Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Famed U.S. Open tennis coach & commentator, Kamau Murray, talks his tennis & HBCUs history in tennis

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Famed U.S. Open tennis coach & commentator, Kamau Murray, talks his tennis & HBCUs history in tennis · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: My interviews on Money Making Conversation includes celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs,
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Speaker 1: and people I like to call industry decision makers. My
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Speaker 1: next guest is Kamal Murray. He is a founder and
1:52
Speaker 1: CEO of x S Tennis, the Tennis Channel commentator as well.
1:56
Speaker 1: If you watch Tennis Channel much as I watch, we're
1:58
Speaker 1: gonna get into wild. I watch it so much. And
2:00
Speaker 1: the professional tennis coach, which is really key because of
2:04
Speaker 1: the most proud thing I like to talk about it.
2:05
Speaker 1: He's an HBCU grad. He's a alarm. He's out there
2:09
Speaker 1: and the HBC's are getting so much notoriety nowadays, and
2:12
Speaker 1: it's great to see that we're not just uh because
2:15
Speaker 1: a lot of people look at HBCS and you have
2:16
Speaker 1: a perception about the band a halftime and all the
2:20
Speaker 1: sports is really bigger than that. And we're going to
2:22
Speaker 1: talk about his experience and his proud background of relationship
2:26
Speaker 1: that he has with with with HBCUs. But here's the
2:29
Speaker 1: producer of the first professional tenement tennis tournament produced by
2:32
Speaker 1: the African American Excess Tennis Village in Washington Park is
2:36
Speaker 1: a sixteen point nine million dollar black owned and operated
2:40
Speaker 1: tennis facility. Is one of the largest indoor and outdoor
2:43
Speaker 1: tennis facilities in the United States. Murder see a tennis scholarship,
2:48
Speaker 1: I said earlier Florida A and m uh protigiously known
2:51
Speaker 1: as fam Mute, where he also served as a graduate
2:54
Speaker 1: assistant coach. The HBC graduate is only the third African
2:58
Speaker 1: American coach to proach to coach a Grand Slam champion.
3:03
Speaker 1: Were trying to show to talk about his programs, Uh,
3:05
Speaker 1: what's his future is gonna be like about the state
3:08
Speaker 1: of tennis, not only for African Americans but just tennis
3:11
Speaker 1: in general. This weekend that the years open, we saw
3:13
Speaker 1: it got really young, but we also saw a lot
3:16
Speaker 1: of great talent. That is like when we talked about
3:18
Speaker 1: Coco Golf, Sloan Stevens, so person he coached, and he's coached,
3:23
Speaker 1: so welcome to money making conversation. I'm calling my friend
3:26
Speaker 1: because he knows a lot of people I know, come out, Murry,
3:30
Speaker 1: where would this show him out? Thank you for having me.
3:33
Speaker 1: Glad to be here. Well, you know, mane uh you
3:35
Speaker 1: know tennis. You know, when you talk about black people
3:38
Speaker 1: in tennis, you know, you're all the way back to
3:39
Speaker 1: the author asked, and if you go even further author
3:41
Speaker 1: Gibson and then can then then the Williams sisters have
3:45
Speaker 1: dominated it and it's kind of made like, uh that
3:48
Speaker 1: the blacks have really started populating the game, but really
3:51
Speaker 1: it still is a game where blacks are still trying
3:54
Speaker 1: to find their way on the tennis court. Am I right?
3:57
Speaker 1: And making that accession that that that statement, Yeah, I
4:01
Speaker 1: mean we don't have the generational lineage, uh that you
4:05
Speaker 1: know white people do, right. You know, I think that
4:07
Speaker 1: you know a lot of a lot of the reasons
4:09
Speaker 1: why some of these kids make it as their parents
4:11
Speaker 1: played in college and their parents parents played in college,
4:14
Speaker 1: so you know, after it is a total trial and
4:17
Speaker 1: error game in terms of trying to make a professional
4:20
Speaker 1: tennis player, and very few parents get it right the
4:22
Speaker 1: first time. And so the kid that dadn't make it right,
4:26
Speaker 1: whose parents groomed them, their kids perhaps might make it
4:29
Speaker 1: because now they don't have to search around and they know, hey,
4:33
Speaker 1: at this age, you go to this person. At this age,
4:35
Speaker 1: you go to this person. Then you go play this tournament.
4:38
Speaker 1: So you know, you know what why you know why
4:41
Speaker 1: people have more uh lineage in the game because they've
4:46
Speaker 1: just been doing it long. You know, back in the day, uh,
4:49
Speaker 1: you know, black people and Jewish people were not allowed
4:51
Speaker 1: to join tennis clubs and so um, you know, Jewish
4:55
Speaker 1: people had the wherewith all to create their own tennis club.
