0:05

Up. This is Michael Rapport. You are now listening to the I

0:07

M Rapp Reports Stereo Podcast. On

0:09

today's I Am Rapp Reports

0:12

Stereo Podcast, we have some fantastic

0:14

six fucks of the week. Lebron blames

0:17

updates and Starbucks is not just a

0:19

coffee place anymore, It's a fucking

0:21

public bathroom. Plus special

0:24

guest. We are rebuilding

0:26

the Beast with Golden State Warrior

0:29

World champion Festus a Zeally.

0:32

He's rocking with me on the Iron Rapp Reports Stereo

0:34

Podcast. We're talking about cadaver surgery.

0:37

We're talking about graduating high school

0:39

at fourteen, coming to the United States

0:41

from Nigeria, being six ft five

0:43

and have never played basketball in his life. He

0:46

wind up getting drafted by the Golden State

0:48

Warriors. A couple of years after that, he's

0:50

an NBA champion. This guy's life

0:53

should be a movie. Festus a Zeally

0:56

is rocking with me on the Iron Rapp

0:58

Reports Stereo Podcast. We are rebuilding

1:00

the Beast with Festus, But first

1:02

me and g Moody got a whole bunch of ships

1:05

to talk about. We're ranting, We're

1:07

raving Miles Jordan's

1:09

I need something funky I need something

1:11

lovely. I'm hyped up. Let's

1:14

go. That's

1:25

what I'm talking about. That's something funky.

1:27

See Iron Reports Stereo Podcast coming live

1:30

and direct. My name is

1:32

Michael Rapport a K. The Gringo Man Dingo a K.

1:35

The Jake La Matta of podcasting.

1:38

You are now rocking with the best. I'm here with the three

1:40

time podcast

1:42

co host of the Year. The man name

1:45

is g Moody. His last name rhymes

1:47

with duty. Yeah, Gimo,

1:49

Nettie always ready.

1:53

Um, Welcome to the Iron rapp Reports

1:55

Stereo podcast, the home of disruptive

1:58

behavior and the anti social

2:01

network. UM.

2:04

How are you, Mr Moody. I'm

2:06

good. Everything's good, looking,

2:09

looking, good, feeling good. Everything

2:11

gets good man, I can't complain. Okay,

2:14

UM, that's fantastic. As I told you earlier

2:17

on the show, today we have world

2:20

champion from the Golden State Warriors, festus

2:22

A Zili. Uh. This is one of

2:24

the most bugged out interviews. Festis

2:27

Zili played on the Golden State Warriors

2:29

UH for about five

2:32

years. Played with the world champion

2:34

Golden State Warriors. Played on the team

2:36

that lost to Lebron James

2:39

the famous three to one series. UM

2:42

and he's got a bugged out story. The dude came

2:44

to the United States when he was fourteen,

2:47

six ft five black dude, could

2:50

not play basketball,

2:53

couldn't play soccer, couldn't play kickball.

2:56

It was unathletic with six ft five.

2:59

Uh, totally fish out of water

3:01

story. Um,

3:03

five years later, I

3:06

think it's five years winds up in the NBA,

3:08

winds up playing for the Golden State where he's got drafted

3:11

five draft picks ahead of Draymond Green,

3:13

and just a bugged out story. So we are rebuilding

3:16

the Beast and getting the full Festus

3:18

a Zeally later on in the Iron

3:21

Wrap por Stereo podcast, anybody who could talk

3:23

about the the the pain and suffering

3:26

of Lebron, James festus Azeally

3:29

breaks it all down because he was there

3:31

when they kicked his ass and he was there when they lost

3:33

three to one. So it's a fucking bugged out interview,

3:36

not just about Lebron but his story. I swear

3:38

to God it should actually be a movie. Like

3:41

his story should be a movie. Uh,

3:43

just like like coming from Nigeria being

3:46

this he talks about it. I I don't

3:48

want people to take it out of context. He talks about

3:50

being a big black fourteen year

3:52

old kid six ft five, six ft

3:55

six, never have played basketball, and

3:57

all anyone wanted to do with him is

3:59

have him played basketball, and like he

4:01

couldn't fucking he couldn't pick his nose and walk

4:03

straight at the same time. Um. And then he

4:05

winds up getting drafted by the Golden State Warriors

4:07

in the first round. It's just a bugged out story. So

4:10

he's coming up later on. He just had cadaver

4:12

surgery on his knee. Um.

4:15

So this is just one of the those interesting,

4:17

most bugged out interviews we've

4:19

had, and it's it's very basketball centric and

4:21

just very fish out of war to centric. And

4:23

it seems like a great

4:26

starting point is Lebron James. Oh

4:29

yeah, um So,

4:31

Mr Moody, you made yet another

4:35

completely bogus

4:37

prediction. I don't

4:39

know how long people can

4:41

still refer to you as the co hostra

4:44

damis they still

4:46

do though, no they don't. They don't

4:48

do it in in all in all sincerity.

4:51

Now it's sort of becoming. And I'm just

4:53

trying to tell you this because I've known you since. They're

4:56

mocking you there there, you are being

4:58

mocked because Mr,

5:01

because the prior success. It's

5:04

there. There's a precedent of success. So

5:06

when one is wrong a couple of times,

5:09

of course they're gonna,

5:12

uh, they're gonna mock because I'm

5:14

used they're used to me being right.

5:16

Okay, do you remember the last time

5:18

you were right? Because

5:20

I don't. I was trying. I went into the archives.

5:23

I even broke rule number one of the Iron Rapports

5:25

stereo podcast, and I did an internal fact

5:27

check, and I can't

5:29

remember when the last time

5:32

you were right. So I'm gonna ask I

5:34

can't when was it? Uh?

5:37

When Trump won the presidency? Okay,

5:39

so over a year and a half

5:41

ago, was the last time you were right? Yeah?

5:43

I didn't make too many predictions. Uh

5:45

after that? Right now, the

5:48

fans reminded me. One of the fans

5:50

had to remind me, Um

5:53

that you made a prediction and it wasn't just a

5:55

prediction. It was a prediction with a bet. One

5:58

of your NBA prediction of this

6:00

season, you said the

6:02

Boston Celtics would not make the playoffs.

6:05

And if the Boston Celtics don't

6:07

make the playoffs, the punishment

6:10

was for you to go on the train,

6:12

the subway and scream aloud

6:16

and I quote I love the

6:18

I Am Rappaport Stereo podcast.

6:21

I love the I Am Wrapp Reports Stereo podcast.

6:24

I fucking love the irom Wrapp Reports Stereo

6:26

podcast. It's three times I love, I

6:29

love, and then I fucking love. So

6:31

now you have to go on the train and

6:33

and basically, uh speak

6:35

your truth, but scare and and

6:38

essentially embarrass yourself because because

6:40

because because of another

6:42

bogus prediction a few days

6:44

ago, a few days ago,

6:47

and I will give you the floor, a

6:49

few days ago, you predicted that Lebron

6:52

Blames, Lebron Blames

6:56

and his Cleveland Cavaliers would sweep the

6:59

same boss as Celtics. We

7:01

all know that that that didn't happen Game

7:03

one. They got the snot beating out

7:05

of them, they got the ship beating out

7:07

of them. Now I've

7:09

learned that it's only one game,

7:12

okay, and we'll get to the fact that it's all about that.

7:14

No nothing from you right now, my friend. Please,

7:17

you will get the fucking microphone. I will turn

7:19

my Michael if you could talk about it. You said

7:22

that they would get swept. They're not

7:24

getting swept. They're not

7:26

getting swept. I am

7:28

not gonna say that Boston's gonna win this series.

7:31

I'm not gonna say that yet. I was burned

7:34

many times. You buy this. Fuck you

7:36

don't got no balls. If you're so, I

7:38

don't got no ball. It's that's what

7:40

these balls another thing to make

7:42

fucking off the wall predictions that

7:46

balls

7:49

so swift. You

7:51

you're fucking balls. Where are your fucking

7:53

bulls? I always say, I

7:55

always come out with it. You like

7:58

Boston, you roding need motherfucker's

8:00

jocks. Why don't you come out and say

8:03

yo, because I love Boston so

8:05

much, I'm going with them. You

8:08

don't got the guts, you don't got

8:10

the conan got the bulls

8:12

to say that. But when I come out,

8:14

I come out like, fuck it. I believe

8:17

this. I stand on the conventions

8:19

and the statue of limitations

8:21

ran out for that first bet. No, it didn't

8:24

suck you. They made the

8:26

playoffs. It's a playoff time. You gotta

8:28

make that video. You made your

8:30

fucking dunk video, and

8:32

that caused the whole uproar. You're gonna make

8:35

that fucking video in the

8:37

train, the two train rush

8:40

hour. You fuck not in the nighttime,

8:42

not in the middle of the day. Rush hour. I

8:44

don't care if it's morning after rush hour or

8:47

afternoon rush hour. You fuck you you're

8:49

getting on that fucking training you're gonna say, and I quote

8:51

I love the Iron Rapp Reports Stereo podcast. I

8:53

love the Iron Rapp Reports Stereo podcast. I

8:56

fucking love the Iron Rapp Reports Stereo podcast

8:58

because the first two probably won't get

9:00

that much attention. But when you curse loudly

9:02

on a train, people are gonna say, whoa,

9:05

we gotta fucking nut shop, and then you could

9:07

creep off the train, and that the end

9:09

the for and any further humiliation. All

9:12

right, So you pick it, Boston. You

9:14

you you rode with him? Yes, why why can't

9:16

you just ride and say? Yo? I got them

9:18

to win it? And I said, a sweep. But

9:21

when you win one game and you

9:23

don't win another game, that's

9:25

that's a gentleman sweep. So we're still

9:28

we're still rocking with Mi amigo, Mi

9:30

amigo and I am I am sort of bilingual,

9:32

Mi amigo. We know very well that

9:34

I know what a gentleman sweep is. I

9:37

was the guy with the broom in Cleveland

9:39

last year. Let us not forget

9:41

I was that guy. I was that guy.

9:44

I was that guy that after I

9:46

came into the building with a broom.

9:48

Okay, they announced on the

9:50

loudspeaker for everyone to hear,

9:52

no brooms will be allowed in the building. And

9:55

I was the only guy, So they should have just said, Michael

9:57

Rappaport, if you're here tonight, you fuck

10:00

You're not allowed to bring your broom in, right? Was that

10:02

guy? That's me. That's

10:04

not a myth, that's not made up. That's

10:07

who I am. So I know what a gentleman sweep

10:09

is. And I'll tell you this. I'll

10:11

tell you this Thursday the seventeen.

10:15

Make sure you watch Skipp and Shannon,

10:17

make sure you watch the Herd, because I'm going

10:20

on Fox Sports, okay,

10:22

and I'm gonna bring some fucking I'm

10:24

bringing brooms, I'm bringing towels,

10:26

I'm bringing a dust buster, I'm bringing all that

10:29

ship. Because Shannon Sharp

10:31

with his fucking lebron James Envy

10:33

and you, you fucking guys,

10:36

it's over. And if he's so fucking

10:38

smart, he would have the smarts

10:41

to hire a coach who

10:43

he would listen to and get some fucking teammates

10:45

talk about with some bulls. Besides

10:48

Kevin Love. He put this team

10:50

together, and this team is gonna fuck him.

10:53

This team will be fucking Lebron James

10:55

out of the finals. You fuck

10:57

you to you, you move

11:00

you but but but but you're

11:02

not You're not caping

11:05

for Boston. You're straddling the fit. I

11:07

just said, bullshit you.

11:10

So you're saying this ship right now, Boston

11:12

wins. Say it? I said, I

11:14

said it the last podcast. No,

11:16

you're straddling the fence. You said you just said

11:19

earlier today, just a few minutes

11:21

ago. I don't know if they're gonna win. See

11:23

that's soft ship. Why don't you come out with

11:25

it? Oh okay, I'm gonna come out and with

11:27

it. Boston is gonna beat the fucking

11:30

Cavaliers. Okay,

11:32

they might sweep these Fox talk about

11:34

it. They might sweep these. Your guys

11:36

out of gas. He's out of that a Rod

11:39

he's out of that Roger Clemens. He's out

11:41

of that Lance arm Strong. Oh,

11:43

suggesting he's on. I didn't suggest

11:46

anything. These are just other great athletes. He's

11:48

out of that. So that Barry

11:50

Bonds, that Ben Johnson, yod

11:54

the dude. They win in another game. Man. So

11:56

so you're okay because

11:59

because Wednesday, we don't

12:01

you know what? Okay, here it is right

12:04

now, I am telling you right now. Emergency

12:06

podcast will be dropping after Game

12:08

two on the I m Rappaport stereo

12:11

podcast app for premium listeners.

12:13

Me and G Moody Gerald. You

12:16

fuck, I'm telling you I

12:18

am going to be in your ass. No Bruno,

12:21

I am going to be in your ass. No Bruno

12:25

Live podcast. You fuck your

12:29

podcast? You fuck you See

12:31

I'm wrong because I got

12:34

the balls to say. Yo, I believe this

12:37

and I don't give a funk. Would nobody say you

12:39

straddle the fits? Oh they might win

12:42

one and then two. I just

12:44

told you what it is. Okay, now,

12:46

now you got the balls, you sound you

12:49

on the train. You're gonna look nuts for for making

12:51

these fucking off the wall predictions,

12:54

just like Trump. I want to say

12:56

this uh to Mr Morris,

12:59

who does a fantastic job

13:01

as the Minister of Defense. I

13:04

also want to give a shout out to my man Darts Golden,

13:07

who we gotta get him back on Twitter.

13:10

Um A ran the entire

13:12

Wrapper pack, Vermont Wrappa Pack, South Carolina

13:14

Rappa Pack. Everybody out there. I'm

13:17

not fact checking I'm

13:19

not fact checking, so I'm giving an entire shout

13:21

out to everybody. But but you, Mr

13:23

Morris, stop posting

13:26

g Moody as the co hosts.

