KJ Live - Marques Johnson

for that that positive introduction. Good classiest guys. Okay, I'll take it. I'll take all of it. Yeah, you know, You've always been one of the classiest guys. And everywhere I've traveled around the world, man, whether it be basketball journey or wherever I was, and and people got wind that I was your son, Marcus john Today just have this thing about your brother all over the globe. It's ridiculous. People light up, they remember you, they love you, and

they they always talk about how you represent yourself. I want to know m J about how your week started, because I know that we're supposed to find out some very important information this week, some very important news from some very important people. Talk to me. Well, I'll let I'll let this recording kind of do the talking initially that we can follow up and talk more about it. So this is how my week started off on Monday. Let me let me queue it up here and here

we go. I'm Mr Johnson. This is John to Leiva at the National Memorial Basketball or Fame calling. I'm sorry to call and tell you today that you did not receive the amount of required boats to be elected a member of the However, you remain eligible for a future of consideration, but I did want to reach out to you and let you know that unfortunately, Uh, it's obviously the number of US necessary this year. We will look forward to your consideration next year, and I wish you well.

Take care. All right, So that's my week started. I got that phone call. That was interesting, Chris, because I was actually doing one of my recovery meetings UM at nine am specific standard time. Uh. This call came in about that morning, and so when the when the name Springfield flashed across the screen, I knew what it was, but I didn't I didn't I didn't answer. I stayed in my meeting, just trying to get my head right. I didn't know which way it was gonna go. Your

mind kind of racing at that point. Did I make it? Did not make it? Is this the years? It's not the year? And so I said, well, I listened to this message after the meeting is over. Now. I don't know if your phone ever does this to you, but sometimes my phone delays voicemail messages for hours. You got to clear some memory up on your phone, your memory, clear memory, bro. Yeah, I got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got all kind of issues going on, and I've got, like, you know, I could I can tell you right now, I've got us eight three sixty three voicemail messages and thirty seven some kind of something else. But I'm gonna me go to the uh to the I think that the emails is something like I don't know, it's it's like up about thirty thousand, third thousand, right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so anyway, so, uh so I didn't I was not able to retrieve the message from this gentleman who has

called me in the past. This is my second or third tongue. I forget getting this phone call. But the at the point is I couldn't find it. I couldn't I couldn't retrieve the message, and so I thought, maybe he didn't leave a message. But I thought that was really unusual. So my mind is going to work. I got one of those minds. So it's like, well, maybe because he didn't leave a message, maybe he want to

tell me the good news in person. Maybe he didn't want to leave, you know, the rejection message message like he's done the last couple of times on a voicemail. So I'm thinking because of that made you know, so I'm going all over the place with it. Then. But then finally, so I tried to call the number back, no answer, called it back. You know, I get obsessive.

So called it back about twenty times, and doing the course of the day, I would catching one of these times, uh, no answer, Not really twenty, maybe five or six times, but it still upsets, but still says I want to if I want to find out, I want to know for sure what went on. So finally that afternoon, about four or five o'clock in the early evening, I looked at my voicemail messages and that message popped up, that number popped up. Then that's when I actually listened to

um the rejection message. So it was just it was just a kind of a weird day. But hey, you know, it is what it is. What are the great ones like yourself, people that have really cemented their place in basketball history? Okay, because you have, and you can talk to your peers, you can talk to anybody that knows the game or had followed you. There's no question you're one of the greatest to ever play the game. Why is it so important to receive the validation of the

end of the Basketball Hall of Fame for you? Well, I mean, actually it's really interesting. Um. One thing that I realized is that you're in there. Well, well no, but with the passing of my mother, your grandmother, grandmommy, my mother of Medea is what we called it when I was really young, and I got embarrassed about how country sounded that name was when I was about six years old. So I went diametrically opposed to that polar

opposite to the mother from Medea to mother. The six kids were t me in the first good grades media. What is that way? Ware yaf you? Anyway, So the thing that I realized, Chris, is that you know when she had her stroke October seventeen and was that Daniel Freeman Hospital, Marina del Rey. I'm sitting in the emergency room with her. She's teetering on the brink. The beepers going on. Sometimes it's the you know, elongated beep that

gets me thinking that maybe it's over with. And so one of the things I'm doing with her, Man, I'm praying with her, and I'm praying like an old country Louisiana Cozie preacher. You know, that's her side of the family. All these Couzins, my grandfather a Couzine, my cousin Richard Lee Arthur, they're all great preachers, and my mother's all my grandmother and my mother will always say, you should you should have been one of those preachers, and and so we'll get more into that later. But I tried

to do everything. They say, well, you know, God has calling you, but like, well, I got the phone off the hook. You know, I'm not doing all kinds of stuff not to but anyway, so I mean, I'm in the room with her right because I'm preaching. I'm like, come on, you got to hold on, you got to hold on. We got one more trip to make. We got a trip to Springfield, Massachusetts to make together. You came with me to Milwaukee a couple of years ago to get that number eight put up in the raptors.

We got one more trip to make. Ma dear, hold on, please hold on, And she would like lift her hands up in a semiconscious state and say hold on, hold on. And so this is this is the interaction between her and all in this emergency room when she's she's teetering on the brink between life and death. My point is is that she died January, and it's almost like I wanted to have her experience me being selected as a

Hall of Famer that was so important to her. Whenever we have a conversation about it, Chris, I'd always tell her, I'm cool with where I am in my life. I'm almost twenty years sober. I got, you know, real solid relationships. Most of the people that I'm close to in my life. Um, you know, I love what I'm doing, my job, the creative stuff that I'm doing as a writer, as an actor, as a all that stuff. Man, I'm so cool with right now that if I don't make it, I tell her,

you know, I'm okay. And she would always say, don't put that out there. You know you're gonna you're gonna make it. This is gonna be She was always so positive, you know how she was. So My point is, man, is that that I don't really feel like I need to trust me. If it happens, I'd be ecstatic, I'd

be really happy. But I'm at a point now, man, where you know, my initial reaction when I got to this phone call was actually like, you know, I need to you know, I wouldn't even be objectionable to saying, you know, take my name off the ballot. You know, I mean that that was my initial reaction. Now, your brother just side, Josh and other people have talked to be sent and and they're like, no, no, Dad, don't, don't,

don't do all that. Don't do all that. But what's the point, Because think about it like this, If there's a lot of there's a there's a humiliation associated with your name being on the ballot for thirty something years. You feel like every year they're just gonna put you name.

