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What's up, guys? Today we have a special throwback episode of Courtside Club. We are taking it all
the way back to NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland and catching up with one of the coolest hosts in
the NBA, Christian Crosby. I hope you guys enjoy it. God bless whoever hating on me.
Yeah. Can we just clip her saying that and not explain why she was saying that?
God bless whoever hating on me.
What's up, you guys? I'm Rachel DeVita, and welcome to the Courtside Club. Today,
joining us, we have NBA personality, five-time NBA All-Star host. He's a social media influencer
and an artist, and my good friend, Christian Crosby. Welcome.
What's up, y'all? Thank you for having me. What's up, y'all?
Welcome to the Courtside Club. I'm glad we did this in person.
This is so much better than Zoom. I'm like Zoomed out, so this is perfect.
This is perfect. We're in Cleveland right now.
It's my hometown. It's a little event called All-Star here this weekend.
Maybe not the biggest All-Star I've ever been to, but it has been fun.
You hosted Saturday night, last night. How are you feeling?
I feel great. I feel really good about it. Obviously, everyone's talking about the
slam dunk contest, and people were hoping for a little more with that. But other than that,
honestly, I feel like it was one of the best Saturday nights ever.
The performance was sick.
DJ Khaled. I think DJ Khaled,
is one of the most underrated artists ever.
Just underrated humans.
I honestly think he's incredible. I don't understand how he's just that good at putting
together shows and putting together music, and he doesn't actually rap or sing or do anything like
that. He's just a person.
His energy and his presence, and then other artists obviously respect him because he has hits
Yo, shout out to DJ Khaled. Yo, DJ Khaled, flowers. I really enjoyed the show. I was like,
I don't know if you...
You saw me, but I was out on the floor when he was performing, and I completely stopped
caring about the show. I was actually just a fan, and I was just like, and then Little
Chris came out, and I was like, ah, I was getting hyped.
And then Barry came out, and then, yeah, no, that was sick. My agent and I were actually
talking, and he's like, DJ Khaled needs a Monday morning podcast or radio show just
for anybody driving to work, and Khaled just gets on and rants. He's like, you can do it.
That was actually a really good impression of him.
Yeah, no, I love him.
Another one. No, it was good. I actually really liked the Taco Bell Skills Challenge change,
too, like the rules change.
Yeah, that was cool.
What did you think about that? Be honest.
I thought it was really good.
I thought it was really good.
What do you think of Cleveland?
I haven't really experienced Cleveland.
It's okay. You can be honest.
Look, I grew up here.
The crowd reminds me of Philly, and I said this on the court when I was hosting.
It's tough, right?
Like, so one part of it is nobody's too cool to, like, have real emotions.
So, like, I feel like the crowd, like, if they're excited, they actually, like, cheer
Like, if you go to, you know, a Clippers game.
Well, actually, Clippers games are pretty lit, but if you go to a Lakers game...
The most incredible moment.
In NBA history, it could happen, and people are just like...
Please take a picture of my outfit.
That's all L.A. games are.
It's just a show.
Like, see who you want to see, which celebrities are going to be there.
No, I was getting mixed emotions yesterday because I was thinking, like, oh, my God.
I'm here, part of the 75th anniversary of the NBA.
And then it made me think of all of the people that are going to get honored at the...
NBA All-Star Game.
And, like, those are the people who really, like, propelled the league to this level.
And then I started thinking about, like, okay, well, the 100th.
Like, I just started thinking, like, this may be, like, the last time a lot of these
people are together.
And how impactful and, like, amazing all these people are.
So, I just got emotional thinking about, like, wow, it's, like, the 75th anniversary.
And you were chosen to be on the court celebrating this on Saturday night, which, to be fair,
My favorite night of NBA All-Star Weekend is Saturday.
Even though the dunk contest wasn't up to par, how I feel like all of us expected it
to be, the young guys had a lot more potential than they showed last night.
Let me ask you a question.
What needs to be done to make the contest better?
The dunk contest?
What is the solution?
I think the young kids need to prepare a little bit better.
Because think about it.
If those young guys would have made the first dunks that they were throwing down, it would
have been a whole different...
It would have been a great dunk contest.
No, you're right.
The dunks were sick.
The dunks were great.
They just weren't prepared to hit them on the first try, or there was nerves, or there
was something else.
I also think, but this is my biased opinion, I think they should add professional dunkers
into Saturday night.
But I think that they should be included.
