Traveling the world might not have been what Brandon Fields expected as a professional basketball player but he counts it as a blessing for an Arlington, Texas kid to get to see so much culture in his 20s. Now, he’s back ‘home’ playing for a team who values his family life and his veteran leadership on and off the court – the Texas Legends.
In this episode, we talk with Brandon about his family, his plans beyond basketball, the places he’s traveled, and his favorite things about being a part of the Legends legacy.
Enjoy episode #64 with Brandon and check out past episodes of Hustle & Pro.
Show Notes
- [00:30] Quick hits with Brandon Fields
- [02:04] Places Brandon’s been
- [05:10] What’s different about the Legends
- [07:00] The Fields Family
- [09:30] Team Chemistry
- [14:05] Brandon’s Side Business
Resources within this episode:
- Texas Legends
- Brandon Fields Bio
- Dallas Luxury Autos: Instagram
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
Welcome to Hustle and Pro season two talking sports and Frisco from youth to pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
Welcome to Hustle and Pro where we talk all different sports at all levels. Today we’re hitting the pro level, talking to one of our favorite Texas Legends players, Brandon Fields. Hey Brandon.
Hey, how you doing?
I’m doing great. Excited to talk to you again. We’ve talked before. I don’t know if you remember, but I’ve been to some practices and media days and we’ve had a few quick chats before. So I want to, um, ask you a couple of our quick hits just off the top to get to know you a little better. So who is your favorite athlete of all time?
Uh, Kobe Bryant.
I knew you were going to say that. I think I’ve asked you that before, off, off there. So do you have any good superstitions, any game day superstitions you got to do?
Um, I have like a playlist and, um, I have there’s a lot of songs. It’s like probably like 10 songs that I have to listen to before the game and one of them for sure. Uh, out of all the ten, I listen to a gospel song, um, before every game, just because I’m a religious person and I believe that, um, if I go out there and my superstition needed, if I listen to gospel before I play, I won’t get hurt.
Yeah, that’s good. Any gospel song or just like a specific one on that playlist that you have?
Um, it’s a song by, uh, Kirk Franklin and, um, I think, um, [inaudible] maybe.
So it’s like a specific one that you want to hear. Okay.
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s from uh, Kirk Franklin. Hold on, let me get it for you. I haven’t, we haven’t played in so long.
Right. Yeah, I’m like that too. I have a playlist when I’m working out and there’s a specific few gospel songs that come on that it just changes my attitude.
Right, right. It’s perfectly. And, uh, for rail and it’s called one, two, three big three. It’s like a gospel.
Oh, cool. I don’t know it, so I’ll go look for it. Awesome. Alright, so what’s your favorite sports movie?
Favorite sports movies? Blue Chips.
Blue Chips. That’s a good one. I haven’t had that one on here yet. Okay. Now I usually ask a quick hit about farthest distance that you’ve traveled for sports, but for you that’s kind of crazy because there’s so many. Um, I’m going to throw out a few of them if I’m, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think these are places that you’ve been before for basketball, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Italy. Yeah. Wow. So when you set out on your basketball career, was, you know, seeing Europe, seeing the world, was that even anything you bottomed would happen?
Uh, no I didn’t. I was, uh, I was so closed off, um, because of just my upbringing. I always just stayed in Texas, stayed in Arlington. And so when I actually went and I did all these places and I, I seen so much of the world, um, it broadened my, my, the way I think about, you know, different things in life and just, I’m very cultured now. And I always sit back and think of like, I never thought that I would go to the places that I’ve been.
Yeah. So one, I think one of the first times I met you, I asked the whole team like, um, who had the most stamps on their passport or something maybe. And I feel like you and Coastus were like competing about who had been the most places. And I thought y’all were joking. I was like, how in the world. That’s crazy. How did you pick up any, any languages?
Um, when I was in Japan, um, which is one of the hardest languages to learn, um, I actually learned because I was there for like 10 months straight and, um, I actually learned a little bit, but I didn’t, I didn’t, it didn’t speak. Um, I probably remember like, you know, I remember, um, thank you and little smaller words, but that’s the only country where, um, the language kind of state because the other countries, um, the European countries, those languages kind of sounded similar to me, so I would mix things up.
Oh yeah, I bet. I mean, and it’s not like you live there permanently. I mean, with any language. If you don’t use it, you lose it. So, but that’s cool. I bet. You know, a lot more little bits of languages, the most people. Have you gone back to any of those places or do you want to, are there specific places that you would go, like, like take your family?
Um, probably Japan. Japan is my favorite place to play at. Um, so I’ll probably end up going back there one day. But Europe, European countries, probably not. Um, I’ve lived in [inaudible] for so long, um, that I, I don’t, I probably wouldn’t go back because I, I’ve traveled every, uh, the countries that I’ve been into, I traveled with that. I did sight seeing and all that while I was there. So I really don’t have interest that the traveling I’ll be going to is like Caribbean’s and stuff like that. Tropical.
Yeah. Yeah, I hear ya. Okay. So you’ve, you’ve obviously spent time with different teams over the years. Um, now that you’re here with the Legends, I’m curious like what do you see with the legends that’s different? Cause I know what I think I see, but I’m the only here in this market, so I don’t know. I think there’s something special here, but what do you see?
Um, first off is my home. Um, that, that’s, that’s the most important part that I’m at home and I get to be my family and my friends at any place since at home since I was 17. So that’s a big part. But the organization side of it, um, they’re very accepting of my family. My family feels like, you know, that’s, that’s home for them. Like they make my kids feel very welcomed and made my wife feel very well. You know, it’s just a very professional organization. Don’t too many teams, if any, has ballet for practice and for games.
Oh, for practice too.
Yeah, we had, we had choice to do valet for, um, for practice, but that gets expensive. So I kind of just parked myself.
We’ll see. You’re one of the, so you’re one of the few guys that, I mean, okay. You’re the oldest guy on the team. Right?
Right.
Okay. And you’re, you’re not the only one that’s married, but you’re one of the few that’s like got a life kind of an adult life, you know, outside of the arena. Some of the, most of the guys are just like fresh out of school or whatever, and they’re living in apartments. They’re all together and maybe they get shuttled back and forth. Right. So you’re kind of one of the, the fear, the few veterans who can drive yourself to practice in the Valley. Right. So, go ahead. Sorry.
No, no, I’m just saying it’s a blessing. It’s a blessing.
Yeah. And you’re also one of the few, um, who gets to kiss those cute little kiddos like courtside I’ve seen you. So they come watch you play. I’ve seen you before. Games, I think. Yeah. How old are they? Tell me about your family.
Um, my son is four and my daughter’s seven. And uh, they both love basketball. Um, my son has been loving basketball since he came out the womb. And then my daughter, she’s a daddy’s girl and I used to try to make her play when she was my son’s age and she never wanted to play. And um, I think it’s because she sees me playing so much, she just gravitated to it. And then I, um, I created a team for her called the unicorns. She’s a very, she’s a girly girl. I created a team for her called the unicorns and they have pink uniforms and rainbow socks. And I made it fun for her. And now she loves basketball. She watches, she loves Kobe. She loves Kobe. She watched all his Omaha lives and she’s got a fetish with basketball now. And both of my kids doing so I’m just, um, I’m, I’m blessed to have my kids love basketball.
Yeah, that’s nice. When they can love what you love. My, I have one, I have two. I have a boy and a girl also like you. Um, and one of them has already quit my favorite sport, so that hurts a little bit. But, well, I’m a softball player. I mean, I grew up playing different sports, so soccer and softball. And I cheered and tennis and all kinds of different things. But, um, in basketball when I was little, but like I still play softball and just, that’s kinda my thing, baseball. And so my oldest gave that up at like age six. She was already done. So that on she plays other sports, which is fine, but like, you know, not my love. Um, but our son is still still doing baseball and soccer, so and basketball, so he’s, I’m almost 10 so we’ll see here in a year or two what he kinda focuses on a little bit. I think he would love for it to be basketball, but he’s, he’s a little bitty guy, so we’ll see if he ever gets his growth spurt and allows that to happen. But he loves the Legends. We all love coming to the games. But yeah, your kids, I bet that’s, that’s like a prime age for them to be out there seeing all the action and
Yeah. Yeah. They, they, and they’ve been to different countries too, so they’ve seen my daughter more than my son because of the age. But yeah, they, they’d been in different cultures. And they always sit, you know, pretty close and they get to see me for the games and stuff. So it’s been blessed.
That’s, yeah. That’s awesome. And, um, so I would love to like your perspective as a player, but also as a dad, like, um, in season versus now when your season was cut short unfortunately this year and when you’re at home more than ever. Um, so what’s the team chemistry like? I’ve heard, um, from talking to some of my Legends friends that you guys have been talking about that lately. So, um, what are you guys doing, if any, to keep some team chemistry going when you’re season didn’t finish out like you wanted it to?
Um, we have a group group chat that everybody at least checks in with each other probably like once a week. And, uh, you know, we sing different things to each other in the group chat. And, um, honestly on the other teams that I’ve been in, I’ve been playing for 10 years. This is one of the teams. It’s probably like this team. And I had a team in Japan that was, that was close. And, um, we, we, we all just bonded. It was just a perfect mesh almost. And, um, we all talk to each other. Like to this day we still, you know, check in on each other because it was more like a brotherhood. We’re going to sit with, you know, DDS G league is up and down.
Yeah. And everybody moves so much.
Right. Right. But we always, it is a core of guys that, you know, we always stay together. Even the guys that might’ve been traded in and things like that, they still stayed in the group chat and we just created a special bond.
Cool. Does this off season feel different than others since you know, it ended differently with, I mean, you guys got most of your season in, right? I mean home games you only cut a couple. Right. But still, I mean, it wasn’t, you know, just like with everything and right now the ending wasn’t what you would normally have felt. So is this like post season, does it feel different with your teammates?
Way, way different. Um, because we have to now you can’t use gyms, you know what I mean? Basketball gyms or weight training. So all of us have had to find ways to stay in shape and to work on our games. And um, I always tell people it’s come back to our childhood days to where I have my kids go outside in front of my house and normally I’ll just try them on it because we don’t train on concrete. We don’t wanna, you know, put the most pressure on our joints and knees. But that’s the only way to work out now. So I used to work out in the, um, like at like 12 o’clock, one o’clock, and I had to stop because it’s hot outside, so now I have to get up early in the morning or I have workout late right before the sun goes down. So they didn’t want to be too hot.
You’re probably more thankful now than ever for that facility at the Star and the arena you’ve got. Yeah. You probably never realized. Right. And so you can’t go there, how bad you really do want to go there and how bad you need those facilities. Just like small difference from being on the hardwoods to the concrete. I mean, yeah, you’ll kill your knees if you watch any of, um, it’s been a while now, but did you watch when they aired the horse? They like, I don’t know who did it. ESPN or somebody when they aired the horse on TV and it was like old pros, current pros.
The horses you said.
Like the game horse, like.
Oh, I’ll do that. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I think I seen Chauncey Billups they were doing like, yeah, I seen it.
Yeah. And um, it was cool because then you got to see what everybody’s different home setups look like.
Right, right. I actually participated in a, um, it was like a fundraiser for a Colgate. Um, and it was a three point contest and I was shooting against like high school kids and it was on Instagram live.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. So I participated in something like that.
From your house. From my house. Yeah. It was cool to see the different, I mean, some of these guys have full like full courts. I mean, you know, they’ve been, they’ve played their whole life, they’ve been in the NBA their whole career and, um, like they have like full-blown indoor courts and then there’s some that’s like, you know, backyard or side of the house concrete with one goal. Like could hardly even like you could tell there wasn’t even like enough room for like a real three, like step up in front of their garage door or something. It was kind of entertaining. Okay. So, um, being one of the oldest on the team, um, like what’s next? I mean, what do you, what do you do on the side or what do you do or what’s your future look like when it’s not playing and playing basketball?
So I have, um, I have my own business. I have my own car dealership. It’s um, online. But, um, so I, I have a warehouse in DeSoto, Texas where I keep my cars and then, um, I sell them online and I use it, uh, various like websites to put them online and promote. And, um, my cousin, he runs it while I’m in season. And then when I’m out of season, I help him, um, around it more, go to auctions and, you know, look at cars and check them out. So I just have my own business going. And then I’m also also training kids, so I have my own basketball training business as well.
So what’s this car like? What’s the niche? Is it a certain kind of cars?
