CJ Watson Reveals What It’s Like to Guard Kobe & LeBron | DSH #1616
Former NBA star CJ Watson joins the Digital Social Hour podcast to discuss his transition from a professional basketball career to becoming an author, investor, and mentor. In this episode, CJ reflects on his time in the NBA, his toughest matchups like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and how the league has evolved over the years. He also talks about life after basketball, including his ventures into angel investing, writing children's books, and his passion for giving back through the Quiet Storm Foundation.
CJ shares insights into balancing life as a father, inspiring the next generation, and navigating the business side of sports and investing. From turning his books into a potential cartoon series to empowering kids with educational programs, CJ’s next chapter is all about making an impact beyond the court.
💡 What You’ll Learn
🎯 How CJ Watson handled guarding Kobe Bryant and LeBron James
📈 What it takes to last a decade in the NBA without getting traded
🧠 The mindset behind greats like Steph Curry and Derrick Rose
💰 How CJ transitioned from NBA player to angel investor
🎬 His plans to turn children’s books into a cartoon series
🏀 Why modern NBA lacks veteran mentorship and leadership
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Toughest player to guard
00:36 - What's new with you
01:28 - Toughest age to parent
01:30 - Focus in teenage years
02:05 - Challenges of college basketball
02:21 - Toughness of the NBA
04:10 - Thoughts on the playoffs
04:51 - Playing in today's NBA
05:49 - Steph's rise to stardom
06:26 - Warriors' championship future with Steph
10:41 - Quince
11:45 - Unguardable players in basketball
14:02 - Social media backlash in sports
16:48 - Life after the NBA
17:53 - Recommended books
18:20 - Favorite podcasts
19:30 - Your foundation and philanthropy
20:11 - Las Vegas experiences
21:36 - Education system in Las Vegas
22:05 - Mental health awareness in sports
23:12 - Pickleball insights
24:06 - Where to find CJ
24:50 - Subscribe for more content
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♟️ CJ Watson — https://www.instagram.com/quietstorm_32/
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📸 Sean Kelly Instagram: @seanmikekelly
⚠️ DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by guests on Digital Social Hour are solely those of the individuals appearing on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, Sean Kelly, or the Digital Social Hour team.
While we encourage open and honest discussions, Sean Kelly is not legally responsible for any statements, claims, or opinions made by guests during the show.
Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and seek professional advice where appropriate. The content shared is for entertainment and informational purposes only — it should not be taken as legal, medical, financial, or professional advice.
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🏷️ Keywords
CJ Watson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls, NBA stories, unguardable players, Steph Curry, basketball mindset, NBA transition, angel investing, athlete investors, NBA veterans, Golden State Warriors, basketball podcast
#angelinvesting #nbacareer #youthmentorship #vegasbasketball #nbainsights
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Transcript
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Was that like the toughest matchup you've ever had to guard?
Him or Kobe. Kobe for sure, yeah.
Kobe. Kobe was just like, I don't know what I was doing.
I was calling for a double team.
Yeah, one-on-one against Kobe. What are you going to do? Yeah, yeah, you got to, you know, got to ask for help.
So, yeah.
I don't know why Coach Nelson asked me to guard him.
Well, you were known as the guard, the defender, right? Yeah, but I was still a small point guard. You know, he was 6'6, 6'7, so a lot different.
All right, guys, got CJ Watson here, Vegas local, former NBA player, children's author, children book author, right? Yep. Yeah, what's what's new with you lately, man?
Uh, nothing, man, just uh getting ready for school. I got three kids, so they're about to start school again, so that time coming around again.
Nice. What grades?
One's about to be a senior, fourth grade, and then pre-K. Which age rates do you think is the toughest to parent? Right now, teenager.
Teenager. What makes teenagers so different? They just talk back.
They think they know everything. You know, you can't really tell them anything, but they'll come back eventually, hopefully.
I feel like that's a rebellious phase for a lot of people, right?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I wonder what the science is behind that, honestly.
That's a good question, yeah. Yeah, I just, even myself, I just started talking back a lot to my mom at that age.
Yeah, I mean, mean, I think as a teenager, you're trying to get independency.
