Reasonable Ignorance
The Coach Paris And Mike Episode
It only takes a little bit of white brainwash to activate the coon chip in the average Negro. - You're not allowed. - Rollin', we started with this. - This is it? - That's it? - That's it, that's it, that's it. - That's it, that's it, that's it. (laughing) - Yes sir. - Down. ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ - Oh my. ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ ♪ This is the English shit you like ♪ - Another man chasing a chicken. - Bombs! (dramatic music) - Reasonable ignorance podcast. (applause) (cheering) Last day of the month, July 31st we are here. - Leo season. - Leo season. Shout out to a happy birthday to Beable. (applause) (dramatic music) I'm going tonight by @thecloudies over there. (applause) - Oh. - Illis of all Jeff's is on the way. (dramatic music) And last but not least, one of the greatest coaches ever. (laughing) From the West Side AKA Gailwood. - Nah man, come on man. - Madison and Lemons is on. (laughing) Coach Mo. (dramatic music) (applause) (dramatic music) - You think she's fitting right now? - Fitting right now, that's where it is. - Without further ado, Coach Mo. - Perfect, perfect. Well, Reasonable English podcast. Make sure you subscribe. Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcast. Tonight we got a special guest. In the building, Sonic Palace Studio and Claps. (applause) We got some state champions in the building. Let me say that first. - 10 Claps. (applause) - Coach Pears Martin Phillips High School. Coach Mike. See you repping the shoes. Be able to look what you got on, Gailie, repping it. - Yeah, we got it. - And then we got state champion right here. To Coach P's right, Eli, senior, right? Young man in the building. So tonight, it's a little different from our normal podcast. Before we get into all the jokes and the sidebar and that we do, politics, all that we do, we're gonna talk about something in the city of Chicago that happened. We're gonna get into a story. And we're gonna let Coach P and Coach Mike share that side of what's been going on. What, Coach over the last, what, 30 days, 60 days? - I just say, yeah, that's a 45 to 60 days. Real quick, Coach P, tell us man, where you from, how you get started in the coaching? - Well, where I'm from, I'm born and raised on the low end. Born in 1980. A lot of my coaching experience came from inner city, kids that wasn't given an opportunity. That I just decided to dedicate a lot of time to him. I had a son too that played the game. He wanted to be good, so we trained a lot. And as we trained, I took him to different programs. He would be, I get the parents to say, "Hey man, "you trained your son?" Yeah, well, can you take my boy with you? Can we do this? Can we do that? You know, a lot of times I'm like, "Okay, no problem, let's do do it." You know, no free of charge or whatever, 'cause I never cared to, you know, get paid off of it. I feel like you was doing the service to the community, so that's pretty much me right there. - Coach, how you getting involved in high school ball? - Well, I just got involved with my man right here. So, like I said, I came up a region from the WOW 100s. - Yeah. - Moved to, moved to the low end, about '06. - Okay. - You know, they took me in and they went, "I've been low-end breast since then," so. It just been, you know, when he got the job, he hasn't come on, who I asked him. I said, "You know, man, if you got some assistance, "you know, I think I'm about ready to get in." 'Cause the rest in peace, the top man, goody. - Oh yeah, rest in peace, man. - Yeah, goody, man. - So, I was gonna get on board with Bogin' before he passed the way, but he, I was gonna get on board, he got real sick. And that's when he took a turn for the worst. So, when the opportunity came up with him, I was like, "Well, it's in the area. "It's from the community, y'all are living in. "I know all the kids." So, it was just perfect. It seemed like it was like a perfect opportunity for him. And y'all hopped on board, he let me come on board, he brought me in, and we went crazy the first year. - Y'all did, y'all, yes y'all did. Eli, let's get to you real quick. What grade school you went to? - Grade school, I went to Saint Subana. - Saint Subana, what's the office, '79? - Yeah. - Yeah, okay. How long have you been playing basketball? - My whole life, since I was out the womb. (laughing) That's your first love? - Yeah, it was my first love, my first everything. - First everything, I like that, that's what I like to hear. So, were you at, I mean, Phillips for four years? - Nah, first, I was at Bogin', my freshman year. - Okay. - Rest of piece of goody, like Coach Mike said, then he passed, I went to De La Salle, like this user, transferred to P, my junior year, and played the rest of the two years at Phillips. - So, let's talk about your last two years at Phillips. How was it? The overall experience, school, basketball, being coached under Coach P and Coach Mike? - My experience at Phillips was, it wasn't so much of a, it was a decent experience for like, the academic part, it wasn't, the academics wasn't everything, it was, you know, they pushed us, they, sometimes they would push us, but it would be like a, like, just a little push. They wouldn't be here, a thing that you need, and a kid to be successful, it wasn't all that. Through basketball, my junior, I sat on a bench, watching my big brother's dream, my kid Lindsey, watching him play basketball, silk, Isaiah Hall, all that. But, join your, it was my senior, going towards my senior, it was everything. We had a lot, we had a family, Coach P, it was all like his songs at one point. We played with him, had serious times with him. My senior year was, especially when the state championship, that set it off, who I wanna lose, they last year. - Right, right. - When in the state play out. - Right. - Right, it's 2A, that was my senior year. - So, so, if, let's say there's an incoming freshman or an eighth grader who interested in playing for Phillips, wanted to play for Coach P, by you being a senior, what would you tell him, if he asks you, Eli, what type of coach is Coach Perez, what would you say? - First of all, to be with Coach Perez, you gotta have courage, you gotta have heart. He don't take nothing of it, like, you gotta have heart to play with him. - Okay. We don't bring nothing weak. Small guards, he'll love us, small guards. You see how he wasn't in the playoffs. We, we don't have, we only have one big man to hold. You gotta have heart. You gotta be ready to put a work in, it's. You can only such yourself higher. You, you, you in charge of you, and that's the only thing here to tell you. - Okay, that's a good answer. Jamal, you got any questions? Nick, you got a question? - No, give me that. - So, Coach P. So, this is what I wanna ask you. Why Phillips, of all the high school jobs that you could have had, 'cause Phillips is your first high school job, right? - Yes. - Oh, so, so all the jobs that you could have, I'm not sure of the interview anyway else, but why Phillips, what made you wanna interview for Phillips? - Well, I received a phone call from the last administration before they left. - Okay. - And to ask, was I interested in coaching high school basketball, and I asked, the first question I asked was, what school? She said, when do Phillips? - Okay. - So, for me, being born and raised on a low end, that was a no-brainer. I said, oh yeah, I'll be that what I gotta do. So, she told me, like, give me a couple of days, I'm gonna set you up a section for an interview. After we did the setup for the interview, I went, guess I had a great interview, you know, so she called me back for two more. After that, it was pretty much it, man. It was pretty much like, it set itself up. I had to do nothing else, pretty much, and the crazy part about it, like that administration left, two weeks. So, I really didn't even know if I was gonna have a job or not, 'cause she clearly stated to me, like, hey, well look, I'm gonna tell you this now. I'm out, they have a new administration come in there, because when I had the interview, the principal was an intern principal, so he wasn't there that long, so he just came in to fill in for the old principal that was on leave or whatever the case may be. So, once we did that, I was like, wow. So, going forward, I mean, I got to meet the new administration, which is my letter director now, James Daniels, and principal now, Richard Tally. - Right, right. - So, I met them, had an interview with, I never interviewed with JD, I interviewed with Tally, and he told me, like, hey, you know, I've heard a lot about you, you know, I heard you're a good guy, you do a lot of good things, you care, you're gonna keep the discipline, you're gonna make everything happen, and you're gonna win. And I was like, pretty much, that's my resume. So, I've always been a winner, whether I coached AAU, small fry, whatever the case may be, not just, you know, I just never, I just know how to win. - So, let's get into the first year, okay. You get the job, you pretty much know who you have, who you gonna be coaching. - No, I didn't. You didn't, okay, let's talk about that, okay. - I came into the school with three kids, Jaheem Savage, Mikel Lindsey, and Jaquil Barnes. - Wow. - That's it, that's all the ball players that was left in the school, they won another ball player in the school. - Here it was this? - This was 2022, going to 2023 season. So, what happened was, a lot of the kids that play football, they actually came in, they're two play basketball. - Wow. - Yeah, yeah. And that's how the tape was turned. - Ah, okay. - So, that's how I ended up, you know, taking like, what, four, think we got four, other football players? I think we had three or four of the football players, that was actually at the school, they got recruited two play basketball at Phillips. So, by that time, the coaching staff had left, the championship coaches had left. So, I was, I had to meet Coach Joe, the football coach, you know what I'm saying? He was real good with his boys, he did what he had to do for his program to win. And he told me, you know, first day I met Joe, funniest thing, he told me that he came and pulled me in his office and was like, you got to get you some of these. And he showed me his title. - The range. - Tofy's, yeah, and the range, he showed me the trophies. So, I said, man, okay, I said, yeah, I'm on you. I'm on your tail, I'm gonna give you one of those real fast. And he was