Um, yeah, it’s based off, um, luxury cars. Um, right now we haven’t been getting as many luxury cars because of the economy and we kind of want to, um, they’re used Lu use luxury cars, so, um, they’re kinda, you know, some of them are kind of expensive. So right now we begin, you know, kind of like cash cars, you know, the economy’s down, people don’t have as much money right now, so we’re trying to get it to, um, yeah,
people do have, yeah. What do you want to tell us what it’s called?
Dallas Luxury Autos.
Dallas Luxury Autos. Have you always been like a car guy? Is that something that just, is that like a personal interest? So you made it into a business?
Yeah, I always always gravitated to cars. Um, when I was in college, I think I had like maybe like six cars in four years or like seven cars and four years. I was just loved, always loved cars since I was young. And, um, he’s always been like a kind of like a fetish for me. And, um, so I just turned it into a business. It’s something I’ve been playing basketball so long and it’s, you know, this is my love and it don’t feel like I’m working and so I still want to keep that same, you know, it doesn’t feel like I’m working on, on outside of basketball.
Yeah. So in season, I mean you’re busy, I’m sure, and your cousin helps you, but do you, are you pretty hands on when you’re not playing basketball then are you able to like be in the business and do you, do you get involved in the auction buying? That sounds pretty awesome.
Yeah. So, so when I’m, when I’m in season, I just answer emails and um, and, and, and messages that I get on social media and stuff about cars and then I just for everything to him and he deals with it. But out of season I do, I go to the auctions, I got beat on cars. It was hard at first because of how they talk. But now I know like the in and outs of everything. So it’s actually fun. It’s, it’s hard. Like I didn’t, I didn’t know it was this hard cause I have to, you know, you have to go outside and check the cars out first and then come in no matter the weather and then come in and then be it on on me, things like that. But um.
And you have to have your research done. You have to know, like, I’m sure you have to go into it knowing like what’s my top top, the amount, like what’s this worth and what’s, what am I willing to pay? And you have to, I mean I’m guessing it’s an auction, so I’m guessing you have to think quick and make it quick, quick decisions.
I’m talking about split second decisions because you can get a car and um, you know those cars that use the cars that we buy. So you have to check, you have to do your research. So like it’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. And so if you get a car, you might have to come out a lot of money out of pocket, you know, to fix whatever because I’m not selling nobody a car that’s, you know, it doesn’t work or that will, you know, break down on them because my name is on it. I want to keep, you know, my business, you know, name good.
That’s a cool, that’s a pretty big side gig you got going on. So you’ll be the one filling up the, the valet with the sweet car. So I should have asked you as part of the quickest, like what’s your favorite car?
My favorite car. Um, see that’s horrible cause I love cars. Um, I’ll give you my favorite coupe car, which is like a two door car. I want a Rolls Royce Wraith. So I want that. That’s eventually what I want is a Wraith.
Oh, right. Okay. I don’t even know what that is. Okay, so Rolls Royce Wraith. All right, so what else? What it like, is that a fast, fast car?
No, it’s not fast. I mean it’s like a, like kind of like a luxury car, high end car. And then favorite car really, really is like I’m into trucks right now. I want to, I have a lifted truck, you know, I’m always going to have a truck.
Can’t take the Arlington out of the guy, huh?
Yeah. Can I take it? Can you take it out of me? I love trucks and traffic. You know, Dallas has traffic so I get respect when I’m in traffic when I’m in a big truck.
Yeah. So, so you, um, I mean you play up here in Frisco, but are you still living like around your hometown area?
No, I live in Frisco. I live in Frisco as well. I go to my hometown, you know, here and there. But yeah, Frisco is my home. I live like 10 minutes away from the arena.
Oh, that’s nice. Yeah. That’s nice and convenient. Same here. That’s why we’re there all the time. If we’re not, if we’re not in Legends season at a Legends game, we’re next door at the Rough Riders. And if we’re not at the Rough Riders watching baseball, we’re over at Toyota stadium watching soccer.
We have good sports out here. That’s what we got. All of them even got hockey as well.
Yep, we do. Well, thanks. Um, thanks for taking time out. It was good to talk to you and get to know you a little bit better. So that’s it for today. Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe however you listen to your podcasts and we’ll see you guys next week on Hustle and Pro.
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