Green Light with Chris Long - Matt Barnes on Kyrie Irving, NBA’s Disney Adventure and Bong Rips Before H.S. Games.

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

0:44 - Open and Matt Barnes on NBA Restarting, Racism in Sports, Donald Sterling. 27:55 - Matt Barnes on Marijuana, Sitting Courtside and Playing Basketball too High. 42:34 - Quick Hitters with Matt Barnes. Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever been too high? So in high school, let me tell you this story. I think it was my senior year. So we're in this tournament called the Jack Scott tournament. The first game I have like in the 40s, the second game I cut school the next day and we take a gravity bonner. I take a gravity bong out of one of these big ass outhammer bottles. Like you remember the big, we cut the bottom up.

You were hanging out with white kids. You already know. You already know. It's a crazy time and we're all doing what we have to do to get through it. Two big things for me, this podcast, and we've had a ton of interesting guests of late, which has been great. And then hiking, which I love doing, like to get outside, nice place to be where there's not a ton of people. There's a ton of good hikes in Virginia.

I've been hitting the trails a lot. And that's in large part due to all birds. They are the new sponsor of the Greenlight Podcasts. And I'm wearing a pair of these shoes right now. Bays, tree dashers, they sent me. They're great. They're lightweight. They're tough.

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Go check them out at allbirds.com, the tree dashers. welcoming Matt Barnes now to the Greenlight Pod. This is a guy who I always admired for his tough attitude in the NBA. I always thought he could have played football. And now he's got a great podcast, all the smoke with Stephen Jackson. And you guys do a good job. How's this podcasting thing going, Matt? It's been fun.

But to touch back on what you said, I was a football player first. You know, I was an All-American football player, the number one receiver in the 98 high school class, led the nation and touchdown to All-American. And so it was a tough decision when I went to UCLA just to play basketball because football was my heart. But I think I picked the right sport because it allowed me to play, you know, 15 years of professional ball. I don't think I would have got 15 years playing with you guys. You guys would have tore my ass up.

Well, your body probably feels better than mine. Oh, how many years did you play? I did 11, but I just, you know, I retired a year ago. And what I did is I retired before it was time, you know. You see a lot of guys hang on. I didn't want to be that guy. and I always wanted to kind of hang it up, still playing at a high level. So my body thinks, but you know my pops played.

He played for 13 years. So I saw him walk around my entire childhood limp around and not be able to do certain things that I'd like to do with my kids, so I got out. No, I love that. My brother played eight years in the CFL and called it to quit, won a Great Cup in Toronto. Oh, really?

Just to see him the day-to-day. Like, people don't understand. You guys, it trips me out that you guys are the one main sport that doesn't have guaranteed contracts for what you guys put your body through that's insane. It is fucked up. Speaking of longevity, this is perfect because I was going to ask you about Vince. I'm talking about 22. I mean, like, the dude was an NBA player longer than he was not an NBA player in his life so far.

So you play with him two years, I think. But what's he like? What made him tick? And how do you play that long? Because you did 14. Incredible human. You know, he played a part of three decades, you know, the end of the 90s, the 2000s, and, you know, up until the four, excuse me, four.

Right? Yeah, yeah, that was the crazy part. Three sounds crazy, but four is insane. Four decades. Vince is just a tremendous talent, dude. Really cool, down-to-earth guy. Probably one of the most gifted, skilled athletes I've ever seen as far as, you know, throw football 70 yards and shoot left-handed,

um, half-court shots like their right-handed shots. So he was just a tremendously gifted person and a good guy. And I think that's what allowed him to stay as long as he felt like he wanted to play. You know, obviously his heyday had passed. You know, you could say maybe three or four years ago, but he was able to be being the good person he is, was able to mentor some of these young guys and stay as long as he wanted to do. So we had a great time interviewing him on our podcast about a month and a half ago

and just explaining the journey and his passion behind it. And he was in it. He just didn't know anything else, you know. So he's, you know, kind of little apprehensive stepping away from the game. Like you said, he's been on earth playing basketball longer than he hasn't been playing basketball. going to be a whole new world for him. The first thing came to mind is what you said. Like, of course he's apprehensive. Play 22 years. I mean, you become institutionalized to pro sports. And football players especially is more well documented. Like, we struggle. Like, guys know that.

Do you think that the NBA guys struggle in silence more? Or is that, is that something that's just not talked about as much? Because I think we compartmentalize everything into head trauma. And there's, that's part of it. But the existential crisis, like, who the fuck am I now? Like, what do I do? What do I answer to you gotta think we were trained to you know I mean although if my parents were in drill sergeants I can't speak for you but we were trained to be athletes yeah you know and we achieved at the highest level we're unfortunate enough to have you know long careers but at the so at the same time when we're when we're done we're going into fields you know I know a lot of people could probably kick their feet up but you know someone like me like I'm

ambitious I want to do more things so we're going into fields where it's kind of a double-edged store will people will either give you the benefit of the doubt for what your career and what you did in your other job or they're putting you at the bottom of the totem pole like this athlete thinks he can come and just do whatever you know what I mean so there's a kind of balance there of kind of understanding what that next path is but if you when you take away something that that's all we've known I think it's not just limited to football I think it's it's highlighted probably in your guy to sport a little bit more but everybody struggles you know I can't say everyone a majority of guys struggle when that time is up you know you have a small window to

make as much money live out your dreams and you're you you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're known you know everyone wants to be famous now you're known all over the world you're on sports center all the time and you're always being talked about to just being a former athlete and like they say the crowd stops the camera stop and all that kind of stuff stops and if you don't have a plan fortunately i've played until i was 37 but i started making my post career plans about 31 you know yeah so it took me and people don't realize like you can't i see how guys can get lost because you think you can just stop playing your sport and then i'm going to jump right into other businesses and businesses don't turn that fast anyone who's in business understand that

