Julius "Dr. J" Erving on ABA & NBA glory days, evolution of the dunk & athletes' role in civil rights era

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You know author that's tennis player in the world. Yes, you know, I had my basketball thing going. Seventy four hours. Miles was making music. Miles would bring some music. We listened to it so we couldn't understand. Now two weeks later it was running up the chart.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: The biggest song in the world running up the chart. Yeah, yeah, what up y artist is Joe cracked the Dawn? No, it is your boy, Jada.

00:00:40
Speaker 3: This is the Joe and Jadas show, every show legend, every every show iconic.

00:00:45
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: Live from LA All Star twenty twenty six Today's guests. You think of the AB eight were your homework on an NBA. When you think of basketball who, you think of adversity, When you think of influence.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: For such a long time, style, you think of style, blueprint class. You also would never want to get slapped by this guy. Is like you slapped the hell out of it.

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Speaker 3: So don't make a mad Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Julius, doctor j Irving.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Nice intro. I appreciate that. You know, I gotta I gotta make it right for you, my brother, you know happy to be here with you guys. Appreciate you for.

00:01:44
Speaker 2: I see, we brought the fake palm tree from I said, New York. You said we got the fake palm tree with us.

00:01:50
Speaker 1: We got the fa Yo. We brought the favor y'all. Let me tell you something, doctor J.

00:01:57
Speaker 2: I'm thinking if doctor Dre got inspired by Doctor J.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: We out here in LA.

00:02:02
Speaker 2: I'm like, damn, you think doctor Dre got inspired his name by Doctor J. Doctor J one of a kind so much. First of all, how's your wife?

00:02:13
Speaker 1: She's fine? You got a power couple.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: Every time I see how every y'all star we can, I go back and I'm be like, damn, they the flyes couple in the gap.

00:02:22
Speaker 1: Thank you for the compliment. You back of the ho Jel and her girlfriend and she got some people out of here and she spent a little time with them. We're being there for me, super legendary.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: See, I don't go by the rules, like I don't look at the notes and all that, So me, I'm just shooting this ship off the top. He goes off, So I'm off script right her foot. When I think of me being a kid and looking at doctor J. You know the legendary dunks was was anybody dunking before you? Or were you the first one to do it? With like an exclamation point.

00:03:00
Speaker 1: That's that's interesting. Plenty of balls were dunk before I came along, and even even as a kid. Uh, you know, I used to watch World Chamberlain on TV and dunking the ball and uh, being in New York, you know, the next had a guy named Jumping Johnny Green. Jumping Johnny Green would catch it up coming off the rim after misshot, throw it back down, run down the court like nothing happened or whatever. It's moving it. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was smooth with it. And in my community where I live, I live in Roosevelt, New York, it was like fifteen thousand people Roosevelt Highland, Roosevelt, New York wrote in the town of Roosevelt, between Hempstead and Uniondale, all that Nasall County, Nasall County, Long Island. My point is, I used to walk past Johnny Green's house to get to school, and I'd always walked slow when I got to his house, like I just got to see this guy. Lion will go up and knock on the door, and I never saw him coming and going out of that house. But I did go to the garden and I saw him play.

00:04:10
Speaker 2: You know, we got something in common. I live in Wesley Snipe's block. You know, Wessey Snipes lives.

00:04:15
Speaker 1: On my block. Now, yeah, two day present time.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: I never seen them in my life. I walk, I do whatever I see world wide West, I see, Yo, where's Wesley Snipe?

00:04:27
Speaker 1: Yo?

00:04:27
Speaker 2: You know he's my neighbor. I never seen this wife. I never seen his kids. I never like you know how many times I went by there, like, yo, where's this guy? But don't pull it right across the street from me.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: They see him.