So you think you're, you know, you know everything and just trying to go into it. And I think you know everything about the world, which you don't.
So still a lot to learn.
Was basketball your main focus at the teenage years? Basketball, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
Basketball and just, yeah, just having fun with my friends. So you knew very early you wanted a hoop?
I knew I wanted to go to college. I knew I wanted to help my parents on the financial side for not having to pay for college.
So that was my whole focus of getting to basketball and just getting good grades and stuff like that. Okay, so college was your ceiling? Yeah, for sure.
So you didn't even think NBA?
All my dad's friends, when I see him now, they said I did, but I don't remember it. I just remember just having fun, playing basketball, and then wanting to go to college.
But I think once I got to college, I figured out that NBA was close. So I was like, hey, I'm going to take it serious.
Was that transition from high school to college pretty tough?
No, not really. I think it was just more so just learning the game, learning the speed of the game, and then learning the ways I can score,
ways I can, you know, get to my spots in the court and also help my teammates out. Nice.
What about college to NBA transition? Very tough.
It's more so on the business side, I think, just trying to figure out, you know,
how to be, how to have a long career and not just, you know, have a two or three year career, but have like a 10, you know, 12 year career. Right.
And back then, when your era, they valued the vets, right? So they were showing them over the new guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Vets were always playing. The rookies were never playing.
So it was very hard as a rookie to get on the court unless you went to like a terrible team when they knew you had a lot of playing time. Now I feel like it's the opposite, right?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's no vets, hardly.
There's no coaching, like no, no one to really show you the game or give you the wisdom or knowledge. The stuff that they learned, I feel like you got to go out and search for it.
Right.
I feel like there should be a middle ground there. Yeah, there should be.
I definitely think there should be more vets because, like I said, it makes the league better. It makes it last longer.
It makes guys, you know, play for, you know, another four or five years. But also, just like I said, just learning from others' mistakes.
I think that's a good thing about life.
I wonder if the NBA is going to head towards a shorter career span like the NFL is right now. I mean, I would hope not.
I mean, just based off the current, like, yeah, yeah.
Because now you need to be athletic, you need to shoot. Yeah, yeah.
People are getting injured. Yeah, a lot more.
I think they got to figure out the injury stuff.
You know, it may be shortened a season, you know. A lot of games being played, a lot of back-to-back.
So, but I doubt that will ever, the back-to-backs at least will ever change. You don't think so?
I don't think so. It wouldn't make sense for the calendar, I guess, right? Yeah, yeah.
I think they can shorten the games a little bit, but not the back-to-backs. You know, they got to make money.
Yeah. I think, what, eight ACL tears this year? Yeah.
A lot of big-name players. Yeah.
I think they all won number zero, too, which is crazy. I know.
We don't have to get concerned about the terrorists. I'm not a Toronto.
Zero and pink shoes. Were they all wearing pink shoes? Yeah.
That's crazy. Crazy, right? Yeah, I know.
I don't know how to know the pink shoes. Yeah.
Gilbert wore zero too, and he used to get injured a lot. Yeah, that's crazy.
I don't know, man.
Don't wear pink. Yeah, can't wear pink.
What did you think of the playoffs this year? Did you watch them? Yeah, I watched it a lot. It was great.
I mean, it's great basketball.
I definitely didn't see OKC going that far. Oh, really? Not that far, at least.
Even the one seed? Yeah, I thought Denmer would have upset him. Okay.
So I thought Denmer was a more experienced team.
But, you know, youth is a great thing. And when you got one of the best players on the planet, you know, in Shea, it shows a lot.
Yeah. His team just rode with him.
Well, MPJ was injured.
He announced it after, but he couldn't even shoot or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's tough. Yeah, it happens.
You know, it's a long season, grueling season, and it's got to make sure your body's up for it. My trainer said during that series, whoever wins that series is winning the chip.
Yeah, that's what I said too. Yeah.
But nobody listened.
You think you could play in the game right now, though?
Like today? No, like if you had your talent in your peak? Oh, I think so, yeah. I think it all transfers.
I think I was a player who did, I didn't, I wasn't really good at one particular thing.