Like, do you think they should compete against NBA players?
Or do you think they should be paired up with them?
It wouldn't be...
That could be interesting.
I think maybe paired up.
Because, no offense, but the NBA players wouldn't stand a chance against the pro guys.
But then wouldn't that...
That's all they do.
Could that make the NBA players look bad?
No, because I think the NBA guys might take it more seriously if they knew that they were
partnering up with this guy.
And obviously, there's a lot of ego coming to play.
They don't want to be shown up.
You know, it's a great question, which is why I asked you, because I was thinking about
And I'm just like, it's such a good thing.
It shouldn't go anywhere.
Like, the question is just, how do you...
How do you ensure that it will reach that climax that it should reach?
Like, I don't know.
Because I think another issue that they're starting to run into is guys who would be
electrifying, whether they're doing crazy dunks or not, like some of the veteran guys
or some of the bigger stars, don't want to do it anymore because they don't want to get
hurt or don't want to use their legs for that.
You know what I mean?
Or don't want to get shown up by a younger guy.
Honestly, and this is a bigger conversation because now this is like, this brings my brain
to like social media.
I think social media is really dictating a lot of people's decisions with these types
of things because people are literally afraid that if they do one bad thing, it will go
viral and that will literally mess up their career, their brand, their business, their
longevity, their family.
Like, that is a thing.
So I don't blame them.
I don't blame them for that.
Kobe, Michael, Vince, they didn't have this pressure.
That wasn't a thing then, right?
Like, if you missed a dunk, okay, there's no, who's going to, you can't really see that
footage unless you're watching TV back then.
Now, you missed that dunk and five seconds later, everyone in the world is like, oh,
Well, Jalen Greene makes the dunk, they cut to Shaq and Shaq's like sleeping, you know?
And so that's actually the clip that has gone most viral from the dunk contest.
It's not even OB winning it.
I don't know if maybe you involve the people.
Like, do you just like, instead of trying to avoid this social media bash, do you embrace
it and like somehow incorporate it?
Like, do the people choose the dunks or like, do you, I don't know.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Or is there a category for, like we've seen in some other dunk TV shows, maybe there's
a category for the first round and then there's, it's almost like a single elimination.
You get one dunk.
It's a certain category.
Maybe they add a couple more dunkers.
There's a category.
Uh, it's how many dunks can you make in 60 seconds?
You ready for this?
Yo, what if nobody chooses their dunks?
They show up blind.
They have no idea what's going to happen.
And the NBA chooses the dunks for each round.
Do you think they're good enough?
All players have to do the same dunk and are judged on that dunk.
That would be kind of fire.
Like, okay, you have your four dunkers and the NBA shows a dunk.
Maybe they show a dunk.
They show a dunk that someone's already done, or maybe some, they show a dunk or say a dunk
and everyone has to do it and you get judged by who does the dunk the best.
So, but maybe it's something that a little bit more baseline where it's, it's maybe an
East Bay that they show.
And then you can add your own player.
Like, oh, I can do between the legs dunk easy.
I'm going to add it between legs 360 and go for it.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Because it couldn't be something that was like too hard that, that someone couldn't
actually execute it.
But I think that part of it would ensure the excitement.
Because the NBA is going to choose a dunk that everyone can do.
But then everyone's going to do it really, really good.
You get what I'm saying?
So let's, let's just.
And then the final round is.
You do your own dunk.
Is dunker's choice.
That would, there it is.
We just figured it out.
I'm not going to lie.
That actually would be fire.
I'm not going to lie.
That would be fire.
This is why you've been hired for a fifth time to cover NBA All-Star for ideas like this.
Adam Silver, if you're listening.
Just let us know.
We'll help you coordinate.
We'll help you coordinate.
We'll get Chuck on board.
You can train the guys.
We'll be ready to go.
How did you get started initially with the NBA?
I feel like you've been a part of this family for a long time.
Yo, I have a really good story about this.
Okay, let's hear it.
So I have worked for the Sixers for the last 15 years of my life.
I didn't realize it was that long.
It's been a minute.
So I was like that young, super intern kid that everyone loved.
That would always come into office.
I loved the organization.
I just wanted to be there.
So I was willing to do whatever.
That kind of guy.
Worked my way up.
And I think at this point, when I first started doing stuff with the NBA, I was actually a
manager slash host for the Sixers.
So I was a game presentation manager.
