Michael & Karl Malone： NBA Legend Cigar Conversation
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
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Summary
In this episode of Cigar Talk, we sit down with former NBA Hall of Famer Carl Malone to discuss his life and career, his love of cigars, and his new cigar line, the Mayflower Carl Malone Cigar Pack.
Transcript
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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.
00:00:54.980
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.
00:01:07.380
And you also got to say, we do not encourage anybody to smoke cigars.
00:01:14.340
I don't discourage them, but it's totally your choice.
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.
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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.
00:01:57.420
So I was asking you the question earlier, Michael, how did this happen?
00:02:02.140
And I'm just going to enjoy the moment and say, hell, it doesn't happen.
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.
00:02:31.280
Well, my thing is, a cigar to me is icebreaker.
00:02:40.180
So it really don't matter what your bank account say.
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No matter what car you're driving, what house you live in.
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And when you look at legends, where we're at right now, this is family-owned.
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And you notice we don't have a lot of TVs, no TVs.
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Because to me, when I come and smoke with a person, I want to get to know that person.
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.
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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.
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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.
00:04:25.560
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.
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So, I wanted to act like I knew what I was doing.
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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.
00:05:07.920
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.
00:05:18.640
So, if a certain place we would go, we would have those two or three days off, thanks, Coach Sloan.
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.
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I was hooked then at 25 Monte Cristos, and that was my cigar.
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You could not tell me anything else, and that was my cigar, and I've been ever since.
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61, that's good genes, and maybe being one of the great athletes of your age.
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I say it all the time, my ancestors, my mom and my grandfather, I thank them for the genes.
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Now, I've got to keep working, and I'm on the hunt.
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I'm on the hunt every day, me and my family, whether it's peace, whether it's just hanging out.
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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.
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The first thing that really hit me before we sat down was where this lounge is.
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I said, what brought Carl Malone, after all his insane international success, what brought Carl Malone to this part of Louisiana?
00:07:03.140
Yes, well, Mike, I grew up 45 minutes north, right at 167.
00:07:13.180
So, when we moved back home, the family had a truck.
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We moved back home 20, almost 21, 22 years ago.
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Of course, legends is where we're sitting at in Ruston, Louisiana.
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When we got back, this started off, legends started off about that size.
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But then, all of a sudden, my wife and daughter got in it.
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So, this burnt wood didn't come from our property.
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And if you look in the bathroom, you'll see green tin.
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And I'm somewhat of a savage when it comes to that.
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So, if you go in the bathroom, you'll see, like, green.
00:08:11.760
And that's what my – I was driving my wife and one of my daughters crazy.
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And you'll see mountains in here because my whole family, we hunt.
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I grew up four years old hunting with my grandfather.
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And we got to thinking about names and everything.
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We just thought about legends and we added the cigar to it.
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You obviously have a lot of varied interests, all sorts of different businesses,
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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.
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And then they move to the penthouse and wherever.
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.
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We're going to spend a day out in the wilderness doing the things I do.
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I love Louisiana, but I'm passionate about North Louisiana.
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.
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And Utah, I did things for my family that I'm forever grateful.
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But I wanted to come home because I feel so connected here.
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And tobacco, when you look at it, it comes from the earth.
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.
00:11:01.600
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.
00:11:35.240
It's all, it's kind of disconnected from tangible stuff.
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I think it's important that we're incarnate creatures.
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And that's what I love about the cigar, is the cigar is not digital.
00:11:53.820
It's going to, it's, in a way, it's kind of like a clock.
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You know, you can measure time as the cigar goes down.
00:12:02.260
You know, it's ephemeral and you're in a real space and then it's gone.
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.
00:12:21.500
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.
00:12:47.440
But one day if you try it, I'll try it with you.
00:12:53.080
But I love that idea that you don't want to be disconnected from roots.
00:13:00.960
When you said you like driving heavy equipment, you're the artist painting on the canvas of the earth.
00:13:06.820
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.
00:14:05.500
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.
00:14:21.940
But my connection with the land and the equipment is I never change the landscape on what Mother Nature do.
00:14:42.940
And whatever that land doing now, the drainage, everything, I don't change it.
00:15:05.940
But the fact of the matter is when you stay connected with land, it just, it aligns me.
00:15:19.960
Because I stay calm until I have to go up and knock.
