(upbeat hip hop music) - What's up everybody? I know it's been a minute, but I'm back on Keri's mic. We gonna start it off just with a solo episode with my sister, Sierra, answering y'all's questions. So that's what we gonna do. - All right, so there's a lot of good questions.

We're just gonna start off with basketball topic. The first one, a lot of people wanted to know about the finals. Like what was your mentality like playing in the NBA finals? Were you scared, excited, nervous? Like just how does that feel? - Yeah, I think the playoffs is definitely like another level of intensity.

So you feel it every round. So the first round, Minnesota, you know, we actually got a pretty long break between the regular season and the post season because we were the number one seed and then they had to do the playing game. So we had some time off. So the first game back in that series was super intense.

Minnesota was a really good team, but you feel the increase in intensity every round. Yeah, that Suns series was tough. They got two back in Phoenix and then we were kind of like not knowing how that was gonna go back in Denver, but we ended up getting those next two games.

So that was good. But then yeah, once it got to the finals, that definitely is a whole nother level of pressure. Just, you know, you're so close to knocking on the door of a championship and we felt that. But at the same time, it's basketball. It's what you do your whole life.

Like once you're inside those four lines, it's nothing but basketball. You just kind of feel the rise in intensity, the weight of every shot. And that definitely escalates in the finals. - People want to know what a game day looks like for you and what's your routine? Like did it change in the finals or do you just keep it consistent?

- A game day for me. So yeah, in the NBA, you wake up, probably around like nine-ish. You go to the gym, you got shoot around. That probably lasts about an hour. Then guys get some recovery, some treatment in. You go back home, you got the whole afternoon to kind of rest.

Some guys take a three-hour nap, four-hour nap. My naps usually around like two hours. Then we go back to the gym. If the game is 7.30, I probably get to the gym at like 5.30. Have my shooting time, get some treatment, get some food in me and get ready to go.

So yeah, it's crazy. It's really a full-time job. On a game day, we're in the gym for about eight hours 'cause after the game, I get my lift in, get my recovery in. So that's a long day of being in the gym. - So you lift after every game?

- Yeah, I lift because we usually play every other day. I like to do my lower body lifts after we play so that I get the next day off of lower body and then I'll feel fresh going into the next game day. And then I'll do upper body in those gap days.

- Is that common or are you the only one that does that? - No, a lot of guys like to lift after games, but it just ends up being a lot. You might be tired from the game. You might've just lost the game. But the routine, the guys who can stick to a routine through the highs and the lows, even if you lose a game, I think that's how you can make steady progress.

There's times after a game you played terrible, you don't wanna do anything but just go home and chill. But if you can get yourself to go get your lift in, stay on that routine, you'll have a lot more good days than bad days, I think. - I don't know.

I can't imagine, like only even playing in college, I can't imagine lifting after a game. But good job. - The shoot around, yeah, the games, the shoot around is probably a little bit longer in the NBA than college. Then you play, then you gotta lift. And yeah, like I just said, it's hardest when you have a really bad game and then you have to get yourself to go stick to your routine and go lift after.

That's tough. - That is tough. I just wanna go home and sleep. So people wanted you to expand on that article that kinda came out towards the end of the series about your back and your injuries. They just wanted to like hear in your own words kind of a little bit of expansion on that.

- On that article? Yeah, I mean, that's one of the main articles that have come out kind of on my story leading up into the NBA and then my journey through the NBA through all these injuries. But yeah, I mean, long story short, for people that really haven't heard my story, yeah, been playing basketball my whole life, really came really easy to me.

I remember I first got ranked, I think I was ranked like 25th in the country in like eighth grade. But ever since then I was rising, rising, rising till eventually I was the number one player in the country my junior year and senior year. And so a lot of expectations come with that.

Like you're expected to be the number one draft pick, all these things. I remember when I committed to Mizzou, like season tickets sold out the same day that I committed, like everyone was super, super excited. And then I got hurt. I kind of been dealing with a few back things throughout high school.

