Darien Nelson-Henry from the Leicester Riders

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Skylar Smith and Brian Bosche are joined by Seattle native Darien Nelson-Henry from the Leicester Riders. They chat with Darien about growing up playing basketball in the Pacific Northwest, playing D1 hoops in the Ivy League, why he decided to play in the British Basketball League, the Riders season so far, the BBL Cup, and what he likes about living in the UK.

Full Transcript:

Brian Bosche:
Hey, everyone, and welcome back to High Tea Hoops.

Skylar Smith:
High Tea Hoops.

Brian Bosche:
This is Brian Bosche at the Duke of Hoops, and I am joined by Skylar Smith. What's up, Duchess?

Skylar Smith:
Hi, Brian. So excited for the pod today. We haven't had a player on in a while and yeah, just really excited to talk to him, and American one at that.

Brian Bosche:
American in the BBL, our special guest today is Darien Nelson-Henry of Leicester Riders. What's up, Darien? Welcome to the show.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Hey, guys. Appreciate you having me on today. I'm really excited to be here.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. And I know you just had the BBL Cup final or semifinal, which we'll get to in a little bit. But we want to start off the podcast because we've actually hooked together in Seattle. You're from the Seattle area. Talk to us a little bit about what it was growing up in Kirkland, right? But in the Seattle area playing basketball.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yep. Yep, yep. So yeah, born and raised in Kirkland my whole life. I lived in the Seattle basketball scene, I guess, and I think it's an under appreciated scene-

Brian Bosche:
I think so too.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
A lot of good hoopers have come out of that area. People talk about the big names like obviously, LA, New York, and then the Midwest produces a fair amount. And so, yeah, Seattle doesn't get as much love as I think it deserves sometimes, but yeah. I mean, I played basketball. I played at AAU with Zack LaVine. I mean, I've been playing in Jamal Crawford's Pro-Am over there. Seen some big names come through there. Yeah, and then I played in Isaiah Thomas' tournament a couple years ago down in Tacoma. There was some big names rolling through there. So, it's a growing scene, and I know that a lot of hoopers have appreciation for it, but the outside world doesn't appreciate it as much but hoopers definitely do.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, I mean, Seattle is pretty under the radar overall for a lot of different things but basketball. Jamal Crawford having every summer, like the Green Lake, which was an NBA Street Volume II, the Green Lake pick-up court-

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Amazing.

Brian Bosche:
Those rounds are so fun. And you're right, there's so many good hoopers. Jamal Crawford's a big name, Isaiah Thomas, were there any other... Who are some of the guys other than Zack LaVine that were in the scene while you were growing up?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Let's see, man. I mean, just speaking from who I grew up idolizing coming through the Friends of Hoops Program, which I played for AAU wise was... It was Spencer Hawes, Jon Brockman-

Brian Bosche:
Oh, yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
If you remember him from UDub, Martell Webster, Isaiah Thomas. And then my best friend, Matt [Stocker 00:02:25], who his brother played, Ryan Stocker, who wound up playing overseas for a handful of years, played on that team. A lot of guys came through the AAU from Friends of Hoop, but Seattle Rotary was big when I was younger, which is Tony Wroten, [crosstalk 00:02:39] who now plays... I'm going to say he plays Alba Berlin, which is your league, or he played Alba Berlin last year. I'm not sure where he is at this year. And then I'm good friends with Nate Sikma who is Jack Sikma's son, and then Luke Sikma who now plays in either Alba or Valencia, which are two Euro League teams. And so, yeah, my age group had a lot of guys growing up.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, you're a few years younger than me, but yeah, the AAU scene. I was AAU with John Stockton's kid. [crosstalk 00:03:05].

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I played with Riley Stockton, his cousin or David's cousin.

Brian Bosche:
I know, God, Riley kills me in the Washington Athletic Club League. Man, he is so good. You're like I go to... I'm just at work on conference calls all day. I'm like, "God, I got to guard Riley, fuck." It's brutal out there.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Seriously, man. They're all just... I mean, Gonzaga was one of my first offers and the highlight of my basketball life, I swear it was I got to do a pick and roll clinic with John Stockton [crosstalk 00:03:35]-

Brian Bosche:
That's amazing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I was his screener. And then he did the breakdown for all the guards and I was just like, "Am I really doing a pick and roll clinic with John Stockton right now?" This is crazy.

Brian Bosche:
That's amazing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
And his whole family is always running through. Yeah, David, Riley, and then all those guys. There's a couple of them and they're all good hoopers, fundamentally strong. [crosstalk 00:03:53]. You see them pop up all the time, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Do you think the SuperSonics are coming back? Do you think the NBA is going to expand?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, man, I hope they do. I hope they do. I mean, maybe I shouldn't be saying this. But I have a running bet with one of my college roommates, $1,000 running bet that he gave me 10 years to get the Sonics back. I think I got three years left on the bet, so I'm hoping it pulls through. I don't know if he remembers though. [crosstalk 00:04:20].

Skylar Smith:
It's looking good for you.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, honestly. I'm hoping. Fingers crossed, man.

Brian Bosche:
The pandemic has helped because all the owners want those expansion fees and have that upfront cash.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Absolutely.

Brian Bosche:
There's so many billionaires. Bezos, just throw a little bit, or Mackenzie, let's get Mackenzie Bezos as the owner. That would be a dream.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Seriously.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, we don't want Jeff Bezos as the owner, no.

