THE #JIMMERVIEW: A Conversation with Shanghai Shark/College Basketball Legend JIMMER FREDETTE

Hey so I was talking to Ryan with solo and he was saying that he's boys with Durer for death and if I ever wanted to film something with him he could reach out well he reached out I got Jimmer's contact and now I'm heading to his apartment to film a 30-minute exclusive interview hey Hawaii we're here with Jim orphanet the star of the Shanghai Sharks many of his Chinese fans know him as the lonely master a small circle of fans in the u.s. known as the Mormon Megalodon the Mormon Megalodon is pulling out all the stops yes I've heard that I've heard that several times so you're on the tail end of your third season in the CBA would you say like you've finally gotten used to living in China definitely more I've you know it's yeah it's being my third year I kind of got the gist of it I mean obviously the first year was a little different a little nerve-wracking coming over here didn't know what to expect in the second year I felt a lot more like a veteran and now the third year it just feels like you know real easy you know I love Shanghai it's a great city when you like first moved here what was the hardest part of living in China the hardest part to figure out I mean obviously the language barrier and I can't speak to anybody that's difficult but you know for me I was just trying to you know basically find where I could eat what food spots I wanted to be at and then from then from that point on just kind of explore and and try to embrace myself in the culture as much as I possibly could were you assigned like a full-time translator yeah yeah for sure I have two we had two my first year still the first year we had a translator for off the court so basically he would like do anything that had to do with my apartment if my heating didn't work you know what I mean and get us cars to places and anything that we needed we used him and then we had a translator for on the court for basketball stuff that would translate coach or translate the players and new basketball terminology and could you know relate to us so we had we have both and then the same thing my son year but this year we only have one so he does both and it's a lot more on him this year than the other guys for sure yeah I know you guys have a new coach this year and he's Chinese does he speak fluent English No oh he barely speaks any English yeah yeah we we can't communicate to well unless we have our translator there did your coach to see you kind of let you do your own thing on the court or other times when he's kind of like yelling at you in Chinese like oh you have to do this you have to do this and you're like I have no idea what you're saying for sure most of the time they kind of let us do what we want to do yeah both you know in practice and kind of on the court and stuff like that obviously if there's something that he needs to say he'll bring Johnson out that's his that's our translators name it'll just be like hey you know tell him to do this or whatever but he's pretty good it kind of just letting us do our thing and me and Luis Scola who's on the team this year are pretty pretty good at understanding the game plan and kind of what he wants us to do anyway so he's not constantly yelling at us or anything but he definitely gets after the Chinese guys whenever you don't know what he's saying I recommend just saying the way yeah exactly I do I drop a bomb yeah I'm just like exactly yeah they do yeah they mostly you know like I said they mostly keep me doing my own thing let me do my own thing they're just like hey just shoot the ball please what about the Chinese players on your team how many of them can speak like somewhat fluent in yeah I would say about half of them I can really understand pretty well and they can understand me and actually hold the conversation and then about half of them not very well they can understand you know hey how are you and few like basketball terms and stuff like that but if I was to try to have a conversation whether it would be difficult but you know I'm lucky because I feel like in Shanghai it's a little bit more international some of the guys actually know more English than not which is which is nice I've talked to a few guys that have played with guys that he's like literally no one speaks engineer so I need to have the translator for everybody know you are very lucky I mean especially when it comes to food you mentioned that like there is really good foreign food here very good but I heard a story I don't know if it was Tracy McGrady or someone when he like when he was out in China he literally only went to KFC he was playing for some random team I got there city where his only option yeah Western food definitely I happens to me when we go to other cities sometimes the cities that we planned my go to is usually Pizza Hut you yeah that's what I normally get if they have it the Pizza Hut's out here are fancy like a restaurant and they got a booth and you know every all this stuff and so I've been to a couple of them they were fancy but I and then I try to get them delivered you know if I feel like the food's not great or if I'm sick of eating what they have you know on third or fourth day of a road trip I'm like I need something different you know I asked Johnson hey let's get some pizza usually they have one in those cities at least so obviously I'm sure you've come to learn China can be a very weird place what's kind of like the weirdest thing you've either seen or a situation you've been involved in or it could even be like a food that you've been like for ste you're sure there's there's there's several things one thing that I can't get used to or I've seen a couple of times they're just like people especially you know little kids or you know just going to the bathroom like on the side of the street and I've seen in the side of the street I've seen it in the train station I've seen it in this in the subway you know slip pants yes set of diapers yes exactly pants and you just go I'm over a trash can and you just go right sometimes you like wow would be a lot easier if I could just hold her over a trash can I was like that's a great idea I maybe said we should bring that to the US I mean like just have bathroom stations or something you know I mean for little kids it's just different yeah it has happened like well sometimes do it on like the floor of the subway and it's like whoa I've seen that I've seen that before and you're just like whoa wait a second that's that's a little much so that was interesting and just a little different some of the food obviously I went to a place over it was in Fujian and we stay at a Chinese hotel and we were they said they had the best Chinese buffet you know in all of Fujian and I was excited you know I was good and it was great there was like 50 tables of just buffet and you know I there wasn't a ton of it that I was real appetizing but I saw one thing it was a full alligator basically they had the head they had the arms the legs and the tail and then on a wooden block was raw alligator right top of it oh they're eating it raw their inner alligator sushi Wow yeah now I had a picture of an it was I had to show everybody back home and it was funny cuz the whole head was right there yeah I mean I had like the little thing that was closing its mouth and everything and it was just it was definitely odd yeah I apparently in some Walmart's in China you can buy some alligator meat jeez it's crazy honestly I'd be a little bit more you know a little bit more adventurous with my food eating if I didn't have to worry about playing in a game you know if I tried a food and all of a sudden I honestly did get sick or something like that you know I couldn't play in a game it would be like why'd you try that you know what I mean so I I would be a little bit more adventurous if I was on like a vacation a week or something like that try some of that stuff wouldn't bother me but yeah I just try to steer clear if I can just because of that reason what did your wife think about China when she came out so she usually come out for like one month each season yeah it's usually about this year was a little bit longer about a month and a half which was great um and you know she loves Shanghai actually you know what I mean she sees some difficulties with living in China you know she doesn't love not having a car she likes she's a you know she's a kind of a country girl so she wants the you know space and everything so she doesn't love that it's just all you know city everywhere big buildings everywhere and everything but she she loves a lot of the food that's here you know she really enjoys you know the the sights I mean she loves bringing wet little West my girl to Disneyland okay that we had I mean she they I mean they probably went there six times when they were here just because the West just wanted to see the characters and hang out and everything's it's so easy to get there with the subway now remember kids only ducks can poop outside humans gotta use the toilet you can't drag me away in front of all these plates do you realize how its harmonizing that would be sorry just trying to help dude so I mean there was a lot of positives that she really likes and she just likes the city of Shanghai itself for sure back when she gave birth to your first daughter that was during the playoffs yeah first season right it was and you flew back to the US obviously you wanted to be there for the birth of your first child I sure did you ever consider giving birth in China I know they do have some Western Hospital you like absolutely not yeah she said absolutely not yeah it was like absolutely not so that's why the first year was the hardest for me as far as being away from her because she came over in the in October and she left early November and then I didn't get to see her again pretty much that whole season and until the Chinese New Year break for a couple days and then until I came back so that was that was pretty tough but I understand I mean she wanted she was her first child she didn't want to she wanted to make sure that she was with her you know American doctors that she knew and she you know trusts and everything and she was having quite a bit of doctor's appointments at that point and everything so I you know I didn't obviously blame her or anything like that she wanted to be home I wanted to make sure that she was comfortable I'm not the one having the baby so I'm like hey it's your choice whatever you want to do and you know so it worked out well but I'd worked out well for you it didn't work out well for the Sharks a little a little backstory Jimmer missed one game of the playoffs and I think we lost that game by 40 points yeah honestly I was amazed by the support that all the Chinese people gave me even to go back in and make sure that I was there for it like I didn't get one bad comment like on Weibo or WeChat or anything like that saying how you missed the game like you know I'm mad at you whereas in the u.s. I feel like there would have been some people that have been like why did you miss the game like it's you know I mean or whatever just some some people that would say that and here there was nothing nothing like that they were they were supportive and then they're like just get back as quickly as you can and you know I was able to come back so I mean I flew home for the for the game for the birth of Wes and then as she was born at like 12:00 p.m. or just not I can't remember like on a Tuesday or something like that and I had to leave that hot the hospital at 3 p.m. so I just barely saw the birth because I had my flight booked and everything coming back so I was there for three hours got on the plane left came back got in to Shanghai at 6 a.m. in the morning the day of the game the day of game 2 and I had to play that night did you manage to sleep on the flights a little bit of flight some you don't I mean amazing sleep but I was able to sleep some and got here just stretch my legs out you know tried to get prepared and then played that night so it was it was I think we won we did win so it was like it was the craziest 72 hours of my life like just exhausted after that you know I mean just that night I was just young I think any time I've gone back to the states it's been at least for like a week and a half or two weeks for sure just like a day ya know it was it was difficult I read an article like maybe this was last year and he was kind of like asking what you do for fun you mentioned one of the things is sometimes just riding the subway for sure what are some of like the other things I guess that you do when you're not playing basketball out here yeah I mean not a ton I besides like I just kind of explore the city so I just I'll go on the subway and be like alright I want to go to this area today and I'll go over there and kind of just walk around and just kind of look at people watch and and kind of just you know see what the sights are and if I'm here by myself it's just boring sitting you know sitting in my apartment all day but at the same time not know there's not a I mean there's there's a lot to do but I don't know exactly I feel like I've done pretty much everything at this point you know I've done a ton of stuff since I've been here through the other Chinese players on the team ever try to take you out for the night do they ever try to bring you to like KTV I have I've heard of it several times I've never been to a KTV place I probably do that I should do it at least once I know I've seen him all over the place and I hear about it all the time I know like you're Mormon is there a Mormon community out here there actually is yes there is so I've met several of the members of the church and there's you know there's there's actually church services held here which is cool but it's uh it's it's definitely been a very beneficial and helpful to me a lot of them have been here for a while and they've gotten me hooked up with different things and go over to their homes and eat dinner for you know whatever different days and just kind of brought me in as like a member of their family with different different families that have been here so it's it's a nice feeling to be able to have that and to just go and just feel normal for the day because they a lot of the members of the church they live in like actual homes you know not just like apartment buildings here so it's nice to go to an actual home and sit down and dinner table and eat some food yeah like there's a lot of communities on like the outskirts of scheria where it's just straight-up homes like thank you I know you're enjoying know for sure you look like you're in the suburb of Chicago or something like that yeah which is really really interesting and kind of a unique feeling but it's cool so you've played with like a bunch of other foreign players out here yes have you bonded with them like yeah Buzzelli was on the team here first yeah like would you guys ever hang out outside like outside of the court yeah me and G not quite as much my he was a great kid he had his girlfriend here the whole time they kind of did their own thing but he was a great kid I loved them yeah and you know he was he was he was only 19 at the time Oh super young and and I wanted to just kind of do his own thing but we had a great relationship together and lluís I do hang out with Luis Scola off the court as well but he has he has four kids and his wife and they all came over here for pretty much the whole time that's cool so it was a lot of fun and his kids are really really funny really fun they lived like near you yeah they just live just right down the block they needed to find an apartment with you know four or five rooms in it so I don't know if they have a ton of those in Shanghai but they they found something and yeah but it's not too far from here you know he's just a great guy he really is great team a good person and family getting family man and just I've enjoyed playing with him when you were first thinking about playing out in China did like yeah I'll play a role and recruiting you to the Shanghai Sharks cuz I was back when he was the owner of the team yeah he did he definitely did he he mentioned it to their coaching staff and then the coaching staff came and watched me in summer league the one year before they picked me up so then yeah it spoke to me several times but then I poke with Brian Gorgon who was the associate head coach at the time and he's an American guy from the US and he went over and played in Australia and then has been living actually in Australia for 30 years but he been coaching in China now for 10 years so he knew everything about it you know made me feel comfortable and made me feel like if I went there I'd have someone that you know I'd feel comfortable with that can be like hey if I have a problem or situation he knows what to do and knows how to help me which was which is was really nice for me going over the first year being like yeah yeah that's nice to have if I'm gonna be in a situation he knows how to help me he knows where I'm coming from and all this stuff so yeah I spoke with quite a bit and he just said Shanghai is a great city the people will love you we have a perfect situation for you here you can go in and just score and be yourself and we just want you to go come here and just help the team you know become winning and you know I was like I I think I can do that so it worked out well so your first two years in the team you had an American coach yes and now you have a Chinese coach Andy speak English yeah that's got to be a weird transition for sure in practice coach Goergen you know ran everything so I understood everything the translator was for the Chinese guys you know what I mean so I understood everything it was normal practice for me you know it mean and it was great but then now this year everything's in Chinese so now I got to listen to the translator which is a little bit you know it's a little different you get used to it but you know you hear two voices at once and you want to listen to coach you know because he's saying something but you can't you gotta listen to the translator to figure out what he's saying so a lot of times I'm just looking at the translate area which is kind of weird but you know you don't want to be disrespectful not looking at people but you're just trying to figure out what's what they're saying and everything so it's a different dynamic but you get used to it after a while Marbury who was kind of like the poster child for the CBA before you came over did he offer any like sort of sort of advice for playing out here he first came out you know not a ton you know I have spoken with him a couple of times now since I've been in the CBA I know that my agency spoke with his agency just to kind of talk about different things you could do for endorsements and you know different tough types of stuff off the court oh yeah because you've had loads of brands like Lords of Chinese brands reach out to you right yeah I've had a good thing I mean Chinese brands and then also US brands that want to get into China a lot of times that happens they're like oh you're doing well over there let's see if we can you know get you involved in our company that we're starting up and trying to you know get bigger more a company that's already existing that we need a little more notoriety for so yeah I've had some good success with that but you know on the court he hasn't really said too much we've been playing against each other most of the time so he probably doesn't to get at me too many tips but you know if I was out that game when you guys got gotten a little scuffle yeah for sure and that went viral pretty quickly some of the comments were pretty funny actually that were like on it yeah afterwards but what actually happened there what was like the genesis of that so basically I went up for a layup and I was going up for that was pretty you know I was open at first and he came out of nowhere and just kind of like went to club down fist fist full you know close like right down towards my face and just like hit me is pretty hard with the ball and his and his in his fist just right on my face it was a pretty bad foul you know what I mean and you know it seemed like it was kind of intentional it was he was a little bit frustrated at that point I feel like and so because of that I was like you know I just got upset you know I mean like just in the spur of the moment got upset so I just pushed them and then he came back into you know my face and he just kind of got into it a little bit right there and then that was the end of it basically you know I mean for me you know it is the spur of the moment thing it's not anything that you carry a grudge or anything like that at least I don't you know off the court or anything like that but you know if someone does something I feel like it's disrespectful or or dirty or something at that point I'm gonna want to do something about it you know I mean just to show them I'm here yeah show them that he's in the shark tank exactly he's a shark exactly you gotta tell them welcome to the shark tank Yeah right welcome to the shark tank save the duck pond we have a weird relationship because one of it when you're playing in a small court like where Shanghai plays if you're like yelling at someone from the sidelines they can hear you pretty well for sure I like in the NBA whatever you try to yell at someone it's a lot the crowd so I used to hack a little bit just because I see the Beijing Ducks as like the Sharks main rival for sure they're big yeah one time like he turned around and said something to me that I caught on tape welcome to the Shaq tank Stephane I'm rude with Shaq and then like put that in the video and then that was like went semi viral so funny so then anytime I would start talking he would just kind of put a towel over his head and completely ignore me yeah he's like if I turn around say someone's gonna end up on social media for sure luckily when you play in Shanghai no one's like trying to get in your exactly yeah most of the places that I go there's not many foreigners in the stands so this Shanghai by far has the most foreigners in the stands and if there is a foreigner in the stand another city most of the time they're a member of our church okay I mean so they're like positive towards me you know what it means so I haven't heard like a whole lot of negative things towards me that I understand I'm sure there's several of them everywhere that we go but I don't understand them so it doesn't really bother me when you dropped your shoe brand right yeah you were working with a Chinese shoe company yes I have like loads of friends back in the u.s. being like you need to get me a pair are they stole for sale can I still go out and buy them you can go out and buy them right now yogurt 361 stores are just online but you can't buy it from the US you got to buy it from China that's the problem because she talked to them about that I think if you could sell some in the US I know I've spoke to them for the last three years trying to get them to sell them in the US yeah and it just hasn't you know sometimes they do business differently over here and then they do in the US maybe Marbury is behind the scenes pulling some strings yeah blocked in the US yeah he's like we don't want that we don't need that over in the u.s. right now so this season is like almost over although hopefully we do make the playoffs yeah a game on Wednesday yeah what do you have planned for you the next phase of your basketball career are you thinking about trying to make a return to the NBA you know I hope so you know that's that's I think what the you know the goal is but you know you never know exactly what's gonna happen you never know the situation that's gonna come moving forward but I've had such a great three years here already I want to finish this season out strong and then from there I can kind of decide what I feel like is best for myself and for my family but you know I'd love to be able to be back in the US to just live with my family my wife and my kids now that are gonna you know I have a baby boy that's that's coming oh wow it's beginning of April ish so another three or four weeks and I want to be able to be there with them and see them develop and grow and I've missed quite a bit of what some of Wesley's development yeah I mean I see it on FaceTime and stuff but just not the same so I hope to be able to be back and be able to be with them and playing back in the NBA but if you know if there isn't the circumstance here that I feel like it's better then maybe I'll be back here but what you think it's gonna at least take one season off from playing out here in China not I mean I'm not positive not necessarily you know what I mean but I hope that that that's the plan you know hopefully I'll be able to find something for at least this next year and and get back and you know kind of show it I can do again and see how that goes and make take one more shot at this you know the NBA and and see where it goes from there but you know like I said you never really know what happens we'd love to see you back in the NBA I feel like you could kind of be Bruce Wayne and the Dark Knight Rises like he breaks his back and then he gets like he goes to prison overseas learned some valuable lessons exactly and comes back to take over Gotham again but you'd be taking over the NBA yeah I guess Bane would be LeBron James or so there you go yeah someone someone like that I mean that sounds good to me I mean that sounds like a perfect analogy I'm excited about it yeah have you started to talk with some teams back in the US we definitely have had interests you know my agent has talked with you know some teams but you know nothing you know crazy at this point you know obviously we're we're still in the season and you know next year is quite a bit away you know you never know what's gonna happen with a lot of these team situations between now and next year yeah especially with draft and then free agency and all these different things so you know he's always and with with teams all the time no matter what just seeing level of interest and and everything but you know hopefully we can we can find something good yeah well let's focus on the Sharks winning a CBA championship first that's exactly right I mean that this could be a cinderella story if we're like the last team into the playoffs sure and then we go all the way come in hot and then just make a run that would be great so playing these three years out in China which part of your game do you think improved the most for me for sure playing off the ball and being able to catch and shoot and do it really well at a high level when I came out of college I didn't really play off the ball very much I was always on the ball dribbling into my shots doing different things off a pick-and-roll since I've been in China I've had an opportunity to really work on playing off the ball a lot and working on my catching and shooting and working on playing and moving without the basketball and still being effective which is something that is important for me in the next immuno for the time but if I do make it back to the NBA that's what you know the game is now you got to be able to move off the ball you got to be able to catch and shoot it as well as be able to play on the ball you got to be able to kind of do both and me adding that phase of my game to a high level I think makes me a real asset for a team so you know that's something that I've really focused on and gotten better at and then I think that I've continued to just grow as a basketball player mentally I'm smarter I feel like I'm in good shape and and better defensively and and in doing you know all the things that I need to and to try to get back and see what I can do there's so much focus on the 3-point shot in the NBA these days so I feel like you could thrive in that sort of environment yeah it's kind of like since I've been out of the NBA it's more gone to the way that I play the game more now than ever you know when I first came into the NBA wasn't even nearly what it is now you know the three-point shot was still you know it was an asset but it wasn't like the total part of the game that it is now I mean some teams literally just try to shoot threes and layups and free-throws and that's what I that's why I've been doing most of my career and now I feel like so many people are doing that so many teams are trying to go that way that I feel like my skill that really plays well into that now so more than ever so good time for it I'm like when you play out in China you're usually getting double-teamed triple-teamed for sure at least in the NBA you probably wouldn't have to like worry about that for sure so ya know for sure I mean you most of the time you know it's hard to double-team a guy cuz so many guys are so good you know I mean like you get open shots and then you got to knock them down so if you know there's a great player on my team that commands a double-team yeah you know I think that's a perfect situation for me to get an open shot would be something I haven't gone charts have a lot of great players but I feel like when it comes to scoring they kind of like focus the offense on you for sure I've kind of that's kind of my role to score the basketball for yeah I mean and get other guys involved there's some guys that can that can shoot and play well but you know you never know what guy it's gonna be on our team do you know why the guy with the ponytail was traded I think he was on the team your first year oh yeah ding yes yeah thanks so dinger he didn't get traded he was a free agent after last year and he decided you know they weren't gonna give him as much money as he wanted but he had been in Shanghai for years yeah I know he loved it one of my favorites [Applause] what are they putting the water in Taiwan right Jeremy lay and the ponytail guy he's Christ but um yeah they they definitely rely on me to score a lot and you know so the team's really focus on me defensively for sure like in the game where you scored 75 points the Sharks lost like more just like happy you scored 75 or were you or were you kind of like oh come on he still lost yeah it was it was a crazy game I mean I I was exhausted after that game like mentally and physically I never felt like that after a game before cuz I had put so much effort into it like we had come back from like a 15 points down in the fourth quarter and and we came back and it was necessary like I needed to score those points to give us a chance and then I hit a game go ahead and shot with like five seconds left to put us up too and then they came down hit three to win it oh yeah at the buzzer and then I was just drained I was like man we did all this and I had a great game and things were good and we lost so it was I mean obviously it was fun there was an amazing game it was so much fun and something I'll never forget scoring that many points and and everything but you know to lose at that moment was devastating I was like man that's that sucks you know a lot of it is like you get on a roll and you just go and in a lot of times it's because your team is losing so you're like alright you know I just want to feel like I need to take over at this point and try to get us back into it so that you know you start doing that and then all sudden you start feeling really good and the ball just is dropping you're going and it's going it's going in well the other team is still you know hot are still doing well but you're still slowly getting it back and that's you know sometimes you just catch on fire and then you know sometimes it's not enough but but sometimes that's why because you're trying to get back into it for current NBA players who like might be towards the end of their career and I'll look into playing in China do you have any sort of advice for them I would say do it you know I would say get the experience come out here see what it's like and obviously if they come out here and play the Chinese fans will will love them and even more you know I mean and if you're looking for another market you know to maybe do some different things off the court maybe be an ambassador at some point global brand ambassador whatever it is I would encourage them to take a year after there they're done and come out here and play just because it's it means a lot more to the Chinese people when they come and they see you and you actually want to be a part of their culture to them you know they'll they'll follow you for the rest of your career even more so just because they know that you know you wanted to be a part of their culture so I would I would say if they're looking for more fans and looking for opportunities off the floor and on the floor I think it's a that's a great thing to do does the shark tank unlike a big night when it's packed can it ever match what it was like playing back in your March Madness days it's difficult because the the arena's are so much bigger than the March Madness place yeah I think we get like four four thousand p.m. it's like four or five thousand when it's when it's packed is it around somewhere around there and actually it's a it gets really loud and like I've had some games that you know I've been like wow it's actually really loud in here it's pretty rowdy and most of the time when you go to Chinese games the people are a little bit more reserved you know they're not quite as you know loud and in-your-face as as some of the