Speaker 1: All my life, the grinding all my life sacrifice hustle
Speaker 1: back price one a slice, got the broner dice to
Speaker 1: swap all my life. I've been grinding all my life,
Speaker 1: all my life, then grinding all my life sacrifice, hustle
Speaker 1: back price one a slice, got the brona dice to
Speaker 1: swathe all my life. I've been grinding in all my life. Hello,
Speaker 1: welcome to another additional club Sha Shay, I am your
Speaker 1: whole shedding Sharp also the proprietor club Sha Shake. The
Speaker 1: guy that's stopping by for a conversation. No drink today,
Speaker 1: but he will lead us in devotional service and he
Speaker 1: will definitely give us the benediction. He's a seventeen year
Speaker 1: NBA bet an NBA All Star, nineteen eighty seven Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year, fourth all time and career assist, and
Speaker 1: he's a former head coach of the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson, Mark, how you doing? I'm doing well, man,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me the one thing I want I
Speaker 1: wanna get before you told me how you do it,
Speaker 1: but I want to know this, how do you Because
Speaker 1: people ask me this when I say things on air
Speaker 1: that's catchy. How did you come up with the catchphrase, Mama,
Speaker 1: there goes that man hand down, man down? Shall we
Speaker 1: have this dance? How do you in the moment, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's now and you can't come up with those phrases. Well,
Speaker 1: I can attest to the fact that you can relate
Speaker 1: to it because it all started in competition. It starts
Speaker 1: in the streets, in the playground at the park. It
Speaker 1: starts in practice. When I make it to the league.
Speaker 1: You stumble on the lines just going at you your teammates,
Speaker 1: and practice every single day, playing one on one, two
Speaker 1: on two, three on three, five on five would have
Speaker 1: you just coming up with great catchphrases. And I've been
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to have a couple that have stuck. Did
Speaker 1: you know at the time that you were saying it
Speaker 1: that it would stick like it has stuck. That's a
Speaker 1: great question, I would say. No. I would say the
Speaker 1: people just embrace it, and all of a sudden it
Speaker 1: catches fire. There's ones that I don't get credit for
Speaker 1: that that started. So it just happens, and then I
Speaker 1: continue to sit on it. And I've been fortunate to
Speaker 1: work with great people that have allow me to take
Speaker 1: advantage of it. Right, So Mark Jackson is away from
Speaker 1: the NBA. What do you do in your off season?
Speaker 1: What do you do to relax? Do you go back
Speaker 1: and watch tape? Look at games? Is okay? I said
Speaker 1: this this, I could have said that, how do you
Speaker 1: How does Mark Jackson get better? Well? I relax first
Speaker 1: and foremost because of a long season. But the way
Speaker 1: you get better is I don't watch a lot of
Speaker 1: film on myself. Okay. What I do is the same
Speaker 1: thing I've done as a kid growing up, wanting to
Speaker 1: be in television, wanting to be an announcer, coach a player.
Speaker 1: I watch film, and when I watch film, I watched
Speaker 1: Shannon shop in this thing. Every single day. I watched
Speaker 1: the great announces in every sport, right, and I watch
Speaker 1: things that they do exceptionally well, and quite honestly, I
Speaker 1: watched some things that they that I think that they
Speaker 1: could do better, and I try to implement it into
Speaker 1: my game. So it's a constant period of growth watching
Speaker 1: the greats in every single sports, especially the ones that
Speaker 1: I enjoy. I think you might bring and Jeff Van
Speaker 1: Gundy is as good as it gets at what you
Speaker 1: guys do. When they put you guys together, did you
Speaker 1: realize that you were gonna have the chemistry and you
Speaker 1: were gonna have and you were gonna beat what you
Speaker 1: were Well, thank you for the compliment, and I would
Speaker 1: I would say, the one thing you want in those situations,
Speaker 1: and you've been around TV for so long is chemistry. Yes,
Speaker 1: where everybody has one agenda, right, And when you're talking
Speaker 1: about Mike Green and Jeff Van Gundy, we've known each other,
Speaker 1: I would say thirty years minimum, and uh, we are friends.
Speaker 1: And what you see during the course of a telecast
Speaker 1: is the same thing you would see during the course
Speaker 1: of going to dinner with us. We are friends, We
Speaker 1: care about each other. We have one agenda, which is
Speaker 1: making each other look exceptionally well. And I take great
Speaker 1: pride and I love those guys. They are absolutely the
Speaker 1: best in the business. And we compliment one another exceptionally well.
Speaker 1: How do you because I think you and Jeff do
Speaker 1: a great job of playing off each other. I mean,
Speaker 1: he'll say, you know you you're the player, and you're like, nah,
Speaker 1: that's not a I've been in the NBA, that's not
Speaker 1: a fiul and he's like, yeah, but that's not the
Speaker 1: way they call it. Now. How do you guys balance
Speaker 1: that fine line. Well, Mike does a great job in
Speaker 1: my opinion, when you look at uh, Ernie Johnson, when
Speaker 1: you look at Magic Johnson, to me, those are the
Speaker 1: and Mike Green the three best point guards they ever
Speaker 1: play the game. And what what what Ernie does with
Speaker 1: T and T and the cast of guys and he has,
Speaker 1: they're they're great because of Ernie. Yeah, he gives you layups,
Speaker 1: ain't no three points give you and he knows also
Speaker 1: when the slam on the brakes and we need to
Speaker 1: get back to business. And Mike Green does the same
Speaker 1: exact thing with us, so he gives us enough room
Speaker 1: and then it's like, okay, guys, let's get back to it.
Speaker 1: But there's never a time when we look at each
Speaker 1: other like you tried to play me on TV. Right,
Speaker 1: you know you're run on right, right, you know we
Speaker 1: understand and we embrace it to the core. Jeff and
Speaker 1: I are the same, but we have different ways of
Speaker 1: getting a certain things, but we we we we have
Speaker 1: total respect for one another. So it's it's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun and and we afterwards whether whether I get
Speaker 1: over on him or you get over on me, and
Speaker 1: it's nothing personal. Let's go back to the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks finally get it done. Yannis was sensational
Speaker 1: going into that series. How did you think the series
Speaker 1: was going to play out? And did it play out
Speaker 1: like you thought it would? No, I wish you would have.
Speaker 1: I thought the Phoenix Suns were gonna win because they
Speaker 1: had all the momentum right, they were playing with great confidence.
Speaker 1: They truly accepted and embraced the role from from top
Speaker 1: to bottom, and and they were the hot team. No
Speaker 1: disrespect to the Milwaukee Bucks. They deserved it. But you
Speaker 1: gotta pick one. And I was wrong in that situation,
Speaker 1: but Chris Paul was playing great basketball. I thought it
Speaker 1: might affect them, uh not having them early on in
Speaker 1: the series in the seat in the series, but once
Speaker 1: they began to play well and get great play from
Speaker 1: Campaigne off the bench, I thought it would be a
Speaker 1: difference maker. But give Jannis a lot of credits, and
Speaker 1: give that team a lot of credits. They really they
Speaker 1: really fought back. U didn't hold the head down and
Speaker 1: h follow their leader, and he was brilliant. When you
Speaker 1: when when I look at Phoenix and if you look
Speaker 1: at what teams have been able to do, teams that
Speaker 1: have knocked the buckside of the playoffs, they built what
Speaker 1: they seek called the wall, and it's basically like, we're
Speaker 1: gonna play. We're not gonna let Yannis kill us in
Speaker 1: the paint. Are you surprised that Monty Williams took their
Speaker 1: approach that my big guy DeAndre Aiden can handle Yannis
Speaker 1: one on one. It seemed foolish to me. When you
Speaker 1: look at Toronto, you look at Miami, you look at
Speaker 1: the teams that have beaten them in the playoffs, They've
Speaker 1: had a defense of how they were going to play Yannis.
Speaker 1: It seemed like Phoenix says, look, we played how we
Speaker 1: play and we're gonna get it done. But Monty Williams
Speaker 1: is an outstanding basketball coach and even more so and
Speaker 1: even better, even even better person who who hit all
Speaker 1: the right buttons and pushed all the right buttons on
Speaker 1: the way to to to go into the finals. And
Speaker 1: and I just think that one decision effected the series
Speaker 1: right the way to beat Unt and the Bucks you
Speaker 1: have to build a wall, right. He's that dominant of
Speaker 1: a player, and if you don't want to build a wall,
Speaker 1: you have to have that exceptional individual defensive stopper that
Speaker 1: does a great job of making him work for everything.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna stop him, but you're gonna make him work, right,
Speaker 1: And and DeAndre Aden, as great as a defender is,
Speaker 1: is asking too much to defend one of the best,
Speaker 1: if not the best player in basketball. And Yannis, especially
Speaker 1: where he was playing, his numbers was incredible the series,
Speaker 1: the way he performed was incredible. I think it was
Speaker 1: a tall task to ask your big band to do
Speaker 1: it individually. I think looking back and we all as coaches,
Speaker 1: as players, we look back and want to make better
Speaker 1: decisions and probably would do something different, right, That's one
Speaker 1: thing that probably they would. He was exceptional, and I
Speaker 1: think part of the reason was the defense that was
Speaker 1: played against him. Yeah, because when you mark when I
Speaker 1: look at it, and I saw game one, and I
Speaker 1: look at how non aggressive Yannis was, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: hold on, he only got this many shots, but he
Speaker 1: didn't miss bury many. Seemed like he was just testing
Speaker 1: that knee out. Oh my knee's fine. And then you
Speaker 1: look at the next two games, I was like, they
Speaker 1: might be in trouble if they don't come with a
Speaker 1: better playing Yeah, you have to make him even going forward.
Speaker 1: There's no surprise. If I'm be honest, I'm sitting at
Speaker 1: home saying they're gonna make me shoot jumpers and they're
Speaker 1: gonna build a wall. That's everybody's strategy. You don't have
Speaker 1: to be a genius to do that right. And you
Speaker 1: have to force him to beat you on your turns, reaches,
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots, and and he has to see two
Speaker 1: or three bodies in front of him at all times.
Speaker 1: He didn't see that. He got it going, he got downhill,
Speaker 1: and then he was a night man to defend. And
Speaker 1: because it seemed like the more confidence that he got,
Speaker 1: the better he shot free throws. A guy that would
Speaker 1: have been struggling shooting the free throw, now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he's seeing the ball go in, and now
Speaker 1: he goes with seventeen or nineteen and get game six. Well,
Speaker 1: to his credit, it's how hard he works, YEA. The
Speaker 1: people that are around him every single day testify to
Speaker 1: the fact of the amount of time he puts in
Speaker 1: every single day before, after practice, later on in the night.
Speaker 1: So he put himself in position to be successful, got
Speaker 1: a rhythm game, confidence, and wasn't afraid. You're talking about
Speaker 1: a guy that looked petrified when the crowd was counting
Speaker 1: one through fifteen or eighteen or whatever it was, and
Speaker 1: was afraid to get to the line, was afraid to
Speaker 1: get foul. All of a sudden, was embracing the contact
Speaker 1: and celebrated the fact that he went to the line,
Speaker 1: took deep breaths and knocked him down. Let's just say,
Speaker 1: for the sake of argument, Mark Jackson is the coach
Speaker 1: of the seventy six ers. I know you and Dark
Speaker 1: are good friends. How do you handle the Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: situation considering what has transpired since the last time they
Speaker 1: were on the court. They lose a Game seven, a
Speaker 1: very tough game seven. Okay, Doc said these words were misconstrued.
Speaker 1: It's just my thing is if I if you're the
Speaker 1: head coach and I'm your player, that i'm the player.
Speaker 1: And the reporter asked Mark Jackson, Mark, do you believe
Speaker 1: you can win a championship with with Shannon? The response absolutely.
Speaker 1: We didn't have a good series, we didn't have a
Speaker 1: good game. Give Atlanta credit. They played well. I don't
Speaker 1: believe Mark Jackson can say I don't know that and
Speaker 1: not think the player is going to take offense to
Speaker 1: that correct and doctors is an absolute you know, heck
Speaker 1: of a basketball coach, future Hall of Fame as a
Speaker 1: basketball coach did more things than I did as a coach,
Speaker 1: quite honestly, and deserves a lot of credit. And the
Speaker 1: thing you can do is own the fact that you
Speaker 1: know I made a mistake, right, I said the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: I absolutely believe that this guy Ben Simmons is a
Speaker 1: home run talent and he is a guy that can
Speaker 1: lead us to winning a championship. The question is I
Speaker 1: gotta do a better job, right, I mean, let's let's
Speaker 1: put it on you and then Ben. When Ben is asked,
Speaker 1: he puts it on himself and big ups the coach.
Speaker 1: So in that situation, I think the thing to do
Speaker 1: is to be quite honest, understand that individually, collectively we
Speaker 1: came up short, and we got to find a way
Speaker 1: moving forward to answer and respond to to the things
Speaker 1: that we felt short in doing, whether it be coaching,
Speaker 1: whether it be finishing at the rim, whether it be scoring,
Speaker 1: whether it be making free throws, whether it be our
Speaker 1: best players playing the best on both sides of the floor.
Speaker 1: But be honest, accept the challenge, embrace it, and look
Speaker 1: forward to what lies It's been reported that Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: has spoken with Doc Rivers, He's spoken with the front
Speaker 1: office in the seventy six and says, I do not
Speaker 1: want to be here. I think he took real offense
Speaker 1: last year with the Dreams Harden trade. His name came up.
