KYRIE IRVING: “I’d Probably Be In LA [with Lebron James]” | I AM ATHLETE

we got a sage i'm sorry we got to smudge together as brothers sir can you please show us how to do this the right way yes sir pac you can get up uh turn around put your arms out all right and you start here so you're blessing them right now or what's this word put pick up your left leg oh yeah get everything get the ankles you put it down put your right leg supposed to stand up right next yep left leg up hopefully you saved him the right way i'll give me some more money yes sir you can eat right uh right leg up you say yes sir to eat sage yeah you can eat spoil it as tea turn around it's your boy give me right get his head i'm like yeah yeah yeah yeah that mean like what the energy or something like we can't transfer to the energy so yeah [Music] if i had every game listen i'd had another four thousand five thousand years if i had this every day every game you had to fight to get a meal yeah wrongfully accused we had to fight to get it pills that's why we right to get a deal he on the team he gotta eat you know despite your skills you've been riding for the fam you got to light that wheel straight up but in the past work up in the trash bag i'll pass a lot to take the test before i pass class and my family needed bread i had to come correct that's why i keep airing it out like i just passed gas [Music] i am athlete parlay we've been hot these are guaranteed wins i'm gonna take arizona over san fran whoa it's all about match-ups understanding who's playing against who it's a game of chess be marshall here i know you guys like the laughs sometimes with all my little trick shots but here's the deal we we're in it we're talking about nba playoffs draftking sportsbook is the partner i am athlete is the platform athlete is the code the promo code use the promo code after you download the app draftkings sportsbook if you bet five dollars you can get 150 of new bets if you win that's 30 to one odds you can't get that anywhere else same game parlay stacking best to make your bag a little bit bigger download the app get in the game make it rain baby so much action right now i gotta go watch draftkings.com is the sports book i am athlete is the platform parlay i am athlete all day promo code athlete let's get it [Music] okay another show another episode of i am athlete with my boys pac-man jones right your mind if i call you pac-man jones no adam pac-man school pac-man then my boy b marsh we have a special guest so um 2011 right first overall pick mcdonald's all-american whole career so he's always been like that and he's balling for the nets right now you know what i'm saying got a ring with lebron i'm happy to have kyrie irving some people may call him uncle drew some people call him the scale god kyrie irving in the building happy to have you my brother respect your favorite chicken just smudging that's her know the terminology all the viewers it's called smudging i feel better you feel better i want to learn i feel i do i do feel a sense of peace i feel like his presence came in and changed he's positive bro you know what i'm saying so like he's positive the environment do feel different you know but we sit here playing around a little bit it's cool but when you start staging yourself like it's like you went into a meditative state yeah yeah huh grounding um is is just as sacred as lighting the sage so everything has intention you know and it's really about uh paying homage to all those who have come before you and there has been numerous wars that have taken place over centuries against indigenous americans or indigenous people black americans black people and this is very sacred to us because it's a ritual you know and it means different things in different households and different cultures all around the world sage is a global thing you know what i mean and for me personally i went back to my tribe in south dakota reclaiming my identity reclaiming my power reclaiming my tribal relationships my communal relationships and i got my name um ela h-e-l-a and it means little mountain in my tribe so i have a name um that was handed down to me from my great grandfather um and it was given to me from my tribe so that was around 2017 and um i'll say this it shook my world up because uh all the history was just being given to me and then my ancestors were standing right next to me so everywhere i go i'm not walking alone so this is in south dakota so how do you feel standing rock or uh mclaughlin south dakota north dakota arizona a little bit up because america before it was colonized was indigenous so so what was this what happened you know in your life that made you want to find your tribe or even think like that yeah and then also you know how do you find when you say i found my tribe you know i mean how do you do that you know they're saying ancestor can i find mantra yeah you can i'm gonna just say this there are um ways to reconnect to your history by just asking questions to your elders they're walking libraries you know what i mean they have a lot of information and wisdom and knowledge to impart on us but uh of course we're out here living fast live so it's hard to sit down sometimes with your grandmother your great grandmother and um you know it is i'll say this the phrase for 20 22 on that i give to my brothers and sisters is find your tribe season find your tribe season it really is about reconnecting to your lineage and appreciating it you know and when you find your identity it's just you're not walking confused out here and trying to piece yourself together from other people's knowledge about who you are you know because there's a lot of false information about who we are as indigenous black people so um when i found my tribe it literally was a purpose that was given to me from my mom she passed away transition excuse me transition when i was four years old and then my grandmother at five years old so my grandmother's in the bronx and then my mom was in south dakota right and my mom was adopted out of the tribe this was during the 60s and this was happening pretty often that um you know there was a war against indigenous americans and they were placing them in different schools and different homes so my mom was part of that uh that time and then uh yeah it just it was heavy on me it was heavy on me i just felt like i was lost in the world you know without my mom and my grandmother so i needed some direction so went back got my naming done went back to uh the bronx mitchell projects where my dad grew up my my four aunts my uncle and um you know we just started really making changes making an impact 2017 you were playing weird i was still in cleveland so you were in cleveland yep your mom passed when you were four transition when when you were four and then your grandmother a year later drugs right yeah unfortunate just like the way that happened was it was more than just drugs it was just environment you know what i mean growing up in the projects growing up in the hood you know what comes with it so right there my i'll say that there were instances where my uh aunts and my unc and my uncle had to be grown-ups before they were 12 13 years old because my grandmother you know she was young she had her first child at 13 years old i'm trying to kind of put myself in your shoes right like 2017 like you're on top of the world yeah you're uncle drew was the movie out by the way no i filmed it in 2017. it came out in 2018 yeah your own shoe you're on top of the world so like what what what was going on in your world where you was like yo i gotta reconnect yeah you know like yeah you could be traveling the world you could be partying you could be doing other things but you you know 2017 you're like you know connecting with your mom your grandmother your tribe like yeah i'm trying to figure out like what was that so i'll say it was uh 2017 leading into 2018 is really around that time so uh it was like climbing up one of the tallest mountains in the world winning the championship and when i got up there and you realized that all the accolades and all the achievements yeah it feels good it feels great to add that to the career but it just i felt empty after i done traveled after i done partied after i don't spend a bunch of money after i asked for more deals you know we all been through it so feeling on top of that mountain man after a while i just felt like i didn't really i didn't really know who i was i didn't know what my future was gonna be you know and when that happens uh i didn't know where to really turn so i started digging deep into my uh family lineage and that's where