Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa United big man Liam McMorrow tells us his fascinating story of how he became a basketball player at the age of 18 - part 1

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

Iowa United big man Liam McMorrow shares his fascinating story of going from a hockey an lacrosse player to playing his first basketball game as a junior college player. He worked his way to Marquette and then Tennessee Tech before embarking on a pro career after only playing the game of basketball for five years. Today's episode is part one and we will pick up at part two tomorrow as we continue our convo about his pro career and his time in the TBT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes! Welcome back to a TBT Tuesday episode of the Locked On Iowa podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa United on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another episode of the show today. And today's episode is brought to you by rockauto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. And on today's show for our special TBT Tuesday episode, we have Liam McMorrow, a big man from Canada who is going to be joining the Iowa United this summer and giving some much neededneeded rim protection down low. I've had an absolute fantastic conversation with him, and I think you're really going to enjoy it.

We're actually splitting it up into two parts. So today is going to be part one, and on today's show, we're going to be talking a lot about his journey into basketball. If you are unfamiliar with Liam, I highly recommend just listening to this episode. It was awesome. But he talks a lot about being a hockey player and his growth spurt leading to him getting into organized basketball and playing his first ever basketball game at junior college. That's when he started playing basketball, back in 2007, 2008. So really interesting story. Where we left off was just after talking about the Iowa energy and his time in the Philippines and how fantastic

that was. We'll pick right back up on tomorrow's episode with the conversation about the Philippines and then moving into the conversation about TBT. But I want to make sure I'm giving you both parts and giving you the opportunity to listen to both. I know a full hour can be a little bit long, so I want to make sure that we're breaking that up because the conversation was incredible and I think you're really going to enjoy both episodes of the Locked on Iowa podcast. Before we do that though, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded

this podcast at. Give us that five-star review and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as you know, every Tuesday is TBT Tuesday, which means we are talking about the Iowa United every single Tuesday. And it would be fantastic if you could go follow the Iowa United on Twitter at IowaTBT. And make sure to go follow Liam McM mcmorrow at the liam mcmorrow that's the l-i-a-m-m-c-m-o-r-r-o-w so let's hop into the show though um let's get that conversation going with liam mcmorrow all right i am joined here by liam mcmorrow uh one of the players for the iowa united who are

going to be playing in the two million dollar winner-take-all tournament this summer. Liam, it's great to have you on the show, man. How are you doing today? Doing great, man. Doing great. My pleasure to be on the show with you, brother. I appreciate it. And you obviously – it sounds like you're in Vegas right now.

Yep, I'm in Vegas, man. It's very hot, and I'm just hanging out. I ran a couple errands today. I'm just doing my fatherly duties as well. I got two young ones at home, so they keep me pretty busy. Definitely. Are you getting enough sleep right now, or is it one of those times where the three-week-old is keeping you up

pretty late? I'm getting enough sleep. If you ask my wife that, she probably would give a different answer. But I'm getting i'm getting a good eight hours in for sure um most of the days occupied by the little ones but uh at night i'm definitely definitely sleeping so it's a good thing yeah lucky you that's uh sounds like your wife's uh letting you letting off the hook there a little bit oh yeah absolutely i mean i'm i'm really hands-on during the day but at night it's like

there's nothing i can do for a three-week-old you know i can handle i can handle the year and a half year old but um the three-week-old just wants the mom at that point so it's like we all understand that thank god yep totally understandable and uh definitely an interesting time because you would probably be playing overseas right now however you're able to be home for your wife having your three-week-old. Was that something you were expecting? And obviously, is that a positive outcome, I guess, or a positive thing that happened as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? Yeah, that was a huge positive.

I was actually in a season in Bahrain in the Middle East, and we were actually just starting playoffs when the news started really getting bad about the COVID, and they started postponing our games, and it eventually led to them canceling the league and canceling the playoffs. So I wasn't even expecting to be home for the birth, and that was awesome.

And then being like all this extra time, just being able to be at the house and not be somewhere else taking a job, man. It's been a blessing in disguise. It's been the blessing of the silver lining of the whole COVID thing. So it's been awesome, man. No doubt. That's awesome to hear.

