Interview With Vince Omni | Author of 1989
I hope you’re all doing well on this beautiful Friday afternoon.
Earlier this year I read an amazing novelette, 1989 by Vince Omni [https://bookshop.org/a/91407/9798990183889]. Published earlier this year, 1989 won the CRAFT 2025 Novelette Print Prize. The book that has stayed with me long after I finished the last page, and I’m incredibly excited to see what Vince does next.
So without further ado, here is the interview. (And an accompanying transcript)
Transcript
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (00:01)
Hello, hello. My name is Ricardo and I’d to welcome Vince Omni, the author of an amazing novelette, 1989.
Vince Omni (00:12)
Thank you so much.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (00:14)
Yeah, I read this book, I forgot, it like a month or two ago. Right, I think right around the time it just came out ⁓ and I was ecstatic. And I also just love short books. Not every book needs to be two or 300 word pages. This is just my opinion. ⁓ But yeah, if you wanna ⁓ introduce yourself, Vince, talk a little about who you are and how this kind of book came to be.
Vince Omni (00:40)
Sure, yeah. yeah. First of all, Ricardo, thanks for having me, inviting me to this interview. I’m very grateful for an opportunity to talk about 1989 with you. I mean, I tell my students ⁓ that, you know, one of the things I love to talk about is myself and the things that I’m working on. So I teach at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. I teach African-American Lit and Creative Writing. I like to write fiction, short stories, novels, some dabbling in screenplays. I kind of have a, I feel like I have like a cinematic bent to my writing, and I think that’s from spending way too much time in front of a television screen, so yeah.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (01:18)
Okay, well, no, we’ll definitely get into that.
Vince Omni (01:34)
So yeah, so there, that’s a little bit about me.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (01:38)
And then 1989. So the book is very interesting for a few reasons. One, so for those that don’t know, 1989 is a novelette, so it’s a little shorter than traditional novel. But also it’s set in a very specific place, Late 80s, Denver, that I’ll be honest, I have not seen too many of any books set in that, especially like the black community in that time. So I feel like you can you know, there has to be like some reason or, know, for how that came to be.
Vince Omni (02:12)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I could talk about that. Yeah, I grew up in Denver. I was born in California, but my mother was a Denverite. I was raised in Denver, Colorado from like age two or three until I left for high school at age 18. And then I was still a resident. Like I went to college back and forth to a small college in Minnesota called St. Olaf. But I would come home for the summers and I actually, this continued to live there sporadically off and on, but I haven’t lived there as a resident probably since 19, the mid 1990s, 90s, 96, somewhere around there.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (02:58)
And we’ll get into like the setting of Denver a little bit later because I do want to talk more about that. But I also want to read. I want to get to the book and why. mean, one of the reasons I love it. But for those it’s it’s a book, I guess. I mean, it’s a book about basketball, but also about like so many other things you just rarely see basketball in like a story in a literary form. I think I read, you know, Hanif Abdurraqib’s book a year two ago, but I haven’t, I think this is the only, the second book I’ve ever read that includes basketball, which I loved as a kid. Detached a little bit more as I got older. So how did you end up writing like a basketball?
Vince Omni (03:48)
Yeah, you know what, it’s funny because first of all, I love basketball. I was never in danger of being a tremendous talent on the basketball court. Right? But I grew up. I grew up with a group of, you know, like, I grew up in a generation where everyone thought, man, a lot of men thought, you we’re gonna grow up, we’re gonna be ballers, we’re gonna be hoopers, we’re gonna play for the rest of our lives. And that worked out for a lot of folks, just not for me. Just not for me.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (04:29)
That’s funny. I have a similar story. I mean, anybody that’s met me in person, I’m 5’7”, I’m not a tall guy, right? But I was actually pretty good. Not to toot own horn, but I remember my sophomore year of I made the team, my freshman year in high school, was trying out for my sophomore. The coaches loved me because I was like a defensive player, I had a lot of grit, right? And I could take a punch. But I remember I went to my basketball coach my sophomore year and ⁓ I told him, I was like, hey coach, you know, I was thinking of playing again this year, but there’s also these like business and math club that I was going to join. And I think those honestly take me further than basketball will. And then my coach, he grabs, he puts his arm around my shoulder, looks at me he’s like, Ricardo. I’m trying to think if I should curse. Yeah, why not? He’s like Ricardo, you’re the smartest motherfucker on this team. He’s like, I wish everybody thought like that. But yeah, a lot of people, especially in Chicago, like my team won the city championship, Gwendolyn Brooks Eagles, right? So everybody and two of the guys, like both the guards ended up playing D1, right? ⁓ I don’t know what happened to them after that, but they did play D1. Yeah, I come from like a very competitive, very intense, like basketball school environment. So when I was reading it, I was like, oh God, it’s like being in high school again.
