. That ain't no young dynamic duo like y'all that's really able to
put it down like how, - Young and unapologetic. - How much of a different
level did you feel like you went to when Steph got
there and, y'all, you know, instantly hit it off
and had that chemistry? - Well, a lot of people don't know man. Steph and I was friends in high school. And right before I got in trouble, Steph used to-- Steph found my number through Bob Gibbons, or one of the for the
gaucho's knew Bob Gibbons and Bob Gibbons got my number, but Steph called the house. And we stay on the phone like three hours just talking basketball. Woo
woo, you know what I'm saying? Similar to how y'all be. And you know, he telling
me about New York, I'm telling him about country shit. He loves Atlanta, all this other shit. And we became friends. So that when I went to Chicago, I didn't know he knew Bill. I ain't know he knew Na-- I ain't know he knew the
same guys that I knew. And when he came in the go, he was going to Paul for a visit and yeah, Bill brought us together
and I was like, what? Nigga, what the fuck?
"Yeah." So, we had a bond already.
I put my name in the hat, I go to the league first
and he went to Georgia Tech. So, the whole time we talking, and his whole thing, you know, he had brothers that was before him so he had kind of a script
to know what to expect and all that. I knew nothing. So, the things I'm giving
him is just detailed stuff that I'm going through. And just city to city. Oh, San Fran like this, oh shit, fuckin' Utah like this. I ain't never been to Utah. Man, Toronto like this. You know what I'm saying? Vancouver was like this. So, he was just, he was in school but his mind was, - He was in the league.
- already in the league. So, when Steph went
through his whole process, he get drafted a whole
different story for him. When he get the soda, we like, Oh. Niggas on pop.
- Right. - Well we 200 deep in here, you know? - Right. - I got the whole west side
over here, you know, like. It was some of the greatest days. And we go two years and
I think my two years of three years of being together, after the second year, I get some bread. You know, I gotta go through this whole
shit show and this resign. I ain't never resign for no real bread. So, I'm trying to get the
max all this other shit. I get the, you know, I get the most I can get out of this shit. And that's when I started
to see like a difference with everybody.
- [Richardson] Mhm. - Like when I signed for
that little bread man, I start seeing niggas like,
either wanted the same bread or wanted the same opportunity. - [Miles] Yeah. - And what I was taught and I
seen Clyde Drexler and Dream play together and I seen Mike
and Scottie play together. So, I'm seeing like you gotta have like a, a duo
- A duo. - to be whatever. And what better duo than me and dude? And we know each other, right? - Sure do. - And yeah, I just think Steph grew to like want his own shit.
- [Miles] Yeah. - And I didn't give no fuck about, you know, running no team. I really wasn't no operator like that. I was a nigga who would do it with you. - Mhm.
- You know? I'm gonna give you, Hey, come on. Come on,
Q, let's get it, man. Come on, come on. Fuck it,
I'll do it with you. I'm that. I ain't finna come over here
tell you I'm better than you or come after you, like I know, - [Richardson] Right. - None of that. I ain't
that type of leader. I'm more hands-on leader. - Right.
- So, you know, bro was interested with GMs and moves. And, hey, we need this
player and all that. I really wasn't knowing that. - Ain't his family situation different? You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah. Everything.
- Everything. And then he got like a, he got a real structure.
- Yeah. - You know, he can go to his, he got a mom, he got a
pops, he got brothers, he got a whole bunch of, you know, so that was totally different from, I had to actually create that for myself once I was in a position to. And yeah, he carried it a little different and had a little more of a better, a better hold on the
league in this business. Which is, when I started
getting all this flat for the contract stuff, which made me actually
learn the book of business of basketball. It actually threw me in there. Cause next year we have a lockout. I'm saying all this to say that, we changed after that. And you know, when he made it known that he didn't want to be there because he couldn't get the
type of money he wanted. He wanted to go back to
New York and make this, I had to honor it. Like I can't get mad at
for somebody else's vision in what he wanted. So, I wish him the best. But you know, if you're
trying to win in the league, that's hard as fuck to win in, with niggas like Mike and
Elijah really running this shit. - And y'all was coming. - I mean we was young and we was coming, but you gotta go through some shit, bro. - Yeah. - Like every motherfucker think
that the coffee goes in here and it comes out instant
just like the grits. You know what I'm saying? Well, y'all didn't know, but 30 seconds before that
shit turned into that mush, that shit was hard. And that shit went through
a process of softening up. You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah. - So, I saw it just like that. And now we had lived in many already, and I just started hearing
all these just excuses to just not want to be in here. And then, you know, his
attitude just fell off. Y'all been around a nigga
that don't wanna be around. And it just started getting
ugly and shit like that. And then when he left, man, I was on some like, man, I ain't really getting
close to nobody no more. I'm cool. I'ma just come in here and do my job and, you live in the snow, man. We here half the time, anyway. But it was just making those
days even more heavier. You know, the game's supposed to be fun. - Yeah.
- It wasn't fun no more. And then Chauncey came over and kind of, kind of lightened it up a little bit. Just having somebody that I knew, and just was a brother to kind of rekindle some of those mishaps, man.
But then in between, you know, the Steph and that stuff. You know, I got real close with Malik. So, it kind of took, it kind of refreshed me after that '99, '98-'99 was one of the best years. '99-2000 was one of the best years for me, just coming out of all the Steph shit. And I kind of found my
love for basketball, or the love for the
league again after that. Cause I thought Steph and
I was gonna be forever. And I thought out of that we was gonna probably get a couple. - Right. - Even with the Shaq and Kobe shit, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, at that time, man, that shit blew me. Steph leaving Minnesota
blew the fuck out of me. I didn't understand it. To this day I still don't understand it. - [Richardson] Right. - But it was a Stephen Wardell, you know? It was his decision. It wasn't a 'us' decision. - You said that you, like when you was dealing
with the contract, how was it for you to be, you know, I think you were 20, 21 then. - Yep, 21. I was in Jamaica. - To turn down 102 million? - Nah, I turned down 122. - Oh, you turned down 122. How was like, how? Like, timeout. How did you do that? - So, Pete. - Like, what? You turned down. And that's like the most
ever, at that point, right? - So, it was I think,
Nook signed for the 105. - Oh yeah, that's right. Nook broke the bank first. - Before Nook and before-- This is what I'm talking about y'all. Always one, know your worth. That's one. Two, know the people
that became before you and what they made. Not to count somebody else's pockets, but this is how the league goes. D Mile signed first. Next year Q gonna sign a little
more for what D Mile signed. If I'm sitting back here
and I'm the third one, I'm gonna make a little more
than what you just signed for. - [Richardson] Right. - Just like this guy. And this is how it goes. - [Richardson] Right. - So at that time, LJ signs for the 84, right? After that, Alonzo Mourning
signs for the hundred million. - Mhm.
- Okay? After that, I think Shaq gets the 120. And then Nook, Juwan
Howard signs for the 105. So, the scale goes, the jump goes however,
so the most I can make was like 125, 126. So the first offer, which I
was told to never take, right? I'm in Jamaica. And shorty right here, paper. I'll never forget this. I got the USA Today, I pop it open, dog. The shit goes first story
says "Garnett denies 122." And I'm like, what the fuck? Sat up like, what the fuck? I had a bowl of fruit in my lap. And I remember, it spilled on the shit, and I was like, what the fuck? - Tap Shorty, come on, we gotta go. And I zoomed home, right? And the problem was I
never got to deny anything. You know, the agent did. So, the first thing I
checked him was about, Hey look, don't be speaking for me. Let me--
- [Richardson] Right. - You know. - [Richardson] He don't
know what the fuck goin' on. - He was like, this is how it goes, this
is the process, woo woo. And I was like, nah. So,
I ain't really like that. So, I fired him. You know what I'm saying? Like, nah. - Cause my movement and me
being able to speak for myself was huge for me. I didn'T want somebody speaking for me. I'm right here.
