Byron Mullens from the London Lions, NBA Coaching News, and the Incoming BBL Season

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Skylar Smith and Brian Bosche are joined by former NBA and current London Lions player Byron Mullens. They chat with Byron about playing in the NBA alongside players like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Blake Griffin, why he wanted to play for the London Lions, what it's like preparing for the BBL season in a pandemic, and what their team culture is like in London. Skylar and Brian also talk about all the NBA coaching moves, BBL season updates, the London LuperLonics building a super team, the NBL Lynch Trophy, and the new Glossier campaign with WNBA players.

Full Transcript:

Brian Bosche:
Everyone welcome back to the High Tea Hoops podcast. This is Brian Bosche at the Duke of Hoops. We are joined by Skylar, Duchess of Hoops, what's up?

Skylar Smith:
Hello.

Byron Mullens:
Hello.

Brian Bosche:
Hello. Welcome back to the pod. And we are joined by a very special guest today, former NBA player, Byron Mullens, current player for the London Lions. Byron, thanks for joining us.

Byron Mullens:
Thanks for having me.

Brian Bosche:
Works at and I wanted to start off forming little truce. So Skylar went to University of Michigan, you were obviously Ohio State, me coming in from Dartmouth, which we're terrible at all sports so I have no skin in any game. Let's just do a little truce to start off with, Skylar, Byron, you agree? No ill will?

Byron Mullens:
I guess for the next 20 minutes, yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Fine.

Brian Bosche:
For 20 minutes.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. We can settle this pod.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, me living in Detroit and just experiencing the Ohio State, Michigan rivalry, I was very new to it.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. It is something else to experience but to live it... I'm from Columbus, Ohio so I've lived with it my whole life and it's a different experience, for sure.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. I think we were the same class. You were 2008? Is when you started.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
So I was right around that same time. I think you were the number one high school recruit-

Byron Mullens:
I was.

Brian Bosche:
... in the country. So I was a little bit behind as a glue guy on my Montana State High School team. We were different positions though so we weren't directly competing.

Byron Mullens:
That's probably why, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, exactly. Seven footer-

Byron Mullens:
They were the good old days.

Brian Bosche:
But my first question to start off with is what was it like playing with Mark "The Shark" Titus, Club Trillion.

Byron Mullens:
Oh, my God.

Brian Bosche:
He was a legend on our basketball team at Dartmouth just because of the Rainmaker video, where he was like, "You guys don't think I can play." What was it like playing with Mark?

Byron Mullens:
He kept it fun, man. In serious situations where he would just butt in and just make everybody crack up. But obviously, Mark started on as a manager at Ohio State a couple years before I got there, and then they got short some guys, and then they brought in Danny Peters and Mark Titus as walk-ons. Mark, he's a hell of a basketball player though. He can play the AAU ball with Greg Owen and Mike Conley, Daequan Cook and those guys in Indiana. And I think people forget about that. And Mark, man, he's hilarious.

Byron Mullens:
Obviously, came out with the book Don't Put Me In, Coach, he started Club Trillion and the Club Trillion stat line or whatever. But man, he was still... I remember times when we would play we would dare Mark to not wear his jersey underneath his warm-up because as a player you don't know when you're going to go in, we could be blowing up [inaudible 00:02:48] and you're like, "Holy smokes, I'm about to go in, I haven't got my jersey on." So we would do dares or bets like that with Mark and he would do them because he's an idiot like that. But no, man, Mark he's a great guy.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, if you don't know Club Trillion is like you'd go in for one minute and then zero stats.

Byron Mullens:
Zero stats.

Brian Bosche:
So you're a trillionaire because of that one zero.

Byron Mullens:
Mark had it, man. Unfortunately, I know in college he wasn't allowed to make any profit off of the Club Trillion website because he was an athlete and they looked at that as a booster or money type thing. But I think he made up for it in the long run after he was done there. But yeah, man, Club Trillion is a-

Brian Bosche:
Throwback.

Byron Mullens:
... everybody knows about it. It's been around now.

