Speaker 1: Hey Legends, Welcome back to the Mason Cox Show today.
Speaker 1: Another special guest, another massive human. Ah gosh, gotta love him.
Speaker 1: Ever get a seven foot person on the pod because
Speaker 1: there's not many of us rolling around the world. This
Speaker 1: man is seven foot two hundred and thirteen centimeters tall.
Speaker 1: His Croatian descent from Melbourne still speaks a bit of Croatian,
Speaker 1: is what I've been told. And he's got his Rogue
Speaker 1: Bogues podcast. You gotta check it out. Basketball, career, cars,
Speaker 1: everything is included. There is absolutely going off. Played collegeball
Speaker 1: Utah Utes number four retired there after two seasons, twenty five,
Speaker 1: number one overall picking the NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: It's played for Golden State Warriors, MAVs, Cavs, Lakers. King
Speaker 1: Sidney King's twenty eighteen NBL MVP Best Defensive Player and
Speaker 1: All NBL First Team. He has got an absolute resume
Speaker 1: beyond resumes. He is the great man in one of
Speaker 1: the Australian legends and sports. Andrew Bogant Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2: Man. So I'm excited for this one.
Speaker 1: Like I said, there's that I feel like we had
Speaker 1: Jacqulen dall On and he was kind of similar in
Speaker 1: that sense, where he played overseas, he's playing in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Now he's playing in the NBA finals. I saw our
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs and it's awesome to be able to get
Speaker 1: these people on who've experienced something, I guess in the
Speaker 1: reverse of what I'd done. You know, you've gone from
Speaker 1: Australia over to the US and you're one of the ogs.
Speaker 1: But before we get into all that, I've got to
Speaker 1: ask I've been asked to h to ask you about
Speaker 1: your Orange Valiant and what custom plates you had on it,
Speaker 1: because I know you're a bit of a custom car man.
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah? It was. That was the first muscle car that
Speaker 3: I bought, as I got drafted. Funny story about that
Speaker 3: one was I purchased the car and I had never
Speaker 3: given manual the car's manual. Yeah speak ship for the Americans,
Speaker 3: and I'd never learned manual because I couldn't fit in
Speaker 3: that manual cars as a kid, And yeah, it pieced
Speaker 3: me off. So I basically learned manual over one weekend
Speaker 3: and then drove it. But the plates I got were
Speaker 3: it was basically translated to yebiga. All the Bulkan listeners
Speaker 3: don't know what that means. It means effort in Croatian,
Speaker 3: but it's kind of like a slang. But I believe
Speaker 3: you can trying to get that fleet now he crows
Speaker 3: that you get.
Speaker 1: It's amazing because I used to drive a sixty one
Speaker 1: Ford Falcon range Her, if you can believe that, and
Speaker 1: that was no chance of me fitting in that thing.
Speaker 1: I was like the big wheel was just huge and
Speaker 1: you had to spread your legs just to get it
Speaker 1: in there, and then you had the clutch. There was
Speaker 1: always half put in because you couldn't fit your leg
Speaker 1: in there. I can't imagine what you were like how
Speaker 1: you get into some of these cars that you have,
Speaker 1: Like is it I mean obviously you pulled the seat
Speaker 1: all the way back first thing with the toll blokes
Speaker 1: that we do. But is there any like Have you
Speaker 1: been able to customize some of your cars to make
Speaker 1: it for a seven foot player?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Valley it was pretty good because it was
Speaker 3: a coup so I didn't have any trouble there. Usually
Speaker 3: leaked my seat back as far as I could. But
Speaker 3: there are a few cars that I just were on
Speaker 3: my bucket list, and one was I bought a twenty
Speaker 3: ten Shelby GT five hundred Mustang. When I was in
Speaker 3: the US, I bought a brand new OFFT Deal deal
Speaker 3: it a lot and I could barely fit in it,
Speaker 3: and because it was manual to get to the clutch,
Speaker 3: I was kind of my left knee was hitting kind
Speaker 3: of steering wheel. Between the door and the steering wheel,
Speaker 3: there wasn't a whole lot of room, so I still
Speaker 3: bought it. And I had to drive the car barefoot
Speaker 3: to get that extra bit of room. So I'd always
Speaker 3: had to drive the car and flip flops. That's how
Speaker 3: bad I wanted the cars. I'm buying this car, like,
Speaker 3: I love this car, and I bought it and just
Speaker 3: pick my shoe off to hit the clutch.
Speaker 1: Just love to see you, the big man, just rocking
Speaker 1: out with no shoes on casual class of cars.
Speaker 3: You love the car, You got to do it?
Speaker 2: What's your so? Is that your old day? If you
Speaker 2: had a dream car, is that your dream car?
Speaker 3: It was a great card to drive. My dream car
Speaker 3: was probably always probably a walking throw used to see
Speaker 3: walking through from the eighties, just because I always saw him.
Speaker 3: My dad's a mechanic by training to come very specialist.
Speaker 3: So I always saw all these cars coming in that
Speaker 3: I draw over that never thought I could afford. And
Speaker 3: it was always woman I liked. So yeah, probably walking
Speaker 3: short from back in the day. I thank for earning
Speaker 3: one today, So get a.
Speaker 1: Good fun Another passion you've gotten.
Speaker 2: I've been told that you love your watches. Is that correct?
Speaker 1: Is there any Is there any watch that sticks out
Speaker 1: that you just kind of you know, is your go
Speaker 1: to and if you go out, and maybe a special
Speaker 1: event watch that you only wear so Oftenever, it's something like,
Speaker 1: you know, pristine, pristine place you're going to.
Speaker 3: I just got the John Mayer roll Lex not long ago,
Speaker 3: so the green Face data, and yeah, I was looking
Speaker 3: for that for a while. They've funnily enough, I got
Speaker 3: a tip that they're going to be discontinued, so I
Speaker 3: jumped on that just before they got discontinued. So yeah,
Speaker 3: they've done pretty well now. But that took me a
Speaker 3: while to find out to force that. I actually found
Speaker 3: it in the Caribbean Islands. It was secondhand, brand new,
Speaker 3: if that makes sense. It was unopened second hand through
Speaker 3: I found it through a contact of mine in the US,
Speaker 3: and then yeah, I went through a whole a whole
Speaker 3: strategy of how to get it, get it and get
Speaker 3: it to Australia and all that kind of stuff. So
Speaker 3: got it all done.
Speaker 2: What's the one event you'd take it out too?
Speaker 3: I can't wearsonally sometimes, to be honest with you, I
Speaker 3: think it goes with a lot because it's all gold
Speaker 3: and it's kind of, you know, elegant enough to not
Speaker 3: be too bright. It can be, but yeah, definitely goes
Speaker 3: well with a suit. But I sometimes just swear it
Speaker 3: out casually during the day. I'm not one of those
Speaker 3: guys that this one has to go with this. I
Speaker 3: just want to take a different one out every now
Speaker 3: and then. I don't have a huge collection of many means,
Speaker 3: but I have a good rotation of five to six
Speaker 3: home watching as though I like to work.
Speaker 1: I'm very jealous. I'm very jealous. But we'll get into
Speaker 1: the early life. So you play it. You're from Melbourne,
Speaker 1: so a lot of listeners here from Melbourne and you
Speaker 1: played Ozzie Rules and tennis growing up.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: He had Dustin Fletcher on the podcast also he did
Speaker 1: the same. I don't know what the deal is with
Speaker 1: some of the Todd blokes playing tennis is that just
Speaker 1: kind of the go to when if you're a child
Speaker 1: to say it thrown into the tennis program. Because in America,
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone I grew up really playing tennis.
Speaker 1: It was just never a thing. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: every tall person I know that's here, even Chris Anty, You'll,
Speaker 1: played tennis growing up.
Speaker 3: For me, tennis is used loosely in my profile. I
Speaker 3: still laugh and that gets picked up by people because
Speaker 3: I didn't play organized tennis. It was more, you know,
Speaker 3: going to the local tennis club and jumping the fence
Speaker 3: even have to pay a fee and having a hit.
Speaker 3: I just love playing tennis. I still love playing tennis's day.
Speaker 3: It's one of my favorite sports to play. I'm not
Speaker 3: a golf guy. I take tennis ten times out of
Speaker 3: ten I like, I like constant action. I don't like
Speaker 3: to hit, you know, play a shot in golf and
Speaker 3: then you know, talk, chat, walk all that kind of crap.
Speaker 3: But I don't. That's not for me. And I did
Speaker 3: yea astralable football, so I did a big kick. I
Speaker 3: did good taekwondo and gymnastics. I did gymnastics because my
Speaker 3: sister did it. So I got thrown in that bus
Speaker 3: hated it, and then yeah, actually I ended up playing
Speaker 3: basketball just at my dad's warehouse. He had a hoop
Speaker 3: Jordan to the wall that was from the neighbors. And
Speaker 3: then I wanted to change the basketball and the parents
Speaker 3: were like, look, if you change, if you changed four again,
Speaker 3: this is it. Like we're not you know, fees, equipment
Speaker 3: all that, it's expensive, We'll loaded middle class. So that
Speaker 3: they're like, if you change, this is it. And I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I'm all in basketball. And thankfully it was the right decision.
