The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Finals Prediction + Raiders, N.W.A, and the Big 3 With Ice Cube (Ep. 220)

Episode Date: May 31, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons makes his 2017 NBA Finals prediction. Then, Ice Cube joins in the studio to discuss collaborating on the 30 for 30 documentary 'Straight Outta L.A.' (23:00), the Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the ’80s (31:00), the growth of N.W.A (40:00), the importance of 'Boyz n the Hood' (49:00), the reason 'Straight Outta Compton' worked (55:00), 'No Vaseline' vs. 'Hit 'Em Up' (1:05:00), and the Big 3 basketball league (1:11:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We have two more podcasts. We're going to announce soon. I swear we're not going to have 70 podcasts where we're, we're making all these choices carefully, but we have two more that we are going to announce fairly soon. Stay tuned for those. If you missed the BS podcast yesterday, I had Brian Curtis on and Joe House

and we talked about a lot of basketball, Tiger Woods, and we talked about Frank DeFord who passed away, one of my favorite writers this week. You can check that out in the archives. Right now we have Ice Cube coming up and I'm going to give you my NBA Finals pick. First, Pearl Jam. Welcome to the podcast.

If you're waiting for Ice Cube, he's coming. We taped it yesterday, actually. I wanted to put my NBA Finals prediction down once and for all. I've looked at it from every angle tate's here with me what's up tate hey uh i've looked at it from every angle this is the appetizer to the to the ice cube dinner entree of a podcast which was fantastic i think you guys are really gonna enjoy it but uh initially i thought warriors in five i did not like the way the Cavs defended my Celtics team that had wide open shots the entire series and just most of them.

I thought that was a bad sign for the Cavs. Then the backlash started with, well, wait, Cleveland has a chance. Everyone's counting them out. And that whole thing, I got a little caught up in that. Yep. And now I think I'm in the right place. state in six just bumped it up one game i bumped it up one game so we're 2015 finals that's where we are six games and win six i figure lebron's worth one and kairi's worth one yep leBron will be awesome in another game that they won't win.

My question is, debating between six or seven, will Mike Brown cost the Warriors a game in this series? But I think these teams know each other so well and there's a predictability as good as they are with what's going to happen. It's not like Mike Brown is going to be like, oh my God, I never expected this. The Cavs have seven players who are going to play in this series,

maybe eight. They are very specific about what they do and how they handle their business. And I'm not positive there's going to be a massive... What would possibly happen in this series that would be like, wow, it's too bad Steve Kerr wasn't there, Mike Brown couldn't handle it. I think the only thing that you have to worry about is if someone like a Steph or Kevin Durant,

if it gets to them, the insecurity of the moment gets to them again. I think Steph had the insecurity happen to him last year when he really got in his head. Durant's back for the first time. He was hurt, too. Yeah, and he was hurt. But if you have one of those moments, I think that's when Kerr really steps in. Right. And that's the only thing that I could see.

So my counter to that was they fell apart in the fourth quarter of Game 7 last year, and they had Steve Kerr, and he was there. I see what you're saying, though. So the Steve Kerr-Mike Brown difference, I don't think it's a strategy thing. I agree with you on it's a settle-down-guys thing. And I really think it's even more so a Draymond thing. Because I'm sure the Cavs are going to try to provoke Draymond this entire series. Yes.

This is part of their game plan. Get him talking. Get technicals. Get him to do something dumb. Talk, talk, talk. Hit him. Bump him. Elbow him.

Get in his face. Try to get him out of his game did you think last year like draymond had to he was trying to show that he was tough and the warriors were tough and now he's not going to do that as much i feel like they don't what's the point the whole team has to prove they're tough right i feel like draymond took it on himself it was an onus on himself to show that yeah he was like i have to be the tough guy i have to stay tough in this series yeah and that bit him in the ass last year right and now steph has to show he's tough clay has to show he's tough duran has to prove that he's worthy of being on this stage

again like all that toughness has to come from from elsewhere but then again it's draymond so who knows i've heard that duran point made that are we sure duran has to prove anything in this series not in my opinion no i just I just feel like he won the MVP. He made the finals when he was like 23. Yeah, he seems very content with his life. He had really bad luck. He's on one of the great teams ever. I would love to pick 16-0.

I think that would have been so much fun to root for, especially if they win the first two. But I think Kyrie is great. He killed my team. Yep. I think we were going to win game four. As crazy as that sounds. Not even playing that well when LeBron got the fourth foul.

And Kyrie was just like, I'm going to score all the time. Over and over and over again. And I'm going to make really hard shots, even though you're playing defense. It looked like from the Olympics this summer. Yeah. The scary thing about Kyrie was they won the title, he hits the big shot, and they go to the Olympics, and it was like, oh, this guy is the best scorer on Team USA right now,

and he's kept it up all year. So they don't really have anyone to guard him, which is a problem. Yep. I don't think LeBron's unguardable when he wants to be, so you're talking about two guys in another team who can't be guarded. And then there are certain guys that the Warriors have that just aren't going to play in the series. They're not going to be able to play Zaza.

They're not going to be able to play JaVale McGee. I don't think they're going to be able to play David West. I think they're going to have to play like seven guys. So who's the one that guards Tristan Thompson? Is it Draymond, most likely? That's the thing. It's like, well, all right. So they put Zaza on Tristan Thompson.

LeBron calls him over and just runs screens so he can get he can get one-on-one with zaza so now what do you do he well he dunks on zaza yeah so it's like at any point if zaza or david west or javel is out there they're just gonna they they always know they can run that screen and roll so on the flip side the words have the same thing they're gonna put love and screen and roll. So on the flip side, the Warriors have the same thing. They're going to put Love in screen and roll all the time. So if Zaza's in there, then Kevin Love can guard Zaza. Yep. And maybe not get caught up in that. But when they put the Durant, Draymond, Clay, Curry,

and let's say Iguodala's the fifth guy, where's Kevin Love going? Whoever he's guarding, they're going to put in screen and roll. So I think it's going to be the most complicated strategy matchup we've had from, oh, you're doing this? I'm doing this. Oh, you're going to do, oh, then I'll do this. And neither team has the answer.

So those in-game situations with Mike Brown, that's what I want to see, how much he changes. Because Kerr's traveling with the team. He's going to be making game plans. They're going to like if lebron's going to guard clay or lebron's going to guard iguodala to try to hide on defense we need to get him and these switches and stuff right how much does mike brown have say in making those changes in game because also like it's like a chess match what happens if the calves say we're leaving iguodala open the whole series exactly not knock yourself out shoot 10 threes a game we'll get we'll give

them to you'll make three yeah so then that's where you want steve kerr to be like oh okay you're gonna do that then i'm gonna have iguodala run in the baseline and trying to get layups and going back there they have so much movement and that i think the most encouraging thing for the warriors is all the easy shots the celtics are able to get just by moving versus playing one and the Cavs are going to slow it down they're going to try to get into you know first of all if if they make shots or they get an offensive rebound and put them in then the Warriors can't go on the other end yep so Tristan Thompson yeah if Tristan Thompson dominates the board dominate yeah then that's a whole different situation I think the matchups are really

nice for the Cavs. I just don't think defensively they're going to be able to get stops. Love is going to have to play for them to win. And Love and Thompson together, there's too many shooters. And they're not going to be able to run out in time. I watched it in the Celtics series. Do you think Durant ever matches up and just says, I want to guard LeBron? I think he's going to have to.

