Keepin' It A Hundo

Growing up in South Central LA, Gary Hamilton didn’t even start playing basketball until he was 16. He was lightly recruited, but ended up playing at UMiami. He’s now in his 15th season of pro ball and his 10th season in Japan. He has some game off the court too, which explains how he’s married to a beautiful Japanese woman. They also have 2 kids.

Don’t sleep on what his 3 brothers have accomplished in their basketball careers. The resume of the 4 (Gary, Jordan, Daniel, & Isaac) of them is on par with just about any 4 brothers you’ll find. Jordan and Daniel played in the NBA and all of them currently play professionally. They all cut their teeth in the Drew League too.

He went from rocking Snoop Dog Collection velours to silk kimonos as seamlessly as he transferred from Crenshaw to Dorsey back in high school. Check out my conversation with Lurchy!

I met Mike Bradley at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas in 2004. I was with my good friend Elton Tyler. They both remember it fondly because they hadn’t seen each other in a few years. However, Mike didn’t remember me. Well I remember Mike dominating high school basketball in Massachusetts when I was in high school and Mike was at Burncoat High in Worcester. But I didn’t remember he averaged 40 points per game in high school. That would explain why every college in the country wanted him. He committed early to Boston College along with Elton, Jonathan Depina, and Sean Connolly. Long story short, BC is/was racist and none of them ended up there.

Then Rick Pitino lied to him and convinced him to go to Kentucky, where he was part of a national championship team. But he never played for Rick. He had already started running/ruining the Celtics, but that’s another story. Ultimately, Mike transferred to Villanova and became an All American and a first round pick in the NBA Draft. He spent 6 seasons in the NBA and a few more in Europe.

As impressive as his basketball resume is, I find his post career endeavors even more impressive. He and his wife Ellen have been traveling the world with their 3 children (Taylor, Kya, and Shae) and immersing them in cultures and places that will have a profound effect on them. They call it “world school”. So far the kids have been to 36 countries and they’re all under the age of 16. When they’re not traveling they are surfing and being homeschooled in Nosara, Costa Rica, where the Bradley family has lived for a few years. I love talking basketball and I love talking travel so Mike was a perfect guest for Keepin’ It A Hundo. Hopefully, he remembers me now.

When I saw Matt Hubbard dissect a frog in Mrs. Polgren's 7th grade biology class I realized at that very moment he was going to be a comedy writer. Although this may not be true, I recognized at a young age that Matt was going to be successful at whatever he chose to do. He was always kind, thoughtful, and self effacing. I'd be lying if I said I knew he would follow in the footsteps of Conan O'Brien and become the editor of the Harvard Lampoon while attending the prestigious Ivy League university. However, it wasn't a shock when he won 2 Emmy's for writing and producing the acclaimed NBC show "30 Rock". I was more surprised that Walter Patterson got mentioned by Matt in his Emmy Award speech, for punching him in the face in 8th grade. In our conversation we discuss all of this as well as his relationships with savants like Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino and about the time our 6th grade social studies teacher squirted whipped cream down Matt's pants.

JamesOn Curry has the dubious distinction of "shortest career in NBA history". He played 3.9 seconds for the LA Clippers in 2010. His tumultuous journey to the NBA began with him signing to play at the University of North Carolina as a freshman and finishing his high school career as the all time leading scorer in North Carolina high school basketball history. Despite his success on the court, UNC had pulled his scholarship after an arrest for selling weed at school. He ended up starring at Oklahoma State, where he left early and was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. We discussed why his success at every level including the the NCAA tournament and the D League never translated into NBA success. JamesOn was also very candid about his legal troubles and the car wreck that changed his life in 2017.

Mike Procopio, better known as Sweetchuck, looks like a cross between Danny DeVito and Uncle Fester. He scored 4 points in his high school basketball career and Kobe Bryant trusted him to be his personal "basketball whisperer" for 4 years.

From helping out with the BABC AAU team in Boston, to assistant coaching at Suffolk University, Sweetchuck is an unlikely basketball savant. He parlayed those gigs into a scouting job with the Boston Celtics and eventually a 6 year run as a player development coach with the Dallas Mavericks.

We took a deep dive into how he gained the trust of some of the greatest minds in the game including Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale, Tim Grover, Dirk Nowitzki, Rajon Rondo and the late great Kobe “Bean” Bryant. And I had to ask him about the time Chris Herren tried to stuff him into a trash can and roll him back to Revere from Fall River.

