The Ringer NBA Show - Who Is Luka Doncic? Plus: Victor Oladipo and Shaquille O’Neal | The Ringer NBA Show (Ep. 271)

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

The Ringer’s Danny Chau and Jonathan Tjarks discuss how no. 1 draft prospect Luka Doncic would fit within the top lottery teams (0:11). Then, a special interview between Indiana Pacers All-Star Victor Oladipo and Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal (12:34). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome to The Ringer NBA show. My name is Danny Chow. I'm an associate editor at The Ringer.com. Joining me here in the Los Angeles studio is a man whose voice is way less digitized in real life, staff writer Jonathan Chirks. It's funny, KOC left like the day I came. He had to get out of here real quick.

We can't be in the same room, I don't think. It's a sliding door situation. Yeah. As you can probably tell, this is not draft class. Our fearless host, Kevin O'Connor, is somewhere out there in Chicago. NBA Draft Combine. She's probably lost in Mo Bamba's 710 wingspan.

I don't think, Hades by hitting the streets, I think, KOC. That's his thing. Nonetheless, this is going to be a really cool episode. Later in the program, we will have a special interview by Hall of Fame Center, Shaquille O'Neill and Indiana Pacers' All-Star Victor Oladipo. But first, since there are two-thirds of the NBA draft class podcast here, we want to talk about... Three-fourths if you count producer Isaac. Yeah, Isaac, of course.

We wanted to talk a little bit about the draft. We had some time to digest the lottery results, and we have some thoughts on the top three. I think the one thing that most fans listening are wondering right now is what do we need to know about Luke Donchich? I think a lot of people have kind of read the scouting reports. Get the gist of who he is as a player. You know, he's 6-8, 220.

2-30. 2-30, 2-28, yeah. Best passer in the draft. But Charks, you've been doing a pretty deep dive on him recently. You have a piece going up on Friday about Luke. Donchich in the running up of his final four appearance in the EuroLeague. Which is also Friday. Yep.

So yeah, what's turned up in your research? Well, what do they call it an NFL draft Twitter? I've been eating tape recently or grinding tape. It's actually been really fun. So Luca plays for Real Madrid, one of the top teams in Europe. They're playing in the EuroLeague Final Four on Friday. They use them more than different rules. They just won their best-to-five series against Panathanasicus,

where he was being guarded by Thanosus Anandakumbo. And it's fun to watch these playoffs. There's so many random guys who are like, you come back and watch. Like Lucas playing with Anthony Randolph, Rudy Fernandez, Jeffrey Taylor, Gustavo I. This is like Draft Hipster Central. Oh, yeah. So Real Madrid uses him a lot like James Hardin. They play him with three shooters, pick and roll.

He gets to the rim. He passes. He drives. The interesting thing in this Panathanaika series, they really blitz the screens. They really got into him on the dribble. And the adjustment Madrid made, they started playing Luca more off the ball. They're like, we're going to put you into more of a Clay Thompson role or a Kyle Corver role where he runs around screens, either makes one pass, one dribble, pop fake, and makes the next play.

And that's what's said to me watching, Lucas. He just fits in almost any role. Right. They also use him, like, in the high post hitting cutters. Like, he can post like a big man, run around screens like a two guard and run point. Like, he's just such a versatile player, smart player. And you look at his frame and you start looking at the comparisons. Clay, Kyle Corver, these are all really big guards.

He's even bigger than they are. Yeah, he's even bigger than they are. And he kind of plays that bully ball role. He can do that. And that's where I'm looking at the Suns and I'm seeing just a marvelous future with him, Booker, and Jackson. It's very Celtics-ish.

It's kind of like this interlocking, three-headed ball-handling trio. Like, they all have their interesting quirks as ball-handlers. I like Jackson a lot as a transition guy. Obviously, Booker is a phenomenal shooter and is improving in the pick and roll, and Donchich is just kind of like the steady presence. Yeah, I think Booker and Donchish, especially on-off,

on-on-the-ball, off-the-ball, very European-style basketball they could do. Well, they had that new coach. Yeah, right. He coached Donchum in Eurobasket last year. And there was a lot of that when Kokoskov was coaching. First off, great pronunciation. Thank you. There are no grades today, so I'm going to give you pray right now.

I couldn't do that a million years, what you just said. Kukoshkov coached the Slovenian national team at Eurobasket, 2017, which Slovenia won. and a lot of it was Dragich and Donchich trading off lead ball handler roles. I mean, he was very hard in Paul. It was a very similar kind of system. And that's why if you had a gun to my head, I don't know why you would. But if you had a gun to my head, I would definitely have, I definitely would have Donchich number one.

