Chris Paul (12x NBA All-Star)

[0] Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert.

[1] I'm Dan Rather, I'm joined by Mrs. Mouse.

[2] Good morning.

[3] Squeak, squeak.

[4] Oh, boy, we had a babe in, didn't we?

[5] Yeah.

[6] Happen again.

[7] I know.

[8] These guys are coming through here and they're making parts of your garments explode.

[9] They're blowing their way through my pants.

[10] One after another.

[11] Oh, well, today's babe is Chris Paul.

[12] Chris Paul.

[13] What a baller.

[14] He's a 10 -time NBA All -Star and two -time Olympic Gold.

[15] medalist.

[16] Oh my God.

[17] We didn't even talk about the Olympics with him.

[18] We did not.

[19] There was so much other stuff, but you're right.

[20] And we love the Olympics.

[21] Oh, it's our first love.

[22] This proves something Easter egg.

[23] We have another Olympic athlete on soon.

[24] But we remember that time.

[25] Yeah.

[26] Yeah.

[27] And we said, oh, we've had a few Olympians on, but when it's basketball, we don't pay it.

[28] We don't count it.

[29] But she, oops, or he said that that was the case in the Olympics.

[30] The basketball team does not stay in Olympic Village.

[31] No. They're the four seasons.

[32] The five seasons.

[33] Okay, well, Chris is here to talk about a beautiful book he wrote called 61 Life Lessons from Papa on and off the court.

[34] This was such a fun conversation because he and I both love our papa so.

[35] I love mine too.

[36] And you love your papa.

[37] Wabi Wob loves his.

[38] We all love her papas.

[39] So check out his book 61 and enjoy Chris Paul.

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[43] He's out to be...

[44] Oh, God damn.

[45] Should I go upstairs and put my shoes on?

[46] Oh, wow.

[47] I didn't realize you were going to bring those.

[48] They are really cool.

[49] I should have worn mine, too.

[50] I'd say I got one of the better collections for a hillbilly from Detroit.

[51] That's crazy.

[52] I was just literally on the phone with one of my friends.

[53] My coach just left Phoenix.

[54] He's the head coach of Detroit now.

[55] Oh, he just went to Detroit.

[56] Yeah, you're going to the Pistons.

[57] And are you sad about that?

[58] Very.

[59] This is kind of a pattern in your professional life.

[60] No, coaches leave?

[61] Yeah, you like coaches and then they disappear.

[62] Yeah, somewhat.

[63] But Moni is sort of like my family.

[64] And so the guy I was just on the phone with was assistant coach for my team, for the sons.

[65] He's going to Detroit.

[66] For the main job.

[67] No, he's going to be an assistant there.

[68] Okay.

[69] But he's going to be in the front of the bench instead of behind the bench.

[70] So he's trying to figure out where he's going to live.

[71] Okay, so it's an improvement, though, for him.

[72] For him, yeah.

[73] Okay, good.

[74] It's very easy where he should live.

[75] This is quite easy to figure out.

[76] He wants to be in West Bloomfield on a lake.

[77] Probably.

[78] Yeah, that way he'll be close -ish.

[79] Do you get back at all?

[80] I do.

[81] I try to go back every summer.

[82] I'm obsessed with Lake Life because I grew up in that world.

[83] He sounded like Devon Booker love Lake Life like that.

[84] Have you experienced it?

[85] Not there, but growing up I did a little bit of like.

[86] I used to kneeboard and stuff like that on the lake.

[87] It's nice.

[88] Yeah.

[89] The morning on a deck drinking coffee, looking at a flat lake, I don't know.

[90] There's something about that.

[91] I'm born and raised in North Carolina, so I'm used to seeing trees.

[92] Yeah, green.

[93] Green.

[94] That's why when I moved here to L .A., in 2011, when I got traded here, everybody was like, you're going to live in Manhattan Beach.

[95] You're going to live in Manhattan Beach.

[96] That's where everybody going to live.

[97] And I was like, all right.

[98] So then my wife came out here, and we were practicing, so I couldn't look for a house.

[99] So she went looking.

[100] And Manhattan Beach is really the beach.

[101] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[102] It's for real.

[103] The whole place is a beach, yeah?

[104] Yeah.

[105] And so I never forget, my wife said, we don't need to wake up every day and see the water.

[106] Because growing up, the beach is vacation.

[107] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[108] So we need yard and space.

[109] And I don't want to be able to reach out and give ketchup to my next door neighbor.

[110] So you know where I moved?

[111] I moved to Calabasas.

[112] Oh, okay.

[113] Because I could get a lot more space.

[114] You know what I mean?

[115] So I had a yard.

[116] I had all of this stuff because you get a lot more bang for your butt.

[117] And I'm sure you do the thing I do, which is even though I think my childhood was extremely flawed and violent, some bad stuff, weirdly want the same childhood for my kids.

[118] So it's weird to me that my kids can't go on on a bicycle and go ride, right?

[119] Man, listen, that's why I went to Calabasas.

[120] So when I was in Calabasas, I would come home and I mean, this is also my professional life.

[121] Because you think about it, you guys know L .A., so you know where Calabasas is, right?

[122] Yeah, yeah.

[123] For the audience who doesn't live in L .A., Calbys is off the beaten path.

[124] It's north of the city, and it spreads out.

[125] It gets rural.

[126] It's nice.

[127] You can get some space up there.

[128] So when I played for the Clippers, we practiced off of Cintanella.

[129] So you know, that's out towards the airport.

[130] Like Culver City?

[131] Yes.

[132] Okay.

[133] But towards the airport, you know what I mean?

[134] So I literally commuted every single day for practice going to and from.

[135] But when I used to get home from practice, I would come home and see my son on the basketball court with eight other kids being kids or what I was trying to get was my childhood.

[136] Yeah.

[137] Because a lot of times out here, you can live somewhere and you don't know your neighbors.

[138] Yeah.

[139] Or just, I'm sure, when you were a kid, you left.

[140] and you were supposed to be home by dark.

[141] Yep.

[142] You had to check in some places.

[143] But for the most part, you were kind of on your own.

[144] And I want my kids to have that kind of independent spirit of like, you know, I handle my stuff.

[145] I'll go here.

[146] You can go down the street.

[147] Yeah, yeah.

[148] Manage your time, figure it out.

[149] You know, oh shit, the street lights are on.

[150] Okay, it's time.

[151] We've got to pedal fast.

[152] No, that's real.

[153] Yeah.

[154] So Winston -Salem, I know very little about.

[155] But I have an emotional calling for the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[156] For Asheville.

[157] I fucking love Asheville.

[158] That's the mountains.

[159] Oh, my God.

[160] Is it beautiful there?

[161] You've been over there, I'm sure.

[162] Asheville, yeah.

[163] I used to have basketball tournaments there when I was growing up and all that.

[164] But North Carolina is just...

[165] It might be the best secret in the country.

[166] I was there last week.

[167] We had this big event down in Kerry, North Carolina, like right around Raleigh.

[168] And just when I got home, because that's forever still going to be home, North Carolina.

[169] Just the smell.

[170] The smell.

[171] The smell.

[172] It gets you intoxicated, doesn't it, when you first get there?

[173] My kids were looking at their devices, right, as we were riding to the hotel.

[174] And I said, turn it off.

[175] Look out the window.

[176] In fact, roll the window down and smell.

[177] Just look at all the green, right?

[178] Look at all the trees.

[179] There's something magic about green, isn't there?

[180] If you grew up with it?

[181] If you grew up with it.

[182] And I'll say this is balance, right?

[183] It's what we all talk about.

[184] I think what we all try to find because I definitely grew up with all the different seasons.

[185] I remember scraping the ice off the windshield, right?

[186] Or waking up in the morning before school and going outside to crank the car up and then going in the house to get dressed.

[187] I don't miss that.

[188] We had a similar sit in high school, you and I. I don't think it was caused by the same thing, but it was so cold in Detroit.

[189] We had this weak spell where it was like negative 23 or so every morning when I woke up to go to high school.

[190] And I went out to get in my car and I pulled the driver's side door handle.

[191] And I started, clink!

[192] I'm like, what?

[193] Just jiggled.

[194] I'm like, oh, fuck.

[195] Go around to the passenger side.

[196] Tug that one, you're more gentle.

[197] Clink!

[198] I'm like, ah!

[199] I had to crawling through the hatch.

[200] hatchback.

[201] It was a Mustang.

[202] I'd put the key open the hatchback and crawl through to get into my car.

[203] But you had a similar, you had a busted driver's side door?

[204] Yeah.

[205] So my senior in high school, I had a Honda.

[206] A cord?

[207] Yep.

[208] A Honda Accord.

[209] My mom had a Honda.

[210] My own was just a little older.

[211] And so the driver door wouldn't open.

[212] And back then, it wasn't just like you had the money to go get it fixed.

[213] You just had to endure it for a little while.

[214] You get creative.

[215] There's three other doors.

[216] That's crazy.

[217] You just mentioned that because say the school was up here.

[218] Seniors got a chance to park closer to the school.

[219] The tennis courts, exactly.

[220] The tennis courts and all that was way down here.

[221] This is where the underclassmen parked.

[222] But because my driver door didn't work, I couldn't get out the door.

[223] I would park way down here.

[224] You cannot be seen.

[225] Look around.

[226] Look around.

[227] Jump over to the other side or jump to the back seat just to get out of my car.

[228] Yeah, and when you get the passenger seat, maybe you just take one second.

[229] Like, oh, yeah, in case someone sees like, I was in the seat.

[230] I was back to you anyway.

[231] Yeah, I've been in the scene for hours.

[232] So this door handle thing's not the only similarity.

[233] Obviously, we're both great athletes.

[234] I think that's clear.

[235] Now, the love of my life is my Papa Bob.

[236] That's crazy.

[237] I mean, it's so funny.

[238] You even describe him in the book as your superhero.

[239] I did the eulogy, and I was like, I knew Superman.

[240] I met him.

[241] I was raised by him.

[242] Papa Bob.

[243] I just got goosebumps.

[244] Monica, too, has a really special grandparent relationship.

[245] They're so special those relationships, aren't they?

[246] It's so important in my life, when I did have kids and as I've gotten older, I realized my relationships that are very meaningful.

[247] And the people that I look up to are usually people to have kids.

[248] You know what I mean?

[249] Yeah.

[250] Because it's always a constant conversation of trying to figure out how can I learn this or take this little tidbit from them and being a better dad or being present.

[251] It's been really cool to watch my kids with my parents.

[252] Yeah.

[253] How's that going?

[254] I'm going to throw mine under the bus.

[255] Oh, oh, listen here.

[256] Listen, here, I didn't think my dad liked me growing up.

[257] Sure, he's not supposed to.

[258] Right, right.

[259] That's like the grandpa can be nice to you because he was a dick to your dad.

[260] Now it's time to be nice.

[261] That's how it all works.

[262] My mom, they're everything.

[263] You know in those movies, when you see the kid at their recital and they're looking at the door trying to see if dad's going to show up.

[264] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[265] Like, I never had to do that.

[266] My mom and dad was always there.

[267] My dad was a coach.

[268] My mom was a team mom.

[269] And it's crazy because I grew up in a middle -class family where my parents worked.

[270] Both of them had jobs.

[271] And it's crazy to think about how my dad managed to do everything.

[272] Yeah.

[273] Right now that you're in the sit.

[274] Yeah.

[275] He was at work so early.

[276] He would work overtime.

[277] He coached our football teams, basketball teams.

[278] He had 40 seconds to himself in the week.

[279] Dead serious.

[280] And that's why I like when I watch my dad now and I be like, Dad, what you doing?

[281] He's like, I'm going to play golf.

[282] I'm like, man, go ahead.

[283] You earned it.

[284] He spent his whole 401K on me and my brother playing travel basketball.

[285] But to see, a couple years ago, my son was on our court at home, like shooting basketball shooting, he just kept missing.

[286] He kept missing.

[287] And my mom was sitting over there.

[288] And she was like, you go, boy, you go.

[289] And I looked at her like, woman, if you don't shut up.

[290] And I looked at her like that because I was like, what is wrong with you?

[291] If that was me, you would have been, boy, make something.

[292] Do this.

[293] Yeah.

[294] Where's your follow through?

[295] Yeah.