It's always nice to hear when you can find some sort of positive spin on things. I haven't traveled for work in three months, which is nice to be home for a little bit. So fantastic that you've been able to spend time with your wife and your two kids and whatnot. And it sounds like you're trying to stay in shape right now. What are you doing at home to stay in shape for the upcoming basketball tournament? So I've had a little bit of a hard time finding courts and stuff. So I've mostly been doing that outside here in Vegas. It even got to a point where I actually had to buy a rim from uh

where's the ebay ebay or amazon one of the two we bought a rim because actually for a while here was the legislation that they had to actually take the rims down and um so i put one up um i scoured the internet for first i was looking for just free weights in general i couldn't really find them people were price gouging on them pretty badly. So I ended up buying a Boat X just to kind of get everything in, like a cable system with, like, resistance. So it's been pretty good, actually. Got a full-body workout in with that and then do the cardio and stuff outside early in the morning when it's not too hot here in Vegas.

And that's kind of been the regime. I love it, man. It sounds like the courts are going to be opening up here shortly. Yeah. Um, here in Vegas, it looks like June 4th is the day. So just a couple of days from now where there'll be, uh, there'll be opening things back up. So hopefully I can get back into the regular gym on the hardwood and get to my, like the actual gym gym with the weights. Cause I've been missing those.

Definitely man. And what brought you to Vegas I know um you've had you know you played at Tennessee Tech you played it in Marquette um you're from Canada originally what led you to Las Vegas uh so Las Vegas the the very first time I came out here um it was after my first year pro and I I came out here to train at Impact um Impact Basketball so that was my first experience out here. I ended up actually meeting my wife that summer. And she went to UNLV. And she considers Vegas home.

So, you know, happy wife, happy life. So we actually tried living in Toronto for a while. I actually have a house in Toronto. But it's just, you know, she didn't have any friends there. And then she was just kind of getting tested to the weather. You know, when you're used to living in Vegas to go to Toronto and be there in November, December, it's kind of, it's a culture shock for sure. So we ended up buying a place back down here in Vegas. We have a condo here and we're just, it's just home for us right now. You know, played in the, played in the summer league three times.

Two of those times were in the Las Vegas summer league. So it always seems like my off season ends up in Vegas anyway. So it just all made sense at the end of the day. Definitely works out pretty well. And during the season when you're overseas, is she with you with your kids, or is she staying back at home then um we've we've had different seasons where she's traveled with me um but with the with the kids being so young we probably stay away from that for now um she usually just uh stays back and has like you know

my mom or her mom help her out uh while i'm gone um but yeah ideally it would be for her to come with the kids. But, you know, having two under two, it's kind of a harder situation right now. So we just go with me soloing out as a hired gun overseas for now. Makes sense. You got to do what you got to do. I'm going to quickly interrupt the episode with Liam. I hope you all are enjoying it so far. But we have a few messages from the sponsors of the show. With ever increasing numbers of makes and models, it is now impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional

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I want to talk a bit about your trajectory into basketball because when I was doing some research, you had a pretty interesting path. It sounds like you actually played hockey growing up. And you didn't really – it sounds like from the wiki and I don't typically like to look at Wikipedia but one of the things they said was that you did not get into basketball seriously until around the 2008 time frame so talk to me a little bit about that what you know did you have a an opportunity in hockey or was it just that basketball seemed like a better calling at that time? So I'll try to make it super short. This is a bit of a bit of a weird one. I always get a little frustrated when I hear you know, guys started playing basketball late,

because a lot of people don't know my story. And when people usually say late for basketball means they started in high school. My first game was actually a college game. So I think I beat everyone on that. Yeah. But, yeah, growing up in Toronto, we were a hockey family. My oldest brother was drafted. He played NHL games, played the American Hockey League. He's played overseas hockey as well. So that was kind of the path me and my other brother were going towards.

