Ricky Price

they happen in our lives. And we've had conversations about different situations we've been in U G and I will go ahead. You ain't been in this one. But um, so Friday, Um, my significant other is gonna have a long, long day work. Kim, Kim, my wife. I knew you always gonna go there, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and put it on it. So she had a long she was gonna have a long day at work, and you know, I was gonna be a nice guy and go get her a cup of coffee just so

I can drop it off. So you know, she um venty just checking. We make a little bit of money on the podcast, so I can afford that venty I got payments though, So so I go to our local establishment and I'm sitting out front with my back to the door. It's a beautiful day on Friday. All of a sudden, the door Starbucks flies open and a young man takes off like he's running a route, just gone

out the door. So I'm like, um, it looked like maybe a slant because he came in front of me, put his foot in the connoy, and he was gonna cross. He crossed my face. I couldn't get no hands on outside five yards. I couldn't touch him. So then another guy comes out of Starbucks yelling, yo, yo, catch him. I'm like, man, you were too late. I'm catching him, like like this none of my business. So I'm sitting there and this guy's pacing man. I can't believe this

has happened. Called the police, call the police, and like, you know, I'm not being on no subpoena lists, so I'm not calling no police. I'm just mind of my business. You've been around black folks way too much. Because because because the typical joe with a try to apprehend the feller and called the police, I'm not apprehending nobody. There's his family or friends. Like I watched, but like I want nobody get hurt, but so co I don't want

to get hurt. Amen. So so uh you know the law enforcement in the in the town that a men shows up and that's going on in front of me. So I'm like, yo, Kim, coffee's gonna be cold because I'm watching this. I gotta see what's happening. You ready for this? Steve, forty two year old man lived in l A, lived in Charlotte, and this is what happened. This gentleman met another gentleman on a online site and was going to sell him a fifteen thousand dollar rolex

on a online app cash money. Hope Up, Wait a minute, let me put some boom in it. Put it, put the boom in it? What what? What? What site can you go on that you can say I got a fifteen thousand dollar rolex? Who wants to buy it? Not a good sight? I don't have that answer. Okay, I'm just wonder, oh oh what what? What I derived from the situation was derided? What's what's the word derived? Steve? So you know what's I just want made out of it. I just want to make sure I hurt it right.

What is the place of origin? Please, of rock in the interpretation of the situation gathered gathered, I wrangled all the information. Young man walks in with what I'll call a zip bank bag. I'm sure you know some of us have seen a little little, little, you know, vinyl bag you put money in. So he comes like a regist, like when you go like we work at a restaurant and you a bank bag. Yeah, a little ziplock, little leather thing like a pouch. Right, they call him mercs.

Now he had a merse. So apparently this young man walked in with allegedly fifteen thousand dollars in this bank bag. He hands this bank bag over to this man. Is it a big bank bag? Small banker? This is part of the story. It wasn't. Are you trying to tell me to just listen? Just I want you to interact. You can actively almost said yes, I'm just trying to figure out because just doesn't make any sense to me.

Correct it done? Because I can tell you right now, anybody in this studio, if I handed you a bag with fifteen grand or I handed you a bag with I don't know, three hundred bucks in it. You're probably gonna know the difference if you never have fifteen and it's a lot, is not a lot? Well a lot if you put it in once, not for a fifteen thousand dollar rolex, fifteen thousand ones? You know what may

that is. It's so apparently this man, this man hands this other individual this bank bag with fifteen thousand, which wasn't as he grabs the bag, he doesn't open it and count it. He just grabs the bags. So the purchaser says, hey, man, can I try that on while while you're standing there? And the guys like, sure, buddy, put it on. You know what happened next? Ghost. So I hate to be make this as a race, but I have to ask the following questions because I think

it's really extremely important. It is important. Okay, there's a sketch of the artist of the sailance, so you can go ahead. The purchase, sir, was black? Correct? The seller was not black? Correct? Caucasian, I think they say on the report Caucasian. On the report you looked it up. You looked it up to absolutely. I watched the whole thing. So it was a young African American gentleman in a T shirt, pair of running shorts. Obviously some Jordan's. Oh

here's the key question. What kind of georgane did you have on? Because man, at the rate you was saying, he was moving, Man, there's a few pairs that you just can't do that in. Well, they were four, so he had some side support. He was good, Yes, some ankles support because you knew he was cutting. So as this is going down, the officers looks at this the Caucasian male of middle age and says, sir, do you know it's not a real good idea to meet somebody

to buy a rolex for fifteen thousand? He goes, well, I do now, so he starts describing this individual. Yeah, describe. So how did this end? How did the seller describe? Air quotes purchase, purchase, sir to law enforcement? So the height, wait, you know, what did he have on? And then he got to skin tone and the officer was an African American gentleman. So this white middle aged man was really trying to tap that dance around. He didn't know how

to answer because he said he was African American. He didn't want to, he don't want to come off his races. He did not want to come off his race, but he was already at a racist point because that brother stole his watch. So so officers, you know, either drop though here to drop the hard r at least once. Internally. I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it could have been that internal chatter. So the officer says, well, what