Speaker 1: All right, what because you played for the Victoria junior
Speaker 1: state team And was there a certain point I guess like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you drop all the other sports, right, and then you
Speaker 1: go okay, well you probably at some point probably knew
Speaker 1: you were going to be frequently tired seven feet and
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, if this is going to happen, I'm
Speaker 1: going to have a high probability of being a decent
Speaker 1: basketball player. Was there a moment I guess like in
Speaker 1: your kind of early days you kind of just go, wow,
Speaker 1: I can actually be pretty damn decent at this this
Speaker 1: basketball thing.
Speaker 3: Not really My development was super late, so I got
Speaker 3: cut from by teams from eleven to fifteen sixteen, ended
Speaker 3: up going to the areas and I was just a
Speaker 3: super late developer, Like my development was from sixteen is
Speaker 3: sixteen seventeen up until twenty and I'm in the NBA.
Speaker 3: Like that's how quick it happened for me, you know.
Speaker 3: And that's why no one could really believe kind of
Speaker 3: the path that I took, because all the junior coaches
Speaker 3: and all that don't think would be that good. I
Speaker 3: don't think would be a pro all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: And then some time and eff to work in and
Speaker 3: as you know, as a big fello, it's kind of
Speaker 3: hard because I had I was told young and then
Speaker 3: I stopped growing at about twelve thirteen, just completely didn't
Speaker 3: grow for a year, and I'm like, what the hell's
Speaker 3: going on? Like all my friends were passing me, all
Speaker 3: my teammates were passing me, and it forced me to
Speaker 3: play a different position. I've played a bit of small
Speaker 3: forward to guard learn how to handle the ball. But
Speaker 3: the hardest thing, as you would know, was when you're
Speaker 3: a talk when you have these massive growth spurs and
Speaker 3: you know your body goes out of whack, like coordination
Speaker 3: is what you're starting to trip over, Like you know,
Speaker 3: you're doing regular stuff that you did every day and
Speaker 3: it's feeling uncoordinated, but what the hell's going on? That's
Speaker 3: the hardest part is training out of those those growth
Speaker 3: spurts to get back, get some coordination back, and get
Speaker 3: some touch with the field left foot before right, right,
Speaker 3: so before left. This sound stupid to most people, but
Speaker 3: when you have these massive growth pirts, I think it.
Speaker 3: Myke he's already a six years old, you know, he's
Speaker 3: gone up and down through that like where his footwork
Speaker 3: is really good playing soccer right now, and then then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden has a been a gross bood.
Speaker 3: He's falling over again, like he just you know, you
Speaker 3: just got to progress through. But yeah, my journey man.
Speaker 3: Like really it was like someone made a firework in
Speaker 3: about sixteen seventeen, and just within a couple of years on,
Speaker 3: you know, standing on the stage shaking David Stone's hand.
Speaker 2: It's insane to me, Like and the one thing that
Speaker 2: like I'm reading up and do a bit of research
Speaker 2: on you, that kind of blew my mind as just
Speaker 2: it seemed as though, within like the two three four years,
Speaker 2: you had all this experience in life that most people
Speaker 2: wouldn't even be able to dream about.
Speaker 1: Like you go to you go to college, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the first like Australians go over there and
Speaker 1: be successful in college in the Utah youths for two
Speaker 1: seasons and you just dominate and then you end up
Speaker 1: you dominate so much you get your jersey retired for
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. Have you gone back and actually
Speaker 1: seeing the jersey retirements they put it up in the
Speaker 1: rafters or how's it?
Speaker 2: How does it work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's top of the rafters that photo said. I've
Speaker 3: been meaning to go back the text Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: induction in the future as well, hopefully, so I'm definitely
Speaker 3: going to go back. But the last three or four
Speaker 3: years hasn't been the best to travel, So I definitely
Speaker 3: need to make a US troop over the next couple
Speaker 3: of years. And I think our the reunion for a
Speaker 3: Championship with the Warriors will be coming out produce him
Speaker 3: into so probably try and tile that at the same time.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Utah was awesome, man, Like, I had a
Speaker 3: great time there, very fond memories of Utah. A beautiful
Speaker 3: place to live. In my opinion, I really missed the mountains.
Speaker 3: You realize like once you leave there, you take the
Speaker 3: mountains for granted because you wake up and there's beautiful
Speaker 3: hills and rockies and whatnot. And then then he leave
Speaker 3: there and I ended up going to Milwaukee, which is
Speaker 3: flat as attack. I ended up missing those mountains, you know,
Speaker 3: waking up and seeing them every day.
Speaker 1: They did, like you go into the draft, you drafted
Speaker 1: number one, and we'll talk about the chaos and everything
Speaker 1: else of like being a number one draft pick and
Speaker 1: then being the first I'll trying to ever do that,
Speaker 1: and then Ben Simmons now been the dot number one
Speaker 1: draft picks since then. But you go from there to
Speaker 1: having this I guess like did you feel like there
Speaker 1: was pressure? Was it just because you were the first
Speaker 1: one to ever do it? You cain't were just like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's just let's get into it like this. Who knows
Speaker 1: where this will go? Like we'll just kind of roll
Speaker 1: into it and see how we it turn out. But
Speaker 1: you're kind of one of the first, are you the first?
Speaker 1: But from Australia like I said, but like internationally I
Speaker 1: felt like there wasn't a lot of people are getting
Speaker 1: drafted number one and then you know, you got yourself
Speaker 1: and some other guys from Europe's start getting rafted and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, Umber one, and You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: is this is it extra pressure because you're not from
Speaker 1: there and you're playing in a foreign league and you're
Speaker 1: touted as the best player out there that is existing
Speaker 1: in the sport.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, there wasn't pressure. I was pretty lucky to
Speaker 3: go to a small market in Milwaukee. I think that
Speaker 3: really helped kind of my journey. I think going to
Speaker 3: la on New York with that pick would have been
Speaker 3: much tougher, just because of the media attention, scrutiny and
Speaker 3: up and downs, whereas Milwaukee was, you know, much more tame.
Speaker 3: But it was funny, you know, back back then it
Speaker 3: was used in Australia, but it wasn't really you know,
Speaker 3: it's still Footy on the front page when I got drafted, right, Like,
Speaker 3: it's so weird. You know, there was no social media.
Speaker 3: I don't think people in Australia realize how big of
Speaker 3: a deal that was, you know, to to be you know,
Speaker 3: just being drafted really is a big deal, and then
Speaker 3: to be top ten, top five, number one with a
Speaker 3: huge deal. But yeah, I was lucky that I went
Speaker 3: to a small market, I think, and I mean, nothing
Speaker 3: can really prepare you for it, Like people say, you know,
Speaker 3: how did you get through it? You got to make
Speaker 3: your own way and make the mistakes and learn how
Speaker 3: to be with it along the way. You can do
Speaker 3: every bit of media training, you can have the best
Speaker 3: mental in your life, but until you're thrown into that limelight,
Speaker 3: no one else can do it for you.
Speaker 2: It's so true.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's funny how you say that, because like obviously,
Speaker 1: like you said, the football dominates like the newspaper here,
Speaker 1: and then I find it amazing that people don't realize
Speaker 1: how big some of the things that Australians are doing overseas,
Speaker 1: and like it just it kind of blows my mind,
Speaker 1: like we're somewhat insular and the fact that like we
Speaker 1: just kind of think, oh, well, this is what's interesting
Speaker 1: for you know, the Melbourne public whoever it is, and
Speaker 1: they don't realize, I guess, how big things are outside
Speaker 1: of the bubble of the country. Really, but I'm talking
Speaker 1: about it. I want to ask you this because I've
Speaker 1: always found the draft night hilarious, Like some of the
Speaker 1: suits rolling around on the night, some of the gold
Speaker 1: chains that people are wearing, like all this stuff nowadays,
Speaker 1: this is a full production. Was like whenever you got
Speaker 1: drafted up, there was there anyone that was just you
Speaker 1: looked out, was like, what are you wearing?
Speaker 2: Like in what world are you are you thinking? This
Speaker 2: is okay?
Speaker 3: That's a nightly basis in the NBA. Mate, You know,
Speaker 3: it's not just not just drafts, you know, and that's
Speaker 3: each to their own. But you know, there's I was
Speaker 3: more kind of business, kind of you know, businessy nice suit,
Speaker 3: nice tie. That was good for me. But I did
Speaker 3: pull out a white suit one game, which is crazy.
Speaker 3: But for the most part, yeah, I see all kinds
Speaker 3: of stuff as you see now with all the you know,
Speaker 3: the NBA, walking to locker rooms is basically a project runway,
Speaker 3: you know, fashion show, but each of their own. Some
Speaker 3: guys you want to be want to be models and
Speaker 3: basketball players. You know. I can't hate on that. Not me,
Speaker 3: definitely not me. And I was giving ship to a
Speaker 3: lot of those guys. When I was playing with guys
Speaker 3: wear funky stuff, I'd definitely I definitely get into them
Speaker 3: and get after him a little bit.
