Hoops Tonight - Rachel DeMita joins the show

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help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel Here at the Volume. I have a very very special guest for you guys today, Miss Rachel to meet a funny story. I met her

at the Volume party back in February. We were just trying to kill time waiting for the party to get going, and of course my wife is the very social one, so she's running around introducing me to everybody she sees, and and it was cool because obviously I grew up playing two K and got I got to see you there, and to get to meet you there was a really cool experience. I'm very thankful for you joining us today. I'm excited to talk about your new show, UM with

Courtside Club. So first of all, thanks for joining us, and if you can take a minute to tell us a little bit about what you're doing. Yeah, Well, it's it's funny. I feel like we've kind of come full circle because at the time when I spoke to you, you know, we had started court Side Club filming some episodes, but it wasn't really the reality that it is now as of yesterday and so and you obviously had been working on your podcast and and been in this space

a little longer than me. Um. So cool to see us, you know, actually on a podcast now and on yours. So thanks for having me um. But yeah, Courtside Club launched yesterday. It's actually been an idea of mine for probably about two years now. So I had this idea during pandemic um and even a little bit before that, and we were kind of shopping around the idea. It

was a different name at the time. But you know, I've my favorite part of every hosting job that I've done is is speaking with people and kind of bringing out their best stories. And I feel like I'm a I'm an interviewer if you if you want to call it that, in a producer at heart, even more so than just a traditional host. And you know, on every different platform and studio and network that I've worked with,

there's always these parameters. And in two K included of of the kind of questions I can ask, the kind of things that get cut out of the interview and maybe topics that I would normally want to talk about but I just didn't have that free reign to do it. And so Courtside Club for me is a mix of obviously the athlete that I am and that I will always be, but bringing that into the entertainment space and the culture behind sports because that's something that I'm very

interested in and I always have been. Um So yeah, it's it's a mix of that. I have a lot of different guests coming on, not just exclusively to athletes. There will be you know, entertainers, creators, a lot of

people in my world. And I'm actually excited to partner with ESPN because I feel like I will bring a different element than maybe ESPN uh is used to because you know, they have a lot of sports heads and and I'm excited to bring some creators and some people in my space into their demo, and then obviously I got to partner with Omaha Production as well have been absolutely amazing and helping me knock out all these episodes. Yeah,

that's that's Courtside Club in a nutshell. It's a super exciting project for me and I'm yeah, I'm excited that the world gets to see it now. So yeah, I would say that your best gift that I can tell from me watching your first episode and then getting to meet you in person is you have a remarkable talent for making people feel comfortable. And then when you combine that with the your love for the game, which you

can sense. I feel like, especially when you're talking to athletes, like if they can sense that you actually care and that you actually share in that love for the game with them, that helps bring out, you know, their interests and their engagement. So in your first episode, which I watched this morning and it was very good, I watched you beat the Professor in your game while while he was talking ship you hopped in there and edit the game.

Uh so you had the Professor on for your inaugural episode. Tell us a little bit more about that interview and what your favorite thing was about it. Yeah, so Grayson and I have known each other for years and then we talked about that a little bit on the podcast. Um. But it's cool because when I was a kid, I looked up to Grace And there's a lot of people that I looked up to when I was a kid that I now know and I'm friends with now and have worked with. So it's kind of surreal for that

to be my reality. But Grayson is somebody who we've collaborated a million times. He's an incredible athlete, and he's also just one of the best human beings that I've ever met, and so I wanted to have him on because we've done a lot of you know, TikTok videos, YouTube series stuff with two k all these different projects together, but I've never really sat down and just talked him about his story. You know, I know a little bit about it because we're friends, but I was just excited

to dive into that. And I feel like we both have a lot of similarities in our careers as well, because we've been on big stages and then kind of transitioned and now he's kind of in this creator landscape that I'm in and him coming from one and some people only knowing him from and one mix tape like I did. And then there's some kids now who follow him on TikTok and YouTube and have never don't even

know what an one mix tape is. And so just to talk about that transition, have a little bit of fun and just get his like, yeah, the story from his mouth, I guess from from from his side and what other people might know. So we had a lot of fun together. I like to compete with Grace and we normally do some sort of dribbling move and he's like teaching me something because I'll be the first one to say that I have no handles, which I do, but like to my standards, my shooting is elite. My handles,

you know, could use some work. So he's normally teaching me something in that sense. But when it's a shooting game, I have to win, even if it's a many many

hoope shooting game. Yeah. I thought one of the most interesting parts of that interview was you guys talking about the industry and having to be adaptable because you know, like I only knew the professor from and one and to to see how successful he's been after that because he audible, which is like I think that you have to do to succeed in this business, specifically to what I thought he talked about that was really interesting when he talked about a fifty fifty split between what you

love and what the fans love. And that's such a delicate balance because like with my show, for instance, I'm such a basketball nerd that I could get so far in the weeds sometimes that I need Ryan, my producer, to pull me back into reality sometimes because a lot of the people that listen aren't that interested in that type of in depth type of analysis. And it's very it's a very delicate balance because you want to be passionate and care about what you're talking about, but you

also want to give the people what they want. It was a super super interesting interview and I recommend all of you guys check it out. It is on the ESPN YouTube channel. Um, so you played college ball at at Old Dominion. Yes, Um, I obviously played it in college as well. How do you think that call? I played an ai A at Arizona Christian University and Phoenix, So I was at a lower level for sure, Um,

but are fun than my Sorry? That's true. I got to take a lot more shots when I was But how how would you say your college basketball experience helps you in your career. I think my basketball experience just in general helped me so much. And and this is a story. I've actually told it on my TikTok and it might piss off a few people, but honestly, the best advice that I ever got was from my high

school coaches. I was. I was a freshman playing on varsity, and I played a lot of minutes, starting half the game. We were a state state ranked team, we were good varsity squad, and I was the only freshman on varsity playing a ton. But my teammates were picking on me. My coaches would be so tough on me, like I'd miss a shot and I'd get dreamed at another girl missed a shot and you know, didn't matter. Or I'd throw a turnover, were on the line running another you know.

So I just really felt like I was getting singled out and and me, at fourteen years old, I would I would leave practice is like crying half the time because it was just a really hard situation to be in. And so I scheduled this meeting with my coaches, and I just wanted to talk to them about it because I'm like, you know, why are you guys being so mean? Essentially just you know, saying I'm having a hard time

with all this. And my my coach looked me right and right in the face and said, well, Rachel, you can get thick skin, or we can put you on JV, like, let us know what you want to do. And at that time, I was like, well, I'd rather cry every single day than play on JV. And I know that I could. You know, we're making this impact on varsity and that was something for me, just having thick skin

in this industry. And I'm not saying anybody should, you know, put up with bullying and there's things like worse than what I was actually dealing with, but it's just just that notion of being tough is so important for any athlete and then for my industry because I didn't pick an easy one. The entertainment industry is is not forgiving. You know, it's ever changing, and um, you know, you win some, you lose some. You you get some jobs, you don't get others. Some of some things succeed, some

things don't. And so that that's just been something that's really stuck with me, and just a work ethic that I am five almost five eight, um not naturally that athletic. I'm not super fast, I can't jump, and so all of these things were even against me in basketball, and so I had to work a lot harder than some of my teammates who also went D one. But I had a girl on my AU team who was five eight, and she was snapping the rim like I wasn't even I was barely touching the net and some of the

gym's you know what I mean. And you know, she went to Michigan State and was an amazing ball player, But I had to work twice as hard as her just to be able to earn that Division one scholarship. So I just think work ethic in general and that toughness has just really helped me in business. For sure. The NBA Finals maybe over, but Fan Duel Sports Book is still he to help you make every moment more with all of your favorite sports and teams, including NBA

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one sports book. Download the FanDuel Sports Book Gap and sign up using promo co Jason t to get started with your no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars. That story from high school is really interesting because I coach high school basketball too, and I talked to the

coach of runs the program. Obviously, because I work nights, I can't be super involved, but I help as much as I can with workouts and practices that I can go to, and he talks all the time about how what he has a plan for the way he's going to treat players from freshman year on, and he's deliberately harder on them early so that they can build the type of of toughness to be prepared when they get

to the point where they're juniors and seniors. And it is it's it's hard when you're in the moment as a player to see the forest for the trees, but there is like a larger plan there. And I always feel like I feel like college basketball for me, it's the discipline and the work ethic and the competitiveness. Just it makes you willing to fight for every inch and I definitely think that it that it helps. Plus it's

about the love for the game, you know. So you had mentioned in the interview with the professor that you walked away from Old Dominion, So I have not heard this story. You had mentioned before that you had told this before, but I'm really curious to hear what that story is. Yeah, I did, and my goal from seventh grade on was to get a full ride Division one scholarship UM, and that was always my goal. I never

