Shownotes Transcript
Start preparing for your future at Liberty University and join thousands of LU alumni like Shannon Bream. From a flexible K-12 online academy to doctoral level programs, Liberty University has a range of educational opportunities to match your needs. If you're looking for an accredited K-12 school, Liberty University Online Academy provides a flexible,
biblical-based curriculum. For a college degree at the undergraduate or graduate level, choose from Liberty University's 700-plus programs online and on campus with scholarships and financial assistance available. Whether you choose to study residentially on Liberty's beautiful Lynchburg, Virginia campus or
or enjoy the convenience of one of our online programs, today's the day to start pursuing your world-class Christian education. Right now, as a listener of the Live in the Bream podcast, you'll get your application fee waived when you apply at liberty.edu forward slash Shannon. That's liberty.edu forward slash Shannon. Check out Liberty University today.
It's live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. I'm so excited to welcome back to live in the Bream, probably our sportiest guest ever. I feel safe in saying that. No offense to my other athlete friends or friends who think they're athletes who have been on this podcast, but he's actually an NBA star and he's more than that. He's a bestselling author, an
He is a teacher, a minister, and he is the founder of Unitas, a sportswear, apparel, and lifestyle company that we're going to talk all about. So, Jonathan Isaac, welcome back to Live in the Bream.
Thank you so much for having me, Shannon. It's funny when you said welcome back. I was like, oh, yeah, I was here before. You know what? Here, if you don't remember, if you don't remember why, here's why. You had a brand new baby. I think the last time we talked to literally brand new baby. So there may be a few things that are blurry from that time in your life. How is everybody doing? Everybody's doing good. And what's funny is we've got a brand new baby on the way right now.
Oh, my goodness. We're looking at an April delivery. Oh, man. Congratulations. Our first baby girl. Thank you so much. Our first baby girl, Naomi, is going to be turning two. And the new baby girl is coming in April. So I'm a girl dad, you know, two times over now.
You are. Congratulations to you guys. And so much excitement. It's so good to have good news in the world. I think everybody likes that. And when babies come, that's always a happy time and a good time of celebration. But I feel like you've had babies, too, when it comes to this book that you put out that was so groundbreaking. And also, Unite Us, which I would love to get an update on this. Man, people who know the product really love it. They love that it speaks to something really specific in the marketplace. How has that been going? Yeah.
It's been fantastic. It's been such a journey of just like, well, one, stepping outside of basketball, stepping outside of what I'm really familiar with, you know, the kind of the minister side and basketball was kind of just kind of where I live and then stepping into, OK, I got to put on a...
you know, kind of, you know, a different hat, a CEO hat, a marketing hat, you know, trying to step inside of the shoes of a consumer from the other side of the aisle has been really difficult and challenging, but also very, very cool and fun. I've learned so much. And, you know, we started Unitas and I'll give you a little bit of the backstory, but
Back in 2020, everybody remembers, you know, the crazy stand, you know, me not kneeling for the national team or wearing the T-shirt. But during that time, I was a Nike signed athlete. I was signed to Nike. I was getting paid by Nike. And I ended up getting hurt in that bubble, that same bubble that I stood and I got hurt. And they decided not to resign me.
And so I remember going to my pastor afterwards and while I was recovering, I said, hey, when I get back, I'm probably gonna try to sign with Adidas or maybe I'll even try to sign with Nike again, who knows? They'll probably want me back when I start playing again. And he says, why don't you make your own shoe?
And I kind of pause like, well, one, that doesn't make any sense. I, you know, players don't really do that. You know, I don't, I don't really understand what that could possibly look like. And he's like, like, at least check it out, like figure it out. What could it look like to have your own shoe? And then you can do whatever you want with it. Like, you know, it'll be your baby.
