Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: All the smoke were out here in Sacramento, California with
Speaker 2: the Kings for training camp.
Speaker 1: It sir, and right now, man, we got a good one.
Speaker 2: We got the reigning NBA Coach of the Year. Only
Speaker 2: is it the only unanimous coach of the Year in
Speaker 2: the history of the game.
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 1: God damn, Mike, that's a hell of a title. Guy,
Speaker 1: you know our history.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, Mike Brown, Sir, thanks for being
Speaker 2: I appreciate y'all for sure. Man, you were a part
Speaker 2: of something that was really big for this city.
Speaker 1: You broke the sixteen year drought.
Speaker 2: You came here, you brought a lot of energy, and
Speaker 2: you brought just a whole new confidence and comfortability, might
Speaker 2: I say for the team, for the city. What was
Speaker 2: your first year like here in Sacramento?
Speaker 3: It was It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I met you.
Speaker 3: You know the vibe when it comes to Kings here
Speaker 3: because you've spent a lot of time here, whether it
Speaker 3: was with the team or not with the team, and
Speaker 3: these people they breathe and live this tame. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, sixteen years they didn't go to playoffs, but
Speaker 3: they still hurt from that year after year after year
Speaker 3: after year, and so for us to break the drought,
Speaker 3: have the fans engaged again and be as excited as
Speaker 3: they were and are. It's just it's just a great feeling,
Speaker 3: a fantastic feeling for all of us, you know, And
Speaker 3: it's more than basketball. When you see people's face light
Speaker 3: up when they're talking to about playoffs.
Speaker 4: And energy, I'm just saying the keys every year.
Speaker 2: Hey, send your comments to him, that's my guy. But
Speaker 2: send your comments to Steven Jesse Jackson's how's life?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Obviously making the playoffs is good enough. I know you
Speaker 2: well enough to know that, But how was your first
Speaker 2: off season here? And did you get to do anything
Speaker 2: outside of kind of how do we get better for
Speaker 2: next year?
Speaker 3: You know, it's got a chance to enjoy the city. Actually,
Speaker 3: I'm not a guy that goes boating, you know, because
Speaker 3: I got the water and I went to Lake Folsom. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I went up to Lakes God at little couple of
Speaker 3: little boats and me family and friends went out there
Speaker 3: on the lake and had a good time, you know,
Speaker 3: getting to know the city and the people in the
Speaker 3: city especially you know, they got some pretty walking down
Speaker 3: on the river and all that other stuff. It's it's
Speaker 3: been a good time in the summer. The only thing
Speaker 3: that I didn't get a chance to do. I'm a boy.
Speaker 3: I got two Harley's. I didn't get a chance to
Speaker 3: hop on my Harleys and there's some great riding in
Speaker 3: this area and I ain't get a chance to do
Speaker 3: that that.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a plenty of years here. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to knock that out.
Speaker 3: La Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2: How do you reflect on last year's seven game battle
Speaker 2: with Golden State? You know, obviously coming from Golden State
Speaker 2: playing them in the first round of the playoffs. To me,
Speaker 2: I thought, as someone who loves the game, watches the
Speaker 2: game as a fan of both teams, how you guys
Speaker 2: learned so much from that that's going to pay off
Speaker 2: this year. But how do you, as obviously the head coach,
Speaker 2: reflect on that series?
Speaker 3: But the first thing is you said a little earlier,
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't I'm not in this thing, and
Speaker 3: I think our guys understand that too, and they feel
Speaker 3: the same. We're not in it to make the playoffs.
Speaker 3: You know, people may think that this is bold or whatever,
Speaker 3: but we're trying to win a championship. That's what we're
Speaker 3: competing for. And people talk about, well, the pressure's on
Speaker 3: this year. I ain't no pressure because we expect to
Speaker 3: win a championship. That's what we're fighting for. So it's
Speaker 3: no different for us this year than what it is
Speaker 3: last year or going forward. Having said all that, you know, again,
Speaker 3: the disappointment of losing, especially losing the first round, it
Speaker 3: was tough. It took a little bit to get over.
Speaker 3: But you're right, Steve Kurr is a great coach. They
Speaker 3: got a lot of great players there with Steph Klay
Speaker 3: Draymond andre I mean, I can go down the line
Speaker 3: and at the time, they're the World champs. So to
Speaker 3: learn a thing or two from the World Champs was
Speaker 3: great for US. State suggest our offense a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know. Historically we had the number one offense in
Speaker 3: the game analytically and even some people will say with
Speaker 3: the eye tests, but they took some of that away,
Speaker 3: and so we had to make adjustments during the playoffs
Speaker 3: that I think can help us going forward defensively. That's
Speaker 3: why I was most concerned. But our guys did step up.
Speaker 3: They took it to a level that I wasn't sure
Speaker 3: if we can get to which gave us an opportunity
Speaker 3: at the end of the day. And so now they
Speaker 3: showed me that they could do that. We got to
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: We can't wait till the playoffs. Like we finished twenty
Speaker 3: fifth in the league defensively, so we can't wait till
Speaker 3: the playoffs to take that step. It's got to happen yesterday,
Speaker 3: and it's got to be a standard that we set
Speaker 3: and that we all hold each other accountable for doing
Speaker 3: it in a shooting around, a practice and or a game.
Speaker 2: You were right in the middle of those Golden State
Speaker 2: championship runs. You know you spoke to obviously what you
Speaker 2: guys learned as the team. What did you learn as
Speaker 2: a coach being right a Highway eighty with Golden State?
Speaker 3: Man, I tell you what Steve Kerr. You know, Pop
Speaker 3: is too okay, but Steve Kerr is one of the
Speaker 3: best messengers I've been around. And you know, as a
Speaker 3: young coach, yeah, I mean I coached both of y'all,
Speaker 3: you know, as a young coach because I was fortunate, blessed, lucky.
Speaker 3: How do you want to call it? To be able
Speaker 3: to be a head coach at a young age and
Speaker 3: all all about okay, hard work, hard work, hard work,
Speaker 3: you know, and if you work hard and you outwork everybody,
Speaker 3: everything else will fall into place. But it's more to
Speaker 3: it than that, especially as the head coach, and Steve's
Speaker 3: ability to message to the group on a daily basis
Speaker 3: was unbelievable, and I always called Steve a young coach
Speaker 3: even though he older than me, he a young coach
Speaker 3: for a number of years he coached every day. I
Speaker 3: used to carry a little pad of a little notebook
Speaker 3: pad of paper in my pocket and the pen because
Speaker 3: when he talked to the team, I was like, dang,
Speaker 3: that's on point, crazy, you know it's and it's so
Speaker 3: as simple, it's effortless yet but it's on point. And
Speaker 3: if you can message correctly to your group as well
Speaker 3: as have a feel of what their strengths and weaknesses
Speaker 3: are and try to play to that, then the belief
Speaker 3: that you were instilled and everybody as a whole can
Speaker 3: be off the charts and you may not be as
Speaker 3: talented as the next team, but that that belief and
Speaker 3: that connectivity. It's partly to do or a lot to
Speaker 3: do with your messaging to the group on a daily
Speaker 3: basis that can be that could take you places that
Speaker 3: you can't imagine going. So that was probably the biggest
Speaker 3: thing I learned, is the messaging as aspect to the team.
Speaker 3: How important it is, you know, because I didn't take
Speaker 3: it as serious as I do now, and a lot
Speaker 3: of it is reality is I just I didn't know.
Speaker 3: That's something that I learned from Steve as well as
Speaker 3: a few other things.
Speaker 4: Was this the same thing Dion doing the message Guys
Speaker 4: believe in themselves to go out there and do something
Speaker 4: that people saying you can't do.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's the message, right Jack.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I don't know Coach Pryan, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna call him coach at first, but he earned that
Speaker 3: from me call coach. I got his number after the
Speaker 3: first win at TCU and I text him and I
Speaker 3: and all I said in my message was I'm so
Speaker 3: hyped watching this game. Not because y'all won, and one
Speaker 3: in the way y'all won, But when I watched the
Speaker 3: game and I saw your interaction with your players and
Speaker 3: the connectivity that you had with your players, that's what
Speaker 3: got me hyped.
Speaker 1: Feel that stands out. I mean, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if anyone told you.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been here for three years working, you know,
Speaker 2: with on the broadcast side, and you know, going to
Speaker 2: practice before you got here and then going to practice
Speaker 2: once you got here. You've completely changed the energy, the environment,
Speaker 2: the atmosphere. We even spoke to dearon Fox earlier after
Speaker 2: practice and he was saying, like, you know, I gotta
Speaker 2: paid a bunch of money, but it was hard to
Speaker 2: come to work. It's like, I love to come to
Speaker 2: work now, and I obviously credit to management putting the
Speaker 2: piece together, but I feel like you brought an environment
Speaker 2: that this franchise was desperately lacking, and just kind of
Speaker 2: wanted to give you credit for that because I've personally
Speaker 2: seen it as a player again watching older practices with
Speaker 2: other teams or other coaches and then to see what
Speaker 2: you guys are on now and even can see you
Speaker 2: custom one out, so they kind of made us both smile.
