I'll put up to the arena. I get a phone call from one of my best friends. He like, man,

they didn't kill Nip. I'm like, what? On March 31st, 2019, Nipsey Hussle was gunned

down outside his marathon clothing store. For many, Nipsey was a rapper from South Los

Angeles, but really he was so much more than that. Entrepreneur, gang member, activist, philanthropist.

For a generation of young black men who became NBA All-Stars, Nipsey Hussle was a friend

and an inspiration. I leaned on his music during my dopest times, during my darkest times,

and it was my superhero. I can say, only guys I've really had in my generation was Barack

Cobbomb. NBA players vibed with Nipsey's never give up mentality. What he called the

marathon. I've noticed that specifically athletes react to the message and then also I think

like, you know, they come from the same environment, they go through the same struggle.

We was both grinding in different fields and you know, just trying to get to the top

with no handouts. Hussle and motivate, I mean, if that ain't like the ethos of being an elite

athlete, I don't know what it is. It really does feel that it's connected to how hard

you've got a hustle if you're an athlete or if you're a rapper. But it wasn't just about

what Nipsey said. It was about what he did for his people and his community. Opening

businesses and bringing economic opportunity to South Phelate. It was always a constant

conversation of how can we motivate, how can we inspire the next set of guys that didn't

have nobody. In the NBA, many players were looking at like, well, how do I extend the pedestal

that I have? How do I take this platform and do something with it? We need a model for

it. And Nipsey was right there with that model. He did the thing that we all say that

we're going to do. You don't see a lot of people who would then stay in the community and

also try to build it at the same time. It's going to be impossible to talk about the history

...