Frank Kaminsky

is working well, Steve. I don't know where that came from. I like the Yeah, how are you doing? I'm doing great? Man, And I'm sitting here thinking there was an incident. Man, this was a few years ago. Yeah, with your football camp. What about your last football camp that you did here in Charlotte, Right, it wasn't my last second of last one one up. I know it was a few years ago. Um, you gotta tell it though, but just in terms of starting beverage and happened with some of the kids. It's

just a funny story, man. So so I used to do football camp here in Charlotte, and then also, uh, you're here too. As we go down, Um, I've done football camps UM on military basis as well. I've done it, and UM Cam Humphreys, which is overseas. Cam Humphreys is actually uh several miles away from the d militarized Zone near South Korea, right, So I've been in Hawaii, Frankfurt, Germany, so I've I've I've had the honor to serve the

military's kids all over. But so I do. I But I always had a camp for about nine almost ten years here in Charlott that that I was doing, and so we had a lot of different sponsors that would come on board. And so one of our sponsors, UH for the for our camp was Sunny Delight. Now, if anybody has ever been in the South beverage sponsors, So if anybody has been in the South of North Carolina

in July, is hot as fish grease. And when I say fish grease, you can put them until I drop that toy in there, and that grease is gonna be all over. So anyway, so we're out there and it's probably ninety five degrees with UH humidity, so it's equivalent to about a hundred into degrees hot. You're so hot on the pavement you can see the heat, the heat rising on the just going on the top of the asphalt. So we're out here about two d plus kids. And so we have a water break, not a regular water break.

We have a sunny D. We're providing sunny D light to the children. And let me tell you what happened. Was sunny D man. Sunny D was sniper and these kids left and right. Why because sunny D is not real orange juice. So it's not sunny D has less. I think it has tim percent orange juice, the orange k the ninety percent of the other juice. It's stuff. And it's not a drink or juice. It's it's a drink. And we all know what happens when you drink too much drink. That he got to bubbling these kids. What

they weren't passing out? You know how they were losing in the football camp. We were losing the kids by vomit. These kids, these kids were running routes, curling and just falling out. We had about twenty kids stopped. Now you gotta imagine when the kids stopped because you got bubble guts. I think I got it. I don't feel well, I don't feel so good. I made an executive decision no more Sunday Kids. And I love the financial commitment. I

love the product. Kids out here hurting, but we got to get this Sunday out of here just for everybody. They weren't padded, It's just some shorts, two of shorts, right, It's just it's not full contact. That I don't believe having full contact. The way you introduced kids on plane is you don't. You let them gradually acclimate to getting hit, But you don't. You don't teach a little kid how to catch a football when he knows that the next

lout kickly is playing middle linebacker on the field. It's really hard to keep up focus on the ball when you're about to get your ribs broken. Right, And Bro, we were losing kids. I'm talking about so that literally the next day, two day, two day came, three day. Cam we literally the next day, I said, Bro, we took all they d because it was not it was not providing the hydration. Dog Day was dying. We was

losing kids left and around. I mean we had we lost twenty, like twenty kids just did not show up the next day like Sunny d took out You know what they talked about all the turf monster real it was awful. Over The sad part is you know, I gott drink the product. I don't drinking that product. I start and you know started, you toube and I don't start. You can get this. That's the lily stomach. It was hurt. Sunny D athletics and running around not not the best combo.

Listen sunny D not ever ever, ever, ever ever show athletic sport and drinking after quenchy your thirsty was a sunny D would be your last sport. So that that's the sunny D story. But man tell her his day. Bro, it was my son. He was like, yeah, dadda. When I saw Kevin, I was like, yeah, I gotta stop drinking the sunny because it was free. So they gave us case case like we were giving it was like two D fifty kids. Each kid got two Sunnyds to take on. We had like four hundred sunny D's, but

we dumped them. We had to dump the product because it was killing the kids. It was killing That'd be like I hate to say, that'd be like giving kids Mexican food to go play sports, like Bro can you imagine you drop this, bro? Can you imagine running a post route after eating a baby? Though I don't really want to? Probably you made that It's gonna be the last. Don't let that quarterback lead you into a messy situation. Oh man, we might have cut through it with our

next guest man. Yes, sir, who do we have? Frank Kamensky, first round pick from Charlotte Hornet's currently playing with the Phoenix Suns, graduate of Wisconsin University, back to back final fours. He won the Nate Smith Award, the Wooden Award. Frank Kamenski, You're gonna take part and get iced up. It is our own version of our Icebreaker. There random questions that we've selected. Smitty may or may not have a follow up.

