Leslie Jones at the Thanksgiving Dinner Table | Lisa Leslie and Steve Kornacki

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My guest tonight is a four time Olympic gold medalist, a three time w NBA MVP, a motivational speaker, a relator, and one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Giving up for my homegirl, he's a level. That's right. That's right.

You deserve all of that, girl world.

You know what I got what.

That's my die right there.

That's right.

Get you a path.

She got her own shoe, She got her own shoe.

Giving up. There's a dogs, there's a lease, a lesson.

Thanks to Nike twenty fifth anniversary of the WNBA and they came out with the dunk.

So yeah, first of all, how about it's just so cool to have you in front of me right now.

Yeah, thank you, Leslie.

Wait, can I just stop your show for a second, because your book is amazing?

Thank you so much amazing.

I don't know I people, if you haven't got it, get it.

Listen to it.

I'm on chapter six.

I've been laughing, crying, laughing again, crying. But it's amazing, amazing how.

Much I laughed and cried a lot too.

Yeah, it's awesome.

Like we're both from the same area, right, Like we both played ball in LA. I don't think I was as good as you. I definitely, I definitely know I was not as.

Good as you.

Yeah, I know that too.

But it's okay because you playing ball and you went to college playing ball. That's awesome.

Look, I thought I played you in high school. Remember when we first met. I was like, I played against you. Remember we almost got into a fight and you was like, girl, No, I.

Did have a few fights.

I did.

I would say my alter ego is probably your persona as a comedian.

So it's like.

I'm very calm and collected off the court, but on the court, my game is like how you.

Talk exactly what exactly? You don't want to see me? What we tell them, don't come.

In out house exactly.

So if we played ball like at our best, me at my best, you at your best, who you think would have one?

No, that's not a big car. That's not a good question you want to do over because me at my best is the best.

But I mean, I just don't let you know. I would have filed you. Oh yeah, for sure on you.

But just know I was the kind of player that I just match whatever energy you come so if you want to fight, we can fight. If you want to play nice, we can play nice. Like I really believe in that too.

But I love you though.

Yeah.

It's amazing though, right because we got a chance to be like so fierce and the play a sport that we loved. Yes, And for me, it was really about the next generation. You know, we didn't get as much spotlight as a young women get now, especially in the WNBA, but having that opportunity in that platform to be a role model for the next generation, that's all I kept thinking about, is those little girls out there who are going to see me, who want to.

Be like me.

Yes, Yes, that was it.

Let's stick it all.

Yeah, because it was so crazy when I was coming up.

We didn't have the wnbaby.

You know, we can go over the CC play and just to see it form and you, just like I said, made it look good and looked good doing it.

You know what I'm saying.

They called you Hollywood and because you knew how to dress. This is the question I have. We're both tall. Well, how hard was it for you to find clothes?

Oh?

The worst. All my clothes were men's clothes. First off, it was like a men's blazer. My mom would like, get it tailored. I wore a men's jean I had to get you know, I were like a back then. I only wear like a two or four or right, I an eight now. But it's like it was tough because everything had to be altered for me. But I had to buy men's clothes. But then I wear like v Nex shirts Mike. When I look back at those outfits before I started to making.

Money, it was tough.

But I always had a feminine nature, and I feel like my mom would always teach me to just be true to myself. Everybody else is taken right, so you have to show up. I started playing basketball late at twelve, so I was really into fashion and etiquette and wanting to be a model. That was my thing. But basketball just came and it was like this is my way.

Yeah, how did you become so good?

Like was it coaching or was you already.

Like, oh, thank you, you know it was my it's my work ethic.

Now.

First off, I'm very competitive now, I mean I'm like Space, Domino's, Pictionary.

Whatever it is. I'm trying to win. Like it's not fun for you. Don't come to my house. If you're not ready to compete.

Like people that say, like, oh no, it's not that serious. Oh no, you probably don't want to come over here. Don't come over here. I don't want to take the fun out of it for you. So I'm just gonna sit it out. But if I'm playing, I'm coming to win.

Oh I will curse you out if you're my partners spade. Oh yeah, don't renig, don't get up from the table.

Excuse me, don't renig. Did you see that joke? Did you see me lead with the diamond? That's because only got one.

You were nigged.

You never invited back to mind, don't come back.

