Speaker 1: Welcome to this League Uncut in the rule of twenty
Speaker 1: four hour NBA News. This's you love, Chris Haynes. It's
Speaker 1: so time, work Stein, It's so time. This League Uncut
Speaker 1: is underway and on fire. This should be a good one.
Speaker 2: This is a very good day for our humble little podcast,
Speaker 2: Mark Stein here with Chris Haynes, this League Uncut, and
Speaker 2: we have a special guest, a former All Star, a
Speaker 2: beloved teammate wherever he's been, and a veteran the most
Speaker 2: important part, Chris Haynes, a veteran of my all lefty team.
Speaker 2: Yet another left hander makes his way onto the pot.
Speaker 2: Except the word on the streets, the streets say that
Speaker 2: our guest is actually a natural righty. I hope you
Speaker 2: can clear this up because I've always looked at him
Speaker 2: as lefty. But he's got that righty floater that does
Speaker 2: lend credence to what the streets are saying. So we're
Speaker 2: going to straighten that out as well. Let's do it
Speaker 2: now with the one and only Mike Conley Junior from
Speaker 2: the Minnesota Timberwolves. Mister Conley, it is great to see you,
Speaker 2: great to have you.
Speaker 3: On with us.
Speaker 4: Hey, Hey, thank you guys, appreciate you'all having me today.
Speaker 2: First things first, let's start with, I guess the obvious,
Speaker 2: the natural question for any Minnesota Timberwolf at this point,
Speaker 2: how are you guys coping so far life without Cat?
Speaker 4: Oh Man, It's definitely definitely tough. You know, we were
Speaker 4: playing at such a high level and just had a
Speaker 4: really good rhythm with all our guys healthy and playing together.
Speaker 4: And to lose a guy like that, you know, it
Speaker 4: just you feel bad for him all the work he's
Speaker 4: put in this season to improve himself, and but you
Speaker 4: also feel back for your team because you want to
Speaker 4: have every you know, everybody healthy going down the stretch,
Speaker 4: and we're just you know, trying to make make do
Speaker 4: what we what we can. You know, right now, nobody
Speaker 4: individually can can do what Kat can do, so we
Speaker 4: kind of do it, you know, together as a unit.
Speaker 4: And I think the last few nights we've had, you know,
Speaker 4: some some positives in that direction, Mike.
Speaker 5: As you go through this this stretch of the season
Speaker 5: where guys are trying to get ready for the playoffs,
Speaker 5: and obviously you would like to have Cat. I don't
Speaker 5: know if you've seen the report, but I reported it here.
Speaker 5: And I also reported on T and T about how
Speaker 5: the Denver Nuggets skip their White House meeting because they
Speaker 5: they had a white House meeting scheduled today before seeing
Speaker 5: you guys, and now they're bypassing that because that game
Speaker 5: against you guys, I believe on March nineteenth is is
Speaker 5: so important. That's something they didn't they didn't anticipate when
Speaker 5: they rescheduled that meeting. So when you hear that, and
Speaker 5: when you hear teams taking you seriously, like, what what
Speaker 5: came to mind when you when you heard about that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think just that you know that, you know,
Speaker 4: teams look at the schedule and they know when they
Speaker 4: play the Timberwolves now, and and especially if you're up
Speaker 4: you know that one through four or five seed, you
Speaker 4: got so much competition right there that you know, you're
Speaker 4: always kind of keeping an eye open on who you
Speaker 4: got and what's coming up and what those games might mean.
Speaker 4: And obviously it's gonna mean a lot for them, so
Speaker 4: it's gonna mean a lot for us, and uh we're
Speaker 4: excited to, uh, you know, take on that challenge when
Speaker 4: that you know that day happens and we get there.
Speaker 4: But I'm sure that you know they're coaching, their players
Speaker 4: made the decision it's best for them to get ready
Speaker 4: to play a big game.
Speaker 2: Mike, you're obviously one of the leaders of this team
Speaker 2: and you've seen it all at this point in your
Speaker 2: NBA career, so you know how this stuff works. And
Speaker 2: as good as you guys have been during the regular season,
Speaker 2: people want to see what the Wolves can do in
Speaker 2: the playoffs and it probably won't be until the postseason
Speaker 2: until you guys can kind of get your full appreciation
Speaker 2: and rescispect. How much do you guys as a group
Speaker 2: talk about that or acknowledge it in any way? How
Speaker 2: how real is that for the guys in that locker room.
Speaker 4: You know, we don't talk too much too much about it, man,
Speaker 4: but honestly, uh, I think it's kind of you know,
Speaker 4: what's understood and need to be explained situation for us.
Speaker 4: For Hey, we've where a team that is done well
Speaker 4: so far, you know, early in the season, the latter
Speaker 4: part of the season. Can we do it in the playoffs?
Speaker 4: Can we win when it matters? Can we stay healthy
Speaker 4: when it matters? Like all them things are gonna you know,
Speaker 4: dictate people's outlooks on who we are and our legacies
Speaker 4: are as players and so you know, winning, winning, Trump's
Speaker 4: everything and hopefully we we uh, you know, we've we've
Speaker 4: built up enough this year, gone through a lot you know,
Speaker 4: ups and down, so where we're you know, we're all
Speaker 4: around in the shape at the right point and and
Speaker 4: uh be able to answer a lot of people's questions.