like, that's it, man, but pretty much, I went out there with what I had to do, brought a couple of kids in, from, you know, from other schools. - Transfers. - Yeah, some from out of state too, you know. So, to get the job done, you know, speaking to the administration in an interview, it was more so I asked them, you know, are you interviewing me? I'm gonna interview you, like, what did you expect me to do? So they expected me to, they said they wanted, when it, they wanted to win in culture. They wanted to change the culture, which means they wanted student athletes in the building. I said, oh, okay, that's cool. I'm like, so what else, let me, anything else? They said that they wanted enrollment to go up, you know. So he has something to where he can challenge his teachers. So I said, okay, so this is what's gonna happen. So coming back, I said, I just went out and got what I could because it was such a notice. So I got a couple of kids in there, we did well. Like I said, we finished out in '22 and '9, with a regional championship. And that's pretty much it. - Y'all made a lot of noise at first. - Yes, yes, we did. - They made a lot of noise. - Definitely made a lot of noise. - So circling back from one second. - You were in the AAU field? - Yes. - Which was the team that you had? - My program is called the Illinois Select Huskies. - Illinois Select Huskies? - Illinois Select Huskies. - How long was that around for? - 2014 to now. - So you had great credibility and everything. - That's how she ended up giving me the phone call because I was one of the top non-sponsored programs in Chicago for like four summers in a row. - So you weren't sponsored by any no shoot program? - No shoot program or nothing. - Hold on, I said shoot program, I'm sorry. - No shoot circuit team. The circuit team. - The same training team. - Shoot program. (laughing) - That wasn't me at all. I came in through the gate, you know, there's me. Like I said, I'm going to do me. What I see is like he was telling you, you got heart, you got grit, you got skill, you want to work, come here, you're going to get it. We're going to dedicate our time to, you know, like up in like day and night to beat, I beat a lot of the top programs. - Yeah. - You know, I beat a lot of them. So it wasn't too much, it wasn't hard for nobody to see, like, oh man, if he get a chance, he don't check it up. And that's pretty much what the idea was, you know, for me to come in, like I was telling you before, I wasn't recruited out of the norm, the basketball circle, the basketball family. - We know what that means. - Yeah, I wasn't recruited out of that. So I came in, not being an assistant to nobody, came in and showed who I was. - So, stand with the first year, you got transfers in. - Yeah. - Now, let me ask you this, 'cause this is a question I always ask coaches that I know who go the transfer route. - Yeah. - Was there any pushback from the administration? And secondly, was there any pushback from the outside, meaning parents, other people, other coaches, other programs that you hear like, man, what they got going on in Phillips? Why all of a sudden he get needs kids to go to Phillips? Was there any of that? - Really, to be honest, man? - No. - Okay. - Because a lot of the kids that I get, and it's been like this since I started coaching, I don't go get the best players. Like, I never had your best player. I never, I'm never gonna attack them. I'm never gonna show influence, you know, put myself in there to be like, oh, I want you, you need to lead this school. None of that. I just get the kids that they don't want. - Okay. - Pretty much the kid on the bench, you know, if you were in Chicago, you were a coach, you've been around, it's a pissed off parent in every gym. - Yes. - And somebody felt that they could be the kid in the program to change the program. - Yes. - So that's who, me and my coaches, we go out and seek. We don't go seek that we don't need your best player. And as you can see, if you pay attention to my second year, well, you know, going to the second year, we had nine transfers. - I know, I know, yeah. - So that goes to show you, it was that many kids that was like, pretty much man, they needed support, man. A lot of these kids need support. They need the coaching staff, they peers. - Positive energy, man. - Positive energy, man, behind them. And everyone through a brick wall for you. You know, half the time, I see a lot of the coaches put theirself in front of the kids, man. - Yeah, we see a lot of that. - Yeah, yeah. So Coach might like to add on what he was saying. You know, it's not easy to coach at Phillips. I would assume that it's not easy to coach as people say certain type of kid. - Right. - So for you being an assistant coach, where you like, if he was the bad cop, where you like the good cop, so if Eli comes, he's like, man, Coach, be tripping, man. What the fuck going on? Would you be like Eli, be cool, man. This is what he wants you to do. Were you the buffer? - Nah, nah, nah. I was just always me, man. 'Cause people's gonna be him. I was gonna be me. And my natural, like, I'm passionate about the game. So when I train, I'm working out, I'm practicing. Or we going through a drill. He know he'll tell you. It's passion with me. And if I don't see it in you, if it ain't coming out you, I'm gonna get it out you. So I was, I'd say I probably was always the bad guy. Yeah, yeah. I played so I probably was the bad guy most of the time. But a few times we had to go to P, like, nah, P. They got to be your voice. At this point in time, they got to be your voice coming. And see, that's why it worked with us. Because when I came in, never want nothing more, but to help my buddy out. I was never coming in to be a backstab or a back door. Going for his job, none of that, you know what I'm saying? Me being an assistant coach was cool enough. Training assistant, working my job. That was cool enough for me. So giving them the time that we was giving them and doing the thing that we was doing for them, we expected a certain amount of work out of them. We expected them to act a certain way. We expected them to do certain things. And if they didn't do it, then they heard our mouth. They, you know what I'm saying? P was always like, I used to see him on the sideline. Like he ain't got a tech in two years. I used to be like, how the hell are you not getting a tech? What you do, man? I got all the techs. So yeah, I got to give him a round of applause for that. - And Chicago basketball. - That's right, right. - Chicago, oh my God. - There's more so where I'm dedicated to, like I tell the boys in practice. We, our practices are like games, they're worse than games. So I tell them if we do, if we do what we got to do in practice, we won't have to worry about the referee. - Game of a reason. - It's going easy. - That's our talk, yeah. - We tell them, yeah, you're going to get a referee that missed a call, but you got to think as a coach, we missed calls. Like we missed the wrong wreaths. We came out in the wrong defenses, the wrong schemes, the wrongness. So we're going to make mistakes just like they are. They human just like we are. So to make a long story short, I'm like, let them do what they got to do, and we're going to take care of what we got to do. We can take care of our bench and our players. We can't take care of nothing else. You know, a lot of the times, a lot of the referees, you know, they ain't no telling what's going on in their life. Having a hard day, whatever the case may be. I don't care, like I say, because a lot of them, you know, they know us outside of basketball. We can see them in the grocery store. Hey man, what's up? Man, what was up with that call, man? And he asked you like, man, Pete, you know what? You may be right. Or, you know, next time, what I saw from my angle was this. And you be like, okay, it's fair enough, you know? So I let them be. I ain't here to drill no referees about me losing no game. That's got to be like one of the weakest sound of emotions I've ever seen in my life. - But you know, I say that to say, as an administration, you know, that's something you should love about your head coach. You know what I'm saying? - Sure. - That he's not irate. He's not on the bench going crazy. Curching out your players or cursing out people in the stands. No, he's on a bench being professional, as he should be. And two years of high school dance body, you don't get a, that's major, bro. - Yeah. - Varsity, Varsity. - Varsity, yeah, that's amazing. - That's it. - You're probably the first person I ever know is. I'm being honored. - Nah, I'm one. - Nah, I'm one. - Yeah. - So as an administration, as an AD, I'm looking at that and saying, okay, he doing this for my boy. She bringing in kids, they got 3.3, 3.0 GP. Basketball team got a 3.3 average GPA. They asked the student athletes we gave, y'all student athletes. - Yeah. - We got trade transferring there from the Catholic schools, the suburban schools, out of state. Like, for me, bro, it's what you asked for. Like, you told me as an administration, that's what you wanted. - Right. - I gave you that with no problems. Like, man, the principal actually had a meeting. Like, after the second report card, that he showed me everything that I did, the value that I brought to the school. Everything was up 14 to 17%. - That's huge. - Like, everything, like, from enrollment, to educational, to the GPAs, the attendance, attendance, and school every day, all of that stuff. Like, he just showed me the whole graphic. He showed me the whole graph on this, and there's a gentleman trying this room. And I was like, wow, he's like, yeah, this is what you brought. - Improvement. - Yeah, improvement. Which he asked for, in our interview. So I gave him that, you know? And I never had no ill-wheeled tournament, whatever. It's the fact that, man, like, my reason for speaking the way that I am and the way that things are going, is like, I'm here to fight for them. It's about them. Like, I'm not here for me. I'm not here for Coach Mike. I'm not here for the people in Chicago to be, oh man, Pete doing his thing. That's light. That ain't nothing like you just giving kids opportunity. That's what we all, that's what we are adults for. We in this position, we in the position of leadership to get these kids an opportunity. You cannot put yourself on the line and say you're not giving them opportunity. Like, okay, you may get mad at a kid, you may do this, you may do that, whatever, they kids. You know, so my thing with