Yeah. Because obviously 2015, that's why Iguodala wins the MVP I want to guard LeBron. I think he's going to have to. Yeah. Because obviously in 2015, that's why Iguodala wins the MVP is because he guards LeBron. Last year, he seemed like he was a little short, obviously maybe a little bit banged up. He doesn't guard LeBron as well. LeBron takes over. This year, instead of Harrison Barnes being the fallback guy,

now they have Durant to come over to guard LeBron. And if it's LeBron-Durant, that's a whole different i mean that's well think about it if if he can play lebron to his standstill he's gonna win the mvp that's how good lebron is yeah it's like durant played him to a draw here's your mvp trophy yeah you already had the blueprint like eagle dollar just by playing defense he didn't have to me hit some big threes and stuff but just by playing defense on lebron they're like oh you stopped the best player in the series you're the mvp but if he guards lebron lebron's gonna try to get into foul trouble the whole time so that's the danger and then you worry about his offense lacking if clay doesn't step up does what i mean is durant like the ego of durant being like i want to stop

lebron where he has to work hard on defense then he loses it on offense clay doesn't step up and then you get back into the Curry has to carry this team. And then we get to, oh, wow, the Warriors are shorthanded. They're having to rely on Ian Clark. They have to rely on all these other guys. So if KD guards LeBron and Curry's on Kyrie, which would not be ideal. You'd probably want to put Klay on Kyrie. Yeah.

And then they switch so that Klay's on LeBron and Durant's on Kyrie that's a problem for Durant because Kyrie will be able to stutter step and shoot over him yep that's why I think this is going to be a long series and the rest is really going to help them yeah I went from thinking Warriors and five words and five words and five then I looked at the schedule like they have a great shot to win game one. Perfect situation for them. LeBron with all this rest. Warriors missed a couple shots. You're going to have a crowd that's going to be not your typical Warriors crowd.

A lot of big wig dudes. A lot of people are just there to be there. It's in their head, too. They lost game seven. And they lost game seven. And Kyrie's going to go into the series thinking he's better than Curry. Yeah. So you have the best two players in the Cavs think they're better than anyone. The Warriors, which is a problem.

That's not, this is not like, oh shit, we're playing the Warriors. They're going to, they're going to go at them. They're going to be throwing swings. I just think the Warriors have real shooting matchups in their favor. That they'll be able to get good shots anytime they want and that will put an incredible amount of pressure on the words to just match the scoring yeah which you know the the southlakes biggest problem was when they when they protected the three-point line then the calves could drive by them and they had no rim protection they basically al horford and that's it but usually it was olenek and yeah so the warriors have have draymond who's the best defensive player in the

league other than kawaii and durant too so i do i hate to say this but i think foul trouble is going to determine some of this stuff durant getting stupid fast but my pick is i think the calves and i think the warriors win in six and i think kd is the most logical finals he's the best odds but i think he's the most logical pick because defensively they have nobody to guard him it's not tristan thompson it's not kevin love it has to be lebron yep they'll probably put shumpert on him but that means shumpert now has to play so he's out there either for Kevin Love or J.R. Smith. So now you can leave him open. You can't screen with him at all.

And I don't know. It's a chess match. It's going to be a great series. And the playoffs were really awful. I did not enjoy them. But now it's going to pay off with some really good games that are almost going to play out like football games. Like how we're like, oh, the Patriots against Atlanta.

How are they going to? It reminds me of that. It's going to be fun. I'm just worried if Durant does get the finals MVP, the free agency of Stephen Curry is going to be very fun. Oh, you're saying this as a Charlotte fan? No, no, no. I'm just saying in general the fact that now we have two finals wins

for the Warriors in three years. Iguodala wins in 15 by guarding LeBron when LeBron goes crazy. 2017, Durant wins. Then where does Curry, you know? I think Steph's going to be great in this series. He's been unbelievable in the playoffs. It's been sort of strange how under the radar it's been. He and LeBron have both been the two best players in the playoffs so far.

You know what is a fun Warriors wrinkle and why I do think Zaza will play and David West will play? They'll find spots for them. They're going to hit the shit out of LeBron. Oh, yeah. And they will knock down Kyrie. The most frustrating thing for me as a Celtics fan in that last series was just they had too much respect for those guys. And they didn't treat them like it was a playoff series. Except for Jerebko.

He was the only one. He was the only one that did the swedish larry bird was the only one who was totally undaunted but you gotta hit those guys man and the problem for the warriors is draymond and durant you can't waste a thousand that but you can waste the fouls with javel mcgee and your boy the rev james mcadoo yep and you can spend 24 fouls just nailing people every time they come come into the paint so it's not a bad idea to do that i still think the lebron free throw thing will be yeah a fun subplot if they decide to just really start getting physical with them and trying to make him shoot 20 free throws in a game if they do the hack a shack with lebron and they hack lebron and send him to the line that will be so interesting because then it comes into that's an isolated

experience and people are going to remember him missing free throws if that's what they try to do and they want i mean the warriors got embarrassed last year by lebron and i know that they want to do something to make him a focal point of some sort of embarrassment so if he's missing free throws and they know that yeah and mike brown knows that it won't be hack a shack but it'll be every time he has a layup or a dunk you foul him instead of giving the last you see what he's shooting 71 percent the playoffs hit him every time yeah because we know he's scoring on a layup or dunk but he might be a 65 shooter in these playoffs and that flips it and they're going to have the fouls because there's going to be six guys who matter. Seven.

Seven? Six. Six, seven. The big four plus Iggy plus Livingston. Yeah. That's six. Yeah. And then the four guys with 24 fouls.

And those guys have to just hit the shit out of. And Kyrie is another one that I don't feel like gets knocked down enough. I'm not advocating violence. I'm just saying, like, the guy goes to the rim really hard. Hit him. Make him pay. Try to block it. If you don't block it, knock him down.

He'll get up. Make the free throws. Keep getting up. Celtics did not do that, unfortunately. So what's your pick? I think it's going to go seven just because of i don't feel like there's any way after the rest of the playoffs they don't want i think that fouls you're going to see a differential some of these games where they game to game yeah they get them

back into these games i think it goes seven i think the warriors will get redemption at home in in game seven but it is weird that both years whether we've had these two teams that the the away team is one you know not in their hometown whether we've had these two teams that the the away team is one you know not in their hometown so we've never even seen a team win the championship with their home crowd there and that's that's my fear with uh if it goes to seven if i'm a warriors fan is that it's a calves team coming in that has already won in game seven which does not happen yes it's the hardest thing in the planet to do is win a game seven of the finals in the nba you do it in hockey you can do it in baseball football that's neutral but in basketball just doesn't happen the home team almost always wins uh i i'm trying to think if there's any other x

factor for me i i think personally i think pat mccall is a big x factor for the warriors if they just have like a little scoring binge where he just got – he has like the Kyrie mentality where he looks very unbothered by any moment. So if he just were to come in and hit three or four big threes and you're just like, oh, Pat McCall had 15 points last night. See, Tate, this is your rookie inexperience coming in. Pat McCall is not going to have an impact. He's going to be terrified this entire finals.

I know it seems fine now, but when you get to the finals, it is like big balls time. Yeah. It is like, have I been here before? I just think it's going to come down to like, I think every game is going to feel like a game seven. Because usually in the finals, you have these peaks, and then you have the game where like,

the young guys come in for the Warriors. I don't think this series is going to be like that. I think each one is going to be like a game seven, which I don't really remember in recent memory anyway a basketball series being like that. They always have little ebbs and flows. I'm sure Cleveland will toss away a game. There's going to be a game where Golden State's just 22 for 38 from

three and Cleveland realizes late in the third quarter they're not coming back and they'll turn the Jets off I also see like the garbage time say Warriors are up by a lot and it's a third quarter and they still have Steph and Draymond and those guys in and if Cleveland's down like Dante Jones comes in Richard Jefferson comes in and those guys are in there to strictly try to get a technical, try to get someone ejected, try to get something to happen that'll shake the series up. So that was re-watching Game 7. I was fascinated that Jefferson

was out there for so many big minutes because he's not the same guy this year. Yeah. So, and they haven't really, it's not like they replaced him with anybody different. Anyway, I'm excited. I'm going to Game 1. Nice. I will be back in time friday for a uh a recap and we'll be doing a podcast on that but perfect um i'm excited for game one me too i am excited for all the games and my pick is the warriors in six so anyway we had ice cube Ice Cube on, as promised. He's coming up first.

