BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Lawrence Funderburke - Building a Life Long Legacy - Momentum Dads

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Lawrence Funderburke is a devoted Christian and family man who is on a mission to improve the lives of everyone he comes in contact with. His Momentum Dads project is a challenge and practical guide to help dads and families grow.

Lawrence Funderburke (aka Mr. Fundy) is perhaps best known for his exploits on the basketball court. After the NBA, his life's purpose became much richer, clearer, and more meaningful: helping people build legacy assets—personally, professionally, financially, and spiritually.

A prolific writer and thought leader, Lawrence's most recent book, Momentum Play: How to Create It When You’ve Never Had It and Keep It Going Once You’ve Got It intersects sports with life, how to bounce back or move forward when your situation appears hopeless. “As long as you have oxygen in your body,” he says, “you have a shot in overcoming a painfully difficult or traumatic life.” His previous book, The Stewardship Playbook: Biblical Guidelines and Practical Tools to Handle God's Possessions with Diligence and Care assists fellow Christians in settling the issue of Lordship—in every area of life. He also wrote Sociopsychonomics: How Social Classes Think, Act, and Behave Financially in the Twenty-First Century, which tackles the growing wealth divide in America by helping readers understand the psychological and emotional hangups around money.

 As a highly sought after and seasoned public speaker on a variety of compelling topics, his inspirational story is a testament to his Christian faith and never-give-up mentality in the face of a difficult and dysfunctional, single-parent impoverished upbringing. 

He is well-versed in addressing the issues that confront for-profit and non-profit organizations alike, and can make a heart-to-heart connection with any demographic across the social class spectrum. He loves motivating and empowering people.

Lawrence and his wife Monya operate the Funderburke Institute of Financial Empowerment (F-I-F-E) and their non-profit arm, the Lawrence Funderburke Youth Organization (LFYO). They have two teenage children. 

 Visit www.MrFundy.com or www.MomentumDads.com for more information on Lawrence's outreach efforts, speaking opportunities, and book orders.  

 

 

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SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to Be A Baller, where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown. Today, we're doing a special episode on celebrating fathers and Father's Day and the influence of a dad. Today's guest... is Lawrence Funderburg, former NBA player, author, and founder of Lawrence Funderburg Youth Foundation.

SPEAKER_01:

Before we get started, let's hear a word from our sponsor. The team at the Financial Solutions Network is proud to partner with Tim Brown and bring you this episode of Be A Baller. Our mission is to share generously of our time, talent, and financial resources to help our clients develop financial plans and wealth management strategies that allow them to live the lives they imagine while connecting them with experienced We'll see you next time. We are a multi-generational professional team of advisors with a combined 83 years of experience teaching and managing financial strategies for individuals, families, businesses, and institutions. We would be honored to help you plan your financial journey. Contact us at 614-505-3025 or visit our website at tfsn.net.

SPEAKER_02:

Today, Lawrence is going to share his experience of growing up in a home, being raised by his mother and sisters, and today having a heart to inspire and encourage dads to be a guiding light for their children. Lawrence, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03:

Hey, man, thanks for having me, TB. Honored to be here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I understand the word is that you're a big Sanford and Son fan.

SPEAKER_03:

I am, man.

SPEAKER_02:

What is it about Sanford and Son? You know, just

SPEAKER_03:

probably, man, the humor growing up in the projects, you know, kind of how Fred it was, you know, the junkyard and all that. And the fact that, you know, what was said about Jesus, can anything good come out of Nazareth? A lot of times people think about the projects that can anything good come out of it. So I think even in junk, good things can be found, man. So that's why I try it in now, but I just love his sense of humor, even though he was kind of off the beaten path and a lot of those things are just, just, just incredible. But I was a big San Francisco

SPEAKER_02:

fan. You know, you're talking, you mentioned about growing up in the projects. Can you share about growing up in Columbus Sullivan Gardens in the city of Columbus and talk about your mother and sister's impact they had on your life as a child?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I grew up in Sullivan Gardens, which is considered the roughest, the toughest, the baddest, the meanest, the most dangerous housing project. You know, some people will dispute that, say, Bolivar Arms or Windsor Terrace or some other housing project. And I would say just ask the city prosecutors. Ask the police. They'll let you know the Sullivan Gardens. But what was interesting about Sullivan Gardens. It was called Sullivan Gardens, but there was no gardens there, particularly when I was there. It's supposed to be outside of each of your apartment buildings. There was supposed to be a row of gardens there. But like a lot of housing projects, gangbangers, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, alcoholics, that's kind of what you see. But the one thing that was absent was fathers. So I grew up in a fatherless home, like a lot of inner city kids. I grew up in a house full of women, three older sisters, single parent mom. And And the good thing about growing up in a house full of women, it taught me three things. Number one, how to have compassion for the pain of others. Number two, how to have sympathy for the difficulties that people go through. And then number three, how to put together a game plan to help people through their challenges and their struggles. So that's what it taught me. But the problem is you're kind of out of balance with that, right? Because you get a lot of the emotionalism, but you don't always have a lot of the rationalizations that are needed and necessary to help people. Because you need both, and particularly mothers and fathers are really critical in the life of a child.

