WEBVTT - Coach K's Ways 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.640 The Dream Team Tapes season two. Kobe Lebron and the 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.360 Redeem Team is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:26.960 with I Heart Radio Diversion Podcasts. The players selected for 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.520 the honor of representing the United States in the two 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:36.560 thousand and eight Beijing Olympic Games are Kobe Bryant. We 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:38.440 look forward to this for a while, you know, to 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.440 be in this position now here we don't represent our 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:47.440 country venus especially special Lebron James. We look for an 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.640 opportunity of the the weekend on Athlama being the best in 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.720 the world. I guess the Redeem Team is as it 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.000 is right, We're the best team in the world. We're 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.280 the best team in the world. We put fast football 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:20.480 America basketball wheels beat, which is that time? Welcome to 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.759 episode five of Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team. I'm 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.640 J Dande and we're calling this episode Coach K's ways 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:29.800 to look at the strategies and the tactics that Mike 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.800 Shook used not so much in the games, not the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.600 XS and oose, but it's about his approach to leading 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.080 this team and getting the most from this group. It's 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.279 about identity and community, but First, I have a quick 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.280 quiz from my co host Jack McCallum. Jack, can you 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.559 spell Sewsky without hitting your keyboard and googling or any 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.400 other cheating like that, You just spell for me k 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.080 R g y z e w s k I no 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.320 prom at all? Right, And that might be the easiest 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.680 difficult name for me A spell as well, And it's 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.440 it speaks to just how prevalent he's been for the 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:09.200 last four decades that if you've covered basketball professional or college, 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.840 you've written that name so many times that it comes easily. 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.800 It shouldn't make sense. The fact that we all know 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:21.280 how to correctly pronounce Schefski, which looks nothing like the 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.919 way you say it, really speaks to his imprint in 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.560 his stamp on the world of basketball. And Jack, now 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.560 that you've passed through spelling tests, I want to know 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:32.960 if you can give us a brief rundown of the 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.600 role of the coach in USA basketball, because you were 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.760 there from the first time NBA players came into international basketball, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.000 and how the role of the coach has changed from 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.959 Chuck Daily leading the dream team to when Suzewski was 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.320 called upon to coach this two thousand eighteen that's a 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.240 good question. Mike's name, by the way, always reminded me 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.640 of the character in the Superman comics. Mr mix Plexis, 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.840 did you ever did you ever read that if you 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.160 had to get him to spell his name backwards to 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.160 go back into the third dimension or wherever the hell 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.560 he was from. But anyway, the coaching role j and 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.799 I think it's gonna speak to what happened in two 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.760 thousand five when they finally decided we gotta get a program, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.640 you know, we gotta get like a thing with one 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.959 coach and and a multi year commitment from players, because 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.960 before that it was very Catches, catch Ken after Chuck Daily, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.000 and they gave the job, as they should have, to 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.200 Lenny Wilkins, who was a loyal assistant on the ninety 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.480 two team. Lenny had a bunch of guys. As Charles 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.840 Barkley put it, the knucklehead factor was very high on 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.400 that team. I'm sure Lenny was just glad to get 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.120 the hell out of Atlanta with a gold medal two 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.920 thousand The coach a little bit forgotten we talked about 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.080 these Olympics was Rudy tom Janovic. And I'm gonna tell 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.120 you why he coached this team. J And it's a 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:56.000 quick quiz for you. He coached the world championship team. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.680 I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars for every starter 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.360 you can name on that team. We don't want to 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.880 take too much time, but go ahead, Carter. This is 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:11.160 the World championship team. Here you go, Kevin Garnett, not 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:19.480 even close. Here it is Jimmy Oliver, Jason Sasser, Michael 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:26.000 not Hershey Hawkins, Michael Hawkins, David not Leon Wood, and 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:32.359 Gerard not Bernard not, Albert not bb King. That was 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.080 a team that Rudy coach to a bronze medal in 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:41.119 the World Championships. They were having labor problems at the time, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.440 you know, it was before the lockout. They couldn't get 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.080 anybody to play, and that's the team they put on 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.760 the court for the bronze medal, and Rudy coached that team. 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:50.880 Believe it or not, it's looked upon as like a 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.320 really great moment in USA basketball that they managed to 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.680 win the bronze. So Rudy got the job in two 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.560 thousand and then the two thousand two team we talked 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.240 about that a little bit. Coach by George Carl had 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.600 a sorry sixth place finish two thousand three was an anomaly. 