The Michael Knowles Show - Michael & Karl Malone: NBA Legend Cigar Conversation

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

NBA legend Karl Malone joins Michael Knowles for a one-of-a-kind conversation over cigars. From life lessons and stories from the court to perspectives on culture and family, this unique sit-down offers a rare glimpse into the man behind the Hall of Fame career. Whether you're a basketball fan, a cigar aficionado, or just love meaningful conversations, this episode is packed with insights, laughs, and unforgettable moments. Grab a cigar, sit back, and enjoy the conversation! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They say cigars are the great equalizer, and they must be because it is the only way to explain how I am sitting down with NBA Hall of Fame or all-around legend Carl Malone. Carl, thank you for inviting me to the legend cigar lounge. Thank you for being here. And thank you for this joint venture, the Mayflower Carl Malone cigar pack, which is available. You have to be 21 years old or older to order some exclusion supply. Got to get that out of the way up front. We also got to say, we do not encourage anybody to smoke cigars. If you like them, you like them.

If you don't, you don't. Yes, I don't discourage them, but it's totally your choice. There you go. So I am smoking your cigar. And, sir, you were a legend not only in basketball, not only in so many civic endeavors, but also in cigars. This is a great smoke. Well, tusha. No, we have a partnership with LawRour.

Yeah. And we created our cigars. So we're excited to be partnering with you guys, you know, like we're doing rapper, filler, and Dominican binder. But it's got a hen of pepper in it. Yeah. And I like that no matter what. Yeah. During the day, that's my go-to.

And I love smoking your stick. So I was asking you to question earlier, Michael, how did this happen? And I'm just going to enjoy the moment and say, hell, it doesn't happen. So we're excited. I'm excited. The way it, I mean, I'm half joking about cigars as the equalizer, but I'm half not. Because you said something to me that instantly struck me as true, which is, you know, people, they'll smoke a cigar because it's their wedding. They'll smoke a cigar. I just graduated college or something.

But you said, no, when you were smoking the cigar, that's the happening. Yes. Yeah. Well, my thing is a cigar to me. is icebreaker. Yeah. It really don't matter what your bank account say. Yep.

No matter what car you're driving, what house you live in. And when you look at legends where we're at right now, this is family-owned. And you notice we don't have a lot of TVs. No TVs. Because to me, when I come and smoke with a person, I want to get to know that person. And it really don't matter where you're from. And the people you meet, If you're just willing to turn that TV off, put that phone down, how do we know Michael who's sitting beside us right now?

To me, cigar is like you've been knowing that person. Yes. For a while. Yes. And we're just meeting. Yep. You know, I'm not a politician. Michael not either, so we just call it like it is.

A cigar just like we've been knowing each other. Yeah, that is it. I find when I travel around, I give a speech or whatever. wherever I'm going. The first thing I look up is not the hotel, it's not the restaurant, it's the cigar lounge. Because I know I walk into the cigar lounge, even, it's not like everyone agrees politically or even, but if I see a guy smoking a cigar, I think there is someone instantly I can talk to, there is someone, we're going to have really something in common. I know what kind of person this is. It's going to be my kind of person, you know. It's one of the

best rules of thumb, I think, I find in terms of socializing. And what I've found also, have you ever seen anyone pissed off in a lounge smoking a cigar? Now, you could have just had a bad deal go south. Yes, yeah. But I've never met a person pissed off in a lounge. Right. First of all, if that's your mojo, let me go to another room. One of us excuse ourselves because to me, smoking a cigar.

Yeah. So I had my first cigar. we jump all over the place. And you guys are going to earn your money if you can edit it back. So my first cigar ever, I was 25 years old. And I wanted to be the coolest captain on the team, so to speak. And so many guys went out. So I wanted to act like I knew what I was doing.

Well, the cigar that I knew from a little country town up here in Summerfield, 45 minutes north where I grew up, was Money Christos. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. So I'm the cool, you know, stock cool too, but I was the cool captain that smoked cigar. So we had a couple of days off. So I smoked when I played, but I had to have two days off, two to three days off. So there was a certain place we would go.

We would have those two or three days off. Thanks, Coach Sloan. But I had a money crystal. Yeah, yeah. Now, I had to play the part now. It was in Miami. I took the guys out. Well, first of all, I did all the things, and I lit this cigar.

up and I act like I had done it forever. But my teammates and know of my first cigar, I was hooked in at 25 Money Cristo. And that was my cigar. You could not tell me anything else. And that was my cigar. And I've been ever since. So I'm 61 now. 61.

That's good genes. You know, that's, and maybe being one of the great athletes. I say it all the time. My ancestor, my mom and my grandfather. I thank them for the jeans. Now, I got to keep working. And I'm on the hunt. I'm on the hunt every day in my family.

