- 7 weeks ago
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00:00We have this new generation of, like, Timothee Chalamet, like, he running around representing the Knicks to the fullest.
00:07Did you get to spend some time with Chalamet? Did you guys talk or celebrate together?
00:10I did, I did, man. We talked, we celebrated. He came on my podcast on the show, 7 p.m.,
00:16so we talked about it.
00:17I actually gave him an award, man, my favorite white boy award, so he was happy about that.
00:24Was there a long selection process?
00:26It was a long selection process.
00:34I want to start things off as a New Yorker myself.
00:38Knicks in five, how does it feel?
00:40I only heard one person say, woo.
00:42Come on, guys. Give it up for the Knicks.
00:44There may not be a lot of New York Knicks fans here.
00:45But, no, it feels good that, for one, the Knicks winning the championship finally.
00:52For two, the way that it reignited the city of New York, right, from sports to outside.
01:00And kids, to businesses, all industries feel like it has a newfound energy.
01:06And, to be honest, New York has been struggling trying to get over the hump and trying to figure out
01:11what is next for New York as a whole.
01:13So, what the Knicks was able to do is prove to you that sports unifies a lot of things and
01:21people, and it brings everything together.
01:23And it may be one of the only things that's out there that unifies everybody like that.
01:28So, shout out to the Knicks in five.
01:30Shout out to the Knicks.
01:31When did it seem, for you watching, you know, obviously having played with the Knicks, when did it seem possible
01:36for you that they were going to win at all?
01:39Until they won it all, to be honest with you.
01:41I mean, if you think about it, every game, they was down 20 points in the finals.
01:44So, for them to come back every game and that resilience and grit that they show, I mean, that's honestly
01:53the true New York way of just, like, falling down, getting beat up, and then, you know, persevering and getting
01:58back and coming back on top.
02:00So, that championship mimics life.
02:03Were you able to be at the parade on Thursday in New York, or were you able to celebrate with
02:07the team?
02:07I know you did some conversations with them, and you've been with the players the last couple of days.
02:13I made it back for game four, so I was good.
02:17Game three, I got stuck in Paris on a flight.
02:19I think they made me miss my flight on purpose in Paris, so I wouldn't get back, but it was
02:24cool.
02:25But I had an opportunity to be a part of the parade and take part in the parade.
02:30And as somebody who wore that jersey before and understand the weight that that jersey carries to go out there
02:36and be a part of something that I tried to do as an athlete, couldn't do it, and then now
02:41you have a group of guys that actually got it over the top, that's what we should be celebrating.
02:47There were a lot of celebrities at Madison Square Garden.
02:50Some even went to San Antonio.
02:51Who would you say is the best celebrity Knicks fan?
02:55Man, they're going to kill me about this.
02:57You know, we have, like, the OGs, right?
03:00We have tiers of Knicks fans.
03:02We have the OGs, like the Spike Lees, you know, and the Ben Stillers of the world.
03:07Like, we have those guys.
03:08And then we have this new generation of, like, Timothee Chalamet.
03:12Like, he running around representing the Knicks to the fullest.
03:16And then you have the Fat Joes, you know, who's just been there as a fan, who's been supporting the
03:22Knicks for a long, long time, man.
03:24So those guys have always been there as Knicks fans.
03:28But it's good to see each level of Knicks fans from the younger generation all the way to the older
03:33generation.
03:34Did you get to spend some time with Chalamet?
03:36Did you guys talk or celebrate together?
03:37I did.
03:38I did, man.
03:39We talked.
03:40We celebrated.
03:41He came on my podcast on the show 7 p.m., so we talked about it.
03:45I actually gave him an award, man, my favorite white boy award.
03:47So he was happy about that.
03:52Was there a long selection process?
03:54It was a long selection process.
03:56But he appreciated that, man.
03:57You know, because I shined some light on what he really wanted at that moment.
04:02You mentioned your podcast.
04:03The podcast is called 7 p.m. in Brooklyn.
04:05Talk to me about making the transition and becoming a podcast host.
04:08Why was that something you wanted to do?
04:10Well, it wasn't so much about becoming a podcast host.
04:13It was just going from an athlete now becoming a builder, right?
04:17So I get a chance to build something.
04:19I get a chance to build a community and add on to the culture, right?