Brian Bosche:
Love Mark Titus. But for some real questions, you're British-American, your mother is from England. So what was your experience like in British culture growing up?

Byron Mullens:
Really, honestly we didn't have any of the British culture. My mom was born here in Middlesex to my grandfather was in the Air Force, so he was stationed here at Middlesex. She's got four sisters and a brother and they were all born here, and they lived here til she was about eight or nine years old and they moved back to the States. They moved to Virginia. And I was born in Ohio. So there wasn't really any history there. I never met my real grandmother, I think she's actually from here, but I don't have any connection with the family or anything like that. I would love to somehow meet up with somebody if they're still here or whatever. But yeah, so that's that in a nutshell.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
So if any of Byron's family is listening, his long-lost family.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Slide in his defense.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, Mullens is the maiden name, I took my mom's maiden name. So yeah, man, if anybody's here.

Brian Bosche:
Reach out. So what drew you to playing in the UK? When did you start getting the idea of like, "Okay, I'm going to go back, I have nationality there"?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. So it all started back in 2012. Obviously, when the Olympics were here and GB was in the Olympics and they needed some players like me, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng was the big names in the NBA at the time. And I was like, "Yeah, man, my mom's from there. Is there any way we can get connection there?" And we did and got my passport. And unfortunately, some things fell through in 2012 and I wasn't able to play. And then 2016 came up and I actually had to have ankle surgery from a injury that I had back in 2012 or 2013, so that fell through.

Byron Mullens:
And then there was last year that I was supposed to play just for the cup games, or whatever they called, qualifying games. And my team in South Korea was not fond of me leaving the club and going to play and they're always that big concern on, "Well, what if you get hurt?" And I'm like, "Yeah, what if I get hurt staying here and practicing?" Because this is a national team break, every team in the whole country has it off. So they just weren't too fond on it, but yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I saw you talking to Sam Neter from Hoopsfix and talking about you wanting to play on Team GB moving forward which I think everyone's really excited for that was some of the-

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. Because I know when I first started Chris Finch was the coach because he was in Houston at the time and I was talking to him and then it became Joe Prunty, which I have a really good relationship with Joe, and then it moved on to the coach now. So I've been in contact with him and Jamie Smith as well. And I'm just trying to get it to where it lines up with everybody's schedule. And now with the COVID and stuff, I know we supposed to have the qualifying games in November, they're supposed to be played in France, but we don't know, there's supposed to be a bubble. We don't know how the season is going to be, if it's going to be that national team break still. Just everything, the COVID's just kind of...

Brian Bosche:
Everything's up in the air.

Byron Mullens:
Just crazy.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. You mentioned playing abroad. You've played in the NBA, you've played all over the world. We mentioned you have British heritage. Do you find that there's a big culture adjustment with every new team you go to and every new country you play in? Or is it pretty much the same everywhere? And I will say we did ask DeAndre this question so I will be interested to hear yours and we can let you know what he said.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, there's a big culture difference especially when you start playing in the Asian countries. Obviously, because the language barrier is one thing. Trying to learn everybody's name, you're trying to learn 15 people's name that you can't even pronounce. And then you start making up nicknames for these guys.

Brian Bosche:
On the spot, on the court, you're like, "Hey, you, come over here."

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, you call them by their jersey number for the first two months. There's a big difference. Overseas basketball period is tough because you just never know, it's a cutthroat game. A lot of places like China, you just don't know, you can go in and you can score 30 points but they're not happy with the way you play and you get cut. It's just like that pretty much everywhere. You can go to Spain, you can go to Italy. It doesn't matter where you're at, it's like that, there's no guaranteed deal. So that's one thing.

Byron Mullens:
Obviously, there's a big difference in trying to get used to people's food. Because obviously, there's you go to China it's, man, you don't know what you're eating.

Brian Bosche:
Trying to keep your nutrition going?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. I went to China, I was on a keto diet and I'm like, "Man, you can only eat so many eggs." And it's like, "All right, let me... I don't know what to eat now." But there's a lot of things that go into it, you just got to really learn how to adapt to your surroundings. But once you've learned how to just go keep your head down, do your job. At the end of the day, the basketball is basketball. You got to try to...