Brian Bosche:
So, Skylar, you're Mackenzie-

Skylar Smith:
Yes.

Brian Bosche:
Who would be your ideal owner, Skylar, Mackenzie?

Skylar Smith:
Mackenzie... What's her last name now? Mackenzie Scott.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, true. Yep, yep. That's your dream?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. Absolutely.

Brian Bosche:
All right. That'd be amazing. Darien, have you heard of the London Looperlonics?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I have not. What is this? Please tell me more.

Brian Bosche:
This is our fake NBA team. London's first NBA team that we made up on Twitter. We've got a sweet logo. We're like if the Supersonics aren't coming back, let's bring the Looperlonics back.

Skylar Smith:
We've got a lot of great people committed already.

Brian Bosche:
Yep, we got [Moe Munce 00:05:14] as the GM. We've got coach Paul Nicholson from the Raiders. He said he'd come down and we could poach them to coach the team. We have a standing offer with Gareth Bale to come in, which we'll see how that goes. But yeah, and it might start as an Esports. Team, Skylar. Now that we had the Manchester giants eSports guys on-

Skylar Smith:
Okay. [crosstalk 00:05:35] on the pod.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Why not?

Brian Bosche:
It's more realistic. I mean, the expansion fees is what? What was it? 1.5 billion, 2.5 billion?

Skylar Smith:
I think, yeah, I think it's 2.5.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, my gosh.

Brian Bosche:
Sheesh, that's a lot. All right, let's run through your Ivy League days. So, I went to Dartmouth, you went to Penn? What was it like? Why did you choose to go to an Ivy League school where they don't give athletic scholarships in Ivy League if the audience in the UK doesn't know. So, it's much more of a commitment to the education. But what were some of the reasons you decided to go to an Ivy League school with offers at other big name schools?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, yeah. It was definitely a situation that I had to weigh all the factors for and I had some decent offers from quality schools. I was talking to Stanford. They had an offer. I had one from Cal Berkeley and stuff like that, which are also pretty good academic schools. Part of the thing was I wanted to get out of the Seattle West Coast area. That was part of it. And I hadn't spent any time really... My first time to the East Coast was actually on my official visit to Philly.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I went with my dad, and I fell in love with it immediately. And the guys who were my upperclassmen that showed me around were great. They were awesome, and they really did a good job of selling the place, I guess. Not that they had much selling to do. It speaks for itself, the history and the merit of the school. So, yeah, I actually had a visit set up to Colombia the weekend following my visit to Penn. And I had to call... I committed the Tuesday after I went, so I left on Sunday night, showed up, committed Tuesday, had to call up the Columbia coach like, "Hey, look, I'm sorry, I got to cancel my visit."

Brian Bosche:
Sorry, man.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
He was not happy about that.

Brian Bosche:
Well, my sister went to Columbia, not a sport school. Not a big culture of sport there.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No, absolutely. I can imagine. I mean, you're in New York City. Now that Philadelphia doesn't have its fair share of distractions and other stuff going on. But the basketball tradition in Philadelphia is massive. And so, I could see why in New York there's a million other things going on, so maybe sports, at least, college sports takes a backseat.

Brian Bosche:
Yep. They don't have facilities because it's so hard to get real estate in New York. So gyms are in basements. I've gone to those gyms. The football team, I think has to practice in New Jersey. They can't even have a field in New York.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, man.

Brian Bosche:
It's brutal.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
But I think we crossed out... We didn't cross over exactly. I think you're exactly four years younger. But a lot of the guys that I played with at Dartmouth, I started the club basketball team there, but in the Ivy League you get a lot of people going to the gear day and then quitting because the scholarship isn't tied to it. So we had a lot of guys go over and I played with all these guys. So, I'm going to rapid fire some names. Just want to see if you matched up against them, [inaudible 00:08:14].

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah. Name rings a bell. I think I might have played against them maybe one or two years, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Okay. All of these guys probably only a couple years with the overlap, John Golden.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
John Golden. Yeah, I definitely remember him. He was a little wing slasher.

Brian Bosche:
6'6". Yeah. Big dunker. Will McConnell, this one's a reach. I don't know if he played [crosstalk 00:08:34]-

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No, doesn't ring a bell.

Brian Bosche:
Tyler Melville.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Tyler Melville, maybe, it sounds familiar [crosstalk 00:08:40].

Brian Bosche:
Okay. 6'2" guard, off the wing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I'm trying to flip through the scouting reports in my head.

Brian Bosche:
Exactly.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Some people that I know are better at this than I am. They could just recall names that they've played against like that. Like my coach, Rob Paternostro for example. He's a basketball database. You bring up one name, and he's like, "Oh, yeah, I recruited this guy. I was talking to him. We watched his film six years ago." I'm like, "Dude, I don't even know who I played against last week."

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, yeah. Well, [Gabicce 00:09:04] and John, I mean, were incredible. It's really fun to play against them. But enough of Dartmouth nostalgia, enough of Ivy League nostalgia. Skylar, [inaudible 00:09:11].

Skylar Smith:
I feel like I could just not say anything and you guys could just go the whole pod like this.

Brian Bosche:
I know I could... Let's not get away with it.