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.919 They put this great team together. That was was the 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:17.159 Olympic qualifying team, who starters were Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.320 Duncan was on that team. Iverson was on that team, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.599 Jermaine O'Neill, Ray Allen, and Vince Carter off the bench, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.279 and Larry Brown coached that team. And that was largely 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.320 the reason Jay that he coached the two thousand four 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.720 Olympic team. And I will have to admit that covering 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.880 those games in Puerto Rico in two thousand three, myself 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.800 and a couple others had this idea, Hey, let's get 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.400 a program, let's have one coach, let's make it kind 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.320 of organized. And the guy, I said, Larry Brown, would 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.440 be perfect. And then and then he had all this 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.400 criticism for the way they coached in two thousand four 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.279 when they got the bronze and Athens. And that led 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.000 us to what we talked about last week, the higher 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.679 of Jerry Colangelo and his move to talk to hire 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.280 the guy we're going to talk about today, and what 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.200 struck me when we were interviewing Seki and also Jim Beheim, 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.040 who was routine deem redeem team assistant coach. We're gonna 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.800 hear a lot from him in this episode. But when 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.600 you look at those guys, just seeing them on our screens, 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.520 is that these guys are institutions, right has been a dupe. 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.520 Be has been at Syracuse since I started watching basketball 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.159 in the early nineteen eighties. I don't know if you 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.600 have memories of those programs before those guys were at 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.640 the Helm. I'm sure you do, But to me, they're 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:40.280 inseparable Duke basketball and Mike Schowski, Syracuse basketball and Jim Beheim. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.960 And there's something reassuring about that. I'll tell you what, Jay, 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.880 here's how scary it is. I remember Jim as a 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.240 player at Syracuse. I mean he was a very good player, 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.960 and Dave Byng was there then, and I think Jim 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.360 graduated obviously I should have looked us up, I think 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.640 in nineteen sixty six. So we're now in the year 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.440 twenty twenty one. There was about a half a year 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.520 when Jim was not at Syracuse University. Went there as 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.200 a player, got his master's degree there. I can imagine 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:13.440 he did a hell of a lot of studying to 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.560 get that became the freshman coach, the j V coach 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.320 got the varsity job, has never been absent from the 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.480 bench since then. And like you said, you know, look, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.160 there's been some criticism of Jim recently, and there's some 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.160 things that I wish he wouldn't say. But if you're 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.440 talking about a guy that has shown loyalty to an institution, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.400 the two guys you would bring up would be Jim 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.840 Beheim number one, and obviously Mike Showsky number two. And 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.280 like I said, there's something reassuring about that type of 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.600 loyalty longevity, especially now when it seems like nothing was 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.520 the same like it was at the start of last 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.040 year or two years ago or five years ago. And 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.240 these two guys have been in the same places for 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.800 forty plus years. And what was interesting, though, is that 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.200 Sky didn't lean into that when he coached USA basket Ball, 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.800 when he stepped away from the hallowed halls of Duke. 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.280 And at that time, as he was coaching his two 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.360 thousand and eight team, he'd already made ten trips to 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.120 the Final four, he'd won three n C Double A championships, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.120 so he knew that gave him a little bit of 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.080 credibility with the NBA players, but maybe not necessarily cash 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.120 with them. And again, since this is about identity and community, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.640 he decided that, if anything, he was going to be 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:25.920 more like the guy from the Polish neighborhood on the 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.680 northwest side of Chicago and the guy who played basketball 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.360 under Bob Knight in the Army Academy at West Point. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.200 And it reminded me of a story that Dan Bickley 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:39.040 did for the Chicago Suntimes in December. I was just 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.400 starting there, just starting off my career. Bickley was working there. Bickley, 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.320 of course was the author as well of Return of 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.200 the Gold, which is the book about the two thousand 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.040 eight Olympic team that really proved useful in our research 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.920 for this podcast. But the time he wrote an article 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.320 about how She's SFETI was this guy from Quartz Street, 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.520 the Polish neighborhood on the north weside of Chicago. His 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.120 buddies had nicknames like Twam's and Mo and Porky. He 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.480 gatting fights playing basketball against teams from outside the neighborhood. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.280 And in the first meeting that Mike Sasefski had with 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.199 this group that would be the two thousand eight Olympic team. 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.520 That's the neighborhood that Ski went back to. And he 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.640 starts talking the way that he's used to talking, but 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.640 it's not the way that they were used to hearing him. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.600 I know, I probably have to follow them out, but 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.880 they don't expect me to say, motherfucker all right, and 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.000 you know when you're talking, just come on your motherfucking like, 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.320 we gotta get this gold medal. And all of a sudden, 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.600 I wasn't this uh guy from Duke in West Point, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.960 you know, it's more of the guy from the inner 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.679 city of Chicago. And one of the people that uh 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.000 it definitely made an impression on was Jason Kidd, the 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.160 veteran leader of the redeem team. First meeting, we got 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.600 to hear coach k Couss right and I could believe it. 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.160 I was like, oh, like, this is the same guy 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.560 that's on TV, and like, I think he said the 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.640 whole the tone, the whole mood kind of like relaxed 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.880 and everybody was, you know, not on edge now. And 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.880 Coach again, he hit it out of the park when 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.920 he first cussed, and I couldn't believe it. I was like, 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.640 just got cusses and they go He's he's got a 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.040 filthy mouth, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be fun. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.120 So another unexpected move was that Shefsky contradicted the Godfather 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.880 Jerry Colangelo, and he didn't quite take sides against the family, 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.880 but still Collegelo told the team one thing, and then 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.040 Sky immediately told them the opposite. He talked to him, 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.560 he said, and leave your egos at the door. And 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:43.840 I got up and I said, you know, the only 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:48.680 time I'm gonna probably disagree with Jerry, but don't leave 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.360 your he goes at the door. Lebron, you be Lebron Kobe. 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.800 You know. All I know is the Gasols are gonna 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.200 be the Gasols. Geno believe will leave be even better 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.240 if you guys, aren't you We're not gonna win. We 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.600 are not gonna win. And for most of them, it 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.840 was the first real test of Coach K and something 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.440 I found really interesting. But Jay, there was something Beheim 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.480 told us that the fact that Coach K wasn't an 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.040 NBA coach and didn't have history with most of these 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.000 guys was a big plus because that was the polar 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.280 opposite when they picked the first coach who was going 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.160 to lead NBA stars into the Olympics. The idea was, oh, 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.920 it can't be a college coach, you know, it's got 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.280 to be an NBA coach. And here's what Beheim had 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.240 to say. But having a college coach, you have no friction. 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.800 I don't care what pro coach takes it. He said 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:44.480 something bad about somebody or somebody or something during the 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.240 course of his career that somebody won two or three 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.720 NBA players, they're gonna say, I don't like that guy. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.040 So we had none of that. You know, we had 0:11:55.080 --> 0:12:00.679 no issue. And I think that in in only that, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.280 But I remember Lebron coming to me and when I 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.440 said something about Zecia's coach, don'tor you tell me something. 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.600 I'm gonna listen to you. You've been doing this a 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.920 long time. And so I think they were really listen, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.079 would listen to whatever we said. And we were college coaches. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.600 We had never beaten them in a tough game or 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.560 said something about him. So I think that was good. 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.280 I think that's important. I think that's a I think 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.560 that's a benefit. So that doesn't mean that no players 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.079 had a history with coach k So, for example, Chris 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.920 Paul and Chris Boss had gone up against him in 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.240 their days playing at the in the A. C. C. 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.240 Bosh went to Georgia Tech, and here's his memories of 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.560 seeing Coach K and the sidelines in those games. I 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.560 only had one year in a sec, but I mean 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:51.480 he always had that intense intenseness, intense nature a boy himself. 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:56.640 So those couple of times on um, you know, playing duke, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:58.679 I mean you could hear him. He's right, you know, 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.080 right there, he's yelling at his guys, encouraging them to 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.280 play harder, play better, and they are and man, we're 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.520 down twenty now. So when those things are happening, you're 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.320 super competitive. You know, you tend not to like that person. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:15.920 But I came into the situation, of course, he's you know, 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.960 Coach K, and you know I came into the situation 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.719 with an open mind. And and um, we all had 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.040 to find ourselves in over six and o seven, But 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.640 by two thousand and eight, I think we all had 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.000 a pretty good uh rhythm to what was going on 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.320 and how important it was for everybody. Of course, and 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.720 also if you played in college as long as a 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.280 guy like Darren Williams did, and you had success going 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.520 through the n C Double A Tournament. Sooner or later, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.800 you're gonna run across Coach K during the n c 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.320 Double A Tournament. I think Coach K was perfect for us. 