00:04:41
Speaker 2: I never seen him.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: Your timing is off. Yeah, they're both working though. That would be something he might be saying. You need to see you too. I'm down.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: I'm down the block, man, Yo, Wesley, you know I lived down the block. Knock on the door, baby, yeah, knock on the door. So Johnny Green was smooth. Now, yeah, so you didn't invent my whole life. You invented the dunk.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: They you credit me with perfecting some of the dunk shots, uh, because that just used to be you know, a bug event brought then and roll on out and sometimes you know, I might do a little twist, turn full side or whatever. Because I had a real big hand. I could hold the ball on one hand. The swag guy I just got here, guys came to challenge you, you know, I would just move it back to the boat, so throw them off, turn the people who were potentially blocking the shot or interrupting shot, and still complete the plane and just rolling out of there. So so I've been credited with perfecting the dunk, but not inventing the dunk. It was. There was plenty of duncan before I came home a BA. What is that like? You know, it's one of the joys of my basketball life, having started in the ABA and playing there for five years, and during that five years, you know, having something to you know, take my mind away and my heart away from some of the bad things that were happening in the world. Because you know, I came out of high school with sixty eight and so Martiny Kingdom's assassinated, sixty nine Malcolm X assassinated, and sixty four JFK was assassinated. I mean came up and you know, dealing with tragic stuff during the teenage years. So so going to college in sixty eight and staying there for three years and having a path called for a pro career and Korea, you know, gave you something to focus on, concentrate on, go through the challenge of being your livelihood, knowing that the other opportunities, the other situations were I guess they got drafted into the arms like a lot of my friends from high school here, they got drafted in the army. Some of um went to Vietnam and it never came back. So there was a lot of bad stuff the Cold War between US and Russia. You know, during that time, we had we had times where there was fire drills in school where you had to figure out how to go in the basement or hide just in case there was a plane coming by attacking the United States and dropping bombs whatever. So when people talk about basketball, basketball was a game as an amateur. It wasn't a livelihood, but it was a game, and it was a diversion from a lot of the things that were bad about the society that we lived in, because we have ugly history in that regard, especially regarding race.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: You know, I was going to ask you right now when you brought them both up. I didn't realize JFK. Then Martin Luther King, and I didn't realize it was all in that little five year run right there. Who's out of theology You sided with more Malcolm or.

00:08:22
Speaker 1: Maluther Man Luther King. You know, we were Christians and we went to Baptist Church and my mother followed. Both from South Carolina, so you know, they were down in the Bible belt in that regard, and moved north, moved to Chicago first and then into New York, and me and my sister and brother were all born in New York, so you know, born there, bred there, and we dealt with all that. You said you was just finishing high school and you watched the news and it's like Martin Luther King got assassinated, and then that had to be like real, How did you find out? That's dramatic?

00:09:03
Speaker 3: Uh?

00:09:03
Speaker 1: You know what? It was on TV? I mean we had TV, so it was from TV. How you found that TV? Yeah? Yeah, actually actually was on birthday. Yeah, my dad actually lived around the corner. My dad's from Memphis. He got assassinated on one of my dad's birthdays. Oh yeah, so his birthday. That's a hotel right, yeah, yeah, at the hotel the hell is that? So, I mean, and her world heard about it at the same time, and there were various reactions. You know, I was in elementary school with JFK. And I was in school. We went in school, and then when the shooting happened in Dallas or whatever, they told all the kids to go home. Yeah, so we just went out and some of us went stayed in the park, stayed on the school grounds. The people went home. And when Martin, I mean, it was riots, it was riots, and we got ugly out here in Harbor suburbs cities. There were riots associated with that wasn't having it, but they couldn't change it. And the riots didn't change anything.

00:10:10
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of things don't change, you know, because I think of John Lennon, he got assassinated. Man was singing about roses and yeah, fields and piss.

00:10:22
Speaker 1: It's a lot of ugly stuff, man.

00:10:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you know, we've just had Super Bowls and your man, Man Bunny is the nicest guy in the world. And the way they protested this guy and all, like I was actually scared for him, Like I was like, because there's so much division and hatred and all that going around and this guy just for singing. I was really worried about him. I was really like, yo, they might do something to this guy right here and to sing right and so you see, like John Lennon, he got killed. He was the most beatiful guy in the world. Location point, you got an advocate for peace, frmly love. So if you get a platform, you you need to promote those things. So I've tried to be about that. My success and my notoriety. I don't I don't call it fame or sae because you know, fame now people can be famous spike jump off a bridge.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: Nowadays jump over bridge and do something crazy. Oh my, get fame and notoriety. So I so I think the topic should be respect and you know, get respect in your genre, the industry, whatever.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: I mean, you you on your way. So you need to use that platform in a positive faith. I mean, that's what we try to do, especially.

00:11:50
Speaker 1: Nowadays.

00:11:51
Speaker 2: So I look at me and Jady Kiss like Shaquille O'Neil with Charles Barkley. You know, we've been play the game, we won chips, we did everything. So we talk about hip hop and lifestyle and the people respected in that way. I feel like the hip hop genre grew up now to the point of where we hit that commentary phase where they're like, you know, Jay the Kiss, some people think he's top five rap in the world, and in fact, Joe, we know he talked a lot of you know, he talk a lot of shit, so they can't up being they took. You know, it's like shock at y'alls. But you know, we try to bring positive to everything.