4:57
Speaker 1: So you have clubs like York Rackets in Toronto, Hill
5:00
Speaker 1: Crest out in l A. But Black people did not
5:03
Speaker 1: have the same opportunity. You know, we may have taken
5:05
Speaker 1: over a park and called to the club, but it
5:07
Speaker 1: was just a part and no indoor opportunity. So I
5:09
Speaker 1: think that we're playing catch up as it relates to um,
5:14
Speaker 1: you know, black tennis players who have played in college
5:18
Speaker 1: now having kids and now knowing the road. And so
5:22
Speaker 1: once we start, once those kids kind of come of age,
5:25
Speaker 1: we'll see we'll see the last scape of tends to
5:27
Speaker 1: be a lot more colorful. You know my daughter, you
5:30
Speaker 1: know who, I love her the death. You know she
5:31
Speaker 1: started she picked up a racer when she was six
5:33
Speaker 1: years old and so basically getting played it because she
5:36
Speaker 1: was an eighteen years of agen. She blew out the
5:39
Speaker 1: A C L injury and I saw that process. That process,
5:43
Speaker 1: it's a you know, it's a very um I want
5:45
Speaker 1: to say, it's it's a it's it's you know, you're
5:47
Speaker 1: out there with a coach, a lodge. You get up
5:49
Speaker 1: a lot of your personal life to be what is
5:51
Speaker 1: it when you look at it because you did the
5:53
Speaker 1: same thing. This is your story too, because you know
5:54
Speaker 1: the amount of time you have to put in on
5:56
Speaker 1: that court and sometimes the social life is not going
5:59
Speaker 1: to be part of that. But you were blessed, I
6:01
Speaker 1: would say, because you got to go to college. A
6:03
Speaker 1: lot of these kids don't go to college and so
6:05
Speaker 1: life kind of stops for them from an entertainment perspective.
6:09
Speaker 1: On the tour, that's their world. And so talk about
6:12
Speaker 1: you as a youngster getting into tennis and how important
6:16
Speaker 1: it was for you to gain some type of social
6:18
Speaker 1: behavior when you went to family yeah, you know, I
6:22
Speaker 1: think that the individual nature of the sport caused the
6:26
Speaker 1: tennis players to be a little bit behind socially, not
6:30
Speaker 1: as comfortable being around people. Has been a lot more
6:33
Speaker 1: time in isolation or just in the car with their parents,
6:36
Speaker 1: driving you know, to and from the tenants court for hours.
6:39
Speaker 1: And so, I mean it is a fact that tennis
6:42
Speaker 1: players are are developed slower on a social aspect compared
6:47
Speaker 1: to you know, basketball football players who spend so much
6:49
Speaker 1: time worth each other. Um. But I you know, I
6:53
Speaker 1: think that you know, obviously have an opportunity to go
6:55
Speaker 1: to college, um, you know, allow me to definitely gain
6:59
Speaker 1: some social skills, but it all goes over the cost.
7:01
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't want to play protenants, you know. Um,
7:04
Speaker 1: I would not say that if I had the opportunity
7:06
Speaker 1: to play protenants and seventeen years old that going to
7:09
Speaker 1: college just to get socialized would have been a good thing.
7:12
Speaker 1: I would have gone and taking out opportunity. I didn't
7:14
Speaker 1: really want to play protendists. Wasn't good enough, wasn't interested,
7:18
Speaker 1: didn't have the lineage or to know how. Um. But
7:21
Speaker 1: I do think that having been a good tennis player,
7:25
Speaker 1: uh and been very cerebral and and prep and mentally
7:29
Speaker 1: present during the entire process. When you combine that with
7:32
Speaker 1: my HBCU experience and going to college, getting educated, getting
7:36
Speaker 1: the master's to degree, getting socialized, that did allow me
7:40
Speaker 1: to enter the professional tennis for back, right. I mean
7:44
Speaker 1: it is like the most closest knick club you can have. Um.
7:49
Speaker 1: It allowed me to enter it with a sense of confidence. Um.
7:54
Speaker 1: You know. So I would say it was definitely going
7:57
Speaker 1: to college having had the experience of being a good
8:02
Speaker 1: supplayer helping you. Now you know, now you got to
8:04
Speaker 1: come out. You kind of like you know, you said,
8:06
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I didn't want to do a pro. I
8:07
Speaker 1: didn't have the skills set for be a pro. But
8:10
Speaker 1: then you got a scholarship. So somebody saw something talent
8:12
Speaker 1: in you, you know, and and it took you to
8:15
Speaker 1: the state of Florida. And so but how did you
8:17
Speaker 1: get come out? How did you get involved with tennis?
