Website – https://www.beastdevelopmental.com/

Email – info@beastdevelopmental.com

Twitter – @bedevelopmental

Kelly Oubre Sr. is Founder & CEO of Beast Developmental as well as the father of a professional athlete who has specifically made it a point to be involved and active in every step of his son’s journey. This active involvement has come with its share of Pain Points that were identified early on and converted quickly into Power Points.

As a business major, Kelly Sr. saw the benefits of not only nurturing his son through his formative years, but also implementing a three dimensional approach in his years of preparation for success at the professional level. Strong relationships with Coaches, Current and former Professional Players, Professional Referees, Head Trainers and Staff, Team Doctors, General Managers, Owners, Media, Sports Attorneys, Sports Agents as well as off the court Professionals well versed in Corporate Branding and Marketing have helped make the path to success a more attainable one. Through these interactions the reinforcing of  strong business practices were identified, sharpened and implemented in a way that assisted in strengthening these relationships now and for many years to come.

We recently launched the Hoop Heads Mentorship Program.  We believe that having a mentor is the best way to maximize your potential and become a transformational coach. By matching you up with one of our experienced mentors you’ll develop a one on one relationship that will help your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset.  The Hoop Heads Mentorship Program delivers mentoring services to basketball coaches at all levels through our team of experienced Head Coaches. Find out more at hoopheadspod.com or shoot me an email directly mike@hoopheadspod.com

Our roster of shows is growing so don’t forget to check out all our other podcasts on the Hoop Heads Pod Network including Thrive with Trevor Huffman, Beyond the Ball, The CoachMays.com Podcast, Player’s Court, Bleachers & Boards, The Green Light and our team focused NBA Podcasts: Cavalier Central, Knuck if you Buck, The 305 Culture, Blazing the Path, #Lakers, Motor City Hoops, X’s and O’s: NBA Breakdown, Spanning the Spurs, LA Hoops, The Wizards Hoops Analyst & At The Buzzer. We’re looking for more NBA podcasters interested in hosting their own show centered on a particular team. Email us info@hoopheadspod.com if you’re interested in learning more and bringing your talent to our network.

Take some notes as you listen to this episode with Kelly Oubre, Sr. Founder & CEO of Beast Developmental.

What We Discuss with Kelly Oubre, Sr.

• Growing up in New Orleans playing whatever sport was in season
• Moving to Houston with Kelly, Jr. after Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans
• Taking advantage of a Lifetime Fitness offer in Houston and spending with Kelly, Jr. on the court there
• The differences in opportunities in Houston vs, New Orleans
• Rebuilding his life in New Orleans and some of the work experiences he had in Houston
• Coaching Kelly in Middle School on a 20 player team
• His terminology of young diamonds (players) and trusted advisors (parents)
• A Justifier is a person who has to justify why they’re hanging around or why they’re coming around
• “The power is just being present and being there the whole time, every step of the way.”
• Advice for parents raising a talented young athlete
• The race as a parent never ends, just start running
• His Three-Dimensional Approach for Trusted Advisors
• Parents should first establish themselves as the point of contact
• “No is probably the strongest word a trusted adviser will ever have to use and reuse.”
• Never compromise your values or your position with your young athlete
• Prepare for the pushback and how you will handle it
• How he found the right AAU program for Kelly
• “You have to understand that dynamic that somebody is out there working at all times and  if you’re not getting better, you’re getting caught.”
• “There is a lot of people under the misconception that they have time. I have time. We have time. You do not have time.”
• Why Kelly went to Findlay Prep to get ready for the next level
• The decision to have Kelly attend Kansas University and play on that stage
• The meaning behind the Beast Developmental Logo
• Why he listens to classical music while Kelly is playing
• How he can bring his son back to center when the moment requires it
• “If the world abandons him, that’s the world. And that’s why I need to make sure that I never abandoned him.”

Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Become a Patron!

We’re excited to partner with Dr. Dish, the world’s best shooting machine! Mention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine!

As the first exo-performance company, ARYSE makes products that mimic and strengthen the way the body works. Human anatomy is an incredible machine; your gear shouldn’t slow it down. Your performance should never be limited.

The Ready State helps athletes who understand the importance of recovery, pain-relief, and self-care. The Ready State was launched by Dr. Kelly Starrett in 2019. Dr. Starrett is a movement and mobility coach for players in the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, Olympic gold medalists, and other world-class athletes plus a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Now, Kelly has created a program called Virtual Mobility Coach. Every day Virtual Mobility Coach gives you guided mobility videos. It walks you step-by-step through Kelly’s proven techniques to relieve pain, improve range of motion, and improve performance.

If you’re in pain, you can pull up a picture of the human body, click on what hurts, and from there get a customized regimen to help find relief. If you are working out or playing a sport,Virtual Mobility Coach offers all sorts of pre- and post-exercise mobility sequences for more than 50 sports and activities.

Try it completely free for two weeks, and if you decide to continue, you can get 10% off for life using promo code HOOPHEADS10. Simply visit TheReadyState.Com/HoopHeads and use code HOOPHEADS10 at checkout.

Prepare like the pros with the all new FastDraw and FastScout. FastDraw has been the number one play diagramming software for coaches for years, and now with it’s integrated web platform, coaches have the ability to add video to plays and share them directly to their players Android and iPhones via their mobile app. Coaches can also create customized scouting reports,  upload and send game and practice film straight to the mobile app. Your players and staff have never been as prepared for games as they will after using FastDraw & FastScout. You’ll see quickly why FastModel Sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there! In addition to a great product, they also provide basketball coaching content and resources through their blog and playbank, which features over 8,000 free plays and drills from their online coaching community. For access to these plays and more information, visit fastmodelsports.com or follow them on Twitter @FastModel. 

Safe, Secure and Powerful Digital Fundraising for Groups and Teams

Snap! Raise was built to help coaches, group leaders, district administrators, boosters and athletic directors raise the funds they need quickly and easily. From smart campaign set-up and customizable website creation to team and fan gear, district-level reporting, and secure donor engagement Snap! Raise has something for every group. Snap! Raise is built for youth leaders dedicated to making a difference in their communities. Start a Fundraiser

THANKS, KELLY OUBRE, SR.

If you enjoyed this episode with Kelly Oubre, Sr. let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Kelly Oubre, Sr. on Twitter!

Click here to let Mike & Jason know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

And if you want us to answer your questions on one of our upcoming weekly NBA episodes, drop us a line at mike@hoopheadspod.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOR KELLY OUBRE, SR. – FOUNDER OF BEAST DEVELOPMENTAL – EPISODE 431

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzining here with my co-host Jason sSunkle. And tonight we are pleased to welcome to the podcast, the president and CEO of Beast Developmental, Kelly Oubre, Sr.  Kelly, Welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:00:14] I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. I really mean that.

I always say that when I come on somebody’s podcast, but I know it takes time and effort to put these together. It also takes a proverbial jumping off the cliff because I’m sure there are a thousand people at home now, or thousands of people at home that would love to start a podcast. They just don’t have the gumption, or they just might not have the drive or the resources to do it.

So here we are. So let’s dig in and I look forward to sharing with you guys, my story, bits and pieces, and hopefully your audience can take some things away from this and they can gain motivation and at least know that somebody out here is here and has done it and they can just, I guess, live out here and say to me for the next, [00:01:00]  I guess hour and a half or how slow we run.

Mike Klinzing: [00:01:06] Well, Kelly one, thank you for your kind words. And I can say that the person that you described there, who is sitting at home and hasn’t gotten started, that definitely described us. Three years ago or so, as we were trying to figure out how to pull the trigger and do all of the things that you described, and it’s been quite a journey for us, we’ve had a blast get an opportunity to know people all throughout the basketball landscape from coaches who work with elementary school students, all the way up through people from the NBA. So it’s been an exciting journey for us. We’re excited that you joined us to be able to be a part of this journey. We want to learn more about what you’ve been able to accomplish in your life. The instrumental role that you played in your son, Kelly Oubre Jr’s career. And then obviously what you’re doing now with Beast Developmental and how you’re going to use that to have an impact on the people around you, but let’s go back in time.