I was decent in a whole bunch of things. So I definitely think it would have transferred.
I would have figured it out.
Yeah, I always wonder because people compare eras right now. It's just such a different game than when you played.
Yeah, a lot faster.
I think I would definitely would have thrived in like the one-on-one system and like shooting the threes and getting to the foul line and stuff like that.
But yeah, I think it would definitely have been fun to play in this era because, I mean, it's all offense, really.
Did you see it turning into the way it is now? Like, did you see that while you were playing at all?
I wouldn't say I saw it, but I saw, you know, Golden State was coming up at that time. They were really one of the only teams that were just running gun.
And everyone tried to kind of copy what they did. But every team is not built like that.
So
it was definitely fun to be able to kind of see that era kind of start and transcend. Yeah, and you played with staff, right? Young stuff.
Yeah, yeah, young stuff, yeah.
No one would have ever thought that he would be, you know, this big of a player, a superstar, change the game like he did, but you saw the work ethic, you saw the tenacity, the will to be great and stuff like that.
That's what I hear, even from his former teammates, are like, they have no idea. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it just happens, man. It just happens.
He's had a lot of ups and downs, too.
So, you know, it comes with the territory just for anybody. So it's just part of his story.
Yeah, I think his mindset is underrated. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
He had all those ankle injuries early on, like you said. He could have probably retired younger.
Yeah, and given up and quit and all that kind of stuff.
But he stuck with it and got healthy and now is one of the greatest players ever. Crazy.
You think Golden State will get another one while he's there? No, I don't think so.
Oh, I might piss him off. Not with the team they got.
I mean, you got to be realistic. Okay.
I mean, he's getting older, which is, you know, it's a part of basketball, part of sports, but not with the team they got. What do you think they need to change?
Because I think they could still win with Steph, though, right? I think they can still win with Steph. They need another star, like, you know, who can dominate the ball.
Like, Jimmy is a star, but he's not a dominant offensive player he he gets buckets but not not to the way like you know Steph does or a KD or somebody like that so and they need a big they don't have any bigs to protect the rim and Draymond can only do so much that's what happened to my Lakers man no big yeah no big I think with a good big they would have won yeah you think Aiden's gonna be the
all right let's be honest glad you said it
I mean like just I like playoff history yeah with players and the mindset's important to me I don't know if Aiden he has to prove himself still sure yeah I think Braun could bring that out of him though you know you know so.
Yeah, I mean, some players, you've probably experienced this are just really consistent in the regular season, but I think when it comes to the playoffs, the mindset kicks in, right?
Yeah, the mindset, the pressure, the lights, you know, it's a different pressure when you're in the playoffs because,
you know, it's winner-go-home. So if you don't do well, you know, it all rides on you.
Yeah. Which playoff series that you played in still you still think about?
The one with Philadelphia when I was with the Bulls. Yeah.
Yeah, we lost that. We should have won.
It was right when D. Rose got hurt
the second year.
And, yeah.
If you won that one, you would have won the. You think you would have won the chip that year? I don't know if we would have won the chip.
We would have definitely won.
I think we would beat Bob Austin and went to the Eastern Conference Finals again. Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, without Derek Rose, I mean, we're not going to go too far. Yeah.
I can only take you so far.
What was it like playing with him and just learning from him? It was cool, man. It was cool just to see him grow as a player.
Seeing him before.
I knew a little bit about him, but didn't know how good he was.
Just seeing his mindset, his his tenacity,
just the way he worked. He put in a lot of work.
If he didn't get injured, it's one of those what-if videos, right? Yeah, yeah. His ceiling was.
It was crazy.
Yeah, I've seen a lot of all-star players, you know, kind of say they were sick because they didn't want to guard Nero's at night. Crazy, right? So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to name any names.
He was relentless. Yeah, he was crazy that year.
The MVP year was like nothing I've ever seen before. And you knew he was taking it to the rack every time.
You couldn't stop him. Yeah.
You knew he wasn't going to shoot a jump shot.
He was either going to go to the rim, shoot a floater, or dunk it. You think he was just so much faster than everyone? What do you think it was?
