Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Music 0:30
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Dave Washington 0:50
great day, Las Vegas, great day. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I am pleased to be your host today, as we have a young man who was one of them ballers, so we're going to have him engage in a little conversation here shortly, but however, I'll give a few announcements, as we always do. Birthdays, two that I know very, very well. Grandson David Lee Washington, the second, his birthday is, believe it or not, on July 4. Then also, son Ray Ray, his name is Vernon Ray Washington, but we call him Ray Ray. His birthday is this month. Condolences, I did express condolences to the families of our good sister Stafford. Man, they had one heck of a service for her memorial service a few days back, and then also we attended Marsha, and I attended the service of Vern Jordan. Man, it was, you know, when you attend services for those who've gone to the other side, man, and there's so much joy in the room, you feel good about everything that's going on. Byrne was just an outstanding individual, and you could tell by the way his grand, his three grandsons talked about him. It was, it was very well done. So, once again, condolences to both of those. Family, in fact, had breakfast with Miss Stafford's old man, a long time community guy, Randy and Coach Don Pitman, another good guy. So, again, just appreciate the opportunity to have time with people, and of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute, as we celebrated once again our 35th anniversary of this institute, that's housed at Dillard University, outstanding program with 273 74 students in what's called Mod One, and we are pleased to have had the opportunity to serve them, and of course I was inducted into the virtual wall of honor, man. They say I spoke for 30 minutes, and we're debating Wes. Wes is an engineer producer. Wes, I am going to look at this show because someone did video it. I told him I didn't speak for no 2829 minutes. I'm thinking I may have done 20 though, but I'm going to find out anyway, but once again, the documentary will have been shown by the time we air, but I'm gonna tell you it's something that Angel did such a great job on him, and hoping to get her in the second segment of today's show, Angel Washington, producer, director, and all the things above, videographer for The Wildfire, and that's a documentary on my journey with pancreatic cancer, and I am pleased, and thank God that I'm still around here, coming in, giving Wes a job to do to keep me on track each time, because sometimes I get to give me, he give me that all right, that's enough. Or in my ear, he'll say, 'Hey, you got two minutes, not three. Appreciate Wes. All right, for our guest today, we got a young baller, and I'm going to let him introduce himself in terms of what he's doing, and those types of things, we got Orlando Roberts. How you doing, young

Orlando Robinson 4:23
man? I'm doing good. Doing good. My name is Orlando Robinson. I'm born and raised in Vegas. Been playing basketball my whole life, and been in the NBA for five years. And grateful to be here. Thanks for having me.

Dave Washington 4:38
Absolutely, absolutely. So, where'd you go to school at? Here in Las Vegas,

Orlando Robinson 4:41
I went to Centennial High School for three years.

Dave Washington 4:43
Okay,

Orlando Robinson 4:44
and then I went to LA.

Dave Washington 4:45
So, what position did you play while in high school?

Orlando Robinson 4:49
Center,

Dave Washington 4:50
center. I was

Orlando Robinson 4:50
pretty much taller than everybody. So,

Dave Washington 4:52
right, right, right, right. So, how tall are you?

Orlando Robinson 4:54
I'm 610

Dave Washington 4:55
16. So, you still, you playing forward now? Are you still playing center? Four or

Orlando Robinson 5:00
five, you know, I'm saying I can shoot the ball a little bit, got more skill into my game than most we want to give credit to, so you know I'm saying, so I could do both.

Dave Washington 5:09
Excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent. Now, Who is your mom?

Orlando Robinson 5:14
Christa Phelps.

Dave Washington 5:15
Yeah, we've had Christa on the show several times. She's really.. oh yeah, oh yeah, great lady. Oh, absolutely. In fact, she's a graduate of the school that I mentioned, the Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute house. She's got her

Orlando Robinson 5:30
business degree.

Dave Washington 5:30
Yeah, yeah, she's just graduated

Orlando Robinson 5:32
MBA.

Dave Washington 5:33
Yeah, yeah, got her MBA, just doing fantastic work. And I know that she has a bright, bright future, whether she continues in the fire service, or decides, "Hey, I've had enough of this to the next level. So, tell us about a little bit about the experience that you're going through now, in terms of your basketball.

