(hip hop music)
- [Sportscaster] Stauskas will take!
It's hit!
Off the dribble!
He hits another!
Nik Stauskas with the heat check!
- How's it goin'?
- It's goin' good!
- Good, man.
- I appreciate you being with me, man.
- No worries man - I'm a huge fan
- Thank you, man.
Thank you so much.
I'm excited about the podcast we're about to do.
- Yeah, no I'm excited! - It's gonna be a lot of fun.
So tell me about yourself.
I mean I know the Michigan part,
I know that your game, I know that.
- Yeah.
Born and raised in Toronto,
when I was 15 years old,
I kind of got to a point where
I was killing high school basketball in Canada
- [Gary] Yeah.
- But at that point, Canada wasn't really
known for its basketball, so
I kinda took matters in my own hands
and decided I want to move to the U.S. by myself.
Just started to go to prep school there
to get noticed by college coaches or whatever.
So, when I was 15 I left home,
I left my parents and just kind of
- [Gary] They were okay with that?
- My mom definitely
- [Gary] Struggled
- She was like, didn't want me to go
'cause I wasn't ready to go but I just knew
I was like, I wanted to play in the NBA,
I know this is what I needed to do.
It ended up working out.
I got a lot of scholarships,
ended up going to Michigan,
and then I did two years there,
got drafted and now,
it's my fourth year in the league.
I'm playing for the Nets now,
so
man it's been a crazy journey so far
and it's all gone so fast,
it feels like just yesterday I left home
and I started going to prep school in the U.S.
And now, I'm 24 and in my fourth year
- [Gary] Like a vet!
- Crazy, right?
I just, that's the thing,
I feel like I just got drafted
and now I'm like about the get my second contract
and all this different kind of stuff,
it's crazy how fast time flies, so
- [Gary] It's cool, man.
How'd you first get into my
how long have you known about my content?
- Maybe
about like a year and a half or so.
I had when I was in Philly,
my roommate at the time was like,
really into all your stuff and
often times, like whenever he was into something
he would just send it my way.
He would always forward me your Instagram stuff
or whatever.
And so, he sent me a couple of pretty dope quotes
that you had and I was like,
I gotta check this guy out.
And then ever since then, I've just been like,
all your YouTube videos
and stuff like that (Gary laughs)
I've just kind of been on those ones.
- Thank you, man.
- Ever since I've was a kid,
I've always been huge on
- [Gary] Mindset?
- Just on,
motivational quotes and inspirational stuff,
all that kind of stuff, like,
ever since I was 10,
I always read those Michael Jordan quotes,
'I missed nine thousand shots'.
- Yeah, exactly.
- You know those ones? - Yeah.
- So,
yeah, it's cool for me to be able to actually
sit down and talk with you because
- Thank you man. - This is something that
really interests me.
In just like the mind,
on my Instagram, my thing under my
I don't know, whatever you call it under your name
it says, when you master your mind,
you master your life.
- 100 percent.
- I've always believed that.
- I believe that too. - So it interests me,
but it's so much easier said than done.
- 100 percent.
'Cause you have so many variables that
you weren't in control of,
DNA, who your parents were,
where you grew up.
But then you get to a point where you have
more control than you think.
Too many people think that it's over,
but it's actually about who you surround yourself with
and what you consume.
- Yeah.
That's true.
- Like,
the end.
We take it,
it's funny, people realize that
if you listen to a bunch of hip hop music and
this that and the other thing, live the culture,
you can have swag.
But people don't realize that you can do the same thing
around being a winner.
- Yeah.
- Just surround yourself with winners,
and just get optimistic instead of pessimistic.
It seems so simple,
you know it is, it's actually no different
than what you did.
You took a lot of fuckin' shots, man,
when you were 12 years old,
you shot a lot of basketballs.
- Yeah.
- And that mattered.
- Yeah.
- Like, yeah you were gifted with the ability,
but the amount of people that were gifted with the ability
is actually scary high!
It's the next part that matters.
So, to me, it's reps.
- Yeah.
- To me, being an entrepreneur,
my mindset was reps.
It just always where I was, and by 42,
I'm just in it now, you know?
And then the world changes, you never know.
I was 34 years old before I ever made a
piece of content for the internet.
I never, you know what I mean?
It just never was
how I saw it playing out.
And now, it got even crazier because
entrepreneurs got popular.
- Yeah.
- You know?
Like, having athletes and rappers hit me up
is just the funniest shit!
- It's funny to you?
- Amazingly funny.
I love it, I love it, right?
Growing up, I grew up in Jersey.
The Nets were in Jersey when I was growing up.
Growing up and going to a Nets game and
having Chris Morris wave at me
would have been like, you know?
- Yeah.
