“I Could Beat Jordan” - Dwight Howard BREAKS SILENCE On Rumors, Diddy & LeBron, Locker Room Drama | PBD Podcast | Ep. 603

NBA legend Dwight Howard joins Patrick Bet-David to share untold stories from his rise to stardom, life with the Lakers, battles on and off the court, lessons from Kobe and LeBron, and how he’s reinventing himself after the NBA. ------ Ⓜ️ CONNECT WITH DWIGHT ON MINNECT: http://bit.ly/3SWzCbf 📱 MINNECT 2025 CONTEST - REGISTER TODAY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 🎫 THE VAULT 2025 | SEPT 8TH - 11TH | THE GAYLORD PALMS | ORLANDO, FL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4dJlmfL⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4dJlmfL 🍋 ZEST IT FORWARD: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4jYg3Lh⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4jYg3Lh 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/41rtEV4⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7 📰 VTNEWS. AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:56Patrick Bet-David?

  You against Mike, who wins? It's a tough one.

• 0:58Speaker 03

  That is a very tough one.

• 1:01Patrick Bet-David?

  As a teammate, who did you prefer as a teammate? LeBron or Kobe?

• 1:05Speaker 03

  Man, he is a character.

• 1:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Don't you think the guy that's the face of the league has the authority to call the Lakers and say, guys, don't get rid of him, don't get rid of him? I mean, you have to have these conversations together.

• 1:17Speaker 03

  It's like water under the bridge, like why even ask him?

• 1:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, so the elbow wasn't intentional, wasn't accidental?

• 1:23Speaker 03

  When I say Kobe's the asshole.

• 1:29Speaker 03

  Emotionally and mentally, I was fed up. And at the time, Nike said I didn't have a personality. Things like that can cause somebody to mentally check out.

• 1:38Patrick Bet-David?

  If somebody offers a contract to NBA, would you go back?

• 1:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Charles, it's gotta be the one with top 10 best personality.

• 1:45Speaker 03

  Shaq, look, look, look, look at your Shaq now.

• 1:48Patrick Bet-David?

  This guy's either straight, he's gay, he's bisexual, he's fooling everybody. You're not gay at all. Ain't no party like a Diddy party.

• 1:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Dwight, stop it.

• 2:22Speaker 04

  My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here.

• 2:26Patrick Bet-David?

  You are a one of one.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  My son's right there. I don't think I've ever said this before.

• 2:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Alright, so for those of you that enjoy the sports interviews that we do, we got a special one in the house here, the one and only Dwight Howard, three-time Defensive Player of the Year, number one draft pick, first round, the guy came in, he dominated the league, one of the most exciting players to watch, I think, I remember when, I would just tell him right now, body, human specimen, you would see this guy jumping out and doing what he was doing, first, I think the youngest player ever to do 2020, right, 20 points, 20 rebounds, just found that record for the most dunks ever in the career in the NBA, no one's dunked the ball more than Dwight Howard, made a ton of money, I think you lived in a small house, small 35,000 square foot house, you know, it's just, you gotta be able to find everybody that's

• 3:18Patrick Bet-David?

  living in that place, got 750 acres of land, animals, different things, was on a reality TV show, what was it called, Special Forces back in the days with Mike Piazza, Scaramucci, bunch of different guys that were in it, and then, for whatever reason, wins the frickin' championship with the Lakers, and I thought you played such an important role, and then all of a sudden we get the news, why would you do this, the guy was such a good role player, anyways, it's good to have you in the house here.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  Man, thank you so much.

• 3:46Patrick Bet-David?

  How you doing?

• 3:47Speaker 03

  I am doing such, I'm doing so amazing.

• 3:49Patrick Bet-David?

  I love it.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  And I'm very grateful to be here, so thank you.

• 3:52Patrick Bet-David?

  My man, yes, so, let's start off with that, let's start, as a diehard Laker fan, okay, and you know Lakers, if you're a Laker fan, you're a Yankees fan, you're a, you know, Patriots fan, you're a Steelers fan, you're kind of spoiled, it's either you win or you don't, right, I mean, that's like the standard, Celtics is in the same category, you come on, the first time you come with Kobe and Nash, that doesn't work out, okay, cool, you come the second time around, and you're playing loose, you actually look like you're having fun, you're happy. You're like, hey, you come off the bench? I don't care. How do you need me? Put me in, they put you in, boom, you're dominating. Playoff, you showed up in a, in a major way. You guys win a chip.

• 4:35Patrick Bet-David?

  I sincerely, as a fan thought, they, they're gonna sign him for probably two or three years. He's gonna stay here and play this role. You're gonna, it's tough to find guys like you in the league. You just can't find him. And then all of a sudden, boom, nothing happens.

• 4:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what I felt. I was like, oh, man, I come in and do my job. I'm secure in two more years. That's all I was thinking about. That's what I thought about. I was like, man, if I can secure two more years, that's it. I don't need to go nowhere. Where else? I can get me a small little crib in, in LA.

• 5:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Small little crib.

• 5:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Thirty-five thousand.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  I have that at home. So I was saying, I don't need a, a big space.

• 5:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, you would've got a small place.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  I just have something, you know, nice for me and my son and my daughter while we're there for the games and stuff like that. But then I can go back home, so it's fine. But then when I never got the, the deal, you know, I think it, it still hurts me a little bit to this day.

• 5:26Patrick Bet-David?

  So, you know, the stories we hear, right, from the outside? We're not on the inside. So we don't know anybody in the Lakers organization, boss or any of these guys. The story is, you know, LeBron fired a lot of coaches. And LeBron will say, I've never done anything to fire, get coaches fired, right? A lot of coaches get fired because of LeBron. Fine, you hear the, great players have that reputation and they go through it. I think Jordan even have, had it with Doug Collins back in the days, if you remember when he's like, just shut up and give him the money. What is he, just, just give him the fucking ball, right? Remember when Doug Collins said that?

• 5:58Speaker 03

  Get out of his way.

• 5:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Get out of his way and give him the fucking ball. So, so what, what call did you, what play did you call? I just told everybody, you know, get the f out of there.

• 6:06Speaker 03

  I so, get out of the way.

• 6:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. So it's like, ah, it's kind of cool, but do you win a championship? That Phil comes, the rest is history. How much of this was LeBron calling the shots to move on? And how much of it you think it was management?

• 6:20Speaker 03

  This one is so weird to know because I don't know if it could be management. Because I'm like, they're the ones who first brought me in. Uh, but then I'm like, it can't be LeBron because this is something that he wants, he wants to win. So he's gonna get the, the best available pieces. So I'm like, these were the best available pieces. Um, so I really don't truly understand why none of us really came back the next year, especially those core guys who really, I think, got us over the top. You know, you got the Rondos, the Avery Bradleys who didn't even play in the finals or in the championship run in the, in the bubble.

• 7:02Speaker 03

  But he was so significant all year, Avery Bradley and his defense.

• 7:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Shh, sack.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  That, you know, bringing somebody like that back.

• 7:11Patrick Bet-David?

  He came from Celtics. Did he come from the Celtics?

• 7:13Speaker 03

  He came from the Celtics and.

• 7:14Patrick Bet-David?

  He was a beast defender. It's tough to find guys like that. So, but why though? I mean, you have to have these conversations together to say, Rondo to me, was Rondo a good locker room guy?

• 7:24Speaker 03

  Yes. All of us are like, just think about this. How can you say somebody is a cancer in the locker room? Uh, you gonna call Draymond a cancer if he's mad that they lose? And he goes off on his teammates?

• 7:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Kurt would never call him that.

• 7:37Speaker 03

  You know what I'm saying? So, you know, sometimes passion might look like, uh, ego to people on the outside when they see like a DeMarcus in the locker room mad at his teammates or something or, you know, say, hey, y'all gotta step it up. You know, they might take that as, this is his ego, but not seeing it like maybe this is only, this is the only way he knows how to show his passion. I'm only using him as an example. Uh, I can use myself as well, you know? There's been times where I've been labeled as a, a locker room cancer because of my passion. You know, I'm not gonna let nobody just run over me, but at the same time, I'm gonna speak, you know, my mind, you know?

• 8:19Speaker 03

  And a lot of times in, you know, the, the sports world, uh, when you do speak your mind. You go out of what you know the team may want or you can get penalized for it.

• 8:34Patrick Bet-David?

  You you play with Kobe and you played with LeBron. And you played with both of them at their peak, right? Can I say that?

• 8:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, in Olympics.

• 8:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Right, in Olympics, so you went 08 Olympics, that's right. So the one where Kobe ran through Pau Gasol.

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Yes, I was there.

• 8:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so question becomes, you know,

• 8:56Patrick Bet-David?

  the the the story with the Lakers when you played with LeBron locker room. Are you getting the vibe where it's like, dude, this guy is happy for me to be here? We're meshing, Rondo's mission, everyone's meshing. If the Lakers win, don't you think the guy that's the face of the league has the authority to call the Lakers and say, guys, don't get rid of him, don't get rid of him, don't get rid of him?

• 9:19Speaker 03

  I I I I'm pretty sure he does and I'm pretty sure he did. You know, we'll never know if it was something personal or it was just, you know, they're moving in a different direction.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  I don't think we'll ever really get a true and honest answer.

• 9:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Have you ever asked LeBron directly? Have you ever had a chance to ask him?

• 9:40Speaker 03

  I haven't asked him. That's a good with the ask, but it's like at this point, it's like water under the bridge. Like, why even ask him, you know?

• 9:48Patrick Bet-David?

  It would have been, it would have been, by the way.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  He would have had a chance to have two more.

• 9:52Patrick Bet-David?

  He's got four, right? So he wins two more. That's six, Michael six, Kobe five, Magic five. That's like a good argument. You know, it's a good argument to ask because that would have put him in a completely different situation.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  That is true. But then again, I think that we have had so many great players and greatness come through this league. We start to compare by using rings. And you know, I think it take away from a lot of the greatness that a lot of these players had because they wasn't as fortunate enough to win championships like Jordan or, you know, LeBron did and have a.

• 10:36Speaker 03

  A brand pushed them to a whole nother level. So Larry Bird, or let's say Clyde Drexler, even Scottie Pippen, these guys have the engine of Nike behind them. Or you know how Steph Curry has Under Armour and stuff like that. So when you don't have that boost behind you, sometimes you don't may, you may not get the credit from the world. Because the eyes are not on you as much as it would be if you were with these companies.

• 11:12Patrick Bet-David?

  Who were you with? Who was your?

• 11:13Speaker 03

  I was with Adidas.

• 11:14Patrick Bet-David?

  You were Adidas? Is there in the league, a certain, are people frowned upon if you're with Adidas versus Under Armour versus Nike? Like, is there cliques or not really? The shoes, nobody gives a shit.

• 11:26Speaker 03

  I don't think there's any cliques, but you know, usually like the Nike players have been with Nike since they've been young. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, I was with Adidas when I was in high school, so I ended up signing with Adidas.

• 11:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, so you had Adidas from high school?

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, my AU team was sponsored by Adidas. And that's how usually guys stick with their, whoever they were with, you know, in high school and coming up. And that's what I'm saying, they got an engine behind them.

• 11:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you ever meet, like, have you ever seen a movie, Air?

• 11:54Speaker 03

  Uh, is that what, how they explain the whole Nike situation?

• 11:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Nike Jordan situation?

• 11:58Speaker 03

  Just a little bit, I don't know.

• 12:00Patrick Bet-David?

  You didn't watch the whole thing?

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Nah.

• 12:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, you would love it. It's a sick movie. It breaks down the dynamics so well. It's so, I watched it, there's only three movies I watched three times in the first week. This is one of them.

• 12:14Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 12:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Three times in the first week.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  You took our entire company.

• 12:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I took, I took not only my insurance company, I took these guys, myself, three times in the first week. It's that sick of a movie. But there's a scene where Matt Damon is playing Sonny.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  Sonny Vaccaro.

• 12:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. And he's telling Michael Jordan's mother on what to ask from Converse, what to ask from Adidas. And then, before you do anything, come with us Nike. When you were going through your shoe deals, was there any stories that you met with Nike? You met with everybody else? Or was it straight up, you just went to Adidas, didn't meet with anybody else?

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Uh, my dad, um, was talking to Nike with my agent. And at the time, Nike said I didn't have a personality. Which was crazy, um, and I think that's why.

• 13:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Nike didn't say that.

• 13:06Speaker 03

  That's why I ended up going with Adidas.

• 13:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Nike literally told your dad and your agent you don't have a personality.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what it was.

• 13:13Adam Sosnick?

  This was at eighteen years old though, no?

• 13:15Speaker 03

  This was when I, yeah, before I.

• 13:16Adam Sosnick?

  Coming out of high school.

• 13:17Patrick Bet-David?

  And they made no offers.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  I don't even think they made an offer at that point.

• 13:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Later on, did they ever try to poach you from Adidas or no?

• 13:25Speaker 03

  No.

• 13:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Anybody else?

• 13:27Speaker 03

  I did. I had another shoe company, um, that I was with. It was called Peak. It's a Chinese shoe company and, uh, they actually owe me a lot of money. But it's a Chinese company, so like you can't really, like if something happens in the States and you have to try to fight it in China, you're not.

• 13:48Adam Sosnick?

  Good luck, man.

• 13:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you, did you ever play out there or no? Did you ever play in China?

• 13:52Speaker 03

  I played in Taiwan.

• 13:53Patrick Bet-David?

  How was that?

• 13:54Speaker 03

  It was amazing. I stayed there for eight months and, um, played in Taiwan.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  By the time I left Taiwan, uh, we were talking about making my own basketball league. And, um, now I have a league that plays in Taiwan, plays in Thailand, uh, Macau, Hong Kong,

• 14:14Speaker 03

  a couple of places in Philippines, and they have a, a team in China as well. And so they traveled to these different parts. We called it the Asian Tournament. And, uh, I was just so happy that I got a chance to play in Taiwan. It, it, it really was very beneficial to my health.

• 14:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Health?

• 14:30Speaker 03

  Yes, mental health.

• 14:32Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, mental health, yeah. The way they treated you, like gratitude, excitement, enthusiasm, or?

• 14:37Speaker 03

  That, that was a, a big part of it, but I would just say like, um, playing in the NBA for a very long time could, you know, you could get mentally, it could be mentally ill for you sometimes. You could kind of feel real, you know, depressed or sad about some things sometimes because in the NBA you're, it's, it's a high, it's a highly energetic, uh, sport. You're spending a lot of energy, a lot of time. You're moving from city to city. Everything is a whirlwind, you know, so a lot of times when players get out of that whirlwind or that fast-paced life and everything starts to slow down, you know, a lot of things look and feel and seem different, you know, a lot of guys go

• 15:22Speaker 03

  through problems and issues during those stages and, you know, a lot of players in different sports as well. Um, three to five years after they're done, some of them, you know, I'm going bankrupt. Uh, they don't know what to do when they're finished playing. Uh, so for my time in Taiwan, it was like, it's like Red Bull. You know, they gave me so much energy, you know, I feel so much peace, you know, being in the city, you know. Um, just, just living life and learning so much about the culture, you know, which was amazing. I was like, man, I want my kids to come over here. This is such a great place. So I ended up getting my gold card over there for business so my kids can come now.

• 16:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow.

• 16:01Speaker 03

  Mom and dad, family can come at any time and start business over there.

• 16:05Patrick Bet-David?

  How often are you doing it in Taiwan?

• 16:07Speaker 03

  Uh, well, at that point I was going every summer. And when I was, uh, eighteen, all the way up until about, I would say thirty-four, thirty-five, I would go to Asia and do a tour, uh, every summer.

• 16:20Adam Sosnick?

  So China was good for your mental health, is what you're saying?

• 16:23Patrick Bet-David?

  No, Taiwan was.

• 16:23Adam Sosnick?

  Sorry, Taiwan, my apologies. Mental health, just for a second. You know, Ricky Rubio, I believe, retired from the NBA due to focusing on his mental health. We've seen what's happened with Delonte West.

• 16:35Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:35Adam Sosnick?

  I don't know if you ever played with this guy. I think there was another guy, got drafted by the NBA. What was his name?

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Couple of years ago.

• 16:41Adam Sosnick?

  Tyrell Terry, before he even picked up a basketball, retired due to mental health. There's a lot of,

• 16:48Adam Sosnick?

  I guess, impression that athletes, especially on the court, oh, you can say whatever you want, talk about your mom, even LeBron has had issues. Talk about mental health in terms of playing on the court, off the court. How you deal with that?

• 17:00Speaker 03

  Well, because there's so much that goes into the game, you know? And now, because the game is over saturated with talent, um, with money, politics and all that. You know, the, the passion and the true joy of the game is being lost and taken away. So a lot of the mental problems that you see, a lot of guys may be depressed because they play this game for one reason. And they might get on the court or with a team and they might not get a chance to play. Uh, they might have to sit on the bench for a whole season. Things like that can cause somebody to mentally check out, can cause somebody to mentally not want to be available. Emotionally, you're, you know, all, all these things can happen, so, um.

• 17:46Speaker 03

  I know for myself, I just had to try to find a way to mentally stay present. Cause when you allow those, those moments to creep in, that's when you can get depressed and start thinking about, like, man, this is, this is a crazy life. I've, I don't know who I can trust. I don't know who I can talk to. Uh, I don't know this person is in it for the right reason. All these different things have happened to, I would say, all of us players because when we played this game, when we started to play the game, it was just really all about the love of the game. But then as we got older, we started to play in these different leagues and start playing for money and things like that,

• 18:25Speaker 03

  things like that, then that's when the whole politics and everything comes in and it kind of takes away from the joy.

• 18:32Patrick Bet-David?

  What was, when, when you, when you were coming up, like everybody, you would get certain criticism, right? As players, everybody gets it, right? What, what criticism did you get that at this point you're like, I think that was unfair. I think this was fair, the criticism? Like, for example, they would say Kobe was too hard, right? And he was too tough on his teammates. And he would talk about leadership and it's like, oh, he was just a driver. He was this, he was that, like a, what, what is that one player who said, my locker was literally right next to his locker room? What was it? Swish, Swish Barker is like, he's like, look, I mean, for one year, he says, you don't realize, it's literally right next to him. The guy would never talk to me, never asked me about my family, nothing, one time. Can you pull up this clip?