Speaker 1: You brought it directly to me if it wasn't me.
Speaker 2: See it, but you know, just to kind of give
Speaker 2: you your flyers from that standboard, because again Darren was
Speaker 2: saying just weird things like it's so important for this
Speaker 2: team and this organization and we love to come to
Speaker 2: work now and it's just way different. And again, just
Speaker 2: wanted to kind of credit you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate. I appreciate you know. One of the things
Speaker 3: that we say here is is we want to win
Speaker 3: the day. You know, we want to win the day.
Speaker 3: And in port of one in the day is number
Speaker 3: one your work ethic or competitive spirit that you bring
Speaker 3: to the table. Number two is the details. You know,
Speaker 3: you can't overlook any detail you want to be great.
Speaker 3: And the last one is continuing to form that belief
Speaker 3: in each other that we're going to be good. And
Speaker 3: the way you do that is by doing things the
Speaker 3: right way, playing the game the right way. And you know,
Speaker 3: for me, I got to make sure if I'm asking
Speaker 3: my guys to do that, the details and coming to
Speaker 3: work and bringing the competitive spirit and all I gotta
Speaker 3: do the same. I gotta I gotta let them feel.
Speaker 3: They don't have to always see it her here, but
Speaker 3: they got to feel that all that stuff is important
Speaker 3: to me. So I got to bring it too. I
Speaker 3: can't come in here and sit back and chill and
Speaker 3: let them work.
Speaker 1: And you hand me that you know what Winnen live like.
Speaker 4: See, that's The thing though, that's that that's a as
Speaker 4: a player to have a coach coming here only that
Speaker 4: I know I can have a relationship with them. But
Speaker 4: you know what winning looked like. So it's easy to
Speaker 4: respect that because that's what we're all trying to go.
Speaker 1: We're all trying to get this.
Speaker 2: You guys brought your core back and obviously beating in
Speaker 2: the media. Some people are sacramented to make a ton
Speaker 2: of moves, and I didn't look at it from that
Speaker 2: sum but I looked at it. They believe in what
Speaker 2: they got, they're building what they got. You resigned the bonus.
Speaker 2: You brought the rest of your core back. You have
Speaker 2: some strategic ads like a Chris Dorte, Jabel McGee, Sasha
Speaker 2: who I'm looking forward to getting a chance to see.
Speaker 2: But you know, obviously expectations are a championship. But talk
Speaker 2: about the growth you've seen, and it's only been a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks from the core last year to this year.
Speaker 3: You're getting hit it on the head. If you think
Speaker 3: about if you think about teams that had great runs
Speaker 3: in this game, they're usually the teams that have accorded
Speaker 3: that keep together. A lot of times you might be
Speaker 3: able to have a run. If you throw this free
Speaker 3: agent that free agent game, you might have a good year,
Speaker 3: maybe two years if you're lucky. Then somebody's out. So
Speaker 3: now you've got to start all over again. And one
Speaker 3: of the things I told you know the VEC and
Speaker 3: Mani and Wes, is I'd like to build a culture
Speaker 3: here that sustained. I'd like to build a winning culture
Speaker 3: that sustained so that three four years, five years from now,
Speaker 3: we still rocket because we got our group together and
Speaker 3: then eventually, okay, hey, he may be getting a little older.
Speaker 3: Maybe okay, let's move on from him and bring somebody
Speaker 3: else in. And so then the new ones coming up
Speaker 3: can keep it going. And that's what gives you longevity
Speaker 3: at the top of this game, or in my opinion,
Speaker 3: any game. So in order for us to do that,
Speaker 3: we had to figure out what our core is and
Speaker 3: then we had to give them an opportunity to see
Speaker 3: if they can grow, to see if we can grow
Speaker 3: from within. And that comes from our work in the summertime.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're working in the summertime and you
Speaker 3: getting together and you getting connected in the summertime, there's
Speaker 3: gonna be some carryover. And so The thing I saw
Speaker 3: this summer from our guys is Foxy's growth with his leadership.
Speaker 3: It started last year, but to see him take Keegan
Speaker 3: Murray under his wing and help Keegan grow at a
Speaker 3: faster rate than if Keegan was working out, because he
Speaker 3: gonna work out on every day no matter what. But
Speaker 3: to have Foxy have him under his wing and doing
Speaker 3: that and Fox interacting with him and getting Keegan to
Speaker 3: use it because Keegan was a quiet kid. Now kee
Speaker 3: can talking ship. I can say that.
Speaker 1: We all show you.
Speaker 3: I like that. I like that ship. To get Keegan
Speaker 3: to talk ship now you know what I'm saying that
Speaker 3: that's real coming from King and who's a quai Gan
Speaker 3: and and so that's helped Keegan's growth. But but but
Speaker 3: listen to Fox addressed the team and and our guys
Speaker 3: did some some stuff with with with other players around
Speaker 3: the league, and and listening to Fox Uh talk to
Speaker 3: the group and not just our players but other players
Speaker 3: coming in at the at the end the huddle and
Speaker 3: stuff like that, it made me want to say, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm a follow Fox. You know. So his leadership was
Speaker 3: off the charts in terms of growth, So give him
Speaker 3: an opportunity do it again, Keegan. He's stronger, he's uh,
Speaker 3: he's more confident now. He not it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: catch it shoot guy. You can see he's gonna put
Speaker 3: it on the floor. He's gonna play some pick and roll,
Speaker 3: He's gonna play some zoom ACX.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: So let these guys grow, for sure, a second year,
Speaker 3: maybe even a third year before you start messing with
Speaker 3: the core. We feel like we have a core right
Speaker 3: now that can be sustained.
Speaker 2: Speaking the key, and I want to speak to this
Speaker 2: because I saw it early last year and just kind
Speaker 2: of having an IQ for the game. You challenge him
Speaker 2: from the jump. On the defensive end, you were making
Speaker 2: them guard point guard, You're making them guard some of
Speaker 2: the best twos in the game. You didn't let him
Speaker 2: hide or kind of find your rhythm. You threw him
Speaker 2: right in the fire because I feel like, and when
Speaker 2: I was staying on broadcast, Mike wants him to be
Speaker 2: one of the best two way players in the game.
Speaker 1: Was I right to read that?
Speaker 3: And he has the capability of doing it, you know,
Speaker 3: and you both shoot you both know it. You both
Speaker 3: were two way guys, and so you know how valuable
Speaker 3: that is. In our business, especially at your size, your side,
Speaker 3: your size in Keegan's side, you get a guy that
Speaker 3: can guard on the ball. Now, you could do different things.
Speaker 3: Now at times you may be able to switch one
Speaker 3: through five, you know, because if a five rolls him down,
Speaker 3: you know he's gonna be able to keep them off
Speaker 3: the glass in or get him off that block and
Speaker 3: not be able to get taken advantage of. So Keegan
Speaker 3: has the ability to do it. We just got to
Speaker 3: put him in positions to be uncomfortable and try to
Speaker 3: figure it out from time to time without really hurting
Speaker 3: the team as a whole for too long a stretches.
Speaker 4: I remember I was in San Antonio when I first
Speaker 4: got to San Antonio, and I was frustrated about not playing,
Speaker 4: and he came to me one day in practice. He
Speaker 4: was like, you can't say he let the world. You
Speaker 4: mean come around. Well, the first of all, this is
Speaker 4: how it started. I'm in New Jersey. I make the
Speaker 4: rook Y'all Star team. Byron, don't play me no more.
Speaker 1: The second half, I have no idea, but.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, it's just a pe and me,
Speaker 4: I guess, and were playing the Spurs. I'm just on
Speaker 4: the side oline. My ones ain't warming up or nothing.
Speaker 4: It's know me, you ain't playing all yeah, because I
Speaker 4: ain't warming up and nothing.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: So I see I see, I see him walking down.
Speaker 4: I'm like, you know what I'm saying. He walks like,
Speaker 4: keep your head, keep your head.
Speaker 1: We come and get you. Keep you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I'm like, hold on real quick, I can't get I
Speaker 3: can't get fine for that, they gonna come get me
Speaker 3: the okay, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 4: And something like cool. So during the summertime, you know
Speaker 4: I was, I was on a one year deal. So
Speaker 4: I end up signed with San Antonio for summer league,
Speaker 4: had a great summer league, end up making the team.
Speaker 4: But I'm not playing right out, you know what I'
Speaker 4: saying On the injine list, he comes this this one
Speaker 4: my career changing san Antonio. He was like, we all
Speaker 4: know you can score. You were second in some league
Speaker 4: behind Dirt, behind Dirk scoring. What's gonna get you on
Speaker 4: this court if you play defense? I locked in from there.
