The Ringer NBA Show - Ep. 26: Kobe Stories, TV Shows, Building a Superteam, and More With Roy Hibbert and Tate Frazier

Episode Date: August 3, 2016

The Ringer’s Tate Frazier and Roy Hibbert discuss the two-time NBA All-Star’s low-key offseason, his favorite Kobe Bryant farewell tour tales, the superteam Hibbert would construct to defeat the Warriors, and his favorite television shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get started today on the Ringer NBA show, The Ringer now has merch. Go to bitly.com slash Ringer merch where you can find shirts and hoodies. A portion of the proceeds from each purchase will benefit charity water, a non-profit organization that provides clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Again, go now to B-I-T-L-Y.com slash Ringer merch today. Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Tate Fraser. I'm a producer for the ringer

and I'm sitting here with the big stiff. Not anymore though. He's grown up and now he's in Charlotte, North Carolina, playing for Michael Jordan, the greatest of all time. Roy Hibbert, how you doing, man? I'm good. So when you sign with Charlotte,

you signed a one-year deal about a $5 million contract. One guy's place that you've kind of, you kind of knocked his spot in 2007. Tyler Hansborough. I'm a UNC guy. Oh. So you beat Hansbrose as a lead A team

and now you just took a, his roster spot. Did I tell? I don't think I don't think I don't think I don't think he did but no I uh no I love Tyler he's not one of the funniest guys but he he he's uh he's like chuck Norris I mean the guy's crazy he used to pull a car up Franklin Street in Chapel Hill used to tape he used to have an escalate on his back and we're just walking up the street oh really yeah he's a weird I mean it's crazy no but he he he would always go to dinner he'd be like a he'd always he would be always down to hang out, but he wouldn't talk much.

I used to say he used to probably go home and sit in front of a wall and stare at the wall after practice. Like True Detective Season 1? Yeah, probably. But I wish him the best. He's the player of the decade of college. Yeah, I think I saw.

He's like the Tim Tebow of college basketball. So have you been to Charlotte yet? How are you feeling about the Hornets? The Hornets are looking good. They have a really good core group of athletes, a good coach. One of the biggest things for me was playing for a mature group, Batum, you know, Kemba, MKG. You know, so yeah, those is, you know, playing with that.

You know, it's kind of, last year was kind of tough playing with like a young group of guys on the team. Yeah, so just the transition between that last season having to be like a veteran in the locker room. Yeah, it was tough. I mean, David West always took. told me when I was in, when we were in the locker room as a team, like you never know if you'll ever get back to that point. So, and, you know, you think it's a foregone conclusion. All right, you know, I'm a good player.

I'm on a good team. We're going to make it to the playoffs. But when you're on a team that we, I don't even know, we won, like, what, 11 games, 13 games? I don't know. 17? I don't know. You beat the Warriors. I guess so.

That was a great win. I guess so. Be proud of that, Roy. You beat, they won 73 games. You did it. I give you credit. I guess so. If you want to say,

they didn't want a championship. I'll say by myself. I'll yell it to everyone. I'm fine. I guess if you want to make that an accomplishment, you know, we beat one team. I guess that's fine.

But no, it was definitely, it was definitely tough. I need a Kobe Bryant story. And Kobe, I have a tortured pass with him. He was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and then demanded to trade.

And then went out there. and took all Jordan's moves, tried to get six championships. So me personally, you know, I have some Kobe and Amosti, but you are his teammate. You've seen them up close in person. Mm-hmm. I just need one story. All right. So, so when we, so say today, what's today, Thursday, we have a game, let's just say

in Golden State tomorrow. So we. A team that you beat last season just to remind everyone. All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah.

So, yeah. we're in golden state so if a game in golden state we're in l.a so we'd have practice at like like 11 we'd have practice at 11 and then you know practice is mandatory for some so no for some yeah so we have practice at 11 say 11 to like 12 30 and then like 2 30 or like you know 2 o'clock we got to be on the plane to fly out to golden state right so we're on the we're on the plane and, you know, all the guys but cope. And so we're sitting there. And usually, like, if you don't make it to the plane, you get fined and they leave you.