Orlando Robinson 5:52
My experience is right now, at the moment, is just getting better every day, being a better basketball player, being more complete, sharpening my game, that's really just the daily, you know. So, when the season comes around, I can put my best foot forward and compete at the highest level. It's hard. It's only only a certain amount of people I've ever been in the NBA, so you know, just being part of that 1% takes everything, and that's what my main focus

Dave Washington 6:22
is. Excellent. So, in terms of your regiment, with regards to practicing, what's your, what's your schedule?

Orlando Robinson 6:30
It's constant, it's nonstop, you know. Worked out three times just this morning, so, and I got two more in this

Dave Washington 6:41
afternoon,

Orlando Robinson 6:42
so it really starts up early. One of my biggest inspirations is Kobe, you know, I'm saying, the earlier you start, and the more time and more attention that you can put into getting better into different things. So I try to start off as early as possible, and obviously have enough time to recover, rest, and get after it, and yeah, starts in the morning with some skill training, and then go got a lift, and there's conditioning, and then when you get on the court two, three times in a day, there's different things you can work on, there's a whole bunch of, there's so many different facets of basketball that you could focus on, you know, defense, offense, movement, balance, you know, I'm saying. So it's really just picking what you're deficient at and sharpening what you're good at. So,

Dave Washington 7:32
well said, you know. And in fact, I'm asking these questions like I'm one of my bawling grandsons sitting here, because I certainly will ensure that they listen to this show, because I think you're giving out some, some good information, because they, KJ, just turned 20 on the 20th, and his brother Kaisen is, I think, 14 or 15, then we have another grandson, and they're all taller than me, I'm five eight, they're all six foot, yeah,

Orlando Robinson 8:01
they're doing right, yeah, and there, and they're

Dave Washington 8:03
playing, but, but my point in asking you certain questions, because I want them to listen. So, you got a regimen. There's certain things you do. You talked about your conditioning, your weight training, all those things, your skills that you work on. And from, from clips that I see, you know, I see little things on TikTok here, there, and when I see those individuals who talk about the time that they put into honing their craft, I send it to them, because all those guys who are great, they didn't just become great, I mean, they, they weren't born great, they became great, you know, I think we all have certain God-given skills and talents to do certain things, and you get a baseline, and some are just super, super good, because I've coached young people, particularly in football, years ago, and this kid was so talented, but he was hard-headed, and he didn't want to pay attention, because he was just natural that way, but I think those better athletes, when they listen and they spend their time in the gym doing what they got to do, they just get better with the God-given talent. They do things to enhance it. So, Credit, glad to hear you doing those kinds of things. So, who you playing for now? And how long you been there?

Orlando Robinson 9:18
I'm a free agent right now, I just got finished playing in Orlando, and then I finished the season in Memphis.

Dave Washington 9:26
Okay,

Orlando Robinson 9:26
so now looking for the next team, looking for the next opportunity to impact winning, and you know, my ultimate goal is to be an NBA champion, right? Say I want to be a top of the NBA world, want to be one of the greats stamped in that 1% or point 1% right? You know, so I mean, yeah, that's what's next.

Dave Washington 9:46
Well, one thing for sure is that, and you got the right mindset, that you must have some goals, because if you don't have goals and start to work on them, things won't happen. So, in terms of me. Mentors, role models, is there anyone you can speak to that that you were up close and personal to? And to me, the difference between role models and mentors, mentors spend time with you, a role model may be someone you look at from a distance and try to model yourself in some of the things that they do, and I always say the positive things, because I've seen people who I've watched what they do, and I'm like, no, that I don't want that part of that person's character.

Orlando Robinson 10:29
I mean, God has blessed me with many different role models, role models, and mentors my entire life, and to that I'm grateful. You know, role models would be my parents, providing, protecting me, keeping me, you know, I'm saying, keeping me away from trouble, keeping me in the church, you know, working. My mom's a firefighter, one of the most inspirational, inspiring women that I know. My dad been working, you know, I'm saying, since I was born, hard work, waking up early, getting things done, you know. So that's part of my waking up early too. So I had those two in front of me. Those are my first role models, and obviously I have, you know, like NBA role models, you know. I'm saying, as I mentioned, Kobe Bryant, you know I'm saying, but they're all the greats, really. I just pay homage to the greats, pay attention to what they do, and understand their impact to the game. Lebron, Carmelo, KG, Michael Jordan, Bill Russ, everybody, you know I'm saying, you can learn something from everybody who has done it at a high level, and mentors, like I said, God's blessed me with a multitude of different coaches, mentors, and I talked to them to this day. I'm saying I work with them to this day and gain knowledge from them to this day.