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Yeah. And their time in LA. And who knew when we were doing that one, what was that, six, seven years ago, that the Raiders would be in this odyssey? Now they're in Vegas. You must have been rooting for them to come back, right? Definitely. You know, I felt for them to come back, right? Definitely. I felt like it was a perfect fit.

And everything was going right. It was like the Chargers are coming, which, eh. But the Raiders coming. And Carson, They back. We got them. You move Chargers to the NFC. Yeah, get rid of the Chargers. You bring the Seahawks back to the AFC. And we got us a nice little family there.

You know, we might even, you know, start rooting for the Chargers if they wasn't in the AFC. In the same building. But all that money come in from St. Louis and the Rams. And it kind of threw a monkey wrench in my dream of having the Raiders back. Well, then it seemed like there might be a chance where the Rams build the stadium. They needed the second tenant. Yeah. Then it's like, well, why wouldn't it be the Raiders back. Well, then it seemed like there might be a chance where the Rams build the stadium. They needed the second tenant. Then it's like, well, why would it be the Raiders? And then, you know, I hate to bring up race

two minutes into the podcast, but it really did seem like they were afraid of having Raider fans in that stadium. Because I can't think of another reason why you would pick the Chargers over the Raiders. Well, you don't want to build a stadium and your tenant is more popular than. Yeah, that too.

You know, so. There was so many OG Raider fans. I felt like it was a little bit of, yo, we don't want to compete. We built a new stadium for our team and we don't want to compete for the love of the fans. You said bring the Chargers in. They're not going to have to compete with any Chargers fans. They're not going to have to compete for the love of the fans and you say where's they bring the chargers in they're not gonna have to compete with any chargers all the san diego fans like take them we're done get them out san diego's i don't think they're coming to to inglewood

and and i i i believe the orange county fans are definitely not coming to inglewood so i don't know what they was thinking with this one. It really does seem like they've created this situation where the fans are going to be the other team's fans. Like, oh, the Bears are playing the Chargers and Carson. Yeah. 30,000 Bears fans. Chargers fans selling their tickets on the secondary market.

Yeah. And that's where we're headed. By the way, when the Raiders play there, I promise you there's going to be all Raiders fans in secondary market. Yeah. And that's where we're headed. By the way, when the Raiders play there, I promise you there's going to be all Raiders fans in that game. Yeah. I mean, you know, they're going to feel like, even when they play in Inglewood, they're going to feel like the visiting team in their own stadium.

Yeah. It's kind of weird. So you were saying before we started that you thought that that 30 for 30 that we did in a roundabout way kind of paved the way for maybe the movie happening which is fantastic and is on hbo all the time yeah without a doubt you know it was a good thing you know what happened was it was just a uh an influx of interest yes you know with you know not only with the 30 for 30 which was you know a whole new you know history that people really didn't realize you know so it was it was always

there but but before we did the 30 for 30 you know straight out of la people didn't realize that the true intersection of sports and music with NWA and the Raiders. So, you know, at the same time, VH1 did the World's Most Dangerous Group, and then they did Behind the Music on me and Dre. And it just was this influx of interest. And when people saw those documentaries put together, they were more, I guess, open to see a movie of this caliber because they knew it had all the ingredients to be a great movie if we did it right.

It was the 30 for 30, and I liked a lot of the ones we did with the first series, but we did a lot of it on the fly and a lot of it you're grabbing filmmakers and we're trying to get to 30. We're trying to match topics and filmmakers, all this stuff. And you don't really know what we're going to get.

And I think I remember seeing a rough cut of, of yours and thinking, this is what the series is because it was, it was a story that was a story, but it wasn't like the biggest story ever, but it was a story that mattered. story, but it wasn't like the biggest story ever, but it was a story that mattered. We were kind of making people go, oh, I remember that.

But then also going, oh, I didn't realize that. And if you do the, I remember that, cross with the, oh, I didn't realize that. And it felt relevant in the moment too because it was like perfect. It was hitting all these different things. Then we had you as the ambassador for it. And I was like, this is a blueprint of something beyond what we anticipated.

Man, I'm extremely proud of Straight Outta L.A. It's a good one. It held up. Yeah, without a doubt. And, you know, when you're in entertainment, you know, you start off in music and you move to be an actor and then you say, hey, I want to produce something more. Yeah. I want to write something more. I want to.

You never know when you're stepping out of bounds. You never know when you've bitten off more than you can chew until some people tell you that suck. You know what I mean? You realize, you know, I'm not that good at that yeah but you know so you know diving into a documentary style film you know was you know new territory in a lot of ways for me you know we had done a a series called black white for fx which it was a reality show where you know uh we took a white family and put them in with a black family to live together but the white family we put in makeup and made them black and the black family was put in makeup and made them white and had them go out into the community and basically talk

about their experiences yeah you know and um so that was the only little thing we had done diving into, you know, documentary type filmmaking. So to be able to dive into sports, to be able to dive into the Raiders at that time was a dream come true for me because, you know, I get to interview Howie Long and I get to have interaction with some of these guys who were my heroes growing up. So it was kind of cool to be able to do that. And you had, it also, that team intersected with video games because Bo Jackson was the greatest video game character who's ever lived in Tecmo Bowl. Then you had uh all

the merchandise and stuff i really do feel like that was the first team where it just seemed like everyone wore their hats but this was the hats the jackets the gear yeah you guys your group pushed that to a whole other level and then that became the model for the next 25 years of people wearing sports paraphernalia in in a lot of ways yeah because we would go to other cities you know we'd be in cincinnati we'd be in you know houston and we'd go to buy raider gear thinking oh they they're probably buying bingles. Yeah. You probably got all the oils gear sold out. We'll be able to go get a Raider hat, something. No. All the Raider gear is gone.

And everybody else's team stuff is up there. So we knew. And then we go to the show that night, see the whole crowd in Raider gear. And we knew that this was a phenomenon that was happening that had little to do with with football on the field how much of that was luck a lot okay i mean you know the raiders even moving to la in 83 you know to 94 so that's the nwa sweet spot in a lot of ways, because we come around, we started hitting it 87, 88, you know, by 89, we got our whole flavor on what we going to be look like, do how,

how it's all going to come out. And so the Raiders being here was a big, you know, was a big part of that because it helps cement our image in a lot of ways. Running around in purple and gold or running around in Dodger blue don't really convey the music we were trying to convey to the world. So the silver and black, that patch, that patch, you know, the imagery. Plus the pirates. Yeah.

The Raiders were pirates. And they were winners. Kind of that. And they won. Yeah. You know what I mean? They won the Super Bowl and, you know, had marquee players. So it was, you know, it was perfect timing for us.

We ran a piece on The Ringer about the Raiders from somebody who worked for them as their GM for years and years, Mike Lombardi. And he was saying how Al Davis didn't even care what the first name of the team was because to him it was just the Raiders. And it was like, it didn't really matter. And now they're the Vegas Raiders. It was like, it doesn't matter.