He may have a follow up. Have no idea that you have not to receive these questions prior not ann clue prior to this podcast. Have you no okay? I heard they were good? Oh, I heard they were all right? First one, your first concert? Um it was a Drake concert, oh telling of his age. So you have an opportunity to fight a bear or seventy five ducks. I think I'd rather go with fighting the bear, fighting fighting seventy

of anything is just difficult. Okay. Plus I just got this image of seven ft tall find commins keep trying to fight ducks. How do you take your coffee black with a little bit of sugar? Favorite breakfast food, favorite breakfast food, pancakes? All right? And then Marvel the DC Marvel without question, although I think DC has DC has some good stuff, but Marvel's just topped the bottom is a way better. M Okay, no no argument on that one. Last few movies with trash, just it was absolute trash.

So Kaminski, what nationality is Kaminski? It's Polish. Kaminski is Polish. But I've got everything. I'm like Irish, German, Polish, Serbian, Russian, I don't know we we come when we live in Chicago. All families are kind of like that. A lot of European stuff down down with the squirrel Franks. So where did your family? How does your family get to Chicago? Then? So, my dad's all four of his grandparents came from somewhere

in Europe. Um his dad's parents came from Poland, and his mom's parents, his mom's dad came from Serbia and his mom's mom, I believe, I'm not quite positive where she came from. And then my mom's side of the family is all Ireland pretty much. Why have you been considering playing for the Serbian national team? You know, obviously

the opportunity is it presented itself. I went and did the Basketball Without Borders trip for the NBA, which is, UM, you know, you go overseas and UM, you know, basically run a camp for the top European players. UM. You know a lot of the guys who are in the NBA have gone through that pipeline. UM. And it was in Serbia. And obviously I've been I played in a Serbian basketball league growing up. A lot of people know

I have Serbian roots. So UM kind of felt the pressure while I was over there, UM, you know, considering I haven't played for Team USA or anything like that, UM to potentially play for Serbia. So you said you pay for a Serbian team when you were when you were younger. UM. So there's a league in Chicago. It's called the Serbian National Federation. UM. It's in Chicago and Northwest Indiana primarily, but the tournaments are pretty much nationwide. UM.

They're held in different places. Um, you know, every single year they pick a different place. It's it's been in so many different places. It's even been in Canada a couple of times. Um, it's just one big weekend. Um. Everybody plays for their uh pretty much their church. Um. So my dad, you know, he's been playing it, played in it for a really long time. It was a Serbian church league. Yeah, essentially, um, you know, and there's been a lot of good players that have played in it,

a lot of guys that have played Division one basketball. So, um, it was really good competition growing up. It's always fun. It's like a big weekend of like basically celebrating and playing basketball. So it is. It is essentially a giant church league because, um, the churches do a lot of sponsoring for this stuff. But I'll tell you right now, it's mainly about eating, drinking and then playing basketball. I was just doing the eating and playing basketball at that point.

I wasn't doing the the drinking so much. I played in it for when I was in fourth grade all the way through my senior year in high school. So okay, fourth grade through senior of high school. None of just because you were extremely tall. None of those are legally drinking ages for this church weekend that you participated in. I'm sure if it was back in Serbia would have been a lot cooler than it would have been. Let's cut two. And what was it like going up in Chicago?

