Lecture with Candace Parker

[Music] [Music] what's up everybody I am back sorry for taking two weeks off just got a little busy um but today I am back with someone who I have been friends with for a long time time someone I've admired for a very long time someone who's like a little sister sometimes like like a big sister um but one of the greatest athletes um and one of the greatest human beings um that I've ever had the chance to watch and to meet everybody Welcome Candace Parker y thank you D I'm so happy to do this with you you know I can get Barack on the phone quick and night I know you not talking you listen you International traveling all around the world waving at people kissing babies waving waving at people kissing babies waving at this is wild getting holes in one wild I'm I'm just out here you know I was just waiting to get this opportunity to sit across from you and thank you for blessing my podcast I know how I noticed something I noticed your voice dropped significantly when you started the podcast it was like it was like hey Sis hey sis uh this is D way uh this TW way coming at you with the y That's How It Was yeah that's my life when grew up I used to listen to like late night like radio this is kind yeah you listening to like that's how it always WGCI yeah no but this I feel I feel safe at this tone listen this is you I feel real safe at this tone right here you know it sounds good on a podcast um so I I always like to start my podcast um with the last time I've seen my guest and the last time I seen you was Allstar Weekend in Indiana um on Friday when we hung out we had a great night at um at our party at the gentleman's have a good night always a great time everybody know if if our name associated with a party it's goingon to be a good time but the last time I seen you actually was on Saturday for like three seconds at the Spades event you were cutting your eyes at me as I was going off to win my first Spades Championship that's cuz I didn't enter I was was working that night and so I was going to be late and I didn't want to hold the whole thing up so that's why that's why it was that's why I didn't enter the this is my first year not entering the Spades Tournament yeah so you're welcome you won because I didn't enter it I felt I felt a little I felt a little way about that you're welcome like I mean I listen you got to add that you got the Hall of Fame got three time champ that's great you finally won your own event so I'm happy put on in there listen that's the thing everybody like it's yours you should have won it no it's Spades it's just that you know my name was used to help put the event on okay but um I you know what's crazy about Spades you know how much trash talk you get from like like Roland Martin hit me oh yeah and was I'm talking about talking trash you lucky I was there next year's on I'm like yo where this coming it's real like Paulo Bono's parents we beat them last year Adam Leo and myself beat him last year they were still talking about it this year they were like oh you don't want to enter you want to enter the tournament so that we could you know run it back oh so you just take your ball when you get to the park after you win one game I was like this is wild you guys are parents they just came in hot were you one of those were you one of those take your ball not after one game but maybe after a couple maybe after a couple like if I win three or four like I'm going to take my ball and go home oh not if you lose though no if I lose we still playing because we had those people at the park that once they didn't get picked or they lost they were taking their ball and they was getting up out of there yeah it I'm competitive so I don't like losing so we go play till I win and then I'm gonna be like oh we go okay let's talk about that competitiveness so you you competitive you grew up in a house with two older brothers uh how's that how's growing up with two older brothers I mean I know they they have they supposed to have this protection over you um but I'm sure being competitive as you are and they were hoopers as well I'm sure that was it's it's crazy um D cuz I was so much younger than my brothers that I got to watch and still try to be competitive and and still try to compete even though I wasn't going to win so that's how it was and everything they did I wanted I mean I had the strength shoes my brother was a size 14 15 I had the Str Sho in the East Bay yes I had the white the white string shoes and they were like four or five size is too big and I was trying to like put paper in the back to like run and train like my brother my dad would get in the car and ride and my brother would run on the strength shoes down our street wow and I remember just sitting there like dream met a family that had stren shoes yeah like it was real y had some money it no Hey listen you you w just getting those shrimp shoes listen we had one pair we had one pair for three kids and everybody shared and it was like the same size so it didn't matter yeah oh my God but that's how I was with my brothers I just idolized them I wanted to be like I played with a video game unplugged the controller unplugged yeah for so long because I just wanted to be with them like and hang out and do everything they did and so I'm so lucky that like my heroes were in my house yeah that's that's huge and they were great role models and just amazing Brothers for sure so they they are the ones I mean we get to your pops as well but they're the ones who kind of got you to play basketball because watching them hoop you want to get in there and and do the same thing because of their competitiveness and they brought you along and they went like gone get your little no they definitely brought me along and I always say my brothers are the ones that prepare me to like be at TNT because I have a bunch of big brothers that just make fun of me all the time like last week Shaq was like yo your ankle's ashy like on television you know and so it's like if I didn't grow up in the household I grew up in I would be like you know like you know embarrassed about it but I think my brothers tease me they love me they pushed me down they picked me up they did all the things um that helped me want to play basketball want to compete and I think just like the work ethic like watching them my brother and my middle brother's a doctor just watching him study and stick to it and set goals and the same thing with my oldest brother uh who played basketball like watching him just yeah continue to work at it yeah it's crazy everybody out there that is don't know Candace brother Anthony played in the NBA um I knew I knew of Anthony because of Henry Thomas um Hank big Bank Hank big Bank Hank I knew of Anthony so you know I came in already knowing about your brother but you know played against your brother a few times oh you definitely listen you are in a number of group chats because we love seeing Anthony's Cricket hand contest your jump shot like it's my favorite thing to turn on Sports Center and see like you doing your D way spin you do and then just seeing like Anthony try to contest with this cricked hand it Anthony has he had like slow feet yeah you know what I mean and so he was recovering a lot yeah oh shots fired look Anthony gonna be like I just seen him at Allstar Weekend and he want you know how people go off and be like I just seen him and he want talking like that yeah Anthony listen shout out to Anthony I don't want no smoke listen Anthony is hilarious because he would always draw like you cobby Darren Williams like he would always go like draw these yeah yeah and so he would always say like dwade you don't know cuz he has the like uh you know and he was like Darren Williams Herky jerky go for the first cross I remember telling him and he would call me and be like I went for the first cross it's so hard not to go Darr Darren used to come up and he his cross was hard like wait hold on and you're still trying to get your feet yeah so like so Anthony he was in that that size where he's about 67 roughly 66 66 okay about 66 but long kind of longer guy wasn't the top scorer on his team not a but you automatically got to go guard somebody because he's not he became one but when he went over to Europe like he wasn't he was a bucket getter he was a I mean he was a shooter he a splash from the corner um Splash coming off screens but but that's the NBA he had to develop when he got yeah back to Toronto he had to defend and then again with Cleveland he had to defend a little bit so so how was that for you right uh obviously you on your journey in basketball your brother's on his journey you think you know a lot about the game and I'm sure he does how was that like relationship where was it like you reaching out saying Anthony you should have do this you should do that or were you reaching out picking his brain more like you know how how is guys working like what's going on it's so interesting because he went overseas when I was in seventh eth grade so he missed my entire kind of rise to whatever um start no we're not going to call it stardom but he missed my rise in the game of basketball we got gold microphones but we've been humble okay let's go he's your he's your gold microphone you liked them you like I did I did I did but I think he came back my junior year at College oh so he missed that whole period of time where I kind of grew up and so when he came back I was not the little tiny baby sister I was his sister when he came back so I think our relationship changed Anthony and I have always close we talk almost every day to today to this day I should say um but since then we've talked every day and we just kind of pick our brains we share we give advice he's really good at figuring out what I need in terms of like do I need somebody that's going to tell me you know what I need to hear or do I need somebody to just listen and then him tell me or ask questions so I'm I'm proud of my brother need get relationship advice If he if he' figured that out listen he's Anthony is he got the Anthony legit is one of the best humans um in the world because of the way that he I feel like he's such a great teammate yeah even off the floor I think that's why they love him in Orlando he's the general manager there but he's great at like managing people and emotions and he never gets too high or too low and he gives some amazing pregame speeches like it's CRA like we lost game four going back to mini had to win on their home court and he hit me with the do you remember the book chop wood carry water oh he wanted those he hit me with that he one of those he said you remember the book chopwood carry water how you said a golf ball that hasn't been hit doesn't travel right he said but they noticed the ones that had the most dents and that were beat up actually traveled the best and he's like let's you know you've been dinged up you've been whatever you've been talked about in your career like now this is you the opportunity to travel the best and to travel accurate and you know so he hit the speech I was like all right you see that wall I got you I'll meet you on the the side so I love that there's that yeah he's great at that so um your your dad played at Iowa am I correct say Iowa Iowa yeah there you go you say Iowa that's got say say your say it with your chest yeah say it with your chest you know I don't like saying a lot of other colleges you know what I mean I'm a little uh but so Iowa is actually one of the schools I wanted to go to word and it's not for no reason that would make sense okay I want to hear why um it I like the colors okay black and okay I mean I have so I don't have many pictures of my childhood but I have one if it when people when it comes out I'm I have IA basketball shorts on black and gold and I love black and gold my high school was black and gold um it was too I I love gold so like Michigan was blue and gold so those the two schools when I were young I wanted to go to Michigan or I wanted to go to Ira well Michigan was everybody well yeah everybody we all jumped on a Michigan bandwagon yeah black sock but Iowa I was like okay I could do I could do Iowa like I could do Purdue like in these schools I don't know was the colors when you were a kid you're also in the midwest that's probably some of it too it's like you didn't see like UCLA can you imagine if we would have seen we would have been out here I would have definitely been out here I was like what was I thinking not taking a visit to USC oh well I didn't have oh scar me oh my go this the conversation just turned real quickly from a young go USC I had i u p UI us those initials are different um was your dad good at basketball though talk to me so cuz he big here's the problem here's the problem so my parents met at Iowa my mom went to Iowa my dad went to Iowa my dad was the first four-year player started okay at Iowa so they used to do where freshman couldn't play Varsity that's what it was called he was the first year in 72 that they allowed freshman to play okay you know yeah when he got there he old Simmons is old yeah yeah so I would say my dad was like super quick First Step um more like a slasher more like a finisher at The Rim okay I've only seen like a cou couple grainy clips of him with his like first step um he never sit you down and make you watch none of his but there's not I mean it's like he didn't have a lot of film you know what I mean like it was it's not like you like YouTube you know and even our YouTube clips from high school are a little grainy they little grainy yeah my daughter was like why does it look like that like cuz I'm old yeah yeah I remember Hank sat me down on the plane one day and made me watch his his old highlights did he have did Hank have an afro did he have a little afro afro did you know them shorts was like as big as this book you know what I'm saying and he's little his little lightskinned body just running oh my God and I had to sit and watch like showed me that he was nice so I'm just you know like that's how that's how like my dad did that to me like my favorite thing is when they show you and then they're like oh didn't quite look okay we going fast forward right here let's watch the whole film you talk about highlights now no let's watch the whole let's watch the whole film yeah so as um as your dad being pretty much probably your first coach would you say or 100% yeah so I played soccer you played soccer I played soccer growing up and then right around I would say seventh grade is when I started playing basketball so I played at six seventh grade is when I started playing like traveling basketball my dad was my coach okay and now that you know like going back did he was he a good coach did he know what he was saying like listen I the crazy thing is my dad is the one that forced me to look at the game in a different way okay like breaking down the why and I think sometimes see how I tie that back into your podcast commercial break but but breaking down the why of things and not to get him my head of myself but later on when I ask why it's because of that he was always big on you got to know why you're doing stuff so when you're going to set a down screen you got to know why what's your intention so that I can get my shooter open so that changes your butt angle that changes how you head hunt that changes the position of your screen and I think later on in my basketball career when I would ask why coaches would take that personally like you don't trust what we're doing no I got to know why we're doing this so that then I can change and adjust and do things and my dad was big on that I mean we were running uh a Princeton set offense in sixth seventh eighth grade w i i laugh because I look at the way that Kobe was teaching his team and the things that he was sitting down doing and you know how to guard screens how to guard Shooters how to lock and Trail how to force one way and then we square up on the our feet bigs being able to rebound start the break like that was on my dad MH um doing that with our team and I think the reason why I see the game the way I do is because of him I mean watching WGN old Bulls games and he would stop it we'd always VHS tape the game and he paus it and be like okay what did what did Pippen do here like on the defensive end where are they trying to funnel the ball and I would answer this is sixth seventh eighth grade so the studying of the game came from I think the um the details right like for me I'm about when I watch the game I don't it's not it doesn't matter I know people can score the basketball it's the details of of how they're scoring and so when I when I do my cammies I'm talking about those little details like even like how you get open like kids just if somebody denying you and you know you're trying to get the ball like a lot of people just release early and these details of holding that holding your position and releasing once the ball release like all these small details those are to me when when you have great coaches that really can focus on that like your your screen position of not going to screen at the side of a person how about you go screen at this angle that's like their shoulder and their hip and their butt or whatever right these little small details is what takes good players to that that that different level that IQ level and so it sounds like your dad gave you a little bit of that early on and passing like making the right play yeah um and sometimes to a fault you know where maybe you should have been selfish and taking a shot but it's like I can't help but see that you know and it all comes from instincts but it also comes from like studying the game as well where I'm going to manipulate this to get this player open yeah so I think it was just being aware and always being open to listening to like what the new philosophy is what the new thought process is I don't know how how did Reggie Miller become your F like he's still your favorite player right like talk so he's my favorite all time player that was not no that's not the case he's not my favorite alltime player I just I loved people that came into Chicago and battled Mike okay like I love Michael Jordan don't get me wrong he's the goat in my opinion because he's the blueprint and everybody was trying to model themselves after him right but the people that came in and battled him the Reggie Millers the Ron Harpers like people forget when Ron played back in the day yeah Ron used to before knee before his knees were messed up Ron Harper used to give him was it Clipper Ron so Clipper I mean we had Clipper Ron we had with Detroit I mean Detroit Ron R was nice yeah Detroit Ron was really nice but anytime you like Chicago wanted you to come play for them it was clearly because right you know we had seen what you have done in the past so I don't know I just always love those guys I mean Isaiah Thomas the same thing like yeah I just love those guys that came into Chicago with like a chip on their shoulder and weren't like oh he's the greatest of all time like let me back down Isaiah still has the chip on the shoulder oh it's still there OG zek Zeke is still there but listen I feel Zeke man Zeke is one of the best guards to ever pick up a basketball and needs to be recognized as such yeah all the time yeah it's I mean we we'll take a whole turn on this pod talking about that but it it definitely is it's as we watch so many of our greats that don't get the recognition that we all know they deserve uh who is your who who did you grow up idolizing well MJ I mean okay other than MJ it's like MJ and then MJ Scotty and the Bulls let me say that um outside of those guys because I was really like Chicago WGN that's all I really watched um but as I got older and I was able to kind of you know get out of my MJ love phase once he stepped away then I opened it up a little bit but before to who to like Iverson and okay you know R like I I enjoy guys