Vince Omni (06:06)
You know, and I played a little bit of high school hoop. I played a year of college at a D3. And you know, I just loved the game. I did. I still do. still follow the pro game, especially around this time of year when the playoffs, when things are amping up for the playoffs. You know, so you know, that’s when I start to really tune in a lot. But I keep track of my hometown team, the Denver Nuggets, you know.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (06:35)
Okay, I’m not going to get into, I’ll ask Nugget’s questions at the very end because I do think we could easily turn this into a basketball chat. But so the novel, so one of the things I find, one of the central themes or ideas behind the novel as well, in addition to basketball, is you have this queer basketball player whose story is kind of being told secondhand, right? Church, through Davyon’s interview and I was curious like what kind of led to that decision and like that kind of narrative and I’m very interested because there’s not like it’s I mean, you know, but like in sports, especially basketball like there’s I think only been one Like openly gay basketball player Jason Collins. I don’t know of any others that have been And no act no none since. So I’m curious how you like approach that and how you decided to like, you know explore that kind of queer narrative in
Vince Omni (07:15)
So, I I heard a lot of questions in there, so I’ll, I’ll just...
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (07:38)
Answer whatever, which one ever you want.
Vince Omni (07:40)
I’ll start with like kind of like the motivation like the the inspiration for it like I was I was I was you know I Was a teenager playing at the King Center in Northeast Denver Park Hill is the same neighborhood where Chauncey Billups came out of. And so I was there I was it was summer we were playing you know some pickup games. And there was a coach. He wasn’t my coach. He was just a coach. He was a guy in the building watching kids play hoop. And he kept doing the same thing that Church does to Davyon at the beginning of the book, which is calling him out his name. Using these gender-based slurs to kind of know, infuriate him. And I was a kid at the time. I mean, I’m ashamed to admit that that worked for me. But he kept doing that to me. And then later he told me on the sidelines that we did I kept saying that because you know see a lot of potential in you I want you to work harder this that the third yada yada yada And he actually turned out to be a helpful person like he actually turned out to be a helpful person in fall as far as like you know Basketball knowledge is concerned like you know helping me to increase my basketball IQ. Helping me understand the things that I need to do if I want to continue to play basketball. He really became a helpful person. But I always wondered, like, I was curious about interrogating that kind of, you know, that frame of thought, that motivation. Yeah, like, why motivate me in that way? And not just that, but the 80s, that was just a very, like, there was a lot of toxic masculinity going around. was, you know, where I grew up in Denver. This is the era where the Crips and the Bloods came to town from Los Angeles. And so there was a tradition of, or shouldn’t you say a tradition, was a, there was a point where the guys in my neighborhood went from fighting with their fists to shooting each other. You know what I’m saying? So there was just a lot of, there was just a lot of hyper, what we would call, what would be considered by society hyper masculine behavior going around. And I wanted to push back on that and to interrogate that and to learn more about the motivations for it. And I was curious, what would have motivated someone to take that particular approach with me to motivate me to play harder. And I just kind of arrived at, what if this guy, and I’m not trying to make any speculation about this person who was heckling me on the sideline because I don’t know anything about their sexual history or their sexual, you know, how they identify themselves. But I was just, I just wondered like, what if this was like a, you know, kind of like a mask for this person? And if it was a mask, what would it mean? What did that mean for him and for his life and the way he moved through the world?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (10:47)
Yeah, I mean. I know I deeply like empathize with that. remember like when yeah, when I was growing up, so I played on like the school played near the school park, right? But I was at the time, I was probably like 12, 13, right? But I would play with like grown men, right? And you would think like an older like a grown man, like somebody my age would see a 12 year old and think, oh, let me treat him like a 12 year old, but like no grown men on the court will try to fight you. They’ll fight you and they’ll call you names and they’ll do this and that to make you, you know, to make you tough. Right. And it’s and it’s always, you know, the same tired excuse. Right. Like, look at, look at, look at, they did it to me. Look how I turned out. And it’s like, no, you’re fighting a child. Like you didn’t turn out well if you think fighting a child on a basketball court is great. But so, yeah, I think it is. I mean, I’ll be honest, like one of the reasons I stopped playing as when I got to like my twenties, I loved it as a kid, but like the toxicity is like, it’s crazy. Like at my age, I’m not, can’t, I’ll never be a pro, right? But I’m on as a 20 year old, like I’m playing against people that think that they were pros had their chance. like, it is, it is like people taking like their insecurities out on you, right? ⁓ And I wish we, especially men could just acknowledge that that’s really where comes from and not lay the blame on someone else because you missed your shot.
Vince Omni (12:36)
I think that, know, and I can’t really, I can’t really even begin to speculate like for men of my generation. Because, you know, I’m 54, so, you know, and of course, the title tells you I was in high school in 1989. In fact, I was a year away from graduating at that point. So I’m sorry, my window was open and there’s a truck out here. But like, you know, think, you know, hoop dreams die hard. Hoop dreams die hard. And I think for people who love the game and who gave a lot of themselves to the game of basketball, the idea of stepping on a court and not, you know, and differentiating your level of play for others, especially, you know, younger players, just feels like something that, that, that, that they can’t do. And I guess to a certain extent I could see that, but I think when you’re talking about how there are guys who get on the court and they treat it like going to war, and we’re just playing Noonball, or we’re just playing a pickup game, like, you know, calm down, calm down, calm down.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (13:50)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That’s what saying. Like, it’s hard for me now to get to play basketball and pick up game with people that are like in their 20s and 30s because it is war. Like, to people, it is war. It’s like, this is my time to shine. and I think it is, you know, value, right? Like, a lot of people think I’m not valuable outside this court, so now I have to show up.
Vince Omni (14:21)
I mean, a lot of athletes, male, female, they dedicate a lot of their lives to learning a game, learning how to play a sport, and oftentimes lose their identities in that process. so understanding who you are off of a basketball court or off of a soccer field or off of a volleyball court, that’s also important, right?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (14:47)
Exactly. So one of the things when I was reading it, one of the quotes by Pemi Aguda was in the beginning, she said she talked about, and this was in the foreword, she loves when people that are deeply passionate about something kind of like wax poetic about it and she kind of compared your novel to like her electrician friend talking about wiring. And I really love that because I’m the same way. Like I can listen to anybody nerd out about a very specific subject. I might not understand, but I’ll listen with joy. And one of the passages she quoted, I’d like to read aloud.
Vince Omni (15:16)
All right.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (15:34)
A riot of purple, pink, and orange filled the darkening sky. Like the gods were running a pickup game and one of them sank a once in a lifetime shot. Dr. J leaping from one side of the court to the other, his arm sweeping the ball beneath the backboard and kissing it off the glass before falling back to earth. And this is not the only time that you just like create such vivid imagery about like, you know, basketball and you kind of like create a sense of place with Denver. But yeah, like what, are you drawing from outside of your childhood experiences to like create this book, right? Like are there games, specific games or basketball moments that you recall, movies, ⁓ film, as you said you’re big into. But where is that inspiration coming from? And because I’m sure other people would want to know, like where do get these beautiful...
Vince Omni (16:25)
Yeah, yeah, I mean that’s a great question. Like for instance, that particular pass is right there. I’m thinking about the Dr. J shot, right? The one where he brings the ball under the backboard and you know, it’s like an iconic shot. He leaps from one side of the court to the other under the backboard, like swishing, know, swinging his arm underneath the backboard and laying up on the other side against the Lakers. And that’s like, you know, that’s an iconic move right there. And that’s also a Ross Gay. The poet Ross Gay, yeah, he writes about that in a book of poetry called Beholding. And so I think that’s just, that’s how iconic that particular shot is. So for that particular moment, that’s one of the things I was thinking about. But I think in general, like, you know, it’s 1980s basketball. It’s like, it’s considered to be like a golden era in basketball, you know.
Vince Omni (17:31)
You had the Showtime Lakers, you have ⁓ the Celtics, have the Michael Jordan who’s ascending. He’s taking over the NBA. The Detroit Pistons are coming up. ⁓ They’re poised to win back-to-back ⁓ championships in the late 80s and 90s. so it’s like, there’s a lot of basketball happening. And so I think about, for instance in that first part of the book, have ⁓ Davy on and his uncle Jr. are watching like tape and they’re watching the 1987 game five of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals between the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics where Larry Bird steals Isaiah Thomas’s inbound pass and dishes is off to Dennis Johnson for the layup. Like that’s an iconic moment. That’s seared in my brain because I was so angry i love like outside of the denver nuggets when I was growing up outside of the Nuggets and you know Alex English, Fat Lever, Kiki VanDeWeghe, you know all those all those players the the the detroit pistons the 1980s bad boys was my team like all my friends wanted to be like Mike and i just wanted to be like Isaiah Thomas or Joe Dumars and
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (18:49)
No.
