"Stephen Curry"

Hey, listener, it's Stephan. I'm here a little early for my episode. I think we're probably waiting for Jason to clean his golf shoes and get his equipment going, which is very disrespectful for the golf community, but nevertheless, I'm here. This is Smartless.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Listener, we had a record earlier this morning.

What'd you guys do? Will took a nap.

Will, did you really?

I did take a nap.

I did too.

No way.

I took a little nap. Not too long. Uh, I watched obviously some, uh, some soccer.

You watched Arsenal, uh, get their first loss, huh?

I did watch Arsenal get their first loss. Uh, so, this is dating this podcast, but I did watch that, that match. It was very controversial.

Was it?

Yeah, there was a very controversial goal because they lost one nil and there was a controversial goal. People are really mad at the VAR, the Video Assistant Referee.

We don't need to put the audience into their own nap. going over this. John, what'd you do?

I did, I took a little nap.

Did you have some lunch before you napped?

I had a BLT.

You did?

Yeah, and a BLT with extra mayo.

Your food is always so special. Do you ever just have like normal shit?

What's not normal about a BLT?

You have to make the bacon and put it on the side.

No, no, no, no, he lives next to a Sonic. Do you live next to a Sonic?

It's not a contract.

Hey, can I guess what kind of bread it was on?

It was just white, regular white bread, country white.

Will, have you ever bought a loaf?

Kind of always from the country, that sounds better.

Will, have you ever bought a loaf of white bread?

Sure.

Really?

Have you ever, what is it?

Bought a loaf of white bread.

Of course, what are you talking about?

I'm trying to say I, I don't know if I have. Yeah, of course I have. And I will say that the little kids, the little kids, they like white toast.

White bread.

But not, you know, they get a sort of a, I don't know.

It's children's food, that's all Sean eats.

I eat white bread and drink milk almost every day.

What did you guys have? Jason, you and Amanda went over for dinner the other night.

What did we have?

What did you guys have?

That was a lovely dinner.

Beautiful roasted chicken and roasted vegetables and a salad and- I mean, we had to hear about it the whole time. Scott and Sean were fucking furious that that's what they had to eat because we were there.

No, we knew you were coming over, so we made sure it was like, you know, Jason and Amanda food. And then for dessert, there was brownies. This is Jason and Amanda versus Sean and Scotty. We had the brownies. They had chocolate-covered dates, so.

Listen.

True, that's true.

Well, first of all, you supplied them thinking we would enjoy them, and we did.

But you didn't touch the brownie.

Oh, I sure did. Touched it big.

You did?

My mouth touched it.

I've seen, Jay, you know, sometimes, like on a Sunday night, somebody will bring a, usually you and Scotty, and somebody else will bring a dessert. And I've seen Jason get overshared.

I have addiction issues, you know?

But Eli was asking me today about dinner. I don't know. Anyway, I said, he asked me, Jason, what you, oh, we were talking about Atlanta.

No, I'm asleep by 7.30..

He gets home by 7.30, he'll have a little salad and some crackers.

Well, dinner, yeah.

True story. Really? I found his crackers.

The body is no fluke. This body right here, it doesn't just happen.

But last night at dinner, Jason, last night at dinner, we were at a restaurant. I'll have a McCarthy salad, no bacon.

Dressing on the side.

Dressing on the side, and then something else. No egg or something? Nope.

Just don't fucking, mix it and give me the dressing.

Which dressing did you ask for for that? I know the place.

Yeah, it's just a balsamic vinaigrette thingy.

Yeah, it's nice. It's real nice.

Yeah, and you don't want a heavy pour on the salad. You know, it just ruins all the vegetables.

I know, I don't like a drinking salad dressing, yeah.

Yeah, I don't think so, I doubt it.

All right, you want to talk about somebody who knows what to do with themselves when it comes to taking care of themselves.

Yeah, I do.

I got a guest for you. Hold on, let me pull up my notes. here. There's that, and here's this. Here we come, ready?

Hello, is that okay? Is that right?

Shut the front door? Is this a booking?

Shut the side door? Shut the back door? Shut it down. I can't believe this.

Yeah, and I'm married, a Canadian. Did you hear that?

And you married a Canadian, and you spent a lot of time in Toronto.

Yes, I do, yes, I do. Markham, to be exact.

Steph, I'm very excited. you're here today.

Thank you, fellas, it's great to be on.

Great to meet you, man.

Yeah, really nice to meet you.

Sean, you don't have to fake it, okay?

I'll introduce myself later to Sean. I'll talk about that, it goes deeper, it resonates.

No, I of course know who you are, and I'm very impressed with you and your life.

Yeah, it's incredible. Now, are we recording this at three o'clock because you had to play golf this morning?

I wish, so I had a really great golf, I guess, in the summer. I think I saw you out there on the links passing by your neck of the woods. But come October, when we start our season, the golf clubs develop some cobwebs pretty quick.

You don't take them with you at all?

