0:00

Welcome to the Big Niang Theory. Let

0:02

me ask one question. Is my podcast Joel

0:05

is a card shark. Danny gets swindled

0:07

fashions. I just like stuff that looks greatness,

0:10

just reads greatness, and the outfit right

0:12

in Welcome

0:15

back everybody to the Big Niang

0:17

Theory. We had a superb

0:21

guest today, m Tobias

0:23

Harris. I've

0:26

had a close relationship with Tobias,

0:28

you know, since I've gotten to Philly,

0:31

and today was great.

0:33

I mean, he got to open

0:35

up about you know, his time here in Philly, his family,

0:37

his journey, how

0:40

his mind operates, you know, even

0:43

funny topics about food and his thoughts about

0:45

me. And but I think the coolest thing was, you

0:48

know, Tobias impacts a lot

0:50

of people, and he does it, you know, with

0:53

a clean heart. And I think, you

0:55

know, this episode, people are really going

0:57

to get in and get to

0:59

see who Tobias is as a person.

1:01

And I think that's going

1:04

to make a lot of people love

1:06

the guy that he is. And he's

1:08

super special to us, super special

1:10

to me, super special to the people in his life.

1:13

And I'm really excited for the for

1:15

the podcast world to hear

1:17

this episode. He mentioned it in the

1:19

conversation, but he said that he doesn't do a

1:22

lot of content. He doesn't

1:24

do a lot of pr stuff, even

1:26

though from where I'm sitting I think he should because

1:28

of all the good that he does in the world. I wish he would talk about

1:30

it more, but I think that that makes

1:32

it even more meaningful when he is willing to talk

1:34

about it, when he is willing to open up. There

1:37

are a few people in the world that I admire more than

1:39

Tobias Harris. He is in my

1:41

mount rushmore I think of people that I've worked

1:43

with. So I'm very excited for him

1:45

to share and show everybody why this

1:48

is an awesome episode. So, without further

1:50

ado, here's Tobias. Let's do

1:52

it. Yeah,

1:55

Welcome

2:00

everybody to the Big Niang Theory. I'm

2:03

George Niang with my co host

2:05

Lauren Rosen, and today we have

2:07

a very special guest. It was kind of last

2:10

minute, but I appreciate his assertiveness

2:12

of coming up to me and getting it done. We have Tobias

2:15

Harris in the building. Thanks for joining us.

2:17

Tobias, happy to

2:19

be here. You know, I've never really

2:21

said this to Tobias, but you know, growing

2:24

up kind of in the same area. Tobias was a little

2:26

bit older than me, and uh, you

2:29

know, I did look up to you when

2:31

I was in high school, you know,

2:33

when you played in the au. This is the last time I'll

2:35

ever bring it up because that's embarrassing.

2:37

But that's not growing

2:40

up in Boston and Tobias being

2:42

from New York or Connecticut, No

2:44

kidding, New

2:47

York. You know, obviously

2:49

he was highly touted. He's had a he's

2:51

had a crazy journey.

2:53

But I think being I'm a New England kid

2:56

or Northeast kids, how do

2:58

you feel being close to home?

3:00

Because this is my first season playing

3:02

close to home, and it's kind of like the best of both worlds.

3:04

Like my mom came and stayed with me for ten

3:07

days, which was exciting

3:09

and thrilling. But you're like right up the

3:11

street. So if you enjoyed that, it's three years. It's

3:13

been like three years, right, yeah, no, So

3:16

that's that's been cool. I mean, you

3:18

know, coming from where was I

3:20

was in LA before. So, um,

3:24

my my dad and my mom were

3:26

really my dad if he can come to

3:28

every game, he'll come to every game. My

3:31

mom she's like, I'll

3:33

watch you from the TV screaming like I

3:35

don't need to be up in the stands with him

3:37

screaming. And sometimes

3:40

my mom she'd be getting a little like

3:42

when you know, in the arena, she'll

3:44

bark back a little bit when

3:47

people say that, so she'll bark back. So she

3:49

would be like, I'll see where you want.

3:51

You know, I don't want to be. Uh, I don't want to getting

3:53

no arguments in us. I'm gonna stay at the house

3:56

and whatnot. But for them to have

3:58

the lissessibit be

4:00

two hours thirty minutes away to come

4:02

to games, that's awesome, and

4:04

then met vice versa as well,

4:06

to be able to go back from time to time.

4:09

Uh. And then just growing up like growing

4:12

up in Long Island, obviously I was being

4:14

able to watch the Knicks like as a kid, obviously

4:17

I was a huge Ellen Iverson fan um

4:21

in his days as

4:23

a sixer, so being able

4:25

to see him play, and then you

4:27

know, now playing for this organization,

4:30

it's uh, you know, it's awesome.

4:33

Yeah, And you're like, I wouldn't

4:35

say surprisingly, but you are like super

4:37

close with your family and that's not and you have

4:39

a big family too, so that's not always

4:41

often like I forget like your sister had

4:43

like her senior night in tobis like yo, I'm

4:45

going I was like, shoot, you're better than me.

4:47

I would be trying to get and as to sleep.

4:50

But no, like speak on that. Like in

4:52

your and your dad. I see your dad even like

4:54

how you close you guys are when he sits there.

