Club Shay Shay - LaVar Ball
Episode Date: November 23, 2020On Episode 10 of Club Shay Shay, Shannon welcomes in the CEO of Big Baller Brand & father of LaMelo, Lonzo, and LiAngelo: LaVar Ball.Fresh off LaMelo being selected third overall in the NBA Draft,... LaVar recounts his youngest son’s journey to the NBA, from playing in Lithuania and Australia to being selected by Michael Jordan’s Hornets. LaVar also addresses his dream for all three of his sons to win a championship together in Charlotte, and the rumors that he may play MJ one-on-one.LaVar also covers his own life and career, telling stories about growing up in South Central LA, meeting his wife Tina, playing in the NFL, and raising his children to be better than Jordan. LaVar also addresses his more recent controversies, including his feud with President Trump and his comments about dating while in the NBA. Shannon grills LaVar on all things NBA, from the Lakers winning the NBA Finals to the GOAT debate to LeBron’s career longevity. LaVar is as honest, confident, and outspoken as ever in this captivating conversation.#DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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I'm Shannon Sharp. Welcome to another edition of Club Che Che. I am your host and proprietor of Club Che Che.
The young man, well, he's not really young, but the man that's coming by today to have a drink and conversation.
Guys, you know he doesn't need any introduction, but he's the only man that can say,
I have had two sons drafted in the top three picks of the NBA draft.
He's the CEO of Big Baller Brand. He's a businessman.
He's a former NFL player
and he's one of the most polarizing figures
in all of America.
LeVar Ball. All my life, I've been grinding all my life. All my life, been grinding all my life.
Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price.
Want a slice, not to roll a dice.
That's why, all my life, I've been grinding all my life.
LeVar, how you doing?
Big Shannon, what's going down with you, man? You know how I'm doing.
Good, good, and great.
Okay, give me a playback.
The last two days, what's your emotion?
What are you feeling the last two days?
The last two days feel like the other 365 days a year.
Great.
They're great.
I already knew all this was going to happen,
so it wasn't like, oh, man, Melo's going to be drafted.
Hey, me and my wife had a goal.
All my boys getting to the NBA.
I told them from day one, born to go pro.
Let's go.
Let's take it all.
Let's go back.
Let's go back to you meet your wife.
And I remember you telling the story says, look, I don't know what I'm going to do.
But whatever it is, I want to do it with you.
So you get you and Tina, you guys get together.
So this was your plan all along.
This definitely was my plan all along, man.
Like I said before, man, most of the fine, sexy girls, they short.
They short.
Man, I ain't going to lie, but when you find a big, tall, giant one,
one to stay with, I said, I know what I'm trying to do.
I need that length and strength.
And she was also beautiful and intelligent,
so everything fell in line.
You come from a family
of brothers. Yes. And
what I'm gathering from you
and your brothers, you guys were close.
You instilled that closeness in your
boys. Most definitely, man.
You know, my mom and dad
always was like family first, so that
leads on to me, to say family first, so that leads on to me, to say family first,
and that leads on to me telling my boys, family is everything.
Triple Bs, baby.
I was reading a story.
I don't know, and you can correct me if I'm wrong,
is that you played high school ball with, what, three or four of your brothers?
No, no, no, no.
The gap was too far to play with all of us.
I played one college season with one of my brothers that's under me.
Okay.
He's a couple of years younger than me.
So what's the age gap?
The age gap is like this.
When he was a 10th grader, I was a senior.
Okay.
That's how it is.
And then my other brothers that are younger than me are Lorenzo,
who is seven years younger than me.
Everybody thinks he's my twin.
Okay.
But you had this planned out
because your three boys are very close in age.
Very close in age on the fact that I've learned from my dad.
Since he didn't have us super close together
and everybody playing on the same team.
Here's the thing with my dad did,
which was a little different, which he always thought you should be playing on the same team. Here's the thing with my dad did, which was a little different,
which he always thought you should be the owner of the team.
I said, okay, but what if I want to do the plan?
I don't want to own no team.
I want to play.
Right.
We didn't start playing sports until we was in the 10th grade.
And that told me, hey, start my boys extra early.
Because he had already set the blueprint.
We were stronger and faster than a lot of people.
Right.
Not everybody, damn near.
But he never knew what to do with this
like I'm doing it with my sons.
Right. Now, you and I,
we're very close in age.
We got a lot of the same principles, although
I was born and raised
in South Georgia. You're born and raised
in South Central LA. Right. But
my grandfather, the way he looked at it,
I need labor. So I need
to go ahead and have a bunch of these kids.
They need to be close in age. And if he could
have had all boys, he'd have had all boys.
But there was not going to be no gap.
Right. Exactly.
Exactly. And that's why I didn't put
no gap between my boys because I wanted them to
play together in high school. I tried
to have Lonzo
and Jello in the same year.
They got close, 13 months
off. Then she needed a little break
because I know she ain't popping them out like that.
I gave her a little break and then I said,
Melo, you got to come on now.
Here you come.
You're laying at home the last two
nights. What's the conversation between
you and your wife? The conversation
between me and my wife in the last couple of days
was like, Tina, when you going to come back from that stroke
and make that pineapple pie for me?
Because I've been waiting four years for it.
That was the conversation.
It's time for you.
It's time for the boys to hire you a chef.
Tina should be done with the cooking.
She got to be done.
No, bro.
Hey, I'm going to tell you what.
That Tina can cook.
And her having a stroke,
she ain't cooked in the last three years.
So I'm like a hungry man on a desert island.
So you've been doing –
I've been doing the chefing now.
I'm still good now.
If I couldn't cook, I wouldn't stay my size, man.
I don't want my woman to ever get mad and be like,
I ain't cooking nothing for you.
Then I'll shrivel up and then they go crazy.
No, I'm good.
And the conversation that you had with Melo over the last,
let's just say the last, going through this process,
obviously, you know, he's meeting with teams.
He's talking to teams.
He's going to work.
I think he worked out for, what, three teams, the top three teams,
top four teams.
He worked out for them. So what was your conversations with Melo?
My conversation with Melo wasn't much.
It's like, man, you're going to do what you're going to do.
Whoever's going to pick you is going to be the right team to pick you.
Right.
Now, the way the draft went, I happen to be the luckiest guy in the like, man, you're going to do what you're going to do. Whoever's going to pick you is going to be the right team to pick you. Now, the way the
draft went, I happen to be the luckiest guy
in the world, man. I keep telling you that.
I did not want to go stay
in Minnesota. I didn't want him in the cold.
He don't want to live in the cold. He can say
what he wants. I'll go to any team. He don't want to live
in Minnesota. And then,
like I said, with Golden State, I figure they
already got their team with
Clay and Steph. And at some point, I figure they already got their team with Clay and Steph.
And at some point, I think
Steve Kerr might have been like,
you know what? That dude did call me the Milli Vanilla
coaching. And if things ain't going right,
I'm going to come back through his son, through him.
And I didn't want Melo trying to make a decision on
do I listen to my employer or do I listen
to my dad? No matter how good he is,
it's still up in your head. So it panned out right.
Greatness recognized greatness. And that boy went to is, it's still up in your head. So it panned out right. Greatness, recognize
greatness. And that boy went to Michael
Jordan, which I've always been saying,
somebody got to be better than Jordan. Why not
you? And to be tutored under him?
Come on, man. This is about to be something special.
Well, I'm glad he went to Charlotte, too,
because what I'm waiting for and what everybody's
waiting for is this versus battle.
LeVar Ball 101 versus Jordan.
This is what I've been waiting for.
Well, if you're waiting for it,
hear him get in touch with pay-per-view
because me and Mike ain't playing for less than $200 million.
What?
That's what we say.
If you're going to watch Mike Tyson fight at 50,
you're going to watch me and MJ play this one-on-one
for pay-per-view only.
And it better be over $200 million.
So let me ask you a question.
What if Jordan
sent word through Melo, tell your dad
when he show up in Charlotte, have his gym
closed? Hey,
don't send no word through Melo.
Talk for yourself. Come home
at you, boy.
Man, look here.
What, what,
look, what about New York?
What if he'd have gone to the, what if he'd gone to what if he'd gone to the knicks
madison square garden hey and here it is no matter where mellow would win i was talking about
uh new york and detroit i was talking about those two teams because they was gonna try to find a way
to get all my boys right that's why i wanted them to go right there. And like I'm going to tell Mike, hey, with Mello, you're going to be good.
You bring in Jello, you're going to be better.
You bring in Lonzo, you're going to have the best.
I guarantee you win a championship because that's their original big three.
They grown organically.
Them dudes can switch and play at a pace that nobody can.
The last time my three was together, they was babies and they went undefeated. So imagine
what they can do as grown men.
So you still haven't given up on that
dream? That's not even going to be
a dream on the fact that it should happen
sooner or later. Can you imagine
you talking about press, all three of my boys
in Charlotte? You know how many
people are going to watch every game? That'll be the biggest
thing ever. Guaranteed.
But here's the thing.
So you won't even say that I'm dreaming about this.
Okay.
After four years go by, they can decide to play with any team they want.
Right.
And here's the thing like this.
You see?
And I'm going to tell you the platform.
You got Mello.
Get Jello.
Lonzo's a free agent next year.
You don't think he'll come over there with his brothers?
Come on.
All the boys in Charlotte, next under the goal,
sitting next to Big Boa,
and you never know what's going to go down at halftime
because me and Mike, Mike decided to play that one-on-one game at halftime.
First of all, you and Mike done got too old.
Y'all didn't let the young kids have this.
No, we let the young kids have this right now.
But if the people in the world want to see that one-on-one,
they're going to have to pay a price from the
greatest of all time to
the coldest of all time. Triple B's
baby.