[296] What are you doing?

[297] Where's your mind right now?

[298] And so I really had a real conversation with my parents.

[299] I said, listen, don't make them think they better than what they are.

[300] Right, right, right.

[301] But that is the job of a grandparent.

[302] It is because here's my job to tell them, don't do it.

[303] No, Chris, you get it.

[304] They already did that.

[305] They already had to make the painful decisions and give you the bad news and keep you on the straight and narrow.

[306] They did it.

[307] Now it's time to spoil, to celebrate mediocrity, to tell them they're going to be a star when they're not.

[308] That's their turn.

[309] I ain't with it.

[310] They earned it.

[311] I'm not with it.

[312] No, it's your job.

[313] You've got to tell them.

[314] But to see my dad, right, because like I said, I'm not as present as I would like to because I am working and I am traveling.

[315] My son had an AAU tournament that was in Portland.

[316] Aholdering your kids?

[317] My son is 14 and my daughter's 10.

[318] Oh, wow, 14.

[319] Crazy.

[320] That's you in the thick of it.

[321] Crazy.

[322] Real dreams.

[323] Real life.

[324] Yeah.

[325] You know what I mean?

[326] He's got an identity.

[327] Girls.

[328] Yeah.

[329] What's going on, trying to figure out who he is.

[330] And so we learn so much from our parents.

[331] I try to have the hardest conversations possible with my kids so that they know that it's okay to talk to me. Yeah, I interrupted you, though.

[332] There was a tournament.

[333] Oh, yeah.

[334] So my wife, rock star.

[335] She does an amazing job with our kids.

[336] But there's some weekends where my daughter I have soccer or something and my son has something.

[337] So my son had a tournament in Portland.

[338] Guess who takes them?

[339] My parents.

[340] They were so excited to take him.

[341] And my dad just called me after one of the games and was like, he's doing okay.

[342] He just got to do this, do this, didn't do that.

[343] But the joy that my parents get on their face when they come to see.

[344] the kids, there's nothing like it.

[345] Yeah.

[346] It's crazy with my son and my daughter because I'm very hard on my son because my dad was the same way with me. And my grandmother, my Papa Chili's wife, she died when I was eight years old.

[347] And I never forget being at her funeral.

[348] And my mom and everybody was distraught.

[349] My granddad put his arm around me and he was like, don't cry, be strong for your mom and your aunt.

[350] I just always felt like my granddad was lonely.

[351] So I used to just always try to be with him.

[352] I always try to be with him all the time.

[353] And the relationship that my dad, has with my son and with my daughter, I see it, and I know how important it is because when my parents would give me butt whoopings, like I grew up getting a butt whoopin.

[354] Sure, of course, yeah, yeah.

[355] I don't want social services to go grab my parents and nothing like that.

[356] Statue of limitations.

[357] Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[358] But, like, my dad, that relationship with him and my kid, I can see it in his eyes sometimes when I look at him.

[359] And if not for my grandfather, I wouldn't appreciate it like that.

[360] Because when my parents got on me, I would call my papa.

[361] I'd be like, papa.

[362] They're such a such and such and such and such and he taught me a lot.

[363] Yeah.

[364] Crazy similarities too.

[365] So my Papa Bob worked for, I want to say, a 30 years at Wonder Bread bakery.

[366] And he carried 50 pound bags of flour.

[367] So he just had these fucking bowling ball biceps, you know?

[368] And I would just marvel at how strong this old man was.

[369] And I was listening to your description of Papa Chili, the fact that he had been a mechanic for all these years, the hands, he just gave up on even trying to make.

[370] make them clean like those were the hands they look like they just got dipped in an oil pan i just started thinking of the integrity that's implicit in a man who really works with his body sacrifices his body what that teaches you without even anything having to be said there's so much integrity in it and the way you would describe papa chili how he would move through the town and how everyone wanted to talk to him and how that stuff's just detectable it's palpable like this man works hard this man has values Those things, I think they're so essential to observe.

[371] Yeah, I totally get what you're saying.

[372] And I think it's so dope for me to hear the story of you and your grandfather.

[373] Because a lot of times we live and we think that we're the only one who has these experiences.

[374] And sometimes you can't appreciate it until you're older.

[375] Because when my grandfather got murdered, that's when it really hit me. So let's do the full story from just how involved you were in his life.

[376] So your grandfather, it is at least believed probably the first block.

[377] Black -owned service station in North Carolina.

[378] Right.

[379] What's so crazy about it is nowadays, when we think of ownership, right, we think of everybody else doing the work.

[380] Right, right, right, you know?

[381] Just like top dog and everyone else is serving the owner.

[382] Right, like they work there such and such.

[383] Who's the owner?

[384] You know what I mean?

[385] Yeah.

[386] Right, yeah.

[387] But at this point in my life, all I knew is my granddad owned the service station.

[388] Yeah, it was called Chevron.

[389] I didn't know the CEO of Chevron and all that.

[390] I knew the owner of this Chevron.

[391] was my granddad.

[392] Jones Chevron.

[393] You know, you call, you answer the phone, Joan Chevron.

[394] Every day my granddad worked.

[395] And then you worked.

[396] Yes.

[397] You and your brother, CJ.

[398] Two years older.

[399] He's my business manager and everything.

[400] And so all of that stuff still sticks with me now with my kids.

[401] When they want something, I look at my wife, you know, that's the hard part is trying to figure out, okay, who's going to be good cop, bad cop.

[402] I'm always bad cop.

[403] I don't mind it.

[404] I don't mind it.

[405] But it's always trying to battle with too much or.

[406] whatnot.

[407] Like, oh, you want some shoes?

[408] You need to work for it.

[409] Right.

[410] You know, it's just a total different life than I grew up with.

[411] And so it's this balance of trying to make sure that your kids are appreciative, grateful for what they have and what they see, but also make them work for some of these things.

[412] Yeah, and you know, you're aware of it.

[413] The amount of luck it takes for someone to land in your life that exemplifies all that stuff.

[414] The fact that you had this model of how how to have status the right way, by being dependable, by being a good friend, by hosting other people, the fact that he had this crew that hung out at the station, right, that he was an elder in some sense.

[415] For you to have observed someone that had status, there's a roadmap to it.

[416] It's like it's hard work, it's have an integrity.

[417] So many of us don't get that.

[418] That's a rarity to be lucky enough to land in a situation where you can observe that for years.

[419] In writing a book, all of that stuff was becoming more and more easy for me to tell.

[420] Sometimes you just in it and you're experiencing things and not realizing how it's impacting you.

[421] But everything you just said was exactly right because I was picturing all the guys Jones disciples sitting outside my granddad service station.

[422] And I just watched how my granddad, he did the work.

[423] And so for my kids, I try to show them as much as I can, me doing the work, regardless of what it is.

[424] And like you said, something about them being an elder.

[425] So I don't care where I go, whoever I'm around is yes, sir and yes, ma 'am.

[426] That's how my granddad had a service station.

[427] That's how my parents had it.

[428] And so I try to show my kids wherever you go, whoever you meet, there's a way that you show respect.

[429] You're also lucky in that you got to hear real talk all the time.

[430] The fact that the disciples were letting it rip in front of you, it like makes parents nervous, but it's such a blessing to be able to observe adults being adults in a safe way.

[431] It is.

[432] When you have kids, I feel like so many times people try to shelter them from reality at times.

[433] Yeah.

[434] I'm not saying take them out of.

[435] there to a damn drive -by and show them a gunshot.

[436] But sometimes when they are around adults and they're hearing real conversation, I grew up in the Bible Belt.

[437] I was at church four days a week.

[438] We have Baptist in common, too, by the way.

[439] You get to yell amen in Baptist.

[440] Every time.

[441] I'm so grateful for that foundation and that background.

[442] That is everything to me. But my parents never had a conversation about sex with me growing up.

[443] Ever.

[444] I want to say they tried to shelter me from things, but it was different growing up.

[445] Well, what's Winston -Z Salem like?

[446] They had to have been evaluating that there were going to be a couple paths for you to choose and that there was a pretty high -risk path around some of the corners, no?

[447] I'm going to tell you what Winston -Salem was best known for, and you're probably seen it.

[448] We're best known for cigarettes.

[449] Oh, yeah, of course.

[450] RJ Reynolds, Tobacco Road.

[451] In fact, when you're writing about how grossed out you were about the dude and the disciples who was dipping, that he almost threw up.

[452] I was like, well, fuck, how am I not going to dip during this interview?

[453] I can't get through it.

[454] I can't have him throw up.

[455] Well, look, it's fine if you're dipping, but you'll walk around with a red cup spitting into it.

[456] Yes, he'll spit in that.

[457] But at least he got that.

[458] Yes, see, and look at what I wrote on it.

[459] So my kids are like, yuck.

[460] Oh, that's, don't drink.

[461] Don't drink.

[462] Some of them say poison.

[463] No, yuck.

[464] Oh, my God.

[465] Man, listen, if the kids ever picked that up.

[466] Oh, they have.

[467] No, it's happened.

[468] Look, man, they grew up, they got a nice house, and there's some downside.

[469] Their dad's a hick, you know.

[470] But that's how I grew up.

[471] Everything was tobacco.

[472] It's a company town.

[473] Yes.

[474] Yeah.

[475] In Detroit, we drive American cars.

[476] Exactly.

[477] Out here, you're into showbiz.

[478] Like it or not?

[479] No question, but that's the town.

[480] And then, like I said, it's the South.

[481] So we at church on Sundays from 8 in the morning until 5 in the evening.

[482] Yeah.

[483] But your parents are aware of the fact they're raising two young black males in the South and North Carolina.

[484] There has to be an elevated fear of your safety.

[485] That's a good question.

[486] I never felt like in danger or nothing like that.

[487] You didn't feel like there was some pressure like you got to follow the right trajectory.

[488] You can't get sucked into any of this shit over here on the side.

[489] Oh, 1 ,000 percent.

[490] That's what I'm talking about.

[491] That there were bad options for you.

[492] Yes, but my parents always did a good job of making sure, like, we had curfews.

[493] Growing up, a lot of my friends, they could do whatever they wanted to.

[494] And, like, that's what I'm saying.

[495] I thought my parents, I was like, damn, this party?

[496] When you're a high school, every party is the party.

[497] The biggest party of the year.

[498] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[499] The biggest party of the year, and this is how you're going to do me. You miss it.

[500] You're nobody.

[501] Exactly.

[502] Was your school diverse or was it pretty white?

[503] My high school was very white.

[504] It was 80 % white, 16 % black.

[505] But you were going there specifically, no. It got it from your book because you were saying that half of your family had gone to the black school.

[506] Yep.

[507] And then the other half was going to the school you play.

[508] We lived right here in Louisville, like on the outside.

[509] So my high school was right close to my house.

[510] And East Salem was?

[511] East Winston.

[512] Salem is where my granddad service station was.

[513] Okay.

[514] But it was cool in writing a book because I was asking a lot of questions even to my parents.

[515] I was like, dad, why did you set up shop way over here outside of town?

[516] And my dad, he had told me that somebody that came by the service station and was talking about his car and was like, Charles, what you're doing?

[517] If you can have them type of wheels on your little Toyota, then you can do a down pavement for a house.

[518] Right?

[519] That's what my dad said he went right outside of town and tried to find a house.

[520] In the house that I lived in, my entire childhood, through my first couple years in the NBA, that's the house that my dad had.

[521] Well, they wouldn't even allow you or your brother to buy them a new house, right?

[522] No, initially, they wouldn't move.

[523] They weren't having it.

[524] And then the first time that I got my parents a new house, guess what?

[525] It was three minutes away from the house I grew up here.

[526] Three minutes away.

[527] Three minutes away.

[528] Literally, our house is on the corner.

[529] If you make a left.

[530] Play one pop song.

[531] If that, if that.

[532] You make it right, the house is right there.

[533] And they did go into that eventually?

[534] Oh, yeah.

[535] Because you bought it under the smoke screen of this is my house, yeah?

[536] Right.

[537] I'm going to buy a house down the street.

[538] You're going to trick them.

[539] I built a house maybe five minutes away from them.

[540] And then I told my parents a few years ago, I was like, listen, I don't come home as often as I would like to.

[541] I need y 'all to move into this house.

[542] They wanted to fight it.