Byron Mullens:
I'm a family man, so you're leaving your family and all this stuff. A lot of stuff ties into it. Obviously, the time difference from back home, you can't talk to your family as much and stuff. So it's definitely a shock.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. I saw you on IG Live lifting weights, talking to... is it your wife, your significant other?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, my fiance now, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Fiance, congrats. And your baby, or a baby?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, I got an eight year old son and then we got one on the way. He's due... the first original due date was January 10th and because he has a big parent, I don't know who that could be, he's three weeks early right now so they moved to due date after December 26th.

Brian Bosche:
Wow, congrats.

Skylar Smith:
Congrats.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, that's amazing to hear.

Byron Mullens:
Thank you, thank you.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, just getting your workout in talking to your fiance just while you can.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, so I go on and I try to interact with fans, try to interact with them and if I'm in the weight room or something, or if I'm out walking, I'll jump on IG Live.

Brian Bosche:
Yep, or yoga sessions like this weekend with your teammates. That was hilarious.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, that was on Saturday. Yeah, we show up to practice and we're like, "All right, where's the coaches and stuff at?" And they're like, "Oh, we're just going to do shooting and yoga today." I'm like, "What?" They're like, "Yeah, we just want to get your shots up and then we're going to bring a yoga instructor in and just do some yoga." I don't know if you guys ever done yoga or if anybody's out there done yoga, I'd rather do a full body workout and a 10 mile run than do a yoga session because that was just a completely different type of workout. But no, it was fun just to change it up a little bit and relax. But still, I don't like yoga.

Brian Bosche:
I don't know many seven footers that do.

Byron Mullens:
No.

Brian Bosche:
It's a long way to go.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
So what do you find the banter is like? How do you find the banter with your English teammates compared to the American teams you've been on? Or even your American teammates on an English team? Do you find that it's different? This is kind of similar to the culture shifts.

Byron Mullens:
No, it's pretty much the same. Yeah, it's pretty much the same. Obviously, there's a slight little language barrier, just the phrase words that they say here in England.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, DeAndre could not guess a single one in our quiz with him.

Byron Mullens:
I've seen the interview so I'm already [inaudible 00:11:41] on that.

Skylar Smith:
You studied up in case we sprung it on you?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. Like, "What the hell does that mean?" And like, "Oh, this is..." And like, "Oh, okay." Basketball is, anywhere you go, you still have the same old little pranks and jokes you have with teams. The rookie hazing is a lot different overseas because really you don't really get a rookie on the team anymore. But no, it's still like that, team camaraderie and just messing with each other and that's how you build that.

Brian Bosche:
Who's the funniest player on the team? On the Lions?

Byron Mullens:
On our team? Me and DeAndre like to mess with Andre Lockhart a lot. We just mess around with him, give him a hard time, he gives us a hard time. Joe, the team captain, he's more serious but more joking, so you never can really tell if he's joking with you or if he's... But, no man, everybody pretty much across the board is just pretty much laid back, down to earth and you can go up to one of them and just give him a hard time about something. It's fun.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, that's good to hear. So going back a little bit, what excited you about joining the Lions in the first place? Vince Macaulay, new ownership in with 777 Partners. What excited you to come in and play for the Lions?

Byron Mullens:
Well, first, me and DeAndre played together in Sioux Falls for a couple of years so obviously, when my agent came to me and said that... anywhere you go, when your agent comes to you and says, "Hey, this team is interested," the first thing you'd do is look at the roster. And fortunately with the social media that we have at our fingertips you can find out who the roster is, who they've recently signed, in 20 seconds. So obviously, that was the first thing I did. I seen DeAndre was already here because I think he was here August 6th or something like that. So I got on Instagram, messaged him like, "Hey man, how's it going? How's practice? How's the coach?" Because you get in some places where you get these Serbian coaches or these crazy coaches, as we say, and it's like... that's really big key too because you get some coaches, man, they can take years off of your career. So that's the first thing you ask, how's the practice, how's coaches, how's the team? DeAndre just had nothing but great things to say. So that was one thing.