SPEAKER_02:

With your dad not being around, who were some men who impacted you growing up?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, we've all heard the expression, it takes a village to raise a child. But there's also an African proverb that says, a child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to fill its worth. And we see that today on our streets. I always say our streets and school hallways are on fire because of an unmet desire, and that being the love of a daddy. And but there are a lot of people who were surrogates who stepped in. Nate Mitchell, the Boys and Girls Club, coaches, teachers, a lot of people who would step in and intervene. And I think we've lost that village mentality to kind of help people. And then a child without a father is like a ship without a rudder. It's going to go somewhere, but I'm not sure where it's going to go. And I think that's what we see. And we have a society, really fatherless children, which hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about how that ties to scriptural things, too, about the importance of a father.

SPEAKER_02:

You were a great high school basketball player, high school All-American, college All-Star, NBA player. When did you realize that you were good enough to play at the highest level?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, actually, TB, my first love was football. But when you're tall, you're thin, and you talk a lot of trash, that's a bad recipe for a football player. Of course, you're going to get broke. But I love playing football, and I really love playing football because I love hitting people, and I love getting hit. And you can hit people and not go to jail for it i'm just gonna be real i'm just gonna be i'm just gonna be real but i love playing football and and that is really tied to your endorphin system too which i think the dad is really helped shape that system drive determination discipline dealing with pain so i would manufacture my own uh pain and difficulties in life and to actually boost that but i actually love football but basketball uh i was good at i was always tall six feet in the sixth grade six one and seventh grade six three and eighth grade so i kept going about an inch inch and a half and i I have my basketball right here, and this was my girlfriend. Didn't talk back. Always on time. Always. Always ready to go, right? So this was my girlfriend. I didn't have a girlfriend. I know my wife says, yeah, right, but I didn't have a girlfriend. But this was my girlfriend, always ready to go, and this gave me solace even in the midst of growing up in that environment.

SPEAKER_02:

What

SPEAKER_03:

are

SPEAKER_02:

some

SPEAKER_03:

of those life lessons

SPEAKER_02:

you learned from sports?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I think it should be mandatory. When we were growing up, every kid had to play. And to be honest with you, with you. I played a sport every season, right? So in the fall, I played football. In the winter, I played basketball. In the spring, I played baseball. And in the summer, I ran track, track and field. And it teaches you so much. The good thing is that if you don't have a father, you can be around father figures and you can get that support and that camaraderie and all of that. That's why you focus so much on young people, because playing sports really prevents a lot of what I call mission or vision drift, because without that focus, without that guidance and direction, it's easy to drift. And who's going to pick you up? Drug dealers, gangbangers. They wait for you, right? So it was very important for me to play sports.

SPEAKER_02:

You're now truly an advocate for dads being involved in the life of their children. Can you talk about why the presence of a dad in a child's life, and particularly a young boy, is so important?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, there's a phrase that we know in our lexicon when it comes to the sports world, Nike, just do it,

SPEAKER_04:

right?

SPEAKER_03:

But when it comes to dad, just be it. And I think you have a lot of dads who get caught up in human doing instead of human being. And there's a big difference between presence and presence in terms of you can give presence to make up for a lack of presence. And kids will always remember that. And you were the one who really helped me a lot, T, because I remember when when I would say, you know, honor your mother and your father, you say, hold on, that's wrong. It's father and mother. You corrected me. And then one of the things you challenged me on is well is to walk in forgiveness you know how passionate I am about this particular subject and you said man have you really truly forgiven your dad because I really wanted to come out but I don't know if I was necessarily there and even though he died you know and hopefully get a chance to talk about that I was never able to say to him I forgive you and I didn't realize the deficits that he had he was just covering him up through alcohol and other things but it's very important to walk in forgiveness because as Christians forgiveness is not optional it's mandatory And it's very important because the wounds that we see in society, by and large, and you know how I feel about this, I'd say probably 80% of them either directly or indirectly are caused by some type of father failure or daddy deficits.

