March 23, 2021 • 29 mins
Tyrese Maxey and Anthony Edwards continue their last week of training before the 2020 NBA Draft, while reflecting back on their college recruiting experience and their first and only season playing NCAA basketball. We look back on their head-to-head matchups when Kentucky and Georgia faced off in the SEC, along with the unprecedented cancellation of their college season and the 2020 March Madness tournament. Georgia Head Coach Tom Crean and Kentucky's John Calipari share an inside look at what it takes to recruit, coach, and develop such extraordinary young talents in such an unpredictable time. Narrated by Keegan-Michael Key.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutched Sports
Group and I Heart Radio. It's it's in Welcome back
to Drafted, where we're following two elite basketball players on
(00:23):
their personal journeys to the NBA. I'm keeking Michael Key
and we're less than one week away from draft day.
Right now, we're at the Godby Road Gym on the
south side of Atlanta. Top NBA prospect Anthony Edwards, his
uncle Drew, and his trainer Justin Holland wrap up a
workout and discuss his training plans for the upcoming NBA season.
(00:46):
Maybe two forty by Sailors say, if I do lay
at work, are you gonna maybe two? And you're gonna
be too for within the name three years saying I'm
the lose weight, thank and you think about it, they're
gonna put me on the me man. Yeah, I said,
when you they're they're growing away, they're growing out way.
(01:09):
I'm telling you I'm not gonna be and you're still
ruing what still? But I'm trying to Ninety year old
Anthony is six ft five, carries two hundred and twenty
five ish pounds and he's definitely not done growing you gonna.
(01:30):
I'm looking at you right now. I'm just telling you
don't trick him up, but you have me. I ain't
say all that you say your bro he doesn't trim
him up, but your your heart is a rock. Say so,
I'm after that. Get work out, God, work out. Wait
(01:56):
a little bit you want. I'm try I'm trying to
figure ot what you're gonna litle it. Lets you go
and lets you go all vegan that vegetables as it over.
They're not gonna make me live like that Lebron with two.
You don't work out, I say, now, Lebron two f two,
(02:17):
But he was seeing that when he came in the league.
The wan to thirds damn two. Yeah he's put on weight,
no weight. Yeah, but I'm saying I'm not gonna try
to put on I don't think you trying to put
on weight. You see the difference of Lebron when you
go in personally. Yeah, how you want me? No, I'm saying,
like Lebron wasn't big, got to live. I'm trying to
(02:40):
tell the old already and I'm young. The older you get,
you're gonna put on ron away. On average, people gain
the most weight during their twenties, roughly two pounds a year.
Even pro athletes tend to fill out during that decade,
like Justin and Uncle Drew's example of Lebron putting on
ten to twenty pounds since he started in the league.
(03:01):
And you're gonna be sixing two parters, but since two
you don't nest you want over those thirty Yeah, I
know I'm gonna be third, starting off way about two
and two. Problem, it's the starry eight straight, right. Someone
saying built better million dollars that they won't gain weight
is usually worth ignoring. But Anthony will likely make over
(03:24):
six or seven million dollars a year if he's drafted
in the top five. So if he's serious about that beat,
he can actually back it up. It ain't being wrong
when they went next back. Yeah, you're you're playing with
probably two thirty five two point when you get two points, like, damn,
I gotta I gotta run. Yeah, they all see you, right,
(03:46):
two point. Let me out here, run at gonna say this,
you're gonna make the most, gonna do that. It's gonna pairt.
I'm selling that. Maybe looking like that, we don't we
don't win up two thirty, a lot of proteins, maybe
dread a whole lot of protein. Heat differently do that.
(04:09):
I'm saying, you look like you look like you're lighter
than your wolves three months ago. But you hear you,
You know what, muscle muzzle. He's always been bigger and
stronger than the competition. Back when Anthony was in the
ninth grade, he was already six ft two and weighed
over two hundred pounds. Around that time, he was starting
to not so quietly destroy the A A U circuit.
(04:32):
Here's coach Rob Allen, another core member of Anthony's tight
knit circle, who began working with him around that time.
When I first moved to Atlanta, I started doing AU coaching.
First time I met and he played with the Atlanta
Express AU team. They were on the circuit and I
got to meet went Frey Jordan, who's over the Atlantic Express.
(04:55):
And then they they were practicing and coach Jordan was like, Hey,
I got this sixteen year old team. Do you mind
training them for thirty minutes for me so they can
get some skill working. So I said, okay, I'll do that.
So I'm watching this kid and he's just going through drills,
real smooth, and I had never heard of before. And
(05:18):
he was dunking, knocking down shots and he said his
name is Anthony Edwards. And I never forget I said, well,
he's gonna have a chance. But Justin would always tell
him and I had to get him credit for this.
He told me when he was in the tenth grade.
He said, Rob, I believe he could be a Lebron
(05:39):
James type talent. I didn't believe him at first. I
was like, I don't know about that. We were in
Indianapolis at the on the on the circuit. I never
forget it. They played against the Illinois Wolves. I sat
there right there with him and scored thirty points in
one quarter. So I said thirty you know we I mean,
(06:03):
these guys were literally double and triple team man. And
he scored thirty points. And this was timh grade year
and I just couldn't believe it. Here's Anthony and his
teammates after the game. What treaty point I'm telling him?
(06:35):
And him the Fish State. He became the number one
college basketball recruit in the class of twenty nineteen, receiving
scholarship offers from premier programs like North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky,
and despite his Florida state prediction, Anthony ended up narrowing
down his choice to two other schools. Decision came down
(06:59):
with when in Kentucky and Georgia. I was gonna go
to Kentucky. But you know, everybody that I loved and
cared about was in Atlanta, So I felt like Athens
was just an hour wait. And most of my people
was like, Georgia be a good idea staying home and
being near friends and family at the University of Georgia
versus going to perennial contender and modern day NBA factory Kentucky.