8:20
Speaker 1: How did what age that you start? And who? Why
8:22
Speaker 1: did it become a love for you? Because this is
8:24
Speaker 1: what you do now is a passion. Yeah, so I
8:28
Speaker 1: would say it wasn't necessarily a love all the time.
8:32
Speaker 1: You know, my my brother, my older brother played you know,
8:36
Speaker 1: big time basketball and he's like six nine to sixty now,
8:39
Speaker 1: but he Uh, my parents took his as his A
8:43
Speaker 1: U team to Africa. Uh, and we came back in
8:47
Speaker 1: the middle of the summer and all the tennis clamps,
8:49
Speaker 1: all the SENSE camps were closed. All the camps are
8:53
Speaker 1: closed in my neighborhood, and only camp that was still
8:55
Speaker 1: accepting enrollment was a tennis camp because they basically had
8:59
Speaker 1: three people on olden because nobody in my neighborhood wanted
9:01
Speaker 1: to uh. And so you know, I stumbled upon a game.
9:06
Speaker 1: My godfather, Reggie Williams, was a tennis player, and he said, hey,
9:09
Speaker 1: you need somewhere to babysit. Comal go ahead and take
9:11
Speaker 1: them just on his park on eighty seven. And Jeffrey
9:14
Speaker 1: and my mom took me there, really just hoping to
9:17
Speaker 1: be able to drop me off and get some cheap babysitting. Uh.
9:21
Speaker 1: You know, so it's it just uh, it just happened
9:25
Speaker 1: that way. And then you know, even then, I you know,
9:29
Speaker 1: didn't love it. You know, I was leaving my tennis
9:31
Speaker 1: racket and the gardeners can at the courts because I
9:34
Speaker 1: was my daughter to wrap transportation. You know what I
9:36
Speaker 1: mean so I I it was. It was like a
9:39
Speaker 1: walk of shame almost home from the tennis court for
9:43
Speaker 1: a long time, until I started to get decent, I
9:46
Speaker 1: had some success and had a sense of pride for myself.
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Speaker 1: so funny because you know you're right about you know socially,
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Speaker 1: you know you are behind your skill set. I ways
11:53
Speaker 1: telling us to my wife the worst. She can eventually
11:55
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Speaker 1: up from a standpoint, but what you do get you
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Speaker 1: you want, you have to work hard for. You have
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Speaker 1: to be disciplined, you have to arrive at a certain times,
12:10
Speaker 1: you have to put in a certain amount of hours.
12:11
Speaker 1: So it does prepare you for life. So when you
12:14
Speaker 1: open your tennis village, like you said, you know, everybody's
12:17
Speaker 1: not gonna be a Venus Williams or Serena Williams or
12:20
Speaker 1: or anybody else who has a high skill level of
12:22
Speaker 1: the turn pro. What is the purpose of opening up
12:24
Speaker 1: your tennis academy or the xx tennis village? So you know,
12:29
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, after that summer when I
12:31
Speaker 1: started playing tennis, I found a free program at the
12:35
Speaker 1: High Park Racquetball Club, and um, you know, in that environment,
12:41
Speaker 1: I was like the black Mecca of tennis in Chicago,
12:43
Speaker 1: the only black's club in Chicago. It was black professionals, doctors, lawyers.
12:48
Speaker 1: Um it was. You know. When after Ash came to town,
12:51
Speaker 1: he always stopped by there. That's where I met first
12:53
Speaker 1: magazine Garrison like it was the place uh Katrina Adams
12:57
Speaker 1: learned to play there donald young. So it was like
13:00
Speaker 1: a black mecca. And I went there every day after
13:03
Speaker 1: school just for the free tennis program and the convenient
13:06
Speaker 1: babysitting for my mother. Um. But that environment where you
13:10
Speaker 1: see black people, uh just sort of they're congregating around
13:14
Speaker 1: the game tennis, basketball in the gym, drinking smoothies and wine.
13:19
Speaker 1: You know. You know that helped me as a student.
13:22
Speaker 1: That kept me off the street right. And you know,
13:24
Speaker 1: I can't tell you the number of times that I
13:27
Speaker 1: would be leaving out the club, walking to the bus
13:29
Speaker 1: stop to try to get a right, you know, to
13:31
Speaker 1: take the bus home, and a and a and an
13:33
Speaker 1: adult would give me a ride. And it's Cadillac, you
13:35
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And so that environment where it was,
13:39
Speaker 1: um wasn't forrest mentorship, but it was just a the
13:43
Speaker 1: kids isn't here belong to us. We're gonna make sure
13:46
Speaker 1: we practice with them, spar with them, helping with their homework.
13:50
Speaker 1: I used to sit down on my knees and do
13:52
Speaker 1: my homework on the bench right and will come over, Hey,
13:55
Speaker 1: what you're doing, Let me help you with that? Math
13:56
Speaker 1: problem whatever it is, right, and it was totally authentic
13:59
Speaker 1: and not forced. And so, uh, my goal was to
14:03
Speaker 1: create that same environment. So we built the facility literally
14:07
Speaker 1: a mile west of that facility. Um, we've got classrooms
14:11
Speaker 1: so the kids don't have to sit on their knees
14:14
Speaker 1: and do homework on the floor. Um, we've got adults
14:17
Speaker 1: in the building who have worked with all who have
14:19
Speaker 1: the opportunity to, you know, you know, very just unintendedly,
14:23
Speaker 1: you know, meet with kids and get to know these
14:26
Speaker 1: kids so that when they do grow older and get
14:28
Speaker 1: an intern you need an internship, they have some sort
14:30
Speaker 1: of barometer there. So that was the goal, was just
14:33
Speaker 1: to recreate the environment that I think kept me alive.
14:36
Speaker 1: I mean, I grew up on the South side of Chicago, uh,
14:39
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of opportunity to do bad things.
14:44
Speaker 1: And I was a middle child in the middle class family,
14:46
Speaker 1: in the middle class neighborhood, right, And so I had
14:49
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do a lot of bad things. I
14:52
Speaker 1: could hide in my family because my brother was you know,
14:55
Speaker 1: doing his thing on the basketball court, and you know,
15:00
Speaker 1: my parents were busy. Both my parents work, you know
15:02
Speaker 1: what I mean, And so has kept me on the
15:04
Speaker 1: straight and narrow, puire point blank. I mean I I
15:07
Speaker 1: knew and still know people who did you know bad things?
15:12
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You know that that's that's
15:15
Speaker 1: basically what life is about, you know, being in the
15:18
Speaker 1: position where you got mentors, You've got people who kept
15:20
Speaker 1: you straight. I always tell people about myself. You know,
15:23
Speaker 1: I come from there, the city in and you know,
15:25
Speaker 1: people kept me. I'm sitting here because people guided me
15:28
Speaker 1: in the right direction. They kept me out of trouble.
15:31
Speaker 1: You know, some words, some people might use the word mischief.
15:33
Speaker 1: You know, mischiefs can lead to trouble, and trouble can
15:35
Speaker 1: lead to incarceration, depending on what direction you take it.
15:39
Speaker 1: But you're sitting here today a man who's making a
15:42
Speaker 1: difference in people's lives. You know, you serve nearly three
15:45
Speaker 1: thousand students annually through your tendans, your tenants program, and
15:49
Speaker 1: then you're sending kids to to to college through scholarship programs.
15:53
Speaker 1: How does that make you feel? You know, because everything
15:56
Speaker 1: starts with the dream. Come out. You know what I'm
15:58
Speaker 1: speaking to, Come out, Murray, He's to see you. Excess tennants.
16:01
Speaker 1: You've seen them on the tennis channels. A commentator, but
16:04
Speaker 1: more importantly, it's a professional tennis coach. You know you're
16:07
Speaker 1: making a difference, You're changing lives. I created this show,
16:10
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation to introduce people like you to view,
16:13
Speaker 1: to my viewers and to my listeners to say, wow,
16:16
Speaker 1: you can do this too. But you have to have
16:18
Speaker 1: a plan, and your plan is changing lives. So when
16:21
Speaker 1: you wake up every day, how do you feel? Oh man, Well,
16:26
Speaker 1: let me tell you. It's hard work. So I'm glad
16:31
Speaker 1: that the building is built, and I'm glad that we're operating.
16:33
Speaker 1: We've been operating four years. We started going in two
16:36
Speaker 1: thousand and five. Right then we got our older facility.
16:39
Speaker 1: We got control of that in two thousand and eight. Uh,
16:42
Speaker 1: and we moved in this building seen. But it was
16:44
Speaker 1: not easy. Uh. And so when I wake up in
16:48
Speaker 1: the morning, I'm exhausted. I'm very grateful that we were
16:51
Speaker 1: able to get into the finish line, but exhausted because
16:53
Speaker 1: the work never stops. Uh. But you know, around three
16:57
Speaker 1: or four o'clock when these kids started walking in, these
16:59
Speaker 1: parents start dropping their kids off, and they are first
17:01
Speaker 1: generation to tennis players with no knowledge and just to
17:04
Speaker 1: blank canvas. I mean that makes it all worth it, um,
17:08
Speaker 1: but you know I'll be I'll be honest. You know,
17:09
Speaker 1: it was a lot of times in the process where
17:11
Speaker 1: I was like, I got a job, I got two degrees,
17:14
Speaker 1: I could do something else. Is it worth the fight?
