Digital Social Hour - He Played Varsity Basketball in 5th Grade | Julian Newman Digital Social Hour #89

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

Julian Newman talks about how experiencing fame at a young age affected him and where he want to play basketball next. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/digitalsocialhour/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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you know uh news appearances in the gym and wow all types of stuff so sometimes i barely went to school because of appearances and stuff like that but yeah it was like it was my life honestly have you ever been kicked out of a game i've been uh ejected out of a couple games but uh something like elbow me i pushed it back older people at school like coaches were talking down on like a 12 year old 11 year old Welcome to Digital Soul Slower. I'm your host, Sean Kelly. Here with my co-host, Wayne Lewis. What up, what up? And our guest today, Julian Newman. How you doing?

How's it going, man? Julian Newman. Man, appreciate you having me. Yes, sir. Mr. Ph, man. Appreciate you having me. Yes, sir. Mr. Phenom. Mr. Mighty Mouse. Man, what happened to the thumb there? Oh, man.

I was working out in Orlando, Florida. And I played one zap there and driving right. And I was like keeping my left hand on the ground for balance. And it was kind of like a hard floor. So when I stuck my hand out, I think it just snapped right away yeah same thing not not a hero right uh i think i think it was his wrist though right yeah yeah but same kind of thing yeah so what are you what are you up to nowadays like you still hoopies they're trying to hoop like what's your what are you what are you doing right now uh so right now yeah i'm definitely uh you know staying ready um

working out and uh getting ready for you know some opportunities um no college uh no no college why not uh i don't know it was never a goal of mine so like yeah yeah it's never not gonna make it no one now so but definitely it was never one um so your clock didn't even start you you can still play if you wanted to yeah yeah i never attended a day in college why don't you want to play yeah why don't i don't know at first you couldn't like make no money from it so from like uh even at a kid's standpoint i always wanted to go overseas first or okay um you do something that made money for real uh because you know like a lot of college players stay there and don't do nothing sometimes so uh definitely uh but now that with the nil would that change your perspective at all or absolutely it changed my perspective but it just

makes me just mad that they didn't do that a couple years ago you know because they did it because of people like me and lamella ball people like us for real so yeah we missed out on the bag as kids for sure but i'm saying yeah it's crazy definitely would do it now if you could get paid back in the day for sure what was it like playing against lamello ball in high school it was cool i mean uh you know his team was uh one of the best in the country at the time what was it who was it chino hills or no it was spire yeah ohio something like that but chino hills was the high school oh yeah yeah but uh yeah no it was just a a great team they beat everybody feel me so but uh me personally you know i played all right um it was cool though

you know but it was just like playing anybody else because at the time like you know the world half the world uh to be exact like five five five six that's crazy and you were shorter then i mean i'm not sure i know why i think i've been that same height around the same height the whole time yeah since like ninth grade i don't know why you look like extremely little but she was balling because they're huge bro everyone's like everyone's huge yeah everyone's like at least six three six four how tall were your parents uh my dad is about five six five five six yeah about five six my mom's like like five foot and they both hooped oh yeah yep my dad and mom played in high school yeah okay

yeah okay and you were on varsity when you were what like 12 uh 11 jesus wow like varsity high school or varsity just varsity of your junior high no it was a high school basketball team so i went to a private school high no it was a high school basketball team so it was i went to a private school oh so it was from 6 to 12 or something like that uh it was from k through it was preschool through 12 to school but the team you know played real high school ball um and we played some of the big public schools around all the big public schools around like some doctors for real so like but not um at 11 years old i was um you know um i was working out at that school and uh my dad was a coach and they needed a point guard so i ended up practicing with

them gotcha and actually you know like i could go like i can play you're saying when you got some people around you can definitely attend age so wow yeah i was scoring a good amount and um at one point i had the average the most in the country versus according to max preps yeah that's insane how many assists were you averaging? I don't know. I think it was like 13. That's a lot in high school. High school games are low scoring. So how do you deal with

a lot of the criticism and backlash that you get? People saying that you fell off and stuff like that. How do you deal with that mentally and does it affect you in any type of way? Yeah, I mean personally, I've been deal with that mentally and does it affect you in any type of way? Yeah, I mean, personally, you know, I've been dealing with that, I think, for a while, the same type of talk. So it's no different in my opinion.