(07:21):
That was the decision, along with which top coach to
play for, Kalapari or Cream. Well, it's the Holy Spirit
Friend Academy in the heart of Atlanta, and sitting next
to me is a nation number one player in the country, Anthony.
Yet and he is ready to announce his college choice,
and you know, you're finally got in Georgia. We're stay
(07:42):
in Kentucky. Nothing both sides. I mean the process of
a pretty difficult on time were coming in and our
school every night on coaches school, I mean, it was different.
Decision came to wait where we in alf I'll be
(08:04):
attended house basketball at the University Georgia. Anthony chose Georgia,
staying true to his heart, or as he puts it,
not following the wave. I felt like Georgia was the
(08:25):
best I did for me, and post Crane played a
huge role in my decision to Georgia because of just
his past and who he's coached, and you know how
his player development has grown over the years. So I
just felt like that was the right thing to do.
Bottom line is we had a lot of things in place.
This is University of Georgia head coach Tom Crean. He's
close to home, his family could continue to be around them,
(08:48):
His coaches and the people that were most important in
his life didn't have to get in an airplane or drive,
you know, hundreds of miles to be in his life.
They could go literally down the highway to be in it.
And so his life was going to change at some
point at a young age. It didn't have to change
this quick as he was making his transition. So those
were selling points. But with all that being said, the
(09:09):
fact that he knew he needed to get better, that
he wanted to get better, that he bought into the
fact that we had made people that he looked up
to better, like Dwyane Wade and Victor Eladipo, I think
played into it. Coach Crean helped mega stars Dwyane Wade
and Victor Eladipo go from mid level recruits to NBA
All Stars. So even though Anthony arrives in Athens, Georgia
at a more developed stage, he wants to make the
(09:31):
same kind of leap they did. I think when you
see somebody that's got that level of talent, with the
accolades and the pageantry that's around him, and then you
get to know him, and the way he took to
what we were trying to tell him in the sense
of what he needed to get better at it was
this is where you got improved. If you're going to
(09:51):
be in college for a short period of time, all right,
this is where you absolutely have to get better. Because
my goal always as a coach is not for somebody
to get draft. My goal is for them to be
ready to play and have that NBA team be talking
about that second contract as early as they possibly can be,
because because NBA ready is completely different than being an
(10:12):
NBA drafting and he was going to be drafted. No
matter where he went. It became where is he going
to be ready from? Then he started to realize, like
this is for real, as good as I am all right,
there's a lot of things I don't know, or a
lot of things I gotta get better at. And then
he started to see the improvement and and then it
took off even more. We'll be right back well. Anthony
(10:46):
was wrecking the A A U circuit. Another star was
making his way into the top of the same recruiting class,
a fast, energetic guard named tyrees Maxi. Tyrese received twenty
two offers from elite college programs, but he always knew
(11:10):
where he'd be going. Honestly, I'll tell my friends and
my family in the eighth grade, I'm gonna be a
mcdonal's All American and I'm gonna go to University of Kentucky.
And it was simple, like you know in eighth grade, seven,
eighth grade, you know, your friends and other people, adults
looking at you like for mans, like pouring three chance
that all that stuff that you're saying is gonna happen.
Everybody in the in the world, every eighth grade of
(11:32):
that played the basketball in the world is saying the
same thing you're saying. Like I was like, no, I'm
gonna play for the coach Cow. Coach Cow has had,
you know, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Darren Fox, Jamal Murray,
Brandon Night. I'm I want to be a part of
that legacy and I'm going to be a part of
Legs and that like that was I had my mind
made up in the eighth grade, and you know, my
family supported. They said just go get it. Work extremely hard,
(11:54):
and go get it. So I wanted to go to Kentucky.
Since then, Tyrese turned this middle school vision into a reality,
and in his very first college game in Kentucky, he
slated to play the number one ranked Michigan State Spartans
at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the mecca,
one of the most revered sites in all of basketball.
(12:14):
So last year, on my birthday, well you know, our
birthday is on November four, and our first game against
Michigan State, numb one team in the country at Madison
Square Garden was on November five. So we're having our
last practice, you know, at Joe Kraft in Kentucky before
we get on the plane to go to New York
City to get ready to play, you know, no one
team in the country. So we're practicing, going along, good practice,
(12:36):
and I'm playing, you know, point guard on our call
and play. But one of my teammates, Killan Brooks, didn't
hear me. He doesn't hear me, but everybody else on
the court heard me. So Keian messages like he he
messed up the play, and then like, coach ka, play
my bad, Coach, I didn't hear what we said. So
Coach Kyle turns to me and said, you're not You're
(12:56):
not ready. You're not playing. It's a matter of fact,
he told me. He tells, you know, the other guys
on our team, the other two guards that we had
man you and Ashley, said y'all get ready to play
forty minutes. Because he's he's not ready to play. He's
not playing the marrow at all. He's not getting the
game one second. I don't care what anybody says. I'm like,
bro like, I'm not gonna play. Bro Like all the
work that I've done, I was getting up at six
(13:17):
am there working out with four practice, four weeks or
four class, you know, doing what I had to do
on the court. Doing I'm not doing the classroom, and
I'm like, I'm not gonna get in the game. And
this is my this is my birthday, my nine team birthday,
first birthdayway from home. I'm like, bro, I'm not even
gonna get in the game. So like I'm I'm like
just sitting there. Like the rest of the day, I
(13:37):
was like, A, I don't know how long the flight
was in New York, but has the nice house flight?
Get to New York, have meetings, eat and it's still
my birthday, so like I still should be excited. I'm like, bro,
I'm not gonna get in the game. Like it's still hurts.