Speaker 1: You take ship, did you actually know what they rewards?
Speaker 1: Like the game beforehand? And then just prep yourself to
Speaker 1: like touch ship during the game.
Speaker 3: To them, not so much as other teams would be
Speaker 3: guys on our own team, I'd go after, what are
Speaker 3: you doing? What are you wearing? What is that?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: We're a couple of guys that would that would wear
Speaker 3: some crazy stuff. Sometimes we pull out their outfits out
Speaker 3: of their locker room, put them in the front of
Speaker 3: the locker roof. It was really funky. Put it like
Speaker 3: right near the white boards so everyone can see what
Speaker 3: they were wearing. But then, yes, some guys got pretty
Speaker 3: anty about all that, so turn it back. But we had,
Speaker 3: you know, we had all kinds of weird stuff. Being
Speaker 3: more in games.
Speaker 2: Who's the worst dress player you've ever played with?
Speaker 3: I would say worse. But the guy that got at
Speaker 3: the notice because he was a young friend of was
Speaker 3: severely He used to wear some crazy stuff. Man, he's
Speaker 3: you know, Nigeria from Nigeria, so he's got a good
Speaker 3: mix of asking culture. I mixed it with America. But
Speaker 3: some of the stuff you were just like, what are
Speaker 3: you doing?
Speaker 2: Man like?
Speaker 3: So a couple of that team got into it. I
Speaker 3: remember one game he wore he wore I think it
Speaker 3: was three quarter three quarter pant khakis with loafers and
Speaker 3: some weird shirt and he was hurt. At the time,
Speaker 3: Mark Jackson was a coach. He walked out onto the floor,
Speaker 3: come and sit on the bench of the game, and
Speaker 3: Mike Jackson turning and said, no, go back to the
Speaker 3: locker roombody. And the worst thing was that we were,
Speaker 3: you know, before the game, we were killing him. But
Speaker 3: you can't wear that. What are you doing, dude? No, No,
Speaker 3: it's okay, you cannot wear that. That's ridiculous. Man. We
Speaker 3: had the business casual at that point, so you might
Speaker 3: get fined, but not only that, you're gonna get laughed at,
Speaker 3: not laugh fine. And the fact that he walked out
Speaker 3: on the court and the coaches just like, get you
Speaker 3: back in the locker room of that after on made
Speaker 3: it even even funnier.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I really imagine just like a dive with
Speaker 1: a tail between his legs, fucking back to the Just
Speaker 1: I've got to ask you this now, being the number
Speaker 1: one draft pick, bit of pressure and everything else, Now,
Speaker 1: what was the one thing that it kind of sticks
Speaker 1: out in your mind that was your welcome to the
Speaker 1: NBA kind of moment, My.
Speaker 3: Welcomes India moment came a couple of months into the season.
Speaker 3: I was I was a rookie, so I had all
Speaker 3: the rookie duny and stuff I had to do. So
Speaker 3: I have to go get donuts before every shoot around,
Speaker 3: I had to get birthday cakes or whenever it was
Speaker 3: one's birthday. Just just mundane, annoying, earnly type stuff. Hey, rook,
Speaker 3: get me a towel, Hey rook, get me a drink
Speaker 3: about this or that kind of stuff. Right, that's around
Speaker 3: me a bit obviously a number one keig even more
Speaker 3: on me. Mother rookie was ears on Minnesota. I'm going
Speaker 3: to speak the word English, and he was in the
Speaker 3: G League all of the rookie years. So just me
Speaker 3: solo and I hit a game where against the Spurs
Speaker 3: my rookie year, I think it was in November, if
Speaker 3: or somewhere around November early December, hit this walkoff game
Speaker 3: winner against the Spurs of the previous year Chaps and
Speaker 3: gets a locker room on front. You know, everyone's getting
Speaker 3: around me, and I was just like, you know, fuck
Speaker 3: your rookie shit, yeah blah blah blah blah blah. Right,
Speaker 3: and one of the best was like, yeah, nice game,
Speaker 3: I guess what, you're still looking tomorrow And I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: just super that. And the next day I was like
Speaker 3: mid rookie. So just the reality chick of like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you're high right now, but you're still rooking tomorrow, buddy,
Speaker 3: and you're still let get out of doughnuts and everything
Speaker 3: that we need. So that was that was a nice
Speaker 3: welcome moment to the NBA.
Speaker 1: They always put you back in the place. I feel like,
Speaker 1: it's it's just the way that Americans steal whenever you're
Speaker 1: in your first year, you've played against some amazing, amazing
Speaker 1: NBA stars and the likes of like Kevin Love, Kevin Garnett,
Speaker 1: like Shaquille and Neils, some of these guys that are
Speaker 1: household names. Was there any I guess, like opponent every
Speaker 1: single week that you kind of came up against. That
Speaker 1: not every week that you came up against, but whenever
Speaker 1: you would go and play them, there was a bit
Speaker 1: of like a rivalry for you or just maybe like
Speaker 1: a mental kind of someone you had to try to
Speaker 1: get over that was like really tough to play against
Speaker 1: that you know, maybe whenever you saw them on the
Speaker 1: on the upcoming schedule, you just kind of got a
Speaker 1: bit nervous, or was it something you look forward to
Speaker 1: as far as a challenge for yourself.
Speaker 3: A few guys, like one guy I struggled with was Yumming.
Speaker 3: He was, you know, seventy six, had the shooting types
Speaker 3: of a guard, and he got hot against me. A
Speaker 3: few nights I played him, and there was nothing I
Speaker 3: could do, like playing textbook great defense, pushing him off
Speaker 3: the block, making him shoot turn around jumpers, and he's
Speaker 3: just all net, all net, all net, and you know,
Speaker 3: he's seventy six, and he shoots it above his head,
Speaker 3: so he's shooting from like, you know, an eighth advantage point.
Speaker 3: And when he gets hot, you're just like like, what
Speaker 3: can I do? You know? So I had to attack
Speaker 3: him at the other end. But another guy that i'd
Speaker 3: always get into it, which was Kevin Garnett, So funny
Speaker 3: you mentioned him. We always had. He had this thing
Speaker 3: where he tried to mess with international players a lot
Speaker 3: and try to, you know, try to get into him
Speaker 3: a little bit and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 3: I remember he did it to me, like the first
Speaker 3: time he did to me. I gave him an elbow
Speaker 3: back and he kind of left me alone. From there,
Speaker 3: but then we'd always get into it every game, like
Speaker 3: we get into the larger grajis, you know, double text,
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. And I think with a
Speaker 3: guy like that, you got to go back in it
Speaker 3: like they and you know, he's trying to see how
Speaker 3: you react and see if you go into your shell
Speaker 3: and fetch your game. And it didn't really affect me,
Speaker 3: and I gave it back to him as good as
Speaker 3: a game to me. So they'll probably two guys out.
Speaker 1: He's he's such a player that he played the rule
Speaker 1: between the Ears game, Kevin Garnet, and he was just
Speaker 1: like insane the way he kind of took it, took
Speaker 1: a mentality towards games. Is there anything he kind of
Speaker 1: like said to even not only yourself, other players and
Speaker 1: even beyond just Kevin Kevin Garnatt, but like anyone else
Speaker 1: that kind of said stuff to get under skins of
Speaker 1: players that you know.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like nowadays with with mikes and stuff, maybe
Speaker 1: people are a bit more cautious on what they say
Speaker 1: on the court and things along that nature like, but
Speaker 1: back in the day and whenever you're playing, like I
Speaker 1: just feel like it was a bit it was a
Speaker 1: bit less controlled to say that, Like, I think you
Speaker 1: could probably kind of get into each other a bit
Speaker 1: more than you probably can't today, just because you'd be
Speaker 1: nervous of what the backlash would be it will be.
Speaker 1: Was there any moments that stick out about like someone,
Speaker 1: you know, getting under the skin of another player?
Speaker 3: Not really the NBA, So it's the trestfil so boring.
Speaker 3: It's it's always you know, I'll mess you up, you know,
Speaker 3: I'll knock you out, you know, see me after the game,
Speaker 3: all that kind of it's always the same crabs, who
Speaker 3: does the lights go out? No one's seeing you after
Speaker 3: the game. I ever seeing two guys go at it
Speaker 3: after a game, but generally it's all just talking the
Speaker 3: lights aron, it's all bravado for the cameras and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. So I just whenever I get
Speaker 3: into the guy and they start barking that and just
Speaker 3: be like, yeah, okay, okay, let's do it, let's do
Speaker 3: it meet afterwards, cool okay, because it's just like to
Speaker 3: hear every other game, but nothing too crazy, like you know,
Speaker 3: generally families, families, kids, wives, and you don't you don't
Speaker 3: touch that kind of stuff. I know a few people have.
Speaker 3: That's that's where you don't go. But as far as
Speaker 3: everything else, like you know, I played with Draymond Green,
Speaker 3: so he's probably the most wildest of he'll go. He'll
Speaker 3: go for something, he'll say, he'll try to say something
Speaker 3: to really hit home that he's read in the media,
Speaker 3: or something miging about your personal life it's not family related.