Vince Omni (18:54)
And so, yeah, so I was so, that was so devastating for me when I saw that. I was like, my God, I’m just, I was crushed. I was crushed. So that made it in there as well.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (18:57)
Yeah, I was thinking I did look at, was, when I saw the title, I was like, I was wondering, was like, is this book because you’re a Pistons fan? ⁓ But yeah, my era, was, it was very fun, very different. So I grew up, when I grew up, Derek Rose was becoming popular and I’m from Chicago.
Vince Omni (19:20)
I am, I am, yeah.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (19:36)
So Derrick Rose actually grew up like in the similar neighborhood as me, actually same neighborhood down the street. But yeah, he was like, and still is basically like Michael Jordan level status in Chicago, right? Like it’s like Michael Jordan, Derrick Rose, like untouchable. But then, you know, injuries and all that, but yeah, there’s, it’s an art form that lends itself to such, there’s so many, so many like. So much vivid imagery.
Vince Omni (20:07)
D. Rose was such a talent, like, you know, like to watch him play, to watch him play, that was just amazing, right?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (20:17)
That was a, I miss it. But in another, yeah, another question I had for you about this book and I thought it was very interesting about the format. So the book, it’s actually told in an interview kind of format, right? Like, or the premise of it is an interview. The protagonist is being interviewed about, you know, his time, you know, decades ago back when he was in high school. And I’m curious how you kind of came to that structure and how you kind of decided like you wanted to do that as opposed to just like a more linear, you know, story of just Davyon in high school.
Vince Omni (20:58)
Yeah, that’s a great question too. So in the early stages of this story, like when I would give it to people to read, some beta readers, my friends basically, people I meet at workshops, you folks I’ve met at workshops, the folks I’ve met in programs, they were like, yeah, this is a great story. But you know, have you considered like, is the occasion for Davyon relaying this story? Like why? Why is Davyon at this point in his life talking about these things? What’s going on? And I kept getting that feedback and I was like, that’s really a good point. And so I wanted to create a narrative frame that would allow him to be retrospective. And I think the interview is the classic sports sports conveyance. So much that we learn about athletes is conveyed through interviews. ⁓ And I started just tinkering with that idea. It would be a great way for Davyon to reflect about his time with Church. It would be a great way for Davyon to also update readers about what’s happening with Davyon 25 plus years later. How did his life turn out?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (22:33)
And one of the things that think you did well that ⁓ also Pemi Aguda mentioned was that like, even though it is, you know, 25 years later, like it’s not as if he’s like retelling it he has like all the answers. He’s not like, I knew exactly what I was doing. I did it right. This is, I would do it again. Like, and that kind of narrative also is like a little bit more boring, right? Like somebody’s, you know, saying like they, figured it all out, but you have somebody who like made mistakes in high school, understands them to a degree, is like kind of replicating them even in the future in a different vein, but doesn’t necessarily like recognize that. Right. And I think you kind of like show that how like people change to a degree, right? Like they change and then they, you know, there’s a plateau, right? Like there’s only so much, right. And yeah, it kind of leads me to, and I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I think from one of the things I got from the ending, one of the ideas I kind of took away was this idea of like redemption, grace, forgiveness, right? of, I don’t know, not spoil it, but because of certain decisions made, certain people had to live out the consequences of their actions and some turned out better than others, but they’re ultimately like learning how to accept the decisions they made and how to accept this person that they are. So I know if you, I mean, if you can kind of talk a little bit about like, you know, how we, how that came to be, right? Like how these characters ultimately ended up, but not like giving it away.
Vince Omni (24:17)
That also is a great question. You know, I think that, you know, it would be disingenuous for Davyon to have all the everything figured out. For Davyon to have all the answers and for Davyon not to question any of his motives or any of his, you know, the things that were driving him during this period of his life as a teenager. And I think, you when we think about human development, like we know that, for instance, that, you know, our minds are, you know, that the prefrontal lobe is not fully developed until, you know, mid twenties. So oftentimes we’ve made very adult decisions before we’ve had a chance to fully develop, right? And for men, I mean, some people might argue that for men that’s longer than that.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (25:14)
I’d argue that. I’d argue that.