They first kind of started when I tried to dunk on somebody in a practice with a MoCam, my AU team, and I fell from real high up on my back. And then like it just wasn't feeling right, but I didn't give it a lot of time to rest to recover.

So it just kind of kept getting worse over the next year or two, until I went to Mizzou and something happened. I think I saw a chiropractor or something and they messed it up worse. And so I ended up having to get the surgery. So that came with its own set of challenges, always thinking you were gonna go to college and dominate and then be number one draft pick, all these things.

That's what really came easy to me. - Well, especially like you just said, you sold out the whole arena, that's insane. And then all those people, it's like they bought tickets to see you. - Yeah, they bought tickets to see me. And I brought some of my friends in the recruiting class with me.

And all summer I'm balling, I'm dealing with some back pain, but I'm balling, I'm ready to go for the season. And that first game, I remember I'm going through layup lines and I just couldn't, I didn't feel right at all, couldn't jump. And that was my first time dealing with the back stuff.

So I didn't really know how bad it was. I was just trying to play through a lot of pain. But I remember going up to dad and I just told my dad like, "I can't play, I can't jump off my leg." And then he was like, "Well, it's a nationally televised game.

We need you to start, but you can come out after the first play." So I remember, yeah, one play went by, I actually got a bucket, a lucky, like a little put back little bucket. And then I came out and then my season was pretty much over. That was the first.

So I ended up getting the first surgery after that, trying to recover, probably sped up that recovery to try to come back for the NCAA tournament. Ended up trying to play in that, but probably messed it up again. So then I'm trying to, I think I messed it up again, 'cause I, again, I didn't let my body recover.

And then I got drafted way later than I thought. That whole draft night was very tough for me just because I'm seeing all these guys get drafted before me that I'm thinking that I'm better than. Which actually, I feel like our draft class is gonna end up being one of the best.

Like so many of those guys that got drafted are ending up having really, really good careers. But yeah, so that happened. So the draft night was not what I dreamed of and all this stuff. But in that article, I was just talking about like, through all these things I've been through, yeah, like you look back on time sometimes and you can see the blessings that come out of it.

Like I got drafted to Denver and it was the last place I thought I was gonna go. But I think I'm the first one out of my draft class that's won a championship, you know what I mean? And that wouldn't have happened if maybe I went to another team.

You know, there's so many blessings that came out of the situation that God put me in. But that was what the article was about. Yeah, my journey has not been easy, but it's cool to be able to inspire people that maybe you wouldn't have had a chance to inspire if everything just went smooth.

- For sure. What was one of your biggest learning moments when you came into the league? - One of my biggest learning moments. I think that series that Phoenix swept us, Jamal had gotten hurt, I think earlier that year. So we didn't have Jamal in that series, but they ended up sweeping us.

And that was like, that was an embarrassing playoff series. Like we knew we had to be in the gym that summer. We knew we didn't want to feel that again. I think we had beat the Trailblazers and then we had lost to the Suns and we got swept. And that was not a good feeling, being swept in the playoff series.

'Cause I've always been a winner. Like ever since I was young, I feel like I've won at every level, you know, AAU National. Like every championship really feels the same. Of course the NBA championship is like amazing, but it's the same feeling you get when you win a high school championship.

It's just the more people are watching, but anytime you win, it feels great. So I've always won championships since I was like young. So to get swept in the playoffs was like the most embarrassing thing to me. And so to be able to get Phoenix this past year in a great series, you know, they're a really good team, felt really good.

- Okay, so how do you block out the negative comments that come with just being kind of in the limelight? - Yeah, man, one thing about our day and age is people, it seems like people get off on hating. Like it don't matter how good you're doing in life.