• 19:14Speaker 03

  I understand that. I had a moment with, uh, with Kobe where it was like, uh, we were in the locker, uh, locker room on the plane together during the Olympic, not the Olympics, but, um, uh, during the season, actually, the year I was playing with the Lakers and Kobe, uh, where we were on the, uh, plane together, um, me and his family, didn't really speak. Uh, where our locker room was next to each other, um, in the Olympic, I'm not the Olympics, but the All-Star game, when we played on the same team, you know, he didn't speak. It's like he didn't want to. Be next to me at that time. So it was, it was a little, you know, weird, you know, because I'm like, dang, this, this Kobe, my teammate.

• 19:55Speaker 03

  I looked up to him. I came out of high school. He came out of high school. He's a lot older than me. Um, but then again, you know, it could have been something like, hey, I'm trying to see where his head at, you know? And I'll never know. I'm a young guy at the time. I'm thinking like, why would my teammate not talk to me? Like, what did I do that was so bad? Like, can we talk it out? You know what I'm saying? But, um, some people use different strategies to win, and maybe that was his.

• 20:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, this is the clip, Rob. If you can play this. This is Swish Parker.

• 20:27Speaker 06

  Time with Kobe Bryant, it was an overrated experience. I dealt with this man for two seasons and my, my locker was here, his locker was here. I watched this man put on his shoes every day for work. The man never spoke to me. I wasn't the 12 man on the bench. I wasn't the, the call up from the G League. I started with this man. I was his coworker. Like, we shared a cubicle, side by side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold a conversation? Never, what's up? Good morning? Do you need anything? You know, how's the family? Nothing. I share the story about how I did try to talk to him, you know, said, did you catch, happen to catch the football game last night? And he looked at me, honestly, looked at me and said, you can't talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt. But can you come talk to me? It was dead serious. My time with Kobe.

• 21:12Patrick Bet-David?

  So now that's Swish Parker. You're Dwight Howard.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Ooh.

• 21:16Patrick Bet-David?

  You know, there's, and I don't want to say anything about him. He was fun to watch. He was, he was a, actually.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  Swish was nice.

• 21:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Swish was nice to watch play. He was tough. But you're Dwight Howard, three time defensive. You went to the finals with, who were your teammates? You had, uh, who was your point guard? Your point guard was excited. Yeah, he was fun to watch. What was his nickname? He had a Mighty, uh?

• 21:36Speaker 03

  Mighty Mouse.

• 21:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. And you had Rashard Lewis who got a big contract. He was, he was a, uh?

• 21:41Speaker 03

  Really nice.

• 21:41Patrick Bet-David?

  He was really nice.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  Is that Hedo Turkoglu on that team?

• 21:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Hedo Turkoglu was, but, but, I mean, you were, you kind of like the face of the league for, for a good three, four seasons. You were, uh, you know, one of those guys that, you know, people looked at and said, something's going to happen with this guy. So it's different if he's like that to him, but you're coming like, dude, I made money already, right? You, you have, when you're Kobe's teammate, you've already made a couple hundred million dollars. You've already been, you know, to the championship. You've had that. How different was he with you versus how he was with him?

• 22:15Speaker 03

  I don't, see, I think that when I came in, you know, he wanted to do the bad cop, good cop, you know, routine.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  And the season kind of started off kind of bad. Uh, we didn't have the, the, the type of run that we thought we was gonna be in the beginning and stuff like that, so.

• 22:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Lot of injuries, Nash was out for like a few.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, everybody.

• 22:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, everybody was injured. That was a, it was a pretty nasty season.

• 22:46Speaker 03

  It was, and you know, so I think he went into like, oh, fuck it, I'm finna go out here and try to score and do what I gotta do because I'm not finna let my team, you know, this is my team down. And I understand that, um, looking back on it, um, I think that we didn't give each other a chance. Um, I think that, um, I kinda, the time where I, I left, I'm like, man, you know, Kobe really don't want me here, you know what I'm saying? I should go somewhere where I want it, you know?

• 23:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I remember that.

• 23:18Speaker 03

  Um, and that's how I felt at the time, you know, like, man, this dude don't seem like he really want me here, you know, cause he's not helping me get better or, but maybe he's probably like, if he want it, then he's gonna approach it this way, you know what I'm saying? But, um, as a young player, you don't know how to approach certain things. I'm only going by what I've done my whole life to get me to this point, which is if I'm not playing good or if I'm, I'm not where I want to be, I'm gonna go get in the gym and, and continue to get better. And the year we went to the finals before I played with the Lakers, I remember calling him, um, and asking him like, what do I need to work on to get better?

• 24:03Speaker 03

  And we had a good conversation there. Yeah, and.

• 24:06Patrick Bet-David?

  And this is when you're 18, 19 years old?

• 24:08Speaker 03

  No, this was, uh, after we played them in the finals.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  So I had a conversation with him.

• 24:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Two thousand nine, right? You beat LeBron?

• 24:16Speaker 03

  Yes, I asked him what I need to do and he said, um, work on like free throw line, jump shots and mid-range. So I started shooting and making a thousand shots a day. That was my thing. Cause he was like, hey, I take and make a thousand shots every day. So I was like, okay, well, I'm finna add that into my workout. So I started doing, um, a thousand shots a day. The next year I was, uh, second in MVP voting behind Derrick Rose.

• 24:42Patrick Bet-David?

  What year is this?

• 24:43Speaker 03

  This was two thousand ten.

• 24:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Really? So you were right behind Rose?

• 24:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, when Rose won it, I was the, I was second in voting that year. And, um,

• 24:55Speaker 03

  I just remember playing with Kobe like, I wanted to learn so much from him, but I, I think I was expecting him to be like, hey, come over here. I'm gonna show you this. And it should have been, it could have been me being like, hey, let me go to him. You know what I'm saying? And kind of make that connection. So for me, I was like, I'm gonna go to Chuck Person. He was, uh, our, one of our big man coaches back then. So I was like.

• 25:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Chuck Person, Pacers Chuck Person? But he wasn't a big man. He was a small forward though, you.

• 25:27Speaker 03

  He, he was awesome. He could really shoot the ball. He, um.

• 25:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, he was a three-point shooter.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  So that year, actually the second half of the season, I don't know if people remember, on the second half of the season, I averaged, uh, uh, we were, we had, our record was a lot better in the second half of that season with the Lakers. Uh, due to me working with Chuck almost every single day after, you know, uh, I kind of recovered from, that year I had tore my labrum in my shoulder. I don't even think people understand how I was playing almost the whole season with a torn labrum.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  Torn. Most people have surgeries when they have a labrum tear. I continued to play. I think I missed like six games that season. Every time I went up to go dunk the ball and somebody just slapped my arm like that, it felt like somebody shot me with a shotgun and my arm just dropped.

• 26:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Who knew that? Who knew that?

• 26:23Speaker 03

  The team.

• 26:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Did the league know that, that it was going on?

• 26:26Speaker 03

  The league knew it was torn, you know.

• 26:29Patrick Bet-David?

  So this was public? This was announced?

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, this was, you know, I just kept playing through it. And I remember the media going crazy. Did you talk to Kobe about your shoulder? And I'm like, why do I have to talk to my teammate about the status of my injury? Like, I need to talk to the doctors. So I let them know I can't play. They're like, no, you gotta tell him. He got... I'm like, that's not cool. So I think that they was putting so much animosity between us or, you know, that when I left and we had that first game against each other with the Rockets, you know, you could see us drawing that. He's like, you saw.

• 27:01Patrick Bet-David?

  That's the...

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I feel like...

• 27:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, can you play that clip? This one right here?

• 27:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. I feel like he was saying that because mentally he felt like I allowed all the BS to get in my head.

• 27:13Speaker 00

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• 27:43Speaker 01

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• 28:12Patrick Bet-David?

  What's he saying here?

• 28:14Speaker 03

  He was saying you saw. And he said, "Try," and I was like, "You know me, man. I know you."

• 28:25Speaker 03

  And so, look at the score.

• 28:27Adam Sosnick?

  He's down 25 at the time.

• 28:28Speaker 03

  Look at the score, so I, I, I feel like when he was-

• 28:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Kobe's down 25?

• 28:31Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, in that game.

• 28:32Speaker 03

  We're kicking, kicking they ass. And it, like, this player right here is like, why is he doing this? And I'm like, alright, I'm an elbow, you get off me.

• 28:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, so the elbow wasn't intentional, it wasn't accidental?

• 28:42Speaker 03

  It was intentional, cuz, first of all, we're winning by like-

• 28:46Adam Sosnick?

  I think you're up 25, yeah.

• 28:48Speaker 03

  It's the fourth quarter, I'm getting a rebound, it's like, why are you pressuring me full court? Four, four after rebound?

• 28:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  And so I got one elbow, then he comes back, so I throw another one, just to like, get him off. And then we get into it, I, I, I wanna say he was doing it, to say like, I got you again, I got you out of your game. You're soft.

• 29:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Observation, so for me, like, it's, it's all about, uh, it's all about, you know, watching how people handle rooms. Okay? And I'm watching dynamics, because from the outside, you hear stuff. And then you're in the locker room, you're in the locker room. So you're in the locker room, who's the coach? Phil is the, who, who, Phil Jackson's the coach?

• 29:29Speaker 03

  Oh no, I wish, he was supposed to come and coach that year, we could talk about that. He was supposed to come and coach, we had a conversation.

• 29:35Patrick Bet-David?

  And he wanted to do the 41, only home games, and didn't wanna go on the road, is that the time?

• 29:39Speaker 03

  Well, see, what happened was, he had, he had, was about to have back surgery, he wasn't gonna be able to travel. And so he wanted to make sure that his doctor was, was gonna be okay with him coming back to coach. We had just literally talked, right before they made the decision to bring in, um-

• 29:56Adam Sosnick?

  He had Frank Vogel, wasn't he the coach?

• 29:57Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't Frank Vogel, it was, um, Mike Dantoni. It was Mike Dantoni. I literally was just talking to Phil. The first time, I was talking to Phil, and he's like, Dwight, I really wanna coach you.

• 30:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, I remember, because he said, we're gonna average 140 points a game a night.

• 30:13Speaker 03

  And we didn't need to do that.

• 30:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, we didn't need to do that, I remember that though.

• 30:16Speaker 03

  All we had to do was beat people up, we got the greatest closer, you got the two biggest big man in the paint, Pau Gasol and myself, who's gonna stop us? Like, but we tried to play a fast-paced game with older players, I'm the youngest one, and I just had back surgery, and I just had a torn labrum, so, why not slow the game down and play the pace that we need? We don't have to, Steve Nash doesn't have to go crazy. You just had back surgery.

• 30:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Coaches, but, but this is the part, dynamics, my interest is on the inside, so-

• 30:49Patrick Bet-David?

  How many coaches coached you? Like if you put the big coaches, you had Dantoni, who else coached you?

• 30:54Speaker 03

  Stan Van Gundy.

• 30:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Van Gundy.

• 30:55Adam Sosnick?

  Orlando.

• 30:57Speaker 03

  Why can't I forget all my coaches right now? What's the black guy?

• 31:03Patrick Bet-David?

  What's the black guy?

• 31:03Adam Sosnick?

  He sounds like he really made an impact on you.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  He did, I can't think of a Stan Van Gundy. Mike Brown, I'm so sorry.

• 31:08Adam Sosnick?

  No, no, I know your coaches, don't worry about it, you got this.

• 31:10Speaker 03

  I've had so many coaches. Oh my god, Brian Hill.

• 31:13Patrick Bet-David?

  When you're watching, when you guys are in a place where there's a lot of conflict, okay? You don't hear a lot about Dantoni. What was Dantoni's style of dealing with Kobe? Like would he challenge him or he left Kobe alone?

• 31:26Speaker 03

  I would most likely leave him alone.

• 31:28Patrick Bet-David?

  He wouldn't leave him alone? He wouldn't bother him?

• 31:31Speaker 03

  He wouldn't say too much to him. Like, I mean, he was more so chill. But I feel like with Phil, our offense would have been in a better place. The triangle offense would have suited us better. Because you can keep the one side clear if Kobe wanted to do his thing. And then that triangle that's going on on the other side of the court, or whatever it may be, I felt like that would have been something. Half court offense for us, it would have been crucial. Teams wouldn't have been able to stop us in the half court. So by us trying to play the fast paced game, that wasn't us. And then I felt like I was at a place in my career where I needed to slow it down and get in the triangle

• 32:15Speaker 03

  so I can understand offense and how to move offensively. A lot of times, big man, they mature slower in the league because the game takes longer to slow down to them. And I was fortunate enough to play in different eras. So when I first came in, it was back to the basket big. The lane was a lot more packed and stuff like that, boxes and elbows on defense. And then it started to spread out, you know, year after year, then to now it was like threes and half court. But, you know, so back then, a big needed time. Hakeem Olajuwon, they was getting in their primes in their 30s. Their late 30s, you know what I'm saying?

• 32:59Speaker 03

  That's when they're in their primes because they're now, the game has slowed down so they can understand and see it more. So I just felt like with a coach like... Dantoni, the pick and roll and stuff was great for my Orlando time, so I think that's why they got Dantoni. But I felt for me to take that step to the next level, it was time for Phil.

• 33:19Patrick Bet-David?

  What was the difference locker room? Kobe locker room, LeBron locker room. You're in a locker room, game's done. You win, you lose, you had a sick game, you know, you showed up. What is the vibe in a locker room with Kobe versus LeBron? Is Kobe, game's over when he's gone? Or is LeBron, hey man, good job then? What's the difference?

• 33:38Speaker 03

  Oh, they both go, we winning, they both live. They both live in the locker room. Man, it's been so long with Kobe. That year was such an up and down year. We had our wins, we was happy, but when we lost, we was pretty pissed. LeBron, man, he is a character, he's so funny. So after the games, you know, he's going, his locker room is crazy. His locker room looks like your, what is backdrop?

• 34:12Patrick Bet-David?

  The whole thing.

• 34:13Speaker 03

  He got everything. Got all the shoes, he got like two lockers. Shoes lined up, all the stuff. He got his special do rags, everything, you know, so it's, it's like the president's locker room. It's pretty nice.

• 34:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, so he had the biggest locker room you saw, of all the players he played against?

• 34:29Speaker 03

  I mean, well, he just got two lockers. Most, everybody get their one little spot, but, I mean, it's LeBron, it's two lockers.

• 34:36Adam Sosnick?

  It would seem like, I don't know if you can find this video of LeBron locker room Miami Heat, I mean, they did a whole dance. It would seem to me that Kobe is way more serious than LeBron. I even heard you say something to the effect of Kobe's kind of an asshole. While LeBron kinda wants to be liked.

• 34:53Speaker 03

  When I say Kobe's the asshole, like, yeah, he, I've seen him like go off on autograph seekers, you know, for coming, going, yeah, going crazy, because his lady's like, what you guys out here this late, you know, asking for autographs? So, man, he, yeah, I could, I've seen that side of him, but at the same time, you know, I've always heard that you have to be a certain type of way to make it in life, you know, so I don't feel like he's that way with everybody. I feel like that when it's time to be that person, then he's gonna be that person because he's trying to get to his goal, whatever his goal is, and he's not gonna let nobody stop him.

• 35:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Who was, who was, uh, uh, between the two, somebody like a favorite teammate? I'm not even going to, you know, I'll ask you the other question next, but as a teammate, who did you prefer as a teammate? LeBron or Kobe?

• 35:48Speaker 03

  Uh.

• 35:49Patrick Bet-David?

  It's a tough one.

• 35:50Speaker 03

  That is a very tough one. Um, I just feel like me and Kobe didn't give each other time, um, uh, to really mesh. And we was in a place where emotionally and mentally I was fed up with the things that had happened in Orlando that a lot of, you know, people don't know about. And I'm coming into this new situation like, man, I want to turn it all around. I'm in a new city, new place. I'm playing with one of the greatest players ever, but I just came off back surgery. I'm not even supposed to be playing this whole year. I was supposed to sit out the whole season when I came to the Lakers, uh, but I came

• 36:32Speaker 03

  back in four months. I was supposed to sit out a whole year from my back surgery. It took out that much of my herniated disc, the largest that they ever taken out of somebody's back. So I was supposed to miss significant time. Came back early, then tore my labrum, continued to play, and we, uh, we made it to the playoffs. That was the last time the Lakers had made it to the playoffs until I came back and we went to the championship.

• 37:00Adam Sosnick?

  So from 2013 to 2020, there was no playoffs for the Lakers?

• 37:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I remember that. But that, that's when he was averaging 35 forward. That's when he had the streak of whatever, eight or nine games of 40. But stay on this. So teammate, Kobe, LeBron?

• 37:14Speaker 03

  Teammate, I'm gonna go with, um...

• 37:20Speaker 03

  LeBron, I had my championship with him. We had our longest run together.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  So I gotta pick LeBron.

• 37:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Over Kobe. But if you're an owner and you're drafting somebody and you have a, your number one draft pick, who are you picking between the two to win?

• 37:42Speaker 03

  To win, knowing what I know now?

• 37:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  Ooh wee. Well, you gotta go LeBron.

• 37:52Patrick Bet-David?

  So you still picking LeBron over Kobe?

• 37:54Speaker 03

  I mean, knowing what we know, alright, so if you're talking about longevity, longevity, if you're talking about just overall, not skill, like how people look at skill. I'm talking about everything that encompasses basketball.

• 38:12Speaker 03

  Look what LeBron has done. Kobe has, he has, he has the most, he's turned himself into the most skilled. But I don't think that he had the most talent. I think LeBron was so talented that he could play one through five. He could do football, he could do all these different things. I felt like Kobe mastered his skill on the court of basketball. He mastered bank shots, he mastered the pump fake, pump fake turnaround shoot. He mastered the bump phase. He mastered all the moves that Jordan did to the three. He mastered shooting with his left hand. You know, I think that when you look at LeBron,

• 38:56Speaker 03

  he just mastered everything that come with basketball. Off the court, you know, he's figured out how to manage that whole side, which most athletes, if you, you, you can see, they don't have the proper resources or the proper team to do what he's done. He's, his longevity just stands out to everybody.

• 39:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so here's, here's one for you. So now that you got LeBron over Kobe, do you have LeBron over Mike?

• 39:26Speaker 03

  No, you can't have him over Mike.

• 39:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Why, why is that longevity? LeBron was longer than Mike, bigger than Mike, faster. He can play five positions. Michael couldn't play five positions. Michael was really a three positions, right?

• 39:39Speaker 03

  Why do I have LeBron, why do I have Michael LeBron? Um, I felt like he set the bar for everyone, so uh, he was the pioneer of it. So I, I gotta have him.

• 39:51Patrick Bet-David?

  So you draft pick, you're, you're picking Michael over LeBron?