Byron Mullens:
Another thing that was playing in effect was obviously, the COVID situation. And at that time nobody was really signing any players. Some players were signing in Japan but I had a couple of friends that signed in Japan but nobody was going there until November. So you've got that aspect. And then obviously, like we talked about earlier, is the culture. So it's a lot like the States here because, one, everybody obviously, speaks your native tongue so that had a big effect on it too. And then also my family, like I said I got a baby on the way and this is a perfect place for me to potentially bring my wife and my baby and raise them here. And you just don't get that. You can go... I'm not going to bring my son to China, or I'm not going to bring my son to Iran, or whatever other places I played. So that was big thing that went into this decision too.

Brian Bosche:
My wife is obsessed with having our kids, our future kids have English accents and go, "Mummy."

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, that's she says. We got one of our teammates, Justin his son, he's cute, man. He has a video on his Instagram of a son giving an introduction of himself. And I tagged my fiance and I'm like, "Look at his son. How cute he is." And he's just got this nice little accent and just the way he talks and carries himself, he's five years old and the kid knows absolutely everything about basketball. The first day I met Justin was like, "Hey, when was BJ drafted"? What's draft [inaudible 00:15:39], he knew everything. That was the first thing she said, "I want our baby boy to get the English accent." And I'm like, "Well, we got to stay here for a couple of years for that to happen."

Skylar Smith:
I'm going to have to check out Justin's kid. I was obsessed with the babies in the bubble, I couldn't get enough of them. It was the best content.

Brian Bosche:
There's a whole segment.

Byron Mullens:
I'm telling you, you got to go to Justin's Instagram page and look at that video of Zion introducing himself and what he likes to do. It's funny, it'll make you smile for sure.

Skylar Smith:
I'm going to have to do that later. You brought up COVID and the pandemic. What's it been like training for a season during a pandemic? Is it different training? Are you approaching it differently because you're thinking, "We're going to have to play without fans"? Or is it pretty much business as usual?

Byron Mullens:
It's business as usual on some kind of way. At the same time it sucks because, one, our season was supposed to start a month ago and at the same time, okay, we've got to start date of November 1st but you still don't know, it can still be pushed back again. Some aspects of it like, man, you're tired of practicing against each other. So we're trying to throw on these scrimmages obviously, closed doors, no fans allowed in, which also sucks because it's just like another practice, you don't have that energy there. That's what we look forward to the whole week is playing against somebody in front of fans because it's just that energy, it's that adrenaline that you look forward to. But it sucks.

Byron Mullens:
I was talking to a teammate the other day and I'm just like, "Man, you just don't know if they're going to cancel the whole season," because you think about when the COVID did happen there was minor cases of it and seasons was canceled everywhere. And now you look at it and there's thousands of cases and season's still going on [crosstalk 00:17:38]-

Skylar Smith:
... still happening.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. But it sucks because it's in the back of your head, just like, "Man, they could still..." Our first games on the 1st but at any minute they could-

Brian Bosche:
It's just all up in the air.

Byron Mullens:
There's games going on right now that are in the second division or [inaudible 00:17:55], I believe I'm all new to this.

Brian Bosche:
Yep. And NBL, they're having a [crosstalk 00:17:59]-

Byron Mullens:
... or whatever, yeah. So they're like, "Hey, this game's postponed because so and so got COVID." Last season when I was in Spain, that's where I finished up at, they were like, "Oh, we're not canceling the year until a player gets it." And then two of the players in Real Madrid got it and they canceled the season. Players are getting it now and it's like, "Ah, it's not a big deal. The show must go on."

Brian Bosche:
Move forward.

Byron Mullens:
So I don't know, man, but-

Brian Bosche:
A lot's up in the air.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. The whole thing is just stressful and depressing because-

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Byron Mullens:
... new tier levels that they're putting on England right now, where you can go out to the pubs and be surrounded by people but you can't go to your family's house in groups of six or whatever. But it's also funny because when we were traveling to Belgium, or whenever we went to Denmark or something, they smashed 200 people on an airplane and all of a sudden it's okay, there's no social distancing when it comes to that. But when you get off, they're like, "Hey, we're going to exit the plane 20 people at a time to-

Brian Bosche:
It's like, "We've all been sitting together this whole time."