wanted to play beyond college. I never wanted to play professionally and uh, and probably around my freshman or school, I realized I wanted to go into this entertainment space. And when I got to college, I played at Old Dominion. I think we're eleventh in the nation at the time. Coach Weddy Larry was coaching, who's a very famous women's coach UM, and I realized really quickly that I was not going to be able to pursue my career and get the education that I wanted while playing basketball. And

it could have just been the wrong school. Um, it could have been just us being naive because no one in my family has ever played sports in college, so

we the recruiting process was crazy for us. You're getting all these letters from all these different schools and going to these different tournaments, doing these visits and this and that, and then I get something from Old Dominion, which was the biggest offer for me at the time, because I did have a lot of a lot of smaller do you want places that I could have gone, but Old Men I was like, well, this is a big stage.

They were a lead eight last year, you know. And and very quickly I realized I couldn't major in the and what I wanted to major, and I couldn't take the class says that I wanted to. And so I'm I'm in my freshman year saying Okay, I can graduate from here and continue these four years and be a really good basketball player and then try to figure out what I want to do in my career, or I could walk away now and just you know, figure out

my career, and there were some other things too. I don't think the team in general was the best fit for me. Um talk about like bulling and stuff. It wasn't the greatest experience with the other girls on my team. Um and so I think that also played a part in it did. Just it wasn't like I was having the time of my life either, so and and you know,

at nineteen years old, I believe I was. It's still up there with the toughest decision I've ever had to make in my life, because my whole identity since I was you know, for the past ten years, was basketball, and so stepping away it took a lot of courage and I felt lost probably for about three years, if I'm going to be completely honest with you, and trying

to figure out who is Rachel. Now, you know, I transferred schools, went to America University, studied broadcast on anialism, got a fantastic, you know, education, and it was really going hard at my career, but I was still trying to figure out who I was, and it just really took that time because it was it was a heartbreak and away. Now I'm at a point that I can love the game of basketball again. I just love it differently,

not as a player anymore. So that's so interesting. I was just gonna ask you one last follow up question because someone asked me this the other day, um, and I thought it was a really interesting question. So I'm curious to hear your answer. Where is your love for the game of basketball right now? How does it compare to when you were playing. Do you feel like you ever get sick of it? Or do you feel like you love it more every day? I definitely do not

love it more every day. No, No, basketball is great and and it's one of those things like I've always also been that person that says, like ball is not life. I know of a lot of people like balls life. It wasn't even life. When I was trying to get into college, I would I would go to practice and listen. I trained a lot of trained before school, during school, after school, practice, all the things. But then I would

go home and watch cartoons or watch entertainment television. I don't even watched that much college basketball when I was playing until I started getting recruitment letters and I was like, oh crap, I gotta figure out which teams are good because I don't even know who these teams are. So I've always been that person who has a lot of different interests. I was also like studying animals, and that's that's still me to this day. So I'm not that

person who's at dinner always talking hoops. I will, and that's fun for me at times, but no, it's it's not life. I love basketball, always have an appreciation for it. I'll always want to watch games, go to games, this and that, but it's it's not my whole life. I have a lot of other interests to that. Yeah, I was playing with a buddy of mine who was on

my men's on my men's league team. He played in the Big Sky Conference, so he actually played at a higher level than I did, and he was I was telling him about my job because he had asked about it, and he was like, He's like, do you ever read sick of it? And I was like, I was like no, Like, but I'm a psychopath, Like I I live and breathe this every day of my life. I wake up in the morning and I trained high school kids, and then I do my own workouts and then I do my

own playing. And then I talked about the game for a living and then they play in my men's leagues and things like that. Like for me, I'm just very very weird in the sense that I'm okay with living and breathing it. But I talked to really good basketball players, players that were more successful and more talented than I am, and they're just like, yeah, I eventually got sick of it. It's it's just super interesting cause I was really curious

to see what your opinion was. So that's one of those things with with five on five too, because I play I only play if I play in two celebrity games a year, and it's the NBA All Star Celebrity Game, which I ever retired from, and it is the of celebrity game at the final parts. So there's one that I will play in and that is my only time

I play five on five ever. And people always like wonder, like, oh, do you want to go like play pick up, and like, actually don't, Like I'll shoot around and have fun in the backyard or do trick shots or a game of horse and stuff. But I know a lot of people like yourself who like love playing five on five and even my friends and just have continued on. But like that part of me has retired. I guess well. The thing that's weird about it too, is like, once you've

played high level college basketball, every pickup game sucks. Like there's just nothing that even comes remotely close to recapture. Like my entire life is like scratching and clawing for the tiniest feelings that slightly resemble what it was like when I was playing. Like it's just this endless pursuit

that I could never actually accomplished. So I don't believe you, and I that's why so many of those people that played at a high level, they just don't They just don't want to play pick up anymore because it's like, what am I gonna do with these people? Don't even know how to play the game the right way? Know? That kind of thing hurt exactly exactly. So who's your who's your dream guest to have on Courtside Club? So I thought about this a little bit and somebody so

this came up randomly yesterday. I was like, you know, who would be a really cool guest? Nobody would ever expect this. Tony Hawk, Oh man, I like that upset. I'm obsessed with his video game. We re downloaded it. I am we have three parks left to beat the second game. We beat the first game. Obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with his social media. It's hilarious and I just saw him doing one v ones online his video game. But also just someone who's been the space again. He's

a sports icon. But I feel like Courtside Club is this nix right, So he's one. Uh. Nicki Minaj is another. I love Nicki Minaj. She's hilarious and she's also she had her radio show and she's kind of one of those celebrities who's she's like so sassy and untouchable in a way, and I just want to see what our energies would be like. That might be one that I would be like a little bit star struck just because it's Nicki Minaj Um. I would also love to have

Logan Paul on the show. And I know he's polarizing. Some people hate him, some people love him. We're both from Ohio. He I'm I'm really interested in his character arc because him his brother. I feel like I've come a long way and I was one of those people years ago who was like, who the hell are these kids that are just doing messed up stuff all the time. I don't want to curse on your podcast, um, but to see where he's kind of grown too, and the

things that he's doing in business. And then with Impulsive, which I think is a really good show. So those are three that that I've thought about. I feel like in the basketball space, there's a lot of people that I think down the line once Courtside Club grow a bit that I have met or talked to before that I could get on because we've worked together and had

a good time together. So you know, if you want to go big or go home like Michael Jordan's, I don't know if he would even consider that ever, even if it was like the biggest show in the world. But yeah, I just listened to a bunch of people. But we have a long list, we have the whole like Google doc of it. But you should come on also, by the way, for basketball, I'd love to interview Kevin Durant because like, I would just want to talk basketball, Like I wouldn't want to like talk about all your

side ventures and stuff like. Don't get me wrong, there's interest in that for certain people, but for me, it's like I just want to and I know Kevin Durant loves basketball, so I'd love to just pick his brain about all those different things. The Tony Hawk thing is interesting to me because I just can't imagine playing a sport where practicing every day involves repeatedly falling down and hurting yourself. Like that's that's the wild part to me.

It's because we might sprain our ankle or get a little sore, but like, these dudes put their body on the line every single day. He's still doing it, though. Do you follow him on Twitter? Yeah? So, wasn't he doing a thing recently where it was like, I'm going to try to get all of my tricks one last time,

I think? And then he was like like, because he's he's aging a little bit obviously, and he's like, I'm gonna just try to all of my signature tricks one last time, and each time he gets it, he fails a bunch of times before it, and then he gets it and has like this emotional moment. It's really cool, I think. I think his whole social media presence over

the last couple of years has been super fascinating. He's honestly like one I would be so excited to meet him, and I know that that's so out of left field. I can't even I've skateboard at once when I was a kid. I fell cracked my ankle open, never did it again. I've literally never been on a skateboard since, so like, it's not even a sport that I do or know much about. But I love the freaking video game and I think he's so dope. So anyway he

would be, he would be so cool. That's courts all cut for you, though, it's you never know who the guests is going to be. So let's let's talk a little bit of NBA hoops. So obviously, last week on Thursday, the Warriors won their fourth title in the last eight years, six trips to the finals in the last eight years. Do you think Steph Clay and Draymond get one more together? Yeah?

I think they can. I think they can. Can. I just say that I called the Warriors winning the finals, and I called them winning in six like early, like first round playoffs. Sorry, I know my predictions aren't always correct, And I was like, you know what, I need to brag about this one a little bit. No, you said, you gotta take your victory laps when you can, because the trolls will let you know every time you're wrong. Oh yeah, every time they'll find my old tweets and

and show me it was a bad take. But here's what I think about them, Um, I really I was rooting for them, and I was rooting for them because I think they're a really good example of good basketball and and what it means to keep a team together.