Speaker 3: He'll go for the soul crusher. So poor Piers one
Speaker 3: was a funny one from a number of years ago.
Speaker 3: And you know, you said, you know, Kobe Bryant still
Speaker 3: chasing that retire and to you know, just just stuff
Speaker 3: like that. He has no shame and he's going to
Speaker 3: try to get in your head and try to get
Speaker 3: you off as Bessie can.
Speaker 2: Oh man, it's I love it. Some of the Draymond
Speaker 2: stories are just absolute gold. Just man.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about anything, but we'll go into twenty fifteen finals, right,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest teams to ever play an NBA final,
Speaker 1: yourself included. We've got the names of Matthew delvidob but
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, Lebron, James Richard Jefferson, Kevin Love Jr. Smith,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, Andre Goodall, Clege Thompson, Amiston, Versha, Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: I remember looking at that and this is before kind
Speaker 1: of like me understanding it. It was like my first
Speaker 1: year coming to Australia and looking back, do you do
Speaker 1: you realize the I guess, like the the history of
Speaker 1: some of those players and how good the players on
Speaker 1: that court were that you were playing with at the time.
Speaker 1: Like I'll just look at those names now and I'm
Speaker 1: just like, that is an insane like list of people
Speaker 1: that were playing in a series together and I look
Speaker 1: at as one of the best series ever ever was
Speaker 1: They'll look back and just kind of think, wow, it
Speaker 1: was a crazy time to be a part of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, looking back now, not playing anymore, I'm still seeing
Speaker 3: you know, Steph and Clay go on to this day.
Speaker 3: Just being able to play with probably two of what
Speaker 3: will be the greatest shooters of all time is amazing.
Speaker 3: And just being able to compete at the highest level
Speaker 3: in a given sport, playing against the best, playing against
Speaker 3: the Tim Duncans and Lebron James and all that kind
Speaker 3: of stuff. But yeah, that final series was pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: I mean it was such a battle and I guess
Speaker 3: we learned the hard way about the momentum of the
Speaker 3: seven game series and the one that we lost about
Speaker 3: three to one. Yeah, it's it's just amazing. Depends to
Speaker 3: most sports, you know. You know, that's why the seven
Speaker 3: game series to me is just generally it is the
Speaker 3: better team that wins it because it is you have
Speaker 3: to win four times no matter what happens. Injuries do
Speaker 3: play a parts, Suspensions obviously, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 3: but the momentum shifts in those You can feel like
Speaker 3: the worst team in the world after game too, because
Speaker 3: he just lost by forty and then you hit him
Speaker 3: in game three, you know, and everything can change, as
Speaker 3: we're seeing in the playoffs right now some of the
Speaker 3: series is going on. So definitely something that you remedies
Speaker 3: on the old or not I get the more I
Speaker 3: reminie on on kind of those stories and terms of
Speaker 3: the kids and the grandkids describe.
Speaker 1: I guess like the moment the signer goes you've become
Speaker 1: an NBA champion, You've accomplished that goal on live because
Speaker 1: it what's the first thing that comes to mind on
Speaker 1: the court, I.
Speaker 3: Think most people are the same thing. It's relief, It
Speaker 3: really is, because it's such a it's so bent up,
Speaker 3: and it's so everything's depressor the nerves. Media, like you're
Speaker 3: gota you're gonna remember like at that point of the year,
Speaker 3: you're the only really big basketball game going on in
Speaker 3: the world, right, Like it's June. I think EuroLeague's kind
Speaker 3: of finishing, so maybe you got a little bit in Europe,
Speaker 3: but neither leagues are really on the finals. The best
Speaker 3: league in the world. There's no other playoff games to
Speaker 3: talk about. It's just like the scrutiny on that month,
Speaker 3: all that three weeks is so immense to travel, the
Speaker 3: back and forth in main game. So for most most
Speaker 3: of the guys said it was just relief. It was relief. Obviously,
Speaker 3: you love the faith that you won, but it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: we did it, you know, And that was probably the
Speaker 3: biggest thing that stuck at him. Sort of our best
Speaker 3: players were saying the same thing, just relieve we got
Speaker 3: it done, you know, because there's so much pressure, and
Speaker 3: you know, you see how much steers age over the
Speaker 3: last ten years with all that success, right, Like some
Speaker 3: of these coaches that don't don't go deeper into the
Speaker 3: playoffs and all that, it's almost less stress to an
Speaker 3: extent because you know, the deeper you go, the more
Speaker 3: expectation lifts, and you know, you can definitely see it.
Speaker 3: With Steve. I think he's his age twenty years and
Speaker 3: ten years just from all the stress of trying to
Speaker 3: continue to win championships.
Speaker 1: We'll get to see because I want to. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about it. A little connection he's got. But
Speaker 1: we goes this, where's your ring at at the moment?
Speaker 3: In a stake?
Speaker 2: Do you ever bring it out?
Speaker 5: Like I feel like sometimes a kid like you chances stuff,
Speaker 5: they'll bring it along, but it's it's massive, man, when
Speaker 5: you can't really wear it and it's really bringing and
Speaker 5: I don't know what you do.
Speaker 3: I want to study that and be a thirty k
Speaker 3: USC So it's not something you want to leave hanging around.
Speaker 3: It's prett easy to steal. So I've got to I've
Speaker 3: got to you know, tucked away nice and safe and
Speaker 3: pull it out of you give a ship and it's
Speaker 3: like whatever to ring because I don't understand yet you're
Speaker 3: starting to understand, like since you're starting to figure out,
Speaker 3: like like okay, you played an NBA. You know, like
Speaker 3: because people come up to me sometimes we're not about
Speaker 3: for a photo or have a chat and he's starting
Speaker 3: to figure it out and four years obviously starting to
Speaker 3: figure out. But I just don't think they realized what
Speaker 3: that ring is yet. They will, they will not a
Speaker 3: number of views.
Speaker 1: I Oh, it's kind of fun and interesting to get
Speaker 1: like a ring or a medallion and stuff, and you
Speaker 1: just never really wear it.
Speaker 2: Like it's kind of like just because of sits there.
Speaker 1: You're like, it's it's there to pull out as a
Speaker 1: bit of a bit of an accomplishment kind of thing,
Speaker 1: but like you just never really see it on a
Speaker 1: day to day basis kind of tucked away because it's
Speaker 1: so precious and something you don't want to actually you know,
Speaker 1: like you want to have security around it. You don't
Speaker 1: actually get to see it quite often.
Speaker 3: In those kind of things. Isn't isn't the eye. It's
Speaker 3: the memories that brings stuff. Like everyone as you get
Speaker 3: older and sentimental in our old age, you realize that
Speaker 3: like you can you can own like beautiful watches, you
Speaker 3: can own trophies, but like it's the journey to get them.
Speaker 3: It's the funny story I've just thought about finding the
Speaker 3: role export. It's you know, it's the memories made and
Speaker 3: I think that's what the trophies are important for, Like
Speaker 3: these things behind me, if I lost them tomorrow whatever,
Speaker 3: Like it's more I'd be sad because that reminder of
Speaker 3: the memory, or be at the ring and it'll take
Speaker 3: me back to that time mentally, right, right, would actually
Speaker 3: relieved from the stories I remember this, remember that that's
Speaker 3: what signifies that it could be valued at one dollar,
Speaker 3: Like you know what I mean. It's just it's one
Speaker 3: of those things. I think most people that have things
Speaker 3: are valuable say say the same thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's so true. It's the I think whenever
Speaker 1: you're in it, people don't realize it. But like once
Speaker 1: you kind of get towards the back end and stuff
Speaker 1: with careers, and you realize it's more of that journey
Speaker 1: and the special memories you create. Like you can have
Speaker 1: as many memorabilias of basketball shoes and boots and all that,
Speaker 1: but it's not that it's the actual stuff that comes
Speaker 1: with it from you and your personal experience with it.
Speaker 1: But we're going to that next year. See the record
Speaker 1: games seventy three games won and he broke Steve Kerrs
Speaker 1: balls record to do that. Going into that series having
Speaker 1: you know, the success of the season and then facing
Speaker 1: one of the best teams again on a second time
Speaker 1: the second year in a row, and then after that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like just debilitating loss. Like what was
Speaker 1: the feeling that of like having such a successful year
Speaker 1: and then unfortunately not being able to finish the year.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, it sucked. It was awful. It's just
Speaker 3: because we couldn't put a hammer on that seventy three
Speaker 3: and nine. It's always going to have an asterix on
Speaker 3: it now, you know, because we could have finished off
Speaker 3: and win and thas three to one, and then you know,
Speaker 3: Draymond gets suspended and then I do my needy in
Speaker 3: game was that Game five? Dallas back was like his
Speaker 3: back was so messed up. He had like chronic backspasms
Speaker 3: throughout that series trying to go and Brown. He was
Speaker 3: obviously instrumental this season before and guarding with Lebron. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it sucks. It's tough, but look at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, I'm thankful to get one. Like you think
Speaker 3: about the number of this fifteen players on any day roster,
Speaker 3: general season, the season. Within a decade, there's usually a
Speaker 3: team that's going to repeat once or twice all there's
Speaker 3: two or three teams that win the majority of a decade.