00:12:35
Speaker 1: We don't even gauge.

00:12:37
Speaker 2: When they got World War three in hip hop, they call us first and be like, yo, we want to come up and curse the other rap out and this and that. We'll be like, yeah, we don't really want that, like you know, I'm sorry, guys. Yeah, we're not taking sids.

00:12:51
Speaker 1: We just not.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: And then people have the misconception, especially now, they have a misconception where they feel like everything has to be negative, everything has to be clickbait, everything has to be you know, and and they think that's they literally think that's the only way to become successful in twenty twenty six.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you got you know, people that's their opinion. It's not everybody, but sometimes it seems like it's everybody because that person have a stage or those people have a stage and they're saying and uh, but it's not everybody. I mean, I don't think there's anything on the planet, but everybody does to breeze, yeah, drink water, you know whatever. So but when you get your chance and you're opening, you know, it's important that you step in and be accountable.

00:13:48
Speaker 2: Accountability is something I've been hearing more these days, and I think everybody needs to be accountable.

00:13:54
Speaker 1: And it's not age related. No, it doesn't matter. I mean it doesn't matter. I'll be seventy six next week. No great doctor, y'all there. Yeah, So so that I get in front of a room of sixteen year olds, it's not like I got to talk to him like a seventy six year old or a fifty year old or twenty five year old or whatever. I kind of say, what's in my heart, share what's in my heart, and you know, open and extend the hand of friendship to him, you know, like Bill Russell did to me, you know, when I was nineteen and he had already finished his career and he extended the hand of friendship and we became friends right up to the time he passed away at eight and six. I like to do that. I like to mimic and duplicate what somebody has done for me, you know, And.

00:14:44
Speaker 4: How important is that, you know, giving back that knowledge and giving back that some jewels to the youth.

00:14:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, things of that nature. So I you know, I have a documentary out, to have an autobiography out, and either for a long time tend that autobiography because I think I started at forty three, forty five, I didn't finished till I was sixty one, sixty two, you know, and twenty twelve, So I think putting it back in the universe is important. And my initial motivation was to get the story straight first person for my family and the generations that are down the line. So the uncle's aunts, nephews, niece's kids, grandkids, great great children. I wanted them to have something first person penciled by me so they can know. Because I knew that the popularity of being a basketball player was gonna have a lot of things said about me, So I'm gonna be something's gonna be true, something not. So give them the first person and you know, affording allowing yourself to go ahead and go through that process. And it's a trying process, man. You guys written abobiographies and gets in a traumatic section that you gotta keep going over it and you gotta thinking, like traumatic stuff to happen.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: That's hard and I didn't Yeah, so I so I had to go over like yeah, and then my best friend get murdered in front of me, and then this, this, that, and you just reliving that. Yeah, it's almost like peeling the orange, like you're just like it. Just you keep reliving the trauma back. For some people.

00:16:42
Speaker 1: Want to bury it, just burying like it never happened. But it really did happen, you know, And it's part of what makes you who you are.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: Well, my fear is the reason why I originally got into hip hop journalism. Whatever you can go right, start at ig whatever is. I start watching hip hop documentaries.

00:17:08
Speaker 1: Not for none, Doctor J.

00:17:10
Speaker 2: You some years in front of me when it comes to this hip hop thing, I was born in the birthplace. Really can't tell me nothing about this thing? YEA, like nothing when you're talking about a hip hop and story. And that's like if they bought a basketball and they stitched it up, I know who stitched it. And if you wasn't there, I know you wasn't there. And so now they start doing these hip hop documentaries and they start having so called historians. They weren't there, so they start telling their own narrative or whatever they andtting. I say, Yo, we can't do this because if we die in twenty years from now, kids go back to the video tape.

00:17:51
Speaker 1: They're not gonna get the real, authentic Yeah.

00:17:55
Speaker 2: That's why I started interviewing people and doing all this because they were really fabricating different stories and I'm looking at it. I'm like, and these were credible people making these documentaries. I was like, Yo, this is crazy. That's why I originally got into it. And then with me writ in the book, I just knew for a fact if I died, they called me a liar terrible while I'm alive. So I think I had to tell my book before somebody would it came and said, Yo, this guy's this, this guy's that, this guy's and when you let somebody else tell your story never going to be right. They could be the closest ones to you, not even in a bad way. They've seen it in a different way than you saw it. So it's very important that people you know document and also who were talking about yesterday about inspiration. Somebody was talking about we were talking about that, bitch. It's about inspiring you know, the kids behind you and letting them know that it's possible. Oh, you know, hope and it's possible, and you know a lot of you know, like you said, I gotta I had to see it to believe it.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: You know.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: One thing I never been was jealous, and so I always looked at everybody else that one he said, Yo, we can do that. They've always been inspired by greatness and people who won, or people made money or people. I always was like, yes, well, if he did that, he can't be he can't be a bigger bullshitter than me. I'm gonna get to that fucking bag.