When you were a kid, talk to [00:02:00] us about your earliest experiences with the game of basketball. And what made the game interesting and intriguing to you when you were younger?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:02:05] Well, great question. When I look back on how I was introduced to the game, I grew up in the inner city, New Orleans, and pretty much we hung out at the park all day.

This was a pretty heavy drug use era in the city apart, all Davis, formerly. Well, Louisiana, where I kind of cut my teeth was right next to the Magnolia or CJP housing project. Um, yeah, the project was there. My friend lived there and we all congregate, or we met up at the park and we played whatever sport was in season because it was our getaway.

They had a pool there attached to the park during those hot summer days in new Orleans. We’d go jump in the pool,before. I kind of pixel with my words and just giving people a screenshot of periods in my [00:03:00] life. Like I said, whatever sport was in season, we played and sometimes he seasons overlaps.

Therefore I’m going to have baseball practice in the evening and football practice at night when the lights came on. So it kind of helped me cut my teeth. And honestly it helped us bond as young youngsters. And,  of course we had our fights, we did everything, but at the end of the day, we all came back to  that place the next day.

And we did it all over again and I have some very, very strong bonds that were created there and some lasting memories with some very famous people in the rap world. And just some people in the entertainment industry also that I happened to cross paths with as I was growing up in my young life, in the inner city, in New Orleans, the game of basketball was just a part of that everyday life.

[00:04:00] New Orleans recreation department, NORD as we call it down home. They were the governing body that saw to it, that the sports in New Orleans for inner city youth went off without a hitch. And it helped a lot of youngsters like myself get used to and get accustomed to the rules and regulations of how sports are played and our sports are governed.

And it was a beautiful experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Mike Klinzing: [00:04:29] All right. So a couple of things from what you just said, one, how would you compare and contrast the way you grew up with sports. Whereas you said you and I are about the same age, so I’m going to turn 51 here this spring and growing up where you played a bunch of different sports, you played what was in season and you didn’t have the level of specialization that we see across all sports, but.

Including basketball. So how would you characterize your [00:05:00] upbringing in sports compared to your son’s upbringing in sports? What maybe you liked about the way you grew up, what you liked about the way he grew up? If there is differences, what are they just kind of give us your thoughts on the system back then versus the system today?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:05:14] When I grew up a lot of what we called old timers, Or our coaches at the time who basically hung out with us because they were employees of the New Orleans recreation department. And they weren’t making a ton of money, but it was their safe Haven too, because they got a chance to coach and just grow up.

You know, like I said, I still have those same bonds. Ironically, when Kelly got introduced to the sport of basketball. He played within the New Orleans recreation department also. So this was two generations and nowhere he and I. Now my journey ran its course. As I aged out of the New Orleans recreation department system.

Whereas Kelly’s journey [00:06:00] was abruptly cut off because Katrina showed up Hurricane Katrina and we had to leave new Orleans and we stake our claim in Houston, Texas, before he had left New Orleans, he had. Well, one of the ten-year-old championship, if I’m not mistaken, I say incorrectly, it was a seven year old championship basketball.

Whereas within NORD and within NOAA, I had won a ten-year-old championship. So it was very ironic how we experienced some of the same successes within the New Orleans recreation department. But like I said, his years there was cut short, packed up. And we moved to Houston, Texas, but not before he had gotten his black belt also at age eight years old in New Orleans.

I’m sorry it was in TaeKwonDo. And that was my question for him [00:07:00] um, once he got his black belt, what do you want to do? You know, what’s your next sport you really want to dig into? He said He wanted to play basketball. He had been experienced somewhat in it while he did karate, but he really fell in love with it.

And that’s what the sport he’s segued into. And ironically, Katrina showed up and we jumped in our SUV and we went to Texas and we settled in there. And that was his sport of choice there. And that acted as a bonding tool for us, he ended up. Because the transition was, was wasn’t smooth. It was more of a psychological transition along with the physical transition.

But I think the psychological aspects of that journey still come out. Sometimes even now we’re talking 16 years removed from that mistake.  It happened in 05. So, yeah, we were [00:08:00] 16 years removed if my math is correct. Could be off please, correct me, but just looking back on it and the things that affected he and I both.

 pre-Katrina and post-Katrina, we’re still, we’re still navigating our way through, and we don’t talk about it much with other people, but it left some really indelible impressions upon us and we still. We worked through some of those things today. So if I had to compare and contrast the two journeys, there are some strong parallels in there, but Houston’s dynamic and New Orleans dynamic are two different dynamics because Houston, I don’t know if you guys with me with Texas or Houston, Texas, I looked at it from a New Orleans lens as an abundance of riches.

Whereas new Orleans was not a lot of extracurricular activities because even before Katrina Nord had started to lose funding or  [00:09:00] had to deal with budget cuts and strained budgets. Therefore the trickle down effect as it normally is, takes a toll on the kids that are youngsters because they don’t have the programs that they had grown accustomed to or.

Had never seen before that I’ve benefited from, in my younger years where I can hang out at the park, but Kelly didn’t have that luxury because I guess over time things change and priorities get shifted with regards to city, government. So we get to Houston, Texas, and a lifetime fitness was offering a special to the new people in the town.

And I don’t call myself a victim of anything. So I can’t call myself a refugee of Katrina or us refugees, but I just called us. We went at the time, we were the new people in town and press reliever, lifetime fitness shout out to lifetime fitness. They offered a one month free as a stress reliever to the new people in town.

And I took them up on an offer and he trained, we worked out every day, my basketball, and [00:10:00] he was a fourth grade. So the journey just continued.

Mike Klinzing: [00:10:07] What was the biggest challenge for you guys getting displaced, getting uprooted out of your home and having to go and kind of start life.

All over again. Was it you as a father trying to make sure that you smooth that journey as much as possible for your son? Was it just the fact that you obviously had grown up in new Orleans now you’re living there as an adult, just being displaced from your home. What was the biggest, what was the biggest obstacle, obviously seeing your city.

Destroyed I’m sure was completely traumatic. What, just, just kind of give us a sense of, of what was the, what was the biggest challenge that you felt like you had to overcome?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:10:55] My man who had gone through that? Through my, through my eyes. I had [00:11:00] become hardened to that point because of some of the things that we’re lacking in the city. So I had grown accustomed to making do with what we had, so to speak and creating a better life. At the time I was at the time that I had worked my way up to be a full-time package, car driver at ups.

And we were living quite well as a middle-class family, my wife at the time, once Katrina hit, she decided she had other plans. In a month instead of our new arrival, she left and I hope I’m bear no grudges. I have no animosity towards her for making a decision in her life that she felt was the right decision for her.

And me and Kelly, we never missed a beat because we basically had the mentality at that point that we were always at. And I knew that there was no home to go back to, especially for a fourth grader. I gave New Orleans and Lisa a 10 year wanting to go to get that stuff together or to get back on track, so to speak.

[00:12:00] And here we are to this day, 16 years removed from Katrina and parts of the city. I still didn’t have, I refused to have my son grow up in that situation. That’s why I worked so hard. As he was a baby coming up through his formative years to provide them a better life than they worked myself up to middle-class status.

And I wasn’t about to back up at that point and regress or take him back into a situation that I couldn’t basically, honestly, guys, I couldn’t wait to get out of and Katrina really benefited us more than it hurt us. So therefore I’m not a victim of anything. So you can’t get that. No, I guess you won’t hear that, that point of view from a lot of people.

For their own personal reasons. And I certainly understand I sympathize and empathize, but at the time I had to get this right, because I had a young son in my pocket that I had to wheel into success. If you will, along with sending up our peace of mind, our [00:13:00] stability and our mental focus, as we navigated through those waters, those uncharted waters in a new state.

Together because we were really all we had your home was five hours away, but that wasn’t home anymore in our minds because to go back there,  if I had taken him back there, guys, I’d be doing him a grave disservice because that would be putting him in a position where he literally would have to fight tooth and nail for scraps.