[543] Oh, man. And I said, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[544] Move.

[545] You all will be there in 14 minutes.

[546] Exactly.

[547] So my parents still live at home.

[548] That's wonderful.

[549] Okay, now back to Grandpa.

[550] So you and your brother used to go and work.

[551] there.

[552] You would pump gas.

[553] You would change oil.

[554] Rotate tires.

[555] All of that.

[556] Hopefully doing inspection, North Carolina vehicle inspection, because there was an extra 60 cents on the table.

[557] Yeah.

[558] It was 1940.

[559] They give you a $20 bill.

[560] My brother used that 60 cents to go get a snack or That makes me happy that people weren't so cheap.

[561] They tried to get that 60 cents back.

[562] We needed that.

[563] So you're working there.

[564] You're obviously as close as you can be to your grandpa.

[565] And then he's robbed in a assaulted.

[566] Yeah, so anytime like I wanted shoes, right, like I wanted Jordans, right?

[567] It's so crazy to be with Brand Jordan now.

[568] Boy, don't even get me started because if I wanted some shoes or something, my granddad, because he used to walk around with that wide of money in his front pocket, my granddad used to pull out a knot of money, right?

[569] Just kept it in his front pocket.

[570] So when I got to the NBA, I wanted the same.

[571] Of course.

[572] I wanted a fat while of money.

[573] But if I wanted something, my granddad would be like, come work at the service station for a week.

[574] And so that's how we would do it.

[575] He'd make us work for it.

[576] Same.

[577] Papa Bob, I wanted skis.

[578] He's like, all right, you mow my grass all summer.

[579] You're going to have skis.

[580] Got to work for it.

[581] Yeah.

[582] I appreciate it.

[583] So, same with my kids.

[584] I tried to do as much.

[585] How's that going?

[586] It's not going well for me. Oh, my God.

[587] You got Apple Pay now.

[588] You got all this.

[589] You got a ventmo these fuckers.

[590] You got a ventmo these fuckers.

[591] Pick that shit up.

[592] I'll ventmo you.

[593] Trying to figure out how to normalize being wealthy.

[594] It's fucking weird.

[595] It's a trip.

[596] I can't really fully wrap.

[597] I'm like, my kids have a swimming pool.

[598] I knew one kid with a swimming pool growing up.

[599] Like, who had a swimming pool?

[600] So I hate to digress, but I love these conversations because when I moved to L .A., when I got traded to the Clippers, I told my wife, when she was like, what you want me look for with a house?

[601] I said, get any house, just make sure it got a pool.

[602] Yeah, of course.

[603] Right?

[604] Because I played six years in the NBA living in a condo in New Orleans.

[605] Well, the one river.

[606] Oh, one river place.

[607] One river place.

[608] You were a Reggie.

[609] Yep, yep.

[610] That was the condos.

[611] Your condo is okay.

[612] I probably had a pool there.

[613] But that was everybody's pool.

[614] Yeah, not an individual pool.

[615] That was everybody's pool.

[616] Yeah, yeah.

[617] That's a piss pool.

[618] And even the house that I had 366 Riverwood, the first house that I got when I got into the NBA, it didn't have a pool.

[619] So I literally told my wife, I don't care what house you find.

[620] Just make sure it got a pool.

[621] Because I want to be able to come home after practice.

[622] Well, you made it if you got a pool.

[623] Come on.

[624] You're exactly right.

[625] My thing was an extra fridge.

[626] People who I knew growing up had an extra fridge.

[627] They were reddish so funny.

[628] Like, they got a whole other fridge with drinks.

[629] I'm like, I need an extra fridge.

[630] I like that.

[631] Yeah, because then you would load it.

[632] You know what?

[633] Every time I didn't have a house now, we have an extra fridge.

[634] Yeah, you got to.

[635] You got to.

[636] Like, you can tell who's white trash that's like, what they spend money.

[637] I'm like, I want a bunch of fridges around.

[638] My family still live here and I live in Arizona.

[639] So my house that I have in Arizona, right out there in the garage, we got an extra refrigerator.

[640] Don't just feel good?

[641] You open that open and it's just like, I couldn't get through all that.

[642] these drinks in a month.

[643] Well, guess what?

[644] When you think somebody didn't took the last water out the refrigerator or something, or they didn't took the last corona or something like that out, but you're like, there's more in the fridge out there.

[645] I don't know that.

[646] I got the bad fridge out in the garage.

[647] That's funny.

[648] Okay.

[649] Back to Grandpa.

[650] What happened?

[651] Yeah, so November 14th, 2002, my brother was in college.

[652] He had drove back home, all my family, my friends, teammates, all in my high school gym.

[653] And I signed my letter of intent to go to Wake Forest and my granddad actually took off work.

[654] Well, said he was leaving for a little while, which he never did.

[655] There's like a video of it and you see me. And right afterwards, my granddad took a Wake Forest hat off and he gave it to me. And that's the hat that I put on.

[656] And so we took pictures and all this and my brother got in the car, drove back to school.

[657] That night, Wake Forest had an exhibition game.

[658] And it's still crazy to this day.

[659] I don't understand because my parents used to go just about everywhere with me. But that night, just me and my granddad went to go see wake play.

[660] Oh, no kidding.

[661] So then November 15th was the very next day.

[662] It was a Friday.

[663] I'm at our high school football game because I had played football the year before, but I stopped.

[664] So I'm at the game and my phone rings and it's my brother.

[665] And I was like, yo, what's up?

[666] And he was like, what you doing?

[667] I was like, I'm at the game.

[668] He was like, okay, he's like, I'm on my way back.

[669] And my brother's school was like three and a half, four hours away.

[670] And he was just there the day before.

[671] He was just there a day before.

[672] He didn't ever drive down and come back.

[673] Yeah, that's crazy.

[674] So I was like, what you mean you on your way back?

[675] He was like, Mama said, Papa's sick.

[676] So I'm in the student section, and I started to walk down the bleachers to the parking lot because I was like, what you mean, Papa Sick?

[677] We just talked to him this morning, and I was with him last night.

[678] So as I'm getting close to my car, I see one of my older cousins.

[679] Open up the passengers are.

[680] Oh, yeah, yeah, right, right, getting out the back.

[681] I see one of my older cousins sort of walking towards me because his kids went to my school.

[682] I could see a look on his face, and I said, Jeff, what's wrong?

[683] He said, they killed him.

[684] And I said, what?

[685] He was like, your papa, they killed him.

[686] And so it's crazy.

[687] I was in my closet last night trying to grab some shoes to wear the day, and I looked up.

[688] And the Jordans that I had on, I got them in my closet.

[689] It was the Jordan 18s, the copper and the snake skin on the back.

[690] And I remember I just kicked this fence that was right by the gym.

[691] And I remember because I had this big scuff.

[692] I guess in tragic moments, you just remember everything.

[693] Well, also, that's so symbolic.

[694] You want these fucking shoes.

[695] They're everything.

[696] you've got to keep them perfect.

[697] And then something happens and you realize I don't give a fuck about these.

[698] Yep.

[699] That's really profound.

[700] It seemed like nothing, but it's not.

[701] Yeah, I remember hitting that fence and I remember getting in the car.

[702] Were you in denial at all?

[703] Like, I don't know, this guy just said this.

[704] And where you're like, who, who could, like, there's so many questions.

[705] So many questions.

[706] And then I have anxiety issues still to this day.

[707] I definitely know that that situation is part of it.

[708] Oh, yeah.

[709] Because that was the first time I really, really dealt with tragic.

[710] When my grandmother died from lung cancer, we actually had time to prepare.

[711] This took us about 20 minutes to get over by my granddad's house.

[712] It's one of those situations you don't know how you're going to react until you're in it.

[713] So on the way, I remember taking my shirt off just because I was getting hot, rolling the window down because so many questions.

[714] And it was like a movie.

[715] As soon as we turned on the street, it was probably 10 houses down, but I immediately jumped out the car because as soon as we turned on the street, it was night at this time.

[716] and you just see all the, like, lights from the cop cars, right?

[717] Still there.

[718] Still there.

[719] And all the people in the neighborhood, seriously, like a movie, like everybody behind the yellow tape.

[720] And I run down the street with no shirt on.

[721] You're starting to look like one of the suspects now.

[722] It's crazy.

[723] It's crazy.

[724] Running around your shirt on.

[725] Especially as I'm running, and I think it might have been my uncle who stopped me because one of my uncles was a police officer.

[726] And I just remember I looked over and I could see the tart pulled over a body.

[727] Outside.

[728] It's all so vivid because my aunt, my mom's sister, I just remember her yelling at everybody standing around the yellow tape.

[729] She was like, you nosy motherfuckers, know everything else that go on around here.

[730] You mean to tell me y 'all don't know who did this?

[731] And I just remember all my family, everybody crying and distraught, it was tough.

[732] And that's what I'm saying.

[733] In the process of writing this book, there were conversations that me and my family had never had.

[734] A bad.

[735] I got to see when my parents come out here again.

[736] But we was all talking about this one night when I was talking about the book.

[737] and we were saying, where did we go from here?

[738] When did you come in?

[739] When did you find out?

[740] So my brother on his whole ride down, my mom had never told him that my granddad was dead.

[741] Exactly.

[742] So this is all stuff that I'm just finding out 20 years later.

[743] What did you find out in the aftermath?

[744] Oh, man. In the aftermath, we found out that it was five teenagers that had tied him up.

[745] So the trial happened when I was in college, and my parents didn't let me go to any of it.

[746] Because it was in Winston -Salem.

[747] I was at Wake Forest, and they were trying to say that they wouldn't get a fair trial.

[748] If I was in there, and they said that they weren't going to get one anyway just because of my name and all this stuff.

[749] It was tough because my mom and my aunt Rhonda used to talk to my granddad all day, every day.

[750] They would always be on the phone.

[751] This is a story that I always believe he had got home from work, and he had took his groceries inside.

[752] And he was on the phone with my aunt Rhonda, one of them.

[753] And he said, like, let me call you.

[754] back after I go outside and check the mail.

[755] And when he walked out and checked the mail, supposedly somebody unscrewed his light from when he drives in the carport and jumped on him, tied him up, beat him over the head.

[756] Oof, five kids.

[757] Yeah.

[758] And he died from the beating or whatnot made his heart stop.

[759] Yeah.

[760] They were trying to steal money.

[761] So it's crazy.

[762] You have to see the street that my granddad lives on.

[763] There's actually cars that go by and stuff.

[764] What's so crazy is that when, they got my grandfather's body, the money was still there.

[765] That wide of money was still there, but his wallet was gone.

[766] So what led them to knowing who it was and how to find them was they went to the mall and used the cards.

[767] Oh, man, that's so heartbreaking.

[768] It is.

[769] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[770] What's up, guys?

[771] It's your girl Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season.

[772] And let me tell you, it's too good.

[773] And I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest.

[774] Okay, every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation.

[775] And I don't mean just friends.

[776] I mean the likes of Amy Poehler, Kell Mitchell, Vivica Fox.

[777] The list goes on.

[778] So follow, watch, and listen to Baby.

[779] This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[780] We've all been there.

[781] Turning to the internet to self -diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes.

[782] Though our minds tend to spiral to worst -case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

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[788] Prime members can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[789] What was even tougher was, what was that, two years ago, when the Innocent Project tried to reopen the case.

[790] Oh, really?

[791] That was hard to deal with because now I'm older, and I got a chance to watch.

[792] The trial all over again.

[793] And did you?

[794] I watched every last minute of it.

[795] You did.

[796] And what ended up happening?

[797] Were there convictions overturned?

[798] No. That's weird because every time I hear the innocence projects involved with something, it's always a doc I'm watching.

[799] And I'm so excited like the good guys are here.

[800] They're going to set free this wrongly convicted person.

[801] That's always my only experience with that is like DNA finding out, no, they put another, it's always a black dude, put him in jail for something he didn't do.

[802] And then they get exonerated.

[803] So my whole association is like, that's a good thing.

[804] And you know what?

[805] It's tough because I watch those things, hoping, wishing for the same thing.

[806] And then when you're in that situation, it's tough.

[807] It's definitely a weird feeling.

[808] That's life, right?

[809] It's like you just keep ending up on the other side of these things.

