'It’s not you, it’s the people around you': Williams, Boucher discuss NBA money changing people

On the latest episode of Hustle Play, Chris Boucher and Alvin Williams discuss what money does to NBA players and the people within their circles. Listen to the full episode on the podcast feed or watch on our YouTube.

Video Transcript

- Before making-- signing those contracts, right, you have a certain vision of what you think life is gonna be like when you start to get some money, right? What is it like thinking about it compared to what it is in reality?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I mean, I won't lie to you. I never was chasing the money at first. Like, I never was like, OK, I'm gonna do a contract. I was just trying to make a better situation for myself, you know?

Like, we watch video. I see we were watching video from when I was playing in prep school and whatever. And I looked clueless. Like, I looked like I'm just happy to be here.

You know, I don't look like I'm chasing anything. I don't even talk to the refs. You know, hard foul, I don't even know what's going on. Like, I'm just happy I'm on the floor. You know what I'm saying?

So that probably saved me and made me, like, the player that I am now because, like, for the longest time, I was just playing the game and being happy that I'm playing. And, obviously, now I understand that like game a lot more. I've kind of, like, felt like I kind of do have a little bit more respect to certain stuff and all that.

So, obviously, my mind is a little different. But, like, when I see myself back in the days, that kid was not-- that's not money-- he's not chasing money. He's just happy with the life he's living.

And that's something that I try to keep as much as I can because obviously, like, my whole career, it's not like I knew I was gonna make so much money. I didn't even know I was gonna make it to the NBA until late. And then, after that year contract and all that, I'm still chasing to be on a team, you know.

Like, at first, you just want to be on a team. You don't even think you're gonna make 5, 10 million, you know what I'm saying? So for me, that was the easiest part is that I was always in that category of just being happy and being in the game, just be happy to play basketball, and be recognized for what I do.

- How was it for you, Alvin? Like, thinking about making that money compared to, all right, reality, it's here. What was--

ALVIN WILLIAMS: I was the same, man. I grew up, you know, a couple of old-school names-- Rasheed Wallace, Cuttino Mobley, these are guys that really-- and it was other players, my roommate, Jason Lawson. But you had Aaron McKie. You had Big Mar--

You had a lot of-- in Philly at that time, there was a lot of guys who were in the same age bracket that ended up going to the pros. But Cat and Sheed were two of the guys that-- and J-- were two of the guys-- three of the guys-- that we would spend a lot of time together and never talked about money at all.

Sheed was a lock to go to the NBA, right? He was a lock. Sheed never talked about Brett. And Sheed ain't had the best living situation.

So he ain't have everything. Like, he was-- it was humble beginnings, never once. Never once-- Cat, same-- never once. Myself, we never talked about money. We never talked about even the NBA.

We'd just go out there and have fun and play ball. Let's get together. That's how we're gonna do it. And then, you know, of course, the business comes. And a lot of times, it's not you. It's the people around you.

People around you start changing. The people around you start having expectations. The people around you want to do more. The people around you want to earn a value and all that, just to hope to get something.

So a lot of times, you know, did you change how you look at it? It's not you, right? You have to change because your environment is changing. You don't want to stay the same.

But a lot of times, unfortunately, it's the people that you trust, that you love. They change, right? And how other people, strangers, approach you-- because there's times you walk down the street, nobody will say two words to you. If you didn't play ball, they'd be like, damn, the tall dude right there-- dang, he should have played.

He wasted-- like, now, oh, he does play. Oh, that is. So that's the difference of how people perceive you and approach you and all that because they know what you got. So it's how you manage that.

And it's hard. It's hard.

CHRIS BOUCHER: Yeah, that's what's crazy is because like-- like, I've always been somebody, like, that doesn't talk much. If I don't know you, I don't talk much, right?

So now, if I'm in a public place and I don't talk, it's like, oh, well, he's a asshole, he's a dick or whatever. I've been like that my whole life, right? So now it's because they kind of-- they're changing the world of how you should be-- because they feel like that's how they would be if they were you.

And that's the issue now is because now I have to act like you guys want me to act so I'm accepted to wherever I am, you know what I'm saying? And now I'm labeled for everything.

Oh, he got money. He got all the girls. He got money. He could do this. He could do that. He can't be happy. He can't be this.

And now you're at the point where, OK, well, basically, I'm what you want me to be. I have to be what you want me to be.

If I don't say hi to you right now, it's because I'm a dick. No, but guess what? If I wasn't playing basketball, you wouldn't want to say hi to me either. It's because of who I am now.

- Right.

CHRIS BOUCHER: OK, that's cool. But at the end of the day, if I'm going through something, I am still living my life. And I'm not gonna be, because I'm Chris Boucher today, gonna act differently of what I would have acted any other day in my life.