How Antwi Atuahene went from pro hooper to successful Canadian entrepreneur

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to the Canadian basketball show, your go to spot for the latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball. I'm your host, Lee Ben Osman. We're back in Toronto recording live in studio, and we got a special guest, someone I've been trying to get on this show for a minute now. Schedule conflicts, you know what happens. Both of us being busy, but we finally made it happen. He's probably the one person I see courtside the most at Toronto Raptors game is always looking for, always doing his thing. He's a former professional basketball player turned Canadian entrepreneur. Rex Still's own Antwe Atuhini. How you doing, brother? [00:00:41] Speaker C: I'm doing amazing. Great. Pronounced nation on the name, too. [00:00:43] Speaker B: Hey, I've been working on it, man. Come on, man. [00:00:45] Speaker C: Happy to be here. And also congrats on the platform. It's phenomenal watching the episodes and I'm glad to be here, man. [00:00:51] Speaker B: I appreciate it, man. First question, how can I get courts? I like you. [00:00:54] Speaker C: You know, what is. [00:00:55] Speaker B: It's. [00:00:57] Speaker C: I'll tell you. I'll tell you how that even began. Yeah, I remember as a kid going to games and as I grew a little bit older, being like, obviously 300 seats and 200 and always telling myself like, yo, one day I'm gonna get right there. It kind of was like a manifestation thing. I got to like, Obviously we're on 1/ hundreds and I'll be watching games there. I'm like, you know, on one day, man, this, man, I'm gonna sit right there one day. And worked hard enough to where I built some relationships and obviously, you know, built some. Some equity in different spaces. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna start investing in myself and I want to be out there and watching the games courtside because the majority of guys that are playing on my friends, so I want to be able to sit up close, personal and watch it and meet people there. So I guess just hard work and determination gets you there and manifestation. Also believing you can be there, you should be there. That's a big thing, too. [00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:39] Speaker B: I consider you like a power player in terms of just the entrepreneurship in Canada, what you've been able to do in the sports landscape. But tell me, what's the summer been like? Cause I know you've been focusing a lot of local stuff, helping out with the community. Can you just tell me, like, some stuff you've been doing? We're gonna get into it. I feel like later on too, but I want to touch on stuff you're doing right now. [00:01:57] Speaker C: To be honest, this Summer has probably been the most. I've been in Toronto my entire life. I think we wanted to really entrench ourselves back in the community space. We have something called the Fellowship Basketball League, which, you know, focusing more so on the development side of the basketball and also just giving the younger guys a mentorship type vibe where they can speak on things. Mental health, not just basketball, speak on what they go on go. What happens when they leave Toronto and go back to school? A lot of the players are high level high school, high level college, or they're pros. So they have different challenges they go through when they leave Toronto that they don't get to speak to no one about. Like, people think once you leave and you're playing basketball, everything is all sweet and it's not. So we try to create a ecosystem for those guys. We can have a great. We call Fellowship and, and build that way. And then also we've been doing other things on the entertainment side, like bowling events and things like that in the city. [00:02:44] Speaker B: I need an invite, man. [00:02:45] Speaker C: You get, you have a permanent invite. You good, you're on the VIP list all the time. Just let me know. And we've been doing things like that to kind of bring a different vibe to the city because I have a lot of friends that come into the city, want things to do. So we want. We don't want to do the regular or going out to the club or whatever the case may be. We try to bring a vibe where you can have fun and interact what doesn't seem like you're out doing most. And before you know it, you're out for a couple hours bowling, meeting great people and connecting and building relationship equity there. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm good at bowling. People that know me will say otherwise, but, yeah, you know, I gotta get out there. [00:03:16] Speaker C: But what's your typical score? [00:03:18] Speaker B: I don't even know. That's how bad I am. [00:03:19] Speaker C: Okay, that's good. All that matters, that you're out there enjoying yourself. That's all that matters. Yeah. [00:03:24] Speaker B: You talked about, like, the, the stuff you're doing in the community, Fellowship, all that kind of stuff. I don't know, maybe in the last few years, I feel like that wasn't the case. Like there was something missing me. The pandemic impacted it a lot. What do you think was like, missing and, like, why it felt so important for you to, like, fill that gap? [00:03:39] Speaker C: I was, at that time, I was a. I started off as an assistant general manager in Niagara Lions, and then I became a general manager, Niagara Lines in cbl for about two and a half years, like during the pandemic year. So I was like those, those. That's the summertime, like the league is a summer league. So how we did it there, like we're shout out to Niagara River Lions. At the time we were, we used to work throughout the year to like get the best players possible. And so it was a full time job for us and certainly. But I would miss out on Toronto summers and I would see kind of like a gap there of where I can kind of integrate myself. So when I change shift gears from Niagara and I kind of wanted to like build my own stuff. What we were building, I knew, like, I want to make sure we attack the summers because that's where I developed the most. And my entire life was always Toronto summers. Whether it was coming back and playing against older players or coming back doing, doing camps, whatever it was. I did my best work in the summer. So I wanted to kind of give that back to like the community in the city. [00:04:30] Speaker B: I think it's dope, man. Cuz it's like for, for myself like that's what like being able to play in runs or just like homies that, that you wanted to. Especially downtown. I feel like there wasn't, not everyone, all these prep schools I complain about all the time on this podcast. Just like everything's now like Niagara. It's in shout out to Scarborough, shout out to the Royal crowns, all, all doing their things. But I feel like there's, there's a need for something downtown. I feel like you guys been filling that gap. But sure, I want to obviously talk about that. We'll talk about that, get more depth into that later on. But I want to talk about the work. I want to talk about like you as a player because at one point you were the number one player coming out of Canada. [00:05:05] Speaker C: I think so, yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker B: You think so? See that's, that's, that's being generous. But for those that don't know too, like when was that? When were you playing? Because I feel like there's a lot of new listeners that, that are tapping into Canadian basketball. But I want like, I want this podcast to also like dive deep into the early 2000s. The times beforehand too were what it was like playing basketball in Toronto, in Canada in that times. And you were, I feel like one of the pioneers during that time. [00:05:31] Speaker C: Well, it was real competitive. I know, you know, every, every part hub in the city had their best players. Every school like we had Bathurst, there was Mother Teresa, there was John Vanier, there Was west summer dad, different teams in different places that are their best players, et cetera. Eastern Commerce, obviously one of our big rivals. There's we had to play against a couple times and I remember, you know, every summer like there wasn't the AU circuit wasn't as big like we did play AU basketball. But every summer like it was more so bragging rights who's gonna be the best in the city. And like citywide leagues tournaments was huge at that time. Like Jennifer's tournament, Rex Tilt and whatever the case may be. It was an opportunity to kind of stamp ourselves in the city and play against the best of the best. In the early 2000s, I think my junior year at Father Henry Carr, I married an academy at the time. We did a great job of making it to the, to the Catholic championship and winning. But then we kind of lost early in offside. I remember that summer I got invited to NBA camp and Nike All American camp and that kind of like changed my life. I got to go out and play against LeBron, Carmelo, Chris, Paul, all the guys were like in my class. So after I came back from there, I came up with like a what I knew type of drive towards how I wanted to see myself play and see myself go. And that last season I think I averaged a triple double and became the number one player. And that was my actually my goal because I remember going into that last year, Coach Row, my coach Anthony Cynus and coach Travers were like average like 36, 37 the year before. So like what are you doing this year to be better? I'm like, you know what, I'm on average triple double. I wanted to work on my all around game because at that time people were saying I'll just score. And I really wasn't. I was really a pass first point guard, but I was averaging 30, so I didn't want to believe it. So that last year I think we had a phenomenal season. I think we went 44. We lost in the finals to Eastern. They did play boxing. One shout out to Eastern. Who was on that team? Tristan Blackwood, Kingsley, Aaron, Duncan, Turk. [00:07:16] Speaker B: Damn. You know the whole roster. [00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah, Turk had a great team. They had a great lot of, a lot of good guards. Really, really well coached. [00:07:24] Speaker B: Who coached that team? [00:07:24] Speaker C: I think it was Roy and Big John that year because they definitely, because I met them when I was in 10th grade when they did MDP. So they knew my game a lot. They, so they made sure that we played them that season and in the Humber Classic and we, I think we beat them by 20. [00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:38] Speaker C: So when we played them like that time in the final, I think we played like two other times and I don't think it was a closer game. We played amount of time in the finals. Obviously our big man wasn't there, Theo Davis. And then they played boxing one on me and we lost. But it was always great just competing against those guys. Shout out to those guys. They, they really made, they prepared me for college. Cause those guys were all like really small, pesky guards. And when I got to college, when I played against like Aaron Brooks and all those other guards or like Jordan Farmer, whatnot, I wasn't worried about them because I used to go against these guys in high school in Toronto. So shout out to those guys. That made us better. So it was real competitive growing up, playing against a lot of those great players and playing as older guys, I feel like that's what used to help us out a lot. Like Mike Schmidt, Andrew Esola, Dean Walker, the list goes on. Jamal McGlory played a big role in making us be able to see like what a big man looks like coming back from Kentucky or the NBA and doing. He had a summer league at the time, I think in the east, we used to go play in it as well. So shout out to all those guys that helped like create the culture of us building. In those days. It wasn't like you couldn't say like you were like just, I don't want to say a content creator and be a basketball player. Like that would. It would be hard to like do that of there. If you can't play like on this court, you can't be there. Like even in runs, like guys will pick five and if you're there, you don't know who you are. You're not getting on the court. You have to earn your keep there. You know what I'm saying? No respect to anyone who does. I love everybody. But those days it was more so like, if you don't know who you are, you better earn your keep. You have to, because you, you may go up the court a couple times, miss a layup, they kick you off the court like, yo, get him off the court. Something off, literally accept him off. Like, bro, I can't do nothing, but you gotta sub. So like those days, competition, competition was high level and everybody wanted to be the best. I felt people trying to, trying to stamp their name in the city. I know I was, that was my mentality. [00:09:16] Speaker A: So, yeah, yeah. [00:09:17] Speaker B: Parents are from Ghana. [00:09:18] Speaker C: Yes. [00:09:18] Speaker B: I want to ask you about that because Obviously playing basketball, even for me, like, covering basketball. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:23] Speaker B: As an East African, my parents looked at me like, you're crazy. Why would you want to do this? There's not. But I'm guessing you were probably one of the few around that time. [00:09:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:32] Speaker B: You know, or was there something. [00:09:34] Speaker C: It was. It was difficult because in the beginning I was getting in a lot of trouble and I wasn't, like, doing the best in school, schoolwork wise, grade nine and 10. So at the time, my parents weren't really into it. They're like, this basketball thing's not going to take you nowhere since you're not doing well in school. Like, they weren't even into it like that. My parents came to see me, like, play like two games. Maybe in high school, maybe Hummer Classic and like my senior. Senior dad. But as I matured and started taking things seriously, then my. My parents especially my father, my. My father especially, he really got into it, like, going into, like my last few years. And when I got to college, my father to this day still asked me what players that I went to school with. Like, he'd be like, where's Serge? Or where's Ike? Or he's so into it. Like, he knows every stat. He knows all the players now. So being a pioneer in that. In that space was like, I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I just knew I wanted to get somewhere. And I knew it was difficult growing up because we had to kind of like, teach them part of it because we're first generation Canadians. My parents are from abroad, they're from Ghana. Probably your parents are from somewhere else. We have to teach them it. So that's what kind of to do, like, teach them. As I went and show them why this is important. Like when Tom Izzo called my house. But they're like, oh, this is getting real. Like, yeah. [00:10:38] Speaker B: So, like, I was gonna say, what was the reaction when they see all the nora you're getting from it? And then like, they're like, yeah, our son's actually good. He's really good. Like, and we gotta, like, you know, it was funny. [00:10:47] Speaker C: I mean, it was letters. Like, those days, it was letters, right? So, like, when letters started coming to my house in the beginning, it was like, what are these letters about? Then they would open it and read. And then all of a sudden, like, I would leave and come back, I'd have cases of mail from all these schools. And it became real. When I think, like, a couple, like, people who went to, like, my mom's church or whatever the case, we would ask her about basketball and she'll come back and tell me. And obviously, like coaches calling the house and them building a rapport with my family, they kind of knew it was getting real. So them having especially the house visits than me taking, like, official visits to schools, like, oh, this is getting real for real. [00:11:16] Speaker B: So, yeah, I want to talk about your college recruitment in a bit, but what was like growing up in Rectile Humber Line? [00:11:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:21] Speaker C: Growing up was great. I think I grew up in a building with probably like 20 to 30 guys that I'm still close for to this day. It was like a. It was like a brotherhood. And I think the best thing about it was we kept each other accountable. And I think we had a basketball room at the back of the building with like underneath a sewer. And I think I spent most of my days from group from 14 years old to 16 years old that I back at that back of that park. So I. My goal was to like, beat people downstairs to start working out before they got there. And I used to use my sister to go outside, act like I'm gonna take her outside, because the only way I can get out the house or act like I was doing laundry, sneak outside and play basketball and go back upstairs. That was like our drive. I just remember getting better and better and better at the back of the building. So grew up in Humber Line. It was like really competitive. Everybody wanted to be the best. Even people who weren't even that good at basketball, they would challenge you on the court. So all we did was play basketball and rap and try to find things to do around the community and stay out of trouble. So it was really good. [00:12:12] Speaker B: Well, I want to ask you this. Obviously you're a Rex though guy. What neighborhood produces the best talent in the gta? Scarborough. I don't know, man. Scarborough might be coming up to taking that rim. Especially if they can claim Shay, they can claim shade of. [00:12:30] Speaker C: I would say. I would say talent wise. Talent wise, Scarborough would be talent wise, but heart wise would be Rexdale. Yeah, like, we never lost no team in the East. We didn't lose Savannah. We lose to Mother Teresa. None of those guys ever Scarborough Blues. We never lost those guys ever. I even know that is like we used to beat Those guys by 20, heart wise. Like, I think like the Rex though side. And you know, Jane got a lot of guys too. Like the Jane Shrimp got a lot of great guys, great players as well. But I think the west end of the city has a lot more heart and More grit. And I think we looked at guys in like in the east side a little bit more like not as aggressive, really talented, really athletic, all that stuff. But I feel like on the west side of the city it was more so. The grit and determination and hunger. [00:13:11] Speaker B: Who do you think are like some of the best? Rex though players to come out. [00:13:14] Speaker C: Mike Schmidt, Jason Skippy, Francis, one of my main guys. Danny was great, obviously. Now Delano Banton as well. Eugene. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I still got some people. [00:13:27] Speaker C: We got a lot of people. [00:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. [00:13:29] Speaker B: I remember just like doing research on you, just finding out about the 2002 Nike All American camp in Indiana that you're part of. What do you remember about being bad? I've seen some of the names. Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Rudy Gay. I think you're like one of three Canadians that were in that. [00:13:45] Speaker C: I think it was me. Denim and feel maybe. Yeah, I'm not sure, like three of us. But that was a life changing camp because that's the first time I got to really, really see obviously AU basketball. You see these guys, but you get to see who's the best of the best. And that's when I first met Chris Paul. Chris Paul is what's so cool to this day. Chris Paul is a junior. At the time he was already signed awake for. So he's a sophomore. He was already signed awake for us. Yeah, like he's talking about recruit recruiting guys to come to the school. I'm like, who is this dude? Like, he was number one guard in our class. He was already signed awake Forest. I remember going playing duo dang for the first time. Like, yo, he's super talented. They're like, yeah, he's going to Duke. I'm like, he's going to Duke. He can barely speak English at the time. And I'm like, wow, that's amazing. And that just really changed my life. Playing against so many great players and seeing all the coaches and seeing the atmosphere. It kind of like really like opened my eyes to what basketball can do. Like, I was super thankful for that moment. So coming back after night Cal American Camp because I got ranked. I think I was even ranked going in there like that, but I think I ranked like top 50 or whatever the case may be. And it's building relationships with all the guys that were there. Like I remember like in the cafeteria just talking about what goes on in Toronto to all the players and they'll huddle around us and we would rap and do whatever the case may be. I felt like that was the strongest points of the camp. Like, there's people I still talk to to this day from my Cal American camp, like, because of. We built a relationship there. So I feel like it was a great entry level start into, like, what basketball on that side of the board would be, like, where. Where I didn't want to go in and kind of, like, blend in with them. I always wanted to go in to be myself. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Toronto is for other. [00:15:13] Speaker C: That's what I really was talking about. Like, I remember telling a guy from Rex, though, he's like, I'm from east side Compton. Like, okay, we're from Rexdale. He's like, what is that now? Explaining to what it was. He's like, all right, cool. So, like, that's what I was kind of, like, trying to give off when I got over there with time. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:27] Speaker B: We talked about your college recruitment a little bit. What was that like during that time after that camp? Did things start to pick up and what was your first offer like? Do you remember? [00:15:36] Speaker C: My first official offer was, I think East Carolina. East Carolina was my first official offer. They saw me really early, and in Niagara, Niagara offered me. When I went to, like, a basketball, I snuck out of my house for the weekend and I told my parents I was gonna go do, like, the laundry. I wasn't doing well in school. I was supposed to go to the. To the tournament. And I went to a tournament. They called the cops looking for me. Coach Monica was on the team coaching at the time. And I got, like, an all star, like, MVP of that. MVP of that. That whole tournament. And Niagara offered me then. And they're like, we want to. Want you to call us in grade 10. And my recruitment picked up from there. I think the team that came on strong was Rutgers, obviously, where I signed to first. UConn was. Recruited me heavy. Michigan State, Michigan, Illinois was really, really tough on me. Arizona, Arizona State. It was just. It became overwhelming at a point because there was a point where, like, every other day I have to take calls from schools. You know, every day there's another school coming to watch us play. Every day I had to, like, I was going to interview and, you know, so it became overwhelming. But I understood, like, what I was there for. [00:16:37] Speaker B: Was there much of that, like, going on, like, from. I feel like in Canada, obviously, Jamal McGlor was a big guy, but did, like. Do you remember, like, being like, this is like. I'm, like, one of the first people kind of experienced this where I'm getting calls. [00:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I think because I was. I was late in the recruiting Process. I think denim signed to UConn early, and I know Theo was getting a lot of love, and I know Kershaw was. And other guys were. But I think, like, after that Nike All American camp, like, when I did so well in NBA camp and we won, like, the championship, the championship of the camp, it came on fast. Like, everyone was just blowing me up. Like, so it was overwhelming. But I was, like, I was appreciative of it because I felt like I deserved it. [00:17:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Obviously, you decide on Rutgers, but then there's a transcript issue. Can you tell me about how that happened? [00:17:14] Speaker C: So we decided on Rutgers. Coach Gary Waters and Coach Manson recruited me. Tough. And I wanted to be in Jersey or close to New York, and I wanted to play in the Big east because I felt like it suited my game the most. And at the time, excuse me, during the bottom of the Big east, and I wanted to take them to the top. And there's a transcript issue, I think, because some of the courses didn't clear with the clearinghouse, and I was already pretty much in school, and so I had to transfer from school, but I. I couldn't transfer back to a Division 1 because of the clearing cost issue. So I actually transferred to a junior college for a year and a half. [00:17:43] Speaker B: Was that, like, something, like, Canadians had to deal with, like, an issue like that? [00:17:47] Speaker C: I think I was one of the first ones. [00:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:48] Speaker C: Like, because like I said, in my first two years of school, I was doing poorly. I wasn't doing my best because I wasn't really caring about school at the time. And when I picked it up, like, some of my old classes didn't translate to what the transcript was supposed to be like, and I was one of the first ones that went through that. So it was a. It was a real. I would say for myself, traumatic experience because I went from being on this major high, going to play Division 1 basketball. I'm going to be in New Jersey. The lights and glamour, they have me all over the banners. I'm about to be the player here. And the new guard are talking about to. You're not even in Division 1 right now. You got to go backwards. You got to go to junior college. And they say in Juco may never get out. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:25] Speaker C: So I was like, wow. So it was a difficult time. [00:18:27] Speaker B: What was that, that year, like, in Juco, how you spent a year, but. [00:18:30] Speaker C: A year and a half there? When I first. When I first got there, obviously it's real secluded in Dallas. It's Trinity Valley. But when I first got There they told me the same thing. Their team wasn't doing that well in the past few years. There weren't that many games, etc. And I feel like I had Sam Ashley with me. He was from Toronto. He was my roommate at the time. We just took it apart on ourselves as a challenge. We're gonna get better. And I think we literally lived in that gym like we had. The gym was like maybe, maybe a block and a half away from our dorms. We didn't come home. I didn't come home for a year and a half. We stayed on campus and I graduated. Juco, a two year course in a year and a half. We stayed on campus. We fast tracked it. Summer school, night school, and we stayed on campus. We went to that, we lifted with the football players and then we worked out afterwards and we played pickup and then we did one on one, full court. We stayed in that gym. So by the time, by the time the year started, we were ready to go. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:19] Speaker B: And I'm guessing all those colleges came back calling. [00:19:22] Speaker C: They came back fast. Yeah, they, they were. I didn't get a call from no one except in the beginning, except shout out to my guy Bilal, who's still a great friend to me. Just now he's at Houston University now. He was like the intern at Oklahoma at the time, working for I think Coach Sampson. And he would call me like, how you doing? How's everything going? And I was like, okay. I think it was a ga. So I'm not an intern. How you doing? How's everything going? How's everything going in school? I would inform him on it and he'll be like, you'll keep your head up. You're still gonna be great. And I remember after like my first two games at juco, I had like, I think like a 30 point triple. Double. All three games. The first games, all the schools came coming back and Bala was the first one to call me, recruit me to Oklahoma. And I was gonna go there, but they left, went to another school afterwards. But it was good. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I seen that school was in the mix, Illinois was in the mix. But then you land on Arizona State. [00:20:08] Speaker C: Right. [00:20:08] Speaker B: Tell me how Arizona State became the option. [00:20:11] Speaker C: Coach. Coach, Coach Benford and Coach Evans, they never lied to me. Like during the recruiting process, they told me we're in the Big east, we're starting to pack 10. You play against UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, Brandon Roy, Jordan Farmer, Kevin Love, Russell Russbrook, Nate Robbins. Just a list of players you're playing against every Single night like Aaron Brooks want to get better. You just, you got to come and you want to put a ball in your hand. So they didn't lie to me when I went on campus. It was a beautiful campus. When I went there they told me I'm not going to start, I got to earn everything I got. And they said he want me to be a leader and they hold me accountable and that's what I wanted. [00:20:48] Speaker B: You talked about they didn't lie to you. Because I feel like nowadays it's tricky to figure out especially with the nil. [00:20:55] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:20:56] Speaker B: Maybe. Have you heard any stories just about that, like in terms of like what's it like to navigate being able to, to play college basketball? And you have this expectation of like you're gonna start and like how do you like decis. Decipher from that from being a real or fake? [00:21:09] Speaker C: I'm lucky that didn't have nil when I was there. Really? Yeah, for sure. If that nil, I would have made a. I wouldn't made the right decision. I would have went to a school that's probably going to give me the most money that can give me instead of going to the school that's probably give me the best education in the best situation to be successful in life. That fits me. And it's got to be difficult for these young guys to kind of decipher now because even people now who have money or who are pros, they can't, they don't know money management then. So imagine being 19, 20, having access to 500k or 600k or whatever the case may be maybe difficult for them then. So I think that's a process that I'll have to kind of go through. But I know, I love when a coach can look you and I and be like, listen, everything here. You don't have to earn, you'll be like everyone else until you make yourself better than everyone else. Like what's going to separate you from everyone else? And that was what Coach Evans told me. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Arizona State for three years, right? [00:21:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:21:57] Speaker B: How would you describe that whole time there? [00:22:00] Speaker C: I think it was. Some people may not understand this part. Arizona State was the best situation ever. The adversity had to go through the off the court lifestyle of being in Scottsdale and being around players like Amari Stoudemire, Steve Nash, being around football players like Edrin James, Anquan Bolden, like mixing and mingling with all these guys. There's a point where people were like coming up to me and like you go to College like, you what you outside with us every day. I'm like, so. Building relationships outside of basketball was like what Arizona State gave to me on top of, like, this amazing brotherhood with the players that I went to school with. To this day that we. We're still close friends. [00:22:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Talking about players, you went to school with James Harden. [00:22:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:37] Speaker B: I feel like one of the best players of this generation that we've seen in the last, I don't know how many years. He's, I think, a top 75 player now. Tell me the first time you met James Harden. [00:22:48] Speaker C: First I met him. He came to after his visit. When he first came on campus was when we had a pickup run. And I remember the first. The first pickup run that he had. He was really. He was like, 17 and coming to college, and we played with a lot of, like, NBA guys and pros in Arizona. So, like, the pros, like, I try to sick like one of my big dogs. I'm like, yo, go. He's the young boy from McDonald's on America and get him. And the first. The first pickup run, he was. He's like 6, 8 named stretch was going at him. And I remember James, like, not understanding what was going on the first run. Then, like, by the end of the day, he was like an attack mode against grown men. And that's why, like, oh, this kid, he's not backing now. Like, he's special. So this is work ethic alone in college, like, we'd go off to practices. You come back anytime. He's still shooting. Like we said, we have some. Something called the rec boys. We always go to the Wreck and play against, like, the college students and get them off the court and playing against each other for, like, hours. So we'd go from, like, study hall, go from real practice from like 3 to 4. Sorry, 3 to 5, study hall, from like 6 to 8. And usually people go home. I go to the room after that. Went to the Wreck. We all, like six or seven of us went to the Wreck and went to play basketball like, 10:30. I wish they had YouTube back then. It was highlights all day. And that's where we kind of, like, got our swag or got our confidence on the court if they were taken away from us from the coaching staff. So it was a great thing. He loves to play basketball. All of us had, like, a great camaraderie and a great brotherhood, and it was all about pushing each other to be better and hold each other accountable. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I seen. I was reading something. You spent time together as Roommates at. [00:24:12] Speaker C: One point, something like that. Those guys are always in my room. I was like the older policeman. I was like a senior when they were like freshmen in sophomore. So we all used to hang out together and play Halo and play video games and I would tell them stories all the time about everything and just hang out with me the whole time. [00:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah, the nosebleed celebration. Yeah, I feel like I've seen it go viral. He talked about it recently. Yeah, he told a story about how you claimed you dunked once and then you broke your nose from the dunk. He believe it's a made up story. Harden. [00:24:40] Speaker C: Apparently it's more. So like here's what happens in Arizona State. Like when I tell a story to these guys, it grows legs and they run with it and act like it was like didn't happen. This is what actually happened. My roommate named Bruno Claudrono from Brazil. My first week of practice, first every week of individual in practice. He broke my nose. He's 610 with sharp elbows. So he was in the middle of the court, squaring up on the zone and I was running across the court. So he turned with his bows and broke my. I hit my face, broke my nose. Nose broke. Had to wear a mask. My first game in college ever was against Carlton University. I can't sit out, but it's a Canadian team. I can't sit out this game. They said you can't play because my face is too swollen. I, I said, coach, I gotta get a mask. They got me a mask, went to go play. I played that game cool. The next game was against, I think Iowa State. And it was like our A game at home. And I remember the mask was bothering me. So I played the whole game of the mask, but I didn't play out well. The next game was against another pretty good team, I think Minnesota. Perfect. I remember because I wore like the striped socks and the. And I think the Jordan Sevens. And I didn't wear the mask in warmup. This happened in layup lines. I didn't have the mask on, so I dunked and the ball hit my nose in the layup line. The first I took the mask off and I felt. I put my numb like, yo, my nose is bleeding. They started laughing. I thought I was joking. When I put my head down, all the blood came gushing down on my jersey. And now then they got me a towel. I had to change my jersey. That's the story of broken nose. I didn't. I really broke my. I broke my nose prior. But I re broke it by dunking. And the ball hit the first dunk I did, the ball hit me directly in my nose, like telling me like I should have kept my mask on. [00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:11] Speaker B: That's crazy. [00:26:11] Speaker C: And I re. Broke my nose, so I had to put a mask back on. [00:26:13] Speaker B: So why is he saying it's a make believe story? [00:26:15] Speaker C: He wasn't there yet. He wasn't. He was in high school still. [00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker C: So that story, that was my first year Arizona State, so. But what happened though? Every time I would dunk or any of us would dunk before he even got there, without act like we broke our nose. I would do that for sure. Every time we went to the ruck, I'll dunk and act like I broke my nose. And so we kept going when I told him the story because he wasn't, everyone wasn't there when it happened. He was still in high school. So when they know the story, like that can't be real. But our like strength conditioning coach, anyone who was there be like that happened. You can go back and check it out at a mask on my first five games of college. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:45] Speaker B: What's it like seeing him use that celebration NBA game? [00:26:48] Speaker C: It's, it's, it's, it makes sense. I feel like it's part of like the almost a swag or the aura of guys from Arizona State and guys from that time of basketball. Like we all carry this swag about us. Whether it's cooking, whether it's putting salt on somebody, whether it's breaking the nose, it makes sense. I feel like that's who he is. Like, that's part of like his swag almost. Because we, we all like anything we all did well, we all would use it. So it's like part of like the gumbo. So it makes sense. When I see him doing it or I see on the video game, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't like him not to do it. Even stuff like when we would score or do a Florida would headbutt the ball. That's all the stuff that we would do in college. Like, or we wear a headband and during the game if we're not playing, we'll throw the headband into the, to the stands or whatever it is or to the bench, we start playing better. Like whatever it is the, that we did back then, I felt like it makes sense to carry it over to whatever you're doing. Yeah. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Do you remember the first time he did it? And you're like, I'm guessing you saw it. [00:27:40] Speaker C: Which one? The broken nose? [00:27:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:41] Speaker C: Oh, we was in Houston. I was in Houston at the time, and we were talking about it. I remember going to the game. We're talking about it like, man, you don't me. And we have a lot of banter. Like, you don't got no swag no more, man. They taking your swag from you. You don't cook nobody no more. You don't break your nose no more. What? James is different. So that game, he must have dunked, like, three times. And I remember, like, he act like his nose and they stopped the game like they thought he's crazy. It was dope. So, like, it was. It was great. It's great to see all the time. [00:28:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:07] Speaker C: I feel like it fits what's going on. Like, I feel if it fits the atmosphere, fits the environment. It's part of him as well. Like, he. He. We all came from the same environment. Arizona State. It's not just mine because it came from. He's not just mine. It's for all of us. Like, so that's how I look at it. [00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's dope that he carries. Like, all his relationships, his friendships, he brings it to who he is. How often do you guys still talk? I'm guessing you guys. [00:28:27] Speaker C: We talk pretty frequent. We talked yesterday, but about music and different things in life. But it's a blessing because just like all my other brothers that I have from college, like my other best friend, Jaren Shipper, I talk to him five dimes a week, you know what I'm saying? So, like, it's all the same thing with us. Like, we just try to figure. Figure out times to catch up and have conversations, because we can almost relate to what each other's going through in a different way. So it's really a brotherhood. [00:28:49] Speaker B: You being so close to him. What do you think his legacy will be when it's all said and done? Obviously, I don't want to rush him, but he's still got a lot of time playing, man. But what do you think his legacy will be? [00:28:58] Speaker C: I think his legacy will be. Be really misunderstood. I think a lot of people, because they let. I don't want to say the media, that other people dictate the narrative. They're not really seeing that someone went from being actual shooting guard to becoming a point guard, someone from actually leading the league in scoring, leading the league in assists. Things like that have never even been done in the NBA. That you went from being, like, shooting guard, like D. Wade, to being A point guard like J. Kidd. Like that type of transition and finding yourself is different. Revolutionizing the game to where now everybody wants to do a step back theory. [00:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Like being second and I think in three to step alone is crazy. Like things like that. Don't know. I think it's misunderstood. I think if you have the right lens, almost like the right music taste, you understand it. And I think the right people will show them the respect and credit deserves. And essentially we talk about all the time, like, we don't take none of this for granted. Like, that's why I make sure I go courtside to his games. Like when we, when he retired, we talk about this. Like, but this is, we take none of this for granted. Like being able to see from the beginning towards that now and still be in it. Like, this is the biggest blessing in the world. [00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:55] Speaker B: I still think he probably goes down as like the top three shooting guard at least minimum. [00:29:59] Speaker C: I mean, for me, I'm biased. [00:30:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:00] Speaker C: Like, I already think he's a top three shooting guard. Like, I think he's up there with Kobe and mj, you know what I'm saying? And D. Wade, if you want to say top four. I mean, we'll take it. Coming from a kid who went to Arizona State, that wasn't like the most highly tutored guy, highly recruited guy, and not the most, I don't call it athletic, but, you know, just, just amazing skill set and hard work and determination and the person who just put in the work. The work is always going to show you probably. And put in the work. [00:30:23] Speaker B: Well, what's like you said, talking about watching courtside, what's that like watching your teammate, someone you you grinded with. [00:30:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Being there. And also I'm guessing you guys are like talking to each other. [00:30:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm about to do this. [00:30:32] Speaker B: I'm about to do this. [00:30:33] Speaker C: Even. Even. Not even. Not even. First off, with James, it's the biggest blessing ever because we get to like talk during the game and I get to like live that surreal moment. Even with guys like Chauncey Billups who was like one of like my main idols growing up. But I get to, I got to meet him through basketball relationships, get to sit here and watch him coach the game and talk to me during the game while he's coaching Delano. Like all that stuff is dope moments. So I'm like, I'm just appreciative of it. [00:30:55] Speaker B: Let's say any favorite moments you have watching any of those guys, probably when. [00:30:58] Speaker C: When James was playing for, for Brooklyn. And I was sitting behind Austin. Course I. Behind the Raptor's bench. And I was. And I was kind of telling them, like, be careful, he's about to start isoing you guys. And he just. He went on like a fourth quarter tear. And it was great to see because he was talking to me the whole time during the game. And he won the game at the end. We did our handshake and we showed love. And it was. It was a. It was like a surreal moment. I was like, this is really happening. Like, this is great. [00:31:23] Speaker B: He's like, answer you telling these guys, man? [00:31:24] Speaker C: I was telling them, the Nick nurses called. He go, nick, send two. I'm like, send two to him. Send another. Send a double, man. It was bad, but it was. It was a great moment. [00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Graduated obviously from Arizona State with a degree in mass communications business. Yeah. Tell me once that ended, obviously you go play professionally. But tell me you talked about your parents, so I'm guessing education was a big thing for you too. [00:31:46] Speaker C: Yeah, education was a big thing. It wasn't super pressed, but, you know, my. I grew up around my father who knew like nine languages. Super intelligent. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Damn. [00:31:56] Speaker C: And my mother. Yeah. Yeah, my mother. Just a super hard worker and like a fashionista. So I was like the bless of both worlds. So even if it wasn't super pressed, I and see like, what hard work looks like and what's like the keys to success just by watching every day in the morning. So mass communication business degree. Afterwards, after playing pro, like, I always wanted to do stuff in the community. So we initially, me and my. My good friend Clive Williams started a. A program called Youth R Us, which was more of like a. A program to give back to the community. Start off in Rexdale was like a big Brother program. We would find younger guys who probably in high school or weren't even in high school that needed an opportunity and kind of create like a hub where they can come in and play basketball. We can teach them things. We did like a course called. A course called Score 4D, which is Score 40 points in different ways. So it was great. And we built towards that and did a lot of community initiative through that, which was alumni games, basketball camps and things, barbecue, just to get back to the community at a time. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Yeah, you talked about youth for us. I don't know if this is related, but Marlo Devas was telling me a story about how you. I think you worked with Harden, with Adidas to host like a camp with a bunch of girls at Crestwood back in the day. That was the first time he watched Ali Edwards play. [00:33:04] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:33:04] Speaker B: So what do you remember about that? And good job, Marlo. [00:33:07] Speaker C: Like, so basically we had a. We had a camp called how to be an All Star student Athlete. And for grade six, I think. Grade six. No, grade seven and eight players. And we had a boy side and a girl side. In the beginning, we'll have like a panel discussion, all that stuff. Adidas was supporting us and James guys was supporting us, giving us uniforms and shoes. And I remember I got a call about her, Lee Edwards, and they said, yo, we got this girl over here. I think she has yellow braids. She might be the best player in Canada. Like, yeah, right. We have all these players here. They can be. So then we went to go check her out, and she was really good. Like, it was like a day before the actual, like the cat or the All Star Game. So we have to put her in. So we put her in the game. She got it like corn. Mvp. And she ended up going to Crestwood after that, and her career took off. But that's just one of the. One of the moments that we had in Toronto. So, yeah, that was. It was a great moment. [00:33:53] Speaker B: And signed to Adidas, too, man. [00:33:54] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. I need. Listen, man, I need my consultation checks in the back. I know what it is, but yeah, it was great. I remember. I remember watching her that game. She was on a mature game and she was like, just playing every position on the floor. I'm like, who is she? Like, it was. It was great to see and to see where her career went after Crestwood and everything like that. They did a great job with her and. And she went to the next level and now she's playing pro, so it's great. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:16] Speaker B: Talking about pro, you played obviously South America in China. I believe in Canada to end it off there. What was like the best part about playing professionally? And then tell me the process too. Like, you finish off at Arizona State. How do you get to play professionally? [00:34:31] Speaker C: Well, yeah, the process isn't the easiest. Went through a couple NBA workouts and camp situations, and then you got to try to find an agent. And after you find an agent, you have to try to find a space. Your first year is probably be difficult getting like a lot of money. I try to find a spot where you can play a lot of minutes and try to, like, be good. So I think my first ever contract was like, I think in Lebanon, and I think we had had a great time out there. I love Lebanon. And I think from there I Went to like South America. I didn't want to stay in Europe. I went to South America, route to Mexico, Colombia, etc, and I loved it out there. And we got paid pretty good money. And from there we kind of like went on some tours to China, played in different spaces. But then we ended off in Canada because we're like, that's where I kind of wanted to end off my own career at. And the process, to answer the process question, it was difficult to be in because we didn't have no mentorship. I didn't have someone to call and be like, yo, this is what you need to do. I have to kind of like figure it out on my own. That's why the fellowship and stuff, like, that's so important to me. So when guys have questions and guys need some information, we can give back to them. Cause I was like trying to reach out to some people. I know Gary Durant, when I reached out to him about it, he helped me a lot as well with sitting in one of my mentors as well. So outside of that, we have nobody. [00:35:38] Speaker B: Shout out to Gary Durant. [00:35:39] Speaker C: Gds. My God. [00:35:40] Speaker B: I came on the podcast Asian from Canada. A lot of people know on the, on the grassroots level especially, definitely. What was the favorite part? Just about playing professionally. [00:35:49] Speaker C: Favorite part about playing professionals is definitely making money doing what you love. It's almost surreal. Like, sometimes you got to pinch yourself. You got to go into the room, be like, hold on. Especially when your check comes in. Especially when your check comes in with bonuses too. [00:36:02] Speaker B: What's the bonuses? [00:36:03] Speaker C: Depends what you. What you're. What's on your contract. Oh, if you get like a certain amount of assists and if you guys beat a certain team, you've got a certain amount of points. Whatever you are in your contract, you get the bonuses as well. Make it to the playoffs. You start looking at your child, hold on. Like, yeah, I made this money playing the game. I love a child's game at that. You feel good about it. Like everything. Everything went to. To the right space. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Talk about ending it off in Canada. NBL Canada, London Night Lightning ended up winning a title too. [00:36:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Tell me what made you want to enter there? And then also, like, what led you to. To end up retiring? [00:36:35] Speaker C: Well, ending in Canada was perfect. I wanted my family and friends to be able to see me play. And I feel like being overseas for so long, only time people would see me play would be the summertime and like. And like tournaments, like bounce tournament and James Finn's tournament or whatever the case may be. But I feel like that wasn't. Like, that wouldn't suffice to them see me play professionally. And that was opportunity that was granted to me. We went there, won a championship, and I just knew during that run, like, I was already leading more into the business side of life. Like, I was already. I already started reading a lot because I went on a trip to China, and one of my good friends from Arizona State, Jaren Ship, he gave me the Alchemist. That book I didn't read at all in college. Didn't read a book and didn't read nothing. [00:37:09] Speaker B: They gave it to me in high school. I still haven't read that. [00:37:11] Speaker C: You need to read it, and you really change your life. So that's what he told me when he gave it. He's like, it's gonna change your life. And it did. So I picked up on reading a lot. So I started reading, like, man, four books a month literally after that. So while I was playing basketball at that time, I started reading a lot more, expanded my mind, started getting closer to the general manager of the team and asking them questions and. And trying to find different things to do and. And I already knew, like, I was already, like, on the way. Like, I was happy. I was content with where my life was and career was. I wasn't. That was, like, bitter about anything. Like, I was. I was super thankful. So I knew it was time to transition. I'm good with transition. I'm good with, like, changing to new things. I don't, like, hold on to things like, I don't need on Harbor Energy. I don't need. So it was time for me to go. So when I did it, I felt good about it, and I wanted to conquer a new challenge, which was like, I wanted to be a business mogul in my city. Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker B: So tell me the first thing you did after that. [00:37:59] Speaker C: So you Youth R Us. We started Youth R Us. And after you thrust, we started something called Bal Noir. We had a T dot, T shirts. So the shirts. I said T dot. We put the different flags in it, either the Ghana flag, Ethiopian flag, Jamaica flag, whatever. So now when we would travel, you'd have an opportunity to showcase where you're from, being from Toronto. So we want a representation of where you're from. So we started those T shirts doing really, really well. It was like, our first, like, business endeavor. We had to, like, buy the T shirts, find a place to print, design this stuff, market this stuff, deliver the stuff. I didn't know. I didn't even know how to get downtown. Those Days I had no clue how to drive downtown. That business taught me how to get around the city. Like, I was driving from Rexdale to downtown to Scarborough to Oshawa all. And now I know how to get here like the back of my head. But understanding customer relationship, understanding. Sometimes some people be like, oh, bring us four T shirts and we get. They don't have money for three. But like, oh, don't worry about it, man, give me next time. And building a rapport, things like that. So I learned that, that way too. [00:38:53] Speaker B: What was that transition like, becoming an entrepreneur? Was it hard? Was it difficult? You got touched on it. [00:38:59] Speaker C: Language is important. It wasn't difficult. It was challenging. But difficult is like not having money to pay the rent. That's difficult. I'm saying, like, that's difficult. To me, it was challenging, meaning I had to work. I had to go back to ground zero and be like, okay. And this is just like when I couldn't make a left hand layup, I had to get to the gym every single day and work on my left hand layup. So literally, I had to work. I had to figure out things that people are doing in a business space and try to emulate and try to, like, do what they're doing and still be myself. So I, I enjoyed that process of it. [00:39:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:28] Speaker B: You kind of talked about reinventing yourself. Right. You obviously kind of knew what you wanted to do. [00:39:34] Speaker C: I didn't. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Did it? [00:39:35] Speaker C: No. I feel like that that's a misconception. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker C: I think now people see the finished product. [00:39:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:40] Speaker C: Like, oh, you knew this whole time I did it. I just wasn't. I just wanted to scare. To shoot. [00:39:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:44] Speaker C: Like I was, if you don't shoot the ball, you're not gonna know if you're gonna make it. I've never been afraid to shoot a shot, so I felt like I'll just. Shooting shots at different things and seeing what you want to make it. [00:39:52] Speaker B: What would you say is like the hardest part for like an athlete? Like, giving up the laces even though you kind of. You're okay with it, but then finding something else to do. What's the hardest part in between them? [00:40:03] Speaker C: Utilizing your transferable skills that you learn from basketball to the workspace or to entrepreneurial space. All the things that you do to get better, to even. Excuse me, to prepare for another team, the scouting report, all these things. They're using the business space as well. Like being able to be up and alert for a business meeting. Being able to know exactly who you're speaking to in A business meeting. Know more about them, they know about you. Like just like, just like you're going to play Seaton hall and they have a big time point guard. You better know what he is before the game. You better know everything about this guy if you want to shut him down. Like we have to know everything about Jordan Farmer before you play against Jordan Farmer. Or you can score 30. Same thing in the business space is utilizing those same transferable skills in order to like try to get a better chance to be successful. That's what it really is. And not cheat the game. I feel like in life, even in basketball, a lot of guys have like these stories of why they should have been this and that and they, they, they got, they got the bad end of the deal. Basketball didn't know you didn't work. If you work, the work would have showed. Like in college I should have worked more on my jumper. Who cares what the coach said when Jane was in the gym shooting. I should like, yo, I'm here. I'm here too. And in hindsight you look at like, okay, that's one thing I could have did because when I left school, I started working more as a pro. And if I had that same work ethic while I was in school, I probably would have, I'd probably still be playing right now. But in hindsight you got to understand when you a better self awareness and be like, what did you not do? What could you have done better? Not what you did wrong. What could you have done better? So now when I talk to these younger guys, I always ask them how much work you put in there. What are your work habits? Like, how much do you really enjoy like getting to the grind? A lot of people want to cheat the grind. They want to skip steps. You can't skip steps of entrepreneurship. You can't. You, you won't be successful. You can make it look like it, take all the pics in the world. You can do whatever you want. You can fake it all you want. It's not gonna get you courtside. It may get you one game. One if you're lucky enough for you every time. Consistency. [00:41:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:50] Speaker B: So how would you say like you reinvented yourself to where you're at now? [00:41:54] Speaker C: Work not being afraid to shoot, not be afraid to like back on ground zero. [00:41:58] Speaker B: How many no's did you get? [00:42:00] Speaker C: I still get no today. Yeah, no. I get so many no's on things prior. It just motivates me. It's almost like I like hearing the no. I like hearing a no now when I don't hear no. I kind of feel weird now because I get so many yeses. Like, I don't. Like, it's a challenge for me. Like, I used to get so many. No, so many doors closed. It was great because I felt the challenge. I had to reinvent myself by doing the work. The work was getting the reading done. The work was reading three to four books a month on self work and entrepreneurship and then watching interviews on moguls and watching podcasts on people not going to sleep, taking notes, waking up early. My only competition at that time was beating the sun up. If I wasn't up before the sun, I felt like I wasn't doing something. That's how motivated I was to like, get to the next level. So in the reinvention of this, when I learned, I'm like, you know what? This is going to be the most consistent thing in my life. It's reinvention. Because after you reinvent yourself, you got to continue to move or you become stagnant. And now the next person comes up and they're doing the same thing. So my process, for me, I just wanted to work. I'm never scared of the work. I'm not cheating the game, my skipping steps. I don't want it if I can't work for it. If I can't build something, I don't want it. It's not mine. Then it can be taken away from me. I don't want it. [00:43:04] Speaker B: Yeah, because I feel like a lot of people don't talk about life after basketball. [00:43:07] Speaker C: Right. [00:43:08] Speaker B: You see what the fellowship you're doing that you're. You're showing them the example because obviously some guys can't be like sga, like SG is going to play to however want what he wants. [00:43:16] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Um, but life after basketball, I've heard you talked about it a lot. Is there, was it like a blueprint or like anybody that you saw like kind of do it, that you're like, well, I kind of like how they've done it or like maybe afterwards that you're like, wow, this person has kind of like pivoted and I want to give them a shout out or like, was there anybody that you kind of that looked at? [00:43:35] Speaker C: That's a great question. I feel like at the time I wanted to create the blueprint. I feel like my mentor at the time was like a guy by name of Matthew Knowles. [00:43:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I heard you talking about it. [00:43:43] Speaker C: Matthew Knowles is my mentor at the time, and he taught me a lot about of going and getting so big or Getting so great. Not big, I think, which is important. Getting so great at what you do, people start removing basketball from your resume. How people now don't even know I played ball. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. [00:44:00] Speaker C: So I wanted to make sure I put myself in situations where I can add value to rooms or add value to spaces to where people don't even look at the basketball part of me. So I wanted to create the blueprint where it was comfortable enough to not always lead with, hey, I played pro basketball. Hey, I played Arizona State. Hey, I was number one player in Canada. Like, I wanted to get so comfortable in rooms that they would see me as more than that. Where, like, they started addressing me by my name and what I've done in the business space. So that was kind of like my motivation. Like, I want to create this blueprint to where now the younger guys coming up can be like, hey, potentially, I can do something like this. Or potentially, he's someone I can reach out to to get some advice on, you know, the transition. Yeah, I didn't really see it out there. [00:44:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:35] Speaker C: Maybe I wasn't looking, though. I could have been out there. Maybe I was like, so tunnel vision. I wasn't even looking to shadow anybody. [00:44:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:44:40] Speaker B: You mentioned Matthew Knowles. Just talk about him, people that know about him. American record executive. He was best known for being the manager for Destiny's Child. [00:44:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:44:49] Speaker B: Your mentor. [00:44:49] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. He's one of my mentors. I think I met him when I was in Houston, when I was working with James in Houston. He was like, he lived in the same building as us. Started running to him in the buildings, and I was, like I said, not being scared to shoot. So one day I see him in the building, I'm like, hey, you know your Matthew knows, right? Shook his hand like, I'm Antwerp. Doing a lot of work over here with the Rockets, et cetera, with doing different things. I love to be able to pick your brain. One day he's like, hey, come to my office. What are you doing right now? I'm like, I'll ride with you. Car came pick this up. Took me straight to his office. He started showing me his book, started showing me the Grammys, started showing everything he's done in one. We built a rapport then, and that became like an every Friday thing. We just go to his office, he'll put me on game, talk about life, and I'll just talk about things I was doing. He would just be a soundboard. Like, nah, you shouldn't do that. Or maybe just try this. And he'd always challenge me to be better. Like you should like think bigger. You tell me like now you think it too small. Thinking too small. You got to think bigger than that. And that was a. It was a great soundboard. Shout out to Matthew that you made a major impact in my entrepreneurial endeavors in my life. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:44] Speaker B: You talked about it to just like figuring out what's next. How can people like transition from basketball from your point of view, whether it's not like being an entrepreneur but like finding something that they're passionate about. [00:45:55] Speaker A: What. [00:45:55] Speaker B: What's the key to that? What's. What's something that you've seen? Maybe people don't know. Like what do you think is the key to finding something you could do after basketball? [00:46:03] Speaker C: Well, Jason Kidd told us this one time when we're like Arizona State. If basketball the only thing you have going for, you're in trouble. And I was so shocked. I'm like, what? We're trying to make it to the league. What are you talking? Like if basketball is the only thing you got going for, you in trouble. Meaning man, start doing things outside of basketball as well. Like be more open minded when you're younger, going through the process. That doesn't mean you shouldn't love the game but find other things you have a passion towards too. So it's not as hard to transition to something different if you're only just focused just on basketball. It may be difficult you to transition and for those that are just focused on basketball, don't be take the same challenge you took to grow the game of basketball in your mind and outside of it to the next endeavor. Like transfer all the energy that you give towards basketball something completely new. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Have you ever thought about being an agent? Feel like you'd be a good agent? [00:46:46] Speaker C: You know what? I feel like I'll be a great agent, but I feel like it would take away from our relationships now. I can't, I can, I can't be my. With my friends sometimes there's a lot of pockets too. And I can't really like I like to talk about the game in, in. In foresight. So I wouldn't be able to do that. So that's not really my, my passion. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I just, I just had to. [00:47:03] Speaker C: Say because a lot of guys, a lot of guys talk to me about being an agent, but it's not really my thing because I have too many relationships in the NBA or in the game that you'll kind of like it would hurt it. [00:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:11] Speaker B: You started your own brand too Noir. [00:47:13] Speaker A: Noir. [00:47:13] Speaker B: What led to that? And tell me, what does it stand for? [00:47:16] Speaker C: So at the beginning it was Noir. Noir. First it was ball Noir, meaning being blackballed as we started TD shirts. Then it developed into noir. And Noir, which stands on black on black, like black man, black, black woman. So it was a lot of events dedicated to like pro black things or like black initiatives for the community. We had like Black History Month events, tournaments, dinners, Black Friday dinners, whatever the case may be. And from there we kind of transitioned and developed it into separate to elevate a bigger brand, a bigger entity with more different things that we're doing, but a broader spectrum. [00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah, big events in Toronto. I feel like you do a lot of those basketball events. We'll talk about ball. Don't stop in a bit. How did that idea become? Because I feel like there wasn't this type of like, events, luxury events too, that you do. [00:47:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it started in Houston for me when I was doing stuff with jb, this one called a JH St. Weekend, which was like, it changed the city of Houston. Like, we came up with this concept to like do a big community initiative where we have like almost like the Vince Carter charity game that we had back in the day. We did it with James and his brand and Adidas. And I was the first time like I had to like work with like 15 brands, work with Travis Scott, Meek Mill to get them. They had their own teams in it. Slim Thug, all the guys from Houston represented, had their own teams as well. And my first time putting on a major event of this magnitude with over like, I think over a thousand people came when it was a two day event. And I'm like, one day I gotta bring something of this magnitude to Toronto. So I feel like after I left Houston and I transitioned over to Niagara and I came back in the scene of Toronto, I'm like, okay, gotta start doing some major, actual luxury events in the city to kind of get people out and doing different things. [00:48:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Cause I feel like Toronto's untapped. Like there's maybe some events, but it's very untapped. I feel like it's not especially maybe after covert, like it's been popping now. What do you think? [00:48:53] Speaker C: I agree. I think first shout out to all the people who are in the event space that are doing their things for like the past decade and, and so on and so forth. Not like, not trying to say like they haven't been doing their thing, but I feel like sports, I'm talking about sports and like, yeah, even Sports, all the events I put all in one because I do both. So it's like I feel like in the sports side is definitely on tap and the things that we can definitely do and expand on every side. I feel like we just have to be. We have to initiate it if they issued it and take a step forward. And I think that's one thing. Separate to elevate. That's what it means. Like you got to separate to elevate. So it's like some. It's our role to kind of do things that people may not be doing. Kind of bring a light to it and make it like the fun thing to do. [00:49:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm talking about Vince. I think you've done one with manual quickly. [00:49:34] Speaker A: No. [00:49:34] Speaker C: Yes, yes, yes, yes. [00:49:35] Speaker B: Tell me about that. [00:49:35] Speaker C: So we dealt more like a fashion experience with Emmanuel and his go to Femme Briz. Like we did like a fashion walkthrough experience. We do. We demonstrate with the. Webster was one of our partners. We did like a fashion look of like an after game look, a post game look. Sorry, postgame look, going to the game, tunnel walk look and something you would wear like casually going out. Show different sides of the fashion side. Because we're into that too. So Quick was dope for that. And his men, all of those guys were super phenomenal. And the Webster was great too. Like things like that you want to bring different to the city. [00:50:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:05] Speaker B: Do you feel like those type of players too? It's kind of. They're embracing the city in terms of like working with you, obviously. But I don't know if like I feel like these type of opportunities, the stuff that's happening is more like a state thing. [00:50:17] Speaker C: Right. [00:50:17] Speaker B: But you're kind of bringing it to Toronto. [00:50:20] Speaker C: To be honest. All the guys from Jacoby to Quick. Jason. Jason, all those guys love the city. The guys love being in the city. They. They embrace the city. They love Toronto and all those guys have been the breath of fresh air for the city. So being able to do different events that they can, they can come to and they can enjoy is. Has been a stable of mine as well. So I think just being able to kind of embrace that as a company as well. What we're doing to kind of give different guys and those guys opportunities to step out and be something outside of basketball players is what we're trying to do too. [00:50:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Talk about noir. Noir, separate, elevate. What's the difference? [00:50:53] Speaker C: Noir, Noir, Noir. Noir is more of like an individual brand. And so let's, let's do it like this so Noir. Noir was more like Rockefeller and separate the Elevators. Rock Nation. Like it became Roc Nation without the music. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Hello. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Everything else is like, we try to like. So we have brands where we do like the Champagne. Champagne Carbon. We manage that brand. We manage the Tequila Grande Amante brand. We manage that whole brand globally. That's in Toronto, but globally, then we have to also stuff. We have partnerships with different companies, different brands, different players. We all manage and. And consult and curate events for them. So it's a bigger spectrum. [00:51:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:29] Speaker B: What goes into like planning like a luxury event? I feel like it's like it's. I don't go to a lot. Maybe now I want you, you know, but like what goes into planning like an event like this? [00:51:41] Speaker C: I work. I like to do reverse engineering. I like to work backwards. So the first thing I start with is like the feel of what it's going to feel like. So you have to start with some good music. So I try to like curate. [00:51:49] Speaker B: Get some reggae in there. [00:51:50] Speaker C: Get some. [00:51:51] Speaker B: Get some. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Reggae is okay sometime, but right now we're on the R and B. R and B. R and B vibes. Good feel music. No af Afro beats. We're in there. Reggae's in there too. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:00] Speaker C: Not too much trap music. [00:52:01] Speaker B: I don't know, man. [00:52:02] Speaker C: That's not our vibe. [00:52:03] Speaker B: I want some Toronto guys. A couple I want to listen to. I want to listen to who. Who's my guys. I want to listen to doo, man. [00:52:09] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. We have a couple of those guys. We get them all in the mix. But we know I. I love to get the R B vibes just to set the tone. [00:52:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:15] Speaker C: I feel like the R B when you can. You can't get mad at an R&B's playing. You just got to enjoy yourself. The R and B vibe. We have something called the R B playlist. We. We set a tone with that. Then I think getting the right demographic in there, the right aesthetic. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:26] Speaker C: So making sure that people know, like it's a dress code. Making sure they know, like, you know, we're coming to have a good time and have fun. Leave your issues at home, like leave a drama at home, etc. And then making sure people are coming to the connect and meet new people. So like the planning part of it is more so like making sure we. The right marketing is there. I try to do less marketing purposely so it sounds like it almost feels like it's just popping up on you. And outside of that, it feels like. I feel like when I market too early it feels like too much anticipation towards it. I want to be like if the event's on Sunday, I might pop it up on Friday and you can figure it out, stuff like that. [00:52:56] Speaker B: So I mean the panic get everyone like what is happening Exactly. [00:52:59] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying? So things like that that has worked to our advantage for the whole year. That's we did majority of our after events at a private location in Yorkville. So different things like that. I feel like a lot of planning does go into it. People may think it's just a party. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:11] Speaker C: And you're just having a great time. But no, the whole time we're working the whole time our shout out to the whole staff. Like we have probably have the best. [00:53:18] Speaker B: So what's the team look like? [00:53:19] Speaker C: Yeah, we have the best. To me we have one of the best media, media management teams. We have Breeze and we have Nate that do the videography and photography and a couple other people help but those guys to me are the best in the city. We have one of the best CEO. She just gets everything done from top to bottom. She's always working like 24 7. Then we have other people that help bring the brand to life in different ways. Even from the accountant down everyone's like on a. On a string. Then we have extended family like Kwame from Pro7 who's basically subject elevated as well that he's like he's the next biggest thing. So like I feel like we have like a great ecosystem that we've built and I feel like it's my job just to be like Maasai and just kind of like not direct them but just not micromanage but just give them one autonomy and be great in your roles and like find your problem and tell me your solution after I want to hear hear about it and that's how we kind of roll. [00:54:10] Speaker B: You mentioned Messiah. I just want to briefly go off topic. What are your thoughts on what happened with him? [00:54:15] Speaker C: M. I think shout out to Masai first off every time we we've talked have been phenomenal. Always gave me great advice. I think it was unfortunate but I also think it's time for a change frame as well. I think sometimes you have to embrace it and sometimes you have to make yourself even more valuable when you leave. So kind of they forget they remember you afterwards. But I think Messiah has been nothing short of phenomenal for the not just the city but the country. He came here, embraced it and made it a thing to be a Toronto Raptor. So I feel like his legacy Will always be stable. They gotta build him a statue when it's said and done. Hopefully they do that for him. Inshallah. [00:54:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:47] Speaker B: And I wish they. That the exit was not that messy, you know, but yeah, it is what it is. We're talking about luxury events. What's your favorite part about, like putting on an event and like getting the whole city out and like people coming up and then I'm guessing the event ends and you're like sitting back and it's like, there you go. [00:55:03] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the best part. When it ends. So when you're in it, you're like, you're like in the mix. [00:55:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:07] Speaker C: So like I'm focused on, on like trying to put out a fire before it starts and focus on making sure that's right over there. When we're. We're capturing that content and we're not capturing that and we're just doing things the right way. When it ends and everything goes well, you get to sit back and like. Okay. Breath of fresh air, like take a deep breath. And that, that day afterwards, that's what kind of hits you and get the messages. And people sitting had a great time and they enjoyed it. And when's the next one or I missed this one, I got to come to the next one. And they're seeing people's genuine enjoyment. That's what this is for. Like, we want to give. You want to give people something, something fun to do to release good endorphins, have a great time to smile to, to get that, that great energy and synergy back. So that's what we do it for. [00:55:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:43] Speaker B: What's maybe like the biggest event you. [00:55:44] Speaker A: Held. [00:55:48] Speaker C: Probably in my life. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:50] Speaker C: We've done like a major music festival in Austin that was probably years ago, but probably in Jhtown weekend was the biggest one. It was a full weekend. And then in Toronto, like we've just been doing so many different things. I can't even think about it. But like all of them are big to me. Even the small ones are big to me. Like, I feel like big is like for some people, big is a lot of people. That's not, that's not how I think. I go over the quality, over the quantity. When I, when I have people in the. Because I can have an event and it may be 100 people, but the hundred people in that building. I didn't want to talk about wealth, just talk about energy wise. It can, it can consist of 10 band, 10K. [00:56:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:25] Speaker C: And you may have 5,000 people in the building. And it's just 5,000 people in the building just doing whatever. So my job is to, like, make sure we curate in a space or an environment of the quality of people that we have in there that can kind of, like uplift it and elevate it, as we call it, elevated experiences as well. And also, big shout out to my guy, Wavy. He's probably to me, the most the best promoter and the best guy right now in the city to get everyone together, make sure you're having the best time. So if you're coming to the city, you got to tap into Young Wave. He's the guy right now on IG with Young Wavy, Young Wave. He's the biggest. He's the biggest. [00:56:55] Speaker B: I' search him up after this. [00:56:56] Speaker C: Search him a man. Search him up, watch his stories and have a great time. [00:56:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:59] Speaker B: How often are you. Are you doing these events now in the city? [00:57:01] Speaker C: No, we do it every Sunday. We do Sunday, every bowling. Sunday, Sunday, everybody. We have fellowship on Friday, and we still have some. Some stuff we're going to pop up with very, very soon. But so bowling started off as doing stuff like once a month. And I went to Fashion Week in New York. We had an. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. We did a major event with Givenchy and. Yeah, I forgot about that. Anyways, we did a fashion show with Givenchy in Fashion Week. And then one of my good friends knee out there, he has, like. He's like, huge in New York. He had an event every day. I'm like, how are you doing this? [00:57:27] Speaker B: How do you not get some rest? [00:57:29] Speaker C: He's literally in the club and, like, in the party, like, working on another event for the next day. And he's motivating me. [00:57:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:34] Speaker C: Like, why am I doing stuff every month and a half? Every. I'm not doing that no more. When I come back to the city, we're going. We're going. Yeah, yeah, we're going back to what we do. So now I said we went every week. We turned it up and we made. Made sure, like, we're going to be consistent. [00:57:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:46] Speaker C: I guess the thing. [00:57:47] Speaker B: How do people get. Get an invite or, like, what's the. You got to see when you see it. [00:57:51] Speaker C: No, I feel like I see people. [00:57:53] Speaker B: Want to tap in. [00:57:53] Speaker C: So. So, like, for the private events, for, like, after games and different private events. It's called if. You know. You know, like, that's kind of like word of mouth. We keep it like that. We'd even market it. We don't even put no marketing that we Turn around as a 150 people up upper echelon. High class, high level. But then for, like, the bowling events, that's public as well. Like, it's public flyers. It's public stuff. So you can come out there and have a good time and bowl. You can get a ticket or they can be vip. Like, you get a VIP ticket for me. So it's all good. [00:58:18] Speaker B: I'm gonna hold you to that. [00:58:19] Speaker C: Whatever you need, you got it. There's no one. It's, like, unlimited for you. [00:58:21] Speaker B: I love it. [00:58:22] Speaker C: You want to do. [00:58:22] Speaker B: Hey, can I bring the homies, too? [00:58:24] Speaker C: You need to bring them. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Hey. [00:58:25] Speaker C: They're the best time of their life. They're gonna thank you forever. Okay. Okay. [00:58:30] Speaker B: How do you manage all this? Like, you're talking about? [00:58:32] Speaker C: I really don't. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Also, the fellowship, right? [00:58:33] Speaker C: I really don't. [00:58:34] Speaker B: What's it like juggling all these things? [00:58:35] Speaker C: So I really don't manage it myself. Like, I can't say. It's me. It's the team. Like, it's D, it's Kwame, it's Wave, it's D, boy. One of the best DJs in the city. It's Dean. Everybody that we have around us, they carry their own weight. Like, I don't micromanage. We give autonomy. We want people. It's like, we want people to be who they are. We want people to be great in their roles. I read a book from Robert Charman. One of my favorite authors is Be a Leader with no Title. And that book really teaches you, like, how to lead without a title. So I don't want people to think they got to come to me with everything. The goal is to make people take ownership and what they're doing and be great in it. And if you need to talk to me about something, then you do, but just talk to me when you have the solution. Don't call me with the problem. Don't call me with what could have happened and tell me, like, this happened over here. This how I fix it. That's what we're doing. All right, cool. No big deal. Then when I. When I really need to, like, obviously make group calls or have individual conversations, I have those because I can. I can see kind of the play before it happens. Like, even just doing this stuff weekly, some people are kind of skeptical. Like, weekly is a lot until week four, and it's like 400 people on a Sunday. They're like, okay, I see. I see the vision now. I'm like, perfect. So now we just continue to go. [00:59:39] Speaker B: Talking about the fellowship, man, what's that been? And like, what's the joy you get from. From being part of that whole thing? [00:59:45] Speaker C: I think it's a development of. It's the. It's the not development. It's a joy of seeing so many of the young guys develop. Like some of them from the first year when Kwame and I started fellowship, which is Pro7 shout out to them, it was more so to get back to development part of basketball. It wasn't just necessarily like say, hey, what NBA player? So we get to come in the gym. I don't really care about that. If I want to call an NBA player, I make a phone call. I'll get one of the biggest players in the world to come over here. That's nothing. That's not going to make anyone better. That'll make you become a fan and get some autographs. You know what I'm saying? He's not going to stay here and play with you all time. So how are we going to develop what we have here? And I feel like that was missing. So the most joy I get is seeing a lot of these young guys develop like over the year that they got here. From last year till now, seeing guys who couldn't make a left hand layup, shooting Corner threes going 4 for 5 in games, and seeing like, man, some of my younger nephews change their life and be like real basketball players now, like, that's the biggest joy. And then seeing like also the support staff, like the workers and people that have worked with us, growing their roles as well. It's kind of like from a bird's eye view to seeing everyone develop and grow and build. That's been the biggest dread for me. [01:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:49] Speaker B: Cause you've had a mix. You have NBA guys in there. You've had college players, you had high school guys. You had my boy over there, Wemby. I don't know if you see the poster. [01:00:58] Speaker C: That's my guy. [01:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we had him. [01:00:59] Speaker C: That's my guy. [01:01:00] Speaker B: Want to shout him out? [01:01:01] Speaker C: Wemby's my guy. Wemby's super talented. He's has a great all around game. He has a mix. [01:01:06] Speaker B: I feel like we got to get you helping out in his recruitment. [01:01:09] Speaker C: That's easy. [01:01:10] Speaker B: We'll talk about. [01:01:10] Speaker C: That's easy. [01:01:11] Speaker B: We gotta talk about it. [01:01:12] Speaker C: Everything for me is a phone call away. Phone call away. You seem like they say successful people, they say regular people use like 2% of their phone book. Successful people like 5%. I use 20. I'm on the phone all day with people. I talked to Coach Cal last week so like we can make a phone call and by be watching how he plays. Let's get him a fellowship. Where's he at? [01:01:29] Speaker B: He's. I think he's playing. You played this this past. [01:01:31] Speaker C: He's out this weekend. He's not here. [01:01:32] Speaker B: He might be back. He might be back. [01:01:33] Speaker C: He's back. [01:01:34] Speaker B: He's back. [01:01:35] Speaker C: If he's back, we'll give him a fellowship this Friday on the squad. We get some content for him. That's easy. [01:01:38] Speaker B: Perfect. [01:01:38] Speaker C: He'll play Friday, 10pm Say less. That's my guy. I love that kid. He's super hard worker. He plays downhill. He has a great iq. He can finish around the rim, play both ends of the floor. I like his game. [01:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:50] Speaker C: Remind me of bi a little bit. [01:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Talking about just like basketball in Canada, you've been around it for such a long time. Like, what are your thoughts on just like the state of basketball in Canada? [01:02:00] Speaker C: I think it's developing. I think especially with Shay being this. People appreciate it later. Maybe don't see it right now. Like Shay's the best player in the world. [01:02:09] Speaker B: So like I think so. [01:02:10] Speaker C: Like I've been saying it. It's not really a debate anymore. Like you can say joker all you want. They don't. They don't get a second round. You can't be the best player not get a second round. [01:02:17] Speaker A: No. [01:02:17] Speaker C: I don't want to hear that. Like, he's taking the youngest team almost in the history of the NBA to the finals and winning against top tier talent and everyone's trying to stop you. You're still getting 30. Like that's not regular. Nothing to do is regular. And so I feel like younger kids now can actually emulate that as well. Versus just when we were growing up. Keen Vince Carter and I think the development of the game is going to continue to grow because of guys like Shay, because of other people who can actually get back information. And the coaching's getting better. Even all the young Team Canada coaches that I see, I know all these guys, they all do a great job and they all put in the hard work and they actually want to see the game develop. So I think it's going where it needs to be. And I think they're. We're not trying to adapt to what America's doing anymore. We're being who we are. Like we're going out there to compete against them. Like we're. We're on eye level. So I think that's important. [01:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:03] Speaker B: And like, talk about guys giving back. I think Nikhil was part of the fellowship at one point, like, doing stuff. Eugene, I think those guys. How important do you think that is to, like, obviously you're giving everything that you've learned playing basketball for how long? And then these guys now, like, these guys see them in the league and they come back to the community. How important is that mentorship and the stuff that you're doing with the fellowship? Like, seeing these guys come back and, like, touch these youth and, like, be with them and, like, show them, like, the blueprint of, like, what they. What they can accomplish. [01:03:30] Speaker C: I think it's. It's ultra important for both parties. I feel like the most thing, the best thing those guys do, they come back and show these guys how they work. I feel like that's the biggest thing when those guys come in the gym. They don't come in the gym and try to play down to the competition. They play up, like, they just play their game and then they put the work in so guys can kind of see, like, oh, if I want to get to this level, I gotta work. It's not gonna be easy. So I think the best. It's great for them to be mentors and show, like, what the metric of success is or what the blueprint is of success. It's great for the young guys to be able to see that in person, in real time. [01:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:00] Speaker B: How can people get involved with the fellowship? Say they're interested, Say, we have a kill listens to this podcast now. So I wanna. I wanna tap into the fellowship. How can they get involved? [01:04:07] Speaker C: Easy. So you. You tap into fellowship underscore bast. You can DM them or does an email tag to separate to elevate, or you can DM Pro 7 either of those three pages and they'll get you in touch. They respond to everything. We have people working those pages. They respond to everybody. So easy. [01:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:26] Speaker B: Easy, easy. [01:04:26] Speaker C: It's not a secret society when it comes to fellowship. We embrace all. [01:04:28] Speaker B: Everybody, man. You want to tap in, tap into. [01:04:30] Speaker C: Fellowship, come as you are. [01:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:32] Speaker B: What's next for you now? [01:04:33] Speaker C: What's next for me? We have ball don't stop game coming August 1st. [01:04:37] Speaker B: Tell me about that. [01:04:37] Speaker C: Basically, ball don't stop verse separate the elevate all stars we're going to bring. I'm on my GM tip right now. I'm looking for the biggest players right now to play against the ball and style players that they have coming down. [01:04:46] Speaker B: It's Carabana, man. [01:04:47] Speaker C: Everyone got to be in the city. I'M gonna have. I have some of my special guests flying in for that. [01:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, no names yet. [01:04:52] Speaker C: Some are playing basketball, some aren't. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Stay tuned, stay tuned. [01:04:55] Speaker C: Special guests that we have coming in for that regardless. And it's gonna be a great opportunity. We're gonna have a panel discussion as well called Elevate Sports, Entertainment and Fashion. So I probably got to get you on the panel. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Hey, man, we'll talk about it. [01:05:07] Speaker C: Yeah, it's called Elevate Sports, Entertainment and Fashion panel. [01:05:09] Speaker B: I don't know what I can say other than talk about basketball. [01:05:12] Speaker C: You talk about whatever. Like, trust me, you'll be perfect for it. That's gonna be on the Thursday because we wanted to give back to that community and the youth as well. Then on the Friday we have the games, both games. I think we may do a clinic. And then we also have the same thing in Victoria on August 7th. So yeah, we're working. And then we have some major stuff coming up in Arizona in the next few weeks. We have some bigger stuff coming up in the city. We also have like a launch of a new venue. We're going to launch probably like in the next month and a half, two months. And we're working, we're building towards something great. [01:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Ball. [01:05:39] Speaker B: Don't stop. I feel like there's going to be a third year they've had guys like who's played in Shay. Not Shay. Shayan Sharp's played in it. Scotty Barnes played in the Phillips. Malachi Flynn. I'm trying to think of other guys. Chris Boucher played in last year. Norman Powell played in last year. If you like. If you're trying to watch especially. I think this is the perfect time too because like everybody's in the city. It's going to be at Curl hall and yeah, just tap in, man. How can people get tickets and get B ball on Stop. [01:06:04] Speaker C: You know, this we'll do. I think we got to do like a ticket giveaway or something like that with. With the Canadian basketball show. [01:06:10] Speaker B: We got to talk about it. [01:06:11] Speaker C: Then we'll do a launch. If this goes up beforehand, we'll do. [01:06:14] Speaker B: Like come up this, this podcast coming on July 29th. [01:06:17] Speaker C: Perfect. We'll do a quick ticket giveaway cuz the game's on the. On August 1st we'll do a giveaway where we'll give away 10 tickets of someone. 5, 5 or 10 tickets. Someone reposting and. And sharing some of the content. We'll be able to give you guys 10 tickets to give away to the community for sure. Outside of that is tapping to separate, to elevate or separate the ball and stop. We have an opportunity to give you guys tickets and figure it out. [01:06:38] Speaker B: If you want to tap in, you want to go to the ball, don't stop. At Toronto Metropolitan University, Curl Hall, a lot of basketball. If you want us to watch some stars, even. I feel like last year there were some young players playing high school. I don't know if you guys are bringing that back. [01:06:49] Speaker C: That's there. That's the first game. [01:06:50] Speaker B: Okay. [01:06:50] Speaker C: High school games going to be there. [01:06:51] Speaker B: Hopefully we get my boy in there. He was in the last year. [01:06:53] Speaker C: Come talk to me. [01:06:54] Speaker B: Let's talk to him. [01:06:54] Speaker C: For sure. Tom taught me. Come to fellowship this Friday. Yeah, we're in control of that too. Defin. Get them in there. [01:06:59] Speaker B: But yeah, just tap in. If you guys want again DM us on ig. We'll probably do something to collab with you guys. Trying to get tickets out there. Get some youth that are like trying to see the next win. I feel like that's kind of what we want to do. And if you're just interested in basketball watching in Toronto, you're going to be in the city. Tap in, man. [01:07:14] Speaker C: Also to not cut you off, get some youth that want to see the operational side as well. [01:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:18] Speaker C: That may want to intern for us during that weekend. [01:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:20] Speaker C: To see the. Operate how things run, how, how to greet the. The customers that are coming to watch the game. Get them to courtside, how to run the back of the. The back end of the games and operations. If you want to do that too. Tap and we'll get you involved. We want to help on every aspect. [01:07:32] Speaker B: We got you. I got some kids that need some work. They've been in the Esplanade area. We'll get them. We'll get them to work for you. [01:07:38] Speaker C: That's perfect. [01:07:39] Speaker B: And then we'll get them washing the ball. Don't stop. August 1st. [01:07:42] Speaker C: August 1st. [01:07:43] Speaker B: My guy, Antwe, man. Anything else you're working on? Anything you're excited about? And I just can't thank you enough for coming. I feel we've been hoping for this to happen. [01:07:49] Speaker C: I feel like, first off, congratulations, man. You told me about this couple years ago, you put me aside, court sign like, listen, man. [01:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:55] Speaker C: I'm about to do this and I. And I love seeing people bring stuff to life. That's, that's. I love seeing people, like have a plan and bringing it to life. That's the best thing. So I'm glad to be here. I'm thankful Congrats to you. I feel like what I'm working on now is just being present, staying as present as possible. I feel like I have a lot of great things coming up, but I want to make sure I maximize each and every day by making sure I stay as present as possible. Where can people find you on ignoring Noir? Also, if you want to do anything business wise, you can. You can DM a separate elevate page or email them through there and you can connect with us through there. I'm not the easiest person to get in touch with anymore. Yeah, that's my. That's my choice. Try to give myself like a break where I can kind of like disconnect a little bit more. [01:08:34] Speaker B: You have to. [01:08:34] Speaker C: But now we still want to make sure we're. We're in touch with the city and doing things to kind of elevate the city in every way possible. So that does not mean you can't get in touch with me. This means maybe a couple channels to get through first, but we're still gonna be there if it makes sense. [01:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:48] Speaker B: Chat with my guy Antwer. Man, I can't thank you enough again for coming on and just talking about your whole journey. I feel like you're one of the guys that people should know about the. [01:08:57] Speaker C: From. [01:08:57] Speaker B: From your time playing in the early 2000s coming up in Canada, what it was like and kind of went through it all right. [01:09:03] Speaker C: I think so. [01:09:03] Speaker B: So, yeah, can't thank you enough, brother. [01:09:05] Speaker C: I appreciate it. [01:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been fun. [01:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been. Canadian Basketball show your go to spot for the latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball. I'm your host, Lee Ben Osman. Next time you'll hear from us, we'll have president and CEO Michael Bartlett. Can of basketball. That's my guy on the show, man. We're going to grill him, we're going to ask him some tough questions. [01:09:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, for sure. [01:09:24] Speaker B: So if you still have time, if you guys have by the time this comes out, send us some questions via IG and we'll ask Bartlett just about the state of basketball in Canada and the work that he's doing with Canada basketball. But Anthony, thank you again. [01:09:37] Speaker C: I appreciate it. Great job.