[00:00:00] Introduction and Background

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[00:00:00] Maxwell Pearce: This five minute video. I didn't curse anybody out. I didn't name call. It was very informational. I spoke about my experience, how we can learn from it, why it's offensive, the history behind it. That's it. Put that out. Story started to circulate, uh, CNN, AP, everybody. And the response I got from pretty much the all corners of the internet was mixed.

[00:00:26] Maxwell Pearce: But the most prominent response was death threats. And people saying, shut up and dribble

[00:00:33] Tony Tidbit: for real. So, so let's, let's, let's, let's stop. We'll discuss race and how it plays a factor, how we didn't even talk about this topic because we were afraid.

[00:00:44] Tony Tidbit: A black. Executive

[00:00:46] Tony Tidbit: perspective.

[00:00:48] The Start of a Podcast Journey

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[00:00:48] Tony Tidbit: Welcome to a black executive perspective podcast, a safe space where we discuss all matters related to race, especially race in corporate America.

[00:00:57] Tony Tidbit: I'm your host, Tony tidbit. Today's exciting day because we're taking our talents on the road and we're at 88. 7 WNHU New Haven at the University of New Haven radio station. So we're very excited to be able to bring a Black Executive Perspective podcast to this environment. They, uh, the radio station and the college kids here are so excited for us to be here.

[00:01:24] Tony Tidbit: So this is going to be a place that we're going to be coming to on periodically to partner together. So we want to thank them for their hospitality. With a black executive perspective podcast. Now, you know, one of the things is that happens today.

[00:01:40] The Intersection of Sports and Social Issues

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[00:01:40] Tony Tidbit: You know, sports is a very vast global entertainment platform.

[00:01:44] Tony Tidbit: As we all know, it captures our collective enthusiasm for sports teams and players across diverse areas of sports as the gridiron, the diamond. Ice and obviously the basketball court. While we hold great admiration for athletes performance, there's a prevalent sentiment urging them. Especially those in sports like basketball to confine their focus to the professional realm and abstain from engaging in discussions about political or social issues.

[00:02:20] Tony Tidbit: This viewpoint may hinder their recognition and acknowledgement as complete citizens, limiting their ability to not only showcase their athletic prowess, but also to express diverse talents, such as ideas, advocacy for causes resonating with all citizens.

[00:02:39] Interview with Maxwell Pierce

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[00:02:39] Tony Tidbit: Our guest today, Matt Maxwell Pierce, a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, is here to delve into his distinctive journey as a professional athlete and share insights on race, success.

[00:02:54] Tony Tidbit: Activism, the arts, and overcoming challenges. Maxwell Pierce, welcome to a Black Executive Perspective podcast, buddy. So excited to see you, man. How you doing? I'm good. How about yourself, man? I'm doing really, really well, man. It's awesome. So, look, at the end of the day You, you know, number one, we're excited that you're here.

[00:03:15] Tony Tidbit: I know you got a really busy schedule. You're traveling all over the place. Um, but before we dive in and get to know the real Maxwell Pierce, right outside of the Harlem Globetrotters, give us a little high level, like where are you from? your little background, family, and then we'll dive into it. Yeah,

[00:03:32] Maxwell's Early Life and Basketball Career

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[00:03:32] Maxwell Pearce: so like you said, um, we are currently in New Haven right now.

[00:03:36] Maxwell Pearce: I'm from about an hour south of here in Westchester County, New York, in a small village called Tuckahoe. Uh, I think growing up, coming from Tuckahoe, it gave me this approach that I needed to put where I'm from on a map. And because we were always so slept on and underrepresented, I always felt like that matched my, um, pretty much my persona and my physical build on the court.

[00:04:06] Maxwell Pearce: I was always super small, um, I was always the last to pretty much hit a certain, uh, milestone in terms of what my growth was growing up. So, I think that kind of changed. Or shifted my mindset from, um, where I was when I was a kid to where I am now and understanding that your race is your race. So, um, no, I definitely felt like.

[00:04:35] Maxwell Pearce: That kind of contributed to the patience that I had into growing into the person I am today. So I think coming from Tuckahoe Had a lot to do with that. I graduated from Purchase College in 2018 I was in the college slam dunk contest, which I know we'll get into a little bit later And then pretty much from there I signed with the Harlem Globetrotters and that's ultimately where I am here now, six years into my career with the Globetrotters.

[00:05:00] Tony Tidbit: Wow, buddy. Wow. Wow. So if I'm hearing you correctly, um, because Tuckahoe is, it's a small area that's like, you know, the, what some people call the bedroom community of New York city. Okay. But it's, it's not really well known. No. Right. And so that's a chip on the town's shoulder. Right. All right. And you carried that chip.

[00:05:21] Tony Tidbit: Right. That's a chip on your, because it's like, we're not well known, but there's a lot of talented individuals. So you held on to that chip And helped you basically use that chip to help you grow and be able to do the things you're doing now what we're hearing Absolutely. Okay, buddy Look at the end of the day and you know this whatever mode whatever type of motivation And wherever it comes from, in terms of how people can use it to get to where they go.

[00:05:45] Tony Tidbit: That's all that matters. So exactly. Really appreciate that. So look, man, let's be clear here. And we're going to dive into this. You, uh, you're traveling all over the globe, right? You, um, are one of the, uh, Faces, media faces for, for the Harlem Globetrotters. You do a lot of different type of platforms. You, you chat with a lot of different media people from podcast to television to radio.

[00:06:10] Tony Tidbit: You, you do a lot of things in the community with schools. So, you know, question I have for you. Why did you want to appear on the Black Executive Perspective podcast?

[00:06:18] Maxwell Pearce: I think this is such a unique opportunity to share. My experience, my perspective and my insight on in my 27 years of life, um, to an audience that can learn from it.

[00:06:34] Maxwell Pearce: I think it's really valuable when you can present important information in a really constructive way, um, where people can actually. Um, you know, consume it in a way that they can actually, um, make change, right? So I think that's one of the things that this podcast does well. And in a lot of other settings, it might be harder to deliver important information like this.

[00:07:00] Tony Tidbit: Got it. Got it. Well, look, man, we're excited that you're here and thank you for that because that's Our goal is to make people aware, you know, effect change and make this a very, you know, inclusive society for all people, no matter what their race, sexuality, and the whole nine yards. So thank you for that.

[00:07:16] Tony Tidbit: So you ready to jump into this? All right. Let's talk about it. All right. So talk a little bit. You, you gave us a little bit Tuckahoe. Tell us a little bit about you when you were young, coming up through Tuckahoe and the stuff that you were going

[00:07:29] Maxwell Pearce: through. So growing up in Tuckahoe was interesting. As a kid, I was extremely shy.

[00:07:36] Maxwell Pearce: So, I'm the first I, I, I promise. I'm the first of three kids. Um, I'm 27. I have a sister who's 25. I have a brother who's 21. Okay. So, I'm two years older than my sister, six and a half years older than my brother. And Although I was pretty much the leader of the, my parents, three children, again, I was super shy.