I'm booking the anthems and I'm making the game grid and I'm managing all the entertainment
groups, all that stuff.
And I hosted games.
It was crazy because I would wear a suit and then I would switch and I would, it was, I
was one of those weird employees that just had multiple jobs, right?
But you loved it.
It was incredible.
So what the NBA would do is they would have all the game presentation directors come together
to share their best practices.
And those directors would be able to bring maybe a coordinator with them or a manager
with them so they could learn too.
And I met everyone from every team all in the same place.
It was my first time really knowing that was even a thing.
And I was like, oh, snap.
And then I heard, I started overhearing people talking about All-Star and how they, I was
like, wait, you guys, how, oh, so you guys work All-Star.
Like, it's not like outsourced.
Like, I didn't realize the NBA literally hires all of the people from around the league
that do that to do All-Star.
So I was like, wait, what?
So I was like, oh, yeah.
Oh, maybe I could be an All-Star host.
And I'm, you got to pay your dues with the NBA.
You're not just going to walk in doing something like that.
So I met this person from the NBA and they were like, well, if you want to do it, you
got to be a stage manager.
And I was like, well, what's that?
And then they were like, well, it's, it's a grind.
You're going to grind.
So I was like, sign me up, baby.
You could bring coffee for the first couple of years.
No, I was, no, my first year working All-Star was me rolling t-shirts.
And I'll show you a clip.
I'll send it to you.
Me rolling t-shirts.
I'm on a headset.
I'm like, I'm running.
Like, I'm just, yeah, I, I got coffee.
Like I did whatever I needed to do.
Like, and I enjoyed myself.
It was a lot of work.
The last year that I was doing that, I was actually like a handler for the host.
So like, I was like giving Allie love her cards.
I'm telling this story because it's like, sometimes you just got to humble yourself
to get your foot in the door.
Like, yeah, I was a host.
I was a host back home, but I was like giving a host their cards, NBA All-Star, in front
of everyone that knew I was a host.
And I don't care.
Like, it got my foot in the door.
I built relationships with everybody in the NBA.
And now, years later, I'm the main host for Saturday All-Star, Saturday night.
Like, it's, and it's awesome.
So I think one of the biggest things that I see with a lot of people, unfortunately,
is people are so afraid to fail.
And they're afraid to appear inferior.
Or less than or, like, not successful.
They're afraid to look that way.
And so they avoid the work that it takes to actually become what they're trying to present
And so people just create this fake persona about themselves that they're doing much
better than they are, which makes it almost even harder for them to actually become successful
because now people aren't even willing to help them because they don't know that they
need to be helped.
And, you know, hearing your story.
And me sharing a little bit of mine, it's just like, if you just humble yourself, it
doesn't matter what people think about you.
Like, do the work that it takes.
Make the mistakes, even if it's public.
Make the mistakes you need to make so that you can get where you need to get.
Because at the end of the day, all it takes is a little work.
Once you're successful, you're successful.
Just be real and be honest.
But we are kind of trapping ourselves a little bit with this social media stuff because we
put this unnecessary pressure on ourselves.
To be something that doesn't exist all the time.
And it's just like, for what?
Because we all deep down inside know that it's not real, yet we still desire to be perceived
that way, which is weird.
But I feel more and more pressure the more followers that you get.
And I think if you're able to keep a sliver of your authentic self without giving everything
away, because I do think having a personal life that's not on the internet is also important.
But if you're able to show your authentic self.
And show that side that will be relatable to anybody around the world, not just somebody
in our little bubble of an industry, then that's what will help you grow and reach a
I'm glad you're saying this because if like outside looking in, I'm sure people would
say you're one of those people who is perfect.
Everything you post looks perfect.
The lighting, your looks, your, oh, you make every shot.
You cross over everybody.
You do gymnastics flips and everyone loves you.
And it's like, here you are saying.
You feel pressure and you're trying to balance the genuine you, the transparent, like, you
know, journey version of you and then the product, which is a business version of you.
And then like also protecting the personal side of you.
It is a real thing and it's refreshing, I guess, to hear you say that, which is really
interesting to me.
Honestly, at the end of the day, and it's a fight for me.
I am fighting myself to be myself because of the pressures of like, well, you want to
And unfortunately, money, there's a certain thing that gets you money.
Not, not yourself being yourself all the time may not get you money all the time or as much
money than you could.
And so the question is, well, you want to live a certain way.
So is that selling out or is that business?
Do you get what I'm saying?