So you caught a lot
of criticism.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong.
You and the old coach at Chino Hills
had a falling out about how Mello was going to be used.
No, no, no, no.
We didn't have a fallout about how Mello was going to be used.
Okay, what transpired?
This is the narrative they wanted to create.
They was like, man, oh, LaVar said that if Mello ain't allowed to shoot
50 times, he taking his son.
No, I had these other kids that I had been training that were very good.
Right.
That he needed to put on the team.
Not even just to play, but just to have them practice
and have the same schedule with Mello.
And everything was going to be fine.
Right.
Yeah, man, he cut every one of them dudes that I have trained.
And then end up putting them back the next year anyway.
But I'm like, they were all better than the people that he had on there.
So you think he
did that because you asked him to do that.
And so that was out of spite of you.
Right. Basically, that's what it was.
And I said, you know what? You finna lose everything now
because my son ain't gotta be here.
So you take him, you take him
out of school. Yes.
But hold on. So this was
not a plan. You did not originally plan
to go to Lithuania. Your plan was to have Melo play. Okay, Jello did something bad. He took the glasses. Okay, I get that. But if Jello don't take their glasses, I don't create my own league.
I don't take them over to Lithuania to get water and other to make them global.
That doesn't happen.
Here's the story that was going to happen.
Lonzo was going to go to UCLA.
Jello was going to do his thing and be in the top 10 too as a shooting guard, go to UCLA.
Mello was going to follow that pattern.
Hey, LeVar make his money.
Don't worry about everything else that's going on.
This is bigger than just me and my boys now.
And I think it was created by the negativity that Jello did
to allow the family to explode into this global era.
I don't go across the USA.
I don't make the JBA.
It's a lot of things.
Mello don't develop the way he does.
Right.
And that's where I credit you.
Now I don't know if everything that that's,
that's come to fruition is the way you planned it,
but I don't know if anybody has made a better use of a situation or a
negative situation and turn it into a positive as you have.
Right. Most definitely. Like I said, a lot of these kids that, that, uh,
your Ricky Rubio's your friends, I mean, uh, Parker's and all them,
you get these kids overseas. Okay.
They overseas and they playing against pros.
Now I'm taking Americans over there being mellow and jello go over there at
young age and play. Now it's like, Oh,
is dad just want the content for the guy that no,
I don't want my boy to study for no chemistry tests and no Spanish tests.
And they're going to use that and do the same thing these young kids was doing
coming over here to the U.S.
But see, this is what can never happen.
Nobody has the money and the platform to do that
because they're coming from the ghetto with all that talent.
So they can't go overseas and do the same thing I did.
Right.
So you go, so you pulled,
how did you come about going to Lithuania?
Once you pulled, what was your plan?
This is the best thing, Lithuania, when I was talking to, you know,
my guys about going over there.
I don't want to go, we had a few other teams that was involved.
I don't want my boys to go to a team that's balling out of control.
Why?
Because you really don't need my boys.
You was winning without them.
Right.
So we go to a raggedy team.
And that's what you do.
Usually to get the playing time and the press that you want,
anybody can go to a real good team and do a little bit.
But can you go to a bad team and uplift them or do some things?
Because, hey, just like in the draft,
you get the best players at the top going to the weakest teams.
Right.
So it's a given.
And it's just like we did the same thing.
So Lithuania was bad.
Nobody even talking about Croatia, Barcelona, Spain.
They're not talking about them.
And Lithuania wouldn't even have been known if my boys don't go over there.
They ain't been known since.
So you go to Lithuania.
You make the best of that situation.
So what was your plan after Lithuania?
After Lithuania, it was for Jell-O to get drafted to the league from there.
And what happened is that didn't happen.
So guess what?
Melo said, Dad, I want to finish my – in high school.
Because he didn't want to be out there no more in Europe.
Jell-O wasn't going to be out there.
Right.
So now that's when I say, you know what?
I'm going to do my little JBA tour.
We're going to go to 15 different countries to keep balling,
to clear that time so we won't just be sitting there not doing nothing.
Right. Now, I have to create my own league if i don't want to go back have my son
go to college or have an au team or something for mellow to to have exposure to be seen right so i
got to create my own league and we move on our own merits so that's why people was like wow they're
not playing against no talent well they're playing against some of the best talent because we had the
best thing going which is I had the ball boys,
which is the name, and I had the big mouth to say,
we can't lose to y'all because y'all not good enough to beat us.
Right.
So now all the teams that want to play,
they just want to play us on the fact to say they want to be the team
that got USA across their chest.
They don't care who it is.
Guess what?
They coming in, that's extra hard.
And that's the one boys got all their talent.
And folks like to discredit that by saying, oh, no,
they played for their dad's league, but they played the whole
game and never got subbed. So ain't
nothing better than experience.
So, Mello says,
Dad, I want to go back to high school.
I want to finish up high school. So now you got to find
a high school. How do you land on this
high school in Ohio, Spire?
Man, everything panned out where
a lot of people wanted
different transcripts and they had different motives
and I found out, well
I didn't find out, one of my guys
that works for me, he said, man, I got the perfect
spot. I said, well, we've been in Lithuania
and it don't matter where it is. As long as it's in the
States, we good. Because some other big name
teams wanted us. Okay?
But this one panned out because
I said, wow, I need Mello to play with
somebody with some fire, a coach.
I just didn't want him to take Mello and be a yes man.
Right. And also
just be a cloud chaser on the fact,
I'm coaching a Mello ball now, you know, from
over here. And Jermaine Jackson
was that dude. I mean, like
I said before, I told you I'm the luckiest dude
in the world. And for him to link up like that
and teach
Melo, this is what he said.
Melo has, this is the first time I met
this guy. He said, Melo has the first time
to be the number one pick.
I said, this dude thinks just like me, man.
I can't lose. How I get this guy?
And coming from the hood in
Detroit, he coaches with a different emotion.
Right. Which is what's needed
for my son to be successful.
And it's hard for, let me tell you,
like Lonzo and
Luke, Steve Alford,
Coach Bake, they all look too
docile.
So that's what they
respond to. So you gotta play
for a brother that had that same
type of intensity to put you
on another level.
Like I seen Melo a couple of times playing as Spire,
and Jermaine was like, kill him.
He can't guard.
We're going to show him.
You know, you don't say that as no head coach.
Right.
You know, but that type of flavor, that's why Melo linked up to him and kind of they're the best friends to this day now.
Yes.
Melo created a bond with him not only as a manager, as a trainer,
but as his best friend.
And his best friend is 40-something years old with a family.
So guess what?
People, oh, Melo's really mature now.
Yeah, because he ain't in school, and he talking to a dude who understands
life and who came from nothing.
And that's what happened.
My grandpa used to say, boy, association brings on assimilation.
Melo is 18 years old.
He's dealing with a 40-year-old, a grown man with a family. He's, association brings on assimilation. Mello is 18 years old.
He's dealing with a 40-year-old, a grown man with a family.
He's going to take on those values.
He's going to think like that.
Oh, my God. And that's why people are so in awe.
Like, wow, he wasn't like that when he was 16 on the Facebook show.
But now look at him.
I mean, dude, if you're talking to a 40-year-old man every night,
he's not telling you, hey, what cartoon are we going to watch?
When's the next movie coming out?
Or how many girls can we go talk to down the strip club?
You know, anything.
You're going to be away from all that.
That's why Mello is so dialed in on this basketball thing.
Hey, I never watched film and never did the fine-tuning
that J.J. is doing for Mello.
And that's why I said nobody going to come in the draft like Mello.
One thing is, none of these kids have ever played against grown men. Mello is And that's why I said, nobody going to come in the draft like Mello. One thing is,
none of these kids have ever played against grown men.
Mello is the only one who has,
and who's been global.
You go to Spire.
Okay.
What's your plan after Spire?
After Spire,
Mello is either going to go to China or Australia.
One of those two teams.
Mello, he would have got more money in China,
but it's not about that. It's about
we already been out to China and
Hong Kong and Shanghai and all that.
He had enough for traveling
overseas and not speaking English.
Right. He had enough
for the weather. So Australia, perfect weather.
They got a little accent, but they speak English.
Right. And everything was perfect for him
out there.
But you didn't go with him. And here's the thing. That's what people were stuck on So, but you didn't go with him.
And here's the thing.
That's what people were stuck on.
I don't have to go with him
if I got another guy working for me
that thinks like me.
Right.
Which is, J.J. is the exact person for my son.
I call him my little bro
because he act like my little brother, man.
J.J. is the same way.
Middle of the coast in the game.
He didn't see that. We put in our work. Basketball is a lifestyle. Okay.
I got the big ball of brand. I got to deal with, I got jello.
I got to deal with, cause that's, you know,
these two are the only ones not in the NBA yet. Right.
I got to deal with them.
I got to deal with the brand and I also got to deal with my wife.
Tina don't want to travel like that. Right.
So if I don't have to take her in and we finally got to spend some time at
the house and her getting better
and me doing things with the brand
and the COVID situation, all that stuff,
it's cool if I can have somebody help me out.
And JJ helped me out a lot.
This is what this man did, man. And you have to understand
this. Who ups and goes from
their family to go deal
with my son unless you treat my son
like your son.
You can't get that.
And I understand that.
And that's how lucky I am, man.
So everybody, LeVar is not involved.
And I talk to Jay every day like he's my little brother.
He's the only dude I call little bro.
And people will be like, man, because everybody knows LeVar don't let his boys train with
nobody.
He only do the training himself.
You know, I don't let nobody train him.
So they asking Jay, how did you get in like this?
And the only way you got to stay with Mello for a year,
stay with him for a year, inspire,
and then get his trust in the way he feels about you.