• 39:54Speaker 03

  I'm picking Michael Jordan.

• 39:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 39:59Patrick Bet-David?

  So question for both of you. I got a question for both of you, okay? It's actually very interesting because to me, I also like a player that stays with a team like Dirk stayed. Right? Kobe stayed, right? You know, you had a few guys that stayed with the organization for, for longevity wise. I don't know how many more players like that I can think about, but it's, it's a few of them. D Wade, yeah, with my, he ended up with Chicago.

• 40:23Speaker 03

  Chicago and Cleveland and then came back to the Heat.

• 40:26Patrick Bet-David?

  So, change it up. Let's just say that your Lakers had a shitty year. And they have number one draft pick. They pick LeBron. You think LeBron would have ever gone to Cleveland or anywhere else? Or you think LeBron would have stayed in LA?

• 40:39Speaker 03

  He would have stayed in LA.

• 40:39Patrick Bet-David?

  You think he wouldn't have gone to Cleveland to win one for them? Like you, you think he would have still stayed in LA?

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Well, if he never started with Cleveland?

• 40:51Patrick Bet-David?

  He was number one draft pick. LA picks him up. They had a horrible year, couple trades. They get back in, boom LeBron going to LA.

• 40:59Speaker 03

  I don't believe he would leave LA.

• 41:01Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't think he leaves in LA? It's an interesting question to think about.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Not if he start with LA. I mean, if he starts with LA and he's LeBron James, the number one pick. He's coming in, ask everyone know who he's, he is now. I don't see what would be the, the, the benefit of going somewhere else because this is the biggest team in the, the, the biggest. This is a, marked as marketing, they're the biggest team in the NBA. And the biggest fan base worldwide and nationally. Um, so why would he want to leave and go somewhere else at that time?

• 41:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, but, but, but the only thing is, like, how much did it mean to him to go to Cleveland? And when you think he would have stayed 20 years with the Lakers?

• 41:45Adam Sosnick?

  I think that there's a major part of LeBron and, and look, I'm a lifelong Miami Heat fan. Like, I know everything there is about the Miami Heat. That was my team. When you guys beat them in the bubble, I mean, you remember, I was, I mean, I was living in Dallas at the time, screaming and hollering, rooting for my guys out there.

• 42:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Jimmy was fighting.

• 42:03Adam Sosnick?

  Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Buckets.

• 42:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Gotta give him credit though. That guy's a freaking fighter.

• 42:07Adam Sosnick?

  But I think there's a, a part of, two parts. I think there's a part of LeBron that no matter what, he was gonna try to get back to Cleveland and win something. Like, when he left, he, he left Cleveland, in my opinion, because they just couldn't assemble the pieces. He went to the Heat, you know, not one, not two, not three, four, five. He put together the super team, the Heatles, with Wade and Bosch. And, um, and then soon as he won, I think he won two out of four championships, right back to Cleveland. I think he went, uh, one and two against Golden State. So I think he did that and he did that, but they're also, this is my opinion again.

• 42:44Adam Sosnick?

  I think if you ask just any casual fan, they would have, in specific order, MJ, LeBron, Kobe. And I think that's undeniable, but there is a part of, uh, of, of Kobe that's almost romanticized. Because, I mean, tragically, died too soon, horribly. And because he stayed with the Lakers so long, he, he became this fan favorite. Like, he's not going anywhere. We all love Kobe. But let's not forget, Shaq was the man in 2000, 2001, 2002. Like, it wasn't even a question. I think Shaq won all the MVPs. So LeBron put everything on his back, took Cleveland to the finals, took the Heat to the finals,

• 43:29Adam Sosnick?

  took the Cleveland back to the finals.

• 43:30Patrick Bet-David?

  What's your point though? What point are you making?

• 43:31Adam Sosnick?

  My point is this, LeBron, his legacy is a little bit more tarnished because he's sort of seen as like a ring chaser and, you know, kind of running around, whereas Kobe is romanticized for staying with the same team.

• 43:43Patrick Bet-David?

  You still have to answer my question.

• 43:44Adam Sosnick?

  But no, I think, I think LeBron would have.

• 43:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Breakdown. Tell me, is he gonna stay?

• 43:49Adam Sosnick?

  He would have not stayed. He would have gone to Cleveland at some point.

• 43:51Patrick Bet-David?

  I think so as well. So here's my question for you.

• 43:53Adam Sosnick?

  But you're, you're also a Kobe guy, not a LeBron guy.

• 43:55Patrick Bet-David?

  But no, to me, I'm a guy, I look, I'm like, okay, I'm looking at his draft year, right? Okafor, Okafor's number two, Gordon, you're first, Gordon three. He goes Chicago, Sean Livingston, by the way, if he doesn't get injured, that guy was a very interesting player. Right, very clean, Golden State, he would, yet, I, I don't think I ever saw him miss a, you know, the small shoot, it was like, what? The way he was, Devin Harris, Josh Childress, Luw Danke. He came to the Lakers, he had a sixty-one million dollar contract, the Lakers were stuck with, I'll never forget that, AI. Uh, Iguodala, Jackson, Robert Swift, Chris Humphries, your boy, you know, you were at his wedding, so.

• 44:37Patrick Bet-David?

  And you're going down the list here, right, but imagine, okay, you get picked, so, cause you went to Orlando, right, and Rich DeVos, that whole organization, but say you go to the Lakers. What do you do? Do you stay? You don't know what happens? Would you, would you be with them for a while, or would you still be like, nah, I kinda wanna go see what Atlanta's like, you know? I kinda wanna go to see what this is like, what would you do?

• 44:58Speaker 03

  If I'm drafted from the Lakers?

• 44:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Lakers number one draft pick, you're there.

• 45:01Speaker 03

  I gotta stay.

• 45:02Patrick Bet-David?

  You gotta stay, so that's how you process it?

• 45:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, I gotta stay, I'm, I'm with the, the most storied franchise, not, I can't take away, I don't want people from Orlando saying, oh, but you left us. No, this is different, because this is not year one. Leaving Orlando, this is year nine, I've already been in Orlando for eight years. When I left, you know what I'm saying, so, um. And I think they kinda made it look like I was going at the fans, or I wanted to leave because of the city and stuff like that, and. Why would I leave a team because of the city? It makes no sense.

• 45:42Patrick Bet-David?

  So you would've stayed in LA?

• 45:43Speaker 03

  Would I've stayed in LA? I wanted to play with, um, not play, but be coached by, uh, Phil. I thought that would've been big for, for my development.

• 45:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Why though? Just purely for your development?

• 45:55Speaker 03

  Yes, because I grew up in a era of basketball where.

• 46:01Speaker 03

  Everything was quick. One, two dribbles, get to the basket. One dribble, finish. Two dribbles, finish. Three dribbles, max. Post ups. Pick, get seals and stuff like that. In this offense with Phil, I would be forced to, you know, do more fundamental, fundamentally sound things. Catch it at the top of the key. Get to the basket, make a move. He was gonna-

• 46:25Patrick Bet-David?

  It would've been interesting seeing how you would've done. He would've used in triangle offense.

• 46:29Speaker 03

  To get me easier shots, to get Kobe easier shots, to save our legs and our bodies. So when we play later on in the season, we'll still have the same bounce, the same energy.

• 46:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you think triangle offense was, would work with big centers? I guess he would, because he had Shaq, right?

• 46:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, we played it in high school. I played the triangle in high school.

• 46:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Who was your coach?

• 46:49Speaker 03

  My coach was Courtney Brooks.

• 46:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Was he ever under Tex Winter? Or how did he pick up triangle offense?

• 46:54Speaker 03

  We just got it because he, my goal was to go to the NBA. And I remember my 11th grade year, we watched Shaq destroy the Philadelphia 76ers. And Dikembe Mutombo, rest in peace. Dikembe. But we watched, I watched at this camp I was in, this leadership camp, Shaq elbow Matt Geiger and Dikembe Mutombo in the chest and dunk on them every play. And so after watching that, my coach was like, we need to run triangle. I gotta get you ready for the league.

• 47:32Patrick Bet-David?

  Your coach learned triangle offense?

• 47:33Speaker 03

  We was doing the triangle offense in high school.

• 47:34Patrick Bet-David?

  That's not an easy offense for a coach to pick. How long did it take for you guys to get it down? It must've taken months.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, it did, but once we got it, it was, it was easy.

• 47:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Because nobody, there is no point guard. Like, you're always-

• 47:47Speaker 03

  It always interchanges.

• 47:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, it's always interchanging.

• 47:50Adam Sosnick?

  Dwight, stop it. You don't need any sort of offense when you're in high school. You're the best player in the country. They throw you the ball, you win the state championship. You don't, you don't, you don't run the offense. Get out of Dwight.

• 48:00Patrick Bet-David?

  That's a very good point. By the way, what were your numbers in high school? Like, what kind of, what was your biggest game ever in high school?

• 48:08Speaker 03

  Biggest game, I almost had 50, but my coach took me out because he didn't want me to disrespect the other team. He felt like it was getting too disrespectful. And I was upset about that because I wanted to have a 50 ball like that's like who does not want to have 50 points in a game.

• 48:21Patrick Bet-David?

  And I saw the fact that you had the offers from Duke, who was it, Carolina, who else was it?

• 48:26Speaker 03

  Every school, every, like, I, I was just telling my kids the other day, I had a tub about probably a, a tub this big, this wide, I'm sorry, this long. Probably about this wide, three or four tubs filled with letters from every school in America when I was in high school trying to get me to come to their school. And I was like, man, there's no way I can choose a college.

• 48:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Were you ever tempted at all?

• 48:53Speaker 03

  To go to school?

• 48:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Ever like tempted at like any college meet with you and convince you to say, you know what, I, Dean's, I mean, 04, who's 04?

• 49:01Speaker 03

  That's UNC.

• 49:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Was anybody able to get you to at least think about it?

• 49:06Speaker 03

  UNC got me to go, come to an official visit to UNC. That was the only school I did an official visit with. Um, because my goal was to go out, um, to the NBA and be the first pick out of high school. That was one of the goals that I wrote down. Um, with my dad to be the first pick in the NBA draft. So I was like, I can't go to college if this is my goal. And, um, I did a visit at UNC. When I got there, I was like, ah, this ain't really for me. I think if I go to college, um, I'm going to get in a lot of trouble.

• 49:41Adam Sosnick?

  In what regard?

• 49:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Partying and.

• 49:43Speaker 03

  Not partying, but.

• 49:45Adam Sosnick?

  The ladies?

• 49:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was a lot. It was a lot. But then, you know, I went to the NBA, it's even more. So it was like, that didn't even make sense. What are you talking about?

• 49:53Adam Sosnick?

  There was only a finite one among women in college.

• 49:55Patrick Bet-David?

  NIL today, would you have gone to college or you're still going straight in? Would NIL made a difference for you or not at all?

• 50:03Speaker 03

  Uh, nah, I probably would have still.

• 50:05Patrick Bet-David?

  You would have still come in. Okay. So you talking about Lakers, you say, if I go to the Lakers, I'm going to stay with them for 20 years. You know, not 20 years, but I would be a lifer with them. So I remember, okay, when I'm at PF Chang's, me and this guy named Raj were debating between you and Bynum. I wrote about Bynum in my book, Your Next Five Moves. He's in the book. Anyways. And I said, and I, I'm like, he says, no, I'm picking Bynum. I said, why? Bynum's got more finesse, soft touches. I said, dude, I said, I get it. I just don't know if Bynum loves the game. Because to me, I think Bynum was a big guy, coach saw, picked him up. But when I watch him play the game, I don't know if he loves this game. Remember the issue he had two years when he went through, I don't know where it's at Philadelphia?

• 50:50Speaker 03

  I think he did.

• 50:51Patrick Bet-David?

  He did his hair all while.

• 50:52Speaker 03

  But see, I think that was a, that was him, I don't, I don't know him personally, but I want to say that probably was him acting out a little bit, like. He played, he came from high school. He went and played one of the greatest players ever in basketball.

• 51:10Patrick Bet-David?

  No, he's talking about Shaq when he went up against Shaq and didn't back down.

• 51:13Speaker 03

  I'm talking about Kobe, he played with one of the best players ever.

• 51:16Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm thinking you were saying the game where he went against Shaq and he didn't back down.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, but see, while playing with one of the greatest players ever, he's probably getting ridiculed and all these different things. So as, at a, at a young age, he's like, man, I watched this guy growing up, you know? I was a baby when Kobe was, you know, in the league, all these different things, and now he's playing with him. And now when his, his idol is probably yelling at him and going off on him. That probably put him in a place like, hey, like, I'm not, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, or I'm, I'm not feeling this. Like, I came here to get better, but how can I grow if I'm, I'm number two or number three behind Kobe or? You gotta think he's a young guy, he wanted to shine too, so, uh, that's, that's pretty tough.

• 52:02Patrick Bet-David?

  But you, you know, you make a point because there, there are, uh, like, for example, Nick Saban comes into the NFL, doesn't do well, goes back to college, kills. And then you have guys that go from NBA, college, they come back to the NBA. Or whatever, NFL, whatever pro you want to say. So what's the difference? If I go to college, I'm dealing with greenies. So Nick Saban didn't have a problem with development and kind of taking young guys and building them up. It's not easy because you're more distracted, more, oh my God, girls, you know, party, you know, how do I get these guys to stay locked and come to the gym early? Don't drink, don't smoke weed. It's a different mindset that you have, right? So it's almost there's certain players, like if I was a team owner and I got Kobe as my superstar?

• 52:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, I'm gonna be like, Kobe, don't kill this no draft pick, bro. It's almost like I'm sitting there thinking to myself, what's the point of having a number one draft pick that comes here? That Kobe's gonna kill him for two or three years? Let the guy go get his ass kicked and then let me bring him here three, five, six, seven years later. Like, I think that's that versus, and I think I put Michael in that as well. Michael had a hard time when the whole cat story with, yeah, Kwame or even, you know, the Horace Grant and Scotty. Because I think Horace was an 87 draft, 88 draft, and it's back to back they come in and he almost pushed them out. But then they were able to get acclimated and then they won those three chips together. But to me, I think about that. The part I think about with you, and I, I thought about this was the reason why you left.

• 53:30Patrick Bet-David?

  And please correct me if I say this, because I followed you very closely and I was one of the guys that was very excited when he came to the Lakers. The first time around, not second time around, because first time around, I thought it was gonna be like dominance, right?

• 53:43Speaker 03

  Me and Kobe.

• 53:44Patrick Bet-David?

  There was, and I haven't seen this thing since it happened. So whatever year you came, you'll remember this, where they're showing your, they've already announced they've signed. You're in the office with Kupchak, I wanna say the GM, and he is pointing out all the rafters, right? I don't know if you remember this, and he says, "Look at the history of big men that we've had here. The great Will Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaq, and maybe one day you." Something like this. I don't even think you're gonna find this. I don't think you're gonna find this clip at all, but I'm certain you remember something like that that happened. And I watched your body language, and I watch it, I'm like,

• 54:28Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't know if that put unnecessary pressure for you to play loose. I don't know if it made you nervous, I don't know if it made you, because, because there's a difference playing in Orlando Magic, right? No one expects you to win. So if you win, you're God. But you come to Lakers, it's like, dude, no one expects you to lose. You better win or else get the hell out of our city type of a mindset.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 54:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Did that at all shake you up a little bit when Mitch Kupchak did that?

• 54:55Speaker 03

  No, I, I loved it. Cause I was like, man, this is why I play. Like Wilt Chamberlain is my all time favorite player. I never got a chance to see him play, but he was my all time favorite player. I had this robot when I was young and used to always say Wilt Chamberlain, Wilt Chamberlain. And I was like, man, who is Wilt Chamberlain? And he said he scored a hundred points. And so the robot was like Chat GPT back in the day.

• 55:21Speaker 03

  So.

• 55:21Patrick Bet-David?

  That's cool.

• 55:22Speaker 03

  That's how I fell in love with Wilt Chamberlain being my favorite player. Cause he was the strongest. He was the fastest. I had, the robot was telling me all these crazy stats about him that was outside of basketball. So that's why, you know, I wanted to meet Wilt Chamberlain. They used to call him the Big Dipper because he used to have to duck his head.

• 55:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you ever meet him?

• 55:41Speaker 03

  You know, I didn't get a chance to meet him, but when I first moved to LA and played out there, I stayed in Prince's old house. Uh, twenty one, thirty one, and thirty one, twenty one, thirty one, thirty one, twenty one. Yes. Uh, Antelo, um, drive. He actually has an album called it. So thirty one, twenty one or something like that. Antelo. Um, should be Prince's old house or something like that. Well, yes.

• 56:08Patrick Bet-David?

  That's Prince's old house?

• 56:10Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 56:10Patrick Bet-David?

  What a memory. You remember his address?

• 56:12Speaker 03

  That's the house I stayed in. So beautiful.

• 56:14Patrick Bet-David?

  How many times did you go to Prince's house?

• 56:16Speaker 03

  Well, I lived there. That was my house.

• 56:17Patrick Bet-David?

  That was you. So you bought it from him?

• 56:19Speaker 03

  I got that, that house. I lived there for the time I played for the Lakers and then right next to my house was,

• 56:27Patrick Bet-David?

  looks sick.

• 56:28Speaker 03

  Wilt Chamberlain's house. So that's how I was so happy.

• 56:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Get out of here. Get out of here.

• 56:32Speaker 03

  Yes. The house that he stayed in, his roof would open up, like the bedroom roof. He had it to where it could open up. You could see the stars at night. So that's how I was like.

• 56:39Patrick Bet-David?

  And you never talked to him or met, met with him?

• 56:41Speaker 03

  He was already gone by then. So I was like, man.

• 56:43Patrick Bet-David?

  You came to league in oh four. He died in, I think, nineteen ninety nine.

• 56:46Speaker 03

  He was already gone.

• 56:48Patrick Bet-David?

  This robot of yours, this pre Chat GPT thing, there's one story about Wilt that everybody knows about.

• 56:55Speaker 03

  Twenty thousand? That's not real.

• 56:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay. There's allegedly a story that Wilt Chamberlain has slept with over.

• 57:03Adam Sosnick?

  I thought it was 10,000 women.

• 57:04Speaker 03

  20,000.

• 57:04Adam Sosnick?

  20,000. Listen, you'll lose count after a couple thousand.

• 57:08Speaker 03

  I don't think that's, I don't think it's possible.

• 57:10Adam Sosnick?

  What do you think is accurate there? Hurt is Shaq and why Will Chamberlain was saying he had sex with 20,000 women is a lie. He had meeting 20 women a day. What do you think was accurate with that? I mean, listen, I've seen how NBA players roll.