Speaker 3: You're in that league group of you know, one hundred
Speaker 3: of players generally that has an NBA championship were in
Speaker 3: for that decade. So thanks for that. But yeah, seventeen nineteen,
Speaker 3: it was just an amazing year. I'm losing in seven.
Speaker 3: I just remember the regular season, like we won so
Speaker 3: many games that regular season that we shouldn't have won.
Speaker 3: Like we had games and we're down like eighteen, gone
Speaker 3: into the fourth and you know, Stephan Clay just get
Speaker 3: going and we you know, we just grind out a win.
Speaker 3: So it just felt like we would never lose. It
Speaker 3: really did. And yeah, it was just an interesting year
Speaker 3: as far as the dynamic. We had guys that were,
Speaker 3: you know, when we were sixty and whatever, we had
Speaker 3: you know, ten fifteen games left. We had some guys
Speaker 3: that were like, let's go for the record. We had
Speaker 3: other guys were like, let's be healthy. You know. So
Speaker 3: then there's in the locker room debate of guys saying,
Speaker 3: you go for the record, shouldn't we you know, see,
Speaker 3: most of the guys wanted to go for the record,
Speaker 3: and see lected to go for it, you know, then
Speaker 3: we did have some injuries later on in the finals.
Speaker 3: You know, so who knows the client sight. But there's
Speaker 3: no right or wrong way about it. But it was
Speaker 3: an interesting dynamic just just it's in that locker room
Speaker 3: of how you know we should handle it moving forward.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned Steve curn He's he's looked at as
Speaker 1: one of the all time great coaches now and I
Speaker 1: find him. I think he's he's almost kind of gone
Speaker 1: beyond just a coach of the NBA. You know, he's
Speaker 1: he's able to have his statements in the media about
Speaker 1: things going on in the world. He's, you know, very
Speaker 1: well spoken human whef it comes to different opinions around
Speaker 1: some of the tougher things to talk about now, he's
Speaker 1: he's an interesting human. Is there any of the lessons
Speaker 1: I kind of stick out from him that you know,
Speaker 1: you apply to your everyday life and you know a
Speaker 1: bit of I guess, I don't know, like help that
Speaker 1: he's been able to give you throughout the years that
Speaker 1: really sticks out to you.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a biss of stuff. I think just
Speaker 3: the way you handle personalities I think was probably the
Speaker 3: biggest thing. No, I don't know what it's like an
Speaker 3: NFL right now, but it's probably still a bit more hard, harder,
Speaker 3: harder coaching at times. But the NBA is now all
Speaker 3: about people management. It's not you know, you can you
Speaker 3: can be the best off the white board coach in
Speaker 3: the world. You could be the best run the best
Speaker 3: offensive set. But if you can't, you know, if you
Speaker 3: can't have as so as not even communications that you know,
Speaker 3: a good relationship with the players and no one needs
Speaker 3: personality and all that kind of stuff, you're not going
Speaker 3: to survive. And we're seeing numerous times in the Bawn.
Speaker 3: I think Steve understood that. Steve understood that different guys,
Speaker 3: their buttons are different. You know this Stuary, I can
Speaker 3: light up and swear and go right in the face
Speaker 3: and will you know, will bounce back, and then this
Speaker 3: guy I can't do that with. Well, this guy needs
Speaker 3: a hard or that guy needs tough love. Like you
Speaker 3: need to know that. And that's what that's what Steve's
Speaker 3: really good at. I mean, probably the thing that I
Speaker 3: want to do speaking gigs and whatnot that I speak
Speaker 3: about with Steve is he'd always mentioned that you know,
Speaker 3: you guys aren't paid the majority of this salary isn't
Speaker 3: just for basketball. It's what you give up, and it's
Speaker 3: you know, like step Curry and they can't just wake
Speaker 3: up and go I'm going to go to the local
Speaker 3: shopping center. They can't do that like that, that privily.
Speaker 3: Just it's a prevalent, right, Like it's that simple thing
Speaker 3: that every day people do. It's taken away because he did.
Speaker 3: Step did that one day and to close down more
Speaker 3: shopping center, to close it down security reasons, right, so
Speaker 3: that you know you're at dinner and people have their
Speaker 3: camera phones out and taking photos of you. You've got
Speaker 3: a piece of steak on your fork. About a thrillion
Speaker 3: miles people take a photos of you. Right, So that's
Speaker 3: where sea what relates to us. This is why you
Speaker 3: guys are paid with the paid. It's basketball, but it's
Speaker 3: also you're giving up your personal life. Your kids are
Speaker 3: in the alarm light, your wife's in the limelight. You
Speaker 3: make a small mistake in your life, whatever it may
Speaker 3: be that most twenty year olds make, it's magnified a
Speaker 3: one hundredfold. So his you know, his conversation around that
Speaker 3: was one thing that always always stuck with me, and
Speaker 3: I tell other athletes that I speak to that. You know,
Speaker 3: that's that's why you're paying a businesssory. What you're doing,
Speaker 3: You're going to deal with all that other crap that
Speaker 3: people people think you should just ause youre an athlete.
Speaker 2: You know, how do you handle it?
Speaker 3: As a young fan? It was, like I said earlier,
Speaker 3: I was unknown. I didn't know how to handle it.
Speaker 3: You know. I had this thing where, you know, the
Speaker 3: Australian meaning is very tabulated, and for you know, still
Speaker 3: towards in the end of my career, every article was
Speaker 3: like the headline was to do with money, so I'd
Speaker 3: be like fifty million dollar man or two million dollar
Speaker 3: man or you know, And I kind of bothered me
Speaker 3: a little bit because I like, you know, human being first,
Speaker 3: and like everything is about money, money, money, money, and
Speaker 3: it kind of bother me because I'm like, so I
Speaker 3: was kind of not not not not trying to put
Speaker 3: it a slider, afraid of it. I was trying to
Speaker 3: hide the fact that I made that money. But I'm like,
Speaker 3: at one point, at one point in my career, like
Speaker 3: what am I hearing it for? It's public anyway, And yeah,
Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough to get into a league that
Speaker 3: pays you a lot of money for your services. Do
Speaker 3: I agree that we should be paid more than fieries
Speaker 3: and bugs. No, I don't. But that's a total different conversation.
Speaker 3: But then I got to a point, right just like
Speaker 3: you know what it is, what it is, So yeah,
Speaker 3: how I ended it. It was hard at times. It
Speaker 3: was just one of those things that you have to
Speaker 3: navigate as a young fellow. And I was twenty years old,
Speaker 3: you know, twenty Yeah, I couldn't even legally drink in
Speaker 3: the US and my rookie the first half of my
Speaker 3: rookie year, so I remember a couple of veterans would
Speaker 3: like try to sneak me into places and whatnot. And
Speaker 3: you know, I'm making five ten million dollars that year,
Speaker 3: right like, and I'm just like, what that would I
Speaker 3: do with it? So I have no idea about anything
Speaker 3: the value you how to pay a utilities bill or
Speaker 3: a light bill, because I just come out of college
Speaker 3: where everything's done for me. So it was all that
Speaker 3: to do with as well. But yeah, it's very very interesting,
Speaker 3: and that's why we see, especially in the US, you know,
Speaker 3: with NFL, Baseball, basketball, NHL, a lot of these young
Speaker 3: fellows are get in trouble with the career because it's
Speaker 3: the unknown. You got to make mistakes and learn from it.
Speaker 1: I take the job, I answer at the moment, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Is there any advice you'd give to because
Speaker 1: there's so many sorry Australians are coming to the NBA
Speaker 1: now and they're kind of learning that that lesson of
Speaker 1: you know, you're going to be in the spotlight and
Speaker 1: on a lot bigger probably spectrum than you realize. Is
Speaker 1: there any advice you give some of those players there
Speaker 1: over there at the moment, I.
Speaker 3: Just have a tight group, have a tight group. The
Speaker 3: larger the group, the more chances of someone's going to
Speaker 3: you know, try to full the fast on. Ob I
Speaker 3: see so many teammates and guys in the NBA. You know,
Speaker 3: we talk about them getting screwed out of business skills
Speaker 3: or whatever, but I've seen more often not as family
Speaker 3: and friends that that do that. So obviously, keep your
Speaker 3: circle very tight, and you know, just try to try
Speaker 3: to be self sufficient to an extent. Like when I
Speaker 3: when I first started the league, I had someone that
Speaker 3: did everything for me, you know, pay my bills, you know,
Speaker 3: everything right, like even just transfer money. I'd have to
Speaker 3: course one, Hey, can you move this money here so
Speaker 3: I can get it here? And then it bothered me, right,
Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, like I probably should
Speaker 3: take onus of my finances and learn how to do
Speaker 3: this stuff. So then one day when I retired, to
Speaker 3: pay someone to how much money other than my bank account,
Speaker 3: you know, so learn how to be self sufficient. I
Speaker 3: think it's just something that's very important. And and you know,
Speaker 3: it's telling an hour, you know, a couple of hours
Speaker 3: a week to learn and maintain that, and I think
Speaker 3: that's pretty important.