Vince Omni (25:18)
So like, so we make a lot of decisions that impact the rest of our lives before we’ve even had a chance to fully develop. And so I think for characters like Davyon, for a character like Davyon, you have this, you know, this chance to look back on your life and reflect upon it and realize, hey, you still have questions. Hey, you still have, you still have some residual pain, you know, and then the idea of, you know, his father, Davyon’s father, because, I mean, that’s the rub, right? We have a young man in 1989 who’s been, all intents and purposes, cast out of his home because he and his, you know, his father is an abusive man, you know, right? His father is an abuser. So he’s been exiled to a new city, a new school. And he’s trying to find his footing and basketball is his end. You know, that’s his thing. And I think that knowing that, having a chance to look back on that and then have his father resurface in the front story, right? Have his father going through this, come to Jesus. You know, I’m born again. I’m trying to make amends type of situation.
Vince Omni (26:44)
You know, that is also something that is like messing with him, right? Like he’s like, this dude, like, he’s really, this dude’s really f*****g with me right now. I don’t have time for this dude right now. It is really, it was really meant to be like, you know, an opportunity for him to reflect, but also an opportunity for him to see, well, what kind of patterns do I engage in? What kind of patterns from then do I still engage in now? What kind of trauma am I still dealing with? And that’s kind of what led me to that. so having the answers is not, having the answers when you are still being inundated with new data, being inundated with new circumstances and new choices in life. You know, it’s disingenuous to think that he would have the answers.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (27:45)
And I think that like, it also like raises also like a very, very touchy question, right? But like this idea of like, what, to what do we owe the people that have like hurt us? Cause I remember to that end, there was like a line towards the end. I don’t remember the exact line, but somebody’s talking to Davyon on and they say, well, you your mother has forgiven your father. So like, why can’t you? Right? Like, and it’s a hard question, right? And I’ll pose it to you, like to what do we owe the people that have hurt us, right? Like it’s in regards to forgiveness, especially when you have all these kind of like these men that are constantly like hurting each other in ways they don’t understand, like, you know, how, how, where do you draw the boundary? Where do you find acceptance? Like, you know.
Vince Omni (28:44)
You know, I think that’s something that everyone has to answer for themselves. I can’t tell like another person, you know, what they owe someone else who has hurt them, who has caused trauma to their lives. ⁓ So I think that’s an individual question. I think what we owe ourselves is a lot of like grace, a lot of understanding and then an opportunity to be accountable for any of the harms that we may have perpetrated as well. I think that’s what we owe ourselves. As far as like, when we forgive other people, that’s only something, or if we forgive other people, right? Because sometimes there are some things that people just don’t come back from, right? Some acts of violence, some acts of trauma that just for certain people are just unforgivable. And so, you know, I think whenever someone is dealing with that internally, when they do that or if they decide to do that, that’s something that’s up to them. But I think that we owe ourselves like some grace. We owe ourselves some understanding and we also owe ourselves an opportunity to just be reflective and try to have, try to be honest with ourselves about how these things have hurt us and how they may have impacted the way we move through life. And are we repeating patterns, for instance? And if so, what can we do to disrupt that, to interrupt it so we don’t pass it down to anyone else?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (30:17)
Okay, I will say 1989 is essential reading for any young man in this country, especially now. I am very, very happy we got the chance to talk about it. And I have one last not a serious question. But who is winning the NBA championship this year?
Vince Omni (30:36)
Oh, boy. Well,
it’s hard to say. It’s hard. You know, I’m pulling. I’m pulling for the Nuggets, but they’ve had a lot of injuries this year. They haven’t had a chance to kind of regroup and become a cohesive unit yet. You know, who’s going to catch Oklahoma City? Right in the West, who’s going to catch Oklahoma City and San Antonio?
