Mick Unplugged - Disconnect to Reconnect: Lessons from Marlow Campbell

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

Marlow Campbell is a dynamic leader, coach, and entrepreneur whose journey began on the soccer fields of Raleigh, North Carolina. A former collegiate soccer star at NC State and the first North Carolina homegrown athlete to receive a full scholarship from legendary coach George Tarantini, Marlow's life is a testament to building relationships, embracing diversity, and leading by example. With a background spanning athletics, business, and mentorship, Marlow brings a deep passion for fostering growth in others—whether as a CEO, coach, or father. His philosophy centers on reflection, supporting others in discovering their own purpose, and spreading positivity wherever he goes. Takeaways: The Power of Disconnecting: Taking time to step back and reflect is essential for personal growth, leadership, and maintaining strong relationships—whether it’s a quiet nap, quality family moments, or a simple hour of solitude. Sports as a Life Teacher: Participation in sports helps cultivate teamwork, resilience, and leadership skills. The lessons learned on the field—the wins, losses, and challenges—translate directly to business and life success. The Role of Support and Mentorship: True leadership is measured not just by personal achievements, but by the ability to uplift others, share wisdom, and connect people across communities and backgrounds. Sound Bytes: "Disconnecting is a way for you to reflect and truly analyze what's going on in order to make improvement in your world, in your life." – Marlow Campbell "You’re building on your experiences—taking time away is a way to just mentally take notes and say, okay, this is where I've been, this is where I'm going." – Marlow Campbell "Sport teaches you how to work with others. If you don't know how to work with others, you may struggle." – MarlowCampbell 🔥 Ready to Unleash Your Inner Game-Changer? 🔥   Mick Hunt’s BEST SELLING book, How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never Had One: The Blueprint for Modern Leadership, is here to light a fire under your ambition and arm you with the real-talk strategies that only Mick delivers.  👉 Grab your copy now and level up your life → Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million   FOLLOW MICK ON: Spotify: MickUnplugged Instagram: @mickunplugged  Facebook: @mickunplugged YouTube:  @MickUnpluggedPodcast  LinkedIn: @mickhunt  Website:  MickHuntOfficial.com Apple: MickUnplugged Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged, and we're doing something first and official for the first time ever. We're on site, Montego Bay. I'm here with my best friend, Mr. Marlowe Campbell. We're about to get some raw exclusive stuff. Marlowe Campbell. You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation.

Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Welcome to us. Mick, I just want to say thank you for having me on, and so proud of everything that you're doing. And, you know, just glad to be here in beautiful Montego Bay.

It's awesome, man. Like, we've been here for a few days together, little couples retreat. Love the island. You know, you've been here, obviously, before. This is my third-timed back to the same resort here, a secret. So shout out the secrets. But, man, like, you're the first person that I looked up to when it came to just

disconnect, right? Like, you have so much going on, right? With soccer, we're going to get into that. With the thief with your kids, you're a family man. And you always tell me, I got to have a little bit of time to just disconnect in the road, man. Like, when did that become a thing for you and why is that important for people to just be able to disconnect everyone else? Well, I think that disconnecting is a way for you to reflect and truly analyze what's going on in order to make improvement in your world and your life with the with personally, professionally, with your family, with your friends, taking time to really appreciate also all the wonderful things that go on.

And when things are bad, you know, taking this time away is good just to spend time with friends and family and just know, you know, just figure out what's going on. What the next moves are, okay? Yeah, and you're a CEO, right? Like, you own multiple businesses. And I think a lot of times as leaders and CEOs, we have this misconception that we've always got to be on, right? And that there's this no days off utility. And I actually believe in no days off. But I also believe in taking moments so that you can be there for the people that matter them up, whether it's your team, whether it's your family or whatever it is. And so for the business leader, it never takes the time to recharge. What's your message for that? You always got to remember where you started

from. And the best way to do that is to take that step back. And when you reflect upon where you started, where you are now, where you're going, okay, if you if you can't, slow down just a little bit, then that's when you get yourself in trouble, okay? You start losing in touch with reality, and as we said, you know, when you have your great team at work and you have your people that you're with all the time, but it helps you to understand, reflect, go back to really just figure out who you are, you know. you know when we it's interesting we we had a great uh dinner with a couple other couples uh in february and we started talking about all the different things that we've done in our lifetime

you know professionally okay just as from a from an income standpoint and every one of us had a story where we were here and then we did this and we did this and we did that okay um but that's the story of life i mean you're building on your experiences okay and so so taking time away is a way to not take notes but just mentally take notes and just say okay oh this is this is where i've been this is where i'm going this was a good experience how can i duplicate that this was a bad experience what have i learned from that so that we can make it even better experience next time you know yeah and for the person this listening maybe you're not a business on right having a disconnect is still important so you know like for me i'll spend time on a sunday morning i'll

spend a couple of hours go sit on with the backboard and just have some meat right so you don't have to go on vacations to disconnect like that shouldn't be the holy reason or the only way that you disconnect what are some ways that you disconnect when it's not a vacation or whatever well I'm a professional napper man I can you know I could nap any time and it's my it's my time you know three o'clock on a Saturday Sunday I'm going to relax I mean I'm just going to take that time to myself and and my family knows that hey this is this is when I got a I got to just got to sit back and absorb okay and recharge but similar to you just just find a little quiet place you know sometimes like I get accused of being quiet okay but I'm I'm still on but I'm just

processing you know letting letting that that that computer regenerate you know what I mean You've got to get the reboot, the refresh, and, you know, just whether that's sitting at home, whether that's going and hitting some golf balls, sometimes just even just being with family is a good way of doing it. You know what I mean? So there's so many ways to do it, but just getting out of getting your mind away from the business side and just that we keep using that word reflection. but it's it's really important that that you take time to do that yeah i tell people all the time

that like on your computer you got to clear cash and get it right like that's your computer resetting you got to restart your phones i don't care if you're apple android or whatever like every once in while it's not operating right so you have to restart it um your phones and in all these technology platforms send you updates that you always have to do and i think for your mind and body you have to do the same feeling you've got to be able to take that time and get that recharge and update you where that we start yeah yeah so crypt import and i learned a lot of that food in that like i we met five years ago now yeah and like we literally instantly became best friends which is crazy because as you get to know marlowe campbell everyone is this best like and i mean that

in a very good way right yeah you never met a stranger yeah i love people you always have that thing uh you know it used to be what six degrees of kevin bacon right like i call it now you're two degrees from mallow campbell when did that become a thing for you like networking introducing yourself picking people up I'm gonna that become a thing for you I guess it probably started as a as a youth with my background and where I grew up in in the mean streets of Crabtree I guess you will you know and Raleigh but now it's it's interesting for me when when we moved we were in one part of Raleigh we moved to an whole other part of

Raleigh we were one of we thought we were to only ones, but we're one of only two black families and an all white neighbor, okay? And it's interesting as a six-year-old kid starting to build relationships with people that don't really know you back in the 70s, okay, that was different, okay? But then I got introduced to this wonderful worldwide game of soccer, okay? And so when I got introduced to soccer, I never would have done it unless we had moved to this part of town. And And I played a lot of sports growing up. I was fortunate.

I was pretty athletic. But I always, every time we had to make a choice of what sport I was going to continue to progress with, it kept going back to soccer. What the thing about soccer? Soccer is a worldwide sport. I mean, everybody plays. Okay. And so you're always building relationships with people that are different. I mean, the game is the same.

There's two goals. There's a ball. Okay. You try to score. But you build up the teamwork. You build up the camaraderie, you build up the support system, you build up adversity, you have some wins, you have some losses. You know, so I think that's where they all start, okay? You go on to college and you play professionally and you do things.

Everything that I do now is a byproduct of when I got started when I was younger, okay? Never met a stranger. I don't judge, you know, people are going to be people. people are going to be different okay um i always seek to understand where they're coming from okay even if i disagree that's that's their that's their position i can't get upset with them for their position what i can do is understand it and maybe it either strengthens my position that i have or i'm helping them to understand hey you know what have you looked at it this way and helping them to understand as well you know so um i think that's one reason why i i go out people see me i'm

meet people, have no problem, just meeting people and just just playing on with it. You know, it's, it's, it's a thing that makes it special. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So let's go into soccer. For those that I know we've got your, we've got your shirt censored and thank you. And for those that are watching, we are in Jamaica, it might be five o'clock, it might be 10 o'clock. It's five o'clock somewhere. Cheers, my brother. Yes, sir. So soccer.

You went to this little school Oh For those, you know, you see his shirt is blurred Because I'm allergic to that But you went to NC State, man So like, one, why NC State? Or no, let's go back a little bit further. Okay.

Marlowe Campbell, the soccer star, high school. What was recruiting like? What was that? What were those moments? Ugh. At Capital One, we're more than just a credit card company. We're people. just like you, who believe in the power of yes.

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca.coms and conditions apply. Back then, soccer was still kind of growing, Okay, but it was one of those things, whereas, again, I was fortunate. I was with the, all the ODI was just called Olympic Development Program. So I'm traveling all over the country, representing North Carolina, Region 3, U.S. national team camp, U.S. 6 Kings, and Colorado Springs. And again, just, again, meeting people from different areas developing those relationships. Yeah.

So then when you get into the recruitment. recruiting process, you know, for me, my father worked at NC State. I grew up always wanting to play for NC State. But I also entertained Duke in that other lighter blue school down the road from them as well. I'm not allowed to say that. The University of National Champions, USC. Okay. I'm not allowed to actually say those words. But, you know, so and a few other schools here in North Carolina. But I remember, there was a game in high school and I had really great teammates at Athens Drive high school but I remember a game where

two of my best friends Roy and Eric Lasseter had just been gotten red cards in the game before so I was solo quote unquote solo obviously I had some great teammates but I wasn't playing with my boys

that we always used to do our thing with the next game and I didn't know that Coach Tarantini was in the stands, okay? And I went off, I went off. I mean, I just, because it was out of support for my brothers, Roy and Eric, it was support for my, my teammates that were just,

to this day, they're just the great, great, great people. We went in the state championship that year, okay, the first one for Athens Drive. But I just remember that game, and I remember just going off. And I was like, okay, and we won. I think we were playing against Braun, they were number one in the state.

So we won the game. And I get home that night, and I get the phone call, hey, it's George Tarantini, Hey, Kodiensi State, speak tomorrow. I was like, okay, okay, this is he. And I said, I want you, I want you, I want to offer you full scholarship, Cody and Ceste.

And I was speechless. And I said, can I call you back? There you go. You go, I got the tarhills on the other than. I hung up the phone, went upstairs, told my mom and dad, I said, I just got a call from George Tarantino in C. State. And they said, what did you tell him? I said, I got to call him back.

Like, man, you better get down there. Right. You know, so it was, it was just unique. And it was special because coach, we all call him coach. He was originally from Argentina. His brother was the best defender in the world for Argentina and the world. 78 world cup you know this is this powerful intimidating figure that was on the phone with me and i'm a 17-year-old boy still right so um but he but he has this way of just just making you

feel good okay of course because they're recruiting you they love you okay and then as soon as you get on campus you're like wait well i thought you liked me coach what's up okay so um but he was like yeah i want you to be the first player from north carolina to get to that i offer a full scholarship too. And I was like, okay, I'll take that. Let's go. So I didn't, I didn't know that, sir. So you were the first North Carolina homegrown athlete that he offered his scholarship. Yep, full scholarship. Yep. That's why. Yeah. So. How does that make you feel to like say that out loud? No, man. I mean, he, uh, it's always been special. And, um, you know, that's, that's, that's who coach is, you know, he was. And I learned a lot. You, you talk about,

Just looking after people, coach always wanted to look after the little guy. He always wanted to give people an opportunity, okay? And even in today's times, I, you know, whether it's through any of my businesses or just in coaching, I've loved coaching. And people always ask, well, I don't coach very much anymore. They say, do you miss the coaching? Because they think the wins and losses. Like, no, no, no, no, I miss it so much.

But I miss the relationship. show. That's what you build with with your players. You build with your team. And I'm coaching youth. And so now these quote unquote kids are now 40, 36, 30 years old, rocking it, just repeating the cycle. And every time I run into them, it's just, it's just such a special moment because I remember when you were seven. I remember when you were 17. I remember when you were this. I remember when we lost that. We were learning. I remember when you were going through this with your with your family i mean these are that's the relationship that you that you build and then so i learned a lot from from tarentini with respect to no matter how he how he yelled at you or got on you

he loved you okay and he just wanted you to be better you know i think i think personally i think he was always upset with me because i never came on my recruiting trip yeah So, so I was set to come on the, I had already, I already did it, I already said I'm coming, coach, right? He goes, all right, I want you to come into this recruiting trip. I said, all right, I'm going to come in. And then I got a call from a girl who was a friend, not my girlfriend, who says, Marlowe, you'll never guess who I'm babysitting for her. She said, I said it. She goes, Prince's nephews, like the artist.

The artist, yes. The artist. For one year, Tycho Nelson lived in Raleigh's Monk, Geraldine. Interesting. And she lived in the same neighborhood as my friend. And see, Larry, so you guys, next time I babysit, I'll have you come over. So I went over to the house, sure enough, president and sir, those were the two nephews. Okay, all right.

So met the boys. They were cool as can be. And then about three weeks later, Steph called and said, hey, Prince's alphabet Street, a lot sexy tours coming to Greensboro, and Taika says I can bring a friend. Do you want to come? And it happened to be the weekend of my recruiting show. So here I am. I got to call Tarantini. And I'm like, coach, yo, I'm not coming. I'm not coming on my record. I know you, you're sending me up for life, but yo, I'm going to dis you. Thinking about a hindsight as a coach, I'm like, man, I don't know how I would have accepted that.

Right. But he probably hung up the phone like, what's up with this guy? So we were able to ride in a limo from Raleigh to Greensboro with Tyke and Nelson inside the gate, the whole nine yards, Prince concert. It was it was a wonderful experience, you know. And for those that don't know, we've done karaoke four nights here in Matito Bay, and Marlowe opens up every night with either when dubs cry or purple. Yeah, just so you know it. So when he talks about Prince being his guy, He really does read that Prince is God. Yeah.

So, so much that I want to unpack and unfug, man. So, you know, leadership is my thing. My be-caughts is my thing, right? Like, with the reason that we do was the use of his due. And so I want to go to you. Because I don't think I've ever really asked you this question. Oh, boy. What's your because?

What's your purpose today? At the 17-year-old. Yeah. So we're talking about the over 40. Yeah. Thank you for that. Just slightly over 40. You signed it to something.

We're good. We're good. What's your because today? What's your purpose today? Ooh. I feel like there's so many. Life is short. Mm-hmm.

And we all have experiences. And what I've learned from a lot of my mentors is, can you help the next one? Okay. And I think that's sort of my, that's my because, I think, can I help the next one? whether it's, I have a friend of mine that's relocating and had to talk to him about, okay, well, do you want to even stay in the same field that you're in right now? You know, it's like, you have these gifts. You know, you don't have to keep doing what you're doing.

You've had options, okay? You're moving out of choice, not being forced to move. Okay. So if you want to get a refresh, you're a refresh. And we've gone back and forth, and sure enough, he found something that is still related to his field, but not the same field. And I feel great for him because he's excited. I mean, now I see the energy.

So for me, that's a win for me, okay? In my mind, not to say I'm taking any credit for it, but it just makes me feel good when I'm able to help somebody, okay? When you can take what you've learned and why I do what I do, no matter what it is, is to try to help others. Yeah. Okay, okay. And I believe that because,

because my worlds are so commingled that it actually helps me give a different perspective than if I were just a soccer coach or just an insurance agent or just this or just that. So when you hear scenarios, all of a sudden my database is saying, okay, this, this, this, this, this is this is how I'm going to help or how I can possibly help. Or, as you mentioned, who can I find to help? Because it's not just me. Okay, as they say, it takes a village. It's not just me.

They say, let me connect you with this person. Let me connect, oh, I got the perfect person. And I think that I feel incredibly blessed to have those relationships with wonderful heat. Yeah, totally. The second thing I want to unplug, I have this huge parallel, right? I run this series on the connection between sports leadership. And I tell people this all the time And I don't mean it exclusively

But I personally believe That if you were the leader of your sports team You were a cap You were the person that rallied the troops of me You make the most dynamic leaders In the business spaces Because you see so much And like in sport

And it doesn't really matter the sport Right Every match There's going to be adversity Right There's going to be a letdown and there's going to come a moment where you just got to be a dog

and say, I'm just going to do it anyway. And to me, that's business, right? Like, there's going to be adversity. There's sometimes you just got to roll up and say, hey, we're just doing this thing matters. Right. What do you think about the parallel between business? I'm all about that.

I think that especially, like I said, it doesn't matter which sport, but obviously I relate closest to soccer. And what people don't understand is that soccer is a game of mistakes. Otherwise, every time you get the ball, you would score. Right.

Somebody's going to mess up. Right. Somebody's going to mess up. So do you point the finger at that person? And then the next time you lose it, you point the finger at that person? No, no, no, no. Because we're a team. Okay?

