Dennis Smith Jr Reveals Why It Didn’t Work Out With Duke

So I know, I know, I know my, I know my office at the president of NC state, but I'm guessing the Brinks truck was pretty good there too, huh? Hey, what's it doing? What's it doing? Don't say nothing. Just get a delivery and a knock at the door and then you pull off. They don't say nothing. No, there's no communication. You can't trace the bread. Ain't nothing to talk about. Ain't nothing to talk about. It's all good, brother. Hey, man. Hey, listen, and they had the diamond grill. Life was good to me. But how did that feel though? Because the name in the schools, we talk about North Carolina. We talking about Duke. Did y'all feel like, did y'all feel like the little brothers and did y'all feel like the stepchild? Did y'all have a chip on y'all shoulders? We did have a chip though. Cause like we knew it was slept on. Just cause our recruiting class, you know what I'm saying? Like keep in mind, me and Ben was supposed to go to NC state together. Oh really? So then I seen him doing this interview with him. I seen the blue bow tie. I said, man, I know you did. I said, man, no, like I can't wait to see his ass. But yeah, but it worked out for him. So shout out to him. As I get older, it's like, you know, I saluted, you know, that Kentucky bag was just a little bit bigger. Yeah. He took all the money. Oh, that's what it was. Nah. You signed first? Nah, we supposed to sign like, nah, I did sign first. It was already, you know, it's understood everything that's going on. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, we was going to be nice, man. I was only recruit for real, you know, we ended up bringing in O'Meara. O'Meara was there, but he couldn't play to like middle of ACC play. So it was all messed up. So yeah, we slept on, but we didn't give a damn about that. We still wasn't good. So who did it come down to NC state and who? Um, what was my top five? I had NC state, Duke, Kentucky, UNC, and then I had Faylor state. It's a D2 back home. I had them in my top five. Who were you, who were you going to go to if it wasn't NC state? Duke. Duke was my first choice. What'd you do to Duke that year? We smashed him. What'd you do to Duke that year? Smashed him. No, what'd you do to Duke that year? I smashed him. No, what'd you do to Duke that year? I think you went in there and did what? I think you gave him 30. It might've been an adding system. No, no, no, no. It was at Duke. I had 32 or 34, something like that. Light work. We whooped they ass though. We whooped they ass. And that was like. Slept good that night, didn't you coach? That was like one of our, one of our three conference wins. He said three. Look, that's what make it bad. Look, they don't even, I don't know if they told the story, but after that game, they got kicked out. Like it was all over the internet. They got kicked out of they locker room. Um, they had they in trash bags. I think coach K put all their gear in trash bags, left it out the locker room and said, y'all don't deserve to be, uh, y'all don't deserve to be dookies or whatever they and that lasts for like a week. And then we start losing again and they pick it up. I like that. He said one of the three wins. I don't know how many we had. How long was that? That'd be a long season then didn't it? Man, it was, they fired our coach media. And then they said we can't find nobody. So just finish the season now. We had Mark Godfrey. I rock with Mark. I do like my guy. Like Mark OG for real. Man he cool as hell. I'm cool with all this lines and all that. Yeah. So give us some insight on playing ball at home cause I did it in the NBA and I was obviously more mature, but you did it in college. Yeah. So how was you able to do that? How was that temptation? Cause it's easy to pull up on your homeboys who ain't got class tomorrow that they doing knowing they ain't got to get up and worry about the next day. Yeah. They was always pulling up on me. So I ain't even gonna see her act like I ain't always had her homies around. They was always pulling up all the time. Yeah. They was always there. That was dope to me. Like even when I got to play in Charlotte, you know, it's not, it's like two hours, 30 minutes from my career, but you know, it's close enough to home. Everybody's going to pull up, kick it in for a minute. So I can't even imagine how you had it. You born and raised here in the city. Yeah. I had to shake it off. Yeah. Everybody can't go reach. That's real. I'm saying, I learned it the hard way. Yeah. It happens all his life. You had a, you had a, obviously a great year at NC state going to draft night, go top 10. So me and you can have this conversation cause he can't have this conversation. He can't relate to this. He can't relate to this. Next episode when he got a black eye shots have been fired. I ain't bothering nobody. So draft night, they'll talk about it because that's obviously like your whole entire childhood growing up playing basketball, doing it. The reason you went to NC state, the reason it took all that money to go to NC state. What's up? So talk about that night though. I mean, I've, you know, until you really live it, no one understands what it means for everybody around you to write the commitment and everything that everyone's done. So talk about the draft night. It's crazy to say that. Cause I always be like, I think that day was so big, not because it was about me, but like my whole city felt like they made it. You know what I'm saying? Like I have my grandma and they're obviously like my immediate family, but you know, I'm, I'm tapped in. I'm still tapped in like with my city, with the hood. So it's like, I'm on Facebook. You know what I'm saying? And I'm seeing like all the responses I'm getting on Facebook about me getting drafted and people showing love. That meant a lot for me and my city. Facebook, Facebook. I'll be on the Facebook. Yeah. Even still, I'm still on Facebook. The whole city be on that man. It'd be entertaining. Yeah. I stay on Facebook. How many people from where you're from? I don't know. 17. Nah, I think we got more than that. We got more than that. Damn sure. More people. Nah, it ain't more than South Dakota. Not the whole state. Nah, yeah. In Fayetteville? Nah, it's a military town. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. We got the second biggest base in the country. Oh, okay. Shout out to Country Club, man. I got a cousin in Fayetteville out there, man. Country Club? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Country Club? What you know about Country Club? That's what I call them. Country Club. You call him Country Club? I thought you said you stay on Country Club. I don't want to say his name on camera. You know, he could dabble a little bit here and there. Country Club, shout out to Fayetteville. Fayetteville's finest. You got a shout out on the podcast. He dabbled, huh? He dabbled a little bit. Yeah, he could dabble a little bit. He played a little hide and seek. I like it. These things ain't swimming. But we loaded, man. Stop playing. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, I am playing a little too much. So what was there to do growing up as a kid? Besides play basketball in your free time and hang with the homies, what was the thing you tell people? Hey, Fayetteville, you got to do this. Are you in the city? When somebody come to town, where are you taking them? Um, I'm going to my crib. I got the biggest crib in there. That's what she used to say when I used to come to Memphis. That's what she used to say when I come to Memphis. She used to come to my crib. I got the biggest crib in the goddamn town. That ain't true. But now, you know, we go out to the country, man. You know, my folks, we real country. You got their barbecue. Some of the hogs on there. They got the moonshine out there. Oh, well, this is the whole dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole hog. Yeah. Port Capital, baby. North Carolina, man. What's going on, boy? Go ahead. It's a little more capital. I'd leave that swine alone eventually. No, fella, you can't. My grandma ate it. Yeah, my grandma said the same thing to me, too. When I told her I quit, she said, well, you could just eat it today, baby. I said, no, grandma. I don't work like that. I was like, grandma, I don't work like that. When I'm done, she's like, baby, you could just eat it today. You was raised on pork. Like, we had like an hour conversation about why I gave up pork. You really got to explain it to her. Yeah, she didn't really understand that. Like, you was raised on it. What's wrong with it now? Yeah. You ain't got a little money. What's wrong? Bacon and pork, child. That'd be hard to get that up. Yeah, it was hard. It was hard to give up that. And I know people don't might not even understand what a chitlin is, but that was hard. You wouldn't have had it on Thanksgiving. Chitlin, barbecue pig feet. Hog ball. You know what chitlins is? I'm in the kitchen. You in the kitchen. Every time I go in the kitchen, you in the kitchen. We in the goddamn kitchen right now. Eating up all some of them hog balls. I like pig feet. So you get drafted ten? Nine. Nine, sorry. Sorry, nine. I