At the height of Reynold’s beef with J Strickland in the early aughts, Mike Maldonado’s switch to Bootleg was one of skateboarding’s more infamous moments. He tell the full story—including recalling the meeting where things ended with Baker—starting at the 42:69 mark of yesterday’s episode of The Bunt.
I had a meeting with Drew and Robin. That was just a meeting to squash everything…It just went the complete other way. They were like…”Did you ever think about life after skateboarding, maybe like team manager stuff?” I was like, “Life after skateboarding, that’s fucked up. What are you talking about? I’m still out here grinding.” I just took the hint. I was like, “If ya’ll don’t want me to be on the team anymore, that’s fine…” In that sense, I kicked myself off. I don’t have any harsh feelings towards any of those guys.
Listen to the full interview above.