that I looked at as someone that possibly my size that can have a similar game if your game wasn't in my style of play I really wasn't like patreon I wasn't really watching patreon yeah that wasn't going to be my game so you know plus I didn't like New York neither no constan Constantin um I digress so who did you emulate like what what player would you look at and say growing up I emulated that that style of play I hate fitting in like a lane that is my biggest like ick is fitting in like one lane so I think I took pieces from a lot of different people I grew up loving Iverson that's part of the reason why I wear number three is Iverson um I had the finger bands my brother got drafted to Philly so he was on the team you the AR and Philly bands I had the finger number three bands like from him yes he gave them to me when I was in high school oh you had so much no I was in junior high and I wore them I wore him in high school like you don't understand my love for Iverson I was doing the jiss commercials or whatever the yeah the jiss right jiss commercials I I could do that whole commercial that they did with the white ball and the white I I had all the Rebox shoes the answers the questions I had everything the air bubbles used to pop I used to go get some more um but I loved Iverson so he was the one that I kind of wanted to dribble and learn the that was this his dribbling or was it just his whole how would you say it's heart yeah like he didn't care what people told him he couldn't do he was going to do it and I love the fact that he was him like not in the sense of today him but like him like he was him all the time durag walking into games on the podium as a dad off the court he was Iverson he was iers and so hate him or love him like he wasn't going to change based off of his his environment and I love that yeah so I I did have the little zigzag braids I'm not going to lie know you I had to set it off back I already know you I did I went through that face oh I look back at pictures I'm like Mom can we not keep these in the photo album that's that's Iris that's why I had Iris as the one to you know walk me and introduce me into the Hall of Fame because exactly what you said and that's why I tried to like say those things up there because for kids the young kids growing up I mean you know we analyed the fact that he did challenge the conventional Norms that he wasn't like everyone else like we love Mike and the suits and the how he showed up but when obviousy came it was like oh man like you can be like that too you know saying still be cold because it was a certain way that you thought you had to be and then Ivon showed you no you don't in a sense so I yeah that's why I wanted to give him his flowers you know speaking of giving flowers like you do on uh Tuesday show U like when we worked together is I wanted to make sure I gave Iverson his flowers on stage because of exactly always deserves it always he changed an entire facts culture mentality like I think the NBA as a whole changed as a result of fashion CH no but like he took a bullet and a lot of finds M so that being the first yeah and it's like you you you do take a bullet being the first and sometimes people look at you like you're different and then now you see all these kids out that are able to be themselves and able to you know play the game they love but also can not be I think the thing for me is is it's not they're not taking away the who you are based off like tattoos and right what you look like before it would be like you automatically had a check against you oh if you had you band it was that was a little much you have braids like it I mean I we live through that and now I told one of the players recently that I was like yo y'all y'all got it like everything that we all wanted this is the time right now where y'all got all the things y'all can do all the things y'all getting all the things it's wild yeah like this is the moment right when for for the NBA where they have this is the height for me where all the players before them have worked their butt off and want it and they have it okay I know you know talk about the NBA cuz I'm looking at the W college now like man I was eating freaking Papa John before games they couldn't feed us or anything like imagine how much I would have dropped if I wouldn't had to eat Papa John's before games no offense Shaq but like pregame like come on man if he was getting like that good that them good meals man and then you'd like splurge and get the little uh cinnamon whatever sticks that they had for the dessert like all right this year you know this week my money came in so yeah no we weren't doing that no not at all yeah they got it uh and but that's that's why you know you you work so hard right for the game to continue to keep going you know they got it that's why I let know like y'all got it just a no jealousy over here but I'm let you know y'all got it y'all got what we want it oh my gosh um so speaking of like just you know obviously as as I go down and I think about you all I all I think about as an athlete is winning right right like your name is associated with winning at every level I'm sure you woned the junior the junior uh seven eighth grade level too but High School multiple championships college multiple championships obviously the NBA multiple championships um so when I when I think of Candace Parker I associate Candace Parker athlete is just a winner and I as being a winner how bad of a loser are you my mom myself my daughter and my wife we were all playing dominoes yesterday so he just went somewhere you just went dark yeah and my mom was sitting behind my wife so she's like throwing like she's like acting like John Stockton like throwing her lobs oh so the whole game she's just scoring like 20 25 I was at one point I was just like enough like we can't we can't keep throwing her lobs so then of course an wins and my mom and my daughter are like it's no fun playing with you and an's like it's only when she's losing like she doesn't have fun when she's losing and I would say that's that's me I don't have a good attitude when I lose I didn't grow up having to have a good attitude now will I give respect and reflect but at the time I'm not a good Loser yeah I don't know I just am like why would anybody want to be a good loser am I wrong though how do you be I don't know I know this day and age like parenting has changed from my daughter is 14 and my son is two and the mentality even in that amount of time I'm sure with zire has changed yeah but like why would you teach your kid to be a good loser now can I con handle myself and conduct myself and be cool or whatever but I'mma Be Mad why would you be happy losing I'm just asking anybody that Lo like I did my best yes I'm relinquishing results I'm cool whatever but losing is not cool okay so okay understand that so after you lose which you're going to lose playing sports you're going to lose in life after you have a loss how how quickly do you come back from that loss and and now yeah well even growing up like you was a you're you're a high school Champion you're a college Champion growing up in this process when you would lose so you would had those bad games how quickly did you turn it around for yourself oh bad games it was like after we lose you don't have to worry about it like the next game is it's going to be better um I would say more so I worried about myself after WIS like you don't want to relax like losses were never it was never difficult training in the offseason after a loss it was never G difficult getting up the next day and watching film or whatever to try to get better for the next game it was only difficult if you didn't have control like if there wasn't another game if there wasn't another opportunity um but I don't I've never liked losing and I think you talk about this generation being able to talk [ __ ] say what they feel show emotion like I didn't grow up with with that ability especially in the women's game yeah um I was a smart ass I was an [ __ ] I was like all these things on the court that now I'm I'm I just I just want you to be said a truthful to my audience out here I was considered that I still am but it is accepted okay it is accepted aced now it is accepted like how many weeks afterwards that y'all beat us in Spades was I still texting you no you still feel away right now feel some type of away it was off of listen they won off of like a like they threw out a jack it was the last hand and it was like whoever wins this nobody knew what anybody had we threw it out it was like a jack of clubs they W off of I was like this is wild right wow okay sorry no no no I love it because we won you talk about me winning all day wow but I don't I don't I don't like losing and it doesn't matter whatever it is like there's certain things I cannot play with people I will not play Spades with my wife for the next couple weeks cuz she kept cutting my king and it kept driving me crazy so like I have non-negotiables we cannot play two un to volleyball cuz I feel like we don't like she doesn't dive she'll just be like I couldn't get that ball and I'm like but how did you know she was cutting you as your partner she was cutting me with a king she had she she didn't have that suit and she cut me with like a low spade and I kept trying to nicely explain this to her so that she would still be invited to cook out and she didn't want to listen so I was like I'm not playing Spades with you for a while she's going to kill me after she hears this no but listen wow it is hard to play Spades in relationships she kept cutting my king and I kept and I kept I nice explain it I get a clarification I was like listen it's not you it's me I can't handle this exactly Bob plays with his wife yes you play with yours I play with mine hence why we haven't won in the tournament because you get to that point where you be like you cutting my king what do I do right now do I want to go home later and just have a good or do I want to go to do I want to go off you know but but your energy is very strong and so is mine so so I don't do well with hiding the fact that you cut my king like I'm my facial expression is looking at you like you cut my king like we had dinner the next day and I'm like you cut my mother King like yeah exactly so I'm competitive yeah I am go ahead just the coach n so I'm going to go back to that space cuz I feel you on that completely but I wanted to talk about the two of you guys from Chicago and how Chicago kind of made you finally respecting other players like what you had to do cuz I hear about Chicago Tough and and those kinds of things you have great Chicago players like when you look at each other and you look at players that come from Chicago what do that what does that mean on for somebody who's not from Chicago for both you some people from Illinois but Illinois Illinois however you say it but I think that there are players that go to Chicago cuz I always went to Chicago to measure my game like I played pickup at depal played pickup at Hoops gym um we would get there early before my team practice and watch Michael Jordan work out at Hoops like there were some amazing runs and amazing tournaments and I feel like a lot of people came through Chicago to figure out yeah like stack themselves up like where where my game at right now let me go down to Chicago for the summer see where it is I I I think kg would have been a legend regardless but him playing his last year in Chicago like I remember that people climbing over the gate to try to see kg play and it was even Ronnie Fields team like it wasn't even wasn't even kg it was climbing over to go see Kevin Garnett I just think it's a different mentality and it's also a different level of support like I felt the love with you because we came from the same place and I always felt like we always connected on that level because we always take care of each other there's like a mentality of that um I think obviously we're hoopers and but there's like a different mentality that I think yeah yeah I agree I mean it's a I don't know I want it's a certain kind of dog that's in that we all have in in each other like we have inside of us that we all can recognize like I can look at Candace hoop one time and I can recognize the dog in her and I think we all have that like I know it in QR like I know in all my Chicago know in Isaiah and so I think it's a respect from just how we approach the game you know what I mean like the game means something to us like we ain't out there trying to be cute we out there to hoop we out there to get it and so it's a respect in that um and I agree with you I think I felt a lot of Pride coming from Chicago even though I come from a small suburbs and people like well you need you ain't go to Whitney Young you ain't go to Sim but as one of the Chicago guys um I feel like everybody from Isaiah Thomas and Mark McGuire like all these legends that we have everyone has show love to all we have all showed love to each other we all have respect for each other what everyone has done we've all showed love throughout and so that makes all of us when you hear somebody from Chicago you want to bring them in because you were brought in and you were respected in a sense and so uh I love saying I'm from the shy you know and Illinois or whatever people want to call like I love s I'm from Chicago because of what I feel like we represent as as obviously athletes everyone's got to know so don't you think also it's um from growing up watching the Bulls there was this expectation to win yeah so there's this level of comfort in those situations yeah like without a Shad of a doubt I knew MJ was going to hit that shot in our eyes every time every single time cuz we saw it we saw the fist pump saw a crossover with the little nudge with the jump shot hold the follow through like you knew you were going to make those plays and because you've seen it so much in those moments I feel like Chicago Ballers are comfortable like we're comfortable in those moments we're comfortable with that with the lights on like who would have thought D way go down to Miami be the first in the class to win a championship in that you know what I mean like because I feel like you were comfortable in the moment look at you rise to the occasion NCAA tournament with Marquette well he seen it what you see you know watched we watched those big moments we watched that guy so it's it's a great way that you said that because it's it is it's something that it's a confident that come with there because you've seen it over and over again like we had confidence as fans that once the game got down MJ about to do his thing and we knew it and so that just became like when you got your time you like game going down let me get that do what MJ did you know I mean it's that confidence and knowing like we can do this this what we do I never looked that that makes sense yeah I never thought of it that way that makes sense that that makes that makes a lot makes a lot of sense it makes a lot of sense um let's go to college you know I know High School is high school but let's go to college because that's when I personally got a chance to really watch you become this Superstar um and what I loved about you in college is one you were number three let me throw that out there but I love the way that you play the entire game and and when I say that like no matter which block you were on you can score left hand right hand no matter if it was um no matter if it was getting a rebound off going Coast to Coast no matter was getting a rebound getting up to your teammates no matter if it was you know they throwing it back to you knock it down the mid-range knock it down the treade ball like you did everything on the floor and I I believe at that time we didn't see that in women's in the women's game a lot now I know it's other players who who had those capabilities I'm not saying that but it was not nothing we seen and not that full package together um and so I fell in love with the versatility of Candace Parker before I got a chance to know the person um where did that where did that come from was that did that come from just from your your upbringing of your dad and everything you taught or was that your coaches along the way telling you hey you have to be so multi-diverse in how you play you don't want to just be one way my dad um my grandma is my one grandma 5'10 my other grandma's like 5'5 so he's like maybe you I'm at I'm 5'9 5'10 at the time he's like this might be it right you know and if you're going to be 510 you can't be a post player so this is from the time I'm little he put the ball in my hand and again I think it was a combination of coaching and then also just me wanting to be like Iverson seeing the an1 mixtape come out and try to do all those moves um and soccer I think those were kind of the three levels of why I wanted to do all those other things but also like my mind I can't just do a right hook now looking back looking at the game today yeah where you just can do one thing and do it really well and just have a counter move to that one thing sometimes you don't even need a counter move you got counter you you talking about we talking about all stuff exactly you don't even need you just there are people that I'm like he's going left he's going left he's going left but he's he can't stop it so looking back maybe I would have done that but the way my mind works is like I got to do the right hook and then I got to throw in a little shimmy yeah then I got to do the right hook and I got to throw in the kick or I got to do the right hook and then I got flare like I gotta I got to do that I don't know the way that my mind works it gets boring if I I can't just do one turn around which is a problem because sometimes you just got to do one one turnaround you know in a game but I I've always wanted to do that and then my left hand just I just loved using it your left hand was nice I just loved using my left hand I loved and I learned that from Europe because in Europe you go left a lot because you have to cross step which you learned in ' 08 when your entire Olympic team was being called for travels do you remember that and then D way would look at me and i' be like yep that was a travel overseas D Way D way would be like that's not a travel it's a travel it's a TR was the funniest thing ever Kobe yes that's a travel like you can't do that over here yeah Braun Braun would open Stu can't do that Chris BOS do that little through baseline can't do that traveling go the other way um Candace just said something very important and I think it's important for um obviously athletes but for parents as well to understand she said that she couldn't do a basic right-hand hook or a basic move she got bored and so to to you got to have great coaches to to understand the player and I'm sure you know obviously you know Pat was is one of the greatest coaches ever to to to walk the sideline and to be a great coach like that to be a the coach a great player you have to recognize okay she's not trying to be you know put on for the crowd that she actually she gets bored and in the midst of getting bored I have to allow her to freelance a little bit and do her thing a little bit a little bit and Pat taught me that a little bit a little bit because there's a time for a right hook there's a time to just put somebody in the basket and not be cute about it yeah and I think it's learning you know it's learning that it's learning that and and it's having leaders talk about the leader and I know you you speak about Pat um of all that she's been and is to your life but talk about the leader that she was because obviously you came in very highly you know Ted and talented but to have that leader to be able to you know kind of set that Talent where where it should go and where it need to go what was her leadership style it's crazy because I feel like my dad and Pat set me up