And what part of Chicago? So we're from the South Side. We're White Sox fans, like right where the whites, the Chicago White Sox play. The stadium is where my family grew up, a couple of blocks away. Um, when my parents started having kids and moved out into the suburbs, which is what a lot of Chicago people do. So I grew up in the suburbs. Um, Chicago is awesome, It's amazing. You know that. That's where I spend my summers. Um,

I spent it in downtown Chicago. Um. You know, it's just a really fast paced city and it's what I'm used to. It definitely toughens you up though, being a Midwest kid, you know, having those seasonal changes. You know, Chicago is cold. You know, I'm out in Phoenix right now, and I feel like I'm spoiled because it's perfect weather. Minus it gets a little bit too hot here, but it's perfect weather. Y're around, so you know, Chicago will

always have such a special place in my heart. What do you mean by a tough and jo up, It's kind of hard to describe just the way Chicago people are, you know, just like what you deal with, what you deal with with the weather, how cold it is, you know, just people's personalities, like they're they're tough people. I'm a West Coast guy, so it grew up in Los Angeles, so you're always in a hurry, you know, and and living here in Charlotte, and then you know, traveling to

the East coast New York. You know, I'm always interested to hear how you know, different people, what do they mean by, you know, tough as far as in Chicago, because you know, you know, if you go to New York, you know there's some people in New York that can be pretty rude. But living here in the South, when you open a door for a lady or or a woman in New York, they think you're trying to rob

the right. So that's what I'm trying to I'm trying to picture how how when you say it's tough, but it's what's tough Chicago style, the way everyone kind of fights for everything. You know what I mean, Um, everything is in Chicago. Everything is a competition. Everything no questions asked about it. Whether it's conversations, sports, you know, whatever, you whatever you have, everything is essentially like it's like

a race to the finish line. You know. That's great when you're when you when you grow up playing basketball and playing sports, you know, having that competition you know pretty much everywhere you turn. You know, you can go play in a tournament, in a league and anything anywhere,

and it's really good competition. You know. And then on the outside, like personality wise, you know, it kind of really prepares you to go out into the world and you know, you kind of for lack of a better word, you don't take ship from anybody just talking about you mean from Chicago. You can tell the pride and you know, you're a basketball player and there's a ton of successful basketball players, Dwyane Wade, Mark Aguar, you know, Derek Rose.

There's there's a lot of these guys. And Steve talked about, you know, making you tough how and Frank comm I'm playing towards that, like you got a guy like you? How does Chicago even translating that? When you talk about how Chicago toughens it up. How did that help you tough enough when it came to playing basketball and playing this a au random robbin weekend drinking serbian fest. Um, I always I'll go back a little bit further. I always wanted to play basketball. You know, my dad played

basketball overseas for a really long time. Um. You know, so basketball was kind of in my blood. Um, It's what I grew up doing, you know, watching my dad play. Uh, you know, it was the first sport I ever started playing. You know, it was the first sport I fell in love with. Um. But when you're in Chicago and you hear all these names, like you know, I can just remember I watched Derrick Rose played pretty much all the way through high school, in college and then get drafted

by the Bulls. Um, you know, he was like an idol of mine. You know. You see all these great names that come out of Chicago and have played the sports. You know, I grew up. I was born in so I got to in my aunt work for the Bulls. So I got to see a lot of like Michael Jordan's was like my first memories were you geeking out over the last dance. Then my uncle is in the documentary, so he's the My uncle was a guy that told

Jerry Krause the trade for Dennis Robman. Oh so yeah, my my uncle is kind of responsible for some of that stuff. That's what I'm talking about. Uncle. You don't get that kind of behind the scenes access. Now I love it. You said that your dad played overseas. What did your mom do? My mom played volleyball and now she's a teacher. She played volleyball at Northwestern. I think they when the big champ can tip twice while she was there, So she had a really successful career there too.