And I trust you.
So guess what?
And you have the knowledge of the game.
Right.
So this is the best situation for Mello.
So basically, so once Australia was over,
you knew he was going into the draft.
Well, once Australia...
Here's an NBA guy that was able to see this.
Everybody was shocked.
Oh, my God, he's got
two triple-doubles in a row. The only one to do this,
selling on every arena, that's what the NBA wanted to do.
You want a talented guy, but you also
at the bottom line, you got to make some money. You got to
sell them tickets. Right?
My son is the only one who I tell you what,
check everybody who got drafted and then check the attendance record of every
arena. And I bet you, my son be the only one that's sold out.
Guaranteed first game.
Watch how crazy it is because it ain't like Melo is all of a sudden going
to make everybody come. No, that's what
he does. Hey, listen to this.
At Chino Hills, Lonzo was there
this year. He was good. When Jello got
there, we got better. When Melo got
there, we were the best.
Sell out. The boy
in Lithuania, sell out. JBA,
he do his thing, make everybody watch
JBA. He do his thing, inspire.
Sellout. He do Australia,
the biggest crowds ever.
It's not like he don't, now he finna go
to Charlotte and buy under the goat.
And you don't think it'll be a sellout? That's what I'm saying.
It's natural for him. That's what he does.
So, once
you, okay, now the
goal is to get Jell-O
into the NBA. Okay, when to get Jell-O into the NBA.
Yes.
Okay, when you get Jell-O to the NBA, then what does LeVar do?
Like I said, LeVar going to keep doing what he's doing.
Like I told folks before, my boy's going to make so much money off the court.
This is a billion-dollar enterprise.
People ask me, they say, LeVar, where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I say, as the biggest brand ever. And everybody gives a little chuckle like, man, LeVar, where do you see yourself in 10 years? I say, as the biggest brand ever.
And everybody gives a little chuckle like, man, OK, hey, every brand got to start somewhere.
I'll be venturing off into a lot of other things.
Like I said, got this water coming out, these rims.
Oh, I got to bring some of my water.
Don't worry about it.
I haven't shipped up there to Fox where you're at.
But it's better than that other one.
Mine's Hawaiian Springs, man, next to a volcano.
You know how hot that is to get that water from over there?
You got to be cold as hell to get that water.
And I'm going to tell you, it's soothing.
But anyways, with the big ball of brand and the rims and tires,
it's going to come out, man.
And it's just going to be, I'm going to get in that grassroots area,
which is another lane.
Another lane I'm going to stay in.
My boys is from Chino Hills.
I'm from L.A. South Central, but I got some of my guys on my team that was back in the hood
that's going to bring me back to the inner city.
And I'm going to do some things for them out there.
So it's a lot of things lined up.
Are you looking to get back into it and look to find the next Melo,
Lonzo, Jello, and try to bring them and usher them into the NBA?
Yeah, well, definitely.
Definitely because I want these athletes to understand their self-worth and make them understand
at the end of the day, it's about ownership.
And it's not like I'm not going to go after some of these next
number one and number two picks, because here's the deal.
I'm going to give them.
I'm going to give you 40% ownership as opposed to an endorsement deal.
I'm not going to give you five years, $2 million a year
to wear this shoe or to wear this on the fact that, hey, you're a popular player
and it's a standard.
No matter how good or bad you do, I'm giving you $2 million.
If you betting on yourself, come to Big Baller Brand
because if we can sell a million shoes at $100 a pop,
now I'm giving you $40 million and I'm taking $60, $40, $60.
But you got $40 million ownership, and whether you play one year
or 10 years, when you leave,
take your brand with you.
You ain't going to get stuck like Kawhi and can't take your own hand back.
You said, and you used to tell us this all the time,
especially off the air.
You like the baby is going to be the best of all of them.
He's going to be bigger.
He's going to be stronger.
He's going to be faster.
He will be. Why were you so
convinced that Mello would
be the best of all your boys? Well,
it's just like they like
phones. Like I told you, you keep making one phone
better than the next one. You don't make the one. This
one will be good, but you learn the stuff from this one
to put on this one. Right now
Mello. This is what I say. I
mean Lonzo. I need him the
oldest to lead the team.
He got to do that.
That's why he rebounds so good because he played as my big man
and my best guard.
But I cannot have him playing defense on the best player.
He going to get tired.
So what?
I put Melo and Jello to double team the best player on every team.
That's why I have them at the top of the press,
to let them do all the pressing and chasing people.
Okay.
Now, Lonzo is a facilitator.
He can do his thing.
He can score.
Lonzo.
But Jello is the heck of a shooter.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Now, Melo learns from both of them.
So, Melo is the only one in my family that can play the one or the two.
Jello can't play the one because as soon as he passed half court,
he think he opened and he let it shoot.
So, he ain't going to get nobody involved.
Lonzo can't really play the two on the fact that you're passing the ball in
the corner where he's supposed to take a three.
He looking for the cutter and that's too long.
He ain't supposed to look for no cutter.
Melo can flip from playing the one out of necessity,
passing the ball to flip it over to try to score a hundred points on his own.
That's when we played.
Lonzo caught a lot of lobs from Melo when he was little.
But then Melo said, okay, Lonzo out the way
and they want me to play point.
He plays point out of necessity. He loves
to score.
But a lot of people don't see him on there. Melo can score the heck
out of that ball, but he's the only one who can flip
his mindset to play the one or the two
where my other two sons are just stuck in their lanes.
So what area do you
think Melo needs to improve on?
Hey, like I tell everybody before, man,
hey, hey, hey, even your guy, the greatest right now, LeBron,
what do you work on?
He work on something every day.
And here's the thing with the boys,
it's a lifestyle and you ain't never got no rest.
And guess what?
I don't care how good you are,
you got something to work on, which is everything.
So don't be like, well, I just need to work on my shooting
I just need to do a little bit more this no that's
when you get complacent you got so much
to work on it's like you
I don't want to say like you never made it but if you're
trying to be the best in the world ever
how are you going to stop
NBA
evaluators compared
Mello's game
to Spencer Dinwiddie. Yes.
Agree? Disagree?
Well, check it out.
All your evaluators, they can't play a lick.
So that's why I don't hold
evaluation as anything.
If you want to evaluate me, it's just like
this. If I'm not a big guy
who eats all the time, how can
I tell you how good some food is? I ain't tried enough of it.
I ain't tried to critique and tell me what my
boy, you want to convince him that Spencer
Dinwiddie, man, they had
Lonzo, he was
compared to every guard that's light-skinned.
So I'm
just saying, don't try to put him
in these categories and all this. If
anybody he play like, if you look,
it's more like Penny Hardaway.
Right.
He's about Penny Fives.
Yes.
So that's what I'm saying.
They want to say he's not no Spencer.
Melo the new breed.
Something they ain't seen before.
All my boys, I tell them that.
What was your emotions when Lonzo got traded from L.A.?
Because he was a hometown kid, Chino Hills,
basically less than an hour away from LA.
This is where you wanted him to be.
He's going to New Orleans.
Okay, yeah.
I was happy as a big baller in a donut shop.
Yes, and I'm going to tell you why.
I don't care about where they play.
It's about the situation they're in
on the fact that you're in this you're
in this this field where you're traveling all the time anyway so home really ain't no big ass deal
you're playing 40 games on the road 40 games at home or whatever okay that's fine and what i'm
trying to tell people it doesn't matter where you stay you got to be in a place where a coach is
behind you to let you do what you do and he believes in you to believe that like i told him before if magic was a coach lonzo would have still been there on the
fact that what did he say he had so much belief in lonzo but he had no say so right you know i
would rather have lonzo be tutored by the coldest point guard to ever play the game which is magic
right so so now you got this guy right here who's supposed to be
the ultimate pro, and that's why
I said magic is perfect.
But if you're not the coach, you have no say. So Luke
Walton ain't no point guard. He was a small
forward. Right. And just because you play
with some other players don't make you a good coach. Your last
name is Walton. Don't mean you're a good coach. Don't get
mad at me. He's a good guy, just
not a good coach. But that's not the point.
And I'm saying this. If he's not a good
coach, or was he not a good coach for your son?
You do
the math. What'd they do in Sacramento?
You could put him anywhere. The boy ain't a good coach.
You could put him anywhere.
But like I said before, how do you
coach? Well, you
came as an assistant coach over
there at, what is that?
Don't say.
Man, just because somebody backwards hurt and all you did was stand up next
and now you're the best coach in the world, yeah, you fooled them real good.
That's how it went down.
But I'm saying, in other words, go ahead.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
It seems to me what you're telling me is that you need a coach to coach your
boys that believe in your boys like you believe in your boys.
Okay.
Everybody, listen to me, who believed in my boys and not said,
oh, I'm going to do this to LeVar as a bully or he tell him what to do.
No.
Just listen to what I'm telling you because I coached him all his life.
Coach Bate, listen to me.
It ain't about the school.
Let these boys loose.
Let them do what they do.
Successful.
Steve Alvin. Give Lonzo the hand. Hand over the school. Let these boys lose. Let them do what they do. Successful. Steve Alva.
Give Lonzo the hand. Hand over the keys.
Successful. Me
with my boys. Every time the games we play,
the exhibition games, I let them win. Every time I coach,
we don't lose. But yet
you see this and you don't want my boys to do that.
JJ,
inspire. Believe in Mello. Go on, do
what you're going to do. Whoever believes in
my sons are going to be successful,
and that's what I'm trying to tell them.
After the first game, Lonzo, everybody,
oh, Patrick Beverly did it, and Patrick Beverly ain't did nothing.
Look what happened the second game.
Lonzo played a finish, did his thing,
and that's when I thought we was cool.