17:16
Speaker 1: You know, it shouldn't be this hard to do good
17:18
Speaker 1: and so uh it has not been like, um, a
17:22
Speaker 1: smooth role. But you know, I feel like my South
17:25
Speaker 1: Side roots make make me tough enough to power through
17:28
Speaker 1: it so that that I'll be honest with you. It's
17:30
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's been a hard role, but it's good.
17:33
Speaker 1: It's very rewarding, uh to see this, you know, everything
17:36
Speaker 1: coming fruition for us to have professional tennis terments and
17:38
Speaker 1: stuff here. But you know, the role was hard. I mean,
17:41
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, you know, just I'm glad to see
17:44
Speaker 1: HBCUs getting the notoriety that they're getting now because I
17:48
Speaker 1: would say, if I'm being honest, a lot of when
17:53
Speaker 1: I was trying to raise money right amongst corporations and
17:56
Speaker 1: amongst the wealthy crowd whom I went to Ivy League
17:58
Speaker 1: schools and some of these you know, larger institutions, I
18:02
Speaker 1: felt like, on a consistent basis that my HBC, you
18:05
Speaker 1: degree was a hindrance what I was trying to do.
18:09
Speaker 1: It was like you didn't go to Kellogg or Booth,
18:13
Speaker 1: so your family NBA is not really an NBAT. You know.
18:17
Speaker 1: I had that feeling, right And it wasn't just my insecurity.
18:20
Speaker 1: It was a real feeling, you know what I mean.
18:22
Speaker 1: I think now you know, supporting HBC is believing their
18:25
Speaker 1: potential is a is a fad. But you know, four
18:28
Speaker 1: years ago it wasn't a fat years ago, it was
18:31
Speaker 1: I was sitting in the room with four or five
18:33
Speaker 1: people that went to Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth boot you know,
18:36
Speaker 1: and so you know it was it was it made
18:41
Speaker 1: my life harder, right, um, just in terms of proven
18:45
Speaker 1: I had the capacity and the intellect to sort of
18:47
Speaker 1: make this happen. Look at your children's eyes to see
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19:16
Speaker 1: Forest Service and the AD Council. Hi everyone, i'l roker
19:19
Speaker 1: here as a guy with his own catchphrase. I appreciate
19:22
Speaker 1: that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires, but
19:26
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Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forester, and the AD Council. What
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Speaker 1: grows in the forest trees, sure no. What else grows
19:53
Speaker 1: in the forest, Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and
19:57
Speaker 1: our family bonds grow too, because when we just connect
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20:07
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Speaker 1: near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot
20:14
Speaker 1: Org brought to you by the United States Forest Service
20:17
Speaker 1: and the AD Council. We do come out, I think
20:19
Speaker 1: from a standpoint, and you're absolutely correct. I always tell
20:22
Speaker 1: people that they were a vice president. Kamala Harrison. Tell
20:25
Speaker 1: anybody that she went to Howard, they would assume she
20:27
Speaker 1: went to Ivy League school because people just don't assume
20:30
Speaker 1: that type of academic training can lead to somebody being
20:33
Speaker 1: the vice president of the United States. But you also
20:35
Speaker 1: were playing in the lane where you know there was
20:38
Speaker 1: a rarity. You know, from the standpoint of tennis, you know,
20:41
Speaker 1: you can't. You don't associate tennis with a with a
20:44
Speaker 1: historically black college and university. You just don't do that.
20:47
Speaker 1: And so but you do you do from an academic
20:51
Speaker 1: standpoint when you realize that the black doctors and Dennis
20:54
Speaker 1: or who are black confrom hbc used for the percent
20:57
Speaker 1: of the members of Congress who are black come from
21:00
Speaker 1: HBCU of the STEM graduates who are black come from HBCUs.
21:04
Speaker 1: You know, North Carolina a d T graduating more black
21:07
Speaker 1: engineers either white or black colleges. You know, that type
21:11
Speaker 1: of information is what I'm about. That's that's why I
21:13
Speaker 1: got you on the show because important people see there
21:15
Speaker 1: are so many different styles because of the fact that
21:18
Speaker 1: you know it is limited amount of information. When I
21:21
Speaker 1: see that Mackenzie Scotty gives out four point one billion dollars,
21:25
Speaker 1: but they don't tell you why she gave out the
21:27
Speaker 1: four point one million dollars. And so when I bring
21:29
Speaker 1: you on the show to talk about you, I moved
21:32
Speaker 1: the conversation of family to the forefront because here's a
21:35
Speaker 1: man making a difference who should be recognized for his
21:37
Speaker 1: academic training but also for his black excellence. And that's
21:40
Speaker 1: really one of the reasons I brought you on the
21:42
Speaker 1: show because now because I wanted to talk about this
21:44
Speaker 1: tennis tournament that you're kicking off, because it's the first
21:48
Speaker 1: ever and you're producing it. Yeah, well, let me say
21:51
Speaker 1: that you think about black college tennis. I went to
21:55
Speaker 1: family you and I'm the third black person to coach
21:58
Speaker 1: your grand Slam jam slung statements, right. Stevens Walter Johnson
22:02
Speaker 1: was the first. He coached out and Arthur Richard Williams
22:05
Speaker 1: was the second. He coached Venus and Serena and I'm
22:09
Speaker 1: the third and I coached long Stevens. Okay, So that's
22:12
Speaker 1: family number one right there. Uh. Zack Evidence was the
22:18
Speaker 1: only black coach on the Men's Pro Tour. He was
22:20
Speaker 1: coaching Frances Tfo. He also went to family you okay, wow, okay, cool,
22:25
Speaker 1: I'll be a gibson the family. And so the Blacks
22:31
Speaker 1: that are intendness also have a great history and in
22:35
Speaker 1: a relationship with family, you know, with with HBCUs, you
22:37
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So I think that's also you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: little known fact, but I think it's it's important to
22:42
Speaker 1: know that. You know, two years ago the only two
22:44
Speaker 1: black coaches and all the protendants both went to HBCU. Uh.
