Speaker 1: I'm Tari's Mexi and you're listening to the seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers Insider's podcast.
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Speaker 2: Welcome. We have shared the court many times together as teammates,
Speaker 2: but this is our first.
Speaker 3: Time I'm doing a podcast together.
Speaker 2: Welcome on the seventy six Ers Insider podcast.
Speaker 3: It's good to have you here.
Speaker 4: Man, It's great to be here with you, my brother.
Speaker 2: It's been a while since we've really caught up. A
Speaker 2: lot has happened, so I'm looking forward to diving right in.
Speaker 2: How are things with you? How's your second stint around
Speaker 2: in Philly. You know it's been about five years since
Speaker 2: your last stint with this team. How are things different
Speaker 2: this time around, and how have you grown as a
Speaker 2: person and player?
Speaker 5: Well, of course much older, Like you said, five years,
Speaker 5: I'm a father now and you know a lot of
Speaker 5: my old friends are still here, so that pretty much
Speaker 5: hasn't changed. My transition has been great. It was pretty easy.
Speaker 5: You know for me, I didn't really have much to
Speaker 5: like really go and renew myself with. So, you know,
Speaker 5: just being back in this room, you know, fortunate that
Speaker 5: I've been hurt for a duration of this period, but
Speaker 5: you know I'll be back short enough.
Speaker 2: So when you kind of look back to your early days,
Speaker 2: you know, starting off in this league with this team,
Speaker 2: and now you see yourself you've been ten plus years
Speaker 2: in the NBA, I guess what do you think has
Speaker 2: changed about the league or the style of play over
Speaker 2: that course of the time, and what has helped you
Speaker 2: kind of adapt and make yourself so successful over that
Speaker 2: period of time.
Speaker 5: The way that the game has changes is being played
Speaker 5: much faster. It's a lot more threes, and it's kind
Speaker 5: of like positionless basketball, which is actually works in my
Speaker 5: favorite you know, coming into the league was one of
Speaker 5: the things that they kind of was like, you know,
Speaker 5: I didn't really have a position. But now that you know,
Speaker 5: ten plus years later, that's what the league is now,
Speaker 5: and you know it's only getting you know, much faster.
Speaker 5: So transition has been great for me. And you know,
Speaker 5: like I said, being that you know, we share the
Speaker 5: court many years ago, you know, many battles here in
Speaker 5: this arena, just to see like you know, our career
Speaker 5: has had, you know, shifted in different directions, but you know,
Speaker 5: we're still doing something that you know, we we actually
Speaker 5: talked about this when we were in you know, when
Speaker 5: we had our stint then about you know, what did
Speaker 5: you want to do afterwards?
Speaker 4: And you said, this is what you planned on doing
Speaker 4: and not look at.
Speaker 3: You that's true, just getting started.
Speaker 2: But you know, when I think back to those days,
Speaker 2: the process days, if that's what you want to call them.
Speaker 2: You know, one question that I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 2: a hypothetical if we took our twenty fifteen twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: team ten wins ten to seventy two, I might add,
Speaker 2: fully healthy, and we played a seven game series against
Speaker 2: this sixers team right now, would we win one game?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: And that's what I was saying too.
Speaker 2: I was saying I think we would sneak one win
Speaker 2: mainly because here's the thing. Teams used to take us
Speaker 2: super light, Like teams used to just not really play
Speaker 2: hard the first three quarters hard as ever, but we were grinding.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we lost a lot of games because we ran
Speaker 5: out of gas. Yeah that's literally how pretty much that
Speaker 5: is that we ran out of gas because you know,
Speaker 5: you put an emphasis on playing hard. A lot of
Speaker 5: teams going to take like you said, take us lightly,
Speaker 5: and we like just came up. It was a lot
Speaker 5: of games. It was just like we was right there.
Speaker 5: It's just a few errors you know that we did
Speaker 5: down the line. But like I said, we ran out
Speaker 5: of gas.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I try to tell people all the time, like
Speaker 2: we we weren't a great team, but the record, the
Speaker 2: ten and seventy two doesn't really it doesn't do us
Speaker 2: justice that we actually weren't that bad. And when you
Speaker 2: look at that roster. A lot of the guys have
Speaker 2: gone on to have very long, successful careers and are
Speaker 2: still playing like yourself, TJ. You know, like there's so
Speaker 2: many guys that have gone on to just play long careers,
Speaker 2: and we were all so young. We were so young,
Speaker 2: so inexperienced. I was considered the VET on the team
Speaker 2: and that was that's scary year.
Speaker 3: That's very scary that you were the VET at that time.
Speaker 2: But you know, looking back at those days, to me,
Speaker 2: what sticks out was throughout all those losses and throughout
Speaker 2: some of the tough times, the friendships and bonds that
Speaker 2: we created because we were all in that same starting
Speaker 2: phase of our career. I think brought us together and
Speaker 2: allows us to kind of still be close with one
Speaker 2: another and share these memories in a lighthearted way, because
Speaker 2: it really was all good times.
Speaker 4: Even though we did we had a whole lot of
Speaker 4: good times.
Speaker 5: And no matter what people say that, how did y'all
Speaker 5: honestly get through the season, It was like we did it.
Speaker 5: Not only a great job, but the organization did a
Speaker 5: great job of like helping us navigate through it because
Speaker 5: it was tough. You know, losing that many games is
Speaker 5: definitely tough. But the fact that we were able to
Speaker 5: do other things. I don't know if you remember the
Speaker 5: presentations we used to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you brought your snakes and I said, CoV
Speaker 2: I love you. Get those snakes away from you right now,
Speaker 2: get them away.
Speaker 5: And have the whole entire everyone in the organization and
Speaker 5: everything was just literally we had it in the beginning
Speaker 5: where everybody was up close, and next thing, you know,
Speaker 5: the whole entire organization was in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm not getting close to those.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 5: My reptile, you know, of the expansion is ex planned
Speaker 5: it heavily.
Speaker 3: Really, how many what's the repertoire looking like?
Speaker 2: Now? We got like five of them? Ten of them
Speaker 2: or four? Man, that's too much for me. And they
Speaker 2: travel the worldwide with you. Huh every city I've been there. Wow,
Speaker 2: that's awesome. All right, Well, I'm going to try to
Speaker 2: take it maybe a little bit more, a little bit
Speaker 2: more lighthearted, and just fire off some questions to you.
Speaker 3: What was your welcome to the NBA moment when you
Speaker 3: look back at your career.
Speaker 4: Too?
Speaker 5: The game winner Dame Liard and the first time I played,
Speaker 5: you know, the first time I played against when I
Speaker 5: was in Houston.
Speaker 4: You think it was against Sacramento.
Speaker 5: It was first time I scored my first NBA bucket,
Speaker 5: and I just remembered my vets just telling me, yo,
Speaker 5: if you don't stop passing the ball to us to
Speaker 5: shoot the ball.
Speaker 2: At least they were on your side trying to get you,
Speaker 2: trying to get you a bucket. It's always good when
Speaker 2: you get like that.
Speaker 5: And then, like I said, the second one was my
Speaker 5: rookieear as well, when game six they ain't literally hit
Speaker 5: that dagger three to say that that was an iconic
Speaker 5: kind when I'm in it was crazy. Is I go
Speaker 5: to Portland when I played for Portland, they have that
Speaker 5: picture up on the wall and you see me in
Speaker 5: the background, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like this, you want to it's crazy.
Speaker 2: So I played in Portland and I went to Dame's
Speaker 2: house one time, and like he has this hallway when
Speaker 2: you first come into his house and it's like all
Speaker 2: of his like coldest NBA moments, and he's got a
Speaker 2: lot of them, and it's just like you walk down
Speaker 2: this long hallway and it's just like picture after picture
Speaker 2: after picture.
Speaker 3: And that's one of them.
Speaker 2: It's from the other baseline of him kind of going
Speaker 2: up for that shot and like everyone just on their feet.
Speaker 3: I walked down that hallway, I got goosebumps because I
Speaker 3: was like, Damn, this guy's really like he.
Speaker 5: Has that similar in his gym toom H Davis. Like
Speaker 5: I said, that was my two welcome to the NBA moments.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, speaking about you know, having some vets
Speaker 2: with you in Houston, you know, welcoming you to the NBA,
Speaker 2: would you care to share some of the craziest rookie
Speaker 2: duties you were responsible for in Houston? Who is your vet?
Speaker 5: I had a few vets, James Harden, Dwight Howard, Francisco Garcia,
Speaker 5: Patrick Beverley, Ronnie Brewer was trying to think of who else,
Speaker 5: Terrence Jones.
Speaker 4: These these were technically all my vets.
Speaker 5: So but the people that kicked it with the most
Speaker 5: was Francisco Garcia and Dwight. And so the craziest duty
Speaker 5: I used to have is with Francisco. I just had
Speaker 5: to meet him at his hookah bar every single day,
Speaker 5: like that was his thing.
Speaker 4: I had to meet him there and I didn't smog.
Speaker 2: He just did a company.
Speaker 4: He just needed a company.
Speaker 5: So we're just sitting there chopping it up, and like
Speaker 5: he's giving the ins and outs of like what we're
Speaker 5: walking into, like giving us, giving us games. So literally
Speaker 5: I just sit there. We just have conversations. And as
Speaker 5: time went on, like he just kept like teaching, kept teaching,
Speaker 5: kept teaching. My craziest rookie duty with d White was
Speaker 5: he used to have me carry a fifty five pound
Speaker 5: book back that was literally filled with iPads, computers, about
Speaker 5: fifty chargers charging wireless chargers, like it was a brick.
Speaker 4: Used to carry that around.
Speaker 5: Then he used to have me like he used to
Speaker 5: take like these love ventures going to like reptile houses.
Speaker 5: Like that's when he's actually the one that first introduced
Speaker 5: me to snakes.
Speaker 3: So I was about to say, is that intro Okay?
Speaker 5: Now we know I had an interest in you know, reptiles,
Speaker 5: like you know, growing up from Steve Irwin. But he
Speaker 5: was like, all right, I'm gonna take you to this
Speaker 5: this this zoo that you know we came across, and
Speaker 5: you know, they have a lot of stuff. When I
Speaker 5: tell you they have a lot of exotic animals, they
Speaker 5: had a lot of exotic animals. And that's where like
Speaker 5: actually was like, all right, you know what, I might
Speaker 5: actually get me one, but they had ones that I
Speaker 5: did not want. They were full grown.
Speaker 2: Like I was like, yeah, I was like, y'all can't
Speaker 2: keep those.
Speaker 4: I want to.
Speaker 5: I want to get my own, like I can raise
Speaker 5: it that way, I can know the temperament of it.
Speaker 5: Because if you get a brand steak you don't know
Speaker 5: how to read it, that can be bad.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Dwight Howard for giving snakes a new
Speaker 2: a new home. You know, he put you on Now
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're you're a father to a
Speaker 2: bunch of snakes.
Speaker 4: I mean, and I still have the one that I
Speaker 4: have for my first.
Speaker 3: What's the life expectancy on those? On those things?
Speaker 4: Like twenty five years?
Speaker 2: Oh so you got you have some companions for quite
Speaker 2: some time, quite some time. All right?
Speaker 3: All right, we talk about Philly the city.
Speaker 2: What are you going with with favorite cheese steak Larry's Larry's.
Speaker 4: I always got a signature cheese steak. There.
Speaker 2: You do have a signature, it's the Robert Covington. See,
Speaker 2: I have not tried this yet.
Speaker 4: So to do is call up like yo do a
Speaker 4: cub Like he's like, yo, brother, how.
Speaker 2: Many you need?
Speaker 3: And so please tell us, like, what is the robbery
Speaker 3: coming in?
Speaker 4: Steak, mushroom American cheese? So simple?
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: Then on the side, I have mayo, hot sauce and wrench,
Speaker 5: and I mixed the mayo and the hot sauce.
Speaker 4: Give me a little you know, spice kick.
Speaker 5: To the mayo sauce, and then I poured it across
Speaker 5: the top, and then I poured a wrench across.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 3: That's a good combo.
Speaker 2: I might have to try that myself. I have to,
Speaker 2: all right. So we move on from cheese steaks to dining.
Speaker 2: What's your number one restaurant in the city.
Speaker 5: Number one for me, and I haven't been unfortunately, is
Speaker 5: Del Frisco. It's always been Del frishk them cheese steak,
Speaker 5: air bro it's been my name.
Speaker 2: But we used to have our end of the season
Speaker 2: dinners there in the vault. Order some Hennessy lemonade.
Speaker 4: Call it a day, Call it a day.
Speaker 3: All right. I got some some rapid fire questions for you.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be tough, though. Start one bench, one cut one, okay,
Speaker 3: lebron Kobe, Michael Jordan, Mmm, you.
Speaker 5: Know I gotta go with Mike. Start of course, the hard.
Speaker 5: That's a tough one. Tough one. But I'm gonna have
Speaker 5: to bench Kobe cut Bron.
Speaker 2: Wow. Really, you know, either way you pick it. If
Speaker 2: someone's gonna someone's gonna be the limit the championships. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's true, that's true. Got six five four? All right,
Speaker 2: if we're talking basketball superpowers, would you rather have twenty
Speaker 2: ten peak Lebron athleticism or would you rather have twenty
Speaker 2: sixteen Steph Curry shooting ability?
Speaker 5: Athleticism all day? You have the athleticism. I can shoot already. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you can shoot already. So you're gonna jump in at
Speaker 5: the gym like you need to.
Speaker 2: Get the ten to night is feeling a little bit
Speaker 2: better in the knees, get the you know, get.
Speaker 5: The Never had that or never had that experience of
Speaker 5: the bounce, So I would definitely take that athleticism.
Speaker 2: You were a little bouncy back in our early back
Speaker 2: in our early Philly days, you would catch people slipping
Speaker 2: every now and then lipping.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't try.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to look people as I literally hit the
Speaker 5: trampoline and just look down at people as I go
Speaker 5: like that. I have never had that. I think I've
Speaker 5: only had one, but it was like it was like
Speaker 5: a grim grazer.
Speaker 3: What's your What's what's been your biggest poster of your career?
Speaker 5: My biggest poster of my career would have to be
Speaker 5: I don't know, have.
Speaker 2: You been put on a poster, not body to body,
Speaker 2: not body to body, but you were there in the picture, there.
Speaker 4: In the picture a few times. You know, I like
Speaker 4: this wipe. I mean, try to get to people before
Speaker 4: they well.
Speaker 2: And you have the tough assignment of like you're going
Speaker 2: to be going up against Lebron Paul George, the wings
Speaker 2: that are six eight and bouncy, so you're put in
Speaker 2: a position where.
Speaker 5: If you get caught slipping a little bit, we'll see
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do the work to not get caught slipping rightly.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's why you're still here ten years later
Speaker 2: with a job. And I'm sitting here on this side
Speaker 2: on the couch asking you the questions.
Speaker 3: Let me think we got we got another one ninety
Speaker 3: six Bulls twenty sixteen Warriors.
Speaker 2: Which one you going with?
Speaker 4: I gotta go Bulls, You go Bulls? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I got to Is that sixteen Warriors team the best
Speaker 2: team that you have played against? In your time in
Speaker 2: the NBA.
Speaker 3: Yes, Like I want to I want.
Speaker 2: To touch on that because I don't want to say
Speaker 2: that we ever were going into a game scared, but
Speaker 2: like people have to realize or people have to realize
Speaker 2: or back in twenty sixteen, we already weren't we We
Speaker 2: couldn't beat a lot of teams, but that was just
Speaker 2: what you had to be there for that time where
Speaker 2: it was just different, like.
Speaker 5: I'd go into the game and you walk into that.
Speaker 5: Remember when we walked into the ring that we was like, yo,
Speaker 5: do you feel it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: And the game wasn't even nowhere near like remotely close
Speaker 5: to starting. And then once it got to the game
Speaker 5: and the first three you heard the the arena like
Speaker 5: floor like shake, you heard you heard you heard the
Speaker 5: literally like the noise from like how loud it was.
Speaker 2: And that was before stephand Clay hit a three.
Speaker 3: Yet this is just I mean.
Speaker 5: It's just but when they hit the it was like
Speaker 5: and we look up, it was like, yo, this might
Speaker 5: get ugly, and this is before the game you started.
Speaker 2: You remember that.
Speaker 4: And then we ended up losing bad.
Speaker 5: And the way that the momentum and that building it
Speaker 5: went higher and higher and hire some point we couldn't
Speaker 5: even hear each other like we were talking.
Speaker 4: We could hear each other on the court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy. I want to touch on something that's
Speaker 2: pretty crazy that most people maybe haven't had. So you
Speaker 2: went from having Elton Brand as a teammate to Elton
Speaker 2: Brand being the GM that traded for you and brought
Speaker 2: you back to Philly. How is that relationship and how
Speaker 2: have you kind of maintain your relationship with Eb over
Speaker 2: the years.
Speaker 5: EB has always been a good friend and like you said,
Speaker 5: he was a good mention to us back then.
Speaker 4: Just seeing him.
Speaker 5: Transition did a lot for us back then. He did
Speaker 5: a lot for us back then we transitioned to the
Speaker 5: role of you know, stepping.
Speaker 4: Into the GM and then I get traded off of that.
Speaker 5: But it's always been like a respect level there, you know,
Speaker 5: coming back, you know, he's like, yeah, we're gonna do
Speaker 5: it right this time. Like, you know, it's unfortunate that
Speaker 5: things happened the way it happened, but you know that's
Speaker 5: all in the past. Like we're here now, let's let's
Speaker 5: we're gonna we're gonna try, We're gonna make amends to
Speaker 5: this because you know, it's we need we need you,
Speaker 5: And it was like, Okay, I understand, I'm here, Like
Speaker 5: that's what it is, that's it's about.
Speaker 2: And and you're someone who's been around long enough where
Speaker 2: the first time you get traded it feels very personal
Speaker 2: and it sometimes feels like a backstab. And after you've
Speaker 2: had a long enough career and you've been through some
Speaker 2: tras and stuff, you you do start to realize that
Speaker 2: it really, very rarely is personal. It is all business, yeah,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. But it's hard to take.
Speaker 2: It's hard to kind of like take a step back
Speaker 2: and look at it that way, because you know, you
Speaker 2: got your family and there's so much going on and
Speaker 2: moving and.
Speaker 5: So it was back then in that time, I did
Speaker 5: feel like it was very personal, and I had like
Speaker 5: a little small like animosity for a little minute. But
Speaker 5: then as I got traded more, I understood that it's
Speaker 5: the nature of the business and you can't really hold
Speaker 5: a grudge, and you know, I let it go. Like
Speaker 5: I said, I understand that they did something that what
Speaker 5: was in the best they felt for the organization, and you.
Speaker 4: Know, I'm not mad about it anymore.
Speaker 5: Like back then, it was just that was my first
Speaker 5: time for it happening, so of course it's like you
Speaker 5: don't know how to process all of that.
Speaker 4: It's like dang. But as your time goes on, like you.
Speaker 5: Know, understand it's the nature of the business and there's
Speaker 5: never no person like you build personal relationships and that's
Speaker 5: not going to turnish what, you know, the decision that
Speaker 5: sport like hard decisions that they have to make for
Speaker 5: the organization because at the end of the day, that's
Speaker 5: what they have to operate, and they have to think
Speaker 5: about what's best for an organization, and they're going to
Speaker 5: do what they what's best for them, and you know
Speaker 5: they're going to put try to put themselves in the
Speaker 5: best position. So the way that you handle it, you know,
Speaker 5: moving forward, you know, like I said, that's when I
Speaker 5: was younger, younger at that time, that was you know,
Speaker 5: twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4: You know, it's six years later, so you know, you
Speaker 4: don't you don't do it.
Speaker 5: As time gets on, you get older, you get smarter,
Speaker 5: to get wiser, and you understand that it is nature
Speaker 5: of the business, so you don't have to take them
Speaker 5: things personally.
Speaker 4: And I looking back now, I definitely don't.
Speaker 5: Like I said, it's the opportunity to present it yourself
Speaker 5: that you know they took advantage of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it shows the maturity for for you because
Speaker 2: you know, obviously the team took the sixers, took a
Speaker 2: chance on you and gave you an opportunity very early
Speaker 2: stage of your career and then gave you the extension
Speaker 2: that you deserved and you know, played yourself into. And
Speaker 2: so I could see how from your point of view,
Speaker 2: getting traded soon after that can be like, damn, what
Speaker 2: do you like?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I thought this was family.
Speaker 3: I thought this was all love.
Speaker 2: So that's the tough part about the NBA and the
Speaker 2: business of sports that a lot of people don't see,
Speaker 2: is like there's so much more that goes into it
Speaker 2: than just you know, what you see on TV at
Speaker 2: the end of every day, and like the relationships that
Speaker 2: are cultivating and you know what's special for the organization.
Speaker 5: But you know, as you like you said, as you
Speaker 5: get older, you know, as you get older, you understand
Speaker 5: it and you don't take things as personally like you said,
Speaker 5: it's all the nature of the business, and you know,
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, relationship is always going
Speaker 5: to be the same, Like you know, We have a
Speaker 5: Me and EB have a.
Speaker 4: Great respect for each other.
Speaker 5: We have a good wind that you know, that's something
Speaker 5: that never be you know broken, Like you said, from
Speaker 5: the player aspect and from the other side, you know,
Speaker 5: they's love seeing people exceling their in their positions and
Speaker 5: you know doing well.
Speaker 2: If I were to, you know, catch Robert Covington strolling
Speaker 2: down Broad Street and his whip?
Speaker 3: What what whip? Would I see him in these days?
Speaker 4: Now? What you you see me?
Speaker 3: It was the charger before the blue I remember the
Speaker 3: blue charger charger?
Speaker 4: What do they have it? Though?
Speaker 2: You still haven't, but it's in the reserve. It's like
Speaker 2: on the bench. It's like I gave it to my dad.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good gift.
Speaker 5: I gave it to my dad because originally I was
Speaker 5: going trade it in and my dad was like, nah,
Speaker 5: that's your first.
Speaker 4: That was my first car ever. He was like, nah,
Speaker 4: give me that. Gave it to him.
Speaker 5: Now you'll catch me in one of my four cars,
Speaker 5: one of four.
Speaker 2: You want to share any insight as to what those
Speaker 2: ones are? Today, I drove my second double R Double R.
Speaker 2: Were talking Ghost Wraith, Phantom coloring it? Okay, all right, Well.
Speaker 3: Clearly some of us are in a different tax bracket
Speaker 3: over here.
Speaker 4: But that was that was my gift to myself last
Speaker 4: year for my birthday.
Speaker 3: You know what, that is a phenomenal gift.
Speaker 2: What was that?
Speaker 3: That was the thirtieth birthday?
Speaker 2: Thirty second thirty second thirty seconds is a big birthday.
Speaker 2: You gotta reward yourself somehow, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and my thirty third is going to be even
Speaker 4: better cars though.
Speaker 3: Looking I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2: Speaking of age, when you look forward, do you still
Speaker 2: feel like you have a lot to give to the
Speaker 2: game of basketball? Do you still envision yourself? Are you
Speaker 2: still motivated to continue that journey and continue to grow?
Speaker 3: How do you see that plan out moving forward?
Speaker 4: About another six seven in me?
Speaker 2: So you try to make it twenty like it's going
Speaker 2: to be not an I be a seven seventeen eighteen
Speaker 2: at that point.
Speaker 3: The pension plan is going to be looking great. At
Speaker 3: seventeen years.
Speaker 5: Seventeen years, I'm I'm gonna ren these bands to the
Speaker 5: wheels fall off, because I say, it's not give my family,
Speaker 5: and not only that, my daughter experienced that, you know,
Speaker 5: they've never had.
Speaker 4: So I enjoyed it, and that's my purpose of what
Speaker 4: I do it for.
Speaker 5: You know, my family and you know people that care
Speaker 5: about to enjoy the journey with me. So you know,
Speaker 5: I still have a lot to give. I'm still motivated,
Speaker 5: I'm still happy to do what I do and that
Speaker 5: ain't gonna change no time soon.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people don't respect that enough.
Speaker 2: For the people that do go on to play ten
Speaker 2: to fifteen, twenty years in the NBA, the level of
Speaker 2: commitment and motivation it takes to stay at the top.
Speaker 2: You know, I always tell people it's one thing to
Speaker 2: make it to NBA, which is hard to do, don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong. But even harder than making it is staying.
Speaker 2: And it's a true testament to a couple things. Love
Speaker 2: for the game, motivation and being able to adapt because
Speaker 2: like we talked about the games since we were teammates,
Speaker 2: and now it's changed.
Speaker 5: It's changed significantly, and so and think about how many
Speaker 5: of our teammates back then, how many of them are still.
Speaker 4: In the league.
Speaker 2: I know, it's crazy.
Speaker 4: It's really only probably like four let's.
Speaker 3: Be honest about something.
Speaker 2: Day one of training camp together in twenty fifteen, you
Speaker 2: looked at TJ mcconald, would you think that TJ mcconnald
Speaker 2: would be still balling right now picking people up ninety
Speaker 2: four feet in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: Are we talking about the TJ that we literally watched,
Speaker 5: literally watched day in and day outside the part and say, man,
Speaker 5: I just turned the ball over. They're about to cut
Speaker 5: me after this game.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that TJ.
Speaker 4: But then you look the statue.
Speaker 5: He got ten points, not as forced deals, it's like
Speaker 5: six rebounds, like and TJ, you got one turnover.
Speaker 3: It's what made him great. He was paranoid.
Speaker 2: He was paranoidally drove him out of everyone that played
Speaker 2: in the process era. I feel like that's got to
Speaker 2: be one of the best stories, the fact that he
Speaker 2: started off on a four year non guaranteed from Sam Hanky,
Speaker 2: And you know, it is a testament, Like you know,
Speaker 2: there was there was a lot of downside that came with,
Speaker 2: you know, putting that team together in terms of like
Speaker 2: we weren't successful whatever, but it really gave a lot
Speaker 2: of us an opportunity and platform to go on and
Speaker 2: show what we were capable of.
Speaker 4: And because I mean it was literally he wasn't playing
Speaker 4: for much.
Speaker 5: We literally was showcasing I don't know how many guys
Speaker 5: we've had throughout that locker room, but it was trialing
Speaker 5: there and a lot of people prosper, some people didn't.
Speaker 4: You know, some people are.
Speaker 5: Making careers overseas, but some stuck in the league. And
Speaker 5: you know, it's just that balance of you know, some
Speaker 5: people took full advantage of their not took advantage, but
Speaker 5: the right situation played out in their hands and that's
Speaker 5: what allowed you know, guys like me TJ to you know,
Speaker 5: really thrive. Like when we ventured from here, we was
Speaker 5: able to continue to see the prosper m hm.
Speaker 2: Well, I really hope I continue to see you prosper
Speaker 2: out there. I'm looking forward to watching you guys make
Speaker 2: a playoff push this year. I appreciate you taking the
Speaker 2: time to sit down and catch up.
Speaker 4: Not negotiable.
Speaker 2: It's been. It's it's really been. It's been much needed,
Speaker 2: a good catch up. So I'm glad to see you're
Speaker 2: doing well. I hope your family's all good. And thanks
Speaker 2: again for stopping by. My guy, This guy, Saucy, Saucy,
Speaker 2: stay Saucy.
Speaker 3: My friends,