How We Built the UFC of 1v1 Basketball | D'Vontay Friga DSH #1361

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back in.

I was like, ah, this is like, I wouldn't say it was awkward.

It was just like, I got to, you know, I really want to make sure everyone gets in because we got people over here that have 125 million subscribers.

Mark Rober's over here.

I'm like,

their fans are going to want to see them get in the game.

So I was definitely a little stressed out, but we won the game.

So that's all that matters.

All right, guys, Devontae Frieger here out in Vegas.

He's got a run here tonight.

Welcome to town, man.

Yeah, thanks for having me i'm uh excited to be here yeah i see you in and out hooping and dipping right away whenever you're here yeah last time we did the same thing i mean when it comes to vegas there's a straight-through flights just because it's vegas yeah so it's easy for us to just fly in in the morning shoot what we need to shoot and fly right out at night absolutely yeah last time you hooped with dwight howard out here right yeah it was dwight And then the very last time that I was here, we were with Donovan Hawkins, who's a phenomenal dunker.

He's like one of the best dunkers in the world.

And we did a video out here, flew in, flew out, and now tonight's Demarcus Cousins.

That's going to be pretty fun.

It's going to be huge.

And he's actually still playing professionally and he's in shape.

He's overseas and whatnot.

So

I'm eager to see this one amongst all of the NBA collabs that I've done, just because a lot of the guys and a lot of the former NBA players that we are hooping with lately, they're not necessarily hooping all the time or professionally, I should say.

Yeah.

Who's performed the best out of all the sneaking players?

It's tough because there's been different settings.

So like Lou and

Dwight and Mario have been at the park.

Ty Lawson was at a men's league.

Brandon Jennings was kind of like an indoor setting.

So I would say Ty Lawson actually performed the best.

He had 45 in this men's league.

But I think

if I gave, if of all five or six people that we've worked with,

all had that men's league shot, then I feel like everybody would have had 40, 50.

points.

Yeah, because fouls.

Joe Johnson played really well at the park, too.

Yeah, because men's league, they're calling all the fouls.

You're just racking up free throws, right?

Yeah, I mean, Ty actually didn't shoot one free throw, but he made like nine threes.

So it was, he played well.

He's in shape, though, you know.

And a lot of these guys, like, their whole life, all they know is just being in shape.

So when he retired, he just.

There was a moment where I knew he wasn't necessarily working out, but he's been working out a lot more.

Shout out to him.

What's the most you've dropped in a men's league game?

Ah, dude.

100, 100, actually.

Holy hell.

Well, it was a video that was

can I score 100 points in one game?

And it was literally, I just had a team of people that were just only passing me the ball the whole time just to see, like, was it possible?

And it's funny because there was like 10 seconds left and I had 97 points.

Yeah.

And I just chucked up a three and got fouled and one.

Missed the free throw, but still got to 100.

I was insane.

How many shot attempts was it?

Oh, man.

I don't know.

It is in the video.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's in the video.

I got to bring you out to Lifetime.

Okay.

I'm in the Lifetime League.

Yeah, you were telling me about it.

Yeah, yeah.

You might have to set the record in a lifetime.

I'm down.

Lifetime's actually a decent because they have national tournament.

Have you ever played in the Lifetime League?

No, I have not.

Really?

I haven't.

I've actually heard about it.

I've seen some stuff from it, but I didn't know it was national like that.

Yeah, like every city has a team.

That's cool.

They all compete in Vegas every year.

Oh, damn.

Dude, it's pretty nuts.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, that'd be a cool video.

But you're like doing much different content these days, right?

Like, you're not the center anymore.

I mean, the idea right now, I mean, I feel like it changes a bunch, you know, because like

you have to like be super innovative with your content or else it's going to just like dry out.

So we like to like do a bunch of things and one thing hits hard.

We just like to do it a couple of times and then we'll probably put it on hold for a little bit.

But I think,

I don't know, man, like, you know, the online world changes so much.

And like, what's good on YouTube last year might not work as well this year.

And you just got to like keep up with the algorithm and keep up with the people that talk about the ins and outs of the youtube game and actually like study it yeah um

but you know we've got a really good team and i feel like everybody's on point with what we do so but yeah recently we've been doing a lot of these nba collabs um i know you mentioned like not being the face of it rather but

i feel like We got to a point where we were like, let's try and come up with ideas where we know the title is really good.

We know the thumbnail is really good.

and we know it has a really good storyline.

And it kind of just got to the point where it was more so about other people with the sneaking the NBA players into a park run.

It's just like all of those things-the title, the thumbnail, the storyline, they all hit.

That was so creative.

You were the first to do that type of stuff, right?

Um, honestly, I don't want to sit here and say, Oh, yeah, that's me.

I have no idea, but I do know that it worked.

I like how we did it.

Um,

it actually started.