[00:08:01] Maxwell Pearce: I was a kid who didn't want to raise his hand in class. Because I was afraid of how my classmates were going to look at me while I'm answering a question, even if I knew the answer was right. Right, right. Still didn't want to raise my hand. So, uh, being that kind of kid definitely contributed to the personality that I had on the court pretty much for the duration of my middle school basketball career.

[00:08:26] Maxwell Pearce: And then also playing in such a small, uh, town, you know, you're limited to the kind of competition that you have. I wasn't aware of how good kids were at basketball until I got exposed to AAU basketball. So, um, Tuckahoe, you know, although it did give me that chip on my shoulder, I didn't discover that chip until pretty much coming out of middle school into going into high school.

[00:08:51] Maxwell Pearce: Cause high school is when I got exposed to a lot more kids from different areas. And,

[00:08:57] Tony Tidbit: and speaking of that, so you're playing basketball in Tuckahoe, like you said, small, so there's only so many kids, talent is, you know, based on the population. And then, and you're, you're pretty good, right, at that, in that area, right?

[00:09:09] Tony Tidbit: But now you're starting to play AAU basketball and you're starting to see other kids that their talent is on another level. How did you adjust to that?

[00:09:18] Maxwell Pearce: The adjustment period was tough for me because I was, Smaller than pretty much all of my teammates. I was probably like five, five, when I, my freshman year, I was probably five foot four, like 100 pounds, 110 pounds.

[00:09:34] Maxwell Pearce: So I was definitely getting pushed around and that was frustrating. And then You know, I grew a little bit, um, throughout my high school time. But one thing that did stay constant from middle school up until now is that I was inspired by two particular players to dunk the basketball, Nate Robinson and Vince Carter were two players that absolutely lit a fire.

[00:09:56] Maxwell Pearce: In me, in terms of like, I want to be able to dunk a basketball, I don't care what it is, and I feel like in middle school, I thought that if I could dunk, then that was my automatic ticket into playing professional basketball. So, um. That's

[00:10:10] Tony Tidbit: interesting. It's. You didn't know Nate Robinson, well, number one, just so everybody's clear, right, Nate Robinson was a basketball player for the Knicks, and he wasn't that tall as well, he was like 5'8 so he was short, Vince Carter was 6'4 6'5 so that makes sense, right, but is it, did you chat with them, or just watching them inspired you?

[00:10:29] Maxwell Pearce: Strictly watching them was enough to inspire me. Got it, got it. And then, um, ironically, in 6th grade, Allen Houston his Children go to school or went to school with my younger siblings. And so Alan was having a basketball camp. And when I went to that camp, Alan brought Nate, who was in his second year with the Knicks at that time.

[00:10:52] Maxwell Pearce: Um, and we, we got paired up in a shootout. So Nate was my teammate. Um, shortly after I discovered this Love for dunking a basketball via him and Vince Carter. So it was a super cool moment to be able to share the court with him and 6th or 7th grade, whatever that was. That must have

[00:11:12] Tony Tidbit: been awesome, right? It was cool.

[00:11:13] Tony Tidbit: Did he give you a nugget or two that you ended up using later

[00:11:16] Maxwell Pearce: on? I was too shy to ask questions at that time. Okay. So that was a little frustrating because there was questions that I had, but again, I was, I was too shy to ask him. But I think, um, going back to how I kind of adjusted to high school basketball, I think it was more so.

[00:11:32] Maxwell Pearce: Um, understanding that the physicality was different, that I was no longer the best player on the court. Um, and then, in fact, I had two player, two teammates who are now in the NBA from that particular high school team. One of them, his name is Ty Jerome, he plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers right now, and the other is Matt Ryan, Matt plays for the New Orleans Pelicans.

[00:11:52] Maxwell Pearce: Wow. Um, you know, obviously, there's a lot of good high schools around here. But the fact that we had two NBA caliber players on the same team, and they showed that because their recruitment was, there was always some big time college in our practices. Um, it showed me like what the best of the best look like.

[00:12:11] Maxwell Pearce: Right. And it definitely changed my game because it showed me that what I was dealing with in middle school and even a little bit of early high school. Uh, was not the best that the game had to offer around our age. So I think that kind of contributed to my growth and adjustment as, as an athlete.

[00:12:30] Tony Tidbit: And then you ended up going to Purchase College, right?

[00:12:33] Tony Tidbit: Tell us a little bit about that experience.

[00:12:34] Maxwell Pearce: So coming out of high school, I actually transferred from that school that I had those, um, two and Uh, current NBA teammates on. I transferred to Tuckahoe High School my senior year. So I only did one year at Tuckahoe High School. Um, I probably had my best high school year there.

[00:12:53] Maxwell Pearce: That's where all my college recruitment came from. My first, the first school that reached out was a school, was a SUNY school called Fredonia State. It's in Western New York. And I ended up going there for my freshman year of college. Um, I did individual, individually, I did pretty well as a team. We didn't do well, right?

[00:13:12] Maxwell Pearce: And I didn't like how isolated that campus was. So I transferred from there to Purchase College. So I got to Purchase my sophomore year and I ended up graduating. So I only did three years instead of four years at Purchase. Got it. Got it. My senior year at Purchase. Actually, let me backtrack a little bit.

[00:13:30] The Power of Social Media and Building a Brand

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[00:13:30] Maxwell Pearce: My sophomore year at Purchase, uh, we were playing basketball on a summer day, I dunked on one of my best friends, and somebody was recording, and shared the video on Twitter, and I went to sleep that night. Knew the video, um, was pretty bad, but I didn't want to share it, because I knew that videos like that had the potential to go viral, and I didn't want to embarrass my friend.

[00:13:53] Maxwell Pearce: Oh, so, because you

[00:13:54] Tony Tidbit: just said, not to cut you off, but when you said bad, you meant When you said bad, the video was bad. Like, what do you mean? Like, it was an embarrassment for your

[00:14:01] Maxwell Pearce: friend. It was an embarrassment for my friend. And so I didn't want something like that to hit the internet because I knew it had the potential to go viral.

[00:14:09] Maxwell Pearce: And make him look bad. And make him look bad. So little did I know, someone who was already at the park that day filming had already posted it, but I wasn't on Twitter like that. So I woke up the following day. And my phone was, I had never seen my phone like that. It was blowing up, huh? It was, it was outrageous.

[00:14:30] Maxwell Pearce: And so, at that point I was like, It was a, it was a bittersweet feeling because it was, I thought it was cool that, that video was all these, on all these platforms that I had followed. But at the same time I felt bad because again, that was my friend on the, But did he get mad at your friend? So he, he had such a great response.

[00:14:49] Maxwell Pearce: He said, Max, I think you should post this on your personal page because you never know what opportunities could come from. So he was totally welcoming. That's a great friend. Yeah, he's a great person. Um, so ultimately with his approval, I shared it and that's pretty much what the birth of my social media presence was.

[00:15:10] Maxwell Pearce: Wow,

[00:15:10] Tony Tidbit: buddy. So And you ended up Going, I mean, because, you know, if I remember correctly, dunking is one of the things that you do very, very well. Yeah. So you, tell us a little bit about the Shark Tank competition and finance.

[00:15:25] Maxwell Pearce: So, um, my career as an athlete has come in a bunch of different sports. I played five sports growing up.

[00:15:35] Maxwell Pearce: I started with tennis, was not good at tennis, picked up a basketball, that stuck around, played football, baseball, and ran cross country. So. In my experience with all of those sports, I always witnessed teammates who struggled with the transition out of their sport and into whatever that next chapter was.

[00:15:53] Maxwell Pearce: Got it. Particularly in basketball and football. In those two sports, the statistics are outdoing the rest of those sports that I mentioned. Um, exponentially. So there are a lot of players who either go bankrupt after playing professionally if they're lucky enough to be in that less than 1 percent who do make it to play professionally.

[00:16:15] Maxwell Pearce: Um, they're not handling their finances properly. Um, they don't know what to do next and a lot of this is because athletes just aren't exposed to other things in their journey as an athlete. They don't, they put all of their eggs into this one basket, they're really just not prepared for that next transition.

[00:16:33] Maxwell Pearce: Some of them are, but a lot of us aren't. Right. And so I wanted to create something that helped prepare us for some of the financial turmoil, um, if we're lucky enough to make it that far, um, but if we're not. Prepare us for the transition out of this sport because it's also a lifestyle change once you stop playing a game that you play hours on end a day, you got to figure out like what?

[00:16:56] Maxwell Pearce: What is my next move? So ultimately, ultimately, that's how finance was born.

[00:17:02] Creating Opportunities for Athletes Beyond Sports

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[00:17:02] Maxwell Pearce: My teammate in college name is Derek answer and I we are the co founders of finance. So we basically We created this non profit to assist athletes in the transition into the next phase of life. Whether that's when you stop playing in high school or whether you play professionally and you want to get into something else.

[00:17:21] Maxwell Pearce: And so

[00:17:22] Tony Tidbit: tell, how do you assist them? Like give them, give me, give us some,

[00:17:24] Maxwell Pearce: so ideally what we would have is like a seminar out of school where we would talk to the kids, particularly the athletic programs about how you can squeeze the most out of a basketball or a football or a baseball. Um, because it, it's more than just something that you put in a basket.

[00:17:44] Maxwell Pearce: It's a vessel for a lot of different things. Like, I've been to 13 different countries, 47 states. Um, I've been in, in rooms and places that I never thought I would be because of how I use the basketball. I didn't have to score 50 in a game. I didn't have to set foot on an NBA court to make the best out of what a basketball can provide for us.

[00:18:04] Maxwell Pearce: And then I think further than that, um, I, I wanted to Make sure that all of the kids were aware that there are ways that you can use a basketball or football to open doors for you for other things that you're passionate about. That is

[00:18:16] Tony Tidbit: awesome, buddy. That is awesome. And you know, one of the things is you, you gave the statistics in terms of number one, I think it's only 1 percent of all athletes that end up making it in professional sports.

[00:18:27] Tony Tidbit: Anyway, out of hundreds of thousands of millions. It's millions. That's play millions, 1%. And then out of that 1 percent that end up making money. I think the percentage is very small in terms of those who end up becoming successful outside of their sport. Because to your point, they don't, they've never created another way outside of what they do.

[00:18:48] Tony Tidbit: Right. So your program is a way to educate them to be able to set themselves up and always be. Cognizant of you ain't gonna play this sport forever, and more importantly, you want to make sure that you be able to make money and be able to prosper and other things. Yeah,

[00:19:03] Maxwell Pearce: absolutely. And I think the part that's most important about what you just said is that you can't play forever.

[00:19:10] Maxwell Pearce: Like, you can, even if you're the best to ever play the game, you're gonna have to put the ball down sometime.

[00:19:14] Tony Tidbit: Right, exactly. And sometimes they don't want to, like Tom Brady. Right. He didn't want

[00:19:18] Maxwell Pearce: to put the ball down, right? Again, because it's a lifestyle thing. So you know that your whole life. For so many athletes, your life surrounds that sport, so when it's time to walk away from it, it's hard.

[00:19:28] Tony Tidbit: Now, let's be fair, though. You're still in the game, though. I am still in the game. Even though you've got a lot of things that you're doing on the side, which is great, and we're going to dive into those other things outside of basketball, right? And you spoke a little bit earlier about the significance in terms of advocacy, activism, so we're going to dive there soon.

[00:19:46] Tony Tidbit: But I want to go into your slam dunk and your social media stuff, right? Yeah. Because you, that video. That your, your friend posted, that was your first foray into terms of social media, more importantly, people seeing what you can do. And now you're known, you know, for your slam dunk escapades. As a matter of fact, I think you're, if I'm correct, you're going to the NBA All Star Game.

[00:20:09] Tony Tidbit: Yes. Right? And you're going to assist in some. So tell us a little bit about some of the dunks and some of the social recognition you've been

[00:20:15] Maxwell Pearce: getting from that. So in the last, so that video happened in 2015, so it's almost 10 years ago, which is crazy. Um, but that introduced me to the power of social media.

[00:20:27] Maxwell Pearce: I didn't realize that you could get so many eyes on something so quickly. Um, and so once I realized that, I was like, obviously I'm gonna try and recreate what worked, which was a dunking video. Um, and it took me a while to realize that I could share other things that I can potentially acquire the same amount of eyes on.

[00:20:48] Maxwell Pearce: So, in that last nine or ten year span, Um, I've been able to do some really cool things and get on some, some interesting platforms via social media. Um, that video in particular ended up being on a show called MTV Ridiculousness, uh, which was the, their episode with Kobe Bryant. So Kobe, we got a, like a live reaction from Kobe to that dunk before he passed, which was.

[00:21:13] Maxwell Pearce: Um, you know, something that I never thought I would be able to impact Colby. Um, so that I've been in two video games, uh, thus far, like video games that I've grown up playing. So like, which ones, which NBA 2k and NBA live women stop

[00:21:29] Tony Tidbit: a second, brother. I just want to make sure I'm clear here. You, you an NBA 2k.

[00:21:33] Maxwell Pearce: So if you, if you buy NBA 2k right now and you create a, my player. A lot of the dunks that you're my player would do are dunks that I did. So I would, I got in this motion capture suit with these dots all over. With the dots and stuff all over, right? Yup. And then just did, did all my dunks. And they put them in the game.

[00:21:49] Maxwell Pearce: That is

[00:21:50] Tony Tidbit: awesome, man. That is awesome.

[00:21:52] Maxwell Pearce: So, and, and I think, uh, my journey. in particular is just, um, such a good example of how you can use a basketball to get yourself in a lot of spaces that the traditional basketball route might not put you in, especially because I'm a product of division three. I'm not a division one athlete.

[00:22:14] Maxwell Pearce: So most of the time, the stereotypes with division three. don't associate themselves with big stages, um, or big platforms. So I've gotten to do some video games in 2020. I created a video, a dunk video with my friend Rob, and it was an honorable mention for an SP. Um, so there have been a lot of really cool.