It's a process it takes years. So it was a perfect storm when I was ever retire. I think I signed a three-year deal the season I ended up retiring and I retired because one, I wasn't made able to see my kids as much and I wanted to see my kids more. But business started turning. So there's the gap where if you don't have a plan when you're going to retire that you can easily get lost in spending money doing drugs, women, whatever the situation may be, because for the first time we have no real structure in our life.

Yeah, the structure is huge, especially in football. and like it's even more so because you know, y'all have X amount of dudes that sit on, on, you know, along the bench every night is what 12 dudes on a roster or something like that. We got 53. And, you know, not just to mention, I think that sometimes what blows this perception

that we all struggle out of the water is, you got 53 guys on an NFL roster. That doesn't count the guys that didn't make rosters. The average career is three years. So there are thousands upon thousands of dudes who have struggled through this thing and not everybody in the NFL is financially secure. I'm not saying everybody in the NBA has got money when they get out.

But, you know, the NFL, like, you still got guys who are staying at the courtyard Marriott. Like, you know, they're on the practice squad. They've been bouncing around teams to team. So you get out. You got the existential crisis. You're like, you know, am I a football player? You've got to be securing yourself beyond just being an athlete. You got to know who you are.

Because if you don't know who you are when you get out, it'll tear you up because people don't care anymore. They don't care like you're used to people giving a shit about your life. Absolutely. You know, I was fortunate enough to understand it early on. Like I had a scratching claw just to make it. So any given time, you know, I was my first six years. I was playing a one-year deal. You know, so it was an audition. And that's why I played basketball like a football player, balls to the wall as hard as I could every single night. But he would understand at any given time that could have been over. Yeah. At any given time. And if you don't have a plan like what's next. And I think people make the mistake of they'll see our contracts or see what we make. And first and foremost, that's cut in half by 48%. depending on where you live at. And then all the stuff we're doing to take care of people. You know, we're taking care of the village.

We're not just looking out for ourselves anymore. We're looking out for our family, close friends, relatives we didn't know we had. Like it gets great. Yeah. So when people say like, and this is, you know, an interesting conversation now, because considering the climate, like, should the NBA play, should the NFL play? And there's a handful of guys in the NBA that could be like, we're good, we're not playing. But a lot of those guys depend on these checks that are coming in, you know, people don't understand, you say, oh, if they're blowing that amount of money, they weren't responsible.

A lot of responsibility. And obviously, they probably could have did a little bit better with their money. But who are we to say that? A lot of responsibility comes with that money. You know what I mean? So some of these guys are on paycheck to paycheck or really depend on this money coming in to support their families. Yeah, that topic's been hot.

And you've been in the middle of it. And I thought you were pretty, yeah, I'm a white dude with the podcast. And I, yeah, I might have been a former athlete. People know where I stand on issues. But if I were to say, hey, Kyrie, like. If you're going to wait for racism to stop, we're not going to play sports for like ever. So like that could be misconstrued or I could be criticized. I'm not saying that's how I feel.

I'm listening. But, you know, you've got people. I mean, you and Stack are tight, right? You got differing opinions. Within the league right now, is it okay for guys to disagree on this and still love each other and be on the same team? That's the key, man. We have as a league, as a culture, as a human race, it's okay to disagree. But I think when we mess up is we disrespect with that disagreement.

Like we'll disrespect someone because we don't agree with them. And there's no progress made there. You know, so you made a great point. You know, Jack and I are very close, but we disagree on this particular topic. And once we discussed it, we kind of came to a common ground. And I think I was a little harsh when I said, Kyrie needs to quit bullshit and do this. But I was in the moment, and I felt like I was just talking to Jack on FaceTime instead we were on IG Live and the world saw.

So I apologize for my approach. And I respect every player and what their decision. are, but my thing is just have a plan. If you plan on sitting out, have a plan. I feel like now more than ever, the black voice is heard. Like, they're finally after 400 years listening. And then on top of that, the black athlete voice is as big as it'll ever be right now. So I think this is a perfect opportunity to strike while the iron's hot. We feel like there's some things that could be done that these owners can do to really help shape the league, change the league, but then also help the communities that they're in. So I've been fortunate enough to be able to talk to Chris Paul, you know, a little bit on

this and he's the NBA Players Association president. And from my understanding is what they're putting a list together of things they feel like these owners can do to help diversity and management, help in these cities that they're in, and help the minority population, you know, overall. Because, you know, there is no NBA without black players, 75 percent, are to say there is no NFL, 68 percent without African American players. But I really feel like the NBA players are the ones with the platforms and the voice. and I think if they can make a shift in a change in our sport,

I think that'll have a domino effect in other sports. And I worry about the same thing. You know, like we've all been in this conversation. A few of us have been in this conversation, you know, for years now. And, you know, we've had this awakening where people are finally kind of rubbing their eyes

and saying, oh, shit, racism's real. Oh, shit. Like this is like what Cap was talking about is real. What police brutality is real. Okay, we've got people's ears. But I would, I noticed that even on social and people, people's consciousness, it's already starting to fade.

