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Speaker 1: Welcome back on isbel gutierres a host of four years

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Speaker 1: of Heat. If you haven't listened to it yet, you're

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Speaker 1: missing out. It takes you through the twenty ten to

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Speaker 1: twenty fourteen Miami Heat. Obviously Lebron was on that team,

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Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and this.

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Speaker 2: Guy right here was close. He was almost on that team.

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Speaker 1: Chris quinn is his future head coach is what I

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Speaker 1: like to call him, but he's currently an assistant head

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Speaker 1: coach with the Miami Heat. Played with the Heat from

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Speaker 1: eight to ten or was it seven.

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Speaker 3: Six to ten?

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Speaker 1: Six six to ten, and then played for some other

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Speaker 1: teams and then eventually became a coach here. But I

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Speaker 1: wanted to take you back to your playing days because

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Speaker 1: you were a Notre Dame guard, All Big East first team,

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Speaker 1: You're senior season. You were actually one of the undrafted

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Speaker 1: Miami Heat stories right, talk to me about how you

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Speaker 1: ended up with Miami and just your experience there playing

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Speaker 1: alongside Dwayne.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it it's interesting.

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Speaker 4: I was just thinking about it was seventeen years ago

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Speaker 4: now that I was here in summer League trying to

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Speaker 4: earn a spot. Uh, Basically I went undrafted in the

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Speaker 4: two thousand and six NBA draft.

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Speaker 3: My agent called right after the draft.

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Speaker 4: The Miami Heat were coming off the six championship. They

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Speaker 4: had most of their team back and they had a

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Speaker 4: couple of spots that you know, towards the end of

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Speaker 4: the roster that were open and they wanted a couple

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Speaker 4: of young guys. Of course, you know, they had no

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Speaker 4: draft picks that year, so there was no other guys

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Speaker 4: drafted ahead of me for the Heat. There was a

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Speaker 4: few of us that they signed right away basically on

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Speaker 4: a summer league training camp type deals, uh, so that

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Speaker 4: we could go in there, compete, battle it out, and eventually,

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Speaker 4: you know, try to try to make make the main roster.

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Speaker 4: You know, I was lucky enough. You know, my my

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Speaker 4: rookie year was obviously Dwayne in his prime. Shack was

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Speaker 4: still there, Zoe was still there, Gary Payton, Jay Will.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: It was. It was the Star Study six team. So

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Speaker 4: it was they didn't incredible experience getting to know those guys,

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Speaker 4: being in the locker room with those type of Hall

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Speaker 4: of Fame guys. Man. Obviously you mentioned Dwayne, you know

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Speaker 4: those years I was there, that was his prime. You know,

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Speaker 4: he got injured the one year then came back and

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Speaker 4: led the league in scoring. But just what a special

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Speaker 4: player that always rose, you know, to the occasion and

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Speaker 4: the biggest moments.

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Speaker 1: I want to go back to the year, the injury

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Speaker 1: prone year, the year that they basically didn't win a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of games, and it would just giving a

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Speaker 1: lot of people some time. But you had some great

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Speaker 1: moments in that year, any sort of memorable standout moments,

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Speaker 1: because there was one play I want to say it

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Speaker 1: was against the Phoenix Suns.

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Speaker 2: It was just like a fast break.

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Speaker 1: I think it was an and one, and I think

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Speaker 1: you even shocked yourself with the finish. And I'm just like,

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Speaker 1: I love seeing that from players who are in the

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Speaker 1: league and maybe are surprising themselves, Like, what were some

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Speaker 1: of the highlights from your stint there?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it was one of those games where we were

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Speaker 4: down I think fifteen or twenty and they put in

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Speaker 4: the second unit for the fourth quarter and then we

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Speaker 4: made a big run, cut their lead I think eventually

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Speaker 4: to two or three. But it was the shot. Someone

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Speaker 4: actually asked me about it yesterday and was wondered if

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Speaker 4: it was a trivia question, if I knew who fouled

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Speaker 4: me when when I made that that shot, but I

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Speaker 4: actually don't remember, but I do remember the moment. I

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Speaker 4: kind of just threw it up and it went in.