Speaker 2: It's it's so true.
Speaker 1: I think, like compare that to my journey one of
Speaker 1: my biggest things I'm so grateful for as I went
Speaker 1: to college and I had to pay my own way.
Speaker 1: I wasn't on scholarship or anything, and then I learned
Speaker 1: all the life lessons that you know you need for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life for paying bills and how
Speaker 1: to be responsible human. And it's at your ap a
Speaker 1: really really good thing. Where I guess think in the
Speaker 1: US sometimes because you have so much going on, they
Speaker 1: actually just handled that for you. And I see some
Speaker 1: of the AFL players coming through, they have their you know,
Speaker 1: their bank accounts are handled by their agent and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, you have to at some point. This guy's not
Speaker 2: going to be here for you.
Speaker 1: Did walk you through every single little part of life,
Speaker 1: like you have to be able to grow up at
Speaker 1: some point and something you got to you got to
Speaker 1: learn that lesson at some point and hopefully you can
Speaker 1: learn it sooner rather than later. We'll we'll move on
Speaker 1: to basketball Australia. There's the World Cup's coming up. I'm stoked.
Speaker 1: I'll stoked for this. I know I've had USA played
Speaker 1: Australia here in Melbourne. They beat US. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm half and half now it's just shit. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I call it. But had Australia beat America
Speaker 1: and now they're kind of on this streak right, So
Speaker 1: like you were kind of one of the ogs that
Speaker 1: came through and you kind of set the scene for
Speaker 1: a lot of Australians in the basketball community. And you
Speaker 1: talk about the media giving you scrutiny and everything else,
Speaker 1: but they weren't giving you the props for setting the
Speaker 1: founding stones for some of these players that are now
Speaker 1: making this kind of money and over in the States
Speaker 1: and having the success that they are having. It at
Speaker 1: the moment. What's your thoughts on basketball Australia now and
Speaker 1: where it's been able to transform into over your years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, come a long way, a long long way the
Speaker 3: Buddhist program, especially from where it was in the early
Speaker 3: two thousands to where it is now famous as Austin
Speaker 3: New Zealand in two thousand and one to the two
Speaker 3: thousand and two World Championships got knocked out, even go
Speaker 3: to the World Championships that year. Where we've gone from
Speaker 3: then to now is you know, tenfold. Think a lot
Speaker 3: has gone into the work that a lot of us
Speaker 3: have done off the court, were set in the culture
Speaker 3: and making sure that you know, there's non negotiables we
Speaker 3: have with the boomers. You know, the national team is interesting, dynamic.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't really experience the footy, but you've got you know,
Speaker 3: everyone that comes to the national team is the man
Speaker 3: or the woman on their team, the the number one,
Speaker 3: number two options for their club team. So you all
Speaker 3: of a sudden bringing twelve people and now you've got
Speaker 3: you know, all of the things they should be it.
Speaker 3: I should be the guy, I should be the scorer.
Speaker 3: So you're gonna understand you got to play a role
Speaker 3: to make that whole thing hum properly. And that's the
Speaker 3: hardest thing. And we didn't have a lot of success
Speaker 3: of that in the two thousands. We had you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes some guys would come through that program that would
Speaker 3: use it as there might be a free agent with
Speaker 3: their club team. They might use it and I'm going
Speaker 3: to Olympics and have a good Olympics and get paid
Speaker 3: by someone in Europe. And it's like, well, that's not
Speaker 3: the wrong mindset, but this program like we don't want
Speaker 3: we don't want that, like we need you to do
Speaker 3: X y Z because we're you have someone's boring or
Speaker 3: or vice versa. Hey, we need you to just their
Speaker 3: physical presence and redoun and block shots. And that's the
Speaker 3: hardest thing to kind of relay that to people. And
Speaker 3: we finally got that right over probably the last decade,
Speaker 3: probably since twenty fifteen, I think we've got it right.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's transcended into twenty sixteen and nineteen,
Speaker 3: we finished fourth, just miss out of the medal, and
Speaker 3: then we finally get you know, our bronze in twenty
Speaker 3: one and hopefully you know, with the World Cup coming
Speaker 3: in this year and then the Olympics, hopefully you know,
Speaker 3: we can get a silver if not a gold, And
Speaker 3: it was just just a mindset change, man Like we
Speaker 3: had we had kind of this mindset of like, as
Speaker 3: long as we get through the pool rounds in the
Speaker 3: next round, that's a that's a win for a little
Speaker 3: old Australia. And it got to the point where I
Speaker 3: was like, nah, that's not a it's not a you're
Speaker 3: basically saying, hey, let's try to get eight before the tournament,
Speaker 3: like with the hell goes into any tournament, and you've
Speaker 3: got to be realistic, right like sometimes you know you
Speaker 3: don't have the swad, they didn't really compete, but you
Speaker 3: still want to always set your goals number one and
Speaker 3: then if you finish third, great, you celebrate it. But
Speaker 3: we had a defeated mindset going into some of these tournaments,
Speaker 3: which really kissed me off. So once we address that,
Speaker 3: fix that, and then all of a sudden, we've got
Speaker 3: three guys in the NBA, and then we've got five guys,
Speaker 3: and we've got ten guys. Now we've got the number
Speaker 3: of guys in the NBA on a consistent basis. You
Speaker 3: bring them back into the Boomers program. That makes the
Speaker 3: program better, It makes everything better around us, coaching gets better.
Speaker 3: The demands from all of a sudden the place to
Speaker 3: the federation grew. We said, hey, we demand more professionalism,
Speaker 3: commune now bast in Australia, Like we're not We're not
Speaker 3: washing our own clothes anymore in the bathtub, like I
Speaker 3: didn't want to first join the Boomers. We're not doing
Speaker 3: that anymore, like you know, just just so then things
Speaker 3: got better. Our food needs to be better, our traveler
Speaker 3: rangers need to be better. So it was all collective
Speaker 3: and sometimes there was tough conversations both ways, but that's
Speaker 3: what you need to do. And that's why the Boomer's
Speaker 3: program is probably the best position it's been in a
Speaker 3: long long time.
Speaker 1: What does it you think, because I look at the
Speaker 1: Boomer's program and I think the word that comes to
Speaker 1: mind is like ego less, like there's no one that
Speaker 1: has a has to beg that comes on and say,
Speaker 1: isn't I'm it? Everyone look at me like it is
Speaker 1: a pure team based kind of like the Spurs back
Speaker 1: in the day, you know, of like I don't really
Speaker 1: care gets a shot. We're just gonna get the best
Speaker 1: open shot that we can. That's going to be the
Speaker 1: highest percentage. What is it that you know, I guess like,
Speaker 1: is it the Australian culture of just not like top
Speaker 1: poppy syndrome and saying like no, we're all even like
Speaker 1: and we're all going to spread the love kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Or is it just just the way I guess like
Speaker 1: this programs don't set up that they they know they're
Speaker 1: going to be more valuable as a team rather than
Speaker 1: putting all their you know, eggs in one basket with
Speaker 1: one or two players.
Speaker 3: Well, do you want to win? You know that's the thing.
Speaker 3: You want to go to a foreman and bomb out
Speaker 3: you know, an eighth or seventh and complaining for a
Speaker 3: seven eight position into it? Or do you want to
Speaker 3: test the win and they has to be buying and
Speaker 3: you go to you know, you see it a little
Speaker 3: bit in pro sports and the national team. It is,
Speaker 3: like I said, it's so much more magnified. You know,
Speaker 3: you might be a tween team guy on your team,
Speaker 3: but we don't need that. We need we need ten
Speaker 3: and ten from you and we need this from you.
Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden, you know, looking by
Speaker 3: like Chris Golding, who's you know, a gunner in the
Speaker 3: NBL when he comes to the national team is his
Speaker 3: defense goes up tenfold. He's a great defender of the
Speaker 3: national team and he's more of a feat set three
Speaker 3: point straot for us, like we don't need you at
Speaker 3: the top of the key creating because we have Patty
Speaker 3: or Joey or whatever. Right, So it's all these guys
Speaker 3: giving up some of their games the greater good of
Speaker 3: the team. And I think we just had a good buying.
Speaker 3: We had no nonsense guys at the right time that
Speaker 3: would just say if you don't if you don't want
Speaker 3: to do that, like we don't need you on the team.
Speaker 3: And where you know we have cup or players have
Speaker 3: not made the team because of that and couldn't fit
Speaker 3: in as a piece of the puzzle. They want to
Speaker 3: be the whole thing. And that's where we're really really
Speaker 3: strict on. And I think it's you know, successful to
Speaker 3: have that, you got to you got to kind of
Speaker 3: know your role and buy into it.
Speaker 1: We've got to ask this now at the moment, with
Speaker 1: the Ben Simmons stuff that's going on and him being
Speaker 1: left out of the team, what's your kind of opinion
Speaker 1: around the circumstance with him going on and bringing him
Speaker 1: into the Australian team or not. And you know whether
Speaker 1: that's going to be something they do or we'll sit.
Speaker 1: We'll soon find out. But what's your what's your thought
Speaker 1: process around what's going on with that?
Speaker 3: I don't know behind the scenes. I mean, Brian Gordon
Speaker 3: came out what ten days ago and said, you know,
Speaker 3: we're excited and going to be part of the program.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that was then trying to smoke
Speaker 3: out Bend and see what was going on. A couple
Speaker 3: of days later being put out a statement saying I'm
Speaker 3: focused on my back injury rehab and I look to
Speaker 3: be part of the Boomers in the future. So everything's
Speaker 3: in the wording right, And then a couple days ago
Speaker 3: we have that we've announced our squad, but there's always
Speaker 3: a spot there for Ben. So look, I was part
Speaker 3: of the process and trying to get into play. During
Speaker 3: those games against sing you were saying album which would
Speaker 3: have then went on to the World Cup didn't go
Speaker 3: too well. At the end of the day, Ben wants
Speaker 3: to play. I'll welcome him, but I'm just really cogressing
Speaker 3: of not holding the program of Ransom continuously just waiting
Speaker 3: is he going to play. He is not going to play?
Speaker 3: Is he going to play? And I don't think that's
Speaker 3: good for the culture and what they're trying to build.
Speaker 3: I understand is one of the best players in the world,
Speaker 3: but you know, if I would just like a hard
Speaker 3: hitting if you don't play, to say non played and
Speaker 3: we move on with life. So I hope he does.
Speaker 3: You know, he's yet to put on a bit in
Speaker 3: New Jersey. I hope he does sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3: But he's I think he's at a crossroad in his career.
Speaker 3: To be honest with you, I think he's at a
Speaker 3: point in his career where he knows this is a
Speaker 3: huge off season for him, not just for health, but
Speaker 3: I think for I think he's mentals. Man. I think
Speaker 3: he needs to get back to that Ben Simmers that
Speaker 3: we saw and really had it early in his career.
Speaker 3: He's got a lot of work to do, and I
Speaker 3: think a lot of it's going to be mental for him.
Speaker 3: Just trying to get back on the court confident, you know,
Speaker 3: and getting back to that position would.
Speaker 1: Be so interesting because in my personal opinion, I think
Speaker 1: going and playing for the Burners and being in the
Speaker 1: team family environment like that actually might be one of
Speaker 1: the best things for him.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're buy him, that's the thing. If
Speaker 3: you're fully buying, you know, if you come and you know,
Speaker 3: you don't hang out in the team, you just show
Speaker 3: up for practices and games, and you know, he's that
Speaker 3: really big part of the Bremer's program. Not saying he
Speaker 3: do that, but there is NBA players that involved in
Speaker 3: national teams that kind of still still act like they're
Speaker 3: on NBA team and it's on the big dog and
Speaker 3: you guys have played. Not saying they do that, but
Speaker 3: you never know. If you're going to fully commit and buying, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it can be hugely beneficial for him. Like and I
Speaker 3: think they'll be you know, guys like Joey and you know,
Speaker 3: Giddy and Patty and we'll not we'll get his confidence
Speaker 3: up and getting back to playing you know, open open
Speaker 3: floor bends in his basketball. I think you do wonders
Speaker 3: for him, but you know he does that that injury.
Speaker 3: Hopefully he gets that right first, but it would be
Speaker 3: it would be nice. I mean just just think about
Speaker 3: having him, you know, playing that that point forward point
Speaker 3: center all at times with the way the game's going
Speaker 3: on small ball, that's a pretty pretty tough lineup if
Speaker 3: you can get him healthy.
Speaker 1: And do you think looking forward to the Championships? Right,
Speaker 1: I feel like this, this World Championships has got probably
Speaker 1: more tight around it than any other I've ever seen
Speaker 1: or heard.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just because it's in the same time zone
Speaker 1: as US and out there, but I'm excited. Like where
Speaker 1: do you who do you think are gonna be the
Speaker 1: top teams coming out of this going into the Championships?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be the Australia, the US? Like
Speaker 1: is there any kind of wild car do you think
Speaker 1: has got some players are going to really kind of
Speaker 1: show up in this this this championship coming up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to know, just because we don't know
Speaker 3: exactly who's putting their hand up for every team. I
Speaker 3: think Canada is the ether from the room generally, like
Speaker 3: they just never get their whole squad playing. And if
Speaker 3: they got their whole squad of Canadians playing in the
Speaker 3: NBA and it's more Murray and so on, they've got
Speaker 3: a really swat on paper. So it's just a matter
Speaker 3: of getting it together. The problem they're going to have
Speaker 3: is they got a lot of a lot of guys
Speaker 3: that are once again really good players in their club teams.
Speaker 3: Can they buying for their group and they don't really
Speaker 3: have a longevity of a culture or whatnot like like
Speaker 3: other clubs do. So I think Canada is a sneaky
Speaker 3: one if they can get things right. The Euros are
Speaker 3: always they're like you know in Lithuanians are Croats as Serbias,
Speaker 3: They're always in the mix. And then the US is
Speaker 3: always always a favorite. So I think it's like the
Speaker 3: Austraight out there France, I think it's going to be
Speaker 3: very good. You know, the up being in the top
Speaker 3: four of the last three reports tournaments. You know, Bernanda
Speaker 3: and a few other young guys coming up through there.
Speaker 3: Spain you just turned out. I mean that I thought
Speaker 3: they would have fallen off the you know, the pedestal
Speaker 3: the last couple of campaigns, but they're right up there again.
Speaker 3: Argentinas and squeaks in Brazil's pretty talented. So there's there's
Speaker 3: so much and you know, the game's now grown so
Speaker 3: much and you just don't know, you don't know who's
Speaker 3: going to be that. Finland like, you know, they're in
Speaker 3: a position where they've got to got a gunner on
Speaker 3: their team and in market and so you know in
Speaker 3: our group too, So you know he can drop Florida
Speaker 3: at any given night Mercen crew player and that's the gunner
Speaker 3: for his national team. So there's a lot, there's a lot,
Speaker 3: and I think our groups to sleepy sneaking group. You
Speaker 3: know Germany, you Schroeder and a few other guys, play Finland,
Speaker 3: even Japan with Hachimura, it won't be easy beat. So
Speaker 3: it's going to be a tough sneaking group to get
Speaker 3: out of.
Speaker 1: Do you still have a bit of an affiliation with
Speaker 1: the Croatian team? I know you love Tony co coach
Speaker 1: and growing up. Do you do you still have that?
Speaker 1: I hope that they're just going to come out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and just play well.
Speaker 2: Like is it is? It kind of one of those things.
Speaker 1: Now it's they're not probably as as highly tired as
Speaker 1: they were back in the day of his time.
Speaker 3: I mean back in the day at the time. You
Speaker 3: have to remember it was a really testing time within
Speaker 3: Croatian history. Crozier just formed independence in the early nineties
Speaker 3: and went to their first Olympics as Croatia in ninety two.
Speaker 3: You know, the late Great Drayson Petrovitge and Tony and
Speaker 3: so the Croatian community all around the world. It was.
Speaker 3: It was a really really testing passionate time. So you know,
Speaker 3: even with with soccer, it was the same thing. I'd
Speaker 3: always support Croatia at the World Cups, albeit because Australia
Speaker 3: was never in the World Cups as a young fellow,
Speaker 3: like they never qualified. And then the one year that
Speaker 3: Croatia is finally qualified. I've grown up in Croatia. Australia
Speaker 3: finally qualified and they get put in the same for
Speaker 3: as Croatia. So I'm like, you know, you just it
Speaker 3: was tough obviously support in Australia, but I supported Croatia
Speaker 3: for so long in the World Cups austrail was there,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I mean I still I still support a
Speaker 3: lot of Croatial sports. I've got a lot of friends
Speaker 3: over there, families over there as well. Still have a
Speaker 3: lot of family over there, and was was going every
Speaker 3: year in the NBA season talk covid hit looking forward
Speaker 3: to getting back over there in the next couple of months.
Speaker 2: What would you what would you do in Croatia. What's
Speaker 2: the what's the number one thing you look forward to
Speaker 2: when if you're going to the off seasons was beach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a Mediterranean's beautiful. I mean the street of
Speaker 3: the culture, you know, it's it's just different. It's it's
Speaker 3: much more community. So it's you know, rather than be
Speaker 3: on your phone, it's catch up. It's just me at
Speaker 3: the catched up and coffee and people just sit there
Speaker 3: for three hours and three coffees or three beers or
Speaker 3: you know, alcohol starts. There's no there's no timeline for
Speaker 3: when alcohol starts in Croatia and summers, you know, like
Speaker 3: ten eleven am, they're already getting the lines out. It's
Speaker 3: just different people. When people are not as well off
Speaker 3: as we are in the Western world as far as
Speaker 3: material things and financially. But I think they have the
Speaker 3: mix of quality of life really down passed. I don't
Speaker 3: partment on an island down there for a number of years,
Speaker 3: about a decade, and I'd make sure i'd went there
Speaker 3: for about a month a year and in the off
Speaker 3: season and had a little high school journal.