And so, you know, I started to make some phone calls. I called my agent and he's like, I don't know. And just calling different people. And then, you know, God just started moving and, you know, different things started to fall into place and different people. They were telling me, hey, you know, I used to work for Nike. I used to work for Adidas. And, you know, I'm a Christian and I'm wanting to go on this new venture with you. And that's how it started. And I remember, you
It was just a concept at first, but my pastor calls me a few weeks later and he says, "Hey, I'm literally at the altar at our church. And at our church, we have the Ark of the Covenant, like, you know, kind of a mock-up Ark of the Covenant with the wings and the cherubim and the flame in the middle.
And he says, I was praying and I was saying to God, God, you're the only one that can unite us from, you know, the political divisions, from the, you know, black and white divisions, the men and women divisions, everything that's going on in our country and society. You're the only one that can unite us. And he said, Jonathan, you need to name this brand.
you know, with this shoe called Unitas. And I said, okay, that's it. You know, we're naming it Unitas. And we really just started to kind of put our feet to work. And we created the Judah one, which was the first product of Unitas. It was the first NBA signature sneaker with visible Bible verses on the outside that I wore all last season. Those are completely sold out at this point. They are, as we have discussed. Yes. Very popular. Yeah.
Thank you so much. And we've just grown. We've recently released our Fortra, which is our first sneaker outside of basketball. It's an amazingly comfortable kind of everyday trainer cross. You can do whatever you want. You can run in it. You can walk in it, but really just an everyday lifestyle shoe. And those have Bible verses on them as well. The majority of them have 1 Samuel 2.30 on them, which kind of translates to those who honor God, God will honor. And we just wanted it to be a
reminder to people that when I'm walking around every day and I look down at my shoes, it's a reminder to honor God. But also remember that while I'm honoring God, God is honoring me. And, you know, we have apparel. We have, you know, we have a lot of new stuff coming to we have the Judah 2 coming out soon. We have more colorways of the Fortra. We have sandals coming. We did just, you know, we have apparel and the whole nine. So if anybody wants to check it out, they can head to weareunitas.com. And, you know, we appreciate your support.
Yeah. And I'll spell that for you folks. It's U-N-I-T-U-S, Unitas, that part of it. And it has been very successful. And like you said, this isn't something that you trained to do to be a marketer or to go into this business, but you felt like there was a void in the markets. Tell us about how you hoped and how this is kind of filling that gap. Yeah. So when you get past all of the
Like you just said, all of the marketing side of things and trying to build this thing, it really came from a real sincere place of looking at the marketplace and going, where the heck are we headed? And, you know, there used to be a time where it really didn't matter how
you know, when you, when you went to buy, you know, a pair of shoes and you went to buy a t-shirt, it didn't matter necessarily what the people behind the company believed. You were just getting a t-shirt. Um, but as, you know, coming out of COVID coming out of, um, you know, you know, even, you know, black lives matter and everything that was going on, there's been this rise of, it really does matter. And, you know, where you spend your money, uh,
Regardless if you don't want to believe that, it says something about your beliefs or your feelings because the people behind these companies have agendas and are using that money to push us in different directions and whatnot. And so it's become something that the American consumer has had to think about. And so even for us, my wife, she uses, it's still in my mind now, but there's a specific diaper brand. I think it's called Every Life.
that we switched to after hearing some controversy about one of the big diaper brands. And so things like that, we've had to take into consideration. And so what we wanted to do was create a brand that lovers of God and lovers of country could feel positive about and understand that when I'm shopping with this brand, not only am I honoring God because I'm wearing the word of God on my feet, I'm wearing the word of God on my clothes,
but I'm supporting this value system and this ideal for love of God and love of country. And so that's where it came from. And we've just been working at it and continuing to bolster our values, bolster what it is that we believe in. And we see the direction of our country changing daily with everything that's going on right now. We're excited about it. And at the end of the day, we understand that God is at the helm and at the forefront of our lives.