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. I'm like, "Dude, we've all been breathing and coughing on it, whatever the case might be. But it's okay because you guys got your money already." It's such a joke, man.

Brian Bosche:
It's the conflicting guidelines are so hard.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:19:25]-

Brian Bosche:
Someone was saying, "Let's just play a game in a pub," or like, "Let's live stream in a pub together," or something, and then the rules fit.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. So if I can't meet my family in my house, let's just go out to the restaurant. And I truly believe [crosstalk 00:19:38]. Yeah. In my opinion, I believe that trying to do a separation thing from family or from anything because I know back in the States when it first hit, there was people having babies and they couldn't bring anybody in the hospital. And that first 10 minutes of baby's life that's a very important bonding time and I think that it's really stripping that away from people. And I think they're... I don't know, I guess you can call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think it's more than... The deal of the handshakes are no more now because people are afraid to meet and touch each other. I know that's such a small thing but in the big picture of things it's huge.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. It's hard to balance the health with the economic because it's been what? Seven months now, eight months, and the BBL to survive they need to play. So how do you balance the survival of the league versus the health? Which we don't have to go into COVID too far but it's a tough situation all around. And even for your Basketball Champions League appearance against Neptūnas that was no fans. What was it like playing in that game?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, it was brutal, man. [crosstalk 00:20:49]-

Brian Bosche:
Because that's a huge game in the history of-

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. There's a couple of teams here that can't afford to not have fans. And at the same time, the players on these teams that can't afford that this is their career, this is how they make money to feed their families and they can't sit around and wait for an answer. They either got to do it or they got to go find a job.

Byron Mullens:
But anyway, on the Neptūnas game, man. Yeah, it was crazy. So we all get there to the hotel and it was more than us, they were also finishing the games from last year too, I believe. But they had all these teams-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, it's weird. They had the finals and I was like, "Whoa!"

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, so you have all these teams in a hotel which every time you go around you obviously, got to wear the mask. And every time you come in and out of the hotel from practice or the games, the first thing you see is a woman right there taking your temperature before you even coming to the hotel. It's like, "Oh yeah, I just got COVID just by leaving for two hours," whatever.

Byron Mullens:
And then obviously, you're at the games and there's no fans and there's just no energy in the stadium.

Brian Bosche:
There's a car on the baseline. That was funny.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, there was a car on the baseline. And it was funny because... So everybody had to sign off on the contract before we went there and it was like, "Hey, if we see you walking around the hotel with no face mask you're getting a fine." And it was funny because one of the things on there it was like, "Keep social distancing as much as possible." And one of them had said, "Even during the games obviously, stay away from shaking another team's hands and try to social distance as much as possible during the game." And I'm like, "What the hell? Are we supposed to just stay six feet away from somebody to take them in jumping?"

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, pace and space.

Byron Mullens:
If it's coming down to this point don't even have the games.

Byron Mullens:
And it was funny because the other day we were in a scrimmage and I was talking to the referee about a call that was made, and I was standing in the key and he comes running up to me and he's trying to talk to me. And at the last second he caught himself trying to get too close to me. He's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, social distance." And I'm like, "Well, dude, you came up to me. I didn't come to you, you came running up to me."

Brian Bosche:
God, this is so hard.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. If it's to that point where people are freaking out that much, don't even play. I don't know.

Brian Bosche:
You got to commit to it. It's such a tough situation.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, if you want to do it, do it. Obviously, we can't come out here and play with mask on. It's all crazy, man.

Brian Bosche:
It's got to be so hard on the court. Maybe it's just Coach Vince telling you got to space out a little bit more, don't clog the lane.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. That's right.