for failure they did because I had such a close emotional relationship with them that they knew what I was thinking before I was even thinking it okay they knew the buttons to push they knew when to back off they knew when to question because if you question whether I can do something I'm going stay up all night all day trying to prove to you that I can and they knew that so they knew the buttons to push and I say that because coach and my dad were two of the best listeners I've ever been a part of like when you explained to them or yeah they wanted to know the why they wanted to know what I was thinking and because they gave me that opportunity to express myself ask questions when they said shut up we got to get this done I shut up but when it's constantly like you're not allowed to like there's a you know when someone one of your kids is showing promise in something right you want them to like be curious that's what we always say as parents like the best thing that you can give your kid or have your kid be is to be curious because then you're going to want to do but a lot of that curiosity is killed in kids because they're told sit down shut up be quiet don't do this that's not how we behave that's not how we acte the generation we came from especially and so then when you get older and you have this curious talent and you shut off all of the questions and the Curiosity and the excitement and it becomes this like now all the time can can my daughter tell me what color socks she want to wear no yeah but why am I saying no you know it's a good question so I think Pat and my dad those two coaches would say we're hedging on the screen because she's killing us on the dribble bat and then she's waiting and we're she's hitting threes that's why we're hedging on the screen okay I didn't see it that way I thought we were hedging on the screen cuz we want to get the ball at her hands but she turns the ball over so in my head that's what I'm thinking so there's always a reason why I'm asking the question and I think coach Summit and my dad always understood that that my brain was always like going and then I got to the WBA and it was like it was like attacking like if I asked a question it was like oh you don't think I know this no that's not why I'm asking that question so I think cach summit's leadership style was she listened she empowered her players and she didn't treat every player the same she treated us with the same respect and things like that but the challenges that she had to throw at me she couldn't throw at this player or the challenges with the conversation she was having with this player she couldn't have with me like she knew that and that's what made her great what was thinking about a moment and it could be obviously we go to championships but what's your favorite Pat moment what's your favorite moment with her and you oh my goodness that stays with you the moment that I think will stay with me forever is probably H there's so many moments when I got there in my freshman year I couldn't play I had a red shirt cuz my knee so I just had like serious knee surgery so at that point we were contenders for a national championship I couldn't play and she like took the time to like I was struggling my parents were getting divorced all that and she just left her door open and was like Hey I want you to come eat lunch in my room in my office every Wednesday you don't have to say anything you just sit there just eat lunch and then slowly but surely I started talking and opening up and yeah you know she provided a safe space for you yeah and I and at the time you know now I think we talk about therapy we talk about you know getting help we talk about talking through your issues or whatever I was the kid that just everything's going to be fun you know and so to be able to have that space with somebody like coach Summit who didn't have to do that they were counselors on staff they were I could have gone she could have put me with a sports psychologist or whatever but like her doing that really opened the doors to our relationship yeah and so that's kind of where I saw her as like yes she's a fantastic coach but like she's a great human yeah yeah I mean especially at that time in your life right while you're in college um obviously away from your family as you as you knew it growing up it that that leader that coach that figure in your life becomes very important Tom crean for me was very important as I was my family was going through their you know oure trials and tribulations right my mom was going down her journey my dad and to have someone that I even though like he would get on me he didn't treat me no he got on me more than anybody but it was a safe space that he always provided for me and what that safe space was me coming crying on his shoulder when I just needed to cry um be that expressive be that vulnerable uh it's important for you know you to have people in your life especially you know your coaches because they're going to get even more out of you for for one if they take the time to you know to put those things into you to put that love into you and to create that space so for all the coaches out there just understand how important you know your role is is not just to get wins you know what I mean like this is a win that you allow a kid who was going through something and was dealing with something you allow that safe space for them to you know to come to you and to be you know just be and so love that but I think there's so many times where coaches coach the player and they don't coach the entire person and in order to get the best out of the player you have to coach the entire person like you're not showing up to practice just as a player you're showing up as a dad as a husband as a son as all these things and you're carrying like all those who's with you and you're supposed to perform in your what but nobody wants to take time to understand the who right that's a no but like you know what I mean and I think the coaches that really understand that and we're getting it now because it's forced like social media has forced coaches to actually behave in a way that because you never know what's being recorded what's being text what's being whatever so I feel like coaches now are held to this bar where but you can tell the ones that have the intention to do it there's that like intangible thing that you have a con with a person or with whatever you can tell that there's like an intention behind it and so I think through coach and my dad and those coaches I've learned to like look for that intention do you know what I mean with the person they may not be perfect right now but you can look for the intention yeah and that will I don't know that will help with everything CU I know that's why I connected with you was your intention like you know you defitely there's so many times that we'd have conversations about that yeah all the time um speaking of like around that time in attention um we talk about Candace and I have spoke about this before and even to the point where we like was that a violation um but we G we G to move on from it uh but we talked about this before when when Candace was uh in college it's definitely a violation if I get the national championship taken back because of this why podcast we going to fight we like but but we like family so it's cool um like Reggie Bush trying to out here get my my be back U because of Anthony and because of U I got Hank I remember Hank telling me um we're at the ESP and uh what were you up there for what college player of the year what were you up there for yeah women's college athlete College athlete year and K I remember Hank telling me you know obviously you were going to be out there and he was like take care of my girl you know make sure you take care of her any party she want to get in like make sure you got her right and so you know ever since that moment I've always tried to be you know whatever it is Candace and I have always had a great relationship and and it's built from that conversation Han having me like take care of my girl take care of Candace um but I did take care of her that week we had a it was a cool moment and I know that it's a picture out there I don't know if we have it but someone has it where we were at this party and Candace wanted to meet um some Legends in our community right some black actresses that are legends we grew up watching brother Marcus was with me too brother was with him and kace like she ain't care about nothing that was going on to party she didn't want a party she a want none of that she was like I want to meet Nia Long I want to meet gab I want to meet was s and it was it one more or was just some three no it was just those three just those three just those three and that was as a big brother that was my it was my time it was my time to be like oh like art up our entire life just that's royalty that's royalty facts that's Roy and I I still I'm going to send you that picture I think I still have it listen we make a family calendar every year and my brother's picture with them was on the family calendar so you made his life and ours uh by yeah introducing me with your orange juice I remember to all of them yeah cuz I didn't drink anything Dr so he had orange juice I remember being like what I didn't drink anything but me that was that was the first time in um that you and I kind of like connect Ed but been connected ever since and you know I say that to say cuz I've always loveed to give my guy Hank love but U that's how we roll you even talk about Chicago like it's just it's that right it's somebody saying hey this person you like locked in got it and it's a like it's a life time thing and so uh in the midst of this run and me you becoming like one of my favorite players I actually got a chance to spend some time with and then like oh no she she cool I thought you talking about the sidekick about talk about and then okay cuz I was like listen we going to talk about this side kick i w up send you know I had my sidekick out around that time this was 200 it was the dwade sidekick with the basketball like he had like a basketball textured on the back of the sidekick yeah it was coming off it was coming off the 2006 Championship so it was a white and and gold kind of super nice and I had like a few and we can all we argue about this internally because some people don't think they got one um but I had a few people I could send them out to you know you only get about right and I actually said one to Candace yo I rode that thing until the wheels fell off till literally the screen was coming off with the basketball in the back I you could not tell me nothing I remember I pulled up the class and I had it and I just sat it on my desk like everybody was walking past like yeah this me right yeah like cuz that's a big deal in college man trust me like it was yeah it was a big deal so I I just it was always so cool to like see all the things that you go through to see all the things that you've accomplish um but to know you kind of from the beginning is you know and to like see that I remember the first time we were like both in our 30s we're like oh we grown now like look at us we so grown look at us here it's true so I've always just been so proud of you man like so proud of who you are and obviously we connect on you know Parenthood a lot yeah yeah for sure so it's just been it's been the little sis looking but also a little big sis like just proud of you yeah I mean it's so many different levels and then like I said then it's the fan level like I'm I I'm a I love hoop and so you know I I go out and I talk about the game and I talk about my favorite players and in basketball and Candace is one of my favorite players and a lot of it is not just accomplishing right like we could talk about them because she has all of them um but it's the way that she's done it and and when I know people who has overcome injuries like she just said she was coming off knee surgery in high school going into college she still won five more championships after that total right and so to know that is to know that a per to know a person can overcome you know these moments and these are not easy moments to overcome and so been a fan of so many different things but I'm a fan of the person I know who's overcome so much you know what I mean to continue to be all the things that that she is and so I say that to say watching you go to the NBA from college and watching you just take over right away like that was special you know I think what it was you got rookie the year and MVP your your first year how how and how is that like MVP yeah and rookie of the year I just came in and was just playing free and I had situation where I was able to do that um Michael Cooper was like we're going to play you at point we're going to play you at three we're going to play you at you know the post player obviously you know he comes from that Pat Riley Showtime yeah he comes from the showtime but he also comes from the running 17s if you lose in practice and best condition hardest working and to be honest with you I think it's undervalued that I played alongside one of the greatest ever play the game yeah so I played in with Lisa yeah so depending on the night she might have the best post defender on her yeah I might have the best post defender on me they try to guard me with a three we go on the post you know so it was a lot of fun to be able to play on that team Run and Gun um get up and down and kind of show my entire skill set what year was Lisa in when you when you came to the sports oh man she was year um I mean she retired the next year so she was like 14 15 something like that I saw a stat recently and I don't know how true it is I saw a stat that said Lisa scored like 101 points in 16 minutes yeah 16 minutes I mean listen that's crazy I don't know about 16 minutes but I know the 101 points but even in like what it's 8 Minute quarter 32 minutes that's still ridiculous think about it because they play eight minute quarters still ridiculous regardless of how you look at it it's ridiculous oh first of all it's it's ridiculous right now cuz we got people saying that will didn't score 100 and we had this conversation I don't want to don't don't wait what this new generation of kids are now saying that wi because they can't see the footage that Wilt didn't score 100 I just posed the question because oh I felt like that was we had a conversation about it on on on is it is it is it real because some people say that you know there's literally no footage and they did not play at home they played in in Indiana and thought it was New York no they didn't they play they not no footage I don't know there was no footage so it was never it was not played it was Philly yeah I thought it was Philly it was on the East Coast New Jersey Philly I just listen to that podcast it was a random place they played at too much guessing going on they played at a random place like at the LA Fitness and don't don't see that's the thing I'm talking about you what my bad you know what cuz I I believe it but so now they GNA say that Lisa or Cheryl didn't score 100 cuz both of them own record sure I'm sure there footage of it though it's footage man what do you think about today though because everybody keeps saying that LeBron's record is not going to be broken but then they also say that there's going to be 200 points scored in a regular season game like the scoring is increasing it has defense is defense is decreasing so why wouldn't we think that somebody's going to break the record the record if scoring keeps going the way that it goes because of the longevity but if you're averaging in your career 30 points for 14 Seasons or 15 Seasons I mean the longevity of a person having to be I'm in agreement with you I'm just simply posing the question that if scoring is going the way that it is yeah three-point shooting is going the way that it is I mean we look at what Anthony Edwards is I don't know how many points behind LeBron in the same amount of time do you know what I mean like whereas the same amount of or before his whatever birthday right it's like him Luca I don't know who the other one is yeah Anthony Edward scored the most amount of Threes like I won't be able to score that much it's that you're saying the longevity of it's the longevity of scoring that like to do that for 20 plus years I mean this first of all shout out to Bri no ridiculous obviously shout out to Bri but Kareem did it in the post and I had the it took me some time to kind of put that in my mind and say so he had to get the ball he wasn't shooting threes I can't say he was shooting a lot of free throws cuz he was hooking fading away he he was hooking him not going to the contact so I'm like how did he score so many buckets dominant he was so and and but do he get do we get credit no one getes him credit right no one says he's a that's a good point though that's a great Point yeah off of twos yeah off of TW he didn't have the rock though he had the get the rock you know how much time off the clock is that back then when they walked the ball up the floor yeah that's a great point that's what I'm saying the changing of the game I think we look at it in such a way that it's not possible and I think by not possible you all mean for a very very very long time but I'm just looking at the way that the game is being played now and like some of the scores that I'm just like wait what that are scoring now yeah that makes me think that it is going to be possible for Shay gilas Alexander to average 30 this year the next year the next year like with the style of the game if that makes sense yeah I think it's it's just a it's a lot of things that just go into play like you know in the league right they're going to at some point those guys are going to be you got to win the championship so now you going to have to sacrifice you going to have to and so now it's going to change the course average 30 game so it's so many things like and for brown to be able to go through the way that he's went through it all and play on these teams and do all this and still have the health and be able to reach 40 it's just we may not we're not going to see that probably I'm not denying that this dude is crazy I'm not denying it I think what he's doing night in and night out I mean you talk about changing of the guard of changing his game and adjusting his game he's shooting almost 40% from three this year yeah um it's crazy and the amount of time and energy and effort he puts into his body is crazy I'm just simply saying from like a basketball yeah you know it's possible how much is the three-point game you know what I'm glad you said that because it's a question I was going to ask you first of all do you think that you have respect of the men's players to speak on the game do I think I have the do you think you have like do you I yeah I think so you think about it it ain't a lot of in your seat you have a very that seat on TNT you have is a very special seat because it's not a lot of women who has that role to speak on the game like that and I was going to ask you personally I know how I feel but do you feel like you have the respect of the men's game to say yeah what she's saying about our game what she's saying about us is right I hope so um I think so and here's the thing with respect I think your opinion or you agreeing with what I see may not always be aligned but the respect is what you seek because I want to come with facts now do we do we live in a time where it's like everything's black and white no there's gray area as well but I hope when I come with the black and white facts that I'm coming with tape I'm coming with Reasons I'm coming with facts and that's the way I always try to approach it where I might see something but I need something else to back it up with what I feel and what I see um but yeah it's it's do you feel like you have to do that to