Speaker 4: That turned me into a two way player. I wasn't
Speaker 4: a two way player into that conversation, and that got
Speaker 4: me on the court with the Spurs.
Speaker 1: Then I end up starting to win, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So all that's when he said that to people, he
Speaker 4: see something in you that you don't see in yourself.
Speaker 2: Now, he's credited you a lot of a lot of
Speaker 2: times with that, and it's stuff to have you here
Speaker 2: and have you hear it because he's credit a lot
Speaker 2: kind of it takes a lot to turn the light
Speaker 2: on his headside that don't work.
Speaker 4: This might be this week, but a lot of y'all
Speaker 4: don't know that story. Man am I Me getting to
Speaker 4: San Antonio, me getting the opportunity to play on the
Speaker 4: championship team and all that, all that started.
Speaker 6: With Mike Brown that I'm gonna take it a step
Speaker 6: further too, because a lot of people don't know that
Speaker 6: year if you not a lot of we don't win,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 3: And obviously tynans Town, I'm not taking nothing away from that,
Speaker 3: but you carried us at times that people in today's
Speaker 3: game in the world don't even know. During that championship run,
Speaker 3: which was off the charts, beautiful definitely doing this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I knew you RC beautiful pop tim that Yeah,
Speaker 4: I knew, trust man knew because y'all made me feel
Speaker 4: like maybe feel so appreciated about, you know, being able
Speaker 4: to beat that experience.
Speaker 2: Papovich speaking us first Papovich Series, You need three stars
Speaker 2: in their prime to win a championship. You obviously have
Speaker 2: two All NBA performers and Fox and Sabonis. Who are
Speaker 2: you looking forward to stepping up this year to possibly
Speaker 2: be that third star kicking?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put the pressure on.
Speaker 1: You to say no.
Speaker 3: We We had a practice last week and he played
Speaker 3: zoom action, he hit the big and he went back
Speaker 3: and got the ball, or he played DHL and his
Speaker 3: man went underneath and kicking past the ball. And I
Speaker 3: stopped praying. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said,
Speaker 3: if another man disrespect you and go under anything did
Speaker 3: you do out on that floor, you better shoot it.
Speaker 3: I said, because if you don't, you're coming out the game.
Speaker 3: So you do, you figure it out, You do what.
Speaker 1: You want to do. He did it.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'll tell you next clip went under him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Him, he's got the chance. Now he ain't gonna give
Speaker 3: it to him.
Speaker 1: Earn it.
Speaker 3: He got to earn it. He got the chance to
Speaker 3: be that guy.
Speaker 1: I see it. I see it.
Speaker 2: Going back to this knugglehead. What was he like at
Speaker 2: twenty two twenty three. It was a young story line.
Speaker 3: First of all, as you know, it's a true man
Speaker 3: right there. He's a true man. He got a great heart,
Speaker 3: he got a great heart. His heart is off. My
Speaker 3: son's playing their little flag football and he Saturday morning
Speaker 3: ten o'clock game. You know, we we're out on the
Speaker 3: field cold in India. He's there with his crew. He
Speaker 3: made his whole crew get up watch football. But I
Speaker 3: got to tell I hope I got enough time to
Speaker 3: say these stories. I hope, so the first one, and
Speaker 3: I would get a lot of I would get probably
Speaker 3: some emails and some calls. But we used to take
Speaker 3: our team to Houston in the summertime and our top
Speaker 3: nine ten guys would go. Now, we go for about
Speaker 3: a week and we bright bread work out. And that's
Speaker 3: when all of the players used to go to.
Speaker 1: Houst Sunday, yeah Funday.
Speaker 3: Because because Luke had the gym going. The gym was rocket.
Speaker 3: So we used to keep all our players together when
Speaker 3: we play pick up. And this is win Tim. This
Speaker 3: when Tim fell in love with Jack. So so we're
Speaker 3: playing field game against some rockets and you know, you know,
Speaker 3: Tim and David because they were both there. They both
Speaker 3: real quiet, head down guys and you know rockets. They
Speaker 3: talking a little smack and and Katino threw a lib
Speaker 3: to Steve Francis or Francis through a live to Contino,
Speaker 3: I'm induncted and there like yeah, yeah, yeah, let's run
Speaker 3: these bitches out of here. Jack granted, boy, he said,
Speaker 3: well wan want wait wait now, wait now who y'all
Speaker 3: calling bitches? That he said, because if any of us
Speaker 3: we gonna find out whatever, we can go outside like.
Speaker 1: Now, Basta.
Speaker 3: And man and you, Tim and David they were like, yes.
Speaker 5: Exactly, exactly, bro exactly loved it, Hey, Maddie.
Speaker 3: From that time on, yeah, nobody nobody said nothing to
Speaker 3: our team like this from that on. That's the first thing.
Speaker 3: So everybody loved him because he's about the team. He's
Speaker 3: about if you on his team, he got your back.
Speaker 3: You ain't got to worry about that at all. And
Speaker 3: the second thing was, uh, if this was interesting, it's
Speaker 3: kept my life interesting. Uh anytime we play a game,
Speaker 3: all right, Jack, not this soon as he man, I'm
Speaker 3: okay saying that was too right.
Speaker 7: As soon as he walk up, he know the horror
Speaker 7: coming right, okay.
Speaker 3: And he as soon as he hear that horror, he
Speaker 3: don't eve turn look. He started cursing and I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh ship, okay, okay, I don't have to deal with this.
Speaker 3: So Pop Pop ain't even look at him now, okay,
Speaker 3: Jack walking just looking at Pop looking at the action.
Speaker 3: Jack walking to the soon as he passed the coaches,
Speaker 3: I know it's my job. I get so, I go
Speaker 3: down to the end. I get my curse up. The
Speaker 3: fun that he beat out of you. There you go,
Speaker 3: there's about ham. So I sit there, I get cursed out.
Speaker 3: Then I'm like, okay, done. Then if he ain't done,
Speaker 3: he'll keep going. But if he's done, if I say yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm done, I said okay, now now that is what
Speaker 3: you need to do. And after he take a breath,
Speaker 3: after he takes a breath, he know what's right, what's wrong.
Speaker 3: He relaxed for a second. Then he go back out
Speaker 3: there and if he and if it was bad enough,
Speaker 3: he goes, let me get it out. And you know
Speaker 3: what it was bad? Yeah, it's just a testament to
Speaker 3: this heart. If he was wrong, he'd be the first
Speaker 3: and not just not just to one person, like the
Speaker 3: whole group. He goes he gonna go from a whole group.
Speaker 4: And because I didn't know no better, I didn't know.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I was still learning. I
Speaker 4: was knowing how to be a professional. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I was on a team with a whole
Speaker 4: bunch of guys who are the ultimate professional. I'm still learning,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So, but that was a
Speaker 4: culture shock to go from New Jersey where you had
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of guys who on their way out,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Sherman Douglas. Then I go
Speaker 4: to a team where you got stars like Tim Duncan,
Speaker 4: Dedack Robinson. But this is an organization that that's uh, everything.
Speaker 1: Is about winning. It feels like a championship here.
Speaker 4: So it was a different It was a culture shock
Speaker 4: for me, but it was a great It was the
Speaker 4: best thing for me because if I went anywhere.
Speaker 1: Else, I wouldn't have lasted that long.
Speaker 4: But since we talk about it, it just resurfaced of
Speaker 4: me calling off my wedding.
Speaker 1: My boy was there, Yeah, Mike was there. So you
Speaker 1: came all the way from nothing to Michael was holding
Speaker 1: me down, holding me down. You know I was in
Speaker 1: the crime.
Speaker 4: I remember, I remember this Vivili bro Uh when I
Speaker 4: called the web now, I was to be honest, all
Speaker 4: joke de side. I was really hurt, Bro, and he
Speaker 4: know I loved that girl and I was really wanted
Speaker 4: to be married for me to take that step, but
Speaker 4: this is what I remember vividly, and that's why I
Speaker 4: love him. And Mike Bibby's mama. I was in the crime,
Speaker 4: like hard down, cryme, Mike will be. Mom came in
Speaker 4: there and WAPs wipes not until the way with her
Speaker 4: bare hands and told me you became a man today.
Speaker 4: And he came right behind her and said the same thing.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I was and you I
Speaker 4: was what twenty three twenty four at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I came straight up out of it, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. And that meant a lot, because if
Speaker 4: I didn't have him have them there that day, I
Speaker 4: don't know how I would have made it out of that.
Speaker 4: You know, people can talk all this shit. Yeah, you
Speaker 4: was a man. You did what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: But I was hurt, Bro. I was hurt for a
Speaker 1: long time because I actually wanted to be married. You
Speaker 1: know another, the best thing for you definitely was definitely
Speaker 1: was in my pockets. Got it serious? I mean obviously
Speaker 1: getting back to how important Mike and instrumental got too
Speaker 1: many stories. I'm gonna keep navigating, y'all.
Speaker 2: Throw y'all, Michael was one of three people then help
Speaker 2: you get back in the league.
Speaker 1: Can you guys both speak to that?
Speaker 2: This is after obviously after the brawl Indiana.
Speaker 4: I started so after San Antonio, I wanted my big contract.
Speaker 1: We won championship.
Speaker 4: I felt like I deserved a big contract because, like
Speaker 4: Mike said, they didn't look at like that.
Speaker 1: But I carried a lot of games.
Speaker 4: Game six in the West commerce Finals, we don't win
Speaker 4: that game if I don't carry. It's the first three quarters,
Speaker 4: so a lot. I was thinking like that in my head,
Speaker 4: but I didn't know the business as well. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. So if
Speaker 4: I could rewind back, I would have took that three year,
Speaker 4: ten year, three years, ten million dollars because I've been
Speaker 4: on a championship team. I probably won two more championship
Speaker 4: then always got a crazy bag that seeing all of that,
Speaker 4: but I didn't understand the best of the time. So
Speaker 4: I was upset with them not getting my bag. So
Speaker 4: I had to go to Atlanta for one year to
Speaker 4: prove myself. I'm betting on you. I bet on myself
Speaker 4: today in front of ahitnybody, I'm betting on me. And
Speaker 4: I went down, balled out. But I had this in
Speaker 4: my mind that I didn't get my big contract. But
Speaker 4: I knew I had Mike and Rick and and uh
Speaker 4: Indiana that was.
Speaker 1: Interested in me.
Speaker 4: I had no idea I was gonna get a contract
Speaker 4: from him, but I knew they were interested, and I
Speaker 4: knew I had a relationship with him, so I knew
Speaker 4: go to Atlanta and ball out. Sure, ships think got
Speaker 4: ball out in Atlanta. They have another mid level exception available,
Speaker 4: and Donnie Walsh was high on me by there too,
Speaker 4: And I remember Mike tell them like, we're gonna We're
Speaker 4: gonna get you over here. And that's how it worked
Speaker 4: out for me going to Indiana end up getting the
Speaker 4: biggest contract I've had.
Speaker 1: That's my guy.
Speaker 2: Now fast forward to and thanks to you, I went
Speaker 2: around for it. Yeah, I was run for Fast forward
Speaker 2: to the brawl.
Speaker 1: Yeah that that was crazy man like.
Speaker 4: So so the BRA situation was crazy because it seemed
Speaker 4: like it happened from I'm getting Larry Barry calling me
Speaker 4: telling me that I'm signing a big deal with Indiana,
Speaker 4: and it seemed like.
Speaker 1: The brawl happened the next day.
Speaker 4: In my mind, that's how you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: because I was that happened soon as I got there.
Speaker 4: In my mind, I was in the position, Matt, where
Speaker 4: we're gonna win a championship.
Speaker 1: Y'all was loaded. Nobody beating us, bro nobody beating us.
Speaker 4: You know, we had Ridge on the court, but our
Speaker 4: lineup was Jamal me at the two, run at the three,
Speaker 4: Jeff Foster at the four, Jamaine Ain't nobody beating at
Speaker 4: five at that time on both y'all lost.
Speaker 1: Y'all can fight too, you know what I'm saying. We
Speaker 1: was that type of team. Yeah, I can dig it.
Speaker 4: So and at the time we beaten everybody like fourteen
Speaker 4: to five or something at the time, probably I think
Speaker 4: so I'm not privy to you know, I'm not privy
Speaker 4: to the beef from the previous with Eastern Conference.
Speaker 3: Finals, So.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he wasn't.
Speaker 4: Surprised when I went the stands behind wrong because that's
Speaker 4: just how I am.
Speaker 3: You know what I say, That's what I said earlier.
Speaker 3: He ain't about the team. I'm lawyer, and you know
Speaker 3: sometimes it could be talked to a far right exactly.
Speaker 3: That's just that's who he is.
Speaker 1: And when he went I didn't think twice the game
Speaker 1: was over.
Speaker 4: You know, we could talk about it now because people
Speaker 4: willing to look it down and slow down the frames.
Speaker 4: When I first win the stands, I didn't throw a punch.
Speaker 4: Me and Mike got to run at the same time.
Speaker 4: We both grabbed him. What made me throw that punch
Speaker 4: was another beer was throwing it wrong face, So that's
Speaker 4: what made me click.
Speaker 1: If anybody look at it, I had no intentions.
Speaker 4: I ran by thirty people and got to run, so
Speaker 4: I had no intentions on hit nobody. But when the
Speaker 4: second beer came, I felt like it was just it
Speaker 4: was just too disrespectful that and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: But this is the funny part. What we don't talk about.
Speaker 4: This motherfucker went off after the game, so doing the scuffling,
Speaker 4: somebody fucking around the elbow.
Speaker 1: Here bus just lit. So we're in the locker room.
Speaker 3: We all Mike meething hold On, come.
Speaker 1: Rick so read it came coming there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mother, we kind of breaking out Jamaine.
Speaker 4: They were grabbed un everybody they came in and going on.
Speaker 4: So it came to one point with Jamain stood up.
Speaker 3: Chap with the coach because he got hit the mamo.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. So it was the emotions
Speaker 4: were highest the time, but I knew that like yesterday, dog,
Speaker 4: the emotions was high.
Speaker 3: And it was not till until they came in and said, okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna rest. Remember they said they gonna rest two
Speaker 3: players and one coach was like.
Speaker 4: Jail. He got serious. It got serious. He got serious
Speaker 4: when they came to Baron, killed the whole everything. When
Speaker 4: he asked him, was we gonna get in trouble? When
Speaker 4: he said that, brought the whole locker room like.
Speaker 1: In trouble.
Speaker 5: But you ain't playing no more this year. That we'll
Speaker 5: be all day. We'll be here all day, all day.
Speaker 5: But I love you, Mike. I never I never got
Speaker 5: a chance to tell you this.
Speaker 4: Don't camera publicly, but you know how my mom and
Speaker 4: how I feel about you. How from the opportunities you
Speaker 4: gave me to San Antonio to where you embraced me
Speaker 4: as like a little brother in the somewhere. I was
Speaker 4: in the league to be able to tutor me, and
Speaker 4: even when I wasn't playing on your team, you still
Speaker 4: made phone calls and make sure I was straight, still
Speaker 4: checked on me. So that meant a lot to me,
Speaker 4: because you know, badly, making into the league and the
Speaker 4: road I took, you didn't have that many coaches that
Speaker 4: actually cared about me or my family or to come
Speaker 4: to my web too, leagues like that. So you made
Speaker 4: it a point to show me that you cared about me.
Speaker 4: Probably played for you. So I love you forever and
Speaker 4: I appreciate everything coach.
Speaker 3: To man, and I can say the same for you
Speaker 3: in a lot of different instances. More poorly though, the
Speaker 3: times you showed up Saturday morning to support my boys when.
Speaker 1: They had a hug. They had a hug. Today, I'm like,
Speaker 1: how you know him?
Speaker 2: I started thinking, like nice embrace.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, yeah, that's dope, sir.
Speaker 4: Let's jump back up to your upbringing. Pop was in
Speaker 4: the Air Force. He was always moving around. How was
Speaker 4: that born a clubs of how you're in bouncing around?
Speaker 4: How was that growing up?
Speaker 3: It was? It was cool from the standpoint I experienced
Speaker 3: a lot of different cultures early on, and so it
Speaker 3: helped me, uh, going to a lot of different situations
Speaker 3: not afraid or at ease because I was in them
Speaker 3: types of situations all the time growing up, you know,
Speaker 3: constantly moving, you know, because your dad's in the air force.
Speaker 3: So you got to figure out, Okay, how do I
Speaker 3: fit in when I get to this school, How do
Speaker 3: I make friends when I get to this school. How
Speaker 3: do I adjust to this culture and being in Germany. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you go to school with Americans because you're going to
Speaker 3: school on base and all that, but you're still living
Speaker 3: in the German community at times, you're still interacting because
Speaker 3: you're going off bas with the German. So again, it
Speaker 3: just helped me get more culture at an earlier age,
Speaker 3: which translated to a lot of stuff for me even
Speaker 3: even in my coaching career.
Speaker 1: Any did you learn to speak the language?
Speaker 3: I spoke fairly well back then. I mean I can
Speaker 3: get you know, I can ask where you live right now?
Speaker 3: How old are you? But you know, I'm dating myself
Speaker 3: at that I was back then. I was back in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty eight, you know, when I was back there
Speaker 3: speaking it. So it's been a minute.
Speaker 4: Growing up in the military environment. Does that have a
Speaker 4: lot to do with the man you are today?
