Speaker 1: Welcome back on isbel gutierres a host of four years
Speaker 1: of Heat. If you haven't listened to it yet, you're
Speaker 1: missing out. It takes you through the twenty ten to
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen Miami Heat. Obviously Lebron was on that team,
Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and this.
Speaker 2: Guy right here was close. He was almost on that team.
Speaker 1: Chris quinn is his future head coach is what I
Speaker 1: like to call him, but he's currently an assistant head
Speaker 1: coach with the Miami Heat. Played with the Heat from
Speaker 1: eight to ten or was it seven.
Speaker 3: Six to ten?
Speaker 1: Six six to ten, and then played for some other
Speaker 1: teams and then eventually became a coach here. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to take you back to your playing days because
Speaker 1: you were a Notre Dame guard, All Big East first team,
Speaker 1: You're senior season. You were actually one of the undrafted
Speaker 1: Miami Heat stories right, talk to me about how you
Speaker 1: ended up with Miami and just your experience there playing
Speaker 1: alongside Dwayne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it it's interesting.
Speaker 4: I was just thinking about it was seventeen years ago
Speaker 4: now that I was here in summer League trying to
Speaker 4: earn a spot. Uh, Basically I went undrafted in the
Speaker 4: two thousand and six NBA draft.
Speaker 3: My agent called right after the draft.
Speaker 4: The Miami Heat were coming off the six championship. They
Speaker 4: had most of their team back and they had a
Speaker 4: couple of spots that you know, towards the end of
Speaker 4: the roster that were open and they wanted a couple
Speaker 4: of young guys. Of course, you know, they had no
Speaker 4: draft picks that year, so there was no other guys
Speaker 4: drafted ahead of me for the Heat. There was a
Speaker 4: few of us that they signed right away basically on
Speaker 4: a summer league training camp type deals, uh, so that
Speaker 4: we could go in there, compete, battle it out, and eventually,
Speaker 4: you know, try to try to make make the main roster.
Speaker 4: You know, I was lucky enough. You know, my my
Speaker 4: rookie year was obviously Dwayne in his prime. Shack was
Speaker 4: still there, Zoe was still there, Gary Payton, Jay Will.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: It was. It was the Star Study six team. So
Speaker 4: it was they didn't incredible experience getting to know those guys,
Speaker 4: being in the locker room with those type of Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame guys. Man. Obviously you mentioned Dwayne, you know
Speaker 4: those years I was there, that was his prime. You know,
Speaker 4: he got injured the one year then came back and
Speaker 4: led the league in scoring. But just what a special
Speaker 4: player that always rose, you know, to the occasion and
Speaker 4: the biggest moments.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the year, the injury
Speaker 1: prone year, the year that they basically didn't win a
Speaker 1: whole lot of games, and it would just giving a
Speaker 1: lot of people some time. But you had some great
Speaker 1: moments in that year, any sort of memorable standout moments,
Speaker 1: because there was one play I want to say it
Speaker 1: was against the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 2: It was just like a fast break.
Speaker 1: I think it was an and one, and I think
Speaker 1: you even shocked yourself with the finish. And I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I love seeing that from players who are in the
Speaker 1: league and maybe are surprising themselves, Like, what were some
Speaker 1: of the highlights from your stint there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was one of those games where we were
Speaker 4: down I think fifteen or twenty and they put in
Speaker 4: the second unit for the fourth quarter and then we
Speaker 4: made a big run, cut their lead I think eventually
Speaker 4: to two or three. But it was the shot. Someone
Speaker 4: actually asked me about it yesterday and was wondered if
Speaker 4: it was a trivia question, if I knew who fouled
Speaker 4: me when when I made that that shot, but I
Speaker 4: actually don't remember, but I do remember the moment. I
Speaker 4: kind of just threw it up and it went in.
Speaker 4: But it was a lot of fun moments, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of moments behind the scenes of hard work. Obviously,
Speaker 4: my first two years I played for coach Riley.
Speaker 3: Which was an amazing experience.
Speaker 4: And then my last two years, basically a year and
Speaker 4: a half was Underpo played for Spose. That was his
Speaker 4: first two years. I actually joked with Spo all the
Speaker 4: time that in twenty ten that he traded me away
Speaker 4: from the Miami Heat. You know, obviously the next summer
Speaker 4: is when they when they got to the Big Three.
Speaker 1: What was that like when you traded away and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you turn around and be like,
Speaker 1: oh no, Lebron just signed with the Heat.