But then you start taking him out after the six minutes of the first quarter,
and you got all these other people you're trying to figure out combinations
and bringing the ball up.
And now you got Lonzo, who used to play in the whole game.
You spot playing him.
Now he's getting injured because he's playing 100 miles an hour.
Then he's sitting down.
Sitting down for six or five minutes is sitting down like 30 minutes in the NBA.
Right.
So now you're killing his body.
He used to play at 100 miles an hour and not sitting down.
How about you drive your car 150 miles an hour and get off the freeway
and turn it off real quick. Some hoses is going to bust. The same you drive your car 150 miles an hour and get off the freeway and turn it off real quick.
Some hoses is going to bust.
The same thing with your body.
So like I'm saying is, people always ask me
where I want Melo to go. I say it
to a person who's going to believe in him, a coach who's
going to let him rock and do his thing.
And watch what the success that comes with that.
Do you like what they're building in New
Orleans? You like Lonzo, Brandon
Ingram, Zion Williams?
They can do what they want.
But like I said, my thing is different.
And you know what that is.
I want all my boys.
If all my boys go to Charlotte and do their thing,
they're playing for the greatest of all time,
something their dad has been telling them from day one.
Somebody got to be better than Jordan.
Now they're going to look up to him so big and be like, Mike,
you know what we're going to do for you?
Make you the coldest owner in the NBA.
And you're going to win this championship.
Because I'm telling you that.
Between three and five years,
my boys will win a championship all together at Charlotte on the fact
they're going to figure that combination out.
When one of them lose, they all lose.
And they're not liking about that losing thing.
And they're going to make him the baddest owner ever.
Because like I said, he recognized greatness.
And greatness is all three of my boys together.
Not because I'm saying, oh, LaVar, I just want the family to get.
No.
Because I know how they can play the one, two, and three,
switch on everything, pass that ball ahead, and have no ego problem.
You got Lonzo in the NBA. You got Lonzo in the NBA.
You got Melo in the NBA.
Yellow's in the G League.
Well, Jello ain't in no G League.
Wait, where is he at now?
Yellow in the G League by himself.
It's it, man.
The NBA door has closed when Melo did.
So I said, as long as all of us get on the bus, when that door
closes, we good.
How do you get Jello up to the big show?
Jello to the big show on this, man.
Here's the thing, Jello got to the G League with no representation, no nothing.
So now you got the representation of Roc Nation, do your job,
get my son to the God dang tryout
or whatever camp and watch him go do his own thing.
He got the name.
He got the body.
He got both of his legs working.
He's been working out.
Hey, let's see if somebody else was trying to get in the league
and working out with the number one pick.
That would be a big story.
But Jello's been working out with Melo and Jermaine,
the number one pick, all this time.
He's been working out with Lonzo every day.
So it's like Jello's already in a situation,
don't think I'm going to have three boys in the same household
and one of them is going to be like, you know what, I ain't going to make it.
I don't feel like working out today.
They cut off from the same cloth.
And everything they say Melo and Lonzo can't do, Jello can do.
Oh, you got to get stronger.
You got to get a better jump shot.
Jello's better than both of them and he's bigger and stronger than both of them.
So, bigger, stronger.
Is there going to be – I don't know if there's going to be a summer league.
Is there going to have enough time for a summer league?
You don't even need a summer league.
Check this out.
You got Lonzo, and you got Mello.
You got two bookends.
Jell-O in the middle.
Don't think that the representation or whatever can't say,
excuse me, can
you give Jello
a shout out? Let's see what he look like with his brother.
He got that now.
And, you know, Roc Nation
also got that pool where they can talk
behind the scenes and get Jello a
tryout or something. That's all you want.
You just want his foot in the door. His foot
going to be in the door on the fact that look what he bringing
to, he can go to any franchise right now and watch how the franchise blows up.
Why?
His last name is Ball.
His last name is Ball, and he can play.
He can shoot at a high clip.
So what I'm saying is he's going to get the opportunity.
And like I said, the best thing, hey, put him over there
with Charlotte and watch what happens.
But he's going to get another tryout somewhere else.
I don't know.
I'll tell him to do their job
because what they did, Jello
got both ankles ready. He healthy.
He running. He playing. He shooting.
As soon as he steps somewhere,
folks are going to be like, oh, I didn't know he was this
good. Now, he get with his brothers.
Whoever he get with,
Lonzo, Jello, I mean, Mello,
they're going to average 15 assists.
And they pass it to him.
He's going to average anywhere from 25, 30 points a game.
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and of course, Colleen Wolfe.
This is their window right now.
This is their Super Bowl window.
Why would they trade him away?
Because he would be a pivotal
part of them winning that
Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen.
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Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal.
Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered
straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here,
just smart hot takes.
We'll talk every single game, every single week,
but I can't do it alone,
so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media.
That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook,
Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic,
and of course, Colleen Wolfe.
This is their window right now.
This is their Super Bowl window.
Why would they trade him away?
Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl window, why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning
that Super Bowl. I don't know why,
Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL
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If someone was doing a movie
or asked you to write a book
about raising three boys in LA
and how do you get two of the boys to be top three picks in the NBA draft,
what would you say are some of the keys or the two biggest keys
for the success that you have rearing your boys to get them to where they are?
The two biggest, like I tell everybody, man, it's very simple.
To be successful, you have to have a passion to do something,
and you need at least one person. The more the merrier. You need one person to believe in you,
whether it be your mama, your grandmama, your dad, your mom, because somebody got to take you
to practice. Somebody got to keep your head level and keep you going forward. But if you got one,
you can't do it on your own and say, man, I'm just going to try and make this happen on my own.
No, somebody got to believe in you to help you out to be successful.
And that's what I'm telling people. Hey, the chips are going to land where they are. It depends on
how you, I ain't going to say push them, but try to lead them the best you can without being
resistance. Like, hey, make them understand that, hey, what you're trying to do, I'm behind you.
And like you said before, you always talk a lot about your grandma.
But if your grandma don't tell you, like you said, your grandfather said,
hey, let's go out here and plow all this shit and do some work.
Your grandma probably said, no, you're challenging, son.
You're going to go do this, man.
Do what you do.
I got to watch you play.
I'll do that.
Because they might be on something else.
And that's why you had that person where it's like, you know what?
Your grandfather probably said, I got the fastest, strongest sucker.
Pull all that shit through there.
Right.
Where your grandma said, man, let him go to practice.
Let him go do his thing.
Man, I got to go watch him play.
And that's why you're successful.
And your brother's successful.
That's how it goes.
But don't have nobody believe you and watch how it go.
Ain't going to happen.
When you were growing up, what did LeVar Ball want to be?
When I was growing up, what did LeVar Ball want to be? When I was growing up,
what did LeVar Ball want to be?
That's an easy one. I wanted to be who I
am right now.
Did you want to be a...
I didn't want to be nothing.
I'll tell you what I was going to be. My own man is
successful. That's all. However
it may be. That's why I played any sports.
You didn't want to play a professional sport?
Oh, man. I love playing sports. You didn't want to play a professional sport? Oh, man. Hey,
I love playing sports. Anything.
Baseball, football, diving, skateboard,
anything. I love playing.
I said, you know what? I understood
to use that as a vehicle.
Right.
And that's what I did to get
where I'm at. But to understand, I understand
that ownership, man.
And that's a huge thing. But I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
Where did these entrepreneurial skills come from? I mean, who owns,
who owned a business that you knew? Because a lot of times we have nobody,
nobody. I can,
I can look at that by looking at my mom and dad and they mom and dad,
everybody in the workforce, man. I don't want to be in no workforce.
I see what they're doing. They own that. Hey, do something a certain way.. I don't want to be in no workforce. I see what they're doing.
They own that.
Hey, do something a certain way.
And I don't like the way it looks.
I'm going to go another way and do something my way.
And that's exactly what I did.
Now, if you're just normal, what do people work for, man?
I'll tell you what they work for.
Two things.
A house note and a car note.
Play some professional sports.
Get both of those.
And guess what?
You're on your way now.
You don't have to worry about the house note and the car note. Use the money that you made playing them sports to go ahead and pay for that and guess what now
you're good now you can find something that you want to do on your own right now if you don't
want to listen to nobody guess what don't be talking crazy and you're working under somebody
and let you go anytime so when you create your own thing which i've always thought you know these
athletes are doing all the running and jumping in the shoe but yet they don't't own anything. So when it's all said and done, guess what?
When that money ain't coming in no more, it's not coming in no more because you don't own anything.
Right.
And that's why I try to explain to my boys, if you want to be a billionaire, you have to be, which is what they are, triple Bs.
That's ownership that all my boys have.
Right.
If you don't own nothing, and don't get mad like some of these folks do.
LeBron, he only worth $400 million.
Kobe, $600 million.
That's so far away from a billion
because all the billionaires own something.
If you don't have no ownership,
you're never going to get to a billion.
Well, LeBron going to get to a billion.
I don't know how.
Well, he got the tequila now.
He got a couple of things. He got
the production company.
Hey, tell me what production
company, okay, do you
outright own it? Now there's some percentages
and some other investors in that thing to give
you a little part. So guess what?
It's okay. You can try to make it
to a billion. It's going to be cute if you do.
But if you don't own it, you ain't making it to no
billion. I just got to tell y'all that. It's just
how it goes. LeVar, can we crawl?
I mean, listen, as much as you
want people to believe, you didn't come out of the womb
walking. You had to crawl first. You had to
stand up a little bit and fall down and bump your head.
You had to crawl before you start walking
and then you take off running.
Well, I hate to tell you something.
I didn't want to get my knees dirty until when I was little.
I learned how to stand up real quick.