I don't care who you are, I don't care how
great of a teammate you are. For this, for the
coach to tell you when when you expect to get
in the game and you expect to play, expect to
(13:57):
do well, for here to tell you're not gonna play,
was like devastated. But I talked to my mom later
on that night, and you know, she gave me a
little encourage and talk. But you know, I just went
to sleep and I got an opportunity to play. I
got an opportunity to play the next day and the
rest of history. Max. She look at this first of
speed up and in deep rot for MAXI three four
(14:20):
ft behind the line. Oh oh you serious? How do
you sewious? Coxy? You're a huspers your first game? Are
you for real? Oh man? Are you serious? Look at
that swa, Look at bet Swan. Oh man, it's the Kliparry.
(14:41):
You got a storm. It's to you. Gotta storm Tyrese
MAXI making a name for himself in his very first game,
Kentucky upsets top ranked Michigan State. Tyrese scores twenty six
points to go along with his five rebounds. Coach Calipari's
motivational tactic worked exactly as planned. If he planned it
(15:03):
at all, I don't remember it, but you know, uh,
I don't think I maybe I did. I've done many
things to make kids tougher. You know what I say
to him, even that situation. If you can't take me,
the guy that loves you and his whole life is
trying to get you and your family right. If you
can't take me, how the world are you gonna take
(15:26):
the opponent? You must conquer yourself first before you worry
about conquering anybody else. Basically, I'm saying time to grow up,
time to be a man, time to be responsible. And
I may have said it, and there are things that
you know I'll I'll be tough on kids to get
them to understand. Now you think about it, that's coming
(15:46):
from someone who loves you, and it's for you. If
you can't take that, you how are you tough enough
to go in the game and compete in Madison Square
guard against Michigan Stay. So maybe I did do it.
Here's Tyres again. He knew what my potential was. You
know what my potential is, and ha ha am I
(16:07):
sailing it that you know I could reach if I
put it in the work, and I'll keep my head low.
So and like I said, I really appreciate for that.
He pushed me so hard that, uh, nothing can phase
me now. In eleven years of Kentucky coach, Kellipari has
turned out three number one overall selections, twenty one lottery picks,
(16:28):
thirty one first rounders, and forty one total players taken
in the NBA draft. John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Jamal Murray,
Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, an almost endless list of league
corner stores, so he knows what it takes, perhaps better
than anyone. Tyreech could have gone other places and solely
(16:49):
had the ball more we had Ashton Hagan's. You know,
all of a sudden, Emmanuel quickly we played with three
point guards. But guess what we did it with Jamal
Murray too, and Jamal wanted the ball more. Well, he's
got it more now and you look at him. You know.
They had to be a great teammate here because they
had to share one about one or two guys shooting
all the balls. I mean, you don't have to be
(17:10):
a volume shooter in college. You have to develop professional habits.
You have to develop a pro mentality and in those
kids and Tyrese come on now, Uh, he sacrificed and
gave up, But I learned to play without the ball.
This became evident on January seven, when Kentucky faced off
(17:32):
against Georgia, where Anthony Edwards waited for him once again.
On their way up, tyres and Anthony played each other
in various circuits and then committed to Southeastern Conference rivals
Georgia in Kentucky. Now they go into a much hyped
head to head matchup the number eight ranked Wildcats playing
a tenant for Georgia team contending for the conference lead,
(17:52):
and Anthony Edwards, arguably the best player in the country,
would be facing his toughest test yet. Anthony would lead
all scorers with twenty three points in five rebounds, and
on an infamous play with Tyrese guarding him, he drives
to the basket, overpowering his friend for an easy two points.
(18:19):
Maxi falls to the ground and Edwards makes a taunting
gesture indicating Tyrese was too small to guarding. The announcers
say it should have been an offensive follower. Social media
calls Anthony an unstoppable scorer. After the game, Tyrese has
his own thoughts, Yeah, we don't have to have a
really conversation about that. I probably will call him as
soon as I get have to play, so you know him, Yes, okay,
(18:40):
so you don't have to have a conversation about I
did say he probably did, but it's okay. I mean
I think at the end of the day, I think
we had one points to him, So it's okay. You
guys are friends and he played up. He played against
each other in high school. How it play on this stage?
It was amazing. I mean, especially on the road in
(19:01):
front of their home crowd. We had a lot of
slower can really talked during the game, you know, but
after the games, what's up, my man? After the game,
you know each changed. We're I hugged each other. Say
keep doing what you're doing and see him in a
couple of weeks or in a week. He's great. He's
really took the guard, especially when he had the green
light like that. Um, he has to make play for
(19:23):
that team to win, and she really hard to guard him. Proud, Um,
keep working on his game. Kentucky wins by nine. Maxi
ends up with seventeen points, eight assists, and seven rebounds,
approaching a triple double. But maybe even more impactful was
his defense. He had four blocks and a steel to
go along with his offensive output, and spent a large
portion of the night helping guard Edwards, harassing him into
(19:47):
a night of eight for seventeen shooting. The performance highlights
Tyree's as one of the top defenders in college while
revealing how much more Anthony and Georgia still needed to improve.
Here's coach Crean speaking to what he saw. We got
caught in the hype of that game after beating Memphis
on the road, and I think it was almost more
(20:08):
it was the pageant try. It was almost like we've
forgot just all hard Kentucky plays, right, and and not
only how talented Kentucky is, but how hard they play.
And you can't make mistakes, whether your home road or
in a parking lot in Alaska, playing against them, you
can't make those mistakes. So I do think there's some
(20:29):
learning that came from that game, no doubt. Just two
weeks later, Kentucky and Georgia play once more. The Wildcats
get the better of the Bulldogs yet again, holding Edwards,
still hyped as the best guard in the country, to
sixteen points. By March, Kentucky racks up wins and the
number eight ranking in the country, putting them in position
for a high seed in the n C Double A tournament. Well,
(20:51):
Georgia drifts with sixteen wins and sixteen losses. The Bulldogs
need to win their conference tournament to make the final
bracket of sixty eight teams, which likely means another high
profile matchup with Tyrese in Kentucky. Then suddenly the season
is canceled. March Madness is canceled. The coronavirus unravels plans
across the globe. When this thing ended, some of the
(21:19):
guys who were a little more outgoing than others, I
think some of them were just stunned, like stunned, like
what in the world this is coach Calipari once again.