Speaker 4: What just happened? Yeah, yeah, it was a bittersweet moment.
Speaker 4: But you know, I joke with he says that the
Speaker 4: time he didn't he didn't have a lot of pull,
Speaker 4: But I joke with him that he traded me away,
Speaker 4: and it was just, you know, I was happy, you know,
Speaker 4: for the organization. Created a lot of great relationships.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: Fortunately those relationships eventually led me back as a coach,
Speaker 4: and obviously Spoe as a young coach being put in
Speaker 4: that position and then and then doing so well with
Speaker 4: it was super cool to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, what you saw, what you
Speaker 1: experienced from Spoe. He's clearly a different coach than he
Speaker 1: was than he is now back then, But what did
Speaker 1: you see from him in those first couple of years
Speaker 1: and made you think, Hey, this guy's got something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's always it was. It was the same concepts.
Speaker 4: It was his work ethic. He had a ton of
Speaker 4: grid as a head coach. Uh.
Speaker 3: He was always trying to.
Speaker 4: Look for ways to improve, get better. Uh, how can
Speaker 4: I be better as a coach? How can I how
Speaker 4: better serve our players? And he would always look at
Speaker 4: himself first. Uh, after a bad loss, after a win,
Speaker 4: he was always looking in the mirror.
Speaker 3: How could he do better?
Speaker 4: How can he help the team more?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: Those are the things that have led him to become,
Speaker 4: you know, obviously one of the one of the best
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 1: Now, after you left the Heat, you had some stints
Speaker 1: with some other teams. You played in Russia, you played
Speaker 1: in Cleveland. Also, talk to me about how you got
Speaker 1: back to Miami. What was the path to get you
Speaker 1: into coaching.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so my fifth year I played in San Antonio
Speaker 4: with the Spurs, which was super cool obviously, you know,
Speaker 4: I went from pat Riley, Eric Sposha to Greg Popovich,
Speaker 4: just three of the top you know, they just did
Speaker 4: the top fifteen list of all time. These are these
Speaker 4: are three the greatest of all time. Uh so I
Speaker 4: got to learn from the from them, you know, basketball
Speaker 4: one oh one from three of the greatest minds. My
Speaker 4: sixth year playing professionally was the lockout year, right, and
Speaker 4: uh you know, my agent called in in the middle
Speaker 4: of the summer basically said hey, I have a deal
Speaker 4: for you in Russia. At that time, you know, there
Speaker 4: was a lot of discussion if the season was even
Speaker 4: going to start. You know, what did that look like?
Speaker 4: I think it eventually started around Christmas, right, and then
Speaker 4: that you know, basically at that point, I was like
Speaker 4: not guaranteed to be on an NBA roster. I was
Speaker 4: still fighting my way, you know, even after my fifth
Speaker 4: year and I got, you know a good deal to
Speaker 4: go to Russia with my wife, my newborn son who's
Speaker 4: twelve now. We we took off, went to Russia, played
Speaker 4: a season there for for kim Key Moscow, and it
Speaker 4: was an incredible life experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there was there was good days and
Speaker 3: bad days.
Speaker 4: But for my wife and I, you know, we still
Speaker 4: look back talk about, you know, the different experiences we had.
Speaker 2: There were some of the good days, like what what
Speaker 2: do you remember?
Speaker 4: So the thing I remember the most is that our
Speaker 4: team won the euro Cup, which was a big event there,
Speaker 4: and it was just like towards the end of the season.
Speaker 4: It was a culmination of a lot of hard work,
Speaker 4: a lot of you know, good days, bad days. And
Speaker 4: then I just remember my teammates. So basically our team
Speaker 4: was consisted of six Russian players and six you know,
Speaker 4: foreign players, non non Russians. So there was a couple
Speaker 4: of Americans, we had an Australian, we had a couple
Speaker 4: of Croatians, and I just remember hanging out with them
Speaker 4: and getting to know that the different cultures. Uh you know,
Speaker 4: we would we would hang out all the time, you know,
Speaker 4: go get coffee is like a way of life over there.
Speaker 4: But it was just super cool to get to know
Speaker 4: uh no, no, hold a whole different way, all right.
Speaker 1: So you got to Miami as an assistant coach when
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler got there.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about.
Speaker 1: Sort of the fit that he was with the Heat
Speaker 1: and how he maybe he even elevated that just sort
Speaker 1: of on court competitiveness that the Heat just so loves to,
Speaker 1: uh you know say that they're they're very good at right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Jimmy was just like a like a perfect
Speaker 4: match for you know, for the Miami Heat.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: He came in, he does it all. He works super hard. Uh,
Speaker 4: he's a he's a great leader in the locker room.
