The Michael Knowles Show - Michael & Karl Malone： NBA Legend Cigar Conversation

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00:00:37.660 They say cigars are the great equalizer, and they must be because it is the only way to explain how I am sitting down with NBA Hall of Famer, all-around legend, Carl Malone.

00:00:49.600 Carl, thank you for inviting me to the Legend Cigar Lounge.

00:00:53.140 Thank you for being here.

00:00:54.980 And thank you for this joint venture, the Mayflower Carl Malone Cigar Pack, which is available.

00:01:03.020 You have to be 21 years old or older to order some exclusion supply.

00:01:05.880 Got to get that out of the way up front.

00:01:07.380 And you also got to say, we do not encourage anybody to smoke cigars.

00:01:11.640 If you like them, you like them.

00:01:13.020 If you don't, you don't.

00:01:13.720 Yes.

00:01:13.900 Go ahead.

00:01:14.340 I don't discourage them, but it's totally your choice.

00:01:16.760 Yeah, you go.

00:01:17.260 So I am smoking your cigar, and sir, you are a legend not only in basketball, not only in so many civic endeavors, but also in cigars.

00:01:27.040 This is a great smoke.

00:01:28.420 Well, touche.

00:01:29.440 No, we have a partnership with La Roar, and we created our cigars.

00:01:37.260 So we're excited to be partnering with you guys.

00:01:40.580 You know, Ecuadorian wrapper, filler, and Dominican binder.

00:01:47.800 But it's got a hint of pepper in it.

00:01:49.760 Yeah.

00:01:50.160 It's terrific.

00:01:50.620 And I like that no matter what.

00:01:53.560 Yeah.

00:01:53.860 During the day, that's my go-to.

00:01:55.640 And I love smoking your stick.

00:01:57.420 So I was asking you the question earlier, Michael, how did this happen?

00:02:01.180 Mm-hmm.

00:02:02.140 And I'm just going to enjoy the moment and say, hell, it doesn't happen.

00:02:05.340 So we're excited.

00:02:06.920 So I'm excited.

00:02:09.420 The way it happens, I mean, I'm half joking about cigars as the equalizer, but I'm half not.

00:02:14.140 Because you said something to me that instantly struck me as true, which is, you know, people, they'll smoke a cigar because it's their wedding.

00:02:22.900 They'll smoke a cigar, I just graduated college or something.

00:02:25.840 But you said, no, when you were smoking the cigar, that's the happening.

00:02:29.960 Yes.

00:02:30.680 Yeah.

00:02:31.280 Well, my thing is, a cigar to me is icebreaker.

00:02:39.960 Yeah.

00:02:40.180 So it really don't matter what your bank account say.

00:02:44.180 Yep.

00:02:44.860 No matter what car you're driving, what house you live in.

00:02:49.180 And when you look at legends, where we're at right now, this is family-owned.

00:02:53.140 And you notice we don't have a lot of TVs, no TVs.

00:02:56.780 Because to me, when I come and smoke with a person, I want to get to know that person.

00:03:01.980 Yeah.

00:03:02.540 And it really don't matter where you're from and the people you meet.

00:03:06.400 But if you're just willing to turn that TV off, put that phone down, how do we know, Michael, who's sitting beside us right now?

00:03:15.420 To me, a cigar is like you've been knowing that person.

00:03:20.940 Yes.

00:03:21.340 For a while.

00:03:22.000 Yes.

00:03:22.300 And we're just meeting.

00:03:23.420 Yep.

00:03:23.600 You know, I'm not a politician, Michael not either, so we just call it like it is, a cigar just like we've been knowing each other.

00:03:32.620 Yeah, that is it.

00:03:33.960 But I find when I travel around, I give a speech or wherever I'm going, the first thing I look up is not the hotel, it's not the restaurant, it's the cigar lounge.

00:03:43.440 Where is, because I know I walk into the cigar lounge, even, it's not like everyone agrees politically or even, but if I see a guy smoking a cigar, I think there is someone instantly I can talk to.

00:03:55.340 There is someone, we're going to have really something in common, I know what kind of person this is, this is going to be my kind of person, you know, it's one of the best rules of thumb, I think, I find in terms of socializing.

00:04:09.160 And what I've found also, have you ever seen anyone pissed off in a lounge smoking a cigar?

00:04:19.500 Now, you could have just had a bad deal go south, but I've never met a person pissed off in a lounge.

00:04:25.280 Right.

00:04:25.560 First of all, if that's your mojo, let me go to another room, one of us excuse ourselves, because to me, smoking a cigar, so I had my first cigar, we jump all over the place, and you guys are going to earn your money, you can edit it back.

00:04:42.240 So, my first cigar ever, I was 25 years old, and I wanted to be the coolest captain on the team, so to speak, and I, so, and the guys went out.

00:04:55.340 Yeah.

00:04:55.640 So, I wanted to act like I knew what I was doing.

00:04:57.960 Uh-huh.

00:04:58.480 Well, the cigar that I knew from a little country town up here in Summerfield, 45 minutes north where I grew up, was Monte Cristos.

00:05:06.820 Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

00:05:07.920 So, I'm the cool, you know, stock cool, too, but I was the cool captain that smoked cigar, so we had a couple days off.

00:05:14.280 So, I smoked when I played, but I had to have two days off, two to three days off.

00:05:18.380 Yeah.

00:05:18.640 So, if a certain place we would go, we would have those two or three days off, thanks, Coach Sloan.

00:05:22.880 Yeah.

00:05:24.360 But I had a Monte Cristos.

00:05:26.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:05:26.500 Now, I had to play the part now.

00:05:28.160 Yeah.

00:05:28.580 We was in Miami, but I took the guys out.

00:05:30.800 Well, first of all, I did all the things, and I lit this cigar up, and I act like I had done it forever.

00:05:42.780 But my teammates didn't know my first cigar.

00:05:45.060 I was hooked then at 25 Monte Cristos, and that was my cigar.

00:05:50.120 You could not tell me anything else, and that was my cigar, and I've been ever since.

00:05:55.760 So, I'm 61 now.

00:05:56.940 61, that's good genes, and maybe being one of the great athletes of your age.

00:06:02.140 I say it all the time, my ancestors, my mom and my grandfather, I thank them for the genes.

00:06:10.160 Now, I've got to keep working, and I'm on the hunt.

00:06:15.380 I'm on the hunt every day, me and my family, whether it's peace, whether it's just hanging out.

00:06:21.720 That's our mindset.

00:06:22.720 Well, this is something I noticed, I mean, you say with a cigar, it's how you really, it's back in to know somebody.

00:06:27.920 It's, the first thing I noticed about you, even before I landed in the airplane, it's not that you're the NBA legend.

00:06:36.840 It's not all this other stuff.

00:06:38.420 The first thing that really hit me before we sat down was where this lounge is.

00:06:43.860 We are not sitting in the middle of Manhattan.

00:06:46.120 We're not in Beverly Hills right now.

00:06:47.960 We're in the middle of Louisiana.

00:06:50.940 Yes.

00:06:51.040 I said, what brought Carl Malone, after all his insane international success, what brought Carl Malone to this part of Louisiana?

00:07:00.640 And someone said, it's his hometown.

00:07:03.140 Yes, well, Mike, I grew up 45 minutes north, right at 167.

00:07:07.140 Yeah, yeah.

00:07:08.060 The border is 33.

00:07:09.600 We're less than a half a mile off I-20.

00:07:12.840 Yeah, yeah.

00:07:13.180 So, when we moved back home, the family had a truck.

00:07:17.080 We moved back home 20, almost 21, 22 years ago.

00:07:24.160 Of course, legends is where we're sitting at in Ruston, Louisiana.

00:07:27.820 Well, I went to Louisiana Tech over here.