Speaker 5: Mike, you you've obviously you've you've got young talent that
Speaker 5: you're around it with and you know, no other emerging
Speaker 5: young star than Anthony Edwards. So Chris Hines, assistant coach
Speaker 5: with the timber Wills, told me about just your approach
Speaker 5: in mentoring Anthony Edwards, and he told me that, you know,
Speaker 5: you're a player who's had, you know, stages of your
Speaker 5: career where you were an All Star, you know, a
Speaker 5: franchise player, and now you're you know, you're you're a starter.
Speaker 5: But with what they with the mentorship type of role.
Speaker 5: And he said, you've been very instrumental in teaching Anthony
Speaker 5: Edwards how to slow his game down, how to how
Speaker 5: to think the game. What what obligation do you feel
Speaker 5: in the success of Anthony Edwards. What do you think
Speaker 5: you owe it to not only yourself but what do
Speaker 5: you think you owe it to the next generation and
Speaker 5: particularly Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 4: Well, I think a big reason why I was brought
Speaker 4: in was was also to help that development of of
Speaker 4: of and and you know he's for you know, so
Speaker 4: far our relationship has been you know that of like
Speaker 4: a you know, a brotherhood almost in the sense like
Speaker 4: a little brother big brother situation. And trying to, you know,
Speaker 4: do whatever I can, whether it's on or off the court,
Speaker 4: to help him be the best player you can be,
Speaker 4: learn the game at a different speed, like how to
Speaker 4: make plays and different decisions that he can make in
Speaker 4: certain tight tight windows or whatnot. So you know, he's
Speaker 4: willing to learn, he's willing to listen. And yeah, obviously
Speaker 4: I think that's it's part of my role as a
Speaker 4: point guard in any any capacity to help my teammates,
Speaker 4: help anybody who needs it. So hopefully I'm doing my
Speaker 4: job and he continues to grow and grow as the
Speaker 4: year goes on and his career goes on.
Speaker 5: And Mike, real quick follow up. When you're talking about
Speaker 5: slowing the game down. I got a feel for what
Speaker 5: you're talking about, but can you elaborate on that, like
Speaker 5: when you're when you're talking to Anthony ver was about
Speaker 5: having a game slow down?
Speaker 6: For what are you saying exactly?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's different ways to look at I mean,
Speaker 4: like for for slowing the game down for me. For
Speaker 4: him in particular, was you know, not don't get sped up.
Speaker 4: I think he's a guy that, you know, if he
Speaker 4: takes his time getting he can get to whatever spot
Speaker 4: on the court he wants to. And and you know,
Speaker 4: whether that's reading a double team situation where guys, you know,
Speaker 4: teams are sending two people at you, and what reads
Speaker 4: to make you know, following that decision. And you know,
Speaker 4: some people just go out there and hoop and they
Speaker 4: get away with it sometimes, but sometimes you have to
Speaker 4: prep forward. You have to prepare for different coverages, prepare
Speaker 4: for different things so that you know the game can
Speaker 4: slow down and it you can already be knowing what
Speaker 4: two options you're going to have before the play starts.
Speaker 4: And he's just developing that side of the game. I
Speaker 4: think for the majority of his life he's he's you know,
Speaker 4: he's still probably always been better than everybody. So he's just, uh,
Speaker 4: you just go out there and hoop. So we're trying
Speaker 4: to give him that that that Mike Kindley side of
Speaker 4: the the the basketball game, and the side that I
Speaker 4: think you can take him to another level.
Speaker 2: Really, I guess the only thing slowing him down these
Speaker 2: days is getting out there for the opening tip. I
Speaker 2: don't know what's going on there, but that seems to
Speaker 2: be the only missing piece for him.
Speaker 4: I can't explain. I can't explain that one. We're looking
Speaker 4: for him, we're drawing, drawing up the plays and all
Speaker 4: kind of stuff, and you never know what he's doing.
Speaker 4: So we just we just hope he's gonna be there
Speaker 4: on time.
Speaker 2: You obviously were an in season arrival last season, so
Speaker 2: you weren't there the whole ride. But from your perspective,
Speaker 2: what is the big difference between this season's team and
Speaker 2: last season's team? Why has this group been so much
Speaker 2: more successful?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do
Speaker 4: with just the time, you know, time frame of summertime.
Speaker 4: So now we've had a little bit more time to
Speaker 4: prepare for a season together as a healthy unit. I
Speaker 4: think the year before, they you know, Cat missing so
Speaker 4: many games and many guys out the line up, the
Speaker 4: trade like, it's a lot of different things that went
Speaker 4: down to disrupt the you know, they could disrupt the team,
Speaker 4: but you know, we we held together. Fast forward to
Speaker 4: this season. I think guys, uh, you know, took it
Speaker 4: upon themselves to to come to the season in great
Speaker 4: shape from you know, their their overseas UH teams and
Speaker 4: and all of us just you know, just just locked
Speaker 4: in on a season that we're going to be you know,
Speaker 4: we're gonna be different and defensively. It's it's probably been
Speaker 4: the number one thing that everybody sees is you know,
Speaker 4: how far and away better we are now that Rudy's
Speaker 4: you know, doing what he does at the highest level
Speaker 4: and guys are kind of building around him, and and
Speaker 4: I think that's allowed us to have i mean closer,
Speaker 4: closer games and have tighter you know finishes where we
Speaker 4: can you know, give ourselves a chance to win a
Speaker 4: lot of those. And so far we've done a good job.
Speaker 2: I mean, you obviously played with Rudy in Utah as
Speaker 2: well as here with the Wolves, so you probably know
Speaker 2: him as well as anybody behind closed doors.
Speaker 3: How mad was he about the All Star snub?
Speaker 2: And I know you've personally had to go through that
Speaker 2: where there were years you probably felt like you were
Speaker 2: an All Star and didn't get that call and then
Speaker 2: you finally got that. How how mad is he that
Speaker 2: he was not recognized? I think he should have been
Speaker 2: an All Star. I mean, he was in my you know,
Speaker 2: not that mine. You know, mine is just hypothetical, is
Speaker 2: just one reporter's opinion. But when I scribbled out my
Speaker 2: seven West reserves.
Speaker 4: He was on there. Yeah, you know, I think he
Speaker 4: was upset. And I know, you know, all of us were,
Speaker 4: you know, on our team. We all felt that he
Speaker 4: was a guy that, you know, we wouldn't be in
Speaker 4: the situation that we in without him. You know, we
Speaker 4: felt that he was, you know, one of those one
Speaker 4: of those pieces. And uh, but he's he's also a
Speaker 4: guy that you know, once that something like that happens,
Speaker 4: it makes him better. It makes them, you know, more
Speaker 4: locked in and keyed in on, you know, what we're
Speaker 4: doing as a team and and our goals as a team,
Speaker 4: which he's always worried about. So I think it's gonna
Speaker 4: do nothing but make him better. Right now, he's been
Speaker 4: doing great, and uh, just hoping he's gonna continue to
Speaker 4: do what he does.
Speaker 5: Mike, You've played in over thirty four thousand minutes played
Speaker 5: in over a thousand games. And you know this has
Speaker 5: been talked about, you know here and there no technicals
Speaker 5: throughout your career, and you know I'm gonna bring that up.
Speaker 5: I want you, I want you to. Can you give
Speaker 5: us a master class and tell me, like what what
Speaker 5: is the key? Because I I'm somebody who you know
Speaker 5: in just in life my wife had contested that. Well
Speaker 5: I'll go off, you know, I lose it, So like,
Speaker 5: can you give a master class? Like, can you give
Speaker 5: us a little glimpse on how you're able to keep composer?
Speaker 5: And then secondly, Mike you talked about you know you're
Speaker 5: trying to instill a little bit of Mike Conley into
Speaker 5: Anthony Edwards. Well he has he is tied well, he
Speaker 5: is tied for fourth in technicals this season with twelve.
Speaker 4: I'm not doing my job, brought I'll tell you, I'm
Speaker 4: not doing my job.
Speaker 5: But no, how do you do it? How do you
Speaker 5: do it? Like have you ever been close to getting
Speaker 5: to tech? Like what is your mindset? Take us inside
Speaker 5: your mindset? Because basketball, in any professional sports competitive man,
Speaker 5: your emotions get into it. How have you kept your
Speaker 5: composure throughout.
Speaker 4: You know Honestly, I don't really know. I think it's
Speaker 4: just something that has come from my parents, the way
Speaker 4: I was raised. And like I, you know, I get
Speaker 4: mad enough to want to fight, but I never was
Speaker 4: like a fighter. I never, you know, try to swing
Speaker 4: on people and just have a you know, knee jerk
Speaker 4: reactions to things. I was always, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: a thinker. Let me think about the situation, like how
Speaker 4: to get through it, how to get past it, like
Speaker 4: were they wrong? Were they right? Was I tripping? Like,
Speaker 4: you know, just trying to gauge it all at the
Speaker 4: same time. And and I guess I've become good at it.
Speaker 4: And uh, now, you know, now I don't even think
Speaker 4: I'll maybe I'll get close this year.
Speaker 3: You can't get one. Now you've come this far. You
Speaker 3: cannot get one.
Speaker 4: Now we've gotten pretty close. We've got pretty close this year,
Speaker 4: and I'm a little a little scared it might happen
Speaker 4: soon if we keep going.
Speaker 3: I actually need to do some research.
Speaker 2: I gotta I gotta find like a historian who can
Speaker 2: look this up. What are what is the most minutes
Speaker 2: in most games in NBA history without getting a tech
Speaker 2: I mean, you've got to be in the run.
Speaker 3: I don't even know how to put that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I would think so honestly, I don't know.
Speaker 2: At this point, like you surely you want to you
Speaker 2: want to retire without any don't you?
Speaker 3: At this point?
Speaker 4: At this at this point, I feel like I can
Speaker 4: use it to my advantage. Now I can like talk
Speaker 4: to the ref a little bit more higher levels of
Speaker 4: volume and like aggression because they're afraid to get me
Speaker 4: a tech you know, if they.
Speaker 6: Don't, they don't want to be the ones that don't
Speaker 6: want to be the ones.
Speaker 3: So see that surprises me.
Speaker 2: I would think there would be a ref out there,
Speaker 2: who hey, I'm going to give.
Speaker 5: There's a few out there. There's a few out there.
Speaker 5: If I had the guests, I go, I cause name
Speaker 5: on the spot. There is a couple of refs that
Speaker 5: I would think would be about that business if if
Speaker 5: it got to that point.
Speaker 4: I think that maybe maybe, but I think that it
Speaker 4: would have to be like they wouldn't know who it
Speaker 4: was they were calling the tech on and they turn
Speaker 4: around and be like, oh damn, I bat. You know,
Speaker 4: it would be one of those situations.
Speaker 2: Do you think most refs know you have zero career tech.
Speaker 4: I honestly do I think, because that's like the one
Speaker 4: thing they say to me is they like appreciate you
Speaker 4: know me, you know, just to got so much respect
Speaker 4: for you know, one another and whatever, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: thank you, Like man, keep going, keep being the you know,
Speaker 4: the guy you are. So I feel like they kind
Speaker 4: of have you know, fallen into that that vibe I'm
Speaker 4: just nice guy or so.
Speaker 6: Okay now with you being the two things. Mike.
Speaker 5: So, in twenty fourteen, you actually did receive a TECH,
Speaker 5: but it was it was rescinded. It was against Sacramento,
Speaker 5: but it was rescinded the very next day. Do you
Speaker 5: remember what did you do to get that tech? And
Speaker 5: how did you feel?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I remember it was something happened. Uh, I might
Speaker 4: have shot a layup or got fouled or didn't get fouled, whatever,
Speaker 4: the ball bounced out of bounds or something. I said, like,
Speaker 4: you know, come on man, like like slapped my hand.
Speaker 4: I literally that's all I said. It was like, come on, man,
Speaker 4: slap my hands to get it like that, and kind
Speaker 4: of turned around and started to walk up to the
Speaker 4: free throw line and I heard a whistle and I
Speaker 4: heard a tech like a Tech was being called, and
Speaker 4: I still didn't know who they was calling it. I
Speaker 4: thought it was calling somebody else, like somebody else did
Speaker 4: something z Bo Tony all these other guys that do
Speaker 4: that all the time. So and then I realized it
Speaker 4: was pointing at me, and I was like, ain't no way,
Speaker 4: I gotta tell you, it's got to be the wrong person.
Speaker 4: So they called in and they got to rescind it,
Speaker 4: and you know, it never happened.
Speaker 3: We're college in high school the same no.
Speaker 4: Text, Yeah yeah, college, high school never got close either
Speaker 4: one of those. So I don't know, Man, what a
Speaker 4: gentleman I guess?
Speaker 5: Man, hold on, I want to get before we move on.
Speaker 5: I wanted to get a little deeper here. Can you
Speaker 5: cuss out a ref right now and get away with it?
Speaker 6: Are there? Are there certain things you can get away
Speaker 6: with it now that refs know the situation?
Speaker 4: See now I can. I can cuss, but not at them,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean? Like I think like I'm
Speaker 4: like just like talking to him, and I might roll
Speaker 4: in a few of those words in there. It's a
Speaker 4: little different than like me like running at them and
Speaker 4: start calling them names and stuff like I'm not I'm
Speaker 4: not doing that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I get that, because you know, doing doing sidelines
Speaker 5: for T and T. I've read across across Draymond, like
Speaker 5: when Draymond picks up that first tech, Oh, he goes
Speaker 5: off even more after that first tech, no, knowing that
Speaker 5: the officials don't want to you know, they're gonna give
Speaker 5: them leeway, they don't want to give that second Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I was just curious, like you could get I
Speaker 5: was curious things you could get away with right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's yeah. I can't get away with probably that
Speaker 4: level of uh, but you know, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I tried my best to utilize it to our advantage
Speaker 4: a little bit.
Speaker 2: You recently came to terms with the Wolves on a
Speaker 2: new contract extension. Congratulations, So obviously you know where your
Speaker 2: home is going to be for the next two seasons
Speaker 2: beyond this one, as you understand it. How close were
Speaker 2: you to ending up with the Lakers at the trade
Speaker 2: deadline rather than the Wolves. What did they tell you
Speaker 2: behind the scenes that maybe we didn't know on the
Speaker 2: public side.
Speaker 4: Of the fence. I honestly don't know how close that was.
Speaker 4: I kind of had no idea anything kind of like
Speaker 4: that was going down. To that that morning of the
Speaker 4: day we got traded. But I think as it became
Speaker 4: more and more serious, I think it was never I
Speaker 4: was never really going to be a part of that
Speaker 4: deal to La or is going to have to be
Speaker 4: a three team deal, And obviously it ended up being that,
Speaker 4: and each you know, team got who they wanted, uh
Speaker 4: for that, you know, for that trade, and kind of
Speaker 4: moved on from there. But like from my perspective, I
Speaker 4: didn't know too much. I thought I had heard like
Speaker 4: Clippers stuff, and obviously Lakers were in there a little bit,
Speaker 4: but Minnesota was kind of like the the dark horse
Speaker 4: that it was a far shot, it probably wouldn't happen,
Speaker 4: and it ended up being the one that did.
Speaker 2: When you first heard Minnesota before you got on the
Speaker 2: plane and actually switched teams, what did you think about
Speaker 2: the fit?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I thought it was it reminded me a lot
Speaker 4: of our Utah teams. Was you know, you shuffled a
Speaker 4: couple of different pieces around and and we've got you know,
Speaker 4: these young long defenders and Anthony Edwards and cat like this.
Speaker 4: It just seemed like it was like a team that
Speaker 4: was ready to kind of take a take a you know,
Speaker 4: a turn and you really kind of hit the momentum
Speaker 4: swing and I, you know, I wanted to be a
Speaker 4: part of that. Obviously, resigning now kind of getting a
Speaker 4: whole year to get accustomed to the guys and understand
Speaker 4: my role and what I'm gonna do to provide what
Speaker 4: I do for the team. And it's just, you know,
Speaker 4: we fell in love with it and hopefully we continue
Speaker 4: to build something here and give ourselves a good run
Speaker 4: in ith.
Speaker 5: Mike, I want to ask you about your thoughts on
Speaker 5: and D It seems like there is a for point
Speaker 5: guards coming up into this league. It seems like they
Speaker 5: have to be scoring point guards nowadays. And I look
Speaker 5: at you as a hybrid, but I look at you
Speaker 5: as an old school point guard as well when you're
Speaker 5: when you're talking to younger players who are going to
Speaker 5: be point guards in this in college or even to
Speaker 5: the league, Like, is there a certain way that you
Speaker 5: feel like point guards now they have to play or
Speaker 5: do you feel like there is a Mike Conley type
Speaker 5: player that can steal make his way to the league
Speaker 5: and still get looked at like how you got looked at,
Speaker 5: you know, back in your high school and college days.
Speaker 4: Well, but yeah, I think you could have a little
Speaker 4: bit of both there where you know, you got you're
Speaker 4: gonna have guys that play a different style of basketball.
Speaker 4: I play different style of basketball, you know, move a
Speaker 4: little bit differently and not above the rim. Like my
Speaker 4: game is predicated on different things as I can provide
Speaker 4: or whatnot. And that's just me particularly, get the next
Speaker 4: guy could be you know, their particular skill set at
Speaker 4: six three or six fours and help them become who
Speaker 4: they they become a little bit a little bit easier. So,
Speaker 4: you know, the point guard position is I think it
Speaker 4: will always kind of be a leadership position and be
Speaker 4: able to understand the game and a high IQ level
Speaker 4: and understanding you know, balance and all that. But uh,
Speaker 4: the modern point guard needs to be able to score.
Speaker 4: They need to be able to find them scores. And
Speaker 4: like it's a lot of that, a lot of that's
Speaker 4: happening now and and so it would be you know,
Speaker 4: perfect point guard to me would be able to do
Speaker 4: obviously a little bit of all that and at a
Speaker 4: very elite level. And you know, this league is just
Speaker 4: trending in that you know, scoring point guard. Uh, you
Speaker 4: know air So you.
Speaker 5: Say it have to be so you know, because you know,
Speaker 5: in the eighties and nineties, maybe even some of the
Speaker 5: early two thousands you had past first point guard, they
Speaker 5: were they were not scored. So you believe point guards
Speaker 5: nowadays they do have to be somewhat of a dynamic
Speaker 5: score to be able to.
Speaker 6: Make in this league.
Speaker 4: Yeah, uh, somewhat. You don't have to you know, be
Speaker 4: Dame or a jar or anybody like that, but you have.
Speaker 4: But you you know, you have to be able to
Speaker 4: be official. You have to be able to score. You
Speaker 4: have to be able to you know, score in different
Speaker 4: ways and and depending on your roles. So I think
Speaker 4: it'll be tough to crack a lot of rosters if
Speaker 4: you can only you know, passed the ball and that's
Speaker 4: and that's it, because you know, defenses can kind of
Speaker 4: key in on that nowadays and take advantage. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I think that's kind of where we're at with that, Mike.
Speaker 2: If I could, I want to go back to the
Speaker 2: subject of All Star. When you got your All Star
Speaker 2: nod and now years later when you reflect on it,
Speaker 2: how big a deal is it if you didn't have
Speaker 2: that on your resume, how much would that bother you
Speaker 2: at this later stage of your career.
Speaker 4: Oh man, honestly, I think it. It would bother me,
Speaker 4: bother me. I think it was something at the time
Speaker 4: I was super grateful for and thankful for. But when
Speaker 4: you're in the moment, you just think, like, finally I
Speaker 4: did it. But I never thought about what it You know,
Speaker 4: what I'd feel if I hadn't made it yet, And
Speaker 4: you know, it'd be a bummer obviously, because there's a
Speaker 4: lot of years that put in a lot of really
Speaker 4: good work and you know a lot of positive things happening.
Speaker 4: Didn't get that chance and always kind of got up
Speaker 4: to the twelve hour, but never you know, got that call,
Speaker 4: and so yeah, I can imagine you know, where where
Speaker 4: I be, you know, think about that every night I
Speaker 4: went to bed, you know, knowing that I never had
Speaker 4: that opportunity.
Speaker 5: Mike, we think about not having an opportunity. When I
Speaker 5: first came in the league, I was covering the Portland
Speaker 5: Trail Blazers. That was my first four years in the
Speaker 5: league covering the Blazers, and I got Greg Golden's last
Speaker 5: year there and he didn't play that year, and so
Speaker 5: I didn't get to build a relationship with him until
Speaker 5: later on, like when he went to play for Miami
Speaker 5: and I was able to develop a relationship. But uh, Mike,
Speaker 5: that was truly like you know, when you talk about
Speaker 5: players who had such of a has such of a talent,
Speaker 5: had such of a bright future, but it was all
Speaker 5: derailed due to injuries due to their body lacking. Like,
Speaker 5: when you think of Greg Golden, you got to you
Speaker 5: got to play with him. You guys are really good friends.
Speaker 5: When you think of Greg Golden, you know what comes
Speaker 5: to mind, you know, because obviously you know it's unfortunate
Speaker 5: at the time we live in. You know, people label
Speaker 5: players bus based off of injuries, when bus really should
Speaker 5: mean like, okay, you didn't make it. You didn't play
Speaker 5: to a standard when you were healthy, you know, not
Speaker 5: due to an injury or whatever.
Speaker 6: But when you think of Greg, god, like.
Speaker 5: What could have been, Mike, what do you think what
Speaker 5: could have been if his body cooperated?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Man, he's truthfully a special player, and I think
Speaker 4: a lot of people knew that, and I think that's
Speaker 4: why there was so much expectation for him. But and
Speaker 4: people also know that, you know, the reason why he
Speaker 4: is out the league was because the injury stuff, not
Speaker 4: because you can't play the game of basketball or not
Speaker 4: dominate when he was in the games, which I think
Speaker 4: he was having some good years when he did get
Speaker 4: on the court. So you know, it's tough. And you know,
Speaker 4: actually saw him last week we played in Indie. But
Speaker 4: he's a guy that you know, we grew up together.
Speaker 4: We we've been around each other forever and he's been
Speaker 4: along you know, we've been along each other's careers every
Speaker 4: step of the way, and even to this day as
Speaker 4: he's coaching and I'm still playing, you know, we're checking
Speaker 4: in and seeing how we're doing, and you know, so
Speaker 4: it's it's, uh, it's I just wish he could have
Speaker 4: had the opportunities that I that I've had to play
Speaker 4: this long, and you know, he would have done so
Speaker 4: much more with it obviously with this talent. But yeah, man,
Speaker 4: I just wish you would have had that same, that
Speaker 4: same uh, you know, career.
Speaker 5: When you guys were in college, Mike, Ohio State, what
Speaker 5: were some of the things you guys were talking about,
Speaker 5: because obviously you guys knew you were going to play
Speaker 5: at the next level, Like, what were some of the
Speaker 5: the conversation you were guys that would have about just
Speaker 5: your dreams and aspirations in the next leak, in the
Speaker 5: next phase of your careers.
Speaker 4: Man, honestly, we were we were so different, Like we
Speaker 4: were talking about probably anything other than the basketball, honestly,
Speaker 4: like anything other then you know, what we're going to
Speaker 4: be doing for our respective teams and what city we're
Speaker 4: going to be playing in. Like, man, we're thinking about
Speaker 4: video games and the next thing, and you know, it's
Speaker 4: that time of your life. Everything is just kind of
Speaker 4: going by so fast. And yeah, I mean it's we
Speaker 4: were always pure coming into this thing, just like just
Speaker 4: a green you know, just having a green approach to everything,
Speaker 4: and it just kind of everything happens fast, and we just,
Speaker 4: you know, never really had an opportunity to sit down
Speaker 4: and think about our journey and where we're going to
Speaker 4: be headed to and how much we're going to do
Speaker 4: with it.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make you look too far into
Speaker 2: the future because I know you're still playing and you
Speaker 2: have years left now on your contract. So but the
Speaker 2: minute you mentioned coaching with Greg that immediately made me wonder,
Speaker 2: is coaching something that you think would interest you five
Speaker 2: to ten years down the road, Because given the leadership
Speaker 2: roles you've had as a player, that moved to coaching.
Speaker 4: Would Yeah. I've always said I kind of didn't want
Speaker 4: to coach. But the older I've gotten, the the more
Speaker 4: I'm like, Man, it's it's basically what I would be
Speaker 4: really good at because I can still you know, imprint
Speaker 4: my knowledge on guys and players and you know, put
Speaker 4: them in best situations to succeed. And but you know,
Speaker 4: you said, I hope it's a little bit down the road.
Speaker 4: I got to work on, you know, practicing be a
Speaker 4: coach for my little you know, son's basketball team or
Speaker 4: something like that first kind to get an idea of
Speaker 4: what it's like, and and then you know, who knows,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe I'll maybe I'll get there one day.
Speaker 5: Mike, is required from time to time that you pick
Speaker 5: up a technical for your team as a coach to
Speaker 5: ignite something.
Speaker 6: Can you do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you will get a tech as a coach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that would be the deal. Yeah, I know that,
Speaker 4: And that might be the and why I'm a little
Speaker 4: reluctant to say yes about coaching. Take that technical street.
Speaker 5: So, Mike, when you think of what you guys have left,
Speaker 5: obviously you want to bring cat into the fold. And
Speaker 5: and I'm being honest, Like, when I think about teams
Speaker 5: as ready to take that step into being championship contended teams,
Speaker 5: most of the times those teams have to go through
Speaker 5: the hurdles of postseason pitfalls and learn from that and
Speaker 5: move on. I mean, there have been a few teams
Speaker 5: that just bypass that went all the way, But for
Speaker 5: the Temples, are you guys in a situation where you
Speaker 5: feel like, you know, this is you know, we've been
Speaker 5: number one in the Western Conference for a long time.
Speaker 5: Not right now, but we've been up there for a
Speaker 5: long time. Is this a situation where it's like, man,
Speaker 5: we won a championship this year, or do you feel
Speaker 5: like this is all part of the process that we
Speaker 5: need to go, you know, just we're still playing and
Speaker 5: figuring things out.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, I think it's you know, you know, we're
Speaker 4: we're just a team of you know, I mean, I
Speaker 4: don't even know how we how would I describe it?
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, Honestly, you know, we're just you know,
Speaker 4: a group of guys that are you know, we understand
Speaker 4: that first seed, second seed, third seed, like it matters
Speaker 4: in the playoffs, it matters who your matchups are against.
Speaker 4: We understand we have to have, you know, postseason success,
Speaker 4: you know, to be taken serious. We understand that you
Speaker 4: know it post these success is super hard and not
Speaker 4: given every year that you're gonna you know, be in
Speaker 4: the first round and get out of the first round
Speaker 4: or make the playoffs. And you say, yes, we do
Speaker 4: want to build as a year ago as years go on,
Speaker 4: but not all of us have a lot of time
Speaker 4: to you know, build it all the way up and
Speaker 4: see how we go in five or six years. So
Speaker 4: there is a sense of like urgency that is there
Speaker 4: that you know, it's kind of my urgency is kind
Speaker 4: of Rudy's urgency, the older guys urgency if like, hey
Speaker 4: we can, why don't we just win it now? You know,
Speaker 4: why don't we just try now? And that's been our
Speaker 4: cold anyway. And we don't want to have to wait
Speaker 4: another two or three years just because the guide says
Speaker 4: we should wait two or three more years until you know,
Speaker 4: you get taken serious as a contender, contended for a championship.
Speaker 4: So we'll just see how, you know, things shape out.
Speaker 4: Obviously we're gonna be ready to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, your radio guy Alan Horton keeps this
Speaker 2: running Tallly of this amazing stat that this season, the
Speaker 2: Wolves have led the West for almost one hundred days,
Speaker 2: and in the previous thirty four seasons of the franchise,
Speaker 2: the Wolves only led the West for ten days total
Speaker 2: in that whole time. And we sat down, Chris and
Speaker 2: I we did a podcast with your coach, Chris Finch
Speaker 2: at All Star weekend in Indianapolis, and I had to
Speaker 2: be that annoying guy who pointed out that the Wolves
Speaker 2: as a franchise haven't won a playoff series in two
Speaker 2: twenty years. They've only won two playoff rounds in their
Speaker 2: whole existence. So everybody's going to bring that stuff up,
Speaker 2: you know, Chris says that kind of your guys approaches
Speaker 2: that past history doesn't really apply to us. This is
Speaker 2: a new team, a new group. But how do you
Speaker 2: tune that out when annoying reporters.
Speaker 4: Like me are just going to keep it right? You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's okay, man. We tune out a lot.
Speaker 4: We've learned how to you know, tune out you know
Speaker 4: any you know, writers, comments, opinions you know about our
Speaker 4: our squad, about the direction. Now serious are and serious
Speaker 4: we truthfully are, And what you know the difference between
Speaker 4: our teams of last year, this year or two years before.
Speaker 4: You know, it's all it's all comes in, it comes
Speaker 4: and goes, and I think a lot of us are
Speaker 4: handling really well. I think we're handling honestly. The best
Speaker 4: thing I think we're handling is is the you know,
Speaker 4: there's the jump and success from being you know, with
Speaker 4: games are used to be seen as from Minnesota as
Speaker 4: opposed to what we're doing now. Is has caused a
Speaker 4: lot of you know, positive attention around our team and
Speaker 4: in the cities, the people and you can just tell
Speaker 4: every time we walk in the story like that, people
Speaker 4: yell like number one in the West like stuff like that,
Speaker 4: like because it's all new and it's exciting. But we've
Speaker 4: done a good job of not you know, letting that
Speaker 4: affect how we approach today and how we approach you know,
Speaker 4: getting better as a team, which we're gonna need, you know,
Speaker 4: to have that kind of mentality to sustain any kind
Speaker 4: of you know, level of play that we've built.
Speaker 6: That's done.
Speaker 5: I gotta I gotta ask Mike this one more time
Speaker 5: because I think everybody is intrigued still with the guys
Speaker 5: lack of I mean, excuse him, not lack the guy's
Speaker 5: abundance of composure.
Speaker 6: I should say, Mike, I want you to dice.
Speaker 2: Why are you trying to You're trying to go to
Speaker 2: him into gett in the next game.
Speaker 6: I gotta I gotta ask about that. I want him
Speaker 6: to di st this play.
Speaker 5: And I want you to take me inside your head, like,
Speaker 5: because most people in this situation now I'm about to
Speaker 5: bring up, they will react.
Speaker 6: And you did it.
Speaker 5: The play and I'm talking about is the game against
Speaker 5: the Brooklyn Nets not too long ago. We're down the stretch,
Speaker 5: down the stretch of the game. You guys are up
Speaker 5: up big already, and you shot at three with twenty
Speaker 5: something seconds. Dennis Struder comes over and pushes you, gets
Speaker 5: mad that you shot it instead of letting the ball
Speaker 5: a set and getting I believe a shot clock violation
Speaker 5: at that time.
Speaker 6: And I looked at you.
Speaker 5: Most players immediately once they're get pushed, most people were like,
Speaker 5: just just push back, like it's a reaction. You push back.
Speaker 5: Can you take me inside? Like, how do even in
Speaker 5: that instance, how do you just keep your composent And
Speaker 5: don't get me wrong, it ain't no pump.
Speaker 6: I'm not saying, yeah, I'm not saying that.
Speaker 5: I'm saying like, you know what I mean, like you
Speaker 5: you're level headed, like so in that situation, how do
Speaker 5: you still keep your comment?
Speaker 4: It happened so fast. Honestly, I don't think I had
Speaker 4: even real time to react to too much. I just,
Speaker 4: you know, one, I was like, that's I think that's
Speaker 4: a foul. Like I'm thinking, like that's an a one,
Speaker 4: like something I don't even know. I really want that's
Speaker 4: my promise with here's a foul. But I don't think that,
Speaker 4: you know, at the time, I honestly like I didn't
Speaker 4: know what to do with the ball, and man, people
Speaker 4: everybody's kind of playing hot potato with like you shoot it,
Speaker 4: you shoot it, I don't want it. I was like, man,
Speaker 4: I'll just shoot it from wherever I'm at, just because
Speaker 4: I know we got like twenty six twenty five seconds
Speaker 4: left and just get the shot off. I don't really
Speaker 4: care about make or missing it. But you know, that happened,
Speaker 4: and I was just like, man, uh, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: just just crazy. I wouldn't. I wasn't prepared for it,
Speaker 4: which is probably why I didn't react as uh as
Speaker 4: quickly as you know some other people may.
Speaker 5: Being a veteran in that situation, you know, there's they
Speaker 5: have all these unwritten rules of you know, when do
Speaker 5: you shoot it? Do you let the ball go out?
Speaker 5: Like where do you stay? I believe, you know, I
Speaker 5: played college ball. I didn't play in the NBA, but
Speaker 5: I believe, Man, the game is over when the game
Speaker 5: is over. But I know most people in the NBA
Speaker 5: don't take on that type of mindset. What is your
Speaker 5: mindset in that type of situation in the closing.
Speaker 6: Of a game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think as far as you know, I've always
Speaker 4: viewed it as I've played until like that last you know,
Speaker 4: twenty four seconds basically, you know when that if you
Speaker 4: have the ball, you know, under the shot clock, you know,
Speaker 4: the shot clocks off, stuff like that, we held the ball,
Speaker 4: if there was like a two three second difference in
Speaker 4: that you kind of held the ball and you know,
Speaker 4: dropped it and went the other way. But anything kind
Speaker 4: of like before that time, I think it was just
Speaker 4: always you just played and and they finished out the game,
Speaker 4: and uh it went from there. So it's it's it's
Speaker 4: it's you know, I don't know if it's a trendy thing, right,
Speaker 4: now that people are getting upset about it, but it
Speaker 4: has been coming up a lot lately, and uh, just
Speaker 4: I am not so used to kind of seeing that
Speaker 4: haven't played the last sixteen seventeen years, Chris.
Speaker 2: I've got like seven or eight more questions for this man,
Speaker 2: but we gotta let him go unfortunately too long, but
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try to sneak. I'm gonna try to sneak
Speaker 2: in one or two more and then we're gonna let
Speaker 2: him go. As I mentioned off the top, you know
Speaker 2: you have appeared more than once on the annual all
Speaker 2: lefty team that I assemble. But I think you are
Speaker 2: a natural righty if I have the story correct. So
Speaker 2: just in your words, explain your left handedness right handedness?
Speaker 3: Maybe you're amphibious.
Speaker 4: Is amphibious?
Speaker 3: Jacks likes to say it like that.
Speaker 2: You would please explain for us how you see yourself.
Speaker 4: I am a right handed person by nature. I played
Speaker 4: basketball left handed, which allows me to truthfully kind of
Speaker 4: be amidextrous in basketball. But if you give me a pencil,
Speaker 4: it's right with my left hand, I'll you know I
Speaker 4: have no chance compared to the right. So it's it's
Speaker 4: unique because you know you talk about the right hand
Speaker 4: floater and all the right handed shots I shoot. You know,
Speaker 4: obviously it's my dominant hand, so a lot of things
Speaker 4: I do with my left hand is like people shooting
Speaker 4: with their off hands. So you know, I should get
Speaker 4: more credit for when I make a lefty three, then
Speaker 4: I do a right handed floater because I'm flying blind
Speaker 4: on left side.
Speaker 2: How old were you when this became the case, when
Speaker 2: you became a left hand.
Speaker 4: Dominant Honestly, I've always been. It started probably when I
Speaker 4: was four or five, when I would try to, you know,
Speaker 4: shoot a ball and a big goal, I would like
Speaker 4: hoist it from my left side of my bodies for
Speaker 4: whatever reason, and I kind of stuck with me and
Speaker 4: and but then as I got older, I knew that
Speaker 4: I was because I could take like five days off
Speaker 4: of basketball and come back and shoot two shots left
Speaker 4: handed and just airball and they shoot it too strong,
Speaker 4: and then get it in my right hand and it
Speaker 4: just feels so natural, like as if I haven't missed
Speaker 4: the day at work. And I was like, I think
Speaker 4: I might be like truthfully right handed in basketball. I've
Speaker 4: just I got to learn this left side now that
Speaker 4: I've done it for so long, so I just didn't
Speaker 4: give up on it and have done decent with it.
Speaker 6: Sorry, sign Mike Conley.
Speaker 2: He is as a left hander, and I've I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go out on a limb and say he takes more
Speaker 2: shots with his left hand than his right hand over the.
Speaker 4: Course of an NBA season.
Speaker 2: Bold, bold statement from me some high level analytics there.
Speaker 2: All right, sir, well, we know you got you got.
Speaker 2: You got two games coming up against your old team
Speaker 2: in Utah. You still have three games left in the
Speaker 2: regular season with the defending champions from Denver, so a
Speaker 2: lot still to do here in the regular season. Wishing
Speaker 2: you and the Wolves success and good luck in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: And thanks him ill for doing Thank you, Thank you
Speaker 4: guys so much.
Speaker 2: All right, there he goes everyone, Mike Conley from the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: That will do it for.
Speaker 2: This edition of this league uncut. As always, remember please
Speaker 2: follow us, rate the show, review the show. We'd love
Speaker 2: to get a five star rating from you. Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: Spotify podcast, wherever you get your pods.
Speaker 3: Haynes Stein. We'll be back together again very very soon.
Speaker 3: Thanks everybody for listening, and that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1: See you next time.
Speaker 3: This league, uncut is and iHeartRadio production Chris Haynes and
Speaker 3: Mark Stein.
Speaker 4: I didn't