- Mhm. - I can say it.
- Right. - And I probably would've took the 122. But then he was pushing
me and really teaching me the business of how
basketball, how this all works. And in that, he was like, nah. And then these the incentives. And then, what's the vision
you have for yourself? And this what we gonna
implement right here. And, oh those things you just named? Okay we're gonna put in, we're gonna put in a flight time, we're gonna put in private charges, we're gonna put in the vacant. I was like, what? So, we was just making a wish
list and then we implement in and I'll say outta eight
out outta 10 things, I got eight of 'em just
cause I asked for 'em. - [Richardson] Right. - And just cause I had the leverage to on top of getting what I wanted. - Right. - Woo. So, you know, with all that man, I actually wanted to be
the one to just say that, I knew my worth and I went for it. You know what I'm saying? That's what it's about. If you know you worth something, man, listen, it's as simple as just
asking or just saying for it. - [Richardson] Fight for it.
- Just say it. Look, you want me to come
in here and work a hundred? Okay cool. This is what I want. And then that, that's a conversation. And that's usually how simple as it is. It's really when you get
to thinking and over shit. Ah, I don't know if they gon-- Nah, you know? Make that shit simple. If you gonna come in
here and bust your ass, and you gon' bust your ass, it has a number that you already know. You know what I'm saying? So, that's the message. - Your first All-Star game, when you made the All-Star team, you found out you made the All-Star team. How was that? - Right, when you get in that room. - They told me Charles Barkley, they said yeah you going to the
All-Star Game for a reserve. I was like, what? Who, me? Yeah, nigga. Get your shit, you gotta-- I was like, huh? Yeah, Charles Barkley heard-- - You first play outta high school to go to the All-Star Game. - Boy, listen, I got in
there and I was just, I couldn't believe it, D, I couldn't believe it. There, I'm two years, I'm not even three years
removed from high school, and I'm in the All-Star Game? And it was in Cleveland. And I wore this big black and white Gucci. I didn't have a bunch of jewelry
but I had a little KG ring. I had, you know what I'm saying? I put my little shit on. Nigga, we get there, I got the whole mob in here, you feel me? You know what I'm saying? I got the whole mob in here. I get out first, right? That's back when you
took limousines and shit. - Mhm, limo. - So I get out the limousine, it's snowing like a motherfucker. Nigga, I get out, I see Diddy and Biggie
getting out the limo behind us and Diddy, I don't know what
he on, he got champagne. Yeah, we in motherfuckin' Cleveland. Nigga, we about to get it. It's the All-Star weekend, da da da da. And then my, you know, my nigga come out, he like, oh shit. Yeah, yeah, we on you. So, they chopping. As I see Big, I thought Big was gonna
be like a bigger nigga. He was just-- I mean taller, but he was little. But he looked like he was like this. He was having the big fur on, his hands was up like this. And I just remember like, I just remember seeing
it cause it's a blizzard. I'm like, damn. Why the nigga walking with
his arms up like that? That's some L.A. shit. I'm just, you know, in my head, you know? - Right. - Nigga breathing. He was breathing heavy as shit. So, I'm like "Hey B, what's up, man? Nice to meet--" "Oh yeah, what up dude? Yeah we smoking up at woo woo." And then it sees and all the
guys, I'm saying what up. So, I'm sitting there and I look nigga, and I saw two heads, right under his hands. And that had two chicks, under that goddamn fur. And walked up the steps like that. And the whole time he walked, he was walking with his arms up. You couldn't even see the girls. - Fur was so big.
- The fur was so big. He had it up like this. When he was walking he had Versaces on, he was walking like this, and
it looked like it was all him. Joe, he had two, yeah, he had two chicks under there, man. That blew me. - Tell me this, like one of
my favorite All-Star games is the one in New York. Like, I like, you know about New York, you know about the Garden.
- Yep. - Like, you know, Kobe, Mike. Like, that's one of my
favorite All-Star games. Just explain that night, being in New York, being in the bright lights,
being in the garden. And playing in that All-Star game. - I was with Nike at the time. And Nike, because I was a starter, got me this crazy ass fucking room. I don't even know what this was, I don't even know if this
was a hotel but it was like a condo but it was like,
it went all the way up. But I had the whole floor. And yeah that was like a, that was my first time
having like a room like that. This was like maybe
like 10,000 square feet. That shit was crazy. My whole mob was in that motherfucker. And I ain't even see them.
They was on their side. You know what I'm saying? And I was like what the? And I just remember
New York being magical. It was super cold. And I had to go to all the
parties for some reason. I don't know how, but we
all went to all the parties. I had gold with me, you know what I'm saying?
And I had everybody with me. So, everybody was like happy to be able to go to the vibe party. This shit, all this right, right, right. And we get to the game and shit. And there's MJ and they really
hyping up the cold MJ like, you know what I'm saying? And cold and nervous. It's the first time I
ever seen him nervous. And he was like, "Yo, we at the All-Star game." I was like, "Look, nigga. These old ass niggas, we going at these niggas. Fuck these niggas." He's talking about "ISO and all that. Eh look, we get in here, I'm looking for you. So, get in here." So, he's like, kind of like, Nah, nah. And then what I didn't notice, they had the thing on us. What you don't know
about NBA Entertainment, if you cursed in anything,
then they're not finna use it. But they caught the end of it when I dapped him and I hit it. I hit his hands, two hand. And I, "Yeah nigga, we
finna gat these niggas. We at these niggas." He said "Woo." And you see us, and I'm gassed. Then Baker in front of us
and everybody in front of us. We get out here and you
know Larry Bird is out here, really, you know, fucking
with Kobe like yeah, shoot it. Yeah, you gonna shoot
him out of it anyway. Let him shoot that shit. You know what I'm saying? Kobe hearing it. Kobe want the ISO. Karl Malone come over there, you know, some All-Star
shit try to take the pick. Kobe wave his ass off. Watch out move. Nah, I want this. Go into his shit. Come to the bench, Karl Malone
like, "Man waved me off." - Karl Malone. This motherfucker out the game man. But the first, second
player in the game, man. We going up and I get it. I get on left side, I take one dribble and I
look and I just threw it. And I threw it right in the middle, - Not when he caught them days. - And what I didn't know, I had split the difference
of the free throw line in the goal. And when I say this motherfucker, - Stretched out
- Took off. - When I say Lord, he was
supposed to catch it, one hand. He caught that motherfucker
with two hands, - Whole body, legs, feet up in the air. It was crazy. - And for like two seconds
that nigga sat right there. He dunked that motherfucker. Woo! Told you, motherfucker! Yeah! Yeah, nigga! Yeah, would've catch this. Cool. Point. Yeah. And when I did
that, Lord, he let it all out. He was cool. Came to the base, "Good looking. Hey, hey. Hey, hey, yeah, let's get it." He was in it. By then, Mike was already going. Mike was already, he had the sweat and lava going, licking his fingers, blowing his shit. Aw man. But, it was classic. It was a perfect place
to have that exchange in a place like Madison Square
in a city like New York, with those two titans right there. - [Miles] Yeah. - That was a magical night, yo. - I always loved the Clippers. Vince, Duncan, and Old Boy after the USA. - [Richardson] Oh man. - Oh shit. - But I always love your reaction. It's like that, it gotta come from that. Like when you seen that and
you seen Vince just clear him, cause Vince didn't know he cleared him. But when you seen he cleared
him, like how did you feel? - I thought of Ronnie. I thought of Ronnie Fields. Listen. - [Richardson] When you jumped over sir. - Man, when... Cause I now played with Fields and seen Fields do some shit. Well I'm like, god damn. And Vince Carter know Ronnie Fields, they know each other very, very well. Right? Right? Let's leave it at that, all right? But Vince, he's 6'8",
you know Ronnie's 6'3". You know, 6'8"! Man, when he-- First off, I saw him finna try him. I was like, man did he jump too far? Cause I, you know, - That's what he thought.