Whether it's peace, whether it's just hanging out, that's our mindset. Well, this is something I noticed. I mean, you say with a cigar, it's how you really get, it's back in to know somebody. First thing I noticed about you, even before I landed in the airplane. It's not that you're the NBA legend. it's not, all this other stuff. The first thing that really hit me before we sat down was where this lounge is. We are not sitting in the middle of Manhattan.

We're not in Beverly Hills right now. We're in the middle of Louisiana. I said, what brought Carl Malone, after all his insane international success? What brought Carl Malone to this part of Louisiana? And someone said, this is hometown. Yes. Well, my car grew up 45 minutes north, right at 1,6. Yeah, yeah.

The border is 33. We're less than a half a mile off I-20. Yeah, yeah. So when we moved back home, the family had a truck, we moved back home. 20, almost 21, 22 years ago. Of course, Legends is where we're sitting at in Ruston, Louisiana. Well, I went to Louisiana Tech. Yeah.

Over here. I grew up there, Mama's boy. Yeah. When we got back, this started off. Legend started off about that size. And I was just going to do it for the boys. But then all of a sudden my wife and daughter got in it. I love hunting.

And then my son's down here. We're in the timber business. So this burnt wood didn't come from our property. So that's the concept. And if you look in the bathroom, you'll see green tin. Of course, it's hunting season. And I'm somewhat of a savage when it comes to that. So if you go in the bathroom, you'll see like green.

That's hunter's green. And that's what my, and I was driving my wife and one of my daughters crazy. And they said, Dad, we got it. We know what you like. So we just let them go and you'll see mountains in here because my whole family we hunt. I grew up four years old hunting with my grandfather. Wow. So this lounge is who we are.

And we got to thinking about names and everything. We just thought about legends and we added the cigar to it. But a lot of people, you know, they grow up, they have interests. You obviously have a lot of varied interests, all sorts of different businesses, even beyond, you know, your global fame as an athlete. But then a lot of people, they just forget about home. They just kind of, you know, they go on, they have that success, and then they move to the penthouse and wherever.

But you came back. So the next time you come, Michael, because I have a feeling that we're going to be doing this more and more. We're going to spend a day out into the wilderness doing the things I do. So I run heavy equipment every day. Yeah, caterpillar equipment. So I'm an artist. I'm an artist. Okay.

Our canvas is our properties. My paintbrush is caterpillar equipment. So that's my therapy every day. So the day I left, I wanted to get back home. I went to Utah and that's... I think I read about that. Yeah, I think I heard about that. Well, that's history, but I'm passionate about Louisiana.

I love Louisiana, but I'm passionate about North Louisiana. So I'm big into heritage and roots and DNA. That's just my little brain. So moving back home, I feel grounded. Aberde Einstein, not quoted per word, for a man to know his true purpose on this earth, he must stay in touch with Mother Earth, not just walking, touching the soil.

I feel alive here. I love cities. And Utah did things from my family that I'm ever grateful, but I want to come home because I feel so concerned. connected here and tobacco when you look at it it come from the earth and so it's so many different things so next time you guys come yeah we're going to spend a day uh heavy equipment uh different things like that because to know a person you have to accept that person for who they are yeah and what it's about so my first thing is i want to know about you if we want to spend a hour together

I'm not in a hurry. Yeah. So you know my ways. When I take my shoes off, yeah. And to me, like moving back home, just got icing on the cake for me and now to be able to do things

and see my family doing the things they do. But it all started with this little kid in North Louisiana with his grandfather, Leonard Jackson. What you're describing is actually my thought behind Mayflower Cigars. Because I thought, you know, look, I come from the new media world, digital media world. Everything I do is online.

It's all, it's kind of disconnected from tangible stuff. But I like the real world. I think it's important that we're incarnate creatures. You know, I like spending time with people. I want to be in the cigar lounge. I want to be talking to people. And that's what I love about the cigar is the cigar is not digital. The cigar is a real thing.

It's going to, in a way, it's kind of like a clock. You know, you can measure time as the cigar goes down. It's something you have to do with a person, you know, it's ephemeral and you're in a real space and then it's gone. Then you go get another cigar. But I love that. And the Mayflower name comes because, though I look fairly Italian, on my father's side of the family, there's some English. And they go back to the Mayflower. And I really liked this heritage.

My grandfather discovered this in his retirement. And I liked that idea of, wow, you can kind of trace back a family's history. and it coincides with the history of a country. And then tobacco is the crop that built America in many ways. And tobacco is discovered by the Europeans with Columbus. I mean, all the way back to Christopher Columbus, 1492, the Taino Indians had cigars. I think they would smoke them up their nose.

I haven't tried to do that. But one day if you tried, I'll try it. Yeah. Let's just go with it. But I love that idea that you don't want to be disconnected. from roots, I mean, from real roots. When you said you like driving heavy equipment, you're the artist painting on the canvas of the earth.