We were always playing at the top level of hockey. And in Toronto, it's extremely competitive. There's of hockey pro guys that come out of that city so um we were we were on that same trajectory as our oldest brother um and so even in even in high school I was still playing I was playing hockey I was playing lacrosse still hadn't touched the basketball um by the time I was a senior I was about six four and a half or six, five. So still playing hockey. And then the two years after high school, so within the next 24 months, I grew seven inches. So it was like, everyone wasn't asking what hockey team I was on. They're asking me what basketball team I was on. And I tried to explain I've never played. And you know,

my girlfriend at the time and my mom and everyone was like you know why don't you try it because you know what you know what could go wrong you go to a juco here in Canada you play one year if you hate it then you hate it and if you don't then you know something bigger could come from it so I played I played at a juco in Canada I did the one year I didn't I didn't hate it I didn't love it you know I did okay I think I averaged like a double, double, but that's not a lot to speak of from a Canadian league, Canadian Juco anyway. And I was just working out at a, at a local gym. So just doing like a, like a weight, weight workout.

And I was approached by a trainer in the gym, never met the guy before. Just could tell he was super high energy, super positive. And he just said like, you know, where'd you play, man? You must play for someone. I mean, you know, say, yeah, I was at Durham college this year. It was my first year playing. He's like, first year. He's like, what? He's like, what did you average? You know, I told him my stats and he's like, dude, like, I can find you a good opportunity if you're serious about this. I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm serious. You know, like if you can find something, I'll,

you know, I'll do whatever it takes to see if we can, if we can make that happen. And, you know, he starts, so they, I literally Google's top 30 schools and NCAA of that year. So I think that was 07, 08, maybe. And he's like, you know, Marquette was on that list. I'm guessing, you know, Georgetown, UConn, all the big schools are on that list. So Marquette ends up calling back and says, you know, you got a seven footer that's only played one year.

I mean, that was Buzz Williams' first year of coming in as a head coach. And he's like, he had two scholarships and they had just been beat by the Lopez twins at Stanford in the tournament that year. So he's like, dude, I could use another seven footer. You know, I don't care if the guy can chew bubble gum and tie his shoes. You know, he's seven feet tall and he's only had a year a year had a year of basketball there's about 20 games playing in juco in canada i mean either we can do something with this guy or we can't so i end up at summer school in uh in milwaukee at marquette i mean like a month later it was like it was like a whirlwind like you know it's like

kids work their whole life to get a scholarship at a high major d1 school and i just met a guy at a gym and he got me in and in a month it's like it's like something out of like i don't know it's like very strange you know now that i know like how serious it is to get into a high major school you know for me for that to have happened to me so quickly with a kid with no experience and and just being helped by someone that i didn't even know and never have played a game of AU or anything like that it was it was it was unbelievable like I was me and Jimmy Butler Crystal Tule, Joe Fulce we were the four people that came into the Marquette that year so it was like I mean we all know how well Jimmy's doing now and Crystal Tule is playing overseas he's a big

man he's 6'11 he plays in France he plays in China and Joe Fulce is still actually – he's coaching under Buzz Williams now. So, like, that was the four guys – the three other guys I came in with. It was literally like someone trying to teach you how to swim and just throwing you in the ocean, not even in the deep end. Like, I was – I got there. Wesley Matthews was a senior. What else do we have? Dominique James is a really great player also.

He was there. He was a senior. And Jarrell McNeil, who was the all-time scoring leader at marquette until it was broken this this year uh by another guard at marquette but uh i forgot how it was oh man we were stacked we had we had lazar hayward as a as a junior he ended up getting drafted and played with opc minnesota so we basically had four nba guys on that team. Like it was, it was, it was unbelievable. And man, just, just talking about it now, I haven't told anyone the story in so long. It just, it seems like such an awesome little tale. Yeah, this is fun. Yeah, it was, it was,

it was insane, man, because honestly I got to Marquette and, you know, Buzz is a very intense coach and he's very serious but I was used to getting coached I mean hockey coaches aren't very light on you by any means but uh so I was used to getting coached but I literally was making mistakes that I didn't like you know coaches are usually get on you if you do something lazy and you know you do a shortcut I wasn't trying to do that I was always a hard worker I was always working hard it was literally things that I didn't know just from not knowing the game um and I would just tell Buzz I'd be like Buzz coach I'm trying to go as 110 percent I just there's some things that I

don't know that are you know they're like second nature to to these kids these other players because they've been playing the sport since they've been you know seven eight years old and you know I've only been playing the sport for 12 months now so So it's like you got to kind of understand that with me and bear with me here if you can. You know, it was like a dream, man. I felt like I was living like I was in some kind of – like just living the dream, basically. It was unreal.

