John Salley On Winning 4 NBA Titles, Getting Into Cannabis & Detoxing the Body | DSH #149

What was the biggest fight you ever saw in practice?

Oh man.

I'm gonna tell you my first fight in the NBA.

Not even me.

I never got into a fight.

These are teeth I need.

I'm in training camp.

I'm a rookie.

And, you know, we're doing Sid Green is here, Rick Mahorn is here.

And they start getting into it.

Rick Mahorn.

So I said, hey, man, we're all one team.

Sid punched me in the jaw and Rick kicked me in the leg.

And when I was on the ground, they were like, stay out of grown folks' business.

And I looked at Chuck Dale and he was like, get up.

And I was like, never again.

Wow.

What point?

Kobe went after Chris Child and put his chin forward and he got chin checked.

Sean Kelly here.

Welcome back to the Digital Social Hour, guys.

I'm here with my co-host Charlie Cavalier and our guest today, John Sally.

What's up?

What's up?

Couldn't wait to get here.

Yeah.

NBA legend and now all about health.

I've always been about health, man, but

I think I

decided in my

early 40s that this was going to be it.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, a lot of guys go into...

When it came down to Phil Jackson giving me a job or Chuck Person, he gave it to Chuck Person.

So I was like, I'm not doing this basketball thing.

Only guy I want to work for

is Phil,

Chuck Daly, but Chuck passed.

So I didn't want to get into the, you know, search around for a job, come to practice type thing.

So I wanted to do what I was passionate about.

And I've always been passionate about being sexy.

So I decided to keep that up.

That's cool to see because a lot of athletes, when they retire, they get kind of lost, right?

They don't know what to do next.

No, and some of them look like they've eaten their young.

So and it's a problem.

It's it is seriously, this is the only spaceship you got.

And it's a problem making it, you know, look like

enterprise.

And to me, this is the enterprise and I gotta keep it going.

Right.

So the logic part of my brain is the Dr.

Spock.

And it tells me, hey, if you eat things that are dead, you're killing your body.

If you eat things

that

too much sugar, that your body can't use, that bring you glucose instead of fructose, that literally go into your fat cells, that

cause your stomach to bloat, cause your heart and your veins to expand.

And I'm not saying I'm 100% right.

I'm just 99.9%.

Wow.

Like, what exactly does it do?

Well, first thing,

if you will get into a house,

let's use a car.

If you got an old clunker, big on TikTok, big on Instagram, when they find a car, they bring it into the shop, and then they move everything out, get out the rat poop, mouse poop, and they clean it, and

you're listening to them do it, you're seeing the brushes, and then you see the car, right?

Haven't started,

but you see it clean and wonderful, and it makes you look like, wow, they brought that back to life.

It's exactly what you have to do with your body.

Wow.

And there's like, I think there's 12 stages you go to.

So in a detox, we put you through 16 weeks.

I know.

It's a long detox.

Yeah.

It may seem like it, but it's in pieces.

Okay.

It's in,

it's not you starving yourself.

It's not you.

It's just literally breaking this down.

We're going to move to this.

Then the next week we're going to go here.

Gotcha.

And the next week, like you're moving like you're going up Mount Everest because that's literally what it is

so we got I say this we got to clean the car we got to get the rat poop out we got to maybe take out the the

carpets and the seats and we got to wash them down and then once we get all that ready then we'll check the engine and see if the engine is back to what it used to be but Think about this, man.

Things that you put in your body.

We all know,

I love cannabis.

I'm a cannabis advocate.

And I didn't do it when I played.

Really?

No.

It was illegal back then, right?

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

I'm black in America.

Everything is illegal.

Yeah, but I think it was better back then.

So

you did not smoke when you were in the league.

I didn't smoke, drink.

Wow.

Nothing.

Yeah.

I didn't want to be known.

Let me tell you, I'm the only one for my project at the time to make it in the pros.

Wow.

And my last name is Distinctive.

And my father said, you wear my name on your back.

I didn't want you when you said my name to come up with something outside of what I designed.

You get some guys who were great players and then you say their name, they go drug addict.

Great players, alcoholic.

Great players, wife beater.

I didn't want that.

I wanted somebody to say, oh, tough defensive player.

Score when he can.

And then have a debate.

Great team.

I wanted my legacy and my fame to be that.

If you see me and you go, I don't like John Sally.

That's literally like Keyshawn Johnson said.

You don't like yourself.

There's a person, and I know it sounds cocky, but it's not.

I don't do things negative to other people.

So if you don't like what I've done, then that has nothing to do with me.

It's on you.

And I didn't want to give you a reason for it.