this entire situation, bro, is like, it baffles me that, the way that they sacrifice the time, the energy, the effort. I'm talking about six A.M. workouts, bro. Barely being missed, beginning of the season, beginning of the year, not getting in trouble in the school. Oh, not to even mention, seven of the players out of the, what, 12? I don't know all students. Like, this is, I don't get this, bro. Like, it's starting to hurt me to the core, to where like, where do we, like, where do we get to change that? You ask him for change. We try to brain-change, and they don't have the support. Like, if you could see the anguish that I'm speaking with him and all my other players, it's even starting to trickle down to my JV players now. You know, and they like, man, coach, like, what's going on? I'm telling everybody, just stay for him. We okay, we gonna be okay. You know, it's not a big deal. This stuff, I think things like this happen, you know, but God got our back. If anybody pay attention to what I said at the end of the game, when we won, when I later tried to interview me, I clearly stated, it feels amazing. God did, that's my message. Oh, yeah, he've heard that for having you here. - For two years. - Yeah. Nobody understood my message behind that, because if we all, if I just felt like, man, if we give our energy to this, like for us, coaches, administration, leaders, staff and whatever, like, these boys will be okay. But for them to see all this going on, after winning the state title and bringing up, like, the community, like, the community, got so much energy down there now. And Bronzeville, that's one of the highest growing communities in America, right now. So who's not gonna tear down the door that wanna get there and come and go to a window Phillips? With the education and proven, with this doing it, you know? So it's hard for me, bro. It's real hard, it's getting real hard. - Go ahead, Nick. - My question's for you. So you played the two different programs before you played for him, right? - Yeah. - Okay. - How, and I think you got halfway through or in the story, we're after the first year in the transition, right? How was it for you being a player for him in the first year, seeing the transition going into the second year? And how did you feel about playing for him after you had already played for two different programs? - My transition from my junior to senior, I would say from being on the bench to having a starting role in six-man role, like, kinda sort of like a six-man starting role. I'd say it was a major, it was major for real. Like, I'm key, I was key. Key, I was a real key element in most of our games, like real. Like, most of our games I won, most of the games. Matter of fact, we all won as a team, but, you know? - We've had to make it. - The other coaches, I would say. Guddy, I don't know what he would have brought to me for the table, so I don't know 'cause real, 'cause we didn't get off in that season due to COVID and due to him passing away. My sophomore year, I went down to JV, I didn't pay for SGD. My JV year was a, it was a, I did decent my JV year, but I didn't feel like I was gonna get no, the exposure that I got from Phillips, from D-Lacer. - Okay. - That's what I'll say. - Coach. - Yes. - We are live on Instagram right now. Everybody is chiming in. You all can view it also where on your page? - Yes, Paris Margin, oh my Instagram is bossing for real. - Okay, can they view this, are you gonna live on your page? - I can't, I can't know. - Share it to your, can you share the live to your page? Can you also, if you're on Facebook, bro? You sharing from Coach Moses is live. Everybody want to chime in? - You said Coach Moses live? - 28 on YouTube. You said what again? - 28 on YouTube. - 28 on YouTube? - Okay. - I'm gonna share the link, YouTube link too for everybody. - If you can't hear or see clearly on the Instagram live that I'm just holding the phone, you also can go live on Facebook and see the actual interview that's going on that's taking place right now. - Yeah. - Just want to make sure I get that in there. - So go to your page, right? - Yeah, you can share from Coach's page or from my page also. - I put the YouTube link on your page. - You guys also live on YouTube and live on Twitter right now. - You just sent it to my page? - Yeah. - There it goes. It's low enough. - Okay. - Yeah. - I just dropped it, I just dropped it. And you'll, okay. - Yeah. So in 2022, you're in the building, right? - Yes. - You're in the building, you're in Phillips. You got to describe to, they can go to Paris, Martin, on Facebook. - Go to Paris, Martin, on Facebook. - You just dropped the link. - Go to Paris, Martin, on Facebook. If you can see it clearly, if you can't see it clearly on Instagram live right now, go to Paris, Martin, on Facebook. It's broadcasting live. Give me a bomb, please. Yeah, we a little enhanced around here. - I like that. - Yeah, I see that. - I like that. I like that. - Okay. - Okay. You're in the building in '22. - Yes. - You know about the low end. - For sure. - So about the low end is. - For sure. - Gentry pride, but at the same time, we still, the element is still there. - Yes. - Black people still there, it's mixed in cum, mixed in everything. - Yes. - What type of kids are you coming across that wanna, that's, that see? You said you came in with three kids. - Yes. - Well, it was three kids that were already there. - There's two kids already there in the school. - Right. What was the, what was the, what was the momentum, or what was the, what did you create, what kind of hysteria did you create around there? - Well, it was, man, when I went, when I posted that I was the head coach at Phillips, it went crazy, it went viral. It was crazy, all the most about, I wanna say maybe about 12 or 13,000 clicked that weekend alone, like the entire weekend. It was like 12 or 13,000, and I couldn't believe it. So that was the, you know, that was the, the going factor for me to be like, you know what, I gotta do this. I gotta bring this back down here to my community 'cause the last times you had a, you had the dumb bars, the deuceables, the kings, all those schools, those schools were the, they were known for basketball all the way in. So it wasn't, Phillips was always good, they were always talked about, but those schools there were like historic schools, dumb bar, dumb bar, deuceable and king, a legendary for the low end. So when I got the job, all my, you gotta think, when we was in high school, that's when the low end was rocking. So now with me getting the job on the low end, going to Phillips, it's like, wait a minute, hold on, we got one of ours in the building, it's one of ours. So the same way we was growing up living in all of them projects, all their kids go there. They suss the kids go there. They cousin kids go there. They auntie kids go there. So now it's like, wait a minute, hold on, we about to change this. And it was, it was pretty much like a no-brainer with me having the success that I have with my AAU program, but the parents wanted to come with me because a lot of the kids I end up getting, they play smart fry for me. So that was pretty much like a, that was pretty, I mean, a lot of the kids I end up getting play smart fry for me and knew that I was already a good coach. It was just waiting for my time. - Okay. I was curious about that. How was the transition from AAU to high school basketball? - To be honest, man, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. It's basketball. If you can coach AAU, you can coach high school. You can coach college, you can coach NBA. It's basketball. It has the same system, same thing. All you do is get bigger, faster, and stronger. And if you got the people in play, it starts with the coaches to have. Your coaches to have have to believe in the kids. You have to believe in the kids, not you. So if you believe in any kids to where they are allowed to make mistakes, we went through an era where kids can't make mistakes no more. Like the kids got to be perfect because he got a jump shot. He got a 40-inch vertical. He got this, he got that. It's like, okay, now, when he make a mistake, he come to a game. He may have seven turnovers. Oh man, he ain't that good. He ain't like that. Wait a minute. He's 16. (laughs) We don't even look at the rim of our daily life, the mistakes we make every day. Just getting out the bed without playing. That's a mistake. It's crazy out here, man. Like the way that we have all changed the world due to social media, the putting a lot of pressure on the kids when they're the only one in pressure, man. It's not needed for them because if the kid got to think for him, you, his dad, the mom, like, where does he fit in? Like where he's gonna make those mistakes uncatterically. So, you interview for the job, you meet with the new administration. So, last month, Michael O'Brien comes out, he releases his report, his article, based upon, I guess, interviewing you spoke with you. Yes, yes. He stated that for the last two years at Phillips, you were not getting paid. Yes, I did receive a stipend, you didn't receive a stipend. Now, for everyone who don't know, when you're a high school coach, high school coaches receive stipends. Assistant coaches receive stipends, head coaches receive stipends. That's a part of what you have when you sign a contract. Now, in an article, 'cause I read it several times, you stated that your background and your finger printing, the whole process was not completely done, and therefore, you shouldn't even been able to coach. So, can you talk about, this is what people wanna know who followed this story, who are passionate about this story. People wanna know how were you and Coach Mike were able to be around kids, minors, and your background was not complete, and how did you two stay for so long and not get paid, and did you inquire about it? Well, to be honest, man, we inquired about it every month, like every two months. It was things that would come up that we would have to. Like, if you pay attention to our schedule last year, we took five down-state trips. So, if we're taking trips, I mean, we need funding for food. You know, the boys, I'm pretty sure every high school has a card, budget for the boys when they're going down-state. It's not, I'm pretty much knowing it's not gonna be for free. So, like I said, it's my first year as a head coach, I'm like, okay, so what are we looking to get? What are we looking to get in the game? What do we have? Man, we don't have this, we don't