I try to, I play maybe twice a month, if I'm lucky, but we are in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio right now, between three games and four nights. So, as a 35-year-old, in my 15th year, most of the time is dedicated to staying as youthful as possible.

Now, what's the big key on that for you? What do you try to avoid that gets you super-duper tired? BLTs. And what do you-?

BLTs and white bread, seriously, when I was laughing, when I was talking about Sean's lunch, I was like, I wish I could have had that. That's right, right, Seth?

Yeah, we know each other.

Sean, show them your cookie pouch. This is what Seth's trying to avoid, it's the cookie pouch, there it is.

But you know what, I bet when you're 53, when you're 53, you might have one.

I might have one.

Yeah, so watch out.

Something to look forward to.

Yeah, did your dad ever get himself a cookie pouch after he stopped playing?

He did, and then, so he played 16 years in the NBA.

He did?

And he did, he played, he got drafted in 86 by Utah, Cleveland, and he spent 10 years in Charlotte, which is where I grew up with my family. And then he ended up his last three years in Toronto, which is, I lived there for three years.

I can't wait for my obvious question. Dad, did it, does that mean you wanted to do it, or was it forced upon you?

It was a little bit of both. It's kind of forced upon you just by, that's all you're in, you're in a gym all the time, you know, following him, and it's, you develop a love for it. But I played other sports growing up, baseball, football, obviously golf too, but.

So you loved it, you loved sports.

I loved it, yeah, I loved it. I got to see most of his career, which was cool, because I was born his third year in the league, and so he retired when I was 12, and, sorry, when I was 13,, when I was in Toronto. But when he retired, he definitely, working out was not a priority for a while. And then, when I, he got inspired, when, actually, when I got married back in 2011,, that was the emphasis for him to get back in shape. He didn't want to walk down the aisle with.

Right, he didn't want the photo to be out there. But you know what, Steph, let me ask you this. How long would a guy last in the NBA if all he ate was salad and nuts?

You know what's crazy?

You'd have a hard time finding them.

Exactly. So skinny. It's interesting, the vegan lifestyle is taking over the league slowly but surely. Yeah, I honestly, I don't touch it. I don't know how they get their calories in.

You mentioned all those sports that you played growing up. Are there any sports that you're not great at? Like, just terrible at?

I've picked up a lacrosse stick once and just have no neck for figuring out how to do that. Anything really, soccer, I guess you could say, I don't have anything flashy going on, but I'm athletic, so I could get by, I think.

Right, you could fake it.

There's a lot of similarities to basketball and soccer with the movement.

Yeah, what about tennis?

And ball movement and stuff like that.

How's your tennis game?

Tennis is solid. Pickleball, even stronger. Yeah. Pickle. See?

You know what, Asher, we just had, we had our buddy, John McEnroe on the podcast not long ago, and we talked about the idea of kids when they're young. He's such a big proponent of, kids should not just play one sport. He's like, you, should play multiple sports. That's really important. And it sounds like you did that.

I prescribe to that for sure. There's so many, you know, crossover skillsets and personalities that you interact with, the demands on your body, your mind, especially for younger kids, to kind of get exposed, to be able to figure out what comes naturally, what doesn't, and how can you kind of close that gap. So I didn't pick basketball until I was 13 as my only sport. And even then, I would still play golf on the side and had some other curiosities, but that was when it became solely focused.

Wow, that's cool. I played basketball before high school, in grade school.

I need some footage. I need to see it. Don't threaten me. I've heard you talk about the different sport experiences. I need some footage.

I remember the coach saying, give it to Hayes, because I never got the ball and give it to Hayes. He was screaming, give it to Hayes. And I would run down, all the teammates would separate. Just give me one shot, like every 10 games.

Bless him.

You got a participation trophy for sure. Uh-huh.

It's like one of those videos. you see where they do that, where they get like the towel kid and they bring him in and they let him.

It's true. Hey, so, Steph, were there any significant challenges right at the beginning to playing basketball? Probably not, right? I mean, you learned early, your shooting technique, I'm sure your dad helped you. Was there, like your height, you weren't small.

I'm 6'3 right now, but I was 5'7 and about 145 pounds my freshman year in high school. Wow. Oh, wow. There's a picture of me and my varsity team like sitting up front, you know, cross-legged. And you're just like, who?

So then was your dad starting to condition you for like, it's probably not gonna happen for you. We'll see how tall you get, but if you don't get to X, start thinking about other things.

Yeah, that was, I mean, so the other question about, was it forced on me? That was, I'm so grateful for how they, my parents, approached introducing me to the game, because obviously you have a dad that played 16 years, so you kind of understand how basketball's in his future, but the physicality deficiencies I had early, and, you know, there was always just an encouragement to just work, figure it out, build confidence as you go, without really thinking about what the results were. Like, obviously I knew what the NBA was, I knew what Division I basketball was, I knew that that was a good way to try to get a scholarship to a good school.

But was it really? I mean, considering your lineage, right? I mean, your father, I would imagine you had all the added pressure of if I am lucky enough to get in, am I gonna be as good? And how did you deal with that? Because you over-indexed there.

