Professor's Life Story, Underdog to Global Basketball Icon (GH Ep.1)

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] her game or game [Applause] go go go yeah I had a great childhood I was born and raised in Keizer Oregon small town that's actually an outskirt of Salem Oregon the state's capital started playing basketball at two years old my dad put the basketball my hands at a very young age his passion for the game wore off on to me almost insolent I think by about third grade I realized that I love the game of basketball and that's what I wanted to do for a living so also in fifth grade I started working with a trainer who showed me a lot of the fundamental skills I needed for ball handling so he showed me the in and out dribble I remember those first move I ever learned in and out crossover then the Iverson crossover and almost a few sessions in with him my talent for handling the basketball sort of was revealed you know I think that people would identify me as like the white kid with handles by about sixth grade it was evident that I had like a god-given gift to handle the basketball coming into high school you know my freshman year I started watching the m1 mixtape tour I remember I got the first tape IRA gobs and when mixtape Volume one skip to my Lou and that was a huge inspiration to me I had liked the excitement of the game like like I was kind of a flashy player to begin with you know knowing how to cross over and handle the basketball well but I remember when I saw Dan with mixtape it kind of inspired me to be more creative with my game so inspired me to take my creativity next level I live the Antwon lifestyle I had the clothes trash-talk teens the long shorts you know and one was the first company to make long shorts so like if you had long shorts at the park you were like a baller you know I mean I had the shoes if you even watch my senior year of high school I'm wearing and one shoes instantly took a liking to that style of basketball and you could see it in my play you know if you watch me my sophomore junior senior year it was definitely flashy I was always very small those skilled so freshman year I remember I start on freshman team sophomore year rolled around played on the JV team and then come my junior year in high school I was held back on the JV team again which was like a big hit to my pride because I lived and breathed basketball you know I mean so to be held down a JV team as a junior when all my friends my peers and it rails on varsity that was like that shook up my world you know I think I in the long run I think I needed it to make me more hungry but I was hurt by that so play JV did really well I think averaged a lot of points probably averaged over 20 points if you assists and then my senior year it was looking like I might not get much playing time on the varsity team at the school that I was at McNary high school so I ended up transferring to the small Christian school it's a private school it only had like 300 kids Salem Academy Christian ended up playing varsity there I did really well I got like second team all-state started every game I played like majority of games coach kind of let me do what I want and let me have a lot of freedom with Collin I soul plays and and creating for my teammates I had the group the ultra green light you could say so it was a good experience senior year I thought after having successful senior year you know I would get some college offers you know maybe some letters some calls for some coaches but sure enough got no offers nothing so I was scraped down to basically it was looking like I wasn't gonna play college basketball and so it was a walk-on situation or nothing so I tried out for three different community colleges and the one that I didn't try out for was the local college she met at a community college so lo and behold my dad had formed sort of a relationship with the coach of the college because he sold him his wedding ring my dad owns a jewelry store through their exchange or whatever my pops had convinced the coach to give me a look and basically he you know told him I had a passion for the game I got some skills I just need need a shot had a great season my senior year this private school so the guy actually let me go try out and so coach was generous enough to at least give me a look so I went and walked on for the team there was no guarantee I was gonna make it but at the end of tryouts coach said I could have a red shirt spot on the team so it just so happened that before the season three guards on the team had gotten injured and they needed extra guard to step in as the third-string point guard so I ended up filling a roster spot freshman year played about three to five minutes a game but if the game was close I wouldn't even go in after my freshman year college my work ethic for the game actually increased because I realized what I was up against right getting up 6:00 a.m. getting up 500 jumpers before class everything got stepped up to the next level in a matter of like three months I literally tell people I improved about three hundred percent from the spring to the summer after my freshman year in college at that same exact time it just so happened that an one was doing a mixtape tour nationwide 33 cities and on this tour they were having tryouts before every game giving the opportunity for people around the country to compete to be on the Hamline tour and the summer long contest was covered on a reality TV show on ESPN called Street ball and there could only be one winner so I ended up trying out all the Hamelin guys were out there watching me players I had looked up to you know hot sauce Alamo a Oh give all these guys whose game I really admired they're out there watching me [Music] I'm just excited to play with hot dogs I love all these dudes I've seen on tape I see it real life it's almost like it's just like a dream I played against team l1 I went back and forth with hot sauce a few times and I think I only played like 10 or 15 minutes that game but when I was in the crowd was electric [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] and then next day I know after that game they had to pick who they thought was the best contestant to be able to advance and go on tour with them they selected me they asked me to come on tour and I was blown away [Music] [Music] we went all the way through the summer and end up playing at Madison Square Garden in front of a sold-out crowd a lot of people that were big in the basketball community with their NBA players and I ended up hitting a game-winning shot we beat team at one [Applause] I just let it go like I was like forgetting you know let it go they're winning a game 10,000 people in the mecca yeah that's a big-time shot right there my opinion yeah right there 18 you know winning the contract signing you know with team and won that was the beginning and a plan in like roughly 30 countries during my Antoine run and half of those countries I went to like five and six times because we would do them every year you know Japan you do every year Philippines Australia Brazil those are places I've been to a bunch of times got to meet a ton of celebrities got to meet you know tons of pro ballplayers it was really the opportunity to like them I had a great time being part of an one man every time I come to Japan always have a good time especially the people that host us there real like hospital they'll go out of their way just to make sure that we have a good time we're comfortable so people always cool the fans always show love and the nice City and all soccer in Japan are real nice I think this is probably my fifth year here good time coming back to Japan so it's always a good feeling I always have a good time it's what I try to show the fans consistently is that I