Your finalance to say no, so I don't and I'm not gonna say there's there's humiliation I'm gonna ask you, is there some sort of like, you know, I won't call a humiliation, but it's like they put you in the ballot every year and they never select you, and it's thirty years down the line, will you ever be selected? Like? Did you do something to Jerry co Angelo? Like what is going on? Well, outside of sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs, you're Walter Davidson over.

I hope we forget I hope we've forgotten about outside of that. No, no, but but but it's funny you say. I mean, so, first of all, I mean I love my been on the battot. I mean I just found out that I was kind of eligible to be on the battot. It was maybe ten fifteen years ago ago. Maybe Okay, if you're retired, Okay, you're right. Yeah, they don't have they don't automatically put you on. You've got to you have to apply and and and and send

in your credentials. And it was this whole process that I had to go through just to get on the ballot. So so you know, I didn't even I waited around. I retired about nineteen nineties or so, so I waited around fifteen years and I was wondering why I never got any consideration. Well, you you have not because you asked not. And finally somebody told me it's like no, man, you got you got to call him up and say, look, I want to be placed in nomination. And when you

do that, they send you a form. They have some people that look over your form, make sure that you're worthy in terms of what you did five All Star games in ten years, twenty points seven rebounds forces the game, but a lot of the first team All Pro you know, one of top five in the world my second year in the league in three years old. So so they were automatically like, oh, yeah, you're more than worthy of

being placed the nomination. So that was about about about ten twelve, about ten twelve years ago that that happened. And so in the process I've been a finalist. I want to say, this is my second or third time I forget. But and so it's not so much the humiliation, you know, to me, that wouldn't describe it aptly, I don't, you know. It's more like you feel like you're at the mercy of people that you don't know if they have a good sense of what you really did as

a player, if that makes sense. I'm not sure who the voters are, who the voters are, what their context is it pre Michael Jordan there was no real basketball but being played, or do they give the short trip to that era of basketball. I don't know. I don't know if that's the case. I don't know if that's the case, because they all year to year they put in guys. You know what I'm saying from you, So

I don't think that's the case. I really, you know, And I've had this conversation with other basketball people about you specifically not being in the Hall of Fame, and it's sort of one of those things like they're bringing up. There's a Sean Mirian the other day got in trouble on I believe it was the Twitter spaces. He jumped in on a conversation and brought up the fact that his career totals were as something like twenty one points eleven thousand rebounds, and he gets no talk of Hall

of Fame yet. Chris Weber career total seventeen thousand and eight thousand boards. You know, everybody's pumping that up and they're talking about Chris's career averages and this and that. I think a lot of it has to do with who your contemporaries in the league were at that time and how people are judging you against those guys, and so I think there's a disconnects somewhere with the voters and actual data about how dominant or how or the impact that you had on the game. Okay, well, a

couple of points to that observation. First point, my second year in the league, and you know this by road, you know, average twenty points to six at um. One of my advanced analytics was one of the tops in the league. I don't know if it was the you know, replacement player thing or the war thing. One of them was like up there, one of the tops in the league. First team All Pro bump, dr j Off, the first

team up ros me, Elvin Hayes. I think George Gerban got a Kareem or somebody Moses below and somebody if to get the other guys. Okay, that was my second year, and so I was on the trajectory George Gervian and I and will be Free. We were topped three scores in the league. We had conversations together. On one occasion, it send up, you know, doing what we do, talking about who was gonna leave the league and scored that next year, who's gonna at And I'm like, I'm coming

with thirty. Y'all better be bringing thirty or better. Right, So this is this is the mindset. And so I'm twenty three years old. I'm coming off a twenty six points a game. We went into my third year. Uh. Don Nelson, the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, brings me into the office, sits me down and says, m j U, great year last year, before this, this is before my third year. Uh, you know, what do you think? What are you looking forward to this year? Or something to

that effect. I'm like, I'm played on the average a thirty. Coach, I'm that's gonna be my goal to get out there shoot you know, good, solid percentage and average thirty. And He's like, no question in my mind that you can do that. I know you can do that. That's the score is not a problem for you. But here's what

I want you to do. I want you to average between twenty and twenty one points a game, seven rebounds, play solid defense, and that's kind of the vision I have for my team with Brian Winners and Bobara Near hadn't gotten there yet. But we had Junior Bridgeman in Sydney Mono Creep and you know, just a lot of guys that could score, you know, between fifteen and eighteen nineteen points a game. And so my quandary was, well, do I accept this request, do I ask for a trade?

