Episode 134: Talk w/ Tennis and Shoe Icon Stan Smith and Emmy Award winning filmmaker Danny Lee

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The Stan Smith is perfection Stan's shoes set a standard,

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it's just effortless timeless you could hear Jay-Z quoting that he's wearing

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Stan Smith I think every community embraced that shoe hustlers drug dealers

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wearing a Stan Smith was aspirational no one really knows when it began it feels

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like it's always been around,

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People only know Stan Smith as a sneaker.

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Who's Stan Smith?

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Who is Stan Smith?

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Who the hell is Stan Smith? Stan is one of the great icons in history.

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He held tennis on his shoulders for decades. He was a power player.

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He seemed like he was seven feet tall. Girls were like falling over him.

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He has lived an extraordinary life. He had been in some areas that were dangerous.

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Stan Smith literally saved my life.

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Boycotting Wimbledon was the greatest thing any player has ever done for the sport. He sacrificed.

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That's who he is. On November 23, 1974, Margie and Stan got married.

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He couldn't pick anybody better.

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Without her, it would have been really difficult. Cole.

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It's hard to think of him as an icon when he's worn the same mustache for 50 years.

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He's a bigger deal now than he was when he won Wimbledon.

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Jordan doesn't have his face on a sneaker.

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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks.

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With me as always is the ever so, Oh, he's not here again. That's right.

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There is no Mike Hampton because Mike is too busy doing tropical things with tropical people.

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And I am joined by another guest host who is filling the nice big shoes of our beloved Mike Hampton.

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Give it up for Tuna of the podcast First in Tuna. What's up? How are you?

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Rah, rah. The crowd goes mild. I'm happy to be here, man.

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The crowd goes wild. Hell yes, they do.

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Because you don't want to know why, I would argue that you're now the sexiest

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person to take over the seat of Mike.

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So there you go. Stop it. Have you seen Mike? Oh my gosh. That hair? Baby.

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That hair. Hey, you got the facial hair, dog.

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It's all glue on. It's all glue on. I individually glue the hair on.

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Sir, how are you? and welcome to the guest host seat.

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Dude, this is exciting. Getting a chance to meet new people,

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getting to watch. Obviously, I'm not going to spoil who we got come on the show

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today, but just the opportunity.

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I love being part of the Uncle Dad Network, so this is honestly the blessing.

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This is an honor, so I appreciate you, sir.

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Oh, stop it. The blessing is all mine, sir, because having my friends involved

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and having, because for those who don't know, you and I actually kind of go way back.

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And you've been on the show a few times now. Actually, you were on the show

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way early on. Early. It was on COVID days.

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COVID days. I think you came on, and Mike wasn't even a host yet, I don't think, right?

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He was remote. Yeah, you and I were in person and he was remote.

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It was an interesting setup.

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Right, right. Yeah. Oh, and then you and I went to an office to do this, I think. Yep.

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Oh hell yeah yeah that was

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that would have been like it was the george floyd episode right 20 2020

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honestly yeah yeah if you guys want to listen to the old days if you guys haven't

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go check it out there's so many episodes so you know the it's to see where we

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have progressed has been insane and what i love about it is that there are certain

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people who've been on this show who have popped up here and there originally

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i remember i wanted to market you as the historian

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and uh

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but i wasn't wrong because now you're creating your own history my friend you

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have your own podcast about something you're very passionate about and before

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we kick off the show i just want you if you can tell our audience about your

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show and why they need to go listen oh man i mean if you want exciting voice

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and lots of graphics definitely don't watch or listen.

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No it's i'm passionate about football you know

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that i cover four teams the four major fan bases

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is here on the west coast so rams raiders not engine chargers but

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the our niche is it's supposed to be accommodating for

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the nerd like me and then the new you know the person that's just

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getting into it or doesn't want that high level talk like just give me the basics

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and just stay positive about it so yeah that's our whole angle that's football

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friendly football friendly football for everyone i love that man i think also

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too you know football can be a little intimidating for some right especially

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people who are hardcore into it you know what i mean and you're like Well,

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I think any fandom, any fandom can be intimidating, right?

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Because it's like, you know what I mean? Well, then also innately,

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it's just a complicated sport.

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Like half the rules don't make any sense, even to us, man. I understand.

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Totally. And so, you know, your show is a video podcast first and foremost, correct?

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Yeah. Preferential to YouTube, but we are on Spotify as well.

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Awesome. And so how does our audience find the data? Just type in First Antuna?

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First Antuna podcast, baby. All right. Right, and then where can they follow you as well?