And here I am in a brand new state for a new city. Five hours away from when I left, that was still within ear shot. If I wanted to hop in the car and go back to visit, and here we are surrounded with an abundance of riches here. We’re talking, the teams in high school playing field houses, they normally don’t play at the school, they play in a field house. The football stadiums are huge. You see these pictures of the Jerry world in Dallas. [00:14:00] Well, Houston has. Yeah. Yeah. So, so some of these things are, are given. So that’s why even with no state tax. I think you’re not taxed on a state level. There your homeowner’s tax are pretty high and that pays for the education and everything that all the extremities that go along with the safe neighborhoods and schools.

So Kelly benefited from those things. And we didn’t hear sirens very much, whereas in New Orleans we heard sirens all the time. And my dad love him to death. He’s a New orleans policeman to this day. And that was always an option for me, but I never took him up on it because I just knew that let me just say this guys and I love home.

So I’m not, I’m not, I’m not trying to cast doubt on his burdens upon where I’m from, but in new Orleans if you want to really. Being [00:15:00] there day to day, not just a tourist showing up on a Friday and leaving on a Monday morning. Sometimes you might have to know where the bodies are buried and that’s the sad part of it because everything is so tight there.

The city council’s still fighting with the school board and vice versa. A city government is fighting with a state government and national government just looks at us and laughs because they think we’re all just a bunch of country, boys and Cajuns.

So and to be looked at on a national level, like that  is sad, but okay. You know, they’re looking at us like that. What are we going to do about it? I’m solution based and solution oriented. And that’s what Beast Developmental is all about. Solutions based conversation solutions.

And I try to just display that in my actions. And in my words, [00:16:00] that is my blueprint in the foundation, from which Beast Developmental grew and is working towards and moving into certain spaces now. And Kelly’s a personification of and personifications word that I kicked around when he was a baby as a basis for the term Beast Developmental.

No, because personification is giving human, like characteristics to animals. What I did was I, I played with the definition and I flipped it, giving animalistic characteristics that humans and athletes want to be beastly. They want to be big and strong. He’s a horse, he’s a beast. He’s a monster, yada, yada, and search your chart.

 I flipped the definition around. Cause I think that would sometimes then I’m not ashamed to say that, but it works for me. Part of my blueprint still, um looking back on it, I don’t look like I don’t look at it is a detriment [00:17:00] to us.

I look at it as a benefit and whatever the byproducts of the manifestations are that we deal with today. Of those times I readily welcomed them as challenges that I will defeat, like everything else.

Mike Klinzing: [00:17:14] So how did you restart your life, your career, getting yourself back on your feet. When you get to Houston, you got the LA fitness membership.

So you’re at least getting some hoops in, which is always good. But beyond that, how do you go about rebuilding your life and, and just, what did that process look like? And then once you get your life rebuilt and you’re starting to see Kelly begin to develop as a basketball player, what does that process look like?

As he becomes more serious with the game of basketball? So first, how did you rebuild your life and then to, how do you start to build Kelly? The basketball player?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:17:54] Well, I resigned from ups and which was a radical move. I had to reinvent [00:18:00] myself in my new state, in my new city. If I wasn’t going back home, if I jumped back on that Brown wagon, how to outfit, I was eventually given the choice to have to come back home and resume my career or resign, but I didn’t resign for me. I resigned for Kelly because I couldn’t take him back to New Orleans, no matter how, how much of a career or a job opportunities I still had waiting for me, it was time for a change. And I had to bite the bullet and make the sacrifice to walk away from 25,000 hours, because I felt his future meant more than any, any dollar amounts.

And it had to start at that moment, or I’m sorry. I continue at that moment with new surroundings, new people, new new elements, new friends to be made new opportunities to grow. New vision, new [00:19:00] insight, a new just, a total do over. If you will. At that point drama, I drew my line in the sand and I told him, look, I just need you to ride with knowing this.

I got feed feel I’m gonna work this thing. And I got to feel it. So when it, when it came down to the decision-making no, we were, it was he and I, and gradually over the years and things had come out in the course of interviews, where he, he said some things that I was aware of and he had been going through,  after we got to Houston, because I used to work night shift.

I know some, so many jobs. I had my first job when I got there. It was a Sam’s club night shift. It was close to our apartment complex. He couldn’t sleep at night while I worked nights. I’d get up in the morning, get him ready for school and onto the bus. He knew that I’d be there to meet him. I’ve [00:20:00] cooked dinner, do everything that I can do while I was doing that.

I was studying for my insurance exam. I got my insurance license. I would say the five insurance agent. So let Sam’s Club go. And I started selling insurance, got kind of, I like it a lot, but then the market crashed and I noticed that that was during the time that. I guess the deregulation may have happened to an extent with the insurance industry, where you were allowed to now branch into mortgages and financial planning was tied to insurance.

So all of these new avenues were being created because I think the government had decided that they want it to open up the marketplace to people with the careers where they can tie these new careers into their businesses. So the sharks for awhile realized that I was going in a direction.

I didn’t want to go because there was certain products that I was comfortable with and certain products that I was [00:21:00] not because I didn’t see the value trying to promote products that I wasn’t comfortable with to my warm market, because I had to go and look into these people’s eyes with their families.

And. Seldom things that may not have been beneficial, but it really strengthened the company’s bottom line. So I still had morals and values and I still to this day have morals and values and I remained uncompromised to this day. That’s why I can speak so freely about these. And I think I’m keeping the fact that Kelly was my driving force in the back of my mind, that I guess that reinforced my values and morals here.

Because I had a son involved in all of this and I had to come home. I had to operate a boat board as best I could. And I operating as if I didn’t have a home to go back to in New Orleans. So I kept that kind of [00:22:00] kept me hungry and branching off into new and bigger and better things, as long as it kept food on the table.

And he kept me in a position where I could get to him. And facilitate  his new normal. So other things I did while I was there, I, sold yellow pages, talking about a humbling experience, a hundred calls a day cold call, I guess, hung up on, I guess, more than 80% of the time. But. Something about being told no guys

something about no and put out a business’s kind of home was you, but at the same time, it kind of helps you perfect your elevator speech. It helps you show value very quickly on the fly. It helps you diversify your approach when you’re dealing with individuals and studying their personalities. And I learned.

Along with [00:23:00] my gift of gab that I could be still uncompromised with my morals and values as I was doing my job. Even if the answer was no, sometimes let me just keep going because eventually I’ll run and say yes, and I can use that as motivation. So from there, put flyers on shopping and car parts, another humbling experience.

Here I am of walking with them 25 bucks an hour, a couple of years earlier to now I’m selling yellow pages and in a humble way, because I have a son at home and I have to provide, so I have to make the necessary changes here to do what I needed to do for us, for the benefit of us.

As he was growing, I coached his team in middle school, which was very nice because we got up at six in the morning, went to practice and I was able to skew the drills where a lot of the kids, it was a private school and they weren’t really basketball and inclined, but [00:24:00] they, their parents want them to just be a part of something.

So I had a big guys. I had a 20 man team. Wow. And everybody played every game. How about that? Yeah.

Mike Klinzing: [00:24:10] I don’t envy you as a coach trying to do that, trying to pull off that so bad.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:24:17] It was fun. Cause I made it fun and I kept it fun. And at the same time, Kelly had to do drills at six in the morning.

With maybe one on three driven through three defenders. So the guys who learn how to play defense, he was learning how to use his right hand and play offense. And everybody was winning in the process. I got my FaceTime with him. I got to coach him before I went off to my job. At that time, I secured a position at Xerox selling copiers.

Keep in mind, the market had crashed around its time and. It was a tough market because Xerox has a very high price point with their copiers and the competition had [00:25:00] undercut us immensely even in Houston, Texas on the heels of Enron, the scandal, a couple of years prior to Katrina, and here I was at Xerox trying to sell copiers.

And one of my major accounts was at JP Morgan Chase. And I had like, I guess 300 locations. And when I took over the territory, I looked at it and I say, I got excited, but little did I know that the market had just crashed. So the conversation when I would call JP Morgan Chase, um, to check on him is, Hey, I need you to come get this copier.

How quickly can you get it? So there was 350 I guess branches. And in and around the Houston area and it was kind of disheartening, but I had a two year window, a Xerox and I utilize it to the fullest. I learned a lot. A lot of my business acumen came from [00:26:00] Xerox, also, Granger, and UPS before I left New Orleans.