It's just athletic ability, just the will to get to the rim.
You know, I can't really knock this jumper down, but I'm going to get there somehow, some way. And he had like all the moves.
He was super fast, super quick, especially like on the speed of a dime.
He can stop on a dime and change directions like no other. Right.
A lot of players say he could have been the greatest point guard of all time if he didn't get in. Oh, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, he's still a great dude. He still had a great career, you know, doing well in life.
So, you know,
it just happens to the best of them. It was cool to see him develop a jumper later on in his career, too.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
The jumper, you know, more, he was more talkative, I feel like.
Yeah, I mean, it's just, I think as a person and a player, you grow over time and as you get older. So
it all happens to the best of us. Yeah.
You still think about the Pacers Heat rivalry, too? Yeah, yeah, that was a good rivalry.
Once again, you know, Ghana and LeBron and his team beat us in the playoffs, so we couldn't get past them.
But it was fun just to, you know, kind of play those games and be in that atmosphere and, and, you know, being close to being in the championship series. Yeah.
Did you ever talk to Braun on the court?
Get in his head, try to get in his head? I didn't talk to him, but, you know, I just talked trash here and there. My daughter still doesn't like him to this day because he fouled me hard one time.
Oh, really? Yeah, and she didn't like that.
He's not really like that, though. No, no, no.
It was just like, you know, in the heat of the game. It wasn't like, you know, bad or anything, like a flagrant.
It was just like a hard foul.
But he's like. two, three times the size of me.
Yeah, he was different in the playoffs, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Man, he just had to switch. Yeah, especially in Miami.
It was like, it was crazy. Yeah.
His athletic ability. Was that like the toughest matchup you've ever had a guard?
Him or Kobe. Kobe for sure.
Yeah. Kobe.
Kobe was just like, you know, I don't know what I was doing.
I was calling for a double team.
Yeah, one-on-one against Kobe. What are you going to do? Yeah, yeah.
You got to, you know, you got to ask for help. So, yeah.
Yeah. I don't know why Coach Nelson asked.
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Was that like the toughest matchup you've ever had to guard?
Him Him or Kobe. Kobe for sure, yeah.
Kobe. Kobe was just like, you know, I don't know what I was doing.
I was calling for a double team.
Yeah, one-on-one against Kobe. What are you going to do? Yeah, yeah, you got to, you know, you got to ask for help.
So
I don't know why Coach Nelson asked me to guard him.
Well, you were known as the guard the defender, right? Yeah, but I was still a small point guard. You know, he was 6'6, 6'7, so he's a lot different.
When you hear this term unguardable, like, do you believe actually, like, people can be unguardable? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, Shay's unguardable, you know, Joker, LeBron, to an extent, you know, Steph to an extent. So, KD, you know, a lot of great players out there who are unguardable.
You need two or three guys or a whole team, you know, to kind of stop them. Or
I don't think you'll ever shut them down, but you can make their night tough. Yeah.
So, you think one-on-one that you just can't do anything?
One-on-one, yeah, yeah, you can't, especially with the elite players. Wow, that's crazy to have a bag that deep that no one can guard you in the world.
Yeah, it's crazy. Kyrie, would you put Nakai?
Kyrie, for sure.
It's a lot of guys. One-on-one, it's a tough guard.
I wonder if, because I know defensively you used to be able to put hands on people back in the day. I wonder if it's because they took that away.
Probably, yeah, yeah. A lot of that comes to it.
You know, like, that's why Jordan was so kind of dynamic because even how great he is, because he did all that in the era where you could punch people and, you know, damn their elbow and do all that kind of stuff to them.
So, but yeah, if he played in this era, he'd be probably averaging, you know, 40 or 50 points. Damn.
I think so. For sure, yeah.
Holy crap. So he's your goat, it sounds like.
Yeah, yeah. yeah.
Yeah, I know that's always a debate. What if Braun gets one or two more? I think he moves ahead of Jordan.
Yeah? Yeah. Okay.
Right now, he's, for me, it's Jordan, Kobe, and then Braun.
Oh, you got Kobe over Braun? Yeah, yeah. Wow.
