TRANSCRIPT: Davion Mintz, Keion Brooks Jr. exclusive interview with KSR

Last week, KSR was able to secure two exclusive interviews with Kentucky Men’s Basketball players Davion Mintz and Keion Brooks Jr. In conversations with both of them, topics ranged from name, image, and likeness opportunities, returning to a packed Rupp Arena crowd, expectations for the 2021-22 season, and much more.

If you missed it earlier, we covered Kentucky’s NIL approach in an article here. But if you’re hoping to read everything that Mintz and Brooks Jr. had to say, look no further.

Davion Mintz

On how it feels to be back at Kentucky…

It feels great. Atmosphere is right, just good to be back in the city.

On the conversation the team had to sign with ProCamps…

It was more kinda like a team approach. They, I don’t want to say attacked us, but reached out to us, individually, but more of like okay guys, this is going to be more of a team thing. We would need to get your support from the city of Lexington and the fanbase. We kinda knew this wouldn’t be an individual deal but more of a team thing. It was really good, it made it really simple. We knew that, coming out, ProCamps would handle a lot of the things on the backend to make it simple for us to just come out, show up, and they already proved to be an organized group so the decision collectively became pretty easy for us.

On why ProCamps was such an easy choice…

Looking at the event we have right now going on, and prior to this, we come at sign autographs, everything is set up for us, the staff is already there, they’re hustling, adjusting the balls for us to sign autographs, having extra guys there stay late and move shirts–just make things easy for us. Going into it we didn’t know but just hearing their resume, it was pretty simple with us to sign on.

On why they decided to do this deal as a team…

With some deals it’s important for us that we reach out and try to get our own individual deals. But as much as we can, try to do it collectively and get the team going. It just makes it fun and engaging, not only for us, but for the community and the people of Kentucky and outside of that. Anytime we can do that and have opportunities to donate to charities, that’s a decision we came up with collectively as a team. It’s just great.

On how important and exciting it is to go out and see fans…

I’m super excited. Before I came to Kentucky, I was that guy who went to college and would watch the Kentucky documentaries. I remember watching the training camp, I think it was called Cal’s training camp, before I came here and I was like ‘man that’s crazy’, these people are really out here salivating to touch us and touch them. It was mind-blowing at the time because the opportunity that events like this present. And then the amount of support that is out here, it was crazy to me. Now to be a part of it, I can’t describe it. I’m really looking forward to it.

On his feelings of being inaugural NIL class…

Absolutely. I was talking to my dad about it and also my teammates. It’s crazy, the guys who were on the team last year, we were the first to play through a pandemic and now we’re the first to play through a rule change where we can finally get paid. So history is being made. That’s stories we’ll be able to tell forever so it’s crazy.

On if the Kobe Grinch’s are coming back…

You know it. The Grinch’s are coming back. Hopefully I can get a new pair and try to save up a little money for this camp to buy those–they’re super expensive. But other than those I got a lot of Kobe’s coming. A lot of Kobe’s coming. It’s gonna be a lot of flavors out there for sure.

On why Kentucky fans should be excited about this team…

Kentucky fans should be exciting because it’s a lot of guys out there who are experienced. A lot of different approaches to the game, guys that can really shoot it from the perimeter. There’s a lot of different threats out there and guys have gotten better that was here last year. We simply have returners that have improved and also saw how elite they have to be–or we have to be in order to win games because we saw how terrible it can get. Just fighting back with that hunger. You should be excited because we especially don’t want to go back to where we were so it’s going to be a lot of fun. A lot of guys coming in with talent for sure. It’ll be fun.

On how UK has helped with learning NIL rules…

It’s definitely important. We just hired, I don’t want to butcher his name, his nickname is T.J. (Beisner). They just hired him as part of the staff to try and help control. Then we have our great compliance office who is always giving us those tough meetings, about an hour-and-a-half long meetings. But it’s definitely necessary because it helps us be proactive and also be smart about what we’re doing and also bringing in advisors and people to help and I think that’s very important because before, a lot of us, they come here and start our professional career. It’s important that you learn how to manage and understand the process of just life. So Kentucky is doing a great job with that for us.