People might not know renig means to play a book. That is, either you do have another in that suit, or you're not paying attention to the game if you don't realize what that is.

Right.

Competition is my thing, though, so I've always loved being competitive. But fashion is something that I liked. I couldn't afford to do at a high level. But I just feel like when you have style, style is important to me. And some time I look at some of the videos, I'm like, girlfriend, that was not it?

Yeah, because I don't think I've had style until I got a stylist, and that's like two weeks ago, until Brian started addressing me child he saw my closet when he first met me, he was like, oh oh, oh, oh, you know it's yeah because it's buying.

Stuff that fit.

And New York and Company was the only place they don't know they had jeans and stuff that was I'm sorry, so yeah, yeah it was.

But they was like, you know, not the ship on them. I want to shop on New York.

But New York Company now they did Gabrielle Union was like they came around.

They got their thing together, but first it was kind of silky. But I still like they jeans because they jeans was long enough them and tall girls.

You remember long y'all.

Yes, y'all, y'all don't know the Trump is of a tall with the big feet.

Yes, oh my god.

No, pay Let's started doing the pay Less they started doing big shoes.

You went way back pay Less, Yes, I did pay Less nor no Rack.

Nor pay Less was the first ones, like you.

Could get a park nor you could get like a size fourteen at.

Payless came out before nursing rat Rack came out.

Well, pay that's was out, but they wasn't doing big shoes like Norse rack B. We'll talk about it, I'm telling you. So let me ask you a question. Okay, so would you sorry is this that's watery?

That's actually how I call Would you like when the NBA w NBA started?

I know it was pretty exciting, but would you like to play the w n B A when it first started the w n B A.

Now, well, that's a great question. First off, I started in the beginning, so I was one of the faces of the WNBA. But if I play now, I would have made so much more money because I was into fashion and you know, skincare, haircare, being a role model, deoderant, anything, te toothpaste for teeth.

You know.

Yeah right, it's not too late.

Folks can get y'all because they can croun me. But yeah, I think I would have had a more lucrative outcome if I play now, and I still have been blocking shots like you know, Asia would been Asian.

Would have been going at Oh my god.

I love Asia.

I love her now because you dunked, Yes.

You dumped.

And I'm gonna ask you a question because see, I know a lot of men ask you this, because you know men love to ask dumb ass questions.

But I know a lot of men have asked.

You, like, hey, should we lower the rim so y'all can dunk more and it could be more excited.

What's your answer to that?

Shut the Oh no, my answer is no. I think the game is amazing. If anybody has watched the WNBA, you already know these ladies are playing at such a high level. It's like blurred lines with the men and the women. Yes, the dunk is amazing. Yes, more women have dunked, But I wouldn't change anything about our game. The product is phenomenal. Even college women's basketball is phenomenal. Can't wait for any Joel Reese and Caitlin Clark to get to the w They like, it's just amazing.

We're doing a great job.

So when we look at the camera right now and look at all those.

People two I don't know which one.

We look at this one right here, this one right here, all the people that doubted that the w NBA was gonna make it.

Whatever.

We're at the.

Bank though, we're casting check.

That's right now. What I heard about neo deals. I think they call it n I L is n I L. Yeah, yeah, so they get those in college, which child we were. I was so broken college, like like what, like, what is the.

Advantage of that?

Because you know they make more money than being in.

The w n B A.

I do know that, which so here's the deal. Yeah, in college, I have five dollars. I used to get a burrito at the burrito truck and you you have a brito because you can eat happy for a practice and then half after the practice.

N I L.

These women and men are getting paid so much money for their deals. The same thing else, whether it's cosmetics, outfits. They're getting their Nike and other shoe deals early on when you're in college. So imagine that I had to wait. I signed my first Nike deal my first day after my last game, so I had to be completely finished from being eligible in college before I could go pro. Now you do realize that only applies and usually sports that are dominated by African American So that happens to

You know, other sports.

So it's interesting that this NIL really opens the door for so many athletes, and especially athletes from our communities, that there's no trust fund happening, that they are the first millionaires ever and their family they.

Can money to even be able to support them absolutely send money back. It's like a lot of people are leaving a big family that, like they probably was working and helping.

Yes, yeah, man, let me just tell you. My mom drove an eighteen wheeler truck. My mom would give me two hundred dollars if she could.