Back by popular demand on Keepin’ It A Hundo, Indiana Pacers assistant coach Bill Bayno stopped by while quarantining in Miami. We discussed the affect the pandemic has had on the NBA and particularly on him. His mother Sophie passed away last month due to complications from COVID-19. This has been been quite a trying time for Bill. We also broke down the current state of America and how divided it is. And of course two hoop junkies had to discuss the MJ doc and how Bill got to know Jordan. This podcast is dedicated to Sophie Bayno.

In 1984 my first grade teacher, Mrs. Dea, asked me to be nice to the "new kid" in class. The "new kid" was Jai Eswara and we both loved 80's hip hop, the Celtics, and Fletch. Pat "Hendu" Henebury was in our class too so Jai Bahr, Hendu, and I have been tight ever since. After playing football together in high school Jai Bahr went on to Johns Hopkins for undergrad and eventually Harvard Med School.

He is currently the Chief Urologist at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston. He is an extremely talented surgeon and one of the only doctors in the greater Boston area with an expertise in urologic trauma and reconstruction.

Last month, he tested positive for COVID-19 so we discussed how that affected him and his family. We also did a deep dive into our trip to Japan last year. We discovered the best pizza in the world is made in Tokyo and Zima is alive and well in Japan. We also explain the time honored tradition of eating at Sushi Dai at 5am in Toyosu Market.

He's the most intelligent dude I've ever met and he may be just as funny as he is smart. He's also one of my oldest and closest friends.

I was attending a wedding in New Orleans over the weekend so I reached out to NOLA native Nesby Phips to grab some lunch and record a podcast. He’s engrained in the community there and the music of NO is engrained in him. He grew up in Hollygrove and the 3rd Ward with hip hop luminaries like Lil Wayne, Curren$y and Mack Maine. As a rapper/producer he’s worked on albums with them as well. He’s also put in work with NO legend Juvenile and some notables outside of NO like Wiz Khalifa and H.E.R.

We chopped it up in the 3rd Ward at Heard Dat Kitchen. He told us about his family lineage, being the grand nephew of legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and about the time he rode a horse named Shiloh at 4am, somewhere on the outskirts of Boston. I’m also fortunate to have his music as the theme music for Keepin’ It A Hundo. All of the music you hear on my podcast is courtesy of Nesby Phips and his instrumental album Phipstrumentals.

You can't make this stuff up. Todd Marinovich was born and bred to play quarterback from the womb. His father, Marv Marinovich, was innovative if not abusive. He carefully designed a strict diet and training regimen for Todd that was way ahead of its time. Todd had even achieved Marv's dreams and beyond, for a few years. Todd was named national high school football player of the year and was featured in Sports Illustrated when he was 17. That is when I became aware of him. I was playing QB for my Pop Warner football at the time. I wanted to be like Todd, so I stopped eating fast food.

Todd went on to start at Marv's alma mater, USC, as a freshman. After just 2 years he was taken in the first round by the LA Raiders (also the same team Marv had played for) and started as a rookie. But Marv's dream wasn't exactly Todd's dream. After just 2 years, he was out of the NFL. He had always used drugs to cope with the pressure. Now he was a full blown drug addict. It got so bad that Todd was smoking crack and shooting heroin in the locker room at halftime of his CFL games. Not long after that, Todd Marinovich was a meth addicted skateboarder living in the streets of Newport Beach, CA.

Now Todd is a father and an artist. He loves to create. He paints, he plays music, and he's clean and sober. He is one of the most interesting and complex people I've ever met. My conversation with Todd was nothing less than therapeutic.

Jermon Bushrod has been a model of consistency and perseverance throughout his life and into his NFL career. From a small town in Virginia to Towson University to a Super Bowl title with the New Orleans Saints, he established himself as one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL. In 2011, he led the entire league in snaps played. That means he doesn't take plays off. It earned him his first Pro Bowl appearance and followed it up in 2012 with another Pro Bowl. He spent most of his 12 year career with the Saints, but also spent time with the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears. Last season, in his second stint with the Saints Jermon and his wife Jessica lost a child during the season. Being the dependable teammate that he is, Jermon returned to the team with a heavy heart and helped the Saints reach the playoffs. His teammates appreciated it so much they voted him as the recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award. Jermon Bushrod is a real one.