- Hey GQ.
This is Quentin Grimes and this is 'The Breakdown'.
[upbeat pop music]
- Blue Chips.
[upbeat music]
[people shouting]
[collective yelling]
- Every video I've seen of Shack,
this is literally how he plays every game I seen him,
in a Lakers jersey, Heat jersey,
like he playing on a mini hoop, like he not even fair.
[movie clip begins]
- There's a thing called proposition 48,
which says that if your grades aren't up to par,
you can take the SATs and if your score's 700 or more,
you can get into college.
Would you be willing to take the test again?
- [Shaq] I don't know, man,
those tests are culturally biased.
- Well, everything is culturally biased man,
and I'm just trying to get you to college.
- If I couldn't play basketball
would be trying to get me in college?
- No.
- If a college really wants you, they'll do anything to,
they'll to pull every trick out of the bag
to try and make sure they'll get that kid to come play for
that university.
Like somebody has to take the SAT for them,
and they know it's somebody you just like,
write their name and hire somebody to get
like a perfect score.
I was in Memphis all summer working out pre-draft and then
Penny brought up the story, How Shaq wanted him in that,
in that movie, in Blue Chips.
And he saw how good he was, how good he was
passing them the ball.
And he went back to Orlando to front off and say,
to go and draft him, with a number three,
pick a first pick, whatever he was.
He's going to get traded.
He's not playing for Orlando anymore.
So it was funny just seeing that,
how that turned out in that movie,
that it happened to be where they met and ended up in doing
big things in Orlando.
He Got Game.
[movie clip begins]
- Noooow,
introducing
Number 34,
from Coney island, Brooklyn, New York.
Jesus Shuttlesworth.
[game horns go off]
[audience cheering]
- You go to visit any colleges recruiting. If they,
if they really want you like that,
they're going to take you to like the, the main,
the main gym,
set off all the lights put like your, your family pictures,
where you and your family, on the big screen, everything.
That's literally how it is.
[clip resumes]
- I hope you don't think we're too forward
or aggressive with the highlight film or the Jersey.
- No way.
- That's the way we are here at Tech U,
we show love.
- Much love, Much love.
- Why beat around the Bush?
We scouted you since you were in junior high school,
we know all about you.
- He doing a great job of selling that program to jeez,
because every coaching, they'll say that program,
they gonna, they gonna do,
they gonna crack every joke in the book,
they gonna take you out.
Be like the best guy ever, your best friend.
Then you get the campus, boom, that first practice,
they screaming at you, yelling at you. Everything.
I went to, I was at university of Houston
and that's where I was getting
recruited by Coach Sampson, he was like cracking every joke,
trying to show me everything around the whole facility,
talking about, we got this, we got that.
And then the first day he's yelling at me,
put me on the line. I'm like,
what happened to the dude who want it to be best friends and
be like, wait, where that dude at?
Well yeah, college coaches switch up quick,
'cuz they trynna win games,
but I love coach Sampson. That's my guy.
It's crazy how much people want just one person,
they go to one school, because that kid
can bring so much revenue to they university,
which is why college athletes get paid now.
Sometimes you might get pressure from like those Nike people
to like go to a Nike school or play on the Adidas,
you might be pressured to go to an Adidas school.
Cause some people might be, 'namean, doing some other things
to influence you to go to that school.
So it's just, it's just a lot of different things.
Different directions people pull you in,
and make sure that they get paid on the back end.
If you go to this school,
then he gets a job opportunity, and his dad might get a job
offer at one school, so now he goes to that school.
People will do anything to get one kid,
just to go to one school.
Cause they could change like the whole landscape of college
basketball, which is kinda crazy.
Above The Rim.
[movie clips begins]
[audience cheering]
[players arguing]
- I forgot what college came to the game.
And I remember I was like, man, I'm going to try that.
I think I didn't, I didn't have the offer at the time.
And I wanted them to come to the game to see if they could
offer me.
And I was just like, trying to do everything possible to try
and get the offer,
let alone knowing I had like the worst game possible.
I ended up still getting an offer cause I had played
good later on, like when they came and saw me later.
But like I was just trying to do everything pile.
I was trying to shoot every deep three to impress 'em.
I'm trying to dunk everything, missing it,
done make every flashy pass to impress 'em.
And like literally,
literally they just come in there.
They may see if you can make the right basketball play.
Can you just make an open three?
Can you just make the right read off of picking role?
So like if you just kinda play a simple game,
they'll probably love you even more than if you kind of
dunking a ball every time, or trying to make
every D ball three.
So like when you trying to impress scouts,
you probably gonna end up having a bad game.
The Air Up There
[movie clips begins]
[native music plays]
- Yeah. That's a little better.
Try not to slap the ball.
Try it again with your left hand.
- I've heard from numerous players,
they're going to play workout for a team,
that they didn't like,
or their city that they didn't like.
They're going to be like:
'man, I'm going to try and shoot the,
have the worst shooting day possible. I'm a miss.
every shot on purpose. Imma not play hard.'
I would never do that. I don't know.
You tripping.
You probably wasting all..,
you passing up some money doing that.
In my first offer,
my first offer was from Rice,
and is like super smart school and everything.
I would like, I was,
I was a freshman and I got my first offer.
I always kept on my like top seven, like my top six.
And I would like announce it, that like, just in case,
like, cause I thought it was a big deal for them
to offer me, even though I would never go there
just to keep them in my top seven to like
kind of uplift the program may be a little bit.