Although Vegas is apparently saying Aiden is by far the favorite. That's the war out of Phoenix. It's hard enough they're doing smoke screens because I guess if you're Phoenix, there's no real reason for you to reveal who you want. Maybe you can pull what Boston did last year and extort something out of the Kings to move down a spot. If you like your guy, I don't know.

But say Aiden really is the favorite, and say the Sons really do draft Aidan, how do you like the fit for the Kings with Donchich? I think you kind of move into that same thing, except you have Bogdan in the Booker role in Donchich, and it's the same kind of on-off Euro action. I think it's nice, like, those two together would probably struggle on defense,

but it gives the kings an identity. I mean, they got Vlade, they got Pagia. It feels like those guys came over to the States. I think on some level to build a Euroleague team. Like Vlade has confidence in his style of play. He saw it work in Sacramento 15 years ago. And if he has those two players, he can really kind of build Euroleague basketball in the NBA.

And it gives the Kings something beyond, like, being terrible as an identity. Right. And we'd kind of talked off this podcast about the fit and about how if Don Chichu was on the Suns, You could easily have Jackson kind of guard, you know, the primary offensive player on the opposing end. But if you're looking at the Kings and you have Donchich, Fox, and Bogdan, who are you putting on that guy? I think you're not playing defense.

The real question is Fox. It's like, how is Fox? Because Fox really can't shoot. And Don just could get there and be like, I don't really need a point guard who needs the ball on his hands and has a broken jumper. Like, that doesn't do much for me in my game. I'm not here for it. Right. And something you brought up that was really fascinating to me is the,

idea that Donchich is kind of the inverse of most NBA rookies. He's entering a situation in which he's going to be the main guy on a young team, which is completely different from what he has in Real Madrid. Yeah, it's very much like, he's very much like Donovan Mitchell in Utah, where he's just 18-year-old, he's playing with like 28, 29-year-old veterans. Like Real Madrid, they are a freaking machine, man. Like, they're so well coached watching that series against Panathanicus, watching how they changed up their offense over the course of a series. Like, all their guys know their roles. They all buy in.

And that to me is what's most impressive about Donchich is that he's playing with grown men, but he's not sitting here like, oh, I'm the freshman on the varsity. I got to get people involved and be kind of humble. He's like, I'm the man. Right. He's got a Bengal tiger tattoo on his forearm. And he'll, like, he'll cuss out guys if they make the wrong play. Like, he's got like this swag level.

Like, I'm 18. I'm the best player in Europe. Like, I'm the man. That'll be interesting to see how that plays in the NBA. He's got an edge to him. I'm a little concerned about the Bengal Tiger tattoo just because my first NBA interview ever actually was with DeMoto Yunus,

and he has a full-fledged, like, eagle tattoo on his chest. And you know what? Things didn't really work out for him in the NBA. Don't let BJ Armstrong represent you. Not a great. The thing I think I like about Donchitz, I think with like a Euro guy who goes top three, you kind of have to have that attitude

because the NBA players are going to test. You want to be more like Porzingis than Dragan Bender. Like you can't be a guy who's let the game come to him. Because all these American kids think you're garbage. You got to let him know right from the jump. I'm here to play basketball. Now where does my boy, where does my boy, Hazonia, fit in this spectrum? Well, he had the swag, but I don't know about the skill level.

You know, like he's just, he's just his gunner. Fingers crossed, we can still hope and pray. Hey, Mario's coming to Dallas next year. I'm here for it. Let's do it. Speaking of Donchitch, he had mentioned to the press today, as one should, as a leader on this team, that possibly these aren't the last two Euroleague games he's going to be playing for Real Madrid.

And that kind of stirred up a frenzy. A lot of people kind of read into that as, oh, maybe he's trying to duck the Kings. Maybe his agent, Bill Duffy, doesn't want him to go to Sacramento. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think that leverage that he might have might scare off a couple teams? I think the first thing to recognize, like, EuroLeague Final Four is a really, really big deal over there. like it isn't like, oh, this is some ram term for the NBA draft. Like, he's right now locked in on this EuroLeague Final 4.

He's already won Eurobasket. Like, if he can win Eurobasket in EuroLeague at 18, I think someone was telling me he'd be the first guy since Petrovich. That's incredible. Like, you can do that at that age. You're like an idol. Like, this is the biggest game of his life. He does need to be talking by the NBA draft right now.