And I learned to Parlay all this stuff and put it into the gumbo pot to make it work for me and for us in the long run. So, I think all those things were teachable moments and learning lessons along the way that I was able to convey to my son in real time and show him that the value of hard work could do with, in full with him can, could do for him and for us.

And I never took with element of him being a kid, having fun. You know, and as I look back on it now, do I have any regrets? As things come to me now, I look back and wonder, could I have done some things differently, but I snapped back into a form and I wonder if it was something else I could have done differently.

How in the hell was I going to do it? So no regrets at all. I had to forge your hand at all costs and do what I had to do for the benefit of my family. [00:27:00] And,  in retrospect, here we are.

Mike Klinzing: [00:27:02] Well, that’s an incredible story, just from a standpoint of giving up a really good job, being displaced from your home, losing your wife, coming back and just putting in all the time and effort and hard work that you put in to obviously.

Have a positive impact on the type of person that your son was going to become both inside the game of basketball and outside of the game of basketball. So when you think about you talked about not having regrets and maybe sometimes you look back and you think, Oh, I might’ve done something different.

Let’s let’s not focus on what you did. Would have done differently. Let’s focus on what you did do from a basketball standpoint. So you mentioned coached them in middle school, we’re getting them up and being a part of a 20 player team. What were some of the other things that if you had to give advice to parents of a kid, who’s showing some promise in the game of basketball, what are some things that [00:28:00] you did with Kelly?

And it could be. Something on the basketball floor, it could be something related to things you’ve taught them off the floor. Just some advice that you would give to other parents who might have a talented basketball player that’s in middle school or high school right now. What are some things you might tell them?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:28:18] Stay present, stay in the moment, always be able to use those snapshots of success as a segue or the navigate through the waters. Of their young careers. So then you’re the young likes and dislikes and the sporting in areas of sports always be present. Never, never, ever, please don’t ever tell your young diamond, young athlete.

That’s what I call my young athletes, young diamonds. And I’ll break my logo down for you guys a little later. And I’ll explain to you these things too. Cause I like my audience to know exactly what my logo means and how it came to be and what it stands for. Trusted advisors or [00:29:00] parents. That’s what I called my parents trusted advisors.

, they’re in a position to be clarifiers. A clarifier is somebody who can speak with information in real time about events or incidents that they along with a young Dom and have gone through that. No one else has gone through. That’s priceless. You want to be as a parent, you want to be a trusted advisor and to clarify.

Which you don’t want to be. You don’t ever want to be a justifier. Justifier is a person who has to justify why they’re hanging around or why they’re coming around. Once the race is almost over or as well, well past the starting line. And they’ll always be trying to justify their position in the grand scheme of things where where’s the clarifier.

We’ll never have to justify them once. A clarifier experiences, the rarefied air, along with the diamond, because they are a support mechanism or the down, because they’ve been there through good times and bad. [00:30:00] justifiers cannot say that because they’ll always be trying to convince you as to why they’re there in the first place or trying to get you to try this thing, this new thing, try this out, try this person out, go here, go there.

And a lot of times, a lot of these people, Once they see market value in the young athlete or young diamond and their end game could go as far as to eliminate the clarifier or the trusted advisor, just to gain access to the young athlete or the young diamond. So that’s what I would want to convey to my parents out there that you have to dig in.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. So make sure you have multiple pairs of track shoes. Let’s see, because you’re going to wear holes in them. You’re gonna want some big holes in the bottom of those track shoes, keeping up with your young diamonds bands and you rightfully should wear holes in them.

If you’re worth yourself, willingly wear holes in them. If you’re worth your salt, because you look to the fall to the journey and you look forward. If [00:31:00] you’re a clarifier, a trusted advisor, If you look forward to the journey, you look forward to getting bigger, the fast and strong with the athlete. When I say that, I mean, within the business of sports, while you’re young athlete, a diamond is performing.

You’re sharpening your tools by doing the research before you ask coaches and trainers and, and anybody else affiliated with the game questions, you already done your research and you have a roundabout answer as to what it could possibly be. Now wouldn’t it be the same though, because people see things differently now with, they said you still can have some insight into the topic because we all walk around with a computer in our pocket all day long, starting the cell phone, we all have Google on our cell phone.

We can look up the answers to the questions that we have in our mind all day, every day, I do it all day every day, and I think it helps me. So to give those nuggets to parents, [00:32:00] Or clarifies to give those nuggets to them is priceless. And that’s something I’m more than willing to pay forward right now because it empowers them and it even express it introduces them to the powers that they never knew they had, but the power is just being present and being there the whole time, every step of the way.

So you can refer back to those points when tough times do arise. And you guys can talk and walk yourself through how you came out of tough times before that moment. So I have so many nuggets and so many things I love to tell my trusted advisors and my clarifiers, because you don’t ever want to be a justifier or consider.

They’re just firing out of the be young diamond, because that means they don’t trust you. That means you becoming Jurassic. That means you have no talk track. That means they can get the information that they need moving forward into the journey from somebody else. And you don’t want that. And that is [00:33:00] why this is a marathon and not a sprint.

So get ready for the race and get ready to win the race because I had a secret for you. The race is never ending. So just start running,

Mike Klinzing: [00:33:13] You’re a hundred percent right there that you are a hundred percent right there. So my follow up question to what you just said is. So if I think of myself, if I’m a parent of a young athlete or just a, and I’m going to help them to make good decisions along the way, what are some things?

And again, I’ll go back to the idea of if I’m raising a basketball player who has aspirations, but let’s just say play college basketball. So could be a female player, could be a male player. What are some of the questions that you would think that a parent would help to clarify along the way? So maybe there are inflection points along the journey where you asked [00:34:00] yourself a question, maybe it’s, where do I go to high school?

Maybe it’s what AAU club should I play for? Maybe it’s what trainers should I be working with? Maybe it goes a little bit further and. What college should I attend? And what kind of questions should I ask the coaches who were coming in, sitting in my living room, but just give us an idea of maybe some of the advice that you give to trusted advisors, clarifiers when it comes to some of those questions along the route.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:34:26] I appreciate that question because I can use my three-dimensional approach here and I pride myself on doing that.  First of all, what you want to do is you want to establish yourself as the point of contact.

Everything comes through the front door. So everything comes through you. They must understand whoever they are. That they have to talk to you. And any questions you have, have to be answered in real time, because they are the experts in their respective [00:35:00] fields, but you are the expert when it comes to the young diamond in the betterment of the young man, because you let it be known that you will not be compromised.

We all know stories. I know stories I’ve been around stories. I’ve seen stories where kids were carrying the house at 11 and 12 years old. Because the parents will compromise already because the kid is super talented. He could do superhuman things. At 12 years old, he was earmarked for success and started as a pro at 12 years old, needless to say, a lot of these kids never, ever got out of high school and he never got out  because they were burned out.

They were worn out and the parents had a hand to play in the detriment of the young man or young woman. So first you want to establish yourself as the point of contact. I’m sorry, the uncompromised point of contact. Anytime you get the question, but anything you need now, I’m fine. So you can see guys, I know what a pound of lunch meat is and a loaf of bread.

[00:36:00] Therefore, your caviar, your steak dinners, I’m not interested in that because if I didn’t get it the right way and we can’t eat together as a team, he and I, or she and I. They were not hungry. How about that? No, thank you. And no is probably the strongest word a trusted adviser will ever have to use and reuse.

And in mean, it means nothing to throw it out there. It means everything to me, it’s every time you say it, because it has to hold weight, because that is how you keep the devils at bay. With the strength of your no and keep in mind with every, no, you increase enemies now because if you’re young diamond shows market value,  the quote, unquote gurus are going to want a piece because then they’re going to stake their claim and say, Hey, I found that kid.

And if they can get to the trusted advisor and convincing that I can get him further to, you can get [00:37:00] him or her further than you can get her, then you’re never going to get rid of them. They’re always going to turn you on some levels. And you’re going to have to answer the red phone in your corner.

Eventually,  if you compromise yourself along the way, I don’t have to answer that’s on the corner. It can ring off the hook. I don’t care.  I don’t have to ask them permission to speak freely. That is why you want to hang around there. First mentioned of total control from day one, uncompromised, total control.