That's everybody dismisses Kobe. I don't know why.
No, you're right, though. A lot of people do.
Some people have Kobe outside their top 10.
Yeah, that's crazy to me. Yeah, I think they didn't watch a lot of basketball.
I don't know if it was Skip Bayless. Yeah, probably not.
No, Skip's got the wildest taste. Yeah, yeah.
I don't listen.
I don't watch TV, so. Oh, yeah.
What do you think about him? Like, you never saw a clip about him?
I mean, I see clips here and there, yeah, but I don't really like watch it to understand or I think or just kind of recollect what he's saying or whatever.
So, but yeah, a lot of his takes are outlandish, I'm sure. That's a component of the game that you didn't have to deal with, the social media backlash, right? Yeah, yeah.
No, a little bit, yeah.
I mean, when we lost in the playoffs that year to Philadelphia, I got a lot of death threats
for
passing the ball. So, but yeah, I mean, like I said, passing too much? No, well, it was like a last 10 seconds of the game.
We're up by two, or up by one.
I passed it to my center, who before that, he made it like every free throw. Yeah.
And he misses the two that could have put us at three.
And they come down, they get fouled, they hit both free throws, they go up one, so we lose the game.
But in game six. So you got to blame for that.
I got to blame for it, yeah. But, you know, it is what it is.
That's rough. Did that really affect you mentally? You get in those notes? No, no, no.
I feel like, you know, social media at that time was like just starting. So, and even then, I feel like if someone wants to threaten me, they'll walk up to me and say it.
So none of those people who tweeted that will have said, came up to my face and said that. That's good.
I just wonder these days with all the players, like some of them definitely have to be feeling the heat. Yeah, yeah.
And I'm sure they look at it.
You know, it's hard not to look at it when you're on social media with all that stuff going around. So, I mean, it's everywhere.
And then you hear like the whispers from friends or family in your circle, stuff like that. So yeah, it's definitely, I'm sure a lot.
You got to be just mindset focused. I heard some of them at halftime are on Twitter.
I'm sure on bad teams, yeah, it's like that.
Not on good teams.
You played on a lot of teams. Did you see any of the trades coming or were they all shocks? So I never got traded.
Oh, you never got traded? It was like a sign-in trade, so I'm not really traded.
I got to pick my destination, which is cool. Wow.
So that was like the great thing about my career. Yeah, it was never like a traded, but I was always definitely like worried maybe
during trade deadline in February if I was going to get traded or not because sometimes I wasn't playing the best maybe, but I was still a good fit for that team. But yeah, I never got traded.
Damn, I feel like that's rare for your 10-year career. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, rare. Yeah.
but like I said, I'm definitely blessed to be able to pick my destinations and pick where I wanted to go.
These days, it feels like there's a lot of musical chairs. People are saying there's no loyalty anymore.
What do you think about that? Yeah, there's definitely no loyalty.
I think the teams are doing, you know, it's a business. You got to understand that coming into it.
So, you know, business-wise, you got to do what's best for you.
I think the players have a lot of say-sale now more than they ever did. So I think that's a good thing, too.
Favorite team to play on for you?
The Bulls, because
we had the best record two years in a row and went to the Eastern Conference Finals. Damn, that's nice.
Do you ever regret not winning a chip?
I mean, I feel like what's meant to be was meant to be. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
I know some people hold that over people's heads. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
Yeah.
You only have, there's 32 teams. You only have so much control, right? Sure, yeah.
It's only one winner at the end anyway, so everyone's a loser.
I know Shaq always gives Chuck some heat.
Yeah, when you're in that kind of stage, yeah. I mean, Kenny won two, Shaq won four.
So, yeah, Chuck's the odd man out. Yeah.
Let's talk about post-NBA career. You're an active angel investor, right?
You're also an author. What have been some good investments for you?
I invested in Instacart, invested in a pickleball team.
So it's kind of a little bit all over the place, tech, health, and wellness.
So I love the angel investing.
private equity VC world. So it's always interesting to me.
So always trying to learn more about it, go to conferences and seminars and stuff like that.