00:19:32
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

00:19:33
Speaker 2: I'm like, Yo, I'm gonna get to it. It's doable, it's attainable. I'm gonna go for it.

00:19:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, you know, you know, just listening to you it makes it. We think about one of the things that I learned in my lifetime because through my grandparents, my great grandparents, and I noticed that there was a Native American heritage in my great grandmother's look and hair and so on and so whatever said that was my curiosity. And you know, I befriended some Native Americans over the years, and one of the takeaways, one of the biggest takeaways was they talk about, uh doing stuff that will affect seven generations, you know, and they seem to be the only people I run into my my span of time that I've been here. We talk about that because once you say that, well it makes somebody stop and think. We think about seven generations with family and you need right now? Yeah, yeah, it made you think right now and you guys are probably doing that if you haven't already done that, that's going to have an effect on seven generations.

00:20:56
Speaker 2: You know what's so weakly that's a beautiful thing. You know what when the past three generations of thinking about like as he said that, I never thought seven the city you about seven? Yell no, I can't think of no seven generations. But I could tell you who did the wicked people who created the laws and did the systemic racism.

00:21:22
Speaker 1: A hundred years ago.

00:21:23
Speaker 2: We didn't even have telephones, we didn't even have a call, we didn't even have a plane, but they made laws back at that time that's affected us at this time to where everybody can't get to the bag. Systemic racism. They did that one hundred They didn't even have a phone, a fax machine number. But they thought of thought about, Okay, we're gonna f these people up for a one hundred something years. We're gonna make sure he's got eternity. They thought of seven generations and in all them guys with the white yea, they thought of in a negative yes, each.

00:22:03
Speaker 1: And they acted on it.

00:22:04
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy is my grandfather his sisters used to come visit, like one seventy ten years and they dressed up as Indians and they, I wrote it in my book, used to have moccasins. They were Indians. They were like, and now I'm in the projects and the Rons looking at them, like, yo, we got real Indians and our family from Puerto Rico.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, but you know I was so little hold on.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: Hold on was the Puerto Rican or was the Indian? They Tyino Indians and Puerto Rico. The Puerto Ricans is Spanish African and TiO India. That makes up a Puerto Rican. But what I'm telling you is that I don't know why I had some aunts and uncles they used to come in moccasins, dressed like straight Indians in the South Bronx with the moccasins. We over there with AJ's and overlaps tank looking at them like, I'm like, yo, they Indians for real coming up in that joint.

00:23:06
Speaker 1: So I look and learn. Look and learn, man, Look and learn because from a cultural standpoint, you know, lots of time they do things differently, and sometimes they do things better.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: I never seen him again after my grandfather died. His side of the family unfortunately, never came back like once my grandfather died like that was it? Like they you know, it's scary because I got you know, I'm half tub and I got a bunch of stepbrothers and sisters. And since my father passed away last year, you know, we lose contact. Like you know, some of my brothers don't call no more. My sister called yesterday because it was a yeah anniversary of my father's death. She was like, Yo, are you feeling bro whatever, Broy. You know, sometimes when people die, that whole part of that family.

00:23:55
Speaker 1: Well, no question at about it. You know. My mother was one of fourteen children in Baseburg, South Carolina. My father was one of eleven, so I had aunts and uncles. These is never cousins the whole deal. But once my father passed, we started relating to Mom's side of the family. So that's whom you knew, That's who you spent the time. But that's when related to thats who even came close to and you know that does bet.

00:24:28
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00:26:15
Speaker 2: I've always been jealous of your era, Ain't it's not necessarily.

00:26:19
Speaker 1: I wanted to Jones, No, but.

00:26:22
Speaker 2: You're right right, What I mean, like, he's when I watched the movies from your era they done them Chinchillas on the Frank Lucas movies and Nikki Bonds on the color cover of Time. You know they rats, but but I'm just saying they were the biggest What was it a guy at the time when you the biggest guy, Doctor j was the biggest guy on the earth?

00:26:50
Speaker 1: Were at time?