Like there's so many haters. All these people want to have burners accounts and things like that and just talk negatively. I mean, it's really hard to block out. Everyone sees it. If you're a player, I mean, you can distance yourself. You can get off of social media. You can get off of Twitter and things, but you still, you know, people in the street or people whenever, like.

So I mean, it's hard to block out. I think you kind of got to get mentally strong enough to just realize that's part of it. And a lot of guys in the NBA struggle with some of the mental stuff just because they've been a man their whole life. So they always were praised and things like that.

And then when you get to a point where you're playing 82 games, you have good games, bad games. So many people saying different comments about you. Now money's involved. So people are talking about your contract or this or that. It can be a lot, but I just think at the end of the day, we get paid a lot to play a sport.

Like our job is not that difficult. The worst thing about your job is people on the outside just running their mouth and saying things about you. And that makes you want to like quit or go in a shell. Like you just got to, you got to check yourself because no one's opinion should have that big of an effect on you.

And I think for me, I just realized at a young age, like I'm looking at all these superstars and there's still people talking negatively about them. Like growing up watching Kobe, people still talk crazy about him. You know, Russell Westbrook, one of the best players of all time. Like people talk crazy about him at times in his career.

Like LeBron, it doesn't matter who you are. Giannis, if he misses a couple of free throws, people are bashing him. So it's like the higher up you get and the better you get, there's going to be more people saying things about you. But if there's so many people saying things about you, that means you're doing something right.

I know that's like, that's cliche, but that's true. - It is true. 'Cause I do feel like what you're saying, like the higher the level you get to, the louder the noise is. Like if you're like, no offense, but someone like on the bench, like there's not like much to say, but like the more you're doing and the more like people are looking at you, the more people are going to have opinions.

But yeah, it's just like the juxtaposition of like you're, that just means you're doing better. - Yeah, a hundred percent. I think I was watching Paul George's podcast with Mikkel and he, Mikkel said something that stuck out to me. He was just like, you got to have the, you got to be confident enough to fail.

Like you can't be scared of failure. You got to go for it. Like go for your goals, go for your dreams. It might be in the middle of a game. You might try something, try something out that you've been working on all summer. You might miss a shot. Coach might take you out, but you got to be confident enough to actually try those things.

So that's what I respect. More than like someone failing, it's the fact that they were confident enough to actually like go for it. You know what I mean? Like all the best players got to a point where they would just forget the naysayers, forget the people that say you shouldn't do this or shouldn't do that.

And just, you know, work on your game. And then if you fail, you fail. - But like, just be vulnerable for a second. 'Cause I feel like now you're talking about it from the perspective of like, you've kind of been a rookie, like you've been in the league a few years and you have like more perspective on it.

But like when you first went into the league and it was kind of a letdown to people because you weren't playing, was it harder for you to deal with negative comments then? - Yeah, but I think that's why like the hardest time for me was at Mizzou because that was the first time in my life where basketball didn't go how I wanted it to go.

And so I gained that mental strength like earlier on because of my injury in college. But a lot of people don't go through the stuff that allows them to kind of develop that. But yeah, no, every time I've had a surgery, every time something has gone wrong, like you feel those thoughts.

I've gotten better at dealing with them though. Like better at just setting them to the side and just focusing on a goal. But it's not easy at all. That's probably the hardest thing about being a professional athlete. Like, I don't think being a professional athlete is for everyone 'cause a lot of people would...

That's definitely the roughest part about it, I think. - Someone asked, how and why did you stay away from social media so long during the season? I'm sure it like ties in, but I know you were kind of like on off, but for most of the season you were off.

- No, I was off. I only got back on I think in the finals 'cause my agency really wanted me to get back on. I just think like overall for me, social media and like the day and age that we live in is like the cons outweigh the pros for me personally.

And probably a lot of dudes in general. Like it depends like what you want out of life and what you're trying to reach. For me, I'm trying to walk in my faith and I'm trying to be a man of integrity and like grow. And I just feel like social media is a hindrance to that.

