Patric Young | Courage Beyond the Court: An Inspirational Journey - Mick Unplugged [EP 36]

Episode Transcription

• Patric Young | Courage Beyond the Court: An Inspirational Journey - Mick Unplugged [EP 36]

  Intro: Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mick Unplugged. We'll help you identify your because so you can create a routine that's not just productive, but powerful. You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.

  So let's unleash your potential. Now here's Mick.

  Mick Hunt: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged where we go deep into your because. Those things and reasons that fuel you to be the person that you are. And today, I have a guest that is truly inspirational. He's a former SCC Defensive Player of the Year from the University of Florida, former professional basketball player in the NBA and Euroleague, and is now a broadcaster with the SEC Network. More importantly, he's the author of Sit to Rise and the founder of the PY 4 Foundation, which supports individuals facing life altering events.

  He is a man who's discovered a new purpose in life and is guiding others through fighting adversity. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to introduce the man that I used to call the Incredible Hulk, Patrick Young. Patrick, how are you doing, brother?

  Patrick Young: Pretty good. And, you know, one thing that I had in common with the Incredible Hulk, I used to have some anger issues, so it did show up on the court. So that sometimes in practice, that's pretty accurate. But great to be here. Hopefully, I can bring you some value.

  Love, you know, every opportunity, however big or small or whatever it is. You always wanna try and leave it better than you left it. So hopefully, we can accomplish that today.

  Mick Hunt: You are totally gonna do that because I know the man that you are, so I appreciate that more than anything. Let's talk about your life, your journey, the things that you're doing now. And I'm gonna let this be an open canvas for you because you know how much I respect and adore you. Wherever you wanna take this is where we're gonna go. But, ladies and gentlemen, be prepared.

  Be prepared. Patrick's about to give it to you and give it to you raw, the only way he knows how. So, Patrick, man, let's talk a little bit about your life and how you got to where you are today.

  Patrick Young: You know, it's hard to know where to start, but, you know, people always say to start from the beginning. So I'm from Jacksonville, Florida. Born and raised. Both my parents actually grew up here in Jacksonville as well, which is pretty rare. And I love my city.

  I love my Jaguars. I grew up a Gator fan. Man, I miss the simplicity of life as a kid. I'm in that millennial stage where growing up, we were transitioning into technology. You know?

  And when I say we, I mean my neighborhood friends that I grew up with, you know, we didn't need phones. We didn't, man, we just looked outside, rang the doorbell, used the house phone. "Hey, can so and so come out and play?" You know?

  And then transitioned into as we were getting older, social media started picking up and whatnot. But I had super supportive parents. My parents are still married to this day. Actually, staying with them right now in this season of life. I mean, I've just been so blessed with all the things that I had to help allow me to be in a position that I know a lot of people don't have and aren't able to.

  I definitely took some of those things for granted growing up because you don't know what you don't have until you don't have it sometimes. Or when you're not exposed to other people that don't have the thing that you consider just a thing when it actually is a privilege and a blessing. So we grew up in the church, and I'm so thankful for that foundation even though I wouldn't say that I was necessarily, like, an active follower of Christ. I just had that foundation to know who he was, a lot of things in which he taught. And it really wasn't until I got out of my parents' house and you started to become your own man where you kinda can see a lot of things that you've learned were true.

  So I was fortunate enough as an athlete coming here out of Jacksonville to be a McDonald's All American top player in the country. Was able to go to my dream school, the University of Florida with coach Billy Donovan. And, you know, yesterday, I talked online with coach Buzz Williams and their basketball team as they're preparing for the summer, preparing for this upcoming season. And coach Buzz gave me just this awesome introduction on all the things that I accomplished. And the first thing I want to address to those guys is that almost all of those things never happened.

  And you said a few of them: Final 4, 3 elite 8, SEC tournament, SEC regular season, 1st player and only player ever to win, SEC academic player of the year 3 years in a row, play defensive player of the year, numerous awards that I was able to be a part of. But, you know, my freshman year, I just wasn't able to grasp the difficulties of transition change from high school where you really could just out-talent everybody on a given night at 6 foot 9, £230. I mean, it's rare that you're ever gonna run into somebody once or twice in a season that's gonna even affect you or slow you down. So it can affect that work ethic and you understanding how far you and what you need to know and how much you don't know. So when I got to college, you know, transitioning into being on your own, adjusting, wanting to fit in, wanting to be liked, study hall, practice, scouting, film, weights, all those things.

  It can be overwhelming and, you know, with how difficult all that stuff is, it led to frustration. It led to me just not understanding the process. And seriously, like, on my and I've mentioned this in the book, coach Donovan had to take me to his office a little bit before the season started, I believe, and said, "Hey, man. I love you, but if you're not gonna let me coach you, you might as well think about transferring somewhere else." I'm thankful for that because he wasn't asking for perfection. Never was. But he was asking for humility. He was asking for progress, not perfection. And, you know, I was not perfect through that, but I did progress.

  Each year, I got better with my attitude, with my understanding, with my love for the game, with my role. So grateful. I stayed there four years. I didn't end up getting drafted, but I was blessed enough to get an opportunity with the New Orleans Pelicans and play with them as a quick stand. I was there with Monty Williams, a man that I really do look up to and admire.

  Anthony Davis, Denver for dad, Tyreek Evans, Jrue Holiday, just a whole group of guys that were such great basketball players. I ended up getting cut, and I ended up going overseas. That was a tough decision to make. Do I stay in America and try and go the G League route where I can be a lot more readily available to an NBA team if they wanna sign me? You make peanuts.

  You know, when I say peanuts, I mean, you're lucky if you make $20,000 on the year and you're living in really tough cities or go overseas, make some real money, and then you can come back and if, quote-unquote, struggle, play it up with some money in your pocket. So I went over and I went to Turkey, my first spot. And, you know, one thing that I just learned about my first season over in Turkey, my love for the game came back. But it's tough. You know, you go from being a key component to a final 14 to the 15th guy on an NBA team, not playing, barely practicing, barely getting reps in, trying to stay ready.

  And then I go overseas, and I became that guy again. You know, long story short of my career, I played Turkey one year, Greece for two years, two years in Italy, and one year in Israel, and ended up hanging up my shoes with basketball pretty much the end of 2020 going in 2021. And I just was ready for life change, ready to see what else God had in store for my life. And when you're playing ball overseas, you're over there for 10 months. So I wanted to make up and, you know, recreate and make new memories with the people that I loved and the holidays and just see what came in store.

  And, you know, that year in 2021, I got engaged. I started working with the SEC Network and auditioned with them and got the job. And then I was working with another company part-time that was a great opportunity. So I come into that year, and I'm like, man, life is good. You know?

  Life is good. Life is great. God is good. Guys open doors. I got engaged December 4th. June 29th, which we're actually coming up on. It was gonna be the day where everything was kinda changed for me. When I got in a car accident, that changed my life and left me paralyzed from the waist down. And, yeah, I'll pause there so you can go where you want from there. Cause there's somewhere I can be. I can tell the whole thing at once, but I don't want it to be a monologue.

  Mick Hunt: No, man. I wanted to give you the platform number 1, because you deserve it. But you hit on a lot of things that resonate with me personally. And, you know, talking about being coachable, Billy Donovan just wanted you to be coachable. And I think a lot of people miss that aspect, not just in sports, but in life in general.

  Patrick Young: In life.

  Mick Hunt: When you feel like you're that guy or you're that gal and no one can teach you or tell you anything, that's usually when things are the worst for you. Right? And I love that you said you didn't have to be perfect. You just had to show up. You had to be available, but most importantly, you had to want to be coachable because a lot of people will say, okay. I'm coachable until you start coaching them. Right?

  Patrick Young: Right.

  Mick Hunt: And so I'd love for you to talk just a moment about, for you, what does being coachable mean?

  Patrick Young: Well, I think what happens so often times or not, you know, I know what happens in my case, and I know what can happen in other people's. For me, I did struggle with being a little bit coachable before coming into college, especially with my dad. I don't know why it is. You know? Why is it with kids and parents that were so resistant on what they wanna tell us and teach us?