get better every year that make improvement and on you know I usually do that up so until now so I don't think tonight will be any difference one show that I've showed approval from the last year and we keep doing we doing that's that's wrong you know I enter take entertain show people can't really say well I want to see just improvement there's always a [Applause] over to the bigger ones [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is the [Applause] so at the end of 2008 our contracts expire and we don't even really get a call that we're no longer with the company I think that it was just sort of insinuated that we should know our contracts and know that our time ran out and there was no talk of like reing or any mixtape tour in the works or anything so it was like instantly over and I remember 2009 the economy took a bit we're in the midst of a serious financial crisis people were less inclined to put on entertainment gigs because that's not a necessity you know that's extra and so me personally I ran into financial troubles you know I remember at one point I was virtually broke I only had a couple hundred dollars in my account not knowing how I was gonna pay rent for the next few months it just so happened that I kept like fifty to a hundred of my m1 jerseys I don't even know why I actually kept them because I gave out quite a few to I played hundreds of games but my collection of the ones I did keep was numerous [Music] but anyway I had all these and you know it came down to a situation where I knew I had a bunch of value on my hand and I had to make ends meet so decided to give it a try sold a couple boom made a quick six hundred bucks just to jerzees bang bang and I'm like woah Wow you don't need not knowing that well knowing there one other opportunities available to stay afloat so see how big it is current-day have won that since 2003 just perfect [Music] I'm ready to go Kimmy yeah by selling my jerseys on eBay anonymously I was able to sustain for about six to eight months and then comes 2010 and opportunities picked up a little bit enough to sustain but I wasn't doing great that's for sure so early 2011 a new tour emerged a new company called ball up and they wanted to pick up where Anwen left off but sort of Center the company in street ball you know for me to do these one-off gigs for a few years it was hard because you know I didn't know you know one month you might have a whole bunch of gigs the next two months you might not have a gig so you know it was hard to make ends meet at certain times so this is a big opportunity we were excited so we're getting ready to debut ball up here in Los Angeles all-star weekend 2011 we're excited about it we were staying out late hardly getting any rest that weekend and I remember Saturday night I was calling Escalade to come to this event you know to meet down lobby let's go to this event together but it wasn't answered and it wasn't like him so I figured you know we didn't get any arrests the prior night so maybe he's just wanting to sleep we go through the clinic with the kids and you know it was a good event but I remember afterwards I was curious like I got a call asked he was going on but before I could they pulled me aside and they actually told me that he passed away of a heart attack the night before they found him in his hotel room you know instantly for me of just shook my world up you know I mean it was tragic you know his passing really brought me to a place where I started to ask myself two bigger questions of life you know I mean you know what is my purpose what am I here for you know why would escalate die right now you know what do I do next you know I mean like he was a big homie mentored me on all things like where do we go from here and I remember going to his funeral in New York and his brother was Escalades brothers Mark Jackson who most people current they probably know as an analyst but you know he's a great NBA player so he started talking about God he started talking about Jesus Christ he started talking about forgiveness of sins I remember he was doing an altar call at the end he said hey you know if you want to go where my brother was you know feel free to come to the altar now and give your life to Jesus Christ I remember I just felt compelled to go up there gave my life to Jesus Christ and asked for forgiveness of sins and then literally after leaving that funeral for the next you know year two I had a really life-changing transformation and my life was completely changed from that moment on by about 2013 I had still been working on YouTube and I was to a place where I think I had 50,000 subscribers or something like that my friend and I Robert Monroe we worked on this concept that was actually a prank video called spider-man basketball and it's basically where I dressed up in a spider-man costume you know we picked that superhero because it didn't show any part of my skin I went to the court and I played people one-on-one for the first video I remember I went out there for like 20 minutes didn't even miss a shot every trick I pulled off just was like flawless just like worked out he was one of those things that was meant to be so after spider-man basketball you know instantly changed my whole career you know revamped my career I instantly go from 60,000 subscribers to 400,000 plus in a matter of a week been incredible opportunities so ever since then now you know YouTube is my full-time business we've got a staff up here you know running professor live we got tons of endorsements content campaign opportunities we still do the live events but really now it's about the content you know God's blessed me with the opportunity to be able to start a clothing brand global group or apparel and we're looking to expand on that I just really just been a blessing you know all sorts of opportunities have come from YouTube and I never envisioned that you know and I mean I always had envision either playing the game conventionally or streetball on TV so being at this the digital era you know has emerged and been you know a means of a career in a new way to influence others it's really been a blessing I [Music] originally came up with the name global uber in 2011 when I started an Instagram page you know at the time I was only doing games internationally and obviously it was a Hooper so I forgot Hooper and then over time you know the name sort of had a ring to it but you know basketball for me has obviously been you know a means of career and helped me to have influence with a lot of different people everywhere but it also has been something for me to tell me to create friendships and relationships with all different you know types of people all over the world you know different ethnicities different cultures and so for me when I think global Hooper it's it's not just myself it's it's a community it's people all over the world who are passion driven and who like the game and it's a way that we can unite people through the game of basketball I'm really looking forward to people being able to experience this journey with me this year we're gonna be in Africa we're gonna be in India Taiwan Philippines we've got some local events in the works starting my brand global Cooper it's gonna be a big year and I cannot wait for people to experience it with me on a much more intimate level than ever before the goal is to inspire others you know I mean to influence people have greater influence on the next episode of global Cooper [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Professor Live

Views: 912,030

Rating: 4.9434071 out of 5

Keywords: Professor 1v1, grayon boucher, professor nba, professor story, professor and1, spiderman basketball, professor loses

Id: diK_98r3n40

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 23 2018