Skylar Smith:
Again, I guess it's Brian lets me go through my Michigan stuff plenty on this pod, but let's shift to [crosstalk 00:09:23]-

Brian Bosche:
It's good to have some Ivy League hoopers for once, Skylar. Enough of all of your NBA players.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Not so many of us make it out.

Skylar Smith:
It's true.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
We got to hold on.

Skylar Smith:
That's true. Let's transition though a little bit towards the BBL. So, what excited you about the opportunity to play in the BBL? What made you want to join the Riders?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry to take it back to the Ivy League again, but I got to do that.

Brian Bosche:
I love it.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
So, if you remember this Tyler Bernardini who was... He's a Penn basketball guy. He played for Riders I think immediately out of college or one year removed from college.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, nice.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
He did a little stint in Italy. I've kind of followed him from afar social media wise. He was exactly four years ahead of me. So, he graduated as I came in, and I saw his success over here. They were winning trophies. He got to do his MBA up at Loughborough as well.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, nice.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I had played in Europe for three or four years before this, and I'm seeing that the Masters is a realistic possibility. I've seen it, there's a culture of success here. So when things fizzled out for me in Bosnia, I got a call from the Riders and everything seemed to fit together. And yeah, when you play overseas for a couple of years you start to realize there's perks and drawbacks to every country that you play in. And the language barrier not being there in England was definitely definitely a factor. And just the quality of living. I was coming from Bosnia who is still recovering from a civil war, and yeah, and then I get to [crosstalk 00:10:55]. Right, yeah. Then you get to come somewhere like the UK, which is a little bit more stable. And it makes a world of difference. Your off the court life can directly relate into your performance on the court. So I think that's definitely a factor I took into account.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, of course.

Brian Bosche:
Well, it seems like you've prioritized education and setting yourself up after basketball for your entire career. Are those huge factors when you make these decisions?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely. The way that I look at it, I guess, is I've put so much effort and blood, sweat and tears, I guess, whatever you want to call it into basketball. It's been my life for 20 years at this point. And it'd be a shame if I wasn't able to extract other things from my life due to my effort and the hard work I've put in towards basketball. So, being able to get an education via basketball, whether it was my undergrad back at Penn, and now getting a masters up at Loughborough. Yeah, might as well cash in on all that hard work that you put in and I've used it to relay into coaching opportunities and working in the community. I know Riders do a great job. They have this thing called the Leicester Riders Foundation, which basically reaches out to local schools and tries to get the kids interested in basketball and spread awareness for health and mental health, physical wellbeing and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's just being able to reach into different avenues via basketball is huge for me.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, definitely. And from the playing style perspective we hear a lot about the BBL being a little bit more faster paced, maybe more similar to the game in the States. How have you seen what the playing style is like in the UK versus elsewhere in Europe?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I think I would definitely say that the BBL is the most comparable to NBA style of basketball. I mean, we pride ourselves with the Riders on playing really good defense. And that's kind of like our identity. I think we take the most pride in defense unlike the NBA, so our games might not always look like it but we definitely-

Brian Bosche:
What do you mean? [crosstalk 00:12:59]. NBA, come on.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I was just watching [inaudible 00:13:03] before I got on here, and I'm just sitting there like, "Oh, my God, this really happens." So, yeah, I think we pride ourselves on defense and maybe our games don't always look it, but I think you watch some other games and it is run and gun, man. It is just like the NBA. Shots under 14 seconds on the shot, past half court like boom, boom, bucket. So, yeah, Austria, we were averaging 50, 60 points a game and other places-

Brian Bosche:
Geez.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, more like a high school game or a slow Ivy League game or something like that, you know?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Not so much the like the 100 points scoring games or more that you see sometimes in the BBL.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, definitely.

Skylar Smith:
So, you mentioned you had played in a bunch of other countries in Europe. When you eventually came to the UK did you find that there was a big culture adjustment with the team? Was the banter kind of different or do you find that the culture at every team you join is kind of the same, and it's just basketball is basketball?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I mean, there's always a little bit of consistency when it comes to basketball because I mean, everywhere the terminology is the same, dah dah, dah, dah. But it also remains the same because there's three to four, sometimes even five or six Americans on every team.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, good point.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah. So if you want to kind of... And you know the first questions I like, "Oh, I'm from Chicago. Oh, do you know this guy? Do you know that guy?" You're always [crosstalk 00:14:28]-

Skylar Smith:
Literally exactly what Brian just did to you.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, it's great.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, exactly. It's just the basketball thing. You just spin that web together. Oh, I know this guy who knows that guy who played against this other dude, and it's always... You always spin that web. So, everybody knows somebody that knows somebody, basically. So that's always a sense of familiarity that you have, which is great. But in terms of culture surrounding you and within the team, it's always different from place to place. The banter is definitely different. But it remains the same, it's always the same kind of stuff. Like you're just poking fun at your guys, which is always fun.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
But yeah, I mean, as similar as England and the BBL is to America and the NBA, there's its fair share of differences. I can't really think of any off the top of my head or pinpoint any because at this point I don't even know what normal basketball culture is because I've experienced so many different places. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's just kind of fun to experience different people's takes and different environments to play in. Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. When you're living in the UK is there anything specifically that you miss about America? I'm not saying that there's a ton to miss about America, but I feel like there-

Brian Bosche:
No, I know.