00:26:51
Speaker 2: Facts when they talk about all this, because you know, we we from New York. I don't know about him, but I'm assuming him. We from New Yo. We think Harlem is the fly is right, and we think of all that. But that's about your time when this show.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: Wasn't gonna have no flags? What did I say? No?

00:27:12
Speaker 2: But what I'm trying to say is the flag the cut off?

00:27:16
Speaker 1: No, No, that means.

00:27:18
Speaker 2: Trill on the play I said something I didn't agree with. He didn't agree with it, so he threw the flag. We usually got a.

00:27:24
Speaker 1: Hundred of them flying.

00:27:25
Speaker 2: We've been real gentle with you, mister Doctor Jay, mister IRV. Respect. You know my thing is respect. What was it like in that era flying this? You could we see you fly? You fly it? In all of them forever you got Will Chamberlain bragging, but he wasn't more swagged out than you, and you was outside about your boy clod Clyde fla. You know he's still wear the cowboys. He got the cow he's made out of cow lashed the rocket, same suits, the same suits.

00:27:59
Speaker 1: He ma ain't got them, dub. I think it's the same, right. You can't even find something that he got.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: Some of the finest cowskinted yo interis that you haven't seen.

00:28:11
Speaker 1: Yo, Clyde man.

00:28:12
Speaker 2: You know, you know, I'll be trying to dress right.

00:28:14
Speaker 1: But he was cool. He played the cool cart his management company used to represent them.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was your era, Doctor J. I'm trying to get you in this era. Rank it's hallm It's New York City. You from New York. You're the biggest in the world, you, Doctor J. You slam dunk and over everything, you coming to the rucker, shutting it down. You got all these guys that we watched these movies of in the middle of your era. What was that like, Doctor J? Could you just describe to us what was Doctor J's life at that time? Was there a club in the Halem that was out of this world that you walked in at twelve midnight and was like Doctor J.

00:28:58
Speaker 1: Like what was that life. I'm tell you the truth. So at a certain hour, you know, I would be in the after hours club and I look around. I'm thinking, these people don't want to go home or they ain't got nowhere to do. Let me get the hell out of here. Because I got her home, and I was, you know, living in my parents' house because early twenties, I stayed in New York job. I was twenty six, so birth to twenty six. And I wasn't trying to be hard. You know, my mom she raised three kids and pretty much by herself. She did marry. I had a stepfather, but she buried the load. And I said, I ain't trying to do nothing to make it harder with her than it already is.

00:30:02
Speaker 2: I'm not saying being a haunted now that way. Well, that was you there with doctor J. Everybody was coming up to your doctor say this is such and such. Yeah, your doctor J, this is such as such. They had to be doing that, right.

00:30:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So uh me Reggie Jackson, Arthur ash Oh, Miles Davis, Davis, the Bill Cosby whoa so nineteen seventy four. We would meet frequently at cosmics, right, and a lot of the discussion was about time and place and what we're doing. You know author that's tennis player in the world. Yes, you know, I have my basketball thing going seventy four. All the time MVP in the ABA, Miles was making music. No, Miles would bring some music and he played. But there was a thing called Divided Soul. We listened to it. We couldn't understand nothing. Two weeks later it was running up the chart, the.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: Biggest song in the world, up running up the chart. We saw some of those yeah, yeah, because you don't know.

00:31:21
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just raw. I had that with Groover Washington Junior. You know in Philly he writes something right, hear it? Oh that's all right.

00:31:32
Speaker 2: Next thing, I know, you know that's the Hacken Like what was that gambling huff gamble at Huff Philly.

00:31:40
Speaker 1: Philly was the Yeah, they had Pillay, they made great music. Cosby. Cosby got all jammed up and it was very, very unfortunate because you know, he was he was a good mentor in my life because he was older than us and he hosted us in his house. And this is a seventy four, so we were in our twenties. Reggie were a little older, being after about the same age, and Miles is a little older too, So so we had our crew. You know, that's a good crew to have. Wow, Yeah, you ain't. You ain't got it.

00:32:16
Speaker 2: You ain't got No, that's some month rushmore my cruise. You ain't gotta go to No, can't beat no off the ash.

00:32:23
Speaker 1: No.

00:32:23
Speaker 2: Reggie Jackson, mister October Bill Constant, Yello pudding pomps. This man was fat alb Yeah you have fat Albert.