- I thought he jumped too-- I thought he just, he
just went off us like, yo, shit, I gotta hit it
before he hit it, right? - That's what he thought. - And he got up before the
seven footer could get erect. So, the nigga actually balled up. And when he balled up, he cleared him. Boom! And me and GP was like, me
and GP and Tim Harlan was like the niggas on the team,
you know what I'm saying? So, you know, we like, "Yeah, nigga talk! Yeah." You know? So, I didn't even see when he swung. I was just like, oh my. You just sh-- You just shit on-- And then they took the ball
out and they was so we couldn't really celebrate like we
wanted to, but I was like, "Yeah, boy!" - You pushed him.
- Man, I pushed him. I tried to bow him, I tried
to grab him but we couldn't. He was like, "Yeah, yeah. Okay, we gotta get back." And then the moment was over. So, we couldn't like
really live in it, but-- - How was the reaction after the game? - Man, we got to the locker
room, GP was like, "Boy you b--" You know GP got all that Oakland. "Boy, you woo, boy. Boy, you wiped your ass with him, boy." "You hear me, boy? Boy, you wiped your whole
ass with that boy, boy. That's your boy!" You know, GP with his ticket. We all was in there dying, laughing. But, I think Vince
probably shocked himself if I'm being 100. - No, we had him on here. We had him on here with us
and we asked him about it. He said, y'all wasn't
celebrating the same shit. He's like, he absolutely thought
he jumped from too far. So, he was like, - That's the first thing I thought. he felt like it was like, like space jam. He felt like he had this stretch and dunk. - He did, yes. - So when he dunked it,
he didn't forgot about, but he didn't know whether
he just moved or what. He didn't think that he jumped. But he's like, I'm hyped because I'm like, hell yeah, I didn't think I was gonna
make it. I made shit. So, he didn't figure
out til after the game. I think he said it was GP's
homeboy had one of the cameras, y'all watching the replay and he was like. - Oh, you jumped over him, bro. He was like, "What? Hold on, lemme see that." Yep. Because we was looking at him, like, came down like, "Boy, you just," And GP was like, "Boy, you just wiped
your ass with him, boy. You see what you just did?" He didn't even really know until they actually
watched the recut of it, or the replay of it and was like, "Damn, i didn't even, I
didn't even know none of that. That was crazy." I was like, man, get your ass outta here. - When I got drafted, they asked me to do the Sports
Illustrated cover with you. - Yep. - So, I'm coming to see you. I'm flying to Minnesota. They flying me to Minnesota and
my cousin on the phone like, "Man, you in the league now. You can't be they friends,
you can't be cool. You can't be nothing." So I'm in it, I'm just getting off the phone
with him and I get in there and I see you and I'm like, "Dang, that's my guy right here, man. Dang." I can't even say I
was just quiet, chill back. What you remember from
that shoot when I came? - So, they actually, they said, "So, it's the kid
coming outta high school, and he's gonna be really fucking good. He might go number one. I was like, word? Where he from? He's like,
"Man, he from East St. Louis. I was like, what? - And then, "He looked like you, play like you. Baby KG, they called him." I was like, what? So, it was the first time I had, it was the first time
I had somebody actually say some shit like that. Like they wanted to play
like, you look like, you know? And I was like, huh? Like what? Play like me? Like, hell no. I ain't got no left hand. I can't even-- So, I'm in my head, right? - [Miles] Yeah. - So like, yeah, they want you to do a, it's gonna be on Sports Illustrated. So, I was like, yeah,
let's do it. Fuck it. He come from the high school?
"Yeah. Motherfucker, man. He supposed to be the woo." So, I'm on some like, all right. Like.. He played the full? All right, I'ma be the OG.
- [Richardson] Right. - How Sam is to me. I'ma be friendly, I'ma be friendly in this, but I know where bro from.
- Right. - Can't be no bitchass nigga
coming from East Saint. - Right. - It's already know what he own, right? I knew that either you
knew about the Voshon game or you had heard about it.
- [Miles] Yeah. - And that was my link
to being in East Saint. So, this is what I was gonna leave with. So, I remember pulling up and I saw you, and it was like looking
in the mirror at myself. I'm like, damn, this
nigga look just like me. We got the same, what's
your daddy-- You got that-- What's your daddy name? I'm like, we might got the same dad. And it was love. I remember dabbing you, we
ticked the little joint. You didn't really say much. And then I was like, damn,
this nigga acting like me. Like I'm a shy nigga. I don't like really talking around people. And then people I don't really know. And then a nigga I might
have to play or something, You know I'm real finna-- - I know I gotta see you again. - Right, so I don't wanna be all like, - I don't wanna give you none of that. - buddy buddy. I want him to think I'm cool and, - Cause this that era, you
can't even get none of that. - Man, can't even be friends with a nigga. Cause you know you might have
to put your finger in this nigga's face or something. - I'm like, damn, I don't
want to go in here like this. But it's so much natural, good energy. - Yeah.
- That I just went with it. And me and D Miles never had a, - Yeah, we always respected each other. - Never had a issue. We played hard. Played against each other. Blocked niggas shots, say
shit, talk shit, woo woo. But it was never no outta line shit. - Yeah, never no disrespect. - Never no outta boundary. No, never that.
- Yeah, always respect. And then, yeah. So, with that I came in there with wanting to give good energy. - [Miles] Yeah. - And then when the guys gave
me all the ones and twos, I was like, oh hell no. And then we got up. It was all cool. - Yeah. - And every time I saw you,
it was always like that. - It was always love.
- Always love. - I appreciate you, man. - Always, bro. - Anytime I seen you,
bro, it's always love. - I gotta tell you a story, right. Baby KG used his favorite player, right? So, you know, just like
you said young boy shit, we like, we first come to play y'all. We clippers, we come to
Minneapolis, we in Minnesota. Never forget this. Me and Keon and Corey, right? - Corey Maggette? - Yeah. Corey Maggette, Keon do beat. We all we know we the
young boy we like, yeah. - All talking shit. - We like, we talking to
him like yeah all right. Nah. Like I don't want hear nothing, boy. Like, hey I ain't ain't
no fan shit tonight. Ain't no favorite player tonight. Better hoop, boy. Right? So look, we get out there
classic Clipper fashion. We getting our ass tow out the
fuckin frame by like 20 plus. Right? We come in the half time. I ain't never seen this outta of him. - This one happened,
this the end of the game. - Yeah.