And these guys, their chemistry really paid off. And I was actually doing a show with the NBA on Twitter Spaces and I got to interview Andrea Gudala and Draymond and you know, Andrea Gudala obviously didn't play much, and when he did finally get back on the court, he's like, I haven't played with these guys, you know, and however many games, but the chemistry that we have off the court easily translates and I and I feel like I'm

falling right back in. Maybe I'm a step behind, you know, physically or whatever, but I still know where these guys are. And I think that's something not to take advantage of because in the past, however many years in the NBA, we've seen guys go to this team, this team, this team, getting their friends to come with him to this team, you know, and it it's proven with Milwaukee and the Warriors,

that doesn't really work. These these super teams, these friends and family teams that that some of the guys are trying to create and say it's the g MS, but we all know it's not. You know, I like good basketball and that system of basketball to be rewarded, and I think it's really cool what they've done well, and you could see most importantly, you can see it in the fan base. Like I was talking about this with Colin after the Finals. But to me, it's not a

coincidence that the Warriors get such good TV ratings. Yeah, obviously Steph is such a brilliant basketball player to watch, but also their fan base is as loyal and ravenous

as you'll find around the league. Because you they rode through the highs and lows with that group, they became extremely attached to each of the players and they don't have that mercenary type of feel like they're My favorite calendar example to this is Lebron when he passed I think it was when he passed Karl Malone or Kobe or something like that, and on the scoring list the year that they missed the playoffs in two thousand nineteen, and there's just kind of this awkward feel in the

arena because it's like, yes, Lebron's a Laker, but like the Laker fans are like, you're just passing through man, like you're not you know, you're not, You're not really one of us. Now he's earned that right over the last few years. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the Warriors are the way the way that they are. And I agree with you that that it's good to see that type of basketball rewarded. All right, So I've

got one last question for you. Okay, So we we have seen NBA players such as Draymond host their own podcast. We've seen like CJ. Mccollumn and Danny Green and some other other examples. Would NBA player would you like to see have a podcast? Mm hmm. That's a good one. Well this is not what I thought about. So I say someone along the same lines of like a Draymond Green type of energy as a Patrick Beverley. If you want pure entertainment, you know, sometimes I'm here for the

pure entertainment and just but I'm sure he would. If we're going to see some viral clips, it would come from his but from a standpoint of just I don't know.

But but then again for me, like what players do you think of when you think of of of players who are kind of well rounded and and doing some other things beyond basketball, Because that's again you're interested in, like the straight hoops and you would love to hear you know, like he said, you want to talk to Katie because you guys could really get into the nitty gritty at basketball. I love all the stuff surrounding it

that leads into basketball. So even if it was like Steph Curry, what if it was like a family podcast, you know what I mean, If it's like him his wife and his kids. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's you've got. You've got Dame Lillard with the rap stuff. You've got Russell Westbrook with all the style stuff. There's a bunch of players around the league that have interests off the court.

I think, I think to your point, like like different types of content will appeal to different types of people, but I think the number one thing that would matter is authenticity. Like I have no interest in seeing a Lebron James podcast because I would just be meeting his representative the whole time, Like I like, I don't I know, he's not going to come out and be Lebron, you

know what I mean? So like my thing would be like someone has interest off the court for for for the sake of what you're talking about, but they have to be willing to be authentic and to drop down the facade and just be you on camera and let us know who you are, which I think Pat Beverley, who is That's a great example, right, And that's that's one of the guys that's like if I'm rooting for the team that he's not playing on, I can't stand that guy, you know, But when he's on your team,

just kind of like, man, you know he might he might just knock someone out this game. Every every time you see his name come up. Every time you see his name come up, it's like the same people that were talking about him while they're watching him player, like we can get him, Like can we trade from what is it? What kind of number is he gonna fetch in the free agent market? Alright? So that thank you so much Rachel for coming to hang out with us.

Did you take one last minute to just kind of plug where we can find your show and when your next episode comes out and things along those lines of course. So Courtseye Club is live now. You can find it anywhere that you listen to your podcast, so Spotify, Apple, The full episodes are on ESPN's YouTube channel. You can find also, I believe on ESPN app you can find some stuff there. And then clips are on all my

social channels and my YouTube channel. All my social media is at our a demeta, so Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, all the things. And yeah, a new episode of Courtsye Club coming out Thursday. So for the first couple of weeks, we are throwing a bunch at you. So we have two episodes a week for the first few weeks, and I just want, I just want people to be able to experience this show. Binge it if you want to. Our catalog will build quickly and then we'll go till

once a week. But yeah, Monday Thursday. For the next few weeks, the volume