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Speaker 1: So when you first got to the league, who's the

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Speaker 1: first person to bush your ass in a game? In

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Speaker 1: a game that you was like, oh, I'm on the level.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that it happened a couple

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Speaker 2: of times, Like for sure, your first lap of the league.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure you know you had a couple of rough nights.

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Speaker 2: But I remember Mitch Richmond. It's funny because people probably

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Speaker 2: don't even like anyone who's under forty probably doesn't even

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Speaker 2: remember Mitch Richmond. He was so nice, disrespectful, he's so nice.

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Speaker 2: I remember we were playing I think at home Phoenix.

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Speaker 2: I was on the bench Danny and just like he

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Speaker 2: just got hot. He was he was going off and

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Speaker 2: he's like rock get in there, like get under his fees,

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Speaker 2: your quickness, throw him off his rhythm. And I went

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Speaker 2: out there. He torched me, and I was there was

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Speaker 2: nothing I could do because he's bigger, stronger, and he

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Speaker 2: was in a zone. So he was just brushing me

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Speaker 2: off right over you like but like no, rim you

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Speaker 2: know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: It was.

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Speaker 2: Bottoms, bottoms, bottoms. Every time. I was like, oh my god,

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Speaker 2: this is embarrassing. It's embarrassing. The balls not touching the

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Speaker 2: rim like every time.

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Speaker 3: Now live on location, California living man, My man, Steve

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Speaker 3: you on the strip. He brought us out here to

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Speaker 3: his home. Man opened up his house. We are here

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Speaker 3: close to a beach. I ain't gonna tell y'all which one.

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Speaker 3: That's private information.

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Speaker 1: Man.

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Speaker 3: We appreciate you having us out to the crib man

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Speaker 3: jumping down with the knuckleheads.

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Speaker 1: Y'all check this one out.

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Speaker 3: Man, it's back to back MVP Hall of Famer Steve Nash. Y'all,

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Speaker 3: it's your boys, Q Rich and d mails the podcast

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Speaker 3: season two.

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Speaker 4: And how were thinking what we do like it? Just like,

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Speaker 4: how did y'all come up with that? Is this thing

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Speaker 4: on little scripted? We kind of just get into it.

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Speaker 4: We come from an authentic old g standpoint.

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Speaker 1: You want winning with just one star player. This is

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Speaker 1: a story that people don't know this.

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Speaker 3: Dude, have my shoes on, right, he just talking hot.

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Speaker 3: You know, we were just young and wanted to prove

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Speaker 3: ourselves and you were in the way.

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Speaker 2: It's nice man bought me some honey. Yeah. Greyfield greyfield, greyfield, greyfield, greyfield, grayfield, grayfield, grafield.

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Speaker 3: So I want to go back to the beginning, right

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Speaker 3: because your dad played pro soccer, Like, did you start

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Speaker 3: playing basketball first or that you naturally just played? Like

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Speaker 3: what cause I know already obviously, I know you were sick.

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Speaker 3: You still are sick at soccer.

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Speaker 2: I don't know about that, but thank you, appreciate you

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Speaker 2: spreading the good word for me. My parents are from

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Speaker 2: the UK. My parents from London. My mom's Welsh but

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Speaker 2: grew up London. But I grew up in London soccer player.

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Speaker 2: So when we moved to Canada, I was I wasn't

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Speaker 2: even a year old, I don't like eleven months, I think,

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Speaker 2: and so my dad didn't even really know nothing about basketball.

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Speaker 2: So I grew up playing soccer, hockey because we were

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Speaker 2: in Canada, baseball, box, lacrosse. I played chess in elementary

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Speaker 2: school like for whatever reason, I don't even know why

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Speaker 2: I did that, but I played all everything. I played

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Speaker 2: everything you could play. And then when I got to

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Speaker 2: the eighth grade, I went to think where I grew

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Speaker 2: up in Canada, Junior Highway grades eight, nine, ten. High

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Speaker 2: school was eleven twelve, and so I went to the

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Speaker 2: eighth grade and a new school, and all the jocks

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Speaker 2: so to speak, that were playing on the playground every

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Speaker 2: day were playing basketball, and it was like right around

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Speaker 2: the time, like the first air Jordans came out and

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Speaker 2: Mike was doing commercials with Spike Lee, and it was

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Speaker 2: like this super cool time to get involved, like to

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Speaker 2: love the game. And so I was thirteen, the kids

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Speaker 2: that wanted a ball at my school played basketball, So

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Speaker 2: I played basketball in the eighth grade. Still played soccer

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Speaker 2: and hockey like on like the city select team whatever,

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Speaker 2: which was a pretty big commitment. But after that year,

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Speaker 2: I fell in love with basketball so much that I

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Speaker 2: just stopped playing soccer and hockey on like the club team,

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Speaker 2: so to speak. And that was it. I just played

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Speaker 2: hoops every day after that to be with my friends,

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Speaker 2: but also because I did. I totally fell in love

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Speaker 2: with it.

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Speaker 1: That's what you were seeing most of the time.

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Speaker 2: J I mean, like it's it's weird to think back,

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Speaker 2: but especially growing up in Canada, like we you didn't

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Speaker 2: get as much. We didn't have ESPN, and ESPN was

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Speaker 2: young then. I think, like in the late eighties, when

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Speaker 2: would i'd have been I would have been thirteen, so

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Speaker 2: I would have been it would have been like eighty seven.

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Speaker 2: You know, ESPN was probably young. I can't remember when

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Speaker 2: it found it, but we didn't have it in Canada.

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Speaker 2: So we we get like college basketball and ABC right,

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Speaker 2: like CBS whatever it was right, and we'd get one

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Speaker 2: or two NBA games a week, but there was no league.

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Speaker 2: Past was so like I used to record on the

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Speaker 2: VHS all the games, take stuff from everybody and just

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Speaker 2: go out and like the school yard behind my house

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Speaker 2: and just try to recreate it.

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Speaker 3: So when did you start getting recruited in high school

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Speaker 3: by colleges?

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Speaker 2: It really doesn't even count in a sense, but I started,

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Speaker 2: I think in the ninth tenth grade, getting recognized by

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Speaker 2: Canadian like colleges.

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Speaker 1: Near me, in Canadian colleges.

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Speaker 2: But I didn't. I got one scholarship offer to play

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Speaker 2: Division one basketball by Santa Clara, where I went, and

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Speaker 2: I got that offer like they came like it was nobody.

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Speaker 2: Really it was weird actually, to be honest. I played

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Speaker 2: on the junior national team the summer going into my

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Speaker 2: senior year and we played Long Beach State. They came

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Speaker 2: up to Canada. We played a series with them, and

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Speaker 2: I played really well, and they had it was like

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Speaker 2: Lucius Harris, Ryan Russell. They had like three or four

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Speaker 2: guys that played in the league and I did really well.

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Speaker 2: I came off the bench, had a good game. After

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Speaker 2: the game, their coaches came over like, we got you know,

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Speaker 2: we got to have you down for a visit. But

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Speaker 2: I think they were also like, you know, there's an

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Speaker 2: LA school. There's this little like skinny white kid from Canada,

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Speaker 2: like they were hyped in the moment, but then they

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Speaker 2: never followed up, and I was like, wow, that was

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Speaker 2: my chance. I actually played well and it never amounted

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Speaker 2: to anything. And then so I somehow Santa Clara I

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Speaker 2: had heard about me, and the coach came up to

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Speaker 2: watch me play in my in are like provincial tournament

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Speaker 2: was like the state championship so to speak. He took

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Speaker 2: me out to lunch after like our first round game

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Speaker 2: or whatever, and he offered me a scholarship basically on

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Speaker 2: the spot. But that was it, and so I said, okay,

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Speaker 2: can I come and see the school. I went on

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Speaker 2: a visit and then signed, but that was it. I

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Speaker 2: had one end of my senior year. If they didn't

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Speaker 2: come up, I probably would have.

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Speaker 1: But you wrote letters to other colleges.

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Speaker 2: My high school coach sent tapes to see schools, like

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Speaker 2: all like bigger schools like from University of Washington, which

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Speaker 2: is right by I grew up to Duke, everybody in between,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I think it's just like the quality

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Speaker 2: of the tape, the quality of the competition, Like they're

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Speaker 2: probably like, no, right, and we've never seen him. Why

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Speaker 2: are we going to go up there like.

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Speaker 3: This University of Washingtonton's and Duke and everybody in between.

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Speaker 3: Like little Steve Nash was writing y'all letters the future

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Speaker 3: two time MVP first ballot h o F.

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Speaker 2: He was trying to but it's not It's actually not

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Speaker 2: that uncommon. Like if you think about it, we all

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Speaker 2: develop at different stages. Look at Steph, Like Steph's father

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Speaker 2: played in the league, played at Virginia Tech. They didn't

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Speaker 2: want to right Like, I don't know how many scholarships

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Speaker 2: he had, but he ended up with Davidson. But it's

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Speaker 2: not Kawhi Leonard.

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Speaker 1: He said he wanted to go to Duke.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, right like he so Kawhi Leonard,

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Speaker 2: right Like, he probably had a bunch of scholarship offers,

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Speaker 2: but he ended up being a kid who San Diego

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Speaker 2: State now, you know, like he's at the top of

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Speaker 2: the parents.

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Speaker 1: Where did you want to go, I would have where

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Speaker 1: did you really want to go?

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Speaker 2: I mean to be honest, in some ways, I wanted

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Speaker 2: to go to University of Washington because it was close

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Speaker 2: and like we had we had local Seattle TV where

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Speaker 2: we were, so you see that Also, Like, don't get

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Speaker 2: me wrong, like I would like gone to any of

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Speaker 2: the big schools that were on TV on a Saturday, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know Douke, Carolina, Syracuse, Ucla, like whatever it is, Louisville,

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Speaker 2: like all these schools that were on TV at the time.

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Speaker 2: I would have been happy to go to any of them.

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Speaker 2: And it's you know, everyone has their story.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, when you got to Kyllie, you gotta work

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Speaker 4: for the spot. The spot went given to you and

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Speaker 4: you had to work to play in it. Like who's

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Speaker 4: the it was.

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Speaker 2: It was worse than that, Like when I when I

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Speaker 2: got to sant Like I said, we all develop at

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Speaker 2: different stages, and I was still like underdeveloped physically. When

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Speaker 2: we got to Santa Clara. We had a great point guard,

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Speaker 2: John Woollery came from Fairfax High School here in La.

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Speaker 2: John struggled shooting the ball. Otherwise he was an NBA

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Speaker 2: guard Like he was like quick, long arms, great defender,

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Speaker 2: penetrate pass. He was such a great mentor to me

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Speaker 2: in a sense one by Like when I came there

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Speaker 2: my freshman year, playing in the summer, playing before season,

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Speaker 2: he was ripping meringall the court all the time. When

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Speaker 2: I was a guy that like like lived off my handle,

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Speaker 2: Like I was proud of my handle, right, and there's

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Speaker 2: this guy that's like taking the ball from me. I

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Speaker 2: was like, this is crazy what I want to play

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Speaker 2: in the NBA. Like, even though I had won scholarship,

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Speaker 2: I really wanted to play in the NBA. And I

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Speaker 2: thought I could do it. Yeah, And I like had

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Speaker 2: this kind of plan that I could do this and

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Speaker 2: I'll get there one day. But it's an awakening when

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Speaker 2: you go to a school you'd almost never heard of.

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Speaker 2: I really hadn't heard of it until they recruited me.

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Speaker 2: I'd never heard of John right, and he's killing me.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, how am I ever going to make it?

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Speaker 2: At the first stop I ever make? I can't even

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Speaker 2: like it off the bench. And but he he he

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Speaker 2: helped me grow, right. I learned from him because of

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Speaker 2: his athleticism every day taking the ball from me, learning

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Speaker 2: and so what happened was we started the season, I

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Speaker 2: was his backup. I played like ten minutes a game,

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Speaker 2: and then at Christmas he had a scope and on

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Speaker 2: his knee and so he missed like three or four games,

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Speaker 2: and I stepped in and played really really well, and

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Speaker 2: so they were like, Okay, you're going to back John

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Speaker 2: up and you're gonna play back up too as well.

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Speaker 2: So I ended up playing by the end of your

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Speaker 2: thirty minutes a game and actually like super pad on

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Speaker 2: the back. But it was the conference tournament MVP, and

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Speaker 2: we made the space like had a big game and

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Speaker 2: the game to go. But like in like December, that

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Speaker 2: was impossible, do you know what I mean? Like it

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Speaker 2: all happened. That's where like I grew and I and

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Speaker 2: I grew a lot because of John not just the

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Speaker 2: way he he He pushed me and challenged me, but

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Speaker 2: he also accepted me, right, Like when I got better,

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Speaker 2: he wasn't like I'm I'm.

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Speaker 1: Not good with this.

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Speaker 2: He was like, you're getting better and we need you

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Speaker 2: like go go go, like go to work, and so

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Speaker 2: like you have to have people like that some steps

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Speaker 2: in your career, right like Michael Finley for me and

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Speaker 2: Dirk he was.

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Speaker 1: That's my o g right hoops.

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Speaker 3: I never played with him on the team, but just

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Speaker 3: in that gym, you know how he is, like seeing

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Speaker 3: what he'd do. Him and Juwan they were them them

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Speaker 3: them statues are just perfection professionalism for me.

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Speaker 1: So definitely he.

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Speaker 2: Was always a great friend, great teammate. And when Dirk

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Speaker 2: and I, for lack of a better word, is I

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Speaker 2: don't I never saw this way when we eclipsed him.

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Speaker 2: When you look back, he was the All Star. He

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Speaker 2: was an All Star two years agow and grew and

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Speaker 2: he empowered us. He let us grow. Then we made

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Speaker 2: the All Star Game, and he didn't He never once

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Speaker 2: ever stepped in the way of that verbally.

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Speaker 1: Emotionally, you didn't feel off him when you.

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Speaker 2: Like he was one hundred percent down with it all.

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Speaker 2: Like that's a good human being one and we're lucky

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Speaker 2: that that was our VETA guy, Like you know, like

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Speaker 2: he handed it over in a sense, like we still

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Speaker 2: needed him. He was still a great player, still playing

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Speaker 2: at an All star level, but he empowered us to

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Speaker 2: be our best. And like if you don't have people

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Speaker 2: like that along the way, who knows, like.

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Speaker 1: Right, like, yeah, we should thank him.

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Speaker 3: Me and my Phoenix teammate should thank him for putting

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Speaker 3: that on you so that you came out the way

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Speaker 3: you were by the time we got to him.

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Speaker 1: We couldn't be happier when he was in the draft.

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Speaker 4: The legendary draft, the legendary draft, one of the greatest drafts, arguably.

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Speaker 1: Where did you want to go? Was Phoenix?

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Speaker 4: Was the spot that you knew that you work out

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Speaker 4: and all that stuff, like the.

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Speaker 2: Only place that there was two interesting places. I didn't

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Speaker 2: know Phoenix for sure at all. Yeah, the only two

260
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Speaker 2: others was Vancouver, being that I'm from British Columbia. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and they had I can't remember they had They got

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Speaker 2: Sharif so they had the second pick I think, but

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Speaker 2: they also had the twenty something pick. I think Roy Rogers.

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Speaker 2: I wasn't going to be the second pick, but was

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Speaker 2: there a trade in the world, I would I last

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Speaker 2: to the twenties or whatever. And then the other one

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Speaker 2: was Minnesota. They they had I think four and they

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Speaker 2: took Marbury and it was like they weren't sure if

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Speaker 2: they were going to trade down for me because they

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Speaker 2: had me there for like I stayed there for like

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Speaker 2: three or four days. Usually you go for workout your

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Speaker 2: in and out. I stayed like they had me hang

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Speaker 2: with them for a minute, so I was like, you

274
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Speaker 2: know how you got a sense that maybe they're more

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Speaker 2: surpris maybe, but then they ended up taking stuff and

276
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Speaker 2: and and to be honest, it was just a surprise.

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Speaker 2: On the day, I didn't know really one way or another.

278
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Speaker 1: So how was that? How do you feel? And you

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Speaker 1: get there?

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Speaker 3: You go from possibly going to Minnesota being part of

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Speaker 3: a you know, a young coll with Kevin Garnett coming up,

282
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Speaker 3: but then you get there, Now you got kJ Kevin Johnson,

283
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Speaker 3: and Jason Kidds sitting in front of you.

284
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Speaker 2: When I got drafted, it was just Kevin Johnson. They

285
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Speaker 2: traded for Jason Kidd though in December of my rookie year,

286
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Speaker 2: which is crazy. Kevin Johnson. Then you go out and

287
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Speaker 2: get like one of the best point guards in the game.

288
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Speaker 2: So I'm like right away, like, but I was always underdog,

289
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Speaker 2: right in a late bloomer like always like one scholarship,

290
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 2: I graduated right like, I was always late catching up

291
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Speaker 2: in a sense, maybe because I started playing when I

292
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Speaker 2: was thirteen, Maybe because I just physically wasn't your typical NBA.

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Speaker 1: Player, like I wasn't very excu have the knowledge of it.

294
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Speaker 2: Knowledge, but also like I wasn't explosive, right, So I

295
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:21,880
Speaker 2: think for me to get to the level, I had

296
00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,920
Speaker 2: to be creative and refine my skills and I get

297
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Speaker 2: a little more athletic to where I was in the ballpark,

298
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Speaker 2: you know, like just as far as staying with guys

299
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Speaker 2: and getting by people. And so it was like one

300
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,400
Speaker 2: of those things where I took the whole thing is

301
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Speaker 2: like I'm fortunate to be here. I want to learn,

302
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:42,320
Speaker 2: and I want to grow and I want to play

303
00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 2: a long time. And so I came in the league

304
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,040
Speaker 2: not really expecting a lot. I think people thought i'd

305
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:50,720
Speaker 2: be a career backup. I thought I'm going to be

306
00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:52,960
Speaker 2: really good one day, but it's going to take time

307
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:54,640
Speaker 2: and it's going to be a process. So I was

308
00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:56,760
Speaker 2: happy to learn from kJ and then when we got

309
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Speaker 2: Jason Kidd instead, I was excited. At the time was

310
00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:02,120
Speaker 2: one of the best pgs in the game in the league.

311
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Speaker 2: It was it was his third year in the league,

312
00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:06,120
Speaker 2: he's already been an All Star, he was Rookie of

313
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Speaker 2: the Year. So I was excited in a sense to

314
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Speaker 2: learn from one of the best, and like the world

315
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:14,600
Speaker 2: wasn't as small then Nowadays, half the leagues in LA

316
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,520
Speaker 2: playing together all summer. You see everything on YouTube, Instagram,

317
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:21,800
Speaker 2: whatever like you want. Back then, it wasn't so small

318
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,320
Speaker 2: like you. So to get that type of access to

319
00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:26,240
Speaker 2: a great player, it was like a gift. And I

320
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:28,240
Speaker 2: took it that way. Instead of like this is BS,

321
00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:29,760
Speaker 2: I need to get out of town and have my

322
00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,160
Speaker 2: own show. I was like, this is a great opportunity

323
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:34,920
Speaker 2: for me to learn and to compete, and competing in

324
00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,360
Speaker 2: practice and just watching him Jason compete, it gave me

325
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,960
Speaker 2: confidence that I could, you know, do that one day.

326
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Speaker 2: And so I never looked at it. I never looked

327
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Speaker 2: down upon it. I always looked at as a great opportunity.

328
00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:50,960
Speaker 2: And I always say that one of the biggest accomplishment

329
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:53,920
Speaker 2: accomplishments in my career was my second year in the league,

330
00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:56,760
Speaker 2: was that I did play like twenty two minutes a game. Yeah,

331
00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,320
Speaker 2: like Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd and so you actually

332
00:15:59,400 --> 00:15:59,960
Speaker 2: get minutes.

333
00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:01,400
Speaker 1: Part of it.

334
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,240
Speaker 2: I was lucky because Danny Angel was crazy enough to

335
00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,480
Speaker 2: play the three of us together, but you know I

336
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,280
Speaker 2: also earned him saying I'm going to play all three

337
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,400
Speaker 2: of you together. Because it could, you know, ninety percent

338
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,440
Speaker 2: on situations like we we like you, but you're gonna

339
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,560
Speaker 2: have to watch. So that that for me was pivotal

340
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,280
Speaker 2: and a great experience. And then I went to Dallas

341
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 2: the next year.

342
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,240
Speaker 4: How did you feel about being in Dallas? And they

343
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 4: was committed to you great.

344
00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:31,360
Speaker 2: I mean, look, it was it was crazy because I

345
00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:33,840
Speaker 2: went to Dallas. They gave me a good deal, but

346
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:36,840
Speaker 2: I wasn't like that heralded outside of Phoenix. I think

347
00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,080
Speaker 2: Phoenix was like, Wow, we have a kid here that

348
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 2: we think could be really good. Yeah, and he's shown

349
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,880
Speaker 2: a lot of glimpses and promise. But the rest of

350
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:46,200
Speaker 2: the league, you know, I don't know, at least the

351
00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,960
Speaker 2: fans didn't know. So I went to Dallas. They're like,

352
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,640
Speaker 2: when we gave this little guy all this money, yeah,

353
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:53,640
Speaker 2: which wasn't crazy at the time, but it was like

354
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,680
Speaker 2: they committed to me. And then it was my third

355
00:16:57,760 --> 00:16:59,360
Speaker 2: year in the league. My first year in Dallas was

356
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:03,880
Speaker 2: the lockout year fifty game season. So we were playing

357
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 2: a pickup game in like January, like a week before

358
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:09,320
Speaker 2: the lockout broke, and I got I went to the

359
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 2: basket and someone knocked me out of the air and

360
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:13,840
Speaker 2: I landed on my back. My back was bugging me

361
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 2: like really bad the whole year. And so we played

362
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:20,800
Speaker 2: forty games where I was I wasn't moving well. I

363
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:23,600
Speaker 2: was kind of struggling. I played poorly, you know, fans

364
00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,080
Speaker 2: were on me. And then like we had to shoot

365
00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:30,159
Speaker 2: around and Nelly had us playing dribble tag. How crazy

366
00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,800
Speaker 2: is that? And so we were playing the drible tag.

367
00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:35,560
Speaker 2: I got a back spasm. I never had a backspas

368
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,200
Speaker 2: in my life. So they wheeled me out in a wheelchair.

369
00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:40,679
Speaker 2: I couldn't walk for two days. It's scary, right like

370
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,240
Speaker 2: twenty whenever I was twenty three, twenty four years old.

371
00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:45,080
Speaker 2: And so I went to the doctor and they actually

372
00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 2: and they're like, you have a condition called spondalous thesis,

373
00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:50,560
Speaker 2: like a stress fracture and your spine and one of

374
00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,080
Speaker 2: your like vertebrae is slipped like a millimeters and so,

375
00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:57,760
Speaker 2: which there like twenty percent of the population has, but

376
00:17:57,840 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 2: for an athlete it can be problematic, like you have

377
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:01,879
Speaker 2: to really stay on top of him to all these exercises.

378
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,440
Speaker 2: So that's why I struggled that year and a little

379
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,439
Speaker 2: bit subsequently because I was dealing with something and so

380
00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:11,520
Speaker 2: it was a rough ride in Dallas. At first, I

381
00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,600
Speaker 2: got like there was a time I was playing point

382
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 2: obviously it started at the point I think I got

383
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,159
Speaker 2: booed every time I touched the ball, so I'd get it.

384
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:21,240
Speaker 2: After they scored, dump up the court they me I

385
00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:23,040
Speaker 2: went oh for eight. And it was when we were

386
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,000
Speaker 2: one of the worst teams in the league. We were

387
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 2: playing the Rockets Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, so it sold

388
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 2: out in Dallas. Got booed at home every time I

389
00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,600
Speaker 2: touched the ball, like crazy, right, And my younger brother

390
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,200
Speaker 2: when he was playing professional soccer in England at the time,

391
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:39,639
Speaker 2: I think he had a break as he was playing

392
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:42,920
Speaker 2: for Canada and he whatever reason, it was his first

393
00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:43,640
Speaker 2: time he saw.

394
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,760
Speaker 5: Me play and then and I'll never forget like I

395
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:48,920
Speaker 5: looked over at him like kind of like this is crazy,

396
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,399
Speaker 5: and he's in his seat a little dying, and it

397
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,359
Speaker 5: kind of gave me perspective, like you know what, like

398
00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:02,320
Speaker 5: it's not permanent, right, gets but it's no big deal.

399
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 5: But I think like that experience, like it just makes

400
00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 5: you tougher, right if you respond to it and say I'm.

401
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,280
Speaker 2: Not giving up, like I'm not gonna let this affect me.

402
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,200
Speaker 2: I'm gonna like so I was like, I'm doubling down.

403
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,440
Speaker 2: I'm gonna work harder, like extra hard, so that I'd

404
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 2: never if I ever asked the question again subconsciously, maybe

405
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:27,880
Speaker 2: not like should I quit? Should I take the edge,

406
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,320
Speaker 2: you know, take a step down? I never want to

407
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,280
Speaker 2: that question is never in doubt. No, like I'm going

408
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:33,680
Speaker 2: for it.

409
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,760
Speaker 3: I would never have thought you ever got booed there. Oh,

410
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:41,600
Speaker 3: if I could just think back to you, remember our

411
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:46,640
Speaker 3: season the first time you went back this the president

412
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,600
Speaker 3: no bs. I was like, you know, whatever, we're going back.

413
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:53,400
Speaker 3: You know, I haven't been a couple of teams where

414
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,800
Speaker 3: guys go back to their former city. I ande went

415
00:19:55,840 --> 00:20:01,240
Speaker 3: back to my forms. Whatever this ain't Steve Nash going

416
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,360
Speaker 3: back to Dallas. Boy, we got back, the airplane landed, fans,

417
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:07,600
Speaker 3: news people was there.

418
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:11,840
Speaker 2: I bare remember that, but I was sitting and said, man,

419
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 2: what's going on?

420
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 6: Bro?

421
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 3: We at the airport, then we get to the hotel.

422
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:21,040
Speaker 3: Fans deep up in that. Boy all Steve Nash year,

423
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:23,360
Speaker 3: you know when you get that, fans be their way.

424
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,399
Speaker 3: And I said so for me, I would not like

425
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 3: that's a crazy story to hear that he.

426
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:28,880
Speaker 1: Got booed every time he touched the ball.

427
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,000
Speaker 3: To go from that to like when we came back,

428
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,640
Speaker 3: they was mad at Cuban for not bringing them back,

429
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:36,480
Speaker 3: for letting them go away to us, and it was

430
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:37,480
Speaker 3: the homecoming.

431
00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:41,359
Speaker 1: It was crazy, crazy reception. Did they do a video.

432
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:42,879
Speaker 3: I don't know they did a video, but I know

433
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,680
Speaker 3: the reception. They didn't need to the reception. I was impressed.

434
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,960
Speaker 3: I was impressed, you know.

435
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:51,760
Speaker 2: I think it was also because we Derk and I

436
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,760
Speaker 2: came there as like guys that people were really unsure about.

437
00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,680
Speaker 2: I was traded there. They gave me a good deal,

438
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,720
Speaker 2: but like wasn't like a secure Like it wasn't like

439
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,360
Speaker 2: a start or anything. Yet Dirk was the same day

440
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 2: it was drafted by them. So we start this thing together.

441
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,640
Speaker 2: Were the worst team in the league. But with Mike Finley,

442
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 2: we went from the worst team in the league to

443
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 2: conference finals against the Spurs, you know what I mean.

444
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:20,879
Speaker 2: Like we took a big, big jump in six years

445
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,320
Speaker 2: that I think like the city kind of grew with us,

446
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,120
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So that was super.

447
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:29,920
Speaker 1: Right.

448
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 2: They saw us grow up before their eyes from not

449
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 2: just like that, we became legit NBA players, But you know,

450
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:39,920
Speaker 2: we were close, like we Dirk got we lost to

451
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,159
Speaker 2: San Antonio and Dirk got hurt, missed two games, we

452
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 2: won one without him, lost four two. But we're right

453
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 2: in it, right, So like we almost went to the

454
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 2: finals from the worst team in the league, and they

455
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:53,359
Speaker 2: saw us both go from being killed to getting there.

456
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:54,679
Speaker 2: So I think there was like a little bit of

457
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,119
Speaker 2: a special vibe because of you know, we started really

458
00:21:58,160 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 2: really down there, deep in the mudd.

459
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 3: So talk about how y'all two came together and just

460
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,439
Speaker 3: you know, hit it off and still one of the

461
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 3: all time best duos. You know what I'm saying, that

462
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 3: did it and like you say, weren't short shots to

463
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:11,919
Speaker 3: do it.

464
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

465
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,400
Speaker 3: That's what made a lot of people take even more

466
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,199
Speaker 3: to y'all that y'all came up together, y'all started, like

467
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,159
Speaker 3: you say, started out together doing it and became a

468
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 3: great duo. Like how did y'all hit it off? Like

469
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:23,880
Speaker 3: what was when you and him first met?

470
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:24,400
Speaker 1: How was that?

471
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 2: It was interesting because I came the day I came

472
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 2: from my press conference after the draft, Dark came too

473
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 2: for his he was the first pick. Whatever I can't remember.

474
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 2: He's like picks like seven, eight nine or whatever it was.

475
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 2: So we did our press conference together. They were like,

476
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 2: try to recruit him, Like we had like a party

477
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,560
Speaker 2: at Nelly's house, went over his house, like try to

478
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,400
Speaker 2: recruit Dirk. We want him to come this year. Because

479
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 2: the idea was for him from his standpoint was draft

480
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 2: me and I'm gonna go back and go holl And

481
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 2: play year or two in Germany. Because it was only

482
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,720
Speaker 2: like eighteen nineteen or whatever. He was, he'd risen quickly.

483
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 2: He was totally not known, and then he made his

484
00:22:58,680 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 2: way to the Hoops summit.

485
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 3: Then like that he went off, right, I get to

486
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 3: play in that game?

487
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was.

488
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,200
Speaker 2: He went off, and so he had this quick rise,

489
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 2: and so the MAVs were like, we need him, Let's

490
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,400
Speaker 2: get him over here, Let's get him assimilated and develop him,

491
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 2: whereas from his perspective was like hold on, I just

492
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 2: I just broke onto the scene, like I I want

493
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,560
Speaker 2: my mom's cooking play for my local team. And so

494
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 2: they're like recruit him. So like I try to like

495
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:31,639
Speaker 2: encourage him. I mean more so like you have a

496
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 2: friend here, I'm going through this too. I'm just moving here.

497
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 2: If you come here, I'll be here to help you,

498
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 2: like learn the culture and the league and and so

499
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 2: in a sense, I don't want to like make this

500
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 2: to sound you know what I mean. I was like

501
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,360
Speaker 2: a big brother in a sense, but I was still

502
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:53,640
Speaker 2: I was a big brother to him. And and then

503
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 2: I wanted to like see him succeed and see him

504
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 2: more than anything. Transition easily, right, and so I hope

505
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 2: I helped for me. It was easier because Canada is

506
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:07,439
Speaker 2: not that different, that different too. I went to college

507
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 2: in the States, so I but I also could understand

508
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 2: more so than maybe an American how different Germany is, right,

509
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 2: and what the differences are, and where he comes from

510
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 2: and so and my parents are from the UK, so

511
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 2: I kind of had a little more.

512
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,919
Speaker 1: Of an international house standard.

513
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 2: Right, And so I could see what a jump it

514
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 2: was for him. And I could see also Dirk was

515
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 2: like a timid guy. He was like, you know, we

516
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 2: we remember him now as this not only a great player,

517
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 2: but like a killer at the end of games closer.

518
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 2: That wasn't his personality at first. He had to overcome

519
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 2: with a lot of hard work, you know. He grew

520
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 2: into that, like when he first came here, he'd be

521
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 2: like he'd say stuff, and I know he's exaggerating, but

522
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 2: he'd be like, what are we doing here like a

523
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 2: couple of white stiffs, like we're gonna get her ask kick,

524
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And I'd had to be like, dude,

525
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 2: like just you're good, just stay with it. And I

526
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 2: know it was just him like that, you know, like

527
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 2: he's a long way from home and all that stuff.

528
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 2: But he literally went from that kind of mindset to

529
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:12,399
Speaker 2: like give me the ball. It's over against anybody, right,

530
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 2: no matter who going right. So he but that is

531
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 2: like the leap he took because he was so dedicated

532
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:20,640
Speaker 2: to his craft.

533
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, which which in the league at that

534
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 4: time power was full was murdered, especially in the West

535
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,440
Speaker 4: you had with she kg Weber, and he got to

536
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 4: play against them.

537
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 2: And in the time he came in the league, you know,

538
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 2: power forwards really posted up like they all the guys

539
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 2: you mentioned could shoot, especially mid range, but they really

540
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: posted up in the pain and try to punish you

541
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,959
Speaker 2: big like guys who try to bully you. And so

542
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 2: he had to like over he was the first kind

543
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 2: of like prototypical stretch four stretch five sometimes. But he

544
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 2: came in the league, they're thinking, is he gonna be

545
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,959
Speaker 2: a three? He handled the ball and was mobile. It

546
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 2: wasn't explosive, but he was, you know, and he had skills,

547
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 2: and so when it all shook down, obviously he found

548
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,960
Speaker 2: his position and became what he became. But you know,

549
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,160
Speaker 2: from the start, it was two young guys just trying

550
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 2: to make it and pushing each other and going to

551
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 2: the gym twice a day, right, Like we lived in

552
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 2: the same apartment complex, you know, two single guys going

553
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 2: to gym in the morning with like the team. You know,

554
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 2: you go and like maybe a little bit of like

555
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 2: in the off season, you're going, like you hit the

556
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 2: strength coach a little bit, then you get on the court,

557
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 2: then you play pickup still kind of you know. Then

558
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 2: we would come back at night and play one on

559
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 2: one whorse and like push each other like whatever, maybe

560
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 2: conditioning whatever.

561
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 1: Like that.

562
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 2: Was the bay, like the foundation I think of like

563
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 2: our relationship but also our growth.

564
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: Right, we needed that we needed to go back, push

565
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 1: each other.

566
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 2: Push and like not just to believe deeper, but to

567
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,639
Speaker 2: also get better. It wasn't like we just need an

568
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,080
Speaker 2: opportunity we needed to grow, we needed to develop, We

569
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 2: needed to assimilate the speed of the game.

570
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 4: And if I'm not mistaken, you mentioned I had the

571
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 4: press conference. Didn't both of y'all had like blonde hair

572
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 4: or something like that is blonde? I had, Well, you

573
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 4: had blonde hair.

574
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 2: Okay, So my brother and I that summer I was

575
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:20,080
Speaker 2: still in Phoenix like leached our hair completely blonde, being idiots.

576
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,200
Speaker 2: And so of course, by the time a month or

577
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 2: two later the press conference, I was halfway back to

578
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,399
Speaker 2: normal and I had frosted tips.

579
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: I just didn't like insane.

580
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:41,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So I was at one point totally blonde,

581
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 2: and then I went to the press conference looking like

582
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 2: an idiot.

583
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: But did you ever think that you would leave Dallas?

584
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: Like he ain't gonna No.

585
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 2: I mean it was like, first of all, like Finn

586
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,480
Speaker 2: and Dirk were like family. Dirk and I were super

587
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 2: close because we were like in the same apartment complex.

588
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 2: But Finn was like guy, still my guy, but like

589
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 2: like a big brother to me and played so well together,

590
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 2: developed together. He, like I said, like passed the torch

591
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 2: to us so graciously. In a sense, I wanted to stay.

592
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 2: But I think Mark Cuban and this has been covered

593
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,120
Speaker 2: a million times. But he saw me. I was thirty,

594
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,680
Speaker 2: and he didn't know I was going into like my

595
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 2: late prime. He thought he's gonna he's And at the

596
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 2: time I played a little more of a Kamakazi style,

597
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,639
Speaker 2: like I was going to the cup transition one hundred

598
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 2: miles an hour, like taking contact, like throwing stuff up.

599
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 2: And so I think he was like, and I had

600
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 2: a back history, so he was like, this is going

601
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 2: to run its course. So why would I want to

602
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 2: commit to him for five six years? I get it,

603
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 2: it makes sense.

604
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:45,120
Speaker 1: You know.

605
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 2: I was disappointed, and I thought I'd stay there, finish

606
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 2: my career there. You know, we're all idealistic when you're

607
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 2: in that situation that it fits. Why would I go, like,

608
00:28:53,720 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 2: I'm producing your best friends. And you know what also

609
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 2: killed me a little bit that year is that my

610
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 2: last year there. We had so my second last year

611
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 2: there made the conference final. Right my last year there,

612
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 2: we acquired Anton Jamison, Antoine Walker and great players, but

613
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 2: they also play the same position as Dirk. And you

614
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 2: know me, my my default is to pass past pass,

615
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 2: and so I spent the first half of that season

616
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 2: I like just trying to facilitate figure this whole thing out.

617
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 2: So my scoring and my shooting percentage were really down,

618
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,200
Speaker 2: and I don't think at the time we were sophisticated

619
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 2: enough to realize that. The second half of the season,

620
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 2: I think I shot like well over fifty percent, but

621
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 2: overall looked like I shot forty one percent from the field.

622
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 2: So from I went from whatever forty high forties to

623
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 2: forty one. And I'm thirty and I have a bad back,

624
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 2: and I think Mark thought, I know where this is going.

625
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 2: We see it forever in the NBA. You get to

626
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 2: thirty year, a point guard's going down. So in his defense,

627
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 2: that was probably a smart outlook. You know, nowadays, maybe

628
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 2: you look into the numbers and someone's work ethic and

629
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 2: what we know physically about the body and all that stuff.

630
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 2: But so I never thought i'd leave, And Phoenix gave

631
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 2: me a great opportunity to make like a bit a deal,

632
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 2: like a contractual deal that I wouldn't have had the

633
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 2: opportunity to make by far. And I was thirty, so

634
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 2: I couldn't turn that down. And I also looked at

635
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 2: the roster in Phoenix, these young athletic guys that I

636
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: felt like, I think I could do something with these guys.

637
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 4: Did you think that looking at their rosters fingers rocks,

638
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 4: did you think that Jah was going to be better

639
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 4: than Dallas?

640
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 2: No? But I thought we could be really good. And

641
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 2: I thought like we had a chance to surprise a

642
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: lot of people. I always like going thinking, let's like, yeah,

643
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 2: I think this could be great. But let like I'm excited.

644
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 2: It's a great opportunity. But let's see.

645
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: Yeah and so.

646
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 2: But I'll never say that like I said, oh right away,

647
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 2: Oh I'm me on that team, you know what I mean, Like,

648
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 2: that's not the way I feel. I'm like, we gotta work,

649
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 2: we gotta come together, We got to figure this out.

650
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 2: I think we could surprise a lot of people. But

651
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 2: to have like the year we had it was crazy

652
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 2: because I remember talking to Rex Chapman, who was.

653
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: Charge or block or charge.

654
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: But Rex was my vet. We were on the plane together,

655
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 2: my rookie year all year like he was great to

656
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 2: me and we're still friends this day and was like

657
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 2: a big influence on me. So he was working for

658
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 2: the team with the Sons, he was like GM or

659
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 2: this GM. I think, yeah, they were like assistant gms,

660
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 2: right and so I remember a training camp because he

661
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: was my vet, like going to dinner with him one night,

662
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 2: or being in his room just like watching something on

663
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 2: TV and and him like us talking about it and

664
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 2: and like him kind of being like, you know, like

665
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna be better than people think. But

666
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 2: people thought we weren't gonna make.

667
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 3: The playoffs before we get into that season, I have

668
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 3: to to I don't even know if you remember this story, right.

669
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 3: So we both signed as free agency that year. Remember

670
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 3: we were there, were supposed to sign and Midge signing

671
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: deal at midnight, right, so you gotta remember this. So

672
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 3: we're sitting in there, remember they had us sitting in

673
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 3: the office and you sitting off like whatever, watching something

674
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 3: on sports and just trying to be waiting. And then

675
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 3: it's starting to take like sometime, We're like, hell's going on?

676
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 6: You know?

677
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: So then Rex come in and he's like, said he

678
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: told us whatever. He's like, dude, we're handling some things,

679
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: this and the third. So then finally they come back.

680
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 3: It turns out, remember back then, you gotta think we

681
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 3: had agreed to whatever ideals were, but it was under

682
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 3: the pretense that the salary cap was gonna be whatever.

683
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 3: And when it officially came in, it was lower, so

684
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 3: that meant that somebody had to do something what they did.

685
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 3: So we had been sitting there for so long. Rex

686
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 3: finally like that. I think they were trying to work

687
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 3: out on their own. They saw they couldn't, so they

688
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,040
Speaker 3: come in. They was all nervous and this toff and

689
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 3: so he was like, yeah, this is what's going on.

690
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 3: And so everything happened so fast. This was when I

691
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 3: knew I was. I looked at you, like, what wait

692
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 3: a minute, cause he was like he was telling us.

693
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 3: He explained to us somebody, you know, the salary cap

694
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 3: came in lower, and this is the scenario somebody. He

695
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 3: was like, is that what the hell this was? You like,

696
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 3: is that what the hell we been waiting on? He

697
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 3: was like, man, take it off mine and do this thing.

698
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 3: I turned to him and looked like, wait a minute.

699
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 3: To this day, I can't remember how much money it

700
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,600
Speaker 3: was or whatever, but right then I'll never forget that.

701
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 3: I remember calling Jeff and he was like he did

702
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 3: what he was I was like, Jay, everything happens. He

703
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 3: was like, you make sure you go to him and

704
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 3: you tell him I want you up for you like,

705
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 3: I'm like, nah, I'm like already, I'm like but it

706
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 3: was that was indicative of who you were for us.

707
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: It didn't take It was no thought process. It was like,

708
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: that's what we waiting on.

709
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 3: Boom bam bang, like me and you trying to go

710
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 3: to the barn celebrating drink like you know what I'm saying, Like,

711
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 3: and that was literally what you said.

712
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: And I was I stopped. I looked Rex looked, Dave

713
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 1: Griffin looked that.

714
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 3: We were all like, because your agent, I think I

715
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 3: want to say he was on plane or something and

716
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 3: you was like, man, we're not waiting on this, and

717
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 3: we were like, we're trying to go because by that time,

718
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 3: it was like one something in the morning.

719
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: Remember yeah, I remember telling Jeff and Jeff was like,

720
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: I'm blown away by that.

721
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 3: Weeks later, months later, he was still I can't believe

722
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 3: Steve Nash did that.

723
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 2: I mean, I forgot about it till you brought it up.

724
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 2: It's like, I was just excited to be on the team.

725
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 2: I was excited for him to come to the team. Yeah,

726
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 2: what what are we waiting on? Let's get let's get going.

727
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: That was crazy.

728
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,239
Speaker 4: Still in training camp when you finally got a chance

729
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 4: to kind of mold everything and see everybody and play

730
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 4: with him. The chemistry y'all had, like it was like

731
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 4: from day one, y'all was kicking the ass like all

732
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 4: season that season, Yeah, it seemed like y'all chemistry was

733
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,280
Speaker 4: so good. Y'all was swinging the ball, everybody was sharing

734
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 4: the ball. It was freely. Did you feel it in

735
00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 4: training camp? They're like, oh, it's been a big problem.

736
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 2: I don't think we knew how we'd be in relation

737
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 2: to the rest of the league, but we knew there

738
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 2: was a good feeling, like it was fun to come

739
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 2: in every day. I think also, like we came to

740
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 2: Phoenix early, so before training camp, we're playing pickup in

741
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,399
Speaker 2: the building and like you could sense this is gonna work.

742
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 2: It's my nature to push, just to get in and

743
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 2: push and create something. That's how I like to play,

744
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 2: create opportunities and for my teammates. And so we had

745
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 2: guys like Q and Joe and Mari and Sean and

746
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,359
Speaker 2: you know, all these guys that were like athletic, skillful,

747
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,320
Speaker 2: and I think for me it was a pleasure to

748
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 2: play with them, right, And so I just wanted to

749
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 2: push and see what we could get right. Even in pickup,

750
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:45,279
Speaker 2: it was like fun, like I couldn't wait to get

751
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 2: the rebound and get out, and you know, like find

752
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 2: people for opportunities and so you could sense and I

753
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:55,399
Speaker 2: think that was Mike's brilliance. Like I don't think Mike

754
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 2: came in with like this is how we're gonna play.

755
00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 2: He saw us playing pickup and was like, hold on,

756
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 2: before I start being mister smart coach, let's let some

757
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 2: of this evolve. And he was brilliant in the way

758
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,320
Speaker 2: he just gave us little details like guys, getting on

759
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 2: the baseline, don't creep up, run to the deep deep corner.

760
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:17,280
Speaker 3: Phil Weber, he was the first, you know, in my nature,

761
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 3: especially coming from La my first four years, I was

762
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 3: a beas sneaking in getting tip ins, tip dunks, and

763
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 3: I made my living in college getting offensive rebound every

764
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 3: single day. Phil, Remember you would be standing there in

765
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 3: the corner. I am your space monitor. Mister Richardson, You're

766
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 3: a creepy dog. Just what he said, like on them,

767
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,320
Speaker 3: we get deep in the corners to create the best spaces.

768
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 3: So my nature, I would start to like if the

769
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:46,919
Speaker 3: ball start moving and I think somebody but I start

770
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 3: edging it. I mean, now I'm inside of the three

771
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 3: point line here. Every single time mister Richardson like I

772
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 3: be coming up or either creeping in, and he'll yell

773
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 3: at me every time about that. That was like, Phil,

774
00:36:59,200 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 3: that's crazy.

775
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 2: That's great story.

776
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 4: Merge of Mari started when when MARII got with you,

777
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,760
Speaker 4: he was a contender, like with the Kg's the Duncans,

778
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,400
Speaker 4: like he was giving them problems coming out of nowhere.

779
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 4: A lot of people didn't see him come and assume

780
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:17,680
Speaker 4: the first year he played with you the dunks and.

781
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 2: Is a freak his feet, Like people talk about his

782
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 2: jumping ability, but he has great feet to start with.

783
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 2: He is always on balance and like a coiled spring.

784
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,319
Speaker 2: He's never off balance or you know's a great feet,

785
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 2: great athlete, explosive, quick, fast, all those things, agile, and

786
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 2: he had incredible hands. So for me, it was a

787
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 2: pleasure to try to draw the defense and find him

788
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 2: positions where he had he felt like where he could

789
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 2: operate in space.

790
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,359
Speaker 1: Mari said someone we had him on, he was like, man,

791
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 1: I just know whenever I got it.

792
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:00,479
Speaker 3: When I came in, I just wanted to I wanted

793
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,640
Speaker 3: to be fercious and make noise, and I say, you

794
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 3: did that, you accomplished that. You ain't do nothing else.

795
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 3: But he made noise and he was nasty. He was

796
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 3: sometimes I used to just shake my head, like this

797
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:15,040
Speaker 3: young boy is crazy.

798
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 2: Man, it's funny, right, Like I don't even know, like

799
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:21,840
Speaker 2: I don't even know how he's remembered by this generation,

800
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 2: but it.

801
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:23,399
Speaker 1: Ain't the right way.

802
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:24,839
Speaker 2: He tore the rim off.

803
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,359
Speaker 4: He tore people's heads off on the way he he Man,

804
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:31,360
Speaker 4: Mari had it when you had your MVP seasons.

805
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: Mario had his MVP seasons too.

806
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 2: You know you know that. I think that he was

807
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,479
Speaker 2: first team All NBA, you know, seven the year after

808
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:44,960
Speaker 2: a microfracture. Yeah, like that's impressed. My first team on

809
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 2: the league in a league that has whatever positions they're playing.

810
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:53,719
Speaker 3: But like, like that's what I'm saying at the same time,

811
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 3: in the same token, I'm saying like that was the

812
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 3: first time that I play with with Steve being a superstar,

813
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:00,680
Speaker 3: like you.

814
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: Was banging out.

815
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 3: But I got two years with you, and then you

816
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 3: know you was like the way he came through Dog

817
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 3: the kimbay y'all.

818
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:16,280
Speaker 1: Tim, Tim couldn't do nothing with him, if nothing with him.

819
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 2: If he had those guys on the move. I mean,

820
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 2: he didn't need that. He could get on him without

821
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:22,439
Speaker 2: if they were.

822
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 1: There, take off.

823
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 2: But his like if he caught the ball and they

824
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,320
Speaker 2: were trying to recover, it gets a zero chance, and

825
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 2: if they tried it was ugly and just he was man.

826
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:38,600
Speaker 2: He was gifted, fun to play with, fun to watch.

827
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 3: I definitely talked most stuff for him than he talked

828
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 3: that whole season of dunks and stuffed. He making me

829
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:46,439
Speaker 3: jump with him. I'm out here in three point line

830
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 3: and when he goes up, I'm I'm screaming, flexing, like

831
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 3: because he.

832
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:53,399
Speaker 2: You know what's happening, you know, before he even gets

833
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:55,879
Speaker 2: the ball. And I was like, oh, this is gonna

834
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,040
Speaker 2: be ugly. It was a gift for me. I mean,

835
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,719
Speaker 2: to play with him. He just said so many gifts physically,

836
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 2: and he he took to it like he didn't say like, well,

837
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 2: wait a minute, what should I post up? No, he

838
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:14,440
Speaker 2: was like no, no, no, I'm happy picking and rolling.

839
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:15,400
Speaker 1: And embraced it.

840
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 3: It was it was make your poison. You couldn't do

841
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,920
Speaker 3: nothing if you let him go one on one. He

842
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:27,240
Speaker 3: was going at around, overthrow whoever and at the second,

843
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 3: y'all come to help, want to us shoot your face off.

844
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 1: It was hard. It was hard. And when we and

845
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:35,239
Speaker 1: after the.

846
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,000
Speaker 3: First have many games, we really started looking around at

847
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:40,520
Speaker 3: each other like it's starting.

848
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:43,280
Speaker 1: To get a little crazy, Like I didn't really expect.

849
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,440
Speaker 2: This because we, like I said, we were picked out

850
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:50,320
Speaker 2: of the playoffs. Started the season hot, and it continued

851
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,879
Speaker 2: and we started like thirty one and five right after

852
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 2: people thought last, we're going to make the playoffs. Right,

853
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 2: whether it was last or whatever. We weren't suposed to

854
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 2: be less, so to be thirty one and five and

855
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 2: like a lot of games were like in the fourth quarter.

856
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like we came with three different game plans and

857
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 4: all three of them didn't work. We still got beat

858
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 4: by thirty or twenty every game playing against y'all. Off

859
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 4: this system y'all was playing, Joe Johnson emerged. People didn't

860
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 4: know Joe. Joe got drafted by the Celtics, and but

861
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 4: when he played with y'all, it was like, who is

862
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 4: Joe Johnson? He's a threat.

863
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,640
Speaker 1: And then when he started getting on the ball, used

864
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 1: to put you to the side and let Joe.

865
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 2: Well that was that was the sad part about Joe

866
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 2: not staying around. Was that you know, he he could have.

867
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 2: I mean, we never in my time in Phoenix really

868
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:42,439
Speaker 2: had that solidified backup point guard.

869
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:42,879
Speaker 1: Yeah.

870
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 2: Now, Joe's way greater than a back point guard, but

871
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 2: he could have done that too. Yeah, right, like we're

872
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 2: gonna have that guy, you know when I went out

873
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 2: of the game, he could handle it. What happened a

874
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:54,960
Speaker 2: lot of times is like it wasn't about the backup

875
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 2: as much as the way we played when I was

876
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 2: on the court and the way we played when I

877
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:03,320
Speaker 2: wasn't the court, or it didn't it struggled to and

878
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,719
Speaker 2: we never said identified the way we were going to

879
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:07,800
Speaker 2: play when I was in the court. Whereas Joe just

880
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,400
Speaker 2: because he's a great player, it's not a problem. Right,

881
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,279
Speaker 2: So he could have emerged as an all star wing

882
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,520
Speaker 2: player for us, but he also could have been an

883
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 2: all star point guard in the backup role, right, And

884
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:20,959
Speaker 2: that was a shame in a sense because he would

885
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,640
Speaker 2: have served so many purposes for us that year, I

886
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:26,800
Speaker 2: mean pushing the first of all, we got out on

887
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:30,680
Speaker 2: the break and teams couldn't stay with us. Our conditioning

888
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 2: and athleticism, the shooting, but also in the half court,

889
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 2: the pick and roll, Mauri diving shooters outside. It was

890
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 2: it was almost new to the league and so now

891
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 2: it's common, but at the time it costs the first

892
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:49,719
Speaker 2: they were exhausted and they didn't know what to get.

893
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 3: The funniest part though, that people would always ask us

894
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:55,799
Speaker 3: during that You're like, man, what y'all do for the conditioning?

895
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 1: And what do y'all be?

896
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 3: We ain't do nothing special? Keep up with them thirteen

897
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:02,800
Speaker 3: you want to shoot, You're gonna keep up like that?

898
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:03,400
Speaker 2: Serious?

899
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,040
Speaker 1: You gonna man, You're gonna keep.

900
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 4: Up back to back MVPs. We all want to win MVP.

901
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,919
Speaker 4: That's one of our dreams. And you get into danton

902
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 4: Toni's system, you feel yourself out. You got the knowledge

903
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 4: coming from Dallas and you went back to back MVPs, Like,

904
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 4: how did that?

905
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:21,439
Speaker 1: It was real?

906
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 2: It was like to be honest, like I never wanted

907
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 2: to be MVP. I was like a one scholarship kid,

908
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,840
Speaker 2: like career backup when I got drafted, like kept pushing.

909
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 2: I never ever thought like I want to be MVP.

910
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 2: I wanted to like can I be a starter? Can

911
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 2: I be an All Star? How many times? Can I

912
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:40,759
Speaker 2: be an All Star?

913
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 6: You know?

914
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 2: I like to push myself. But I never even thought

915
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 2: about being MVP. So you know, it's one of those

916
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 2: crazy things that you know, the moment in time. It's

917
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 2: strange now because you look back on it and it

918
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 2: was like to win it twice and then to have

919
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 2: my best year the third year and Dark win it deservedly,

920
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 2: so like there's but like it's strange, like I never

921
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 2: I don't. Like, first of all, I moved on after

922
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:09,680
Speaker 2: I finished playing. You got that all that stuff is

923
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 2: so far behind me. Like if I see a clip

924
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 2: of me that comes across my Instagram feed or something,

925
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 2: I don't even relate to that person. You know, like

926
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,879
Speaker 2: I really don't say goodbye to all that in a sense.

927
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 2: So you do hear then you know a little bit

928
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 2: noise like oh like shit like one MVP and all

929
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:29,759
Speaker 2: that stuff. It's just weird to look back and be

930
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:32,080
Speaker 2: like at the time, you know, I went to in

931
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 2: a row and then my best year the third year.

932
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 2: You know, narratives changed, and it's just weird to look

933
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:40,719
Speaker 2: back on. And I guess what I'm trying to say

934
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 2: is like I just left all.

935
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 1: That behind and moved on to be dad and yeah.

936
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:46,640
Speaker 2: You know, and try to like enjoy the rest of

937
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 2: my life. So I kind of went on to like

938
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,680
Speaker 2: a tangent there, but it's not something like I put

939
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 2: a ton of thought into. It just feels weird and

940
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:57,640
Speaker 2: strange that that was my life at one point.

941
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, yeah, I'm telling for me to be there,

942
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 3: to be your teammate for it. The biggest thing that

943
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 3: I was the most impressed about. I don't think people

944
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 3: really understand how hard you work to keep your.

945
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: I don't even know what you called it with the

946
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:18,320
Speaker 1: band's and joint like bruh.

947
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 3: You got to see my dude, I didn't walked in

948
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:26,239
Speaker 3: the gym before. And it's not a weight insight, it's

949
00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:28,759
Speaker 3: a puddle of sweat on each side. And my man

950
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,400
Speaker 3: got the balls and the bands on him and he

951
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 3: turning in different ways. And I said, and I'm talking

952
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:39,000
Speaker 3: about dripping sweat, hard workout boy ready.

953
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:41,400
Speaker 2: Probably crazy.

954
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 4: To see y'all as a duo. You and Dirk is

955
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:48,320
Speaker 4: a duel in Dallas, and you went in MVP and

956
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:52,480
Speaker 4: then he went in VP. Like how proud of him?

957
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 4: From the long nights to them being in the same apartment.

958
00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 2: That means a lot because we both really were started

959
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 2: at a low point, right, we didn't come in the

960
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 2: league as chosen ones, or we didn't come in the

961
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:09,800
Speaker 2: league heralded. You know, Dirk was drafted pretty high. I

962
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:14,239
Speaker 2: was drafted fifteenth, but I think still people like he's

963
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:16,399
Speaker 2: a nice player. Maybe he'll be a starter one day,

964
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 2: but we'll see. So for us to go through the

965
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,399
Speaker 2: struggles we went through and then to both be there,

966
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:24,960
Speaker 2: in one sense, it was disappointing because we could have

967
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,160
Speaker 2: played together and extended that run together. On the other hand,

968
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:31,840
Speaker 2: to see him win a championship, to him win MVP,

969
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:36,759
Speaker 2: you know, is incredibly rewarding for me knowing that what

970
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 2: we went through at first, Like one, how we got

971
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 2: hammered by people, you know, in the media, the fans,

972
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,680
Speaker 2: took our lumps on the court, but like we kept pushing,

973
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 2: kept growing, kept going back to the gym at night

974
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:51,360
Speaker 2: where they're early, where they're late, never relented from like

975
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 2: the work. So to see it like that, for me,

976
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:58,439
Speaker 2: to be honest, like my this goes for Dirk as well,

977
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 2: but in our relationship. But for me, like when I

978
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:05,400
Speaker 2: won the MVP the first time, it was like I

979
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,719
Speaker 2: was just so happy because of the example, Like it

980
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 2: sets for kids. If you really really want to be

981
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:14,319
Speaker 2: the best you can be, and you really really will

982
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 2: commit to it, and you won't listen to the daysayers,

983
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 2: and you won't let adversity slow you down. You know,

984
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 2: That's when my story was was that I never stopped

985
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 2: finding a way to believe. There were moments where I

986
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:28,960
Speaker 2: didn't believe, or I'd felt shitty or didn't have the

987
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 2: confidence or you know, felt bad down about myself or

988
00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 2: didn't like the outlook or was a non believer. But

989
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 2: those moments I got over them quickly and like believed

990
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 2: again and fought again like and I mean quickly, And

991
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 2: if I felt that way for extended period of time,

992
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,440
Speaker 2: I never stopped working. So that to me is like

993
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 2: what made me so happy was that it was an

994
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 2: example for young people that like, you don't have to

995
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:58,040
Speaker 2: it's not the chosen one. Only you can be someone

996
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 2: that's a late bloomer that finds a way that you know,

997
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:04,320
Speaker 2: sticks with it, And so that that was really rewarding.

998
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:06,400
Speaker 2: And then the same thing to watch JRK do it,

999
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 2: It just was so imconceivable when we started in Dallas together.

1000
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:13,440
Speaker 3: You know, that was the sickest part for me. Like

1001
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 3: when you won an MVP. It was crazy because it

1002
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 3: sent a different message to the kids. It wasn't the

1003
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 3: person averaging thirty averaging thirty five with all the leagues

1004
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 3: and you know, all of these different things. He was

1005
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:33,360
Speaker 3: a He was a guy, you know, not like a

1006
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,360
Speaker 3: big dude. He was a normal dude who looked like

1007
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 3: any regular person. He didn't do like you know, you

1008
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 3: see Michael Jordan, he jumping high. Anybody can imagine, like

1009
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 3: when people can envision doing what you were doing. Anybody

1010
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 3: could go out in the front yard and try your

1011
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 3: moves and do it and maybe not look like you.

1012
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like you were jumping over things that

1013
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:53,520
Speaker 1: they couldn't.

1014
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:55,279
Speaker 3: So it was like I could do with Steve Nash

1015
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 3: do and then to see for me, the coolest part

1016
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:00,960
Speaker 3: was to beat being your teammate. I got a chance

1017
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:03,400
Speaker 3: to be around you and see and I would tell him.

1018
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:05,880
Speaker 3: I would tell all my friends like, yo, what's up

1019
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 3: with Steve?

1020
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:06,840
Speaker 1: What's Steve Now?

1021
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:09,399
Speaker 3: I'm like, bro, when we go out, he go out

1022
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:12,840
Speaker 3: with us, Like, no, bs, it's not like Steve. You

1023
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 3: weren't out trying to be like us or be you

1024
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:17,880
Speaker 3: were being Steve Nash, but you were one hundred percent

1025
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 3: with the group. Wherever we at, we had barbecues, and

1026
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:23,440
Speaker 3: I think that was one of the things that people

1027
00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:25,839
Speaker 3: didn't understand about our team that year that made us

1028
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,400
Speaker 3: so special. For early, Like you said, we came early.

1029
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 3: We were there in August working out, but right then

1030
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 3: it was not like it was just one of those things.

1031
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:38,000
Speaker 3: We had a special group. Everybody clicked, everybody hung out. Hey,

1032
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 3: we're gonna have a barbecue for you know, like six guys.

1033
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 3: That wasn't like people was doing some real heavy lifting

1034
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:45,840
Speaker 3: to get guys to come. It was just like we

1035
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:48,800
Speaker 3: came together. And then when you see guys like a

1036
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 3: Steve Nash or Jake Voskull we going out with you know,

1037
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:54,320
Speaker 3: it's all black dudes going to the you know, to

1038
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:58,160
Speaker 3: the black spots. But Jake Voskull read the Bible stuff,

1039
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,880
Speaker 3: but he was he was in with the you know

1040
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Like when we start, I'm like, oh,

1041
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:08,040
Speaker 3: Steve Nash out with us, bro real kicking it like

1042
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,200
Speaker 3: this is dope. Then that translate to the court and

1043
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 3: before you know it, like we like this everything we do.

1044
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 3: You got five six guys at dinner on this trip.

1045
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:20,719
Speaker 3: You got guys doing this or doing that together. We

1046
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 3: have a party on it at somebody else. Everybody over there.

1047
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, And that's what really be

1048
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,080
Speaker 3: getting the teams like this before you know it. And

1049
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:30,800
Speaker 3: then it's like now we're hooping. Everybody really cool with

1050
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 3: each other. And the biggest thing that Steve did, I

1051
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 3: know for a fact for me, cause you know we

1052
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 3: came from la We were all six of us, we

1053
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 3: all jockeying for position. I'm trying to score, he trying

1054
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,799
Speaker 3: to score. That was the first time in my career

1055
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:49,800
Speaker 3: in the NBA where you made me feel extremely comfortable.

1056
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 3: Give it up, you gonna get it back. I don't

1057
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,319
Speaker 3: care like you remember how you go sometimes cause Steve

1058
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 3: had to even explained to me one time because I've

1059
00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:57,920
Speaker 3: used to give you know me.

1060
00:50:57,960 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: I'm thirsty, I get frustrated.

1061
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 3: I get Steve knowing Steve had telling her, hey, hey, listen,

1062
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 3: the way we play, it may be a stretch where

1063
00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:08,520
Speaker 3: you don't get it four or five times, but then

1064
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:10,520
Speaker 3: it's gonna come back to you like six or seven

1065
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:13,360
Speaker 3: straight times. That was just how we played sometimes. And

1066
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,160
Speaker 3: once I started understanding that, and I understood, like like

1067
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,240
Speaker 3: I said, he made it easy because he was gonna

1068
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 3: it didn't matter.

1069
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:20,080
Speaker 1: What the play was doing.

1070
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:23,239
Speaker 3: That was his mutant power, Like, oh, que tripping right now,

1071
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:25,399
Speaker 3: I don't care what the play it is. I'm gonna

1072
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:27,160
Speaker 3: figure out a way to get Cute the ball or

1073
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:29,359
Speaker 3: Marii tripping right now, I don't care what the play

1074
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 3: it is. I'm about to figure out a way to

1075
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:33,040
Speaker 3: get a Mario the ball. And it ain't gonna be

1076
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:35,960
Speaker 3: in a disrespectful way to the coach or to the

1077
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 3: player to nothing, but I'm gonna make this happen because

1078
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:40,799
Speaker 3: I don't want him to go off.

1079
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:42,320
Speaker 1: I don't want him to go off. And he was

1080
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 1: the orchestra.

1081
00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:45,360
Speaker 3: That was what was most impressive because you had me,

1082
00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 3: you had tricks, you had Tomorrow, you had dudes. You

1083
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 3: had to keep these personalities fed the right way, otherwise

1084
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 3: it would never have worked like it did. And what

1085
00:51:56,600 --> 00:52:00,640
Speaker 3: Steve was amazing with that giving up itself though. So

1086
00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 3: that's why I was like, that sent the whole different

1087
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:04,880
Speaker 3: message to the kids out there, like you could be

1088
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:09,000
Speaker 3: the MVP being unselfish, leading your team and not trying

1089
00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:09,800
Speaker 3: to score thirty.

1090
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: Yeah he did that two years in a row.

1091
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:17,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was just an assists that that original team

1092
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:20,360
Speaker 4: that y'all had with q Q got traded after that

1093
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 4: that year then y'all lost y'all lost Joe Johnson. But

1094
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,239
Speaker 4: the year y'all had with the original I remember, like

1095
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:32,240
Speaker 4: the All Star game, it was like a Phoenix Sons

1096
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,600
Speaker 4: All Star game, doing the challenge and all that stuff

1097
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 4: you win in a three point Like the whole year

1098
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 4: was just like a successful year. But y'all trade Q

1099
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 4: what was like different because it was like ya, it.

1100
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:49,399
Speaker 2: Was the biggest thing that changed from the first years

1101
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,799
Speaker 2: that we didn't play as fast anymore. So we were

1102
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 2: just as successful over like the making the conference finals,

1103
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:56,840
Speaker 2: but we didn't play as fast anymore. And when I

1104
00:52:56,920 --> 00:53:03,439
Speaker 2: look back, we lost some of our advantage by slowing down,

1105
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:05,320
Speaker 2: Like and I think at the time we played so

1106
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 2: fast to be like you can't win that way, But

1107
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:11,799
Speaker 2: the reality is with our roster, we should have played faster, right,

1108
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:16,080
Speaker 2: But it was so like unaccepted culturally by basketball and

1109
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 2: the media and the fans that it was like this

1110
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:21,920
Speaker 2: isn't gonna work. Yeah, And so you know, in a

1111
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 2: sense the book seven seconds or less, like we didn't

1112
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:25,760
Speaker 2: really play that way.

1113
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 1: When everybody said that.

1114
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:30,520
Speaker 3: To me, I was like, we have literally never talked

1115
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:33,600
Speaker 3: about seven seconds or less and all of this stuff.

1116
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 3: When they came out with that, I was kind of

1117
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 3: thrown off, like did somebody say this?

1118
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 2: But I think Mike did say it sometimes, But like,

1119
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:42,840
Speaker 2: you're right, it wasn't like that, you know, it wasn't.

1120
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:45,600
Speaker 2: It just was the way we played. But every year

1121
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 2: after that we slowed down and in a sense we

1122
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 2: kind of succumbed, like the comments.

1123
00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:55,880
Speaker 1: Q for Kurt Thomas even like I.

1124
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 2: Think I told you guys, I watched the game in

1125
00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:00,080
Speaker 2: the two thousand and seven San Antonio series and we

1126
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:02,920
Speaker 2: beat San Antonio. Was the game Robert already checked me

1127
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 2: in until the scores tample at the end of the game.

1128
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:07,279
Speaker 2: We won that game to tie it to to on

1129
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:10,759
Speaker 2: the road. We didn't know at the time, right there

1130
00:54:10,840 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 2: was no analytics, not that that's the be all and

1131
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 2: end all, but the game wasn't in a place where

1132
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 2: we understood we should have doubled down and played faster.

1133
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 2: We won that game playing spur style, and it really

1134
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:25,439
Speaker 2: had no business winning that game and ended up losing

1135
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:28,120
Speaker 2: the series. Whether it's because the suspensions or not. We

1136
00:54:28,239 --> 00:54:32,440
Speaker 2: were playing the game their way, no matter if that's

1137
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:34,840
Speaker 2: not what you remember, but when you watch it, you know,

1138
00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:39,399
Speaker 2: you're like, whoa play that fast? Like we're struggling, we're

1139
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:44,640
Speaker 2: swimming upstream, you know what I mean, Like everything's got

1140
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,279
Speaker 2: to matter so much. Whereas you know, because they had

1141
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:50,800
Speaker 2: Timmy and and not Tony and Manny would everyone but

1142
00:54:51,640 --> 00:54:56,000
Speaker 2: Timmy in that era, and that game was so dominant,

1143
00:54:56,640 --> 00:55:00,600
Speaker 2: not even on the score sheet, like just defense space

1144
00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:04,719
Speaker 2: away offensively, he creates space and like so in the

1145
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 2: speed of the game and the style of playing that era,

1146
00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:11,080
Speaker 2: he was perfect. Yeah, and that's why he's one of

1147
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,279
Speaker 2: the best ever. But we like in a sense like

1148
00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:17,279
Speaker 2: trying to match him instead of like saying, okay, let's

1149
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:21,200
Speaker 2: make Timmy play an extra twenty possessions tonight, right, was

1150
00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:24,600
Speaker 2: making move one hundred more times in different directions. You know,

1151
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 2: that wasn't acceptable necessarily, And so that's why Q leaves

1152
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:32,440
Speaker 2: we end up trading was it sean for a shack

1153
00:55:32,520 --> 00:55:35,879
Speaker 2: at some point? Like these things, you know, actually brought

1154
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,440
Speaker 2: us back to the pack instead of pushed us over the.

1155
00:55:40,040 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 1: Playing field everybody else.

1156
00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:44,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we had to be extraordinary to keep our

1157
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:47,600
Speaker 2: standards instead of we can just play our game and

1158
00:55:47,800 --> 00:55:48,839
Speaker 2: be right.

1159
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 3: And I remember all of that, like when it happened,

1160
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:55,279
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe because I remember you calling me. I

1161
00:55:55,360 --> 00:55:58,719
Speaker 3: want to say, you were at at fans wedding, you

1162
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:00,919
Speaker 3: were at a bar some like I'm seeing this shit

1163
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,279
Speaker 3: go across the screen, Like what the hell is going on?

1164
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,280
Speaker 1: Like he called me, like, Yo, what's happening.

1165
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 3: And then within the next few days, I think they

1166
00:56:10,360 --> 00:56:14,960
Speaker 3: signed Raja Bell. That aggravated Joe because he was supposed

1167
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 3: to be the top priority in the first order of

1168
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:20,040
Speaker 3: business before anything was done. He was mad because they

1169
00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:23,080
Speaker 3: had traded me before that happened. Then they signed another

1170
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 3: wing before that happened. He was like, I'm done. And

1171
00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:30,000
Speaker 3: the craziest part about all of that is remember at

1172
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:32,040
Speaker 3: the beginning of the season, they could have locked him

1173
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:34,799
Speaker 3: up for thirty six, but they were scared of because

1174
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:36,800
Speaker 3: they had just committed money to me and Steve.

1175
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:40,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was if they just bought the team. We

1176
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,680
Speaker 2: were the first two guys, and I think they were

1177
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:45,440
Speaker 2: just like whoaa, woa, what money going on? You know,

1178
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:47,880
Speaker 2: And they also weren't a bunch of billionaires, you know,

1179
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:50,120
Speaker 2: they're wealthy guys about the team, but they were like

1180
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 2: feeling their way into this. Unfortunately we were on the

1181
00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 2: cusp right away right away, and it just it wasn't

1182
00:56:57,120 --> 00:56:59,520
Speaker 2: great timing between them kind of getting their feet wet

1183
00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:02,120
Speaker 2: and figured, yeah, but this wasn't. It wasn't. The NBA

1184
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:04,759
Speaker 2: then was good, but it wasn't. Theose aren't two billion

1185
00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 2: dollar franchises like some people thought. They overpaid at like

1186
00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:12,759
Speaker 2: four hundred million or whatever it was. So they're thinking, Okay,

1187
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:14,840
Speaker 2: we may be overpaid to get in. Now we're in,

1188
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 2: we want to operate at a big loss and pay

1189
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,080
Speaker 2: tax and all that stuff. So it just the whole

1190
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 2: confluence of things didn't work in our favor in a sense.

1191
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:27,040
Speaker 2: But even more than that, it was it was just

1192
00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:28,240
Speaker 2: it wasn't.

1193
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:29,000
Speaker 1: It was just like the.

1194
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 2: Common thought was like, you can't win this way, and

1195
00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 2: so when you lose, like you shouldn't. Like nobody rush,

1196
00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:40,920
Speaker 2: nobody crushes a new team for losing the first year.

1197
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 6: But we felt the way to that because they were different, right,

1198
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:47,960
Speaker 6: because that's different, We played different.

1199
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:50,480
Speaker 1: So it was like they was waiting for it.

1200
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:53,000
Speaker 3: They said it the entire year after after they got

1201
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:55,680
Speaker 3: used to okay, they really are going to win like this.

1202
00:57:55,840 --> 00:57:58,000
Speaker 1: The whole year. Then they said they're not gonna win

1203
00:57:58,000 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: when it matters.

1204
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 3: But like even though they and then they killing, everybody said,

1205
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:03,280
Speaker 3: well when it watters, they came when you can't win

1206
00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:05,040
Speaker 3: in the playoffs like this, So like as soon as

1207
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 3: we lost, it was like, yes, he told you so.

1208
00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:10,240
Speaker 2: And we remember Joe broke his face.

1209
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:14,640
Speaker 3: Yet the first year games of the finals the Western he.

1210
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 2: Came back for the last game every lost in the

1211
00:58:17,360 --> 00:58:19,840
Speaker 2: conference finals, right, and he played great with a mask

1212
00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:22,960
Speaker 2: and healed. But like you know, we're talking about Joe

1213
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:26,439
Speaker 2: Johnson to miss him as a young first year team

1214
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:29,240
Speaker 2: in that position. Literally, I'm not saying like, oh, we

1215
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 2: would have won, but like you don't know, right, like

1216
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:32,360
Speaker 2: you don't.

1217
00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:35,600
Speaker 3: Know, agree, I will say that that I do feel

1218
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:38,600
Speaker 3: confident if we would have had the two like with

1219
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:41,480
Speaker 3: our with our original team, the two three four year

1220
00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:45,320
Speaker 3: stretch out, you know, taking shots at it and making adjustments,

1221
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:48,240
Speaker 3: but keeping our core like team, I.

1222
00:58:48,360 --> 00:58:50,080
Speaker 1: Gotta believe we would have got us one or two.

1223
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:51,480
Speaker 2: I got to.

1224
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:55,200
Speaker 1: We weren't gonna just keep losing to the Spurs like that.

1225
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:57,280
Speaker 3: We would have figured them out if we just saw

1226
00:58:57,360 --> 00:58:59,920
Speaker 3: them two three straight years in the in the conference finals.

1227
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:02,880
Speaker 3: They weren't gonna just keep stopping us. Every time I

1228
00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:05,680
Speaker 3: think about that, I'm like, this was crazy. They showed

1229
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 3: us like crazy everywhere at the video games. They put

1230
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 3: us on there as the Phoenix team, not any of

1231
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:15,760
Speaker 3: the other ones. That first team. I'm like, this is crazy.

1232
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:18,920
Speaker 3: Why did you choose the Lakers?

1233
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:25,360
Speaker 2: Like the look a couple of reasons. There is one

1234
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:27,560
Speaker 2: main reason, which I get to, but two reasons. One

1235
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 2: it was a good opportunity right. Two, Like you look

1236
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,400
Speaker 2: at the team their assembling, it's a good team. But

1237
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 2: the second reason was this was the end of my

1238
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 2: career and I wanted to be in the fire. I

1239
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 2: didn't want to go to a team where there wouldn't

1240
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:51,160
Speaker 2: be any scrutiny or pressure on my last opportunity right

1241
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:54,480
Speaker 2: to play this league for three hopefully. At the time,

1242
00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:56,560
Speaker 2: I was like, it was a three year deal. I

1243
00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:59,000
Speaker 2: thought I could keep going after the deal, right, So

1244
00:59:59,080 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 2: I'm still thinking I can play for a while. But

1245
01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 2: this three years where I because when I my last

1246
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 2: year in Phoenix, I made the All Star Game. I

1247
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 2: was thirty eight, So I still thought I can do this.

1248
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:11,440
Speaker 2: I got this, I can keep this going. Like I

1249
01:00:11,560 --> 01:00:13,200
Speaker 2: might not be like I was when I was thirty

1250
01:00:13,240 --> 01:00:15,760
Speaker 2: thirty one, but I'm still playing at a high level

1251
01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 2: and I can continue this. So I wanted to be

1252
01:00:19,520 --> 01:00:21,360
Speaker 2: in the fire. I didn't want to like go out

1253
01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:23,680
Speaker 2: to past years, so to speak, in an easy situation

1254
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 2: where I was just whatever. So I remember actually asking

1255
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:31,920
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr, who was round when you know, he was

1256
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 2: a part of the ownership group when we went to

1257
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:35,760
Speaker 2: Phoenix and then he became the general manager of Phoenix.

1258
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:37,960
Speaker 2: You know, he was doing TV at the time. I

1259
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:42,000
Speaker 2: called him for his advice, and I remember he saying

1260
01:00:42,040 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 2: it back to me when I said to him, like

1261
01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 2: I want to go to the Lakers because I want

1262
01:00:47,160 --> 01:00:49,800
Speaker 2: to be in the fire, like I want to be

1263
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 2: play under pressure. But the main main reason was that

1264
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 2: I was going through divorce and my my ex was

1265
01:00:58,120 --> 01:01:00,600
Speaker 2: in Phoenix and the kids we have to stay with

1266
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:04,160
Speaker 2: their mom, and my other two options were Toronto and

1267
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:08,600
Speaker 2: New York. I don't know how it'd see them, you know,

1268
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:13,120
Speaker 2: like that year, and I'm like, now I have five kids,

1269
01:01:13,600 --> 01:01:17,600
Speaker 2: like dad first, and then arrange everything else in my life,

1270
01:01:17,640 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 2: all the stuff I'm doing around them. So it's always

1271
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:24,280
Speaker 2: been a priority to me. So in the end, like

1272
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:26,320
Speaker 2: that was the deal breaker in a sense, like if

1273
01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:27,840
Speaker 2: there was a chance to get to going to LA,

1274
01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:30,240
Speaker 2: because I could literally after practice, fly to Phoenix, go

1275
01:01:30,360 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 2: to a kid's soccer practice, you know, and come back

1276
01:01:34,120 --> 01:01:37,320
Speaker 2: and be with them for four or five hours and

1277
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:40,120
Speaker 2: be back and be at practice early the next day. Right,

1278
01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:44,080
Speaker 2: So that was the reason. But those other two reasons

1279
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:46,640
Speaker 2: wanting to be in the fire, and you know that

1280
01:01:46,720 --> 01:01:49,600
Speaker 2: there wasn't potentially a great team that's there too, But

1281
01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:54,840
Speaker 2: ultimately it was a decision on family. But man, I

1282
01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:59,120
Speaker 2: can remember like really coming here, believing that I have

1283
01:01:59,240 --> 01:02:04,480
Speaker 2: a lot left and I can't wait, Like everything yeah prepared,

1284
01:02:04,600 --> 01:02:09,840
Speaker 2: I was ready, and you know, it just wasn't meant

1285
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:12,520
Speaker 2: to be. All of us together wasn't meant to be.

1286
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:14,640
Speaker 2: And then I broke my knee, like I fractured in

1287
01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:17,320
Speaker 2: my second game in LA, and my body's never been

1288
01:02:17,360 --> 01:02:20,360
Speaker 2: the same since that, Conditioning on the treadmill, lifting to

1289
01:02:20,600 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 2: everything I could to get back out there. Maybe to

1290
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:24,920
Speaker 2: a fault, maybe I should have won, Maybe I was

1291
01:02:24,960 --> 01:02:26,760
Speaker 2: doing too much too, Maybe I should have supported my

1292
01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:28,840
Speaker 2: teammate in the flesh, but I wanted to support them

1293
01:02:28,880 --> 01:02:31,960
Speaker 2: by playing with them, So I was like, I gotta

1294
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:34,320
Speaker 2: focus on me, crush myself again tonight.

1295
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:35,520
Speaker 1: Well, we got to the league.

1296
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:38,240
Speaker 4: You know, y'all had that three headed monster with Finley

1297
01:02:39,120 --> 01:02:43,200
Speaker 4: and y'all offense with Nelly. Nelly offense was like way

1298
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:47,600
Speaker 4: different than everybody else's offense. Did you feel that y'all

1299
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:51,640
Speaker 4: could have won in Dallas if y'all just stuck with

1300
01:02:51,760 --> 01:02:55,000
Speaker 4: the Yeah. With the chemistry of Nelly's offense, it was

1301
01:02:55,040 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 4: like advance.

1302
01:02:56,080 --> 01:02:59,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. Nelly was He's man. He has

1303
01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:02,160
Speaker 2: a crazy creative basketball mine was ahead of the game.

1304
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:04,000
Speaker 2: He was on all the rules committees, you know what

1305
01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:07,480
Speaker 2: I mean. He was always pushing the boundaries on everything.

1306
01:03:07,720 --> 01:03:10,760
Speaker 2: He was the guy that would put like I can't

1307
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:12,960
Speaker 2: remember which way it was around, but he would put

1308
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:16,360
Speaker 2: like minute ball on Muggsy boats right like I'm gonna

1309
01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:18,920
Speaker 2: sit off him and I'm gonna cover him from like

1310
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:22,040
Speaker 2: fifteen feet to the rim, and you know stuff like

1311
01:03:22,120 --> 01:03:24,360
Speaker 2: that that nobody would really try. And now he had

1312
01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:26,040
Speaker 2: no problem doing it. And now he was like a

1313
01:03:26,120 --> 01:03:28,600
Speaker 2: guy that'd love to play off the elbows and put

1314
01:03:28,640 --> 01:03:30,120
Speaker 2: you in a position where if you get to catch

1315
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 2: on tight on the elbow, it puts the defense in

1316
01:03:32,560 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 2: a weird position because the weak side is still one

1317
01:03:34,960 --> 01:03:37,040
Speaker 2: pass away even the weeks at corner if you're on

1318
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:40,040
Speaker 2: the elbow. So everyone's like just a little bit out

1319
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:43,040
Speaker 2: of their comfort zone. And so he loved elbows. He

1320
01:03:43,120 --> 01:03:45,240
Speaker 2: loved two and three man games on one side, and

1321
01:03:46,080 --> 01:03:48,680
Speaker 2: he junked up the game. Yeah, he plays super small.

1322
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:52,400
Speaker 2: He'd play and we'll play fast, we'll play slow. Well,

1323
01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:55,760
Speaker 2: he'd post me up sometimes. Yeah, different guys like weird

1324
01:03:55,880 --> 01:03:59,400
Speaker 2: stuff that often like it would strangely work and then

1325
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:03,880
Speaker 2: you wouldn't again. And so he was so adaptable and creative,

1326
01:04:04,120 --> 01:04:08,200
Speaker 2: and so he's a basketball genius in some ways can

1327
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,760
Speaker 2: because you you consider like how to get to that

1328
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:14,720
Speaker 2: position and to be able to be so different, you

1329
01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:19,200
Speaker 2: have to be kind of crazy smart or creative. And

1330
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:23,480
Speaker 2: so look, Mike, Derek and myself, like if we had

1331
01:04:23,520 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 2: to continue to go together and you add like you know,

1332
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:29,200
Speaker 2: in the end, they got Tyson Chandler, right like if

1333
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 2: you had a gotten the moment where we got somebody

1334
01:04:31,400 --> 01:04:31,600
Speaker 2: like that.

1335
01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:34,000
Speaker 4: You know who I used to love which they played

1336
01:04:34,040 --> 01:04:37,080
Speaker 4: which was more Keys Daniels and Josh how.

1337
01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:39,480
Speaker 2: You know what, like those two guys like.

1338
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:45,440
Speaker 1: They played so well for Yeah, I thought they fit perfectly.

1339
01:04:45,120 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 2: Exactly because they could switch. They could both make a play,

1340
01:04:49,600 --> 01:04:52,840
Speaker 2: you know, they could defend, like I said, multiple positions,

1341
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:55,240
Speaker 2: and so they were versatile and they could fit in

1342
01:04:55,480 --> 01:04:58,680
Speaker 2: around us or take over a little more when we

1343
01:04:58,760 --> 01:05:01,640
Speaker 2: weren't on the court. It was, and the problem was

1344
01:05:01,880 --> 01:05:04,720
Speaker 2: we never let it develop right, like it never got

1345
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:08,200
Speaker 2: the chance to grow together for five six years. Like

1346
01:05:08,920 --> 01:05:11,600
Speaker 2: those guys probably came a year or two before I left,

1347
01:05:12,560 --> 01:05:14,400
Speaker 2: and then a year or two after I left, Finn left,

1348
01:05:14,440 --> 01:05:17,040
Speaker 2: and so where that sweet spot was and what the

1349
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:19,200
Speaker 2: additions we could have made, we never saw it in

1350
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:22,320
Speaker 2: a sense. So but there's no reason why with like

1351
01:05:22,480 --> 01:05:25,600
Speaker 2: a couple with those guys, and then like if a

1352
01:05:25,680 --> 01:05:29,080
Speaker 2: Tyson Chandler became available or somebody else, there's no reason

1353
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:32,200
Speaker 2: why we couldn't have pushed and been a championship team.

1354
01:05:33,320 --> 01:05:36,120
Speaker 1: You won MVP and D'Antoni system. You was the first

1355
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:39,520
Speaker 1: to do it. You see James Harden who could have

1356
01:05:39,600 --> 01:05:42,120
Speaker 1: won MVP three years in a row. You know what

1357
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:42,600
Speaker 1: I'm saying.

1358
01:05:43,720 --> 01:05:47,640
Speaker 4: What's about D'Antoni system at point guard? Yeah, you can

1359
01:05:47,720 --> 01:05:52,479
Speaker 4: have so much success if you have the skill level

1360
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:53,960
Speaker 4: to achieve that.

1361
01:05:54,760 --> 01:05:58,200
Speaker 2: It gave me an opportunity to beat my best. Same

1362
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:03,560
Speaker 2: with James. It's not that easy though, Like it's like

1363
01:06:03,720 --> 01:06:06,040
Speaker 2: I think people think well in that system, but like

1364
01:06:06,160 --> 01:06:10,360
Speaker 2: you know, like we had a hard time finding someone

1365
01:06:10,440 --> 01:06:13,360
Speaker 2: to play when when I sat down, because it is

1366
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:16,200
Speaker 2: it is a bid. Like over the course of you

1367
01:06:16,240 --> 01:06:18,600
Speaker 2: can have a hot streak, but over the course of

1368
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:21,800
Speaker 2: the season season having to make all the decisions and

1369
01:06:21,920 --> 01:06:26,320
Speaker 2: being super efficient, it relies a lot on that player

1370
01:06:26,800 --> 01:06:32,920
Speaker 2: to be efficient and consistent over and over. So it

1371
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:36,080
Speaker 2: allowed me. That's what I did well, was make decisions,

1372
01:06:36,480 --> 01:06:41,000
Speaker 2: be creative, distort the defense, put pressure on the defense.

1373
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:46,720
Speaker 2: I think we're different players, but we both play cat

1374
01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 2: and mouse where we allow our scoring to make our

1375
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:54,680
Speaker 2: passing more dangerous and passing to make our scoring more

1376
01:06:54,760 --> 01:06:56,960
Speaker 2: dangerous and put the defense in a bad position right

1377
01:06:57,040 --> 01:07:00,360
Speaker 2: where they're constantly having to make really quick decisions. They

1378
01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:03,200
Speaker 2: no matter what decision they make could be wrong.

1379
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:04,200
Speaker 1: Right, So.

1380
01:07:06,760 --> 01:07:09,960
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if I'm like trying

1381
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:12,120
Speaker 2: to pump myself up by saying that like it's it's

1382
01:07:12,360 --> 01:07:16,000
Speaker 2: it's it's not as it's not as like the system

1383
01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:18,200
Speaker 2: really allowed me to be at my best, but it

1384
01:07:19,200 --> 01:07:21,280
Speaker 2: was also exhausting.

1385
01:07:21,960 --> 01:07:24,400
Speaker 4: But to see James Hoyden now, like do you see

1386
01:07:24,440 --> 01:07:26,680
Speaker 4: similarities because you just said when you got up, when

1387
01:07:26,680 --> 01:07:28,520
Speaker 4: you got out the game, you see him get out

1388
01:07:28,520 --> 01:07:30,440
Speaker 4: of the game, and the whole team changed.

1389
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:32,240
Speaker 1: You know, they had Chris Paul.

1390
01:07:32,320 --> 01:07:35,760
Speaker 4: Now they got you know what I'm saying, how you

1391
01:07:36,200 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 4: you see the mistakes that you may in what Houston

1392
01:07:42,360 --> 01:07:44,120
Speaker 4: is doing with with the system, same system.

1393
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:46,760
Speaker 2: Now, I think Houston's been incredible. Like I think like

1394
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:49,880
Speaker 2: people saying that like James and Chris didn't work is

1395
01:07:49,960 --> 01:07:53,959
Speaker 2: wrong because like you look at the Warriors, they're historically great,

1396
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:56,480
Speaker 2: and they brought Chris Paul on and they got this

1397
01:07:56,720 --> 01:08:01,080
Speaker 2: close to beating a historically great team, historic like historically one,

1398
01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:04,040
Speaker 2: two or three, I don't know, top five. They got

1399
01:08:04,160 --> 01:08:07,040
Speaker 2: this close to beating him twice. And they came from

1400
01:08:07,520 --> 01:08:11,120
Speaker 2: not really in the same ballpark. That doesn't mean it

1401
01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:14,840
Speaker 2: didn't work. That means it worked extraordinarily well. They just

1402
01:08:14,960 --> 01:08:17,400
Speaker 2: never got over the hump, and sometimes that's a break,

1403
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:26,640
Speaker 2: you know. So I look James harden Is, he's like

1404
01:08:26,760 --> 01:08:29,200
Speaker 2: I can't even relate, you know, for someone in his

1405
01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:32,479
Speaker 2: size to do what he does and and he's taking

1406
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:36,720
Speaker 2: this era and embrace the way it's being played and

1407
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:42,799
Speaker 2: is like, you know, putting up numbers that are crazy.

1408
01:08:43,760 --> 01:08:46,120
Speaker 2: I think it's a big success. You know, they just

1409
01:08:46,200 --> 01:08:48,479
Speaker 2: go happen to be going against the Warriors at a

1410
01:08:48,560 --> 01:08:49,600
Speaker 2: time like.

1411
01:08:51,439 --> 01:08:56,200
Speaker 1: The nineties. Your drafty, if you had.

1412
01:08:57,680 --> 01:09:00,600
Speaker 4: To play three on three with to pick out any

1413
01:09:00,600 --> 01:09:02,759
Speaker 4: play out of the draft, who's the other two players

1414
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:03,640
Speaker 4: you'll want to play with?

1415
01:09:03,760 --> 01:09:03,800
Speaker 6: You?

1416
01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:07,680
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you got to put Kobe in there,

1417
01:09:09,360 --> 01:09:13,559
Speaker 2: especially three on three that's cheap. I mean Murders, Row

1418
01:09:14,720 --> 01:09:22,040
Speaker 2: uh Ray, Allen, Allen Iverson, like you know, and more.

1419
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:27,040
Speaker 2: I'm sure this guy's I'm forgetting, but like I mean, Reeve,

1420
01:09:28,200 --> 01:09:33,840
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think like Marlburry an swine walker, so

1421
01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:37,439
Speaker 2: many there's more. I feel like there's more that I'm

1422
01:09:37,520 --> 01:09:42,479
Speaker 2: forgetting that you consider can be like you want to big,

1423
01:09:43,640 --> 01:09:48,760
Speaker 2: you know, I play with Kobe and Camby. I mean

1424
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 2: it was cool to you don't know at the time, right,

1425
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:54,439
Speaker 2: you don't know, Like you're just a bunch of young guys,

1426
01:09:54,680 --> 01:09:57,360
Speaker 2: especially I graduated from college. A lot of them were

1427
01:09:57,800 --> 01:10:00,680
Speaker 2: younger than me. But like we're all young guys like

1428
01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:03,759
Speaker 2: hoping to make an impact in the league, right, Kobe

1429
01:10:03,920 --> 01:10:06,200
Speaker 2: At the time, we didn't really know as much about

1430
01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:08,479
Speaker 2: high school kids, so we knew Kobe was like this

1431
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:11,560
Speaker 2: kind of prodigy, but we didn't know it wasn't on

1432
01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:14,559
Speaker 2: Instagram every day, right, so you're kind of like taking

1433
01:10:14,600 --> 01:10:18,560
Speaker 2: a leap, you know. So Allen iverson, Kobe Bryant, like

1434
01:10:18,680 --> 01:10:20,839
Speaker 2: these some of the most influential players in the league's

1435
01:10:21,280 --> 01:10:24,200
Speaker 2: ever seen. So it's crazy to look back and think

1436
01:10:24,320 --> 01:10:26,680
Speaker 2: that at the time we didn't know, you know, we

1437
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:29,680
Speaker 2: knew nothing, Ray Allen and go down the line. But

1438
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:31,680
Speaker 2: we look back and it's like a bunch of Hall

1439
01:10:31,720 --> 01:10:33,880
Speaker 2: of famers and it's incredible.

1440
01:10:33,960 --> 01:10:36,320
Speaker 1: I heard you talk about, you know that everything being

1441
01:10:36,360 --> 01:10:36,839
Speaker 1: on Instagram.

1442
01:10:36,880 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 3: What's your take on youth hoops right now with the

1443
01:10:40,120 --> 01:10:46,000
Speaker 3: whole social media evolvement and evolution to that and how

1444
01:10:47,040 --> 01:10:49,599
Speaker 3: kid have clips and he's the hottest thing.

1445
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:53,479
Speaker 1: He has a thousand followers or whatever. Like I feel

1446
01:10:53,640 --> 01:10:56,680
Speaker 1: I feel like it's so so different, and.

1447
01:10:58,560 --> 01:11:01,200
Speaker 3: In a way I would say, like the purity of

1448
01:11:01,280 --> 01:11:03,920
Speaker 3: it is gone because as soon as the guy they

1449
01:11:04,120 --> 01:11:04,559
Speaker 3: ranked the.

1450
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:07,560
Speaker 1: Top fifth grade, the top fourth grade, the top eight, Like,

1451
01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:08,679
Speaker 1: how can you rank.

1452
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:11,800
Speaker 3: These kids like the top fourth grader may never play basketball.

1453
01:11:11,840 --> 01:11:13,920
Speaker 3: When he turns eighth grade, he may decide to play

1454
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:17,080
Speaker 3: soccer or not even be in sports anything. Like I

1455
01:11:17,160 --> 01:11:18,640
Speaker 3: say that to say, what do you think of that?

1456
01:11:18,760 --> 01:11:21,760
Speaker 3: When you see all these kids were huge followings and

1457
01:11:22,240 --> 01:11:23,160
Speaker 3: they're on ball.

1458
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:25,160
Speaker 1: Is life and all that. It's cool, but I think

1459
01:11:25,240 --> 01:11:27,080
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a gift in the curse.

1460
01:11:27,120 --> 01:11:30,280
Speaker 2: One percent. I think for better for worse, it is

1461
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:32,600
Speaker 2: what it is. We're not We're not going back, So

1462
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:36,000
Speaker 2: you can't you can't like long for the way we

1463
01:11:36,120 --> 01:11:38,160
Speaker 2: grow up whatever, it's not happening, so like you have

1464
01:11:38,280 --> 01:11:40,960
Speaker 2: to accept it. Then you just try to like how

1465
01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:43,280
Speaker 2: can we find some balance here? And I would say

1466
01:11:43,320 --> 01:11:47,720
Speaker 2: the positive thing is like exposure. Kids get exposure. There's

1467
01:11:47,760 --> 01:11:51,479
Speaker 2: no secrets anymore. Everyone Like when I grew up, I

1468
01:11:51,520 --> 01:11:53,800
Speaker 2: would love to know what a kid in Chicago's doing,

1469
01:11:54,479 --> 01:11:57,120
Speaker 2: What is what's his move, what's his game? What level

1470
01:11:57,240 --> 01:11:59,519
Speaker 2: is he at in the eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelfth grade.

1471
01:12:00,240 --> 01:12:02,160
Speaker 2: That is cool that the world's small, Like a kid

1472
01:12:02,360 --> 01:12:04,280
Speaker 2: in any corner of the world can see what the

1473
01:12:04,360 --> 01:12:06,160
Speaker 2: best in his age is doing. So there's a lot

1474
01:12:06,160 --> 01:12:08,000
Speaker 2: of great things about it. And the exposure and the

1475
01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:11,560
Speaker 2: best practices and all that stuff. I don't like the

1476
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:15,600
Speaker 2: fact that we rank kids. You can scout and you

1477
01:12:15,720 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 2: can say this is like I don't even mind. Like

1478
01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 2: if you put it in a little more blunt, like

1479
01:12:19,920 --> 01:12:22,760
Speaker 2: he's a five star, he's a blue chip, okay, but

1480
01:12:22,880 --> 01:12:25,799
Speaker 2: like one two three, it's one hundred. I think kids

1481
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:29,679
Speaker 2: lose sight of the long term and their development because

1482
01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:32,439
Speaker 2: of where they where am I ranked this week? This week?

1483
01:12:32,520 --> 01:12:36,440
Speaker 2: Doesn't it's I tell my girls, my daughters play volleyball.

1484
01:12:36,600 --> 01:12:39,840
Speaker 2: They don't love it. They like it, you know, they

1485
01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:42,639
Speaker 2: could be pretty good at it. They think they're bad,

1486
01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:46,200
Speaker 2: And I'm like, that's a terrible like you have. No,

1487
01:12:46,320 --> 01:12:49,160
Speaker 2: it does not matter who's best at fourteen, Like if

1488
01:12:49,200 --> 01:12:51,040
Speaker 2: you had have asked me where I fit in the

1489
01:12:51,160 --> 01:12:55,240
Speaker 2: world ranking at basketball when I was fourteen, No ranking,

1490
01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:59,479
Speaker 2: Like we're talking thousands, right, So like, don't get caught

1491
01:12:59,560 --> 01:13:01,840
Speaker 2: up and where you are this week, this is even

1492
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:05,320
Speaker 2: like your senior year. Just keep going, keep going, keep going.

1493
01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:08,760
Speaker 2: So I don't like that kids get so focused on

1494
01:13:08,840 --> 01:13:11,560
Speaker 2: where their ranking is and that competitive nature of a

1495
01:13:11,720 --> 01:13:15,120
Speaker 2: ranking that means nothing. There's no reward. What do you get.

1496
01:13:15,200 --> 01:13:17,200
Speaker 2: You don't get an NBA Championship for being the fifth

1497
01:13:17,280 --> 01:13:21,040
Speaker 2: best in the country in fourteen. Right, you don't get anything,

1498
01:13:21,240 --> 01:13:25,360
Speaker 2: so I don't like that. I'd like to see kids

1499
01:13:25,479 --> 01:13:28,280
Speaker 2: think about their long term development instead of likes.

1500
01:13:29,320 --> 01:13:33,400
Speaker 6: Right, sid don't be influenced by likes what other people like,

1501
01:13:33,479 --> 01:13:36,479
Speaker 6: the influence by what followers you have, influenced by what

1502
01:13:36,840 --> 01:13:40,599
Speaker 6: is making you better every day, And frankly, like sometimes

1503
01:13:40,640 --> 01:13:42,120
Speaker 6: you don't need to share with everyone, like.

1504
01:13:43,600 --> 01:13:44,599
Speaker 2: You know, like get focused.

1505
01:13:44,880 --> 01:13:47,400
Speaker 4: Canada is bringing up a lot of players to the NBA,

1506
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:52,040
Speaker 4: a lot of players to college. Like to see you

1507
01:13:52,520 --> 01:13:55,320
Speaker 4: growing up in Canada, to see how it's developed. These

1508
01:13:55,439 --> 01:13:58,960
Speaker 4: kids can come out of Canada and do they think

1509
01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:01,519
Speaker 4: you got to? Andrew Wig and all these guys who

1510
01:14:01,680 --> 01:14:06,240
Speaker 4: make it to the league feel it's incredible.

1511
01:14:06,320 --> 01:14:08,960
Speaker 2: I never ever thought it would be like this. I think.

1512
01:14:09,160 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 2: I think Canada now is the second most NBA players

1513
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:14,240
Speaker 2: in the world the US. I think that this going

1514
01:14:14,320 --> 01:14:17,800
Speaker 2: into this year. I think there's fifteen guaranteed contracts Canadian kids.

1515
01:14:17,800 --> 01:14:21,439
Speaker 2: When I came into the league, it was Rick Fox,

1516
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:25,960
Speaker 2: who I love two weeks old, moved to the Bambas.

1517
01:14:27,040 --> 01:14:27,200
Speaker 1: Right.

1518
01:14:27,920 --> 01:14:30,960
Speaker 2: Bill Wennington, who was from Montreal, went to high school

1519
01:14:31,160 --> 01:14:34,800
Speaker 2: and went to high school and send this to New York.

1520
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:37,760
Speaker 2: Maybe that was it. So two guys that you know,

1521
01:14:37,800 --> 01:14:39,519
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess Billy's Canadian. He grew up there

1522
01:14:39,560 --> 01:14:41,240
Speaker 2: with Rick, you know, like he was born there as

1523
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:43,000
Speaker 2: the Canadian mom, I think, but like grew up in

1524
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:47,160
Speaker 2: the Bahamas. Now, like legit, I think Toronto probably has

1525
01:14:47,200 --> 01:14:51,400
Speaker 2: more NBA players in New York City, right like think

1526
01:14:51,439 --> 01:14:54,720
Speaker 2: about it, like you know, even the greater torontoking about

1527
01:14:54,760 --> 01:15:02,120
Speaker 2: like Jamal Murray shay Y. The output is you know

1528
01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:05,320
Speaker 2: right now, even like I mean this year in the draft,

1529
01:15:05,400 --> 01:15:08,400
Speaker 2: Nikhil Alexander Walker, I think is a huge future.

1530
01:15:08,240 --> 01:15:10,400
Speaker 1: Like your godson RJ.

1531
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,880
Speaker 2: I mean everyone knows r J. Yeah, that's interesting to

1532
01:15:13,960 --> 01:15:17,640
Speaker 2: watch RJ go through this whole mechanism.

1533
01:15:18,600 --> 01:15:22,240
Speaker 3: I saw you tweet because I think your soccer team lost,

1534
01:15:22,400 --> 01:15:24,200
Speaker 3: but you was like, that's cool. I'm about to go

1535
01:15:24,320 --> 01:15:26,640
Speaker 3: watch my guys get picked. So it's you know, I

1536
01:15:26,720 --> 01:15:29,719
Speaker 3: got a cool constantly like that's dope, that's dope.

1537
01:15:29,960 --> 01:15:34,600
Speaker 4: If you ever imagine a team from Canada winning the championship,

1538
01:15:35,760 --> 01:15:36,960
Speaker 4: crazy happened.

1539
01:15:37,400 --> 01:15:39,680
Speaker 2: But no, not now you know what I mean, not

1540
01:15:39,880 --> 01:15:42,400
Speaker 2: like now you know I worked for the Warriors, so

1541
01:15:42,920 --> 01:15:47,280
Speaker 2: I wanted the Warriors to win, yeah, deeply. But if

1542
01:15:47,360 --> 01:15:50,400
Speaker 2: I ever had to be happy on the losing side

1543
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:53,719
Speaker 2: is to see the country of Canada. They were showing

1544
01:15:53,760 --> 01:15:56,840
Speaker 2: the games in movie theaters across the country, parties on

1545
01:15:56,920 --> 01:15:57,280
Speaker 2: the street.

1546
01:15:57,439 --> 01:16:03,479
Speaker 3: They recreated eighteen replicas of the Jurassic part type in.

1547
01:16:03,800 --> 01:16:06,599
Speaker 3: They did that at like different bars in different areas

1548
01:16:06,680 --> 01:16:09,240
Speaker 3: around town and across the country.

1549
01:16:09,400 --> 01:16:14,040
Speaker 2: Like it's special to see the game, bro and the

1550
01:16:14,439 --> 01:16:17,240
Speaker 2: franchise and the game to get its reward in a sense,

1551
01:16:17,400 --> 01:16:19,120
Speaker 2: you can never take that away from him. That is

1552
01:16:19,200 --> 01:16:24,040
Speaker 2: a historic moment that all the kids, families, people will remember.

1553
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:28,120
Speaker 3: But you have to know, not so much for the championship,

1554
01:16:28,200 --> 01:16:30,280
Speaker 3: but I mean going back to like the boom of

1555
01:16:30,360 --> 01:16:35,320
Speaker 3: the Canada Canadian basketball, you have to feel somewhat responsible

1556
01:16:35,400 --> 01:16:35,560
Speaker 3: for that.

1557
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:38,320
Speaker 2: I don't ever look at it that way. If I

1558
01:16:38,400 --> 01:16:43,200
Speaker 2: had an influence, that's great. I think there's a number

1559
01:16:43,200 --> 01:16:47,360
Speaker 2: of things. I think one maybe myself and other guys

1560
01:16:47,439 --> 01:16:50,559
Speaker 2: showed a path that's possible. It wasn't you didn't see

1561
01:16:50,640 --> 01:16:55,120
Speaker 2: before Vince Carter was absolutely to be like such an

1562
01:16:55,160 --> 01:16:58,320
Speaker 2: electrifying player in everyone's living room. You know, for these

1563
01:16:58,400 --> 01:17:00,960
Speaker 2: young generations, that's the first kind of like superstar and

1564
01:17:01,000 --> 01:17:03,840
Speaker 2: they saw him every night like that's that's important. Imagine

1565
01:17:03,840 --> 01:17:05,320
Speaker 2: if there was no Vince and there was like a

1566
01:17:05,400 --> 01:17:06,840
Speaker 2: team that struggled.

1567
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:10,240
Speaker 1: And there wasn't like that one guy, and Vince would

1568
01:17:10,240 --> 01:17:11,160
Speaker 1: have begin was.

1569
01:17:11,240 --> 01:17:15,320
Speaker 2: Huge too, a little before this generation, but he gave

1570
01:17:15,360 --> 01:17:19,400
Speaker 2: it something the gates. He was great and a figure

1571
01:17:19,479 --> 01:17:22,080
Speaker 2: that everyone and a little guy that everyone can relate.

1572
01:17:26,120 --> 01:17:28,920
Speaker 2: Incredible and a lot of kids could say, I can

1573
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:32,320
Speaker 2: play this game. I don't have to be but I

1574
01:17:32,400 --> 01:17:35,920
Speaker 2: think for Canada's sake, the growth we're seeing now is

1575
01:17:36,520 --> 01:17:41,800
Speaker 2: the raptors Vince Damon. You know, the Internet just being

1576
01:17:41,840 --> 01:17:44,280
Speaker 2: out like it opened the world up to people because

1577
01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:46,760
Speaker 2: Toronto is like I don't know, like eight million people right,

1578
01:17:47,160 --> 01:17:50,320
Speaker 2: it's like the third fourth biggest city in North America.

1579
01:17:50,120 --> 01:17:50,960
Speaker 1: Or whatever it may be.

1580
01:17:51,479 --> 01:17:53,120
Speaker 2: So you have a lot of people, a lot of

1581
01:17:53,200 --> 01:17:56,639
Speaker 2: great athletes, now, basketballs and everyone's livingroom. There's hoops going

1582
01:17:56,720 --> 01:17:59,679
Speaker 2: up in driveways everywhere, there's people wanting to coach, kids

1583
01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:04,679
Speaker 2: wanting to play. And then the AU thing. So AU

1584
01:18:04,840 --> 01:18:07,519
Speaker 2: is not perfect, but a lot of Canadian kids got

1585
01:18:07,600 --> 01:18:11,599
Speaker 2: to play AU and like them that and they got

1586
01:18:11,640 --> 01:18:13,559
Speaker 2: to play against the best kids in the States every

1587
01:18:13,600 --> 01:18:16,800
Speaker 2: weekend for like whatever it is, five to ten weeks.

1588
01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:19,240
Speaker 2: It's like a pro tour. Right.

1589
01:18:19,479 --> 01:18:21,280
Speaker 1: Should they retire Cow's jersey?

1590
01:18:22,160 --> 01:18:25,479
Speaker 2: A great question? I mean, I don't see why not

1591
01:18:26,280 --> 01:18:29,200
Speaker 2: in that hopefully they win a bunch of championship. If

1592
01:18:30,240 --> 01:18:33,240
Speaker 2: if they don't win another championship in the next ten

1593
01:18:33,280 --> 01:18:35,400
Speaker 2: to fifteen years and it doesn't look like they're on

1594
01:18:35,479 --> 01:18:38,760
Speaker 2: the verge at that time, why wouldn't you the man

1595
01:18:39,080 --> 01:18:41,519
Speaker 2: we retire the jersey he gave you. The game is

1596
01:18:41,520 --> 01:18:44,400
Speaker 2: about winning championships. He won it. He came, He won

1597
01:18:44,479 --> 01:18:47,920
Speaker 2: you a championship. And if it's you know, I could

1598
01:18:47,920 --> 01:18:51,240
Speaker 2: see it if they win five six more now maybe

1599
01:18:51,520 --> 01:18:54,280
Speaker 2: like okay, but he gave you the ultimate.

1600
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:58,679
Speaker 1: He's neo, right the matrix. He's neo. He is neo.

1601
01:18:59,000 --> 01:19:02,439
Speaker 3: He is the man out there like boy, he came

1602
01:19:02,560 --> 01:19:07,040
Speaker 3: in what eight nine months and what nobody else to

1603
01:19:07,120 --> 01:19:10,360
Speaker 3: do in the history. Like to me, in my opinion,

1604
01:19:11,080 --> 01:19:14,000
Speaker 3: Damar de Rozan is the greatest raptor in the history.

1605
01:19:14,160 --> 01:19:16,600
Speaker 3: Like as far as you know, he did, how he

1606
01:19:16,720 --> 01:19:21,639
Speaker 3: reapped for the city, wanted to be there, just took

1607
01:19:21,720 --> 01:19:23,360
Speaker 3: that over and months.

1608
01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:26,160
Speaker 2: Well, listen, I love damar, great player.

1609
01:19:26,280 --> 01:19:26,840
Speaker 1: I love him.

1610
01:19:27,160 --> 01:19:30,640
Speaker 2: Kawhi is is there's not you know, like he is

1611
01:19:30,720 --> 01:19:34,719
Speaker 2: a different animal. It just is like, no disrespect. Tomorrow

1612
01:19:34,960 --> 01:19:39,759
Speaker 2: is an incredible player, but Kawhi is a different animals.

1613
01:19:39,960 --> 01:19:41,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doesn't sweat.

1614
01:19:41,560 --> 01:19:43,200
Speaker 2: And by the way, they don't think he was healthy.

1615
01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:45,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, is he real?

1616
01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:49,560
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? That's why he can He

1617
01:19:49,920 --> 01:19:52,080
Speaker 2: can just drag you around the court like like and

1618
01:19:52,240 --> 01:19:53,960
Speaker 2: drop you off and get where he wants to go.

1619
01:19:54,120 --> 01:19:55,200
Speaker 2: And he's not one hundred percent.

1620
01:19:55,920 --> 01:19:59,680
Speaker 1: And I'm strong. I'm strong guy out here and I'm

1621
01:19:59,720 --> 01:20:01,080
Speaker 1: an at you on this Ian.

1622
01:20:01,479 --> 01:20:03,679
Speaker 4: I've seen clips with you working with stuff or working

1623
01:20:03,760 --> 01:20:06,439
Speaker 4: with Golden State. How much joy that it brings to

1624
01:20:06,520 --> 01:20:10,000
Speaker 4: you to give your knowledge to the youth or who

1625
01:20:10,040 --> 01:20:12,120
Speaker 4: are the players of that level today?

1626
01:20:12,800 --> 01:20:14,439
Speaker 2: It's fun, you know. With the Wars, I think the

1627
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:17,600
Speaker 2: person I work close most closely with Kevin Durant. But

1628
01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:21,200
Speaker 2: I'm there to like for any of them. They want it,

1629
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:24,919
Speaker 2: they don't need me, but it is a great experience

1630
01:20:25,000 --> 01:20:27,639
Speaker 2: for me to give back, and it's a great experience

1631
01:20:27,840 --> 01:20:31,320
Speaker 2: to learn, like to watch how they do things and

1632
01:20:32,240 --> 01:20:35,439
Speaker 2: how they've moved the needle in different directions and their

1633
01:20:35,520 --> 01:20:40,360
Speaker 2: greatness and how their personality manifests itself. So it's nice

1634
01:20:40,400 --> 01:20:42,280
Speaker 2: if I can have an impact on any of these guys,

1635
01:20:42,320 --> 01:20:45,720
Speaker 2: but I learn as much from them without them knowing it,

1636
01:20:46,000 --> 01:20:49,920
Speaker 2: just watching, observing, seeing how they handle situations, seeing what

1637
01:20:50,040 --> 01:20:52,040
Speaker 2: they've brought to the table, how they've pushed the game

1638
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:54,840
Speaker 2: in the direction that their personality and skill set takes them.

1639
01:20:54,920 --> 01:20:58,000
Speaker 2: So that's a thrill for me. It's rewarding to be

1640
01:20:58,120 --> 01:21:02,280
Speaker 2: able to help, but it's it's equally as exciting to

1641
01:21:02,439 --> 01:21:06,439
Speaker 2: watch these great, great players you know, show me how I.

1642
01:21:06,680 --> 01:21:08,960
Speaker 3: Pressed for you with you saying you work with KD.

1643
01:21:09,080 --> 01:21:10,880
Speaker 3: Because I've gotten the chance to get to know him

1644
01:21:10,880 --> 01:21:13,120
Speaker 3: a little bit just talking to him, and the things

1645
01:21:13,200 --> 01:21:16,479
Speaker 3: I've been most impressed about him with him about that

1646
01:21:16,640 --> 01:21:19,200
Speaker 3: I didn't know before talking to him, was was his

1647
01:21:19,640 --> 01:21:22,840
Speaker 3: thirst for the game, to get better at the game,

1648
01:21:22,960 --> 01:21:25,080
Speaker 3: to learn more about the game, to be more of

1649
01:21:25,120 --> 01:21:28,120
Speaker 3: a perfectionist at the game, as far as like you know,

1650
01:21:28,240 --> 01:21:30,160
Speaker 3: a lot of guys get in and they get good,

1651
01:21:30,200 --> 01:21:31,960
Speaker 3: they get caught up a certain things. For me, when

1652
01:21:32,000 --> 01:21:34,280
Speaker 3: I look at him, he's one of the few guys

1653
01:21:34,360 --> 01:21:38,240
Speaker 3: who is legit hoop purest who wanted to just hoop.

1654
01:21:38,320 --> 01:21:40,920
Speaker 3: He wanted to try and figure out ways to perfect

1655
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:44,759
Speaker 3: his game, to get better, to become tough for the guard,

1656
01:21:44,920 --> 01:21:48,639
Speaker 3: to master different things than other greats have mastered.

1657
01:21:48,760 --> 01:21:51,960
Speaker 1: Like that's what he talks about at nauseum all the time.

1658
01:21:52,160 --> 01:21:53,719
Speaker 1: So I mean you being one.

1659
01:21:53,640 --> 01:21:57,720
Speaker 3: Of those greats hof back to back MVP, I know

1660
01:21:57,880 --> 01:21:58,920
Speaker 3: he was all over you.

1661
01:22:00,320 --> 01:22:03,720
Speaker 2: I mean like he is a hooper. Kevin's a sophisticated guy.

1662
01:22:04,160 --> 01:22:07,559
Speaker 2: Was doing a lot of great things charitable business wise.

1663
01:22:07,960 --> 01:22:09,559
Speaker 2: He has a lot of interest. I think the reason

1664
01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:14,080
Speaker 2: he left Okay, see left Golden Cities because he's curious.

1665
01:22:14,160 --> 01:22:18,439
Speaker 2: He's courageous, he wants different experiences. He wants to try

1666
01:22:18,560 --> 01:22:21,880
Speaker 2: new things and learn and grow and live life right.

1667
01:22:22,520 --> 01:22:25,120
Speaker 2: But when it comes down to it, he is a hooper,

1668
01:22:25,400 --> 01:22:28,160
Speaker 2: like he wants to play basketball. Yeah, almost to a fault.

1669
01:22:28,240 --> 01:22:30,000
Speaker 2: And I'll say this because like I always try to

1670
01:22:30,040 --> 01:22:33,120
Speaker 2: push Kevin. Okay, you're getting late twenties. I want you

1671
01:22:33,280 --> 01:22:36,960
Speaker 2: to be religious with like your activation and corrective exercises

1672
01:22:37,040 --> 01:22:39,160
Speaker 2: and all that stuff, Like every time you're going to

1673
01:22:39,240 --> 01:22:41,640
Speaker 2: touch the wood, I want you to do your exercises.

1674
01:22:42,240 --> 01:22:44,560
Speaker 2: But I think Kevin's is like just get me on

1675
01:22:44,800 --> 01:22:46,680
Speaker 2: the court and give me the ball. I want to

1676
01:22:46,800 --> 01:22:48,320
Speaker 2: work out and I want to shoot. I want to

1677
01:22:48,320 --> 01:22:52,120
Speaker 2: play one on one. I want to play. Yes, he knows,

1678
01:22:52,520 --> 01:22:56,040
Speaker 2: he knows, like the history, and he hears everything. He

1679
01:22:57,080 --> 01:23:00,640
Speaker 2: learns and understands, respects, and he eats it all up.

1680
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:04,759
Speaker 3: That partly right there, I was like still be impressed

1681
01:23:04,800 --> 01:23:07,640
Speaker 3: of how much he wants to be more efficient and

1682
01:23:07,840 --> 01:23:10,200
Speaker 3: be this and be that, and how not only I'm

1683
01:23:10,240 --> 01:23:12,559
Speaker 3: not talking about it. I'm gonna go watch this, I'm

1684
01:23:12,600 --> 01:23:14,360
Speaker 3: gonna watch that, and when I can get to it,

1685
01:23:14,360 --> 01:23:16,200
Speaker 3: I'm gonna work at it and I'm gonna do everything

1686
01:23:17,240 --> 01:23:19,080
Speaker 3: six nine shooting and dribble like that.

1687
01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:27,920
Speaker 2: His mobility, his mobility, skill level and like he's he's

1688
01:23:28,240 --> 01:23:31,920
Speaker 2: one of the all all time greats. And sometimes we

1689
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:33,680
Speaker 2: get to a stage of careers like you know, like

1690
01:23:33,720 --> 01:23:36,360
Speaker 2: I almost want to work out and like if a

1691
01:23:36,479 --> 01:23:39,160
Speaker 2: game breaks out anywhere, he's down a place like he

1692
01:23:39,479 --> 01:23:41,400
Speaker 2: like you know, like he loves the game of basketball

1693
01:23:41,520 --> 01:23:44,479
Speaker 2: in that pure way that if a game broke out

1694
01:23:44,560 --> 01:23:46,439
Speaker 2: and he had Tenny's on, He's gonna he might jump

1695
01:23:46,479 --> 01:23:49,880
Speaker 2: in no matter who's playing, right like I. And you know,

1696
01:23:49,960 --> 01:23:51,840
Speaker 2: you get more selective as you get older, I still

1697
01:23:51,840 --> 01:23:53,599
Speaker 2: feel like he just has that Jones in him.

1698
01:23:53,880 --> 01:23:56,360
Speaker 3: He like the dude that has a pair of hoop

1699
01:23:56,479 --> 01:24:00,760
Speaker 3: sneakers all the time. Oh wait, we've been waiting hold on.

1700
01:24:01,360 --> 01:24:03,439
Speaker 2: You know, by the way, if I had his game,

1701
01:24:03,479 --> 01:24:07,840
Speaker 2: I would too. I mean, you roll in any court

1702
01:24:07,920 --> 01:24:10,080
Speaker 2: and it's like service as usual.

1703
01:24:10,200 --> 01:24:15,960
Speaker 4: Right, you got a TNT hosting job, Like you're not

1704
01:24:16,080 --> 01:24:17,720
Speaker 4: a guy. You kind of laughing like you like me.

1705
01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:19,639
Speaker 4: You're not a camera microphone guy.

1706
01:24:19,640 --> 01:24:22,280
Speaker 2: All right here we are with cameras and microphones. But yeah,

1707
01:24:22,840 --> 01:24:27,640
Speaker 2: right though, So I I did like I didn't. I

1708
01:24:27,720 --> 01:24:30,760
Speaker 2: didn't set out to do it, and I got you know,

1709
01:24:30,800 --> 01:24:32,599
Speaker 2: I think everyone knows me now. I'm a huge soccer

1710
01:24:32,680 --> 01:24:34,960
Speaker 2: fan and I got approached last year from Bleacher Report

1711
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:37,960
Speaker 2: and TNT to cover the Champions League, which is the

1712
01:24:38,040 --> 01:24:40,560
Speaker 2: best soccer competition all the best teams in Europe and

1713
01:24:41,240 --> 01:24:43,759
Speaker 2: and so for me as a big fan, I was like, Okay,

1714
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:46,080
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do like TV, but this is

1715
01:24:46,120 --> 01:24:48,080
Speaker 2: something I gotta try and I can't pass it up

1716
01:24:48,080 --> 01:24:50,519
Speaker 2: because this is what I do anyways, like geek out

1717
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:54,120
Speaker 2: on soccer all day long. So I tried it, loved it,

1718
01:24:54,280 --> 01:24:56,280
Speaker 2: and so this year is year two and I'm gonna

1719
01:24:56,320 --> 01:24:59,800
Speaker 2: do I'm gonna do some segments for Tuesday Night NBA

1720
01:25:00,200 --> 01:25:05,080
Speaker 2: tnc since it's in the same family, and you know,

1721
01:25:05,120 --> 01:25:06,760
Speaker 2: I'm going to do a little bit and just see

1722
01:25:06,760 --> 01:25:09,640
Speaker 2: how it goes and hopefully grow and build something that

1723
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:14,000
Speaker 2: is exciting, is entertaining the people. And but you know,

1724
01:25:14,240 --> 01:25:16,360
Speaker 2: it really started from a place where I didn't want

1725
01:25:16,400 --> 01:25:18,280
Speaker 2: to do it, and then I got the opportunity to

1726
01:25:18,360 --> 01:25:20,479
Speaker 2: do soccer as a basketball player, Like you don't get

1727
01:25:20,520 --> 01:25:24,599
Speaker 2: those opportunities, So I took it. And here I am

1728
01:25:24,680 --> 01:25:26,840
Speaker 2: now creeping into the NBA and we'll see how it goes.

1729
01:25:26,960 --> 01:25:30,680
Speaker 2: Hopefully I'm okay at it, and then we'll go from there.

1730
01:25:30,800 --> 01:25:33,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how it was with this is like you

1731
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:35,400
Speaker 1: got to do something that makes you uncomfortable, never know

1732
01:25:35,520 --> 01:25:36,160
Speaker 1: you might like it.

1733
01:25:36,520 --> 01:25:39,400
Speaker 2: You don't see him n comforta like you're running this event.

1734
01:25:39,560 --> 01:25:41,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is my second season, so I'm kind of

1735
01:25:41,920 --> 01:25:42,679
Speaker 1: feeling myself.

1736
01:25:42,960 --> 01:25:49,240
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, I'm impressed. I'm impressed, so.

1737
01:25:50,400 --> 01:25:54,200
Speaker 1: You feel me. Live on location, we out here my

1738
01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:57,400
Speaker 1: main man, Steve. He brought us sense of his residence

1739
01:25:57,479 --> 01:25:58,320
Speaker 1: into his home.

1740
01:25:59,000 --> 01:26:01,800
Speaker 3: We want to show our appreciation, bro, We appreciate you

1741
01:26:01,960 --> 01:26:04,800
Speaker 3: for coming through, letting you know, letting us rock with you.

1742
01:26:04,880 --> 01:26:09,400
Speaker 3: This is the special edition Knuckleheads vs. O P bottle.

1743
01:26:09,439 --> 01:26:12,160
Speaker 3: They got the little you know, the little logo on

1744
01:26:12,280 --> 01:26:20,000
Speaker 3: the sage them. You know what I'm saying, So you

1745
01:26:20,080 --> 01:26:21,800
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, man, We appreciate you.

1746
01:26:21,960 --> 01:26:26,559
Speaker 1: Man. This was this was major. Yes see see.

1747
01:26:26,880 --> 01:26:31,360
Speaker 2: Come back season. H You know what I'm saying, Yack.

1748
01:26:35,520 --> 01:26:39,879
Speaker 3: Taller Knucklehead fans, much love, much love. We appreciate the support.

1749
01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:43,600
Speaker 3: Don't forget to check us out and subscribe and download

1750
01:26:43,760 --> 01:26:48,160
Speaker 3: on Apple, iTunes or Spotify wherever you check out podcasts

1751
01:26:48,240 --> 01:26:52,320
Speaker 3: wherever they're available. We out you get at us download,

1752
01:26:52,439 --> 01:26:55,679
Speaker 3: continue to support. We got some real heat coming back.

1753
01:27:03,800 --> 01:27:06,400
Speaker 1: The players Tribute dot Com