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Speaker 2: ring the insurance company's bell. Welcome back to the seventy
Speaker 2: six Ers Insiders podcasts and welcome to Philadelphia. Gershan Yabacelli,
Speaker 2: Welcome to the seventy six ers.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: So you're from France. You most recently played with Real
Speaker 2: Madrid in Spain. But let's just start in general. How
Speaker 2: does it feel to be joining this team? What are
Speaker 2: you excited about?
Speaker 3: Feels great.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to be back in me to be
Speaker 1: a first of all, and excited to come to one
Speaker 1: of this great organization here with the great fan base.
Speaker 3: You know, just excited to be here in kawait to
Speaker 3: be on the court.
Speaker 2: And how did it feel to find out about the opportunity.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about the Olympics, but yeah, when you were
Speaker 2: getting some well deserved relaxation in on vacation with your
Speaker 2: wife and your your friends, how did it feel to
Speaker 2: find out about this NBA opportunity while doing that?
Speaker 1: I mean it was pretty amazing because you know, of
Speaker 1: course I was relaxing, but I was still I still
Speaker 1: had that energy that I wanted to play ball, you know,
Speaker 1: after the Olympics and everything that we got going on,
Speaker 1: so I was I was just so excited. I was
Speaker 1: just so excited when I get the call to come
Speaker 1: in here, because of course that was the second chot,
Speaker 1: but that was the the the following summer.
Speaker 3: That was pretty amazing for me.
Speaker 2: What type of basketball player are Sixers?
Speaker 1: Fans getting just a guy that come and play with
Speaker 1: a lot of energy.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of heart. You know.
Speaker 1: I gave everything on the court. I always try to,
Speaker 1: you know, do and play my best every time I
Speaker 1: were at a jersey and I put my shoes on,
Speaker 1: you know, so I just come in here. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of fun on the court, but I just
Speaker 1: give everything, you know.
Speaker 2: The Paris Olympics, you were one of the standout players.
Speaker 2: I know the result wasn't exactly what you wanted. Another
Speaker 2: silver medal though for you and France. Again, back to
Speaker 2: how it felt. How did it feel to play so
Speaker 2: well on that stage, especially given the fact that it
Speaker 2: was a home Olympics in Paris.
Speaker 3: I mean you just you just pointed a that it
Speaker 3: was at home.
Speaker 1: So we have this uh, this different type of energy,
Speaker 1: you know, when I see my family, I see my
Speaker 1: friends on the in the crowd, you know, and this
Speaker 1: fan pushing us.
Speaker 3: Of course, we have this second.
Speaker 1: Uh let's say like hard, you know, so when we
Speaker 1: we step on the court, we we just play hard,
Speaker 1: you know. And my teammate did a great job of
Speaker 1: just you know, feeding me and and helping me play
Speaker 1: play my best, you know, and it was just us.
Speaker 1: It was something that we were building, something that we
Speaker 1: create with the players, and we just give everything in
Speaker 1: Bulla And.
Speaker 2: It's hard to win a medal in any event. Yes,
Speaker 2: and Team USA is always the team to be and
Speaker 2: that you guys made it all the way to the
Speaker 2: gold medal game again against them. How much, if at all,
Speaker 2: did you think going into the Olympic Games that if
Speaker 2: you had a strong performance that it might help you
Speaker 2: get back to the NBA.
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking of it that way, but I knew
Speaker 1: that playing great will help me for sure, maybe get
Speaker 1: a shot or not. Because the Olympics was late, so
Speaker 1: I didn't know if it was still possible to make
Speaker 1: that move. But you know, I knew that even if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for this summer, maybe next summer, that would
Speaker 1: help me to have a good performance in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: You dunked on Lebron James. How many text messages, calls, facetimes,
Speaker 2: whatever did you have after that?
Speaker 3: It got crazy.
Speaker 1: I didn't even I couldn't even go to social media
Speaker 1: anymore because the app was just lagging so much because
Speaker 1: every time I go it was messages. It was like
Speaker 1: people just comment and following me, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was for the Olympics in general, if it
Speaker 1: was for the final, or if it was just for
Speaker 1: the dunk. But you know, even my followers and everything
Speaker 1: just got so crazy, and a couple of days that
Speaker 1: I couldn't even get on social media.
Speaker 2: You will have more moments in your basketball career, for sure,
Speaker 2: but do you have the poster of that yet or
Speaker 2: are you going to get it blown out?
Speaker 1: So not yet, because you know, I was moving a lot.
Speaker 1: I didn't have time to settle, go home and really.
Speaker 3: Relax a little bit.
Speaker 1: But uh, when I was in France, I booked a
Speaker 1: room in a hotel right after the Olympic and they
Speaker 1: had the poster already with like a little message and everything.
Speaker 1: So I find it really really nice, and uh, you
Speaker 1: know it was. It was really I was happy to
Speaker 1: see that in a Mike smell.
Speaker 2: It's got to be one of the most viewed plays history.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: You went up against Joel andb now your teammates with
Speaker 2: him on the Sixers. What do you think that's going
Speaker 2: to be like to be on the same team as Joel.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be good, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be fun. I know he had quite a history
Speaker 1: with the French fans, let's say, uh from you know,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that got going on.
Speaker 3: But I never had any bad.
Speaker 1: Blog with him, you know, and you know the way
Speaker 1: he reacts, for example when he was getting booed, and
Speaker 1: you know he actually enjoyed. I like this type of
Speaker 1: energy because I know that's what I would have done,
Speaker 1: you know. So this is the little thing that comes
Speaker 1: out and I know that we're going to be good.
Speaker 3: Tomate for sure.
Speaker 2: What have your early conversations been like with Joel and
Speaker 2: another former sixer from France, timoth Ay Luau Cabarell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also Nico Opportunity was playing here, so I
Speaker 1: talked more to both of them because obviously I played
Speaker 1: with them in the French national team, and you know,
Speaker 1: we got more conversational contact. But I knew I knew
Speaker 1: Joel also from a little bit back in the day,
Speaker 1: and of course when Timothy was here, I had to
Speaker 1: spoke with him, so I said, we were in good contact,
Speaker 1: and of course I would get to know more about
Speaker 1: him this season and I think he's a good guy.
Speaker 2: NBA experience for you from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: two seasons with the Boston Celtics. Do you remember your
Speaker 2: first career regular season game in the NBA? October twenty
Speaker 2: at twenty seventeen?
Speaker 3: Was it wasn't it here? No? It was here? It
Speaker 3: was here. It was in Philly.
Speaker 1: I remember I made it three. That was the first
Speaker 1: three in the NBA. You remember that oaking.
Speaker 3: A lot of those open looks. That's why you have
Speaker 3: the selic's here. Yeah you can shoot a little bit, right.
Speaker 2: How did that moment feel when you checked into a
Speaker 2: regular season NBA game for the first time, and just
Speaker 2: the fact now it's come full circle in Philly.
Speaker 3: It was just special.
Speaker 1: There was a special moment because you know, obviously I
Speaker 1: never hided you know, NBA always been my dream, you know,
Speaker 1: since gonna start playing basketball, So obviously to check in
Speaker 1: for your first minute, then you go in and you're
Speaker 1: able to hit the three, and you know get that feeling.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just amazing, and you know it just
Speaker 1: helped you to get in the game a little bit more.
Speaker 3: But playing that first game against Philly.
Speaker 1: And then you know, having this little history Celtics in
Speaker 1: Philly and not being Philly, it's just amazing.
Speaker 3: This is just how the word is going.
Speaker 1: You never know where you're going to be, who you're
Speaker 1: going to play, and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So I found that just amazing.
Speaker 2: Second chances. It's your second chance at an NBA career.
Speaker 2: What's motivating you right now?
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited. I'm just so excited. I've been
Speaker 1: there before. I've been the disposition. I didn't get the
Speaker 1: chance to really express myself in my game in the Celtics.
Speaker 1: But you know, like five, five, seven years after, I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, I'm ready and I'm happy that
Speaker 1: he got the way he got because I got better
Speaker 1: mentally physically. You know, in my game, I improve a
Speaker 1: lot and I understand the game more now, So I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm more prepared and more ready to have
Speaker 1: an impact now that I would have five years ago.
Speaker 2: I mentioned Real Madrid earlier. The euro League is well
Speaker 2: known as a really tough league and your team, you
Speaker 2: and your team had a lot of success, multiple championships,
Speaker 2: But just with how that league goes and the style
Speaker 2: of play and how your team played, how do you
Speaker 2: think playing with Real Madrid will help you fit into
Speaker 2: this Sixers team back into the NBA.
Speaker 3: Well, first, of all.
Speaker 1: Real Madrid as we were laughing about it with Mario
Speaker 1: Azonia because we looked at the team and it was
Speaker 1: all NBA players in our team, like most of the
Speaker 1: guys went to the NBA or a top really top
Speaker 1: Euroaque player, you know. So this help us a lot
Speaker 1: because we play on the great players, you know, so
Speaker 1: in practice and in the game, you learn and you
Speaker 1: get to experience those stuff with being with great players,
Speaker 1: you know, so compared to the NBA for me to
Speaker 1: come in the year, like I'm going to be with
Speaker 1: great players too, you know, so just don't understand the
Speaker 1: game a little bit more and you know, knowing to
Speaker 1: what I can and doing what I can't really do
Speaker 1: to help me a lot.
Speaker 2: And not just the euro League in recent years, but
Speaker 2: you've been a professional basketball player since you were a teenager,
Speaker 2: and I know before you were ever in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Some of the things that kind of threw you a
Speaker 2: little bit, where the back to backs and the long
Speaker 2: road trips, how does that compare to what you just
Speaker 2: experienced in the euro League. Do you think you'll be
Speaker 2: better prepared for the NBA schedule now that you've already done.
Speaker 3: It, Yes, for sure, because you know.
Speaker 1: Also is one thing that we cannot pass is the
Speaker 1: NBA also have the ability for rest, you know, for
Speaker 1: coming back, well, the plans and all the stuff that's
Speaker 1: made for the players, you know, saying we don't have
Speaker 1: this in Europe. You know, so even if we have
Speaker 1: back to backs here, then we don't in Europe. The
Speaker 1: recovery process and everything that the NBA got for the
Speaker 1: players is still going to be good, you know. So
Speaker 1: to experience the back to back, you know, and I
Speaker 1: know it's going to be tough. It's not something that
Speaker 1: is easy to do. But you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: a good challenge and I'm all for it, you know.
Speaker 2: And I know here in Philly there aren't a lot
Speaker 2: of Jersey numbers to pick from because there are a
Speaker 2: lot that are retired. But you were number twenty eight
Speaker 2: with Real Madrid. You're about to wear number twenty eight
Speaker 2: again with the six Ers. Where does that come from?
Speaker 1: So twenty eight is the postal code of my hometown.
Speaker 1: So I had it in the Madrid I had it
Speaker 1: also in the Asvil Tony Parker's Club. But you know,
Speaker 1: since that, I feel like everything has been well, and
Speaker 1: I want to say that then me kind of. You know,
Speaker 1: this was like after China and mistarting, let's say go
Speaker 1: back and has to go back up and start with
Speaker 1: twenty eight and everything's been great so far, so just
Speaker 1: keep it.
Speaker 2: Two stints for you in the Chinese Basketball Association. What
Speaker 2: was different about them? Like what parts of your career
Speaker 2: did those come in?
Speaker 1: So I will talk about my first experience in Shanghai
Speaker 1: Sharks before to Boston Celtics. It was just an amazing
Speaker 1: experience for me to have because as a young age,
Speaker 1: as a young pro, so I feel like I needed
Speaker 1: to leave my country just to experience to be a
Speaker 1: foreigner player and be on the team when you have
Speaker 1: that pressure that if you don't play good, you're going
Speaker 1: back home, you know. So I just feel that this
Speaker 1: was a good challenge for me mentally, but also, you know,
Speaker 1: push myself and I wanted to sell myself, not in trouble,
Speaker 1: but like in bad situation to see how I will react,
Speaker 1: you know, just to get better. And you know, those
Speaker 1: things really worked pretty wet and it was pretty much amazing.
Speaker 1: And my second year after Boston Celtics, I went to Nijing.
Speaker 1: The situation was a little bit different with the club
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 3: But you know.
Speaker 1: That was kind of like after Boston when I didn't
Speaker 1: have anything, so I decided to go to China and
Speaker 1: then I went to friends and as well, and then
Speaker 1: from there we just build and create and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: learn and got better.
Speaker 2: It's all part of the journey and going way back
Speaker 2: as we begin to wrap things up. Growing up in France,
Speaker 2: your father was a boxer. Yeah, what is your family
Speaker 2: history with the sport of boxing?
Speaker 1: My dad probably just uh train not the whole city,
Speaker 1: but pretty much of the people in the city. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's how everybody kind of like to my dad, my
Speaker 1: family and everybody, but in my family trained everybody. We
Speaker 1: all grew up boxing. My dad was a boxer, but
Speaker 1: he didn't a bunch of like other sporting fight for example,
Speaker 1: like he was karate. He was doing like a window
Speaker 1: like like a bunch of.
Speaker 2: Are you a black belt in crowded me?
Speaker 1: But I did a little bit of judo okay, and
Speaker 1: my dad did judo too, So in the family that
Speaker 1: we have this basil, you know, knowing a little bit
Speaker 1: of sport contact and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to stay on your good side.
Speaker 2: When's the last time you were in the ring.
Speaker 1: It was now a long time agoing out of course,
Speaker 1: I you know, speaking about all this stuff, because after that,
Speaker 1: the people are going to take this out and act
Speaker 1: like I'm a violent guy.
Speaker 3: But I'm really a nice guy. You know. I never
Speaker 3: I tried never to get mad or stuff like that.
Speaker 2: When you were starting to play basketball, you left your family,
Speaker 2: your home at age eleven. How far from home were you?
Speaker 1: What was that experience like so you have to take
Speaker 1: a train, I will say it was like, no, the
Speaker 1: first one from eleven to thirteen. I was in a
Speaker 1: place called the Pole and it was in two I
Speaker 1: think it was like three hours something to go there.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was there the whole weekend. I
Speaker 1: was coming back the weekend, so it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: And playing basketball and you know, meeting new friend and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I feel like I needed that to
Speaker 1: be just a little bit away from my family, just
Speaker 1: for me to grow up and you know, learn new stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't want to stay home till I'm thirty, you know,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to move kind of like early. So
Speaker 1: I liked that part of basketball, which is like taking
Speaker 1: me far away a little bit from family, friends, just
Speaker 1: to create like a new life.
Speaker 2: You hear about it sometimes with fourteen fifteen year olds
Speaker 2: in the States, but eleven is super young. Yeah, to
Speaker 2: begin that process. But I know you said when you
Speaker 2: start getting more into basketball, that you wanted to be
Speaker 2: in the league, the NBA from a young age. What
Speaker 2: type of exposure did you have to the NBA? Were
Speaker 2: you able to watch it? Watch highlights in France?
Speaker 1: I think when like YouTube and all this stuff came,
Speaker 1: like at the beginning, when we was watching of course,
Speaker 1: like you have the suggestions and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I was looking and like I was saying, I was
Speaker 1: watching Kobe Byrne, you know, back in the day and
Speaker 1: the wages he was playing, way it was moving and
Speaker 1: everything that he brought to the game. And when I
Speaker 1: was watching outside of the game, how he was training
Speaker 1: and all the stuff that he was doing.
Speaker 3: I was just amazed.
Speaker 1: At a young age, you had to work hard to
Speaker 1: become a good player, and I just got addicted to
Speaker 1: the to the work process, you know, just too good
Speaker 1: to the gym.
Speaker 3: And at a young age.
Speaker 1: I was going to the gym by myself just to
Speaker 1: sho hopes for like forty five minutes just by myself
Speaker 1: counting the clockdown and shooting birds like you know, little
Speaker 1: things like that and that make me love the gaming,
Speaker 1: that make me, you know, progress and get better.
Speaker 2: I've got two more questions for you. One of them
Speaker 2: is more of a formality about the nickname that the
Speaker 2: Dancing Bear. I know it's it's you get asked in
Speaker 2: every single interview why you're called the dancing Bear. But
Speaker 2: just for anyone out there who might not know, what's
Speaker 2: the story behind it. Who gave it to you?
Speaker 1: That was a Kutcher Srewsbury that I had in Boston Celtics.
Speaker 3: It was it was just during the summer league. That's
Speaker 3: my first summer league.
Speaker 1: And I don't I don't think he meant it the
Speaker 1: first one. The first time he said it, like you know,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a nickname, but it was
Speaker 1: just like.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: The kids is just like he's strong, it's just like
Speaker 1: a bear. And then his feet moving so fast like
Speaker 1: he's for for his weight. It's pretty much amazing, like
Speaker 1: he's he's he's just.
Speaker 3: Like it looks like he's dancing every time. It's just
Speaker 3: like a dancing bear.
Speaker 1: You know, you just say that like that it's just
Speaker 1: like some of the media just took it out and
Speaker 1: then from there it become like this big thing when
Speaker 1: everybody was coming to be like that.
Speaker 2: And that's Micah Shrewsbury, the former Celtics coaches now the
Speaker 2: head coach at Notre Dame exactly. And then wrapping up
Speaker 2: with this, you said that you've always, even when growing up,
Speaker 2: have kind of been into American music, TV shows, still, movies. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and now still I'm sure you've become even more acclimated
Speaker 2: with it all. But what are some of your favorites,
Speaker 2: favorite artists, shows, movies, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I will say, as far as like a artists stuff
Speaker 1: like that, there's a bunch of guys that I can't name,
Speaker 1: of course, but one that stands out that I like
Speaker 1: for the music and things that he said, because I
Speaker 1: like to listen to sorts of stuff that makes sense
Speaker 1: and not just a bunch of nonsense.
Speaker 3: Let's say, but Jacob.
Speaker 1: You know, I like Jacob and the music device and
Speaker 1: just just the guys in general. You know, like it's
Speaker 1: not the guy you will see with tons of Julie
Speaker 1: and tons of stuff like that. It's just being natural.
Speaker 1: And I think this is what it's all about and
Speaker 1: of course Kendrick Klamer or two and stands out that
Speaker 1: like the music and the words that they put in
Speaker 1: everything that he says, and if I have to peak
Speaker 1: up the movie and a couple of classics of course,
Speaker 1: like love and basketball.
Speaker 3: Of course everybody went the movie and society.
Speaker 1: And all this this good movie that I liked, and
Speaker 1: I like, grew up learning English redo this movie kind
Speaker 1: of so that have me a lot.
Speaker 2: Gershani Abselli, thank you so much, thank you, thank you,