Then you got, it's up to you to get to the city. So if Ryan Kelly's late, he's getting fine and they're leaving him. Yeah, they're leaving. So you got to pay for his own flight to whatever city we're in. Yeah, he's not coming. So, but it's different with some people. So, and this is, this is a funny story. So it should be like illustrations if you guys ever, you know, put this on.

line. If I could draw, I draw it. You gotta have some illustration. I draw them right now. So we're all at the, so we go through security. We're all sitting on a plane 2 o'clock we're supposed to take off, right? 215, we're also on the plane. Everybody's ready to go.

2.30, you know, we're, you know, like, what the hell? You know, we're going. You know, sometimes Kobe will meet us in the whatever city. Yeah. You got his own plane. Yeah, he's, yeah, he PJs from time to time, you know. So he's a busy man. So we're on the plane.

Private jet. Yeah, everyone. Yeah, there we go, yeah. So, so we're, so he, he, he, he, I won't say where he lives. He has access to like a helicopter. So we're, so we're, so our plane is sitting right here, right? And the, so sitting there. And then, you know, we have the windows on both sides.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden we see Cobb's helicopter land like 50, 50 yards away, right? And then, make sure you get this on the illustration. Yeah, I'm, I'm already putting, this is mental imagery in my head right now. So when we, when you charter flights, what they do is they have like a little van that carries like the pilot and the stewardesses from whatever part of the other plane that they just came from, right? They shuttle them over there.

Yeah. So we're sitting there and all of a sudden, you know, his plane lands 50 yards away and we see the shuttle just like go drive 50 yards to like get them. I'm like, we're all on the plane like. It's like not that far of a walk. This may not get walk half a football field. Yeah. So it's like it's probably not even 50 yards.

So we can see security gets out. You know, Kobe gives the security his bags and then they get in the... So he won't even carry his bags. I mean, this particular time. I don't know. So this is every time. But yeah, and then he gives the bags and then, you know, and then he gets on the van, in the van, drives 50 yards. And then we're all like, yo, this is crazy.

This is COBRA. Yeah. Big time, you know. So when he walks in, he has to... I bet he didn't wear his seatbelt. He has his shades on and he walks in, you know, and look, you know, he's Kobe. He's always dressed to impress and everything. He got his cobes on.

And then we all started to say, we were going to clap. So we started clapping for him in everything like that. Then he, like, he lowers his shades. And he was just like, you know, what's y'all clapping for? And he was just like, yeah, man, like, see you coming down in a helicopter looking good. He was like, man, y'all should be happy I'm on this goddamn plane flying with y'all, you know? Shit, you should be happy I'm here, you know? shit he he um there's stories that i won't tell but that's that's a funny one right there

because you know if there's any lakers aren't going to leave cobe you know we're going to wait forever long we need to wait you know it was during during the season was uh his farewell season we would be a lot of he's got a lot of love from former make for athletes we remember we're in phoenix and um after the game like larry fitzgerald walks into the to lock room and then we're on the bus like waiting to go, you know? Yeah. And they're just chopping it up, you know,

having good time talking and, you know, the bus we're supposed to leave at a certain time, but, you know, we leave whenever... We leave when Kobe finishes the conversation. When Kobe's ready, so... But no, he's definitely somebody that I will never forget playing with.

I bet. Yeah. It's a ton of shots to watch. You can never forget that. I was really happy for him. That last game, like we knew going in what it was and he missed his first couple, but then he

got into his rhythm and we were just feeding him the whole time. It was just, it was tough hearing guys, people in the stands behind this yelling like, Kobe can't do everything. Pick up the slack. I'm all looking back like, motherfucker, you know, we're trying to pass this man the ball every time so he can go out

on the high note, you know, why are you giving us a hard time? You know, we're doing this on purpose. You know, we want to see the man go out on a high note. Great game playing by Byron Scott. that night. I bet he coached his ass off. Yeah. B. Scott's my man. But no, Cobb came out in the first half and then subbed himself back in and then he wanted