Let’s say we segue from the first dimension to the second dimension, trusted advisors, understanding where all of your power lies, not just some of all your power lies in your presence. The fact that you’ve done the little things, the fact that you can refer to microcosms in time to bring that young diamond back to center when they’re having a good and a bad day, because we need to all prepare as trusted advisors and as parents for the pushback.

[00:38:00] I guess I’m going to push back against us at some point, because they’re gonna say I got it from here, mom, I got it from here. That me and Kelly recently came from a situation like that. And the thing that brought us through that situation was the lessons that he learned along the way before he started his push saves because it dawned on him one night that, you know what? I’m kind of in over my head right now.

And there’s only one person that I can call him. Hey dad, I need you right now. I said okay, what is right now? He said, right now, I I let him go do his thing because he told me he had it all under control. Which, no one, I didn’t come here with that. So you saw no, because I factored in the pushback, cause I looked around the whole time, the guy that has segued into the professional ranks before him and I had talked to today’s their moms, their trusted advisor, because we were [00:39:00] friends at that point.

I grew up with a lot of them. Kelly grew up with a lot of them. So I studied styles. I’ve a Mack of young principal about me study styles. Some styles were some styles, gum. That’s my second dimension. Okay. Third dimension is being ready for whatever at all times. And it’s easier said than done, but it can be very taxing at times.

When as a trusted advisor, you think you’re making headway with a young athlete and they may remind you that they’re 21 years old, the 22 to 23. They’re still cutting that teeth. They’re still not being forthright with a lot of things they’re saying, because they figured, okay. I can tell him some things, but I can’t tell them everything.

Me personally, I don’t like surprises, but I guess over the years, I’ve had to get used to being ready for whatever surprise raises its ugly head. So I guess along with my Makavelian principles, I got [00:40:00] to kick in my Ray Donovan principles too, because I kinda got help. Information in real time, some day, it all strengthens Beast Developmental in the long run, because now I have anecdotes to use when I’m speaking to other trusted advisors about their young diamonds coming up in the game who had scams and some of the things that I’ve seen already.

Same Ray Ray  It’s a great show. I want you to know. I love it. I love that. I love it too. You got me, Kelly. You guys. I had to do it. I knew you were there. I knew you’re hanging on. I knew you were waiting on something besides Mike, Mike, do you know what Ray Donovan’s about?

Mike Klinzing: [00:40:40] I do not. I have to say I do not.

So you guys are going to show on

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:40:45] Showtime. It’s really, really good. Okay. Yeah. So. You know, be three-dimensional. So my trusted advisors, when it comes to you down, be uncompromising, let me come see you diamond. [00:41:00] Be the person that will say no, because you will be the only person that’s saying no, if he has market value, I’m just, you know that right now, that’s the sad part about it.

But that’s the true part provided because everybody wants to tell him yes, because nobody wants to make them mad for some strange reason. I wonder why.

Mike Klinzing: [00:41:19] So here’s my thing. When it comes to this and I think. I think you are 100% spot on with everything that you’ve said. And yet I think one of the biggest challenges that we have, and it’s basically been a theme that’s run through everything that you’ve said to this point.

And I think where we get in trouble is when those trusted advisors, those parents don’t educate themselves on what the process looks like. What they should be looking out for both on the positive and the negative side. And to me, education is such a huge [00:42:00] piece of making good decisions and it could be making good decisions when it comes to dealing with a young athlete, but it can also just be making good decisions when it comes to.

Your child’s schooling or how you raise them or whatever it may be to me, that educational piece of it is so, so important. And so I think that when I hear you talking about being the, bringing everything through the front door, bringing everything through you, I think some parents who have not gone out and educated themselves sometimes get nervous that, Hey, I don’t know what I’m doing.

I need somebody else to show me the way. And then when somebody shows up. Who may not have the best of intentions or may not have the best interest of their child with heart. They sometimes fall underneath that spell for lack of a better way of saying it. So in your mind, you think that the education of parents, when it comes to sort of a youth sports machine, [00:43:00] Is a real key to be able to get good outcomes

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:43:02]

Well, there’s a reason why it’s 0.0, zero 3% that make it to the NBA. There’s also 0.03% of parents are trusted advisors that make it with them. So who’s on. Well, once again, we’ll go back to that. That turned rarefied air, it depends, some parents like to party and some parents don’t even consider a party, an option.

Total sacrifice is a must here, because if you’re asking a young diamond to totally sacrifice as they grow up throughout your formative years, totally sacrifice once they hit the high school levels, because the whole dynamic changes, like you mentioned education, I’m a former educator, myself, the whole dynamic changes once they hit ninth grade.

Anyway, because I always use this. And it’s funny because it always draws a response. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but, when you got to ninth grade, he realized you know, you never [00:44:00] paid attention to that kid around the corner. He happened to be on a team with them. And now all of us said, this kid is a three sport Letterman, and he can run circles around you in the sleep because something in him, he grew up around the corner.

You saw him every once in a while, but she never really acknowledged him. But for some strange reason, This kid’s a pro. And see, one thing about the young diamonds is and Kelly was in a five-star level. And I can say you guys I’ll go back after him because point the first one is to realize that they can’t compete are the, are the kids, mom and dad can have that.

You demand speech taught all the way to the game and all the way home. Well, those kids would probably were too old. Anyway, all those good old fashioned. Go-to to make the kid feel better about himself sitting in the backseat with a participation trophy, but, Texas was good for giving participation trophies, [00:45:00] you know, and, and, and it was interesting, but the dynamic kind of guaranteed pros because they’re linked from two other college athletes or something again, Houston was inundated with those times.

You know, and, and shout out to the parents who worked really hard out there to raise their kids the right way. But the crazy part about that is ninth grade. The dynamic changes because now you’re on the team with a kid who’s a star, or, and you keep wondering how he became a star because he could be the kid.

You never see outside. Let’s see, like Kelly was going into the ninth grade with boxes of letters from colleges, waiting on him when he got there. Because he had been on the road to the King James classic Marin Malin invitation all over the country since the third grade. Anyway. So he was on the radar with rivals.com and he was I would say four-star at first.

And then he segueed into five star by his sophomore year. So he was five [00:46:00] star status along with a lot of the guys that you see in the NBA right now. And they all know each other since they were kids. So. You asked about the summer ball situation, how parent can handle the leg or trusted advisor? I would strongly recommend that they really find out who the one team in town is.

Okay. Because. Every town, every city, a stress test, a metropolis has probably has some kind of Nike affiliated team or shoe team or these affiliated team or under armour  affiliated Team sort of parents trusted, advise, and must do their work, their work all off the court, finding out who the hot team in town is or who the one team it sounds feeder system is, or farm system.

Now take you back to how it all began. On AAU circuit for Kelly, a couple of weeks before Katrina happened, we were at the house. What did it say it involved with this year NBA player? Well, so we went to third grade [00:47:00] nationals, a bunch of  coaches hang up. I call her, I called us all washed up daily.

So myself included. So here I am  and I’m coaching him at the time. Summer ball assistant coach. For the team out of New Orleans and we have those Valentines. So I’m talking to Dan we’re exchanging business cards. So by the time Katrina hit three weeks, three, four weeks later, Guys I already had 30 business cards wrapped up in a rubber band on the counter that I grabbed on the way out on our way to Houston.

So I knew people already when I got there. So it wasn’t like, because I was in a foreign place that knew nobody. We didn’t know anybody. At least I knew where the guys were that I had just met a couple of weeks prior were, and I had a phone number to call them, to let them know, look I’m in town who has the hot team in town, because see, that was my next move.

[00:48:00] Let’s get them on high to see you smoking off the bed and get him somebody pipeline a feeder system. So ironically, there were two twins who came onto the Houston area in 2013, they went to Kentucky. And that was the first team we went to in the fourth grade and their dad was coaching them. Their dad said, I don’t have a place for you, but you can go play.

So what I did was I’m already humbled because I’m in a foreign place. Kelly’s looking to at least continue playing basketball. Cause he grew to love the sport in such a short time. It was all still funding. So one idea was I took him to the team, mean that a funny thing to buy there was these twin boys I’m talking about.

