Rebel Without Applause

Tashawn Thomas talks about his basketball journey and what it was like transferring from the University of Houston to the University of Oklahoma. After going undrafted in 2015, Tashawn began his professional career overseas, with stops in Germany, Italy and now with the Israeli team Hapoel Holon. In 2018, Thomas helped Holon to win the 2018 Israeli State Cup and moving forward, he wants to build on his wining ways as a player.

Viswant Korrapati, the host of the "Pilot Boys Podcast," stops by to discuss the start of the NBA Preseason and all of the free agency signings and trades that dominated the headlines during the offseason. We also compare our early predictions for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and what teams will make the NBA Finals.

Shannon Shorter talks about his journey to become a professional basketball player overseas in Japan. When the Houston native went undrafted in 2011 after finishing his college career at North Texas, he seized on an opportunity to play professionally in Mexico. He then built on his success in Mexico to extend his career with productive stints in Argentina, Israel and Greece before landing with his current team in Japan, the Chiba Jets. Through it all, Shannon has shown that he is a living example of a man that always bet on oneself and because of that, he's living out his dream playing the sport he loves.

Kam Franklin talks about being the lead singer of The Suffers and her journey in the music industry as an outspoken artist that defies classification, charts her own course and pushes for the creative license to work with any artist of her choosing. Born and bred in Houston, Kam is proof positive that something is in the water near the Gulf Coast when it comes to producing incredible singers. Now, more than a decade into her career, she continues to rely on her strong upbringing, sense of self and powerful voice as she navigates an industry that often tries to tell her what kind of singer she should be instead of embracing the multitalented songbird that she is.

Eric Bostic talks about his journey in the credit card processing industry and how he and his company has pivoted to cope with building his business after the devastating effects of Covid-19. After serving in the U.S. Army as an Airborne Ranger, Eric got into sales and found his way to payment solutions and hasn't looked back. As the world moves towards life after a global pandemic, so does the credit card processing industry and Eric tells us how he and his company are doing just that.

Tiffany Abney talks about being a Black stuntwoman in Hollywood, how she got started and how it's going.. After competing as a track & field athlete for most of her life and finishing at the University of Houston, the Philadelphia native moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Her first break was on the VH1 dating show, "Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch." Although she almost made it to the end of the show, she wasn't selected as Ochocinco's love match, but she did learn a lot from the experience. From there, she continued to pursue acting until she was led to jump into the world of stunting. Now, she's continuing to break new ground as a working stuntwoman, with a laundry list of television credits on her resume that include hits like, "Luke Cage" and "L.A.'s Finest."

Karton Zawolo talks about his new business venture, Feed Organics, and how he got started as a serial entrepreneur in Monrovia, Liberia. One day, he hopes to be able to export organic food to countries outside of Africa. Karton made the move to Africa years ago, but gives advice to Black Americans that are thinking of relocating outside of the United States, especially those that are concerned about what the country will look like for minorities if Trump wins another term.

Jermaine Crawford talks about his unforgettable role as Duquan "Dukie" Weems on HBO's seminal original series, The Wire. Bringing the character to life deeply affected the actor and still resonates with him almost two decades later. Today, he is still busy as an actor and has a burgeoning singing career in the R&B space.

Ronald Ellis (17-1-2, 11 KOs) on his professional boxing career, coming back from injury and his upcoming fight against Matt Korobov in a 10-round middleweight bout on Nov. 28 on Showtime. Bred in Boston, the pugilist loved fighting growing up in a family of fighters and turned that love into a Golden Gloves win that spring-boarded his career in the ring. He then had a few setbacks with hand injuries, but is now working his way back to form to claim the spot he so rightly deserves.

Tyler Deauvea talks about how Kobe Bryant served as the muse in new “For the Luv of the Game” art series. The Houston-based artist began his career back in 2015 in photography and film, before delving into collages and other multimedia. Known for his signature "AFROPOP" style, Deauvea started his new series to honor the generation of NBA superstars like Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and Michael Jordan, that inspired him as a youth after his favorite basketball player, the Black Mamba, tragically passed away in a helicopter crash. Currently, his work can be seen at Premium Goods and he has shown in the past at Houston's prestigious Museum of Fine Arts.

GRIND’s Thomas Fields on creating the world's first portable basketball shooting machine that fold's in a large duffel bag. A lifelong basketball fan, the Houston native had dreams of one day playing in the NBA. But after multiple ACL tears derailed his once promising career, the Top 50 state-ranked guard set out to find another way to impact the game he loves. Using his college refund check, Thomas built the prototype for his shooting machine back in 2014 and after many iterations and improvements, his creation is here. The GRIND Portable Shooting Machine is ready to help basketball hopefuls and established players improve on their shooting and raise their overall level of play.