13:29

Do you see what you're causing? This

13:31

fucking guy thinks that you're sincere, or

13:33

at least just tell him this is

13:35

being done at a sarcasm. Moody, You fuck

13:38

you. Why did they make it in

13:40

the first place. You're one for

13:43

sixty three? Nah, go back,

13:45

because nobody would make it if it was just a

13:47

one time thing. I've been right

13:50

all the time. Think about the balls I

13:52

had. When when when Lebron When

13:54

when Lebron Motherfucker's was down three

13:57

one, I said they were gonna win.

13:59

Oh league guy, the only fucking

14:01

guy that means, I got heart while you straddle

14:04

the fits and you were fucking dying

14:06

and they won again, and then they won again.

14:09

It's you. You don't got the ball, come

14:11

out, the metal, the grit. You

14:14

know you're you're You're not a fucking minch.

14:16

You don't got the balls to come out. Well,

14:19

we're game one in that series. We're game

14:21

one Golden State. Golden State is

14:24

now up one game

14:26

to nothing. First, the Houston Rockets.

14:29

Uh, that is going to continue to be a great

14:31

series. But the Boston

14:34

uh Cleveland series. You know what

14:36

I got into, Moody.

14:38

I did this for the first time. They

14:41

they call them prop predictions.

14:44

Uh. There the bets within the game, within

14:46

the game. And I love this because I

14:49

said, I was confused and I was

14:51

emotionally torn on how to do

14:53

this. But I did this for the very first time,

14:55

and it was dope. Game one,

14:57

these predictions like it could be something as simp

15:00

blaz in the first quarter, who

15:02

will win the jump ball in the first

15:04

quarter? Will the Cavaliers make

15:07

three or more three

15:09

point plays? Uh? And it's

15:11

going throughout the game, they're you know, their bets and

15:14

and it was it kept me so involved

15:17

with the game. Um, and I'm gonna continue

15:19

to do it because it just for me, Like I

15:21

get so emotionally, uh

15:24

out of control with the fucking Cavaliers.

15:26

This gives me something to focus on. But you know it's

15:28

funny my my proper predictions.

15:31

Game one, I bet

15:33

twice on Lebron James and that fucker he

15:36

fucked me. He fucked me. Game

15:38

one, he fucked me. And

15:40

then after the game, did you see him with his big fancy

15:43

memory tricks. Oh,

15:45

because he's a savant. He's a basketball he's

15:48

a savant. He's a basketball savant. But he doesn't like

15:50

the higher coaches that know more than him. So

15:52

he got Tyler sitting over there. Uh

15:54

he almost killed poor Tyler. And I don't

15:56

mean that as a joke. Uh. He

15:59

had Tyler. You know, we were you

16:01

know, we had to sit out from the stress. Okay,

16:04

and everybody go Tyler, Tyler. We'll see how

16:06

good of a coach Tyler is next year when Lebron

16:08

is in Los Angeles. Let's see

16:11

what kind of a fucking coach he is. Then. He

16:13

never said he was a great coach. He

16:15

got plucked out of obscurity and

16:18

he took advantage of his position. He

16:20

never said he was pat Riley, He never

16:22

said he was fucking Uh. All these great

16:25

coaches Lebron put them on. Everybody

16:27

knows. And when Lebron breaks out, TELU

16:30

gonna break out. Save ship. Well.

16:33

Uh, the sports betting thing was big

16:35

because a huge thing was passed um.

16:38

The Supreme Court the other day

16:42

struck down

16:45

federal law that

16:47

banned commercial sports betting in most

16:50

states. Essentially, sports

16:52

betting is just one

16:54

step closer, a couple of count

16:56

hares away from being legal across

16:59

the country. And I think it's an

17:01

interesting thing because if it's like, if you can't beat them,

17:03

join them, and if there's money to be made. Listen,

17:06

it's not the forties, you know what I mean, it's

17:08

two eighteen and and the

17:10

United States of America. UM.

17:13

And if they if they do this legally, it's like weed.

17:15

It's like, why let the bad guys make all the money

17:18

when we can make all the money. No disrespect to any

17:20

weed dealers out there, I'm just saying

17:22

they're like, if there's money to be made, uh,

17:25

they're gonna get their hands in it. And and

17:27

I don't know the details of it. I don't know how it's gonna

17:29

work. And it's not extant, you know, there could be

17:32

who the hell knows. It's good. I

17:35

think it's good. Yeah,

17:37

when you go to the games, they're gonna have these little iPads.

17:39

You're gonna be able to bet on

17:41

the on on who's gonna make

17:44

the free throw, if the guy's gonna it's gonna be

17:46

It's gonna be like that in the future. You're gonna be able to

17:48

bet, like you said on uh, Who's gonna win

17:50

a tip off? You bet everything. I'm

17:53

with it. I'm with it, and I think it's

17:55

just another way to make sports interactive

17:58

and all that stuff. So I think it's great. We

18:00

are in the midst of the NBA playoffs and and I am

18:03

telling you right now. Usually an

18:05

emergency podcast is impromptu,

18:07

but after game two tonight,

18:10

if you're listening to this podcast on Tuesday,

18:12

uh, May fifteen, we

18:15

will be doing an emergency podcast,

18:17

me and G Moody, um discussing

18:19

game too. Matter of fact, let's just let's

18:21

just that's happening. That's happening where we're

18:23

doing that emergency podcast. And you know, you

18:26

can get all emergency podcasts,

18:28

all emergency short films, all

18:31

of the Iron Rapports stereo podcast archives

18:34

on the premium subscription for the app

18:37

to a month, and

18:39

it's well fucking worth it, because when when the

18:41

Cavaliers are down two games

18:43

to nothing, I want to hear what G. Moody, whose

18:46

last name rhymes with duty, has to say, Let's

18:48

move on? Can we can we agree to move on? Jesus

18:53

fucking Christ, Hey, crazy here

18:55

man, Yeah, what's up? Moody. Hey,

18:57

did you hear uh? Uh? Star

19:00

Books is um um um. Their

19:02

response to the racial stuff

19:05

is to open all bathrooms

19:07

to all customers,

19:10

to all people. I don't agree with it.

19:13

That So that tells

19:15

you the incident that

19:17

happened with the two black dudes

19:20

in that rest in that Starbucks in Philly,

19:22

that tells you it wasn't about race. The

19:25

media presented it as

19:27

race because why would the policy

19:30

change. Why would the bathroom policy

19:32

all of a sudden change, because that's what it really

19:35

was about. So now, as

19:37

a result, here's what the

19:39

owner, uh, the CEO, Howard Schultz

19:41

from Carnarci Brooklyn. You gotta

19:43

be like Steinbrenner. You can't be doing this

19:45

ship. You fucked yourself up here. Check it

19:47

out. Quote. We don't want to become

19:50

a public bathroom, but we're going

19:52

to make the right decision a hundred percent

19:54

of the time and give people the key because

19:57

we don't want anyone at Starbucks to feal

20:00

as if we are not giving access

20:02

to you. We're not giving access

20:05

to you to the bathroom because

20:07

you are less than you.

20:10

See now, now

20:14

that will turn that

20:16

move, will turn uh Starbucks

20:18

bathroom into fucking downtown l

20:21

A H forty deuce. All

20:23

vagrants totally agree, bathroom

20:26

totally agree. And then and

20:28

then, and then a lawsuit if you if

20:30

you refuse somebody the key

20:32

based on the how they look,

20:34

if they look like a vagabond, and you say,

20:37

oh, you can't have the key, then you open yourself

20:39

up to a lawsuit. You're gonna have motherfucker's

20:42

coming in there taking sponge baths. You're

20:44

gonna have motherfucker's in there grooming themselves.

20:46

You're gonna have And I'm gonna tell you something. I'm

20:49

somebody that understands and has no

20:51

problem with the rule the bathrooms

20:53

for customers only. And I

20:56

am also somebody that respects

20:59

and up keeps a nice, clean

21:01

public bathroom meeting. When

21:03

I go into a clean public bathroom, I treated

21:05

as such, okay. And I'm

21:07

not one of these people who pisces on the floor. I'm

21:10

not one of these people who throws my tissue on the

21:12

floor. And worse, because we all have been

21:14

in public bathroom men and women that are

21:16

disgusting. When one is well kept,

21:19

I appreciate it. So now, whether

21:21

you're a customer or not a customer, you could

21:23

go in there, drop a deuce, piss

21:26

all over the floor, give yourself a spongebash,

21:28

brush your teeth, take a fucking nap,

21:31

do whatever the funk you want. I

21:33

think it's bullshit. Yeah, And you see,

21:36

if I was him, if I'm Howard Schultz, they

21:39

CEEO, I say, oh, the

21:41

reason why this happened was because

21:43

they weren't clear on the policy. So

21:46

now as a result of this, we're

21:48

gonna stake the policy and we're gonna put it

21:50

above the door. Customer

21:52

bathrooms are for customers only. I don't

21:54

give a funk what you think. Boom,

21:57

that's it. But the race mafia hit

21:59

him up hard, so the company is putt

22:01

in a position to where it's like a

22:04

public relationships nightmare. So what you did

22:06

would shoot yourself in the foot and

22:09

open yourself up to lawsuits. If one of

22:11

those barrist does deny anyone

22:13

the key, you're dumb. You should be like

22:15

Steinbrenn and say, funk this ship, this

22:17

is what it is. I totally agree. I

22:20

totally agree. And now if you work at

22:22

Starbucks, not only are you making

22:24

coffee, and not only are you you you

22:26

making egg mcmuffins on all those things. You're

22:28

cleaning a bathroom, because I guarantee you they're

22:30

not hiring an outside person to clean

22:32

the ship whole bathrooms that are gonna be

22:34

especially in in in the cities,

22:37

especially in the areas whereas foot traffic,

22:39

and this don't have to do with race, creator color.

22:42

Motherfucker's are gonna be coming in their ship on the

22:44

floor at of spite, And

22:47

I'm gonna be the guy who really has to use

22:49

the bathroom because I'm a suffer of ulcer

22:51

to collideus and I'm gonna walk in there and

22:53

God forbid I

22:56

slip on somebody else's human

22:58

feces dead. Who's the asshole, Howard

23:00

Schultz? You fucking punk? Yeah

23:03

right, Yo, you're supposed to know you're from

23:05

Brooklyn. Man, Yo, you set the policy,

23:08

it's my company. The customer is right,

23:10

But this happened because the customer wasn't

23:13

clear on the policy because it wasn't stated.

23:15

So now now you're gonna have forty

23:17

doo in all of your bathrooms

23:19

and you can't backpedal from this, you

23:22

can't. I

23:25

totally agree, and I think

23:27

Howard Schultz uh punked

23:29

out and you're getting soft.

23:32

Howard Schultz you're supposed to be from b K. You're

23:34

supposed to be from Crooklyn. Manhattan keeps

23:36

on making it, Brooklyn keeps on taking it. No,

23:38

that's not the case anymore, is it? Howard Schultz?

23:44

I gotta be honest. And my local Starbucks,

23:46

I already saw this today. I

23:49

saw a motherfucker in there talking loud,

23:51

talking, cursing, bringing

23:54

attention to himself, face timing

23:56

people on his phone, being

23:58

obnoxious. Nobody

24:01

said ship to him. It was

24:03

a brother. I'm not saying what it was

24:05

because I don't tell me. I don't tell

24:07

me. He was a black guy. There's a

24:10

guy. Now, you people at the root, you

24:12

want to write here, your may expose on me,

24:14

Go ahead and write it. You

24:17

go ahead and write it. But also

24:20

this, everybody was so upset. When what

24:23

is any new Janet Jackson ship come out

24:25

since Janet Jackson Appreciation Day?

24:29

I'm asking you a moody Oh,

24:31

I didn't hear she had? Yes, you don't have no ship

24:33

popping off? Rihanna got ship popping

24:36

off? Read

24:38

all the way, got ship popping off? CARDI

24:40

b got ship popping off. Janet Jackson,

24:43

she's a legend, She's this she's that and

24:45

the other. I haven't heard any new bangers from

24:47

Janet Jackson. No disrespect to Janet Jackson,

24:49

but that's what these people got. A Oh you're

24:51

a racist, don't talk about you. Suck

24:54

my fucking dick. Oh

24:56

yeah, suck it. Not Janet

24:58

Jackson. I know j to Jackson,

25:01

I fucking know. You know what. Janet Jackson's

25:03

favorite movie is True Romance. You know who

25:05

happened to be in True Roman Me? You

25:08

fuck you me, yo?

25:11

But Homeboy through me for a loop with that ship

25:15

home. Homeboy at that Starbucks

25:17

getting galvanized because he know, yes,

25:20

yo, they put that company

25:22

in a retreat. It's the race mafia.

25:25

Money was in there acting like I don't want

25:27

someone to throw me out. I'm looking for this smawsuit.

25:30

Yeah, that's that's the new hustle. Because I

25:32

don't care if he's white or black. Home

25:34

Boy who was in there like talking loud, He's face

25:36

timing, screaming, yelling, yeah,

25:40

get the funk up out of here, dude. See, that's

25:42

how you're supposed to deal with it. And no matter

25:44

what color you are, White, Black, Asian,

25:47

Chinese, fucking Puerto

25:49

Rican, Spanish, French, German,

25:52

Italian, Australian.

25:55

You in here talking loud, face face

25:57

timing, like this is your house. Get the funk

25:59

up out of here, a duke, You're just you're disturbing

26:02

customers. What would I yellow say

26:04

to him? Hey, you cook

26:06

sucker. Hey,

26:09

So I'm trying to

26:11

drink my fucking Vanilla Lottey

26:14

and you're over there screaming and yelling.

26:17

Did you buy a coffee? Don't

26:19

worry, I got my fucking lot they did

26:22

you buy a fucking coffee?

26:24

They? Get the funk outta here. I

26:27

don't know the fucking joke. I don't

26:29

give a fuck. You're disrupting me and

26:31

everybody else. I'll

26:34

buy you a fucking bulberry muffin. Get

26:36

the funk outta here, exactly.

26:40

I want to put this out in the zeitgeist. I

26:44

did a podcast with Ben Bohler, It's

26:47

Coming Up Dope podcast, and

26:49

he asked me, point blank, why

26:53

isn't the Iron Wrapp Reports stereo podcast

26:56

sponsored by a cough drop? If

26:59

anybody should be the sponsor of

27:02

a cough drop, and if and if anybody wants to

27:04

test drive a cough drop to see,

27:06

Oh well, I make the best cough drop in the world.