But not only that, Jason, think about this too. Did you have the thing where you had, you must have known you had good hand-eye coordination, you played golf, you played a lot of different sports, you knew that you were athletic. And so you must have had an inkling that, like, hey, if I can bring this stuff together, if I can land this plane, I'm gonna do something outside of the pressure.

But if you don't, that's gonna be embarrassing for you, for them, for like, how did you deal with all that?

Yeah, it's a nice balance. And my parents, I guess inherently, they both embodied it on the daily. My dad played 16 years, my mom was a founder of a Montessori school that I went to in elementary school. So it was kind of like a good balance of like priorities. If I start talking about like, I missed my first middle school game.

Were you playing, did you play at school? You obviously went to school in Toronto or in Markham too?

Queensway Christian College. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was in Etobicoke, Ontario, yeah.

I know Etobicoke well. All right, you know who's from Etobicoke is Shanny, Brendan Shanahan, who's a friend of ours, who runs the Toronto Maple Leafs, good friend of the program, friend of mine. I'm kind of a mentor to him.

He goes on and on about it, it's crazy.

Now, Steph, what's your feeling on this? You know, I was at the Laker game the other night and, you know, they do a great job there for the crowd and everything, with the music and all that. But-.

They'll be happy to hear that you approve.

I realize, well, I'm saying something nice before I say something shitty. They're, you know, they got music going every single time the Lakers take the ball down the court. And I started thinking, well, I wonder if the Lakers are pissed off about this. They're hearing this distracting, it's basically they're scoring this movie, you know, with music. That's a new thing, isn't it?

This is a part of our experience. We hear it, but it doesn't really bother or affect us. Kobe Bryant used to say, I guess there was a conversation he had where he talked about him working out in the summer. He used to have it dead silent because that's what he wanted to impart on the home crowd. That was the feeling he wanted.

You can't really feel momentum. People clearing their voices and dropping cops and stuff.

They abandoned it at halftime. They said, oh, this is not working. Let's go back to the-. That's terrible.

At halftime.

Everybody was complaining.

So, Steph, you know how. in golf there's a thing called swing thoughts, right? We have this one thing you think about and it gets your whole swing all in a groove, right? Just like tuck the right elbow in or right finger on the, whatever the hell it is. Do you have a swing thought that has consistently worked for you in shooting the basketball?

Yeah, I think the biggest, it's a thought and a feeling all at the same time. But if I'm in balance, and that can mean a lot of different things. I can be moving right, left, forward, backward, one foot, right, two feet, whatever it is. But there's a feeling of balance that, you know, no matter how many times I've been in the gym shooting any type of shot or envision, you know, a game kind of unfolding with your mental process and all that, like I can feel when I'm in balance. And when I'm in balance, I feel like I'm never gonna miss.

Wow, and so you don't think too hard about it.

No, you try to keep it really simple. The muscle, memory and mechanics take over, but all I'm thinking about right before I shoot is can I get into proper balance? And then from there.

It is something I noticed so clearly about you. It's such a unique quality of yours that you always seem to be so at ease and graceful and calm with everything that you do. Yes, you're explosive and you're fast when you need to, but for the most part, what I sort of take away is that there's just a calmness and an ease to everything that you do that I bet every player wished they had.

Well, I'll add to that. I've had the same thing, because sometimes, yeah, watching you in so many different situations, and obviously you're a competitor and you see, guys get, some guys get really heated, you stay very calm. You seem very present in the moment. Is that something that you work on?

Oh, for sure. That's where the joy comes from.

What if he was like, what's the question? Yeah, is that what it is?

Come again? Oh, I missed that. The joy, that's where the joy comes from. So there's a calmness to it, but I'm a little kid out there on the court, even 15 years, and if I ever lose that, then I know it'll be time to quit, because that presence and the mindfulness of what's happening right now, and literally I get lost in the game. So the work or the business of basketball creeps in from time to time, because there's so much that goes on in terms of putting a team together and the ups and downs of an 82-game schedule or the pressures of performing every single night.

We'll be right back.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare. on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts, I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.

Liar.

Like a liar.

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Hey, it's Guy Raz here, the host of How I Built This, a podcast that gives you a front row seat to how some of the biggest products were built and the innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists behind them. Every week, I speak to someone new. Stories like Justin Wolverton's, a lawyer who just wanted a healthy alternative to ice cream. So he created Halo Top in his Cuisinart. Or Todd Graves, who grew his fried chicken restaurant, Raising Cane's, into one of the most successful fast food chains in the US.

Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily. ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen, I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say, call 911..

All right, back to the show.

My two questions that I have to ask is-.

One at a time, please.

No, I was waiting for the two-parter because I know how this goes. It goes-.

Oh yeah. Worst, because I got to get them in. I got to get these in. Worst fight you've ever had on the court and worst injury.

Oh, great question.

Worst fight.

Has anyone ever gotten a beat down from you?

No, I've gotten a beat down. It was in, I think it's on YouTube still. It was in Indiana in 2013.. Roy Hibbert, David West, and my teammate at the time, David Lee, Roy Hibbert and David Lee kind of squared up underneath the basket. And it was like big man on big man.

And later. the story is, I would have gone for it. He just held me back. I was going to go for it.

By the way, Roy Hibbert, nice guy.

Very nice guy. Great guy. Got a mean, got a mean left, left swimming move.

He's got a mean, he's got a left swat, he calls it.

He's got a mean left swat. I never knew how strong Will was until we were doing our, and I had no idea.

I'm not taking my shirt off, dude.

No, but he really like, he's so unassuming. I tried to push him with all of my body weight and I couldn't push him an inch.

Yeah, it's annoying. Anyway.

I will ask you this. Do you do, do you apply that same kind of approach and you talk about the balance and being present when you do other sport, like when you play golf? or do you have, because some people, and I'm not going to name names, some people, when they stand over the ball, they stand there like a psycho and they might be up to 30 seconds like a fricking psycho. Like you? think, this guy, I'm glad he's here over the ball, because otherwise he's going to be out, you know,

19 people or something. My checklist is much shorter now.

It is.

I heard you're working on it, right?

I heard. this is a process.

He is working on it. His process, you've heard about the process.

Yeah, I've heard about the process.

So would you say, but do you do that or do you just, you like, just swing athletically and just do it?

The athletic tendencies take over. I am as maniacal about the game of golf as Jason is, just in terms of like, I know there's always something to work on and get better. And there's, I'm creative in that mindset where, you know, every little detail, kind of matters. And I have to really try to turn all those thoughts off because they will get the best of you. Especially, I've been playing, I mean, selfishly been playing the best golf of my life.

Dude, this summer you were on fire.

You're a scratch, aren't you?

I got to the other side of that. I'm like a plus two right now, which is insane.

And how old are you?

35..

35, okay, so you have 15 years before the Champions Tour, if you want it, if you want it. So 15 more years of training, you could be unstoppable on the Champions Tour. if you want to do that at 50, right? You can make that decision then.

That is a goal, for sure. I know there's, in the golf world, there's a lot of, you know, there are celebrity and pro-am stuff. And so you can scratch the competitive itch here and there, especially when I get the nine months of my basketball season back, when it's all said and done. But yeah, Champions Tour, I mean, I'm sick. Like, basketball could be on, I might have that on my phone, but on TV, it's Golf Channel.

Yeah, you and me both.

It's just a problem.

My wife thinks I'm such an idiot.

Well, you know that. The other night-.

A lot of apologies.

Jason was over and I showed him my Golf Channel, which was This Old House, on PBS. I still watch This Old House. Do you know that show? I do not. Oh, it's like from the 1970s.

Yeah.

It's really, you know, who likes it? People who are in comas. They play just to have, so that they know that there's-.

Or people that just can't, they can't-.

Roll a TV into a room if somebody's in a coma.

And they can't find the remote control. Those are the folks that love that.

Yeah, or if the remote is broken, it's on and on.

Or they're strapped to a chair and it's stuck on PBS.

It's the best show, This Old House.

I sent Jason a video this morning. Jason's game has gotten so good, and mine is, I don't, I haven't been playing as much, but his game's- I'm not a plus. You're not a plus, but your game's good. I sent him this video today of this dude who played 18 holes with a five iron this morning.

Yeah, and all he wanted to do was break 80, and he shot, what'd he shoot, 76?, 77?.

He shot 78..

Yeah, what?

With a five iron. Yeah, he plays on the DP tour, a European guy.

That tells you how good those guys are.

He's hit two greenside bunker shots, flop shots.

With a five iron.

With a five iron, dude. It was crazy. We'll send it to you.

Talk to me about you and Klay Thompson, the Splash Brothers. How did you develop the chemistry with him? Is that, you know, when anyone's ever asked me about chemistry with an actor or something like that, that I always say, well, it's not something you, that person's just nice. It's just, it's easy. If someone's not a prick, you can get along with them, and you have chemistry immediately.

Transfer what it is to our relationship, for sure. Like, we've been together on the court now for 12 years, and then you add Draymond Green to that for 11, so it's insane to think that two guys who've had dads that played in the NBA as well.

That's what I was going to say.

And, like you said, have a good perspective about what we worked for to get here, and, you know, approach life very similarly, with appreciation and gratitude, that we kind of hit it off on the jump. And I don't know, like, when you get into these type of friendships and, you know, from your standpoint with your people in the same profession, you know, comics, whatever, actors, that you kind of sharpen each other's skill sets just by being around each other. And that's how we've been this entire time. It's not something that we actually, like, really talk about. It's like, you know, we don't come in and sit down at dinner, all right, what percentage are you trying to shoot this year?

And I'll bet the two of you, with that kind of harmony and kindness and quiet leadership and all that stuff, it's infectious in the team, correct? Like, you guys, I'll bet, have created a culture over there that it should be no surprise that you guys have won that extra 10 to 15 games each year, whatever it takes to get to a place where you're in the finals. And once you're in the finals, like, that kind of harmony in a team environment really yields the extra thing that you need to be excellent as opposed to great. Yes?