get it like Shaq don't have to do that Shaq just come in and call a G14 classification and this yes but Shaq is an anomaly because we would be on set with him and just argue that you can't just throw somebody the ball and say score like Shaq was the him and Kareem probably were and I wouldn't even put Kareem cuz Kareem ain't putting people in the basket right he W putting them in the basket like Shaq was the only one that was just like barbecue chicken throw it to me on a block you score we would be on set like no that's not how it works for normal people right so I feel like Shaq is in a class of his own of just he he says stuff and sees the game in a way that's like but you were the only one that could do that right and he sees it that way yes and he still sees it that way where I'm just how be looking at him like you think that you're just supposed to just put him in the basket yeah like that doesn't no you gonna have to figure out how to put him in the basket yeah Shaq doesn't see it that way of course he don't I you know I just I just look at it I always thought that you just have a special I mean like it's eight chairs on uh TNT and you have one of them and you know not only have you taken it from the in studio but you've taken it now sideline and I love your perspective of the game but I want to know that have you felt that your perspective has been you know maybe like oh well she don't know because she's not a man she hasn't played this game but you know you said you come with facts you leave with facts you all those things so that may not be there I just want to know because you know I don't think no one ever asks like how do how do how do people view Candace viewing the game um being that she's the one of the only women voices that are speaking on the game the way that she is you know she's not reporting on the game you're sitting there right away giving your analysis of the game of basketball which you know the game better than anybody but you know the world we live in too I know the world we live in from a fan uh perspective uh fans aren't going to agree with what you say until either you accomplish it or they went a parlay those two things okay you know yeah and anytime I turn on the TV and they're questioning Patrick Mahomes or anytime I turn on the TV and they're questioning LeBron James work ethic then I'm like people are stupid right so am I paying attention to the stupid people or am I say it louder right am I paying attention to the stupid people or am I coming with facts coming with in my opinion um I do feel I have the respect of my peers and the players which is super important to me um I hope I have the respect of the fans because I do come with facts now when I am wrong I think that's when there's a difference I'm big on within the women's game of basketball I don't think that there's enough scrutiny about our play hear me out okay okay so as a woman because the game has been attacked so much by people sitting in their basement that can't dunk a donut let alone a basketball they're the ones that have driven The Narrative that nobody watches women's sports WIS basketball's terrible they say all these terrible things as an egg on X and right so so so many people have become protective of the game of basketball that they cannot take criticism that nobody's allowed to criticize the game but guess what I want to criticize on the first Morning Show is D way gonna is he gonna get to the basket is he gonna get to the free thr line or is he going to settle for the catch and shoot which is what the Spurs want want y'all to do right but you can't do that in the women's game but there's also a line where if a woman makes a mistake then they're like go make a sandwich in the kitchen go do this I'm cool if you attack my words and my play and my facts but when you start attacking what I should be doing of making sandwiches and being in the kitchen to me it's like that is crazy and then just being completely honest when I go to it and I see that it's a black man that's doing this but then the next tweet that they're making is about how black people need to be seen in this light and not be told to go back and shut up and dribble that's the thing that pisses me off the most because you want to see it when you're in the minority but you don't want to see it when you're actually the one that can promote change and actually be a voice of attacking what I say do you know what I mean yes I do so attack that the fact that I was wrong about Cleveland and Cleveland actually is number two or number three in the East and don't attack that I need to go back to my nine to5 of making a deli sandwich like you know I get it so that is where I I know I got off topic but that's where where I feel is the biggest difference like Stephen A can sit up there and they're never going to attack him being black because that's off topic but me they'll attack me being a woman and go back to playing your role even though Stephen has never dribbled to basketball la too to that that's lazy yes but it's allowed it's allowed because it's it's like the the woman topic I think especially now with the way sports are going and how the that's going to be something that in 15 20 years people are going to get canceled for when you look back and because think about how many people were canceled because of race in 2020 2021 there are so many podcasts and x and that say stuff that are so it's so just negative against women and sexist but it's not looked at in in that light and it's not it's that's not carried into our culture today because it's like you can do that and I feel like now we're at a point of Hope with this generation that is like no like we're not gonna We're not gonna be allowed to do that you know I think it's one topic that I mean you just said something that kind of took my mind to what I've said a lot about the um about the black community about the African-American um Community is you know we are a community who feel like we haven't had a voice and we haven't been accepted and we all the all the things but in the midst of that when I look out and most of the the hate that that our family receive for supporting our daughter um Zia is coming from the same Community right the the same community that you know wants to be seen wants to be heard wants to have opportunities W want all these things we looking at another community and we looking down on that community and we're the loudest ones that you know is is trying to you know talk about the LGBT community and it's like but we but we're fighting to be we want to be seen we want to be accepted we this community is doing the same thing but we're the loudest ones to say you know it's sound like pushing them back like no don't get in front of us you know and I hate that I I hate the fact that on one side you you you know we we will protest and we will say all these things and then on the other side we G to talk about another Community we going you know what I mean we're going to try to hush another Community but it's like bro like we know what that feels like we know that we haven't been able to to constantly grow the way we want to uh because of those things but we're going to do the same thing it it it doesn't it doesn't make sense to me it doesn't make sense and it's interesting when it's the oppressed and the oppressor but then in some communities you have the opportunity to be both in different situations and as black men you can be the oppressed and the oppressor and as white women you can be the oppress and the oppressor I don't really have that choice um and I always tell everybody like I check pretty much a lot of boxes as do does your family right and you're right I think that there's a way where people stand up and say these things but don't understand how powerful and hurtful like attack my opinions attacks what attack what I say don't attack my character or who I am or who I chose choose to go home to or the kids I'm raising like don't attack that and I think you're right there are certain communities um that want to play Both Sides when it's convenient how much does that affect you when people are attacking I mean as someone who's you know you live a you have a public life even though you have a private life it's still public and people can comment on your life publicly how much does that affect you and or your family not anymore I think initially it did a lot yeah um it did a lot it really did because you are trying to be okay with yourself and what you're choosing in your life choices and then you add on top of that other people's opinions of you but also D way like let's not let's not steer around this we we get into the why I didn't want to fit into the box of what a WBA player was right like a lot of times you get you you're brought up and it's like the WBA the entire WBA is gay M like that's just what they are like and it's like okay but are we understanding the individuals and the people and that there's other things outside of that I didn't want to fit into that box for a very long time and so I think that part of that reasoning was because of what the world would do definitely you know we've had numerous conversations about this and um at the end of the day I choose to not let that impact my decisions and who I am and who I go home to and how much I genuinely enjoy being around my family and the people I love and so yeah well I chuckle at a comment or whatever and just be like man that person is really you know I feel bad for that person yes but then you know you you you say a little too much yeah I'm G have to respond there Chicago in me I'm have to to come come off this TNT set exactly so it's yeah was that um okay so you've grown to that point obviously now like the the growth is beautiful um but I'm sure early on right when in early in you and an's relationship was that a part of the the thought process was I'm falling in love you know with this woman and it's a perception already out there about us I don't was it a part of you like no I don't want to I don't want to love this person because of their perception th% um I mean she's we check every box not to be together think about it like she's Russian we in America like black white I mean all of the all of the above we both women like we check every single box so there were so many times where it was like is this worth it you know and every single time we'd ask ourselves that we would always say yes and I can't tell my daughter to follow her heart and her love and do what makes her happy if I'm not doing that yeah and I know we've had so many conversations but also I think as a little sister I've been so proud at the example that you've set for black men because it's important to set those examples because you don't know who is you don't know who is looking at you for advice who is looking at you as an example and not just your unbelievable basketball player Hall of Fame so proud of that but it's also changing the mentality and the perceptions of relationships that are important and for me I think it is a little bit of a okay we didn't expect Candace to be like this okay there's so many moms that have come up to me and had conversations about their daughters um there was a couple that came up to me in Indie and was asking me about like you know we we want to come out but we don't know if it's the right time like there's so many people that are battling secret battles that you don't know how much you're really impacting that and so I just for me looking at you and you as NBA player that's a lot that's I mean that in itself has its perceptions of what you're masculine like you're supposed to be masculine you're supposed to be all these things you're supposed to handle yourself this way your nails you're not supposed to paint your nails like exactly manicure pedicure but why right exactly why and that's what I had to ask myself like why am I doing this I'm doing this to please all these other people yeah so we've grown into that for sure you've grown into that I mean obviously we all have right like we come from a world we come from communities um and things that we heard that yeah it doesn't make us want to just go out and and do it but ultimately you know when you love someone when you love something um you know you're going to you're going to you're going to give your all to it because that's that's who you are you're Allin type person when you when you when it gets to love and so um I love it you know I I love you know obviously I felt like I was one of the ones that got a chance to see you and 's love before the world was exposed to it which was beautiful you know to see because it was just for you guys and I I don't think people understand in the light that we live in you don't have a lot of moments where you can really be kind of things in your life that are off the grid and away from everyone's you know you know uh comments Etc and so when you were able to have that moment I'm a little jealous that you had that time where it was just about you guys and it was just about your family and it was great for Lea you know what I mean um that you guys had that before the world had a chance to now jump in on whatever tell and express their opinions and you know I guess my question to you is because people always ask me like do you see yourself as an example like did you start off seeing yourself as an example or an opportunity or was it just this is how I have to love my children yeah it was that yeah it was really it's all about you know my kids you I always tell people all the time I'm so in love with my kids they all got the best versions of me the ones I'm still searching for uh but it had nothing to do with nothing but you know just being there and being what you are your protector you're provider you're you know you all these things to your kids and so we live in this public world where you know publicly you have to protect you know at the same time and so mine was I wanted my child to not have to you know go through life and and what if I wanted my child to go through life and just want and just to feel that she can do anything in this world we know we talked about kids about you know having no no boundaries and as parents we put boundaries on them because of the boundaries that was put on us and so I didn't want to put any B I worked hard to kind of erase boundaries to allow them to go out and create the life they want why would I put that boundary on you because it's something I don't understand right and so for me the quick the the first thing was like okay outside of all this candada I got to get to understand because I I obviously I don't right and now I got to get to the point where my daughter is so comfortable with me that she can help me understand at the same time and so it was so much work that needed to be done as a parent um that I had to do forget the world I had to do so much work when it came to like how I showed up I thought I was doing I thought I was doing a good parenting job but I realize I didn't know enough about my child or my child didn't feel Comfort comfortable enough for me to know a lot about and I'm a think I'm a present father and so you know but now yes we go around the world and we meet so many kids we meet so many families that are appreciative of the the moments when we speak out and we stand up and you know we celebrate you know our daughter in in our community I love that because sometimes when you support you think you're supporting in a way that is going to benefit your daughter but to know and to learn and to try to grow to be better for them I think that that's what is super special um you know I just remember feeling so much support from my family MH and even though it wasn't considered a big thing in the world like right like people are they they're in same sexual relationships all the time but it was a big deal for me cuz in for so long I felt like was letting myself down my family down and why would you want to feel like that when this is one of the best moments of your life like I love somebody right you know and um yeah I think it's just honestly my daughter as well who made me see that like this is normal this is her normal we focus so much on like what's normal but it's like what about our normal like we can make this nor our normal and that's the biggest thing um I learned so much from her so similar to how you're learning from your daughter I learned that everything don't look like the sitcoms it doesn't it doesn't have to it doesn't have to but I love my life um I'm grateful for my life I'm grateful for my wife and my kids and um yeah I just got to a point where it was like this is yeah I'm okay in this space yeah and I mean you know we can talk for hours and we going to do another part two and another time but at this point you know knowing all that obviously you know we we we touched on Sports um just to give some of the the fans a little a little background on Candace Parker but you guys can Google all that I think we know this interview is about getting to the person you know getting to how you think about things and um how I want to end it is how I always end it is you know what's your why can this you know all the things you've accomplished all the things that you've set out to to accomplish you've done a lot of them I'm sure so as you sit here now and you're you know how many more years you want to play in the game of basketball um the businesswoman you are the things you do in the community shout out to the three strike for the things that they you guys do together um what is your why at this point in going forward ah I had like a whole thing and then now I'm like that's not my why I can't um I think my why is any environment or any situ a I go into I want to leave better mhm and that has always been my purpose um my why is my people and my passions I love my people hard and I love chasing my passions and I think because of that like that's I don't know that's my why so through those two things I think in any situation after basketball whatever it is you know I hope to leave it better so that's my why that's your why well um I go on record to say this to my people um all the time but my goat Candace Parker thank you for uh for taking the time and just sitting and having a conversation D I love you man you know that I appreciate everybody my goat cace Parker and I love D way you're the [Music] best w

