Darius Miles on Making the Clippers Cool, Jordan Brand at 18, and the LeBron Comments Backlash

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Speaker 1: M m.

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Speaker 2: Mm hmmmm.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm.

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Speaker 2: Today we want to welcome man some When I was in college, just he was younger than me, but he came to LA and just kind of took the scene over.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: You know, I was admiring from Afar where you and Q kind of started in that early two thousands in the LA scene.

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Speaker 4: Talk to us about your start.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Eat.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Saint Louis's has has created some very talented basketball players, but you were one of the early ones. Talk to us about your upbringing, what that looked like, East Saint Louis born.

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Speaker 1: I came up in a city whereas eighty nine blocks like three different ways. We uh, East St. Louis is Illois. A lot of people don't know Saint Louis is Missouri, so we'll hold another state. But I rapped both sides because I went all around hooping with everybody. But when I came up, one of the motivating things for me, especially in basketball, my mom made me play basketball because I was always big. But she I thought she was taking away my freedom, Like, you know, after school, I'm playing with my friends and all that stuff. And then what was she telling me to go to basketball practice? Like after basketball practice the street lights on I can out side you know what I'm saying, the days over. So that was like a struggle at first, but then I started playing, and then she drove school buses. So it's this famous coach in East Saint Louis named Benny Lewis. He was the high school coach. He was the first black coach to win a state title in Illinois. He was the first coach to win three state titles in the row in Illinois. My mom always drove the bus, the field trip bus for their games. So I used to, you know, ride on the bus, be right there sitting next to the coach when I was younger, and I used to go to them games back in the day and I used to see them and I always wanted to play for him. So as I got older and older, when I finally got a chance to go to high school, I went to Lincoln Senior High School went to play with him. They closed down our school after my sophomore year. When I'm from seventh through nights was junior high and ten.

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Speaker 4: Through twelfth high grade was junior high.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I only played three years of high school. So when I got to tenth grade, I went to Lincoln after they closed that school down, and then I went to our rival school because my coach decided to coach the last couple of my years. And that's how it all came about.

00:02:49
Speaker 4: When did you realize that, like shit, I might be able to do this for a living.

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Speaker 1: Probably after my ninth grade year, because I was in junior high. So ninth grade I didn't play against high school guy. I au coach where I met Q. He came from Chicago. He came down and he went to all the high schools, and the high schools was telling him like, yeah, it's this kid in junior high. He gonna probably be the best player from around here. But I was playing program though, like I won. I wasn't even playing with kids my age for real. I was playing programs. So when he came down, you know, got from Chicago, slick talking, I'm looking at him like, man, I ain't messing with you, you know what I'm saying. And your high school was ten eleven twelve. Huh your high school eleven tw Yeah, So when he came to my junior high, he was like he was talking slick. I was like, yeah, I ain't really mess with you. He gave me his number and stuff, so I did'n't give it to my mom because I was playing with like college and pros like Anthony Bonner and Larry Hughes and them during the summer and stuff like that. So when I'm looking at it, I'm just thinking he's slick talking. But my teacher went to school with my mom and she called my mom and told him about him. So she came to me and she was like, Yeah, You're gonna go and play in his spotlight. And I was like for what. Then my mom had she had a heart attack. So as she had a heart attack, she had the surgery, she woke up out the surge, she would like, go to the spotlight. Made my cousin take me to the spike. Like That's why I met Q and them and the restless history. I started playing with him, started playing with the they just switched over from Adidas to Nike. And after I played with him, played my first tournament, they was like, I'm ranked number three in the nation as a sophomore.

00:04:33
Speaker 4: What was your first impression to Q? Because Q was a monster from early on.

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Speaker 1: It really wasn't just Q. It was like their whole team because they was like one of the like that year that summer, they only lost one game the whole summer, Like they played like ten tournaments, peace Jam, all them Big Time Tournament, they lost one game, Like it really won't him. It was more of the team because three or four of them guys that played on the AAU team. They was on his high school team.

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Speaker 4: He went to what Whitney Young?

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Speaker 1: He went to Whitney Young. That's why I almost went to but I didn't want to go all the way to Chicago to play with him. But yeah, it was more of his team. But Q stuck out more to me because he was the one that was the McDonald All American. He was the one that was going through the phase that I was gonna probably have to go to my senior year. So I was really watching him real close and seeing.

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Speaker 4: Like is he two years older than you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he was about to be a senior when I.

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Speaker 4: Was about to be a sophomore.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So I was watching him a lot, so watching his journey from when he decided to go to the pall, when he decided when he uh, when he made All State, when he was running up to miss the basketball. They won state that year, my sophomore year and watched them go to McDonald's, So you know, that was just like the blueprint. I started really getting into what was going on because all I knew was like pro am, Like that was the level I was playing, and I was playing since I was in seventh grade, so I was I was already playing with adults and stuff high school.

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Speaker 2: As you kind of start progressing through high school, and like you said, you jump on the scene as a sophomore, your number three in your class. As you continue to go through your junior senior year, what.

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Speaker 4: Was it college?

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Speaker 3: All?

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Speaker 2: Was college ever coming the picture? Or you wanted to make that jump? And if you wanted to make that jump, what was the reason why? No, I ain't think about making a joint. I committed early. I committed before my senior year. I committed in November the Saint John's. I committed with Mike Jarvis. I Odmar Cook for real. I always wanted to play with a dope point guard that was like a fast person type point guard. So I was falling Oldmar Cook.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to go to North Carolina, but North Carolina chose Adam Boom over him, and when they did that, he decided to go to Saint John's. I went on the visit. That was the first time I met jay Z. On the visit, I went to Midnight Madness. You know what I'm saying. She was hosting it, so jay Z was Yeah, jay Z was hosting it. So that's the first time I met jay and he committed. So I committed early, saying he wish. I felt it was a good commitment because he led the nation and assistance freshman year. So yeah, I went with Mike Jarvis. My dream school was was Georgetown, but John Thompson he retired right before I came out.

