Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers podcast network
Speaker 1: search seventy Sixers podcast wherever you get your pods. This
Speaker 1: week's edition of Tom's Talks is with Temple University men's
Speaker 1: basketball coach Aaron McKee, a homegrown Philadelphia's success story coach.
Speaker 1: McKee enters his second year as the Owl's head coach.
Speaker 1: In this podcast, he speaks about the powerful and peaceful
Speaker 1: protest march he took part in on the weekend of
Speaker 1: June seventh in Philadelphia, his fourteen year NBA career, the
Speaker 1: Sixers run to the two thousand and one NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: his longtime friendship in bond with Hall of Famer Alan Iverson,
Speaker 1: and all the tremendous coaches he played for. Here's this
Speaker 1: week's episode with coach Aaron McKee. Welcome to another edition
Speaker 1: of Tom's Talks. And I so often say this phrase
Speaker 1: like this is one of my favorites, but this is
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorites. Were joined by Philadelphia
Speaker 1: basketball legend Aaron McKee, the current head coach at Temple University. Coach,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us and taking the time.
Speaker 1: This is a time of change, turbulent times in our city,
Speaker 1: for our country, a time to uplift one another and
Speaker 1: as you're right to try to work towards social justice
Speaker 1: and racial equality. I know you went to the march
Speaker 1: last weekend with your son. Tell me about your experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was great, and I think the one
Speaker 1: thing that stood out the most to me, it's how
Speaker 1: I took the train down, you know, because they blocked
Speaker 1: off a lot of the passageways to get in. And
Speaker 1: when I got downtown, it was early quiet when I
Speaker 1: got off the train, and when I made my way
Speaker 1: around to like fifteenth in market, there was all the
Speaker 1: protesters just to see if people. I mean thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people just out there walking in
Speaker 1: protests and rallying, and they were all in Unison. It
Speaker 1: was almost like it was just one voice. There was
Speaker 1: so many tens of thousands of people out there, and
Speaker 1: it was almost like it was was one voice, and
Speaker 1: we just we just walked right into that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I looked at my son who was along with me,
Speaker 1: my son Jared, and I looked at one of my players,
Speaker 1: JP Mormon, who was with me, and just to look
Speaker 1: on their face was just like wow. I mean we're
Speaker 1: we're sitting smack dab in the middle of history. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, you certainly don't want to be in a
Speaker 1: situation where you're fighting for equality and equal equal rights
Speaker 1: and policy chains and all of those different things, but
Speaker 1: that's where we're at in society right now. And and
Speaker 1: just to have my son along and one of my
Speaker 1: players along it. You know, those guys are the future
Speaker 1: and we're fighting for them to have a better future,
Speaker 1: along with a lot of others. Right and speaking of
Speaker 1: your players, like your guys are eighteen to twenty two
Speaker 1: years old, as you say, as coaches, you're trying to
Speaker 1: uplift them and give them an opportunity to achieve their dreams.
Speaker 1: That's obviously a huge responsibility, and especially in this time.
Speaker 1: What do you say to your guys, Well, just keep
Speaker 1: your eyes and ears open. There's a lot of information
Speaker 1: that's being put out there. We know right from wrong.
Speaker 1: And as I told my guys, I'm in full support
Speaker 1: of of what they want to do. But carefully think
Speaker 1: out what you want to do, because before you hit
Speaker 1: that sin button on whatever message you want to get
Speaker 1: out there, let's make sure it's the right message. And
Speaker 1: if you want to march. You want to protest, you
Speaker 1: want to be a part of a rally. I said,
Speaker 1: I'll support you, but we're not getting getting involved. I'm
Speaker 1: not supporting you getting involved with the other nonsense that
Speaker 1: goes along with protests. Coach, You're an amazing story, an
Speaker 1: amazing Philadelphia story, having grown up in difficult conditions in
Speaker 1: North Philadelphia and yet achieving publicly championship at Gratz, graduating,
Speaker 1: then going to Temple and being a star graduating Temple,
Speaker 1: fourteen year NBA career, ten years, and as assistant coach
Speaker 1: both in college and the NBA, and now obviously the
Speaker 1: coach that you're alma mater. Speak to that experience and
Speaker 1: how it can be a guide an example for others.