[00:22:38] Maxwell Pearce: Things that have happened thus far and I'm I'm like fast forwarding through stuff. I'm trying to hit like they're really Things but it's all good

[00:22:46] Tony Tidbit: my friend, you know, and this is exciting. I'm you know, cuz some of this stuff I didn't even know especially about the video game So think about this for a second because you just said something that I want to put a pin in for a second Yep You went to division three.

[00:23:04] Tony Tidbit: Okay. So let's, let's just put that for a second. Typically the people that end up making it, especially in the NBA. Yep. Okay. You could go to a small college and, and, and for playing football and they'll find you, all right. You may make it to the NBA, excuse the NFL. You may not be a first round draft, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth round.

[00:23:22] Tony Tidbit: But the NBA only has two rounds in terms of where they're drafting people. Right. And so, and, and, and this 30 something team. So that's maybe 60 players. 62, 64 players that's being drafted every year, once a year. And. The majority of them, the majority come from a division one school. I think Dennis Rodman, if I remember, because I'm from Detroit, I think Dennis Rodman went to South, Southeast Oklahoma State or something.

[00:23:49] Tony Tidbit: I don't know if that was division one, but division three. Okay. Very rare that you make it to that level. Okay. You're playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. More importantly. You, because of that, or because of social media, I just want to stay there, you're able to build your brand, right? And be able to, because most, and again, I don't know, you can speak to it, most people think that people who play with the Harlem Globetrotters, or even on that level, it's Division I, they come from those big schools and stuff to that nature, right?

[00:24:22] Tony Tidbit: And you were able to, from Tuckahoe. With that chip on your shoulder, all right, you were able to build your brand from social media, all right, and it opened up doors, right, that you probably never would have thought of. Nope.

[00:24:37] Maxwell Pearce: And I, I, I'm so glad that you structured the conversation this way because this in particular is what really was responsible for me to start claiming that chip on my shoulder.

[00:24:52] Maxwell Pearce: Like I, like I said, I was a really shy kid for a while. And I think once I got to purchase and started leveraging my platform, that's when I realized I had some actual power and it's, it's not enough for me to just sit back and. And be too cool or to be too shy. So once I figured that out, that's when I started to take advantage of my platform a little bit more.

[00:25:14] Maxwell Pearce: And I grew my following, um, somewhat consistently from my sophomore year to my senior year. Senior year at Purchase, I got the opportunity to be in this dunk contest, which is called the Dark Horse Dunk Contest. And basically, I had to get voted in, so I had to use my network. Um, I also leveraged my following, because that is an extension of my network.

[00:25:38] Maxwell Pearce: Um, so I leveraged all of that, and I was able to win that, that contest. It was a month long voting, um, going up against guys from Villanova, like all of those really big Division I schools. Right. Um, So I think the chip in my shoulder on my shoulder definitely came in handy in that in that experience And ultimately in that college done contest, although I did not win that catapulted so much in my Basketball

[00:26:06] Tony Tidbit: experience right right as well as your brand though, too And my brain because people were able to see who you are, right, right

[00:26:13] Maxwell Pearce: Go ahead.

[00:26:14] Maxwell Pearce: And I, I think, um, that week, that contest in particular was such a important moment for me, uh, because I got to meet our good friend Nick. Yeah. Who, uh,

[00:26:27] Tony Tidbit: so, so just real quick, not because I want you to finish the story. So, uh, who, uh, Max is, is referenced to is Nick Bianchi. Yes. Uh, Nick, uh, used to be the, uh, uh, uh, VP of brand and social, uh, Uh, uh, media at, at direct TV.

[00:26:43] Tony Tidbit: Um, and you met Nick that weekend down there, right? So tell us a little bit about it because not only did you meet Nick, there was some other things that came out of that, right? That you, you're just going down there for this dunk contest, right? That's all you're looking to do, right? I'm going to do, I'm just gonna be here for a couple of days.

[00:27:00] Tony Tidbit: I'm going to leave and I'm gonna come back. So pick it up from there.

[00:27:03] Maxwell Pearce: So I was there strictly to participate in this dunk contest, which was already going to be the highlight of my life at that time. Uh, because I had grown up watching that contest. So I was only going to be there for the contest, and then I had to go back to campus, because this was during the semester.

[00:27:16] Maxwell Pearce: This wasn't like, outside of school, you know? Although it was my senior year, I still had to finish my senior project, all of that. So, um, this is Final Four Weekend in San Antonio. And I finished the contest and I was pretty much prepared. I already had a flight book to go back to New York to go to class on Monday.

[00:27:37] Maxwell Pearce: And I had a cousin that, uh, was working with Nick and, um, I'm not exactly sure what the conversation was between them, but ultimately. Um, Nick and my cousin ended up reaching out and I stayed for, while I was there, um, in San Antonio and I ultimately stayed for pretty much an extra week and I got to go to the, um, final four games as well as the national championship game.

[00:28:07] Maxwell Pearce: This was my first. Uh, brand deal ever. This is my introduction to speaking in front of a camera. Um, especially when it comes to like social media platforms. Um, I was a lot less polished then than I am now, but you know, just the fact that they took a chance knowing that I did not have an ounce of experience in that way prior.

[00:28:29] Maxwell Pearce: Um, it, it meant the world and that pretty much set up the foundation for where I am now, uh, seven, eight

[00:28:37] Tony Tidbit: years later. And there was something else that came out of that, right? Because you didn't win the slam dunk contest, but somebody saw you. That's

[00:28:45] Maxwell Pearce: right. And talk a little bit about that. That's right. So that particular contest is ultimately what led to the Harlem Globetrotters discovering me.

[00:28:52] Maxwell Pearce: And so, um, you know, I, I was just so, so. surprised by how much came out of that one singular weekend. Um, but like when I got back to campus, eventually the sports information director was like, Max, somebody called and left a message for you. You need to call this number back. And that number was the globe chatter.

[00:29:14] Maxwell Pearce: So ultimately I called them back, went to a private workout. Um, got an offer maybe like a week or so later, and the season started in that fall. So I graduated in May and was on the road by the

[00:29:26] Tony Tidbit: fall. Think about that, my friend. Think about that. It's crazy. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna play. I wasn't in your head, but I'm just gonna paint this, right?

[00:29:34] Tony Tidbit: You're going down for a dunk contest from school.

[00:29:37] The Power of Opportunity and Preparation

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[00:29:37] Tony Tidbit: You got to be back a few days to take your test. All right. And you're just saying, I'm going to do my thing. I'm you're definitely going down and trying to win. Right. Of course. I'm going to do that. Then I'm gonna cut out. Yeah. And then by going down there, this situation, all of a sudden, all these other things came out of it.

[00:29:56] Tony Tidbit: Right. Do you think that's luck or coincidence?

[00:29:59] Maxwell Pearce: It's, it's not luck or coincidence. It is definitely opportunity meeting, uh, a little bit of a combination of opportunity meeting good people, uh, meeting like right place, right time. And

[00:30:14] Tony Tidbit: to be fair You put in all the work, right? Right.

[00:30:18] The Law of Left Field: Unexpected Rewards

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[00:30:18] Tony Tidbit: There's an old saying, it's called the law left field.

[00:30:20] Tony Tidbit: All right. And a good, great book. I recommend people read is called the go giver. And the law left field is something that we all experience. Okay. And basically what it, it, it, it focuses on is that we're putting our energy, our effort right in this one particular area, right. And we're expecting to get a reward from that area.

[00:30:41] Tony Tidbit: All right. And sometimes we do, but sometimes it doesn't happen, right? And then what we do is we're like, oh, this is not working out. But the law left field, all of a sudden, something comes from out of nowhere. Boom! Right? And they're like, oh my God, look at this! And some, you know, people who don't know the work that you put in, they were like, oh, you were lucky.

[00:30:59] Tony Tidbit: No! That effort that you put in, that preparation, All the things that you, you apply to yourself, your positive attitude, the chip on your shoulder, right? All the things you practice in your dunks, all those things, you were putting that energy here. But then the opportunity came from somewhere else and it was right on time.

[00:31:19] Tony Tidbit: Those two things meet together. So it's not luck. It's you putting that effort, that attitude and stuff. Didn't and you could say a little bit came directly because you didn't win the dunk contest, but you ended up winning anyway Because you won from working with a big corporation, you know in terms of brand and stuff like that Wouldn't it work and you won from the opportunity for the harlem globetrotters, right?

[00:31:41] Tony Tidbit: Yes, and so That is awesome. And that's something that we all need to recognize, right, that every time we put effort in one area and we're doing everything. And if it doesn't come from there, that's okay. All right. That's okay. Right. Because at the end of the day, the law of left field, something will come from somewhere else.

[00:32:01] Tony Tidbit: It's just a matter of time.

[00:32:02] Using Social Media for Activism and Advocacy

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[00:32:02] Tony Tidbit: So now let's pivot to this because you spoke earlier, you know, about You know, your, your foundation where you help athletes from a financial stand, prepare for financial right now, you could have just stayed into the realm of basketball, um, just focused on your career with the Globe Trotters be their media spokesperson as well.

[00:32:26] Tony Tidbit: Play travel, but you also, uh, use your social, uh, media brand for activism and advocacy as well. Tell us a little bit about

[00:32:35] Maxwell Pearce: that. Yeah, so I, I think. Um, the, the interesting part about my social media journey is that although I was, well, my journey as a person in general, although I was very shy, I, like everybody, have certain things that I'm passionate about, certain things that I really care about.

[00:32:55] Maxwell Pearce: And my, I have a grandmother who is the antithesis of shy. She, she is in your face in a loving way. But when she has to address. issues, she's going to address them. There's just no way around it. She's very direct in that regard. So I felt like I always had that fire. It just took the right experiences to help me figure out a way where I could use that fire in a controlled manner.

[00:33:26] Maxwell Pearce: Like, I didn't want to just go into situations guns a blazing. So once I realized that, you know, I had the courage to speak up, then it was just about being tactful. So Um, and I say all that to say, now that I had this platform of 000 people at the time or whatever it was on, on Instagram, I was like, I'm posting all these dunks, I'm growing my platform, um, which is great, and, you know, like, people are enjoying basketball or whatever, but I don't really feel good at the fact that there are things that I'm having an issue with that are happening and I'm not using a platform where I can reach X thousands of people at the click of a post and I'm not taking advantage of that.

[00:34:11] Maxwell Pearce: So I think Once I came to that realization, um, in combination with discovering the, the courage that I had to do so, I was like, I'm going to start using this platform for things outside of basketball. And what

[00:34:24] Tony Tidbit: was some of the things that you were saying? You just got from saying that, Hey, I'm going through some things.

[00:34:28] Tony Tidbit: Yeah. Tell us a little bit about

[00:34:30] Maxwell Pearce: those.

[00:34:30] The Struggles of Being a Black Athlete

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[00:34:30] Maxwell Pearce: So, um, I, I mean, my experience as a black athlete. Has come with so many different, um, stereotypes, like, you know, we're stereotyped to be one dimensional, um, not intellectual, not capable of anything else outside of our sport. Um, and that always frustrated me, that always frustrated me.

[00:34:53] Maxwell Pearce: And I think even if someone on my team, whatever sport I was playing, fit one of those stereotypes. then they would use that particular person as the example to, to use a broad brush and paint everybody on that team. Right. And that always irked me. And so, once I understood how I wanted to communicate these issues and why these stereotypes are hurtful, then that's when I started to execute my plan to publicly speak on those things.

[00:35:28] Experiencing Racial Microaggressions

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[00:35:28] Maxwell Pearce: Um, that was just The introduction to my advocacy on social media, but then it really ramped up in 2020 I was doing an interview on live television in Birmingham, Alabama Mm hmm, and this was for the Globetrotters. So we were getting ready to playing Birmingham like a week after this and Long story short on this live interview these two other news anchors started throwing fruit at me one of which was a banana

[00:35:58] Tony Tidbit: So let me stop a second.

[00:35:59] Tony Tidbit: I just want to make sure I'm clear here. Yep So you're down in Birmingham down in Birmingham doing a live shoot with the local on live television I'm live television local television station on our yards promoting the Globetrotters. Yep, and You're, and then there's, you said some people from the station, or, uh,

[00:36:19] Maxwell Pearce: One of the news, well, two news anchors, one of which was on the segment, on camera, one of which was behind the camera.

[00:36:26] Maxwell Pearce: And they threw

[00:36:27] Tony Tidbit: a banana

[00:36:27] Maxwell Pearce: at you? So, so, the first one pulled out a tangerine from his pocket, tossed it to me, see if he could catch me off guard. I caught it, thought that was weird, but I gave it back to him. If it was just that, I would've just went about my day, I would've thought that was weird. Right. But then he gave it to someone else, who was off camera, Who then threw the tangerine like at this point trying to hit me because I'm, I'm looking at it's like if I was looking at you and a tangerine just came from back there, right?

[00:36:53] Maxwell Pearce: So you're like, what's going on here? So now I'm like, in my head, I'm like, I've had enough tv experience at that point to know that, like, I'm not gonna let anybody break me out of character, especially on live television. So I'm still smiling, keeping my composure. But in my head, I'm like, wow, like this is now the second time that it's happened.

[00:37:14] Maxwell Pearce: Somebody's throwing something that is completely unannounced uninvited like so anyway, then 20 seconds after that Somebody else comes from behind the camera and throws a banana at me. And I caught the banana, smiled it off, they ended the segment. And being that I grew up in New York, going to the Bronx Zoo, I was already aware of the dark history of the relationship between bananas, um, and particularly throwing bananas at black people.

[00:37:45] Maxwell Pearce: It's also happened in soccer, hockey, a bunch of different sports. Um, and really quick to touch on the Bronx Zoo and why that's relevant, Is because in the early 1900s, the Bronx Zoo had an exhibit where they, when they kidnapped a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo, there's one man in particular, his name is Ota Benga.