And all I did was hold on to stuff and slide and slide.
So I never did no crawling.
I might mess up my calf action.
Man, hold on.
This can't be true.
They said you set a school record, your school high school record,
for rebounds in a season.
Oh, did I?
All I know is I walked around campus with a little scoop of Windex
because I was always cleaning the glass.
Hold on.
Okay.
Did y'all win the state championship?
That's all I need to know.
Did who win the state championship?
The team I was on?
Your team.
Yeah.
Huh?
Yeah.
No, man.
I was out in the valley.
I told you there wasn't no athletes out there but me.
But you should have been able to bring it home then.
You should have been one man band.
One man band?
I ain't trying to do all the work.
I need some help.
Okay, you go out to college.
High school, you go to college.
Okay, when you go to college, what's your mindset?
What do you want to do?
What do you want to accomplish while you're in college?
Oh, while I was in college, like I said, I'm thinking I'm going pro in something. I don't care whether it be football, basketball.
I went out for the football team, man. Dennis Erickson was out there. I told him you got four
downs and I need you to pass me the ball twice out of them four downs. I'm gone. Second thing is
out there. I catch my ass off. Got good hands, fast, do my moves. Every time it was a running
play and I had to block,
I'd pull that big guy in there, say,
hey, man, go on in there and block. I don't do no blocking.
I don't know.
So, in other words, you just want the glory.
You got to get driving. In other words,
I just want to catch the ball and
run. I don't want to do no blocking.
I don't block good.
I like to catch. And in fact, the
things didn't go right. And they said, LaVoy, you got to do this. I said, okay, if you want me to play like that I like to catch. And, in fact, the things didn't go right.
And they said, LaVoy, you got to do this.
I said, okay, if you want me to play like that, I'm gone.
And I went right to Cal State LA.
Went back to Cali.
Okay.
We had Calvin Sampson.
And when I got out there for my recruiting trip,
that fool told me we was going to practice an hour and a half.
I came from West LA.
We averaged almost 90 points a game.
We're going to be running.
Man, he went to a defensive strategy and we went to averaging
almost, I think, barely
40 points a game. So every time I
got the ball, I go to the hole,
do my thing. He said, no, you got to pass
the ball around. I said, pass him a good shot.
Now I'm defiant. So that's
why they had the worst season ever when you put
the greatest talent on the bench. And then they tell you, I scored two points, two rebounds. I'm going to tell that's why they had the worst season ever when you put the greatest talent on the bench
and then they tell you,
I scored two points, two rebounds.
I'm going to tell you what it was in.
Two seconds.
That's how fast I was moving.
Leave me in there for a whole game.
You're getting 40-40, baby.
Okay.
You go to what?
Three different colleges.
Right.
West L.A., Washington State, and then Cal State L.A.
You meet Tina in Washington State.
No, no.
Sure, no.
There ain't no girls built like that in Washington State.
You got to stay in Cali for that.
I met Tina at Cal State L.A.
Okay.
Yes, at Cal State L.A.
That's why she was on the girls' basketball team.
And you say, babe. Oh, nice glass of water. You say, okay, babe. Hey, at Cal State LA. That's why she was on the girls' basketball team. And you say, babe.
Oh, nice glass of water.
You say, okay, babe.
Hey, you it.
Whatever I was doing before, hey, you it.
We going to build something together.
Me and you.
I told her this.
I said, I don't know what we going to do, but we going to do something together.
I didn't tell her my name or nothing.
Just kept on walking to let her know.
And people tell me to this day, LaVar, you're the coldest sucker in the world.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
You just walk by and say, hey,
I don't know what we're going to do, but we're going to do
something together and bounce.
And that's it. Kept it moving.
And she thought you out.
She like, well, I want to know who that guy was
that had the nerve. She didn't have to say who it was
because they knew when they seen me on campus.
They said, man, that's the big
one with the green eyes.
It's the same one that talked
to me. God, that's him. You're going to hear
about that all on the basketball team.
Look at this right here. Shannon, you know how it is,
man. On the basketball team,
you got some tall, skinny dudes.
You got some little bitty guys.
Me and you come on the court, they're going to spot us
because our bodies built a little different.
That's when you'll be like, man, that dude swole.
My jersey was only one off snug.
Off snug on you.
Yeah.
They said, man, that boy swole.
And, you know, I had them hammies back in the day.
You got them short shorts.
So them layers were looking like some trees.
Boy, I was streamlined.
That athletic build, cool.
Boy, I was cold.
Okay.
You go to the NFL.
Yes.
What was that experience like for you?
That experience was fine, man.
I didn't care.
Those niggas paid me some money any time of the week.
I was good.
I said, man, I used to live waste for free at home.
Now all I got to do is sign my name and you give me a couple of thousand?
Shoot, I'll be in here tomorrow and the next day.
But, hey, if I would have went to a hey, if I would have went to a combine,
if I would have went to a combine,
I would have been probably in the NFL longer
for more people to see me.
The Jets was the only ones to see me, man.
Like I said, I didn't know nothing about
how they test and stuff like that.
They had 220 on the bar.
I did it 20 times standing up behind the neck
just to warm up.
Because I said, I'd warm up with 220
standing up doing triceps like this. And. Because I said, I'll warm up with 220 standing up
doing press sets like this.
And then they asked me on the bench.
They had me do a bench press test,
but they put three plates on there.
So I did it 20 times
and thinking that was a good amount of numbers.
And the dude was like, the next closest dude was
I think a lineman back in my time.
His name was Dwayne White, I think.
But he had his short arms. He only did
10. I was like, that dude's a wick.
I was benching 500. They was in
awe. And I was jumping out
the gym.
It was nothing to me as far as just being
a talented athlete.
It was easy. And what happened,
Pete Carroll is a rah-rah
guy. He more of a coach for
college.
Yes.
And that's why him coming in there, he believed in me, man.
If he would have still been there, I would have still been probably with the Jets.
He was like, man, you can play tight end, defensive end.
You're just a talent.
And once I learned the schemes and the terminology,
because I was like a dude coming fresh out of high school straight to the pros. I didn't play no football in college,
so I don't know the terminology these suckers are using.
And once I learned all that stuff,
then they bring in Rich Cotite.
Now, Rich Cotite, due to drafting,
and this is how political it is,
he drafted a dude out of Penn State,
which is Kyle Brady.
Kyle Brady.
Kyle runs circles around that boy.
Johnny Mitchell, he not as big as me.
He can't run like me.
He from Nebraska?
Yeah, he coming from these big names.
But if you don't get these
guys, these reps, and I'm an
unknown, and I'm in here doing my thing,
the dudes who pick that other guy are going to lose
their job. Right. So now I'm
not getting the reps, and I'm not doing this, and I'm
learning the defensive end, tight end,
but my tight end coach didn't end up going
to the Carolina Panthers. Right.
And then when he went over there, he got me
over there, and hey, I made that little bit of money.
And I said, I'm gone.
I'm good now.
I made enough.
I can buy a house and everything.
I'm good now.
LeVar, you caught a lot of criticism.
Tell us about your parenting style.
It's not about the kids.
It's about LeVar promoting LeVar.
Tell us about your parenting style.
Well, that's what everybody want to say, man. But if you have something that
you created, tell me you're not going to talk
about it. You make a cake. You're going to be like, man,
I put the best ingredients. It's the best cake.
I'll give you a scenario, man.
Have you ever ate a chocolate chip cookie?
The most famous one
is who? Famous Amos.
That boy took his stuff to parties
and promoted it like that. And the next thing you know, there's the best
chocolate chip cookie in the world.
But that's the same thing I did with
my boys. I could invest in some real estate
and some other things. I don't want to do that. I want to
invest millions of dollars
if you add it all up into my boys
something that's mine. I tell you what,
to save money, you'll probably paint your own
house, do your own thing if you ain't got no money.
And you're going to do a hell of a job.
People will come in there and say, man, can you do
mine? You'll be like, to make
some money, you'll probably say yeah, but then you'll be like,
I don't know if it's going to be as good as mine because I put my work
24 hours to make it perfect.
This is where I live. So that's the same
thing. Don't get mad at me that I do that with
my boys. So I
expect the best out of them. Why? Because I put
the best time into them. But I'm never going to be like, I expect the best out of them. Why? Because I put the best time into them.
But I'm never going to be like, I took an element out of my boys that creates. I'm going to tell
you what, you do not go to Beverly Hills or Thousand Oaks or Chino Hills to get no killers.
All the killers come from the ghetto. They have to come from nothing. Right. I never was like,
hey, son, I need you guys. And this is all the pressure they put on a lot of the youngsters.
Hurry up and get us out of this situation that we're in.
But I don't need my boys.
Hey, make the league so I can get out of Chino Hills.
I mean, all these hills and all these swimming pools,
you got to get us away from this.
So the money is not the thing.
Everybody that's in the draft needs some money.
They got to get it from these agents and all this stuff to get started because they've never had it before.
Right. So how do you make this guy
be like, oh man,
a lot of them is playing for the money. Mine,
I told them they born to go pro
and the only thing on their mind is
being better than Jordan.
It ain't about the money.
You said you touched
on something just a minute ago. Yes.
Because they said, well, LeVar come from upper middle class
and his kids are spoiled because they had swimming pools.
They had, I mean, they're getting Ferraris.
They're getting Lamborghinis.
So how do they know what it's like to be hungry?
How do they know what it's like to go without?
I'll tell you what.
If I see some fire come up
and you said it's hot,
I don't need to go get burnt
to make sure it is hot.
It's the same thing.
Okay, my boys,
I can tell them about it.
Here's the thing.
The mentality that's around my boys,
I don't need them to take them
to South Central to see all that.