So you know, we had a couple of guys cry.
I don't know if he was one of them. I
do know when we arrived back on campus, they played
five on five, just the last time to be together.
(21:40):
The basketball world has turned upside down, along with the
rest of society. Anthony and Tyrese both realize their next step.
Beckons the NBA is calling. Well, I wasn't worried about
him going. I think I knew he'd be fine. I
thought that if we had finished the season, it would
(22:02):
have been better for him. But I still thought, you know,
you're gonna be a lottery late lottery most but um, yeah,
I never had any doubt that he was trained for
that moment, and he was ready. You're good, You're good
to go with classes and basketball called off, Tires goes
to Los Angeles to train for how long. He doesn't know.
(22:25):
What started as a few weeks turns into the entire summer.
We'll be right back. Here's Tyres again with his uncle Brandon,
(22:51):
after just finishing another session at the gym, still waiting
in limbo, still imagining what life would be like as
a pro. I mean they go crazy. They go crazy.
If you at the crib now they go I said,
they're going crazy if you have to crib. Now when
you go somewhere for being like dad, they crib. That's
(23:13):
what I'm saying. Now, just imagine you want to go
somewhere and grab something, eat or something. That's the crazy
part about it's like really over bro chick week, Oh
my god. And that's what l A taught us to most.
They did how to move, how to move as a
(23:36):
professional as I don't move, you move, you different, absolutely
go down. They come with chicken, you working on my
as doing you know what we're thinking about. If it
was in dallasall this whole time, well we would be
so confused and so so yeah, it didn't come out here, dude,
this to be like damn, y'all, you donta do it
like I don't know what you know. It was so
(24:00):
funny because I went with Chris Paul when he was
in his hometown and he was dropped because he was
he drops at the camp, but he came to the hospital,
came to the hospital. Bro. It was just like that
went to Chick fil a orderful? Who Chris, Chris? Who?
He said, Just Chris put it the window. I knew
who was you? Chris Paul. I'm like to that. Yeah,
(24:27):
but he was cool. I mean, ain't it ain't crazy?
Oh shoot, I left my wallet? Oh god, what I got?
Eight dollars? Eight dollars? My wild Can we do? What's
you gonna do? Apolicies? What he put it back? Bad
(24:50):
job and that and that Polinasia did, as we heard
in the last episode. All the time in Los Angeles
has given Terres a chance to focus and train, well
as teach him how to navigate life off the court
as a pro athlete. Then the draft gets rescheduled a
second time from mid November, and neither he nor Anthony
have played a real game since March seven. That's eight
(25:13):
months straight without being in a situation where teams can
evaluate the progress of these young players, and that's a
huge deal. For a player like Tyrese. The question marks
about his game and when and where he's going to
be taken. Are all still up in the air. I
would say to you that no other draft class has
been through this. No other draft class was a crap
(25:37):
shoot like this draft class because they didn't get to
dam they didn't get to have their normal workouts, they
didn't see him in the n State Tournament. They didn't
see guys play their best when it really mattered. So
this was one of those let's take a guess draft
um and and you know, I felt for the kids.
(25:58):
I called each of our kids, do you need my help?
There's seven months without anything, They're on their own. I
just checked in with them mainly like do you need
my help? How are you making it now? Maybe their
agent helped, maybe their family was what But I'm calling
them to say, do you need me to help? You
(26:19):
tell me? Because you know, no one they're they're they're
in a in flux. They don't no one knew what
was going on. So yeah, it's it was a rough run.
Facing these challenges, Clutch Sports comes up with a new
idea to showcase their clients. Here's Omar Wilkes, head of
(26:40):
their basketball division. Obviously, given COVID, things were going to
be different, So we were tinkering with the idea of
a pro Day. This was before they were going to
allow via team to join, Like could we stream it
and send it to each individual team? Um, you know,
how can we get creatives? You know? Through this pandemic.
(27:02):
Eventually it was okay that certain team personnel could come
to Pro Day, but not everyone could come or there's
limited numbers, and so we're like, all right, after we're
joining with the streaming idea, Rich thinking outside the box,
was like, forget to streaming it. Why don't we see
if we can get it televised, Like, why don't we
try to put it on ESPN. They urged Tires and
(27:22):
Anthony to try something no one has ever done before,
their own televised Pro Day, just the two of them
on ESPN for an hour with Lebron James, Anthony Davis,
Trey Young and some of the best players in the
world sitting in the crowd. All eyes will be on
Tyrese and Anthony next time undrafted. It's crazy because people
(27:51):
ask them how different it is, But this is all
we know. This is all I know, Like this is
the only time being in the draft process though the
zooe is all we know. What is this over nineteen
that everybody's talking about and Rudy Gobert has it, is
Rudy gonna die? Like I think initially nobody was really
thinking about basketball at that point. We're not allowed to
have fast, all right, cool? Then the NBA canceled that
same day. If they're not going to play, there's no
(28:13):
way that we can play well doing the pandemic. What
what you find out real fast is the plan is
there is no plan. Somebody can say what you think
about a hundred million dollars and only ten million of
it is guaranteed, So what are you talking about? So
we had been planning on having a pro day twenty
two minutes on a nationally broadcasted channel to just kind
of introduce them to the world. In his workouts when
(28:34):
I'm nearly watching workout or when he's talking to me,
he's always got a chip on his Showlder Terris Maxe
is a prime example. He's gonna be a good pro
for a long time. Drafted as a production of tree
(28:55):
Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio. The
executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric s A.
Loot Sean to Tone l Key and me Kegan Michael Key.
The series is produced and written by Eric Weiner. Jared
Brom is our coordinating producer. Trey McCain is our associate producer.
Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer. Mixed and edited
(29:15):
by Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen,
and Hayley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more
information on Drafted, go to tree Fort dot fm. For
more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the i Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutched Sports
Group and I Heart Radio. It's it's in Welcome back
to Drafted, where we're following two elite basketball players on
(00:23):
their personal journeys to the NBA. I'm keeking Michael Key
and we're less than one week away from draft day.
Right now, we're at the Godby Road Gym on the
south side of Atlanta. Top NBA prospect Anthony Edwards, his
uncle Drew, and his trainer Justin Holland wrap up a
workout and discuss his training plans for the upcoming NBA season.
(00:46):
Maybe two forty by Sailors say, if I do lay
at work, are you gonna maybe two? And you're gonna
be too for within the name three years saying I'm
the lose weight, thank and you think about it, they're
gonna put me on the me man. Yeah, I said,
when you they're they're growing away, they're growing out way.
(01:09):
I'm telling you I'm not gonna be and you're still
ruing what still? But I'm trying to Ninety year old
Anthony is six ft five, carries two hundred and twenty
five ish pounds and he's definitely not done growing you gonna.
(01:30):
I'm looking at you right now. I'm just telling you
don't trick him up, but you have me. I ain't
say all that you say your bro he doesn't trim
him up, but your your heart is a rock. Say so,
I'm after that. Get work out, God, work out. Wait
(01:56):
a little bit you want. I'm try I'm trying to
figure ot what you're gonna litle it. Lets you go
and lets you go all vegan that vegetables as it over.
They're not gonna make me live like that Lebron with two.
You don't work out, I say, now, Lebron two f two,
(02:17):
But he was seeing that when he came in the league.
The wan to thirds damn two. Yeah he's put on weight,
no weight. Yeah, but I'm saying I'm not gonna try
to put on I don't think you trying to put
on weight. You see the difference of Lebron when you
go in personally. Yeah, how you want me? No, I'm saying,
like Lebron wasn't big, got to live. I'm trying to
(02:40):
tell the old already and I'm young. The older you get,
you're gonna put on ron away. On average, people gain
the most weight during their twenties, roughly two pounds a year.
Even pro athletes tend to fill out during that decade,
like Justin and Uncle Drew's example of Lebron putting on
ten to twenty pounds since he started in the league.
(03:01):
And you're gonna be sixing two parters, but since two
you don't nest you want over those thirty Yeah, I
know I'm gonna be third, starting off way about two
and two. Problem, it's the starry eight straight, right. Someone
saying built better million dollars that they won't gain weight
is usually worth ignoring. But Anthony will likely make over
(03:24):
six or seven million dollars a year if he's drafted
in the top five. So if he's serious about that beat,
he can actually back it up. It ain't being wrong
when they went next back. Yeah, you're you're playing with
probably two thirty five two point when you get two points, like, damn,
I gotta I gotta run. Yeah, they all see you, right,
(03:46):
two point. Let me out here, run at gonna say this,
you're gonna make the most, gonna do that. It's gonna pairt.
I'm selling that. Maybe looking like that, we don't we
don't win up two thirty, a lot of proteins, maybe
dread a whole lot of protein. Heat differently do that.
(04:09):
I'm saying, you look like you look like you're lighter
than your wolves three months ago. But you hear you,
You know what, muscle muzzle. He's always been bigger and
stronger than the competition. Back when Anthony was in the
ninth grade, he was already six ft two and weighed
over two hundred pounds. Around that time, he was starting
to not so quietly destroy the A A U circuit.
(04:32):
Here's coach Rob Allen, another core member of Anthony's tight
knit circle, who began working with him around that time.
When I first moved to Atlanta, I started doing AU coaching.
First time I met and he played with the Atlanta
Express AU team. They were on the circuit and I
got to meet went Frey Jordan, who's over the Atlantic Express.
(04:55):
And then they they were practicing and coach Jordan was like, Hey,
I got this sixteen year old team. Do you mind
training them for thirty minutes for me so they can
get some skill working. So I said, okay, I'll do that.
So I'm watching this kid and he's just going through drills,
real smooth, and I had never heard of before. And
(05:18):
he was dunking, knocking down shots and he said his
name is Anthony Edwards. And I never forget I said, well,
he's gonna have a chance. But Justin would always tell
him and I had to get him credit for this.
He told me when he was in the tenth grade.
He said, Rob, I believe he could be a Lebron
(05:39):
James type talent. I didn't believe him at first. I
was like, I don't know about that. We were in
Indianapolis at the on the on the circuit. I never
forget it. They played against the Illinois Wolves. I sat
there right there with him and scored thirty points in
one quarter. So I said thirty you know we I mean,
(06:03):
these guys were literally double and triple team man. And
he scored thirty points. And this was timh grade year
and I just couldn't believe it. Here's Anthony and his
teammates after the game. What treaty point I'm telling him?
(06:35):
And him the Fish State. He became the number one
college basketball recruit in the class of twenty nineteen, receiving
scholarship offers from premier programs like North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky,
and despite his Florida state prediction, Anthony ended up narrowing
down his choice to two other schools. Decision came down
(06:59):
with when in Kentucky and Georgia. I was gonna go
to Kentucky. But you know, everybody that I loved and
cared about was in Atlanta, So I felt like Athens
was just an hour wait. And most of my people
was like, Georgia be a good idea staying home and
being near friends and family at the University of Georgia
versus going to perennial contender and modern day NBA factory Kentucky.
(07:21):
That was the decision, along with which top coach to
play for, Kalapari or Cream. Well, it's the Holy Spirit
Friend Academy in the heart of Atlanta, and sitting next
to me is a nation number one player in the country, Anthony.
