Speaker 1: M h. Welcome back all the Smoke Summer League. It's
Speaker 1: been a good day so far. He man, we all
Speaker 1: have to a good start. I'm gonna finish it off
Speaker 1: with another good one man. Welcome to the show. Legendary
Speaker 1: point guard, big area legend, Jason kidd Man. Thanks, thank you,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Let's get right to it. Fresh
Speaker 1: off the Western Conference appearance. Great run by your team.
Speaker 1: Love the way you've pretty much ingrained defense into your guys' identity.
Speaker 1: Now tell us about that process and then just to
Speaker 1: run you guys made this season? Yeah, I think this
Speaker 1: is my third time back in Dallas, so you know,
Speaker 1: being drafted and then being able to win a championship
Speaker 1: in Dallas and then you know, come back and coach.
Speaker 1: You know, I think as the players, we never think
Speaker 1: about coaching. We're just thinking about getting numbers and winning
Speaker 1: and and so to be able to go back where
Speaker 1: it all started is surreal. So, you know, my press conference,
Speaker 1: Dallas is known to be a team that likes to score,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to kind of change that theme and
Speaker 1: talk about defense. And I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: were questioning and are the MAV's gonna really play defense?
Speaker 1: Because they're gonna put the ball in the basket. And
Speaker 1: so to win championships or to win any level, you
Speaker 1: gotta play both sides of the ball. And so that
Speaker 1: was what I wanted to try to get across, and somehow,
Speaker 1: some way we found a way to do it. How
Speaker 1: long did you feel like that process was, because again,
Speaker 1: like I said, that's not a model of a typical
Speaker 1: Dallas team. How long did you feel like, Okay, these
Speaker 1: got to starting, the lights starting to come on. I
Speaker 1: thought around Christmas. I've always believed this. You know, as
Speaker 1: a player, you find out who you are by Christmas.
Speaker 1: As much as you want to come out of the
Speaker 1: gates and win and make every shot, I think when
Speaker 1: you're a veteran, uh, you find out, okay, this is
Speaker 1: who we are this year. Every year is going to
Speaker 1: be different. But by Christmas, I think you really find
Speaker 1: out who you are. And I thought, you know, right
Speaker 1: around Christmas to start a new year, we saw the
Speaker 1: defense tick go up and we took off and uh,
Speaker 1: and it started with our our best player. Luca asked
Speaker 1: him to participate fight and he did that and UH.
Speaker 1: And so when your best player does it, it's easy
Speaker 1: to talk to everybody else about doing it. Talk to
Speaker 1: us a little bit about Luca. We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: him with a little bit later. But since you mentioned them,
Speaker 1: just what kind of player person and is there a
Speaker 1: ceiling for someone who's talented as him? No, yeah, Jack
Speaker 1: answered the question for me. You know, when you look
Speaker 1: at the ceiling the skies that let mean he can
Speaker 1: fly forty to get until he until he gets tired.
Speaker 1: And so when you look at his abilities to control
Speaker 1: the game offensively, he's only twenty three years old to
Speaker 1: get that, um and and it loves to play the game,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just lucky to have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: have a good seat watch him play and then also
Speaker 1: just try to help him what I see to make
Speaker 1: the game with no stress. And that's something that we
Speaker 1: talked about. If he was sitting right next to me,
Speaker 1: he would talk about Coach always talks about no stress. Um.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you know he's a believer that he can
Speaker 1: take on the world. And you know when he hits
Speaker 1: his stride in the sense of understanding how to use
Speaker 1: all the pieces, uh toe, have you seen that kind
Speaker 1: of just i Q and someone that I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: you are a high I Q guy. For someone his
Speaker 1: to be able to do all that he does at
Speaker 1: his age, I haven't. Um, when you talk about someone
Speaker 1: who's played overseas, Uh, he's been a pro you know,
Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen years old. Um. You know you look at
Speaker 1: what he's picked up from being a pro or really
Speaker 1: on in life, and so he's not afraid. He's seen
Speaker 1: the double teams and switches, the boxing one um, and
Speaker 1: he believes that he can beat them all and most
Speaker 1: of the time he does. So I think when you
Speaker 1: when you look at what he does, Uh, he's different
Speaker 1: because he has his own speed limit. Um, he's not nope, nope, UM.
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes what's not talked about it's his size.
Speaker 1: He's a he's big. He's a big boy. And I've
Speaker 1: been around Lebron and he has that Lebronish type, you know, height,
Speaker 1: thickness in the sense of being a big boy. He
Speaker 1: can he can hold you off. He's not afraid of contact. Um.
Speaker 1: But he's not afraid of the stage. You know, he
Speaker 1: loves the stage. With with with you knowing like okay,
Speaker 1: you're talking about defense, but you knowing how important it
Speaker 1: was for you to lead on both fends. Like everything
Speaker 1: starts with the point guard. Is he figurings he getting
Speaker 1: that now? Is he get to that point now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know, I think we saw it this season. U. Um.
Speaker 1: You know there's times when, as you know in the NBA,
Speaker 1: they're gonna pick on you, They're gonna pick on the
Speaker 1: best player if he doesn't want to cooperate or participate
Speaker 1: playing defense. And so once he understood that if he
Speaker 1: put up a fight that he had his teammates had
Speaker 1: his back and they were behind to support him. Um,
Speaker 1: coaches were supportive. We're here as coaches to give you
Speaker 1: the answers to the test and what's coming, and then
Speaker 1: it's for you to be able to digest when you
Speaker 1: see that action coming, like, oh, coach told me, this
Speaker 1: is what they're gonna try to do. It makes the
Speaker 1: game so much easier. So with myself and looking, we
Speaker 1: have a great relationship and communication and helping one another.
Speaker 1: I've been in his shoes, but at twenty three, he's
Speaker 1: a little bit advanced of where I was at twenty three.
Speaker 1: But again, he loves to play the game. He loves
Speaker 1: the competition, he loves that everybody's focused on him to
Speaker 1: try to stop him, and they try, they try seasons
Speaker 1: over a great year. Thank you, you're already ready for
Speaker 1: next year? Where's your head at now? Like, what what
Speaker 1: are you thinking right after this great year? Yeah? You know, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we'll get to that. But you know, this is
Speaker 1: funny you ask that question, you say the nice things,
Speaker 1: and you know in this league that season is over nothing. Yes,
Speaker 1: because um, there's only one winner. Everybody comes in last.
Speaker 1: And you know, Going State won the championship, so everybody
Speaker 1: else came in last. And so we're just at the
Speaker 1: beginning as this journey. And we talked about defense, and
Speaker 1: one of the things that we'll talk about going forward
Speaker 1: is can everyone just get better? You know, I'm only
Speaker 1: asking you to get better at one percent, that's all
Speaker 1: I'm asking. If you can get better at one percent,
Speaker 1: it makes our team fifteen and seventeen percent stronger, right,
Speaker 1: So take the wins and losses out of it. Um,
Speaker 1: that means everybody had a good summer. Everybody has a
Speaker 1: good season, and so that's the way we approach it. Um.
Speaker 1: We bring up J. B. Bronson losing Brunson, but the
Speaker 1: biggest thing is I'm happy that he got paid. He
Speaker 1: helped us. Yes, we all. Uh. I know Cuban doesn't
Speaker 1: like this, but I love when I can help people
Speaker 1: get paid. And I'll tell a player, um, first day camp, Hey,
Speaker 1: tell me what you want. Well, everybody wants shots, everybody
Speaker 1: wants minutes, but that's not the truth. They want to
Speaker 1: get paid and they want to play cool. I can
Speaker 1: help you do that, okay. But the other part of
Speaker 1: that is I'm just gonna ask for a couple of
Speaker 1: things to trust and communicate and play hard and those
Speaker 1: things that you asked for me to help you get
Speaker 1: what happened. And if you ask Bronson, um, but he
Speaker 1: would tell you that he listened. Good things happened, and
Speaker 1: and and I only want to put people in a
Speaker 1: position to be successful. That's it. And there's dirty companies
Speaker 1: in the NBA. We all can't stay on the same company.