have that. I'm like, man, you know, we down here feeding kids, like, I mean, we paying out our pocket to feed them. I'm not gonna let the kid go hungry. Like I said, that was something that I had, naturally coming from AAU, 'cause a lot of the kids out of my program were kids, that was less fortunate to be able to pay. So, that was really much where I started my program. But, like I said, speaking on what's going on, and like, with my administration, I'm just steady asking, like, okay, cool, we didn't do that, so then I'm asking like, man, what's going on with that has everything, you know, my application is stuff going on. Oh man, you good, you good, you good, you good, okay? - So, wait, let me stop you. So, when you ask, I don't wanna use the word, blow it off, or blowing you off, but they said that you were good, meaning that the paperwork is done, that's the impression that you're saying. - Yes. - The paperwork's done, you're clear, there's no issue. - Not the fact that I was clear, you were waiting to hear from downtown. - Okay. - That's pretty much it. - Same with you, Coach Mike? - Basically. - Okay. - Basically, yeah. - So, with me, I'm coming in my first season. - Come to Mike, come to Mike. - Oh, sorry, coming in my first season. I really didn't, like I said, it was about passion with me, so I didn't really get a stipend to, you know, too much thought, but going into the second season, even like he said, we would always bring it up, bring it up, bring it up, but you know how you wave to something, like we just get back to basketball, you know what I'm saying? So, that's the mentality that I was under, but going into the second season, you know, I kept going to him, going to him, like, man, look, let's do this, let me feel like this, let me do this, let me do that. He was like, I got it, I'm gonna take care of it, cool. That's the impression I was under, you know what I'm saying? But this past season, like I said in the paper, I was giving a partial payment. - Yep. - But it still wasn't what I was expecting. - Okay. - I was giving a partial payment. Didn't get nothing from the last year. So, we really, man, it's just coming off a state championship, I will figure that an administration, you know, will take care of the best thing that's going on in the school. And it just didn't happen, and that's why we at this point now, you know what I'm saying, man. - Okay, and go there, you know. - Phillips, if I recall correctly, Phillips has been, for the last couple of years, a football powerhouse. - Yes. - They have a budget. They have money. Am I right? Wrong. Talk to us. - True. - Let us talk. - I'll stop you when you're wrong. - We didn't, we didn't got the worms and shit out. - I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a. - They got a budget. They, they've been winning football games. They want a state final and. - Yes. - Right, was that before you got there? - That was '70, they last, and then it was '17. - 2015, winning. - 2015, that's '17. They was running up in '16. - So they have a, a, a program, and they are, you know, they got, they got some, some things going. It's not like it's a, it's a dormant school. - There you go. - There you go. - Phillips is not a dormant school. - No. - Sports wise. - No. - Okay. They got, they, they've been having budgets. I know they was with Under Armour, am I correct? - No, we was with New Balance this year. - New Balance this year. Previously it was Under Armour. I'm just talking about. You can't call it a new, there's new heritage. We was with new heritage this year. - Right, yeah. - Underneath that year. We was under new heritage this year. And it was a, it was a good thing for us because I had spoken with the athletic director after the first season. You know, after the first season I spoke with him, and I was like, man, you know, to be honest any man, coming back, like we gotta change the whole aspect of what our look is gonna be. 'Cause these kids go to these high schools for the look. It's not about the game. They could be like, man, man, man. We in the young came in there looking strong. Simeon came in looking strong. Curie coming in with everything. Hold on. - They're saying that Phillips got one of the best gyms in the city right now. - True. - One of the best and greatest looking gyms in the city. - That's true. - That's the best of them. - Yeah. - And that's what we had to map. We tried to tell, I was telling my athletic director what it was on. We gotta match that. This is how we get the upper extra line kids. You know that kid that ranked number one in eighth grade coming out of eighth grade without recruiting them. Them guys don't do recruiting. They don't do no more recruiting. Simeon winning on them. Them guys don't recruit. - The previous administration though. - Yeah. - They understood about budgeting and everything. - And excellence through them kids. Yes. It was about the kids. It was definitely about the kids with them. Because they, because what I've found out, you know, doing this whole spectacool that's going on right now, is that they were treated differently when they won state. They got trips out of town, rings, jackets. Like got to go meet the Chicago Bears, Virginia McCasky. Like they got, like right now, the football team can literally like go practice their social field if they wanted to. - Get it. - That's real talk. - You're even tripping around, yeah. And that's where, you know, with the, you know, previous coach Joe, me and him, you know, dialogue and over the phone, he told me like, "Nah man, you supposed to be, them boys are supposed to be celebrated the right way." You know? - This is giving us context. - Yeah. - Give us good context. - Yeah, go ahead Nick. The second question. - Hmm. I guess for me, 'cause I read the article from the 11th and then when they just updated it. And so for me, if I place myself in the situation, I'm trying to understand how we got to the second year after the first year. After how you didn't get any stipend. - Yep. - You kind of already got the treatment throughout the first year. - Yes. - If you're good, you're good, you're good. We have a pause moment over the summer to be like, okay, let's sit down and hash this out. - Yep. - Do you feel like you could have pushed harder for that? Or do you feel like they really led you astray and let you know, like, no, you're good. Don't worry about it. Like I'm just trying to understand it. - Yeah, that was pretty much what it was. - 'Cause I'm trying to understand it thinking. Getting the student athletes into the building, that was crucial. You know, getting the athletes into the building by me graduating 10 seniors. - Right. - I graduated 10 seniors my first year. - So from that, please, have a clap. - That's great. (audience applauding) - I have to only start with three. - Yeah, I started with three. - We graduated 10. - Yeah, we graduated 10. Six of them went to college for free, too. - Look at that. - Hey, clap, hey, clap. - You gotta stick the chest out when you say that shit. - Man. - Six of them went to college for free. - For free. - Because, like, no bullshit. Everything that's going on, what you just said, that's supposed to matter over everything. - Oh, everything, man. - Everything, man. - Go ahead, Nick, go ahead, Nick. - For free money. - Because I talked to a few people who I know who coached out in the suburbs, right? - Okay. - And what was a girls' coach, what was a boys' coach? And she was kind of telling me, like, hey, what he's dealing with was kind of, like, par for the course of what high school coaches deal with around the area. I'm looking at the situation, like, is this a anomaly? Or is this a situation where he came in, he achieved a little quicker than they thought, and now they trying to play him a particular type of way? I'm trying to be real unbiased about it. 'Cause I'm gonna just be 100% honest with you. - I'm a child. - I don't understand how you get to this. Second year, the coach, regardless, north- ♪ For sure, for sure ♪ - North- ♪ For sure, for sure ♪ ♪ To the passion of the game and the love ♪ - Yes. - How the hell we get to the second year, and we ain't got nothing for the first year. Bump, pay and meet. Bump, this, that a third of the, the, the, the, being paid back, there's a stipend that's supposed to be paid. And I believe you're supposed to get that stipend regardless of whether you're a volunteer or an employee, right? So that's where I'm like, yo, if that's not happening, regardless of what these people would have told you, regardless of what you got going on, I got to recoup something, right? - I'm about to speak on that now. I appreciate you asking that question. So what happens is, after, you know, the, the stage of me getting new athletes in the building, you know, kids transitioning over to the school, it happened fast to where, okay, oh, wait a minute, hold on, this look dangerous. Like, wait a minute, hold on, this looks dangerous. So pretty much, I was, of course, what you said, I was led astray going into the second year, believing that I would get paid, because like I told you before, this is my passion. This is not nothing that, you know, that I'm trying to get rich off of. Like it's not getting rich off of this. It's just actually giving kids in the community an opportunity, seriously, because my son was one of the ones, one of the kids who was bumped the same thing with CPS. If you look on there, he was done with the transfers. - Yeah. - You know, he transferred a lot, then, dealing with, you know, the naysayers and whatever case may be. But so my job to give back to the community and meet me speaking with him, but I'm about plenty of days, multiple days. So what's going on this year? How are we going to do this? How are we going to help people? We got it. We're going to go ahead and do that now. We're going to go ahead and do that now. Okay, let's go. So I filled out the application over four or five times. Four or five times. There's no exaggeration. How many times? I'm pretty sure CPS and the board has seen it that I filled out this application. And it would get to a certain point and it would just stop. - Were you under the belief why you were coaching there that you were there as a volunteer or there as an employee? - Yeah, volunteer, who? - Because I'm just going off, I'm just going off basis based off of what I read. You know what I'm saying? - What everybody's speaking about. I can tell you like this here. I've never seen a volunteer form, a volunteer packet, a volunteer, anything as long as I've been there for the two years. - Okay. - Never. I only filled out applications. And like I told you, I have lots of proof, like I said, to back my story in the case, you know? So yeah, I've never seen a volunteer. So I wouldn't know what that narrative came from or who started it. - Okay. - But I was never a volunteer or anything. Like I said, why would I be, even if I was, right? Let's just speak on that. - A hypothetical. - Hypothetically speaking, a volunteer would also have to pass it back on, correct? - Yes. - Okay. Secondly, volunteers don't get keys, correct? - No. - Volunteers don't get offices, correct? - Correct. - Okay. That's where my championship trophies I sit in there right now, in the office. So to start that narrative, I don't know who would say that or why? Because at the end of the day, it still means that I'm not supposed to be around kids. No matter how you slice it, how you dice it, how you put it out there, or the other things I was hearing was that you couldn't clear a background. - Who got a stipend? - Who got it? - Yeah. - That I don't know. - That's the question that's being asked. - Yeah, I don't know. - So you know for a fact that that stipend was paid out? - Uh, I don't, I don't know. I don't, that's the CBS job. - You didn't get one, right? Coach? - You said you got a partial payment after the first year, the second year. - The second year. - After the second year, after y'all won. - Tell 'em how. - I would have to do, I would have to do it. I would have sent 1,200 to an Apple pay. - You sent 1,200 to an Apple pay. No taxes, no official form, no nothing. They just hit you off on the iPhone. That's crazy. - That's not even. - I mean, I don't know. I wanna ask who did that come from? - I would have not speak. - Exactly. - No comment. - So, I got a question. You got a question, Jeff? Okay, so I got Pete's. - Go ahead, talk to him, talk to him. - Yeah, I got you, talk to him. - You said you applied four or five different times. - Yes. - And I know when you do the whole background thing, there's an email that gets sent. - Yes. - To somebody in corporate, downtown. - Yes. - Did you get a response back saying they received your background saying, okay, it's been completed from somebody in CPS. That's what I wanna do. - Yes, I did. - Okay, I don't know if you wanna give the name of the time, you don't have to, but you just confirmed that. So, again, you just said you got keys. That part right there is huge to be around kids. It reminds everybody knows that. If that's not done at all, you can't get keys. - Exactly. - You just can't. So, when you have conversations with the AD on a one-on-one level or the principal on a one-on-one level. - I had conversations with both. - Well, I spoke verbally with the principal after state. There was more so after state with him. But during the season, it was more so my athletic director. - Okay. And how many paid coaches did you have on your staff? If they would've got paid, how many paid coaches? - Two. - Okay, all right. - They were supposed to be four. - Okay. - Supposed to be the head coach, head assistant on varsity, JV coach and freshman coach. - Okay. - Yeah. That's the norm. Okay. - So, nobody across the whole program got paid? - Yes. My JV coach was paid, my freshman coach, he was paid. - So, you two, where you received what you received, and you weren't paid at all? So, this feels like a direct attack for some reason. - Yeah. - All right. - Yeah, we've had, to be honest with you, man, we've had lots and lots of conversations about me not being his hire. So, I never understood what that meant from him, but he would clearly say that to me without, no, like just saying it, like, you're not my hire, you're not my hire. And I'd be like, what are you talking about? You know, it was crazy, man, it was crazy. - You got anything, Jamal? - Sports administrator is African-American, am I correct? - Yes, yes. - Principal is African-American. - Yes, he is. - Yes. - The head of the sports, CPS sports is... - It was supposed to, Tony McCoy was the contact after my letter director, and then I guess the guy, David Rosengaard? - Yes, his man. - Yeah, David Rosengaard, he's Tony's boss, yes. He's over sports, I mean. - Your boss's TV is going in right now on the comments. And everything. - Okay. - He's saying what happened is as far as, like, Carl Kemp is saying schools don't pay their coaching stipends, sport administration does. - Yes. - I'm just like, just read the comments. - Yes, true. - That's coming on. He's asking, young ballers is asking, why is this also difficult? Why wasn't it paid out? Admin got $15,000 in their account? With a question mark. Tell him to ask now. - Yeah, tell him to go ask now. We don't know why. - Because you weren't there higher, do you feel like there was a preconceived notion on their part about you? Do you feel like there was a tension there between you and the AD and or the principal? - Was it tension between you and the AD? - Second year, yes. - Second year, yep. - Between the AD, what about the principal? - No, I can't put them in this. I'm not gonna, as I said, as much as we're going through what we're going through, you know what I'm saying? I just believe that him being the overseer is watching your school, protecting your coaches, your kids, and your program. That's the only thing I would have on him is watching his program. But I have no malice toward him. I don't even have no malice toward my athletic director. I just feel that the fact that had he done his job the correct way, like I don't think we would be here. If he would have done his job, we would not be here. So Pete, the streets, the marbleshop talk, mm-hmm. A lot of people just don't believe this is how this went down. A lot of people feel like somewhere along the line, you dropped the ball because there's, a lot of people just don't see how for two years you're out of place and they let this happen and you let this happen. You know, we talked about the whole room of that, you signed a contract as a volunteer system. (laughing) Honestly, I don't see how that can happen, especially if you can read. I don't see how that can happen. And then again, if you signed as a volunteer assistant, there's certain things you won't get. Keys is number one. So to all that, the noise that's out there, the rumors, and all that, the stuff that beyond your control, 'cause people gonna say what they want to say. - Yeah, they gonna say it. - What do you gotta say to all that? - Man, like I said, you shouldn't judge if you're not in my shoes right now. That's it. I've been, anybody that knows me knows that I care about these boys, man. This mission is for these boys. This is nothing about me. If we sit here, I'm the one that has to deal with it and handle it. But my main point is my boys are hurting. Like, and I'm trying to stop the bleeding. That's what I'm doing. I'm trying to stop the bleeding for them. So if I can, whatever I have to do to do that, I'm gonna do that. Like, I don't care who gets upset about it, who says I'm doing too much, who says this, then the third. Don't speak on me unless you put yourself in my shoes. I've built a program in two years on both levels. I gave 'em grades, I gave 'em student athletes from day one. They, my kids, they ain't never out of the suspension. Like, these are the things that need to be spoken on. Okay, averaging a 3.3 from freshman to varsity. Honorable students. Let's speak on, what else is there? Them boys dedicating and sacrificing countless days. Like, you know, to make the program look good, to make the school look good. Like, by us being up all that percent, the percentile we was when we got there, we had like an enrollment of like, I think a matter of like 80-some kids. Like, real, I don't even think we got 500 kids in the school. You know what I'm saying? Like, so the enrollment and everything are like, them things there, those are the things they need to judge me with. Don't judge me on what y'all reading in the paper or somebody saying who cousin say it this or that. Judge me for what I've done for the community and the school. And when you get that, that's when I say, okay, I was wrong. But if you can't judge me on that, I mean, you sitting around talking at the table, it's gonna be gossip talk, we gonna have barbershop talk. We all do it. I'm guilty of it every day. Man, my guys, we talk about stuff. You know what I'm saying? Point this thing on the phone. So what I'm saying, man, is like, my boys need support. And I'm here to get that support. So whatever questions that anybody want to ask me from these podcasts or whatever I need to do, I'm speaking because we are hurting. Like a lot of people look at it as all, he's doing this for, I'm not doing this for no attention. If we could get the money for our rings, nobody else, I will go ghost and deal with my situation outside of this. If we could get the money for our rings, if y'all pay attention in the last article you read, we started to go fund me. - Can you drop the, can you go fund me? - Well, we're going to put that in the link, so I'm going to add to the show. And also, if anybody that's following me-- - What can they find it? - They can go on my page right now. They can go on my page right now, look it up, or, you know, follow, just keep talking to you. You can inbox me, you can talk to me, or call my phone. - The link on your page, right? - Yes it is. - Yeah, that's it. - Go ahead, Jamal. - Go ahead, bro. - I got a question. - I got a question there and he said, they told us to meet the new head coach. They didn't call him about it, too. Holding the boys accountable for their actions and their grades. He did his job and changed the narrative for my son. - And claps for that. - And claps for that. - Appreciate it, portion. Appreciate it, portion. - While we go through all of this, I was just about to ask, how do you feel as being one of the student athletes going through this whole situation? How does this make you feel about the situation, just with your school? How does it make you feel about the situation dealing with, you know, the sport and seeing, even though you achieved, even though you worked hard, there's still hurdles and roadblocks that you still gotta get through. How does this feel to you? Especially because you're seeing, you know, there's players behind you who are affected by this and even yourself moving on to wherever you're gonna go next. Like, this is something you had to deal with. This is something you had to live through. How do you feel about it? - To be honest, I don't know how to feel for real, 'cause like, why are we even going through this in the first place anyway? 'Cause like, what team don't got state championship rings? Like, that's number one. We don't got no rings. We don't got jackets. We ain't getting, to be honest, we ain't getting nothing that we just promised. And we just, through all that hard work, the six AMs, the extra three hours in a gym, the extra 15s, 13, everything, all that fighting, all type of stuff behind closed doors and to come out to nothing, but just to say we won state, it's like, that's crazy to me. - So you tell it, basically saying, you're tired of the extra push-ups you had to do, and everything-- - Yeah, they did, though, they did, though, they did, though. - They did, though, they did, though. - What's going on, baby? - That's the suicide. - The extra suicide. - I mean, six fours you had to do and everything, I don't know, get back to that. - Put no numb weight vest is one of them. - Yeah, weight vest is one of them. - Also had cold, you know, it's hot. Don't matter what y'all say. - These boys do that they went through and they ran through a wall for us. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And that's the treatment-- - That's the treatment. - We did something that wasn't done now, how many years? - 49 years. - 49 years, just the winning culture, like to the building and the community alone, should be a reason for-- - To celebrate. - People to celebrate, like, they were not celebrated properly, that I will say that again and again. We should have been, it should have been about a long parade, just like the Bud Billiken. Like, from, I don't care if it came from 22nd to 51st. It could have, we could have did that for them. They deserve that, man. Like to, man, I just, like I said, man, I'm hurting inside. People don't understand it. It's bigger than me. Like, please do not get this misunderstood. I want, I'm only asking for my boys. And for my JV players, I just want y'all to know that Coach P got y'all. We are gonna be here, we're gonna finish out our plan, that we started, whatever boundaries and leaps that I have to take, we're gonna do it. And, like, it's just so hard right now, bro. Like, to keep having these conversations about it. And, like, I'm being, like you said, the barbershop talking the streets, I did something wrong. Why would he coach after the second year? Why would he coach after the first year? How did he not get paid? Why did he didn't clear? He didn't, oh, yeah, they was told, he couldn't pass a background. - That's the question if you tell him just one second, Mike. - That's the question that's being asked on the live. - Yeah. - Are you a level one or level two volunteer? - I was never a volunteer. I wanna praise this correctly, but I'm being offensive at all. - Go ahead, man. - It'd be good. - Yes. - We know each other. - For sure, personally, for sure, yeah. - It's not coming from me. - I got you. - Read it, read it. - Speak it, speak it, speak it, speak it. - I'm going to. - Hey, come on, let's talk about it. Tell them all. Come on, let's go. - Well, Mike asked this question. - Wait, wait, wait. - Mike asked your question for Pete. - Hey, little Paris, you know, I've been knowing since he was a kid, man. I love you being in the bar, I was shopping all that. I'm glad I'm proud of what you did for that low end. I love you that million dollars you're gonna be able to want to build on the backup. But we need to give you what you're gonna do for the kids as far as getting them what they want. They want their reigns. Is that a kid going to school? Is that next to you? - Eli, Eli, Eli, Eli. - Yes, me and Eli, I got my state championship guard here with me right now, Mike. Elijah Harris, what I want them to do, what I want to do for them is to be a part of the history that they put out there for themselves. That's their history. I feel that it's being stripped from them by not being celebrated properly. That's why I'm going so hard for them. - Yeah, so I know you're big, you go big, Harris, and you don't regret it. That should be, you should be committed for that 'cause they haven't won in 49 years, man. Our car goesin' up and our jets, and I know everybody came to that. And our model center, little Paris put together a program down there, man. So congratulations to you, man. And that's why I wanted you on that podcast. That's why I told 'em to make-- - Appreciate it, close my hands, come on that. - All right, I love it, Mike, thanks. - I'm saying every employee from CBS has to go through a background. - Yes. - And everyone to us. - To be clear, to play in the CBS. - Yes. - It sounded like he was clear, though. They sent him the email, though. That's the weird thing about the situation. He applied, he applied, he applied, he applied, right? - He would just stop. It was like when I finished my background fingerprint TV testing. - Stocked. - Stocked. Automatic bro. - He said he got the email coach 'cause he's in the know, coach said, "Hey, did you get the email?" - That's why I asked him 'cause I know. - He said he got the email. So it sounds like funny business. It definitely sounds like funny business. I have a question though. Somebody sent me a question and we'll watch it in the podcast, I'll read it. We all know the main thing is about the boys basketball. What's next for the boys that remain at the school on the team as their coaching leader? Are you gonna tell the boys to stay at the school and defend the title? Are you gonna try to send them to other schools or other coaches that you trust and that the focus is the remaining basketball? - Great question, man, great question. Well, to their question, me wholeheartedly, I believe I'm not going anywhere. I believe that I haven't spoken to any kid about transferring 'cause I definitely believe that Wendell Phillips is their house and their home, that they built. - Okay, 'cause I gotta follow up questions behind that. - Go ahead. - Why would you want to stay and deal with them people after this situation? - It's about my boys. I have to see this through, I have to see them out. Like, if I bring them and vacate them, then I become the more, because I ask them to come for me to give them the opportunity. And as we're speaking on it, all of them are offered through for college, going to Tennessee in years. Now, these were kids that played very minimal minutes on their last teams. They were two, five minutes a game, three minutes a game. These things right now, everybody that's coming back, most of the stars who became, the kids, the players who became stars, they all have scholarship offers now. There's only one that's missing right now, but it's actually two. We have a DeAndre Addison that hasn't, because he can't, he broke his hand, and we have a Mari Edwards. And he was going through it like just, - That's my favorite point. - Oh yeah, for sure. You ain't gotta tell me. - That's my favorite point. - That's my favorite point. - What you call him? - Golden Chown. - I saw him, I saw him. - Golden Chown. - That's my favorite point. - To answer your question, bro, yes, I do. I would like to see this through. I haven't spoken with my players about transferring and nothing like that, because I figured that God has put me here, and we're gonna go ahead and finish this out. I believe that I will still be with the Phillips. - 'Cause you're a better man than me. After all of that, I'm just like, I'm regardless, you know what I'm saying, especially with the suit, it's like. - And I figured it, and like I said, I figured that CPS or do their job, they'll do their job with the logistics, everything that's going on. So that's why I have a strong belief, like I'm built off faith anyway, and I've had my own business for like 19 years, so I haven't like faltered one time. I mean, we all go through our ups and downs, business is slow business, but I feel wholeheartedly that God has us. He has the best for this. He's gonna oversee this whole situation. - Be able, you said someone was being told or someone was being introduced as the new head coach. - No, that was me. - Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. - Yeah, she said, I know her son played for me too. - Okay, okay, so my question is, what happened to the fingerprint? - Fingerprint, what happened to the fingerprint, what went on with the fingerprint thing? - Nothing went on with the fingerprint. I went, got my fingerprinted, everything showed up green, no red. And when I, and I called HR, they told me, wait a minute, hold on, Mr. Martin, what happened? She like, we got everything. Yeah, I even went down to fill out the vibrant papers. - I know what that is. - I filled out the vibrant papers. So I'm lost to see wherever I was. I've never seen nothing about volunteering. I not know, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Only applications. - He's making that clear about it. - Clear, only applications. I've never seen it. Don't know where it came from. - They pulled the one, two, I ain't gonna hold you. Sound like, oh, take this application. Oh, this is an employee application, fill it out. When we put it in, we gon' put it in and somethin' else, right? - Whatever the requirements to be a coach. - There will be requirements to be a coach in Illinois for this city with CPS, with the private schools. Can you break that down and let us know? - From my experience, from being at two, well, three places, in 14, 13 years, you have to pass, at the Catholic school level, you have to go through what is called a virtuous, online certification. You gotta go and watch this hour-long video. - Three days. - About pedophiles. - No, tell 'em three days. - It's a three days, three days of a video. - And it's uncomfortable because you seein' these dudes talkin' about how they look at kids. So you gotta do that. And after that, you do free and print, they see you to a place to do free and they pay for it. Whatever school you at, they pay for it. And after that, that's the two most important process, those two. Once everything comes back complete, meaning you're not a pedophile, you're not a felon, you're not a convict, then it's the whole process of, all right, now we got your paperwork, we can give you your keys. That's how that works. Everywhere I've been, that's how it works. The process, I'm telling everybody, it's not that long. It's not. Once they run your name through the database and whatever they use, it's a red flag gonna come up. - I know what database they use. - And if it's a red flag, and you know this too, they'll tell you, Mr. Wallace, we're sorry, you can't-- - Can't come. - You can't come. - Downtown will tell you that. - Yeah, they will tell you that, they'll tell you that. - And they will tell you that. - So it's not-- - As you tell, you can't get the job. - They'll tell you, you ain't got the job. - The process is not that hard. - It's not. - It's not. And it's not that tedious. So when he says, he applied four or five times. - You even, I even got the books. I even got the books, you got the order for $54. See? Like, come on, man, this goes deeper than-- - But the article made it seem like you didn't pass the background check, you didn't do the fingerprints. - That was dead every time. - And you just like, you know, you said, fuck it, I'm gonna go, excuse my language, man. Please don't curse. - We just passed. - We just passed. - You said, the first article made it seem like, you just, you was just a volunteer, you was, God was just doing it. - A volunteer that didn't get cleared. - And y'all was coming out your own pocket for money and shit. Let's talk for real. - Yeah, we gon' talk. - I'm gonna talk, I got something, I got something, I got something to get corned, it's corned. Talk about that. - They make it a scene, they make it a scene. - I got one speech. - Hold on, hey, corned, please talk about that, corned. - He got a forward card. - No, no, no, it's not forward. - I'm sorry, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. - That's talk. - Firearm owner, identification card. CCL. - CCL. - Can't handle background with that. - Can't handle background. - This is federal, can't handle background. - This is federal, this is federal. - Talk about it. - Talk about it. - For everybody that's been speculating-- - That's official. - For everybody that's been speculating, that he couldn't pass the background check, or if he was a felon, or if he touched somebody or some shit. - And you see it. - Barbs. - That's it. - You gotta clarify. - I got my answer, sir, that's it. - I don't know. - You can't get this with anything. - With anything. - You can't get it. - Get that. - No, you're right, you're absolutely right. - So, therefore, going forward. - As these kids say, be, coach. - These kids say, who back door? (laughing) - Barbs. - Man, that's it. - As soon as I said, man, that's it. - That's it, that's it, that's it, that's it. - No, because look, let's be honest. - Yeah. - Everything that y'all sent up here to us. - Yes. - I'm taking your word, I'm taking your word. Y'all here. - Yes. - Everything checks out. - Yes. - So, that's why he said, who back door, y'all? It's somethin' beyond, it's somethin' beyond. - I was the normal. - I can't see the story here. - Yeah, speaking back on the, I wasn't his hire. - Yeah. - That's the only person I can see that back door. I wasn't his hire, he clearly stayed at that. - That's it, we had a meeting. - We had a meeting. - We had a half-part game. - Lickin' part game? - No, was it? - Half-part, when I said that if we don't. - That was Lickin' part. - That was Lickin' part. - That's 30 minutes before a game. The boys are warming up. - They warming up without their coaches. - He called, we get called upstairs for a meeting. - This is at Phillips? - Yes. - 30 minutes. - Right, right. - 20, 30 minutes before a game. - We upstairs in a meeting. Have a game meeting. - Harder. - About a professor to listen, about responding to emails. - Before the game. - Before the game. - Before the game, bro. - That was during the second season? - No. - That was the first season. - That was the first season, that was this year. - That was this year. - Yeah, so that's where the mental, that's where the mental in the harassment and things like that, they were 40, they were formatted, bro. It was like, I couldn't stop seeing it. Like it kept every day, every other minute, every two days, somebody would tell you about something. - We went in and they just pressure, pressure, pressure. - Pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. - We went in. - Yeah, 'cause what was the point? - I haven't heard one part of the year that when I lost, it was over with. I'm a fighter. - I'm pretty sure the streets are at that too. - These are the 15 games in the world. - So I can call, that's where people wanna know where the mental hang was coming from, for sure. - Yeah, that's where it came, it came doing to see our first, without our first 15 games. - This is a question that's on the live. What names were on Philip's esthetician for boys basketball? I don't know what that word means. - Can't speak of that, no comment, no comment on that. - No comment, no comment. - That's not our job. My job is the coach, boys basketball. - No comment. - Okay. - The job is the coach, boys basketball. Is the AD an older gentleman? - No, young, young, young, young, black guy, yes. - Younger than you. - Yes. - Look at that. - You know how sometimes? - Look for him. - Hey look. - Get the old ears out of here. That what you trying to say? Get the old ears out of here? - I mean, you know, in our community and the young man, he has to understand and notice when he travels through life, you know, there is a problem between old man and old, old black man and old young, a young black man. And it's always revolved around ego. - Yes. - I'm trying to understand if something is very much successful and you continuing the trajectory of that success back to back, why the problem? Why the issue? Why the issue? - Shouldn't have been there, shouldn't have been any. - Shouldn't be any. - Shouldn't be any. - That's the whole point of this. It shouldn't have been the issue. - He wasn't his hire. - That's the only issue. - Shouldn't have been the issue. - Shouldn't have been the issue. - It goes back to what he said. - Shouldn't have been the issue. - What he spoke up about, I did it faster than anybody expecting me to. - That was a, that's the main problem. - That messed up the plan. - I don't know. - That's what it sounds like. - It sounds like we came in and they didn't think we was gonna win. - No. - Period. - Or they didn't think he was gonna win to this magnitude to the point where we put them on history. - I was surprised in these guys and I think John. It was a million people that thought that. - Hey, Phillip, you know, I want the dumbbar. - Right. - We hate y'all. - Definitely. - We hate y'all. - That's the biggest rivalry. That's the biggest rivalry we can win. Dumbbar. - Past, I've been doing you for years. - Yeah, for sure. - We know each other. That's why our hair lines go way back. - Exactly. - That's why we got the one eight. - That's why we got the one eight line. - Right. (laughing) - I've been doing it for a long time, but Phillip's, you know, to dumbbar his enemy. - Yeah. - Even though that's just some self-hate shit. Whatever. But at the same time, if something is going, if something is going successful. - Back to back. Why are you giving this young man, why are you giving this man problems? Why are you as a young man, giving this guy problems at all periods? I'm trying to still get the understanding. - To speaking of giving me the problems, like we gonna speak on this again. - You talking about, you had to meet 30 minutes before a goddamn guy. - That more than once. That ain't talking about one time, that more than once. He brought that game out. - Is it the control issue? - 'Cause he stopped it. He stopped. He stopped that mean, because we had 35 minutes to get down there and get our boys mentally together, 'cause they down there warming up with no coach. - I guess a really big game. - So, yeah, Lincoln Park was 13th in the country. - And that seems like sabotage too. - The biggest issue for me, and I'ma go back to this again, Jamal. We speak on, in my interview, from him and my principal, we speak on this. It's about the kids, celebratory. They have to understand. When they get to the next level, the challenges in life that they're gonna go through, right? So, a part of their history is being ripped, right? So you got two grown men here, right? One's upset at the fact that you became a successor. - Mm-hmm. - You're not mine. They fall in the middle. They hurting. That one's hurting. I'm gonna be okay. I have a business. He has a job. This, if you guys can understand the dedication that these boys put in that gym, I'm telling y'all, you guys will be, it's a say, they deserve it all, bro. They came together within seven months. Like, it took from August, it took from August to March, to win state after seven months. Different attitudes, different egos, different mentalities. For them to come into one common goal, win state. They beat the odds, they defeated the odds. So, for me, if I'm the person that's in leadership, which I am, I'm gonna bend over like backwards for them boys. Like, I don't care who I gotta go through, what I got to, it's just in my nature. So, for you to feel a certain type of way on why I'm doing this, whether it's your family member, where it's that, right is right, wrong is wrong, man. Take care of these kids, and I told anybody, I don't care where it comes from. We try, I'm trying daily in my business to get the funding for them. If I get these rings, nobody else will hear me. I'll probably disappear. - Who's supposed to buy it? - This is Young Ballos TV ads. - Right. - What happens is, this is what happens. What I was told, 'cause like I said, I'm new to this, I haven't been, I haven't, this is my first time winning state, two years in CPS. What I was told was, they need a donor. They, some schools have a donor that says, they're waiting, I don't know if it's from the alumni. They have, they all get donors and sponsors to buy the rings. Cool, no problem, I have no issue with that at all. But if our alderman raised money for a 20 million dollar gem, that becomes the community gem, not Philips gem, that's not Philips gem, that's the community gem, that's the money was raised for the community. The money was raised by the community, for the community, right? So you can pretty much go online right now and rent gem space at Wendell, Philips online. - Really? - Yes, there's a hundred 20 dollars out. You can go in there right now. You can go in rent, you can go in rent that gem at a hundred 20 dollars out. - Any other gem like that in the city? - So, as a head coach, if you want to hold a basketball cap, if you want to do some workouts, you got to check and make sure the gem ain't rented. (laughs) - Yeah. (laughs) - And the school profits off of that? Or the city profits off of that? 'Cause it's not the school's gem, per se, correct? - Correct. - Community gem. - It's the community gem. - So it's the city's gem? - No, it's the community's gem. - You hear that? - It's the community's gem. - Oh, that's not like so-- - That's whole, that's controlled by our administration. - Okay. - So the gem rentals. - Go ahead, finish what you're saying. - The gem rentals are daily, all those things. And we accent to help fundraise. I mean, we have the NBA combat in our gem. - Yeah, yeah. - We have four different agencies. We've had countless NBA players come rent the gem. - Yeah. - Yeah, we had countless NBA players that was in the draft that came on their own to rent the gem. And we constantly act like, I'm not, even my kids went up to administration before they graduated. And was like, where's our range? Where's our range? Where's our stuff? - Yeah. - Meetings, before we went to the press. Did you conduct meetings? Did you have, bring in this person, that person? Did you do, did you do, did you both try to do any and everything I wanna hear from you first? - Arbitration. - At all? - Did you try? - Well, we were told that they had it on the control. - Yep. - That was the answer they gave us all the time. We got it on the control. We gonna do this, we gonna do this for the boy. We gonna do this, and just nothing ever happened. I mean, we tried, we went up there, we were having meeting with them, we were tall, we were going to his office. - We even got, the boys even got sides for the range. - Yeah, but they got sides. - We all got sides, us, the administration. They came out. - They said they was gonna take care of it, handling it. Right, we still ain't got 'em. - CPS has not tried to intervene before and went to the press. - No. - Not at all. - Sports department did not try to intervene. I'm talking about the sports department down at CPS, did not try to intervene. - No. - No. - Before and went to press. - No. - No. - Damn. - ISHA heads off too, right? - Yeah, they say they don't want no parts of that. - So, speaking of the ASHA, I say, go ahead. Nothing's gonna affect these boys and what they accomplish, right? - Not at all. - No. - Okay, 'cause that's what I'm concerned about. 'Cause like I tell these guys all the time, I hate the fact that when the boys accomplish something and the young men do whatever they do, they accomplish a goal, somehow there's always the adults that fuck it up. And I feel like this is what we going through now in child situations. - Definitely. - 'Cause they have nothing to do with this. - They have nothing to do with this, bro. - They have nothing to do with this. - So, everybody's, the school asks them to do they've done everything. You two have asked them to do this. And now, all they want-- - We've done everything in the school asks us to do it. - So, all they want is what they are old, which is-- - What they earned. - And they earned it, and their rings. That's what they want, man. - Just think of how that feel to see, to get up there knowing that you was down there with HF. HF Key is posting their rings on social media, all this. - Yeah. - Texting you your homie inbox, people are like, "What y'all's at? "When y'all getting y'alls?" - The power prep posting their rings. - Yeah. - I get it. I understand. I got to ask, coach, I got to ask, in case this situation doesn't get resolved and you're not able to go back inside that building, what's the next step? - Well, my step, not the next step is to keep fighting. I'm not going to stop fighting. And until I see this through, 'cause I got a lot of kids depending on me. And like I'm a teller, I'm telling anybody that's listening to this right now. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than what we going through as grown men with this with CPS. I don't care, that has nothing to do with anything. I'm trying to get them boys celebrated the correct way. I don't care who steps up. I don't care where it comes from. I just want it done for their sake. Like I said, people don't look at it and see the hurt that it calls me. Once it calls me, it goes down to the boys. Like if you do this, like you a coach, right? Cory, you can't show your kids the way you want to be when a referee call, a wrong call. If you shut down, they shut down. They're going to respond and do exactly what they coach do. If I act I rate on that sideline, my boys are going to do that. If I shut down and sit down, when them boys need me, they're going to sit down. They're going to say, okay, what coach you did it too. So how could you say us? You know, you supposed to be our leader. That's what I'm more gravitating to Cory. I don't, this here is just another outlet for me to get that voices heard. Like if everybody sees what I'm saying, they would understand. And again too, I want to go fund me. You may see $14,300. It's not that. We've called, I was telling them earlier before we spoke about this. The new number is $9,260 is what we need to get to which will be posted on my page later on tonight. So they all can understand. We don't need that much. We need 20 rings. And that's for my coach and staff and my kids. That's it, that's all. Once that gets done, you will see me like a fly on the wall. And where I let my, and I'll let whatever happens happens. And my situation with CPS and going back to the school to be able to coach this year, that stuff will be handled simultaneously. - Okay, coach, I got one question. - Go ahead. - It's from exposure runs. - Okay. - After you got frank and pretty, did you, did you have to submit a deposition for anything? - Yes. - Yeah, there we go. - Yeah. - Hit it, man, hit it. - Yeah, man. - And you could tell, do it from exposure runs, Muhammad. - Muhammad, yeah. - You don't have to ask me questions like that. I pretty much put everything out there for you already, bro. - Hit it, bombs, hit it with the chopper. Hit that. - So for you to, for you to slide on here. For you to try to, right. For you to try to slide in here and make something more messier than, for you to slide in here and try to make something more messier than what it is, bro. That's just, that's just cavalier to me, man. You could have called my phone and asked me that. I just set up in and explained everything to you. In full detail. So this is probably why right now you posting, you needed $7,500 or something. Whatever the case that may be, man. Leave me alone. - It's a lot of hate in the city, man. - It is. We know. - We know. - Chicago. - Chicago. - I hate Chicago. - Especially with basketball. - Is it a lot of hate in the gatekeeping? - It's with basketball. That's a whole, that's a whole nother show, man. - It's a whole nother show, man. - It's a whole nother show, man. - I can get up here, I can get other coaches. - Yeah, we can have a whole nother show, man. - We can have a whole nother show, man. We don't want to come out of here, it's calls around. - Yeah, man. - I don't wanna hear all that, man. But, you know, just to wrap up, P, coach, I appreciate y'all overtaking time out. - No problem. - All the way in the night. - I appreciate y'all. Thank y'all. - I appreciate y'all, man. - I appreciate that for coming on. - This has been real. - Yeah, 'cause, you know, I'm a type of person. When I read something, if I know the person. - Yeah, you want to know. - I want to know. - Yeah. - I want to just pick a size, especially if I know the person. - Exactly. - So, I appreciate you taking the time to step our end, you know, advocate for your kids. That's what I like to see, man, and I'm a coach. I like to see that. - Yeah. - 'Cause the shit ain't about wins. - This ain't about wins. - It ain't about wins, it ain't about wins. - No, no, no, no. - And, like I said, if I didn't do my job to the utmost, bro, in two years, 14 kids got full scholarships. Division I and Juco. They have full, right scholarships. - They ain't in them schools right quick. That many, huh? (laughing) - 14 kids, that's a lot of kids, man. That's a lot of kids, but also, too, right? - So, before we got y'all getting things y'all wanna leave everybody with. - All right, man, like I said, Chicago, stand up, low end, stand up. Just, like I said, we represent CPS to the fullest. I'm not gonna stop till I get it done. Y'all know how y'all, anybody that knows me knowing I'm going above and beyond for 'em. And, like I said, it's been affecting me since it happened, right? It's been affecting me since the season started last year. But I'm fighting through it, still being it, still being who I am as a person, you know? Seeking, you know, I'm out seeking professional help at times, you know what I'm saying? It's all of that, bro, like all wrapped in one, you know? So, to put judgment on anything that I'm doing, it's like it's sad, it's a sad case of like, okay, you're still in Chicago, you know what I'm saying? Well, other than that, man, I appreciate you guys for having me on here. - You got a lot of supporters on here. - Yeah, when the Phillips stand up, we will be back, we will defend our championship, we'll be the head coach at Wendell Phillips. - And Claps. - Coach Mike, with me, I just want to say, man, it's a cliche, but like he said earlier, man, writers right and wrong is wrong. And I just hope and pray that both sides or whoever may be that holds our future in their hands with Phillips High School to just do what's right, just do what's right. If you just do what's right, everything else is gonna fall into place. You know what I'm saying? What's going on with this situation? Do what's right was by the boys, do what's right by the coaches, do what's right for the administration. So, just do what's right and we'll be okay. - Eli, take a look. - I want to shout out, thank y'all for having us here. - My name is Shawn, peace out of the story. And hearing his voice, shout out a lot of my family, Tony Montan, a lot of people that watching us, we gonna be back, they gonna be back, back to back two years, three years for your repeat. - That's all we tryin' to do. Shake up the city, baby. - John, we did that. (audience applauding) Jamal, take us out, man. - We used to be in this podcast. You can find us on Spotify. You can find us on SoundCloud. You can find us also on YouTube. This episode and this clips will be up by later on this week. Shout out to Coach Parris Martin, Coach Mike. - I appreciate you much. - I appreciate you much. - Shout out. - At the cloudiest, Coach Moses, be able, Jeff T. Ellis, reasonable English podcast. BOMBS! (dramatic music) (water splashing) (squeaking)