Speaker 3: Yes, And I said it earlier. You know my coaching style.
Speaker 3: You know again, fortunately blessed, lucky you have you want
Speaker 3: to call it, to get an opportunity at a young age.
Speaker 3: But I, at a young age, I was disciplined. I
Speaker 3: was really disciplined and in my opinion, organized, and and
Speaker 3: you know when I first got in the league, I
Speaker 3: was sleeping in my office. I thought it was the
Speaker 3: best thing in the world because, you know, I go
Speaker 3: down sleep in the training room. I wake up, You
Speaker 3: got your showers there, you throwing a pair of shorts
Speaker 3: and you you clicking you back at work. So my
Speaker 3: work ethic was off the charge. And I and I
Speaker 3: credit it. I credit a lot of that to my dad.
Speaker 3: My dad. You know, he was an enlisted guy, but
Speaker 3: but he you know, his his stuff was pressed every day. Uh,
Speaker 3: and there were times he didn't want to be in
Speaker 3: be in the military, but you know, he did it.
Speaker 3: He did it with his head held high, and he
Speaker 3: was organized and disciplaining all that, and he instilled a
Speaker 3: lot of that in me that I carried over to
Speaker 3: my my life in my direction my goals that I
Speaker 3: had in mind for myself.
Speaker 4: You were basketball and football star. How did how did
Speaker 4: you get into those sports? Again?
Speaker 3: My dad, my dad, he was he loved sports, and
Speaker 3: so all of us, you know, there's four of us,
Speaker 3: my self, my older sister who she played softball growing up.
Speaker 3: She's actually stopped and you know, going to college. She's
Speaker 3: real smart. Got an academic scholarship to Boston University. Then
Speaker 3: my younger brother, who played five years in the NFL,
Speaker 3: and then my younger sister who played Division one basketball.
Speaker 3: My dad just started as early. He was one of
Speaker 3: those fathers that was around a lot of times he
Speaker 3: coached us, you know, and and because he was passionate
Speaker 3: about it. You know how it is, man, if you're
Speaker 3: especially if your dad, if your dad's passionate about something
Speaker 3: and you're and you're younger, a lot of times you're
Speaker 3: gonna fall into that and you're gonna be passionate about it.
Speaker 3: So so that was that was that. It was mainly
Speaker 3: because of because of him and his love for the game.
Speaker 4: Bernie Bigger, Staff, David Fizdale, Hank Egan, Coach Egan, my guy,
Speaker 4: Chris Grant, Ed Musselman talk about the influence US crazy San.
Speaker 1: Diego and his influence. So they be a San Diego.
Speaker 3: Oh man, there was a there's a lot of US
Speaker 3: out there U s D.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my U C l A is there now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's there.
Speaker 3: Uh you know, I think uh uh A lot has
Speaker 3: to do with it, because you know, we went to
Speaker 3: us D and and and we knew we couldn't play,
Speaker 3: so we have we had to figure out some other
Speaker 3: path to get to the.
Speaker 4: Very important Yeah, you know, so so we wanted to get.
Speaker 3: To the league. We got to figure out how we
Speaker 3: get the league because it wasn't gonna because we could play,
Speaker 3: you know at the time, but another guy, James Brago,
Speaker 3: James Brago USD. But so it started. You know, I
Speaker 3: played there. Never forget. I was about to go on
Speaker 3: my last trip as a player on the team. Stopped
Speaker 3: by Coach Egan's office. It was on he got a
Speaker 3: coffee table in there. There's a us D magazine and
Speaker 3: on the cover is a picture of Bernie Bickerstaff and
Speaker 3: I'm like, WHOA. I started reading it because Bernie was kind
Speaker 3: of at the time, he was my idol because here's
Speaker 3: an African American that was a head coach and a
Speaker 3: GM already, but he never played in the league, and
Speaker 3: so I'm like reading this and I'm like, he went
Speaker 3: to USD. Hey, you know, because Bernie from the rural
Speaker 3: area Kentucky and his route to get to USD was
Speaker 3: crazy in itself, and so that blew my mind. So
Speaker 3: that even made me, it even drew me closer to him,
Speaker 3: although he didn't know me and I didn't know just
Speaker 3: from Afar. So I asked, I asked coaching, and I said, hey,
Speaker 3: do you know anybody in the NBA can get an
Speaker 3: internship with? Because I still had took me four and
Speaker 3: a half years of graduating, so I had to come
Speaker 3: back for a half a semester. And he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know Larry Brown because Hank was at Air Force
Speaker 3: Academy when Larry was the head coach and the Nuggets,
Speaker 3: and he should come down there for training camp. And
Speaker 3: he goes, I know Bernie Pickers. I said, you know Bernie,
Speaker 3: He said yeah. I said, can you ask for an internship?
Speaker 3: He said yeah. So I did summer internship, which turned
Speaker 3: into a job offer as a video coordinator, and that's
Speaker 3: how I got in the league. And then once I
Speaker 3: got in the League. You know, this is back in
Speaker 3: the day where we had the VHS tapes back the
Speaker 3: deck and then we had the big satellite dish and
Speaker 3: we had to plug in the coordinates to try to
Speaker 3: get the games. And uh, and I was the only
Speaker 3: guy in the video room. And so when they finally
Speaker 3: let me get help in the video room, I adn't
Speaker 3: really know nobody, so I just was calling on my
Speaker 3: ex teammate. Chris Grant came in and turned for me.
Speaker 3: Neil Meyer came in turn for David Fizdale when he
Speaker 3: tried to get the business. We played it so Eric
Speaker 3: Sposter and I played against each other. He was at
Speaker 3: University of Portland and I was at USD. Now we
Speaker 3: was better than him. We start each other, you know,
Speaker 3: we don't put that on record, but but he's still
Speaker 3: my guy, you know. And and so when David Fizdale
Speaker 3: was getting league, we called Spoe and said, hey, we
Speaker 3: got the shy. So they didn't even know each other.
Speaker 3: So Spoe took him on because Spoe was in the
Speaker 3: video room. And then it just started growing from there.
Speaker 1: You know, that's really great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, assistant coach under bigger staff, under Pop, under Rick
Speaker 2: Carlisle obviously three guys that made their mark as head
Speaker 2: coaches in this league real quick.
Speaker 1: One thing you learned from each of.
Speaker 3: Them, very big staff. I thought he was he was
Speaker 3: his feel for players. You know, you talk about the
Speaker 3: players coach. In my opinion, it's burning pop. He was
Speaker 3: a guy that, in my opinion, made everybody one through
Speaker 3: fifteen plus everybody in the front office, everybody on the staff,
Speaker 3: even the janitors feel like when they wanted, they were
Speaker 3: all a part of part of it. Every everybody was
Speaker 3: a part of it. I don't know how he did it.
Speaker 3: I still try to duplicate that, but he was amazing
Speaker 3: in that area. Rick Carlile details and he's one of
Speaker 3: the smartest. Yes, he is methodical about the details. And
Speaker 3: it's just because he is. He's a smart, smart individual
Speaker 3: that's retely smartest.
Speaker 1: Really dope.
Speaker 2: Uh, you land your first job in two thousand and
Speaker 2: five as a head coach at just thirty five, very young,
Speaker 2: and being a black coach at that young at that time, did.
Speaker 1: You feel like you were ready? Had you had enough
Speaker 1: bumps and bruises yet or.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd never go back on it. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: keep taking that paycheck, right, But if I was keeping
Speaker 3: it real. No, And that's that even though we had success,
Speaker 3: we had a lot of success because we had Lebron James.
Speaker 3: Now he was still learning and growing too, but he
Speaker 3: made my job a lot lot easier and I and
Speaker 3: you know, when I look back on it now, I
Speaker 3: look at some of these young coaches now, like like
Speaker 3: Missoula and some of the other guys, and I'm just
Speaker 3: amazed because the pressure now is even so much more
Speaker 3: so than back there because of the social media and
Speaker 3: all the other access that we give you guys now,
Speaker 3: you know, to us, and so the jobs that they
Speaker 3: do are a lot harder than when I first got
Speaker 3: the job. And I'm watching them, I watching my interviews,
Speaker 3: I watch them on the sideline and all that, and
Speaker 3: I'm I'm just amazed at them. There was a lot
Speaker 3: that I still needed to learn, but I was fortunately, blessed,
Speaker 3: lucky to be able to have the job at the
Speaker 3: time and the tape bumps and bruises experience, yes sir, yes, sir,
Speaker 3: and which in turn has helped me be a better coach.
Speaker 3: To that.
Speaker 2: One word to describe twenty one year old Lebron James,
Speaker 2: who that's it right now?
Speaker 3: I take that. That's it. That's it. Come from off
Speaker 3: the court, on the court to his body, to how
Speaker 3: he takes everything his mind one at twenty one.
Speaker 1: So this ain't even on the rundown.
Speaker 2: But I'm thinking now that I see because we're gonna
Speaker 2: talk about the finals, the run you guys made to
Speaker 2: the finals against Detroit when he went nuts.
Speaker 1: That was that year, right to get you guys there?
Speaker 1: What was that like?
Speaker 3: The thing that I remember most vividly is is, you know,
Speaker 3: I had a great staff back then, and Mike Malone,
Speaker 3: who I think one of the best coaches I love,
Speaker 3: on my staff, and I'll never forget Detroit called the
Speaker 3: time out. You see all the coaches go to the
Speaker 3: free throw line and huddle up real quick, and then
Speaker 3: they go in they say what they gotta say. And
Speaker 3: I was young, Mike was young, and we had Hank
Speaker 3: was the guy that kept us studying. But this the
Speaker 3: one time, this one time I kept us study. So
Speaker 3: we go and we start talking and Mike's like, hey,
Speaker 3: we gotta we gotta do this offensively. I said, whoha.
Speaker 3: I said, no, no, no, no, no, we ain't fun with
Speaker 3: Lebron right sit right here, and we're gonna wait until
Speaker 3: the buzz is about to sound, and I'm going there,
Speaker 3: say my one, two, three, and let them get back
Speaker 3: out on the floor. And so I went back in
Speaker 3: the huddle and Lebron was saying something. I just stood
Speaker 3: there listen. Then they turned and looked at me. I said,
Speaker 3: I didn't want to say nothing to that.
Speaker 2: Incredible in the finals, you're running up against your old boss,
Speaker 2: Greg Popovich. Obviously san Antonio comes up on top of
Speaker 2: What did you learn about yourself at that point?
Speaker 3: Man? I learned a lot. It's tough. We played one
Speaker 3: one way the whole year, offensively, and my whole philosophy
Speaker 3: going into that situation was, if I can get these
Speaker 3: guys to defend at the highest of high levels, having
Speaker 3: a talent like Lebron, at the end of the game,
Speaker 3: he's gonna make enough plays to where we're gonna have
Speaker 3: a chance to win because we believe in our defense
Speaker 3: that much and Lebron is that good offensively, and so
Speaker 3: we played a lot of spread pick and roll with him.
Speaker 3: And you know, a lot of people think spread pick
Speaker 3: and roll just started recently, But what people don't remember,
Speaker 3: people we played uh Donielle Marshall at the four and
Speaker 3: at the end of games, we had Anderson Begs our center,
Speaker 3: so we just did some action, some false action and
Speaker 3: the switch and yeh Andy came up and a lot
Speaker 3: of times he flipped that pick and roll, which helped
Speaker 3: Bron get downhill and now he sprang and uh. You know,
Speaker 3: it was great during the regular season, and it got
Speaker 3: us through at our defense, and that got a student
Speaker 3: on the playoffs. But we went up against that well
Speaker 3: oiled machine. Uh, and they they basically wherever Bruce was
Speaker 3: guarding to pick and roll they had and Bruce was
Speaker 3: quick and you know, he was feisty, tough, all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Bruce went all the way under and just waited on
Speaker 3: Lebron at the free throw line, and then a big
Speaker 3: waiting on Bron at the free throw line, and now
Speaker 3: they forced him to take jumpers. At the time that
Speaker 3: that hurt me because.
Speaker 1: He wasn't as confident as jumper at the time correct.
Speaker 3: And I didn't. It was hard to make adjustments at
Speaker 3: that time that drastically to your offense to try to
Speaker 3: beat those guys, because if you look at the score,
Speaker 3: it wasn't like we got blown out one hundred to
Speaker 3: seventy nine. They were eighty five eighty two. You know,
Speaker 3: they were close games, but it was because we just
Speaker 3: couldn't We were solid defensively, we couldn't score.
Speaker 1: Tony was going crazy, correct, Tony crazy?
Speaker 3: And if I remember write, what also hurt Larry Hughes
Speaker 3: didn't Larry Hughes was our starting point guard and he
Speaker 3: had gotten hurt. I wanted. I think you gotten hurt.
Speaker 3: He didn't play and having him uh be able to
Speaker 3: match it with Tony might might not have stopped Tony.
Speaker 1: But he was one of the best defenders in the
Speaker 1: league all that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was long as leg Yeah, yeah, correct.
Speaker 2: You took a lot of heat the media at that time.
Speaker 2: Some were saying Lebron was coaching, and how did you deal?
Speaker 2: How do you when that media storm and all that
Speaker 2: kind of bullshit and noise? How do you stay mentally
Speaker 2: strong and confident in your abilities?
Speaker 3: It was hard as a young guy, you know, but
Speaker 3: I tried to. I really tried to ignore the noise
Speaker 3: even when we were playing well, because I didn't want.
Speaker 3: You know, you always attribute a lot of stuff to
Speaker 3: the people you work with. And one of the things
Speaker 3: that that Rick Carlisle was really good at. He never
Speaker 3: really got too high doing he never really got too low.
Speaker 3: He was pretty even get killed the whole time. And
Speaker 3: that helped me a lot working for him and listening
Speaker 3: to him say that. But having said all that, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm human it, they'd boy me a little
Speaker 3: bit and when the stuff that you heard. But I'm
Speaker 3: a firm believer that you got to give guys ownership,
Speaker 3: and I got that. I even got that from Pop.
Speaker 3: I mean I was in the huddle as an assistant
Speaker 3: coach on the Great Teams in San Antonio where sometimes
Speaker 3: Tim would say no, no, no, let's do this, let's do
Speaker 3: this on the board, and Pop would be like, okay.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: The difference is Pop is Pop, and so they ain't
Speaker 3: gonna mess with him like they mess with me, you know,
Speaker 3: And that's just part of it. So uh, I accepted it,
Speaker 3: and I moved on from it, and you know, I
Speaker 3: grew from it and learned from it. Just like another thing.
Speaker 3: We were one of the first teams, and again it's
Speaker 3: because of Lebron. Our pre game, our pre game. Our
Speaker 3: guys were dancing and doing all this stuff, and people
Speaker 3: used to kill you. Ain't got no control of your guys.
Speaker 3: They doing all this. Yes, before the game, I'm like this.
Speaker 3: They just having fun, you know. But because I was
Speaker 3: a young coach, it was when we were a young team.
Speaker 3: It was an easy target for people to talk about
Speaker 3: back then too, you know, But you learn a lot
Speaker 3: as a young guy like jack said, you know, you
Speaker 3: take your hits and your loves and as long as
Speaker 3: you don't you know, as long as you take it
Speaker 3: and you try to grow from it in some way,
Speaker 3: shape or form. And that's I can honestly say that
Speaker 3: all the experiences that I've had and went through, I'd
Speaker 3: be the first nay I was wrong, you know, because
Speaker 3: I'm not right by no means all the time. And
Speaker 3: you just hope you learn and you grow from it
Speaker 3: and hopefully gonna be better next time around.
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Lakers come knocking, You get that job, You
Speaker 2: come in the year after Phil Jackson leaves.
Speaker 1: Shoes bags shoes to feel Lakers? How did that? How
Speaker 1: did that process happen?
Speaker 3: Uh? First of all, if I could do it again,
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't do it again because you know Phil,
Speaker 3: He's won of all times, and you know you're not
Speaker 3: gonna be able to duplicate anything he does. And I
Speaker 3: hate to say this, but you ain't gonna be able
Speaker 3: to duplicate what Pop did you and even Steve Kurran
Speaker 3: now you know, uh, it just is what it is.
Speaker 3: But the challenge was great and all that other stuff.
Speaker 3: When I looked at it, when I looked at the job,
Speaker 3: I just thought that there was still a lot left
Speaker 3: with the team. And obviously God rest his soul. But
Speaker 3: Kobe's Kobe, so so you you know, okay, you got Kobe.
Speaker 3: And then the reality is there were some great players.
Speaker 3: You know, power is great, even Andrew, a young guy.
Speaker 3: You know, uh, I don't know if at the time
Speaker 3: and Ran changed his name already he was you know.
Speaker 3: That meant you fish there was a lot there. But
Speaker 3: but the reality oft is I was next most excited
Speaker 3: about lamar odom.
Speaker 1: So much game, and you're right, not only.
Speaker 3: They have so much game, but the flexibility, the versatility
Speaker 3: became that team. Like you could play big with him
Speaker 3: at the three, uh and Drew, or you could play
Speaker 3: you could play powered, well, you played power to five
Speaker 3: him at the four. And then you know, so the
Speaker 3: versatility on that team excited me more than anything else.
Speaker 3: And I never that was the lockout year I'll never forget.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: We had a lockout here the whole time as a
Speaker 3: staff were working on and try how can we enhance
Speaker 3: this versatility and not not not just offensively but defensively too.
Speaker 3: And uh and then two days before a training camp start,
Speaker 3: you know, they say they traded them. Oh man, that
Speaker 3: they crushed me. They crushed me, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: it is what it is.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I thought we still had a decent year. I think
Speaker 3: we won the Pacific Division. I want to say that
Speaker 3: year and uh we took uh it was okay, see
Speaker 3: we took O k C the seven games and it's
Speaker 3: our six games in the second round, you know. And
Speaker 3: yes they could have you know, you look back and
Speaker 3: I wish I did this different or that different. But
Speaker 3: I thought we had a good year. And then year two.
Speaker 3: Uh we started off one and four. I was okay
Speaker 3: with it because we had a lot of new faces
Speaker 3: that we were trying to integrate in terms of Dwight
Speaker 3: Nash and it was maybe somebody else and and uh
Speaker 3: but I go in and I get fired, and it is what.
Speaker 1: It is the business. The cod get his five games? Uh,
Speaker 1: real quick?
Speaker 2: What was it like working with Kobe and trying to
Speaker 2: you know, what do you call coach player relationship and
Speaker 2: they're not friends? But like, how did you get on
Speaker 2: the same page with Cobe? But how what was that process?
Speaker 3: Like? It was great because Coke for me, you know,
Speaker 3: and there were a lot there are a lot of
Speaker 3: coach you know, we have our own coach speak, but
Speaker 3: there are a lot of coaches that coach Kobe around
Speaker 3: Kobe that had a hard time because Kobe blunt. Now,
Speaker 3: Kobe gonna look at you an eye and tell you
Speaker 3: what he want to tell you. For me, I like
Speaker 3: that because I felt I always knew where I stood was.
Speaker 3: You didn't have to I have to be correct, that's
Speaker 3: the best way to I didn't have to assume anything
Speaker 3: because if he didn't.
Speaker 1: Like it, he's gonna tell you.
Speaker 3: And so that was for me the best part about him.
Speaker 3: You know, now you're throwing his competitiveness and all this
Speaker 3: other stuff, and it was great. Now. The thing that
Speaker 3: was tough, well, because he had won championships with Phil
Speaker 3: and he won him in a certain way. It was
Speaker 3: hard as a young coach to say, hey, Kobe, let's
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 1: This way style. Yeah, I'll say it for you like
Speaker 1: you would just see.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't almost it was like like I said,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a disrespecting. It was just like Kobe's like,
Speaker 2: we've won five this way. So now there's a whole
Speaker 2: new philosophy where Mike is trying to implement on this
Speaker 2: and it's just sometimes it just didn't work.
Speaker 3: And and I don't blame himcause I'll probably be the
Speaker 3: same way too if I was with him and I
Speaker 3: experienced five championships doing it in a certain way. But
Speaker 3: the tough part about it, man, as you know, I
Speaker 3: can't be feeling it's hard, and now that I wouldn't
Speaker 3: even want a staff, so I don't really. So now
Speaker 3: I'm learning a lot as we're going along of what
Speaker 3: used to happen. And because I don't coach like that
Speaker 3: or I wasn't around, sometimes it's hard for me. I
Speaker 3: can't adjust just because Field did it right.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to do it your way.
Speaker 2: But what you didn't know coming in, like there was
Speaker 2: some internal funk and when Phil decided it was time
Speaker 2: and Mike came in, you would never know Phil Jackson.
Speaker 1: Was ever there.
Speaker 2: They took all of his ship down, bro It was
Speaker 2: graz all of it so some guys are coming back,
Speaker 2: like not only.
Speaker 3: If you remember too, the whole scouting apartment they gone
Speaker 3: was gone and then they brought it. I mean there
Speaker 3: was there was, There was a lot, a.
Speaker 1: Lot of change, a lot of change at that time.
Speaker 2: I think Jim Bust was making calls at that point,
Speaker 2: and there was a lot of moving parts outside of basketball.
Speaker 1: Who's Mike Brown?
Speaker 3: Oh man, I'm a grandfather? Wow? Yeah yeah it quick
Speaker 3: story on that. So my son Elijah, uh, when he
Speaker 3: when he told me when he and his girl they
Speaker 3: said they were pregnant, you know, the first thing, and
Speaker 3: people gonna look at me kind of like yeah. So
Speaker 3: but I was like, first thing the pop in mind was.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was cool and all that, but I
Speaker 3: didn't take congratulations all. The first thing I said was
Speaker 3: I still got some swag in my game, said Ganda said,
Speaker 3: I can't be called grandpa. I said, pop Papa. That's
Speaker 3: my dad's name. My dad is pop Pa. I said that.
Speaker 3: I said, that's my shame. You give Rid all the grades.
Speaker 3: You know, you look good with your stuff.
Speaker 1: Jack got my slag.
Speaker 3: I was like, so the first thing I thought, I said,
Speaker 3: I said, he love man, I said, I said, that's good.
Speaker 3: I said, but the baby gonna have to call me
Speaker 3: big Mike said.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: As soon as my grandson got here, Man, I looked
Speaker 3: it up. Somebody saying it. Somebody said, look at Paul
Speaker 3: Paul looking at him, that's my name, p A W
Speaker 3: p A. My name is Paul Paul right now. So
Speaker 3: so you know, I love being a grandfather.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: I love my family time, I love I love my motorcycles.
Speaker 3: You know. Uh, that's that's it in the nutshell, you know.
Speaker 3: I love you boys. I mean I face time. And
Speaker 3: now one of them was working for any other ones,
Speaker 3: working for forty nine ers. I'm facetiming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome. I see the smile on your face.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's been a hell of a journey, obviously
Speaker 2: not over. You've got an opportunity to coach some of
Speaker 2: the greatest players ever to play this game.
Speaker 1: Too. We didn't talk about I want to touch on
Speaker 1: before we let you out of here.
Speaker 3: Stephan k D I tell you and you said it.
Speaker 3: I did again. Fortunate, blessed, lucky, have you want to
Speaker 3: call it? To be able to coach some of the
Speaker 3: greatest and and if I could say that they all
Speaker 3: have one thing in common. It's the competitive spirit, the
Speaker 3: competitive spirit for who they are already, which is what
Speaker 3: makes them them great. And you can put slash work ethic.
Speaker 3: A lot of people think that these guys just show up,
Speaker 3: and you know, they don't none of it. Do that
Speaker 3: the time and the commitment that they put in behind
Speaker 3: the scenes to be great, and then when the lights
Speaker 3: come on, they don't understand how competitive that they are
Speaker 3: when it comes to trying to win and to contribute
Speaker 3: what they can contribute to help teams wins. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's your solo camera right there talking to all
Speaker 2: the Kings fans. What do you gotta tell them this year?
Speaker 1: Coach?
Speaker 3: You guys were great last year. We're gonna need you
Speaker 3: even more this year. So keep doing your thing, keep
Speaker 3: showing us love, and we're gonna keep laying it out
Speaker 3: on the floor every single time we step on that hardwood.
Speaker 3: A lot of love for you guys, and uh sacramental,
Speaker 3: let's rise up, baby.
Speaker 2: Being before we get out of here, Mike, if you
Speaker 2: can rewatch any game in the history court side, which
Speaker 2: game would it mean?
Speaker 3: Day? That's that's a great car. There's just a couple this,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you too. So when we played the
Speaker 3: Clippers last year, I know it was just a regular season,
Speaker 3: but it was one seventy five, one seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was some there was some triple overtime something.
Speaker 3: There was some great basketball plays in that game. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was a lot of fun. And then the reality
Speaker 3: of it is we talked, we spoke on it earlier
Speaker 3: when Lebron had twenty five twenty seventh straight. To be
Speaker 3: able to sit there and watch it, you do appreciate it.
Speaker 3: But if I was a fan, oh my.
Speaker 2: God, yeahids about that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Tough one coming up next, tough question. Got to hit
Speaker 1: you with it though, the oh Jordan, Kobe.
Speaker 3: Bron, everybody gonna think I'm diging. I'm okay with it.
Speaker 3: I'm okay with it.
Speaker 1: You ain't good first person.
Speaker 3: So it depends on what you want. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Explain what you mean by that, because I get what
Speaker 2: you're saying, but the fans may not.
Speaker 3: So like back in the day when when when Bron
Speaker 3: was young, got playing for ass, I'll never forget we're
Speaker 3: playing Washington. I think the first time we made the
Speaker 3: playoffs and in the game, boom boom, he drive at Washington,
Speaker 3: he gets double trouble team, he kicks it to Damon Jones,
Speaker 3: jams Jones hit from the left baseline, his wide open
Speaker 3: That set the tone for who we were and why
Speaker 3: we were as good as we were the next four
Speaker 3: or five years because of his unselfishness, his willingness to
Speaker 3: make the right play every single time. So I was
Speaker 3: never mad at him from making the right play because
Speaker 3: now it makes it easier for me to tell you
Speaker 3: and you got to make the right place all the time.
Speaker 1: It's crazy that he gets knocked for that thing.
Speaker 3: That's that used to drive me insane. And it's like,
Speaker 3: are you trying to create an individual? You trying to
Speaker 3: create a team? You know, And so if you're especially
Speaker 3: if you're putting the team together, okay for the first time,
Speaker 3: and you're trying to lay the foundation the principles of culture,
Speaker 3: all that man, because he's gonna help with that connected
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Now, if you just want straight.
Speaker 2: Killers, would say the team I got you and who
Speaker 2: can get you get carried?
Speaker 3: Then you go with those guys. But you know, one
Speaker 3: of the things that that that I will say is
Speaker 3: and at the end of the day, and this is
Speaker 3: why Bron is still uh, why he's still in my
Speaker 3: opinion from the outside looking at why he's still working
Speaker 3: as hard as he's working to not only just to
Speaker 3: be the great, but to have his team be the
Speaker 3: greatest because he knows. And I bet you the other
Speaker 3: two guys will say the same thing that the championships
Speaker 3: have a lot to do with it. At the end
Speaker 3: of the day, you got championships, then you got to
Speaker 3: write this.
Speaker 2: I remember Code wanted Cod Well this whole thing, you
Speaker 2: wanted six. I want to sit at the same table
Speaker 2: as MJ. So now Bron's saying I want five and
Speaker 2: want to be in that conversation.
Speaker 1: With Magic and Cod.
Speaker 3: There we go right there.
Speaker 1: Funny thing this happened to you recently?
Speaker 3: Oh dang, I mean that's that's a good one. But
Speaker 3: but I mean I as early as today, I tried
Speaker 3: to play it off. But I tripped. I got sniped
Speaker 3: about five times practice. And I say this because I
Speaker 3: would We had our coaches after practice and you know,
Speaker 3: you try to play it, just try to just jog
Speaker 3: it off. And uh, the first thing I sat down,
Speaker 3: we started talking in one of my loop locks. He
Speaker 3: luke late got a chance to be ahead cause I
Speaker 3: got four or five cats.
Speaker 1: On my staff. The number Jordan the best coach in the.
Speaker 3: League, d C. D C has learned, said people were
Speaker 3: sleeping on d C. He what I like about him too,
Speaker 3: He's like Darvin Ham when I had Darmenham and the
Speaker 3: Lakers with me and the Lakers because he was coaching
Speaker 3: like in New Mexico at a really low level and
Speaker 3: he had just got fired or something, and so I
Speaker 3: bring d Ham and and we wanted to give d
Speaker 3: Ham scouts that year. And this is one of I
Speaker 3: got the most respecting world from him, he said, He said, Mike,
Speaker 3: he said, I'm not ready for that right now.
Speaker 1: It's interesting and.
Speaker 3: It takes a lot for somebody say, because you know,
Speaker 3: everybody wants to show they can talk and show they
Speaker 3: knowing all that. But I'm not ready for Let me
Speaker 3: let me learn and doing that and later on next
Speaker 3: year I do scouts. But DC's second d C works
Speaker 3: hard at his craft, you know. And and there's too
Speaker 3: many of us, especially y'all ares black ex players, and
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to go down that road too far.
Speaker 3: But where they like, let's hire him because he helped
Speaker 3: with the relationship you know what question, And and Doug
Speaker 3: and d Ham are guys that I've been around to
Speaker 3: take that the heart like they trying to learn the game,
Speaker 3: and that, in my opin, that's what makes me because
Speaker 3: he got what y'all got, and he also got the
Speaker 3: other stuff. And there's a lot of guys out there
Speaker 3: that have that just don't get the opportunity. But so
Speaker 3: I now, going back, I sat down and Luke smart
Speaker 3: Ass were talking seriously. He said, A said, you got snipe?
Speaker 3: That comes said he I think he said, he said,
Speaker 3: are your sneakers new?
Speaker 4: But y'all don't know the reason why we say snipe
Speaker 4: because when you're in the basketball gym, there's no hum centerpore.
Speaker 4: The lines are flat, so there's no reason to trip.
Speaker 4: I might be running and walking. And then Florence just
Speaker 4: freshly got shouted.
Speaker 1: That in Miami someone tripped me. I got it. I
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 2: D Wade pump faked me. I ran into the stands.
Speaker 2: That ship was sucked up, but someone tripped me. I
Speaker 2: swear I didn't get sniped. Someone tripped.
Speaker 1: H Top five coaches in your opinion all time.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, I mean you got you got them popping there. Uh,
Speaker 3: Chuck Daily, you got thro Chuck Daily. Now I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get I'm gonna say these two names, but the career
Speaker 3: is not over, and they probably gonna got th Steve Curry,
Speaker 3: you got those sposter probably there. And then this is
Speaker 3: just me selfishly. I don't know this, but as as
Speaker 3: much love as Red or Back got, he might have
Speaker 3: to be in there as well as Bill Russell. That's interesting.
Speaker 3: So Bill, A lot of people don't know he was
Speaker 3: a player coach and how many right he won? But
Speaker 3: as a player coach eleven total? Yeah, eleven total, But
Speaker 3: I think he won a couple as a players coach.
Speaker 3: So if I'm correct, then I would I would have
Speaker 3: to because I don't know if there's anything harder than
Speaker 3: to be a player coach.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Time he was living in.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, correct, you go down the.
Speaker 2: Line, Yeah five din against dead or alive, anybody at
Speaker 2: your table breaking bread with.
Speaker 3: You, man, And I know people will be like, hey, man,
Speaker 3: he don't know what he talking about. But my family,
Speaker 3: my two boys, my grandson, my.
Speaker 1: Girl, I love you.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: That's the first world over two hundred episodes. You're the
Speaker 2: only person that's ever said that.
Speaker 1: I like that. It's like that too. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Who do you want to see on our show? All
Speaker 1: the smoke?
Speaker 4: But but before you answer that question, you have to
Speaker 4: help us get your answer on the show.
Speaker 3: Oh I got good at that ship.
Speaker 2: I started like him, Mike his coast and been around
Speaker 2: a lot of great people he has.
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, I love to see pop
Speaker 3: on your show.
Speaker 1: I would.
Speaker 3: I would be, yeah, I love to see Pop up.
Speaker 3: But also the next to two down and Steve Kurr
Speaker 3: and Sposter we.
Speaker 1: Got Steve already, Foster would be dope, it'd be a
Speaker 1: good call. Steve kurs those told some great stories.
Speaker 3: Steve he got right, I got. I gotta try to
Speaker 3: find that one and go back and see that one
Speaker 3: because he because he got some stuff, he got some real.
Speaker 4: Stuff about to be one to after we won the
Speaker 4: six I mean No. Three, when he wanted the West
Speaker 4: Conference Finals and he came in and hit those four threes. Yes,
Speaker 4: after the game, the media was all on him. But
Speaker 4: I was sitting in the back me and it was Geno,
Speaker 4: the first genob But it came up, was like, bro,
Speaker 4: you deserve the v to Steve Hurricane. To my there
Speaker 4: was asking him questions. He'd be lying to the back
Speaker 4: that you wanted this game. That meant the world to me.
Speaker 3: And that's what I was talking about. That's what I
Speaker 3: was talking about right there, because he got a lot
Speaker 3: of love. Which you know, he hit some big shots,
Speaker 3: but if he don't do him, no, he don't even
Speaker 3: have a chance to hit the big change.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, man, we appreciate you taking the time, best
Speaker 2: of luck with this team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely long overdue.
Speaker 2: Happy for you, like I said, being from here and
Speaker 2: seeing what you've been able to change not only his
Speaker 2: team into but the city because, like Jack said, as
Speaker 2: much as I love secret much to do out here,
Speaker 2: but you winning back to sacrament on that, I know
Speaker 2: that means a lot for every single person in the city. Man,
Speaker 2: So we wish you the best of luck this season
Speaker 2: and for many seasons on and thank you for your time.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that. But now I heard you about to
Speaker 3: ask a quick question about my best heart. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get one name. Can I throw one name out there him?
Speaker 3: If you want, I'm gonna throw one out there so
Speaker 3: a lot of people. I like old school rap, okay,
Speaker 3: and that's what you if you If you hear music
Speaker 3: coming from a Harley, it's gonna probably be old school rap.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be country one or two. So I gotta
Speaker 3: give give a little loved to My guy came Brown,
Speaker 3: Came Brown, and country music familiar.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard his music, but I heard of hip
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 3: You know it's stuff.
Speaker 1: We'll make sure you check him out. Man.
Speaker 2: Well that's Mike Brown, reigning NBA Coach of the Year.
Speaker 2: You catch this on Showtime Basketball YouTube and the iHeart
Speaker 2: Platform Black Effects. We'll see y'all next week.