But when my teammate, I won't say his name, gave me that chronic.

Who was it?

Oh, he has a job now.

I can't say it.

Okay.

I think we know.

Man, my legs felt great.

My back.

Can we know where you were when it happened?

I was in Sacramento and we were probably

fine.

Really?

I'm born and raised.

So the was from SAC.

Oh, I was bomb, I bet.

It might have been from you.

It might have been.

Probably was.

What year was it?

9th

2000.

Nope.

I'm born in 89.

Oh, my God.

You were dealing at 11 from 2000?

Yeah, you wasn't dealing at 11, 11, 19, 10.

Cavalier.

But I had it and I didn't know.

I only believed

all of the junk.

I believed what they used to say.

And when I got out of that, I was like, yo, this is the next thing.

And I don't do anything half-witted, half-.

I jumped in and my daughter and I started Deuces22.

You can check us out, Deuces22.cannabus on Instagram.

And I got into the dispensary.

Now I think we're moving into seven dispensaries.

Wow.

And then, you know, we're building it to sell it.

Nice.

That's awesome.

Definitely getting out of it.

That's the way to do it in the cannabis industry.

I mean, I worked in it from like 14 to 19 in California because I used to work in politics.

Oh.

And I knew my way around the red tape.

And when I saw Mike Tyson came in with a $40 billion compound, I said, Walmart's here.

It's time to get out.

That is what happened.

Yep.

I got into mushrooms now.

Really?

Same.

Yeah.

I got into mushrooms.

I have this

great group that makes these unbelievable mushrooms.

And I looked at, you know, we're going to do some retreats.

retreats nice and but I don't want to be there there's another thing about

this so funny when I told you about the scan and what I'm building I don't touch people okay I used to be hands-on okay adjusting massaging sending my energy and two of my doctors that I work with dr.

Raki God rest his soul and dr.

Shin God rest his soul they both were into touching and trying to help people heal with their energy.

And they both had pancreatic cancer.

Whoa!

And so I said, This has to be, it has to be because these two kindest guys in the world, it has to be something.

And I just think it comes from too much contact, too much getting in touch.

So I can give the advice, move it in the right direction.

I just called my guy in Belize, and I think I want to do some of the things in Belize.

We're not sure.

Yeah.

Wait, so what's in Belize?

Black people that speak English

I just saw my boy Bobby Boutit introduced me to a guy who became like the prince of Belize and I let me go check it and every time Bobby Boutit puts me on something I pay attention.

I don't know man.

I like Palm Springs.

I loved out here in Red Rock

I like Southern California,

Tennessee.

I live in Nashville.

I love Tennessee.

Oh, yeah, man.

I'm not out there.

I love Tennessee.

Really?

Next time you're in Nashville, give me a shout out.

I live on Broadway right across from Bridgetown.

Really?

Yep.

Yeah, I was there last two weeks ago.

Me, too.

I've never been.

I got to get out there.

Yeah, I'm trying to get him out of bed?

I'm trying to get him out there.

Let me tell you something.

Broadway, I tell every artist, I got an artist named Veta Velli.

She's unbelievable.

I said, you have to perform on Broadway.

And she was like, I'm a hip-hop artist.

I want to be.

That's what I said.

When you see it,

you perform, and they walk around with a bucket after they perform.

It's the most humbling thing I have ever seen in my life because

you're putting your heart out, and then you got to go with people and go, give me a tip.

What do you think?

And, you know, some people throw you a dollar.

Some people wave you by.

So you have to go out there.

That's literally hustling for your money.

Wow.

Yeah,

it's a dope.

And I've seen drunk that I've never seen.

Yeah, I saw somebody walking on their hands.

Oh, dude.

I'll do a sober lap around Broadway.

I'll be up working until 1, 2 a.m.

in the morning sometimes, and I'm the only sober one.

I'll do a lap, and you just look in people's eyes, and there's nothing there anymore.

Yeah,

it's bugged out.

Speaking of, you know, the health and wellness stuff, in your career, who took the worst care of their body but was still,

in your opinion, peak athleticism?

Like was somebody eating cheeseburgers at halftime and still dropping 30 and, you know, on the phone?

Oh my god, they eat hot dogs

Just to see guys sneak hot dogs into the locker room eat and then go out there as if they're playing a street game

No, I tell you this.

How about I tell you this how about when I got to the Lakers because by this time I was 35 I get to the Lakers and there's like this room the lounge outside of the but only person in the lounge was Cobedog.

Like nobody else would like really go into the lounge.

That's because he had been there since 4 o'clock.

And we don't have to be there until 6.

And guys

shoot, do whatever, come back in 20 minutes to 7.

Kobe had been there since 4.

So he's mostly, it's like, oh, that's just rest area because he's coming from another area.

Full of fruit.

I saw Pat Riley made sure the place was full of fruit.

Understanding it's the highest vibrating food.

And I know we're going to talk about starch,

carbohydrates, which are,

but those are,

that's my only thing about the difference.

Me being of African descent and you being of cave descent.

We have fruit.

Those fruit give us the unbelievable energy.

A body was built different.

Watch everyone go crazy over what I'm going to say.

But I understood what Dr.

Sebe was saying.

I just say it differently because I still believe we're all human.

It's just that certain things are going to work

in certain ways differently.

Wow.

That's the best way of putting it.

I didn't know that.

Because of genetic, how people are raised.

It's different.

Yeah, like

Dr.

Seibi would say, in Africa, there is none of this, right?

So that's not what your body is designed to deal with.

You have melatonin.

So

melanin in your body, not melatonin.

You have melanin in your body.

So when the sun hits you, you get tons of energy.

It's different than being burnt and not being able to have light eyes and being sensitive.

Your dark eyes, your dark skin,

your curly hair literally is the extension and gives you energy from the sun.

Wow.

It's crazy.

I didn't know that.

So now you're saying I now have an excuse to be bad at certain things out there.

You have an unbelievable.

My man.

My ankles are too big.

Just say that.

My ankles are too big.

So when I think of, you know, you're thinking about what you want your dad to think about when he sees the name Sally on the back.

Yeah.

I think about it being a winner.

You were the first person to ever win a ring with three different teams.

It has been done by a few others now.

You're also the first two millenniums.

Three decades, two millenniums.

I have to know what was the biggest fight you ever saw in practice.

Oh man.

This was old school.

I played for the piston.

I know.

Ooh.

You were the Jordan Rules.

And you.

The biggest fight was.

And I know there was the one because there's, you know what my favorite stat about you is?

What?

You hold hold the record, the Georgia Tech record for most personal fouls in a career.

He's getting four game fouls.

I'm using all of them.

Coach Bridge will be, what are you doing?

I go, I got to let him know I'm here.

I'm skinny.

I got to let him know I'm here.

I saw Mark Aguire go against Bill Lambert.

Oh.

And we were in Portland.

And I never forgot.

that Mark Aguire was dipping back.

I thought I was watching Smoking Joe Frazier.

Like he was dipping back and forth like Mike Tyson.

And I think Bill Lambie was like, oh, baby can fight.

I'm not, and, you know, just backing away from it.

And no one, I'm going to tell you my first fight in the NBA.

Not even me.

I never got into a fight.

Because

these are teeth I need.

I'm in training camp.

I'm a rookie.

And, you know, we're doing Sid Green is here.

Rick Mahorn is here.

And they start getting into it.

And Ricky.

Rick Mahorn.

So I said, hey, man, we're all one team.

And

Sid punched me in the jaw, and Rick kicked me in the leg.

And when I was on the ground, they were like, stay out of grown folks' business.

And I looked at Chuck Daly, he was like, get up.

And I was like, never again.

Wow.

I wore two mouthpieces.

People didn't know that.

One on the top, one on the bottom.

I just knew I was going to need these teeth.

And I wasn't getting them knocked out.

But I learned too.

When guys in, you don't walk up on people with your hands down.

Right.

If you feel like saying something, talk to them like this.

You always say, yo, fam, you better talk like this.

And the point, Kobe went at the Chris Childs and put his chin forward and he got chin-checked.

Oh, Kobe got chin-checked?

Chin-checked.

Yeah, you don't walk up on anybody without chin.

Also, the Rick Fox, Doug Christie situation.

Jordan Poole, too.

Yeah, well, that was a little different.

Well, he knew it was coming.

He did.

I heard some rumors that he said some shit before all that leading up to it.

Probably.

I don't want to repeat it incorrectly, but apparently everyone knew that that was coming when it happened.

Yeah.

So it was like a why no one said anything to the shit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then one got resigned and one got traded.

Yeah.

Just to tell you.

Stuff happens.

Hey, such is life.

Yeah.

New starts.

Out of your three rings, which one was the hardest?

Oh, four, my bad.

Which one was the hardest journey?

First one.

Really?

Yeah, because my first year we get to the Eastern Conference Championship and we get cheated.

I mean, we lose.

I'm a Kings fan.

We get cheated.

Sorry.

We get cheated.

My next year, we beat the Celtics.

They walk off court without shaking our hands.

I just thought I'd mention that.

We come,

we lose, we get cheated again.

We lose to the Lakers.

And then the next year we win the championship.

So 89.

But the hardest was 90 because the next year, so I'm going to say my second, everybody wants to beat the championship team.

Right.

Everywhere you go is a playoff game for 82 regular season games.

Jeez.

Yeah, it was a trip.

We hear that a lot from coaches and players that the hardest thing to do in sports other than winning is repeat.

Back to back.

Yeah.

It is.

It's that mental state, too, man.

You get no time off.

I remember when we won the first championship, everyone said to me, oh man, you guys are going to win next year?

I mean, we had just one.

And that was the question.

What are you going to do next year?

Can we have the parade first?

Yeah, can we have next year?

And then once you win again, they go, hey, you got to get three in a row.

No, I don't.

But you think you got to get three in a row.

Yeah.

That's the tough part.

For sure.

What were the key factors on the championship teams that you think really led them to be successful?

Focus.

Everyone do their role.

And this is the trip.

Mark Aguire,

we call him drawers as my guy, he's a scorer.

He was a scorer.

Everyone knows he's a scorer.

He came on and started playing defense when he got to the pistons.

More defense.

Dennis Robin was a rebounder and a hustler.

Bill Amber is literally focused and a trouble starter and takes all of the

energy because you want to hate him.

He takes all of the hate energy.

Joe Dumas was quiet, silent killer.

Vinnie Johnson should have gotten the ball way more than he should.

I'm saying that for you, who

way more than he should have.

And then Isaiah has to be the ultimate superstar.

Got to play your role, man.

Remember, Chuck Daly said, I see you scored in college.

This is how it works.

He gets it, then he gets it, then he gets it, and he gets it.

If you get it off the backboard, it's yours.

Wow.

Wow.

Imagine being told that as a player, averaging 20 in college.

Yeah, I mean,

you're all ACC.

You made it the Elite Eight.

You were the ACC champ.

And I'm thinking, yeah, I'm going to come in here.

Nah, but I had the best job in the world, man.

Dennis Rodman and I, they put us in the game, and I had fun.

And you would see it, too.

I don't think a lot of people have fun playing pros.

It's not fun.

We mention that a lot, Ashley, how we see people just not having fun with what they do with a daily basis.

I love seeing you had fun.

I had fun.

I had fun and maybe too much fun because my teammates would be like this.

I was like, I'm having fun.

Like, I still treated it like, oh man, I getting in the game.

Here it goes.

I'm going to, you know, you got to remember this, and you got to remember that.

So, to me, I don't know a lot of the technical stuff in sports.

Don't let him put the orange thing in the orange thing.

Put the orange thing in his orange thing.

And you're going to do that for 48 minutes.

You're going to have fun doing it.

So I like that.

And, you know, I started this podcast with one of my NBA buddies named Frank Brokowski.

It's called Legend to Legend.

And, you know, sometime I interviewed just him and then other people and then he'll interview people.

And he was completely in another squad.

And we hit it off.

It was amazing.

We hit it off.

And we've been friends since, I don't know, 1987.

Wow.

And I still haven't been to Montana.

I'm not, you know,

I ain't Kanye yet.

But I haven't.

But I'm going out to Montana and Hang when he came in, we shot, and we talk about things, and I hear his stories and my stories, and I make my stories funny.

Some of his stories, you go, man, who do I donate this money to?

Oh, man.

So

you knew Dennis Rodman at the Pistons and on the 95-96 team.

Obviously, he changed quite a bit during those years.

Yeah.

What was the good and the bad of each version?

I just saw him on Vlad TV

and

after he did that interview he got a tattoo on his face of his now girlfriend.

And

I can't follow what he a lot of times what he says, still my man, I love him to death.

It's like

I used to call him my little brother and he's four years older than me.

The difference is, I think

a lot has been put on Dennis.

Not that he doesn't need it, but a lot.

And he has so many things he gets pulled from.

And we just looked him at it.

We called him Big Man, and he was just happy-go-lucky kid.

The good part is when we first got there, he loved video games.

So we lived in a hotel.

Across the street was the mall.

He would go into the arcade.

You couldn't do that in 2023.

he couldn't play in the video and he would wait we'd be out of practice the kids would get out of school three 3 30 and he's in there you know the same way couldn't do that they would think that is um weird and and not cool um

but i also saw the lights get bigger and him get pulled i watched him on the VH1 reality show and he said some things I had absolutely no idea about.

Wow.

And,

you know, you think you know somebody, but I had no idea about him.

And, you know, he has a lot of things he's dealing with.

So I would say over the time is him having to deal with so many things at this age.

Wow.

So you mentioned you never got in fights, but were you involved with trash talking at all?

Yeah, I talk a lot.

Sugar honey iced tea.

I didn't have to get a fight.

I had Rick Mahorn.

Yeah.

You hit me, Ricky going to kill you.

You can say whatever on the piss.

You can do whatever.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And he's every inch of what he had, too.

I know.

You know what we used to do in Miami?

You know, you do something, you dunk on somebody, and all you're here, and you walk by, and there's a foul, and everyone's going crazy, and you see, that guy's all pissed off.

You go, dunno, dunno, dun, dun, dun.

That'll get you in a fight.

Tough time.

And I wanted to get in a fight with MJ because he dunked on me on CBS, and I know my mother was watching.

Oh, I told him.

he said, God.

I was like, God.

He did that to a lot of people.

That's true.

Yeah, but I didn't want to be one of them.

Were you talking to him?

Constantly.

So it's funny.

No, when I did, I was like, yeah, we're going to get you tonight.

He dropped 63.

So

never said anything else.

You know, a lot of people, and I'm glad I'm on your show to say this.

A lot of people was like thinking I was hating on him.

He's one of my favorite people on the planet.

I've been around around him since earlier than anybody else remembers him.

And I used to say to him, every time I get on the air, I'm going to say opposite.

He goes, you're just going to piss people off.

I go, I know.

I'm going to say opposite of what they say.

And I even said to James Worthy, I said, can you believe skinny Michael Jordan is the Messiah?

And he was like, yeah, man, the way they treat him.

That's James Worthy, who was the number one pick, who was his vet.

You You know, we just can't believe the way it has evolved with people.

Like, I can't believe the way people are treating Steph Curry.

You know, his father, you know, we came out together into the pros.

I got it.

Pause.

We came into the NBA together.

We came out.

We came out together.

Pause.

I ain't in.

I sounded wrong.

I ain't in.

But we came in the NBA together.

We were Playboy Americans together.

And I remember everybody was talking smack about Steph.

And I now see him strengthen his ankles, strengthen his knees, strengthen his shoulders, strengthen his mentality.

And he changed the NBA.

First, Michael Jordan changed the NBA.

And then the next player to change the NBA was Shaquille O'Neal.

But

then Steph Curry.

Not LeBron.

The reason I didn't say that, because

Magic Johnson changed the NBA.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird handled the ball.

They shoot three-pointers, what Bird did.

They drive, they get their plays involved.

LeBron is

that path, right?

They blazed it, and he made it wider.

They made it a two-lane highway.

He made it a six-lane highway.

But Shaquille,

as big as he was and as dominant as he was,

if Shaq

at that time knew what he knows today, he'd been the leading scorer in the NBA.

Wow.

Yeah, it just, you know, they were beating the mess out of him every time they could, and he was, it was personal, it was hurting, he was tired.

If he knew now, it his whole game would have been different.

Wow.

But then Steph Curry, that long ball, the sh fact that when you see somebody shoot it, you don't think they're crazy now.

We used to think it was crazy.

But then you watch Bob Cousy.

If you happen to see any time they show any celtic stuff they show bob koozy shooting from that almost as far

and there was no three-pointer so it made sense to throw it to the biggest guy who was closest to the best right now

you can throw it to him and he wants to dribble out and shoot a three so the game has changed and i i say on my podcast i say i'm tired of all the older guys saying man these guys couldn't play in our day we couldn't play in this day

no way really yeah i watch the nba summer lead on television because if i come here it costs me money um

and

we couldn't do this the way they're playing now it could not play like wow yeah could never well you would have figured out i mean like you your body you could have made it happen but the way i would have brought up it like yeah yeah i would have been because you can't touch anybody right yeah i would have been

So much better.

If we had some of the rules here, I would have not listened to Chuck Daly and I would have grabbed the ball.

Even though I tried a lot just to drive.

I remember one time I grabbed the ball off the backboard and I'm dribbling down court and I toot.

And I'm thinking, what happened?

Yeah, what are you doing?

And I said,

starting the fast break.

So that's Isaiah Thomas.

Yeah.

When you get the rebound, you find one of those two.

He gets it, then he gets it.

Like, understand the routine.

I was like,

dude, I'm from New York.

I'm like Jerry Reynolds, Ice Reynolds.

I can dribble.

Nah, pass the ball.

Keep it moving.

Now Victor's doing it, though.

Yeah.

Victor's doing it.

Yeah, well,

what's his name?

Ball Ball?

Yeah, Bulball.

Yeah.

Yeah, he got cut.

I wonder why he did.

He just got cut, and he seems like, and I don't want to disrespect him by saying this, but he seems like

maybe like a poor man's version of what Victor is.

Or like,

I'm not trying to put him down, but like...

Or vice versa.

Or vice versa, right?

Like, you know, it seems like Wobol has a lot of the same skills that Eminyama does, but like, it's not translating for him right now.

Really?

You don't think so?

I mean, I don't watch unless they pay me, but

because I used to watch for free, and then I realized they were.

You take the pay to play, so yeah.

And they, they,

when I got to the Lakers, they paid me to watch, make sure Shaq didn't fall.

Uh, so to just sit around and give them two hours and not be able to commentate on it.

I don't do that as much, but I'm watching what they put on television now.

Uh, I am definitely a TikTok

addict.

Okay, I have to admit to it.

I have to literally, my phone will beat at a certain time at night, and that means I have to cut it off, put it down.

Wow.

I have definitely joined this society that comes to this cycloness.

But I watch a ton of things on TikTok.

I watch the NBA Finals on TikTok.

Really?

What?

They have it on TikTok to hide it.

Yeah,

somebody was doing it live.

And as opposed to me running home to see it, I just watched their live.

Wow.

And I didn't know how that was legal it probably wasn't it definitely was not yeah but it was cool you just didn't watch during the commercials then it kicked back on oh that's funny it was it was yeah it was funny it was it was fun to watch too uh what was it like um being in the bad boys movie that's an iconic series

uh

yeah we just shot bad boys 4 okay

and

my part

Look, I was with Will.

Will had like this little private screening for Bad Boys 3.

And I'm not going to say anything crazy

because,

well, I wasn't in it.

So I was like, yeah, nice.

I should have been in that one.

He goes, Sal, we had to switch it up.

I was like, okay.

Next thing you know, he calls me, texts me and said, you're going to get a call.

We're going to start shooting two weeks.

You're available.

Yes, sir.

And I went in and I read the script.

And this time I was at the table read.

Nice.

And I I'm telling you, man, it was so cool.

Cause in the other two I weren't in any of the, you know, in the table reads,

they made my part up the first time.

So just being in this one, and then the two young directors killed it.

Martin was back on his high horse.

Nice.

He was back up there doing his thing.

Will was great.

And I think it's the funniest and the most action.

in this four that's going to and the changes are amazing and i i said that i go yo whoever wrote this and then i met the writers.

It did a great job.

Nice.

Great job.

Yeah, Martin Lawrence is amazing.

Blue Street, I mean, there's some underrated Martin Lawrence movies out there.

Tell me.

I remember when Martin first started,

we went to see a screening of his first movie, Talking Dirty After Dark.

Well, his first movie where he was kind of starring and he was in Do the Right Thing.

But this one, he really was doing something.

And he didn't like it as much.

I liked it because, you know, hey, you're doing something.

I I said the same thing to Chris Tucker.

If you're on that screen,

this is, this is, I also, I remember saying this when I was on Best Damn Sports Show to Chris Rose.

If you make it in the NBA, you do not suck.

If you make it on a professional team where they're writing you a contract, you do not, you, you may not be as great as the great ones, but you can't say, oh man, I can't believe this guy.

He sucks.

When you make it to the pros, you don't suck.

You may be in a bad position because, think about it, you may be a great point guard, but then you get drafted to a team with Steph Curry's on.

You ain't going to play unless he gets hurt.

So that doesn't mean you suck.

You just don't have the opportunity or the space.

Same thing with a movie.

If you happen to make it past the producers

into the writing room, into the with the director and they say you got the role you can act period End the discussion.

So, when you see people say, Man, they did a bad actor, a bad act.

Like, I had this conversation the other day on my boy Ari's show, The Beat, on MSNBC.

We do this, he does a series called Fall Back, and I wanted all the critics to fall back on Idol.

I think

The Weekend

did probably the best acting job I've seen of a so-called non-actor

in a long, long time.

I believe he killed it.

I've been around it.

I played pro basketball, but if you ask anybody, I wanted to be an actor.

I just grew to seven foot.

So then when I made that decision that that's what I wanted to do,

Ivana Chubbik, I was in those acting classes.

I took private.

I read books.

I watch movies that you wouldn't normally watch.

So when I watch people like that, when I watch critics who, what they say, when you can't do, you coach, well, if you can't act,

you critique acting.

And I think the weekend did it.

I think the idol, it was so good to me because

I was in the music business, around the music business, and I'm around people in Hollywood.

And the way that they

I guess, create and destroy lives

is a trip.

Hollywood?

Hollywood.

Yeah, well,

you kind of let it happen, but it's a trip.

It's a trip to watch what you have to go through

and what they make you believe.

Seeing what they did to Dave Chappelle is still one of the worst horror stories ever.

Yeah.

And you knew it wasn't.

Yep.

Yeah.

Oh, he's a crack addict.

Yeah.

You knew he wasn't.

No, before he even came back from his vacation, they had already ruined his entire reputation in life because he wouldn't sign for the third season for the amount of money they wanted.

So when they can't control you, they go out.

They just ruin you.

Wow.

That's scary.

You played on a lot of iconic teams.

Yeah.

What player, maybe, like, maybe there was a given month or window.

I mean, obviously, it's easy to say MJ or Shaq, right?

But like, was there ever just a game when you went in knowing that they had no chance because you had so-and-so with you?

Always.

But, like,

what was that pinnacle of that, right?

Because, I mean, you had the Pistons teams.

You were on the 95, 96 Bulls, 99, 2,000 Lakers.

Like, what was

the team where you were just laughing borderline about the ability of the other team to even have a chance?

Chicago Bulls.

Okay.

The

greatest team ever.

We won 72 games.

And I know people who want to argue saying that the Golden State Warriors won 73.

72 and 10 has a better ring to it.

And we won championships.

Well, that's the thing.

It has a better ring to it.

I love that.

I love that.

I can't believe I let that slide in four seconds.

Man.

Good job.

Because when you walk in with MJ,

you're going to win.

Facts.

Like the other team, let me tell you, no one wanted to play against him.

And so all those guys talking about, yeah, I got it.

You had to do that because you knew you were about to get dogged.

But it is.

MJ, you walk in with MJ and you watch.

This wasn't just MJ.

It was the system.

Because no one could beat the triangle system to the point where I watched Steve Kerr

set up the triangle as opposed to starting on the side, it starts high.

Like, he just moved it to this section.

And no one has realized.

Oh, with the Warriors?

Yeah.

Why the Warriors are, where they get to that point,

what's happening, the spacing

that is so important.

I mean, Tex Winters, God Rest His Soul, like, literally autographed the book to me because I would sit and ask them tons of questions about this offense.

And I'm going to tell you, if I were the coach, I would want to be in the NBA, but that means, you know, you can't go to the same nightclubs.

Guys can't date the same women.

That was a problem back then.

I'm just joking.

Kind of.

It's probably a bigger issue down to social media.

Don't be sliding in those DMs, players.

I could not have lived with DMs.

No, definitely not.

I mean, too much evidence.

Too much.

Too much.

Like,

the best thing about being a professional athlete back in the day was city to city to city.

You had a different look, a different feel.

Accents were different.

Clothing was different.

Restaurants were different.

It was cool.

Now, with the internet, and I say this, and I'm not being an old guy when I say this, everything's vanilla.

I was in the airport, like I said, and I saw these guys wearing clothes, and I said, oh, I know where he got those.

I know where he got those pants.

I know where he got that bag.

Everyone is starting to look alike.

Everything looks alike.

When I used to be able to go down to Georgia, they dressed a certain way.

You go to Philadelphia, they cut their hair in a fade.

Then I got up to New York so you can look like Big Daddy Kane.

And then in California, they had Jerry Curl or Shag,

also in the South.

It was just different.

Now, everything's the same.

Girls got the same eyelashes, the same Botox, the same injected booty and new boobs,

and they all rhyme the same.

That's so true.

There's no personality, there's no personality.

No, social media.

Every other city we go, every other city we go.

I'll let you finish the Tupac song.

I won't.

I know it.

I was ready for that one.

When you look back at the coaches you played for, which ones stand out to you?

Chuck Daley.

Why?

Daddy Rich was an old-time Irish dude, man.

And, you know, the voice, the demeanor, the energy,

and the respect.

You know, a lot of guys don't realize when they see guys, these young guys coming to NBA,

they know you're young and they cuddle you.

So Daly would be like, hey, this is what I need you to do,

and would talk you through, just not in the game.

He's not going to cuddle you during the game.

He's already told you what was going on.

Phil Jackson, same way.

We yell and blow whistles in practice.

So when the game comes, you could dance like you're supposed to.

I said something negative

about

Kevin Lockery.

He was my coach in Miami.

I said something negative because I felt he did so much negative to me.

And then I apologized.

I was like, I didn't need, you know, he probably going through whatever he was going through.

You got coaches, man, trying to take care of Fortune 500 teams.

You got 12, what I mean, Fortune 500 companies on your squad.

Like, I saw a player get $26 million the other day.

Like, there's companies that don't gross in the millions.

These guys are getting it per year to do what...

Most guys are doing for free, or what I would have done for free until I learned I can get paid for it.

Such a call girl.

But

that's my mentality.

The mentality of a coach who can bring things out of you, teach you things, and not make you feel bad.

Some coaches thought it was important to embarrass you, break you down,

and then build you back up.

I didn't like

Bobby Knight.

I used to watch that and didn't think I liked, man, I got on the best damn sports show.

I got to know Bobby Knight.

I almost went fishing.

And I'm a vegan vegan just to hang around.

Like,

I was like, man, if you would have come recruit me,

I would have been in Indiana.

Wow.

Like, that's how much I like Bobby Knight.

So certain coaches, you know, move you a certain way.

Yeah.

But when it comes down to it,

I love Coach Malone.

Like, so Brendan Malone's son is now.

the winner of the championship.

So, and I said to Isaiah, I said, am I imagining this?

He goes, no.

He used to run his little ass around the locker room.

You remember that?

I go, man,

now he's winning championships and cursing.

He's like, you know, it's in the blood.

I love Coach Malone.

He recruited me to go to Syracuse.

Wow.

So that's how long I love him.

Why did you choose Tech?

I went to Georgia Tech because I'm smart.

Good education system?

Yeah, I went to Georgia Tech because, no, I went to Georgia Tech because, one, I didn't think anybody in my neighborhood would drive to Georgia.

Driving to South Carolina was

18 hours.

They wasn't going to keep coming down to Georgia.

I think the next reason I went is it was in Atlanta, Georgia.

And I was 18 years old with no parents.

And I was in chocolate, the unbelievable

chocolate city.

And

it was new for me.

But Georgia Tech also was an unbelievable institution of higher learning.

Amazing school.

And when you get out of there, everyone was saying,

you know, talking about whether you get a job.

That was the place, if you did have to find a place to get a job.

Delta, American Express, Coca-Cola, those are all alums.

And when you look at it that way, that was it.

And

we were, you know, Coach Perry Clark, I talked to him today.

Nice.

Bobby Crimmon still sends me a postcard.

A guy who used to look out for me, John Stanford.

And what I mean look out for me, John Stanford didn't give me any money, but he gave me advice.

And he was a nice guy to be around.

And his daughters and his wife are all great to me.

And, you know, you don't always, they call them boosters.

It literally is the booster morale.

John Stanford, I still talk to him.

So this was a place where I had lasting relationships.

I said my favorite coach at one time is Coach Felton.

He's in the pros now.

Those, I picked the right place.

I knew I was going to have lasting relationships.

I didn't go to Syracuse because

even though Brendan Malone wanted me,

what's the coach?

Bayham?

Yeah, Boham, yeah.

Boham, yeah.

I think he's a.

Still do.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not one of my favorite people.

Not one of your favorite?

No.

I thought he was like a legendary coach.

Yes.

Oh, really?

that's what i heard i don't know what's what i don't know anyone that played for him though he he won a championship when mellow was there right um he's enjoyed one of the longest tenures of anybody in college sports yeah i tried i talked to him i saw him one day and i said something to him and he goes uh

I said something.

I said, coach, I'm saying, he said, hey, I said hello, John.

Like, whatever.

And I was like, in my brain, I was like, God, I wish I could smack this dude.

Oh, so he's kind of like.

Yeah, I just, and I didn't like him when I was about to go in.

And I just feel like, and then it's not even a big East.

It's like Syracuse was where I wanted to go.

Pearl, Washington, and I had been up there, Kenny Smith,

we were all up there in Paya State games playing in Syracuse.

And, you know, you get to play with the orange.

And they had Window Alexis in front of me, and he felt he was a better player.

And then I just didn't think he was a good guy.

Yeah.

Wow.

And from what I read, I was right.

Yeah.

John, it's been a pleasure, man.

What are you working on next?

Literally, just check me out, johnsally.com, man.

And I want you guys, I want to, even though when you do your scan, I want to show you, and maybe, you know, you take some of my herbs.

Yeah.

And then some of them you can smoke.

We'll do a body scan, we'll do a smoke session, we'll go vegan for a month.

A month?

First, we're going to detox you.

Okay.

Detox first.

Detox first.

Four-month detox.

Yeah.

16 weeks.

16 weeks.

That's only because I want you to take your time and I want you to see it happen.

And then we reboot you.

Okay.

Let's do it.

I'm down.

All right.

Thanks for tuning in, guys.

I'll see you next time.