00:07:30.780 I grew up there, mama's boy.

00:07:32.920 When we got back, this started off, legends started off about that size.

00:07:39.220 And I was just going to do it for the boys.

00:07:42.120 But then, all of a sudden, my wife and daughter got in it.

00:07:45.540 I love hunting.

00:07:46.920 And then my son's down here.

00:07:48.600 We're in the timber business.

00:07:49.940 Yeah.

00:07:50.440 So, this burnt wood didn't come from our property.

00:07:53.380 So, that's the concept.

00:07:54.280 And if you look in the bathroom, you'll see green tin.

00:07:57.780 Of course, it's hunting season.

00:08:00.280 And I'm somewhat of a savage when it comes to that.

00:08:04.020 So, if you go in the bathroom, you'll see, like, green.

00:08:09.400 That's hunter's green.

00:08:11.760 And that's what my – I was driving my wife and one of my daughters crazy. 0.62

00:08:16.660 And they said, Dad, we got it.

00:08:18.620 We know what you like.

00:08:20.440 So, just let them go.

00:08:22.920 And you'll see mountains in here because my whole family, we hunt.

00:08:25.980 I grew up four years old hunting with my grandfather.

00:08:28.880 Wow.

00:08:29.280 So, this lounge is who we are.

00:08:32.600 And we got to thinking about names and everything.

00:08:35.500 We just thought about legends and we added the cigar to it.

00:08:38.920 But a lot of people, you know, they grow up.

00:08:41.840 They have interests.

00:08:43.060 You obviously have a lot of varied interests, all sorts of different businesses,

00:08:46.440 even beyond, you know, your global fame as an athlete.

00:08:50.880 But then a lot of people, they just forget about home.

00:08:54.580 They just kind of, you know, they go on.

00:08:56.400 They have that success.

00:08:56.980 And then they move to the penthouse and wherever.

00:09:00.360 But you came back.

00:09:03.100 So, the next time you come, Michael, because I have a feeling that we're going to be doing this more and more.

00:09:10.420 We're going to spend a day out in the wilderness doing the things I do.

00:09:16.800 So, I run heavy equipment every day.

00:09:18.320 Yeah.

00:09:18.960 Yeah, caterpillar equipment.

00:09:20.460 So, I'm an artist.

00:09:22.160 I'm an artist.

00:09:23.220 Yeah.

00:09:23.500 Our canvas is our properties.

00:09:28.000 My paintbrush is caterpillar equipment.

00:09:30.380 So, that's my therapy every day.

00:09:33.400 So, the day I left, I wanted to get back home.

00:09:39.040 I went to Utah and that's history.

00:09:43.460 I think I read about that.

00:09:44.800 Yeah.

00:09:44.920 I think I heard about that.

00:09:45.680 Well, that's history.

00:09:46.680 But I'm passionate about Louisiana.

00:09:52.740 I love Louisiana, but I'm passionate about North Louisiana.

00:09:55.960 Yeah.

00:09:56.080 So, I'm big into heritage.

00:09:59.200 Yeah.

00:09:59.780 And roots and DNA.

00:10:01.700 That's just my little brain.

00:10:03.060 So, moving back home, I feel grounded.

00:10:07.120 Yeah.

00:10:08.000 Albert Einstein, not quoted for word, for a man to know his true purpose on this earth, he must stay in touch with Mother Earth.

00:10:18.040 Not just walking, touching the soil.

00:10:20.600 I feel alive here.

00:10:22.240 I love cities.

00:10:23.060 And Utah, I did things for my family that I'm forever grateful.

00:10:27.700 But I wanted to come home because I feel so connected here.

00:10:32.820 And tobacco, when you look at it, it comes from the earth.

00:10:36.640 And so, it's so many different things.

00:10:39.760 So, next time you guys come, we're going to spend a day, heavy equipment, different things like that.

00:10:46.900 Because to know a person, you have to accept that person for who they are and what it's about.

00:10:55.140 So, my first thing is I want to know about you.

00:10:57.420 If we want to spend an hour together, I'm not in a hurry.

00:11:01.420 Yeah.

00:11:01.600 So, you know my ways, when I take my shoes off, and to me, like moving back home, just that icing on the cake for me.

00:11:14.000 And now to be able to do things and see my family doing the things they do.

00:11:17.700 But it all started with this little kid in North Louisiana with his grandfather, Leonard Jackson.

00:11:22.920 What you're describing is actually my thought behind Mayflower Cigars.

00:11:27.520 Because I thought, you know, look, I come from the new media world, digital media world.

00:11:32.800 Everything I do is online.

00:11:35.240 It's all, it's kind of disconnected from tangible stuff.

00:11:39.460 But I like the real world.

00:11:41.080 I think it's important that we're incarnate creatures.

00:11:43.300 You know, I like spending time with people.

00:11:45.080 I want to be in the cigar lounge.

00:11:46.800 I want to be talking to people.

00:11:48.260 And that's what I love about the cigar, is the cigar is not digital.

00:11:51.940 The cigar is a real thing.

00:11:53.820 It's going to, it's, in a way, it's kind of like a clock.

00:11:56.360 You know, you can measure time as the cigar goes down.

00:11:58.760 It's something you have to do with a person.

00:12:02.260 You know, it's ephemeral and you're in a real space and then it's gone.

00:12:05.540 Then you go get another cigar.

00:12:07.060 But I love that.

00:12:08.520 And the Mayflower name comes because, though I look fairly Italian, on my father's side of the family, there's some English.

00:12:17.340 And they go back to the Mayflower.

00:12:19.180 And I really liked this heritage.

00:12:21.500 My grandfather discovered this in his retirement.

00:12:23.520 And I liked that idea of, wow, you can kind of trace back a family's history and it coincides with the history of a country.

00:12:32.020 And then tobacco, you know, is the crop that built America in many ways.

00:12:36.160 And, you know, tobacco is discovered by the Europeans with Columbus.

00:12:40.020 I mean, all the way back to Christopher Columbus, 1492, the Taino Indians had cigars.

00:12:45.180 I think they would smoke them up their nose.

00:12:46.700 I haven't tried to do that.

00:12:47.440 But one day if you try it, I'll try it with you.

00:12:50.820 Okay, let's just go with it.

00:12:53.080 But I love that idea that you don't want to be disconnected from roots.

00:13:00.060 I mean, from real roots.

00:13:00.960 When you said you like driving heavy equipment, you're the artist painting on the canvas of the earth.

00:13:05.900 I thought it would be so funny.

00:13:06.820 How many world-renowned champion athletes, like at your level, there aren't very many at your level, how many of them wouldn't just hire a guy to go clear property?

00:13:18.020 I mean, you're like the only guy that would do that probably.

00:13:19.900 Well, my grandfather, Leonard Jackson, if you're looking at me, you're looking at him.

00:13:29.720 If I did that, and he said to me this, when you become successful, if you have one acre or 1,000 acres, and I was five or six years old, he said, be willing to defend and lose your life for it.

00:13:54.820 And it didn't resonate at the time.

00:14:01.040 And he said, become a steward of the land.

00:14:03.520 We have been blessed and fortunate enough.

00:14:05.500 So I made a promise to me that when I turned 60, that I'm going to spend every day on a piece of land, whether it's ours or someone else.

00:14:18.480 And that's my connection.

00:14:20.300 Everybody got whatever.

00:14:21.940 But my connection with the land and the equipment is I never change the landscape on what Mother Nature do.

00:14:35.040 I just add to it or clean it up.

00:14:39.100 Yeah, yeah.

00:14:39.660 So we're land developers, too.

00:14:41.920 We're at the start of some projects.

00:14:42.940 And whatever that land doing now, the drainage, everything, I don't change it.

00:14:51.920 So this goes back.

00:14:55.220 We are our heritage.

00:14:57.900 We are our DNA.

00:14:59.380 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:00.180 That's who we are.

00:15:01.660 Good, bad, and different.

00:15:02.980 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:03.260 That's what made me.

00:15:04.480 I wouldn't change it now.

00:15:05.720 Wow.

00:15:05.940 But the fact of the matter is when you stay connected with land, it just, it aligns me.

00:15:11.060 So we spend our times in places like that.

00:15:14.720 In Utah, I love the mountains.

00:15:16.920 Alaska, I love streams.

00:15:18.700 I love the calmness.

00:15:19.960 Because I stay calm until I have to go up and knock.

00:15:26.280 But it all come back, you know.

00:15:29.420 People say cotton is what, say, our country was built on.

00:15:38.340 Bounding crop.

00:15:39.140 I put tobacco, sugarcane, cotton in that same area.

00:15:46.140 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:46.520 Because, and someone worked it.

00:15:50.800 See, this is where I go.

00:15:52.060 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:53.020 I've been fortunate enough to visit Laura a number of times, Mr. Leon and the whole team there.

00:15:58.760 Yeah.

00:15:59.240 But I love going out to the fields.

00:16:02.240 Mm-hmm.

00:16:02.900 The farmer, that when that took back, when it's small.

00:16:06.280 Yeah.

00:16:06.580 He got to water it.

00:16:07.720 Yeah, yeah.

00:16:08.660 To me, the respect you should have for a cigar.

00:16:12.860 Yeah.

00:16:13.040 Think about someone other than yourself and the work that go into it.

00:16:17.040 And not just him.

00:16:17.860 I mean, they say 300 hands touch a cigar.

00:16:19.780 Yes.

00:16:20.500 Yes.

00:16:20.800 You've got the guy who's growing it, who's watering it.

00:16:23.740 Mm-hmm.

00:16:23.920 You've got the guy who's tending it.

00:16:25.860 You've got the guy who harvests it.

00:16:27.280 Mm-hmm.

00:16:27.520 You've got the guy who ferments it.

00:16:29.020 You've got the guy who cures it in some cases.

00:16:32.480 Then you've got, even before you get to rolling the cigar, you've got the filler.

00:16:37.460 You've got the binder.

00:16:38.420 You've got the wrapper.

00:16:39.380 Yes.

00:16:39.500 You've got to select it.

00:16:40.280 You've got the blender.

00:16:41.440 You've got, think of all these people, this handmade luxury that you can get for, call it, 15 bucks.

00:16:48.220 And one thing that's amazing about it is all the hands that touch it, I don't think a lot of people know this.

00:16:56.900 Just about, I'm not going to say all the time, but what I've witnessed at Laura Roar, and I think this is true.

00:17:04.080 So, people don't, the cap, call it ring.

00:17:09.180 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:10.520 Just about, more often than not, that final touch is by a female. 0.82

00:17:16.180 Yeah.

00:17:16.940 Because she have the softest.

00:17:19.280 No, no.

00:17:20.060 Yes.

00:17:20.480 So, does, you know, those, me, I don't consider myself a cigar connoisseur or a master at it.

00:17:28.560 I just say what I like, and I'm willing, and we are willing to learn those things.

00:17:34.220 So, all the little nuances, I noticed that.

00:17:37.020 So, I asked a question to Mr. Leon, Mr. Jeremy Leon.

00:17:40.780 I asked him the question, and it's just, they're softer.

00:17:43.880 Yes.

00:17:44.280 So, that cap, that's what I tell people all the time.

00:17:47.220 It's not even just one cap, you know, it's three caps that put on them.

00:17:50.680 And then at the end, I tell people, if you can just be, just at top, because if you cut too much, of course, you're gravel. 0.96

00:17:58.300 But anyway, you're looking at me like, damn, I wasn't really expecting all this.

00:18:01.740 No, that's really, but that's really, seriously, there's something really profound about that. 0.96

00:18:08.220 You know, I mean, there's something really, yeah, just, I don't know, the way you're talking about cigars, I've said many times, that's part of why I wear the velvet jacket, you know, it keeps it.

00:18:21.020 But the way you're talking about cigars, it's the way a lot of cigar guys will talk about.

00:18:26.500 You think, it's in the details, it's in the intricacies, it's in the complexities of it, that really distinguish it.

00:18:32.360 So, you know, you have a very consistent blend.

00:18:36.080 I mean, it's very, very reliable.

00:18:37.900 But no two cigars are going to be exactly the same.

00:18:40.520 No, and what I tell people all the time, whatever cigar you like, dare to try another one.

00:18:51.080 I know we all have our go-to.

00:18:52.660 Yeah, yeah.

00:18:52.940 And of course now, our house sticks, barrel-aged by Carmelone, of course, that's the main one.

00:18:58.160 Then the Mayflower.

00:18:59.080 Yeah, that's right.

00:19:00.760 By Michael.

00:19:01.380 That's right.

00:19:01.840 That's his second favorite.

00:19:02.560 You know, so all in all.

00:19:03.640 Yeah, naturally.

00:19:04.400 But once you get past those two.

00:19:05.800 The fact of the matter is, I tell people, you know, about a cigar, it's a passion of mine.

00:19:12.580 Yeah.

00:19:13.100 And when you're passionate about it, you learn about it.

00:19:15.820 Some people don't realize a cigar has three stages to it.

00:19:20.500 Yeah, right. 0.99

00:19:20.580 And they say this, now, if you want to just go there now, and Michael will be looking at me now like, damn. 0.94

00:19:26.160 So, let all of us cigar aficionados, aficionados, let all of us say something here. 0.96

00:19:34.960 Everybody is watching.

00:19:36.240 So, let's take a test.

00:19:37.880 Let's show you something here.

00:19:39.800 When you're out smoking like with someone, they're watching how your cigar burned down.

00:19:46.600 They're going to say either can afford another stick or you're really cheap.

00:19:49.640 So, here's what we do, everyone out there.

00:19:52.020 Take your thumb.

00:19:54.460 Put your thumb on the end of your cigar.

00:19:56.720 And wherever the joint of your thumb at, that should be the top of your label.

00:20:03.840 Yep.

00:20:04.940 And when it's getting like that, that's when it's time to finish your cigar.

00:20:08.740 So, I will smoke it right to the top.

00:20:10.260 Very good.

00:20:10.960 Yeah.

00:20:11.260 You know what I'm saying? 1.00

00:20:12.260 He's like looking at me like, damn. 0.99

00:20:13.980 No, I like. 0.99

00:20:14.500 Katrina over there like, what the hell is going on here? 0.99

00:20:17.020 No, I'm really impressed, though perhaps I shouldn't be, by even the way you're talking

00:20:25.040 about the way you look at land.

00:20:27.340 Because what you're saying is, I don't want to go in and totally do something new.

00:20:31.940 I don't want to, when you say how the water moves and how the, I want to, I just want to

00:20:37.400 augment it.

00:20:38.160 I want to, in a way you might say, perfect it.

00:20:41.040 What's already there, you want to perfect what nature has already given you.

00:20:44.440 And I think about it with a cigar.

00:20:45.400 I'm not going to take a Connecticut Shade wrapper and, I don't know, some kind of...

00:20:51.200 Dominican fellow.

00:20:52.620 Dominican fellow.

00:20:53.420 Just go ahead.

00:20:54.040 I'm not going to, I'm not trying to take that and make that into the fullest bodied cigar

00:20:58.040 you ever saw.

00:20:58.780 I'm going to use a different wrapper for that.

00:21:00.340 I want to, I want to work with the materials I have and then add the artistry to, to perfect

00:21:05.580 it, to bring it, you know, to its full potential.

00:21:08.140 But I want to work against its potential.