They're living in Chino Hills,
but the mentality is from a dude from
LA South Central. Mello
is hanging with Jermaine. Jermaine is from
the hood of Detroit.
His mentality is different.
Now, you're saying, don't be mad
at me. If you win the lotto, you're going to go
out and buy the most
crazy car you're probably going to buy.
If you can afford to give them that, give them that.
But now, see, my boys ain't getting to the league
saying, oh, I got some money, I can buy a Ferrari.
So don't drive them.
They just want to be the best ever.
If you want to be the best ever, all the materialistic things
don't matter. So it's not
a big thing, but they're not spoiled on the fact
that, this is what I told my boys, you're gonna
work hard, whether you do it in
the beginning or the end. And everybody said,
oh, LeVarar don't let his kids
be no goddamn kids, let them go to the prom.
Yeah, all them people that go to the prom,
they ain't millionaires like my boys.
So hey, they running hard, running in heels,
that's when they work hard.
Don't have all these parties and go to the prom
and now you're trying to make ends meet
and at the end of your day, you're trying to get a job,
go to college and see where you're gonna be at.
I got three boys, none of them is asking me for money.
They young as hell, and they're all millionaires.
So what's bad in that?
You were trending earlier because you was on another show,
and you told your boys you're not going to meet anybody
while you're playing in the NBA.
You're going to meet the garden tool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I'm just keeping it real. I don't
want to say garden tools.
But you're not going to meet,
you're not going to meet your wife
while you're playing in the NBA.
That's what I said. Here's the thing.
You have to,
you got to understand this.
There's two ends of the spectrum. Sometimes
where it's good on this end, you don't see
where it's bad at this end. Right.'t see where it's bad at this end.
Here's my thing, which I always say.
It's fun in the beginning, but it's pain in the end.
Whatever you do.
And I'm going to give you a scenario why I say that.
My wife said, what do you mean?
That's not even LeVar.
So what are you saying about us?
I said, babe, listen to this.
Me and you, Mary, it's going to be fun.
It's all fun this whole journey.
But the pain is at the end because one of us got to die first.
Right.
So they go to pain. Okay. Now with my boys in their profession,
when you meet somebody, Shannon, you know, you meet your girl,
you in school all the time. You see her every day.
You know what she about. Okay. You meet her at the job.
She working every day. You say, Oh man, I'm out.
I keep running to her at the job. Okay. Oh, I see her atay oh okay how are you gonna meet the same girl if you're traveling your whole
career of playing a sport now the thing is you're making all this money and you young so people
googling you and coming up to you acting like they don't know you so how are you gonna meet them you
gonna meet them at a restaurant where you gotta get something to eat you're to meet them? You're going to meet them at a restaurant where you got to get something to eat. You're going to meet them at the goddamn stadium after, try to hang around.
So you're going to meet them at the club.
Or you got to go to your hotel and you're going to meet them there.
So guess what they're going to be?
They're going to be traveling.
So you come to the center.
And I said, this is how it was.
I would have loved to have married my high school or college sweetheart,
someone that when I had nothing, I can honestly say
I had absolutely nothing.
I was even embarrassed to bring them to my home.
That's how little I had.
But unfortunately, that wasn't able
to happen. And it kind of
because, and I still go through that
to this day, do they really
like me for just being Shannon
or for what Shannon can provide?
Right. And see, that's where it's at
now. That's why you never gonna
know. And then check this out.
Let's say you go through some things and you
meet this pretty girl and she's 30 years old.
Right. Or she's 29.
Why is she this fine
and by herself?
Well, Lamar, they might have to
ask yourself. These are the questions that you
have to ask yourself.
It is what it is.
What about if the situation were reversed?
But here's LaVar, yoked all
up, green eyes, six
foot four, 255, chiseled.
He's 30. He's single.
Why are you single?
Because I done ran through
all the other ones.
Why are you single?
Because I done ran through all the other ones.
Lord have mercy.
Lord, Lord, help me.
Lord, help me.
See, you did the right thing.
You needed to get married early because you was going to be a mess.
Early is what you call it.
Early is probably what your grandmother and what's-her-name, they got married early.
Yeah.
They got married in 26.
Yeah.
So that's not-
Yeah, my grandmother got married in 18, 19.
Exactly.
That's how it was back in the day.
I did all my running around and doing all this stuff, man,
even with Tina, man.
And I just found somebody who was perfectly compatible to me,
which is outgoing, athletic.
I don't think if I married just a tall blonde,
that wouldn't have done work.
You have to be a basketball player
because even when I got on the boys,
they would score 30 and 40 points
and we'd lose by one or two.
Tina was like, you can't go.
Tina wasn't like, well, you danced this man
and you guys won and this.
Tina be like, well, you should have scored two more layups.
You would have had 40, then we would have won.
You ain't coming to me crying.
Listen to this.
Melo got knocked down.
He was in kindergarten.
We playing against these sixth graders.
Tina can't go out there.
Don't you hurt my baby.
She's like, boy, you better get your ass up.
That's how it was.
So we on the same page.
And it was never like, family outing for us was going to a basketball
game all week. Go eat after that. Why?
But if Tina a volleyball player or not an athlete
after a few years of this, what's she
going to say? I got to go spend some time with the girls.
I need a break. You know what
Mel? You found the only
woman in the world that could deal with you.
You got dang right.
A bunch of them that could deal with me.
But to make something that me and Tina make? Come on. that could deal with you. You got Jane right. Because I don't want a whole bunch of them that could deal with me because then they'd just be yes women.
But now, but to make something that me and Tina make, come on.
That girl the coldest one in the game.
You speak a lot about ownership.
Yes.
And you mentioned earlier about these guys getting these deals.
And some of these guys get deals, you know, five years, 50 million,
five years, you know, 100 million.
James Harden has a $200 million contract.
Right. KD got a $300 million contract.
But you said it's ownership.
Why is it you didn't allow – I mean, they're grown now.
To go with Puma or Nike, what is it that you, you know,
what have they said?
Well, I'm still there.
Listen, listen.
We're going to give you ownership.
Okay.
I'm the only one to come in the NBA with his own brand.
Because I've seen all the guys with these endorsement deals,
and they don't want the big ball to bring to work.
Because if it does, it's going to start changing a lot of thinking with a lot of guys.
Right.
People used to say, just like Giannis, you can't get a so-called signature shoe
unless you play, what, seven years in the league and you finally become a championship
or you make an all-star game.
So now I've got these folks looking at i'm like hold up
where's my signature shoe on the fact that jello got one and he's not even in the league mellow
got one in high school so what do y'all tell me about a signature shoe and what these guys don't
understand is you have enough money to go make your own goddamn shoe but you won't they take
the lid off the jar we can jump out but the jar been on so long the top they don't even try
so now you got guys like
you know
a couple of the big time
players crying to get an endorsement
they're saying I hope they make me a signature shoe
I hope they sign me why you're a
hundred million dollar man go do your own
even if you're just selling in your hometown
at least you have ownership
see the thing is LeVVar, the difference is
between the way you think and the way they think.
You're not afraid to take that
leap of faith and go out there
and fail and say, well, if I failed at this, I'll try
something else. For those
guys, they're afraid
to fail.
Here's the thing. That's probably
it, and it's not even about failing.
You can do it for a little bit
it's just like people talk about oh the big brother brain ain't this man let me tell y'all something
it ain't got nothing to do with the boys if they don't want to do it if i don't want to do it it
shuts down and it's not like i had blinders on for all these years just worrying about my boys
getting to the league right closing closing things for me. Blinders on. Now the blinders is off.
So it ain't like it's some people
in the goddamn NBA that say,
LeVar, I'll rock your merch for
a merch deal. I got guys calling
me right now. I don't wear that triple B,
man. I ain't got no deal. I ain't got no shoe deal.
I ain't got nothing. But now I can go out
and talk to these guys because guess what?
I got all three of my boys in the NBA. Now we can
do some other things.
So that's where I'm at. Because go out and talk to these guys because guess what? I got all three of my boys in the NBA. Now we can do some other things.
So that's where I'm at.
Because where is the big baller brand
shoe at now? Is Lonzo
going to wear big baller brand? If you go into Nike,
Puma, Adidas, Mellow,
what are they going to do? They're going to do the same
thing and they can do whatever they want. Here's the
thing. With big baller brand, you have independence,
which is that's going to allow you to wear any shoe you want,
which is not the case for who right now.
Mellow, you sign a deal.
You better wear them Pumas wherever you go.
Right.
Now, hey, don't think I ain't going to make no more Big Baller Brand shoes.
We're doing that as we speak.
But we're going to come out with them when we want to.
Now, Jell-O? Jell-O,
man, come on. Watch what I do to these shoes
when Jell-O creates these other shoes he's going to make.
And Lonzo can do the same thing.
But when you sign these deals and they cap
you off to say, yo, this is the only
shoe you can wear,
a lot of the people that have been through it, look
who was with Puma before.
Vince Carter, how long he stay with him?
So it ain't like they can't change and do some other things.
It's the same thing, and it's not a big deal.
But like I said, we don't have no shoe made right now.
We're doing some other things, but we're going to come back to the works,
and guess what?
My boys getting their NBA and do their thing.
Who knows?
Mello might be like, you know what?
I had enough of these.
Let me get them back, man.
Your MB1 is always over
here, son. Your G3s is always
over here. And your Z02s
are always over here no matter what they do.
What
Lonzo left, Lonzo
was with Roc Nation. He left Roc Nation
and with the Clutch Sports.
Clutch Sports. Are you
okay with that?
Here's the thing. Lonzo can do whatever he wants, just like
Mello and Jello can do whatever they want.
You got two of the biggest
Black representations.