4:56

There was one time like it was like an image. You were

4:59

in the corner and he was in like courtside, and

5:01

before you could even like finish your shot,

5:03

he's like holding his father. I

5:06

thought that was funny. But that's that's very

5:08

I wouldn't say rare, but it's isn't

5:10

the most common thing that you have big families that are

5:12

just so close to each other. Talk

5:15

about how you guys are so close. I mean I've

5:17

played against your brother a couple of times

5:19

hoop and is is in the Harris

5:22

DNA, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean

5:24

that's where it all started. I think that's where like

5:26

the closeness of the family

5:29

began. Like there's six of us, right,

5:31

so it's a big family. To

5:33

say the least. Shout out to my

5:35

mom, who like who raised us,

5:37

and you know that's a powerful

5:40

woman. There just being able to do whatever

5:42

it took to see us be successful.

5:44

And then my father, you know

5:46

who as a kid, that was

5:49

my coach, right and I couldn't

5:51

stand him as a coach because he was so hard

5:53

on me. But at the end of the day, like,

5:55

now that's my agent, so

5:58

now he took over representing me.

6:00

I want to say that was my third year in the NBA.

6:02

Ryan we were able to do two two

6:05

big great deals. So it

6:07

just like shows like our family, it

6:09

was a connective union. My older sister, she

6:12

was the first one to get a Division

6:14

one scholarship to go to

6:16

play at Delaware. My older

6:19

brother was actually the first one to

6:21

get He didn't get a basketball

6:23

scholarship, but academically he got scholarship,

6:26

so he went to University of Maryland. So

6:28

like seeing him come up and

6:30

he's a lot older than me as well, but seeing

6:33

him come up go to college, maybe

6:35

like think like, oh, I can go to college,

6:37

you know what I'm saying. And then my sister getting a

6:39

basketball scholarship goes to college. You

6:42

know, my younger brother Tyler, who

6:45

plays as well overseas my

6:47

younger brother Terry, who plays who

6:49

played in the G League. But now Terry

6:52

like shifted focus, shifted

6:54

his focus and does real estate, and

6:57

you know he was very successful, super

6:59

successful out you know. Noah,

7:04

So I think it's just And then my young sister Tory

7:06

played at Saint Bonaventure. Was like to see

7:09

her have a senior night. You know, I wanted

7:11

to go there and be a part of it, and at

7:13

the same time made me feel like like wow,

7:15

like my little sister, this is the last

7:17

college game, you know what I mean. So it's

7:20

just that connectiveness. But it all was

7:23

groomed by competitiveness.

7:25

It was always fights in the house

7:28

on basketball. Can you imagine that. Yeah,

7:32

it was always like me to see a tyler and

7:36

like it was just argued festive, like one

7:39

on one and like my want would be

7:41

like I wish you guys would argue this much about

7:43

you're great, like you know. So it's like that

7:46

type of thing. So that's how we always

7:48

got as close as we are to this day.

7:50

How much do you think that growing up in that environment.

7:53

So to just give a little bit of color about

7:55

where you stand among your teammates, We've

7:57

had five episodes now this will be the

7:59

sixth, and I think in all of them,

8:01

if not almost all of them. You've been credited

8:04

as the leader of the team on

8:07

the court, off the court communicatively.

8:09

How much do you think growing up with all those siblings

8:12

prepared you to take on that role that

8:14

you hold within this team? Well,

8:16

yeah, prepare a whole lot really,

8:18

because I think when it starts as like

8:21

I was always trying to win

8:23

the battle of like being the best player

8:26

in the family right basketball wise,

8:28

So like up until like age thirteen, I

8:31

was always humbled by my sister. So

8:33

then like when I finally beat her, you

8:36

start popping off like yeah, like

8:38

I'm the man, like you know what I mean. So, but

8:40

I always had to level out kind of

8:42

the the quote unquote

8:44

like egos of like keeping you

8:47

know, I had to show like

8:49

you know, I was a mcdonald'sall American talk to Arren

8:52

Crupe. But I had to show like I didn't get there

8:54

because of just waking

8:57

up and being able to dunk and run

8:59

like Duncan run. Like no, I had

9:02

to really work extremely hard,

9:04

Like I was up every morning six o'clock

9:07

running around the neighborhood. Then

9:09

going to school, I used

9:12

to have eight to ninth period off working out during

9:14

school, then going to practice, then after

9:16

practice working out again. So like

9:19

it was just basically me representing

9:22

what I'm trying to get across, like, and that's

9:25

to make it to the NBA. So I wanted

9:27

my other brothers and sisters to

9:29

see that as well and for

9:31

that to groom them. So I think that the whole

9:34

family atmosphere, being competitive, being a hard

9:36

worker has allowed me to have insight

9:38

on being able to be around a team. Especially

9:40

in the league. A lot of young guys come in

9:42

each and every year, so just being able

9:44

to sow that seed into them as

9:46

well is huge.

9:49

George, how would you describe Tobias's

9:51

purpose on this team outside

9:53

of what he does on the court. You know, I think Tobias,

9:55

you know, we're actually talking about this on the bus yesterday, Like

9:58

he has a good he can get a

10:00

good read on every person that he has

10:03

enough time around and can take a good pulse

10:05

on you know, what they like, what

10:07

kind of doesn't you know, really flow

10:09

with them and kind of be able to connect.