00:15:29.420
People say cotton is what, say, our country was built on.
00:15:39.140
I put tobacco, sugarcane, cotton in that same area.
00:15:53.020
I've been fortunate enough to visit Laura a number of times, Mr. Leon and the whole team there.
00:16:02.900
The farmer, that when that took back, when it's small.
00:16:08.660
To me, the respect you should have for a cigar.
00:16:13.040
Think about someone other than yourself and the work that go into it.
00:16:20.800
You've got the guy who's growing it, who's watering it.
00:16:32.480
Then you've got, even before you get to rolling the cigar, you've got the filler.
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.
00:17:10.520
Just about, more often than not, that final touch is by a female.
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.
00:17:37.020
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.
00:17:44.280
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.
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.
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.
00:18:37.900
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.
00:18:52.940
And of course now, our house sticks, barrel-aged by Carmelone, of course, that's the main one.
00:19:05.800
The fact of the matter is, I tell people, you know, about a cigar, it's a passion of mine.
00:19:13.100
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.
00:19:20.580
And they say this, now, if you want to just go there now, and Michael will be looking at me now like, damn.
00:19:26.160
So, let all of us cigar aficionados, aficionados, let all of us say 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.
00:19:56.720
And wherever the joint of your thumb at, that should be the top of your label.
00:20:04.940
And when it's getting like that, that's when it's time to finish your cigar.
00:20:14.500
Katrina over there like, what the hell is going on here?
00:20:17.020
No, I'm really impressed, though perhaps I shouldn't be, by even the way you're talking
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
00:20:41.040
What's already there, you want to perfect what nature has already given you.
00:20:45.400
I'm not going to take a Connecticut Shade wrapper and, I don't know, some kind of...
00:20:54.040
I'm not going to, I'm not trying to take that and make that into the fullest bodied cigar
00:21:00.340
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.
00:21:10.080
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
00:21:33.340
You know, that's, but it's that passion about it and that is where our company, PF, is going
00:21:41.380
We're going to really heavy on the cigar distribution and we're going to carry everyone, of course,
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.
00:22:06.520
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
00:22:53.480
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
00:23:11.540
And I used to, couldn't put it all together, but our brain is a, is a filing cabinet.
00:23:23.040
Well, it's the same thing, me, I can go from zero to mock.
00:23:29.420
I don't like the middle area unless it is rest area.
00:23:33.300
But, but being able to do that, it keep me, it keep me hungry.
00:23:45.160
I am getting so much out of your piece of property that we're walking on and we're having
00:23:56.760
So is that the, cause it strikes me, most people you talk to, they'll have like one
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
00:24:20.420
You're not just saying, you know, La Aurora comes to you, says, Hey, we're going to put
00:24:25.240
You're obviously very, you're smoking the cigar.
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?
00:24:51.100
So where I'm at with my life is my family, my kids, my grandkids.
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
00:25:17.080
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.
00:25:56.660
Well, we had a military channel and cartoon Three Stooges Western channel.
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.
00:26:18.460
Well, when I got older, in the eighth grade, I wanted to know who flew that plane.
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.
00:26:37.320
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.
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.
00:26:56.840
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.
00:27:19.300
It's passing it on because that's on my ancestors.
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.
00:27:44.900
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.
00:28:08.080
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.
00:28:23.740
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.
00:28:40.820
I want every day when they walk this land, they're seeing it every day.
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.
00:29:28.360
So what would have happened to Carl Malone had that not happened?
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.
00:30:26.020
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.
00:31:05.560
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.
00:31:22.640
I had my first cigar, actually, with my mother.
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.
00:31:36.960
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.
00:31:53.860
I wasn't like a big, I wouldn't go to like keggers or anything.
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.
00:32:21.660
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.
00:32:38.160
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.
00:33:08.760
You know, I want it to be either really good or I'll abstain.
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?
00:33:36.380
You can blame it on my heritage, my DNA, my grandfather, great-grandfather.
00:33:47.860
I know for the pack now, all due respect to the pack.
00:34:04.880
Wherever you squat, wherever you hack and piss now, I ain't going to piss on that spot.
00:34:08.920
But now, when I hike and piss over here now, I'm raking that, sir, respect.
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.
00:34:45.340
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?
00:34:57.640
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.
00:35:14.060
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.