Well, you have to find that balance that works for you.
But as you grow, you'll, you'll find.
Um, I want to dive deeper into what you've done on social media after halftime.
I know that you're also very into music.
So I grabbed some lyrics from some songs that kind of mentioned basketball and or players
And I want to see if you can name the artist and song.
I'm nervous about this.
I have anxiety now.
We'll start off with one that is like a softball.
I need that money.
That can't be the easy one.
I'll give you more.
I'll give you a little rhythm.
At least like when I started balling, I was young.
You're going to think about me when I'm gone.
I need that money.
It's named after a famous basketball player who might or may or may not have played for
the Sixers and his prime post Malone.
Another softball.
Been Steph Curry with the shot.
Been cooking with the sauce.
Chef Curry with the pot.
I gave it a little.
The best part about this halftime is just you saying these lyrics.
It's not me giving you an answer.
Chef Curry with the pot.
What song is that though?
Chef Curry with the pot.
It's not post Malone.
The post Malone was easy, but I.
But you delivered it a little.
When I come back like Jordan wearing the four or five, it ain't to play games with you.
It's just the way you're doing it.
It's to aim at you.
Probably maim you.
Did you see the hand motions?
But can you just do that again?
The maim you part.
Probably maim you.
Do you know that song?
Like do you know that song?
The next song I'm going to.
Song lyrics I'm going to read to you.
And that's around the time that your idols become your rivals.
You make friends with Mike, but got to AI.
Him for your survival.
I know this song, but I don't know this.
There's no way that's.
Is that how it's said?
It's the time your idols become your rivals.
It's the time your idols become your rivals.
Can you at least maybe like, could you maybe hit the rhythm to it?
I don't know what part of the song this is, but I know this song.
Give it to me one more time.
It's a Drake song.
What Drake song is this?
I almost know every song.
I know every Drake song, lyric for lyric, and I don't know that one.
You did pretty good though.
Was that the last one?
That was the last one.
Well, I do have a bonus, but I'm not sure if you'll get it because it's.
Why wouldn't we do it?
Oh, you know what?
Actually, let's see.
My name is Kazam.
I got the whole world planned.
So listen to the man.
Shaq got bars, yo.
Yo, now I would love.
Shaq's got to do more music.
But original music.
I want to hear a track from Shaq, yo.
I feel like he's.
I feel like Shaq is more famous now than he's ever been.
Shaq is killing it.
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Besides from doing the NBA hosting, I'm also a sports fan.
I love to watch football and sports, and all of the social media stuff that you do
You're very into music.
You're into clothing.
How did this whole world come together?
Now you have your own clothing line.
It's so exciting.
It's so cool, too.
I have a brand called Live Life Nice.
So it was a snowball effect.
I didn't wake up one day and say, I'm gonna make a brand called Live Life Nice.
It was more like when I was young, I wanted to be a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, an
well, how the heck am I going to do all of that?
That doesn't even make sense.
Like an entertainer does this and a philanthropist doesn't make a lot of money
and does this probably.
And an entrepreneur has to put all their time into a business.
So how am I going to balance that?
And when I was younger, I really didn't know what I wanted to do.
So I just started doing random stuff.
And I would – me and my friends would call ourselves like the nice guys
because we were kind of nerds.
Like it was – so we would do charity events.
So you called yourself the nice guys and then you beat people up as a hobby.
I actually got beat up a lot first in karate, but then I did get kind of nice with it.
It was a good joke.
So I started doing charity events and I made a T-shirt that said nice guys on it.
And people were like, yo, I want a shirt.
And then I would make more shirts and then people started to ask if they could buy them.
And then that's when the idea came.
I wasn't even thinking about making a T-shirt company.
And then I made T-shirts.
T-shirts that said nice guys, but then it kind of excluded women.
So then I changed it to nice brand and more people liked it.
So I was like, I want to partner with like a charitable partner or something.
And literally I just went online and I found emails.
And I emailed like 20 different organizations.
No one answered me other than this one woman.
Her name is Robin Valentino and she worked for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
And she was like, I love your idea.
Like whatever you need, we'll officially partner.
We'll partner with you.
And I'm like, really?
Like, she was like, yeah.
I was like, I can use your logos and everything.
And she's like, yeah.
And I said I would donate 20%.
So I donated 20%, made $0.
It was a bad business model.
But I learned that anything's really possible if you just try.
Like I was a nobody.