27:09

And to prove it, I gave Michael

27:11

Rappaport a cough drop for a

27:13

week and boom, his cough

27:16

disappeared. I mean, it sounds

27:18

like an off the beaten path sponsorship,

27:21

but I mean I am Rapports stereo

27:23

podcast cough drops. If somebody

27:25

has a cough drop that can cure this cough,

27:28

the cough of life, there'll

27:30

be a billionaire. Looten's

27:34

Where you at Looten's Where you at Looten's.

27:36

Um

27:39

totally agree with you on that Moody totally,

27:43

and and really I think that is some bullshit

27:45

across the board. Uh. And

27:48

I think that you know, a public uh,

27:51

you want to use a public bathroom, it should be a public bathroom.

27:53

But in my opinion, listen, there's

27:55

other places to go. No disrespect to the

27:57

less fortunate, no disrespect to the homeless,

28:00

But Starbucks is a place

28:02

of business. It's not a fucking public

28:04

bathroom. It's not a place you're coming in and brush your

28:06

hand. It's not a pace you're coming and clip your toenails

28:09

and all that other ship. Hey,

28:11

that's what I say. And you see

28:13

how they presented it as race. But it

28:15

wasn't about that, you see, and got people

28:17

all up in arms and all that. I knew

28:19

what it was about bathroom, and

28:22

they make it seem like, oh, black

28:24

people can't We're sitting there

28:26

and and and and they called the cops on

28:28

us because we're black. Get the funk out of here.

28:30

It was about the bathroom heads

28:34

the policy changing. Oh that

28:36

that's in response to, Uh,

28:38

this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna open up the bathroom.

28:40

You didn't say it was about the bathroom.

28:45

This was another thing that got me robbed up. And I

28:47

can only do so much. I can

28:50

only I can only amp it up so much, moody,

28:52

you know what I mean, Like I I blow a fucking gasket

28:56

doing this ship. Okay,

28:58

um. But the other

29:01

day I saw this was all over the news. There

29:03

was a quote unquote sex expert.

29:06

Oh she quote

29:09

unquote sexual sexuality

29:11

expert. Not sex, but but like

29:13

on sexuality. And this

29:16

is just I don't know how you get. I don't know if this is

29:18

it's just a woman had a degree or not. But

29:20

she was on some show. Her name is Dianne

29:22

Carson, and she

29:25

she was saying in a way to like have

29:28

boys and little girls. Uh,

29:31

respect boundaries and all that and all that stuff.

29:33

I agree with you know, obviously,

29:36

you know we need to teach these things at home. But

29:38

she was suggesting this sexuality

29:40

expert who may or may not even have kids

29:42

herself. I don't know if this woman has kids herself,

29:45

Deane Carson, she I

29:47

don't. I have no idea. I have no idea.

29:50

I that's not the point. But

29:52

the point is that if she had kids, she couldn't make

29:54

this outrageous suggestion that

29:57

it parents starting

30:00

immediately fresh out of the hospital

30:02

with a three day old,

30:05

one year old, two year old, six month old,

30:07

nineteen month old whatever, should

30:10

ask their kids with their ship

30:12

diaper, with their diarrhea diaper,

30:14

with their piss diaper. Do

30:16

you remember when your kids little, how many diapers

30:18

you change a day? You're you're you're

30:21

a diaper changing shit

30:23

changing machine. Any parent

30:27

who's changed diapers, any aunt, any

30:30

grandparent, any babysitter who

30:32

has changed little kids diapers has

30:34

gotten shot on and pissed on right

30:37

in their face. Now. I don't have little girls.

30:39

I had little boys. I don't know if women

30:42

little girls pe The trajectory

30:44

goes like that, but my two sons pissed in

30:46

my face numerous times. That's

30:49

just the nature of the beast rest

30:52

the shore. I pissed in my mom and father's

30:54

face as you did. A. G. Moody

30:57

and we know your last same rhymes with dudy. This

30:59

lady said, testing with infants

31:01

and all that we should ask our little kids

31:04

when they're sitting there with a diarrhea diaper?

31:07

Can I change your diaper? To

31:09

sort of develop a voice for

31:11

the kids? Listen, crazy lady,

31:14

ship listen, listen you have you ever

31:16

been in a movie theater? Have you ever been on an

31:18

airplane? Have you ever been on a New York City

31:20

train? And

31:23

all the other places I changed my kids

31:25

diapers, And you talk about public bathrooms.

31:27

When you have to change that ship diaper, you'll

31:30

go anywhere. I've changing on park benches.

31:32

Listen. I I love

31:35

babies. Everyone knows about me. I

31:37

love my my son's

31:39

carrying them around. To have my own

31:42

kids to carry all the time fantastic.

31:44

But I draw the line at a ship diaper.

31:46

We're gonna change that ship diaper, and

31:49

I'm not asking a nine month

31:51

old boy, can daddy change the

31:53

ship diaper? I'm changing the ship diaper.

31:56

So I don't know what this lunatic is talking about

31:58

and how how they're supposed to answer.

32:01

That's what I was saying. What what language? Since

32:03

they have informed language, how do you

32:05

know the answer is yes or

32:07

no? Have you have you gotten to that part

32:10

of the thing. I would hedge my

32:12

bet since gambling is gonna be legal and

32:14

say this woman doesn't have kids, don't

32:16

know what this is just some wacky ship to get her on

32:19

CNN. Yeah, yeah, you

32:21

can't have kids with that type of Uh,

32:23

that's not even logic. That's ridiculous.

32:25

How did they come up with that? Though? If you're

32:27

a sexuality expert, how

32:29

did you come up with that? What? Wait? Where?

32:32

Where's the case study that they can understand

32:34

English that I can ask a question? See?

32:38

That's that. That's that millennial bullshit. We used

32:40

to well, how do you feel? Do you want to go to the movies?

32:42

What? What do you want to do? What do you want to eat? Listen,

32:45

here's the food. Listen. When I was sixteen

32:47

years old, my father. By the time I was sixteen,

32:50

my father, when I was lucky enough

32:52

to have a home cooked meal, he'd put

32:54

a bowl of pasta. He

32:56

wouldn't even heat the sauce up. He put

32:58

it outside my door, literally knock

33:01

on the door, like I was in jail, and it

33:03

would be on the floor outside my door. Okay,

33:06

all this great a bunch of ship that people are talking,

33:09

Oh, we're gonna have this and like, and we were

33:11

gonna give their voices. You give their fucking voices,

33:13

and you know what, you wind up with a study

33:15

that just proved that just said

33:18

that millennials, teenagers

33:20

and early twenties are suffering from

33:22

more depression than ever. And I feel

33:25

bad about it, but it's because we're giving these fucking

33:27

kids too much of a voice before

33:29

they've earned the right to have a voice.

33:32

Imagine, remember how dumb you

33:34

were at nineteen, Moody, Remember how I know

33:37

how dumb I was at nineteen. I was at

33:39

my dumbest, probably at but

33:41

at nineteen, you think my father

33:44

could give two ships about what I

33:46

wanted to eat for dinner. He

33:49

wanted me fucking out of the house. I

33:52

want you out of this fucking house.

33:54

Get the funk out. I don't give a

33:57

funk where you go. You're

33:59

lucky. I give you five dollars,

34:02

Get the funk outta here. Yeah,

34:06

you're asking a two year old at

34:09

too. My kids were still wearing diapers.

34:11

Imagine asking it. So if you asked the two

34:13

year old, do you want daddy to change the diaper?

34:15

And the two year old says, no, am

34:18

I supposed to listen? Yeah,

34:21

look at and you're starting by doing

34:23

that according to her. Now

34:25

she's not. You can still get him put

34:27

her on the sick funk of the week because

34:30

yo, you gotta give him a rash.

34:32

He said no, don't change it. Two days

34:34

later, it's caked up on him.

34:37

He listened to him. Remember you gotta

34:39

listen. That's how he's motherfucker's listen.

34:42

Yeah, and then he got he got a bad he got a nice

34:44

diaper rash. And then he'll learned what can I fix it?

34:46

Well? Can daddy put ointment on it? No? Okay,

34:49

get out of my face, listen.

34:52

That's participation

34:54

trophies, all of

34:56

it. Imagine there with with the Brownsville Jets

34:58

of participation trophy. Imagine

35:01

asking the late great uh

35:03

Jocko Jocko Jackson Greg Jackson

35:05

for a participant while I was on the team jack.

35:08

Imagine that, Oh man, you'd be cussed

35:10

out. But I'm glad I came up. When I came up,

35:13

I'm glad I'm able to see the sucker ship,

35:15

all that dumb ship and just laugh

35:17

at it and say, Yo, that's gonna turn turn

35:20

these motherfucker's into something else. Wait

35:22

twenty years, these motherfucker's gonna grow

35:24

up. Watch what happens. Listen

35:28

Me and G Moody Sunday,

35:31

June three, Live

35:33

in San Francisco. Me and G Moody,

35:35

the Iron Rapp Reports Stereo podcast

35:38

live five pm

35:41

on a Sunday in San

35:43

Francisco. We are rocking for

35:45

sixty minutes plus straight

35:48

live in San Francisco.

35:50

Cluster Fest dot com.

35:53

That is cluster Fest

35:56

dot com. June three

35:58

from San Francisco. The last time

36:00

we were in San Francisco, we turned it out.

36:03

We're gonna do it again. It's a fantastic

36:05

festival. We're bringing the

36:07

fucking noise. We're bringing in the Calvalry.

36:10

Is it Calvary Calvary?

36:12

Yeah? I said it right, thank you. Um

36:15

five pm. You can get

36:17

tickets at cluster Fest dot

36:19

com. C l U S T E

36:22

r F E st

36:25

dot com.

36:28

You know what we do live? Um?

36:31

All right? Oh, I

36:33

thought I heard it. Yes, Oh yeah, you hear

36:35

it in the background. That's the sick Funk of the Week

36:38

theme news Lock them up? How could you do

36:40

it? Don't let him out? Damn

36:44

the door? You want you fuck the door?

36:46

Why would you fuck the dog? Why

36:48

would you fuck your girlfriend's dog?

36:51

Sick fuck the sick funck of the

36:53

week. It's earned earned,

36:56

not kiving you did what? No,

37:00

no, no,

37:05

It's an award that is are not given. This

37:07

is an award that has earned, not

37:09

given. This Wednesday, along

37:12

with some more surprises, we

37:14

will be doing sick

37:16

Fuck or Beyond the sick Fuck on the premium

37:19

app. Do not live in Fomo? People

37:22

do not live in Fomo. Okay,

37:25

premium episodes of the Iron Rapports

37:27

Stereo podcast in primetime Wednesday.

37:29

You have to have the premium app. I don't

37:31

want to be redundant. But it's only a month.

37:35

This episode right here is free. I

37:37

know, I know that it is well worth

37:39

to hear another episode

37:42

Wednesday's in prime time will

37:44

we'll be playing the second game of sick Fuck

37:47

or Beyond. But let's stay focused.

37:50

Let's stay focused. Right now, we are playing

37:52

the traditional the award winning

37:55

sick fuck of the

37:57

week and is award that is not given. It as

37:59

an award that has earned not given.

38:01

I have been given several requests

38:05

to give this man the

38:08

award for sick funk of the Week in Florida.

38:11

You know, if it starts off at Florida, it's gonna

38:13

be good. A man was arrested

38:17

for practicing karate in a park.

38:22

Let's say, well, what's wrong with that? What's

38:24

wrong with that? The way he was practicing karate

38:27

was by kicking swans

38:29

in the head in a park in downtown

38:32

Orlando. Uh a

38:34

swan, damn yo. They're so

38:37

grateful. And that's a strue

38:39

blue sick fuck

38:42

of the week. And there's nothing

38:44

more, nothing less. That is a

38:47

sick funk of the week. You listen. You want

38:49

to go to the park and do your tie cheek. You want to go

38:51

to the park and do yoga. You want to do the park. Go to

38:53

the park and do your cross fit, do your win sprince. You

38:55

want to go to the park and practice karate. You

38:58

you want to get crunk. You want to practice your kicks.

39:00

Kick a tree, tough guy, sits

39:04

just such a fucking badass kick a tree. You

39:06

go to the park and

39:08

you kick swans and

39:11

you obviously kills them a piece of

39:13

shit. You have to think

39:15

about that. I'm gonna go here and kick these guys,

39:17

kick them in the head. Apparently he had been

39:20

doing it a few times and then he was caught. Uh.

39:22

This guy, his last name is Mantella.

39:25

And if you look him up, look this sick funk

39:27

of the week up. Take a guess

39:30

what he looks like. Gee? Uh

39:32

what what does he look like? A sick fuck?

39:35

Rocco Manteller actually

39:37

looks like a bug eyed sick

39:39

fuck who shaves his eyebrows. He looks

39:42

totally off the fucking wall. Looks totally

39:44

fucking nuts. Congratulations, asshole.

39:47

I hope somebody practices karate on you

39:49

while you're locked up in the pen. Next

39:52

up, and if you want go,

39:55

go please. A

39:57

female student from

39:59

court Neil University took offense

40:02

to the professor suggesting

40:04

that maybe they should dress up to

40:07

give their senior thesis. So

40:10

she got really upset about that.

40:12

How dare you say we dress up? So

40:15

what she did is she stripped down

40:17

to her underwear and delivered

40:20

her her senior thesis in front

40:22

of everybody. As a blow to patriarchy.

40:26

So everybody, you're everybody's

40:28

a fucking freedom fighter, right yeah,

40:31

social justice and how dare you tell

40:33

me to get dressed up? That millennial

40:36

bullshit? So you're

40:38

getting mad that the guy said you should look

40:40

your best. See what I'm saying, that's

40:43

just these people should be just she showed

40:45

up in her bra and underwear. F

40:47

you didn't do what I asked you. I'm the professor. See

40:50

that's the thing. You don't get to make the rules. If

40:52

that's your protests, great, Now you got an

40:54

F in the class, asshole. And I'm sorry

40:56

that your parents asked you should they change your

40:58

diarrhea diaper? Exactly?