Like people are, and I worry about that. So like to people that say, if there's no sports, you know, we're going to, if there's sports, we're going to be distracted. We're already becoming distracted. And the point that I would make would be, okay, Caps protest. It was on the field. You know, and people told him pick another place, pick the locker room, pick Twitter. And the point of him doing it on the field was that people don't listen unless you do it

on the field. You have sports fans in America by the balls. So my take would be to make people. maximumly uncomfortable because that's the point. Only way change happens. Have a platform and this is one that. So as you talking about a plan and all this stuff and you've been involved in this stuff for a long time or anybody that follows you, what's the plan?

But more importantly, how do you make people uncomfortable with the platform this July and August? Well, I think it's a plan as a country first. And that's the call while I was on while I was late for this is I'm trying to secure some funding for some stuff that we're doing. And so the plan has to be to educate people around politics and voting. And it's not something you can learn overnight. And our goal is to create short content that spoon feed you important stuff surrounding politics, surrounding the actual voting process.

Obviously, LeBron and his team are working on voter suppression. I think there's a lot of us doing different things that I think at some point we'll all come together to get our message even stronger. But the plan is just to understand how important this voting is. And we're seeing firsthand that Republicans do everything they can to suppress our votes. You know what I mean? You see in Kentucky what's going on? You posted that the other night. Rick's that Mitch McConnell's playing because Trump and McConnell and these guys know if

everyone is allowed to vote, there's going to be a shift. There's going to be a swing. And then hopefully we can get three more Democratic senators in the Senate and really slowly start a shifting. You know what I mean? So the process is moving along and they're doing everything they can to stop us from that. So back to the point, the plan is just educating people and having them understand what's

at stake right now. You know what I mean? Like we're not saying Biden's perfect, but I mean, no, fuck no, dude. I'm going to be inching to the polls, but I'm going to be there. You know what I mean? But I think at this point, Trump has showed his hand. You know what I mean? He, he, he, he, ultimate finesse game.

The one thing I do respect for respect about Trump is his, I don't give a fuck game is on a whole another level. This guy does not give a fuck. He just does what he does. You know what I mean? And he, he finessed us. You know, he won the presidency and he was president for four years and, you know, good luck to whatever's next.

but I really feel someone that is a dog whistleblower for hate can't run this country. I feel like unfortunately, like this is the most disconnected in my 40 years on this earth. I feel like the country's ever been. You know, and it's sad and that's unfortunate. And you can point to his amazing employment rate for the black community. You can point to a bunch of stuff, but none of that stuff matters to me because there's hate behind it. And the message behind it is messed up. So to me at this point is anybody but Trump, but then also getting people to understand that, you know, voting on your local and state level where the bills are made and passed and how, you know, beneficial that can be to really get involved in that.

So educating people on those steps when we say vote, it's not just for the president, but it's on your local and state levels where we can really get things changed. So that's our whole initiative with our plan as a community moving forward. Basketball, I think theirs is more driven around the actual communities that these teams play in, making these owners. really give some money back, you know, one idea that I was talking to Chris Paul about. These owners starting, you know, 100, 150 million dollar fund that particularly pertains to black and brown people in their communities. You know what I mean? Schooling, you know, whatever the situation may be, small businesses, there's a list of things that they can go. But because, you know, we've both been involved with giving back through our

respective organizations, but most of the time it's just a photo op. And I was talking about this earlier. Like, I've been to places where they wanted us to just take a quick picture and do some stuff and then leave and I'm just like I don't do that shit I stopped doing that shit halfway through my career it's not about to me it's not because the cameras are here it's because I want to help you know and you're someone you've always put your money where your mouth is and that's why I perspective you and you've gone above and beyond what you've been asked you know I mean there's a handful of us that really do it because we care but to me it just seems like sometimes the leagues do it for checking the box you know what I mean and it is what it is but that's going to no

longer be acceptable you said something that's important you know politics need to be shrunk down to like yeah be more concise because most people with our you know our attention spans and i got ADD like everybody else and you know the fact that politics and and and and issues are intentionally cloudy so people can't change them you know the the bureaucracy the the red tape the the word salad that comes out when people are trying to describe what's what's being done on a governmental level so i think that's huge and And then it's not new with Trump. The thing that always frustrates me is like, where did our country go?

This is our country. I've said this before. Trump is the black light in a hotel room. He highlighted it. That's what he is. And I'd rather have the black light, you know, if there's anything positive that came out of his, his presidency is now we know. And the bar is so low that he just set the bar low and said, okay, I can do this.

I won't lose my base. Oh, I'll just do this. And I can't lose my base. And it just continues until he doesn't give a fuck. Like you said, with everything at hand right now, you know, with the bubble. Boba Wallace thing and all that stuff. Every day it looks more and more like NASCAR, Indeed, Shocker did the right thing in calling the feds.