[810] You're like, oh, God, I guess it's way more complicated.

[811] And even maybe on your best, most generous day, you can maybe even have the thought, five teenagers that are in that situation, they probably don't have a pop of chili.

[812] I've said so many different things about the situation.

[813] and that, it's like a mind -fuck, you know what I mean?

[814] Excuse me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[815] When you start thinking about it, because I always say, like, at that age, I don't think anybody should have to spend the rest of their life behind bars or whatnot, especially if you're remorseful and you trying to make something better of yourself in that situation because the world has changed so much since then, even though during the Innocence Project, the toughest part for me was watching my mom and my Aunt Rhonda endure it again.

[816] So for me, I want to say I moved on.

[817] but my granddad always going to have a special place in my heart, but he's not coming back.

[818] Right.

[819] You know, I can compartmentalize that.

[820] I have my moments.

[821] I have my days.

[822] But it's more so my mom and my Aunt Rhonda.

[823] Are your days, because here are mine, mine are, I'm doing something.

[824] Maybe I'm in my backyard and I'm looking at my grass and my kids are swimming or whatever.

[825] And I just think, oh, God, he would have loved this whole sit, right?

[826] He would have been so proud of me. That's kind of who I want.

[827] More than I would want it from my dad, who's also dead, but I would kill to spend a day with my Papa Bob at my age with everything that I've been doing my whole life where it ended up.

[828] He invested so much in me. I would love to give that to him.

[829] Like, look what your hard work did.

[830] Man, you're about to make me cry.

[831] Man, seriously, I think about that probably more often than not because of how hard my granddad worked.

[832] I definitely know I get that workaholic stuff from him, I just wish he would have got a chance to enjoy it a little bit more.

[833] And I always think about that in these different moments where I see my kids or my brother turned 40 this past year, and we did a huge birthday party for him.

[834] My dad ain't like a drinker or anything like that, but my dad took a shot with me and my brother.

[835] And we hugged and my brother was probably drunk out his mind, but my brother couldn't stop crying.

[836] And so it's all these moments that we have as a family.

[837] Winning a championship one day would be all good and well, and I'm striving for it and hope it happens.

[838] And I'm trying to but I know that my granddad would be more proud of the fact that our family is still together.

[839] Yeah, you're still with your college sweetheart.

[840] Yeah, that and then, so my mom has one sister, my Aunt Rhonda, no brothers.

[841] And Papa Chili is your mom's dad.

[842] Yes, my mom's dad.

[843] It's like 13 years or something like that between them.

[844] Since I was a kid, we always did holidays together.

[845] Christmas Eve, my Aunt Rhonda would come down from Charlotte with her family and they would stay at our house.

[846] So my little cousin, Tocoy, and AJ, her kids, they live out here in L .A. now.

[847] We're just always together.

[848] I think that's the thing that my grandfather would be the proudest is that life has changed so much.

[849] It could have been easy for everybody to say, we're going this way, going that way.

[850] But both sides of my family, it ain't perfect by no means, but we're still together.

[851] That's hugely impressive for numerous reasons.

[852] A, you've moved around seven different times since Wake Forest or I don't know how many different cities you've lived in since then.

[853] And then money does weird shit to families.

[854] it's hard yes i mean no one's going to feel for either of us nor should they but it's a very weird dynamic to drop into a situation especially if it's a modest one if you come from a modest background and then all of a sudden one of y 'all's got a ton there's a lot of complicated dynamics there so to stay together and stay committed is actually i think worth noting it takes effort it gets more complicated i don't think it gets less complicated no question you would think oh great now i can take care of everyone That was my fantasy since I was a little kid.

[855] I'm going to take care of everyone.

[856] Wait, why do these people resent me for dating?

[857] Listen, when you're a kid and you're growing up, especially when you come from humble beginnings, everything that you're trying to do or strive for is to make things easier for everybody else.

[858] Yeah.

[859] Right?

[860] And you're not wrong for that.

[861] My parents did amazing by me. And sometimes it was my choice, but sometimes dinner would be potato chips and ketchup.

[862] I was cool with it, too, though.

[863] You know what I'm saying?

[864] I had peanut butter and jelly for dinner and stuff.

[865] And as you're growing up, You're like, man, I want my kids to have this.

[866] And what you start to realize is that sometimes you can hinder someone like that.

[867] I've had conversations with my team, right?

[868] And everybody who works around me. So over the years, I've built up a team.

[869] Think about how busy you are and stuff like that on the course of a day.

[870] So I'm grateful for it.

[871] I know I got to do this.

[872] I got to do this.

[873] Somebody's going to be like, I'm going to get you food.

[874] But they know it was one point where I was like, I'm getting my own shit.

[875] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[876] You know, I was like, I'm going to Target today.

[877] I need such and such.

[878] I'm going to get it myself.

[879] And it's not a malicious thing or whatnot, but sometimes you can provide so much for your kids or your family and trying to help and take care of everybody that you can.

[880] Well, you can rob them of their purpose, weirdly.

[881] You never feel like that's what you're doing, but what makes your puppet chili worthy of a book?

[882] You could have written a thousand different books.

[883] You could write a book about your career.

[884] You could write a book about numerous things.

[885] Why does he get a book?

[886] He gets a book because he worked his ass off and he showed up for people.

[887] And you can't buy that for somebody.

[888] I can't give that to somebody.

[889] I can't give someone Papua Chili's integrity.

[890] That's what you want to do.

[891] You want to give someone that.

[892] But that doesn't get given.

[893] It gets earned.

[894] And it's tricky.

[895] Damn, you're so right.

[896] I tell that to my kids and whatever they do.

[897] I don't care if you the best.

[898] I really don't.

[899] And I mean that.

[900] As hard as I am and as competitive as I am, I tell them, I don't care if you the best, but I want you to just work the hardest.

[901] I want you to really go after what you want.

[902] If you say you want that, because, you know, that's saying how you do anything is how you do everything.

[903] I believe that.

[904] If you show me a guy on the basketball court who ain't big as a minute that's just out there running around, diving on the floor, chasing or whatever, I'd be like, you know what?

[905] If this basketball thing don't work out for you, I would love for you to work for me on my team.

[906] Right, right, yeah.

[907] I would love for you to work for me because you're just like a...

[908] You're a go -getter.

[909] Yeah.

[910] That's right.

[911] Also the thing with the money that I think is tricky is when you buy everyone around you stuff, it doesn't earn you respect.

[912] They can earn you a power position, but it doesn't come with respect.

[913] And I think that it's a weird flaw in the system where if someone's buying you all this stuff, you feel like you may not be able to say anything to them back.

[914] And that's an unequal relationship.

[915] No one wants that with their family.

[916] Yes, that's where it fucks up the dynamic is let's just.

[917] say you bought me a house i've been meaning to tell you i think you're not spent enough time with your kid but then you buy me a house i'm like i'm probably not going to bring that thing up about the kid i'm just gonna smile and take the house now the whole situation is fucked up between you and me because the relationship was built on like honesty and respect yeah oh you got opinions about how much time i spend with my kids from the house i bought you and you make that opinion in the house i bought you and that's a human reaction too.

[918] I'm like, I just bought you a house.

[919] How can you talk to me like this?

[920] So it is, it gets complicated quick.

[921] You know what?

[922] You're exactly right.

[923] And I think that's where you almost have to evaluate yourself too, right?

[924] To see what that relationship is like.

[925] You know, on the other side of it.

[926] Someone smarter than me, older than me, and has been through this longer than me. But still, a white trash kid from Reseda, who became an entertainment lawyer, most successful one ever, right?

[927] And he said, look, you're on a tricky path.

[928] I've been on it for a while.

[929] The key is, is you can't rob people of having reciprocal relationships.

[930] Relationships have to be reciprocated.

[931] So you might give somebody something, but you have to really put in the time and attention to make sure you're making them available to give you something.

[932] It's not going to be money, but it's going to be some other thing they give you.

[933] That's so crazy you say that because it's just like that friend or somebody that you have that you talk to and like really divulge yourself into them and you appreciate telling them about what's going on in your life.

[934] You can be vulnerable to them.

[935] You've got to be vulnerable to them.

[936] But you have to explain to them just because I'm telling you all these things that's going on in my life doesn't mean that I'm telling you that if you absolutely need something not to tell me. You get what I'm saying?

[937] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[938] Respect the relationship that I'm confiding you in this and I'm telling you this about such and such with this money situation.

[939] But if you needed something, don't say, well, because you was telling me about all them issues, I ain't going to tell you about mine.

[940] on my water heating bill.

[941] There's a lot of value in other things that you can't put a dollar amount on.

[942] If I can call you and tell you what I'm going through and how I feel, that's invaluable.

[943] You know, yeah, I might have helped you with this situation and gave you $1 ,500, but you being available for me to call and tell you that to, that might have been worth $5 ,000.

[944] So maybe I owe you more.

[945] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[946] So that's where people got to be able to understand the dynamics on both sides of their relationship.

[947] And it's on you to call out.

[948] I see you.

[949] Thanks for the service you give me. And I'm delighted to help you.

[950] Absolutely.

[951] Yeah.

[952] It's tricky, though.

[953] It is.

[954] It's a tricky, tricky, tricky sitch.

[955] Money really makes shit crazy.

[956] Everyone wants it, but it really complicates stuff.

[957] Quick.

[958] When you were just talking about calling a friend, I meant to ask you, sorry to pause this.

[959] Oh, you fine.

[960] That's hard for me to call someone.

[961] I feel comfortable in the provider role and the alpha role.

[962] and I'm, don't worry about me role, I'm invincible.

[963] That's very hard for me. And if someone, the handful of people that I feel safe to do that, I mean, really are invaluable because I'm not good at it.

[964] That's what I'm saying.

[965] Everybody you're not going to be vulnerable with.

[966] Because everybody's not going to get you.

[967] Some people are going to be like, you selfish bastard, you ungrateful for you.

[968] What was your last contract?

[969] Yeah, you know what I mean?

[970] So it's hard to find people to be like that with.

[971] And by the way, selfishly and admittedly my own character defects, I like being the provider.

[972] I like being the person you come to.

[973] I'm not great at being the person that comes to you, my own ego.

[974] No question.

[975] Well, I think you like being the person with all the answers.

[976] And it worries you that if you are asking for help, it's proving that you don't have all of them.

[977] That's exactly it.

[978] Like, I'm going to lose my leadership role.

[979] If I admit to being scared.

[980] But it's cool to have those people that you can call and ask.

[981] Yeah.

[982] Of course, the title of your book is 61, and this is the most improbable kind of outcome of Papa Chili being killed, which is this happens right before your season opener of your senior year of playing basketball.

[983] Yep.

[984] So November 14th, signed a letter of intent.

[985] The 15th was the day my grandfather was murdered.

[986] November 19th was his funeral.

[987] November 20th was the first game of my senior year.

[988] Oh, wow.

[989] So all my family was in town, and I'd been contemplating whether or not I was going to play.

[990] That makes sense to me. Like, this shit doesn't mean anything.

[991] Why would I go do this stupid thing?

[992] I went home after school, and then I was about to leave to go to the gym.

[993] And I remember walking past my Aunt Rhonda before I left the house.

[994] And she looked and said, don't you do something special for your papa.

[995] She didn't tell me what to do or whatnot.

[996] She just mentioned something.

[997] And so the highest amount of points I scored in the game at that point was like 34.

[998] And so we were at my high school because we were playing away game, actually at my mom's alma mater at Parkland High School.

[999] I told my coach, because I'm also one of those people, when I'm really going through, I get really quiet.

[1000] Your whole town knows what happened, I'm sure.

[1001] Yeah, it's not like it's a secret.

[1002] The church that I grew up going to my granddad's funeral couldn't be there because it was too big and too massive.

[1003] Too many people wanted to come.

[1004] So I get to school with my teammates, and we used to shoot free throws before we got on the bus.

[1005] Like it would be two guys at each basket or three guys shooting free throws.

[1006] And as we was shooting free throws, coach usually walks around and asks everybody if they're ready for the game.

[1007] And I remember just telling Coach Layton, I said, coach, even if we get a big lead tonight, let me play.

[1008] Right, because you watch games and when a team gets up 20 or 30, like they take out the guys.

[1009] Yeah.

[1010] And so we got over to the game.