Speaker 1: I hope. I hope I'm a symbol of inspiration, you know,
Speaker 1: for a lot of kids, not just kids here in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: but just to cast across the country that you know,
Speaker 1: you certainly can achieve your dreams. But I also like
Speaker 1: to look at have kids look at it from a
Speaker 1: perspective outside of sports, because so often, you know, and
Speaker 1: they're in a city. You know, kids just feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, their worth is in entertainment, whether it's you know, singing, dancing, football, basketball,
Speaker 1: and they have so much more value than just believing
Speaker 1: that that's all they're capable of. So I hope my
Speaker 1: story stands as a as a source of inspiration for
Speaker 1: those kids and and helping them believe that they can
Speaker 1: achieve achieve their dreams. Now, with all of that being
Speaker 1: that is, you know, I like to believe I did
Speaker 1: things the right way, and I listened to the right
Speaker 1: people and and just try to do it the right way,
Speaker 1: and you know, and it worked out for me. You know,
Speaker 1: it worked out for me. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of ups and downs, you know, some highs and
Speaker 1: lows throughout the way, but you know, again, it's one
Speaker 1: of those things, you know, for kids like me to
Speaker 1: come from Philadelphia, to go to Simon Grad's High school,
Speaker 1: UM to attend Temple University as a student athlete, to
Speaker 1: play for the seventy six years, it's a hometown kid
Speaker 1: that's living a dream. It's a dream come true for me,
Speaker 1: I would imagine. I know you've talked about coach Ellerb,
Speaker 1: but to coach to play for Coach Ellerb and then
Speaker 1: John Cheney, that had to be formative for you a
Speaker 1: very I mean, they all of those guys and you
Speaker 1: can you can throw John Hartnett Um and there as well,
Speaker 1: who was a youth developer um, you know, for me
Speaker 1: growing up and a lot of other kids that went
Speaker 1: on to be successful in basketball, and even in all
Speaker 1: of those guys were pretty much on the same page
Speaker 1: in terms of raising kids and saying, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: we got to make sure we're taking care of business
Speaker 1: in the classroom, and we got to make sure we're
Speaker 1: taking care of business on the basketball court by you know,
Speaker 1: by working hard and being coachable. You know, those guys
Speaker 1: were great, and they also gave you the life lesson.
Speaker 1: So everybody was on the same space, on the same
Speaker 1: page and speaking the same language. And so many of
Speaker 1: the guys that I was around growing up were able
Speaker 1: to go on and be successful because of guys like
Speaker 1: John Hernett, because of guys like Bill Ellerby at Simon Gradson,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously because of the legendary head coach at Temple,
Speaker 1: John Chaney. And I would imagine some of that is
Speaker 1: part of your pitch, your spiel, if you will give
Speaker 1: me a ninety second version of what you say to
Speaker 1: young players that you'd like to bring to Philadelphia, or
Speaker 1: stay in Philadelphia to play for your program, the fifth
Speaker 1: winning this college basketball program you play there. Tell me
Speaker 1: what you tell these young young guys for starters when
Speaker 1: you talk about the city. If you want great culture,
Speaker 1: you want great food, You want to come to a
Speaker 1: city that's that's vibrant and full of life. You know,
Speaker 1: Temple University in Philadelphia is the place in terms of
Speaker 1: our basketball culture. Again, you just said it. We wanted
Speaker 1: the fifth winning his programs in basketball history, so you
Speaker 1: know we stand at the top with a lot of giants.
Speaker 1: You know, our culture is such of hard work, toughness, commitment,
Speaker 1: and consistency. And I think that identifies Temple University and
Speaker 1: I think it also identified the city of Philadelphia. When
Speaker 1: you started your NBA career, you went out to Portland,
Speaker 1: you were the seventeenth pick of the Blazers. What was that?