04:24And be able to have a – and be an authentic voice to allow people in, too, right?
04:30Not just have the access and hold the door, hold the front door down.
04:34No, have the access and be able to give people that access to come in and be a part of
04:39what's actually going on.
04:40When was it in your career that you started to make the transition from being, you know,
04:45one of the best athletes in the game to realizing that you had a brand also
04:50and being able to think about how you wanted to represent yourself as a brand?
04:54Man, for so long, I would say I had the luxury of playing 19 years in the NBA
04:59and coming into an industry at 19 years old and being told to go out there
05:06and win this organization in the championship and grow the business without you even knowing business.
05:12And, you know, you have to understand where you're at.
05:15So even though I was just an athlete, over 19 years of experience of learning how to deal with organizations,
05:21right,
05:21learning organizational structure, like understanding what the front office and the execs need to be doing
05:28in order for us as players to be successful.
05:30So it's one hand washes the other.
05:33So you have that 19 years of experience where I was the face of a lot of brands.
05:38I was the narratives of a lot of narratives out there.
05:41I was the topic of that.
05:42So now I get a chance to step outside, get away from that, shut that door,
05:48and come on this side and build something to where I have that perspective and that experience.
05:52What is your number one role for succeeding in business,
05:55having done this for so long in terms of navigating the other side of the world?
06:01I just had this conversation earlier about that.
06:04And for me it's really about the speed that you're actually going
06:08and understanding how fast you're really going and knowing when to stop, knowing when to start,
06:13knowing when to say, okay, I'm going to leave this one alone.
06:16This one is not for me, right?
06:17So that's having a full comprehension of everything that's going on
06:22and also who you are, whether as an individual or as a brand.
06:27So let's talk about some of your brands and businesses, shall we?
06:29Okay, first off, you have your production company.
06:31Talk to us about that.
06:32So the production company has been around for a while, man.
06:35We've been quietly kind of releasing projects and implementing stories,
06:40but we've been telling stories for a long time.
06:42So now we have an opportunity to really tell the stories that we really want to tell.
06:47We've dabbled in the industry, but now it's like because there's so much speed
06:51that's happening out there in all industries with technology, AI, film, basketball, sports,
06:56you have to really figure out who you are and which way that you actually want to go.
07:01So the production company, we're very intentional on our content.
07:04We're very intentional on the stories that we tell.
07:07We bring a lot of light to situations, be it brands, individuals, people, whatever it may be.
07:13We just love to tell the story that humanizes a lot of people and a lot of brands.
07:18And you recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival documentary about your life, Born Mellow.
07:22So talk to me about why it was the right time to do documentary
07:26and what is it that you wanted people, maybe your fans,
07:29but also people who didn't know your life story as well, to know about you in the documentary.
07:33Yeah, well, it was timing for me.
07:35Again, I couldn't tell my story while I'm still going through my journey.
07:39I couldn't do that.
07:40So I had to wait until I was done and go back and put it all together and give it
07:44some perspective.
07:45But also the timing of us kind of reformatting our production company and the media company, right?
07:53So the timing of all of that just came together to the point, I'm like, okay, let's do everything at
07:58once.
07:59Let's go out there.
07:59Let's rebrand the media company.
08:01Let's give the people something that they could be proud of from this media company.
08:06And let's go out there and tell a story.
08:08But why not start with yourself?
08:10So are you ready to tell your story?
08:12Are you vulnerable enough to tell your story?
08:14Do you have the courage to tell your story the way that you want to tell your story?
08:18Because my story has been written about me for the past 20 years,
08:22and now I have the opportunity to take control of that narrative
08:25and show people behind the scenes of what it's like for me to be a man,
08:29what it's like for me to be a businessman,
08:31what it's like for me to be a father, right?
08:34A friend, a son.
08:35So all of these is coming together on screen.
08:39But then in the midst of my 19 years,
08:41I can't tell a story without talking about my son's journey
08:44because he was a part of that and he was able to see that and see this shift.
08:48So I shut one door by going to the Hall of Fame,
08:51but he's kicking it and opening another door by following those same footsteps,
08:56going to Syracuse, playing basketball at Syracuse,
08:59trying to really formulate and carve out his own path.
09:03So it's a beautiful story.
09:04How long did they follow you for the film?