On his strangest Cameo/NIL requests…

I’ve had a lot of weird Cameo requests. But I don’t turn any down. I like to have fun with it so I like when crazy stuff comes through.

Off the top of my head, I know one lady was asking me to threaten her child that he couldn’t come to the games anymore and she gave me permission to whoop him if he wasn’t doing his homework and stuff like that. Or if he didn’t behave. I get a lot of birthday shoutouts besides that man. It’s a lot of fun for sure.

On making your coaching debut over the weekend…

I think I’m gonna put myself to the test. I meet a lot of people who tell me ‘one day you’re gonna be a coach’, I hear that a lot. And honestly, we’re gonna see. This is my first time coaching people that are older than me. I’m not coaching little kids this time, it’s a little more serious although we’re gonna have fun. So we’re gonna see. I’m definitely gonna have fun but I’m gonna take a serious approach to this and try to win all the games I can.

On any potential coaching beef…

Oh yeah, I’m with all of that. I definitely will knock somebody out at halfcourt if I have to. But we’re definitely gonna take this seriously and have a lot of fun with it but if it gets to that, I told my players we’re fouling. Honestly, if something thinks he’s going to get past you or they want to embarrass us or have a good lead, we’re gonna hack, we’re gonna beat ’em up a little bit.

Keion Brooks Jr.

On how it feels to be a part of NIL…

It’s been interesting to see how the landscape of how people approach college has changed. You see a lot of players from different schools signing deals and it’s just interesting to see how people navigate it. There’s a lot of stuff that’s new to everybody. It’s just been really nice to see how people have been going about it and I think it’s great for college basketball. I think it can be something that can possibly incentivize people to stay longer if possible. And I think it’s just something that’s really good and changed the landscape of college basketball as a whole.

On Coach Cal’s excitement level for his players being able to make money…

It’s good to see how his mind is always turning and churning to make opportunities for us. I think he’s done a great job at being at the forefront of NIL and making opportunities for players to put some money in their pockets. He’s been finding ways to do that for years with camps and other stuff that we do so that he can find a way to pay us that’s legal. Now that NIL is a thing he’s been on top of that, trying to push us out there, help with our branding, helping us create an image where people would be willing to put money in our pockets because they see the type of kids that we are, the type of men that we are going to become. So I think he’s done a good job of marketing us in that type of way.

On how giving 10% to charity started and if he came up with the idea…

I’m not gonna say that, it was more of a collective thing. I’m not going to say I came up with it but we came together as a team and decided this would be something that is good to do. Especially with us making some money, it’s always good to give back. We’ve been put in a position where we’re blessed. We’ve got some good opportunities and some great things around us so it’s been good to give back to some people that may be less fortunate than us.

On if summer camps helped influence them to give back through NIL…

Absolutely. Especially with a lot of new guys we got, they don’t understand what it’s like with this fanbase. They’re amazing, they’re the best in the country. Our fans travel well. Any neutral site game is a home game for us. So just for them to be able to experience that and on the forefront before we even get to all that, to be able to give back to some of the fans and some of the people that really support us is always a great thing to do.

On if teammates look to him for guidance playing in front of UK fans…

For sure. Only ones that have been through it are me, Brennan (Canada), Dontaie (Allen), and Zan (Payne). So us going through that, navigating that was very fun. And then last year…you know what happened last year. But coming into this year we got a lot new guys and they want to know what it’s really like to play in front of a packed crowd in Rupp or on the road. It’s a great experience and I can’t wait for them to experience that too because it’s something that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

On what he’s looking forward to the most this season…

I’m just ready to get back in Rupp in front of a full crowd, packed house. We have one of the best–I’m biased but I think we have the best home court in the country. They help us get stops, they spark runs, they do a lot of things that really help during the game. And last year not having that, the homecourt advantage, in a way, is kinda taken away because we don’t have as many crazed fans in there going crazy. So that’s what I’m really looking forward to is getting back in front of fans and making some noise.