Brian Bosche:
Just a coaching tactic. All right. Moving on to the FIBA Europe Cup. Obviously, it was a very tough defeat watching against Neptūnas, you guys were right there. But you still get to represent London in the FIBA Europe Cup. So what do you think it means for this club for you to have some success? I think it's supposed to start in January?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. So right now it was supposed to start October right after to be the BCL. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make that. As of right now, we're hearing January 6th is when it's supposed to start. It's big. It's big for the country obviously, and for these new investors showing the investment that they're putting in this team and bringing the team that we have together. If you look at the guys on this team and if you don't get excited by that and what we're going to be able to hopefully, do for UK basketball. Man, it's as exciting.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. We're excited to see. I think that was... It was people like, "Oh, it's a consolation," but it's having success in Europe and showing that you can play on that level.

Byron Mullens:
We got to obviously, win that because the BCL was the main goal of what we want. So if we win the FIBA cup we automatically get that bid into BCL. If we don't, then we got to do the whole BCL thing again the following season.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. It's really too bad that was just one and done, instead of having the player in the Copper Box in London and play one at Neptūnas, that would have been so fun. But the single elimination is so hard.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. Man, I think if you give us some more time, if we did that now we would run away with that. Obviously, when you put a team like us together it's going to take us a while to gel. And I've said this before, you can take any guy on this team and put them on a team by themselves and they're averaging 20 points easy. And when you put a team like that you really got to learn how to spread the floor, you got to go... You might have a good shot but you might want to pass away, might be a great shot. And we're getting that, we're gelling that and getting that down. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to play as much as we want to play with the whole COVID stuff but we've got another scrimmage just on Friday and then our season and it's supposed to start with the cup on the 1st, I think, next Sunday.

Byron Mullens:
Obviously, we're started just to start playing and finally, like I said it's depressing, man. You're sitting here practicing for nothing, you don't know when the season's going to start and it all takes a toll.

Brian Bosche:
Definitely. So switching to your MBA career, you've played with some of the best players in the world, KD, Westbrook, Harden, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin. What kind of lessons have you taken from them and apply to your leadership style and your game?

Byron Mullens:
Man, to sum it all up in one quick one is probably just being a pro's pro. Taking care of your body, doing the right stuff you got to do off the court, showing up, lifting if that's the case, getting the extra conditioning in.

Brian Bosche:
Yoga.

Byron Mullens:
I started my career in Oklahoma City and my first lesson I learned is when they say, "Day off," that doesn't mean there's a day off. Because we played a game and the coach came in, "All right, guys, tomorrow, we're going to have off. I'll see you." I don't know what it was, say, it was a Saturday that we had off, and he's, "I'll see you on Sunday." I'm a rookie, so I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going to enjoy my day off." I didn't show up, I came in Sunday. And everybody's like, "Dude, where were you at yesterday?" I'm like, "Man, you guys said we had a day off." They're like, "No. You still come in here and get shots up, get a lift. Everybody was here but you." And I'm like, "Holy shit. Okay, now I know."

Byron Mullens:
So I go from there and then I go to Charlotte and they're like, "Hey, day off tomorrow, guys." In the back of my head I was like, "No, I'm not falling for this again." And I show up the next day, lights were off, no coaches, no trainers were there. And I'm just like, "What a difference from world class," and I'm not saying Charlotte's not that like that. I think they've done some big changes and Mike went from, he was part owner at the time when I was there, to now he's full owner. But it was just a big change from Charlotte to Oklahoma City.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, what a difference.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. And I literally went there and I had to turn the lights on and I'm like, "I'm just going to get shots. I'm already here." And then I go from there and then I go to LA where we had training camp and that was about it. Doc was a veteran coach, we had veteran players and that's where you really learn how to be a pro's pro because we really didn't practice that much. But it was on you to get your job done, to get in the weight room, to get in there and get with the assistant coaches. Because they were there because they have the rooms and they look down on the court so if they seen someone there they'd come down and you get the work in.

Byron Mullens:
But yeah, it's just a big difference on what organization you're playing in and you can take those lessons from each club. And that's why here that's all I do is, you see me on Instagram, I'm at the gym or I'm up at 5:00 running on Tower Bridge. I'm just always trying to do something. And this whole thing, not to touch on the COVID stuff again, but you just got to keep your mind busy and stay busy or else you're just going to go crazy.