So athletics is basically my family. So how how are the family gatherings is corn hoole? Starting with the family fist fight. Everyone in my family is, like I said, extremely competitive. It's just like a Chicago thing. Like my dad still thinks he can My dad sixty five now he thinks he can still beat me in one on one. And I think even if he was in a well, even if he was in a wheelchair, he'd be saying

the same exact thing. Won't smoke. So you guys playing each other as as you tried that out yet I won't do it. The last time I played him was in high school and I beat him badly and I told him I'm done. I'm done playing him. I don't want to play him anymore. I let him have it. He can have it. That didn't go well, he didn't. No, I'm just like, it's a competitive thing. It's it's just a competitive thing. Like my dad will always go around telling everyone he can still beat me in basketball, and

I'll always be resentful. I'll always resent him for doing that, you know what I mean. I don't know. I don't know. I gotta I got an awesome relationship with my dad. So, yeah, you're trying to keep it positive. Yes, I'm trying to keep it positive. I don't want to call him delusional or anything. But maybe I might be calling him delusional. I don't know. You have an awesome podcast, Pros and Joe's, and it was something on there that you said that I want to ask you about because it really gave

transparency of who you are. And you talked about how why you try not to interact with people on social

media a lot. But you said something that was a little bit of nugget for me, which is you talked about how some of these these grown men go on social media and talk about how a professional athlete is trash or and you'll see that this guy is he's twenty six years old or whatever however old he is, and he has three kids and he's talking about Frank or whoever it is, you know, any any basketball player, and he's and your and you said, you know, hey,

how about you going to be a dad? And then you said something, your folks are um divorced, but they did the best they could and they instilled things into you that were really good. You know, my parents got divorced when I was really young. Um, I think I was in like third grade, and I got me my

older sister and my younger sister. And at the time, you know, it was it was like so confusing because I was so young and like at that age, like especially in school, like people's parents aren't getting divorced where I'm from, Like the schools we went to, you know, I grew up going to private schools, and you know, it felt like everyone had like kind of this perfect family life, you know, with their parents and everything. When

I was really young, this is how I felt. And you know, my home was kind of we were like the family that everyone was kind of talking about, like parents getting divorced, like tough situation, like how's it handling on the kids and everything, and um, you know, it kind of be it becomes part of your identity growing up, you know, living in a home where you know both of your parents. You know, I'm living in my mom's house, you know, not seeing my dad as often as I

wanted to, you know, it's just really difficult. Um. But sports kind of became the thing that where, no matter what was happening, you know, with our family and everything, everything kind of felt normal. Like both of our parents were there cheering it's on. There was no fighting and arguing and sporting events. You know, my mom was coaching

me in volleyball, my dad was coaching me in basketball. Um, and that's where everything just like felt comfortable and made sense and you didn't have to deal with all the external problems and fights and arguing and everything that goes

into that. So you know, that's why I've kind of thrust myself so far into into basketball, or at least I did when I was younger, because it was really the place where I felt like the most normal because when you grow up in a house like that where your parents can't stand each other, um, makes things a lot easier for you. Takes a lot of the stress away. So you know, obviously things are way better now we're

all grown up. They'll have our own lives, Me and my sisters, um, and my parents got their own thing. But um, you know, it's definitely definitely something that's been, you know, an identity of our family for a very long time. Well, I appreciate you sharing that, and I also think one of the cool things as you said something too, it sounds like you use your dad was your coach, so it was another way to steal some time with your dad always. Yeah, absolutely, So how much

did your dad contribute to your basketball? I Q? I mean pretty much everything. Um, you know, he was always you know, my dad was always my coach. But he wasn't always like the head coach, you know what I mean. He wasn't like the He always let other people coach me because you know, he always felt that it was best that I deal with other people as opposed to

just dealing with him all the time. And you know, you know now that I think about it, like I see a lot of people like their parents are always like defending them, and like parents are always going to like coaches and saying like why aren't you playing my kid more or anything. But that wasn't that wasn't the way my dad did. And my dad was like, you gotta figure it out, like if you want to if you want to play, you gotta play better. If you

want to do this, you gotta do this better. So, you know, my dad pretty much taught me everything you know in the sport and pretty much how to deal with all the problems that come with it, because you know, he had played basketball for so long, played overseas, played for in so many different situations, you know, whether good or bad, so he knew what it was like. And you know, I'm really lucky I had that growing up because you know, it wasn't always all rainbows and sunshine

from me. You know, I had a lot of growing problems. I had a lot of maturity problems when I was a kid. Obviously, Like I said, you know, when you grew up in a house like that, you kind of sometimes deal with maturity problems. Um, So it was just good to have him use sports as a way to teach me pretty much everything about life. I mean, we all we often look about sports being an outlet, right, and it didn't matter outside of Chicago. You grew up on South side suburban, so it did it didn't matter.