Dave Washington 11:52
Excellent.

Orlando Robinson 11:53
So, you know, like when you have good people around you, you know, sets you up for success.

Dave Washington 12:00
Absolutely, 300% So, brothers and sisters,

Orlando Robinson 12:04
I have one older sister. Yeah,

Dave Washington 12:05
older sister, she's athlete as well, or no?

Orlando Robinson 12:09
Yeah, she played a little ball, you know, saying my dad put us through sports, just in general, just to keep us from not doing nothing

Dave Washington 12:18
right.

Orlando Robinson 12:18
And I fell in love with basketball. I've always loved basketball. I tried other sports, but I always loved basketball, and my sister, she played a little basketball too.

Dave Washington 12:28
So, in terms of your skill set and your God-given talent in life, what is most important you feel

Orlando Robinson 12:41
keeping God sending in your life, I would say that's the most, the best thing that you could do for yourself, because He, God is the ultimate, you know, guide to keep you, keep you on the right path mentally, spiritually, physically, and I feel like if you keep him centered in your life, then your life will just be better and stress-free, and just, just great, you know. You don't gotta worry about nothing.

Dave Washington 13:16
No, that's got God

Orlando Robinson 13:17
in your life, you good.

Dave Washington 13:18
That is a valid point, you know. That's the

Orlando Robinson 13:21
most important.

Dave Washington 13:22
That's right. I've always said to people, man, keep God first, and you will do just fine. But when you get out of that balance, like you said, it's something that you go and you can fall down, and when we fall, we got to get back up. But certainly I agree once again with keeping that that faith thing going on in your life, it'll keep you, keep you more focused. So, in terms of agents or agent, what's the, what's, what's any advice or suggestion you would give to one as they go about their career, in terms of dealing with, or pursuing, or having an agent,

Orlando Robinson 14:02
well, that agent, I would say, is meant to create opportunities for you to even do and help you do whatever it is that you're doing, you know what I'm saying, and it's important to have one that prioritizes you, keeps you as a priority, and clear communication, I would say, and clear communication goes into being intentional with everything you do, and every everything that you want them to do for you, and yeah, I mean, those are some things that I would, I would want at my agent, so that you could be the best that you could be. I mean, to get to get to great heights and do great things, you need people to help you. You need people to assist you. You can't do it by yourself. That was a lesson God gave me. I thought I could do anything and everything by myself. And you know, I'm stubborn, so I. Kept falling down, I kept, you know, I'm saying, running into the same walls, not understanding that I just need to ask some questions, you know, I'm saying, just to avoid some things in my path that, you know, I'm saying, I don't know everything, I can't figure everything out by myself, so yeah, I mean, just, just being clear, professional with your agent, making sure that he's doing exactly what he needs to be doing to represent you and what you're doing, and then just being intentional how you guys move, because you are working together.

Dave Washington 15:33
Excellent, excellent. Well said, young man. I can tell you, I bet your family know that you've matured, probably over time, and it's the first time I'm actually meeting you. I know of you through your mom, but I didn't, you know, you seem like a very mature, and something that I appreciate you saying is that you didn't always deal in that manner, but it took you a few falls, and then you got up, got it straight, kept working well. Any closing remarks you'd like to share with our public? We got a couple more minutes with just..

Orlando Robinson 16:06
well, I mean, I already said, you know, say keep God in your life, obviously, that's that's for sure. And always give back, always invest in your communities, you know, saying people around you, and I'm having a basketball camp for any young Hoopers I want to come pull up, learn about the game, july 27 through the 28th We'll be in there sharpening our game, getting getting knowledge, you know, I'm saying, just, just having fun, having a good time, competing, getting after it, so

Dave Washington 16:41
right, that's something I had in my notes. So, talk about that. You getting ready to do a program? Tell us a little bit more about that.