Brian Bosche:
It's an intro, the young OKC team putting in the work, hungry, trying to practice-

Byron Mullens:
Oh, my God.

Brian Bosche:
... versus the veteran team of the Clippers.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, you're talking about a team that we just did two hours of practice and still after practice you see guys like KD, James, Russ, they're still playing one-on-one for another hour from the elbow on the top of the key, like, "Holy smokes, dudes, go home guys."

Byron Mullens:
But yeah, man, you can see that. We had a very young, talented team, I wish that team could have stayed together, the damage that they would have done in the future. But obviously, money situation at that time salary cap went up from 55 to $60 million to whatever it is now 120, 130. And that was the situation there, they didn't know who to keep. Was it James Harden or was it Serge Ibanka? And at that time, it's easy to look back and say, "You guys did the wrong move," or whatever, but they just, at the end of the day they didn't have the money to keep that whole club together.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, they did right by James by letting him go to Houston. But Sam Presti's a world-class guy and I got nothing but love for him. And he's a guy that was in, I believe was in San Antonio, started out when he was one of the youngest [crosstalk 00:30:23]. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
You were almost a Supersonic, so close. First year from what we talked about before. But like we talked about before London Looper Lonix are my fictitious NBA team in London. Maybe we'll get you at the end of your career. Maybe full circle in London.

Byron Mullens:
Let's start it. Maybe we can be investors in it. We can start our own club.

Brian Bosche:
Expansion to the London Loop Lonix. All right, we're signing you as our first player once you leave the Lions.

Byron Mullens:
I'll be your player-coach.

Skylar Smith:
That was the verbal commitment.

Brian Bosche:
player-coach. Verbal commitment.

Byron Mullens:
Be the player-coach, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yes. First player.

Skylar Smith:
We got him. Did Blake Griffin ever test any of his jokes on you? Any of his standup routine?

Byron Mullens:
Oh, my God. Blake Griffin has the driest humor but it is hilarious. He was-

Skylar Smith:
I love Blake Griffin.

Byron Mullens:
Oh, my God. He was one of the funniest players I've ever played with because he would say a joke and he would just keep the straightest face, and he would watch you-

Brian Bosche:
Waiting for you.

Byron Mullens:
... waiting for you to laugh. Blake was the coolest dude, man. He was cool. I love Blake.

Brian Bosche:
It's too bad that he has fallen to Skylar's Pistons here and just been relegated to the dungeon-

Skylar Smith:
All right, that's so rude. All right, that's enough.

Brian Bosche:
[Crosstalk 00:31:33] Skylar. Skylar's a big pistons fan. So, sorry, Blake. I've been to a lot of those games, that's a tough place to go play.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, it is.

Skylar Smith:
It's tough.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, especially in the winter in freaking Detroit.

Brian Bosche:
Sorry, Skylar [crosstalk 00:31:46]-

Skylar Smith:
Still better than Columbus.

Byron Mullens:
It's not.

Skylar Smith:
It's still better than Columbus.

Brian Bosche:
Skylar, we drew a truce. We had a truce, Skylar.

Skylar Smith:
Listen, the truce didn't extend to the cities, it was just the schools.

Brian Bosche:
Okay.

Byron Mullens:
No, I don't know about that.

Skylar Smith:
Okay. Speaking of great cities, what have you enjoyed most about being in London so far? I know you've been in lockdown. Have you been able to get out experience pubs, experience some restaurants, do some fun stuff?

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. So the first couple of days I was here, they told me, one, traffic is absolutely insane here so it would take you an hour to go five miles. And I'm like, "All right. So let me look up how close we are to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and all that stuff." And it's three miles down the road. I'm like, "All right, let me see if I get an Uber to take me an hour." I'm like, "Nah, I'm just going to go walk." So because on the way there you go to Tower Bridge and Tower of London and all that stuff.

