An Interview With Wanda Malhotra
No dream is crazy. I’ve literally written things down and made it happen months after. So many things have happened that have led me to just catapult in this entertainment industry.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Hamilton Jr.
Anthony Hamilton Jr, who just dropped his latest single, “Pin Now,” featuring Bizkitbnb, which is available on all platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify.
Anthony is not only a highly accomplished professional dunker but also a prominent social media personality.His incredible talent for both inspiring and entertaining audiences through his electrifying basketball skills has catapulted him to online stardom. Anthony skillfully combines his extraordinary athleticism and charismatic persona to create engaging and captivating content that consistently delights fans worldwide.
Thank you so much for doing this with us — -! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I’m born and raised in Los Angeles California for you guys that don’t know, you’re living under a rock. So, you should get familiar with that, but born and raised there basketball household. I had a single mother and that just alone help me build character would not having my father around in the household, to this day I am currently rebuilding my relationship with my father and where we backtracked and we’re talking about the older times and I’m getting answers to questions and we’re building that relationship. So that’s a beautiful thing. But besides that yeah, It was me and my mom picked up the basketball at seven years old and I ran with it one of my dreams was to be a NBA player as any basketball player that’s growing up in America specifically, I was looking up to Kobe Bryant in the Laker air Derek Fisher Lamar Odom Paul Gasol back to Championships when we were going against the Celtics and it was Lakers versus Celtics since I’ve been born but that was kind of like my vision of where I saw my life. I wanted to be in the NBA. I want to be playing against that type of those types of players of that caliber and I wanted to be a player an athlete of that caliber myself, reflecting now from then I’m doing it in my own way, but when I was a kid, I was just so Tunnel Vision on the NBA and then I grew up in Los Angeles. I went to Leuzinger high school and this is when I kind of just started to realize and learn the tools that I’m using today with my profession. but I went to Leuzinger high school. I was not a great student. I met a mentor that year that has guided me into the correct direction of just making sure I want to at least go to college making sure that at least submit an application to be a part of this group or this program.
We’re just making my resume versatile for the academic world, especially because I was Contender athletically for basketball stuff. I was an amazing athlete. So I started focusing on my grades a little bit and my sophomore year actually made the varsity team. It was amazing. I was dunking on the side for the coaches but a very pivotal moment in my career was when I made it at the end of practice. I blew my knee out twice. So it was like I was on cloud nine. I’m about to make the varsity team as a sophomore, I played on the freshman team. I have all these dreams and aspirations of playing division one college basketball, going to the NBA after a year and having my dream life. That was just all I was thinking about as a kid, especially using basketball as an emotional outlet because I didn’t have my father.
Because of the neighborhood I was growing up in and how much pressure there was for me to take a certain route as opposed to others. You know what I mean? It was a lot of pressure on me. So that moment everything just collapsed for me in a negative way and that’s when that was a moment. I realized that I had to have backups other than just being a professional athlete. But, I still hoped to go to the NBA, it was my first injury ever. I was young and doctors told me I should be good to back on the court four months later in blue money out again.
Yeah little, so it’s literally I blew my knee out again four months later and that when that happened they’re telling me to medically retire from basketball. They’re telling me not to do any type of sports. I’m thinking They’re having conversations with me at 14 years old about putting that into perspective of how I need to worry about being able to bend down and embrace my children, one day if you want to be able to do those things. You’re gonna have to stop playing basketball and that’s point blank period so obviously I didn’t listen to those, spoiler if you don’t know but at that moment it crushed my mom because she cares about me first. She doesn’t care about no sport dream job, nothing. She’s worried about her baby first. So she’s telling me you I don’t think you should do it, if you want to do it
I was raised in a household with seven women as well. So I had my aunties and my mom had me at a young age. She passed up a scholarship to USC to have me, so it was either give birth to me or go to college on a cheerleading scholarship, and she chose me. So this goal was in my head as I’m playing basketball to go to college to go to LSU. Whatever schools at that moment. I feel like was just all snatch for me that time of when I injured myself so
I had moments with the doctor. They told me not to play sports anymore. I was like, “ I’m not doing that. I’m still gonna go, who are you guys to take this from me.” So from that point on I literally went to my coaches and I told them look I’m gonna sit out my whole sophomore year, but I’m going to play my junior year. I’m gonna make the varsity team. I’m gonna make them happy and they were just High School coaches. This guy was the actual coach but just knowing the resume of certain High School coach jobs. The reactions aren’t as important to them as it was if I was a college Prospect, you know what I mean? So it was kind of like don’t rush yourself. But if you want to go play so that was what I was dealing with at the time, but they were all so very supportive Russell Westbrook graduated from that high school. So we were sponsored by Jordan my junior year. We got the Jordan sponsorship. I came back on the court no more.
I started my first corporate internship with Adidas. I was an intern in their marketing in sales and advertising department at an executive office in West Hollywood and I had my own cubicle. I was working with the older people. I was the youngest in the office and they were teaching me and trusting me and they loved the type of input that I gave them over different engagements they had in the past, but they took me under their wing at that point and taught me most of what I know today for marketing myself as a brand, know what I mean? So this is a story that’s been boiling over the course of the last 10 plus years. But yeah, I worked at Adidas.
I did a summer internship there. They loved me and every year I went back. I’ve been working with them for 10 years now just giving them references, consulting with them, I go and do in person engagements with them to help them with company sales and stuff like that helping them strategize like I do the business side of those things too, but it started when I was 17 injured myself. I got the job with Adidas and now I’m about to be a junior in high school going into my senior year. I’m starting on Varsity. I have all these things going but all the time that I came back, everybody was really nervous with me on the court. You know what I mean? Think of Paul George what happens to him when he hurt himself, that’s the way that I injured myself.
It was kind of annoying in a way, you know what I mean, but I had dealt with it and I overcame those intrusive thoughts that I have about how people were judging me or praying on my downfall, but I played a successful two years there and averaged 12 to 15 points over the course of my career there. We were really good in our league and when we got the Jordan brand sponsorship, that was the first time I’ve ever interacted with a brand in that capacity. I mean I worked behind the scenes first with Adidas, but then I was the talent and I was in front of the camera. It felt good with them telling me, “Hey you could do this.” They were not thinking about the injury. They were trying to get good content. And as a high schooler, I didn’t have that much money as a kid, so I was asking my mom for an allowance. I didn’t have the best phone, I’m not posting on Instagram (you can only post photos at this time.) I think 15 second Clips at this point in time, so it was really early.
I was posting myself at practice doing dunks like Jordan Brown and all these people that were my motivation. I injured myself dunking and I’m about to make a career out of dunking the basketball now, you know what I mean? So that was the motive with that. But yeah, as I was going through I was the president of the black student union, I was in the multimedia careers Academy, I was in The Culinary Academy. I was doing college tours and helping run a college program to get Inner City kids out of Los Angeles to just see the schools because going into Clemson later. I met my coach at that. I went to Clemson to jump, but I met my coach when I was a basketball player, not a track athlete. He didn’t know I met him before we did any type of business talking about track. So that was years before he met me.
The injury all this mental time getting ready for college. I had the grades to apply to schools, but I wanted to be an athlete. So I wanted to study Kinesiology. That’s Health Science for people that don’t know, that’s reading on the study of the body and I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. That was my first career choice outside of basketball and I was just like, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. To be an orthopedic surgeon, I had to go to either a medical school or school that’s based on medicine to have a good resume. So I chose the University of Laverne. It’s a private institution in California and they are a Kinesiology school. They happen to have a basketball team. So it worked out perfectly for me to play at a division three school. I didn’t want to go to division three. I’ve always wanted to be a division one boy, but I went to the division three school and played the whole season.
I went from starting to being benched. We had 12 seniors. My first semester was horrible. I had to have conversations about grades and stuff and ended up getting my grades back. I was just in a rough spot because it was my first semester in college and I’m a first generation student as well. So I’m the first person in my family to go past High School. My mom and I graduated school together and that’s something that we could talk about later on but this happened after I went to this school. So at this school I got benched, but then the track coach came up to me and was like, hey, you want to come to track practice next week and I’m like, we see you have raw talent and you’ve never done track and field before. Try it out.”
I’m just trying to be a college athlete. So I went to the track practice. I didn’t even have spikes. I just had basketball shoes. If nobody’s familiar with high jump — It’s back flipping over a pole in the air essentially. I didn’t know anything about it. I just knew basketball and that was that. I never stepped foot on track and my coach was like,” can you jump over that?” I’m like, “I can jump over that”. I went and jumped over the pole and everybody was looking at me weird. They look like they’re shell shocked. So after practice, they’re like, we just want you to show up, just trust me.
At this point of time I was the only division three kid and I placed second in my first competition in college, being thrown into the fire. So I had a raw talent for it and I was ranked top 10 in the country and had 30 division one offers the next week. I fell in love with it and one of those 30 opportunities was for Clemson University. I signed my letter of intent while working at Adidas. I was like hell yeah, I’m going, so yes coach boom sign me up. Clemson is crazy and the Athletics program amazing, so I had to take the offer from Clemson.
I’m top 10 all time in Clemson history for the high jump. I had an amazing career there and I feel like every place that I’ve been I have. It’s always been some major event happening everywhere I’ve been. So now I’m at Clemson and these things are happening and the black lives matter movement is boiling up. There’s a lot of tension. I was in the South so, you know how that can be sometimes, but all that was happening and the athletic director at the time brought the Men’s Track Team into the volleyball gym and told us, “ Hey, we’re cutting Men’s Track and this is the last season we’re doing it. Anybody here that’s on a scholarship will fulfill your scholarship, but we’re not gonna have a team here anymore.” So they cut the track program and cut funding and cut all of that.
So what I did since I was building a following at the time was a couple other captains on the team and I put together meetings and marches and protests. I was meeting with the athletic director once a week. It got to the point of my own teammates starting to turn on me thinking I was like selling out to the Athletics program. I was like, no I’m trying to fix it. But we have to have a common ground. It can’t be arguing and tearing stuff up and we don’t rock like that. We have to set this up so that the kids behind us that are dreaming to jump here, run here, play basketball here, whatever they have that opportunity here, and they know not to mess with the athletes here. So we ended up getting the program back after five months of fighting. We had 50,000 signatures on a petition. I think it’s still alive. I think everything is under control with Clemson track and field. That was something that I was on the news for and everything. That helped my popularity a lot because I got a lot of loyal fans and alumni had my back at that point in time and my following was going up. Because I was doing the dunk videos and everything on the side.
I finally graduated from Clemson. I’m the first person to graduate from school. At the same time my mom took multiple classes remotely and managed to get her Masters before I was able to finish getting my masters, which I left to pursue social media when I was in grad school, but she got her Masters. We took graduation photos together. It was a beautiful moment, but I was trying to figure out what was next for me because it’s like we know if you’re not top 10 in the country, or top 10 in the world, with an Olympic sport. It’s not much money out there for that so I had to be realistic with my career and how I want to move forward. I knew that I wanted to play basketball for a living.
Is there a person that made a profound impact on your professional life? Can you share a story?
I would say Caron Butler, he’s an assistant coach for the Miami Heat right now. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers, he played for the Clippers, he’s played for a lot of different teams and is an NBA champion. He was the first, along with Terrell Owens, two very acclimated celebrity athletes that I watched growing up that really believed in me. Caron Butler invited me out to Wisconsin and showed me where he grew up and how he grew up. He helped me out when I was in college not making much money. He helped me out because he saw me, a young black creator, athlete, somebody that’s an entrepreneur trying to build. Terrell Owens is the same thing. He’s a dope guy and he’s misunderstood but he’s a great mentor and he’s the type of person that’ll keep it straight with me. So those two, besides my mother, were the most impactful because of where they were in life and opened up my perspective of where I can be in life as well.
Can you share with us a story behind why you chose to take up this particular cause?
I support any upcoming starter businesses, any businesses that are trying to get off of the ground — people with real stories and real backgrounds. I feel like it’s my job to figure out how to navigate what they’re trying to do. Also I support a lot of different basketball programs that are up and coming.There’s multiple LA basketball non-profit organizations that I’ve been working with to help inner city kids get basketball training college programs, and I also have a scholarship in my name with Addias going to my high school. So those are different ways that I’m trying to give back besides my content inspiration digitally, but that’s how I have my footprint in the sand with those things.
Can you share with us a story about a person who was impacted by your cause?
I’ve met the scholarship winners from the Adidas campaign. I met with them to talk to them about becoming more involved with that and how they can reach their full potential.
Are there three things or are there things that individuals, society, or the government can do to support you in this effort?
I would say in my opinion, just knowing how I grew up and how it is being a hard-working entrepreneur in a space where you don’t have resources, I would love for any type of hierarchy to give more cash grab opportunities that are more immediate for those businesses companies entrepreneurs single moms that need food and in the pantries homeless people shelters. Just more of a budget that is easier to attain without a catch because there’s so many catches and interests and loan outs and it’s just digging a deeper hole. That’s not generationally pleasing. More to help the longevity of family being and in business. I think it’s the best way to summarize that.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
I think first and foremost trust in my vision. That’s one thing that I wishedI knew a little bit earlier. I was very early for the things that I’m doing so I’m very grateful and I understand that I’m very young and I have so much time with this so I wouldn’t trade anything, but that’s one thing just to follow your vision first. Stop being a people pleaser is number two. It’s business. If your product or your content sucks you should be able to sit there and take that constructive criticism and adjust accordingly without breaking down. Three is to try everything. I still have conversations with my grandmother about business ideas that she has that she’s trying to do and…she’s in her 70s. Number four: We’re all here for the first time. So don’t try to over expect things to happen when it’s your vision. Number five is patience. I have worked with many companies and brands and a lot of people jeopardize their relationships by rushing or pushing people too fast to do things and then it messes everything up even if it’s that slight trust. Overall, I’m really grateful for where I am and I just hope that anybody reading if they reach this right here, just keep going for your dreams.