[1011] The only person that I told what I may do as far as scoring was David Gillette, who was my back court mate, the point guard on my team.

[1012] So nobody else on my team knew my parents, nobody.

[1013] Were you point guard on that team?

[1014] Yep.

[1015] Okay.

[1016] And he was two guard?

[1017] Yep.

[1018] So you kind of got to tell him because you need him to feed you a bit tonight.

[1019] I just told him because we were really close, but not necessarily feed me because You already got the ball.

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] I still had 10 assists.

[1022] And at that point, my career, I used to steal the ball all the time.

[1023] You're a captain thief, yeah.

[1024] Yeah, I need to ask my parents, real talk, like, what was it like being in the crowd?

[1025] Because I always know what it was like for me. playing.

[1026] I'm interested to see when they started to figure out what was going on.

[1027] Yeah, I would love to hear their perspective.

[1028] Yeah, I got to 59.

[1029] Wow.

[1030] I got to 59.

[1031] Oh my God.

[1032] What quarter?

[1033] Fourth quarter.

[1034] Okay.

[1035] So I didn't even notice at the time, nor did it matter, did I care.

[1036] I think the state scoring record at the time was like 67 or 68 held by Michael Jordan.

[1037] And so I got to 59 and I'm coming up the left side of the court.

[1038] And I remember I crossed over to the middle of the court.

[1039] Then I sort of did it in and out and got to the right elbow and I shot a floater.

[1040] And I got filed and the shot went in.

[1041] So that was 61.

[1042] It might have been like three, four minutes in the game.

[1043] And I remember literally laying there like, I cannot believe that I just did this.

[1044] And so I get up and I walk to the free throw line because I had 59.

[1045] I scored and won.

[1046] Yeah, you know, you can't make this exactly exactly i got 61 i'm not trying to get 62 right right yeah yeah and so i literally walked to the free throw line they throw it to me and i just threw the ball out of bounds and i walked right off to the sideline my dad was assistant coach as he if he wasn't doing enough working and stuff he was assistant coach and i just remember walking off the court and falling into his arms oh man yeah fuck what a moment of life it's impossible it's like a movie i still got that basketball ball.

[1047] You do.

[1048] I still got it.

[1049] It's in a trophy case in my parents' house.

[1050] 61 points for 61 years.

[1051] Oh, man, is that special?

[1052] So that's been a special number to me for the longest.

[1053] Have you ever had that as a number?

[1054] No, no, 61 ain't going to look right.

[1055] I don't know.

[1056] I don't know.

[1057] CP3, CP 61.

[1058] No. But what I will tell you, so I had 13 shoes made by Brand Jordan over the years.

[1059] In every last one of my shoes, you can find a Chevron logo.

[1060] Oh, no way.

[1061] Hitting on the shoe.

[1062] Every shoe.

[1063] Oh, he's everything.

[1064] Oh, everything.

[1065] I mean, I got Chevron logos tatted on me right here.

[1066] Oh, my gosh.

[1067] Come on now.

[1068] Yeah.

[1069] So we have a thing called Club 61.

[1070] We do it every summer and we bring five kids from every NBA city that I've played in.

[1071] And it teaches kids leadership.

[1072] And so 61 is a big number to us and everything that we do.

[1073] So the kids come out here to L .A. And we teach them financial literacy.

[1074] We teach them about social activism.

[1075] Step one, Cartier watch, step two, escalated, spinners, step three.

[1076] I happen to watch this.

[1077] Chris got asked your worst financial decisions you've made.

[1078] Oh, man. And your best.

[1079] And those are on the list.

[1080] You've got to do it.

[1081] But you know how that 61 comes full circle?

[1082] So my dad, October, he'll be 63.

[1083] So I thought about the year that he turned 61.

[1084] It was really emotional for me. You realized how young your grandpa was.

[1085] Exactly.

[1086] Because he was an old -ass man to you, right?

[1087] Same with me. What?

[1088] Yeah.

[1089] My dad, at this age, you'll still go out in the backyard and shoot basketball with my son and all that.

[1090] And so that's when it really hit me. Oh, Chris, I'm getting to the fucking age where I realized, I think Papa Bob was in my age when I was playing there.

[1091] Like, oh, yeah, y 'all.

[1092] I'm like grandpa age.

[1093] It's crazy to think about it, ain't it?

[1094] Yes, yes.

[1095] That's the stuff that when you get older, it starts to hit you, especially like even with my mom.

[1096] I know there's so many different people in the world who've got unbelievable stories.

[1097] but knowing that my mom lost her mom and her dad at such an early age to me, you know, I couldn't imagine.

[1098] I'm 38, and I got my mom and my dad.

[1099] And she didn't have her mom at that point.

[1100] When your grandpa died, how old was your mom?

[1101] She was probably around 31.

[1102] So you did some mild shit at the Chevron station.

[1103] You changed some oil and stuff.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] Has it occurred to you to have as a hobby to do some mechanical stuff?

[1106] You know what?

[1107] My dad is still crazy about cars.

[1108] I should hang with him.

[1109] Yes, I'm obsessed.

[1110] Absolutely.

[1111] It's crazy because my teammate, Devin Booker, he's Michigan, all that stuff.

[1112] He's like from Grand Rapids or whatnot, and he has every old school that you could imagine.

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] And I look at those cars, totally different.

[1115] When I see his old schools, I'd be like, man, I almost want to put it up on the lift.

[1116] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1117] Yeah, because I was just around cars all day, every day.

[1118] I was telling a story earlier.

[1119] I mean, my wife went to go turning a car the other day that had been messing up like crazy.

[1120] and the only way they would do a buyback or something is if me and her both came to the dealership.

[1121] That's convenient for that.

[1122] Exactly.

[1123] It's a very weird policy.

[1124] It's customary that we have this whole team come down to the dealership.

[1125] Everybody got to come down here.

[1126] And so we sitting in there and this guy comes in there and I hear him over there talking to a sales rep and he says, hey, I got to get an oil change.

[1127] So I was just wondering, how long is my car going to be here?

[1128] Because if it's not too long, I'm going to stay.

[1129] And if it is, I'm going to just get an Uber and go home.

[1130] You can see all the cars inside, which is so cool for me. And I'm thinking about how long you're about to say about his oil change.

[1131] He was like, it's going to be a while.

[1132] I'm thinking to myself, it don't take that long.

[1133] Just throw the car on the left, put it up, put the big tall funnel under it, unscrew it.

[1134] So when you unscrew it, you got to unscrew it.

[1135] And then you got to pull your hand quick because the oil going to be hot.

[1136] It's going to come out and it's going to drain.

[1137] And then we used to go, depending on what kind of car you had, it's going to tell what kind of oil we put in it.

[1138] And depending on the size of your car, it's going to be five bottles or it's going to be five bottles, there's going to be six bottles.

[1139] I'm in there and I'm just reminiscing on all of this stuff, you know, and that was...

[1140] Hey, I don't know what they're going to tell you, but I can have your car out of here in 40 minutes.

[1141] Exactly.

[1142] But I have such an appreciation for it when I see craftsmen or anything like teaching their kids, right?

[1143] Things that you think so dangerous.

[1144] But I remember I would walk out there with my granddad at the full service part.

[1145] He smacked the car and be like, pop the hood.

[1146] And to fill under there and figure out how you're going to be.

[1147] lift it up or whatnot, depending on what car, if I didn't feel it there, okay, I know it's on the side or I know it's here.

[1148] And since I was seven years old, I was doing all these different type things.

[1149] Yeah, yeah.

[1150] I'm suggesting maybe you pick it up in your leisure time.

[1151] You might connect to something.

[1152] I need to.

[1153] I don't know.

[1154] It was so hot during them summers, man. Well, I'd be remiss if I didn't just call out a couple of amazing things from your basketball career.

[1155] You don't have to.

[1156] I feel like I want to.

[1157] We have to.

[1158] We have listeners.

[1159] I want to hear it.

[1160] I just want to say some things that were pretty impressive.

[1161] Set the freshman record at Wake Forest for three point percentage, free throws, assist, and steals.

[1162] You punch a dude in the groin.

[1163] That excites me. You got a little vip and vigor.

[1164] What happened there?

[1165] It's crazy.

[1166] Say that.

[1167] So let's just go ahead and talk about it.

[1168] Let's talk about it.

[1169] So it's a dude named Julius Hodge.

[1170] It's the weirdest thing ever probably because it's something that obviously anybody in the ACC knows about because I got suspended.

[1171] for a game.

[1172] Right.

[1173] It was a bit of news.

[1174] It was a lot of news.

[1175] As you've heard me talk about my family and how my family show up to everything, they always are everything that I do.

[1176] That's the one game in my whole college career that nobody in my family was at.

[1177] Whoa.

[1178] No kidding.

[1179] Oh, that's, that's deep.

[1180] That's deep.

[1181] That's deep.

[1182] What's your opinion?

[1183] Because I got one immediately.

[1184] I'm going to tell you, so we're playing at NC State.

[1185] Somebody's on a free throw line shooting.

[1186] And if you know college sports, people cruel.

[1187] People are say whatever to you about any and everything.

[1188] So with some students in the front row that start chanting, I killed your grandfather.

[1189] What?

[1190] Oh my.

[1191] I can't imagine that this random thing I picked out of a hat ties into this.

[1192] No. But I'm going to tell you, so I'm very emotional.

[1193] And so during a free throw, like I'm on the court and I look over at one of my assistant coaches, Jeff Battle, and I like got tears in my eyes.

[1194] And I'm like really mad, really frustrated.

[1195] Me and Julius Hodge been getting into it.

[1196] He had tried to elbow me before that.

[1197] He just missed.

[1198] I didn't miss. I didn't miss. It's crazy because you see it, whatever.

[1199] I did it.

[1200] On up to it.

[1201] When it happened, his family or people tried to come on the court and was like talking.

[1202] I'm like they're going to jump in.

[1203] And it was crazy.

[1204] It's the one game nobody in my family was at.

[1205] It was my brother's senior night.

[1206] And so that happened.

[1207] No one kicked those kids out?

[1208] You know what?

[1209] That's crazy.

[1210] This is the thing we had meta in here.

[1211] In this bizarre, people think that.

[1212] there's a TV screen between the bleachers and the players.

[1213] Oh, no. And that they act like they can get away with absolutely anything.

[1214] I say that all the time now.

[1215] If you see me at a game now, I'm quick to tell people.

[1216] I'll be like, listen, you ain't at the zoo.

[1217] You know what I'm saying?

[1218] We talk back.

[1219] I tell them that with the quickness.

[1220] We talk back.

[1221] And now in the world you live in, people are going to catch it and do all this different type stuff.

[1222] Yeah.

[1223] But it was crazy.

[1224] You know how we won that game?

[1225] I had the game winning shot to win that game that you're talking about, right?

[1226] So then after the fact, obviously, it was reviewed.

[1227] Crazy what happens.

[1228] We actually have to play NC State the first game of the ACC tournament.

[1229] I'm suspended.

[1230] We lose the game.

[1231] So you paid the price.

[1232] For sure.

[1233] But at the same time, Facebook had started around then.

[1234] Fast forward after that year, I go to the NBA.

[1235] Me and my brother living in D .C., and I get, like, a Facebook email from a few students apologizing.

[1236] No way.

[1237] For saying what they said.

[1238] But listen, I did it.

[1239] Yeah.

[1240] I absolutely did.

[1241] it.

[1242] And it is what it is.

[1243] Here's my question.

[1244] So it cannot be a coincidence.

[1245] Your family wasn't there.

[1246] So my question is, do you think it's either they weren't there which just made you off?

[1247] They're supposed to be there.

[1248] They're always there.

[1249] Like, it's a little off.

[1250] Something's missing.

[1251] Is it that?

[1252] Is it what they're saying about your grandpa, which totally makes sense?

[1253] Or is it they're not here to see me do this?

[1254] I don't think I'm that smart.

[1255] You know what I mean?

[1256] It wasn't like no one's looking.

[1257] I'm going to let rip.

[1258] Let me ask you this.

[1259] Do you think you would have punched him if your family was there?

[1260] Yes.

[1261] Okay.

[1262] So then it's not the third option.

[1263] No. You were being provoked.

[1264] That's why somebody would be like, oh, would you take it back?

