Wally Green
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I'm probably the biggest hater of pickleball, especially online. Online, all the big pickleball pages, they all know me. They all know me because I'm always in the comments, just like kind of shitting on the sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
It was the opposite. When I tell people this and they go, how is that possible? When I went there, I think the most racism I ever felt was there because for them, I wasn't the real black. They would call me in their language, the kid who eats butter, try to say I'm soft. So I spent a lot of time fighting. I spent a lot of time trying now because I had no gang members with me. It was just me.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I spent a lot of time trying to find myself again. And I joined this crazy military thing there called Man O' War. And Man O' War, it's like, I do not explain it. It's like Boy Scouts times 10,000. Yeah. Like they make you do stuff like just standing straight up and falling. It's wild. But that made me much stronger. And that made me think or know that I can finally protect my mom.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
So I came back to America when I was 16. And an incident happened where my stepfather was choking my mom. And I just looked over. And when I looked over, my stepfather says, what are you looking at? If you look over here, you're going to get the same thing. And I just lost it. Like, I don't even remember running out the house. I just kind of like just lost it, ran out the house.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I went and got a gun, came back in the house, and I put it to his face. And I was going to kill my stepfather. And my mom called the police. And my mom's exact words were, you guys need to hurry. My son's trying to kill my husband. And when she said that, like, I can't explain it. I was just empty.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
It was like the ultimate betrayal that the person that I wanted to protect since I was a kid turned around and said this. And I took the gun and I put it to my mom's face. And I was going to end both their lives that day. That day, it was it. I was going to end both their lives. I was shaking. I was crying. And I was going to end both their lives. But then I remembered something.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
You can say divine intervention. little birdie, whatever people want to call it, came to me and says, hey, hey, if you do this, if you do this right now, every single thing that your stepfather said is going to happen to you right now, today, if you do this. And, um, Luckily, I was smart enough to listen.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I think more than being smart, I hated my stepfather so much that having nothing that he ever said come true was more important than me ending both their lives. So I walked away. And that's the answer to your question. That was the first step of like, you can do it. Because I tell people, It's easy to pull that trigger. It's not hard. I'm telling you, it's not like I could have.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
It's easy to pull it, to walk away. It's the hardest thing I ever did to not do it. Because, you know, after that, like I was questioning myself, like you had your chance. Now you have the other side of you. Yo, bro, you had your chance. You didn't take it. You can end that guy's life. And now he's still walking around, you know, your mom and this, they're still together.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And look at you now, you're living in the street. You should have did what you had to do and then had to deal with that. But after I was able to get over that, then I realized like, you know, maybe I can do this, right? Maybe I can want something different for my life. And that's when ping pong came around.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Oh, man, it's pretty crazy because I actually hated it. I hated the sport. Like, they had it in my high school. I used to make fun of all the kids that played it. Like, at the time, I was playing football. I played basketball for the wrestling team. And I would see it in the lunchroom, and I would make fun of everyone. I'd be like, look at these kids with their short shorts and a stick.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
The year following that, I lived in the street. So I lived in the street for a year, hanging out every day, hanging out with my gang, You know, just doing real dumb stuff. And I just felt empty. Like, I felt lost. Like, you know, just like, I didn't care. I didn't care about anything. Like, I just didn't care.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And it was to the point to where, like I said, you know, anything that I felt, I would take out on other people. Right? And I could be angry at any given moment for no reason. Like, for no reason at all. I could be talking like this, and all of a sudden, now I'm angry. Because what happens, I start remembering. You know, because...