Do I just tell him no? And and and rocked the boat. But you know me, my dad was a coach. I played for Willie West to Crinchhall High School. The greatest coach in in high school basketball history who was also in the Hall of Fame nomination and should be in the Hall of Fame, played for John Wooden. You know, tend You know, I've got great coaches in my background,

and I always respect to a certain point. And Don Nelson I respected a lot back in those days because he helped me a lot um just just with the little work that he put into my game. Helped me go from you know, twenty points a game as a as a rookie to twenty six with adjustment in my jump shot. And so I went along with it. Now, So that's that's that's number one. So so the point total. It's funny Eddie Johnson I did did his uh serious radio show, and uh he had the he had the

he brought up the comparison status. Chris, Yeah, Marcus. I was looking at me and you head the head, and guess who came out of head when we, uh, when we matched up, like the fifty and twenty times we did, I actually outscored you by three ten to a point or whatever it was. And so I didn't get into the context of way like Eddie, look, you know I was asked in that score were you asked? And not score? And the other point that that I should have put

up with him. And so after that I looked up me and Larry Bird and we played against each other like I don't know, fourteen sixteen times and some of those games with the Clippers when when when you know, my my deal was way off. But I think I outscored Larry Bird and he had to hit matchups between just being him. So anyway, so that's number one. I mean,

so so the point total. So instead of just under fourteen thousand points, if I would have been allowed to let my natural scoring proactivity manifest itself like it was on the trajectory to do so easily get another six thousand points, that's what that's twenty thousand points. Okay, that's number one. Number two. I got hurt. You know, at thirty years old. November twentieth, nineteen eighties six, I would just turned thirty, so I had another five years. You know,

you never know. Back then in the league, you guys played a little longer two you know, adjustment to games five, six years, seven years. Maybe that I could have been one of those guys who would have gotten traded to a contender after a couple of years. But the Clippers and and you know, come off the bench at average fifteen sixteen and be that guy for another five or six you know what I'm saying. I mean, very easily. So you never know what could have happened and what

might have happened. But the point is my career was cut short. So I played just about ten years. So everything I did five all started games in ten years is based on a ten year period as opposed to I think the official amount of years. Because I was actually on the Clippers active roster two years I didn't play, they give me twelve years which is which is beauty, which is beautiful? For for for pension and you and your service service and all that. But actually I don't

even play, so that's always my response to that. But hey, you know, like it is what it is. It is what it is. But I mean, it's a very intriguing coundrum, and a lot of times we don't get to hear from, you know, the guy that's being read Jack, and we always hear from the guys that have made it and have reached the pinnacle. But thank you for sharing sort of where your mindset is at with this NBA Hall of Fame thing. 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. I had a question though, while you were talking about that, when you George Gervin world be Free. You know, that era of the eighties, that era of basketball, it's it's it's been a lot has been said about it, you know, like like, look, let's talk about this for a second

winning time. The HBO series they're depicting, they're depicting sort of this wild wild West kind of a wild wild West. That's sort of an interesting thing because Jerry West has been you know, the butt of all this negative the negative depiction. But was it really like that back then? MJ was the league in the eighties, really you know, dominated by drugs and just lack of organization and just

craziness throughout. Is that a lot of this what they're showing us on winning time and the things we've heard, is there a lot of sensationalism going on? What's a combination of both, Man, It was definitely a period um in this country in the eighties. We're cocaine you starting in the late seventies through the eighties and probably even to today for what I understand, but it kind of exploded. I mean, snowfall was real. That's what I like to say.

That that the serious snowfall of ef fact that I love talking about my boys sat but but that that stuff that was going on in the eighties, the c i A just you know, pouring cocaine into the inner cities of Los Angeles and Detroit and you all these places and taking the money that the that that was made and the buying arms for the for the countrys of the Sandinistas, or whoever it was they were supporting back down in there. I guess that was real Oliver,

straight Ali North, it was. It was straight Maxine Waters, who was a dear, dear uh mentor and friend. Her son he had and I have been best friends since nineteen eight at out of Bond Middle School. And he's a coach of crunchy'all right now. But she she brought it to the forefront back in the eighties when it

was happening. But everybody thought she was just you know, chicken little, just just you know, just trying to make excuses for for the weaknesses of the black community because they couldn't stay await I'm telling you, man, where where where you grew up? Where we lived in the Beau Park Windsor Hills area. I mean I went to school with you know, Ray Charles as kids, and I could look. But you know, man, it was real snowfall, that whole dynamic and and to that point, I know of a

lot of players, look that I got high. I went back in those days. I know coaches Chris that have admitted to me long after the fact that they were doing cocaine back in those days. I'm not gonna name any names. But there's been coaches that I know we talked about this, that we're doing cocaine. So that that that that this gives you an idea. Now everybody wasn't doing it. I mean there are some guys who were able to do it, not do it anymore, didn't like it,

turn it down. I've got this wiring, this addictive mindset, obsessive mindset, type of wiring that that serves me well. It makes me want to um do everything I can go overboard in terms of working out to be the best. I mean, it made it drives me. It's a perfectionist mindset. So if I'm in college and i go twelve or fifteen in the game, I'm not celebrating the twelve shots I made. I'm just feeling on the three shots I missed,

you know what I'm saying. So it's it's a different kind of and I'm sure you can relate to that. But so so it makes me work out harder, it makes me just want to get to a certain place in my professional But also there's the dark side of that that that that needs to be fed also, if that makes any sense, And so drugs, alcohol, the ability to not have to feel a lot of that pressure that I put on myself to be a perfectionist, to

be one of the best. The drugs and alcohol are nesticize a lot of those feelings and made it so that I could I could what's the word I'm looking for. I could exist without driving myself crazy. It's probably the best way to put it. And the beauty of this is that we're seeing with the open gooid crisis, with this gentleman Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for the Food Fighters, and and and what happened with him down and in Bolivia.

He had attended a different drugs. You know, we're seeing that this is this is not an issue that was just uhies issue or nineties. This is something that continues to plague our society. I'll say this about the seventies, eighties,

in the nineties to a certain extent. You know, it's sort of set the foundation for today because you have so many people that are curious nowadays that have you know, in my generation, you know a lot more people use cocaine than you you could believe in my generation, and I was always shocked to find it out that so and so was doing it, and it was doing and people were doing it back and when I was in college, they were doing it pro overseas and it's been throughout

So this is so, but you just don't know because it's one of those unspoken things like unless you're getting unless you're getting down, you really don't know who is getting down unless you get round too, And so it's

one of those things. But but I think at the end of the day, it's remarkably fascinating, a remarkably fascinating discussion to talk about what if what if a drug that was proven to hamper physical performance wasn't being taken at the time, what what your career might have looked like? Do you ever think about that or reflect on that? No, I mean I don't because, like I mentioned to you, what I did at the point in time that I did it, where my where my head was mentally at

that stage of my life. I mean, how do I articulate this properly? But you know, again, it was it was something that was done too, especially when you crossed what we called the invisible line of recovery. And now you're getting loaded because not because you want to recreationally and having a good time, but because you're you know, you're addicted, and so you're you're you know, you've got this this monkey on your back that you gotta be on a regular basis um. But at the same time,

you know, you just don't know. I don't know what might have happened. And to me, the point in speculating on what would have happened if that were not a part of things that were going on. It's been a big part. I grew up in I grew up in the an Eric Chris in the nineteen seventies, early were super Fly, the Mac, all these movies, I mean, drug used cocaine. It was glamorized and what you would you idolize It comes from the glamorization of those types of deals.