22:49
Speaker 1: And so you know, even my teammate, my teammates know
22:52
Speaker 1: why they will coach Melanie who Dan who? You know
22:55
Speaker 1: if you google her story years ago, she made this
22:57
Speaker 1: incredible run in at the U S Open. So I
22:59
Speaker 1: think that, um, you know, we've we've got to sort
23:03
Speaker 1: of uh promote it and talk about it more with Fami.
23:06
Speaker 1: You she was out of the Atlanta right when Melanie
23:09
Speaker 1: out of Atlanta. Absolutely, I definitely know as we see
23:13
Speaker 1: you graduate intenis players have had a big imprint on
23:16
Speaker 1: professional tenants for a long time. Uh, you know, it's
23:19
Speaker 1: just so happen that we're very modest personalities, you know, No,
23:22
Speaker 1: it was very modest. Leave that to me, Leave that
23:24
Speaker 1: shout out to me. That's my job. My job is
23:27
Speaker 1: to get you to talk about it, give you a
23:29
Speaker 1: platform to be able to shout it out, and then
23:31
Speaker 1: we should accept the responsibility that this is legitimate and
23:34
Speaker 1: we should support it because people, you know, you could
23:37
Speaker 1: say it was tough, but you know, man, you know,
23:39
Speaker 1: sixty six point nine million dollars black owned and operate
23:42
Speaker 1: a tennis facility. You're a really good talker. People believe
23:45
Speaker 1: in what you have to say and what you've accomplished.
23:48
Speaker 1: So I always say that sometimes we work so hard
23:51
Speaker 1: come out that we kind of forget that people believe
23:54
Speaker 1: in as if we don't sit back and look at
23:56
Speaker 1: all our success, and sometimes the grind can overwhelm you
24:00
Speaker 1: and my siniors over women. You brother, look, you've coached
24:02
Speaker 1: a Grand Slam tennis champion, and we all saw this
24:06
Speaker 1: weekend how tough that is. You know Emma who won
24:09
Speaker 1: this weekend at eighteen years old. The previous Grand Slam,
24:12
Speaker 1: she had to walk away because the pressure was too
24:13
Speaker 1: great at the Wimbledon, and so you see how it
24:16
Speaker 1: affected Novak Djokovic, you know, and afterwards he said he
24:20
Speaker 1: was relieved. You know, every every game he played. Rob
24:23
Speaker 1: Labor was in the stands, you know, what I'm saying, like,
24:27
Speaker 1: what's up, You're gonna take it. You're not gonna take
24:29
Speaker 1: you, you you know what saying the skinny Russian come along
24:31
Speaker 1: and he can't even everyone who serves was during their
24:34
Speaker 1: ages and so. But but that's that pressure, you know,
24:38
Speaker 1: you putting on the tennis tournament, that's another level of
24:41
Speaker 1: pressure and expectations to talk about that. Yeah. So um,
24:46
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, with covid um, there was an
24:48
Speaker 1: opportunity to ask some tournaments of the calendar with the
24:52
Speaker 1: with the pros not going to Asia this year because
24:55
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. Uh. And so you know, it's a
24:57
Speaker 1: good you know, I may sure that, you know, just
25:00
Speaker 1: as I did in my corporate career prior to twenty
25:03
Speaker 1: seventeen or prior to when I left Corporate America, you know,
25:07
Speaker 1: I make sure that when I'm at these advancing at
25:08
Speaker 1: these tournaments, that I network, continue to meet people, be
25:11
Speaker 1: a good person, um, you know, really exemplify what it
25:15
Speaker 1: means to be a black man who HBCU grad, who's educated,
25:18
Speaker 1: come from the family, uh, and not just be seen
25:21
Speaker 1: as just a tennis coach. And so over that time,
25:23
Speaker 1: I've had to you know, build some relationships, um, you
25:26
Speaker 1: know in the c suite, you know, with the Tennessee
25:29
Speaker 1: suite per se uh. And then you know, I've been
25:32
Speaker 1: working to just sort of bring things like that to
25:35
Speaker 1: Chicago because with excess tennis, just a cradle to grave approach.