[00:38:08] Maxwell Pearce: Otabenga, and he was ultimately living in the monkey exhibit in the early 1900s at the Bronx Zoo, where he was on display for a quarter million people a year, and people would come from all over the world and literally feed and throw him bananas like he was another monkey. Wow. And so. You know, again, growing, growing up, going to the Bronx zoo and learning about that story, especially prior to this experience, once I, once that happened, I was already like, okay, is this racially motivated?

[00:38:41] Maxwell Pearce: Is this out of ignorance?

[00:38:42] Tony Tidbit: Like, so let me ask you this because they throw the, these are on live television, they throw the tangerine. And then they throw the banana and then obviously after the segment, what did you say something to them? What did they say?

[00:38:53] Maxwell Pearce: I was so caught off guard that I like took my mic off and we left immediately.

[00:39:00] Maxwell Pearce: I, I didn't even have like the words to articulate how I was feeling. I needed a moment to, to process like what was happening. Um, so it was a lot and, and that experience taught me a lot about myself and that. My parents have always taught me to respond rather than react. Right. And I wanted the space and the time to figure out how I wanted to respond.

[00:39:25] Maxwell Pearce: I didn't want to just start throwing stuff back at them, although I would have been justified, but Didn't want to throw stuff back at them. No,

[00:39:32] Tony Tidbit: you did the right thing because, you know, they were trying to get a reaction. Let me ask you this, in terms of, so this was on live television, so I would imagine people saw it, right?

[00:39:41] Tony Tidbit: Did you, did you see anything from a social media, like what was going on? I'm so

[00:39:44] Maxwell Pearce: glad you asked that. So talk, tell us a little bit about that. I'm so glad you asked that. So, Nobody spoke, like, nobody said anything on social media or, I mean, maybe they got emails, but I'm not privy to those emails. Right. So, nobody spoke out, to my knowledge, about it.

[00:39:59] Maxwell Pearce: And, that bothered me more, because what we see on television, especially when it's, this is not like a scripted show. Exactly! You know, this is live. So, what people see there is ultimately what is reinforced or enabled. Um, so if somebody saw that happen and thought that, okay, that, you know, that went unchecked, so I guess that must be okay for people to do or, you know, that's okay to do to black people.

[00:40:27] Maxwell Pearce: Um, I was like, this has to be rectified on the same platform that it happened. So, what I was looking for ultimately, I didn't, I wasn't calling for anybody to be fired. I wasn't trying to press charges, none of that. I just wanted them to address it and apologize on the same platform that it happened. Did they do that?

[00:40:46] Maxwell Pearce: That ultimately did not happen until I put out my own video because they weren't willing to do it. You,

[00:40:55] Tony Tidbit: wait a minute, so, so, hold on, I, I, so, just cause I don't, I want to respond and not react. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause it's making me upset here. Yeah. So, you're telling me here. That you had to push multiple times for them or threaten to put your own video out to threaten them to be able to apologize.

[00:41:14] Tony Tidbit: There

[00:41:14] Maxwell Pearce: was a four month span of going back and forth in private. And, and ultimately I didn't get the, the Resolution, which was an apology on there that I was looking for. What was their point of view though? Well, I, I never corresponded with the anchors. It was with the news director. So, but what was his point of view?

[00:41:34] Maxwell Pearce: That it was out of ignorance and they didn't do it intent. They weren't intentionally trying to be racist. Um, which, you know, you know, I don't, I don't, I can't say what they were thinking, I can't speak to that, and I won't, because I think that's, that's a little bit irresponsible, but at the very least, it is ignorant, and so, um, regardless, apology is absolutely warranted, and, and one of the things that I've learned in my life is that, Your intention doesn't exclude, or, yeah, your intention doesn't excuse what the impact is.

[00:42:08] Maxwell Pearce: You could have good intentions and a really bad impact, but if you impacted somebody in a negative way, it warrants an apology. So,

[00:42:16] Tony Tidbit: what did that do for you? Obviously, you're upset, you, you, you, but in terms of your activism and advocacy. Yes. What did that do?

[00:42:22] Maxwell Pearce: So, that was the catalyst for me to go.

[00:42:27] Maxwell Pearce: Completely onto the other side of not being shy. So what I did was think about how can I tactfully. Um, get everyone to learn from this experience while at the same time impact the most amount of people at the same time. So I created my own video, a five minute video, to put on my own platform of whatever, how many thousand people, but um, I knew that I was going to be able to get a significant amount of reach.

[00:42:58] Maxwell Pearce: Uh, more than that station. And so, this five minute video, I didn't curse anybody out. I didn't name call. It was very informational. I spoke about my experience, how we can learn from it, why it's offensive, the history behind it. That's it. Put that out. Stories started to circulate. Uh, CNN, AP, everybody. And the response I got from pretty much the, all corners of the internet was mixed.

[00:43:28] Maxwell Pearce: But the most prominent response was, death threats. And people saying, shut up and dribble

[00:43:35] Tony Tidbit: for real. So, so let's, let's, let's, let's stop right here. So you put this together, right. And more of a positive standpoint, right? Just, Hey, this happened. This happened. This is something that shouldn't happen. Yep.

[00:43:48] Tony Tidbit: Right. We want to learn from this. Yep. Uh, and we want to make everyone aware and make everybody better, regardless of what happened to me. We don't want it to happen to anybody else from whatever racial background or whatever the case may be. Right. And the most consistent response you got was death threats and shut up and dribble.

[00:44:05] Maxwell Pearce: Go dribble in traffic, shut up and dribble. Those are the two things that ring a bell the most. And that was for about a two month span where if I just open my Instagram DMs, that's what I would see. So

[00:44:15] Tony Tidbit: obviously if it was me, I would have been looking for, we all going to get that, right? There's always a segment of the population that no matter what they see it that way.

[00:44:24] Tony Tidbit: Right. Absolutely. I would have thought that you would have got a lot of positive response out of it. I did. You got some, right? I got

[00:44:30] Maxwell Pearce: some positive

[00:44:31] Tony Tidbit: response. So, so how did that make you feel when you saw those? And again, that's, unfortunately it's just. There's some people that don't even want to listen.

[00:44:41] Tony Tidbit: They don't want to have dialogue, right? They just want to, they already set in their ways. Did that make you double down on what you wanted to do? Did that, what did, what did you know that negative response? What did that, what, what, what fire, what happened out of that

[00:44:55] Maxwell Pearce: for you? Great question.

[00:44:56] Using Art to Highlight Athletes and Social Issues

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[00:44:56] Maxwell Pearce: So directly singularly from that response, I decided I'm going to use another form of expression that I have been, uh, practicing since I was in like third grade, which is the arts.

[00:45:13] Maxwell Pearce: I've been creating art since third grade, and it was always private for the most part. Um, my, my dad's half brother is a painter, my dad's cousin is a painter, um, so there are some, some artists that are on my dad's side that have definitely inspired me to go that route. Nevertheless, it was always a form of expression.