it led me south dakota right and and family and to you it's so big even like hearing you talk about it and doing the research to know about your family i look at like you and your pops right your sister and like i have my dad in my life you know what i'm saying but growing up especially in the black communities most black players especially the superstar players etc they don't have their dads in their life right and you have you in your day like you have a super crazy bond one of the games i i went to um the nets yeah i played everywhere play i think new york and you came to the game and you was with your pops and i was like damn like that's that's what people like strive to have you know how many people be looking for that talk about like your relationship with showing your pops man cuz that's a lot of black kids don't have that yeah i well man when my mom transitioned my grandmother transitioned it shook my dad's world just imagine you know you looking at one of the strongest men you ever know and then he loses his mom and his wife in a matter of right a two-year span so he was going through a lot and just like in our community we hide it you know we hide it very well we wake up every single day and i watch my dad wake up every single day and you know try to strive for that positivity and set a better example for us so we became really close uh when he sat us down and he explained to us that my mom transitioned i'm five years old i remember like it was yesterday you know what i mean like so when he was sharing that with me excuse me my sister was five i was four years old when he was explaining that to us i still remember that day like it was yesterday man four years old and i started his memory he's sitting us like your mom this happened this is what our life is going to look like now um i just want to let you know that you guys could talk to me about anything so from that point on it was just open door policy with him i could talk to him about anything i mean anything that i was going through obviously i didn't tell him everything but i definitely shared with him some uncomfortable moments and um we really grew as brothers you know i'm watching my dad uh become a better man and he's setting a better example for me but one thing he always shared with me is like you're gonna be a better man than me right right that was that was always in our household you're gonna be a better man than me and i'm a hell of a man i'm a hell of a man you outdo me you're gonna have to do this this this uh i used to look up to him like a giant man he's 6'4 i was i was small until i was about like 14 15 years old and i hit my growth spurt but uh he really invested uh the weekends in us me and my sister my sister going to dance doing her art thing me doing my basketball thing and i spent every weekend in new york city wow all across the boroughs playing ball and that was our connection was that your coping like doing i know it was a long time ago but when you was going besides talking to your dad like for another young athlete or another young kid that's going through the same thing you know parents just passed away you know i lost my dad early when i was seven got killed right in front of me it took me a long time to cope with it you know what i mean the anger part like what what can you tell a young kid that's going through a similar situation that you went through right now oh man well sometimes it's even uh difficult to hear stories like that and i've been through been through what i've been through but to hear that i i definitely empathize with you and i'm here for you you know as a brother in this world understanding that losing somebody close is one of the hardest things to deal with so talking to the youth and and then trying to my best to simplify things is it doesn't work for me you know it's hard to simplify that to a kid um tell them like you know everything's gonna be okay and they just lost a cousin a brother a sister you know a mom a dad uh it's one of the hardest things to um to do but i do my best by explaining to them that there's more to live for you know and that's a little cliche out there too but it's it's a bigger purpose out here for you you know and you have to deal with the stages of grief you have to you have to deal with your emotions when you're ready most kids are not ready to face that you know and some kids are but i would say that the the positive light that i found from sharing my story was being able to connect with communities all around the world that deal with similar situations so the kids that i'm talking to specifically um just just find your tribe and find people that are really going to put that love around you i had so many motherly figures in my life i had so many other fatherly figures in my life so they they really put their hands on me to keep me in the right direction because i easily could have ended up in so many different places trying different stuff your pops he um he played ball too right yeah yeah so and then yeah yeah godfather was it rod strickland yes sir y'all know what it is yeah dog he was nice of course he had the football tape on his on his drinks so did that develop your skill set cause you talk about new york and all that and jersey yeah did that kind of mold your game i'll say this because i definitely took the pride of jersey as i get a little bit older but i spent more time in new york than i did in jersey at certain points you know i used to be there with my grandmother she lived in mount vernon my i live in mount vernon um my aunt my aunts lived in harlem my stepmom lived in harlem as well we were all around the same world yeah burroughs like we were all one bridge away so you know i have family still in the bronx living in uh mitchell project so it was like i was around it all i saw it all and some of it traumatized the [ __ ] out of it right for sure because when you realize that you you're trying to strive to make a job out of a game you know that people are just playing in the parks every day right you have to approach it on a different um like mental alignment shall i say like and i don't want to throw these words out i'll explain it to you when i say mental alignment you just had to really be able to shut out what was going on around you to be able to focus up because you know being in the parks in new york you never knew was gonna happen after a certain time and um they used my my family to just throw us out there but we all used to stick together it was like eight of us eight cousins all hanging out and um to answer your question part of that family dynamic it gave me access to people who have done things before me and that was my uncle rod my uncle rob grew up in the same neighborhood as my dad they were two buildings apart so they would walk across it was about four or five of them that they all hung out together and when my uncle rob made it he got drafted to the knicks yeah just imagine getting drafted to your hometown right right you know he got he had to get invited here after like two years you know i mean he was the first um family member to move from new york to new jersey and if you know anything about moving from new york to new jersey that's a big accomplishment yeah moving to the birds right from new york to new jersey so um he he definitely had an incredible journey and story to tell me but me and him didn't connect until a little bit later in like 16 17 years old he was always around but he was still he was at memphis he was at kentucky he had 17 years in the league nice so having him as my godfather always had somebody to look up to but my father was always the one that was working with me on my skills at home so pop's kind of that skill and all that yeah me and my me and my uncle have never gotten a chance to work out ever ever ever like we've we played horse and stuff like that but we've never like gone in gym like yo put the cones out right right we're gonna get 45 minutes hour in like watching him and my dad they were my two favorites that came come on that all that that's that's so you never saw my dad play though you never saw my dad tell my dad my uncle rod nice but my dad is my favorite player that's my dad and then cole like they want a and one b for me bro right i don't care what people say about it my dad no one think one of the things you you you haven't really had an opportunity uh to lean into is kind of like the journey and going back to the beginning right so that's one of the things we want to talk about yeah i saw it on another like show or at podcast maybe it was a board room where you talked about um your father and you brought up you know he was