Link: like this is a golf podcast, so I'll talk about it. Like we're all nerds watching this. But
James Boone: Come on, come on, come on.
Link: we show up to Pinehurst number two already knowing it's gonna crazy, but The only other thing that's going on on this course, it's like the Backyard Cup, so twenty of us golfers, and then we had the Joes so we had like fourteen other golfers. So us our thirty-four golfers. And then we had a North South amateur tournament going on. That's the only so it's girls and guys who are pursuing golf professionally.
James Boone: Huge event. Huge event.
Link: Hu huge event. Tiger was there watching Charlie. So like Charlie's there. So you're telling me like I'm out there shanking it around Pinehurst number two, while these kids who are gonna be like the next Scottie Schefflers are out here like trying to you know, make a career out of this.
James Boone: Logan Linkmeyer, aka Link, is a filmmaker, content creator, entrepreneur, and podcast host, best known for documenting the lives of professional athletes and creating behind the scenes sports content that gives fans unprecedented access to NBA stars. Graduated at Northern Kentucky University. Logan Link transformed a passion for storytelling into a career working directly with elite athletes. And eventually becoming the longtime content creator and creative partner of NBA All-Star D'Angelo Russell. Today, Logan is the co-host and producer of the Backyard Podcast, alongside with D'Lo, where they share unfiltered conversations, behind-the-scenes stories, and interviews with some of basketball's biggest names, including Anthony Davis, Karl Towns, Big Cat, the Big Bodega, Devin Booker, Austin Reeves, Chris Brickley, and more. at this point you may be asking and wondering, you know, hey, James, this is cool and all, but you know, you've said nothing about Link being in the golf space. Well, here's something really cool. with the with the wave of NBA guys getting into golf, the way that YouTube golf has blown up. Link has has been dabbling. And I will I don't want to say dabbling because he's becoming a leader in the space. so no mention of golf
Link: Man.
James Boone: at the beginning. We we are there this summer. Link and D Lo put on the third annual Backyard Cup at Pinehurst number two. one of the nicest golf venues on the planet if you're curious the backyard cup is a Ryder Cup style tournament featuring some of the biggest names in the NBA and YouTube golf participants this year included Bronny James, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, Devin Booker, Big John Golfs, Malosi Golfs, Mason Greene Obi Toppin, James Johnson, Link the World, Link the World, shout out, and
Link: Hey, let's go.
James Boone: many, many more. Logan Linkmeyer, aka Link, We're so excited to hear your story. Welcome to Swing State University, brother.
Link: It's a pleasure to be here. That was that was a crazy monologue. I I'm not gonna lie. I I was just sitting here smiling. That was awesome. So thank you. I don't know if I deserve
James Boone: Ha ha ha
Link: all that, but it's very appreciated appreciated.
James Boone: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I I would say it's a very, very deserving. really cool show for you guys today. I I obviously there is an element of honing a craft, being in the right place at the right time, getting connected with people who would eventually like change the direction in course course of your life. I think similar to a lot of the guests that we've had on in the past, I'm thinking of Mason McInally kind of like getting his career in the PT space up and going. where it's like you are a professional in your craft, but then you get that big break of working with tour level athletes. And Logan's gonna get to share a lot about his journey and how, you know, how and him and D Lo connected and and what the last seven or eight years of his life has looked like. But Link, I'm gonna be honest with you, one thing I'm curious about is the Backyard Cup. How did that come to be? And then I feel like in year three, it's exploded. if you guys haven't checked out the first episode that came out has over 800,000 views on YouTube. it is it is incredibly, incredibly entertaining. but Link, like how did that come to be? what has the last like two months of your life look like?
Link: Man, it's it's been a journey. I mean you you said it first, It's year three. So year one, we did it at Paynes Valley. That was three years ago. So this is before the Internet Invitational came out. This is for the YGT. We I was probably like a twenty five handicap at this point, like new to golf and we just we have a group of friends. D'Angelo, my boy Eric, my boy Jordan and we all just three of us, me Eric and D are huge golfers and we wanted to throw a golf tournament and we just had this idea to do it and we did it at Paynes Valley and we somehow got Garrett Clark to show up and we you know we had some mutual connections with John Daly Jr. and different things and we tried it and we had no idea what we were doing. It was like a first time we ever filmed a golf video. It was terrible. I like the whole thing, the production was
James Boone: Ha ha.
Link: terrible. From a fun standpoint in everybody's
James Boone: That's right. Yeah.
Link: experience, it was top notch. Like everyone to this day that still that went to that loved it. But from a production standpoint we we dropped the ball. And then the next year we did it in Oregon and we got a little bit better, learned a little bit more. It wasn't as big of a turnout that we wanted and so we learned got a little better and then this year it was yeah at Pinehurst the probably coolest venue in the states that we ever could have done it at shout out Pinehurst and shout out everybody that pulled up. I mean we had we had twenty guys that were on camera, ten of them being creators, ten of them being NBA guys. And we had twenty four, twenty five guys in production that was there. So like it's even bigger than anything I've ever done in my entire life on a production standpoint. So shout out Jordan, shout out Reed, all the guys behind the camera that just made it possible. But Yeah, one of the coolest, if not the coolest experiences, to date. It's it was awesome. It was awesome.
James Boone: Yeah. If you're joining from if you're, you know, one of Link's followers have followed his journey for a long time, I think what's fascinating, Link, you talk about, hey, the first time we've ever done this, like the production wasn't at the level that you would want it. You are someone who is incredibly talented, has like for the last, you know, six to eight years have been building a portfolio of incredible work. So like if you're one of his followers, like you know that like production level, but like YouTube golf is like a different space and world and like that's probably a different feel. So there's there's one thing there. Second thing, I I'm curious how and we alluded to this like a little a little bit off air, but like how do you you have experience of like okay, corroborating and like bringing groups of people together, but like what is the scope? Like what is the how do you bring that many people, 10 creators, 10 NBA players, like together? what are all the intricacies? Because like that's not an easy thing to do. And especially at a at a place like Pinehurst, like I'm there's there's probably a lot of red tape, is my guess Yeah.
Link: Yeah, yeah. Well, first and foremost, I mean Doing production in general for is shooting any video photo stuff is over here and then golf, especially YouTube golf. I won't speak on like professional golf or anything, but YouTube golf
James Boone: Wow. Yeah.
Link: is over here. It is two completely different worlds, two completely different things. And it was it was a huge learning curve. So like I want to shout out Ryder, Ryder Riviera, he works with Garrett Clark. He helped us a ton working with him the first year at Backyard Cup, the the first one ever. Like he taught us a lot, taught us the cameras to get taught us. the mics to get and then he came to Backyard Cup number three and was part of our production crew and obviously he I mean he's filmed YGT he's filmed the Internet Invitational he knows exactly what the heck to do but yeah it's just it's such a unique beast but as far as the planning and all of that stuff It's actually crazy that we're even like sitting here talking about it. When I first started really doing videos and just going for it, I was traveling the world and I was doing it with one of my best friends named Eric Olano And I am the type of guy that I didn't care what we did, I just wanted to do something. And Eric's the type of guy that loves planning and loves doing all this stuff. So he would just be like, Hey Link, we're going to Brazil. Here's the plane ticket. It's two hundred dollars. It's gonna cost like four hundred dollars to backpack for the next fourteen days. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm it and I would I would be sitting there vlogging and I'd be yo We're in Brazil, and I'll be yo, Eric, where are we at? Because I would have no idea. Because Eric is he's plans and does things very that's like his he's the best in the world at it. I swear he is.
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: He's just really good. Anytime we do a golf trip with our buddies, Eric's the guy planning it, and he just loves to do it. So Eric was definitely he's the head of operations and head of like all of that for for the backyard cup and for the just backyard. And so he's was our MO. He's talking to the phone on Pinehurst, he's dialing thing in, dialing everything in. And then I'm kind of like the the middleman of of Eric's vision and then the production vision. So then Eric's on the phone with me we're b going up to Backyard Cup. Me and Eric are probably on the phone for forty hours a week, just going through what we need, what we need to do, how we need to do it. like him shooting ideas, bouncing them off me, I'm shooting ideas, bouncing off him. And so like that was like a whole we did that six, seven, eight months before, you know, we're going up to Pinehurst at the end of June. And then as far as like getting everyone there, that was I wish I filmed all of it because it was unbelievable how one in the beginning, I mean D'Angelo he's played the NBA for, you know, ten, eleven going on eleven years, maybe even twelve years for but he he's been the NBA for a long time. And he's got a lot of friends. And so like Devin was he like hit a book, book was instantly coming. Austin Reeves, like Bronny, like all of his teammates that he's played with, James, all of these guys like built relationships with, they're good friends, they all golf. And so it was like an immediate yes. So shout out to all those guys because it was super easy. And then from the creator side, you know, we started collabing with more guys on YouTube, and so it became easier to see our name in the space a little bit more. So it was like, the backyard. I I've either knowed D'Angelo or I've seen your guys' videos. And so we started getting more. More and more of those guys to show up. But towards the end, man, like I got a funny story. We we had a guy that was supposed to come but dropped out on the NBA side. He had some things pop up and he couldn't go. And so we had one roster spot to fill. And there was like a mutual friend with this guy
James Boone: I have an idea who it who it is. I I saw I saw the banner.
Link: Well we had yeah, so I well we had so this guy DOD DOD King, he's popular in the the golf space, but he's really good friends with Cheddy and Big John, and so they were like, yo, let's get DOD. So I'm on the phone with DOD. This is like three days before the event. He's like saying, like, dude, I'm I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come. He's got a a trip right afterwards that's in he's playing in a tournament in Canada. And so he was currently he was calling me on the phone in the Miami airport trying to get a new Passport because you couldn't have a passport. So then he a couple days go by, he can't come. So we still have one. I'm I'm at this point, I'm in Pinehurst. Like I've been there for the day, and we still have one person to to get. And I don't remember if Jake Adams, I don't remember if Malosi, I don't remember who gave me Josh Kelly's number, but I'm calling the day before the tournament. So the tournament starts the next day. I'm calling Josh Kelly, and I'm like, yo, you have no idea. I'm leaving a voicemail, and I'm just I can just picture if I got this voicemail. I'm yo, you have no. I do I ha who I am. I were like I do stuff at the backyard. We're playing all the pinehurst, all your friends are showing up, named all people. I was like, hit me back. And so he calls me back and I'm like, yo, pull up. Like, trust me, it's worth it, all this. And he's like, dude, I can't. I can't. Like I and he gave me like that one foot in, one foot out, can't. And so I'm like, all right, cool. I won't bug you. Do a million other things. We have to do a prep. I wake up the next morning and this is the morning everyone's showing up. So like I'm like, we're going to pick up like NBA guys at the airport, like all this stuff. And I'm I I wake up at four thirty in the morning and I'm spamming like I I'm spamming Josh Kelly. Like literally fifty messages 'cause at this point it was like it was him or nothing. Like we were obviously we had some other guys that we would have filled it with, some like other Joes. And he finally he just calls me like three hours later, he's like, Yo, I just woke up. I'm on my way to the airport. I've no idea what I packed, but I'm coming. And he was like, I'll call you when if I make the flight or if I miss the flight and he showed up that day, like didn literally didn't even know who I was twelve hours before and he showed up to Pinehurst So it was it was cool stuff like that that, you know, the man upstairs was looking out for us and it made everything work and we had the best crew, the most fun group of guys that I've ever been with on a golf trip. It was awesome. So
James Boone: Well, and an another piece of that, you say hey, this is the most fun trip you know we've ever had with a group of guys in your entire life. You have no idea how they're going to relate to one another, if they're gonna hit it off, it's gonna if it's gonna be awkward, and it wasn't.
Link: No, no idea. No, not at all. Not at all. And I mean I knew some of the the YouTube guys, but not a lot of them. I had no idea. Like I never had the personal connection with. Like I've maybe some of I talked to them on FaceTime, some of them were text, some of them on calls. Eric the same thing. And D'Angelo had met some of them, same thing. But most of the NBA guys I've known, obviously D'Angelo knows the NBA guys. So I knew the NBA guys were gonna be fine because one thing about professional athletes is what they've taught me and just being around them is they're in so many different rooms. with so many different people that they can like they can figure it out and make anything not be awkward or not feel weird and they're really good at that because it's just something that they've been doing since they were 10 because most of them have been the best player in their vicinity and you get what I'm saying. And so I knew they were gonna have
James Boone: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Link: be having a good time as well as they're all like the NBA guys are all friends. So I know they're gonna
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: you know gamble play games go play on the putting green do whatever but it was really cool to see some of these YouTube golfers that I watch on TV when I'm about to go to sleep and I'm obsessed still obsessed with golf and see
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah.
Link: how cool they actually are in person. And shout to them and shout just the the community that the YouTube golf space is because there are some really good, genuine human beings in that that side of the space.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Well and there's a piece of too where it's like, okay, they're not obviously at the like PGA toy level. So like there's a there's a probably a guardedness that like doesn't have to exist in their space to operate to do what they do. Like they actually kind of thrive in being
Link: Right.
James Boone: being a little bit more authentic. What what was cool listening to your podcast, that you and D Lo did, this was I guess a month ago at this point, you guys were reflecting on the trip. on one hand you have like D Lo's like affinity for the YouTube golf space. So like his I I wouldn't say like Starstrucks, like those guys don't get starstruck. But like, wow. Like seeing w seeing like what, you know, the YouTube golfers like do, the content creators do, and like how much respect he had for those guys, I'm imagining for I'd know this would be the case, but like I know the phone call to like call up some of the creators and be like, yo, like you wanna go like on a golf trip with Bronny James, Austin Reeves, like D Lo DBook It's like
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: they're going to raise their hand and say, like, yeah, I'm I'm pulling up to this. So like it's a
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: it's an interesting like mutual like respect. All
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: because like the NBA has like moved in a direction of like every we know we love golf. So it's like we're gonna we're gonna
Link: For sure. All the NBA guys love golf. And then also, I mean, dude, the creators are just there's genuine humans. Like I I can honestly say
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: that. And so some of them obviously took a little bit more of a sell of like like there's got like there has to be some sort of trust. Well, schedules
James Boone: Schedules. Yeah.
Link: is one thing, but then after that, it's like they're getting pulled in so many different directions and everybody wants a piece of them all the time because they
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: know if they get them there, there's views there. And so it was more of like, Hey, I'm not trying to get you there to use you. I know that you are going to have
James Boone: yeah.
Link: have the best time of your life and also like it's going to just be a great time. And so there there was like there we had to build some trust. Like that was the thing. Because obviously, you know, we did Backyard Cup one, Backyard Cup Two, but they just
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: they weren't to what we are now sitting with Backyard Cup three. And and so yeah, it was there was some trust there and shout out all the guys for trusting us and pulling up and all of them to to my knowledge have this still to this day we talk about we like a group chat with all the creators and they're still Like every time one drops we're where they're, you know, talking smack about fun
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: different things that happened and different moments and yeah, those guys are a good group of guys.
James Boone: Yeah, that's good. That's good. And that that kinda goes back to your point on like there being levels of like YouTube golf. And like like you said, you've you've been in this space now for like two years. Like you're now I remember you re referring back to it on the pod of like you now have like the Rolodex where people can look back and be like, like no like Backyard has been in this space for long enough to like really like get it going and run it up. So I l yeah.
Link: Yeah, I mean it's just tripping and figuring it out how to to stand up and go do it again, you know. So
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: what we learned a lot from this year and I can't wait for Backyard Cup next year you know. So
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Talking about tripping and, you know, falling down and getting up. Okay, you're still doing that ten years into your career, a successful career. At Northern Kentucky University, you know, from small town Indiana, you like go to NKU, like Cincinnati, Covington, Kentucky, shout out shout out Chris Volt, shout out Mason Faulkner. some throwbacks in my life. promise you they're not listening to they're pr promise you they're not listening to this you know, this
Link: Yep. Very sure. Same with me.
James Boone: episode. Maybe maybe. Cameron Pittman shout out. I'll shout out Cameron Pittman one time.
Link: Cam
James Boone: you okay, obviously like you you major in digital media videography, like that that was the lane you're swimming in. So like tell me about kind of your journey. How'd you get into that space? I've seen some
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: Red River Gorge highlights and and montages and some some day ones. Yeah.
Link: Yeah, that's early days. yeah, so I have I've been creating videos for a very long time. I started doing it when I was actually in high school and I know we talked off cam about you coming from a small town and you I think you said like fifteen thousand or something like that. And
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: it's always the fun fact. My friends get annoyed at this, but it's my fun fact that it's just something that's just kind of crazy the more I think about it is I grew up in a town of forty two people, like a hometown population of forty two people. And I went to a school I don't know remember how many people I graduated with, but, you know, like we had like multiple towns all come together and we're like I went to s a school called South Ripley. And one of the coolest things about my high school, this small town school was that every Wednesday we had to produce a student ran like news show. And we would have to make our own videos, make our own commercials, make our own like promos for the basketball game coming up and promos for whatever like charity events was going on at school. Just random things. And we had to be anchors and all that stuff and I loved it. Like I absolutely loved it. I loved being an anchor. I loved making videos. I was the guy that just wanted to edit the videos and and And it was the cool thing to do, to be honest with you. It was just like if you were an athlete, you did CNNSR and our teacher, she was a librarian, Mrs. Shrimple. I love her to death still this day. She she let us explore creativity, have fun, and just learn. And so I learned how to edit videos, I learned how to use a camera, and it was basic cameras, it was probably like a $200 camera, but it was like, hey, like that's what we had, and we we made stuff, and I left there going to NKU not knowing that you didn't have to go to Hollywood and make movies to use a camera, so I became an accounting student and hated my life for the first semester of college. and so I purposely did not show up to my final exam of accounting so I could have the guts to tell my parents and it's crazy saying this out loud now because my mom loves me to death, my dad loves me to death. They would not have cared if I would have switched my major, but I was so embarrassed to like do it. So I legitimately just stopped showing up to like did not show up to the exam at all. Took an F and was was like, here mom, I can't continue in accounting. Like I can't do it.
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: Switched to electronic media and was the worst student of all time. My teachers to this day will tell you like I was just a bad student and I just did a bare minimum enough to get by. And And still had no idea what I wanted to do. And then I got a job out of college. And that's not to say NKU's electronic media is phenomenal. Like they tried everything to get me to be a good student. And I just I was a rebel. I just wouldn't do it. And so I
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: after college got a job working in a pharmaceutical company. And I had two screens. one was all my work that had to get done, and the other one was just YouTube videos about video like making videos, creating videos, travel. videos all this stuff and one day I was just like I want to just try this so I text my boy Eric the same guy that is was doing the stuff now
James Boone: Yeah, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Link: with us at for Pinehurst and operation side and we went to the Red River Gorge and legitimately almost died because we came through the night in like a monsoon and it was freezing and yeah the rest of history was just like all right let's create videos
James Boone: Jeez.
Link: travel the world and create videos and that's what we started doing. So
James Boone: Dude. There's a d there's a dialogue there of okay, w what does it mean to not excel in school? But then you going out on your own when you're working at the pharmaceutical company being like, okay, I want to like educate myself. So there's like a disconnect, obviously like,
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: yeah, in the structure of school, maybe not being great, but like
Link: I don't think it was the structure of school not being great. I think it was more of I had an itch to make videos, but it was still early enough in social media that creating your own videos was still like not really like a thing. It wasn't really popular. So it was a little bit of that and then also I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I loved sports, but I didn't want to there was like telling people like, I want to work for Duke's basketball team and make videos. And it was like I just said that because I like Duke and like there's a video person 'cause I had no idea what I wanted to do. And so I got there was a stint that I Did stuff with like NKU's basketball team for a little bit, made videos
James Boone: Sure.
Link: for them. I didn't it just it was cool. I did some stuff, didn't really love it, it wasn't my passion. So I didn't give school everything because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I just
James Boone: Yeah, that's that's a good point.
Link: I went to YouTube university after I graduated and just learned a lot of stuff with YouTube, trialed and error, made videos that sucked and tried to get a little bit better and started honestly just throwing I say it all the time, this is one of my favorite sayings is just throwing darts at a dartboard and seeing which one sticks. And you can throw a million and you find one, that's all you need. It doesn't matter about the other however many you throw. So yeah.
James Boone: Sure. Yeah. At what point did you connect with Eric?
Link: Me and Eric went to college together. We were not friends. we actually did not really like each other. And then we yeah, we the more school that went past and then graduated, we s started having more things of just I was like working at a restaurant that he like told me to work at, like as a server. We had probably like 15 friends that were just all servers. So it was like going to work was just us kicking it and hanging out, and we were all running each other's foods and drinks and helping each other. other out so it was just fun and that's kind of like what started our like trajectory of being friends and hanging out more and not hating each other and then then yeah like he was one of my he was one of my friends that he they all graduated and they went on like a 30 day backpacking trip to Europe and just bummed it for 30 days and I thought it was the coolest thing ever so I just remember I was I saw a video of some people traveling this guy named Sam Kolder who is a genius in the filmmaking industry but he was traveling doing stuff and I texted my boy Eric and I was like, yo, let's go make one of these videos at the gorge. And he was like, Alright, let's do it this weekend at this time. And we did it. So yeah.
James Boone: So that's a interesting place to start. So that is not you filming college guys that you some Norse players doing workouts and putting a you know dope soundtrack, dope edit behind it. You were filmmaking, you were storytelling, you were creating content around nature and it had nothing
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: to do with sports, had nothing to do with basketball.
Link: No.
James Boone: You're really far away from connecting with some of the best NBA players of like our day.
Link: Yeah. I mean I I did like make a couple 'cause like NKU was that was like right when our basketball team really started taking off and we didn't have football. So like it was basketball or nothing in NKU and I
James Boone: Carson Edwards?
Link: yeah, yeah, all dude Carson Edwards was a dog, dude.
James Boone: Dog.
Link: Drew McDonald, like we he we had some really like Levon Holland, we had some really good basketball players in NKU. Yeah, I did know that. I did know that. I did know that.
James Boone: Drew McDonald, great golfer. Dual sport athlete. Dual sport athlete. He played golf at NKU and basketball.
Link: Yeah, he's great guy too, but I haven't heard that name in a long I haven't heard any of these names
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: in a long time. So that's it's bringing up crazy memories. But yeah, so like we had classes that we had to like do random videos for, random like I remember like audio engineering and different stuff. So I remember I made like Star Wars Rogue One came out, so I made like a little hype trailer that kind of like was synonymous to the Rogue One trailer and just different things, different projects. It was still centered on basketball. I was I was never doing highlights. That also wasn't a thing back then. Nobody was following an NBA player. No one was doing highlight mixtapes. Like there was none of that. And yeah, so that was never a dream. Yeah,
James Boone: Pure. It is pure.
Link: it was never a dream to do something with an NBA player. It was never a dream to do anything with a football player. And once again, didn't even know it was possible or a thing, kind of like how I thought that you had to work in movies to be doing stuff with And yeah, I mean it's Yeah, it's crazy. This is crazy.
James Boone: Yeah. I mean go go ahead. You you spoke on it a little bit off air, but like how to how does one jump from, hey, yo, Eric, like I got this camera. Obvious obviously you had been doing this for a little bit, but like, yo, like, let's just create some of these videos too. Okay, now I'm now I'm working with D'Angelo Russell. Like that that's a gap of
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: time, but like walk us through how that how that made sense.
Link: Yeah. So me and Eric were traveling and going to just random places. So I quit my pharmaceutical job after it paid for a camera, a drone, like all the different camera things that I needed. And we started traveling to
James Boone: Okay, what I'm sorry I'm sorry, Link. What like have you talked to your parents? I obviously you're a grown man at that point, but it's like, Hey, yo, I'm quitting my job.
Link: Yeah. I did, I did. I when I quit my job I taught I they came to the place that I served at. It was at Wings and Rings in Crestview and we were all about our whole crew was there obviously, but like when we were still t you know, twenty-one years old serving and it was like I only got the pharmaceutical job because it was like you have to get a job out of college. That was like my whole thing. I like, I go to college, you have to get like a real job. And on the side we're all slinging wings at this wings ring. So it was like making more money, doing whatever. And so I remember having them come up, we were all like chilling, eating, and I told them I like, Look, I quit my job. I just don't wanna have I don't wanna like go wake up and have a normal job. And I was terrible at my delivery. My mom cried because it was like she's the most genuine hearted person in the world. And I kinda like I kind of made it seem like I didn't want to have a life like theirs, and it wasn't what that was at all. It was just like I had dreams to do something different and I wanted to just chase it a little bit. And they have been my biggest supporters from day one. And my sister is in there too. Like I have the best support system ever for my family, so shout out to them. I love them to death. But f like made my mom cry. She was just th and but from that moment it was just like we did it. Like we're going for it. And so me and Eric started traveling, going to we went to like a bunch of places in Europe. We went to Brazil and we just made videos after like while we're there we were filmed videos, tried film or editing videos afterwards, got better. G still was not a good filmmaker. Like looking back on those videos they were trash. Like really bad. But the the back then it was D'Angelo ha was year two or three in the league and he was a became an all star. Like I very vividly remember him being an all star.
James Boone: Brooklyn.
Link: And His brother of all his two of his brothers of all people or of all places, they went to college at NKU as well. And I met them when I was a freshman and they were juniors, I believe. And so played basketball with them. We knew each other very well, but me and D'Angelo are the same age. So D'Angelo goes off the NBA. He's played for a couple of years. Still kept in touch with Tone for a little bit. off and on when he'd come back to NKU, we'd hang out, we'd kick it, we'd talk basketball. We were always basketball heads. And when he became an all-star, I remember like Tone texting me randomly. He was like, yo, because he's followed me on Instagram. He was just like, yo, Link, I need you, or something like that. Something random like that. But then it just was like silent ghost. Like never knew what the heck that was. But it was like that he got it was the day he got selected from to be an NBA All-Star. And then that year plays out, they go to the playoffs. D'Angelo, that's when he has that crazy kind of breakout year with the Nets. And then I remember
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Link: I'm going to film a wedding in in like North Carolina or something like that. We
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: have like some some friends of a friend that were getting married and so I'm about to drive down. I get a text from Tone like, Hey, can you be in Louisville in like three days or something like that? And it's like the day after the wedding. And I'm like, yes. Like what's up? And he was like, D'Angelo coming to town. He's going back to his high school. he's gonna be in town for a couple of days. Would love to for you to like come film some stuff. I go to this wedding, I drive back after the wedding, film it all, drive back through the night. I get to Louisville and I have no like clothes. So I remember I stop at some random Walmart and I buy legitimate like Walmart clothes and pull up, meet D'Angelo. We hit it off from the jump. it was like we were friends for a while. Filmed him for like two or three days, he left. I went back up to Northern Kentucky and I just started cranking out videos for him of like what we like we had and the whole time this was going on from my perspective, what I've now learned from their perspective is Tone had always seen all my travel videos that I was making. D'Angelo
James Boone: Wow, wow.
Link: loves to travel and he I guess after the season was over, they were on the beach somewhere and he like was just talking. He was like, yo, Tone, like I need my own video guy. Like him how dope would it be to have like a guy filming what we're doing right now. And Tone's like, I know a guy. Like I got the guy. And Yeah,
James Boone: Wow.
Link: and so like that was kind of what was going on their side. I was f pursuing traveling and filmmaking on our side. And then D'Angelo signs with the Warriors. And so I fly out to Golden State in game one. it film all of that stuff and then like a like two weeks later they're playing in LA and D'Angelo
James Boone: There, dude.
Link: had just signed with Way of Wade the LiNing it's a LiNing company that Dwayne Wade is the
James Boone: Yeah. Yep, yeah, yep.
Link: head of and we have D'Angelo's kind of like intro photo shoot with Dwayne Wade so I'm filming everything on D'Angelo's side and
James Boone: Golly, bro.
Link: and so at that night we go to dinner and D Wade has like his own photo guy that kind of like was with him as like one of his boys that he had. And we were all Dinner was like 10 of us, and I'm sitting next to D, I got a camera, I'm like filming stuff. I'm kind of geeked out because D-Wade was like one of my favorite players growing up. I'm like, what the heck is going on? And then D-Wade, I just remember like the first time he had like a real conversation with me. He points at me. I have it all in film too. He was How long, how long you two been been like doing this together? And I before I could even speak, D's like I've known him for like two weeks, he's known my brother for years. we're just now starting to like capture stuff, and D-Wade looks at D who is like, my biggest regret. of my career is not having Bobby, which is his guy, move in with me when I first got to the league. And so D
James Boone: Wow.
Link: looked at me D looked at me right there. He's like, you trying to move in? I was like, yeah. And so from that moment I moved in with him and yeah, that's how we got to here.
James Boone: A long way from shooting weddings in North Carolina. I have to I have to believe that's the last wedding you you touched.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm pretty sure I think I filmed one like I had already like accepted one when I was like that was while the Golden State season was going on. I remember flying back and filming one and coming back and I'm telling myself like I don't ever want to do that again. So yeah and also have a terrible track record with weddings. I'm pretty sure like every wedding I've filmed, they've all got divorced. So you don't want me as a wedding filmmaker. So it's just not good luck.
James Boone: It w it was it worked out for both parties. Also, talk
Link: Yeah, yeah.
James Boone: thinking about the you could call it Providence or whatever, whatever got into Dwayne Wade's mind in in that dinner, where obviously the fact that like you met D Lo two weeks ago, you're you're at that dinner. For him to just be compelled to be like, you know, the biggest regret of my career was that I didn't have someone filming.
Link: Yeah, dude. It's crazy. It's crazy that it and it's like a D Wade of all people. Like back in the day, everyone loved LeBron. And so I was naturally the kid. I was like, I like Carmelo and Dwayne Wade because everyone wanted to like
James Boone: Sure, sure.
Link: LeBron. So it was just like that. And then sitting here, hearing him say that, it was just like, whoa. And then also like shout out to D, to Tone, to Craig. Like the I they op literally open arms let me like move in with them and we were in San Fran and had like I was living in like the movie theater. We didn't have an extra room, so like them there was a movie theater, so like I'm I'm crashing in the movie theater. I got like my own huge couch that I'm sleeping on and those boys treated me like I was part of the crew from day one and they'd been, you know, best friends for eighteen, nineteen, twenty years at that point. And Tone's obviously D'Angelo's brothers. They've been brothers forever. So
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: But they made me feel
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like home and yeah, the rest is history. So
James Boone: Absolutely. Absolutely. You obviously have okay, stint in Brooklyn, get traded to the Warrior Warriors, have another stint in Brooklyn, back to Minnesota. Obviously there there was a kind of a snaking journey
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: there. Do you have a year where you're like, Man, that was the coolest year? Obviously getting traded back to LA, like
Link: Ooh. Yeah. I think they're all cool for different reasons. Like the San Fran year, like we were I've lived in San Francisco for like eight or nine months. and then he went got traded from San Francisco to Minnesota. And one, the San Francisco like a vivid memories of like the first few games because that was when, you know, Steph before he got hurt. So we got like two or three games with Steph and like going to like a Packers game where with Steph and like his family and it's like us. Getting to hang out with him and kick it with him, like vivid memory. Because at that point I'm still starstruck. It's like what the heck? Like we celebrated Book's birthday. It's at the beginning of the season. So like Book pulls up. I'm hanging out with Book. And all my friends being from Kentucky, it's like Book is royalty. You know, Devin Booker is like the guy. So can't kicking with Book and everything at that point. And like I still remember this day when Book followed me on Instagram. It was like he came over to the house, we kicked to celebrate his birthday, he left the crib and I ha look at my phone and like Devin Booker is now following on Instagram. It's like what the frick is going on here. And Then like the trade to Minnesota that was something I'll always remember, like the craziest situation ever. 'Cause I'm the only one at the house. D'Angelo's asleep and I'm like the one talking to D about like, yo, you are you're getting traded to Minnesota. Like I'm on the phone with Tone who is starting to become D'Angelo's agent. Tone's like telling me like, yo, they got in town like four AM from a flight from wherever. Like wake up D'Angelo, we gotta like talk to Minnesota's owner and president because he's now going to Minnesota. And then We're packing up the bags. I'm hopping on my first ever private jet flying to Minnesota. We get it there at like four a.m. It's minus thirty wind chill outside, and we have a hundred people that are waiting in the middle of the cold to like welcome D'Angelo to Minnesota. And we're it just like little things like that and being on the behind the scenes of seeing how all that operates and the basketball kid in me just loved every second of it. But then you got the LA situation, like we get traded to LA and it's It's like the first day we're there is the day after LeBron breaks the scoring record. And then that night LeBron's like throwing his own party and so I'm like going in there and like LeBron's dapping me up. And it's like, what is this? You know, it's like there's fifteen guys in here and LeBron's dapping me up. Like what like what what is going on? And at that point I wasn't like I I don't get like star struck and stuff anymore. But it was more of like I couldn't wait to tell my boys that LeBron like who idolize LeBron and love LeBron. Like my boy Adonis, Cam's one of Cam's boys. loves LeBron and I remember having conversation with him, I was like, Yo, like met LeBron last night, which is crazy. Yeah, so then it's it's been a whirlwind. So I can't say that I have a favorite year
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: or anything, but like each season of or each chapter along the way it was just new and unique things that I've been very blessed to to see doors
James Boone: Sure.
Link: that have opened and yeah, like I mean even in Minnesota, like I was doing stuff with Kyler Murray and I was flying I was I averaged like a flight every two days 'cause I was flying to wherever Kyler was playing and doing stuff with him for a few days, flying to where D Angels playing to himself for him for like a few days and bouncing all all around. I did went to the finals with Book when Book went took the Suns to the final. And we we have literally like four terabytes of footage of what Devin
James Boone: Oof.
Link: did from before because they played the Lakers that year, of the year after the Lakers won the championship. Like they were they were projected to lose. The Suns were projected
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: to lose. And like we have all of that footage of every single
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: second of the day from the day before the playoffs started. all the way up until two days after they lost in the finals and like the exit interviews and all that stuff. Like got it all on film and like so that's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like a whole unique crazy chapter. So there's been a lot of really cool moments, man. I've been very blessed to have been able to go through those and do those. So
James Boone: In incredible. I I'm curious for you. Is there obviously people listening to this and being like, this is the most incredible journey? Hey, if I'm a creative out here, like how do I get that job? And there that's a very like specific journey that you had to like end up in the space, being the seat that you're in. Is there ever a moment for you whenever you are with these guys But th there's a piece of it where it's like you're you are on the clock. Like obviously you are there are times when you're not filming. There are times whenever you're just kinda like kicking it and hanging out with these guys. Like you you for you you live with D Lo for goodness sake. Like that was a large part of your journey. Is there ever a point for you where that you're like, Man, this does feel like work? Where it's like, you know, I'm I'm in this crazy, I'm living this crazy existence. Like you said, this is like a blessed life. Not many people get to sit in your position, but it's like, is there ever p like And maybe this is a bigger dialogue of like, okay, enjoying the moment, turning your camera off, like
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: wha you know, but yeah, do you ever find yourself being like, Man, like I it's a tension
Link: Yeah. it never f I don't know. Because it never felt like work because it didn't feel like I was sitting in a cubicle like I did when I graduated school. So like Yeah,
James Boone: Ooh, oof. 'Cause you knew what it felt like.
Link: yeah. And I've been like it was more of I knew what I was doing. I was still in the mode of like this is really cool to me. Like I didn't care if it was cool to anybody else. Obviously I was going through like I was mid twenties at that time, so like I there was some definite like this is really just really cool. Like people are gonna think this is cool, whatever. But
James Boone: yeah. People thought that was cool.
Link: for sure. And I I there was one time where I really got a kick out of that. I really wanted people to think it was cool. But now like as I got as I get really broke it down, it was I was still having fun. It was really cool. It's also a job that Everyone has their ups and downs with life, with jobs, with anything. It doesn't matter if you're an NBA player making a hundred million dollars, doesn't matter if you're somebody that's struggling, doesn't matter. Everyone has their ups and downs and I've seen it on both sides. I've seen on every from every spectrum from guys that are billionaires to guys that like make ten dollars an hour. Like I've seen it all. Everyone has trials and tribulations. And when it comes to the job that I was doing, it also had really high highs and very difficult situations that you had to navigate as well. Like turning it off. When when Could I take a breath and not put out fires or film or do whatever? Because when you're doing these things, these guys a lot of times aren't traveling with 15 different people and doing all 15 different things. If you're in that little crew of entourage of people and you're like one of two, one of three, or just one person, like you're doing you're wearing 15 different hats. So you're like you're the filmmaker, but you're also like helping like plan the trip. You're helping like making sure we get to this place on time. You're connecting with the dinner reservation, you're doing all these things. So there's you're just wearing a lot of different hats, man. And so it was It's a it's a learning curve, like learning how to not be overwhelmed all the time, not be stressed, chill, not be, you know, somebody that you're not, and still being yourself and still enjoying yourself and still remembering that it is your life as well. So yeah, man, and but it's like any other job, you know. Everybody
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: else has some difficult things and some great things, and that that was the same with me. So
James Boone: Yeah, it probably looks your benefits package probably looks a little bit different. There's probably not like two weeks PTO. You know
Link: yeah. yeah. No, not at all. Not at all. But you know, yeah. I actually we had a conversation with one of my boys. He hasn't really he's worked the same job since he got out of school and we were talking about just random things about that and I was like, dang, I ain't got that and it was a huge laugh. So that's funny. That's
James Boone: Mm.
Link: funny.
James Boone: Are there are there any guys, like ancillary guys that obviously like you spent a ton of time with Book, you spent a ton of time with D Lo, like, okay, LeBron dapping you up, that's really cool. Are there any guys kinda like on the fringe that you're like, Man, I really respect how that guy moves? just from from the last, you know, six or seven years?
Link: Yeah. there's a lot of guys actually. I don't mean like people are if they listen to how I hyped up all these YouTube guys in the beginning and how genuine they were to like some of the guys I'm gonna shout out now, they're gonna think like I'm just glazing everybody. But it's it's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: it's actually crazy how some of these guys not only how they operate, but just some of the genuiness in their heart. And Like Kat, for example. Like one shout out to him. He just won a a championship. There is not a more giving person that I've ever met. Like the day that I met not I hadn't met Kat prior, the day we got traded to the Timberwolves or the Tim we the day d'Angelo got traded to the Timberwolves. We go over to Kat's house and he's got like fifteen pairs of brand new AirPods. Like AirPods are brand new at this time. And they're just sitting on his on his kitchen table and he gives them to me. I met him once before then. He was like, Yo, take a pair. And so like he gave each me Tone and Craig a pair of like brand new AirPods at the time, which were the coolest, crazy thing. I don't even know if they're out to the public yet, but like he gave to
James Boone: Right.
Link: us. So like sh cat's like a super genuine, very giving person. You have someone like Book who very like presidential, moves very presidentially, and is one of the most fun people that you will ever be around ever. Like if you are trying to have a fun time, Playing cornhole, playing golf, going to do anything, going to dinner, doing anything. Like Book is just a fun guy. Like he's just like, shout out to him and like even him. Like he didn't know me as in depth as I guess D'Angelo didn't either. But like Book didn't, he only knew me through D'Angelo and he moved me in for the whole NBA finals run and like took care of me to like that whole thing. And like obviously D'Angelo, super genuine human, took a risk on me and had and saw it back then. But then you got guys like like LeBron. Obviously, I don't don't have the relationship with him as some of his teammates, but I know what his t teammates think about him. But the small amount of time that I ha like did get to be with him, like on their little Western Conference finals run and all of that Every time I was around him, he was never not having a good time. He was laughing, cracking jokes, like just a good, like just someone you would want to be around. Like you could tell he was a bright spot in every room. And so it's like shout out to him, because he's probably have more attention on him than anybody ever. And he is still a genuine human being. And then last thing I'll say, because I could go on a rant about everybody, but like Anthony Davis, that's another one. Great guy. But the one I wanted to talk about was Anthony. Edwards. Like that kid is so him and so genuinely him. He's so funny, but he also is ha he has his mind on right. And I remember like I don't remember when it was, but it was like, Yo, if we win a championship this year, like are you gonna drink? And he's like, Nah, like that's like I I I won't drink. Like that's and I was like, Really? Like and I was just so shook by that 'cause I was thinking, like, dude, if I won an NBA championship, I don't care if I didn't drink or I drank, I'm drinking some champagne. You know what mean? And like he
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: was so secure in who he was that he was just like, Nah I'm good. Like I don't need that. He like, I'll I'll be dumping it on all y'all though. And it that was at a workout that was like at four AM before the season started. It was like two weeks before training camp and we left a concert The whole team was there and it was like, yo, you want to get shots up? So it was like me, ant a couple ants people, a couple of D Los people, and we're working out at one two in the morning. And it's like, yo, this is like this is just cool. Like this is just crazy. But another great guy, and I wish nothing but success for him. I can't I p I gotta say one more person. Austin Reeves is There's not anybody that I know that deserves this. Like, I'm so glad he signed for what he signed for. I'm so glad he has success. He is he is as as genuine as it gets. And
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Link: yeah. So I won't ramble too much longer on guys. They're just really good guys. They really are.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. There's I'm sure there's a Rolodex. I'm sure you could you could go on and on and on and on.
Link: I couldn't pass up talking about Reeves though because that's like my dog. Like he's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: he's a he's a genuine one for sure.
James Boone: Yeah, that's good. Well, ref we're refreshing to hear from kind of like this side of it. you know, the the character of the dudes that you're working day in and day out with. really cool. at some point along D Lo's journey, I I alluded to it a little bit early earlier on in the pod. Obviously, like a lot of dudes in the NBA, they start getting the kick. Okay, like, you know, I want to get into golf. I want start playing for you guys. I I guess like I'll start here. This is a golf podcast, for everybody listening. This is a golf podcast. I wanna be clear. maybe it's not. Maybe it's evol yeah. Yeah. Maybe
Link: Most of those guys play golf. Most of those guys play golf. They're addicted. So
James Boone: maybe we're evolving to to something, some other thing here.
Link: Who knows?
James Boone: Link, did you like grow up playing? Like at what point did you get introduced to the game?
Link: No, I didn't. I had a set of sticks that like I was a really good baseball player and I really young, I was like eight when I first started playing very competitively, traveling around and playing. And I I don't remember why one year I was just like, yo, I'll play golf. I think it was more of my sister was starting to get into travel softball. We had as a family we had a lot going on. So it was like half of us with were with my sister, half of us were with me. And I don't know what was, but I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna slow down. I'll like I'll play golf. And I don't know if it was just because I got burnt out from baseball because I was just a like I don't know, like bit better than some people around me or what. But I was like, I'll play golf and I can't even say I played it, I just literally my parents bought me some clubs and I went and played in the tournament. I didn't practice, I didn't go play golf. Went and played in some like Mountain Dew golf tournament, like Mountain Dew tour golf tournament, probably shot a two hundred and five or something, and never played golf ever again. After that,
James Boone: Yeah. There you go. Yeah.
Link: it was just like I don't know what the heck I was doing. So no, didn't play golf, didn't learn how to play golf, had no idea what I was doing, just was like, I'm gonna play golf and did it for what played in one tournament without practicing. It sucked and went right back to
James Boone: Ha ha
Link: baseball. And then yeah, played basketball and baseball throughout high school. Never played and the world shut down. And when the world shut down, I was back home in Kentucky, like living with some of my college roommates because D'Angelo was kinda like living at Kats slash like not knowing what the heck's going on. And so it was a little weird period and there was nothing to do but golf. And I was in a house full of like six of my best friends. So we just went and golfed every single day. And we're became obsessed and I was calling D'Angelo and D'Angelo was also doing the same exact thing. And then we kinda like the whole year of that happened where we're like try like kinda playing golf, kinda not. We we love it but we don't really play it. And then I remember we were in LA for preseason and we're staying in an Airbnb 'cause we're in LA like six or seven days. And I show D'Angelo good, good. So I show him I don't remember what it was, what they were doing, or what video it was specifically. But I remember becoming obsessed with good good that summer, like watching good good and doing it. And I remember I made a video. I would love to find the footage. It was called like like that'll play. And it was like three of my friends, and we just went out to a random course and like tried to film some golf stuff. Never looked at the footage at all. We probably all shot hundreds. But I remember showing D'Angelo Goodgood and he was like hooked. He was like locked in. I remember being like, yo, we have to go. Like we have to get to like shoot around. And so we like paused
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: the video, got back to Airbnb. The video was still on the screen. And we like watched the rest of it that night. And from that moment, that was like the year he got traded to LA. Like from that moment, it was just like one, we loved golf already. And two, it was like we were obsessed with watching golf. And so we watched Good Good all the time. We started watching that was when Bob Sports started like blowing up. So we were watching like anyone and everyone. And
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah.
Link: Yeah, that's kinda when it all kinda all got started.
James Boone: Yeah. You you you brought it up. Hey, Bob Bob does golf. I we had a guy on here, BhaviGolf Bhavi Sohal He was talking about how you you brought this up a little bit earlier of like, Hey, you have to get out there and try. He was talking like this was twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Bhav was talking about, Hey, I was like sitting on my back. Well, and to preface, like, Bhav has like started, you know, creating golf content. He was a very successful like college
Link: Awesome.
James Boone: player. He's like, Navigating like professional golf. He is like a he's like a grip sales rep, like a tour rep. and
Link: Awesome.
James Boone: so he's like trying to navigate that space, but in but in the meantime, he's trying to you know create content, build his brand, and and do all that stuff.
Link: I love that.
James Boone: And he was talking about sitting like you know, sitting on his couch watching Bob does golf, and he's This dude sucks at golf. Like, I I I could
Link: Hundred percent.
James Boone: but he had to like check himself and be like, he's actually putting himself out here, he's actually like being brave enough
Link: Hundred percent.
James Boone: to like go put out. put out the golf content. So it's like you obviously like okay, the you and your two buddies go out to some random golf course and like you gotta shoot a hundred and two or whatever and you shoot two five in the Mountain Dew tournament. Like that doesn't
Link: Yeah, it's like
James Boone: like that's not a handicap for you getting in in YouTube golf.
Link: Not at all. And I think But also what's so cool about like Bob Does Sports and like Garrett and like Good Good and all them is if you really dive into their story, they did not start off just doing golf content. Like Garrett was he was doing the trick
James Boone: Ooh.
Link: shots and all that stuff, but like he was doing stuff with like random like Brody, the guy that did like the ultimate frisbee like random stuff they were
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: doing. They got like Bro five, they were doing something that was I'm I'm sure they did golf, but like it wasn't what they were doing now. But they put themselves out there, tried, it failed to an extent, however it did, but then they turned into what we now the whole world knows it's good good and then same with Bob like he had like four or five I honestly I'm speaking you know out of my butt here but he had multiple podcasts that were like failing or that people did other things
James Boone: Ooh.
Link: people left to go to bar stool and he was like trying different things and he kept betting on himself and now he's pulling over a million views every 24
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like every time he posts within 24 hours because he's he just did it so he didn't give up and I think it goes back to I don't remember if we talked about on here if we talked about pre-pod but like he threw darts at a dartboard and Until one stuck and he ran with it and now
James Boone: Oof.
Link: he is uber successful when you look at good good and they're uber successful. So they never gave up and they just tried and they they they put themselves out there like homie was talking about. So it's inspiring, bro. Ha ha dude.
James Boone: Come on, come on, where's Gary V? Where where's the Gary Vee sponsor?
Link: Dude. Gary V was actually one of the guys that I would watch on YouTube at at that pharmaceutical company of like film your life, document it, do X, Y, and Z because like it's the next wave. It's the next wave. And he was on that before anybody else was for real. So
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Shout outs to the guy. Come hey, season three, Gary V, you already here first.
Link: Shout out Gary V too He's an OG. OG. Yeah, dude, that'd be sick. That would be sick. Gary's gotta pull up.
James Boone: Gotta pull up, man. He's got nothing else to do. Rick this is like
Link: Yeah, no, nothing at all.
James Boone: a r this random kind of backtracking, but were you in the mix at all when D book like for the Olympics for that kind of experience and journey?
Link: Yeah, so
James Boone: Okay.
Link: when That was w so he's played in two Olympics now. He played in Japan or Japan I believe was the first one when it wasn't open to the public. And that was the year he lost in the finals. So I was with him all the way up until he got on the flight and flew to meet up with the team in Vegas or Japan at whatever point it was because the finals was going on all the way up into that point. And I'm pretty sure it was like Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday were also on the same flight and they had just played in the finals together, which is mind blowing.
James Boone: Yeah, right, right, right, right.
Link: But like wasn't allowed to go to that because obvious reasons of the s world shutting down and things going on. And then this past one that was in Paris, I went, but Book has his own guy now. His name's Jake Kazmire Jake's my absolute homie. his brother Drew was one of the pioneers in the space, did stuff with Devin, and then now Jake's kind of taken off and and doing it. But Jake was the one that was like doing all the handicam stuff and editing all the handicam stuff that the whole world got to see. And but yeah, I was there for For I don't even remember how long. We were there for a hot minute. Got to see him play multiple times. and yeah, dude, that was special. Going to the Olympics
James Boone: So cool.
Link: just in general was special. So
James Boone: Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. There's a I guess t this just thoughts keep coming to like memories and thoughts keep p like coming to my head, but I'm thinking of D Lo. He gets traded to LA, his first game. I remember like a post game. It wasn't an interview, it was a recording of him. He's like, Bro, it is so easy to play with these dudes. Like talking about AD and LeBron.
Link: Yeah, yeah. yeah. I'm I remember I know exactly what game we're talking about. I remember it was the game before 'cause LeBron hadn't played 'cause he broke the record, then like had to sat for a couple injuries. So like D played
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: like one game against like Toronto or something, and then they had like another game, I can't remember it was maybe it was against Toronto, but they killed. It was like I remember like the first play, like D throws like a lob to AD and then
James Boone: Yes.
Link: Lebron throws like a pass like give and go to D. Like it was just they it was a crazy concept of like whoa, like this could be crazy. And at this
James Boone: Yeah, yeah.
Link: point in time They had like a 0.02% of making the playoffs, or like 0.2%, something insane, like 2%, 0.2%, something around those. I just vividly remember a Darwin Hamm like writing on the whiteboard. So they had no chance of making the playoffs. And AD went on an absolute tear. D went on a tear. Bron he had an ankle injury, so he was healing from an ankle injury. So like the whole team was just killing at this point. Braun comes back. We win like eight of the last nine or something crazy, and they go to the Western Conference Finals. So a team that at the all-star break wasn't even supposed to. And then they go on this miraculous run and make it to the Western Conference Finals. It was crazy to see, it was crazy to witness. And yeah, it was just cool. That's just cool.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Did you spend much time with Vando, while you guys were
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: in Minnesota? I'm sure you guys were around a lot, but yeah.
Link: Yeah, Vando, and then in LA like he was on the flight, which was crazy because D got traded to LA when they were on a road trip in Utah and Vando was there. Pat Bev was there. He didn't get traded to LA, but he got tr or Pat Bev was on the phone. But like B's Malik Beasley was there, Vando was there, KAT was there, like we're all
James Boone: Well
Link: chatting it up. And like I pull up to the arena in like a a rental car and like get out and like meet up with D, meet up with these guys, and we're talking about the trade. We fly out, Vando's like with us. So like Vando's the homie. shout out his brother Jamal.
James Boone: Yeah, that's cool.
Link: He's a great guy as well. So
James Boone: I remember watching Jared Vanderbilt. I think he's class of twenty twenty eight. Obviously he w he went to UK. He was a point guard. So like his sophomore year of high school, i they would Western Kentucky for some reason, we we always got these like big hoop fest events. So like Oak Hill would come, Huntington Prep would always come. And obviously
Link: wow. Yeah.
James Boone: I think Jared at the time, like he was from Dallas, Texas, like Victory Prep or something like that. But I remember watching him in high school. Yeah, I remember watching him in high
Link: Yeah, I believe something like that. Dog.
James Boone: my gosh. He was a point guard. Yeah, he was a point guard.
Link: Dog. Yeah. Bro, I remember he he didn't even like play at UK and it was like, well, if Jared Vanderbilt comes back, like we'll be the best team in the world. And I don't even know if he played
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: or not. And it was like, dude, he's he's also a freak. Like he's like the like one percent body fat. Like the kid is just
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: s trimmed up out of his mind. Like and he's a good guy too. I mess with vando
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I'll share one D Lo story. this
Link: Yeah, shoot.
James Boone: is not what the pod is. I don't know when else I would actually have a chance to share this story. So I I you know, I I got the pod
Link: Dude. The pod is what you make it. It's your pod, man. You're the niche. You are the niche. Yes. Come on. Yeah, actually. Come on now.
James Boone: I am the niche. This is the niche. This is this is what somebody needed to hear. And so I gotta get it off my chest. My freshman year of college, I'm playing basketball at Samford University. We had a large Lexington Louisville contingency on our team. Our our coach had played
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: at UK. He won a national championship there. P
Link: wow.
James Boone: played in the NBA for eight years. He was on Scott Padgett He play he played with Yao Ming and T Mac. So like the game where T Mac scores 13 points and However, like fifty seconds or whatever, he was on the court while all that was happening. Our assistant coach, crazy. Our assistant coach, our assistant
Link: Yeah. That's insane. That's crazy.
James Boone: coach and AD, they were both like UK guys. They'd come down and and all the stuff. Our starting point guard at the time, Christan Cunningham, I think he's a coach, an assistant coach at College of Charleston or Rhode Island. I I can't really remember. Awesome dude, but he played for the Louisville Magic. So him and D Lo are around the same. Yep. Yep. So him and
Link: Okay. yeah, the magic. Yeah, I I've heard all about the Louisville magic.
James Boone: D Lo played on the same AAU team for the Louisville Magic. So our first two college games, that one of them is at the University of San Diego, in San Diego, obviously. And then our second game is at New Mexico State. I'm I'm not playing very much. Just let it be let it be known. I'm not playing a whole lot.
Link: Yeah. Okay, okay.
James Boone: but The night before our San Diego game, we practice at USC. So we get to practice in our practice arena. Obviously there's like pictures
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: of Swaggy P, there's pictures of DeMar DeRozan and and all sorts of stuff like that. Well we get to the hotel at night. We're not a great part of LA. Like it might be like I can't remember if it's like close it's close to USC It's close to USC if that that helps.
Link: yeah, I know. there's a lot of those places. Yeah. Yeah, that's that makes sense. Yep.
James Boone: We're all hanging outside this holiday inn. We're like walking to a corner store or whatever. We see this G Wagon, this like white G Wagon pull around.
Link: Ha.
James Boone: This is like twenty sixteen. and we we just see Christen walk out of the hotel and just like jump in the back of this G Wagon and we're like, Who the heck is that? Like, where is he going? And we all start like making
Link: Right.
James Boone: the connections is like, like bro, like D'Lo and him played AAU together and like At that point, he had just gotten drafted, was playing in LA. I don't know if it was a rookie year or second year or what. But yeah, it's like art okay, our teammate goes out and hangs out with D'Lo for the night while we're stuck in this like holiday inn in the middle of Englewood or whatever. It's like
Link: That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.
James Boone: pretty pretty wild. So So hey, beat that, beat that. I know you don't have I just I'm
Link: I mean that's a c that's still a crazy connection too in
James Boone: just kidding.
Link: No, that's that's dude, that's dope. It's actually crazy 'cause I feel like I've been a part of like random experiences like that too where the you know we'll like I'll be driving and picking up one you know, one of the homies and just like yo, I haven't seen you forever. But Louisville Magic,
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: I've heard about them so much. Like I'm pretty sure like this guy named Dion who was a was like one of their coaches and he's still mentored these and he's like one of the s
James Boone: Hm.
Link: most intelligent guys I've got to spend time with and just brush shoulders with. So shout out all the Louisville Magic crew.
James Boone: Shout out Louisville magic. Shout out to the magic.
Link: Yeah, baby.
James Boone: dude, I I feel like there's there's a ton of different rabbit holes we could go down. I want to close out. Let's close out with a little game. We will we
Link: Okay, let's do it. I like games.
James Boone: you know, we're at an hour mark here. I I don't want to hold I know you have some editing. I know you have projects you you're working on. You got episode
Link: Ha ha ha
James Boone: three and four. By the time this this episode drops, this is really convenient. Link and I timed this up pretty perfectly.
Link: Episode three and four. Yep, no we did. On purpose.
James Boone: episode and three and four of of the Backyard Cup gonna be dropping you know next two weeks. So stay tuned. we're gonna close with a little game and like I have not prepped link at all on and on any of this. And so we'll this is kind of a crapshoot. We'll see how any of this goes.
Link: That's alright. We're we're jumping off off the cliff and pulling the parachute on way down. Let's go.
James Boone: The proverbial cliff. We're jumping off of it. so obviously Link and D Lo have worked together for a long time. Have you know, it's really chance encounter. they get the link up, no pun intended. They get the link up, and obviously if like he's you know filmed a lot of his life. That's really cool. Shout out to Dwayne Wade, we we love you, man. Like, thank you for setting us up.
Link: Yes, shout out the way.
James Boone: And since then, obviously like has started a podcast, has started like a golf YouTube, like have has really like grown in this space. And they're they're beginning to create more than just you know, workout videos and and covering his life. so it's been really cool. There's been a then you know, seven year journey or whatever. So with that in mind, we're we're we're gonna ask Link and try to understand how well he actually knows his counterpart how well he knows his business partner, his
Link: wow.
James Boone: friend, all the stuff. So I have a few questions I'm gonna roll with. And
Link: I haven't taken the test in a long time. I'm a bad test taker.
James Boone: We are gonna see you know, and I don't know if there's a right answer. We don't have him on here to fact check any of this. So he he could just make all of it up. All right, we'll go.
Link: Okay, okay, okay.
James Boone: We got seven questions here. first question, what is the most shots you've seen D'Lo take in a workout?
Link: in a workout? That's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: a really good question. Wow, that's a really good question. I don't know. I don't know. I would say Probably around 300. I have this vivid memory. We went to Hawaii one year for all-star break and I remember him making an astronomically amount of shots out of 300. But it was it was literally just a shooting workout and I remember he didn't have an NBA ball, so we're using college ball. And I'm telling you he shot like an insane number out of 300. And I was like how like how? And he was like, dude, shooting a college basketball versus shooting an NBA ball is like so easy. And I was like, what? And like I do know the feel of an NBA ball. versus college ball like college ball has like way more traction you like feels it's like I don't know there's something about it but I was I remember being amazed at that point. I remember being amazed. I also s
James Boone: man.
Link: had similar things with like book and Kat like two people that could just shoot all day and never miss a shot but yeah
James Boone: It's so different. It's so different. The
Link: three hundred I feel like is the only one I can remember. I I don't I don't know.
James Boone: That's solid. It's been it's been cool. I d I they did a thing with Dame. I guess he's been tracking shots for the last I don't know how I I don't know the timeline. It kind of it bumps the stat. Like it makes it kind of inadequate or whatever. But like he's made a hundred thousand shots in the last six months or whatever. It's been it's been Yeah. Yeah.
Link: I I mean I bet. I bet. I bet. He and also Portland could be crazy this year with him coming back. We'll see. That's and Ja
James Boone: Yeah, I our guy, hey, this is a Memphis based yeah, this is a Memphis based podcast. We're ex we're excited to see see Ja turn again.
Link: Can I say something about I'll quickly before we move on, can say something quickly
James Boone: Go ahead.
Link: about Memphis FedEx Forum? Every
James Boone: we
Link: playoff, every playoff game that I've ever been in that place is always jumping. It is a electric environment to watch a playoff basketball game. So shout out to FedEx Forum. It actually is awesome.
James Boone: You got to witness s one of the cooler playoff series, I guess it was twenty twenty three, Timberwolves Grizzlies. One of the better first round series in a in a long time.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. That was honestly insane. Shout out the Grizzlies for just never giving up ever. Because they would the Wolves be blowing them out and the Grizzlies just found a way. And then the
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Now
Link: next year got our lick back with the Lakers, but it was still cool. Yeah.
James Boone: Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. There were it's funny, I went to a couple of those games, so to look back and think that, you know, we were probably I was much higher I was much higher up.
Link: We were Yeah. When the the when I was with Minnesota I had to sit a little bit higher up, but when I was the Lakers they I like finesse my way to go. I was pretty close with the Lakers. I was pretty close.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Hey mate, you're di you're dapping up bron Like you there's gotta be some strings that's gotta be pulled.
Link: I actually during that series I actually was sitting with Anthony Davis' family and his dad was wearing the championship ring and so like the people who had no
James Boone: It's so good.
Link: idea it was AD's dad and they were talking smack to him and I just remember this dad's like one line responses were all time. All time.
James Boone: Yeah. Here's a funny AD story, not the unwarranted. AAU, I'm in I'm
Link: Okay. No, we love the stories.
James Boone: in eighth grade. So Anthony Davis just wins national championship at University of Kentucky. He, you know, declares for the NBA draft. I he may have even been drafted by New Orleans at this point. We're playing an AAU tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. where you know, we have like two hours in between games. My dad and two of my friends are in the car with me. He's like, yo, like, let's go try to find AD. Like he just graduated. So maybe he didn't just get drafted He had just graduated. We're like, we're he's probably on campus. Like, let's go try to find him and and you know what it was? Here's here, okay, link. Here's you know you know what was. We were trying to find we
Link: Talk to me. Hear it.
James Boone: were trying to find Nerlens Noel. Like he had just committed, he had just
Link: yeah.
James Boone: gotten on campus at UK. And so we're driving around campus and we don't find Nerlens Noel. I'm gonna have to find this picture. We walk by or we drive up, like it we're literally in this minivan. We like ramp up a curb and like are like it's Anthony Davis. And so we bust out of the van are like, yo, Anthony, like,
Link: Take a pick with him.
James Boone: can we get a picture? I'm gonna have to find that photo. That is so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So so anyways, bro, I I vividly, vividly. I'm surprised y'all didn't talk about it on the podcast. you know.
Link: That's awesome. That is awesome. That is awesome. I'm sure AD remembers that as well. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
James Boone: all right, I alluded to this a little bit earlier. Question number two, we're moving so fast through this list. what's the most
Link: Ha ha
James Boone: mo most fun city that he's played in from your perspective. You we touched on it a little bit. It's kinda hard to say, but
Link: think was LA for me, just because I one, I had a lot of friends here prior to and then two, so I getting to have like Minnesota I didn't have very many friends outside of like the basketball crew, the NBA guys and D'Angelo's friends. When I moved to LA I had a lot of friends like my personal friends, so I had time to get away from like the world that I was living in. And also a lot of doors were opening and I was meeting a lot of different people and being in a lot of different rooms and I had never experienced San Francisco is not like LA, Minnesota's not like LA. I've never lived in a place like LA and it was just very eye-opening. And I'm very glad and blessed that I came at the age and time of my life that I did because LA is also a place you can get lost in. so
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: LA was great. I loved LA. I still love LA. It's
James Boone: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. That's right. from your perspective again, and you don't have to go through the roladex this time, but who's the coolest teammate that he's had from your perspective?
Link: probably probably AR, just because I have such a good relationship with AR, vivid rem memory. I AR we golf with AR all the time from the moment like we got to LA. AR's an addict just like us. And I remember I missed going to a it wasn't a game, it was a a tea time and he was like, Where's Link? And I was going to Kyler Kyler ha was getting a statue at Oklahoma and I remember Kyler or A AR texts. me about Oklahoma and obviously like AR winter and everything but like he was like texting me about it, texting me about like just different things that was going on and then obviously he was just like why weren't you at the tea time? Because he was like checking in on me, like why were you not at the tea time? So was just like it just shows who AR is. I love that guy. I literally texted him right before he signed, not knowing he was gonna sign when he did, and then he texted me then like he signed the next day. He texted me right afterwards. I was I was like, dude, why are you texting me? You just signed for a hundred and eighty million dollars. But it's just he's just a good good dude. So AR
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: is definitely one of my favorite teammates.
James Boone: No, that's so good. That's so good. we'll go you or D Lo, who's the better golfer right now?
Link: Ooh, I'm coming out of a really dark period of my golf game. So if we were to play this past few months, it was definitely gonna be D'Angelo. I think me and him go hit or miss. I think our superpowers are very different. I think he hits his driver straight a lot. I've had dri when I my driver's on, it's really on. When it's off, it's really off. but I have a pretty good short game I would say, and so I think our superpowers are just very different. I think we'd be a really good scramble team. But I think it's a toss-up. Depends on the day. But I gotta pick me, obviously. But I th yeah. I think it depends on the day.
James Boone: Obviously, obviously. The depends on the day, depends on the course, like when the greens aren't running at a fourteen. Like that's tough.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. I think I think at Pinehurst, if we just compared score for score on Pinehurst number two, I definitely got I think I snuck
James Boone: There we go.
Link: out of there with one par, no birdies, and I shot a ninety-one, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I was happy with it. I was happy with it.
James Boone: that's great. That's great. His his perspective on some of the day was really funny of like he's like, Yeah, I didn't remember any of the holes that we played. Like
Link: Well it was just it was a blur because one we're we're in the trenches every shot, dude. Like I've I played s some pretty incredible courses. I'm very blessed. But Pinehurst number two was unbelievable. Unbelievable. And I had like one in the early holes. I was playing pretty good golf for me in the early holes. I had like one Pinehurst experience where I got landed by the pin from like 130 yards out like bounced and rolled off the turtles back. But like watching back some of the footage, like you had Bat, who was a pro golfer. Putting it off the green from like five feet away from the hole. And I remember he talked about it in the cart with like Obi Toppin and he was like, that's like you shooting a free throw and you landing it in the second row of the stance. Like that's
James Boone: Woof.
Link: how crazy it was. And it's like I like this is a golf podcast, so I'll talk about it. Like we're all nerds watching this. But
James Boone: Come on, come on, come on.
Link: it's we show up to Pinehurst number two already knowing it's gonna crazy, but The only other thing that's going on on this course, it's like the Backyard Cup, so twenty of us golfers, and then we had the Joes so we had like fourteen other golfers. So us our thirty-four golfers. And then we had a North South amateur tournament going on. That's the only so it's girls and guys who are pursuing golf professionally.
James Boone: Huge event. Huge event.
Link: Hu huge event. Charlie Woods and Tiger like Tiger was there watching Charlie. So like Charlie's there. So you're telling me like I'm out there shanking it around Pinehurst number two, while these kids who are gonna be like the next Scottie Schefflers are out here like trying to you know, make a career out of this. And I'm telling you the greens like I someone eventually said it was like rolling to like a thirteen. But I'm over here like, what is going on? Like this is insane. I loved the greens, don't get me wrong. I the putting or the chipping was kind of crazy, but the putting was so pure. If I didn't had a caddy, I for sure would have putted off the green multiple times. But it was nuts. and then also Mason Greene Is going to be on the PGA tour. Like that kid is unbelievable at golf. Like unbelievable golf. Not only like you saw it in p the on the number two when like he like Pim and Bat and and Josh they kept talking about and Mason know they're talking about like, dude, I hit it 315 yards. You are hitting it 40 yards past me. It not only that is unbelievable, his wedge game is unbelievable, everything's unbelievable. The guy I mean I only carried the ball like 200 yards, but this guy, like I legitimately, I could hit two drivers in a 60-degree, and this guy was still. Still outdrive me. Like it was unbelievable.
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: Great head on his shoulders. The kid's gonna be a pro, like for a long time. It was special.
James Boone: Yeah. Shout out Mason Greene It it kinda goes back to the point of like, okay, why would why would the NBA community be se be so enamored with high level golfers? It's the same thing that we would see I say we, that is a I'm gonna censor that one out. but that's what, you know, golf
Link: Mm-hmm.
James Boone: community would see in, you know, some of the best athletes on the planet. So
Link: D that's a very good point. That's a very good point.
James Boone: It either either way. other than videography, what's something that you are better at than him? So there's golf. There's one. Is there anything else that you feel like
Link: Yeah. I would say well, baseball, I'm definitely better at him baseball. Like him and you should see him when he first started swinging a golf club. You would know that swinging sports was not in his MO when he was growing up.
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: better at than him. I don't know. That's a really question. Never really thought about it. Like just bar for bar. He he can he play ping pong, so he's really good at ping pong. He'd kick my butt in that. But yeah, I don't know. He's Call of Duty when I used to play Call of Duty, we just play Warzone. He Call of Duty is huge in the NBA. Everyone loves to play Call of Duty, everyone loves to play video games. he's always the guy on the Warzone team that's like going off on his own, like getting kills and stuff and I'm like way more of like the communicator of like, hey, like gone or left, gone or right.
James Boone: Strategy.
Link: so yeah, he was probably better at killing people. I was way better at communication on the
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Link: compared that. He's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: good at a lot of things though. A lot of NBA guys are. It's weird. They're just freaks at a lot of things. So
James Boone: Mm. Mm. Mm. we'll go last two questions here. You obviously spent a ton of time ton of time with them, but what would you say is like most important to him? So like outside of hoops, outside of golf, obviously that's fun. Like what what what are what's something that is like most important to him as a person?
Link: Yeah. I mean dude, he's got two kids now that are amazing. and he's got soon to be wife, so it's definitely family. He's got amazing family.
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: he he's very Is it's really cool actually to see not how much of like he's grown from a basketball perspective or anything else, like just see how much he's grown as a human being. and see like where he was when I first came around to being the family man and having kids. So awesome. So definitely being like his passion is definitely his family and I li it's it's awesome to see. It's inspiring, honestly. So
James Boone: Yeah. No, that's good. Last question here, Logan Linkmeyer, Link the World, Backyard Golf, Backyard Podcast, Dream Destination for the Backyard Cup, season four.
Link: Ooh, it's gonna be really hard to beat Pinehurst, man. It's gonna be really hard to beat Pinehurst. I don't know. I don't know where I would say the dream destination is for next year. I think it would be awesome to to play at a lot of different places. It also is like a very unique situation where it's like, dude, we're playing four or five, six days in a row. So what kind of place can have the capacity of doing it? We've done it at Paynes Valley. Internet invitational's already there. So like going back to Big Cedar is like people already say we copy the Internet Invitational, so like I don't know if we want to go back 'cause people are like, you copied again.
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, right, right, right, yeah.
Link: so maybe it's Pinehurst, maybe, you know, like if we could s finesse something and do something at Pebble Beach, maybe going to
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: the old course overseas. Who knows, man. But we'll see. It's in the works planning it right now so I won't spoil anything, but we got we got some stuff in the works.
James Boone: That's a fascinating thought and concept. Okay. Okay. We're saying the internet invitational is gonna be at Big Cedar Lodge. Like, I wonder if that starts to become a thing where it's like, okay, Pebble Beach knows that September eleventh through eighteenth, we know that Backyard Cup is gonna be hosted here every year. Like I wonder if Core like that's an interesting trajec trajectory. I'm not saying that's like pure pure speculation, but like that'd be a cool
Link: Right.
James Boone: concept.
Link: Yeah, I mean, well, you gotta think like internet has like sixty or some golfers. There's not very many places that one have the capacity to have as many different golf courses as that, but also have the phenomenal layout of living areas that they could have, like Big Cedar does. Pinehurst, they just like we stayed at their cottages, they just had their new cottages. So it's like they have like ten brand new cottages that hop fit like thirty people a cottage. So you gotta think about like the capacity of even the possibility of doing
James Boone: Logistics, yeah.
Link: it. and so like that's You know, it's a big thing. So But Pinehurst was awesome, man. I don't know and I dude, someone like you played golf a lot longer and a guy like me, like I didn't know what Pinehurst was six years ago, you know. And but going there and seeing the magnitude of it, I was starstruck. I was like, holy crap. So I can't imagine to some of the golfers if they ever show up to Pinehurst, but like what
James Boone: So good. So good. Place is pure. ladies and gentlemen, Swing State University, episode twenty-three. That's a wrap. Logan Linkmeyer
Link: Let's go.
James Boone: Link the World. Thanks for hopping on, bro.
Link: Appreciate you, bro. It was a pleasure and an honor, man.
James Boone: Come on, come on, come on.
Link: we show up to Pinehurst number two already knowing it's gonna crazy, but The only other thing that's going on on this course, it's like the Backyard Cup, so twenty of us golfers, and then we had the Joes so we had like fourteen other golfers. So us our thirty-four golfers. And then we had a North South amateur tournament going on. That's the only so it's girls and guys who are pursuing golf professionally.
James Boone: Huge event. Huge event.
Link: Hu huge event. Tiger was there watching Charlie. So like Charlie's there. So you're telling me like I'm out there shanking it around Pinehurst number two, while these kids who are gonna be like the next Scottie Schefflers are out here like trying to you know, make a career out of this.
James Boone: Logan Linkmeyer, aka Link, is a filmmaker, content creator, entrepreneur, and podcast host, best known for documenting the lives of professional athletes and creating behind the scenes sports content that gives fans unprecedented access to NBA stars. Graduated at Northern Kentucky University. Logan Link transformed a passion for storytelling into a career working directly with elite athletes. And eventually becoming the longtime content creator and creative partner of NBA All-Star D'Angelo Russell. Today, Logan is the co-host and producer of the Backyard Podcast, alongside with D'Lo, where they share unfiltered conversations, behind-the-scenes stories, and interviews with some of basketball's biggest names, including Anthony Davis, Karl Towns, Big Cat, the Big Bodega, Devin Booker, Austin Reeves, Chris Brickley, and more. at this point you may be asking and wondering, you know, hey, James, this is cool and all, but you know, you've said nothing about Link being in the golf space. Well, here's something really cool. with the with the wave of NBA guys getting into golf, the way that YouTube golf has blown up. Link has has been dabbling. And I will I don't want to say dabbling because he's becoming a leader in the space. so no mention of golf
Link: Man.
James Boone: at the beginning. We we are there this summer. Link and D Lo put on the third annual Backyard Cup at Pinehurst number two. one of the nicest golf venues on the planet if you're curious the backyard cup is a Ryder Cup style tournament featuring some of the biggest names in the NBA and YouTube golf participants this year included Bronny James, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, Devin Booker, Big John Golfs, Malosi Golfs, Mason Greene Obi Toppin, James Johnson, Link the World, Link the World, shout out, and
Link: Hey, let's go.
James Boone: many, many more. Logan Linkmeyer, aka Link, We're so excited to hear your story. Welcome to Swing State University, brother.
Link: It's a pleasure to be here. That was that was a crazy monologue. I I'm not gonna lie. I I was just sitting here smiling. That was awesome. So thank you. I don't know if I deserve
James Boone: Ha ha ha
Link: all that, but it's very appreciated appreciated.
James Boone: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I I would say it's a very, very deserving. really cool show for you guys today. I I obviously there is an element of honing a craft, being in the right place at the right time, getting connected with people who would eventually like change the direction in course course of your life. I think similar to a lot of the guests that we've had on in the past, I'm thinking of Mason McInally kind of like getting his career in the PT space up and going. where it's like you are a professional in your craft, but then you get that big break of working with tour level athletes. And Logan's gonna get to share a lot about his journey and how, you know, how and him and D Lo connected and and what the last seven or eight years of his life has looked like. But Link, I'm gonna be honest with you, one thing I'm curious about is the Backyard Cup. How did that come to be? And then I feel like in year three, it's exploded. if you guys haven't checked out the first episode that came out has over 800,000 views on YouTube. it is it is incredibly, incredibly entertaining. but Link, like how did that come to be? what has the last like two months of your life look like?
Link: Man, it's it's been a journey. I mean you you said it first, It's year three. So year one, we did it at Paynes Valley. That was three years ago. So this is before the Internet Invitational came out. This is for the YGT. We I was probably like a twenty five handicap at this point, like new to golf and we just we have a group of friends. D'Angelo, my boy Eric, my boy Jordan and we all just three of us, me Eric and D are huge golfers and we wanted to throw a golf tournament and we just had this idea to do it and we did it at Paynes Valley and we somehow got Garrett Clark to show up and we you know we had some mutual connections with John Daly Jr. and different things and we tried it and we had no idea what we were doing. It was like a first time we ever filmed a golf video. It was terrible. I like the whole thing, the production was
James Boone: Ha ha.
Link: terrible. From a fun standpoint in everybody's
James Boone: That's right. Yeah.
Link: experience, it was top notch. Like everyone to this day that still that went to that loved it. But from a production standpoint we we dropped the ball. And then the next year we did it in Oregon and we got a little bit better, learned a little bit more. It wasn't as big of a turnout that we wanted and so we learned got a little better and then this year it was yeah at Pinehurst the probably coolest venue in the states that we ever could have done it at shout out Pinehurst and shout out everybody that pulled up. I mean we had we had twenty guys that were on camera, ten of them being creators, ten of them being NBA guys. And we had twenty four, twenty five guys in production that was there. So like it's even bigger than anything I've ever done in my entire life on a production standpoint. So shout out Jordan, shout out Reed, all the guys behind the camera that just made it possible. But Yeah, one of the coolest, if not the coolest experiences, to date. It's it was awesome. It was awesome.
James Boone: Yeah. If you're joining from if you're, you know, one of Link's followers have followed his journey for a long time, I think what's fascinating, Link, you talk about, hey, the first time we've ever done this, like the production wasn't at the level that you would want it. You are someone who is incredibly talented, has like for the last, you know, six to eight years have been building a portfolio of incredible work. So like if you're one of his followers, like you know that like production level, but like YouTube golf is like a different space and world and like that's probably a different feel. So there's there's one thing there. Second thing, I I'm curious how and we alluded to this like a little a little bit off air, but like how do you you have experience of like okay, corroborating and like bringing groups of people together, but like what is the scope? Like what is the how do you bring that many people, 10 creators, 10 NBA players, like together? what are all the intricacies? Because like that's not an easy thing to do. And especially at a at a place like Pinehurst, like I'm there's there's probably a lot of red tape, is my guess Yeah.
Link: Yeah, yeah. Well, first and foremost, I mean Doing production in general for is shooting any video photo stuff is over here and then golf, especially YouTube golf. I won't speak on like professional golf or anything, but YouTube golf
James Boone: Wow. Yeah.
Link: is over here. It is two completely different worlds, two completely different things. And it was it was a huge learning curve. So like I want to shout out Ryder, Ryder Riviera, he works with Garrett Clark. He helped us a ton working with him the first year at Backyard Cup, the the first one ever. Like he taught us a lot, taught us the cameras to get taught us. the mics to get and then he came to Backyard Cup number three and was part of our production crew and obviously he I mean he's filmed YGT he's filmed the Internet Invitational he knows exactly what the heck to do but yeah it's just it's such a unique beast but as far as the planning and all of that stuff It's actually crazy that we're even like sitting here talking about it. When I first started really doing videos and just going for it, I was traveling the world and I was doing it with one of my best friends named Eric Olano And I am the type of guy that I didn't care what we did, I just wanted to do something. And Eric's the type of guy that loves planning and loves doing all this stuff. So he would just be like, Hey Link, we're going to Brazil. Here's the plane ticket. It's two hundred dollars. It's gonna cost like four hundred dollars to backpack for the next fourteen days. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm it and I would I would be sitting there vlogging and I'd be yo We're in Brazil, and I'll be yo, Eric, where are we at? Because I would have no idea. Because Eric is he's plans and does things very that's like his he's the best in the world at it. I swear he is.
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: He's just really good. Anytime we do a golf trip with our buddies, Eric's the guy planning it, and he just loves to do it. So Eric was definitely he's the head of operations and head of like all of that for for the backyard cup and for the just backyard. And so he's was our MO. He's talking to the phone on Pinehurst, he's dialing thing in, dialing everything in. And then I'm kind of like the the middleman of of Eric's vision and then the production vision. So then Eric's on the phone with me we're b going up to Backyard Cup. Me and Eric are probably on the phone for forty hours a week, just going through what we need, what we need to do, how we need to do it. like him shooting ideas, bouncing them off me, I'm shooting ideas, bouncing off him. And so like that was like a whole we did that six, seven, eight months before, you know, we're going up to Pinehurst at the end of June. And then as far as like getting everyone there, that was I wish I filmed all of it because it was unbelievable how one in the beginning, I mean D'Angelo he's played the NBA for, you know, ten, eleven going on eleven years, maybe even twelve years for but he he's been the NBA for a long time. And he's got a lot of friends. And so like Devin was he like hit a book, book was instantly coming. Austin Reeves, like Bronny, like all of his teammates that he's played with, James, all of these guys like built relationships with, they're good friends, they all golf. And so it was like an immediate yes. So shout out to all those guys because it was super easy. And then from the creator side, you know, we started collabing with more guys on YouTube, and so it became easier to see our name in the space a little bit more. So it was like, the backyard. I I've either knowed D'Angelo or I've seen your guys' videos. And so we started getting more. More and more of those guys to show up. But towards the end, man, like I got a funny story. We we had a guy that was supposed to come but dropped out on the NBA side. He had some things pop up and he couldn't go. And so we had one roster spot to fill. And there was like a mutual friend with this guy
James Boone: I have an idea who it who it is. I I saw I saw the banner.
Link: Well we had yeah, so I well we had so this guy DOD DOD King, he's popular in the the golf space, but he's really good friends with Cheddy and Big John, and so they were like, yo, let's get DOD. So I'm on the phone with DOD. This is like three days before the event. He's like saying, like, dude, I'm I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come. He's got a a trip right afterwards that's in he's playing in a tournament in Canada. And so he was currently he was calling me on the phone in the Miami airport trying to get a new Passport because you couldn't have a passport. So then he a couple days go by, he can't come. So we still have one. I'm I'm at this point, I'm in Pinehurst. Like I've been there for the day, and we still have one person to to get. And I don't remember if Jake Adams, I don't remember if Malosi, I don't remember who gave me Josh Kelly's number, but I'm calling the day before the tournament. So the tournament starts the next day. I'm calling Josh Kelly, and I'm like, yo, you have no idea. I'm leaving a voicemail, and I'm just I can just picture if I got this voicemail. I'm yo, you have no. I do I ha who I am. I were like I do stuff at the backyard. We're playing all the pinehurst, all your friends are showing up, named all people. I was like, hit me back. And so he calls me back and I'm like, yo, pull up. Like, trust me, it's worth it, all this. And he's like, dude, I can't. I can't. Like I and he gave me like that one foot in, one foot out, can't. And so I'm like, all right, cool. I won't bug you. Do a million other things. We have to do a prep. I wake up the next morning and this is the morning everyone's showing up. So like I'm like, we're going to pick up like NBA guys at the airport, like all this stuff. And I'm I I wake up at four thirty in the morning and I'm spamming like I I'm spamming Josh Kelly. Like literally fifty messages 'cause at this point it was like it was him or nothing. Like we were obviously we had some other guys that we would have filled it with, some like other Joes. And he finally he just calls me like three hours later, he's like, Yo, I just woke up. I'm on my way to the airport. I've no idea what I packed, but I'm coming. And he was like, I'll call you when if I make the flight or if I miss the flight and he showed up that day, like didn literally didn't even know who I was twelve hours before and he showed up to Pinehurst So it was it was cool stuff like that that, you know, the man upstairs was looking out for us and it made everything work and we had the best crew, the most fun group of guys that I've ever been with on a golf trip. It was awesome. So
James Boone: Well, and an another piece of that, you say hey, this is the most fun trip you know we've ever had with a group of guys in your entire life. You have no idea how they're going to relate to one another, if they're gonna hit it off, it's gonna if it's gonna be awkward, and it wasn't.
Link: No, no idea. No, not at all. Not at all. And I mean I knew some of the the YouTube guys, but not a lot of them. I had no idea. Like I never had the personal connection with. Like I've maybe some of I talked to them on FaceTime, some of them were text, some of them on calls. Eric the same thing. And D'Angelo had met some of them, same thing. But most of the NBA guys I've known, obviously D'Angelo knows the NBA guys. So I knew the NBA guys were gonna be fine because one thing about professional athletes is what they've taught me and just being around them is they're in so many different rooms. with so many different people that they can like they can figure it out and make anything not be awkward or not feel weird and they're really good at that because it's just something that they've been doing since they were 10 because most of them have been the best player in their vicinity and you get what I'm saying. And so I knew they were gonna have
James Boone: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Link: be having a good time as well as they're all like the NBA guys are all friends. So I know they're gonna
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: you know gamble play games go play on the putting green do whatever but it was really cool to see some of these YouTube golfers that I watch on TV when I'm about to go to sleep and I'm obsessed still obsessed with golf and see
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah.
Link: how cool they actually are in person. And shout to them and shout just the the community that the YouTube golf space is because there are some really good, genuine human beings in that that side of the space.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Well and there's a piece of too where it's like, okay, they're not obviously at the like PGA toy level. So like there's a there's a probably a guardedness that like doesn't have to exist in their space to operate to do what they do. Like they actually kind of thrive in being
Link: Right.
James Boone: being a little bit more authentic. What what was cool listening to your podcast, that you and D Lo did, this was I guess a month ago at this point, you guys were reflecting on the trip. on one hand you have like D Lo's like affinity for the YouTube golf space. So like his I I wouldn't say like Starstrucks, like those guys don't get starstruck. But like, wow. Like seeing w seeing like what, you know, the YouTube golfers like do, the content creators do, and like how much respect he had for those guys, I'm imagining for I'd know this would be the case, but like I know the phone call to like call up some of the creators and be like, yo, like you wanna go like on a golf trip with Bronny James, Austin Reeves, like D Lo DBook It's like
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: they're going to raise their hand and say, like, yeah, I'm I'm pulling up to this. So like it's a
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: it's an interesting like mutual like respect. All
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: because like the NBA has like moved in a direction of like every we know we love golf. So it's like we're gonna we're gonna
Link: For sure. All the NBA guys love golf. And then also, I mean, dude, the creators are just there's genuine humans. Like I I can honestly say
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: that. And so some of them obviously took a little bit more of a sell of like like there's got like there has to be some sort of trust. Well, schedules
James Boone: Schedules. Yeah.
Link: is one thing, but then after that, it's like they're getting pulled in so many different directions and everybody wants a piece of them all the time because they
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: know if they get them there, there's views there. And so it was more of like, Hey, I'm not trying to get you there to use you. I know that you are going to have
James Boone: yeah.
Link: have the best time of your life and also like it's going to just be a great time. And so there there was like there we had to build some trust. Like that was the thing. Because obviously, you know, we did Backyard Cup one, Backyard Cup Two, but they just
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: they weren't to what we are now sitting with Backyard Cup three. And and so yeah, it was there was some trust there and shout out all the guys for trusting us and pulling up and all of them to to my knowledge have this still to this day we talk about we like a group chat with all the creators and they're still Like every time one drops we're where they're, you know, talking smack about fun
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: different things that happened and different moments and yeah, those guys are a good group of guys.
James Boone: Yeah, that's good. That's good. And that that kinda goes back to your point on like there being levels of like YouTube golf. And like like you said, you've you've been in this space now for like two years. Like you're now I remember you re referring back to it on the pod of like you now have like the Rolodex where people can look back and be like, like no like Backyard has been in this space for long enough to like really like get it going and run it up. So I l yeah.
Link: Yeah, I mean it's just tripping and figuring it out how to to stand up and go do it again, you know. So
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: what we learned a lot from this year and I can't wait for Backyard Cup next year you know. So
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Talking about tripping and, you know, falling down and getting up. Okay, you're still doing that ten years into your career, a successful career. At Northern Kentucky University, you know, from small town Indiana, you like go to NKU, like Cincinnati, Covington, Kentucky, shout out shout out Chris Volt, shout out Mason Faulkner. some throwbacks in my life. promise you they're not listening to they're pr promise you they're not listening to this you know, this
Link: Yep. Very sure. Same with me.
James Boone: episode. Maybe maybe. Cameron Pittman shout out. I'll shout out Cameron Pittman one time.
Link: Cam
James Boone: you okay, obviously like you you major in digital media videography, like that that was the lane you're swimming in. So like tell me about kind of your journey. How'd you get into that space? I've seen some
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: Red River Gorge highlights and and montages and some some day ones. Yeah.
Link: Yeah, that's early days. yeah, so I have I've been creating videos for a very long time. I started doing it when I was actually in high school and I know we talked off cam about you coming from a small town and you I think you said like fifteen thousand or something like that. And
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: it's always the fun fact. My friends get annoyed at this, but it's my fun fact that it's just something that's just kind of crazy the more I think about it is I grew up in a town of forty two people, like a hometown population of forty two people. And I went to a school I don't know remember how many people I graduated with, but, you know, like we had like multiple towns all come together and we're like I went to s a school called South Ripley. And one of the coolest things about my high school, this small town school was that every Wednesday we had to produce a student ran like news show. And we would have to make our own videos, make our own commercials, make our own like promos for the basketball game coming up and promos for whatever like charity events was going on at school. Just random things. And we had to be anchors and all that stuff and I loved it. Like I absolutely loved it. I loved being an anchor. I loved making videos. I was the guy that just wanted to edit the videos and and And it was the cool thing to do, to be honest with you. It was just like if you were an athlete, you did CNNSR and our teacher, she was a librarian, Mrs. Shrimple. I love her to death still this day. She she let us explore creativity, have fun, and just learn. And so I learned how to edit videos, I learned how to use a camera, and it was basic cameras, it was probably like a $200 camera, but it was like, hey, like that's what we had, and we we made stuff, and I left there going to NKU not knowing that you didn't have to go to Hollywood and make movies to use a camera, so I became an accounting student and hated my life for the first semester of college. and so I purposely did not show up to my final exam of accounting so I could have the guts to tell my parents and it's crazy saying this out loud now because my mom loves me to death, my dad loves me to death. They would not have cared if I would have switched my major, but I was so embarrassed to like do it. So I legitimately just stopped showing up to like did not show up to the exam at all. Took an F and was was like, here mom, I can't continue in accounting. Like I can't do it.
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: Switched to electronic media and was the worst student of all time. My teachers to this day will tell you like I was just a bad student and I just did a bare minimum enough to get by. And And still had no idea what I wanted to do. And then I got a job out of college. And that's not to say NKU's electronic media is phenomenal. Like they tried everything to get me to be a good student. And I just I was a rebel. I just wouldn't do it. And so I
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: after college got a job working in a pharmaceutical company. And I had two screens. one was all my work that had to get done, and the other one was just YouTube videos about video like making videos, creating videos, travel. videos all this stuff and one day I was just like I want to just try this so I text my boy Eric the same guy that is was doing the stuff now
James Boone: Yeah, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Link: with us at for Pinehurst and operation side and we went to the Red River Gorge and legitimately almost died because we came through the night in like a monsoon and it was freezing and yeah the rest of history was just like all right let's create videos
James Boone: Jeez.
Link: travel the world and create videos and that's what we started doing. So
James Boone: Dude. There's a d there's a dialogue there of okay, w what does it mean to not excel in school? But then you going out on your own when you're working at the pharmaceutical company being like, okay, I want to like educate myself. So there's like a disconnect, obviously like,
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: yeah, in the structure of school, maybe not being great, but like
Link: I don't think it was the structure of school not being great. I think it was more of I had an itch to make videos, but it was still early enough in social media that creating your own videos was still like not really like a thing. It wasn't really popular. So it was a little bit of that and then also I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I loved sports, but I didn't want to there was like telling people like, I want to work for Duke's basketball team and make videos. And it was like I just said that because I like Duke and like there's a video person 'cause I had no idea what I wanted to do. And so I got there was a stint that I Did stuff with like NKU's basketball team for a little bit, made videos
James Boone: Sure.
Link: for them. I didn't it just it was cool. I did some stuff, didn't really love it, it wasn't my passion. So I didn't give school everything because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I just
James Boone: Yeah, that's that's a good point.
Link: I went to YouTube university after I graduated and just learned a lot of stuff with YouTube, trialed and error, made videos that sucked and tried to get a little bit better and started honestly just throwing I say it all the time, this is one of my favorite sayings is just throwing darts at a dartboard and seeing which one sticks. And you can throw a million and you find one, that's all you need. It doesn't matter about the other however many you throw. So yeah.
James Boone: Sure. Yeah. At what point did you connect with Eric?
Link: Me and Eric went to college together. We were not friends. we actually did not really like each other. And then we yeah, we the more school that went past and then graduated, we s started having more things of just I was like working at a restaurant that he like told me to work at, like as a server. We had probably like 15 friends that were just all servers. So it was like going to work was just us kicking it and hanging out, and we were all running each other's foods and drinks and helping each other. other out so it was just fun and that's kind of like what started our like trajectory of being friends and hanging out more and not hating each other and then then yeah like he was one of my he was one of my friends that he they all graduated and they went on like a 30 day backpacking trip to Europe and just bummed it for 30 days and I thought it was the coolest thing ever so I just remember I was I saw a video of some people traveling this guy named Sam Kolder who is a genius in the filmmaking industry but he was traveling doing stuff and I texted my boy Eric and I was like, yo, let's go make one of these videos at the gorge. And he was like, Alright, let's do it this weekend at this time. And we did it. So yeah.
James Boone: So that's a interesting place to start. So that is not you filming college guys that you some Norse players doing workouts and putting a you know dope soundtrack, dope edit behind it. You were filmmaking, you were storytelling, you were creating content around nature and it had nothing
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: to do with sports, had nothing to do with basketball.
Link: No.
James Boone: You're really far away from connecting with some of the best NBA players of like our day.
Link: Yeah. I mean I I did like make a couple 'cause like NKU was that was like right when our basketball team really started taking off and we didn't have football. So like it was basketball or nothing in NKU and I
James Boone: Carson Edwards?
Link: yeah, yeah, all dude Carson Edwards was a dog, dude.
James Boone: Dog.
Link: Drew McDonald, like we he we had some really like Levon Holland, we had some really good basketball players in NKU. Yeah, I did know that. I did know that. I did know that.
James Boone: Drew McDonald, great golfer. Dual sport athlete. Dual sport athlete. He played golf at NKU and basketball.
Link: Yeah, he's great guy too, but I haven't heard that name in a long I haven't heard any of these names
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: in a long time. So that's it's bringing up crazy memories. But yeah, so like we had classes that we had to like do random videos for, random like I remember like audio engineering and different stuff. So I remember I made like Star Wars Rogue One came out, so I made like a little hype trailer that kind of like was synonymous to the Rogue One trailer and just different things, different projects. It was still centered on basketball. I was I was never doing highlights. That also wasn't a thing back then. Nobody was following an NBA player. No one was doing highlight mixtapes. Like there was none of that. And yeah, so that was never a dream. Yeah,
James Boone: Pure. It is pure.
Link: it was never a dream to do something with an NBA player. It was never a dream to do anything with a football player. And once again, didn't even know it was possible or a thing, kind of like how I thought that you had to work in movies to be doing stuff with And yeah, I mean it's Yeah, it's crazy. This is crazy.
James Boone: Yeah. I mean go go ahead. You you spoke on it a little bit off air, but like how to how does one jump from, hey, yo, Eric, like I got this camera. Obvious obviously you had been doing this for a little bit, but like, yo, like, let's just create some of these videos too. Okay, now I'm now I'm working with D'Angelo Russell. Like that that's a gap of
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: time, but like walk us through how that how that made sense.
Link: Yeah. So me and Eric were traveling and going to just random places. So I quit my pharmaceutical job after it paid for a camera, a drone, like all the different camera things that I needed. And we started traveling to
James Boone: Okay, what I'm sorry I'm sorry, Link. What like have you talked to your parents? I obviously you're a grown man at that point, but it's like, Hey, yo, I'm quitting my job.
Link: Yeah. I did, I did. I when I quit my job I taught I they came to the place that I served at. It was at Wings and Rings in Crestview and we were all about our whole crew was there obviously, but like when we were still t you know, twenty-one years old serving and it was like I only got the pharmaceutical job because it was like you have to get a job out of college. That was like my whole thing. I like, I go to college, you have to get like a real job. And on the side we're all slinging wings at this wings ring. So it was like making more money, doing whatever. And so I remember having them come up, we were all like chilling, eating, and I told them I like, Look, I quit my job. I just don't wanna have I don't wanna like go wake up and have a normal job. And I was terrible at my delivery. My mom cried because it was like she's the most genuine hearted person in the world. And I kinda like I kind of made it seem like I didn't want to have a life like theirs, and it wasn't what that was at all. It was just like I had dreams to do something different and I wanted to just chase it a little bit. And they have been my biggest supporters from day one. And my sister is in there too. Like I have the best support system ever for my family, so shout out to them. I love them to death. But f like made my mom cry. She was just th and but from that moment it was just like we did it. Like we're going for it. And so me and Eric started traveling, going to we went to like a bunch of places in Europe. We went to Brazil and we just made videos after like while we're there we were filmed videos, tried film or editing videos afterwards, got better. G still was not a good filmmaker. Like looking back on those videos they were trash. Like really bad. But the the back then it was D'Angelo ha was year two or three in the league and he was a became an all star. Like I very vividly remember him being an all star.
James Boone: Brooklyn.
Link: And His brother of all his two of his brothers of all people or of all places, they went to college at NKU as well. And I met them when I was a freshman and they were juniors, I believe. And so played basketball with them. We knew each other very well, but me and D'Angelo are the same age. So D'Angelo goes off the NBA. He's played for a couple of years. Still kept in touch with Tone for a little bit. off and on when he'd come back to NKU, we'd hang out, we'd kick it, we'd talk basketball. We were always basketball heads. And when he became an all-star, I remember like Tone texting me randomly. He was like, yo, because he's followed me on Instagram. He was just like, yo, Link, I need you, or something like that. Something random like that. But then it just was like silent ghost. Like never knew what the heck that was. But it was like that he got it was the day he got selected from to be an NBA All-Star. And then that year plays out, they go to the playoffs. D'Angelo, that's when he has that crazy kind of breakout year with the Nets. And then I remember
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Link: I'm going to film a wedding in in like North Carolina or something like that. We
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: have like some some friends of a friend that were getting married and so I'm about to drive down. I get a text from Tone like, Hey, can you be in Louisville in like three days or something like that? And it's like the day after the wedding. And I'm like, yes. Like what's up? And he was like, D'Angelo coming to town. He's going back to his high school. he's gonna be in town for a couple of days. Would love to for you to like come film some stuff. I go to this wedding, I drive back after the wedding, film it all, drive back through the night. I get to Louisville and I have no like clothes. So I remember I stop at some random Walmart and I buy legitimate like Walmart clothes and pull up, meet D'Angelo. We hit it off from the jump. it was like we were friends for a while. Filmed him for like two or three days, he left. I went back up to Northern Kentucky and I just started cranking out videos for him of like what we like we had and the whole time this was going on from my perspective, what I've now learned from their perspective is Tone had always seen all my travel videos that I was making. D'Angelo
James Boone: Wow, wow.
Link: loves to travel and he I guess after the season was over, they were on the beach somewhere and he like was just talking. He was like, yo, Tone, like I need my own video guy. Like him how dope would it be to have like a guy filming what we're doing right now. And Tone's like, I know a guy. Like I got the guy. And Yeah,
James Boone: Wow.
Link: and so like that was kind of what was going on their side. I was f pursuing traveling and filmmaking on our side. And then D'Angelo signs with the Warriors. And so I fly out to Golden State in game one. it film all of that stuff and then like a like two weeks later they're playing in LA and D'Angelo
James Boone: There, dude.
Link: had just signed with Way of Wade the LiNing it's a LiNing company that Dwayne Wade is the
James Boone: Yeah. Yep, yeah, yep.
Link: head of and we have D'Angelo's kind of like intro photo shoot with Dwayne Wade so I'm filming everything on D'Angelo's side and
James Boone: Golly, bro.
Link: and so at that night we go to dinner and D Wade has like his own photo guy that kind of like was with him as like one of his boys that he had. And we were all Dinner was like 10 of us, and I'm sitting next to D, I got a camera, I'm like filming stuff. I'm kind of geeked out because D-Wade was like one of my favorite players growing up. I'm like, what the heck is going on? And then D-Wade, I just remember like the first time he had like a real conversation with me. He points at me. I have it all in film too. He was How long, how long you two been been like doing this together? And I before I could even speak, D's like I've known him for like two weeks, he's known my brother for years. we're just now starting to like capture stuff, and D-Wade looks at D who is like, my biggest regret. of my career is not having Bobby, which is his guy, move in with me when I first got to the league. And so D
James Boone: Wow.
Link: looked at me D looked at me right there. He's like, you trying to move in? I was like, yeah. And so from that moment I moved in with him and yeah, that's how we got to here.
James Boone: A long way from shooting weddings in North Carolina. I have to I have to believe that's the last wedding you you touched.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm pretty sure I think I filmed one like I had already like accepted one when I was like that was while the Golden State season was going on. I remember flying back and filming one and coming back and I'm telling myself like I don't ever want to do that again. So yeah and also have a terrible track record with weddings. I'm pretty sure like every wedding I've filmed, they've all got divorced. So you don't want me as a wedding filmmaker. So it's just not good luck.
James Boone: It w it was it worked out for both parties. Also, talk
Link: Yeah, yeah.
James Boone: thinking about the you could call it Providence or whatever, whatever got into Dwayne Wade's mind in in that dinner, where obviously the fact that like you met D Lo two weeks ago, you're you're at that dinner. For him to just be compelled to be like, you know, the biggest regret of my career was that I didn't have someone filming.
Link: Yeah, dude. It's crazy. It's crazy that it and it's like a D Wade of all people. Like back in the day, everyone loved LeBron. And so I was naturally the kid. I was like, I like Carmelo and Dwayne Wade because everyone wanted to like
James Boone: Sure, sure.
Link: LeBron. So it was just like that. And then sitting here, hearing him say that, it was just like, whoa. And then also like shout out to D, to Tone, to Craig. Like the I they op literally open arms let me like move in with them and we were in San Fran and had like I was living in like the movie theater. We didn't have an extra room, so like them there was a movie theater, so like I'm I'm crashing in the movie theater. I got like my own huge couch that I'm sleeping on and those boys treated me like I was part of the crew from day one and they'd been, you know, best friends for eighteen, nineteen, twenty years at that point. And Tone's obviously D'Angelo's brothers. They've been brothers forever. So
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: But they made me feel
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like home and yeah, the rest is history. So
James Boone: Absolutely. Absolutely. You obviously have okay, stint in Brooklyn, get traded to the Warrior Warriors, have another stint in Brooklyn, back to Minnesota. Obviously there there was a kind of a snaking journey
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: there. Do you have a year where you're like, Man, that was the coolest year? Obviously getting traded back to LA, like
Link: Ooh. Yeah. I think they're all cool for different reasons. Like the San Fran year, like we were I've lived in San Francisco for like eight or nine months. and then he went got traded from San Francisco to Minnesota. And one, the San Francisco like a vivid memories of like the first few games because that was when, you know, Steph before he got hurt. So we got like two or three games with Steph and like going to like a Packers game where with Steph and like his family and it's like us. Getting to hang out with him and kick it with him, like vivid memory. Because at that point I'm still starstruck. It's like what the heck? Like we celebrated Book's birthday. It's at the beginning of the season. So like Book pulls up. I'm hanging out with Book. And all my friends being from Kentucky, it's like Book is royalty. You know, Devin Booker is like the guy. So can't kicking with Book and everything at that point. And like I still remember this day when Book followed me on Instagram. It was like he came over to the house, we kicked to celebrate his birthday, he left the crib and I ha look at my phone and like Devin Booker is now following on Instagram. It's like what the frick is going on here. And Then like the trade to Minnesota that was something I'll always remember, like the craziest situation ever. 'Cause I'm the only one at the house. D'Angelo's asleep and I'm like the one talking to D about like, yo, you are you're getting traded to Minnesota. Like I'm on the phone with Tone who is starting to become D'Angelo's agent. Tone's like telling me like, yo, they got in town like four AM from a flight from wherever. Like wake up D'Angelo, we gotta like talk to Minnesota's owner and president because he's now going to Minnesota. And then We're packing up the bags. I'm hopping on my first ever private jet flying to Minnesota. We get it there at like four a.m. It's minus thirty wind chill outside, and we have a hundred people that are waiting in the middle of the cold to like welcome D'Angelo to Minnesota. And we're it just like little things like that and being on the behind the scenes of seeing how all that operates and the basketball kid in me just loved every second of it. But then you got the LA situation, like we get traded to LA and it's It's like the first day we're there is the day after LeBron breaks the scoring record. And then that night LeBron's like throwing his own party and so I'm like going in there and like LeBron's dapping me up. And it's like, what is this? You know, it's like there's fifteen guys in here and LeBron's dapping me up. Like what like what what is going on? And at that point I wasn't like I I don't get like star struck and stuff anymore. But it was more of like I couldn't wait to tell my boys that LeBron like who idolize LeBron and love LeBron. Like my boy Adonis, Cam's one of Cam's boys. loves LeBron and I remember having conversation with him, I was like, Yo, like met LeBron last night, which is crazy. Yeah, so then it's it's been a whirlwind. So I can't say that I have a favorite year
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: or anything, but like each season of or each chapter along the way it was just new and unique things that I've been very blessed to to see doors
James Boone: Sure.
Link: that have opened and yeah, like I mean even in Minnesota, like I was doing stuff with Kyler Murray and I was flying I was I averaged like a flight every two days 'cause I was flying to wherever Kyler was playing and doing stuff with him for a few days, flying to where D Angels playing to himself for him for like a few days and bouncing all all around. I did went to the finals with Book when Book went took the Suns to the final. And we we have literally like four terabytes of footage of what Devin
James Boone: Oof.
Link: did from before because they played the Lakers that year, of the year after the Lakers won the championship. Like they were they were projected to lose. The Suns were projected
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: to lose. And like we have all of that footage of every single
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: second of the day from the day before the playoffs started. all the way up until two days after they lost in the finals and like the exit interviews and all that stuff. Like got it all on film and like so that's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like a whole unique crazy chapter. So there's been a lot of really cool moments, man. I've been very blessed to have been able to go through those and do those. So
James Boone: In incredible. I I'm curious for you. Is there obviously people listening to this and being like, this is the most incredible journey? Hey, if I'm a creative out here, like how do I get that job? And there that's a very like specific journey that you had to like end up in the space, being the seat that you're in. Is there ever a moment for you whenever you are with these guys But th there's a piece of it where it's like you're you are on the clock. Like obviously you are there are times when you're not filming. There are times whenever you're just kinda like kicking it and hanging out with these guys. Like you you for you you live with D Lo for goodness sake. Like that was a large part of your journey. Is there ever a point for you where that you're like, Man, this does feel like work? Where it's like, you know, I'm I'm in this crazy, I'm living this crazy existence. Like you said, this is like a blessed life. Not many people get to sit in your position, but it's like, is there ever p like And maybe this is a bigger dialogue of like, okay, enjoying the moment, turning your camera off, like
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: wha you know, but yeah, do you ever find yourself being like, Man, like I it's a tension
Link: Yeah. it never f I don't know. Because it never felt like work because it didn't feel like I was sitting in a cubicle like I did when I graduated school. So like Yeah,
James Boone: Ooh, oof. 'Cause you knew what it felt like.
Link: yeah. And I've been like it was more of I knew what I was doing. I was still in the mode of like this is really cool to me. Like I didn't care if it was cool to anybody else. Obviously I was going through like I was mid twenties at that time, so like I there was some definite like this is really just really cool. Like people are gonna think this is cool, whatever. But
James Boone: yeah. People thought that was cool.
Link: for sure. And I I there was one time where I really got a kick out of that. I really wanted people to think it was cool. But now like as I got as I get really broke it down, it was I was still having fun. It was really cool. It's also a job that Everyone has their ups and downs with life, with jobs, with anything. It doesn't matter if you're an NBA player making a hundred million dollars, doesn't matter if you're somebody that's struggling, doesn't matter. Everyone has their ups and downs and I've seen it on both sides. I've seen on every from every spectrum from guys that are billionaires to guys that like make ten dollars an hour. Like I've seen it all. Everyone has trials and tribulations. And when it comes to the job that I was doing, it also had really high highs and very difficult situations that you had to navigate as well. Like turning it off. When when Could I take a breath and not put out fires or film or do whatever? Because when you're doing these things, these guys a lot of times aren't traveling with 15 different people and doing all 15 different things. If you're in that little crew of entourage of people and you're like one of two, one of three, or just one person, like you're doing you're wearing 15 different hats. So you're like you're the filmmaker, but you're also like helping like plan the trip. You're helping like making sure we get to this place on time. You're connecting with the dinner reservation, you're doing all these things. So there's you're just wearing a lot of different hats, man. And so it was It's a it's a learning curve, like learning how to not be overwhelmed all the time, not be stressed, chill, not be, you know, somebody that you're not, and still being yourself and still enjoying yourself and still remembering that it is your life as well. So yeah, man, and but it's like any other job, you know. Everybody
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: else has some difficult things and some great things, and that that was the same with me. So
James Boone: Yeah, it probably looks your benefits package probably looks a little bit different. There's probably not like two weeks PTO. You know
Link: yeah. yeah. No, not at all. Not at all. But you know, yeah. I actually we had a conversation with one of my boys. He hasn't really he's worked the same job since he got out of school and we were talking about just random things about that and I was like, dang, I ain't got that and it was a huge laugh. So that's funny. That's
James Boone: Mm.
Link: funny.
James Boone: Are there are there any guys, like ancillary guys that obviously like you spent a ton of time with Book, you spent a ton of time with D Lo, like, okay, LeBron dapping you up, that's really cool. Are there any guys kinda like on the fringe that you're like, Man, I really respect how that guy moves? just from from the last, you know, six or seven years?
Link: Yeah. there's a lot of guys actually. I don't mean like people are if they listen to how I hyped up all these YouTube guys in the beginning and how genuine they were to like some of the guys I'm gonna shout out now, they're gonna think like I'm just glazing everybody. But it's it's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: it's actually crazy how some of these guys not only how they operate, but just some of the genuiness in their heart. And Like Kat, for example. Like one shout out to him. He just won a a championship. There is not a more giving person that I've ever met. Like the day that I met not I hadn't met Kat prior, the day we got traded to the Timberwolves or the Tim we the day d'Angelo got traded to the Timberwolves. We go over to Kat's house and he's got like fifteen pairs of brand new AirPods. Like AirPods are brand new at this time. And they're just sitting on his on his kitchen table and he gives them to me. I met him once before then. He was like, Yo, take a pair. And so like he gave each me Tone and Craig a pair of like brand new AirPods at the time, which were the coolest, crazy thing. I don't even know if they're out to the public yet, but like he gave to
James Boone: Right.
Link: us. So like sh cat's like a super genuine, very giving person. You have someone like Book who very like presidential, moves very presidentially, and is one of the most fun people that you will ever be around ever. Like if you are trying to have a fun time, Playing cornhole, playing golf, going to do anything, going to dinner, doing anything. Like Book is just a fun guy. Like he's just like, shout out to him and like even him. Like he didn't know me as in depth as I guess D'Angelo didn't either. But like Book didn't, he only knew me through D'Angelo and he moved me in for the whole NBA finals run and like took care of me to like that whole thing. And like obviously D'Angelo, super genuine human, took a risk on me and had and saw it back then. But then you got guys like like LeBron. Obviously, I don't don't have the relationship with him as some of his teammates, but I know what his t teammates think about him. But the small amount of time that I ha like did get to be with him, like on their little Western Conference finals run and all of that Every time I was around him, he was never not having a good time. He was laughing, cracking jokes, like just a good, like just someone you would want to be around. Like you could tell he was a bright spot in every room. And so it's like shout out to him, because he's probably have more attention on him than anybody ever. And he is still a genuine human being. And then last thing I'll say, because I could go on a rant about everybody, but like Anthony Davis, that's another one. Great guy. But the one I wanted to talk about was Anthony. Edwards. Like that kid is so him and so genuinely him. He's so funny, but he also is ha he has his mind on right. And I remember like I don't remember when it was, but it was like, Yo, if we win a championship this year, like are you gonna drink? And he's like, Nah, like that's like I I I won't drink. Like that's and I was like, Really? Like and I was just so shook by that 'cause I was thinking, like, dude, if I won an NBA championship, I don't care if I didn't drink or I drank, I'm drinking some champagne. You know what mean? And like he
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: was so secure in who he was that he was just like, Nah I'm good. Like I don't need that. He like, I'll I'll be dumping it on all y'all though. And it that was at a workout that was like at four AM before the season started. It was like two weeks before training camp and we left a concert The whole team was there and it was like, yo, you want to get shots up? So it was like me, ant a couple ants people, a couple of D Los people, and we're working out at one two in the morning. And it's like, yo, this is like this is just cool. Like this is just crazy. But another great guy, and I wish nothing but success for him. I can't I p I gotta say one more person. Austin Reeves is There's not anybody that I know that deserves this. Like, I'm so glad he signed for what he signed for. I'm so glad he has success. He is he is as as genuine as it gets. And
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Link: yeah. So I won't ramble too much longer on guys. They're just really good guys. They really are.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. There's I'm sure there's a Rolodex. I'm sure you could you could go on and on and on and on.
Link: I couldn't pass up talking about Reeves though because that's like my dog. Like he's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: he's a he's a genuine one for sure.
James Boone: Yeah, that's good. Well, ref we're refreshing to hear from kind of like this side of it. you know, the the character of the dudes that you're working day in and day out with. really cool. at some point along D Lo's journey, I I alluded to it a little bit early earlier on in the pod. Obviously, like a lot of dudes in the NBA, they start getting the kick. Okay, like, you know, I want to get into golf. I want start playing for you guys. I I guess like I'll start here. This is a golf podcast, for everybody listening. This is a golf podcast. I wanna be clear. maybe it's not. Maybe it's evol yeah. Yeah. Maybe
Link: Most of those guys play golf. Most of those guys play golf. They're addicted. So
James Boone: maybe we're evolving to to something, some other thing here.
Link: Who knows?
James Boone: Link, did you like grow up playing? Like at what point did you get introduced to the game?
Link: No, I didn't. I had a set of sticks that like I was a really good baseball player and I really young, I was like eight when I first started playing very competitively, traveling around and playing. And I I don't remember why one year I was just like, yo, I'll play golf. I think it was more of my sister was starting to get into travel softball. We had as a family we had a lot going on. So it was like half of us with were with my sister, half of us were with me. And I don't know what was, but I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna slow down. I'll like I'll play golf. And I don't know if it was just because I got burnt out from baseball because I was just a like I don't know, like bit better than some people around me or what. But I was like, I'll play golf and I can't even say I played it, I just literally my parents bought me some clubs and I went and played in the tournament. I didn't practice, I didn't go play golf. Went and played in some like Mountain Dew golf tournament, like Mountain Dew tour golf tournament, probably shot a two hundred and five or something, and never played golf ever again. After that,
James Boone: Yeah. There you go. Yeah.
Link: it was just like I don't know what the heck I was doing. So no, didn't play golf, didn't learn how to play golf, had no idea what I was doing, just was like, I'm gonna play golf and did it for what played in one tournament without practicing. It sucked and went right back to
James Boone: Ha ha
Link: baseball. And then yeah, played basketball and baseball throughout high school. Never played and the world shut down. And when the world shut down, I was back home in Kentucky, like living with some of my college roommates because D'Angelo was kinda like living at Kats slash like not knowing what the heck's going on. And so it was a little weird period and there was nothing to do but golf. And I was in a house full of like six of my best friends. So we just went and golfed every single day. And we're became obsessed and I was calling D'Angelo and D'Angelo was also doing the same exact thing. And then we kinda like the whole year of that happened where we're like try like kinda playing golf, kinda not. We we love it but we don't really play it. And then I remember we were in LA for preseason and we're staying in an Airbnb 'cause we're in LA like six or seven days. And I show D'Angelo good, good. So I show him I don't remember what it was, what they were doing, or what video it was specifically. But I remember becoming obsessed with good good that summer, like watching good good and doing it. And I remember I made a video. I would love to find the footage. It was called like like that'll play. And it was like three of my friends, and we just went out to a random course and like tried to film some golf stuff. Never looked at the footage at all. We probably all shot hundreds. But I remember showing D'Angelo Goodgood and he was like hooked. He was like locked in. I remember being like, yo, we have to go. Like we have to get to like shoot around. And so we like paused
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: the video, got back to Airbnb. The video was still on the screen. And we like watched the rest of it that night. And from that moment, that was like the year he got traded to LA. Like from that moment, it was just like one, we loved golf already. And two, it was like we were obsessed with watching golf. And so we watched Good Good all the time. We started watching that was when Bob Sports started like blowing up. So we were watching like anyone and everyone. And
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah.
Link: Yeah, that's kinda when it all kinda all got started.
James Boone: Yeah. You you you brought it up. Hey, Bob Bob does golf. I we had a guy on here, BhaviGolf Bhavi Sohal He was talking about how you you brought this up a little bit earlier of like, Hey, you have to get out there and try. He was talking like this was twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Bhav was talking about, Hey, I was like sitting on my back. Well, and to preface, like, Bhav has like started, you know, creating golf content. He was a very successful like college
Link: Awesome.
James Boone: player. He's like, Navigating like professional golf. He is like a he's like a grip sales rep, like a tour rep. and
Link: Awesome.
James Boone: so he's like trying to navigate that space, but in but in the meantime, he's trying to you know create content, build his brand, and and do all that stuff.
Link: I love that.
James Boone: And he was talking about sitting like you know, sitting on his couch watching Bob does golf, and he's This dude sucks at golf. Like, I I I could
Link: Hundred percent.
James Boone: but he had to like check himself and be like, he's actually putting himself out here, he's actually like being brave enough
Link: Hundred percent.
James Boone: to like go put out. put out the golf content. So it's like you obviously like okay, the you and your two buddies go out to some random golf course and like you gotta shoot a hundred and two or whatever and you shoot two five in the Mountain Dew tournament. Like that doesn't
Link: Yeah, it's like
James Boone: like that's not a handicap for you getting in in YouTube golf.
Link: Not at all. And I think But also what's so cool about like Bob Does Sports and like Garrett and like Good Good and all them is if you really dive into their story, they did not start off just doing golf content. Like Garrett was he was doing the trick
James Boone: Ooh.
Link: shots and all that stuff, but like he was doing stuff with like random like Brody, the guy that did like the ultimate frisbee like random stuff they were
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Link: doing. They got like Bro five, they were doing something that was I'm I'm sure they did golf, but like it wasn't what they were doing now. But they put themselves out there, tried, it failed to an extent, however it did, but then they turned into what we now the whole world knows it's good good and then same with Bob like he had like four or five I honestly I'm speaking you know out of my butt here but he had multiple podcasts that were like failing or that people did other things
James Boone: Ooh.
Link: people left to go to bar stool and he was like trying different things and he kept betting on himself and now he's pulling over a million views every 24
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: like every time he posts within 24 hours because he's he just did it so he didn't give up and I think it goes back to I don't remember if we talked about on here if we talked about pre-pod but like he threw darts at a dartboard and Until one stuck and he ran with it and now
James Boone: Oof.
Link: he is uber successful when you look at good good and they're uber successful. So they never gave up and they just tried and they they they put themselves out there like homie was talking about. So it's inspiring, bro. Ha ha dude.
James Boone: Come on, come on, where's Gary V? Where where's the Gary Vee sponsor?
Link: Dude. Gary V was actually one of the guys that I would watch on YouTube at at that pharmaceutical company of like film your life, document it, do X, Y, and Z because like it's the next wave. It's the next wave. And he was on that before anybody else was for real. So
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Shout outs to the guy. Come hey, season three, Gary V, you already here first.
Link: Shout out Gary V too He's an OG. OG. Yeah, dude, that'd be sick. That would be sick. Gary's gotta pull up.
James Boone: Gotta pull up, man. He's got nothing else to do. Rick this is like
Link: Yeah, no, nothing at all.
James Boone: a r this random kind of backtracking, but were you in the mix at all when D book like for the Olympics for that kind of experience and journey?
Link: Yeah, so
James Boone: Okay.
Link: when That was w so he's played in two Olympics now. He played in Japan or Japan I believe was the first one when it wasn't open to the public. And that was the year he lost in the finals. So I was with him all the way up until he got on the flight and flew to meet up with the team in Vegas or Japan at whatever point it was because the finals was going on all the way up into that point. And I'm pretty sure it was like Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday were also on the same flight and they had just played in the finals together, which is mind blowing.
James Boone: Yeah, right, right, right, right.
Link: But like wasn't allowed to go to that because obvious reasons of the s world shutting down and things going on. And then this past one that was in Paris, I went, but Book has his own guy now. His name's Jake Kazmire Jake's my absolute homie. his brother Drew was one of the pioneers in the space, did stuff with Devin, and then now Jake's kind of taken off and and doing it. But Jake was the one that was like doing all the handicam stuff and editing all the handicam stuff that the whole world got to see. And but yeah, I was there for For I don't even remember how long. We were there for a hot minute. Got to see him play multiple times. and yeah, dude, that was special. Going to the Olympics
James Boone: So cool.
Link: just in general was special. So
James Boone: Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. There's a I guess t this just thoughts keep coming to like memories and thoughts keep p like coming to my head, but I'm thinking of D Lo. He gets traded to LA, his first game. I remember like a post game. It wasn't an interview, it was a recording of him. He's like, Bro, it is so easy to play with these dudes. Like talking about AD and LeBron.
Link: Yeah, yeah. yeah. I'm I remember I know exactly what game we're talking about. I remember it was the game before 'cause LeBron hadn't played 'cause he broke the record, then like had to sat for a couple injuries. So like D played
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: like one game against like Toronto or something, and then they had like another game, I can't remember it was maybe it was against Toronto, but they killed. It was like I remember like the first play, like D throws like a lob to AD and then
James Boone: Yes.
Link: Lebron throws like a pass like give and go to D. Like it was just they it was a crazy concept of like whoa, like this could be crazy. And at this
James Boone: Yeah, yeah.
Link: point in time They had like a 0.02% of making the playoffs, or like 0.2%, something insane, like 2%, 0.2%, something around those. I just vividly remember a Darwin Hamm like writing on the whiteboard. So they had no chance of making the playoffs. And AD went on an absolute tear. D went on a tear. Bron he had an ankle injury, so he was healing from an ankle injury. So like the whole team was just killing at this point. Braun comes back. We win like eight of the last nine or something crazy, and they go to the Western Conference Finals. So a team that at the all-star break wasn't even supposed to. And then they go on this miraculous run and make it to the Western Conference Finals. It was crazy to see, it was crazy to witness. And yeah, it was just cool. That's just cool.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Did you spend much time with Vando, while you guys were
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: in Minnesota? I'm sure you guys were around a lot, but yeah.
Link: Yeah, Vando, and then in LA like he was on the flight, which was crazy because D got traded to LA when they were on a road trip in Utah and Vando was there. Pat Bev was there. He didn't get traded to LA, but he got tr or Pat Bev was on the phone. But like B's Malik Beasley was there, Vando was there, KAT was there, like we're all
James Boone: Well
Link: chatting it up. And like I pull up to the arena in like a a rental car and like get out and like meet up with D, meet up with these guys, and we're talking about the trade. We fly out, Vando's like with us. So like Vando's the homie. shout out his brother Jamal.
James Boone: Yeah, that's cool.
Link: He's a great guy as well. So
James Boone: I remember watching Jared Vanderbilt. I think he's class of twenty twenty eight. Obviously he w he went to UK. He was a point guard. So like his sophomore year of high school, i they would Western Kentucky for some reason, we we always got these like big hoop fest events. So like Oak Hill would come, Huntington Prep would always come. And obviously
Link: wow. Yeah.
James Boone: I think Jared at the time, like he was from Dallas, Texas, like Victory Prep or something like that. But I remember watching him in high school. Yeah, I remember watching him in high
Link: Yeah, I believe something like that. Dog.
James Boone: my gosh. He was a point guard. Yeah, he was a point guard.
Link: Dog. Yeah. Bro, I remember he he didn't even like play at UK and it was like, well, if Jared Vanderbilt comes back, like we'll be the best team in the world. And I don't even know if he played
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: or not. And it was like, dude, he's he's also a freak. Like he's like the like one percent body fat. Like the kid is just
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: s trimmed up out of his mind. Like and he's a good guy too. I mess with vando
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I'll share one D Lo story. this
Link: Yeah, shoot.
James Boone: is not what the pod is. I don't know when else I would actually have a chance to share this story. So I I you know, I I got the pod
Link: Dude. The pod is what you make it. It's your pod, man. You're the niche. You are the niche. Yes. Come on. Yeah, actually. Come on now.
James Boone: I am the niche. This is the niche. This is this is what somebody needed to hear. And so I gotta get it off my chest. My freshman year of college, I'm playing basketball at Samford University. We had a large Lexington Louisville contingency on our team. Our our coach had played
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: at UK. He won a national championship there. P
Link: wow.
James Boone: played in the NBA for eight years. He was on Scott Padgett He play he played with Yao Ming and T Mac. So like the game where T Mac scores 13 points and However, like fifty seconds or whatever, he was on the court while all that was happening. Our assistant coach, crazy. Our assistant coach, our assistant
Link: Yeah. That's insane. That's crazy.
James Boone: coach and AD, they were both like UK guys. They'd come down and and all the stuff. Our starting point guard at the time, Christan Cunningham, I think he's a coach, an assistant coach at College of Charleston or Rhode Island. I I can't really remember. Awesome dude, but he played for the Louisville Magic. So him and D Lo are around the same. Yep. Yep. So him and
Link: Okay. yeah, the magic. Yeah, I I've heard all about the Louisville magic.
James Boone: D Lo played on the same AAU team for the Louisville Magic. So our first two college games, that one of them is at the University of San Diego, in San Diego, obviously. And then our second game is at New Mexico State. I'm I'm not playing very much. Just let it be let it be known. I'm not playing a whole lot.
Link: Yeah. Okay, okay.
James Boone: but The night before our San Diego game, we practice at USC. So we get to practice in our practice arena. Obviously there's like pictures
Link: Yeah.
James Boone: of Swaggy P, there's pictures of DeMar DeRozan and and all sorts of stuff like that. Well we get to the hotel at night. We're not a great part of LA. Like it might be like I can't remember if it's like close it's close to USC It's close to USC if that that helps.
Link: yeah, I know. there's a lot of those places. Yeah. Yeah, that's that makes sense. Yep.
James Boone: We're all hanging outside this holiday inn. We're like walking to a corner store or whatever. We see this G Wagon, this like white G Wagon pull around.
Link: Ha.
James Boone: This is like twenty sixteen. and we we just see Christen walk out of the hotel and just like jump in the back of this G Wagon and we're like, Who the heck is that? Like, where is he going? And we all start like making
Link: Right.
James Boone: the connections is like, like bro, like D'Lo and him played AAU together and like At that point, he had just gotten drafted, was playing in LA. I don't know if it was a rookie year or second year or what. But yeah, it's like art okay, our teammate goes out and hangs out with D'Lo for the night while we're stuck in this like holiday inn in the middle of Englewood or whatever. It's like
Link: That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.
James Boone: pretty pretty wild. So So hey, beat that, beat that. I know you don't have I just I'm
Link: I mean that's a c that's still a crazy connection too in
James Boone: just kidding.
Link: No, that's that's dude, that's dope. It's actually crazy 'cause I feel like I've been a part of like random experiences like that too where the you know we'll like I'll be driving and picking up one you know, one of the homies and just like yo, I haven't seen you forever. But Louisville Magic,
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: I've heard about them so much. Like I'm pretty sure like this guy named Dion who was a was like one of their coaches and he's still mentored these and he's like one of the s
James Boone: Hm.
Link: most intelligent guys I've got to spend time with and just brush shoulders with. So shout out all the Louisville Magic crew.
James Boone: Shout out Louisville magic. Shout out to the magic.
Link: Yeah, baby.
James Boone: dude, I I feel like there's there's a ton of different rabbit holes we could go down. I want to close out. Let's close out with a little game. We will we
Link: Okay, let's do it. I like games.
James Boone: you know, we're at an hour mark here. I I don't want to hold I know you have some editing. I know you have projects you you're working on. You got episode
Link: Ha ha ha
James Boone: three and four. By the time this this episode drops, this is really convenient. Link and I timed this up pretty perfectly.
Link: Episode three and four. Yep, no we did. On purpose.
James Boone: episode and three and four of of the Backyard Cup gonna be dropping you know next two weeks. So stay tuned. we're gonna close with a little game and like I have not prepped link at all on and on any of this. And so we'll this is kind of a crapshoot. We'll see how any of this goes.
Link: That's alright. We're we're jumping off off the cliff and pulling the parachute on way down. Let's go.
James Boone: The proverbial cliff. We're jumping off of it. so obviously Link and D Lo have worked together for a long time. Have you know, it's really chance encounter. they get the link up, no pun intended. They get the link up, and obviously if like he's you know filmed a lot of his life. That's really cool. Shout out to Dwayne Wade, we we love you, man. Like, thank you for setting us up.
Link: Yes, shout out the way.
James Boone: And since then, obviously like has started a podcast, has started like a golf YouTube, like have has really like grown in this space. And they're they're beginning to create more than just you know, workout videos and and covering his life. so it's been really cool. There's been a then you know, seven year journey or whatever. So with that in mind, we're we're we're gonna ask Link and try to understand how well he actually knows his counterpart how well he knows his business partner, his
Link: wow.
James Boone: friend, all the stuff. So I have a few questions I'm gonna roll with. And
Link: I haven't taken the test in a long time. I'm a bad test taker.
James Boone: We are gonna see you know, and I don't know if there's a right answer. We don't have him on here to fact check any of this. So he he could just make all of it up. All right, we'll go.
Link: Okay, okay, okay.
James Boone: We got seven questions here. first question, what is the most shots you've seen D'Lo take in a workout?
Link: in a workout? That's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: a really good question. Wow, that's a really good question. I don't know. I don't know. I would say Probably around 300. I have this vivid memory. We went to Hawaii one year for all-star break and I remember him making an astronomically amount of shots out of 300. But it was it was literally just a shooting workout and I remember he didn't have an NBA ball, so we're using college ball. And I'm telling you he shot like an insane number out of 300. And I was like how like how? And he was like, dude, shooting a college basketball versus shooting an NBA ball is like so easy. And I was like, what? And like I do know the feel of an NBA ball. versus college ball like college ball has like way more traction you like feels it's like I don't know there's something about it but I was I remember being amazed at that point. I remember being amazed. I also s
James Boone: man.
Link: had similar things with like book and Kat like two people that could just shoot all day and never miss a shot but yeah
James Boone: It's so different. It's so different. The
Link: three hundred I feel like is the only one I can remember. I I don't I don't know.
James Boone: That's solid. It's been it's been cool. I d I they did a thing with Dame. I guess he's been tracking shots for the last I don't know how I I don't know the timeline. It kind of it bumps the stat. Like it makes it kind of inadequate or whatever. But like he's made a hundred thousand shots in the last six months or whatever. It's been it's been Yeah. Yeah.
Link: I I mean I bet. I bet. I bet. He and also Portland could be crazy this year with him coming back. We'll see. That's and Ja
James Boone: Yeah, I our guy, hey, this is a Memphis based yeah, this is a Memphis based podcast. We're ex we're excited to see see Ja turn again.
Link: Can I say something about I'll quickly before we move on, can say something quickly
James Boone: Go ahead.
Link: about Memphis FedEx Forum? Every
James Boone: we
Link: playoff, every playoff game that I've ever been in that place is always jumping. It is a electric environment to watch a playoff basketball game. So shout out to FedEx Forum. It actually is awesome.
James Boone: You got to witness s one of the cooler playoff series, I guess it was twenty twenty three, Timberwolves Grizzlies. One of the better first round series in a in a long time.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. That was honestly insane. Shout out the Grizzlies for just never giving up ever. Because they would the Wolves be blowing them out and the Grizzlies just found a way. And then the
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Now
Link: next year got our lick back with the Lakers, but it was still cool. Yeah.
James Boone: Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. There were it's funny, I went to a couple of those games, so to look back and think that, you know, we were probably I was much higher I was much higher up.
Link: We were Yeah. When the the when I was with Minnesota I had to sit a little bit higher up, but when I was the Lakers they I like finesse my way to go. I was pretty close with the Lakers. I was pretty close.
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah. Hey mate, you're di you're dapping up bron Like you there's gotta be some strings that's gotta be pulled.
Link: I actually during that series I actually was sitting with Anthony Davis' family and his dad was wearing the championship ring and so like the people who had no
James Boone: It's so good.
Link: idea it was AD's dad and they were talking smack to him and I just remember this dad's like one line responses were all time. All time.
James Boone: Yeah. Here's a funny AD story, not the unwarranted. AAU, I'm in I'm
Link: Okay. No, we love the stories.
James Boone: in eighth grade. So Anthony Davis just wins national championship at University of Kentucky. He, you know, declares for the NBA draft. I he may have even been drafted by New Orleans at this point. We're playing an AAU tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. where you know, we have like two hours in between games. My dad and two of my friends are in the car with me. He's like, yo, like, let's go try to find AD. Like he just graduated. So maybe he didn't just get drafted He had just graduated. We're like, we're he's probably on campus. Like, let's go try to find him and and you know what it was? Here's here, okay, link. Here's you know you know what was. We were trying to find we
Link: Talk to me. Hear it.
James Boone: were trying to find Nerlens Noel. Like he had just committed, he had just
Link: yeah.
James Boone: gotten on campus at UK. And so we're driving around campus and we don't find Nerlens Noel. I'm gonna have to find this picture. We walk by or we drive up, like it we're literally in this minivan. We like ramp up a curb and like are like it's Anthony Davis. And so we bust out of the van are like, yo, Anthony, like,
Link: Take a pick with him.
James Boone: can we get a picture? I'm gonna have to find that photo. That is so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So so anyways, bro, I I vividly, vividly. I'm surprised y'all didn't talk about it on the podcast. you know.
Link: That's awesome. That is awesome. That is awesome. I'm sure AD remembers that as well. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
James Boone: all right, I alluded to this a little bit earlier. Question number two, we're moving so fast through this list. what's the most
Link: Ha ha
James Boone: mo most fun city that he's played in from your perspective. You we touched on it a little bit. It's kinda hard to say, but
Link: think was LA for me, just because I one, I had a lot of friends here prior to and then two, so I getting to have like Minnesota I didn't have very many friends outside of like the basketball crew, the NBA guys and D'Angelo's friends. When I moved to LA I had a lot of friends like my personal friends, so I had time to get away from like the world that I was living in. And also a lot of doors were opening and I was meeting a lot of different people and being in a lot of different rooms and I had never experienced San Francisco is not like LA, Minnesota's not like LA. I've never lived in a place like LA and it was just very eye-opening. And I'm very glad and blessed that I came at the age and time of my life that I did because LA is also a place you can get lost in. so
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: LA was great. I loved LA. I still love LA. It's
James Boone: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. That's right. from your perspective again, and you don't have to go through the roladex this time, but who's the coolest teammate that he's had from your perspective?
Link: probably probably AR, just because I have such a good relationship with AR, vivid rem memory. I AR we golf with AR all the time from the moment like we got to LA. AR's an addict just like us. And I remember I missed going to a it wasn't a game, it was a a tea time and he was like, Where's Link? And I was going to Kyler Kyler ha was getting a statue at Oklahoma and I remember Kyler or A AR texts. me about Oklahoma and obviously like AR winter and everything but like he was like texting me about it, texting me about like just different things that was going on and then obviously he was just like why weren't you at the tea time? Because he was like checking in on me, like why were you not at the tea time? So was just like it just shows who AR is. I love that guy. I literally texted him right before he signed, not knowing he was gonna sign when he did, and then he texted me then like he signed the next day. He texted me right afterwards. I was I was like, dude, why are you texting me? You just signed for a hundred and eighty million dollars. But it's just he's just a good good dude. So AR
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: is definitely one of my favorite teammates.
James Boone: No, that's so good. That's so good. we'll go you or D Lo, who's the better golfer right now?
Link: Ooh, I'm coming out of a really dark period of my golf game. So if we were to play this past few months, it was definitely gonna be D'Angelo. I think me and him go hit or miss. I think our superpowers are very different. I think he hits his driver straight a lot. I've had dri when I my driver's on, it's really on. When it's off, it's really off. but I have a pretty good short game I would say, and so I think our superpowers are just very different. I think we'd be a really good scramble team. But I think it's a toss-up. Depends on the day. But I gotta pick me, obviously. But I th yeah. I think it depends on the day.
James Boone: Obviously, obviously. The depends on the day, depends on the course, like when the greens aren't running at a fourteen. Like that's tough.
Link: Yeah. Yeah. I think I think at Pinehurst, if we just compared score for score on Pinehurst number two, I definitely got I think I snuck
James Boone: There we go.
Link: out of there with one par, no birdies, and I shot a ninety-one, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I was happy with it. I was happy with it.
James Boone: that's great. That's great. His his perspective on some of the day was really funny of like he's like, Yeah, I didn't remember any of the holes that we played. Like
Link: Well it was just it was a blur because one we're we're in the trenches every shot, dude. Like I've I played s some pretty incredible courses. I'm very blessed. But Pinehurst number two was unbelievable. Unbelievable. And I had like one in the early holes. I was playing pretty good golf for me in the early holes. I had like one Pinehurst experience where I got landed by the pin from like 130 yards out like bounced and rolled off the turtles back. But like watching back some of the footage, like you had Bat, who was a pro golfer. Putting it off the green from like five feet away from the hole. And I remember he talked about it in the cart with like Obi Toppin and he was like, that's like you shooting a free throw and you landing it in the second row of the stance. Like that's
James Boone: Woof.
Link: how crazy it was. And it's like I like this is a golf podcast, so I'll talk about it. Like we're all nerds watching this. But
James Boone: Come on, come on, come on.
Link: it's we show up to Pinehurst number two already knowing it's gonna crazy, but The only other thing that's going on on this course, it's like the Backyard Cup, so twenty of us golfers, and then we had the Joes so we had like fourteen other golfers. So us our thirty-four golfers. And then we had a North South amateur tournament going on. That's the only so it's girls and guys who are pursuing golf professionally.
James Boone: Huge event. Huge event.
Link: Hu huge event. Charlie Woods and Tiger like Tiger was there watching Charlie. So like Charlie's there. So you're telling me like I'm out there shanking it around Pinehurst number two, while these kids who are gonna be like the next Scottie Schefflers are out here like trying to you know, make a career out of this. And I'm telling you the greens like I someone eventually said it was like rolling to like a thirteen. But I'm over here like, what is going on? Like this is insane. I loved the greens, don't get me wrong. I the putting or the chipping was kind of crazy, but the putting was so pure. If I didn't had a caddy, I for sure would have putted off the green multiple times. But it was nuts. and then also Mason Greene Is going to be on the PGA tour. Like that kid is unbelievable at golf. Like unbelievable golf. Not only like you saw it in p the on the number two when like he like Pim and Bat and and Josh they kept talking about and Mason know they're talking about like, dude, I hit it 315 yards. You are hitting it 40 yards past me. It not only that is unbelievable, his wedge game is unbelievable, everything's unbelievable. The guy I mean I only carried the ball like 200 yards, but this guy, like I legitimately, I could hit two drivers in a 60-degree, and this guy was still. Still outdrive me. Like it was unbelievable.
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: Great head on his shoulders. The kid's gonna be a pro, like for a long time. It was special.
James Boone: Yeah. Shout out Mason Greene It it kinda goes back to the point of like, okay, why would why would the NBA community be se be so enamored with high level golfers? It's the same thing that we would see I say we, that is a I'm gonna censor that one out. but that's what, you know, golf
Link: Mm-hmm.
James Boone: community would see in, you know, some of the best athletes on the planet. So
Link: D that's a very good point. That's a very good point.
James Boone: It either either way. other than videography, what's something that you are better at than him? So there's golf. There's one. Is there anything else that you feel like
Link: Yeah. I would say well, baseball, I'm definitely better at him baseball. Like him and you should see him when he first started swinging a golf club. You would know that swinging sports was not in his MO when he was growing up.
James Boone: Mm-hmm.
Link: better at than him. I don't know. That's a really question. Never really thought about it. Like just bar for bar. He he can he play ping pong, so he's really good at ping pong. He'd kick my butt in that. But yeah, I don't know. He's Call of Duty when I used to play Call of Duty, we just play Warzone. He Call of Duty is huge in the NBA. Everyone loves to play Call of Duty, everyone loves to play video games. he's always the guy on the Warzone team that's like going off on his own, like getting kills and stuff and I'm like way more of like the communicator of like, hey, like gone or left, gone or right.
James Boone: Strategy.
Link: so yeah, he was probably better at killing people. I was way better at communication on the
James Boone: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Link: compared that. He's
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: good at a lot of things though. A lot of NBA guys are. It's weird. They're just freaks at a lot of things. So
James Boone: Mm. Mm. Mm. we'll go last two questions here. You obviously spent a ton of time ton of time with them, but what would you say is like most important to him? So like outside of hoops, outside of golf, obviously that's fun. Like what what what are what's something that is like most important to him as a person?
Link: Yeah. I mean dude, he's got two kids now that are amazing. and he's got soon to be wife, so it's definitely family. He's got amazing family.
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: he he's very Is it's really cool actually to see not how much of like he's grown from a basketball perspective or anything else, like just see how much he's grown as a human being. and see like where he was when I first came around to being the family man and having kids. So awesome. So definitely being like his passion is definitely his family and I li it's it's awesome to see. It's inspiring, honestly. So
James Boone: Yeah. No, that's good. Last question here, Logan Linkmeyer, Link the World, Backyard Golf, Backyard Podcast, Dream Destination for the Backyard Cup, season four.
Link: Ooh, it's gonna be really hard to beat Pinehurst, man. It's gonna be really hard to beat Pinehurst. I don't know. I don't know where I would say the dream destination is for next year. I think it would be awesome to to play at a lot of different places. It also is like a very unique situation where it's like, dude, we're playing four or five, six days in a row. So what kind of place can have the capacity of doing it? We've done it at Paynes Valley. Internet invitational's already there. So like going back to Big Cedar is like people already say we copy the Internet Invitational, so like I don't know if we want to go back 'cause people are like, you copied again.
James Boone: Yeah, yeah, right, right, right, yeah.
Link: so maybe it's Pinehurst, maybe, you know, like if we could s finesse something and do something at Pebble Beach, maybe going to
James Boone: Yeah.
Link: the old course overseas. Who knows, man. But we'll see. It's in the works planning it right now so I won't spoil anything, but we got we got some stuff in the works.
James Boone: That's a fascinating thought and concept. Okay. Okay. We're saying the internet invitational is gonna be at Big Cedar Lodge. Like, I wonder if that starts to become a thing where it's like, okay, Pebble Beach knows that September eleventh through eighteenth, we know that Backyard Cup is gonna be hosted here every year. Like I wonder if Core like that's an interesting trajec trajectory. I'm not saying that's like pure pure speculation, but like that'd be a cool
Link: Right.
James Boone: concept.
Link: Yeah, I mean, well, you gotta think like internet has like sixty or some golfers. There's not very many places that one have the capacity to have as many different golf courses as that, but also have the phenomenal layout of living areas that they could have, like Big Cedar does. Pinehurst, they just like we stayed at their cottages, they just had their new cottages. So it's like they have like ten brand new cottages that hop fit like thirty people a cottage. So you gotta think about like the capacity of even the possibility of doing
James Boone: Logistics, yeah.
Link: it. and so like that's You know, it's a big thing. So But Pinehurst was awesome, man. I don't know and I dude, someone like you played golf a lot longer and a guy like me, like I didn't know what Pinehurst was six years ago, you know. And but going there and seeing the magnitude of it, I was starstruck. I was like, holy crap. So I can't imagine to some of the golfers if they ever show up to Pinehurst, but like what
James Boone: So good. So good. Place is pure. ladies and gentlemen, Swing State University, episode twenty-three. That's a wrap. Logan Linkmeyer
Link: Let's go.
James Boone: Link the World. Thanks for hopping on, bro.
Link: Appreciate you, bro. It was a pleasure and an honor, man.