When you hear the word entourage, what do you think of?
Velvet ropes. VIP treatment. Bottle service. Hanging out with celebrities. Free clothes and sneakers.
Well, all that is accurate.
“Being a plus-one, the treatment was way different,” Travonne Edwards told The Athletic on the most recent episode of Stargazing. “Those things of not waiting in line in the club, comp bottles — it just depends on the certain situation. But the treatment was that. ‘Aw, that’s his man. So we’re gonna look out and make sure you’re good.’”
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Before Edwards was an NBA analyst at The Athletic, he was in the entourage of two former NBA players: Marcus Williams and Brandon Jennings.
In Episode 5 of Stargazing, The Athletic’s new NBA Culture video podcast, Edwards spoke about his friendships with Williams and Jennings, the perks of entourage life, meeting and partying with LeBron James and Drake, the code to “protecting the money,” and transitioning back to reality, among other topics.
Here is a snippet of our conversation from Episode 5.
Editor’s note: Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
Episode 5 of Stargazing with @Travonne
What’s it like to be in an NBA entourage?
— VIP treatment
— Partying with LeBron and Drake
— The code
— Transitioning back to realityYouTube:
Apple: …
Spotify: …— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 17, 2022
What are some of the day-to-day responsibilities that go into being in a player’s entourage?
It just depends. Like, if you don’t have a cook, your homie might make some food. You might need somebody to get picked up from the airport. Can you pick somebody up from the airport? They’re not gonna go to do their own grocery shopping and stuff like that. If you’re living with them, that’s kind of normal. It’s not even a job. That’s common stuff, like what you would be doing? You’re just living in a better crib. Honestly, it just depends, because it depends on the player and what you’re doing. And I think, like, hanging out with Brandon (Jennings) was more so like, one week we’re hosting Wale, we’re hosting Bow Wow, we’re hosting Lil Twist, versus there’s a week where it’s just the homies. So it’s just different.
He’d be like, ‘Yo, just chill with my homie Black Tray. He’ll make sure you’re good.’ Because he can’t focus on that. You gotta focus on the game. You gotta focus on a lot of stuff. So it might be like,’Oh, we’re gonna go out tonight?’ All right, let’s set up the table. Things like that, you know what I’m saying? So it was always fun. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, this is crazy.’
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Did you ever get starstruck around NBA players or celebrities? Or because you were already exposed to that life so early on it was just normal for you?
One time — and I never did it again. Brandon had just played against the Utah Jazz. And at that time, Deron Williams is one of my favorite players. Deron Williams is like one year older than me probably. But at that time, I tried to model my game after him. So I was just like, ‘Oh, this is cool.’ And (Jennings) had like a crazy weird stretch where he played like Gilbert Arenas right before the gun thing, Tony Parker, Deron Williams and I think Baron Davis. Deron Williams comes up to the car and is like, ‘Yo, what are y’all about to do after the game?’ I didn’t know opposing players, if they got an extra night, they’re gonna link up with the next player. He’s like, ‘Yo, we gonna get some sushi.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, we bout to go eat with Deron Williams.’ He’s like, ‘Bro, stop acting like a groupie.’ And it made me so, like, ‘Did I really come off like that?’ And I never did it again.
The next week, we met Ray Allen because, when he played for the Bucks, one of the player personnel guys that would deal with the young players, he set it up for Brandon to meet Ray Allen about professionalism. How he got ready, things of that nature. Hearing about Ray Allen being vegan back then, that’s 2009, that didn’t even make sense to me. He’s like, ‘I haven’t had a burger in 10 years.’ I’m like, ‘You’ve never had a burger in like 10 years? How? Like, what do you eat?’ But I also wasn’t in a position to ask him a bunch of questions. Because when you’re a plus-one, you’re just being a fly on the wall. But just like preparation, he’s getting to the arena at like 3:45 pm. The tip-off is at 7 pm. Being the very first person to prepare, watching his routines and things of that nature, I’m like, I really want to be excited about this. At this time, you’re not even recording stuff like that. So I’m like, ‘I just met Jesus Shuttlesworth.’ I just kept saying that to myself. Like, ‘I met Jesus, Shuttlesworth.’ I didn’t really think like, ‘This is the beginning of my life of just meeting celebrities.’ But that one moment (with Deron Williams) just gut-checked me.
What is the craziest night out that you can remember? Take it wherever you want.
Lockout season. Lockout season was just like no holds barred because that was all we looked out for. You work out, go hoop, hoop some more, hoop some more and then we’re going to the club. We’re living in LA. Every NBA player is living in LA right then. So at that particular time, it was hilarious because football players are in the club, and it was kind of like a battle between who can spend the most money. You’re not remembering this stuff. You’re not even gonna care because it’s just bottles flowing. So that was one time.
But probably the best time was Drake’s pool party. I had an invite. It’s the infamous picture that’s on the internet. I’m like, doing some no-look thing, but I’m smoking. But at the time, I was a school teacher. No one knew what I looked like. So I was never posting my picture. And I happened to get caught in this picture with Drake. This is like 2016 where he’s like beefing with people. So, like, every picture is going to go viral, (including) this one. And I’m sitting there and there’s a girl that saw us at one of our parties and was like, ‘Hey, that’s the teacher. You know Drake?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ Cause I was trying to do the whole Spider-Man thing. I would teach and I’m also part of an entourage hanging out as a secret life.
So none of your students knew?
Not even some of my family or friends knew. I never really talked about that stuff. Everybody just knew him as my friend.
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You brought up Drake, so let’s get into that. You teased on Twitter that you met Drake and he already knew who you were. What’s the backstory?
Well, it’s 2014 or 2015, it’s at the Auburn Palace, and Future and Drake are doing The Jungle Tour. We’re there and we’re waiting. And Drake has this routine with his personal trainer and everything just to kind of get him ready and hype, and he’s walking the hall. We have VIP access. So before the show, we’re on the side. It’s just a different access. Brandon was very close — he probably still is — but he’s very close with Drake’s best friend, Nico. So Nico would hang out with us a lot. He would come to LA to hang out with us. He’s come to Milwaukee. He came to Detroit. So we all became friends. But when you go back to Toronto, I’m sure he probably was like, ‘Oh, Tray,’ and it would just kind of come up in conversation.
So when it came to a point, Brandon’s like, ‘Yo, by the way, this my best friend Black Tray.’ He like, ‘Oh, I know.’ And I’m like, ‘Huh? Like, bro, we’ve never talked in my life, like, ever.’ And it took me back. But it also shows Drake, LeBron, I feel like those dudes have a pulse on everything. KD, too, probably. They see everything. They might not acknowledge it, but they know who’s who, what’s being said about them, etc. And they can pick and choose when they want to respond to that stuff.
If there is someone that wants to follow your career path being in an entourage, maybe they have a friend that is in the AAU circuit, or in college basketball right now and might go to the NBA, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
So, for the entourage, your friend’s money is not your money. Make a life of your own because there’s gonna be an expiration date. You might not look at it. It’s inevitable in a situation of like, ‘Oh, nah, we locked in.’ He might have kids and start a family. You can’t live with them. The wife might say, ‘No.’ Come to the table with something. Don’t just be hanging around.
And probably the last thing for the entourage, protect them. When I say, ‘protect the money,’ protect the person who makes the money. And that’s crucial. That means if they’re intoxicated, make sure y’all get an Uber, make sure y’all got a driver. If you are in a place and there’s an altercation or some situation, you gotta be the fall guy. I’m not promoting any bad stuff, but you have to protect the money. It is what it is, you know what I mean? They should never end up in headlines ever. Ever.
(Photo: Travonne Edwards)
