KJ Live - Clint Parks

Uh one of the top guys at what he does and has worked with Kawhi, Leonard, Kyle Kuzma, Tony Schnell, and others. Clint Parks. What's up, my man? It's okay, j Thanks for having me on it. They all appreciate it. Man, it's always a pleasure to have you on the show. Man. You you helped me kick this whole thing off last year. And man, what was doing the March Madness, the Lives, the coverage, the Wall to Wall and c double A tournament coverage. Man, Yeah, we definitely gonna bring it back then.

It should be extremely exciting. Clean. What's you been up to, man, what's you been up too lately? Nothing? Just the same old, same well, just training and you know, dealing with COVID like everybody else, things aren't exactly like they were. Obviously, they're trying to push back to more towards normal in that direction. So that's been positive. But you know, just the basketball seven, you know how it goes just the

life of just a basketball junkie. Yeah, And when we talk about the life of a basketball junckey, man, I know a lot of people out there kind of they have an idea about what that looks like, but I kind of want you to tell us what that looks like from when you wake up in the morning, when you go to bed. What does a typical day in the life of Flint Parks CP s A look like.

I mean, it's pretty much basketball from the time I wake up, whether they're starting to workouts, you know, um with my young kids that are on home school right now and so got that during the day, and then when school gets out in the afternoon, the kids that are in railar school kind of transition with them and and it's just going NonStop, like and then like a night like last night, you know, I have a game where I'll go to Lombie State game watch one of

my college kids play shout out to Lombie State Big West Conference champs and so um. Yeah, so I'm either I'm either training, um, going to a college game, going to a high school game, you know, or and you're just going back to the gym at night. It's pretty much basketball consumes my life. And I mean for some people it's like find balance, do this, but I mean this has always been this has always been my outlet and my thing, and I mean it's a positive thing too,

so I love it. Yeah, it seems like you know, you're the type of guy that and then you've come to uh, when I was calling games, you came to a game at c Sign, I think of the R King game. But you're the kind of guy that, you know, you really intently are watching the game. You're watching players, watching who's you're watching coaches, You're watching pretty much everything

in the game. How important is it for you to go to these games when you're training a player just to get a better understanding or grasp of his game and what he needs to work on. Well, that's everything go into the game because you have to like you have to see, okay, like what's working, what's not working, what tweaks you gotta make when when we're in workouts, like what do we need to emphasize more? What are

we spending too much time on? Like, you know, the worst thing you could be is you know, this is a hooper yourself, Like is a workout guy? If you're don't translate to the game. If if it's not like, if the work isn't translating to the game, then what are we doing? You know, like I you know, nobody gets paid off the workout. Yeah, so these guys that look great in the workouts with nobody there or in front of some cones. You know, they're hitting every shot,

they're making every play, making every cup. But you put a body out there, a little bit of defense and a couple of refs. The worst, it's the worst, the absolute worst. So I can't stand it. So I've always said, like you got to be able to do it in the game, and you know, to be able to break it down, go to the game and see it. See what you see what you're doing right, see what you're doing wrong. And it's like it's constant evolution from on their end and my end too because I'm still trying

to get better. I'm still watching different guys, I'm watching workouts on the internet. I'm studying different players. I'm I'm just constantly trying to learn, give myself, give my players that advantage. But we have, you know a lot of

diverse variety of listeners that tune into the show. Um, when you talk about a player that's a workout player or practice player, and and the and that player said player has issues with translating stuff to the game, how do you, as a skill specialist, as a player development guru, how do you how do you implement a plan, a st strategy for that player to become game ready to not be the workout guy anymore? How do you go from a workout guy to a game a game guy.

It's hard, but I think the thing I always try to focus on is that you know a lot of things that you can get off in the workout without even if you have like dummy defense, Like the defense is changing when the game starts, so you know, more aggressive defenders physical defenders. Always tell kids, like tell guys at every level, you beat good defenders, You beat aggressive

defenders by keeping it simple. They want you to dance, they want you to try to mix them and try to go for the highlight like you're not really like against the sound defensive player, you're not really getting no highlight highlight off, Like you're not about that. You're not about to just shake them something crazy. You're gonna have to like you're gonna have to beat them with fundamentals,

you know. And so that's what I always try to That's why I preach, you know, keeping it simple basics so much because the game and the half court, especially in college, the floors ball damn on, there's no spacing. Um, so your point, you could be playing against some teams like UM Virginia who send five guys back in transition and they're just like they might they might have one guy go to the glass for offensive glass. So you're

not really getting nothing in transition. So your game really needs to be you know, you need to be good in tight spaces. You need to be able to make shots. You need to be you gotta make open shots. And that's where it starts. And if you're constantly a lot of guys that are good to work out like they're just getting all types of extra moves off, and then you gotta I mean, some guys has got a mental block, like there's nothing like some guys are just three thirty shooters,