[00:45:33] Maxwell Pearce: I had an aunt that passed, one of the first things I did was, like, draw a picture in tribute to her. So, it's always been a form of expression, especially in hard times for me. Because of that Once this experience happened, I was like, I am going to use my artistic ability to highlight athletes who use their platform to speak out against social and racial injustice.

[00:45:56] Maxwell Pearce: So I created a collection of artwork that we ultimately displayed at Art Basel in 2022 at NAMDI Gallery, and this collection was solely about highlighting those athletes who use their platform. So I highlighted Wilma Rudolph, Althea Gibson, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, Muhammad Ali, um, Naomi Osaka.

[00:46:22] Maxwell Pearce: There are a lot of athletes, um, who are similar in that regard. That

[00:46:27] Tony Tidbit: is awesome, man. And If I remember correctly, you had some famous, uh, sports, uh, teams and companies buy some of your, your, your art. Who were they? Who were they? So,

[00:46:39] Maxwell Pearce: um, the owners of the LA Dodgers purchased a Jackie Robinson piece. Um, the, so Colin Kaepernick has a nonprofit called Know Your Rights Camp.

[00:46:53] Maxwell Pearce: Um, they have re shared multiple times the Kaepernick tribute piece. Um, there's a piece that is in the Detroit Institute of Art. Um, two pieces are going in the Diversity Museum of Arts and Culture in Pittsburgh. Um, Um, for getting one Westchester Hall of Fame. Yes. Yes. There we go. So literally, literally like four or five hours from now, one of those pieces will be going up in the Westchester County Center, which is the same place that I graduated college from.

[00:47:23] Maxwell Pearce: I played my last high school game, basketball game from, um, this piece in particular highlights four WNBA players who decided to sit out their season to focus on social and racial injustice issues. So all four of those players also played in this very county center that this piece is going in. So I, I just think there's no, truly no better fit for that piece to live permanently than that place.

[00:47:49] Maxwell Pearce: That is

[00:47:50] Tony Tidbit: awesome. So, so, so just backing up what we were talking about earlier, right? And you spoke a little bit to it, um, about how people see athletes, especially African American athletes, right? As ignorant and they only can do one thing and they're not cultural. You don't fit that mold. No. Okay. You don't.

[00:48:09] Tony Tidbit: And I, and here's the thing though, and you can tell us because obviously you spent a lot of time a lot around a lot of athletes and you kind of said it earlier, where if there's one person on the team that is, it, you know, fits that stereotype, they paint a broad brush, but there, I would imagine there's a ton of athletes that's doing stuff like a

[00:48:27] Maxwell Pearce: ton, a ton.

[00:48:28] Maxwell Pearce: And that is so important that you, you made that distinction because. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm trying to do this in real time while I'm an athlete because The reception is different if I'm speaking from someone who used to play and now I'm trying to do stuff It's not what I'm what I'm trying to preach so much is that there are things that you can do while you are an athlete and I think people would receive it differently if I looked like I played and now I'm trying to do something else But claim that I was doing things while I was playing right?

[00:49:02] Maxwell Pearce: I want to be able to show it in real time exactly, so That's primarily why I'm doing it in this way.

[00:49:10] Tony Tidbit: Buddy, so for a small kid growing up in Tuckahoe, New York, who's skinny, he's 5 foot 4, has a chip on his shoulder. Who's shy, who's shy, right? Um, you know what, my friend, you've really, really taking who you are, and that's always been inside of you anyway, to a whole nother level, right?

[00:49:38] Tony Tidbit: And I can imagine, you know, it's like when we started this platform, um, I was, I was nervous. Hey, let me back up a little bit. When I first started talking about race, because like you, I never spoke about race, right? And I was afraid, like the majority of us, we're afraid. Okay, because of all the backlash that can happen.

[00:49:58] Tony Tidbit: Um, And I knew how nervous I was the first time that I had to, you know, get together and in front of people and, and talk about a topic that I, you know, at the end of the day, I was expecting was going to be very negative. Okay. And so I can imagine. And, but however, I will say this, like you, I had a motivation that was like, I can't take, you know, I'm done with this.

[00:50:24] Tony Tidbit: We need to have these conversations. So I can imagine when you first, cause that's not something you wanted to do. If I can, am I correct or not? I'm so glad

[00:50:34] Maxwell Pearce: you said that. So Um, to speak a little bit more to my experience with this banana incident in particular. Um, it's so representative of what a really crucial part of the black experience is, particularly with microaggressions.

[00:50:50] Maxwell Pearce: So, this happened in January of 2020. It took me a month to decide how I wanted to handle it. And part of that was because I was afraid that because race was such a touchy topic that if I spoke out about this, I might lose my job. So because of that, I was hesitant in how I wanted to handle it. Eventually, I got to a point where I was like, I have to speak out about this.

[00:51:18] Maxwell Pearce: This was also at the same time that George Floyd happened. So that was part of What pushed me in that direction to be like, I have to speak up. So, um, that, that contemplation of how do I want to handle this? Um, or was that, that we try to downplay it and be like, no, it actually wasn't that bad. I should probably just sweep it under the rug.

[00:51:39] Maxwell Pearce: Um, all of that, all of that constantly, constantly happens where you think like, did somebody actually just. Did they, did I, did they say what I think they just said? Did they do what I think they just did? Um, so that, that constantly happens. And sometimes it's hard to check it at the door, especially in certain spaces, because you know how, um, volatile that, that topic is.

[00:52:01] Maxwell Pearce: Like it, it, it, it's polarizing. And 2020 just reminded us of that. But Um, yeah, I think my hesitation was just so, uh, representative of how everybody, um, you know, experiences microaggressions and sometimes people check it at the door without Even thinking about it, but for a lot of people you have to weigh the consequences like, you know, you have real things at stake

[00:52:26] Tony Tidbit: Exactly and and you know, that's an important thing that people need to understand Is that the majority of us don't want to really talk about this?

[00:52:37] Tony Tidbit: We don't want to because we don't we we but unfortunately we have to because we're not gonna make the world better Right. Letting everybody who walk around be ignorant. Right. Yep. We have to make these things aware. People wear these things. And to be fair too, we don't know everything. We have our own issues that we need to learn as well.

[00:52:54] Tony Tidbit: Right. With other cultures and other. So, unless we talk about and make these uncomfortable conversations comfortable, we're not going to become a better society. Yeah. Because here's the thing, and I'd love to hear your point on this because I want to, I want to jump to something else real quick because I know you got a bunch of stuff coming up.

[00:53:09] Tony Tidbit: Um, is that at the end of the day, right? you know, there's more good people on the planet than there are bad people, right? I just believe that a lot of people are just ignorant to the fact because we've for centuries, not for centuries, forever. We've never ever talked about that. What's your thoughts?

[00:53:28] Tony Tidbit: Right.

[00:53:28] Maxwell Pearce: Um, I think this is a good, a good opportunity to give you guys your flowers for this platform in particular, because This is so much more of a tactful way, how I was referring to earlier, this is so much more of a tactful way to address these issues in a way that it can be received. Sometimes I feel like, you know, with issues like how we're just talking about right now, so much of how the environment is when you're trying to address it.