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I tell people, you know, that trauma and those words, they're with you all the time. Like, they never leave you. Like, I hear this all the time in my head. You know, you guys have to hurry. My son's trying to kill my husband. I'm never going to forget it. It's always in my head. It was really difficult. I just, you know, like I said, I had no direction. And it was the ping pong. That's what I say.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
The ping pong saved my life. It was a sport that I hated, that I got so interested because I saw people like me doing it. And that just kind of like took over my mind because, you know, ping pong is a very interesting sport because it's such a small ball and it's so fast. It occupies a lot of your mind. Like when you're playing, it's very hard to think about stuff because it's so fast.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Like if you play basketball, right, you have time where you can think about something. He, there's no time because it's 10th of a second to make a decision. So I noticed that, you know, when I played ping pong, like I thought less, I didn't get into those thoughts or remembering those words or remembering like what my step was. I was just focused on ping pong when I played other sports.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
There'd be periods where I would, you know, stop.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Right, right. Yeah, yeah. That's the exact words. Yeah, yeah. So the ping pong is really what helped me. get through it. And I don't know if you heard the other part of the story. There was a guy who used to come to the ping pong club and he had met me and asked me if I had a partner. Right.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And at this time I was like kind of living in the street and I was like, no, he was like, listen, you know, I'll pay you $20. If you could just hit with me, be my hitting partner, like twice a week. And I was like, $20. Yeah, of course. No, that's easy. Right. I like to just hit with this guy. I wasn't great, but I can, You know, I can hit basic balls. And so this guy would play with me.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
We'd play together. And then, you know, we became sort of kind of close, right? Because I had no, like, adult figure that I could talk to. And I really needed to talk because this was right after. And then, you know, I was such a bad head. And I would talk to this guy sometimes. And plus, for me, he was like this random dude. So it didn't even matter, right? It wasn't anything serious.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Like, it was just funny, you know. for me to see. I started shooting pool one year. And while I was shooting pool, I got hustled for a little bit of money. I got upset, took my pool stick, slammed it on the table, and it shattered. It broke. It just shattered. And I was so angry. And back then, you know, I used to take everything that was bothering me, I would take out on other people.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And for him, it was more like a TV show. right so i always tell people like you know if you don't know anyone who's lived that life or been in that life it's impossible to understand right it's impossible for a lot of people to kind of like you know understand how a 13 year old has guns right for me i hear it i'm like okay That's normal. I'm not going to go, oh, my God, really?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
But he was like, oh, my God, really? That's impossible. So he never really kind of like took it seriously. Then one day I went to the club and a .22 fell out of my bag in front of him. And he saw it. And immediately I said, yo, I got to go because I don't know what he's going to do. He's going to call police. I don't know what he's going to do. So I left.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I thought, you know, that'll be the end of life. 20 but the guy called me actually the next day or was two days later and says hey are we still playing which was weird because you know in my mind like i say he was a white guy he was an israeli guy and in my mind it's like if you're calling me to say are we still playing without mentioning what happened like
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
You know, like what's really going on, right? But I needed that $20. So, you know, I went and I met with him. And then he says, hey, I want to invite you to meet my family, which is also weird. I mean, you don't invite the guy who just dropped the gun in front of you to your house. And he had an apartment in New York. He had a house upstate near Hunter.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And so I was like, okay, you know, it's kind of weird, but, you know. So I go with him. We go to meet his family, and, you know, now everyone's sitting at the table, you know, real kind of like, I don't know, little house on the prairie kind of like family thing where people are passing food to each other and thank you, yes, no, and everyone's kind of like smiling. Oh, how was your day?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I was getting angry because I was like, why would this guy bring me here knowing that I don't have this? Like, you know, so... I was becoming really angry about it. And then he tells me, he goes, hey, you know, I really want to help you. I know you really like ping pong. I have a connection in Germany and I'm going to pay for you to go to Germany to learn ping pong. And I was like, what?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And he was like, yeah. And at the time, at the time, it was all crazy to me because the only thing I know about Germany was Hitler. And I was like, why is this dude sending me to Germany? Or I didn't know, you know, about sports schools in Europe. Because we don't really have sports schools. We don't have sports schools in New York City.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
We have schools that have sports, but we don't have sports schools. And so it was all new. But, you know, like I said, I was always a smart kid. And I knew that there was something better. And I took the chance and agreed. And that's how I actually got out and, you know, started sports. like that real life of ping pong.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I would blame everyone for everything and never myself. And so I saw some kids playing ping pong and it was like, the perfect storm, you know, the sport that I hate. I broke my pool stick. I'm angry. I'm going to go mess with these kids. So I went over there to where the kids were playing ping pong in this pool hall. And I asked one of the kids, I was like, can I get a hit?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Yeah, man. So there is another sport that I also hate. I mean, I think I still hate it. I'm sure I don't love it yet. And it's the sport of pickleball. And I'm probably the biggest hater of pickleball, especially online. Online, all the big pickleball pages, they all know me. They all know me because I'm always in the comments, just like kind of shitting on the sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And the reason why I was like that was because this sport's been out for a little while, but it just started getting popular since the pandemic. And when it came out, people were obnoxious. Like they were like, oh, this is the greatest sport in the world. Oh, it's the best sport in the world. They started taking people's course. There's another sport that I played pro called paddle tennis.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And they would come and take our course. And I'm like, this is not a pickleball course, a paddle tennis course. And it was so just it being such an obnoxious sport. It just made me go on like this rampage of hate for the sport. So whenever it popped up on my feed, I would just trash talk it. And then people would be like, oh, you're talking about some great sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I'd be like, man, this sport was created for 70-year-olds. That's the original reason the sport was made, right? And yeah, so I really hated the sport. My sponsor, they are now the number one pickleball company for equipment, my table tennis sponsor. So they jumped into pickleball a few years ago, and they became the number one right now, the number one selling
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
racket is from my table tennis sponsor which is wild um and who is that yola yola yola okay so spelled j-o-o-l-a yeah they're number one now and they mentioned to me four years i think like four years ago maybe i should play pickleball i was like you're crazy i'm never playing this and um i'll give you a sneak peek of why i'm playing it i'm actually gonna film the unboxing and this and i will tell the story in my unboxing of
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
But like I said, I hated the sport, really didn't like it, didn't care for the people in it. And in the ending of December, I had surgery on my right hip. On your hip, yeah. I'm sorry, left hip, in the ending of December. So I have a full bionic hip right now. And I was riding a city bike to PT, physical therapy, and I took a different route. I took way, way on the east side.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And as I was riding, I saw... a park where there were pickleball courts. Now, I've never seen a real pickleball court. I've only seen videos. So I started, so I was like, oh, the pickleball court looks a lot like my paddle tennis courts. That's why these guys keep jumping on the courts.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And the kid was like, you play this? I was like, I don't play this. Just give me the paddle, right? And my original goal was when he hit the ball to me, to smash him in the face with the ball and then just say my bad, right? And then it wouldn't look like I was starting something. It was a mistake.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And so I got down, I pulled over, walked down the stairs, like these little stairs that go into a smaller park where the courts are. And I sat down and I watched it for a little while. And then I could appreciate, okay, I can see why people like this. Because there's a low learning curve, right? It's very easy to play. It's very easy to start.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And maybe people who normally don't get exercise can now do something fun and get exercise, right? So I was having some small appreciation. Then I look over. There's a guy sitting next to me. And I says, hey, do you play pickleball here every day? And the guy goes to me, what? I'm a 4'5". You're what? Okay, I know what a 4-5 is now. It's, you know, pretty high level.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
But at that time, I didn't know what he was talking about. I was like, what do you mean 4-5? I said, bro, I didn't ask you what you were, right? And I said it more intensely than what I'm saying now. You know, but I said, you know, I didn't ask you what you were. I just asked you if you played. So, yes or no question. And then he did what he did.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
He goes, and looks up and looks away, opposite direction.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
That's it. Oh man, I'm telling you, it took a lot for me not to hit this dude, bro. I just wanted to hit him so hard. It took a lot. I got so angry inside and I said, you know what? I'm going to be here tomorrow. And I started going every day. And that's why I play this sport now. And then I noticed at the higher level, like everyone's so cocky and they write you off.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Now, I don't know if it's because... you know, there's not a lot of black people that play this sport or what, but what I noticed is when I go meet new people for the first time and it's a high level game. And I say, Hey, my name is Wally. You know, they'll look at you like, what is this guy doing here? Yeah. Without knowing that I'm a world-class athlete. They're just right.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