Speaker 1: And you know how it is if a trade ever
Speaker 1: comes up and it comes out that somebody was in
Speaker 1: there and it doesn't he doesn't get traded. You got
Speaker 1: some bridges to me and Mark you you you gotta
Speaker 1: fix that, you do. But you also, if you told
Speaker 1: me I was involved in the trade discussion for Isaiah Thomas,
Speaker 1: I'm crazy. If I'm upset, you know, make the deal.
Speaker 1: You know. So if if you're Ben Simmons and you
Speaker 1: say we talked and the discussions about getting James Harden,
Speaker 1: understand who James Harden is, right? And if you're Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: I understand that I was in the middle of those discussions.
Speaker 1: Because in order to get a talent like James Harden,
Speaker 1: you gotta give up something, and the something is even
Speaker 1: joelingbid on me. If I'm Ben Simmons and I'd be
Speaker 1: realistic about it. Now. The other stuff I got a
Speaker 1: problem with when you say we can't win with him,
Speaker 1: that's totally different. But if I'm in discussions with trades
Speaker 1: involving James Harden, I understand that, and I'm wrong if
Speaker 1: I'm upset about it. But it seems like some some
Speaker 1: some some discussions have to be had because Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: is pretty set in his ways, understanding that he's been
Speaker 1: insulted as a franchise talent, and uh, you win in
Speaker 1: this league with talent, right, so you gotta find a
Speaker 1: way to either fix it or make sure when you
Speaker 1: do unload Ben Simmons in the trade, you have to
Speaker 1: get top notch challenged back, well, how does how does
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson make it right? Ben Simmons has already told
Speaker 1: you he doesn't want to be there. What was said
Speaker 1: was what was said. What Joel and Bean said that
Speaker 1: the momentum seemed to have shield we had a lay
Speaker 1: up and we end up getting one point out of
Speaker 1: the deal. They're gonna have to be some fences mendic
Speaker 1: in that situation, How does Mark Jackson go to Ben
Speaker 1: Simmonson say, let's have a conversation. See we would have
Speaker 1: met early on, right, because I made a mistake. If
Speaker 1: I'm doc ruvers. If you put me in that situation
Speaker 1: by making the initial comment and then joeln b makes
Speaker 1: the mistakes by pointing to one significant play and act
Speaker 1: like that is why we lost. We didn't mention it
Speaker 1: was across the board. It was a collective effort. Yes,
Speaker 1: the reason why we're in that position because because of
Speaker 1: us collectively. And the reason why we have fallen short
Speaker 1: is because of us collectively. So one thing I want
Speaker 1: to do is get us in together and let's talk
Speaker 1: about it. Let's talk about it. We're gonna do this thing.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna do it individually. I'm not gonna do
Speaker 1: it individually. The reason we're here is collectively. Let's embrace that.
Speaker 1: Let's own the mistakes we've made, and if there's a
Speaker 1: way that we can fix this thing. Because you only look,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there as a guy that played in the finals,
Speaker 1: have been in the playoffs a bunch of times, have
Speaker 1: been on some great teams that had the ability to win.
Speaker 1: But I'm not a championship player with championship jewelry. I've
Speaker 1: fallen short. If you are in a situation where you
Speaker 1: have home run talent and everything going for you, you
Speaker 1: have a realistic chance to win it all. Let's make
Speaker 1: sure we capitalize and take advantage of it, because we
Speaker 1: don't want to look back and say the foolishness that
Speaker 1: that that we thought was important really wasn't important at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. But how do everybody keeps
Speaker 1: saying what we could be can teach band Das and
Speaker 1: if he shoot, if he developed the three, dam the
Speaker 1: three ball. I think there's there's too much emphasis on
Speaker 1: the three ball. If I can get a good two
Speaker 1: point shot, if I can get a lay up, I
Speaker 1: get a ten foot why am I gonna rub behind
Speaker 1: the free throw line? What is it about being Because
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier about the work that Jannis is put in,
Speaker 1: and this is what I told people, It's hard for
Speaker 1: me to see a scenario mark where someone doesn't work
Speaker 1: at something and doesn't get incrementally better. He hasn't gotten
Speaker 1: better at shooting the basketball, why I'm not sure. If
Speaker 1: he hasn't gotten better in shooting the basketball, he's that's
Speaker 1: the reason. He's the one guy in the history of
Speaker 1: the game that we've seen that just won't won't shoot it.
Speaker 1: I would sell to him shoot the basketball right because
Speaker 1: we want to win the way we're gonna We are
Speaker 1: gonna win because you are an elite basketball player. You
Speaker 1: are a franchise talent. Shoot the basketball. You're not coming
Speaker 1: out of the game. Don't you worry about a thing.
Speaker 1: I want you to be aggressive. I want you to
Speaker 1: keep your foot on the gas pedal, because an aggressive
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons makes us ungoidable, makes us the favorite, and
Speaker 1: not just the Eastern Conference, but in all of basketball.
Speaker 1: He's too grade at everything else. You're talking about a
Speaker 1: guy the only thing you look at is bad free
Speaker 1: throw shooter and doesn't shoot the jump shot. Everything else
Speaker 1: he is elite at and I think it hard. It's
Speaker 1: kind of hard market if you're a basketball player, you
Speaker 1: jump shot in the free throw it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to do that. It is hard. But you look at
Speaker 1: his numbers, you look at the rebounds, the points to
Speaker 1: assist the elite defender. He is an exceptional basketball player.
Speaker 1: If I'm if I'm a team sitting around the league,
Speaker 1: one of the other twenty nine teams in this league,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make a deal to go get Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: because what you are talking about is a guy that
Speaker 1: you're nitpicking. I'm looking at an elite basketball talent that
Speaker 1: that you don't have to beg to get into the
Speaker 1: basketball arena. You don't have to beg the practice, you
Speaker 1: don't have to beg the play. Odd he is, He's
Speaker 1: a guy that really should be celebrated, and we are
Speaker 1: being awfully tough on him, deservedly sold to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: But there are things that he does at an elite
Speaker 1: level that we're overlooking. But you said he won't shoot.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between won't shoot and being afraid to shoot.
Speaker 1: If you can't swim, I can teach you out of
Speaker 1: twim if you're not afraid of the water. But if
Speaker 1: you're afraid of the water, ain't nothing I can do
Speaker 1: for you. You're right about that. I'm crazy enough to
Speaker 1: believe I've been blessed and fortunate in my life since
Speaker 1: I've been a kid. I have the ability to push
Speaker 1: your button. No matter who I meant, I would find
Speaker 1: that button and get him. He's not gonna be Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: This just to beat you don't need him to be
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. But he's a guy that he's too good
Speaker 1: in the summertime shooting the basketball. Yes, that he should
Speaker 1: not go from that to not shooting. I would tell
Speaker 1: him chase the grades the talent that he has. He's
Speaker 1: not playing against the guys in today's game. Right if
Speaker 1: he becomes a decent shooter and a guy that was
Speaker 1: willing to shoot, a willing shooter, he's chasing at all
Speaker 1: time great lists. When you look at the moves that
Speaker 1: have been made this offseason, which teams made some of
Speaker 1: the best move to put themselves in position to get
Speaker 1: you and compete and win that title. Off the top
Speaker 1: of my head, I look at the Brooklyn Nets and
Speaker 1: you get LaMarcus All just back healthy, thank God that
Speaker 1: he's okay and back on the floor. You go get
Speaker 1: a Paul millsap and the most important thing to me,
Speaker 1: well not the most you get Blake Griffin back, but
Speaker 1: the most important thing to me is you get Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: James Harden and Kyrie Irvan some rest so they come
Speaker 1: back healthy and hold that they're the favorite. I mean
Speaker 1: this justin they are the favorite. When you're talking about
Speaker 1: those three guys and how good they are, I love
Speaker 1: what the Lakers have done. People talking about gotten old.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, give me guys that
Speaker 1: are experienced that know how to get it done. And
Speaker 1: I'll make sure that I don't tax them come practice time,
Speaker 1: tax them in game situations, over putting an overload of
Speaker 1: work on them, and making sure that they are healthy
Speaker 1: and hold when it matters most, I'll let the chips
Speaker 1: fall where they may. If I'm the Lakers playing against anybody,
Speaker 1: have we ever seen three elite level offensive players like
Speaker 1: what brook It has with Katie, James Harden and Kyrie
Speaker 1: in their prime on one team at a given time. No?
Speaker 1: Is that a drict question? No, matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: don't cuss, but the heck no, No, I mean these
Speaker 1: are three guys that you can go get give the
Speaker 1: basketball too, and say make a play. I don't have
Speaker 1: to draw up anything individually. It will go get a shot.
Speaker 1: I'll make sure you get a quality shot every trip
Speaker 1: down the floor. Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kevin Durant. You
Speaker 1: cannot think of a trio that is as good as
Speaker 1: those guys on one team other than the Dream Team. Right.
Speaker 1: But no, No, when you mentioned you like Brooklyn, you
Speaker 1: like the Lakers. Kawai put Kawhi. Let's just say Kawai
Speaker 1: gets healthy and he plays, not history tells us that
Speaker 1: Kawai is a type of guy that makes sure he's
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. So I'm not totally sure that he's
Speaker 1: gonna come back and play the twenty twenty one. He
Speaker 1: probably won't be back until the following season. But after
Speaker 1: what you saw with the Clipper, do you like them
Speaker 1: moving forward? My problem with the Clippers is the culture.
Speaker 1: For some reason, they have all the talent in the
Speaker 1: world to be in the mix winning it all, but
Speaker 1: they have fallen short, and and and and when they
Speaker 1: have fallen short, and when adversity have set in, it's
Speaker 1: looking around. It's almost like they're trying to look who's
Speaker 1: fault it is, or what's the reason. They have everything
Speaker 1: it takes to win it all and be in the mix,
Speaker 1: and for some reason they've fallen short. I think they
Speaker 1: have to be committed individually and collectively. They have to
Speaker 1: make sure they have a culture where we understand the
Speaker 1: rules are different. I heard you talking about this. The
Speaker 1: rules are different for for superstar talent. Absolutely, but but
Speaker 1: but it can't be it can't be grossly different. You
Speaker 1: can't just be doing you and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden we throw the ball in the air and you
Speaker 1: out of no where. You're taking off your warm ups
Speaker 1: and you're ready, give me something and I'll work with you.
Speaker 1: But everybody's watching us, so it's important to make sure
Speaker 1: we're on one accord as a team, and and and
Speaker 1: and locked and loaded to chase this this championship ring.
Speaker 1: I told people. My college coach used to tell us,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna treat everybody fair, but I'm not gonna treat
Speaker 1: everybody the same. And what the really great players understood
Speaker 1: is that they don't abuse those privileges. Right. Understand that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get certain things that the other guys can't get.
Speaker 1: But if you become abusive of those privileges, those guys
Speaker 1: will resent you absolutely about And I don't think people
Speaker 1: understand that. They think, well, I'm the superstar, YadA YadA, YadA. No,
Speaker 1: you will make those other guys in that locker room,
Speaker 1: whether it's football, baseball, back, I don't care a sport
Speaker 1: if they feel you're abusing those privileges. And I heard you,
Speaker 1: you heard what I heard. Well, we don't leave until Kauhai.
Speaker 1: We don't practice till Kauai. We don't do this. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can't be the act I get it. Some days
Speaker 1: Kauhi might not want to practice. We cool. I'm good
Speaker 1: with that, but the hold up a whole plane, right,
Speaker 1: And some days, guess what, I gotta work with you also,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta use my smarts as a leader
Speaker 1: to take advantage of situation. Alan Ivason said, practice practice.
Speaker 1: He's one hundred percent right right. I played against Alan Avason.
Speaker 1: I know the the way he keeps his foot on
Speaker 1: the gas spital all game long. He needs the chill
Speaker 1: come practice time. But me, as a coach, guess what
Speaker 1: some of those days when when Alan says he can't practice,
Speaker 1: nobody practice, I'm gonna throw everybody a bone because it's
Speaker 1: not gonna just be he shut it down when he wants.
Speaker 1: I have to be smart enough to say, okay, nobody practice.
Speaker 1: Trut some of those guys like their stars even though
Speaker 1: they're not. Throw them a bone and make sure everybody
Speaker 1: understands what it takes to win. Mark, you are a shooter.
Speaker 1: You can shoot the basketball. You're a good free throw shooter.
Speaker 1: What some of the advice? Because Ben Simmons had the
Speaker 1: worst free throw percentage of the playoffs in NBA history
Speaker 1: thirty four percent, and you said he could it is stroke.