ain't get drafted at all. I make this mistake all the time. I don't know the numbers. So you get drafted nine. Instantly, your life changes. Right. What are you thinking? Now, what are you thinking? You think it's going to be a smooth ride? Because I think all of us think once we get in, our life's going to change. It's going to be easy. But instantly, you get a dose of reality. Oh, yeah, for sure. And actually, your life gets harder and more difficult. Right. You know what I'm saying? We think that the money and the fame and we out the hood and everything's going to change for the better. Things get harder. Things get more difficult. People want more things from you. You get stretched more thin. You know what I'm saying? So let's talk about that process of coming from Fayetteville, going to college, being a man, and then getting drafted to the NBA. Now you're just a small fish in a huge pond. Yeah, so I got a reality check the next morning because my draft day is like quick. Nah, long. Longest day of my life. You know what I'm saying? Your reality check came quick. Quick. As soon as I woke up. Wow. As soon as draft night was over. Because I had so much stuff to do. I got to sign things. I got these appearances. You got to get dressed. You got to take your pictures. And then afterwards, you got to do radio calls, different kind of appearances, pictures, and all that. And then they got a dinner set up for you. I ain't eat dinner till like 2 in the morning. This was from the team or this was regular stuff? This was from my people. Like from my family and my agent set up. So then we got dinner like 2 in the morning. And like, alright, you got to get on the first flight out. And here you got to wear this suit because you got a press conference as soon as you land. So I'm up 5 in the morning. After being up all night, all day. Go do this interview. Got to say the right things. You know what I'm saying? So you get that reality check quick. And then to your point, like you go from being the man at NC State to now, like I'm the rook. So like, hey, the equipment manager, he got a lot of bags. Go help him out. You know what I mean? And I had real vets too. You feel me? So, yeah, I had a real wake up call. But it was dope though. What vet took you in the most? What vet did you learn from the most early? Probably Harrison Barnes. Harrison Barnes, I tell you, I had J.J. Barea too though. I was just about to ask you that. I was about to ask you about J.J. Shout out J.J. We just had Carlos Arroyo. Shout out to the hot player, man. I rock with J.J. Torched us in the finals. Yeah, he did. Dallas, you better thank him. Thank him. Yeah, J.J. And I was watching that. It's crazy. I was watching that at my aunt's house. I remember that so vivid. But yeah, I had J.J. Barea. I had Devin Harris. I had a poster of him in my room. I remember Devin Harris. We had the same agent. All-star year on the net. He had that. Me and my homeboys, we took one out of the library. Just took it out of the Little Sports Illustrated book. And I had it taped up on my wall. You know, I'm dirt. Wes Matthews was a good vet. Wes Matthews. Yeah, yeah. I had real vets. You know what? A lot of teams don't got real vets now. I had real vets. You really did. Naming all those names. Were you the only rookie that came in that year? I had Jonathan Motley. But like on the official, official, it was me. Yeah, that's great. When I came in, it was the same thing. I had a bunch of OGs on there. And I was the only rookie. Yeah. It's good and it's bad. You got all the freaking rookie duties. But at the same time, you're learning from real OGs. That's good. Yeah. I mean, how was Dirk? Talk about that. Was he quiet? Was he cool? Dirk was cool. I couldn't even believe he was that cool. You know, growing up, you're watching Dirk. You see Dirk on TV. And he is a super professional in terms of his work and all that. But he just joked all the time. He joked all the time. All you need is 1% to be considered black. Mike got his 1%. Yeah. Mike got his 1%. No, no, no. He for sure do. Hardenstein, black. You didn't know that until you said his daddy was black, did you? That's crazy. We would have never guessed that until you said his daddy was black. Why Dirk can't have a black daddy or uncle or something? You don't know. I think he do. All right. I'm with y'all. I thought you had a black daddy until I met your daddy. We've got another exciting week of hoops coming up. And I've got the perfect way to get you even closer to the action on the court. 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