skin tone? Was he? Light skin? And this dude did not know how to answer this, so he lost fifteen now in our rolex, and now he's in the middle of maybe getting tas maybe if they didn't somebody. So this guy's like, well, I don't really understand how he said. Look, was he my skin tone? Or was he as dark as that brother over there? And there was a significantly darker gentleman sitting at a table and this dude, um, well, uh kinda, I guess I'll call him light skin. He's like, okay,

light skinned African American gentleman. Jordan's running shorts T shirt got it. It was like the most rolling and a rolling It was the most stereotypical overview. But the moral of the story is like, how do you not know it's not fifteen grand? How do you know, as a great philosopher that I lived with named Boston Smith A K. Bam. He would say it this way stupid a man, that's tragic. It was quite the day. So the real question of the day is did you have to get another coffee

or was Kim you just delivered the cold? Oh? I drank that one while I had to get another one. Hey, who do we have coming up next? On the Cut to It Podcast? We have in studio former Duke Blue Devil Ricky Price. Ricky is in the top one Duke players of all time to ever suit up for coach k and he currently owns Game Ready Skills and Development basketball camps for children here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Perhaps the best three point shooter we have had on our

show to date. Ricky Price on the Cut to It Podcast, So thank you for being here. Our first section is gonna get be called get iced up. If you know about Smitty Um, you know that we don't know where he's coming. He's got these all off the top. You can see a book and I see your face is nervous right now, but I don't know what's happening. He's about to hit us with it. So I got this little book is called the Life Little Instruction Instructional Book. And I was standing in line. You know how you're

standing in line. I was standing in line in FedEx to ship something, and they were moving at the pace that generally FedEx generally doesn't move back. And so this little book was right there and I was looking at it. I was like, man, I went to this FedEx because it's it's gonna be quick. Man. I was in there about five minutes too long. So I picked up this book. Man. I started reading and they got a little things are here. So this is uh. I'm gonna say something then, and

you tell me if this is good advice. Don't take medication in the dark? Bad advice? Take medication in the dark. Make sure you answer the question should you or should you not take medication in the dark? Well, I would think you need to know what it is that you're taking. You can see Ricky's over here taking pills. I didn't know what he was taking. He says, uh, Oh, I like this, So what do you think about this? Every year send your old ala mallar. I can't even Alma mater,

Alma mater. A few bucks? Good advice, Yeah, have you done that I have? Oh yeah, not that they needed pretty deep right right. I think they do a great job financially. So my my couple hundred dollars didn't do much. But yeah, all right, Last one, how would you define success? Oh that's a loaded question. How much time do we have as long as you want? Well? I mean, for me, I think success is, uh, you know, achieving all your

goals and aspirations. For me, that was through basketball. Um. I felt like I was able to do that, you know, as a high school All American, as a college basketball player, and then as a pro. And then I think success

also is what you do after you're finished playing. And I think I'm reaching that too by you know, working with kids, uh, with the Game Ready Academy training that we're doing, and so you know, you're touching lives in a in a different way, and so you know, I would qualify successes um, reaching your goals and aspirations, you know, whatever they may be. All right, let you know, let's let's get right into it because I love asking it this way. Is where are you from? In a place

you call your hometown? Los Angeles, California? Born in brett Um born and raised in l A, grew up in a Compton, carsonaria, and uh, you know, everything about me has an imprint of of that West Coast lifestyle. Ye you understand that, Steve, You understand a lot of people don't understand that. So you're talking about the Carson So first of all, um, you know, we're just gonna sit here and resonate on that a little bit and just kind of hover. So a lot of times like this

is how I know. It's how I catch catch catching ninja. It aled not which what street you grew up on. Uh, Well, my parents are divorced, and so my dad lived in Carson. My mom lived in Compton, and so in Compton, I grew up on the corner of Wilmington and the Landra right next to the Compton Airport, and then further down in Carson, which was only attempt in the drive. He lived off of Wilmington and Avalon, which is right there by cow State, Domingus. So uh, no lives detected. Grew

up on A hundred twenty six and Avalon. Okay, Okay. My my uncle, my late uncle, Frankie, uh was a lifeguard at Victoria Park. That's where I grew up I grew I grew up swimming in there, yes, playing basketball, slamming jam in Washington. Victoria Park was everything, everything and my my my mom actually graduated, uh raising two kids from from Domingus Hills. Okay, yeah, okay, she she went to l A Trade Tech, went there and then she and then eventually got a degree at uh uh Domingus.

I like it. Both my parents met at u c l A. And then everyone thought that I'd probably go to u c l A for college. But I was a different breed. I want to get away from home, but I know, I know a little bit about the West coast. Yeah. So I learned how to swim at Victoria Park, but I maintained and spent my summers down the street from the house at Athens Park. Athens Park, Yeah, you lose your shoes in there, yes, yes. So we grew up in the in the eighties where you just

a green and smiling. Yes, I mean it was a couple of places where you had to be super careful, you know, like you want to wear white, you know, gray and maybe black, no red, no blue. You know, you could get in trouble wearing those two colors, you know, or something off because you know, uh, people would, they

would sweat you about that kind of stuff. I remember going slaws and swap meat and whatever you bought you had to put on before you walked out because if you walked out and holding it, you weren't gonna hold it for long. They were gonna check it on you. Shoes, t shirts. Seventh grade, Yeah, left ear. That's why I got my ear pierced Slawson. Boy. That big old green building. Yeah, right there, I was at Reverend. I was right there.