First of all, you see all of this dope stuff going on. You can get into like the comparison game of, man, this person seems like they're above me or this person got more followers than me or whatever. But then it's also like as a dude, one of our struggles is females and there's unlimited baddies on Instagram.

So like honestly, if I'm being a hundred percent like, if you were trying to focus and stay away from, like it could be a trap if that's your thing. So I just, you gotta be self-aware. If that's your thing that you could fall into, you can remove it for a while.

And for me, it helped me focus. - Yeah, I think you talked about that with LeCray on that episode. Like you have to know your vice and then set up boundaries like around it. - And it's probably, you know, I'm on a podcast with my sister. You probably don't wanna hear that my vice would be females, but really that's most dudes' vice.

Like if you don't get it in check. And then obviously in this day and age, marriage is not like a super popular, like concept, but like one day I wanna have a wife, I wanna have kids. So if you just are always in the habit of all these girls and all these new girls, and every time you go to Instagram, there's unlimited, like you'll never get to a place where you just can value like one girl.

I don't see how you can get to that place. So for me, it's just better to remove it. So I get on it like once in a while, but I don't have it on my phone. I don't even know my Instagram password. Like I got a Nicodemus, my manager, he has the password.

So he'll let me get on once in a while, I'll check it. - Good job. - Thanks. - If you didn't play basketball, what do you think you would be doing? Like if you've never touched a basketball, not just like you got hurt now and couldn't play, but like it was never a part of your life and you didn't have like the money from the contract.

- If I didn't, who? I mean, I always tell people like one thing about me is I never really had like a plan B. Like I never really was one of those dudes that had a lot of hobbies. Like I never really liked instruments. I never even really liked video games.

It was always just like basketball. So if I was not playing, I probably would be trying to mooch off of one of y'all. I probably would be trying to get on board with what you were doing or one of my other siblings were doing, or I don't know 'cause I did not have, you know, I was smart in school, but I didn't have any like thing I wanted to major in.

- There's no like other side passions that you can think of? - No, there really wasn't. - Yeah. Okay, you might not like me for including this question. - No, I want you to ask some of the crazy ones. - Someone asked, are you aware of the Never Swing the Rock memes about you?

- Yeah, that's what I'm saying. On social media, you see what people say. No, I'm aware of the little Michael Never Swing the Rock Porter Jr. I don't know who came up with that. But to be completely honest, getting a lot of assists is not my role on the Nuggets.

You know what I mean? Joker and Jamal, they play their two-man game. If it gets swung out to me by one of those guys, I'm expected to shoot it. I'm one of the best shooters in the league, like humbly, like I can say that, but like I don't see contests.

So a lot, you might be watching on TV and see me shoot a contested shot, but it doesn't feel contested to me. I might watch it, like after I'm filming, I'm like, yo, I shot that. But really, they don't feel contested. And I make a lot of contested shots, but I definitely, I see it.

But really, I'm not the one with the ball in my hands like I was in high school, you know? To win a championship, every player on a team has to have a specific role. And for me, it's like, when I catch the ball, it's let it fly, you know what I mean?

- I also do feel like the meme just kind of like took off because I've seen you make great passes and great assists. - You don't have to be nice. - No, I mean, I've always been able to make plays and pass, but on the Nuggets team, I'm not the one with the ball in my hands the majority of the time.

So, you know, maybe one day, if I'm on another team where the ball's put in my hands to make plays more, there'll be more assists. But right now, it's like, when I catch it, I'm shooting or I'm driving. And unless I'm crowded, it's probably going up. And my teammates know that, and they're going to tell me to shoot it.

So we just want a championship. To win a championship, it's not like you can have guys playing selfishly. So when I shoot the ball, it's not out of a selfish motive. It's like, that's what my teammates want me to do. That's my role on the team right now. So let it fly.