to play the whole second half, you know? So, but yeah, it was definitely a game that I'll never forget. And I said this after the locker room, after the game in the locker room, I was happy to be able to breathe the same air as Cove that night, you know? He's always on a different altitude. Even when he's on a bus 50 yards away from the plane. Yeah. I mean, the love that he's

got was crazy. And it was, it was like, we were obviously celebrating the locker room. We won a game and then Kobe's last game. And then I remember there was, I had to go get something signed. Everybody gets something signed from Kobe. He was just signing things like crazy. Of course. So I got a, I got a couple of shoes, a jersey, a couple jerseys, you know, to say for

myself, you know. What kind of shoes? I got like some. Your Nike signed, right? He did not. He did not. He's not signing Adidas shoes. No, he's not signing Ditas.

He said anybody who won shoes, you know, I should have asked them. He was given away game-worn shoes before the Philadelphia game after he said he was going to retire. After that, I guess he had a contractual thing with, so all his game-worn shoes had to be given. He would wear like two or three. So he'd give one to make money for, you know, autographs or whatever. You know, he'd have an autograph deal. And then he would give one to the best player in the opposing team or whatever like that. You know, so I should have gotten one of those, but he gave me one in his size.

Not worn, but it's in the house. And I'm going to put that, get that boxed up and everything like that. So what I was going to say was it was, it's crazy that there was, I had to go run to go get something signed. I'm about to leave the locker room. And there's a long line of people. The media is there. It's that. And I'm walking out.

We're just, we're drinking like champagne crazy. You're just like we want a chip. Yeah. That's all Kobe wanted. Yeah. You've seen the pictures of us in the locker room. And then so I'm walking out. And then there's like a long, you know, long wait.

And I'm looking like, yo, they're making Kanye West wait in line to get into the locker room. And they made them weight like anybody. I'm like, yo, they're doing easy wrong right now, man. That's when he didn't feel like Pablo and or coach. So I said, man, you know, you got to usher Yeezy in. He's a man. You know? So I went up to Yeezy.

I mean, I went up to Kanye and was like, yo, I love your music, man. I had a couple drinks. I was on an empty stomach too. So I was like, you were a champagne.

I was in a different level. So he was like, yo, hebering, you know, I met Kanye. That's crazy. You know,

I'm a big fan of, you know, of Kanye. So, but yeah, that's that. Did you ask him if you could have a party in L.A.? He said no more parties in L.

Yeah, sure. He did say that. But no, yeah. Just didn't know if it's definitive or not. No, yeah, probably no more parties in L.A. So, but nah, got to meet Kanye, got to play a year with Kobe, you know?

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meetundies dot com slash mba show that's meetundies dot com slash nba show for 20% off your first order meundies dot com slash n b a s h o w go now all right so roy the ringer dot com which is the site that i work for and isabella and joe all work We had this $15 budget, basically. The Warriors have created what they call it a super team. I don't know if you've heard the New York Knicks also created a super team, but we're going to keep this strictly to the Warriors for now. Sorry, Derek.

You have $15 budget. LeBron is technically $7. And then there's a group of players that are $5, $4, $3, $2, and then $1 is anyone else in the NBA. $15 budget, you're going to build your team to beat the Warriors. What's your roster? All right, so seven off the bat for LeBron. So LeBron's off.

So we basically have $8 to play with right now. I'm taking myself out of the contention. Can't believe that. I'm really hurt by that. So I get a center. I would probably, I would take DeAndre. Oh, my God. Or I like Gobert.

Because it's the way how the NBA is going, you just need a five that can just catch lobs and his block shots. Move his feet on the perimeter. Don't know. Doesn't need any post moves. So I'd take Gobert. Boom.

That's like a little shade too. I like that. No post moves. Well, he has. He has. But you know, you don't, you know, if I wanted somebody with post moves, I'd say Brooke.

You know, I'd take Brooke, you know. You really biased to your own draft. But yeah, but, you know, but Brooke doesn't bring it as much as I would feel rudy on the defensive end because, so, so yeah, I have, so that's what, nine bucks right there nine bucks yeah let me get uh so i got lebrown play the play three who would be my four

i would take uh chris bosh at the four wow so that's pending chris bosh is playing if his health is good he has two he has two championships right there yeah what does that lead me you know firsthand yeah so that's 12 right there yeah bucks yeah um we got three more dollars at this point? Yeah. This is a tough. I like where your head's at, Roy. You're going on.

And he's shooting. Yeah, you got to get some jumpers out there. So I take Bradley Beal. What's his dollar value? Two. So we got one dollar left? One dollar left. And we got four players, right?

Yeah, so I take the $1 left as anybody else in the NBA. Who's your PG? Who's going to guard Stefan Curry with $1, Roy? Possibly the greatest player in the NBA right now. He's going to get off no matter. or what? So it doesn't matter. You're just like, I don't care.

He's going to get his points. He's going to make sure everybody else doesn't get off as well. I got my pitch for your point guard. Who? Isthmith. Give me the fastest guy in the league. If you want to, yeah, Ishmish can be on my team, you know. There you go.

Fastest guy in the league. Fastest guy in the league. Run Stefan Curry to death. Yeah, maybe. I like that team. Yeah. Basically, you're just banking on LeBron. LeBron.

Yeah. And Chris Bosch. Chris Bosch. Chris Bosch could hit three, stretch the court. Yeah. So you wanted everyone in Miami, Bud, D. Wade. Is D. Wade even You cut D-Wade? I didn't make

the team, Roy. You just cut it. You got to be smart when you spend your money. Yeah, that's true. This is very economical by you. Well, let's get off the hardwood for a little while. And let's talk about, I know you're a big fan of television. You've been on Parks and Recreation with

Miles Plumley, who's also a big movie star, I think, right? I mean, I, um, the way how Miles got on that episode was, so I've done a couple episodes with Parks and then they're filming in Indiana, the rest around St. Elmo's,

and then they said, hey, we want you for the scene and Miles was my rookie. So, you know, he'd do things for me. I love that. So I said, hey, you know, Rook, there's an opportunity. We have practice at one. I think it was pre-seasoned, so

we only had an afternoon practice at like 3 o'clock. So I was like, all right, or one or 3 o'clock. And I said, all right, they're filming at like 10 o'clock. you want to come. And so he was like, yeah. That was very nice of you. You're a great veteran.

Most veterans are like, you want to be on TV with me. They're like, go get me water. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah.

So I mean, he probably got me some water at some point that day too. Good. I hope so. But, but no, he,

so he came out. We, you know, he got to meet the cast. We did the, I did the line or two. And then we went off to practice. But,

but no, he's a, he's a good guy. Did you have any input on your lines? They just give you a script. and like this is what you're going to say really here. This is the script, but filming with Aziz and Ben Schwartz and those guys, those are the scenes that I was in a couple years ago,

the first two hours were just by the script, and then they did like an hour of just off the top of the head, and most of the stuff that was off the top of the head made it to the episode, and not a lot of the script stuff did. Would you go to the Snake Hole Lounge, in your free time? Just as Roy Hibbert, the person. Probably if it ever existed.

Yeah, it should exist. John Ralphio is an incredible character. Ben's my guy. Yeah, so are you like friends real life? You hang out with him? Yeah, he has an improv group that he performs with on Sundays at UCB. And, yeah, upright citizen brigade, yeah.

So, yeah, I go there from time of time and watch him perform on Sundays. Do you envy? Do you have some, is there something deep inside you that you're like, man, I can do this comedy thing. I can get these chops out. It takes balls to get up there and what you think is funny. It's going to make other people laugh. So I'm not there yet. But yeah, maybe, maybe one day. I want to go up there with them at some point. I saw somewhere you were saying that you love cartoons. I love cartoons too. But you said you wanted to be a voice of a cartoon, I think, in like a Rolling Stone. piece maybe a couple years ago. Is there a cartoon that you're watching right now and you're thinking that's not the voice? This should be Roy Hibbert. This should be me. I mean at the time I had come off with Parks and Rec and...