like the interesting thing about my dad and our relationship in basketball is where it started he said he was putting the rim up or the hoop up in the backyard and that's the first thing that we did together around basketball on it and it taught me the details your mind is just unbelievable right like most kids oh yeah i got my hoop i'm excited about that but you're talking about like yo like my first interaction was like basketball and that taught me the details of it walk me through that time and when was that all right so we had just moved from northern jersey to west orange and we were living in society hill in newark and we went out to west orange moved into this nice house how old are you i was third grade first time being in our own crib my dad was hyped i mean first time owning a home you know what i mean we were renting from my uh my uncle raj family in newark like when he moved to georgia we moved in the same crib so when we went out to west orange uh we we moved in we got the court outside he just put the directions on the floor and uh i'm just picking up the basketball like going back and forth you know doing what i'm used to doing i'm like yo all right all right dad when's the room gonna be where's the real stuff he's like what are you talking about i'm like nah where are you gonna put up when you're gonna put up the hoop it's like you know when are we gonna put up the hoop directions on the floor it's bolts all his screws everywhere he got the toolbox out the rim is just the base like we're going to put this up and we're going to do this together and i'm going to show you how to put something together from the ground up and you may not understand right now you may not realize what you're doing now but this is going gonna matter for you because details don't go don't miss out on the details really enjoy putting something together that you can work with you know what i mean so i i literally was handcrafting with him and put the net up and once the net went up it was on it was on man and we we talked about it when we got in the house a little bit but my dad definitely was very detail oriented right very detail-oriented and wanted to teach me about you know putting your hands to work and then enjoying your fruits to your labor or audience sometimes say that i don't be listening i'd be cutting people off you cut me off bro no i ain't gonna cut you off but i'm listening listen when we start talking about basketball we start talking about basketball real soon now you know what i am yeah but um what you just said was you know the details of putting this hoop together and it what comes up as process understanding the journey embracing the journey year four year five coach tony sperano head coach of the miami dolphins you know he he came in and i used to you know jot down all his his quotes like he had these legendary quotes and and one day he came and he said um and it's the first time i heard it at this time um he said uh embrace the journey not the destination right and that takes me back to what we talked about maybe five ten minutes ago going to 2017 where you said you just won the championship the finals right you got everything climbing up this large mountain and then it's like the sense of like you're unfulfilled yeah right i think that's a beautiful thing because i think a lot of us players struggle with our identity being wrapped up in the sport right so for you that happened in 2017 that was a that was a big moment i'm 24. you're 24 at that point right so you know when you think about like what this path that you're on and like being present which i think is the most powerful state that you can be in is in the present moment now thinking about next year or the next day is like what about right now right um i think that's a one of the reasons why a lot of our guys are struggling is because the identity is wrapped up in the sport and they don't understand that like we think that that's what we're here for we think that winning the super bowl winning the championship getting a big contract is going to fulfill us and it doesn't right yeah so um i want to highlight that because i think that a lot of us look at you because i'm sitting here and watching you everything that you're saying like you're interesting smart dude what's this you shouldn't be surprised what the duke yeah but it ain't my god but it's not about that it's more so like on the path to enlightenment you're nice absolutely this is a different enlightenment period in our uh i'll say in our our history of the world man information is much more accessible but there has to be a level of discernment about what you're digesting you know and i'm sorry audience and everybody listening because i'm it's hard for me to articulate myself right now but basically what i'm saying what i'm trying to get to is that you're probably the most misunderstood athlete out there yeah right so sitting here and i'm just locked in we've had so many people sit down uh you know on this show colin kaepernick and hit you know really never sat down with someone in that kind of capacity and over the last five years coach flores and tony brown did this thing and lil wayne et cetera et cetera and like i've never been disengaged right like i truly believe you're probably one of the most misunderstood athletes out there that's counter culture like your journey over the last five six years i believe is counter culture to sports and that's one of the reasons why you're misunderstood but it's like this i feel like there's this tension in this toy like this big like fight around you you know what i'm saying and then you're there in the middle and just trying to stay present in in that piece do you understand what i'm saying too i feel you i want to ask you because a lot of viewers want to know you talked about how you thought that you could win championship if if my man stayed um james harden right which which most people thought that yeah he wanted he won the trade you did that before you asked for trades and you asked for trade we probably on the best team other than the warriors the best team let's keep it real that cap come on warriors or cast whatever however you want to push it it was going to happen like come on five times and you ought to have that championship every year like like the celtics and the lakers type yes sir lebron james if y'all stay together how many rings you think i don't want y'all so dangerous together i'll probably be in l.a right now probably probably be traveling with his backpack no no i'm joking man that that was like that was a time in my career that i look back on and and we've had conversations me and brian plenty of conversations so you're cool that's my daughter yeah shout out bro shout out to ryan ron because when you're in that position as one of the leaders of our culture and not just sport but in general like he does things that go way beyond just the court great big impact all around different communities and um people agree with his stance and some people disagree right so i was learning on the fly you know when he first came back i was 22 23 so i was just a young kid trying to help cleveland patch up their relationship with him i got drafted the year after so when i came in it was like are you going to be better than lebron are you that was my first question when i got into cleveland so it was mixed emotions the whole time that we were uh competitors and then when he came back as my teammate you know when he came back to cleveland that's his home that's not somewhere where he just goes and vacates he's from there that's like having my family in in bk you know me going home all that extra stuff doesn't happen so i definitely feel like me learning from him helped i accelerate my understanding of the game that we're in the business that we're in because i was watching him deal with it in in front of the camera off the camera being lebron james that comes with his own responsibility so not only was he teaching me off the court but on the court this man is a savant he's a he's a genius in terms of how he prepares how he takes care of his body how he treats his body what he does every single day to be able to be at the top you know i mean to stay at the top and people want to see that man fail every minute of the day yeah but then he has a whole other side bro bro bro so i i i definitely was like i need to build up right my community the same way where you know success philly we got your back haters go ahead y'all got it when me and him clicked in 2015 i had one of my best years you know i was all nba 13 you know shot a high percentage on the field you know we we were