you know. Butter you get seven eight o'clock, the pressure on, the lights come on. You know, it's a different type of anxiety they might get. And it's just I mean it's hard to shake that, it is. Yeah, My pop, the Great Marcus Johnson, used to all is kind of have a thing about that. You know, he always talked about when I was coming up. You know, players, you know, certain players excel without refs, without the smell of popcorn in the arena, without fans in the stands, without the

lights being on. Some guys, you know, they look all world with nobody in the gym, but you put a body in front of them and an arm check and it's a whole another story. Um. Staying on development, I wanted to get your opinion on first high school programs in the southern California area, which you have seen a lot of. Uh, as far as basketball is concerned. What do you consider the top two or three high school

basketball programs as far from a development standpoint. Guys that go there and you know for a fact that coaches are working on a daily basis to get them guys better. Hey, that's a tough question, would you? Okay, I think I'm sorry to interrupt you, So I think I like Corona Centennial and what and what Josh Giles does over there as far as how players go in and like you know, it seems like they work on a lot of stuff and then by the time they leave their pretty dog

a good basketball player. Um is would you is there any other I E. Schools or maybe o C or any any programs like that Consentennia, those guys get better, they have, um that they have a good system set in place with his assistant former players that are working with the guys as well, so you can see the emphasis on development from that standpoint. Um. I don't know how much Kleckner does with development, but I just know over the years, like his guys have they're they're usually

college ready. Defensively, yeah, I don't wanted to play hard, you know. Um. Reggie Morris has done a good job over the years, developing guards, developing players. I'm preparing them for college and helping them get on that track to them to the next level. Um. Um. Russell White was another one. He was really good over the years. You know, when he was at Crespy was obviously the Anthony Milton

and Brendan Williams and the NBA now as well. Um, David Biebo, he's um, he's doing his thing at Harvard Westlake. You know. You know Moose gets guys better. You know, Um that Brent Wood. You're dealing with a different type of kid, but he does a good job coaching them up and and developing the guy. I mean, there's so

many coaches out here. I know this is, but there's there's a lot of there's a lot of really good I mean, um, I think in the Orange County, I'm not really oh see, guy, like I don't know, I don't know the land of the land like that, you know, so I can't really speak to what over the years, you know, how the basketball is the development wise, when like when you were working with middle school kids, you

work with a lot of them. You've got some pretty good players and parents are coming you seeking out your advice for schools, you know, for programs or to continue their basketball and athletic journey on the next level. What factors in a program do you sort of take into account when you give advice to parents. The first thing is what level of player are you you know, that's where the honesty has to start. Like what are you? Are you somebody that's gonna play varsity as a freshman?

Are you gonna play JV? Are you gonna play a freshman? So we've got to separate that right there, you know. So say you're a varsity player, so everybody pretty much knows me if you're a kid that's going to be playing varsity as a freshman, I'm going where I'm going to have a role, big role, preferably the ball in hands and be able to play through mistakes and um,

learn on the floor because you get better. Um, Like developing and training is like this is like that's my livelihood, right, But the most importan in peace to development is live reps. I'm no dummy, you know, Like we could drill workout all day, but if you don't get you a live reps, you're not in a situation where you can play the mistakes. Then your development is going to be studied. Right. So that's like, Okay, how does the coach play and what's

his style of play? What's his um what's his m O? How is he you know, um with um young players? Does he have a does he feel comfortable playing young guards or is he like oh, is he like a guy like oh, I gotta give my seniors, you know, like you gotta you got you gotta ask honest you you gotta really evaluate the situation, um, evaluate the style of play, all of that, and you gotta be honest.

Like I'm always honest with coaches up front, like what I what what I'm expecting, Like, okay, you tell me what you're expecting where you're at, Like, I don't want there to be no surprise. I always tell people I'm not a little kid. I don't like surprises. Yeah, don't surprise me with nothing mid season because then I'm gonna be an issue. You told me one thing and you're doing another thing. Problem, it's a problem. I don't know

what I'm saying. Like if I'm like, you know what, you're gonna get me, but that's no, I didn't mean to cut you off. But on the same hand, on token Clint, like you know, coaches, especially in the high school level, I mean, you promise kids anything as far as playing time, it becomes problematic because there's a lot of dynamics and factors that could change between that day and by the time practice to go through through summer league and you know, fall practice and all that. The

kid may just not be good enough. And so you know, we didn't know that. We thought he was good enough before you got us. You gassed us up telling us he was this and that, and he clint real quick. He turned out not to be like that. Now you're giving me problems because I'm not playing them. How does that work? Bro? But I don't see. I can't relate to that because I don't gas. I don't gass up, because that's when you gass up, then you run into that. Yeah,

you know what I'm saying, like, don't gas. If you don't gas on the front end, then you're not getting up. You know, Like Larry Shy used to tell me all the time, under sail under promise over deliver, you know, don't don't promise more than you can deliver. Like if you're just honest and straightforward like from the Jump Street, then there's no issues. Like I remember years ago, I had Jeremy Lieberman. You get the kid played Calibass's wyoming.