On if he’s having more run-ins with students this year compared to last year…

Definitely a little bit. Especially with class being opened up and in-person. I just think that’s good to be able to walk around campus again and speak to people and not just being confined to being in our room or being in our room. As a human, you’re a social creature, you want to be around people, you want to talk to people, and I feel like with things opening back up a little bit, it’s just great to really experience what it’s like being a basketball player at Kentucky.

On other ProCamps ideas you have moving forward…

We’ve got some things in the works that we’re talking about a little bit. Haven’t gone too far in-depth about it, just some ideas that we’ve thrown out in the air that we like. We gotta build on that and find a way to incorporate the fans in a good way. So we’re just taking it day-by-day, step-by-step. Like I said before this is new to everybody so we don’t want to rush anything and completely botch it or mess it up because we’re the first class of NIL in college basketball so we want to set a good precedent for everyone that comes behind it.

On how cautious he is in his NIL approach…

Me personally I take everything very cautiously. Because like you said this is new to everyone and you have to navigate to try to find out who’s legit, who just wants to take advantage of you, but then on the flip side, who really wants to help you, who really wants to be able to put your brand out there and market you. So you have to find the defined balance of who to talk to, who to sign with, like I said just navigating this whole thing is different but I think it’s something that’s different and I think we have the right people with us helping us out every step of the way. I’m not really too worried about me doing anything that is gonna be harmful or hurt my image but I know we got the right people around us that will take care of us.

On strange Cameo/NIL requests…

I got a couple of weird things, especially on Cameo. Cameo will get a little crazy sometime with some of the requests. Like requesting me to spank their child or stuff like that. I’m not gonna do that but you know it’s fun to be able to interact with the fans in a new and different way. I think Cameo is a great thing to do that with. And a lot of the other stuff we’re doing, it’s just good to be able to–it’s good for us to make money but NIL is always giving us a great opportunity to interact with our fans.

On if doing group deals were meant to help prevent locker room friction…

For sure. Doing something with your teammates is always a good thing, it’s always fun, especially with you have a group of teammates that really like each other. We bond all the time. If you see one of us walking somewhere, the next 14 are not too far behind. So I think it was just a good idea for us to do this together. As far as creating friction or anything like that, I can’t speak to that really because I don’t really know what that would be like because, like I said, the teammates that I have, we’re all rooting for each other to do whatever we can to make some money or market yourself. I want to see all those guys do the best that they can with this opportunity because I don’t want to hate on another man’s blessings. That’s just how it is.

On if he stays in touch with former Wildcats now turned pro…

All the time. That team from two years ago was extremely close and I hate that we didn’t get a chance to go to the tournament because I felt like we were rolling at the right time when we had a good chance to make the Final Four. But we still have a group chat that we talk in every day and it’s just fun for me to see how they’ve progressed on past here. Quick is doing his thing, Nick is doing his thing, Nate, Ashton, E.J., Tyrese, Khalil, Johnny at UCLA was ballin. It’s just good to see those guys go out there and have some success after they left here. I’m happy for all of them and we stay in contact and we encourage each other all the time.

On what he’s looking forward to the most this season…

I’m more looking forward to the journey of it all. Dealing with the NIL, dealing with fans coming back around. You don’t want to be too worried about the destination and not enjoy the journey of what we’re doing, so that’s what I’m looking forward to. Me being in a leadership position, leadership role, I’m looking forward to helping my teammates out, helping the freshman, helping the new guys that transferred in to know what it’s really like to be here and what it takes to win. I had a taste of that my freshman year with the older guys pulling me along and showing me the way and I think it’s only right that I do the same thing when it’s my turn.