10:11

He's like a connector. I think that's something in

10:14

professional sports that is so undervalued,

10:16

when you have someone that is able

10:18

to connect groups or clicks of people

10:20

because everybody knows it's like not everybody gets

10:23

along, but Tobias can kind

10:25

of flow and go within and have a special relationship

10:28

with everybody. But also he can

10:30

you know, read the room and when it's you know, not

10:32

time to crack a joke or say

10:34

something that you know is going to cause controversy,

10:37

but he also can say it in a way that opens

10:39

up dialogue that helps you connect

10:42

as a team. And as I'm sitting here listening to your

10:44

stories about like your sisters and stuff like that,

10:47

it just brings me back because when I think of like

10:49

your journey in the NBA,

10:51

like and you want to you know, prove to

10:53

people like yeah,

10:56

I mean you were a McDonald's All American

10:58

and you're a top ten recruiter. And some people would think

11:00

like, oh, like that's easy to get to the NBA.

11:03

You're a top ten recruit, Like you just have to have a solid

11:05

freshman year and like you're good. And but

11:08

like you went to Milwaukee, like if

11:10

nothing was easy there, you struggled there. You went to Orlando

11:13

when you finally cut your niche there you were traded

11:15

and then you know, you finally sent home in Detroit,

11:18

you're traded in to LA and then from LA you

11:20

come to Philly, and like the

11:22

best thing that like I realize

11:24

about you is that you don't let any of

11:26

that stuff within the business rob you

11:29

of your happiness. And the funny part

11:31

is people will to bias this, to bias Tess,

11:33

but like the production is like still

11:35

the same, And I sit back in my room

11:37

and I'm like baffled because I'm

11:39

like, how does someone go through all that but still

11:41

stay steady and the production just stays the

11:43

same. So like what goes through your head

11:46

for you to go through that, it's ten plus years

11:48

right to continue to just be like I

11:50

want to wake up and continue to

11:52

grind and make this the best and continue to produce.

11:54

Because at some point some people are like, all right, enough

11:57

is enough. I've been traded, you know four

11:59

times, Like when is it gonna be like where

12:01

I can just relax and be

12:04

complacent. But then again, like your your

12:06

life has never been anything with

12:08

complacency. Yeah, no, it's

12:10

it's uh, It's true, I think,

12:12

like honestly, and

12:15

sometimes people don't like hearing other people say

12:17

this, but I love my life, like

12:19

I legit love my life.

12:22

I love waking up being playing

12:24

in the NBA. That's number one. I love that.

12:27

I love being able to come on on a bus

12:29

in the morning and y'all are like half

12:31

sleep and I'm maybe like scream and wake

12:33

up, love and like you know what I mean,

12:35

Like I love like people being like damn,

12:38

how somebody's got so much energy, you know what I'm

12:40

saying, Like I like shit, Like you know,

12:42

that's why I like being around young guys, young

12:44

guys on the team like Tyrese Isaiah

12:47

Batist, like them guys give me more life because

12:50

they're so new, you know, they're so new

12:52

to it. Um. But

12:55

for me, you know, I had to realize

12:57

this, like through my

13:00

career, my journey, Like I remember

13:02

one of the lowest points in my life was I was in

13:04

Orlando and I

13:06

didn't sign an extension with them, right Like I

13:08

was offered three year like

13:11

thirty eight or something, and

13:14

they didn't want to go up in the number. So

13:17

I was like, dang, Like I wanted this extension

13:19

so bad, you know, And like I remember

13:22

one of the coaches texting me just being

13:24

like just no, like this

13:27

is just an opportunity for a greater blessing

13:29

for you, right, And I always think

13:31

about that moment because we had played a preseason

13:33

game, we had played the Rockets, and

13:36

I remember after the game, I was

13:38

like vividly in my room

13:40

by myself, just so upset because I

13:43

didn't know where my future was going,

13:45

you know. But that message really

13:47

like uplifted me to know that

13:50

things are always gonna work out. And I

13:52

think, like, once, like I got

13:54

past that moment the

13:56

next season, ended up signing a four year deal

14:00

with the Magic. But once I

14:02

got passed that moment, I always think back to that moment,

14:04

like think about where you are,

14:06

where you were, and like where you're at now, right,

14:08

like, and this is just a thing of life,

14:10

like things do work

14:12

itself out and everything. So I try not to,

14:15

you know, get sucked into all

14:18

all like the noise on the outside of what's

14:20

going on, and just stay level because

14:22

at the end of the day, I'm playing this game that

14:25

I love. I got a beautiful family, beautiful

14:27

friends, teammates. Everything around

14:29

me in my life is flowing in

14:32

a in a positive direction. So I'm just like,

14:34

man, like, I can't I can't be I

14:36

can't really be upset for too long. And

14:39

I think another great thing, like with

14:41

with everything that you have that's great going on the

14:43

court. I remember to buys telling

14:46

someone they're like, you know, one thing you guys

14:48

will have for me as a teammate is if you call

14:50

me in twenty five years and ask

14:52

for some advice, I will pick up the phone.

14:55

And that's another But that's another attribute

14:57

that like people don't understand.

14:59

It's like, yeah, we're really close and

15:01

you know, we trapped probably two hundred and twenty days out

15:03

of the year, but that doesn't mean that when

15:06

I get traded to another team or go to another team,

15:08

like people are still going to pick up my phone calls.