Skylar Smith:
... are random little things. Like when I lived in the UK, I really missed ranch dressing. It's a kind of thing there, and I did my pizza in it. So, I want to know what you miss about the US. And then I also want to know what your favorite part about living in the UK is.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, there are some things I miss. There's always a small substitute that you can find. I mean, Chipotle is one. I haven't had some Chipotle in years now.

Brian Bosche:
Wow.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know that's crazy. There's one in London though.

Skylar Smith:
You got to get down to London, yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know, I know. There's one or two in London. We just got a Taco Bell here in-

Brian Bosche:
What?

Skylar Smith:
There's no Taco Bell in London.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, just got a Taco Bell, which is huge. I'm super [crosstalk 00:16:20]-

Brian Bosche:
Do they have Mexican pizza?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No, they don't. [crosstalk 00:16:22]. It's like a limited menu. Yeah, it's like a limited menu, man. It's always different. Even the McDonald's in Austria is awesome. For example, McDonald's in Austria is better than McDonald's in America for sure, which is weird. [crosstalk 00:16:36]. You just find these little things. Yeah, ranch dressing is absolutely one of them.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Mountains?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Mountains. Yeah, I wish I had some more of those. But I got my fair share of mountains in Austria. So, I just feel I can still hold it back. My second year in Austria I was playing in the Alps, the very beginning of them. In a little mountain town called Kapfenberg, which is maybe 30,000 people. Amazing hikes in the area. It's called the Gruner See. It's this lake where the glaciers melt, and it fills up this lake during the springtime. Ashton Kutcher posted about it, and now it's popping off. There's all these tour buses going. Used to be like-

Brian Bosche:
Influencer spot.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, used to be a hidden secret, thanks to influencers now there's tour buses running up there all the time.

Skylar Smith:
Oh, no.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
You find cool things in your area that can supplement the stuff from the US, basically, is what I'm trying to say.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, it's kind of transitioning from Seattle to Philadelphia, or the East Coast where it's totally flat and just a totally different environment.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, man. Yeah, East Coast is different for sure. That was my first cultural shock ever going from West Coast to East Coast. While it's still minor, and you're still in America, absolutely different world out there.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, absolutely.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I guess that was a good stepping stone for then my first season was in Poland, which is pretty much as extreme as it gets. And then I eased it off a little bit with Austria then went back to Bosnia, which is a little crazy. And now I found a good middle ground in England here. So, I found my comfort zone, I guess, you could say.

Brian Bosche:
So, favorite parts?

Skylar Smith:
Do you see yourself staying in England long term?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, that's, I guess, to be decided. My girlfriend's from Austria. And so, yeah, we've been together. She's doing her master's at Loughborough as well with me. So, she's living here with me.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, nice.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
We're both set up studying right now. I'm on a two year deal. So, she's doing her master's over one, and I'm doing my master's over two. It's a stretch program to make it easier on [crosstalk 00:18:34]-

Brian Bosche:
The training schedule.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
... elite athletes. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I'll be here for at least the next two years. And then hopefully the world will return to a little bit normality, and I can figure out do I enter the job market straight after my master's or do I play maybe one or two more years on a part-time deal and work half the time and play half the time? It's to be determined. We'll see how things are going. But to answer your question about favorite part of England, just living here in general is amazing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Sometimes you forget that you're living in England, especially during a national or a global pandemic. You're stuck inside all the time. All of a sudden, you're like, "Yeah, let's go on a walk or let's go on a little hike." And you're seeing castles on the hike, and these massive old 1200s cathedrals and stuff. You're like oh, and you go through a little sheep pasture and all this crazy stuff. And you're like, "Oh, my gosh." You forget there's these beautiful rolling hills outside and there's old architecture and all this amazing stuff. And so, yeah, it's like living in a fairy tale. You think about Harry Potter and all this other kind of stuff, and then all of a sudden you're in it, you're doing it.

Skylar Smith:
My favorite thing that shocks Americans in the UK is just how old everything is.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Right.

Skylar Smith:
Because we're used to hitting a wall with how old things are in this country.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely.

Skylar Smith:
It's basically when the pilgrims came and anything before that [crosstalk 00:20:01]-

Brian Bosche:
Seattle is so new.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, Seattle everything is 1800.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
[crosstalk 00:20:05] Clark is our guy.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. And then everything in England is so old. It's the thing that shocks Americans the most, and it's such a funny random thing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, totally. It was the same for me going back to the parallel between Seattle, Philly, and now then it's from Philly to England. When my dad and I were [crosstalk 00:20:26]-

Brian Bosche:
You're going back in history.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, exactly. We saw these places where Benjamin Franklin sat, and we're like, "Oh, my god, that's crazy."

Brian Bosche:
It's so old.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Because there's nothing like... Yeah, it's so old, then you get out here, and you're like, the first queen of blah, blah, blah sat here on this stone. And you're like, that was in 200.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, you're like Smith Tower in Seattle like, "Whoa, early 1900s." Or whenever it was that's old here. Look at the stone, and they made it in stone. Can you imagine that?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
It's very funny.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, definitely.

Brian Bosche:
But you've been at the Riders for a couple years now. What has it been like transitioning to training during the pandemic, getting the season off the ground? Obviously, this BBL season and the NBA has just been a really tough slog to get through. How's it been training and then actually playing in arenas without fans? What's that been like?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, definitely interesting. It's funny because we got three new Americans in this year. So, their only experience with the Riders, and the BBL has been under this pandemic. And I have to remind them sometimes, it's so much different here when it's back to the normal world, whatever that's going to look like. Because I was here for, I mean, October through March of last year, and it was an amazing experience. The Riders fans are so loyal, so amazing. They do tons of community outreach stuff. The season ticket holders will come in, and we'll have all these fundraisers and really, really fun events and stuff like that. And we can't have any of that now. So the connection and the, I don't know, the camaraderie within the team is there, but the connection and the camaraderie with the outside fan base isn't there, which is one of the things that makes Leicester so special, and the BBL so special because the fans are so passionate, and so welcoming. Just so welcoming.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know my girlfriend has gotten rides from season ticket holders to games and stuff. She's buddies with all of them on Instagram and stuff. They're always chatting up with the BBL gossip and stuff like that. So it's just really... It's a shame that some of those guys don't get to experience it. And then, yeah, when it comes to training under a pandemic, yeah, we get in. We have to take our temperatures. We have to sanitize every 10 to 12, 15 minutes or something like that. We got to... They basically follow us everywhere. So we have to have a chaperone through the gym anywhere we go. We can only have small lifting groups in the weight room, new balls every 20 minutes that they have to be sanitized. Just small things like that [crosstalk 00:22:53]-

Brian Bosche:
Do you forget about it when you're on the court?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Bosche:
It just goes away.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I don't think about it. That's one of the beauties of basketball is you can forget all the external issues for those two hours you're on the court, which is I swear, that's my stress relief. That's my therapy just going out there and hooping for a little bit.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, we were talking to-

Skylar Smith:
The NBA just got rid of they're not allowed to high five when they're at free throw line. I'm like, "Good luck trying to get them to do that." That's such a natural thing. You're just in the game, and on a roll. I'm sure they're not thinking about COVID.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Right. I didn't even know that they did that. But yeah, we had the same rule. They gave us a little rule spreadsheet, and it's like, no high fiving, no shouting because that'll spread the particles or something. I don't know. But it's like, if you're... If one of my teammates goes and dunks on somebody-

Brian Bosche:
What are you going to do?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, good luck getting me not to yell. It's an instinct.

Skylar Smith:
How are you going to whisper it?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, good job, Will.

Skylar Smith:
There you go. So, you mentioned that the camaraderie between the fans and the team has been what you've been missing this season. So we have a little game to try and get to know the players on your team. Hopefully, we can let the fans know. So we're just going to run through rapid fire. Just tell us the first teammate who comes to your mind when we say the descriptor.

Brian Bosche:
Do you want to alternate, Skylar? You go first?

Skylar Smith:
Sure.

Brian Bosche:
Okay. All right, fast.

Skylar Smith:
Okay. Who is the funniest player on the team?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Zach Jackson.

Brian Bosche:
Who has the best style on the team?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Melo... Jamell Anderson, sorry.

Skylar Smith:
What young players on the team should we watch out for?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Kyle Jimenez.

Brian Bosche:
Is Conner Washington the fastest man alive?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Him and Usain Bolt are like neck for neck, yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Who's the most likely to do something that's going to make you have to do extra laps or extra sprints?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Probably Geno.

Brian Bosche:
Most balanced on the team?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I'd say it's a tie between Geno and Will. Geno's probably bouncier, but Will is just so long. It's the stuff that he can do in the air is crazy.

Skylar Smith:
Who's the best shooter?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Corey Johnson.

Brian Bosche:
Most likely to be late for the bus?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Probably me... No, I'm just kidding. No, I don't know. Probably Geno, yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Who takes longest to get ready? Does anyone have a very intense skincare routine?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, not that I know. It's definitely not me. I'm looking... I don't know if you seen this beard, but it's pretty raggedy.

Brian Bosche:
It looks amazing on the court with a ponytail.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, man, it's a little too much. I think it's going to come off in the next couple days here. It's getting a little too much. In terms of routines, I don't know, Jamell and Corey, Will they get their hair done once every week or every two weeks and I know it takes two, three, four hours with some of those braids they got going on. So, I'd say it has to be one of those guys because that's some serious commitment.

Brian Bosche:
What are you going to win most likely for? What's your superlative on the team?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, you didn't say yourself once.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Oh, man, probably clumsiest or goofiest or something. I don't know.

Brian Bosche:
That's a good one.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I don't know, most weird stuff said. My pregame hype up speeches are just God awful.

Brian Bosche:
Like Harry Kane levels? Did you see that documentary where he was hyping up the Spurs?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No, I haven't seen it, but I'll look it up.

Brian Bosche:
It's so funny. It's like the... It's not cheesy. Skylar, how would you describe the Harry Kane pregame speeches?

Skylar Smith:
There's just-

Brian Bosche:
Come on lads. Lads, lads.

Skylar Smith:
There's no actual flavor to it. It's like he's just saying let's go win, and it's like, all right.

Brian Bosche:
Because he's not super vocal. It's like Kawhi. It sounds weird when he's so vocal and shouting.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
My thing is I try and get too logical and technical about it. Instead of just firing people up I'm like, "Their zone is terrible, and their statistic three point percentage is lower than ours, therefore, we should..." Do you know what I mean? It's like Ivy League-

Brian Bosche:
Ivy League is bursting out of you. You can't help it.