going back and forth with a one-two you know punch and then we had caleb tristan jason right we had players we had hoopers bro like we brown was like behind the scenes what's his nickname they call him legend yeah they're like yeah yeah he's going home you know he the gm yeah he put that whole squad together yeah he went to squad together okay okay okay i wasn't mad at him all right best so this is how this is how it goes that's dope yeah so we definitely i feel would have accomplished a lot more but again we go back to climbing at that mountain and when i was going through some of my trials and learning about who i was i it was a lot harder to reconnect to to everybody again because i had a lot of questions about the world what was my place in the world that was my place in the basketball room you know i could be the greatest point guard this to be skilled and i was focused on that for a majority of um majority of my basketball life i just wanted to be one of the best to play but when i started having questions about my life outsiders it started to seep in and i was becoming misunderstood that's when i started to become misunderstood is when i asked for a trade and everybody didn't realize i was asking for a trade from the cleveland cavaliers but they were like nah you you asking for a trade the narrative from lebron it's the narrative the narrative yeah it was carrying on now it's everything that he posts everything i post is subliminal everything that we do and everything that you know we talk about is subliminal right i don't know if people remember but i had a conversation with ron after um you called him in boston why would you say that out in public why would you say that on public i'm like because y'all stay on my [ __ ] about my lebron yep about man you don't know what it takes as soon as i ask somebody that's a peer of mine that is respected that has won in this league about what it takes to lead a young team to a championship because that's what he did with us he was leading us to a championship i was 22 trump was 23. um my boy jordan mcrae was 23 and then the rest of the guys were like richard jefferson you know yeah we have all those guys that were already ready to fill in a role yep yeah i was coming in every day like yo i'm better than you you you i don't care y'all can line up we go 1v1 right now that energy was me every day so you you know me going against brown we played one-on-one uh one time by the way i'm not gonna tell y'all who won the loss bro we had fun going back and forth we had fun we had fun yeah i'm not gonna talk about who got the better like yeah but we had phone back and forth but i i'll close it in like this normally troll me leave it for the speculation but i definitely feel like if i was in the same maturity level i am now and understanding who i am and i look back on that time then we definitely definitely would have won more championships together because there would have been a better man-to-man understanding about yeah what i'm going through i couldn't i didn't know how to share my emotions i didn't impress myself yeah i didn't i didn't know how to do that so instead of sharing i isolated myself and i and i just started pouring myself more into the game of basketball and i had one of my better seasons but i wasn't connecting with everybody as much during our championship year so in 2017 it was a different year for us yeah so we went against golden state we went against a great team and you're not a great team and you're not clicking on all cylinders right and together you're easily defeatable you're defeated before you even get to the arena right we were in those games against going to state but we definitely could have given them a run for their money regardless if they had kev you brought up uh you know with lebron you experienced that you know k.d same thing yes sir who what narrative is who has more more of the worst narratives out there kd or lebron they both equally deal with a life that i think 99 of the world doesn't necessarily understand only us can really really see through like oh man the underlining emotions that go into them trying to leave a legacy that is perfect to them but it's always trying to get destroyed daily right we've never seen any any guys like that you're right about that we've never seen any guys like how many guys can you compare we try to compare brown to this guy he's uncomparable we try to compare kev to this guy uncomparable so after the comparison stop what do they try to go to the nitpick of every single year every single week asking these guys questions because their voice heard merit and communities across the world you know why specially you know why because they've been doing it for 17 years lebron is the i got to say this yo i don't care who's better at kobe bryant mj lebron is the best role model and i know he does his personal life and as being athletes it's hard to be straight it's hard to do everything right he's the best bro as being the role model like off the field off the court the stuff he does education stuff for his his community saying all the right things i know sometimes he's like man somebody asked him a question like his mother he don't do it all that he he took i remember when he went to he got not traded but when he left cleveland went to the heat my opinion i thought that was a sucker move right that's just my opinion everybody had the different opinions but i watched i had dude really just took all that heat right take all of it took it off he even say much back i'm like damn you all that criticism and the way you no that's no that's not all that's not that's not 100 true but i'm saying yo it's hard to be straight bro lebron is the best at it like he is yeah you know what i'm saying he does like bro for sure you got to respect that but he struggled that first year going to the heat though but um because first of all y'all didn't talk for a while when you called him in boston i did my homework you didn't talk to brown for a while i'm gonna trade it right okay so then you call them like yo now i know what it really means to be like a leader and dealing with these young boys cause tatum and i was young boys and you was the old head which was different mm-hmm my question is like because you never really talked about like what made you want to trade you talked about how you you came to yourself you learned this and that but you never really talked about like why you asked for the trade so oh man let me just put you on the spot for a little bit no no no no no no because it's a good reflection time you know i mean when you think about all of the events that that took place before we got to that point before we got to the before i got to the point where i i asked for it okay right so look at this i had i had different plans and braun had different plans and our team had different plans of what the future looked like that means that our organization from our gm to braun to me there were future plans in place already i wasn't going to be part of those future plans if it meant that our team was going to break up so if our team was just going to be gutted because i left brown left k love asked for a trade tristan didn't get paid or jumped didn't get paid like that was on the brink of it like we in order to keep the team together we all had to make certain sacrifices not just financial i'm just talking about in order for us to cohesively stay together finance is a part of it but in order to stay together right we had to understand that we had to be more open about what we expected from each other in the future when you say that because i'm only a little bit you're in the locker room and you guys know you have a championship caliber team that's your next five years okay how many conversations are really being had about what the next two to five years looks like for everybody to be comfortable and happy okay okay those conversations i don't know if those happen in your locker room so that's money that's players everything you're saying that's family that's environment that's coaching that's that's all top to bottom we're on a different axle in the uh nba at times bro in terms of our access to our gm yeah that's that's what's good for y'all yeah yeah yeah yeah y'all yeah it's different so our education in that sense of the business of basketball is just like yeah it's it's front and center there are no gray when you know gray windows or sort of say like smoky windows where you can't see what's going on oh okay so when i asked for the trade i'm like look i'd rather go experience other things in the league before i start really settling down into a career you still was young yeah i was 24. was your informed brown do you want to leave nah we didn't talk we didn't talk we didn't talk during that time uh i was in the summer in china because when i tell you when i tell you all this it's for it's for good purpose because i know the viewers want to know the viewers want to know the reals want to know no we didn't talk during that time and again when i look back on uh what what i was going through at that time i wish i did because it would have been a mutual understanding of what the future will hold for both of us and we knew how much power we both had together me and him in the league together running cleveland dominant and then being able to put a better team together every single year would have definitely been worth it you know what i mean but for me i threw all my chips in i said look i'm i'm ready to go experience something new i'm young like bill's like build your own drink and i don't mind that you know why i don't mind that because i've been there i don't know i've been up with teams you have a big dog right it's like yo thank you but it's time for me i'm kyrie irving i have my own shoe signature shoe that got popping big shoe and it looks better this is my opinion anyway that part of it and it's like yo i'm the first pick overall too we got a championship and i learned from you so now like you ever work for somebody right they teach you the game now i can stand on my own two feet so thank you i'm gonna move on yeah no hard feelings i don't think i'm wrong with that at all no i don't know i don't think there's anything wrong with it that's what it sounds like that's what's not what i mean you're already covering it centered around building your own building my own thing yeah like again it was let me go experience the league let me go experience what it was what my trade value is let me go but a lot of greats has affected their career somehow like if you ever hear shaq he gets so emotional about him and penny then he goes back gets even more emotional with kobe and him right and i'm like damn like stuff like that you look back like yo maybe if we were to talk because they said he said to him and braun dental like yo look this is how i feel is how you feel let's work together to get this you know what i'm saying i know but i think the day is simple yeah it comes down like you thirsty it ain't that simple though it is yeah let me tell you how soon this time he didn't do it he didn't do it with bro hold on number one pick overall it ain't that easy bro at the same point i want to get out from a bunch of this umbrella and do my own um but that's what yeah that's what i want to try to do hold on you just get started he just said that's what i mean by simple it comes down to ego i don't think it's it's this so it does it comes down to ego it comes down to being young he got his like goals though i'm not saying there's nothing wrong with it i'm stopping this ego listen what i'm saying okay the problem is when you do things like this we start criticizing by the end of the day you were 24. shaq and kobe went through it shaq and penny went through it you said k.d right and so we start it goes back into this whole narrative communication that's the problem yeah but when you 24 hey hey guys come train with me man and come off training with me go be pro bowls go go to the pro bowl have their best years like just showing them the way and then come back to this happened to me three times i said you know what oh gee i need to go try things that work for me like i'm gonna go do something different never went back to the pro bowl i'm like i've just showed you the way so it's just like it's just that youth that's all it is i'm not saying there's nothing wrong with it you got to do what's best for you as a business everybody got their own brands it's not just true 32 nfl teams you got 32 nfl teams you got 32 quarterbacks you got 64 you know x's and z's how many corners like and everybody's their own entity yeah you know what i mean that's true you're right about that but but when you look back at it that's why i love the conversation for you to be able to like look like you know in retrospect i could have did this i could have did that we don't see that part they don't even give us the opportunity to have these type of conversations you're not human you're not supposed to do that you're not supposed to think like that but but they but hold up now they have power i remember he just talked about that you and bryan had enough power to communicate yo that's what we want for the future they had no power to do that this is what we want this is what we want to happen so that's why i said about communication but then again i think he's right because i'd have been like that look thank you big big dog but i want to do my own thing it's time for me to have my own because you've people who don't haven't played like dude like tom brady i played my last year i seen the difference i played with some good players but like off the off the field like the stuff you got to deal with is similar to lebron you see what i'm saying so i don't think there's nothing wrong with going to get his own thing first off i'll say let me let me give you a little background when i first got to cleveland i think i told you this earlier but that was an uncomfortable position for me to be in to be in a city where you got the hometown kid going to the heat and then i get drafted afterwards and now i'm asked every single day are you what about brian what about this for for my career thus far since i asked for the trade and i and i got traded to boston what's up with you and bron what's up with you and brian everybody keeps asking the same questions over and over and over again it's like you brought up the point of shaq and penny shaq and cole other people that that ended up um you know not playing together for longer than what people would have wanted right right so we had to and i say we like me and my other teammates but specifically lebron because he's one of the biggest i play with kev too that is way bigger than just than just trying to satisfy what everybody wants to hear we got to be cool as brothers whether we're playing together or whether we're not playing together we have to protect one another because it will seep into family life where people will really think that we don't like each other based on us not being able to play together anymore you know what i mean you asked for a trade so you must hate that dude yeah right right right it wasn't that that was the furthest thing that's not true that's not true so i had to defend myself he had to defend himself right it's like i'm trying to put that to bed so i could continue to build my own legacy but i'm continuously reminded over and over again yo you left bro how can you do that you got his fan base you got my fan base you got team fan bases going at it yo why couldn't this work and i say this i asked for a trade because i was looking for something different i was a man of my word when i went to the organization i sat the big the higher reps down and said look i know y'all have future plans tell me right now they told me their future plans i said look i'm not this isn't for me that's right share that with them didn't get a chance to talk to brown before the media ended up coming out and saying that i asked for a trade so i go over to china and i'm on my nike tour somehow the news gets leaked while i'm in china i'm not even on american soil right now so i can't even get on defend yourself to defend myself so now i see all these reports and you know 12 hours ahead right right in china so i'm staying up 4am like what's what's being reported now what's been and i didn't have a sense of how to manage that when all the media is coming after me so now my agent's on the phone he's like we should do this we should put out a statement we should do this but i had the conversation that needed to be had with the organization and then i was going to have it with braun but as soon as i got over to china boom now it's lebron's been tempted to do this and kyrie's saying this about this and that's not the that's not the image i want to create me and him never had beef like that co-workers they're doing it again we know but and we had that was never our energy that we had they gonna print never oh kyle wasn't talking to the team for the last month they started throwing all the credits that they created the whole thing so now they're asking me yo why why didn't you tell them why did you i'm like some things can't really be shared in open spaces all the time and it took me six years to even talk about it