Providence star spills the tea on being recruited by Syracuse, the Big East as NBA Boot Camp, and toughest players to guard in college.
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So I signed with Providence on like a Tuesday
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And then Steph signed with Georgia Tech like on a Thursday. And Jim Mayhide was so hot
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And I'll never forget, my first Big East game was against Syracuse
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And I had 20 points to 12 assists. And I was yelling at Mayhide, I told you
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I told you you should have took me. I told you you should have took me. he was one of the great guards during a generation of unbelievable guard play in the big east the
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apex of the big east back in the mid to late 90s god sham god helped lead providence to the elite
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eight in 1997 let's go down memory lane new york city recruited by syracuse and why he didn't go
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and who was the toughest matchup during his big east days god how you doing buddy i'm great i'm
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great i'm great man just out here enjoying this orlando weather and you know enjoying this marco
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you know new york style pizza dollar pizza so you know it's just a great event and the pizza is
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amazing and it reminds me of new york so much right now eating this pizza i want to go back
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to your roots and then we'll get into the pizza but back in the roots you're a harlem guy you're
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a new york city guy you played high school ball in manhattan and you played the rucker so i want
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a story from the Rucker. Who was the toughest matchup you had of the Rucker, and what was
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that experience like being a native New Yorker? For me, playing against Kareem Reid, the best kept secret, was the biggest matchup for me
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in playground basketball. But the origin of it, like you said, to go back to the beginning
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I was born in Brooklyn. I moved to Harlem when I was like 8, 9. Then I started playing
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basketball late compared to what people say at 11 years old and as you know because you're from
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that era uh a lot of people might know mace that was the rapper with bad boy he's one of my closest
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friends and he's the first person to take me to play basketball and he had took me to rucker park
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in the day that he took me it was an all-star game so this is the first time i'm really being
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introduced to basketball and i'm seeing all these fancy cars pull up like this is the middle of
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Harlem, 150th Street. Like, people come in with a whole bunch of jewelry
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And people got all these names. The Future, Master Rock, Dan St. Doogie, all these people
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And we're hanging on the gate, watching the game. It's at least, like, 3,000, 4,000 people in the park
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And we're, like, hanging on the gate. There's people hanging on trees. And I never forget, because this person, like, became, like, one of my idols growing up
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His name was Future Malloy Naysmith. and there was a guy named Mike Boogie
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and he was like dancing on half court and he opened his legs and Mike Boogie got on one knee
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and dribbled through his legs. And the crowd went crazy and that was like my first introduction to basketball
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So can you imagine like being a young kid like, oh, this brings so much joy
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to the people. This is what I want to do. Man, that's theater
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That's showmanship. That is amazing. I didn't know you were boys with Mace growing up
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So we're talking about probably early 90s you're talking about right now, maybe late 80s
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So you knew him well before he became a rapper. Yeah, me and Mace. Me, Mace, Cameron
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Jay-Z, Big Al, DMX. I knew all of them since I was like
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13 years old. That's hip-hop royalty right there. Yeah, so it's like
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that's why people wonder why like so much happened for me and how I was so known because, you know
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it wasn't just basketball. Like my best friends were famous rappers that other people think is famous
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And so that's how it came to fruition with the basketball stuff and culture
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Syracuse fans, make sure you're subscribed to the channel. I've got off-season videos every single week throughout the summer
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Make sure you're locked right here. And then post-game recap of every football game right here on this YouTube channel
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Make sure you're subscribed. That's incredible. So look I an orange an orange man from back in the day So why didn you go to Syracuse This is a true story So Kenny Anderson as you know
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Kenny Anderson was like the best point guard in the country when I was in high school. And me and Stephon Marbury was like close friends
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like real, like almost like best friends growing up in high school. And we both played with the same AAU team
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And of course, you know, Pearl Washington that went to Syracuse was like basketball royalty
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So we both looked up to Kenny Anderson and Pearl Washington. And I went to Syracuse for a visit, and I was with Bayhan
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And Wayne Morton was the recruiter. And they was like, man, you could come to Syracuse
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I was like, man, I'm ready to sign right now at Syracuse. And they was like, well, we want you to sign
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but we've been recruiting Steph since the sixth grade. Oh, no. But they was like, y'all both can play together like y'all do in AAU
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and I was like, nah, AAU is different from college. And I was like, if I sign right now, then, you know
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if y'all don't recruit Steph, I'll sign right now. And they was like, nah, we still want to get them
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We got to wait. So Georgia Tech said the same thing, right
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So I had Maryland, Providence, Michigan. So then Providence, they wanted me
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How Syracuse wanted Steph, Providence wanted me, right? So like in the sixth grade, Providence was recruiting me, right
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and so I said you sure I was like you know I want to come here
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me and Pearl Washington plays similar styles we both dribblers and you know
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a lot of showmanship and they was like yeah but we got to wait for Steph
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and I'll never forget because we laugh about this to this day
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me and Steph used to hang out every day so I'm like man where are you going
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and at this point I mean I understood what they wanted Steph was the number one player in the country
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he was the number one point guard in the country I was number two
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Chauncey Billups was number three Wayne Turner was number four so I was like I understood it so it wasn't like any animosity
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I understood it but I was just like man I'm ready to commit right now and they was like yeah we don't even step
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and I'll never forget because I always tell him he did this on purpose so
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I was like well I'm about to sign next week because I don't want to I want to go into my senior year without worrying about college
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so I signed with Providence on like a Tuesday and then Steph signed with Georgia Tech like on a Thursday
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And Jim Bayhide was so hot. And I'll never forget, my first Big East game was against Syracuse
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And I had 20 points and 12 assists. And I was yelling at Bayhide, I told you
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I told you you should have took me. I told you you should have took me. So that's my Syracuse problem
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Oh, man. That's too good. Wow. Yeah, Bayheim was so upset he missed on both of you guys because of that
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Yeah, he was so mad. He was so mad. So check this out
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The NBA draft in 96, okay, this was your first year of Providence
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Iverson goes number one. Ray Allen goes five. Kittles goes eight. John Wallace goes 18
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So that is three of the top eight and four of the top 18 are all in the Big East
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You don't even have to say it. what people understand, when I played in the Big East
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the Big East was the closest thing to the NBA, playing-wise and physical-wise
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Like, everybody know the Big East was so physical. You had the best rivalry in sports
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where it was St. John's, Georgetown, you know, Connecticut, Georgetown, Connecticut, St. John's, Syracuse
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You know, you had the great coaches that was creating legacies, not just like you see today where coaches just go and leave
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You had coaches that wanted to be there for 20 years. And, you know, and they were part of the legacy of the game, right
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As much as Allen Iverson was at Georgia Tech, much as I was at Providence
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much as, you know, if he was St. John's, you had the character of the coaches
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what made the culture, like from Jim Bayhan, John Thompson, Luke Connorsica
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you know, Coach Calhoun. Like, they was the fabric of the Big East
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and that what made it so amazing to play in that era The next year Tim Thomas out of Villanova went seven Your teammate Austin Crozier went number 12
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So this is just – there's lottery picks in every school, every year in the Big East
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So I want to know, out of those two years in the Big East, who was the toughest guy you had to go against
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The toughest guy I had to go against in those two years was Allen Iverson and Victor Page
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Al Iverson was the first year, of course, Victor Page stayed. And Victor Page was, for people that don't know who Victor Page is
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he was a bucket. He was a bucket. He had the bionic leg, the bionic one leg
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Because he was 6'2", but he jumped out the gym and you thought he was 6'8"
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And him and Al Iverson was in the backcourt, and they was putting on the show in the Big East
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And the Big East tournament was just ferocious in those days. That must have been such a thrill to play in that coming from New York City
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Yeah, it's just like you see when you see, like, it's almost like how you see now in the Garden in the playoffs
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That's how it was for the Big East tournament. I mean, if you sold, because, like, the Big East tournament
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they would give, like, coaches booklets of tickets. It was coaches selling tickets for, like, $4,000
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The booklets of tickets. So they could come to the Big East tournament for the next three days
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Like, like that was, that was some of the coaches hustles back there. Like, cause like you said, the biggies were so good and it was so much
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And to be in Madison Square Garden, the best arena in the world, it was like, it's still to this day amazing
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No matter what, no matter how you look at it. Like playing in the Madison Square Garden
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And then for you, for me being from New York to play in Madison Square Garden
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on the biggest stage and, and, and, and one of the biggest programs in the country at that time, like, man
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you couldn't, you couldn't fabric. you know before I get to your the pizza situation the wonderful promotion I just wanted to ask you
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about that experience and then taking it into the NBA how it probably was a great test lab
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for you to play like you said the most thing to the NBA was the Big East back then how did it help
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you in your in your transition to the league it helped me in so many ways because the Big East
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was so physical. It was more half court. It wasn't like the Pac-10 and all that
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where you just ran up and down. And if you remember the NBA in the 90s and stuff
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it was more slowed down, more physical. It was a great big man, you know
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whether it's Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Shaquille O'Neal. So it wasn't like the game you would have today
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but you still had the amazing guards of like me, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, and stuff like that
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but it was way more – it wasn't positionless basketball, if that's what I can say
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And I think that's why a lot of people resonate with that brand of basketball
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because I don't think – when James Naysmith made basketball, he made it for it to be positionless, right
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So that's why you have so many guards turn the ball over different things
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because you have power forwards being point guards. and you have centers being shooting guards, shooting threes
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So it's like, so when you look at that style of basketball, it just all made sense, right
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The point guards was there to take care of the ball, get assists and things like that. Shooting guards was there to play defense and score
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Big men was rebounding the ball at a high level, right? So then basketball just made sense, right
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You know, we got great athletes now. We got amazing players now
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but basketball just made sense that way, right? And percentage was good, different things was good
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because it was kind of like if you look at football now, right? If you look at football now
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what's the amazing thing about football, a running back is not trying to be a wide receiver
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A wide receiver is not trying to be a running back, right? So that's why football stayed the same
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and that's why football is like an amazing sport. You know, when you get to basketball
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you have most, sometimes you have one person that think they can do everything
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You got Wemby at 6'7", 6' who's able to handle the ball on the perimeter and shoot threes
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Yeah so then when so then when it all amazing when he making them then when he not making them people are like man why he not at the rim Why he not this You know different things like that
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So that would be always the give and take of the sport
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And when I was in the Big East, the good thing about the Big East was you was the point guard that ran the show, you was physical
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you had a lot of athletic ability, and you taught the game
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So if you look at a lot of people from the Big East back then, they are coaches now, including myself
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That's what the Big E's meant to me, and that's what it will always mean to me
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and it will be the closest thing to the NBA ever. That's really well said
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Orlando Magic assistant coach God Shamgod joins us here on the show, and he's got a really cool promotion going on in Orlando
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There's a lot of New York City transplants down there. He's one of them, and they want their dollar slice
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They want their good pizza. They're getting it today. A Marco's Pizza, one day only, dollar slice, which is so cool because they are making it just like they make it in New York City
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This sounds like a great event. Yeah, it's an amazing event for amazing cause and to represent New York City and show Florida what New York City is about
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And their dollar slices are amazing. You know, me growing up, the good thing about the dollar slices, it saved so many families in my neighborhood, right
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For sure. You could get a dollar slice in. You know, I grew up in a house where I had five sisters and one brother
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so you can imagine what a dollar slice did for my family, you know. We ate good, you know what I'm saying
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Or if you go play an AAU tournament and you come back and you're hungry
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and you're like, man, I need to get something to eat, something that's going to be fulfilling at the same time, right
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And, you know, what they're doing in Florida right now, Marco's Pizza, bringing the dollar slices down here
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I remember when I first moved down here to Orlando, I was trying to find a pizza so bad
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And all I kept saying was, man, they don't make them like New York pizzas, New York pizzas
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Then it was like extremely high for like a small pizza, like a box pizza
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And if you know the New York pizza, you know, they'd be triangles. They're big. And, you know, actually, I have one right here
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And, man, this pizza is so good. This is so good. You can see the crushed tomatoes
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The crust is real Been cooked a little extra long So you get that bite
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You get that sound when you bite into it So like I said, Marco's Pizza is doing an amazing thing in Orlando
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And I'm just happy to be a part of it Because like I said It saved me so much money growing up
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And it saved my family so much money And we always was full
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And it helped me be Believe it or not It helped me be athletic
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And it helped me be fast Because I used to eat this pizza so fast
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and go right back to the court and practice. It's a man that knows his slice right there
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God, Sham God. He is a native New Yorker. Marco's Pizzeria in Orlando
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Dollar Slice Day over there. They're making it just like they do in the Big Apple. Yes
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So please get out here because they're going fast. I know he made enough for it to keep going, but they're going fast
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All right. Get out there right now. They're doing it. God, Sham God, joining us from the Orlando Magic
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Man, thanks so much. This is such a thrill, buddy. Appreciate it, man
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What an unbelievable conversation with God, Sham God. That was so much fun
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I could talk old school Big East with guys every single day
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and not get sick of it. Hey, make sure you're subscribed to the channel. If you're a Syracuse fan, I'm going to be doing post-game reaction videos
16:39
throughout the entire football season and off-season prep videos for both football and basketball
16:46
Highly anticipated seasons for Fran Brown and Jerry McNamara. So make sure you're subscribed to this YouTube channel because if you're not, the videos might scoot by
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You might never see them. Make sure you're subscribed for the best Syracuse coverage. And go read my website daily, Orange Fizz
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Go to theorangefizz.com, and every single day we've got new news, new stories, new coverage on the Orange
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I appreciate you, Orange Nation. I appreciate God, Shan God, for joining me here on the program
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That was amazing. I'll see you next time, everybody. I'm DA. Also catch me on Mad Dog Sports Radio, channel 82, weekday morning, 6 until 9 Eastern time
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Mad Dog Sports Radio, channel 82, weekday mornings. All right. Appreciate you watching
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We'll see you next time