SPEAKER_02:

That's good. That's good. As I think back over my life, we were blessed to have a stepfather who kind of stepped in before us. But I was mad about it. I mean, I was really mad, you know, about that kind of attitude. And this man moved us out of an apartment, moved us into a house, to a suburb, so we can go to a better school. And I'm mad. And I'm mad, you know. And so as I look back on that, but I did get the opportunity, like you said, really mine was asking him for forgiveness for me, for how I was behaving, you know. You know, when you're young, you know, it's your mother and all that. But that forgiveness, it kind of, it has to be there. It has to be there. Let me

SPEAKER_03:

say, before I came here, I can't say his name, very well-known person here, very successful, a lot of father wounds. He's around my age, went to Independence And here he is struggling with an identity issue because he never got that from his father, right? A lot of challenges in terms of wanting to be a human doing as opposed to a human being. Very successful, all this. And I said, look, you've always wanted the father's blessing. I'm giving it to you this day. And to really help him through that because so many people praise him and honor him, but he has these wounds. And here he was this grown man crying like a baby in front of me, and I just was consoling him, but more importantly, giving him the Father's blessing, because that's what Malachi 4, 5, 2, 6 is really about.

SPEAKER_02:

Speaking of that, I know you're a strong man of faith. Can you talk about your faith journey?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I grew up, obviously, in a house full of women. We went to church. I went to Rehoboth Temple Church of Christ. I had a relationship with the Lord at a very early age. We went to church, but I don't think I was really anchored in like I should have been with him. And, you know, we went to church, traditional black church, three hours, you know, all day. Pack your lunch. Right. Stomach growling, all of that. You know, if you act up, my mom had huge hands and she was six feet. And when she pinched you, you know, I felt it for two weeks. But church was very important place for me, and I accepted Christ at the age of 12. There was a guy by the name of Mr. Pollable who would come in the inner city of our neighborhood, and he'd pick us up on his bus, and he'd give us these donuts. The donuts were actually pretty stale, but I'm going to be honest with you. I went for the donuts, but I came to know the sweetness of Jesus Christ and to accept him. But that's really what drew me to going to church was the actual getting a donut and having something to eat. And he said, take one, but I always took two or three.

UNKNOWN:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, that's a great story. You know, they call you Mr. Fundy.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

How'd you get that name?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, Fundy, Funderburg. I've been called a lot of names, Funderter, Funderjer, Funder... I've been calling a lot of names, TB. But, you know, Fundy is... I want people to, you know, the first three letters of my name, I want it to be fun. Because whatever I'm doing, I want it to be fun. Because you learn best when you're in a fun environment. Yes. So that's kind of the way I see it, Fundy. And I really think that... It really has a nice flow with people and they can remember it. I want people to see me. If you know me, you call me Fundy, you know, and those people who know me, know me by that nickname Fundy.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_02:

true epitome of a student athlete, you know, graduating college, going on to get your MBA. Now you're a certified financial planner. Can you talk about how are you using your financial expertise to impact the next generation?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. You know, when it comes to, I always say father failures or daddy deficits, there's two extremes, right? At one end, which is the end that I chose is you ring out the towel. There's this superiority complex, wanting to be a somebody because you always felt like a nobody. Right. And I think when you don't have a father who gives you that affirmation, appreciates an acceleration, that's one extreme. The other extreme is you throw in the towel. And this is the inferiority complex. And you see kids today who can't finish what they start. Me, I'm running through the finish line. Right. That was me. And though I was praised, I still had these deficits. So I've always practiced what I preach. I don't like hypocrites at all. I don't like people who say one thing and do another. Like a lot of athletes talk about staying in school, but they don't have any educational qualifications. I have every degree except for a PhD, which I got from how to stay off the streets and how to make it through. Right. But, you know, accomplishments were very important. I always focused on the triple A's. Right. And I always say when you don't have triple A's, then you're going to be in need of roadside assistance. So athletics, academics and aesthetics were critically important to me. And I felt that way because a sense of accomplishment really drove me because I never had that. hand of affirmation from my father appreciation and acceleration I'm proud of you son I'm just so proud of you like I do with myself and you don't get that you have to manufacture it on your own and then I became a financial planner a certified financial planner because I realized that you can help a lot of people with their finances but what I've learned is that if you look at a person's interactions with finances you can really see a lot of things of their brokenness and what they run from or what they run to you can see that a lot in the way people spend their money

SPEAKER_02:

Boy, you give me a good education sitting in here, all these gyms. You also offered several books. You're definitely building a legacy through Momentum Dads. But what was the vision of the Momentum Dads

SPEAKER_03:

movement? in life, you can get that from sports and sports can teach you a lot about life. So momentum is critically important. And I think what happens is a lot of people today don't have momentum.