15:10

And I think the best part that you do

15:12

is you're active on the court. Obviously you've had a tremendously

15:15

decorated, you know, career, But off

15:17

the court, I think, I don't want to say

15:20

it'd be surprising to some people, but like a

15:22

lot of people don't give athletes respect like off

15:24

the court, and you're very involved in

15:27

every community that you've been into. You're very

15:29

involved in business opportunities. But

15:31

also I think the best attribute is

15:33

even when I have questions about business

15:35

experiences, Tobias is willing to

15:38

sit down and actually have like in depth, intelligent

15:41

like conversations and advice and talk

15:43

about experiences that he's had where he's like, WHOA,

15:46

don't do that, or yeah

15:48

I've tried that and this works, or yo, I found

15:50

this. I found this out, Like you should try

15:53

this now? Has that always

15:55

been or when in your NBA career

15:57

or maybe who has helped you see

15:59

that light or tap into that or

16:02

is that just you being competitive and be like you know,

16:04

all right, I'm good on the court, like I'm gonna take care of

16:06

now. I want to you know, see if I can take

16:08

this to a whole new level. Yeah.

16:10

That was like one day

16:12

I sat down, I said to myself, I said, well,

16:15

like, what's your what's your goals

16:17

outside of basketball? Right, because you

16:19

can only play for so

16:21

long. And like

16:24

a couple of people, like a couple of friends of

16:26

mine, actually they'd be like, man, you gotta

16:28

do more media stuff or more pr and I'd

16:30

be like why and they're like, because you want

16:32

to get your name out there more like people didn't

16:34

know this and that, like you gotta

16:37

build these things up for your legacy. And

16:39

I was like legacy,

16:41

man, Like, like legacy

16:44

is about like you get a championship

16:46

and you enjoy what you do. I

16:49

said, if you're lucky enough to get a championship, then

16:52

you know, more power to you, right, And

16:54

so like I sat back and I said, because

16:57

I think, like, as athletes and NBA

16:59

play is so much for

17:01

our whole life, We've been stuck in this identity

17:04

and I always wanted to figure out, right, when

17:06

basketball has done, what is

17:08

going to be your identity? Right? And like yeah,

17:12

yeah, so like what like like who are you going

17:14

to be because you're not gonna be you

17:16

know, able to wake up every day and

17:18

go in front of twenty thousand

17:20

fans and play, So

17:22

like what is going to give you that

17:25

time consuming thing at the

17:27

same time that you enjoy to do,

17:29

right? And that's why I like, you know, let

17:32

me figure out ways exactly,

17:35

yeah, like like like what could it be? And then you

17:37

know, I started figuring out like what's

17:39

important to me? And that's that. The first thing

17:42

was the youth, Like our youth and

17:45

being able to give back to them education

17:47

is important to me. Right. So then

17:49

my next step was like, you know, a huge

17:51

goal of mind while I'm done playing, you

17:53

know, hopefully that's years from now is

17:56

to have a school, you know. So you know, I

17:58

started doing things, and um, I

18:00

talked to a lot of people, you know, a lot of wealthy

18:02

people as well to figure out like what what do

18:04

they do. I'm always trying to gain an

18:06

advantage of knowledge to just

18:09

to just see. And a buddy of mine

18:11

told me, he said, do one thing every

18:13

year that sparks your interests,

18:15

right, like investing wise, you

18:18

know. So I got into crypto and

18:20

then I just did the research and I started

18:22

reaching out to people in the space like that's

18:24

bigger in the crypto, like hey, let's connect, let's

18:26

talk. So then, you

18:28

know, once I started doing that and reaching

18:30

out and learning, that was when I was like, you

18:33

know what, I got to share

18:35

this knowledge. But I'm also a person,

18:37

is I'm not going to share knowledge, especially

18:40

with y'all like his teammates, if

18:42

it ain't hit back for me, Like I'm not about

18:44

to tell you, hey, we should do this coin, but

18:46

I don't know about it yet, Like I'm gonna

18:48

make sure it's working and

18:50

then we right exactly.

18:53

So so like that's that's kind

18:55

of how I looked at it. All those things

18:57

are just knowledge, but they don't.

19:00

I never let all that stuff take away from

19:03

my day job, but

19:06

I also don't let my day job over

19:09

some around we went emotions to not do

19:11

things that I think are fun. I want to do

19:13

That is so well put right there.

19:15

You guys have both touched on it, but

19:18

I'd like to go a little deeper. Tobias

19:21

is unlike other players in that

19:24

you continue every year to not just

19:26

invest in Philadelphia communities. We've talked

19:28

about literacy, but you're doing that in every

19:30

community you've ever played in. Correct, the

19:32

community you grew up in Haiti

19:35

where else Africa as

19:37

well, So we did a little project

19:40

out there with basically like solar

19:43

panel like eyebook so the kids can

19:46

I have access to literacy and reading.

19:48

So yeah, there's a lot of different communities,

19:50

like at some point, I would love to touch everywhere.

