Speaker 1: Wake that hands up in the morning.
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 3: Everybody is d J n V Jesse, Hilarry Charlamage the guy.
Speaker 3: We are the Breakfast Club. We got some special guests
Speaker 3: joining us today, indeed from the shop, the shop. From
Speaker 3: the shop, we got mad recorded and Paul Rivera welcome fellas.
Speaker 4: Thank you, you're feeling fantastic. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, home on y'all knowing each other.
Speaker 4: We met in two thousand and nine. Yeah, at Nike.
Speaker 4: He was working at Nike. I started my career at Nike.
Speaker 4: And the term long time ago, twenty something years he was.
Speaker 4: Then you don't know what year you started working? Oh
Speaker 4: seven seven and then we met. Oh wait, oh nine.
Speaker 1: But it's like, dog is you spent so much time?
Speaker 3: So what did y'all do at night?
Speaker 1: It is a Nike.
Speaker 3: I never Nike.
Speaker 4: I don't work there, but people always say the check
Speaker 4: that they don't used to swoosh. They always say this
Speaker 4: swoo But I was a intern in two thousand and one.
Speaker 4: Then I was a consultant. Then they employed me. I
Speaker 4: dropped out of school and started working there and I
Speaker 4: worked in sports marketing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my last job at Nike, which is how we
Speaker 5: met and got tight. I was the global marketing director
Speaker 5: for the Lebron brand, so in the off season we
Speaker 5: take global athlete tours, take brand of China and Madrid
Speaker 5: and do all those things. So, as I said, Doggie
Speaker 5: is because you spend a lot of time to get
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 6: I read Rich Paul's book and Rich Paul talks about
Speaker 6: how you know, Bron didn't know what he wanted his
Speaker 6: team to do. He just was like, Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 6: figure something out. So that was your thing, mad Let
Speaker 6: me go to Nike, and my thing.
Speaker 4: Was I met a gentleman who is responsible for my
Speaker 4: career named Lynn mad a gentleman general, the General as
Speaker 4: we call him, worked at Nike for thirty years. Amazing,
Speaker 4: amazing man, a black man who I met. We started talking,
Speaker 4: took a liking to me and was like, offered me
Speaker 4: an internship. And to your point, at that moment, I
Speaker 4: was nineteen, so Lebron would have been sixteen. I was like, shit,
Speaker 4: this is an opportunity. I'm just in college. This is
Speaker 4: an opportunity to further my education. I was playing basketball
Speaker 4: and when I got there, I was like, I want
Speaker 4: to learn here and I was like this is my
Speaker 4: dream job. We all know, like you guys in my family.
Speaker 4: I was like, this is a good ass job. This
Speaker 4: shit comes with get something done at the dentist if.
Speaker 7: You need it, that's all that matter.
Speaker 4: It was a good ass job and I get to
Speaker 4: learn and I get to be able to provide something
Speaker 4: back to Lebron's team eventually when he becomes Lebron.
Speaker 3: So that was the thinking, how did you know Lebron
Speaker 3: since he was sixteen or nineteen.
Speaker 4: I met Lebron when I was He came to my
Speaker 4: eighth birthday party he was five.
Speaker 7: My dad and mom were friendly with his.
Speaker 4: Stepfather and mom. Where we lived on the north side
Speaker 4: of Akron. It's a hill called Howard Street Hill. I
Speaker 4: lived on in the housing on top of the top
Speaker 4: of the hills, like a low income neighborhood where I
Speaker 4: live at the bottom of the hill is literally the
Speaker 4: projects at the bottom of the hill. That's where Lebron lived.
Speaker 4: And it's literally called the bottom because and I think
Speaker 4: about that now as I've gotten older, like that, it's like,
Speaker 4: if you ask Lebron and you he knows you from Akron,
Speaker 4: where you're from, he would say the bottom, but he's
Speaker 4: referencing the projects that are at the bottom of this hill.
Speaker 4: But it's also at the bottom of socioeconomic life and everything.
Speaker 4: So he was from there. I was from there. So
Speaker 4: we lived basically in the same neighborhood. I just lived
Speaker 4: in the houses. He lived in the projects at the
Speaker 4: bottom of.
Speaker 3: The How did y'all get tight? Since he was so
Speaker 3: many years younger than you.
Speaker 4: He was always taller, so he didn't look so he
Speaker 4: didn't look like no, his ears looked like he was seventeen.
Speaker 4: And he was always exactly like he is smart and thoughtful,
Speaker 4: so he can hang.
Speaker 7: So he would hang.
Speaker 4: And then he started moving around. He actually left the name,
Speaker 4: but his mom him and his mom is a number.
Speaker 4: He would have to tell you. They moved like nine
Speaker 4: times or something before the fourth grade, bouncing around. And
Speaker 4: then we reconnected when he was in middle school. I
Speaker 4: was in high school. By then, he was like the
Speaker 4: best middle school player in the city.
Speaker 3: He was always good in basketball at that age.
Speaker 4: Yeah, by the time he was fourteen thirteen fourteen in Akron,
Speaker 4: everybody knew of him. And his teammates by the way,
Speaker 4: who became my friends and then up being my teammate,
Speaker 4: and they came to the high school.
Speaker 1: I was at, give them, give them the MVP.
Speaker 4: Oh that's funny. I am still I would never bring
Speaker 4: this up like maybe I always say this to Lebron.
Speaker 4: I'm the only player who's ever played on his team
Speaker 4: who won the MVP and.
Speaker 7: Not him freshman exactly. I was a senior. He was
Speaker 7: a freshman.
Speaker 4: And to the credit, he did average a point one
Speaker 4: more point than me. He averaged eighteen average seventeen.
Speaker 3: I got player because you have seen because they give
Speaker 3: it you because you was a senior, so you ain't
Speaker 3: deserve it.
Speaker 2: So he really, I was with you, where do you
Speaker 2: get your demeanor though, man? Because you have a royal
Speaker 2: air royal? Yeah, you talk like a royal. Sometimes really.
Speaker 4: Said you can roy because I was like, I gotta
Speaker 4: go to work sweater.
Speaker 1: Sweater, getting royal.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you though, I'll take that, it's not wrong
Speaker 4: with it. My demeanor is a cross between my mom
Speaker 4: and my dad. My mom is super chill, easygoing woman
Speaker 4: and my dad is a doesn't shut up.
Speaker 7: He gets ignorant.
Speaker 4: And I had a thing with my dad that I
Speaker 4: really had the one time tell him my dad was
Speaker 4: this guy once at the time, I had moved. I
Speaker 4: was living in my house twenty six at my own place,
Speaker 4: renovated the ship, and he was still come in my
Speaker 4: house and like and like, you know, like you walk
Speaker 4: in the house, you take your shoes off, and you
Speaker 4: might do that on Monday, and you might not touch
Speaker 4: those shoes again. And you're like, I'm lead, he's at
Speaker 4: the door. I might fuck with him again. Later he
Speaker 4: might come in my house and he's just say, and
Speaker 4: I come out and he came in and my shoes
Speaker 4: are gone. So I had to tell him, like, yo,
Speaker 4: my man, listen, I will always always be your son,
Speaker 4: but I'm not your kid anymore. If you come in
Speaker 4: my house, you don't pick up things and take shit
Speaker 4: without telling me you don't. There's rules in my house,
Speaker 4: and I'm fine. If you don't like the rules, you
Speaker 4: don't come here. I'll visit you at your house if
Speaker 4: you But my dad is that guy.
Speaker 3: So that's how you got that mark right there, Dad
Speaker 3: puss out.
Speaker 5: One of my's best qualities, they're like, that's what you're
Speaker 5: picking up on is he's very non emotional.
Speaker 1: And I mean that in a good sense, In a
Speaker 1: business sense.
Speaker 5: He can make very rational, calm decisions I run hot,
Speaker 5: he's normally gonna talk me off the ledge. But I
Speaker 5: think that's one of his biggest skills, And that's probably
Speaker 5: what you're picking up on. Always calm, always cool, always
Speaker 5: gonna make a decision with the right considerations. He doesn't
Speaker 5: really often, you know, a lot of us get emotional.
Speaker 7: Thing.
Speaker 1: He's always had that since I met him before.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it feels like y'all always had like a
Speaker 6: really like air tight click. So how does somebody like
Speaker 6: Paul get in that mix?
Speaker 7: I don't know, is that for you? For me?
Speaker 4: I think you know, it's always been, to your point,
Speaker 4: very air tight in the sense that we love each other,
Speaker 4: We believed in each other, and we took this journey
Speaker 4: of growing together. That was the key, right me. Lebron, Rich, Randy,
Speaker 4: They've all grown together in every facet of our lives.
Speaker 4: We've been friends for you know, over two decades now,
Speaker 4: as Lebron being a pro athlete, we've all had kids,
Speaker 4: kids have grown up, We've seen growing to be husbands, fathers, boyfriends, friends,
Speaker 4: and then we also grew in business too, But we
Speaker 4: always kept those two things running parallel to each other,
Speaker 4: but separate, meaning meaning I always tell people when meet
Speaker 4: Lebron Richard Randia together, even to this day, it's not
Speaker 4: business twenty four to seven. It is very like, Okay, guys,
Speaker 4: we have to sit down and discuss this issue we're
Speaker 4: having or this thing we need to solve, this opportunity
Speaker 4: that's in front of us. But then most of the
Speaker 4: time we're at Lebron's house, playing cards, eating food, whatever,
Speaker 4: hanging like friends would. And I think Pete fit that
Speaker 4: same thing too. He fit that mode of like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is a guy that's like us, has a very
Speaker 4: similar background to meet. Me and Pete have a very
Speaker 4: similar background being our dads. Both spent time in the
Speaker 4: federal penitentiary way to college, on the way to the
Speaker 4: dead well, as I was told the kid that they
Speaker 4: were waiting for vacation, yes, and and but he also
Speaker 4: was intelligent and also knew how to grow and was
Speaker 4: always growing as a as a friend.
Speaker 7: But also in business too. So I think he.
Speaker 4: Fit right in to be a person that was a
Speaker 4: lot like us in the sense as friends and as
Speaker 4: business partners, we were growing and kept going the journey
Speaker 4: with us.
Speaker 7: Don't know, if you want to.
Speaker 5: Anything, you know, I think from day one, I don't
Speaker 5: know if you remember when I first took the lebron
Speaker 5: job at Nike, you know, I asked you what I
Speaker 5: needed to do to be successful in this role, and
Speaker 5: you said I was already doing it by even asking
Speaker 5: the questions. And I remember the one thing you said
Speaker 5: was don't ever lie to us, right meaning and not
Speaker 5: even lying like like even on some business shit.
Speaker 1: It was like, if you know something's not good, coming
Speaker 1: to me and tell me.
Speaker 5: You know, Mab, I know this isn't great, but it's
Speaker 5: the best I got right now. And He's like, and
Speaker 5: I got you. I'm always gonna hold you down, right.
Speaker 5: And I think I've never taken their relationship for granted.
Speaker 5: I've never you know, mAb's my best friend, MAV's son's
Speaker 5: my godson.
Speaker 1: Mad is my boss.
Speaker 5: And I don't confuse those things, right, I don't confuse
Speaker 5: those things. MAT's my business partner, he's the CEO of
Speaker 5: the company, chief brand officer. I don't ever confuse those
Speaker 5: things or take them for granted.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 1: So, whether it's playtime or we're having a good time,
Speaker 1: or we're drinking.
Speaker 5: Wine and too much wine or too much Lobos and
Speaker 5: doing the thing all day, and when it's work time.
Speaker 1: It's like, yo, I gotta run some things by you.
Speaker 1: What do you want to do?
Speaker 5: And I think we all treat it that way. He
Speaker 5: treats it that way with Lebron. You're twenty one, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. I think that's just a the
Speaker 5: highest level of respect, accountability, and honesty with each other.
Speaker 1: And even when an issue may.
Speaker 5: Pop up, because you have those things, you're discussing them
Speaker 5: early before they actually become issues.
Speaker 1: I think that's been like great for us.
Speaker 3: I always wanted to know, like when you have somebody
Speaker 3: like a Lebron or even in any industry and that
Speaker 3: artist is your friend, or you know Lebron and basketball
Speaker 3: player is your friend, when he has a problem with somebody,
Speaker 3: do y'all have a problem with somebody? Is it that
Speaker 3: type of brotherhood? Like if that was the case, me
Speaker 3: and Chela may have a problem, but everybody problem with everybody.
Speaker 3: But in that case, is that the same thing with you?
Speaker 7: A business question?
Speaker 4: The sense that like that that comes up right, meaning
Speaker 4: you know, back in the day the beef with Deshaun
Speaker 4: Stevenson and and.
Speaker 7: Or it may be on the court, right, So I
Speaker 7: think it.
Speaker 4: If he has a problem with someone, the first thing
Speaker 4: we do is, first off, we're not at all afraid
Speaker 4: to say if he's wrong, doesn't mean we will tell
Speaker 4: you the world public or we will say, yo, that's a.
Speaker 7: Little bit you.
Speaker 4: We were having this discussion yesterday with one of us
Speaker 4: who was saying something. We were like, Yo, you're wrong, man.
Speaker 4: You you going the wrong way on this. So that's
Speaker 4: number one. Number two, if there is a problem with
Speaker 4: Lebron has a problem, when he had a problem with
Speaker 4: Deshaun Stevenson, yes it became a problem with all of us.
Speaker 2: That was a real issue.
Speaker 7: Like that was that was a real That was it.
Speaker 4: That was a real issue because Lebron is not a
Speaker 4: shit starter.
Speaker 7: By the way, Lebron, that is not his He's not.
Speaker 4: He'll get in like if you want to go there,
Speaker 4: he'll do it, but he never starts anything. He's really
Speaker 4: thoughtful and really observe it and sees everything. In fact,
Speaker 4: I always tell him he should he'd be a much
Speaker 4: better case worker than than basketball players. Like he's the
Speaker 4: guy that, like, you know, like you go to this
Speaker 4: house at dinner, he'll be like, you're envy three cookies.
Speaker 4: You're like, like, you got a chef heard that making cookies.
Speaker 4: Let me eat a cookie, and like, you know, of
Speaker 4: my case. But anyway, so he sees everything, but he's
Speaker 4: not a shit starter. But like in that instance, it
Speaker 4: definitely was a.
Speaker 7: Thing that Deshaun made a thing. And then.
Speaker 4: One day I was actually at I was in Spain.
Speaker 4: Actually it was a preseason game between the Wizards and
Speaker 4: the Hornets.
Speaker 7: I was with Chris Paul.
Speaker 4: We were out in Spain, and they acted like they
Speaker 4: really wanted to do something to me, like a couple
Speaker 4: of Wizards players like where I felt like, nothing happened,
Speaker 4: but you know how you would be like I was
Speaker 4: in the club in Spain, Sean and two guys. I
Speaker 4: was by myself. I was with Chris, but they maybe
Speaker 4: had left. I was just hanging. It was packed in Barcelona,
Speaker 4: and nothing happened, but you know, they made me feel
Speaker 4: like I had to go to the bar and order
Speaker 4: two beers and I don't even really drink beer. So yeah,
Speaker 4: if Lebron has a problem with someone on the court,
Speaker 4: it could, but sometimes it doesn't, like you know, because
Speaker 4: basketball thing could be like they had an issue, so
Speaker 4: he filed somebody too hard, they followed him. It's an
Speaker 4: issue tonight and then it's all good after the game whatever.
Speaker 4: But if it's a real thing that carries on, then
Speaker 4: it could be coming.
Speaker 3: Because as one of the goats in this in in
Speaker 3: the basketball league, somebody's gonna have a shot, right, They
Speaker 3: always take shots because they always want to take shots
Speaker 3: at the guy that's on top. So what must happen
Speaker 3: all the damn time? And I know a lot of
Speaker 3: times he won't reply. But do y'all ever feel like, well,
Speaker 3: he ain't gonna reply, but I'm gonna reply.
Speaker 4: No, that's not our style.
Speaker 1: My whole thing is just keep it consistent, right, Like,
Speaker 1: keep it consistent.
Speaker 5: And I think I'll never speak for bron but I
Speaker 5: think even you guys, right, you know, like it comes
Speaker 5: with the territory of being in the public eye, so
Speaker 5: you know, you deal with it.
Speaker 1: I think it's when it.
Speaker 5: Crosses the line and it becomes personal you're doing those
Speaker 5: types of things.
Speaker 1: You know. I came in to I won't say the name,
Speaker 1: you know this.
Speaker 5: I bumped into someone, a media personality and they were
Speaker 5: talking super reckless, actually.
Speaker 1: Talk a reredless about you when you did the commencement speech.
Speaker 1: You can figure out who it was.
Speaker 5: Usc and for me that crossed the line because it
Speaker 5: was like, why you know, that's not you know. So
Speaker 5: when I saw the person, I ain't have a problem
Speaker 5: with them or anything like that, but I'm also not.
Speaker 1: Cool with you.
Speaker 5: And the person came up to me and was like, Yo,
Speaker 5: what's good? Love everything y'all doing that? I have a
Speaker 5: problem with that, And I just told him, I'm like, yo, like,
Speaker 5: don't do that. He's like, what do you mean. I'm like,
Speaker 5: just keep it consistent, like you talk, and he was like, nah,
Speaker 5: you know, that's just for the thing. I'm like, now,
Speaker 5: that's not That's not what we do. So I think
Speaker 5: to maps point, we're never gonna start. We're not, you know,
Speaker 5: we're businessman's with dads at the same time, just keep
Speaker 5: it consistent, and you know, there are lines that shouldn't
Speaker 5: be crossed.
Speaker 1: Just as man.
Speaker 4: Last question about this, I remember that one.
Speaker 2: Did jay Z song agitate that situation when j did
Speaker 2: that freestyle?
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah for sure, and Jay called me, I'll
Speaker 4: never forget he was he freestyled that for sure.
Speaker 7: He called me one that I was late at night.
Speaker 7: I was in.
Speaker 4: Ohio and Jay was on tour and he just grew
Speaker 4: up the stage in Oakland.
Speaker 7: He called me.
Speaker 4: He was like he just he was like I can
Speaker 4: still hear him, like breathing hard.
Speaker 7: He just say.
Speaker 4: He was like, yo, I was on stage and he
Speaker 4: came up with that ship on stage in Oakland. Jay
Speaker 4: came up with that got off stage, called me. He
Speaker 4: was like, yo, I got this and wrapped it to
Speaker 4: me through the phone.
Speaker 7: I was like, ship, that's it.
Speaker 4: And I knew right away, like, oh, this is going
Speaker 4: to make this thing. That's this thing. It's gonna and
Speaker 4: I was like, let's go. And he put it out
Speaker 4: I don't know, like a week later, and of course
Speaker 4: that of course elevated.
Speaker 1: Day. It's a mad verse. You haven't heard.
Speaker 6: How instrumental has Jay been. And y'all growth is businessmen
Speaker 6: and just men, period.
Speaker 4: One of the two three most important people in our lives,
Speaker 4: both personally and professionally. Because we were fortunate enough to
Speaker 4: start hanging with Jay about the same time I had
Speaker 4: that internship. I was nineteen, Bron was sixteen when we
Speaker 4: first met Jay in Chicago. I was remember how long
Speaker 4: it was because the first time we met Jay, we
Speaker 4: met Biggs and Tata first, and then we went up
Speaker 4: to see Jay in his room at the Ritz and
Speaker 4: when he came down the stairs, he was rapping and
Speaker 4: he was like, yo, I just let and they started
Speaker 4: talking about He was like, yo, I got the hit.
Speaker 4: I got the single for the album. So he Blueprint
Speaker 4: wasn't out yet right there, and we everything, not just
Speaker 4: Jay but his whole crew. We looked to them and
Speaker 4: modeled our thing, like that's that's what we want to
Speaker 4: be like for sure, and we modeled everything we did,
Speaker 4: thought do, think is modeled and thought about that and
Speaker 4: then we all became separately personal friends with Ja. We
Speaker 4: all have personal, separate relationships with Jay that have ebbed
Speaker 4: and flowed over years, meaning that spent a lot of
Speaker 4: time and we moved whatever, but it's always been personal
Speaker 4: and professional professional sense that we modeled it and studied
Speaker 4: and learned and personally because we all became personal friends
Speaker 4: with him, I can call him and go see him,
Speaker 4: and Randy has a relationship with him, and Lebron has
Speaker 4: a different relationship than I do.
Speaker 7: We all have these relationships with him that go back
Speaker 7: and forth.
Speaker 4: We're all in the group text with him with Pe now,
Speaker 4: so we're always talking and laughing and did somebody hear
Speaker 4: this new song, and what do you think of that?
Speaker 4: Talking music, talking business, talking life, sports is a big
Speaker 4: connection for us. We own a suite at so Far
Speaker 4: with Jay together, so been extremely instrument and it's.
Speaker 5: Dope till this day, you know when we do something
Speaker 5: business wise, but like I see y'all, it's always dope,
Speaker 5: like it's.
Speaker 1: The big homie like, so it's nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk the shop.
Speaker 8: So why does seasons be so short?
Speaker 7: He's in charge.
Speaker 2: Because y'all know, people want more.
Speaker 8: I mean it's probably a good thing that you leave
Speaker 8: people like wanting more, but they be short.
Speaker 2: How many? How many episodes?
Speaker 1: So you know, that's the most consistent feedback. We're here
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 5: I think if I had to pick, I'd want people
Speaker 5: to want more than be like why y'all still up here?
Speaker 1: Still talking?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know we filmed Charloamagne's going on an episode. Great
Speaker 1: actually yeah n love.
Speaker 5: And yeah yes they both for yeah, yeah, so you
Speaker 5: know what, look the episodes.
Speaker 1: We get lost in the episodes.
Speaker 5: Meaning you know, and you can speak for it's like
Speaker 5: we're there. We taped for an hour and a half,
Speaker 5: two hours sometimes, but we found the model works a
Speaker 5: little better when we're shorter, so you know, thirty thirty
Speaker 5: five minutes. I think MAV's only, uh, you know point
Speaker 5: on this thing is let's just make sure the content
Speaker 5: should dictate how long the episode. Yeah, so if we
Speaker 5: have a great hour episode, great, If we have a
Speaker 5: great twenty seven minute episode, great.
Speaker 1: But that's the most consistent feedback we get, for sure.
Speaker 7: But I think that.
Speaker 4: To his point, the the person who's has the hardest
Speaker 4: job and is the most talented job for the show
Speaker 4: is the editor. Because, as you guys know, are the
Speaker 4: end of this show, you're sitting in a room with
Speaker 4: five six people. The conversation goes this way, goes that way,
Speaker 4: it goes this way, it goes that way, and the
Speaker 4: editor has to string that together. So when you watch it,
Speaker 4: it feels like one because in the room we're doing
Speaker 4: all type of shit. You know, last episode, Nelly had
Speaker 4: to pee in the middle of it. So so to
Speaker 4: get that continuity and to string it together, it's really hard.
Speaker 4: The editor, is it amazing to be able to pull
Speaker 4: that together? That's very hard because I may you may
Speaker 4: start a thought, he may jump in, you may jump in.
Speaker 7: You may come back to that thought.
Speaker 4: Twenty minutes later, like oh, I got something out of that,
Speaker 4: and you're gonna edit that together. So that becomes a
Speaker 4: very hard job of making it seem like one. It
Speaker 4: is one conversation, but make it have continuity through.
Speaker 3: The at what made y'all start the shout like what
Speaker 3: was the reason for we are tied board?
Speaker 5: Or no, I'll tell you you know, similar a conversation
Speaker 5: like this, I was. I found myself in rooms with
Speaker 5: people who I respect and was learning. You know, I
Speaker 5: made the comment I said, I learned more in some
Speaker 5: of these rooms, and I did in like my formal education, right,
Speaker 5: And my point was like, man, I could have used
Speaker 5: a lot of this information when I was seventeen, right.
Speaker 1: So it was like, you know, what can.
Speaker 5: We create that allows people the seventeen year old versions
Speaker 5: of pr MAV to.
Speaker 1: Be a fly on the wall?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 5: It was supposed to be a podcast at first, and
Speaker 5: then I took it to Randy, one of our other partners,
Speaker 5: and as partners offen do, he made the idea better
Speaker 5: and was like, yo, like we should actually make it
Speaker 5: like in a shop and have real barbershop conversation. So
Speaker 5: I think the beauty of it is it was never
Speaker 5: intended to be a show. It was never intended to
Speaker 5: be disfranchise this brand as anything it was trying.
Speaker 1: It came from an insight.
Speaker 5: Of like, man, like what if we can broaden these
Speaker 5: conversations for our communities and younger, the younger versions of us.
Speaker 1: And it's grown into what is grown into? Right, couldn't
Speaker 1: be any.
Speaker 4: Prouder of it.
Speaker 1: I want I want to ask you guys a question.
Speaker 5: Though our first episode season seven, you just referenced Nelly
Speaker 5: as experts.
Speaker 1: You heard Nelly.
Speaker 5: Say his era hip hop was the toughest era, most competitive.
Speaker 1: You guys agree, you guys disagree. I agree with the
Speaker 1: name that he said.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I agree. Oh, it depends what you're talking about.
Speaker 6: If you're talking about music and like business and sales wise, yes.
Speaker 2: Lyrically, I don't think so. If you're talking lyrics, I
Speaker 2: don't think that was got I think he was about selling.
Speaker 2: You talking about selling.
Speaker 7: Probably, Yeah, lyrically, what what you saying? I mean?
Speaker 6: I would say the ninety four probably like that whole
Speaker 6: ninety four era when you first got nas, when you
Speaker 6: first got big, when you first got Jaye, like that's
Speaker 6: when Whu tang Like that's that to me?
Speaker 2: That would be that era.
Speaker 4: So j thought before that the eighties, the like l
Speaker 4: ladies came, could you rap? How old are you?
Speaker 7: I remember?
Speaker 2: I remember, I didn't live it.
Speaker 4: I didn't live it, would say that, he would say,
Speaker 4: Kim lyrically, that's what he said.
Speaker 7: Literally, that's to your question.
Speaker 3: No, I mean I'm from New York so that that
Speaker 3: that era was heavy, the cool Raps, the rock Cams,
Speaker 3: the big Daddy Kynes. But there was nothing like the Jays,
Speaker 3: the Big the Nas and and and.
Speaker 6: We didn't live that late ladies there though they lived
Speaker 6: it like was he lived it, We didn't live.
Speaker 3: That ere Biggie, I mean during that time. I mean
Speaker 3: because you could go back from back and forth the lyrics.
Speaker 3: I did mixtaste back then and I and I remember
Speaker 3: and I still wrapped, you know, still play it now.
Speaker 3: But there was nothing like the Big Jay's, the Nash
Speaker 3: when when when I felt that later it was Romeo.
Speaker 2: They would get in.
Speaker 6: One of your ghost MAVERI you can't Ohio not front
Speaker 6: on bow Wow.
Speaker 7: It's fantastic and always been entertaining.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 1: Nice gowns, nice roy Roy.
Speaker 4: Like that.
Speaker 3: What was your answer to what Nellie said?
Speaker 5: What was your being from New York as well, I
Speaker 5: think I think that era.
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I think you think I think think
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I think so. I think just But your point,
Speaker 1: Charlotmae is the right one. It's like, depends what the
Speaker 1: metrics we're talking about. We're talking about lyricism. We're talking
Speaker 1: about your successful records sold.
Speaker 4: For the problem you can the reason why you can't
Speaker 4: do it on successful records sold because it's not apples
Speaker 4: to apples. Lyrics is apposed to apples, like who can
Speaker 4: really write songs? Because based on records sold, well, then
Speaker 4: you have to track hip hop's growth as a genre,
Speaker 4: like hip hop was just bigger. The reason Nelly and
Speaker 4: Eminem and Jacob Selmour then the people in the late
Speaker 4: eighties because hip hop was still underground, like you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, was a little unfair to talk about it.
Speaker 3: But there was no streaming, so it made it difficult.
Speaker 3: You had to go buy records. You had to go
Speaker 3: to the actual store.
Speaker 2: It was a lot different.
Speaker 3: And back then it's they didn't have the releases like
Speaker 3: they do now. Now you could just write a record
Speaker 3: today and put it out tomorrow. Back then it was
Speaker 3: it was set up on a schedule, it had to
Speaker 3: come out on a certain quarter. And like you said,
Speaker 3: besides Eminem, you know Nellie J, you had NAS, you
Speaker 3: had DMX, who was a beast during that time. Rule
Speaker 3: I was a beast. That's like you had heavy hitters.
Speaker 3: That was the biggest of the big doctor money during
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 7: Stupid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you had.
Speaker 3: Those guys that were selling records and like you said,
Speaker 3: they would never share a release date because you never
Speaker 3: wanted to share your sales with somebody. So those are
Speaker 3: the times.
Speaker 6: Nelly's interested though, because he was like the overachiever. Nobody
Speaker 6: had that expectation of nell including Nelly.
Speaker 5: Nelly was like, I thought we'd make some some some money,
Speaker 5: open up a couple of liquor stores.
Speaker 7: And even when he was selling that much, you were like, really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you don't expect that, you expect them.
Speaker 6: I want to ask y'all something about the shop, because
Speaker 6: I can't remember if it's the shop, are all as smoke?
Speaker 6: I can't remember which came first, but but it feels
Speaker 6: like y'all created the new media landscape of athletes having
Speaker 6: their own platforms. How important do you think that is
Speaker 6: to them? Contributing to their narratives and controlling their narratives.
Speaker 4: Now, I think, thank you for saying that, but listen,
Speaker 4: that was I tell people all the time. Like one
Speaker 4: going back to the beginning of what you just discussed,
Speaker 4: was in twenty ten one, we got killed and ostracized
Speaker 4: for Lebron dooking the decision. And then in twenty fourteen
Speaker 4: he essentially did the same thing, but he chose a
Speaker 4: new medium instead of being on TV. He wrote a
Speaker 4: letter and it was received and he was also going
Speaker 4: back to Cleveland, which but it was received much differently.
Speaker 4: And then we started a company with that at the
Speaker 4: center of like athlete empowerment and really having athletes be
Speaker 4: in a place where they can tell their stories the
Speaker 4: way they like and how they feel. And it's gone
Speaker 4: really far, which is actually what we wanted. We wanted
Speaker 4: all the smoke that happened, and we wanted Iron Athlete
Speaker 4: to happen, and we wanted new heights to happen. All
Speaker 4: these things. It's fantastic. We celebrated. Yeah, we think it's
Speaker 4: amazing and are here for it. I think the idea
Speaker 4: of controlling your narrative sometimes gets misused in the sense
Speaker 4: that like our ambition was always for to tell stories,
Speaker 4: to tell amazing, amazing stories. It's not about it's not
Speaker 4: about necessarily like a politician who needs to get boats
Speaker 4: and control you make people feel this.
Speaker 7: Way or that way about you.
Speaker 4: It's like telling your story and some people can love
Speaker 4: it and some people may not. But the fact that
Speaker 4: all these things have come now is amazing to us,
Speaker 4: and we celebrated, and I think for us, it was
Speaker 4: always about building a company and a place and a
Speaker 4: brand that represents amazing stories and the ability to tell
Speaker 4: amazing stories, and building a place that could work with
Speaker 4: athletes and give them the proper resources to tell these
Speaker 4: amazing stories. And we've been fortunate enough to tell a
Speaker 4: lot of amazing ones, from Muhammad Ali to Naymar to
Speaker 4: Naomiosaka to obviously lots of things with Lebron and when Emmys,
Speaker 4: and we've been happy. But the thing where I was
Speaker 4: proud about is that all these now athletes are doing
Speaker 4: it too, and.
Speaker 7: We love that.
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask because you mentioned when it made
Speaker 3: the decision to go to Miami as a team, it
Speaker 3: was different, right, because you guys changed the narrative for NBA, right,
Speaker 3: meaning most players they're good players, they stay on that
Speaker 3: team forever, win, lose, bad a drug. But you guys
Speaker 3: chares the narrative and saying, hey, these owners make decisions
Speaker 3: for us. Now we're gonna make our own decisions to
Speaker 3: see where we want to go, where we want to
Speaker 3: play with And that changed the NBA forever. How is
Speaker 3: that conversation as a team, because I'm sure somebody on
Speaker 3: the team was like, I don't know how this is
Speaker 3: gonna come across because y'all bossed up, was like, well,
Speaker 3: fuck it, We're gonna do it our way.
Speaker 6: In I remember rich Paul vividly being upset during the
Speaker 6: decision on Twitter.
Speaker 4: I remember that completely. It's it gets interesting now what
Speaker 4: you just said. But Richie, it was upset. He was
Speaker 4: right by the way for the thing he was saying
Speaker 4: and feeling. But Lebron is right also, and and you know,
Speaker 4: those two things can be mutually exclusive.
Speaker 7: You don't have to have a right and.
Speaker 4: A wrong right. You can two things can be right
Speaker 4: at the same time. Lebron is right in a sense
Speaker 4: that here's the one thing Lebron. Lebron has a quality
Speaker 4: that Jay Z has. I always tell people this, Lebron
Speaker 4: always knows what's right for him. It's a quality that
Speaker 4: I wish I had and would probably always heat. He
Speaker 4: just nails it all the time.
Speaker 7: He always nails it. Jay is like that.
Speaker 4: Jay always knows I'm gonna do this song. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: do this feature, not that feature. You like why he
Speaker 4: can't explain.
Speaker 7: It to you.
Speaker 4: But if you ask lebron Man, should I have chicken
Speaker 4: a fish to that, He's like, I've hed a line
Speaker 4: that with you should eat like But he knows exactly
Speaker 4: in the most intricate hard time. Going back to Cleveland,
Speaker 4: I didn't. I was like, I don't think this is right.
Speaker 1: Like he was like, I'm not going back back. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to about him anymore.
Speaker 7: I'm done.
Speaker 4: I moved to La I did not go back, actually,
Speaker 4: but I know it was not because of the of
Speaker 4: Dan Gilbert, the owner in Cleveland. Like that man said
Speaker 4: that why would you go back and help him? And
Speaker 4: he knew and he said something to me. He says, Ma, Viet,
Speaker 4: I'm in favor of progress over pride. Get rid of
Speaker 4: your pride. You're making a prideful statement. I was like,
Speaker 4: I am, and I'm gonna make it again.
Speaker 7: I'm like, I would not.
Speaker 4: Do that I would have not ever went back to Cleveland.
Speaker 4: He knew that was right for him. So Lebron always
Speaker 4: was able to do that. And I think you know,
Speaker 4: to your point, you said he changed what happens then,
Speaker 4: But the fact of the matter is again a bit
Speaker 4: like hip hop, the NBA has just gotten bigger and
Speaker 4: more talked about. More players have like Kareem left the
Speaker 4: Bucks and went to like players have done that before.
Speaker 4: It was a new idea, but it just became bigger.
Speaker 4: You know, the conversions of Lebron, how big the NBA was,
Speaker 4: we did the decision. All those things combined made it
Speaker 4: seem much bigger. But but Lebron always knows. He has
Speaker 4: a like a sixth sense of like I should do this,
Speaker 4: and not.
Speaker 2: That I mean that it was good.
Speaker 6: That's his greatest championship, Like that's what clean after one?
Speaker 7: I mean he would That's a good question, like are all.
Speaker 4: Championships equal to No?
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 6: I always said if Lebron stayed twenty years in Cleveland,
Speaker 6: for twenty one years and had that one ring, I
Speaker 6: think that the argument between him and MJ wouldn't be
Speaker 6: what it is.
Speaker 7: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: I think people might give it up the Brons definitively
Speaker 2: one ring means more than the four you think, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: And I think Paul agree. I think if he comes
Speaker 3: to New York and wins, winning, don't.
Speaker 1: Got me in trouble.
Speaker 7: You know, ask about the shot, Paul.
Speaker 6: That was a risk, right, putting the active player and
Speaker 6: giving them a platform then and letting him talk freely.
Speaker 5: Maybe so, But to MAVs earlier point, Bron is so
Speaker 5: clear and what makes sense for him, And I think
Speaker 5: it's never risk if it's authentic to you, right, like
Speaker 5: if you believe in what you're saying. I think Bron
Speaker 5: has always been very clear on what he wants to say,
Speaker 5: how he wants to say it, and double down on it,
Speaker 5: stand on business as the kids say. But it was
Speaker 5: one of the first of it's kind. I think, Look,
Speaker 5: I think the shop is unique. You know, the barber
Speaker 5: shop as four men here. The barber shop isn't a
Speaker 5: new idea, right. I think what was different from ours
Speaker 5: was the diverse rooms and voices we put in a
Speaker 5: room and the conversations we have. What you won't hear
Speaker 5: in the shop is like, who's the best basketball player ever?
Speaker 5: I mean it's Lebron, but neither here nor there. Like
Speaker 5: you know, you won't hear any of those things.
Speaker 2: The greatest come on, come on, we'll take it off.
Speaker 2: It's still Kobe Fair, another kid from Akrone.
Speaker 6: You can put him into born in Akroneph Curry not
Speaker 6: in the goat conversation.
Speaker 1: Yes, of all time, app of all time.
Speaker 2: Yes, Steph Curry revolution to be cleared greatest shooter.
Speaker 1: Of all time for sure. Yeah and he beat brun
Speaker 1: three to one NBA fin Golden State.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you, my roy.
Speaker 5: But no, I mean, look the shop, the conversation is there, No,
Speaker 5: But what makes it, what makes it different from me
Speaker 5: at the shop, is just these conversations, right, the conversations
Speaker 5: we have and I think you know not Trent, but
Speaker 5: the product when you think about it, is it all
Speaker 5: feels like an extension of the conversation which you to
Speaker 5: have with our community.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 1: We view the shop not just as a show anymore.
Speaker 5: We view it as a brand, but more importantly as
Speaker 5: a platform to have those conversations. So, like you know,
Speaker 5: the men's grooming line was just an extension of those conversations.
Speaker 5: And you'll see more of it, right, You'll see you
Speaker 5: know which we've taken the shop from a show to
Speaker 5: live experiences HPCU tour. I saw you on one of
Speaker 5: the tours, Live City Tour product, you know, experiences, all
Speaker 5: those things, so you know, we're treating it like a
Speaker 5: platform and want to make sure we're just authentic to
Speaker 5: like that barbershop experience.
Speaker 8: How do you pick your guests because not any and
Speaker 8: everybody can just get on the shop, you know what
Speaker 8: I mean, Like, how do you guys scout out your guess?
Speaker 4: Well, we start with the idea of trying to get
Speaker 4: a room of people who will have an interesting conversation
Speaker 4: with very interesting conversation. So not all musicians are all athletes.
Speaker 4: Like how do you get people from different walks of life?
Speaker 4: Because that is when you grew up going to the barbershop,
Speaker 4: like we all did.
Speaker 7: The whole point of it was when.
Speaker 4: You went to my barbershop as a kid, they'd be
Speaker 4: like the fireman, the city worker, the.
Speaker 7: Local drug dealer.
Speaker 4: They were all there, and the conversation kind of ebbed
Speaker 4: and flowed and took these twists and turns. If it
Speaker 4: started off like talking about high school football, then you
Speaker 4: might talk about NFL football. But then it might go
Speaker 4: into the politics of the city and what's happening with
Speaker 4: the mayor, and you know, there was always the guy
Speaker 4: there was preaching like we should be paying more attention to.
Speaker 7: Politics and education.
Speaker 4: So we try and bring that to life, that feeling
Speaker 4: of like these are all different people. You have the
Speaker 4: mom in there with their sons. So women were always
Speaker 4: represented in the shop. So we try and always go like, okay,
Speaker 4: how can we create a room of diversity different people
Speaker 4: and also people who won't just agree with each other.
Speaker 4: My grandmother had a saying that I still say this day.
Speaker 4: I say it in the company all the time. If
Speaker 4: two people always agree, one person isn't needed. So we
Speaker 4: try and bring that in our company, but also in
Speaker 4: the shop. Always like to have it. It doesn't have
Speaker 4: to be an art. It's not an argument, right, It's
Speaker 4: like an interesting conversation where because to me, I always say,
Speaker 4: all my friends, all the people I hang with, are
Speaker 4: people that I almost eight or nine times out of
Speaker 4: ten when I sit and talk with them, they say
Speaker 4: something to me that I go, damn, I.
Speaker 7: Never thought about it that way.
Speaker 4: Those are the best type of conversation to me. That
Speaker 4: means I'm either learning something or you're pushing me to
Speaker 4: think about something differently.
Speaker 7: Doesn't mean I.
Speaker 4: Agree with you, but it just means I never thought
Speaker 4: about it that way.
Speaker 7: Damn, that's interesting. I need to think.
Speaker 4: I was having a conversation with a writer yesterday, right Thompson.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys know, right Thompson. Fantastic
Speaker 4: writer from Mississippi. And he's he's written this book on
Speaker 4: m Mattil that I encourage everyone called The Barn and
Speaker 4: it's very awesome this book he's written. And we had
Speaker 4: a supposed to be an hour conversation. We were talking
Speaker 4: about his book. He's wrote many books, but this is
Speaker 4: his third book, I think. And he's a writer for ESPN,
Speaker 4: A white dude from a little small town in Mississippi.
Speaker 4: And I was learning so much and he was pushing
Speaker 4: me to think. We went on for two and a
Speaker 4: half hours because I was just kept going like, damn,
Speaker 4: you're right, I never thought about it that way.
Speaker 7: And think what about this?
Speaker 4: And we were just going back and forth and didn't
Speaker 4: agree on everything, and he was telling me about his
Speaker 4: and like those are the best renversation. So we try
Speaker 4: and bring that feeling to the shop. Because that was
Speaker 4: the feeling we had as a kid in the shop.
Speaker 4: A lot of the ship that I know and feel,
Speaker 4: my demeanor comes from the barbershop. I grew up in
Speaker 4: Kareem's on on Mildred and Howard, on the corner of
Speaker 4: Mildred and Howard.
Speaker 7: I grew up going.
Speaker 4: There that that everything about me comes from that place.
Speaker 6: What's the difference between the Shop and Mavericks with mav
Speaker 6: Carter or even now Lebron Show with JJ Reddick, Like,
Speaker 6: what's going to separate those three shows?
Speaker 4: Great question? Lebron Show. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 4: have watched it. A new episode comes today or tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Too high level for me is too scientists, it's Lebron mind.
Speaker 4: The game Lebron and JJ Reddick is like watching two
Speaker 4: scientists talk about, you know, mixing chemicals in a laboratory,
Speaker 4: or two wine talking about, you know, the soil in
Speaker 4: which so that is a very It's so deep in fact,
Speaker 4: there's a when you watch it, there's a key for
Speaker 4: like when they use a term that you have to
Speaker 4: and listen.
Speaker 7: I played basketball.
Speaker 4: At a pretty high I played Division one basketball in
Speaker 4: the Mid American Conference, so I feel like I know
Speaker 4: basketball really well, and I can keep up, but when
Speaker 4: they talk I have to sometimes go, guys, what does
Speaker 4: that mean? Some of their terms after and then when
Speaker 4: I get it, then when they say the term, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I know what that is. That show is about basketball.
Speaker 4: JJ and Lebron are both super high level, like genius
Speaker 4: level basketball, but they do bring it to a level
Speaker 4: where JJ does mostly to a level that is digestible.
Speaker 4: And if you love hoops and you want to get
Speaker 4: smarter about hoops and watch the game and understand it
Speaker 4: in a different way, that show is for you. That
Speaker 4: show is for you, and that show came out last
Speaker 4: week the first episode. They're gonna do an episode and
Speaker 4: it's gonna get great. They eventually will bring guests on,
Speaker 4: like coaches other players, but that show is going to
Speaker 4: be the place anybody in basketball who wants to go show.
Speaker 4: I also know basketball, well, My show is a much
Speaker 4: different show. Shout out to KP who runs the spring
Speaker 4: Hill brand, who pushed me to do it. I did
Speaker 4: not want to do it, not because of any other reasons. Besides,
Speaker 4: I have enough job so fucking ready. But it's all
Speaker 4: about bringing on people who one on one will force
Speaker 4: me to have a conversation where I go, Damn, that's interesting.
Speaker 4: So I have Shonda Ramzh who I am a fan
Speaker 4: of her, but I never watch all of her shows.
Speaker 4: I am not like a Shonda Land Who've seen every
Speaker 4: episode of every show. But I also go into every episode.
Speaker 4: Not you guys do this every day, every single day.
Speaker 4: I don't do it every day, but I don't overly prepare.
Speaker 4: And the reason I don't overly prepare is because I
Speaker 4: want to let my actual curiosity just guide me through
Speaker 4: that conversation just naturally. I don't want to know too
Speaker 4: much about you because I actually sit there at Jay
Speaker 4: shed on what I'd never heard of before he came
Speaker 4: on the show. Now I learned so much from him
Speaker 4: and talking to him. That's a guy, that's great good man.
Speaker 4: So that show is about bringing on people who are
Speaker 4: the most interesting people in the world to me, and
Speaker 4: I'm I'm personally interested in learning from and hopefully the
Speaker 4: audience will learn as I learned. In the Shop, which
Speaker 4: is the oldest version of it. Is obviously multi There's
Speaker 4: many people on the show, and it's about community in
Speaker 4: the sense that we're all part of one big community,
Speaker 4: bringing people together that from all walks of life to
Speaker 4: push and challenge and laugh about different topics.
Speaker 1: I mean, what was what was your experience like on
Speaker 1: the shop?
Speaker 2: As I guess, I loved it. It felt like exactly
Speaker 2: I said. It just felt like a kickback and you.
Speaker 6: Could actually get too loose and get lost in you know,
Speaker 6: and I got introduced to a fantastic wine.
Speaker 5: I think one for me, like the greatest compliment I
Speaker 5: ever been paid on the shop was when we had
Speaker 5: Jay on and Jay was sitting to.
Speaker 1: My left like jess Is, and we're talking and.
Speaker 5: Doing what we do and and Jay kind of looks
Speaker 5: over at me and he's like, Yo, when do we
Speaker 5: start recording? And I'm like, we've been recording for twenty minutes, right,
Speaker 5: And it's like it just let me know that we're
Speaker 5: having an organic conversation. You never hear similar here. You
Speaker 5: never hear action, You never having a conversation. I think
Speaker 5: that's when you get the good stuff, right. You guys
Speaker 5: are the best at It's like when you get the
Speaker 5: good it's just conversation.
Speaker 1: Doesn't feel like a Q and A or an interview.
Speaker 7: I've got two more quess you guys, yes, question.
Speaker 2: No, okay with HBO ever necessary.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, HBO was a fantastic partner. HBO validated the shop
Speaker 4: because HBO, in my humble opinion, it's it's it's not
Speaker 4: the same anymore, which sides me a bit. HBO was
Speaker 4: the Louis Vuitton of TV.
Speaker 7: Immediate, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was, uh, the Porsche of TV, meaning it was
Speaker 4: Nike like it was one of those bards when you
Speaker 4: were on HBO, it meant like ship that's an HBO show.
Speaker 7: When I said to you, are you watching blah blah
Speaker 7: blah blah.
Speaker 4: On HBO, You're like, oh oh, And all the other
Speaker 4: networks have had good shows and hits, but HBO hitting
Speaker 4: that stamp.
Speaker 7: I told one time.
Speaker 4: I told the CEO of HBO, Richard at the time,
Speaker 4: I said, us having the shop on HBO is like
Speaker 4: getting your own sneaker at Nike. And he said, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna use that on the board. I said, that's what
Speaker 4: HBO means. You have a show on HBO. It's literally like, oh,
Speaker 4: I got my own shoe from Nike. He definitely definitely.
Speaker 5: People ask me, I'm like, no one needs the New
Speaker 5: York Yankees, but they validate your year in New York
Speaker 5: Yankee right. And I think for us, to answer your question, Charlotte,
Speaker 5: man like, we learned a lot from them. They were great,
Speaker 5: a great partner for us. Learned a ton in the
Speaker 5: four seasons we were with them, And I think we
Speaker 5: grew up as a business, as entrepreneurs, as a show
Speaker 5: and it was just time for us to, you know,
Speaker 5: take it on our own and grow our own audience
Speaker 5: and explore other opportunities. But they were a great partner
Speaker 5: for us. I think if we could do it all
Speaker 5: over again, we've said we do it again.
Speaker 1: You know that we do absolutely the right move at
Speaker 1: that time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And my last question, it feels like twenty one
Speaker 6: years is gone by very quickly. Nobody, nobody expected twenty
Speaker 6: one years. I don't, you don't, you don't, not not
Speaker 6: at this this level. So when did y'all start up?
Speaker 6: When did y'all start setting up for life after basketball?
Speaker 7: Probably in year four?
Speaker 4: Not not in a like, not in a way of
Speaker 4: like what are we going to do when basketball is over?
Speaker 4: More so, like I tell people, I left Nike and Lebrons,
Speaker 4: like yo, I want you to come help me, fire
Speaker 4: my agent, come work with me.
Speaker 7: Did that for the first I mean.
Speaker 4: Not now any not anymore, but probably as recently as
Speaker 4: like three or four years ag well, but definitely at
Speaker 4: the beginning, I said, I started to think my first
Speaker 4: name was Lebron's and my last name was friend. That's
Speaker 4: how I got introduced Withron. I was like, damn, my
Speaker 4: last name is friend. My first name was four years ago.
Speaker 4: He was still doing it, not in the not in
Speaker 4: a way like not in no way like that. That's
Speaker 4: why I corrected myself, like the beginning, but still for
Speaker 4: sure some people go, what is matter? Like they won't
Speaker 4: say friend anymore, they dropped a friend, which is but
Speaker 4: so I would say, we didn't start talking about it
Speaker 4: in a way that was like what are we gonna
Speaker 4: do when basketball is over? We're gonna be very tactical
Speaker 4: and thoughtful.
Speaker 7: Wasn't like that. It was actually just.
Speaker 4: More like pure human emotion and and and a bit
Speaker 4: ego too, of like of like me Rich Randy going
Speaker 4: like we're gonna work and we're no longer introduced as
Speaker 4: Lebron's frind like that was a big part of it.
Speaker 4: That that that actually I think I still I'm almost
Speaker 4: sure I still have that chip. And Lebron was completely
Speaker 4: he was the ringleader of it, like, Yo, I want
Speaker 4: you guys to It's funny he talks about now he's
Speaker 4: like I used to. He'll say to me now or
Speaker 4: to Rich. I wanted you guys always to go be
Speaker 4: your become your own men. But I never knew turned
Speaker 4: into so much.
Speaker 7: I don't even see you guys like we used to,
Speaker 7: Like we don't because we work so much.
Speaker 4: But so it was more like that, like that feeling
Speaker 4: of like and then and then strategy and tactics.
Speaker 7: Obviously how we.
Speaker 4: Thought about it became a thing. Rich found his lane
Speaker 4: and became the best agent in sports. Was never going
Speaker 4: to be my thing. I liked being more of an
Speaker 4: entrepreneur doing other things, and Randy found his lane, always
Speaker 4: being you know, in charge of everything Lebron and Lebron's
Speaker 4: chief of staff, but actually talking about post basketball. The
Speaker 4: first time I had a conversation of of really post
Speaker 4: basketball Lebron. The first time he said the word retirement
Speaker 4: to me was five weeks ago. First time I've ever
Speaker 4: heard him say the word. Man, we just sit down
Speaker 4: and talk about retirement. I never he had never said
Speaker 4: that to me, and we actually I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 4: I guess we should so we had never and we
Speaker 4: sat down. I was like, Okay, here's all the things
Speaker 4: to think about. There's this, there's media. Do you want
Speaker 4: to you're never gonna call games? Do you want to
Speaker 4: do more stuff in media?
Speaker 1: Team?
Speaker 4: And we're like, let's just lay it all out and
Speaker 4: you can think about it. But literally that was I
Speaker 4: can look back. They were in Houston playing the Rockets
Speaker 4: because I flew to Houston. I was in Houston already
Speaker 4: and I flew and I went and saw him. First
Speaker 4: time he ever mentioned the word retirement. What do you
Speaker 4: let's talk.
Speaker 3: About the headliness are gonna say? Mavericks says, Lebron to retirement,
Speaker 3: so this might be his last season to be sure.
Speaker 4: After he heard Charlomagne the God say Lebron, Lebron is
Speaker 4: actually going to play ten more years to prove Charlletmagne
Speaker 4: the God he's one of the all time greats.
Speaker 2: Did you realize he was spoiled in that moment?
Speaker 6: What do you mean when he said five weeks ago
Speaker 6: he's gonna retire and you have a look at like
Speaker 6: he isn't.
Speaker 2: Normal for somebody to play twenty one years, you know,
Speaker 2: isn't normal.
Speaker 4: It's not normal for anybody to do.
Speaker 7: It's hard to do anything at this level.
Speaker 4: And when you add the level, when you add the toll,
Speaker 4: I think if Lebron could play, if Lebron didn't have
Speaker 4: to play road games, he might play ten more years.
Speaker 4: He could play ten more what's really wiring on him
Speaker 4: is to travel, leaving family, leaving his house, you know,
Speaker 4: waking up in a hotel in Milwaukee, and he's like,
Speaker 4: why am I here again? He would tell you, like,
Speaker 4: why am I here again? And you a billionaire already,
Speaker 4: and I got a lovely house and a wife and
Speaker 4: kids in la and and he would tell you. But
Speaker 4: the minute he walks into the arena and the lights
Speaker 4: come on, he's like, oh, yes.
Speaker 7: This is why I'm here.
Speaker 4: But in that hotel in Indiana in March, he's like,
Speaker 4: what am I doing here? Why am I here? I
Speaker 4: always tell people that's the hast thing, like to be
Speaker 4: that guy that long and to really still go out
Speaker 4: there and play basketball, and like, it's not it's clearly
Speaker 4: not about the money. Like if anybody thought he was
Speaker 4: playing for money, it's clearly not.
Speaker 7: But I think.
Speaker 4: I realized, I think I'm definitely spoiledful because I've been
Speaker 4: up close and personal to see a person who is
Speaker 4: so dedicated, so committed for so long. So I've been
Speaker 4: able to see that, and it's I was spoiled, jaded,
Speaker 4: a bit naive to like, oh, this is what how
Speaker 4: it's supposed to go.
Speaker 7: It's not.
Speaker 4: But then I think, as fans, I sometimes am like,
Speaker 4: even when I'm in La, sometimes like, should I work
Speaker 4: all day.
Speaker 7: La?
Speaker 4: The traffic is the beast, as we all know, to
Speaker 4: drive all the way downtown. But I'm like, but it's
Speaker 4: fucking Lebron James. I'm going to watch Lebron jet. I'm
Speaker 4: going like that is when I think about that point
Speaker 4: that you brought up, for sure, But it's definitely a
Speaker 4: sense of like we all got spoiled, as even all
Speaker 4: of us as basketball fans, that he's gonna be here
Speaker 4: forever or he played twenty one He's played twenty one
Speaker 4: seasons and not had one. He's never had a bad season,
Speaker 4: never never had a bad season, not even close.
Speaker 7: To a bad season.
Speaker 6: I think what y'all do is respect it. It's not
Speaker 6: gonna be appreciated until he walks away. When he walks away,
Speaker 6: they're gonna look at the whole totality of everything that
Speaker 6: y'all accomplish.
Speaker 2: And that's what NIGGAA like really give give y'all to
Speaker 2: just do.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think that happens with a lot of things, right, Well,
Speaker 4: why is that right?
Speaker 9: I don't know, because it happens in a lot of
Speaker 9: every think people's gone, Yeah, that's when you get a
Speaker 9: chance to really look at Yeah, we look at things
Speaker 9: and segments now like we're looking at to see what
Speaker 9: we look.
Speaker 2: At the whole totality of everything that's been accomplished over
Speaker 2: the last twenty years.
Speaker 3: But then we say, does it continue precedent? Because Lebron
Speaker 3: has two boys that are amazing in basketball? Now does
Speaker 3: it continue?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Do you continue on that same lineage.
Speaker 7: Never being Lebron Jones? Not even not it's.
Speaker 4: It's nothing's impossible. But the things that make him who
Speaker 4: he is, it's it's really hard to get that cocktail
Speaker 4: of things to make that person is.
Speaker 3: Well, if the Knicks pick his son you Moving to
Speaker 3: New York's last question, I love me and you talk
Speaker 3: off right, I would love I appreciate.
Speaker 1: You guys for joining us. Maverick card Pol thanks for
Speaker 1: having us seventh season.
Speaker 3: Of That's right, the shop on YouTube and definitely check
Speaker 3: out all the grooming products.
Speaker 7: That they.
Speaker 1: Don't have for the moms that bring their sons in
Speaker 1: the barber shop.
Speaker 4: But you know there are you're gonna start helping them
Speaker 4: learning groom because you know a lot of young boys
Speaker 4: and men think grooming and face cares for special occasions.
Speaker 7: For every day every day. Wash it every day.
Speaker 4: That's just when you're going to the prom or the
Speaker 4: big basketball game is daily. So that's what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Okay, And I can take the mirror, yes, and the.
Speaker 3: Breakfast Club in the morning, wake that hands up in
Speaker 3: the morning club.
Speaker 7: Breakfast Club