00:32:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, you go out to that to that helped me because I had friends like that and now you know Reggie and our school friends who got he got an event going on in Vegas, uh, beginning of the next month. So he just sent me a note, all right, you gonna be here. Oh yeah, we'll be here. You know, you know you gonna tie me. You you're you're a linked to my past, and it was a great time. So you were at linked to my past when I was on the top of the world, you know, and being talked about in that conversation who's the best basketball player in the world. That's when that conversation was going.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, doctor Jay, You're still on top of the world. You still on top of the world. When they see you, they nobody, I know, you might think it was a long No. He lights up every room. Yeah, you walk in there. You swagged out to this day. That's why I asked you about your wife. You always look beautiful, you coming through, you floating. They know what time it is on another level. And basketball players more than anything, they got to study the tape. They have to study the tape. Basketball players, you know, I always tell a story. I say, Floyd Mayweather, who's undefeated and everybody call the greatest box one of them of all time. I've seen a fight where he was and beat up for six rounds and then he switched up the whole style mh and he beat the guy and at the end he was like Jack Jack Dempsey. I watched the video tape when he did this and that. And the point is it's the same story gets but it's relative to what we're talking about.

00:34:20
Speaker 1: They got to watch the video tape.

00:34:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and that's a wonderful that's a wonderful gift, you know, having having.

00:34:28
Speaker 1: A video to watch. You know. Now, I think some of the stuff that people watch maybe doesn't necessarily help them you know, maybe motivates them to just get out there. But you know some of the every every pitch video that's out, they ain't good. No say they get most are bad. Yeah, most of the majority probably is. I was more damaged than good.

00:34:56
Speaker 2: I'm addicted to uh, social media, Like you know, if I have a second, I watch my Instagram and this, this and that. But you know, I'm kind of getting pissed off at all this like negativity and everybody fighting each other and everybody it's just like every day you wake up to see who's fighting who, Who's this, who's that? And it's kind of like played out what you think?

00:35:20
Speaker 1: Kiss what the world needs? Sweet?

00:35:27
Speaker 2: Look, it's the only thing that there's just too little.

00:35:35
Speaker 1: Good ass, good ass good answer. Today's today's state of the game. How you feel about it?

00:35:42
Speaker 4: Without you know, a lot of people can't take conversation. Then they misgon screwed, or they get emotionally drained or things of that nature when you just ask something like that. That's why we like to stay away from the questions that turned into religious argumental political debates with just the state of the game. Whereas that today from you know, how you played did it? And say, did it you know how you feel about it.

00:36:17
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna jump over into the racial aspect of it. You know. See, when I was coming up, black athletes got interviewed, you know, sometimes they get played, somebody asked stupid stuff, they give us stupid answer, and then suddenly, see, that's why we shouldn't interview the black guys they representing or whatever. So I was always kind of guarded with my dialogue and delivery and you know, try to say things the right way or whatever, because I grew up, you know, seeing some bad interviews. I mean for some terrible interviews, you know, especially with boxing and shiftball players, you know, guys you know, they know you. You know, I was like, nah, no, come on, man, we could do better than that, because we are better than that. And that became a reflection on the race. And unfortunately, unfortunately, you know, ABA was a breakthrough in terms of majority of players in the league were black. Wasn't that way in the NFL. Wasn't that where Major League Baseball Baseball was probably second, you know, with maybe forty and but the NBA, NBA was like in the twenties, no twenties, and and so that's where the most work needed to be done, and then there were a breakthroughs. You know, certain people coming up and handling it. There black commentators, so they weren't going to play the game. You know, they've tried to help the athlete who they were, who they were talking to, and so so there's a there's a track record that you can follow and you could see, you know, basketball open the stores nineteen forty seven, so forty seven, fifty seven, sixty seven, seventy seven, eighty seven, ninety seven. No blacks became a dominant race in the league. So you got a lot of good interviews. And now comes international player, you know, in the national player has to work his way in because there's certain people, you know, they didn't want to get on the microphone because they didn't really own the language. The female golfers that came from China and Japan or whatever. Now you got to learn English. If you're gonna play over here, you're gonna make this money and take this money back, you got to learn the language.

00:38:55
Speaker 2: They do that to the Latino boxes too. They he analyzed that you make less money if you don't talk English.

00:39:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to learn English. Yess what he's saying yeah. So there were real times in which this got recognized and then suddenly, you know, people made the adjustments are were necessary to max it out, you know, to max make maximum money. Well I need to. I need to get my stuff together. And part of it is what kind of upbringing you have and what the influencers influences are on you school wise. You know, I just hated to hear somebody being called a dumb jock because that was my space. You know, they called us jocks, and a dumb jock that was that was almost being worse than being called a N word. It was derocketorys very.

00:39:53
Speaker 2: We had a bad right And so you know, I'm go on YouTube watch Puerto Ricans in nineteen seventy.