openly because i'm comfortable with my decision before i was questioning like yo did i did i do this the right you know i left one of the best played the game and i started listening to the people right right to that that started to seep and that's where the mental health that you just brought up comes into play because when you start believing what other people say about you [Music] you become a shelly yourself you become somebody that's different and you're trying to be perfect for others that don't really give a [ __ ] about whether whether or not you breathe another day they're like man you're just another one but we could just uh buy you know troll or hate on jump shots yeah that's all you do so i had to make the shift to be able to stand on my own ten toes and be able to be a man out here be a king be a god however y'all describe yourself this is what i describe myself as i started digging deeper into my faith i started digging deep into islam i started digging deep into the community of following the word of god and being able to have some discernment regardless of whether the world is in chaos or not i'm at peace with myself so regardless of what other people are going on i'm like man i'm i'm good let me just walk through this door right yeah that's why i went through that span where i was reclaiming my power i found my tribe i reclaimed my identity and i stopped listening to what everybody else was saying about what an athlete is supposed to be the image that we're supposed to be every day why you know we're supposed to be doing the things we do every day the purpose i had to find that purpose that's the i had to find that purpose you always talk about like like kobe right i see a lot of your articles you always talk about the mamba kobe there's kobe that actually when i beat the uh the warriors you called cole after the joint yeah that was so dope to see that yeah do you have any like influence on maybe you getting traded or and ate them like did you lean on him during that time like as a mentor like an old mentor i'll tell you this before no no not it's not just work i'm laughing i'm laughing i'm laughing because cole had nothing to do with it but and then people started throwing in like i heard that too right but kobe is influencing kyrie to ask for trade because he asked for a trade from shaq and he everybody started attributing and that was the furthest thing from the truth he was really helping me cope with my decision and stand on my decision and and be happy with whatever situation i was going going into it happened to be boston right and then that what made it even uh crazier was boston was number one in the east when i got traded to them we were number two the year before so we had a series with boston and when boston came calling i was like yeah absolutely this makes sense like you know what i mean was it that easy like why not yeah why not why not boston like it's just the boston celtics yeah you know this is one of the most historical franchises my mom and my dad went to boston university i got my first offer from boston university when i was in fifth grade you know i used to be up at summer camps for two weeks at a time so we used to drive back and forth i used to be up there with my cousin's family in the summertime so i had history in boston so it wasn't foreign to me when they said yo we want to want you to be a part of our future on that phone call they said yo are you going to sign here long term i said ah yeah most likely but i'm not sure yet so kobe was like yo you you ended up in a perfect situation this is this franchise of of you know one of the best leagues in the world they have plenty championships have great fan base yeah invest in of you start going down the list but one of the things that stood out to me was um when he told me how uh how happy he was for the situation but it was a celtics knowing that he had is he really telling me you know he needs it or is he telling me it's just to kind of mess me but he he uh really helped me cope with making that decision and be able to and then being able to grow what did that look like you know because you have those like legendary moments with your mentors or you know those og's in the locker room like how does kobe help you cope how does he mentor you that's like a conversation is he like yo you need to do this yeah or is he like let's hear your coconuts he's more like a therapist yeah let's let's hear a conversation all right so role play with yourself chloe right yeah yeah all right are you just calling me call because he once he towards the end his career he was doing different things you know what i mean and this is when i got to boston he was retired right so you know he's running kobe he's running he's being with his family he's being with his daughters he's busy ain't got no time to just be you know tapping in all the time so i understood and again um we just had a different type of mentor-mentee relationship because he he knew how curious i was not not just about being great at the game but just life you know so he he put the alchemist in in my hands the book he told me to read that it's a great be smart too yeah man it's like being around him he really sparks that that curiosity even more so because he studied all the greats in other industries in order to help him focus in on what he was doing he said man just you you can look at the game and you can study the greats but really get a world view of all those that are doing great things alongside you you're not the only one that's dealing with these things you know you dealt with a trade you dealt with you know the pressures of being a star guy and you wanted your own thing and you wanted this and you wanted that but now it's about really taking the time to get to know who the people are around you and that's the time to get to know them as much as you invest in watching the game because i'm an avid youtube watcher i'm an avid studio of all the greats in basketball but he really put all those other authors um in my life so i can help balance what i was into i i mean since i was 12 or 13 years old i've i've studied basketball more than you know 10 000 hours as they say before you become an expert or master your craft right i've played more than 10 000 hours i've done all that so when i got to boston i was ready for a new challenge but i didn't know how it was going to come from within and that's why he gave me the alchemist is like the journey is the reward embrace the journey don't think about the end goal so much where you're fixated on trying to prove people wrong or you know be at the mountaintop without going through the details that it takes to really appreciate it so um that was him and his mentorship was like yo stay curious bro i know you're different i i know you're doing you're not like everybody else out here so you're not gonna ask the same questions and i love making him laugh because everybody will always see kobe as being very serious yeah you know what i'm saying how did you do that he was the he was the the best in my opinion when he was retired because he opened up the door to so many opportunities that he smiled way more way more bro he had no problem how did you do that you said you you love making him smile jokes jokes like because i go back to the legendary moment was it um 2012. yeah 2012 you baby yeah and then you went adam in practice yeah yeah yep yep definitely definitely because that was a moment because like a lot of times like man who's this kid that's when you really gain respect from the og that was crazy though yeah like that's that's that energy that i had you know in philly that day oh look there you go yeah yeah yeah yeah you messy yeah yeah yeah i'm at it no no i'll bring that up because that that has been my mentality since i came into this i'm going at anybody and everybody and i'm here to show you that i just want to get the best out of you and you get the best out of me that's what this is all about so how i did it was he wasn't really in competition um you know in the standings anymore nope so i just i just sent him a few texts man i can't really tell you what it was i just sent him a few texts just make him smile bro you know i was like here's this young kid just still trying him in text messages like yo i hope you know i'm waiting i'm waiting for you come on give us one text just give us one come on for the viewers yeah follow kobe lovers i'm a mama fan let me see man i was talking about this last night on my twitch too but uh what do you think man because i don't i don't want to i get real emotional about it bro [Music] it's still an open wound you know i'm