So it's always cool to meet different founders and see what they're cooking up and all these cool ideas I'm coming up with. That's cool, man.
So you might make more off investing than your NBA career.
That's the plan. That's what I, when I started, that was my goal, to make more off my, off this venture and then, you know, then my playing career.
So I think if I can do that, that'd be kind of, that'd be success to me. Nice.
Were you investing as a player or you waited? No, I waited.
So I didn't even know anything about it until maybe 2020 was my first investment. Who put you on? The guy named Rashawn Williams.
He's my mentor. He's on Shark Tank now.
So
always kind of bouncing ideas off of him, asking him for information, insight, getting books to read from him so it's always cool to you know just to have someone to tap into nice what books have the biggest impact on you
my favorite book the one that he recommended is why should all the white guys have fun it's a really good book I haven't heard that one yeah it's really good
so yeah I love that book I love A-less angels is always a good one for me just to see the different things that celebrities or athletes or entrepreneurs are getting into and like I said just the different ideas they come up with nice I love books man so I'm gonna check those those out.
Yeah. Books changed my life.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And pods.
Yeah. Do you listen to any pods? I listen to
All-An.
I've never heard of that one. Chamoth? Oh, no.
It's like
someone sent me that one. Yeah, it's like an investing one kind of where you talk about he was doing Coke or something.
Oh, was he?
Oh, I didn't even know that. Okay.
Someone just sent me the clip. It was funny.
I wonder which one of the four was talking about that. That's interesting.
My First Million is a good one. Okay.
Yeah. Which one do you listen to, though? I listened to this one.
My oldest daughter plays volleyball. It's the one called Volleyball Dads.
There's another one that talks about sports and tech. I forgot the guy's name.
Volleyball Dads. Wow, there's a podcast for everything, man.
Yeah, yeah. Seriously.
Volleyball Dads. Yeah.
But yeah, I just listen to it kind of like on the airplanes or driving stuff sometimes. Yeah.
So is investing the main focus for you right now?
Investing, trying to turn my books right now to a cartoon series. Nice.
So working on that and then just the foundation we have here for kids. So that's about it.
Please do the cartoon because I feel like cartoons suck these days. Yeah.
For kids.
Yeah, I think there's not a lot of African-American cartoons out there either and ones that teach and preach positivity. So that's what I'm trying to get into that lane.
Nice. That'd be awesome, man.
Is that what the foundation is about, too? No, foundation is about, we have a free basketball camp. We have an out-of-school health program and also a black history essay contest.
So just trying to empower kids, give them a different sense of humility, sense of being, and just a chance that knowing that they can go out there and make it. That's important for you.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, because you mentioned growing growing up in a tough environment right yeah yeah yeah here growing up here in the inner city uh you know i didn't have a lot of uh people to look up to especially not like you know sports athletes that came and gave back so i just wanted to be that kind of you know that that mentor for those kids and let them know that you can make it you don't have to be a basketball player you can do whatever you want to do so you know entrepreneur doctor lawyer so i didn't have to go and be athlete like most people think we are i love it so you grew up in vegas yeah born and raised a lot's changed since then yeah yeah it's definitely changed yeah a lot lots changed i feel like the sports scene has changed i feel like when i was younger they would say we never would get a team professional team and now we have you know three or four and more coming so whispers of an nba team right i'm sure it's coming
all the locals know but we can't really talk about it you know but yeah maybe baseball too we'll see yeah for sure yeah
yeah vegas uh people are getting priced out we're at the point now where it's like booming right yeah vegas is expensive now man i think i was looking at something the other day it was like you got to make at least a hundred thousand to be comfortable and that's you know i saw that yeah yeah that's a lot for for most people
average income's 50k so right.
Yeah, it's tough So I was reading this this there's this guy named Jacobs life in Vegas and um he was talking about like these resort fees now basically it's like a hundred bucks in fees Yeah, it's crazy like that just for one night.
Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah, people don't even want to come here anymore
The party scene has died. I mean back when you were growing up here the mob was kind of running a little bit right that's what I heard I don't know
allegedly and uh yeah people are just can't afford meals now on the strip yeah yeah yeah it's crazy yeah everything's getting expensive, man. That's why we've got to keep
building, keep making money, keep, you know, creating things. Yeah.