09:07Ah, man, this was quick, man.
09:09This was, uh, once I found out the Hall of Fame,
09:12and then it's like, okay, let's go.
09:14Let's, let's, you know, let's turn the camera on.
09:17Let's be very intentional on what we want to put out there.
09:22But let's take the gloves off too, right?
09:24And I think this is the first time that you will see behind the scenes of,
09:29damn, how Melo really operate though?
09:31He thinks like this because of, ah, that makes sense, right?
09:35So now you're going to put this whole kind of ecosystem,
09:38this Melo ecosystem together.
09:39And it's, it's a beautiful story when I tell you.
09:42Did you ask for Final Cut or did you trust them to take the footage
09:44and take good care of you?
09:46It was a balance.
09:47It was a balance.
09:50I respected those guys enough from the work that they actually did
09:54and have done before to allow them to go out there
09:57and do what they do with this film.
09:58So I had to trust them and they had to trust me.
10:01Yes, I did get Final Cut, Final Approval.
10:03And this was a partnership.
10:05This was a collaboration along the way.
10:07This wasn't like, here's my story and go put it together
10:10and just let me know when somebody buy it.
10:12It's like, nah, I want to, every step of the way,
10:14I want to know the sound.
10:16I want to know the score.
10:17I want to know what's the transitions in this.
10:19How are we transitioning through all of this?
10:22Like, how are we going to transition from Hall of Fame to my son, right?
10:24Where people actually can feel that and understand that transition.
10:28So it was just little things that I was learning about the industry too
10:32as a student in this game.
10:34So you were giving notes also as a producer on your own life?
10:36Yes, yes, I have to.
10:37I can't let somebody else produce my own life.
10:40I have to give you my notes on my life.
10:43That's what goes wrong, Gary.
10:44You let somebody else produce your life.
10:46Mel, you have a lot of businesses.
10:47I want to go through some of the other ones.
10:48So there's the wine business, right?
10:50It's then the Seventh Estate Wine.
10:54How did that come about?
10:56Oh, man, I just got tired of spending wine.
10:58I mean, spending money on wine.
10:59I got tired of, you know, wine getting a little expensive
11:01when the more circles you get into.
11:04How much does your wine cost?
11:07Let me get to the wine.
11:08Let me get to why I got to the wine first.
11:10And I'll give you the price after.
11:11It'll make sense.
11:12But, no, it was just a passion project of mine.
11:15And I'm doing all of this traveling, and I'm drinking wine with people,
11:18and I'm learning.
11:19And it's like, man, if I could do this, and this is cool,
11:23and we can make these experiences and build community out of this from grapes.
11:28It's like the grapes is the entryway.
11:31But then it's conversations.
11:33There's rooms.
11:34There's panels.
11:34There's restaurants.
11:36There's hospitality.
11:36There's travel.
11:37When you're able to kind of break down the whole wine industry
11:41and what is it for,
11:42then I felt like I was ready to go out there and jump into that industry.
11:46And I got tired of spending a lot of money on wine,
11:49and I just said, you know what?
11:50Let me be smarter.
11:51I'm going to go and put the money that I'm actually spending
11:53into the actual business.
11:55And that's how it started.
11:57And now we have, to answer your question,
11:59we have nine SKUs from all over France,
12:03from southern Rome to Burgundy to Bordeaux to Guida,
12:08Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
12:09So we have all of these varietals, nine different SKUs,
12:13anywhere from $16 to $275.
12:16Did you bring us any samples?
12:18We have samples floating around the beach.
12:20I didn't talk to the Bev team over here.
12:24They didn't reach out for the wine.
12:25Next time, we'll work on that.
12:27And then there's also the cannabis business, right?
12:29Can you tell us how you get into that?
12:30The cannabis business is, most people here are like,
12:33oh, shit, he's cannabis.
12:34But when you really think about it, it's like all of these industries
12:38are trillion-dollar industries.
12:40But then somebody will tell you not to get in the industry.
12:43And when you tell me that, that's when I get on the tack mode
12:46because I want to figure out why you're telling me not to get
12:48into a trillion-dollar industry.
12:51So I figured that out.
12:52I love wellness.
12:54I love consuming.
12:55I also love what it does to the human body, right,
12:58and what is able to, the impact that it's able to have on somebody,
13:04be it wellness, be it mental health, be it physical health, right,
13:07spiritually, like how can we tap into that?
13:09And when you bring all of that together as a community,
13:13I can talk to you about how to really consume what product,
13:17when, what to do, what not to do,
13:19what form, you know, to consume, and what not to consume.
13:22And when you're able to educate people that way,
13:25the whole experience is so much better.
13:27I wanted to ask you what role social media plays for you as a businessman.
13:31How do you use social media to make sure that you have the correct message
13:34about your different brands and the different businesses that you're launching?
13:37Great question.
13:38I know it sounds complex, and we're talking about,
13:41you just named about four or five different businesses,
13:43but it all makes sense.
13:45And we're building this ecosystem, this world ecosystem,
13:49this mellow ecosystem where everything flows together.
13:52From wine to cigars to production,
13:55I can't have a product without being able to tell a story about that product,
13:58without being able to produce that story, right?
14:02So it's layered for me.
14:04Everything we do have the same feel, one message across everything.
14:08We keep everything elevated.
14:09We keep everything intentional.
14:11And when you see the brands, yes, there's multiple brands,
14:14but you can tell that it's from the same house.
14:17It's from the same intentionality.
14:18So it's a beauty in kind of building those different brands.
14:22I wanted to talk to you about, this was a huge story in New York.
14:25There was a 12-year-old Knicks fan named after you, Carmelo Rios,
14:29and his dream was to go to the Knicks game,
14:31and you helped him get to the finals, NBA finals.
14:34Talk about that.
14:36Well, it's...
14:36Yes, please clap, guys.
14:38You know, when you talk about those type of experiences,
14:43and I've been hearing about this story,
14:45but I didn't really know too much about the story.
14:48And then somebody really broke the story down to me.
14:51And I was like, that's easy.
14:53Okay, let's get the kid, too.
14:55And then I said, hold on, hold on.
14:56Is he named after me?
14:57So once that happened, I was, you know,
15:00I said, let me look into this even more.
15:02And then you start hearing his story.
15:03You start hearing the family's story.
15:05And it's like, man, like, how can I not step up to the plate
15:09and help this kid?
15:10And again, we got him to the finals game.
15:13He came to the game.
15:15And just his energy, his feel, his level of excitement
15:19that when he saw me, I had the same level of excitement, too.
15:23I'm like, you finally made it.
15:25Like, I want to know who...
15:26Why they named you me?
15:28Right?
15:28What happened?
15:29What was the impact?
15:30Right?
15:31So hearing that from the kid,
15:33from a 12-year-old's perspective,
15:35like, that just changes everything for me.
15:38Do you have a dream podcast guest
15:39that you've been trying to get
15:40that you'd really love to interview?
15:45Dream podcast guest?
15:50Man.
15:54I would like, like, Denzel.
15:57You know, Denzel...
15:59Denzel doesn't do very many interviews.
16:00This is why I want him.
16:01This is why I want him.
16:03You're catching my drift.
16:07Denzel, I would like to have Obama as a guest
16:10because he don't do pie.
16:11He don't do nothing.
16:15Kids, like, I want to bring different levels of kids
16:18onto the pocket.
16:19But dream guest?
16:23It's tough.
16:25It's tough, man, because you really...
16:27When you say dream guest, like, this is...
16:29Once you go there, you ain't going nowhere else, right?
16:30So everything is downhill from that.
16:32I would say probably Obama.
16:34I would want to sit with President Obama
16:37just because I would want to
16:39kind of just hear him speak.
16:42Like, I'm so intrigued on him as an orator
16:44and, like, him speaking and telling stories
16:47and elaborating on certain topics.
16:50I would love to have him as a guest.
16:52And to see him in that vibe, right?
16:55Like, that's a different vibe.
16:56Like, we are...
16:56We joking.
16:57We having fun.
16:58We laughing.
16:59There's no negativity on the show.
17:01We giving flowers.
17:02So to see Obama just relax and, like, on the couch setting
17:07in Brooklyn, like, I want that.
17:10You're also an NBA analyst.
17:12Did you...
17:13Do you feel like your broadcast experience
17:14also helps with the podcasting experience?
17:16Or how did you learn how to be a good interviewer?
17:21Again, 19 years of experience dealing with media
17:24and understanding what to say, what not to say,
17:27how to say it, right?
17:28All of these experiences allowed me,
17:30after the journey, to say,
17:32you know what?
17:33I have a story to tell.
17:34And I'm only going to tell stories about...
17:38Through my experience, through my lens.
17:40And it keeps me in the lane
17:42where I don't have to go searching for stories.
17:44I'm only telling you things that I've been through.
17:45I can only explain to you things that I've been through.
17:48And I actually started the podcast before.
17:52Before NBC.
17:53Yes, being on air.
17:53So the podcast gave me the confidence
17:56to go on there and speak basketball.
17:59Because I've played basketball for so long.
18:01But to play and to speak about it is totally different.
18:05So it took me a while to just kind of catch the cadence.
18:08But I balance it now.
18:09I use one for the other.
18:12And 7 p.m. is like...
18:14It's practice for me.
18:15It's like being able to tell stories
18:16and be jokular and have fun
18:19and understand what's going on in the culture.
18:22And then you go to NBC
18:23and you're talking about something very specific.
18:26You're talking about that game,
18:28that moment, that play, that person.
18:30We're not newsy the whole week.
18:33You get us for two hours on a night
18:35and we get to tell you about that game,
18:37why this person is missing shots,
18:41the person's character.
18:41We don't want to go at your character.
18:43I just want to talk about basketball
18:45and talk about why you are great.
18:47I don't want to talk about why you're not great.
18:49If they consider you a great player,
18:50then I want to talk about why you're great.
18:52I don't want to go out there
18:53and talk about why you're not great.
18:55So it's a balance that you have to have.
18:57You have to have respect for the game.
18:58You got to have respect for the athletes.
19:00And you just got to have respect
19:01for everybody who's a part of this.
19:04That's great advice for anyone interested
19:05in doing sports journalism,
19:07broadcast journalism or podcasting.
19:09Okay, one last question before we have to wrap.
19:11What TV shows are you watching now?
19:13What TV shows am I watching right now?
19:18I'm waiting on Lioness to come back.
19:22I just finished M.I.A. on Peacock.
19:27I watch a lot of foreign film.
19:28I watch a lot of foreign TV shows.
19:32I'm waiting for Game of Thrones to come back.
19:35I think that's going to take over my summer.
19:39I like gangster flicks.
19:40I like crime.
19:42I like crime dramas.
19:43I'm a binge watcher.
19:45So I'm watching like four different shows at one time.
19:49Yeah, man, it's nothing in particular
19:52that I can say, hey, man, I'm dying for this.
19:55But I will like to say that,
19:56and my team contests to this,
19:58like I consume content at a rapid pace.
20:01I comprehend the content.
20:03I comprehend the storytelling.
20:04And I watch shows for fun,
20:08and I just enjoy it.
20:09But also because I'm in the studio,
20:11because I'm a producer,
20:12I'm also watching the shows and seeing,
20:15hey, that's a great cinematographer right there.
20:17Like, I would love to use him or her one day.
20:19So you're watching the shows a lot differently, man.
20:21I think I done went through the whole Netflix.
20:25I'm trying to get through YouTube,
20:26but it's a dark hole.
20:28You're going to be going down that hole forever.
20:30But again, I just love to consume content.
20:32You're watching it as a businessman and as a producer.
20:35I'm watching it as a businessman.
20:36It allowed me to appreciate,
20:39I would say, the art form a lot differently.
20:41Do you have a Google TV?
20:43You know, I heard it up here talking about the Google TV.
20:45I just was eyeing a 100-inch screen, Google TV.
20:48Like, please help me out.
20:50I just moved.
20:51We actually have a surprise.
20:53You have a surprise.
20:53The team's going to get you a Google TV.
20:55You know what's crazy?
20:55My son just did a Google campaign the other day
20:58back in New York, right?
20:59And he's talking trash to me.
21:01Dad, you don't got this TV yet.
21:02Look, I got a 100-inch Google TV.
21:04You don't got that.
21:05And I told him, look, when I get the can,
21:07I'm going to talk to Google,
21:08and I'm going to get me a TV.
21:10So here we go now.
21:12Thank you, guys.
21:12There we go.
21:14Thank you so much for your time.
21:15Really appreciate it.
21:16Thank you, Google TV.
21:17Thank you guys very much.
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