[1265] Absolutely not.

[1266] Yeah.

[1267] Well, we're not going to talk about basketball then because you just made it very clear.

[1268] In fact, I'm friends with a Formula One driver.

[1269] And he said, well, my favorite thing about you is you never asked me about racing.

[1270] I was like, okay, noted.

[1271] And anytime we have like a basketball player in here and we don't talk about basketball, they're so happy.

[1272] And I get it because you've been talking about basketball for 20 years straight.

[1273] Oh, man. I do want to say we did have Blake Griffin?

[1274] What a dude.

[1275] I love that guy.

[1276] He could have been in comedy or something.

[1277] I'm going to be very honest with you.

[1278] Me and Blake played together for six years.

[1279] Some of those years, it wasn't the best of our relationship.

[1280] Okay.

[1281] Because you're both stars?

[1282] It was a lot different point in our lives, age, all this different type of stuff.

[1283] But I like to laugh.

[1284] And so that's what made our team so fun when we played together.

[1285] All we did was joke all day, every day.

[1286] So we got like an inside joke about a particular movie or whatnot.

[1287] And I was sitting at home and I was watching it with my son and I seen this clip that me and Blake had laughed about for years but we hadn't really talked or communicated in a while and I literally like videoed it and sent it to him just because sometimes you grow and you learn and you be like man all that shit ain't worth it.

[1288] And so when we played against Boston we talked and just realized how much you reflect and you miss these different types relationships where Blake is one of the funniest people you will ever meet in your life.

[1289] And he loves comedy.

[1290] He'd be doing like stand -up comedy and all that.

[1291] Yeah, he does stuff with Ben.

[1292] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1293] But when he was here, we talked about the kind of insane experience of playing through the Donald Sterling unraveling.

[1294] Yeah, what Blake say?

[1295] Well, he said a lot.

[1296] He said he had the experience where he first went to the team and he got kind of prated around by Donald, like he had just bought him.

[1297] Yeah.

[1298] And had people touch him and stuff.

[1299] When I got traded to the Clippers, it was even different from Blake.

[1300] Blake was the number one pick, came into the team, and it was a huge deal, but they didn't really win like that, right?

[1301] So then I get traded to the team, and, oh, man, that's crazy.

[1302] I wish they was here so we could sort of talk about it together.

[1303] But Sterling had an event over at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

[1304] That's the pink one.

[1305] Yep, yep, yep, on sunset.

[1306] And it was after practice one day.

[1307] Mind you, I'm new to L .A. I've been in Oklahoma for two years in New Orleans for four years.

[1308] So I was like, what is this?

[1309] And so you show up, it's like a red carpet.

[1310] And we ain't even played a game yet.

[1311] We walk into the ballroom, and it's all these tables and people there.

[1312] And it's probably sort of what Blake talked about a little bit, too.

[1313] But there's a head table.

[1314] And me, Blake, DJ, probably a couple other teammates, and Vinny Del Negro, we sit up there in the front.

[1315] And, you know, of course, we whispering, we are like, what the hell are we at?

[1316] Where are we doing here?

[1317] man i did not expect us to talk about this but it's an interesting group of people and it's like for real sterling had this event to show us off you know because we had started getting so much publicity about us about lob city clippers what they're going to be what they're going to do sterling say let me show y 'all to my people now it's so obvious and clear that's what was going on was it in the moment yeah it was it was obvious in the moment but at the same time what's that feel We didn't really care.

[1318] We knew that within the NBA, you have to do a certain amount of appearances and all this stuff like that.

[1319] So if this was going to count as one of our appearances, we was like, it's the fuck.

[1320] Sure, right.

[1321] We in there trying to figure out what the hell this is, too.

[1322] This might be a cool story to tell on y 'all podcast one day.

[1323] Ten years later.

[1324] But I remember there was like a fake Frank Sinatra who came up on stage and sang.

[1325] And then there was like a Marilyn Monroe who was.

[1326] singing and brought Vinny Del Negro up on stage.

[1327] Uh -oh.

[1328] Sat him in a chair and almost started.

[1329] Did the happy birthday to you, Mr. President, type thing.

[1330] Vinny was out to coach at the time.

[1331] What a twisted fucking world, the Sterling guy concocted for himself.

[1332] So then what was crazy, he went up to the podium to talk, and everybody was still sort of eating and talking.

[1333] Man, where is Blake and DJ, man?

[1334] Because I want to laugh, like, and talk to them about it.

[1335] He basically told everybody to shut up.

[1336] He did.

[1337] Listen to me. Yeah.

[1338] I own everyone in this room.

[1339] Shut up.

[1340] And what was wild is he, like, brought a guy up, introduced him to everybody.

[1341] When he brought me up, he was basically saying, this is like my introduction to L .A. And I'm standing there.

[1342] He got his hand on my shoulder.

[1343] And I'm like, what is he about to say?

[1344] And he was like, isn't he so handsome?

[1345] He said that to everyone, ain't he so handsome?

[1346] He was like, he's married out here in L .A. And I just don't know why.

[1347] Like, he stated in front of everybody in there.

[1348] We had some interesting times in them clipper days.

[1349] Oh, my Lord.

[1350] You must have felt like you teleported to another world.

[1351] Man, what was that?

[1352] I was 2011, so I was, what, 26 at the time?

[1353] But from Joan Chevron to that ballroom, what a bizarre change of events?

[1354] Yeah.

[1355] But see, that's why it's so great to have real family, real friends.

[1356] Because when you're going through stuff like that, you've got to have somebody that you can tell about and you can laugh about it.

[1357] Yes.

[1358] And they can say that's crazy.

[1359] I got my fellow's group chat, right?

[1360] Like all my homies that I grew up with.

[1361] Actually, we leaving Thursday to go on a trip because I play for the whole season.

[1362] And then afterwards, I'm being dad and I'm working.

[1363] I'm doing a book tour.

[1364] So I try to get one week to just go be with my friends that I grew up with from the sandbox, like my homies, my homies.

[1365] And there's no better time.

[1366] Yeah, that's important to do.

[1367] Exactly.

[1368] So everything that's so abnormal in my life, Like, I was so excited to come over here and meet you and spend this time with you.

[1369] It's cool to have real people that I can go tell them and be like, man, guess who I was with today?

[1370] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1371] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[1372] Chris, I have this thing where my childhood best friend, Aaron Weekly, since 11, I got sober 19 years ago.

[1373] He did not.

[1374] So for 15 of those years, he was still going deep into the hole.

[1375] And we stayed close, but we're on much different paths.

[1376] He's hammered all the time, doing blow.

[1377] I wasn't.

[1378] He got sober three and a half years ago, and we got back in business, right?

[1379] So now we go everywhere together.

[1380] And I can almost only enjoy all this if I'm with him.

[1381] Last year, I have to do this speaking engagement in Orlando.

[1382] And I'm like, let's go to the four seasons, man. And we go to the four seasons and we're like eating on the rooftop thing and we're watching the fireworks at Disney World.

[1383] And I'm like, oh, yeah, I hit the jackpot.

[1384] Like, I can see it because us two poor kids aren't supposed to be at the four seasons.

[1385] And look, we're here together.

[1386] And now I can experience it.

[1387] Yes.

[1388] I think I came here and I was around other people and I was trying to act like I already been here or trying to act like nothing was a big deal.

[1389] I don't want to expose myself as not belonging here.

[1390] For the last, I don't know, three and a half years where Aaron and I've been back together traveling around experience and all.

[1391] Like, it's almost the first time where I'm like, oh, yeah, man, this is incredible.

[1392] This is how it's supposed to feel.

[1393] Yes, this is unbelievable.

[1394] It helps me digest the whole thing.

[1395] Man, listen, my boys, I love them to death.

[1396] They're the ones who really keep me ground when it's all bad.

[1397] Because even on your greatest days, the biggest achievements, those are the ones going to tell you you ain't shit.

[1398] You know what I mean?

[1399] And so for years, I've been like, yo, fellas, where y 'all want to go?

[1400] They ain't have passports.

[1401] Yeah, yeah, yes.

[1402] I used to be like, yo, y 'all want to go to Greece?

[1403] You want to go to there.

[1404] They ain't got passports.

[1405] So we've been to Vegas.

[1406] I don't know how many times.

[1407] So I'll be like, yo, fellas, where y 'all want to go?

[1408] Anywhere in the world, they'd be like, Vegas.

[1409] So this year, we're going to Vegas for two days, and then we're going somewhere else.

[1410] But I look so forward to it because them, the guys who you can say any and everything to with no judgment.

[1411] Yeah, well, they're from where you're from.

[1412] They get all the shit.

[1413] And then it's as bonkers to them as it is to you because you're all from the same spot.

[1414] And you're like, listen to what this happened.

[1415] And sometimes you're in places, right, and you just wish that they were there.

[1416] Some of these rooms that you can't imagine that you're in.

[1417] Yeah.

[1418] And you're grateful to be in them, but you're like, man, I wish Ralph was here to see this.

[1419] There's been so much research on male friendships.

[1420] So it's so good you have that because just in general, they're life -saving.

[1421] Women have them and we know to have them.

[1422] And it's like part of society, girls' trips and blah, blah, blah.

[1423] It's embraced.

[1424] But men don't.

[1425] They're not ingrained with that.

[1426] It's crazy you say that.

[1427] My wife just got back from a trip.

[1428] Me too.

[1429] She just got back from a trip.

[1430] But the relationship that me, Mello, Bronn, and D -Wa that we used to have, right, it was a lot closer than it somewhat is now.

[1431] But it was so important because also in what we do in our profession, everything that you see on social media or on national TV is versus.

[1432] Oh, yeah, of course.

[1433] It puts you against.

[1434] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1435] And you don't think about how that plays into your psyche, which is why everybody is never doing things.

[1436] together.

[1437] Well, even I don't know what the Blake stress was, but I can definitely imagine I'm number one draft pick.

[1438] This is my franchise.

[1439] I'm not winning.

[1440] This dude rolls in.

[1441] All of a sudden we're winning.

[1442] I'm 20, whatever he was.

[1443] That's complicated.

[1444] Absolutely complicated.

[1445] And sometimes, like you said, it takes time to really appreciate that.

[1446] But there's always so much putting us against each other that guys forget, look, man, you can win and I can win too.

[1447] You know what I mean?

[1448] Like it's okay for us to spend time together Because also then you got the different talking heads Who'd be like, I can't stand at these guys A buddy buddy I can't stand it, you know what I mean Where there's still life that you have to live Yeah Yeah Well the book was written with Michael Wilbon Are I saying that right?

[1449] Wilbon Who also wrote two books with Charles Barkley Yep Have you hung out with Charles?

[1450] Not in a while Okay Not in a while I was younger I've had the pleasure of bumping into him over the years Yeah Guy might be having the best time of any human I've ever seen.

[1451] Well, he or Shaq.

[1452] Shaq seems to be having the best time on planet Earth.

[1453] Did you see the doc, by the way, of Shaq?

[1454] Mm -mm.

[1455] You got to watch it.

[1456] Especially in reference to this book, 61, I think it's powerful as hell.

[1457] Oh, I'd definitely check it out.

[1458] It's on HBO.

[1459] There's like a four -parter.

[1460] And sure, it's about his basketball career, but it's really about Sergeant, his stepdad.

[1461] That, yep.

[1462] And his real dad and his journey to ultimately reconnecting with his real dad.

[1463] It's a beautiful, incredible story.

[1464] It's so good.

[1465] At any rate, your book, 61 is so well written.

[1466] It's such an easy, fun read, and I really encourage people to check it out.

[1467] It's beautifully done.

[1468] I hope you're proud of it.

[1469] That was an unbelievable process.

[1470] When I talk about getting the first one back and I was like, this ain't it, started over from the beginning.

[1471] Me and a lady named Jessica Holtz, I would be up at 3 a .m. trying to go over because it was so important that it sounded like me. Of course.

[1472] And then if somebody don't want to read the book, I haven't heard it yet, but I can't wait to listen to the audio book.

[1473] Yeah, yeah.

[1474] The audio book was emotional.

[1475] Oh, I bet.

[1476] Because it's one thing to write it.

[1477] But when I did the audio book...

[1478] Yeah, were you all fucked up?

[1479] Oh, my God.

[1480] Yeah.

[1481] I had so many times where I had to stop.

[1482] And the guys that were in New York that were doing it, they would be like, take your time.

[1483] Because as I'm reading it, I'm picturing the funeral.

[1484] We've had a few different people who have narrated their own books.

[1485] And it's almost the same thing for everybody.

[1486] I also write, so I've had the experience where it's like, I actually can't even understand the experience until I read what I've written.

[1487] And now all of a sudden I'm like, oh, my God, yeah, now I actually am connecting with this thing in a much different way.

[1488] Now that it's all out there and this linear thing, I can kind of compute it differently.

[1489] And we've heard a few different people who have lost their shit reading their own audio book.

[1490] Yeah.

[1491] Well, I want to listen to that.

[1492] Me too.

[1493] I hope everyone checks out 61 life lessons from Papa on and off the court.

[1494] Last question.

[1495] You're an older member of the team now.

[1496] You think?

[1497] I do.

[1498] It's a young man's game.

[1499] The coaches and all that at my age.

[1500] Are you embracing the role as the elder?

[1501] 1 ,000%.

[1502] Does it feel great?

[1503] I got 12 of my AAU kids who I've coached who play in the NBA now.

[1504] Wow.

[1505] Really?

[1506] 12.

[1507] 12 of them.

[1508] Oh, my God.

[1509] How great is that?

[1510] What's that for you like?

[1511] It's really cool.

[1512] because I coach them.

[1513] So during the summer in July, is when I go down to Peach Jam and I help coach them.

[1514] And now I play against them.

[1515] Like, one of my teammates this year, Josh Okoji, he used to catch a Greyhound bus from Georgia to come down to North Carolina to practice with our AAU team.

[1516] Oh, my God.

[1517] Now he's my teammate.

[1518] Oh, my God.

[1519] That's incredible.

[1520] I was doing an interview earlier, a GQ interview, and I was talking about when I'm around, and I say kids, even though they're older now, my very first kid that ever made it to the NBA was a kid named Reggie Bullock, who played.

[1521] for the Dallas Mavericks.

[1522] He just finished his, I don't know, 11th year in the NBA 12th, something like that.

[1523] But he's been in the NBA for a while now.

[1524] Had a career in the NBA.

[1525] Yes, successful career.

[1526] He's still in the league.

[1527] I was telling them, I try not to get emotional when I'm around my kids.

[1528] And I know I say kids, but they're grown, but I try not to get emotional because when I'm around them, I'm like just so happy and like so proud.

[1529] But I play against them now.

[1530] But that's beautiful.

[1531] They're my teammates.

[1532] Kobe White, one of our kids.

[1533] kids that plays for the Bulls.

[1534] I remember when Kobe came to our AAU program when he was like 15, 16 and being there and telling him how to be a point guard.

[1535] When he chose that he was going to Carolina, then he played at Carolina.

[1536] I remember being nervous for the draft.

[1537] And then last week, me and my son worked out with Kobe.

[1538] No kidding.

[1539] Yeah.

[1540] Here in LA, we worked out on the court together.

[1541] So I always act so normal when I'm around them.

[1542] But when I'm around them, I seriously just be like, I could just break down right now.

[1543] Yeah.

[1544] I just be so happy because they're getting the opportunity that I've had to change.

[1545] And you are a part of that.

[1546] That's so special.

[1547] It's this big hack, which is we grow up in this country and we think if we're standing on top of the mountain, that's going to feel amazing.

[1548] It doesn't.

[1549] But the other thing does.

[1550] The other thing over delivers.

[1551] When they have a good game or whatever, when I'm watching and Kobe Hooping, I'll text him or whatever, I'll be like, man, wait a hoop.

[1552] And it probably feels better than when you have a good game.

[1553] What?

[1554] No question.

[1555] Yes, that's the irony.

[1556] It's what we talk about a lot of times.

[1557] like the people that work with you or that are part of your team, you want to make sure that everybody's thriving and not surviving.

[1558] Yeah.

[1559] And there'll be a reward.

[1560] It'll be the elation you think the individual accomplishment will be.

[1561] God damn.

[1562] This has been a blast.

[1563] Chris Paul's book, 61 Life Lessons from Papa.

[1564] I say that, Papa.

[1565] You probably say it differently.

[1566] I say Papa.

[1567] Papa.

[1568] On and off the court.

[1569] Such a pleasure meeting you.

[1570] I hope everyone checks out the book.

[1571] It's fantastic and it's a beautiful story.

[1572] Thank you all so much for this.

[1573] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1574] And I thank you for not being super taller than me, okay?

[1575] Point guards are who I should hang with.

[1576] We have a restriction.

[1577] I played spades with Ron.

[1578] I'm like, I don't need someone in my house that could just fucking flat me. Exactly.

[1579] Like a whack -a -hole.

[1580] And he can do that.

[1581] Oh, my God.

[1582] All right.

[1583] Be well, man. Y 'all too.

[1584] Stay tuned for the facts check so you can hear all the facts that were wrong.

[1585] Chris Paul.

[1586] Delightful.

[1587] Is he a young man?

[1588] He's not a young man. Yeah.

[1589] He's a full -grown man. He's a grown -ass man. 38, I think.

[1590] A peer of yours.

[1591] Older than me. Older than you, but closer to you than me. Three years to you, 10 years to me. Yeah, I mean.

[1592] Two years to you.

[1593] We're almost there.

[1594] Yeah, I know.

[1595] You're ready for me to get there.

[1596] Really ready.

[1597] I'm ready to, actually.

[1598] Let's just go ahead and call it.

[1599] Call it 36.

[1600] Okay, so yesterday was Father's Day.

[1601] How was your Father's Day?

[1602] It was great.

[1603] First, wake up handmade cards from both girls, which was so cute and lovely.

[1604] And then I got to pick what we did, so I suggested family walk in the neighborhood.

[1605] Oh, great.

[1606] That was a blast.

[1607] And then that takes us to 11 a .m. Also, you know, I'm eating eggs again, which is so.

[1608] Yeah, how's that journey going?

[1609] I can't believe how good eggs are.

[1610] I know, they're great.

[1611] Like an over -easy egg?

[1612] Do you like yours over -easy, over -medium?

[1613] I do.

[1614] I don't like it hard.

[1615] I don't either.

[1616] Now, I don't want any, like, runny -goober -y stuff on the egg.

[1617] Well, you don't want, I mean...

[1618] I want all the white cooked.

[1619] Ideally, all the white is cooked.

[1620] And none of the yellow.

[1621] Correct.

[1622] Boom.

[1623] Hard to do, but doable.

[1624] Yes.

[1625] And I'd say, of all the things I make, I'm best at making eggs.

[1626] Because I can flip them, you know.

[1627] I flip them with.

[1628] the pan have been doing that for years and even though i haven't been eating eggs i still make a lot of eggs for the kids and whatnot so yes i worked some eggs into there oh and even you know you guys are always enjoying those burritos from home state which i haven't been able to really enjoy because they've chopped full of eggs yeah i think on one of our last ones i said you should try that and i did on a corn wrap So I'm not fucking with the flour.

[1629] And who, delicious.

[1630] Put back a few of those.

[1631] So good.

[1632] Then the race, Formula One, Canada, such a good race.

[1633] Yes.

[1634] Really fun.

[1635] Then straight to the go -kart track with other dads for a dad's go -kart session, which was incredibly fun.

[1636] Of course.

[1637] In fact, I don't know if this is an age thing.

[1638] And maybe you can answer this for me if you have it.

[1639] There are many things in life I enjoy so much, but yet I don't want to do them.

[1640] So after the race ended, I was like, well, we've scheduled going to the go -car track.

[1641] I don't know if I want to go down there and blah, blah.

[1642] And I have all these hurdles, so I don't know if I want to do that.

[1643] And then the second I walk in there, I'm excited.

[1644] Eric felt the same way, which made me think, as you get older, you're less inclined to do your hobbies.

[1645] But then when I'm doing them, I love them.

[1646] So I don't, do you have that at all?

[1647] Yeah, I think it's just the effort of getting to a place and logistics and driving there.

[1648] And I feel like that with movie theater because I love the movie theater.

[1649] But planning to go to the movies is like, oh, I'm going to see a movie at three.

[1650] I don't really feel like putting that on the schedule.

[1651] And what if I want to do something else instead?

[1652] Parking.

[1653] Parking can be a whole event in L .A. Getting into your seat can be an event.

[1654] Well, sure, you could be like that lady and fall down and break your vagina.

[1655] Oh, my God.

[1656] Yeah.

[1657] Yeah, fingers crossed.

[1658] No. To be so lucky.

[1659] She had a labiectomy or whatever.

[1660] I bet she could.

[1661] Did we ask her if she, there was any lawsuit?

[1662] Oh, we didn't ask.

[1663] I bet not that I would recommend it, because I, in general, don't like suing.

[1664] Yeah.

[1665] But I bet you could win that case.

[1666] If your whole vagina got ripped off.

[1667] I guess, but would she have sued the guy or the movie theater?

[1668] I think the movie theater for having such a sharp, like you shouldn't be able to fall in the crap.

[1669] Yeah, there should be a barrier.

[1670] Probably.

[1671] Now, granted, you can't think of everything, you know.

[1672] You can't.

[1673] No, you don't know how people are going to use your products.

[1674] She's going to be rewarded by the universe for not suing.

[1675] Yeah, probably.

[1676] Maybe she has, because of the labiectomy and all the stuff, she never stops orgasming.

[1677] Oh, my God.

[1678] I hope for her, that's the case.

[1679] Yeah.

[1680] That does make me think of, there used to be this great show on HBO called Taxi Cab Confessions.

[1681] Mm -hmm.

[1682] You remember it at all?

[1683] A bigly, yeah.

[1684] remember that yeah what you know what's really weird is Todd Phillips was a driver of one of those cabs yeah that's weird and he was really good he could get people talking i think they did it in new york and then they did it in Vegas and there was a couple in a cab in Vegas and i don't know how this came up but she told the cab driver that she got a breast job while she was still nursing or something whatever the case was somehow the breast job made it that she still lactating I remember that.

[1685] Do you remember that?

[1686] That's the only episode I remember.

[1687] No way.

[1688] She pulls her boob out in the cab and starts spraying milk around.

[1689] And it'd been years since she stopped breast.

[1690] And you can see it because it's HBO?

[1691] Yes.

[1692] It's so funny you remember that.

[1693] But of course, how can you forget that?

[1694] Yeah, that seems memorable.

[1695] So she's permanently making milk.

[1696] Her conclusion, I don't know medically if that's sound.

[1697] Huh.

[1698] Yeah.

[1699] Pretty exciting though to always have a source of fresh milk.

[1700] How could you always, though, if that doesn't make sense?

[1701] I know, it doesn't.

[1702] somehow her theory I can only tell you her theory somehow once those were in there they stimulated the same area that the baby would keep stimulating or something but whoa okay that's weird really exciting um probably not that great though because then you've got to like oh if you're a woman like that's the that's a worst case scenario she probably has to pump and and like wear pads and stuff so that the milk isn't leaking out your shirt all the time yeah it's not great They seem pretty into it, though.

[1703] Yeah, she seemed having it.

[1704] Maybe they were newly, I mean, we probably should catch up with her now.

[1705] The boyfriend maybe drank out of it?

[1706] Yes, yeah, he has some from the source.

[1707] From the source.

[1708] Anywho, well, okay, so you went to the dog.

[1709] Oh, shit, we were her father's day, somehow ended up with this woman in the back of the cab.

[1710] Yeah.

[1711] It all makes sense because the reason your father is because a baby did suck from the teat.

[1712] That's true.

[1713] That's true.

[1714] And then after the race came home And then we had such an insane day to day I did three, you and I did two I had to spend the whole evening Doing research for today So that's how the day ended How was your weekend?

[1715] My weekend was fine You saw some violence out in the street I did, yeah, I did, I didn't like it There was just a road rage incident That I saw, I wasn't involved But I was disturbed by it Yeah, but that's good That you had a nice father's day Do you get your blood work done?

[1716] I did get it done I don't have the actually I do think I have the results I think they just came in But I haven't seen them yet Should you open it up right now?

[1717] I don't think America can wait much longer Okay, let's see Well, real time We've never had a real time Lab results reading on the You get like a drum roll sound effect to play Yeah we plug everything into the Zoom somehow Oh, this is already not good.

[1718] Oh, wait, because of that noise or you're reading?

[1719] No. What was it saying?

[1720] I have a message, and the message says I need to see a dietitian.

[1721] Okay.

[1722] Which isn't great.

[1723] But I don't see.

[1724] Could that be generated from the first lab results?

[1725] Maybe.

[1726] Do we know if you even got your second lab results?

[1727] But that's what I don't see the result.

[1728] Oh, wait, test results.

[1729] Okay.

[1730] Hi, Monica.

[1731] Your cholesterol remains quite high, especially the bad LDL.

[1732] LDL.

[1733] Refer to you to a dietitian, recheck in three to six months.

[1734] No medicine, just dietitian.

[1735] Okay, but my triglycerides look fine.

[1736] Oh, they do?

[1737] Yeah.

[1738] Wait, so they were like six acts last time, and now they're normal?

[1739] Yeah.

[1740] So there was something.

[1741] wrong with the test with that yeah okay well that's reassuring you already knew you at high cholesterol wasn't am i right the shocker was that your triglycerides were 5x right right okay my ldio can you look up with the right range it doesn't have the little range thing on it has it for the others but not for that one healthy level in milligrams uh huh 125 to 200 Oh.

[1742] What are you?

[1743] 184.

[1744] Oh, you're set.

[1745] And high, my HDL is.

[1746] Oh, wait, wait, wait.

[1747] LDL, that's total cholesterol.

[1748] LDL less than 100 million.

[1749] Okay.

[1750] I'm 184.

[1751] Okay.

[1752] It's not great.

[1753] High cholesterol is 68.

[1754] High cholesterol.

[1755] Oh, HDL.

[1756] I'm sorry.

[1757] 50 or higher.

[1758] 50 or higher.

[1759] So that's good.

[1760] Yeah, yeah.

[1761] Okay.

[1762] My overall cholesterol is 274.

[1763] It should be less than 200.

[1764] Right.

[1765] But.

[1766] But.

[1767] And the triglycerides.

[1768] Yeah, that's a relief because that was...

[1769] That was one that was sending me over the moon, yeah.

[1770] That's heart attack at any moment.

[1771] Okay, well, that was scary, but I'm glad we did it.

[1772] Yeah, it's good.

[1773] And then you're going to take some red yeast and you'll be...

[1774] Oh, maybe you should definitely do that.

[1775] Yeah.

[1776] The ratio, it says it should be less than five is four.

[1777] That's not bad, or that's fine.

[1778] Great, yeah.

[1779] I guess I'm not going to get on Ozumpic after all.

[1780] There you go.

[1781] But wow.

[1782] Are you looking forward to it, OZEPA?

[1783] Yeah.

[1784] The cure -all.

[1785] Well, this is good because I am about to see my parents and I was a little nervous to tell them.

[1786] Almost better not to tell them.

[1787] Right, but if I had 600 triglyceride, I think I would feel the need to say by to them.

[1788] Yeah, wrap things up.

[1789] Now I don't.

[1790] You don't need to do that.

[1791] When do you leave for London?

[1792] Wednesday night.

[1793] Wednesday night, right eye.

[1794] Oh, fun.

[1795] But not even right eye.

[1796] You get out like 8 p .m. or something?

[1797] No, I leave it like 5 .30 and I land at 12.

[1798] PM.

[1799] Yeah.

[1800] Wow.

[1801] I know.

[1802] Good flight.

[1803] It is.

[1804] It's a long guy.

[1805] Anyway, wow.

[1806] Okay, well, that's.

[1807] That's great.

[1808] We cleared up the Treglis rides.

[1809] 600.

[1810] It's a big win.

[1811] I dropped 500 points.

[1812] Because what, the new number was 100?

[1813] Then you tried...

[1814] A triglycerides?

[1815] But less than what it needed to be.

[1816] Right.

[1817] And so the test was fucked up.

[1818] And a bunch of other people also had a...

[1819] No, because you maintained your same lifestyle, as I recall.

[1820] No, remember?

[1821] I was drinking smoothies and eating egg whites.

[1822] Oh, yeah, but okay.

[1823] I guess the drinking you decided...

[1824] Oh, yeah, but the drinking I maintained.

[1825] Kept the same, yeah.

[1826] Yeah, so I guess that means I can keep drinking.

[1827] Yeah, duh.

[1828] Yeah.

[1829] Yeah.

[1830] We're doctors.

[1831] I'd like to take this moment to wish Wabi Wob a very happy birthday.

[1832] Happy birthday, Wabi Wob.

[1833] Happy birthday.

[1834] You're going to be 33.

[1835] 35.

[1836] They're only one year younger than me. Thank God.

[1837] 35.

[1838] How's that feel?

[1839] I feel like I've been around the same age for a little while.

[1840] Okay.

[1841] Like 30 to 35 is kind of all blended together.

[1842] Can't be looking forward to 40, though, are you?

[1843] No. No, right, right.

[1844] Yeah, but that's a long way.

[1845] It makes you feel better.

[1846] I'll be at 50 before you're at 40.

[1847] That should give you some comfort.

[1848] I feel like they're going to start to get worse now.

[1849] Oh, yeah.

[1850] 35 plus.

[1851] I argue everything post 27 is just why, you know.

[1852] Yeah.

[1853] But are you going to do anything for your birthday?

[1854] Probably not much.

[1855] We're having some friends over Friday night.

[1856] Great.

[1857] That'll be fun.

[1858] Fun, fun, fun, fun.

[1859] what trips are you taking are you taking some trips Austin are you going back to no no I think we're into Santa Barbara for a couple days but okay just some downtime Natalie's gonna take the kids to Chicago oh you look and I'm staying oh wow well she wanted me to go with but that's some of our only downtime so it's like I don't know if I want to fill it with you got a recharge home travel yeah I think because we're together They're, yeah, I think breaking point for me. I think breaking point for you, breaking points.

[1860] Great.

[1861] Okay, so Chris was lovely and really glad we got to chat with him.

[1862] It was nice to finally have one of these NBA players that didn't tower over me. That was nice.

[1863] More I'd eye to eye.

[1864] Okay, it was mainly about his story, so not really any facts except one.

[1865] We joked that the statute of limitations was up when he was single.

[1866] something negative about his parents.

[1867] Uh -huh.

[1868] So then I wanted to look up what is the statute of limitations on child abuse.

[1869] Oh, great.

[1870] Okay, in California, generally speaking, any legal action for an injury to a minor in California, either physical or mental, is told until the child's 18th birthday.

[1871] That's what that says.

[1872] Now, another thing, Keene law firm says, the time limit is generally two years from the date of the occurrence when the child was injured.

[1873] Okay.

[1874] So I could carry into your being 19.

[1875] Right.

[1876] Now, what is the statute of limitations for child abuse by my law questions .com?

[1877] In federal cases, according to U .S. Code 18, Section 3283, the statute of limitations is for as long as the victim is alive or for 10 years after the event, whichever is longer.

[1878] Well, what could be longer than as long as you're alive?

[1879] They don't need to just make it that.

[1880] Well, unless it happens and then two years later, you're dead.

[1881] Maybe after that, someone could do on their behalf.

[1882] I got you.

[1883] In absentia, you could press charges, I guess.

[1884] Right.

[1885] So, yeah.

[1886] Well, I hope that makes you think twice about abusing your shy.

[1887] I do, too.

[1888] I hope that will deter a couple people.

[1889] And you're getting ready to go on a trip, too?

[1890] Yes.

[1891] bus trip to Idaho.

[1892] Is the bus already?

[1893] Nope.

[1894] Nothing's ready.

[1895] I leave tomorrow morning for Sacramento for two days, then get home, and then I guess either that night or if I have time tonight, we'll be the packing of the bus.

[1896] What are you doing in Sacramento?

[1897] Track day.

[1898] How fun.

[1899] A guest of Kawasaki, they're releasing a new thing.

[1900] They have the greatest track in California, and it'll be a bunch of journalists and me. That'll be fun.

[1901] It's going to be fun.

[1902] Great.

[1903] My only anxiety is about how I bring my leather suit, my helmet, my boots, my gloves, my no -mex, all in a carry -on.

[1904] And I don't think that's going to be possible.

[1905] I'm going to have to check, I think.

[1906] I think you can still have a carry -on plus a bag.

[1907] A purse plus a thing.

[1908] But you could take a big backpack or bag.

[1909] That bag, that blue bag, is big.

[1910] I'll take that one.

[1911] I'm going to take that tomorrow.

[1912] Yeah, it's big.

[1913] I mean, definitely the helmet.

[1914] What is it?

[1915] It's this Rothese.

[1916] Shout out Rothies.

[1917] It is a really good travel bag.

[1918] Oh, wow, wow, wow.

[1919] I wonder if I, you know, my, my suit's so fucking cumbersome.

[1920] That's the problem.

[1921] It's my whole body, basically.

[1922] It doesn't get much smaller when you fold it.

[1923] I might try.

[1924] No, you can't go to Europe.

[1925] I'm going to need it to bring stuff back.

[1926] Right, so that's what, so then I'll buy one there.

[1927] Okay.

[1928] You could do that.

[1929] And then.

[1930] But there, you don't pay any.

[1931] penalty when you check internationally because you have to wait to go through immigration anyways so by the time you come out your bag's always ready so that's true it's more about getting lost but if it's a direct flight why would it get lost yeah so it's probably fine can you can you wear your helmet on the plane i should do that i should wear it pretend like it's like a covid mask no it crossed my mind i mean there's no way i could because it's so uncomfortable But it across my mind to just wear my motorcycle outfit.

[1932] Oh.

[1933] And then because I could fit my helmet.

[1934] If I put my motorcycle outfit out of my motorcycle boots, I could get my normal clothes in the bag with a helmet.

[1935] But I can't be out in the airport full riding leathers.

[1936] Also, don't you think TSA would be concerned?

[1937] Like, what's this guy prepared to do on this flight?

[1938] Yeah.

[1939] Jump out?

[1940] Maybe you'll have a TSA story to add to the arm's chair.

[1941] Yeah.

[1942] No one will recognize if you got the helmet on.

[1943] I think everyone will recognize you.

[1944] Everyone will stare and then figure out it's you.

[1945] Well, my leathers are my signature bullseye, so they're white with a big red and white, red and blue bullseye on it, as is my helmet has a bullseye.

[1946] Yeah, it's kind of nice.

[1947] You have like, like every time I am on my walk and a motorcycle drives by, I always think it's you.

[1948] Uh -huh.

[1949] I don't know if it is or it isn't.

[1950] Same.

[1951] I see a blue AMG.

[1952] Here comes money.

[1953] Oh, okay.

[1954] That's what I wondered.

[1955] or anything like that.

[1956] Well, I, the worst was I used to do it when you drove the Prius.

[1957] Oh, they're everywhere.

[1958] Every fourth car.

[1959] I was like, oh, this is you made me, Monica.

[1960] Because we're in our neighborhood.

[1961] So it's like, I just, it's always my first thought.

[1962] Speaking of, I haven't seen very many white Tesla's in a while.

[1963] They have fallen off the map.

[1964] Oh, interesting.

[1965] So I guess they're not following us anymore.

[1966] Well, that should be good news.

[1967] Unless...

[1968] Maybe they were linked to the triglycerides.

[1969] They both just vanished.

[1970] Or, yeah, that's a positive way of looking at it.

[1971] Yeah.

[1972] We'll choose that.

[1973] We'll choose that.

[1974] Well, that's really all.

[1975] Okay.

[1976] Well, I hope you have the greatest trip to England.

[1977] Thanks.

[1978] Yeah.

[1979] I suppose I'll hear about it while you're there.

[1980] Yeah, we'll have to check in.

[1981] Yes.

[1982] Oh, my God.

[1983] That's another thing I got a pack.

[1984] I can't.

[1985] I could see myself leaving without that.

[1986] Yeah.

[1987] Yeah.

[1988] It'll be fun, and I hope you have so much fun.

[1989] We'll see each other on the road.

[1990] All right, on the road.

[1991] I'll see yon down the road.

[1992] Down yonder.

[1993] Okay.

[1994] Love you.

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