But honestly, just, you know, continuing to grow myself, whether people believe it's going on now, you know, it's a marathon, you know, not a short race, it's a long one. So, yeah, in a few years, people are going to see, you know what I'm saying. But definitely how I handle it is, you know, definitely just, you know what I'm saying, you got to put God first and definitely hang around your family and grind. But also, you know what I'm saying, like people are going to talk, you know what I'm saying, but they talk about anything. Do you still want to play though? Of course, yeah.

How old are you right now? 21. Oh, you still got time. You still got time. Definitely, yeah. Yeah, you still want to play though of course yeah how are you right now uh 21 oh you still got time you got time definitely yeah yeah you you still got time you just gotta like you know just keep working for sure obviously you still got the skill set right yeah most definitely still working on everything definitely yeah uh i feel like you know i'm better than ever now i just broke this like my thumb a couple weeks ago but it's not too long only in six weeks so but yeah you know you grow until about 25 26 so you might squeeze another two maybe three inches out of you certain stretches yeah i love stretching too so well yeah no you can um hang hanging is one stretch that you can do to actually stretch your body yeah if you hang for a certain

amount of time on the bar you'll pull a a bar. Definitely. Do that every day. But yeah, you, I mean, you never know. I mean, if you want to actually. I mean, yeah, I'll take it,

but you know, it's not, I mean, I mean, it's, it could be necessary, but it's not needed. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. I definitely, I ain't complaining if God want to give it to me. Right. Right. Who are your favorite point cards of all time? Of all time? It's a great question great question um well is it one or is it five i do a couple i mean a couple um what about three three three three three three i say uh ever since i was young

chris paul was a okay yeah like a greater mind um definitely when i was very young derrick rose went in his prime before he got injured oh man he was some serious yeah i was young unguardable he's my favorite as a kid and then um i said you got to go alan iverson you know i'm saying alan iverson for sure because handles yeah he changed the game definitely and i'm shit did the game he's still to this day nobody's doing stuff like him except Kyrie, really. Yeah. He'd be my fourth Kyrie. Kyrie, yeah, for sure. What's your best move, like dribbling move?

I mean, I say – that's a good question. Hesitation dribble. When I was young, people used to call carry double dribble. Yeah, yeah, for sure. When it was kind of unknown. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But now it's like the best move out there. So I say that, and I definitely don't get credit as one of the youngest ones doing it back in the day.

But that's how he built his. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. He had a huge impact. Like, how do you manage even as possible? No, you know, I can't actually come over here so as as as his pops how do you manage like some of the pressure

of dealing with a child phenom at that level at that caliber how do you even manage like all of the talking because he was talking on the court right you the coach you getting backlash on the sideline he balling they going back to back-to-back buggers. How do you deal with all of that? Yeah, I mean, it comes with the nature of the territory. I think when you have the media on you like he was, no one's had the media on him from that young age to that. Nobody.

So he's had the most media from an athlete, from a young standpoint, than anybody. And I feel once you get that media, you're going to get all the attention, you're going to get all the backlash, you're going to get all the talking. His talking on the court, you know, that came from, you know, you see the second reaction. You don't see them talking about his mom

and talking about his sister and talking about his dad. And you only see the reaction from him. Because, you know, you only see the second reaction. But, you know, when... No, Julian is talking. I done been to your game. You know? He get on that word

change to a whole new person now but as soon as that that kickoff happened he on our work he hit that first three so it's a switch you know and it's a switch of being small being small you have to have that fire right that that dog and you can't teach a dog right it can't you get mad some of these NBA guys because they don't have that in them. But you need the dogging, especially being that little. If you're not, you know, you're just going to be step walked over, you know, and that's it. Some people play better when they talk s**t, like Jimmy Bullard. Some people do.

Some people do. He makes the game. He made the game just way more competitive. Like, I think those games were probably some of the best because, I mean, even some of the weak players was hitting threes just because he was going at it. Duncan Robinson all of a sudden. Yeah, that makes sense. Some players that you never even thought, like, y'all, he ain't good.

He just bring that competitive nature. Score go from being, you know, 21 to 29 to 28, 29. Like, just in that second just because he just amped the game the game's just more impactful so have you always had that edge and been tough

like just that just that what is it like what's wrong what's wrong with you nah nah always been like

very like you know like I took basketball serious on the course as young so anything like you know like i took basketball serious on the course as young so uh anything

like you know uh i take it serious any call or anything going on like even as a kid it was the same type of uh same type of thing yeah you know and if anybody spoke with my mom at that age it was the same thing you know but now you know it's uh you're getting paid to play so it's different yeah have you ever been kicked out of a game i've been uh ejected out of a couple games but uh yeah yeah but not too many for real like you think about it was always uh i got ejected for something like elbow me i pushed it back you know i was the reaction you know the ref always sees that second reaction definitely and of course yeah no i definitely uh like to run them out for sure because you know a lot of of times when we see on the gram and stuff like that, people be in DMs talking before the game and stuff like that. And you locked in.

And don't nobody know about what's going on behind the scenes. But, you know, you're talking crazy. Like, I wake up early. I train. I do this every day. Come on, bro. I'm going to let you know it. You know what I'm saying?

People are DMing you before the game? yeah definitely as a team yeah definitely uh during camps he was everywhere wow kids wanted to play him especially in this vegas circuit wow they wanted they couldn't bro begging like nah even like you know school like some work administration like older people at schools like coaches were talking down on like a 12 year old, 11 year old. That's insane. So do you think the fame at an early age kind of set the tone for you? I mean, I say, I say, man, I just play ball my whole life. It just made it like it just is what it is.

Like I play ball, trained and during class i got pulled out for you know uh news appearances in the gym and wow all types of stuff so sometimes i barely went to school because of appearances and stuff like that but yeah it was like it was my life honestly i don't think it uh you know definitely made me um a hard worker on certain things and uh it definitely inspires me to you know to keep continue to grow and keep going for sure but uh it definitely you know i i set the tone for me for hooping ever since like i started hooping it's it's the competitive spirit i feel i always wanted to be the best before i was even knowing it all i was known as like the best kid in my city like

even before being known you know what i'm saying so yeah in vegas uh i'm from orlando so in orlando florida so how was it like having uh you guys had a reality show right uh yeah yep how was that uh it was cool like what was it annoying having cameras all the time like sometimes yeah sometimes it was uh it was cool though uh at first you know and uh at certain times but um a little uncomfortable for a younger person. Certain things, you know, certain things said, you don't want to say. Blows up personal relationships,

maybe stuff like that, but it was definitely cool. A blessing more than anything, but yeah, it was cool though. Late nights and all that type of stuff. Yeah, that's dope. What's next for you guys? What's the game plan? Yeah, right now, actually, I'm going to start a YouTube channel soon, and we're working on signing for the reality show.

Nice. Another season? Yeah, you know, signing. Bigger network. Big network. Okay. I love my job. Yeah, big network.

Nice. Let's go. Yeah. We've been wanting to go to a big network ever since season two. Okay. So, this is third season? No, there's actually five seasons of Hello, Newman. All right.

Wow. There's five seasons already? Yeah. So ever since the second season of Hello, Newman, we're like, yo, it's time for us to move to a bigger and better platform. And they just kept us there to build their company, which we did. Now they're a billion-dollar company. Oh, wow. And offer our backs.

So it's like- For real? For real? Yeah. Did you guys get a piece of it? I mean, none of that. company oh wow you know and offer our backs so it's like um for real it's not real yeah so did you guys get a piece of it i mean none of that none of what everybody thinks what we should have what we should get so now it's like hey you know it's our turn to go out there and go to that big network and get that bag that we deserve damn so what where actually brought you guys to vegas the show so you guys moved out here because of the show. Yeah.

Wow. And stayed. And stayed. Basically. So you guys like it out here? It's cool. It's cool. Yeah, I like Florida better, though, personally.

How's the ball in Vegas compared to Florida? Is it better out here? I wouldn't say so, no. I'd say people that are actually from here, not at all. I think people just migrate here, and it becomes a lot of good hoop. But no, I'd say definitely a lot better competition in Orlando, Florida, for sure. Oh, for real? Yeah.

Okay. You're from here, so I wouldn't know. I just moved here. I mean, no, I'm from LA. I've been here for a while, yeah. You got certain teams that are great out here. Like Liberty was great. Yeah, yeah.

Liberty did it then. A lot of times. Yeah. A lot of times. You didn't play high school ball here, right? No, I played high school ball in Florida. Oh, damn. You would have played here. That would have been crazy. What's you didn't play high school ball here right no i play high school ball in florida oh damn you would play here that'd be crazy what's the best state for high school ball it's a great question i mean it's arguably probably cali cali you got texas is big you already

got some buckets out there i say uh i think vegas is uh is it's probably coming up yeah vegas elite they have a stable now okay they're really're really pulling from that stable. Vegas Elite is creating pros, yeah. No, most definitely. Yeah, they're creating pros for sure. If you could play overseas, what league attracts you right now? Dang, that's a good question. I'm surprised nobody improves you over there yet. I mean, I had a couple, you know, little things going on,

but it just didn't meet what we want or what we got. You know what I'm saying? I'm not going to go over there for, you know, what people will call a lot. You know what I'm saying? It's a lot going on to just go out there for nothing. Yeah. Like, CBA's got money, right? The China one?

Stuff like that. I mean, yeah. Like, I say Australia's nice. Australia. He has a brand. China's nice. I mean. So they got to let him do that while he can.

Well, no. See, the thing about it, he's a draw. So sell jerseys. Once they see him over there, you know. So, I mean, but what's a lot of money and what's not a lot of money? Oh, no, that's a great question. What's a lot of money? Because there's always more.

There's always more. There's always more. You can make $10 million. There's always more. Nothing's ever enough. Never enough. But do you hear about people going overseas for what they call per diem, always there's always 10 million and there's always more nothing's ever enough no but you hear about like people going overseas for like what they call per diem for food and free free

living and stuff yeah see now i don't think that'd be your case no never not but i'd say like you know um so if they offered you a quarter of a million that's enough uh no i would say no but i say you know can i can we promote our brand can we do more stuff out there you know percentages of jerseys have to go do more percentages of Jersey definitely you know could they probably want me doing a lot more so you know I mean it's more like quarter really yeah but it probably got me working like a slave yeah that's what I mean that's what you got to do no definitely there's there's social media Hoopers making more than NBA players right now absolutely i'd say

yeah it's pretty crazy yeah i mean the cavendish twins yeah because if you think about it bro your following is your that is your currency yeah following his currency for sure yeah you have to monetize it it's about your reach yeah and he has a he has a name he had a reality show bro but him mellow ball was like the only two guys who actually had an actual show. Yeah. Who started their show first? I'm not even sure. I don't know.

But they both were. I think it was around the same time the same show started. He's been around longer than Mellow. But remember, Mellow has Lonzo. Yeah. Lonzo Brothers. They were bigger at the time as well. So it was more like,

you know, you had Lonzo. Lonzo was big. Lonzo was still big to play, you know? Are you an only child? Nah, my sister,

Jaden. She's who too? Jaden Newman, yeah. Yeah, Jaden's the number one NIL person out there. You sure? For real?

Yeah. Oh, by far. Cavalier twins, come on now. Wait. They can't even hold a torch to Jaden. Wow,

seriously? I didn't know that. Where is she playing at? Well, she just graduated Liberty, so she's going to Cal State. Cal State. Cal State what? L.A. Oh, she's going to Cal State L.A.?

Yeah, uh-huh. So, yeah, man, she's something else. She's a point guard. She's a point guard, yeah. Does she really shoot the ball? Yeah, she can really shoot the ball. No, yeah, on the basketball side, she can really do it, too. Wow. So, she get that from you? Yeah, I i mean we get it from him but yeah i'd say so yeah

yeah but she's in music she does all that's the thing she's everything she's in so she's how good were you in high school like i was good in high school oh for real yeah man you know we talking 20 a game that was yep okay yeah i was like 17 in high school, so, you know. But that was like back then, like honestly, like it was better back then. Basketball and everything. You think so? Really? I think they're more athletic now.

I think. Yeah. But you guys were better skill-wise, you think? I think back then it was more of. A balance, I feel. Better coaching, for one. You know, you get the better coaching and you get the strength. Yeah.

Not so much athleticism, but it was like older high school, you know, like now, you know, nowadays, you know, you can't touch nobody.

You can't do this. You can't do that. Everything's there where, you know, back then it was, you know, you dealt, you dealt with stronger individuals,

hard-nosed basketball. Opposed to now, I can't blow on people. You can't even touch someone at calling tech especially if it's the key player yeah every time

every single time it gets crazy when it's too technical now right it's crazy definitely because I'm sure when kids was guarding you and the spotlight was on them

foul every time oh yeah definitely in some cases yes in some cases in a lot of cases. Yeah. But then in some games

we couldn't get it. Yeah. It was getting hot. Wouldn't take a score. Yeah, exactly. Where they was like, let me play a little bit because of like,

a lot of refs didn't want to be that guy to call everything for me. Yeah, the crowd interacting. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, or like, I feel like refs don't like,

like a lot of refs was cool, but, I feel like refs don't like – like, a lot of refs was cool, but then a lot of refs don't like when certain players get recognition in high school. Yeah, it's just too much. Yeah, it's just like – You feel the same. They're like, why? They coach all these games. They ref all these games, and they're like –

Well, because you got to think, y'all have crowd control. Yeah. The crowd don't want nobody touching you. They're going after ref. Yeah, for sure. So, he got to either go with the crowd or run want nobody touching you they're going at the ref yeah so he got to either go with the crowd or run out the gym after the game it literally happens you got that much stardom yes i think a lot would happen especially with julian where we play most of our games on the road you know because of the gym we we were in so most of our

games were we had the crowd against us, and sometimes it gets the refs against you. So that was a big opposing thing. It was terrible. You had a lot of bad refs out there because they don't want to hear from the fans. They don't want to be able to walk out to their car and come home. So that's what happened in this case a lot.

They got to figure out how to fix that, though. Yeah. Nah. In high school? AAU, bro. That's what it's about. AAU is about that. It's about that park basketball style.

Yeah. No, for sure. AAU has a lot of ruggedness to them, and I feel like that's why it's so important. Yeah. Because y'all compete at such a high level. Definitely. They compete against kids they've never seen,

future pros. You're putting everything on the line and putting everything to the test for that summer or that weekend. How many games y'all play in a weekend? Maybe 10? 10 in a weekend? Yeah, dude.

4 in one day. Eliminator, the second round, the third round, the process of elimination, the finalists. Then you play next day. Eliminator, the second round, the third round, the process eliminator, the finalist. Then you play next day. And that's just totally ridiculous. Yeah, I've got stuff there. And then Sunday you end up playing LeBron's son. You end up playing Strive for Greatness.

It's just totally ridiculous to put kids through that and to do that. That's why you have all these injuries nowadays. You know, my daughter tore her ACL. Oh, ****. You know, injuries happen because of that. You know, I'm putting stuff like that. And AAUs became such a money grabber that they don't care. So they're putting three, four a night.

You know, you're paying the teams. You're paying $1,000 to get in the tournament. $50 a ticket to get in for a parent. Like, they're going to go see LeBron play or something like that. But it's important. That AAU is just. Yeah. Too many games. It's part of the culture as well. It's's important. That AAU is just too many names.

It's part of the culture as well. It's part of the culture now. It's so high level. That's the highest level I feel like. AAU is the highest level of basketball that you're ever going to witness. When it comes to the kids being at their, not at their peak, but they're right there. They're figuring the game out.