Yet and he is ready to announce his college choice,
and you know, you're finally got in Georgia. We're stay
(07:42):
in Kentucky. Nothing both sides. I mean the process of
a pretty difficult on time were coming in and our
school every night on coaches school, I mean, it was different.
Decision came to wait where we in alf I'll be
(08:04):
attended house basketball at the University Georgia. Anthony chose Georgia,
staying true to his heart, or as he puts it,
not following the wave. I felt like Georgia was the
(08:25):
best I did for me, and post Crane played a
huge role in my decision to Georgia because of just
his past and who he's coached, and you know how
his player development has grown over the years. So I
just felt like that was the right thing to do.
Bottom line is we had a lot of things in place.
This is University of Georgia head coach Tom Crean. He's
close to home, his family could continue to be around them,
(08:48):
His coaches and the people that were most important in
his life didn't have to get in an airplane or drive,
you know, hundreds of miles to be in his life.
They could go literally down the highway to be in it.
And so his life was going to change at some
point at a young age. It didn't have to change
this quick as he was making his transition. So those
were selling points. But with all that being said, the
(09:09):
fact that he knew he needed to get better, that
he wanted to get better, that he bought into the
fact that we had made people that he looked up
to better, like Dwyane Wade and Victor Eladipo, I think
played into it. Coach Crean helped mega stars Dwyane Wade
and Victor Eladipo go from mid level recruits to NBA
All Stars. So even though Anthony arrives in Athens, Georgia
at a more developed stage, he wants to make the
(09:31):
same kind of leap they did. I think when you
see somebody that's got that level of talent, with the
accolades and the pageantry that's around him, and then you
get to know him, and the way he took to
what we were trying to tell him in the sense
of what he needed to get better at it was
this is where you got improved. If you're going to
(09:51):
be in college for a short period of time, all right,
this is where you absolutely have to get better. Because
my goal always as a coach is not for somebody
to get draft. My goal is for them to be
ready to play and have that NBA team be talking
about that second contract as early as they possibly can be,
because because NBA ready is completely different than being an
(10:12):
NBA drafting and he was going to be drafted. No
matter where he went. It became where is he going
to be ready from? Then he started to realize, like
this is for real, as good as I am all right,
there's a lot of things I don't know, or a
lot of things I gotta get better at. And then
he started to see the improvement and and then it
took off even more. We'll be right back well. Anthony
(10:46):
was wrecking the A A U circuit. Another star was
making his way into the top of the same recruiting class,
a fast, energetic guard named tyrees Maxi. Tyrese received twenty
two offers from elite college programs, but he always knew
(11:10):
where he'd be going. Honestly, I'll tell my friends and
my family in the eighth grade, I'm gonna be a
mcdonal's All American and I'm gonna go to University of Kentucky.
And it was simple, like you know in eighth grade, seven,
eighth grade, you know, your friends and other people, adults
looking at you like for mans, like pouring three chance
that all that stuff that you're saying is gonna happen.
Everybody in the in the world, every eighth grade of
(11:32):
that played the basketball in the world is saying the
same thing you're saying. Like I was like, no, I'm
gonna play for the coach Cow. Coach Cow has had,
you know, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Darren Fox, Jamal Murray,
Brandon Night. I'm I want to be a part of
that legacy and I'm going to be a part of
Legs and that like that was I had my mind
made up in the eighth grade, and you know, my
family supported. They said just go get it. Work extremely hard,
(11:54):
and go get it. So I wanted to go to Kentucky.
Since then, Tyrese turned this middle school vision into a reality,
and in his very first college game in Kentucky, he
slated to play the number one ranked Michigan State Spartans
at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the mecca,
one of the most revered sites in all of basketball.
(12:14):
So last year, on my birthday, well you know, our
birthday is on November four, and our first game against
Michigan State, numb one team in the country at Madison
Square Garden was on November five. So we're having our
last practice, you know, at Joe Kraft in Kentucky before
we get on the plane to go to New York
City to get ready to play, you know, no one
team in the country. So we're practicing, going along, good practice,
(12:36):
and I'm playing, you know, point guard on our call
and play. But one of my teammates, Killan Brooks, didn't
hear me. He doesn't hear me, but everybody else on
the court heard me. So Keian messages like he he
messed up the play, and then like, coach ka, play
my bad, Coach, I didn't hear what we said. So
Coach Kyle turns to me and said, you're not You're
(12:56):
not ready. You're not playing. It's a matter of fact,
he told me. He tells, you know, the other guys
on our team, the other two guards that we had
man you and Ashley, said y'all get ready to play
forty minutes. Because he's he's not ready to play. He's
not playing the marrow at all. He's not getting the
game one second. I don't care what anybody says. I'm like,
bro like, I'm not gonna play. Bro Like all the
work that I've done, I was getting up at six
(13:17):
am there working out with four practice, four weeks or
four class, you know, doing what I had to do
on the court. Doing I'm not doing the classroom, and
I'm like, I'm not gonna get in the game. And
this is my this is my birthday, my nine team birthday,
first birthdayway from home. I'm like, bro, I'm not even
gonna get in the game. So like I'm I'm like
just sitting there. Like the rest of the day, I
(13:37):
was like, A, I don't know how long the flight
was in New York, but has the nice house flight?
Get to New York, have meetings, eat and it's still
my birthday, so like I still should be excited. I'm like, bro,
I'm not gonna get in the game. Like it's still hurts.
I don't care who you are, I don't care how
great of a teammate you are. For this, for the
coach to tell you when when you expect to get
in the game and you expect to play, expect to
(13:57):
do well, for here to tell you're not gonna play,
was like devastated. But I talked to my mom later
on that night, and you know, she gave me a
little encourage and talk. But you know, I just went
to sleep and I got an opportunity to play. I
got an opportunity to play the next day and the
rest of history. Max. She look at this first of
speed up and in deep rot for MAXI three four
(14:20):
ft behind the line. Oh oh you serious? How do
you sewious? Coxy? You're a huspers your first game? Are
you for real? Oh man? Are you serious? Look at
that swa, Look at bet Swan. Oh man, it's the Kliparry.
