The Ringer NBA Show - Darius Miles on Coming Up on the Clippers, LeBron James Arriving in Cleveland, the "Jail Blazers" Media Narrative, and More | Real Ones

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

First up, Logan and Raja discuss LaMarcus Aldridge’s sudden retirement from the league (0:35). Then Darius Miles joins the podcast to talk about joining the Clippers out of high school (10:15), Lamar Odom’s leadership (29:37), LeBron James arriving in Cleveland (34:42), his first time playing with veterans on the Trail Blazers, the offensive "Jail Blazers" media narrative surrounding that team at the time (49:32), and much more. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Guest: Darius Miles Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baseball season is right around the corner, and Jake Mintz and Jordan Schusterman will serve as your guides to the good, the bad, and the utterly bizarre corners of the baseball world on baseball barbecue. In the run-up to the season, they'll dive into the rabbit hole on some of their favorite fascinations, from the home run derby to baseball brawls and more. Once the MLB season returns, they'll break down the latest news and developments with their trademark wit and irreverence. Check out baseball barbecue on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. What's adding in? Real One's Logan Murdoch here, Roger Bell. So before we get to our guest, Darius Miles, knuckleheads, I want to do a quick topper. On Lamarcus Aldridge, who has suddenly retired from basketball in the Brooklyn Nets after a regular heartbeat during an NBA game.

I'm so glad that he got this news early because this, it sucks for the game, but I am, most importantly, it's his health, Raja. And I want to make sure that he is good, full stop. but it is hurtful to see, man, so sudden because you want to see players leave on their own terms. Marga's not going to be able to do that. What's your instant reaction on that one, man? Glad he's healthy. It's my initial reaction. Glad nothing worse happened.

They were able to find out in the way that they did, and it wasn't catastrophic. Again, after you get through that, you know, you can then allow yourself to maybe think about, you know, damn, that sucks. Like he was on a team that could have potentially won a chip. He doesn't have one yet. you know, what that means for Brooklyn in terms of their depth and stuff like that. But that's all after, you know, the thought of glad that he's healthy. They caught it when they did. And then I'm with you.

It always stinks. You want to go out on your own terms. And, you know, it's one of the things that sometimes you can control. Sometimes you can't. It just sucks that he, you know, it was taken away from him this way. But I am glad he's okay. Yeah. I'm glad he's okay.

And this is another thing that we see with these, you know, with these hearts, you know, especially with, you know, we saw Harris LaVert earlier this year with a bit of an element. They found it early. He's still able to play, you know, but it's just, it's kind of rough. I think that we had that same thing with, you know, with Chris Bosch ended his career like this too as well. It's hard to see, but it's kind of bittersweet, man. It's cool because they're able to be healthy, but it's also like, you know, we're missing somebody in Lamarcus. And we don't get to see him play anymore.

And he was a really, really effective player. Really, really good player. It just puts things in perspective. There are times when things just kind of get put in perspective for you, right? And we're all humans. We start to lose it. I mean, I do from day to day. You say you're going to take things into account and really put them as perspective.

And this is just one of those times. Or like basketball is great. And the NBA is phenomenal. And there are real bands out there that eat, sleep, breathe basketball. But at the end of the day, it is just a game. And they're bigger and more important things. For sure. No, what this does for, it's so wild to be able to make this transition because I do want to make respect to Lamarckis, man.

We are with you, bro. Like, this isn't something that sucks. And I want to give respect to that. Now, in transitioning, I don't know, what does this do for Brooklyn, man? Because this was their guy. They lost out on Drummond. This was the big, the front court piece that they needed that they've always been missing this whole season. This season has just been out of whack for, in a lot of ways for Brooklyn.

Not to say that they're not still going to win a chip, but I think it's been out of whack for Brooklyn, but also out of whack for the league at large. What does this do for Brooklyn, man? Well, I mean, Nicholas Claxton, DeAndre, you know, Jordan. It puts them right in the, you know, more so probably Nicholas Claxton as a young player who's been playing well, has had some really solid minutes.

Like, you got, you got grow up quick, young, you know? And, you know, his father's from the Virgin Islands, too. I played on Virgin Islands national team, so I got a little backstory, but a little background with him. But that's what it does because, you know, that's a body when you get into the playoffs, particularly late in the playoffs, you need experience. You need guys who have been on that stage. You need guys who you can trust in those moments. We've talked about this before, not just offensively, but defensively. Trust them to be able to execute and not fall asleep on the game plan.

And typically, you know, that comes with some maturity and younger players aren't ready to step in and fill that. roll all the time. So that's what it does. They're going to be leaner. It takes away a body, but Nicholas Claxton, like, these minutes are for you, Bubble. What are you going to do? Yeah, yeah. We're going to see what happens. And it's one thing to be a young dude in a regular season, but quite another thing to be a younger guy without experience in the postseason because it's a totally different game. So we'll see what happens. Are they still one of your pick to win at all? Yeah, did I say they were my pick to win at all? I don't know that I said that. Did I say that? Are they a pick? Because I think my pick is still the Lakers.

They already picked, but a healthy Laker team with Drummond, AD and LeBron, it's going to be hard for me to pick against them. Can I just beef real quick? I know we're not supposed to do this on the Topper. Are you telling me why you're mad? Are we telling them why you're mad? I'll tell you why you're mad. I'll tell you why I'm mad. I'll tell you why I'm mad, son.

I sit down last night, took both my sons to football like preseason conditioning. I know I'm going to miss the start at a Brooklyn Sixers game. I'm okay. Let me hit record because I remembered it was on. It's on at seven. Come home, take a shower, get myself, you know, a plate and a glass. a wine. The house is quiet.

I'm about to watch a banger. And ain't nobody playing in the damn game. No one was playing in the game. Like, I rarely do this, but I found I was beefing last night. Like, damn, dog. Like, I sat down to watch this game. I wanted to see both teams as close to full force as they could be. And no one was playing.

That makes sense. It's the, it's the, it's the conundrum that we face as, you know, especially during this season, where you want to see guys play, but you also want to see guys healthy. And I think there was an ESPN article that just came out. I think Baxter Holmes wrote it about how people are, how GMs and front office people are really concerned with their players right now and injuries because of playing in a bubble and coming back.

Stuff that me and you have all I've talked about. We were already on the same page with this and trying to start a season too soon because of money and what the ramifications are going to be of that. We just saw a guy like Jamal Murray. for the season, ACL. We just saw, we're seeing Kevin Durant try to come back from injury. We're seeing that with LeBron.

We're seeing with AD. All these guys are getting injured. And a lot of that has to do with the turnaround, man. And so I do feel that, yeah, man, it fucking sucks that you can't watch a team play and a marquee message. But also, man, you want to see these guys healthy when throughout the whole time. So I do get that. I don't know what to do in this, Roger.