They're throwing, learning how to throw alley-oop. It's exciting to watch. And that's like EYBL yeah I say yeah you know cuz a lot of bullshit a term but then you know the top ones like yeah on the circuit stuff like that that's definitely yeah you get the best around it's the best of the best competing what's EYBL EYBL is like a Nike circuit where a bunch of teams, I say everybody in your region gets together and you play for that. He gets to play with the main

dude from another team. They all come together and come to see these and just crush each other. They just blow each other out. They basically have like, Nike has like 30 teams. In the whole country. And then it breaks down to like you

know 16 yeah so that it's like a tournament yeah nice it just happens to be vegas elite right now is in the 14th yeah nike nike pretty much when you get into that circuit they're pretty much watching you for when you're eight years old because they want to sponsor you that and they kind of know you might make it or not but nike knows wow pretty much that's smart on their end because they'll know who's gonna pop off yeah it is but they they miss a lot of talent too don't get it twisted oh they do for sure i feel like they do they do because outside yeah 100 because this this i feel like the summer that a you have out here is man there's some talent there probably yeah definitely i definitely gotta some out especially the casting Canada no Vegas gets some of the

good tournaments some of the best turn you know it's a pull from everywhere Vegas where the parents want to go I read it somewhere else yeah Vegas has a hole for the bad you know what i'm saying adidas gauntlet is big too is it all politics so like how do you get it absolutely she was like 13 when did your politics start 12 11 10. yeah it was great for a lot of things but then man a lot of people would politic the other way too so yeah you get positive but definitely you get a lot from one way and then you get a lot you know from the other and then people change and it's like oh man yeah you're dealing with politics sean from like 10 years old that's until now he's still probably dealing with still his back still politics because on that you know on the pro level now with him it's the politics right

the politics it's about well it's about what the favors he didn't do when he was younger right so they're going to mention that right who you didn't play for or yeah exactly what he might have said to somebody right they don't forget you know like remember when i told him that's what i told you to play for there for a year you didn't do that it's always bro a lot of stuff happened because even back then you know he was doing a lot and you know usa called they wanted to come out the next day. But we were already committed to Conan O'Brien or something like that. They remember that.

So now they remember that. They remember that today. They remember that he didn't go to this tournament. Somebody in Vegas, people know who he is. Somebody in Vegas wanted him to come to this tournament, but he couldn't. So they put that. And he's a kid at the time, so he was making the decision, me. So be mad at me.

But don't take it out. He can't make those decisions. Don't take it out on the kid when he already has. And we're not going to burn a bridge. We're not going to burn a bridge because we already have something scheduled for that day. We're not going to say, oh, Konyo and Brian are not coming today. Oh, Good Morning America, sorry, I got to go to this. No, that camp, that's going to be there.

That type of thing. So all that stuff matters in the matters you know now when people are saying oh no no no no no but his shots gonna his shots coming you know he talks to mark cuban he talks a lot of people nice you know so you know so his shot is coming soon what did cuban say he's been talking to me for a while so yeah it's like uh he's been like helping with the brand ever since i was a young kid like with the clothing brand how to get the stores clothing brand uh brand project project brand so it's um you know it's a brand my dad created when i was young and it's you know uh prodigies like he said you can be a prodigy in anything so it's like you know but yeah basically he's helped with that um you

know give advice over email and uh you know tell me when he'll give me a shot whenever i'm ready for real and i feel i'm ready you know and uh you know this year i got some things coming so let's go but definitely yeah man yeah that was a great episode any closing comments guys no man i appreciate y'all having me bro definitely stay tuned what i got going on um you're gonna see way more of us uh starting youtube reality show is about to kick off again and i'm about to be hooping. And Jay is about to be on TV in college hooping too. So, you know,

stay tuned, man. New Newman's New Network. New Newman's New Network. Wayne? New Newman's New Network. Make sure y'all follow me on Instagram at The Creator. And thanks for watching. Thanks for watching, guys. Digital Social Hour.

Peace. Peace.