Speaker 1: It looks good. It's not like, you know, one hand
Speaker 1: is over the other and the ball is like his
Speaker 1: stroke looks good. How would you fix that? Shoot? Trust
Speaker 1: Trust the work you put in. If you come in
Speaker 1: and practice, and you come in after practice, and you
Speaker 1: come in late at night, and you come in an
Speaker 1: off season and you put the time in, trust the
Speaker 1: work you put in. And then guess what. Leave it
Speaker 1: to me that when they start hacking a Simmons or
Speaker 1: hacking of band, whatever you want to call down the
Speaker 1: stretch of a ball game, and I believe that you're
Speaker 1: hurting us and putting us a position lose a game,
Speaker 1: leave it to me to take you out. But I
Speaker 1: think you have to be able to go through the
Speaker 1: process of losing some games to allowing him to gain confidence,
Speaker 1: and then it's still a confidence in them. Right. I
Speaker 1: trust you, forget about what the media says, forget about
Speaker 1: what the fans say. I trust you because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, in order for us to win
Speaker 1: it all, I believe that you're gonna step up there
Speaker 1: and make big free throws. He's done it, right, he
Speaker 1: has absolutely done it, and he has the ability to
Speaker 1: do it. Mark. We've seen guys. You and I have
Speaker 1: no problem speaking in front of the public. I've seen
Speaker 1: guys that can speak. You and I were speaking speaking
Speaker 1: to carry it all, having a great time. But if
Speaker 1: somebody else gets in front of them, and somebody else
Speaker 1: here the or camera back up. So now I see
Speaker 1: him shooting in the gym. And you mentioned all that,
Speaker 1: but it's almost like, man, if I miss this, they're
Speaker 1: gonna boo if I miss this. Unlike yann Is, y'all
Speaker 1: dis missed air balls the three. That's what he does.
Speaker 1: He gets the ball again, coming right, shoots it again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he air balls a free throw. Johannis goes right back
Speaker 1: to the who filed me again, I'm going right back
Speaker 1: to the basket. Whereas being like you follow him, he
Speaker 1: misses a couple, He's like, nah, you go ahead and
Speaker 1: take that right and and I've witnessed that firsthand. And
Speaker 1: sometimes you need a good height man. Sometimes you need
Speaker 1: a guy and you're encouraging you, inspiring you, building you
Speaker 1: up and trusting me. And that could be the coach
Speaker 1: at times. But sometimes I showed the video, Okay, who
Speaker 1: who is encouraging this guy? Who's going up to the
Speaker 1: file line and speaking a word to inspire him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know who's doing that? Instead everybody's looking around and
Speaker 1: nervous and staying away from it. We need to start
Speaker 1: building each other up individually and collected. That's what the
Speaker 1: team is all about. And I don't see that, and
Speaker 1: it all of a sudden explodes. When when when we
Speaker 1: see down the stretch, all of a sudden is him
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand people doing And we know how Philadelphia
Speaker 1: fans bad. I saw the news report, they like hare's
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons leaving and there was a trash can't be
Speaker 1: floating down and the flood. I'm like, come on, you
Speaker 1: see the highly fold to come back and like feel
Speaker 1: comfortable right in the city. When y'all call a man
Speaker 1: a trash can he floating down the river? Absolutely? You
Speaker 1: know what I go, I show him Look at these
Speaker 1: numbers and how many guys are doing what you're doing? Right,
Speaker 1: Look at what you've done on the defensive. Man, we
Speaker 1: looked at the closing game trade young struggle, it's because
Speaker 1: of it's because of Ben Simmons in the way he
Speaker 1: disrupted them defensively. Right, how about showing that so there's
Speaker 1: a way to encourage him and sell them you're a
Speaker 1: bad man, and now go out there and act like it.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the Nets. Can the Nets win a championship
Speaker 1: minus one of the big three? Yes, you believe Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I mean those other two dudes. Whoever, the other two
Speaker 1: dudes are some serious problems that they create on a
Speaker 1: night in basis, So they have the ability every single time,
Speaker 1: every single time down the floor to get a quality
Speaker 1: look and they're fishing basketball players whatever, whatever two you
Speaker 1: want to leave me with, They absolutely have the ability
Speaker 1: because they have the ability to have the two best
Speaker 1: players in any series in basketball. I think he gonna
Speaker 1: need I think he need that tall guy that same foot.
Speaker 1: He got to be one of the two. He gottah.
Speaker 1: I agree with that, But they still have the ability
Speaker 1: to win. But if they have the seventh foot, they're
Speaker 1: the favorite. Yeah, Because I don't know if we've ever
Speaker 1: seen you've been around the game a lot longer than
Speaker 1: I have. I don't know if we've ever seen a
Speaker 1: team have three guys that on a given I can
Speaker 1: go get you fifty. No, And we used to us
Speaker 1: you could say that, but we really didn't mean you. Right,
Speaker 1: These three guys have the ability to go get it, legit,
Speaker 1: go get you every whenever they want. How does Russ
Speaker 1: fit in with the Lakers? We take Russ for granted.
Speaker 1: This guy is average a triple double. I don't know
Speaker 1: how many years, four out of five years, four out
Speaker 1: of five years. Okay, when we were younger and they
Speaker 1: said Oscar Robinson did, we was like it never happened again.
Speaker 1: It never happened again. I mean, I'll humbly submit. I
Speaker 1: was a guy that got a decent amount of triple doubles.
Speaker 1: But if you told me I had a chance to
Speaker 1: do it for a season, I'd be like, man, you
Speaker 1: must be crazy, You out of your mind. This kind
Speaker 1: of the effort that it takes, because now you gotta
Speaker 1: hustle to get rebound because the assist is because you
Speaker 1: can you depended on someone else. I think the hard part.
Speaker 1: If you're an NBA player and you play hard, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get the double digit point. I think points of
Speaker 1: the easy part. But when you got to chase that
Speaker 1: rebound as a six three guard, I would The only
Speaker 1: reason I would argue with you is because this guy
Speaker 1: came into the league not as a point guard. Right.
Speaker 1: It was a shocker for Oklahoma City to take him
Speaker 1: as high as they took him as a point guard,
Speaker 1: so give them credit. He I played with him, the
Speaker 1: late great Kobe Bryant at a camp in the night.
Speaker 1: We played in front of the kids, and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: was on my team and he came and got the ball.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, dude, you're the two. I'm the one, right,
Speaker 1: let me go. Let me make the decision to get
Speaker 1: you the basketball. But he is a legitimate point guard,
Speaker 1: So I think the hardest thing for him was to
Speaker 1: go get those ten assists every night. How many guys
Speaker 1: in the history of the game got ten assists that
Speaker 1: were true playment. He didn't come in that way. So
Speaker 1: the easy part for him to chase now rebounds And
Speaker 1: people say, well he chased down the rebounds, Well, go
Speaker 1: get me a guy to go get tim rebounds. I
Speaker 1: would chase down some rebounds. So this guy's greatness has
Speaker 1: been taken for granted, and he's gonna fit in because
Speaker 1: he's an elite talent at as a first ballot Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer. And I'm happy for him because he's gonna
Speaker 1: have a real chance playing with great talent to win more.
Speaker 1: Ad how does a D factor Because a D did
Speaker 1: not play last year like he played his first year
Speaker 1: in LA. Now. I don't know what transpired. Everybody knows
Speaker 1: it was a fast turnaround. The championship was over in
Speaker 1: October and you're playing again Christmas or whatever time that was,
Speaker 1: so you didn't have the normal rest period. And A
Speaker 1: D looked like didn't look like he did. How does
Speaker 1: a a D and this and Lebron and these guys,
Speaker 1: how did they come together and says, Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: contend for you. I'm a no excuse guy, and I
Speaker 1: understand the short turnaround, but everybody had a short turn
Speaker 1: exactly at the end of the day. What a D
Speaker 1: has to do is make sure and some of it's
Speaker 1: you know, he's gotten hurt, and he's a guy that
Speaker 1: has gotten hurt not just once, but several times throughout
Speaker 1: the cost of his career. He's got to stay healthy
Speaker 1: and that's that's the main thing. When he's healthy and
Speaker 1: hold he's an elite basketball player and does everything that
Speaker 1: put the team in position with it also the thing
Speaker 1: to me, the only thing I would look at with him,
Speaker 1: because when he's healthy, he's fine. He's dominant on the offenseman, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's dominated defensively, the ability to play one through five,
Speaker 1: that'll take care of itself. But the main thing for
Speaker 1: me is make sure that Anthony Davis is healthy. Mark,
Speaker 1: you played this game seventeen years. You've commentated for almost
Speaker 1: two decades when you watch Lebron, because I think people
Speaker 1: people like your home you little Lebron staying, Oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't notice that people said about you. Do we take
Speaker 1: Lebron for granted? Yes, yes we do. I mean I
Speaker 1: can remember playing for a team and Lebron was in
Speaker 1: high school and he was on TV. And I came
Speaker 1: into the locker room the next day and I said,
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna be special. It's like, no, this
Speaker 1: guy is gonna be hyped up and he's gonna fall
Speaker 1: short because they've given him everything. I'm like, no, No,
Speaker 1: did you watch the guy I saw last night on TV?
Speaker 1: He has no weaknesses in this game. Make a long
Speaker 1: story short. We go back, move forward all of these
Speaker 1: years later, and you look at his resume, all the
Speaker 1: things he's been able to accomplish individually and collectly, the
Speaker 1: different stops, the way he's made guys better, and and
Speaker 1: and the worst thing you can say about him is
Speaker 1: he got a hummerland and the decision? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: This guy is as good as it gets, and we
Speaker 1: truly take him for granted the same way we do
Speaker 1: all of our grades. But but but he's a guy
Speaker 1: that's done it the right way and continues to take
Speaker 1: pride and finishing the proper way. He should be celebrated
Speaker 1: and acknowledged. We truly do take him for granted. He's special.
Speaker 1: We've never because I think the thing is that we've
Speaker 1: never had a guy that's gonna gonna be top ten
Speaker 1: and assists and can possibly be the all time leading
Speaker 1: score in the NBA history. And when you mentioned great scores,
Speaker 1: Lebron James never comes up. You talk about Katie, you
Speaker 1: talk about hard and you talk about Kobe, you talk
Speaker 1: about MJ, you talk about Will. You don't talk about
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Harris, a guy that's on the cusp
Speaker 1: of being the all time leading score in the NBA history.
Speaker 1: Think about it. This guy is gonna be, if if
Speaker 1: he stays healthy, gonna be the leading scorer in NBA history. Right,
Speaker 1: And I'm a point guard that's a past first point
Speaker 1: guard that played seventeen years and this guy will one
Speaker 1: day pass me as an assist man. I would have
Speaker 1: been like, there's no way in the world. That's how
Speaker 1: great he is. And I'm not talking about me being great.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the one gift that I did have
Speaker 1: that couldn't be questioned with my ability to find guys.
Speaker 1: This guy will have done a better job than me
Speaker 1: and be the leading scorer in the history of the game.
Speaker 1: I mean he is, he is. He is an incredible
Speaker 1: basketball player. And it doesn't look like he's slowing down
Speaker 1: at all. When he's healthy. He is dominating as usual.
Speaker 1: Well why why isn't he appreciated a celebrated more. I
Speaker 1: think today we have the internet, and when you have
Speaker 1: the Internet that you have an Instagram, you have Twitter,
Speaker 1: you have people you know, just just everybody, the analysts,
Speaker 1: everybody of the coach, everybody. Now you can break down
Speaker 1: all analytics and all that to the to his purist
Speaker 1: form and nitpick. This guy is a special, all time great,
Speaker 1: not just basketball player, but athlete that we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And he's in discussion with anybody you ever want to mention.
Speaker 1: And I just think we take him for granted, and
Speaker 1: it's the easy thing to do to go on the
Speaker 1: other side and say, we've we've heard, we've heard Janni
Speaker 1: say that Lebron was the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Right we we we we've witnessed these guys give credit
Speaker 1: to Lebron. Why want everybody else? He is a special
Speaker 1: talent that will be in a discussion for anybody. That's
Speaker 1: the best I've ever played this game. And isn't a discussion.
Speaker 1: You played in an era where they beat the literally
Speaker 1: could beat the hell at you. And it was only
Speaker 1: a file. It wasn't no flagrant files. It wasn't nobody
Speaker 1: getting suspended. Why did so hard for errors to give
Speaker 1: different errors credit? It seems like people him your era
Speaker 1: refused to give the guys in today there. Oh he
Speaker 1: couldn't have played with us? No, no, no, you're right.
Speaker 1: But but don't you talk about me, because I know
Speaker 1: you hurt y'all football players. I know for me, I
Speaker 1: won't give credy Aaron Donald's great. These guys are great.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a different era. So it's hard to
Speaker 1: bring a guy here and put it there or there
Speaker 1: and bring it here. It is hard, and and and
Speaker 1: there's guys quite honestly, I'm not I don't you know
Speaker 1: subscribe to that this haters that you want to make
Speaker 1: it seem like you're days and we wouldn't have done this.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, there are certain
Speaker 1: guys that certainly would not be the same player in
Speaker 1: our day that they are today because the rules would
Speaker 1: affect them, right. And then there are certain guys that
Speaker 1: you can put them in today's game. You can put
Speaker 1: them in the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, the sixties,
Speaker 1: the fifties. Lebron James is Lebron James, no matter when
Speaker 1: he played right, guess what the great defenders that wanted
Speaker 1: to be physical and beat him up, we saw that.
Speaker 1: It ain't like It's not like the Detroit Pistons of
Speaker 1: Chauncey and Rip and and Rashid and Ben Wallace and Tayshawn.
Speaker 1: It's not like they didn't try to beat him up. Right,
Speaker 1: he got twenty something in the fourth quarter and close
Speaker 1: out of game attacking the rim, going into the paint.