Marquette's an unreal school. All those players, all my teammates were unbelievable, and they were all very helpful. I can still remember Wesley Matthews telling me to stick with it, and something great will come out of it if I just keep grinding it out. Going through those Marquette boot camps, man, it was an awesome experience. I have nothing bad to say about it at all. experience. I have nothing bad to say about it at all. That's so cool. I mean, yeah, that is a very, I mean, I think it's obviously you realize like how fortunate you were to meet that trainer and up at Marquette. And so you spent two years at Marquette, red shirted the first year. It sounds like you did have a lot of things to work

on. After two years, you ended up transferring to Tennessee Tech. What went into the decision to transfer to Tennessee Tech and why did you end up doing that? All right. I'm going to pause the show again just to give you a few more messages from our sponsors. Again, I hope you all are enjoying the interview with Liam McMorrow. The time spent with him was fantastic. Really enjoyed the conversation and just such a cool, unique story. But we'll get back to that in just a few short seconds. I do have a message though, from some of the folks at Built Bar. Built Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today. It's the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar

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caramel. So really excited to continue to use the Bilt Bars as I continue my workouts. I highly recommend you do as well. And that's why we have a great offer for you today. I'm really excited about it. Use the promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off your box of Bilt Bars at BiltBar.com today. That is promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off your box of Bilt Bars right now at BiltBar.com. Check it out now so you can get your workout in and get that protein you need right after. So where that stemmed from was there was two parts to it.

And I always struggle with telling this part of the story because I don't want my eldest daughter to really think that it had anything to do with her. So while I was at Marquette the first year when I was registering, the coaches had actually gotten, my girlfriend at the time, gotten her an internship with the American Hockey League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. So she was living with me there and we ended up getting pregnant. So we had my first daughter, Leah, we had her, so I guess going into the second year. And with just a lot of, I don't know, I guess a lot of pressure on Buzz. Like Marquette is a Jesuit school, which is basically a Catholic school.

And I'm walking around with a baby and a stroller and a girl I'm not married to. And it was just a lot of things went into it. Buzz kind of gave me a decision that I could leave and play or i could stay and i could have my scholarship but but my family wouldn't be able to be with me and um i kind of just went with the with the with the first decision you know i i wanted to play i wanted to see what i could make out of uh out of college basketball and see if i could eventually make some money playing so i didn't want to just sit and even though having a full ride scholarship offered to you and not having to play or practice, I'm sure a lot of guys that are on the lazier end would have taken that.

But I just had to act like, so, so, so now I was at a point where, okay, I can transfer. I'm sure other, other schools will take me, but who usually lean on for that, as I know now is like an old AU coach, an old high school coach to look out for you and so now I'm trying to reach out to schools on my own and it's such a weird situation and so I ended up getting referred by one of the assistant uh assistant coaches at Marquette to Tennessee Tech he said I have a great guy his name's Coach Payne he's down at Tennessee Tech and they have a scholarship available and uh you know I said coach i don't care what school it is i

don't i didn't even know what conference that was i still didn't know too much about college basketball i didn't know the ohio valley had a conference i didn't know what it was i was like coach i'll go i packed up a u-haul and i drove straight down there to cookville tennessee from milwaukee and i just because i trusted the the assistant coach at marquette so much like coach if you trust him i trust it him. I trust the whole deal. I'm like, I'll do it. Let's do it. And it literally happened.

Like, it happened within, like, three days. I just strove down there, and I was like, now is that a new school? And it's just so funny because both schools are actually Golden Eagles. So it was – I didn't even make that connection. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So Tennessee Tech is also Golden Eagles.