You got Roc Nation, you got clutch sports.
What do they have in common?
Each one of them got my sons
and I'm at the peak of that.
So I'm going to bring both agencies together.
Let's do something together.
Represent both and represent them all.
Let's do it.
As long as you get done what needs to be done, that's good.
Do you believe Lonzo lost anything by not signing a shoe deal out of college,
waiting for you, or should you have waited to build the brand?
Because it seems like you just –
No, no, no, no, no.
Here's the thing.
Lonzo, it is what it is.
Lonzo was the only one to come in the NBA with his own signature shoe
coming in the NBA.
He's a history maker.
Lonzo got his own shoe.
Right.
We can make another one right now if you want it.
Lonzo ain't lost nothing.
Here's the thing.
Lonzo don't care about nothing.
But my thing is this.
If you have a passion to do something and you happen to get paid doing it you're winning you got a big mouth and you love to talk they paying you all just to
comment on some stuff you used to do that on your porch talking about people and people on the street
now you can pay me as a dollar to sit there and talk about a game or or or a player or whatever
that's what you love to do and it's natural to you. So guess what? You got a passion to talk.
That's why you still on the air.
And a lot of these folks,
they don't have that type of flair that you have that creates that.
Oh, let me look at me.
You argue a little bit.
I'd say that Shannon Sharp ain't a goddamn thing.
And then we come back and do some things, but you know, here's the thing.
You're good at what you do.
The boy's good at what they do.
And that's, that's all that matters.
Cause you've got everything.
It ain't like you like, man, I got to make me some more money
so I can try to do this. That's why they
got Shea Shea Club. Look at it. You telling me
put Shea Shea Club on the big
thing. You say, man, I got to have my own thing.
Call it Shea Shea.
Is Big Baller going to
collab with Brand Jordan?
Am I going to collab with Brand
Jordan? No. I was going to do a
collab before, but I was like,
nah, I like to own my stuff.
What I mean by that is, when you
have a collab, this is what happens.
You have to agree, and I have to agree.
Right.
Right now, it's just about what Big Baller
want, what he like, and I don't have to collab
anymore. I was going to think about doing that with Puma or something. Then I got to thinking. I was like, what he like and i don't have to collab anymore i was gonna think about doing that with with puma so then i got to thinking i was like you know what
i don't want to collab now i just want to keep my own thing and that's it it's a privately owned
company i don't have no say so with nobody investors trying to come and get in i say no
i'm my own dude so that's what it is gonna be be and I'm going to build it myself. And the only investment that I want, the
investors I'm ever going to have are my
sons. And usually you got one
person make the NBA, they got their one money.
But for my ball family,
we got money coming in
four ways. Me and Tina,
the boys each got their own
lane. I got three players that are going to be in the NBA.
So when we put all
that money together, now if I want to create something
and it costs me 20 mil
and I only got 30 mil,
it might put a little dent on me.
But if I say, you know what, let me get 5 mil
from Lonzo, 5 mil from Jello,
5 mil from Mello
and put my 5, we got our 20 mil and nobody
stretched out.
So togetherness is
going to allow us to move as a huge unit. And that's
what I'm trying to make everybody on the outside understand about Big Baller Brand,
is if our kind ever get together, it's going to be dangerous.
What have you learned most about running a business, being an owner of a business?
Well, what I've learned most is, man, don't let one person do all the work, or don't let one person
feel like they can do all the work. You get a better team around you that allows you to move at a better
pace and that's what's going on now it's not about how many people you got around you it's the right
people around you that allows you to be successful but you also I think to be successful in anything
there's always got to be a change it just can't flow one way and And what it is, you learn different things when you start going further and further.
And you're going to have to make change because the world changes all the time.
So you have to go with that.
What would you do if you could do anything over again?
Nothing.
Because I wouldn't be where I'm at and everybody wouldn't be.
So take one thing out of the thing and try to do it all different.
And guess what?
Everything changes.
So in order for nothing to change and to keep moving forward,
keep everything the same.
You wouldn't change.
You wouldn't change one thing.
I wouldn't change nothing.
One false move.
Look at this.
I'm going to tell you
for whatever change.
Let's say I get
Pete Carroll stays with the Jets.
Big baller plays 10 years in the NFL. You won't even hear about my boys. Let's say I get Pete Carroll stays with the Jets,
big baller plays 10 years in the NFL.
You won't even hear about my boys because I have so much money.
I don't have no time to train them.
All I'm going to do is wait for the off season so I can train myself to make sure we keep getting these large checks.
And I have all this money and give y'all whatever you want.
Right.
Now I don't spend all this time with you to make you the coldest and give you
your mind that you will be the best ever. Right. So now you don't spend all this time with you to make you the coldest and give you your mind that you'll be the best ever right so now you don't even hear about the boys that's why
people get mad at me when i said wow these these guys that are super athletes that are superstars
their kids don't turn out to be that cold on the fact that how you get too much already not too
much but you don't have that drive that where your mom and pops came from to get you out of that situation.
But when you talk about a, when you got
a great player, your father is great. I'm talking about historically
a transcendent great. What's the likelihood of you having a
transcendent or a great son or daughter? It's not likely.
Now, God ain't going to let you hit the lottery like that.
And let me explain this to you so you can really understand.
I was one of the world's greatest athletes nobody know about,
so my boys have no expectation to do.
That's why they're so great.
Yes.
Yes.
Now, look, you got Michael Jordan's sons.
You got Magic's sons.
Everybody got sons, man.
And they expect their son.
Yes.
They put that high expectation on them.
Unrealistic.
Just like Shaq's son.
They expect him to be the most powerful, dominant center in the world.
That's not his game.
And that's not his, his mind frame is not even like that.
So everybody trying to get from under that situation to say, oh, you're just like your dad.
But if you don't have that expectation coming at you and your dad is good, I'm going to tell you a person
just like Dale Curry. It wasn't
like I say, you know what, let me turn on this
TV so I can see how great of a shooter
Dale Curry is. No,
that's why he hanging with Steph.
I mean, that's why Steph's such a good shooter.
His dad was okay. He wasn't no great as
what Steph is now. Right.
And the same thing I say about Jellybean
Brand. He was good overseas, but your son, Kobe, was a shit.
Yeah.
But you was – I ain't going to say it bad like he was a scrub
or nothing like that.
No, you made it.
But look where you took him to play.
In Italy, grown men, you allow him to get in situations
that a regular kid couldn't.
So guess what?
He's going to become that superstar.
Your hometown team, Lakers, won the championship.
Are you surprised they had this level of success this soon?
No.
They're in a bubble.
They're in a bubble.
All this stuff goes right.
But like I told them, they need to send me a thank you card
on the fact that I gave them incentive to win.
I said they'd never, ever, ever, ever win.
You know, they was talking about that
for a whole year. What did you say last
year, somebody remember? That's how I be living in
people's head. And you know what? Just so they can
say, I told you he was wrong. I still
go to bed, take me a nap, eat my donuts
and I don't think about nothing.
They've been thinking about this whole year.
Hey, I'm glad they won. Lakers is always
my team because I'm from L.A.
But the success that they had, man, you're in the bubble playing in the same place.
You got the two best players.
You're supposed to win.
But everybody else was playing in the bubble, too.
So it made it easier.
I'm talking about the situation.
You're not traveling.
Everything is perfect.
Hey, you shoot and get a rhythm on a certain round, you're good.
You ain't got to leave the building.
Right.
You walk to the next little thing.
Man, you're walking and you and not traveling. Come on.
Everybody else in the bubble too, but yeah, I'm glad
they had a championship and these
guys are talking about, oh, I'm not going to play.
I'm not going to do this. Nah, play
and have a championship and let's go.
Are you surprised how well
LeBron is playing this late in his career?
No. Because we've never seen anybody play
this well in basketball.
You know why? We've never seen anybody play this well in basketball. We've never seen anybody play this well this late.
Why? Because
he built.
That boy came in the game strong and
heavy. He durable.
He ain't no little lightweight 205, 215,
210. No, he can take that contact
that running. He can do it all.
And he young. He's old,
but he young. I mean, you know,
you still, you probably,
you might not dunk again, but I think you
probably dunk when you're probably 48.
Well, it ain't the problem
getting up. It's the problem that's coming down.
That's the problem that I'm going to have.
But I'm just saying, you're still in good shape.
You're strong. You still can do some things on the
fact that LeBron ain't that little skinny
thing that you're running
into him and he getting hurt.
Durant and Klay,
they're not built like him.
Everybody's shocked. He's strong,
but he built.
What I mean by that, he ain't that
overweight like I'm
7'350.
That boy, you know, 250,
260, 6'9 running and jumping and he take care of his
body. I'm not shocked. Whoever
the strongest in the league gonna do the best.
That's why when Will did his thing, he was
the strongest in the league. When
Shaq did his thing, strongest in the league.
Best two guard was
Dwayne Wade for a minute because he was the
strongest two guard. Best point guard
was the strength of
him was D. Rose back in the day when he was good.
He was powerful. Anybody who's
powerful in their
position is usually going to be the best.
Will
this debate about who's the goat
ever in between LeBron
and Jordan or who's your goat?
How do we determine that?
Well, we're never going to be able to determine
it. That's why we got to keep talking about it because you never can go back
into that era and be like, yo, this is what I'm going to do.
It's what people did in those eras.
You know what?
It's who you grow up on.
I mean, to do the stuff that LeBron does,
nobody's been that big and stressed.
It's like saying, okay, calm down.
I need you to go out there and play point.
That ain't going to never happen.
You don't have the skills like that.
It's the same thing.