Two hundred dollars is a lot of money.

Yeah, she would give me two hundred dollars, and if she could do it every month or every other month, and I would have to manage while a usc with all these kids who come from a background of money, and I'm trying to manage this two hundred dollars just to like make it.

Hence the five dollar burritos.

So you know you're eating is not as healthy as it could because you don't have enough money to necessarily eat healthy. So I think the NIL deal is opening doors for so many kids. And the key to that is going to be money management because a lot of times we ignore those conversations because we didn't have money. So if you don't have money, how do you know how to take care of money, how to invest money and hents. That's how I got into real estate.

Yeah, yeah, because I'm like, yeah, how come we need a class on teaching kids how to check books and bank accounts and interest rates.

Yeah?

Yeah, that's my veiga's advice. I became a real estate professional with my husband. We have the Lockwood Group, which is our real estate company. We are in the luxury space with Keller Williams. But why It's because it's important to invest your money and you can get the return

You got to take care of your kids and you get old.

But people when you know when you're nineteen or twenty, you can't Forty is old to a nineteen year old.

And you're like forty, turn forty and not be able to play, right support Yeah.

Yes, and that money could have just created compound interest for you. It's a way to make a living for not only your family, but the family that you might have in the future. And so that's always our message when we're trying to get our real estate company out there. We deal with a lot of celebrities and athletes and helping them to invest that money so that they'll have it to return and share with their family. So let me know when you're ready to buy something.

I am.

I want to ask you, and this is probably something just off the cuff for me. What would you tell black girls like us that's tall and awkward and don't know how to really express how they feel or just kind of scared and walk hunched over because they're ashamed, or their height or what they look like.

What would you say to them?

My first thing is about having faith. I was a child that had so much faith in God, and I was praying, like, Lord, let them see me as beautiful. Like you know, you want to be a pilling, but it's hard when you just don't. I mean, we didn't have all this stuff all hooked up. You're just a regular kid looking out there in the world. And I feel sorry sometimes for these kids because they have social media, so they're being exposed to even more beautiful, perfect looking

That's real talk, though, that's real talking.

Comfortable.

You got to be uncomfortable to me be successful sometimes for a little while, you know, you gotta work it.

One of the things Kobe and I would always talk about.

The Great Kobe I left them so much that it's just everybody's not willing to make the sacrifice.

No, no, and they don't understand.

They want they want the now, but they don't want the house.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard work.

I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's hard to work.

Oh my god, my new friend.

I'm gonna go back.

Don't get it out a daily show.

Thanksgivings coming up, and we all know how difficult it is to have.

Dinner with some of your family members. But this year is going to be different.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and that means getting together with family members who you might not see ida ie with. But this Thanksgiving, Leslie Jones will come to your house and politely interject when the conversation becomes political.

I'm just thankful that Roe v. Wade was finally overturned.

That's the conversation you want to start right now at this table, while everybody's happy during Thanksgiving, while we trying to be happy, you know what has some dry ass turkey?

And shut the fuck up.

Perfect the way I the way I see it is your generation are all a bunch of lazy socialists.

Who is you calling lazy? You can't even bring proper pie to Thanksgiving? And stop kissing the kids.

In the mouth.

That's nasty. They don't like that.

Leslie can help you them to annoying conversations before they even begin.

Try to make a ship.

Try it, and I tell everybody in his room that you use Nana's Wi Fi to jack off.

And if that.

Doesn't work, Leslie goes back to basics.

I'll just say these transgender people, I just can I have some service.

Leslie will even stop by the kids table to teach them how to shout down problematic relatives.

No, no, okay, look from the diaphragm. You ready, one, two three?

Talking to your family is harm Watching Leslie Jones shut them down is easy. And I think it should be acknowledged that this dinner is taking place on Cherokee lambs.

Shut up. All this land is Cherokee. If we're talking about can you smell Indigenous? You can't even smell a king. Shut up? Don't agree with me? Thank you for sure up who invited me.

To this available for all holidays where a family are includ.

My guest tonight is an author and a national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, and I'm totally obsessed with him.

He has gotten me through every election.

He is the king of the Khakis, and he has an apartment in my heart. I have never met him in person until this moment, so I am so excited to welcome and finally see live and in person right.

Here for real, Steve Gardanaka.