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.520 You know, he was I feel like the right person 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.280 at that at that time, I felt like he was 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.040 even though he was a college guy. All the NBA 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.040 guys respected him, you know, his body of work and 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.199 then you know his work ethic and you could just 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.400 see the passion he he had for the country and 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.960 for representing the USA basketball And so I thought I 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:07.600 thought he was perfect. And he did such a great 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.000 job of of you know, talking to guys, motivating guys. 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.559 I mean, you really have to motivate us. Honestly, we 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.360 were pretty motivated as it was, you know, once we 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.200 made that commitment. But you know, he just was. He 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.440 just did some such a great job of coaching and 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.000 motivating and bringing us together. And um, you know, it 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:26.800 was really awesome to play for him, even though I 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.560 hated him up to that point. Why would that be 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.120 what what would you connect? You just do? Yeah, they 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.200 beat us. Uh, my sophomore year in the n ct 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.880 A tournament, got got some really questionable calls. So clearly 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.280 he was able to get over it. And Kate did 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.600 have one player that he coached in college on the team, 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.800 Carlos Boozer, and I was curious how close coach k 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.360 had to having another Dukey on the squad, and that 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.040 was Kobe Bryant. Now there's some alternate timelines where Kobe 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.160 goes to college instead of straight to the NBA from 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.760 high school. We've always assumed that he went to college 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.520 that be Duke. Someone asked him on Twitter which school 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.160 he would have chosen. He replied Duke. But in he 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.720 also did a charity fundraising interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:11.800 which he said he would have gone to North Carolina. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.760 So who knows how it would have gone, which which 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.200 alternate timeline. Of course we know what ultimately happened. But 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.320 Jack you around in Philadelphia, and Rashid Wallace had gone 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.800 from Philly to Carolina a couple of years before. Now 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.040 I'm wondering what was the speculation in Philadelphia about what Kobe, 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.280 who went to high school at Lower Merion on the 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.200 main line, what Kobe was gonna do once it was 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.120 time to move on from high school. Well, the one 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.760 thing good about Kobe then that I don't remember, and 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.800 even did some research on it. He never played footsie 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.440 like a couple other guys with Oh, I'm gonna stay 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.880 in Philly. You know, everybody praised the Philly coaches. John 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.200 Cheney's a genius. We love that guy, Fran Dunfie, you know, 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.080 Phil Mark Tully, all these real Philly guys. And then 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:02.440 nobody went to school there. Rashid Rashid Wallace left, Pooh 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.480 Richardson left, Bo Kimball left, Hank Gathers left, Scoop Jardine, 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.360 Eddie Griffin. There was a couple of guys that stayed, Uh, 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.560 Kyle Lowry, Aaron McKee, Uh, Lionel Simmons actually, who was 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.920 a really great player with sal Kobe didn't do that. 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.120 But as I recall it, Jay, he did do a 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.720 little bit of foot see I I had He had 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:28.920 said at one point that North Carolina stopped recruiting me. Well, 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:32.920 what he meant was Dean Smith said to him, Dean 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.040 wouldn't talk like this, but he ain't coming to college. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:40.080 You know, he's going to the NBA. And I think 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.240 he kept the dance on a little bit longer with 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.840 with Mike, with Shoski. But you know, and it's funny, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.600 you know, because of all the kids that jumped into 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.840 college that that didn't go to college, excuse me, Kobe 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.320 would have been, you know, really perfect college guy, you 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.640 know what I mean. He was a really smart kid. 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.320 He would have enjoyed the classes he could have gone 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.040 in there and you know, spoken Italian to some people, 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.359 but really in the you know, from the beginning, his 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.199 m O was I'm going to go to the NBA, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.040 and I think that was clear to most people. Well, 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.520 here's what coach Ka told us about his recruitment or 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.840 lack there of, of Kobe. You know, I never thought 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.520 he would go to college. We recruited him, but it 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.000 no one recruited him to any deep level because you knew, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.320 you know, like I never saw Lebron play in high school. 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.520 But when I saw Kobe play, He's the best high 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.919 school player I've ever seen. And when he walked into 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.720 a gym, he walked in like Jordan's at a high 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:49.000 school level. Like the place stopped, you know, like he 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.679 not only could play the role during a game, he 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.960 played the role before and after the game. He looked 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.960 that good, he leave, he was that good and he 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:06.680 was that gud but I knew he was never gonna come. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.080 So of course, when Kobe did make his announcement, here's 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.320 what he had to say. No, I have decided to 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.320 skip college and take about towns to the NBA and Jack. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.320 I wonder what that Coach k Kobe relationship would have 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:21.800 been like if Kobe had gone to Duke, and he 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.800 would have arrived on campus with that natural teenage rebellion 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.000 and and Coach k would have been the authority figure. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.560 And it feels like there would have been an inevitable 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.000 class just like Kobe had with Phil Jackson that we 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.680 detailed in the second episode of this series. But instead 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:39.399 they don't collaborate until they get together on Team USA, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.880 and maybe they were even peers at that point. Yeah, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.640 sort of. I can't imagine if he would have gone 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.920 to college, Kobe would have been a one year guy 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.480 and then talking to us. You know, he he got 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.240 his lesson about dealing with the pros when he was 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.639 an assistant on the Dream Team back in ninety two, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.040 when he was all eager, Hey, what should I do? 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:00.760 What should I do? Coach? What should I do? Chuck? 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.879 Tell me what to do? You know, him and p J. 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.280 Car Lesimo are really excited, and Chuck looks at them 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.560 and goes learn to ignore, meaning don't look at everything. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.840 You know, Barkley is gonna screw around and throw the 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.199 ball at a wall, or he's not gonna, you know, 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.479 run hard in every drill, you know take you know, 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.920 just don't have to notice everything like you do with Duke, 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.840 and Showski even admitted that even after that experience when 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.520 he go went back to his team, it changed them 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.480 a little bit. But you can't be the same guy 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.879 coaching college that you are in the pros. And one 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.600 of the great things we found out Jay was how 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.679 good coach K was at dealing with pros. You know, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.080 nobody had one bad thing to say. And these were 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.400 the biggest stars in the game on that Redeem team. Absolutely, 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.560 and uh Jim Beehi, I've talked about that with us, 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.639 about the difference in Coach K the college coach and 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.480 coach K coach and the Redeem team. The key with 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.520 Mike is that he is different in college. What he 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.439 does in college and what he did with those guys. 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.320 I mean, he was like a pro coach. He's a 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:15.240 master psychologist master. It really the mental aspect of coaching, 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:20.480 getting the players to contribute, getting them to show that 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.679 they're part of the that they got we're saying in 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:28.640 what we're doing, uh, and in getting them to accept 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.160 their roles. And they were good. The NBA players were great. 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.760 You're listening to Kobe Lebron and the redeem Team. We'll 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:42.800 be back in a minute. So one thing that had 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.760 to have helped was that coach k wasn't acting like 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.560 the coach of Duke, and he was obsessed and i'd 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:53.160 say even repressed with coaching USA basketball. And we talked 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.359 to him. I was amazed at the details that he 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.480 remembered from his time with that team, and we'll hear 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:59.919 several of them over the course of this podcast series. 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:02.960 Also the emotions that reservice, how he was getting choked 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.119 up at times telling us about some of the moments 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.639 that he shared with this group. And it's not like 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:09.680 he was tired of Duke and that he was going 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:11.840 through the motions. I mean, after this two thousand and 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.040 eight experience, he won two more national championship at Duke 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.359 and he sort of got with the times and started 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.719 recruiting these one and done players. So it wasn't like 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.600 he was finished with Duke. But those championships might even 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:26.680 be more impressive than the earlier ones, right, because he's 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:28.960 older and there was a bigger generation gap of the players. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.720 And I'm wondering perhaps this experience helped him connect with 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.240 the new generation or new generations of players from this 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.239 this Olympic odyssey that he went on. But I just 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.360 got the feeling that these Olympic gold medal teams, remember 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.120 he coached in in twelve and sixteen as well, they 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.080 just meant something more to him. And Jack, did you 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:49.760 notice that when he talked to us, he was wearing 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.720 a USA Basketball shirt and not a Duke shirt. Oh yeah, 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:54.840 he probably made it. He had just come from practice. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.360 I think he probably did one of the quick change artists, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.840 you know. Okay, but you know it isn't hard j 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:04.240 for him to get into that mode. He goes way 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:09.000 back with USA Basketball. He was an assistant to Bob 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.520 Knight on the infamous nineteen seventy nine Puerto Rico Pan 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.639 American game when uh, when coach Knight put a Puerto 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:19.879 Rican policeman in a in a trash can. So he 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:24.119 goes way back and he always wanted his guys to play. 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.919 You know, Christian Latner was one of those guys. As 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.159 much of a pain in the neck as Christian could be. 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:31.720