- [Chris] Yeah, so what's up?

- [Woman] I can leave if you're nervous.

(crew laughing)

- No, no, it's all good. - You're good?

- [Chris] It is all good.

- What do you have live?

- [Chris] That was performance.

Shit happens in the background,

I'm like, "Hey, we got a nice audience."

(Chris applauding)

- Anybody doing Instagram Live?

You are?

Got it, okay, good to go?

Hey, everybody, this is Gary Vaynerchuk,

episode 329 of The #AskGaryVee Show,

perfect timing to have this tremendous gentleman

who is both athlete and entrepreneur

as the NBA season is now upon us.

Chris Bosh is in the building

and as a die-hard Knicks fan

and overlooking Madison Square Garden

I got to start transparent in saying

between the Raptors and the Heat

not necessarily my favorite athlete of all time

'cause he dropped way too many real games on our faces

but I've really admired Chris.

We haven't we had one quick dinner I think at CES

where we were sitting on opposite sides of the table

so we didn't really get a chance to chop

but I've been able to really watch from afar

as I'm always watching.

I think you've made a really strong transition

into life after basketball

but before before we go into that

actually this is a great question

'cause I know a ton of my listeners

are gonna have a lot of awareness of you.

So I think the right first question is

what do you been up to?

- Man, that is such a good question.

- [Gary] Yeah, let me give you the floor.

- Yeah I've been,

first of all kind of had to rebound

in my situation.

- [Gary] How old are you right now?

I'm 35.

So people really don't realize

and I didn't realize either

really what happens to an athlete after you're done playing.

We kind of just disappear and go away

and maybe you'll see us on TV again

but that's when I think real life stars for us.

- [Gary] Yeah, I think that's right.

- Yeah, I have five children.

- [Gary] That's a great number.

- Yeah, it's an awesome number, man

and then getting into the swing of things

into being a father that's there more,

into being a husband that's there more.

- [Gary] And by the way, takes practice.

- [Chris] Yeah it does.

- People don't understand that,

as for me going hard and then having children

and even like evaluating if I'm doing too much or too little

or whether it's workout regimen

or business like that is a transition in itself.

- [Chris] Yeah it becomes a balancing act.

- It's not just so all of a sudden you're like

going to daycare and,

like it's a thing.

- Yeah, yeah and school and getting them prepared

and moving back and forth

and moving my family to Austin.

- And your situation's a little bit unique

in the fact that obviously

'cause I follow sports enough to know like it was,

I don't think as many people will know this,

it wasn't the easiest situation

that led you to not playing basketball--

- [Chris] No, no, no, it was a very dramatic--

- Why don't you give them a little context?

- Well I mean, I got blood clots,

I had a pulmonary embolism back in 2014, no '15.

That was really bad.

I was in the hospital for damn near two weeks.

That sucked, had to have surgery--

- [Gary] Was it dangerous?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, blood clots.

- [Gary] Did you know something was up?

- It was slowly happening.

I mean I know all the signs to look for now

but slowly, I mean, at first I thought it was cramps

and then a month later they come back

and then it became so debilitating,

I'm like, yo, I got to go to, there is something wrong.

But luckily made it through that

and then bounced back, got back into playing,

got back to my form of playing

the way where I was happy and everything

and then after that

my calf was sore I go to the doctor to get a scan,

oh I got blood clots again

and then it became a problem because I felt good,

I just everything just was just stopped

all of a sudden one day and

yeah, I wasn't a happy camper. - And you're 31 years old

at the time, 31, 32. - At the time I was 33,

32, 33, somewhere in there yeah.

- [Gary] Still feeling like you had three, four, five, six?

- Oh man, six, seven left in me.

I would still be playing right now.

I wanted to play till I was 36

but I could have potentially

with the way things are going in the league now--

- [Gary] When's the first time somebody said to you,

hey you may want to consider not playing?

- Nobody ever said it.

A lot of people said it but--

- Now you're starting to sound like me,

nobody said it, everybody said it,

that's the shit I do.

- [Chris] I didn't listen to it.

- SPO, is this true, do I have this right,

SPO was at the game when Hank Gathers passed?

- [Chris] Yeah.