25:38
Speaker 1: You know, the cradle is obviously teaching the kids, and
25:40
Speaker 1: then the grade is being able to support professional tennis
25:44
Speaker 1: and and and like bring it to the inner city.
25:46
Speaker 1: You know, like, you know, the kids in this neighborhood
25:48
Speaker 1: don't have the opportunity to go to New York and
25:50
Speaker 1: watch us open. So my goals to bring us open
25:52
Speaker 1: to them. And so that was always a part of
25:54
Speaker 1: the strategy, uh, in the vision, and this year we
25:57
Speaker 1: having to you know, be able to maneuver and negotiate
26:00
Speaker 1: to be able to pull it off. So it was great,
26:01
Speaker 1: I mean, and and it it really is. I Mean, listen,
26:04
Speaker 1: what what black promotion, the black ownership and a tennis
26:07
Speaker 1: event means is that you can have black suppliers. When
26:11
Speaker 1: I go to the Teenis tournaments, there are no black suppliers.
26:15
Speaker 1: Getting a security firm that got the contract is why
26:18
Speaker 1: the catering company got the contract is white. The transportation
26:20
Speaker 1: company got the contract. Is white. Um, you know when
26:23
Speaker 1: I go to USO, but I walk fifteen feet and
26:25
Speaker 1: my credential gets checked every five feet. You know, this
26:27
Speaker 1: is this is the year after Solong one. I'm like, hey, guys,
26:30
Speaker 1: my bab faces on that billboard, right, I am, I'm
26:35
Speaker 1: that guy, so let me buy it, right. And so
26:37
Speaker 1: I think that just comes from not having enough enough black,
26:41
Speaker 1: enough black bodies on the site. And so you know,
26:43
Speaker 1: being able to own this event really gives me the
26:46
Speaker 1: opportunity to a give out wild cars to up and
26:48
Speaker 1: coming black players. And we uh support black vendors, you know,
26:53
Speaker 1: so we have black head of black security company, black
26:56
Speaker 1: graphic design, black printer, black pr black marketing. Uh. Most
27:00
Speaker 1: of the ball kids were African Americans. Uh, and so um,
27:04
Speaker 1: you know it just really really gives an opportunity to
27:07
Speaker 1: sort of continue what what the world is trying to
27:10
Speaker 1: do now right, which is poor black people, and expose
27:13
Speaker 1: the world to black people, because you know, I would
27:15
Speaker 1: say about tennis, it's the ultimate melting pot. I mean,
27:18
Speaker 1: it is the globalist of games. And um, you know
27:25
Speaker 1: we've got to start to welcome everybody into the game, right,
27:27
Speaker 1: the Serbians, the check, the Russians, the South Americans and Canadians,
27:32
Speaker 1: I mean all of us. We gotta go from Tunisia
27:35
Speaker 1: that's coming to town. So you know, like the world
27:38
Speaker 1: needs early exposure to each other, right, and this event
27:41
Speaker 1: allows that to happen. Well, you see that. You just
27:45
Speaker 1: see all the mixed race winners and champions that are
27:48
Speaker 1: in tennis nowadays, from Canada, from Japan. And but again
27:52
Speaker 1: with that whole thing, you know, I talked to a
27:54
Speaker 1: very humble man, Kamal Murge, a humble guy. You know.
27:57
Speaker 1: Excess Tennis Village is on thirteen acres, y'all. Okay, I
28:00
Speaker 1: live on five acres. I know what thirteen nagres looks like. Okay,
28:03
Speaker 1: fifteen outdoor courts, twelve indoor courts. Okay. The fitness in
28:06
Speaker 1: the classroom is located primarily and low income area of Chicago.
28:10
Speaker 1: So when I talked to him, I look at him,
28:12
Speaker 1: I look at the square and ago, brother, you're special.
28:15
Speaker 1: You're doing something I know some people will consider impossible.