- You heard it here first, folks, let it fly. Okay, so we're going to kind of transition into more faith stuff. - Yeah. - Did this past season, I don't know if they meant season of basketball or just season of life, but did this past season challenge your faith in any way?

And how did you keep God the center and the focus? - Yeah, I mean, I feel like in this day and age, your faith, regardless if you're a professional athlete, regardless of whatever, like your faith is challenged. Like there's a lot of stuff going on in the world today.

So yeah, I mean, my faith was challenged. I have like an unwavering belief in God. Like that never goes anywhere. And then, you know, I did my research to get to the point where I believe like Jesus is God. But I think everyone should get to an age where they explore other religions, go learn for yourself what you want to believe.

Like you may have grown up a Christian, but you don't know if that's what you want to believe. You may have grown up a Muslim. You may have grown up like whatever it is. I think we all should reach an age where we figure out what we want to believe for ourselves.

So I did that, read things on other religion, you know, talk to people who were in other religions. And I kind of got to the place where I for sure believe like Jesus is who he says he was. So that's unwavering. But in terms of like practicing like my faith and like always knowing if God is there, if he's watching me, if he's taking care of me.

You know, there's a verse that says like everything works out for the good for those that love him. And I think that type of stuff can get kind of like, you know, you don't always fully believe it. You just got to remind yourself of it. And the other thing about the NBA is the schedule is so, like we stay up late after games and you got to wake up early and go to the gym and things.

So the consistency in reading the Bible is kind of, it can be a hard thing. But I really do believe like there is power in the Bible. And when I am in the word, like when I'm reading it consistently, like I definitely see it come about in my life.

- So that kind of leads right into the next question. Someone asked, how do you prioritize your walk with Jesus in the season? I know there's temptations on the road, they said, but it was just kind of funny, but I feel like you were just talking about like how hard it is kind of with the change in schedule because one of the best things is consistency, but just gets tough.

- I think, yeah, it's always a priority to me in terms of like, I always wake up and I listen to worship music before I listen to anything else but spending time in the word, it can get, you know, your priorities can get thrown off. I think no matter what your job is, no matter how busy you are, that should be the priority.

I'm not gonna sit here and say like, it always like was for me, but I think that it is, overall it is the priority in my life. And I think, yeah, on the road, it's tough. You just gotta have, like I sometimes travel with people, you know, accountability. It all depends like what you want.

Like there's some people that aren't trying to live, right? They wanna do this and do that. And I'm not gonna sit here and say that I haven't like fallen into things or done things. Like, but it's, yeah, I'm just be like, it's tough. We have so much access. We have so much money.

There's, you know, when you go to hotels, there might be girls waiting in the lobby. There might be this or that. So really it's, you gotta have accountability. So I got good friends, you know, Nicodemus, my manager, he travels with me and he's like, like I always say, you should have friends that are like on the same level as you in terms of just like discipline and things like that.

And then some friends that you're kind of helping out, but you gotta have some friends that are like more disciplined, more godly, more all these things than you. And that's kind of what Nicodemus is for me. So I bring him out there on the road and he helps me.

You know, he gets on me if he knows I'm staying up late, if I'm kicking it with too many people, things like that. - Yeah, that's smart to always just have someone like around you that you want to live, like how they live and that inspires you. Okay, what's your favorite scripture and why?

I test your Bible knowledge. - Yeah, I'm about to say the first verse I can think of. No, I think my favorite verse. - It's okay if you paraphrase. - Yeah, no, I just think it's like, I mean, there's so many good verses. I like the... Hey, man. - How are you gonna take this question?

(both laughing) - No, because I know some verses. - You're crazy. - I know some verses, but I can't-- - I will say, you have verses like all over your house. - Yeah, I just can't think of what my favorite one is. I seem like I'm just... That's crazy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead and go to the next question. - All right, all right. So we're into life. How do you balance confidence and self-doubt? - Yeah, confidence and self-doubt, it's a tricky balance. I think any professional athlete could sit here and tell you that they're always confident, but when you're in a slump or your shot's off, like what happened to me a couple games in the finals where my shot just fell off, now you start overcompensating to try to fix it, but really, you always could shoot, so why are you trying to fix it?