Speaker 4: And you know, the one thing you know, a lot
Speaker 4: of us in in the Heat culture have in common
Speaker 4: is super competitive and you know, for for better or worse,
Speaker 4: if if things aren't going you know the way we
Speaker 4: all think they they all should be going. We we
Speaker 4: have a level of accountability, We talk to each other,
Speaker 4: We preach eye to eye communication, you know, all these
Speaker 4: things that you know Jimmy stands for as well. Obviously
Speaker 4: there's moments where you know he gets frustrated if we're
Speaker 4: not winning, but you know that we all kind of
Speaker 4: feel like that, and it.
Speaker 3: Was just a good match.
Speaker 4: And obviously you know now he's you know taking us
Speaker 4: you know, the multiple finals, you know, multiple conference finals,
Speaker 4: and I think it's just been a great match for
Speaker 4: the Heat and Jimmy and and working together, you know,
Speaker 4: towards a common goal.
Speaker 1: You guys had such a great run through twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: through the bubble, and you know the couple of years
Speaker 1: after that first round against Milwaukee and then this Game
Speaker 1: seven against Boston.
Speaker 2: But this past year during the regular season.
Speaker 1: What because Spoe says we were close all regular season,
Speaker 1: but from the outside looking in, you might not see that, right,
Speaker 1: So talk to me about what was just off during
Speaker 1: the regular sea enough to make the record be what
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was a combination of things. Obviously,
Speaker 4: availability injuries are a part of it, but also like
Speaker 4: we we would have we would have great wins and
Speaker 4: we would have bad losses, right, and you know sometimes
Speaker 4: against some of the better teams we'd play better, and
Speaker 4: against some of the other teams we you know, we
Speaker 4: wouldn't play as well.
Speaker 1: That's a consistency you just don't expect, or inconsistently you
Speaker 1: don't expect it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like a roller coaster of a season
Speaker 4: regular season, and we just we kept grinding through it.
Speaker 4: We stuck together. There was definitely days where we all
Speaker 4: felt like we weren't you know, we weren't any good.
Speaker 4: We didn't perform the way we wanted to perform.
Speaker 2: For a team.
Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, but for a team that's been together
Speaker 1: for a few years when you're at that point where
Speaker 1: it's just like, what's happening? We can't figure it out?
Speaker 1: Like what do you do to do that? What do
Speaker 1: you do to just say, look, trust me, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you have to maintain optimism, but then
Speaker 4: also like address the issues. At the same time. We
Speaker 4: had you know, we checked every box like meetings, there
Speaker 4: was team meetings, film sessions, practices, whatever it took to
Speaker 4: just keep grinding through while maintaining optimism and a belief
Speaker 4: that we were gonna figure it out. The good thing
Speaker 4: is we had super high character guys in our locker room,
Speaker 4: and you know, that belief started with them. A lot
Speaker 4: of them, you know, felt the way we felt. If
Speaker 4: we can, if we can get it right, if we
Speaker 4: can click at the right moment, you know, we can,
Speaker 4: we can make something special happen. And I think you
Speaker 4: know you you talked about Jimmy. A lot of that
Speaker 4: even started with him in his belief you know, he
Speaker 4: thinks when he goes on the court, he's the best player,
Speaker 4: regardless who else is on the court. And you know,
Speaker 4: we we all felt that same way.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about you Donnis Haslam and
Speaker 1: obviously retiring, but how much of a role did he
Speaker 1: have and just maintaining everybody because he'd been doing it
Speaker 1: for so long.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he had a huge role. And obviously transitioning to
Speaker 4: whatever he's going to do next, he's going to have
Speaker 4: a huge role as well. But he was always the
Speaker 4: first one speaking, the first one reminding guys when they
Speaker 4: needed to do to better, but also encouraging guys. You
Speaker 4: know that we were really close, and you know, you
Speaker 4: know right away you u d he's got he's got
Speaker 4: that credibility right away, he can tell anybody anything and
Speaker 4: then they're gonna respect what he has to say. And
Speaker 4: then I think it was a great moment that that
Speaker 4: last game that you know, he played and he played
Speaker 4: so well and guys were basically like, oh man, he's
Speaker 4: he's still got it. He can do it if if,
Speaker 4: if he needs to do it. Uh So that was
Speaker 4: a cool kind of you know, uh springboard into the
Speaker 4: playoffs and then obviously the playing games, we're still a
Speaker 4: challenge for us. We had to crind through those, uh,
Speaker 4: and then we just kept kept grinding through it, you know,
Speaker 4: day by day, you know, little by little, you know.
Speaker 4: I think Spoe mentioned in the playoffs there's beauty in
Speaker 4: the struggle. Yes, and really that's kind of kind of
Speaker 4: how we all approached it.
Speaker 1: Yes, if people actually listen to what he says and
Speaker 1: not just like think it's coach talk, they'll actually understand.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's there's meaning to what he's saying.
Speaker 1: It's not just coach speaking, not just trying to get people,
Speaker 1: you know, out of the media room there. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to just go to that first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So what was was the play in loss to Atlanta
Speaker 1: was at the lowest point of the season because everybody
Speaker 1: else from the outside looking in thought, oh, okay, let's
Speaker 1: just get it right at the end, win that playoff,
Speaker 1: it'll be all good.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So coming in the locker room after that game
Speaker 4: was very discouraging. We had been beaten and been beaten
Speaker 4: handily by Atlanta, and basically we you know, had a
Speaker 4: day and a half to figure out, like, you know,
Speaker 4: we got to get ready for Chicago now, and we
Speaker 4: got to figure out how we're going to just get
Speaker 4: one win. And the good thing going back to, you know,
Speaker 4: the character of the guys in that locker room. Those
Speaker 4: guys wanted to win, and they they wanted to keep playing.
Speaker 4: They wanted to keep fighting together as a group. And
Speaker 4: you could tell in the second half of the Chicago
Speaker 4: game that that our guys, we're not going to quit
Speaker 4: and just keep battling.
Speaker 2: And God for exters.
Speaker 1: So how is it that a team that just barely
Speaker 1: crawled into the playoffs winning that Chicago game basically in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter has the type of confidence to go
Speaker 1: into Milwaukee and take Game one. Like what were the conversations,
Speaker 1: Like what did Jimmy, Bam or anybody do to make
Speaker 1: anybody feel that that could happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it started with Jimmy and Baam. Obviously they
Speaker 4: they immediately had still believe and everybody and and the
Speaker 4: rest of the team. Jimmy was like extremely locked in
Speaker 4: at that point, and and we all could see it,
Speaker 4: we could sense it. We knew he was locked in.
Speaker 4: And then we also knew like we had just had
Speaker 4: like two battle tested playing games. You know, it was
Speaker 4: the Atlanta game in Chicago game really prepared us to
Speaker 4: win Game one against Milwaukee. They had they had had
Speaker 4: a lot of time off. At that point. We felt
Speaker 4: like we were just you know, ready to go in there,
Speaker 4: and we really just focused on getting game one and
Speaker 4: seeing where that could get us.
Speaker 1: And you got game one, but you lost Tyler and
Speaker 1: with the broken hands, like it seemed like immediately the
Speaker 1: challenges were smacking you guys in the face, and it
Speaker 1: didn't seem like it was an issue.
Speaker 2: Take me to the.
Speaker 1: Fifty six point game from Jimmy, because throughout that first
Speaker 1: round when people say playoff Jimmy, it's because he's taking
Speaker 1: shots he wasn't taken in the regular season, making shots
Speaker 1: he wasn't taken in the regular season, And it's just
Speaker 1: like a person you've just never seen before. So when
Speaker 1: you're watching that fifty six point game, you're.
Speaker 4: Thinking, what I'm just watching like in amazement that second half.
Speaker 4: You know, the shots he was hitting, you know the
Speaker 4: skill that it required, but also just his will.
Speaker 3: To win it was.
Speaker 4: It was insane and all of us are just watching
Speaker 4: taking it in I you know, a lot of us
Speaker 4: kept the box score from that game. Really, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of people were talking to how it's one
Speaker 4: of the greatest performances you know, in playoff history, and
Speaker 4: really we're just watching with amazement at the amount of
Speaker 4: will to win. And those are shots, like you said,
Speaker 4: he's not taking as many of those in the regular season.
Speaker 3: But he has a great feel for the game.
Speaker 4: He knows when he needs to score, when he needs
Speaker 4: to get his teammates involved, and he can control the game,
Speaker 4: you know, on both ends in so many ways.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I still think of Josh Hart doesn't
Speaker 1: slide under his ankle, it might be a different finish
Speaker 1: to the season, but the next round. I think after
Speaker 1: the first two games, Bam got a lot of criticism, right,
Speaker 1: And one of the things that drives me nuts is
Speaker 1: when people criticize Bam for not being this refined offensive talent.
Speaker 1: If Bam had that refined offensive game, he'd be the
Speaker 1: best player in the league, right because he does everything
Speaker 1: else so well on the defensive end. So talk to
Speaker 1: me about Bam what he means to the team and
Speaker 1: where that like offensive complaint comes up empty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So for us, like.
Speaker 4: A lot of that other stuff that people say about
Speaker 4: Bam is just noise We're constantly reminding him, you know,
Speaker 4: what he means to the team, how important he is
Speaker 4: on both ends. You know, are arguably the best defender
Speaker 4: in the league. We ask him to do so much
Speaker 4: on that end of the floor, multiple coverages, he switches,
Speaker 4: he guards one through five. He's just as good at
Speaker 4: guarding a perimeter as he is a big And then offensively,
Speaker 4: we we played through him a lot, even if he's
Speaker 4: not taking the shot, even if he's not being aggressive,
Speaker 4: we can always.
Speaker 3: Throw the ball to him, and.
Speaker 4: Sometimes it's just to be a pressure release, but he's
Speaker 4: getting other guys involved, and you know, a lot of
Speaker 4: that is is through our system that we can we
Speaker 4: can we have the you know, option to play through
Speaker 4: him because of his skill level, and you know a
Speaker 4: lot of that means he's not always gonna be scoring
Speaker 4: like maybe other people want him to do. But we
Speaker 4: all fully understand how important he is to our team
Speaker 4: on both at the ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: And then I just wanted to take you to that
Speaker 1: Celtics series up three to zero. Must feel great, the
Speaker 1: level of like ascending stress after lost one, lost two
Speaker 1: and lost three, Like what were those experiences like and
Speaker 1: what was that space between games six and seven, where
Speaker 1: Spoe and Jimmy said, yeah, we're gonna go win, but
Speaker 1: everybody else is like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So, as as great as our run was in
Speaker 4: the playoffs, after game six was a worse feeling than
Speaker 4: the feeling we had when we lost to Atlanta, you know,
Speaker 4: the los in that fashion, point one on the clock
Speaker 4: on offensive tip and rebound and then have to go
Speaker 4: to Boston for Game seven and pick pick, pick up
Speaker 4: the crew, Riley the troops. But right after the game, uh,
Speaker 4: Spoe was saying that, Jimmy was saying that, and I
Speaker 4: think it really it really made everyone else believe. By
Speaker 4: the time we got twenty four hours later, I think
Speaker 4: everyone believed we were going to go in there and
Speaker 4: get that win. But obviously, you know, being up three
Speaker 4: to zero to Tide is uh is.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of pressure.
Speaker 4: At some point after the game, we all congratulated Spoe
Speaker 4: on not being the first coach to go up three
Speaker 4: to zero and then and then uh, and then lose
Speaker 4: this series. So you know, we definitely had that going
Speaker 4: forward as well.
Speaker 1: It must have been a great feeling and just the
Speaker 1: last thing on Spo specifically because he was obviously part
Speaker 1: of the podcast, and like that was where he grew,
Speaker 1: like as a coach, you know, uh, coaching Lebron and
Speaker 1: just learning and just that desire to just not be
Speaker 1: the reason why the Heat lost. Now in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three is considered the best coach in the league.
Speaker 2: What makes him such a special coach?
Speaker 4: I think the fact that even though he's thought of
Speaker 4: that way, he still is the same guy. He's still
Speaker 4: after a regular season loss, is upset if we're not
Speaker 4: doing things the way he wants him done if or
Speaker 4: the way we all want things done. He's still continuing
Speaker 4: to try to improve as a coach, as a leader,
Speaker 4: and that's I don't think for him that's ever gonna change.
Speaker 4: And obviously he's matured a lot as a coach. He's
Speaker 4: learned a lot through experience. But he's still to this
Speaker 4: day trying to trying to figure out today how he
Speaker 4: can be better from yesterday and tomorrow be better than today.
Speaker 1: I used to say this when you were a player.
Speaker 1: I used to say, if you want to win, play
Speaker 1: Chris Quinn. And so now if you're hiring a coach,
Speaker 1: if you want to win, hire Chris Quinn.
Speaker 2: Guy is going to be really good. Chris, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Brother, thank you very much. H