I don't know what to do. I don't have the answer either, man. And I'm not ultimately mad that people are getting rest so that they, you know, and if you're injured, you're injured. It just, it was one of the first times where, like, I rarely get in fan mode, but I did, you know, because we had been talking Brooklyn the other day. And, you know, Joel and B's back. And I'm like, okay, this is one that as, you know, a grizzled vet who doesn't love watching

the game all the time, just like the bad games, I'll sit down and watch. And I was, I felt weird. Like national, you guys got to figure something out. NBA's got to figure something out with nationally televised games, man, especially the marquee games when you're getting the matchup that's been forecasted all season long to be a big one. Like, I've got to figure something out with that. Yeah, man, definitely.

We'll figure that thing out. Another couple storylines. Luca hit a shot last night. It was pretty. That was nice, man. It looked like a bit of a flukka shot. Because it was off balance. How's that got on us?

Yes, we're good. They're telling him there'd be the logo and things like that. He's tough. He's tough. But everybody's just relax for a little bit. Let's just relax. Let's relax. Logo.

Who said logo? You don't be on Twitter like that. It was a big contingent of, really? Of NBA Twitter on the logo. And I'm just like, yeah, let's just relax. Let's calm out.

Wait a minute. Like, was it a poll and he got love with a bunch of other players? Or are people really out there lobbying for this man to be locus? No disrespect to Lucas. Sorry, Lucas. Just that just that little, that shot off balance should be the new logo. And I'm just like, let's relax. You know how many mofos got a cool-ass silhouette of them doing something that could be that they have more.

Let me stop. I'm a chill. I'm going to chill. I'm going to bring it down. Let's just calm down. I just want to say it's like let's just, it was a great shot. Let's just calm it. It's phenomenal shot.

And the boy is nice. Like he's, there's no question. He's nice. One other thing is I want to say is Steph Curry is out here bawling, bro. He's fucking bawling and he's on a different level right now. And I just need the, I need the Warriors to fucking figure it out because he deserves to be playing for championships right now, and the rest of his team is just not good, and he's just out here going hard to win games. I just need the Warriors to get it together and make a contender again

because I love watching Steph play, but it's waxing step play when there's really nothing to play for. So that's all I would have to say. Enough said. All right. Now, before we get to Darius, I just want to give some housekeeping things. Monday will be mailback Monday. We will be answering your questions on the voice memo. Sasha is getting work working on that right now. We're getting your voice memos on the phone number, which is 510469.0294. And then you can also send voice memos or written emails to our real ones mailbag at gmail.com. We're looking forward to all this. Sasha says that the mailbags have been through the roof.

There's been so much going on. We're ready to hear from the real ones all around the world. So yes, we are ready to get all your questions and things like that. Tell us why you mad, son. And we want to hear some mad hoopers out there, man. So lock in. And here's Darius Miles. What's popping?

Real ones Logan Murdoch here with Raja Bell. Raja, we have a really special guest. Go ahead and introduce them. Go ahead. Yes, we do. We have won the 2000 NBA third pick in the NBA draft. At the time, the highest high school player to ever be drafted. Darius Miles.

What's up, baby? How's up? How you doing? How you doing? I always start the pot off. I'm going to ask, I want to know how fucking hot was Miami Senior High's gym in the open runs, like, in the late 2000s? How hot was that? Crazy.

Like, crazy. Like, Glenn Rice, guys like that, that used to be, it used to go down up and that. It used to go down. And the heat index was like 250 degrees. Oh, yeah. Yeah, slaves in there, but, you know, that's the grind. You always want to. It kept your limbs loose.

You got up in there. But, yeah, like, that was the hottest runs. When you go to different cities and you're looking for that one, that was one of the ones you're looking for us. That's what's up. Cheesh. How you hoop like that and hot, like, hot weather like that? You know, you know, Roger, I'm softening.

I'm from California. I don't know nothing about that. What's it like in the Florida heat during the summertime like that, man? Like, you grow up on that. Like, well, you know, in Midwest, you get all the, the elements, but, you know, in that summertime, it'd be desert hot, and I was used to just playing out like that, but when you go on there and you're going to gyms like that, that's like it makes you feel like you really getting in shape.

You're sweating from head to toe, and you're not really getting it. So them type of gyms is the best gyms, like the cold gyms. It's like, you got to slowly get in. I just know when you was going to them marinas and stuff, and sometimes that ice be up under there, you're going on, you're like, ooh, I got to warm this old thing up. Right. When you're going in gyms like that, it feels like you already lose, you know? So that's why you look for that.

Logan, let me paint a picture of this gym. This gym, you remember the movie, like, you're probably too young. It was a movie called Porky's, like, and Porky's Revenge and all of those movies. So that was the high school. The gym was, like, untouched from those movies that were, I don't know, in the 60s. So this bad boy had no, it had no AC ever running. Like, the, the, when you went into, like, the restrooms and shit, it was rusted. out, it was just, but

Katz, like, it was home. That's where it, that's where it went, you know, that's where it went down. It gave you a feeling of like, you know, you don't need no high tech Ivan Drago type of shit. Like, you could just get in, get some peeps and get the banging.

And it oozed, it oozed with history. Yeah. You can tell as soon as you step foot in there, there's nothing but history up in here. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, that, them type of gems

is what real ballers want to go. go to and hoop it. Who was hooping in these runs, D Miles? I say, like, the few times I get in there, I was messed up with the ones I remember the most, I was messed up with Glenn Rice. Okay. And, you know, Glenn ain't going to be out there playing OD, but he's definitely going to be, he definitely going to be out there trying to bust whoever has guarding them.

So, you know, just a challenge of that. This is an all-star, you know, got put up numbers in the league. Like, that was one of the biggest matchups I remember in there. Glenn Rice, so he raised me. He was my, like, you know, even before I went to college, I would hop and runs at University of Miami back before they really got popping at Miami High. And I would be the young kid they put on the court. And Glenn would be like, if you ain't going to shoot it, get off. You know, like kind of raising me like, bro, if you ain't going to shoot the ball, get off the court. And so, you know, he brought me along and those were kind of my. So post career, like I'm playing in a men's league down in downtown Miami against Glenn. And we, and now Glenn, like, D Miles would know this. Glenn is not for the shit, Logan. Like, he is quick to pop off. So we're getting at it.

Men's League, friendly shit. I did something that offended Glenn. Dog, he wanted to fight me, like, in the middle of a men's league at 40 years old. I'm 37. He's 40 and he's squaring up. I'm like, gee, it's not even like that, bro. I'm just trying to get a little sweat. What did you do?

How did you offend him? I don't remember, bro. Like, I might, you know, like maybe I fouled him or pushed him or just something that offended him. And we were about to go down and I was like, Glenn, doll, this is me. I'm not, this is me. Look at me, man. Look at my, this is me. I'm not going to fight you in here right now.

This is not going down. Yeah. It'd be like that when it comes to that bomb. Yeah. Before we get to the shits, I want to, you know, pay some tribute to the knuckleheads podcast, which is one of my favorite podcasts. And I want to, by doing that, I want to ask you a real question that you guys ask everybody. D. Miles, who was the first person to bust your ass?

Shit, Chris Weber. Chris Weber fucked me up. Like I felt defeated after that game. What happened? What was the play where you're like? It was, he was jump hooking me. It really wasn't like he was doing something crazy special. He was just boom, boom, boom, pump, fake jump hook.

Boom, boom, fake spin jump hook. It was just, and then I'm athletic, little energy, trying to move and stuff. I'm trying to time it. You're going for all of that. Get it. But he, but he's, But he's giving it to me.

And then, you know, the little slight coming off the screen with Bibby and pop him at the top of the key for the jumper, he just milked me. When I looked up, it was like 38. And it felt like it was all on me. Damn. We always talk about, like, even in the league people, it's not that they do anything you've never seen before.

It's just that they're so effective in what they do on the court. Is that what Webb was doing? It wasn't, like, crazy moves. It was just effective and fundamentals. It beat them games. Yeah. It beat them games. It beat them games.

Like, you know, sometimes you're in the game and this dude is just on one. You know what I'm saying? And then if you're a defender, you know, Roger, I know he'll defend. If you're a defender, it's about getting the last stop. Yeah. Fuck all the points you got. You can have 42. But if I stop, if I block a more deflected ball at the end of the game for him to win it, I won that.

It might look at it, look like that on Sports Center. But real ballers know who won that game. You know what I'm saying, sir? That's when they get to that. And, you know, you got to make it tough. You got to play the chess match all game with him, even though he got 42. Right. And I made him shoot jumpers all first half.

I'm making his ass drive all next half. Like, you got to play the game with him. And it's about that last one, no matter how many points he got. Yeah. Like, so when I went to college, it's the only thing I could really draw on. It was such a, well, it was hard for me in the league, too. But making that adjustment to seeing a skill, that just didn't exist where I was coming from.

And you made an even bigger leap going straight from college, I mean, straight from high school to the pros. You talk about C-Web. I have to imagine, you know, there was a lot of what was going on in front of you that you were learning on the fly. You can practice as much as you want, but until you see it in a live game scenario, like you don't know. How difficult was that for you?

How prepared were you? How long did it take you to really say, okay, I understand, like, what's going on. I'm speaking this language now. Like, I always play with older cats and what always, I was taught at an early age with older cats and playing with like pros at the early ages. When you're on the quarter, if they pick you or if they have you on your team, you can't fuck up. Right. You got to do all your pluses and all to do that.

So I knew when I got to the league, I was great at playing defense, you know. I know I'm six nine with speed and I know my transition game in the transition. I'm unstoppable. Like my field goal percent, I'm not going to take no shots that I don't do or nothing like that. So I knew my defense would work for me. My offense took a minute.

Okay. To catch up to what was going on. How can I be more affected outside of just transitioning, dunking on brakes, and how can I be effective in the half court? So that was the biggest thing for me to adjust to. What was it like to, you know, you talk about the on-court adjustment,

but you a kid from East St. Louis who gets dropped into L.A. right out of high school and not like the Lakers with a bit more structure and things like that. You on the Clippers of another era. We talked to Q. Rich about this a few weeks ago, but what was it like for you to get dropped in? Had you ever been in L.A. before?

No, I ain't never been to L.A. What was that like then to see all of that? That was crazy. It was a great transition to have it with people I knew like Q, Lamar, seen Elton, all these guys was in the, you know, the AAU ranks.

You know, we all like a year or two ahead of each other, Keion, Corey. I kind of knew these guys, but me and Q was real close because we played together. That was a good transition to have them there,

but now the transition of having veterans and, you know, you're eating right what you actually posed to do. They telling us about a rookie wall and all that stuff. Like, yeah, it was,

man late in that season I ain't never played 82 games and I played a lot of basketball when I was in high school and stuff like that you think you play a lot because you go to the gym and you might fuck off a little bit but you're talking about 82 games yeah no you know what I'm saying veterans would have adjusted to it and so forth oh do you remember so we had the other half of the knuckleheads pod cue rich on what was that about a month ago

Logan about a month ago yeah so he told a story about you all getting in a car driving around Los Angeles. I don't know. He said y'all were just exploring, but you were ultimately trying to get somewhere and fucked around and round up in the wrong spot. And do you remember that?

You remember that? And they ultimately recognized you and told y'all, hey, they recognized what happened? Don't come back here, right? Yeah, they were like, don't go that. What's the full story? What's the full story? Where y'all trying to go?

Where y'all, what wrong turn do y'all make? We just got some rental. We just got a rental, and we just driving, just swinging through it. like we, we, we, we, we, we've never been to L.A. We hood cats and like, when we first get to L.A., you know, L.A. guys got a, we got a country slain us. Some L.A. guys got like a proper, we'll say from where we're from, like a proper, or articulate type tone.

So we're like, man, these guys ain't, you know what I'm saying? So we're riding just anywhere. Yeah. And we wind up seeing the projects and we was just from the, you know, like any, at the crib, just ride through the projects. Like, go and see where our people. at, you know what I'm saying? And...

Does y'all get stopped? Like, what happened? Yeah, they stopped us. You're supposed to, like, you're going too far. You're not supposed to go down there. Turn this around, right here. I'm like, I'm going to pull it down. They're like, nah, right here.

So, wait, did they see you in the car? Like, what's the moment? Because I know, you know, we've all been in a jam right there. Yeah, they're looking all in the car. It wasn't like a... It wasn't no 10 or nothing? No, it's a rental. It's like a small room.

It's too big. Stupid big. dude, we dressed it like girls, you know what I'm saying, that we got you know, hoop gear. And, you know, the draft just happened. We just, we just getting down there and, you know, my face and

Q face is kind of all on the news and stuff. But I guess that's how he recognized it. Because people didn't really know me. I played in the McDonald's game. That was my first national TV game. You know what I'm saying? I didn't think people know me like that, but do recognize me, which is good and got up out of it.

Yeah, that's good. That could have won another way. Yeah, that could have won another way. Yeah, that could have won another. other way. Definitely could have. Like, we realized that we just couldn't just go anywhere in L.A. Like, you had to respect the turf that you was at. Yeah.

Also, L.A. can be confusing sometimes because you think it's, you think it ain't the hood and sometimes it is. Like, you really think it is just like a manicured lawns, its houses, but like you still could be in the wrong neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah. Like, this whole area is hood. You know what I'm saying?

We're all from. But in L.A. at certain places, like, they're two blocks away from. million-dollar house is good neighborhood two blocks over. It's like guys on the street doing their thing, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. D. Miles, when you're in this situation and you have these things going on, what is it like to be an 18-year-old in Los Angeles? Did you see, because you're juxtaposing this with the Lakers,

who, you know, a younger kid like Kobe and has a bit more infrastructure like a Rick Fox and like a Robbordori. Did you ever see that other side and be like, damn, like, it's cool to be with my partners, but I feel like I need a little bit more better in leadership. wish I had a bit more structure like that, or were you, y'all just 18-year-olds as wilding? Yeah, we was wilding. We really wanted to.

We wanted it. Like, we needed a veteran leadership because we, we had a few veterans because you got to realize we had all these guys, which was 21 and older. There's six of us. You know what I'm saying? 21 and older, I mean, 21 and younger, just imagine if they would have spent some money and when they got Tracy McGradie or any of these big time guys and just put a point. Part of take, because none of us was making no money. Right.

They had all the money. Did nobody have a big contract? Everybody was on, like, rookie deals. We was the youngest team ever. This was never done. We felt like a college team playing NBA team. That's why we went so hard. And everybody, like, we just coming here.

Y'all going to have to kick our ass because, you know, we're happy to be here. Yeah. You know? And we're trying to prove to everybody in the league that we can play on this level because we don't got the veteran players that can carry us and take. to the park our veteran was lamar this is the second year yeah we got there yeah and and and i always love la clip lamar over l l l l l l l l l morma clippe l'clock yeah yeah used to busts and oh man okay all right how was that with y'all when he caught when he bounced to the other side i left when he

left okay they traded me when he left they was uh they was expecting to keep him and he got out of and went to Miami. But they traded me for Andre Miller. Oh, yeah, that's my bag. We needed a point guard because they didn't sign, they didn't sign Jeff McGinnon's back. We needed a point guard of veterans. Like I say, we needed some type of veteran.

Remember, Andre Miller was on the worst team in the NBA leading the league and scoring. Yeah. He played with Cleveland. I mean, leading the league and assists. I mean, I mean, I mean, scoring, but leading the league and assists on the worst team in the NBA. So they brought them over there for me.

At what point did you feel like they gave up on Young? because it's a very short window, right? Like, it's a very, you guys are, you guys have a good season, you guys show potential, but again, you guys don't have that veteran leadership. And also the organization is what it is. What was it like, when did you feel like they gave up on this experiment? I don't know.

I think Lamar, Lamar was having a, you know, a problem with the drug program, you know. And that was two years in a row that he had it. You know what I'm saying? So then I was the value. I was the most valued person outside of Lamar on our team. Anybody asked for anybody on the clippers, they was asking for me first.

And wouldn't window for nobody else. No disrespect to nobody else, but they wouldn't window for nobody else. So it was either Lamar go or this go, but they wanted Lamar. Because Lamar was a good player. You know, he was doing this thing. He was leading the team.

He was a beast when he used to give him the rock all the time. sometimes on young teams like that when everybody's kind of in the same stage of their career, there can be a little friction, right? Because, you know, cats, everybody's trying to eat. Everybody's trying to make a name. But then on the flip side, you're all brothers, you're all coming up together, you know each other.

What was that experience? Like, did you all, was there any kind of friction over that? Or was it pretty, hey, everybody could eat. You guys were good? No, I went friction. The friction, if anybody had a problem, it was more towards the coaching staff. Okay.

It went towards us personally. Right. Like, we were so competitive. Y'all would think we didn't like each other how hard we used to go in practice and go. But after that, we used to be with each other every day, all day, all us. Like, not one of them over here, like all us used to be together, eating everywhere we go. But then if somebody didn't play, because, you know, we came up in that area, getting your ass bustin.

And in practice, you probably ain't the one that's going to be playing. So Q used to kill Piedowski in practice. Kill them. You know, our second team was Keion, Earl Boykins, me, McGady, Q, and Sean Rooks. And we used to go against Eldon Lamar, Jeff McGinnis, Ola Candy. We used to fuck them up every day.

You know what I'm saying? Because it was just like that. But when you've seen us on the bench or you've seen us in the game, it was like we're rooting for each other, whether any of us play or not. And that's what was so dope about. None of us ever had a argument.

I don't remember time of fighting or none of that when it came amongst us. Yeah. What was like kicking it off the court for you guys? I mean, all the Clippers in LA, what was that, how was that? What was that vibe like? Like, my mom was out there with me. So, like, my mom used to cook. She was a cooker.

So, like, everybody used to be at my house. What she could. For, like, definitely holiday, everything. Like, anything you tell about, like, cook. And then she started, once you got up to LA, she started seeing more stuff and just opened up the cookbook. start adding stuff to a weapon tribe. But all the hood foods, she had all that.

Some collard greens, some red beans and rice and something like that. Yeah, macaroni and cheese, all that, like that stuff. But all of them used to, I got all the pictures too. All of them used to come over my house and eat all the time because she used to just cook on the regular basin. And that built camaraderie, you know what I'm saying? And then when we was on the row, we all eating together, going out together. Yeah, that's doing everything together.

See, that is interesting, right? Because typically on more well-rounded, if you will, teams, like teams that have different ages and whatnot, that's the duty of a vet, right? Like, I would go to Eric Snow's house for Thanksgiving and whatnot. Like, Aaron McKee and DeKembe and Allen would take us out to dinner. Mike Finley would make sure, you know, that the young cats were fed and taken care of and clothed properly, right?

Like, you guys were really fending for self. Because that's the role of a good vet, you know? But it's good that you had that, you know, because in the absence of having your mom out there and cooking and stuff, y'all have been scattered to the win. For sure. Yeah. Because, like, I really realized once I got traded, I got traded to Cleveland and everybody wasn't as tight. You know what I'm saying? As the team, the previous team, I just left.

I just made it my duty to make sure I went individually and messed with everybody on my team. Let me go out to eat. Oh, y'all over there cooking. I'm going to come over your house. and eat or y'all want to come over my house yeah i made sure i tried to build something with a tin because i know with teens it don't work if you ain't messing with who you rocking with yeah because guys get out there and get fun you're like man why this dude ain't kicking the ball up on the what you mean i just gave him some greens you know what i just gave him you know what

it'd be like that man right don't know you'd be like that it'd be tripp what was it uh you talked about lamar and we all know the career that he ended up having i i gave you the look on a lamar thing because I grew up a Laker fan. So, you know, Laker Lamar is my Lamar. But what was it? I always feel with Lamar that he was a guy that probably could have been the best ever. And it was probably ahead of his time with things that were going on. What was it like playing with a guy like that?

And what was it like kind of seen, you know, the things that kind of went on with him as his career progressed? Man, L.O. L.O.? Man, I'm talking about one of one of the best dudes I ever. I don't know. Best teammates, like, will take the shirt off his back for you, you know what I'm saying? Like, the pressure, like what I say, like, me coming in and they saying them this, we play the same position. It was never a problem. Like, and we just went in each other and we treated each other like brothers. To see him go to L.A., I feel like that was the best situation he needed for himself. Like organizations like Miami and L.A., there were some situations that are A guy like L.O. from the streets that's been through a lot in his life, he needed that structure like that. You know what I'm saying? I feel like that was the best position.

I'm having to see when championships, so forth from. The stuff happened off the court, you know, shit, we live and we learn. Yeah. You know, people don't never know what you're going through or what it is. And you always want to be held at a bigger light. It ain't really about the people talking about you. It's about the people who love you that you feel like you're disappointed. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying to most people. So with him, I'm just glad to see he back out here. Man. He's back to see his face to see him moving around doing this own thing. And hopefully I make the right decision. You know, I'm always here for him. I reach out all the time. You know, I got pictures of his kids when they was baby babies.

So, you know, he's going to be a brother for life. And I'm just glad he's back out here and he's looking good. Yeah. I hope he don't fight, though. I don't want him. boxing. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that.

Yeah, lead that law. Bag time. Time to pay the bills. We'll be back. What's the difference between you talked about you know, being in,

L.O. being in a well-run organization versus like a maybe not well-working organization with the Clippers. Like, what's the difference between that? No, we talk about this all the time on the pod. What's the difference between a well-run organization with structure and one like the Clippers and maybe some of the other teams

that you play for who don't necessarily have that? Like, And we was in 2000. We got drafted in 2000. Everywhere we went, everybody at least had a practice facility. Oh, yeah. Or somewhere they was practice. When we got to the league, we was in a junior college.

Were y'all practicing? We practiced at Southwest College. That's like, oh, my goodness. The Southwest Junior College. Two blocks from, you know, the hood and all that stuff. And, like, we practiced there for, like, the first two years. We didn't have no shout. Like, we had to go home and shout.

What's it like to be in the hood and y'all got, like, y'all got all these cars, y'all got all this stuff that I'm sure the security wasn't great we used to ride past the kids every morning yeah going to practice I used to drive slow you see all the girls you know I'm 18 so this is my age group yeah okay you know ride past slow I had them gold datings what kind of what was you whipping what was you driving then what was you what was you coming to practice in I had an escalate on gold hunting spoke go bees oh everybody in L.A. What color? What color was it? What color was it? It was black and gold. Black trimming and gold with them gold D's on their own. Damn. So look, you left, you left, you left and went to Cleveland, right? Yeah. That was slightly, that was, that was slightly dysfunctional too, no?

Like, that wasn't the, that was slightly dysfunctional. And then, and then. Yeah, the organization wasn't ran the right way at the time either, you know. It was a lot of good people, a lot of good people, but it's like at the time, like every organization, except for like Lakers and certain organization that got that. that instilled in them for years. But, you know, every other organization had the bumps in the road where they go to them years, that shit gets slow. Yeah.

They waste a lot of draft picks, a lot of guys that they picked, they gave up on, they went somewhere else and shined. You know what I'm saying? It's like, they go through it. And I caught Cleveland and that. I got drafted to the worst team in the NBA. Yeah. We make something out of that motherfucker in two years and then I get traded to the worst team in the NBA. Yeah.

Like, it's just good. She, what else else? Listen, I want to know, like, I remember getting traded. Like, I remember being really pissed and really, you know, salty about that because, but I was going from one of the better teams to Charlotte at the time that was a, not a great team. But, like, talk to me about the emotions today. When you got traded for, y'all had built it and now he was like, fuck. Bro, I'm going from L.A. to Cleveland. Damn.

Right. I was in Vancouver doing the movie. I was in Vancouver doing The Perfect Swore. I'm out there all summer. My agents just called me like, man, yeah, they traded you to Cleveland. I was like the worst team in the NBA. He was like, yeah. I was like, for who?

They was like Andre Miller. So Q called me after that was pissed. Like, fuck that. They got to trade me now. I ain't going to be here in this bullshit by this by that. And, you know, it was nothing I could do. You know, you got to respect the game and respect what it is. And like I say, with Cleveland, they weren't in the right place, but they drafted a

bunch of guys that I knew too. Okay. You know what I'm saying? I know Dwayne Wagner. I know, I'm around the circuit of Carlos Booze and Sagana Jop and me and Ricky Davis is cool. You know, I know, I know these guys a little bit. Now, we ain't the best of friends, but, you know, I'm from the circuit. We get down there. It's John Lucas, which is one of the best coaches ever, because he's a real one. And it's like, you know, one of them coaches in a position that they want to lose. LeBron Jay's coming next year.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, they want to lose. How'd that make y'all feel? I've never been in that. I've never been in a situation where you- It made dysfunctional. I never lost the day in my life.

Like, I never lost. Like, so I took pride in not losing and getting my ass kicked. That's how I became who I became. Yeah. So when you get to the level that you get to and then you just on, you see it in all this losing. Like, we won, what the fuck we were?

We won, 17, 18, 17 games out of 82, maybe. That's tough. Seven, that's a lot of fucking losing. Like I'm talking about, man, we're in four quarter like that. What are we doing? Like, we're going to eat? What are we going to eat at? All right.

Because they didn't care. Next thing you know, Lucas is up out of there. You know, you got the interim coach. He finished the season off. And, you know, we get LeBron James. And when you get LeBron James. you got talent around. It's LeBron, me,

Ricky, boozes, Big Zedronis. We got Dwight Wagner coming off the bench, added a few more. Pieces, we was good. They didn't know what to do with it. And this is my guy, too, and I hate to say this about him.

I always be saying that. I hate to say Paul Silas is my guy. I love Paul Solis just because he's a real one, too. But he didn't know what to do with it. He had, I started off at point. I remember Springwell, I remember Spreewell stripped me. Man, Spreewell stripped me.

He was the Knicks. No, he was with Minnesota. Spreveiler stripped me at half court because I'm doing the point guard shit, spinning, spinning. He put that bitch on his name like he was at Golden State. Like, oh, man, I was so pissed. I'm like, why the fucking mind a point guard? Why we ain't letting LeBron be the point guard? Yeah.