- It was end of the game. - He mad. He don't never say shit. Like I'm talking about when
I say don't say nothing like in a team for--
- Nothing? - Not like this. Like we at a timeout. AG down there trying to do something, D Miles was like, "Man, fuck this shit! Ain't nobody hooping. Playing like some bullshit. We playing him." - Crying. - I said this man getting outta this body, - They so silly. They bugging up but I was
crying at that motherfucker. - You know, we 19. - Right, right. - I'm like, he 18. I'm like - Kill that shit, nigga. Come on, let get onto the next city. - I say, I didn't know
you cared like that. - I get it, though. - Everybody was like wait, him? This nigga's just 19.
- That's that one though. So every time I one you
gotta prove like nah yo. I said look this is the first
time we saw he gave a fuck. Like you know he 18, he the
kid, he got all the money. He the highest, he don't
care about nothing ever. - Hey look, I watched film of you, right? I watched film of you and I dunno. I ain't gonna say you was bullshitting. I ain't gonna say that. You know you was doing your thing. Nigga, when I playing
you I'll never forget. I ain't know you had handle like that. - Right to left. - I was like, I came to the bench, I sat
down, I was like, and then in, in my own head I was like
man, I ain't, I ain't, I ain't see him hand no right to left. He. - Fast. - I was like fast and shit in here. Banging that motherfucker. I was like, man, hold on then. I didn't know you had ups
like I, I knew you could jump. And I was like yeah I gotta like, I like it as we sitting there
flip talking. I'm like yeah, I gotta, all that shit I just
watched on tape this out. I'm seeing a whole new nigga right now. I don't even. - Blow with turn. - Up. Right. So I, you know, I had
to give you some space, Chuck you a little bit, grab you early, hold you like I was just Yeah. - Yeah. Live bro. Take take me to 2004. Like when, when, when Sam and Sree got there
and then like that year culminated like in the MVP. Like just tell me about that whole season. - That was a magical year for me man. Cause I had started working
out earlier than later. And it was my first or second
time working with a trainer. Like I had bought Joe Bill, RN and I told him I wanted to be stronger, I wanted to do these things. I was having knee issues so I wanted, I didn't want to go through
the league and have no knee issues. So I was like,
what can I do to whatever? And this one I started working with sand. So I get into sand, sand started Harding on my
legs and I start really, really having like a different
level of commitment to the weights. And I remember and we was,
we was working out and Sam, I had never played with somebody that was, well Steph was very smart. Steph,Troy, Hudson. - T Hud. - T Hood out.
- Shot out T Hud man. T Hud's one of the better
point guards I played with. And Terrell, Brandon, actually. you know what I'm saying? T Brandon tb. TB was very smart. So Sam was the first point
guard that that could actually take the game over and post up
and post up guards. And that, that was the first time I had
seen a point guard. Like just, I was like, he was just dribbling fool
down and just back him on down and turn his shoe. Bam. And then he was so confident. - 2.2 Point G2 point G, that's
a layup free throw line in. - That's a lay up. Two s
is two L's was another, it was another level of confidence for me. And then Spri was like a
Milwaukee Street Congo Milwaukee, he was Wow. Like, yeah,
SPRI go get up, go practice. Hardest as. Two hours. He go go to Steam. Like
he was a structured, he was like a structured street
guy straight up and down. He had his guys, he had
things he did, but he was, he was a tech guy. He would have compu, he would build switchboards
and we'd be on a plane, he'll be putting a computer
together. And I was like, I didn't know that he can fix engines. I didn't know he was a
cough techie like this. I didn't know he was just this
genius under the hood when he came to like mechanical
and computers and. He was, listen the script on Spree
is totally, totally wrong. That's different. He is, he is a, I don't wanna call him a
nerd, but he is a very, very educated, very,
very nerdish kind of guy. That's a street nigga. That's a real nigga. You know, I'm, I dunno how to put that together. Right. Yeah. But he was that, so
a lot of times he, he be, we be talking basketball
and he'll take it from the perspective of, oh no,
you know, if you stop, jump stop two stop. And, and then hit. And and it gave me a, a chance
to hear how people processed, how they saw shirt and. And the reason why all three
of us worked was because we were caring about each
other. And then we hung out. We had G tr on that team. Trenton Hassel. Yeah. Yeah. We had a dope team and we all
with each other off the floor. Yeah. And those teams that
socialize, chill with each other, be with each other, strongly believe, man you cannot them them hard teams. - I didn't know what the
league was until I left the Clippers. Right. Because we used
to all to be together. Every, every travel, even
when we in town, you hunt. - To be with one or two guys, everybody. Right. - Not having everybody
that that's changed, but, but Sam and Spree, like
these are two guys that they, they two are my favorite guys. But them guys don't get the credit. They. - Don't get no credit. - Straight. And for you to,
for them to be with you, you have an n v MVP
season with them two guys, like just them two guys in general. What, what do they mean to you? In
in, in the sense of what, what, how you can step up and be. - Mvp? So after Steph, I had like a, I had like a taste of what a, I don't wanna say a a dream
team, I know like that. But it was like a, it
was a, it was a better, it was a better team with better talent. And what I mean by that is that
spree coming outta New York had learned how to not
only take over games, but he had a confidence
about himself in his game. Sam was a actually proven
winner who had won two times in Houston and been around
Dream who was like the Michael Jordan of the Post in the, in the king of his own right. And saw how he worked and all that. When them saw how I worked
them saw how prepared, when them saw how I did my A, B and C. That's when I got they respect.
