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American Morning

Life in the Fast Lane

Aired December 19, 2003 - 09:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Playing in the NBA has been depicted as life in the fast lane for star athletes.
Brenda Thomas is the author of "Threesome: Where Seduction, Power and Basketball Collide." She's a former, as well, personal assistant to NBA star Stephon Marbury, and she joins us from Philadelphia this morning.

Mr. Thomas, nice to see you. Thank for joining us.

BRENDA THOMAS, AUTHOR, "THREESOME: WHERE SEDUCTION, POWER AND BASKETBALL COLLIDE": Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give us the sense of the world these young men inhabit. They are clearly zillionaires in many cases. What's their reality like for them?

THOMAS: Their reality is so different from ours. I mean, when you look at guys who are making $17 million a year, who can go out and buy anything they want, who have the attention of the entire world on them, who have the support, I mean, of the entire world in anything that they do. I mean, these guys are raised up to be icons. And what happens, I believe, is that they start to believe in their own images that we've created for them.

O'BRIEN: So when do you think the trouble begins? When they finally get to the NBA? Or because usually, they have to, obviously, be excellent players every step of the way, that it actually starts a lot earlier than that.

THOMAS: It can start in junior high school. As soon as you start to see some promise in a young kid as an athlete, especially in basketball, people start to kind of cater to that person. Their family begins to cater to them. You know, they have sports outside of school that they play may play in. And then when they get to high school, I mean, they gather up girls immediately. So they have that, then all of a sudden, the sneaker companies begin to watch.

I mean, I watched a game the other week, a high school game, I mean, they had everybody there. Sneaker companies were there. Agents were there. The media was there. It was unbelievable.

O'BRIEN: But at the same time, when it comes to avoiding trouble, you would think there are so many examples of athletes who've done the wrong thing. I mean, the road is just littered with athletes who have made bad decisions, that you think some of these guys would say you know what? I get it, I've seen all these examples before me, I'm not going to go this route, I'm going to go that route.

THOMAS: They always think it won't happen to them, they know better, I mean, as with Magic Johnson. You know, for a while, everybody was all scared about it. Guys were saying they were really going to protect themselves and not do anything foolish. Then again, it all pans out, because nobody thinks it will happen to them. They think they make more money, they're more important, their image is cleaner, that it won't happen to them. Case in point is Kobe. I mean, he believed it himself.

O'BRIEN: It doesn't seem, though, any of these charges to have hurt his popularity with the fans. Does that surprise you at all?

THOMAS: No. And that's the sad part. I mean, when this first happened you know, before Kobe even admitted the adultery, he came out and said, you know, I wouldn't do anything like this. You guys know me better than this. And I'm looking at the TV saying, we don't know you, all we know is what we've been sold about you. As we know when he went to eagle fans were out there cheering for him, they love him, they love him. I mean, that was kind of crazy to me. This was this girl's hometown. But it could happen anywhere, as with Latrell Sprewell, when he choked his coach, he went to New York and people were loving it.

O'BRIEN: Portland Trail Blazers, recently people have been calling them the Portland "Jail Blazers." I guess, they've made some changes. They announced they're going to have a player code of conduct, they're going to reduce the ticket prices, as well. What do you think of steps like this?

THOMAS: I mean, you know, I hope it helps, but I don't think it will. Because when you have people like Rasheed speaking out, his honest opinion, you know, whether he should sail certain things that he said or not, you know, people they don't listen to the rules all the time. These guys don't go by the same rules of conduct that we go by. Their rules of conduct are totally different because they get so many breaks.

O'BRIEN: Brenda Thomas is the author of "Threesome: Where Seduction, and Power and Basketball Collide." Nice to have you.

THOMAS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 19, 2003 - 09:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Playing in the NBA has been depicted as life in the fast lane for star athletes.
Brenda Thomas is the author of "Threesome: Where Seduction, Power and Basketball Collide." She's a former, as well, personal assistant to NBA star Stephon Marbury, and she joins us from Philadelphia this morning.

Mr. Thomas, nice to see you. Thank for joining us.

BRENDA THOMAS, AUTHOR, "THREESOME: WHERE SEDUCTION, POWER AND BASKETBALL COLLIDE": Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give us the sense of the world these young men inhabit. They are clearly zillionaires in many cases. What's their reality like for them?

THOMAS: Their reality is so different from ours. I mean, when you look at guys who are making $17 million a year, who can go out and buy anything they want, who have the attention of the entire world on them, who have the support, I mean, of the entire world in anything that they do. I mean, these guys are raised up to be icons. And what happens, I believe, is that they start to believe in their own images that we've created for them.

O'BRIEN: So when do you think the trouble begins? When they finally get to the NBA? Or because usually, they have to, obviously, be excellent players every step of the way, that it actually starts a lot earlier than that.

THOMAS: It can start in junior high school. As soon as you start to see some promise in a young kid as an athlete, especially in basketball, people start to kind of cater to that person. Their family begins to cater to them. You know, they have sports outside of school that they play may play in. And then when they get to high school, I mean, they gather up girls immediately. So they have that, then all of a sudden, the sneaker companies begin to watch.

I mean, I watched a game the other week, a high school game, I mean, they had everybody there. Sneaker companies were there. Agents were there. The media was there. It was unbelievable.

O'BRIEN: But at the same time, when it comes to avoiding trouble, you would think there are so many examples of athletes who've done the wrong thing. I mean, the road is just littered with athletes who have made bad decisions, that you think some of these guys would say you know what? I get it, I've seen all these examples before me, I'm not going to go this route, I'm going to go that route.

THOMAS: They always think it won't happen to them, they know better, I mean, as with Magic Johnson. You know, for a while, everybody was all scared about it. Guys were saying they were really going to protect themselves and not do anything foolish. Then again, it all pans out, because nobody thinks it will happen to them. They think they make more money, they're more important, their image is cleaner, that it won't happen to them. Case in point is Kobe. I mean, he believed it himself.

O'BRIEN: It doesn't seem, though, any of these charges to have hurt his popularity with the fans. Does that surprise you at all?

THOMAS: No. And that's the sad part. I mean, when this first happened you know, before Kobe even admitted the adultery, he came out and said, you know, I wouldn't do anything like this. You guys know me better than this. And I'm looking at the TV saying, we don't know you, all we know is what we've been sold about you. As we know when he went to eagle fans were out there cheering for him, they love him, they love him. I mean, that was kind of crazy to me. This was this girl's hometown. But it could happen anywhere, as with Latrell Sprewell, when he choked his coach, he went to New York and people were loving it.

O'BRIEN: Portland Trail Blazers, recently people have been calling them the Portland "Jail Blazers." I guess, they've made some changes. They announced they're going to have a player code of conduct, they're going to reduce the ticket prices, as well. What do you think of steps like this?

THOMAS: I mean, you know, I hope it helps, but I don't think it will. Because when you have people like Rasheed speaking out, his honest opinion, you know, whether he should sail certain things that he said or not, you know, people they don't listen to the rules all the time. These guys don't go by the same rules of conduct that we go by. Their rules of conduct are totally different because they get so many breaks.

O'BRIEN: Brenda Thomas is the author of "Threesome: Where Seduction, and Power and Basketball Collide." Nice to have you.

THOMAS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com