No, for sure. The culture part of a lot of different ways to lead, right? There's a lot of different ways. You can be the loud one that needs to say something about everything. You can be the lead by example type.

But Kerr has been famously a really, really nice guy.

Yeah, he's just a great manager of people, like an impersonable guy.

He seems to have a very sort of similar disposition, obviously very different personality, but disposition to Greg Popovich, both of whom I don't know at all. But it just seems like they have, they have a very similar kind of vibe. Is that right?

They're straight shooters. They have a great sense of humor. Yeah. They have a perspective that, you know, our problems in the NBA, and they're real. Like we're trying to win at the highest level.

But what do you guys do? season to season? I've often wondered, like, you come in, you guys, you win a few championships, and so you're the best. You guys are the best. You've got an unbelievable team.

Yeah, there's a, the way I talk about what's happening right now, like, we've won four championships since 2015.. We've been in six finals, so we've lost two of them. We lost in the second round last year to the Lakers on a down year. for us, which is, that's the high standard we've set. Came into this year, and to your point, obviously everybody knows, if we don't win a championship, then it's a failed season for us because of the standard.

For somebody who doesn't watch sports, basketball, nothing, but they're constantly striving to be the best that they can be and be excellent as much as they can, and that they might struggle sometimes with the moment when it's time to go to, you know, hit the shot, land the plane.

Don't fuck up. I think that one is always good.

It's a great bumper sticker.

We need to write that book.

Nike was gonna do that one originally. Before. they'd just do it, they'd originally, it was gonna be, don't fuck up.

Period. It's interesting, because I guess, like you said, you don't want to sound too cliche with it, but it's literally, like confidence is built off your preparation, and that's first and foremost. And if you can't look yourself in the mirror and say you did everything that you knew and within your control to put yourself in position to be prepared for whatever that moment is, then you're already behind the eight ball. But then at that point, for me, the biggest hurdle that I had to overcome was like the legit fear of failure. It was legit, like sometimes wanting to hide from the backlash or the criticism or the negative energy that you'll get if you don't accomplish whatever you set it out to do.

I'm gonna do woo-woo for just one second, because to that point, I always say the greatest safety net in anybody's life is the fact that you're loved, right? So if you know you are loved and you feel you are loved by your husband, your wife, your kids, your family, your friends, your teachers, or whoever, your coach, you are loved. So if you are loved, you can fail a million times and still have that love to fall back on. They'll always be there to catch you.

That's the challenge too, then, probably, yeah. Make sure you have that certain-.

All the orphans just got their feelings hurt. There you go, you fucking dick.

Hey.

You fucking bitch.

You fucking, you exclusionary motherfucker.

That's called late.

All right.

No, I think, focusing on, all jokes aside,

Listen, we're all nodding. We're all nodding.

Yeah, I know. We all are nodding, because it's true. And I continued to do it. And I failed. from the time I moved to New York.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I had to do, I had to do so much sort of spiritual calisthenics to get to the place where I'm like, just think about what's working and focus on that. And I think that I got better at it, but fuck, it took a lot of feelings to get there.

And that comparison is the thief of joy thing, especially for us, when you're looking around and you see people who are on different timelines within their journey, right? Like who knows what they've been through, what they've exposed has positioned them to that place. or, you know, when you have those blinders on. So the, whatever, like the journey, like the things that you learn through that failure, obviously we all know, are key, as long as you can make them useful and make them resources for the next step and not deter you from whatever you're setting out to do. But that journey, when you look back and to your point, I love that, the 95 to 5% thing is a real, real, I'm putting that in perspective of everything that I've gone through, because it's the shared goals that you have with those people around you, orphans aside, that are like extremely, the most, I guess the most memorable parts of life.

And Sean touched on it, the love from family, and you've been, you know, it's hard to miss if anybody's followed you through your career, how present your family is, your parents, your kids, your wife, whatever, they're always, they seem to be omnipresent, and that seems to be obviously a key to success. And how awesome is it that you can share this with your parents, obviously, seemingly a lot?

Oh, for sure, and even, you know, family structures and things change, and you start to, even as an adult, we get real deep with it, but, like my parents got divorced a couple years ago, and it's like the way that life kind of forces you to rethink and reimagine all your relationships and the growth that happens. through that, it's a real blessing and through some tragedy and through some trauma, right? And even when you're in those moments, you kind of don't see it, but I think the maturity that comes, you know, through all those experiences that you go through is the appreciation of who's pouring into your life on a daily basis, who's, you know, giving you a sense of confidence in who you are as a person and the value that you bring, and the more that you can put yourselves in those environments, and my family has been a huge support and stars all across the board in that respect. I'm now in charge of passing it on to my family and my kids, and that's the beauty of life right there.

Well, it sounds like, you know, no pain, no gain, you know, this is a phrase that I just thought up the other day, that I've been using quite a bit. It's right there.

I want to know the injury thing, your worst injury.