SPEAKER_04:

And

SPEAKER_03:

when you think about momentum, momentum is really the second law of motion. Most people know the first one or the third one for every action is opposite and equal reaction. But most people don't know the second one. And the second one really deals with momentum, which deals with mass, which is the quantity of matter in the object or body times velocity is the speed of an object or body in a given direction. And for a lot of people, they're looking for momentum. Who is supposed to give the drive, determination, and discipline to kids? Who's that? The father. The father's supposed to. And when he's not there, who gets that? Who gives that? And then for a lot of people, they're searching for that. And I think the Bible says to whom much is given, much is required. So everything I do, I want to always come back to scripture. And I tell people, I don't have to proselytize, but I'm going to always prioritize who I am and who I belong to And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The crisis in me can assist with the Christ. The Christ in me can assist with the crisis in you. And that's kind of how I look at my life.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, growing up without a father, what was it? What was the turning point in your life that set you on the right path?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I was in denial about the pain of my father for a long time until I became a father. Then I realized how he shortchanged me. And I always tell people, no matter how much change I have or have in my life, I always felt shortchanged by my father. And I would see fathers like Michael Redd, Chris Webber, Grand Hill. And then I think like, man, how I was deprived of the affirmation, appreciation and acceleration of a father. That's why it's not surprising that we have the Kia boys who are jumping in cars gassed up with no place to go. A father is supposed to provide that for you. Be your tour guide. Show your son, daughter, sit in the back seat. This is what you can do if you do the right things. Here's where you can go and drive you along. But when if you don't have that, then you take matters in your own hands. All of the problems, 80% of the problems I believe indirectly or directly can be traced to father failures or daddy deficits. And what I mean by that, a father can be in the home, but absent emotionally and biochemically, right? Where he's a father, but he's not a dad. Or in my case, fatherless, not having a father at all. And I don't know which one is worse, TB, to not have a father or to have a father who never transitions to being a dad. And most people, use these terms interchangeably. But father creates life, but a dad protects a legacy.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Can you speak to some dads who are trying to do the right thing? Can you speak a word of encouragement to them and particularly to maybe some of those dads who didn't have that model in their life, who didn't see that?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. The best example I can give, I work a lot with juveniles who are incarcerated and prison ministry. I remember going to a prison in Chillicothe. And the thing was tragic. I saw a grandfather, a father, and a son sitting side by side by side.

SPEAKER_04:

Every

SPEAKER_03:

father leaves a legacy, but not every legacy is worth leaving behind. And I thought it was amazing that they bonded with each other in prison when they should have been bonding on the outside, right? And that there's a juvenile facility in Circleville where on Mother's Day, I remember we just celebrated Mother's Day. Everybody had You can't get in a restaurant. You got to make your reservations two weeks, two months in advance to go there and all that. We took to celebrate life because mothers initiate that. Yes. But then where's the father? Well, we'll see what happens on Father's Day. But this juvenile facility they had for Mother's Day, they invited aunts and grandmothers, sisters and all that to come. It was overflow, right? 160 some kids. They had over 300 mothers or aunts or people, surrogates in that position. So they said, we're going to do the same thing for Father's Day, right? Uncles, brothers, coaches, pastors, mentors for these young men. Six showed up, TB. Six. Six. And then you wonder why we're so upset with this situation. And I can prove it underneath the hood. I always say you got to get under the hood to deal with the hood. And I can show you that a lot of the problems that we see indirectly or directly are traced, not just inner city, middle class, affluent communities as well, are traced or connected to father wounds. Right. So I know that's why this is our calling. And what you've been doing, you've been doing this for a long time, you know, and this is a critical, critical component. And I believe your rewards in heaven, whoever's waiting behind you, they better be glad we have eternity because you're going to have a lot coming your way. Because this is one of the ways I tell fathers that you can stack your rewards by helping fathers transition to dads and then taking care of those orphans and those people who don't have a father, particularly Malachi 4 or 5. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. I know you have an event coming up. Yes. Could you talk to the

SPEAKER_02:

audience about that and really encouraging dads?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's right. You talked about that. You know, all fathers are on some type of curriculum. continuum. There are some fathers who are excellent

SPEAKER_04:

dads.

SPEAKER_03:

And I tell fathers all the time, you don't have to be a perfect father. You just need to be an excellent dad. And so many fathers need support. Mothers have that. Intuitively, they have that. But for us, we don't want to admit our mistakes. You're one of my mentors. I have many mentors who hold me accountable. And I think that's the problem with men. We don't have a network. We don't have a fraternity like we should to be able to grow into the greatness that God has given us in terms of the mandate of being a father. And so I wanted to come alongside and help in five areas with Momentum Dads on June 23rd, 23, because a father provides 23 chromosomes, not only the identity of a child, the sex of a child, but also the vision of a child. That's why in Judaism, they always wanted the father's blessing of what it was going to be in the future, right? So that's what we need in our society. And if you don't have that, then you're going to look out elsewhere. So I want to focus on five areas to help fathers, no matter where they are in their continuum and their walk in being a father or a dad is their leadership philosophy, which is critically important. You got to have to be a father. You got to be a leader and you got to have a philosophy, some principles and some some things, some precepts that guide and direct you in terms of this journey. And then the life's purpose is the second is my two guard. My point guard is leadership philosophy. My point guard, my shooting guard is is really life's purpose. The assignment you're placed on this earth to accomplish for the benefit and betterment of others and more importantly, to give glory and honor to the Lord's And every assignment has homework and it also has pop quizzes and tests. And for a lot of people with the life's purpose, a lot of guys don't really think about that. What is my life's purpose? I don't know why I'm here. What am I supposed to do? What are my gifts? So I think it's very important to help fathers understand that you being a father is a function, but it may not necessarily be your purpose. Okay. And then my small forward is going to be your longevity principles in terms of taking care of your body. How can you play with your kids and your grandkids? And I tell Christians all the time, God is full of grace, but your body isn't. You can eat whatever you want, but you might get to heaven much sooner than you should. So it's very important for us to take care of our temple. It's very important to set an example. And then number four is the livelihood playbook or paradigm. And that is not just the wealth, but also when it comes to so many other factors in terms of maximizing your potential. A good man leaves what? An inheritance for who? His children's children. That's exactly right. That's what that's about. And the last one, my center position, protecting a heart, is really your legacy postscript. A life is trapped in a moment in time, but a legacy stands the test of time. What are we going to leave behind? And I think for men and for fathers, that's the question that we have to ask. And we have to ask that question now and not wait to determine what our legacy is going to be. When the game is almost over and the horn is about to sound And God is going to take us home.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you led right into the last question. We'll wrap this up. This podcast is about building a lifelong legacy and just everything you just talked about. Let's put it in perspective for you personally.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, it sounds like you might be that center, you know, who's building that legacy. So what is the legacy of Lawrence Thunderbird?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. You know, it's interesting because there's a guy named Duke Heller and he talks a lot about what are people going to say about you when you're not here anymore? And a lot of men get caught up in human doing instead of human being. And particularly, there's a verse in the Bible that says, you know, what should a prophet of man if he don't gain the whole world and lose his soul? My question is, what should a prophet of man in his pursuit to gain the world, he loses the soul of his family in the process? And I see so many men who are ambitious, very ambitious, very successful, very driven, but they dropped the ball on the home front. And I used to do this, wanting the Messiah complex, wanting to be a savior to all these kids who are fatherless. And my wife, I used to bring kids over and my wife's nodding her head saying, what about your two kids right here? Do you understand what I'm saying? So you have to redirect and refocus that. So it's very important that your legacy has to start at home internally on the home front before you can reach people on the outside externally.

SPEAKER_02:

I want to commend you for the great job you've done with your children you know I saw your daughter CSG swimmer collegiate athlete now and then hanging out with Eli your son you know and it definitely all starts at home yes like I said we can pour into others but we can lose our own and in our house we have seen in our house that's for me in my house we're going to serve the Lord yes that's right me in my house we're going to serve the Lord yes we're going to serve the Lord and our vision is to bring up godly children who know God and that starts with us as dads pouring So I want to thank you. This brings us to the end of this episode. And I want to thank our special guest, Lawrence Funderburg, for sharing his wisdom and knowledge on the importance of godly men in the home and the community and also providing opportunities for others to follow that path. So thanks for being a leader in the Momentum Dads movement. I'm looking forward to all the great things that are going to come out of that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

So I want to thank you all for joining us during this enlightening and informative discussion on a special relationship between dads and parents. and their children. Hope this episode was beneficial to you. As always, thanks for listening to Be A Baller Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

If you enjoy our show, please share this podcast with your family and friends. Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Teron Howell and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.