[Music] [Music] what&#39;s up everybody I am back sorry for taking two weeks off just got a little busy um but today I am back with someone who I have been friends with for a long time time someone I&#39;ve admired for a very long time someone who&#39;s like a little sister sometimes like like a big sister um but one of the greatest athletes um and one of the greatest human beings um that I&#39;ve ever had the chance to watch and to meet everybody Welcome Candace Parker y thank you D I&#39;m so happy to do this with you you know I can get Barack on the phone quick and night I know you not talking you listen you International traveling all around the world waving at people kissing babies waving waving at people kissing babies waving at this is wild getting holes in one wild I&#39;m I&#39;m just out here you know I was just waiting to get this opportunity to sit across from you and thank you for blessing my podcast I know how I noticed something I noticed your voice dropped significantly when you started the podcast it was like it was like hey Sis hey sis uh this is D way uh this TW way coming at you with the y That&#39;s How It Was yeah that&#39;s my life when grew up I used to listen to like late night like radio this is kind yeah you listening to like that&#39;s how it always WGCI yeah no but this I feel I feel safe at this tone listen this is you I feel real safe at this tone right here you know it sounds good on a podcast um so I I always like to start my podcast um with the last time I&#39;ve seen my guest and the last time I seen you was Allstar Weekend in Indiana um on Friday when we hung out we had a great night at um at our party at the gentleman&#39;s have a good night always a great time everybody know if if our name associated with a party it&#39;s goingon to be a good time but the last time I seen you actually was on Saturday for like three seconds at the Spades event you were cutting your eyes at me as I was going off to win my first Spades Championship that&#39;s cuz I didn&#39;t enter I was was working that night and so I was going to be late and I didn&#39;t want to hold the whole thing up so that&#39;s why that&#39;s why it was that&#39;s why I didn&#39;t enter the this is my first year not entering the Spades Tournament yeah so you&#39;re welcome you won because I didn&#39;t enter it I felt I felt a little I felt a little way about that you&#39;re welcome like I mean I listen you got to add that you got the Hall of Fame got three time champ that&#39;s great you finally won your own event so I&#39;m happy put on in there listen that&#39;s the thing everybody like it&#39;s yours you should have won it no it&#39;s Spades it&#39;s just that you know my name was used to help put the event on okay but um I you know what&#39;s crazy about Spades you know how much trash talk you get from like like Roland Martin hit me oh yeah and was I&#39;m talking about talking trash you lucky I was there next year&#39;s on I&#39;m like yo where this coming it&#39;s real like Paulo Bono&#39;s parents we beat them last year Adam Leo and myself beat him last year they were still talking about it this year they were like oh you don&#39;t want to enter you want to enter the tournament so that we could you know run it back oh so you just take your ball when you get to the park after you win one game I was like this is wild you guys are parents they just came in hot were you one of those were you one of those take your ball not after one game but maybe after a couple maybe after a couple like if I win three or four like I&#39;m going to take my ball and go home oh not if you lose though no if I lose we still playing because we had those people at the park that once they didn&#39;t get picked or they lost they were taking their ball and they was getting up out of there yeah it I&#39;m competitive so I don&#39;t like losing so we go play till I win and then I&#39;m gonna be like oh we go okay let&#39;s talk about that competitiveness so you you competitive you grew up in a house with two older brothers uh how&#39;s that how&#39;s growing up with two older brothers I mean I know they they have they supposed to have this protection over you um but I&#39;m sure being competitive as you are and they were hoopers as well I&#39;m sure that was it&#39;s it&#39;s crazy um D cuz I was so much younger than my brothers that I got to watch and still try to be competitive and and still try to compete even though I wasn&#39;t going to win so that&#39;s how it was and everything they did I wanted I mean I had the strength shoes my brother was a size 14 15 I had the Str Sho in the East Bay yes I had the white the white string shoes and they were like four or five size is too big and I was trying to like put paper in the back to like run and train like my brother my dad would get in the car and ride and my brother would run on the strength shoes down our street wow and I remember just sitting there like dream met a family that had stren shoes yeah like it was real y had some money it no Hey listen you you w just getting those shrimp shoes listen we had one pair we had one pair for three kids and everybody shared and it was like the same size so it didn&#39;t matter yeah oh my God but that&#39;s how I was with my brothers I just idolized them I wanted to be like I played with a video game unplugged the controller unplugged yeah for so long because I just wanted to be with them like and hang out and do everything they did and so I&#39;m so lucky that like my heroes were in my house yeah that&#39;s that&#39;s huge and they were great role models and just amazing Brothers for sure so they they are the ones I mean we get to your pops as well but they&#39;re the ones who kind of got you to play basketball because watching them hoop you want to get in there and and do the same thing because of their competitiveness and they brought you along and they went like gone get your little no they definitely brought me along and I always say my brothers are the ones that prepare me to like be at TNT because I have a bunch of big brothers that just make fun of me all the time like last week Shaq was like yo your ankle&#39;s ashy like on television you know and so it&#39;s like if I didn&#39;t grow up in the household I grew up in I would be like you know like you know embarrassed about it but I think my brothers tease me they love me they pushed me down they picked me up they did all the things um that helped me want to play basketball want to compete and I think just like the work ethic like watching them my brother and my middle brother&#39;s a doctor just watching him study and stick to it and set goals and the same thing with my oldest brother uh who played basketball like watching him just yeah continue to work at it yeah it&#39;s crazy everybody out there that is don&#39;t know Candace brother Anthony played in the NBA um I knew I knew of Anthony because of Henry Thomas um Hank big Bank Hank big Bank Hank I knew of Anthony so you know I came in already knowing about your brother but you know played against your brother a few times oh you definitely listen you are in a number of group chats because we love seeing Anthony&#39;s Cricket hand contest your jump shot like it&#39;s my favorite thing to turn on Sports Center and see like you doing your D way spin you do and then just seeing like Anthony try to contest with this cricked hand it Anthony has he had like slow feet yeah you know what I mean and so he was recovering a lot yeah oh shots fired look Anthony gonna be like I just seen him at Allstar Weekend and he want you know how people go off and be like I just seen him and he want talking like that yeah Anthony listen shout out to Anthony I don&#39;t want no smoke listen Anthony is hilarious because he would always draw like you cobby Darren Williams like he would always go like draw these yeah yeah and so he would always say like dwade you don&#39;t know cuz he has the like uh you know and he was like Darren Williams Herky jerky go for the first cross I remember telling him and he would call me and be like I went for the first cross it&#39;s so hard not to go Darr Darren used to come up and he his cross was hard like wait hold on and you&#39;re still trying to get your feet yeah so like so Anthony he was in that that size where he&#39;s about 67 roughly 66 66 okay about 66 but long kind of longer guy wasn&#39;t the top scorer on his team not a but you automatically got to go guard somebody because he&#39;s not he became one but when he went over to Europe like he wasn&#39;t he was a bucket getter he was a I mean he was a shooter he a splash from the corner um Splash coming off screens but but that&#39;s the NBA he had to develop when he got yeah back to Toronto he had to defend and then again with Cleveland he had to defend a little bit so so how was that for you right uh obviously you on your journey in basketball your brother&#39;s on his journey you think you know a lot about the game and I&#39;m sure he does how was that like relationship where was it like you reaching out saying Anthony you should have do this you should do that or were you reaching out picking his brain more like you know how how is guys working like what&#39;s going on it&#39;s so interesting because he went overseas when I was in seventh eth grade so he missed my entire kind of rise to whatever um start no we&#39;re not going to call it stardom but he missed my rise in the game of basketball we got gold microphones but we&#39;ve been humble okay let&#39;s go he&#39;s your he&#39;s your gold microphone you liked them you like I did I did I did but I think he came back my junior year at College oh so he missed that whole period of time where I kind of grew up and so when he came back I was not the little tiny baby sister I was his sister when he came back so I think our relationship changed Anthony and I have always close we talk almost every day to today to this day I should say um but since then we&#39;ve talked every day and we just kind of pick our brains we share we give advice he&#39;s really good at figuring out what I need in terms of like do I need somebody that&#39;s going to tell me you know what I need to hear or do I need somebody to just listen and then him tell me or ask questions so I&#39;m I&#39;m proud of my brother need get relationship advice If he if he&#39; figured that out listen he&#39;s Anthony is he got the Anthony legit is one of the best humans um in the world because of the way that he I feel like he&#39;s such a great teammate yeah even off the floor I think that&#39;s why they love him in Orlando he&#39;s the general manager there but he&#39;s great at like managing people and emotions and he never gets too high or too low and he gives some amazing pregame speeches like it&#39;s CRA like we lost game four going back to mini had to win on their home court and he hit me with the do you remember the book chop wood carry water oh he wanted those he hit me with that he one of those he said you remember the book chopwood carry water how you said a golf ball that hasn&#39;t been hit doesn&#39;t travel right he said but they noticed the ones that had the most dents and that were beat up actually traveled the best and he&#39;s like let&#39;s you know you&#39;ve been dinged up you&#39;ve been whatever you&#39;ve been talked about in your career like now this is you the opportunity to travel the best and to travel accurate and you know so he hit the speech I was like all right you see that wall I got you I&#39;ll meet you on the the side so I love that there&#39;s that yeah he&#39;s great at that so um your your dad played at Iowa am I correct say Iowa Iowa yeah there you go you say Iowa that&#39;s got say say your say it with your chest yeah say it with your chest you know I don&#39;t like saying a lot of other colleges you know what I mean I&#39;m a little uh but so Iowa is actually one of the schools I wanted to go to word and it&#39;s not for no reason that would make sense okay I want to hear why um it I like the colors okay black and okay I mean I have so I don&#39;t have many pictures of my childhood but I have one if it when people when it comes out I&#39;m I have IA basketball shorts on black and gold and I love black and gold my high school was black and gold um it was too I I love gold so like Michigan was blue and gold so those the two schools when I were young I wanted to go to Michigan or I wanted to go to Ira well Michigan was everybody well yeah everybody we all jumped on a Michigan bandwagon yeah black sock but Iowa I was like okay I could do I could do Iowa like I could do Purdue like in these schools I don&#39;t know was the colors when you were a kid you&#39;re also in the midwest that&#39;s probably some of it too it&#39;s like you didn&#39;t see like UCLA can you imagine if we would have seen we would have been out here I would have definitely been out here I was like what was I thinking not taking a visit to USC oh well I didn&#39;t have oh scar me oh my go this the conversation just turned real quickly from a young go USC I had i u p UI us those initials are different um was your dad good at basketball though talk to me so cuz he big here&#39;s the problem here&#39;s the problem so my parents met at Iowa my mom went to Iowa my dad went to Iowa my dad was the first four-year player started okay at Iowa so they used to do where freshman couldn&#39;t play Varsity that&#39;s what it was called he was the first year in 72 that they allowed freshman to play okay you know yeah when he got there he old Simmons is old yeah yeah so I would say my dad was like super quick First Step um more like a slasher more like a finisher at The Rim okay I&#39;ve only seen like a cou couple grainy clips of him with his like first step um he never sit you down and make you watch none of his but there&#39;s not I mean it&#39;s like he didn&#39;t have a lot of film you know what I mean like it was it&#39;s not like you like YouTube you know and even our YouTube clips from high school are a little grainy they little grainy yeah my daughter was like why does it look like that like cuz I&#39;m old yeah yeah I remember Hank sat me down on the plane one day and made me watch his his old highlights did he have did Hank have an afro did he have a little afro afro did you know them shorts was like as big as this book you know what I&#39;m saying and he&#39;s little his little lightskinned body just running oh my God and I had to sit and watch like showed me that he was nice so I&#39;m just you know like that&#39;s how that&#39;s how like my dad did that to me like my favorite thing is when they show you and then they&#39;re like oh didn&#39;t quite look okay we going fast forward right here let&#39;s watch the whole film you talk about highlights now no let&#39;s watch the whole let&#39;s watch the whole film yeah so as um as your dad being pretty much probably your first coach would you say or 100% yeah so I played soccer you played soccer I played soccer growing up and then right around I would say seventh grade is when I started playing basketball so I played at six seventh grade is when I started playing like traveling basketball my dad was my coach okay and now that you know like going back did he was he a good coach did he know what he was saying like listen I the crazy thing is my dad is the one that forced me to look at the game in a different way okay like breaking down the why and I think sometimes see how I tie that back into your podcast commercial break but but breaking down the why of things and not to get him my head of myself but later on when I ask why it&#39;s because of that he was always big on you got to know why you&#39;re doing stuff so when you&#39;re going to set a down screen you got to know why what&#39;s your intention so that I can get my shooter open so that changes your butt angle that changes how you head hunt that changes the position of your screen and I think later on in my basketball career when I would ask why coaches would take that personally like you don&#39;t trust what we&#39;re doing no I got to know why we&#39;re doing this so that then I can change and adjust and do things and my dad was big on that I mean we were running uh a Princeton set offense in sixth seventh eighth grade w i i laugh because I look at the way that Kobe was teaching his team and the things that he was sitting down doing and you know how to guard screens how to guard Shooters how to lock and Trail how to force one way and then we square up on the our feet bigs being able to rebound start the break like that was on my dad MH um doing that with our team and I think the reason why I see the game the way I do is because of him I mean watching WGN old Bulls games and he would stop it we&#39;d always VHS tape the game and he paus it and be like okay what did what did Pippen do here like on the defensive end where are they trying to funnel the ball and I would answer this is sixth seventh eighth grade so the studying of the game came from I think the um the details right like for me I&#39;m about when I watch the game I don&#39;t it&#39;s not it doesn&#39;t matter I know people can score the basketball it&#39;s the details of of how they&#39;re scoring and so when I when I do my cammies I&#39;m talking about those little details like even like how you get open like kids just if somebody denying you and you know you&#39;re trying to get the ball like a lot of people just release early and these details of holding that holding your position and releasing once the ball release like all these small details those are to me when when you have great coaches that really can focus on that like your your screen position of not going to screen at the side of a person how about you go screen at this angle that&#39;s like their shoulder and their hip and their butt or whatever right these little small details is what takes good players to that that that different level that IQ level and so it sounds like your dad gave you a little bit of that early on and passing like making the right play yeah um and sometimes to a fault you know where maybe you should have been selfish and taking a shot but it&#39;s like I can&#39;t help but see that you know and it all comes from instincts but it also comes from like studying the game as well where I&#39;m going to manipulate this to get this player open yeah so I think it was just being aware and always being open to listening to like what the new philosophy is what the new thought process is I don&#39;t know how how did Reggie Miller become your F like he&#39;s still your favorite player right like talk so he&#39;s my favorite all time player that was not no that&#39;s not the case he&#39;s not my favorite alltime player I just I loved people that came into Chicago and battled Mike okay like I love Michael Jordan don&#39;t get me wrong he&#39;s the goat in my opinion because he&#39;s the blueprint and everybody was trying to model themselves after him right but the people that came in and battled him the Reggie Millers the Ron Harpers like people forget when Ron played back in the day yeah Ron used to before knee before his knees were messed up Ron Harper used to give him was it Clipper Ron so Clipper I mean we had Clipper Ron we had with Detroit I mean Detroit Ron R was nice yeah Detroit Ron was really nice but anytime you like Chicago wanted you to come play for them it was clearly because right you know we had seen what you have done in the past so I don&#39;t know I just always love those guys I mean Isaiah Thomas the same thing like yeah I just love those guys that came into Chicago with like a chip on their shoulder and weren&#39;t like oh he&#39;s the greatest of all time like let me back down Isaiah still has the chip on the shoulder oh it&#39;s still there OG zek Zeke is still there but listen I feel Zeke man Zeke is one of the best guards to ever pick up a basketball and needs to be recognized as such yeah all the time yeah it&#39;s I mean we we&#39;ll take a whole turn on this pod talking about that but it it definitely is it&#39;s as we watch so many of our greats that don&#39;t get the recognition that we all know they deserve uh who is your who who did you grow up idolizing well MJ I mean okay other than MJ it&#39;s like MJ and then MJ Scotty and the Bulls let me say that um outside of those guys because I was really like Chicago WGN that&#39;s all I really watched um but as I got older and I was able to kind of you know get out of my MJ love phase once he stepped away then I opened it up a little bit but before to who to like Iverson and okay you know R like I I enjoy guys that I looked at as someone that possibly my size that can have a similar game if your game wasn&#39;t in my style of play I really wasn&#39;t like patreon I wasn&#39;t really watching patreon yeah that wasn&#39;t going to be my game so you know plus I didn&#39;t like New York neither no constan Constantin um I digress so who did you emulate like what what player would you look at and say growing up I emulated that that style of play I hate fitting in like a lane that is my biggest like ick is fitting in like one lane so I think I took pieces from a lot of different people I grew up loving Iverson that&#39;s part of the reason why I wear number three is Iverson um I had the finger bands my brother got drafted to Philly so he was on the team you the AR and Philly bands I had the finger number three bands like from him yes he gave them to me when I was in high school oh you had so much no I was in junior high and I wore them I wore him in high school like you don&#39;t understand my love for Iverson I was doing the jiss commercials or whatever the yeah the jiss right jiss commercials I I could do that whole commercial that they did with the white ball and the white I I had all the Rebox shoes the answers the questions I had everything the air bubbles used to pop I used to go get some more um but I loved Iverson so he was the one that I kind of wanted to dribble and learn the that was this his dribbling or was it just his whole how would you say it&#39;s heart yeah like he didn&#39;t care what people told him he couldn&#39;t do he was going to do it and I love the fact that he was him like not in the sense of today him but like him like he was him all the time durag walking into games on the podium as a dad off the court he was Iverson he was iers and so hate him or love him like he wasn&#39;t going to change based off of his his environment and I love that yeah so I I did have the little zigzag braids I&#39;m not going to lie know you I had to set it off back I already know you I did I went through that face oh I look back at pictures I&#39;m like Mom can we not keep these in the photo album that&#39;s that&#39;s Iris that&#39;s why I had Iris as the one to you know walk me and introduce me into the Hall of Fame because exactly what you said and that&#39;s why I tried to like say those things up there because for kids the young kids growing up I mean you know we analyed the fact that he did challenge the conventional Norms that he wasn&#39;t like everyone else like we love Mike and the suits and the how he showed up but when obviousy came it was like oh man like you can be like that too you know saying still be cold because it was a certain way that you thought you had to be and then Ivon showed you no you don&#39;t in a sense so I yeah that&#39;s why I wanted to give him his flowers you know speaking of giving flowers like you do on uh Tuesday show U like when we worked together is I wanted to make sure I gave Iverson his flowers on stage because of exactly always deserves it always he changed an entire facts culture mentality like I think the NBA as a whole changed as a result of fashion CH no but like he took a bullet and a lot of finds M so that being the first yeah and it&#39;s like you you you do take a bullet being the first and sometimes people look at you like you&#39;re different and then now you see all these kids out that are able to be themselves and able to you know play the game they love but also can not be I think the thing for me is is it&#39;s not they&#39;re not taking away the who you are based off like tattoos and right what you look like before it would be like you automatically had a check against you oh if you had you band it was that was a little much you have braids like it I mean I we live through that and now I told one of the players recently that I was like yo y&#39;all y&#39;all got it like everything that we all wanted this is the time right now where y&#39;all got all the things y&#39;all can do all the things y&#39;all getting all the things it&#39;s wild yeah like this is the moment right when for for the NBA where they have this is the height for me where all the players before them have worked their butt off and want it and they have it okay I know you know talk about the NBA cuz I&#39;m looking at the W college now like man I was eating freaking Papa John before games they couldn&#39;t feed us or anything like imagine how much I would have dropped if I wouldn&#39;t had to eat Papa John&#39;s before games no offense Shaq but like pregame like come on man if he was getting like that good that them good meals man and then you&#39;d like splurge and get the little uh cinnamon whatever sticks that they had for the dessert like all right this year you know this week my money came in so yeah no we weren&#39;t doing that no not at all yeah they got it uh and but that&#39;s that&#39;s why you know you you work so hard right for the game to continue to keep going you know they got it that&#39;s why I let know like y&#39;all got it just a no jealousy over here but I&#39;m let you know y&#39;all got it y&#39;all got what we want it oh my gosh um so speaking of like just you know obviously as as I go down and I think about you all I all I think about as an athlete is winning right right like your name is associated with winning at every level I&#39;m sure you woned the junior the junior uh seven eighth grade level too but High School multiple championships college multiple championships obviously the NBA multiple championships um so when I when I think of Candace Parker I associate Candace Parker athlete is just a winner and I as being a winner how bad of a loser are you my mom myself my daughter and my wife we were all playing dominoes yesterday so he just went somewhere you just went dark yeah and my mom was sitting behind my wife so she&#39;s like throwing like she&#39;s like acting like John Stockton like throwing her lobs oh so the whole game she&#39;s just scoring like 20 25 I was at one point I was just like enough like we can&#39;t we can&#39;t keep throwing her lobs so then of course an wins and my mom and my daughter are like it&#39;s no fun playing with you and an&#39;s like it&#39;s only when she&#39;s losing like she doesn&#39;t have fun when she&#39;s losing and I would say that&#39;s that&#39;s me I don&#39;t have a good attitude when I lose I didn&#39;t grow up having to have a good attitude now will I give respect and reflect but at the time I&#39;m not a good Loser yeah I don&#39;t know I just am like why would anybody want to be a good loser am I wrong though how do you be I don&#39;t know I know this day and age like parenting has changed from my daughter is 14 and my son is two and the mentality even in that amount of time I&#39;m sure with zire has changed yeah but like why would you teach your kid to be a good loser now can I con handle myself and conduct myself and be cool or whatever but I&#39;mma Be Mad why would you be happy losing I&#39;m just asking anybody that Lo like I did my best yes I&#39;m relinquishing results I&#39;m cool whatever but losing is not cool okay so okay understand that so after you lose which you&#39;re going to lose playing sports you&#39;re going to lose in life after you have a loss how how quickly do you come back from that loss and and now yeah well even growing up like you was a you&#39;re you&#39;re a high school Champion you&#39;re a college Champion growing up in this process when you would lose so you would had those bad games how quickly did you turn it around for yourself oh bad games it was like after we lose you don&#39;t have to worry about it like the next game is it&#39;s going to be better um I would say more so I worried about myself after WIS like you don&#39;t want to relax like losses were never it was never difficult training in the offseason after a loss it was never G difficult getting up the next day and watching film or whatever to try to get better for the next game it was only difficult if you didn&#39;t have control like if there wasn&#39;t another game if there wasn&#39;t another opportunity um but I don&#39;t I&#39;ve never liked losing and I think you talk about this generation being able to talk [ __ ] say what they feel show emotion like I didn&#39;t grow up with with that ability especially in the women&#39;s game yeah um I was a smart ass I was an [ __ ] I was like all these things on the court that now I&#39;m I&#39;m I just I just want you to be said a truthful to my audience out here I was considered that I still am but it is accepted okay it is accepted aced now it is accepted like how many weeks afterwards that y&#39;all beat us in Spades was I still texting you no you still feel away right now feel some type of away it was off of listen they won off of like a like they threw out a jack it was the last hand and it was like whoever wins this nobody knew what anybody had we threw it out it was like a jack of clubs they W off of I was like this is wild right wow okay sorry no no no I love it because we won you talk about me winning all day wow but I don&#39;t I don&#39;t I don&#39;t like losing and it doesn&#39;t matter whatever it is like there&#39;s certain things I cannot play with people I will not play Spades with my wife for the next couple weeks cuz she kept cutting my king and it kept driving me crazy so like I have non-negotiables we cannot play two un to volleyball cuz I feel like we don&#39;t like she doesn&#39;t dive she&#39;ll just be like I couldn&#39;t get that ball and I&#39;m like but how did you know she was cutting you as your partner she was cutting me with a king she had she she didn&#39;t have that suit and she cut me with like a low spade and I kept trying to nicely explain this to her so that she would still be invited to cook out and she didn&#39;t want to listen so I was like I&#39;m not playing Spades with you for a while she&#39;s going to kill me after she hears this no but listen wow it is hard to play Spades in relationships she kept cutting my king and I kept and I kept I nice explain it I get a clarification I was like listen it&#39;s not you it&#39;s me I can&#39;t handle this exactly Bob plays with his wife yes you play with yours I play with mine hence why we haven&#39;t won in the tournament because you get to that point where you be like you cutting my king what do I do right now do I want to go home later and just have a good or do I want to go to do I want to go off you know but but your energy is very strong and so is mine so so I don&#39;t do well with hiding the fact that you cut my king like I&#39;m my facial expression is looking at you like you cut my king like we had dinner the next day and I&#39;m like you cut my mother King like yeah exactly so I&#39;m competitive yeah I am go ahead just the coach n so I&#39;m going to go back to that space cuz I feel you on that completely but I wanted to talk about the two of you guys from Chicago and how Chicago kind of made you finally respecting other players like what you had to do cuz I hear about Chicago Tough and and those kinds of things you have great Chicago players like when you look at each other and you look at players that come from Chicago what do that what does that mean on for somebody who&#39;s not from Chicago for both you some people from Illinois but Illinois Illinois however you say it but I think that there are players that go to Chicago cuz I always went to Chicago to measure my game like I played pickup at depal played pickup at Hoops gym um we would get there early before my team practice and watch Michael Jordan work out at Hoops like there were some amazing runs and amazing tournaments and I feel like a lot of people came through Chicago to figure out yeah like stack themselves up like where where my game at right now let me go down to Chicago for the summer see where it is I I I think kg would have been a legend regardless but him playing his last year in Chicago like I remember that people climbing over the gate to try to see kg play and it was even Ronnie Fields team like it wasn&#39;t even wasn&#39;t even kg it was climbing over to go see Kevin Garnett I just think it&#39;s a different mentality and it&#39;s also a different level of support like I felt the love with you because we came from the same place and I always felt like we always connected on that level because we always take care of each other there&#39;s like a mentality of that um I think obviously we&#39;re hoopers and but there&#39;s like a different mentality that I think yeah yeah I agree I mean it&#39;s a I don&#39;t know I want it&#39;s a certain kind of dog that&#39;s in that we all have in in each other like we have inside of us that we all can recognize like I can look at Candace hoop one time and I can recognize the dog in her and I think we all have that like I know it in QR like I know in all my Chicago know in Isaiah and so I think it&#39;s a respect from just how we approach the game you know what I mean like the game means something to us like we ain&#39;t out there trying to be cute we out there to hoop we out there to get it and so it&#39;s a respect in that um and I agree with you I think I felt a lot of Pride coming from Chicago even though I come from a small suburbs and people like well you need you ain&#39;t go to Whitney Young you ain&#39;t go to Sim but as one of the Chicago guys um I feel like everybody from Isaiah Thomas and Mark McGuire like all these legends that we have everyone has show love to all we have all showed love to each other we all have respect for each other what everyone has done we&#39;ve all showed love throughout and so that makes all of us when you hear somebody from Chicago you want to bring them in because you were brought in and you were respected in a sense and so uh I love saying I&#39;m from the shy you know and Illinois or whatever people want to call like I love s I&#39;m from Chicago because of what I feel like we represent as as obviously athletes everyone&#39;s got to know so don&#39;t you think also it&#39;s um from growing up watching the Bulls there was this expectation to win yeah so there&#39;s this level of comfort in those situations yeah like without a Shad of a doubt I knew MJ was going to hit that shot in our eyes every time every single time cuz we saw it we saw the fist pump saw a crossover with the little nudge with the jump shot hold the follow through like you knew you were going to make those plays and because you&#39;ve seen it so much in those moments I feel like Chicago Ballers are comfortable like we&#39;re comfortable in those moments we&#39;re comfortable with that with the lights on like who would have thought D way go down to Miami be the first in the class to win a championship in that you know what I mean like because I feel like you were comfortable in the moment look at you rise to the occasion NCAA tournament with Marquette well he seen it what you see you know watched we watched those big moments we watched that guy so it&#39;s it&#39;s a great way that you said that because it&#39;s it is it&#39;s something that it&#39;s a confident that come with there because you&#39;ve seen it over and over again like we had confidence as fans that once the game got down MJ about to do his thing and we knew it and so that just became like when you got your time you like game going down let me get that do what MJ did you know I mean it&#39;s that confidence and knowing like we can do this this what we do I never looked that that makes sense yeah I never thought of it that way that makes sense that that makes that makes a lot makes a lot of sense it makes a lot of sense um let&#39;s go to college you know I know High School is high school but let&#39;s go to college because that&#39;s when I personally got a chance to really watch you become this Superstar um and what I loved about you in college is one you were number three let me throw that out there but I love the way that you play the entire game and and when I say that like no matter which block you were on you can score left hand right hand no matter if it was um no matter if it was getting a rebound off going Coast to Coast no matter was getting a rebound getting up to your teammates no matter if it was you know they throwing it back to you knock it down the mid-range knock it down the treade ball like you did everything on the floor and I I believe at that time we didn&#39;t see that in women&#39;s in the women&#39;s game a lot now I know it&#39;s other players who who had those capabilities I&#39;m not saying that but it was not nothing we seen and not that full package together um and so I fell in love with the versatility of Candace Parker before I got a chance to know the person um where did that where did that come from was that did that come from just from your your upbringing of your dad and everything you taught or was that your coaches along the way telling you hey you have to be so multi-diverse in how you play you don&#39;t want to just be one way my dad um my grandma is my one grandma 5&#39;10 my other grandma&#39;s like 5&#39;5 so he&#39;s like maybe you I&#39;m at I&#39;m 5&#39;9 5&#39;10 at the time he&#39;s like this might be it right you know and if you&#39;re going to be 510 you can&#39;t be a post player so this is from the time I&#39;m little he put the ball in my hand and again I think it was a combination of coaching and then also just me wanting to be like Iverson seeing the an1 mixtape come out and try to do all those moves um and soccer I think those were kind of the three levels of why I wanted to do all those other things but also like my mind I can&#39;t just do a right hook now looking back looking at the game today yeah where you just can do one thing and do it really well and just have a counter move to that one thing sometimes you don&#39;t even need a counter move you got counter you you talking about we talking about all stuff exactly you don&#39;t even need you just there are people that I&#39;m like he&#39;s going left he&#39;s going left he&#39;s going left but he&#39;s he can&#39;t stop it so looking back maybe I would have done that but the way my mind works is like I got to do the right hook and then I got to throw in a little shimmy yeah then I got to do the right hook and I got to throw in the kick or I got to do the right hook and then I got flare like I gotta I got to do that I don&#39;t know the way that my mind works it gets boring if I I can&#39;t just do one turn around which is a problem because sometimes you just got to do one one turnaround you know in a game but I I&#39;ve always wanted to do that and then my left hand just I just loved using it your left hand was nice I just loved using my left hand I loved and I learned that from Europe because in Europe you go left a lot because you have to cross step which you learned in &#39; 08 when your entire Olympic team was being called for travels do you remember that and then D way would look at me and i&#39; be like yep that was a travel overseas D Way D way would be like that&#39;s not a travel it&#39;s a travel it&#39;s a TR was the funniest thing ever Kobe yes that&#39;s a travel like you can&#39;t do that over here yeah Braun Braun would open Stu can&#39;t do that Chris BOS do that little through baseline can&#39;t do that traveling go the other way um Candace just said something very important and I think it&#39;s important for um obviously athletes but for parents as well to understand she said that she couldn&#39;t do a basic right-hand hook or a basic move she got bored and so to to you got to have great coaches to to understand the player and I&#39;m sure you know obviously you know Pat was is one of the greatest coaches ever to to to walk the sideline and to be a great coach like that to be a the coach a great player you have to recognize okay she&#39;s not trying to be you know put on for the crowd that she actually she gets bored and in the midst of getting bored I have to allow her to freelance a little bit and do her thing a little bit a little bit and Pat taught me that a little bit a little bit because there&#39;s a time for a right hook there&#39;s a time to just put somebody in the basket and not be cute about it yeah and I think it&#39;s learning you know it&#39;s learning that it&#39;s learning that and and it&#39;s having leaders talk about the leader and I know you you speak about Pat um of all that she&#39;s been and is to your life but talk about the leader that she was because obviously you came in very highly you know Ted and talented but to have that leader to be able to you know kind of set that Talent where where it should go and where it need to go what was her leadership style it&#39;s crazy because I feel like my dad and Pat set me up for failure they did because I had such a close emotional relationship with them that they knew what I was thinking before I was even thinking it okay they knew the buttons to push they knew when to back off they knew when to question because if you question whether I can do something I&#39;m going stay up all night all day trying to prove to you that I can and they knew that so they knew the buttons to push and I say that because coach and my dad were two of the best listeners I&#39;ve ever been a part of like when you explained to them or yeah they wanted to know the why they wanted to know what I was thinking and because they gave me that opportunity to express myself ask questions when they said shut up we got to get this done I shut up but when it&#39;s constantly like you&#39;re not allowed to like there&#39;s a you know when someone one of your kids is showing promise in something right you want them to like be curious that&#39;s what we always say as parents like the best thing that you can give your kid or have your kid be is to be curious because then you&#39;re going to want to do but a lot of that curiosity is killed in kids because they&#39;re told sit down shut up be quiet don&#39;t do this that&#39;s not how we behave that&#39;s not how we acte the generation we came from especially and so then when you get older and you have this curious talent and you shut off all of the questions and the Curiosity and the excitement and it becomes this like now all the time can can my daughter tell me what color socks she want to wear no yeah but why am I saying no you know it&#39;s a good question so I think Pat and my dad those two coaches would say we&#39;re hedging on the screen because she&#39;s killing us on the dribble bat and then she&#39;s waiting and we&#39;re she&#39;s hitting threes that&#39;s why we&#39;re hedging on the screen okay I didn&#39;t see it that way I thought we were hedging on the screen cuz we want to get the ball at her hands but she turns the ball over so in my head that&#39;s what I&#39;m thinking so there&#39;s always a reason why I&#39;m asking the question and I think coach Summit and my dad always understood that that my brain was always like going and then I got to the WBA and it was like it was like attacking like if I asked a question it was like oh you don&#39;t think I know this no that&#39;s not why I&#39;m asking that question so I think cach summit&#39;s leadership style was she listened she empowered her players and she didn&#39;t treat every player the same she treated us with the same respect and things like that but the challenges that she had to throw at me she couldn&#39;t throw at this player or the challenges with the conversation she was having with this player she couldn&#39;t have with me like she knew that and that&#39;s what made her great what was thinking about a moment and it could be obviously we go to championships but what&#39;s your favorite Pat moment what&#39;s your favorite moment with her and you oh my goodness that stays with you the moment that I think will stay with me forever is probably H there&#39;s so many moments when I got there in my freshman year I couldn&#39;t play I had a red shirt cuz my knee so I just had like serious knee surgery so at that point we were contenders for a national championship I couldn&#39;t play and she like took the time to like I was struggling my parents were getting divorced all that and she just left her door open and was like Hey I want you to come eat lunch in my room in my office every Wednesday you don&#39;t have to say anything you just sit there just eat lunch and then slowly but surely I started talking and opening up and yeah you know she provided a safe space for you yeah and I and at the time you know now I think we talk about therapy we talk about you know getting help we talk about talking through your issues or whatever I was the kid that just everything&#39;s going to be fun you know and so to be able to have that space with somebody like coach Summit who didn&#39;t have to do that they were counselors on staff they were I could have gone she could have put me with a sports psychologist or whatever but like her doing that really opened the doors to our relationship yeah and so that&#39;s kind of where I saw her as like yes she&#39;s a fantastic coach but like she&#39;s a great human yeah yeah I mean especially at that time in your life right while you&#39;re in college um obviously away from your family as you as you knew it growing up it that that leader that coach that figure in your life becomes very important Tom crean for me was very important as I was my family was going through their you know oure trials and tribulations right my mom was going down her journey my dad and to have someone that I even though like he would get on me he didn&#39;t treat me no he got on me more than anybody but it was a safe space that he always provided for me and what that safe space was me coming crying on his shoulder when I just needed to cry um be that expressive be that vulnerable uh it&#39;s important for you know you to have people in your life especially you know your coaches because they&#39;re going to get even more out of you for for one if they take the time to you know to put those things into you to put that love into you and to create that space so for all the coaches out there just understand how important you know your role is is not just to get wins you know what I mean like this is a win that you allow a kid who was going through something and was dealing with something you allow that safe space for them to you know to come to you and to be you know just be and so love that but I think there&#39;s so many times where coaches coach the player and they don&#39;t coach the entire person and in order to get the best out of the player you have to coach the entire person like you&#39;re not showing up to practice just as a player you&#39;re showing up as a dad as a husband as a son as all these things and you&#39;re carrying like all those who&#39;s with you and you&#39;re supposed to perform in your what but nobody wants to take time to understand the who right that&#39;s a no but like you know what I mean and I think the coaches that really understand that and we&#39;re getting it now because it&#39;s forced like social media has forced coaches to actually behave in a way that because you never know what&#39;s being recorded what&#39;s being text what&#39;s being whatever so I feel like coaches now are held to this bar where but you can tell the ones that have the intention to do it there&#39;s that like intangible thing that you have a con with a person or with whatever you can tell that there&#39;s like an intention behind it and so I think through coach and my dad and those coaches I&#39;ve learned to like look for that intention do you know what I mean with the person they may not be perfect right now but you can look for the intention yeah and that will I don&#39;t know that will help with everything CU I know that&#39;s why I connected with you was your intention like you know you defitely there&#39;s so many times that we&#39;d have conversations about that yeah all the time um speaking of like around that time in attention um we talk about Candace and I have spoke about this before and even to the point where we like was that a violation um but we G we G to move on from it uh but we talked about this before when when Candace was uh in college it&#39;s definitely a violation if I get the national championship taken back because of this why podcast we going to fight we like but but we like family so it&#39;s cool um like Reggie Bush trying to out here get my my be back U because of Anthony and because of U I got Hank I remember Hank telling me um we&#39;re at the ESP and uh what were you up there for what college player of the year what were you up there for yeah women&#39;s college athlete College athlete year and K I remember Hank telling me you know obviously you were going to be out there and he was like take care of my girl you know make sure you take care of her any party she want to get in like make sure you got her right and so you know ever since that moment I&#39;ve always tried to be you know whatever it is Candace and I have always had a great relationship and and it&#39;s built from that conversation Han having me like take care of my girl take care of Candace um but I did take care of her that week we had a it was a cool moment and I know that it&#39;s a picture out there I don&#39;t know if we have it but someone has it where we were at this party and Candace wanted to meet um some Legends in our community right some black actresses that are legends we grew up watching brother Marcus was with me too brother was with him and kace like she ain&#39;t care about nothing that was going on to party she didn&#39;t want a party she a want none of that she was like I want to meet Nia Long I want to meet gab I want to meet was s and it was it one more or was just some three no it was just those three just those three just those three and that was as a big brother that was my it was my time it was my time to be like oh like art up our entire life just that&#39;s royalty that&#39;s royalty facts that&#39;s Roy and I I still I&#39;m going to send you that picture I think I still have it listen we make a family calendar every year and my brother&#39;s picture with them was on the family calendar so you made his life and ours uh by yeah introducing me with your orange juice I remember to all of them yeah cuz I didn&#39;t drink anything Dr so he had orange juice I remember being like what I didn&#39;t drink anything but me that was that was the first time in um that you and I kind of like connect Ed but been connected ever since and you know I say that to say cuz I&#39;ve always loveed to give my guy Hank love but U that&#39;s how we roll you even talk about Chicago like it&#39;s just it&#39;s that right it&#39;s somebody saying hey this person you like locked in got it and it&#39;s a like it&#39;s a life time thing and so uh in the midst of this run and me you becoming like one of my favorite players I actually got a chance to spend some time with and then like oh no she she cool I thought you talking about the sidekick about talk about and then okay cuz I was like listen we going to talk about this side kick i w up send you know I had my sidekick out around that time this was 200 it was the dwade sidekick with the basketball like he had like a basketball textured on the back of the sidekick yeah it was coming off it was coming off the 2006 Championship so it was a white and and gold kind of super nice and I had like a few and we can all we argue about this internally because some people don&#39;t think they got one um but I had a few people I could send them out to you know you only get about right and I actually said one to Candace yo I rode that thing until the wheels fell off till literally the screen was coming off with the basketball in the back I you could not tell me nothing I remember I pulled up the class and I had it and I just sat it on my desk like everybody was walking past like yeah this me right yeah like cuz that&#39;s a big deal in college man trust me like it was yeah it was a big deal so I I just it was always so cool to like see all the things that you go through to see all the things that you&#39;ve accomplish um but to know you kind of from the beginning is you know and to like see that I remember the first time we were like both in our 30s we&#39;re like oh we grown now like look at us we so grown look at us here it&#39;s true so I&#39;ve always just been so proud of you man like so proud of who you are and obviously we connect on you know Parenthood a lot yeah yeah for sure so it&#39;s just been it&#39;s been the little sis looking but also a little big sis like just proud of you yeah I mean it&#39;s so many different levels and then like I said then it&#39;s the fan level like I&#39;m I I&#39;m a I love hoop and so you know I I go out and I talk about the game and I talk about my favorite players and in basketball and Candace is one of my favorite players and a lot of it is not just accomplishing right like we could talk about them because she has all of them um but it&#39;s the way that she&#39;s done it and and when I know people who has overcome injuries like she just said she was coming off knee surgery in high school going into college she still won five more championships after that total right and so to know that is to know that a per to know a person can overcome you know these moments and these are not easy moments to overcome and so been a fan of so many different things but I&#39;m a fan of the person I know who&#39;s overcome so much you know what I mean to continue to be all the things that that she is and so I say that to say watching you go to the NBA from college and watching you just take over right away like that was special you know I think what it was you got rookie the year and MVP your your first year how how and how is that like MVP yeah and rookie of the year I just came in and was just playing free and I had situation where I was able to do that um Michael Cooper was like we&#39;re going to play you at point we&#39;re going to play you at three we&#39;re going to play you at you know the post player obviously you know he comes from that Pat Riley Showtime yeah he comes from the showtime but he also comes from the running 17s if you lose in practice and best condition hardest working and to be honest with you I think it&#39;s undervalued that I played alongside one of the greatest ever play the game yeah so I played in with Lisa yeah so depending on the night she might have the best post defender on her yeah I might have the best post defender on me they try to guard me with a three we go on the post you know so it was a lot of fun to be able to play on that team Run and Gun um get up and down and kind of show my entire skill set what year was Lisa in when you when you came to the sports oh man she was year um I mean she retired the next year so she was like 14 15 something like that I saw a stat recently and I don&#39;t know how true it is I saw a stat that said Lisa scored like 101 points in 16 minutes yeah 16 minutes I mean listen that&#39;s crazy I don&#39;t know about 16 minutes but I know the 101 points but even in like what it&#39;s 8 Minute quarter 32 minutes that&#39;s still ridiculous think about it because they play eight minute quarters still ridiculous regardless of how you look at it it&#39;s ridiculous oh first of all it&#39;s it&#39;s ridiculous right now cuz we got people saying that will didn&#39;t score 100 and we had this conversation I don&#39;t want to don&#39;t don&#39;t wait what this new generation of kids are now saying that wi because they can&#39;t see the footage that Wilt didn&#39;t score 100 I just posed the question because oh I felt like that was we had a conversation about it on on on is it is it is it real because some people say that you know there&#39;s literally no footage and they did not play at home they played in in Indiana and thought it was New York no they didn&#39;t they play they not no footage I don&#39;t know there was no footage so it was never it was not played it was Philly yeah I thought it was Philly it was on the East Coast New Jersey Philly I just listen to that podcast it was a random place they played at too much guessing going on they played at a random place like at the LA Fitness and don&#39;t don&#39;t see that&#39;s the thing I&#39;m talking about you what my bad you know what cuz I I believe it but so now they GNA say that Lisa or Cheryl didn&#39;t score 100 cuz both of them own record sure I&#39;m sure there footage of it though it&#39;s footage man what do you think about today though because everybody keeps saying that LeBron&#39;s record is not going to be broken but then they also say that there&#39;s going to be 200 points scored in a regular season game like the scoring is increasing it has defense is defense is decreasing so why wouldn&#39;t we think that somebody&#39;s going to break the record the record if scoring keeps going the way that it goes because of the longevity but if you&#39;re averaging in your career 30 points for 14 Seasons or 15 Seasons I mean the longevity of a person having to be I&#39;m in agreement with you I&#39;m just simply posing the question that if scoring is going the way that it is yeah three-point shooting is going the way that it is I mean we look at what Anthony Edwards is I don&#39;t know how many points behind LeBron in the same amount of time do you know what I mean like whereas the same amount of or before his whatever birthday right it&#39;s like him Luca I don&#39;t know who the other one is yeah Anthony Edward scored the most amount of Threes like I won&#39;t be able to score that much it&#39;s that you&#39;re saying the longevity of it&#39;s the longevity of scoring that like to do that for 20 plus years I mean this first of all shout out to Bri no ridiculous obviously shout out to Bri but Kareem did it in the post and I had the it took me some time to kind of put that in my mind and say so he had to get the ball he wasn&#39;t shooting threes I can&#39;t say he was shooting a lot of free throws cuz he was hooking fading away he he was hooking him not going to the contact so I&#39;m like how did he score so many buckets dominant he was so and and but do he get do we get credit no one getes him credit right no one says he&#39;s a that&#39;s a good point though that&#39;s a great Point yeah off of twos yeah off of TW he didn&#39;t have the rock though he had the get the rock you know how much time off the clock is that back then when they walked the ball up the floor yeah that&#39;s a great point that&#39;s what I&#39;m saying the changing of the game I think we look at it in such a way that it&#39;s not possible and I think by not possible you all mean for a very very very long time but I&#39;m just looking at the way that the game is being played now and like some of the scores that I&#39;m just like wait what that are scoring now yeah that makes me think that it is going to be possible for Shay gilas Alexander to average 30 this year the next year the next year like with the style of the game if that makes sense yeah I think it&#39;s it&#39;s just a it&#39;s a lot of things that just go into play like you know in the league right they&#39;re going to at some point those guys are going to be you got to win the championship so now you going to have to sacrifice you going to have to and so now it&#39;s going to change the course average 30 game so it&#39;s so many things like and for brown to be able to go through the way that he&#39;s went through it all and play on these teams and do all this and still have the health and be able to reach 40 it&#39;s just we may not we&#39;re not going to see that probably I&#39;m not denying that this dude is crazy I&#39;m not denying it I think what he&#39;s doing night in and night out I mean you talk about changing of the guard of changing his game and adjusting his game he&#39;s shooting almost 40% from three this year yeah um it&#39;s crazy and the amount of time and energy and effort he puts into his body is crazy I&#39;m just simply saying from like a basketball yeah you know it&#39;s possible how much is the three-point game you know what I&#39;m glad you said that because it&#39;s a question I was going to ask you first of all do you think that you have respect of the men&#39;s players to speak on the game do I think I have the do you think you have like do you I yeah I think so you think about it it ain&#39;t a lot of in your seat you have a very that seat on TNT you have is a very special seat because it&#39;s not a lot of women who has that role to speak on the game like that and I was going to ask you personally I know how I feel but do you feel like you have the respect of the men&#39;s game to say yeah what she&#39;s saying about our game what she&#39;s saying about us is right I hope so um I think so