Orlando Robinson 16:50
Well, like I just said, just giving back to the community different ways, because I know me coming up I didn't, or I wasn't aware of any, if there was any professional basketball camps, you know, and I went to basketball camps sometimes, right? If I could afford them, or my parents could afford sending me to some, but I'm just creating them an avenue for kids to just come have fun for free, you know, I'm saying, just right, just come and just like get that knowledge and be a part of that, without, like, you know, I'm saying,

Dave Washington 17:23
so once again, give us time and location.

Orlando Robinson 17:27
july 27 28th from eight to two at Tarkanian Basketball Academy, right next to Palace Station.

Dave Washington 17:36
Right,

Orlando Robinson 17:36
yeah, we're gonna be in there training, you know, saying working on the game, getting better, and I'll be there, so people can ask me questions, and you know, ask me about my experiences, and I can give them knowledge and guidance to whatever they're trying to do with whatever. I mean, it's a basketball camp, right, but at the same time, like, I learned a lot about life from basketball, and there's a lot of lessons that you can learn from any sport or any activity that you may be in, so I would say, yeah, I mean, I just want to create an opportunity for people to come and experience that and make it easy for them to do so.

Dave Washington 18:16
All right. Well said. Hey, once again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and Moore. Orlando Roberts, an NBA baller, and we appreciate you coming on the show. And once again, he will be having a basketball camp that I would encourage those out there who have.. in fact, I'm gonna see if some of my grandsons can make it over, because I think it'll be good for him to see somebody up close and personal that's out there actually doing what some of them want to do. So, thank you so much, young

Orlando Robinson 18:49
man. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Dave Washington 18:50
All right,

Orlando Robinson 18:51
pleasure

Dave Washington 18:51
once again. Veterans of Air, signing off on the other side, we'll have Angel Washington to talk a little bit about the documentary that she put together on my cancer journey, you once again. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Had a guest I was trying to get in that didn't hear back from them, so I call upon my daughter, Angel, producer, director, which Wes can relate to this kind of stuff, and I tried to become the executive producer. They told me I didn't do anything, so you don't get to be nothing but the star of the show. So, with that, Angel, how do you feel about the documentary? And I know this is before we actually view it again, but looks like a city is doing a great job promoting it with one little glitch, if you will.

Angel Washington 19:45
Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to tell the story, or to have you tell your story, and have us kind of echo your sentiments. I'm excited that people get to see what resilience truly looks like. And you move through faith, family, and love, and friends, so it's an exciting time for the family.

Dave Washington 20:08
Great. So, tell us a little bit about the experience, because this is the first time you - I know you did a number of things for North Las Vegas Police, some little short deals, but for an hour and 15 minute kind of a show. Tell our listening artists, because I know there's others who may be wanting to pursue this type of, I guess, hobby or bring up talents that they may have that we didn't even know you had this in you, but certainly we appreciate it.

Angel Washington 20:39
Well, because I also do things personally, to you know, for like my spoken word and that kind of thing. I've been doing it for a while, but at my job that I don't particularly ever name, but for my job I do certain things that are put on social media, and so it's allowed me to kind of get better at it, and so when we first discussed it, you and I, I was pretty confident that I could do it. So was the task daunting? Yes, because it's longer than any other project that I've worked on, but was it difficult? Not necessarily, because it's something that I'm already familiar with.

Dave Washington 21:26
Okay. All right, so now there's a something that had to be done, particularly as we share with the listening audience that you actually shot the entire deal with your telephone.

Angel Washington 21:41
Yes, I did. shoot everything with my phone. You can do things with your phone. These phones are almost magical, you know what I mean. But there were other, you know, obviously I could have used cameras and all of those things, but the phones are just easier, you know. They're easier to maneuver. You can email it to yourself versus, you know, having to put in an external drive and, you know, send it. You know, the phones just make it easier. But could I have done it with other equipment? Absolutely, but my phone was just convenient,