So I just, you know, I was still an Eagle. And I ended up making awesome friends at Tennessee Tech and teammates too. Like one of my buddies, Kevin Murphy, that got drafted to Utah. You know, he played his first year at Utah. And we were actually both playing in Bahrain. And he had actually – his team had reached out to me to fill that position. So I ended up going with the competitor to just to get the chance to play against murph because i never played i never played against them uh in pro basketball so that was that was pretty awesome

um but yeah that's kind of like this short yeah it's really wild man and like every time i tell someone they're like dude you gotta like put out a podcast or put out something that people know this like like there's stuff out there you know because at the time you know the Toronto papers would have written some things and papers in Milwaukee would have wrote a little blurb but like just knowing the whole like the whole the last 10 years of this it's just been insane like how it started and like how it's well I don't want to say how it's ending but I mean this COVID thing wiped out a season and kind of put everything at an abrupt stop so see where we go from here but um yeah it's been a it's been a roller coaster for sure

yeah man and over the next I mean over the next last 10 years you've had quite the um interesting experience as well being able to travel all over the world playing a sport that four years prior, you didn't even know you wanted to play, right? I mean, growing from six foot four, six or five to seven foot one, seven foot two. And then obviously going to a couple of different schools. That's just, that's crazy, man.

Well, then, so then after that, you actually, you did, you were not drafted, but you ended up playing with the Iowa energy. I've talked to a few guys on the team about kind of their path to the G League. What was your path to the G League? How did you end up with the Iowa Energy? What was that recruitment process like? Okay, so I finished – I actually finished early at Tennessee Tech. I started my master's, so I got one semester of my master's in

and then we had finished the year um that year so uh going to that summer I'd met an agent slash trainer out in Tennessee he took me in I actually lived with him for a few months um he tried to get me into summer leave that year it wasn't going to happen you know I think I always I don't know what I averaged at Tennessee Tech like maybe four and three or something brutal um the college game doesn't really suit my style of play um just with the you know three seconds and all that and yeah but uh just the spacing i should say really but uh so i so what happens i i train with i train with holman for two months he tries tried to get me in the summer league. It doesn't happen. And he introduces me to another agent out of Chicago named Brian Brundage.

So Brian does the same thing. He goes, you know, come on down to Chicago. I'll set you up with training. And, you know, summer league has passed, but we'll get you something good for next year, and we'll see how it goes. And I think – so what I did is they had, I guess, I don't know why it would be in Orlando, but Iowa, I guess has an open, had an open tryout for their team.

And I remember it being in Orlando because we were at, we're by all the city walk stuff. I remember going to that. So I go to this open run in Orlando and it's just like, I don't know if you've ever seen these opens, you know, to go to these things so anyone can be in it so it's like you're gonna guys that are serious um like you just either really dominate and you really show up or or they're just gonna overlook you and they took your whatever 200 bucks and and they say see you later yeah so like I dominated all my little games and all the little you know workouts they had to do that day um went back to the hotel and you know talked to the agent and he said you know this is great like the coach has already called me they're they're interested

they're saying they're going to draft you and I'm like man this is like nothing was really surprising to me at this point because I'm like look I went from a guy in a gym telling me that he can get me a full ride to going to Marquette with Jimmy Butler and Western Matthews to transferring to Tennessee Tech and almost, you know, getting my Bachelor of Science and starting a Master's and agents taking me in and paying for all this stuff and training and, you know, trying to make money as a basketball player. And it's just like, I'm not surprised if I get drafted there. Like, that's just part of this crazy story. So I think they ended up taking me in the fourth round um to Iowa and you know you get a coach from call you get a call from coach and he just says you know we're starting training camp here and there it it all really happens quickly you know they give you two three days they fly you out or you drive and they pay

you they compensate you for your gas and so now you end up in another pool because they bring in I can't remember how many guys you have maybe 25 or around 20 and they they bring in that many to cut it down to 10 or 12 so it's like damn so I've been drafted and there's all this interest and I still got to beat guys out of position yeah I have no problem with them very I mean I'm very competitive so I'm like hey it's either gonna happen or it's not so you know I just went balls to the wall every day and uh and ended up making the roster um I think I only played five or six games with them um because it was around December where they were really interested in keeping me there because they could see the potential and and they knew my story and they're just like we want to keep you but I guess the G League rules at that time where they they were offering me to to keep me there and keep my housing and and uh I guess they were they would say that I was injured even though I wasn't and they would just wanted me to

like just to stay and just keep developing and I'm just like yeah I don't really want to do that and be here and not get paid like I have a three-year-old daughter at the time. I'm like, I'm not really interested in that. So actually, so that was the first time I ever went to Vegas. My agent had sent me to Impact at that time. So it was around December, January of that, after my first year pro, or my first few games, I should say.

And then, and I end up at Impact here in Vegas, probably right around January. So at that time, it's not very busy. You just get a, you get a bunch of, Impact always has like a kind of kids in between a high school year and like before they go to college. So like, it's kind of like a prep year, I guess. They just have those kids, which aren't pros by any means. And they're all, they're all kids.

But, and then, you know, some pros will start filtering in. in and then when the school finishes you get all the pre-draft guys and i'm like okay this is more my speed you know all these guys are looking to get drafted they're all in my age range and then the real pros come you get like real vets coming in the impact they got a big roster of guys that are always rolling through there i'm like damn this is the basketball i need i feel like i got a lot better that summer um and it just so happened that Alan Houston was in the gym just I don't know who he was there to look at but he ended up having a conversation with me and I end up on the Knicks summer league like literally the next day like like no like honestly like I'm not exaggerating so he watches me work out just do my regular workout I was there

for five months working out he just saw a workout it could have been a bad day for me a good day he said hey man um can you be at thomas and mac tomorrow at three like we got practice and like you know be per diem for you and they'll be everything i'm like hell yeah i will you know so now i'm on the knicks and i'm like i don't know i just it was i just couldn't be surprised by anything because it was just it was just like things were just happening like I all I knew I was I was just working and like good things were happening so it's just um as far as the G League yeah Iowa's experience for me was was really small it was you know it was a couple months it was training camp and then we

had gotten into it for what maybe two months I was I was with them you know it was it was interesting being coached at that level. It was really cool. I made a lot of connections there. The head coach was a guy named Kevin Young, who actually is an assistant with the 76ers now. And it was just really great. I met a ton of guys along the way that are just really genuine people.

You know, the starting center was a guy named Ben Strong, who's actually coaching with Phoenix now with the Sun. And he taught me a ton, and he had a similar story. He went to an NAIA school, and I think he played four years in the D League and then, you know, shot around overseas. And then he was coaching with Philly and now he's coaching Phoenix and, uh, it's just meeting guys like that, that are really genuine and true, you know, um, just honest guys that really actually want to help guys.

Cause a lot of, a lot of times when you're in G league situations, you know, you might have a lot of good hearted people, but it really comes down to, you know, everyone's there for the opportunity to get called up right so you're not really trying to help other people out that much even though they are your teammates you're really just trying to show out yeah you're all competing for the same spot i mean now you i think now in the g league you only have 10 guys so literally you have two guys at every position it's like a starter and a backup guy so you know that backup is all over that start and trying to get his ass every practice and it's just like it's really competitive atmosphere

which is good but it's like i found that i i made friends with a lot of people that really you know we were competitive but as soon as practice was over it was like we were friends you know so it was a it was a really good experience for me um as far as the gz goes i mean the money the money's terrible at that time i think it was there was three contracts available the a b and the c and i was on a c and it was like i want to say it was like 13 grand oh man for the whole season so it was i mean yeah for the whole season so i think guys get like 35 now which is actually decent you know season's like five months seven grand a month but like

back then it was brutal i think my check was like a thousand just over a thousand maybe 1021 something like that it said it it said nba on it but it was definitely not nba money baby yeah at least uh at least being in des moines is pretty cheap to live i mean so i'm from that area and it is dirt cheap to live in des moines but um that still is not yeah i mean they uh yeah they they take care of your housing too right so oh it's not it's not terrible but it's just like man i'm so like it was at that time it was the only and you know still is with the 35 grand for the jews like it's still the only uh minor league affiliate that is that far like you know if

you're in the nhl compare it to the ahl there's guys in the ahl that make 100 grand 150 grand you know average is probably 50 or 60 but when you compared that and like that's been like that for a decade you know and when you compare that to what we're making at 13 grand 19 000 for your b contract and 20 20 and some change for for, for the, uh, the A contract. That was just, it's so, it was such a big gap. You know, if you look at AAA baseball contracts compared to MLB, like it was just NBA and G league, it was just such a far gap. It was something had to be done.