And then I was missing worse once I started trying to fix it. So I think there's times where you get in a rhythm and everything just feels really good and you're making shots. There's other times where you're in little slumps and then you can start to think like, oh, is there something wrong with my shot?

And then the overthinking can make it worse. So yeah, you gotta be confident in the work you put in. That comes from just actually putting the work in, like being in the gym more than everyone else so you can go out there and feel comfortable with your moves and things, but there are times where you go through little slumps and you just kinda, I wouldn't say you doubt yourself.

I never doubt myself, but you just are kinda just like a little bit down on yourself sometimes. - Do you, okay, I've never actually asked you this. Someone asked, how do you personally navigate anxiety if you experience it? Do you feel like you're an anxious person? - Not, I used to not think I was anxious at all.

Like when people would talk about anxiety, I was like, yeah, you're weird. Like, why do you care so much? But like there's, I think there's different type of anxiety. People have anxiety attacks and things like that. Their breathing gets short. I never have that, but I just think overall in life, sometimes I'm anxious about certain things.

If it's not going my way, if I don't know, if the plans that I had aren't gonna work out, or like you just, especially when you're not connected to God and you're not connected to like your priorities. If those aren't in check, you're obviously gonna be anxious about life.

So I have realized like over the past year or two that there are times when I'm anxious. Yeah, and then you, and then that affects everything. That affects how you play, if you can play free. That affects a lot of stuff. So you just gotta be self-aware. And now I know how to kind of get out of that.

But no, I think anxiety is a real thing for a lot of people. There's like the scientific part behind it that I've kind of looked into. Like the dopamine, you know, if you're too much flooded with like the dopamine, heavy doses of dopamine, then you are likely to not be as, there's all the scientific stuff that I've looked into.

But yeah, I would say overall, yeah, I have realized there are times in my life where I'm more anxious than others. - What makes you feel the most free? - I think what makes me feel the most free would be, when I'm, this is what I've realized, like when I'm proud of the person that I am off of the court, like I'm doing the right stuff, like I'm prioritizing my faith walk, when I'm getting in the word, when I'm not doing too much stuff that I feel guilty about or feel bad about doing.

And I'm just, you know, a solid person that I'm doing what I say I'm gonna do, I'm living with integrity. When I'm proud of myself, then even if I'm having good or bad games, like you can balance the highs and the lows a lot better. But if you are, and I was just talking to, I just got a therapist that I've been talking to a little bit.

Yeah, I've talked to him two times. And we actually were talking about this, but it's like when you're not proud of yourself and you don't think God's proud of you, now you gotta go out and try to perform your way into other people's approval or get your worth from other people.

But when you are like living and obeying God and getting your, God always loves you. You're always like valuable to him. But when you actually can, for me, when I can feel proud of the person I am and I know God's proud of me as well 'cause I'm doing what he says to do, then I'm not tripping about anyone else approving of me because I know I'm living right.

You know what I mean? - Yeah, there is this Bible verse I'm gonna butcher, but it's like, I don't do what I wanna do and then I do what I don't wanna do or whatever. I forget even what part of the Bible it is, but I feel like-- - I think it's Paul, yeah.

- Yeah, that literally speaks to that. When you are living the way that you're called to live and you're really, you have confidence in yourself, you have trust in yourself that you're gonna walk out what you believe. Your actions aren't conflicting with your mind and what you want to do.

You're just living a life of integrity. That is the most freeing thing. - Yeah, which is like, it's easier said than done. That's one of the most, he wrote a lot of the Bible, but he's talking about, so he's obviously a very godly man, but he's also talking about he does things that he doesn't necessarily wanna do, but we're human, we sin, we mess up, and that's what he's talking about.