Speaker 1: That must have been a huge culture change going all
Speaker 1: the way out to the Pacific Northwest and playing for PJ.
Speaker 1: Carlium at that time. Yeah, I was, I guess I
Speaker 1: was in between on it. I was just excited, static about,
Speaker 1: you know, getting drafted and being a part of that
Speaker 1: and being able to live out my dreams and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm reaching the apex of basketball. You know, I'm playing
Speaker 1: at that I get the opportunity to play at the
Speaker 1: highest level. But being a kid from the inner city
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia and you go from the inner city of
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to Portland, Oregon, which is you know, their polar
Speaker 1: opposite from one another. And I'm kicking and screaming, you know,
Speaker 1: at the airport, why do I have to go? And
Speaker 1: it ended up being one of the greatest experiences of
Speaker 1: my life. It was a basketball town and you know,
Speaker 1: the Trailblazers at that time was the only show in town.
Speaker 1: The fans were great, the city was beautiful, and it
Speaker 1: was just it just opened my eyes to there's more
Speaker 1: outside of Philadelphia, and I had a wonderful experience out there.
Speaker 1: That first year you were still in the old calle
Speaker 1: cem Clyde Drexler was your teammate. The next year you
Speaker 1: moved into the Rose Garden. Buck Williams, you know, I
Speaker 1: would imagine he had a huge influence early in your career.
Speaker 1: Talk about those guys, because not only do you played
Speaker 1: with great players. We're gonna into this, but you had
Speaker 1: something as we mentioned earlier, great coaches, but what was
Speaker 1: that like those first couple of years with the Plazers.
Speaker 1: It was it was great because you know, I go
Speaker 1: from a college kid now here it is a year earlier.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here just watching these guys on television, and
Speaker 1: you know, you move out there and here it is
Speaker 1: now and I'm out here playing pick up all with
Speaker 1: these guys are like, why am I playing pick up?
Speaker 1: All that? And this was before the season started with
Speaker 1: Client Drexler, Ross Strickland and Buck Williams and Jerome Kersey
Speaker 1: and Cliff Robinson, all these guys. I just watched them
Speaker 1: playing the NBA Finals against you know, Michael Jordans. And
Speaker 1: what I realized right away is the majority of the
Speaker 1: guys that was on the team were married and kids
Speaker 1: and you know all of those things. So they were
Speaker 1: established with their lives. They wasn't guys that was like,
Speaker 1: hey man, let's go, let's go to dinner and hang out.
Speaker 1: You know, they having dinner at home with their families
Speaker 1: and all of that. And it's so different now as
Speaker 1: I watched the NBA fall, It's so different down because
Speaker 1: the league has gotten much younger and so guys are
Speaker 1: not married and have kids, you know, that are fifteen
Speaker 1: sixteen years old when younger guys come into the NBA.
Speaker 1: But those guys were, you know, sitting on a plane
Speaker 1: reading newspapers and talking about current events and all those
Speaker 1: different things. And I just had a good time with
Speaker 1: them and just learned a lot just from watching them,
Speaker 1: and in some of my subtle ways that I have
Speaker 1: about me, I get it from being in Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: some of the people that I've been around, but I
Speaker 1: also studied some of the players that I've been around too,
Speaker 1: and just try to emulate how those guys carry themselves. Right.
Speaker 1: So you go from Portland to Detroit, but not long
Speaker 1: with the Pistons. Doug Collins was the coach there. He
Speaker 1: ends up losing his job. Alvin Gentry gets the job,
Speaker 1: but eventually come to Philadelphia, and that was where the
Speaker 1: main chunk of your NBA career took place. And as
Speaker 1: you said, being from here but then going to play
Speaker 1: for the Sixers, that must have been a dream come true.