And I don’t have to use any names because I love these kids to death. I love them to life. The daddy was a great guy, so I’m just telling the story and I’m using them as parts of this cause they really weren’t. So [00:49:00] the. Guys grew up, they were growing up, they were kind of parallel. They were a year ahead of Kelly.

Kelly graduated 2014 and they graduated in 2013. They went off to Kentucky and Cal came to recruit Kelly they’ll coach Cal, no, me and him didn’t see eye to eye on something. We kind of saw eye to eye, but the local media and Kentucky tried to make this story when it really was. So strangely enough, they went with Kentucky, but you know, throughout high school, Kelly had battled them, even though he was a year younger.

And let’s just say, if I had to do it all over again, I would send them to Kansas all over again, because, so I knew these kids weren’t very fond of Kelly because he kind of, I caught him and he was bigger than that. He was more aggressive than them, even though they were twin boys and he had more upside in the head.

So in your mind of fourth grade, showing up in a foreign place and seeing these kids for the first [00:50:00] time, And by the time he graduated high school, he had already caught in the past because that’s that manufacturing, hunger that he had in his psyche when we left New Orleans. And I never let that die because like I said earlier in our conversation New Orleans is a place of happiness.

I love home, but I got to keep it a hundred. And Houston is a place of having big houses and big cars. So I think it kind of, it kind of makes you get a little lazy. Sit on your butt a little more. When you got a big house, you got a two car garage and you have food in the refrigerator, but I mean, if you come out and the can go back to, or if you go back, you’re going to be, you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb as kind of a motivation for you.

As you segue into your future. I was able to capture and harness that hunger, and kinda of bottle it for him and let it leak out. Every once in a while, if you’re motivated and hungry [00:51:00] and well parents out there to bring him back to them, based on your initial question, they need to understand that there will always be that young man out there is willing to do whatever it takes when their child is not filming that day or they’ve had a big steak the night before or.

They just don’t see the value in working very hard. Somebody else will see the value in working very hard and they probably will have a trusted advisor who’s keeping it real with them the whole time. And then the main speech is normally not in their casual conversation. So to my parents, my trusted advisor, to be very mindful of those elements out there that are doing the work all the time, that throw themselves into the fight early on so they can grow and they can play with, they call it playing up.

Play against guys wanting two years older than them for the experience. And pretty much once their bodies changes, once their body changes, once they all hit high school, [00:52:00] now they can compete on those levels and to fortify that with an AAU structure or some of the ball structure that they’re in the pipeline for anyway, because they’ve sought out the hot teams early on by doing the work off the court as a trusted advisor, you position that young athlete to go on to do bigger and better things with athletes who want to just as bad as they do and, and hence the separation here. So I think you have to understand that dynamic that somebody is out there working at all times and  if you’re not getting better, you’re getting caught. So just that, that be somewhat of a, a tool in your tool bag of the trusted advisor to pull out when you need.

So if you’re not getting better, you’re getting caught. We’re not being overbearing. So young athletes where you don’t make it fun for them anymore, you just increase their options with, [00:53:00] with, with superior talent around it. That’s what you want to do as early as possible, because the sad part about it is a lot of people are under the misconception that they have time.

I have time. We have time. You do not have time.

Mike Klinzing: [00:53:14] Okay. That makes total sense to me, I guess when I hear you talking and I just think about, I still come back to me. I come back to that word education of you going into the situation and having a good understanding of what was important to you. What you felt was important for your son’s development and by educating yourself on those things, you were able to put yourself in position to be able to best help him to make good decisions and maximize the opportunities that he’s been able to get within the game.

So. As you look back over the course of your time, sort of helping him to [00:54:00] steer his basketball career. How has that changed from when he was a young kid and you’re first making the decision of which a U team you’re going to go and play with versus he gets into college at the university of Kansas. He’s got to make a decision.

First of all, where he’s going to go to school. Chooses Kansas. Then after a year you got to decide, are you going to go pro you’re not going to go pro are you going to go back to Kansas? And then throughout his coaching or throughout his playing career within the NBA, just maybe talk about how your role has shifted change or kind of where things stand now compared to early on when you were advising him and doing those things.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [00:54:41] Well, he went to Findlay prep. He didn’t go there because his grades were bad. He went there because he had to get ready for the next level. And so my friend who was coach at the time, he’s not coming here to be recruited. So don’t waste my time with a bunch of college coaches calling [00:55:00] me, bugging me because at that point he was a five star and he had already received letters.

And a lot of subsequent offers from a lot of heads of conferences. Let’s just say, Hey. Not, not that the strugglers in the conference, So the reason he wasn’t friendly, it was because his high school coachin Houston, sadly enough kind of had inroads to the University of Texas program because he had sent a couple of kids there before.

So of course, as a novice high school coach, not realizing the power of this athlete, who’s a five-star when he showed up on his doorstep. Having a trusted advisor who already was savvy enough to be able to being able to navigate the national waters and position his five star to be on trips every weekend, going out of town showing up, back in high school on Monday with stories to tell, well, the high school coach, [00:56:00] you know, it didn’t sit well with him when the the head of the big 12, the conference champion showed up one day at high school at Kelly’s high school inquiring about Kelly because the high school didn’t have any, let’s say he didn’t have many friends on that staff, like he had on Texas’ staff and therefore any signing of the young athlete wasn’t gonna happen because The head of the big 12 was here a year.

So they didn’t have to do things nefariously. And I use that term very loosely. So you can get, get the understanding here because not only did he not have to do anything that variously me as a trusted advisor, I never asked for anything except the stage and the opportunity, because I knew he was ready to perform on that stage.

So I made it very easy for [00:57:00] Kansas University. Didn’t ask for anything. They didn’t want anything just to stage. Okay. , was it easy? Of course it wasn’t because he came in and coach made some promises and I didn’t hold them to those promises because shortly thereafter he broke the tenants, the promises, but I wasn’t really worried about that because once again, guys, we were just there for the stage that Kansas won the big 12, two years in a row at that point.

And. He played on TV.  every once. Again, that’s all I needed was a stage because that’s the same stage I wanted back in Houston. When he played for the Houston hoops, the one team in town that everybody Houston gravitated to that team glean on it let’s be honest. So he had come up in the ranks of the Houston hoops, Nike EYBL.

He had a segue into Kansas and the same intentions by myself. And that’s just to put him on the stage so the world can see his talents and let the chips fall where they [00:58:00] may. Another reason why I sit in the Findlay Prep in Vegas and I’m dancing around and I’m just trying to stay in that high school era was because the year before coming out of Houston or coming out of Texas, I’m sorry, they took five McDonald’s all Americans from the state of Texas. And since I didn’t make many friends in Texas because I never compromised my son along the way, if there was ever going to be someone who was going to get slightly in the process at the end, Is it last shot that adviser who thought he knew everything or thought he was in control.

Let’s just show him before he leaves it was going to be me and Kelly, because I didn’t ask her anything. I didn’t take anything cause I didn’t want anything. And I saw the opportunity where a lot of the locals who even made it to the five star status left, they still were operating with that big house, big car mindset.

And so we’re their trusted advisor on the handlers that they had befriended along the way. I’m sorry to clarify. I’m sort of justified. They befriended along the way. [00:59:00] So would that be said same, some of the value there in the topic. And like I said to my trusted advisors, the word, no, carried me through the elementary level, school level, the summer ball level, the high school level and the college level.

It was no every time. No, no, no, no, no. I’m not interested. I had this under control. I don’t need your help. Everything here is fine. We’ll work it out. And we appreciate it though, but no, thank you. So the power, that word along the way, and then the journey spoke volumes every step of the way. Not just partially.

Once I segued into being a trusted advisor from the high school level, I had to learn how to negotiate contracts. I had to learn how to hire and fire people based on his personality. [01:00:00] Yeah. He was young and yeah, a lot of times I’m 51 also. A lot of times if I had, well, let me just say if I had become Jurassic and oppressive and I didn’t maintain my talk track on my education level, along the way that that paralleled his, as he ascended, I had to ascend to, then I might not have been savvy enough to know how to negotiate contracts, to know how to negotiate high firm contracts and not be enamored by me and valid conversation.