[00:53:58] Maxwell Pearce: Will determine how it's received, right? So, you know in this way like you're not, you know, you're not jumping up and down yelling at every anybody which you would have a right to because of the insidious history behind these things, but You're you're presenting it in a way where you know, people can share their perspectives and their insight And that's really really valuable and I respect that so much because there is a million ways that we could address these issues So, you know, when I, when I do think about that, I think platforms like this are just so critical and so I'm, I'm really happy that you started this.

[00:54:37] Maxwell Pearce: Well, thank you, my

[00:54:37] Tony Tidbit: friend. I really appreciate it. And we can't do what we do without having people like yourself. They will come on and be vulnerable and share your stories right now. Look, you got a few things coming up here. Um. Tell us a little bit. I think you're going to the NBA all star game. Tell us what's going on with that and tell us some of the other quick foundations that you're doing and stuff to that nature.

[00:54:56] Maxwell Pearce: Yeah. So, um, um, the all star game is in Indianapolis this year, February 16th to the 18th, and I'm going to be going there to do a few things. Last year, I got a chance to speak to the HBCU art students that the NBA is partnering with. This year, I'm going to be doing the same thing, in addition to bringing an art piece of my own to show in their exhibition.

[00:55:22] Maxwell Pearce: So I'm really looking forward to that. And then, in the NBA Dunk Contest, I might be assisting one of the dunkers in one of their dunks. Do you know who? I do, but I'm

[00:55:34] Tony Tidbit: not allowed to say it. We can't get no breaking news here on the Black Executive. Like, guys, okay, I remember that, my man. No, I'm teasing. I'm teasing.

[00:55:42] Tony Tidbit: I'm teasing. Hey, so, uh, just real quick, in terms of what some of the, the, the, uh, other things you're doing from an advocacy standpoint that you want the audience to know about. Yes,

[00:55:52] Maxwell Pearce: so. Uh, this is a great opportunity to plug in what, in a non profit that's called Rise to Win, R I S E, uh, Rise. It's all about empowering athletes and combating racial and social issues through sports.

[00:56:10] Maxwell Pearce: So Rise, at my most recent exhibition, Rise sponsored a panel discussion where we basically spoke about how we can use sports as a vessel to create change and leverage the platforms that we have. I think athletes have such a unique ability to unite people and we can leverage that more. So Rise does a good job of that.

[00:56:33] Maxwell Pearce: That is awesome,

[00:56:34] Tony Tidbit: man. We want to make sure we get the information we can put on our website so we can help promote it as well. Final thoughts for the audience, man. What do you want to leave with everyone

[00:56:43] Maxwell Pearce: here?

[00:56:44] Final Thoughts: Run Your Own Race

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[00:56:44] Maxwell Pearce: I think the most indelible mark that I could leave from my experience as a person is that everyone just needs to remember to run their own race.

[00:57:01] Maxwell Pearce: In my experience as a person, I was a late bloomer, and I know people throw that term around a lot. In terms of like, maybe, you know, in basketball for me, I was always the last one to get some weight and size on him. Um, but eventually that came and I was a shy kid who wanted to speak out about things but didn't have the courage to at first.

[00:57:25] Maxwell Pearce: But eventually I got there and you know, now I'm comfortable with speaking on random platforms or speaking in a room full of 1000 school kids. Um, so, you know, it's so important to run your own race and not Pay too much attention to what your peers and the people in your space have got, have going on because, um, what's that phrase?

[00:57:48] Maxwell Pearce: Uh, comparison is the thief of joy. I, I don't know that

[00:57:52] Tony Tidbit: one, but it might be, I think

[00:57:54] Maxwell Pearce: you might have it right. When, when you compare yourself to the people around you, you're going to lose sight of what your path is and, and you know, what your journey is all about. So definitely wanted to, um, you know, share that because I think that's been the most important thing that I've kept with me in my 27 years of life.

[00:58:11] Maxwell Pearce: Buddy,

[00:58:12] Tony Tidbit: number one, thank you for that. Number two, you've shown us today, we've learned today, I should say. That you've run your own race. Right. And it's important that athletes, like you said, you know, the people were telling you, shut up and dribble or whatever. You're a citizen. You have every right to be able to promote, you know, and talk about things because just because you play something doesn't mean that you are not feeling something as well.

[00:58:40] Tony Tidbit: You're not dealing with something. So those things are important, but also. You know, in terms of the multifaceted, uh, dimension, uh, dimension that you are right from being playing sports to being an artist, to being a social media influencer, to being an advocacy on a lot of different social, uh, areas, the world, we would not be where we are today if we didn't have a Maxwell Pierce that was basically bringing his full self, not just part of his full self.

[00:59:11] Tony Tidbit: Every day to be able to help us become a better city, town, country, and I love you for that, my friend. Thank

[00:59:18] Maxwell Pearce: you, man, and the love is definitely mutual, and I think you make a great point about being your full self. You cannot be your full self if you're listening to what everybody says you should be doing, because that automatically limits you, so.

[00:59:31] Tony Tidbit: There's no question. It's a great point. So we've been blessed today, having you on man. We hopefully we can have you come back some other time. I would love to come back. All right. But really, thanks a lot. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of a black executive perspective podcast. Maxwell Pierce went over a litany of things.

[00:59:49] Tony Tidbit: As you can see, he's a. fantastic human being. If we had more Maxwell Pierce, and I, you know what, let me just say this. I know we have more Maxwell Pierce's in the world, right? A ton of people, however, they get drowned out by the other people. Right? So, but as you can see, very multi dimensional individual.

[01:00:07] Tony Tidbit: Brings his whole self and he talked about being a shy person and having a chip on his shoulder, but he could have went the other way, but he used that as motivation. And because he used that as motivation, he's affecting lives from a positive standpoint all over the globe. So we definitely want to thank him.

[01:00:25] Tony Tidbit: So now it's time for our. Tony tidbit section. And because of the conversation we have, the tidbit today is the true greatness of a professional athlete lies, not just in their athletic prowess, but in their ability to leverage their platform for positive change and to, and to contribute meaningful.

[01:00:48] Tony Tidbit: Meaningfully to the society and guess what our friend, Maxwell Pierce fits that tidbit. So thank you again for tuning in to a Black Executive Perspective podcast. Go to our website. If you have not subscribed, you want to reach more people, give us a rating. Let us know how did you like this, uh, episode with Maxwell Pierce, you can follow a black executive perspective on all of our social channels, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn at a black exec.

[01:01:21] Tony Tidbit: And also you can listen to our podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. So for my fantastic hosts, I guess I should say Maxwell Pierce for our good friend at w. Uh, HNU, uh, sorry, W, WNHU, uh, 88. 7, our producer here, JJ, and we want to thank the University of New Haven allowing us to be able to use this, uh, their podcast room for this platform today.

[01:01:52] Tony Tidbit: I'm your host, Tony Tidbit. We talked about it. I love you and we're out.

[01:01:59] Maxwell Pearce: A Black Executive Perspective.