Byron Mullens:
So I'm like, "All right, so on the way there I'm going to see all the stuff I want to see." You see that, you see the London Eye, you see the... or whatever it's called, the churches, Elizabeth Tower, obviously Big Ben. And then you walk a little bit farther down and you see Buckingham Palace and Wellington Arch and all the parks and stuff. And it's, man, so I got all my pictures in I wanted to get. And it's just awesome because you just got this history fill. You kind of feel it. It's just something you can't really explain how it is. It's just you know you're surrounded by very old stuff that has a story to tell.

Byron Mullens:
There's not a lot of places like that. Spain was like that. When I was in Spain, I was in Madrid for just a couple of weeks and the place I was staying at was just around the corner from where they fight the bulls. And so I went down there and I was like, "Man, this place was built in," I think it was 1909 or 1912 something crazy. And it's like the architect that went into this so long ago that this thing is still standing today. It was just unbelievable.

Byron Mullens:
I came back home and I started watching the Netflix show The Crown and I started to learn the history of that. And then I started looking up how old the Buckingham Palace is and all these other places. And I'm like, "Man, they're over 300, 400," some of them is over 700, 800 years old. And I'm like, "Holy smokes, man." But that's something that pictures don't do it justice and it's just something that you got to take in and just enjoy in the moment. It's crazy-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, little different than the Midwest.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah, absolutely. The Horseshoe is one thing but when you're standing there and looking at the Buckingham Palace or something, it was totally something different, man, you can't really explain it.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
I remember it blew my mind. The first time I went to London just how much older things are. I remember that blowing my mind too just because everything in the US is there's only basically so old it can be if it's from Americans not from indigenous peoples. And everything there it's... not unlimited, but it just goes so much farther back than ours. It's crazy.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah. It's insane. Like I said we're close to the Tower of London, you go there and you got all the signs on the front and it tells you the history of the Kings and Queens and who was here. It's crazy. You sit there and just take it in and just picture it being back in that time. And how was this stuff even built... how they built this stuff without the tools that we have today. And it's the architect, like I said it's crazy.

Skylar Smith:
Did you get a chance to get down to any of the amazing shopping in London? Because I asked DeAndre if he was planning on coming in on any Firewalk [outfits 00:35:51] and he told us we could expect some.

Byron Mullens:
Absolutely. [Crosstalk 00:35:54] he comes like that to practice. Every day he's got something new-

Skylar Smith:
Swagged out?

Byron Mullens:
I want to know how many bags he packed when he came here.

Skylar Smith:
I think he's been shopping there. He told us he was going to shop there.

Byron Mullens:
Probably because I haven't seen-

Brian Bosche:
He's been on Regent Street.

Byron Mullens:
I haven't seen DeAndre wear the same thing twice. Me, I've got three or four sweaters and they all got the London logo. I don't care, my time is very well spent on something else than figuring out what I'm going to wear the next day. No, DeAndre has definitely got the swag and he's going to be having all the outfits.

Brian Bosche:
Skylar, going to be [inaudible 00:36:37]. You got to start it, Skylar.

Byron Mullens:
You have to because he'll be the top one on there. I'll just be coming in with sweats and a sweater maybe or something.

Skylar Smith:
The [yogurt 00:36:50] strategy.

Byron Mullens:
Exactly.

Brian Bosche:
So to close this out, Byron, thanks for coming on. Last question. Any words for London Lions fans going into this season? What do you want to leave the fans with?

Byron Mullens:
Just stay patient, man. I know it's tough with the whole COVID situation. We still hope that we can have fans one day. We know that like we talked about before it can be depressing and basketball or any sports event where fans show up, it's their getaway from the outside, to get out the outside world and enjoy it with their family. My thing is just if you can still stay tuned, watch us on TV. Like I said before in other interviews, we see the posts on Instagram that people make and tag us and you can communicate with us. Don't worry about if we're don't respond to your DM or not, I'm always responding to everybody on Instagram. So if you want to message me, ask me any questions or whatever, do it. I'm open to that. But hopefully, we can start playing in front of you guys again one day. I don't know when, but yeah, stay with us and stay supporting us.

Brian Bosche:
Thanks, man, we appreciate it.

Byron Mullens:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Thanks, Byron.

Byron Mullens:
Thank you.