Uh uh in elementary school. Uh folks. Folks had their house on My grandparents had the house on hundred six and av Long's about uh two thousand seven and had it, I believe nineteen fifties till two thousand seven and live with my mom um Onto in Arlington. So right there there was reverend remember Reverend Cleveland, remember that guy. And they actually turned that church into a picking save And then there's something else. Now it's I think they're not

they're not pavilion. Yes, he brought up Winch doughnuts the other day. I love them, man. That's the It was winchhows and then it turned into Duncan. So what's Coast guys, man is uh is different? They're they're different. What man growing up in the eighties, right, you from l A growing up in the eighties. Man, I'll be remissed because you're a little bit older than me. I'll be remissed. Man.

I want to give you an opportunity to kind of just describe, um, you know, a guy who had obviously they were the force, but have both of your parents in your life? Uh, how difficult if it was? If it wasn't it wasn't you know, not everybody experienced, um, the misfortune and and and and some of that. But how did you grow up? And how did the eighties

with that's when gangs are really gangs. That's when the crack epidemic was infiltrating the community, not the black community, not the white community, not the Latino community, the poor community in ways that people lost their lives, right. Families were broken up, people were killed over those little pieces of rock. How did it? How did it impact you as a young man who had who had a family that they went to college, they were well educated, they knew what it looked like on the other side of

the one Tin Freeway. For a long time, I did not know what they looked like on the other side of the one Tim Freeway. M Well, that's a great question. I mean for me, Um, you know, I come from a middle class family. You know, both my parents worked, you know, they went to college, they made decent money. Um, I'm the only child, and so the focus was on me to be honest and really keep it simple as I gotta pass. I gotta pass. Wow, I gotta pass.

Because I was that kid in the neighborhood who always had the basketball, dribbling my ball, holding it, trying to shoot on everybody's backboard if you had one, you know, over your garage. And I want to hang out with the fellas, you know, But for whatever reason God blessed her soul, they would never let me do it. They just saw that I had something and that you know, it couldn't be replaced, and so they never let me

hang out. They never let me bang with them. They never let me get into dirt as they got into dirt, you know, and you can't go, you know, keep keep dribbling, keep shooting, keep working on your game. And I felt alienated because I wanted to hang out, I wanted to be down. I wanted to be cool, but you know, my path was different, and for whatever reason, they saw

that and they gave me a pass. And so I channeled all my energy and the basketball, and so my friends became my teammates, the guys that I played with who had a common interest in goal, which was basketball. And so that was the bond that we had together. And that's how, you know, I kind of made it through. And I was a good student, you know, three point o student the whole way through. But it was it

was Hoop that really, you know, kept me focused. I love cut to It and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can follow us that cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.

I got all my answers questions. Uh yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother. Cut to a podcast dot Com. You take that and you fast forward and you get an opportunity to play a duke. What did that mean to you? And how did you go through that process because of your family?

And I'll be honest, that's like blasphemy around that time where you got the Obandon brothers to not go to USC or you got Bo Kimbell not to go to u c l A. Like, I'm just stating all these different people like Obandons, both Kimbell and Gathers that loyal like that are of the side of the country. That's what basketball was and you chose something else. How dare

you right? Well that's a good question. Uh. What's funny is because my freshman year U c l A won a national championship and so I'm thinking to myself, I damn should make the wrong decision. And we played them that year and maybe this about twenty five and the breaks off he killed us and they had like you mentioned Ed O'Bannon, Charles O'Bannon, Tyus, Edney Toby Bailey used to play at Venice on the Beach before before it

came a homeless population. So all my friends I grew up with you slamming jam with So I mean I was like, did I make the wrong decision. But again I said, I was a different breed. You know, I wanted to get away from home. I wanted to you know, be come a man by leaving to go away. UM. At the time, the A c C was the best conference in America. Uh, probably still is. UM. At the time we had coach k who was the best coach

in America. Probably still is. And I had a chance academically, you know, to go to a top ten school in the nation. And so for me, you know, it checked all the boxes. And I don't want to challenge myself, you know, and get away and do something different. So how's the young man living in l A have those boxes that you're talking about, because those for me, I rarely.

I didn't go to u C. L A until I went to University High School, which was at which you know, I only went to a couple of a couple of a couple of months at Emerson right, went to Paul Revere, but all I saw was Horseman Dorsey Centennial, Uh marco UH coach a little bit at Sarah. You know some of the folks I grew up with that Sarah Gardina banding a lock crunch yall I grew up a cross street, eating eating TV dinners on a on a on a white pale Fremont. I never thought about, first of all,

I even know what tobacco role was. I never thought about places on the other side of the country. Well, I didn't really know too much about Duke until I visited. You know, I knew for a fact that, uh, I watched college basketball a lot. Grant Hill was my favorite player in college. You know, he was my host on my visit. And yes, yes, the job exactly. They knew what they were doing. I mean, the visit was incredible.

It was nothing short of incredible. And uh, you know, sitting with coaching, with Coach k and the rest of the coaching staff, talking to Grand Hills, seeing the rest of the players, watching the tradition that they had on the basketball side. You know, for me, it was something

that I wanted to be a part of. And luckily for me, in the recruiting process, you know, my dad, even though my parents were divorced, my dad was very much a part of my life, especially early on, and he was there for me at in the recruiting process and he was able to help me, you know, put together a so called box so you can check those boxes to see where it is you wanted to go. And so, um, you know, I had an idea of how I saw myself as a college basketball player and

where I wanted to go. But um, you know, recruiting and visiting, it just became painfully obvious and clear that Duke was the place for me. Who else? What are the trips did you go on? Who are they up against? Um? So it was it came down to Duke in Kansas. My final five was Duke, Kansas, Arkansas, Cow in Arizona. And my first two visits were to Kansas and Duke, and I just I shut it down after that because I didn't think it was gonna get any better than that.

And so Roy Williams was actually at Kansas at the time. You know, he just retired as a North Carolina coach. I'm sure you probably catch him on the golf course sometimes. UM. Good guy, great guy, actually one of the few uh good guys. And he's still you know every time I see, you know, one of you good guys that you and see or well, let me rephrase that you just said. It's just I'm an active listener. When I see that, I can't get anything by this guy, you said, one

of the good guys, like WHOA. Well, listen, I mean, of course there's a there's a Duke qu and c rivalry. Okay, so that's where it's from. Not saying no, I mean there's no ill will towards any I'm not talking about coach. I'm not talking about the particular coach. I'm just talking about sometimes former players, the guy who's been recruited, who's who, who's also now working at academy, dealing with young men. You see the uh food gaziness of recruiting. I've experienced

it with my son, my oldest son. He plays soccer, and I just saw in the recruiting. I was bro this game is different compared to compared to when I when I played, Like when I played, it was like, look, you got three teams. You know you got five teams. You take three trips, right, take a trip that you know you want to go, Take a trip that you know damn well, you ain't gonna go to it, but you just know it's a cool school, right, and then

your second the second choice. Now they've got five choices, five recruiting trips they get, they hosting and they get all of that stuff, yes, And so that's why I was saying it, not out of like hate or hate, but just more of you. You've seen it now being in the system, being raised in the system, raising up

now young men and women through your program. So you see, like, man, it's a lot of false advertisements of course, of course, and I had to you know, fight against that and sift through, you know, the people who are you know, for gazy and the people who you know weren't as real. But um, you know, once you spend time with these coaches and talked to him, and Roy was one of

my favorite guys. And even though I like Duke better than Kansas, at the time, I like Ray Wims better than Coach K. And so that's what made the decision so tough for me because I really had a great relationship with him, and I was I had a great relationship with Coach K too, but I just had a better one with Roy, and so I chose Duke, and I ended up having a good relationship with Coach K

and now you know, we're still on great terms. But it was it was that, you know, Nip and Tuck, you know, they made the decision We've had some guys on here that have have talked about how influential Coach K was. How how was Coach K from your perspective, in your personality. That's a good question. Um, you know, I tell people all the time in terms of XS

and those, Coach K is comparable to just about anybody. Wow, he's not excellent on the X and O side there, guys, or maybe even better on the X and O side, then Coach K. What Coach K does better than anybody is that he's an incredible motivator. He gets guys to play above their level year in and year out. When you say above, break that down because you hear above that level when you go okay, he's he's squeezing the last part of the He squeezing and taking all the

juice out of that fruit. But having to say it, a coach can make a guy play above that level. It's not squeezing the juice. It's actually growing, the growing in to where that that fruit is bigger, so he doesn't have to squeeze it hard. He just dabbling because it's so ripe and ready. Absolutely imagine Zion Williamson. He's already really really good and when he came to college, he was already really really good. Imagining him getting the coaching that he got from Coach k and Coach Kate

talking to him and motivating him. And then what you saw was Zion whim and play above his level even better than when he you know, came to Duke Gas and he finished National Player of the Year. He was another one pick and and actually a human highlight. And so when you get Kyrie Irving and Zion Willimson and Marvin Bagley and you know, Shane Battier and Elton brand to play above their level, you know, you get wins and you get a good product, you know, in college basketball.

And I think one of the things that coach k does best is motivating these guys to play, you know, up and beyond their level. When you go to college, you want to go to a school that's the right fit. And if you think you want to play at the next level, you want to go to a school that's gonna prepare you for that. And you know, I think right now Duke has the most NBA players in the NBA. Duke and Kentucky their neck and neck, you know, they lead by a dozen where they have the most players

in the NBA. And I think it's because those two programs really help, you know, the college athlete get ready for the next And so now you're running the same sets you running the NBA. You know. Coach k obviously was the USA men's basketball coach, won three gold medals, you know, as the Olympic coach. And he's running the same stuff with Lebron and k D that he ran with Zion and r J. Barrett and the rest of

the people. And so it all translates. And so now when r J and Zion and Cam Reddish get there from that particular team, they're ready to go. They've been running NBA stuff, you know, so now when they get to the NBA, it translates for them. Defensively, it translates for them. Coach K, we're not running zone. Maybe if we get everybody in foul ta, we might have to go to a two three. He's running man to man defense. Why because in the NBA they played man to man defense.

That that solo ball absolutely, and so so you know you're gonna situations are available. He wants you to exploit that and go for that. Why because in the NBA you're gonna be You're gonna have to be able to do that. And so the preparation is there for all the kids who come to Duke, and you know, if they do their one or two years and they play at a high level, I think they're ready to play. You know, at that love on basketball i Q wise, they're good. Now, are there some guys who are just

a little bit slower than others. Absolutely, of course you're going to see that. But for the most part, these guys come prepared. You do your one or two years, you have um your tutelage, you know from coach King and the rest of the coaching staff, and you're ready to go to the next level. What was your experience on that different style of culture when you got to do well. I think it was important. You know, a winning culture and a winning mentality is very very important.

I think in all sports, and so at Duke, they create a culture that is about winning, and it starts with practice. Everything in practice is charted. It's charted, and so deflections, wins and scrimmages, and they promote winning on every situation. So just on a basic you know, let's run a suicide sprint. They want to see who wins that box out drill? They want to see who wins that. Alright, three on three, they want to see who wins that. And the people who are winning everything they want to

put together because these guys are the most competitive. So Coach K in most great coaches, breed competition and that's where it starts when you want to build a great culture. I think he's got to start with with a competitive spirit that you have to instill in your players. You sit here and thinking, you you brought up coach Gays last year. I'm sitting next to two professional athletes that former for formal professional athletes that that played a while,

but you still you still play? I mean I thought he just versued my bubble. Like so sixteen eleven, the crazy story is, uh, I played in several training camp situations, made it through a preseason, but never played in a full eighty two game season. So the answer is no, um, but nine years overseas as a professional athlete. So I looked at Coach k it's like forty two forty three coaching and for him to walk away, what's that mindset

gotta be like for him? From you knowing him, how's he how's he okay with going home and sitting reading coffee in the morning. Good for him, I mean, good for him. He's done so much for the college basketball game. He's done so much for the kids that he's coached, and he deserves this moment to be able to step away from the game seventy plus years old. I mean, how do you identify at seven years old with incoming

eighteen year old? You know, imagine those conversations that he was having, you know what I'm saying, Like, I'm talking to an eighteen year old? What are we talking about? You know? But he's he's he's made the adjustment and done it for so long. And I think the biggest thing last year, I think was COVID and Roy talks about this too. COVID was such a strain on these coaches last year. I think last year one of the

reasons why Duke didn't do so well. We spent the whole year trying to keep coach healthy, trying to keep coach from not getting COVID because he falls into that demographic of people who, if they got it, had underlying conditions and were older, could possibly die, you know what I'm saying. And so I think we spent so much time trying to keep our guys healthy, but most importantly trying to keep him healthy, that we lost sight of some of the other stuff. I'm not making any excuses,

You're just talking about the reality of of that. The time, absolutely and and so for Duke, I think it was tough. And then at some point, like if you're seventy plus years old, you've already done thirty plus years. Do I want to deal with this? Do I want to deal with COVID? Do I want to deal with the transfer proto? Do I want to deal with what? What? What? Do I want to deal with this? I've done my time and so you know, God bless you know, God bless him. And I'm I'm happy for him that he saw the

light and he wants to step away. Now we have a great coaching waiting John Shire, and um, you know he can go home and spend time when his god kids, walk his dog and you know, be a grandfather, be a husband and just relax. You you said you didn't have a NBA career, but you know you played professionally overseas. We and Ivory on here and she Ladder, Yes, she talked about Yes, she talked about her experience overseas. How was your experience overseason? What what places did you play?

And how is that for you? It was incredible. Look, your goal as a basketball player is to be a professional basketball player. Obviously, if you can play in the NBA, it's the ultimate of the ultimate, and I gotta taste of that in summer leagues and preseasons. But I still got paid for playing basketball, which is awfully, you know,

which is pretty good. So I played, you know, two years in France, you know, Slovenia, Amsterdam, China, you name it, venezuela passport full of stamps, and so basketball has offered me a great opportunity to see the world and see places that I probably would never see if I wasn't playing the game. When you first started playing overseas, what was your mind set? I was disappointing because I felt like I was an NBA player and I deserved to play in the NBA. But the reality sets in, I'm

not in the NBA. This is where I'm at, So let me make the best of this. We go here. But why are you disappointed? Well, I mean, listen, I mean I can't front and lie my goal as a kid, was always to play in the NBA. I remember visualizing and imagine myself, you know, being in the NBA playing on Christmas Day and having my mind. I mean I had visually I dreamed about this and the fact that I came shorten that department. You know, it kind of stings and hurts initially, but then you have to move

on there. Okay, what are we on to next? And so you know, that's what I was able to do. But I think, you know, getting overseas for the first time, it's just it's like it's it's a bit much like this is so different than when I'm used to no b et you know, no uh no things that I'm used to, you know, at the house, I mean, everything is so much smaller. Why is my washer and dryer the same stackable stackable? But but it's the same. Yeah, that's sure. I don't know how to drive a stick.

They just gave me a stick. What am I? How am I going to drive this car? Oh? Look at Oh? Sorry, the free car they gave you wasn't good enough. Don't look around in the room. I'm talking. It was good enough, but they could have got me automatic. You know what's funny though my first year. You know, in Europe everyone drives a stick. Yeah, it's not. No one really has an automatic. So I got a brand new car. It's a stick, and within a week I started burned the clutch.

I stripped the games, burned the clutch. Done miraculously. A week later I had an automatic. Yeah, so yeah, I should have just gave me that. From the beginning. We went out to go through all this. So you go to so first first team was France, Slovenia, Sylvenia. Where's that? That's a small country right next to Croatia in Austria. I didn't know where it was either. Had I had to go to Google to do my research. No, stop lying.

You did not Google back then, I didn't Google. But look, you looked at an atlas whatever, whatever, Google, whatever the Google equivalent was. I did that. You went on my Space? Who is once? You got Italy here, um, Austria, Croatia here, and in Slovenia, so that in the Baltic region right there? All right, so you got there? What was that? What was what was your experience other than they gave you a stick? It was clums were smaller. Yeah, you know,

playing for a EuroLeague team. Um, you know, people don't understand. I mean, NBA is the best competition in the world, but Europe is not too far behind. And a lot of their players, you know, are coming to the end. You can see how good they are. I mean, how good is Luca. I mean he's from Slovenia, you know, and they were known for having some really really good basketball players, you know, back in the day. And so the basketball was different because you know, it was more physical,

you know, more technical, you know. And and here in the States you earn you have to earn your points in the paint. You have to earn your points in the paint, you know. Um, here in the States, everything was more athletic, more up and down. You got to get out in transition. Not so much in Europe. You know, they ran offense just about every time down and so it takes away I was a really really good athlete and I like to get up and down, jump and

dunk and do stuff like that. And it takes away some of your game because now everything is in the half court and you got to get used to the physical nature. It's almost like playing a Big ten basketball like against Michigan State every night. That's what it's like. You know, Michigan State's gonna grind you out. They're not gonna run as much. They're gonna they're gonna be physical with you. That's how European basketball was. God, hey Gerard,

why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. So you got your camp. Now you do your academy. You know, tell tell us about your academy, and and and what the purpose? What is the true purpose for you? Right? You know you're doing basketball, you

are investing in kids. In August we celebrated our tenure anniversary. So I've been doing this for ten years, working with kids, skill development training, spin, agility training, We do camps, we do clinics, um um uh team but corporate team building events, all these things surrounded by basketball. How how do you? I'm always interested? How do how does because I don't get it in basketball? Because I don't really know. How

do I judge a good trainer? In basketball. Because I can watch a football player, I can watch a football trainer. I can tell you know to some degree, is this guy, you know a gimmick? Guys, this guy really you know, standing like this and do this. I'm gonna make his his forty faster all this stuff. But yeah, you can. But making the kids forty faster and that boy still can't catch, just mean he does. He's just a fast

grew up. Right. We know he can get from point A to point B. He can get from point A to point C because he's gonna drop it at B. So how do you know for untrained I like myself in another sport. How do you know? And what would you categorize it's a good trainer. What the biggest thing is? You know, if you're talking about age groups, especially with young kids seven eight, nine years old, the emphasis should

be fundamentals. You know, you should be teaching these kids how to pivot, you know, catch the ball on their follow through, make sure you leave your follow through every time on your shot. You know, being able to step into all your passes, defensively, stay in the stance. These are all the things that you should be working on

if you're a good trainer at that level. Now as you get to those school in high school, you can start talking about more advanced things, you know, offensive breakdown moves, how to get open off screens. But really, I think the biggest thing is is do you make corrections or do you let things just pass? So we have an hour workout session. Okay, and you make two or three mistakes. I know you make the mistake. A parent is there watching, knows he made a mistake. But as a trainer, you

never say anything. You gotta stop correct and teach, all right. Another thing is you need to, you know, not so much get on your players all the time in terms of yelling and screaming at them, but when they do something good, congratulate them, praise them for what they're doing. Right, And so now the player gets to see both aspects.

All right. So he got on me about doing this, but he said, I did a good job because I did this, So I need to stay away from doing this and I need to do more of this, all right. And then lastly, you know the proofs into putting. You know, I think you have a good trainer. If he's starting to get results. You know, so now when he's playing in his AIRU game is how school games and he's now you know, I got a text yesterday. The kid's name is Kneeling Nieling. He hit three threes in the

game yesterday. One step back jump shot, one shot faking blow by, and then another wide open three. Well, it's crazy because in our training session just the day before, these are all the things we worked on, and so now he gets into his game situation and now he's actually he's actually able to do those things. And so these are the tell tell signs. You know, we're not gimmicky.

We're not about you know, throwing, you know, juggling balls and cones and dribbling, you know, three basketballs at one time will in the game situation, you only play one ball, So why are we dribbling in three while we trying to juggle three? And so you see a lot of guys doing stuff like that, and you're like, you know, what are we doing. There's a lot of trainers out there, and there's a lot of good trainers out there, but

there's a lot of bad trainers out there too. And what you want to do is you want to have a good a guy who understands and those who has credentials. You know, he preferably a guy who played in college or professional because those guys seem to know you know about the game. You know, if you know what your what what what what journey or what role you'll have to have to travel ros or pros and the NBA or pros overseas. And the last thing is the mentorship.

All right. Now, I don't sell this. It just happens. Because you spend so much time with these kids, they begin to follow you, they begin to to hang on your every word. And now it opens up opportunities to talk about um, your studies, you know, what you're doing in the classroom, girls, the pitfalls of dealing with girls, drugs, crime, and all these others. And now you've got a chance to really imprint yourself on these kids because you've cultivated

relationship with them and their parents. And now you cannot, like build a really strong individual. Maybe we want to look train with you a little bit. Basketball can't prove them a jumper, though, Well, you'd be surprised just to hear your passion and to sit here and see you talk about it. Something you've been doing for ten years that when you started, you didn't even really know, this is what you wanted to do. Yeah, and then it

turned it into that. You know, and I haven't seen your rules and regulations for your camp or anything, but you have a young man or woman walked in with the U n C shirt on. Do they pay more or do you still so you don't pay more? But I'm gonna make you run extra sprints, fork for sure, you know. So if everyone's running, you know, just two up and backs, you're gonna have to run four because this baby blue is a different type of blue that

I like. I like the darker shade. Yeah. Well, people don't understand, man, that college stuff when you're in charge or you got that Mike and somebody else's from the opposite school like that, that real rival. Man, it just sits with you a whole lot different. Well, I didn't realize the verytime I got here, coming from l a USC u C, l A Celtics Lakers. Yeah, we might be the biggest two ribalties that that that we knew, you know, Duke Carolina. You see it on ESPN, but

once you get here and live it, it's real. Well I'm I'm Utah and I'll talk um on the network and every so often. You know, I gotta talk about a b y U guy. Well, I'm not I'd be like, right right, he could be throwing a million first downs in touchdowns. I'm like, yeah, it's not that good. Was just decent. I want to I want to share a quick story about that because we joking. We just about it.

But Steve and I had the opportunity to go speak to a local college football team here, and you know, Steve went up and shared some good stories with him and the team and the coach. You know, we're showing some love to us, and they gave us some gear. But facts here. Steve sat there and said, I really appreciate the gear. But he had his U TIHI down because it was Utah b y U week, and he told the coach, no disrespect, but I'm wearing this hat. The coach stood there and said, that's what I'm trying

to get at this program. You're wearing that hat because it means something to you just a hat. So it was really really cool that a joke turned into a learning moment for all his Well, I wasn't joking. I was it was dashes. I want my Utah hat. I'm like, man, it's big week. We played b y U. I had I had a lunch wager with a fellow b y U Guy Derwin Gray Uh pastors at Transformation Church every year. He's like, what you what we're doing? Back of chips? You know. It's just kind of like Utah. You know,

he went to b y y'all with the Utah. We live here in Charlotte, and so you know, I'm getting text from him every day. What y'all gonna do today? I'm like, what y'all gonna do? And so when I spoke to the school and like, hey man, we we we gave his gear, and I'm like, man, you put in the bag I put in the back seat. And then you know, maybe another day yesterday, but today and it was Friday? Was it Friday night? Was Friday night? You taught me while you were playing Saturday? Absolutely not.

I'm not taking off my gear. It wasn'tn't happen. Yeah, I mean, listen, there's some there's some great robberies and sports, you know, Yankees, Red Sox, Ohio State, Michigan, Utah, b y U. But Duke Carolina, Man, I can't. It's a special. It's something that but but every school, big or small, you have that robber. It means something to you. And you know, and I and I respect coach Italy for that, and it was awesome, but it was also like I was like, man, Coach, I can't do that, you know.

Um And and my school isn't big, but it's my school. You know. They eight it took a chance on me, you know, and so I want to anyway I can repay them. I try, absolutely, absolutely, Rick, We've come to the last section of our podcast. Here, We've got a cut more questions for you and learn a little bit more about you. Um. We hear you're writing a book right now. So where are you at in the process and what inspired you to write It doesn't have pictures.

It will have pictures. They'll be black and white. Oh okayture costs more, printing costs. The printing costs. Uh. But no, you know, this was something that was kind of inspired by COVID sitting at home, you know, lockdown. And people have always told me, because of my storytelling abilities, that I should write a book, and so you know, I thought about it, and I thought about some more and I'm like, you know what I'm gonna go ahead and do this. And so the book is really about success

in leadership, you know, the five pillars. You know that I've been of the game ready, um, you know, program on and then kind of like a memoir of my career as a basketball player, you know, going all the way back to my days in California, you know, to where we are now. And so when you put it together, you're getting you know, a very you know, strong, emotional um book that is filled with you know, nuggets to you know, get you better at being a better leader

and being more successful. And so you know, we're right there at the end. I have a co writer at Lease Williams who I'm working with, and we're finishing up the last two chapters you know as we speak, and then we're gonna go to editing, and then you know, we're gonna go to print and then you guys to both get a signed copy and I expect you to be at the book signing as well. We were told what we were doing. Yeah, this is this is this is like you know, to repay for me coming on

the podcast. Can that happen? I mean, I mean, I take the question is are they actually doing book signings like in in person. Now, well, you know, by the time, I'm not trying to be funny. I'm literally like thinking about like books. I mean I read books. I read them all. I listened to audio books and also just

ordering them and sit there and read them. And I can't remember the last time I heard a book sign, right, And so we have to be very weird that obviously COVID is still you know, I'm just talking about just overall, like well, yeah, I mean there are some people who are avid readers and who really want to see and hear from, you know, certain individuals. And I know that with the following that I have, especially in North Carolina,