00:21:10.080 I want to just like set off a bomb on land or something like that.

00:21:12.540 Well, and the thing about it is, let the wrapper, binder, and filler, let that cigar do what

00:21:21.600 it do.

00:21:22.100 Yeah.

00:21:22.460 Now, that's what that cigar going to do.

00:21:24.980 Like you just said.

00:21:26.000 Yeah.

00:21:27.140 Same with land.

00:21:28.680 Let it do what it going to do.

00:21:30.860 You can't get no more out of it.

00:21:32.400 Try another cigar.

00:21:33.340 You know, that's, but it's that passion about it and that is where our company, PF, is going

00:21:41.020 now.

00:21:41.380 We're going to really heavy on the cigar distribution and we're going to carry everyone, of course,

00:21:49.760 barrel age and the Mayflower.

00:21:51.340 Yeah.

00:21:51.720 And this partnership to me, I want it to grow.

00:21:54.500 And I want to say to you and your team, we'll work on our schedule, but whatever you're

00:22:00.420 doing for us to launch it, we are, and I'm not the person who just put my name on it.

00:22:06.120 Yeah, yeah.

00:22:06.520 Because I don't want to embarrass you one day when they say, really?

00:22:11.240 Because having a conversation like this, we're getting to know each other.

00:22:14.360 So as we go down this road, we're just going to help each other be successful.

00:22:18.600 Well, so, so this is then the next thing I want to know, because you're talking about

00:22:23.060 how, look, you're at peace, you got your legs up, you like, you're taking time with your

00:22:26.920 cigar, you're very, you're very in touch with the land, but you, but you mentioned something

00:22:31.360 earlier, you said, and then sometimes if I have to turn it up a little bit, you know,

00:22:34.800 that's, and that's what makes me think about the hunting.

00:22:37.580 You're wearing camo, you've got, you know, a lot of, a lot of animal heads around here.

00:22:42.380 So how does that, that seems like almost the opposite.

00:22:44.720 One is all about relaxation, kind of placid, the other is very aggressive, you're pursuing

00:22:50.120 an animal.

00:22:51.340 How do you flip into that mode?

00:22:53.480 Well, what I discovered about oneself is I'm result driven.

00:23:02.660 I'm on the hunt and I stay focused on that task and I like to start it from the beginning

00:23:10.780 to the end.

00:23:11.540 And I used to, couldn't put it all together, but our brain is a, is a filing cabinet.

00:23:18.480 Yeah.

00:23:19.340 So close that filing cabinet every day.

00:23:23.040 Well, it's the same thing, me, I can go from zero to mock.

00:23:28.820 Yeah.

00:23:29.420 I don't like the middle area unless it is rest area.

00:23:32.760 Yeah.

00:23:33.120 Yeah.

00:23:33.300 But, but being able to do that, it keep me, it keep me hungry.

00:23:37.560 It keep me on the hunt.

00:23:39.180 Peace.

00:23:40.260 My machines on a piece of property.

00:23:42.980 It could be your piece of property.

00:23:45.160 I am getting so much out of your piece of property that we're walking on and we're having

00:23:50.260 a conversation.

00:23:51.160 Yeah.

00:23:51.420 Yeah.

00:23:51.640 I'm grounded.

00:23:52.540 Every step I take.

00:23:55.440 I'm on the soil.

00:23:56.580 Yeah.

00:23:56.760 So is that the, cause it strikes me, most people you talk to, they'll have like one

00:24:03.640 interest or two.

00:24:04.660 You know, most people you talk to, especially someone who's succeeded at your level, all

00:24:09.060 they want to talk about is basketball or all they want to talk about is whatever business

00:24:12.740 they're in or all they, but your interests are so varied and it seems like you have a very

00:24:17.100 intense focus on all of them.

00:24:19.400 This isn't the sort of thing.

00:24:20.420 You're not just saying, you know, La Aurora comes to you, says, Hey, we're going to put

00:24:23.560 your name on a cigar and forget about it.

00:24:25.240 You're obviously very, you're smoking the cigar.

00:24:28.200 You're helping blend.

00:24:29.620 You're, you know, you're very focused on.

00:24:31.040 So how do you maintain that kind of intensity, even on all these broad interests, hunting,

00:24:36.380 land development, cigars, obviously basketball?

00:24:39.460 Well, it's where I'm at.

00:24:41.500 And it's got to, it's through my eyes.

00:24:43.720 Michael, no one see anything the same.

00:24:49.400 You see it through your eyes.

00:24:51.100 So where I'm at with my life is my family, my kids, my grandkids.

00:24:56.960 So I'm 61.

00:24:59.300 I got more time in the rear view than I do in the front windshield.

00:25:01.980 So my drive now is high as it ever been because you're looking at a kid that only one person

00:25:10.060 believed in me, my mom.

00:25:12.560 I didn't want to play basketball.

00:25:15.440 Really?

00:25:16.320 No, really.

00:25:17.080 Anyway, it might shock you, but they got a lot of tape.

00:25:20.820 So I grew up in the country here, four brothers, four sisters.

00:25:23.880 My dad committed suicide when I was five years old.

00:25:26.760 But no, no.

00:25:28.400 Let me say something.

00:25:29.320 I was a loner, but I was a mama's boy.

00:25:34.360 So I was colicky as a little boy.

00:25:36.660 So my mom graded lumber in Georgia Pacific.

00:25:41.380 She was green chain. 1.00

00:25:42.600 She graded lumber.

00:25:43.580 So when she came home, she was tired.

00:25:45.500 She had four boys, four girls.

00:25:48.340 She had eight kids, single parent.

00:25:50.380 Wow.

00:25:50.780 And I was a baby boy, so I was colicky.

00:25:53.560 That means people don't know I cried a lot.

00:25:55.740 Yeah, yeah.

00:25:56.340 I've had some colicky people.

00:25:56.660 Well, we had a military channel and cartoon Three Stooges Western channel.

00:26:03.200 Yeah.

00:26:03.700 Every time this one plane would go out on a mission in Vietnam and came back, I wouldn't cry.

00:26:09.980 I would stop crying if it was a 45-minute mission or an hour and 10 minutes.

00:26:16.380 I wouldn't cry.

00:26:18.460 Well, when I got older, in the eighth grade, I wanted to know who flew that plane.

00:26:25.240 And it was a Harrier jump jet.

00:26:27.300 Only Marines flew that jet.

00:26:29.700 So I met my recruiter from the eighth grade, and only one person told me, and we had a little country store.

00:26:35.000 I wanted to become a poor bird.

00:26:37.320 I wanted to fly into Barksdale Air Force Base refuel.

00:26:40.220 I wanted to buzz our mom in a little country store. 0.98

00:26:42.960 We had a little field across the road, our little farm where we raised our garden.

00:26:46.860 I wanted to land it there, and I wanted to walk across the field.

00:26:50.280 Only one human told me, I know you would, my mom.

00:26:54.960 So that's what I wanted to be, a pilot.

00:26:56.840 Well, I met my recruiter from the eighth grade to the 11th grade.

00:26:59.960 He said, you've got to be great in math, and you can't grow anymore.

00:27:03.280 And I grew three and a half inches one summer, so basketball worked out.

00:27:07.240 Well, I said it to say this.

00:27:09.540 There's nothing you can do to stop it.

00:27:11.020 I can't stop growing.

00:27:12.480 I said it to say this.

00:27:13.420 So go back to what drives me now.

00:27:16.160 It's not more.

00:27:17.780 It's honing what we got.

00:27:19.300 It's passing it on because that's on my ancestors.

00:27:23.840 That's on my DNA.

00:27:25.760 My grandfather said to me, young man, when you grow up to be successful, you only do things first class.

00:27:33.840 And if you cannot afford it, you save your money because when you leave here, that is your legacy.