and here&#39;s the thing with respect I think your opinion or you agreeing with what I see may not always be aligned but the respect is what you seek because I want to come with facts now do we do we live in a time where it&#39;s like everything&#39;s black and white no there&#39;s gray area as well but I hope when I come with the black and white facts that I&#39;m coming with tape I&#39;m coming with Reasons I&#39;m coming with facts and that&#39;s the way I always try to approach it where I might see something but I need something else to back it up with what I feel and what I see um but yeah it&#39;s it&#39;s do you feel like you have to do that to get it like Shaq don&#39;t have to do that Shaq just come in and call a G14 classification and this yes but Shaq is an anomaly because we would be on set with him and just argue that you can&#39;t just throw somebody the ball and say score like Shaq was the him and Kareem probably were and I wouldn&#39;t even put Kareem cuz Kareem ain&#39;t putting people in the basket right he W putting them in the basket like Shaq was the only one that was just like barbecue chicken throw it to me on a block you score we would be on set like no that&#39;s not how it works for normal people right so I feel like Shaq is in a class of his own of just he he says stuff and sees the game in a way that&#39;s like but you were the only one that could do that right and he sees it that way yes and he still sees it that way where I&#39;m just how be looking at him like you think that you&#39;re just supposed to just put him in the basket yeah like that doesn&#39;t no you gonna have to figure out how to put him in the basket yeah Shaq doesn&#39;t see it that way of course he don&#39;t I you know I just I just look at it I always thought that you just have a special I mean like it&#39;s eight chairs on uh TNT and you have one of them and you know not only have you taken it from the in studio but you&#39;ve taken it now sideline and I love your perspective of the game but I want to know that have you felt that your perspective has been you know maybe like oh well she don&#39;t know because she&#39;s not a man she hasn&#39;t played this game but you know you said you come with facts you leave with facts you all those things so that may not be there I just want to know because you know I don&#39;t think no one ever asks like how do how do how do people view Candace viewing the game um being that she&#39;s the one of the only women voices that are speaking on the game the way that she is you know she&#39;s not reporting on the game you&#39;re sitting there right away giving your analysis of the game of basketball which you know the game better than anybody but you know the world we live in too I know the world we live in from a fan uh perspective uh fans aren&#39;t going to agree with what you say until either you accomplish it or they went a parlay those two things okay you know yeah and anytime I turn on the TV and they&#39;re questioning Patrick Mahomes or anytime I turn on the TV and they&#39;re questioning LeBron James work ethic then I&#39;m like people are stupid right so am I paying attention to the stupid people or am I say it louder right am I paying attention to the stupid people or am I coming with facts coming with in my opinion um I do feel I have the respect of my peers and the players which is super important to me um I hope I have the respect of the fans because I do come with facts now when I am wrong I think that&#39;s when there&#39;s a difference I&#39;m big on within the women&#39;s game of basketball I don&#39;t think that there&#39;s enough scrutiny about our play hear me out okay okay so as a woman because the game has been attacked so much by people sitting in their basement that can&#39;t dunk a donut let alone a basketball they&#39;re the ones that have driven The Narrative that nobody watches women&#39;s sports WIS basketball&#39;s terrible they say all these terrible things as an egg on X and right so so so many people have become protective of the game of basketball that they cannot take criticism that nobody&#39;s allowed to criticize the game but guess what I want to criticize on the first Morning Show is D way gonna is he gonna get to the basket is he gonna get to the free thr line or is he going to settle for the catch and shoot which is what the Spurs want want y&#39;all to do right but you can&#39;t do that in the women&#39;s game but there&#39;s also a line where if a woman makes a mistake then they&#39;re like go make a sandwich in the kitchen go do this I&#39;m cool if you attack my words and my play and my facts but when you start attacking what I should be doing of making sandwiches and being in the kitchen to me it&#39;s like that is crazy and then just being completely honest when I go to it and I see that it&#39;s a black man that&#39;s doing this but then the next tweet that they&#39;re making is about how black people need to be seen in this light and not be told to go back and shut up and dribble that&#39;s the thing that pisses me off the most because you want to see it when you&#39;re in the minority but you don&#39;t want to see it when you&#39;re actually the one that can promote change and actually be a voice of attacking what I say do you know what I mean yes I do so attack that the fact that I was wrong about Cleveland and Cleveland actually is number two or number three in the East and don&#39;t attack that I need to go back to my nine to5 of making a deli sandwich like you know I get it so that is where I I know I got off topic but that&#39;s where where I feel is the biggest difference like Stephen A can sit up there and they&#39;re never going to attack him being black because that&#39;s off topic but me they&#39;ll attack me being a woman and go back to playing your role even though Stephen has never dribbled to basketball la too to that that&#39;s lazy yes but it&#39;s allowed it&#39;s allowed because it&#39;s it&#39;s like the the woman topic I think especially now with the way sports are going and how the that&#39;s going to be something that in 15 20 years people are going to get canceled for when you look back and because think about how many people were canceled because of race in 2020 2021 there are so many podcasts and x and that say stuff that are so it&#39;s so just negative against women and sexist but it&#39;s not looked at in in that light and it&#39;s not it&#39;s that&#39;s not carried into our culture today because it&#39;s like you can do that and I feel like now we&#39;re at a point of Hope with this generation that is like no like we&#39;re not gonna We&#39;re not gonna be allowed to do that you know I think it&#39;s one topic that I mean you just said something that kind of took my mind to what I&#39;ve said a lot about the um about the black community about the African-American um Community is you know we are a community who feel like we haven&#39;t had a voice and we haven&#39;t been accepted and we all the all the things but in the midst of that when I look out and most of the the hate that that our family receive for supporting our daughter um Zia is coming from the same Community right the the same community that you know wants to be seen wants to be heard wants to have opportunities W want all these things we looking at another community and we looking down on that community and we&#39;re the loudest ones that you know is is trying to you know talk about the LGBT community and it&#39;s like but we but we&#39;re fighting to be we want to be seen we want to be accepted we this community is doing the same thing but we&#39;re the loudest ones to say you know it&#39;s sound like pushing them back like no don&#39;t get in front of us you know and I hate that I I hate the fact that on one side you you you know we we will protest and we will say all these things and then on the other side we G to talk about another Community we going you know what I mean we&#39;re going to try to hush another Community but it&#39;s like bro like we know what that feels like we know that we haven&#39;t been able to to constantly grow the way we want to uh because of those things but we&#39;re going to do the same thing it it it doesn&#39;t it doesn&#39;t make sense to me it doesn&#39;t make sense and it&#39;s interesting when it&#39;s the oppressed and the oppressor but then in some communities you have the opportunity to be both in different situations and as black men you can be the oppressed and the oppressor and as white women you can be the oppress and the oppressor I don&#39;t really have that choice um and I always tell everybody like I check pretty much a lot of boxes as do does your family right and you&#39;re right I think that there&#39;s a way where people stand up and say these things but don&#39;t understand how powerful and hurtful like attack my opinions attacks what attack what I say don&#39;t attack my character or who I am or who I chose choose to go home to or the kids I&#39;m raising like don&#39;t attack that and I think you&#39;re right there are certain communities um that want to play Both Sides when it&#39;s convenient how much does that affect you when people are attacking I mean as someone who&#39;s you know you live a you have a public life even though you have a private life it&#39;s still public and people can comment on your life publicly how much does that affect you and or your family not anymore I think initially it did a lot yeah um it did a lot it really did because you are trying to be okay with yourself and what you&#39;re choosing in your life choices and then you add on top of that other people&#39;s opinions of you but also D way like let&#39;s not let&#39;s not steer around this we we get into the why I didn&#39;t want to fit into the box of what a WBA player was right like a lot of times you get you you&#39;re brought up and it&#39;s like the WBA the entire WBA is gay M like that&#39;s just what they are like and it&#39;s like okay but are we understanding the individuals and the people and that there&#39;s other things outside of that I didn&#39;t want to fit into that box for a very long time and so I think that part of that reasoning was because of what the world would do definitely you know we&#39;ve had numerous conversations about this and um at the end of the day I choose to not let that impact my decisions and who I am and who I go home to and how much I genuinely enjoy being around my family and the people I love and so yeah well I chuckle at a comment or whatever and just be like man that person is really you know I feel bad for that person yes but then you know you you you say a little too much yeah I&#39;m G have to respond there Chicago in me I&#39;m have to to come come off this TNT set exactly so it&#39;s yeah was that um okay so you&#39;ve grown to that point obviously now like the the growth is beautiful um but I&#39;m sure early on right when in early in you and an&#39;s relationship was that a part of the the thought process was I&#39;m falling in love you know with this woman and it&#39;s a perception already out there about us I don&#39;t was it a part of you like no I don&#39;t want to I don&#39;t want to love this person because of their perception th% um I mean she&#39;s we check every box not to be together think about it like she&#39;s Russian we in America like black white I mean all of the all of the above we both women like we check every single box so there were so many times where it was like is this worth it you know and every single time we&#39;d ask ourselves that we would always say yes and I can&#39;t tell my daughter to follow her heart and her love and do what makes her happy if I&#39;m not doing that yeah and I know we&#39;ve had so many conversations but also I think as a little sister I&#39;ve been so proud at the example that you&#39;ve set for black men because it&#39;s important to set those examples because you don&#39;t know who is you don&#39;t know who is looking at you for advice who is looking at you as an example and not just your unbelievable basketball player Hall of Fame so proud of that but it&#39;s also changing the mentality and the perceptions of relationships that are important and for me I think it is a little bit of a okay we didn&#39;t expect Candace to be like this okay there&#39;s so many moms that have come up to me and had conversations about their daughters um there was a couple that came up to me in Indie and was asking me about like you know we we want to come out but we don&#39;t know if it&#39;s the right time like there&#39;s so many people that are battling secret battles that you don&#39;t know how much you&#39;re really impacting that and so I just for me looking at you and you as NBA player that&#39;s a lot that&#39;s I mean that in itself has its perceptions of what you&#39;re masculine like you&#39;re supposed to be masculine you&#39;re supposed to be all these things you&#39;re supposed to handle yourself this way your nails you&#39;re not supposed to paint your nails like exactly manicure pedicure but why right exactly why and that&#39;s what I had to ask myself like why am I doing this I&#39;m doing this to please all these other people yeah so we&#39;ve grown into that for sure you&#39;ve grown into that I mean obviously we all have right like we come from a world we come from communities um and things that we heard that yeah it doesn&#39;t make us want to just go out and and do it but ultimately you know when you love someone when you love something um you know you&#39;re going to you&#39;re going to you&#39;re going to give your all to it because that&#39;s that&#39;s who you are you&#39;re Allin type person when you when you when it gets to love and so um I love it you know I I love you know obviously I felt like I was one of the ones that got a chance to see you and &#39;s love before the world was exposed to it which was beautiful you know to see because it was just for you guys and I I don&#39;t think people understand in the light that we live in you don&#39;t have a lot of moments where you can really be kind of things in your life that are off the grid and away from everyone&#39;s you know you know uh comments Etc and so when you were able to have that moment I&#39;m a little jealous that you had that time where it was just about you guys and it was just about your family and it was great for Lea you know what I mean um that you guys had that before the world had a chance to now jump in on whatever tell and express their opinions and you know I guess my question to you is because people always ask me like do you see yourself as an example like did you start off seeing yourself as an example or an opportunity or was it just this is how I have to love my children yeah it was that yeah it was really it&#39;s all about you know my kids you I always tell people all the time I&#39;m so in love with my kids they all got the best versions of me the ones I&#39;m still searching for uh but it had nothing to do with nothing but you know just being there and being what you are your protector you&#39;re provider you&#39;re you know you all these things to your kids and so we live in this public world where you know publicly you have to protect you know at the same time and so mine was I wanted my child to not have to you know go through life and and what if I wanted my child to go through life and just want and just to feel that she can do anything in this world we know we talked about kids about you know having no no boundaries and as parents we put boundaries on them because of the boundaries that was put on us and so I didn&#39;t want to put any B I worked hard to kind of erase boundaries to allow them to go out and create the life they want why would I put that boundary on you because it&#39;s something I don&#39;t understand right and so for me the quick the the first thing was like okay outside of all this candada I got to get to understand because I I obviously I don&#39;t right and now I got to get to the point where my daughter is so comfortable with me that she can help me understand at the same time and so it was so much work that needed to be done as a parent um that I had to do forget the world I had to do so much work when it came to like how I showed up I thought I was doing I thought I was doing a good parenting job but I realize I didn&#39;t know enough about my child or my child didn&#39;t feel Comfort comfortable enough for me to know a lot about and I&#39;m a think I&#39;m a present father and so you know but now yes we go around the world and we meet so many kids we meet so many families that are appreciative of the the moments when we speak out and we stand up and you know we celebrate you know our daughter in in our community I love that because sometimes when you support you think you&#39;re supporting in a way that is going to benefit your daughter but to know and to learn and to try to grow to be better for them I think that that&#39;s what is super special um you know I just remember feeling so much support from my family MH and even though it wasn&#39;t considered a big thing in the world like right like people are they they&#39;re in same sexual relationships all the time but it was a big deal for me cuz in for so long I felt like was letting myself down my family down and why would you want to feel like that when this is one of the best moments of your life like I love somebody right you know and um yeah I think it&#39;s just honestly my daughter as well who made me see that like this is normal this is her normal we focus so much on like what&#39;s normal but it&#39;s like what about our normal like we can make this nor our normal and that&#39;s the biggest thing um I learned so much from her so similar to how you&#39;re learning from your daughter I learned that everything don&#39;t look like the sitcoms it doesn&#39;t it doesn&#39;t have to it doesn&#39;t have to but I love my life um I&#39;m grateful for my life I&#39;m grateful for my wife and my kids and um yeah I just got to a point where it was like this is yeah I&#39;m okay in this space yeah and I mean you know we can talk for hours and we going to do another part two and another time but at this point you know knowing all that obviously you know we we we touched on Sports um just to give some of the the fans a little a little background on Candace Parker but you guys can Google all that I think we know this interview is about getting to the person you know getting to how you think about things and um how I want to end it is how I always end it is you know what&#39;s your why can this you know all the things you&#39;ve accomplished all the things that you&#39;ve set out to to accomplish you&#39;ve done a lot of them I&#39;m sure so as you sit here now and you&#39;re you know how many more years you want to play in the game of basketball um the businesswoman you are the things you do in the community shout out to the three strike for the things that they you guys do together um what is your why at this point in going forward ah I had like a whole thing and then now I&#39;m like that&#39;s not my why I can&#39;t um I think my why is any environment or any situ a I go into I want to leave better mhm and that has always been my purpose um my why is my people and my passions I love my people hard and I love chasing my passions and I think because of that like that&#39;s I don&#39;t know that&#39;s my why so through those two things I think in any situation after basketball whatever it is you know I hope to leave it better so that&#39;s my why that&#39;s your why well um I go on record to say this to my people um all the time but my goat Candace Parker thank you for uh for taking the time and just sitting and having a conversation D I love you man you know that I appreciate everybody my goat cace Parker and I love D way you&#39;re the [Music] best w

Transcript for:Lecture with Candace Parker

Transcript for:
Lecture with Candace Parker