Speaker 1: James Nis the Third joined the seventy Sixers for the
Speaker 1: home stretch of last season and made an immediate impact.
Speaker 1: Yet with a fresh new contract in hand, what has
Speaker 1: the veteran been up to this offseason. I just want
Speaker 1: to be the best player I can be, soul, whatever's missing,
Speaker 1: you want to help fill that spot in and also
Speaker 1: you want to be as best as I can be
Speaker 1: at the things I'm good at, So that's what I
Speaker 1: really focus on. We talk about hoops, dogs and verses
Speaker 1: of course, yes, verses with James Nis the Third on
Speaker 1: this episode of the broadcast. What's going on out there?
Speaker 1: Are seventy sixers pod people? How are you? Brian Selzer here?
Speaker 1: Thanking you as always for taking the time out of
Speaker 1: your busy life schedule to listen to our podcast. A
Speaker 1: reminder that to follow us or to subscribe to our
Speaker 1: feed type in Sixers podcast network on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google podcast, Stitcher, tune in, SoundCloud, or anywhere else that
Speaker 1: you listen to your pods. This time of year, it
Speaker 1: is typically quiet times around practice facilities throughout the NBA,
Speaker 1: but this week it was great to see a familiar
Speaker 1: face in James Ennis the third throughout the hallways of
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers training complex and as the Third was
Speaker 1: acquired by the seventy Sixers at the trade deadline this
Speaker 1: past winner from the Houston Rockets for a future second
Speaker 1: round pick, and then a couple days into free agency,
Speaker 1: he resigned with the seventy Sixers on a brand new deal.
Speaker 1: I thought he really made his presence felt down the
Speaker 1: home stretch of last season. It seemed like whenever he
Speaker 1: came in, he usually brought high energy on both ends
Speaker 1: of the court, whether it was with his explosive dunks
Speaker 1: at the rack, his defensive presence, some of the block
Speaker 1: shots he ended up coming with, and he was a
Speaker 1: really great citizen to have inside the seventy six ers
Speaker 1: locker room. The Ventura, California native has spent the bulk
Speaker 1: of his summer out in Southern at California, but he
Speaker 1: was at the training complex this week and we had
Speaker 1: the chance to sit down and talk about, as I
Speaker 1: teas in the open, a whole host of topics. So
Speaker 1: here's our conversation with James Ennis the Third. James, first
Speaker 1: of all, great to see around these parts, man, how
Speaker 1: are you doing. Thanks nice, see you guys too. I'm
Speaker 1: doing good. I'm doing good, so for me, you can
Speaker 1: tell me how it is for you. When a season ends,
Speaker 1: I feel like I personally and I'm not nearly doing
Speaker 1: anything close to a strenuous as you guys are out
Speaker 1: there on the court. I feel like my mind needs
Speaker 1: some time to decompress, unwind a little bit. But then
Speaker 1: around this time, as we get to labor day, juice
Speaker 1: start flowing again. That excitement's back. Tell me where you're at,
Speaker 1: not even physically, but mentally. At this stage of the offseason,
Speaker 1: we're training camps, kind of getting closer. I'm excited, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, summer flew by, you know, obviously working
Speaker 1: so hard, you know, the time flies, and just like
Speaker 1: you said, um, it's around the corner and I can't wait.
Speaker 1: You know. I think we're gonna do really good this year.
Speaker 1: And we have a lot of talent on this team,
Speaker 1: from the first player to the last player on the bench.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody can contribute. So I'm excited to get
Speaker 1: this going. After last season and especially the way it ended.
Speaker 1: Did you need to remove yourself from basketball for a
Speaker 1: little bit, however long it was, or did it have
Speaker 1: the opposite effect? Did it fire you up right at
Speaker 1: that moment and looking ahead to the next season. I
Speaker 1: actually fired me up right away, so I really didn't
Speaker 1: get no time off. I think I took on vacation
Speaker 1: this summer probably for like five days, and all I've
Speaker 1: been doing is is working, working, working, working until I
Speaker 1: get better, you know, and try to be the best
Speaker 1: player I can be. I'm going to ask you about
Speaker 1: the work, but I also know where'd you go? I
Speaker 1: went to the Bahamas? Nice. Yeah, so I went out there,
Speaker 1: swim with the sharks, did that, feed the pigs, did that,
Speaker 1: you know, for the first time. So it was a cool,
Speaker 1: good experience. It's funny, like I would almost think that
Speaker 1: if you do something as much as you guys, as
Speaker 1: professional basketball players do it, it would probably have to
Speaker 1: feel funny after a few days. If you're not on
Speaker 1: a basketball court right or you're not working on your body,
Speaker 1: you don't have a basketball on your head exactly, Like, man,
Speaker 1: what am I doing? I'm being lazy, But obviously you
Speaker 1: need some time sometimes get your mind right. Take me
Speaker 1: inside some of the workouts that you've been involved with.
Speaker 1: What are some of the things that you've focused on
Speaker 1: focused on a lot of just the ball in my hands,
Speaker 1: pick and roll, just shooting off the dribble, stuff like that,
Speaker 1: coming off screen shooting. I know because I know we
Speaker 1: lost JJ his shooting, so I know I have to
Speaker 1: increase my percentage. So I put a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of hours in from my shot to you know,
Speaker 1: be more consistent. As it always it's been like that
Speaker 1: for you, that you tailor your off season program to
Speaker 1: the needs of the team that you're gonna be on.
Speaker 1: How do you strike the balance between working on skills
Speaker 1: that obviously would need to fit the seventy six or
Speaker 1: system and then just general things that you want to
Speaker 1: see evolved and developing your own game. Yeah, um, I
Speaker 1: have you know, I just want to be the best
Speaker 1: player I can be, so definitely, um, whatever's missing, you
Speaker 1: want to you know, help fill that spot in and
Speaker 1: also you want to just, um, be as best as
Speaker 1: I can be at the things I'm good at. So
Speaker 1: that's what I would really focus on. I don't really
Speaker 1: try to do things I don't do in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I just I focus on the things that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do on this team and what my role is and
Speaker 1: what would you know, what I can do? Where do
Speaker 1: you think your game is at right now. You're a
Speaker 1: veteran player, You've had so many different types of experiences
Speaker 1: in the sport. Where do you see your game at
Speaker 1: right now, at this stage of your career heading into
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen twenty. I think I'm in my time right now.
Speaker 1: I feel really good. Um. I feel like this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a good year for me. Um. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: body feels great. Minds, my mind's good. And that's a
Speaker 1: big key. You know, it's just your mind being free
Speaker 1: and you know, just focus on that one thing. Any
Speaker 1: free agent has options. Why did you think that you,
Speaker 1: at this juncture of your career right now made the
Speaker 1: most sense to return and come back here? Um? I
Speaker 1: love Philly, you know, I love I love the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: I love just just the whole team. Do you guys
Speaker 1: know about Philadelphia before? Like, let's say you're on another team, Like, well,
Speaker 1: what is the reputation of Philadelphia from an outsider to you?
Speaker 1: Because it's interesting. I mean you said that you really
Speaker 1: like it here and I think Mike Scott talked about
Speaker 1: this as well. Just even in a very short period
Speaker 1: of time, there's a connection that's created. Is it something
Speaker 1: that you don't really know about the city until you're
Speaker 1: here and you play here. It's like a hard no city.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody's tough here. Um Like, like you said,
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley, tough iris and tough. So players who came
Speaker 1: to Philly, you know, they're really tough players and they
Speaker 1: put their body on the line and that's and that's
Speaker 1: what I love about it. You, like many players in
Speaker 1: the NBA, you've spent a good chunk of your time
Speaker 1: during the off season out in southern California, in and
Speaker 1: around Los Angeles. What's the scene like out there and
Speaker 1: how valuable is it to be within that environment as
Speaker 1: you work on your game in the off season. Well,
Speaker 1: it's nice, you know, good weather, um, you know, got
Speaker 1: the beaches stuff like that, and um, just it's good.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of family over there, and just
Speaker 1: being around my family and seeing them every day and
Speaker 1: just handing my business you know, on the court. You know,
Speaker 1: that's what it's about. You got to see a couple
Speaker 1: of teammates out there out there, Yeah, I'll see. I
Speaker 1: worked out with Mike Mike Scott a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I actually spend time with Ben you know, you know,
Speaker 1: because Ben's one of my closest friends on this team,
Speaker 1: so we kept that connection one season was over. How
Speaker 1: did that connection begin? Where did it start from? Do
Speaker 1: you think for you guys, Um, probably because he's from
Speaker 1: He's from Australia, you know, you know I lived in Australia,
Speaker 1: so it was a little connection right there. That's how
Speaker 1: how it all began. Just so the Australian connection. Were
Speaker 1: you guys talking about familiar places, restaurants, things in and
Speaker 1: around the country or you know you did that happens
Speaker 1: different things like and just different things that they do
Speaker 1: in Australia, like the different types of food. Just a
Speaker 1: little little questions like that. You know, you're a guy
Speaker 1: who's been around the league, You've played with some of
Speaker 1: the top players in the game. From a veteran's perspective,
Speaker 1: what stood out about Ben to you when you got
Speaker 1: to know him more last year as a teammate? Ben
Speaker 1: Ben's U. Ben's a really good teammate. You know, he
Speaker 1: obviously he's a he's a point guard. He you know,
Speaker 1: he's a general, you know, head of the head of
Speaker 1: the snake. Um. He's a very good, really good teammate. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, plays hard every time. He stops on the floor. Um,
Speaker 1: he's not selfish, you know, put guys before him, you know,
Speaker 1: just being on the side of him, you know, I
Speaker 1: know we have a good chance. He talked about his
Speaker 1: leadership growth at the end of last season. I think
Speaker 1: it might have been the day after the Game seven loss.
Speaker 1: There's probably so much stuff that that outsiders, whether you're
Speaker 1: a fan or remember the media, even in the media,
Speaker 1: like how close we are that we don't see? What
Speaker 1: are what are some of the things that Ben does
Speaker 1: that makes him an effective head of the snake. As
Speaker 1: you just said, it passes you know, just him being
Speaker 1: six six nine, six ten handing the ball like that,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of reminds you of magic a little bit.
Speaker 1: Of course, I have to ask you about a comment
Speaker 1: that you made at your end of season press conference
Speaker 1: about you and Ben and the dogs. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Ben has more dogs than me, but just
Speaker 1: bought another dog. I think he has like five dogs. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm about to get my second King Corso. So he
Speaker 1: talked me into getting my first kne Corso because he
Speaker 1: had one. I was like, He's like, yeah, I get
Speaker 1: the dog gets really big. You know, it's a really protective,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh yeah, since I'm a big person,
Speaker 1: I was to get a big dog that, you know,
Speaker 1: could protect the home. So fell in love with a dog.
Speaker 1: I love him. His name's Hustle. I'm about to get
Speaker 1: him a girlfriend soon, so see how that goes. Nice
Speaker 1: good for Hustle. Have you have you had dogs throughout
Speaker 1: your life? Have you always been a pet guy? Not
Speaker 1: really had I had a dog when I was in
Speaker 1: college and I had my daughter had a Yorkie, so
Speaker 1: the Yorkie always been around. So now I am now
Speaker 1: I'm a pet person. So for someone like myself who
Speaker 1: really does not know anything about dogs outside the type
Speaker 1: of dogs that my parents had when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: what type of dog is a King Corso dog? It's
Speaker 1: a big, massive dog, really laid back, you know, really
Speaker 1: use it for hunting back then. I feel like I
Speaker 1: can envision now this this movement on sixers Twitter or
Speaker 1: sixers social media where people may start scouting out dog
Speaker 1: parks in and around town of being like, what am
Speaker 1: I gonna see James and a Third and Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: walking their dogs like the dog run down by the
Speaker 1: Schookole River Park or something like that. I kind of
Speaker 1: feel like that you never know what the fans will do. Facts.
Speaker 1: One really awesome thing, James that you did this summer
Speaker 1: was you put on a camp free of charge for participants.
Speaker 1: What was the inspiration and motivation behind doing that? What
Speaker 1: gave you that idea? Actually, my father had game an idea.
Speaker 1: Um My dad told me I wanted to do a
Speaker 1: free camp where I grew up playing at and UM
Speaker 1: West Park was one of the gyms I grew up,
Speaker 1: you know, playing at UM every day after school. That's
Speaker 1: where I went with my friends and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But the biggest thing, you know, just giving back to
Speaker 1: the youth, you know, because I didn't have that when
Speaker 1: I was young around that area. So just I feel
Speaker 1: like just me by going there, you know, inspires other
Speaker 1: other kids and stuff like that and give hope to
Speaker 1: people around there. This isn't to imply that others who
Speaker 1: play basketball professionally your peers don't work hard for it.
Speaker 1: But I remember reading the piece that Lauren Rosen, who
Speaker 1: works for US did on you earlier in the season,
Speaker 1: like you really had to work to get there. Your
Speaker 1: path was in no way linear to where you were
Speaker 1: to where you are now. I mean I gotta think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be such a cool feeling, especially not only
Speaker 1: to give back, but to do it in a place
Speaker 1: that has meaning insignificance to what your journey has been
Speaker 1: exactly because once I went in a gym, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: it brought back so many memories and a lot of
Speaker 1: sweat tears in there. Wanted to give up quite a
Speaker 1: bit because the path I took, but you know, I
Speaker 1: just stay stayed with it for my family and just
Speaker 1: a lot of my family members came to support me
Speaker 1: and put a big smile on my dad's face, and
Speaker 1: you know, that's what it's about. They're just seeing them happy.
Speaker 1: You know, he's been through so much and just for
Speaker 1: me to do that, you know, just you know, pat
Speaker 1: on my back this team right now. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: people have talked a lot about your comments, your confidence
Speaker 1: in this group, but I gotta think that your comments
Speaker 1: about the whole Eastern Conference coming out of the East thing,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have made those comments if you didn't truly
Speaker 1: believe that this team had a chance to do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're not that type of guy who just
Speaker 1: throws words out there to do that. I mean, it
Speaker 1: seems like you've got to have a pretty good sense
Speaker 1: of confidence about this team. I definitely do a lot
Speaker 1: of confident about this team, Like you know, just that
Speaker 1: last game, Game seven, you know, lucky bounce, we go home,
Speaker 1: go over time, we win, then play Milwaukee, we win,
Speaker 1: We win the championship because I believe we're better than
Speaker 1: Milwaukee last year, and just you know, things happen. You know,
Speaker 1: we have another We have a good team this year.
Speaker 1: We lost Jimmy and we lost jj you know, really
Speaker 1: good players, good teammates, and brought in Josh, got in
Speaker 1: Zaire getting better, Benjo, well you know about brought in
Speaker 1: al Tobias getting better. Everybody working hard. So I believe
Speaker 1: the roster experience turnover. But it's funny because the expectations
Speaker 1: I initially want to say have remained the same, but
Speaker 1: it's almost like they're going up, even in other level
Speaker 1: surrounding this team. How do you think this group is
Speaker 1: going to be different from last year in terms of
Speaker 1: style of play? Given some of the personnel you added,
Speaker 1: the guys that you just rattled off the top of
Speaker 1: the head, I feel like our offense would be a
Speaker 1: lot different just because we don't have that JJ Reddick,
Speaker 1: run off screens type player. But I feel like we're
Speaker 1: still gonna, you know, put up high numbers. So we
Speaker 1: have a lot of people who can shoot the ball.
Speaker 1: And you know, Josh is a really good shooting um.
Speaker 1: I played with him when he was a rookie in Miami.
Speaker 1: I know he didn't had he had a big upside
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to see what he what he
Speaker 1: brings to this table. And from where I sit thinking
Speaker 1: about it, You're back, Mike Scott's back. You add more
Speaker 1: seasoned veterans like Kyle O'Quinn, Howell, Nato, Trey Burke. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's some real depth to this team. Not to say
Speaker 1: that the last year's group didn't have it, but there's
Speaker 1: some guys who have really been around the league for
Speaker 1: a while. Jonah with another year under his belt. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like the depth of this team could be
Speaker 1: something that you guys have to work with as well.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, everybody, everybody's excited. Every's ready to go. Talking
Speaker 1: to a few players, everybody can't wait to you know,
Speaker 1: start training camp and get this train going. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a fun year. What happens between now and the
Speaker 1: time that you guys get on the court for training
Speaker 1: camp at the beginning of October. For you. For me, Um,
Speaker 1: go back to Kelly. Continue to work on our game.
Speaker 1: Continue to getting the best shape possible before training camp,
Speaker 1: because I don't like getting this shape during training campballock
Speaker 1: to being fit when training camp starts. That's how I
Speaker 1: am love it. I'm gonna ask you one more thing.
Speaker 1: Do we call this a fanny pack the carrying bag?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like it's no, it's a mers Let
Speaker 1: me tell you, I think the Merse could have far
Speaker 1: more utility than a fanny pack. Like the fanny packets.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting thing, you know, but the Merse, I
Speaker 1: feel like these days, if you have a bigger phone
Speaker 1: or you're carrying around like an iPad or whatever, it
Speaker 1: is like you need more space than just what your
Speaker 1: pockets can provide. I agree. Everye has their own taste,
Speaker 1: and you know what they like the style I like
Speaker 1: to wear. Um. For me, I like the Merse. I
Speaker 1: have a like two fanny packs, but obviously use this
Speaker 1: my mirth more than a fanny pack. Can you take
Speaker 1: us inside? Like, what are the go to items that
Speaker 1: you might or even would want to be willing to
Speaker 1: share about what goes in the James and it's the
Speaker 1: third mrse cologne. You put a brush, charger, wallet, money
Speaker 1: for a lot of things in your Bible and you
Speaker 1: don't have to strain your back, not at all. You
Speaker 1: know why why bob yourself down to the backpack? You
Speaker 1: just sling it over your shoulder. All right? I suppose
Speaker 1: well ended on that, James. Great seenior, Matt and I've
Speaker 1: seen you James Nis. The third insights on the upcoming
Speaker 1: seventy six or season takes on mail, apparel accessories. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the best stuff doesn't come to the very end of
Speaker 1: the interview. But now great catching up with James and
Speaker 1: really awesome to hear about what he was doing earlier
Speaker 1: in the summer to give back to the area that
Speaker 1: he grew up in with his free at basketball camp.
Speaker 1: Just some really good stuff. Thanks to James Ennis for
Speaker 1: taking the time to talk. Thank you as always for listening.
Speaker 1: Alrighty enjoy Labor Day weekend. Talk to you next time
Speaker 1: here on the broadcast dot do