41:02

An Indiana woman. I gotta I gotta be

41:04

honest. I'm hedging this woman right now

41:07

now, not in fact check. I know we had some crazy

41:10

stuff all year, and

41:13

you know the the coveted sick Funk of the Year

41:15

award. Uh we're only

41:17

in May, but but I got my eye

41:19

on this chick, all right. I

41:21

mean she looks the part.

41:24

Uh. Kelly Cochrane

41:27

from Indiana who

41:29

admitted to injecting her husband

41:32

with a lethal dose of heroin, which

41:35

probably wouldn't get you on the on on the

41:37

chart of just a sick fuck. She

41:40

may have killed nine other people,

41:43

definitely beyond the sick fuck, But

41:45

what makes her stick out to me? This

41:49

is way out there? And and then again

41:51

a lot of fans of the Iron Rapports stereo

41:53

podcast who are sending

41:55

me six fox. She

41:58

is also suspected of

42:01

serving her husband's

42:04

remains the remains

42:07

of her dead husband. She is suspected

42:09

now through an investigation, of serving

42:12

her husband's remains at

42:14

a barbecue. Oh

42:17

damn, so

42:19

so so she killed him.

42:22

She cooked him little kosha

42:24

saut, a little Hungarian pepperrika, and

42:27

spice it up and throw it on the skillet. You

42:29

got a finger, a thumb,

42:32

freak, a seed thumb. But that's the

42:34

guy you love. Do you see

42:36

what is love? What is not love?

42:39

She killed him, she cooked him, and she served

42:41

him up at a barbecue. Listen, people, I suspect

42:44

that all the listeners out here have have better

42:46

friends than this fucking nutcase.

42:49

Kelly M. Cochrane from Indiana.

42:52

But when when you go to when you go to a barbecue,

42:54

now, you gotta keep your head on a swivel because you don't

42:56

know what the fund you're getting eat. Yeah,

42:59

yeah, imagine that. Um,

43:02

now this I was gonna leave this up to you, Mr

43:04

Moody. Do you think this

43:06

is a sick fuck or

43:08

do you think this is a

43:10

boss that is needed and these times

43:12

of millennials because her her

43:14

employees were young. A real

43:17

estate firm in China, and

43:19

it's all caught on video. This isn't made up. A real

43:21

estate firm in China.

43:24

Um, you know the real estate is incentive.

43:27

You know, you sell, you make money. You sell,

43:29

you make money, you get your percentage.

43:31

The company makes money. A

43:34

boss in China

43:36

in order to keep her employees online for

43:39

the employees that we're making money. Uh,

43:42

they line up the employees that

43:44

we're not making money. They line up in front

43:46

of the boss, who's a female, and

43:49

she smacks the ship out of them

43:51

one by one, not love taps, smacks

43:53

their fucking faces repetitively as hard

43:56

as she can. The videotape

43:58

it, and then she makes them on their knees

44:00

and like do humiliating. This is in a legitimate

44:03

business. This legitimately happened. Do

44:05

you think this is a sick fuck or do

44:07

you think this is a necessary evil

44:10

in order to run big business in

44:12

the world that we live in. I'll give you the floor. Moody.

44:15

Yeah, I think it's China. It's

44:17

in China, right, Yeah,

44:19

different culture, so my judgment

44:21

is different. I like it.

44:23

It likes to fire up under the employees

44:26

to say, listen, if you don't make these sales and you

44:28

don't get this real estate, should go and be You're

44:30

gonna get smack and we're gonna smack.

44:33

Fire out you ass in front of everybody,

44:35

which will give you more initiative

44:38

to make those sales and to close those

44:40

deals, knowing a slap

44:42

is looming if you don't, I

44:45

like it. They should have implemented here.

44:48

No problem with your with your take on

44:50

this. Um. Finally, we all

44:52

know how I feel about

44:55

about feral cats, wild

44:57

animals. You know I

44:59

I I would never hurt one of these animals. I don't like rats.

45:02

I don't like mice. As much as I can appreciate

45:04

their beauty, I I don't like, uh,

45:07

you know, seeing deers walking by

45:09

me. If I'm in a car and I'm riding

45:11

out to Jersey and I see DearS, I will stop

45:13

and take in their beauty. I like to be in a car.

45:16

You never know when and you could get one of these crazed

45:18

fucking deers. They can attack you. You never know.

45:21

I don't like coyotes historically,

45:23

this is well documented. I don't like water

45:25

bugs. I don't like any of it. Okay,

45:28

I don't like any of it. This

45:31

sick fuck a police officer, a

45:33

sheriff's deputy, walked

45:37

up to a groundhog. You know what a groundhogs

45:40

is a small little animal. Yeah.

45:42

Now, even I wouldn't do something like this, even

45:45

I if push came to shove, I would

45:47

move it along, even if I have to use it with my foot

45:49

or something. A groundhog

45:51

was was blocking traffic. The

45:55

sick fucking sheriff, instead

45:57

of moving it using his baton, use

46:00

like a stick to move it off the road, shot

46:02

and killed a groundhog on camera

46:05

in front of people to move traffic along.

46:09

Oh hey, so

46:11

you you got a problem with the cop. Yeah,

46:14

he's a sick funking week because you know, you

46:16

know how small a groundhog is. I

46:19

know, but hey, man, yo, it's either

46:21

him or you're gonna stop all

46:23

the human beings from getting home and

46:26

for this animal. Hey, we're not talking about

46:28

rush hour on the four old five. We're

46:30

talking about like if you see the videotape

46:32

of it. Why I would make him the sick fing week. First

46:34

of all, groundhog is like it's

46:36

half the size of a small cat, and

46:38

so he could just shoot it away, shoot

46:41

it away. He could, He didn't

46:43

have to execute it. Is what you're saying.

46:46

In the middle and broad daylight, in the middle of the road,

46:48

there's no reason to shoot the fucking groundhog. You

46:50

sick fuck You're a sick funk of the week, No

46:52

questions asked. Listen because

46:57

you are going to want to listen. Rebuilding

47:02

the Beast with Festus Zeli. We're

47:04

talking basketball, We're talking

47:06

Nigeria, we're talking coming to the United

47:09

States after graduating high school

47:11

at fourteen, all that and more. I'm telling

47:13

you, this guy's story should be a movie. Festus

47:16

Zeli of the world champion Golden

47:18

State Warriors, Festus Zeli of

47:21

the iconic seventy three win Golden

47:23

State Warriors. Coming up next on the Iron

47:25

Wrap Reports Stereo Podcast. All

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48:21

here we go, I am Wrapports Stereo Podcast

48:25

festus zeally World

48:28

Champion, got

48:30

the rings and things. You're one

48:32

for one in the NBA Finals. But

48:35

I don't want to get into that. I want to I want

48:37

to get into that in a second. Caldaver

48:40

surgery, cold

48:43

ever surgery on your on your on your knee.

48:46

A couple of questions about the cadaver number

48:48

one, Uh, do you know any

48:50

background on the on where they got the cadaver?

48:52

For number two? Uh? Did

48:55

the people like of the family of this

48:57

person that they were used like they might

48:59

be like Yo, the Sky's NBA player, they might

49:01

come for some money. How does this work?

49:04

What was the surgery? And and uh,

49:06

how are you all right? So I'm

49:08

gonna give you a background first, because, um,

49:12

this is the first time I've actually talked about this

49:14

since I had the surgery. I had

49:16

it, I had had a media

49:19

thing about it a year ago, and

49:22

I haven't had I've been underground for the last

49:24

year and I said I didn't want to do anything

49:27

media until I was ready to go. And

49:30

uh, you asked me how I'm doing. I'm doing

49:32

well. I'm doing really well. Um running feeling

49:35

really good. Before I

49:37

had to have it. You know what it is? It was

49:39

it was a carlage transplant and

49:42

they put it into my knee and they got it from somebody else.

49:44

It was this really crazy surgery.

49:47

What is it called. They call it OATES. It's

49:49

osteochondro alligraphed transplant

49:52

surgery. Yeah, so it's

49:55

um they have to get it from somebody

49:57

else, and it's a relatively new procedure

50:00

that just happened recently and

50:02

it just came up recently. Um.

50:05

I had it in Colorado. And

50:07

how the surgery goes is this is why it's crazy.

50:09

Is that obviously like

50:11

everything else, right, if you tell your a cl to get it

50:13

from somebody else, they put it in your kneed and that's good. That's

50:16

what this is a carlage.

50:19

So this is different is that it

50:21

has to be fresh.

50:24

So this is the different stipulations

50:26

to get the surgery. First of all, the

50:28

person has to be the same size

50:30

as me, right,

50:32

that's that's that's one crazy

50:34

aspect of it because the persons

50:39

like in the weight range because they have to be it

50:41

has to be able to handle my weight, okay,

50:43

but they don't have to be the same height, No, not necessarily

50:45

the same height, just like that same weight. And

50:48

then you have to have the surgery

50:50

a week max. A week

50:52

after the person passes away, and the organists

50:55

have it harvested. So

50:57

I'm literally and you never know, right,

51:00

So I literally, so I go through the whole procedure

51:02

of preparing for it, right, And how

51:04

it goes is you know you you

51:06

you get on the list and

51:09

you literally have to just sit there by your phone waiting

51:11

for the doctor to call you and say hey, it's come

51:13

in. So it could take anywhere from tomorrow

51:16

to a year from now. That's crazy,

51:18

especially for a big dude, especially for an

51:20

NBA player that needs to get back to playing doing

51:22

his job right, But like it's not like you're like six

51:25

ft like it's like we're seven ft d Yeah,

51:28

So so when did you get the coal? Like what

51:31

was the process like, and like how

51:33

does the whole thing work for you? Well,

51:36

for me, I was waiting and uh

51:38

it took me three months. I'm

51:40

literally staying there by the phone and I know they

51:43

must have been I was. I

51:45

was waiting. I was in Portland at the time, and

51:48

um, I was waiting by my phone for three

51:50

months, and UM,

51:52

you know what it was was I just I really, you

51:54

know, I got to a point where it just I couldn't. I

51:57

just couldn't push it anymore, you know, and

51:59

uh, I really need

52:01

to do something to to get back to playing and playing

52:03

at the level that I was playing at. So

52:06

um, that was the that was the procedure

52:08

that the doctor recommended and it was very

52:11

very experimental. So for me, I was like,

52:13

yo, like I'm really just giving

52:15

it everything I got at that point. And

52:18

yeah, I was waiting by the phone and um

52:21

eventually they called me after three months.

52:23

But before that, three months, every couple of weeks,

52:25

every every couple of weeks. Every few days

52:28

I would call him like Hey, what's going on, and just

52:30

making sure you know my number still works, like you

52:32

all just called and I was just waiting and

52:34

waiting, and at some point I was just like, Yo, this is

52:36

crazy, Like I need to get this done

52:38

so I can get back, you know, the sooner I get it done,

52:40

the sooner I get back. But they couldn't do anything about

52:42

it. And yeah, I got

52:45

it done last year, last March. And

52:47

so how are you feeling like today?

52:49

Because I see you, you know you you're I love

52:51

when athletes because I think it's inspired,

52:54

because you know, if you're a fan, you know, it's

52:56

like we we we think that you guys are just out on the

52:58

court, uh and and you know, doing

53:01

your thing. But you know, I've had the privilege

53:03

of you know, being in practices and you

53:05

see the work. I've had a privilege of being a Golden

53:07

Day practice. You see the the work that the clays

53:10

and the steps and and that all you

53:12

guys um you know put

53:14

into you know that

53:16

we don't see, you know when we tune into you

53:18

know, T and T, d HPN and you you've been

53:20

sharing your videos so how do you

53:22

feel now? And where's your body at

53:25

now? And I feel good? Man. And

53:27

and that's the thing is, you know, when you have surgery,

53:29

it takes you a while to get back to where

53:31

you feel good about you know, good

53:34

about yourself. But I was already at

53:36

a place where, you know, I needed to get something

53:38

done. So when I got it done, I had no

53:40

I didn't know what to expect. I just know

53:42

that given that it's me and

53:45

my mindset and the way I put so much effort

53:47

and work until what I do, I knew that it

53:49

was gonna work out. I just didn't know whin I didn't know

53:51

how, you know, And so um

53:54

going through the process. You know, I'm I'm in bed.

53:56

I'm bed ridden for two months after Yeah,

54:00

and that was probably you know, two seventeen

54:02

was probably one of the toughest

54:05

years of my life. And that's

54:07

saying a lot, because you know, coming you know, me

54:09

as a kid coming from Nigeria and moving

54:11

out here and learning to play the game in a different

54:14

country. You know, I mean this my story has

54:16

been so crazy already that

54:18

when I added last year into it, it was just like God,

54:20

like I do everything the right way.

54:22

I try to you know, I work hard. I'm a great

54:24

I mean, I try to be a great guy, you know, and

54:27

I'm in this position now. You know, that was one

54:29

of the toughest, toughest years of my life.

54:32

So so what is that like being bedridden? You're

54:34

an athlete, you're a young guy. No, it's it's

54:36

it's tough. It's um

54:39

yeah, yeah, I'm the first. Um,

54:41

the first two weeks I was by the hospital

54:44

so, which is in Ville, Colorado, and

54:46

then um, yeah no.

54:48

So actually for a lot of the year I was

54:50

in Ville, Colorado. This is where I had my surgery.

54:53

And um, I'm sitting there and you

54:55

know, it's kind of a weird thing. It's almost like a resort

54:57

style area. But I couldn't enjoy any

55:00

of it because I'm in bed and

55:02

it was so literally that you couldn't walk.

55:05

I could not walk. Could they wheelchair you like? Could

55:07

you go out and just to move

55:09

around like you know what

55:11

it is? It was snow and at the time too, so

55:13

I was really stuck. Stuck. I didn't want

55:15

to risk anything going out there on crutches

55:18

or on my wheelchair and fault. And so the

55:20

only thing I could do the only thing I wanted to do

55:22

was to go to rehab. I would

55:24

go to rehab and come home, and the rehab

55:26

is literally learning how to bend my leg, you

55:29

know, and so um, yeah,

55:31

it was. It was a really really it was a really interesting

55:33

process. Man. You learn a lot about yourself. That's a lot of

55:35

that's a long time to sit there with your thoughts

55:38

and just sit there and talk. You know, I

55:41

had. I'm so grateful that I have family because

55:45

you know, it was it was a really it was a

55:47

tough time for me to, you know, really face

55:49

myself because your identity is a basketball player.

55:51

Like this is what I know. I'm always active, I always do

55:53

stuff. I work hard, I'm always in the gym.

55:55

So now I'm just sitting here and

55:58

I can't be active. I can't move,

56:00

I can't walk. Did you ever think like fuck

56:02

it, like I don't need this, Like I you know, I played,

56:04

I'm educated. I graduated high

56:07

school with them fourteen, which I want to get to like

56:09

I don't or dude.

56:12

A lot of times I sat there like, yo, what the

56:14

funk? Like I'm tired

56:16

of this ship, Like I can't take this ship anymore.

56:19

But the thing about that though, is, um,

56:22

this is where we're building the Beast came from. Because the

56:24

mindset and what it is is that this movement

56:26

I started, the mindset

56:28

is, um, I'm sitting there

56:30

and I'm laying there and I'm

56:33

crying, right and I'm not even

56:35

somebody who's an emotional person like that,

56:37

but in this moment, I'm like, yo, like what

56:40

the fuck? Like what is going on? And

56:43

as I started crying, my mom who's with

56:45

me, My parents were with me, but my mom

56:47

starts crying and she's like, oh

56:50

my god, I can't believe what's going on? You

56:52

know, that was there was a switch that turned

56:55

on in my head at that moment. It's like, I

56:57

have to be stronger than this. I have to be stronger

57:00

than the moment. And that's

57:03

fucking life, man Like. In life, like things

57:05

happen, things are gonna happen. And there's

57:07

been so many moments in my life where I've been knocked

57:09

down, even my my trip coming to America,

57:11

moving here by myself and learning

57:14

a new you know, learning a new culture, being

57:16

in a new environment, being with somebody i'd

57:18

barely ever known, you know, living with my

57:20

uncle, I've never met him, you know, and so

57:22

we you know, it was all these different things

57:24

that have happened in my life already to make me feel like

57:27

something great is coming after this, Right, I just

57:29

got to be strong, especially being

57:31

strong for the people who love me and who there is to support

57:34

me. I just I can't quit you. So

57:36

you're feeling good. I feel good, man, I

57:38

feel good. I'm right now. I'm getting ready to come

57:40

back next season and

57:45

has been has been a hell of a journey.

57:47

Man. You know what's what's funny man, is

57:49

um you know, a few people send me the article

57:52

of so now I missed

57:54

two seasons and a few people send

57:56

me the article of America Oca for

57:59

and Mecca cow for. Is the way to say if

58:01

I really want to use my Nigerian accent, but you

58:03

know that comes out every once in a while, but

58:05

uh, Meca okra for. He

58:08

plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. He took a

58:10

few years off because he had a hernated disk

58:12

in back. And that's actually

58:14

a friend of mine. He actually recruited me a long

58:16

time ago to go to Yukon seeing

58:19

him go through his journey. I was actually with him last summer.

58:21

We did a camp together in New York and

58:24

uh seeing him going through his process

58:26

and not giving up is so inspiring

58:28

for everybody, you know. So what I

58:30

want to do and what I want to be able to do is

58:33

you know, part of life is everybody goes through

58:35

these tough times, right. I

58:37

want to be able to inspire with my story.

58:40

I'm gonna get through my ship. I'll be back next

58:42

season. I'll be doing what I do. But I don't want

58:44

it to go for not like, I don't want it to

58:46

just be a wasted story. I want to be able to tell this

58:49

story and have other people tell their stories

58:51

as well. I know you coming from New York and

58:53

you know, fighting your way up in the rags, Like dude, I

58:55

watched you. I watched you and Hitch

58:58

Friends all these different things. You know. Friends

59:00

is actually the reason why my accident has changed because

59:02

I used to watch Friends all every

59:04

night before I went to sleep. When

59:07

I got here, was

59:10

so thick when sounded like ross.

59:13

Yeah,

59:14

uh no, my my accent was so

59:17

thick. When I came to America. That my

59:19

way of learning how to speak like

59:21

this because I wanted people to understand the whole

59:23

point about his communication. And

59:26

I would sit by the TV every night

59:29

and just watch TV and repeat whatever they

59:31

say. So some of my comedy, actually some of the stuff

59:34

my humor is actually that dry comedy

59:36

from friends. That's

59:38

crazy, but that makes sense because also

59:41

like the way they spoke, it was very sort of clean

59:43

American dialect,

59:46

and it was you know, it was sanitized and it's

59:48

humorous and it's that

59:50

that's funny. Man. So yeah, man,

59:52

and uh, I actually kind of missed my accent now because

59:54

every once in a while break out the niger and excent

59:56

and girls are like, wait, hold up now,

59:59

But when you speak up with a Nigerian accident,

1:00:01

it's just when you're around family or when you're around

1:00:03

people. So it's actually automatic for me when

1:00:05

I'm around family, when I around Nigerians. A matter

1:00:07

of fact, I was with a few Nigerians a couple

1:00:10

of nights ago um Ivonne Orgy,

1:00:12

who was you know, one of the actresses out here in l

1:00:15

A. She Um She had a game night

1:00:17

and I didn't know what to expect. I went out there and there was a

1:00:19

bunch of Nigerians. All of a sudden, we all just

1:00:22

you know, it's we're like all cousins and why

1:00:24

don't we meet each other all the family, So it

1:00:28

was it was a good time and then accident comes

1:00:30

out. My first name actually

1:00:33

is Ifani and

1:00:36

after when I when I came to America, I

1:00:38

would introduce myself, try to say it. That's

1:00:42

pretty good. That was actually that was actually the

1:00:44

best I've heard so far. It was pretty good because

1:00:46

but if I could do it ten times, I probably won't get

1:00:49

no. But you did wait better than people. People started

1:00:51

calling me Ifany after a while. I

1:00:53

can't really be a sinner, a

1:00:55

tough guy with a name. If you

1:00:58

will probably be working with me on the sidelines. So

1:01:00

that's that. That was, you know, for

1:01:02

me, I felt like Festus was a great first

1:01:06

that's my middle name. Is my middle

1:01:08

name is also my dad's name, so I felt

1:01:10

like I felt some kind of uh.

1:01:14

It made me feel good to bear my father's name

1:01:16

and go by that, and it gave me a lot of responsibility.

1:01:19

And you can variations of fast is fast,

1:01:22

you know, like yeah, yeah in

1:01:25

Nigeria, I finally people call me any.

1:01:27

So it's not a common name in Nigeria.

1:01:31

Yeah, so what it is? What it means.

1:01:33

So every time you get a name in Nigeria. You don't

1:01:35

just get a name because you get a name because

1:01:37

it's cool. You get a name based on it

1:01:39

actually means something. So for me,

1:01:42

it took my mom a few years to have me, and

1:01:45

when she had me, my grandfather

1:01:47

actually named me. My name is

1:01:49

if it means, actually

1:01:52

it means with God, nothing is impossible.

1:01:55

And that's been the story for my life, all my you

1:01:57

know, all my journey so far, be

1:02:00

able to overcome adversity. It's kind

1:02:02

of it's kind of my life still ready, you're you're used

1:02:04

to it. Yeah, So for me like going through this,

1:02:06

it's it's really just a part of the story

1:02:09

with your rehab and your your

1:02:11

recovery is making

1:02:13

baskets, shooting baskets. The least

1:02:15

of it is it like all like about like planting,

1:02:19

jumping knee, you know,

1:02:21

being in shape, like like is touch

1:02:24

like in basketball skills even like a

1:02:27

part of it, you know what I'm saying, Like a part of my rehab

1:02:29

of Dude, the day I

1:02:31

think so the day after I have surgery,

1:02:34

I'm in bed right and the first

1:02:36

thing I have them do is is buy me a basketball

1:02:39

that I can just hold onto because I couldn't

1:02:41

do anything. As soon as I was able to crutch.

1:02:43

This isn't about two weeks I

1:02:46

was out there. A matter of fact, there's videos on my Instagram

1:02:48

if you guys want to go check it out at Fezzi Fail.

1:02:51

You know, there's videos of me shooting on the

1:02:53

box. This is a year ago. You go

1:02:56

back a year and see me. I'm on the box and I'm

1:02:58

shooting. I'm telling people, yo, listen, like, I

1:03:00

don't care what it is I'm going through. This

1:03:02

is where my mind is at. You know, I gotta

1:03:04

figure out ways to get better. When I first had

1:03:06

surgery, it was hard for me to watch basketball. I'm

1:03:09

not gonna lie, it was it was. It was something that was very

1:03:11

hard for me because it almost seemed

1:03:13

like nothing, like like nobody cared rights.

1:03:17

This just goes on, the whole world goes on in

1:03:19

terms of like you're just sort of out of it. Yeah,

1:03:21

you're out of the circle, You're out of the fraternity.

1:03:24

It's like everybody, everybody's just

1:03:26

doing what they gotta do right now to win. And

1:03:30

it was hard for me to watch. But you know,

1:03:32

after a while, you're

1:03:35

my mind switches again. It was just like, yo,

1:03:37

I gotta get back, like my, my, I

1:03:40

gotta get back to work. And so it was

1:03:42

like, now, let me watch, let me watch and

1:03:44

see there's so many bigs that are doing their

1:03:46

thing in the NBA. You know, I watched Joel

1:03:49

and Be last night with the game. Granted

1:03:51

they didn't win, and you know they but his

1:03:54

whole story about his comeback and his you know,

1:03:56

being able to do what he's doing right now is amazing.

1:03:58

He missed three years, yeah, yeah, yeah,

1:04:00

it's crazy came back and you know it's amazing

1:04:03

what he's doing. Um, but I have

1:04:05

a theory right now. I have

1:04:07

a theory of great

1:04:09

players minus

1:04:11

one person so far. But great

1:04:14

players, Yes, they

1:04:16

always have this defining

1:04:18

moment that has something to do with injury. They

1:04:20

always have some injury that keeps them out,

1:04:23

and I feel like during

1:04:25

that moment, you really get to ask yourself

1:04:27

that question, like do I really want to do this ship?

1:04:30

And the answer is because

1:04:32

they always come back and they're grant and they're better.

1:04:35

Is I love this game. I

1:04:37

love what I do and I can't

1:04:39

take it for granted. And I'm gonna do everything to be

1:04:41

as best as I possibly can be because I can't

1:04:43

take it for granted I can't walk at this

1:04:45

time or I can't do this, so I appreciate

1:04:48

every aspect of this. That's I think that's

1:04:50

what it is for me right now where I'm at, I

1:04:52

think that's dope and it's crazy. I mean,

1:04:55

well, I want to get into the little Bron because obviously you

1:04:57

played against him in two iconic

1:04:59

series and I mean and watching

1:05:01

him, you know you had thought

1:05:04

like when you guys beat him, he was like

1:05:06

at an apex and then like now it's like, I

1:05:08

don't know what the apex. I don't know, like it

1:05:10

keeps going, going going, but it's

1:05:13

unreal. It dudes, he's unreal.

1:05:15

I want to I want to come back to Lebron. I want to

1:05:17

stay on you. You graduated

1:05:19

high school when you were fourteen

1:05:21

years old? Graduate high school at fourteen now

1:05:24

in Nigeria, is it just a different

1:05:26

timetable or were you? Were you

1:05:28

smart? Like? And it is what it is

1:05:30

is? Um So fourteen is

1:05:32

early. It's very early. I was in

1:05:34

a class with you know, sixteen seventeen

1:05:37

eighteen, So you're smart even in

1:05:39

Nigeria. Well, I had I had a mom.

1:05:41

I'm never gonna self promote myself

1:05:43

right. I have a mother who who

1:05:45

was an educator, and she really pushed me. I

1:05:47

didn't go to her she owns a school. I didn't

1:05:50

go to her school. But being

1:05:52

that that was my mom, you know, she held

1:05:54

me to send standard. You know. She

1:05:56

always told me, like, yo, this is your

1:05:58

meal ticket. You have to be able to be to

1:06:00

be able to read and be smart. And

1:06:02

she told me that from a Brilli young game. But then

1:06:06

she pushed, She pushed me. That's what it is, you

1:06:08

know. And if you know my mother, she you know, she

1:06:10

she always gives. She empowers the people

1:06:13

around her. But it started with us as kids. And

1:06:16

what does it take to graduate

1:06:18

high school in fourteen? And

1:06:20

then tell me how after graduating high

1:06:23

school in fourteen you got to America?

1:06:26

So, um, I started school really early,

1:06:28

okay, um, I started the first

1:06:30

grade. I can't remember what age at this point, but

1:06:32

the first grade normal like six right, yeah, no, I

1:06:35

started way before that. UM. I

1:06:37

think that what also helped was

1:06:39

I skipped the fifth in sixth grades, they

1:06:42

said I was way way double

1:06:44

skipped. Do you skipped? Yeah?

1:06:46

You went from fourth ship?

1:06:50

Yeah, that was that was that was something that

1:06:52

you know, um, they came to my mom and

1:06:54

said, because my mom would always teach me, I would

1:06:56

come home and I would be doing school

1:06:58

work at home. I got you. I would be you

1:07:00

know, as a little kid. I would be reading

1:07:02

to my mom, reading the Bible actually, but

1:07:05

I would be doing all these things that other people, older

1:07:07

people were doing my math classes. I was

1:07:09

doing way more advanced things at home and

1:07:11

I was in school. And so they came

1:07:13

to my mom one day and said, I was bored. Like

1:07:16

I looked like I was bored in class because everything,

1:07:18

my grades were excellent. I got all the

1:07:20

awards, I got all, but it's just like this

1:07:22

kid is bored because he's just you know, it

1:07:25

takes him. He's the first one out of every exam

1:07:27

and things like that. So, um, they

1:07:29

thought it was a good idea for me to go. They

1:07:32

felt they tested me and saw that I was at and

1:07:34

that in in Nigeria, we have first

1:07:36

through sixth grades primary school and

1:07:39

then we have high school starts in seventh grade

1:07:43

seventh, seven, eight, nine is junior highest, senior

1:07:45

highest nine twelve.

1:07:47

But that's a big skip like going to high

1:07:49

school. Just go you go from the fourth grade

1:07:51

to high school and just socially, I mean, you must

1:07:54

was the hardest part, but you're still

1:07:56

like like a kid. I'm a kid and

1:07:58

I'm with people like

1:08:00

talking about talking about sex, they're talking about

1:08:02

girls, and I'm looking around like I don't,

1:08:04

I don't know anything by any of that, you know, and shot

1:08:07

a little kid. I was kind of a chubby, so you know, I

1:08:09

wasn't, you know, socially awkward in that regards.

1:08:11

But um, I just I

1:08:13

was good at school. And then so when

1:08:16

you graduate high school and four at fourteen

1:08:18

years old, how do you wind up in

1:08:20

America? I came

1:08:23

to America by mistake. Actually, well

1:08:25

I didn't come here about the wrong bus.

1:08:27

No, So we actually came here as a

1:08:30

family, um to celebrate my graduation.

1:08:32

We all came here on the trip thousand and

1:08:34

four on a trip. So when I came

1:08:36

here, it was it wasn't by mistake that we landed

1:08:38

here, but was by mistake that stayed right

1:08:41

because they ended up when I came here. My uncle

1:08:43

who I told you, we we came to visit family

1:08:45

who were here? And what part did you go to?

1:08:48

We were in sacrament the Sacramento area,

1:08:51

So yeah, so we came to we came out

1:08:53

here, actually landed

1:08:55

in San Francisco. So I don't know if this is foreshadowing

1:08:57

or not, but we landed in San Francisco.

1:09:00

Obviously, you guys know I played with the Golden State Warriors.

1:09:02

Um I you

1:09:04

know, we we stayed with the family over there. Uncle

1:09:07

saw me everywhere we went during this trip. Everybody

1:09:09

asked me if I played basketball, and I've

1:09:13

never played basketball before in my life. I told you I

1:09:15

was a chubby kid. I didn't know nothing about

1:09:17

no sports. My dad actually used to get so mad

1:09:19

because we had athletics back in

1:09:21

Nigeria. We would have these events, you

1:09:23

know, and he would come. He

1:09:26

would come just hoping that I would be doing something.

1:09:28

I would be on the sidelines, you know. And

1:09:31

it was something that always kind of because my dad was a

1:09:33

super athlete like everything. He's

1:09:36

about six four or six, and

1:09:39

he just wanted those genes used

1:09:42

and so it was it was hard for him, you know,

1:09:44

being a party. But you know, for him, it

1:09:46

was just more about like I want to see my my kid

1:09:48

do something. You know. I had man boobs,

1:09:50

you know, a little kid, and how told you at

1:09:53

that point I was I was fourteen years old.

1:09:55

And I was six five, so

1:09:58

I was I was a really tall kid. See

1:10:00

pictures from me and you kid,

1:10:02

No, not at all. And so when I

1:10:04

came to America, my uncle saw me

1:10:06

and he thought, let's you

1:10:08

know how He convinced me, Actually, it's

1:10:11

time to go to college. Right. So I said, I wanted

1:10:13

at this point, I wanted to be a doctor. And

1:10:16

I said, um, I don't want

1:10:19

to play basketball. I just want to be a doctor. So he

1:10:21

said, listen, you know what basketball

1:10:23

can do for you. He can give you a scholarship. You

1:10:25

don't have to pay a dime, and you go to college for

1:10:27

free. So that's why I started

1:10:29

playing basketball. It's because he

1:10:32

said, I can go to college, I can get a scholarship.

1:10:34

And this is what that's that's my story. That's

1:10:36

how it started. That's crazy.

1:10:39

And then so it only gets worse, it only gets

1:10:41

Crazier'll give it to me. So

1:10:43

I fourteen, You never played

1:10:46

You know, people over here they start playing basketball

1:10:49

and sports in general. So there's a certain amount

1:10:51

of did you play soccer anything? We played

1:10:53

soccer, but soccer was more of like a social

1:10:55

thing. Me and my friends would be out, will be waiting for

1:10:58

you know, all right, you can pick us up after school, so we

1:11:00

would just be outside playing all you need. It's

1:11:03

not sports wasn't my thing. I just I just like

1:11:05

to be with my friends. I played video games. But

1:11:07

now I didn't know it wasn't sports. Wasn't

1:11:10

my thing until I came here

1:11:12

and I started playing basketball. Um,

1:11:15

but you know the way it all started and the way

1:11:17

it kind of like it's a it's a whole long story

1:11:19

we don't have all the time on this podcast. But

1:11:22

my first basket was against my own

1:11:24

team. What do you mean,

1:11:27

so mat fact, let me, let me I can this

1:11:29

part of the story is actually important. So I

1:11:31

tried. So what what he convinced me to do? I

1:11:33

was fourteen years old, So he made me go back to high

1:11:35

school and redo my senior year. The thought

1:11:37

process was, if I go back to high school,

1:11:39

I can learn start learning with my people,

1:11:41

my age. Instead of going to college. It's

1:11:43

not even possible to How can you get a scholarship and just

1:11:45

go to college. So the plan

1:11:48

was I would go to Jesuit High School, which

1:11:50

is a Catholic school and Sacramento, and

1:11:52

I would play basketball there. I played there for a

1:11:54

couple of years they would teach me how to play and somehow

1:11:57

because the school was good at basketball. So

1:11:59

he was like, this is where you need to go. This is the

1:12:01

plan. It's all full proof. We got this down

1:12:03

right. I get to the school, I'm

1:12:06

going to school there, I'm taking these classes, and

1:12:09

then I get cut from the team. I

1:12:12

wasn't good, Like you don't understand,

1:12:14

Like the scouting report for me or the

1:12:16

way they talked about me is he cannot chew gum

1:12:18

and walk at the same time, and so it

1:12:20

was very, very awkward. I wasn't coordinated

1:12:23

at all. Hand eye coordination was literally

1:12:25

zero. If you want to go on two K it was zero.

1:12:28

And people don't understand what

1:12:31

it is to go from that to

1:12:34

the NBA five years later. That's

1:12:36

fucking nuts. It's they don't

1:12:38

understand. But it's it's not it's

1:12:40

not just a great story in terms of

1:12:42

Wow, this is amazing. It's like there's

1:12:45

a lot of sweat equity. There's a lot of

1:12:47

tears and blood and everything that you leave

1:12:49

on that court on the track and like

1:12:52

all these things that I had to do to get there, and

1:12:55

who actually helped me out was you

1:12:57

know, there was a random, just stranger. He

1:13:00

walks up to me one day after school and he's

1:13:02

his son was gonna be on the team. And this

1:13:04

guy walks up to me and he says, um,

1:13:08

he's talking with the coach of the team, the high school

1:13:10

team at the time. So he goes up to the coach.

1:13:12

Wow, like because he sees me a big black

1:13:15

kid. Obviously I can play basketball because I'm

1:13:17

big and black. So he

1:13:19

says that he sees me. He's like, wow, you guys are gonna

1:13:21

be really good this year. The coach is like yeah, but

1:13:23

you know, he said, why you say that. It's a big

1:13:25

kid, y'all? Guy, he said, yeah, not because

1:13:27

of him. He's a kid. He's not He's

1:13:30

not even good. He said, what are you talking

1:13:32

about? Asking the coach coaches

1:13:34

like, he can't play. He just came from he

1:13:36

can't play, came from Nigeria. What's

1:13:39

wrong with him? Can he run? Guys like

1:13:41

yeah? Can he jump? He was like yeah, so

1:13:43

what's the problem. He's no good? Can

1:13:46

I have him? Which is a weird thing

1:13:48

to say because he tells me this story all the time,

1:13:51

and uh, he actually somebody who has become a really

1:13:53

good friend. So he comes up to me at the time and

1:13:55

he um tells me and

1:13:58

I don't know what AU is at the time. So

1:14:00

he comes up to me and says, hey, you

1:14:03

I wanted you to play on my team. Do you what are

1:14:05

you interested in playing basketball? I said, I mean, I don't

1:14:07

know. I just will see. So he

1:14:09

says, he you you

1:14:11

travel with me. We're all sleep in the same

1:14:13

hotel. See how this sounds still a fourteen year

1:14:15

old kid, I'm like, yo, my mom warned me about mothers

1:14:20

and when I went home,

1:14:22

and at the time, my parents are still in Nigeria.

1:14:24

So I called him and say, hey, you know I

1:14:26

met this guy. You know, he says that he can

1:14:28

really help me in terms of basketball if

1:14:30

I play. You with him, and we got to travel

1:14:33

and we stay in the same hotel room. My mom

1:14:35

hung up the phone. What you're

1:14:37

talking about? And you

1:14:40

know we got to you know, explore a little further.

1:14:43

But you know, playing on his AU

1:14:45

team it took me to a whole

1:14:47

you know, like this is a whole new world for

1:14:49

me. You know, I had you know, teammates,

1:14:52

I had all these like things I had never had

1:14:54

before. This is this is new, especially being in America

1:14:57

at this point, I'm new here. I don't really

1:14:59

have any friends. I don't know anybody. I'm commuting

1:15:01

an hour and a half every day each way to go to

1:15:03

school. Like everything

1:15:06

about this journey has been crazy. And

1:15:08

so now I'm with this team and I'm hanging out

1:15:10

with the summer with these kids my age, traveling

1:15:13

and doing the stuff. Like I said, my first

1:15:15

basket during this time was

1:15:17

against my own team. You put it in the wrong basket.

1:15:19

I didn't know you switch halfs at the you know,

1:15:21

you switch sides of the half. So

1:15:24

I got a defensive rebound and put it right back in

1:15:26

and everybody's looking like, what the fund is going on?

1:15:28

Like you didn't know what's going on? Yeah, because I got the

1:15:31

rebound. No,

1:15:33

I couldn't dunk at the time. Man, Yeah,

1:15:36

So I got the rebound and my teammates

1:15:38

are running out for the outlet. I take

1:15:40

it and I put it right back in, and

1:15:43

they were looking at me like like and

1:15:45

what are you doing? What are you doing? What are

1:15:47

you doing? It's a tight game, like we're trying to win this

1:15:49

game. But um,

1:15:53

I didn't really care. I was happy I'm gonna

1:15:56

I was happy that was my first basket. I don't

1:15:58

care what you're talking about. This is my first

1:16:00

This is it for me, you know, which

1:16:02

made it ain't so the injury. You're running up the court,

1:16:04

They're like, oh man, there's there's cussing

1:16:07

me up smiling. I don't know what the heck is going on.

1:16:09

I'm smiling at that age

1:16:11

when you're you're still learning. What was the

1:16:13

first thing about basketball, the game of basketball?

1:16:16

The skill that clicked

1:16:19

with you that you remember going I

1:16:21

could do this? Was it dribbling? Was it a jump?

1:16:23

Was it a drop step? Like? What was the dun to

1:16:26

dunk? Um? All right? We were in

1:16:28

the gym working for a long time. This is

1:16:30

for hours, and we were trying to teach me how to

1:16:32

dunk. And at that time I can only dunk on one hand.

1:16:34

And this is like after a gather step. I had to run

1:16:37

up and like lift, you know. And

1:16:39

I worked on it for so long and

1:16:41

when I could finally do it, I kept

1:16:44

doing it over and over and that's like this the

1:16:46

first step. Just like I had a taste of success.

1:16:48

I got you for me, and I think

1:16:50

that that kind of drew me in a little bit. You

1:16:53

the first dunk in a game. Oh

1:16:55

my god, I still remember it too. It was a

1:16:57

two handed dunk. This is after I've been

1:16:59

working where you working. One of the times I

1:17:01

got an offensive rebound and I'm under the basket

1:17:03

and I just hear somebody else dunk it,

1:17:06

dunk it. I don't even know what came over me. I

1:17:08

just rose up. I'm right underneath the basket. I

1:17:10

literally had to reach behind my

1:17:12

head to dunk this ball. But I'm dunk

1:17:15

it in the crowd of people. That

1:17:17

was the first time I realized one thing how

1:17:19

strong I was and how athletic

1:17:21

I was. And so it

1:17:24

kind of started this chain of man, maybe I can

1:17:26

do something with this. You know. It kind of lit

1:17:28

that little, that little flame in my head of

1:17:30

like, okay, let me try. Granted, was still

1:17:32

very raw, very very raw, and

1:17:35

um, I played two summers like this. This

1:17:39

story gets it gets crazier. So I

1:17:41

played the first summer after this. I'm

1:17:44

done with the high school because I don't want to go there anymore. I don't

1:17:46

I've already already had my diploma from high

1:17:48

school. I only went back so I can play basketball.

1:17:51

Couldn't play anymore. I

1:17:53

am at this time. I'm fifteen, turned

1:17:56

sixteen in the fall. When I turned sixteen,

1:17:58

I go to a junior college at

1:18:00

sixteen. Because it's

1:18:02

crazy because remember I was I was still trying

1:18:04

to be a doctor, but I couldn't

1:18:07

play basketball. It's what they told me. So my whole

1:18:09

thing was, you know, I can go back to school. I

1:18:11

can go you know, work it, get

1:18:13

a scholarship, academic scholarship. Crazy,

1:18:16

like you're sixteen, you're six eight, you're

1:18:19

from Nigeria, Like

1:18:21

there's so many wild different things.

1:18:24

You know you're dealing with. You stand out because

1:18:27

you're tall, but you're not really

1:18:29

a great basketball player. And

1:18:31

then you and even if even if you're just a regular

1:18:33

size sixteen year old, and that's always weird,

1:18:35

like some Doogie Houser ship. You

1:18:38

know, you're around adults eighteen, ninet,

1:18:40

twenty year old people in the old

1:18:42

people Like there's like there's forty year

1:18:44

old junior college. Everybody. Everybody's

1:18:47

there. And it was weird because I'll be in

1:18:49

chemistry class and I would have older people

1:18:51

Like I was actually a tutor. That's

1:18:54

how I got I got a little bit of money, is

1:18:56

I was a tutor in the school. So I was.

1:18:58

I was tutoring math and biology.

1:19:00

Almost did chemistry, but it was too much lowered with

1:19:03

my my So I was tutoring while

1:19:05

I was going to school and I'm walking

1:19:07

around school. One day I guess the coach,

1:19:09

the basketball coach at the team there you be

1:19:12

college, had heard about me. So

1:19:14

he, you know, somehow, it tracks me down and sees me

1:19:16

like, yo, what's going Like, where'd you come from? Who are

1:19:18

you? And I tell him a little bit of my story.

1:19:21

I got to go to class, bro. So he convinced

1:19:23

me to come to the gym and talk to

1:19:26

him. So I come back to the gym and we talk a little bit.

1:19:28

He somehow this dude is I mean, his name

1:19:30

is Doug Cornelius. He's still a really good friend

1:19:32

of mine until today. And he's the coach

1:19:34

there still. And he

1:19:37

convinced me to try

1:19:40

taking basketball classes. Basketball

1:19:42

class is a thing you've a college,

1:19:45

you but community colleges where I went to school,

1:19:47

and basketball was the thing. And so

1:19:49

I take yoga like it's like a workout. They

1:19:52

have yoga as well. But yeah,

1:19:56

that you actually learned how to play, you actually play

1:19:58

pick up, I got, you know, And

1:20:01

so this this was my first kind of

1:20:03

you know, interaction with him and his team. And

1:20:06

as I started to do it and learn more, and

1:20:08

he actually took a lot of you know, he was

1:20:10

teaching me, and I

1:20:13

started liking the team and liking him, especially

1:20:15

because he was my guy. Like he was like taking

1:20:17

me through all this. He

1:20:20

wanted me to play on his team

1:20:22

eventually. All right, so, um,

1:20:25

what he want? What he His plan was, you

1:20:27

know, you great shirt with

1:20:29

us for a couple of years. I can get your college scholarship.

1:20:32

Just play with me. I played with my school,

1:20:34

play with my team, Play with us, and

1:20:37

we'll get your college scholarship. So he convinced me

1:20:39

the great shirt. If I don't know if you guys understand that,

1:20:41

but great shirting is you know, going

1:20:43

under twelve years. I never heard of shirt. It's

1:20:46

red shirting. This great shirting. Red shirting is

1:20:48

you are a full time student.

1:20:50

You're just not playing great shirting

1:20:52

is. I never heard that you're

1:20:54

a part time student. The

1:20:56

clock doesn't start for you when you're red

1:20:59

shirting. You have have four years, you

1:21:01

have five years to play four in

1:21:04

college. But if you're gray shirt, then

1:21:06

that clock doesn't start. You just go part time,

1:21:09

which is under twelve units. It's a whole

1:21:11

it's a whole scheme, which he explained

1:21:13

to me. And so that was a tough decision

1:21:15

for me because I wanted to go be a doctor

1:21:17

and I felt like, you're so

1:21:20

that's why I had to go see

1:21:23

let me try and see if this works out. And so I

1:21:25

when I when I talked to my parents about this, talk to

1:21:27

my uncle. My uncle is a doctor himself at

1:21:30

this point in here, United

1:21:32

States. Here, that's what I was living with you.

1:21:34

So when I told him about this whole thing, he was like he

1:21:36

had already given up the dream. So he was like,

1:21:38

Yo, why are you wasting my time? And why are you wasting

1:21:41

you know, we don't want to pay for school. If you're going

1:21:43

to be going part times, go get a job.

1:21:45

Then so that was a

1:21:47

whole deal. And that was a whole deal. But you

1:21:49

know, he eventually came around.

1:21:52

You know, um what what how it actually

1:21:55

happened. I was a part of the team,

1:21:57

but I was the videographer team.

1:22:00

Like I told you the story, I keep saying, the story is

1:22:02

crazy and people don't believe it, and I don't

1:22:04

even believe. Sometimes I talk, when I talk about it.

1:22:07

The way for me to travel with this basketball team at

1:22:09

Uba College was to be the videographer.

1:22:11

And so when we would travel to games and

1:22:13

I would be this big black dude come off the bus

1:22:15

and people are like, holy ship, we were in for it tonight.

1:22:18

And now I bring out my camera back cameras.

1:22:22

Yeah, and

1:22:25

that was my that was my journey man, that was my story.

1:22:27

And um, the next summer I

1:22:30

was at home. I didn't really have much going on. Mind

1:22:32

you, I'm sixteen this whole

1:22:34

time, so I'm still like I'm

1:22:36

still young. I go back and

1:22:39

play with that same guy from

1:22:41

the summer before hear you again.

1:22:44

This time I'm better, right because I've been taking those basketball

1:22:46

classes, right, that's crazy basketball

1:22:48

classes. So

1:22:52

when when I come back, first

1:22:55

of all, my body is different. Now I'm a little skinnier

1:22:57

because I've been running these sprints, I've been doing all these

1:22:59

things with as I've been playing pick up. I'm

1:23:01

still very raw, but now I'm athletic.

1:23:04

Know how to block shots. That's something that I don't

1:23:06

know when that came about, but it

1:23:08

just it seems like it's always been in nate in me knowing

1:23:11

how to block shots and

1:23:13

So when I come back that summer, my

1:23:16

team and I we go to the Sweet

1:23:18

sixteen of you know, the Big Time

1:23:20

tournaments in Vegas. I don't know if you know about it, and

1:23:23

they still have that yeah it's yeah,

1:23:26

but now it's like everybody it's created as

1:23:28

crazy as the whole scheme now. But at

1:23:31

the time, like we had, the Big Time was the that

1:23:33

was the that was the tournament to go to. Everybody

1:23:35

from all over the country came there. It was like three D

1:23:37

teams and we went to the Sweet six team, my team and I.

1:23:40

We had some some lot of cats from

1:23:42

Sacramento. My AU team was called the North cal

1:23:44

Farareos, so obviously with a name like

1:23:46

that, nobody takes us seriously, the

1:23:48

North cal Farres. But we

1:23:50

came in and we actually, um,

1:23:53

we had we we had a mash up

1:23:55

with our team and Play Hard Play Smart, which

1:23:58

had some other guys from Sacramento who were some

1:24:00

killers. So our our teams together, I

1:24:03

mean me and the other big kid on my team

1:24:05

his name was he was Terence Jennings. He went to

1:24:07

Louisville. All you have to do is throw the

1:24:09

ball up and somebody's dunking it.

1:24:12

Him everybody's dunking, and so my

1:24:14

team was actually really good. And

1:24:16

um, so going through that whole process

1:24:19

and people come in to see them. The other team

1:24:21

guys on my team who were prospects, people

1:24:23

saw me like yo, who is that kid? And

1:24:26

I get invited to the Top one

1:24:28

fifty camp in Philly or New Jersey.

1:24:30

I can't remember one of those and

1:24:33

uh I looked at the letter. I

1:24:35

was like, I don't me one top

1:24:37

one kids And that's crazy, right,

1:24:40

And um when

1:24:43

I go to the camp, almost

1:24:45

felt like I was big foot. Like people were

1:24:47

like taking pictures of me, like, yo, who is this kid? Where

1:24:49

you I mean? Because they didn't

1:24:52

know where I came. I literally just came on the scene.

1:24:54

Because remember I was at junior college. I didn't

1:24:56

play basketball. So who

1:24:59

were the players, Like who were the other players

1:25:01

there? Like who were the best players?

1:25:03

Oh, like Aaron Gordon's

1:25:05

brother Drew Gordon was like one of the

1:25:07

top dudes of that camp we had. Um Isaiah

1:25:10

Thomas was on my team. So we had like all star

1:25:12

team, which I made at the end.

1:25:14

And because he looks

1:25:16

like he was just a killer, like he could

1:25:18

just score man, he could he was doing

1:25:20

this since he probably came out of the womb scoring.

1:25:23

You know, Isaiah was doing the same thing. Brandon

1:25:25

Jennings, uh, Ernardo

1:25:28

Sydney. I don't know if you know that is um

1:25:31

Man. There's so many kids. I don't

1:25:34

remember everybody at this point, but it's all the top

1:25:36

kids and we're

1:25:38

all going at it and I'm just happy

1:25:40

to be here because I you know, I don't but I

1:25:42

always had a little competitive

1:25:45

edge. I always like Quincy a c Is

1:25:47

Actually that was my first So during

1:25:49

the All Star Game, I was dunked on

1:25:51

for the first time in my career. I

1:25:54

try to help off of the week's side. I saw Quincy.

1:25:56

I was like, I've always been the most athletic guy,

1:25:59

and so I tried to jump with Quincy a C at

1:26:01

the time, and he dunked on

1:26:03

me so crazy with

1:26:05

two hands. It was. It was probably

1:26:08

the craziest. So after I went through

1:26:10

that feeling, I was like, yo, I don't want

1:26:12

to experience this thing again. This sucks. Is embarrassing

1:26:15

my first time being dunked on. So you

1:26:18

must have learned so much because now you're playing with

1:26:20

more athletic just as big as

1:26:22

you competitive. They grew up like this

1:26:25

is their life, their blood, like this is their

1:26:27

whole thing. So did it? Did

1:26:29

it awaken something? And you're like, yo, I really

1:26:31

like I want to do this ship. That's

1:26:33

That's exactly what it was. You know, coming through

1:26:35

that camp, knowing where I came from.

1:26:38

They don't know who I am, but knowing where I came from

1:26:40

again to this point, all it did was fuel

1:26:42

that fire of wanting to do more. Like look

1:26:44

at all these dudes, look at what they're doing. I

1:26:47

want to do more, you know. So

1:26:49

um, But when I came from that camp, I got

1:26:51

a bunch of scholarships. That was my first time I

1:26:53

got um. I had I think

1:26:55

the year before I had played you people saw

1:26:58

me. I had two scholarships, one to UNLV

1:27:00

and went to Oregon State. I left

1:27:02

that camp with about forty some

1:27:05

scholarship from all over the place. It was I couldn't

1:27:07

gun anywhere in the country, to be honest, and

1:27:09

and they knew you were a good student. That

1:27:11

was you getting recruited by Harvard, Princeton

1:27:14

all the whole. Yeah, so Harvard is actually one of

1:27:16

the college business I took. And

1:27:18

for Nigerian, you know that for a Nigerian family.

1:27:21

My mom still has that letter printed till today.

1:27:24

She wants you to go to Harvard. It was, it

1:27:26

was that was the conversation that we had to have as

1:27:28

a family. You have thought somebody died, Like I literally

1:27:30

had to sit down with my family and say,

1:27:32

hey, listen, I can't go

1:27:34

to Harvard. I don't think that that fits

1:27:36

my vision or what I want to do. I love

1:27:39

the school is such an amazing honor that you

1:27:41

know, I was able to get accepted, but it's not

1:27:43

something that I want to do. I want to Actually, you got accepted,

1:27:45

you got a scholarship offer, Your grades are

1:27:47

good, like the whole it's it's incredible.

1:27:50

But you knew as a basketball player like that

1:27:52

wouldn't answer it. I've always been very

1:27:54

in tune with my energy, Like I always known,

1:27:57

like if I walk into a room, I can

1:27:59

always feel like I don't feel good

1:28:01

here? Right? I think that

1:28:03

was how are you feel in here right now? Doing the podcast?

1:28:05

I felt man, doors

1:28:08

here, tall doors here at the house.

1:28:10

This is this is nice, this is good? Alright,

1:28:12

cool, alright, cool? So you

1:28:14

chose Vanderbilt. I chose which

1:28:16

is a good school? Is

1:28:19

a top well it still is it's a

1:28:21

top twenty school in the country,

1:28:23

and at the time, it was an

1:28:25

up and coming basketball program. The year before I

1:28:27

got there, they just went to the Sweet six team

1:28:29

and so meeting with the coach, meeting

1:28:31

with the players. I think I went to a

1:28:34

lot of schools. One of the things

1:28:36

that was a stipulation that I wanted

1:28:38

to happen that one of the things that I said to

1:28:41

every coach is like, hey, like, I

1:28:43

want a red shirt. That was the thing I told

1:28:45

everybody because at this time, right now,

1:28:47

I'm six, I'm seventeen, right,

1:28:50

so I'm seventeen years old, and

1:28:53

I felt like I wanted to rest. I wanted to learn.

1:28:55

I've never been on a team, I never played organized

1:28:58

basketball before. I don't know what that's like. I

1:29:00

feel like I need a year to adjust

1:29:02

to and this is just in your head, Like you're like

1:29:04

you knew that. Yeah, Like I felt like

1:29:07

like I needed more time. And

1:29:09

people didn't understand what I was talking, like, you

1:29:11

don't choose to rest your we if we think

1:29:13

that you should rest here, that's what we choose to resture

1:29:15

you. Or you have an injury transfer or

1:29:18

whatever. But I was like, no, like I

1:29:20

feel like, this is what I need to do, and they

1:29:22

said, um. A lot of coaches weren't

1:29:24

weren't happy with that. They were like the you

1:29:27

know, like we need you right now, like we but

1:29:30

I was like, yo, I know, like, but

1:29:32

I'm very raw, like I know that this time

1:29:34

would really help me, which ended up being the case

1:29:37

because I really needed that the extra time. And

1:29:39

so when I got to Vandy

1:29:43

and I took my visit there, it's just like it was a different

1:29:45

field. I know the coach. I felt his energy

1:29:47

and his passion towards the game, and he told

1:29:50

me from the start, he said, listen, you're

1:29:52

a project. I'm not gonna lie to you like

1:29:54

it's your game needs a lot of work,

1:29:56

but I'm gonna work with you. I'm not going to recruit over

1:29:59

you. You're going to be my guy right

1:30:01

now. We have a starting center, but

1:30:03

you're going to be my guy. I'm not recruiting anybody

1:30:05

else to come over you, right And

1:30:09

having that conversation with him and having to meeting

1:30:11

my teammates, and it was dope because a couple of other visits

1:30:13

I went on. I went on a visit to a school

1:30:16

where the other center I dunked

1:30:18

on the center and he tried to fight me just during

1:30:20

the game. So like, I went on some business

1:30:22

with guys that like they didn't

1:30:24

really rock with me just because

1:30:27

they felt I was going to take their spot. When I went to

1:30:29

Vendi, they were like, Yo, we need like your

1:30:31

athletics and what you bring, like we feel

1:30:33

like it will be good for us, and

1:30:36

so um that couple of a couple with the school.

1:30:38

I went to school in Nashville, which is a whole different

1:30:40

vibe from what I was used to. So I was like, man, this is really

1:30:42

like I like this, But the school

1:30:44

I really wanted to go to with Stanford,

1:30:47

that was my dream school. I wanted

1:30:50

to go to Stanford. And it's not like I picked

1:30:52

like coming from Sacramento.

1:30:55

I wanted to go to Stanford. That's how I

1:30:58

envisioned everything. I was like, Yo, I'm going here. It's

1:31:00

grade school, grade basketball program, and I'm

1:31:02

gonna become a doctor. So see how my

1:31:04

mind is. You're not even thinking playing in the NBA.

1:31:07

How how can I think about playing the NBA. I just started

1:31:09

playing basketball. I didn't think it's a possibility.

1:31:12

So when I think

1:31:15

that, you know, that was one of the schools

1:31:17

and they had the two bigs in the Lopez twins,

1:31:20

and so they didn't need me, but everybody else

1:31:22

is calling me. So it was like this crazy conflict

1:31:24

in my head, like they want me, but you don't want

1:31:27

that crazy one

1:31:29

of the reasons why I didn't want to go to school in California,

1:31:31

Like I was like, not forget that, I'm gonna go somewhere

1:31:34

else and I'm gonna go do what I need to do. And

1:31:36

so like the SCS, the u c l As,

1:31:38

the cal Berkeleys, although they were great

1:31:40

schools, but I was like, now I want to go somewhere

1:31:43

else. And so even taking

1:31:45

I didn't know what to expect going to vander but Vanderbild

1:31:47

was actually one of the first schools I crossed off my list.

1:31:49

I didn't know what it was. I was like, vander Vander

1:31:52

what that was? Jr. College was, I'm

1:31:54

not going to another Jerry college. But

1:31:56

I went there. I was so blown away

1:31:58

by first of all, the city

1:32:00

and the culture. Right, country music that's

1:32:03

not really it wasn't really my thing because

1:32:05

my parents actually listened to a lot of country music

1:32:07

and I hated it. And I was like I don't want to hear

1:32:09

this shit anymore. But when I

1:32:11

got there, it was just cool people. Southern hospitality

1:32:14

is a real thing, man. They really really took

1:32:16

care of me, and it was like I enjoyed

1:32:18

my my time. So you know, when it came

1:32:20

down to it and I chose Vanderbilt, I

1:32:22

thought that would be the place to go. And I felt

1:32:24

like there was something calling me there. And

1:32:27

did you did you stay four years? I

1:32:29

graduated? Yeah, so you read shirted

1:32:31

the first year, so I actually stayed five

1:32:33

because I resturated the first year. So

1:32:36

I resturated my first year and I played

1:32:38

four years. The first two years I barely

1:32:40

played. I was coming off the bench five

1:32:42

minutes and in ten minutes the next year. The

1:32:45

guy in front of me is an Australian player, which

1:32:49

is funny because I also played with the Australian player

1:32:51

when I got to the league. But in bog

1:32:53

but um a j ogilvie

1:32:56

big guys some foot or I mean

1:32:58

skilled, very skilled, was supposed

1:33:00

to be lottery his freshman year, he

1:33:03

got some He has some injury issues at

1:33:05

the time, so he decided to leave

1:33:08

and go back to Australia. When

1:33:10

he leaves the coach kind of hands me the keys

1:33:12

to the car, and at the

1:33:14

time, um, it was between that

1:33:16

we had. It was another center who was another

1:33:18

backup as well. His name was Steve chan Gang,

1:33:21

who's actually one of my best friends now.

1:33:23

And the difference between me and Steve starting

1:33:26

the starting center spot the next year our junior

1:33:28

year was a flip of a coin. He

1:33:31

said, you guys have been killing it all practice, all

1:33:33

preseason, Like, I don't know what to do, So

1:33:36

you guys are gonna actually switch back and

1:33:38

forth game the game I

1:33:41

started, he starts. But as after

1:33:43

like three games, there was

1:33:46

just something about you know, the my defensive

1:33:48

presence in the paint that just you know, they took

1:33:50

it, took our team to another level. And he was

1:33:52

like, hey, you know what kind of

1:33:54

like doing what he did with Lebron, Like hey, man, like

1:33:57

we both need each other. I

1:33:59

will be the backup for the team

1:34:02

and seeing somebody like that, because initially

1:34:04

we didn't like each other, but we were really like right,

1:34:07

But for him to be say that's the type of person,

1:34:09

like I like to surround myself

1:34:11

with people like that because you see the big picture

1:34:14

for us to win, like we

1:34:16

need each other and so he

1:34:18

gave me, you know, that starting position. That's

1:34:20

when I became an NBA prospect. That year was

1:34:23

because I came in there before that

1:34:25

summer. I've never put in work like that

1:34:27

like I have in my whole life. Because my coach told

1:34:29

me, Hey, this is gonna be a year and I went

1:34:31

home. I did everything. Like if you're talking about working

1:34:33

out, I don't think there's any workout that you can

1:34:36

look at out there with us, running on the dunes, whether

1:34:38

it's boxing with us, yoga, were doing everything,

1:34:41

running out night, whatever. Like I'm

1:34:43

doing everything and my body feels

1:34:45

like crap, but like I'm

1:34:47

I'm ready to go next year. And I

1:34:50

come in my junior and I became an NBA

1:34:53

prospect. That's kind of how

1:34:55

the whole thing started. So when

1:34:57

I talked about adversity, I've

1:34:59

seen a lot of it and this next phase

1:35:02

was my biggest that that was one of my another

1:35:05

adversity I hit. So after my junior

1:35:07

year, I had the chance to come to the NBA. I

1:35:09

was gonna be a lot of people and

1:35:11

what year was this? This is my third

1:35:15

and uh, I had a conversation with my mom

1:35:18

and I think two thousand level was also the lockout

1:35:20

year. So

1:35:23

that couple with the fact my mom and my

1:35:26

my parents actually there was no

1:35:28

way I was leaving college early. I

1:35:31

wasn't gonna leave halfway

1:35:33

through. I also missed to

1:35:35

say I wasn't missed saying that after

1:35:37

two years. Um I decided that basketball

1:35:39

was going well. So I switched

1:35:41

from premed because I couldn't

1:35:43

dedicate all my time to both. I switched

1:35:45

from premed and I chose another

1:35:48

professional degree,

1:35:50

which is economics. I just couldn't

1:35:52

do both anymore. So this time I'm

1:35:54

like, I'm invested like I want to do, but

1:35:57

my parents felt like I needed my degree right.

1:35:59

I didn't really argue with him because I actually

1:36:01

love college. A good time in college. Um

1:36:05

So the next year, my senior year, I get

1:36:07

hurt before in the preseason,

1:36:10

I tear like I land like some

1:36:12

um it's in practice, somebody undercuts me, and

1:36:15

um I land. I tear my my m

1:36:17

C on my PC, on my knee. Holy

1:36:20

fuck, Like this is this

1:36:22

is this is real. This

1:36:24

is like the thing you hear about movies, like you come

1:36:26

back and get hurt. My coach

1:36:28

was so distraught because he was one of the people

1:36:30

that told me I should come back. So he was like he didn't

1:36:32

even know how to act. And one

1:36:35

of the first I just like I just laid there. I

1:36:37

was like screaming, like paining all this crazy

1:36:39

stuff. And later on that night,

1:36:42

I'm sitting there and I'm like the same thing,

1:36:44

like I'm tears running down my eyes. I

1:36:47

just started laughing. I was like it

1:36:50

was just like it was so it was like a movie

1:36:52

to me. I felt like something something

1:36:54

changed in my mind that night. It was just like this

1:36:57

is where I'm at. This is where

1:36:59

I'm at, So what am I gonna do about it? And

1:37:03

from that point that night,

1:37:05

I had my I had my knee

1:37:08

fixed there I was supposed

1:37:10

to be out for I know, I didn't

1:37:12

have to fix Actually I had a choice

1:37:14

to do the surgery or

1:37:17

to leave it. And it kind of heels

1:37:19

on its own if you if you keep

1:37:21

it for six weeks locked up. I

1:37:23

played in a game six

1:37:25

weeks later with my knee

1:37:28

bandaged up, like I couldn't

1:37:30

even bend my knee, that's how much it was bandaged

1:37:32

up. But I was like, yo, like I watched my team like

1:37:34

I've always been a team first guy,

1:37:37

and my team struggled a little bit, and I was just like,

1:37:39

you know what, getting me out there. And

1:37:42

I don't know if it was a smart decision or not, it's just

1:37:44

that that's kind of the thing that's in me, Like I want

1:37:47

to be out there. I'm a competitive dude, and I

1:37:49

would be out there on the court with my knee like that.

1:37:51

Actually played against step School and

1:37:53

it was after after he left and I

1:37:55

had I might have had like seventeen

1:37:58

and nine with my with not

1:38:00

being able to jump like I couldn't. And you didn't

1:38:02

get the surgery, No, I didn't. I

1:38:04

didn't. And you

1:38:07

know, one of the one of the most

1:38:11

one of the most precious things

1:38:13

about that process for me was that

1:38:16

right after I had that surgery,

1:38:18

up until I didn't play at in practice,

1:38:21

I was there with my team every day. One

1:38:23

of the most my amazing,

1:38:25

most amazing accomplishments that I had was

1:38:27

that I got voted

1:38:30

by my team unanimously to

1:38:32

be the team captain. My

1:38:34

attitude through that whole process, I don't

1:38:36

even know where I got the strength to be honest, because

1:38:39

I just felt like they needed me. I

1:38:41

was gonna be there. I've always been the team

1:38:43

first guy and so um

1:38:46

going from that and then you know, playing with

1:38:48

my team, we played the whole year out. You know,

1:38:51

we were SEC were the first time we won

1:38:53

the SEC championship. That year we actually beat Anthony

1:38:55

Davis in the Kentucky Wildcasts.

1:38:57

We beat them that year in the SEC Championship

1:39:00

and that year was so amazing

1:39:03

and everything. They kind of but it came

1:39:05

from that moment, like let's just go back

1:39:07

and rewind to the start of the season when I had that's

1:39:09

when I had that injury. I really was

1:39:12

like I could have just quitt you

1:39:14

you know, and I take all

1:39:16

these experiences. I was drafted about the Golden

1:39:19

State Warriors, UM five picks

1:39:21

before Draymond Green. Yeah.

1:39:23

Yeah, So when you get when you

1:39:25

go through the process, you go through the draft camps and also

1:39:27

then you go get you get drafted, You've been playing

1:39:30

basketball five years.

1:39:31

It was insane at

1:39:34

that point. I've been playing for five years. I've been playing

1:39:36

organized basketball for five years, So I

1:39:38

just get drafted. I mean, coach

1:39:41

Kurk calls the Draymond the future Hall of Famer,

1:39:43

So you mean think about that. But

1:39:46

to me, it was just like I just couldn't

1:39:48

believe where I was at, how I got there.

1:39:50

I worked hard, so I can do all that. But

1:39:53

when I got drafted in it's

1:39:56

insane. And was was David Stern? Or

1:39:58

was it David Stern? So it's like the last

1:40:01

like almost like the yeah, so you

1:40:03

get that was his last Yeah,

1:40:05

so I was the last. Last time he calling them

1:40:07

that that was the last regime. Wow?

1:40:10

And they never thought about that. Yeah. I mean and

1:40:12

now now you got my man, Adam Silver. That's

1:40:15

incredible, that's crazy, that's historic.

1:40:19

Wow. So so you get drafted

1:40:21

by Gold, stay words, you get drafted

1:40:23

ahead of Draymond Green? How

1:40:25

how often does Draymond Green remind you

1:40:28

you got drafted before me? Like? What? What? What? Did he be?

1:40:30

Honest? We never to be honest,

1:40:32

Like Draymond is one of the best teammates

1:40:34

I ever happened. What is he like? He's such

1:40:36

a sort of controversial figure, like you him?

1:40:39

I love him. I love Draymond

1:40:41

Like that's probably one of the best team that's ive ever had,

1:40:43

just because um,

1:40:46

his passion for the game, Like he's passion for

1:40:48

life, Like dude is he's on ten all

1:40:50

the time? Me and Draymond got

1:40:52

into it a lot while we were there, but it was

1:40:54

always loved like it was like when we're

1:40:56

on the court like all that, like all that. He

1:41:00

talks a lot, even in practice. There's

1:41:02

even worse than practice, you know, people see it

1:41:04

on the court like, oh man, this is just no like

1:41:06

this is him all the time on the court and

1:41:08

match my own energy, which is like yo, when

1:41:11

it's time to go and we're being competitive, like

1:41:13

we're about to fight, like you know, like there's no

1:41:15

ifs the bus about it. So I

1:41:18

think that that's, you know, being a person

1:41:21

like that, being someone who will do

1:41:23

anything. I think that's the biggest thing I

1:41:25

love about him. He will do anything to help if

1:41:27

you're on his side, dream rise

1:41:29

with you. That's

1:41:32

all it is. And he makes that team go. He

1:41:35

makes everybody get better. He's not afraid to call

1:41:37

you out. But that was why that team

1:41:39

works so well, is because there was no egos,

1:41:42

right, there's egos to be better. Like

1:41:44

obviously Steph is you know this, the

1:41:46

Houston Rockets going stay serious about to start

1:41:49

right. Obviously Steph is going against Chris

1:41:51

Paul like yo, I'm coming for you. Clay is going

1:41:53

for James already, like yo, there's egos

1:41:55

in that regards. There's no egos when you're coming