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Speaker 4: So what made you decide to d commit and put your name in the draft.

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Speaker 1: Mike Jarvis and my AAU coach came to me and was like saying that you top five, top ten because I told him they they was mentioning it to me. But you know, I'm from the hood. I don't believe in until I actually see it, you know what I'm saying. So when they was telling me this, I told him, I was like, yeah, the only way I jumped if I go lottery, which lottery was top twelve because I just seen Rashard Lewis slip in the draft and how he and his family was looking. I was like, yeah, I ain't even gonna play with that. So when they was telling me and Mike Jo was you know, he could have been selfish or not told me nothing. He was keeping it real with me, like, yeah, they talking about you, top five, top ten. Then I went on like two workouts and they was like, yeah, you top top three, top five, Time to go. Yeah, it was out.

00:08:23
Speaker 3: I've been to East Saint Louis with you, and I know how hard it is come from there.

00:08:27
Speaker 1: I've seen it. You know what I mean.

00:08:29
Speaker 3: It ain't too much positive stuff going on from there. So I could mean you for you know, continuing to go through the ups and downs. I know what you went through going up to come out. But what made you choose to come out of high school? Just just the grind, the grind of everything. Like me and my mom.

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Speaker 1: My mom is the youngest child out of all my grandmother kids, but I stayed in the house basically my whole life with my grandmother and my granddad. I was like the only kid, you know, cousin or whatever in the family that grew up with my grandmama and granddadd That's in the house. So I just seen the struggle and you know, seeing what we was going through and so forth on, and like once they kind of reassured me that I can go lottery, that kind of confirm it. It was like, that's like four million dollars that you passing up on just to go to college. They kind of just put in me, which I was very patient. My mom was very stern. She was like, man, we ain't taking nothing from nobody. You don't want to owe nobody nothing. So I felt like I was earning everything that I was getting and I was killing everything, Like I killed the McDonald's game, I killed the USA game. Like I was one kind of that hybrid from KG. You know what I'm saying. KG was doing more of the power forward thing, but I was the hybrid that was dribbling and playing all the positions, guarding all the positions. So I felt like how people was talking to me like I was a unique player. And Mike even told Mike even said like, yeah, if I was drafting somebody number one, I draft him, which I was going to night. I was going to Jordan Camp every summer like for two weeks. Kind of getting that from him. You know what I'm saying, So it was just like a no brainer once they kind of laid it out for me. I was being patient with it. I wasn't trying to like, yeah, I'm going out of high school. I never mentioned, never said. I just let everybody else say it, and it just kind of came in for us.

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Speaker 3: You ended up going number three, behind Keny Martin and stroke My Swift. I think that was in two thousand draft. That was actually my first year in the league because we played the Rookie Allstar Game together. Yeah, coming into that year, how did you feel? Did you think you would go higher than three? Or was three right right where you want to be?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? At the draft, they told me it was a fifty to fifty chance that I can go number one between me and Kenyan because Kenyan broke his leg, which you know, I was going to Saint Louis you games all the time, especially when they played Cincinnati. Cincinnati, they was all in the USA Conference.

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Speaker 2: He was a fucking monster too, Kenyan senior year, Like, I think if he didn't get hurt, it wouldn't even been a question he was gonna be number one.

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Speaker 1: I let you know how good he was. They broke his leg is still with No One.

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Speaker 4: But also too he went. He was one of those rare guys that went four years too, Like he was good, but he went all to college all four Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So his senior year. I watched him his whole senior year, like he deserved to be number one, but because he got hurt, they questioned, you know, whether he was gonna be healthy enough or whether he was gonna come back or be right. So it was a fifty to fifty chance there. Then Vancouver was number two, and my mom was like, nah, my son ain't going to no Vancouver. So it wasn't no question. So Steve Francis just got picked by Vancouver and he refused to go, so with my mom saying that they didn't even play with it, you know what I'm saying. And the Clippers. I never worked out for the Clippers. I really wasn't planning. Nobody was planning on going to the Clippers. I thought I was gonna get picked by the Bulls. Me and Jerry Cross didn't have a like too many good meetings, but they still was like, yeah, we still ain't gonna pass up on you. It was a thing about me wearing braids that we kind of had a problem with me and my mom. You know, my mom was a big Bulls fan, you know, coming from Illinois, and she just asked him, like, man, you let a guy were colored this her, but you can't let my child wear braids. She didn't want me to go there, but they said they still was gonna pick me. So I thought I was going to the Bulls where Fireser got picked up. What I wanted to go to the Rockets though I loved Rudy t I went down there to the Rocks.

00:12:47
Speaker 4: What's that culture?

00:12:47
Speaker 1: Shock? Though?

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Speaker 2: Coming from the neighborhood you grew up in and you get thrown into la As what's seventeen years old, right?