A five-star recruit that if somebody might see that if I
have had them in my top seven, then somebody who was like,
who was at that caliber, with a good caliber to go there.
They could go there and see, I had them in my top seven
kind of being a high, high level recruit.
So I feel like I kind of owed them,
showing them my respect really.
Just showing that they like, thank my first offer that
I'm going to kind of uplift them a little bit.
Sunset Park.
[players dribbling]
- Hey coach, you should play man on D.
- What?
- Look at Andre. He wanna be like Mike.
Too bad he ain't. Coach come on, let me play.
- I told you, you can't play 'till you
get your stitches out.
- Yo miss, that's a foul right?
- Ain't no foul man, stop crying.
[clip ends]
- When you not playing a lot of thing.
I've been like, knock on wood.
I've only been injured like once in college and really my,
my, my career really,
I was out for about like a week.
I couldn't practice, so you kinda go to practice.
You just watching how everybody does stuff,
kind of watching the guy that kind of replaced you,
how we're looking in that way.
And so you just kind see the game,
slows down a little bit more.
You're like, oh, 'I could have been open right there'.
'He waste a shot right there'.
'I could have made a cut right there'.
'Rebound'.
So you kind of see the game in like a different way.
Can we, then you get back out there on the court,
you're like, oh, I can get a shot.
It's easy to shoot the shot right here,
because he's wide open.
I think when you kind of step back a little bit,
it kinda puts you, two steps forward,
when you kind of see the game
from a different point of view.
When you're playing with a shooter, you got to know, oh,
he loves shooting the ball in the corner.
I gotta make sure off get it to him right away.
If he's, if he's sprinting really hard to the corner,
Imma make sure he get it.
So he in the shot, cause he, he gonna feel good.
If he score the ball, I'm gonna feel good.
If I get him in the assist, you know, it goes hand in hand,
like big man, like you gotta reward the big man,
for setting all these screens for me and everything.
So like if he on the left block,
Imma make sure I get it to him so he can go in there
and do his little, do something,
dunk it, get him going. It's a game.
You gotta play within the game really to make sure that
everybody's successful or happy really;
Cause when everybody's happy,
the team's going to be happy team.
Team gonna be yellin',
team going to be winning.
For me right now, it kind of tests you to
kind of always stay ready.
Kind of a cliche thing to say, just like, oh, we'd be ready.
You never know when your number might be called,
but that's really how it is.
So I got to go extra harder and practice.
Even if I'm not going to be in that first or second group,
I got to pay even more attention than film,
because if my name gets called
that list is real short. So I ain't got..
I don't have time to go in there and mess up.
Do things cuz I can just get pulled like that,
because like I said, come off the bench.
Not really in the rotation. So my number is called,
You gotta be over-prepared really for when you get in there
to make the most of it, where he can keep you out there and
keep trusting you building trust within the coach.
It's a different challenge, but I'm enjoying it so far.
Hoosiers.
[movie clip begins]
[people cheering]
- Hey, pass the ball.
[audience celebrates]
- Holly, go in for Reed.
- NOW, MOVE!
[clip ends]
- Man, my man getting buckets. Let him rock out.
Let him, let him do his thing.
He going to get the coach the win.
He gonna get the win. That's all that matters.
It's different if he was saying like,
every shot and missing every shot.
You gotta come sit in the bench with me.
But if he's going to every bucket, like he ain't mid,
he hasn't missed yet.
You gotta let him go out there and do his thing.
That's what a good culture do.
That's bad coaching.
But yeah, it's time where coaches,
or do crazy things just to see
how high you react. See if he can, like,
if you gonna break down and stuff like that all the time.
So coaches they'll play mind games with you all the time.
But I feel like it's the coaches,
the coaches versus the players sometimes.
Coach Carter.
[movie clip begins]
[player sighs]
- I'm impressed with what you've done,
but you came up short.
You owe me 80 suicides and 500 pushups.
Please leave my gym.
[clip cuts]
- Hold on. Pause.
80 suicides and 500 pushups.
500 pushups, I could get through a 500 pushups.
I'm not doing 80 suicides though.
[clip resumes]
- You said we're a team,
one person struggles, we all struggle.
One player triumphs. We all triumph right?
[clip ends]
- If your teammate is not helping you out when you're
going through sum',
them not your real teammates.
They're not your real friends.
Like there would be time that you be ached,
or a guy be on the line. He got two run two suicides.
And the coach say, if he don't make this one,
the whole team running. So he got the last two suicides.
He ran, we going to push him through.
Make sure he run, make sure you get it.
Cause we gonna make sure that we can run.
So we gonna make sure you gotta make sure your teammates get
through.
We can't have him have him hanging out there like,
college coaches they'll try to break you down,
like build you back up.
But like with Coach Sampson at U of H,
he'll throw, seven, eight suicides,
like in the middle of practice just to like,
see if you can take it everything.
Like those type time,
when you kind of going through like somebody going through
something and you got to pick them up,
I feel like that was what made the team like the closest.
When you got to pick them all up,
you going to see if like your,
your brothers really going to be with you
when like, time's hard in the game.
Even in practice and coaches yelling at
everybody 'get in the line',
'run till y'all pass out'
'till y'all throw up'
That's when like everybody really comes together.
So when you're, you in that game,
y'all down four, with like a minute left.
Y'all gonna find a way to win that game because y'all done
been through hell in practice.
Y'all been in the trenches with them and everything.
I think that's what makes it easier for like a team to have
real close, close bond.
Thanks for watching these clips with me.
Hope you learned something. See you next time.
[outro music dissipates]