The Raiders were the thing. It's so strange that they were in L.A. though. I've lived in L.A. now for 15 years. Like the Raiders were the thing. It's so strange that they were in LA though. Having, I've lived in LA now for 15 years, like the Raiders and everything there. And then just compared to like the Dodgers and the Lakers, as you said, like the purple and Dodger stadium and the blue, and then you have this Raiders come in.

That's one of the reasons I love the documentary so much. It was like outcasts. Without a doubt. And if you go into the Coliseum, you know, it's feel like a street game it feel like you know black top tackle you know what i'm saying so i think you know them being right there you know in the coliseum you know because the coliseum is basically you know

kissing the hood you know what i'm saying it's like you know it's the hood. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, it's the college sim. You step across the street, you're in the hood. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, to me it was,

it was the element of LA that people don't want to look at and don't want to acknowledge most of the time, you know, people just want to acknowledge, you know, bikinis and beach and, you know, Randy Newman.

I love LA. Yeah. You know, and that's cool you know that is la but la has a underbelly you know that people you know now know more about than they did back then um but it's still a part of la that people don't want to you don't want to, you know, well, I'll take it. I'll tell you from my end. Cause I grew up in Boston and especially when the 84 finals and all that stuff. And we were like,

we're the tough guys. These LA guys, they're the pussies. They're like, they're out there and they're in the beach and they play soft and we're physical. And we beat them in 84 because we were tougher. And we, we had no idea about the side that you just talked about. Well and we beat them in 84 because we were tougher and we we had no idea

about the side that you just talked about well i mean in 84 you guys were a tougher team yeah we had the big clothesline yeah you guys had and when looking back the the lakers at the time got caught up in that yeah totally and didn't play and they was worried about being tough. But by 85, the Lakers was a little tougher. They were ready. And they were ready for the challenge to be able to be tough and play and keep that composure. The Magic got tough. The 84 finals was the best thing that happened to Magic.

Yeah, I think so too. It made him a dark side, I think so too. Made him, it made him, it gave him a dark side that I think he needed. Yeah, even though that finals like hurt me more than, it hurt me more than losing to Boston and, you know, this last updated, you know, Kobe versus the big three. Yeah, that 84 was painful, man.

It was painful. And now they're talking about this finals that we have now, whether this is the most star-studded finals ever. Because there's seven all-stars on the Cavs and Warriors. I still feel like that 84, 85, 87, with the characters that we had, with Magic Bird and Kareem, three of the top six ever. Yeah. Worthy, McHale, Dennis Johnson.

Yeah. Michael Cooper. It just feels, Pat Riley is the coach. It just feels like, I think it was more star-studded back then is my point. It felt like it. Yeah. It felt like more of a big deal. Yeah.

And probably because that was when ESPN wasn't, like, all over the place. Yeah. You know, all these other networks that, you know, bring sports to you, you know, more, probably more than you would want. Yeah. But, you know, back then it was kind of laser focused on those series now you know it feels like a a manufactured you know a manufactured fight instead of a business arrangement between people who carefully pick their teams seems like it yeah and back back then it just seemed like hey man these are the cards you dealt you gotta play with the cards you dealt right and if you can win with the cards you dealt you're a bad

boy you know what i'm saying so um it's a little strange nowadays you know when you see you know players you know really you know having the league kind of you know by the ball so to speak you know, having the league kind of, you know, by the ball, so to speak. You know, they can kind of go make a super team, whether the fans want it or not. When did you guys get big enough that you started going to Laker games with good seats? I started going, like, around the time they got Shaq. Like, a little before they got Shaq. No, no no actually before that not late 80s?

no no early 90s I was in that I was in you know I was in you know I saw Jordan in the 91 final you know I had great seats

right it was just seeing him up close you know and just like not believing this guy's gonna remember that demolish our team yeah remember in 91 it was like jordan can't win the big one yeah it was once it goes to once he's in the finals yeah lakers won game one and then you know i put my feet up you know i might have

lost a lot of money in the lakers that series it was one of my first game one of my first really bad gambling losses i lost a lot of pride. Yeah. You know, I had to, you know, give it up to Michael. You know, at the time, you don't want to be a fan of Mike. You know, you want to, you got Magic. You know, we got Kareem. Yeah.

We got teams who got rings. This dude don't even have a ring. Right. You know, and to see him ascend to greatness through all of these foes, it was kind of like seeing Batman destroy his enemies one by one. It was crazy. Did you follow the 25th anniversary of Rodney King, all that stuff? There was documentaries and magazine pieces like six, seven weeks ago, and it was in the news cycle for about a week. Were you following that?

Not really. You know, that stuff kind of is nauseating. You know what I mean? It kind of makes me feel messed up inside. You know what I'm saying? So I don't really need to relive all that stuff right i kind of hate the fact that you know some some news channels just rehash a lot of mess for nothing yeah yeah what what do you remember about those three days because i i didn't move to la until 2002 and when i was here

when i got here it was like you'd had the riots you'd had the earthquake oj and it was like this four-year span of just craziness and people were still settling down from it eight years later what do you remember that just mad you know i just remember being pissed off about everything and uh you know the only good thing i saw come out of it was the peace treaty between the crips and the bloods you know that was you know a beautiful thing that was like what i hang my hat on when it comes to the riots is the peace treaty um seeing you know a park full of bloods and crips settling their differences and you know you got casualties on each side you know they they have just had memorial day we need a memorial day for you know the hood soldiers and the ghetto vets that's out there but you know just seeing guys coming together and trying to work together, trying to figure

it out, trying to unite. That was the most beautiful thing out of the whole riots. Did you get involved in that at all? To a certain extent you know um at the time you know i was always looking for a way to expand it you know to figure out a way to to take it just from off park out of parks this that and the other and bring it to the streets or to the public. So it helped us form West Side Connection, which was a group where it was me, Dub C, and Mack 10. Me and Dub C, we grew up on the crip side of L.A.,

and Mack 10 grew up on the blood side of LA so having us doing records together really did a lot for the spirit of the truce and for the spirit of of trying to bury the hatchets and and understand that we all together um and you know to me it it did a lot for that because to this day you still have i still know crips and bloods that kick it together low ride together hang out motorcycle you know just from that truce they never broke the bond again and that's cool because, you know, it's a lot of divisiveness that's going on in L.A. And so I always think back to that time. You were involved. I would say the three things that would bring everybody together in that situation would be music, movies, sports, right?

So your music, as you guys are ascending from 87, 88, 89, it didn't matter where you're from. Everybody was into it, right? So your music, as you guys are ascending from 87, 88, 89, it didn't matter where you were from. Everybody was into it, right? Yeah, well, you know. Or were there people still holding out? It was still people holding out, I think, until 89. I think until the Straight Outta Compton album hit, you know, and then it was just kind of.

Everybody's in at that point. Yeah, because it was so many things to set you up for that, you know, and then it was just kind of everybody's in at that point. Yeah, because it was so many things to set you up for that, you know, and the world was ready for it. It was perfect timing because it was, you know, it was right after like, you know, Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy. Yeah. Ice T. boogie down productions and public enemy yeah iced tea and these guys had teed up you know us for success and you were tapping into stuff that even though everybody in LA knew about it I don't think everybody knew about it and it wasn't really until the Rodney King and even the stuff Daryl Gates was doing the two three years before that like living in new england i didn't know what was going on yeah and that's why we didn't think we were gonna ever you know be you

know in the rock and roll hall of fame one day you know because we felt like this was something we were living in la and the people in la didn't even want to know about it so yeah we felt like this was something we were living in LA and the people in LA didn't even want to know about it. So we felt like we didn't have a chance with people, you know, as far as Boston, you know what I mean? As far as New York,

we felt like these dudes would never understand what we're going through and never even care because people here don't care. So by seeing it blow up and you know one day they called me and said hey man we got a show in Chicago I'm like what how do they know about our record in Chicago we got a show Regal Theater you know and it was cool to start to see the music spread like a wildfire and go you know first was doing shows in phoenix and vegas and the bay area then we're in portland we're in denver portland you know i'm saying then we're in you know um you know salt lake city and yeah st louis and it just started to just grow. But the reaction initially, at least from outside, was,

well, these guys are going after the police. You can't do that. Yeah. And you had that, and it seemed like it took a while for people to actually listen to what not just your group, but other people were singing about, like what the genesis of that stuff was yeah it was shocking you know at at the time because you know before us rodney king um any of that stuff you know police could do no wrong i mean if if a cop got on the stand, pointed you out, you going to jail, man.