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Speaker 1: What was that like? It was like a whole nother world. You know, la is like a like I wasn't used to that much traffic and I wasn't used to that many people being around. Moved how it moved around, it was it was different. You know. That was the first time being in l A, palm trees, all that stuff. I realized l A is not as hot as you know you see on TV. You know, it get cool out there and in rain in southern California, yeah, realized a lot of things, but they it was it was cool because it wasn't like I was getting thrown in the fire as a Laker, you know what I'm saying. Because the Lakers ran in town. It was like earning it and what kind of relaxed me a lot, Like Keon Cory Young real young team was all with me, you know what I'm saying, Like I knew all them guys, like I remember going a playing against Corey Aau, running through past Kon, like all us kind of knew each other from the aa U circuit over the years. So you know, it just made it the easiest transition for me.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: I mean, you went to a very very very young team and like you said, Lakers kind of ran the LA side of it, but you guys had a young, exciting team that although you guys didn't want a ton of games, you got a style and flair was able to kind of captivate the NBA world. So what is that kind of going?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 2: Again, the team wasn't very good, but you guys were kind of becoming stars within that. So what was that transition like for you because you were still a teenager.

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Speaker 1: I think we I think we became stars because we was more visible and people can touch us more.

00:14:30
Speaker 4: Like we was.

00:14:32
Speaker 1: Going, Yeah, I was going to the west Chester games and Crenshaw games. We was going like we was all in the mall all the time.

00:14:42
Speaker 4: Fox Hill.

00:14:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, we was going to area event. We was on different campuses.

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Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, y'all was working after work.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. We was like we had energy, like we was moving around l A and we was like our cars made us stand out, Like I had a escalate on them, gold these on them gold ds. Honey spoke and they was like, man, look at that country boy just riding through this. So it was different when we came out here that was shopping with Root. Huh. Yeah, we shocked everybody shopping with Roo. Everybody shopping for Roo, messed with Dave all them, you know what I'm saying. It was. It was just different. We was more touchable, but you know a lot of people be misconscrewing it. We was the We was the youngest team ever. Like before we got there, they won seventeen games out of eighty two. Our first year we won thirty one. Our second year we won like thirty nine forty. We was we was one game out of the playoffs, so that, you know, I know they'd be like, yeah, we got our ass kicked. We really wasn't getting our ass kicked. Like it won no cakewalk. We really weren't getting blown out by teams and all that stuff. Like every year we beat the Lakers, like we was really progressing, being the youngest team ever assembled, you know what I'm saying. And all our guys are so young, so I know they'd be like, yeah, they was getting their ass kick. We really wasn't.

00:16:06
Speaker 4: Y'all was in it.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: We was coming, you know what I'm saying. I feel like the second year, only reason we didn't make the playoffs because that was John Stockton and call them alone. Really last year with Utah, that was that was the team that we posed to beat. We had the last two games against them in the regular season, and they beat us in LA and in Utah. But I ain't gonna say nothing about the riff. But we knew what it was.

00:16:27
Speaker 4: You already know you know what I'm saying.

00:16:29
Speaker 1: We knew what it was. But we posed to being in there and we would have played the Lakers the first round. That's what everybody was talking about. We just had to win one of them games, that's it. But they wont both of them, and they wound up being an AC play the Lakers.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: You don't really know no better because obviously it's your first couple of years in the league. But the Clippers weren't the Clippers that we are today as far as ownership and management and the way shit.

00:16:50
Speaker 1: Is supposed to be ran.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: Y'all used to practice us south By Southwest with no real locker room. You had to keep the doors open so niggas didn't rob your cars out in the parking lot.

00:16:58
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, we had to go to them and shower.

00:17:01
Speaker 2: You couldn't even shower, Like the shit was crazy. You couldn't even shower after practice. But what was that like? But although you don't know any better and you guys are progressing, it's not necessarily the real NBA at that time.

00:17:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really, it really kept us hongry. It was just like we was hungry. Like it really kept us in the mode we want to prove ourselves to the NBA because we're going to Dallas and going to different places and seeing what they got, and we were like, man, we don't got that. We still were in the league. Were playing against them, but this is what we want. So it was just part of the grind. They had a grind team because you know, like I said, the year before we got there, that's when the stuff would Keith Claus happen that I got a lot of guys just they just revamped the team. They had da you got jumps, Yeah, they had da. They had big mold tailor. They had a bunch of guys that the only guy they had left on that team was was Rick Strong. You know what I'm saying. They kind of revamped the whole squad. So and the bad look of that, they kind of you know, they showed us that to show us like we don't want y'all to do that. But we was everywhere like enjoying us backyard barbecueing, like in Inglewood. We were doing everything.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: Was out there living and you got any Donald Sterling stories, not.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: Really like you know, me and Q kind of felt he was weird, so you know, we kind of kept our distance. You know, the White Party, We'll walk in there about fifteen minutes and soon as week shake everybody hand and kiss the baby, we was out. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So we really didn't I think one of the weirdest things that he always used to do was just come in the locker room after we're paying with stairs, like half naked and kind of give you that that uncomfortable type feel or look, you know what I'm saying, right, that's just you know what I'm saying. That's probably the creepiest thing that he was doing. But you know, me and Q kind of you know, we were kids, you know, we we used to talk about him, joke about him, kind of making fun of him, even though he the man is running everything.

00:19:05
Speaker 3: Around, get your man, get your spot.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: You know, make fun, you know, because Courya is the guy Coorya is the guy that was you know, he looked like a corporate like you could draw him. So he was the one that he really was looking at He still looked like yeah, so he ain't never really met I was sticking bones. He really wasn't looking at me like that.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: He became a part of the Jordan brand. Give us your your introduction to MJ and how that Jordan brand deal came about.

00:19:32
Speaker 1: So the summer, like I would telling you, I haven't played high school ball yet. After ninth grade, I got with Q and the AAU team from Larry Butler to Illinois Warriors. They just switched over the Nikes. So you know, I'm a new hot commodity. Came out of nowhere, my name in the streets of Smith, you know what I'm saying, and all that stuff. So they invited me to Jordan Camp in Santa Barbara. So you know, I went to Jordan Camp in Santa Barbara, out there for two weeks. They gave us a damn check and all that stuff. So you know, I went out there and hooping after afterwards, after the camp, you know, we'll hoop with Mike and Mike could get out there and so forth on. So the first day I played against Mike and then he just like he killed me. Like everybody was kind of scared to walk up on him. So I was like, no, I gart him, you know what I'm saying. So I went and guard him, and he killed me. I blocked the shot a couple of times, but he killed me. After that, he chose me to be on his team every every day after that for the next two weeks. Like he liked the way I play, and shit, we ken't cuting him ass for like two weeks, you know, what I'm saying, cause quting him was like the college guys. You know what I'm saying, Because he'll put all the college guys on. Then he'll grab some of the high school guys and a few of the college guys. So we kept cuting him man for like two weeks. That was my introduction to him, Like I know, I remember my scene and he looked like he was just glowing, like he had you know what I'm saying, like Bruce Lee Roy going I'm talking about he just glowing. I remember I remember calling my mom and she was like, yeah, so how was Michael Jordan. I was like, man, he cussed like us And she was like what. I was like, Yeah, he cussed like us. He'd be saying ship fuck all that ship I'm talking about. He just cussed. She said, boy for real? I said, yeah, I couldn't believe he cussed because it was it's him Jay, like he talked like us. But after that, I started going to the camp every summer, and even when we got drafted, we went to the camp, but me and Q showed up. After we got drafted, we showed up to Santa Barbara. We had nothing but a one girl. Remember, a one was just trying to get any guys to get so we had nothing but a one girl. So we came out there the first day with the one.

00:21:47
Speaker 3: Mike wasn't having that, and Mike looked he was like.

00:21:52
Speaker 1: He was like, he was like what y'all got on? I was like, he was like, I thought y'all was a Nike guy, and we was like, yeah, we reached out to Nike. Nike really weren't fucking with us like that. So he was like, all right, I'm gonna make a few calls for y'all. So, you know, went through the day. Everything's good. We woke up that morning. Our age of car was like, man, what happened? Like, what you're talking about? I just got two contracts from y'all to be signed with Jordan and Nike gonna damn like, Nike gonna pay y'all, but y'all under Jordan were like what nah, that can't be too next thing, you know, we get a knock on the door, it's like four boxes, damn. And after that we was in rest is history.

00:22:39
Speaker 2: What was your favorite part? I mean, you still Jordan to this day. What was your favorite part about kind of being into that fraternity.

00:22:44
Speaker 1: Man, just growing up watching Mike and you know, being an Illinois kid and always dreamed of playing with the Bulls and doing all that stuff and just coming up under Mike. Like we watched Mike eighty two games on WGEN. You know I'm saying, we watched every single game. It wasn't the regional thing for us, you know what I'm saying. So just being in his presence to be a part of get some of him, to rub some of that stuff off on us. Man, it's always been a blessing, and you know, we really appreciate it. What's better, like folksing died where I'm from over Jordan's growing up, you know what I'm saying, Like a lot of stuff happens over Jordan. Jordan Is in the black community is a shoe that's just golden to us, you know what I'm saying. So to be representing that, it kind of just added the flavor the culture to us, you know what I'm saying. That's now guys wearing Jordan's you know what I'm saying, wearing the Jordan they start wearing our jerseys. It just helped us kind of moved into that that that iconic era where you know, we up there with the guys who who's selling the jersey? Like my jersey was top five the first two years in the league, you know what I'm saying, Like stuff like that, you start seeing your jersey all on on videos and stuff like that. So just I feel like Jordan had something to do with that, because Jordan is like our culture.

00:24:08
Speaker 2: What was the outside feeling. Obviously on the court, you guys are starting to come together as a very young team. But off the court, y'all are popping. Y'all on the cover of Slam. You guys are in movies. You guys are at every premiere. There's so much to do. Because I'm in Collin, I'm at UCLA at this time, and you were all the same agent. I'm seeing you guys everywhere movies, covers, billboards.

00:24:27
Speaker 4: I mean, what was that like for you?

00:24:28
Speaker 2: I mean, a kid from you know, East Saint Louis and now you're on the biggest stage in Hollywood.

00:24:32
Speaker 1: It was real different. Like we started getting folks that really rock with us that we didn't know. We started getting the streets, like you know, the Lakers kind of run the land. You know what I'm saying, but we started really getting the street, the grassroot guys. The folks, even they know they was a Laker fan. They appreciate how hard and how we played like we was exciting a whole lot of dunking and celebrating. I remember when we really start celebrating a lot after everything we do, you folksing wasn't wasn't too happy about that. Like, you know, the league was so old school that they didn't really appreciate guys celebrating or or you know, they felt like it was show bolting and all that stuff. I mean, Jerry Sloan, the shun. Stevens used to always tell us about Jerry Sloan, how he used to talk about us, like, we don't want them to be out there doing that because most of the time, if we're doing that, I mean, we're kicking our lass, you know what I'm saying, That were bumping our heads and stuff. So it was just a blessing to just see how the culture kind of embraced us. Not only the culture, but you know, Slam magazine. You know what I'm saying. We did the first reality show on ESPN. You know what I'm saying, The La Hoops just all that is. Like I was just saying, the videos, the rap videos, our name in the rap songs, like that was all a blessing. And like I said, none of us is All Stars, like even Lamar, you know which he should have probably made an All Star Game before, but none of us was ever All Star or none of us probably would never be a Hall of Famer. But you know, we embraced in the culture so deep respected by Twitter peers too. Yeah. Yeah, if you can't get all the accolades and the individual awards, like that's one of the biggest awards you can get by your prayers, respecting what you're doing. I mean that's even for me.

00:26:21
Speaker 3: That's even with Jordan, you know what I'm saying, Like for him to want us to wear his brand for the rest of our life, and we didn't get the props and you know, accolades that we thought we should deserve from playing basketball. I think that's like a trophy to me too, you know what I'm saying, That's like a trophy to us to be able to get boxes from the best player that ever played the game.

00:26:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like.

00:26:43
Speaker 4: You get free shoes from you sometimes yeah.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: But it's at the point now if I go any place and I don't got Jordan or anything on, like, they be disappointed. Yeah, yeah, yez to Milwaukee. I had to get them red ye And I went to Milwaukee and I was at the little Celebrity game and I had my red yeezz on and he was like, man, I came here strictly to see you put MIC's on, have some mics on. So now they'd be disappointed if I don't work Jordans. They kicked me out. It's like, man, y'all gonna make me work Jordan.

00:27:17
Speaker 3: You have to get permission for the Officer game? Remember, Yeah, Yeah, I think you think you put did you put him on put the Officer game?

00:27:23
Speaker 1: No? You didn't put him up an Iicon game? No? Yeah.

00:27:27
Speaker 3: Loyal to the Soil Lebron's rookie year. Yeah, on the Caps from lebron rookie season. He was part of the infamous video This and Braun.

00:27:35
Speaker 1: Yeah that was. I don't think you can really just bring a high school player in and really just think your team gonna really turn around like that. If he come, you know what I'm saying, he can just hop on our bandwagon. And hopefully we can do something.

00:27:55
Speaker 3: I mean, he was ready Loki hate. It was Loki hat, it wasn't okay works, let's talk about it.

00:28:01
Speaker 1: Well, uh, you know, Lebron is a straight out of high school guy. You know, if you take you know, if you know anything about these cameras and interviews, you can take certain clips or certain answers and you can clip it and make it look like something, of course, but what really happened was I was defending Lebron, right, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm a country boy and I didn't have the proper teaching of how to talk. So probably the words that I use probably sound that way, but the all actuality is I was really defending him, you know what I'm saying. We were on a team where the owner was a blind man. You know what I'm saying, Gordon Gunn He he couldn't do nothing but here a game, so he couldn't really see what really was going on until the next year where we had a new owner. So when they asking these questions, they don't purposely trying to lose this season to get Lebron. So the rest of the guys was, you know, they felt some kind of way. But I knew Lebron. Lebron used to come over my house. I'm I'm at Thanksgiving dinner that year with Lebron, Like I'm hooping with Lebron. This this is my guy. You know what I'm saying. His locker specifically got put next to mine because we have that relationship. And mind you, that interview was the year before he got there, so we had If he felt that kind of way that I was talking about him like that, we would never have been as close as what we is. But you know how they edited and how they said it is what it is. I don't really get into all that, but I know I was defending him.

00:29:44
Speaker 3: You were speaking from the experiences of being ahidesking draft out.

00:29:47
Speaker 1: Of the high school. To be real with you, it's never been a guy like that, especially out of high school. It's never been a guy that you put that that much expectations on to just give a franchise to and just say he finished turning a immediately like that. So I'm like, Nah, you ain't finna do my guy like that. You ain't finna put that pressure on him like that. So I was really defending him. But like I say, you know, country boy didn't get the proper media training, so you know, words might have sound different to y'all than it did to me. If you read the quote, it ain't really hate because shit, I thought it was finish. The same shit was finna happened the year before, so like it was crazy to get you know what I'm saying. I never lost this much a day in my life. I just got drafted to the team that was the worst team in the NBA. Didn't get traded to the worst team in the NBA, So you know what's going on right there? This year. I'm like, nah, y'all, ain't finna put all these expectations on my boy. And I'm looking at us getting our ass kicked every day. We want seventeen games out of eighty two. That's crazy, you know what I'm saying, Nah, y'all, ain't finna do my guy like that. He straight out of high school. I see him and his mama on the regular basis. I'm at Lebron games holding the fat head up. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, or the fan signs with his face like I went to. His game was more packed than I Yeah, like so, and I was the only Cavalier that was at his games or had that relationship with him, Like even with Rich Paul. Rich Paul was was dwine Wagoner homeboy. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. But Rich introduced me to Lebron. Yeah, and ever since then we was cool. I played summer league. I'm four years in the league. I played summer league strictly because Lebron came and played because we had a relationship like that. I didn't, you know, four years in the league and you've been playing I shouldn't have been that summer league, right, But I played summer league. I went to Orlando and Boston with them to play summer league because it was me and him Boozer, Big Sagana job, dwine Wagoner. It was like, shit, I need to be a part of this y'all to kill or something.

00:32:01
Speaker 3: And I'm four years in. Yeah, but you know it is with it. Let's switch gears. Talk about mental health. You struggled with depression and privately after his retirement or losses fortune through bad business deals. A lot of this stuff I know about. It's just we all go through stuff after retire, trying to figure our identity. A lot of stuff that people say that you went through a lot of it wasn't true. I know you personally, and a lot of stuff we went through together, just going through the ups and downs man of losing, losing moms, trying to figure out where we're going, you know, after basketball, the alcohol stuff. Just talk about you know, dealing with mental health and the struggles of trying to figure things out along with dealing with loss.

00:32:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, coming out of high school playing basketball since fifth grade, I never really had no problem. Everything has been, you know, great, Everything has been right. So at the end of my career knee injury, I started seeing what the other guys see, trying to come on the team and try to make a team, because remember I came to Bobcats, try to make a team and you're not the favorite on the team. I never really been in that position, but after it was kind of kind of felt in me that I can't really move my knees or move the way that I really want to move. I knew I had to retire after I had to retire. Soon as I retired, my grand my grandfather passed away, then my grandmother passed away, then my mama passed away. So these are the three people in the house that I grew up with my whole life. I don't got no brothers and sisters. You know, my homeboys. Shoot my homeboys or my brothers. So I'm the only child. So everybody that I grew up in the house with passed away. So losing my careers are something that that's the only thing I know is basketball. Then losing the three most important people in my life. Because like when I lost my granddaddy, it didn't hurt as bad because I still had my grandmama and my mom. Then I lost my grandmama, I felt it a little bit more, but I still had my mom. So then when I lost my mom, it was like you shut down. I was worried about you. It's just like I tried to keep myself away from good people because I didn't want to rub I didn't want to treat good people in my life the wrong way of how I felt. You know what I'm saying. I was like mad at the world. But then I didn't know about depression or anxiety or so forth on like that because I never been through nothing like that. I never thought that was real. Like when somebody say they have an anxiety attack or they have anxiety. I'm like, man, you bullshit smoke one that ain't real until I start experiencing it myself. So you know that, it was like eight years that I just kind of shut down on the world, like completely, friends, family, everybody, because I was so angry at the world. You know what I'm saying, Like my mom died of cancer. I couldn't blame it on the person. I didn't say this person shot my mom or or did something to my mama. It was like an invisible thing I was mad at. And then you know, you getting that mode, you start seeing red, you can start getting in trouble every which a way. So that's when I went through everything, and then my kids made me kind of like get out of them. Seven eight years I was just thinking about, man, I gotta get back out here and do something for my kids, to leave my kids something, because how hard the world is. You know what I'm saying, Like it's hard to live in this world and accomplish something by yourself, let alone. You know what I'm saying with somebody, So just try to get back out here and just try to give them something, To give them something, I can leave them kind of give them the knowledge that I know the ups and downs and you know, kind of keep it real with them and they kind of thinking about them as as I was going through depression and all that stuff kind of made me get up out.

00:36:12
Speaker 2: Of what happy You found that that median and were able to pull yourself out, because a lot of people don't pull especially when you lost your career ends short and then you lose the three most important people. A lot of people don't make it out of the situation you made it out of. And that ain't even have man like, it's the last stuff we can't talk about. You know what I'm saying That ain't even half bro. Yeah, I want to backped a little bit because you two thousand and five, you think you're getting a simple knee procedure and you wake up and find out it's a micro fracture surgery you had, And at that time, a micro fractior surgery took the careers of Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Alan Houston. It's a surgery that they don't even do anymore, and you didn't necessarily know that was the type of surgery you were putting yourself into.

00:36:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you get in there and they see that it's hold in your college that they got to feel. And the only at the time, the only thing that's kind of that they kind of do it on older folks, you know what I'm saying. That's where it really came from older folks. But at the time, micro fax a surgery, so it extended the months, is extending everything, and I just never was the same after that.

00:37:23
Speaker 4: Two year recovery.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: Once you kind of get back to trying to be who you were, because your game was, like you said, you were more of that new.

00:37:32
Speaker 1: Age of.

00:37:34
Speaker 2: You're big, but your guard and you're a high flyer. You can handle the ball, you're coming off, picking rolls, you're making decisions. But if you got a need that doesn't agree with what your mind is doing, what was that life?

00:37:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's different. Like my mind had a mentality that my body couldn't live live up to. And it was starting to come into that age in the NBA where you're not keeping the veteran guys who got an IQ or who can steal play but it might not be the athletic person version of themself, but they still can play the game that transition was kind of going. It was starting to get super young, so it was just hard. And you know, I probably fought maybe two years longer than I should have fought, trying to play waste a lot of a lot of time and money. If I go back on it, I would have I would have been done when I left Poland and kind of got my mind right to somebody to do something else. But you know, it's just nothing you can really do when when your body kind of shut down. You know, I didn't lift weights or do weights until I was my third year in the league. Like Cleveland made me start going to the weight room every day. Like I put in the work, Trust me, I was in the gym all the time, putting into work. But I didn't know that the weight room go hand.

00:38:52
Speaker 4: In hand with But shit, there wasn't no more fucking weight room in La.

00:38:56
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't.

00:38:56
Speaker 4: There wasn't a weight room, No, it really was. Yeah, there wasn't bro there wasn't no. There wasn't no training training area. There was. There was a fucked up junior college gym.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm from East Saint Louis, so they didn't they really let you go in the weight rooms. Something bad. It happened, you know what I'm saying, Like it wasn't we never. I never grew up in a program in high school where he had a program which started you on waits and all that stuff kind of teach you how to go. Just maybe if I went to college, I probably got you know what I'm saying. Definitely would have got to it. But you know I went straight to Lee. Can I get a thank you for what? You know? I just I've recently seen the rook yarll Star game. You know how many points you got off me that game? Don't? Yeah? You worked for me.

00:39:39
Speaker 3: I didn't know I was working for you that day, but it showed looked like it. It show looked like I was employed by Daris Miles that game because I was past you the ball every time all the time, finished myself in the position.

00:39:51
Speaker 1: I'm surprised didn't win MVP. Nah, we lost, I know, but that's why Steve Francis. Everybody who lose.

00:39:58
Speaker 4: He was on the sophomore team.

00:39:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, sophomore. Everybody who lose. The winners the winner team get the MVP. Was killing highlights. Yeah, I had about ten donks by six game for me. I mean, I don't think you guys get the credit. Obviously, the team I played for later in the two thousands, then we were phrased your coin lob city. Y'all motherfuckers is really throwing lobs though, Yeah, we was. We was. I think I think, like I said, I think the fans kind of love the way we played. We played, we competed, We weren't scared, you know what I'm saying. We was all out there trying to prove ourselves from our best player all the way to our worst player. So you know, I think that was just the big, the big key to everything of how we rock. And I think that's how we got a fan base to get to the point of this, because you know, a lot of these fans it's twenty five years from now, but a lot of these fans was just started being fans twenty five years we got drafted in the two thousand.

00:41:03
Speaker 2: I credit you guys for kind of starting that real Clipper fan base because there wasn't no Clipper fan base because I came right after you left. Right after you left, I went to the and we went back to winning seventeen games. We was dog shit, you know what. I mean, but we still had a loyal You guys had built a loyal fan base, and year by year there started becoming more fans. And then when I went back in two thousand and thirteen twelve, we took the NBA over with CP and.

00:41:29
Speaker 4: Blake and DJ and JJ and me and Jamal.

00:41:31
Speaker 2: But I credit you guys in that two thousands for kind of building that foundation, because the Clipper fan base wasn't shipped.

00:41:36
Speaker 1: Before you begin the beginning of our rookie year. Nasty. It was nobody.

00:41:41
Speaker 2: I was like, what was the semi pro the Flint the Flint Tropics.

00:41:49
Speaker 1: Hey, I hate my fucking staff. Who did this? I didn't. It was nobody in that motherfucker. But we started feeling up to by the end of the year, we started feeling up the Lord. Yeah, and you know it went from there.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: They was like the Flint Tropics at first, about eighteen people in the stands.

00:42:09
Speaker 1: Like but but people like Kadem Hardison, Penny.

00:42:12
Speaker 4: Penny Marshall, Yeah, you had to.

00:42:14
Speaker 1: Like there was like old faithfuls that we seen every game they was in their rapping for I just guaranteed to get the kids from Penny Marshall on their lips.

00:42:23
Speaker 2: Remember the one thing I did love though, is just La loved y'all. Yeah, La loved you and Q and that whole team, but particularly you and Q kind of stood to the front of what the Clippers stood for.

00:42:34
Speaker 1: At that time. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just like, you know, us celebrating. They kind of put the label on kind of put the label on us. That's why folks kind of rock with it.

00:42:43
Speaker 3: In two thousand and four, you started the Purpose Score with Chris Evans aka Captain American Scott Johansson.

00:42:50
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:42:50
Speaker 3: The movies about kids that find out the way to cheat on the sat is based on Young Stack. Can you talking about it?

00:43:04
Speaker 1: Yeah? I didn't even really want to do that movie, like to be real, but you I ain't want to because, like I said, country boy, La is so busy and it's such a different world. Like soon as the seasons though, with I was on the first thing, smoking back home home to kind of get that that normal sit in the yard, play some spades, you know what I'm saying, Just chill. So I had to go back to La to do the audition, you know what I'm saying. So my agent trying to get me to go back. He was like yes for this amount of money and so forth. And I'm like, yeah, I'm cool. I don't really want to do it. He was like, nah, you need to do it. He's a big producer, is a big fan of yours. He needs you to do it. So I flew back to La I came and I just bullshit at the audition like yeah, what you want? We read about this by They all right, and I'm out. He called you back a few hates later, like yeah, you got the part. He was like, but you gotta go to Vancouver for like a month and a half and shoot your part. So it's like it's gonna take my sum away. So I flew to Vancouver and stayed in Vancouver for about about a month and a half and I did the movie. Like when I was out there, Holly Berry was doing the movie. They was doing. That was the first Jason Versus Freddy. They was doing that out there. A lot of production was out there, especially with Paramount, and yeah I pulled it off. Yeah it gotta be the right role. Yeah, it gotta make sense, the right production, like you know, like that was Paramount. It was first, like the Red Carpet was laid all the way out. They very professional, had a ball, you know what I'm saying. With them with the scarlet was like the youngest one she was like she was like seventeen or sixteen or something like that. But Chris, everybody else they was it was cool, you know what I'm saying. And I was a I was big on what was it the Superman shows? Mar No, it wasn't Marvel. It was a small Ville. So the producer of Smallville was the producer of the movie, So you know, I was watching small Ville, so you know we related on that end. So it was it was real dope. You know, I'm glad I did it now because you know, my kids get to get a big kick out of it. Uh, other people get a kick out of it. We did Van Wilder dope, right, Yeah, Yeah, we did Van Wilder too. That was dope. We did art lists. Uh, we did one on one with Kyle Pratt. You know what I'm saying that just being out here in l A, like, everybody who picked us was like, yeah, I'm a big Clipper fan, so they asked us to come and do it.

00:45:57
Speaker 2: I just remember every time I went to Fox Hills sometimes somehow I saw this nigga every time I went to Fox.

00:46:02
Speaker 4: Hills just he was just happen to be in fox heals himy q Uh.

00:46:06
Speaker 1: We used to mess with the shoe store because you know they and are selling joints and me and q A being there with some Jeordans that they don't got. Rook was in Fox Hills Moms too, for Rooke was in Fox Hills Mall. Roof was in Fox Hills too, So you know you're definitely gonna get that good Walker, you know what I'm saying. Walker and them pro Club Walker, Pro Club, that good Walker and they had a spot up there. We used to eat it all the time, the little noodles. Oh in the food court. Yeah. They scrave it up the fire. Yeah yeah, yeah.