00:40:03
Speaker 1: Man, I don't even know.

00:40:05
Speaker 2: This is like you know when they say your ancestors dream like guy talking like that, Like the way they was talking that nineties Hellish broke.

00:40:15
Speaker 1: They was likelih, they didn't know nothing.

00:40:19
Speaker 2: Maybe if they were smart, they signed the dumbest hell Black people chewing the South brost. I watched the seventies and I'm like, and now you got so many a chicken li it, smart intelligent millionaires, all kind of business owners and all that. Well, I'm just like, damn, we came a long long way, because when you watch that footage of the Bronx in the seventies, you just like, damn, how did we get here?

00:40:47
Speaker 1: You know?

00:40:48
Speaker 2: So you were here it was American doctor J. You've been around long time. Be here hip hop? Where do you hear it for the first time? And did you know when you heard it around that time that did you know all this thing is going to go?

00:41:05
Speaker 1: No? I had no idea that that that it was gonna go to where what you know? I mean I was a rhythm of bluesky and the jazz guy. And when I heard hip hop, I mean I you know, I had had a cautious ear because it was all around, came from uptown and uh, you know the characters associated with hip hop. You know, I got to kick out, you know, I was like, Okay, I ain't trying to be them, and then they're not trying to be me. So they got their own genre and how far will it go? And it went to the moon. It went, It went to the moon Man, and as there was no no turning back because I think the the overall acceptance of hip hop in the beginning was to be determined by the people who were the best at doing it. And and they not only grabbed the stage, they didn't let it go, you know. And you know, I mean some of them you look at looking like Snoop, you know, for one thing. I mean he's crossed over intoget a dozen different days, the whole Olympics and now yeah already, but he's been doing he'd been doing golf tournament. You know, he does so much variation of the theme. But he's still genuine because when he's talking, you know what he comes from, where he comes from, and and he'd be quick to tell you. So, yeah, what did I feel about it? I mean, you know, you know, my my generation was you know, the rhythm and blues piece. Uh and even even in my house, you know, music my mom would play whatever. It was just you know, straight up love songs. It'd be a little mix of rock and roll in there. You know, they like the rock and roll.

00:43:19
Speaker 2: And you want to know what's crazy, you know, it's ill that he said the music that he grew up and listened to his.

00:43:27
Speaker 1: Son was my man.

00:43:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jay Irvy, I know, the road out of the jail Yeah, you know what's crazy is I don't know if you've seen recently Onmeboy, Gene Simmons said that hip hop shouldn't be in the rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is the new talk.

00:43:47
Speaker 1: It is real. You can't deny that. I mean, you can't deny hip hop from coming in. No, being in the rock and roll Hall of Fame is going to recognize the sales, you know, and the impact yea overall impact. Yeah.

00:44:05
Speaker 2: My thing is, uh, didn't we create rock and roll? Like originally Chuck Barry?

00:44:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, black people created rock and roll. I don't got the facts. No, I got the fact. My phone might have been like that slam dunk country question. They didn't invent it, but they perfected affected facts. You know.

00:44:30
Speaker 2: Riches took it to interview one time. Little Richard named every superstar rock person that was like yo. He played in my band. I taught him how to do this. I taught her how to do this. I taught her he dead ass. What's pointing out all the rock and roll legends talking about it? He taught him everything. A okay, buddy, with my flag, where can we see the new abah? I know it's on Prime already.

00:45:12
Speaker 1: Said yeah, yeah, Amazon Prime. I watched it last night. Okay, you know, I had the guy come in, Jerry Rigg. My TV got it, and then I got an Amazon Prime account because I had an Amazon account my business name, and they were like, oh no, this one's under another one. So but I was under Amazon dot Com and then the Amazon Prime whatever. It's at first month free, then it's fourteen dollars a month. So I got roped into it because I said I want to I want to watch this last night before come out to day this weekend. And uh, they got us slipped up to me and my wife de Reise, and we watched it from eight to midnight. There was four episodes in each episode like an hour hour. And I will see it again. I probably will, you know, see it again with friends or family or whatever. We're gonna do a big birthday celebration next week summer. Get that on in the background as a backdrop. You know that should be good. So you guys need to check it out.

00:46:22
Speaker 2: Last night, I thought I saw it, but I'm realizing I watched the old documentary. So I watched Doctor. Yeah, yeah, that's called The Doctor. I thought I was watching what it came. I told Laurie was there. She was like, yeah, you know what comes out tonight. I said, I watched it last night.

00:46:40
Speaker 1: She was like, no, wasn't it.

00:46:42
Speaker 6: You must have watched the old Join a bas more than just me and that it's a lot of people Spencer Haywood and Rick Barry and you know, the.

00:46:52
Speaker 1: People who were part of the nine year history of the A B A so started in nineteen sixty seven. Then we go back to that time that craziness was going on in the country. We know, it's nuts. I seen it.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's in that documentary with it was segregated. Then they let black and white people play together, and they were showing the fans reaction they had white people and they was like, yeah, I love this guy and I loved it, and it showed out sports jelled everybody together at such a horrible time.

00:47:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well see, you know I'm from Long Island, right. So we had we had a team at the Salvation Army and me and the guy named Archie Rogers two of us, and we had ten guys who were not black, who were white. Those were our teammates. So we were a close knit group in the suburb right over in Hempstead, and sometimes as we would go to games that were arranged for our team and the other coach didn't want his players to play against us. He said, so this is sixty one sixty two, and it were like, well, we play y'all, but they can't play. So our guy Don Ryan, who's still there in Hempstead, in the community, and he's he's he's an angel sent from heaven. He said, let's go, guys, took the whole team, took the white boys too, left the building. We had our team. We would just leave the building. And that would have happened two or three times a year during our seasons when I was a remember there and I remember it and I embrace it, you know, because that was so important for what he did.

00:48:53
Speaker 2: You think, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, you know, all these athletes for in front of the civil rights. To me, when I look at those times, I just think of the courage, like the courage you had that. But people are scared to talk right now, kiss, People are literally afraid. This is the only time the President of the United States will clap back on Instagram at you. Yeah, President of the United States, be like yo, fact, Joe, let me holler at you and tell you this, like people are terrified to speak up now, and at that time, you know it pretty much is hard to be you know, because you risking your career, You're risking all that. So when you were seeing guys like Muhammad Ali talking about I ain't going to the war, no, all like that, and you know what you thought at that time.

00:49:48
Speaker 1: Okay, So I was a little young for the heart of the movement, but I was well aware of the different players, the Martin Luther King's Hammad a lead, Jim Brown, Long Island guy Bill Russell, so he was already in basketball and you know he was an ultimate champion in basketball. So so kind of watching from the sideline, but you know, not being ignorant about what was going on, because you know it was life or death. And you know, like I said, I had friends who went to war. I had friends who who followed Malcolm X. I having to follow doctor King. So I was trying to, you know, be spiritual, you know, let religion be different than what was being said by the musclim movement. And so so being in that and you know what you had to you had to believe in something you had to take a stand in some capacity. So I followed doctor King.

00:51:07
Speaker 2: It's beautiful. I followed doctor King too. You know, it's crazy because I think of seeing out of the movie Malcolm X right and they walking through Harlem and you see Reven Ale on a on a box preaching that you see the Muslims saying you'll see the five percent of saying you'll see get all the witness like they was. Everybody was preaching in one corner, take a side. Yeah.

00:51:34
Speaker 1: He said, you've got to be about some details. You don't stand for something, for for anything, all for anything.

00:51:41
Speaker 2: I always say, doctor Martin Luther King is the greatest American ever lived, and uh gave his life for it.

00:51:49
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:51:49
Speaker 2: His courage was incredible. He chose love over hate, jose peace, you know, and bringing the people together. And he was too. I mean, you know, you just dedicated his whole life to that. People don't do that anymore. They're dedicated for a while and then somebody blowing their hair. Next thing you know, they're over there doing something they ain't supposed to be doing. When you got fake activists that get paid off to stop acting, they no more.

00:52:19
Speaker 1: They're gone.

00:52:20
Speaker 2: Huh Yeah, the whole belief once they catch that little check and check it out. So I'll be like huh, and they'd be like yeah, and then all of a sudden, you know, they took the check.

00:52:34
Speaker 1: You know, we're constantly looking for a new hero, you know, difference maker. You know, somebody will constantly and some people will get pushed to that position. Yeah, I think I think you have to be born into it. You know, it's not something you learn how to be, not something you learn in school.

00:52:58
Speaker 2: Something God puts in you that's says, hey man, you got me. Don't have no fear, go represent your people. And so that's important.

00:53:07
Speaker 1: This ain't that? That ain't this cracking kiss?

00:53:11
Speaker 3: Make sure y'all check the documentary out of Amazon Prime.

00:53:16
Speaker 2: Make sure Doctor j Deliving Legend of One Car, that you come knowledge yourself.

00:53:22
Speaker 1: Make some noise for the doctor, all right,