And that was the right thing to say, whether he wants leverage or not, like, you just got to get him some time after this before you really get into it. Yeah, so the third team in the lottery, not counting the Sons and Kings is the Hawks. And it's a good question about what they should do at number three. So, Jaron Jackson is our consensus guy at the three spot in our NBA draft guide. And like Donchurch, it's really easy to imagine him in any kind of modern NBA system.

This is a player who hit nearly 40% of his threes in college, had an elite block rate. That rim protection ability makes a lot of sense next to a guy like John Collins, if that's what they're trying to build for in the future. Do you think he's the guy? He's the guy to me, for sure. When the Mavs didn't get three, I was so upset. Like, that's the guy I wanted. I mean, I think he fits perfectly with John Collins. It sounds like they'll be looking at Bagley and Jackson.

And if you draft Bagley, he's the same player as Collins. Maybe it's a little better. Right. With the Hawks, you wonder because they were tanking so hard and because they had all of these D2 players, they were clearly looking for a home run pick in this draft. Do you think with Jaron Jackson not necessarily showing the kind of playmaking ability or playmaking sense

that you would want out of a top three pick, that it might be too safe of a pick? Do you think they should be aiming for a higher upside guy? See, I think he has playmaking upside. He didn't get a show at all the time, Michigan State. I mean, he's the youngest big in the draft. The thing for me with rebuilding, even at three, I just want to draft three or four good starters.

Like, I want to build a good young team. And the Hawks, they probably got three more lottery trips ahead of them. And you draft Jackson. He's just a foundational piece. No matter who else you draft going forward, they'll fit with Jackson. whereas Bagley, he very much locks you in to some things. Like, for example, let's say next year Zion Williamson just wrecks the whole college basketball world.

You could fit Zion and Jaron Jackson, but you could not play Zion and Bagley together. So you draft Bagley, you're kind of, it's like path dependency or closing your options for next year, two years or now. Because you're going to be bad for a long time. That's just a reality. Right. And one interesting wrinkle to this is the recent hiring of Lloyd Pierce as the Hawks head coach. he was an assistant on the Cavs during LeBron's first go-around there. He helped develop a young Steph Curry in Golden State when Keith Smart was there,

spent years as the player development guy for Lionel Hollins in The Grizzlies, and then became kind of the defensive coordinator for the Sixers. So he's been around- He's got a resume, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, and he's coached a lot of different stars with different personalities at very early stages in their careers. So, you know, maybe he can really unlock a lot of what, that Jaron Jackson wasn't able to show at Michigan State.

He already kind of has that defensive mentality. I mean, it's not too complicated. Like, don't play him at the four, playing at the five. Like, Izzo this year, man, I don't know what he was doing. I'll throw shade at time as though. I don't care. He didn't do a good job this year. I think that's a great way to wrap things up for our draft talk.

We're going to get going on this special interview with Shaquille O'Neill and Victor Oladipo. We'll be back next Friday with a brand new draft class, some insights and observations from the draft combine. by Kevin O'Connor. Yeah, from The Man in the Flash. He'll be back. Absolutely.

Back with the newest insights. I'm excited. Until then, please, please check out our 2018 NBA draft guide on Theringer.com. You can find that at MBAdraft. Dot the ringer.com. It's updated now with our full 60 player mock draft. And we have team hubs there that'll get you all the info on team needs and player suggestions. We're really excited about it.

There was a lot of work put into it. Yeah, shout out to all the editors and layout guys. We hope you enjoy. And now, Shack and Depot. Yo, yo, what's up, World? Victor Lidpo here. Special edition of the Ringer NBA show. But my, I guess you can say, big special guests, but side speaks for himself.

The greatest, in my personal opinion, the greatest senator ever played the game, Shaquille O'Neill. And if you know me, you know, my man Jay Belli always be with me, Jay Anderson. So it's a great podcast we got going on today. And I want to start it all by first saying why I think Shaq is. the greatest center of all time. And I'm not just talking great about him because he's sitting right in front of me and I'm scared that he might hurt me if I don't. Why?

But his dominance speaks for himself. He changed the game. And I feel as though the great separate themselves when they change the game. And I don't think there's been a force like him at all since him ever at all. And it just was great to watch him growing up and see how his dominance won him rings and won him championships. And honestly, in my personal opinion, he helped a lot of great stars that we have today with championships from the Cobees to the Wayne Ways and so far and on after that. So it's great to have you on the show today, Shaq and Jay Belly in the cut. Thank you.