Vince Omni (31:21)
Like those are some major teams right now. And in the East, you know, the Pistons are firing or were firing on all cylinders, but then Cade Cunningham went down and I’m not sure what the, you know, what his health prognosis is like right now. But it does, you know, that’s, I would be really concerned. You know, I would be really concerned. So yeah, it’s hard to say. It’s hard to say, but I think it’s going to come out of the West. I think the winner will be, you know, from the Western Conference.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (31:36)
You know in the spirit of talking about talented yet toxic men my favorite NBA player and team is Anthony Edwards at the moment So I know he’s got issues off the court, but I love watching him play and I am becoming a Minnesota bandwagoner by the day
Vince Omni (32:05)
Anthony Edwards is an amazing talent. I don’t know a lot about his off court experiences, but I know on the court he’s an amazing talent. I know Nas Reed is also, know, Nas Reed, Di Vincenzo, you have, you know, that’s a pretty, and then there’s a couple of younger players, Bones and, well Bones isn’t that young, but he’s youngish, but you have Bones Hyland and somebody that they just got from Chicago, right? A guard.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (32:45)
Wow, really know, you really, you’re keeping up.
Vince Omni (32:49)
Like I said, I love the game. I do. It’s something that I love, but I could also recognize some of its, I could recognize its faults. And I recognize how ⁓ it could chew people up and spit them out. The process, these hoop dreams, they last a long time, they die hard. And you know, there’s always a lot of support for people who are aspiring but when it’s all said and done, what do you do? Like how do you re-enter a life where basketball is not the focus of your world?
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (33:27)
And I mean, in a way it is like war, right? We support them as they’re going to war, but as soon as they need help in their recovery and they come back, we forget about them, right? So in a way they’re right about that, I’ll say.
Vince Omni (33:42)
Right. But I try to keep it in perspective. you know, I’ll tell you a story. So when I was growing up in Denver, I used to work at Jack in the Box. Okay, it’s Super Bowl Sunday. My supervisor, forget which year. I think this is like, it was the year that the Denver Broncos were playing the team from Washington. So, Doug Williams would have been the quarterback in Washington. And he was having an amazing year. so I was asked to work at the Super Bowl shift at Jack and the Boss. And my manager was like, I’ll let you bring in your little TV. You could watch it, watch the game. It’ll be quiet. And it was, and I was happy until, you know, Douglas Smith got loose, until the Washington team’s running game got loose, and then the Brom by halftime, it was pretty much a miserable situation for Denver. ⁓ And so somebody comes through my drive-thru at halftime, and I’m the only one there, so I take the order, I make the food, I give them the food and give them back their change, and... ⁓
And this guy gets out of, you know, he takes the food. He drives over, parks the car, comes into the lobby. And then he hands me this document, you know, in triplicate. And he’s like, I’m quality control for Jack in the Box. And, right? I’m quality control for Jack in the Box. And,
Vince Omni (35:34)
You know, this is your score for today’s encounter. You have an 89. You would have scored higher if you weren’t snarling at me when you gave me my food. And so ever since then, I tried to just like, I really haven’t watched football much since then. So I kind let the Denver Broncos go and football in general was like, I had to let that go. And when I watch basketball, which I love, like I said, it’s a sport I love. So I keep watching, I continue to watch basketball, but I try to remind myself that, you know, these are millionaires who get to play a game they love for an obscene amount of money and so it’s not worth that kind of heartache when there are more, there’s other stuff happening in the world that’s more important, more important. ⁓
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (36:30)
Yeah, I wish a lot of Bears fans had that perspective, I feel like it’s the only thing that matters here. Yeah. Yeah, for the... mean, it’s okay. We’re talking Bears fans. They’re not going to be watching this anyway.
Vince Omni (36:38)
I’m not commenting on any bear fans I don’t want that smoke. I don’t want none of it. No, no. Bears fans, I didn’t say that bears fans. Don’t come looking for me.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (36:59)
You can come find in me, I live Chicago. You know where I’m at. Anyways, thank you so much, Vince. This has been so fun. Yeah, this has been great. And yeah, everybody, I just want to reiterate, Vince Omni, 1989. if you have any, I will say, I want to reiterate that in all seriousness, if you have any young men in your life and you’re watching this,
Vince Omni (37:06)
Yeah, man. Thank you, Ricardo. I appreciate it. I really do.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (37:27)
Please, please, please give them this book, Because I do think it speaks to a certain kind of young man that it could really benefit. So thank you once again. Yeah.
Vince Omni (37:43)
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed myself. Thank you so much. And thank you for reading the book and reviewing it. It’s great.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (37:50)
Yeah, I mean, I’m sure we’ll be seeing, I’ll be seeing you around.
Vince Omni (37:55)
Yeah, we’ll see. No, we are bound by our experience at Storyboard. So, So yeah.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (38:02)
Right? Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Vince Omni (38:11)
You too, take care. Thank you.
Ricardo Pierre-Louis (38:13)
See ya
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