I had 20 T-shirts to my name and I partnered with one of the biggest hospitals in America.
I don't know how official it was, but she gave me an opportunity and we did that.
And it was great.
So once I did that.
I fell in love with entrepreneurship.
I was like, wait, I just created something out of nothing.
And now it's something like that's cool.
Now, I feel like every space in this entrepreneurial social media entertainment is very saturated.
The people who break through that are people who are really passionate about what they're doing.
And they're willing to do whatever they need to do to make it happen.
And like you said, making the cold calls, emailing, reaching out to people you wouldn't know and kind of taking that risk.
So that's, I think, a great story to share.
For anybody listening who wants to get into it, make sure what you're doing, you have, you love it.
And there's a reason why you're doing it also.
And I think adding that charitable element, like you said, 13-year-old you wanted to be an entertainer, a philanthropist, an entrepreneur.
And now you've hit fashion, you've hit sports, you've hit music, and you're giving back, which is really cool.
I'm just trying to be like you when I grow up.
So we're going to get you on the court and work on your jump shot.
Yo, I'm not good at basketball.
If anyone watching this didn't know that, I think it's funny, though.
You're decent at pickleball, right?
We went to Chicago together for an event.
And we played pickleball together.
Pickleball, baby.
No, I'm joking, obviously.
But we are getting to the end of the game, so I have some buzzer beaters for you.
It's not trivia this time.
Have fun with it.
What is your ideal courtside fit?
Sweats and a hoodie and some really cool sneakers.
Some really cool, yeah.
And either a beanie hat or a trucker hat.
Oh, I like this hat right now.
God bless whoever hating on me.
Someone pointed out to me that this hat is like half like proper grammar and then the
other half is kind of like.
Did you hear me slow down when I started?
So I actually really like it about it.
God bless whoever hating on me.
But it should be hating without a G.
Can we just clip her saying that and not explain why she was saying that?
Because that's funny that you just said that.
What is your ideal food and drink combo while sitting courtside?
I am obsessed with water now.
I hated water before.
Yeah, I'm late to the party.
If you were to sit courtside with one person, dead or alive, who would you love to sit with?
Dead or alive thing always messes me up.
This is going to sound cliche, but I just really want to ask him like so many questions
about like Area 51 type stuff.
So I'm going to say Barack Obama.
It's one of the most interesting answers I've gotten so far with that question.
I'm just being honest.
I'm trying to be.
True to myself and give you the honest answer.
Like, I want to know stuff.
Like, I'm one of those guys.
It's just like, I just want to know.
Last buzzer beater.
If you could be at one event in history, if you could be courtside at one event in history,
what would it be?
It could be sports or not.
Well, I am diehard Philly forever.
So I'd have to say 83.
Three championship game seven or whatever game six or game seven, Dr.
J and the boys winning the championship for Philadelphia.
I would have loved to be courtside for that.
Are you kidding me?
Yeah, I would have like that would be insane.
You would have needed earplugs for that, too.
It would have been so loud.
Yeah, I can't imagine what that was like.
Think think if Philly makes it back to a finals and there's a game seven situation, they might
They might need the.
National security to be there.
I will cry if the Sixers win a championship in my lifetime.
You'll be hosting and you'll just be sobbing from the sideline.
No, I will literally cry.
No, that would be sick.
Before I let you go, Christian, thank you so much for coming on the courtside club.
Let everybody know who's watching and are listening where they can find you on social
and anything that you have coming up soon.
So you can find me on social at Christian Crosby pretty much on every YouTube, Twitter,
TikTok, Instagram.
It's all the same at Christian Crosby.
I have a lot coming up.
I have new launches for my brand Live Life Nice in both finish line and Foot Locker.
I have a lot of music coming out.
Just if you follow me on social, you'll you'll hear about that.
I'm really excited about.
We didn't get even into that at a deeper level.
No, you're going to have to edit out some of my weird stuff probably.
It's all staying.
We don't we don't edit.
And you don't miss.
I just had a good wink.
You don't usually have.
I mean, you know, it's iffy.
It's not consistent.
Who had a better wink now is the question.
Vote in the comments.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
Subscribe and like for more.
Check out Christian on all social media and we'll see you guys next week.
I just want to say on the podcast, I'm really proud of you for everything you're doing.
And I hope that you continue to embrace who you truly are.
As you continue to grow.
I appreciate that.
That's all I want to say.
That's all we got.
See you next time, guys.