  But, fortunately, when I transferred to Providence, another school here in Jacksonville, that was the first coach to get on me and push me in. I understood he loved me and he wanted me there. That's why he was getting on me. He saw the greatness within me. And, you know, I'm fortunate that I didn't have social media at the time to where it is now.

  There's so many people that are telling you how great you are, how good you can be, this and that and whatever. But the thing is that's an expectation that is external versus having this internal standard that says, okay. I appreciate what people are expecting and think and believe that I can be, but I understand there is a large amount of work required for me to get to where I wanna get to. Potential is only potential until it actually becomes that pinnacle. I didn't realize that.

  You know, I was frustrated because I thought it was gonna be easier. I thought that, you know, when I came to college that I was still gonna be able to out-talent people and that the amount of work that was required was way more than I was I'd ever worked. I've been I had never worked as hard as what I believe is required for you. Like, I don't wanna say you have to be obsessed, but it has to be a priority. It has to be you know, there's this book that I haven't read it yet, but I want to.

  It's the, The Cost of These Dreams, and it just has so many stories of athletes like Jordan. All of these sacrifices in order to get to where they wanted to get to because that's what it requires. It requires sacrifice. There's a cost that is due every single day. And there's not only that, but, you know, my AAU coach, he's been coaching, I mean, well over 30 years.

  He and I were catching up and talking about 3 different generations of how he's had to change his coaching. 30 years ago, 35 years ago, he could really get on guys, and sometimes you grab them by their jersey, just knock them inside the head. And, eventually, it was like, okay. That might be a little too much. Right?

  Child abuse, etcetera. Like, we look at that now as it's wrong. You shouldn't, obviously, you shouldn't have to hit somebody as an almost adult in order for them to get something. But I get it. I get the frustration that coaches can go through sometimes.

  Then you go, you know, you can't hit players, the next generation, my generation, but you can cuss them out. You can say you can cuss them out from A to Z. Right. And sometimes you feel this might get hurt for sure, but you bounce back. You bounce back.

  You can understand that it's about the message, not the tone. And he says now in this current generation, you can barely say anything. It's a group that is so connected to their phone and not able to emotionally understand what is being delivered to them. It might be criticism. You know?

  And I think that might be the reason that that wording why people struggle, but it is correction. It is there's blind spots. There's things you don't know about the game, and this coach wants you to succeed. But you have to understand by you not doing the things that are required or asked of you, you're hurting the team or you're not gonna get on the court. If you can't remember plays, if you can't do the basic things that they're asking you, how can you expect that they're gonna put you and give you time over a starter?

  And no. And, yeah, to your point in life, you know, I don't think that we as individuals, we haven't normalized asking for feedback, whether it's your wife, your child, your boss, your friend. So when someone does criticize us, justified or not, right or wrong, we take the offense. Like, how dare they say that? You know?

  And I realized, a pastor friend of mine said the word offense, I think translates, I couldn't remember if it was translated in Greek or Hebrew, but it translated over to bait that you don't have to take the bait. Yes. Someone can say something offensive, but you don't have to pick it up and be offended and carry that thing around with you. That's kinda where I've been trying to put myself in that space moving forward. It was so easy for me to get offended before I started growing up and understanding that coaching and correction is coming from a loving place from the people in my life. So, yeah, that's a great question.

  Mick Hunt: That's awesome. And I love your response to that. And then I wanna talk not necessarily about the accident, but how you've transformed your life since, because let's be as honest and transparent as we can. Right?

  Patrick Young: Yeah. For sure.

  Mick Hunt: It's very unfathomable. Right? You've gone through things that people can't imagine unless you've been there. And so and we never want to minimize that at all. So the transformation of you, what has that been like?

  Patrick Young: Yeah. No. I think it's important at least to touch on, you know, just the car accident. It was June 29th. Had to get life flighted into South Dakota.

  No one died. It was just me. I had an eight-and-a-half-hour surgery on my back for the doctor to put in 2 rods, 12 screws, and being told your chance of walking again, you know, is slim. Not impossible, but slim. And then going on to rehab and facing the identity crisis that anybody would go through.