When you got people online who are, who will call the police armed black people for barely nothing and they're mad at NASCAR for calling the FBI over a fucking noose. And you're only black driver's garage. What about, you know, your experiences? Because in high school, you were the victim of a hate crime. What are people not getting about, you know, you're a big, tough, badass dude.

But what do you feel when that happened? You feel broken. You know, my situation, I faced me, Italian and black, but kind of being raised, being raised black. The first time I was really around other white kids was when I went to school when I moved from the Bay Area to Sacramento. So I went at about nine years old, eight years old, and that's the first time I really had to associate with kids that they were white and it was nigger this, nigger that wouldn't let me play nothing. So instead of, you know, being broken, coming home crying, my dad wasn't having that.

He's like, if they call you a nigger fight him. So I was always taught that and not saying that's right, but this is the 80s. And that's kind of how. shit went you know what it mean so I kind of fought my way to acceptance until they gave me a chance to play sports and then I was cool with everybody because I was a cool person they just never gave me a chance through anything so sports is what opened it because once I started playing I was the best of football basketball and baseball like okay well this kid is kind of cool so that's kind of how I got my acceptance but it was tough for me early on because being by ratio I was

never white enough and I was never black enough so I couldn't run to the white side because I had this skin color and then I couldn't run to the other to the black side because I had this skin color and I I had this hair. So it's just like there was really nowhere for me to fit. So it was always just handle your business, you know, and that's how I was raised. So in high school, this is maybe three months before I'm leaving for UCLA, 1998. My sister was a sophomore at the time. And there was a boy that keeps bothering. He's been bothering her. She's told, I told, you know, telling him, she told on him nothing happened. So it culminated one day where he called my sister

a nigger and spit in her hair. And I was just finishing school for the day. And she came to me with her little girlfriend's crying, show me to spin her hair. And this kid just happened to walk by. So I just beat the shit out of him. So then I get we go back to the office, explain what happened. School doesn't want to hear it. And that's to this day why I won't give my high school a dollar. They didn't want to hear it. Oh, you know, his dad's a prominent lawyer. He wasn't raised this way. He doesn't talk this way. So pretty much calling me a liar calling the spit in my sister's hair a lie. Like just calling it all bullshit pretty much. So anyway, I get suspended for a week. Can't play basketball. And during

my suspension, the KKK comes up to my high school and just vandalized it, burns down a bathroom hangs a mannequin with a noose with my football jersey on and dyed niggers swastikas everywhere classroom windows being broken it made national news like the n wacep came down in was a crazy situation but that's where i realized like although i'm proud to be italian and black that the world looked at me as a black man you know so i've always been had a heightened sense of sensitivity and awareness for situations like this you know so with the bubble wallace situation I think it was, I think this is a cover up. You know what I mean?

I saw something this morning where they said, you know, they went into all the garages and found 11 ropes, but none of them were tied. That's a news. Only one was a noose, yeah. Not, but that's a fucking news. You know, bro, it's amazing how many news experts there are on the fucking internet today. First, it wasn't a noose, then, hey, that's not a news.

Like, I'm like, really? Why do you know so well the difference between me? And I think, you know, obviously the Jesse Smollett situation comes back to light because I think he probably lied in that situation. I don't know the 100% details, but from all the information that keeps coming out, he probably lied in that situation. So automatically, they're trying to throw Bubba Wallace. Yeah, that was so crazy to me. Because I see Jesse to me, at least making my judgment speaking for myself, he seemed like a real asshole to exploit real racial tensions in the country.

You don't have to say, I'm just saying like, for me, it was, it's a, it bothered me on Bubba's behalf. And really, that's your talking point. Like, that's what you got. You got Jesse. One guy lies about something. So now every time a black person claims something happened. It's not like Bubba called it. Like NASCAR is the one to call. Bubba didn't make the call. You know what?

They felt it was serious enough to go skip the police, skip whoever else is after them and go to the FBI. Like something happened there, but I think that with everything they were trying to do, if they would really find out who did it, it would be really bad for NASCAR. You know what I mean? So I think they'd rather just push it off. Okay, we can just say it wasn't this and something else is going to come up and we'll get over, which is unfortunate because I applaud NASCAR first and foremost because, you know,

it's been a predominantly white Confederate flag-like sport, you know what I mean? And for them to step out and do what they've done, my hats off to them, I appreciate that. And then all the support that the other drivers did give them. You know, there's a lot of people that are doing the right thing or are in it for the right reason, but there's always going to be a handful of people who hate. Yeah. And I think if they would have got to the bottom up who it was, it probably would have been a bombshell, so it's better off just to say, hey, this wasn't that, but we see it. Yeah, we also didn't need a noose in Bubba's garage to know there's some racist NASCAR fans. I mean, there was a fucking Confederate flag flying over Talladega.

Somebody chartered a plane to fly that flag this weekend. So I don't need that as a smoking gun for racism in America or in NASCAR. How about, you know, I was looking back at your tenure, year to year, and you were in L.A. when the Sterling thing went down. And like, I think it's a great example of, oh, I employ black people. I have black friends. Black people see me at work every day. I'm not a racist and then, you know, the mask gets pulled off. Like were people shocked by him?