00:35:48.160
Of course, they beat us in the series, but we made it a hell of a series.
00:35:54.280
I used to stay in Dallas and train with a guy named Ken Robeson.
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.
00:36:13.220
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.
00:36:48.260
He said, hey, do you remember the end of the year meeting we had?
00:36:53.980
We all come in, and they'll tell each individual what we're working on and all that.
00:37:02.020
He said, remember the end of the meeting I said to you, hey, so be in the playoffs.
00:37:09.220
And, of course, me being full of little piss and vinegar like thereof, I said, of course.
00:37:14.540
Well, lo and behold, the starter team get traded.
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.
00:37:35.140
Because, you know, it's one thing to say it in the meeting.
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.
00:38:18.180
I wasn't put on this earth to be middle of the pack or the back of the pack.
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?
00:39:38.660
But at some point now, dad got to step up and he got to face that and he'd go through the storm.
00:39:46.560
A buffalo is the only species that's only in the storm half the time.
00:39:54.360
Now, why is the buffalo running toward the storm?
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?
00:40:40.360
When he come through this storm and I show you this picture, what do you think he's thinking right now?
00:40:50.040
He's saying right now, whatever son of a bitch want some of this right now?
00:41:01.320
Well, when I show you this picture, it's going to, well, that's life.
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
00:41:38.640
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.
00:42:03.020
We all get tried, but you really don't have to talk about it.
00:42:08.120
Like, look, okay, so after all the talking, what?
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.
00:42:25.820
And this guy, every day, not every day, once a week, you know, when he had a little moonshine,
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
00:43:00.740
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
00:43:28.780
Because, let me tell you something, when you got your last 500 bucks, don't bet on sports,
00:43:45.020
Because when a person start that inner competitive nature with oneself and respect that other person,
00:44:10.480
I know we went from a Marine pilot flying a Harrier jet to Einstein.
00:44:16.020
How many NBA champs say, you know, my big hero, actually, is Albert Einstein?
00:44:22.640
I started off with the wild hair, and I wanted to know who he was,
00:44:27.820
See, to people, sometimes, they think not teaching is smart to me.
00:44:39.580
But when you become a teacher, you try to teach where people can understand your teaching.
00:44:46.440
It's this theme that seems to be running through everything you're doing,
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.
00:45:02.640
It's actually, it's the legacy running in both directions.
00:45:07.620
Well, but those are two people that believed in all my crazy ideas,
00:45:20.420
And they say, on that other side, you replay this back.
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,
00:45:46.840
No, they looked at, as people do, 90% of athletes.
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,
00:46:24.440
Why did the man above look down and say, that kid?
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.
00:46:44.020
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.
00:47:01.360
And I don't know, why was it me and not one of my siblings?
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.
00:47:26.020
The day that we take our first breath and whine, whine, whine, we start to die.
00:47:46.220
And I go back, you use a different word, but it's simple.
00:47:54.360
So, I discovered, even though I'm driven, and I want to be driven the day I die.
00:48:11.880
When Michael leaves here, he's going to be like, God damn.
00:48:28.580
When he opened up his closet, notice something now.
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.
00:48:58.960
The significance of that, a fly, an insect, only have five to seven days on this earth, a fly.
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.
00:49:30.720
I don't have time for, oh, I'm smelling the roses now.
00:49:37.080
I'm going to tell any of this thing to hand something off that Picasso, that masterpiece, that artist.
00:49:49.940
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.
00:50:11.140
How many athletes view the world through a lens of art?
00:50:33.340
So, yes, okay, you can actually say top athlete, they are artists.
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.
00:51:09.240
Totally meet the moment, and it all just comes off.
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.
00:51:30.940
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.
00:51:57.160
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.
00:52:06.540
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.
00:52:58.240
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.
00:53:35.000
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.
00:53:56.480
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.
00:54:21.640
And that's, and it's not me, but you've got to know how I feel about my heritage and things.
00:54:32.340
You're in the, now I'm in the story of the cigar.
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.
00:55:03.360
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.
00:55:17.860
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.
00:55:30.600
You know, the Mayflower Dusk, which you're smoking, is an Ecuador Habano wrapper.
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.
00:55:52.980
It's really magnificent cigars that will complement each other very, very well in your humidor.
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.
00:56:36.180
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00:56:39.340
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