Tim Brown

I thought he was going to reach down the line and, you know, hit me below the belt like a bandit did to him all those years ago.

Probably the other one was Tim Brown.

I might have told this story post-match of a Phoenix game after they conceded a late equaliser.

I went up to Brownie and said, by the way, he was named in the Phoenix all-time side, the 20-year side.

Oh, didn't like that.

Anyway, I'll leave that for another day.

But Tim Brown, went up to him and said, post-match interview, flash interview.

He told me to F off.

I really feel I was so excited when they signed him because I just felt that one thing they'd missed over the first two seasons You know, they've done so well, but they did lack goals from midfield.

They lacked that sort of guy that makes the late run or has the real nose for a goal, the Tim Brown type, for want of a better word.

And I just love the way Bayless is always watching him in Newcastle, always looking forward, looking for those incisive passes.

Plus he's got an eye for a goal.

And that's why you see the ones who go offshore and build great careers, like their number one goal is to somehow get back here and spend more time here.

I also would just challenge people's views on, you know, what is being here versus being offshore because a lot of great talent, even, you know, Tim Brown, who was a professional soccer player and then the founder of Allbirds, the shoe company.

I mean, He's in San Francisco now.

He just spent a year back here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tim Brown talked about a conversation he had with Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, that disturbed him, which was like, essentially he just had his, Tim had his first child and and um and he said and he was sort of saying to howard um from starbucks like hey is it possible to be a great company builder and father and um howard's like no and um and uh it just sort of stuck with them and but of course you have to frame that in what howard may think of being the definition is of being a great father and um and so maybe just because he has such a high bar He's maybe in other people's minds.

He is a great father and he's present enough.

[cheering] New Zealand are going to South Africa.

And Tim Brown, look how much it means to him.

The dream has been fulfilled.

I think there was a lot of things I learned from sport that have been very important for me as an entrepreneur.

On an Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to Hawks a few years ago, the quiz question was, which Phoenix player founded the footwear brand Allbirds? My eight-year-old daughter shouted the question out loud and then said, do you know, Dad? She had no idea.

She was sitting next to Tim Brown.

Oh,

jeez, what's the chance of that?

So, um, yeah, back when I was finishing high school in New Zealand, there was no professional avenue, uh, from a football perspective.

So, um, some good people like Ryan Nelson and Tim Brown in particular had kind of forged that path, uh, to the US college system.

So I thought, "Well, that's, that's probably where I need to be." Um, and there was a few other boys around my age that had, that had just kind of gone, and it was kind of the pathway, I guess, if you were an aspiring young football player.

Um, so I remember my dad bought this book, and it was probably about 500 pages long, and each page was kind of like a bio of every university in the States, um-