It'd be written off right away. And then when you play and after you show them all of a sudden, now I'm, They want to be a friend. They want to get your number for games later. And I'm like, no, I'm good, right? So that cockiness in this sport, that makes me want to play every day. And it's like the ping pong. It's the same thing, exactly, exactly like the ping pong, right?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
So I'm going to prove everybody that I'm going to, not only am I going to play, not only am I going to be great at it, but I'm going to do it the way I want to do it.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Yeah, it is. And it's coming home.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
But unfortunately, the angle of the racket happened to be down when I went to smash the ball in his face. And it went on the table. And it hit the table. And the kid was like, oh, my God, it's a great shot. He was like, oh, you know, you got to go check out this ping pong club. And I said, there's no way that there's a place where people gather and play this sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I think this is probably one of the most important tips. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask. It's very difficult to do everything on your own. And then more importantly, if help is offered to you, take it. You never know where that help is going to get you. If I didn't take the help that was offered to me, I wouldn't be here talking to you.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I would be dead or in jail, just like my stepfather wanted. So yeah, if people offer you help, you definitely should take it. Don't try to do everything yourself.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
On Instagram, Instagram, Wally Green, NYC. That's the best place right now.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And when we come back after the holidays, we talk about my North Korea diplomacy for world peace.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
We'll save that.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Thank you for tuning in to Make Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
There's no way that there's a club for this. And he was like, I'm telling you, go check it out. You know, go play. See, you know, you got to check it out. And back then I was going through like two kind of lives. Like, you know, I was in a gang at an early age at 13, owned six guns at 13. So I was a very violent kid. And the balance to the violence was sports.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I was never the best in the world, right? As a matter of fact... I was probably, when I started playing pro, the worst in the world. By far the worst in the world. What's one thing that you wanna message out to the world today? One of the most important tips. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask, right? It's very difficult to do everything on your own. And then more importantly,
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
right and also the balance to the abuse that was going on home with sports if i joined every possible team that i could play i'd be exhausted and those things would bother me less so i just joined every sport and so when the guy was telling me that this is a sport in the front i was like there's no way this is a sport but in the back was like well maybe it is so i went down to check out this this uh sport and when i walked in it was another pool hall much bigger but they had like i think
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I don't remember, nine tables, maybe eight ping pong tables. They had a section that was just ping pong. And, you know, guys were standing back, making a lot of noise and ripping these balls back and forth. And the craziest thing about it was, is that every person who happened to be playing that day was black. And then I was like, wait a minute, black people play this?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I was shocked because for me, only Asians played ping pong. And I was like, what? So it was like, wait a minute, black people play this? And I saw them playing. And then immediately my mind changed. And I was like, yo, I want to play this too. And then that's how I started. You know, that was the first start of me touching a paddle and trying to learn the sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
It was crazy, right? Because I was never the best in the world, right? As a matter of fact, I was probably, when I started playing pro, the worst in the world. I was by far the worst in the world. And it was... Not because I didn't have the skill to do it. I just had the wrong mindset. Like I was a great athlete. I played every sport. I got MVP in every sport I ever played, every sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And so I just figured, you know what? I'm going to be great at this too. And I'm going to beat everyone. And that was my mindset. But I wasn't really respecting the sport and respecting the people that actually put, you know, years into the sport since three years old. Because of that, I would go play these tournaments.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Like I would, you know, leave America, go to China and lose like 11-1, 11-2, 11-3, 11-1. Maybe don't get five points in one match. And my tournament would be over. So I just flew from America to China. And one day, that's it. I was done. And this happened for a long time. Like I was just losing. And it wasn't I couldn't play. I could play as practicing every day.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
You know, I was practicing in different countries. But my mindset was wrong. I was thinking that because I'm such a great athlete, I should be great in this. And because I started to believe that I wasn't learning, right? I wasn't learning why I was losing. I wasn't learning. why, you know, the score was 11-1 or 11-2. And then I started to try to figure out how could I get better, right?
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Because people would come up to me and they would say, you know, you should be playing basketball. Like, a lot of people tell me that. Like, you should be rapping. I mean, I was doing some hip hop back then. You should be doing this. And there's, you should be doing everything except this sport. Like, this is not, they were telling me this is not for you. Like, and people were telling me this.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I started to like, think like, man, you know, all right, something is off here. Like I got to figure out how can I get better? And then I came up with this idea and I say, you know what? Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself. Instead of me trying to win a match, let me get five points.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
If I can get five points in one match, not even five points in four out of seven games, just one match, I get five points, I'm the world champion. And so I conditioned my mind to believe this. So people thought I was crazy. That's why everyone in the world, like they know me because they thought I was crazy because I would go and play these tournaments and I would lose 4-0.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I got one game, five points. You would see me go, yeah, and I'd be happy.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
right but i knew at that time that one of the most important things is celebrating those smaller goals like the smaller tiny ones yeah you need to celebrate those so i was celebrating like i was a champion and i went from that to winning getting five points in every game then going from five points in every game to winning one game then winning two games and winning a match and that's the way that i changed my mindset to actually start to win some matches
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
But I never became the best. And I realized there's a point where you realize there's one champion. There's one number one in the world. And you have to figure out whether, okay, if I can't be the best, then what can I do? And then I realized, I was like, wait a minute, hold on. There's nobody like me in the entire world of ping pong. First of all, I'm black. I bring the swag to the sport.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game-changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mick.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Electrifying. I bring this energy that no one has. So maybe I don't have to be the best. Maybe I don't need to be number one. Maybe I don't need to be number two. So then I went on this journey of being the most popular player. And what happened was I would play a tournament and lose and the media would come to me immediately. I would get the interview, not the guy who won, which was crazy.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I was like, and I just kept getting these interviews. And there was an incident one time in China where normally in a ping pong match, you'll have a preliminary round. And in the preliminary round, there might be four people or three people in the group, right? Each person plays each other. And normally there's no TV table for the preliminary round, right? And if you do get one, it's one.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And you're lucky if you get that because it's almost no one's getting this. And I noticed when I would go to China, all my matches are on the TV table. And I'm like, why do these people keep pulling their TV table? I didn't want to be on the TV table, right? And so I would go to the head person and I would say, hey, Why do you guys keep putting me on a TV table? I just played.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Just put me on a different table. I don't want to be on a TV table. And the director said something which like really hit me. And he goes, Wally, no, you are good for TV. And when he said that, I was like, yeah, you know what? You're right. And then, you know, I had less pressure because I started to play much better, right? Because you were free. I was free.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
I was free from, you know, trying to be the best of the best. Right. And I got really, really good. Yeah. And it was a very interesting journey. And, you know, the media went crazy with it because technically I shouldn't even be playing the sport. More or less, be good at it.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Yeah, for sure. For sure, for sure, for sure.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Yes, a lot of it is. Yeah. So it's 90 percent mental. Sure.
Mick Unplugged
Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Yeah, oh man, I get chills from this question. It's always a very deep question. So I grew up with really severe domestic violence. My mom used to get beat up all the time, a chill punch in the face. My stepfather used to mentally abuse me, used to beat me too, but I got a lot of mental abuse.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And the kind of mental abuse was my stepfather always saying that you'll never be successful, you'll be dead. You'll be in jail. You'll be a failure the rest of your life. I would come home from school. And we're talking about as a kid, as like junior high school student. I would come home from school. Maybe I'm in a good mood, which is rare. And my stepfather would say, oh, how was your day?
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I would say, oh, it was good. And he would say, oh, it doesn't really matter how it was because you're going to be a failure anyway. So he would systematically try to make me feel less dead. The same time being on my mom. And, you know, as a kid, You know, you always want to protect your mom. Like, I've been with... My stepfather has been there since I was one.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
Because I don't remember my mom and my dad together. But my stepfather and my mom have been together since I was, like, one. So this abuse started since I was one. And as a kid, you always want to protect your mom. You know, you... Just think about this every day.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
When I was like, I don't know, like seven or eight, I was thinking of how I could put boric acid into his capsules of the pills that he took. Wow. Right. Because like I said, I watched my mom get hit all the time. Right. And, you know, it wasn't until the pandemic came where I learned about narcissism and learned what it was.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
And I was like, oh, my God, man, that's why none of my family never came to my house. Right. But yeah. So, you know, I always thought I wanted to protect her. And I had an incident in school when I was about 14. I got caught with a loaded weapon in school. I got into a lot of trouble because I had other problems, other priors before.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
the judge was trying to really like he was trying to really put me away you know they were they were trying to give me 10 years in jail like from juvenile to adult and um i had one thing going for me and that one thing going was i always have my schoolwork done which is wild but there's a reason i have my schoolwork done was because i needed those sport teams and without good grades
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
You can't be on the team. And I needed those teams because those teams made me less violent. And I knew that. So I had people do the work for me for protection. I had people doing my work. I had people taking notes. I was on point because I needed those teams to just keep me from doing something even worse. So anyway, my mom convinced the judge that they would send me to boarding schools.
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Wally Green | Overcoming Adversity: Wally Green on Life, Ping Pong, and Pickleball
They would send me away to Africa. So I got sent away, like away, away. And when I got there, you know, it was me trying to find myself all again, over again. It was me trying to prove myself again. And it was kind of weird because I thought, you know, if I go to Africa, then it's gonna be easy peasy, right? Everyone's black like me, it's gonna be chill, but it wasn't the case at all.