So I think digging into it and looking back, you asked me about the growth aspect. Yeah. The negotiation aspect, the respect aspect of all parties involved, even the coaches that kinda it didn’t sit well with me, for whatever reason. I still respected them because they had a job to do. And if they will operate like business as usual, this is what they’re used to.

They’re used to getting what they want because of their positions. You know what I had to operate. For the betterment of Kelly, like I saw I was due back in the fourth grade or when he was a baby. [01:01:00] So no matter what they had to do, I also had a job to do, and I was going to do that job. And then Morgan, I work me and I wasn’t going to compromise myself because the worst thing that probably would have hurt me more than anything else.

Guys, me having compromised Kelly along the way and him finding out about it because that, that, and it goes back to my morals and values here. And at least I can, I can stand on, on my square and I could tell him, look, I never compromised you one time, and that’s because I love my job. Love transcended everything, and it still continues to this day.

So I hope I answered your question. Like I said, guys, I painted the picture with my words and trying to answer the questions is as much as I can as best I can. But you know, the, the negotiation aspect, the communication aspect, the. Not being intimidated in the room when I’m dealing with GMs and owners, but understanding that I have a place to here [01:02:00] and this a respectable place, because I respect them and they respect me.

So am I going there with, with big guys trying to get autographs? Of course now that’s not how workers move because they don’t have to. There’s always a calm amount agreed way star. If you notice, he’s not rushing for anybody because he didn’t have to. Right. When have you seen him swim really fast?

Mike Klinzing: [01:02:25] Too often when he’s popping out of the water to get that seal. Right. Except when he’s popping out of the water, eat a seal. Other than that, other than that, they’re moving pretty. They’re moving pretty slowly through the water, right? No, no, that was, that was, that was a really good answer that I feel like.

Gave us a good sense of what it is that you do day to day, to be able to have a positive impact on what your son is doing in his basketball career. Let’s get to beast developmental. Tell us about the idea behind it, where it came from. Tell us a little bit [01:03:00] about what you hope to do with it and just give us give us the elevator pitch for beast developmental.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [01:03:06] All right. God wants you to take a look at my logo. We will get a copy to you every, so get you a copy on top and I’m going to break down the structure of an Beast Developmental of the word operates as a drone on top of the logo itself, in words around the logo. That’s because Beast Developmental hovers evolve and sees all pertaining to the young diamond, the dominance in the middle of the logo.

So the right of the word, peace of other minerals, you’re going to clockwise motion. You see a trusted advisor, trusted advisor is the person, as I’ve alluded to throughout our conversation that has earned the right to be there. I’ll be at sometimes alone, but not only has earned the right with his maintain the right to not be coming drastic in the process and growing along with a young diamond to his left.

So you got to be so vulnerable. [01:04:00] Top is drawn offering as a support mechanism to the trusted advisor and the young diamond in the middle, under the young diamond in the middle, you have peers are those individuals around the young diamond that he competes with. If he wants to be better than he always wants to be on top of that is why I positioned them strategically under the young diamond.

So when even the young guy that looks at my level, he knows, Hey, this is me. And this is always going to be down there under me, cause I’m going to do the work and I’m not going to be at work. And I’m I’m going to do the work to keep them under me. So left that was gone. The clockwise motion is what I call the governing body.

Okay. The governing body is the districts, the conferences, the NCAA, the NBA, our boss, our company, those who set forth and adhere to the guidelines [01:05:00] of everyday life. We all have a boss in some way, shape or form, even if his, when we go home and we want to let our significant others beyond bosses at that point in time, because.

You know, we don’t know everything. We realize that we do need help sometimes. So we have to relinquish control. So if you look at the local, once again, developmental hovering the word itself, the company itself hovering over the top and I could drone to the right trusted advisor. My young diamonds are in the middle, surrounded by three  reinforced walls.

There’s a reason why is so thick because  that diamond in the middle is protected at all times on all sides by the thickness of the wall, because he is within his enclosure. He’s within his empire. Okay. Now appears at the bottom for motivation and competition and governing bodies to the left for laws being set forth and enforced.

We all need to be governed by some structure. [01:06:00] And I think it keeps a level playing field no matter what your playing field is or whatever company you work for, we all have laws that we have to abide by, or we won’t be working there very long. So that’s the breakdown of my logo. Um, these developmental is a number of principles, but the principles are I guess, based on information in real time. Ethics and morals, I guess a Machiavellian side principle where you can study styles and you can be malleable in your approach as a trusted advisor, because you understand that you can’t become Jurassic to your young diamond piece of elemental will oversee that. Reinforce that and help you navigate through your peers and those governing bodies.

Also when it comes down to the application and contract negotiation. Awesome. So it’s lot of little things incorporated [01:07:00] in there. And as people secure our services, they realize that, you know what, this is not a one-stop shop. This is a miracle, a group that’s willing to run a marathon with us and they’re ready to walk us through stepping away.

And this is not the same as plug. This is what I do, guys. I’ve been doing this for 20 plus years. The concept happened on 12/9/95 when Kelly was born. So I give away more information than I monetize trust me, because if you get me talking about it, I become so passionate about it. I want to help everyone in this world.

With  the understanding of, I would rather you have to walk through with a, say a lion’s den with pork chop draws on with, with a trusted advisor to try to walk through deadlines then by itself because I think that’s what it means. And that is, that is feasible. Now I got to say this, the reverse personifications definition, given beasts, like [01:08:00] characteristics that humans and I think that’s a starting point.

Let me just say that. Because as I grow, I become stronger. As this thing grows, it helps everyone around and become strong. Cause there are so many lessons to be learned here. I get calls from guys that I talked to 15 years ago Mr. Kelly, you talk the same way now that you talked then.

You say the same things, you use the same words, the same terminology as you used back then. I says, well, you know why? You know, it’s because I’m passionate about what I do. I’ve always had a vision about what I wanted to do, and I know I’m going to do it at all costs. So I hope that was a good breakdown of Beast Developmental for you.

That’s my passion, you guys. And like I say, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m gonna give away more information than I’m monetizing trust me.

Mike Klinzing: [01:08:57] Well, there’s no doubt that your passion for [01:09:00] this comes through loud and clear through the microphone. And I think. What you just said about feeling like when people talk to you that you use the same words, the same concepts, the same site, the same ideas, 15 years ago that you’re using today.

I think that what that means to me is that you were keeping it real then and you’re keeping it real now. So it’s not that you’re putting on some show because Hey, my son now got to the NBA and you’re trying to retrofit history to what. Happened compared to what really happened. You were keeping it real back then and you’re continuing to do that.

And to me, like I said, I think the, the thing that flows through all of this is making yourself educated about the process. And again, in this case, it’s the process of how do you help a young athlete to develop and reach their highest potential. But I think that same thing can apply in lots of different areas of life.

That if you educate yourself, you’re going to end up with. [01:10:00] A lot better outcomes. And to that end, I congratulate you for getting this thing off the ground and, and I’m sure. That you’re going to do great things with it as, as we go forward, as we start to wrap up here, Kelly, I want to ask you a fun question because your son is known for his fashion.

So where does that fashion sense that he has? Where did that come from? Does that come from you? Does that come from somewhere else? What’s the Genesis of his, his unique fashion that he’s known for in the NBA.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [01:10:31] Well my mom, my dad always, he was a detective with the New Orleans police department, juvenile division.

He always had suits in the closet. And as a youngster, I didn’t like suits. I didn’t want any suits, but I remember going to nightclubs funniest thing. What is funny? I was thinking this last night. Strange. I’m glad you asked that question. I went to a nightclub in New Orleans. I think early twenties, right though, was in town.

Emmitt Smith was in the club with a white [01:11:00] male college student, and with a couple of ladies around him and not saying ladies, man, he’s always been a humble guy. He had a little drink in his hand. He was sipping his little drink in the straw. As I walked past him we had not each other and stuff.