Skylar Smith:
We're statistically more likely to win this game, guys.

Brian Bosche:
Let's do it.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
That's not hyping anybody up. It's just listing facts.

Brian Bosche:
It's like, all right, let's get out there.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, exactly.

Brian Bosche:
That's great. I think that was TikTok link Skylar. We can clip that for social pretty easily.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Okay, let's go into the BBL Cup Semi Final. So, to start off with as Americans we're raised with sports where there is one championship. There's no cup, there's no trophy. So, we're learning all this new in the BBL. How do you like that there are multiple opportunities to win these type of trophies throughout the season rather than just all or nothing?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, it's definitely weird. I don't know, people joke around that. It's just giving every club an excuse to say that they were champions in some right. You know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I don't know, you can go and tell sponsors like, "Hey, we won a trophy last year." But you only won one of the four possible trophies. So, it's kind of an interesting thing for Americans. We definitely joke about that, and it's carryover from soccer, or football. or whatever, I guess. They do the same kind of thing. It's definitely a good opportunity, especially if you could win two or three of them to be able to say we really... That's when you know you've really dominated that season, but if you had one team win each then it's kind of like, well-

Brian Bosche:
Kind of like a split season.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, who really? So, I mean, I know it's definitely the Riders have... I think they've won all. I think they've won three out of four, or maybe they've won all of them at one point maybe a few years back. And that's definitely something to work towards. Yeah, unfortunately, that's not going to be us this year. But we can still get three out of four, and I think the guys are pretty to use a British term, gutted, after yesterday.

Brian Bosche:
Pretty gutted.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Gutted, yeah. Yeah, it's tough. Those are the ones you want to win.

Brian Bosche:
As fans that was a really fun game, and compared to the NBA early season where the Clippers are down by 50 at half. A lot of the teams aren't trying as much. It's almost like a preseason. You versus the Eagles in the semifinal matchup, and you back and forth was a lot of fun. I don't know if you'd get that without a cup semifinal and without that type of stakes in a competition.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good point. It's kind of something to bring a little intensity to the mid season aspect of it. Yeah, as you mentioned, a lot of people say they don't even watch NBA to the Playoffs. That should be a catchphrase for the NBA, I swear. And so, it is. It is a nice little touch that can add that intensity, that little flavor midway through the season. We have the trophy coming up either end of this month or beginning of next month. We drew Lion in the first round of trophy so it should be pretty good.

Brian Bosche:
It'll be a fun one. But yeah, this was... Would you say the Eagles are your rivals? It feels like you, the Lions, and the Eagles have kind of separated out from the rest of the league.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I mean, I think it sort of looks that way. They were the ones who are in our group for the group phases of Cup.

Brian Bosche:
I know, group of death.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, exactly. That's what they called it. And, yeah, so that was definitely some hard... Those were definitely some hard fought battles. But yeah, Eagles have always... I think Eagles and Riders, especially because we're further up north has always been a little bit of a rivalry. I mean, back when the London City Royals were a thing. I remember them. They were pretty decent. They disbanded before I actually got a chance to play against them. But I think that there was that London rivalry going on. And there's that little northern rivalry going on. And yeah, the other teams just fit in where they can. I'm sure they had their own stuff. I think Giants, Manchester Giants and Cheshire Phoenix had a little thing going on. I'm Bristol and Plymouth, maybe, I don't know, but [crosstalk 00:31:00].

Brian Bosche:
[inaudible 00:31:01] rivalries.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Brian Bosche:
Your battle with Evan Maxwell was really fun to watch as well. You guys were going at it back and forth. Skylar's fit king, Darius Defoe who she's a huge fan of was also out there. Who's the toughest person to go up against on the Eagles?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
On the Eagles, I mean, Maxwell is a really talented player, and their other their foreman, Gordon, is also really good. I think a guy who's been with them for forever, and he's kind of their X-Factor, obviously, is Rahmon Fletcher.

Brian Bosche:
We had him on too.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Okay, nice.

Brian Bosche:
He's great.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, yeah, he's a nice guy. I mean, I've talked to him and chatted with him a little bit on the court and off the court. Seems like a nice guy. But yeah, he was pretty quiet last night, but he still has that impact because you have to really focus on his abilities and taking him away. And he's such a good passer and has such a good IQ for basketball that if you take him out scoring wise he's going to have... I think last night he had seven assists, but in previous games, I think he had 11 against us and nine or something like that. So, he's always going to find a way to impact the game and you need to try to neutralize that, and let other people become the impact players, I suppose.

Brian Bosche:
Well, you and the riders, I mean, you have such a deep squad. There's so many players that can contribute. It seems like he definitely picks his battles where he's like, "All right, do we need a big mid range jumper right now?" He hit one yesterday when they needed it, his first point to the game. I don't think he scored in the first half even, but he seems to do adjust enough for what the team needs and still give the players across the Eagles those highlights.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, totally.

Brian Bosche:
Riders seem to do the same. You're spreading it around. Someone seems to step up every game. Again, if people aren't watching BBL and they're just NBA fans in the UK, the BBL is fun, and these battles are really fun. I think people under appreciate it.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, yeah. It's going back to the culture here in England. Soccer is holier than thou. Soccer is top, top. Even just the other day, I was at the local corner store, and these kids come running in for these little sticker booklets of all their favorite football players. I'm like, "Where's our BBL ones?" [crosstalk 00:33:16]. At least in the US, they would have NFL, NBA, MLB all next to each other, but here it's just they just got a soccer one. And with how much money they feed into the Premier League it's understandable that they have a little bit of separation against us. But if you're a basketball fan living in England there's no reason you shouldn't be involved with watching the BBL because it is really exciting.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, best of luck in the trophy and the rest of the season for that. But tough loss, man. It could have gone either way.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, yeah. And that's another one of those situations. We went up two with I want to say four or five minutes left or something that. And same kind of situation happened with London two weeks ago. We go to learn to put those ones away when we have that lead late. It's something we're working on and something that if we want to be the championship caliber team that we strive to be that we're going to have to solidify.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, definitely.

Skylar Smith:
I have kind of a random question.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Let's hear it.

Skylar Smith:
Why aren't you on social media?

Brian Bosche:
Darien, I can't find you, man.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No, I'm off the grid, man. I'm off the grid. Yeah, I don't know. I just kind of... I don't really have a reason to be honest with you. I have Facebook. I have Facebook, and I can stay connected with my friends and family back home. And the people I meet throughout the countries I've lived in and stuff via Facebook, and that's enough for me. I think if I did have Instagram-

Brian Bosche:
Are you 26? How old are you? 26?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
26, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Facebook. Darien, come on.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know. I know. I know. I sound like my dad. Jeez.

Skylar Smith:
You really do.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
But yeah, I mean, I'm going to sound more like my dad now. Even if I had Instagram, I probably wouldn't post on it or do anything anyway, so then I'd just be a creepy guy scrolling through Facebook observing everyone else and not telling anybody about myself. So, I think my profile picture from Facebook's 2013 or something, so it just shows how often I really use it.

Brian Bosche:
Man, that was such [crosstalk 00:35:15] a daft comment though.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I know.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know. So, I don't know. I just kind of... I'm a easily distracted person. I think if I had it, I would probably spend too much time on it. And yeah, I just choose to live off the grid, I suppose.

Skylar Smith:
You're probably a lot better off mentally than [inaudible 00:35:36].

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah. I think I still get the reciprocal. I still hear about it because everyone asks me about it, I'm like, "Oh, I got to go look this up." I mean, I read the news. I mostly just watch late night comedy people. I just watch Seth Meyers and just get my news from him, basically.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. All right.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
So, yeah, that's a... It's maybe not the most whole picture of the world, but it's enough.

Brian Bosche:
We have some personal branding questions for you. Skylar, do you want to go through this and give a little Zoe set up?

Skylar Smith:
Sure. So, we had Zoe Scaman on. She's just a brilliant, brilliant person to listen to about branding. And she basically was telling us that, especially athletes on social media, you can have these kind of pillars that are kind of your side interest that you're bringing people who follow you for basketball. You're bringing more people into that mix through your separate pillars.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Absolutely.

Skylar Smith:
So for me, one of my pillars is fashion. I really like fashion. I really like following walk-in fits. I really like following players' fashion. And so, that's something that I engage in along with basketball.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Awesome.

Skylar Smith:
So, if you were on social media, if you were trying to-

Brian Bosche:
Let's build the brand.

Skylar Smith:
... strong brand on social media, what would your pillars be? What are your side interests that you would want to pull people in with?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, that's a really good question because people have been trying to get me more involved in social media and I'm slowly starting to crack. I think-

Brian Bosche:
You're getting your masters, man. [crosstalk 00:37:11] in the business world.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I know. I know. I do have a LinkedIn.

Brian Bosche:
Perfect.

Skylar Smith:
There you go.

Brian Bosche:
LinkedIn stories, get it.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, that's all I need. No, and even my girlfriend for example, she owns her own... She's digital design and graphic design and stuff like that.

Brian Bosche:
Amazing. You have free resources.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
She tells me all the time. She's like, "I'll run the whole thing. You just need to take pictures with me." She actually runs social media for multiple companies.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, my. Darien, you're so well set up for this.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Maybe that's why I'm so scared off by it, I don't know. But no, and I mean, for example, some of my teammates, they get multiple sponsors from... I mean, there's the headphones that I had on before I switched. I got those for free from one of my teammates who's sponsored by a headphone company, or a speaker company. We got one of ours sponsored by Myprotein. We got a bunch of guys that are just getting all of this free stuff. I'm more inspired by the free stuff, honestly than I am-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, seriously.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, I feel that.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
But if I was going to say some pillars that I would build off of. When I was in undergrad at Penn I did sociology, and building on me using basketball as a stepping stone to gather other resources for my life. I think I would do it just on community outreach and stuff like that. Getting kids involved and making them realize that committing to sports isn't always necessarily a one way street. Just because you get involved in sports doesn't mean that you have to only focus on sports. You can use it as a way to network. You can use it as a way to gain an education. You can use it as a way to just be able to socialize with people. Opportunities like this. If I wasn't a basketball player I may not be on right now. There's just a lot of opportunities that come via sports that you can utilize and just using my platform to tell my story and how it's benefited my life. I think that would be one way that I would try and contribute to it in addition to the free stuff, of course.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, that's great. I mean, that's a big focus of High Tea Hoops too is engaging the local communities. We'll put these clips on TikTok. We'll see how that performs with the British basketball community, Gen Z.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
If you want to see me on social media though, you got to follow Jesse Chuku who was... He was my four man last year, popping off on TikTok.

Brian Bosche:
Really?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
He has like three million followers.

Brian Bosche:
He's huge.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I'm on some of the early ones during the first lockdown.

Brian Bosche:
Let's go.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
During the first lockdown me and him were filming them all the time together. I think one of his first big ones that got a million views me and him... Actually, my girlfriend, [Gretta 00:39:53] had the idea and it was when tall people see each other. It was like we were passing each other in the street, and it's like the internal dialogue that goes within tall people's heads. Yeah, so you got to go... Scroll back in the-

Brian Bosche:
He's amazing.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, he's great, man. Go back in the feed.

Brian Bosche:
I'll go try to find some. His skits around when he's playing in the States. They're like, "Wait, you're from the UK?" He's like, "Yeah." And like, "You play basketball?" And they're like, "You don't play basketball. You're from the UK." He's like, "No, I am British, and I play basketball." He does skits like that all the time. They're great.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, the best is the Nike [crosstalk 00:40:28]-

Brian Bosche:
Do you have a Nike?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
The tick mark. It's like, "What? Ticks? We don't have any bugs."

Brian Bosche:
He's great.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, he's a funny guy, man. Yeah, he's a good friend of mine who was here last season. And yeah, he was actually... He was playing up at Lehigh when I was at Penn.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, nice.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
We played against each other. We didn't even know it because he was there was with CJ McCollum and all those guys. Yeah, so he was there. I didn't even know I played against him until I got here. Again, classic small basketball world.

Brian Bosche:
Yep, definitely. I mean, Jordan Hamilton plays in Seattle all the time who played with [inaudible 00:41:01], with CJ McCollum.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, isn't it... Yeah, it's just weird how that kind of stuff goes. Yeah. And then I was playing at the WAC and I don't know if you saw Kareem Jabbar there. He played in Ukraine last year. I don't know where he's at this year, to be honest with you. He played for my second team in Austria. And then one of his boys that he knew from Montana brought him to Seattle to play. And then all of a sudden I'm seeing him at my local pickup games. I actually knew him from Austria, which is [crosstalk 00:41:27]. It's just so weird how that kind of stuff works out, man.

Brian Bosche:
That's amazing. All right. So, community, basketball, beard maintenance. Let's get some Manscaped sponsorships.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Absolutely.

Brian Bosche:
It's going to be great.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Amazing.

Brian Bosche:
All right. So, we have some audience questions here. So, we had Paul Nicholson on, coach at the Plymouth Raiders, and on the community side. He's the one who did the the BBL player didn't work, and then he just streamed it live on Facebook just with his [crosstalk 00:41:54].

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I watched that. I always watch all my games the next day and I saw him and was like, "What a guy."

Brian Bosche:
So, I asked Paul how long it would take him and their rehab guy to get me BBL ready. I gave my scouting report, overweight through the pandemic, arthritis in both ankles, just turned 30 but good glue, guys. So this was this question on Twitter. Let's end this now and ask Darien. Can the Duke really hold his own in the league? And you can feel free to lie? What do you think? You played with me.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, I mean, like you said, glue guy. That's all you need to say. As long as you're willing to do the hustle things, the small things, grab a couple of boards, check a couple of bodies-

Brian Bosche:
I won't shout. I'm not shouting.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
No shouting, no high fives. play by the rules.

Brian Bosche:
No high fives.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I'm going by the rules, by the book.

Skylar Smith:
He's a great locker room guy.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, you're a culture guy, you're a culture guy.

Brian Bosche:
I'm a culture guy. There we go. How many people are on the BBL rosters?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I don't know.

Brian Bosche:
I can be the 15th man, 12th man.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely. There's always space. If you get that British passport, you're shoo in.

Brian Bosche:
What if I have another work visa? Does that work? Can I go in? Do I have to have a special visa? We'll have to work through this.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
I'm telling you man, the EU passports are a game changer for us Americans, former EU. I guess, well now it's British, but anywhere. I think most places inter-continentally you can bring in multiple EU guys. You know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Now in the BBL it's only one and we filled that with Aaron, unfortunately. Sorry, man. Maybe if you had some long lost relatives in Italy or something.

Brian Bosche:
We'll try to figure it out.

Skylar Smith:
We're both desperate to get new passports. This has been great, Darien. Thank you so much for coming on. We've got one final question for you. Just going to wrap up. What do you have to say to the Riders fans going into the remainder of the season? What do you want them to know? What do you want them to know? Where you guys are at? What to expect for the rest of the season?

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all I just want to say we miss you guys, and we wish we could have you guys out there every game. We always see you supporting on the big screen with the Zoom call ins and everything like that. We really appreciate all of that. And despite the little social media that I have, I still see the outreach, and we still feel loved by you guys. And we wish we could see you more often. But yeah, just keep offering us your support. And we're going to try and turn things around and continue the momentum that we experienced earlier in this season. It was a tough one yesterday, but there's still three trophies that can be won, and we're going to give our best to nab all three of them.

Brian Bosche:
All right. Thanks, Darien.

Darien Nelson-Henry:
Yeah, absolutely, guys. Thank you so much.

Skylar Smith:
Thank you.