especially college you know the college kids they chant and they have oh yeah you know what I mean they have all their their stuff going on so it's rumbling with some of the games that I've been in are the Sharks like one of the louder atmospheres at least in the CBA it is it is for sure when it's when it's a loud sharks game it's about as loud as it gets and there has to be some games you play that's just very quiet for sure there's some games that are you know very very very little fans in the stadium especially when we play at like some of these really big nice new stadiums like nanjing has a beautiful new stadium that they're using for you know the World Cup oh let me go and it's outside of the city or Shenzhen or something like that and it's outside of the city at 45 minutes yeah so you don't get a ton of people to go out there but we play in these arenas because they're brand new and they're trying to break them in and see how they are and you go there and there's you know not many people in the stands so it's like a scrimmage almost you know what I mean there's some of them that are really really good really packed and good crowds so you never know yeah I mean I can even remember in Shanghai which is it's the largest city in China as well as one of the most popular sports in China but yeah it used to always only be like half full and I'm sure like shimmer mania out here kind of like started packing the place out again for sure yeah once that first year you know first couple of games there weren't many people there and then we played Guangdong one of my first games and we won and we hadn't beat Guangdong and forever and and we won and and I had you know 50 points and like things were going well and we started off the season really well and people like wow I think we're really good this year and then from that point on for the last three years you know we've had really good crowds yeah I mean it's true that people here do love you yeah like you when you're just walking around the streets well a lot of Chinese fans recognize me would be like oh it's East a lonely master for sure I definitely get people coming up to me and you know Giamatti Millar you know saying that or every once in a while they'll say gee mo Dutchman or whatever it is that they say for my for my nickname and you know so it's it's good I mean there's so many people in the city that you know most half of the people just walk by and have no idea who you are but then there's other like the other half are like oh I know who you are you know not being seven he's doing something yeah yeah he does something so it's super nice for me cuz I'm just a normal sized normal-looking person normal looking expat in the community so if they don't really take a really good look at me or if I have my hood up or anything there's like no chance my friend was saying when he sorry you took the subway to a game that you were walking into the game and the security guard there was like wait wait wait who are you like you have an ID you're like yeah he was my past like I kind of a big deal I've had to incur that many times but the security guard networks are now every time he's good with me okay that's who I am now but the funny part that is when I come up the subway to the stadium I come up the escalators and there's always probably like five or six scalpers right there you know every single time they're always like oh you want ticket you need to get you need ticket and I'm like now I'm playing I'm good and they have no idea Who I am and it's funny because I'm like they probably have never been in the stadium they're just trying to sell the tickets stereotypical view of like what a professional basketball player for sure they're like that's not you so are you you're going to the game do you have and do you want me to take it so that's pretty funny have you had any like very strange fan interactions there was one time when I was on the subway in the metro and I was you know I was probably like five or six stops away from my place just getting on and I was gonna go home and all of a sudden this fan this girl comes up out of nowhere and just comes out to me and like comes in says I love you you know I mean I watch other games and she gave me a gift like she had the gift on hand wanting to give that to me and I'm like how did you know where I was how did you know that I was gonna you know what I mean like I don't know if she followed me I don't know if she just kept it in to in the case the case that she actually saw me at some point was like that it was like a little bracelet for my for my daughter Oh Leslie so I mean it was very thoughtful of her and it was funny but it was just like random that she had the gift on hand and I was at home I wasn't at the game I wasn't anywhere I was just in the middle of the city not doing anything and then she came on an oh yeah she must have been herself weeks exactly so but that was like kind of random all right well Jimmer thanks a lot no problem thanks for having me I enjoy watching your show it's it's funny well I'll see you at the game on Wednesday sounds good can I get a let's go sharks on the mic yeah let's go sharks love it my problem things let's go sharks [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Wonton Don

Views: 162,379

Rating: 4.9266391 out of 5

Keywords: China, Donnie Does, Wonton Don, Shanghai, Weird, Whoa That's Weird, Asia, travel vlog, barstool sports, Jimmer Fredette, CBA, NBA, Luis Scola, Shanghai Sharks, BYU, March Madness

Id: XVIFiyohQZE

Length: 36min 28sec (2188 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2019