still healing from it as everybody is all the kobe lovers and more importantly i'm very sensitive about his family right and i was just trying to put that kobe in the right way so even if i'm joking around like some of the personal stories right whatever i respect myself but i tell you one it was um it was during uh i'll tell you about that phone call during 2016 when i called him the chip yeah i was a little tipsy after i had a yeah there you go champagne face shots going into it um and i called him and called him and he answered call her facetime facetime okay facetime facebook you go never facetime before that never facetimes yeah yo what's up yo your advice worked your advice worked bro you told me not to give a [ __ ] about what nobody said you told me yo don't pay attention to anybody that's not giving you positive energy man and it worked your advice worked bro damn we really did it i felt like i i i helped him cement his legacy by having somebody be successful at the highest level actually listening right you know what i mean i some people want us want to uh be the best at what they do but they're not as curious to go up to you or you or you and ask you straight up questions what is what did y'all what did you do day to day that was me even when i challenged him in 2012 lead up to 2016 he knew that i was going to be competitive but i was just ultra ultra ultra curious and humble to sit with him to be able to ask him pressing questions about mentally spiritually physically how did you get to be who you are how did you deal with the pressure so when i when i got a chance to facetime him he was sitting next to gigi and it was like it was just like fam it was just family time you know we got to celebrate that and uh just to see him smile and be proud it was like it was one of the best moments he's the best role model ever i love cool hey he's a dude you met cole oh here philly yeah now real quick in my career he got his son jersey and assigned shoes he sent me personalized shitty mccoy but anyway i do want to ask you this now i only worry like three pair of sneakers right i wear three-point nikes right air force ones right up north and status what we do i don't know what they do in atlanta they don't wear effortless ones no more i wear air force ones right high top and low tops anyway i wear my mambas when i'm crossing cats over with the you know i mean the faded ways and then i wear kyries what's up with nike 16 years old uh i started at st patrick's high school jordan brand uh they ended up um unofficially sponsored me at that time went to duke big nike school you know it was i was wearing cps at that school it was one of my favorite pairs i was wearing lebron soldiers my favorite pair that's why we're so tied into the business models with hip-hop and art and music is because we have similar you gotta sell yourself too like break break down your business for us uh a little bit more because like have you ever wondered why football players don't get these deals like yeah obj that signed that uh like five years like 35 minutes i don't even know b signed one for like a million yeah an a b like that was that's a lot of money for football yeah a million dollars a year you know five million dollars a year do you know why we why we don't make a lot of money i well they don't have a helmet on i can't answer that they don't have a helmet on well it's because we don't move units right like when you think about it and so you just broke down in units and the economics of a lot of players come in he's like yeah i take whatever deal and we really don't know the business so can you break down like how basketball players approach the business in the shoe world i can't answer that like why it's a big difference per se other than you know the the stigma that is out there is you guys wear helmets and it's more of a it's more of a soup it's more of us though huh we don't move units no i don't see i don't and then i wouldn't agree with that i would agree with that because if i were if i was coming up to you and offering you a deal i will offer you a multi-level deal where i would have you design an sb i would have you design shoes that show more of your off court but we never did obj that's what obj pushed it forward in football uh different type of shoes where they're turning the bottom of the but the problem is we're not in it like you said you went back to 2016 when you was wearing those colorful shoes one of the rules you got passed like you got millions of people watching you and that's when they bind and that's when they fall in love with it so yeah like obj kind of pushed he pushed it forward because it was that like multi-layered type deal where it's like yo like make your own signature shoe but they don't see obj you know catch that one hand touchdown or that ball in those shoes now what they banking on now for football players is yo you have uh a follower a following now you got 13 million followers so now about having those street wear shoes on and seeing that the lifestyle now you can move more units but that's really it i just you know i want to know more of like the basketball approach to the business but it's a little bit different because again i told you at 16 that's when i was yeah i i went to school that was sponsored by jordan brandt wow so there was already a relationship since then they already knew somewhere since then i don't know how it works when you guys you know i know that you guys have like nike tournaments and stuff like that all around the world but we're we're wearing the shoes 24 7 because that is part of the that is part of the mo there is that we want to be part of your life from when you wake up until you go to sleep you have shoes on that is that is what you want somebody to do but because it's so centralized on football or or basketball it loses that connectivity to youth when they're just like i just want shoes to run around the playground right you know i just want shoes to just go outside that's where the majority of my business is is in the youth sports it's the youth i i love them 18 year olds enough yeah man people are too judgmental i love i love aj ones you love the historical you know shoes that came out and i respect all that but the youth are just trying to go outside you know strap on their shoes and get dirt get into it yeah yeah that's it do you know where you rank amongst like the top selling shoes or performances yeah tell her look at this like he's smirking yeah you know i don't even know how he actually he said he knows 85 percent of the shoes it's for selling the most shoes i'll say this when i told you that it's four million units that's the most in in my category so i'm i'm that's the most units in my category they put out four million units he wants you to break it down yeah why he's smirking graduates [Applause] that's what y'all want to hear right there no i mean it's not about you i'll tell you why i'll tell you why though i'll tell you why this boyfriend i'll tell you why i do like your shoes though your shoes do look good we're all in the same way we're in the same field we can pee do y'all know how many signature athletes there are right now in basketball i know i know yeah i know i know it's 7k it's seven right 16. 16. you you talking about nike or you talking about signature signature across the boards [Music] [Music] lillard got one thirteen said him clayton got one looks like a little clay guy clay's with uh who anta the drink no the shoe brand i don't answer you never heard of answer sports no uh wade's guy he got one deangelo d'angelo i love bro but that doesn't compare oh russell bro i'm telling you all right now okay let us know i'm selling units out of 16. okay i'm feeling you i'm feeling i'm picking up what you're putting down oh okay i'm in the heat so he's basically [Music] yeah so he's like a platinum rapper compared to gold rappers so i'll answer your question you said what was the question you asked you know what my question was who's the top yeah i'm about to i'm i'm at the top of the shoe design pushing units and being able to do more than just put a shoe out why because i'm not saying that the other guys don't do it i'm just a little bit more seasoned being in the creative room because i've been doing it since day one most most guys go in there and they well they allow the creators to talk to them and be like all right what do you think about the shoe and you'll be like oh yeah i like it right it's okay change the shoelaces and i'm like no i take that joint to the hood and be like y'all y'all mess with this or not yeah oh i see you see that before it comes out i asked