• 57:21Speaker 03

  Okay, so let's, let's do it like this. Back then, there was no, um, teams were flying charter planes. I mean, when they were flying, um, they were taking buses.

• 57:31Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 57:32Speaker 03

  Or they were taking regular planes. When would he have time to meet? How many women a day? 20 women a day to sleep with them?

• 57:40Adam Sosnick?

  Listen, man, you make the time, Dwight.

• 57:41Speaker 03

  There's no way.

• 57:42Adam Sosnick?

  You make the time if it's a priority.

• 57:43Speaker 03

  Okay, but still. There's no way he could play basketball, practice, and sleep with 20 women a day. I don't think that are, I don't think that we have enough inside of us to go out 20 times.

• 57:56Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, it's funny you're saying this because I remember the one interview that he did. Okay?

• 58:01Speaker 03

  He said he embellished it.

• 58:03Patrick Bet-David?

  But have you seen the interview where, Rob, can you pull up some of the interview? It's not the 20,000 women. Of course, you know, Shaq even says that's, that's crazy to be able to do that.

• 58:12Speaker 03

  It's a crazy number.

• 58:13Patrick Bet-David?

  But, but type in, type in, uh, Will Chamberlain, max bench press. Okay, max bench press. I mean, this guy.

• 58:19Speaker 03

  Strong as hell.

• 58:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, but just play that first clip. Just play that first clip. Watch this.

• 58:24Speaker 00

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• 58:55Speaker 01

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• 59:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you go back a little bit with audio or you don't have it?

• 59:26Speaker 03

  No, I can.

• 59:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, go for it.

• 59:28Speaker 07

  I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 pounds. 600 pounds? I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 pounds.

• 59:34Patrick Bet-David?

  So he says he bench pressed 600 pounds. He says his vertical leap claim was what? 48 inches. Okay? On some interviews, he said his vertical leap was 60 inches. Right? He says, he says he squatted 1,000 pounds. That's the claim that he made, that he did, this is it, watch this. He claimed he had a 48 inch vertical, okay? Which that's Michael Jordan's status. He claimed he squatted, just happened Will Chamberlain squat, okay? Will Chamberlain squat claims, okay? He says he squatted, do you see the stories there? He said he squats 1,000 pounds. You can ask it on ChatGPT, see what it says. That's the same exact thing.

• 1:00:17Patrick Bet-David?

  He claims he was with 20,000 women. You know, he claims he did all this stuff. How much of it was, he was just either psycho competitive? Or, you know, slight like, uh, exaggerating what he really did?

• 1:00:31Speaker 03

  I think he was embellishing a lot. I think he was exaggerating a lot of different things. Um, I could see him squatting a lot of weight. I could see him running very fast. I don't know about 1,000 pounds. I could see him doing a, a bench press. I, I, I have talked to, um, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And, uh, we was in, um, Gold's Gym. Out in, uh, what's that, Santa Monica?

• 1:01:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Venice Beach, yeah. It's the one that opened in the back at 6.

• 1:01:03Adam Sosnick?

  He was on stomping.

• 1:01:04Speaker 03

  And I saw him, he was like, everybody get down, do it now. I was just with Will Chamberlain. I saw him lift 2,000 pounds. But I saw.

• 1:01:13Adam Sosnick?

  It's not a bad Arnold, boy.

• 1:01:16Speaker 03

  But I saw, I did see, um, him there. He did talked about how strong Will Chamberlain was. He said the strongest person, you got Will. Um, um, you got Arnold, who's always lifting weights. Said how strong he was. I don't, the 20,000 sounds crazy to me. I could see him doing some crazy weights. I talked to some players who played against him back in the day. There was one guy who said. So it's so crazy. He said we'll dunk the ball one time so hard that when he dunked the ball and it hit somebody, the ball hit somebody's foot from the rim and it broke the person's foot. I say get out of here. Y'all just, y'all just making stuff up.

• 1:01:56Adam Sosnick?

  This is what Conan the Barbarian with Arnold.

• 1:01:59Patrick Bet-David?

  In the middle, look at the giants.

• 1:02:00Adam Sosnick?

  Even if the 20,000 is not true. A lot of people think that that's 90% overinflated, even if it's 2,000 women. What are your thoughts on that many?

• 1:02:10Speaker 03

  Uh, that's a lot of energy. That's a lot of, you're bringing on a lot of energy to yourself. But again.

• 1:02:20Adam Sosnick?

  You can bottle up that energy and use it on the court.

• 1:02:22Speaker 03

  But back in the day, I mean, it's probably a lot cleaner in life.

• 1:02:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Than today?

• 1:02:29Speaker 03

  Than today. They were doing a lot of parties like, what was the big parties they had back then?

• 1:02:34Adam Sosnick?

  Club 54?

• 1:02:35Speaker 03

  Clochella.

• 1:02:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Studio 54. Clochella, yeah.

• 1:02:37Speaker 03

  He follows that Studio 54 with Rick James, who was my favorite. So I can see him doing a lot of stuff.

• 1:02:43Patrick Bet-David?

  You were, you were fairly one of the biggest guys yourself. Oh, is this it? This is it. 40 yard dash and 4.6, vertical leap. This one says 5. He ran 100 yard dash in 10.9 seconds. I mean, you see the stuff that you read about this.

• 1:02:57Speaker 03

  Specimen.

• 1:02:58Patrick Bet-David?

  What's the most you ever benched? What was your?

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

  Well, I did, was it 475?

• 1:03:03Patrick Bet-David?

  You benched 475? Why, that's sick with those arms, bro. To be that big, yeah.

• 1:03:08Speaker 03

  My, my, uh, my many reps I did was three, I did 315 24 times.

• 1:03:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Get out of here.

• 1:03:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, this one I was trying to bench press every day.

• 1:03:19Patrick Bet-David?

  25 20 times is a big deal.

• 1:03:20Speaker 03

  I was trying to bench press every day.

• 1:03:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Wait, what did you, he did 315, how many, 305?

• 1:03:24Speaker 03

  24 times, 315 was 24 times.

• 1:03:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Holy shit. And then what was your vertical leap?

• 1:03:28Speaker 03

  My vertical leap was 39.

• 1:03:30Patrick Bet-David?

  39, okay. Kobe's was 38.

• 1:03:33Speaker 03

  When?

• 1:03:35Patrick Bet-David?

  You, you hear that his vertical leap was 38. You're saying.

• 1:03:38Speaker 03

  That's tough.

• 1:03:39Patrick Bet-David?

  You think he was, he wasn't 38?

• 1:03:41Speaker 03

  No, I was just saying, anything, anything in the high 30s to 40s is really, really good. No matter how tall.

• 1:03:52Speaker 03

  Jordan had a 48. I want to see this. If Jordan really had a 48, that mean he's touching the top of the backboard. I've touched the top of the backboard and I've touched higher. I'm dunking on a 12 foot, 7 foot goal. If Jordan had a 48 inch vert, he should be sitting on the rim. He should be able to turn around and sit on the rim.

• 1:04:14Patrick Bet-David?

  That's what they call him, Eric Jordan.

• 1:04:15Speaker 03

  But I'm saying, it's no way he had a 48.

• 1:04:18Patrick Bet-David?

  10 feet will be 120 feet. So even if you're up 48, if we do the math, he's 6'6". So if he's 6'6", let's just say 48, you got 120, he can be, he can be, you know.

• 1:04:34Speaker 03

  He gotta be touching the top of the backboard.

• 1:04:36Patrick Bet-David?

  So you're saying you don't think Mike had a 48?

• 1:04:39Speaker 03

  There's no way he had a 48.

• 1:04:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Were you thinking Spud Webb had a 48, 47? Spud Webb. You remember Spud Webb from the Atlanta Hawks?

• 1:04:48Speaker 03

  I do remember Spud Webb, but they're saying Michael Jordan has the highest vert ever. This gotta be some Gatorade, like Nike type, we're gonna pay to make this seem this way. Have you seen the people who know him this league?

• 1:05:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you type in, what was Spud Webb's vertical leap? Spud Webb vertical leap? He was 46 to 40, 46, yeah, there's Spud Webb.

• 1:05:10Speaker 03

  And Michael Jordan had a 48 inch vert. I feel like those are wilt lies.

• 1:05:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so let's stay on this.

• 1:05:19Speaker 03

  That's a wilt lie.

• 1:05:20Patrick Bet-David?

  All right, but stay on this. So if we're gonna go and say wilt lies, what's more likely? What's more likely? The fact that Mike had a 48 inch vertical leap? Or the fact that Bo Jackson ran a 41940? What's more likely a lie?

• 1:05:38Speaker 03

  Oh, Bo knows football. I'm gonna go with Michael Jordan with the 48 inch vert.

• 1:05:43Patrick Bet-David?

  So you're saying Mike's a lie, Bo did it?

• 1:05:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, Bo had that ball head, man. He was fast. What you mean, two sport Bo?

• 1:05:49Patrick Bet-David?

  This is crazy. So Dwyane, so what do you think was Michael's vertical leap? If you're saying 48 is that impossible, what do you think it was?

• 1:05:56Speaker 03

  They're just saying that's so crazy. He's 2 inches off a 50 inch vert, Michael Jordan. That's so insane. I know he did have some crazy dunks, but forty-eight inches mean he's touching the top.

• 1:06:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so now, now we're going to a different place, so.

• 1:06:10Speaker 03

  What's up y'all, this your boy Dwight Howard, AKA the Hall of Fame Superman in the building. If y'all wanna connect with me, ask me any question, just go to my net and I, I got all the answers for y'all. Yeah, I can tell you how many women, Wilt Chamberlain and all that was just fake, but guess what? I got all the expertise, basketball, chess, if you wanna learn how to do Snapchat, if you wanna learn to get that jump shot silky smooth like me, if you want the fresh fade with the nice hair, come check your boy out, we got expertise in a lot of areas, remember my net and connect. I'll see y'all there, peace.

• 1:06:48Patrick Bet-David?

  So let's say dunk contest.

• 1:06:50Speaker 03

  Dunk contest.

• 1:06:50Patrick Bet-David?

  You against Mike, who wins?

• 1:06:52Speaker 03

  Me, I gotta go with myself.

• 1:06:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Dwight, stop it.

• 1:06:54Speaker 03

  What do you mean, what did Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen did a better free throw line dunk than Michael Jordan? Look it up.

• 1:07:00Adam Sosnick?

  Shot's fired, dawg.

• 1:07:01Speaker 03

  Look it up, look it up, look at, look at Michael Jordan's, uh, uh.

• 1:07:05Adam Sosnick?

  Greatest poster of NBA of all time.

• 1:07:07Speaker 03

  Why Scottie Pippen, I bet he went further.

• 1:07:09Patrick Bet-David?

  I've seen it.

• 1:07:09Speaker 03

  Why, why Scottie Pippen, I bet his jump is further, his, his further back.

• 1:07:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:15Speaker 03

  And he's fully extended.

• 1:07:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, Scottie's also got those, you know, a lot of times they talk about how big Jordan's hands are. I mean, Scottie's hands.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  Scottie don't win without, I mean, Michael don't win without Scottie.

• 1:07:27Speaker 03

  Let's do it.

• 1:07:28Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't think?

• 1:07:30Speaker 03

  Did he win without him?

• 1:07:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, did, did Scottie ever win without Michael?

• 1:07:34Speaker 03

  But Michael was supposed to be the man.

• 1:07:37Patrick Bet-David?

  This, this, this is the one you're talking about, so let's see this.

• 1:07:39Speaker 03

  Watch where he take off from.

• 1:07:40Adam Sosnick?

  This is in a dunk contest?

• 1:07:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:42Adam Sosnick?

  But Scottie never won a dunk contest, right?

• 1:07:44Speaker 03

  Because he didn't have the whole Nike behind him.

• 1:07:46Adam Sosnick?

  He didn't have the showmanship.

• 1:07:47Patrick Bet-David?

  You're gonna say Nike.

• 1:07:48Speaker 03

  No, he didn't have Nike behind him like Jordan did.

• 1:07:50Adam Sosnick?

  Ah, the crowd.

• 1:07:52Patrick Bet-David?

  What was Scottie's shoe, was it Converse or was he, was he Adidas?

• 1:07:57Speaker 03

  Watch how easy he did this, from the free throw line, uh, uh. Look how easy he did that.

• 1:08:01Adam Sosnick?

  But watch Jordan's dunk from the free throw line.

• 1:08:03Speaker 03

  Only because Jordan has a ball head and he has shorter shorts on.

• 1:08:06Adam Sosnick?

  Dwight, how are you gonna start hating on Michael Jordan on the podcast right now?

• 1:08:09Speaker 03

  I'm not, I hate it, I love Michael Jordan.

• 1:08:12Patrick Bet-David?

  So then.

• 1:08:12Speaker 03

  He got the short shorts, he got the gum chewing, he got the ears, he just looked like he's about to go flying.

• 1:08:18Patrick Bet-David?

  He got fifty on it, Jerome Kersey was fun to watch, Blazers. Let's see this. Look at the walk, the smooth, effortless. Boom, no, he pumped, no, he, he, he brought it back.

• 1:08:29Adam Sosnick?

  Dwight.

• 1:08:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Dwight.

• 1:08:30Adam Sosnick?

  But you have to give credit where credit's due because you'll understand this better than maybe anybody.

• 1:08:34Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:08:35Adam Sosnick?

  Showmanship counts.

• 1:08:36Speaker 03

  What did he do that was?

• 1:08:37Adam Sosnick?

  Showmanship counts.

• 1:08:38Speaker 03

  The same dunk.

• 1:08:39Adam Sosnick?

  The whole deal.

• 1:08:40Speaker 03

  He was just darker than Pippen.

• 1:08:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so what do you think is vertical leaps?

• 1:08:43Adam Sosnick?

  But you put on a cape, you, you know about showmanship.

• 1:08:46Speaker 03

  Yes. Okay, what was the show about that he did the exact same dunk that Scottie Pippen did?

• 1:08:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, there's no way.

• 1:08:54Adam Sosnick?

  Scottie basically acted like he was just walking through the park and jumped out.

• 1:08:57Speaker 03

  And he did the same thing.

• 1:08:58Patrick Bet-David?

  SMG.

• 1:08:59Speaker 03

  And then they just got better pictures.

• 1:09:01Patrick Bet-David?

  You know who else did that? So did Brent Barry. Do you remember when Brent Barry dunked from the?

• 1:09:05Adam Sosnick?

  Without his, um.

• 1:09:06Speaker 03

  What's the difference between Brent Barry and Scottie Pippen?

• 1:09:08Adam Sosnick?

  He's a white guy.

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  The colorings. Jordan.

• 1:09:12Adam Sosnick?

  The colorings.

• 1:09:13Speaker 03

  Jordan is so.

• 1:09:14Adam Sosnick?

  Brent Barry didn't even take off his sweats.

• 1:09:16Speaker 03

  That's, that's what I'm saying. Nobody's expecting him to do this, and this is cold.

• 1:09:20Adam Sosnick?

  Expect the unexpected.

• 1:09:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Fast forward a little bit.

• 1:09:22Speaker 03

  I'm going.

• 1:09:23Patrick Bet-David?

  So we just, you just said you would beat Michael.

• 1:09:26Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:09:26Patrick Bet-David?

  You would.

• 1:09:27Speaker 03

  My prime dunks, I had more dunks than Michael in for the dunk contest.

• 1:09:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Go ahead, let's see this here.

• 1:09:32Speaker 03

  He got the windmill from out the paint.

• 1:09:34Patrick Bet-David?

  He doesn't even dribble though. No, there's no way. This is not even, it's not in the same.

• 1:09:39Adam Sosnick?

  They'll show.

• 1:09:40Speaker 03

  It was in the wrong city. Where was I at? San Antonio?

• 1:09:43Patrick Bet-David?

  You know Charles Barkley loves San Antonio.

• 1:09:44Speaker 03

  I know.

• 1:09:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Going back from you with.

• 1:09:47Adam Sosnick?

  Alonzo Mourning right here.

• 1:09:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Going back to you with, so you think you beat Michael in a dunk contest?

• 1:09:52Speaker 03

  Okay, what did Michael do in a dunk contest? He did the free throw line dunk and the windmill from.

• 1:09:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Sick.

• 1:09:59Speaker 03

  From outside the paint. That's easy.

• 1:10:01Adam Sosnick?

  He beat Dominique Wilkins.

• 1:10:03Speaker 03

  Which he wasn't supposed to. Dominique won those, but they gave it to Mike.

• 1:10:08Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, you're saying it's a conspiracy?

• 1:10:09Patrick Bet-David?

  You're gonna say because of Nike?

• 1:10:10Speaker 03

  Yes. Nike cannot see somebody else, like, they cannot see somebody else outside of Nike winning. They have to have.

• 1:10:18Patrick Bet-David?

  So who was Dominique Wilkins' shoe contract in that, you know, dunk contest? And who was Scottie's shoe contract? Let's see this here.

• 1:10:26Speaker 03

  Was it Nike?

• 1:10:27Patrick Bet-David?

  So he was Reebok, and then who was, uh?

• 1:10:30Adam Sosnick?

  It shows wisely.

• 1:10:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Who was Scottie Pippen's shoe contract? Who was it? Early in his year was, uh, deal with Avia, I don't even know who that is, then it was with Nike.

• 1:10:39Speaker 03

  Then he went to-

• 1:10:40Patrick Bet-David?

  So later on, he went with Nike, what he did. So what do you think Mike's, uh, vertical leap, it's not 48?

• 1:10:46Speaker 03

  I, I mean, he probably got a good 42.

• 1:10:50Patrick Bet-David?

  So he's got a 42?

• 1:10:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, but you're saying a 48 is so high.

• 1:10:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Who's the highest you ever saw? You played with a lot of guys. Did you ever see anybody, did you ever watch Shannon Brown? Did you ever see some of these Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady?

• 1:11:01Speaker 03

  Me and Vince did a dunk contest.

• 1:11:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Privately?

• 1:11:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:11:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Who won?

• 1:11:05Speaker 03

  He not gonna say it.

• 1:11:06Patrick Bet-David?

  He not gonna say it.

• 1:11:09Speaker 03

  But we both did this crazy dunk. One dribble from half court, two steps.

• 1:11:14Patrick Bet-David?

  How much of a running start do you have?

• 1:11:15Speaker 03

  No running start. You start at half court, you take one dribble, two steps. I was doing one dribble, two steps between the legs. One dribble, two steps, windmill.