I went to

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it it's sleek portable and honestly i don't go anywhere without it to a small town called dyersburg tennessee one of my friends was going to college there scar

and i was hosting a park run there and i was like yo you should bring the team out and we just we i had no idea what the title of the video and so i was like sneaking a college team into a park run because i had hosted this pickup event at this park in dyersburg and i was like uh

just gonna go out there by myself and then the team ended up showing up and that video did really well.

So

just kind of going back over it a few months later, we wanted to come up with a viral idea and

we did another sneaking video.

I can't remember what it was.

And then last year we went to Paris with the professor and we did sneaking the professor into a park.

That one blew up.

That one was crazy.

And that's kind of like what sparked the idea of just trying to get, okay, like, well, what if we can get like some big name people, bring them to the park, you know, and try and sneak them in with nobody noticing them.

So that's how the idea kind of came up and i don't know how many we have left until people are like all right which person's here today you know but i guess we'll see you've also crushed the one-on-one stuff and now the nba is even talking about incorporating one-on-one in their all-star games yeah i mean the the one-on-one scene is very interesting to me so like what i do on my channel is a little different than what we focus on with the next chapter which is the other platform uh and the next chapter was founded by scotty weaver and he's just he's a genius.

Like he's a, he's a wizard.

He's got so many ideas.

I think you've talked to Scotty before.

We've down.

You'll definitely have to have him on.

But, you know, he could really only do so much because he's got the vision, but he didn't necessarily have the team with him.

But he noticed like what we were doing for years.

And, you know, we have obviously a team and all that stuff.

So he kind of, we were just in contact for months.

And nothing really worked out.

And it got to a point where it made sense.

And we just,

merged what we were doing with what Scotty was doing at early time and turned the next chapter into really what it is over the course of the last two years now.

And

we really are, I always say this, I'm sure if people have seen some stuff, it might sound like a broken record in a way, but we really want to try and turn it into like the UFC of 1v1 basketball.

And I'm sure being out here, you know a bunch about the UFC.

Just like the impact it's had on combat fighting, really, and that whole

world, I should say.

But just what the UFC did with the combat sports world in the last 25 years is just insane, like popularizing it in their own way with the storylines and narrative control, the social media era, just taking advantage of all that, the press conferences, the face-offs.

But then you make these two people fight.

And it's like, that's the only thing that matters after months.

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Said this promotion, so why can't it work in the basketball world?

And yeah, so we're definitely exploring that, exploring the best way to do it.

People are like, you can't compete with the NBA.

And what do you mean, the UFC, the UFC?

But it's like the NBA has been around for 80-something years now, or a hundred.

I have no idea, 85 years.

The UFC has been around for 25 years.

We're only in year like two and a half, with just the next chapter.

Obviously, we've been on social media for seven, eight years now.

But

we just need time and we need to continually do these events, and each one will get better.

I mean, our second live stream ever is Michael Beasley versus Lance Stevenson.

So it's for $100,000.

So it's like for that to be our second one, it really shows the potential.

And then not to mention, Kyrie is going to be commentating it too.

So there's a lot of heads that are turning that I feel like people are interested in the idea of this whole 1v1 space.

I just think it has to be done right.

So

excited to see

where we take it.

You're doing great with the storytelling for that, Michael Beasley versus Lance.

Like just, there's a lot of videos, right, going up before you even.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's the team, bro.

That's everybody that's involved, though, for sure.

Um,

we, uh,

we

had Michael Beasley and Lance Stevenson draft their teams on the next chapter, the, the YouTube channel.

Um, and basically it's 24 episodes.

20 of them are gameplay and four of them are reality, which is just like kind of like we get to see more of what's happening in between the days of the actual games.

Uh, but Lance and Bees, they got to draft their own team, 12 people each.

And then those 12 people they play against each other in 1v1s, 3v3s, different concepted games.

And obviously, like the record matters.

And we're only past the first day now.

So obviously, there's a bunch, there's a bunch more episodes coming.

I don't know when this podcast comes out, so I don't want to say too much, but

super interesting concept where obviously every episode will promote pay-per-view, which is the finale, which is Michael Beasley versus Lance Stevenson, one-on-one for $100,000.

And there will be four undercards.

Eli Carter versus Moon.

And

two really good names there.

And then Cam versus Latin.

And

obviously, like, if you guys are watching and listening and you're not familiar with those players, like you either got to go get tapped in or wait for the pay-per-view, you know, see it.

And then there's going to be two fan voted from the episodical stuff that we're releasing.

Nice.

Yeah, it'll be cool.

So the fans get a chance to vote in the other two games for the pay-per-view card, which obviously like the people that are on Lance and Bees' team right now and the episodes that we're releasing will get a chance to earn that spot, really.

That's awesome, man.

Lance came to my run a few weeks ago.

Oh, yeah.

He's looking like he's in shape, man.

Yeah, he is, bro.

I'm excited.

I'm excited.

I know a lot of people heard Michael Beasley, and I know he's this myth 1v1 player, but you got to watch out for Lance Stevenson.

And I mean that, like,

like, I don't even know what the word I'm looking for here is.

I mean that

as in detailed as I could get, like, Lance is definitely in shape.

He's hungry.

He feels like he knows he's the underdog.

And he just wants to take Beasley's head off.

I love him though.

Can't wait to watch that.

Who do you have as the goat of one-on-one basketball?

Oh, man.

That's a tough one.

People say Carmelo.

I know people say Carmelo.

Carmelo is a foam booth, like a foam booth player where he can really just jab you like he doesn't even need to dribble to beat you.

Like,

when somebody asks me this question, I always picture like, man, who would I genuinely just, ah, I really don't want to play him?

Which obviously there's a lot of people, but I think of people like Michael Beasley or like Kobe or Kyrie.

But

I'm just going to go with Kyrie.

I feel like Kyrie's a safe answer.

Hopefully we get to see it one day.

Yeah.

Is that a biased answer?

Because he's part of the company.

I don't think so because like there's so much out there um there's so much out there on like

him being the greatest isolation scorer of all time he's he's got everything that comes with it like i like you said it could be biased though michael i said michael beasley and kyrie so

i mean that's like where we're i mean they're both myth the myth see so yeah joe johnson as well

phenomenal isolation player i threw kobe in there too um

All good answers.

I would throw Durant in there, too.

Yeah.

Like I said, you can't go wrong with like a bunch.

There's a bunch of people you could throw.

Yeah.

I mean, just Durant, because you can't block a shot even if you're right in front of him.

Right.

When you play guys that are seven feet, you know.

Who's the toughest you've personally played against one-on-one?

Oh, I just, I just got my ass kicked by a guy named Nazir Cor.

Oh, I know.

You know, Nas?

Yeah, I've seen him play.

Yeah, Nas is very good.

Like, and I give all the credit to him.

Like, we did what we needed to do to promote the event.

And I said what I said, but honestly, bro, like,

you learn a lot about people when you play against them.

And I just felt his energy.

Like, he's just a dog, bro.

When I watched him play in the season that we filmed, he played in this three-on-three, and he was going harder than everybody out there.

And he had already had the main event game lined up.

But it was just cool to see, like,

you could just tell that's you could just, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they play basketball.

And

he's got heart.

Like, he's he's got that dog in him for sure.

I've seen comments on YouTube when you play in these like tournaments, and the prize pool is like 10 grand, and people are like, oh, Frigo doesn't care.

It's not enough money for him anymore.

Do you see those comments?

No, I really don't.

Like, what do you mean?

With the Jesser 1v1?

No, it might have been like, is it House of Highlights that has those creator games or the Creator League?

Yeah.

And they'll have like a prize pool.

Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know.

It's usually not 10K.

I think the 1v1 stuff we did was maybe for 50.

50 is is no joke for sure yeah i i did this 1v1 tournament uh with jesser do you know jesser yeah you two he's um he he's popping bro he's he's killing it right now he's another one that's innovated very well like you yeah he's man i i love everything they're doing their production is spot on he's got a huge team he's just got the right people in place and like being at his warehouse and just seeing how they do things was just awesome so yeah but no i mean you're playing for any amount of money you want to line it up like if i was playing for free i'm still gonna go hard i feel like that's like the basketball and the competitor in me that nah what whatever comments you're seeing they're definitely not true that's what i thought people were like he's not trying as hard but nah didn't didn't make sense do we reinvest a lot of our money like we i'll i'm not gonna say like i'll take anything i can get but i'm saying like

like in in order to get where we really want this space to get we have to put everything back in that's why we're going the pay-per-view route not the only reason but a big reason in putting things behind a paywall is is because like youtube doesn't necessarily sustain what we're doing right now

and we have to innovate the businesses that don't innovate die and this is a this is a massive jump high risk high reward situation but i think doing it this way we you know we get a lot more people involved we get bigger names involved we get more money on the line but it's also the best of both worlds like we're still going to release free content yeah it's going to lead up into you know something behind a paywall but it's like games that you feel like you should you should pay to watch.

Is that strategy of reinvesting everything something you learned from Mr.

Beast?

That's actually funny.

Like, I feel like

I feel like it's always been like reinvesting yourself, reinvesting yourself.

Because for a while, it was like, oh, I want to save up a bunch of money and reinvest in assets and all that stuff, which obviously is, you know, still a primary.

First things first, you got to reinvest in yourself.

So that's always just been the thing, but I do know Mr.

Beast has preached that for on YouTube for years.

Yeah, I know,

yeah, yeah, we were just with Mr.

Beast out there.

Oh, that was insane.

That looked fun.

Yeah, USA versus Mexico, right?

It was

the biggest English-speaking creators versus the biggest Spanish-speaking creators.

Um, and uh,

they had creators from Mexico, creators from Argentina, creators from Spain.

They all spoke Spanish, but it wasn't just like Mexico versus USA.

Oh, it was English-speaking speaking versus Spanish speaking.

And that was really cool.

Just to see what they've built just from YouTube.

Like, obviously, a lot of their profit margins are probably from the products that they've gotten into now with, you know, the feastables and

the lunchly and the apparel.

Outside of just their AdSense, I'm sure like if they relied solely on that, they wouldn't be nearly as close to everything.

They wouldn't even have what they have.

Yeah.

But super motivating, though.

Like just to see how many different studios he has on 125 acres out there.

Yeah.

And

the team, the production gear, just everything behind us.

It was really cool.

Yeah, I bet it was surreal for you.

You're surrounded by the biggest content creators in the world.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah, it was insane.

And he personally invited you out, right?

Yeah.

Well, actually, I got the invite because of Chandler.

Okay.

One of his boys, Chandler.

So shout out to Chandler.

When Mr.

Beast dropped the promo for it, I commented on it.

And then I ended up DMing him and just like trying to get involved because it was talking about content and basketball.

I know he wanted like the largest creators.

And I was actually supposed to be Kevin Garnett's assistant coach.

And Kevin Garnett, I think, dropped out maybe a day or two before.

Wow.

And so I got the head coach.

Holy crap.

I'll take it.

Was that your first time coaching a game?

I coached AAU like when I was in

college, my freshman year,

I coached an AAU team, but that was probably the last time I coached.

You didn't like it?

I was like, I actually felt a lot of pressure in the coaching position just because I don't really know a lot of these creators personally that I was with.

So this being the first impression is just like, I don't want to make anybody mad.

You don't want to sub them in, whatever.

And it's like, you can't sub out Mr.

Beast in his own event.

So now I got to work with four people.

And then some people like Marlon streamer was there and he was like our biggest player.

And he was playing really well.

And he didn't, you know, he couldn't come out because these guys, they still wanted to win.

So I felt like I was really working with like subbing three or four people.

When Jimmy, when Mr.

Beast came out of the game, he kind of like subbed himself out.

And then he came over, he took a drink, and then he's like, all right, I'm ready to go back in and subbed himself back in.

I was like, ah.

This is like, I wouldn't say it was awkward.

It was just like, I got to, you know, I really want to make sure everyone gets in because we got people over here that have 125 million subscribers.

Mark Rober over here.

I'm like,

their fans are going to want to see them get in the game.

So I was definitely a little stressed out, but we won the game.

So that's all that matters, right?

Jimmy's got a bit of a jumper, too.

I saw.

Yeah, so I don't think he made one for me.

I was like telling him, like, dude, make a three.

Like, shoot it.

He passed up a lot of open threes.

He did.

I mean, he passed them up for better shots.

So it's like, can't be too mad about it.

But I just know like people want to see him hit the three.

Yeah.

Now, I know you played D3.

Did you want to keep playing pro after that?

Or what was your mindset then?

Yeah, I mean,

I

talked to a few people, like a few agents and whatnot about like really wanting the chance to play.

And I just, I wouldn't say I never got my chance.

I just feel like I put most of my focus and my time and energy towards the YouTube side because when I started my YouTube channel in college,

it took me a few years to like really kind of find that niche of.

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familia.

Cono ju las crucientes y mi elberad qual lo niños les encantas.

Ademas delicios o trosos de granola, nuces y fruta.

¿Ce todos vana disbrutal?

Honey punches devotes para todos.

Tod para sabermás.

B3 hooper, blah, blah, blah.

And then I grew it from zero to 100K with my boys.

When I graduated college, I had maybe like 115,000 subscribers and all that stuff.

So there was like this weird period where I was like, man, do I want to keep going hard on the YouTube side or do I want to like do the whole pro thing?

And honestly, I wanted to do both because what I was doing in college was just documenting my life as a D3 basketball player.

And I wanted to just go overseas, document my life as a pro hooper.

And

I don't know.

Like looking back at it, I feel like anything in life that I truly wanted to go after, I just was like, I'm going to go do it.

Like, and that wasn't something that I was just blinded by where I was like, I got to play pro.

I got to do this.

The YouTube side, though, I was like, I have to do this.

Like the, that stuff just motivated me so much more.

And

it just happened that we filmed a random video of me mic'd up at a park when we were going through that weird period of not really knowing what kind of content to post when I graduated.

And the video went viral.

It did like 2.5 million on YouTube in four or five days.

And it was former D3 Hooper mic'd up at the park versus X D1 recruits or something like that.

and we gained like a hundred thousand subscribers in a couple days off of that the video did super well it made a bunch of money we put the money back into just going all across the us to different uh different cities doing park events then and that's when the first tour happened when like all those videos were first going viral and these like park runs were coming back and stuff and uh

And I just had, I felt like we had found something that I wanted to continue to explore rather than trying to play overseas and play professionally.

I still feel like I could play, but now I'm getting into even more where I'm like,

I just don't think it's going to happen.

Yeah.

I also think you'll make more going the content route anyways.

Yeah, for sure.

If it's, if it's about the money side, yeah.

You know, if it's about like

saying like I still played professional, then, you know, but I just feel like I'm past that part now.

I feel like it's no, it's no longer like wanting to play pro, play in a pro league and like, let's start our own pro league.

Right.

But yeah, for sure.

I feel like you are a big part of the park run culture changing too.

Now, if you pull up to any park run, there's someone filming.

Yeah.

Like it's inevitable now.

Yeah, that's crazy.

I remember 10 years ago, you would pull up.

No, no one was filming.

Yeah.

I'm like, I don't know how to feel about it.

Like, it's cool.

But some people are like, ah, it takes away from, you know, just going up to the park and hooping, which I think you can still do.

But, you know, it's just the culture, man.

It's the culture.

It's the way that people, it's just the way it is now.

It is, yeah.

But now you got a lot of ISO ball people looking for highlights.

That's true.

You know, that's true.

AAU is cooked.

Yeah, it's interesting, man.

But these NIL bags are looking nice too, at least.

They are.

You got guys playing D1 making six figures a year.

It's pretty insane.

Seven.

Yeah.

Some people seven.

Super Flag probably made seven.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

I just saw something come out the other day, and it was like,

it was like star player,

um,

off-the-bench player, and then just like

bench, yeah.

And it showed like how much people are still making from not even getting in the game, like, just they don't really have a ton of influence necessarily.

Like, I wouldn't say they don't have any, but I would say they wouldn't.

Maybe somebody at the end of the Duke bench doesn't have as much influence as Cooper Flag, obviously, but they're still getting a bag for something, you know.

Yeah, so it's just cool to see.

Um,

I feel like a little indifferent on it, though, I think, because it's like a lot of these people, they make it to the collegiate level to then fight to get to the pros to make their bag.

And I don't know if maybe, I feel like maybe for some people, it's like could possibly take that motivation away from them early because like, you know, if you get paid six, seven figures and you never had money before, that's a lot.

One, it's going to be life-changing for sure.

It's definitely a lot for sure.

And then you're just not really going to be, not really going to know necessarily what to do with it.

Or maybe how you feel.

Or maybe like you made it.

Maybe the whole thing was like, I need to do this so I can make money.

And then you finally do without making it to that pro level.

And you're like, you know, I made it.

Teach their own, though.

I mean, some people, maybe they get the money and they're like, maybe this isn't what I want to do.

I want to take this money and invest it and do something else.

I mean, statistics show that's not the case at that age.

Your brain is still developing until 26.

Like, if you make a million at 18, the odds of you keeping all that are very slim.

Yeah.

Unless you got the right guidance around you, which, you know, I think a lot of teams are taking, taking that part serious these days.

Yeah.

Cause you see a lot of pro athletes go broke after.

Yeah.

You know, do you watch college more than NBA?

Oh.

No.

You watch NBA more?

Dude, I really don't watch that much basketball.

Damn.

I know people might be like, oh, really?

But I mean, I don't know, man.

I'm more so just like,

i keep up with the like who won what game or like what the stats looked like or like if i was in like a prize pixel or whatever and i put some put some money on something and i like to see like what they did or that's like maybe when i'll watch a game just whatever um

but yeah i'm not really i don't really watch basketball that much you're just so busy now yeah unless like it's and i know this is like biased but like if i'm i'll watch the next chapter episodes and stuff because i'm like interested interested in what obviously we're doing next and how we can make things better and whatnot.

But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say I'm too busy.

I guess I'm just not.

I haven't really watched it too much.

I think that's becoming more and more common.

I think people are getting their highlights on social media now.

Yeah.

I watch YouTube highlights of the games, the playoff games.

I don't watch the full game.

No, that's, I downloaded the full game highlights before on the plane.

Yeah.

And then I'll see Shaq and Shuck talking.

And that's it.

That's the extent of basketball I'm watching.

Because a full game is like a three-hour block.

You got to block out your calendar, man.

Yeah, it's no joke.

I mean, unless it's like, see, with the playoffs are different.

The playoffs, like when it's 3-0 or 3-1 or 2-2, or you know what I mean?

Like you're a game away from it, like you want to have people over or whatever the case may be, then you might be interested in the game.

But for me, I'm just kind of like, I'm not there right now.

Yeah.

How do you think you would do against a WNBA all-star?

Have you played against any WNBA in a 1v1?

One-on-one?

I mean,

that's

lined me up for a good question there.

I've played against a couple of WNBA players like, just like in the gym training, and it's always been like a shootout, really, you know, because,

bro, I don't know.

There's like the WNBA players, they can shoot the piss out of the ball.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Women can really shoot the ball.

But I just think like physically,

it's just a little bit tougher for sure.

I think I'm going to take myself over a lot of people, but I think I would do fine.

I think I would win that game for sure.

Okay.

Yeah, I agree.

I think the speed and the physicality is what kind of separates the two.

But if it's a shootout, it's anyway.

For sure, bro.

I mean, like, somebody like

just,

if I did a three-point contest against some of the best shooters, Kaylin Clark, WNBA, bro, they're going to torch me.

Yeah.

You know, but if we're playing one-on-one, then I like my chances.

Yeah.

Because then you know they're just going to try to shoot.

Yeah.

Play some good defense on them.

You know?

Yeah.

They're going to be commenting on this clip, man.

That's going to be calling you out.

That's all right, bro.

That's all right.

I feel like I gave credit there.

Yeah, I mean, fair game.

Have you seen the Brandon Jennings?

Yeah.

The Brandon Jennings, Pat Bev beef?

I have.

I have.

I would love to set that game up, honestly.

I feel like on an unbiased platform, because I know Pat wants to set it up and all that stuff, but I feel like we're the platform to do it.

Like you said earlier, I could be biased, but I also feel like

from an outside perspective, it makes sense to do it on next chapter.

I feel like we've

with the Michael Beasley, Lance Stevenson game, Kyrie commentating 100K on the line, I feel like we've given it that

credit, you know, the credibility and the validity of being a real game.

Like

you can go to the gym, you can check up, you know, behind closed doors, no camera, settle the beef, but it's like you've already done all the talking online.

You might as well do it in the one place online that it genuinely makes sense.

And

yeah, I don't know, man.

Pat Bev versus Brandon Jennings, though.

There's so many guys that are talking.

That 09 draft class, like, yeah, everybody just started chirping, man.

Jeff Teague, Ty Lawson,

Brandon Jennings, and Pat, like you mentioned,

they keep bringing up Drew Holiday's name in there, but he's still playing for a championship right now.

Yeah.

I don't know who I got winning that because people don't know.

Pat Bev averaged 40 in high school.

Yeah, he's known for defense, but he could score.

It was his, he, he is somebody that, like,

you pay me to do a job, I'm going to get that job done.

And he proved that he was capable of doing that.

And that job may have not been going to score 40, but he had superstars alongside of him, and he went out and did his job.

So I think that that game would not only sell, but I think it would be a good game just because of the myth idea of not knowing how Pat Bev would do in a 1v1 situation.

I think he would prove a lot of people wrong for sure.

I'd love to see it.

That's one of my my favorites.

He probably will.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

Probably will.

Jennings was talking about a one-on-one tournament.

I don't know if you saw that.

I did.

I saw it.

I just feel like

I have mixed feelings about a tournament as opposed to just like mono-y mono.

Well, I feel like the way that we're trying to do it, when I keep mentioning the UFC of 1v1 basketball, you don't just hear something on a Friday and they fight on a Saturday or Sunday.

So like the promotional aspect alone, I think they've done a good job promoting it.

I don't want to say that, but I do think that making it like Michael Beasley versus Lance Stevenson and that's it.

And then you get to have the promotion for three or four months leading up into it.

And it just makes sense.

Like

the tournament might be days long.

Like

this is just one day that we're promoting for over the course of a couple months.

and you're going to stop everything you're doing that day to figure out who's going to win this game.

And also, I just feel like it really solidifies the win a lot more because

if Brandon and Pat end up playing each other in the finals, but Pat beat Ty Lawson in the first round, who's to say Ty couldn't go and beat Pat or whatever, whatever the case may be.

I'm just throwing things out.

It's all about matchups.

That's exactly.

Because

if you and I play one-on-one and I beat you,

but then you go beat somebody that I lost to, it's like, now I got to play that person.

You got to play this person that I beat.

And I just feel like that solidifies who you are as a 1v1 player more than just like being crowned through this tournament because you didn't play everybody.

That makes sense.

So

that's how I feel.

So I feel like.

I just like that mono E-mono.

Plus, human nature has been attracted to it for so long.

I always say since the Coliseum days, like they're fighting, putting people in the ring.

Like, people sit down just to watch this, me versus you.

And

I just feel like the formula is there.

And in the basketball world, like, this is the way to do it.

Yeah.

I hope they make it happen.

I really do.

Yeah.

I think it would do very well.

And shout out to Gilbert Arenas and his podcast.

Yeah.

That shit's hilarious.

I love watching that show.

Bro, their characters, for sure.

They're shot in the channel.

I see all the clips.

I love when they take it outside and play 2v2 or something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those guys are all cool, man shout out to them for sure um so you've played all over the country in a lot of cities any cities stand out to you as having some of the top talented hoopers bro i get this question more than any question i bet which and it makes sense but but the reason i say that is because i never have an honest answer because there's been so many places that

there's good hoopers and There's different things that I go to cities for.

Like I'll go to a city and do a park run.

But usually the people that are good at the park run are maybe not popping out to do a next chapter one-on-one event because like the talent level is just a little bit different.

So in terms of the park situation,

North, like Charlotte has always given good competition.

Who else?

In terms of next chapter, like Virginia, Virginia is like curveball, just random, throwing it out there.

Richmond, Virginia, that's where we went.

They were really good out there for sure.

You could just tell like the city was just, they were just different.

Energy was different.

It kind of felt like

a breakthrough for that city because nobody really goes out there to do much.

Yeah.

When we went out there, it was like the city came out.

The energy was good.

It was gritty.

Like we actually had to shut down the event before the last game because like it was getting serious.

Like it was getting dangerous.

Shit.

But it was real.

In Virginia?

Yeah.

Richmond, Virginia.

I know it sounds crazy.

I know it sounds crazy, but Richmond, bro, yeah, it's like that in Richmond, Virginia, for sure.

Sheesh.

Man, that question is so difficult.

It's tough.

I need a really solidifying answer.

No, it's tough on the spot.

I get asked, like, who's your favorite guest?

And I have 1,500 episodes.

Yeah, you do have a lot of episodes, bro.

You do.

So I know how you feel.

Do your runs runs get shut down often like that, though, when it gets out of hand?

No, no.

It's only happened like a few times.

There's been times where

people

have guns out at the park or something like that.

I hate that it gets to that in basketball.

Yeah, it sucks for sure.

Like, I'm all about shit talking, but once it gets to that, it's like.

Yeah, it's, bro, honestly, like.

It is, it is a little sad, but I think partially is like the cameras and stuff.

Like, people don't want to be disrespected on camera.

Um,

so there's like a fine line, but I think like, like I said, that has happened not even a handful of times, like a couple times.

That's good.

Um, we've only had to like shut down maybe three events ever for park and next chapter in all of,

well, I've been on YouTube for seven or eight years, but since we've been doing like the tour stuff, maybe four or five years, that's only happened three times, which I think is good because it's like we always try to make sure that it's family friendly atmosphere like bring the kids out to the park like let's just have a good time pick up runs um

but you know i'd be person dude i'll say this i'm not as good as basketball as you obviously but i pulled up with cameras once to lifetime yeah people just act different yeah like they guard you way more physically they start talking way more shit guys i've been playing with for years they'll just act completely different yeah i don't know if you experienced that definitely bro definitely no people don't want to it's the cameras man people don't want to they don't want to to get embarrassed.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

Yeah.

Like, I was getting double teamed.

Like, I'm not even like that, you know?

Like, what the fuck?

Why are you doubling me?

Yeah, people are trying to yam on me.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah.

I get it, bro.

That's how it gets.

It's an ego thing, I guess.

You're good at, like, drawing that line, though.

Like, when you're talking, you never let it get out of hand, I noticed.

Yeah, I mean,

I don't know, bro.

It's like.

I know that we're there.

We're filming a video and stuff.

Like

sometimes the shit talk gets out of out of line, like from me personally, just because, like, as a basketball player and somebody that's super competitive, like sometimes I black out and I just say things because we're competing, we're going.

But I got to remember, like, yo, you got the cameras, I got a mic on.

People are going to see this.

Like, it's going to be controlled a certain way.

So you just got to kind of take the eye road, take the back seat sometimes when things might get carried away.

Or even if you do something, or if, like, if I do something and it's like, possibly viral, and the person gets pissed and they say the wrong thing or do some pushing and shoving, Like, you gotta just,

you know, you gotta just, I gotta understand, like, I'm the one that pulled up with the cameras and promoted this, and I'm gonna be the one putting it out to a large audience, and people are gonna see it.

So, you kind of just gotta

take the bag, go with the flow.

Yeah, has someone ever hit you up after, like, yo, take the video down?

Like, oh, yeah, I didn't like how I looked for sure.

But it doesn't happen a lot.

Like,

one time, and we were in Florida, and we did this video.

Um,

I don't know, it may have been like four years ago now.

And I told somebody like just on the mic, like, thanks for giving me my title and thumbnail, blah, blah, blah.

And then hit the three-pointer, ended it, talked a bunch of shit, and then just left.

And then they were DMing me like, like, take the clip down.

Don't post this.

If this gets on ESPN, like, I'm going to find your address.

Like, damn, I don't know how serious it was because, like, then they were like, we need rematches, blah, blah, blah.

But people have definitely said it before.

You actually took it down?

No.

oh you didn't

no geez i mean hats off to you i would have been a little nervous nah i don't think it's that serious yeah i never let it get off court personally yeah i'm definitely trying not to i try and like i i remember talking to him a little bit in the dms and stuff and just like you know trying to calm the situation down a little bit yeah i had an incident where he like he clenched up and i was like oh shit like no this is where it ends like i actually don't think i've ended up like squaring up with anybody oh really yeah that's surprising because you play a lot of runs runs.

Yeah, for sure.

Well done.

Keep my distance from people.

Can't say the same with certain other content creators.

Yeah.

Sometimes they provoke it, though.

Yeah.

It's like it does, it does well.

People like

people are into the violence and like the major trash talk, the push and the shove and the fighting.

There was a period of time where like that made sense for YouTube basketball, like who could post the most toxic videos.

But now like, honestly, for me, it's just how good of a title thumbnail storyline can we have?

Like what type of guests can we get out there and all that stuff?

But I love it.

There was a period of time where it was like, man, like, we got to get some toxic shit to happen.

I remember those days.

Yeah, we, we both know who we're thinking of, I think.

Bro, but they were killing it, though.

It was entertaining, right?

Although, and we're talking about Nick, right?

Yeah.

Nick and them.

Nick Briz, the Savage Squad.

Like, people can say what they want about it, bro, but people were watching that shit.

They were smart.

They were pulling a million of video easy.

Bro, in a day or two.

And I was on his YouTube yesterday.

He hasn't posted in five months.

So shout out to him.

I got to hit him up.

See how he's doing.

We always had an interesting relationship, but now obviously we're cool for sure.

But definitely make sure he's good.

Yeah.

Hopefully he can bounce back.

So you've had some peace.

He's on peace and rivalries in the...

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

I definitely have.

I never know if that shit's actually real or it's just to sell stuff.

I think it's just competitive.

Like, it's definitely real.

A lot of the stuff that we say online back and forth, like.

Nobody's like friends.

Like nobody really sees each other every day.

Like when me and Nas were promoting the pay-per-view, obviously we knew we were promoting it to try and like get it to get it to more eyes and whatnot.

But the things we were saying were definitely for real.

Like I was trying to promote it, but I meant what I said because I was trying to compete.

And I'd probably never been in the same room as him more than maybe two or three times before that.

So it was definitely real.

Same with Nick Briz.

Like when we were going back and forth a while ago, like the beef was definitely real because we were just saying some crazy shit

about each other.

But we settled it as men behind closed doors, not online and all that stuff.

Respect.

And then with Dev, like Dev in the lab, I had some beefs with him.

We settled it 1v1.

Oh, it was a while ago.

We were setting up another pay-per-view 1v1 a while ago, three, four years ago.

And we were just going back and forth online.

But again, we knew what we were doing to promote it, but also the things we were saying, like we definitely meant it.

But I don't think it was like hatred beef.

It was just like competitive nature.

Like, I'm going to beat you.

I can see that.

I wasn't talking about his family or his kids or anybody.

Yeah, once it gets personal, yeah, it's not personal.

Yeah.

What about Hezzy God?

Are you cool with him?

Yeah, yeah.

Me and Hezzy are cool for sure.

Yeah.

For sure.

He gets a lot of hate, man.

I had him on the show and I was like, dude, like, you might get the most hate out of anyone I've seen in the basketball space.

Bro, Julian Newman gets

hate for sure, in my opinion.

But Hezzi definitely in this space, like, because Julian's not necessarily, like, it's different because Julian's getting into the social media creator basketball world, but Hezzy definitely gets a lot of hate.

I just think it's his style of play like

he's always going for a clip in a way

and some people are with it some people aren't like it's he talks his shit like i i like hezy i like watching hezzy play so i could see why you can't make everybody you know you can't please everybody i could see why people would hate him yeah like the the push-off is like the biggest comment

it's just like disrespectful you know stuff i guess so yeah i get it but um i don't hate him yeah i mean you're doing well man last last year i saw you made a video best year of your life two and a half million dollars in revenue yeah that's insane man yeah man we uh

we did some cool stuff last year i can't wait to make this year's year and i was just talking to you about this i was like man like the difference in last year's year interview video and this year's is going to be insane bro you might hit 10 m's this year

It's possible.

I can see it.

With your growth, I mean, you're really growing right now.

And with the next chapter taking off,

you'll be close.

Yeah, bro.

I don't know.

I got a.

That's crazy to think about, right?

Eight figures.

Yeah.

I've only done it once.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been stuck at seven for a bit, but eight figures is different.

You in a different league at eight figures.

That's

different.

But, you know, people are going to hear this and be like, oh, my God.

Like, you know, but they don't know.

To get to that, you've really got to like reinvest it.

It's definitely a lot of money.

Like we can definitely make a lot of money.

Yeah.

But it's like

to get this to where we really want it to be, you got to turn around and put all eight of them figures back in,

you know?

Yeah, people hear seven, eight figures and they assume you're making millions, but you're not.

Yeah.

I remember making, like doing that in revenue, but making like 100K.

Of course.

People don't realize you got to reinvest it all.

Have to.

I love that mindset, man.

Well, anything else you want to close off with here?

Bro.

How long has it been?

I mean, it's been 42 minutes.

43 minutes.

You usually keep them like pretty.

Usually 45.

Okay.

No, man, just

super grateful to come on to the show i know we've been trying to do this for years now yeah at least two years you were one of the first people i hit up to come on man okay i've been watching you for shit like five years really since you ran in florida wow okay

yeah man no definitely super grateful i'm

excited about this uh i wish i want to bring it up one more time the michael beasley lance stevenson game live on pay-per-view june 6th on tnc league.com it's it's going to be insane they're playing for a hundred thousand We got Kyrie Irving commentating it.

There's going to be a bunch of celebs, a VIP booth, a bunch of really cool names out there.

It's going to be open to the public.

We haven't announced that yet just because it's going to be massive when we do it.

I believe it might be in Miami.

Let's go.

Miami, Florida.

Yeah, man.

Dude, thanks for coming on.

That was fun.

Yep, checking out, guys.

Peace.

Boom.