barriers yes that's dope bro that is dope mm-hmm can we take some of these uh shoes to some kids in the hood where we let me know let me know that's also that's also one of the the leading it's one of the leading ways where you can really really make an impact is just put them out read the books put them out i give out at least thirty thousand forty thousand well five thousand let me just free shoot i got five dollars right local people just send them out just send them out all right i'm gonna come back to that okay cause you give you give back a lot yeah you need to talk about that that's it's crazy what you do but the way it wades bro that's dope it's the dopest he wade's putting out to me the dopest shoes right now luca got a shoe am i wrong and i take you out of it i'm taking you out of it am i seeing this wrong with what wade is doing with the shoes and sneakers it's what is it you have to you have what is it what's the name of the card uh leaning you just no i think it may be leaning i don't want to but it's way of weight wait wait wait his own brain yeah wow whenever whenever huh leaning see i don't even i didn't even yeah i didn't even know i didn't know lucas i thought he was part of leaning but uh you said what was your question again it's my eye it's my taste oh wait wait wait wait wait he what he got right is he went in there and gave them the blueprint of how he wants to run his house you have to think of yourself as they say as an institution or a brand or or you know you have to think of yourself as a house how many houses are there have you you know louis vuitton has fashion houses fashion fashion houses that's how he thinks of it because he took the same knowledge from the fashion world and applied it to the shoe game who and then who wasn't he didn't make it only about basketball it's a lifestyle right wearing shoes is a lifestyle i like the weight that's why i have a game shoe i have a low and then i have a core shoe my core is only selling at dick's sporting goods you know it's only selling at um yeah champs it's only selling at the small that's 80 60 60 to 80 then the low is 100 to 110 that's you wear that when you work out you can wear it on court you can wear it off court and then the game shoe is specifically meant for when you put it in your backpack and when you take it out and you're playing that's it so i have three different shoes that you can choose from so i hear i hear a lot of uh business savviness yeah um talk to me about like you know i look up and i'm reading what kd's doing and yeah kitty's the boss you know uh russell wilson you know serena williams um what are some of the things that you're involved in now like and how do you approach investing and business and well have any of y'all been burned in business yeah okay so i got enough scars to to to really understand that you have to take your time and be patient with your your business uh knowledge and how you acquire it and how you get it from the right people you gotta talk to the people that not only are successful but they've had enough failures to speak on all the lessons they've learned to be able to pass on that to you so in business right now man i'm i'm thinking everything you can think of whether it be in music whether it be in the nft crypto space whether it be in in uh starting my own house uh underneath the house that i have right now at nike real estate with shady real estate i brought a lot of property in jersey once i moved back the taxes are horrendous but um i got to talk to our governor about that [ __ ] but it's like though those are the interests for me like small ones but really what i invest a lot of of my time and capital in is revolutionary work you know things that are changing the world things that are moving and shaking rooms things that make people uncomfortable and they skin when you start talking about oppressive systems that have been keeping us in bondage mentally spiritually and physically for a long period of time this has been going on for centuries i feel like us as melanated individuals we we're just now starting at to realize that the work has already been done for us in the past our ancestors left a lot of wisdom for us to pick up so we don't have to recreate the wheel but we dang sure got to unify in order to make this nation that we feel like we can survive in you know i've awakened every single day and you realize everywhere you turn and there's some type of oppressive system that's there that doesn't it doesn't look like me and most of the time you know what i mean money that's being passed around doesn't go through us first it goes through many people's hands before it gets to us tell us about some of these books right here that you brought powerful books you brought knowledge brother no for sure so ah i'm glad i'm glad y'all asked so this this first one is uh anthony t browder um it's survival strategies for africans in america and it's uh uh i think 13 chapters in here uh that really speak on um just being able to to reason with yourself when things are being subliminally thrown your way and they try to hide this stuff and you know they try to keep it away from us so this knowledge is just a an awakening you know what i mean like it really is just just wisdom you know he's still he's still alive anthony t browder he he does trips to chemin or egypt where you know every single summer um he excavates the pyramids uh he goes over there and really teaches people about our spirituality and why they shot the noses off the pyramids why they have all of our artifacts in museums and showcase it back to us why we grow up in our education system and they tell us that you know their version of history is better than ours and you know with this big back and forth of um you know a fight based on race culture in class i mean we deal with it all the time so that's anthony c browder this is called the black holocaust for beginners it really speaks on um our viewpoints on um what people don't like to admit to but as a genocide against our people whether it be through drugs whether it be through um you know disease in the mind whether it be through laboring for other people whether it be them starting our history um and teaching people that it started with slavery which it didn't you know what i'm saying we've been here for thousands of years and a lot of the knowledge that was passed on to us uh came from ancient people that knew what what the time we're in now so it calls it the black holocaust and i'm not you know trying to downplay the jewish holocaust or any other holocaust but our black holocaust is something i feel like deserves um the same amount of um attention and then this other one is one that i could leave with y'all but it's it's called uh towards black community development and and it really is just centralized on how do we go further beyond just talking in these conversations about what's going on we actually act on it you know what i mean we're way beyond just me lecturing you and telling y'all all the time y'all older than me are trying to tell our elders are trying to tell the youth like this what happened in our history but it goes way beyond um just talking about it and actually doing it so those are just three books and i could lead those with y'all um you guys could read them and pass them along if y'all have time or anything like that what's that one book that kobe told you to read i'm about to miss the alchemists yeah yeah i love it yeah i appreciate you coming on the show man one more question for you being over here okay it's been long enough for going let's just ask one more question you know because the people want to hear this question any kind of way that you and brian mike can get back together we had to fight to get a meal yeah wrongfully accused we had to fight to get it pills that's why we write to get a deal he on the team he got to eat you know despite his skills work up in the trash bag i'll pass a lot to take the test before i pass class and my family needed bread i had to come correct that's why i keep airing it out like i just passed gas

Channel: I AM ATHLETE

Views: 2,505,779

Keywords: Sports, NCAA, NBA, BASKETBALL, BRANDON MARSHALL, CHAD JOHNSON, OCHOCINCO, IAA, I AM ATHLETE, I AM ATHLETE PODCAST, Kyrie Irving, Kyrie, lebronjames, kevindurant, jamesharden, stephencurry, ballislife, kobebryant, stephcurry, nike, brooklynnets, nets, nbabasketball, nbaplayoffs, russellwestbrook, bbal, brooklyn, kyrieirvingkicks, kyrieirvingshoes, kyrieirving, kyrieirvingtrade, kobe bryant, kyrie contract

Id: 1d1rUoTT0Q4

Length: 70min 54sec (4254 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2022