Speaker 1: He is a special talent and there's special guys that
Speaker 1: still have the ability to get it done today and
Speaker 1: certainly would be giving us the business in my day
Speaker 1: What do you feel about the super teams? The thing
Speaker 1: that I hear now old Michael would have never joined
Speaker 1: Larry Ladd would have never joined Magic, this one of
Speaker 1: that one. It seems to me that they were always
Speaker 1: only a handful of team that could really compete. When
Speaker 1: you look at the eighties, it was the Lakers and
Speaker 1: the Lakers, the Celtics and the Sixers. That was in
Speaker 1: the eighties. Ain't nobody else telling you Houston went, Houston
Speaker 1: went twice, but it was mainly the Lakers in the Celtics, right,
Speaker 1: And nobody had a problem with that. Ain't nobody said,
Speaker 1: Oh man, the NBA watered down eye for two teams.
Speaker 1: But now it's like man, ain't nobody else got no chance.
Speaker 1: We had a video game called Lake Versus something. That's
Speaker 1: how dominant it was. Think about today, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: pick two teams and that's the name of the video games.
Speaker 1: You don't think of an individual player. It's it's just
Speaker 1: I haven't I have no problem with super teams. People
Speaker 1: are right that Magic wouldn't have joined Bird, and Bird
Speaker 1: wouldn't have joined Magic, and Michael would but they were loaded.
Speaker 1: When you look at Larry Bird, why should he go
Speaker 1: join somebody else. He's sitting there with Dennis Johnson, the
Speaker 1: late great Dennis Johnson, Hall of Famer, Danny Angel's an
Speaker 1: outstanding shooting guard. Who Kevin Dale, who's as good as
Speaker 1: it gets at the powerful pusent at Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Robert Parrish is the Hall of Fame, Bill Wallden on
Speaker 1: the beach. And then you look at magic. He got
Speaker 1: worthy Byron Scott, kareem Ac Green, Michael Tom These guys
Speaker 1: are loaded what we want to do. But I will
Speaker 1: say this, Lebron James changed the game and it doesn't
Speaker 1: get enough credit for that. He changed the game not
Speaker 1: only as a basketball player, but he changed the game
Speaker 1: as a businessman, and he he allowed guys to realize
Speaker 1: the power that there. I was on the team once.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna name the best player Patrick Ewing. But
Speaker 1: we got on the bus and Patrick Ewing said to
Speaker 1: the coach, you know, because because he had a car
Speaker 1: that he could drive after the game, So he said
Speaker 1: to the coach, I want to jump in the car.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna drive on the bus. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: game over it. The coach looked at Pat you and
Speaker 1: it said, big fella, I want you on the big bus.
Speaker 1: Pat came steaming sitting on the back of the bus.
Speaker 1: Didn't realize the you're not disrespecting this coach by getting
Speaker 1: in the car after the game and driving off. Pat
Speaker 1: stayed on the bus. He didn't realize the power that
Speaker 1: he had. Lebron James changed the game to for guys
Speaker 1: to understand the power that they have as businessmen and
Speaker 1: making the right decisions. So so Kevin Durant decides, I
Speaker 1: want to go to Golden State, It's all right. And
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant decides I want to leave Golden State and
Speaker 1: go to Brooklyn. It's all right. People realize it's it's
Speaker 1: their future, their legacy. They have to make the right decision.
Speaker 1: It seems to me that people are fine if the
Speaker 1: team put a super team together, like Resting Soul coach
Speaker 1: y'all back he put the Celtics together, the great Dared
Speaker 1: Wet he put the Lakers together. That's fine. But now
Speaker 1: a player as y'all shouldn't want to do that. But
Speaker 1: it's different these guys the AAU circuit, so everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 1: I don't played against you, man, you're cool, man, Hey,
Speaker 1: what you think we link up right, And so that's
Speaker 1: the way players are are approaching it now, and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's totally different. Like you're talking about au.
Speaker 1: When we got into the All Star Game locker room,
Speaker 1: are Summer League would have you, we wasn't hanging out.
Speaker 1: I wasn't hanging out with Mike, even though even though
Speaker 1: Mike good dude, and we've been around each other, I
Speaker 1: wasn't hanging out with him. I played with Patrick, you
Speaker 1: and when I got traded to the Pacers, I wasn't
Speaker 1: hanging out with Patrick. So y'all didn't go to dinner?
Speaker 1: What you come No, we didn't go to dinner. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm ready to hand you your head. And guess what.
Speaker 1: There's a side of me. Well, there's a whole side
Speaker 1: of me that that was wrong. It's my god, it's
Speaker 1: my brother. So so I appreciate what these guys are
Speaker 1: doing today because at the end of the day, we
Speaker 1: can go because the coaches and management was watching, or
Speaker 1: you went to eat with Pat, Oh, you ain't serious
Speaker 1: about this, so they put that in your mind. I
Speaker 1: can go to eat with Pat you and guess what,
Speaker 1: we can go eat right now? And then hour from now,
Speaker 1: after joking and eating before we could go play one
Speaker 1: on one. I know you're gonna try to give me
Speaker 1: the business, and I'm gonna try to do the same
Speaker 1: thing to you, and then we can go to dinner
Speaker 1: the next day. That was stripped away from us because
Speaker 1: of the way that they instilled it to us that
Speaker 1: that's not how you, but that's not how what they
Speaker 1: did with Mike Mike was playing golf with guys the
Speaker 1: day before the game, and then he go out there
Speaker 1: and bust them up. Mike was the psychological warfielder. Mike Mike,
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. There's no question about it,
Speaker 1: and took full advantage of the psychological warfare and knew
Speaker 1: who to utilize it on. Give me your give me
Speaker 1: your five best players today, the five best layers oh Man,
Speaker 1: off the top of my head, no order, no order, Lebron, James,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Joannis, Steph Curry. Who am I forgetting? You
Speaker 1: got Dame, you got jorylan Bead, you got Nicola Yokich,
Speaker 1: you got Kyrie, you got Hardened. I'm gonna say James
Speaker 1: Harden again. Look at the numbers this guy consistently puts
Speaker 1: up and has put up and people say, well he
Speaker 1: hasn't won, Well, what was he supposed to win, you know,
Speaker 1: other than one one time? Maybe? Okay, see it's like
Speaker 1: the second or third year. Yeah, yeah, are when Houston
Speaker 1: had to lead against the Golden State and christ Paul
Speaker 1: Hamstring went out. Okay, yeah. So so he is a
Speaker 1: guy that we also take for granted. I mean, think
Speaker 1: about it, the assistant, this guy a natural born score. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's averaging year in and year out, right, I mean
Speaker 1: he's he's an incredible basketball player that doesn't get enough
Speaker 1: credit and should should should be a multiple time MVP
Speaker 1: Award winner. You played, I'm looking at the guys, some
Speaker 1: of the guys that you played with. When you're playing
Speaker 1: with those guys, what what is it like to be
Speaker 1: playing with a historically great player? You know, when you're
Speaker 1: playing I played with John Elway, played with Ray Lewis,
Speaker 1: I played with Jonathan Ogden at the time. I'm a
Speaker 1: good player myself, I know, I'm like, play with Rob Woodson,
Speaker 1: Garretson and guys. It's in the Hall of Fame. What
Speaker 1: is it like? You know? I hear Charles Barkin said
Speaker 1: playing with great players makes your job easier. When you're
Speaker 1: playing with these great players, what's going through your mind?
Speaker 1: You're doing a good job, by the way down playing
Speaker 1: Shannon Shot. I'm just saying I watch so I'm well
Speaker 1: aware at the guys that you name felt the same
Speaker 1: way about what you brought to the tables as a
Speaker 1: talent too. But you realize no matter who you face,
Speaker 1: whether it's Michael Jordan, whether it's Charles Barkley, whether it's
Speaker 1: Kareem al dul Jabal, Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas, Larry Berry,
Speaker 1: whoever it is, when you're in the locker room with
Speaker 1: a guy like Reggie Miller or Patrick Ewing, that I
Speaker 1: was fortunate to be with those guys are in college
Speaker 1: with Chris Mullen, Walter Berry, we were absolutely special. We
Speaker 1: should have won a national championship. But that's that's that's
Speaker 1: another story gone we go. We gonna get to that.
Speaker 1: But when you when you look at Michael Jordan and
Speaker 1: the other locker room and Reggie Miller is sitting on
Speaker 1: alongside of your Patrick Ewing, you're thinking to yourself, we
Speaker 1: got this. Not because they're better than Michael Jordan, but
Speaker 1: I believe that these guys can play them to a
Speaker 1: stand still. So Pat, Michael Jordan, get thirty five. Pat,
Speaker 1: you can go get thirty five. Reggie Miller, go get
Speaker 1: thirty five. So now, if the rest of us can
Speaker 1: do our job, it gives you life to It's easy
Speaker 1: to figure out how we're gonna eat them, because if
Speaker 1: we can outplay the rest of these dudes, we can
Speaker 1: go get it done. They give you life, They give
Speaker 1: you an edge mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and and and
Speaker 1: and and convince yourself that we can go get it done.
Speaker 1: That's what greatness. Ultimately, does we know what he became?
Speaker 1: When you're playing against Michael Jordan? Did you realize he
Speaker 1: was that good? And twenty years thirty years later, he's
Speaker 1: still gonna be talked about like he's talked about. Did
Speaker 1: you realize that when you playing it? Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: knew it. You knew it he was He was just
Speaker 1: a different dude. He was just a different dude. And
Speaker 1: like I said, we felt we were the better basketball team.
Speaker 1: And you think about it, Scottie Pippen is an all
Speaker 1: time great, top fifty player, will be a top seventy
Speaker 1: five player. Is in the discussion for you know, when
Speaker 1: you're talking about the greatest small force that ever played
Speaker 1: this game and deserves a lot of credit early on
Speaker 1: though he wasn't that Scottie Pippen right, he had to
Speaker 1: develop into that guy. Michael Jordan's single handley once series.
Speaker 1: I can remember Une ninety one, my last year with
Speaker 1: the Knicks. We were beating them up. We had physical
Speaker 1: guys at every single position, and we well Xavier McDaniel,
Speaker 1: John Smith wasn't on the team, but we would load it, yes,
Speaker 1: and we were. We were on a mission to physically
Speaker 1: beat them up. Michael Jordan's single handedly and and Tony
Speaker 1: Cukos played good. Scotti Pitt played good. But the feeling
Speaker 1: of having number twenty three on your team did something
Speaker 1: to them. He's single handy won the serious It's something
Speaker 1: about having us a guy that you know, no matter
Speaker 1: what they do. Man, this guy here can supersede anything
Speaker 1: y'all do. It could have a team, he could drop
Speaker 1: that back. He's a big joker. Yeah, yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: he is. The key. But who ever got that big joker?
Speaker 1: When it drops, there's a rap, there's a rap. And
Speaker 1: we we went over to this gallery port we said
Speaker 1: how we were going to defend them we said how
Speaker 1: we were gonna send them in different direct It didn't matter.
Speaker 1: He had an answer for every single thing we put forth,
Speaker 1: and and and and physically he was more than willing
Speaker 1: to go through whatever he had to go through to win.
Speaker 1: All time great competitor. The only guy that I was
Speaker 1: put in the discussion because both of these guys unfortunately
Speaker 1: late grade, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: the two guys ever played against that was willing to
Speaker 1: leave it all on the court, and I didn't mean
Speaker 1: it all. They were willing to if if it meant
Speaker 1: dropped dead on the floor. Those two guys, I'm convinced,
Speaker 1: would be willing to do that for the victory. Now,
Speaker 1: I would say this as great as a competitor I am.
Speaker 1: That ain't my testamore. I want to win, but not
Speaker 1: at not at all, not not at that expense. I'm
Speaker 1: not willing to take my last breath and win. You
Speaker 1: was in college when Michael was in college. Did you
Speaker 1: see that? Did you see Michael Jordan, the Mike Jordan
Speaker 1: in college becoming the Michael the mj the era, the logo.
Speaker 1: Did you see him becoming that in the NBA and
Speaker 1: I had a guy I grew up with, and Kenny
Speaker 1: Smith played on that North Carolina team. We played him
Speaker 1: in Maddam Square Garden and they talking about Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: special and needs this, and we played him. I mean,
Speaker 1: was he was very good. He was very very good.
Speaker 1: But if you ask me that, I think that that
Speaker 1: guy would wind up being that guy. No, and it's
Speaker 1: who who could, right? But he's, my goodness, he's a
Speaker 1: different animal. He is an absolute different animal and a
Speaker 1: guy that and you look at you look at another note,
Speaker 1: you look at all the greats, whether it be singing, acting,
Speaker 1: you know, boxing, basketball, football, or whatever. I think we
Speaker 1: sometimes take people like that for granted, and we don't
Speaker 1: show him the love that they deserve until they take
Speaker 1: their last breath, they close their last side, and we
Speaker 1: should acknowledge just exactly what he's meant and put up,
Speaker 1: excuse me, put us all in position to be successful
Speaker 1: as basketball players, as human beings and should be celebrated more.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that like the child Michael Jackson, you knew
Speaker 1: as a child as he was, rather when he became
Speaker 1: when he became adult, and you knew eventually he was
Speaker 1: gonna go on his own he was gonna be special,
Speaker 1: like Lebron. You watch him growing up, middle school, high school,
Speaker 1: you said you knew he would be special. Some people
Speaker 1: you just know. You know the first time you was
Speaker 1: on TV. I remember it was it was the other network,
Speaker 1: I remember, and you were watching and like or somebody
Speaker 1: gonna sign this. Dude, you just knew it. And I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to you know, I'm not stroking you. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the truth. You just knew you had it right,
Speaker 1: and and and and you have. You have taken that
Speaker 1: opportunity right and propelled it into now, you know, making
Speaker 1: history on your own off the field. You know, when
Speaker 1: when special people have it, and the people that you
Speaker 1: name they have it, it should be recognized. It should
Speaker 1: be celebrated, not hated on, but appreciate it. Are the
Speaker 1: are the players today? Are they more skilled? I'm not
Speaker 1: saying they're better. Are they more skilled? Are you good
Speaker 1: at this? I thought I was gonna come here and
Speaker 1: chill and just you know, to throwaway line and we
Speaker 1: gap up and get on out of there. But you
Speaker 1: put you putting impressure on me. Man. I will say this,
Speaker 1: Today's players are certainly more athletic, more skilled, shooting, handling,
Speaker 1: uh more versatile. The one thing that they are not
Speaker 1: they're not as smart. And it's not a not because
Speaker 1: you're right. Because I didn't have the athleticism, the quickness,
Speaker 1: the explosiveness. I had to become smarter than everybody else
Speaker 1: on the floor. So I studied the game at seven
Speaker 1: years old. At eight years old, I knew inside out
Speaker 1: whatever situation you put me in, I knew how to
Speaker 1: respond and how to have an answer. And it may
Speaker 1: not have the answer, but I knew what the answer was.