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Instagram, tuna.daluna is the handle, and my Twitter is the underscore big underscore tuna.

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You are the big tune, my friend. All right. So go check him out,

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really, because seriously, you know, without these, you know,

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because he's only been podcasting for a year now or two years.

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That year would be pushing it probably like six or seven months.

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You know, he's new to the game. And, you know, I will always try to say this as much as I can.

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Podcasting is a great format for anybody who wants to be creative,

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who wants to share their passions.

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And, you know, because this is where Uncle Dad came from, right?

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Came from originally talking about comic books. And now we are the show that

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talks to all walks of life, including our guests today.

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So what I will say is, if you have a passion, you have a dream,

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you have something you're into, just go out there and do it.

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I know Tuna will agree with us.

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I know Mike would agree with that sentiment. So please get out there,

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create. That's what we need right now. It's creation.

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So with that being said, that kind of leads into our guest tab.

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We have a legend coming on. arguably one of

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the most iconic people in the shoe game one of

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the most legendary players of the tennis world

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period and i i don't think i could ever imagine that we would have a guest like

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that on this show so without further ado i am so pleased to announce that we

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have the legendary tennis player stan smith coming on along with the filmmaker

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behind the documentary who is stan smith,

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Danny Lee Pierce or sorry well I'm gonna call you Pierce Tuna whatever right.

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Tuna what is your thoughts about our guests obviously

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it's one of those names that's iconic you just kind of know about it from the

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shoot you don't really think about who is this person so who is Stan Smith behind

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the Stan Smith just like probably a lot of kids don't know you know who really

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Jordan was or who Astoria is they just see the shoe and know the name brand being having a

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chance to view the documentary beforehand man honestly my my first takeaway

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is this is probably one of the greatest humans that ever lived like out of out

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of humanity out of just pure doing the right thing all the time had no idea

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about this story beforehand pretty remarkable,

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It's crazy, right? And we've seen the shoes everywhere. And I remember the first

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time I ever heard of that shoe was when I was actually in Japan.

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And the Japanese, man, they were all about that shoe. Everybody was wearing Stan Smith shoes.

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And I was like, what is the shoe? And they were like, oh yeah,

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it's just a fashion shoe.

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But I didn't realize, and it wasn't until maybe a year or two where I was like,

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oh, that's a real person.

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And I think that happens to a lot lot of people with that shoe

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would you would you do you agree with that you think oh obviously even

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way more than the shoes stan smith like i said jordan isn't

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like the persachi or product like named after a family or a

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person so it's like you take those things for granted you don't know the story

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behind the brand yeah i guess

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it's true right i mean there's a whole movie what called what is it house of gucci right

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yeah that's true yeah you're right about

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that so i'm very excited to have this guest on and

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talk about their film i think what's so exciting about this is that it's you

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know it's another documentary we just our past interview we did another one

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with a trans filmmaker and now we're telling the story of a sports icon i think

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what's really great about documentaries right now is that they're so i mean

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documentaries have always been very,

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variative right they're so they're all over everything right like pop culture

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you know something important something you know at least something literally

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about Did you see the documentary about Pepsi not awarding the Jets?

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I got halfway through and I was like, this is ridiculous.

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That's what I'm saying. Documentaries cover everything, right?

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Yeah. And I think it's such a great time to be a documentarian.

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So again, I can't recommend that enough.

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Just get out there and watch these films because they're so ridiculous and in

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the best ways, I think. So we'll be right back with our interview with Stan

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Smith and filmmaker Danny Lee.

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But before we go, you know, I got to tell you, what is my favorite thing to

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do when I'm playing video games? Do you know what that is?

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This could go so many different ways i think

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you do know because i think they sponsor your show too uh rogue

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right rogue energy you know what you're new to the rogue

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i like the it was a tiger's blood here's well i haven't tried that one yet i

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mean come on i had to do that one first but yes rogue energy it's a really great

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The guy who sponsors this show too and we struggle but

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our interview are they ready I know you do, sir.

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I know you do. All right, everybody, we'll be right back after this break.

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Guidelines Smart Energy. Take control over rising energy costs. First off, hello.

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I can't. I am so excited to speak to you right now. Both Danny Lee and of course, Stan.

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It is an absolute honor and a pleasure to have you both on the show.

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I think right out of the gate, I just have to ask Danny Lee,

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actually, what really made you want to make a documentary about Stan Smith and

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capturing literally a shoe icon and a tennis player icon? I think you just answered the question.

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It's sort of, but thank you for asking. I mean, I think for me personally,

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the man is iconic, right?

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And the story and I, you know, it was really a challenge and a privilege to

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be able to unpack all this history behind that shoot.

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I'm pretty sure everyone on this zoom and 95

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percent of people listening have either owned

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a pair or definitely have seen a pair so it's this

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ubiquitous name that's always been in pop culture but many of us don't know

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what what the story is behind it so for me it was a great challenge and man

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we're compressing so much to story and history and pop culture into 90 minutes

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so as a filmmaker It was a challenge, but it was a well worth it. That's amazing.

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Danny, obviously, beautiful work. Love the documentary. Stan,

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beautiful work, existing and being a legend.

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Question for Danny. Obviously, you kind of knew who Stan was.

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When you jumped into this documentary, though, did you know,

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and it's on how iconic it would be, having Stan's shoe be created?

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Somebody my age, I think of the Michael Jordan era and how historic that shoe is.

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Did you know that you were accomplishing telling the story of tennis this version

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of michael jordan even before that story began yeah for sure i i knew that it

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was a tennis shoe i knew that there was all this tennis history i knew he was

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a champion i just didn't you know i think what surprised me what was the most

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illuminating was discovering all this all this.

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His humanitarian efforts, peeling back the layers of the onion,

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his deep relationship with Arthur Ashe,

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his relationship with Mark Mothabani, that young black tennis upstart from South

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Africa, all these things that he'd done for the people that he never really touted, right? Right.

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Like you're talking about, you know, tennis isn't tennis back then wasn't the tennis of today.

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You know, Stan was traveling alone or if he was lucky, you know,

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obviously Margie came along, you know, occasionally his agent would be there.

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But like tennis was much different.

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And, you know, tennis players weren't treated with the kind of respect and certainly

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not from the federations.

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They weren't making the kind of dough they were making today.

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Day and so stan you know you

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know was fundamental in unionizing tennis but also

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he was one of the earliest you know

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players to get endorsed and get all these deals and was

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at the beginning of a gold rush in sports marketing that's

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that was so cool to witness so all these little details i

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just knew you know sort of cursorily you know

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he was a champion in tennis but i didn't know how deep it

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went and that was really a joy that was

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one of the biggest joys of making this film is just going down that wormhole

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man stan how does it feel to get that call like hey we're going to make a documentary

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about how awesome you are well i didn't know if that was going to take place

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it could have been a real accurate honest one but it turned no it was honest.

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It's it's it's very awkward to have something like that you know done in your

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life and you don't know what to expect really as to how it's going to come out.

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And is it going to be, you know, as accurate as it could be,

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or is it going to be, you know,

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different in the wrong way who knows right you know

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it's funny it's i i imagine like when you see your

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life being presented like that does that ever just when

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you're when you're just watching it do you ever feel like man i wish

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i could go back and change maybe something i did then or do you just kind of

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go i'm glad it went the way it did it reminds me i played a tournament one time

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where they would broadcast the match that night you know they tape it and then

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show it that night so you could actually see it yourself and so i would look

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at that night i said i wonder if it's going to.

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Turn out the way it did when i actually played it or not so

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uh the same thing with this with this documentary is

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you just never know exactly what's going to turn

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out you know and and i was just hoping for the best i

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had some trust in in danny after getting to know him

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and and understanding what he was getting at and that

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that helped a lot to calm my nerves about that

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but it was a little bit scary to put my

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life out there yeah i bet this was

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for you stan nice to meet you by the way the tension with

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the association being one of the earliest instances of the player

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power versus a governing body of a sport it was

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something that resonated deeply with me as a former athlete and as

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a historian as well what kind of helped you stay

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mentally strong knowing how important defending your title was on your life

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goal legacy would help you come that decision to put others before yourself

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in that 11th hour well i thought it was the right thing to do at that particular

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time we were really fighting for the players rights to be able to be independent

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to not be controlled by the federations.

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And so almost all the top players, except for the Eastern Europeans and college

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players that were amateurs, stuck together.

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We had about, I think it was 82 players in our association at the time,

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a very new upstart union, basically, of players.

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And we felt that if we were going to stay controlled by these federations,

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then we weren't going to be able to reach our potential as amateurs.

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As a tennis industry, really.

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So that was, we felt it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to. I was ready to go.

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We really stayed up to about 11.30 that night on Sunday night,

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right before Wimbledon was supposed to start on Monday.

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Made the final vote that we were not going to play.

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They had to next day redo the whole draw and start on Tuesday.

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He said, oh, on Monday, because it was, you know, there's 82 of us that were,

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most of us were seated in the tournament, and they had to redo the scenes and

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then redo the draw itself.

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So it was a difficult time, but I felt pretty good about it. I mean, in general.

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Thank you. Danny, when you're working on this project and you're working with,

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you know, such an icon and you are creating the tale, do you have to kind of

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run everything by stand first?

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Or do you kind of make the decision like, okay, I think this is where this should

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go first? Or what does that process look like?

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Yeah, I think the precedent for documentaries when you're telling someone's

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life story, especially when there's celebrity, is that a filmmaker needs to gain the trust first.

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And that goes with scripted as

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well. Everything. You just need to gain the trust of everyone around you.

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You want to all be working together in unison. and thankfully stan was

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not even in the edit bay no questions comments nothing he just sort of said

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you know it's so organic it was like i trust you young danny do you think you

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better not screw it up he didn't have to say that but i knew not to screw it up.

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And yeah so he wasn't involved he saw a very damn near locked cut there was

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one little note of trying to include one piece.

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But other than that, he just had, you know, the utmost faith and I appreciate

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that. I appreciate you, Stan.

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Oh, that's so lovely. Yeah, this documentary was done with a lot of love,

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a lot of passion on your end, Danny.

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Question for you, Stan and Danny, feel free to jump in on this answer in case

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there's something that you uncover in your filmmaking.

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So, Stan, obviously, you've accomplished an unfathomable amount in your lifetime.

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But what keeps you motivated now? And by that, I mean,

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Stern's mentioned you travel around like you'll travel land

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at 12 30 be at practice at 2 30 you have

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the reputation of creating obligations when you don't

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have to you do it out of humanity and it makes you such a great human being

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it seems like so at this rate you know what keeps you going now well i you know

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one of the books that's the most important book in my life is the bible i've

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never seen anything in the bible talk about retiring and there's never i don't

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get orders used and so i i don't even think about it.

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I feel awkward when people come up to me and say, well, gee,

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I got early retirement at 60 or even at 65 or whatever.

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And I said, well, what's that like? Because I'm still involved with this company, Stan Smith Events.

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We help corporations entertain their clients at major events.

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And that takes up quite a bit of time and travel. You know, I go to all the

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major tournaments and then we do other things as well.

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And then I've got an academy that I go to every afternoon when I'm here in town.

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It's about half the time.

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And then I'm doing things for Adidas. And then we have this foundation that

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runs the golf tournament, the

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RBC Heritage Classic, which is a big golf tournament after the Masters.

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And I've been involved with Boys and Girls Club and continuing the effort to

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keep that going. And then I'm trying to spend time with my family.

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We've now got, I think, with 17 grandchildren.

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And so we're trying to figure out how to spend time.

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In fact, today I'm going to go out with a couple of them onto the court because

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we have a couple that are interested in tennis.

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And so I'm going to help them a bit today with their tennis.

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So I'm fortunate to have a variety of things that I'm involved in which make it.

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Man, so what's so great about that is that you have this film and your whole

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family can just keep sharing it forever.

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You know what I mean? It's a never-ending, continuous legacy.

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I mean, also, I guess you have the shoes too, right? So you always want to be

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a part of your family's life. And I think it's incredible, right? You can carry that on.

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And so I'm curious, when you're making this film, LeBron James was one of the producers of this.

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Did LeBron James come out to you, Stan, or did he reach out to Danny?

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Well, originally, their production company reached out to me.

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They saw the book that I did that stands for Some People Think I'm a Shoe.

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And they liked the book and they liked the idea of maybe doing a documentary.

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And so that was the group that came to me. And then they said,

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well, let's interview some guys to be the director. actor.

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And I got a chance to see Danny and I saw some of the stuff he'd done,

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you know, make sure that he wasn't, you know, a quack.

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Turned out that he wasn't and we got along great. He did an unbelievable job.

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That's amazing. Thank you guys both. We have to wrap up here,

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but thank you guys so much for the time.

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Stan, truly an absolute pleasure and just an honor to get to speak to you for a little bit.

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So thank you. And Danny, keep up the great work because this documentary is

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absolutely incredible. Thank you.

365
00:23:15,153 --> 00:23:18,273
Thanks. Thanks, guys. You know, know i have a grandson named pierce so

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uh he's a he's a lacrosse player so no

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way i i still for the life of me i've never met another individual

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with my name really really i thought it was one of one his real name is stanley

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pierce as a matter of fact he goes by pierce well you put it that way i guess

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he should go by stanley too i guess he's sticking with pierce that's awesome

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i love it thank you guys so much okay take care thank you gentlemen.