Cause it was every day. I didn't, I didn't, it's not a, it's not a day that I didn't
go by that I didn't work on some or I didn't go at
it like this and that. And I went like this
and I gave them respect. And when we put all that together,
man, flip had to tell us, man y'all, y'all gotta, y'all
gotta argue or something. Y'all gotta get in each other way. Y'all, y'all y'all y'all being way
too respectful for each other. So it definitely. - Was y'all playing good. - Basketball man Joe. It was so easy. And then Sam, you know, you know that basketball when
y'all two can look at each other, you know he finna go live
or when you finna spin live, I hated that. I did
that and then, you know, that was my play actually. Right. - What we got you and
Chris. But that's what we. - Like he was sprinting
up now I was like, ah. The minute I took a step, I knew it. I saw, I ain't even Right. But it was that type of basketball
to where with these guys and how we were just meshing
on the court. It was, it is like Sprewell is probably
Sam and Sprewell like my big brothers to this day, if
I see them, it's all love. If I see them I'm gonna go outta my way. If I see them it's gonna be the same love, it's going to chill,
it's gonna be whatever. But those were my OGs who, who was teaching me not
only things on the court, but then teaching me things off
the court that I was able to use even at that stage. And I was in such a harmony
that I was playing like it times where I would get tired in games
and I had to, not for Nale, but I would have to like take a, not take a playoff but I needed
one and didn't come out and I couldn't come out. Right
Man, Joe speed, I got it. Pick and roll. And here we start calling
Speed Wears plays and that, that kind of having that kind
of insurance with those two guys, I actually felt like
I had a chance to actually, if we would've win two a, a
couple more years with that. Yeah. I actually thought we had a
chance to win the winning and all. Yeah. Real. Cause you gotta have
two people that's on the, that's on the same lines as
you and this is what I learned. You gotta have somebody that
can actually take the game over also and they can lead and
they can do some of the other things. And that's what
I found in those two. Those are my first two
superstar teammates. And that made the team a
lot more better overnight. - I wanna talk about the,
the championship season. Mm. Like from the, from the time you, you get traded and you hear it, but just hearing all the stories
about that training camp, how y'all went overseas
and, and the connection. Y'all kind of made the
connection Doc brought to that. Like I got a chance to to get
there on training camp after y'all won. And I can instantly see it
soon as I walked through the, through the locker room, what y'all had. Just explain that whole
season and the hole and, and to be your first year in
Boston to be with p and all them get them personalities
and they clicked. Yeah. Played the, the Lakers of all
people in the championship. - No a lot of people don't know this man. I was trying to actually play
with Kobe in LA and he was on a tour in China and I couldn't
get 'em on the phone and I had a conversation with Tlu
and Chauncey before I made a decision because they had
movement in the league and they knew how the process of
players moving and leaving, how that whole went. So they was giving me jewels
on that and this was my first time and I had to pick between Phoenix, the Lakers in Boston and
Steve Nash called me and yeah, Phoenix got cut out right away
just because of what you said earlier. So didn't wanna pay, nobody wanted the cuts and all this other. Didn't sound all right, didn't feel right. So I didn't even, you know, - Didn't wanna pay nobody. - Go to State at the time was just too young for what they was doing. You know the Lakers and Boston was two, two teams I really looked at
and then Kobe couldn't get Kobe on the phone. And then I had actually had
some years playing with P and AAU a couple times and then
on draft night Ray got, Ray got traded, traded
there and I was like, Paul Pearson Ray. - Right? They. - Ready to go. I was like
man what kind of man who, who can I actually team up and
be better than them two Ray was coming off of crazy years. I don't know if y'all remember that man. - Oh no I that I was in the
weather was in Florida in. - Seattle when I get there bro
we work out early so you know I'll make the announcement
I get there, whatever, whatever we get there. The first thing I say in front
of Doc and in front of Ray, I said to P, cause I had talked
to Torn Walker before I went and we was at a GP had a, he had renewed his vows so he
invited a bunch of people down to Laguna and we went down and
celebrated with him and his wife at the time and Torn
Walker pulled me to the side. He's like Hey man you know Cyber tw, hey man tell shot down and
shout to Cyber TTO too man. One of the best to do it
straight up big doggy walker dog. Know what I'm saying? We had some battles and I
fought with dude and Torn Walker actually made me better from a lot of. And he was one of them ones
really? So I shot him out real. But he pulled me to the
side, he's like, Hey man, let give you some facts man, you know man you gonna love
P but you know just how you gotta And he just went
through like a little A, b, and C with it. I was like hmm. I was like yeah I can see that. You know I haven't been
around P since high school. So all these new things, you know torn has been
in the war with him, been in the trenches with him
and all this and he was just giving me some like abc.
So when I got to Boston, the first thing I said man is
P man I just wanna say this in front of everybody while
we're right here man. This is your team. I want you to know man, we
here to make you better. You know me and Ray gonna
be your OGs, you know Doc, you gonna coach us but
I want you to know man, that this is yours man. And we coming up here to make
this situation better with you. And when I said that it felt like a. - Yeah. - It ain't gonna be no
ego tripping in here bro. This is your bro. - We can be, yeah. - Bro, we, we all who we are and we gonna
all play a part in leading this whole thing. We got a bunch of young guys
looking at us like we got the answers right. So the three of us was always
on the same page from day one and that's why that thing worked. And I start to see how we led
like if you said something, you know, you know we all backed it up. If D Miles made a point, we backed it up. It wasn't like you would say
something and then I'll turn back around and contradict what you - Right. Right.
- It wasn't none of that. We was always on the same page
and then I go back to it man, I ain't never hung out with all 15 of my, I ain't never did that Right bro. The first time we all hung
out I was like, let's yeah. - I can see Bond in y'all. - Then we went to Italy. Yeah but you gotta be
together and if we're going do something and man we
was just, oh man it was. - I gotta ask a question
about Italy. Right. Cause we had my boy big baby. Oh man, my, that's my main man shout out Big baby. - Big shout shot the big baby crazy. What he saying? This shit. He said some crazy. He told me when y'all was in
Italy that he was about he, he missed the bus. So he was about to be late to
like the first thing missed he got on the bikes with with
like the kids and he showed up and like you, you the first
one looking, what the is it? Like tell me about that
first thing then he, he showed up late to it. How crazy he. - Was looking So big fella, big fella is I guess coming
from lsu but he coming from the ncaa, he feeling good. He in shape. He, you know he, he got, he got some I I can tell
big fella got confidence in himself. So when we work
out and we played, I'm just, I'm just testing, I'm
seeing what everybody on, I'm seeing what everybody
else. So I got a playing, he ain't as big as I thought he was, you know what I'm saying?
So I'm keeping it simple. We playing and then he did
he, he come down, he hoopy, he made it a shot. He came
down, he did something. - He said, he said, he said, I was like, he said he told us about
this. He said get in there, get up or something. He said something. - No he said something like, he said big like something like Big fell, he gotta step up on that. And I like, I ain't stepping up on that bullshit. You just like yeah big fella
got this swag out here. I was like fuck your swag, nigga. And he went big fella,
I'll fight big fella, I'll, I'll fight out here, I'll fight. I was like fight what
you talking about nigga? I'm just talking about fuck your swag. What you talking about Ball
coming down. So we again, you know we hooping and me
and him was cool like that. Ever since that has changed
because shorty wanna sit in here and listen to all the stories
now come on big fella, we're gonna get these shots
up. Okay I'ma no come on. So every day I would pull a
baby and we'll go work out every day. That's why hitting that
15 footer, that 17 footer, that one dribble pull up that two, you can't sit in this
light room in politics. If you want two come on
then we gonna go in here, we're gonna get in this
weight room then you know, now everybody here lifting together shirt, softs look like win, you
know what I'm saying? Like yeah on the yard screaming, each other's face pushups
pushing each other high fiving 15 in the, in the, in the weight room. Guards over here. Yeah. - Yeah. Oh yeah. - Good. It looked like some jungle shit. Then we go out here and
bump. So I was on some like, yeah so we go over to in London
actually got a huge dinner and yeah no it's Italy, we, we in Italy and we got a
dinner so everybody is keeping everybody on par, you know,
long go off, hey QA down, call Q room, make sure
he, you know that type. So we get down here
like man baby ain here, he the rookie man go, go, go grab him. So Rondo some of the other young, oh man, he ain't answering. So the bus
leave, we get to the dinner, we all sitting in here, you
know the owners in here. This is like to commemorate
or to invite us to to Italy, you know what I'm saying?
Officially baby come in sweating. First off. Everybody dressed up. Look like he got in a
fight and got mugged. So his all looked like he yeah
should come in here man you know he is super the theatrical right. So he come here man listen, I took the bike, I the kid rode the bike, I drove the bike over here to cam traffic. - Lord we all sitting here
listening to this. We all like, man this lying like a mama. - You. - Know that you, you know
how you man this lying. - Like so we like mama mama. He said like. - Omar. - I'm putting this on my mama,
you can ask a little boy. He out there with the bike
right now, the cam over. Oh. - My mama And then you know
Doc, alright, alright baby. - Sit down. - Yo, you ain't hitting them God
when they find the out baby for that, they find the he gave. Man baby gotta find a
million dollars for that. Like old phone one of, one of my, one of my favorite
teammates, man straight up. - When I came to training camp
I used to call my homeboys back home and I was like, man,
Rondo was one of them ones. Yeah. Like he, the way he played, like he wanted of them ones
speak on how good Rondo was and how they like, he, he got appreciated by playing
with some good players. But he, he showed his too by playing with. - Y'all too. Man. Listen, when I, when I was
coming over to the, for, from the trade, I had like a little say-so
on who was going to be in the trade, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Or just, just the leverage of, so I, they had everybody in there and then I, I thought the nigga was African. I didn't, I didn't know,
you know what I'm saying? The said the name was
Ray John. I was like, and I had seen this one
clip of him in the garden. Y'all seen the clip where
he steal it, lay it up, steal it again and, and, and then get foul and then he
flip over some like it's it's a famous clip. Yeah, it's like some, you know what I'm saying? So
I see that clip, I'm like, hey look Danny like I I I
want to come over here but you know if I come over here
y'all gotta keep the little African. Y'all gotta keep
the little, the little, you know the little African
ra regime ra. He was like, you talking about Raan? I
was, I'll say yeah Rondo. He's like, yeah, yeah,
yeah you gotta keep him. So the, I got to see him in practice
with all the behind the backs and the ghosts and the,
and he just around quiet, don't really say nothing. But
then we get out here, he, he, he picking up, he picking up
94, he zig-zagging, he just, I'm like, hey young and you know I
actually get up and double the guard like this at now.
And he said, oh yeah, okay well and we mess right
away even though he was quiet and then they was so used to
Paul doing stuff and p coming in here acting like torn walker,
the whole torn walker fla, you know what I'm saying? So I came in here doing a
whole nother move. I, you know, I would talk to the Youngs
and I would get one-on-one and the rookies didn't have. I'd get 'em suits and show
'em and we all go places. And so Pete had to change what
he was doing a little bit to fit all what we was doing. And then Rondo was just so
smart that his development just being around better players just took off. But he was also hardheaded
as. He was also a little goon. He was also in his head,
he was also one of us. And one of the things we all
had to take serious was that his development was coming
to the point where yeah, he, he gonna be an all star. I didn't understand but he,
he can near he gonna be, he gonna be it, he can run this, he can he start getting his little jay, you know for the stuff they,
they, they said he couldn't do. He started knocking it down
man we went to Miami one time. He punched that on Chris box came through. I ain't know he had that like I was, you know what I'm saying? And then you just start seeing
the growth of Rondo and I was like man this, this is
a, it is just a genius. He's a genius. A lot of people don't know
Rondo actually want to be a quarterback. A lot of people don't know that
he was really into football. He's toughest nails. But I always knew, I never worried about Rondo
when it was somebody that had like a big name. - He was ready for that? - What y'all remember when
Jeremy Lynn had that? Yeah, when Jeremy Lee killed the league. Seven, eight games went crazy
man Dough was every day. You know p come in man y'all
said Jeremy Lee, Jeremy Lee, we used to have a little
say in the locker room. Man, suck him off is you suck him off. Like trash. I'm like Sandy trash dude, that ain't. Wait till I see this nigga. like you know. No you know I'm riding with
you. Nah, I'm nine five all day. You all right man, ain't
wait till I see this. I be what boy, we we played New York. He wasn't even close yo, he wasn't talk. He was in the zone and he,
he he ate dude, he ate, he ate Jeremy and he stopped
that little seven game whatever. Well he stopped it and then
dude went into like a little slide after that man thing but mm. Man doe was one of the
ones. That's what said man, he kept it in check and then
was talking crazy. Lord. I used to love to watch
Rondo and Derrick Rose. Ooh young Derrick Rose
too. Shout the D Rose man. Yeah cause D Rose came to
the league and had to get his respect. Took that. Y'all y y'all y'all got it up. But then his brothers and
everything front row shout in that same and they been
consistent throughout so. - Hey, but one thing about D Rose bruh, all of us from the crib, he lived it. He lived the Chicago kids biggest dream. That man came in and
set that bitch on fire. My youngest MVP put on for the
legit bull heartbeat and the pulse of the city. He, he got
hurt, the whole city was hurt. The whole city was fucked up. - When you finally won that championship, how did that feel? - Bro, It was like, it was like that sand hill
that I had started running and can never get to the top and man, if I had to get to the top, all my legs and were burning
so much that I had the near slide on my back to get
down this. You feel me? But when I f man we
was playing the Lakers, I'll never forget, you know Cole was so, Cole was so arrogant and so
much talking to me like they had already won it. But he was like, man, just first boy, you know you never forget
your first, you know, you know what I'm saying?
You know what I'm saying? He was just talking to me on
some big brother like man, get your outta here. You know, I gotta remember I'm
older than bro and I'm, I'm holding it like I'm the big bro. So every time I see him I'm
holding it like that. I ain't, you mean to me time, time
to be the big brother. Oh no, but you know he don't want a
couple too so he talking that. But I'm like, yeah, this ain't Minnesota. Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh Ray, I used to
do Ray like Du oh no, nah this is a different radio,
you know what I'm saying? And then p like, I I'm over
here too, yo, you know? True. So he had this three headed
monster. Then he come like, what mean, what you mean? And then you got Lil Rondo
over here like watching it all peeping it, right? Like and bro looked around was like, like yeah you out here by yourself boy, that little picture where
you see us looking at, I'm like boy you tripping
boy are you out here by your, he ain't got no out here with you boy, you out here by yourself. He with foreigners and. ain't
gonna beat with no and I'm, I'm, I'm just like this. They got the picture right
and if you see his face, he really like, he was about
to steal me or something, but I'm like, stop it. I'm looking at him just like this. It's a picture where I
got my hands on my hips. I'm looking at him like this. He did it. Y's a problem, Chi it. He like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What he said, yeah, you
out here by yourself. And he was filling that the
next year he went and got our tests. He went trade all them. Yeah, he went trade half of all them. But to win that D Miles man
was like the pinnacle of everything that I worked for. Everything I had put into this, it it, it was the culmination of
it man. Like it was, it was, it was the, it was the ending. It was almost like not
the ending of something, but it was like, you have worked so hard for
something and here you are to accomplish it. A lot of said you couldn't
even get to this just like they said you wouldn't be in the league or you couldn't make the NBA. So it took me back to some of
those roots and once you win it, man, you get this like this, this layer about you or this confidence. Like I understand why Mike came
in and looked at people the way he used to look at people
Elijah on or the people that have won it multiple times. Because once you figure out
the code on how to win it now you know, you know what you have to do. You know, you gotta get to the free
throw line at certain parts. Fourth quarters you have
to do these certain things defensively. Certain things like this, you can't be in no foul trouble
at certain parts like this. Like it's, it's a code, but I didn't know, or this time that Coe
going through all this, you know Phil Jackson got
him on the phone with Mike, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Mike giving them juices,
Mike telling him, you know, Hey go like this. That's what I'm saying
that like to me, yo, we don't all get that exposure. - The. - Access. That's what I'm saying bro. Yeah, that's almost like cheating on kids. Like you got the Chico here. Yeah. Like if all of us have
the Chico like this, you don't think so, so yeah. But but to win it man and then
to win it with the guys on how close we were all were
man it was, it was perfect. It was perfect man. - When you got announced
to be a hall of Famer, like how was that when you, when you heard that cause
you won the championship, you have this great career and man they, they calling your name to
be Hall of Fame. Now you in, you finna get the gold face like, like. - Jacket that you came by. I
wasn't even, I wasn't even, I wasn't even, I wasn't even,
I wasn't even ready for that. Like I was on some retire
trying to chill and just be retired and let shit heal
and kids and Yeah, you. - Wasn't even thinking about
it. I wasn't came outta. - Nowhere. Yeah. You know, you know Hall of fame,
hall of Fame, hall of Fame. And I was like, what? Huh? I thought that was like
six years or like 10 years or something. No, no, no, no. Hall of Fame. Yeah, well, you know, and then this the class you
Timmy Kobe, I was like, huh, that's, that's, that's my name. Ah, yeah. I couldn't even put my hands
around that then, you know, as you get closer to it,
you gotta go to a meeting, then you gotta do some
press. Then I was like, each time I showed up I was
like kind of like slapping myself. Like the, I'm still talking about this
left hand and how I came. - Right. - Be talking about this. So
the gear, it took me back to, you know, dribbling at
five in the morning and, and west telling me to pick
my head up to, to know, to beating bear in Springfield
and watching Gold run our park and you know, being out here for the booty
bounce video and playing in Chicago and man being, being in the village and GDS
about to smash on us and I get us outta here and it, man, it was just like taking
me through all this. Like it was just man,
man shout to, you know, that held me down and
just was there for me and, and and wolf and Eskridge and
it just took me through all of it. It took me through all of
it and I was like, yo, I real, I, I got a real lifelike fantasy story. Like I, I man I survived all that. Sit here and put the jacket on. So I took my two daughters
and they, they like, they like seeing kind
of the like, you know, your kids wasn't with you
through the first part of the ride, you know what I'm saying? See it, they want to go through, when you go right back around
the block to do the ride, they want to be with you.
- They just heard about it. - So my daughter was
all into that and just, it was just a great moment for
all of us to have and share together. But it was something that I, I totally didn't have on my radar man. - How was it getting your jersey put up in the rafters though? That was another thing.
Especially like, you know, you know Minnesota one thing, but Boston. - Yeah, I didn't expect Boston to do that if I'm being honest. I thought P I knew P
cause he had been there. He had put it in the time. I didn't know if they was
gonna do like torn walker, but you know, I was just thinking about
people that had came there not, not to, you know what I'm saying? Torn Walker was the reason
I actually started watching Boston Celtics again and he
not had some magical moments there with p so I didn't
really know. I, you know, I really didn't, I really didn't expect
them to actually go there. And then they, they announced
it without even talking. Oh yeah, Boston plans
to retire Kevin's five. And I was like, oh yeah,
the, who, who, who, who made that up? Like who said that? And then it was like, yeah,
this is what we want to do. And it was kind of after the
fact. So it was just one, one of 'em things where
I was just too super, super appreciative. I didn't know that. I didn't know, you know, I
knew Boston fans or fans of me, but I ain't know they fought
with me like that. Right. - You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah. That's a, I got in that and the game was
over and people was supposed to be leaving people like,
what the this packed in here? Yeah. And it, and yeah,
I just, I just, yeah. in my greatest day of writing
a fantasy in a script mode, I can never write something that, something even close to what
I, what I've just experienced. But yeah, those are magical
moments that I take to me, I take with my take to my grave
being real magical moments man that you earned. You
know what I'm saying? - Yeah. Yeah. I wear, I wear
21 because you wore 21. No doubt. I never heard
the reason why you wore 21. Why 21 was the number
that, that was your number. - When I was in high school, my two favorite players was
Dominique Wilkins and Malik Seally and Malik Seally played at St. John's and he played for a
coach named Luke. Luke Sak. Yep. And if you ever seen Luke
Sak, Lou Keesa looks like a, like, and I'm probably his
name up so I apologize. I'm I'm not the best Pronunciate Right. Equivalent. Yeah, yeah,
throw that out there. But Lou Kosaka used to look
like he was Don Pablo or some used to wear the big
mob glasses used to ah, no you got to do it like this. He was, and he was my favorite coach
to watch on cbs. When, when, when St. John's used to
play on Big East Game. I used to, man I used to
watch the Big East St. St. John's against Georgetown
and that was that, that, you know, big John against
Lou like that, that was, that was everything for me,
you know what I'm saying? I was a huge Derrick Coleman
fan with Syracuse so Big East used to be the. Right. So I used to watch that. But Malik this dark-skinned
nigga that look like us. know I'm saying me look. Got little Jay, he tw and
I don't even know him. And Dominique and Dominique
was in Georgia, you know, right down the street from where
I was growing up. You know, we used to go to Freaknik
in Atlanta and like this. And Dominique came out there
and I'll never forget he was in the little hair show. - He was in the hair
show. I told him this too. - I told him this too. Me and my boy sitting there watching him, my mind did hair show.
We used to go to the, you know these little hair shows and, man up there try to get Nick autograph. He told me to scream, beat it, y'all get y'all last outta here. But Dominique was my favorite
player and he wore 21. But I was also a magic fan. So I go out for the Malden
High school team and this kid named Travis Kley, he was
a senior and he wore 32, so I couldn't get 32. So they had 21. So I took 21 and I rode it
all the way to the Wells. - Fargo. Tell me this though,
like, I know you like, like him, he's a high schooler, he's
tall, black like you, I'm 21. He want to wear your jerseys. How like you got a lot of kids
that probably wore 21 because of you, but Right. How do it feel to have
somebody that's a guard, somebody that's like a, a, a Patrick Beverly that's from
that west side of Chicago that took and he basically embodies
everything that you was about, like that level of
intensity, the tenacity, you know, the, you know, just that,
that being able to lock in. Like how does that feel
for you to see like, man, it's a guard who want to be like me, who I'm his favorite player.
Like how does that feel? That don't really happen
a lot for big men. Mm. - Yeah. I didn't look, I
didn't look at it like that. I looked at it like he was like, he was part of the dna N like
that that that that energetic DNA N that that'll pick you
up, that'll outwork you. That'll just, you know, you
see it in their eyes, you know, I, I knew D Miles was
about it when I saw him, you know what I'm saying?
Came out there. Like I said, I watched the tape and then I
asked the plane and I see how big his eyes was and how, how he want it. Like they're right there. You can't, that's speaking for itself,
you know what I'm saying? - Tell me this. You didn't,
you didn't, you didn't, you didn't got a couple hefty
health, hefty shmp cis like, you know, brings, brings trucks in, backed up to your house Couple
times I like, yeah, couple, few times. I like to ask the question
like not like what you, when you took care of moms or any of that, like what did cave, what did the big ticket do when
you wanted to treat yourself when you, like what was your
biggest purchase for you? Like Yeah I did that.
Like, like looking back, it ain't have to be the smartest
thing but we know it ain't, it ain't, it ain't do no
detrimental harm to you but like, you know, you probably won't do it now
but back then the young young ticket was like, yeah. - This it, oh man young
ticket was wow man. Young ticket might take like
five of the guys and you know, had a jury man show up, everybody
get y'all something man. Everybody get y'all. You know I might go to the
range joint and I call it the rainbow. You know V might
pick out the gold joint. True. Might pick out the navy
blue bug, got the white joint. I might take the black
joint and get my girl the, you know what I'm saying?
My sister going Yeah. - This is just for our listen
noise. We ain't heard this. This is group activities. Prior to this everybody bought
something for themself. Nah. - This man. - Just said I might call it
jewelry man for the crew Go straight up with. - The straight up crew then we
was the first to start doing this traveling to Miami. that hotel. We're gonna get a crib. We're gonna keep the crib for 30 days. We in here get the four five
cars, we're gonna rent 'em, get the boat, pull it
back here, put the three, four Ss in here man. How about 10? You feel me? - I'm saying. - Shade. Hey close that door. Hey we in here. Oh. We right across the street
from Shaq. Hey, what's up? Hey good luck in the
finals DeMar dog. Yeah, we're gonna watch, we're gonna pull up. Nah man. Next day we going the game. Nah like 50 people in here man. Like a 70. I got a 70 man dice game out in the back. - Yeah. - I mean we gonna watch that
in here on these ATVs in here. You know what I'm saying? I
got a whole girl, she like, yo where you where? Oh man I forgot I was had a
girl supposed to been home like 15 days. I stayed like 45. Then I show up, we hooping. Oh man I'm finna move down
here. Then I start buying. - Move's to move down, get. - A place in my. - Move. - I mess, mess with a girl in LA I got a
Crip in LA I got a Crip here. Like we I'm. - It's a young ticket. Was was like. - That. Yeah. Yeah. Early days was early days. Yeah. - You been in the finals,
you won championships, you been in some of the most
intense drilling rush games. Right. And with that
being in drilling in rush, when you not playing no more, that's a drug that you can't
duplicate. You can't remake it. You can't remake a a a
stadium full of people. Right. Screaming against you or with you. Right. You can't stay now you retired
and like Right. How and you, you one of the most intense players man. Like what do you do to to to
like man I gotta release this cause I gotta get hype on
so I gotta release this and give this energy cause I can't
get it no more from the game. - Film is my new film
is my new, my new it. - Okay. - Like when I retired I always
told people I put the monster under the bed. You know what I'm saying? Had to put him, put him away. But I don't believe that you
have greatness so you have a work ethic in you and after you
retire you just turn it off. I get up, I work out every
day from Monday to Friday, take my kids to school every
morning and then I start my day with however I start my day
and I'm a structure dude and that's how, how, that's
why that works for me. But in basketball I play with
a passion and I can actually say today femme kind of is like
my equivalent to basketball. When I get passionate about
a project or something. I came up with y'all met
church, him and our partners, we own a company called Content Cartel. And a part of it is bringing
projects that speak to the person and being able
to educate the person. But things that we can all
say that we can understand or things that would take
you into another realm. But some of these projects
speak so strongly to me that I'm passionate as just like as if
I'm in basketball and church will tell you when I go into
a riff and I'm trying to get you to see what I'm trying
to, you know, trying to build, I go into the riff and you'll
think we out here hooping or you'll think I'll be that
it be that energy. Right. And I'll grab church and
I'll be pointing and I'll be letting and then you a
see, you'll be like oh. And I'll tell you the story
from that energy not even knowing that I'm doing
it like that. Right. I'm just feeling so,
so, so thrown about it. Yeah. And I didn't even know I was
doing it like that until one of the like Man Joe, every time you tell a
story that you care about, boy I be seeing that on the
wall like a and and that's when I was like oh wow this is
my new calling. So you know, being able to educate and help people. I actually wanted to go into training. That's why you saw me when I
first got out I was working with like Greek and I was
working with some of the young young guys coming out like Jared, Jack and that was coming outta
the draft that time and then NBA teams got got like weird
and one of their own people in here, one of the D three or a who
was less to come in and do some of the player development stuff. So I had to find like my
calling, I love basketball. I would probably always will. I love to teach basketball,
I don't like to coach. I ain't none of that but teaching I can, I can show you how the A, B and C straight up the
things that I know. Right. And I felt like a lot of times
when I watched basketball, a lot of those little A, B and
Cs I'm missing from the game. So I'll be feeling compelled
just like if y'all watching the game and you'll be like why
you shooting the three right there? He was a great three point
shooter better than you know him and I, you can actually have an
expertise on that and give it to that player now to help him. It ain't enough of that. I see, I see training kids who ain't
never played in the nba ain't never played in college. you playing in high school
wasn't even everybody go to 'em like that's what I'm
saying. Everybody down here, everybody just. - And they and all they
games look just alike. - Lord I don't know why we
doing the side step to the three that looked like the most
difficult shot I've ever seen game. - Cause they they work on the
same drill all they games look just alike bro. - I'm like what is everybody
in the same gym working out on the same like nothing. - The biggest thing I
see though, hoop no more. No we used to like even when. - We the love for it though Hoop. - The love hoop we it like we
want to run when to run, when. - To run. Not even that poor what happened
to when wanting to play. - The best. That's what I'm saying. In the summer when that run
that's what we come to Chicago, we going to Vegas. - We going la Nah getting with
a trainer now going into a lock jam working out for 15, 30,
40 minutes showing highlights. You going like come on man.
Like just different bro. So I say all that to say that
yeah my new ventures man or or my new passions or or the
things that actually speak to me today. Those are things that
you know make me excited. - Outta all the teammates you had. If you had four other teammates
to pick to be your ultimate five from Minnesota to Boston
to we didn't ask you had to pick, you had to pick four other
players to create a five man team. Who would beat them? Four other players. Oh. - Man you ain't. Oh I gotta make a. - Team. Yeah just five. Five. You just gotta pick four in you Outta all your teammates you
have What would that five look like? Like we done had some fires
where there's been some nice, some fires that you be like you. - Gotta make a bracket. - Some heat. - Yeah. Oh man this the fox hill. This the foxhole huh. God that's terrible. Two asses Pete Pierce, I'm gonna go Sprewell. - Nice. - Joe Smith and myself. - Who. - Say that again? Stiff Smith people. - Sleep on Joe Smith.
Don't say the whole five. - Of them. So I got Sam Castell. - At the point. - Yep. - Over Steph? - Yeah over Steph. I got
Pete Pierce at the two. Okay, okay. I got Sprewell at the three and
they going be able to switch everything. - And you and Joe.
- You and Joe. Me and Joe. And then I got G, Trent,
Troy, Hudson, Trenton, Hassell and Ray Allen. Even though I'll ask you start
I gotta have Rondo and Ray in there somewhere. You know what I'm saying? And big baby little
fat somewhere in there. - Too. Start bench cut. You gotta start one. You got
bench one, you got trade one, you got Trade one Not
cut, you got Trade one. Okay. Weber Duncan, she Oh who would you start? Who would you? Who you trade?
- That's a terrible game. - That's. - Oh. Oh. Oh. You know Chris
Webber my favorite player. Oh. - Straight up. - You ain't Dil. That's. - Why he did. - It. - That's why he. - Did it. Oh. What's the thing? I got a play
with one Trade One kill one. What's the.
- What You gotta start one. You gotta bench one and you got trade one. - Aw. - Trouble. - Chop, chop. - Chop, chop, chop. It's, it's like that Washington
situation when it was she Weber and Juwan. You gotta figure it out. - That's a up game. yo. I'm gonna start, she,
what's the second one? - Bench? - Yeah, I'm a bench web and I'm a trade
dunking cause I know that's gonna him off. So when I see Tim I'm gonna get
Timmy's best and that's what I want. So it ain't even personal. - What I'm saying man. Thank you bro for. - No seriously this has been long overdue. I'm glad I did it when we did it though. - Yeah, nah man, you definitely
one of the ones that, you know what I'm saying?
We both saw identified, you know from the crib
from early on. Yeah. One of the biggest that did it. Man, we definitely had to get
you on here straight up. We definitely appreciate, I
love what y'all doing man. - Straight up, you know what I'm saying? Watching your dream made me, made me dream brother's
what to be who I am. Man. That 21 I hold It dearly
man's whats up man? Come up under you. We
definitely appreciate you, bro. So thanks. - That's, I appreciate y'all
having me on here, man. I'm a huge fan, knucklehead
man. Appreciate.