Sports was literally an outlet for you. Why was that so important? Like I said, sports was my escape from everything. Um, you know, no matter what was going on, you know, family wise, social wise, you know, anything, any problem I ever had. You know, when I played basketball, they all just disappeared. And you know, I got to just play

the game that I loved. Got to do something that I love, you know, whether it's for an hour or two hours, you know, going for an entire week somewhere to play in a week long AU tournament, you know, whatever it is, you know, you just get to escape from that. And now, like now that it's become like my career and what I do, basketball still that same outlet for me today that it was when I was fourteen, So it's just become part of who I am, and you know how I deal with a lot of problems.

And you know, I'm very I'm very very thankful that it's become that for me. Thanks thought, we gotta take a break reply, I'm going through this currently with my one of my boys right now, who is in the last year and a half year, has um basically grew about six inches in the Smith household. He's becoming the tallest of us. All I know all about that. How tall were you your freshman year in high school? I

was six to my freshman year, okay, six six. By my sophomore year, I left high school at six ten, and then I grew. I grew another two inches my freshman year in college. What position were you playing when

you were six to when you were a freshman? I was a guard when I first got into high school, I left playing like yeah, and then I went to playing I went from like playing like a two to my sophomore year, I was the four, and then the last two years in high school, I was the center, and then that's the position I played all the way through college. And then you know, when I got back to the NBA. Now I'm back to playing the four,

which is always been the most comfortable position. But you know, basketball has kind of changed in this and that positions aren't really what they used to be. So you play basketball at Wisconsin, and in the first first two years you averaged you have his three points at one point six rebounds. Yep. Why what was going on there? Uh? Well, when I got to college, I still had a lot of physical maturing to do. Um, I wasn't I wasn't very strong. Um, I was skinny. I was still kind

of growing into my body. Oh but um there was an I thought I was gonna red shirt, like right when I got there. That's what, honestly, I thought was gonna happen. But the coaches came to me and pretty much told me like, look, you have an opportunity to play. Um, it's not gonna be much, but pretty much every game, you're gonna get a couple of minutes of game here and there, and that could be valuable experience for when it's your time to take over. And you know it was.

I was just actually pretty much a backup for somebody who needed a break right before media time. Ons That's the best way I can describe it. Um, But I had so much maturing that I needed to do, both physically and mentally to be able to, um like take the leap two becoming what I became in college. Like I always knew I had something inside of me, Like like I knew I was going to be a good player in college. I didn't know which level I would

take it to. But um, you know, that experience of having to fight for more and more and more as my career went on kind of made me hungry for when it was my opportunity. Junior year, you bust out nowhere, out of nowhere, your point game against North Dakota. Tell me about that, like you're you're almost like you're you're coming out party, like you you're breaking out. Tell us about that game, and then just how did it feel leading into it, and we'll get into your do you

you're seeing you you were? I think people don't remember how awesome and amazing of a college basketball player you were. But we talk about that four or three point game, you know, the first I think we had like three games before my forty three point game, and I think I scored like I want to say, like sixteen points in like three games, and I just wasn't I just didn't like know my spots yet, Like I wasn't like

truly comfortable like we had our years. Like in college you can go overseas and play like a like an exhibition tour, and I played really really well in those games, and it was like the leading scorer on our team. When the first three games of the season came along, you know, I kind of struggled to get comfortable. Um, and then I just remember before that North Dakota game, I was like, this is like we're gonna beat this team.

Just go out there and just play loose and play free and see what happens pretty much, and then I just started making. I just started like making everything. So I don't I don't know. It was just that was like kind of the game where it all click in my mind that you know you are good and you know when you play like you know how to play, this is what the result can believe. That kind of gave me the confidence to like keep going forward and wanting more. What what kind of internal dialogue did you

have that was holding you back? It wasn't that I wasn't playing well. I see. That's see with basketball, like sometimes you get obsessed with like points and rebounds and um, you know, assists and steals and blocks and all these things. But that's not always an indicator of if you're playing well or not. Like in our first three games, like our team played significantly better when I was on the floor versus when I was off the floor. So like I was, I was still playing well. I just wasn't scoring.

But you know, my whole basketball life, I've been like kind of a scorer. So um, you know that's one thing for me that always it shouldn't be, you know, an indicator of, you know, in my mind of how well I'm playing versus like not, but it always will be. It's something I talked about with my dad too. I was just playing way too tense, Like I wasn't loosing, playing free because you know, when I just play free and don't overthink things. Um, that's when I met my best.

In those first couple of games. I was just like I wanted to play so well because I wanted to fit two years of being a backup into basically three games, as opposed to realizing it was gonna be a long season and I was gonna have my opportunity to the whole year. How does march madness? How does that impact kids today? You know, all my best memories are pretty much n C Double A tournament. Um, you know, it is the most it's the most fun you can have

playing college basketball. You know it feels like it feels like that's when it feels like you become like a professional player, you know what I mean, Like when you're playing against um like you're playing in your conference schedule in everything, and you're playing against all these teams, like it's it's fun and it's really really great competition, and winning the Big Ten Championship is was, you know, up there on the top of the list of accomplishments in college.

But just nothing really compares to playing in the n C Double A tournament, you know, just from you know, the traveling, you know, the teams you play against, you know, being in the region, the tournament, the selection show, the games, you know, having your basically your travel party, your families, they're just everything kind of it just feels it's just an atmosphere that everyone wants to be a part of

so badly. And then you know, once you make it to the final four and you're playing in front of sixty seventy thousand people in football arenas, that's when it's that's when it's like it just like hits you that this is like this is like the peak of a lot of different things for you in your life. It's amazing you were the ninth overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets. Take us through the drafting process for you being a

ninth pick. So pretty much I played in the National championship game my senior year, so I'm in the last game of the season. So like some people would, you know, just the way pre draft workouts and pretty much I got back to campus and essentially left immediately to go

train in Santa Barbara. Uh. For like I think it was like six weeks before the draft happened with the aging agency or is just just I knew who I was going to sign with once the season was over, So pretty much right when I got done, I signed with my agency the next day, and like two days later, I was pretty much on a plane and out of there. Um. And when you get out there, you know, you're obviously your training, you're going through workouts, um. And then you

start workouts for teams pretty quickly after that. So I worked out I think for six teams because at that point you know pretty much you like there's no obviously there's no guarantee, but you know like what your draft range is. They give you essentially a draft grade, and mine was mine was lottery so um, I knew I was going to go somewhere, you know, one to fifteen. So you essentially start mapping out the teams do you think you fit in best for and you start working

out for him. Um, and I ended up working out for six teams. I think if you work out for the one, yes and no. I didn't go to Charlotte. But agencies hold their big workout days, like they have their days where all the teams come in and watch you work out. There were scouts or executives from all thirty teams in Santa Barbara when we held like our pro day for our agency. I knew Charlotte had a lot of interest, so there was really not a huge reason to go to Charlotte and work out for them.

So and then obviously they were the team that ended up drafting me, but they were at that workout in UM Santa Barbara, and I knew they had a lot of interest from there. It's stressful at the same time because like anything can happen, like a team can have I'm it's the same. I'm sure it's the same with

the NFL. But like a team can have a player in mind that if someone before them takes that player, it completely changes the whole draft from then on out draft Knight was, I mean, it was I was losing it there for a little while. I just because you hear about trades and you know teams are trying to trade up, trade back. Um, you know this team is saying they're going to take you at this spot, but then you never know if that's actually gonna happen or not.