No. He heard that audio. People weren't shocked at all because he has a history of it. You know what I mean? And I think since the second he stepped in the league, as the clipper owner, they've been trying to get him out once they kind of really found out who he was. You know, so it didn't surprise me at all. And my whole point of it, because just for the story I told you, I didn't look at it as

that big of a deal. Like I thought obviously it was wrong. this is going to be a problem. But I'm thinking like he's not the only person that thinks like that. He's not the only owner that thinks like that in football basketball. He's the only one just the only one dumb enough to get caught. So in the moment, it was obviously a big deal. Like personally, that's how I took it.

But other guys hadn't experienced the kind of stuff. And they were really hurt. Guys were hurt in our meetings and deciding what we were going to do. And it's oddly enough, watching Blackball, which happened six years ago. And I just watched it with the rest of the world, you know, a couple months ago before before everything was really crazy, I would have a different point of view. I would sit out now. And I was the major voice behind what we did, the jersey taking off,

flipping the jerseys, taking them off. Like, that was all my idea. And I was for playing because I thought at the time there was too much unknown. This is like we're in the uncharted territory. Like, do we sit out until he's fired? How long is it going to be until he's fired? Is this going to, we're playing against a young warrior team. If you want to take it back to the sports perspective,

we were the last team to kind of beat that young warrior team. you realize we beat him in the first round the next year that's when the dynasty started so we're thinking like we have a chance that win a championship we have a really good team um we don't know what's sitting out is going to do to us so yeah erred on the side of playing you know and then obviously being removed now from the situation six years but being a retired player and looking at where the world is now it's it's a whole different you know kind of historical context to what that would have meant in 2014 for us sitting out for racism you know that would have been incredible so you know if there's one thing I could change, I wish we could change that. We learned a lot from it and

understand it, but it's a different climate, but same story, you know, today. So that's why I really feel like now, knowing the history of these owners and what, you know, probably most of them are like, I'm not saying all of them, but there's a handful of them that probably feel that way between football and basketball. As black athletes, we have to really stand up and make some demands. You know what I mean? You pay us great. You've given us opportunity, but at the same time, like, there wouldn't be none of this without us. So, no, it's a free market. That's the thing that people don't understand is like it's a favor that athletes get paid a lot of money you know it's supply and demand and y'all motherfuckers like sports so we're good at it if you didn't pay our

salaries treat people like human beings and then think how much money when you look at it or you're getting paid this much we're getting paid or brawn or step are getting paid tom bray's getting paid just how much the money is the owners making if they're able to pay these guys this kind of imagine how much money we're bringing it just like these student athletes are bringing into these college it. You know what I mean? Imagine how much money we're really bringing in if they're able to pay us, what they pay us. You know what I also realized in reading about that whole story was that side chicks have a good in L.A. because his side chick had a fucking Porsche, a Bentley, a two and a half million dollar. She had it better than me.

Shit. That might have been as bad a part as almost anything. So scary game that you bring because it's a real game in business for these. Like I'm going to game the shit out of my twin sons like they're not gonna be on you're not gonna be able to put it but yeah we'll pledge game these days for women to try to like hey let listen let's let's map out these in years oh yeah it's dangerous out here that's a whole another show in itself but it's it's a cold world out here so speaking of that in the bubble uh and in and in Orlando is the only threat to the bubble tender I mean that's a crazy situation man that's a crazy situation to be isolated that long, no family if you're single, no side chicks. That's not happening. There's no way.

Hard. That's hard. That's hard. And you know what? And you know what they're going to do if they're smart and I don't know how this is going to go over? But they set up an adjacent bubble that Tinder sponsors right next to the quarantine a Tinder bubble. Hey, I think that would get 100% participation. I think everyone would be in. I think everybody go back to work. Hey, by the way, if they call you, Is guys dropping like flies? Is Matt Barnes going to play basketball this summer? No, I'm done. I can't.

I can't again. You know, I was fortunate enough to play until I didn't want to play no more. Like you said, walked away before. I could have played another three or four years. Like I said, I had just signed a three-year deal. I just walked away and I was at peace with it. You know what I mean, I was ready for what this entrepreneur life and just being a full-time father of three young black men, which I am now offered me.

So I was excited to move on. Like I said, the business stuff had started picking up. So I never, I haven't played. I haven't looked back. haven't and you got to think I commentate it for ESPN and talk about it. I don't miss it at all. From the outside looking at it, I know we all have our tough days and I've got my tough nights and whatever, but I you seem like a guy who transitions well. So that's awesome. You talk about weed. I mean, you've talked about mental health or cannabis. It was funny. Frank Shamrock told me that

because you got to stop calling it weed because I've never picked up a weed and smoked it and it and it hurts, you know, the way we talk about cannabis. Call it cannabis. So Shamrock, I got you. And you're pro cannabis and mental health. You're pro cannabis. You've talked about depression and that sort of thing. What's the functionality for you? I started, I grew up in a household that was filled with drugs. I think I feel like my parents were functioning drug addicts.

My dad was also a drug dealer. So there was a lot of violence, abuse growing up. But the one thing, so I saw cocaine at an early age. I saw everything you can imagine early age. But I remember the one thing that used to kind of calm my dad at the end of the day. was when he was smoke a joint. And I didn't know at the time. I'm three, four, or five years old, just kind of coming into realizing what this world

is. And I realized like, my dad is works hard. He butcher by day, drug dealer by night, but I'd have seen him whip hell of people's asses. Like, he was a badass to me. You know what I mean? So, but the one time I saw him cool, calm, and collected and kind of sociable with us and in a good mood was at the end of day when he was smoking joint. So that always stuck with me.

And then when I was 14, I stole some weed from him and started smoking and never really looked back. Was it good weed? At the time, no. She had some reggie. I was in, you know, I mean, I was in Sacramento. So once I kind of got in the game and I had my other homeboys, like, yeah, I'm on, what's going on? Like, being in Sacramento, we had a cheat code.

So after the first time, I was always smoking good weed, but I smoked it through high school, through UCLA and through my whole career. You know, and I was never someone who could take painkillers. They always killed my stomach. I'm a social drinker. I'll drink in public, but I'm not really, you're not going to catch me a home drinking. But smoking was something that always allowed me to. escape my crazy life, slow my mind down, sleep, took pain away at a later time. And then I just enjoyed being, kind of being, being able to go leave my current situation

and kind of be somewhere else mentally for a little while. So it always helped me. And then fast forward 25 years later, now they have doctors saying that it does everything I just mentioned. You know, it helps with stress. It helps with focus. It helps with sleep. It helps with depression.

It helps with, you know, eating. You name it. You know what I mean? So it helps with everything. So it's come a long way. and I'm very happy with that. I took on being an advocate right out of the league. I was someone who got caught two times.

You get three strikes in the NBA. The third time is you're suspended five games without pay. So I got caught like 2.75 times. I allowed to turn myself in twice. And then I exit the stage left. But I just wanted to be that advocate because when I was in there, the NBA had a little bit over 400 players in it. Over 200 guys were in the,

NBA drug program for just weed alone. You know, it's like, that's crazy. Like, this is from some of the best players in the world to rookies and everything in between. So I think the stigma slowly started lifting with the more education and research that came behind it now. And you see the leagues are starting to adjust their policies. I think is great because fans don't understand is, you know, we have an opioid epidemic

outside of the pandemic, the pandemic of coronavirus and racism. Opioid pandemic is huge and it kills every. it's knocking everyone down. So when we're in sports, they're giving us everything from Toradole to OxyContin to, you know, you name it. Listen, man, I couldn't play without my shot of Torado. And the reason I smoked, and this is one thing that sometimes irritates me about people's assumptions about you, if I say, and I came out and said, and I said it casually, because

I got caught on the Dan Patrick's show, Dan Patrick asked me about marijuana. I was like, man, if anybody knows me for all these years, I mean, I basically hinted at the fact and the things I'm interested in, the things I'm tweeting late at night, like, don't you know I'm kind of high at night. Like, so I just kind of, I'm like you. I just spoke my mind when people were like, oh, he does it for pain. He does it for this. No, everybody has a different functionality for it.

I think the commonality between the NBA and the NFL, it sounds like, I need something to turn the volume down at night. You know, because like when you're on that treadmill with all that adrenaline, that violence of my game, the pressure, when I get home, I want to be a father to my kids. And that's not a wound tight guy. And I can't sleep without it. Like for a while, I was on the sleeping pills and I was taking way too much. Right.

Best day of my life was pouring those things down the drain. And this kind of came in a time where when I got in the league, you just kind of got what you could. But towards the end of my career, it was like, oh, no, we got dispensaries now. We go out to West Coast. I can snag something like guys can get you real medical stuff. So I was getting good strains that, like, work for me. So the game has changed. I think it's great.

Is there anything you can't do high? Like, what do you not like doing high? Nothing. I played high. I take meetings high. It's me. I feel like I'm a better me. You know what I mean? And I think that I still being productive athletes and fathers and businessmen and whatever else we do, it's just been a stigma that's been holding this back for so long, you know, which is unfortunate. So I think, you know, the more education, obviously the better. But I think you also hit it on the head when you talk about even just an average person at the end of the night, everyone needs something to turn down. So some people turn to drinking. Some people turn to sleeping pills. Some people are drugs. You know, but at the end of the day, to me, a joint has always just been what it was for me. I knew that I was, I'm something, you know, being an athlete, sometimes you don't smoke. You know, our situation is crazy. We'll be in a situation where we'll play Portland tonight and go into double overtime.

But then we still have to leave, you know, so once that game's over, we'll we hop on a flight. We're heading to San Antonio. We're playing back-to-backs. We're playing Tim Duncan on T&T the next night. So we're flying to, you know, get to San Antonio at three or four in the morning. You can't just go right to sleep. You know what I mean? And so you're going to sleep when the sun come up.

So then you've got to be at your best to play Tim and Manu and Tony and the great San Antonio team. So it's just like you don't understand what that travel. They don't know the grind of. And it's different in football. It's not like a baseball or basketball grind where we're not on the road as much. Right. But you know, it is running into a wall every single way. Yeah.

What you guys do is almost on another level. Like I said, I was a football player at the beginning. My brother played never made it to your level, obviously, but just understanding. people understand you're running into a wall in practice or not as much in practice but in games every single game you're running into a wall you know what I mean and nobody's body is going to feel good after that but you could play high yeah see I never played high I'm like there's a few things I can't do high okay number one I don't like podcasting high when I'm talking to somebody I don't know well because I can be like I'm kind of paranoid and I could be like that's a weird vibe or he doesn't understand what I'm saying like if I was high right now I'd be looking at you on zoom and I'd be like he's This is the dumbest fucking question in the world. Another thing I can't do high, okay? I can't get high in the kitchen. I do it all the time, but getting high in the kitchen is a bad idea because you need to get, if you get high upstairs, this is the biggest cheat.

If you get high upstairs and not in the fucking kitchen, you're not going to eat. You're not going to be too lazy to walk downstairs. Once I'm on call of duty, I'm on call of duty. But if I'm in the kitchen and I'm blazed, I'm getting into the mochi's, the pusticles, the ice cream, pork rinds, getting home from the bar. My kids' foods. They're gone. The kids' fruit is the problem. If I didn't have kids, I've been able to, like, I've been doing it so long that I can, you know, hone my munchies to I.

I've doused myself for fruit and granola, you know, bar. Stuff that's just not as bad as the bad stuff. But, you know, my kids, they get away with the cupcakes and the cookies and the Capri Sons and shit. And that's where I get in trouble at. They're gone. And they're gone. You come down in the morning, it's not just like, if I eat my snacks, I'm responsible when my wife walks down in the morning is like, where the fuck are the chips, oh, boy. that's like the reward for whalen reading right you know like so i mean i definitely hear you though

like i talk to basketball guys and some football guys can play hot i like listen before every night game of my career in the morning i was hot right now i've got a lot of buckets at night in big situation so you can't tell me that it it's it fucked up my play i take a nap and wake up kind of drink five cups of coffee and i'm good to go but somebody asked um this would have you ever been too high in high school so in high school let me tell you this story but you remember teen wolf when uh just remember when they were moving and everything was just slow motion yeah so we cut school my i think it was my senior year so we're in this uh tournament called the jack scott tournament and kevin johnson former NBA player mayor of sacramento he had won he had set the record for winning MVP three years so i

went in my first three years is my senior year i'm supposed to win in my fourth year so we cut school the first game I have like in the 40s. The second game I cut school the next day and we take a gravity bong out of one of these big ass outhammer bottle. You remember the big, we cut the bottom up. You were hanging out with white kids. You already know.

You already know. So I went to Allwhite high school. Yeah. They had me hitting this gravity bong like at 2.30. We played it. I got so high that that game I probably had like four to six points, air balled like two layups. Give them out in the last game before I had like 40.

Easy, Matt. I averaged four to six points in high school. I was an enforcer without the box. So all my friend drove in the bleachers laughing, knowing they're still high. I'm high as fuck playing still. And then I, so I had a terrible game that game.

The next game I came back and had a huge game, but I didn't get MVP because of that fucking game. So I didn't break the record. But that was the one time I was too high. But besides that, like my routine was similar. Like we would go have shoot around, which is at 11 or 12,

for an hour I come home, smoke a joint. eat, I would take a nap, then wake up, shower, and go to the game. You know what I mean? And by that time, I had smoked four or five hours before. I'm not someone that's going to smoke right before I play, like, going in there because that's just unprofessional, you stink, whatever. Yeah.

But I would, you know, it was in my system. And like I said, it just allowed me to lock in and be me. So it was something that I always did do, even in college. For me, it just let me sleep like the day away because there's nothing worse than being an NFL player and knowing just sitting in your hotel room all day. at that because they put us in a hotel. I know you guys are like grownups, but even a home game,

they treat us like fucking kids. You're in like the airport Marriott, and I'm staring out the window at a parking lot thinking about tackling Ezekiel Elliott at APM and all the pressure in the world. We only get 16 of them. So I got to, man. But I totally hear that.

I mean, it's different in every sport. Because we got a few minutes left. I want to hit the tough guy stuff, okay? You were fine $400,000 in your career. $414, to be exact. I looked at it. And I like that. You were a legit tough guy. Where's the NBA going with that? I mean, is it gone? It doesn't exist no more. And I think people have to understand. I was one of the last myself, you know, Stephen Jackson, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen. We kind of faded out.

And the new NBA is more people don't want to see highlights of a defensive battle or physicality. They want to see Steph hitting 10 threes and guys Duncan. So they want to see highlights. So with that has come to growth of the game. But enforcers, defensive-minded players, like that doesn't exist anymore in the NBA. Who in the NBA in your time, and you mentioned a few of them, but like I'm not talking just like a pest on the court, who could actually throw hands in today's NBA? Like who's your all dark alley team? I would take Stephen Jackson.

I take Zach Randolph. I take Tony Allen. I take Ron Artec and I take Kenyon Martin. That's my starting five. That's a quick starting five. It's almost like you've thought about this before. So, like, you brought up meta world peace, which is very fitting that his name is World Peace.

You grew up watching him play basketball. And, you know, malice at the palace, a lot's changed since that happened. And you were in like your first or second year in the league. So you overlap, saw the new NBA, the old NBA. What's changed? And how would we handle that now? If there was a malice at the palace, would we be better about breaking it down on first take and he and you know on yeah because you have people like me and

Stephen Jackson and and and and Kendrick Perkins and guys that have actually been in there doing it breaking it down you know although there was some guys back then they were breaking it down it was scary it was a scary situation you know what I mean it was a scary situation so obviously I think we'd be more prepared for it I hope we had never have to see it again but it's a possibility and I think it would be more of uh it would still be a black guys. I don't think it would be good in any... No, it wouldn't be good, but I feel like people would understand that now we have a greater consciousness, especially with like a lot of these court side type dudes who are yelling

racist shit at, you know, Russell Westbrook or whatever. Like, there's been a heightened... Listen, if you reach in and you interact with the athletes, you become one of the athletes. And so, you know, it's... I would hope people, it would change a little bit. Speaking of the courtside, what are the do's and don'ts? Like you're sitting on an NBA bench. You're getting ready for a game. And you're like, okay, this motherfucker pisses me off doing this court side or this guy.

I mean, like, you know, what should you do and what should you not do if you're sitting courtside in an NBA game? You do whatever you want. You know, I don't give a shit. I'm someone like if you're doing something crazy, I'm going to cuss you out. You know, you're talking crazy to me. I think that kind of interaction is dope. Sometimes it's not even cussing out.

Sometimes it's just back and forth. You know, I got into a boy, Mayweather one time and it ended up cussing each other out. But it was dope because it was just an interaction. action amongst the game. You know what I mean? Like we were playing against Cleveland and I was with Clippers and it was a battle the whole time and sometimes that just makes the game better. I would say dudes and don'ts. I would say don't bring like a bad chick like first two bro or two if you're a dude. Don't bring her because she's going to get snatched by somebody. Yes, dude. I'm like, guys come and show their girls off in the front couple rows and then the next day you'll hear

someone like, I got her number or so. It's like if you're, yeah, if you're married like that's one thing, but if you're on a date, like, you're going to spend 10 grand to take a chick to meet NBA players. Ever get stolen. I have a sitter back a little bit. That's one thing. That's funny. We used to talk about that because guys used to come, like, try to pop who they're with. Only did they know that either someone else had already had her or they're going to get her.

So it's just like that's a, don't ring around unless it's like your wife. And that's still even dangerous sometimes. Is there any celebrity that is actually a distraction? Because I feel like you guys are immune to celebrity, like if somebody pops down in the front row. I love it. Like I said, I think it's. great for the game. I think it's fun. As long as it stays with it being inbound. You know, it's me, no racial, no family, no blatant disrespect. But I love people who cheer and are

passionate about their team and are screaming yell and cuss at you for as long as they say, it's within the grounds of being a fan. Quick lightning round before I let you go, man. I appreciate the time. You're going to start a franchise with one guy right now in the NBA. Who is it? Kevin Durant. Fuck, I was looking for a young guy. Give me the under 25. Not. Um, Luca. Yeah. Because Zion, you just never know.

It's a big body. You don't know. I was going to be great too, but I, if he can say healthy. Yeah. I think shooting is as shooting is the ultimate cheat coat. You know what I mean? If you're able to shoot, that's great. Zion's going to have to learn how to shoot, but Lukage is, is, is a boy wonder already.

So that's why I would take him over. Could you smoke Don Nelson under the table? No question. But he has a marijuana farm now, dude. So do I. I'm not losing the Nelly. I would love this folk with Don Nelson. I don't know barely anything about him.

He just looks like a guy you want to smoke. No, man, he used to, he knew we smoked. You know what I mean? He, like one time I had to take a quick story. We were in Utah, the second round of the playoffs after we beat Dallas in the first round. And he put me, Stack, Jack, and Baron all in the same. Like, we all had sweets right next to each other

and put a big ass gym fan at the end of the hallway and just blew the hallway. In Utah Utah's all white. They don't fuck with us at all. That was one of the most racist places we ever played. But Nellie didn't give a fuck. You know what I mean? Like he let it.

us, he let us be us. And that's why I think that team was so dope. Yeah, they got, they had that they gave MJ that fucking shrimp pizza. I don't know why he got the shrimp on the pizza. Anyways, you're supposed to have people to taste it for you. Maybe some of those do guys on the documentary should have ate the pizza before the goat. How about, how about one NBA player to run for office? Um, I had, you. Yeah, like, I actually want to run for mayor in about 10 years, but current player, uh, I mean, LeBron can be president. No bullshit. Yeah, he probably could.

Be president. NBA player you played with who will be a coach. I think Draymond Green would be a great coach. I don't think he will be, but I think his mind is incredible. I would say someone who could be and should be a coach is Draymond, although I don't think he will. Give me your favorite three strains if you got them. I'm just going to have to say ours, you know, Vovo, Blue Slush, and Bombon. You can find all that's seven leaves.

Look them up. Seven Leaves, California on Instagram and seven leaves.com. We'll be distributing all through California soon once we kind of get back on track. We have a new distributor. We did it partner with herbal. So we'll be all over California shortly. And hopefully after these regulations get broken down and marijuana is legal everywhere, we'll be across the country and hopefully across the world.

Look at that. Is the clock strike zero? I'll walk you into a shameless plug. This is how you podcast, bro. Two pros here. You can't make that shit up, man. Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate it, man.

Like I said, we never got a chance to really hang out. I hope after this we do, burn a couple of food, respected from a distance person. So, almost your father was a killer. Appreciate it. So I love that and, like, how the type of player you were and how you always were, not just a talking head. You were really donating your contracts and giving back to the community, man.

And that's respect and it. And it's beautiful. And we appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate all you do. And I enjoy the pod. I hope to catch up soon, ma'am.

All right, Matt.