He was good. We had went to Cresby and I took him like he was eighth grade and they had London they had, they already had like London promtists there. I don't know if he was think he was like a grade older and you know, Rust just told me

what it was like. Would love to have him, you know, but I got a point guard a year ahead of him, Like so you know what I'm saying, Like he's gonna have to play behind him and learn, and like I was like, damn, you know, but I respected that because Russ was real with me, and so I was like, Okay, we're going to calabasss like it's not this is not and me and rest remain cool. You know the past. This is twelve years ago. We remain cool all that time.

But just that little bit of honesty and letting me know exactly what it was and where he was went a long way. It saved a friend ship possibly, like you know, like it saved a lot of drama in the middle because you up front and that's all you can ask. Yeah. Communication is key, man, It's it's the key thing to everything. Dog. And if somebody keeps it real with you from jump and there are no surprises, I mean you're gonna handle it a lot better. I mean,

you knew what it was. You might not like it, but it's like you gotta revert back to, Okay, this is what he said it was gonna be. And it's it's amazing too when you, you know, hear all the stories about how how many parents and people go through those issues with coaches and how many people have that

situation where they were promised something that didn't happen. But but staying on that topic, sort of the you know, the grassroots dynamics and drama of the high school era, how do you think, Yeah, you're out here in l A. We have a couple of high profile programs. Some of the players on those programs are pretty high profile on their own right, millions of followers on social media, you know,

big time type guys. How do you think this generation of Southern California Hoopers handles all the attention, the fact that these guys are now signing n I L deals in high school. You got guys you know, beats by Dre and Lebron's son and you know these guys out here Sierra Canyon and all that. How do you think this the generation, the mindset today of this generation handles all of what we would have considered extras back in the day. I mean, I think they do a pretty

good job as a whole. You know, there's some that are a little more loose than others. It's just hard, like, you know, we probably would all you know, I'll tell people I said, I probably would be tripping out a little bit. Who going through that myself getting some of that, like all the extras that these kids have come in

their way, um because of their talent, you know. And I think it's just I think the ones that deal with the best are the ones that have people around them that are helped be able to help them filter what's real and what's not and at the same time stay level headed. And I'm starting to feel like this generation is was born to be able to handle extras

better than us. When you think about my kids, you know, they had iPhones when they were five, six years old, seven years old, so they've been technology based from jump. So I can't sit there with my old school thinking, you know, hey, get off your phone. You know, don't be looking at your phone before practice. No, I mean, if he's gonna look at his phone, it's fine because it doesn't take him out of his lock in. Because

that is who they are. I think you find in our culture you got the old heads versus young heads. You got the kind of the old way of doing it, and these old sort of ideologies about basketball. I think it's time to start to put things into context and accept the generation for who they are and understand that they can't do it like us and we couldn't have did it like them. No, that's true. You're exactly right. You know, you're exactly right. You know, some old heads

are gonna be stuck in their ways. I think the old head problem is when you know you're caught up in the extras, so to speak, and then the game isn't the game isn't matching up with the extras. You know, that really irks a lot of old heads. Like a lot of old heads like that are that understand both sides. They're like, I get it, because they had some extras to them too. It was just different extras back in the day. It wasn't like they gonna know extras. That

extra just changed. So it's like, Okay, the extras are shot. We're talking about your extras more than your game. You know. That's when the old heads get beefy. Okay, So now you're not really you're out there like you don't really love the game. You know, it's like the old like Robin who was more extra than Robman. She knew when the game, when the game hit. You know, he was twenty rebounds and he was hard, he was playing defense,

the whole nine. A lot of these dudes they get they get the fame or whatever, and then it's just extras. They just ain't not looking the same. And then it's like, Okay, that's that. That's where the disconnect is, Like, come on now. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. Yeah, no, it's

a disconnect. But I also think that overwhelmingly old heads have I guess I call it jealousy envy towards the younger generation because you know, of the attention and the level of ease, it seems like things are given and handed and and then that might not be the case. It's like we act like these kids, old heads act like these kids aren't working hard. I'm busting their ass, didn't have the same goals. I'm getting up at five, and some of them are getting up at five. And

the more you know they're doing the same thing. They just got cell phones and gets on social media. Now they get old hands just want their flowers. That's it. They just want the pay. They just want to hear the the young hand saying name, you know, you paved the way first to get this big bag. Hey, even if you don't need it, just say what I'm saying.

They just want their respect, that said, because the money, the money is so much different now and so you know, like you looked up and you're like, man, I was so much better than what we're seeing now. And so they're like, man, like, we we paved the way for

y'all to get this money. And so when they feel like they're not respected, that's why you see like, um, so many of the young dudes love Bubba Chuck Irish and so much because Irish and so so much love to the to this generation of Hooper like he always just so loved to where you see Oakley get on the on the podcast and he like, your honest is a weak Let's touch on that. Let's touch on that. So Oakley said, you're honest if you honest played back in the eighties and nineties. In that era, he'd be

a role player, a bench guy. He wouldn't be m v P A are Now, I have a thought process behind it, and I want you to hear me out. Oakley is talking about the physicality of the game now. When whatever we discussed physical and skill, the conversation always gets um murky. I would call it murky because people don't want to ever acknowledge or address the actual consequences

and effects of physical play of eighties, nineties physical player Clint. Nowadays, it's it's refs, it's people, it's video reviews, it's all types of stuff that you cannot do that you're gonna be busted with. And this is a valid point. There was a time, believe it or not. This is to

the audience, the younger members of the audience. There was a time when basketball was played by guys that was trying to hurt you, the guys that would go out and do things purposely to hurt you, and there really wasn't much you could do about it but try to finish the game in fear. This is what Oakley is

referring to. He's challenging the man of Johannest. He's saying Joannice as a man, as the kid that grew up in Greece selling them on the street, it's not tough enough to handle the eighties and nineties, Clint, I want your thoughts on that. You see what Jannest looks like right now, Joannice is going straight down to the block and he's doing the same thing that he's doing now. Like Isaiah Thomas said, Okay, you're gonna foul like, You're gonna foul him really hard. You're gonna hit him. Okay,

now what else are you gonna do? But what how do how do we know what happens after he gets fouled? Is he gonna respond to Oakley the same way he's responding to these dudes nowadays, Maxi Klobler and all these dudes. Is are you gonna respond? I mean? Is that? I think that's That's That's my point. Clint Oakley is is banking all his whole statement on the fact that he him and his dudes back then are going to punk Janice.

They're going to punk him, not they might punk him a bit like when he first gets into the league, like it might have been like he might struggle. That's what I said. This development that he's shown over time, same same way, same way up and you're going to r those puppies and they're not gonna be working like that. That's so I think. So I made that little so

I said that whole thing to say. I still believe even regardless of getting punk anything, Yannest will be like a twenty six twenty seven and like an eight seventeen eighteen guy. I feel like Janice was built for the eighties and nineties. His bird, his style, his bruising, just linebacker, I'm going through you style and then eating glass in a in an era where you know, rebounds were a lot higher because of the nature of the game, I think that he would have dominated. Uh. To be quite frank,

but you make a great point. He would have got used to just like we remember we saw Janice when he first got into the league. He was a little you know, fresh faced and wide eyed, but then he figured it out pretty quickly. Um. Yeah, that's an interesting deal. Moving on to the college game, brother, what do you think about the transfer pop portal and what it's done to college recruited is the high gool senior now irrelevant

or what. Um, the high school senior that's special is never gonna go out of style as we know, and it goes back to the tears. The high school senior that's like on the on the cusp of maybe getting a deal, he they're they're kind of like phasing away from him because they're like, oh, we could go we could go to the portal and use that scholarship. Yep.

So with the portal, so what the portal has brought on like a whole new issue for high school kids because now it's like coaches are um, coaches are under pressure to win. Now obviously there's not really time for development. So if you if you got if your administrations on you, on you, on you, you're going for the kid that's two over the kid that's seventeen eighteen. You hear NonStop, what's the key to college basketball? Get old, stay old, you know. And so therefore it's like if you're being

in seventeen eight better be special. Obviously your chat home grins, you're Jabari Smith's, you're Paula bank Caro's like those three freshmen like right there, like that you hear about all season like they're going to go go in and play wherever they go. Yeah, but that's not the case for every freshman, you know, and there's a there's a learning curve, and then some coaches don't like playing freshman. So the portal is like, Okay, let's go get somebody who's been

in college three years. He might want to move up or he might want to move down, or whatever it may be. And now it's like the young guy, Okay, well, we don't got time for you right now. We we gotta win my a d sais I gotta win now or I'm losing my job. So I'm gonna trust a dude who's older, who's more season. So it's hard for the high school senior right now. It's it's stressful for some good high school seniors too. And I don't necessarily agree with it because I've said it's over and over again.

That portal. That portal is getting a lot of coaches in trouble too, because a lot of these guys are leaving bouncing around three school rules and it's like you've been averaged to've been below average at every stop, like just because you're in the portal, everything that glitters is in gold. I say, all the time. There's a lot

of bad goods in that portal buyer beware. So so I would think that when you trickle, it trickles down now to the guys back in the like back in my day, Like you know, I got a scholarship to main folks got a scholarship on our Crunshaw team. We're basically the top two players, but then four other guys

got scholarships too. We probably won't see those days unless everybody's just super raw or at a prep school type situation where a regular high school, like you know, a regular high school, Sarah, can you have to be an elite level high school, but you won't see the days of of guys getting those scholarships that if you weren't the man on your team because of I guess the the super senior or the top now being kind of

rendered irrelevant because of the coaching preference. That that's that's kind of a an interesting deal kind of crushes your you know, I remember, you know when you when you went to high school, you know, you had these dreams and aspirations to going D one. D one was everything and D or D two or D three or college basketball was everything, and now it sounds like a lot of guys won't get that opportunity. When do you think, at what moment do you think like this emphasis shifted?

I mean because even before the transfer portal became a thing, coaches were already kind of leaning towards getting older. As it was, coaches don't want to develop. Development takes time. You're trying to get somebody better. You're saying, Okay, he's here, but I can take him here. So in between all the work you gotta do, you gotta have managers that are dedicated. You gotta have because you because you have an hour limit on how much you can work with guys.

So Eric Musselman is kind of like mastered it. He goes out and he gets like high high level and grad assistance man edgers, guys that can be on the floor unlimited with the players. And so they're they're basically your eyes and ears, working your guys out, getting your guys better, pounding them every day. Boom boom boom. This

is what you need to be working on. And so to develop, if you're at a major, or you're say you're at a low major like now, you're trying to you develop a guy and now that now the high major is just gonna come in and cherry pick and say, oh, we want you now. We didn't want you in high school. You were a week, but you're a later, you're good now, you're good now. So yet we're rocking with you, and a lot of people will fall for that. Yeah. Who do you think are some of the best outside of

Muscliman in Arkansas? Some of the best development programs in college basketball? In college basketball, dang, best development programs? Would you consider Kentucky? Would you consider Kentucky a good development program? When Kenny Payne was there, I would What about Duke Duke? I mean, yeah, they're guys, They're go get better. I mean, I mean their guys get better, like their guys get better. I'm not a dude guy, but they get better. I think I think, Uh, what do you think about Kansas

as a development program? I mean it's I liked it when I mean Danny Manning was there, like all the posts, all the three fours, the footwork was going crazy, the Morris Twins, all those dudes. You know, over the years, you know, some of these people forget how important it is to have high level assistant coaches right, you know, you see there's good development in the Mountain West, looking at like what's going on at like Wyoming my old school, obviously,

like coach Lenders done a good job. San Diego State, Fisher and desher have done a good job over the years. Colorado State Nico med bed Leon Rice. That's the conference I'm really familiar with and I follow a lot. So you know, there's no there's good schools in the Pact, So there's good schools everywhere. It's just understanding. I always say, like, you really got to do your homework. All the answers to the tests are out there. You just gotta really

lock in and study it. Yeah, kind of ask questions, do your own research, start trying to figure some things out. Go to practices. I like to go to practices. Okay, what are we working on? And I'm not just going to one practice, And I like pulling up unannounced because you already know I'm coming for weeks or days at a time. You're gonna dress it up nice. You're gonna dress it up nice. Like, no, I don't want to

know what it looks like on a daily basis in here. Yeah, Washington, like you've been there, three or four years, like I don't want to just hear. Oh the kid don't want it. You don't want it, he don't. Nah, this is your job. You signed him. Your job is to get him better. He don't want it, not good enough? Like, no, you gotta get him better. And so guys that have been three, three years, four years at a place and haven't improved,

like that's never a good. Look. What what do you think is the most I guess successful methods when it comes to getting a guy better on the collegiate level. Is it emphasis on shooting? Is it an emphasis on conditioning? Is an emphasis on ball handling? I mean, what do you think is the most important skill set for a guy to improve upon? And again it depends on who you are, but just universally speaking, yeah, talk to me.

Starts with the jader, Yes, sir, It starts with it like that opens up everything, and it's really like it's like a it's like a it's um the Santonio spurs you should use. They probably still do, but it's like daily vitamins, like you gotta take them every day. Yeah, and they got every day for them to work. So it's like that, like the approach with like skill development. Okay, twenty minutes before practice, thirty minutes before practice on the floor,

thirty minutes after. Now that that you come back thirty minutes, forty five minutes at night. You're there before practice, after practice twenty minutes. Now you've got forty minutes of working individually. You stack that up five days, six days, Like you keep doing that, doing that, doing that, like you're gonna

see the progression over time. I always tell my guys, please, don't be the guy who shows that right before practice, running the antieing issues and rushing on the court right before the huddle starts, and don't be the guy who's sprinting to the door right when the practice ends. Oh I'm out, Like, don't be the don't don't be that person. And there's a lot of players that are like that, and there's a lot of coaches that are like that.

And when you're like that, you're really gonna have a hard time improving the way you want to improve or the way your people might want you to improve. So I'm always I'm always on track record. I'm always on track record. How are you talking? Like? Are you giving me the best? Are you giving me the business the car salesman development speech Like no, I'm not rolling with that. That's what if the cars what if the car sales been developed this speech? Satellite, Just give me an example.

I'm the guy given to him. Oh we love the gym. We just we're big on being in the gym. We're a huge development program. Like no, stop, we're big on being in the gym. Yeah we're not like stop stop, Like, no, I haven't seen you guys. Haven't seen one player coming and lead completely different. Haven't seen you guys taken no star or or lowly rated player and put them on the NBA, on the on BA NBA draft radar. Haven't seen any of that, Like I need to see that, bro.

And I'm saying, we're saying the kids, I'm thinking this kid's NBA, like what are your what are your credentials? Like who have you developed and brought up for me to be like okay, like he's done this and some people, you know, the guys like just like when I started, people took a chance on me and you have given

me an opportunity. You know. So there's some guys that are like hungry and motivated, and you know they're really gonna be in there, you know, like pushing the kid, getting him in the gym, you know, making sure he's getting his work in the morning, making sure he's in shape, all that stuff, and so you have some of that, but you gotta, man, you gotta love the gym coaches players. Yeah, you do both on both sides of the spectrum, on

the coach and the and the players side. I remember being at U C. L A and then in the mid nineties part of that program, and LaRenzo Romar was our development guy along with Mark Gotfreed. So they were the guys that be playing one on one with us before practice. Then they'd be the the scout team during practice, and then we'd get three on three and other knockout situations after practice. So this is and you're talking about

two guys. I think Godfreed got Freed. You know, he was really good at Alabama, so he shoot, he could shoot it. Lazo Rollmar play in the league, lefty point guard, Bouncy at the time, still banging out. You know, it was like it was it was, it was, it was. It was a situation going on, but the reality was plant we we when you have a coach that loves the gym in college as much as as you should. You have no choice but to get your ass into

the gym. You have no choice because you know coach Romar is gonna be there and if you don't show up, it's like you're looking bad now. And you know it's it's speaking to your work ethic, to your dedication. This is back in the day where you know you didn't want to have coaches. MJ's like what's good? Like why not getting no burn? Man? You know how the result like Zoe come on like this, what's going on in the gym? So it's like, Okay, he's working, he's getting better.

You know what I'm saying. It's easier you came back in great shape. Is like that type of stuff. Yeah, and that's what it takes. I mean, that's what it takes to make that jump. But Clint, before college, right when you're recruited and you're thinking about the school and we want to talk about a fit for school, how does one sort of discern or figure out a fit? Me personally, I'll just give you quick on my experience. I had a few schools, Washington State and Kelvin Sampson

Arizona State and Bill Freeder Utah. Rick mcgari's coach K and Duke wanted me to come through and walk on, and I had Cornell and U c l A were like my six opportunities that I was legitimately looking at, and I wasn't thinking fit back then. I was thinking legacy, play my dad with the U c l A. It's U c l A is right in the backyard, etcetera, etcetera. So I wanted to talk to you though, just from

a different lens, in a different perspective. How do you view a fit for a perspective, the right fit for a prospective ball player going into college. What level? It's hard to always starts the saying what level are you? Okay, so we're you're City Section player of the year, right, yeah, oh we have to be playing day one. You have to be playing day one, Like we just had to be yeah, like city actual player of the year. Like that's like, like, especially at that time, that's like, okay,

you're you're to the league. Like he's gonna be to the league eventually, so we gotta be on the floor. And so my biggest thing you probably seen me tweet about it all the time. I kind of said jokingly, but it's like roster evaluation one on one, like I'm really breaking the roster down my ego. My egos always

to the side. And I tell people this. When Jaden was coming out, McDaniels um Cali Perry was recruiting him, right, and that was when I started like I talked to start talking to coach cal and stuff, and he like he's like such a like he'll kind of like deebo you and making you feel like if you don't come here, well you don't want to compete, you're scared to compete, like you have no competitive juices in you. This is

the place for you anyway. And so you got your ego and your pride in the way, you'll be like, man, you trying to make me feel like a second like I'm I'm afraid to bump when it's like, no, it's not about that. Because you're a pro. You're trying to get to the league, So what is the best situation

for you to get there? And nine times had it's in a lot of people don't want to keep it all the way funky, but it's what is the best situation for you to get to the league and where can you go to get there as fast as possible. That's just being real, Like if you've got one and done talent, you're trying to be one of day. You're not trying to be too and done. You feel like you're a one and done dude. And so you gotta look at the roster. You gotta see who's there, who's

coming back. Who ahead of you was told they were gonna play and had the city year and now that now things may have cleared up a little bit, and so now they're thinking, Okay, now this is my year to play. And so for you to jump all those guys, you're gonna have to be Paulo ban Caro chat matter. It doesn't matter who they have, who they bring it, who else is coming Like you're playing. You're playing and there's no doubt about it. And that's like, okay, being

real about where you are as a player. But looking at the roster, you know what I'm saying, do they have a need for me, like a real real need or they just want me they this is the roster, tell me they need me. You know what I'm saying. The roster will tell you they need you. You're a point guard. No point guards in the roster. You know what I'm saying. You're coming in program has point guard play has been shaky, you know, like okay, the coach needs a PG, like really bad. Okay. You know you're

somebody who can start. You know, coaches like your your game and your resume says that there's two or three point guards in the roster and you're walking in and telling yourself, now, I'm different. Time. Don't use that word I'm different. No, dude, before you say he was different too when he had to sit on that bench for one two years, when someone when there was multiple situations where he could have walked in and just got to

the money. Yeah, Now, it's a process, man, And you really gotta have people in your ear that know what the hell they're talking about too. I think that's big. That's a big issue today with a lot of these at these ball players and stuff, is that the people that surround them typically don't know what they're talking about, and there's a lot of bad advice. And most dangerous person is someone that doesn't know basketball but thinks they know basketball. Who that's a scary situation where they just

treated a long time ago. Be careful who you learned the game from. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. Because you'll you'll take those you'll take those habits with you, and you'll take that mindset with you throughout. And you get around some real ones, some real hoopers, and it's like you're gonna be feeling real silly and and kind

of embarrassing. So you got you gotta these these parents, these kids the roster. You have to because even if okay, you come in and you're hooping, like multiple people have, multiple players have been there at your position already, the coach is gonna go with who he's comfortable with. And then if he goes with you and you're not playing well and there's so many players like at your position like that, they feel like, Okay, well, we gotta move

off this dude. We gave him his shot. We gotta go play the next dude to where here that big fish in a small pond. Usually, you know what I'm saying. I always tell people I'm giving them the game right now. I like, especially when you're talented. It was like Tony Snell in Mexico. He was inconsistent. But you can't go get another Tony Snill in Mexico. So you gotta ride with him through everything until he figures it all the

way out. But if he goes to Texas or some of the other schools that are recruiting him that are big time schools, you get your shot. Your inconsistent Like that, Bro, we're off you. We got another MacDonald's America. You're not the yeah because you you've seen your champion, the mid the low major, the mid majors. Right, You're a champion, an absolute champion of these types of schools and programs, which is fine. You love seeing the blue bloods lose.

You love seeing golife you you love seeing alife lose. You love it. I noticed that I love the right pack twelve too, just not the pack twelve that you like. But let me ask you this. Stay we're talking to fit right, So say you're or you know, top level high school kid projected to go pretty high in the draft. You decided to pick a college. You go to a

college that doesn't utilize you the right way. Do you stick it out at that college or do you risk bouncing although you know you haven't been utilized the right way, so your draft stock isn't where it has been. But you really don't see or feel like this situation is gonna be conduced for you in the future. Do you do you stay? Do you suck it up and say, hey, I believe myself. We've got some guys leaving. We got you know, several seniors in my ahead of mer graduating.

Do you stay or do you bounce to the league? Or do you transfer and spent another year in college to show sort of the promise and reach that potential that people had to project it as before you spent this year. That's a tough decision who because if you leave, you gotta go to the right spot you got to and if you stay, things have to change. And you know what I'm saying, like, how are you playing? How

is the coach using you? Like? It's tough because if you're thinking you're gonna come in and do this and it hasn't materialized, so you're gonna be feeling some type of way you just are and so you're coming back, you gotta let go of that are you gonna be able to let go of that. And if you leave, man, it has to work. If you leave, you gotta pick the right spot. So it's like it's it's fifty fifty. It's like, man, you gotta you got you gotta have

some That's where it comes down to having some hard conversations. Yeah. I think there was a time where, you know, players like that would have stuck it out, would have stayed. Hey, you started, finish what you started, you know. I think that this time of basketball life that that that doesn't happen anymore. Players are ready to bounce, players just ready to capitalize on the next situation that gets them going

as quickly as possible. There's no reason to toil and some bullsh crap that isn't conducive to your game or highlighting your game. So yeah, yeah, no, I get that. That's all. That's all. You just you just gotta I mean, just like you said, you gotta be surrounded by people that know the game, know the landscape. Um have real relationships with assistant coaches, the head coaches, you know, have

real trust. Let's touch on that for a second. What we talked about the relationships with the coaches and I think it was you that tweeted out the other day, Uh, find you an assistant coach that talks speaks up on you to the head coaching. Oh, I said, some assistant coaches will only for you and meetings if they recruited you. And Jay Hart's said, man, that's why you can't send your kids to Buster, And it was like, I agree, I usually don't fall into that. I don't, I don't.

I don't usually have that problem because I am like select them on who I would like to rock with for that those reasons. But there is true you know, um some coaches only right, there's a lot of programs that have staffs that are my guy, So like, I'm only riding for my guy who I recruited because I gotta go back to that same a you program and answered the call, so like I'm only you know what I mean. And so when you have that on some staffs,

then it could get tricky. So to be so to be clear, this allegiance to players now it becomes based on the pipeline, right, the lifeblood of this is particular system coaches job because he had a plug with say DC Assault, and so if he didn't he didn't. This one guy is coming from DC assault and if he doesn't treat a DC assault guy right, he never getting another dude. And they got some seven's that are off the chain. And so is that how it goes? Clint?

I need to and I'm I'm an independent guy. And so it's like, you know, like, oh, we don't got no loyalty to him. You gotta have your sweet spot, your program are you really rock with and you gotta like you go, you go, you gotta you you gotta maintain that and keep them closed. That's what that comes down to. Like, as an independent guy, I'm not sending no player. I'm not like I'm not sending no player to a school that has an AU coach on the

staff or has multiple players from the AU program. That's just that's just not smart. So you really look at it that way. So when you're talking when you mentioned roster breakdown, because this is gonna be a very informative segment on the show, you're talking about not only who this guy is, how you played last year, etcetera. You're going back to a a U. You want to know who is this dude affiliated with on staff and the publicy,