No pain, no gain. I've had, what, four surgeries in my NBA career.

No way.

Yeah, I had two early in my career, I had two ankle reconstructions that were pretty nasty. And then I, what is this, four years ago, I broke my hand. A big seven footer decided he wanted to take a charge while I was in the air instead, of, you know, meeting me at the rim and trying to block a shot. And I fell over top of him and he landed back on my hand. So I have two beautiful scars on my left hand.

From taxidermy?

The feeling just came back in from taxidermy.

Sean got carpal tunnel doing a musical.

We're in the same boat. We're in the same boat. Add it to the resume.

82 games a year, 300 shows a year.

Do your fans know all the things that you go through to put yourself in a position?

Icing those fingertips.

He did, by the way, he did. Every night. he had to ice before and after because he had to play and do eight shows a week. It was pretty crazy.

Piano injuries, yep, that's real.

We all go through it, we all go through it.

We'll be right back.

Steph, can you speak a little bit to the extent the league allows you to criticize this in-season tournament? Do you have any comments?

So this is not because I get paid by the NBA. I absolutely love it.

I'm hearing. it's almost unanimous that you guys are all digging this. I'm still, it's brand new.

It's like soccer, they do it in soccer. I love it.

We're playing the same, that's the biggest thing, the difference, obviously. We're playing the same thing. We're playing the same teams. It's all 30 of us, just mixed up in different groups than we normally are in our divisions. But what they did with the entertainment value, and like, we played last night, our first one.

Explain it to Sean. Explain what happened.

Okay, so Sean, there's 30 teams in the NBA.

Yeah.

We're all already separated into six divisions, five teams in each division.

Yeah, sure.

So that's been the way it's been for 30 years now. What they did this year was they took each, the 30 teams and put you in six different groups. within the Western Conference, there's three groups, and the Eastern Conference, there's three groups. And they designated four regular season games within those groups. So we play these teams anyway, but they designated these specific groups to say, all right, this counts towards the end season tournament grouping.

So they're still playing the regular season, and the game they played last night against Oklahoma, that still counts in the whole regular season.

It still counts to the standings, it counts to the O's.

But it also counts towards this end season tournament.

Oh, that's crazy.

Is it a way for them to sort of like, keep the middle of the season exciting for the viewers?

Yeah, it's for the viewers, and it just brings a fresh energy to our first 20 games, basically up until Christmas, when it's kind of our game.

How does the tournament work in Vegas?

So that's where it builds up to. So after you play those four games in your group, the best team or the team with the best record in each group, which would be six teams, and then there's two wildcard spots, one for the West, one for the East, with the next best record, or all the tiebreakers they have. So you have eight teams that come out of the pool play, and then you'll play a bracket. So it's three games. And if you make it to the final four, then we go to Vegas and they play two games there.

Do those games count for the regular season as well?

So the final four game does. The championship game is essentially the 83rd game of the season. So that doesn't count towards the regular season. But if you play in that game and you win, the NBA, like, the financial incentive is 500,000 for each player. Wow.

So you have to have a degree in math as well.

Math and travel planning, coordinating logistics.

That's unbelievable.

When's the end of that tournament, the end-season tournament?

The first week of December is the championship week of the end-season tournament. So they'll have the semifinals, sorry, the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the championship game. I think it's like December 9th. Don't quote me on that. But it's the first week of December.

With that blue field?

The blue field.

Was the Bucs, Knicks last night, was that in season?

Every game that was on. So I think it's every Tuesday and Friday are the end-season tournament games. And so, yeah, you'll see that, you'll know. You'll be like, what the hell is going on on the court right here? So it'll stop you.

I like going to live basketball games. I think it's fun.

Okay, well, we got the quote.

Hey, so, would we?

Listener, you can reach Sean at 310..

That's a bumper sticker. If you have an extra ticket, are you looking for a single? Or does Scotty want to go, too? Or would you like a box? What do you like?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a process. Our road hotels, a lot of them complain about the feet hanging over the end. There's nothing you can really do about that. I know they probably can't just go to your standard malls and go shop off the racks. They gotta have all the special tailoring and stuff.

Or minivans, that's it, right?

Straight up. And you see, like Shaq is the one who's had all his cars like custom made for him. where they like put the seat. Oh, really?

I know Shaq a little bit over the years. He's such an awesome dude. He's a hilarious dude. And one time I was with my kids, I was in Los Angeles and this dude pulls up in this black car and the passenger rolls down the window and goes, somebody wants to say hello. And I was like, oh, okay.

And you see, like when he had, I think he did an MTV.

What's up, big man?

He did a Cribs video where they went to his bedroom and he had like this, I think it was a Corvette, if I'm not mistaken, but it was like a, not a Cali King. It's probably like double the size of that. And he takes it to the extreme, but I know all these guys have to really kind of take into consideration.

Speaking of tall players, we've got a brand new one this year, this rookie phenom, Victor Wembenyama. Have you played with him yet?

Played a preseason game against him. He's 7'4 and he plays like me.

Yeah, right.

He shoots, he moves.

I mean, first of all, let's not say plays like you, yet. Let's give him a little bit of time.

He's got a pretty good J on him.

He is, but I mean, I'm talking about consistency over time is the marker here.

It's just like, I do like these dribbling drills where you use two basketballs and it's usually like a guard thing. We have the skill set and the hand-eye coordination. Can he do that? There's a video of him. You can look it up.

Kevin Durant would be the closest comparison as far as agility and size and shooting, yeah?

Yeah, but then you see a side-by-side picture of what 7'4 versus 6'10, 6'11 looks like, and that's a different ball game.

Are they playing him? I've only seen one game, I think. Do they play him at center or do they play him at forward? Because his size, I mean, he's so skinny. Like, wouldn't he get beat up as a center?

Greg, I'm not gonna step in on his expertise, but I would say he's a matchup problem, no matter what position you play him at, but they also put some beef around him and play him like at the two, three, you know, the extended guard, small forward position, just to make it even more difficult to figure them out.

So, because he can go wherever he wants. I saw him playing against Durant the other night and I watched the highlights and it was getting sick, just watching all the different shots that he hit, all the different things, the block shots, the moves that he had. I was like, it was, yeah, it's like you said, what am I watching?

I've never seen anything like that before. I like the Kevin Durant reference because he's the most pure scorer at that height, where he can literally do everything with the ball, but this guy is different.

Are there any other players in the league right now that strike you as kind of unique right now? Like, are you sensing any sort of new styles of playing that are coming into the league at all that are exciting to you?

The interesting thing is, they all said I ruined the game. And by that, obviously just everybody wants to shoot threes and see how far deep they can shoot.

I mean, you routinely put it, I mean, Sean, this guy shoots from, there's a three point line, which they give you an extra point because beyond this line, you know, it's too far away. So that's why they give you an extra point. He shoots from the four point line, basically.

Sean, they play in an arena.

They play in an arena.

Sean, it's a ball going in the hoop.

Where?

Is it like, is it outside? Is it near my house?

There's organs playing at most arenas, too.

Yeah, and tank tops, they're all playing in tanks.

Organs.

Sean, if you end up as an arena organist.

What do you mean end up?

No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. But before, is there a style of play that you see coming into the league at all?

It's just like positionless basketball where everybody can do everything. And it's kind of cool because that's the influence of, you know, them. seeing my style and the Warrior style, you know, over the course of the last decade, where you have guys who were, I get into the locker room now and I have a locker mate who sits to the right of me, Brandon Pajemski, who's just turned 21 or about to turn 21.. And so he was in, when we won our first championship in 2015,. he was in the sixth grade.

Oh boy.

And so you kind of see the influence of our, he's watching this and now, okay, I'm going to work on this. I'm going to try to add that to my game now. And so you just see that infused into the entire league, where there's just so many guys that are pretty versatile, do pretty much everything. And you asked the question about what position does Victor Wimbayama play? Everybody plays every position now.

Sean, ask him what his pregame rituals are.

Well, I want to know that. Actually, do you want to know that? I do want to know that.

These are Sean specials.

And then I also want to know a deeper question, which is with all of your success and how phenomenal you are and the talent that you have been given, and you're very young still, you're 35, you said?

Mm-hmm.

You're so young, you could probably do this for many, many more years, but do you ever think about when you're by yourself and think about, gosh, with all of my injuries and all this stuff, like I want to set a clock myself before my body tells me the clock, like before, I want to think about this on my terms, like do I have five years left? Do I have 12 years left? Like, what is the span of somebody like you in the field that you're in?

And you can hear that Invisalign, right, Steph?

Right? Can you really hear it? Can you really hear it?

Bless his heart. He's trying so hard.

Making use of the time. I think that's a great question, Dan, because I've started to think about that, obviously a little bit more as of late, because you know there's less years in front of you than there were behind you. And going out on your own terms is kind of the goal for us.

And I love that Tom Brady has established, Tom Brady has established the, no, just kidding, you can always say, yeah, yeah, no, I'm, I want to play baseball.

What's the sleep regime? How important is it?

It's huge. There's always that joke, like once you're getting to later in your prime, I have so many different apps and devices to help me get to sleep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, noise machines.

Noise machines, blackout goggles, the whole deal. And so it's huge, because, like that, sleep debt is real.

Do you miss home when you're on the road that much?

I miss it all the time, but it's where I get the best sleep and I can't, I'll admit it to y'all, I don't know if this is going out to the world, but when I see the family, I really miss you guys, but I do look forward to road trips.

Yeah, because you get better sleep.

Because you get better sleep. I know.

All day long.

I do the same thing. And I can't, and I feel guilty. I'm in Atlanta right now for a couple of weeks and I feel guilty because Alessandra, my partner, she's like, ah, our three-year-old, he woke up four times, and I'm like, do I tell her I had nine hours straight of sleep? Because she'd be so mad.

She'd be so happy for me.

Steph, I want to let you go because we're already at an hour. We don't like to keep guests too long, but I want to give you a chance to talk about this incredible philanthropy that you have going, as well as your company, Unanimous Media. I mean, any part of that you want to highlight? I mean, there's so much there between Underrated Golf and Eat, Learn, Play. And I mean, I don't know how you have time to be so philanthropic and generous and diversified with your production company too.

Yeah, I appreciate that. It's awesome to know the doors that basketball has opened and the lanes that I never thought I'd be able to play in and build and grow and make impact. And so, when you talk about our foundation, me and my wife, Aisha, started a foundation that it's called Eat, Learn, Play. And we are the village for the next generation of young kids, especially in the Oakland community, that need the necessary and vital resources to achieve and unlock their full potential. And so we've been doing that for a little over four years and have-.

$47 million you've channeled that way. That's incredible.

It's been a huge community that's come to support. And our goal, we cover all operational expenses for the foundation so that every dollar that comes in is 100%, is going directly back into the community. And now working with the Oakland Unified School District to hopefully infuse 50 plus million dollars over the next four years into the school system. That's where kids go to eat, learn and play every single day. And so we're trying to meet them where they are.

And giving so much access and opportunity to folks.

that wouldn't necessarily have it. Please run for president.

I'm not even kidding, I'm not even kidding.

I was thinking the same thing. You're the kind of person that we need, man. I swear to God.

At a minimum, see what you can do for the Oakland A's and keep them in town.

Yeah, we're trying to keep some inspiration in the Bay, for sure, but I appreciate that. And just the fact that basketball is my life has been a part of the ability to leverage all the things we just talked about, but hopefully a couple more championships and then what comes next, I'll be prepared for.

And then the champions tour.

I'll tell you what, I'm rooting for the Warriors. from this point on, I am.

Come on with it.

Yeah, dude, it's so awesome to talk to you. You're such a cool dude. And to think that you brought so many people, so much joy over the years and entertained them. And then to then take that and continue. You gave a lot of your time and you obviously got, you were the beneficiary of a lot of things, but to be able to take it and do what you're doing now, man, it's super impressive and really, really cool.

Yeah, really cool.

And it makes me go like, what the fuck has Sean done? Zero.

Zero.

He's done a fucking zero.

He's ignoring the orphans.

No, he's just eating fucking white bread.

White bread.

White bread, motherfucker. Jesus.

Well, cheers to you. Really well done. Keep it going. You got plenty left to give and we can't wait to see it. And I can't wait to see your golf swing in person next time you're down.

I gotta see the process in person too.

I'll tighten it up.

Come down to LA, come down and play with us, man.

Absolutely.

Nice to meet you, pal.

Well, thank you so much for doing this. I know we were trying for a while. Thanks for making the time.

Absolutely. I appreciate you guys. Obviously, big fans listen to it all the time, so keep doing what you're doing.

Okay, thanks, Raleigh.

Thank you, man.

Good luck rest of the season.

Appreciate you.

All right, Steph. Yeah, likewise. Take care. Bye, buddy.

I, he's amazing. I tried real hard to understand the divisions and then the subdivisions.

You know what, Sean? I thought, I actually thought I am gonna show you when I come home.

Yeah.

I'll draw it out for you. I swear to God, and then you'd go, oh.

I actually would be really interested in that.

Yeah, yeah, it is, it's very interesting. He is super interesting and cool.

Right?

Yeah, so cool. Oh, my God, Jay, what a guy.

That's a solid fella.

Yeah, have you been trying to get him for a while?

Yeah, well, you know, his schedule, so you can imagine, it's hard to sort of, you know, when it works for him, you know, we're flexible, but they've got a tough schedule.

I mean, he was like traveling and just like showed up.

Yeah, like what, didn't he, did? he say he's playing tonight? No, it's seven o'clock over there. He must have played a day game there or something. Anyway, I forgot that he was, that there's a Toronto history there with him.

That ended up there, yeah, and went to a school in Etobicoke.

But there's. no, it's no wonder he is attached to so many things. He seems, he's got the personality. Like, not every sports figure, not every actor, not everybody in the, you know, on the planet has the personality to do what he's gonna do.

He seems very, very kind, very genuine, very nice, but I'll bet you $1,000 that Aisha, his wife, is a saint even larger than him. And I'll bet she's driving a lot of this stuff and she probably deserves a huge, huge applause.

I'm sure, but, as you, of course, of course. And as you know, doing stuff when, you know, doing what he does at the highest level requires a lot of energy. And he's, I'm sure, got a lot of people pulling at him at different directions, because he's gotta deliver, he's gotta deliver on the court, which is the first thing, right? That's the main, that's how he got to where he is. And then there's all this other stuff.

And it's production, it's like thing, thing, thing.

That requires, each one of those things requires so much energy and time and attention. And to think how, kind of, like you said, JB, about when he plays, how effortlessly he seems to do it. And maybe that betrays, like he, maybe he is, you know, he does have a tougher time managing, but it seems like so balanced, as he said.

Yeah, it seems very solid.

It's impressive, it's so unbelievably impressive all the stuff that he does at the highest level.