Speaker 1: It was, and again it was it was one of
Speaker 1: those things where you know, our Detroit team, he was
Speaker 1: pretty good, we won fifty plus games the previous year,
Speaker 1: and then, um, you know, I get the news that
Speaker 1: I'm going to you know, Philadelphia, which was a struggling
Speaker 1: team at that time, and you know, you were were
Speaker 1: I was hearing things about you know, Alan Iris, and
Speaker 1: I was hearing things about you know, Derek Coleman, and
Speaker 1: just like, man, this is just not a good situation
Speaker 1: that I want to be in at the point of
Speaker 1: my career that I'm at. And uh, you know, right
Speaker 1: away when I got on the team and I got there,
Speaker 1: I realized it was something different about those guys, was
Speaker 1: something different about you know, how we how we approach things,
Speaker 1: and just getting the opportunity to sit down with Alan,
Speaker 1: getting the opportunity to sit down with Derek Coleman and
Speaker 1: and talk to those guys. Man, they were totally different
Speaker 1: from you know, how people describe them, and they were
Speaker 1: more people person than than anything else. And so you
Speaker 1: know it's you go act to that saying, never judge
Speaker 1: a book by his cover, And that's one of the
Speaker 1: things I did with those guys before I got there.
Speaker 1: Until this day, those guys end up being you know,
Speaker 1: two of my better friends in life. And Alan credits
Speaker 1: you so much. He spoke real highly of you all
Speaker 1: the time, but especially at that Hall of fame speech
Speaker 1: in Springfield. You guys created a bond and you were
Speaker 1: able to guide him a little bit based on being
Speaker 1: a little bit older and having more experiences speak to
Speaker 1: that relationship. I mean, you know, time you watched our
Speaker 1: relationship grow. You was around us a lot, and you know,
Speaker 1: we we're similar in a lot of ways, but different.
Speaker 1: You know, we both like having a good time and
Speaker 1: laughing and cracking jokes, because that's what we did a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, with each other. You obviously saw a lot
Speaker 1: of the card games, and we were sitting back, sit
Speaker 1: on the plane if it was a five hour trip,
Speaker 1: were playing cars five hours sometimes, yeah. And you know
Speaker 1: on a bus ride to the games too, and front games,
Speaker 1: we sat next to each other in the back. So
Speaker 1: we spend an incredible amount of time with each other.
Speaker 1: We would go to well get on the road, we
Speaker 1: would go to the movies and stuff together, and just
Speaker 1: we had an opportunity to get to know each other
Speaker 1: on a personal level and just sitting and talking about
Speaker 1: life and family and just the ups and downs and
Speaker 1: the struggles that you know, we all go through. I mean,
Speaker 1: his struggles were a lot more than than mine. And
Speaker 1: you know, he had a lot more on his plate
Speaker 1: than I did because of you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: it was because of you know, who he was, and
Speaker 1: you know, but you know, he was just a wonderful
Speaker 1: guy and just you know, he has a heart of goal.
Speaker 1: You know, he's always looking out for other people. And
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the stories don't get told
Speaker 1: about him in his heart. But it's okay as long
Speaker 1: as he knows who he is and how he operates,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, and that's the one thing I've
Speaker 1: always respected about him. And as I said, never changed,
Speaker 1: don't change. You know who you are because of a
Speaker 1: position that you have, and you know, it's just an
Speaker 1: incredible person man, and you know, really cool and you know,
Speaker 1: some things I agree with them and some things I
Speaker 1: didn't agree, and vice versus some things he agreed with
Speaker 1: me on and some things he didn't agree. But that's friendship,
Speaker 1: that's honesty, and you know, just having people around you
Speaker 1: that you that you trust. Basketball wise, you guys climbed
Speaker 1: into the playoffs, got knocked out two years in a
Speaker 1: row by Indiana, and then that third year your breakthrough.
Speaker 1: You beat the Pacers. Obviously the big series with Toronto
Speaker 1: beat Milwaukee in the Conference Finals, and it's actually nineteen
Speaker 1: years ago right now as we speak. It was the
Speaker 1: anniversary if you will have Game three back here in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: You guys were banged up, including yourself in the one
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, but talk a little bit about that in
Speaker 1: terms of taking the Lakers in that first game and
Speaker 1: that playoff run in the finals. In general, it was
Speaker 1: it was just great. It was just an awesome, awesome experience.