- And so, it's the same old game and
that's the cool part.
We live in such an open world.
- For sure.
- That we can have,
one follow, one DM,
it's cool!
It's an amazing time to be alive.
- Yeah.
You know what's crazy, actually,
how
when I DM'ed you,
it was actually a bet,
from one of my friends.
- [Gary] What?!
- My friend, he's like a big fan of yours,
and your name just came up in conversation one day.
And we were sitting on the couch watching TV
and he was like, dude just go DM him and
I bet you $100 bucks he's gonna respond.
And I'm like, dude, Gary V's not
he probably gets a thousand of these every day
but there's no way he's gonna read this.
And so we made the bet and we're like,
let's set a deadline
(laughs) on when he's gonna reply by.
So he's like, three days.
He's gonna reply in three days.
So three days goes by, and
I looked, it didn't even say open or seen or anything.
So I'm like, bro, there's no way.
He has way too many of these messages coming at him,
he's not gonna see it.
And he's like, bro just give it a little faith.
He's gonna reply at some point.
I gave up on him two weeks later,
you hit me up and you were like,
yo, thanks for the message.
Really appreciate the support.
Then he hooked me up with Tyler right away,
I was like dude, that's crazy,
one DM, I just took a shot out of nowhere and
- It's what I want everybody to do.
You can get to people.
- Yeah.
- You can get to people.
Not everybody,
I like people and want to meet people and
that's my personality.
And guess what?
There's other athletes and actresses
and models and skateboarders and
rappers that are like that too.
The end.
- Yeah.
- It's not about a status.
You know?
It's about a mindset.
- For sure.
- Back to that point, you know?
So how do you think about your career and life and
what's crazy about athletes as I've gotten to know them is
you guys are so young when you're done.
- Yeah.
- It's crazy.
- So, that's kind of one of the things
when I came in here, a couple questions I had,
maybe that I want to get your take on.
So, I've listened to videos
where you just like, I love eating dirt.
- Yes.
- I love
being on the grind and whatever.
And that's cool, I love the grind too.
Like, for me, honestly, one of the best parts of my job
is not even necessarily playing the games
during the season, but when the off season
comes around and I have like, a five, six month period
where I can just evaluate what do I need to work on.
And I just, I'm in the gym all day
every day, just working on what I need to work on.
- How narrow or deep,
how wide or deep to you go on what you work on
in an off season?
Do you pick a singular thing and go crazy?
'Cause you're playing at the highest level.
- Yeah.
- So it's kind of like,
you may just want to work on this one left handed thing.
- Well that's the thing,
I guess there's a lot of different areas I work on,
like this in the summer,
I kind of break it up into three different areas.
So I start my day on the court,
where I'll do an hour and a half to two hours
on the court.
And in two hours, you can hit a lot of different
- Moooves.
- Skills, like moves, finishes,
shots, whatever, dribbling, whatnot.
And then I really started to get into Pilates
this summer.
- Flexibility.
- Flexibility, core strength, all that kinda stuff.
And then there's weight training, like
whether that's upper body, whether that's gaining
explosiveness, so there's a lot of different areas
that I kind of divided up into but
those are three areas that I'm hitting every day.
But, when you kind of said this,
when we're so young when we finish,
one of the questions I had for you is like,
I love the grind in whatever,
but
how do you learn to be patient when
our careers are so short?
You know what I mean?
'Cause it's like
- So let's talk about that.
- So yeah, that's the thing
- I think about the grind for entrepreneurs
where the career is not short.
- Yeah.
- So are you asking about being patient
within a basketball framework?
- Yeah, so like
- Or are you asking it in a life
and totalitarian standpoint, right?
- I guess more just the fact that like
so
- Or do you think it was like,
I have leverage while I'm a player,
what do I do with it?
- I think my question is more like,
how do I get the mindset of
so over my four year in the NBA,
I've grinded and grinded.
I've been eating dirt.
And though it hasn't been all bad,
there's been some success here and there,
it hasn't been the type of success that I want it to be.
So, at the same time for me, like
over four years I look at it
and I'm like,
the average career in the league
is only four years!
People don't understand that most guys
only last four years and that's it.
- Most guys,
yeah, that's the average.
- That's the average. - A lot of guys
- A lot of guys are only one or two years
and they're done,
so like, for me, I've made it to the average so far.
But I have dreams of playing 10 to 15 years,
as long as I can play.
But even with that, I'm like,
if I last 15 years I'm already 25 percent done,
I don't have that much time.
- I don't think my patience game
works out in something like sports.
- Yeah. - I think it's different.
- Yeah.
- I would be,
first of all, my whole thing is macro patience
and micro speed.