• 1:11:24Patrick Bet-David?

  From half court?

• 1:11:24Speaker 03

  From half court.

• 1:11:26Patrick Bet-David?

  I mean, I've seen Giannis run up with two dribbles and he dunks, but he's got a running start.

• 1:11:30Speaker 03

  No, we start at half court. Boom. One, I was doing it in high school.

• 1:11:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Damn.

• 1:11:35Adam Sosnick?

  Dwight, you won how many NBA dunk contests? Two?

• 1:11:37Speaker 03

  One.

• 1:11:37Adam Sosnick?

  Just one?

• 1:11:38Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:11:38Adam Sosnick?

  So if you could put in order your top three, top five best NBA dunkers of all time?

• 1:11:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Ooh.

• 1:11:44Adam Sosnick?

  Where do you rank on that list and who's your top five, top 10?

• 1:11:47Speaker 03

  Okay, I, I put myself three.

• 1:11:51Speaker 03

  Uh, before, at number one is Vince Carter.

• 1:11:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Ahead of Mike?

• 1:11:56Speaker 03

  Ahead of Mike, yes. Have you seen Vince Carter's dunks?

• 1:12:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Olympics.

• 1:12:01Speaker 03

  Oh my god. He gotta be number one. Now, then you got two, you gotta go with Mike. Then you got Dominique Wilkins.

• 1:12:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Four?

• 1:12:13Speaker 03

  And nobody's putting him in here, but I gotta put him in here.

• 1:12:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Who's five?

• 1:12:16Speaker 03

  Darryl Dawkins.

• 1:12:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, you're going old school.

• 1:12:18Speaker 03

  Darryl Dawkins.

• 1:12:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 1:12:19Adam Sosnick?

  Was his nickname Sexual Chocolate or something like that?

• 1:12:22Speaker 03

  No, that was mine.

• 1:12:24Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:12:25Speaker 03

  That's Rick James.

• 1:12:27Adam Sosnick?

  No, Darryl Dawkins, what was his nickname?

• 1:12:28Speaker 03

  Chocolate Thunder, man.

• 1:12:30Adam Sosnick?

  My bad.

• 1:12:30Speaker 03

  Come on. Sexual Chocolate, that's what coming to America.

• 1:12:33Adam Sosnick?

  Of course.

• 1:12:34Patrick Bet-David?

  You're going back to Darryl Dawkins.

• 1:12:36Speaker 03

  Yes, Dr. Dunkenstein.

• 1:12:38Adam Sosnick?

  Randy Watson.

• 1:12:39Speaker 03

  Randy Watson.

• 1:12:40Adam Sosnick?

  Does, where does LeBron rank on this list? He never won an NBA dunk contest.

• 1:12:45Speaker 03

  He didn't do one.

• 1:12:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Why didn't he do one?

• 1:12:47Adam Sosnick?

  Why didn't he do one?

• 1:12:48Patrick Bet-David?

  It's actually a very good question.

• 1:12:49Speaker 03

  LeBron is a dunk contest. No, he's a in-game dunker. I don't think he's a dunk contest dunk. I think it's two different things. In-game dunker, you have the crowd, you have everyone, you have the whole game going on. So you have the atmosphere and everything to lift you up. And the dunk contest is just you. You gotta find a way to entertain the crowd. You gotta find a way to muster up enough energy to get up and do crazy dunks. So I think that LeBron is a in-game dunker. Uh, he did do a dunk contest in high school, uh, for the McDonald's game. But I don't think it was exciting because he did basically the same dunk that he does now. The one hand like this, the reverse dunk like this. Um, those are his special dunks, you know, so.

• 1:13:33Adam Sosnick?

  CBD. So can I get my all-time top five? Number one, Mac McClung.

• 1:13:40Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:13:40Adam Sosnick?

  Number two, Brent Barry. Number three, I'm just naming white guys here, no, just kidding. But, um, where would you rank, um, Blake Griffin on this list? Cause a lot of people think that he's on top of everybody, maybe with the exception of Vince Carter.

• 1:13:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Blake?

• 1:13:57Speaker 03

  Blake top 10 all-time. He's top 10. Like the Kendrick Perkins, the, um, what's the one over New York? Timothy Mozgov.

• 1:14:08Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, yeah, dunked over seven footer, right?

• 1:14:10Speaker 03

  This one. He's probably got the most like crazy facials, cause.

• 1:14:16Patrick Bet-David?

  You know what you just reminded me about? You guys are talking about this. I, I actually want to know what you're gonna say about this is, you know, the Kobe dunk on you? Like, do you know which one I'm talking about?

• 1:14:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. Have you seen this one? You even talk about it, right? Can you, uh?

• 1:14:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, this is like out of control, doesn't make any sense and.

• 1:14:37Speaker 03

  I was a rookie.

• 1:14:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Was it your rookie year? Because most people don't talk about this dunk.

• 1:14:42Speaker 03

  Cause it was so long ago.

• 1:14:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Watch this, watch this. Po.

• 1:14:47Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:14:49Patrick Bet-David?

  That's your rookie year.

• 1:14:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:51Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, four.

• 1:14:52Speaker 03

  See, I, I thought he was gonna come over.

• 1:14:55Patrick Bet-David?

  You could have met him up there.

• 1:14:56Adam Sosnick?

  You got you Dwight.

• 1:14:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:57Patrick Bet-David?

  You wanted the, the.

• 1:14:58Speaker 03

  I don't know what I was doing because you know what? Um, I don't know what I was doing. I remember Brian Grant saying, welcome to the league, young fella. And I remember my homeboy, he made, it was my birthday right after that.

• 1:15:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Is that, is that, is that who I think?

• 1:15:13Adam Sosnick?

  Ray Allen.

• 1:15:14Speaker 03

  That was Steve Francis.

• 1:15:15Patrick Bet-David?

  No, that's not Ray Allen, that's Steve Francis.

• 1:15:16Speaker 03

  Oh, that was Steve Francis. Get out, get out. Young fella, man, get off the way.

• 1:15:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Good for Francis, why he was like that?

• 1:15:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:23Patrick Bet-David?

  So Francis was a tough teammate, pushing?

• 1:15:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, he didn't like that. He ain't like, uh, nobody dunking and messing with DJ. But you know what that did? It woke me up because before that I couldn't hear real good. And after that, I, I heard everything and I was like, you know what? I'm never letting nobody do this to me again. I got three, three Defensive Player of the Year awards after that. And I got in the weight room.

• 1:15:45Patrick Bet-David?

  How many games after you're rookie, like game one, what game is that when that happened?

• 1:15:49Speaker 03

  That was a while into the season.

• 1:15:51Patrick Bet-David?

  That was, that was deep into the season.

• 1:15:52Speaker 03

  No, actually it had to be early into the season, uh, before December. So, yeah, that was early into the season.

• 1:15:59Patrick Bet-David?

  And, and who's Kobe, like have you faced him yet? Like was this the first time? When this happens where it's kind of like, holy shit?

• 1:16:06Speaker 03

  I think it was because, um, he said, uh, our coach said, don't let Kobe split the, um, pick and roll. And so he split and picked a roll. And he said, Dwight, if he does, just come over high hands. Come, come over high hands. They say, you know, boom, oh. And that's all I heard was boom. Was the ball going through the rim, boom, and the whole crowd said, oh. I'm like, he got me good.

• 1:16:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Does it make sense, like when you see that up close and personal, does it make sense he's a 38 inch vertical? Is that about right?

• 1:16:44Speaker 03

  Um, I, see, it's all about angles and timing. And his angle was so fast to the basket and deliberate that my force wasn't enough to stop his force. If I would have came with the exact or even more force, we would have met and it probably would never happen. But you saw, I came over there like la la la la la, you know?

• 1:17:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:07Speaker 03

  So.

• 1:17:07Patrick Bet-David?

  But that would never happen to you, once you went into your defensive player.

• 1:17:10Speaker 03

  No, I would have ran, I would have jumped to meet him early. Either to put him on the ground and say, hey, you're not doing this. This is the only time you're gonna get. Or I'm gonna go up and I'm gonna grab the ball and block it.

• 1:17:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Olympics, when he went to the Olympics, you guys were on that crazy team, right? And it was actually very, uh, they did a documentary on that, that.

• 1:17:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:17:32Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't remember what it was called.

• 1:17:33Speaker 03

  The Redeemed Team?

• 1:17:33Patrick Bet-David?

  The Redeemed, is that what it was called? I actually liked it. Have you seen it or no? The documentary on that?

• 1:17:38Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:17:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, it's actually a, a good documentary when they're explaining different things. But you're there. This is the story when they say LeBron learned his work ethic from the Olympics from Kobe, right? That's what you hear about with a lot of people. When they're watching and seeing how he prepared, how Kobe prepared, the mornings, the afternoons, and, you know, Bosch tells a story of what it was like at the Olympics. He's, I'm going to the gym and I want you to come train with me. And he's training with this guy, and he's training with that guy. And it's a very different version of the story of the 92 Dream Team where, you know, Jordan and Chuck Daly are golfing every day, you know, and they're going out. They're just playing cards late night. And like, does Mike ever sleep? Like, what is wrong with this guy? This guy's gotta be a vampire, right?

• 1:18:23Patrick Bet-David?

  What was the Olympic like? Cause when you're talking ladies, Dwight, you know, you're tall, you're tough to avoid, and you're a good-looking guy, you've got a good smile, so I can only imagine what happened. So you walk me through who was fun, who was playing cards? You know, we've seen the, the video of you, Chris Paul, having the sandwich somewhere in China, and LeBron's talking, but some, I don't know where was, it was at, but what was the vibe like? What was Kobe like? What was LeBron like? And who was fun?

• 1:18:52Speaker 03

  See, I was, I was the youngest on the team. So for me, I was wide-eyed and I'm just watching everything, goofy, laughing.

• 1:19:04Speaker 03

  And everybody did their own thing, you know, Kobe, you know, obviously had his family and his wife there, so,

• 1:19:11Speaker 03

  didn't see too much of him, you know, outside of being with his family. And then, since we were in China, it's like, he was not gonna be able to go nowhere. And the fans were like, we couldn't even stay on the Olympic Village. We had to stay at another hotel that was way off from everybody else. And it was ridiculous, so.

• 1:19:29Patrick Bet-David?

  You're talking about Kobe's star power, like when he walked out, people would stop. Like, I remember the cheering.

• 1:19:34Speaker 03

  Oh, it was, it was ridiculous.

• 1:19:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Other Olympians wanted to take pictures and autographs.

• 1:19:39Speaker 03

  It was crazy. It was, it was insane. Yeah, it was pretty insane, but um.

• 1:19:48Speaker 03

  Oh, man, the vibe was immaculate, just being able to go out and sometimes we would go to the village and, you know, we would just kick it with, you know, all the, you know, competitors and stuff like that.

• 1:20:01Speaker 03

  But I was so young, man, I, I really didn't know what I was doing. I was, I was twenty-two. So at twenty-two, man, I'm just, just out there like, man, I'm playing on an Olympic team. I'm playing with Kobe, LeBron, Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Chris Paul, all these guys.

• 1:20:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Carmelo.

• 1:20:19Speaker 03

  Carmelo Wade, like.

• 1:20:22Patrick Bet-David?

  What a team.

• 1:20:23Speaker 03

  I'm just like, man, I'm, I'm the youngest guy, so. Everything was a blur to me. It was happening so fast, I'm seeing. Prime Kobe, I'm seeing bald head Dwyane Wade, like that's when he was going crazy, when he cut the hair off. It was all these different things, I'm, I'm watching like, wow, I'm in the middle of. Greatness and I don't even know what's going on, so then to win the Olympics. Uh, with everyone, to be in Beijing, to do all that. Oof, the vibes was.

• 1:20:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Was the partying as crazy as people were saying? Because, because this, you read the article, it's like. The athletes from around the world, they were hooking up so much that it was out of control. Was that what the partying was, or was it, that wasn't you?

• 1:21:10Speaker 03

  My name Bennett.

• 1:21:15Speaker 03

  No, but it was.

• 1:21:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Was it hardcore partying, or?

• 1:21:18Speaker 03

  I don't want to say it was hardcore partying, I didn't, I, I wasn't a party person back then, um, so.

• 1:21:25Patrick Bet-David?

  You matured later on the partying side.

• 1:21:27Speaker 03

  I would say when, when I played with the Lakers, with LeBron, we did have, you know, some parties and, you know, we would go to certain cities and stuff like that, but that's probably about it.

• 1:21:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Got it, so China was just chill and.

• 1:21:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, cuz we was on a mission, you know, so it was not a lot of stuff we could do. And then everybody wanted to meet us, take pictures and stuff like that. So, you know, there's nowhere for us to hide or do anything like that.

• 1:21:55Adam Sosnick?

  You're saying, uh, when you were in LA with LeBron, you were partying a little bit, what that? Best cities to party and then you've gone around, cuz I, listen, I'm from Miami, I see-

• 1:22:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Every city?

• 1:22:04Speaker 03

  Every city.

• 1:22:05Adam Sosnick?

  No, but San Antonio ain't Miami, though.

• 1:22:07Speaker 03

  San Antonio is not Miami, but San Antonio is San Antonio.

• 1:22:12Adam Sosnick?

  So, if, if you could give your top, you know, we did with Dunks. Top five cities to go out and party in.

• 1:22:19Speaker 03

  You can go out and have a great time in Utah.

• 1:22:22Adam Sosnick?

  Utah?

• 1:22:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Dry County?

• 1:22:24Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:22:24Speaker 03

  If you wanna call it dry, you can call it dry. Or you can get some of them, them lemon peppered gold wet wings. They can be, nah, just kidding, but San Antonio.

• 1:22:34Adam Sosnick?

  So, Salt Lake City's in your top five party cities?

• 1:22:37Speaker 03

  Salt Lake City, don't sleep on Salt Lake City. Don't sleep on Milwaukee.

• 1:22:43Adam Sosnick?

  Milwaukee?

• 1:22:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, don't sleep on these places.

• 1:22:45Adam Sosnick?

  Maybe that's why I don't keep you honest there, huh?

• 1:22:47Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't think any of that.

• 1:22:47Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:22:48Adam Sosnick?

  Alright.

• 1:22:49Speaker 03

  I would say LA-

• 1:22:50Adam Sosnick?

  You got three more cities?

• 1:22:51Speaker 03

  No, I would go LA, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, New York.

• 1:22:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Chicago, New York?

• 1:23:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:23:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Uh, Dwight, when you're, when you're, you know, you're playing ball.

• 1:23:04Adam Sosnick?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:23:04Patrick Bet-David?

  You know, like, I remember when we worked at Bally's, my manager would say, "Listen, anybody you wanna meet, you're gonna meet here. The nightclub people, the sports people, you're gonna meet everybody." And so we'd go to nightclubs, you had all these connections, just because, for whatever reason, the gym had a certain connection with people that would come. It was very weird. Why? I don't know why. NBA, you're in. You're going like this, courtside, you're seeing people that are there. And like, "Oh shit, this person's here to watch me play." Who was it, like, the first time we were like, "They're here to watch us play? Damn, that's crazy, I can't believe they're here." Who was that?

• 1:23:39Speaker 03

  Oh, man.

• 1:23:40Patrick Bet-David?

  First one, where you kinda were like starstruck.

• 1:23:45Speaker 03

  Well, see Beyonce.

• 1:23:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Beyonce?

• 1:23:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I used to be in love with Beyonce.

• 1:23:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Really?

• 1:23:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I loved her so much. So when I saw her, I was like, oh, it's Beyonce. But it wasn't at a basketball game. It was at a restaurant and she was like, oh, me and Jay are big fans. And it was crazy because I was like, man, I wish I could meet Beyonce. They come to the games, but I don't want to interrupt them at games and stuff like that. Uh, but Beyonce, that was the one. Um, but a lot of actors, Denzel used to come to a lot of games. Um, Jack, uh.

• 1:24:23Adam Sosnick?

  Jack Nicholson.

• 1:24:24Speaker 03

  Nicholson. Um, I used to just be like, man, they go Batman. You know, Batman's here. Well, I mean Joker.

• 1:24:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Joker.

• 1:24:32Speaker 03

  There's the Joker. Um, who, uh, what was her name? Uh, you seen Martin before?

• 1:24:39Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, of course, Geno's.

• 1:24:40Speaker 03

  No, uh, Pam. I used to be in love. I used to be in love with BDB. And so I remember being in LA and she came to one of my games and I was like, oh, man.

• 1:24:51Adam Sosnick?

  Really?

• 1:24:52Speaker 03

  I gotta talk to her.

• 1:24:54Adam Sosnick?

  Pam from Martin.

• 1:24:55Speaker 03

  That's what I ended up calling her instead of her real name.

• 1:24:58Adam Sosnick?

  What's up?

• 1:25:01Speaker 03

  I felt so bad. I was like, oh, my God, you're Pam.

• 1:25:04Patrick Bet-David?

  That makes sense still because that's what you know the person by. You know, you're thinking, uh, uh, partying, LA. Trying to see, Diddy had what? Diddy had a house in LA in Miami, right? Was it both or is it just Miami? Diddy?

• 1:25:18Speaker 03

  Like Puff?

• 1:25:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Puff did, yeah.

• 1:25:19Speaker 03

  I never went to his parties before, which is crazy.

• 1:25:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Really?

• 1:25:23Speaker 03

  Never in my life.

• 1:25:24Patrick Bet-David?

  So he never invited you to any of his parties?

• 1:25:26Speaker 03

  No, um, no, no, no, no. I've never been to one of his parties.

• 1:25:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Was it, was it like, because you know LeBron says that ain't no party like a Diddy party, you know, and you heard some, a lot of people saying that. Were, were you ever invited or no? You just weren't invited ever by him?

• 1:25:43Speaker 03

  I didn't even know you was having crazy parties. I used to have parties, but it wasn't like no Diddy bar. Say that. Yeah, no baby or jail. We just had water and, uh, pizza.

• 1:25:58Adam Sosnick?

  You been following the Diddy stories at all? You been following it?

• 1:26:01Speaker 03

  Uh, nah, I can't.

• 1:26:03Adam Sosnick?

  You stay out of it?

• 1:26:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, cuz, you know, we don't really know what's true, what's not true. You know, anybody could get in the court and allegedly say this happened or that happened. You know, a lot of times that's what the lawyers tell them to do. We're gonna make, you gotta make it seem like this person did the craziest thing to you. So the judges and the, well, the judge and the, um, the jury can listen and stuff like that. So it's like, man, you don't really know what's true and what's not true, you know? So, again, he has a family, he has kids, grandkids, and, you know, obviously Cass and everybody is involved. They have family and stuff like that, you know? I just hate that when people have public, or when they have cases, that it's so open to the public and people can, you know, see and stuff like that.

• 1:26:47Speaker 03

  I think some things should be kept private, you know, especially for the kids' sake and for all these generation kids' sakes. They don't need to be knowing about, um, Johnson and Johnson, baby, or man using different ways and what, you know, I used it for when I was a kid.

• 1:27:05Patrick Bet-David?

  So when, did you have guys that would tell you, they're like, hey, Dwight, don't go to this. Don't hang out with that guy. Don't party over here. Don't do this. Were there guys that would mentally prepare you for things or no? Like the vets or maybe coaches?

• 1:27:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, the vets, uh, the one thing that our coach said, I'll never forget this. He said, "Don't let Miami seduce you." And that was the one thing I will never forget.

• 1:27:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Who said, which coach was this?

• 1:27:33Speaker 03

  Johnny Davis, when I first got into the league. He said, "Don't let Miami seduce you." Miami can seduce you.

• 1:27:39Adam Sosnick?

  I don't know what you're talking about, Dwight.

• 1:27:41Speaker 03

  I do. I mean, if you go out, Fort Lauderdale and all, all over Boca Raton, it's just, see, we, we call them, um... See, we're always in the locker room with, you know, we call them the, what do you call them? The legs, the hairy legs. We don't wanna be around hairy legs when we're not playing. We want some soft legs, be around some nice looking women. So if you go to Miami, we'll seduce you cuz it's a lot of beautiful women in Miami or in the Florida area. So he used to always tell us and tell me... Personally.

• 1:28:14Patrick Bet-David?

  To you.

• 1:28:14Speaker 03

  Dwight, do not let Miami seduce you.

• 1:28:18Adam Sosnick?

  What was that your, so I've seen, I've been around the NBA players a little bit. Some guys are into, you know, smoking a little bit, that's their thing. Some guys like to drink, they can show up wasted.

• 1:28:27Speaker 03

  Before a game.

• 1:28:29Adam Sosnick?

  Some guys are into cars, some guys are into, you know, jewelry and all that. Some guys are just straight up, I like the women. What was your vice? How did you like navigate the NBA? Where did you, you know, kind of fall into the spectrum? Cause we all have it.

• 1:28:41Speaker 03

  I think, um, what money, when you get a chance to have any type of money, it, it kind of bring out, it can bring out, you know, some of the things, your addictions and stuff like that. Um, so when I was first in the league, I didn't, I didn't drink, I didn't party, I didn't go out. But I did like getting cars a little bit, you know, I did have some nice cars and, um, I dated a lot.

• 1:29:16Adam Sosnick?

  You mean, give Will Chamberlain a run for his money, or you're kind of doing your own thing?

• 1:29:19Speaker 03

  I don't want to say. Uh, but when I was in Orlando.

• 1:29:24Patrick Bet-David?

  20, 1,000 women.

• 1:29:26Speaker 03

  When I was in Orlando, my nickname was, uh, Little Wilt.

• 1:29:32Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:29:32Speaker 03

  But I didn't like that, I don't like that name.

• 1:29:35Adam Sosnick?

  Dwight, you're how old now?

• 1:29:40Speaker 03

  I don't like it.

• 1:29:43Adam Sosnick?

  It's competitive.

• 1:29:44Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's a, it's a different reference you made, I don't know if you caught it, he did an interview one time. I don't know what it was with you and that one girl's like, you know, today, uh, it was, uh, it was all about the D.

• 1:29:57Patrick Bet-David?

  And she's not tracking, and I don't know who's standing to your left, who was that on your left that just ran off? Who was it?

• 1:30:03Speaker 03

  It was Dennis Schroder. Oh, man, we got in so much trouble.

• 1:30:08Patrick Bet-David?

  It was all about the D, you know, it's just, and then it's, it's the D is what.

• 1:30:11Speaker 03

  I felt so bad, I felt so bad because, see, this, this is the thing, I'm not thinking like.

• 1:30:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Stop Dwight.

• 1:30:17Speaker 03

  This is, this is.

• 1:30:19Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm not buying this now.

• 1:30:22Speaker 03

  Now, now, this, this is crazy.

• 1:30:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Let, let the audience see first, and then you can, you can, you can narrate. Go ahead, Rob.

• 1:30:28Speaker 03

  I feel bad.

• 1:30:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Did a good job here, been shot, so then on, on the other hand, we got some stops, our, our D was good tonight.

• 1:30:38Speaker 04

  Before the game, Kent Bazemore told me it's too far into the season to allow two losses back to back. If you agree with that, how important is that win?

• 1:30:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, it's very important, but it starts with the D. You know what you're doing, Dwight.

• 1:30:50Adam Sosnick?

  You know exactly what you're doing.

• 1:30:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Stop it. You're like, I didn't do it on purpose.

• 1:30:54Speaker 03

  So, so.

• 1:30:55Patrick Bet-David?

  First of all, the question is, did you ever play defense on her? That's the question.

• 1:30:59Speaker 03

  I can't doubt that Ashley was one of my teammates, Sam Decker. That's his wife.

• 1:31:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, shoot. And you didn't know that?

• 1:31:05Speaker 03

  No, we, that, it was all, we were, we all know each other, you know, like, so this is like, I'm just joking about like,

• 1:31:13Adam Sosnick?

  Gorgeous.

• 1:31:13Speaker 03

  You know, like, us playing defense and using the D as a reference.

• 1:31:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Stop it.

• 1:31:19Speaker 03

  Which, you know, was very immature at the time. Um, and I wanted to laugh and, you know, I, I, I shouldn't have did it. You know, I feel bad for it because, you know, I was supposed to be a representation of the team. Representation to the league as an older player and, you know, as a vet, I shouldn't have done that with Dennis. He's looking up to me and stuff like that. Um, but again, you know, I was, I took it too far.

• 1:31:47Adam Sosnick?

  I don't, I don't.

• 1:31:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I took it too far.

• 1:31:49Adam Sosnick?

  I think it was okay. But, by the way, you're about to be 40 this year.

• 1:31:52Speaker 03

  My coaches, my coach went crazy on my name.

• 1:31:53Adam Sosnick?

  Did he really?

• 1:31:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Who was the coach?

• 1:31:54Speaker 03

  Oh, my God. Um.

• 1:31:56Adam Sosnick?

  That was Mike Woodson, wasn't it?

• 1:31:57Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't Mike Woodson. It was, why do I forget his name? He was just in, um, he was just in Phoenix. He was just in Phoenix.

• 1:32:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, Amont, uh, uh, uh, Monty, Monta. You know who I'm talking about? Who was?

• 1:32:12Speaker 03

  Mike Bootenhozer.

• 1:32:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:32:15Adam Sosnick?

  Atlanta was great back then.

• 1:32:16Speaker 03

  I should have did what I did because, um, the team didn't like that. Uh, and it was wrong. I felt so bad, uh, at the time. After I did it, because I wanted some, I was doing it for shits and giggles and stuff like that, but not realizing like, I can't be saying this on national TV.

• 1:32:37Patrick Bet-David?

  You cannot be saying that.

• 1:32:38Speaker 03

  Me, I can't be saying like, see the thing is, a lot of times like,

• 1:32:44Speaker 03

  So I know people say like this might be crazy, but there's DH 12. DH 12 is the basketball player on Duncan. Then you got Dwight Howard, that's at home. That's the jokester, the prankster, the, you know, family man, you know, all these different things. That's Dwight Howard, that's daily base. So what, what I did was mix Dwight Howard with the professional DH 12. DH 12 can't be doing that. DH 12 dominate basketball, go out there, be the professional. Dwight Howard is behind closed doors. Whatever your vices are, whatever you want, you gotta keep those there, you know? So a lot of times I think that's what has cost me in my career with, you know, certain things

• 1:33:25Speaker 03

  because I've kind of mixed, you know, you know, the person I am is Dwight Howard off the court with who I have to be on the court.

• 1:33:35Patrick Bet-David?

  It's so funny because when I watch you, you, you remind me of an old friend who is playful and jokes around about stuff and, and always wanted to leave a little bit of suspense and, and, you know? And you've done stuff where, you know, the, the market is like, is Dwight Howard straight? Does Dwight Howard, you know, when you do the gay stuff and it's like?

• 1:33:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:33:56Patrick Bet-David?

  And then the market reacts and I'm like, so this guy's either straight, he's gay, he's bisexual, he's fooling everybody. So which one is it? So is, are you playing? You're not gay at all?

• 1:34:06Speaker 03

  Hell no, I'm not gay. So that, that, that thing started with me being in Houston. I was with the Rockets and one of my teammates was Isaiah Cannon. And so there's this clip where it looks like I grabbed his joint on the bench. But it was his thigh, but the way I did it, it looked like I grabbed his thing and it was just his pants. And so we were, um...

• 1:34:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob really wants to see how you grabbed it. So Rob is like really making this.

• 1:34:35Speaker 03

  This right there.

• 1:34:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Which one is it?

• 1:34:37Speaker 03

  This right, I had just got finished during the interview. They're 14. And, you know, people were trying to make it seem like I was doing something, um...

• 1:34:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me see it, Rob.

• 1:34:46Speaker 03

  Really strange. So I kind of grabbed his thigh and it, it don't, it looks real nasty. But...

• 1:34:55Speaker 03

  It looks real nasty, but see, people don't know I'm a jokester. I like to play around, you know, and do crazy stuff. And I remember one of my teammates, Trevor Riza, used to always say, all right, now you play like you gay, people gonna really think you gay, so you can't be doing that. And so I'm like, man, I ain't gay, I'm not, this is just jokes. But we do live in a society where, you know, they see something, or they might hear something, or somebody say something crazy, then it could put you out there in a way that's not good, you know. So I had this situation, in a situation of me talking about the D, all this crazy stuff.

• 1:35:37Speaker 03

  So now you got people assuming and saying things like that, so.

• 1:35:41Patrick Bet-David?

  If you came out today and you said you're gay, you would be the number one profile on Grindr. I mean, you would be hit up like, people would be like, Dwight Howard has officially made the announcement.

• 1:35:51Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 1:35:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so that's good that we cleared it up, because you know that that one, that rumor started circulating, a lot of people were talking about it. Let me go to this next thing. You just had a scuffle with Lance Stevenson in the, what is it, Big Three or whatever happened, yeah. So what's crazy is, like, we had a cube here, I think a year ago, Rob, year and a half ago, something like that, and he was here because of what's going on with Big Three and, and the, the, the only, the last time I saw anything with Big Three, when then all of a sudden I went and tracked who was the MVP of the Big Three and the coaches, and then you saw Stephen Jackson on the log from calling, I don't know if you saw that clip or not. Rob, please, this clip, what happened here with you and Stephen? Go ahead.

• 1:37:05Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web. Like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

• 1:37:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Is this an act or is this real?

• 1:37:37Speaker 03

  No, it's no act.

• 1:37:40Speaker 03

  But it's too much going on.

• 1:37:43Speaker 03

  So the whole game, it was a lot of...

• 1:37:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you find another angle? Because I haven't seen this angle. This is the angle. Watch this. Go for it.

• 1:37:53Speaker 03

  You see, like, he put his hand up in my face like he was gonna punch me. And so, when that happened, I'm like, yo, bro, like, you doing too much. And then he did it again, like he was gonna, like he was gonna punch me. And so I put my guard up because I'm like, if somebody put their... Like, this is a far, a far reach for somebody to connect with a punch. But when somebody's, like I tell my kids, if somebody is in your space, in your boundary, and they put their hands up, you gotta always be ready for it. You never know. And so when he did that, I'm like, okay. And I'm like, this is too much. But then, once I got grabbed him and did all that, I said, oh, shoot, now I'm already in it.

• 1:38:39Speaker 03

  It's a lot going on, but, you know, I don't want... That's why I was saying, I don't want people to look at me and say, oh, baby, he's a hothead, and this is how he is.

• 1:38:50Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't think anybody would ever call you a hothead.

• 1:38:53Speaker 03

  Well, see, when I was in Orlando and leaving Orlando and going to these different teams, I was called a cancer. I was called this type of person in the locker room. And I hate that, you know? That's not who I am.

• 1:39:03Patrick Bet-David?

  But that's different, though. I heard that. What I'm saying is, I don't think anybody called you a hothead. I think when you were, you know, the same thing when LeBron left to Cleveland, to Miami, he got the treatment, you got the treatment when you left. Because the Rich DeVos family, the Magic kinda looked at you as like their son and they really loved on you and they were protective of you and they really wanted to make the investment for that next layer to have. By the way, you were never, were you ever teammates with T-Mac or no?

• 1:39:29Speaker 03

  No, he left and he said he didn't wanna be no teammates with a high schooler. And I'm like.

• 1:39:34Patrick Bet-David?

  He didn't say that.

• 1:39:35Speaker 03

  Bro, you came out of high school.

• 1:39:36Patrick Bet-David?

  He didn't say that.

• 1:39:38Speaker 03

  He did, something similar to it, like he don't, you know, he don't have time to play with a high schooler. I kinda.

• 1:39:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Two, the two of you guys.

• 1:39:45Speaker 03

  I kinda understand, but see, me playing with him, I probably wouldn't have developed. Same thing with Kobe and Andrew Bynum, because you have a main scorer, somebody who's gonna get a lot of buckets, so he's not gonna be trusting me in his prime years to win, cuz I gotta develop. So he's like, why would I give him the ball? Like, and I understand, you know, something similar to that, but I was like, dang, I really, I used to wear his shoes in high school, the T-Mac's from Adidas, they was the, one of the coldest shoes ever. So I was like, man, playing with T-Mac would've been, would've been great, but think about it. McGrady at that time, the, almost the pinnacle of his career, after that, he went to Houston

• 1:40:27Speaker 03

  and he, then he do like the three, thirteen points, thirteen points in like thirty seconds, something crazy.

• 1:40:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Spurs, that's against the Spurs, I think.

• 1:40:39Speaker 03

  So I think that for my development sake, I think that's why the Magic was like, we're gonna move away from him and then bring in Grant Hill, Steve Francis, Katino Mobley, you know, all these guys, Tony Baty, some veteran mindset, some people, cuz we haven't seen this young kid before. He's coming from a sixteen graduate school, sixteen people graduate, you know, school, where it's six guys, ten girls, he's coming from a small area, you know, into this, to this team, so let's try to put him around some people that could kinda guide him in the right direction, you know? So I understood what they were doing, but for me, then I had a lot of, you know, people

• 1:41:24Speaker 03

  who was not used to money, not used to working with teams and stuff like that. I was very young, you know, so trusting family, trusting cousins and stuff and things like that. And it didn't work out well, but I learned so many life lessons. That helped me with my future.

• 1:41:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, ma- magic was, you know, there's guys that are winners on teams. They're not fun to watch. There's teams that are winners and they're fun to watch. Like I couldn't watch Cleveland Cavs back in the days, Mark Price and Gerald Wilkins and whatever, Craig Elo and they're winning.

• 1:42:05Speaker 03

  Hot Rod Williams, Larry Nance.

• 1:42:07Patrick Bet-David?

  I couldn't even watch the Spurs. I couldn't even watch the Spurs. Too much, all fundamentals. Maybe Parker was a little exciting. Probably the most exciting player on this Spurs was Geno, right? But there was no excitement there, right? But dude, you watched the Magic. At any point, it's like, whoa, he's gone.

• 1:42:24Speaker 03

  It was, it was a lot of.

• 1:42:26Patrick Bet-David?

  You watched T Mac, you watched Carter. Marbury was fun to watch. AI was fun to watch.

• 1:42:32Speaker 03

  I feel like it was real entertainment back then.

• 1:42:34Patrick Bet-David?

  It was entertainment. It was, yeah.

• 1:42:35Speaker 03

  Remember it was N B A E? NBA, actual NBA entertainment. I think now, see, that's what I was used to, the whole entertainment. And that's, a lot of times I got caught up in entertaining. So, the whole D thing that I did, all the others. A lot of time, I'm like, okay, I gotta entertain. And that, that kinda can twist players' minds and coaches or teammates and like, maybe he's not as focused because he's trying to entertain. But it's like, hold up, this is why 20,000 people are here. I done already put in the hard work in the gym, in the weight room. I done did all the crazy stuff, the mean stuff.

• 1:43:15Speaker 03

  Now with the 20,000 people out here, I gotta, they, they coming to see Superman one time. This is the only time they get to see me play.

• 1:43:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Dwight, who had a physique like you, as tall as you? Shaq was big, but Shaq wasn't like a physique, physique like that. Looking like a bodybuilder. David Robinson. Oh, you know who else? Kevin Wilkins.

• 1:43:34Speaker 03

  Kevin Willis. That's what made me get strong.

• 1:43:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Kevin Willis?

• 1:43:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I remember.

• 1:43:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Kevin Willis, I'm sorry, Kevin Willis.

• 1:43:40Speaker 03

  One day I tried to box him out and he did a chicken wing on me. Yeah, he was a strong ass dude. He had little short arms. Just look at his arms. He can't even touch his knees.

• 1:43:49Patrick Bet-David?

  No, he's a.

• 1:43:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Did I say that out loud? I did not say that. Y'all are crazy people.

• 1:43:57Adam Sosnick?

  Also, I think Giannis has kinda got a build like you.

• 1:43:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Giannis does.

• 1:44:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:44:00Adam Sosnick?

  Alonzo Mourning a little bit.

• 1:44:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Alonzo had a great physique.

• 1:44:04Adam Sosnick?

  By the way, speaking of these big guys, you're kinda like.

• 1:44:09Adam Sosnick?

  The end of what I would call like the great true centers.

• 1:44:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:44:12Adam Sosnick?

  When you came in the league, bro, I mean, between David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, uh, Zo, Rick Smits even, Shaq, legend. I mean, now you have Jokic a little bit.

• 1:44:24Patrick Bet-David?

  You say Rick Smits, like Pacers?

• 1:44:25Adam Sosnick?

  Rick Smits, hello, okay.

• 1:44:27Speaker 03

  He was so fire.

• 1:44:27Adam Sosnick?

  He was huge.

• 1:44:28Speaker 03

  He was giving people.

• 1:44:29Adam Sosnick?

  But now you got Jokic a little bit.

• 1:44:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Rick Smits got a shout out today.

• 1:44:31Adam Sosnick?

  I mean, guys, Indiana Pacers were in the finals now, come on. You know, Jokic.

• 1:44:36Patrick Bet-David?

  They're down 3-2.

• 1:44:36Adam Sosnick?

  Joel Embiid, we'll see what happens there. Who's your all time, like, who would you mirror your game after? I don't know what happened with you and Shaq, I would love for you to elaborate on that. But just the guys you, the guys that you would elaborate on.

• 1:44:47Speaker 03

  I never had a problem with Shaq. I don't know why he was tripping. I would.

• 1:44:50Adam Sosnick?

  Shaq was tripping on you for a little while.

• 1:44:52Speaker 03

  It's so crazy, looking back on it. Um, I had the, I would say the intensity like Zo. I like to play hard, um, lift weights and go hard like Zo did go for. I felt like his motor was different. Uh, so when we played against the Heat and they had him and Shaq. I would have rather gone against Shaq than Zo, only because Zo was gonna give me a fight every play. You know what I'm saying? And Shaq.

• 1:45:18Adam Sosnick?

  Zo was a better defender.

• 1:45:20Speaker 03

  Zo was just out there on every play, you know? Shaq is just, I'm, I'm too big and too strong, I'm gonna just kick them all in the face and it's over with. Um, but, uh.

• 1:45:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Did Zo come in same year as Larry Johnson, big, uh, was it Grandma Ma? Or did Zo come in with Shaq same year?

• 1:45:38Speaker 03

  I think it was Shaq, because they was going for Ricky of the year together.

• 1:45:41Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, I think Shaq was one and then Zo was two. I think that was 1992, I would say.

• 1:45:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, but they fought, that's what it is. LJ fought, uh, Lousa Mourning, if you remember that one fight.

• 1:45:49Speaker 03

  He was my favorite player, one of my favorite players, Larry Johnson, cuz he Grandma Ma.

• 1:45:53Patrick Bet-David?

  What is he doing? Is he around? Like, I haven't heard anything from.

• 1:45:57Speaker 03

  And it's so crazy because a lot of the players that were swole back then.

• 1:46:01Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:02Speaker 03

  Well, the last time I saw Larry Johnson, it was just like he was lean, like, real lean. He cut up.

• 1:46:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, he was a human.

• 1:46:09Speaker 03

  He was, oh my god.

• 1:46:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Did he win a dunk contest, or he went into a dunk contest and didn't win?

• 1:46:13Speaker 03

  I used to love Charlotte.

• 1:46:15Adam Sosnick?

  He had a great personality.

• 1:46:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:46:17Adam Sosnick?

  But, but back to the centers. I mean, even Patrick Ewing. Who was your, you're saying, you're saying that Zo was who you mirrored your game after the most?

• 1:46:24Speaker 03

  No, I didn't mirror my game after any center, cuz I didn't wanna play center. So I watched, I wanted to be a point guard, so I watched Magic Johnson, I wanted to be a 6'9", 6'10" point guard. So I played point guard all the way until my senior year in high school. And then when I first got to the league, I was a four. And then they changed me to the five.

• 1:46:43Adam Sosnick?

  Who was the five?

• 1:46:44Speaker 03

  Tony Baty and Kelvin Cato. Cause I was faster than a lot of guys. So instead of having a taller center, they put me at center because I could.

• 1:46:53Adam Sosnick?

  Makes sense.

• 1:46:53Speaker 03

  Even though I was not a seven two or seven three, I could jump and my arms was as long. And I was a good defender, so they started interchanging me four and five. This is when four and fives was not shooting threes. Our first stretch big was Dirk and the whiskey. And then Kevin Garnett did a little bit and then he like Dirk did stretch threes. Kevin Garnett did two pointers, but at right on, he would stand on the three point line. Like, what are you doing KG?

• 1:47:26Adam Sosnick?

  Just shoot threes.

• 1:47:27Speaker 03

  This is a tweener. You're messing us up, you know, but uh, yeah.

• 1:47:30Adam Sosnick?

  So back to Shaq, what, what, because you both got drafted from Orlando.

• 1:47:33Speaker 03

  I don't know what it was.

• 1:47:34Adam Sosnick?

  Number one pick, you both called Superman, both physically dominant.

• 1:47:39Speaker 03

  I don't know what it was.

• 1:47:40Adam Sosnick?

  He had an issue with you and you didn't necessarily uh, want to like fight back? What was, what was it? There was something there, was there not?

• 1:47:47Speaker 03

  I don't know what he really had an issue with.

• 1:47:49Adam Sosnick?

  He had an issue though, can we agree on that?

• 1:47:51Speaker 03

  I, I believe so because I didn't see a lot of other players that he talked about the way that he was just going on about me for the longest. Um, but again, the last time I saw him was in Orlando. Um, and I was just before that I said, man, if I see Shaq, no matter where we're at, I'm going to go and talk to him. Cause this got to stop. Like first of all, he's damn near my dad age. Second of all, like I watched him play my whole life, so I have the most respect for him as a player. And you know, being the most dominant center to ever play, but like. What is our issue here? You know what I'm saying? Like, what really is our issue?

• 1:48:34Speaker 03

  Like, I don't know you from nowhere for us to have this type of issue.

• 1:48:37Patrick Bet-David?

  But I get it, though. But I get it, though. Because, you know, to me, like, when I followed that very closely as a fan, like, you know, sometimes fans feel like they really know you and they want to tell you what to do. Well, I'm talking from the fan's perspective. And Shaq came in. Shaq was another one of those in the, you know, category of human specimen most dominant guy that came in and just killed it, right? But Kobe said something about Shaq. He said, "The thing that made Shaq unique was Shaq big, but Shaq was vicious." His words. And when I interviewed Kobe six, seven years ago, whatever the timeline was to lead Kobe, great conversation. So Shaq was vicious. Now, here's the thing. He's raised by a military dad, extreme discipline.

• 1:49:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Shaq was raised by girls that were tough on him and, you know, he was challenged to be who he is. And then that's Shaq. That's his wiring. And then you come in, that's not your personality. Your personality is not that. Just like LeBron's personality is not at all like Kobe or Michael, right? They're very different. And you're just trying to enjoy playing the game. And, you know, the vets would constantly like to compare you. He doesn't do this. If I was him, when I was 28, 14, 28, 15, I made the free throws when he counted. So it was like the older brother picking on the younger brother. And the younger brother's just trying to enjoy the game. That was the vibe that I felt from it. And then lineage. Orlando, Orlando. Okay? So if he would have won at Orlando and Shaq didn't,

• 1:50:07Patrick Bet-David?

  you know, these were the moments that the market was like right now. Halliburton had a shot at winning for the Pacers. They're down 3-2. They should have won the two games ago when they were up 2-1. And they were up like 13 points in the third quarter. And then all of a sudden, I go to sleep with Dylan. I'm like, "Oh, it's over." Wake up, what? They won by seven? What did OKC do? You come back, the guy had however many points in the fourth quarter. They seem like they're repeating again what happened when Vogel took Hibbert out. Kobe played at the center, the All-Star that year. Savage like 16 points a game. So to me, it's that constant comparison. It's like, dude, I just want to play in a Superman, Superman. That's how I saw it.

• 1:50:45Speaker 03

  I hate it because comparison to me, comparison is the thief of joy. And anytime you try to compare someone's game to another game, then now you're belittling both players. Because me and Shaq are two different prototypes. You know, he's seven three, three hundred and sixty pounds.

• 1:51:07Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:08Speaker 03

  Three twenty.

• 1:51:09Adam Sosnick?

  Built different.

• 1:51:10Speaker 03

  You know, I'm really six ten. And my highest is two sixty five, two seventy.

• 1:51:17Adam Sosnick?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:51:18Speaker 03

  You're talking about a behemoth of a man with Shaq being seven two, seven three. My voice is never that deep.

• 1:51:27Speaker 03

  Let me stop. But no, I love Shaq.

• 1:51:30Adam Sosnick?

  But you're saying the next time I see Shaq, I'm gonna go over and talk to him. You never reached out and said, dude, why are you?

• 1:51:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, we did, you know, but I was like, I'm tired of going back and forth on the internet or text messaging. I wanna see him in person, like this back and forth, we gotta stop, whatever it is. So when I got inducted into the Magic Hall of Fame, I saw him in, um, where was we at? Orlando at this restaurant. I was like, man, I'm finna go over there and talk to him.

• 1:51:58Adam Sosnick?

  How long ago was this?

• 1:52:00Speaker 03

  This was a couple of months ago.

• 1:52:01Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, this is very recent.

• 1:52:02Speaker 03

  Recent.

• 1:52:02Adam Sosnick?

  So you went up and you said, hey Shaq, what's going on?

• 1:52:04Speaker 03

  What's up, dawg? We gotta sit down, let's talk.

• 1:52:06Adam Sosnick?

  And he said what?

• 1:52:07Speaker 03

  He said, let's go.

• 1:52:08Adam Sosnick?

  So how'd that conversation go?

• 1:52:10Speaker 03

  We sat down thirty, about thirty minutes, um, cleared some things up. I apologized if he felt, if I felt like I, if, he said he apologized if, if I felt like I did. If he did anything that was hating or anything like that.

• 1:52:26Adam Sosnick?

  It was great.

• 1:52:27Speaker 03

  But that's not who he is.

• 1:52:27Adam Sosnick?

  I love that.

• 1:52:28Speaker 03

  Um, he wasn't trying to hate, he was trying to motivate me. And I told him, you know, I felt like, you know, if you wanted to do that, I think the best way to do it was to come, talk to me behind closed doors. Instead of saying things publicly, now you giving other people an opportunity to chime in. And now you got people on the outside messing up a relationship that they don't know nothing about. And we could've been done, got this squashed or whatever it may be a long time ago. But again, let's do it now, let's get this out of the way.

• 1:53:01Adam Sosnick?

  But it took, if this was a couple of months, it took twenty years to have this conversation?

• 1:53:05Speaker 03

  I had to stop playing.

• 1:53:07Patrick Bet-David?

  It did.

• 1:53:08Speaker 03

  I couldn't do anything.

• 1:53:09Adam Sosnick?

  What do you think, because you've sat down with Shaq, I know you guys have a relationship, obviously we're meeting Dwight.

• 1:53:15Patrick Bet-David?

  But I totally get it. No, no, I totally get, you have to realize like, when a player's, and I'm just gonna tell you from my person, when a player's in your city, you look at that as your son. I know this sounds weird, as a fan, but that's the like, we looked at Kobe like, ours. He's ours, right? That's how you look at a player, and there's always the expectations, always gonna be high, while they're playing. Once it's done, you know what everybody says? We're gonna miss Dwight. That's how this works. Like, you know, the game is over with like, I miss Nick Van Exel. Really, I mean, when the Lakers had nobody, number nine, I think, I think his number was number nine, can you see what Nick Van Exel's number was? I so enjoyed watching him play.

• 1:53:59Speaker 03

  I did too.

• 1:53:59Patrick Bet-David?

  I so enjoyed watching him play. Yeah, nine, I enjoyed watching, what was his name on the Lakers?

• 1:54:04Speaker 03

  Anthony Peal?

• 1:54:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Anthony Peal or Lefty, dude, I just liked, by the way, did you know Anthony Peal got into a fight with Garnett and threw an elbow? Peal was a tough guy, Peal wasn't like a...

• 1:54:12Speaker 03

  Peal was a tough guy.

• 1:54:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, Peal was fun, I read his rookie card. He didn't do anything crazy, but I enjoyed watching Peal play, and they step away like, oh man, we're gonna, so to me, that's the dynamic with Dwight, and Shaq is finally like, look, we're in the same place, hey, you got your chip, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna be a first ballot Hall of Famer, there's no question about it. What is your timeline, by the way, next year or the following year?

• 1:54:33Speaker 03

  No, I'm in.

• 1:54:33Patrick Bet-David?

  You're in already, locked in? When did that happen?

• 1:54:36Speaker 03

  This summer. They announced it this summer, and I'll be going in August, no, September the 4th.

• 1:54:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Freaking awesome, yeah. And by the way, first ballot, yeah, first ballot, yeah, for sure, I mean, it's, your career was an insane career of what you did, so, it was great seeing you and Shaq have that conversation, when I saw that two weeks ago, I'm like, oh, that's cool, and...

• 1:54:57Speaker 03

  You saw it?

• 1:54:58Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I was watching it, when I was watching it, I went in...

• 1:55:01Speaker 03

  It was televised?

• 1:55:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh yeah, you can see the exchange.

• 1:55:04Speaker 03

  Well, we had a, we had a, we went on his, I went on his podcast, but I... I felt like if we do have a conversation, we should have like y'all, it should be y'all too. And we should all sit down.

• 1:55:19Patrick Bet-David?

  With Shaq.

• 1:55:20Speaker 03

  Come on, big fella.

• 1:55:21Patrick Bet-David?

  With you and Shaq.

• 1:55:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, let's go ahead and get it out.

• 1:55:24Adam Sosnick?

  I think the crowd wants that.

• 1:55:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:55:25Speaker 03

  I think everybody would love that.

• 1:55:26Patrick Bet-David?

  I think Shaq would do that. I think that would be a, that would be, it, it literally is, like you know how the one nickname you don't like, the little wilt? Because I think you can give better names than little wilt. But like big bro, you know, little brother type of thing that's going on here. I, especially, especially the, the way it got started. Both of you guys coming to the Magic.

• 1:55:49Speaker 03

  But I have to, see now, this is crazy to me. Now. The Superman nickname for me came because one day I jumped over my, one of my teammates in practice. And I used to go crazy in the weight room. That's how I got the nickname Superman. And I used to always listen to Soulja Boy. And he had a song called Superman, so. So that was how Superman came. It had nothing to do with Shaq, anything like that. So I was like, why would Shaq get upset about saying Superman? Now, when I did this.

• 1:56:21Speaker 03

  Right before I did the dunk, my teammates in Orlando had asked me um, to jump from the free throw line and see how crazy it'd look. Cause when you be jumping, it look like you flying. So I did it in practice. Jameer threw it over the goal. The same way it looked in, in the dunk contest is how it looked in our practice. So they was like, man, this is crazy. You gotta do it. Then Carlos Arroyo said, man, you should put on a Superman outfit. And I was like, why? It's like, cuz it'd look crazy if you do that. So.

• 1:56:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, this is legendary.

• 1:56:52Speaker 03

  This is why, yeah.

• 1:56:53Patrick Bet-David?

  This is gonna be in the history books of the NBA 50 years from now.

• 1:56:56Speaker 03

  You know, this was a onesie?

• 1:56:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. This ain't, this ain't going away, bro.

• 1:57:00Speaker 03

  Like I, no, a onesie, like the outfit. I had to cut the bottom and the legs and the boots off.

• 1:57:06Patrick Bet-David?

  So this whole thing is custom?

• 1:57:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, I had to tie it under the bottom like.

• 1:57:10Patrick Bet-David?

  That is so funny. Get out of here.

• 1:57:11Speaker 03

  Like a onesie, yeah. That's why the underwear part is so high.

• 1:57:15Patrick Bet-David?

  That is so funny.

• 1:57:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:57:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I just noticed.

• 1:57:18Speaker 03

  Cause it's a onesie. It's a onesie. It's a whole outfit. I picked it up from Party City. The night before, my, yeah, from Party City.

• 1:57:26Patrick Bet-David?

  It'll make you for a guy that's 6'11".

• 1:57:28Speaker 03

  And so now it's crazy that Shaq is, he, he says he wants to be called Thanos. Now I'ma tell you how this is crazy.

• 1:57:36Speaker 03

  My favorite movie is.

• 1:57:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Iron Man?

• 1:57:39Speaker 03

  No, Avengers. And my favorite character is Thanos. Now, I've said this, I've been on public for saying this multiple times. I had a car that was all purple. I got it before I started with the Lakers, you can look it up. I did a video, I put the ring on the, uh, front of it. And it started, so. That was it right there, my purple car. I got it because of Thanos.

• 1:58:07Speaker 03

  He's my favorite character.

• 1:58:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Why, why is he your favorite character?

• 1:58:10Speaker 03

  What he stood for in the movie, how he didn't allow his emotions to stop him from fulfilling his destiny. And a lot of times, us in life, we allow our emotions and other things to stop us from really making it and being what we need to in life. And there was a, a scene in the movie, but it was really, a really crazy scene to where, um, he had to sacrifice his daughter. Now, obviously, they took it too far in the movie, but it was to show like, sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to make sure that we do what our life's mission is, our life's purpose.

• 1:58:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Scene, bro.

• 1:58:49Speaker 03

  You know what I'm talking about, right?

• 1:58:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Of course, I know, the cliff and.

• 1:58:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, and that's what made me like, man, Thanos.

• 1:58:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Were you in a villain season of your life? Like, were you in a?

• 1:58:58Speaker 03

  I didn't even see him as a villain.

• 1:58:59Patrick Bet-David?

  You didn't think he was a villain?

• 1:59:00Speaker 03

  So, I, I actually met Josh Brolin, the, the character.

• 1:59:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Phenomenal actor.

• 1:59:05Speaker 03

  I met him on the plane going to see the, uh, premiere of Avengers. I was like, man, I gotta meet Thor and Thanos, my two favorite characters. He's on the plane, so I write him a letter. And give it to him while I'm on the plane, I'm like, man, thank you for what you did in this movie because it inspired me to become a better man and a better person. Thanos.

• 1:59:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow.

• 1:59:25Speaker 03

  Because the first time he had an opportunity to do his mission in life, he allowed his emotions, he allowed everybody else to stop him. The second time, he completed his, his mission. And he didn't allow nobody to get in the way. And what I realized is that all of us have to get to that place where. We can't allow how other people feel, their thoughts, their emotions, or anything to deter us off our purpose. And there's times in the games and life where I've done that.

• 1:59:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, this is, I just went on the chat GPT and I typed in, was Thanos a villain in Avengers? Okay, you ready for this? It's like the, you can type that, I was like, yes. Thanos was the main villain in Avengers, you know, in Avengers, Infinity War 2018 and the end game. Which end game, and the way the movie ends is just ridiculous. Who is Thanos? A Titanian warlord from Marvel Comic Universe, believes in restoring balance to the universe by wiping out half of life.

• 2:00:24Speaker 03

  So is he a villain?

• 2:00:26Patrick Bet-David?

  To prevent overpopulation and resource collapse. That's a villain, Doug.

• 2:00:32Speaker 03

  That's a villain to the, what, how we would say is a villain, but obviously that person is needed to restore balance. Everything in life is all about balance. If we look, if you have too much of one thing, it could cause problems. So, everything in life has balance. The way they had to put it in the movie was to show that people had to leave, but, you know, let's just say like, early we talked about vices, or you know, every NBA player has vices. I think a lot of the NBA players who've been at the top, what they've been able to do was, let's say if somebody's vice is, KD, he likes to smoke, right?

• 2:01:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. He's very open about it.

• 2:01:12Speaker 03

  Let's say his vice is smoking, but he's probably learned how to balance it out to where he's not overdoing it to himself. He's not abusing it. He's using it for what it's for. Let's say he's using it for medical reasons, medicinal reasons. He's learned how to balance it out. I think, everything in life is about balance. The earth itself is alive, it's a living, breathing organism. So, sometimes it has to balance itself out. And, you know, which means that death is a part of life. Some of us, we all, we all have our time on this earth, so.

• 2:01:51Patrick Bet-David?

  That's a trip that you're saying Thanos, man, but.

• 2:01:53Speaker 03

  I love Thanos.

• 2:01:56Adam Sosnick?

  If I'm, I'm listening to everything you're saying and it's like you have Stoicism, Buddhism, Confucism, Taoism, all in this dude from Atlanta's body.

• 2:02:06Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:02:07Adam Sosnick?

  So, have you read any Marcus Aurelius Stoicism meditations?

• 2:02:11Speaker 03

  I have.

• 2:02:12Adam Sosnick?

  PBD made me read that book before I joined VT. Have you read any Stoicism? Are you familiar with this?

• 2:02:16Speaker 03

  I haven't read any, but I have done some research on a lot of different spiritual beliefs. From traveling, I've learned so much from going to Asia, seeing the different Buddhist temples and stuff like that. Heard a lot about Taoism from being in Asia. Actually, my shoes that I had with Adidas, they came up with the shoe because of my spiritual beliefs, but also how I viewed, let's say, balance. So, my shoes, they would call them yin and yang, the two sides of Dwight.

• 2:02:58Speaker 03

  You had this one side that's always, you know, happy, smiling, then you got the mean side on the court that would elbow you in the face, throw you on the ground, call you all types of names and then pick you up after the game and go eat. So, it's like I had to balance out both sides and my faith has been a big part of my career.

• 2:03:16Adam Sosnick?

  What would you say that your faith is? Are you saying you're Christian? Are you saying that you're a multi?

• 2:03:21Speaker 03

  I am Christian, but we call it Karastian.

• 2:03:26Adam Sosnick?

  Karastian? What's that? Explain that.

• 2:03:29Speaker 03

  Ka means spirit and Ra stands Karastian. Let's see if it shows up. K A.

• 2:03:37Patrick Bet-David?

  K A, K A and then R A S T I A N, separate two words. Karastian.

• 2:03:42Adam Sosnick?

  Karastian? Sounds almost Armenian, PBD.

• 2:03:47Speaker 03

  Let's see. See if it comes up.

• 2:03:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, there it is.

• 2:03:50Adam Sosnick?

  Close to Rastafarian?

• 2:03:54Patrick Bet-David?

  On the belief in single God, called Jah.

• 2:03:59Speaker 03

  I studied some of this. My actual, we are nondenominational. So, there are, I want to say it's over twenty-eight, forty-eight hundred.

• 2:04:13Speaker 03

  Religions are forty-two hundred religions or something like that. You can fact check that, uh, just to make sure, boss.

• 2:04:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, he's talking to you.

• 2:04:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think it's forty-two hundred religions or something like that, if I'm not mistaken.

• 2:04:32Adam Sosnick?

  So you don't, you are Christian or you consider yourself Cal Rastian?

• 2:04:36Speaker 03

  I am Christian, but that is a deeper part of it.

• 2:04:40Adam Sosnick?

  Interesting.

• 2:04:41Speaker 03

  Because Christians have, um...

• 2:04:45Adam Sosnick?

  It says forty-two hundred religions.

• 2:04:46Speaker 03

  Forty-two hundred religions, and then it's thirty-five thousand, thirty-five hundred or some different Christian denominations, if I'm not mistaken, in the world.

• 2:04:58Speaker 03

  So, there's a lot going on as far as people's religions and their beliefs.

• 2:05:03Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:04Speaker 03

  See? Different Christian denominations, forty-five hundred.

• 2:05:08Adam Sosnick?

  Forty-five thousand?

• 2:05:09Speaker 03

  Forty-five thousand, yeah, forty-five thousand, sorry.

• 2:05:11Adam Sosnick?

  Your tattoos, you, what do you have, right? You have some religious meanings right there.

• 2:05:16Speaker 03

  All my tattoos are, they have some type of meaning. Um, a lot of people were like, why did you get tattoos at a later age? I got my tattoos around thirty-two or thirty-three, real late.

• 2:05:28Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:30Speaker 03

  Because I never wanted to put anything on my body, but then I started reading and traveling and started learning different things. I started with, uh, this right here, the, um, eye of, or the, uh, hand of Fatima, with the, um, with the evil eye, the eye of Ra. This is actually my eye. And this is, um, when the sign is up like this, it's like pushing away any negativity, any evil. When it's down like this, the hands, it's like you're calling in positivity and stuff like that.

• 2:06:03Speaker 03

  Then I love Egyptology.

• 2:06:08Speaker 03

  The son Amun Ra, I don't know if you heard of Amun Ra.

• 2:06:12Adam Sosnick?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:06:13Speaker 03

  Um, and then, uh, was this Anubis? Heard of Anubis? Uh, Anubis is the god that kind of takes you into the, um, underworld. So when we, when we transition, um, Anubis was said to be the person who would take us to the afterlife.

• 2:06:29Adam Sosnick?

  A lot of this is in, uh, old Pharaoh Ramses Egyptian days.

• 2:06:33Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:06:34Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:34Speaker 03

  Some, some stuff is in the Bible, but they kind of put it in a way where, uh, you had to really go deeper. So a lot of times people just read the Bible and just read it, just say, I read it, you know, instead of really diving deeper into what it's talking about, the words and stuff like that.

• 2:06:50Patrick Bet-David?

  That's cool. A, a, a deeper place for you. What's next for you now? Now that, you know, you're at a different phase of your life, what's, what's Dwight gonna do? And, you know, you got money, you have a notoriety, people know your name, you're about to be Hall of Fame, inductee to, in August, you know, this year. You're going through all this, what's next for Dwight Howard?

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• 2:08:09Speaker 03

  Man, it's been so much, my life has been so like a whirlwind. You know, there's been times where I'm like, man, I just want to travel and just get away from everything. But then now I have my kids and before they turn 18 and get into the real world, what I just want to do now is really just put my energy and my effort into more so guiding them and kind of teaching them for the world that that's ahead. You know, I came into the NBA very green, you know, at 18, you know, I just nothing. I didn't know anything about finances. I didn't know anything about love, trust, money.

• 2:08:52Speaker 03

  None of these things were in the forefront of my head. Only thing I knew was go put the ball in the basket, make everybody smile, have a good time. But doing that for 20 years is like, hold up. I love other things too. I have a farm, I like animals, I want to do this, that and the third. But now that basketball is coming to a close, it's like, man, I still have a long life ahead of me. You know, who is this person outside of the game that I played since I was three? I want to find all of that person. So I've done things in my basketball career during my off time to kind of figure out who I am.

• 2:09:36Speaker 03

  I did a show called Special Forces with the military. I also did this thing where I had to sit in the dark for three days, sit in a cave. I did, this is one of the craziest things. Yeah, I sat in the dark for three days, no light, in a cave. Kind of like spiritual awakening, but it was, it was pretty intense.

• 2:09:59Adam Sosnick?

  What made you want to join the big three? I feel like you're the most decorated, best player to ever join the big three. A lot of these guys are kind of like decent players, but not perennial all-stars, MVP candidates, defensive player of the year. What made you want to join the big three?

• 2:10:14Speaker 03

  I think that five on five, I kind of graduated from the five on five basketball school. And I want to take on a new challenge. And I'm still in shape. I love playing the game of basketball. I want to compete. You know, I have a good time and a lot of fans who may get a chance to see me in my younger years. Get a chance to see me play a little bit now before I'm actually done done.

• 2:10:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you done done? Like if somebody offers a contract, NBA, would you go back?

• 2:10:44Speaker 03

  Uh uh.

• 2:10:45Patrick Bet-David?

  You're done done?

• 2:10:45Speaker 03

  There's no need to.

• 2:10:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so you're done done. Got it.

• 2:10:47Speaker 03

  Um, I feel like it'd be too much of a waste of time. Because I don't think people really understand how we used to grind with this NBA as far as practice. Like, I'm doing three a days. Even, you know, like, there's times now where I do three a days and I'm only playing once a week. Half court, so.

• 2:11:14Patrick Bet-David?

  I just saw this, was Drexler really, is he really the commissioner of the three?

• 2:11:18Speaker 03

  Yes, I just, I just talked to him after the incident that you guys saw. He called me. He wasn't upset at all. We actually had a great conversation and I really appreciate him because I grew up watching, you know, a little bit of his latter years when he was, um, playing with Portland. I used to play with him on a video game. My dad used to talk about Clyde the Glide because my dad got a bald head too. So anybody with a bald head, my dad is, he's like, he, Magic, Jordan, Clyde, guy named Deion Glover, anybody with a bald head. He trains, he trains me. He's the guy who trained me in high school. I would wake up at four o'clock every morning, go to the track, then go to the school.

• 2:11:58Speaker 03

  Deion would train me every morning, coming from the strip club to my school. I went to a Christian school, so they would be leaving the strip club smelling like booty and Hennessy, coming up into this Christian school, working me out every morning.

• 2:12:15Patrick Bet-David?

  A Christian strip club?

• 2:12:17Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not a Christian strip club. That is wild.

• 2:12:23Patrick Bet-David?

  They start off with a prayer.

• 2:12:25Speaker 03

  They start off on their knees praying and then they end up on their knees. But though he would go to the Magic City, which is one of the most popular strip clubs in Atlanta, and him and Big Ant would leave the strip club because I would get up at four o'clock every morning religiously and train, go to the track. This before I got to the NBA. So the high school, I was doing this every day. Getting up at four in the morning, go to the track. I would run, then I would go to the school and lift and work out with Deion Glover every day. Until I got drafted. That was my whole, I wanted to make sure I was prepared for the NBA.

• 2:13:02Patrick Bet-David?

  My man, so today, you know Scott Storch?

• 2:13:05Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 2:13:06Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you, what do you think about, when you think about Scott Storch?

• 2:13:12Speaker 03

  Scott Storch, that's the guy who was doing, yeah.

• 2:13:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Dre, the beats, all that's, because Atlanta is a music.

• 2:13:19Speaker 03

  Oh, he's a December baby. He's a Sag like me.

• 2:13:22Patrick Bet-David?

  When is your baby? When are?

• 2:13:24Speaker 03

  I'm born December the 8th. Actually, my sign is an Ophuchus. People don't talk about this sign a lot. It's called Ophuchus. It's the 13th Zodiac. It's called Ophuchus. So we actually had 13 Zodiacs. And it came from the Dendera. So the, before it was called the Zodiacs. Before it's called the Zodiac, it was called the Dendera. The African Dendera. We took it, we took one of the months off, which was the 13th, and we made it 12.

• 2:13:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Bam.

• 2:13:56Speaker 03

  And, yeah, Ophuchus is the one they call the, the, um, the medicine, the not, the one who braves knowledge. You bring, the snake bearer. So if you look at the sign of the Ophuchus, they bring wisdom or information, and that's my sign.

• 2:14:14Adam Sosnick?

  PB, I bet you didn't see this coming. Ophuchus, Zodiac.

• 2:14:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Listen, every day you learn something.

• 2:14:20Speaker 03

  If you look on a caduceus up there to the left.

• 2:14:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, look at the caduceus, Rob.

• 2:14:23Speaker 03

  It has the snakes that rise up. You know, you go to the medicine. You know, you go to the medicine.

• 2:14:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:14:31Speaker 03

  The medicine symbol is what? The caduceus. So the, the, the Ophuchus is the serpent bearer. They bring in knowledge. Anytime you see the snakes, that, that represents medicine and stuff like that, so.

• 2:14:43Patrick Bet-David?

  So we just found out your Zodiac sign is Ophuchus. Your favorite character is Thanos.

• 2:14:50Speaker 03

  All time favorite.

• 2:14:51Patrick Bet-David?

  All time favorite.

• 2:14:52Adam Sosnick?

  Who's a good guy allegedly.

• 2:14:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Michael Jordan's vertical leap is forty two inches. Okay, Michael's vertical leap is forty two inches.

• 2:14:59Adam Sosnick?

  Lil Wilt.

• 2:15:00Patrick Bet-David?

  And we found that you don't believe Wilt.

• 2:15:04Speaker 03

  Slept with twenty thousand women, there's no way.

• 2:15:06Patrick Bet-David?

  No, it's not possible.

• 2:15:07Speaker 03

  It's no way.

• 2:15:08Patrick Bet-David?

  We just learned a lot of stuff, man, but let me tell you, it's a it's a pleasure having you on, you know, talking to you. When I walked in, I saw him like, dude, this guy's still in shape. You know, he's still like, he looks like NBA ready. Like, if they call right now, you could go and play with them.

• 2:15:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:15:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Sometimes you see players that they're done, they just get out of shape immediately.

• 2:15:26Speaker 03

  I understand. It's like, shoot, now I can eat everything I want to eat. Let's go.

• 2:15:31Patrick Bet-David?

  But this was a blast having you on, brother, and maybe if we talk to Shaq and he agrees, maybe we do the podcast together.

• 2:15:35Speaker 03

  Let's do it again.

• 2:15:36Patrick Bet-David?

  He's down here as well. He'll come down and what we may do is here on the court that we have right next door. I don't know, we'll see if maybe, you know.

• 2:15:44Speaker 03

  Maybe we can play some ones.

• 2:15:46Adam Sosnick?

  Well, I know we have, I know we have the box, you have the boxing stuff in there, so maybe we can put on the gloves, but the thing is.

• 2:15:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Put on the gloves with Shaq?

• 2:15:56Speaker 03

  I would, but I'm not letting him hit. You gotta, it's a lot of sticking and moving.

• 2:16:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Remember Shaq, Shaq, when he fought Barclay?

• 2:16:03Speaker 03

  He fought.

• 2:16:03Patrick Bet-David?

  He's a righty, but he swung with the left. I'm like, he wanted to really throw Barclay off.

• 2:16:07Adam Sosnick?

  He missed it though.

• 2:16:08Speaker 03

  He missed. He tried to throw a quick one.

• 2:16:09Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:10Speaker 03

  And then Barclay got up under it.

• 2:16:12Patrick Bet-David?

  If that would have connected.

• 2:16:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, if, if would do a lot of damage if, if connected.

• 2:16:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Shaq did. He connected with Alvin Robertson though, rookie season, if you remember that.

• 2:16:22Speaker 03

  Who?

• 2:16:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Alvin Robertson.

• 2:16:23Speaker 03

  But he missed so many people. He missed what to call, um, Brad Miller.

• 2:16:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Really calling.

• 2:16:29Speaker 03

  Brad Miller, yeah.

• 2:16:30Patrick Bet-David?

  This is, this is the one with the left. Like, you would have never thought, look at this.

• 2:16:35Speaker 03

  Oh, and I'll tell you this, if he would have caught him with that left, it would have been over.

• 2:16:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, it would have been bad. But Barclay's had plenty of fights in his career where I was just watching highlights the other day of Barclay, I'm like, this is a guy who's so much fun to watch.

• 2:16:51Adam Sosnick?

  By the way, Shaq and Barclay.

• 2:16:53Speaker 03

  Barclay is not six five. Why do they keep saying that?

• 2:16:55Adam Sosnick?

  Well, how tall do you think he is?

• 2:16:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Six four.

• 2:16:56Speaker 03

  Barclay is six seven, six eight.

• 2:16:58Adam Sosnick?

  Really?

• 2:16:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Is he really six seven?

• 2:16:59Speaker 03

  Six seven, yeah.

• 2:17:01Adam Sosnick?

  All right. Well, both, and one thing I know for sure, since they've retired, Shaq and Barclay have not missed a meal.

• 2:17:06Speaker 03

  Barclay is so funny.

• 2:17:08Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, Shaq is, Shaq is in shape. Shaq looks good and Barkley actually recently lost a lot of weight. He did. He lost a lot of weight and he looks good as well and that's good for him because Ozzy. I do think.

• 2:17:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, you were doing the O'Reilly thing?

• 2:17:30Speaker 03

  My name is Shaquille O'Neal. I need you guys to get some more Ozzy for him.

• 2:17:35Patrick Bet-David?

  I just thought that was. But, by the way, Charles, it's gotta be the one of the top 10 best personalities on TV. Charles Barkley.

• 2:17:41Speaker 03

  Listen, let me tell y'all something. My name is Charles Barkley and I got one of the best personalities on. Shaq, li- li- li- li- look at here Shaq now. Listen, I'm here with Pat Davis. And I was talking to him about you getting on the show. If I can get you on the show with Dwight Howard, I'm gonna get you some Dunkin' Donuts and uh, this round like a rim. Yeah.

• 2:18:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. I remember that one, one where Shaq gets up and goes out. He said, "W- w- what are you doing? What are you doing Shaq? I'll be back." "What are you doing?" And then he's gotta go to the bathroom. His stomach's, "Take some matches with you." These guys, Chuck is like so quick when he says stuff. Anyways, brother, this was great. Appreciate you for coming out. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to it and uh, if we get Shaq to wanna come on, that'd be an interesting one to have here together.

• 2:18:28Speaker 03

  I'll be on there. Just make sure the money is right. If the money is not right, me and Dwight will not go on the show. But hey, if the money is right, I'll be there. Make sure you have some nice, fine women. Because me and Dwight, we got a lot of kids together. That's what they call us, supermen. I have kids, he got kids. So if you bring some women in here, it might be some more.

• 2:18:53Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm just talking to myself. We, we, we will, that'll be Adam's job. Adam, you do that, we'll do the rest. Take care everybody. Bye bye, bye bye.

• 2:19:01Speaker 03

  What's up y'all, this your boy Dwight Howard, AKA the Hall of Fame Superman in the building. If y'all want to connect with me, ask me any question, just go to my net and I got all the answers for y'all. Yeah, I can tell you how many women, Wilt Chamberlain and all that was just fake, but guess what? I got all the expertise. Basketball, chess, if you want to learn how to do Snapchat, if you want to learn to get that jump shot silky smooth like me, if you want the fresh fade with the nice hair, come check your boy out. We got expertise in a lot of areas. Remember my net and connect. I'll see y'all there. Peace.

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