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The dude was literally force feeding me . Making me get buckets and do work . Me , Lance and Frank were out there killing . Destroying everything . In college I remember matching up with D Wade and I had 30 points that game after having to sit most of the first half . I remember going against LSU . Another game I had 28 . Played against Pitino and Reese Gaines at Louisville and had 24 . We played Kentucky and got smacked by like 14 , but I had 18 . A lot of those came my Senior year where I had some really good games . My most memorable game was my Freshman year when I scored 21 against Cincinnati when they had Kenyon Martin , DeMar Johnson , Kenny Satterfield and they were the # 1 ranked team . They were loaded like 5 NBA players on their team . GB : Why didn ' t you choose De Paul . It seems like you could have been the missing piece on that team with Bobby Simmons , Quentin Richardson , Lance Williams and later Paul McPherson . WM :: DePaul was recruiting me early on , but they were terrible at the time . I don ' t think anyone knew that they would end up with that great recruiting class . Bobby , Q and Lance kind of waited it out until the end to make their decision . My decision was already made by then . I probably could have de-committed but I thought my situation was better at the time . I talked about that with Lance not too long ago . I would have loved to be the Point Guard with them . That would have been too nasty . J4 : So how was it adjusting to New Orleans and what made you stay ? WM :: New Orleans is totally different than Chicago , but I grew to like it . At first I wasn ' t with Bourbon street and all the wild drunk people plus New Orleans is small . There were parts of Chicago that I had never been to when I lived there . It was a little tiring at first seeing the same people , the same clubs , the same this , that . It really came down to after college I had my first child and I thought I wanted to come back to Chicago . I had a few workouts for NBA teams , the Bucks , the Heat , but none of that worked out . I was flat broke working a little job in New Orleans . I came back to Chicago to check things out and saw that none of my guys were really playing ball anymore . They were mostly hustling , smoking weed and just partying . I decided to get back to New Orleans - work out , stay in shape and wait for the phone to ring and go somewhere overseas . I had an agent that was kicking me a few ends to keep me going , but I didn ' t want to get too deep in debt with him . I got a phone call from Iran . $ 7500 per month . I ' m gone ! Once I went over there and did my thing it got easy , but instead of me coming back home in the Summer time and try and go to camps and hit other leagues , I just got comfortable . I just got into a routine over there . In 6 months I ' d make $ 150,000 plus , more money than I ever had and in the next 6 months I ' d spend it all , blow it and then make it again and do the same thing . That ' s how I lived for the first 4 years of my career . I was hood rich . I thought it was cool . Bills paid , taking care of my family . I thought I was living good , but litttle did I know had I put in some work I could have possibly gotten to that real NBA money . J4 : So how was it actually playing in Iran , which is basically an enemy country of the U . S .? WM : I was actually there during one of the wars . When they had just invaded Iran which is right next door . In the back of my mind I ' m thinking it ' s crazy , but I ' m also thinking that I ' m about to go make some bread . I ' ve talked to a few people who had played over there , they said it ' s OK . It ' s nothing I can really put into words . I wish I had taken pictures and take footage . It ' s so crazy over there . They are so far ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to intellect when it comes to knowing what ' s going on in the world , but at the same time so far behind when it comes to technology . Looking back it was like I was out of my element so I was 110 % focused on basketball so I didn ' t get the chance to be a part of the culture . The food over there is 100 % cleaner , they don ' t eat any pork . I was as healthy as I ' ve ever been . I was in great shape . I got so much better over there being focused on basketball . I was more politically aware and conscious . Being Overseas changed the way that I look at the world . J4 : What kind of conversations did you have with your Iranian teammates , particularly how they felt about the US ? WM : They kind of feel you out just to see what you are about before they will talk to you about America and politics . Obviously if I was White I would view America one way , but my being black I see it a completely different way . They understand that we deal with some of the same things the world does even though we are Americans . They know that the Government is corrupt just like Black people do . These shorties in the hood might be walking around like Zombies and not know what ' s happening , but they know what ' s going on . They see it from afar . We had those conversations once we got comfortable with one another . I have life-long friends in places like Dubai , Iran , Iraq . I can go over there tomorrow and be straight . Those are my brothers .