You were a star. I wouldn't go that far. You were a TV star. But there was a couple offers for like one of those ensemble like 20 people in a romantic comedy type of thing. Yeah. I said, you know, my agent, that's not a good look. Was it like Valentine's Day or something? It might have been something like that, but it was something, and I said, you know, no. And I said, you know, I would love to, like, take voice acting lessons just to see, you know, if there's a future with that. But then, I said, you know, a basketball. I lived in Indiana during the summer, so it was, there was no chance of really studying that out in indie. So, but maybe now I'm in L.A.

It was, what's your, what's your, like, go-to cartoon? Are we talking, like, Tom and Jerry throwback, Looney Tunes? Are we talking modern day, like South Park? Family guy. Family guy. The Comedy Central, whatever stuff. More like the dark... Futurama.

Futurama. Than the type of stuff. So Simpsons. But more of the adult stuff more than, you know, obviously like Arthur or like Kai Yu or whatever. You just throw shaded, Arthur. I mean, he's hurt my childhood. But I used to watch that as a kid, but no. But no, yeah, more I would love to have like a sit down with like,

Seth McFarland. It's the biggest brain just to, you know, because his stuff is hilarious. Yeah, you could easily be a family guy character. I mean, they're scrambling right now. They need you, Roy. I don't know. This is your time. Maybe you can happen.

We'll put the pitch out. Yeah. Roy Hibbert as Roy Hibbert as voiced by Roy Hibbard. Yeah. There you go. That's the move. I know your, your Twitter handle is Roy Meets World. And obviously that's sort of a throwback to Boy Meets World.

Yeah. Were you a big Nickelodeon Disney Channel kid? Well, when I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so I only had, like, basic TV. So it was like... Basic cable. That's what it's about. Yeah, basic cable was like nine or, like, nine channels or whatever. So, I used to watch TGIF on Fridays.

Same. Great. So, yeah. I thought the restaurant and the TV lineup were the exact same thing. I thought it was like a dual franchise. What do you mean? Like, you know, TGIF? Oh, yeah.

I thought it was the same thing. I thought they were to get... I thought ABC owned everything. I was a Disney kid. I was going to do. Maybe. But, yeah. So like, I used to watch boy meets world, step by step.

What's the other ones? Family Matters. Yeah. And then there would be like Sabrina. The teenage witch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, you know, I was a big fan. And so I was leaving, I was actually leaving Mastro at one night in like TMZ or some people was following me.

I walked to my house from Mastro to the time. last year and I was like, they're asking me, like, a lot of NBA players went on the road to have aliases. They go, what's one of yours? I was like, all right. One of my aliases was Corey Matthews. So I told him that. Ben Savage, good for you. So I told him that. And then, like, literally, I have a couple friends who are in the talent industry as agents. So I got a phone call. It was like, hey, I was just having dinner with Ben Savage. agent and he saw this and he would love to get together.

Wow. At some point. So I was just like, you could set it up. We still haven't set it up. But, um... What the hell, Corey? Come on, Corey? But yeah, so I was a fan of that.

So, um... But now, I, uh... I, um, I, um, just love television. That was the only, only child growing up. Yeah. I didn't live in a great neighborhood. So my folks didn't want me out in the streets. So they said, all right, you know, on the weekends, you will watch TV, do what you

want and we used to go to blockbuster every Friday and like pick up a video game for the weekend and I try to beat it you know so I started playing basketball so speak speaking of video games I went to your I am d you have an IMD B page by the way like you're you're an actual actor like you're into business I get paychecks from for my my appearance is like 10 cents you know every couple every year you're syndicated man yeah syndicated man yeah that's big money 10 cents every dime yeah what do you think about voicing video games right have you done that before I had not, but if there was one, I would obviously be Call of Duty. I play it all the time.

Right now, I'm playing Grand Theft Auto 5. I mean, it'd have to be something that I really enjoy to do that. Are you on Xbox? You on PS4? I'm on Xbox. That's good. That's real. That's down home.

That means that you've been playing for a long time. These new PS4 kids don't know what's up. The controllers are just better suited for my hands. hands. I have a question as an NBA player, knowing that other NBA players are playing these games. And you guys, like, in an Xbox Live, is it like an exclusive group that you're in? No, I'm a lone wolf. I don't really mess with a lot of NBA players outside of the locker room.

So, like, I'll just go play with random people or just my friends from back home, you know? I like that. So, yeah, you don't want NBA players getting their feelings hurt when I'm drop shot and I'm in Call of Duty. Okay, Roy. before we let you get out of here you got any more Kobe stories you can tell us? One other thing I'd say

Kobe is very like he has like a routine so like we got to Charlotte and then no we got to Sacramento one game one day and he said hey he wants these certain people to come with him for like to do this thing with him

and he asks me to come through so I'm feeling honored you know and hang out with Kobe. Sounds like you guys are going to hear like a sacrifice No, no, no. So, but there was like a movie premiere thing.

I think he was in like, there was an official, like we, they made the young guys go. And when people say Kobe didn't want to take people under his wing, like whatever, that's,

you know, this year, no, like he, he reached out, but the, the young guys like Clarkson, DiAngelo and Julius.

Yeah. They had to go, there was a mandatory movie that they had to go to. It was like daddy's little, or what's, what's the world? Daddy's home.

Daddy's home. Starry. Mark Walbury. K. Marky Mark and Colba's in that movie. So they, you know. I didn't see it. I'm going to watch it now. Yeah.

So they made like the anybody that was like five years in, like five years and under had to go to the movie. It was mandatory. You know, eight years, nine years in. So the worst rookie Hazen I've ever heard. So yeah. So he took me to this cryo chamber place, right? I'm like, yo, this is like the secret to his success. I need to do this, you know.

So this man is freezing himself before games and he's over here putting up good numbers. So this place was, like, different. It wasn't like one of those big, you know, tube things you stand at. So, like, they made us, like, you know, stripped down, put our underwear, put on these booties and stuff. And then we had to go into a room that was cold. And then it brings your temperature down. Yeah.

And then, and then they put you in the real room for, like, three minutes where it's so cold. Like, like, there's like an intermediate cold room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, yeah. So like when you, you know, like when you're in the waiting room, you know, in a doctor's office, you sit there for a little bit and then they put you in another room to wait.

To actually check on you. So, yeah. So that's what they did. And then so like the Kobe security is there. The team security is there with us just to make sure nobody gives them the problem. And if you hang out with security, if Kobe's doing something, the security got to do it too. So he had to get into the room as well. So it's the three of us in there.

And literally like, I'm over here freezing. No shirt just under like tights. And there's like frost building up on my nips, you know? And it's cold, right? So everybody we're like, I'm like this. And cold's just chilling. That man's like, this man got like. You like this man's not from the earth.

You know, he's not even jumping around like, oh my God, get me out of here. You know, he's just like, you know. He's the monster you thought he was. He has something to him. You know, I made. shit, shit. Like in the game, he, like, broke his finger. Then he went to the table and then had Gary Vee,

the trainer, just pop it right back like it was nothing and went back in the game. It's something, you know, he's Illuminati right there, man. So we ended on that, you know? We ended on that. I like it. I like it. Gotcha.

Roy Hibbert, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for telling Kobe stories. Thank you for. There were good Kobe stories. There was no shade being thrown at Kobe. I don't want that, you know. I don't want that backlash. We're not here throwing shade at Kobe.

All of China will get on me. China loves Kobe. The main owns the country. Yeah, I wouldn't go that far. But, you know, he's probably deeply rooted in China. So I don't want any. Stefan Marbury is trying to take his scene, but he'll never let it happen. Yeah, probably.

Watch out, Beijing Ducks. Kobe's coming. Yeah, you may own a team over there someday. Thanks, Roy. Got you. Good luck for the Hornets. Thank you.