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Speaker 4: But it was a lot of fun moments, you know,

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Speaker 4: a lot of moments behind the scenes of hard work. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: my first two years I played for coach Riley.

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Speaker 3: Which was an amazing experience.

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Speaker 4: And then my last two years, basically a year and

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Speaker 4: a half was Underpo played for Spose. That was his

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Speaker 4: first two years. I actually joked with Spo all the

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Speaker 4: time that in twenty ten that he traded me away

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Speaker 4: from the Miami Heat. You know, obviously the next summer

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Speaker 4: is when they when they got to the Big Three.

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Speaker 1: What was that like when you traded away and then

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden you turn around and be like,

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Speaker 1: oh no, Lebron just signed with the Heat.

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Speaker 4: What just happened? Yeah, yeah, it was a bittersweet moment.

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Speaker 4: But you know, I joke with he says that the

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Speaker 4: time he didn't he didn't have a lot of pull,

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Speaker 4: But I joke with him that he traded me away,

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Speaker 4: and it was just, you know, I was happy, you know,

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Speaker 4: for the organization. Created a lot of great relationships.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: Fortunately those relationships eventually led me back as a coach,

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Speaker 4: and obviously Spoe as a young coach being put in

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Speaker 4: that position and then and then doing so well with

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Speaker 4: it was super cool to see.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, what you saw, what you

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Speaker 1: experienced from Spoe. He's clearly a different coach than he

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Speaker 1: was than he is now back then, But what did

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Speaker 1: you see from him in those first couple of years

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Speaker 1: and made you think, Hey, this guy's got something.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's always it was. It was the same concepts.

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Speaker 4: It was his work ethic. He had a ton of

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Speaker 4: grid as a head coach. Uh.

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Speaker 3: He was always trying to.

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Speaker 4: Look for ways to improve, get better. Uh, how can

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Speaker 4: I be better as a coach? How can I how

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Speaker 4: better serve our players? And he would always look at

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Speaker 4: himself first. Uh, after a bad loss, after a win,

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Speaker 4: he was always looking in the mirror.

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Speaker 3: How could he do better?

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Speaker 4: How can he help the team more?

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Speaker 3: Uh?

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Speaker 4: Those are the things that have led him to become,

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Speaker 4: you know, obviously one of the one of the best

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Speaker 4: right now.

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Speaker 1: Now, after you left the Heat, you had some stints

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Speaker 1: with some other teams. You played in Russia, you played

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Speaker 1: in Cleveland. Also, talk to me about how you got

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Speaker 1: back to Miami. What was the path to get you

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Speaker 1: into coaching.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so my fifth year I played in San Antonio

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Speaker 4: with the Spurs, which was super cool obviously, you know,

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Speaker 4: I went from pat Riley, Eric Sposha to Greg Popovich,

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Speaker 4: just three of the top you know, they just did

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Speaker 4: the top fifteen list of all time. These are these

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Speaker 4: are three the greatest of all time. Uh so I

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Speaker 4: got to learn from the from them, you know, basketball

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Speaker 4: one oh one from three of the greatest minds. My

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Speaker 4: sixth year playing professionally was the lockout year, right, and

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Speaker 4: uh you know, my agent called in in the middle

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Speaker 4: of the summer basically said hey, I have a deal

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Speaker 4: for you in Russia. At that time, you know, there

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Speaker 4: was a lot of discussion if the season was even

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Speaker 4: going to start. You know, what did that look like?

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Speaker 4: I think it eventually started around Christmas, right, and then

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Speaker 4: that you know, basically at that point, I was like

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Speaker 4: not guaranteed to be on an NBA roster. I was

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Speaker 4: still fighting my way, you know, even after my fifth

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Speaker 4: year and I got, you know a good deal to

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Speaker 4: go to Russia with my wife, my newborn son who's

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Speaker 4: twelve now. We we took off, went to Russia, played

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Speaker 4: a season there for for kim Key Moscow, and it

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Speaker 4: was an incredible life experience.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there was there was good days and

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Speaker 3: bad days.