Speaker 1: I don't think because these guys are so athletic, so versatile,
Speaker 1: so explosive, so fast, I don't think they have to
Speaker 1: lean on the same smarts understanding that we had to
Speaker 1: growing up. It's a credit to how far they've come
Speaker 1: as basketball players. But now you have to match the
Speaker 1: talent with the smarts. You were in Golden State and
Speaker 1: you should get credited for letting the foundation of what
Speaker 1: the Warriors became, almost like what Tony Dungeon was doing
Speaker 1: in Tampa, and Gruden came in and finished it off.
Speaker 1: Steve Kirk came in. He's doing a great job. Not
Speaker 1: to minimize Steve Kirk because he's done a great job
Speaker 1: building on the foundation that you established. But in practice,
Speaker 1: you're watching Steph and you're watching Clay shoot the basketball,
Speaker 1: and you said, this is the greatest backcourt shooting basketball
Speaker 1: the NBA has ever seen. And people laughed at you.
Speaker 1: They called you crazy. They said, Mark Jackson, you just
Speaker 1: started like that because they're on his team. What was
Speaker 1: it about what you were witnessing practice that made you
Speaker 1: so sure they were gonna be able to carry this
Speaker 1: overcome game time? The way they practice, the way they prepared,
Speaker 1: how serious they took their gift. It was an easy
Speaker 1: call for me, and to close that statement. After I
Speaker 1: made the statement, I said it it nat even close.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, call my bluff. It was.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sitting that line. I believed everything I said
Speaker 1: based on the facts that I witnessed every single day,
Speaker 1: and and I don't I didn't think I don't. I
Speaker 1: still don't think it's close. The closest as a tandem statistically,
Speaker 1: people say Jerry West and Gale grit I say the
Speaker 1: closest statistically is John Stockton and Jeff Hornesset. Both one's
Speaker 1: a great shooter in hornaset efficient see wise. John Stockton
Speaker 1: is a great shooter, but he's not in the class
Speaker 1: as those guys. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are incredible
Speaker 1: basketball shooters. They have a gift at it. Right. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's close. I absolutely don't think it's close.
Speaker 1: So that was an easy call for me. And the
Speaker 1: difference of those guys are shooting from distance. The two
Speaker 1: guys that you mentioned were more of a mid range.
Speaker 1: I mean, they could shoot the three, but they were
Speaker 1: more of a mid range ten to fifteen feet. You're
Speaker 1: talking about Steph Curry, a lot of its points are
Speaker 1: coming from twenty twenty two, twenty three feet. That was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous how how well they shoot the basketball? Are
Speaker 1: you surprised? How when you got when you got the
Speaker 1: Golden State, did you know Steph Curry was that good?
Speaker 1: Before I got there, I was calling games, so I
Speaker 1: would had the luxury of doing some Warrior games. The
Speaker 1: time slot fits them well. Even though they were not
Speaker 1: good at the time, the time slot fit them. So
Speaker 1: I was doing some Warrior games for ESPN and got
Speaker 1: a chance to call the games. I'm sitting there, like
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I did a Duke Davidson game
Speaker 1: when Steph Curry was at was at Davidson in his
Speaker 1: senior year in college and his last year in college,
Speaker 1: and my partner says to me, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: think it'd be a good NBA player. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's a point guard in the NBA. I looked at
Speaker 1: him and said, Jeff Van Gundy. By the way, I'm
Speaker 1: not only in the name drop, but he's on record
Speaker 1: saying that. And I'm sitting there like, no, this guy
Speaker 1: is a starting point guard today. He's gonna be a
Speaker 1: top notch talent in the league. He's special. And I
Speaker 1: watched him as a young kid because I played with
Speaker 1: his dad in Toronto with the Raptors and he'd come
Speaker 1: with his brother Seth and they shoot after practice before
Speaker 1: and you know, Dell Curry saying, my kids gonna because
Speaker 1: everybody says about their kids exact but didn't lie. And
Speaker 1: the best thing about both of those guys incredible human beings,
Speaker 1: absolute joy, not only the coach because of their talent,
Speaker 1: but because of their commitment, because of their competitive drive,
Speaker 1: and because of who they are as people. But you know,
Speaker 1: step is a blessing, it a curse because he Now
Speaker 1: it used to be guys who was always trying to dump.
Speaker 1: Now he got seven years old running behind the three
Speaker 1: point line jacket up threes. Yeah, and I took heat.
Speaker 1: I took because I said, you know, Steph Curry's ruined
Speaker 1: the game. People thought I was taking a shot at
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. And I'm glad I had a chance to,
Speaker 1: you know, explain it to him, because I foolish enough
Speaker 1: to believe what everybody get. What I'm trying to say,
Speaker 1: basically what you just said was a remixed version of it. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm going to youth games. I had kids,
Speaker 1: my kids were younger. I'm going to the games and
Speaker 1: kids are jacking up shots like they Steph Curry. Those
Speaker 1: are horrible shots, right. And the first thing they do,
Speaker 1: they come off the bench and they're shooting shots and
Speaker 1: instead of making a move going to the cup, they're
Speaker 1: shooting He's from half court. I'm like, this is this
Speaker 1: is awful basketball. This guy has a gift and he
Speaker 1: has the ability to make that shot. That's like me,
Speaker 1: I'd be ruining the game if I go and take
Speaker 1: that shot. I'm not Steph Curry, right, and I should
Speaker 1: not try to be Steph Curry. I should try to
Speaker 1: be the best player that I could possibly be. And
Speaker 1: people were thinking it because he made it look so
Speaker 1: easy that they could do it. They lie to themselves.
Speaker 1: When I look at the NBA and say, five years,
Speaker 1: ten years from now, who are some of the guys
Speaker 1: you will be the believe will be the face. We
Speaker 1: got Lamello, we got little Who, we got Trey Young,
Speaker 1: we got Jason Tatum's eyon. Look, Jah, I would say
Speaker 1: that the NBA is in great hands. Yes, when you
Speaker 1: look at the talent, the young talent in the game
Speaker 1: the day, when you look at the talent coming up,
Speaker 1: when you look at the way that they do a
Speaker 1: great job of developing in the in the in the
Speaker 1: G League, outstanding uh uh group of talented basketball players.
Speaker 1: The one guy that you named to me, I think
Speaker 1: very well could very well be on the top seventy
Speaker 1: five player list. It comes out pretty soon and people say,
Speaker 1: well it will it be a sleeper that's young, But
Speaker 1: Luca don is the real deal. When you look at
Speaker 1: what he's been able to do early on in his career,
Speaker 1: he is he's got. You think he'll be top seventy
Speaker 1: five if it was me voting, Yeah, he's on the
Speaker 1: list because because of because of I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: a guy that's pointing. I don't want to point in
Speaker 1: anybody on the top fifty lists. But he's better than
Speaker 1: some of those guys, right, and I watched some of
Speaker 1: those guys, So I respect him. I appreciate it because
Speaker 1: I call he's the closest thing that I've seen the Bird,
Speaker 1: I said after. I mean, and you know, we obviously
Speaker 1: we talked your taking ref into the equation, but I
Speaker 1: said Bird was a twenty four, ten and six career guy.
Speaker 1: I said he couldn't move if not like Luca's gonna
Speaker 1: win a foot race with anybody, but he could. Bird
Speaker 1: could get to any spot that he wanted to and
Speaker 1: hit you with that that step back, fade away size, strength, toughness,
Speaker 1: competitive spirit, not afraid of the bright lights. And what
Speaker 1: you just said, Well, you and I can argue, and
Speaker 1: SKIP can argue. One of Larry Bird's best friends in
Speaker 1: life is Rick Carlisle, the former coach of the Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: who made the statement comparing Luca to Bird. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not comparing uh, nobody in the Reggie Miller
Speaker 1: unless they're the real deal. Right, I'm not comparing somebody
Speaker 1: to pack you unless they're the real deal. If I said,
Speaker 1: compared to one of those guys, that's my guy, right,
Speaker 1: you better take it to the bank, right, That's what
Speaker 1: I said. Because you look at him and you he chills.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at Lebron. Lebron got like a
Speaker 1: drown man, a big body. I can leap out the gym,
Speaker 1: I mean, And I'm looking at him and I'm watching
Speaker 1: him and elite defenders. I mean, Kawhi is an elite defender.
Speaker 1: PG is an elite defender. Draymond's elite defender. He's throwing
Speaker 1: getting thirty and forty like it ain't nothing. When they
Speaker 1: when they matched up against the Clippers in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there saying, Kawhi, Paul, George pat Be, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they got guys, Morris, they got guys that's not only
Speaker 1: gonna defend them, but they're gonna try to beat him up, right,
Speaker 1: And I want to see how he's gonna respond, because
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he's ever faced this type of pressure defensively,
Speaker 1: and he's about to face right. He put on a
Speaker 1: clinic almost like they were little kids trying to defend
Speaker 1: where he imposed his will on them and took everything
Speaker 1: that they had to offer and was the best player.
Speaker 1: I had Demard de rosen on and I said, best
Speaker 1: best basketball players come out of New York At la,
Speaker 1: he said, LA, I know. I turned the TV offside.
Speaker 1: I didn't see the resident Ron watched up into that point.
Speaker 1: As soon as he said la, I, just as much
Speaker 1: as I enjoyed, I had to shut up. You still
Speaker 1: believe the best players come by the NYC? I think historically? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now now today that's a different story, right, just like
Speaker 1: in the Dream Team, the rest of the world has
Speaker 1: caught up. They've tried to emulate some of the things
Speaker 1: that we've been able to do handling the basketball and
Speaker 1: the toughness, competitiveness, and you have guys all around the
Speaker 1: country coming out. Not only that New York players Now
Speaker 1: they leave and go to prep school. So so we
Speaker 1: don't have the same license as far as you don't
Speaker 1: say that from New York. Now they may be from
Speaker 1: somewhere else, even though they're technique from New York. But
Speaker 1: historically New York City has had the best basketball players.
Speaker 1: The guy on the top of all time leading. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you got Kareeb. I mean what you said,
Speaker 1: Karee shut down from there. I'm saying Michael Jordan was
Speaker 1: born in Brooklyn. I mean what you want me to say,
Speaker 1: So I would say, historically, the best ever play is
Speaker 1: New York City. Guys, your younger brother street ball and
Speaker 1: one ledge escalade six ten, three seventy five handled the rock.
Speaker 1: What made him what made him specially be able to
Speaker 1: handle the rock like his older brother? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I get emotional butt and you can understand the love
Speaker 1: of a brother. Yes, And this was my younger brother.
Speaker 1: So he's same. Parents married forty years. My sister's a
Speaker 1: year younger than me. I guess one day a mom
Speaker 1: and dad got a little frisky nine years removed. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, here we got a little brother on
Speaker 1: the way. So he was he was. He was a
Speaker 1: guy that had the luxury of being young enough to
Speaker 1: travel and come come to games and being mad as
Speaker 1: square garden and be around the game of basketball as
Speaker 1: a ball boy for the Knicks, so he was exposed
Speaker 1: to it. So he wasn't always big, so handling the
Speaker 1: basketball came easy to him. And the way he came
Speaker 1: big was my dad, since he was the last one
Speaker 1: spoiled him. So it went from McDonald's, whatever we're gonna
Speaker 1: eat on Fridays because it's Payday, I'm gonna take everybody
Speaker 1: to go get some neat. Now it's not everybody, it's
Speaker 1: just destroying. So now one big Mac turns into two
Speaker 1: big back. So all of a sudden, he goes from
Speaker 1: a small kid to a big kid. But I tell
Speaker 1: you what, I miss him every single day. I'm extremely
Speaker 1: extremely proud of uh not not just the basketball player
Speaker 1: that ever you came, the legend that he became, but
Speaker 1: more importantly when I when I go around and people
Speaker 1: say the things he did to people, the words he
Speaker 1: said to people, way he encourage and inspired folks. I
Speaker 1: can remember one day going to the mall with him,
Speaker 1: and I knew he arrived at this point because I'm
Speaker 1: in the mall with him and somebody come running up
Speaker 1: and say, do you mind if I get a picture,
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm like, sure, no problem at all,
Speaker 1: this thing, No not you escalate. They asked me. They
Speaker 1: asked me to take he could he could have he
Speaker 1: could have gone on to heaven at that moment, and
Speaker 1: he'd have been happy. But I'm proud of him and
Speaker 1: I miss him every single day. Mark when I look.
Speaker 1: When I think about it, the way the guys in
Speaker 1: the NBA handled the ball. They're getting that from A
Speaker 1: and one the street ball the way skip to My
Speaker 1: Lou and Hot Sauce, the way Steph Curry and Kyrie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: by the way, Kyrie got the best handles in NBA history.
Speaker 1: And they've had Roth, Strickland had handles, Zeke had handle.
Speaker 1: You have some handles. Who's the guy the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: great Pisto, Pete Maravith, y'all can do no with Kyrie. Kyrie,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Man, Kyrie get that thing on the strain. Kyrie
Speaker 1: is an incredible all handle and he's the one guy
Speaker 1: would probably put in the discussion is Isaiah because you
Speaker 1: look at old clips of little kid putting on a
Speaker 1: clinic ze coming out of the court, walking down behind
Speaker 1: his back. But but Kyrie absolutely, the things he does,
Speaker 1: the ability to handle with both hands finished in a
Speaker 1: variety of ways with both hands over any it's absolutely special.
Speaker 1: But I do agree, and God sham guys, there's another guy. Yes,
Speaker 1: the stuff that they were able to do, that guys
Speaker 1: took off the playgrounds and put it into NBA games.
Speaker 1: It's special. I wouldn't even try having that stuff. You're
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn. Was it always your goal to play college
Speaker 1: ball in NYC? Or did you think about leaving? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm from Brooklyn, born in Brooklyn the first seven years
Speaker 1: of my life. I'm the one guy that can claim
Speaker 1: both places because I left Brooklyn at seven, moved to Queens,
Speaker 1: and then, living in Queens, went to high school in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: an hour and a half away. I didn't once I
Speaker 1: was being recruited. I'm a guy that's extremely close to
Speaker 1: my family. I want to be around my family, so
Speaker 1: it became a no brainer that I was not gonna
Speaker 1: go far. And then sitting with coach Connorseca, who in
Speaker 1: the middle of October is receiving a statue at Saint
Speaker 1: John's University, well deserved, and I'm gonna be there for that.
Speaker 1: But sitting in a room with him him look at
Speaker 1: my parents in the eyes and making a commitment to
Speaker 1: me and believing in me, it was a no brainer
Speaker 1: because I knew he was a better person, and he
Speaker 1: was a basketball coach, and he's a Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: basketball coach. But I still call him coach to this day,
Speaker 1: and at ninety six years old, he'll call me and
Speaker 1: have a regular conversation with me, still checking on me. Still,
Speaker 1: that's the relationship you want to have with the coach.
Speaker 1: I'm embarrassed when I watched these high school coaches, these
Speaker 1: AU coaches not having relationships. My son's high school coach
Speaker 1: or two of my son's high school coach walking to
Speaker 1: gym and there's there's no relationship. He should be embarrassed
Speaker 1: at that. It should be I love you for life
Speaker 1: because of what you poured into me. Right well, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: if that was the case, there's only two schools you
Speaker 1: could have gone to. You going to Syracuse? Are you
Speaker 1: going to Saint John. It's funny you asked that because
Speaker 1: I visited Syracuse and and and uh Wayne Pearl, Watch
Speaker 1: Pearl Pearl. He's in my We're the same age, so
Speaker 1: rest in peace. But I mean, as good as it
Speaker 1: gets handling the basketball, scoring toughness, so good that as
Speaker 1: I visited Syracuse, and I sat in Jim Behind's office
Speaker 1: the day after the visit, and I said, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to commit because you got thirty thousand people in the arena,
Speaker 1: right I want to be here. This was incredible. He said,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, but if I was you, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: come here. I'm like what he said, if I was you,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't come here. I'm like, excuse me. He says, well,
Speaker 1: we have Pearl Washington. I said, I know you got Pearl.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm a New York City kid. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: do what. I don't force you to play us together?
Speaker 1: And he's like, I appreciate the confidence, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: why am I on this visit? But it shows you
Speaker 1: the greatness of Pearl Washington and how special he was.
Speaker 1: Uh So I made the right decision to go to
Speaker 1: Saint John's and proud as in New Yorker to watch
Speaker 1: Pearl and the things he done he was able to
Speaker 1: do in the Big East, turn him in the Massacore
Speaker 1: Garden against Georgetown, the pressure handling the basketball. He was
Speaker 1: a special, special talent and a class dude. I mentioned you,
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year you in the eighty seven draft.
Speaker 1: You played on that great Saint John's team. I think
Speaker 1: that was a matt the only one of the few
Speaker 1: times that three team from one conference he made it
Speaker 1: to the final four. Yeah, you've said you feel Walter Bear.
Speaker 1: People don't realize I think Walter was a player of
Speaker 1: the year. We had back and back player. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: said you believe you should have won the national championship
Speaker 1: that year. What happened. I gave credit to coach ninety
Speaker 1: six year old death. Love him to death and he's
Speaker 1: coach forever. We all make mistakes as coaches, and I
Speaker 1: believe that I should have played more, especially starting the
Speaker 1: second half. The way that the Georgetown defense was was
Speaker 1: was defending us that day, was keeping everything away from
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen. We were pretty robotic trying to make plays
Speaker 1: and still get him involved. The one thing that I
Speaker 1: had was the ability to make a play and forced
Speaker 1: help and then get him the basketball. And I thought
Speaker 1: that that wasn't I'm not hating it wasn't. It was
Speaker 1: a mistake. We all make. I made mistakes, but I
Speaker 1: think looking back, if I would have played more, we'd
Speaker 1: had a better chance. But Georgetown was number one half
Speaker 1: the year. We would number one the other half of
Speaker 1: the year. Great great battles. The only thing you look
Speaker 1: back at Villanova wins in national championship. Yeah, the biggest
Speaker 1: upset probably still to this day. To this day, we
Speaker 1: beat Villanova three times that year. So that's the frustrating
Speaker 1: thing that we shouldn't have had to play Georgetown in
Speaker 1: the semifinals. But but proud to be a member of
Speaker 1: the Big East during those years and loaded loaded top
Speaker 1: to bottom with great teams, historic talent and historic coaches.
Speaker 1: That first team all Big East, that had to be
Speaker 1: some kind of team. Man. Loaded, it's all my Hall
Speaker 1: of famers. Yeah, loaded, absolutely, and and every single night,
Speaker 1: no matter who you played, it was a battle and
Speaker 1: it was a robbery. It wasn't like old you're playing Georgetown,
Speaker 1: you gotta be ready. You gotta play Villanova, you gotta
Speaker 1: play certain you would top to bottom, gonna face somebody
Speaker 1: every single night you go to the league. What's your
Speaker 1: what's your NBA moment? When did you know, like, man,
Speaker 1: this is I'm in the NBA. This is different, this
Speaker 1: is I'm playing for I ain't I'm no longer playing
Speaker 1: for meal playing, I'm no longer playing for books. I'm
Speaker 1: playing for mortgages. I'm play But you know, kids tuition
Speaker 1: one day, right, I would just say that the first
Speaker 1: time you step on the floor, you know I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I was holding out initially, and we had veteran guards
Speaker 1: and Rory Sparrow and Gerald Henderson, both guys played ten
Speaker 1: plus years in the league. Gerald Henderson won a championship
Speaker 1: with George Stop. There's no Jordan. No, that's Gerald Wilkins. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pat Riley said, we're not gonna say anything to Jordan,
Speaker 1: just to go back. We're not gonna say anything. We're
Speaker 1: gonna beat him, and then at the end we're gonna
Speaker 1: say something. We look at the headlines next day in
Speaker 1: the paper. Gerald Wilkins, I'm the Jordan style. No dude.
Speaker 1: Then the coaches say, don't say anything. Then he say
Speaker 1: don't say anything. Made me go off on attachment. But
Speaker 1: I'll say this, when I sat down and watched because
Speaker 1: I wasn't practicing, I watched those guys on the court
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, this is this is this is
Speaker 1: a different level. I gotta make sure I'm right. And then,
Speaker 1: no matter who who, you're facing a guy that you
Speaker 1: thought you were better than, they have the ability in
Speaker 1: this league to give you the business. Magic Johnson announced
Speaker 1: that he had we would test the HIV positive and
Speaker 1: we were playing the Lakers that night. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm shatting. I'm staying in my hotel room because Erl
Speaker 1: Monroe was the guy that I looked up to. After
Speaker 1: Erl Manroe retired, it was Magic Johnson's a point guard
Speaker 1: for me. That's it, the best point guard that this
Speaker 1: game has ever seen. Right, So I'm sitting in my
Speaker 1: hotel room in my head, looking at the ceiling. I'm like,
Speaker 1: my head's gone. We played the Lakers and night. My
Speaker 1: guy Magic just gave an announcement and back then we're
Speaker 1: thinking it's a death sentence. We're thinking it's over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm shattered as a kid. But to make a long
Speaker 1: story short, now, we played the Lakers at night and
Speaker 1: Saidel three is starting for Magic Johnson. That's a big
Speaker 1: drop off from Magic Johnson. The sidel three, with all
Speaker 1: due respect, Saidel three gave us forty plus, gave us
Speaker 1: the business, gave us the absolute business. There's nothing we
Speaker 1: could have done. We threw everything at him, but he
Speaker 1: was on fire. That's the difference between playing a U ball,
Speaker 1: high school ball, JV ball, college ball. Everybody in uniform
Speaker 1: has the ability to give you the That's what I
Speaker 1: tell people. People want to say, oh, this guy's a superstar.
Speaker 1: He should be able to do this. That guy get
Speaker 1: paid too, I said, every professional athlete has the ability
Speaker 1: to make every other professional athlete in that sport look foolish.
Speaker 1: If you don't be on your assay. Look, you respect everyone,
Speaker 1: you underestimate no oh, no one, and you should be okay.
Speaker 1: But the moment the same thing happened to me, I
Speaker 1: went out there at this guy, well, he got injured.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I'm about to get this joke of
Speaker 1: the business. I took it for granted. Three catches and
Speaker 1: fifteen yards later that another half of the meal. Again,
Speaker 1: So you learned early on. If he got a uniform,
Speaker 1: he could make it look foolish. I'm going to my
Speaker 1: son's games before the pandemic hit, and Nick Young, who
Speaker 1: was out of the league, is playing in the game,
Speaker 1: and everybody's said, man, he's done, he's washing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: Nick Young is not playing hard against y'all. My son
Speaker 1: knew about it because he's been around it. But but
Speaker 1: they're sitting there thinking, old Nick Young can't play, he's done.
Speaker 1: Go to next week. Nick Young got fifty. He's toying
Speaker 1: with these people, right, you think Nick Young's the bump. No,
Speaker 1: with all due respect, y'all the bumps. Nick Young is
Speaker 1: an NBA talent that can toy and play around and
Speaker 1: do what he want out it right. When you played
Speaker 1: with Oakley and I and Oakley brought a certain physicality
Speaker 1: to the game. Oakley was no nonsense. I've known Oakley
Speaker 1: twenty five years and the Oakland that you see on
Speaker 1: the court was op the course. He ain't by no.
Speaker 1: You know what you staying with Oakley? Mess with you?
Speaker 1: Oakley mess with you. If Oakley don't mess with you,
Speaker 1: he don't mess with me. Best with both of us.
Speaker 1: So we feel yeah, yeah, we good. We good. Wasn't
Speaker 1: like playing with oak It's great, It's absolutely great because
Speaker 1: of what you said. The problem is if I got
Speaker 1: to figure you out, are you with me? Are against me?
Speaker 1: Are you my boy? You're not my boy? With oak
Speaker 1: you know exactly where he staying. And it's no nonsense.
Speaker 1: I know we going to battle. He's gonna lay it
Speaker 1: out on the line. He's a guy that's no nonsense.
Speaker 1: He's a professional. He's an ultimate team player. He's an outstanding, underrated,
Speaker 1: all time great defender. Yes, and he's a guy that
Speaker 1: has has toughness, and that toughness, uh becomes contagious all
Speaker 1: throughout your lineup. He's he's a winner, and he's a
Speaker 1: guy that we take for granted also because he's not
Speaker 1: today's typical power forward. He was yesterday's power forward. But
Speaker 1: he was. He was a joy to play with and
Speaker 1: and and just a just a guy that really really
Speaker 1: ware the New York Knick uniform with pride and was
Speaker 1: stood for everything that New York Nick, New York City
Speaker 1: people stood for. And that's why he was embraced and celebrated.
Speaker 1: You guys are Knicks. When you had Oak, you had
Speaker 1: Xavier McDaniel, had Mason, you had yourself your Patrick. Did
Speaker 1: you guys adopt that bad boy just like we look,
Speaker 1: we're gonna play football on the basketball court. Well, you
Speaker 1: gotta give credit to the genius of pat Riley, who's
Speaker 1: one of the great coaches in all of sports. Historic.
Speaker 1: He went from showtime, running gun fast breaking Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Laker championship winning team. We thought when he came to
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks, or we're gonna be showtime Now
Speaker 1: I'm sitting at half court from the first day. Let
Speaker 1: us know this is how we're gonna do it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do it with toughness, and we had rules and
Speaker 1: rules that had to be recognized and applied to no layouts.
Speaker 1: We we we basically, if you had an open layup
Speaker 1: and I'm next to you and I allow you to
Speaker 1: get that lay up, it is a fine, a substantial fine.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't from pat Riley or management. It was
Speaker 1: the players. We took care of it ourselves. So we
Speaker 1: we we we held each other accountable, and we became
Speaker 1: uh the mentality of we're gonna hammer folks. We gonna
Speaker 1: be very physical if we're gonna beat the Chicago Bulls,
Speaker 1: because we knew we were better than everybody else with
Speaker 1: all due respect and there were some great teams, but
Speaker 1: we were loaded. If we're gonna beat them, we have
Speaker 1: to be physical. And I believe losing games seven in
Speaker 1: ninety one in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Chicago Bulls,
Speaker 1: I believe, and Pat Rawley has said it, and Dave Checkens,
Speaker 1: who was out our GM at the time, our president
Speaker 1: at the time, has stated it, if if we keep
Speaker 1: that team together, we win a championship. I believe that wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: What broke it up, I was traded. Okay, I believe
Speaker 1: that ultimately, and it's documented and it ain't about me.
Speaker 1: It's just that the complete team. I believe we'd have
Speaker 1: came back ready and understood a year better. And it's
Speaker 1: a process that you go through. But they believe we
Speaker 1: need a scoring at the powerfuward position. So I was
Speaker 1: traded for doctors and Charles Smith, who was a six
Speaker 1: ten scoring power forward that gave versatility, complimenting Charles Oakley
Speaker 1: and gave a scoring guy alongside of Patrick Ewing. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: they didn't win, but I think if you kept that
Speaker 1: team together, we want to win it at all. But
Speaker 1: could you play that style of basketball in the NBA? Now, Yes,
Speaker 1: the physicality the way you guys played it, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: I think you have to pick and choose your spots.
Speaker 1: Guess guess what Draymond Green is in the league. And
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is a dominant defensive player and he's not
Speaker 1: being nice a lot, He's being very physical. So you
Speaker 1: can play it. You have to have the mentality and
Speaker 1: to stick tuitiveness to make sure that if I get
Speaker 1: a call against me, I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep my foot on the gas. Pedal. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: physical and I'm gonna make the proper adjustments to get
Speaker 1: away with just enough that I can get away with.
Speaker 1: But you know how you guys played. They were snatching
Speaker 1: folks out the air. Yeah, that was that was That
Speaker 1: was Kevin McHale. That was a little bit earlier. But
Speaker 1: even the way we were physical, the way you go,
Speaker 1: we were physical. We were very physical. And not even
Speaker 1: the physical plays that you could see, and then the
Speaker 1: hand checking that you couldn't see. Dennis Johnson. Dennis Johnson
Speaker 1: would guard you and have his hand on your hip,
Speaker 1: directing you where he wanted you to go right. That strength,
Speaker 1: that that mobility, that versatility, it was sure, but it
Speaker 1: took advantage of the rules. And I think that players
Speaker 1: were smart enough that they'd have made the proper adjustment
Speaker 1: to do just enough, the same way these guys do today.
Speaker 1: You call something to travel, okay, now they do a
Speaker 1: different one two step that bounces a different way that
Speaker 1: they get away. They cheat the system because it's so
Speaker 1: crafty and so talented. The Pacers go to the pacers.
Speaker 1: You're playing the Lakers two thousand Shock at his apex.
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant now is Kobe Bryant as we know it,
Speaker 1: you took them six games. What did you learn about
Speaker 1: your team? And what did you learn about that Lakers team?
Speaker 1: We should have won they beat Yeah, yeah, yeah, we
Speaker 1: it was a two three two ye, so we had
Speaker 1: we won the game three and we lost Game four
Speaker 1: in overtime, shock fouls out and the late great Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant single handed takes over the game in the fourth
Speaker 1: court in overtime. And I mean, we did everything we could.
Speaker 1: I can remember saying the Reggie Miller because he hit
Speaker 1: a couple of shots. I'm like, let me get him.
Speaker 1: I'm just foolish thinking i could do something. But I'm
Speaker 1: not thinking I'm gonna stop him. I'm thinking I'm a
Speaker 1: hammer on one good time and send a message and
Speaker 1: get him out of his rhythm. I hammer him, nice
Speaker 1: basket and one he's at the line Of'm like, Regg,
Speaker 1: you got him. It ain't working. But but we were
Speaker 1: good enough because we had depth at the powerful position. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a center that was a weapon that can
Speaker 1: take advantage of Shaquille O'Neill's flaws, the ability to defend
Speaker 1: the pick and roll. So every time you're in the
Speaker 1: pick and roll We're gonna get a shot off of
Speaker 1: Rick Smith's where he's a jump shooting big man that
Speaker 1: can post up in score. So we were a perfect matchup.
Speaker 1: Jalen Rolls six nine, versatility at the at the small
Speaker 1: foward position Chris Muller, So we had the depth and
Speaker 1: the versatility. At the end of the day, they had
Speaker 1: two dudes that was unstoppable. That was absolutely and you
Speaker 1: look at the numbers that Shaquille O'Neill put forth in
Speaker 1: that in that finals. It was ridiculous. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: They had two dudes. It's all time greats. Did you
Speaker 1: know after in that series that Kobe was gonna become
Speaker 1: what he became? Yes. And the reason why is because
Speaker 1: I can remember talking to Reggie Miller, and Reggie Miller
Speaker 1: living in LA would say he was shooting I believe
Speaker 1: a commercial and it was Reggie Miller and Kobe Bryant
Speaker 1: shooting the commercial. And and during the time of the
Speaker 1: break of the commercial, Reggie said, Kobe said, let's let's
Speaker 1: play on one on one just, you know, get to
Speaker 1: work out in the middle of the summer. So Reggie
Speaker 1: like cool, they playing on one on one. Red Shooter
Speaker 1: a jumper, knocks it down, gets the ball back, jabs
Speaker 1: that jabs that jump and knocks it down. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he looked like he sees Kobe, and then
Speaker 1: Kobe's eyes it almost looked like they were back in
Speaker 1: the finals because Kobe's thinking, this ain't chill mode. One
Speaker 1: on one. I'm getting ready go at you, and Kobe
Speaker 1: begins to put on an absolute clinic. In the one
Speaker 1: on one against Reggie Miller, he took it. It's just
Speaker 1: he only had one gear. And then after Kobe plays
Speaker 1: Reggie Miller one on one, he then pulls Reggie aside
Speaker 1: and said, show me how you do that jab step jumper,
Speaker 1: Show me how you come off for screens. So he
Speaker 1: has enough competitive drive to battle him in a one
Speaker 1: on one scenario, but enough, you know as something that
Speaker 1: you got something that I can unilize. And I'm not
Speaker 1: full of myself to think, right, I'm not gonna I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna present it and try to learn it from that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show humility and I'm gonna ask you about
Speaker 1: it and put it into my game. And that's why
Speaker 1: he became a special talent that we came to way
Speaker 1: you say that and he said Kobe asked Reggie, well,
Speaker 1: how you do the pump fake? How you come off screens?
Speaker 1: A lot of big guys, A lot of guys not
Speaker 1: just big, A lot of guys are going to work
Speaker 1: with a Chemoli Juan, But basically only one guy has
Speaker 1: ever got in the opportunity to work out with Jordan,
Speaker 1: like Jordan, like got the secret sauce and like the
Speaker 1: KFC secret recipe or what the secret sauce is on
Speaker 1: the big map, that thing closely guarded. Yeah, old school,
Speaker 1: old school. I ain't getting y'all chasing me right, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting at the top of the hill right, You're trying
Speaker 1: to chase me. And it's just a competitive drive and
Speaker 1: spirit that he's had that made him Michael Jordan. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to deliver it. But to his credit, when
Speaker 1: you look at the tragedy with Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: showed just what he deposited into Kobe Bryant and into
Speaker 1: the game's future. We just didn't acknowledge. We just didn't
Speaker 1: see it because it wasn't on camera. But he did it.
Speaker 1: But he did it in his own way, and it
Speaker 1: really blessed me to watch him get emotional talk about it,
Speaker 1: and also acknowledge this guy was like a little brother.
Speaker 1: All the things he's accomplished. People thought we were this right,
Speaker 1: and we were we were together right, So it was
Speaker 1: it was special. Some of the toughest guys that you
Speaker 1: played against the era obviously the eighty with Bird Magic, Jordan, Isaiah,
Speaker 1: you got the nineties. I don't know. I think you
Speaker 1: probably miss Lebron. You miss Lebron Lebron's which is crazy.
Speaker 1: My first year is Lebron's. My last year is Lebron's first. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you you you you got an opportunity to see
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Who's the hardest to defend Mike
Speaker 1: and Kobe? I mean from a guard's standpoint, yes, I
Speaker 1: didn't have to go down there and defend Shaquille O'Neil
Speaker 1: freemadul Jabbar. But but Mike and Kobe just thinking attack
Speaker 1: every single moment on the floor, and the mentality and
Speaker 1: the way they wear you down with their approach. It
Speaker 1: would be the two guys I would I would say,
Speaker 1: And being in the Eastern Conference all those years facing
Speaker 1: the bulls and facing Mike, I mean it was in
Speaker 1: our prime. We had every business to believe we were better.
Speaker 1: Those two guys are the front runners. From me, how
Speaker 1: would Jordan doing today's game? Because I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of people man, Jordan every sixty, Jordan every seventy? Nah, man,
Speaker 1: he I promise you Jordan's donna get forty five in
Speaker 1: today's game, the rules as they are, how would Jordan do?
Speaker 1: And how many points do you believe he would average?
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's average in sixty or seven? Okay,
Speaker 1: that's I mean, those days are over with nobody gonn
Speaker 1: get will fifty a game? Huh? Not fifty a game? No,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. But I will say this, Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan wan average whatever you want a average? You believe
Speaker 1: you can get forty a night? Yeah? He can? I
Speaker 1: mean yeah, if yeah, there's no question about forty a night.
Speaker 1: Forty Yeah, how you gonna get forty if you go
Speaker 1: to I'm not here to break it down to decipher it.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you as a witness, I'm testified on behalf
Speaker 1: of Michael Jeffrey Jordan that he would average forty a
Speaker 1: night if we see guy's average in thirty and thirty five.
Speaker 1: With all due respect, that don't have the awesomeal that
Speaker 1: he has offensively, Well, you know you have to add
Speaker 1: that three ball. You got to add the three ball
Speaker 1: to get to forty because you look at the guy
Speaker 1: Harden with the last got baked hard and average with
Speaker 1: thirty six and that step back three he put that in. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the free throw. Jordan went to the free throw line
Speaker 1: a lot. I don't he didn't go as much as
Speaker 1: a Harden, but I don't know how you get the
Speaker 1: forty without that three ball. Well, Jordan's gonna go to
Speaker 1: the free throw line more than he did back then
Speaker 1: because we were able to beat him up and it
Speaker 1: was ignored to a certain extent. Okay, so, and and
Speaker 1: he added the three ball in his career. He watched
Speaker 1: him against the Blazers knocked down three. That wasn't his specialty,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't like he was a liability shooting the basketball.
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan with average whatever you wanted to average, man,
Speaker 1: I mean you witnessed it. Yeah, I saw it. I did,
Speaker 1: I did. But I'm just saying, I'm like mad when
Speaker 1: people say he average forty forty five, I'm like fifty.
Speaker 1: I like, man, do y'all know hi when he pluts
Speaker 1: that is on a nightly basis. Do you know what
Speaker 1: somebody said, Tom Brady when he forty four gonna get
Speaker 1: five touchdowns and having you know, nine through through two
Speaker 1: games and he's gonna be on pace for fifty plus,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, man, ain't no way, no forty four? Yeo,
Speaker 1: god doing that? Yeah? You know what. Having played in
Speaker 1: the era when they hit the quarterback everywhere except the
Speaker 1: bottom of his feet, Yeah, I was like, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a different game now, and I can see what you're saying.
Speaker 1: You're like, it's totally different. They could beat you up
Speaker 1: the hits that we got back in the nineties in
Speaker 1: the two thousand, two thousand, Yeah, something throwing somebody at
Speaker 1: the league like that. So Brady's saying, I mean he
Speaker 1: came out and said that the league is soft, right, Well,
Speaker 1: with all due respect, he's right, so is the NBA.
Speaker 1: So he's taking advantage of those rules. Jordan would take
Speaker 1: advantage of these rules. I'm looking at this in the
Speaker 1: game two of the how many yards would you have
Speaker 1: rich if they can't? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I definitely be. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'd definitely be. I would be. I was Travis Cancer
Speaker 1: before Travis Kills. But I'm definitely getting me one hundred
Speaker 1: the game exactly. Yeah, I'm gonna get me fifteen hundred yards,
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred yards a season, absolutely, because we were running then.
Speaker 1: I was blocking a fifteen hundred and seventeen hundred, two
Speaker 1: thousand yard rushers, so we were throwing running the ball
Speaker 1: more than we absolutely can ask you a question another one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to know what made you stick your tongue out?
Speaker 1: Oh man, you you? Yeah, I want to know. I
Speaker 1: want to know what possessed you to do that? Man
Speaker 1: signature move? Oh man, just young and dumb. I had
Speaker 1: a moment, Man, I had a moment. Did you realize
Speaker 1: who that was? Yes? But I thought we had every
Speaker 1: answer because we were rolling. So I stripped him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I stripped him. I'm like, oh, it's on New York City.
Speaker 1: I stripped. Now. They found me on the break and
Speaker 1: I go in there and I act like the player's dead.
Speaker 1: But I sticked my tongue out. Mistakes, huge mistake, huge
Speaker 1: mistake because, like like he talked about it in the documentary,
Speaker 1: he takes all of that and uses it as fuel.
Speaker 1: And he took advantage of that and used it as
Speaker 1: fuel and took over the game. I don't know what
Speaker 1: made me do it. I remember my dad. I look
Speaker 1: over my daddy's like, don't do that. It was too late. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have you here. There's been a lot of speculation, well,
Speaker 1: the reason why he doesn't get a job he did this,
Speaker 1: or he hadn't gotten a job because he did that,
Speaker 1: and somebody reached out. Why is it Mark Jackson, the
Speaker 1: guy that laid the foundation for the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: Why doesn't he get a call? With these head coaching
Speaker 1: vacancies open up? Why isn't Mark Jackson? They hear you speak,
Speaker 1: and you talk the game and you can relate to
Speaker 1: the players. Why isn't Mark Jackson currently employed as an
Speaker 1: NBA head coach? I don't know. That's the that's the
Speaker 1: full answer. I don't know what I will say as
Speaker 1: I look forward to the day when I'm coaching again,
Speaker 1: what I will say is it will happen. I truly
Speaker 1: believe that with everything in me, the opportunity hasn't presented itself.
Speaker 1: I stand on what we were able to do in
Speaker 1: Golden State, not me. What we were able to do ownership, management, coaches, players,
Speaker 1: training staff. I'm proud of that, a team that went
Speaker 1: nineteen years and only made the playoffs one year, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden when fifty plus games get
Speaker 1: into the playoff, advanced in the second round, and then
Speaker 1: when I'm going become a dynasty. Something changed from that
Speaker 1: nineteen year to today, and I played a part in it,
Speaker 1: a small part, but a but a part in it.
Speaker 1: And I look forward to having an opportunity because there
Speaker 1: are teams in that position, so you could if you
Speaker 1: want it. You can say, well, I can't coach a
Speaker 1: championship team, and I think you're wrong, but there's no
Speaker 1: evidence to show that right. But you can't tell me
Speaker 1: that I can't play a part and turning the team
Speaker 1: that historically made the playoffs one time in nineteen years,
Speaker 1: and we've seen teams that in that position and worse,
Speaker 1: and some hovering around that situation. I'm comfortable and confident
Speaker 1: in what I was able to do in playing a
Speaker 1: small part and changing the culture I have. Anybody reached
Speaker 1: out for an interview and says, well, Mark, we'd like
Speaker 1: to talk to you. Mark, come sit down and what
Speaker 1: if it if you could go back, if there's some
Speaker 1: things that you learn from some of them, maybe the
Speaker 1: mistakes that you made. Is there anything that you would
Speaker 1: do differently? Well, And no matter what you do in life,
Speaker 1: you look back and think I would have done something differently.
Speaker 1: So there are absolute things that I would do differently.
Speaker 1: But one thing I'll stand on, who I am as
Speaker 1: a man, who I am as a father, who I
Speaker 1: am as a coach, who I am as a brother,
Speaker 1: who I am as a mentor and a leader. You
Speaker 1: can't take that away from me. So the things that
Speaker 1: have been reported are absolutely not true. And I will
Speaker 1: sit here any day the week make time for anybody
Speaker 1: that's willing to sit there that says so and so
Speaker 1: said it, because it's always so and so. Do me
Speaker 1: if they even gets so and so in front of me,
Speaker 1: because I'll meet him and we can have a discussion.
Speaker 1: Three point contest, Steph Curry, Reggie Miller, Lad. I want
Speaker 1: to say one thing though, I got a double back
Speaker 1: with because the people that you played for Ravens and
Speaker 1: the Broncos, with the coach Mike Shannon, and and and
Speaker 1: and and Dan Reeves and then and the bill right you,
Speaker 1: Brian Billick, Dan Reeves and all those Shanahan and all
Speaker 1: those guys wouldn't have to be the one to defend themselves,
Speaker 1: right because you'd be like, hold on, hold on, you
Speaker 1: could say what you want. You can say what you want,
Speaker 1: Shannon shop who speaks on everything you owe it to
Speaker 1: to to to Dan Reeves Shanahan to be like, hold on,
Speaker 1: y'all wrong. It can't go on that way. So so
Speaker 1: that's that's that's that's if somebody says something about Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, Clay Thompson, the entire roster, Andre Goodalla, Jared Jack,
Speaker 1: you can name them all, the Harrison Bonds, and once
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be like, hold on that that that that
Speaker 1: ain't true. Right now, you could say whatever you want
Speaker 1: about the flaws and all of that, but that they're right,
Speaker 1: that ain't true, And that's how we should be. It
Speaker 1: even not just my head coaching, any coach that and
Speaker 1: I have coaches now that's still in the league that
Speaker 1: were They weren't head coaches, but there were position coaches
Speaker 1: that were vouch A lot of times people like, well
Speaker 1: you say this, but you weren't like that. We'll go
Speaker 1: ask the coaches. See I don't I can tell you,
Speaker 1: but I got people that don't know me because you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes the head coach he has to be PC. I say,
Speaker 1: but go ask them off camera when they can tell
Speaker 1: you the truth, and ask them how I was as
Speaker 1: a player, how was in meetings? How was in practice?
Speaker 1: How was on the bus? I said, I ain't got
Speaker 1: a lot by me. I got people that are vouch
Speaker 1: for me. The one person that knows whether I can coach,
Speaker 1: I can't. The one person that absolutely knows that is
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr because he took over the job. And when
Speaker 1: you take over a job, you knew whether it was
Speaker 1: a good situation a bad situation. You know the habits.
Speaker 1: And to Steve Kerr's credit, who is an all time
Speaker 1: great coach that has done an incredible job with the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors. I got nothing but respect, appreciation and
Speaker 1: admiration for Steve Kerr. He has shown me nothing but
Speaker 1: respect and he is testified on behalf of the job
Speaker 1: that he stepped into. Well that should be enough right
Speaker 1: now to get you, at least to get you an
Speaker 1: interview at the door. While are you looking me up
Speaker 1: and down like I'm doing? The man? I mean, Greg Papovich,
Speaker 1: he vouch with somebody. They gonna get an interview. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this, though, the one place I don't want
Speaker 1: to be is outside the will of God. So I'm
Speaker 1: perfectly fine with where I am when I trust and
Speaker 1: believe that it all work out. Okay, Well, if that's
Speaker 1: what you believe, I hope. I hope because I think
Speaker 1: you're too good. I think you're too good of a
Speaker 1: I think you're too good of a man. The coaching aspect,
Speaker 1: I think you had need to be a good man
Speaker 1: to be a good coach. You're too good of a
Speaker 1: man not to be coaching. Your resume should speak for itself.
Speaker 1: I've seen coaches with worst resumes get opportunity after opportunity,
Speaker 1: and what you were they able to do with Golden
Speaker 1: State to build that and all of a sudden there like, nah,
Speaker 1: we're good. He good. You know he had a four year,
Speaker 1: five year run and that's it. It'll work out all right.
Speaker 1: Three point competition Steph, Reggie, Larry and Clay. Who you got? Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't shoot against Larry because he wasn't on my
Speaker 1: team and by the time he got to coach me,
Speaker 1: he wasn't shooting at the time. Beat red quite frequently
Speaker 1: in shootouts. Clay Thompson. I could talk him out of
Speaker 1: his game, beat him a couple of times and shoot outs.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is documented on YouTube. You don't believe me,
Speaker 1: check it out beat him in the shootout that we had.
Speaker 1: I believe if you put him in the room, any
Speaker 1: one of them come out. They're that great a group
Speaker 1: of shooters that if you put a certain group of
Speaker 1: guys about five to ten of them that have played
Speaker 1: in this game historically, any one of them could come out.
Speaker 1: All right, how but I'm gonna do it like this here. Now,
Speaker 1: if you if you, if you said they got a
Speaker 1: shooting variety of ways, all pick and rolls, stop and pop,
Speaker 1: coming off turndowns, coming off pin downs, shooting a half court.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is that guy because he's the one guy
Speaker 1: that there's a great shooter across the board in any
Speaker 1: one of those situations. Okay, how ab I do it
Speaker 1: like this here? One shot for Mark Jackson's life? Who
Speaker 1: you won't take it? That shot? That's how we gonna
Speaker 1: do that. Sh shay, that's my answer. I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1: My final answer. All right, I'm gonna get you out
Speaker 1: of here on this one. Give me your mout rushmore man.
Speaker 1: Four players. That's how you get you from from the
Speaker 1: start of seventy fifth anniversary. So we're going back seventy
Speaker 1: five years to now and you could have all centers,
Speaker 1: you could have all guards, you can have all three,
Speaker 1: all twos, all fours. Give me four players and no order.
Speaker 1: Four players. Michael Jordan, I might keep making everybody no,
Speaker 1: He's gotta make and just gotta make. He's gotta make
Speaker 1: the list. He's gotta make the list. Mel Dul Jabbar, Okay,
Speaker 1: Lebron James, get one more. This is tough because I
Speaker 1: want to put man I want to put I'm not
Speaker 1: putting this guy on there, but I want to put
Speaker 1: him on there. I want it to be Bill Russell
Speaker 1: because of all that he stood for, continues to stand
Speaker 1: for and as the ultimate champion. But I gotta put
Speaker 1: the guy that changed the game and put us in
Speaker 1: position to make the money we make today. I'll play
Speaker 1: the role. It's Magic Johnson, So I mean Magic and
Speaker 1: Larry changed the game. I gotta pick one be Magic
Speaker 1: because I'm a point guard. Because you remember before they
Speaker 1: came along the NBA Finals will take the league. I
Speaker 1: don't know if people remember that, but you didn't watch it,
Speaker 1: though you watch it if you want to watch it.
Speaker 1: They changed the game. They absolutely changed the game. And
Speaker 1: I mean guys was they were doing whatever they want wearing,
Speaker 1: changing jewelry, smoking and drinking and getting out. They were
Speaker 1: doing everything. Yes, the game changed, to the credit of
Speaker 1: those two guys and the late grade David Stern, the commissioner,
Speaker 1: who who who was you know at the helm. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. The game is in great hands today,
Speaker 1: commission to Silver, the coaches, the players, the management, the
Speaker 1: new breed of owners that we have today. It's different
Speaker 1: than the old school guys. And I was doing my
Speaker 1: way on the highway. They are and they are taking
Speaker 1: care of the business of the NBA and I'm proud
Speaker 1: to be part of it. You get one, you get
Speaker 1: one trade Steph shooting a Jordan's athleticism, That's an easy
Speaker 1: call for me. I would take Steph shooting because we
Speaker 1: haven't seen guys with Jordan's athleticism. But we've seen special
Speaker 1: athletes at the playground. Okay, that never made it right.
Speaker 1: If you could shoot like Steph Curry, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: all right. Kobe's mentality or Lebron's basketball like you, that's
Speaker 1: a closer one. But I'm gonna tell you I would
Speaker 1: take Kobe Man's Kobe's mentality. The reason why is because
Speaker 1: I would be successful in life period, whether it be
Speaker 1: basketball or somewhere else. Okay, I'm gonna be good Shaq
Speaker 1: dominance or Tim Duncan's fundamentals. Give me the dominance, give
Speaker 1: me Shack's dominance. He's a tough did you what are
Speaker 1: you doing? These are tough questions, man, I got this
Speaker 1: is gonna be good. Kyrie handles a Magic's passing? You're
Speaker 1: asking me, I gotta say Magic's passing as great as
Speaker 1: Kyrie's handles are, and is I was birthed on Magic
Speaker 1: Johnson's ability to see the floor and make everybody else better. Bruh,
Speaker 1: have a great season, man, You're a legend. Man. Appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Know before you one more NBA champions? Who's gonna be
Speaker 1: the NBA champion this year? Who's Who's Who's who's in
Speaker 1: the finals, and who wins it. I'm gonna say the
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Nets just because it's it's the safe pick.
Speaker 1: And I will say the Nets because of those three dudes.
Speaker 1: Five sweet five six, Gentlemen, Sweet five, Game six, seven,
Speaker 1: Game seven. I'm hoping seven, but I think Lakers gonna
Speaker 1: get him. I'm you see, I'm not sitting here at
Speaker 1: firm on my belief. Lakers are good enough to absolutely
Speaker 1: roll through everybody. They're that talented, and they did a
Speaker 1: great job of improving their roster and getting guys that
Speaker 1: you don't have to guess what I'm gonna get when
Speaker 1: I insert them into the ball game. Those guys have
Speaker 1: a b they at work that tells you what they're
Speaker 1: gonna deliver. Mark, I appreciate you stopping by good luck
Speaker 1: this season. You're a legend. Man. Appreciate rolling Thank you, man.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that all my life and running all my life
Speaker 1: sacrifice Hustle Bay the Price wanna slice, got the broller
Speaker 1: Dice to swap all my life. I've been grinding all
Speaker 1: my life, all my life, then running all my life sacrifice,
Speaker 1: Hustle Bade the Prices want a slice, Got the brother
Speaker 1: of Dice to swap all my life. I've been grinding
Speaker 1: in all my life.