Speaker 1: So for him to go to New York to get paid,
Speaker 1: to have the opportunity to run his own team, I'm
Speaker 1: happy for him. Me me, you know how good of
Speaker 1: a coach you are, and me and I know how
Speaker 1: men love the game, how we played the game. It
Speaker 1: bothers me when you have to ask people to play hard. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: as as you know, um, it's a different athlete, different player. Um,
Speaker 1: playing hard is now a talent, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to uh you know, check that Box said
Speaker 1: that told me that we're talking about Greek. He told
Speaker 1: me that that's the talent. It's a talent. Um. As
Speaker 1: we grew up, that was never as a must. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was never in doubt. Um. The other side of that,
Speaker 1: too is how many how many guys really love the game?
Speaker 1: How many guys love to be in the gym and sweat,
Speaker 1: not what the game can do for you, yeah, or
Speaker 1: not even go to the gym and think they got
Speaker 1: better today, you know, And so you have to spend
Speaker 1: time in the gym when you look at yourself. You
Speaker 1: guys spend time in the gym. You learn from each other.
Speaker 1: You learn from guarding. Matt Barnes. Matt Bonds learned from you.
Speaker 1: So when we played in the regular season, he knew
Speaker 1: what your go to move was. But then you made
Speaker 1: you better because you had to now find out, I
Speaker 1: gotta work on a second day move when I see Matt,
Speaker 1: So Matt doesn't know that I have this next move.
Speaker 1: But I think the big thing is just the the
Speaker 1: teaching um to be able to work and the imagination. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully our imagination for our young younger players
Speaker 1: will continue to bro because I think we're losing that
Speaker 1: a little bit. Nico. Yeah, Nico is somebody who I love. Man,
Speaker 1: the main reason why I got my Jordan deal back. Uh,
Speaker 1: he is my guy. But I just love the way
Speaker 1: he transitioned from where he started to run in Jordan
Speaker 1: now to being with the Mavericks. You know, talk about
Speaker 1: your relationship with him and how proud of you to
Speaker 1: see his development. Yeah, I've been trying to get Nico
Speaker 1: for a couple of years to become a GM. UM.
Speaker 1: I tried in Milwaukee. Um, and then that happened here
Speaker 1: in Dallas is unbelievable. But our relationship goes back to
Speaker 1: that Sush. Every right knows Nico, And when you talk
Speaker 1: about Nico, no one has anything bad to say about
Speaker 1: one thing because of his relationships and the way that
Speaker 1: he takes care of people. UM. And so I'm I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to have him as a brother but also
Speaker 1: as a teammate. Um being able to build a championship
Speaker 1: team in Dallas and uh, we're lucky to have him
Speaker 1: and uh, and he's done an incredible job. You can
Speaker 1: talk about the trade KP being a again spencer and
Speaker 1: doarvis but being able to understand what it means to build.
Speaker 1: But also he's helping teach us about relationships and as
Speaker 1: we talked about, you got your deal back right. But
Speaker 1: he's always responded to a text, a phone call and uh,
Speaker 1: and that's why I want. People love him and you
Speaker 1: never find anybody say anything bad about him. So talk
Speaker 1: about your upbringing in Oakland. Yeah, it's differ, not ain't
Speaker 1: different now, but uh, you know, I tell people I
Speaker 1: was lucky to be able to grow up and no Oakland. Um,
Speaker 1: I had the luxury to have two parents who both
Speaker 1: had jobs, who were able to drive me to practice
Speaker 1: in East Oakland, West Oakland, San Francisco, or wherever it
Speaker 1: may be. But also I had you know, my mom
Speaker 1: was white and my dad was African American, and so
Speaker 1: I got to grow up in the melting pot. And
Speaker 1: so you know, racism wasn't anything, um, you know, in
Speaker 1: our household. It was something that my mom would drive
Speaker 1: me to seminary in Oakland. Um, which is um, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say a nice part, but it worked out Rainbow Center.
Speaker 1: And I used to tell my mom Hey, don't don't
Speaker 1: look left for right. Just keep straight and keep the
Speaker 1: car moving and I'll just jump out as as we'll
Speaker 1: get close. Uh but it you know, it's Oaklands is
Speaker 1: Oakland's the melting pot. Um. I was also lucky to
Speaker 1: be around the greatest athletes at the time of the sports.
Speaker 1: When you talk about Joe Montana, Um, when you talk
Speaker 1: about the A's and the Bash brothers, you talk about
Speaker 1: the Warriors, they had Tim Hardaway, Chris whoever run t
Speaker 1: mc um you know, so I got. I was very
Speaker 1: fortunate that the sports was was really at a high level. Now, basketball,
Speaker 1: the Warriors weren't that good. They weren't the Warriors of today.
Speaker 1: But um to be able to play at at the
Speaker 1: age of fourteen fifteen with the Warriors, UM was something
Speaker 1: that I got lucky to do. When when when Nelly
Speaker 1: invited me to come work out with the guys growing up,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of basketball bread and came from there.
Speaker 1: But who were some of your idols quiet g P
Speaker 1: or when you guys first crossed past was no, I
Speaker 1: got to play for his dad, Um a you and
Speaker 1: so Mr mean Um And then when you talk about
Speaker 1: g P, no, he he I don't think he was
Speaker 1: ever quiet. Um, but I got the opportunity to. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was my big brother. He's five years old. I
Speaker 1: know that for sure. He's old. And then you had
Speaker 1: be Shaw. This is another rich you know, b Shaw,
Speaker 1: Greg Foster, an Tonio Davis, Hook Mitchell. When you talk
Speaker 1: about basketball, I mean I was very fortunate. I was
Speaker 1: the youngest, so I had to make sure I was
Speaker 1: always pulling up getting everybody's bags and and everything else.
Speaker 1: But it was cool. But it was a great experience
Speaker 1: because GP let me know that when I was in
Speaker 1: high school, I felt kind of good about myself. I
Speaker 1: thought I was doing the right thing. But he humbled
Speaker 1: me very quickly. That let me know that I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready and that I wasn't as good as I thought.
Speaker 1: I was. M that stuck with who did it? It
Speaker 1: made me cry. You know, you go when you when
Speaker 1: you think you're you're playing at a high level and
Speaker 1: then you play against g P one on one and
Speaker 1: he doesn't let you get a shot off. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there's you know, I was looking for a referee because
Speaker 1: I know there was some fouls. There had to be
Speaker 1: some fouls. Um uh maybe, but I would never tell
Speaker 1: him that I did that. It was probably years after,
Speaker 1: but I do have a quick story. I was a
Speaker 1: rookie playing for Dallas. We're playing in Tacoma when Seattle
Speaker 1: had to play in Tacoma for a year, and I'm
Speaker 1: guarden gee and she's posting me up, so I know
Speaker 1: exactly what he's gonna do. He's gonna spend right and
Speaker 1: then he's gonna try to lay the ball up. So
Speaker 1: he spends right, goes up and I'm there not blocking.
Speaker 1: I tell him, get that ship out of here, and
Speaker 1: he's running back look back at me. I go, oh no,
Speaker 1: and he went on like a personal old one, and
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, what was I thinking? Why did
Speaker 1: I wake up the monster? And uh? And and back
Speaker 1: then because there was so much isolation that he just
Speaker 1: at me on one side of the floor and was
Speaker 1: just like you or not and he was just uh island,
Speaker 1: I don't even know it was the island was it
Speaker 1: was a flood page him can speed him up, and
Speaker 1: you knew he's gonna spin and do all these things.
Speaker 1: But um, that's when I knew man, and I knew
Speaker 1: not to say nothing, but you couldn't help yourself. I
Speaker 1: was a rookie and I felt good that I blocked
Speaker 1: this shot and I thought that was gonna go in
Speaker 1: the right direction. That's natural though. I just think anyway,
Speaker 1: as a hooper, anytime you block shot, that's the only
Speaker 1: thing that come out with your someone you look up to,
Speaker 1: someone that dogged you out in the fast You gotta
Speaker 1: get that off your chest. When I say the name
Speaker 1: Hook Mitchell, you just mentioned him a second ago, but
Speaker 1: obviously legend when it comes to basketball in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: Talked to us about Hook Mitchell, how good he was,
Speaker 1: how small he was, and what could have been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you talk about Mitchell, he's always that the top
Speaker 1: of the list of basketball players for Oaktown, especially when
Speaker 1: you talk about the dunk contest. Um. He would play
Speaker 1: anywhere concrete in the gym. I mean, wherever there was
Speaker 1: a ram and a ball, he would be willing to
Speaker 1: go play. And Uh, I would say he's probably about
Speaker 1: five ten. Uh, we can stretch him out to six feet.
Speaker 1: But when you talk about yeah, he was he was
Speaker 1: jumping over everything, everything and anything and so. But he
Speaker 1: loved to play the game. Again, if there was a
Speaker 1: basketball someone would pick him up or he tell him
Speaker 1: to meet him. Somewhere he would be there. But he
Speaker 1: loved the game of basketball. And you know, unfortunately, sometimes
Speaker 1: in life we make decisions that send us the wrong way.
Speaker 1: And uh, and that's what happened with him. But his
Speaker 1: name has always been mentioned as one of the best
Speaker 1: to play the game of basketball on the BAK. I
Speaker 1: got a chance to play against him in the early
Speaker 1: two thousand's fresh when he got out um in a
Speaker 1: I went up in Sacramento. Obviously heard about him, but Jack,
Speaker 1: this dude was pulling jumpers from half court. But little
Speaker 1: dude getting the breakaway and dunking that bitch. He was
Speaker 1: probably and maybe late early forties. Yeah, how does he
Speaker 1: know he's he's has to be older than g and
Speaker 1: so I would say close to sixty, right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say in that fifty five range. Um. But when
Speaker 1: you when you talk about shooting it from half court,
Speaker 1: you had to pick him up, had to before half
Speaker 1: court because he could let it fly. Um. And this
Speaker 1: is before you know those shots. Uh, those shots were
Speaker 1: considered bad shots and we would be sat, who are
Speaker 1: to go off? Jack, Matt Jason comes, you can't shoot that?
Speaker 1: But for for when you talk about hook he had
Speaker 1: the range to shoot it deep. It was tough man
Speaker 1: buried Areas obviously a very underrated hotbed. Give me your
Speaker 1: Bay Area all time, starting five, whether it went to
Speaker 1: the league or not. Okay, I can start with Bill Russell,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Dawn Um, you can go pop you know,
Speaker 1: Paul Silas Um when you look at Chep's gonna be
Speaker 1: on there. If not, he's gonna track me down. So
Speaker 1: let me let's just get him on there real quick. Uh.
Speaker 1: JR Rider around? Oh you got JR Rider? Easy writer, Oh,
Speaker 1: easy rider that he doesn't get enough credit either. He
Speaker 1: was a bad boy in high school Scotland. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: Incidel high boy. That was a bad boy. Now he
Speaker 1: won't make I don't know should he make that? Less know? All?
Speaker 1: So you guys, I like JR. I'm going with JR
Speaker 1: g P. And then I gotta go with one of
Speaker 1: the older brothers, be shaw I'm gonna go be shaw
Speaker 1: Um and and that would be I think that's five,
Speaker 1: maybe six. I probably the Let's see, we got Russell
Speaker 1: that he's pretty good side us. We got mean tough
Speaker 1: l We're good there. JR. Or athletic Street g P.
Speaker 1: He's gonna make sure everybody knows where to go and
Speaker 1: then be Shaw Berkeley. You chose to stay home. You
Speaker 1: could have went anywhere in the country. Oh, before we
Speaker 1: get there talking to us about baseball, A lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know you were real nice on the baseball field. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're sat Joe's alumni brother Ray Young reminded me before
Speaker 1: the interview. But I talked to me about baseball and
Speaker 1: and and and let these people know how nice you
Speaker 1: were on that sport. You guys, do you guys get
Speaker 1: their information? You guys are good man. Damn. There's only
Speaker 1: a few people who know about baseball. But I loved
Speaker 1: the game of baseball, play both basketball baseball, played all
Speaker 1: the way up to cal Um. I don't know if
Speaker 1: a lot of people know. That's why I went to
Speaker 1: Cal because they said I would have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: play baseball, and so I got to work out with
Speaker 1: the group my freshman year UM, and I was gonna
Speaker 1: play my sophomore year, but then I decided that I
Speaker 1: was gonna go bro and they advised that I shouldn't
Speaker 1: play just in case you get hurt. But I love
Speaker 1: the game of baseball, so I was like, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get hurt center field, and so I just enjoyed
Speaker 1: a game of baseball. And so, um that's one of
Speaker 1: the things as a head coach. In my office, I
Speaker 1: don't have Sports Center on or or you know, anything ESPN.
Speaker 1: I have the Baseball Network on and just to watch
Speaker 1: to see what's going on in baseball. But um, I
Speaker 1: just I love watching it. I love being around and
Speaker 1: I love watching the guys do what they do. It's
Speaker 1: not an easy game. But also in the Bay Area
Speaker 1: we had a lot of talented baseball players too when
Speaker 1: I was growing up. Bobby Smith who was drafted by
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay at the time, he was Freemont High. But
Speaker 1: I played a lot of basketball with him. And then
Speaker 1: when you look at the baseball we're rich in the
Speaker 1: talent that comes out of the Bay with with with
Speaker 1: baseball for sure. So again you end up going to
Speaker 1: cow Um could have went anywhere. Baseball was a signing
Speaker 1: factor for you. And be at home. Okay, uh you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I didn't want to leave home. So so baseball
Speaker 1: is staying at home. Um. I knew the guys on
Speaker 1: the team at Cal with Lamon, Murray, Monty Buckley, Um
Speaker 1: being so being and so being with those guys, UM,
Speaker 1: playing pickup games with those guys, they would always say, man,
Speaker 1: we just need you and we'll be fine. Um. So
Speaker 1: I guess they did their part in recruiting UM. And
Speaker 1: so that's that's why I felt going staying home, I
Speaker 1: would have an opportunity to play and and help those guys.
Speaker 1: A little off script thoughts on the Pack twelve kind
Speaker 1: of dismantling in front of our eyes. Yeah, don't I
Speaker 1: don't know who's gonna be in what conference? Big twelve,
Speaker 1: Big Tens? Crazy? Um? Now, dude, we if we go
Speaker 1: Big ten, do we have to fly all the way
Speaker 1: to New York, like I mean every week? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be just two conferences coming?
Speaker 1: Are you just Power East and West Conference? That's it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know, the landscape of college has changed, right, Um?
Speaker 1: And I think the landscape of basketball or any sport
Speaker 1: I should say, um, especially in college has changed, and
Speaker 1: uh and for the better. There's a lot of money
Speaker 1: being made. UM. I think the voices of the student
Speaker 1: athletes are being heard um at times. But I think, uh,
Speaker 1: the way that we have approached it is we were
Speaker 1: trying to help, you know, share the money, right, not
Speaker 1: just taking Yes, what could you have done with some
Speaker 1: NL n IL money back in your day running the
Speaker 1: streets in Oakland? That's a great question that I think
Speaker 1: we would all benefit, uh in a positive way. But
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's funny you bring that question up,
Speaker 1: because we would never thought about you know, we just
Speaker 1: thought about planes, you know, street and Smith USA. Today
Speaker 1: you're trying to get those publications to see who's number
Speaker 1: one and who am I chasing to get to the
Speaker 1: next level? Um, And there was no money involved. It
Speaker 1: was just um, there was well definitely was no Instagram
Speaker 1: or Twitter, the platforms weren't there. But we were just
Speaker 1: in it for how we improve our skill set so
Speaker 1: we can be top five that summer? Then how do
Speaker 1: I track down the number one player to see? You know,
Speaker 1: where my game is? And? Uh? But but if you
Speaker 1: had asked me that question, I don't know that. I'm
Speaker 1: still confused of how this works because some states. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: how much money would you guys have gotten? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: would have been some other ship over there. I got
Speaker 1: some good money over there, but it wasn't no n
Speaker 1: IL money. Spent two years at cal made the tournament
Speaker 1: both years. Uh end up being grand healing in the tournament.
Speaker 1: Was that your best experience, accl oh Man, Now, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, Um, it was one of my best experience
Speaker 1: of accow basketball wise, was being able to get to
Speaker 1: the tournament, um, and to you know b L s
Speaker 1: U and then have the opportunity to play to defending
Speaker 1: champs UH and Grant and Bobby Hurley and find a
Speaker 1: way to win that game. Um. Everybody talks about the win,
Speaker 1: but no one really talks about what Hurley did to us.
Speaker 1: He was cooking us the high picking row. We had
Speaker 1: no answers. It's just we we got lucky to ball
Speaker 1: bounce our way. But it was an incredible experience because
Speaker 1: when you watch the March Madness, it's it's incredible. It's
Speaker 1: one of the funnest times of the year. But I
Speaker 1: would say on campus one of my best experiences is
Speaker 1: you know, cal protests everything, and so there was a
Speaker 1: naked guy who would walk around campus with just the
Speaker 1: thing on front and his book back and go to
Speaker 1: class and uh and he was freedom of speech. But
Speaker 1: this was as a freedom of cheeks. Yeah, no more.
Speaker 1: But as a young student athlete, it was just eye
Speaker 1: opening of like what was happening on campus and uh,
Speaker 1: and so to put things in perspective, that was just
Speaker 1: a normal thing on campus at Cal because there was
Speaker 1: always someone protesting something. Two things you made a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of us fall in love with number five.
Speaker 1: First of all, did you ever heard the term people
Speaker 1: just call you light skaning magic? No, I'm not li
Speaker 1: was liking magic. That's what they called you. That's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: that's new. I haven't heard that, but now that was
Speaker 1: my favorite player growing up. That's the one that I
Speaker 1: tried to copy, uh and emulate my game as a kid,
Speaker 1: you know in Oakland, Um trying to throw the passes
Speaker 1: he would throw. I couldn't do the sky hook. I
Speaker 1: wasn't very good at the sky hook, but the baby
Speaker 1: Scott hook. But I just loved it the way that
Speaker 1: he played the game and at the end he always
Speaker 1: found a way to win. And so that's what really
Speaker 1: draw drew me to be trying to be magic and
Speaker 1: so to be life scaming magic. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: How close were you coming after we played in the finals,
Speaker 1: I was in Yeah, Pop, three great questions. So um,
Speaker 1: I meet with Tim and Pop and I'm in UM.
Speaker 1: The one thing that was a hold up was I
Speaker 1: was like it was a small thing. Is like, man,
Speaker 1: I got sit here and watch you guys get the
Speaker 1: rings after just but that's just one game, and like
Speaker 1: we'll get past it and we'll have opportunities to win more.
Speaker 1: But then, um, the loyalty of like, man, we build
Speaker 1: something in Jersey and I think we can get there. Um.
Speaker 1: But not knowing the business side of what was coming
Speaker 1: down that they started, they traded Kmark that following year
Speaker 1: and so things fell apart fast. But um, to be
Speaker 1: a spur, I was very very close because the reason
Speaker 1: why I know, because Tony would have been going and
Speaker 1: I would have stayed. No, that's that's that's that's how
Speaker 1: it was all working, you know, because the whole summer,
Speaker 1: the everything, everybody was on the list to get J Kid.
Speaker 1: That was that was they were talking about that point.
Speaker 1: Even the finals even stopped, but even one of the
Speaker 1: finders they were talking about it. So in the summer,
Speaker 1: that's all my agent was telling me, if if J
Speaker 1: Kid come, you're gonna you're gonna stay in San Antonio,
Speaker 1: not you gotta go to the limb because they're gonna
Speaker 1: keep talking. I wish you would have told me that exactly,
Speaker 1: draft number two pick. Overall the experience, let the draft
Speaker 1: talk about it. Yeah, the draft is again surreal because
Speaker 1: as a as a kid growing up, that's all you're
Speaker 1: dreaming about. You watch it on TV, and so when
Speaker 1: it's your opportunity to go to the draft room and
Speaker 1: just to wait to hear your name, UM, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a movie in fast forward and then also
Speaker 1: in rewind because you're thinking about what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: in the n B a um, and then you go
Speaker 1: with a rewind because you think about all the all
Speaker 1: the things you did to get to that point. Um.
Speaker 1: And then let's see your mom and dad. You know,
Speaker 1: excited for you, but you're more excited for them because
Speaker 1: it's also a thank you to them all the hard
Speaker 1: work and sec did you ever have within your first
Speaker 1: year an all moment like damn, I'm playing so and so.
Speaker 1: I know you got thrown in the fire with GP early,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, oh j um, everybody. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean when you talk about the greatest uh, you talk
Speaker 1: about m and and seeing and having to guard him
Speaker 1: on a possession or two. I'll never forget in Dallas,
Speaker 1: I'm guarding him on the right box. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: know what he was gonna do. I just hoping that
Speaker 1: he won. He didn't dunk it into He just did
Speaker 1: it real fast so we can get onto over with it.
Speaker 1: So he spends baseline. I think he's gonna go to
Speaker 1: the fade, and he goes grow more dribble and he
Speaker 1: kind of jumps. I'm going, oh, no, he's gonna dunk this,
Speaker 1: and he kind of did a reverse and flipped it
Speaker 1: on the glass. Okay, that's cool, you didn't dunk it
Speaker 1: two points. And then he starts running down the sideline
Speaker 1: and he looked back at Wink and I go, oh,
Speaker 1: this is an asshole. Oh but but I was like,
Speaker 1: that's cool, you didn't dunk it. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: I think when he likes you, and maybe this isn't true,
Speaker 1: but I think when he likes you, he'll take it easy.
Speaker 1: He couldn't get his average. But if he does not
Speaker 1: like you, it's it's a fifty piece. He ever give
Speaker 1: any of your teammates a fifty piece? Um, you know what,
Speaker 1: we I think he gave us the average. We were
Speaker 1: all happy in the locker room. Man, you didn't have
Speaker 1: fifty five. Your name is attached to one of the
Speaker 1: greatest basketball shoots of all time, that air Zoom Flight
Speaker 1: nineties five. What's the back story to that? With the
Speaker 1: ones he got on now? Oh no, they you know
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, it's a great shoe. Um. You know
Speaker 1: it's funny. We got some sent to us the other
Speaker 1: day and I kind of laugh because I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: today's shoe was so like this shoe was a little happy,
Speaker 1: and I was like at the time, they're like, oh no,
Speaker 1: this is like like so technology has grown. But um,
Speaker 1: the wheels were like a car because everybody talked about
Speaker 1: the speed. Um. And so I thought when they showed
Speaker 1: me this show, I was like, oh, this is different
Speaker 1: and it looks cool because we got looks like it
Speaker 1: has four wheels and we're ready to roll and um.
Speaker 1: And so they commenced me it was light. I thought
Speaker 1: it was great and and to see it today, it's
Speaker 1: still talked about, which lets you know that uh, who
Speaker 1: designed it was doing the right draft right And you
Speaker 1: get a taste of the playoffs in Phoenix and from
Speaker 1: ninety six to two thousand one, I got a chance
Speaker 1: to play with Steve Nash. But what they don't know
Speaker 1: is I got drafted when y'all were there in ninety seven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that was a year that sounds that traded
Speaker 1: for mcdyson, McLeod and Rex, and I think Rex was
Speaker 1: there already, but they had one pick left in the draft,
Speaker 1: the second to last pick in the draft. And I
Speaker 1: got a chance to come work out what y'all play
Speaker 1: pick up and I got drafted, but they told me
Speaker 1: it was gonna cut me, so I didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to be on that team. But I got a
Speaker 1: chance to spend like a couple of days with him.
Speaker 1: One of the great experience. But I knew that team
Speaker 1: was gonna be good. But talk about the playoffs of
Speaker 1: that team, Well, you you talk about the uh, the
Speaker 1: young and the and the older when you talk about
Speaker 1: Rex and Danny and those guys. But mcdice was young.
Speaker 1: Um boy was he uh spend a lot for sure?
Speaker 1: When you talk about the MCDI we talked about Sean
Speaker 1: Kemp and these guys who would just turn and go
Speaker 1: and you could throw it anywhere. Dice is one of
Speaker 1: those guys and so um. But it's funny like you
Speaker 1: bring up Nash. You know, Nash was coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: I was coming off the bench. We had Kevin Johnson
Speaker 1: you know there, and so um we were both watching
Speaker 1: Kevin do his thing, and then we would go in
Speaker 1: and sometimes would be Kevin Nash and myself out there,
Speaker 1: you know, small ball at Hiss at his best. But
Speaker 1: it was it was real because you had great Kevin Johnson. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't think gets enough credit being a great point
Speaker 1: guard in our in our league, but you had a
Speaker 1: future you know, hall of uh, hall of Famer, and
Speaker 1: Steve and m v P sitting there as the third
Speaker 1: string point are which it's a great story about work
Speaker 1: and belief in and the opportunity in the right system
Speaker 1: which you can make of it, and just kind of
Speaker 1: you know, waiting your turn and not being uh and
Speaker 1: being patient about the whole situation and so uh. It
Speaker 1: was a great team. I learned how to win because
Speaker 1: I think when you come in the league, you think
Speaker 1: you play for forty minutes and you could be up fifteen,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden the game gets real serious.
Speaker 1: Six minutes left, you're fifteen, all of a sudden you're
Speaker 1: down ten, and you go like what happened? Well, the
Speaker 1: mature team, the team that knows what it means to
Speaker 1: take care of the ball and then what it means
Speaker 1: to play defense, and that's why you see so many swings.
Speaker 1: But that's where I learned how to win the game.
Speaker 1: And the last six minutes is where the game really starts.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that being drafted, and I found
Speaker 1: out in Dallas of what it means to or how
Speaker 1: to win the NBA game. Now that I think about that,
Speaker 1: I see why I looked so good that day when
Speaker 1: I tried it out and all I had to do
Speaker 1: was run a jump. I thought it was him. It
Speaker 1: was him. How did the bleach blonde hair come to fact?
Speaker 1: It might be why he's bad. Now that's a good point. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: that's what happens when you're bored and hurt. I broke
Speaker 1: my ankle during that season. Um, and so we had
Speaker 1: three screws put in and I'm bored. So I'm sitting there,
Speaker 1: sitting there and going, man, shoot and someone said, hey,
Speaker 1: have you ever you know, died your hair? And I
Speaker 1: go no, like, and I said, let's do it, because um,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's ye Phoenix, I'm in Phoenix. I
Speaker 1: would want to say, yeah, So I break my ankle,
Speaker 1: and so I'm out for the season. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna see anybody. I'm rehabbing, and then, um,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I died my hair. I go
Speaker 1: to my rehab. Somehow word got around that I had
Speaker 1: died my hairs. So my teammates come over to what
Speaker 1: I'm rehabbing. They go, we just had to come see
Speaker 1: your hair, And I said, well, I appreciate you didn't
Speaker 1: even ask how I'm doing, but okay. Oh well, so
Speaker 1: they check out my hair. They're killing me, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this was a bad idea. Well, it gets worse because
Speaker 1: now I'm starting to feel better. I'm like, I think
Speaker 1: I can play in the playoffs. So we play the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Um and I and I had my hair still die.
Speaker 1: They asked me, was I gonna cut it off? I go, man,
Speaker 1: I've gone this far, might as well keep going. So
Speaker 1: I played in the playoffs with my hair died. Different experience,
Speaker 1: so I said, I can say I checked that box off,
Speaker 1: and and I can let anybody know, like you said,
Speaker 1: it ends into be involved two thousand til you traded
Speaker 1: for stuff on my bury in New Jersey. I was
Speaker 1: just on that team the year before, I mean right
Speaker 1: before that you got traded there. What was that like
Speaker 1: going there with all them athletes you had there and
Speaker 1: all the weapons you had going into that. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: team was special. When you talk about they were rookies.
Speaker 1: We had you know, Jason Collins, We had a pack
Speaker 1: pack r J. Yeah. R J s did not they
Speaker 1: did not get along. So Kmart was playing at a
Speaker 1: high level for us. It was easy to play with him.
Speaker 1: Throw it up, he was going to get it. It
Speaker 1: was Carrie Kittles was coming back from injury, Keith van Horn. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we had scores. Ronny Rodgers comes over. We get
Speaker 1: that in a trade, and so it was it was
Speaker 1: a fun team that r J was gonna run. As
Speaker 1: he'll tell you. He wasn't a shooter. Then Harris was
Speaker 1: the shooter. It's funny that I played with Lucia's as
Speaker 1: a rookie in Dallas, so for us to be back
Speaker 1: together and in Jersey, so we understood what it was
Speaker 1: all about. But it was a team that actually came
Speaker 1: together in preseason when we believe that we could win.
Speaker 1: And uh, from that point on, we just we just
Speaker 1: took off. It was easy just run, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: the ball. So r J ran, he ran, and then
Speaker 1: Kmart was coming as a trailer cleaned it up. That's right.
Speaker 1: So for me as the quarterback, I just had to
Speaker 1: make sure I kept everybody happy immediate. I mean, y'all
Speaker 1: two thousand two, y'all run through the East two years
Speaker 1: in a row and come up short. Yeah, what's what's
Speaker 1: what's going on through your mind after y'all go back
Speaker 1: to back running through the East but can't get past
Speaker 1: the West. Well, the West was the first time we
Speaker 1: had to go against the Lakers, so I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody was gonna beat them. That was different. Was it
Speaker 1: thirty six and twelve in the finals? Yeah? He uh
Speaker 1: those numbers. Oh man, the whole team was going shocked.
Speaker 1: There was nothing. Remember, I felt so bad for him Williams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was too smart. He tried. Um. But when you
Speaker 1: look at our team those two years we ran and
Speaker 1: then um, we think we're gonna have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: do it again. And unfortunately, with the business to basketball
Speaker 1: jumps in, there were trades and so but it was
Speaker 1: a fun time. Those two teams. Um again, um, we
Speaker 1: were more built to play West Coast basketball than East Coast,
Speaker 1: and maybe that was the reason why we had success
Speaker 1: on the East coast. You got any uh Kobe stores
Speaker 1: from those battles on any great Kobe stores. Well, the
Speaker 1: one story going back to that blonde hair. Um, We're
Speaker 1: playing in the playoffs and I know which way Kobe
Speaker 1: wants to go, um, and he gets to go where
Speaker 1: he went, and he jumps and I jumped. Unfortunately his
Speaker 1: jump is a little higher and longer. I jumped like
Speaker 1: my elevator can only go so high. And then it
Speaker 1: says return. So uh, he hit a game winner um
Speaker 1: over me in the playoffs. But when you talk about
Speaker 1: Kobe and his competitiveness, it didn't matter how big or
Speaker 1: how small you were, he was gonna he was gonna
Speaker 1: try to destroy you. Um. And that's what separated him
Speaker 1: from everyone. He was an assassin. Um. He would cut
Speaker 1: you and by the end of the game, you didn't
Speaker 1: know that you were gonna bleed out and so and
Speaker 1: so that's just his mentality. And uh, he wanted to
Speaker 1: win and everything. Yeah, oh eight, this is oh eight.
Speaker 1: We're in Macau and golf has now become a little popular.
Speaker 1: We have some golfers on the team d will And
Speaker 1: and Michael Red. So we go to a driving range
Speaker 1: and Kobe is feeling like, hey, this is easy, I
Speaker 1: can pick hi. Yeah. Yeah. He came out to one
Speaker 1: of like, oh you're human. Yeah, so he asked. He
Speaker 1: goes hey, and Michael read luckily was left handed, and
Speaker 1: so he goes, hey, can I borrowed that club? And
Speaker 1: everybody goes, you swing left handed, and so everybody was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's all messed up. So he goes to swing and
Speaker 1: everybody's like, maybe that was a practice swing and he
Speaker 1: missed the ball. And then like you know, he gets
Speaker 1: competitive and he wants to hit at the farthest and
Speaker 1: as you said, I think that's the one sport that
Speaker 1: we saw him as a human humanized. Not to compare
Speaker 1: the two, but you got a perfect chance to play
Speaker 1: with both of them when they were great. Did you
Speaker 1: see that same fire and wanting to kill people the
Speaker 1: MJ had is at the same kind of How were
Speaker 1: their approaches similar or different? I think they were very similar.
Speaker 1: I think uh even the league as players, um, because
Speaker 1: Kobe that was the guy that he watched, you know,
Speaker 1: he would walk chew gum uh, then dressed socks that
Speaker 1: were at the same height. Um. And you know a
Speaker 1: lot of times you're labeled as the next Michael, Well
Speaker 1: he was. He was really the next Michael Um. You know.
Speaker 1: And nothing against Harold Mine or anybody else like that,
Speaker 1: but they got the label of from the dunk contest
Speaker 1: or they were gonna be the next Michael A lot
Speaker 1: of times. That was the curse, um and and so.
Speaker 1: But when you talk about Kobe and the closest thing
Speaker 1: to to Michael is Kobe two thousand three finals, Stack
Speaker 1: the spurs? Are you brought it? You had to face
Speaker 1: the camera. That's tough. This is that was playing down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to dream out. He was frying us.
Speaker 1: It was frying us. So you were supposed to be
Speaker 1: in San Antonio after that we wanted when y'all talk
Speaker 1: about I wasn't there. I was I don't know what
Speaker 1: like this. Tony was done before the series because it
Speaker 1: was already talked about, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: you was frying using us. I was trying, um. But
Speaker 1: it's fine. Jack Speedy Clackson, he saved it because he
Speaker 1: don't want to keep up with him. He was doing
Speaker 1: Tony so bad. Bro and Tony had a bad year
Speaker 1: because he had stiff he he got. But the finals
Speaker 1: we needed Speedy because we we went down bad without
Speaker 1: doing nothing down bad. No, but no one really talks
Speaker 1: about Speedy was big for you guys. Speed did an
Speaker 1: incredible job. But yeah, that ring, that was a nice ring. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, was get back that. I get it what
Speaker 1: you want. Um. But when you talk about the Spurs,
Speaker 1: we we gave six. We had it going in our direction.
Speaker 1: We were winning and it was I think we're up
Speaker 1: thirteen or fifteen and the fourth and all we can
Speaker 1: think about is we just gotta get it to seven
Speaker 1: because if we get it to seven, there could be suffocation.
Speaker 1: It could be like the pressures on them. You know,
Speaker 1: they're at home. They were supposed to win this series
Speaker 1: and so um. But as everyone knows, we didn't get
Speaker 1: to seven. They wanted six and uh had Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was he was He was Shane. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's human either, um, because Tim was just you know,
Speaker 1: he was automatic. You can you can pin him in
Speaker 1: for for whatever, thirty fifteen, twenty and six blocks like
Speaker 1: like that'nceling in that. That's what he did. But for
Speaker 1: the players on the court, JA I ain't gonna lie
Speaker 1: for us. We were watching you and your powers, watching
Speaker 1: Tim and just and everybody was thinking, like just imagine
Speaker 1: them to, Like it was unbelievable just to watch yesterday.
Speaker 1: Have nightmares about that that that you know, that was
Speaker 1: this hard decision. But I thought loyal To was the
Speaker 1: one to go. Stayed, stay in Jersey. Um, but um,
Speaker 1: I was loyal. It happens something, you know, obviously, Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame career, multiple time, ten time All Star, World champion.
Speaker 1: You weren't a great shooter to start your career, but
Speaker 1: then you closed on and when did that lock in?
Speaker 1: And and and you know you finished the number twelve
Speaker 1: all time on the three point may list. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know I think, Um, when you talk about different parts
Speaker 1: of the game, UM, I knew if I was ever
Speaker 1: around scores that that that's perfect for me because my
Speaker 1: job is to let them eat. So if to set
Speaker 1: the table, if stack you know Matt like, hey, my
Speaker 1: job is to figure out what you guys, where you
Speaker 1: like to score, right, you like to run, you like
Speaker 1: spot up shots, Then my job is the table setter,
Speaker 1: is to put you in those positions to be successful.
Speaker 1: So when you talk about Carrie running throw it to
Speaker 1: him on the dead run. R J throw it to
Speaker 1: him on the dead run. UM being able to you know,
Speaker 1: understand Rex catch and shoot right. And so that that
Speaker 1: was I didn't have to worry about shooting because everyone
Speaker 1: else on the floor wanted to shoot and so to
Speaker 1: to know that. And then as the game slows down
Speaker 1: and as you get older, you gotta work on some
Speaker 1: parts if you want to stay around long enough. And
Speaker 1: so the corner three was something that I had to
Speaker 1: work on if I wanted to play longer. UM. And
Speaker 1: so I spent more time UM on that part of
Speaker 1: my game to to make sure that I could stick around.
Speaker 1: And what year was that that you started trying to
Speaker 1: I want to say, oh oh oh, six oh seven,
Speaker 1: So maybe about ten eleven years in your care Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was getting old. And uh and also
Speaker 1: I think you know when you talk about shooting, because
Speaker 1: I was always labeled as a nonshooter. Even til the
Speaker 1: day I retired, I was a non shooter. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, being with Dirk in Dallas, I said, look,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be double my guys coming to help. I
Speaker 1: will always be open. So if you can find me,
Speaker 1: I will be open. And guess what, I will throw
Speaker 1: it back to you. But but it's you know, I
Speaker 1: think you always have to pick apart every summer. As
Speaker 1: I talked about if you can get one percent better,
Speaker 1: and I think working on shooting just didn't happen overnight.
Speaker 1: You have to work on it on a continuous space asists. Uh,
Speaker 1: when people aren't watching. You know, everybody wants to be
Speaker 1: recognized for working hard. Um, it's when you don't when
Speaker 1: people aren't watching you. When you're in the gym by yourself,
Speaker 1: when you're shooting the ball, you don't have a rebounder
Speaker 1: and you gotta go get it. You know, that's how
Speaker 1: we grew up. Yeah, well, unless you've got ten basketballs
Speaker 1: right there on the side, which we didn't have. So
Speaker 1: you know, you look at shooting by yourself, you gotta
Speaker 1: go get your rebound right. And today's staff we got
Speaker 1: yea and two passers for each player, So now the
Speaker 1: player always has to worry about his shooting. So how
Speaker 1: do you imagine you know your misses right? How do
Speaker 1: you work on your misses better misses? Right? Um? A
Speaker 1: lot of times everyone looks at if you make it,
Speaker 1: that's great, But I look at it the other way.
Speaker 1: How bad did you miss? Can we give you a
Speaker 1: point for hitting the back rim? Are you long? We'll
Speaker 1: take a point off if you're short, right, And because
Speaker 1: if it's short, never going in so that that That's
Speaker 1: just something that I always thought about as a pro.
Speaker 1: I had to work on my game. Um, as much
Speaker 1: as people said that I was good at other parts.
Speaker 1: Two thousand eleven loaded and to me, one of the
Speaker 1: most legendary runs. Considering the teams you guys knocked off
Speaker 1: on the way. Just to name a few guys, Marry
Speaker 1: and Page story A compitts, Tyson Chander, Jason Terry. Remember
Speaker 1: Jason Terry hit ten three You guys swept us in
Speaker 1: the first round with the Lakers. J T hit ten
Speaker 1: threes in Game four in Dallas. You guys are crazy.
Speaker 1: You guys end up beating Miami's Big three in the finals.
Speaker 1: How special was that team? I was a great team. UM.
Speaker 1: I think keyword team. UM. We all accepted Dirk was
Speaker 1: our our best player. Jason Terry was our next best player. UM.
Speaker 1: When you talk about Tyson and myself, we talked about defense.
Speaker 1: How can we help Dirk? How can we protect the
Speaker 1: guys that they were going to go after UM, and
Speaker 1: then it was just about making the right play, you know,
Speaker 1: not not worry about yourself who if you're if not open,
Speaker 1: get off of it. And so UM, it was a
Speaker 1: great team. We were close. We would go to dinners
Speaker 1: all the time on the road, UM, and we cared
Speaker 1: about one another. And I thought, UM, through tough times.
Speaker 1: You know that Miami series wasn't easy because we had
Speaker 1: an opportunity. Game one, it got away from us and
Speaker 1: then we're down fifteen I think in game two, and
Speaker 1: there was a little shadow boxing in front of our
Speaker 1: bench that kind of piste us off and so UM
Speaker 1: from that point on, UM, we kind of were like, okay,
Speaker 1: they show bolt and so we we gotta we gotta
Speaker 1: make a thing. Turn it on. You just mentioned team
Speaker 1: Uh you that team alone held Lebron James the seventeen
Speaker 1: points a game in the finals. How did you guys
Speaker 1: collectively slow him down? That's a question he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to answer. Uh. You know, I think, you know, for
Speaker 1: the game plan was just to give different looks um,
Speaker 1: and then throw different bodies, you know, and again someone
Speaker 1: who's not on that list, and we talk about d
Speaker 1: Steve Sean Stevens. Yeah, you know, he was here and
Speaker 1: so that that was you know, we had a lot
Speaker 1: of role players, including myself as a role player UM
Speaker 1: J J. Berrera. Guys weren't scared to take a charge
Speaker 1: or or be in the way or try to, you know,
Speaker 1: do something, and I think that's what helped us. But
Speaker 1: we just try to make a tough on on Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's gonna score, he's gonna get his attempts, but you
Speaker 1: just can't give him freebes because if you give him
Speaker 1: free bees, that's where he can hurt join. Uh. Dirt
Speaker 1: was incredible during this run. Twenty points of games shot
Speaker 1: over from the three point line one. How special was
Speaker 1: he during that run? But just to looking back on it,
Speaker 1: you got a chance to play with prime Dirk and
Speaker 1: you're coaching Luca who's still hasn't hit his prime, which
Speaker 1: is scary. Uh. Arguably two of the greatest European players
Speaker 1: ever do. But how special was Dirt? Ye Dirk was
Speaker 1: a warrior man and I think, um, and he's also funny.
Speaker 1: I know this is he he would wrap in German. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he was saying, but he would
Speaker 1: say that he was rapping Um. But he had a
Speaker 1: great personality off the court. I think everyone got to
Speaker 1: see him on the court. Um, and just you know,
Speaker 1: the fade away, the one dribble, hard dribble right bank. Um.
Speaker 1: But he worked on all that. He was a worker.
Speaker 1: He worked extremely hard on all the stuff that you
Speaker 1: saw in the game. UM. And so when you compare
Speaker 1: to two, Uh, Dirk will tell you that Lucas better
Speaker 1: than he is at the age of twenty three. You know,
Speaker 1: Dirk's very honest. He was like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I was going to make it in the league when
Speaker 1: I was young. Um. But when you look at what
Speaker 1: Lucas doing at twenty three is unbelievable. But Dirk changed
Speaker 1: the game. When you talk about being able to give
Speaker 1: space a big putting it on the floor, uh, one
Speaker 1: or two dribbles either way. And then again his shooting
Speaker 1: ability was off the charts. That unbelievable. Um. When you
Speaker 1: talk about a young man who would you know, do
Speaker 1: anything you asked him to do. He wanted to be great,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm excited to see where he is today.
Speaker 1: But he again is just starting to climb the mountain.
Speaker 1: He hasn't reached his full potential. Either yes, it is
Speaker 1: as a coach, but his work ethic is like no other.
Speaker 1: He works extremely hard Um during the season and off
Speaker 1: the season, and so uh to be able to be
Speaker 1: around honest when he he's still young but younger Um
Speaker 1: again his growth giving him the ball, Um, you know
Speaker 1: when I was there to help expand his game with
Speaker 1: something that we all thought would help us as a team,
Speaker 1: but help him and he ran with it. But you
Speaker 1: know what's what's funny about um, the two players you've
Speaker 1: talked about, right, Luca and Honest. Um. For my young
Speaker 1: coaching career, I've had the opportunity to coach KG, Paul Pierce,
Speaker 1: uh Janice and now Luca uh And at the All
Speaker 1: Star Game in Cleveland for the seventy five UM, I
Speaker 1: got to have all three of well all of them
Speaker 1: kind of standing by me. And Johannest tells us he
Speaker 1: brings up the story to Luca, like, hey, his coach
Speaker 1: making you run and I go, look, I go, Rannest,
Speaker 1: don't bring don't start talking about the things that I
Speaker 1: made you do and so and then and then Ticket,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Ticket goes oh Man, coach used to
Speaker 1: make us run so much. Training camp where Duke, He's
Speaker 1: making us dude, uh sprints and I'm like, okay, time ago,
Speaker 1: we gotta let's let's en this mean because Luca doesn't
Speaker 1: need to hear all the things that I made you guys,
Speaker 1: do Lucas not doing those things? No, um, real quick
Speaker 1: before we get to these quick hitters. Obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: Luca just want a championship back in his country. But
Speaker 1: he looked like chills chiseled and is the league ready
Speaker 1: for an n shape Luca? I hope, So, I hope,
Speaker 1: so he's coming, He's coming. I think, uh, what we
Speaker 1: all saw, um, Luca's um taking you know, his body serious.
Speaker 1: And I think during the season, I think Reggie if
Speaker 1: someone made the comment that he thought he was too heavy,
Speaker 1: and what I love about Luca, uh, he never runs
Speaker 1: from opinions. And so when Reggie said that, uh, he
Speaker 1: worked on his body challenge and then he took off um.
Speaker 1: And so I think it just shows character that, um,
Speaker 1: he's never wanted to blame anybody. If if this is
Speaker 1: someone's opinion that's gonna help him get better. I thought
Speaker 1: he absorbed it and then uh he used it in
Speaker 1: a positive What's rare for young players yes, Um, in
Speaker 1: your opinion, top five point guards of all time? Oh man, Okay,
Speaker 1: so we got like there's some guys who are label
Speaker 1: point guards, but they're not point guards. It's staff a
Speaker 1: point guard. Yes, oh okay, Okay, Oscar Robinson point guard, yes,
Speaker 1: Oscar definite point guard. Okay, all right, all right, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with Oscar. I'm gonna go with steph. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm GPS on there because its GPS. Not on that
Speaker 1: man call. He's gonna show up a knock on my door,
Speaker 1: g P, he's right down the street. Uh, let's look
Speaker 1: at John Stockton and then Magic Johnson. Hello. Five list
Speaker 1: five dinner guests, dead or alive? Well, I think one
Speaker 1: you mean starting? You mean if we were having dinner tonight,
Speaker 1: dead or alive, your dinner table plus five people. Okay.
Speaker 1: I was gonna start with my dad. Um, and let's see, Uh,
Speaker 1: Obama would have to be there. I would go with
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Junior would be I would have to
Speaker 1: have him there, and then um Bill Russell and then um,
Speaker 1: I want a young I need a younger player athlete. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe Colin Kaepernick would be there because in
Speaker 1: conversation when you talk about what Bill Russell stands for,
Speaker 1: uh not just you know we we sometimes we're just
Speaker 1: labeled athletes. But like when you look at that group, Um,
Speaker 1: they did more probably off the court than they did
Speaker 1: on the court. So that's saying a lot. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we can learn from that and I would love to
Speaker 1: hear their stories. One album you can listen to with
Speaker 1: no skips, oh the Chronic Good call, damn, A good call.
Speaker 1: Piece of advice you would give younger j kid, don't
Speaker 1: know your blond that keep your hair? Yeah, um, I
Speaker 1: would say listen, mm hmm, you gotta listen, don't don't
Speaker 1: don't talk until the person is finished talking. But make
Speaker 1: sure that you're listening to what's being told because sometimes
Speaker 1: when you're young, you think you know it all, and
Speaker 1: when you're getting advice, you might you might miss something
Speaker 1: that could have helped you avoid a situation. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like ever looking back, Um, I was someone who
Speaker 1: football is my first sport. Do you ever look back
Speaker 1: and thought, I mean, with all the respect to baseball,
Speaker 1: that you really had a real shot if you would
Speaker 1: have stuck with it to play professional baseball? Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: I would have to say yes, I would have. I
Speaker 1: truly believe that I had a talent to be able
Speaker 1: to play baseball. How far I would have gotten I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I would have done everything possible that
Speaker 1: I did in basketball to do there. Um, the first
Speaker 1: thing you do when you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: last thing you do when you go to bed before
Speaker 1: you go to guarantee you his answering gonna be the
Speaker 1: same stackhouse. First thing I would do when I wake up. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. Um, I kind of do an
Speaker 1: exam of my body? What part is hurting today? What
Speaker 1: you stand out? Once I wake up and I go
Speaker 1: is this gonna be a good day? And then I
Speaker 1: go body exam? Is it my dis my lower back hurting?
Speaker 1: Is it my knee? Is it my neck? Them? So
Speaker 1: once it kind of goes through like oh we're all
Speaker 1: right there, We're all right there. Then it's like okay,
Speaker 1: then slide to the bathroom because if you play long enough,
Speaker 1: you don't walk now the bathroom, just slide. So sometimes
Speaker 1: you hold the ball and all that I know today.
Speaker 1: Uh so so to say when I wake up, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a body check before you go to bed. Uh,
Speaker 1: go to bed? Um, you try to just reflect on
Speaker 1: what you did today, Um, and then you kind of
Speaker 1: think about what you're gonna do tomorrow. Before we go
Speaker 1: to last question, I want to bring your son and
Speaker 1: come in lover man, watch out the light so you
Speaker 1: know not to light over. I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: an athlete, clear clear as being obviously, Uh Dad, head
Speaker 1: coach of an NBA team. How do you balance? I'm
Speaker 1: talking I want to talk to you first, pop. Check
Speaker 1: out his hat though, that's just clean, that's that's a
Speaker 1: that's a coach of sign. How do you how do
Speaker 1: you balance father? And kind of obviously you know he's
Speaker 1: he's he's the hooper now, so how do you balance
Speaker 1: not give him too much, given enough? Where is that
Speaker 1: balance that as the father? That's a great question, Matt Um.
Speaker 1: We just had this conversation too with another friend of mine. Um,
Speaker 1: when you talk about the balance, because I I want
Speaker 1: to be Dad, Um. I don't want to be coach Um,
Speaker 1: but also I want because he might hear a lot
Speaker 1: of positivity of oh you're so good, you're so good,
Speaker 1: and I kind of come from the other side to
Speaker 1: balance it out, to balance it out. And so you
Speaker 1: haven't done anything you know, um, and he'll tell you
Speaker 1: that I say that he was trash. But but the
Speaker 1: beauty is um that the most important thing is that
Speaker 1: he knows that I love him and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: everything possible to help him achieve his goals. But he
Speaker 1: knows that I will talk trash to your dad's tough
Speaker 1: on you sometimes, like after a game, if I play bad,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a long car at home. Do you
Speaker 1: ever have to tell him like that? That's enough? Who'll
Speaker 1: keep talking? Don't matter what you say? What about balls
Speaker 1: down to your dad's j kid? Though? What about? But
Speaker 1: what about when you play good? Is it a good
Speaker 1: conversation the home? Right home? Depends? If I played too good,
Speaker 1: then trash talking. But but you know, but you know
Speaker 1: it comes from a loving place though, right to get
Speaker 1: you better? Just make me better? How old are you?
Speaker 1: You're going into seventh grade? What's your what's your goals?
Speaker 1: And basketball? Get better? Try to make it somewhere there
Speaker 1: you go. That's what I'm talking about, all right? Last question,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Jack, if you can see one guest and
Speaker 1: all the smoke, who would it be? But before you answer,
Speaker 1: you have to help us get your answer on the show.
Speaker 1: It could be someone you coach, could be someone you coach,
Speaker 1: could be someone you coach, just calling him up, coach
Speaker 1: him up, breaking all kind of records. Early, he says
Speaker 1: he's differ friend. Oh that's easy man, you're talking about
Speaker 1: seventy seven. Yeah, we need seventy seven. Okay, we need
Speaker 1: seventy seven. Off, he's chill. He seems like it seems cool.
Speaker 1: He saw him on JJ's podcast. No, he you know what,
Speaker 1: you get to see a different side, that's what we
Speaker 1: want to say. Yeah, I think he would fit perfectly
Speaker 1: in this seat. Love it alright, So that seas I
Speaker 1: know my homework, simple, got it. I took up for
Speaker 1: him one time on on on on one of the
Speaker 1: shows on Fox, and he had somebody to reach out
Speaker 1: to him and say appreciate it. So it's only right then,
Speaker 1: so he this night on me. But so this is
Speaker 1: it's easierself. YEA, got it, got it, got his back,
Speaker 1: We got his back, and I can pass the ball.
Speaker 1: So I'm a paste the greatest, So I'll get it.
Speaker 1: I'll get the ball back to you guys man, J.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. Man, graduation, all the success, best to
Speaker 1: luck next see us in Uh make the team not
Speaker 1: serving him. We're serving him. That was giving me the
Speaker 1: ball every time. I don't like me saying that, they're saying,
Speaker 1: we got footage. Man. We appreciate you. Best to luck,
Speaker 1: continue to move forward. Best to luck to you a
Speaker 1: little man. You can catch this episode Jason kidd On
Speaker 1: All the Smoke, Showtime Basketball YouTube, and the I Heart
Speaker 1: platform Black Effects. We'll see y'all next week