- I think that's a fact

that a lot of people don't know.

Your coach at the time, I'm 43,

I was outrageously affected by Hank Gathers passing.

I was in eighth grade,

super into the March Madness thing,

Bo Kimble, like it was a big deal,

no internet back then,

big events really took over America for a week.

Now Prince dies and it's a half a day on Twitter,

like real big stuff happens

and it's a half a day

with the way our world works now.

Back then, something big happens, it was a week,

two weeks in the news.

Was coach affected by that when he communicated with you?

I always wondered about that.

I know coach a little.

He's a great dude.

- I think that was kind of everybody else's thought process

going through that and saying

oh wow this is dire situation.

With me, you don't necessarily tell that person that right?

You want them to kind of exercise things,

yeah get there by themselves.

We never talked

about it too much. - What about doctors?

Were like don't play?

- Yeah, they were, oh, you can't play,

you'll be fine sir,

like you've had your life, bro.

I'm just really getting started with this stuff

and you're telling me that,

that's kind of where the disagreements came in

with the communication and our problem with communication

but we got over that

and it was just my stance was to continue to try and play

And that's what I did for about a year and a half.

- [Gary] And then?

- Then I was like, yeah, I'm not gonna do this.

- How did that go down?

Did you just wake up one morning?

- I tell people this story, I was watching,

so I was in the next year,

a whole year went by I said,

all right I know I'm gonna get picked up this year,

I need to get into basketball,

I need to watch more basketball

'cause I kind of let it go last year.

I was still working out but didn't watch any games.

- [Gary] 'Cause you just needed that break?

- Just mentally it was messing with me.

It hurts 'cause--

- [Gary] You wanted to be out there?

- Yeah, I was right there

and I felt that we had a championship-caliber team

and then it just stops one day.

Then I saw Gordon Hayward dislocate his ankle

in the first five minutes.

- [Gary] I was at that game.

- You was at that game?

- [Gary] I was at that game.

Luckily, on the other side.

- I just turned the TV on like all right here we go

the season's going on, bloop bloop.

- [Gary] You almost threw up.

- Oh man I said I right right then and there

I knew I wasn't gonna play anymore.

- [Gary] Really?

- Yeah, I knew.

And I had to keep up with the Jones.

I told everybody I was gonna keep playing,

"You coming back?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

- But you knew?

- [Chris] But I knew right then

it wasn't gonna happen no more.

- Really?

- [Chris] Yeah, it's just like,

you know that thing,

I was there, we were strong

and then boy it took all the wind out my cell.

- No kidding.

- [Chris] Yeah, I was done after that.

- And so then take me through the next chapter.

So now yourself, you know you're done,

you keep up the facade a little bit

because it's a hard left

and so you want to go through that in what way yeah

and then what do you start thinking about next?

- Shh man what am I doing, you know?

That's not an easy question.

- [Gary] Do you go into like a depressed state?

- I think I was already there at that point already.

It took about two years,

I want to say two years after I was done playing,

it took me that long to kind of

come out the fog a little bit.

- [Gary] I understand.

- Yeah and I guess yeah that's what people call

a depression or something.

- You know it's funny,

my brother AJ, who's sitting right there, left Vayner,

we started this together, VaynerMedia

and then three years ago, three and a half years ago,

we started a sports representation business, VaynerSports.

We do football now

and we have 20 guys, 25 guys

and our entire thesis was off-the-field

dynamics that we could create

but a lot of it was life after football.

These kids are, first of all football's crazy,

because a lot of these guys are top of their class--

- [Chris] Way crazier.

- Yeah I mean there's real injuries in football.

There's real stuff going on.

Kids are, the first round picks

out of the league three years later for real for real.

So that's 25, that's 26.

- [Chris] What do they do usually?

What's the next step in that?

- Most kids really screw up.

They you overspend their money up front,

then they're done, they're 25 and they're like,

I mean this is why we did it,

we're like we think we can change it.

I watched, he watched from afar that agents,

and I don't even blame agents,

it's not like I razz them,

I don't think these are bad people,

they're in business.

Agents are there and then when you're not producing dollars

it's their responsibility to their company and their family

to go find things that do and they're done.