Nice to be here. First of all, I'm very proud of you. I've been watching you pray a long time. but you know, you're one of the only players I seen take his game up, three notches in one summer. I knew what was going on in all the situations you were in. You're a nice, respectful kid. People wasn't really recognizing for who you are or what you could do.

You finally met a guy, Nate McMillan, and said, I know what you can do and go to work and it showed. So I'm sure all those other GMs are definitely kicking themselves in the butt, especially OKC, because you know, because you know they had some big-time guys who couldn't even score one point in the fourth quarter, basically they need you now. Kudos to you for not being down on yourself, not believing them, whoever they may be,

and just taking your game to that next level. And I just want to say to you, the same thing Michael Jordan said to me after they beat us. He said, before you succeed, you must first learn to fail. So don't be down on yourself that you couldn't get past brown, brown. This is only going to make you stronger. It's only going to make you stronger.

Right now you're already unstoppable. So just imagine when you get to that point to where you're pissed off and unstoppable. So you're on your way. You're young. Just continue to work hard. Just continue to take game. Your game to the next level. And my advice of you being an old OG is always make them remember your name.

When I was coming in, you had great names, but they were older. Now there's a lot of young names. So that should be more rarre for you to just make them say your name. They said your name this year, but you want to be up there with a name when they talk about that. And I know you got the work ethic to do that. I just want to say, I'm proud of you. Thank you, man. I really appreciate those words, man, coming from a great, like you said,

So, of course, Jay Belly in the cut. If you don't forget, Jay Belly in the cut. I've been knowing Jay Belly since 92. Ooh, that's a year I was born, so you know it's a long time. That's my guy. Jay Belly's that cat when you walk in the club, you see him. He ain't saying nothing. You ain't saying nothing, but you're not to mess with it.

Exactly. He's looking, he ain't flossing. He's looking at you. You're looking at him. So finally after, like, a whole year, like, what's happening, partner? He's like, what's up with you? Big Dawes, like, okay, he ain't no punk. So, and ever since then, you know,

that we've been cool. I mean, because I used to say, well, back then it was heroes, Deco's, like, I used to see him in every club. He'd just be by itself looking at me crazy. Like, I think this cat going to rob me. And finally, like, after a year later, I was like, what's happening? Cush. He's like, what, what's having a big dog?

My name is Jay, and we've been cool ever since. That was, what, 20, 25 years ago? Definitely had a great relationship. I had a question I want to jump into. How do you think you would do if you was playing in this era? No, a lot of people, I heard the so-called exercise say it wouldn't do well. But when you master doing something different,

that's when you become more dominant. Okay, you got guys like, Porzzi, that's going to step out and shoot the three. But guess what? I'm coming back down the other, and I'm a bunch of ass on the post. And by you banging with me, because I've, you know,

proven against Duncan and Robinson and Malone, by you banging with me four-quarter in the four-quarter, when you need those jumpers, they're not going to fall. You know, believe me, I ask Devock, I ask Weber, I ask all those guys who try to shoot against me just by banging, banging, bang, and that.

And so I would say, you know what, I'm not shooting no threes. I'm going to just run to the paint, make the rough card three seconds, and I'm going to get my seven points a quarter, and we're going to do it like that. And all these little teams that like to play little, you know, those jumpers look good in the first three quarters. But by banging against me, trying to slow me down, your legs will not be there in the fourth quarter, ever. Not only would I dominate, I'll be saying to myself, James Harden, 250, that's cool. Steph Curry, on 20, 240, what's you going to pay me? Money has never been a motivated factor, but when it's that big, it has to be a motivating factor.

Because like when I was in high school, guys before me, Magic did the $25 million for $25 year deal. So I said, ooh, a million a year, right? So my thing was not as good as Magic yet. So if I can get $8 million for 10 years, $800,000 a year, I'm cool, right? Then the numbers kept going on. So when I came in, $40,000, I got $40 million. So I'm playing.

I'm happy, happy. Then Big Dog was trying to sign for $100. I was like, go ahead. I dare you to get my hundred. Right? So I just got to raise my game, boom, boom, boom. Then they gave morning, $1, $1.10, they gave Juwan. 115.

And I said, okay. Then they gave me the 125. And then Garnett got the same thing I got. And I got another 80, another 100. So with the numbers being that big, I definitely wouldn't shoot no jumper. All post moves inside. Who's going to Capella guard me? Please.