19:53

You know, but that that's

19:55

always been a thing for me,

19:58

and I'm I'm also

20:00

I know when dealing with corporations

20:03

and business, a lot of stuff is

20:05

always like a PR thing, and

20:07

I always say as I don't I don't want any

20:09

PR All I want is to do it

20:12

to basically a lot of kids to know

20:14

that someone cares about them. And someone's

20:16

pushing this to them, and I do

20:19

like them to know that I'm doing it

20:21

because, like you know, they as

20:23

as an athlete, as NBA player, they look up to you

20:25

as a role model. And you know, the first thing

20:27

when you see NBA players, you don't think books,

20:29

So it's added motivation for them

20:32

at times and think reading books

20:34

sports. Like even he does it

20:36

like that, Yeah, you know what I mean exactly,

20:40

but like outside that, like I always

20:42

say, I just I love doing those

20:44

things because I know, at the end of the day,

20:46

I don't do it for me. I do

20:48

it for the ones that are involved,

20:51

and I know that it's impactful. And

20:53

I always always felt that if

20:55

I go onto something, it's got to be with a clean heart,

20:58

and that's how I try to do it. I think it's interesting

21:00

that you continue though, Like George and I

21:02

have both talked on this podcast about being emotional

21:04

and reacting with emotion in different situations.

21:07

We share that in common, and I think you've

21:09

started this conversation by talking about getting traded

21:12

or being in some way wronged by different

21:14

communities, right, but then still choosing to

21:16

invest in those same communities to be able to

21:19

separate what the breakup with the

21:21

team or the city was like, but continue to

21:23

invest in kids in youth and people that bought

21:25

your jersey while you were there. Not everybody

21:27

does that. I think that's really special. But but that's

21:30

when you described like you're like, oh, wise to

21:32

bias, like a good leader, like we just gave

21:34

you three minutes on because like like you said,

21:36

it's like I'm going in with a clean

21:38

heart. It doesn't matter if it didn't work

21:40

out or for what reason. My job on

21:42

this earth, you know, whatever. People feel like

21:44

their impact is and tobiases is

21:46

to impact other

21:49

people, and he's not doing it in a way

21:51

that look at me, look at me. It's more or less?

21:53

How can I make things better? Like when you talk about

21:55

kids in Africa, like given

21:57

those books to be able

21:59

to He's given them the greatest tool

22:02

in the world. Knowledge is power money.

22:05

Someone can take money from you once you have knowledge,

22:07

like nobody can take that

22:10

from you. And I think the fact that you

22:12

see that and you don't let

22:14

like you said, the emotions of your day job,

22:16

but you still keep the main thing, the main thing, which is basketball,

22:19

you know, but don't let the emotion and the

22:21

highs and lows of that take away from

22:23

you affecting so many other

22:25

people. I mean that that's what a leader is.

22:28

And you know and I don't want

22:30

to be over the top because I'm not over the top of

22:32

like, oh I love to buy like but

22:34

that's but that's like, that's what I'm here for. Yeah,

22:36

seriously, So you can do that after. But that's

22:39

like what a leader does. And that's why when

22:41

people ask who's your leader on the team, like all of

22:43

us have said on here, Tobias

22:45

because he doesn't ask for the credit. He

22:47

shows up every day and is the same him, like, and

22:50

that's what you enjoy being around something that's going to be the same

22:53

energy, the same person, and

22:55

he's looking to impact people constantly. It's

22:57

true we had to wait six months to get him to come on here and

23:00

about himself on this podcast. Yeah,

23:03

now I think it's it's one of those things too.

23:05

It's like sports or

23:07

sports and people have a lot

23:09

of emotions in them. But

23:13

you know, everything goes, everything

23:15

connects with with

23:17

each other, right, Like the better the

23:20

Sixers do, the better in

23:22

my opinion, Philadelphia economy

23:25

does. Right, Like if you own a sports bar and

23:27

your team is sucky. Nobody's coming

23:29

to your sports bar to watch games, right,

23:32

I was, Si, I was legitimately thinking about this other day.

23:34

I was like, I wonder if Joel and B goes

23:36

into a sports bar, Like

23:38

he wouldn't do it because he's

23:40

not leaving his house, but like if he goes,

23:42

if I own a sports bar, he comes to my sports

23:44

bar, he could eat there free forever, right

23:47

because all

23:49

the business you to my sports bar. Right. But like

23:51

it just these things go hand in hand, where like

23:54

you know, and I think that's why sports is so is

23:57

now in today's age, is so popular

24:00

because it does build like

24:02

the hype around the city. People love

24:04

to support good, good teams,

24:07

right, So it's just one of those things

24:09

I remember, like somebody hit me up on Instagram. It's

24:11

like get out of Philly, and

24:14

like I wanted to be, like I impact

24:16

more people in Philly than you do. And that's

24:18

outside of basketball. Like but

24:20

like it's just one of those things that's like I personally

24:23

know inside like wherever I'm at,

24:26

I am going to do what

24:28

I do on the basketball court. But outside

24:30

of the basketball court, I know, at

24:32

the end of the day, I am going to help

24:35

some of our youth grow up to

24:37

be their best selves, you know, and that's

24:39

how I live my life of wherever

24:42

I'm at in an NBA city. I want to

24:44

know more about your relationship with Philly because

24:46

you brought it up. You started this conversation by saying,

24:48

we can ask you anything, and you and

24:50

Philadelphia have been on a journey for

24:52

sure. What have you enjoyed most about it?