You plan on staying here for a minute, though? I think so. I think so, yeah.
Maybe until my youngest ones gets out of colle or goes to college. So, but we thought about moving a couple times, we just haven't.
Now, we do get flacked for the education system, so how did you go about that with your kids? They're in private school, fortunately, so I think that's a good thing about that.
Living in Vegas, but yeah, if I had to put them in a public school, I don't know where I would put them because it's terrible. We're the second worst in the country.
Yeah, it's bad.
It's been like that for a long time. Is that where you went when you were here? I went to the same school.
My oldest daughter goes to Gorman. Oh, so you went private? Yeah, yeah, private school.
Yeah, Gorman's known for athletics, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My parents were, uh, got a scholarship, so I couldn't afford it. So damn.
Well done. You want your kids to be athletes, or do you own them? No, I didn't want them to be playing sports at all.
Really?
It's kind of surprising. My daughter, you know, took up sports and is playing volleyball and stuff like that.
Why didn't you want them to play sports?
Because I just know the ups and downs you can go through.
I had a lot of friends with mental issues and depression and all that kind of stuff. So I didn't really want them to
go through that. But sports teaches us a lot of lessons, being resilient, teamwork, all these things.
So it was good for them to learn those life lessons.
Respect, because that's a hot topic right now. Parents vicariously living through their kids when it comes to sports.
For sure, yeah.
I said I would never be that parent because I've seen a lot of kids, you know, and their parents do that to their kids, and I didn't want that for my kid.
Yeah, and then the kid grows to hate the sport. Yeah, hate the parent.
Right. Hate the parent, hate the sport that they once loved.
Not a good thing.
They turn a fun sport into a job yeah yeah at a young age yeah so and the aau circuit's under a lot of attack right now yeah because you see a lot of that right yep and it's not about development for an au system it's just about you know who can make the most money off a kid and a team and stuff like that so yeah i think it needs to be moved back to development and just growing the kids and having fun and you know then if they go to to be a pro then they'll be a pro but absolutely don't force it on them yeah you said you invested in a pickleball team yeah yeah that's hot right now yeah it's hot hopefully you know it it comes you know and does uh does big things you know, gives me an ROI.
So, but uh, I think it's a fun game. Uh, it's fun for me because I played it and I got the email a couple days later.
So, I was like, Yeah, let's try it. Let's do it.
Paddle's hot right now, too.
Have you seen it? Yeah, yeah. I have a place right next door from my house is a Plato Place.
Same with me. They're all there.
We're near there all the time. Yeah, we're neighbors.
There's only one place in Vegas. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, is it on Section 10? Yeah. Yeah, that's where I live.
Yeah. Yeah.
Small world. Yeah, I played there.
It was super hot outside, but it was fun. Yeah.
You could just slam it. Yeah, I never played it, but I always see them outside playing.
So, yeah, that's hot, man. Um, but pickleball, man, lifetime replaced their basketball courts with it.
Yeah, that's crazy, yeah, yeah, because there's too many fights on the court, right?
For basketball, yeah, plus, pickleball probably makes them more money because all ages can play, yeah, yep, yeah, so I'd be more year-round, too. Yeah, yeah, well, dude, this has been cool.
You play a lot of poker, too, now? I have no clue how to play poker. Oh, so you're just playing tonight for fun?
Yeah, last time I played in Blake's tournament, uh, I think I was maybe the first or second person out there.
I don't know how to play at all. You don't know the best hands? I mean, I looked up the rules, but I don't know if that's going to help me at all.
I need more practice. Well, good luck, man.
Maybe you'll make a deep run tonight. No, I appreciate it.
I've tried. Yeah.
And where can people find you and find the books and find the charity and everything? You can find the books at cjpins.com.
I'm on Instagram, Twitter, X, Twitter, whatever. Facebook, QuietStorm underscore 32.
And the foundation's website is quietstormfoundation.org. Awesome.
We'll link below. Thanks for coming on, man.
Appreciate it, man. Thanks.
Check them out, guys. Peace.
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