Like this 35 is okay. And these other, you know, these two way contracts are adding now, but there's still need to do something about that. Cause it's, it's it's you know the NBA makes ton of money there's really no excuse for it it really does so what what are your thoughts on the fact that they are now offering high schoolers you know five hundred thousand dollar contracts to play for G League teams right yeah I think like honestly I think it's great I think if they're good enough and these teams are seeing that potential in them, like why not? Right. Why not? If,

if the kid has no intent to go to school, like I don't see the point of a kid going to a school for one year and then coming out anyway. I mean, you can always get the schooling in, especially if you know, you're going to sign a one-year contract for 500 grand. That's basically you could give yourself a full ride scholarship. If you got hurt and you can never play basketball again, you know, you can pay your own way after that first year i mean the way i look at it the schooling matures

you and it you know it it is necessary for some guys i'd say some guys need it but the guys that are ready to go and like you know i was reading about the the filipino kid the case soto or kai soto yeah um i think i think he was one of the ones that's been offered the big money to do the contract. I mean, I think it's great. He's going to be the first Filipino-born player to do that. And, like, I don't know. I think it's great for the development.

It'll be hard. It'll be a hard dynamic on a team where you got, you know, a 23-year-old that did four years of college and that's a really grown man and he's making $35,000 compared to an 18-, 19-year-old kid that four years of college and that's a really grown man and he's making 35 grand compared to a 18 19 year old kid that's making 500 that might you know that might that might uh influence some rough practices with the hard bumps but i mean that's the way they're going what's that it's all learning experience at that point i mean i feel like oh yeah um they have it coming but it's probably going to help them out in the long run. Absolutely.

No, no, no, it definitely will. I mean, playing against men is going to get you ready right away. Definitely, man. And so you actually, after playing for the Iowa Energy, you've had some cool stops. You played in Taiwan, Canada, China, obviously in the United States a couple times, and the Philippines. Out of all those stops, what has been your most memorable or favorite stop?

Oh, man, Philippines for sure. Philippines – well, you know what? Philippines was my favorite place to play. When I played in Canada, just that team that I played on, those are my guys. So it's a half-half mix between Philippines and Canada. You know, Canada, obviously, I'm Canadian, so I was at home. People that have never been able to see me play because, you know, I played in college in the States and that first JUCO year, a lot of people didn't, like, weren't excited to come see me play anyway. So it was an opportunity for my family to actually see me play. So that was great about Canada. Philippines was amazing just because of the culture there.

They're in love with basketball and they're in love with boxing. So if you're a basketball player playing in the Philippines, I mean, everyone that's played there knows what I'm talking about. It's just insane, like, the love that you get from the fans and the community and how excited people are just to meet you. And you can make them happy just by taking a picture with them and signing something. And the language barrier is not really there because a lot of Filipinos, although they do speak their native language, the Gyalog,

a lot of them, I'd say eight and a half out of ten or nine out of ten people speak decent English. So you just have an easy time communicating, and it's just a really great place to play. All right, and that will do it for our show today with Liam McMorrow. Like I said before we started the interview, we were going to split this up into two, break it off right when we started talking about the Philippines. On tomorrow's episode of this special two-part edition of TBT Tuesday, we're going to be

talking about his time with Eberline Drive, his time in the Philippines, talking a little bit about his experiences overseas and whatnot. But it is a great continuation of a fantastic conversation. So I highly recommend you checking out tomorrow's episode of the Lockdown Iowa podcast as well. As always, if you enjoyed this interview or enjoy our shows in general, make sure to give us that five-star review and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Google

Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And as always, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And of course, follow the Iowa United on Twitter as well, Iowa TBT and Liam McMorrow at the Liam McMorrow. Thank you all for tuning into today's episode. Stay safe out there. And as always, let's go Iowa United.