 I love it, all right, joining us now. It's been 11 years in the NBA, nine of those in the nation's capital, five time all star, one time all NBA. John Wall joining us from University of Miami. Is that where you are right now? What's going on down there? Yeah, this is where I work out every day at University of Miami. So yeah, I'm here in the background. I just finished a workout. I like that. That's like, that's a great optics, my boy. I love it. Yeah, sir. Well, we want to get, we want to pick your brain all things that are happening to leave right now. The big story, I guess, that came out of the weekend was the James Harden going to the Clippers, just like he had predicted. You played with Kauai and PG last season. Tell us how you think this is all going to fit together. For me, I don't know, you know, you don't know like on paper, it looks great, but you know, you have to go out there and play and compete and then they try to get their chemistry and camaraderie together. For me, it seemed like both sides got what they wanted and they just got to see and see how it works out for everybody. So the big thing that, I mean, Lou has been saying it from the beginning. He's like, you do not bench Russ. You just try to do this all together. Everybody starts. Is that what you would do or would you decide you got to bench one of them? I think you just got to keep Russ in the starting line of ball. So, you know what I mean? He's been playing well. He found his pojo back. A lot of people have written them off. You can see he's back happy and playing basketball the way that we know Russ has been playing that most of his whole career. You know, I think he is a great leadership and his competitiveness, you can tell he leads on to all the other guys. That was my, that was my whole thing, John, for the last couple of seasons, it looked like Russ has been trying to find his footing. He's been trying to find somewhere he can call home and get into a groove where he can play at a high level. Now he's playing at a high level. Why disrupt that? Yeah, for sure. I see you watched last night. You played at a high level. You make open shots for him in trying to run their team. And I think he's been great for him to see a smile back on his face. First of all, Jimmy. John, you know. Got other shams. Oh, there you are, Shams, my bad. John, you played for the Clippers last year. You're a free agent now. What's your mindset? What do you, what do you think about your NBA future and how bad are you trying to get back in the league? Well, I still love the game. I still love to grind and getting up every day, doing core workouts, doing conditioning, weightlifting. I like to go for a nice bike ride throughout the city of Miami like I used to back in DC. And I believe I still got a lot left in the tank. I just being patient and working out and staying ready. And I know how much I want to still play. I know how much my agent, Rich Paul, is pushing to try to get something to happen. You just got to stay ready. I'm not giving up on myself. And I feel like I can help a team win. Yeah, first of all, John, I miss you. When you come to LA, you got to call me because we got to get up. For sure, for sure. We got to get up. Yeah, we got to get up. And I hate that you're not in the league right now because there's definitely teams that can use you. You look across the board. There's backup point guards that I still think you can play at a higher level. But if there was one team right now, they called and said, come play for us. Would you say, hell no? Or are you pretty much over? No, no, I want a job. So I'm over for any job that come my way, to be honest. I feel like, because I just feel like in the past, you know, like I made mistakes of saying certain things and then doing stuff off the court that kind of put a character out there. People, how people think they look at John Wall, that's not me, but I can set my mistakes and my ability to identify the past. And for me, I'm past that. I'm a father of two boys and a stepdaughter. So I look at being a father as much as I can and loving the game. So I know how much I love the game, how much I can impact the game with either playing or just being a vet and being alluded to the young guys. Cause I think a league needs that. A lot of young guys need a lot of vets on their team to kind of mentor them and tell them the things we went through and what the league is all about. So we've seen, you know, guys have always sort of wanted to play for certain teams or hey, I want to switch it up. I want to do something else. But lately it's become so public and loud. You got Dame Lillard, Harden, Kyrie, all that good stuff. When you're watching this outside looking in, what is your take on the way things are being done these days? Hey man, whatever makes these people happy that I'm all for, you know, for me, like I was, when I first came in, I always said I wanted to play for one team for my whole career. And that's something I pride in myself off of. Giving DC everything I had. And then I ended up getting traded to Houston, played there for two years and then got bought out and then I ended up being with the Clippers. So I think just forever, whatever you feel like is best for you in your career, cool. I know everybody wants to compete at a high level and try to be loyal as much as possible. Johnny, like you said, you spent so much time in Washington through the ups and the downs, the adversity. Even when it got rocky at the end, have you ever been a guy to ask for a trade? No, no, like me, I wanted to stick it out, figure it out, you know what I mean? Like I feel like DC was me. Like I was all of DC, you know, Lou Ballin against you for years there in the playoffs. I just felt like what I brought to the city and what I brought to the fan base and just everything I gave on the court just playing through injuries and all that. I never wanted to be outside of that journey, but you know, things happen and you move past that and you look for whatever's next for you in the future. You mentioned the, traded by the Wizards for us. Is it true, like how did you find out you were getting traded? Is it true that it was a DM sent by Russ? No, me and Russ just talked, we was cool. You know what I mean? Then we got a conversation after that and then I talked to the front office people. That, so, cause I'm always fascinated by how, how you guys find out like, oh, you are moving now and you're going to another place. Like if you would have stayed in DC, do you think about what could have been, what would have been? For sure, like I never wanted to leave. You know what I mean? But things happened. But like when I knew I was getting traded, Tommy Shepherd had gave me a text message and said, please call that night when I was watching games. And then we talked on the phone and we told him what happened and you moved forward from there. John, your guy, Brad, was traded to the Suns over the summer. He hasn't made his debut yet, but what, what do you think he brings to the Suns? How good do you think he can be for that group? Oh, we got three guys that can get 30 or 40 any given night. You know what I mean? So I think just with them is about just getting on the court. You know, most important throughout the whole league is staying healthy. We all know that. And just seeing how they gel together. You know what I mean? Like we've seen a little snippet of like one or two games I think in preseason. But that's why you have a long NBA season to try to get where you can find out where you're going to fit it in on the West. But you don't want to miss too many games and get out of our own positioning spot because the West is a deep comfort this year. Would you be interested in a reunion with Brad? Obviously that's a team in Phoenix that only has one standard point guard on the roster. They're playing with Brad at different points once he's back as a starting point guard. But would you be interested in a reunion? For sure. Yeah. Like for sure. That's what I was hoping for in D.C. in one different ways. But me and Brad are still brothers. We still talk a lot. You know, a lot of people always want to make us like we're not cool with each other. That's the reason why things happen. But we still have conversations. We still talk a lot. And I congratulate them on moving there and hope the best for them. And hopefully we can finally win them a championship. But yeah, I would definitely, if I could join their team for sure, I would love that. Honestly, that Phoenix situation to me makes the most sense. I think you'd be perfect. They literally have one true point guard on that team and the way you play, I think it'd be a perfect fit. But moving on to DeMarcus' cousins, we had him on the show. We know he's one of a kind. You play with him at Kentucky. I think you live with him. How was that experience? What was that like? Any funny stories? And how was it like living with Boogie? Oh man, a lot of funny stories. I met Boogie at 13 at Nationals. Oh, you met at Nationals or whatever. You came cool since then and every time with the camps and stuff, we said we was going to play in college together. He was my roommate. So, you know, he liked slow jams. And at night, he got listening to slow jams to go to sleep. I liked to watch sports and I'm like, bro, I'm not listening to slow jams with a seven foot guard. He's Boogie cousins. He likes to watch them out to some slow jams before he goes over the R&B, a wonderful visual. He's an R&B guy. He's a big teddy bear. On the court, he tried to like, I like he's not, but he's a big teddy bear on the court, man. He loves slow jams. Like, blah, stop playing your slow jams. I kind of love the visual of that. Okay, so you're from Raleigh and then you chose Kentucky and you had told the story about going to North Carolina and then Tyler Hansboro and it was a whole thing where he just basically ignored you. He now earlier this week has said, does it remember anything like that happening? Doesn't remember you coming to campus. What is the story here? What went down? There was an unofficial visit, so it wasn't official. So, you know, back then it wasn't social media and all that and I didn't take official visits. You know, I'm right in the street 30 minutes away. So I went up there, watched them practice and went to a football game and stuff like that. But, you know, let him say what he gotta say. And you gotta know, you gotta know Psycho T. You gotta know him. He's, he lives his own, his own style. Let me, let me ask you this, John. Former Kentucky player, Shea Gilgis Alexander. He's getting a lot of love, a lot of MVP talk right now. Can Shea go down as one of the best players to come out of Kentucky? If not the best. What's your opinion? For sure, a thousand percent. Like, I knew Shea was good, but I feel like Shea's got a lot better and he's more quicker than I thought. You know what I mean? Like in college he didn't look like that explosive in that quickness, but he's definitely got better. And like, you're not double teaming them up. You're in for a long night, I can tell you that. And I feel like they got a great young core around them. All the pieces they're at it. And I kind of heard y'all saying like, I feel like they can move check to the four and give them a five man kind of like the Spurs are doing with Wimby. I think they'll definitely be a dangerous team because I like Giddy. I like Doord. I like Jaden Williams. I like their team a lot. You know, he's my CTV. You know what I mean? You got to watch him, bro. He's very gifted talent. And he's shooting 50% getting like 30 a game and it's not all layups. It's mid range, stepbacks, threes, whatever you need. I got to miss my MVP pick this year. Yeah. Hey, you're not wrong. You can't be a sleeper. There's not a sleeper no more. You know what I mean? Like last year you felt like, you know, you don't watch them on a guy too much. They know about Shea. They know that team is coming. And if they can be like a top five, top four team in the West, they can mess around and win it. I'm going to go rogue here, John. Oh, dear. I want to go rogue here. I wanted, this isn't the question I'm supposed to ask. I want to know in your opinion, who are the best five Kentucky Wildcats? What's your starting lineup? Oh, yeah. I want to spot. Man, that's a good, you know what? Position, position by position. Yeah, because I feel like the NBA, all NBA should go by position by position like they used to. I mean, I even know, I feel like it should go best play like they used to. For me, I'm going near the point. I'm going Jamal in my... Isn't going to be the best Kentucky Wildcat. She is out already. He's out. No, no, no. Pick one, he's out. I'm putting them at the two. No, no, no, no. But as you and my two. All right. Be Brooke at my three. Yeah. That's a good deal. AD at my four. And Brooke at my five. That's a nasty five. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's a nasty five. See, like to me, I'm going to tell you why it's tough to say because now Deere and Fox at the level he's at now. True. See, people forget about Deere and Fox. Like he's at the level he's at now. So it's like, he could be a front-runner for MVP or that can be one of those top teams and like, you know what he's been doing to team. So, I mean, he's one of those guys I almost put on my list, but I can't take myself off. Yeah, that's exactly. Cannot take yourself off your own list. Okay. AD mentioned, he gets a lot of hate. Like it's, even though he's done quite well in the game so far this season, but he's one of those guys that it's a love hate thing and there's nothing in between. Why do you think that is? Oh, I think AD, you want to say gifted, bro. He has everything you need. He's a big man, block shots, rebound. If the fan can shoot dribble pass. I just think, you know, at times sometimes they say he goes missing and that's what a lot of people credit him off of. Like he have a good game and he goes missing and they have another good game and then he have a stretch or then he might get injured. But you know, injury is a part of the game and sometimes the game plan changes. So he has to be feeling where he can. I just feel like when he's more aggressive, the leg is a lot better, when he's super aggressive. John, a serious question. The John Wall dance, does that come out to play ever? Man, I don't know. I ain't been doing that in so long, but it'd be funny to see people do it, man. That was so long ago, I was a kid, like no social media, just having fun, happy to be in college and be on the biggest stage. You know what I mean? Kids from Lue know what I'm talking about. And I think you have an opportunity to be on that level. I remember watching Lue when he was on MTV careers back in the day, when he was at Sao Guinness. So I know how special he was and we built the bond of being brothers. So, no, I never thought it would get to that level. It was just something, being a kid and having fun. But I think when I dug in my first game, it was against Lue, and then we played field game at home. You are synonymous with the dug-in. Yeah. That is your dance. Because Brawny just did it the other day. I'm for they midnight madness, and they was like, who won the competition? I was like, Brawny didn't know what he was doing. No. John, thank you so much. I know you can get back to your workout. We appreciate the time very much. Good luck, bro. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, bro. Yes, indeed.