00:46:35
Speaker 4: They used to fry it and put it all stick all around the fire. Then they straight your plate.

00:46:40
Speaker 2: Yeah that might still be there, all right, Quick hitters man first team to come to mind. Let us know top five big man dunkers of all time? Big man dunkers or you were a big man though he was sixteen, so you was in the big man category.

00:46:54
Speaker 1: Two. Uh well, Kemp, Yeah, I would say Blake Griff, Aaron Gordon special pick.

00:47:03
Speaker 4: What about the dude that was drafted right in front of you?

00:47:05
Speaker 1: Stro Miles Miles Stro? Who else?

00:47:11
Speaker 4: What about you with me? And I mean I don't see why not?

00:47:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm didn't you leave the league in dunks? Now? I was behind shot close shack, Yeah, you was right up there. Well, I put me in as you should, as you should. One album on repeat Right now, I've been listening to the Kendrick gn X.

00:47:33
Speaker 3: Shout out g X, Shout out the boy too though, shout out Drake Wings Them niggas ain't paying us for nothing, shout out.

00:47:38
Speaker 1: Both of them. Guilty I got. I had a future little mixed little playlist that I made my future future, my.

00:47:49
Speaker 4: Guy Pluto, guilty pleasure.

00:47:51
Speaker 1: I don't know. I got old man.

00:47:53
Speaker 4: That's really you don't feel guilty about it no more?

00:48:00
Speaker 1: Oh childhood crush? Who was your childhood crush coming up?

00:48:04
Speaker 2: Man?

00:48:05
Speaker 1: The Longe Holly Berry, uh, the short hair chicking total Jada Picket. You know there's a lot of it's long Listen. We had a good era coming up.

00:48:19
Speaker 4: We had to look at it coming We had a lot to look at. What was it like meeting? Because again, I know your personality.

00:48:26
Speaker 1: You're not.

00:48:26
Speaker 2: You don't really fan out. But what was it like meeting the stars in La that you kind of seen growing up?

00:48:31
Speaker 1: It was crazy. Neil Longe actually stayed right down the street from me when I moved up Marina Dale, right seeing her walk by, like, man, that's near. Long couldn't be. But yeah, everybody was. You got some sugar. Everybody was cool. You know, I really ain't a big starstruck person like it gotta be certain people like Mike Jordan's Mike Jack five dinner.

00:48:59
Speaker 2: Guess that are you plus five having a nice dinner with some cannabis and some cocktails.

00:49:05
Speaker 1: I love to have dinner with Tupac. I love to have dinner with Biggie. I love to sit down with Obama. I love to sit down with Mike Jack and Muhammad Ali. So I just knew he was gonna throw moms at the table. I just knew he was gonna throw moms at that table.

00:49:28
Speaker 3: Sir, if you could see one person on this show, who would it be? But you have to help us get your answer on the show. I got to help to Yeah, you just said.

00:49:38
Speaker 1: I'm working for you, Now you work for me, Nigga, I love to see on y'all show. That'll be dope. It's two people I think. I think Mike Jordan would be be a dope. I'm gonna keep text us. I'm gonna keep texting on your show. I think jay Z will be a dope person. Will We'll be hon it. Man.

00:49:59
Speaker 2: We appreciate your time and definitely just wanted to give you your flowers again. I saw your journey. You're younger than me, but you were ahead of me and be able to see what you did for the game and unfortunately how it had to end. But the way you hit rock bottom where we were able to reinvent yourself and like you said, for your kids, for your family, what you and Q were doing. Now, you guys are the real ojs of this ship. You know, you guys came before us and kind of showed us what to do, and then we kind of came in and you know, inspired a lot of other people. But we owe you guys a lot for kind of laying that blueprint and just really proud of you.

00:50:31
Speaker 4: Man.

00:50:31
Speaker 2: Like I said, it's a lot of people don't make it out of the shit you went through. I mean, these people got the kind of the PG version of what you had to bring yourself out of. But knowing you for a long time and knowing where your heart is and what kind of man you are, man, it just makes me proud to say that, you know, you're a brother, man and we appreciate you.

00:50:45
Speaker 1: Man. Also, also let me let me touch on that too.

00:50:48
Speaker 3: You know, people always give us our props on the podcast space and being creatives, but y'all was one of the first to do.

00:50:55
Speaker 1: Y'all, y'all somebody who inspired us for you.

00:50:57
Speaker 3: So I said, so, we want to give your props up that space because a lot of people tend to give us our problems.

00:51:02
Speaker 4: Did be in this space, didn't. I just say that.

00:51:04
Speaker 1: I'm just saying a lot of people, a lot of people this, This is what I'm saying.

00:51:07
Speaker 3: Oh to me, a lot of people give us our problems everywhere we go and to try to give us a popase like we started it. But we gave it to y'all. Yeah, we we know where we've seen it first. You know what I'm saying. So I just wanted to clarify that on our podcast while you're here.

00:51:19
Speaker 1: I just say, man, everything been great for me ever since I stopped hanging around Jackson. Been all uphill since then.

00:51:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. House hold up, bro, we gotta give you, We gotta give you. It's a parting gifts man should that's a rad man. Give it up for Darius Miles, Sir.

00:51:38
Speaker 3: My brother black attack. Nobody I hate more than him.

00:51:42
Speaker 1: He said.

00:51:43
Speaker 2: My life, my life has been so much better since I was worst friend.

00:51:46
Speaker 3: It's the worst friend I've ever had in my life. His name is Darius Miles. He's the only person that calls me with insults and hangs up.