  I told the men yesterday that, hey. If you would have asked me before the accident how I would have defined manhood, I wouldn't have said about how much weight you can lift and just kinda how the world defines a man. Things, success, provider, not provider of protection, not provider of love or support. I would have said, yeah. I agree with that, but it wasn't until truly it was stripped away a lot of things that I attached myself to where I had to say, alright.

  Well, God said, alright. Who are you now? Basketball's gone. You're not standing, towering at your height that you, you've been your whole life 6 foot 9. You can't dunk.

  You can't lift weight. You can't squat. And you can't run. You can't. Who do you believe you are now?

  You can't dance with your wife. You can't, you know, mess around and wrestle with your daughter and play with her. And, you know, the stuff that I would have loved to do with my daughter. And it is so easy to focus on the things you can't do and to become bitter about it. But for me, I felt many of things that I owed it to my family, to my wife, to squeeze out and discover and find who Patrick Young really is.

  And then also with God, I said, you know what? In James 1, 2, 2, 3, it says to consider it pure joy and face the trials of various kinds. Know that the enduring in your faith creates perseverance. And when that perseverance completes, you will become complete lacking in nothing. And I said, you know what?

  It's inevitable. It's diverse that I was gonna face something in life. We all are. And God said, this is an opportunity for pure joy. So I'm gonna put that to the test.

  If you said joy is found, but, you know, for people that might not be religious, listen to how many things have you gone through in your life that you didn't want to, that were uncomfortable, that challenged you, doesn't have to be anything anywhere close to as big as what I've gone through and still going through. You went doing it. You got through it, whatever, and you're like, dang. I'm kinda glad that happened or that thing helped me become more patient. That thing helped me change my perspective.

  And just in this short time, coming up on 2 years, of course, I battle with why this isn't fair. But when you are able to see the goodness that comes from it and how it affects other people's lives by, look, it's not about perfection again in this, but I progressed. Sometimes I know the littlest thing of just showing up. People seeing me show up in places and going and standing and not faking it. I'm not saying I won't say fake it till you make it, but having this realization and this acceptance that life is now, life is now.

  Yes. I would love to go back and change. I love to do high school again. I love to do childhood again. I can't do them.

  So nothing has taken away my decision-making. Our life is full of choices, full of choices, and I'm not gonna say it's easy. And there's people that have things a lot far worse off than I do. That's something that keeps my mind sober, that there's people that are suffering far greater than I am. And just knowing the following and my purpose, this pit and I already said this the other day.

  It was my therapist. He was like, man, the pit that you're in doesn't stop your purpose. The pit doesn't change your purpose. It might delay. It might slow you down, but you're not gonna be in there forever.

  Joseph was in a pit for a while, and you would have thought he was gonna be done for. But his purpose and the calling and the vision that he had not and I have a vision that I'm gonna squeeze out every ounce of potential and chase after. First of all, like, this has made me a person, the man, and what I'm going through that I wish I always would have been. Because I think a lot of people like me and athletes that have been exposed to this kind of narcissistic idolization, you're the athlete, you're the star, you get free passes just because of this and that, it makes you believe that you're better than you are, and you're more important than you actually are. And, I mean, it's just filling up your bucket of pride.

  And a lot of athletes, myself included, oh, I'll get to that one day. When I stop, I'll stop sleeping around. I'll stop doing this or that one day. And when is that one day? When is that one day?

  Because tomorrow isn't guaranteed. And, you know, this situation that I may have forced me to be bitter and mad, angry, and nobody would fault me for that. Nobody would fault me for being the opposite space that I'm in now. And I said, you know what? No.

  I am gonna maximize this and use what I've been given to become the man that I know I've been called to be. And there's still areas where we all need to improve. You know, I know, we know, I'll know it, but just the exponential growth on a personal level I've had has been amazing.

  Mick Hunt: I love that, man. And, you know, following you and seeing a lot of the things that you're doing on social and then, you know, whatever I can see out on these internets out here about you. One of the things that I truly love, and you don't necessarily say it in these words, but it's something that one of my accountability partners, Karl Lester Crumpler, talks about all the time. People talk about being happy, but what about joy and fulfillment? Right?

  Patrick Young: Yeah.

  Mick Hunt: When you leave your day, are you really getting joy and fulfillment out of it? Because to me, that's what matters the most. And every time I hear you talk, every time I see a post, I say, Patrick is making sure that before he puts head on pillow, he is fulfilling his mission of the day. Am I on point with that?

  Patrick Young: I think you're on zero, you know, now I'll perk the other again, but, yeah, you're dead on with that happiness versus joy. I just chasing happy is something I just I don't do. There's moments. I think we know as individuals what things we can do that'll fill our tank up, hanging around other people, quiet time, watching sports, whatever that may be.

  But those things are all circumstantial. Those things are all I have to do something in order to get to that thing. And, you know, for me, one thing is, like, you know, I'm currently in a season where I'm not fully independent as I was before. Not yet. So I still have to get a sale on average 2 to 4 hours of care at home, morning and night.

  And that doesn't make me happy at all. Not even a little bit. Just having to kinda be prisoner, it can feel that way to the circumstance. But I said, you know what? When you can change your perspective, and I think, gosh.

  If my mom wasn't a nurse, my dad's not a nurse. Yeah. He's stepping up into this. I have great we have fantastic insurance. Like, this is not I'm able to just change my mind to a place of gratitude.

  And I won't say it's like the ultimate level of joy, but there's joy. Like, you know what? Things could be worse. I'm taken care of. Like, I'm not in the hospital. I'm able to still do things. I'm able to still there's joy in that for me.

  You know, with joy, going back to that scripture, it's an opportunity for joy. So it's a changing of your mind and saying, man, this sucks, but God says there's an opportunity here. I think it's important to allow ourselves to acknowledge and have the self-awareness of where we are most knowing. If we're sad, if we're angry, we can go from that point, that starting destination to get to where we wanna get to. And, yeah, there's annoyance for me. There's sadness. There's this anxiety of I just wanna I'm missing out.

  And I said, you know what? My parents are caring for me, and someone shared this with me. On average, once your kids leave the house at 18, on average, for the rest of their lives and your life, you spend 2 years total with them, you know, accumulated. And I'm getting this period in my life right now where when I got out of the hospital October 4th, I've been with my parents since then. And as long as I'm an adult, obviously, I've been with them.

  And I'm like, you know what? Instead of having this mindset, oh, I can't wait to get out of my parents' house, then I'm gonna do that. Let me enjoy it. Being able to kinda slow down, simplify has been so fruitful. Man, it's been so, so fruitful. I can't even put enough justice to that.

  Mick Hunt: That's awesome, my brother. So let's talk about the PY4 Foundation, man. Like, what are you doing with the foundation? What's the purpose? And then more importantly, I wanna know how can the listeners and the viewers and myself, how can we support and be a part of this foundation with you?

  Patrick Young: So taking a step back, like, I think from the outside in, outside looking in, people might think, oh, Patrick, you know what I just started? I had it was one of those things for me. One day, I wanted to write a book. One day, I wanted to start a foundation. One day, one day, one day, I didn't know what the message was gonna be.

  I didn't know what any of the things were gonna be. And I was kinda just like, oh, you know, it'll come to me one day and, you know, I don't wanna say thank you for the accident for me to be able to have the clarity, but thank you for the accident giving me clarity to a space. As you said, when you started this podcast that it's a space that you don't know unless you're in it. I knew nothing about spinal cord injuries before this. Nothing.

  Before my accident and how it affects people. The person, their family, their kids, their job, and all of it. And I was like, you know what? There's gotta be a way to help as many people that are going through this that don't have the support that I do, and we can raise money to meet some needs. You know? We just recently I gave $25,000 for the purchase of a vehicle to a hospital here that needed a new vehicle.

  And they run off of grants, but a vehicle was like it wasn't anywhere high on the totem pole because there's so many other things that they need to do to care for the patient. And this vehicle is gonna hopefully for the next 15 years help each year, 2 to 300 people learn how to drive again that have had an injury. So people might wonder, how do I drive? This right here is my hand control.

  When I push it forward, it breaks. But when I turn this knob down, that's how I accelerate. You can see I have a lift in the back of my truck that brings my wheelchair to me.