Dave Washington 22:22
you know. I had mentioned to you that I was in fact, I haven't even completed one chapter, but remember I told you that I was going to do the do a book, and that book was still in the working process, of course, so that is the odd part about you putting this together and actually doing it as I was, I'm still in the process of doing my book, and I still think it will be a great enhancement to what you have done, because there's another book by I heard a doctor on a show and he had the same thing, the same surgery, Whipple surgery, and he has done a doggone a book, and I've got to try to find his name and get that, because he, unlike ours, you know, talking about the faith, family, and friends, he was more on the medical side, because he's actually a medical doctor, so

Angel Washington 23:21
I think your book would absolutely, I'm sorry, I think your book would absolutely give a little more detail, if you will. You know, it's just like you can read, you know, I don't know some of those huge series, and you know, there's more detail in the books because there's more chapters, and you know, movies and documentaries are cut down quite a bit,

Dave Washington 23:46
right,

Angel Washington 23:47
just to make it fit within certain time constraints. But yeah, a book will definitely be more detailed and give more information.

Dave Washington 23:55
Well, we put it out here in the open air, so now the pressure is back on me to get busy scheduling out some time and start getting that done, certainly, certainly, certainly. So, KJ, I was mentioning to a young man who I just had on, he is an NBA baller, Orlando Robbins Robbins, and he gave some good pointers that I'll certainly make sure that KG Kais and Karen get an opportunity to listen to that, but very, very sharp young men, and talked about putting in that time and that effort, so with respect to your talent, and now we're moving just away from just a little bit from the from the documentary, but just in terms of your ability to to do poems in such quick order. Where do you feel that came from, or comes from?

Angel Washington 24:53
You know, I can only say God, because you know He's blessed everyone with certain talents. And skills, and I just feel like that's just the gift that he blessed me with. It's just something that I've always been pretty good at, and I've always, well, I really, really, really used to enjoy reading, and I wrote kind of like my first short story in high school, and it was really good. I wish I could find it. It was really good, and that's when I really realized what my talent was. So, I just think it's just a gift that I was blessed with.

Dave Washington 25:31
So, you say you wrote something, a short story about how many pages do you recall?

Angel Washington 25:38
No, it was an assignment. I mean, you know, it wasn't long, maybe eight to 10 pages, it was, you know, a very short story, but it told a story, and I actually wrote it about me and some of my friends in high school, and it was actually in mr. Dormans class, and it was very well received, and I got a great grade on it, and I think that's because I had incorporated poetry into that story.

Dave Washington 26:08
Well, you know,

Angel Washington 26:10
that's where I realized what my talent was,

Dave Washington 26:12
right. Well, we just saw Dwight and Ina at an HBCU fundraising function this past weekend, so we will certainly let them know that let the white know that he touched you in a way that with that assignment that you keep being it going in terms of your writing skills, you know. I love to write, and I remember you getting on me when I was down in my recovery stage texting, because I got in fact, I'm going to pull a bunch of those. Angel, you are happy to show me again, because a lot of things that people have said about me and my, my, I guess, recovery, I'm going to use some of those with those folks' approval in my book, because some of the words are very, very touching, and it makes you appreciate life, if you will.

Angel Washington 27:05
No, absolutely. Those are all, and that's the greatest thing that I've realized about our family is how we keep everything. I mean, everything is recorded, you know, whether it's photos, whether it's text messages, and obviously you know it proves to be useful, because a lot of those images were used in the documentary, and we didn't have to do anything special, right? Retrieve this, it was simply a phone call, like, "Daddy, can you send me this? or "Amber, Mama, can you send me this? You know, everybody had photos or text messages, you know. It's just very good for people to realize how important it is to have everything on record, you know. Life doesn't last forever, as we all know, and those are great things that you can refer to when you need to jog your memory or just reflect,

Dave Washington 28:03
well said. Thank you, Angel. This is our angel, our daughter Angel, who did a documentary on me called Wildfire, and it will be out on Facebook in short order. So, thank you, Angel, we appreciate it very much. And next week we have Assemblyman Jackson, as well as Chief Remy, it'll be an interesting story, and I am so happy that I will get to have these gentlemen on my show, Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz, and more. Thanks a lot, Angel, appreciate it.

Angel Washington 28:36
You're welcome. Out on YouTube,

Dave Washington 28:38
YouTube, it is not Facebook, you know, I don't know all the tech terms. All right. Thanks. Bye.

Music 29:15
All the smoke in the air, feel the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear on.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai