S2 Episode 2: 12,000 Shots

University of Georgia guard Anthony Edwards. Yeah, there's Edwards, a nineteen year old with the talent to go number one overall and the grit to stay in the league for many, many years. We was just in a gym like every day, all all day, all night. In this episode, we'll get to know another dynamic carresmatic larger than life one and done guard. Oh well, old Tyrese Maxie from the University

of Kentucky and he's brushing his teeth. Yep. Even athletes at their peak of training and preparations still struggled to wake up on a chilly morning and go to work, just like the rest of us. But unlike most, Tyrese just woke up at four fifty am inside of Beverly Hills Hotel. My daily routine is a lot of people think it's crazy. I think it's normal. That's Tyrese describing his recurring wake up call. The reason why I do it is because I feel like I get a psychological

advantage over my over my opponents. Why it's crazy to see someone do three workouts before some you know, some of my opponents and some of my periods even are waking up. He leaves this hotel room and heads to his car. It's still dark out and there are almost no other cars on the road, at least bite l A standards. I want to be someone that doesn't have any what ifs. I don't want to be at the end of my career when it's all setting done. The boss I was bouncing and say, dang, what if I

just worked a little bit harder. What if I did this, or what if I did that? And you know this would have happened. I want to be able to say, you know, I gave it my all. I did everything I could, and I maximized on my potential. You know this is gonna be my profession. You know, this is this is me perfecting my crab this is what I'm good paid to do. I love to do this my passion, but you know, at the end of the day, this is a business. This is gonna be my job. Like

my body is my job. I have to take care of me and I want to make it the best that I could possibly be. All three of his workouts this morning will happen back to back at all before eleven am, and so every morning he has this thirty minute commute to a gym and chatsworth often rolling calls with people in other time zones who also might be awake this early. Now, I called you to tell you how my workout went, he is today. No, no, no, no,

It was the Pelicans. This is a friend back in Texas and tyren is calling about his most recent workout with the New Orleans Pelicans, who hold pick number thirteen. Like Anthony, Tyrese is working out for most of the team's picking early in the first round, a good sign he could be taken in the top half of the draft, but when and where is as big a question mark as with any player this year. Rumors have him as high as number eight and as low as number twenty eight.

That's spread is a difference of about seven and a half million dollars over his first three years in the league. This means each team workout really really matters. Oh was there slow really good? Yeah? I'm sure? Yeah, I hate in a row? Yeah yeah, Thix in the right corner corner.

That kind of dead eye shooting is exactly what Anthony and Justin and his crew were talking about in the last episode, and this performance is especially noteworthy for Tyrese when the biggest knock against him is his inconsistent jump shot. Last season, he only shot from three point range, low enough to keep numerous NBA executives awake at night wondering if he's the right guy for their team. Stroke coming along, Yo, Hello, Parlar, Yo, you gotta say pols bron that was what the stroke

coming along? Yeah? Yeah, yea, but now yeah, have a smooth, real smood. Tyrese arrives at the Chatsworth Gym a little before year. He and his uncle Brandon have been living in southern California since May after the college season was canceled and without a summer league to play in. He's built this disciplined routine to capitalize on the downtime. Some of my warm clock goes off at four fifty every

single morning most of the time. My uncle thus something to get a little breakfit soundwards and then we're getting to the gym by five forty five stretch, start working out at six. I swoon. The workout done at around seven fifteen, seven twenty answered the way room. Here's his uncle Brandon. He's been living in l a to help keep an eye on his a few in the big city. But Tires's focus has never been a concern, even with all the turmoil this year. It's just been embracing the

embracing the situation circumstances. I'm just being grinding. It's just I's honestly kind of worked out because it's helped him just stay in the gym more um and that's it. I mean, that's pretty much all he wants to do anyways, work out. It just seems like it's basketball, basketball, basketball. It's always been this way. Tyrese has envisioned his basketball

future since grade school. Every year it's cool, like from fifth or sixth grade, I sit down the day before school and I write down my life goes right down, my sports goals for basketball goes and I write down my academic school goes and I did that every single first day of school all the way to my last, well my first and last year of college. By the time he started middle school in Garland, Texas, he was writing about becoming the next grade player at the University

of Kentucky. I'm in McDonald's All American. I was gonna and I go to Kentucky and to the NBA. Now that vision has almost been fully realized. He's finishing his third workout of the day in Los Angeles. He signed with the most powerful agent in the NBA, Rich Paul, and he's being talked about as a potential lottery pick. He's focused nearly every action and decision since middle school to get from there to here on the cusp of

being a first round pick in the NBA. And if you watch closely, he almost always leaves clues showing how he's been able to defy the odds and make his dream a reality. We'll be right back. Tyrese arrives at the Chatsworth Gym with his trainer, Chris Johnson, ready to start their next workout. When oh here, ready, ready, you already know, I know, let's get it. Look look, look, look now what I told you. Look what's he's doing? Look about that? Oh remember I was telling you about

the brain. Look, okay, nothing. I'm trying to show him the difference between a motherfucker that's gonna be a multip millionaire and then god that don't know you. You already anticipation. Some people can't anticipate, so they have to wait. Yeah, Tyree started setting up his own shooting drills. So even a few minutes it would take to put down cones isn't wasted. He wants every possible rep he can get.

That's how intense his commitment to improving is. If you really wanted and this is what you said that you want to do, If you want to make to NBA or you want to make it or do whatever it is, all you gotta do is put the work in. You have to put the excessive amount of work in, and you gotta sacrifice. You gotta sacrifice. It's not it's not easy, but it can be done. No matter where he's from, it it can be done. It's no, it's not easy, but it definitely can be done. Nice just food person.

So our goals every day for Tires is to make over two thousand shots. So if you look at two thousand times six, that's where twelve thousand shots a week over a five six month period. That's a lot of shots, and that's made shots. So it wasn't complex, it was super simple. This is where we have the correct let's put in the world. They're focusing on improving areas of his game that still need work, his shooting mechanics and a more consistent three point shot, and the only way

to do that is with reps. Lots and lots of reps, right to shoots, best shooting in your drift. I'm telling you, got it, stay word it. Just how much of a sacrifice Tyrese is talking about is something most non professional athletes don't understand. Forcing himself to make over three hundred

thousand shots this summer, it's just the beginning. Here's Tyrese's mom, Denise, in their house in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas known for its parks, wildflowers, and safe community and for being the hometown of p g A champion Lee Trevino and NBA All Star Mookie Blaylock. Denise paints a picture of what her son's childhood looked like. On most weekends, we're in a car together rotting to the game or to the tournament out of town, you know, a mom.

So we're we're having a happy, go lucky time. But then dad, the driver is a coach, so he's like, it's not time to play, it's a time to get focused in. So we got an eight hour drive to wherever we're going, and I'm trying to make fun and the driver and he's pissed because we're laughing and playing. That was Tyres's dad, Tyrone, Maxie, You've got to lock in. It's how he was trying to get Tyres to intensely

focus during these car rides. So that wasn't easy. So now you're in the car with the coach, hit it to your tournament, but also your dad. Then you gotta stay in the room with your dad, so you gotta watch film the whole time, while your teammates may be playing their games or at the pool or whatever they're doing. But no, you're in the room watching film and you know, getting ready for your opponent and breaking down, you know,

whatever defense that person maybe bringing or whatever. And then you gotta go out and play the tournament with your dad, who's the coach get yelled at and do whatever else they do out there on the on the floor. They come back to them and they come back to the room and watch my film again. That's Tyres chiming in. And then you gotta go sleep mad because you ain't can do anything. You know, you don't have a normal life.

It is absolutely the truth. It was the absolute truth almost every single weekend of our lives for the last ten years. Ten for the year that was our weekend. But you know, and I'll be like tired. Do you don't think he's been too hard on him? I called my husband tied, so tire, aren't you? Don't you think you're being too hard on him? You know he should be happy? And no, he needs to learn these things now.

A Division one coach is going to demand these things of him, and he needs to The sooner he learns, and the more he will be prepared when he hits stepped forward for a Division one coach. And if he doesn't learn him now, and then he's not gonna be able to adjust. The coach is not gonna have time to teaching these things. So he needs to learn him now.

Not grant. Chances are this is probably he was twelve thirteen years old, so we were six seventh eighth grade and he was learning, he was breaking and literally he started breaking down his own film at eight. So imagine being eight years old and you're sitting in the room with your dad breaking that film. Imagine that while your friends are either outside shoot hoops or to a plan to PlayStations, and you have very little time to play. So it was very difficult for for him. And I'm

not just paying the band picture. My husband is an amazing guy, but it was on. What I want people to understand is that there was a lot. My husband put so much work into developing terriss On and off more skills to where it in some moments, I felt like he didn't have an opportunity to be just a normal kid. University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who recruited and then coached Tyreson college, speaks to the level of preparation Tyrone gave his son. It started with his father.

Tyrone was a basketball coach. He ran the dribble drive stuff better than I did, and I'm the one that brought it into college basketball. His teams were better at running it, which meant Tyrese learned court spacing, running downhill, running the whole league is at now the spacing that you need, the ability to shoot threes. I mean his dad taught him. His dad was also the guy that would be in the gym with him if I thirty

in the morning. I mean, that's who he is, so we knew getting him here what it would look like. Of course, it looks different depending on who sneakers. You're standing in from the outside looking at. If you you see someone's dad coaching them, you automatically think like they're gonna have their way. You know, the dad's not gonna be tough one. Then the dad's gonna let them do kind of whatever they want to do, which wasn't the case for me. It was like it was almost the

exact opposite, Like he was the toughest on me. It was Tom's where in practice it would be like I know I was doing the right thing, and he was still like find a way to you know, get on me. And it was like, which is which is cool? Because I understood he always he always found the way, even if I had, like he said, a good game, forceps whatever, he always found a way to be able to to umble me and make me stay hungry and made me want to be great. And that's one thing I really

appreciate it for him. But no, it was not easy. Tyrone was tough, hyper competitive, and determined to succeed. Tyrese immediately spotted those qualities in another famous player. I think my dad really modeled his game at Isaiah Thomas. But in my opinion, the film that I watched him him Isaiah Thomas were identical. The toughness that Isaiah brought to that team and just to his personality. I see there my dad. He acts the same way he and my and I don't see my dad. It's not the biggest

Isaiah Faan just because he loves Jordan's. But it's funny because I was I was telling my mom when you know, I was one time I was able to talk to the great Isaiah Thomas and I was like, Mom, they're the same like, they act the same way. I don't know why. That's probably why he's so competitive, and you know it doesn't care for him as much as he should because they're the same, they're the same way, the

same person. He's a small guy. He's five nine, so you know, it's not easy for him to be, you know, Division one basketball player, but he worked extremely hard and and became talented and what he did and perfected his craft to where he got scholarship. He wants scholarship to play at Washingtonate University. Tyrone averaged about five points a game for Washington State under coach Kelvin Sampson, which was as far as his size and physical ability could take

him as a player. And after that, he wanted to become a coach, and he studied the game and and just became a student of the game and really perfected his craft and coaching and became one of the best coaches in the Dallas area. And I think he passed all that knowledge that he knew down to myself. So when I told him everything, I know he's gonna be better than me. I admit that that's Tyrone again, with Denise and Tyrese still in the room. So it's just funny.

My dad said that, and all my friends t the same thing. He better you here. Now, I give him that he got it. Oh wow, I can't believe you said that. Hey, and fifty years old, fifty you got me? I mean yeah, but uh, but yeah, for so many years, yet he will never beat me, admitting he's soon to be first round NBA pick. Son is better than he is. Did not come easy because the fiercely ambitious nature he has doesn't go away, and now it's instilled in his son.

So even at age fifty, there are no easy baskets in the Maxi household. Ever, Well, first got back and we worked worked out a little bit, and I was just messing with him, man, like, I don't know what I'm saying something to him, and he started talking smack or whatever. I said, what don't they ever talk to me like Heather again, don't do that. But he started talking to Nords. But my, y'all South Dallas just that other yet that that side data stuff ain't gonna work

this that other. But you know that's all. We both men, we both have test assom so you know, it never get to that point. I mean, you know I love him. Uh, we both with both of a screen and screenly competitive we are we are we. I mean we go round around about basketball, different players and who we like to said, who's you know, who's the goat, who's not the goat? So yeah, well, I mean that's what that's what we do.

Here's Uncle Brandon under dynamic and that particular on the court batch up his dad, like his dad was trying to lock up on him, and and Reese is kind of like a little boy and him like, you know, it was funny. They got super intense and I was just sitting back like, okay, alright, cool, but it was it was it was hilarious. Man. After we when we got in the car, we left and joked about it. They played just the like, I mean, the same thing. His dad is the same way defense shoot the ball,

uh point guard. They played the exact same way. He's just holler competitive, same way. He's been like that forever. He's been coaching his whole life. I think it's only one time and I think that was his junior year where his dad didn't coach him. And whether it's been peewee, little league, direct league, hey, you select ball, whatever you you name it, he's coached him even I think he played baseball at one time and his dad was the coach.

Everything is a coaching moment, Like everything is a coaching propoment in that house. And it's like you know sometimes and that's why I come in that you know, sometimes uh, he just wants to just maybe just talk, and they don't want to always be like, all right, you tell me this, then I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to you in a coaching manner. It's like you just sometimes you just want to talk. You just want to talk. You

don't get me wrong. His dad, you know, it wasn't always like that, but it was like you could tell us. Hard for him to turn it on and off. Maybe Tyrone couldn't turn off the switch because of his personality, or it's because some of his own dreams are being manifested through his son. We'll be right back. Tyrese's dad, Tyrone Maxie. I played the Vision one basketball for coach Sampson, so I knew the demand of order to so I

coached all my kids that way. I'm gonna demand this from you because no going to the next level, that's gonna be the demand. Nobody likes to look at them and to be corrected, nobody, and so I guess that was tough for him. I would bring him into the room when Jordan was playing. I said, look at this man, look at Jordan's This is how you want to be great.

Look at the things he's doing on the court. And so if anybody was playing Kyle, anybody that moved at the idea said look at this move, try this or whatever. And so this being his dad and being a basketball guy and him being a bad asked by a guy by basketball guy, it was great, man, it was great. I mean, I'm assuming now he feels like it was all benefited him. And that's all I wanted to ever wanted to do, to be the best dad, best coach, best asset for him, you know, trying to fulfill his dreams.

That's what everyone in the family does on some level. In a way Tyrese's success. It's like the family business, which could be a lot of pressure for someone about to turn twenty years old, serious expectations from dad and mom my, Mom. She she is, she is who she is. I mean, she worked and earned everything and all the tiles that she has. She didn't finish college and she worked extremely hard to where she is and she just worked and build a foundation for our family that she's

not gonna let anybody slack off. She never slacked off, so why why should she let us? And she doesn't get the craze that she deserves what she does for this family, but she doesn't want the crash. She's behind the scenes and and she's she's rock solid, even one thousand, four hundred and fifty two miles away. Denise plays a major role in Tyrese's life. A self proclaimed mama's boy, he calls her every single day to check in. We're

gonna be home Monday. Perfect? What here? Okay? Tyrese's grandparents and even his extended family have also all worked in the family business in the house that I'm in now. Both my grandmother's, my grandfather who before he passed away, lived there, my uncle you know, his kids have been there, have lived there at a time, my sister, both of

my author and my sisters have lived there before. And my oldest sister has you know, a set of twin daughters, so my you know, my nieces, twin nieces, they lived there at the same time. And my both my parents and myself, so all of us lived in this one house. Like if you can, it's hard to imagine that my oldest isn who have to sacrifice so much just because you know, a you had to travel and do different

things like that, you know. Sadly, I take up so much time for my parents, just because you know the schedule that I've had over the years. Here's coach John Calipari again on his recruiting trip to the Maxi household. When I went into the home, he made sure everyone was there, including the grandmother. He wanted his grandmother to sign off on me. Think about that, Think about the kind of person this kid is. They walked me up to his bedroom in ninth grade. He had a picture

he drew of himself in a Kentucky uniform. You don't want this guy. Absolutely I wanted the guy. And after a year of coaching Tyres, it was up to coach Kyl to help him decide whether or not to take the next step. NBA stands for no boys allowed. If you're not a man, you don't leave. If you're a child and how you're immature, you won't last there. They're adults. They look at you like, what do you fourteen? You have to be a man. You have to be ready

to bet on yourself. That's what you're doing. You're betting on you. You know you You tell these kids right now, there are thirty teams, So let's just say there's four hundred jobs. Well, there's not four hundred jobs because there's not four guys leaving the NBA. You know there there's probably sixty jobs. That's it. Then next year they'll be sixty. Sometimes there's forty, sometimes they're a hundred. To rest them,

you're in the G league, trying to fight. I'm trying to make it so you when you go, you need to be ready now. Tyrese is ready, ready for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to announce his name on national television, Ready to prove to everyone how much he wants it and maybe more than anyone else in this traft. He knows what it takes. It doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter. You know who you play for, None of that matters. If you if you work extremely hard

and you do, you know, it can be done. It can be done. It's not it's not easy. It's not easy. You're gonna have the sacrifice. You're gonna miss birthday parties, you're gonna miss, You're gonna lose friends, you're gonna you're not gonna build to, you know, hang out with everybody. You're gonna have to. You're not gonna be build up, go to every party or do you know certain different things or co certain different things that you want to

post on social media. It's sacrifice. Next are drafted. I'm watching this kid and he's just going through drills, real smooth. He said. His name is Anthony Edwards. He told me when he was in the tenth grade, I believe he could be a Lebron James Typitanic I felt like Georgia with the best I did for and so I just felt like that was the right thing to do. My goal always as a coach is not for somebody to get drafted. My goal is for them to be ready

to play, because NBA ready is completely different. I want to be a part of that legacy, and I'm going to be a part of legacy like that was. I had my mind made up in the eighth grade. When this thing ended. Some of the guys who were a little more outgoing than others, I think some of them were just stunned, like stunned, like what in the world. So coach cal turns to me and said, you're not playing. Here's a matter of fact, he tells. He tells, you know the other guys on our team that don't get

ready to play? For hy Men because he's he's not ready to play. I was like devastated. Given COVID things were going to be different, so we were tinkering with the idea of pro day. He pushed me so hard that nothing can phase me. Now. Drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio. The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric's A Lott sewn to Tone l Kie and me Keegan Michael Key. The series is produced and written by Eric Weiner. Jared

Bram is our coordinating producer. Trey McCain is our associate producer. Tom Monaghan is our senior audio engineer. Mixed and edited by Steven Johnson and Jasper Leek, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hailey Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more information on Drafted, go to tree Fort dot fm. For more podcasts. For my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.