24:55

What have you learned about yourself while on

24:57

that journey? I think

24:59

the biggest thing that he says when

25:01

this in this whole journey, is

25:04

what I've learned about myself, right

25:07

And I think that from the day

25:09

that I got here, the expectations

25:12

from the team, from

25:14

everything that's going on, from

25:16

signing a five year deal, you

25:19

know, it has been a journey. I think for

25:22

me, nothing ever is gonna go

25:25

exactly how you plan it, right,

25:28

um, From being booed

25:30

like in the middle of the season early

25:33

on, like you know, it's it's

25:35

those things that just honestly,

25:37

it has just been a check to

25:40

my own ego of being able to

25:42

say, uh, personally,

25:44

you need to take a step back and

25:46

understand like what

25:49

you want out of all this, and then

25:51

to really figure out like now,

25:55

why why does that make

25:57

you so upset? Right? And I think like for

25:59

me, it's more so been

26:01

alone, like I'm a prideful

26:03

person, like I have expectations

26:05

for myself, my game, how

26:08

I want to play, how successful

26:10

I want to be for the group, like

26:13

how much I want to win and yea,

26:16

at times you do feel like from

26:21

a base of fans it's

26:23

kind of misconfused at times, in my opinion,

26:25

But I understand where like

26:28

some fans don't watch basketball

26:30

games like they just watch

26:32

stats like and that's okay. And

26:36

I think for me personally, it's just understanding

26:38

like I have to be comfortable

26:41

with myself, with my game

26:43

and with my team and teammates. And

26:46

once I came to grips

26:48

with that, and came to grips with the situation

26:50

of where we were and where we're

26:52

in, I've been able to just free

26:54

flow and play how I normally,

26:57

how I want to play, right, And that

27:00

it took some time to really like have a realization

27:02

with so I think it's it's all. It

27:05

was all, It's all been a learning process

27:07

and will forever be a learning process

27:10

and true be told, like I

27:12

looked at every moment like when when the fans were

27:14

boring me in arena, like I was coming to the bench

27:16

and like everybody's like yo, like

27:19

like I mean, we're not on this

27:22

video, but everybody's eyes are like yo. Like

27:24

I remember something like damn,

27:27

T that's crazy, and I'm like I'm

27:29

like damn. But

27:31

like when I got back on the floor, I was

27:34

like, I literally said

27:36

to myself, I said, in my

27:38

mind's like, you should shoot whenever

27:40

you get the ball, Like you shouldn't worry about

27:42

if they boo if you miss, Like you should just use

27:45

this as an opportunity to mentally get

27:48

yourself ready for whatever's

27:50

to come in the playoffs in

27:52

the championship, Like you should use this opportunity.

27:55

And I was like, you know what, I'll do that,

27:57

like because at this point they're booing, so

28:00

they can only keep going or start

28:02

clapping like one or the other. So I was just

28:04

like, I'm gonna use this opportunity, and

28:06

I leg did it. It happened like

28:08

another game out that I was a little quieter,

28:11

but the same thing. I was like,

28:13

just use this opportunity, like figure out a way

28:15

to make it a game they credit

28:17

to you though, because I don't know how if

28:19

I would be able to react in real time

28:22

and figure out what the lesson is going to be if

28:24

people are coming after me, A lot of people would

28:26

crawl into their shell, like when a turtle's

28:28

under attack and they bring themselves under their shell. That's

28:30

what I do. I don't know how you handle it,

28:32

but immediately figuring out what the lesson is and how

28:34

to learn it as quickly as possible. Not everybody can

28:36

do that, and I think that's really cool, right, No, And I

28:39

think the time on that, like

28:41

you know, to be like, hey, you know,

28:43

it is what it is, and I can

28:45

only control what I can control.

28:47

But I think the biggest thing that fans

28:49

need to realize is like if they don't think that

28:52

US players and them are aligned, Like we both

28:54

want the same thing. We want a championship,

28:56

just like you guys want a championship. Because I missed

28:59

that shot out there, not doing

29:01

it on purpose, trust me, I want that

29:03

ball to go in and I don't want the guy

29:05

to score on me. Like we're all like we all want

29:07

the same things. And I think

29:09

for you, the best parting that you said was like

29:12

you had to check your ego right, you know, I had to

29:14

be like, you know what, they want, you

29:16

know, me to play better. I

29:18

want me to play better for sure, and

29:20

I'm gonna go out there and give him my all. And

29:23

you know, I mean, I think I think with you

29:25

as people, people don't understand is you put in so

29:27

much work and time and effort into your

29:29

craft that at the end of the day, you were

29:31

like, I can just flow because knowing that

29:33

I put this much time and effort in my craft, like

29:36

there's no possible way I could lose, not

29:38

like no chance. And then ever since that

29:40

had happened with them booing and stuff

29:42

like that, like defensive assignment, it's

29:44

like scoring, everything has just gone. And

29:46

it's like it wasn't like all right, it's how

29:48

it's Tobias gonna be a day. It's more like we know we're

29:50

gonna get from Tobias and the rest

29:52

is just flowing. And that's that's a credit

29:55

to you, because, as we know, in this professional

29:57

business, checking your ego is it's

30:00

something that isn't the easiest. And my

30:02

mom brought a good point. It

30:04

was like the next day she called me, she

30:07

said, Okay,

30:09

yeah, I'm good. She go, I hope.

30:11

You know, no one in the stands

30:13

can do what you do And I said, that's

30:16

a fat

30:17

mom, shut up.

30:21

But she

30:24

was like, all right, that's all I had to say. Everybody

30:28

needs people like that in their lives. I'm

30:30

a big fan of the Harris family. From

30:32

what I know you two. I have something that I

30:34

want to ask you guys. You two have very different

30:37

personalities, but it's been very

30:39

clear all season and long that you guys get along

30:41

really well. And Tobias. I've asked everyone

30:43

that's come on this podcast what their first

30:45

impression of George was or what you made

30:47

of George before playing against

30:49

him first of this morning. Okay,

30:52

well, how

30:54

about you reveal what that first impression

30:57

was and what you've learned since becoming George's

30:59

team. And I'm really excited for the answer now,

31:01

So don't disappoint because you guys are making all sorts of faces right

31:03

now. I want to know. Okay, So

31:06

all right, all right, first thing, I can give some back

31:09

background on the story. So you

31:12

know me, me, Me and George

31:15

and I'm not gonna say who else on the team,

31:17

but we're part of this crew called

31:21

the fat Boy Crew. Okay,

31:23

now, it's a fact, well not actually

31:25

fat some mean word I heard so right,

31:30

Like so we can go like on different like

31:33

just through different spaces of life,

31:35

like kind of how the earth and gravity

31:38

works. Like Monday, we may jump

31:40

on a scale. The thing may be up eight pounds,

31:42

or the next day we can jump on it and it

31:45

could be like down one pound. So

31:47

or Tobias brings crumba cookie on the plane.

31:49

I look at it and then I'm up five pounds. It's like I

31:51

didn't eat anything but gained weight. I'm

31:54

not sure where this is going, but I'm gonna

31:56

so. Like early on my career,

32:00

like when we did that body fat test,

32:02

I used to hate doing the body fat test because

32:04

my number would be a little hot. Now

32:07

I kind of gotta figure it out. So I remember

32:10

playing against George my rookie

32:12

year, and chubby people

32:14

always jug Chubby people always

32:17

judge another chubby person. So as

32:20

George was playing in the game,

32:22

he got in the game and I was like

32:24

on the bench, I was like, look how chubby

32:27

this guy is. I'm like, his body fat

32:29

gotta be like thirty thirty,

32:32

like you know, so, And I

32:34

told him that this morning, I was like, gee, I remember playing

32:36

against you and you ran

32:38

down the court and I was like, Yo, this guy's

32:40

body fat is crazy right now. But

32:43

now that I'm around George, we always

32:46

we check each other. Like if when he's on

32:48

the plane and he's eating a little bit, you don't need that.

32:50

I was like, you don't need that. He's like, you can only have four

32:52

pieces of checking nuts. Yeah like that. Yeah,

32:54

So we check each other and we keep each other

32:57

in chubby camp, like it's just this

32:59

is where you do like great

33:01

teammates told each other count exactly, and

33:04

then when I bring crumble on the plane, I always

33:06

tell them like just take a half,

33:09

you know what I mean. But I saw this video

33:12

from this lady. I need

33:14

to send it to George. Her

33:16

name is Abraham

33:19

Hicks, and she said that the

33:22

reason why me and

33:24

George are chubby is because

33:26

that when we see food that we like,

33:29

which like if it's a box of donuts,

33:32

we're already thinking that those donuts

33:34

aren't good for us. But if

33:36

we changed our vibrational frequency

33:39

and we said that these donuts are healthy

33:41

and are good for us, they would be

33:43

fine for us to eat. I'm gonna

33:45

send you this video because

33:47

it made a lot of sense. This

33:50

is what we're talking about. Try

33:52

to shoot down what he's saying. Because

33:55

if somebody brought me chick flight here, right, you

33:58

bring me chick flight. You can bring a salad, right,

34:01

They have the same amount of calories. But

34:03

if I've seen a Chick fil A and I was like, I

34:06

was like, oh, that's not healthy for me, and I've

34:08

seen the salad, I'm like, oh that's healthy for me.

34:10

I eat it. I have a better

34:13

frequency to that salad, whereas

34:15

that Chick fil energy.

34:18

That makes sense though, because some salads you put the dressing

34:21

on it as the same amount of calories. He's

34:24

sometimes true. But if you decide that fries

34:27

are healthy, that doesn't mean that they're not going to make

34:30

Trust me, I'd eat fries every day if I could. Well,

34:32

who fries aren't healthy? Okay,

34:34

next topic, No, I'm asking for real, they're

34:36

definitely not. Why the salt in the oil

34:39

and the fact that there's no nutritional value whatsoever.

34:42

I don't know. People have different feelings on oil.

34:44

I'll try to change my frequency with fries

34:46

next time I eat them, but I think it's still not going

34:49

to feel So could I look at the fries and then be

34:51

like, um, healthy,

34:55

I would say that it's not home,

34:58

it's Oh

35:01

honestly, I'm gonna try. I'm

35:04

gonna send you in the video and you're gonna be on it.

35:06

Okay, just try it an off season. No right,

35:08

no, it's better, all right, well, Tobias.

35:10

In the last segment of the Big Kneang

35:13

Theory, Um, we

35:15

have a point where we ask you,

35:18

what would you tell your younger

35:20

self if you had some advice to

35:22

give to your younger self. Can

35:28

we do it in parts? Actually that could we go

35:31

high school? Yo yo yo yo, yo yo yo.

35:33

It'd be the same thing, really, maybe the

35:35

same thing. Relax

35:38

and let it flow. And that's why I tell

35:40

myself every morning, relax

35:43

and let it flow, like let things happen.