I thought it would be so funny. How many world-renowned champion athletes at your level, there aren't very many at your level, how many of them wouldn't just hire a guy to go clear property? I mean, you're like the only guy that would do that probably. Well, my grandfather, Leonard Jackson, if you're looking at me, you're looking at him if I did that. And he said to me this, when you become successful, if you have one acre or a thousand acres,

and I was five or six years old, he said, be willing to defend and lose your life for it. And it didn't resonate. At the time, he said, become a steward of the land. We have been blessed and fortunate enough. So I made a promise to me that when I turn 60, that I'm going to spend every day on a piece of land, whether it's ours or someone else. And that's my connection.

Everybody got whatever. But my connection with the land and the equipment is, I never change the landscape on what Mother Nature do. I just add to it or clean it up. Yeah, yeah. So we're land developers too. We're at a start some project. And whatever that land doing now, the drainage, everything, I don't change it.

So this goes back. We are our heritage. We are our DNA. Yeah, yeah. That's who we are. Good, bad, and differ. That's what made me. I wouldn't change it now.

Wow. But the fact of the matter is, when you stay connected with land, it just aligns me. So we spend our times in places like that in Utah. I love the mountains. Alaska. I love streams. I love the calmness because I stay calm until I have to go up or not. But it all come back.

You know, people say cotton is what, say, our country was built on a crop. I put tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, in that same area. Yeah, yeah. Because someone worked it. See, this is where I go. Yeah, yeah. I've been fortunate enough to visit Laura a number of times, Mr. Leon. in the whole team there.

Yeah. But I love going out to the fields, the farmer, that when that took back, when it's small, he had to water it. Yeah, yeah. To me, the respect you should have for a cigar. Yeah. Think about someone other than yourself. Yeah.

And the work that go into it. And not just him. I mean, they say 300 hands touch a cigar. Yes. Yes. You've got the guy who's rowing it, was watering it. You got the guy who's tending it. You got the guy who harvests it.

You got the guy who ferments it. You got the guy who cures it in some cases. Then you got, even before you get to rolling the cigar, you've got the filler, you got the binder, you've got the wrapper. You've got to select it. You've got the blender. Think of all these people, this handmade luxury that you can get for, call it 15 bucks. And one thing is amazing about it is all the hand that touch it, I don't think a lot of people know this. just about, I'm not going to say all the time,

but what I've witnessed at Laura Rohr, and I think this is true, people don't, the cap, call it ring, just about more often than not, that final touch is by a female. Because she have the softest. No, no.

Yes. So, you know, those, me, I don't consider myself a cigar connoisseau, or master it. I just say what I like. And I'm willing, and we are willing to learn those things. So all the little nuances,

I noticed that. So I asked the question to Mr. Leon. Mr. Jeremy Leon, and I asked him to question, and it's just, they're softer. Yes. So they cap. That's what I tell people all the time.

It's not even just one cap, you know, it's three caps to put on them. And then at the end, and I tell people, if you can just be just at top, Because if you cut too much, of course, it's grappled. But anyway, you're looking at me like, damn, I wouldn't really expect it. No, that's really, but that's really, seriously.

There's something really profound about that. You know, I mean, there's something really, yeah, just, I don't know, the way you're talking about cigars, many times. That's part of why I wear the velvet jacket, you know, it keeps it. But the way you're talking about cigars, it's the way a lot of cigar guys will talk. about. You think it's in the details, it's in the intricacies, it's in the complexities of it, that really distinguish it. So, you know, you have a very consistent blend. I mean, it's very, very reliable. But no two cigars are going to be exactly the same. No, no. And what I tell

people all the time, whatever cigar you like, dare to try another one. I know we all have our go-to. And of course now, our house sticks, barrel aged by caramel. Of course, that's the main one. Then the Mayflower. Yep. That's right. By Michael. That's the second favorite.

You know, so all in on. Yeah, naturally. But once you get past those two. Once you get past those. The fact of matter is, I tell people, you know, about a cigar. It's a passion of mine. Yep. And when you're passionate about it, you learn about it.

Some people don't realize a cigar have three stages. Yeah. To it. And they say this. Now, if you want to just go there now, and my going to be looking at me in there like, damn. So let all of us cigar officinados, aficionados,

let all of us say something here. Everybody is watching. So let's take a test. Let's show you something here. When you are smoking like with someone, they're watching how your cigar burned down. They're going to say either can afford another stick or you're really cheap. So here's what we do, everyone out there.

Take your thumb. Put your thumb on the end of your cigarette. and wherever the joint of your thumb at, that should be the top of your label. Yep. And when it's get like that, that's when it's time to finish your cigar. So I was smoking right to the top. Very good. Yeah. You know what I see?

He's like, looking at me like, damn, no, I look. Katrina over there, like, what the hell is going on here? No, I'm really impressed. No, perhaps I shouldn't be. By even the way you're talking about, the way you look at land. Because what you're saying is, I don't want to go in and totally do something new. I don't want to, when you say how the water moves and how the, I want to, I just want to augment it. I want to, in a way you might say, perfect it.

What's already there, you want to perfect what nature has already given you. And I think about it with a cigar. I'm not going to take a Connecticut shade wrapper and, I don't know, some kind of. Dominican fellow. Dominican filler. I'm not trying to take that and make that into the fullest bodied cigar you ever saw. I'm going to use a different wrapper for that.

I want to work with the materials I have and then add the artistry to perfect it, to bring it to its full potential. I want to work against its potential. I want to just set off a bomb on land or something like that. Well, and the thing about it is let the wrapper, binder, binder, and filler, let that cigar do what it do.

Yeah. Now, that's what that cigar going to do, like you just said. Yeah. Same with land. Let it do what it's going to do. You can't get no more out of it. Try another cigar. Yeah.

You know, that's, but it's that passion about it. And that is where our company, P.F, is going now. We're going to really heavy on the cigar distribution, and we're going to be carry everyone of, course, barrel age and the Mayflower. And this partnership to me, I wanted to grow. And I want to say to you and your team, we'll work out our schedule, but whatever you're doing for us to launch it, we are, and I'm not a person to just put my name on it.

Because I don't want to embarrass you one day when they say, really? Because having a conversation like this, we get to know each other. So as we go down this road, we're just going to help each other be successful. Well, so this is then the next thing I want to know. Because you're talking about how, look, you're at peace, you've got your legs up, you like, you're taking time with your cigar, you're very in touch with the land. But you mentioned something earlier, you said, and then sometimes, if I have to turn it up a little bit, you know, that's, and that's what makes me think about the hunting. You're wearing camo, you've got, you know, a lot of animal heads around here. So how does that, that, that seems like almost the opposite.

One is all about relaxation, kind of placid. the other is very aggressive, you're pursuing an animal. How do you flip into that mode? Well, what I discovered about one cell is I'm result-driven. I'm on the hunt, and I stay focused on that task, and I like to start it from the beginning to the end. I used to couldn't put it all together, but our brain is a filing cabinet.

So close that filing cabinet every day. Well, it's the same thing me. I can go from zero to mock. I don't like the middle area unless it's rest area. Yeah, yeah. But being able to do that, it keeps me hungry. It keep me on the hunt. Peace, my machines, on a piece of property.

It could be your piece of property. I am getting so much out of your piece of property that we're walking on and we're having the conversation. Yeah, yeah. I'm grounded. Every step I take, I'm on the soil. Yeah. So is that the, because it strikes me, most people you talk to, they'll have like one interest or two. You know, most people you talk to, especially someone who's succeeded at your level, all they want to talk about is basketball.

Or all they want to talk about is whatever business they're in. all they, but your interests are so varied, and it seems like you have a very intense focus on all of them. This isn't the sort of thing. You're not just saying, you know, La Rora comes to you and says, hey, we're going to put your name on a cigar and forget about it. You're obviously very, you're smoking the cigar, you're helping blend. You're, you know, you're very focused on.

So how do you maintain that kind of intensity, even on all these broad interests, hunting, land development, cigars, obviously basketball? Well, it's where I'm at. and it's through my eyes. Michael, no one see anything the same. You see it through your eyes. So where I'm at with my life is my family, my kids, my grandkids.

So I'm 61. I got more time in the rear view than I do in the front windshield. So my drive now is how has it ever been because you're looking at a kid that only one person believed in me, my mom. I didn't want to play basketball. Really? No, really.

It might shock you, but they got a lot of tape. So I grew up in the country. Here are four brothers, four sisters. My dad committed suicide when I was five years old. But no, no. Let me say something. I was a loner, but I was a mama's boy. So I was colloquy as a little boy.

So my mom graded Lombard in Georgia Pacific. She was green chain. She graded lumber. So when she came home, she was tired. She had four boys, four girls. She had eight kids, single parent. Wow. And I was a baby boy, so I was colloquy.

That means, you know, people don't know I cried a lot. Yeah, yeah. I've had some call. Well, we had a military channel and cartoon Three Stooges Western Channel. Every time there's one plane would go out on a mission in Vietnam and came back, I wouldn't cry. I would stop crying. if it was a 45-minute mission or hour and 10-minute, I wouldn't cry. Well, when I got older in the eighth grade, I wanted to know who flew that plane.

And it was a Harrier Jump Jet. Only Marines flew that jet. So I met my recruiter from the eighth grade, and only one person told me, and I wanted, we had a little country store, and I wanted to become a full bird, wanted to fly in the Barksdale Air Force Base Refuel. I wanted to buzz our mom in the little country store. We had a little field across the road, our little farm where we raise our garden. I want to land it there and I want to walk across the field.

Only one human told me, I know you would. My mom. So that's what I wanted to be a pilot. Well, I met my recruiter from the eighth grade to the 11th grade. He said, you've got to be great in math and you can't grow anymore. And I grew three and a half inches one summer. So basketball worked out. Well, I said it to say this.

There's nothing you can do to stop it. I can't stop growing. I say this, so go back to what drives me now. It's not more. It's honing what we got. It's passing it on because that's all my ancestors. That's on my DNA. My grandfather said to me, young man, when you grow up to be successful,

you only do things first class. And if you cannot afford it, you save your money. Because when you leave here, that is your legacy. That is your deal. and A, how you leave it. So me and my wife, Kay, we're passionate about our kids and grandkids and now passing on. So my drive now.

I wake up every morning between 3.30 and 4 o'clock. I do my little meditation, make mental notes, and I do a little crossword puzzle. That's activate my brain. Then I go train. And then I'm on the hunt, but it's not for me. It's on the hunt for my family. and leaving them something more than what we had. And to see that drive that they have now, that keep me hungry.

They keep me on the hunt. So that's my focus. So those interests we have, Larry Miller introduced me to a guy named Andy Masson, and we have automotive there, but down here we do land and timber. So my drive is not for me. It's been a steward of the land. and everybody talk about their legacy, I want every day when they walk this land,

they send it every day. This is like going with the wind. It's about the land. It's Tara. It's about the land. But that actually does make sense of it. Because even you mentioned the cars, you've been involved in the car business.

I mean, you've been... No, we are. You are actively involved in the car. Yes, yes, sir. No, I mean, that's what I mean. You have so many active businesses. So you think what unifies all. of it. Well, you've just explained it. It's very grounded and it's about your family and it's

focused on the future. So then going back the other way on family, what would have happened if you didn't have that one person who believed in you? What would have happened if your mother had just, look, she would have had a good excuse to not be that focused if she ate kids, a single mother. Yeah. So what would have happened to Caram alone had that not happened? Who knows? Like, who knows? It would have been, we wouldn't be sitting here. You and I, how? But one person, you just need one to believe in you.

And to me, when you get that one person, that's what matters. Because when you both have the same visions and the thoughts, you're thinking about everybody. See, in our world, the first law of nature is self-preservation. But I like to think like this. When a person think about everyone else in the room except themselves, try it one time. That person will always be taken care of. Think about it. The law averages, but we don't.

So to me, take all you need, leave the rest for someone else. So we're not taking it with us. Be teachers. Share. You know, share from the heart. Yeah, yeah. Don't share when the cameras are on. Yeah, yeah.

I still feel, as we're sitting here right now, Mike, I feel this right here. My mom is going to come in and shake me and say, boy, get ready for school. Yeah. It seemed to me like a dream that I'm living in. Yeah, yeah. So that's an interesting connection that had not occurred to me about this partnership because my mother was such an influential figure in this cigar business. You know, I mean, she bought me the box of cigars where now the Mayflowers are made it the same factory that that box of cigars came from. Some of which are still in my humidor.

I had my first cigar actually with my mother. It's kind of an odd thing. Like a whole are you? I am 34 and I've still been smoking cigars for most of my life. It's just in a may, I don't know, you know how the law is in various jurisdictions. jurisdictions work. It don't really matter. Yeah, yeah.

We just here. I always say, though, for someone of Italian descent in New York, having your first cigar at 15, you're actually a little old. You know, you can start a little younger, you know. But I really liked it. And I never liked cigarettes. I never got into any of that. I wasn't like a big, I wouldn't go to like kegars or anything.

But I really liked the cigar. I'm not just flattering you in your answers. You give me two or three paths I want to go. down. But the one I want to get back to is, when you said, your grandfather said, if you're going to do something, do it first class or don't do it. And it reminds me of advice, a buddy of mine gave me in New York. He was working in finance. But he wouldn't spend his money, really. He wouldn't buy new clothes. He wouldn't buy fancy dinners or anything. We would make a lot of money, but he wasn't spending a lot of money. But he might buy a glass of really expensive

scotch every now and again. But otherwise, he wouldn't really spend his money. I said, what's that about it? He said, it's the barbell strategy. What's the barbell strategy? Barbell strategy is you're either going to get things that are really, really cheap or really, really expensive. But he said, I don't want, I don't really want things in the middle. And, you know, dollars don't always equate to quality, but I think the point on quality is really good. You're either going to really go for something, you know, go for a really seriously well-crafted cigar or don't have a cigar. But please don't give me, please don't give me a crappy cigar. It's not, I don't want cigars that bad. You know, I want it to be either really good or I'll abstain. That's okay. I don't need to be chains, but, and you think about this in your activities in life. Would you have been

content being a middle of the pack basketball player? Oh, that's cool. You got to play and then. Michael, I see it. Some people are built like that. No. No, no. You can blame it on my heritage, my DNA, my grandfather, great-grandfather. No, no, I'm alpha. Yeah. No, look here. I know for the pack now, all due respect to the pack.

Yeah. It takes every type to make that pack. Yeah, yeah. But no, sir, to where I was built, I'm the alpha. No, sir. Where I was built, I'm the alpha. Yeah. Like, I respect the other alpha.

for now, wherever you squat, wherever you hiking piss now, I ain't going to piss on that spot. But now, but now when I hike and piss over here now, I'm raking that, sir, respect. That's your spot. That's your spot, yes. Well, that's how I'm built. But I owe it to the man above and how I was created to get the most out of this body. That's the respect I have for my grandfather and stuff like that. And the respect I have for the team that drafted me,

I, yes, you can call it whatever. And the way I was wired and built, I owed that to the Miller family to give them every single thing I had. They didn't draft you to be middle of the pack. No, sir. No. Let me tell you how real that got really quick. And Adrian Dantley,

Hall of Famer, he taught me how to be a professional, number one. Now, here's when he got real to me. My second year, we have plays. They've started to run some plays for me, which was Adrian Dantling. And lo and behold, my second year planned, we drew the Dallas Mavericks. They had Lando Blackmun, Mark Aguar, Sam Perkin. that squad. So they was top of the pack. Well, we played a one. Lo and behold, Adrian Dantley got hurt. He was out for the playoffs. So we drew them first round. Well, they start running all the plays.

So we played. Of course, they beat us in the series, but we made a hell of a series. Well, I didn't know anything. I used to stay in Dallas and train with a guy named Ken Robeson. He was my classmate here at Louisiana Tech. So he was teaching me how to run. So we would Instead, right, we was able to work out at SMU. So I remember we would go over to the Premier Club, and that's what we do our weight training. And I remember forget this. We just finished up two and a half, three hours training, finished up with the weights. And I was out to shoot some shots.

And a guy come out to New Ken, he said, hey, tell Carl he might want to come see this. So he said, he'll tell Carl. teammate of heels. I was like, shit, what? He said, Adrian Dantley. So, of course, I go in press conference. They had traded Adrian Dantley. Now, this one got real for me. And I get a phone call from Coach Layton. He said, hey, do you remember the end of the year meeting we had? You know, that's the end of the year meeting. Yeah, we all come in and they tell each individual what we're working on and all that. Is, did you remember that? I was like, yes, sir. He said, tell me what, what I said.

He said, remember the end of the meeting? I said to you, hey, so being the playoffs, are you ready to carry a franchise? And of course, me being full of little piss and vinegar over the lack thereof. I said, of course. Well, lo and behold, the starter team get traded. And it's the offseason. I got a phone call. Well, right then, I had to make a commitment that if I was going to be what they believed them.

And nobody else did it. Yep. And I didn't want to let them down. Right. Because, you know, it's one thing to say it in the meeting. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, of course I'm ready. This is what actors do. Can you ride a horse?

Yeah, yeah. Can you tap dance? Oh, you bet I can tap dance. But then you have to perform. Right. And I'm going to say this to you. I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid to fail. And when I fail, I've let a lot of people down.

And that's on me. So when that happened, I made a commitment that I had to change my body to be able to carry the load. And I did not want to be middle of the pack. I wasn't, I'm sorry, people can take it. No, hell, I'm not sorry. I wasn't put on this earth to be middle of the pack or the back of the pack. So I put everything back to animals. So our family crest

You got an insignet, right? Is the Buffalo. Yeah, yeah. That's our family quest. You know. Our crests. Well, the Buffalo is the only animal on this earth that when a storm brew on the plains,

first strike a lightning or a raw thunder. The man. The leader of the pack, the alpha. He turned, and women, children, all, they turn, and 90% of the time or more is the only reason a buffalo stampede. They turn and face the storm. They run into the storm head on, right? That is the alpha, that the leader. And they're all following him.

Right. And here's the rest of that. story. Our families, we all go through it, right? But at some point now, dad got to step up and he got to face that and he'd go through the storm. So guess what? A buffalo is the only species that only in the storm half the time. Think about that. Now, why is the buffalo running toward the storm? Forgive my ignorance. Why? They faced it head on. Yeah. Right? He's in it half the time. That's why he do it. They turn and he run It's dangerous coming, we're going to face it.

And guess what? We have pictures on our farm in my sons. It's the leader, the alpha, which all of us are in our home or wherever else. He have icicles hanging this long

off his beard, and he got a head about this size. And he's the first one to come through that storm, right? Looking like that. Now, ask yourself this question now every person that's a man right when he come through this storm and I show you this picture yeah what do you think he's thinking right now I'll tell you here's saying right now whatever some of a bitch want some of this right now yeah come and

take it no no no I'm gonna meet you yeah well when I show you this picture yeah it's going to, well, that's life. That's us, families. It's not always roses. You're going to take shots. But guess what? At some point in time, Daddy, you've got to turn and face that something. You've got to look him in the eyes. That's who I am. And that's how I live. There was a popular book, probably 10, 15 years ago, called Anti-Fragile by NASA and Nicholas Tollum. And, you know, because you think certain things are fragile, they fall off the table, they break. Certain things are durable. They fall off the table. They get a little deformed, but you know, that'll be okay. But he says there's this third category, anti-fragile. The thing that falls off the table

and actually gets stronger. The thing that when you, when you subject it to rigors and trials, it actually comes out tougher, scarier maybe, you know. And that seems to me what you're describing. And to me, it's like, who are you? We all get tried. Yeah, yeah. But you really don't have to talk about it. Yeah, yeah. Like, look, okay, so after all the talking, what? Yeah, yeah.

Why talk? My grandfather, I will never forget this. I played marbles. My grandfather was my height, my size, never lifted weight. He was a mule logger. And this guy, every day, not every day, once a week. You know, when he had a little moonshine, My grandfather was a moonshine.

A little local recipe, yeah. So I was playing marbles one day. This guy had did this, I know, a number a couple times. And my grandfather homesteaded a couple acres. So it was his acres. And this guy kept coming on this property. And I never forget it. I was playing marbles.

And I heard boom, boom, boom. And it was overweight. He was dusting them all. I never forget this because, As time went on to ask him about that, and he said at some point in time when a man challenged you on your piece of dirt, this time, to me, it's too much talking. People just talk to talk.

I'm result-driven. No, I'm not going to apologize for that. And no excuses either. No excuses. No excuses. Because let me tell you something. when you got your last 500 books, don't bet on sports. Don't bet on nothing, none of that.

If you got a set of them, you bet on yourself. Yeah, right. Right. And you don't want to fail. Because when a person started that inner competitive nature with oneself and respect that other person, that's when it comes together. But then you become a teacher, Einstein, one of my favorite.

I loved him because he had their wild hair. To me, he was a genius. He was a teacher on his deathbed. To me, he was my hero. I know we went from a Marine pilot flying a Harriet jet to Einstein. What the hell? Yeah, how many NBA champs say, you know, my big hero actually is Albert Einstein?

I don't know. I started off with his wild hair, and I wanted to know who he was, and then I know he was the ultimate teacher. See, to people, some time, they think not teaching is smarts to me. It's not. Because when you die, all of that go. But when you become a teacher, you try to teach where people can understand your teaching. Yeah, yeah. So it's, yeah, it's this theme that seems to be running through everything you're doing,

which is not just about you. It's not just about building something for yourself, but it's about this kind of legacy. And not even a legacy just from you. You can't. talking about it's actually my grandfather, it's actually my mother, it's actually, it's the legacy running in both directions. Where? That's a beautiful thing. Well, but those are two people that believed in all my crazy ideas and not one time shot them down.

Brothers shot them down, sisters shut them down, friends, they didn't. And they say on that other side, you replay this back. So to me, every day is you forward to me. Like, I can't explain it. But what I like is people now is still never want to know me, which is so weird to me. Did they not want to know you before? No, they looked at as people do 90% of athletes. The real world look at as just jogs.

Yeah, yeah. Right, right. And if that's how they think, but, you know, athletes to me, you know, everybody want to look at a hard time athletes went, didn't have this. They, it's so many success stories out there that people never want to talk about. But it don't seem real to me. Are you kidding me? This little kid that was a run of the family? Yeah, yeah.

Why did the man above look down and say, that kid? Yeah, yeah, right. So to me, when we leave here, what we leave? What we leave. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply.

The way you put it, too, it's this, it's going to seem like a paradox for some people, on the one hand, you're saying, look, I've got this intense focus, I've got this drive, I'm obviously very self-disciplined, all this. So on the one hand, you get that total, like, I'm harnessing my will and my efforts for this thing. But then the other side of it you keep coming back to is, yeah, but had my mother not believed in me, probably wouldn't be here. Had, you know, run to the litter, and why was it me and not one of my siblings? Why was it me and not some other guy? I don't know, because God looked down and said that guy. That's not through your own effort, but it's like the cooperation with the circumstances that you found yourself in led you to this very spot on the couch.

And then, Michael, here's the rest of it. Do we ever realize this? The day that we take our first breath and whine, why and why, we start to die. Think about that. I've been dying since the day I was born. So I want to say something to you. You brought up something. And I go back, you use different words, but it's simple.

The simplicity of life is what we're missing. So I discovered, even though I'm driven, and I want to be driven the day I die. So the fly. Anybody know that movie, The Fly? Yeah, yeah. Okay, now we're going to go somewhere here. When Michael leave here, you're going to be like,

God damn. Okay, the fly. All right. This is where I'm at. People don't realize this. About a year ago, it came to me. The fly. When he opened up his closet,

notice something now. He had seven of the same outfits. So I'm going to tell you why here. Black loafers, black socks. black pants, black underwear, black turtleneck. And the star of that fly, he got the hotel.com, the aliens coming down. He's one of my favorite. I don't know his name.

The significance of that, a fly insect only have five to seven days on this earth, a fly. So what came to me about a year ago is the reason being he don't have time to worry about what he's going to wear. He have to eat, breed, die. I'm the fly. I don't have time for, I'm smelling the roses now, but I'm to fly now. I want to tell in of this thing to hand something off that Picasso, that masterpiece, that artists. So the significance of keeping things simple. Yeah, yeah. But think about this other kind

of duality here, which is you are a top athlete. And the language you keep using is all this language of artistry or even in, you know, Einstein, you know, science and mathematics. But you keep talking about artistry. How many athletes talk about art? How many athletes view the world through a lens of art. Gosh, that's what it is. Are you serious? Like, now we know how we really are. How big and massive, but we never see it.

We don't take the time to see it. So, yes, okay, you can actually say, top athlete, they are artists. Look at that. So, I will. Right, right. Yeah, there's a lot. They make it look like, dang, that's artistry. Right, of course.

When you watch a really incredible athletic show, when you watch a real, just whatever sport, whatever the feat is, the first thing that really strikes you is, it's not necessarily the strength, though, you see that, but it's the grace of everything, right? All the movements going in the right direction, totally meet the moment, and it all just comes off. Is that not artistry? Right. What? Come on.

So I know we've talked about so many different things, but that is, that's my brain. Right. And, you know, when I smoke a cigar, it's like deep to me. Yeah, yeah. Down to a very artistic thing in itself, a cigar. Even the way you're talking about the land and the creation, it reminds me of this great quote. I love this quote from Alexander Pope, which is, all nature is but art unknown to the all chance direction, which thou canst not see. You think all of that from you're a little kid,

and almost nobody believes in you, almost nobody believes in you. And then you just, you wind up here. You couldn't have possibly planned it. You have your own ideas, but you couldn't have planned all this out. I planned that I was going to be in the military. That's what I planned. But I said this. I had to be in some type of operation, like scout sniper, because I can be alone or with someone. But knowing that those people are dependent on me for their life, that's a, I don't know, that's a responsibility that I would have welcomed. So I was going to be in the military, and I wanted to be some type of operation behind the scene. But even that, the way you're talking, it's about the individual.

I can be alone. I can be working. But it's not disconnected from everyone else. And I think about it, not to be too cute about it, but you think about that with a cigar. A cigar is, on one hand, the most social of luxuries. You know, it's about sitting in a lounge and talking to people. But you can also, and I do this many nights, I sit alone with my cigar and I'm with my thoughts, I'm looking up at the sky, and I'm in conversation with God or maybe with myself.

But it's both perfectly solitary and perfectly social. And somehow that makes sense. You're the star athlete. It's kind of, it's all about you. I mean, you are the guy, but it's also about the team and the game and the franchise and the legacy. And somehow both of those things exist at once. And to me, like, when I have a good stick, I see everybody do it when they light that cigarette the first time we do this.

Yeah, yeah. And it's just. Yeah. And then to be able to have a conversation with people and hear where they're from and history about that, knowing now where the Mayflower name came from. See, that's personal to me. And it's not me. But you've got to know how I feel about my heritage.

Right. Now you're part of that story. You're in the, now I'm in the story of the cigar. Yeah, that's right. So our partnership is going to be amazing. And I tell you what. However we got here, you believed in it. And I make a promise to you.

you now. Me and my family will not disappoint you or embarrass you guys. Whatever ride, we go on, we'll go on it together. I never thought you would. That was not a fear. I hope I can live up to that on my... And I'm Carl Malone and I'll prove what that makes to stop in. Carl, I could sit here all that, certainly to the end of this cigar, probably to the end of second or third of the cigar. If you would care to join us for these cigars, if you're 21 years or older, some exclusions apply, as the lawyers tell me. And you can get the La Aurora barrel-aged Carl Malone cigar, which I'm smoking, and it is excellent. It's got different blends of tobacco, too. You know, the Mayflower Dusk, which you're smoking is an

Ecuador-Habano wrapper, it's a Sumatra binder, and Nicraguan filler. For the dawn, it's a Ecuador-Kennicut rapper, Cameroon binder, and Nicaraguan filler. With the Laura-Carral-Malone, I'm getting different flavors. I'm getting a lot of that pepper. I'm getting a little more strength, actually. There's a little more strength coming in here. Yeah. It's really magnificent cigars that will complement each other very, very well in your humidor. Carl.

I appreciate it. And I would like to end by saying, what would it be like one of these days? Some lounge reach out to Mayflower and Michael and his team and say, you know, we would love to host you guys there. And I would say we've got the... to talking out the way. Let's do it. Let's do it.