Speaker 1: Just I even I still myself and just say, wow,
Speaker 1: you know, I got a chance to play in the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals from my hometown team, Like, you know, how
Speaker 1: often does that happen to, you know, two people. I
Speaker 1: don't know how many guys, I'm sure as there's other
Speaker 1: guys that got that opportunity. We certainly wanted to win it,
Speaker 1: and going into that series, we felt we had a
Speaker 1: really good chance of doing so. But you know, we
Speaker 1: run up into a dynasty of Kobe and Shock and
Speaker 1: you know, their complimentary players were really really good. So
Speaker 1: they had all the components and they had it clicking
Speaker 1: and had it in high gear. But it was just
Speaker 1: an exciting time at least for me um in the
Speaker 1: city of Philadelphia, you know, with you know, our team
Speaker 1: and our push. Indiana was our nemesis, and we always
Speaker 1: felt we had to get through those guys, you know,
Speaker 1: the Reggie Miller era, and they were really good. They
Speaker 1: were well coached, you know, coach after coach and started
Speaker 1: with Larry Brown, and I think it was Larry Bird
Speaker 1: maybe stepped in, and then it was Rick Carlile and
Speaker 1: those guys were always, you know, pretty good, and they
Speaker 1: was our nemesis. Every time we ran up into those
Speaker 1: guys into the playoffs, they was knocking us out. And
Speaker 1: we felt like, you know that O one, that two
Speaker 1: thousand and oh one year was our year now, and
Speaker 1: they took us down. You know, they came in that
Speaker 1: first game and I believe they beat us at home,
Speaker 1: and you know, we looked around at each other like
Speaker 1: here we go again. But we said, hey, we got
Speaker 1: back to it. We got back in practice and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get these guys. Don't worry about it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be fine it. We got out there and we
Speaker 1: finally got past those guys, and that was that moment
Speaker 1: for us, like, hey, guys, we could do it. Everything
Speaker 1: we talked about in the summer, everything we talked about
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the year. It's starting to take
Speaker 1: shape for us. And then we had Toronto, that next series,
Speaker 1: which was an epic series for US with Vince and Ai,
Speaker 1: two superstars in the league that's really carrying the banner,
Speaker 1: helped carrying the banner for the NBA and promoting it.
Speaker 1: Those both of those guys had outstanding series and it
Speaker 1: came down to a last shot. You know, shot goes in,
Speaker 1: we might not even be here talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: having this conversation, but the shot doesn't go in, and
Speaker 1: we get a chance to advance to go on and
Speaker 1: play the Milwaukee Bucks, which was another really tough series.
Speaker 1: And the Bucks was really talented team led by Sam Cassell,
Speaker 1: Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson and Tim Thomas and you know,
Speaker 1: those guys up and down the line had some some talent,
Speaker 1: they had some depth, and we was able to scratching
Speaker 1: car our way through those guys and you know, met
Speaker 1: up with the Lakers in the final. You know, it
Speaker 1: was a pretty good series and it was it was close,
Speaker 1: but you know, those guys were able to edge us out.
Speaker 1: It was just just an awesome experience for me to
Speaker 1: be able to go through that and you know, be
Speaker 1: able to share that with family and friends and be
Speaker 1: able to bring that to the city of Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: share that with them. Although we didn't win it, but
Speaker 1: you know, we gave it our best. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that people loved about that team was the
Speaker 1: work ethic. And certainly now as a coach, you can
Speaker 1: share with your team, but the team was built around
Speaker 1: Alan obviously an MVP, and you were the sixth man
Speaker 1: of the Year, but everybody it was shared sacrifice. You
Speaker 1: talk about and Larry Brown preached this big the North
Speaker 1: Carolina way, playing the right way, but that's also how
Speaker 1: you grew up playing basketball, and that's what it takes
Speaker 1: to be a championship caliber team, right. I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: has to play for another not care about who gets
Speaker 1: the credit. And that's what you guys, that was emblematic
Speaker 1: of how you play. Talk about that. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to be your better teams or the selfless ones,
Speaker 1: and you have to understand your position. You have to
Speaker 1: understand your role because when you when you understand those things,
Speaker 1: I think it makes everybody better. You know, Alan was
Speaker 1: our guy, and you know he took some of the
Speaker 1: pressure off of us because of some of the things
Speaker 1: that he could do. We took some of the pressure
Speaker 1: off of him because of some of the things that
Speaker 1: we could do. And everybody identify their role and they
Speaker 1: were comfortable and doing that on and night in and
Speaker 1: night out bases. You know. Again, I talked to you
Speaker 1: earlier about going to dinner and going to the movies,
Speaker 1: and we would do those things together as a team.