Magic, you big, but you ain't 260 like LeBron, and you ain't gonna never happen because they don't have the skills like that it's the same thing magic you big but you ain't 260 like lebron and you ain't jumping like that now as far as that
player built like that he's a monster but the greatest of all time is how do you measure that
you measure that by your victories and what you did in those victories i ain't talking about you
got 12 rings and you've been on five different teams i'm talking about a dude who went to the finals who was the main guy six times in a row and you can't if you can't beat that when
you have losses on your on your on your record you can't be the greatest of all time that dude
ain't got no losses in the finals so it's always gonna be michael jordan until my boys succeed that
which is gonna happen well first of all you can't just say it's all about the finals, LeVar,
because they did play finals in the season that he didn't go to the finals.
What about that?
Well, like I said, the finals, if you don't get there, you're off the hook.
Well, you're not off the hook.
So, in other words, see what you did.
You're off the hook if you don't go to the finals.
But when you go to the finals, you got to lose one.
No, no.
Championship's going at it.
All the years.
The best from the West.
You got to lose one.
Nobody lose not one.
He ain't beat nobody.
Well, you can call nobody if you want to.
Whoever out there, I see somebody.
Okay.
You say you can't transport.
You can't put LeBron back in the 80s.
You can't bring Jordan to the 2000s.
Okay, give me your all-time starting five then.
Any era.
All-time starting five.
All-time starting five.
You know, you got Mike.
You got Johnson.
You got Shaquille.
Who else?
Oh, you got to have a shooter.
So I got to put Oscar, Oscar Robinson out there.
And then you got LeBron.
So you going Jordan, Magic, Shaq, LeBron, Oscar Robinson.
Yes.
That ain't a bad starting five.
Starting five.
Them boys all can do they thing.
And you got a seven-footer that can run with you,
most powerful in the NBA ever.
Okay.
I want you to career.
I want LeVar Ball, since he's good at building things
and creating things.
He's a great entrepreneur.
Okay.
I'm going to give you some characteristics,
and I want you to be the perfect the perfect basketball NBA player.
So if I say like shooting, I'm gonna say you say step. So, okay passing magic handles.
Oh, that's that's AI athleticism LeBron mentality
shoot
you know who that is
that's a guy
they enjoy
strength
Shaq
clutchness
Mike
speed
speed
I'm going with Iverson
Iverson got two of those things in there
so so shooting so shooting is Steph hands down.
Hands down, Steph.
Would you say Steph revolutionized the game?
No, I ain't going to say he revolutionized the game.
He's got a lot of guys shooting from far distance and stuff like that.
But nobody was shooting like he was with the consistency.
The logo three.
It's not even about the consistency
because his consistency is there.
They're only showing the ones he really make.
For Mark Jackson to give him the leeway to shoot anywhere,
that's allowed him.
My boys were shooting further than him.
Easy.
Them layups, you know, but who allows you to do that?
You know, if you're doing it in these games,
what people were saying, oh, the boys are shooting all over the place.
Yeah, we was doing that.
They used to ask us about the Chino Hills team, man.
You guys remind us of the Golden State Warriors.
I say, I don't know how we play faster than them.
We scoring 100 points in damn near 30-something minutes.
They got 48 minutes and getting 120.
Give me 48 minutes, we go 200.
You look at that team.
You got two guys get drafted in the top three.
You got the number six pick,
fifth or sixth pick in the draft.
And you got a guy that's in college
and you got another guy that's on the cusp
of getting into the NBA.
So basically your five starters
are going to be in the, well, five starters are going to be in the NBA.
Four starters are going to be in the NBA, and you're
a potential fifth. Right.
That's why I said
we're the greatest high school team ever.
Because nobody ever had
a starting team that make it
all in the goddamn NBA
like that. I'm talking
about starting. I ain't talking about no dude coming off the bench.
I'm talking about that starting five right there,
which I created. And what is
Onika good at? Rim running,
defense. When I told him
what he was going to do if he played with my boys,
coming fresh in, I put that in his head.
Eli, same thing.
These guys are the players because I make them them
players. Put them in my system.
Say my boys going to do a lot of shooting and running, and we
ain't waiting for nobody to post up. Take
too long. But I'll tell you what we will do.
A screen and roll. Dunk it. Rebound.
Let's go. So that's the players they are
and they all going to get a shot.
You mentioned earlier
that Jell-O got into a little incident
in China. Yes.
Things worked their way out. But you
got into a few with President
Trump. Yeah.
You took offense to something that he said.
Yes.
The thing is, don't talk bad about me or say I owe you.
I ain't going to apologize to nobody who don't come shake my hand and I don't meet.
Like I told him before, if it really helped out,
you the one came over there in that big-ass plane.
Why you didn't take us back on your plane.
If I'm coming to get you, Shannon, I ain't going to say
I'm coming to get you and send somebody else.
That's why I ain't going to tell you I'm coming to get you.
That's not what I'm talking about.
But don't try to make it look like I saved you and I did this and I did that.
No, you didn't.
I ain't met you not one time.
You didn't even come over there saying, you know what,
I think LeAngelo Ball's in trouble.
Let me go over there. You didn't do that over there saying, you know what? I think LiAngelo Ball's in trouble. Let me go over there.
You didn't do that.
You was already over there doing some other stuff.
Now, don't try to tag on and put it on our plate to act like you're doing something.
No, I don't want that.
So now, since I go against you and tell you the truth, now you mad at me?
I don't even know.
This dude is texting.
I'm not texting, but tweeting.
Somebody told me while I was on the road.
Exactly.
I was like, man, I ain't even waiting.
I ain't going to tweet back. I don't need to Twitter tweet.
I don't do none of that. I'll call you on the phone.
So, once he said
what he said, Noah LaVar,
that I know he ain't going to back down. He ain't going to be like,
oh, man, I ain't going to pay that no attention.
I got to respond. Hey, you nothing to put my name
in your mouth and have talking crazy about me and my son.
Exactly.
Exactly. Exactly.
Oh, he's just a Don King with no hair and this.
And I'm like, man, what's all that about?
Just, Hey, you over here focusing on, you want me to say, I'm sorry.
You need to concentrate.
You're the president concentrate on another thing on the world.
Messing with somebody on Twitter.
That's why you don't do your job.
Right.
You gotta be out.
Don't be mad.
Cause you can't do your job right. You got to be out. Don't be mad because you can't presidency
the right way. You would have been worried about the right
topics instead of the wrong topics.
You might have done some work.
And you might have got a second turn.
Yes.
Give me LeVar Ball's
prediction for 2021.
What's going to happen in 2021?
What's going to happen in 2021?
Yep.
The Big Ball of Brand is going to be bigger and better than ever.
And the ball boy is going to steal the shine and let everybody know
this is how you do business.
Ownership.
After money, it's about that ownership.
So if you were at Harvard or Stanford or one of these great business schools,
Wharton School of Business, if they come in and say, LeVar Ball,
we want you to give a presentation.
We want you to talk to our students about business, about ownership,
about entrepreneurial. What would you say to those students?
If it ain't doing my nap time, I'm going to come holler at you.
Man, you're too old to be taking naps during the middle of the day.
Those naps are the best thing going.
Hold on.
I nap, but do it messes up your sleep at night?
Because I noticed that if I nap during the day,
it messes up my sleep at night.
I don't need to sleep at night.
It don't mess me up because I ain't got nothing I'm supposed to do.
When you're the owner, I don't even have a clock on, man.
When I'm there, I'm there.
If you ain't on no clock or no bell system, you can take a nap anytime.
I'm going to take a nap right after I finish talking with you.
Man, it ain't going to be so early in the afternoon,
so you're planning on being up for the rest of the night then?
If I am, who cares?
Man, LeVar, I want to say congratulations because.
Thank you, Shane.
It's been a pleasure.
Bruh, you got two young men.
You can all, you're the only one that can say,
I got two young men drafted in top three picks of the NBA draft.
And no matter what you think about me, and, you know,
we had a conversation conversation how much credit does
lavar ball deserves and i and i said he deserves as much credit and we give archie and olivia
manning for having two boys to go in the first and the number one overall picks from peyton and
eli i said you can't look at it because you don't like him and don't want to give him any credit
or because you say well he needs to humble himself no no no no no get him and don't want to give him any credit or because you say, well, he needs to humble himself. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Get him at his credit. Like you give, because you know, we got it.
We got to be humble now. We can't, we can't be our true self.
Or then we might rub some people the wrong way, but be your,
they always say, I don't even know what you said,
but what you're explaining to me right there. I appreciate that.
Cause like you said, it's a different type of thing now.
Like you said, they're going to give them their props
like that, but they don't want to say, oh, LeVar
and Tina did their job. I get it.
I appreciate you putting that out there like that.
Thank you. You know, hey, look, the one
thing that you told me offhand, say, look, I don't agree
with everything you say, but you say, you know what?
You keep it 100. You keep it real.
You fair with it. And I appreciate
that. Okay. Much love. Much love.
Bro, I appreciate you giving me a little
time today. Congratulations again.
Thank you for your time, man. It's good talking with you, man.
Good talking to you. Tell Tina I said hello.
I'll let you later. Hey, you still owe me breakfast.
You still owe breakfast.
You still owe... We got some free time.
We're going to get together and we're going to cook that up for you.
Alright. I appreciate that, bro.
Good luck.
Alright. I'm going to get together and we're going to cook that up for you. All right. I appreciate that, bro. Big man style, baby.
All right.
I'm going to holler at you.
All my life.
Been grinding all my life.
Sacrifice.
Hustle paid the price.
Won a slice.
Got the roll of dice.
That's why.
All my life.
I've been grinding all my life.
All my life.
Been grinding all my life.
Sacrifice.
Hustle paid the price.
Won a slice. Got the roll of dice. That's why. All my life. I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal.
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