35:46

Continue to like be who you

35:48

are, and you know, um,

35:51

put in like as much work

35:54

as you're doing, but relax

35:56

and let things flow, because things

35:59

work out. Everything works out. And

36:02

you know I took about the story when I

36:04

was on the Magic and even now, like those are the

36:06

same things I tell myself because you're

36:10

gonna be fine and things are gonna work out,

36:12

but just relax and let things flow.

36:15

The way they need to flow before

36:17

we let you go. Yes, and I

36:19

like that advice. I want to ask you about

36:21

a couple of your teammates, headlined

36:23

by the headliner Joel Embiid,

36:26

who was putting together his second consecutive MVP

36:28

caliber season. Yeah, you said

36:31

towards the beginning of last season that

36:33

you're going to tell your kids one day that Joel Embiid

36:36

is the best player you ever played with. George,

36:40

that's how it feels about. That was amazing, Thank

36:42

you. So besides George, Joel Embiid

36:45

is the best player that you have ever played with and

36:47

you believe you ever will play with. First of

36:49

all, great quote. That one was a that

36:51

was a SoundBite for the ages. Here we go.

36:53

But why why are you so sure? What

36:55

makes him so special? Because a lot

36:58

of people around this time of year have

37:00

a lot of opinions on why he is or isn't

37:02

the MVP, but not that many people have seen

37:04

it up close and personal the way that you have over

37:06

the last few years. So what makes him

37:08

that to you? Well, first, I hope

37:10

he wins the MVP. I just think he like

37:12

he's put you know enough

37:15

by work together, deserves Yeah,

37:17

he deserves it. He does. Um

37:21

yeah, you look at like his start of his career,

37:23

the injuries, Um,

37:26

he just got so much better. Like from the

37:28

time that I've been here, Um,

37:31

my first guy traded. You

37:33

know, his confidence has

37:36

always been very high. But he's

37:39

smart like basketball player,

37:41

Like yeah, he's always you know, he always

37:43

watched MBA like like little

37:46

things in gangs. Like he has like coaching

37:49

smartness, right, Um, and he

37:51

knows like all stats of like

37:54

players of like you'll say something like, oh yeah,

37:57

I like it, Like it's crazy.

37:59

He shoots forty percent and like I'll go

38:01

on Basketball Reference and like

38:03

like he does shoot. He

38:05

also remembers every play

38:07

that he's ever played in or

38:09

watched, and he remembers who was where and

38:12

who was guarding him. It's really interesting

38:14

to hear him recount stuff that's

38:16

happened to him like that to me is fascinating. Sorry continue,

38:18

Yeah, But so I think like his scoring

38:21

dominance. We

38:23

were talking on the bench esterday where he shoots

38:25

till three were like three seconds

38:28

on shot clock and then makes

38:30

it. I was like, it's not the greatest shot,

38:32

but they always go in something like this is a great

38:34

shot. But like the things

38:36

that that he

38:39

does on four as a

38:41

as a big man, like

38:44

the dominance. I

38:46

mean, I believe he's MVP, and

38:49

I would say if he doesn't get that, you

38:51

know, I hope he does get it. But offensively,

38:54

I would say he's one

38:57

and two most gifted like

39:00

offensive players in

39:03

our game right now. And

39:05

he's worked at that because you know, when Joel first

39:08

came in, like I played against your own college, he was like super

39:10

skilled, back to the basket. But as you know in the NBA,

39:13

like you're back to basket, you're getting double team,

39:15

they're not letting. So now he's expanded

39:17

his game to be able to dribble, to be able

39:19

to shoot a mid range shot, as

39:21

like you can't drop a play that's as efficient as Joel

39:24

shooting that mid range picking pop or

39:26

off the dribble. And now he's shooting threes, and

39:28

then he's getting down hill driving to him, and now he's improved

39:31

like passing. It's and I think

39:33

when it comes down to the MVP voting,

39:36

people have to take into account what he was doing

39:39

from day one and at the beginning

39:41

of our season, like his body of work. It's not just

39:43

like the last two months, like his

39:45

body of work, you know, when we didn't know who

39:47

was going to be on our roster, you know, in that

39:49

whole situation, and he was still

39:52

leading us to victories.

39:54

It was impressive. Like the fact that this guy

39:56

had us in you know, the

39:58

top four in the East and we're missing thirty five

40:01

million dollar on our salary

40:03

caps Like holy smokes, Like

40:05

this guy is is doing. Not to say that, nobody

40:07

else on the team gets credit, but Joel was

40:10

leading us, and I think

40:12

that's why he's MVP. But I

40:14

won't speak on it anymore because the

40:18

cream always rises to the top. Is that what they saying?

40:20

Yeah? If I hope he gets it?

40:23

Um, Yeah,

40:26

honestly, I hope he gets both of them.

40:28

By both, I mean MVP

40:31

mb by this season, MVP of

40:33

the championship, you feel me. Yeah.

40:36

With that being said, we got we got our work cut

40:38

out, so we need to get to work. But Tobias,

40:42

thank you. I was gonna say,

40:44

he seems comfortable. I gotta go. George,

40:48

thank you for coming on the big Niang

40:51

theory. We really appreciate it, all right.

40:53

I appreciate his long overdue

40:56

I gave you my word earlier in the year

40:59

and we got it done. So this was great. Thank

41:01

you guys, Tobias Harrison, man of his word,

41:04

We appreciate you. You gotta say my word

41:06

is Bond. Thanks

41:09

right, Yeah,

41:15

we know