(14:41):
You got a storm. It's to you. Gotta storm Tyrese
MAXI making a name for himself in his very first game,
Kentucky upsets top ranked Michigan State. Tyrese scores twenty six
points to go along with his five rebounds. Coach Calipari's
motivational tactic worked exactly as planned. If he planned it
(15:03):
at all, I don't remember it, but you know, uh,
I don't think I maybe I did. I've done many
things to make kids tougher. You know what I say
to him, even that situation. If you can't take me,
the guy that loves you and his whole life is
trying to get you and your family right. If you
can't take me, how the world are you gonna take
(15:26):
the opponent? You must conquer yourself first before you worry
about conquering anybody else. Basically, I'm saying time to grow up,
time to be a man, time to be responsible. And
I may have said it, and there are things that
you know I'll I'll be tough on kids to get
them to understand. Now you think about it, that's coming
(15:46):
from someone who loves you, and it's for you. If
you can't take that, you how are you tough enough
to go in the game and compete in Madison Square
guard against Michigan Stay. So maybe I did do it.
Here's Tyres again. He knew what my potential was. You
know what my potential is, and ha ha am I
(16:07):
sailing it that you know I could reach if I
put it in the work, and I'll keep my head low.
So and like I said, I really appreciate for that.
He pushed me so hard that, uh, nothing can phase
me now. In eleven years of Kentucky coach, Kellipari has
turned out three number one overall selections, twenty one lottery picks,
(16:28):
thirty one first rounders, and forty one total players taken
in the NBA draft. John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Jamal Murray,
Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, an almost endless list of league
corner stores, so he knows what it takes, perhaps better
than anyone. Tyreech could have gone other places and solely
(16:49):
had the ball more we had Ashton Hagan's. You know,
all of a sudden, Emmanuel quickly we played with three
point guards. But guess what we did it with Jamal
Murray too, and Jamal wanted the ball more. Well, he's
got it more now and you look at him. You know.
They had to be a great teammate here because they
had to share one about one or two guys shooting
all the balls. I mean, you don't have to be
(17:10):
a volume shooter in college. You have to develop professional habits.
You have to develop a pro mentality and in those
kids and Tyrese come on now, Uh, he sacrificed and
gave up, But I learned to play without the ball.
This became evident on January seven, when Kentucky faced off
(17:32):
against Georgia, where Anthony Edwards waited for him once again.
On their way up, tyres and Anthony played each other
in various circuits and then committed to Southeastern Conference rivals
Georgia in Kentucky. Now they go into a much hyped
head to head matchup the number eight ranked Wildcats playing
a tenant for Georgia team contending for the conference lead,
(17:52):
and Anthony Edwards, arguably the best player in the country,
would be facing his toughest test yet. Anthony would lead
all scorers with twenty three points in five rebounds, and
on an infamous play with Tyrese guarding him, he drives
to the basket, overpowering his friend for an easy two points.
(18:19):
Maxi falls to the ground and Edwards makes a taunting
gesture indicating Tyrese was too small to guarding. The announcers
say it should have been an offensive follower. Social media
calls Anthony an unstoppable scorer. After the game, Tyrese has
his own thoughts, Yeah, we don't have to have a
really conversation about that. I probably will call him as
soon as I get have to play, so you know him, Yes, okay,
(18:40):
so you don't have to have a conversation about I
did say he probably did, but it's okay. I mean
I think at the end of the day, I think
we had one points to him, So it's okay. You
guys are friends and he played up. He played against
each other in high school. How it play on this stage?
It was amazing. I mean, especially on the road in
(19:01):
front of their home crowd. We had a lot of
slower can really talked during the game, you know, but
after the games, what's up, my man? After the game,
you know each changed. We're I hugged each other. Say
keep doing what you're doing and see him in a
couple of weeks or in a week. He's great. He's
really took the guard, especially when he had the green
light like that. Um, he has to make play for
(19:23):
that team to win, and she really hard to guard him. Proud, Um,
keep working on his game. Kentucky wins by nine. Maxi
ends up with seventeen points, eight assists, and seven rebounds,
approaching a triple double. But maybe even more impactful was
his defense. He had four blocks and a steel to
go along with his offensive output, and spent a large
portion of the night helping guard Edwards, harassing him into
(19:47):
a night of eight for seventeen shooting. The performance highlights
Tyree's as one of the top defenders in college while
revealing how much more Anthony and Georgia still needed to improve.
Here's coach Crean speaking to what he saw. We got
caught in the hype of that game after beating Memphis
on the road, and I think it was almost more
(20:08):
it was the pageant try. It was almost like we've
forgot just all hard Kentucky plays, right, and and not
only how talented Kentucky is, but how hard they play.
And you can't make mistakes, whether your home road or
in a parking lot in Alaska, playing against them, you
can't make those mistakes. So I do think there's some
(20:29):
learning that came from that game, no doubt. Just two
weeks later, Kentucky and Georgia play once more. The Wildcats
get the better of the Bulldogs yet again, holding Edwards,
still hyped as the best guard in the country, to
sixteen points. By March, Kentucky racks up wins and the
number eight ranking in the country, putting them in position
for a high seed in the n C Double A tournament. Well,
(20:51):
Georgia drifts with sixteen wins and sixteen losses. The Bulldogs
need to win their conference tournament to make the final
bracket of sixty eight teams, which likely means another high
profile matchup with Tyrese in Kentucky. Then suddenly the season
is canceled. March Madness is canceled. The coronavirus unravels plans
across the globe. When this thing ended, some of the
(21:19):
guys who were a little more outgoing than others, I
think some of them were just stunned, like stunned, like
what in the world this is coach Calipari once again.
So you know, we had a couple of guys cry.
I don't know if he was one of them. I
do know when we arrived back on campus, they played
five on five, just the last time to be together.
(21:40):
The basketball world has turned upside down, along with the
rest of society. Anthony and Tyrese both realize their next step.
Beckons the NBA is calling. Well, I wasn't worried about
him going. I think I knew he'd be fine. I
thought that if we had finished the season, it would
(22:02):
have been better for him. But I still thought, you know,
you're gonna be a lottery late lottery most but um, yeah,
I never had any doubt that he was trained for
that moment, and he was ready. You're good, You're good
to go with classes and basketball called off, Tires goes
to Los Angeles to train for how long. He doesn't know.
(22:25):
What started as a few weeks turns into the entire summer.
We'll be right back. Here's Tyres again with his uncle Brandon,
(22:51):
after just finishing another session at the gym, still waiting
in limbo, still imagining what life would be like as
a pro. I mean they go crazy. They go crazy.
If you at the crib now they go I said,
they're going crazy if you have to crib. Now when
you go somewhere for being like dad, they crib. That's
(23:13):
what I'm saying. Now, just imagine you want to go
somewhere and grab something, eat or something. That's the crazy
part about it's like really over bro chick week, Oh
my god. And that's what l A taught us to most.
They did how to move, how to move as a
(23:36):
professional as I don't move, you move, you different, absolutely
go down. They come with chicken, you working on my
as doing you know what we're thinking about. If it
was in dallasall this whole time, well we would be
so confused and so so yeah, it didn't come out here, dude,
this to be like damn, y'all, you donta do it
like I don't know what you know. It was so
(24:00):
funny because I went with Chris Paul when he was
in his hometown and he was dropped because he was
he drops at the camp, but he came to the hospital,
came to the hospital. Bro. It was just like that
went to Chick fil a orderful? Who Chris, Chris? Who?
He said, Just Chris put it the window. I knew
who was you? Chris Paul. I'm like to that. Yeah,
(24:27):
but he was cool. I mean, ain't it ain't crazy?
Oh shoot, I left my wallet? Oh god, what I got?
Eight dollars? Eight dollars? My wild Can we do? What's
you gonna do? Apolicies? What he put it back? Bad
(24:50):
job and that and that Polinasia did, as we heard
in the last episode. All the time in Los Angeles
has given Terres a chance to focus and train, well
as teach him how to navigate life off the court
as a pro athlete. Then the draft gets rescheduled a
second time from mid November, and neither he nor Anthony
have played a real game since March seven. That's eight
(25:13):
months straight without being in a situation where teams can
evaluate the progress of these young players, and that's a
huge deal. For a player like Tyrese. The question marks
about his game and when and where he's going to
be taken. Are all still up in the air. I
would say to you that no other draft class has
been through this. No other draft class was a crap
(25:37):
shoot like this draft class because they didn't get to
dam they didn't get to have their normal workouts, they
didn't see him in the n State Tournament. They didn't
see guys play their best when it really mattered. So
this was one of those let's take a guess draft
um and and you know, I felt for the kids.
(25:58):
I called each of our kids, do you need my help?
There's seven months without anything, They're on their own. I
just checked in with them mainly like do you need
my help? How are you making it now? Maybe their
agent helped, maybe their family was what But I'm calling
them to say, do you need me to help? You
(26:19):
tell me? Because you know, no one they're they're they're
in a in flux. They don't no one knew what
was going on. So yeah, it's it was a rough run.
Facing these challenges, Clutch Sports comes up with a new
idea to showcase their clients. Here's Omar Wilkes, head of
(26:40):
their basketball division. Obviously, given COVID, things were going to
be different, So we were tinkering with the idea of
a pro Day. This was before they were going to
allow via team to join, Like could we stream it
and send it to each individual team? Um, you know,
how can we get creatives? You know? Through this pandemic.
(27:02):
Eventually it was okay that certain team personnel could come
to Pro Day, but not everyone could come or there's
limited numbers, and so we're like, all right, after we're
joining with the streaming idea, Rich thinking outside the box,
was like, forget to streaming it. Why don't we see
if we can get it televised, Like, why don't we
try to put it on ESPN. They urged Tires and
(27:22):
Anthony to try something no one has ever done before,
their own televised Pro Day, just the two of them
on ESPN for an hour with Lebron James, Anthony Davis,
Trey Young and some of the best players in the
world sitting in the crowd. All eyes will be on
Tyrese and Anthony next time undrafted. It's crazy because people
(27:51):
ask them how different it is, But this is all
we know. This is all I know, Like this is
the only time being in the draft process though the
zooe is all we know. What is this over nineteen
that everybody's talking about and Rudy Gobert has it, is
Rudy gonna die? Like I think initially nobody was really
thinking about basketball at that point. We're not allowed to
have fast, all right, cool? Then the NBA canceled that
same day. If they're not going to play, there's no
(28:13):
way that we can play well doing the pandemic. What
what you find out real fast is the plan is
there is no plan. Somebody can say what you think
about a hundred million dollars and only ten million of
it is guaranteed, So what are you talking about? So
we had been planning on having a pro day twenty
two minutes on a nationally broadcasted channel to just kind
of introduce them to the world. In his workouts when
(28:34):
I'm nearly watching workout or when he's talking to me,
he's always got a chip on his Showlder Terris Maxe
is a prime example. He's gonna be a good pro
for a long time. Drafted as a production of tree
(28:55):
Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio. The
executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric s A.
Loot Sean to Tone l Key and me Kegan Michael Key.
The series is produced and written by Eric Weiner. Jared
Brom is our coordinating producer. Trey McCain is our associate producer.
Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer. Mixed and edited
(29:15):
by Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen,
and Hayley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more
information on Drafted, go to tree Fort dot fm. For
more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the i Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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