28:19
Speaker 1: God gave you a talent, put you in the right
28:21
Speaker 1: direction and say, hey, man, your your your relligans say
28:24
Speaker 1: pick up that racketball. Your mom says, you're gonna keep
28:26
Speaker 1: you busy with babysitting duties and then well you say
28:29
Speaker 1: you didn't love it or not, there is a love
28:31
Speaker 1: for it. And then you're making a difference because Sloan
28:34
Speaker 1: Stephens won't be Sloan Stevens without you. She's not a
28:38
Speaker 1: Grand Slam champion without you. And in the fact that
28:41
Speaker 1: you are affecting three thousand students annually at your facility
28:45
Speaker 1: in Chicago makes a difference. The fact that you're sending
28:48
Speaker 1: young students to colleges on scholarship opportunities is impressive. And
28:54
Speaker 1: when you say all those things, and I'm not just
28:56
Speaker 1: trying to make you down in the dump says hey man,
28:58
Speaker 1: you need to sump your chest. I'm just telling brother,
29:00
Speaker 1: you're special, and that's my job is to acknowledge that
29:04
Speaker 1: and to get you to understand that you're value member
29:06
Speaker 1: of this world. Thank you, brother, I appreciate you. I
29:10
Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on. I mean, you know, look,
29:14
Speaker 1: I've got tons of people in my life that provide
29:16
Speaker 1: me encouragement and when I start slowing down and kick
29:19
Speaker 1: me right. But you know, Garrison is one of those people.
29:23
Speaker 1: Really jeans one of those people, uh brother named Les Corney,
29:27
Speaker 1: you know, because it gets hard. So I appreciate with
29:29
Speaker 1: what you just said. I appreciate the encouragement. Um, and uh, hey,
29:33
Speaker 1: kudos to YouTube man, thank you for having me on
29:37
Speaker 1: and and supporting what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I'm
29:39
Speaker 1: gonna come to talk to my boy Stephen Smith. We're gonna,
29:41
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna get we I'm gonna connect you
29:43
Speaker 1: with him. Man after this interview, I gotta do some
29:45
Speaker 1: extra for you to man, because you're specially yeah. Uh,
29:51
Speaker 1: and Steven, they would appreciate that, you know. I think
29:53
Speaker 1: you know. One of the things about this facility, it
29:55
Speaker 1: was it was created with a lot of help from
29:57
Speaker 1: NBA players. So my best friend and high school and
30:00
Speaker 1: still to this day as a guy, n Quentin Richardson, Uh, phenixus, Yeah,
30:08
Speaker 1: from Chicago, and then Dwyane Wade and Bobby Simmons and uh,
30:12
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people sort of uh you
30:15
Speaker 1: know it helps facility come here. Whether it's like, hey,
30:17
Speaker 1: give me some game tickets so I can entertain this person. Well,
30:20
Speaker 1: hey I need a chat. You got it. You got
30:23
Speaker 1: the Mercedes. I need to chat. Um. You know, there's
30:26
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball influence, uh in this in this
30:30
Speaker 1: facility as well, because in Chicago, in addition to the
30:33
Speaker 1: business community, there's a lot of athletes you know that
30:36
Speaker 1: way make it, make it from the south from west side. Now,
30:38
Speaker 1: who those athletes, NBA athletes that you just mentioned that
30:41
Speaker 1: kind of didn't hear, Quentin Richardson, Dwyang Way, Bobby, Um,
30:47
Speaker 1: you know they all kind of stepped the road, checks
30:49
Speaker 1: to support the calls. Still involved, still support of UH
30:53
Speaker 1: working on phase two and three with those guys. So Um.
30:57
Speaker 1: You know a Kyan Dueling's daughter which train here. You know,
31:00
Speaker 1: he's the coach of the Utah Jazz. Absolutely live with
31:03
Speaker 1: me this summer. Um, he was cius teammate back in
31:06
Speaker 1: the day. So you know, a lot of a lot
31:08
Speaker 1: of help from a lot of different sources. With my man,
31:10
Speaker 1: you keep winning and again I'm gonna promote this and
31:13
Speaker 1: keep you in the fourth fraud of Black excellence, my brother.
31:17
Speaker 1: And again you're making a difference and I can't if
31:21
Speaker 1: you ever need a kick in the butt, just just
31:23
Speaker 1: as Bobby. But I know Bobby, we said, Bobby, he's
31:26
Speaker 1: just he's in l A. When I was in l A.
31:28
Speaker 1: We still on the same floor, same conduct. So you're
31:31
Speaker 1: doing very well. Man, and uh, you know his brother,
31:34
Speaker 1: and I know exactly that Chicago world that he uh
31:37
Speaker 1: we talked about the last year we talked about on
31:39
Speaker 1: the phone during the interview. And so I really appreciate
31:42
Speaker 1: your man coming on Money Making Conversations just to tell
31:44
Speaker 1: you a story and kick you in the book. Okay,
31:48
Speaker 1: thank you. If you want to hear any of my
31:51
Speaker 1: interviews and money Making Conversations or he see my interviews
31:55
Speaker 1: and money Making Conversation, please go to money Making Conversation
31:57
Speaker 1: dot com. I am Ray Sean McDonald. I am your host.
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