The Herd with Colin Cowherd - All Ball - Pt. 1: NBA Champ Andrew Bogut on Australian Upbringing, Rick Majerus Experience, Being Drafted #1 Overall

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

In this episode, Doug sits down for the first part of a two part conversation with NBA champion and former #1 overall pick Andrew Bogut. They discuss his path from a working class Australian childhood to becoming the college player of the year at Utah with Rick Majerus, and then the #1 overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. Make sure you download, rate and subscribe here to get the latest All Ball Podcasts! Warning: Explicit Language Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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See website for details. FTT. Give with meaning. Welcome in on Doug Gottlieb, and this is the all new all ball, man, all who's all the time, and all stories all the time. We have, if you're just downloading this one, because my guest in this, and we're going to do a two-part deal with Andrew Bogut. If this is your first time downloading it, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, if you don't, it doesn't matter. Write a review.

I'm told it benefits me financially more than anything. Like, I like feedback. Also, you can tweet at me at Gottwegg. Leave show at Gottlieb show and Doug Gottlieb show on Facebook as well you can like it I'll put it out there we're going to blast this thing out there are some great pods that we have done and Scott Brooks is a two part one is amazing Jay Billis is a two part one it's amazing I just I've been kind of blown away Mac's Supor's story going back to last week God they're just there's there's so many a Tremaine Davis you haven't heard the

James one. Wow. At Jermaine Davis was the honorary captain of the Super Bowl this year. And here's a kid who was in special ed until his senior year in high school because he was awarded the state at three. His parents were addicts. His grandma adopted him. Turns out he wasn't special needs at all. He did have a learning disability and graduated San Diego State, helped turn that program around. and now is an educator and somebody who helps get resources to kids like him who didn't

previously have them. He grew up in the Bay Area. So that's Jermaine Davis. Again, I am pimping my own work, but I have a philosophy on this. And it comes from my time when I was at ESPN, which people were always critical of ESPN for promoting the other ESPN stuff. But here's a thought. If you're not promoting yourself, how can you expect anyone else to, right?

It's the same idea of confidence. You don't believe in yourself. How can you expect anyone else to believe in yourself? I just, I do want to give you one quick thought on college basketball. And look, I have a personal goal to have on every coach who coach is going to coach in the NCAA tournament. I don't know if I'll get there. There's a couple of coaches who I'm on their shit list. So I don't know.

Plus, like it's a lot. But we're reaching out to all of them. If they qualify, we're getting them on. And some teams that don't qualify, we're going to get them on as well. So I think all of these things are great. But more than anything, this pod is designed occasionally to talk about current events and current stuff, but also to basketball, like all these sports. It's this big dysfunctional family. And when you see people or hear people, I want you to know what they're about.

And I share my own stories within it. And because a lot of these people, some of them I'm friends with, some of them I'm friendly with. but we all kind of know it's the six degrees it's like one degree of separation Andrew Bogot's a perfect example so and I'll get to kind of some thoughts on the moment in the second Andrew Bogot was the number one pick in the NBA draft in 2005 in 2005 I just started working for ESPN I covered the draft on radio since 2002 and actually oh excuse me 03 um so it was my third year I was in New York City and I was close with Ray Jacoletti and that Gonzaga crew and of course he had

come over from Cheney and coaching Eastern Washington. And so he invited me to hang out with them after the draft. And we ended up, God, I'm going to have to look and find out what the late bar restaurant or something was, die but like three in the morning. And I remember hanging out with Andrew Boggart like there's no. And a lot of guys are this way. They get drafted. They're still just kids and they're wide-eyed and the nicest human beings on earth.

And then all of a sudden you give them $100 million and some of them. become assholes. It does happen. But Bogie was, Boggs was different, man. He was just, he was always what, what, what, what the saying in college basketball is an okay, G, our kind of guy like bogey's everybody's kind of guy, you know? He just is. And part of it is that's how Aussies are. I mean, I just, I have this thing with, I've been around so much. I've seen, I've talked to so many different people from so many different parts of the country, the world.

Aussies are our type of people, man. They're like, they're just straight up, no bullshit. They're honest salesmen. They're flawed, but their flaw is that they're just honest. They just say what they think, and they don't actually care. And they don't carry negative bias into anything that they're talking about. I just feel like. So maybe that's all the Aussies that I've come across,

but I always think of these blokes is just the best. and I have people that have played in Australia and those guys that have played in Australia all say the exact same thing that they're just the best. Like, dude, if you can hang out with one group of people every day for the rest of your life and be Aussies, because they just have a much

chiller, cooler way of looking at the world than the rest of us. The quick thought on, there's a bunch of stuff on college basketball. I got to get Justin Bean on here. I love this kid. Have you seen Utah State play? So Justin Bean is, he's originally from Oklahoma. his dad his dad played at Idaho State

I made the NCAA tournament and I can't wait to tell his story on this pod or let him tell his story in this pod it's pretty crazy but I'm like a total buyer into this Utah state team as not just a team that should make the NCAA tournament but one that could win a couple of games

in the NCAA tournament and this is after losing San Maril who's arguably their greatest player ever which is crazy the big kid Nemi Keda is I mean he'll be a I think he'll be a start in the NBA, but he'll definitely play in the NBA as he's not huge. He's probably only six, nine, but long arms, big hands, becoming a decent offensive player,

but to block shots without fouling can roll and finish. Got really good hands, huge big good hands catching and finishing. They don't really play that much roll and replace ball or roll and throw it to the rim, but he obviously can. But it's more, you know, they have a freshman point guard, Raleigh Worcester, who's from Missouri. of Montana. Dude's a stud, stud,

but they have his kid Justin Bean, who've been there forever, and they're going to always be there forever because this year doesn't count. And I mean, I've, when you've played basketball,

you've coached basketball, you've analyzed basketball, you realize there are guys that, and he scores, but there are guys that don't, maybe don't score a point, but they dramatically affect winning, and that's Justin Bean.

I'm a buyer in Utah State. I like these Mountain West teams. I've covered a lot. I just think the more I watch the more I realize that some of these West Coast teams, West Coast always feels like it's a little bit underrated undervalue, right? It's always the East Coast bias. But I do think that this year it's more of a real thing.

And the real thing comes from this. The real thing comes from this year, especially, a lot of those teams couldn't travel. A lot of them couldn't practice early on. But we don't realize that I'm going to see USC tomorrow night against Stanford. they each have a first round draft pick on their team, right? The top 10 draft of their team. I'm watching Oklahoma State, and you start to realize that the difference in Oklahoma

and Oklahoma State is one team has the number one pick in the draft and the other one is Oklahoma, right? And that those guys at this time of year become guys that can just take over games. It can win you a game. That's always been the case. And so if you have a pro to go along with a good team, I think it makes you a better team, especially you're playing together, than some of these other. schools. Some of these ACC

schools do not have pros. They just don't. The mid-majors, there's a distinct drop-off in terms of talent in the mid-majors now. I'm talking about the Missouri Valley. I'm talking about the OBC. I'm talking about, and I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but I'm just pointing out

that players transferring up. Like, as good as Drake is, and has been Derenst, an amazing job. One, he's lost his top two players to injury for the year, right? But they're going to get the benefit of all the wins they had earlier. And two, you know, his one NBA players, the center would transfer to Minnesota. Like guys are transferring up now. And I pointed out because those teams don't have pros and you will see it on the floor in the NCAA tournament. The team that has the pro at the end

of the game is probably going to win the game because they're all teams are marginally different than one another. Anyway, I just, I look, Boise has a pro in Derek Alston, Utah State has a pro in Nemi Keda. And I think obviously USC has one. I look around college basketball and I start to say, and I think maybe those underrated team, undervalue team is going to be Oregon.

Like Oregon's a type of team that is going to get some eight or nine seed because they've had these weird losses, right? They didn't have their top three players lost to Oregon State, for example. And you're going to go like, how good is Oregon really? Then you see them play like, holy crap, they got players. So there is a, there's, I think there's more East Coast bias this year. It's not because I live in the West Coast and Broad Coast. It's also done big 10 games.

And I think that comments is really good, but a lot of it is they had a high recidivitist rate. They have older players. And the reason that the Illinois, for example, will close better and be better in the tournament is, well, they have A.O. de Sumer who's going to be a pro, right? I don't know about Kofi Coburn. Like he'll play in the NBA, but what's his role? it's hard because dust doesn't move out on the floor all that well, but he is a monster, a monster.

Whereas, you know, like in Iowa, I think Weist Camp is an NBA player. And I think Garza plays and he makes the NBA, but it's a hard, who does he guard? Anyway, I just, that's my just one minute kind of tangential rant on West Coast basketball. I think the Mountain West should get three teams in. Personally, I love this Colorado state team.

They feel like the hardest fit. but Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State, Boise State, all really good clubs. And Sandy State's going to get in by way of sweeping Boise. Boise you should get in. But they swept Utah State, but Utah State, they didn't play them at Utah State, and they didn't have Rale Worcester. So I think Utah State should get in. And, you know, like I kind of think Colorado State's really good as well.

But if they get less by the wayside, it's going to suck. but I've watched a bunch. I've seen all the leagues. And I can tell you that the ACC, the idea of getting seven or eight teams in is kind of laughable considering how everyone in that league knows how down that league actually is. Yet this time of year,

everybody kind of solidarity for our league. Let's get a bunch of teams in. One other thought. I think I'm as impressed by Kate Cunningham not scoring a ton as I did have him having 40 points on Saturday. Right? On Monday, the entire focus was two on the ball, make him get the ball out of his hands. And what separates Cade Cunningham from so many of these other one in Duns is one, I think he's completely locked in on winning the game.

Sometimes he's tried to do it by himself and it hasn't worked out great. But he is so ultra competitive. And the type of leader he is at 19 years old is remarkable. Like, I'm going to give you feedback because I will have seen almost all these top 10 kids play. I'm going to see Mobile League tomorrow night. But I'm just blown away by the way that kid handles himself, the competitiveness. He guarded every position one through five last night. He played every position one through five.

And even though his offense was limited at times, he got a couple big buckets down the stretch. And he willingly got rid of the ball when he was double team. I mean, there's a special makeup in. Cade Cunningham. All right, let's get to the pod. Andrew Bogot was the number one pick in the NBA draft. But his upbringing, what led him to be, there's some, there's some, I'm going to warn you here, okay?

I do obviously curse on this podcast a little bit, and if it makes you uncomfortable, I apologize. I just, I try and make this thing as real and organic as possible. Andrew and I talk an hour and a half, and there's still about one, some hygiene sent Australian Institute of Sport. There's some Majera stories in here. There's some NBA stories in here. It's really good. You'll really enjoy it. I just want to warn you like if you're a, hey, I'm going to play it. There's kids in the car. There's some words and language which I wouldn't want to be playing when my kids are in the car. I just wouldn't. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only

legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashed. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

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Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast,

learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. And that's it's above and beyond the usual S-bombs, whatever, you know. But there's a, like, look, it's some language stuff. So I'm only warning you because I don't want to edit it. I don't want to take away from the stories themselves. And I do think in this particular case, they do fit.

It's just not dudes cursing in the dark just to sound cool. But I want to make sure I point that out. All right, without further ado, here's a longtime NBA center. Now retired, we think, although teams continue to call him. From Australia, the man himself, Andrew Bogot. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox SportsRadio.com. And within the IHard Radio app, search FSR to listen live.

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Okay, so there's a lot to you. There's a lot. So I want to start at the very beginning part. Okay. Where in Australia? Where are you born? I was born in the city of Melbourne, Australia. in a small suburb called Mulgrave,

Mulgrave Hospital. So grew up in the out of suburbs, probably about almost an hour from the city. Okay, so what, like, apartment, house, again, like we, we all have, you just have to understand, 99% of Americans haven't been to Australia, of that one percent that have been there. They probably went to Sydney,

maybe they visit Melbourne, you know, maybe they visit, but in terms of the idea of how you were raised, house apartment condo big lot was it? Yeah, we're kind of, I guess the lower income areas growing up for the most part in a house, but kind of, you know, in the areas that were definitely not on anyone's bucket list by any means. And then we kind of moved to the next suburb over, which was a new housing estate, still kind of near the bad suburbs, but it was a new estate. And then that's kind of where I spent most of my childhood.

So we were fortunate enough to have a four-bedroom house, but I wouldn't say it was in an area that you'd aspire to try and get to you one day. Right, right. It's like everybody tries to almost brag how poor it was, but you didn't grow up broke, but it wasn't like you grew up, you know, and living in fantasy land. What is that? What is Melbourne known for? What is that suburb known for? It's like if you're an Aussie and you come to that area, what's it known for? Well, where I grew up was a working class area.

It was mainly people that were laborers, worked in warehouses, factories, ran there, maybe their own small business. I mean, my father was a mechanic. So we had, you know, we had good years and bad years economically. Like, we had a recession throughout that where we were, you know, kind of poor for a couple of years and then back to middle class and then back down, just that battle of a, you know, family of four. The city of Melbourne's probably best known for, I would say, food and coffee is kind of what what it's known for.

Coffee, we're kind of coffee snobs down here, so we know a good coffee when we have it. So that's why I struggled a little bit in America with finding good coffee. But yeah, food, food culture.

Even in San Francisco, you like the coffee? It was okay. It was better than Oklahoma or, you know, somewhere in the middle of the US where you kind of could only find a Starbucks. But yeah,

we're kind of, we're a bit, you know, we self-eclaimed coffee snobs. So, yeah, we can definitely know a good bruise. So I struggled at times to find a good coffee over there.

I found a few places that I could get good beans. But yeah, it's just a battle that we have to go through when we leave Melbourne. Okay, so when you're coffee, Andrew Bogot's like dream coffee, you make, it's like black or do you have a specific coffee drink? It's an espresso-based drink. Like what type of coffee snob are you? I mix it up. So right now I've gone through phases of straight espresso in the morning.

I've gone through phases of macchiados. I've gone through phases of right now I'm back on the lattes. Usually during the day when I'm in a warmer climate, I have an ice coffee. So just coffee and milk with ice. So I mix it up. We try to be multidimensional. Okay. So your latte now of choice.

How many shots in it? Shots of coffee. Just one. I just go one shot, one shot of coffee. I have two coffees a day. One when I wake up and one after lunch. No, but I mean like if you have a latte, a latte is a shot of espresso or two shots of espresso and then milk. and then if you want flavoring in it.

Okay, so then like, are you doing, do you do like 2%? Do you do skim? Do you do almond? No, no. Cool cream, baby. No, no, no, no, soy. No, no, no, full cream, baby. So, yeah, full cream, so, yeah, full cream, so, no, no, no sugars anymore.

I'm off sugar, so I've been off sugar for a number of years. Off sugar? I'm not completely off it. Like, I'll have it, you know, if it happens to be a piece of chocolate or whatever, but I just don't add, I don't add sugar to my coffee anymore. I used to be the opposite. I couldn't have coffee without a sugar, because it was too bitter.

But now I've kind of appreciated it. Yeah, that taste of just coffee without any sweetness to it. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, we used to have, what I played at Oklahoma State, we used to have some coffee before the game. We started that because we had these 11 a.m. games, for whatever reason, on Saturdays. And so me and one of my teammates, we started drinking coffee.

And then when I was working at ESPN, it was cold. It was the first time I had lived like in a really, well, I guess in Russia, they had shy. A hoitia chai? Blood chai? So you just do pound chies to stay warm, right? And sometimes espresso-based drinks as well, some cappuccino and whatever.

But when I first started with the Starbucks thing, I started with like Carmel Machiatto. Like, man, this is great. Then you realize how much sugars in them. You're like, oh. So then I dialed it back and like slowly weaned off kind of the sugar stuff. Next time you're state side,

you've got to try fills. You like real cream, real coffee, real sugar. Where is that? You see? It's based in San Francisco, but they have in L.A. They have a couple in New York, I think. It's like a small growing brand. It's pretty good.

I mean, I do, I go on, I'm like you. I just went to change drinks a lot, and I change my coffee thing. But I'm a coffee stop. That's why I love. That's good. Without any question. That's basically why I'm going to have as many Aussies on as possible. But I thought all Aussies, I thought all your guys thing was, like, let's go play some ball and then let's go get pissed.

Let's go drink. So is coffee ahead of beer in Melbourne? for the working people probably is. I mean, it's hard to have some beers and get to work and be motivated. But yeah, I mean,

we definitely like to have have a few drinks at the end of the day. There's no doubt about that. So your dad's a mechanic. What kind of mechanic? What did he fix? He was a carburetor and fuel injection specialist.

So he would, basically, the equivalent of like a jiffy lube chain or whatever and all these other mechanics, they would know how to, fix a carburetor generally because it's kind of a specialist type job. So they would get the carburetor off. My mum would go drive out to, you know, Jiffie Loub down the streets called. She'd go drive down, pick it up, bring it back to my dad and he'd fully condition and sometimes strip it down to the base

and clean it all up, paint it, make it look good, brand new. Mom drives it back. They fit it. The customer's got a brand new carburetor. So that was kind of what my dad did. And kind of a dying trade to an extent now with fuel injection and obviously battery, you know, operated cars. But a lot of drag races, a lot of people that have hoted up cars still need carburetors on him to function. So he still does it just kind of part time for fun. But yeah, that was kind of the way we made a living. Did he have his own like hot rod like under the, like that he always worked on at the house? He always had something. Yeah, he always had something. So that's kind of where my passion from cars came from,

because I used to have to go to the workshop with him a lot, especially on school holidays. You know, he couldn't afford a babysitter or have me stay at home all day. So I'd have to just get dragged along with my mum or dad, and my dad was a babysitter as he worked. So, yeah, I just remember always him working on customers, hoted up cars,

and then he'd have a few, every couple of years. He'd have a different one. So that was kind of where my passion for it all kind of came together. So when did your passion for basketball start? For me, always, oh, it's a hard one. I love sport as a young fella. So like four, five, six, seven, always ball sports, you know, football, tennis, soccer, basketball. And then the seriousness for basketball kind of started probably at about nine, nine or ten,

where once it became organized and the enjoyment I got out of it, it was like, oh, this is what I want to do. I really enjoy it. Didn't really think about being a professional at that. You know, no one really at nine or ten years old is thinking about that. I just love playing the game. watched it on TV whenever I could was just immersed in it fully, was kind of all in, and just kind of grew from there.

And as I went through the ranks of high school and whatnot, started to get better and enjoy it more and never really thought about anything else, to be honest with you. Now, you were maybe part of that first generation, and forgive me if I'm wrong, okay, but I remember you, it's one of the first generation of the AIS guys, the Australian Institute of Sporting. Right. And Delhi obviously was a little bit later on. I remember when I first heard about Delhi's name, like, man, we played against this AIS guys came and toured. We played against this point guard.

It's going to be unbelievable. And I remember the first time I met him. And so there's this lineage of guys. Your first, when did you first go to AIS? My first year was 2002. So I got a scholarship to go in 2002 and then went for half a year in 2003. And then, you know, in August was at the University of Utah. So I guess before me, you know, there was some big names.

Luke Longley came through that program. So there were, but I guess once I'd come through, that snowball effects started of Deliver Dover and Joe Ingalls and Patty Mills and Aaron Baines and the list goes on, right? And now most of the NBA players from Australia have had some sort of affiliation to the AAS at some point in their career. How did they find out about you? How did you get the scholarship there? what's the actual process like? I was really lucky because in Australia, it's a whole different system to America.

We don't really play for our high school. So our competitive basketball is done on the weekends. You play for your local kind of league. And then if you're really good in that suburb or area, you then represent that whole suburb against other suburbs on a Friday night, which is called rep basketball, representative basketball, which is kind of the equivalent to AAU. And then if you're really, really good starting from under 16,

you represent your whole state at the national championship. So there's seven or eight teams that go to those national championships, sometimes a team from New Zealand as well. And that's where you generally get scattered for the AIS. The issue for me was I never made those teams. I never made those state teams. I was always cut under 16. Under 16s, I didn't get an invite.

Under 18s, I got an invite and got, I got emergency. So if someone got hurt, I got to go, which was kind of a blessing in disguise because it motivated me more. I still got to train with those guys. And then by the end of it, by the time they took off go. No one got hurt, obviously. I was kicking all their asses, but I was the emergency, so I couldn't go. And then the ALAS would go to the national championships because, you know, logic says if you're going to see the best players, you go to the national championships

to scout. Well, I wasn't there. So I thought, I'm not going to get a chance for the AIS or the Australian junior national team camps. And then I was playing so well here locally that they just got a whiff of my name and just kind of gave me like a wildcard invite. Last minute, the camp was in September. I got the letter. in like August to go up for the camp and then I went up there and the, no one really knew who I was and that was kind of a good thing because I came and all these, all these kids that have been in that national championships and that program for a number of years, all kind of knew each other. You knew who the household names were from each state?

People were like, who hell is this dude? Like skinny, wiry, dude. And I came in the first day at camp, kicked everyone's ass. And then they offered me a scholarship on the first day. At the end of the day, they brought me in and said, we want to bring you in. And like that was a huge emotional moment for me because I was kind of always overlooked and felt like I never really got a really good chance to be part of, part of teams and to get a scholarship somewhere where I could essentially have my bedroom next to a basketball

gym was paradise for me. What all your parents like in terms of, you obviously at some point loved basketball and your dad's a mechanic and your mom's helping him out and here you are saying I love basketball and no matter how good you thought you were and overlooked you were a lot of people like you're just emergency on the state team right you're not what what would they like in terms of their supportive i love real supportive i mean look with with basketball especially in australia like if your parents aren't supportive you're not getting to the games because it's a lot of driving it's a lot of time in cars i mean most parents that deal with junior sports like i said

america's a little bit different because high school takes care of a lot of it he's he's much harder. Your parents really have to drive you everywhere and you've got your training sessions every day. So without them, you wouldn't be getting from point A to point B to even get there. Dad, you know, modified the backyard at one point to put a basketball hoop in. I had a basketball hoop at his workshop as well. So he kind of, he always told people I was going to be a professional. And you don't know really if he thought that because people, people don't know if he thought that just because he was my dad, it was just biased. But he knew how much time I spent out of the So he saw firsthand how much I love the game.

And it got so bad that I'd be outside shooting in the rain, playing basketball in the rain. And then he actually put some floodlights up for me near the basketball court so I could actually shoot once it got dark. Because in Melbourne, winter, it gets dark at about 5pm at night. Like, you know, so I'd be out there till 9-930. Like, neighbors would be losing their shit, hating me because the ball was bouncing.

And I'd just be out there shooting until my mum came and yelled at me to come back inside. And so he kind of knew, like, he saw how much I was, was invested in it and that's all I thought about and I think he always told people I was going to be professional and most people most other parents or friends would be like yeah yeah whatever like this you know you're crazy every parent says that about their kid but he was one of those people that was kind of really confident probably more confident than I was at that point you know you remember calling them and telling them about the scholarship day as I definitely yeah

emotional moment like like I said um yeah just just with the journey that I went my my whole journey It wasn't smooth sailing. So that's what was cool about finally having that opportunity to be somewhere that's special. You know, there's only 12 kids a year that get that opportunity in the whole of Australia. And then you're basically on that pathway to be as good as you want to be, essentially, whether you go to college, the NBL, the NBA, you're in kind of the box seat. But the flip side of the AIS is there's a lot of kids that think they've made it once. They've made the AIS.

So that's what I was always cognizant of. Like make sure you use this opportunity to get even better. I don't just think like, I'm here now. I'm top 12 in Australia. But where does that come from, though? But where does that come from? Because, like, look, that's really natural, right? For guys that think they made it.

Yet you're telling yourself these things like to continue to motivate yourself. Is that your dad? Is that just your internal instinct of how you've always been? How, like you're what, 17 at the time? You're 17. You finally first opportunity, right? Great honor. Most dudes are like, I made it.

You're not. Where does that come from? Well, I never had it. I never had it as a junior. So like, like I said, I never got invited. I was never in the cool group as a basketball junior. Like, I was never in the good teams. I bounced around to two different teams throughout my junior childhood, you know.

What were the teams called? So I started with the Dananoma Rangers, which was my local club. They were a big, big stadium now. I think they got something like 16 courts now in their gym, or 14 or 16 courts. So I was there after two or three years. and then got put in like the third team. So A, B, C, I got put in the C team and this is some bullshit. So I left and then went to Waverly Falcons for a season and a half

and then finished off at Sandringham. And I talk about it on my podcast. I do my journey episodes and we go through all this. And that Sandringham team was kind of a team of misfits, a team of, I guess, kids that were just shunned by society. And it was like the perfect fit for me. I was like, this is me. Like, this is my group.

Parents, parents, other teams hated us. Other teams hated us. We were one of the teams that had hardly any parents showing up to watch their own kids. It was one of those teams, right? So, like, I was like, this is me. It seemed perfectly. But yeah, back to your question, it was just like, I always was afraid of losing the opportunity because I never had it.

So I was like, once I got it, I was like, I don't want to fuck this up. Yeah. Is that where you, is that Waverly team, is that where you developed your ability? it to screen legally? Is that, is that where? That was Rick Majeris, funnily enough, at Utah. Yeah, he used to, uh, he was big on screening.

If you, if you didn't make contact on a screen, man, oh, you were running for the rest of that session. So I learned real early that if I set a screen, I better, you better clap bodies, otherwise you're going to hear it from Rick. Was there any, who else that was up? Okay, so you're at AAS. You have, who is your, do you have one roommate? You guys all, is it one big dorm room?

Like, what is it? it's basically one kind of narrow building that has a spiral staircase through the middle and on each landing there's three rooms and everyone has their own little room but the rooms weren't luxurious by any means you basically walk into your room you've got a skinny little bed it's kind of like a balanced beam in gymnastics so you don't want to turn too much or you're falling out of that thing you got a small little study desk you got a little heater and a little sink and a wardrobe and that's it. The bathrooms are then shared on each level.

There's one bathroom on each level. So basically all 12 of us are in one kind of tall, four-level building essentially that's all wide open. And it was cool. It was cool. Like you're just 16, 17 years old. You're away from home. You're living with your boys. And, you know,

we're having fun, bantering, getting in fights, doing stupid shit. Like that's part of the fun of gone through that journey. To be honest with you, like that was probably one of the most enjoyable phases of my career was just, just going through all that and all the dumb shit that we did and got in trouble and, you know, we were 16, 17th, and then girls came into play and all that kind of stuff. So it was a fun part of my life that I really, really enjoyed.

Okay, give me the stupidest shit that you're, I'll share a stupid shit story, and then you can share a stupid shit story. So I grew up going to a basketball camp called Snow Valley Basketball Camp. It's at Westmont College. Westmont is a, if there's a more affluent part of Santa Barbara, that's exactly what it is. It's unbelievable. It's right near where Oprah looks, right? But this camp is like the best fundamental camp around. You don't even have a basketball the first day and a half. So we used to go up there with a bunch of our buddies and I would do both sessions. And I have a buddy named Adam Libby. And Adam was, it was like four dudes in a room, you know, bunk beds. And so I'll never forget that you could pull out the middle slats that held up the top bunk.

and it would still stay up and then somebody hop on the top bunk and they'd fall down to the bottom bunk. So, and then we do the icy hot and the jock strap and the undershorses of jock strap. Yeah, we do that.

Yeah, we do that. So, but on one particular night, like, he got out of the shower and put on some underwear that we had put icy hot in. And then I had also pulled out the slat. So it was like a double whammy at once. And the camp director comes in

and everybody's got like, it's like bed check. So the camp director comes in and check on us. He just put on these underwear and he hops in the top bunk, falls through onto the bottom bunk, right? Now dudes are laughing and he's mad, he's pissed. Then he stands up and now his balls are out of camp. I went 12 and 13 at the time. All right, so just give me one,

hijinks, Andrew Bogot, Australian Institute, is sport. We had a lot, like, similar stories to those, right? We have, this is a pretty disgusting one, but. That's okay. At the I, I told this one on my own part as well, but at the IAS, when you're under 18, you can't,

you basically have to sign out whenever you leave the campus, campus like atmosphere when you're under 18. When you're, when you're under 18, you can't really go out and party because you've got to be back at 12, 30 on a Saturday, and I think it was 10 o'clock on a weeknight. So the underage guys like myself,

we couldn't really go party with the older guys. So the 18-year-olds we have in the team, they could go party, drink, go to clubs, whatever. right so they go out one night and they come back at like three or four in the morning come back to our block and they wake myself and a teammate of mine up who shall remain nameless and um so i we have these kind of network phones you can call call each other's room just on those regular wide old school phones that kids these days probably don't know about yep and um i call them and i say man this is some

bullshit they came back at three in the morning they're working us up they're making a shitload of noise they went to the top, top level room, and they're partying in there, continuing on the party, so I'm like, we're going to do something. So I had a bunch of firecrackers, right? So I said, I'm going to light a few of these and throw them under the door.

So I throw a few under the door while they're in the room, goes off, bang, bang, bang, nothing. They don't react. So there's a teammate of mine who I know, who ended up playing with later on, who'll be like, oh, it's just bodes, ignore him. Ignore him, he's just piss him off if we ignore him, right? I was pissed off.

They ignored it. I got no pushback, which is what I wanted, right? So I'm like, man, what can we do? So in that block, like, everyone has their own room. And the doors, no one really locked them because we had a main door at the front. So you just, if you went to someone else's room, you leave the door wide open. So one of my teammates that I'm with, he goes, oh, I told you about the sinks, right? Because I'm going to go, I'm going to go shit in someone's sink.

So I'm like, oh, yeah, do it, do it. I'm gassing it up. Like, there's no way he's going to do it. Like, three in the morning, like, how can you just shit on command? like do it do it do it right so he goes downstairs there was a teammate ours and um his doors just wide open and he was kind of more like he had a bit of arrogance to him but he was a quiet kind of soft the guy he wasn't wasn't really a fighter so his door's the one that happens to be open right it's on the bottom floor so my friend go my teammate goes down there jumps up on his

sink squats down and i just hear it drop on the sink and i'm just like no no way he's really done it right so i'm like oh here we go so he yells at me like hey he's like, go give me some toilet paper from the bathroom. So I'm like, all right. So I run up and get some toilet paper. I bring it back and give it to him. Wipes his ass, puts it in the got, puts the papers in the guy's bin, leaves the shit in the sink.

So then we go back to bed, right? So I can't sleep with this. I'm just sitting there in my bed. Like, I'm just waiting just waiting like this. Like what's going to happen? So then I hear, we hear the door open from the top, top landing. So we're like, okay, they're eventually going to bed.

So then you hear everyone go down to their room. You hear everyone's door shut. And the other guys on the bottom, so he gets there last. About three minutes later, you just hear, what the fuck? Oh my God. Like, you know, just losing, he's losing it. So then you just hear the click on everyone else's doors open up again, like what's going on. It was like this big thing.

So a teammate, another teammate comes to my room, knocks on my door. He's like, I know it was you. You would do some shit like that. Why'd you do that? He was like ready to fight me, right? So I'm like, hey, if you want to fight, let's do it. I'm just letting you know I didn't do it. Like, I didn't wrap my teammate out, but I'm just like, I didn't do it.

It was not me. But if you want to fight, we can go. then it kind of calmed down. So the kid, they got his sink-shitted in, he picks up, picks up the shit with his, finds a stick, walks out into the common area, throws it into the wall, right?

So now these things stuck onto a wall and kind of like, kind of like, you know, drip down the wall, right? So there's like just a shit streak on the wall. So then, I guess in the morning, the coaches find out, the AAS finds out, they have to lock the block down, right?

they have to call the local county or council. The dude came in a hazmat suit, like full hazmat. Like with the backpack and the ghost buses, Ray, that's to close the block down. I think we got kicked out for, I think it was eight to ten hours.

That's like spray it all down, you know, because someone's all over and like people can get sick. So we basically inadvertently kicked ourselves out of our block for 10 hours. And it was like a big deal. Like the kid, my teammate got suspended for a week. That's just,

it's disgusting and stupid, but it's like just dumb. Did they do contract tracing on the ship? That's how they found out? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. They just wear a mask for a couple of weeks. But, yeah, I mean, that's a disgusting one that some people will think is funny, some won't.

But when you got a group of 16, 17-year-old boys together, dumb shit ensues. No question. Okay, so how did you get to Utah? A long story, but there was a coach named Ken Shields, who was a Canadian basketball legend. He had his fingerprints on Steve Nash back in the day. He could come out to Australia and saw me and was friends with the Majeris. I was like, you got to come out and recruit this guy. And they got on me early, recruited me very early.

Right when I got to the AIS, no one really knew about me. And then I just kind of stuck with them. And I was supposed to go over at the end of 2002. I was supposed to come over for Christmas and Redshirt, that Christmas tool following year. and then start my freshman year and then I got screwed with some transcripts. The NCAA deemed me ineligible

because I didn't have enough science credits. I did a class called sport studies in Australia. It was half social, half physical credits. And the NCAA being the genius as they are, said, well, it's either one or the other. It can't be social. It can't be physical.

It can't be half, half. It's one of the other. So then outside, I put those credits towards, I was short on the other side. So then I couldn't go over. Rick Majeris pretty much went nuts at that assistant that was recruiting me because he blamed him. Sent him on like a year recruiting trip. I didn't see him.

Once I got to Utah, I saw him one day. It was gone the whole year. He blamed him for it. But I eventually got over there the next year. Was it Johnson or was it Donnie Daniels? No. It was a guy named Sylvie Dominguez. Oh, I know Sylvie.

Yeah, I know, Sylvie. Yeah, so he was part of the... And he's tiny. Like Sylvie's like five two to five three like like you and certainly together had to be the most bizarre combo ever Well I never met him this he was recruited from from remotely right so he was kind of it was him Jeff Strom was involved as well but then he moved on to I believe Marquette and then Kerry Rup came on later but they passed it on to Sylvie and then he was involved with just my kind of

communication sending me the letters they just gave to him to do all the admin type stuff and then with a transcript didn't pass by NCAA, Rick just blamed him. And like I said, I saw the guy, he came to one training session in that whole freshman year of mine. Never saw him again. It's crazy. What was your first year like under Rick? It was real hard.

I'm not going to lie. He was, you know, may rest in peace. I prefaced it that way. And he was one of the best basketball minds I've ever played for. He was a genius basketball wise. Like he, 30-point scorer, as we're playing against, we'll not score 30 against this. If they did, they'd shoot 20%.

He was, we would never be underprepared. He was unbelievable as far as that went. Spacing, execution, time and score, unbelievable. But he was a coach that would make you question how much you'd like to love the game every day. Every day. Not one minute you spent with him. You wouldn't question that.

And I saw a lot of kids with a lot of talent quit completely, transfer, hate life, hate basketball, because it was a mental battle daily. He'd just be, you know, he was hard, very, very, very, very hard. He wouldn't, you know, he wouldn't be able to coach today with the way things are going. It would only take one person to sit in there and record a training session with their phone and he'd be gone, you know, because he was very, very hard. And it kind of helped me get to where I am. But at the same time, it was a struggle. I was homesick, didn't know a person when I got off a plane

in Utah and he yeah, he was tough. Did he, were you there? Did he take the dump on the floor? Was that when you were there? Nah, that was, yeah, that was, I think years before me where he said, yeah, if you're going to play like shit, you'll train with shit, but I heard about that story. But he'd done, he used to do so much crazy,

so much crazy stuff. Well, so here's the story I heard and I won't tell you who I heard it from. But when, when Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

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pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free. iHeartRadio app search learn the hard way and listen now and he left right so i'll give you he recruited me too when i transferred from notre dame to oakham state but mark jackson didn't play with you your first year right mark was your point guard no he quit he quit yeah right he quit and he quit because and again i don't uh uh i'm majoris called him the c word was the only name he would call him he wouldn't call mark right he called everyone the seaword but yeah yep

But Mark felt like that was, he wouldn't call Mark, he wouldn't call him Jackson, he would just call him the four-letter C word. And so when Jack O'Ledy got the job, Mark came into his office and said like, hey, coach, I'd like, you know, I'd like to play. He's like, should be loved to have. He's like, I got one, like I just, I have one, it's not a request. Like I just one, basically one thing. He's like, what is it?

What is it? He's like, well, you promise to never call me a cunt. And he was like, done. Why would I ever call? He's like, because that's the only thing that Rick would call me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's...

And Mark Jackson, what's crazy about it is Mark Jackson is the pinnesty of a Majeris player. That dude was tough as shit. Like, diving on loose balls, had a three-point shot, new time and score. He'd do anything. You said, go around through that wall, he'd do it. And you're just like, dude, you're railing the one guy. It's like the epitome of what you coach for and what you want out of your players. but it was great to get him back.

But, yeah, like, that was daily, man. He used, he used that word a lot. It was, you know, it was, you know, all kinds of stuff, man. Like, go back to Australia. Like, your high school coaches were idiots. Who the hell coached you? They're morons. Like, every day, man, you're just like, like, no let up, no let up at all.

I speak about it in, I just did a Utah portion of my journey for my freshman year on the Roadbobs podcast. And I still remember we had high school coaches come watch our practice one time. And he'd be cussing them out. Like, just watching our practice session and he'd be like, you know, excuse my language, I hope this isn't PG, but he'd be like, look at these cock suckers up here watching my, watching my practice.

They're writing down all my plays in their little notebooks. Defense and rebounding, that's what wins games. They don't know shit about execution. They don't know. You're just like, these coaches are up there, yes. Yeah. And they're just like, like, what do we do? What do we do?

But that's how he was. He was just, you know, he'd be cussing out on the road. We'd have shootarounds. God forbid a janitor came in the arena bowl. Like, that was up in the 50th row. He just somehow saw him and just start lighting into him. Who is that motherfucker up there? Hey, what do you do?

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Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad council. So the team that went to the final four. So he was recruit me. So this is 97. So spring of 97. No, yeah, spring of 97.

Yeah. Yeah. So 96, 97, he's recruiting me. And I went to Notre Dame. I got in trouble after starting his freshman.

I sat out at a junior college in Southern California. And so he came and I would practice with the team, but not play. So I didn't lose a year. And he brought Jeff Judkins and I think Donnie Day.

Daniels and I practiced for two hours and then we talked and then everybody left and then he closed the doors and they worked me out for like another hour and a half just me. It's like yeah, you can play. Let's go get somebody to eat. So we go and they're playing UC Irvine and we go and eat and he was like telling me about how he's on a diet. He's trying to watch. Meanwhile, like I got like a burger and fries and I look up and he's like eating all my fries and he's asking me about my burger and so then he ordered the exact same burger I had. But what I remember about him is obviously I remember like how he treat people is crazy. But I also remember like there was a level of discipline that I had just never seen before, never, where he would say like, again, Van Horn was on the team then and Hanameta of those guys. He would be like, two lines. And then he'd go back to coaching and fucking keep that horn touch and gets back behind the line,

sprints down and sprints back and then gets back in a drill. You know, like some coaches, you're like, hey, go give me a lap or go run a line. and guys are, you know, whatever, because they're mad. Like, there was none of that shit. So it's crazy that he was, you know, borderline abusive, but it did work. And it was an incredible level of discipline. As a guy who, like, dude, look, you're a smart dude. You're a free thinker.

You know, you'll fuck around with anybody. How did you handle the discipline nature? Obviously, taking that you're away from home and all that stuff, but how did you handle somebody demanding all of these things of you? which I just wondered how you personally handled that. It was a battle at times. Like it just because it was every day. That was a thing.

You knew the moment he walked in the gym, the moment he left, it was balls to the wall. And I think that's where I think at times, maybe if just once a month, he gave some positive reinforcement, you'd be like, oh, cool. But that wasn't him.

And the thing that shocked me most was like, I still remember a session, like probably I was in there for about a month or two and just ran, into me, railing into everyone. One session, he was on me for like three hours straight, and then tell me everything. Go back to Australia.

Your coaches suck, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the moment the session ended, we walked off the court, literally 30 centimeters from the sideline. And he, it's like he was bipolar. He came up to me, put his arm around me. He said, hey, Bogart, you know, how are you? You do anything? Can I take you out to eat?

You know, do you need any clothes? You know, you're just like, man this guy was just brailing me for three hours straight like telling me on the worst like worst recruit ever he regrets recruiting me and then that's just how he was and he would try to overdo the off court stuff because he knew that deep down like he was he was he wasn't told the line he was way over the line at times he would try to fix that by going over the top off the court with making sure that you were good and look I think he had he had a good heart deep down but he was just, it was an intense crazy dude. And that's just, you know, I definitely got better under him.

And he taught me so much about, especially the defensive end and time and score was a big one that he taught me about. Don't take that shot right now. We don't need that all. I had no idea about that coming from Australia. So he was definitely had, had his imprints on my, on kind of the way I played. I'm trying to think who the player was. It's like David, something or other, God, dang it. And he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he. might have been David Jackson who transferred out of there. I know there's a lot of guys that did

transfer out of there. So the Gonzaga guys, they told me, I think it's David Jackson. Let me look at this up. Yes, David Jackson, Portland, Oregon. So David Jackson, he was there in 96, 97, 97, 98, and he played a little less than half the game. And he had to transfer to Oregon. So the story goes, he visited Gonzaga. And those guys, the Gonzag guys are, they're like all of us, right?

Like they're smart asses. They're really funny. And so they sit down to have a meal on his recruiting visit. And they're like, all right, we can't eat until you give us one Rick story. And he was like, right now, he's like, right now, we're not ordering any appetizers, no drinks, no nothing. One Rick story. So he goes, okay, the other day. They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you got a good one the other day?

He's like, yes, the other day. So the story goes, David Jackson. accent, you know, he's a sophomore. He's playing like 15 minutes a game, super frustrated. And he decides, all right, I'm going to, I want to, maybe want to leave. And so before Christmas break, he goes in to see Rick. And Rick's like, you know, just wait until after Christmas break and see how it goes, you know. So he comes back after Christmas, end of Christmas break. He's like, he knocks on the door. And Rick answers the door in his hotel room in a towel. So, because the guy was always naked.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so he answered the door to Sal. And he said, oh, go, David. Come on in. Come on in. I just, you know, got out of shower, you know.

So, can I get you anything? You know, I got a fridge full, whatever. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, Rick. It's okay. He's like, listen. He's like, hemming and a hall. And listen, I, you know, it's really hard for me. And he believed in me, recruited me, played me some.

He looks up, and Rick is, like, out. Out. So now he's sitting there going like, all right, like, do I wait until he wakes up? Do I like, nudge him? I just want to ask for my release, right? Man to man face to face, raise him a good family, all right? He's going. So finally he wakes Rick up.

And oh, oh, David, David, I'm so sorry. So sorry. He's like, yeah, Rick, he's like, yeah, you know, this medication I'm on, just, you know, it makes me fall asleep. And he like peels back and he's like got a big swollen ball. He's like, look what to do with my ball. And David was like, Rick, I want my release. I want to transfer tomorrow.

I'm out. Like he literally never talked to him ever again because he showed him his big swollen ball because of some medications. Oh man, he used to wear shorts that were too small. He would never be sit down to practice. He'd sit down to the bottom of the basket stanchions. He's nuts would be hanging out. He came and recruited me.

he actually came out for a visit to Australia for 48 hours and we played in a rural city outside of Melbourne. So I drove back with my junior coach, him, Carrier Up, in a car, two-hour drive. And the same thing with the sleeping. He would be like, he was railing me about the way I played because I played shit that game. You know, Bullgood, you need to do this, you need to do that.

And then you just hear snoring, mid-conversation. He just starts snoring. And I'm just like, I looked at my junior coach, look at Carrier-up, and Carrier-up just gave me one of these. ones like I don't know and then so I'm like cool long drive I can kind of just look out the window and chill out for a bit and then 15 minutes later he'd wake up and continue the conversation from where he left it so I was just like man this dude like there were red flags there already

like I should have like I just seen the red flags but I was like this dude this dude is crazy then I came to my team dinner with my mom and my dad was just saying reckless shit at the dinner table my dad's like about to kill the dude my dad's like oh I got to keep it calm for my son. It's a great opportunity, like, you know, one of those ones. He parted at the table. Like, it was just, dude like... Wait, he farted at the table? Yeah. Like, he was record. He didn't care, man. He did not care. And I had a friend of mine who was, a teammate of mine was from Compton, California. Who's that?

It was, I think it was Richard Cheney, Richard Cheney, I think it was, from that area anyway. And he said that during the recruiting visit, you know, he was... You know, they put on a big feast, African-American family, you know, and Rick ate and then just went and fell asleep on their couch during the recruiting visit with the parents. You're just like, what are you doing, man? So they're just like sitting around looking at each other like, what do we do? He's in LA. Same thing.

Yeah. Sleep on the couch. Just like, no fuck's given. Wakes up. All right, thanks for dinner and just leaves. He's just like, crazy dude, man. But there's the beauty of the beauty of people that have played for Rick Majores is exactly what you just hit on.

is when we catch up, it just, these stories go on for hours. And it's just so funny because, you know, like I play with Kevin Lish, who played at University of St. Louis. So he's out here. He's a naturalized Aussie now, but American, and he played for Majores of St. Louis. So we would just, we'd go out to eat when I played with him two seasons ago and just tell stories like this for hours.

You just lose track of time, and it's hilarious. So did it, so here's what I always tell. So my coach is a hard-ass. coach said and they were and they were brutal to us but i felt like it was like they would create this them against us intentionally and it made us closer together like we were yeah like to this day we're super close all the guys i play it was like one dude who's out there we don't like associate with but everybody else were like super close with did it do that where it made you guys because you all hated him it made you somehow it was like a genius coaching technique to it

yeah i don't i don't think that was strategic by him But yeah, I think that, yeah, you're definitely right. Whenever you have a hard-ass coach, I think it does bring the playing group together. Even somewhat the assistants are probably even closer to the players and there should be because they know they have to, like, give a few more hugs and, you know, try to keep guys' chins up because it's just so hard at times. But, yeah, you definitely make a valid point. I think any hard-ass coach, the players aren't together,

or at least you see it in professional sports a lot. That coach doesn't last very long. All right, so Ray Jackaletti gets a job. What was that like? It was interesting because at the time, I really wanted Kerry Rupp to get the job. He was the head assistant. He took over when Rick left my freshman year,

half after the year and did a pretty good job, and we all loved him. And then it kind of hurt when he didn't get it, to be honest, because we didn't know much about Ray, and he came from a smaller school, and guys were kind of like, what the hell? And they came in with a lot of, you know, kind of methodical type offense, a lot of backcuts, Princeton-type stuff,

and a lot of guys kind of struggled to, you know, I guess buy into that. But then once I realized he was a good person, it was a polar opposite of kind of what they've dealt with with Rick, that, you know, he wasn't going to drop the C-bomb. He wasn't going to c-you-out all session. He'd fire up when he needed to. And for me, it was a, God said, you know, we got into it early. We had a few runnings early in his tenure.

And once we iron those out, it was never looking back. And he let me, he basically gave me the keys to the team and said, you're our guy, we're going as far as you take us. And it was a really good year for us. No, you had a great year. Okay, so the year gets done. What's the decision like in terms of pros coming back, et cetera? Well, the more my sophomore year went on.

I went from late first round pick to before my sophomore year. That's where I was projected. I had a really good Olympics in 2004 playing against the dream team. the US and other countries and grown men essentially. So I was late first, and then I was mid, and then by the end of the season, it was like, this guy's the top five picks. So I wasn't really ready to go to the NBA, to be honest with you, body-wise.

Like, I was still 225 that time, pounds. Back in an era where there was Shaq, Yao, Dwight Howard, you needed to be 250, 260 to even compete. I wasn't grown into my body yet. I couldn't put on weight for shit no matter what I did. I ate burgers and pizza and fry. Like, whatever I could do, couldn't put on weight. It just took me a while to grow into my body. So I knew I wasn't

ready physically, but I'd be an idiot to pass up a chance to go top five, come back for another year, get hurt, something happens. I was also advised the longer you stay in college, you might get nitpicked even more by scouts. They might start nitpicking little things in your game. So timing was I had to go. And Ray was awesome about it. The school was awesome. And he was like, I'm not letting you come back even if you want to come back. You need to go to the NBA. You're ready. you're kind of too good for college. We don't really have anyone that's going to make you get better. You're going to be the top of the totem pole.

So you need to go get your ass key for a couple of years to get better. And that was kind of the decision made. You mentioned the 04 Olympics. What's, if you close your eyes and you think of the defining things that you remember about representing your country, which is incredible. And playing at that level of basketball, what do you remember? Just the confidence it gave me coming back for my sophomore year. because I played against grown men and held my own.

At some really good games there. And it just made me finally realize I can play not only against grown men, but at an NDA level. So then when I got back to college, I felt like I was playing with boys again. I felt like I wouldn't say I was arrogantly above them, but I just felt like I was a man amongst boys. And I treated it that way just to kick everyone's ass week in, week out,

because I felt like, hey, I was just giving it to Tim Duncan. I was holding my own against Tim Duncan, one of the best bigs of all time. And I was 19 years old. So that gave me a huge confidence boost going into my sophomore year in college. What about the fact that you had gone from, you know, an emergency guy and not making those teams to being on the Olympic? That had to be pretty incredible. Yeah, in two years, essentially.

That was a crazy thing. Like, I went from being a relative nobody in the basketball world. And then from, you know, in a space of two and a half to three years, the number one. pick. Like it was, it just came together so quickly for me and I guess an athlete's mentality. Next thing, next thing, next thing. And that was my mentality. It was like, who's ask can I kick next? Where am I going? Where can I go? Where I get my ass kicked a little bit? I can get better. And that was kind of always what I had in my mind as a young fellow. And I wasn't one of those kids that was a prodigy from 11, 12, 13, that you just knew that that kid, LeBron

James, Lion Williamson. He was going to be an NBA player. It was like, where the hell do this kid come from? Like, why don't we know about him, number one pick, you know? And I'm pretty proud of that. Yeah, I was, I don't know if you remember. We actually hung out at a bar, some random bar super late at night, draft night. You guys had, everybody had bogeyman hats on. Yeah.

And, and, and we, it was, it was a late, late, long night. To go from that to the number one pick in the NBA. Did you know that the bucks were taking your number one? No, they wouldn't tell me. No, they wouldn't tell me. So they wanted to keep the element of surprise. So we kind of asked, we'll grill them, the agent was a little bit,

but they wouldn't show us their hand. What's that like? It was amazing. Just to, I mean, go through that whole process. Do you feel like it was 16 years ago? 16 years ago. It feels like a long time ago. But when you're in the midst of your NBA career,

that goes quick. But, yeah, just that draft process, having my family there. And like I said, just a journey that I had to take from me, a young, young fella to go the biggest stage and go number one. Like, for me, playing like, NBA basketball, playing professionally in Australia, if you would have told me at 12, 13, like, someone's going to pay you and give you money

to play basketball, done, where do I sign? I never thought the NBA was, it was a fantasy. It was like, it was that fantasy TV show that you just knew, like, I'm never going to get there, but it'd be nice to get there. And then I got there and it was like, wow, like, I'm actually here. okay so you get there um when you got there your first bucks team was weird mix right you had like tj four was he was young point guard but then you had some old guys you had like tony koo coach on your team as well yeah what were the how are the old guys to you

they also had irvin johnson so they basically brought irvin johnson back for a season basically to mentor me and he was awesome to me like he was he was basically his role was like take care of bogues so he he'd see on the bus near me when we go on road trips and give me the scouting report going into the arenas after we land get to Minnesota hey a little candy does this darn it's going to do this you know like so he would he was a really good mentor for me um Tony coo coach was was an idol of mine as a kid so it was kind of surreal to be my rookie year was his last year but Tony was kind of burnt out at that point he was kind of a to an extended angry veteran um he'd he'd been through all the

bullshit of the NBA and was kind of like on a knife's edge to just snapping every day. But he was good fun though. I mean, as long as Tony got his 18 holes of golfing, he was good. So then we had Michael Red, obviously, Desmond Mason was there. So the roster was kind of all overplace, trying to piece it together. But it was an interesting transition for me. The first, now, was there a moment, like a welcome to the NBA? I think your first game was against Chris Weber, right?

Like, your first NBA game was Alan Iversy. Yeah, I'm looking at it. Alan Iverson, Chris and Chris Weber. By the way, they had Andre Godala, Kyle Corver, Chris Weber, Alan Iverson in their starting lineup. Do you remember that game at all? Yeah, I do. I do.

I remember we stole that game at the end. I don't think we, you know, we were pretty close the whole game and then won that one. And then I think we went into New Jersey and won another close one. But, yeah, I mean, it was just surreal. I mean, I was a big Sacramento Kings fans a day when they had, you know, that beautiful ball movement back in there. early 2000s and they were, you know, they were up there with almost being the Lakers. So I knew, you know, see Webb.

I watched a lot of his games and it was kind of surreal just to be out there and competing with those guys and actually having a good game to open up my rookie campaign. You know, it's interesting. Here's how I felt like when I've played in Europe, when I've seen Aussies play, is that I think there's a respect for American basketball. Like, look, we respect how good those dudes are, but you don't, not you personally, but they don't love how Americans play, right, in that I always feel like the Aussies feel like they're a little bit tougher, they're more about team, and, you know, it's more, it's more,

it's definitely five playing as one, whereas kind of the American, especially the NBA basketball, it's end of shot like, hey, I'm just better than you, I'm going to jump up and make a shot. And so there's like a, there's like a respect, but maybe not, is that accurate or am I just sensing that, that especially, like, I don't think the Spaniards, the Lithuanians, the Italians, like I don't think they like American style basketball, but especially the NBA and maybe the persona of it. As an Australian who's played there, played for the national teams, and played in the NBA, is that a fair sense of how our game or the NBA style of game is viewed? Yeah, to an extent, look, we, as a national team, just speaking for Australia, we know we're not

going to out-tallant the US, like, it's just not going to happen. Most countries aren't going to out-tallowing them. So we have to rely on being together, having a good culture, moving the ball, playing the right way, setting good screens, all those small things that we generally know the US team won't do. Because at the end of the day, like you said, the US can just throw it to Kevin Durand or Steph Curry and be like, get us a bucket. You know, we don't have that luxury. We have to, we have to be clinical with our execution. We have to box out. We have to get rebounds. We can't turn the ball over. So yeah, there is an argument to that, but that's why the US so hard to beat.

They can have a horrible game and still beat you just based on talent. But as far as basketball purity, obviously, for me personally, I like to watch the teams that move the ball and where everyone's involved. I'm kind of, I'm not a huge fan of isolation basketball from a viewing perspective. I like to see, you know, sneaky sets, you know, hitters, good ball movement, you know, that kind of stuff. It is nice to see a guy like, you know, when Clay Thompson drop 35, that just gets hot. That's great. Fantastic.

But as far as just some guy dribbling 15, 20 times to get a shot up, I don't enjoy watching that. Some people do, I don't. No, I don't either. It's like I say this about James Harden all the time. He's a great basketball. And I think he's better with Brooklyn. Fantastic basketball. I can't stand to watch him play.

And I'm in no way indicting his talent. It's the way in which his talent was used, especially in Houston. Oh, no doubt. I totally agree. It's just not, and that's the way the game's going. It's become an ISO game, and it's become, you know, if we shoot more threes than you, we're probably going to have a better chance of winning. And at times it's hard to watch, and that might be the old man in me now.

I'm that old, that old cynical former athlete that now is, you know, it's not a case of shitty on the younger generation. I think each generation gets better than the previous one. But it's just the way the game is now, it's just not as fun to watch. Okay, so you were in Milwaukee for like seven years, right? Did you know that they were thinking about moving? No, so they, they, I asked to be moved. So 2000, I gone through that injury run, kind of just, just got out of it.

Walkout year, 2011, 12, I come back, I ask, you know, the thing with Milwaukee was, We were evolving door for so many years. Like every year I'd come back and we'd have eight or nine or ten new faces and new players. And I'm like, how are we going to build something? How are we going to build a culture? How are we going to build continuity? Like, when you have that many new faces, it's just not going to work. We need to, you know, we're a small market team.

We can't just go and sign free agents, you know, and make trades and try to hit home runs. And they kept trying to do that. And I went in and just said, look, I think, you know, I've played out what I can. can here. I think it's time to move on for both of us. And they said, no, we're not moving you. We're not going to get equal value back for a good center in the NBA. You know, you're still very valuable to

us. And I think that was, you know, I lived the league in blocks the season before. I was really coming to my own defensively and they just said no. And then two weeks later, Kyle Larry shoots a floater, tries to chase his own floater down, undercuts me, I break my ankle.

And was then out for the rest of of the season. GM was on the hot seat at the time. Coach was in the hot seat at the time. They had to make a playoff push. And they thought, well, shit, Boggis isn't going to play for the rest of the season. If we can get some value back, we'll move him. And I got traded from Monta Ellis who then helped them get that seed in the playoffs. And I went to Golden State. Okay, so that's the end of part one of Andrew Bogot, which, of course, makes you have to listen to Part 2, which has Warrior stuff, Warriors Cavs stuff. What happened in that series when they're up three games to one,

what it was like to have to watch when they lost the NBA finals, how do you balance that out with coming back from three games to one down to Oklahoma City in the exact same year? What it was like to leave Golden State? What was like to watch them win a title without him? What does he think of Kevin Grant? What does he think of Steph Curry? What does he think of all of these guys? What is he?

What was the difference between Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr? All of this to come in part two. In the meantime, remember, you can listen to the Doug Gottlieb show, three to six Eastern, 12, 3 Pacific, every day. on Fox Sports Radio, the iHeartRadio app, Fox Sports Radio.com, or you can download that podcast whenever you want. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, subscribe, download, subscribe, rate, and write a review for all ball.

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Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and Head Right. or street or sidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

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Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

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