So that's what I'm saying. It's deeper than rap. Hey, it is like I'm not getting I'm not getting caught up in that because someone they got to go back to some they got multiple players that they've had multiple players in the past in certain places that you knew,

you know what, you know what it is like. I like to feel like I've had a lot of success with guys at San Diego State, and so if I have a guy that's a like a dude along the lines of Kauai and Jamal and Jalen McDaniels, like, you know, like they're gonna that's like, that's a that's a good spot. Like we've had prior success and I got good relationship with the coaches, and so that's how the game works,

you know. And that's just the game is the game, man, and the sooner that you're real with yourself about how this thing goes, um you could you could probably like to say, save a basketball life. I think that people in general don't really kind of grasp or digest or even think that far except the really high level, elite

kind of basketball hoop heads. And they're all around there, any of them, and they know but like to the regular you know, like say, for instance, people listening to this show there, they typically won't have that type of idea that that's how things work where that's Those are factors that they should consider if they had a child that was looking to go and play on the next level.

kJ Everything on the table, bro, Yeah, everything in the meetings, the conversations before you know, the commitment takes place, and the kids like, Okay, this is where I'm going. Like all the hard questions gotta be answered, gotta be asked. Yeah, you know, That's why it goes back to honesty at the front door, because now you know there are some people that are watching this show. People know me on from Twitter, people know me in the basketball world. Some

people love me, some people don't like me. I'm out spoken, I'm opinionated. I don't like something, I'm gonna speak on it. But I tell people, we get to school, we're gonna act right, We're gonna go to class, and we're gonna work hard because they're gonna first and foremost. I'm not writing for nothing, just to be writing for something like you're lazy, you're not doing you gotta do your part. There's accountability on all ends. We can't wait, what is this?

What is this? We're not we're not doing the dictatorship. I'm gonna hold the kid accountable. Nobody's gonna hold me accountable. Come on now, we're not doing that. Accountability is it's all the way around, you know. And so that's where that's where a lot of this, you know, you see it sucks because you see a lot of kids that

you know, you don't take some of these stuff. We're talking to a consideration, and then you get to a school and it's like you feel like you were let on, you know, and this is serious, because this is like people, this ain't no, this ain't no game basket, everybody, it's just a game. No, no, no, it ain't no no no. I'd just seen with that roundball and did for multiple players, and I've seen with the round ball up close, did for Kawhi Leonard. Generations and generations have changed in his

family because it is round ball, Tony Snail. Generations and generations like he got his family out the hood for real, for real, and there's more many kids like him. Jamal Franklin, like you know, single moms that are out here grinding, working multiple jobs to keep the lights on type stuff like, nah, this ain't no na there there those parents, their babies changed their life forever. Their feet are kicked up, they ain't working no more. Seriously, this ain't no game, bro,

Like what you're talking about? Like you over here lying to yourself, like, well you better stop. See how much money the Clippers are worth? You know what it's like? Come on now, But it's all about being put in the situation. And it starts in high school that goes to college. You know, like you were like you coached on the j b A, like you were out close with the whole the ball situation. You've been rocking with

the balls forever, you know what I mean. There's a lot of people have different opinions of LaVar and hit the way he you know, I always say everyone everyone can't be LaVar because everyone don't got LaMelo Alonso and Jello number one. But if you like, if you just take some things away from how he did coach his kids and how he raised them as basketball players, like like we got to see that part obviously, Like the most important thing he did with LaMelo was he always

protected his mental Yah. You know, he never let nobody best with his mental and now you see that. Now, now you see and this is what you're getting. Remember when everybody was like the shot selection is, we can't be doing that, Like he can't be shooting all he can't be shooting those D threes and he's playing so free like he's to tighten up. Okay, tighten up, second year All Star game, tighten that up. When his dad

was not rolling for no funnies. None, dad was not rolling for no funnies like he he basically pulled him out of school as a junior because he was like, no, not rolling with how the coach is trying to coach my son, Like, no, this isn't gonna work, Like I know what I have. He always said it, like he stood on that. And it's that confidence, man, when you have when you have somebody that's talented, that's skilled, and that's confident over Daddy ball is approved. Alright, rolling with

Daddy ball. Okay, you told Jay Crow that, Like, what are you talking about? Daddy is all good? Are you kidding me? Don't less society try to knock you off your piving thing. Don't be influenced by that show. Be listening to these people that imagine of aar with a listen. Heck no, man, heck no, but brother, man, I appreciate your time today, my man. We gotta run. Um. I can't wait too, no doubt, man, I can't wait till

we jump off on March madness. Man. Soon as that tournament, head man, we will be going live, will be recording time. Huh are you going to Patrol tournament next week? Yeah? Yeah, I'm gonna go. I'm I'm gonna go out there for a couple of days. You're going, Yeah, I'll be there. Hold full up on you, alright, perfect Clint? Where can people find you and connect with you on Twitter? Um? Clint? What am I? I I don't I don't even know what my um? Oh? What is my head? Let me find

it for you, my bad. You can find Clint on Twitter at Clint Parks zero five at Clint Parks zero five on Twitter. My man, Thank you so much for your time, brother, and I'll see you real soon. Sounds good, brother,