There was just so many scenarios playing in my head in me like the kind of person I am, I like just cut and dry, straight to the point. I don't like the guessing game. And that was the biggest guessing game I was ever playing in my life, and

I felt like I had no control. When I got drafted and my name was finally called, it was like just a big like breath, like finally like a breath of fresh air, you know what I mean, Because I had been so on edge for like a week, Because like you're in New York for like five days leading up to the draft doing all this stuff, you're just kind of like on edge, or just my personality type, I was on edge like pretty much the whole time

I was there. Just wanted to hear my name called and figure out where I was going to be going. Describe your relationship with basketball today. Basketball is everything for me. Um, it's I don't want to say it's like who I am because there's so many different aspects of my life that make me who I am. But UM, you know, I don't get the same amount of enjoyment out of like a lot of things that I do basketball. So you know, I just you know, I'm twenty seven now

and five years in. Um, I want to play this game for as long as I can. UM. I've always told like my friends and my family like basketball, just like for me. You know how Vince Carter just played until he was forty and twenty two, twenty two years. You know that's gonna be me. You know it might not be in the NBA, but I'm gonna be playing basketball until I physically can't anymore. Like that's just how

much it means to me. Like it's It's taken away so many of the problems that I've ever had in my life and been like a like it has been an escape for me and it still is, Like I said, so you know, I want to keep that a part of my life for as long as I can. As I was listening to you talk, you said You're gonna play as long as you possibly can. It sounded like another comiskey. I know that sixty five years old, I am my father's son. I'll say I will say that

I will play basketball. Even if I'm hunched over and walking up and down the court, I'm still gonna get out there and fire up a couple three. So I like that for me playing football. I hated football at times, I literally frank I hated sometimes the competitiveness. I hated how it made me feel. At times. I hated the fact that thurs Days I got up pretty piste off. You hated the competitveness. I hated the competitiveness because of what it what I had to awaken inside of me.

A lot of the childhood issues or things that I experienced at a young age that I don't believe young men should experience. But it was what God decided to hand in my path, and it built calcul and to build a little bit of um hardening of my heart. But in that, you know, the the butterfly, the calipular. I woke in with something that I'm pretty proud of. The day is there times where you wake up, you know, upset at yourself or upset at basketball. Absolutely. I think

if you love something enough, it frustrates you beyond anything that. Um. I think a lot of people can understand, Like you even touched on it, like sometimes you've got to be in such whether it's a good or a bad mental place. Um, whatever drives you or whatever motivates you. Sometimes everything that motivates me isn't positive things. A lot of it's negative stuff.

Like you know, way either way I'm viewed like the politics of the situation I'm in, you know what, what something that's going on in like my personal life, you know, all those things like it's not fun waking up and like going to playing a game when you know that you've got to be piste off about something to get yourself into a place where you feel like you can go out and like you've got something to prove. Like that's not always the most fun thing in the world.

You know, that aspect of it is very difficult at time because it's just it's like sometimes like it's a cloud over like your entire life. I can relate, you know, I also revel in that because you know, like when you go in there and you've got problems or you've got something that's motivating you, and you go out and you have a great game, Like the feeling of reward afterwards, like the the freshness you feel, or the relief that you feel. You know that that's something I live for.

I know you were enjoying it. So it's not good. But we need to take a little time. We gotta pay some bills, use a bathroom, and wash your hands, and we'll be back in a moment. You're one of the most decorated college basketball players of all time, but you're still motivated by the small things. I mean, it's it's interesting to hear from you what continues to mot devate you and not just being drafted and being in the NBA. You're continually motivated day over day and not

letting these accolades define you. The accolades are what they are. Um, you know, I've always said this. You know, they're they're great, They're amazing. I'm happy I accomplished them, but that's not what I've kind of set out for. The thing that motivates me, the driving factor in the back of my head is I want to win a championship. You know, the one thing in college that I didn't get to add to my resume was national champion. I went to the two final fours in a row, played in the

national championship game and ended up losing both times. You know, I want to finish with a championship. I don't have one yet. That's something that motivates me daily. Oh cut tour. We have this thing we call deep three. How lonely is playing professional sports sometimes very lonely, you know, especially when you're on long road trips and you know, you know me, I don't have a girlfriend. I don't have fiance, I don't have a girl. UM, I just got one

friend that lives with me. Um. You know, when you're far away from your family all the time, UM, it's definitely difficult. UM, it can get very lonely. But you know, I'm lucky in the sense that, you know, I have a lot of people that are always coming out, UM, you know, come to games, hanging out. You know, my dad's close to the retirement. UM, so that's something I'm

looking forward to. Is you know, soon my dad will be out here and then hopefully some of my family will follow wherever I am, so you know, it can definitely get really lonely. But you know, the lucky part of the money situation is you can afford to have people, you know, especially people that are important to you, be there when you need them. Why is being authentic so important to you? You know, just being who you are is you know, being unapologetically being yourself is something that's

always been extremely important to me. I don't I don't ever want to change and do another person to appease someone, you know. I feel like, at this point in my life, I am who I am and if you don't like me and you go. If you don't get along with me, if if we don't see eye to eye, that's just you know, I'm not gonna I'm not going to change who I am to make everyone happy, because I just feel like, at this point in life, you can't make

every you can't satisfy everyone, you can't please everyone. Um, you gotta do what makes you happy and you're comfortable and you to be able to live the life that you want to live when you hang up those sides six teams, What do you want people to say about Frank Kamiski? Oh, that's deep, That is a deep question. You know, that's that's that's hard to answer at this point. Um,

you know whole. I hope that one day that you know, at least the people close to me, the people who truly know me and understand me, can sit there and say he got the most out of everything that was either given to him or he earned. UM. I think that's important, UM, because you know, obviously everybody's dealt a different hand in life. You know, I'm fortunate enough that

I was dealt the height and athletic abilities that I have. UM. You know, that's a god given talent and I'm very thankful for it, and I feel like I've utilized it very well up until this point. But I want to make sure that you know, every stage of success or every stage of you know, what I've done in life, that I've handled it correctly. I think that's the most important, whether it's you know, how I treat people, I've given back, you know, how I've pushed myself forward in my career,

how hard I've worked. I want to make sure that you know, when it's all said and done at you can all look back and say that I did the right thing at every step. I worked my hardest and I got the most out of the situation that I've been dealt. And and I think I hope other people perceive me as just, you know, a good guy who loves playing basketball. I think if everyone saw me that way, No, I don't need really any other like gratification, you know.

I hope I have that championship that I was talking about and I can add that to my resume. But um, as long as people know that I'm a like a good person who just loves playing the game, that that's good enough for me. Was there a point in your life? You know? Can I finish the question? Continue? And from the top, was there pointing your life you were playing to escape? And what were you escaping from? Sports helps you escape everything. You can unplug all together. I don't

care if life is good or bad. You get to be whatever you are dreaming about at that moment. You get to act it out in real life. That's why sports is so captivating. That's why sports is such an entertainment business. That so many people, so many sponsors, so many fans, dumped so many dollars into it because I was always trying to escape, the fact of the matter is we were poor, we were on section eight on

food stamps. Mom was in some bad relationships and it reflected us and it impacted us every freaking day of the week. So yeah, I thrived in sports. Sports was the only place that I can let my hair down and and and press forward and kicking, hit and run and jump in. I wasn't being looked at the wrong way, and so I I really love sports. I think sports is one of those places that you can be yourself for that moment. You can have dialogue and conversations in

your head and no one gets to judge. Here. You can even respond in a way at times that in real life is not appropriate, but as sports, it's called passion. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior, That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

From Cut to It Executive producer Steve Smith, singor co host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media manager Peyton Smith. From Balto Creative Media, Cut to It is deduced by Brian Faltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then, we're about to let you. Now it's all