Okay, So that's great to meet you. Oh my god, it's so crazy that we've never met before, you know, so I'm pretty sure you know that I'm totally obsessed.

I've seen some clips.

Would you like to see the big clip that they made of our love take? Steve Kanaki is the sexiest nerd on TV.

When he would grab that thing and be like no and then mark on.

The boy, I was like, oh, God, just keep solving the problems, mister connect.

Get God, dammit, that is just sexy to me. What is that a seventh? Is that a seventh scene? When you put that calculator? I was like, what you're gonna tell me me exactly?

Your cactus and your gap shirt and your regular time dude and your two tone belt.

You've been a long to that. I am so embarrassed, but not really so. When you're standing at that big uh.

And you got that damn calculator, how do you keep all your facts straight.

Well, fortunately, I mean, we've got great technology now.

It's amazing.

You know, I've been, as you say, an election nerd for a lot of my life, and what was possible on an election night, say twenty five years ago, is a frack of what's possible now. So there's so much information loaded into that board. There's so much we can do with it. Any given county, any given state, any given congressional district, demographic information, so we're able to show what's happening in real time with a depth and I think a sophistication. Hopefully it just wasn't possible before.

That was such a sophisticated So let me ask a question. Do you know every single county?

And you I have at some point encountered all of them in getting ready for elections. There are three and forty three I will admit this. I'll go through, you know, a state for an election, and when it is time to go for that state, I'll know them all, but I will not retain a lot of them afterwards. So it's the big swing states and presidentials I'm much stronger on than the states that aren't necessarily competitive.

Okay, I have so many important I really do. Okay, so Biden is losing to Trump. Should we be freaked out right now?

I mean, so, there's New York Times polls that came out last week the six states we think will decide the election in twenty twenty four, and yeah, they had Trump ahead in five of those six states. They are all states that Trump had lost in twenty twenty. So the thing that's interesting to me is if you look back at the twenty twenty election, from this point fall of twenty nineteen on to election day, there was literally not a single poll that ever had Trump ahead of Biden. Nationally.

Yeah, well, okay, King Steve, Why is Trump still able to run?

Am?

I confused? What He's being indicted everywhere? How is he still able to run for president.

Well, you know, look, it's a two term limit, not a one term limit, so he can.

You know, he served one term.

We haven't had a president in modern times lose reelection and then four years later say hey, I'm running again. You know, George Bush Senior went happily into retirement. Jimmy Carter went and built houses. You know, it's been a while since you've had a president try to do this, but you can. And you bring up all the legal issues around Trump, those are hasn't been convicted of anything, and you know, it's obviously going to be a major factor,

Okay, Okay, so it could.

It's a real chance that Trump becomes the Republican nominee.

I mean certainly, again, we're talking polls right now. He is at a level of dominance over that Republican field that we haven't seen from a candidate in a Republican contest in twenty four years.

The last one was George W.

Bush, and George W. Bush won the nomination in two thousand he had leads the size that Trump has right now, this is the first time since Bush we've seen a Republican consistently pulling this well in the Republican primaries. Now, Bush did get a scare in two thousand, John McCain won. Some states put a scare into him. Maybe you know, a DeSantis, maybe a Haley. It's looking like if there's going to be a threat to him, it's one of those two.

Well, okay, so I want to ask you to explain the electoral college because I feel like that's something I.

Can understand from you.

Okay, I don't want to sound stupid in front of you, my love, but.

You don't know what.

The electorian college was. I just started with where politicians went to college to learn about politics.

So what is it?

It's I mean, it's a bit of a throwback to the earliest days of the country. But how it functions now is essentially the candidate who wins the vote in a state wins the number of electoral votes that that state has.

It gets very complicated in Okay.

See, I feel like there's math, Matt. Okay, but did something kind of a woofye Okay, So okay.

I just you know. I just I got your little present. Yes, it's a calculator. I put your name on the back. It's pretty long, but okay, thank you.

So we can figure those things out and look for this next election.

Yes, if you use my calculator, I'm gonna lose.

Okay, let me ask you one more important question. I mean I heard that you didn't know who Taylor Swift was, which I don't care.

But do you know who Beyonce is? Yes? Okay, good. Oh, I'm gonna have to divorce Steak. You are awesome. Be sure to.

Watch Steve Karnaki do his thing on NBC and MSNBC.

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