So that was it. I was good with that. I’ve got a bopper. I don’t want her not looking forward. I don’t need that. What’s up. What’s up? That was it. So not. I’m headed to the bathroom guys, funniest thing in the world. Some guy surrounded by two or three girls himself with a drink in his hand, this guy is talking to the girl and he’s looking at Emmitt Smith the whole time, talking about all of the things that Emmitt Smith is not. Just a hater, just, just the club. This is Emmitt Smith. This dude has a pristine white Nehru collar suit. I think as a matter of fact, [01:12:00] the Nehru collar, I think it had that Dallas blue t-shirt underneath. So Polished on and off the corner of the field that is hater just in the corner, trying to make yourself look good for the ladies.

Couldn’t hold a candle to Emmitt Smith. So it was  just the funniest story. Even back in my early twenties, I wasn’t a father. I belonged in those situations with those people, because a simple head nod was good enough for me. So I fast forward to this day. When I’m in the room with them now, and you know what a simple head nod is good enough for me, button fist is good enough for me.

And when I go to the games little secret about myself, I normally put my earbuds in my ear and I listen to classical music while Kelly was playing. I just said that it’s a music because it keeps my blood pressure [01:13:00] down. I don’t have to hear the background noise or the screaming and it transcends even so home because what I do when I’m at home is I can watch a whole day of college basketball or pro basketball and not turning the sound on one time.

And it’s strange to people that I was sitting there with me. Like, why don’t you turn the sound though as well? I just don’t see the point in it. Because I can pretty much dissect the game and keep up with the ebbs and flows with the sound of the office. And I’m looking at the picture and I liked that because it puts me safe, calm, calm space.

I have no emotion involved. I don’t have to hear the third party narratives or the stories just get down to the business in hand. And that’s the basketball. So. No, I kind of went on a tangent there, but I wanted to tell y’all a funny story about the investment and the Haven situation.

Jason Sunkle: [01:13:55] Can I ask a follow-up question?  I’m jumping in. You got me,

 [01:13:58] so [01:14:00] obviously I know there’s lots of noise going on and I know how do you deal with it as a parent? How do you deal with the outside noise or do you just kind of ignore it and just, and go on with your day? Like, how do you deal with it? Like, does Kelly talk to you about it or does he kind of just completely shut it out?

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: You know what I do. I differentiate my approach.  I might send a small text simply. You good requesting that they gave to the temperament. If he wants to talk. Yeah. I’m going to pop out card when we get to the hotel or yeah that’s it. Or I might call them on the phone. You good?

Younger pop. Then he starts talking at that point or I go to his house. We don’t live together. I’m not a helicopter parent. And you know, I’ll pull up on him and he said, let’s go for a walk. Let’s talk, let’s go for a ride. Let’s talk. But it’s various ways that I can do it, but you know what I can always do [01:15:00] guys.

Cause it’s a clarifying, it’s trusted advice. I can bring it back to center. I can bring him back to sensor within a casually to goat or just as a couple of open-ended questions. To get him talking and we can talk about strategy and break down in his perspective on things and how you, what, at that point, what I can do is I can drink and what he says, I can process it.

And I can, if he’s down, I can build it back up or bring him back to the center, put him in the right frame of mind. And he knows the whole time that I’m there for the right reasons. Not some fictitious reason, not because I’m living vicariously through him and he made us look bad when he had a bad game, you had a bad game.

So one throw it in the trash and get onto the next one. And we will live to fight another day. And you know, it was funny. It was draft night and I would always tell him at Kansas, just be killing Brett. Because [01:16:00] Uber. And that was the extent of some of my texts that Kansas with him on draft night, he reached over and once he hit his name called the 15 picks in Washington with us, I whispered in his ear.

We are. So I think the gradual differentiation of my approach, the gradual bringing back to center, but never forgetting and never let it him. Feeling like he’s alone in any moment, because keep in mind, I opted not to go back to New Orleans for, we were in it together. So why the hell would I abandoned him now?

Or why would I change up on him now? He knows that I’ve always been there. Not long as be there. I said I’m not on a circuit, so no amount of money no influence, no amount of , fame. Well, ultimate perception on my approach and Hammad love my son. So [01:17:00] I try to, hopefully I can, I can reach somebody.

Who’s a trusted advisor, who’s in it for the right reasons for the long haul. And I keep going back to that because that is not my end game here. Not leave those athletes stranded out there by themselves in the once they’re there. They’re not performing anymore, or once they’re not living up to society’s expectations of them.

And Kelly got into a fight with Kelly Olynyk when he was in DC and one of the Washington wizards, the season ticket holders, he was over my left shoulder. And I went down to the tunnel because I knew Kelly was ejected and he probably would want to go home or stay there in the locker room. So I go down to the tunnel and I’m waiting just to catch him as he escorted off the court.

And send the trainer in us is asking him if he wants to go home, we’ll go together. Or he wants to stay here. So to try to win in and ask them, [01:18:00] and his name was Rob and Robin and Erin asked him, he says, he says he wants to stay. So I went back to my seat, so I’ll get back to my seat. And one of the diehard with his fans, he tapped me on the show.

He says, I didn’t like how he retaliated. I said, Oh, okay. Well, I understand that in a minute. And I looked back at him. I says, well, you must understand that entertainment comes at a price that entertainer, and he just rocked back in his seat. And he was speechless because he didn’t know how to take that, but it forced him to put in perspective that he enjoyed his beer and his hot dog.

But at the same time coming to the game and going home, it’s a triage unit. Initiate because you don’t know what they go through, or they’re friends of mine on a stage where they have to work in front of the world. So entertainment comes at a price of the entertainer. A couple of games had passed and they guys hit me on the shoulder and he says, you know what, Mr.Oubre, I’m sorry for the way I approached you when got Kelly kicked out of the [01:19:00] game and he kind of put in perspective what they go through as opposed to what I can go through sitting here and watching them. Because I come here to be entertained you’re right. You know, and they do pay a price.

You’re all still right. You gotta to get a high dollar amount, but just imagine having to go out there and perform every night with everything that we go through every day at home. And around ducks, we still have to show up and perform on a national stage or international stage at this point. So I think I’m understanding that as the norm and our reality, I guess helps me stay on track.

And it brings me back to center to that. If the world abandons him, that’s the world. And that’s why I need to make sure that I never abandoned him. Ever in life because I may be all he really has because in the past of all, he’s really hit I’m on his hands. So if I [01:20:00] change now, that will be kind of funny for me because they’re not have to find new words to use.

And I like my words. I can talk to people. It’s not weird. It’s absolutely in my words, So, but I don’t want to spook him like that and change up on him when he needs me the most guys. That’s what I’m trying to say.

Mike Klinzing: [01:20:20] Yeah. And that makes, that makes total sense. I mean, I think it’s, I think it’s a great way.

Think it’s a great perspective to have that. You’ve been with them since the very beginning. And he knows that you are there with his best interests at heart. And then the other point I love that you made there is just about how, again, we forget sometimes where we’re watching athletes or watching people who perform in public that.

Not many of us have to do that. We don’t have to perform our job with thousands and thousands of people watching both in person. And then you can probably put that number up into the millions when you start talking about people, watching it on TV. So it’s a completely, it’s a completely [01:21:00] different world.

And to have somebody that you can trust. Who can, as you said to use your words, bring you back to center, I’m sure it’s incredibly valuable. Before we wrap up Kelly, I want to give you a chance to share where people can connect with you, where they can find out more about these developmental. And then after you do that, I will jump back in and wrap up the episode.

Kelly Oubre, Sr.: [01:21:18] Definitely. , you can find us at beastdevelopmental.com and that’s on all of our social media outlets at beastdevelopmental.com. And what I always like to do is leave. We out here with a trusted advisor, with things that they can take in their current positions. And as they position themselves to develop these three dimensional approach and they will be able to forward whether their kids are athletes or performers on or off the court, whether they’re in the business world.

Just make it a point to be there for every step of the [01:22:00] steps.

Mike Klinzing: [01:22:05] Kelly, we cannot thank you enough for joining us on the hoop heads podcast. It has been a pleasure, getting a chance to know you, to learn more about the story of you and your son and the way that you helped to advise him all along the way throughout his basketball career, and have gotten to him to the highest level.

Oh, the game of basketball and you continue to be there for him again, using your words as a trusted advisor, as somebody who can bring him back to center and make sure that he’s doing the things that he needs to do in order to be successful. So again, we cannot thank you enough for being here with us.

To everyone out there. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks!