Hey. This is David Kellum, and we do welcome you
to this interview with my good buddy Chris Warren.
How are you doing, man?
I'm good, man, you know.
I just been chillin' and hanging.
Chilling and hanging. Kind of what we're forced
to do right now, isn't it?
Yeah, by force. It's by force.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
So you're down in Florida right now?
Yeah. I'm down in Florida.
Orlando - I'm still in Orlando, Florida.
I just recently got sent home from Turkey.
I had been playing in a super league there,
and they suspended that league indefinitely,
so, maybe in a week or two we're supposed to find out
whether they're going to cancel the league.
So, just waiting on the news.
Oh, I got you. So you're just kind of
in a holding pattern right now. Well, hopefully, man,
everything will get going and get rolling again.
So, now, have you kept up with this -
this one-on-one Ole Miss tournament,
kind of a virtual reality tournament
that's out there powered by Coca-Cola?
Oh, I didn't know it was powered by Coca-Cola. That's news.
Oh, yeah. So we're going to make money, eventually, I hope.
[laughter]
Yeah, I briefly been kind of catching up,
when I see it cross my feed, you know,
every, you know, time I'm on or whatever.
Yeah.
I catch a glimpse of it just to see what's going on,
you know. And I see I'm still ticking.
You are still ticking. I was looking at this.
So you whipped Kevin Watkins in the first round.
Dwayne Curtis in the second round.
You got by the big guy. And then you beat Breein Tyree,
who's, you know, just finished up here at Ole Miss.
He had a phenomenal career. Yeah. He did.
And now your man
Todd Abernathy's come out of the other side,
and you whooped him to get to the Final Four.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, you know, I didn't think I would last this far.
You know, I thought Tyree was going to get me out.
But, hey, close - they say it was close.
Obviously, it was another clutch shot
- another clutch shot, you know, so.
[laughter] That's what I read.
That's the little I read, you know, when I was at home.
Okay. Another clutch shot, for sure.
You know, I was looking at Todd, man.
Abernathy beat some people
he'd never beat in the real world.
[laughter] No, TA, he always -
TA finds a way, you know what I'm saying?
So that's how he was in. He going to find a way.
So, did you play one-on-one as a kid a lot?
Just, you know, one-on-one basketball against people?
Yeah, you know. That was - that's what we all did.
You know, one-on-one, you get there -
if you get there early enough -
get to the courts early enough, and there's not a big crowd.
You know, a lot of people start coming out,
one-on-one becomes three-on-three,
and then three-on-three become five-on-five.
You know. Yeah.
And always, was fortunate enough to always play
against my family members like my dad or my brother,
you know, or cousins, or nieces and nephews my age.
You know, I was looking at some of the other people
that are in it. It's kind of a lot of fun
that they came up and decided to do this.
Final Four matchup has you against Marshall Henderson.
Now I know you fault with Marshall's career.
Yeah, yeah. Marshall - that - that's going to be
a tough one right there. You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah. And he the man. He the man.
My man, they used to call him a volume shooter.
And what I been telling people, say,
he better be careful with Chris Warren
because Chris Warren is a volume maker, isn't that right?
Yeah, you know, he's a volume maker, too.
You know, he's has - you can't doubt that, you know.
He the man. He's the man. That's my guy.
What - you know, you had a phenomenal career.
One of my favorite calls of all time
had to be the one against Kentucky where you hit the shot,
and, he rattled it home from downtown Oxford.
That was a clutch, clutch basket.
Huge win for our program.
What are some of your memories of playing here, Chris?
Uh, obviously that - that's a memory.
You know, one top memory.
But, you know, Memphis - well Memphis -
we caught Memphis, that was a good memory,
when they finally came to Oxford.
In the NIT.
And that was maybe to go to the Final Four,
but that was a good memory.
Freshman year, a good memory,
you know, just coming into the program.
I had a bunch of memories. I got a bunch of memories.
You know, you think about some of the people
that are in this Final Four thing for the fun of it.
there are some - you know, Stefan Moody is one of them,
a great shooter, too.
And, when - when you let it fly,
you've got to have confidence, don't you?
When you let the ball go, you pretty much felt like
it was going in, didn't you?
Yeah. Most likely. I always thought it was,
but, you know, there was always a couple that I missed,
and that's how all shooters feel.
You know. We should
- when you see one go in, now it's a heat check.
How much have you kept up with Ole Miss
since you've been gone, Chris?
I try to watch at least five games a year when I'm
- when I'm overseas or whatever.
But, you know, sometimes it's a time difference.
Well, it is a big time difference all the time there.
These late games, you know, we're west.
And then in Florida, we're an hour ahead of Mississippi,
so now I'm trying to stay at the top with my family,
I gotta stay - I already got to be up
3:00, 4:00 in the morning. Oh, wow.
But to catch a game in Mississippi,
now I got to be up 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.
Whoo! I don't remember you being a morning guy, either.
Uh, naw. I wasn't a morning guy, but I always got up
so you would have thought I was a morning guy.
Hey, you know, one thing I remember, too,
I don't know in this - in this one-on-one
tournament we're doing that -
that you can go to the free throw line.
But now, you need - you need to, you know,
get Marshall to foul you a few times.
He's a pretty good free throw shooter, too, but, I mean,
you led the nation one year. Ninety-two percent.
Yeah. I did. A shooter's a shooter, man.
I don't know - I don't know how this match up's going to go.
You know, I'll try to use my speed on that
- on that one-on-one matchup.
You know, then he'll probably lay back on me
and not get my shots up, you know.
You'll make a lot of three's, though.
Yeah, it'll be a lot -
it's going to be a three-point shootout, for sure.
Hey, man, we appreciate you doing this.
And hurry on back home. Come see us sometime.
I'll be there in a few months.
Awesome. Okay.
All right. Chris Warren, thank you, man.
Good luck with Marshall. Good talking to you, man.
Okay. Take care of yourself.
All right. You, too, man.