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Speaker 4: But for my wife and I, you know, we still

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Speaker 4: look back talk about, you know, the different experiences we had.

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Speaker 2: There were some of the good days, like what what

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Speaker 2: do you remember?

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Speaker 4: So the thing I remember the most is that our

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Speaker 4: team won the euro Cup, which was a big event there,

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Speaker 4: and it was just like towards the end of the season.

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Speaker 4: It was a culmination of a lot of hard work,

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Speaker 4: a lot of you know, good days, bad days. And

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Speaker 4: then I just remember my teammates. So basically our team

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Speaker 4: was consisted of six Russian players and six you know,

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Speaker 4: foreign players, non non Russians. So there was a couple

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Speaker 4: of Americans, we had an Australian, we had a couple

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Speaker 4: of Croatians, and I just remember hanging out with them

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Speaker 4: and getting to know that the different cultures. Uh you know,

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Speaker 4: we would we would hang out all the time, you know,

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Speaker 4: go get coffee is like a way of life over there.

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Speaker 4: But it was just super cool to get to know

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Speaker 4: uh no, no, hold a whole different way, all right.

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Speaker 1: So you got to Miami as an assistant coach when

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler got there.

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Speaker 2: Talk to me about.

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Speaker 1: Sort of the fit that he was with the Heat

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Speaker 1: and how he maybe he even elevated that just sort

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Speaker 1: of on court competitiveness that the Heat just so loves to,

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Speaker 1: uh you know say that they're they're very good at right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So Jimmy was just like a like a perfect

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Speaker 4: match for you know, for the Miami Heat.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: He came in, he does it all. He works super hard. Uh,

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Speaker 4: he's a he's a great leader in the locker room.

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Speaker 4: And you know, the one thing you know, a lot

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Speaker 4: of us in in the Heat culture have in common

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Speaker 4: is super competitive and you know, for for better or worse,

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Speaker 4: if if things aren't going you know the way we

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Speaker 4: all think they they all should be going. We we

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Speaker 4: have a level of accountability, We talk to each other,

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Speaker 4: We preach eye to eye communication, you know, all these

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Speaker 4: things that you know Jimmy stands for as well. Obviously

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Speaker 4: there's moments where you know he gets frustrated if we're

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Speaker 4: not winning, but you know that we all kind of

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Speaker 4: feel like that, and it.

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Speaker 3: Was just a good match.

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Speaker 4: And obviously you know now he's you know taking us

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Speaker 4: you know, the multiple finals, you know, multiple conference finals,

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Speaker 4: and I think it's just been a great match for

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Speaker 4: the Heat and Jimmy and and working together, you know,

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Speaker 4: towards a common goal.

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Speaker 1: You guys had such a great run through twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: through the bubble, and you know the couple of years

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Speaker 1: after that first round against Milwaukee and then this Game

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Speaker 1: seven against Boston.

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Speaker 2: But this past year during the regular season.

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Speaker 1: What because Spoe says we were close all regular season,

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Speaker 1: but from the outside looking in, you might not see that, right,

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Speaker 1: So talk to me about what was just off during

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Speaker 1: the regular sea enough to make the record be what

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Speaker 1: it was.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was a combination of things. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: availability injuries are a part of it, but also like

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Speaker 4: we we would have we would have great wins and

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Speaker 4: we would have bad losses, right, and you know sometimes

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Speaker 4: against some of the better teams we'd play better, and

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Speaker 4: against some of the other teams we you know, we

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Speaker 4: wouldn't play as well.

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Speaker 1: That's a consistency you just don't expect, or inconsistently you

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Speaker 1: don't expect it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like a roller coaster of a season

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Speaker 4: regular season, and we just we kept grinding through it.

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Speaker 4: We stuck together. There was definitely days where we all

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Speaker 4: felt like we weren't you know, we weren't any good.

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Speaker 4: We didn't perform the way we wanted to perform.

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Speaker 2: For a team.

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Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, but for a team that's been together

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Speaker 1: for a few years when you're at that point where

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Speaker 1: it's just like, what's happening? We can't figure it out?

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Speaker 1: Like what do you do to do that? What do

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Speaker 1: you do to just say, look, trust me, it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be okay.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you have to maintain optimism, but then

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Speaker 4: also like address the issues. At the same time. We

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Speaker 4: had you know, we checked every box like meetings, there

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Speaker 4: was team meetings, film sessions, practices, whatever it took to

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Speaker 4: just keep grinding through while maintaining optimism and a belief

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Speaker 4: that we were gonna figure it out. The good thing

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Speaker 4: is we had super high character guys in our locker room,

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Speaker 4: and you know, that belief started with them. A lot

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Speaker 4: of them, you know, felt the way we felt. If

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Speaker 4: we can, if we can get it right, if we

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Speaker 4: can click at the right moment, you know, we can,

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Speaker 4: we can make something special happen. And I think you

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Speaker 4: know you you talked about Jimmy. A lot of that

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Speaker 4: even started with him in his belief you know, he

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Speaker 4: thinks when he goes on the court, he's the best player,

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Speaker 4: regardless who else is on the court. And you know,

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Speaker 4: we we all felt that same way.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about you Donnis Haslam and

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Speaker 1: obviously retiring, but how much of a role did he

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Speaker 1: have and just maintaining everybody because he'd been doing it

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Speaker 1: for so long.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he had a huge role. And obviously transitioning to

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Speaker 4: whatever he's going to do next, he's going to have

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Speaker 4: a huge role as well. But he was always the

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Speaker 4: first one speaking, the first one reminding guys when they

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Speaker 4: needed to do to better, but also encouraging guys. You

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Speaker 4: know that we were really close, and you know, you

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Speaker 4: know right away you u d he's got he's got

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Speaker 4: that credibility right away, he can tell anybody anything and

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Speaker 4: then they're gonna respect what he has to say. And

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Speaker 4: then I think it was a great moment that that

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Speaker 4: last game that you know, he played and he played

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Speaker 4: so well and guys were basically like, oh man, he's

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Speaker 4: he's still got it. He can do it if if,

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Speaker 4: if he needs to do it. Uh So that was

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Speaker 4: a cool kind of you know, uh springboard into the

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Speaker 4: playoffs and then obviously the playing games, we're still a

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Speaker 4: challenge for us. We had to crind through those, uh,

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Speaker 4: and then we just kept kept grinding through it, you know,

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Speaker 4: day by day, you know, little by little, you know.

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Speaker 4: I think Spoe mentioned in the playoffs there's beauty in

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Speaker 4: the struggle. Yes, and really that's kind of kind of

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Speaker 4: how we all approached it.

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Speaker 1: Yes, if people actually listen to what he says and

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Speaker 1: not just like think it's coach talk, they'll actually understand.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's there's meaning to what he's saying.

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Speaker 1: It's not just coach speaking, not just trying to get people,

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Speaker 1: you know, out of the media room there. But I

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Speaker 1: wanted to just go to that first round of the playoffs.

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Speaker 1: So what was was the play in loss to Atlanta

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Speaker 1: was at the lowest point of the season because everybody

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Speaker 1: else from the outside looking in thought, oh, okay, let's

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Speaker 1: just get it right at the end, win that playoff,

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Speaker 1: it'll be all good.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So coming in the locker room after that game

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Speaker 4: was very discouraging. We had been beaten and been beaten

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Speaker 4: handily by Atlanta, and basically we you know, had a

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Speaker 4: day and a half to figure out, like, you know,

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Speaker 4: we got to get ready for Chicago now, and we

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Speaker 4: got to figure out how we're going to just get

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Speaker 4: one win. And the good thing going back to, you know,

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Speaker 4: the character of the guys in that locker room. Those

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Speaker 4: guys wanted to win, and they they wanted to keep playing.

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Speaker 4: They wanted to keep fighting together as a group. And

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Speaker 4: you could tell in the second half of the Chicago

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Speaker 4: game that that our guys, we're not going to quit

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Speaker 4: and just keep battling.

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Speaker 2: And God for exters.

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Speaker 1: So how is it that a team that just barely

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Speaker 1: crawled into the playoffs winning that Chicago game basically in

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Speaker 1: the fourth quarter has the type of confidence to go

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Speaker 1: into Milwaukee and take Game one. Like what were the conversations,

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Speaker 1: Like what did Jimmy, Bam or anybody do to make

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Speaker 1: anybody feel that that could happen.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So it started with Jimmy and Baam. Obviously they

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Speaker 4: they immediately had still believe and everybody and and the

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Speaker 4: rest of the team. Jimmy was like extremely locked in

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Speaker 4: at that point, and and we all could see it,

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Speaker 4: we could sense it. We knew he was locked in.

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Speaker 4: And then we also knew like we had just had

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Speaker 4: like two battle tested playing games. You know, it was

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Speaker 4: the Atlanta game in Chicago game really prepared us to

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Speaker 4: win Game one against Milwaukee. They had they had had

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Speaker 4: a lot of time off. At that point. We felt

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Speaker 4: like we were just you know, ready to go in there,

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Speaker 4: and we really just focused on getting game one and

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Speaker 4: seeing where that could get us.

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Speaker 1: And you got game one, but you lost Tyler and

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Speaker 1: with the broken hands, like it seemed like immediately the

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Speaker 1: challenges were smacking you guys in the face, and it

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Speaker 1: didn't seem like it was an issue.

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Speaker 2: Take me to the.

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Speaker 1: Fifty six point game from Jimmy, because throughout that first

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Speaker 1: round when people say playoff Jimmy, it's because he's taking

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Speaker 1: shots he wasn't taken in the regular season, making shots

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Speaker 1: he wasn't taken in the regular season, And it's just

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Speaker 1: like a person you've just never seen before. So when

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Speaker 1: you're watching that fifty six point game, you're.

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Speaker 4: Thinking, what I'm just watching like in amazement that second half.

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Speaker 4: You know, the shots he was hitting, you know the

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Speaker 4: skill that it required, but also just his will.

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Speaker 3: To win it was.

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Speaker 4: It was insane and all of us are just watching

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Speaker 4: taking it in I you know, a lot of us

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Speaker 4: kept the box score from that game. Really, you know,

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Speaker 4: a lot of people were talking to how it's one

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Speaker 4: of the greatest performances you know, in playoff history, and

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Speaker 4: really we're just watching with amazement at the amount of

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Speaker 4: will to win. And those are shots, like you said,

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Speaker 4: he's not taking as many of those in the regular season.

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Speaker 3: But he has a great feel for the game.

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Speaker 4: He knows when he needs to score, when he needs

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Speaker 4: to get his teammates involved, and he can control the game,

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Speaker 4: you know, on both ends in so many ways.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I still think of Josh Hart doesn't

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Speaker 1: slide under his ankle, it might be a different finish

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Speaker 1: to the season, but the next round. I think after

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Speaker 1: the first two games, Bam got a lot of criticism, right,

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Speaker 1: And one of the things that drives me nuts is

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Speaker 1: when people criticize Bam for not being this refined offensive talent.

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Speaker 1: If Bam had that refined offensive game, he'd be the

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Speaker 1: best player in the league, right because he does everything

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Speaker 1: else so well on the defensive end. So talk to

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Speaker 1: me about Bam what he means to the team and

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Speaker 1: where that like offensive complaint comes up empty.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So for us, like.

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Speaker 4: A lot of that other stuff that people say about

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Speaker 4: Bam is just noise We're constantly reminding him, you know,

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Speaker 4: what he means to the team, how important he is

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Speaker 4: on both ends. You know, are arguably the best defender

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Speaker 4: in the league. We ask him to do so much

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Speaker 4: on that end of the floor, multiple coverages, he switches,

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Speaker 4: he guards one through five. He's just as good at

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Speaker 4: guarding a perimeter as he is a big And then offensively,

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Speaker 4: we we played through him a lot, even if he's

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Speaker 4: not taking the shot, even if he's not being aggressive,

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Speaker 4: we can always.

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Speaker 3: Throw the ball to him, and.

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Speaker 4: Sometimes it's just to be a pressure release, but he's

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Speaker 4: getting other guys involved, and you know, a lot of

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Speaker 4: that is is through our system that we can we

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Speaker 4: can we have the you know, option to play through

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Speaker 4: him because of his skill level, and you know a

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Speaker 4: lot of that means he's not always gonna be scoring

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Speaker 4: like maybe other people want him to do. But we

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Speaker 4: all fully understand how important he is to our team

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Speaker 4: on both at the ends of the floor.

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Speaker 1: And then I just wanted to take you to that

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Speaker 1: Celtics series up three to zero. Must feel great, the

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Speaker 1: level of like ascending stress after lost one, lost two

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Speaker 1: and lost three, Like what were those experiences like and

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Speaker 1: what was that space between games six and seven, where

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Speaker 1: Spoe and Jimmy said, yeah, we're gonna go win, but

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Speaker 1: everybody else is like, I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So, as as great as our run was in

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Speaker 4: the playoffs, after game six was a worse feeling than

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Speaker 4: the feeling we had when we lost to Atlanta, you know,

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Speaker 4: the los in that fashion, point one on the clock

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Speaker 4: on offensive tip and rebound and then have to go

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Speaker 4: to Boston for Game seven and pick pick, pick up

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Speaker 4: the crew, Riley the troops. But right after the game, uh,

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Speaker 4: Spoe was saying that, Jimmy was saying that, and I

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Speaker 4: think it really it really made everyone else believe. By

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Speaker 4: the time we got twenty four hours later, I think

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Speaker 4: everyone believed we were going to go in there and

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Speaker 4: get that win. But obviously, you know, being up three

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Speaker 4: to zero to Tide is uh is.

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Speaker 3: It was a lot of pressure.

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Speaker 4: At some point after the game, we all congratulated Spoe

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Speaker 4: on not being the first coach to go up three

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Speaker 4: to zero and then and then uh, and then lose

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Speaker 4: this series. So you know, we definitely had that going

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Speaker 4: forward as well.

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Speaker 1: It must have been a great feeling and just the

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Speaker 1: last thing on Spo specifically because he was obviously part

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Speaker 1: of the podcast, and like that was where he grew,

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Speaker 1: like as a coach, you know, uh, coaching Lebron and

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Speaker 1: just learning and just that desire to just not be

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Speaker 1: the reason why the Heat lost. Now in twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three is considered the best coach in the league.

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Speaker 2: What makes him such a special coach?

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Speaker 4: I think the fact that even though he's thought of

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Speaker 4: that way, he still is the same guy. He's still

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Speaker 4: after a regular season loss, is upset if we're not

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Speaker 4: doing things the way he wants him done if or

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Speaker 4: the way we all want things done. He's still continuing

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Speaker 4: to try to improve as a coach, as a leader,

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Speaker 4: and that's I don't think for him that's ever gonna change.

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Speaker 4: And obviously he's matured a lot as a coach. He's

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Speaker 4: learned a lot through experience. But he's still to this

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Speaker 4: day trying to trying to figure out today how he

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Speaker 4: can be better from yesterday and tomorrow be better than today.

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Speaker 1: I used to say this when you were a player.

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Speaker 1: I used to say, if you want to win, play

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Speaker 1: Chris Quinn. And so now if you're hiring a coach,

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Speaker 1: if you want to win, hire Chris Quinn.

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Speaker 2: Guy is going to be really good. Chris, thank you

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Speaker 2: so much for your time. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: Brother, thank you very much. H