But they were scared to put. putting it in his hands that early. So we talked, you brought up LeBron, and I want to just rewind really quickly. I'm sure you're going into Cleveland like a dude that's like, okay, this is my time to,

my time to reach my potential, you know, this is somewhere where I'm trying, this is where, okay, now it's time to average 20, average all these points, and now I'm about to be the all-sor

that I'm supposed to be, right? And so there's this, there's, you know the video, there's this video that comes out that came out and back, and there's you, boozer,

the Cleveland Cavalier is going to prepare for LeBron James, right? And there's you and his boozer and you guys are going to be like it do sound like y'all talking about LeBron. He could fit in and be a role player at some point, right? They make it look like that. It did. I'm just saying that's what it looked like, okay, yes. But even if that was the case, I could, were you in that mindset, we're like,

no, it's time for me to be an all-star. It's time for me to do these things. And then LeBron comes. What was the, what was, tell me about the video and what was the true intent of the video when you guys were interviewed for that? I play for the cab. Yeah. I play for the calves.

Yeah. I went to damn there every LeBron James game this year they would. I'm in the stands holding up the fucking LeBron James sign. I met his things. I went over his house for Thanksgiving and had dinner. I know dude. I go and hoot with him at Save Vince. I know dude.

If anybody want him to come here, it's me. You know what I'm saying? But like, you know, they put it out there like that and so forth on. cool. Like, LeBron is a good dude. I always been a good dude. I always been my guy. Never act funny towards me. Every time I see him, he asks about me, my mom in the same way I do with him. Yeah. So when I see that clip, or if anybody just even got it

misconstrued, they got a trading card, upper deck card that says, with a quote from me saying that, oh, LeBron James is going to be the next Magic Johnson. But they don't never show that. But, you know, with him, it's like anybody that. They want controversy and they want all that extra stuff. But real ones, though, I don't got to sit here in Flan and that was me saying it. When did y'all, like, in those, in the runs in Akron? When did, when did you know that that was something different?

Like, oh, I could tell you that. I went to, I remember the first run. I went down there, you know, when I went there, you know, they give me the guys. You go in the gym, they give me the little side guys. And, you know, they keep their little crew. Right. They, they, high school team, they went to state, damn their four years in a row, one, three of them. Like, they didn't really know how to play with each other and play.

So, you know, I get the rest of the guys, you know, they play on my team. I'm going to LeBron. I'm going at him. He ain't really stopped me or nothing like that, but it was something about him just the way he played, the way they played, and how he orchestrated. And then it was like the last game we was playing. And he was at the top of the key, and he tried to pull me back. And I got all the opponent. I moaned.

He shot the three. I passed him. I put my hand on the ball. He adjusted. Cash. And it went in for game. I said, yeah. He won them.

So you knew he was different when as soon as that happened? Yeah, when that Pacific, like my home boy was there. Because I used to call my homeboys back home. It's like, man, this dude named LeBron. James, he's probably the best high school player I ever see. No, no he ain't, G. No, he ain't better than you, G. I ain't never seen nobody better. I'm talking about arguing with my own people about me and somebody else.

I'm like, nah, this dude is throwing in between this legs dunking that motherfucker. He's doing everything. Yeah. And, yeah, when I, he did that, I finally went to play with him, and Rich Paul introduced me to Levin. When Rich Paul to do with the judge, he had the swag and stuff, he was This was the dude with the jersey. He used to hang out with my best friend, like, every day at my house down there. Okay.

And he had to hook up on jerseys. Like, Rich used to, you know, take me every, the cool spots where everybody's supposed to be. You want to go and buy your throwbacks? Go here. You want to go over here, go here. He the one put me up on LeBron to go see him and have me at games and stuff. So did you know even Rich Paul was going to be one of them dudes, like one of those connected types? No, but that's why I'm proud of LeBron and I'm proud of him.

I'm proud of how they crew, how they took care of each of. All the millionaires over there. Yeah. Like one thing I say about LeBron, I say this all the time is like, I'm three years in the league and when this boy walked in that gym, he was way more mature than me. Really? Like way more mature than me. How so?

Just the way he carried itself, what he did. Like I'm still wild and straight from the hood, doing ghetto hood, going to spot that don't pose to be. I'm the highest pick at the time. I'm supposed to carry myself in this league the way he came in that league and carried this stuff. I mean, he's from the hood too, right? Like, he was from Akron, too, right? Yeah, but it's just it's a maturity about yourself.

That's why I was just saying. Like, I still was immature. I still might throw attention to tamp. You know what I'm saying? He carried this stuff like a professional coming straight out of high school. Like I said, I'm three years in. Yeah. And he's way more mature than me. What was that first game like in Sacramento for y'all? Because, I mean, we know we

went to the preseason, but that first game, everybody was watching it. They did the commercial about, he had to go to sack early to do the Nike commercial, but there was just so much anticipation in that King's game. What was that like for you to be just his teammate and see him going through all that? I was hype.

I was hype for that game. I was ready to go national TV. I was hype for him. I was hyped for the team. I was hyped for us. You know, we just got the scheduleers out. We know we're going to be on TV a bunch of times. You know what I'm saying?

It's like I just went from winning 17 out of 82 to we wanted the highest team. So I'm happy about it. It wasn't the worst games I had, but LeBron, he put on the show, like, on the show. And that's why I felt like, man, if they were to gave him the ball early. Yeah. Like, Paul Siler gave him the ball, we was running like a, we was running Utah offense. Like, he was like at the three, right? Wasn't Brian at the three guys?

We was running, we were, where your four and five is on the, on the preto line and all that. And two guards on the, two wings on the, two wings, you're a CLA cut. It slowed me, he had, at point going, that slowed me down. so and it slow all us down because it's me, LeBron and Rick. You can't get out and do nothing in that. You can't get out and run. I can't kick ahead. I got to stop and set it up. I got to wait from the big

man to run all the way down and then come back to the Freethon line. But y'all about to get me ripped out here. I can dribble, but damn. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's the type they didn't know. Right. Y'all should have just been running. You also just been running and gunning. We played the clippers off,

because that was one thing about the clippers that we did. Like, they used to tell me, man, get out the board push. Yeah. You push. Don't kick it up, push. Right. We want you to push.

And, you know, you got put up with, like, LeBron and all that. We would have pushed or Don Nelson was coaching their team or something like that. Yeah. Imagine what he would have did. Yeah. We and Rogers talked about this in the pre-pod meeting about you playing Summer League the year before, the year that LeBron came in and got drafted. You were playing Summer League in Orlando.

What went into that decision? Because Roger kind of put me up on game back. Because I fuck with LeBron. Okay. All right. Because LeBron is my guy. I mess with him. Then my guys, like, I wasn't tripping that I was three years in the league and none of that stuff.