We're trying to process this to get to the promised land. Right. Okay. So I'm a big believer in that adversity, what you learn from sport, whatever it is. Okay. You're going to step, step, step down. Step, step down. You just want to keep your eye on what you want to do. Your processes, your vision.

what's your end game where do you want to go okay it's good there's going to be some pitfalls so um i do i definitely think that that translates and and uh things you clear all about the okay as a as a captain as a leader as a coach okay the job of a coach is to get the team ready okay they can't play the game they just got to get them ready so on game day that's the player's time right that's the fun time right that's the player's time right yeah okay we We can't, we can't, we can't do it for them, okay? And so as a CEO, it's about, just like I do it as a coach. When we don't win, I take the responsibility, okay?

I can't point the finger say, you didn't do this, you didn't do it. You know what? I didn't get you ready to do that. How could I have helped you be more prepared to get that sale? How could I help you to be better at coaching this person? How did I help you get better at X, Y, or Z? Okay? That's the job.

That's the role that a leader needs to take. Okay? Because, and then when you win, praise has to go to them too. Absolute. You can't take all the praise. Your name's going to be there. Right. But you can't do it without them.

And you always got to let them know that, hey, you guys are rock stars. So for the leader that's struggling, and they probably don't know they're struggling with this. So I want all the leaders. And I don't care if it's a business, if it's a community. if it's your household, like you are a leader if you're listening to the podcast. If you are struggling with or not aware on how to give your team praise, because a lot of times you just said it, it's real easy to give criticism. And we see that a lot.

Like I say where most managers, I'm not talking about leaders. Where most managers fail is they don't connect with their team because they worry about the bodice. They worry about the gotchas. They worry about the, you did this wrong. What's some advice to upwreck your team? I think that you got to remember where you started. Okay?

You got to remember who helped you. We all had those people. We all have a. I got them. I got my people on speed out, you know, that have helped me when I thought I was great. And I realized, no, I'm not great. Okay. They're where, then I realized that's where I want to be.

Yeah. Okay. And I take those lessons. So I think that, as you said, it's really easy to point the finger, as they say, you know, when you point the finger, you get three more coming back at you. Okay. And that's a, that's a, that's a, just a great concept to always remember. Okay. But yeah, I mean, we can all see it. Oh, yeah, they messed up. But most times people know they messed up. Okay. Why we got to rub it in? Okay. Why do we have to make them feel even worse than what they already are? Okay.

Can we pick them up? Can we, can we acknowledge and learn from it? Can we acknowledge and make it better the next time okay that's that's really all that it is man that's all it is so second last question to fully your rapid fire for the parents that are watching revesting that don't have their kids in sports why is it important to have your kids in some type of sport i'm going to say as soon as possible but whenever that becomes accessible for you. Like, why is having your kids in sports important for their development, in sport physically, for their mental, for their community association?

I know you're a huge advocate at that. Why is that important to you? Well, no matter what the sport is, I think it's more of a psychological thing, okay? So the psychology of having a goal, achieving success, having a goal and not achieving success, success and learning from it. It's a great mentor, whatever you're choosing to do, whether it's an individual sport like a tennis or a golf, okay, or a team sport, like a basketball or soccer

or lacrosse. The team sports just teaches people how to work together. We have to depend on each other, but also people are dependent upon you. So when you get into the workforce or you get into school or you get into whatever it may be if you don't know how to work with others you may struck okay not everybody can be Picasso okay okay and just you know do their thing and most people work on some sort of team whether it's a partnership whether it's a team of a thousand people at a big fortune 500 company okay you're part of a team most people are okay so that's what sport teaches you okay but also if you're not involved in sport if you're a musician you're part of the band the band is not clicking if the drummer's not doing his thing and the bass is not doing her

thing then what what's up it don't it just don't sound right i mean we've heard some really bad karaoke you know what i'm saying so you know they were all cheers to this such you know what but I can say that because I did it, okay? Those who don't do it, I don't know if you can talk smack about those that are doing it, right? Okay, okay, but, you know, it's, you know, so it's just really about being a part of a team, and I use that word team with, whether, whatever position I'm in, whatever, whatever role that I'm in, we call it a team, we're a team, this is my squad, okay, this is where I'm rolling with. And I think that that plays a really good part in, like I said, dealing with that.

diversity in life. No, I love that man. So for all the parents, seriously, get your, kids involved in Stewart. Again, it doesn't matter the sport, but then also you be involved as well, right? Like, I would say it's almost worse to have your child in sport and then you don't show interest in what you're doing into their social regard, into their physical and mental assault I would make as well. As a coach, so this will be the last question before we a rabbit pirate as a coach, what are some things

that you see parents should be doing better or differently as it relates to their kids and involve it? Aside from not, you know,

wanting their kid to be the quarterback or they quit when they can't be the goal. Well, it's interesting because I see it from so many different

perspectives. I have three wonderful children that were involved in activities growing up and are still involved in a lot of activities. I think just being present for them, okay, it's the first thing. Just being there supportive, you know, number two, making sure that you're not blaming their coach or their individual player, okay?

Because when they hear you start saying these things, then they lose respect for their coach, okay? Same thing for a teacher. Same thing for whomever. you just want to make sure that you're there to understand that you're there to support to your child and their team okay and um and if they know that then they're they're going to be a part of they're going to they're want to they'll want to they'll want to they'll want to they'll want to they'll work harder at it they'll want to um do things to make you happy as a parent as well okay you know yeah so you know we're we're

teaching each other. We all learn. You don't have to be older to be the teacher. You can be younger and still be the teacher. The child can teach the parent about what it means to be supportive, especially when it's when it's tough. When a child is struggling with making their free throws or catching a ball or defending or scoring a goal, okay, it's so important that you know, you get out there with them and you say, hey, you got this. Again, this game is this game, this world, life is psychological, and how you approach it, okay? I always remember when I first got into the insurance business, I was out in Palm Springs, California, and there is a gentleman by name of Keith Harrell who spoke and he talked about his book, Attitude is

Everything. And that's just resonated me ever since I was down. See, attitude is everything. It's all about how you approach it, okay? And so as a parent, your attitude is how everything and how your child is going to progress with whatever they do. Okay, whether it's a school, sports, life, work, whatever it is, okay? Your friendships, the people you meet, everything is going to be, your attitude is everything. How are you approaching this? Okay, is it open, or are we just being closed-minded? Yeah, okay?

And you got to give it a chance. Got to give it the chance. Totally agree. Totally agree. All right, you ready to put some raft of fire? Not really. You should take a soup. I'm coming in.

I'm coming in with the heat. Coming in with the heat. All right. So, U.C., the school you went to, big rivals, right? And I don't care what colleges you went to, you know, you're right. Right, right. What was your record against Carolina? In soccer, two and two.

We won both games at home. They won both games at their place. Okay. What about all sport, what was your record against McMahon during your four years? Assuming you went four years. Well, it is a C-State. Okay, okay. We actually, well, actually we went to class, okay, so that part.

And we just didn't put on it at UNC. We were online. We were online back in the early 90s. Back in the day, we were online. No, we were hot. We were hot because I was there, again, you trying to tell my age, but when we were there, we were hot in every sport. Okay.

We took care of you guys. So you're not giving me a number. I can look you in the eye and you in the eye. All sport, care. Carolina versus state when I was in school. Uh-huh. All sports. All sports.

73 and four, bro. We only lost the state four times ever. All sport. Just, you know, little brother status. You know what? That was just a time, you know, they call the dark period. Is that the Renaissance? I don't know.

Something like that, okay. I can neither confirm nor deny what you're saying. Okay. But if you're getting your information from Wikipedia, I'm not sure if that's what's up. No, that's 2025. We have more sources. Okay, okay.

We have resources. Okay. All right. So your top five NC State basketball roster. And it's got to be like, they've got to be able to play a game. So you can't go like five points, right? Oh, yeah. Give me your top five.

So we're going to put your top five against my top five. Oh, it's all. And we're going to let the audience tell us who wins these games. Oh, top five. Okay. You're starting five. Okay. I'm going to go with my boy, Coach.

That's my dog right there, man. Chris, Coach, yeah. All-time. Okay. Assist leader in CAA when he left, okay? So he was fire. Okay, he was fire. He was fire.

And he got to go with his partner, ICE. I mean, the best shooter ever to play in the league. Okay. Yeah, in the league. So you're going, Rodney Monroe. Okay. So you're going Rodney Monroe over, like, Sydney Low? Yeah, yeah.

You said, you said I need five. Now, Witt's my boy. Now, Witt, I mean. You know, Witt is strong to. You know, I mean. On this podcast. You know, Witt, Witt's a great pass. You know, that's how they won a national championship.

People thought it was a shot, but it was a pass to Lorenzo Charles in 83. Wait. Okay. You and I have had this conversation in 10 by 10 and grilled. You thought when it left your finger, you told me this. You thought it was bottom of the neck. No. It told me that.

It was smooth. That's what threw everybody off because everybody's looking around. But our man, rest in peace, Lorenzo knew what was up. It was a set play that Jimmy B. has drawn up. So that's what we're told. Okay. All right. So you got two.

You got your back. Oh, you got my back card. You know small four. We're going with the, oh, the greatest college basketball player ever. Skywalker, Skywalker, David Thompson. He was MJ's idol. He was MJ's item. Yeah, MJ was, MJ was decent. Okay. We're talking college, not pro. College. He was the best. You saw the jumper. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I'll tell you what, man, my power forward. Man, that's a, oh, I'm keeping it with the guys that. play with. I got to go with Googhs, man. Tom Googlyata. Bees. I don't have the second best NBA career won't say, you know where. That should tell you

something right now. Shout out to Goose. You're a good guy, but yeah. Okay. Tom Googlyta. All right, so we're going fire and ice. Yeah. David Thompson. Googs. Now I really got to think about my center. You sure do. You haven't had too many of them. No, you know, because you know, Because everybody's a stretch five now. I'm going to see if I want to bang her. See who I could get. I got who you should say, but we'll see it be saying. Who are you going to say?

Chris Washburn? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Oh, man. We can distract to him very easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My guy Washburn, yes, yes, yes.

No, he could, he could, he could do it. He could, man, that's a story between him and Shackaford. Man. But I don't know, man. I mean, Burleson, I mean, if we're just going to go some height, because I got to, you know, be somebody that's going to get some rebounds. I mean, that's a big boy. You're talking about when they were playing at their prime.

I'm going to go with Burleson. Okay. So it's a good mix, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For the play against your JV squad, is that what you're saying? So, all right.

Burleson of the 5, Googs at the 4, D.T. at 3. Rodney Monroe at the 2. courts you're on the point yes you can pick my five you can pick my five and we just watched it but so sir for everybody that's watching listening they had to Google

three out of those spots they had to Google this guy this guy so I'm just going to go top of the dome because I can match that up okay so I'm going to go fill four to the point I could have gone Kenny Smith

I could have gone I could have gone Ed Cota my guy my point guard head Cota okay I'm going to go Phil Ford. Okay. Fair enough. So, you know, you brought up Jordan in the pro. People, go watch Jordan play in college, bro.

Like, Jordan shot like 60% from the field. Yeah, we only took five shots a game because Dean was holding them back. That's all we had to do. I mean, come on, man. Five for five. Okay. So I'm going Jordan. Okay.

Man, I could go anywhere. I can give you Vince of the degree. I could go old school. I could give you a box at the three. Right? Like, you don't have to Google these names. Oh, but that's his husband? You don't have to Google these.

Rick will slap the taste at you. I'm going to go James Worthy at the three. Oh, at the three? Yeah. Okay. We'll go James Worthy of the three. Okay, that'd be a good match of him and David. Okay.

That's why I went there because I know he could, he would shut that down. Oh, that's? That's easy work. Big game James? Yeah. Okay. All right. At the four and five, man, like I could go anywhere.

So I'm going to give you hands for the four. Just because that's our, that's our intimidating force out of there. Shout out to T.H. T. You know you might got. At the five, man, like, we could go stretch. I could give you Rashid. I could put Antoine down there, the five, if I really wanted to.

I could give you Brad Doherty. I could give you Sam Perkins. But I could just keep giving you name. I can give you so many. You can give you all those names. Okay. But I'm giving you the guy. Okay.

And this is a shout out to him. We lost him last year. I'm going to give a shout out to my guy, Big Grits. I'm going Eric Montchrist. Now, that's a good call. I'm going Eric Montross. Montross is a great dude, man. Good people.

Yeah. And I just, I put that five just to set your five down. Just to shut your five down. I don't think you have enough scoring. Phil Ford and Jordan are going to put up 40. I don't think you have enough scoring, though. Are we playing with the three or without the three? It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It literally, Phil Ford is deadly from three. Phil Ford, even though he never saw him three. He is deadly. It's like Pistol Pete. Pistol Pete average 200 points a game. I know. I know.

No three-port. Yeah. He would be deadly at the three. Yeah. Phil Ford was that same guy. And you know, we're going on four corners. It's a shot of. Oh, yeah.

Is there a shot clock? It doesn't matter. What kind of rules we plan with? Once we go up 10, y'all are, y'all are done you? We go up 10. Can't come back. Y'all have no speed on hoppits. Hellspeed.

We got big grits to send everything. I don't know, ma'am. I don't know. And Harrisville is going to give you 25 boards. All right. That was supposed to be rapid fire. That's what Marlowe and I did. All right.

All right. So last, last rapid fire. We were talking about this a little bit the other night. We were educating our spouses. Give me your top three albums. all time. Oh. And I go an album, not just off of

a song. I'm talking about the complete track one to track 12. Okay. If you had to just, you're going on a trip and you got three albums you can listen to you. Okay. The whole time on rotation. Give me. Oh, wow. Man. Dangerous.

I've got two and I'm trying to think of the third. I'm trying to think of the third. Mm-hmm. And for those listening and watching I want you to, in the, in the notes, give me your top three albums of all time. So, albums, full albums, front of the back. Yeah. The whole 45.

Okay. Here's where we're going to go. Okay. I'm going to start with, uh, I got, I think I, I'm going to start with one that definitely influenced me in high school. And I think it, it set off a, uh, a whole generation of, uh, a whole generation of, hip hop okay i'm gonna go with three a and three beat

because they came out the same time okay that's okay before and that was run DMC raising hell yep and beastie boys licensed to ill because you those came out the same time and everybody was playing both of them

and i think what it did is it started so many different trends in the music industry from those two albums okay and you steer hear tracks on them right now people know those songs okay i'm going to go off the track in my boy pat noelle we're talking about this up in annapolis maryland lead zeppelin four you say front the back brunt the back you are not fine lead zepplin four yes is is they they show complete range yeah on that oh man everything great range every i agree i agree and i could have made this all about the

but I mean, I could have just named all the French albums, but of course, you know, I can listen to Purple Rain anytime, any flex. Controversy may be a better album though, which was his startup with reach. Yeah. Another one with reach. Yeah. So I'm not going to go with the one that everybody wants me to say. Okay. Which is Purple Rand. Okay. Interestingly enough, his love sexy album, okay, you had to listen to it from front the back. Yes. He came out and said, you cannot skip from one track to another track. I remember. So if you really want to go with the ultimate front of the back, it's got to be that one,

because you can't get to song nine without getting through one through eight first. That is very true. That is also very true. I dig it. Barlow, man, I appreciate you. And I wanted to tell you this. I mean, we see each other all the time. we talk each other's home,

but I've never really told you this, man. Like, one of the things that I most admire about you, and you kind of hit it on every year, but being present with all the things that you have going on, man, your first job was being a dad. I say your second job is being a husband, right? You might reverse those however you want to,

but that's what I admire most about you, man. Like between you and Damon, man, like you guys have shown me and not just told me, been shown you no matter what your schedule looks like remember what your real job is that's to be a dad be a husband so I wanted to tell you man like you and Damon of the two people that I booked to to help remind me of that on a daily basis because I mean you know what our schedules are like really I mean we're we're at home sometimes two days a week out of out of a month like literally we might be home two days a week out of a month but you can still be present

We can still find ways to make sure that you're impacting you and making sure you get time to be there for those that matter really little son. I just wanted to tell each of your face. No, no, no, I respect the hell out of you. No, no, I appreciate that, man. But as I said before, mentorship and inspiration comes from many levels, okay? And it's interesting. We were having a conversation yesterday with some young gentlemen. from Canada

and they're like they ask the question is like is this guy for real and I said man there's one thing I know about Mick if he says he's going to do it

he's going to do it and to that you inspire me with that okay so I may have some some more grays up here and some more some more truth and what do they say

rings around my tree or whatever okay but you know what I'm always learning okay and that's what we always have to do and you inspire me to be great just spending time with with you this this week i mean you inspire me to be great and so i just want to tell you that that man love everything you're doing you are and and and you're not

you haven't stopped and i don't see you stop i can't you can't stop won't stop yeah yeah yeah and uh yeah you you what you do everything you do is for it's inspiring to me All right, I appreciate that, brother. This is to you, to Montego Bay, and to all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go delethe. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged.

If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen, share it with someone who needs that spark, and leave a review so more people can find there because. I'm Rudy Rush, and until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay unplugged.