And we just want to create that touch point for other people as well. You know, just a little snippet here, you know, being in the airport and walking around, I had some people come up to me, Hey, I got my Unitas on. And something said to me was,
you know, in the back of my mind, I know exactly where it is that you stand on certain things or your belief system because of this brand that you're repping and that you're wearing. And so it's creating a touch point for people, for believers out there to say, hey, you know, I'm connected to this brand. You're connected to this brand. If we see each other, we have points of connection.
And I think the last cool story that, you know, that I can give you is, you know, I got a couple of DMs and players, basketball players from around the country and even some overseas were sending me pictures of them in their Judah one sneakers. It really spoke to me because it was like, you know, I'm a really good player in the NBA, but, you know, I'm not a superstar in the NBA. You know, not yet. Not yet. I'll say I'm not necessarily one of the, you know, the highlighted name players.
But here you have kids and, you know, guys my age and even older wearing this sneaker that has my middle name on the side, Judah, not because of me. You know, they're not doing it because of my name. They're doing it because of what is on the shoe. It's the Bible. It's the word of God. And they're saying, hey, I I'm choosing this. You know, the Judah one is a great sneaker.
It's not the most comfortable sneaker in the world out there. It's not the most stylish sneaker in the world out there. We have a lot of competition, but it does stand apart in the fact that it honors God. And that's our that's our heartbeat. And that's why these kids that's why these parents are buying it for their kids. That's why these guys overseas and, you know, guys my age are wearing it, even, you know, having having them be other NBA player outside of myself wearing them as well. And so it just speaks to where their hearts are at.
And that's the message that I've been trying to get across, that it's at the end of the day, it's about lifting up the name of Christ and in quote unquote, rejecting what the world is trying to get us to the direction the world is trying to take us in and saying, hey, no, Christ sits on the throne of my heart. This is the direction that I'm going in. And I'm OK with that.
Yeah. And you have been very bold and very open about your faith, transparent and trying to encourage other people. And like you said, especially somebody who is an NBA star, in my estimation, you know, people would look at you and say it's supposed to be all about you. I mean, that's the lifestyle. That's the goal. That's the social media. That's what it is.
is that you are on the throne of your life and that you are the superstar and you should celebrate and in a prideful way. I mean, that it makes life about you. Whereas your message is trying to say like, listen, no matter who you are really, you know, you're going to be happier walking with Christ, serving other people, serving him, being humble.
and doing these things that are the opposite of what the world would tell us to do. And I know for you, listen, you didn't you I don't think you would say you came out of the womb and you were a perfect Christian and you always had it together and you knew this is what you were about. I mean, you've had an evolution on this, but now you're very bold. I mean, what was that journey like for you?
Oh, sure. I mean, the journey story, it is very long. It's a long story. And I promise I'm not trying to do a shameless plug, but the story is told in the book, Why I Stand. Yes, it's a fantastic book. Thank you so much. Just the life story of me, you know, being in the Bronx, New York, moving to Naples, Florida, struggling to make friends, struggling to fit in, developing really severe chronic anxiety.
And, you know, doing that while becoming this basketball, you know, star early on. You know, I was the number one player in the state of Florida while on anxiety medication at Florida State University. And, you know, a lot of people didn't know. My family back home didn't know it was something that we really tried to keep under wraps. You know, so I wouldn't kind of lose my draft stock. And, you know, I battled.
I battled through that while I was at Florida State and ended up being the number six pick in the NBA draft of the Orlando Magic, still struggling with it behind the scenes. And then there's this beautiful story of my pastor today, but I didn't know him then.
A man stopping me in the elevator saying, young man, I can tell you how to be great. And I said, how? And he said, you have to know Jesus. And that was the genesis of our relationship. And what he did was he taught me about the love of God. And that has been the thing that has changed my life, which has helped me to battle my anxiety that I still struggle with to this day. But I've gotten so much better at combating it and using the word to fight it.
But it was the love of God, learning about the love of God that I didn't need to work for it. I didn't need to make a basket for it. I didn't need to be anything other than who I am and growing to be who God has created me to be, to have his love. It's something that's solidified and done with. And that's what I was so used to doing. I was so used to working for love and trying to manufacture this person that I thought everybody needed me to be in order to love me.