I wasn't in that era at a more. It was like, man, yeah, I'm going. Come on. I want to rock with you. We're going to play together. Yeah. So it's like, get it early. Yes.

I had this conversation with Logan when he asked me. And I said, during that era, you could be three years in and it wasn't offensive to go fucking around in summer league. Like, for the reasons you just spoke about, maybe you wanted to get some extra touches, get some shots. up in the offense that you don't get normally in the regular season. But nobody was offended or looked at you sideways because you were playing in Summer League. Like, Katz now, if they ask you to play in year two are so offended, it's not an offensive thing. It's just a work.

Yeah. I didn't play Summer League my first year. Like, they didn't make us play Summer League our first year. Then the second year, they asked us and me and Q love the hoop. It's in Long Beach. Come on. Let's go on rock. We rock.

Have fun. Balled out. We shoot the balled. all the time, calling ourselves Jojo and Kiki pull them. We pull it all the time. It's out here for us, so we're shooting everything. So then when LeBron came and it was this year after then LeBron came, it was a no brain. It was like, yeah, let's rock out.

Like I'm going, I'm going to go and rock with him because like I said, I already was rocking with dude. And I ain't take offense to it when the coach asked and I was with it. Yeah. I wanted to anyway. What may happen for you to leave then, right? Because it seems like I said, like a nucleus, you know, What happened there?

Like I said, I started the season off at point guard. I'm a point four, but, you know, point four really don't run point guard. Right. But I had to start off the season at point guard, which was totally I wasn't prepared. And I guess I wouldn't be in the best point guard out there or so forth on. So he started to bitch me, not to the point where he bish me, where he didn't play me. I never played in my life where a coach didn't play me. I always felt like I was one of the most talented guys on any team I played on.

that I deserved to play. So he benched me for eye renewable. I don't remember this. He benched me for eye renewable, and he started, I think, J.R. Bremer. They benched me, and I just lost. I wasn't in the right mind. Did you spiral at that point?

Did you like? Yeah, I was still. I was still. I was being totally unprofessional, you know, talking to folks crazy, but I'm 20 years old, 21 years old, I'm four years in league. I still don't know. Yeah.

And I don't hear any veterans at that point. Yeah, I ain't never been on the team with a fucking veteran. Yeah. And, you know, they got me about that, which I was happy because I wanted to go. But then I'm going to Portland with Jeff McGinn's. I'm like, man, she, Wallace, Zach Randolph. They made the playoffs 22 years in a row. I get their sheet up out of that motherfucker.

And that's the, in 22 years, they make the playoff. Yeah. Are you, at this point, are you searching for like, yo, bro, like, I'm searching for, winning. I'm sort of doing with an environment. Let's get it. The whole time. In Cleveland, it was contracts too. Because it's like, man, like, this is my third year and y'all. How am I getting benched my third? You know, it's time to get that bag. It's my fourth year. It's time to get this bag. Like, all for some. So it's like, I can't do that by sitting on the bench. We're going off and be a bag. Yeah. So they traded me and I played good for four than a half a year.

And, you know, that's tough. I just, I really don't have a question. But I say this all the time around the draft. It's so important to land in a good, stable, professional environment. Because it can, it doesn't, if you don't, it doesn't mean that you can't have a great career. But if you, it helps if you have that stability. If you're taught early how to be a pro. If you have people who are pros that you can model yourself after, it is really hard. I wasn't, like, D.M.

I couldn't even imagine at your age. I came into the league after two years in the CBA, five years in college. So I'm probably 23 years old. I still was a jackass. Like, I still didn't know how to be a pro. I was still immature. And it took me two more years to really settle down. And that's what being around good people.

So it's valuable. Like people, you know, I always tell people when their draft stock is slipping and they might fall lower in the job. I'm like, I'm like, though, it's going to be straight because you're going to go to a place where they're going to set you up foundationally to have some success. You might not hit right away, but you'll be all right. Yeah. Yeah. That's real. I mean, yeah.

It just seems like when I think about your career, I'm like, bro, like, D. Miles was dope. D. Miles was cold. I just feel like if they put you, like, say, if you went on the Lakers instead of the Clippers to start your career, if Pada would have went, do you ever think about that? It probably would have went a bit different. Yeah, I do. I think about it.

Because every team I went to, I'm catching these organizations in the rebuild stands. Every organization I'm going to is in the rebuild stage. Yeah. Like I say, I got to Portland. That's two teams that were the worst. Then I get to Portland and they made the playoffs 22 years in a row. I know the history of the game. I know how close Portland got to beating the Lakers and Clyde Drexel and Williams, Kevin

Doe-you know what I'm saying? I know the history of Portland. To get there and I'm excited. Like, man, I'm finally fined to play with some veterans. I got famous Stadamire, Dirk Anderson, Zeebo, she here, Rubin Patterson. I fit in perfectly. I instantly started at the three, fit in perfectly. Right away.

Yeah. Everything. And before that, she wanted to get out of there, so they was just tricking off games. I remember, like, in a two-week span or something like that, we went on, like, a 12 games. Like, we won, like, 12 out of 15 or something like that. You got traded to 0-4, right? Yeah, I think it was 0-4. Okay.

And then he went to the pistons, like, during that stretch. Yep. And they won chapter. And that's why I just said that about that piston team, I was like, man, like, she went over there. You got Ben Wallace, Zeevo. Tashon, Prince. Prince me, D.A. Rip Hamilton, Chansy Bill is David Stadamai. I was like, man, I want to play.

Because like I said, we had that stretch when we played so good and we beat teams like the Lakers, the top teams, Spurs. You know what I'm saying? We went on the East Coast and knocked stuff down. I was like, man, I'm finally on, that two weeks I finally felt winning. Yeah. And then she got trained and it was just like, oh. What was it like to be on a team with that stigma of? like weed or whatever, right? Because let's be real, man. Everybody smoked weed,

especially around that time. You know, you got the jail blazers, you got all these things. And why do you think that y'all were such a target towards that type of stuff? And we even talked about Lamar Odom

prior in this thing about his drug stuff. But like, if it's weed, we have such a better understanding about it right now. Why do you think y'all were just targeted about what y'all did and, you know,

getting in trouble so much on that team? Well, that was there before I even got the But I got to add it to it because I'm just, I fit the description. So I got to add it to it. But you're in a town that's probably 10%, 15% black. Yeah.

Like you'll be there for six, seven months. And only black people you might see is your teammates. You know what I'm saying? Like you really ain't running into a bunch of black people. This is not this type of town. So the only thing in this town is this. And guys weren't carrying. And they, you know, that's news.

There's nothing going on. The suicide rate is high than the murder rate, you know? Yeah. Like, it was just different out there. So I've seen it coming and, you know, we targets, you know. We got different kind of cars as everybody. You know, I know they got something. It's like we weren't doing the most craziest things.

Did you feel like you were getting targeted by not only law enforcement but like people, did you, could you sense that when you were like even driving around and stuff? Follow you, follow you home. Be sitting at the street. You know you come down all the time. Like, you'd be having to adjust the way you ride. And it turned music down a little bit or something like that, right? You had to like, yeah, okay.

Yeah, like, but that's anywhere, you know, that's anywhere when it's, you know, it's like that. But that's just what it was. But I'm loving how they're embracing. Like when B. Roy Nell came, it was like, man, they started embracing. The B. Royne them came and started winning. Lamarckis Ars Nell came in and started winning. And since then, they've been embracing.

You ain't heard no jailblazers or nothing like that because it was just like, man, they was in the mold. Yeah. Off of somebody getting pulled over for weed or somebody getting pulled over for this or that. Like, what happened for real? Yeah. I'll talk about some weed. It's legal, nah.

So you look back on it, be like, man, y'all should. Y'all should do that in the dirt and kept a movie. Yeah. Straight up. It always is an interesting case study when you talk about the jailblazers in particular. Like when you talk about just a stigma, of you guys had. I mean, I know you came on the back end, but do you think that hurt, you know,

like, because you're trying to get a bag at that point, do you think that that hurts your stock or whatever? Not to say you were just involved. I got my back because, you know, I came in and just played hard and did what I needed to do, but it's hard. Because, you know, like, the organization is afraid of these media outlets, you know, they don't want the, you know what I'm saying? They don't want nothing that's going on with stuff.

And I'm not saying I'm an answer. I'm not saying that I ain't did nothing wrong, but I'm just saying like, you know, it's just crazy when you get an organization and if you don't have an organization that got your back as a player, like what else you're supposed to do with the meeting? Yeah. You know, if they have been more protective. Not saying that they can save every player because sometimes they fuck up too much, but you can't say yourself. Yeah. But, you know, it is feel good to have an organization that fight for you and be like, nah, but I like these organizations, these days. You're seeing that a lot more.

Well, you see the organization tweet something like, Yeah. This ain't it. Like, how the fuck are you going to label us the jailblazers, bro? Like, think about that shit. And think that shit okay. And think it's okay. A whole bunch of black dudes, you call them a jailblazers.

You got a white guy on the table. And you called a jailbladder. Nobody ever said anything about that. They like that shit was cool. It wasn't. I mean, even if y'all got in trouble like that, like just the stigma around black folks in jail is just out of pocket, you know? Man.

It was totally off. Like I said, I came into it. And like I said, I fit the description. But it's cool. I'd rather stand with my people and then stand alone. Yeah. Now, did you go to the projects as soon as you went to Portland? Did you do the same thing?

Or did they get into the budget? Well, there didn't have no projects. Like I said, you barely seen a black person. You've seen somebody in a grocer store. They look like they, look, I'm following them. You'll never see them around here like that. That's interesting. Like we, so, because, you know, I played in Utah.

D. Miles for four, four years. And I mean, I don't have extensive, like, experience in Portland, but Utah sounds just about the same where, like, unless you're at the barbershop or you're in the locker room, you probably aren't seeing another black face. Utah was kind of different though because they loved the jazz so damn much that, you know what I mean? Like they- It's fraternity.

Once you were part of- You were good. You were good. So it was a little different, but kind of the same, the same. thing where like you were very aware of like, damn. You know, and my folks would come to town, like my mom and dad. Because you get used to that shit. Like, I'm looking around like, this is what I see every day.

But my folks would come to town and they'd be like, I haven't seen a black face today. I'm like, fuck. Like, that's, you're right. I just overlooked that shit because I'm in it every day. Yeah. And you're coming from East St. Louis. Yeah.

It's 99% black. You know, they didn't see no other race. Teachers or nothing. You don't really be like that. But like, like, Shee Wallace is one of my favorite player. And he, it was like, man, the way they label him because he got a technical file, like he just committed a crime or something. It's like, man, he never got in trouble for real off the court. They targeted sheep, bro.

They targeted him. And it was just like, man, and that's his reputation. And they try to make his reputation and make it saying like, this man is just a bad guy. But anybody who ever played with him been around him or anything, love him there. Solid. But that's how they'll do you. Damn. So, yeah, man.

What can we expect from the Knuckleheads podcast next season, man? Because, you know, I'm avid listener. I don't know, you got Weber. You asked Steve Francis. Y'all had some great gets. Kobe is the one. What can we expect for this upcoming season of Knuckleheads, man? Just saying positive energy, good stories, good vibes, and just bringing some of them

locking its minds out. Like, I want not things be big on not just going to get people that's everybody that want to see and everybody remember, but them guys that real ballers respect. Yeah. You know, and them type of guys, them type of guys that we really want to kind of continue to bring out and just show off their game and show why we thought they were special. Shail, man. That's what I'm sure. All right, man, like we do every single week with our guests.

We have to give a real one of the week out. I will go first. It is a person and entity or an organization that won the week. Mine, it's kind of a somber one. You know, I'm known to the somber ones. I just want to give a shout out to Jamal Murray, man. That hurts, bro. I heard he injured himself last, the other night.

And it really messes up the Denver's chances in the West. But more so, man, that's one of my favorite players in the league to watch, and it sucks to see him go down like that. So my real one of the week to start, man, is Jamal Murray. Get better, bro. DeMiles, who is your real one of the week? My real one of the week is my clipper brother, Paul George, last four games.

He's been averaging, like, 35, going to work on folks. I think they're going to make a push for that chip. So we go see. Shout out to Paul Joy. Okay. Who's your real one of the week, Roger? My real one of the week is one primetime Dionne Sanders, Fort Myers' very own. Head coach at Jackson State University.

So they lost the other day to Alabama A&M. It was a TV game. Pretty cool to see the two HBCU's going at it on primetime. But the real one for me was postgame when they asked him about what was going on and halftime when he pulled no punches and he just gave it to you real. It wasn't that bullshit like coach talk that you get typically where they're saying a bunch of stuff but ain't saying shit. Like he actually let it out and critiqued his team

and called out what they weren't doing. And I appreciated that. So real one, Dionne Sanders. There's a dope game. Yeah, yeah. Make sure y'all check out knuckleheads wherever you get podcasts and y'all got the video element on YouTube. Make sure you check that out.

Make sure you check out all of our ringer pods on the ring. Ringer MBA feed. That's group chat. That is mismatch. That is the answer. That is, and then go check out our other podcast. Ringer Music Show and R2C2 with who, Raja?

Vallejo legend. C.C. Sabathia. Damn right. And make sure you check out Black Girl's song, but we will see you guys on Monday. Talk to y'all soon.