Speaker 1: So we got really close, and we was a close
Speaker 1: knick group, and we four for one another and we
Speaker 1: had fun. I believe our practices were harder than than
Speaker 1: the games because we competed so hard in practice, and
Speaker 1: you know, we wanted to beat you know, we wanted
Speaker 1: to win, and and and it translated our practice habits
Speaker 1: translated to how we you know, we played in the games.
Speaker 1: And then after Philadelphia, in the collective bargaining agreement at
Speaker 1: that time, there was this amnesty clause and the Sixers
Speaker 1: exercised that and you end up going to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and you play with Kobe Bryant. You didn't play a
Speaker 1: whole lot of those two years, but playing with Phil
Speaker 1: Jackson as the coach, and specifically Kobe because now you're
Speaker 1: on his team, what was that like seeing him? You know,
Speaker 1: right there in the prime of his career, he was different.
Speaker 1: You know. He obviously had that drive to be great,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what drove him every day. Just
Speaker 1: like any other great that dominate their profession, there's something
Speaker 1: inside of them that says that they're different than everybody else,
Speaker 1: and they want to show you every day. There's no
Speaker 1: amount of money that you can put in front of
Speaker 1: those guys, or gifts or toys or whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it, that you could put in front of
Speaker 1: those guys that's going to motivate them. You know, some
Speaker 1: people are motivated by money, some people, you know, are
Speaker 1: motivated by success. Some people are motivated by being the
Speaker 1: best at what they do. And for me, he was
Speaker 1: motivated at being the best at you know, what he did,
Speaker 1: and that's playing the game of basketball. He wanted to
Speaker 1: surpass Michael Jordan's he wanted to get out of his
Speaker 1: shadow to some degree, and that's you know, it's always
Speaker 1: hard and it's always going to be a fight for
Speaker 1: the next up and coming player. You know, Lebron is
Speaker 1: dealing with that now. But Kobe was just so driven
Speaker 1: to be the best at what he what he'd do,
Speaker 1: and he did a really good job of it. And
Speaker 1: you know, he loved those moments, if it was the
Speaker 1: moment of getting the ball to him, laid in the
Speaker 1: games and him taking the last shot. He embraced those
Speaker 1: those challenges, where whereas you know, some guys don't want
Speaker 1: those moments, they shy away from it. But he was
Speaker 1: one who always who always embraced it. You know, he
Speaker 1: get a lot of flat for you know, maybe not
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes not being him a great teammate, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that what comes with greatnesses. You try to pull
Speaker 1: others along with you, and sometimes you don't say it,
Speaker 1: or you don't you don't do it right. I think
Speaker 1: the intentions were meant well, but some people got different
Speaker 1: ways of getting their you know, their point across. And
Speaker 1: you know he was successful at you know, winning championships
Speaker 1: and you know, helping other guys get championship rings, and
Speaker 1: you know, some people look at it like that, and
Speaker 1: I think over time he learned how to be a
Speaker 1: better teammate with helping guys and pulling him along. And
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm trying to say is his language
Speaker 1: got a little bit better and it helped other guys.