And so basketball fell right into that. I needed to play a certain way. I needed to score a certain amount of points. And it just became this unbearable task of performance and, you know, until burnouts and, you know, not wanting to be here anymore, you know, at times. And I'm grateful for the people that God has placed in my life, from my wife to my pastor, to my church family, to obviously, you know, my family as well. But yeah, so it's been a journey.
And I think for me, it's like I'm not anybody special. Like what I have come to understand is that the gospel is true. And we're all on these different places on the spectrum of things that we've dealt with, the trauma and the grief
obstacles that we've had to deal with. But at the baseline level, the gospel is true. And if the gospel is true, there's hope for everybody the same way that there was hope for me. And now I'm very much changed. I'm still working through my own, you know, just like everybody else. I'm working on my own salvation, but I understand.
That is the truth. And that's kind of where I stick my flag and I try my best to be authentic about that. I'm not perfect. I'm not here telling everybody else they need to, you know, be like me or do something that I'm not doing. I'm simply saying, hey, I'm a young man that believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ because one, it has changed me. What I love about the book, Why I Stand, not me, not the...
you know, the courage and the boldness to do all this stuff. It was the fact that I understood the reality of the transformative power of Christ. He took this young man who was
who would pass out if he had to speak in front of people early on in my life. That's how gripping and kind of how terrible my anxiety was, molding him into this man that would say, hey, regardless of the backlash, regardless of what people are going to think about me, I'm going to take this stand because I believe that it's the right thing to do. That would have never happened hadn't I met Jesus. And so that's what I think the story tells. It tells the reality of the truth of who Christ is. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment.
Well, like you said, the transparency of it all, too. I mean, I'm a sinner saved by grace. I think you probably said the same thing. I mean, we just we have not figured it all out and we won't be perfect this side of heaven, but we're working on it. We are works in progress. I think that's a good way to put it.
I know that over the years, there had to be times for you that, you know, positions that you took clearly were not always popular. You met resistance with that. Do you feel a sense of sort of a shift where people are starting to say,
Listen, we got to get rid of this cancel culture. We have to look across the aisle at people and say, all right, I can't, you know, hate somebody who I see the world differently or we disagree on policy issues. Do you feel sort of a bit of a shift where people are starting to say like, all right, where can we find common ground? Even if I don't see things the way that you do, at least there's maybe more of an openness to conversation.
One thousand percent. And I honestly, I don't necessarily know when it happened, but, um,
It's absolutely true. I think social media has such an important role to play in it all, because if you're on Twitter at the time, if you're on the news, you would think that so many people, like everybody who sees each other is at each other's throats if they have differing opinions. But it's just not the case. You know, like take Trump winning the presidency, for example, you know, him winning the popular vote.
You know, there were so many people that were like, how, like, where did all these people come from?
to vote him into office. They're your neighbors. They interact with every single day. They're your teammates, they're your coaches. They're people that you come across and that you have great relationships with every day. They just have a different opinion about the way in which they believe the country should be run, the direction that it should go in. They're not hateful people, they're not angry people. They're not people who wanna see anybody harmed in any possible way. Obviously that exists out there, but it's very, very small and few and small in between.
And so I think that is also happening with the cancel culture where it's like, it's the polarization of the words of calling you a name or you're an anti-vaxxer, you're this, you're that. They've just lost their appeal to most people where it's like, hey, now I understand, you know, with the media and all that stuff, somebody calling you something,
it's one, it's probably not true. And two, it takes another step of, okay, let me at least hear this person out to figure out what it is that they're saying or where they're coming from. And I just think that the most people have just grown tired of it all. And, um,
have kind of come to that understanding that the majority of people are great people who want, you know, want less taxes. They want everybody to prosper. They want everybody to be happy. And they just want to live their lives and provide for their families. And so the hyperbole has kind of gone out the window. And it's not a card that's being able to be used as frequently or as easily as it was in the past. And so I think all of that has kind of went into everybody calming down a bit.
Yeah, I hope so. I hope that like we often talk about people just can see each other. If you believe that somebody is created in the image of God, who are you to have any, you know, hate in your heart or anger in your heart? I mean, you have to stand up for your own principles and those kinds of things, but there's a place that you can see each other as human beings and have difficult conversations. And we all are better off when that happens. All right. I got to ask you a little bit about basketball because I'm going to tell you the truth, which won't be surprising. It is not the sport in which I am the most well-versed.
But I know a little bit of what's going on with you this season. You've had some bright moments. You've had some struggles. But I saw recently in the middle of all this, you said, you know what? I'm just going to trust Christ. So tell us how you're doing, what you see in the season ahead and what's happening on the court.
Yeah, I mean, our team as a whole, we've had some great moments. And like you said, we've had some struggles. I've had my own individual struggles, one with a little bit of injuries. But just overall, I've also had some really bright spots in the season and looking forward to a great second half as we come back from the All-Star break. But it's just my own battle. Like just the same thing that I talked about, about anxiety and about this performance-based isolation.
identity, it's something that still creeps up that I have to, you know, die to and continue to fight. Um, and Christ is always pulling me back to your identity is not found in basketball. Your identity is not found in what you do. Your identity is found in me. And when I, when I, when I rest in that, I play better. I really do. And the hard part is resting there and living there and not allowing, uh,
you know, what you believe other people think about you or what anybody else is saying to pull you from that place because that's what it's aimed to do. So true.
you know, frustration or a negative outcome or situation pull you from that place or a negative circumstance. And that's something that I'm still working through. I still have my ups and downs of, dang it, God, I was focused and I kind of went to the left again and he's pulling me back. But I'm always grateful for his grace and his mercy. And I know that, you know, I'm a part of his plan. And yeah, like you said, we're all sinners saved by grace and we're still on this journey of
figuring it out and getting to that place of maturity and not allowing circumstances and situations to, you know, affect our faith that will pull us in one direction or another. Amen. Okay. It's been great to catch up with you. So congratulations on the new baby to come to and all the other things that are going on in life. Just remind people where they can keep up with what you're doing and all the Unitas products as well.
Yeah, thank you so much. You're the best. You can head to weareunitas.com. One of our kind of premier leading products right now is the queen colorway of the Fortra. So it's that Fortra shoe that I talked about, that everyday trainer, but it's in a really cool purple colorway and it has Esther 114 on the back.
which is, I believe that's Mordecai talking to Esther saying, who knows if you were put in this position for such a time as this with her being queen. And so that's just a kind of a charge to all of our queens out there, all of our mama bears, all of our women of God to say, hey, the position that you're in right now
Who knows if God hasn't put you there for this specific purpose to lead, to stand, to be who God has created you to be. And so that's the Fortra Queen. We have a bunch of other stuff. We have some low top versions of the Judah one that are still available right now. We have our new Honor God collection, which is apparel that's out right now. We have some really cool hoodies, great quality, very quality stuff.
You'll love it. So go to weareunitas.com and check it out. You can follow us on socials at weareunitas.com. Check me out on Instagram, Jonathan Isaac. I'm always posting about Unitas. I'm wearing Unitas to the games. I'm wearing Unitas in the game. So thank you so much.
And I might have a pair of the Fortra Queens, by the way, that I wear to give me the strength to keep going when my trainer is trying to kill me. I look down, I see the Bible verse, and I know I'm going to be able to keep going. So Jonathan, thank you for that and all the good things that you're putting into the world. God bless you and your family. We'll be watching for you and for those new Judah 2s. Thanks for being with us on Live in the Bream.
Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Fox News Audio presents the Fox Nation Investigates Podcast, Evil Next Door. Exploring the life and crimes of five serial predators from across the United States. Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.