He's doing things that he knows he shouldn't do, and that's where a lot of people can get stuck in the place of living a double life. You wanna live one way, but you're living another way, and when you are the person that you wanna be, just single-minded, the person you wanna be is who you are, that's when I feel the most free, but there's times in my life where I feel like I'm that person and you can get away from it, that's life, that's being human, we're not perfect, so you gotta have grace with yourself, which is something I struggle with because I'm a perfectionist, but yeah, you gotta have some grace with yourself too.

- Yeah. Okay, what is something you have been personally questioning or pondering lately? - Hmm. - Can be silly or serious, doesn't matter. - One thing I have been questioning or pondering, well, the most lately that's happened was last night, I was just sitting there eating some food, and I just was thinking, what is really, deeply the purpose of why I'm here, why we're all here?

I was just thinking about that a little bit because I think some people just live life very blindly because they don't have a deep thought of a purpose for themselves and a deep purpose for why we're all here, which no one really knows why we're all here, which is a weird thought too.

It's not like God needed us. So it's like, why are we all here, but then why am I here? That's just a thought I was having last night. And I've tried to figure out my purpose over this last while. I mean, I think our purpose, all of our purposes, pretty much the same, inspire others, lead others to God, things like that.

But then it's like, yeah, I don't know. I just have very, very, that's the last thing I ponder, but you know me, I ponder. That's why this is Curious Mike, like I ponder a lot of things. - Yeah, you were debating that last night. - Yeah. - It's crazy that, I feel like everyone, that's their deepest question is purpose and meaning.

- Purpose, yeah, it really is. And it's weird because you can accomplish so many individual goals, or you can do so much stuff to make yourself happy for a moment, but then beyond that, why are we really here? What's, what is? And yeah, it's just weird. It's super weird.

And then I just think, yeah, I don't know. I could go on a whole rant about deep stuff. We'll save some stuff for other episodes. - Okay, let me just do one final question. I actually submitted this question myself. - Did you? - Yeah. - I asked when in your life have you been like the most pure happiest?

And do you think the future will be even happier? Or do you think you've experienced your happiest? - I think, like I think when we're kids, that's when we're our purest in happiness. And I think that's why you read books and you hear therapists talk about like, like find your inner child, because that's when we're our most pure before we're like tainted by the world, before we have aspirations that aren't, that aren't the right aspirations and things like that.

So I sometimes think like, can I ever get to that point back before I was kind of like, 'cause we're all in a sense like programmed, like even if you're not programmed and you think you're outside of this, at the end of the day, like we all, like we all have certain thoughts, patterns and things that were put into us by the world.

And so like, can you escape that? And one of my, one of my plans to escape it, and this is something I've wanted to do ever since I was little. I think I told Bree about this. It's like, 'cause it's weird. Once you have money, it's just so weird because once you have like money, things that used to be exciting to you may not be exciting anymore because you got used to them.

So it's like everyone really is on the same level of happiness because everyone just got used to what they have. So if you're, if you're like middle class, you got used to eating at, eating at certain restaurants. And then when you get to go to maybe, do you remember like when we were poor growing up, like, and we had our birthday dinners, like going to Noodles and Company was like our special birthday meal?

Like that's crazy to think about. But now if Noodles and Company was my, was my like meal for lunch, I'd be like, "Yo, I'm eating bad today." But that used to be like our special meal. So like one of my goals to kind of detach from the programming of that is there's gonna be like a year in my life, like once my career is over, where I live like a very minimalistic life.

Like I'm not gonna live in, in one of my houses, like here in Denver. I'm gonna get like a, like a super little house and I'm gonna only spend maybe, I'm gonna try to like live on like $1,000 a month. Like something that like the lower class would do just to kind of like go all the way.

I've thought about like maybe one day even like trying to see if I could be homeless for a year. Like, not a year, maybe not a year, a month, a month. I think the homeless thing was a month, but live the minimalistic lifestyle for like a year. 'Cause then thinking about going back to all your blessings, you would appreciate them all over again.

- It would be so new. Yeah, that's the thing, you just get like, you just get used to it and you don't see it for like the blessing it is when it's just the everyday. - And then you just are always searching for more and more. That's why people that actually get what they like wanted in life as far as you know, finances or whatever, sometimes they end up the most unhappy because they thought this thing far out was gonna bring them peace and bring them happiness, but it didn't.

So I've realized that, you know, getting rich, you know, even winning an NBA championship, maybe being one of the best players in the NBA, that ultimately doesn't bring like ultimate happiness and peace. So I think that's one of my things I wanna do. - Well, that's probably why like you can, he said that those big like accomplishments don't bring ultimate happiness and peace.

It's like appreciating like the everyday blessings around you that we get used to, but the people that like the janitors that you see that are so happy or the people like living the lifestyle that you're talking about that are so happy, like they've just found the hack of like appreciating like the mundane.

- Yeah, appreciating the process of life, what they do have, the blessings they do have. It's weird how you can have so many blessings and so many things good in your life, but we always focus on the one thing that we don't have or we wish we had. And so I don't know.

I feel like that's like Western society programming 'cause I don't know if people, I mean, you've been over there, you know, taking care of those little kids. I don't know if they really live like that. - I mean, I would say no from what I experienced. Like I feel like they were literally so happy and they live in a literal dirt hut smaller than this room.

Like the whole family's in there. - So that's why I say like no matter how far detached you think you are, like to an extent, we're all kind of programmed. And I'm so thankful that I was homeschooled growing up because I think I'm less programmed than some people and I can think freer than some people.

But to an extent, we all are. So I wanna somehow figure out ways to detach from that. And I think, you know, choosing to live in a way where I could live a certain way would be a cool way to do it, but that's just a goal of mine.

Should I ask my curious question? - Oh yeah, go for it. Should I step out of the frame while you talk with the people? - No, you don't have to. So yeah, we're gonna start this new thing called Curious Questions. And this is just something I'm curious about your guys' thoughts on, you know what I mean?

This is called Curious Mike, so we talk openly about things. My question for y'all for this episode is now that we're some time removed from COVID, and the coronavirus is not as talked about and things like that, what are your guys' thoughts on the virus, the vaccine? Did the vaccine help?

Did it hurt? You know, you got some people that think the vaccine is the reason that we're not dealing with it as much. You got other people who think people are dying from the vaccine or they're having complications with the vaccine. So now that we're some time removed, I wanna know your guys' thoughts on that.

I'm actually one of like five or six NBA players that didn't get vaccinated. - So few. - I don't know if it was like the best thing, not the best thing. I think I did the right thing. I got teammates telling me like they wish they didn't get vaccinated, things like that.

But there was a time where it was like so pushed and it was trying to be forced on us. So I'm curious what your guys' thoughts are surrounding that now that we're a little bit removed from that. I'm excited to get back into Curious Mike. I know it's been over a year.

You know, I was dealing with some injury stuff. I couldn't find the motivation, but I appreciate you guys and we're gonna get back into it. I'm gonna start recording episodes pretty often and just dropping them whenever I record them. So that's how we're gonna do it from here on out.

If you guys have any guests that you wanna see me interview or any questions for me, I'll be doing solo episodes like this from time to time. And we're gonna go from there. So I'm gonna try to get it back cracking. This is episode one. Yes, sir. (upbeat music) - Good job.

- All right, that was good? - Yeah, that was good. - Are you sure? - Get that cracking. - I hope. Sometimes I think I'm too open on these things. - But that's the whole point. - That is the whole point, yeah. It's not like I made it to try to keep like a...

Like I made it so that I could just talk about how I wanna talk about. - Yeah. you you