No dream is crazy. I’ve literally written things down and made it happen months after. So many things have happened that have led me to just catapult in this entertainment industry.
Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.
From somebody that was working out three times a day, seven days a week — workout twice a week. It could be a walk, swimming laps, finding something to be active once or twice a week just to get your body out of the house. We’re in a virtual time and it’s really hard to get out of the house these days. A lot of people think that meditation is just one thing: setting a bunch of rocks out, laying, hitting the sound bowl and humming for 45 minutes. It literally can be sitting outside in the peace and quiet and breathing techniques. Just calming your mind down by getting away from the phone. Another thing that I do is just family time. I’ve built my content to a point where it’s just my fan base watching me live my life now, I’m grateful for that because it makes it easier on me and I’m able to do more with the variety. I’m not stuck to one niche. So, just finding a balance with family time spending time with loved ones. Do something outside that is completely different from what you do on an everyday basis, whatever it is. So just switching that is literally the keys right there. If you have all of those things, you’re a very peaceful and patient person.
Bizkitbnb has over 700 million streams over 39 credits. They’ve done soundtracks for Tom and Jerry. They’ve worked with Beyonce, John Legend, they work with so many different people including Coco Jones, Jennifer Hudson and a lot of black prominent artists that work in the industry. They know how to play the saxophone and the piano. So they’re talented, it’s not all electric in the studio. We have a catalog of about 13 to 14 songs that we’ve been creating over the last year and a half. We have created many different versions of Pin Now. The first version of Pin Now had no second verse. It was just the one verse it was a minute long. That was cool but we saw we had something.
We got into the studio and made every song on our own. We’ve made the beats and we write our own lyrics. There’s a lot of talent going into that and there’s a lot of technology that makes it easy to make music. We’ve got a year of chemistry already and they’ve signed me to a point where they’re telling me thank you for revamping them and making them believe that they still got it because they do. I’m doing it to help support a fellow friend or somebody that’s upcoming and to just flex and have fun. I’m down for all of that and they were down for that too.
I have a whole album that I’m dropping with them called Distance. I wrote the whole album about me and my girlfriend that have been together for two years. I was writing the album throughout the time of us being long distance, to moving in with each other, to meeting each other’s parents, to and now. It’s like at the party Pin Now is one of the last songs that plays at the party and I got the girl and I’m saying drop your PIN, but there’s a story to all the tracks as well.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would say first and foremost anything female sports related. I’m glad y’all are getting all the credit because I’ve always been on the sidelines cheering for up and coming athletes. My girlfriend has friends that are going to the Olympics, in the WNBA, and FIFA soccer. I love the fact that that’s getting more recognition. Now, I just want the pay grade to go up. I want them to be paid more. We could afford to give 200 million and one person, why can’t we spread that out amongst the team.
So just as a fan from a fan watching sports standpoint, that’s really amazing to see all of the influencers that are getting into the communities and doing more. I support and see all of those things and I love it. It just shows me where we are as a community, how we’re growing and how we see everything that’s going on. Being a humanitarian and being an influence to your community and then women’s sports getting the credit they deserve are the main things that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
This is what we call our “matchmaker question”, and it sometimes works. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a power lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
It used to be Jamal Crawford, but I literally am talking to him as we speak in my DMs on Instagram. I know his son and we’re planning on making content, but it used to be him. So that’s crazy. But I would say Kevin Hart is a first, in close competition with Will Smith.
I almost had the chance to work with Kevin Hart, and hope to one day. I’ve been seeing him interact with a lot of content creators lately. He’s able to be a rock star in whatever he does, no matter the niche, he’s able to do so many different things,, but it’s still him. When you’re successful, when you’re a multi-millionaire and you’re talking about billion dollars in a box office plus, that’s somebody that I want to sit down with and ask questions to. I love knowledge. I’m a sponge and that type of person.
Will Smith is because he’s obviously a very acclaimed actor, artist, and humanitarian. He does a lot of those things and just how he carries himself is very inspirational. Obviously, things happen when people test your family or test things personal going on. He still has that legacy regardless of anything and I follow that legacy and he’s inspired me through movies like Pursuit of Happiness or made me laugh with movies like Hitch and Handcock. Those are my two people and it’s gonna happen one day or the other, I’m very confident.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Yes, literally the easiest way is I say at Hamilton Jr. the O is a zero. On every single platform. Apple Music is Hamilton Jr. only. So as an artist, it’s just Hamilton Jr., but everything else Anthony Hamilton Jr.
Social Media:
TikTok: 1.1M Followers
Instagram: 494K Followers
YouTube: 397K Subscribers
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com.
Stars Who Make a Difference: Why & How Anthony Hamilton Jr Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.