No, dog. Stop it. I got a... Porcinegas guarding me. Cut it out. How did you know that you were going to be like this good on TV? It's funny because me and Jay were having a conversation before. It was like what life would be like after the game.

game is over. Just like you are the first day, real professional and real nervous, I got in trouble for that around here. Because when I came here, I wanted to be on my Brian Gumble professional. TK, the guy I talked to, wore me out. He said, no, we don't need that here. We're not some other networks. If we're all the deep, we don't do that.

People don't want to see entertainment. We need you to be shack. I was like, oh, you want me to be me? So what makes this show good is they allow us to be ourselves. I don't have the biggest or the best vocabulary, but I know I know how to make people laugh. I know when I talk about certain situations of the game, I know they know, I know what I'm talking about.

So that's why I was telling you, when you're up there, hey man, just talk like we're talking now, you know, just have a good time. And then the way they cut it together, it just looks good. And, you know, we always said, I said, if we're going to keep you up at 12-1, we've got to make you laugh. Just like the other day when I tried to hit Charles in the face of that can't.

Yes. And this big ass was moving out. Yeah, that was crazy. So it took me a little. while. It took me a while because I, you know, me and you were similar. You know, I know you were raised very well. You know, the way you were dressing. I got, like, I can tell a lot by how

a guy dressed. The way you were dressing, you're dressing like after the game, you mean with Bill Gates, you know, you're trying to get that, you know, that nexus. I, I see all that. So, like, today, watching him, like, okay, he's, you know, he's nervous, he wants to be professional, you know, he wants to be looked at.

But here, you just got to, man, just have fun. Be yourself out. Like, if you want to make a joke, make a joke. If you want to talk about That's my and mama talk about the mom. Yeah. That's what we're doing. The great thing about the Ringer, the NBA show, is we just don't talk about basketball the entire time.

Because I feel like we're trying to get to a crowd or an audience that's more than just than who's because life is more than just basketball. Like for me, when I get away from the game, I like to do music. So I'm sure friends want to know, like, what do you do to get away from the game? Because, I mean, you talk about it all the time on the show. You played for plus years. What is your life? Like get away.

Like, what do you do to get away? Well, I do a lot of things. Music is definitely one of them. Me and my partner, gentry, we run Shaq Food Radio. And I've been DJ for a long time. Not a lot of people knew that I was DJ. You know what a DJ. A lot of people I know I'm DJ.

So I'm getting back on the EDM-trap DJ circuit. So we got about 50 shows and something, by the way. So that's just, you know, we're just going out there, having fun, entertaining the crowd. I just always said to myself, it could be worse, right? So there's a lot of us after we get done playing, we don't have nothing coming in. I'm just blessed to still have a job, still be able to have something to do. So I don't really complain about much.

When I first retired, I was complaining a lot. Then my mother grabbed me said, well, it could be worse. I was like, you know what? Could be worse. This little 70-down square-foot house that I built, I could have lost it. These 30 cars in the garage, I could have had to set you. You know, I got 30. 30 cars in the garage.

I could have, you know, and I did the right thing. and, you know, have to sell them back just to pay bills. So I'm just happy having fun, just staying out of trouble, you know, just doing the right thing. I want to be the person to make people laugh. We live in the world today with the social media and people fighting against each other and this and that. I want to be the guy that when you see me or you hear me, you just laugh for a second. And hopefully when you laugh, you could get rid of your stretch for a couple of seconds, a couple minutes or for good. Yeah, someone was told me you should laugh as much as you love.

Should. After the show, hopefully one day you'll listen to his EP, which is a really, good EP for his first one. And the album that we're going to do this year is going to be even better. But touching on the music topic, we know about your DJ and but you're like one of the only

professional, maybe professional athletes that ever had a platinum album. Platinum. This is my quote. Can I curse on this? This is my quote that I told my son and my children. If a nobody can influence of somebody, then nobody wins.

But the question of the day is who the fuck are you? Nobody. So I'm telling you that's because do music because you love it. We live in the world. People going to like it. People going to hate it. When you love it, your producer love it, that's all that matters. You know, you ain't got to do nothing for these people because these people don't put money in your pocket.

It's crazy you say that because I try to use that just with the game, like when I'm playing as well. I wish somebody would have told me that when I was a rookie. Listen, you look, that's why it's called guarantee. You average 24, right? and you got your little millions, you could average two. You still get the same millions. So in life, you wake up, call your mama, tell you love it, mama you need, because it ain't nothing better than that.

The best feeling I have when I first got to Orlando going into certain neighborhoods, how much? Oh, 850, I'll take it. My mama going, no, baby, we can't afford it. Yeah, we can't, mama. Only worry about it. You get that for you, baby? No, that ain't for me, it's for you.

So as long as we get to do that, nothing else matters. Like, all these people hide my heart, listen, so when I was doing music, I said to myself, nobody probably wants to hear me do an album by myself. I'm a rapist. I'm a rapist all my favorite rappers. So, you know,

it's just like, playing basketball because even rappers, they look at us as a basketball player. So, like, we have to prove ourselves. So, like, I'm sure if you go to the dream and say,

do something with me, he's going to be looking at you, like, Victor O'D., want to do something in? Then you just got to go in the interstudy and you're showing what you do.

So I've been in there with Biggie, JZ, now's quit, and none of them charged me. Because they'll tell you, like, When they first came in there, all, it's been a freestyle. And, like, hit them with the bars, the stuff that I can't put on the album, they're like, you know, you're spending.

Yeah, I'm ready. Let's roll. So my advice you would have fun, do it. If it sells, good. If it don't, don't worry about it. Don't be worrying about people in the country. Just do it because you love it. I heard you saying you sound good.

Just, don't just keep going up. And put it this way, if your mama like it, it's good. If she don't like it, then don't do it. That's what I'm saying. You ain't got it, like, you know, when I was your age, he'll tell you, I used to drive myself crazy and worrying about what people say. Oh, my goodness. And then I watched the movie, Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, the fan. Watch that movie.

The fan? Yeah, so Robert De Niro kidnapped Wesley Snipes. He's the famous baseball player. And he was just a fan, though, so he kidnapped. He said, yo man, how do you hit all these home runs? How do you become the greatest player ever? Wesley said, because I don't care. Robert would be like, what are you don't care?

I don't care. Just go out and have fun. Whatever happens happens. Once I started thinking like that, that's what my shit took off to that championship level. Because I used to care. Oh, Shaq can't hear Free Goh. Shack is only dunking. Then I go shoot, you know, four or five fade away.

just to show them that I had other stuff in my game. So again, just do it because you love it. You made it up until he ever to traffic. Yeah, see, that's me right there, spitting them bars. See? So, yeah, if you like it, put it out, promote it, and, you know, just see where it goes. Because you're such a great basketball player

that you're always going to be Victor Oladipo. You could go triple platinum. You're still going to be Victor, which is fine. But again, you just do it, have fun, and don't worry about what nobody's saying. Because they, whoever they are, they don't control you. Were you surprised that album with platinum or no? I wasn't surprised because I said to myself,

it only went platinum because you probably got $500,000 Shaq fans, and then you got 250 like Shaq can't rap, let me hear what you're doing, and then you got $250, hip-hop fans, you probably want to do it. That's the only reason why it didn't go platinum because of me. I ain't crazy. We weren't platinum because I had Biggie on it, Jay-Z and all that,

but I wasn't trying to go platinum. My thing is as a young kid following his dream, I want to get on a record with my favorite rappers. Because again, the record business, they ain't paying us nothing anyway. So I wasn't doing it for the money. I was just doing it for the fun. But, I mean, when it went platinum, I'm like, hey, you know, I, I felt good about going in the studio with those people and hold them out. Guess what one day they're going to be like doing that Victor Oliva Depot tour.

It's going to come quicker than you wanted to. That's going to. Hold you down, 24? I just turned 26 on Friday. We got about 13 more years left. You're cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. One more topic I want to touch on.

Because we talk about everything on the ringer. I think that's why we call it the ringer. Me and my mom was having a conversation the other day because, you know, I just turned 26. And her whole thing is like, yeah, you know, you get old. I need grandkids. I mean, one of my mentors, my best friend who was actually in the NBA, Quinn Cook, plays for the Warriors. His mom and I were having a conversation real close with his mom. And she was basically telling me, when I fall in love, I need to fall in love when I'm not in the NBA.

I mean, I should wait. And I should wait. And I should wait and instead and not get serious until I'm not. outside the NBA because I need to focus on being the best me possible, right? But then they always say next to a strong man and a strong woman, right? So it's like... It'll probably be the hardest decision you have to make. My wife was a good person.

I was the butt head, and my kids are wonderful. But you know how this life is? Yep. And sometime I come home after going two for 15 on a free-go line, and I was an asshole, right? It would probably be better now that I'm not trying to. traveling four or five days in a row. But you can do it.

Like, I've seen guys be married and do it. My only advice you is if your mother likes her, go with it. My sister, if your mom thinks she's a good person, she likes it, and she has something to do, you should definitely go with it. But, you know, if you want to go out and have kids and do that, you just got to make sure the person that you wear is understanding about the business. And you just have to be straightforward with them. So you don't have to deal with BS,

Because, you know, the family BS will hit you harder than any other BS. Like, if you got to go home to some BS, then your gang can be slightly off. You never want to go home and have to hear anything for your game to be off, you know. Well, I mean, Tristan Thompson had was going through some things, but he still gave us a double-double. That's different. That's because he ain't got to do much. You know, like, if you put, you know, two or three guys on the brown, then, you know, of course he's going to get open rebounds. You know, look, there's players, and then that's players.

Simple as that. Simple as that. Shack, I wanted to touch on something that a lot of people, I think some people know, but a lot of people don't know. You're a very, very successful businessman. Man, I'm telling you. Yeah, me and Vic have been talking about this. You've made great investments.

You've really gotten to the tech world now. You're one of the most recognizable and got to be one of the most highest-paid endorsers in the world. Like, how did that come about? And what made you get into that? Dwight Eisenhower said the greatest leaders are the ones that have people smarter than Iran. For example, I own a radio station. I don't do shit. My man right there.

So my whole team, good thing, I know how to run a team. I know how to bring people together and do something else. So my team is very fluid. But my father did a great job of selling me horror stories. Every time the NBA played did something crazy, I got a weapon. The worst whoopin I got was when Lynn By, Pass away doing cocaine. My father came and beat the crap out.

Like, he came in the house with tears in the face, like his son died. And I was thinking, I was like, because I saw him walk through the door. I was like, what did I do to do that? It was in a room. You, Mom, if I have everything, don't cook, yeah, cute. That's why I don't do drugs. One time he called me messing around with some beers. He made me drinking 12 back to the head.

That's why I don't drink. So he used to come in and like, look at this dummy. He had all his money and lost it. So, like, that was my fear when I was making so much money. So then I met an old white Jewish guy one time Ragging by his money So he put him out a napkin He said

Rich people You got $100, shh You put 50 away You told me this before I took 50 away Right Save that But he said

The super rich people The 50 that you got left You get that in half Now you got 25 That 25 ball out You want to go to Vegas with the boys Ball out You want to buy fat

Ball out with that So the problem with us as we get 10 and we spend 10. But then they don't do that. So he said, I'll save all, I put all this away, bank, investments, investment companies, because at the end of the day, you want to be able, when you're done playing, you still want to be, I'm going to mind me today.

I'm going to go to Miami today. You're going to like you still want the same income to come in. So that's my advice to you, save as much as you can. And your little allowance balled up. You ain't you bet you don't have to save that. I started doing that. And I'll probably be a billionaire. Then I got married.

That's why I have kids. No, it's not a bad thing, but I got married about a $24 million house in Miami, kids, stuff like that, tuition, travel and all that. So I'm trying to have to take that 35% and bring it up to the 50%. But once I became single again, now it's back to 75% and 25%. But there's 25% right here, do what you want. So if you do that, it'll be good. And investment-wise, if it's too good to be true, stay away from it.

You want to invest in things that's going to change people's lives. Like I was at a restaurant one day, it was like, hey, I'm starting this company called Google. It's going to be a search engine. You type anything on your one on the phone and it'll pop up information from anything. I was like, that's going to work. So I put in one, and I got a big hit off that. Man, a huge hit. Wow.

Big hit after that. So, like, I just, you know, always invest in things that's going to, you know, change people's lives. And then, of course, you've got to always go with the big companies, Apple, G, stuff like that. I heard you, I heard you did good with a doorbell. Yeah, ring. Yeah, ring just got bought for a billion, but I'm not allowed to disclose the numbers. Yeah, I heard. You heard. They were. They were nice. Must be nice.

And see, that motivation right there is for the babies. Like, I want my babies, babies just be able to live like certain people live in this country. So it's just for them. Because I don't did everything and bought every car. I'm good. So right now I'm just, you know, trying to lead the way for them. Because I tell my kids all the time, we don't need no more basketball players in the family. But I would like to have some engineers and some lawyers in the family. So I just try to, you know, do things that are, you know, right for them.

Some of your kids do hooped, all right. Yeah, my son, he was one of the top players in California going to UCLA. And I, uh, Ray, give it up for Ree, yes, sir. I trained him like my father trained me. Never tell him how good he is, right? And, you know, just tell him to watch his favorite player and steal all his moves. I think he's special because when he was little, mom product was my what what's really five 10 so in my mind he was gonna be six eight six nine so as a baby

we'd come home T mac Kobe and LeBron he's just watch him and then you know once he started driven and practicing and then like you know when I teach him moves I don't teach him you know inside reverse pivot it's TMA step so he knows I do so he's been doing that and then I really test them by not training him just to see if he wants it right and he wants it so then he kind of hit a snag because you know he's from the suburb so he's playing a suburb kids So when he went to the hood, first time, they was going at his rank. So I had to tell him a story. I said, it's going to be harder for you.

However, there's two guys that are just like you and play in this game. And one of the greatest players, and one was a really great prayer. Grant Hill kind of grew up like you. Right? Grand Hill kind of grew up like you. Mom was Hillary Clinton's roommate, five of those professional athletes. So he's not from the hood either. But he had great work, I think.

And the other one is Kobe Bryant. So if you want to get to that next level, you're just going to have to do extra work. So then he called me, hey, dad, I want to pay for the strength? All right, so I've seen him work, work, work. Then I went to see him play. I had a tear of my, because, like, he's, he's type of guy. You can just tell him one time, and he does it. So, you know, a guy was bump in the middle.

So I say, hit him with that Akeem, and I talked to his little. He, pop, hop, hit him with that jump up. That shit starts flowing. His mom was like, he crying. I was like, nah, something in my eye. Something in my eye. But, and then I got another one that's a freshman. He got that, you know, he got that same mean streak that I had.

And, you know, both of my girls are great players, too. So I'm definitely blessed. So if you want to have kids, I think you should start now. Start now. I got to find the right girl for that first, though. Hey, man, just pick one. Pick one, pick two, just don't go past three. We've been trying to figure out vacation-wise what we're going to do.

Not that we thought he was going to be in Toronto. Yeah. We had flights, books and everything. I had my flight books. Restaurants. Yeah, restaurant, dinner's book. But now, you know, we're not. So he's, he's.

He's going to Rome tomorrow. That's where he's for vacation. Italy. Italy. I'm like a store of stuff. What is your... Look, look, look, look. Tell me what's your...

Say your money, man. Say that for your wife. What's the best place you did? You travel. What type of vacation you're talking about? No, vacation like we did in Vegas, hang out party, or just chill? No, I'm just chilling. Chill is Turkey Kekos and Mahamas.

The water is blue. Chill. I've never been in. Never been in Turkey. I came to the Bahamas. So that's your, that's your... Yeah, so, like, when I want to do family romantic stuff, that's when you go to Rome and all that.

In closing, I just want to thank you for coming on a podcast and giving us your wisdom. Somebody told me that I was your favorite players, I said. Yeah, one of them. I had your jersey. So why you didn't know what I told me that, big dog? And you were my favorite players too. For real?

Yeah. Well, I mean, the connection is just how God works, man. It's all the blessing, fan. You tell him? Well, yeah, I definitely had your jersey. I used to rock at the Lakers 34, John. had the hole in it in the back right over the three because I wore it so much.

Matter of fact, we just ordered some, we just got some what's that company? Which one? You ordered this, remember they just sent us the Shaq shorts? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. In the shirt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some company that. I'm going to tell you something right now is going to piss you off, and I hope it does, and I want you to change that. Right now, they got you as the fifth best guard. You should take that personally. Fifth best guard in the NBA?

Yes, I'm just saying, you should take that personally. Who loves me? I don't know. I don't care. I'm just saying they said the stuff curries and the hardens and the Westbrook and you should take that person because if I was you, I'd take a person. That's all I'm doing. Okay, good.

I agree. I want you to. Good. Honestly, I, I'm... No, no, no, no. You make him. I'm just putting it. I'm not going to say too much.

All right. Listen, when you step on that court, you make them say your name first, right? Every karate movie ends the same way. The young master got to take out the ninja. So all these people that's ahead of you, go out they rack, just like he was going that old boy rack. You know what I'm saying? So, fifth, fifth best point guard, what are you going to do about it?

Or shooting guard or whatever? What are you going to do about it? Oladipo! Oh, Oladipo! Turn up. Turn up. All right, fellas. You got out here.

Day, Shaq, day, Shaq. Hey, we love you, Shaq. More episodes coming soon, right, V. Yeah, so this is the ring of the NBA show. Got Shaq, Jay Belli, and Vio. Peace of love.