Speaker 1: And you saw that with a lot of the commentary
Speaker 1: that came out after his unfortunate, untimely passing, and that
Speaker 1: was a good that was a good take on that,
Speaker 1: you know, for guys to come out and say, hey man,
Speaker 1: he was a great teammate. He would always text me
Speaker 1: and call me and you know, give me confidence and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, because you know, he always got a
Speaker 1: bad rap along with Michael Jordans. But for anybody that's
Speaker 1: as successful as those guys, that's pretty much what you're
Speaker 1: going to hear about them because they're so driven and
Speaker 1: they want to win. That's the one thing that they
Speaker 1: want to do is win, and they want to pour
Speaker 1: others along with it. In a moment, coach McKee talks
Speaker 1: about the role his many coaches played in his development,
Speaker 1: both on and off the basketball court. In this time
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Speaker 1: visit novacare dot com. Now back to my conversation with
Speaker 1: coach Aaron McKee. You started a coaching career that was
Speaker 1: five years with the six years as an assistant and
Speaker 1: then five years with coach Dumpy at Temple and you
Speaker 1: really put in your time. What was that like crossing
Speaker 1: over and being a coach? It was great, I mean
Speaker 1: because for me, I was still on the ground. I
Speaker 1: was still you know, down there with the players and
Speaker 1: working them out and just talking to him, talking to
Speaker 1: them and really you you really get to peel the
Speaker 1: layers back and get to know those guys and just
Speaker 1: being down there with them and just trying to help them,
Speaker 1: especially the younger guys, help them through their process, help
Speaker 1: them through their struggles, help them through the success of
Speaker 1: basketball and life outside of basketball, all of those things.
Speaker 1: So it was great to be able to share because
Speaker 1: I had those experiences. It was great to be able
Speaker 1: to put my arms around some of the younger guys
Speaker 1: that I was around and be able to help them
Speaker 1: with their careers. And the goal for me was to
Speaker 1: get them to teach them how to work, but also
Speaker 1: teach them to have longevity. In the league, not want
Speaker 1: to come to the league and play for three or
Speaker 1: four years, but play as long as you want and
Speaker 1: then be able to walk away from the game. Now
Speaker 1: as a head coach, and again I know you're developing
Speaker 1: the relationships, but and you'll enter your second year coming
Speaker 1: up here, does the dynamic change where maybe you can't
Speaker 1: put your arm around a guy as much as maybe
Speaker 1: you would have as an assistant coach, where you were
Speaker 1: oftentimes the buffer and the guy, like you said, that's
Speaker 1: trying to help them along, get to know them a
Speaker 1: little bit. What's what's different about being a head coach
Speaker 1: from that side of things, Um, I would say nothing,
Speaker 1: Nothing really changes because you want to keep the lines
Speaker 1: of communication open that you know they are young kids.
Speaker 1: But I think you run into time constraints. You know
Speaker 1: you don't have it. There's not enough time in the
Speaker 1: world for you to spend with each guy as much
Speaker 1: as you would like. You give them, you know what
Speaker 1: they need, and always tell them my doors is open
Speaker 1: if you want to come in and you want to talk,
Speaker 1: and you know so I'm always available for those guys
Speaker 1: to come in and talk. It's just you have other
Speaker 1: obligations of it as a head coach, sometimes practice can
Speaker 1: be old. I can be running out the door to
Speaker 1: you know, get out on the road. Summertime, we out
Speaker 1: on the road, different things that we have. You know,
Speaker 1: I got four kids at home that that needs attention
Speaker 1: as well, So I'm they my guys know, I'm all
Speaker 1: always there for him anytime they want to talk or
Speaker 1: they want to you need to work through something. So
Speaker 1: it changes a little bit because as an assistant coach,
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's your your your aim is to
Speaker 1: spend as much time with those guys as possible. In
Speaker 1: the head coach, you're trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: you know, run a program and make sure you've got
Speaker 1: all the right pieces in place. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always there for my guys anytime they need me,
Speaker 1: I'm there for I know you still follow the NBA.
Speaker 1: What do you think of this whole restart beginning at
Speaker 1: the end of July in Orlando in a bubble, no fans.