And again everybody didn't do it. But I had this really fertile imagination. So you saw pictures of me going to my prom with your mom. I was super Fly, I was the Mac. I was that dude. I was bringing a little I was I was bringing a little ten of liquorice favorites that I bought that I bought it Donald Donald Michelle's boutique on Santa Barbara Boulevard now King Bulop, but it was, it was, it was, it was. It was no narcotic whatsoever. It was basic, harmless snuff.

But I go to Crenshall High School and had a little spoon attached to the tent crisp, and I take out a little white powder in the class and I do, I do my I go through my superply thing. Can I tell you something? I can I tell share something with you that this to show you how stupid we are as individuals. Okay, so you're doing that, So listen

to this. When I'm in Atlanta and when I was in the eighth grade where my mom went down, we're down there living with Glinda and her and we started we started off living in College Park in the hood, living with her sister and her kids. So we're there and I'm going to you know, Ronald need McNair kind of in the hood named after that astronaut. I'm going to school with like several members of the band Escaped there in my remember Escape the band, Candy Burgess and

all that. So so I'm just trying to set the stage. This is who's in my class. You know, it's hood stuff going on. So I get involved. So a lot of the kids in my class were selling dope. We're selling weed, so so I had I had the bright eye there. You know, I wanted to get in on the game. So I started. I Glinda in her bathroom had these things like I guess pot pourri o that stuff that. So I started feeling them with bags like

little dime bags. I started taking out of school and Dad, that's part of the reason I was kicked out of that school since we're down there too, because it was like a body of work. So it wasn't the exciting incident and that's another podcast. But it wasn't that exciting incident that you remember that got me kicked out. It was the body of work. Haven't getting this stuff and this but but but the glamorization of it. That that the rap music what I grew up on rap music video,

they were glorifying this. It was glorified to be you having your your pants sag and selling dime bags with a wife beater or your hat to the back. That was what folks was really looking up to. Well, I'm listening, tons, if I ruled the world, he's talking about, you know, the cocaine, and you know, cocaine is not ununcut bricks a row. Yeah. Yeah, And so that gives young people who have a proclevity for that kind of thing just a little bit more of a of a push to

go into that kind of thing. And it's funny you mentioned that because at Crenshaw when I was snorting this snuff in the back of the class, this is one brother Tommy, I want to say his last name, but he was. He was one of those fast dudes, had brothers, older brothers that were that were into the life. And so he saw me doing He's like, like, you know, Marcus, let me get some of that. I said, yeah, non,

go ahead, man. He took a little too, you know, He's like, oh man, this this nice man, this nice man. What can I get some of this? You know? And I didn't have the heart to tell him Dona Michelle's boutiques for the clinics for the canaster liquid. But but but I look back on the Chris and it was with the greats of guy. I mean, if I had got caught doing that, I mean I was a start after you that Crenshaw said. Thompson, the future future superintendent

of schools, was our principal. He probably would have had a little leniency on me. But you know what I mean, it was just by the grades of God that that kind of thing didn't blow up my face. But the point is I idolized those movie characters that I went to the ball with theater Saturday afternoon, Matinee's watching Superflyer, watching the Mac, watching all these hustler type uh black

sploitation film uh protagonist watching. But the message was always good because they were always going against the white man. They was always trying to overcome with the with the corrupt police department. So it was all about corruption. They weren't the only ones that were doing corrupt stuff. They were usually battling a corrupt system and trying to make make a living and earn a living within a corrupt system, even though it was not the right way to go

about it. So anyway, yeah, that's some great points. Um. I wanted to talk a little bit about the Clippers because you posted something the other day and this was this was an interesting kind of a dark time. Well it could be looked at a couple of ways, but for me, it was sort of a dark time when you got traded to the Clippers. But I was happy on win end that you were home. So that part of it was like, oh man, my dad's back. But then the other part of it was you're with l

A's other team, the Clippers. You posted the losing time Tales from the Graveyard. It was with yeah, losing time Tales from the NBA Graveyard. And I had a kid on here who was a die hard Clippers fan. His name is Dime Droppers, so he has no he really is not in team with what happened back then, or

how you guys live and how you guys practice. Far younger listeners just talk about just to start contrast between ownership styles of a Steve Bomber and Donald's sterling well, and so then you gotta throw Jerry Buss in there too, because that's that was that was that was a contrast for us, how he was taking care of the Lakers first sterling training camps at Santa Barbara Resorts, Hawaii, MGM plane flying the games on the first team. You have

private air travel. What we were doing when I got to the Clippers, we had training camp down in in hot ass Pomona, cal poly Pomona, Uh, you know, and we we were staying at and this is no exaggeration this is the actual truth. It was either it was it was either Motel six or Ecouno Lige. But it's one of those little it was her condo lodge with the papers in walls and everybody parked out front and every you know. It was that's that's that was our

housing practicing at cal Poly Pomona. Our practice facility during the season was at the Wine Guard Y c a on on Central and and and Century and Vermont. That was it was a bible, a brand new why it was actually pretty nice. But but but but inside um, you know, that's the deep heart of south central Vermont and Central. But but but the court, great floor to

jump off up. But one of the rims was probably nine seriously fine feat The other rims by nine and a half feat the realm weren't not the low rim but not not just the low rims, but the super low rims, the crazy low rims. This is where this is our practice facility. Donald Sterling at that point he had at least five or six, maybe more lawsuits against

norm Nixon, Don Cheney, I believe, Michael Cage. But over five hundred dollar moving expenses, Norm I believe moved from San Diego with the Clippers to Los Angeles, moved his stuff up, build the Clippers four hundred dollars and moving stuff up. Donald Sterling took him the court, Donald Sterling, Donald Sterling, he had a he had a he had a just a bevy of attorneys on retainers. So it didn't cost him any more money to you know, find the lawsuit to the pay you four hundred. I'll pay

you two hundred. Okay, let's settle this. It's go cost me more to you know. It was it was that kind of mindset and so just coming into that, not only that, I mean my first Christmas with the Clippers, we were at Donald Sterling's Malibu house where has his white parties, and this wasn't a white party. This was a of the Christmas party. But he had a Santa clause there and so we're all. I had my my, my, my black suit with the red pinch stripes, black shirt,

red tie. I mean, I'm sharp. And the media relations guy, Josh to get his last name, he was a ball boy for the Lakers back in the day, so I've known him for a long time. But he's now the media relations guy for the Clippers. He's like, Marcus, uh, and we need you to sit on Santa claus His lap. I like, Josh, fuck you man, I'm not sitting on Santa's lap and I'm not growing ass fan. What do you He's like, Marcus, I'm gonna lose my job. Donald's gonna fire me unless I get all the players to

take an individual picture with Santa Claus. And so I felt for Josh. I went I was saying, I sat on his lap. I think I kicked his hat off and palmed his head. Find that Find that picture. I think I palmed his head and gave a little sarcastic look. But I did it, you know. But that was just the That was the the guys coming into the locker room after games looking at our private parts. That part,

So that part is that part. No no, no no, no no no, that part because you hear so much that you hear so much, did you at any time like Donald Sterling was racist or had racist tendencies, or did you feel like at any time that you know, you guys were really being treated in some voyeuristic type of you know, the type of fashion where they were the owner ownership group comes in after the game, you guys

are showering. Then they're just staring looking around at your dicks and ship like that for for thirty minutes after the game. Did that really? Is that real stuff? Or is this sort of I don't know, it's just like, dude, why didn't nobody say nothing? Why didn't nobody say nothing at the time? Because of the bread Well, I mean, who you gonna say something too? I mean, that's a

good point, you know. Um. And it wasn't like they were touching you or or or making overt kind of passes that they were just googling and looking and just happy to be there, you know. And and and and and I remember Donald Sterling in the in the l a Times magazine interview that he did back in the eighties, and they asked him if he thought of his players that were one of the Clippers as his sons, and he's like, oh no, oh gosh, no, I think of them as like racehorses. If they get injured, then the

one gets injured, you replace them with another. So in terms of actually just blatant overt racism, that wasn't the feeling. But when you look back on it, Chris, it was this abject humiliation of an atmosphere that was created where you never felt like you were appreciated for the gifted, elite level athletes that we were back in those days.

Now they're Dr Buzz. On another hand, he made his players feel appreciated and he showed him that appreciation through how he paid him, how he treated them their travel first class, this, first class that, and so that may not only them want to play for him, but also made it easier to attract free agents to come in because his reputation was so excused upun sterling, you know, in terms of how he treated his players. And so that's why I got a problem with with the with

the with the with the winning time. And look at John c Riley, he's doing a remarkable job playing John c Riley. As as as as Jerry Bust, He's not Jerry bus b at all. Not Jerry Buss had a level of humility the I to see Jerry I see Dr Bus on several on two or three occases, not several two or three at at the at the bridge and this is the bridge just built later. I'm not even sure if he was still ownership of the Lakers.

I forgot what his position was, but he'd come in there with like he comeing like twenty of the most South central little black kids that you can imagine, running all over the place. You know, he's by And I said, Dr Buss, what's you know? Dr Bus? What's going on? You know? My markets? Yeah know, this is something that I do every weekend. I take a group of kids

from this one particular uh spot. I don't know if I forget where it was exactly of a boys club, maybe one of the boys clubs or something the inner city. But he would do this every weekend. He take them to him Matt nay and and and treat him to you know, popcorn, you know, just show him a good time. And nobody ever knew about that. That was the never publicized but but that's who Dr Buss was, and that's why the other but but the other side of Dr Bus.

We're hanging out at the Trupidor nightclub on mail Rose with the hottest spots in l A. And it's me and Warren Moon and James Shack Garrison and all these top notch local athletes of the day. Dr Bus walks in Chris with two of the finest blonds you've ever laid your eyes on about twenty years old, and he's in his sixties maybe then fifties, sixty, whatever he is. He comes in with the open shirt, the jeans and the sport coach. So the to the blonds come in

and they're and they're being sociable. They're talking to all of us, and we're like, you know, we're doing our thing to try and get numbers and all that. And as soon as he walks out the spot, they just dropped us cold, like, oh, Jerry's leaving, we gotta go foo and we're like, hey, hey, wait, hey, hey, owner money is a little different than player money. And then they don't changing new what time it was. Look the

look Dr Buss was the man. Okay, look look look when I was a dog, I was nine, when I was in eighteen nineteen, Uh, I was young. I can't remember the age. But I had a babysitter. I don't know if you remember, but she was she was dealing with Dr Buss and I would hear about all kinds of stuff about Dr Buss and these parties. But just how nice of a man that he was. And I haven't and this thing with winning time, dude, like this

whole thing about Jerry West really bogged bugs me. Like I get portraying someone as complicated and you know, has a lot of demons inside of him, But I feel like this portrayal of West, or at least in the first in the early part of the series, was unfair. I knew he was somebody that you looked up to as a young ster. You but you're a big ye. I mean, I remember being young, you talked about Jerry West making Um, what was that he made? The What

shot did he make back in the finals? Yeah, sixty three forter gets to know whatever, But I just I just remember, I just remember you telling me the story of best shot. Well, yeah, but but that was just that. But even with that shot that, it's more the he got the nickname Mr Clutch because you're watching him on local TV and l A. Chick Hern is doing the broadcast. I must have watched him knocked down. I'm probably exaggerated,

but doesn't seem like it. Fifteen to twenty game winners, you know, that's in the game and overtime, the wins. Jumpers at the jumpers in the last three seconds, five seconds at the But he was he was a guy that just never missed that game winning shot, and so growing up in l a El jib Baylor because of his hang time and his athleticism and the great spins all that. I mean, he was a guy really related to.

But I idolized Jerry West because of his ability to step up in the clutch and hit hit those game winners the way he was capable of doing. And so I got to know him. You know, I've got to do him a bit over the years. And to me, again, I'm on a different level because of who I became as an athlete, NBA All Star and all that, So I'm sure he relates to me differently than some other people. But he's always crisp, been one of the most self effacing, kindest, nicest.

I just saw him this past season. I took a photo of him and that and that Red Clipper switter. So I can't get used to him in Red. But he's still my guy. But but but you know, we I told him that grandma had passed away. We played the uh we played the Clippers whenever that was get

in February whatever it was. So my mom had just died and he sat me down and he talked to me a good We didn't have a lot of time five or seven minutes about how when when his parents died, how he felt, how long it took him over there, you know, just just spent time with me, and I just so appreciate over the years. Uh, Jerry was he was actually going to sign me with the Lakers when

I was after that hurt my neck. My boy Morloc and I were working out every day at U c l A. I got in great shape, and the Lakers had an open spotter on nineteen eight six and I got hurt eighties seven, got hurt in eighty six or nineteen seven, and he was gonna sign me. Came down and watched me work out. But I believe that the Clippers had a had a had a spy in the mix that came and saw me work out and asked me what I was doing working out too hard? And and my boy Miley kind of let the cat out

the bag. Yeah, Jerry Winns is interested in markets. Man. They don't Lakers go side markets. And then the Clippers, who were really open to allow me to get out of my contract with them, Uh, they reverse course and will not allow me to get out of my contract. I believe they found out. I don't know, I don't know how what when highway down. But do you think you would have been signed by the Lakers and finished your career as a Laker that it would have boasted

your chances to get in the Hall of Fame? Yeah? I mean, but you know, look, you know God willing, I got this shirt on for a reason. Why in sha whatever God's plan was, it happened. So you don't know I could have got to the Lakers, you know, you know I just had went through the drowning death of your brother uh in n seven Marcus jr. Um um uh in in May. I mean, you just don't know what might have happened. Despite of the nine eight, Tony Cabell was the guy that wild up getting signed

by the Lakers. Who it might have been? You can you can see when he won they won a championship ship that year. You know, the Forum was right by the Inglewood Cemetery where your where your brother was buried, and I was there at his his grave site when the Lakers won the championship and everybody comes storming out of the Forum. I'm sitting there at the grave site

watching all the excitement at the forum. But you know, just I mean, it was one of the you know, one of the most down moments of my life, just watching that, knowing that I could have been a part of that championship. But so anyway, but but but but I don't know, man, handspace, Maybe the pressure of being a Laker would have gotten to me, you know, and maybe who knows, you know, drugs may have become a

factor in that situation. You just don't know. I don't know why I didn't work out like that, but I gotta believe and trust that there was a good reason behind it, behind it not working out, even though at the time I was pissed because I really wanted to play with magics. I love magic man always had. I can imagine, Man, I can imagine it. I definitely think that you're at a stage and your career where you

could have really contributed. If Tony Campbell or from these roster spots are the names of the guys, and you definitely could have played that role and excelled in that road and potentially win the championship. It's always it's always fun to sort of look back on what if you know this are basketball culture nowadays, everything's based really on that and they do that a lot. Yeah, 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 are to listen live. A couple of days ago, what's the third of the anniversary of the release of White Man Can't Jump? A movie that you started as as Raymond and had one of the I truly believe seen seeling Steen scene stealing scenes of the time, see stealing scenes of all time. Now that character has talked about everywhere everywhere, will go growing up since since that

movie drop. People know you better as Raymond than they do as a five time and be author. So first of all, I want to know about the inspiration behind the character and if they're doing a reboot of the movie. Yeah, and if not you, who do you think should play the role of Rings? Wow, that's a good question, man, Um Well, I mean the character Raymond Dickens was based on one of the first guys to go from high school to the prose guy by the name of Reggie

Hardy out of Detroit. Uh. He was a guy that you heard, um this one particular story when you first got into the NBA. How he went into a neighborhood liquor store with a mask on the robin at seven ft tall, and the guy behind the counter said, you know, come on, Reggie man, and you know, I know that's you. Man just supposedly said this ain't met. And that was

kind of how the story went. And so when I first saw the when I first saw the the dialogue the way it was written by by the great Ron Shelton, before I even auditioned, I knew exactly what they were based on the character on. And so when I went into audition with Ron Shelton and Wesley Snipes, there was a part in the in the in the in the in the partial script they give you call sides that talked about Raymond pulls out of blade. And so I

went to your grandfather's Barbara box. He was a master Barbara, my dad Jeff and and and got one of his razors straight rangers and and practiced for like a week on opening up that thing with one hand. Because I saw that cool, that cool move with back in the day, like like what is that from the West Side story? No, No, that that that that particular move. I saw a movie called j D's Revenge and it was one actor, and

I don't think it was Glenn Term. I think it was just the original j D. But as one actor. I think he was also in the Five Heart Beats, playing the barber and then running And when Robert towlenging and goes to the scafford, his uncle is, so, what are you talking about this work? It wasn't acting. They have a good heart to heart conversation, but I think it was that actor. But anyway, he does this move with this with this one handed moved with the straight

ranger that I thought was the coolest thing. And in the world. You know you glamorized. You know what your idolized. You know you're with glamorized, you idolized. So I saw the way he opened up that straight ranger, saboom, this is what I'm gonna do in this scene. So I went into the to the audition having practiced that move, and got to that part. I pulled out the straight range out of my pocket from Grand Grandpaul's barber box, sharpest sharpest of the board of health, this razor and

opened up in one hand. I'm chasing Wesley Snipes around the office with it. You know, motherfucker, I kill you this I get, you know, and acted all just crazy and ghetto and stuff, and so did. Ron Schalton's like, okay, cut, cut, cut, you got the arn't you got the part? But when we shoot this for real, leave that fucking razer at home. You're gonna kill somebody with that kind of laughing. And what's excite? Was like, yeah, hell you do what the all you're doing? Man? You know? And so but I

got That's how I got the part. But but but it's one of the greatest experiences of my life. Wesley Snipe, why Harelson. I mean, you know, I run into them, especially Wesley Um over the years and and and that's always gonna be a bonding thing for me, and and Kevin Benton and Dave Robos and my teammate. We played golf together at Pinbour Golf Course over the over the years,

two or three times a year. I mean, So, Nigiel Miguel, I mean, all the guys that you knew and grew up with you were in that movie you had on the green Baseball had with the with the great sweatshirt right at the at the big part. Jets, Jets, had a Warrior swist shirt. You were at that movie. And then and then my nephew, your cousin Carmpton is like watching The Juggler. They need some cute little you know, you know, cute little kids to kind of watch The Juggler.

And he's like one of the kids kind of on. So you know, we we we we we parlayed that as well as we that of my family. Never forget um in between takes my hanging out with Rosie Peretz. So she just took a liking. She took a liking to me. You're fourteen fifteen, you know, she took a liking to me though, and so every single time she had a break, we're over there talking. I was sitting there talking to Road just about whatever. But you know,

I'm young, so it's that innocent conversation. But I made sure to kind of stay close to Rug and that that experience was amazing because just to be able to see like how movies are made, the magic behind it all, and you just to be on a set and understand the process. And then were there any I guess, was there any negative feedback that came out of that role, Like did people not understand like how good of an actor you were or did they think you really like I know a lot of dudes man like like I

like my basketball peers. That duck didn't know you was like, man, I see why you so crazy, Chris. I'm gonna dude, this is roll. I'm like, dude, it's a roll really like but everybody but to be like Chris, I see you crazy? Your daddy man, Yeah, I'm like dog. That

was that he was acting bro right right well. And the funny part about I actually started to take a really powerful acting uh class under Rick Edelstein, who was Barber stri Strikes Sands acting coach, and then the animal re Horsford and and and and Hill Harper and all these great actors he's worked with, Antonio Vargas, uh, Pat Marita from Karate Kid. All these guys started under Rick Edelstein, and so all I look at my scene and I know, after working with Rick for the twenty years I was

with him, I would have done it differently. You instead of I'm gonna go to my car, get mother gun come back, Yeah, I'd have been like, I'm gonna go to my car. I'm gonna get mother gun I'm coming back. I'm shooting everybody's ass. I'm shooting you know, ide i'ld have done something different, you know, at the time, you know, and what I did work, But but I look back on announced. But but but you know, for me, um,

the one thing, a couple of things. Lewis Price sing with the Temptations, he played the King and Duck with Freeman Williams, that final scene Lewis Price, and I was just thinking about this this morning. He came to me after watching my scene or I forgot what at what point it was, but exactually before I did the scene, and his suggestion to be was to not curse in the scene, don't use curse scores, no profanity. And it was the craziest suggestion in my mind that he could

bring to me. And I'm like, you know, funk that you know, this character is perfect. But looking back on that now, you know, I wish I would have taken another look at how to play that scene, played that role without all the motherfucker this and mother you know all that, which is okay, I mean, it is what

it is. But the other thing, Chris, is that Mark Gottfried, your assistant coach at U c l A. After the movie came out, he came up to me, Chris and said, Marcus, me and my wife saw the movie and we prayed for you. We prayed for you, man. We just you know, we got our needs and just prayed for you. I'd say, Mark, Man, it was a character, brother, that's all I mean. I mean, it's it's just it's a character that's a hundred and

eighty degrees different. But I understand what he was what he was saying, and a lot of it had to do with the profanity of the language, what was being projected on the screen again, you know, yeah, you idolized, was being glamorized, and so I think he was coming more from that perspective than anything. So yeah, it was some some interesting um uh, it got some interesting receptions

for people. But but for the most part, everybody kind of understood that it was I got, I got, I got nominated for an espe that that was a year. That was the year that that Schefski they helped tell her about bottle up on the stage and I'm sitting in the front row and one of those kinds of deals. So yeah, that's awesome, man. Um I don't know about Gottfried and the prayer thing like that, understanding not understanding that you know that ship ain't real, like come on

and regardless, regardless, like there's been worse stuff. But anyway, I'm not gonna get into that. But staying on the acting front, were you watching the Oscars when Will Smith walked up to Chris Rock and slapped the ship out of him? Oh? Yeah, I saw that. What was your initial thought on that? And and now that we know a lot of the details behind it, and we've read people like Kareem i'bdul Jabbar coming out and I haven't seen Kareem's Yeah, I just you know that that will

embarrass the black community. It's just a bunch of stud a bunch of a bunch of sort of your generational type ideals that i'd expect to hear from like Bill Cosby and these types of folks, this new generation, like my generation. I'm not trying to hear that, Like we're not here to give a funk about what they think, you know what I'm saying. So it's like a different type of thought process, caring versus what they think versus

not caring what they think. I want to ask you as someone from that generation, and what do you think about that? And do you think that what Will Smith did was an embarrassment to the black community as a whole? Man, um Man, that's a good question, you know, And I think it's hard to take what he did out of the context of what's the red table around what's this thing? And he and Jada the business has been put out there,

and that she messed around with his sons. Yeah, you know, if you can't not leave out the context where this guy's mindset is dealing with this woman. But we both know going through relationships with women, you know, when you get strong, it's no telling what you might do. You gotta look at it from from that perspective. More so than just Will Smith actor respectable guy. He just will Will has got some tumultuous type of of emotions going

on in this relationship. This was I thought, and I'm just playing pop psychologists here, but hit his way to get some brownie points, because you know when he when Chris Rock first made the joke, We'll kind of laughed at it. And then you can see Jada and she just you know, and I told a friend of my life she might have told him he needed his ass whipped. You know, he might have said that under breath. You never know. Oh he needed his ass for that, you know,

and so will Hey. You know, oh I got I got a chance to, you know, get some brownie points with my lady and and and show her that I could be as hard as Tupac, who was a good friend of hers back in the day. You know. You know, so he's got a whole lot of stuff that he's trying to live up to, and it just manifested itself with him walking up to Chris Rock and do what

he did. Now, do I think he could have handled better? Yeah? Sure, at the at the whatever what the puff that is in the gold party of the Vanity Fair party wherever he was gonna see him later. You know, maybe that was a more appropriate time to do that, as opposed to the front of two or three dred million people around the world watching this thing. Probably, But at the same time, I understand Do I agree with it? No? Do I understand where he was coming from right at

that moment, I understand completely. I'm not mad at him. You know, he came out with the apology and the Chris Rock and the apology and this and that, which you're supposed to do after the fact. But he got caught up in the moment. Who who of us not have gotten you know, caught up in the moment. Kareem got caught up in a moment with Kenn Benton, elbowed him. The first game of our rookie year, my rookie in nineteen seventy seven, Green took one Kareem like double over

and then turn and I'm guarding Jamar Wilkes. I don't see it, but all I year is and I turned around and my boy Ken't Benton was stumbling and Kareem's standing over him. Get up, motherfucker, Get up, mother, I said, Kaem, He's not getting up. Back off, man, He's not getting up. But Kareem had this look like he wants you know. So my point is that the Kareem a bad person, No, he just you know, at that moment, he retaliated over

what he perceived to be an injustice. Will Smith retaliated over what he perceived to be an injustice on a national stage, just like that Laker game. Not as national as the game rout today, but it's a public you know, it's a public forum where people say, violence is never the issue this America. We are our whole history is we you know, we assassinate that. That's the part. That's the part that so you know, as we continue to dive into this subject, it's the part that that really

is just is amazing to witness. Just we're talking about America and people are talking about a slap and calling it violence and violence is an issue, but you're talking about the country with the greatest military budget in the history of mankind. So yes, it is always an answer.

It's just not an answer when you don't want it to be like and think about what they think about the January six incident when you didn't have just a universal just you know, the crying of that thing, and people died, people actually lost their lives, people get a crushed lungs Bursted. I watched the whole documentary. It was a legitimate thing. So my thing is like, let's not just let's not pile on and generalize this incident that Will Smith had with Chris Rock as an embarrassment to

the black community. And that's where it's see a lot of people posting, so you have like people of other racest white Latino Asian post posting this thing, Kareem said that sort of a thing to look black people. This is how you're making your people look. No, man, we gotta stay away from that type of language, that type of thought process, because if we started doing that to

other races, then they're gonna call us racist. Then we're getting called out well well, and and then you're also I mean, people are individuals, and coach wouldn't coach me. Coach Kareem, He's always say, you know, he didn't treat all his players the same because they're not the same. And so Will's reaction, you know, sure, you like you know a union nanomy of a response to that situation.

But his reaction was his reaction based on the context of his a Jada's relationship, where his mindset was at the time. You can't leave that part out of the total picture if you're doing if you do, you're doing a disservice to it. The other quick point, Chris is that and it reminded me of this free well uh p J callissimo choking into itent But you know, you know what, I wasn't there. I don't agree with it whatever,

but I would hear one of our producers. Shortly thereafter, he just went on the soapbox saying, how there's no place for violence in sports whatsoever. You just can't do that. There's no place for violence of sports. So I said, John, what about hockey? He said, well, no, No, hockey is different. The fighting in hockey. That's kind of kind of that's a that's a different thing because that that's kind of kind of kind of kind of maked into you know, that's it either is or it isn't. You know, there's

no exclusions to the no violence rule. You know that hockey players beat the crap out each other, but you know, anyway, and and so that's kind of I'll leave it at that yet No, I mean yeah, but it truly was a shocking moment. And whatever Will Smith was going through, whatever he you know, I was thinking, these are consequences that he has to deal with and only he has

to deal with. So if you can live up, if you can eat the charge for whatever you do, brother, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Right Absolutely not, absolutely not. But man, hey, MJ. I appreciate your time today. Brothers. I'm sorry about the Hall of Fame, but I thank you for for opening it up, sharing that voicemail and giving us some insight to what's going on. Also appreciate you being so transparent about the

eighties and you know your your your recovery. That's that's that's true, fascinating well, and I'm always going to be that, especially now because in this this this era that we're living in again, the open goid crisis, especially in the Midwest, with with with with people other than African Americans. Now people are getting a real true sense of the scourge

of drug addiction. And I went through it, Chris, and so for me again, I'll be twenty years sober in in a few weeks to be able to come out on the other side of this man and and to have my life be the best life that I've ever lived. Yes, the Hall of Fame would definitely be the cherry on top, But if it doesn't happen, I'm still gonna eat the Sunday. The Sunday is still gonna taste good. Bro, They're gonna be good strawberries, whipped cream, no cherry. I'm fine with that,

Ladies and gentlemen. Marcus Johnson