I mean, it's like nobody ever questioned the cop's motives. Right. And, you know, so we do our song. And now and then Ice-T with Cop Killer. You know, these two songs are powerful and they're right behind each other. And, you know, at first it's outrage. Then you see Rodney King. Now the movie is starting to come into focus.

Do you regret? Is there anything if you could do that side of it differently and push the same attention toward what you guys are talking about without being as outrageous with the song, do you think that would have been more beneficial or no? No. I don't think so, because the song was therapy for us. It was like you couldn't do nothing physically to the police. That was just not even in our thought process. But this song was like our weapon. You know, it was like our way to, you know, protest what was happening and not be nice about it i loved your movie and i thought

how they set up that song was my favorite part of the movie because you could you could actually feel it it's like this is these are the moments that led to this song and and and here's why you was able to feel it because you know you realize what the police don't or what the police don't take time to realize is that you know you basically dealing with some good dudes you're not dealing with that criminal element that you don't mind the police deal with in that way you see i'm saying so that's what makes you say man come on you know these dudes is trying to make it out you know leave them alone you know i'm saying that's the that's the feeling you have um and you know that's

kind of how we were you know even easy you know doing what he was doing he was basically trying to get out of that this was his way out was music uh because he didn't want to do that no more yeah um because he knew it was a dead end and so that's what makes you that's what pisses you off, man, about the police. You know what I mean? It's like you see a dude going to a church, you know, shoot up people. And they walk him out in a damn bulletproof vest and don't want nobody to touch him. But then they go beat up some 18-year- old kid mouthing off at the beach. You know what I mean? They want to rough him up and, you know, teach him a lesson. It's like, dude, use that energy on the guy.

Y'all putting in the bulletproof vest. Kick somebody ass. Kick somebody ass that you know who did it, who deserve it. Who's a criminal. You know, not some kid mouthing off at you or you know so that's the problem it's like you know it becomes you know a bully mentality and not just you know trying to take the bad guys off the street teach them a lesson you know it's like you're teaching everybody a lesson that you run across how do you i mean obviously you're not talking about every policeman because we have great

policemen too right so you're talking about a couple of the people that spoil it for everybody how do you reconcile that when you meet a good policeman somebody who's does their job well and has done everything right and he meets you and he's like you you're the guy who was in that group who had that song yeah they usually love me you know they usually want to take pictures you know even if i do the song they'll they'll want to take pictures backstage because you know it is a it is a good cop bad cop uh phenomenon out there and you know what we would love for the good cops to do is point out these bad apples man get them off the force yeah so you guys can get your respect back from the community right because the community understands the necessity of the police and why they need to be

there they love them the fact that they're there what they don't love is the abuse yeah you know i mean so you know and you think for like the rodney king was the one that became infamous but i mean was that once a week man that's every day somewhere every day somewhere yeah so that's what's sad is because I've seen this coming up. Just how the police deal with people in our neighborhoods and in our communities is just too heavy handed. Too heavy handed. How do you keep your attachment to those neighborhoods because you've had so much success over the last 30 years, you know, and it does seem like one of the ironies of somebody like you or Dre or

Kendrick, anybody is, they hit a certain point and now they've kind of, they're able to move out there and go another neighborhood. The stuff they're singing about writing about isn't the same stuff that would connect with somebody who's 18 years old living in the worst part of la how do you reconcile all that well you know most of us are the most successful people in our generation yeah and in our family so everything that connects us to family is usually still in the neighborhood you know except our immediate you know my you can get mom out dad out brother

sister might help out but for the most part you know all of our loved ones are still in it and you know so if if you're not a person who's trying to fly away you know uh you stay connected and you know now you feel at least i do i feel like i need to speak for people who can't speak for themselves yeah so you know my ears to the street a little more just to be able to make sure that I can, you know, take some pain, you know, and hopefully, you know, help the world to understand what we go through, you know, and that's what it's all about, you know, and that's what it's all about you know that's what's the beautiful thing about music is it it's all understanding it's all a way for humans to understand each other yeah behavior and and and it's all discovery um so and yet boys and yet boys in the hood i would argue was just as powerful if not more. Yeah.

Right? Without a doubt. Yeah. I mean, what do you think hit more people, your music or that movie, in the early 90s? Oh, man. It's hard to say because the movies are so... I still think that's the best L.A. movie. Yeah.

I mean, it's a movie that really, to me, before a movie like that, you just seen people like Doughboy on the 11 o'clock news. Yeah. In the back of the police car and you don't know his story. Why is he like that? Or you read about Ricky on some Sports Illustrated profile or some sports center Sunday night five minute piece. That's it. And you never get to be that fly on the wall you know um when i first read it i couldn't believe that they were gonna make a movie

about how we grew up i'm like is this movie worthy you know i mean because when you in it you don't think nobody give a damn yeah about you or what's happening to you or what's, what you're going through on a day to day basis. So to see, you know, Columbia, I want to put money behind doing a movie about what you live every day.

It was kind of was, was, uh, I was just curious, like why, you know, I was just curious, like, why? You know? I just didn't believe our story was movie worthy. You think movies are like Batman?

Yeah, you know, it's like Jaws. Yeah. Star Wars. Hoosiers. You know, Raiders of the Lost Ark. But, you know, to be a part of it uh it's just when was the last time you watched it man it's been about four years it's incredible it is it's a great movie i don't think it got nominated for an oscar right yeah it did oh it did okay yeah but it didn't win anything

did he get nominated singleton yeah what was the one oh Do The Right Thing didn't get nominated yeah Do The Right Thing didn't get nominated yeah it's I mean it's

it's certain movies are little snapshots of an era or a place or whatever yeah and that's one of the best ones

without a doubt you know and it catches everything we had a we had a writer Cam Collins for The Ringer wrote a great piece about how And that's one of the best ones. Without a doubt. And it catches everything. We had a writer, Cam Collins, for The Ringer, wrote a great piece about how that was pre-Rodney King, but kind of when you watch it now with the context of Rodney King and then even O.J. after, it's almost like a trilogy. Without a doubt.

You can feel it. I mean, that scene with Cuba Gooding and junior and and the cop uh is pretty powerful and you know we did that movie and this is my first movie i remember when i that was your first movie first movie ever wow and uh and john showed me the movie before it was done and you know if you ever see a movie before it's finished you will say this is garbage right you know it sounds you don't hear but you see you know i mean it's just unfinished unpolished it's like it's like seeing a room right after they build it but they don't put furniture or paint you're just like what is this shit so that's kind of how i looked at i was so mad i left i called my manager you thought it was like a career destroying movie for you i shouldn't

have did this i shouldn't have did this she said was it that bad i said it didn't have no music in it wasn't no sounds it fell flat you know because they don't you know you got to put all those sound effects in a movie you know when a guy has put a cup down you have to actually put that sound in there or you won't hear it you'll see it but you won't hear it and so i was just disappointed and i didn't want to have nothing to do with boys in the hood you know what i mean i was like damn mistake mistake mistake and john kept saying let me finish it will you let me finish it will you let me finish it i said okay all right all right so i didn't see it until we went to the can film festival so i'm like we're gonna show this

to a french audience did you go yeah i went because as French audience. Did you go? Yeah, I went. Because as a career move, you go. But I'm like, we're going to show this to a French audience, man. For one thing, the subject matter, they're not going to get what the hell a 64 is and go get the 40 and all this kind of, come on, man. And the movie is flat. But when I saw it, it was completed. And it just blew me away.

And then so it had subtitles, though, because it was for the French. So it's French subtitles. So I'm like, I love the movie, but these people probably hate this. And they just gave it a standing ovation at the end. It was jumped up and clapped and I'm like it was crazy because Eddie Murphy was there and and like Quincy Jones and and that was it you knew it was gonna blow up I was like this is this is gonna blow this is like the best thing I ever did you're mad Doughboy wasn't gonna be around for a sequel no I didn't

worry about it you know at the time At the time, if I was savvy, if I was looking at Hollywood Shuffle close, which is a movie I love, if you die in the script, it's not a good script. So I would have read that part and probably said, man, I got to live. Don't Boy was shot but survived. Yeah, yeah, he's shot.

He's limping across the street. And now he's a detective in LA ready for a sequel. Yeah. He's turned his life around. Yeah, yeah. He's shot. He's limping across the street. And now he's a detective in L.A. ready for a sequel. Yeah. He's turned his life around. Without a doubt. Quick break to talk about propercloth.com. Every guy knows that it's hard to find a dress shirt that fits. Maybe the collar's too tight.

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back to Ice Cube and straight out of Compton one of the things that was I really like that movie I've seen it a bunch of times and it's past the HBO test for me where if it's on like about I don't know 30 minutes

and be like oh the Detroit scene's coming up. I'm sticking around. You stick around for a half hour. Oh, Detroit's coming. That's cool. The Detroit scene's incredible. Yes. Just flat out amazing.

But I think the most amazing thing about that movie, as far as you're concerned, is the actor who plays Ice Cube. Yeah. I don't understand how that happened. This should have gone terribly. how that happened this this should have gone terribly there's no way this should have worked this should have been a disaster and it was the opposite it was like you cgi'd yourself it's crazy it could have went all bad and he's a good actor yeah the guy i mean i wouldn't have put him in the movie if i didn't

think he could do it i mean i wouldn't have i wouldn't have put him in the movie if i didn't think he could do it i mean i wouldn't have i wouldn't have ruined his life like that right because you know you go from being just my son cool kid spending my money you know i'm saying to just pariah on social media of keep your day job and just stay his son. You know what I mean? It's like it could have went all bad. It was definitely walking on a tightrope. You had three roles where the actors had to be good and had to make me think that they were you guys. Yes.

And you went three for three. I would say that over under would have been one and a half. Yes. If any of the three don't work, the movie doesn't work as well. I agree. If two of them doesn't work, you barely get released. I agree. And then you went three for three.

It's incredible. Yeah, man. You know, we say we was on a mission from God. How many years did that take? It took about four. Because it moved from one studio to another. Yeah. Was it easy to get all the music?

Was it easy to get all the music for you guys? Because it's a little spread around, right? Easier, yeah. Tamika, which is Easy's widow, she was a producer, so she controls the music. But the music has a lot of samples in it, so it took layers of convincing on some levels how how accurate was the scene when you guys are teaching easy how to how to uh how to rap and he can't do it he can't do it and then all of a sudden it kicks in was that i mean when you're doing something like that are you exaggerating here or is that relatively what happened well it i mean you you have to you have to put together

summaries. Yeah. You know what I mean? Little compilations of what happened. Yeah, because where something would take a week and a whole lot of stuff would happen in a week, you might have three scenes to pull this off. So sometimes you have to summarize some of the things that happened to get the whole picture of what really happened.

So he wasn't good right away. No, it took him about two days to get it. I mean, and, you know, they had times. It wasn't like 48 hours, but they blocked over six hours at a time each day. And it took about two days to really get it where Dre would play it for us. It's also interesting to me how so many different bands have hit the exact same beats with their studio or their manager or whatever,

where they're just getting ripped off and they don't realize it yet. And it doesn't matter. You can be the Backstreet Boys. You can be you guys. You can be anybody. And it still hits those same beats where at some point somebody goes,

hey, wait a second. Yeah. Why is that wait a second. Yeah. Why is that guy eating lobster? Yeah. We got fat, buddy. What's happening right now? And then you just, then the light bulb goes off and then it becomes a scramble. Yeah, because what happens is, you know, it's usually some, you know, a praying mantis kind of kind of guy you know waiting for talent in the wings

and he knows all the tricks of the trade yeah and you don't know shit but you guys are just happy that anybody's listening to you yeah you're like oh my god i'm on the radio get on the radio i want to get a video on that's all you want and so you have these guys who just wait like like i said like a prey man is or a fucking venus fly trap or something just as soon as the right person land so it takes time for the novelty to wear off it takes time you know when you hear your song 25 times on the radio, it's not as exciting as the first few. So see a video a few times, do a few shows. You start to, you know, boom, boom, boom. Now, at the same time, you're creating bills bigger than you've ever seen because you've never went on tour, never shot a video.

So now you're starting to see, hey, this stuff is costing a lot of money. Okay, who's paying, where's it coming from, and why I'm not getting paid. You know, Drek got paid, this one got paid. Oh, you're an artist. You don't get paid for a video. You only pay. So now you're scratching your head. You're like, wait a minute.

How's that? How is everybody getting paid off a video but the artist you know so then you start the antennas go up like what what what is this just can't be right it's got to be every uh horror story i've ever heard since oldest reading or something you know you're like uh something ain't right so now antenna's up you're looking you're searching and it takes somebody smart to see you somebody you to ask the right question or them them to ask you the right question and then they start to say well did you do this did you sign this what about publishing you're like what is publishing and you start to you know and

and if you sign too many things before you figure it out then you're stuck and you're fighting and feuding with the label and the manager and all the people who've taken advantage before you realize that there was business and show business. It's like music and boxing. Those are the two where you sign three things wrong early and you're just screwed. Ali had no money by the time he stopped boxing. Yeah, it's crazy.

Everybody was just, here, Ali, I'll take your, and then there's nothing left for Ali. Yeah, that's how it is. It's a trip because when I got in the movie industry, you know, and they're like, we're going to pay you this. And your check is coming and you'll get it Friday.

I'm like, get ready to chase these people out for my money. I'm telling my team, get ready to chase these people out. And they pay you on time. And you're like, what the hell? Oh, this is weird. Go to the bank now.

You know what I mean? Drop everything. Go to the bank now. You put it in and it clear. And you're like, damn. And they give you another check the next week. And it clear. Damn, no problems, no issues.

You're like, music business business full of damn crooks what's your biggest regret other than not realizing that you shouldn't have signed certain things from that five-year stretch what was the one thing you would have done differently well what's cool is i didn't that's how i was was was because I had a publicist. NWA had a publicist that worked for Priority Records. And her name was Pat Charbonnet. And she went, you know, one day. See, I was the only one that would really show up to do the promo stuff.

Yeah. You know, like I came here. I was on time, right? Yeah. Okay. It was easy time, right? Yeah. Okay. It was easy, Dre, ran and yelled.

We'd get calls saying, let Cube do it. He there. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, by that happening a lot, me and Pat,

you know, we started talking and Pat never trusted Jerry Heller. She knew about him. She was like, what you know about this dude? Nothing. He's a guy.

She's like, you need a lawyer. You need somebody. Don't sign nothing he put in front of you. So it was cool. What I wish I could have did was show that in the movie, but we couldn't go that we couldn't really go there and kind of open them can of worms but you had some legality

things that you had to be careful with right yeah without a doubt you know it was it was one of the hardest things i've done you know besides this big three thing. But it was just a hard movie because it was so many moving parts. So many egos, attitudes of... I wouldn't say egos and attitudes because it was... No, let's say it. No, because that really didn't come into play. Yeah. As much as, why are we showing that and not this?

And why are we showing this and not this? And why are we showing this and not that? And this don't make sense. And I'm like, you know, just teaching people how to make a movie. And, you know, it's not a documentary. It's a movie. It has to be told in a certain way. Or it unravels. My only nitpick as

Somebody who loves this stuff and is a little bit of a historian With it The Eazy-E getting back together And being a little bit buddy-buddy With everybody at the end That seemed a little exaggerated No it wasn't That tiny bit

No it wasn't The stuff Jay and Snoop said in the chronic about Eazy-E was not nice. I mean, after Novaseline. That was not. That was not. After Novaseline, me and him buried down. But that was right after that, though, right? Now.

Give me the timeline. The timeline is I left the group in 89. Yeah. You know, By 94, 95 I had buried any hatchets because my career was a dream.

It was going the way I wanted it to go. And you wrote No Vaseline so you had the last word. Yeah, so I didn't have any more animosity and they were feuding against each other. So, you know, when I saw him, and I didn't have any more animosity. And they were feuding against each other. Yeah. So, you know, when I saw him, and I hadn't seen him for years, but I saw him in the tunnel, and that's in the movie. And he was like, yo, you know, it was like old times again.

It wasn't the animosity that I thought was going to be there. It wasn't that hatred. It was like we was back in 88 trying to get family. I just wasn't buying that Dre was ever getting back. I don't know about that part. Yeah. Because here's, see, when I left the group, I didn't know what was going on either.

So this movie was a lot of discovery for me too because in putting the movie together and interviewing rin and yella and all the people that was there i'm learning stuff that i was never privy to because they weren't talking to me so i felt like yo if i'm'm discovering shit, everybody should be able to. You know what I'm saying? Everybody will discover something out of this movie. So did it happen like that? Dre said it did. So I can only go by Dre.

Now, is Dre saying that because he's gone? I don't know. See, that's why I don't totally know. I think it was a nice version of what happened. Yeah. Would be my guess. Yeah. I don't think Dre was ever like, yeah, it would be great to work together again. I think he was a nice version of what happened. Yeah. Would be my guess. Yeah. I don't think Dre was ever like,

yeah, it'd be great to work together again. I think he was good at that point. That'd be my guess. I don't know. Dre is, you know, he's one of those dudes who work off inspiration. So if he was inspired that day, he might've had a conversation.

Wait, so anytime they do the diss track uh tournament it's always no vaseline and hit him up in the finals yeah i'm proud of that i i don't know who's favorite it's almost like warriors calves in 2017 i think you were first yeah you were first mine is better here's why okay we were in the same group so it's more personal oh that's just friends what do you think tommy all right tommy says i don't know hit him up it's an ugly diff song i mean it's it's it's vicious did in no vaseline did you ever brag about having sex with uh somebody that dre had maybe or easy had uh had been with or dated no no i'm just i'm trying to break it down in my head mentally yeah i think you're favored in the finals. You were first.

It was like the first big-ass one of its kind. I don't know. I have to think about it some more. When Tupac did it, did you feel like, hey, that's my corner. I invented this. No. I mean, Tupac's was banging, but my loop is better, too. I mean, using that dash's was banging, but my loop is better, too. I mean, using that Daz.

Man, Brick. Come on, now. It's a very good scene in the movie, too. Oh, my God. You know what I mean? It's like, nah, nah, you got to give it up to Pac. You know, he one of the best that ever picked up a mic. But if he was here, I'd still tell him.

Can't fade Novaseline. Who do you have for... Because Novaseline has a big intro on it that they never play. It's a whole... It's damn near a theme ride. You know what I mean? Who do you have in Pac vs. Biggie, which is the bird vs. magic of hip-hop? Depends, you know.

No, Nate, that's not not you can't answer depends you have to pick it depends you know if if i'm talking about on stage passion mc from the heart that's tupac if i'm just talking about lyrical gymnastics thatastics That's Biggie So If you wanted to write songs with somebody For two days You'd pick Pac I'd pick Pac

If you're on If you're at In-N-Out Burger Sitting outside with somebody And you're like Hey entertain us for 15 minutes And just come up with some rhymes That's Biggie I think on the cuff he's

gotta be the choice for that yeah yeah i think you know biggie probably could freestyle better than pock but pock got the passion and i'm a passion rapper i'm not just i'm a pock guy but there's a lot of words yeah you know i mean you what I mean? You got to have some passion behind you. I'm on the Pac side. Pac's my Larry Bird in this. I guess he's your Magic in this one. Yeah. I had one more music question.

If you would trademark triple-double after you sang about it in that song, first of all, triple-double, it started in the early 80s, basically, with Magic's PR guy, and then it became kind of a known basketball thing, but not really. Then you did it in the song.

I felt like it went to another level. If you trademarked it, I think it would've worked. I think you could've trademarked it from that song. Then every time somebody said triple-double,

you would get unpaid. Yeah. Probably so. Is that the lyric you get that people bring up the most? Yeah, people be like, yeah, I get that a lot, you know, on my Twitter feed and everything, man. How did you measure a triple-double in a pickup game? It's one of the unsolvable questions the game

would have to go to at least 30 by one yeah i mean you know 20 and i keep a statistician with me you know i mean when you get paid you can do that all right let's talk about big three oh yeah yeah i'm excited how many years in the making was this? A year, maybe a little more. Your idea? As a fan, I came up with, you know, a great concept. But when it comes to a full-blown idea, you know, I got to have, you know, I got to give credit to Jeff Quontinence, my longtime manager, business partner, and Roger Mason Jr., who's our commissioner. Yeah. And, you know, he was the number two at the PA for a while.

You know, we brainstormed and basically, you know, came up with all the rules and the, you know, concept and what the league should look, act, and feel like. So it's been a year in the making. How many teams? Eight teams. Five players per team. All play on the same day in the

same arena. You'll see 48 of your favorite stars because our coaches are Hall of Famers and guys that's been in the league like Dr. J and Iceman and Clyde the Glide and Rick Mahorn. Does the NBA like that this is happening? I don't know. I told them that David Stern should have probably thought of this 30 years ago for players. I think they were intrigued by the Legends thing because I remember the first couple All-Star weekends they had it.

And somebody got hurt in the second game. I can't remember. I think like three people got hurt. And then that was it. They never had another one. Yeah. I was always intrigued by it. I think it's going to be fun.

Because you see it with uh retired tennis players play all the time like borg and mackinrow are probably playing right now somewhere in dubai for a paycheck yeah why not you know i think it's i think it's a great concept it's definitely gonna be fun i think you know and i know our guys are gonna play play harder than McEnroe and them dudes. You know, our guys are still hungry. And they're still in the three-on-three half-court setting. These dudes are ferocious. And this game is fast.

You know, we got a 14-second shot clock. And, man, once you clear that ball, you got to go. So it's shorter court? Half-court. Half-court. Half-court three-on-three. Where do you have to clear it? You court half court half court half court three on three you have to clear it you have to clear behind the three-point line okay so you know the three-point line goes all the way around the key and is there drug testing or drugs encourage no drug testing no drugs no drug testing that should be part of your part of yourself you know

we'll grow i mean we got to get you know, to see how cool and fun. You know, after seeing a few games and seeing how hard they go. And to be honest, it's hard to play a bad three-on-three basketball game. It's actually a fun game to watch and play. So we just feel like people got to put eyes on this. And once they see it, they're going to want more. In 2012, I was at the Olympics. And it drove me crazy that we only had one basketball event.

And yet volleyball had volleyball and beach volleyball. Yeah. So how the fuck does volleyball have twice as many events as basketball? Exactly. And I was saying they should have a three- as many events as basketball exactly and and i was saying they should have a three-on-three olympic basketball that should be an event and it's like we could have the amateurs play in the team event and then the three-on-three will just be like lebron kairi and whatever i'm really excited to see how this goes because i'm with you i love three-on-three

three-on-three is the purest form of Yeah, and it's the most played form of team basketball. You know, everybody, you know, when they go play, you expect to get a 3-on-3 game. You know, you rarely expect to get a full-court 5-on-5 game. So, to me, I think it's just been sitting there waiting for a pro league. And what's cool, you talk about the Olympics. In 2020, they're considering making it an actual olympic game three and three seriously so because in asia three on three in china it it

sells out stadiums where where uh full court only sells out arenas so it's a big, big untapped market out there. And we feel like our players have marquee names. So you're using all ex-NBA players, right? All ex-NBA players. You have to be at least 30 and over. And you've had to play in the NBA. Do you have to play in the NBA for like a year, two years, or it just doesn't matter?

It doesn't matter because we have a combine and a draft. So if the guys want you, they're going to pick you. So if they don't want you, you're not going to get picked. We had our draft in Las Vegas. We had a combine. Some guys that I was hoping that got picked, but they just didn't get drafted. Who is the biggest name? Iverson?

Iverson. We got Chauncey Billups. We got White Chocolate. That's going to be fun. White Chocolate's still good. I've seen YouTube clips of him in the last year where he still looked like White Chocolate. A lot of these guys, man, when you see them play half-court three-on- on three it's no drop off than what you used to see in them playing full court 82 games in the nba

you couldn't get shack in shape for this i think i think some guys are gonna sit back and watch for a year yeah i think some guys are getting in shape you know i saw shack playing you know he's got that fucked up big toe I saw. Man, but yeah. That thing is pointing at a red angle, and it's four times the size. They need to put that. Jesus. When he die, they're going to put his foot in the museum.

It's unbelievable. Yeah. But I still think in the three-on-three half-court setting, he'd be a beast if he dropped a few LBs. So how many songs do you have to write to challenge jordan's manhood before he before he decides to be in this like i would say a whole album no jordan said uh he said man uh this is what he told my man roger man i love it but i'm an owner i can't play so he was even thinking about it well he's the most competitive basketball

player of all time he at least had to size it up like the terminator yeah he is i know he could do it if he wanted to i wonder if this would be like the senior tour where in senior tour and golf you hit 50 it's like the guys who are 50 51 52 of the have the most impact so in this i wonder if it's the guys that are one two three years out of the league that will be the best equipped. Probably so. And, you know, we feel like it's going to grow. And we feel like we're going to attract, you know, players that are, you know, fresh out the league. You know, like, you know, we still got, you know, dream people in our head like the KGs and the Paul Pierces of the world.

We think they're going to take a look at us hopefully this year and say, you know what? I got the itch. I'm ready to play. Well, Paul Pierce has that old man pickup game. He could probably be in this thing for 25 years. Without a doubt. You know, they can definitely come into this league and prolong. You could wheel him out in a wheelchair for each game.

No, I don't think he need that you know uh but you know to me it's gonna be fun just to see these guys battling again you know that's what it's all about is having fun in the summer how are you doing the team names uh we picked the names you know we got we got the three-headed monsters we got uh trilogy yeah uh killer threes we got the ball hogs we got ghost ballers uh threes company tri-state you know so we got a few so that so in two years that'll be miller light patrone Hopefully, you know. Adidas. We got room for a patch if any of the sponsors want to jump on into this. But we feel like, you know, this year it's all about, you know,

a lot of people are curious. But we setting the stage to be able to be around for year after year. How long do the games go to? Is there a time limit or is there a score? You go to 60. First to 60 wins. First to 60. I like it. Half time at 30. Twos and threes, obviously.

Twos, threes, and fours. We got a four-point circle. So it's cool. We got three four-point circles. It's a 30-foot shot. Guys hit them 25% of the time. And where do we see these games? You're going to see them on FS1, Monday Night Basketball, this summer.

Nice. When does that start? That starts June 26th. Our first game is June 25th in Brooklyn. And games air the next day on FS1. Are you the commissioner? No, just a founder. Roger Mason is the commissioner?

Yeah, Roger Mason Jr. So you're founder. Yeah. So you're like the James Naismith of three ball. No, no, he's an inventor. I'm just, I guess, the Colonel Sanders of Boston. Colonel Sanders. I'm just capitalizing.

I'm really excited to see how this plays out. A great thing. Yeah, me too, man. It's going to be fun. How many Celtics? We got Scalabrini. He's, you know, so we got the white mamba. Yeah.

He's a- He'll be a good ambassador, too. He's funny. He's become a really important media guy in Boston, too. He's good at it. Yeah, and he plays for the Bullhawks, which their colors are green and white and gold. So I think the Boston fans will find a nice little synergy there. Well, if you get KG, I think you'd find even more synergy.

Yeah, I mean, we want KG. KG, Paul, and Rondo. My God. Let's bring them back together. Let's do it. You know, we want Tim Duncan. We know you're out there bored. You know, Tim, you're tired of swimming.

Come on and play for the big three. Tim's definitely not listening to this. I don't even think Tim knows what the internet is. Somebody know where Tim is. Catching me, he's probably climbing listening to this. I don't even think Tim knows what the internet is. Somebody know where Tim is. He's probably climbing a banana tree. You know what I mean? Somewhere in the Bahamas. Tell Tim what the internet is and tell him what a podcast is,

and then he'll listen to this. Well, I'm excited. The Big 3, June 25th or 26th? June 25th we play Barclays. But we're going to be all over the country. So you should go to Big3.com if you want tickets. Ticket Master. Like I said, we got 48 of your favorite players coming into one arena.

You know, four games, one ticket. It's a fun, fun day. And we'll be here at the Staples Center. All right. And you got to come check us out. I will. I promise you I'll be there. Yeah, for sure. And then you be here at the Staples Center. All right. And you got to come check us out. I will. I promise you I'll be there. Yeah, for sure.

And then you're on iTunes. Yeah, definitely. Your movie's on HBO seven hours a day on one of the seven different things. Pretty much. Yeah. What else? Anything? Oh, man.

Triple X 2? Asada on an airplane? I thought it was good. What? I like the second Triple X movie. Yeah, it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool.

I'm a Triple X fan. I'm a supporter of the franchise. They're great movies, man. I mean, great action. I like that over-the-top action, too. When it's done well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ice Cube, thank you. Hey, man, thanks for having me, Bill.

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Enter gift code BS to save $20 on your first shirt. Don't forget to go to theringer.com for all of our NBA finals, previews, stories, features, all that stuff. Roger Sherman's Bachelorette recap, which is fantastic, and all the other great stuff we have on The Ringer. Don't forget about Larry Wilmer's new podcast, Cousin Sal's new podcast, and all of our other great podcasts, including The Ringer NBA Show, which has a big breakdown of the finals. And also GM Street on The Ringer NFL Show with Tate and Mike Lombardi.

All of those on our network. You can find them on theringer.com. We'll be back on Friday with another BS podcast. Until then.