people want to hear the story. I mean I would hope that I would get at least fifty people to come out. You know, you got to you got two right here, I got five. I better come to well you production staff that cut to it, well, the production that one books to that. So if I mean not a problem, fine, um is that charity. We gotta give you our so scarity number after right, or you charge you can't give us a book and then give us

a bill like yeah, here's my cash a number. Yeah, So I'm not going to divulge in the title, yet I'm kind of keeping it close to the vest. We're going around three different options. Um and so ask me again and about a month and I might have a clearer answer for you. Thank you. I respect that. Thank you off, Mike, I tell you though, these No, that's twice today today. Okay, how old you get? These jokes

are always funny? Just guess yes they are. Yeah. Now that you you know, writing a book, got your academy, how do you want to right the last chapter of your journey? That's a great question. I already want to do more motivational speaking as well. I've done a lot of that over the past couple of years. Obviously the last year and a half or so, no one's done a lot of that. But I want to. I really

want to do more motivational speaking and team building. Um and so you know that's something that then I al really feel passionate about. And I want to continue stay on the path with with coaching. You know, I love working with kids. I love helping you know, kids reach all their goals and aspirations. And if they love the game as much as I do, I feel obligated that I'm then I'm wanting to help you. Luckily, in North Carolina, there's a grid's a great lane for basketball. Basketball is

king of football, not soccer. Basketball is the number one sport in North Carolina. I don't know what you're talking about on soccer. Oh, soccer is big two man. Soccer is crazy. Soccer is big two football here maybe not so much. But basketball. Every kid has a hoop, every kid is playing, every kid wants to go to do

North Carolina. Every kid has asked for playing a professional and these parents understand that, and you know, they want their kids to achieve their goals, and they know that them are not going to be able to get in college. They know that, but they don't care. It's the journey that they're interested in. So you're talking about the journey of the kids, and percent will not make it just

the status. What are you saying from you? You know, prior to COVID and your team building, why is that such a profitable business for you, especially with North Carolina

and Charlotte. How many companies are moving here. I'm always intrigued because I've started to get some of that, and you know, not to the level you are, but I'm just interested like I will meet or do you know, identified a few company zoom and always do like we'll end up somebody asked me a question and the CEOs on there and I and I realized at some point through the process, I'm like, this dude's the CEO or CFO. He has no ability to think outside of the lane

of business. It's amazing. You know, there's so much synergy in between sports and corporate America and what it takes to build a team, you know what I'm saying. And so you have to have certain principles that you rely on, like Coach k built his Dude program on and those same principles can be used in corporate America. And so I do consulting work with do corporate education and they do just that team building. We've been doing that for

the last eight years. And then you know with Game Rate that do my own stuff on side, and so so now you know, we take you through some basic basketball drills. Okay, corporation corporations and so now a lot of these guys have never or ladies have never played basketball before, and now they're thrown into something that they've never done before. So they're uncomfortable, they're very uncomfortable because they're the head honcho of their business, of their group,

and now and they can't make a sandwich. They can't make a sandwich, let it on a layup. And so now I thought you in some basic basketball drills. But in order to get through these drills, you have to use each other to push each other through, all right, and you have to do it as a group. You have to you have to do it as a team. And so now we're building team chemistry, we're building camaraderie. And now there's a there's a there's a sense of we can do this, but we can do it together,

not individually, but we can do it together. So you've got like a basketball escape room. Basically, Yeah, that was just off to come. I mean, basically that's what it is. I mean, it's it's you. You're just getting away. You're out of your your room of a reason, and you're doing something very uncomfortable, and you're using your compadres, your

co workers to help you through. How do you handle how do you handle a CFO who has wanted this to be a team building for the group, And you realize the CFO, who's a point guard, is the reason why the team isn't efficient, can't score points, can't grab a rebound and even line up for free throw. What's crazy? As we experienced that with the guy. We did a

group in Paris and uh CFO. He's very very very animated, very raw ra but sometimes it was overbearing for his coworkers and so you know, they didn't see the end result. They just saw him yelling and screaming, and they needed him to lead more than the screen more and be less competitive in certain aspects. They gravitated towards that a lot better than his style of leadership, and he had to learn through our program that he needs to lead differently.

And if and if we can reach that guy and reach all these people and teach them how to lead differently, then their corporation is going to be better and as a result, everybody wins. I mean, you can look no further than this room. I mean, you have a team of guys right here. Even though you guys are the point guys and the people hear you. Without these guys on the production, it's not gonna happen. Basketball no different.

Everyone talks about Steph Cray making ten threes, but what about the screen that was set for him to get multiple screen. Absolutely, you know that falls by the wayside. But Draymond said, a couple of those and now he's responsible for five of those threes. Now go to state one by fifteen going away, Steph had thirty five or forty and Draymond doesn't get but he does because the people who understand it, to understand the game, they see that his value on the team, all right, and so

we all have value. We just gotta figure out what that is. Man, Appreciate you coming in. Appreciate you being in studio. Man was it was. It was a pleasure. Anytime you guys don't want me to come back out, we'd love to be back. Thank you, Thank you. You are a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior. I'm Gerald Little John and this just cut

to It. 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 app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It, Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci. Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show

from Balto Creative Media. Cut To It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all snow