  Mick Hunt: Wow.

  Patrick Young: Isn't that a blessing? It allows me to drive my truck and have the freedom. And I'm like, I want other people to have the opportunity to experience something like this. You know? But I guess, you know, with support to the foundation, you know, certain things that you can do in your personal life.

  When you see people in a wheelchair in general, I think it doesn't take much to be kind and see that person and acknowledge them in the same way that you would with anybody else. Because I just know the struggles that a lot of people have in a wheelchair when it comes to self-esteem and self-confidence and feeling invisible, feeling like they're overlooked. And that's something again, that's something free. I'm not asking anybody for money, but just awareness and intentionality there. You know, with this month coming up on June 29th, it'll be the 2-year anniversary of my car accident that we just are trying to raise $10,000.

  I came up with the idea of it, like, the last week of May to just offer my speaking services and whatever else anybody may want for free, just a donation of any amount to the foundation to hit that number. And we're almost there. I mean, 3 days away. And shoot, a golf tournament in September. If you know who wants to fly into Jacksonville and be a part of the golf tournament, 3rd year doing it and super excited.

  But, you know, there's so much to the story, and I'll bet anyone that can listen to this and get a chance to read my book. I go into a lot more depth and a lot of things I've learned and experience I've had that I think will affect and touch your life.

  Mick Hunt: Absolutely. So a couple of things, and I'll get you out of here. So where can people follow you and find you on these internets?

  Patrick Young: The first one is easy. It's my name on Instagram and on Twitter and my social media and my website. So my name is Patrick Young without the letter k. So patricyoung and the letter 4 at the end. For the website, there's no 4.

  And for the foundation, it's just py4foundation.com. So, I mean, I'm pretty active on there, so it's not hard to find me. I try to do as much as I can for every post that I make, for everything that I do on there for it to be something positive and uplifting. And anybody that wants to reach out, whether it's just to talk about this, they have questions about things you're dealing with, nobody is too small for me at all to call or talk to or anything. I don't believe in that.

  So reach out in any way possible that you may want to do that.

  Mick Hunt: Absolutely. I'm gonna put links to all of your platforms in the show notes and comment section of this for the viewers. I'm also gonna put a link to the book. I need everybody to go get the book. Like, as a matter of fact, I am going to buy copies myself and make available for people as well too because

  Patrick Young: I can mail you some signed ones. You just let me know.

  Mick Hunt: We will do that for some time.

  Patrick Young: Easier.

  Mick Hunt: Unplugged listeners. You're gonna get a signed copy of Patrick's book. And I don't want you to give them to me, Patrick. I wanna buy and support the foundation as well too. Thank you.

  And then also, Patrick, you do public speaking as well with what is this? Players to good.

  Patrick Young: Yeah. Players for good. Yeah. Yeah. I just started working with Rose, and she's been awesome just trying to get my name out there and story out there.

  What I love so much about the foundation, about her organization, it's not just people coming up there and speaking just to speak. The clientele she has are really trying to make a difference in this world and impact people's lives. And, you know, I'm honored to be a part of her team and her opening up some opportunities and working on my behalf. So I just they're really cool working with her and, you know, anybody that wants to as a company or something that needs someone to speak virtual in person, it really doesn't matter. We'll make that happen.

  Mick Hunt: Yep. Players for good. Everybody remember that. I'll have a link to that as well so that we can get more goodness out of Patrick, because trust me, as soon as you start following, you're gonna see what I mean. If you're not following him now, you're gonna see what I mean.

  But all of his socials, players for good. We're gonna make sure that we have all of that there. Patrick, man, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy, crazy schedule. It means the world to me to have you on. Even though I'm not a Gator, you know, I'm a Tar Heel, but I

  Patrick Young: That's alright. For

  Mick Hunt: I support the good in your

  Patrick Young: Fortunately, we never played y'all when I was there. We never played Duke or North Carolina. For some reason, I think y'all were scared.

  Mick Hunt: No. Y'all would've beat the heck out of Duke. Y'all would have problems with us, though.

  Patrick Young: No, baby.

  Mick Hunt: For all the listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. No one issue.

  Intro: Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast, and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.