00:27:40.960 That is your DNA, how you leave it.

00:27:44.900 So me and my wife, Kay, we're passionate about our kids and grandkids, and now I'm passing it on.

00:27:49.980 So my drive now, I wake up every morning between 3.30 and 4 o'clock.

00:27:54.320 I do my little meditation, make mental notes, and I do a little crossword puzzle.

00:28:01.740 That's activating my brain.

00:28:03.240 Then I go train.

00:28:04.920 And then I'm on the hunt, but it's not for me.

00:28:08.080 It's on the hunt for my family and leaving them something more than what we have.

00:28:14.140 And to see that drive that they have now, they keep me hungry.

00:28:21.200 They keep me on the hunt.

00:28:22.380 So that's my focus.

00:28:23.740 So those interests we have, Larry Miller introduced me to a guy named Andy Madison.

00:28:27.960 And we have automotive there, but down here we do land and timber.

00:28:33.780 So my drive is not for me.

00:28:36.240 It's being a steward of the land.

00:28:38.340 And everybody talk about their legacy.

00:28:40.820 I want every day when they walk this land, they're seeing it every day.

00:28:47.780 This is like going with the wind.

00:28:50.120 It's about the land.

00:28:51.380 It's Tara.

00:28:51.980 It's about the land.

00:28:53.780 But that actually does make sense of it.

00:28:55.560 Because even you mentioned the cars.

00:28:56.920 You've been involved in the car business.

00:28:59.200 No, no, we are.

00:29:00.360 You are actively involved in the car business.

00:29:02.180 Yes, sir.

00:29:02.620 No, that's what I mean.

00:29:03.560 You have so many active businesses.

00:29:06.360 So you think, what unifies all of it?

00:29:08.200 Well, you've just explained it.

00:29:09.220 But it's very grounded and it's about your family and it's focused on the future.

00:29:13.840 So then going back the other way on family, what would have happened if you didn't have that one person who believed in you?

00:29:20.480 What would have happened if your mother had just, look, she would have had a good excuse to not be that focused if she had eight kids, a single mother. 1.00

00:29:28.360 So what would have happened to Carl Malone had that not happened?

00:29:32.260 Who knows?

00:29:34.200 Like, who knows?

00:29:35.540 It would have been, it would have been, we wouldn't be sitting here, you and I, how?

00:29:45.540 But, one person, you just need one to believe in you.

00:29:51.880 And, to me, when you're, when you get that one person, that's what matters.

00:29:59.700 Because, when you both have the same visions and the thoughts, you're thinking about everybody.

00:30:05.040 See, in our world, the first law of nature is self-preservation.

00:30:09.700 But, I like to think like this, when a person thinks about everyone else in the room except themselves, try it one time.

00:30:18.400 That person will always be taken care of.

00:30:21.160 Yeah.

00:30:21.680 Think about it.

00:30:22.540 The law averages, but we don't.

00:30:26.020 So, to me, take all you need, leave the rest for someone else.

00:30:31.560 So, we're not taking it with us, be teachers, share, you know, share from the heart, don't share when the cameras are on.

00:30:45.000 I still feel, as we're sitting here right now, Mike, I feel this right here.

00:30:50.580 My mom is going to come in and shake me and say, boy, get ready for school.

00:30:57.920 This, this, it seemed to me like a dream.

00:31:02.040 Yeah.

00:31:02.660 That I'm living in.

00:31:03.700 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:04.400 So.

00:31:05.560 That's an interesting connection that had not occurred to me about this partnership.

00:31:09.220 Because my mother was such an influential figure in this cigar business.

00:31:12.900 You know, I mean, she bought me the box of cigars where now the Mayflowers have made it the same factory that that box of cigars came from.

00:31:19.900 And some of which are still in my humidor.

00:31:22.640 I had my first cigar, actually, with my mother.

00:31:24.680 It's kind of an odd thing.

00:31:25.480 Mike, how old are you?

00:31:26.480 I am 34.

00:31:27.840 And I've still been smoking cigars for most of my life.

00:31:31.400 It's just an amazing, I don't know, you know, how the laws in various jurisdictions work.

00:31:34.940 It don't really matter.

00:31:35.740 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:36.380 We're just here.

00:31:36.960 For, I always say, though, for someone of Italian descent in New York, having your first cigar at 15, you're actually a little old.

00:31:45.280 You know, you're a little, you can start a little younger, you know.

00:31:47.480 And, but I really liked it.

00:31:50.260 And I never liked cigarettes.

00:31:51.920 I never got into any of that.

00:31:53.860 I wasn't like a big, I wouldn't go to like keggers or anything. 1.00

00:31:56.340 But I really liked the cigar.

00:31:59.880 I'm not just flattering you in your answers.

00:32:01.640 You give me two or three paths I want to go down.

00:32:04.400 But the one I want to get back to is, when you said your grandfather said, if you're going to do something, do it first class or don't do it.

00:32:12.480 And it reminds me of advice a buddy of mine gave me in New York.

00:32:15.520 He was working in finance.

00:32:17.420 And, but he wouldn't spend his money, really.

00:32:19.600 He wouldn't, he wouldn't buy new clothes.

00:32:21.660 He wouldn't, he wouldn't buy fancy dinners or anything.

00:32:24.680 We would make a lot of money, but he wasn't spending a lot of money.

00:32:26.700 But he might buy a glass of really expensive scotch every now and again.

00:32:31.620 But otherwise, he wouldn't really spend his money.

00:32:33.960 And I said, what's that about?

00:32:34.900 He said, it's the barbell strategy.

00:32:37.060 What's the barbell strategy?

00:32:38.160 Barbell strategy is, you're either going to get things that are really, really cheap or really, really expensive.

00:32:44.960 But he said, I don't want, I don't really want things in the middle.

00:32:48.760 And, you know, dollars don't always equate to quality.

00:32:51.980 But I think the point on quality is really good.

00:32:54.040 And you're either going to really go for something, you know, go for a really seriously well-crafted cigar, or don't have a cigar.

00:33:03.460 But please don't give me, please don't give me a crappy cigar.

00:33:06.860 It's not, I don't want cigars that bad.

00:33:08.760 You know, I want it to be either really good or I'll abstain.

00:33:11.760 That's okay.

00:33:12.280 I don't need to be changed.

00:33:13.820 But, and you think about this in your activities in life.

00:33:18.200 Would you have been content being a middle-of-the-pack basketball player?

00:33:22.940 Oh, and it's cool.

00:33:23.980 You got to play.

00:33:24.860 And then.

00:33:27.900 Michael, let's see.

00:33:30.800 Some people are built like that.

00:33:33.460 No, no, no.

00:33:36.380 You can blame it on my heritage, my DNA, my grandfather, great-grandfather.

00:33:42.360 No, no.

00:33:44.740 I'm alpha.

00:33:46.000 Yeah.

00:33:46.500 No, no, look here.

00:33:47.860 I know for the pack now, all due respect to the pack.

00:33:52.520 Yeah.

00:33:52.920 It takes every type.

00:33:55.180 Yes, totally.

00:33:55.460 To make that pack.

00:33:56.320 Yeah, yeah.

00:33:56.880 But no, sir, the way I was.

00:33:58.180 You're not going to be in the middle.

00:33:59.220 No, sir.

00:34:00.120 Where I was built, I'm the alpha.

00:34:01.780 Yeah.

00:34:02.280 Like, I respect the other alpha now.

00:34:04.880 Wherever you squat, wherever you hack and piss now, I ain't going to piss on that spot. 0.98

00:34:08.920 But now, when I hike and piss over here now, I'm raking that, sir, respect.

00:34:14.340 That's your spot.

00:34:14.860 That's my spot.

00:34:15.580 That's your spot, yes.

00:34:16.620 Well, that's how I'm built.

00:34:20.080 But I owe it to the man above and how I was created to get the most out of this body.

00:34:29.780 That's the respect I have for my grandfather and stuff like that.

00:34:34.140 And the respect I have for the team that drafted me.

00:34:42.600 Yes, you can call it whatever.

00:34:45.340 And the way I was wired and built, I owed that to the Miller family to give them every single thing I had.

00:34:54.520 They didn't draft you to be middle of the pack?

00:34:56.640 No, sir.

00:34:57.500 No.

00:34:57.640 Let me tell you how real that got really quick.

00:35:01.680 And Adrian Dantley, Hall of Famer, he taught me how to be a professional, number one.

00:35:08.500 Now, here's when it got real to me.

00:35:11.260 My second year, we have plays.

00:35:14.060 They were starting to run some plays for me, which was Adrian Dantley's.

00:35:18.060 And lo and behold, my second year playing, we drew the Dallas Mavericks.

00:35:28.380 They had Lando Blackmon, Mark Aguirre, Sam Perkins.

00:35:33.680 They had that squad.

00:35:34.940 So they was top of the pack.

00:35:35.980 Well, we played one.

00:35:36.940 Lo and behold, Adrian Dantley got hurt.

00:35:39.840 He was out for the playoffs.

00:35:41.020 So we drew them first round.

00:35:42.720 Well, they start running all the plays.

00:35:44.700 So we played.

00:35:48.160 Of course, they beat us in the series, but we made it a hell of a series.

00:35:52.060 Well, I didn't know anything.

00:35:54.280 I used to stay in Dallas and train with a guy named Ken Robeson.

00:35:57.800 He was my classmate here at Louisiana Tech.

00:36:01.060 So he was teaching me how to run.

00:36:02.580 So we would stay, right, we was able to work out at SMU.

00:36:05.720 So I remember we would go over to the Premier Club, and that's where we do our weight training.

00:36:12.040 And I'll never forget this.

00:36:13.220 We just finished up two and a half, three hours training, finished up with the weights.

00:36:18.260 And I was out shooting some shots, and a guy come out to New Kent.

00:36:25.560 He said, hey, tell Carl he might want to come see this.

00:36:30.620 So he said, his teammate of his. 0.99

00:36:33.600 I was like, shit, what? 0.99

00:36:35.160 He said, Adrian Dantley. 1.00

00:36:36.140 So, of course, I go in, press conference.

00:36:39.900 They had traded Adrian Dantley.

00:36:42.400 Now, this is when it got real for me.

00:36:44.000 Yeah.

00:36:45.800 And I get a phone call from Coach Layton.

00:36:48.260 He said, hey, do you remember the end of the year meeting we had?

00:36:52.420 You know, that's the end of the year meeting.

00:36:53.980 We all come in, and they'll tell each individual what we're working on and all that.

00:36:58.140 He said, do you remember that?

00:36:58.940 I was like, yes, sir.

00:37:00.260 He said, tell me what I said.

00:37:02.020 He said, remember the end of the meeting I said to you, hey, so be in the playoffs.

00:37:06.820 Are you ready to carry a franchise?

00:37:09.220 And, of course, me being full of little piss and vinegar like thereof, I said, of course.

00:37:14.140 Yeah, you're not going to say no.

00:37:14.540 Well, lo and behold, the starter team get traded.

00:37:19.200 And it's the off season.

00:37:20.360 I got a phone call.

00:37:21.280 Well, right then, I had to make a commitment that if I was going to be what they believed in me, and nobody else did.

00:37:31.680 Yep.

00:37:31.880 And I didn't want to let them down.

00:37:34.460 Right.

00:37:34.560 So.

00:37:35.140 Because, you know, it's one thing to say it in the meeting.

00:37:37.680 Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, of course I'm ready.

00:37:39.420 This is what actors do.

00:37:40.500 Can you ride a horse?

00:37:41.280 Yeah, yeah.

00:37:41.960 Can you tap dance?

00:37:42.660 Oh, you bet I can tap dance.

00:37:43.820 But then you have to perform.

00:37:45.300 Right.

00:37:45.560 And I'm going to say this to you.

00:37:48.720 I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid to fail.

00:37:54.600 And when I fail, I've let a lot of people down, and that's on me.

00:38:01.100 So when that happened, I made a commitment that I had to change my body to be able to carry the load.

00:38:08.820 So, and I did not want to be middle of the pack.

00:38:12.680 I wasn't, I'm sorry, people can take it.

00:38:16.000 No, hell, I'm not sorry.

00:38:18.180 I wasn't put on this earth to be middle of the pack or the back of the pack.

00:38:24.560 So, I put everything back to animals.

00:38:30.480 So our family crest.

00:38:34.020 You got an insignia, right?

00:38:35.540 Is the buffalo.

00:38:37.020 Yeah, yeah.

00:38:37.360 That's our family quest.

00:38:38.820 You know, our crest.

00:38:43.780 Well, the buffalo is the only animal on this earth that when a storm brew on the plains, first strike a lightning or a roar of thunder.

00:38:59.720 The man, the leader of the pack, the alpha, he turned and women, children, all, they turn and 90% of the time or more is the only reason a buffalo stampede.

00:39:19.480 They turn and they turn and they turn and they turn and they run into the storm head on, right?

00:39:26.440 That is the alpha, right?

00:39:26.800 That is the alpha, that's the leader.

00:39:30.900 And they're all following him.

00:39:32.360 Right.

00:39:32.800 And here's the rest of that story.

00:39:35.360 Our families, we all go through it, right?

00:39:38.660 But at some point now, dad got to step up and he got to face that and he'd go through the storm.

00:39:45.020 So, guess what?

00:39:46.560 A buffalo is the only species that's only in the storm half the time.

00:39:52.980 Think about that.

00:39:54.360 Now, why is the buffalo running toward the storm?

00:39:56.340 Forgive my ignorance.

00:39:57.340 Why?

00:39:57.800 Yeah.

00:39:58.100 They face it head on.

00:39:59.420 Yeah.

00:40:00.240 Right?

00:40:00.780 He's in it half the time.

00:40:02.140 Yeah, yeah.

00:40:02.480 That's why he do it.

00:40:03.600 They turn and he run into it.

00:40:05.240 It's dangerous coming.

00:40:06.340 We're going to face it.

00:40:07.620 And guess what?

00:40:08.920 We have pictures on our phone, men, my sons.

00:40:11.080 Yeah.

00:40:12.380 It's the leader, the alpha, which all of us are in our home or wherever else.

00:40:20.060 He have icicles hanging this long off his beard and he got a head about this size.

00:40:27.340 And he's the first one to come through that storm, right?

00:40:30.480 Looking like that.

00:40:31.320 Now, ask yourself this question now.

00:40:35.340 Every person that's a man, right? 0.89

00:40:40.360 When he come through this storm and I show you this picture, what do you think he's thinking right now?

00:40:48.340 I'll tell you. 0.99

00:40:50.040 He's saying right now, whatever son of a bitch want some of this right now? 1.00

00:40:56.700 Yeah. 1.00

00:40:58.040 Come and take it.

00:40:58.680 No, no.

00:40:59.700 No, I'm going to meet you.

00:41:01.320 Well, when I show you this picture, it's going to, well, that's life.

00:41:06.620 That's us.

00:41:07.620 Families.

00:41:08.400 Yeah.

00:41:08.560 It's not always roses.

00:41:10.020 You're going to take shots.

00:41:11.100 You're going to, but guess what?

00:41:12.520 At some point in time, daddy.

00:41:14.320 Yeah.

00:41:15.140 You've got to turn and face that something.

00:41:17.000 You've got to look him in the eye.

00:41:18.960 That's who I am and that's how I live.

00:41:22.940 There was a popular book probably 10, 15 years ago called Anti-Fragile by Nassim Nicholas Tollab.

00:41:28.540 Because you think certain things are fragile, they fall off the table, they break.

00:41:33.360 Certain things are durable, they fall off the table, they get a little deformed, but you

00:41:37.240 know, that'll be okay.

00:41:38.640 But he says there's this third category, Anti-Fragile.

00:41:42.020 The thing that falls off the table and actually gets stronger.

00:41:45.180 The thing that when you subject it to rigors and trials, it actually comes out tougher, scarier

00:41:52.100 maybe, you know, and that seems to me what you're describing.

00:41:55.360 And to me, it's like, who are you?

00:42:03.020 We all get tried, but you really don't have to talk about it.

00:42:07.500 Yeah, yeah.

00:42:08.120 Like, look, okay, so after all the talking, what?

00:42:12.100 Yeah.

00:42:12.420 And?

00:42:12.880 Yeah, yeah.

00:42:13.500 Why talk?

00:42:14.500 My grandfather, I will never forget this, I played marbles.

00:42:18.500 My grandfather was my height, my size, never lifted weight.

00:42:23.540 He was a mule logger. 0.88

00:42:25.820 And this guy, every day, not every day, once a week, you know, when he had a little moonshine,

00:42:33.660 my grandfather was a moonshine.

00:42:36.740 A little local recipe, yeah.

00:42:38.140 So I was playing marbles one day, well, this guy had did this, I know a number, a couple

00:42:42.980 times, and my grandfather homesteaded a couple acres, so that was his acre.

00:42:50.960 And this guy kept coming on this property, and I never forget it.

00:42:55.060 I was playing marbles, and I heard, boom, boom, boom, and it was over with, he was dusting

00:42:59.080 them all.

00:43:00.740 I never forget this, because as time went on, I asked him about that, and he said, at some

00:43:07.000 point in time, when a man challenged you, on your piece of dirt, this time, to me, it's

00:43:15.820 too much talking.

00:43:18.100 People just talk to talk.

00:43:20.040 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:43:20.500 I'm result-driven.

00:43:22.620 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:23.380 You know, I'm not going to apologize for that.

00:43:26.080 And no excuses, either.

00:43:26.980 No excuses.

00:43:28.180 No excuses.

00:43:28.780 Because, let me tell you something, when you got your last 500 bucks, don't bet on sports,

00:43:36.240 don't bet on nothing, none of that.

00:43:38.880 If you got a set of them, you bet on yourself.

00:43:42.520 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:43.120 Right.

00:43:43.320 Right?

00:43:43.600 And you don't want to fail.

00:43:45.020 Because when a person start that inner competitive nature with oneself and respect that other person,

00:43:52.640 that's when it comes together.

00:43:56.700 But then you become a teacher.

00:43:59.100 Einstein, one of my favorites.

00:44:01.440 I love him because he had the wild hair.

00:44:04.720 To me, he was a genius.

00:44:06.240 He was a teacher on his deathbed.

00:44:08.400 To me, he was my hero.

00:44:10.480 I know we went from a Marine pilot flying a Harrier jet to Einstein.

00:44:14.520 What the hell?

00:44:15.400 Yeah.

00:44:16.020 How many NBA champs say, you know, my big hero, actually, is Albert Einstein?

00:44:21.280 I don't know.

00:44:22.640 I started off with the wild hair, and I wanted to know who he was,

00:44:25.460 and then I'd know he was the ultimate teacher.

00:44:27.820 See, to people, sometimes, they think not teaching is smart to me.

00:44:36.260 It's not.

00:44:37.320 Because when you die, all of that go.

00:44:39.580 But when you become a teacher, you try to teach where people can understand your teaching.

00:44:44.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:44:46.440 It's this theme that seems to be running through everything you're doing,

00:44:49.700 which is not just about you.

00:44:53.180 It's not just about building something for yourself,

00:44:55.260 but it's about this kind of legacy, and not even a legacy just from you.

00:44:59.260 You keep talking about, it's actually my grandfather.

00:45:01.660 It's actually my mother.

00:45:02.640 It's actually, it's the legacy running in both directions.

00:45:05.600 That's a beautiful thing.

00:45:07.620 Well, but those are two people that believed in all my crazy ideas,

00:45:12.760 and not one time shot them down.

00:45:14.440 Brothers shot them down.

00:45:15.780 Sisters shot them down. 0.72

00:45:17.380 Friends, they didn't.

00:45:20.420 And they say, on that other side, you replay this back.

00:45:24.940 So, to me, every day is euphoried to me.

00:45:28.360 It's like, I can't explain it, but what I like is people now are starting to want to know me,

00:45:41.120 which is so weird to me.

00:45:44.780 Did they not want to know you before?

00:45:46.840 No, they looked at, as people do, 90% of athletes.

00:45:51.560 The real world look at us as just jocks.

00:45:55.140 Yeah, yeah, right, right.

00:45:56.100 And if that's how they think.

00:45:59.520 But, you know, athletes to me, you know, everybody want to look at hard time athletes didn't have this.

00:46:11.340 There's so many success stories out there that people never want to talk about,

00:46:17.740 but it don't seem real to me.

00:46:20.980 Are you kidding me?

00:46:21.920 This little kid that was a run of the family?

00:46:24.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:46:24.440 Why did the man above look down and say, that kid?

00:46:27.080 Yeah, yeah, right.

00:46:27.880 So, to me, when we leave here, what we leave?

00:46:33.380 What we leave?

00:46:34.960 The way you put it, too, it's going to seem like a paradox for some people.

00:46:39.240 Because on the one hand, you're saying, look, I've got this intense focus.

00:46:43.040 I've got this drive.

00:46:44.020 I'm very, obviously, very self-disciplined, all this.

00:46:46.540 So, on the one hand, you get that total, like, I'm harnessing my will and my efforts for this thing.

00:46:52.100 But then the other side of it you keep coming back to is, yeah, but had my mother not believed in me, probably wouldn't be here.

00:46:59.100 Had, you know, run to the litter.

00:47:01.360 And I don't know, why was it me and not one of my siblings?

00:47:03.960 Why was it me and not some other guy?

00:47:05.480 I don't know.

00:47:06.200 Because God looked down and said, that guy.

00:47:08.540 And that's not through your own effort, but there's this, it's like the cooperation with the circumstances that you found yourself in led you to this very spot on the couch.

00:47:19.460 And then, Michael, here's the rest of it.

00:47:24.180 Do we ever realize this?

00:47:26.020 The day that we take our first breath and whine, whine, whine, we start to die.

00:47:37.740 Think about that.

00:47:39.860 Been dying since the day I was born.

00:47:41.560 So, I want to say something to you.

00:47:42.980 You brought up something.

00:47:46.220 And I go back, you use a different word, but it's simple.

00:47:50.880 The simplicity of life is what we're missing.

00:47:54.360 So, I discovered, even though I'm driven, and I want to be driven the day I die.

00:48:04.960 So, the fly.

00:48:06.800 Anybody know that movie, The Fly?

00:48:09.040 Yeah, yeah.

00:48:10.000 Okay, now we're going to go somewhere here. 0.99

00:48:11.880 When Michael leaves here, he's going to be like, God damn. 0.98

00:48:15.140 Okay, the fly. 0.99

00:48:17.640 All right, this is where I'm at.

00:48:20.740 People don't realize this.

00:48:22.120 About a year ago, it came to me.

00:48:27.240 The fly.

00:48:28.580 When he opened up his closet, notice something now.

00:48:37.500 He had seven of the same outfits.

00:48:41.940 So, I'm going to tell you why here.

00:48:43.180 Black loafers, black socks, black pants, black underwear, black turtleneck.

00:48:51.380 And the star of that fly, he got the hotel.com with the aliens coming down.

00:48:57.240 He's one of my favorites.

00:48:58.220 I don't know his name.

00:48:58.960 The significance of that, a fly, an insect, only have five to seven days on this earth, a fly.

00:49:13.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:49:14.260 So, what came to me about a year ago is the reason being he don't have time to worry about what he's going to wear.

00:49:25.300 He have to eat, breathe, and die.

00:49:29.500 I'm the fly.

00:49:30.720 I don't have time for, oh, I'm smelling the roses now.

00:49:35.680 But I'm the fly now.

00:49:37.080 I'm going to tell any of this thing to hand something off that Picasso, that masterpiece, that artist.

00:49:44.520 So, the significance of keeping things simple.

00:49:48.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:49:49.300 That's...

00:49:49.940 But think about this other kind of duality here, which is you are a top athlete.

00:49:57.200 And the language you keep using is all this language of artistry.

00:50:00.920 Or even, you know, Einstein, you know, science and mathematics.

00:50:04.960 But you keep talking about artistry.

00:50:07.740 How many athletes talk about art?

00:50:10.180 I don't...

00:50:11.140 How many athletes view the world through a lens of art?

00:50:12.900 Gosh, that's what it is.

00:50:17.580 Are you serious?

00:50:19.460 Like, now we know how we really are.

00:50:26.640 Yeah.

00:50:27.480 How big and massive, but we never see it.

00:50:31.260 Yeah, yeah.

00:50:31.620 We don't take the time to see it.

00:50:33.340 So, yes, okay, you can actually say top athlete, they are artists.

00:50:40.580 Look at that.

00:50:41.420 So, I don't know.

00:50:44.280 Right, right.

00:50:44.760 Yeah, there's a lot.

00:50:45.940 They make it look like, dang, that's artistry.

00:50:50.540 Right, of course.

00:50:51.100 When you watch a really incredible athletic show, when you watch a real just whatever sport, whatever the feat is,

00:50:59.240 the first thing that really strikes you, it's not necessarily the strength, though, you see that, but it's the grace of everything, right?

00:51:06.680 All the movements going in the right direction.

00:51:08.820 Right.

00:51:09.240 Totally meet the moment, and it all just comes off.

00:51:13.000 Is that not artistry?

00:51:14.160 Right.

00:51:14.420 Come on.

00:51:15.360 So, I know we've talked about so many different things, but that is, that's my brain.

00:51:24.120 That's how, and the, you know, when I smoke a cigar, it's like deep to me.

00:51:29.840 Yeah, yeah.

00:51:30.940 Down to a very artistic thing in itself, a cigar.

00:51:32.900 Even the way you're talking about the land and the creation, it reminds me of this great quote.

00:51:37.020 I love this quote from Alexander Pope, which is, all nature is but art unknown to thee, all chance direction, which thou canst not see.

00:51:45.480 You think all of that from, you're a little kid, and almost nobody believes in you, almost nobody believes in you, and then you just, you wind up here.

00:51:54.640 You couldn't have possibly planned it.

00:51:56.280 Oh, man.

00:51:57.160 You have your own ideas, but you couldn't have planned all this out.

00:52:01.500 I planned that I was going to be in the military.

00:52:05.580 That's what I planned.

00:52:06.540 But I said this, I had to be in some type of operation, like scout sniper, because I could be alone or with someone.

00:52:21.540 But knowing that those people are dependent on me for their life, that's a, I don't know, that's a responsibility that I would have welcomed.

00:52:43.840 So I was going to be in the military, and I wanted to be some type of operation behind the scene.

00:52:50.360 But even that, the way you're talking, it's about the individual.

00:52:54.040 I can be alone.

00:52:54.980 I can be working.

00:52:55.800 But it's not disconnected from everyone else.

00:52:58.240 And I think of it, not to be too cute about it, but you think about that with a cigar.

00:53:02.940 A cigar is, on one hand, the most social of luxuries.

00:53:07.980 You know, it's about sitting in a lounge and talking to people.

00:53:11.040 But you can also, and I do this many nights, I sit alone with my cigar, and I'm with my thoughts.

00:53:16.800 I'm looking up at the sky, and I'm in conversation with God, or maybe with myself.

00:53:24.220 But, you know, and it's both perfectly solitary and perfectly social.

00:53:28.940 And somehow that makes sense.

00:53:30.620 You're the star athlete.

00:53:32.420 It's kind of, it's all about you.

00:53:33.900 I mean, you are the guy.

00:53:35.000 But it's also about the team, and the game, and the franchise, and the legacy.

00:53:40.440 And somehow both of those things exist at once.

00:53:42.320 And to me, like, when I have a good stick, I see everybody do it.

00:53:53.580 When they light that cigar off the first time we do this.

00:53:56.180 Yeah, yeah.

00:53:56.480 And it's just, and then to be able to have a conversation with people and hear where they're from and history about that,

00:54:12.880 knowing now where the Mayflower name came from.

00:54:17.460 See, that's personal to me.

00:54:21.640 And that's, and it's not me, but you've got to know how I feel about my heritage and things.

00:54:30.720 Now you're part of that story.

00:54:32.060 Yeah.

00:54:32.340 You're in the, now I'm in the story of the cigar.

00:54:35.340 Yeah, that's right.

00:54:36.180 So our partnership is going to be amazing.

00:54:39.320 And I'll tell you what.

00:54:45.020 However we got here, you believed in it.

00:54:46.840 And I'll make a promise to you now.

00:54:51.620 Me and my family will not disappoint you or embarrass you guys.

00:54:56.420 Whatever ride we go on, we'll go on it together.

00:54:58.760 I never thought you would.

00:54:59.820 That was not a fear.

00:55:01.520 I hope I can live up to that on my end.

00:55:03.360 And I'm Carl Malone, and I'll prove what that makes this guy.

00:55:07.940 Carl, I could sit here all day, certainly to the end of this cigar,

00:55:10.880 probably to the end of second or third cigar, if you would care to join us.

00:55:16.840 For these cigars.

00:55:17.860 If you're 21 years or older, older, some exclusions apply, as the lawyers tell me.

00:55:21.180 And you can get the La Aurora barrel-aged Carl Malone cigar, which I'm smoking.

00:55:27.040 And it is excellent.

00:55:28.460 It's got different blends of tobacco, too.

00:55:30.600 You know, the Mayflower Dusk, which you're smoking, is an Ecuador Habano wrapper.

00:55:34.780 It's a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan filler. 1.00

00:55:37.160 For the Dawn, it's an Ecuador-Connecticut wrapper, Cameroon binder, and Nicaraguan filler.

00:55:42.680 With the La Aurora Carl Malone, I'm getting different flavors.

00:55:45.960 I'm getting a lot of that pepper.

00:55:48.560 I'm getting a little more strength, actually.

00:55:50.380 There's a little more strength coming in here.

00:55:52.980 It's really magnificent cigars that will complement each other very, very well in your humidor.

00:55:59.640 Carl?

00:56:01.020 I appreciate it.

00:56:01.960 And I would like to end by saying, what would it be like one of these days,

00:56:06.220 some lounge reach out to Mayflower and Michael and his team and say,

00:56:11.760 you know, we would love to host you guys there.

00:56:15.820 And I would say, we've got the talking out the way.

00:56:20.040 Let's do it.

00:56:20.780 Let's do it.

00:56:22.380 Let's do it.

00:56:35.380 Let's do it.

00:56:36.180 Anxious about choosing between a fixed or variable rate mortgage?

00:56:39.340 We can help request a calming call with TD Mortgage Direct and say hello to good advice.

The Michael Knowles Show - November 23, 2024

Michael & Karl Malone： NBA Legend Cigar Conversation

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