Speaker 1: What do you think that's going to be? Like? Interesting
Speaker 1: to say the least. I think about the lockout year
Speaker 1: when guys were coming back and out of shape and
Speaker 1: just not ready to go. But it's what those guys
Speaker 1: want to do, at least some of them. They're excited
Speaker 1: about it. I think the fan base is excited about
Speaker 1: it just to kind of see because it's you know,
Speaker 1: you don't realize how how important a role that sports
Speaker 1: plays in your life and like anything else, until it's
Speaker 1: taken away from you. And people just feel like it's
Speaker 1: become you know, American culture where you have to have it.
Speaker 1: You're so used to it, your days are centered around it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to work, I get off for four,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have dinner, five, the game come on at
Speaker 1: seven o'clock and I'm sit down with my family. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sit down with my kids and we're gonna watch
Speaker 1: the game. And now you don't have those things, and
Speaker 1: people are starving for it, and you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's a shot of you know, positivity that can be
Speaker 1: shot into America's arm if the guys can come out
Speaker 1: and perform well and you know, make it exciting for
Speaker 1: the you know, for the fan base. I think it'd
Speaker 1: be great. As a player. I mean, part of my
Speaker 1: thought is that you know, you guys compete in practice
Speaker 1: and just the modeling model, competitive juice will bring it
Speaker 1: out that's one thing, but it also would be less
Speaker 1: than sincere if you didn't think the fans had something
Speaker 1: to do than in terms of giving you that extra
Speaker 1: adrenaline and drive. What about that aspect from your respect,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that each player would look at it
Speaker 1: no different than playing pickup on the gym and it's
Speaker 1: just you and your buddies in there. You know, that's
Speaker 1: that's one thing, but it's nothing like running out of
Speaker 1: the tunnel and you have twenty thousand streaming fans or
Speaker 1: somebody able to react to a great play on the
Speaker 1: offensive end or the defensive end, and you won't. You're
Speaker 1: not going to have that. So you have to use
Speaker 1: your creativity and your imagination as you did as a child.
Speaker 1: So it'll be it'll be interesting to see. It'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to watch it televised, you know, with no fans there.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm I'm watching the baseball game and it's
Speaker 1: just like no reaction to it, you know whatsoever. But
Speaker 1: you know, they find a way, and you know, as
Speaker 1: good as these players are on the professional level, they'll
Speaker 1: certainly make it exciting for you. Last thought, we're gonna
Speaker 1: circle back to the coaches because again, you're the guys
Speaker 1: you played for and alongside in terms of like even
Speaker 1: when Maurice was an assistant. But Larry Brown, Phil Jockson, Cheney,
Speaker 1: coach Carlisi, as I mentioned your high school coach, did
Speaker 1: you pick and get a little something from each one
Speaker 1: of those guys as you went along? I like to
Speaker 1: you know, all of those guys were great in their
Speaker 1: own right, and I don't like to short change nobody.
Speaker 1: So it gets difficult because sometimes you leave people out right.
Speaker 1: I just left out right right. I could go back
Speaker 1: to my middle school coach, you know. But you know,
Speaker 1: coach l had me at an early age and just
Speaker 1: taught me the fundamentals of the game, which was something
Speaker 1: that carried me throughout my life, throughout my career. You know,
Speaker 1: Larry Brown, you know, was able to reinforce that on
Speaker 1: a professional letl you know, Coach Cheney was able to
Speaker 1: drive me to to be something in life. You know,
Speaker 1: John Harnett was, you know, he was great and challenged
Speaker 1: me every day in the gym. And you know, Coach
Speaker 1: Dumphy had his way of going about things as as
Speaker 1: a coach, and he was a subtle man with his temperament,
Speaker 1: but he had a way of getting his point his
Speaker 1: point across. So everybody's had a huge influence in my
Speaker 1: life in terms of my coaching and even even how
Speaker 1: I deal with my player's name, my beat. Well, Aaron,
Speaker 1: I thank you so much. I wish you the best.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time and root for Temple and your
Speaker 1: basketball team going forward. Thanks for having me, Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the
Speaker 1: seventy six Ers podcast network. Check for new episodes every weekend.