So, macro patience I still, even in an athlete's standpoint,
probably can buy into my patience,
but I would make it life, not basketball.
But if I wanted to be a great basketball player,
and I was four years into my career,
and it hadn't happened yet,
I would probably spend every single minute on my game.
- Yeah.
- Like I mean every one.
You might want to leave right now.
(laughs)
Brother, I'm being really frank with you.
If you're actually asking me,
I would probably study film and work out
every single moment of the next 24 months or your life.
No sitting on the couch with your buddy,
DM'ing me.
- Yeah. - Zero.
- That's like
- Zero, by the way.
- Zero.
- I did it!
From 21 to 30, my life was zero.
Like straight up zero, you have to understand.
I lived in Jersey, and never came to New York City
to go out on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
And when I say ever
- Never, zero times.
That's crazy.
- So that's what's real though.
People don't understand,
greatness is about obsession.
Like, otherwise, wouldn't everybody be fucking great?
- Yeah.
- So if you're year four,
and you're like, fuck, man,
I really don't want to regret this,
and I'd like to have
the course of my career to change,
I follow the sport enough to know,
then dude, you actually have to go 100 percent.
Like, no friends, no girls,
basketball.
- Damn.
- That's the truth.
- Yeah, it's the truth, it's the truth.
- That's the truth,
that's actually eating dirt.
When I talk about eating dirt,
people are like, oh yeah I eat dirt,
I work hard!
That's working hard.
Eat dirt.
- Yeah.
Damn.
- That's what it is, man.
- So,
- And you know what's kinda cool is like,
in my opinion you're in a sweet spot to try it.
My big thing for you right now is
kinda like, fuck it, try it!
Do it!
Do it for 18 months, just see what happens.
- So
- What's really crazy about your game though,
what fucks me up, is you can
you can do it,
everything can be perfect and you could get hurt.
- Yeah.
- That just fucks with me so much.
- And you see it in the NBA this year,
even Chris the other day just
torn his
12 months he's gonna be out.
And it's like, it's just like the harsh reality of the game.
- It's a harsh game.
But look, like anything in life,
being a professional athlete in America
that's pretty up there, bro.
- Oh I love
- I mean of course!
- It was my dream since I was a kid,
so I can't complain.
But like,
I guess another question I have is like,
how do you think I should
how should I go about evaluating what I need to change?
In terms of my routine, 'cause like
to be honest,
it's to the point like, I've ate dirt.
I've ate dirt to the point where
they ban me from coming back to the gym at night.
I just came here from practice,
and often times I go back home,
I go take a nap or whatever it is,
and I go back at night.
And it's gotten to point where they're like
dude, you can't keep coming back.
It's not good for your body,
you need
at a certain point for athletes you do need rest.
- So here's what I would do.
I would go look at as many people as possible
that have mapped a similar career to you
and actually accelerated their career
in year five or six.
Like literally.
Have somebody, one of your college buddies,
somebody that
a fan,
figure the fuck out
who the 29 guys who've had the most similar path to you
in the last 10 years
and actually talk to every one of them.
DM them. - Yeah.
- They're in the fraternity.
Definitely, definitely do that
and I definitely think you need a
I think you should really consider hiring somebody.
- Okay. - You know?
- Yeah.
- I don't know
sport well enough to know who those basketball coaches are
and how they roll,
and what that is,
but that's potentially what it is.
You know?
- Yeah.
I guess that's
one of the most frustrating parts for me
is 'cause like, when I've been on this journey,
especially over the four years,
I haven't seen the success that I've wanted to see.
But everyone keeps
every coach that I've been
I've played for three different teams.
- I know. - Every coach
and every team that I have,
everyone's like, you're gonna be okay,
you're on the right path.
Trust me, your hard work's gonna pay off.
But after four years of it,
certain parts of your mind where you're like
are these people just telling me what I want to hear?
- Here's what's up.
It doesn't matter.
- Yeah.
- Like what's the alternative?
- Yeah it's true, there is no alternative.
- Right, that's
see how simple that is, actually?
Doesn't matter if you're getting gassed up.
- [Man] You have the 10 minutes to fill
just before we do the
- Toronto?
Okay.
Doesn't matter if dudes are gassin' you up.
- Yeah.
- What's the alternative?
- I'm not quitting, so
- That's it.
It's binary.
I mean there's one middle ground,
which is you mail it in, right?
- Yeah.
- And then the league will tell you that it's time to quit.
- Yeah.
- So you're quitting anyway, right?
- Exactly.
- So,
I just think things are about the alternative, man.
People ask me shit all the time, I'm like,
I get real basic real fast, like,
and?
Right?
- Yeah.
- My answer to everything is "and?".
Are you gonna be mad at people that were kind to you?
You know, it's not like they tricked you.
Like you know the score.
The big thing for athletes is sometimes
you need that moment, that break,
that moment, right?
Those two guys get hurt in the same game
and drop 17 in seven minutes and
I mean, that's just real life, that's sports.
- Yeah, that's the reality.
There's obviously a lot of superstars
in every sport,
but it's crazy, especially in basketball.
A lot of guys get their first opportunities
off of players getting hurt.
Players in front of them get hurt,
and they just step into a role.
People don't realize Draymond Green on the Warriors,
that's kind of what happened to him.
- I'm aware.
- David Lee got hurt
- That's exactly what happened.
- He steps in,
Draymond Green becomes Draymond Green.
- Just needed the at-bat.
- Yeah, that's crazy. - That's right.
Happens all the time, man.
- Yeah.
- That's exactly right.
That's exactly right, and that's it.
All you can do is
people always ask me, when are you gonna buy the Jets?
I'm like, what if Woody Johnson doesn't want to
sell it to you?
I'm like, I can't control that part.
- Yeah.
- It just becomes laser focus on
focusing on what you can control.
- Yeah.
- You can't control the guy in front of you
getting traded or hurt or
falling in love and falling off,
there's a million things in life.
All you can do is do the exact same shit
that got you here.
- Yeah.
- You know.
- Sure.
- I would really really really
consider
reaching out to a couple dudes that lived your life.
- Yeah.
- And they're out there.
- Yeah, I've had the pleasure actually of
so this year when I started in Philly,
I started the year in Philly,
we signed JJ Redick
do you know who JJ?
- Very well.
- So, and JJ was the guy that was like
similar,
very similar to me,
his first five years maybe in a week
I mean,
he was okay, he was decent but
- Not what he became.
- Not what he is now, and not how he was
performing at Duke.
In college, it was just like a drop off.
And it took him five years
- What was he saying?
- And for me, he was like,
dude, trust me,
I've been in this league now for 10 years,
I can tell that you're gonna be fine.
- Honestly
- You're on the right path.
- Honestly, that's a big one,
'cause
I also know enough to know
from what I know about him,
and I know a lot of people know him pretty well,
he's not in the business of saying that to you.
- Yeah.
- He's a nice dude.
And I don't think he would say
He doesn't know.
So it goes both ways.
- Yeah.
- That's my whole thing with love and hate.
Both are guessing.
- Yeah.
True.
- You can't even
some of the best players of all time
just sat the bench for the last eight years,
it never happened.
- Yeah.
- That could be real.
- Yeah.
- But what you need to do is make sure
that if you get the right things,
the right coach, the right team, the right moment
or the right opportunity
that you're in that spot.
'Cause that's the part that will bother you.
If you got caught up in the vortex of the machine
and just the wrong teams at the wrong times
with the right people ahead of you,
you'll always be like, okay.
As you get older, you'll be like, fuck man.
I did get to play in the league which is bonkers.
But yeah, fuck, right?
- Yeah.
- But if you get the shot
and you get to play the last 19 games of the year,
and you play like shit 'cause you didn't go there,
that will hurt.
- Yeah.
That's the thing,
especially when I got
I've gotten traded here to Brooklyn
and it's been tough,
we have a lot of guards on our team.
But the opportunities that I have gotten
I've played well
a lot of those games.
- Here's the good news,
the league's watching.
- I know the league's watching,
but then it's tough because guys come back from injury
and then I kind of step back to that.
So it's more of a patience thing.
- Yeah but the way I look at that,
straight up, is look, there's two things that happen there.
Things I can't control, guys came back,
coach decided,
and things I could control.
And I don't know enough detail but I know you played well.
You know what's funny?
I just take blame for everything
in a good way.
- Yeah.
- Like I hear that,
and if I had the luxury of playing,
I'd be like, well I could have dropped 35 in a quarter.
- That's the same attitude I take
- That's good.
- All my friends are like, you played so well.
Well clearly I didn't do enough,
because
- I wouldn't dwell though.
- I know, I mean I try not to dwell on it
- You control what you control,
you know?
- Yeah.
- And by the way, sports is tricky.
In a microcosm, anybody can play well or not well.
- Yeah.
For sure.
- You just gotta keep
the hardest part is keeping your mental game up.
That's it.
- Yeah.
- And it's the same thing for you
or all the kids that are fuckin' in debt right now,
right?
What's the tough part?
Being in debt.
Still working, not getting a raise.
Getting past.
We could walk the floor right now.
Same thing they're thinking about,
why didn't I get that raise?
Why didn't I get promoted at Vayner?
I got this debt.
Fuck it, I'll go to this other.
It's the game for everybody.
- Yeah.
- Just different circumstances.
(hip hop music)