Dr. Anthony Pinn on Religion and Hip-Hop, Race & White Supremacy In America. The decorated professor of Humanities and Religious Studies at Houston’s prestigious Rice University started his career at Macalester College (St. Paul, MN), where his research and teaching earned him early tenure and promotion to full professor within his first eight years. In 2003, he became the first African-American to hold an endowed chair at Rice. The Harvard PhD then expanded his reach as a cultural icon with his widely popular "Religion and Hip Hop Culture" course that he taught with rap legend Bun B. Not just a scholar, the ubiquitous author has written over 42 books, including “Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning” and “Religion in the Age of Obama.”

Derrick Stafford talks 30-year career as NBA referee and old vs. new NBA. Before making calls for the best basketball league in the world, Stafford was a two-sport athlete (football and baseball) at the iconic HBCU, Morehouse College. While there, he found his love for officiating and charted his trajectory to the pro ranks from there. Over the course of his decorated career, Stafford called some of the biggest games, with the biggest players and superstars to ever play and has plenty of good stories and anecdotes to prove it. Now retired, he's enjoying watching NBA games as a fan like everyone else—with a discerning eye for the rule book, of course.

Phill Wade on Comedy R&B, his sultry K. Relly alias and being a versatile entertainer. As a youth, he discovered his love of performing, whether it was singing, impersonating celebrities or comedy. And after having to quickly come to terms with his desire to be a singer, actor and comedian while attending the HBCU Prairie View A&M, he set out to lay the groundwork to become the wildly entertaining multi-hyphenate he is today.

Robert L. Hodge on what it means to be an artist, early lessons and new goals. After a short stint at New York City's prestigious Pratt Institute, the interdisciplinary artist attended the Atlanta College of Art where his artistic palette was opened to all levels of creativity and he found his own voice as an artist. Since then, he's put his hometown of Houston, Texas on the map for creatives, exhibiting his work in numerous national and international institutions, including the Project Row Houses (Houston, TX), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston, TX), Coma Art Space (Los Angeles, CA), and Contemporary Museum of East Africa (Nairobi, Kenya).

Barbara Turner talks WNBA, playing in Turkey and winning two back-to-back championships at UConn. After a storied college basketball career, she was drafted 11th overall by the Seattle Storm, where she played until she was waived and then signed with the Houston Comets in 2007. After another stop with the Connecticut Sun, the 2004 Ohio Ms. Basketball took her talents overseas and now plays for Hatay Büyükşehir Belediyespor in Turkey.

Marcus J. Guillory talks about being a writer in Hollywood and why he quit his prestigious job as an Entertainment Lawyer. Born in Houston, Texas, he has written for such popular television shows as "Empire," "The Breaks" and Marvel's "Cloak & Dagger." He's also a successful novelist working on the follow up his critically-acclaimed debut, "Red Now and Laters." He participated in the 2016 Sundance Screenwriters Lab for his screenplay, "Gully," which made its debut at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. The film, directed by Nabil Elderkin, stars Robin Givens, Amber Heard and Terrence Howard.

Rob Markman talks about his impressive journalism career, helping build Genius into a powerhouse brand in the music industry and transitioning from a writer to an MC. His journey began in a corporate mailroom, but he dreamed of one day hearing his song on the radio, specifically New York City's seminal station, Hot 97. After taking a detour as a respected journalist for Scratch Magazine, XXL Magazine and MTV News, he released his first LP, Write to Dream, and finally heard one of his songs broadcasted live on his favorite radio station. Today, he's the VP of Content Strategy at Genius, where he chronicles hip-hop culture with groundbreaking content, which includes his popular show, "For The Record."

Nate Robinson talks performing and touring with Lecrae, Christian Rap vs. Secular Rap and life as a professional drummer and producer from Houston. He rebounded from having a child at a young age to go to college (Prairie View A&M), play on the drumline and start his career as a professional drummer for former NBA player Wayman Tisdale. He went on to work with Kelis, Jermaine Dupri and countless others. As a producer, he has two albums, "Heard Not Seen" and a new live performance series, "The Social Sessions."

Kenny Anderson talks about his 14-year career in the NBA and the tough life lessons associated with his three divorces, molestation, the death of his mother and overcoming a stroke. Now, as the head coach of the men's basketball team at Fisk University, an HBCU located in Nashville, Tennessee, he relishes the opportunity to teach his young student athletes how to be great men, as well how to play winning basketball.

Bun B reveals his most rebellious moments, most of which happened outside of his trajectory as a co-founding member of the legendary rap group, UGK. The rap icon talks everything from Gumball 3000, teaching at Rice University and why the tragic death of George Floyd is a turning point when it comes to race and racism in America.