Speaker 4: I can work outing as well, so that helped, and
Speaker 4: would literally just work out in the mornings and then
Speaker 4: just go to the beach and just lay in the
Speaker 4: sun and go through a swim, go to different things,
Speaker 4: and yeah, it's really cool, really cool.
Speaker 3: Excersially of people that people that are visited Mediterranean, you know,
Speaker 3: people are about you know, Saba, Grady, Italy and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. But yeah, questions just right right
Speaker 3: up there as far as beauty of Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful place, and it's yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1: I think like the detax of like the pressure like
Speaker 1: we've talked about and everything else of like the league
Speaker 1: and then finally getting that chance just to go like exhale,
Speaker 1: be able to go over spend time in my own
Speaker 1: kind of like enjoyment space of you know, home that
Speaker 1: kind of feels like is this There's nothing that you
Speaker 1: can really describe, like the feeling of you just being
Speaker 1: in your own element and then all the stress and
Speaker 1: everything else just kind of like washes away. And I
Speaker 1: like feel like maybe that's that's croation to you and
Speaker 1: hopefully you kind of get back there soon. We'll move
Speaker 1: on to the NBL. Now, you've been involved with the
Speaker 1: Sydney Kings for a number of years now, you've played
Speaker 1: for him, and I said, NBL MVP won the championship
Speaker 1: a lot, so it's it's interesting to me. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you. You've seen it grow like exponentially over
Speaker 1: the last five to ten years, right, what do you
Speaker 1: think because now it's they've got this ignite lead. You know,
Speaker 1: they've come in, they've seen what the Australians are doing,
Speaker 1: taking some of their talent over here with the mel ball,
Speaker 1: and they've kind of made their own league to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're going to try to replicate that
Speaker 1: in the US. First of all, what's over the five
Speaker 1: ten years, what's been the biggest difference you've seen in
Speaker 1: the NBA, because it has changed tremendously over the years.
Speaker 3: I'm just getting local talent backs helped obviously, I guessing
Speaker 3: Bond League opening up wallet for the most part investing
Speaker 3: into the league, but just the market. Your rule is genius,
Speaker 3: you know, having having been to get austrained talent back
Speaker 3: on Australian chores. I think a lot of American athletes
Speaker 3: now see the NBL as a stepping stone to you know,
Speaker 3: get to the NBA or get back to the NBA.
Speaker 3: You know, we have a lot of people that reach
Speaker 3: out to us that are you know, we're pretty good
Speaker 3: NBA players at one point that are trying to make
Speaker 3: their way back to the NBA that have fallen out
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, and they see the NBL as a
Speaker 3: really good path, especially to Sydneykinns. You know, we've had
Speaker 3: a great trek record of producing NBA talent that have
Speaker 3: gone backwards and forwards, including coaches, So we get a
Speaker 3: lot of calls as far as that goes. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know, with the way social media is the technology
Speaker 3: that the league is much more accessible now overseas. I
Speaker 3: have a lot of friends actually live in the US
Speaker 3: that watch a lot of our games, which is pretty
Speaker 3: pretty crazy considering start one two in the morning, which
Speaker 3: is really cool. But yeah, the league is now known
Speaker 3: about as a legit second third oftion after the NBA.
Speaker 3: You know, he's still Eurolea, but the night program. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's still planning his kids. You know. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: come over to Australia, are you playing against grown man?
Speaker 3: And there's a few legends that are local Australian players
Speaker 3: for certain clubs that you know are physical and tough,
Speaker 3: and I think that really prepares to you. I think
Speaker 3: the NBA scouts, most most of them that you ask,
Speaker 3: would prefer to see talent coming over here because they
Speaker 3: can get a better analysis of them rather than just
Speaker 3: playing against you know what is what is similar ages
Speaker 3: or similar similar levels of physicality in the Night League.
Speaker 3: So I think it's done very well, continuing to grow,
Speaker 3: you know, when a TV deal looming in the next
Speaker 3: year or so, hopefully as well they can help grow
Speaker 3: the league. But it's in a good spot. But there's
Speaker 3: still still a lot of work to do, you know.
Speaker 3: Where we're doing great things in Sydney Kings obviously back
Speaker 3: to back champs, so trying to go for a three
Speaker 3: piece going to be tough. You know, with every championship
Speaker 3: we lose basically all our imports get poached to go
Speaker 3: overseas and make more money, which has happened again this
Speaker 3: season with lose Avia Cooks. So yeah, we're kind of
Speaker 3: in a rebuild phase of trying to find those imports
Speaker 3: and those star players, restructured our bench. But yeah, things
Speaker 3: have gone really well, especially you know in Sydney, like
Speaker 3: we had eighty one thousands throughout that Grand Final series.
Speaker 3: We had a season a record for our club as
Speaker 3: far as bumps on seats for a season, so things
Speaker 3: that things are gone really well.
Speaker 1: Was there something you always enjoyed and wanted to be
Speaker 1: a part time owner and you know the business side
Speaker 1: of basketball, because that always something you kind of wanted
Speaker 1: to get into, like post career, throughout your career.
Speaker 3: The deal I negotiated was I had an option for
Speaker 3: ownership upon retirement, and I had the option to either
Speaker 3: take ten percent, which was on the contract when I
Speaker 3: when I stopped playing, or I can just get a
Speaker 3: cash buy out of the value of those of those shares.
Speaker 3: At the time I put that in the contract just
Speaker 3: as a I wasn't sure whether I would I wouldn't
Speaker 3: upon retirement, and I ended up jumping at it just
Speaker 3: because I liked the direction of Paul Smith and our
Speaker 3: ownership group now with the dinner and family and Luke
Speaker 3: Longley's on board now and I think the way you
Speaker 3: know we're going to the club, it's been a no brainer.
Speaker 3: I think that investment is you know, done very very well.
Speaker 3: Thankfully I keep it in there. But yeah, it was
Speaker 3: always something that I knew a retirement it could transition
Speaker 3: me into something that I'm still passionate about without taking
Speaker 3: all my time away from my kids. And you know
Speaker 3: it is it probably takes more time than I thought
Speaker 3: it would have been an owner just because we have,
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of calls. You know, you're going
Speaker 3: to high coaches, you're going to a GM might call
Speaker 3: us at eleven PM and say, I've got this guy
Speaker 3: on the hook. I need an extra twenty k or
Speaker 3: fifty k to get blah blah blah blah. So there's
Speaker 3: a lot of work that goes into it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it was the first few of its time
Speaker 3: in Australian sporting history. So pretty proud that a few
Speaker 3: other players have tried to do similar things and hopefully
Speaker 3: it goes as well for them as it did for me.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. I always love when every players kind
Speaker 1: of get involved in post career with the business side
Speaker 1: of things. And I guess, like I think about AFL
Speaker 1: and AFL doesn't have private ownership, right, Can you tell
Speaker 1: you about the benefits? Because I tell people and compare
Speaker 1: it to like the NBA and ownership in that sense,
Speaker 1: and like kind of the benefits I come out it
Speaker 1: and the financials that come with it. I just I
Speaker 1: always going to think there's an opportunity maybe for the
Speaker 1: a f L to be privatized somewhat. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about I guess like some of the benefits of the
Speaker 1: NB are being probably owned and some of the teams
Speaker 1: and how that's been able to shape it over the years.
Speaker 3: First of all, they if I will them to be
Speaker 3: privately owned, so good luck with that. Pipe dreams because
Speaker 3: of the government owns around your league. Just if you
Speaker 3: didn't know that.
Speaker 2: It does as well. They remind me of.
Speaker 3: That's not going anywhere. That's not going anywhere. The government
Speaker 3: is not given that one up. I can tell you
Speaker 3: that much. Look, probably it's good and bad like this.
Speaker 3: There's times where as owners you lose money and you're like,
Speaker 3: holy crap, like look at it. Look at that company Zeros,
Speaker 3: you know, come after that. Minus that's that's not fun neither.
Speaker 3: But I think you can, you know, if you run
Speaker 3: a separate business or if you're involved in something that
Speaker 3: you've got a big company, you know, if you do
Speaker 3: have a bit of a loss, you can you can
Speaker 3: offset it obviously, And we see a lot of a
Speaker 3: lot of people do that in different sports. But it's
Speaker 3: a different I think when we can react to much
Speaker 3: faster private ownership, you know, we you know, say you
Speaker 3: need to hire or you need to cut an import
Speaker 3: or you need an opportunity to sign this star. With
Speaker 3: private ownership happens quickly. If you've got a board you
Speaker 3: need to go to to the X y Z, things
Speaker 3: can take a little bit longer. I know they thought
Speaker 3: it's a little bit different than they've got a GM
Speaker 3: and they've got a list manager and all that kind
Speaker 3: of stuff. But that's the benefits and and and generally
Speaker 3: it's I think when you have private ownership, it's generally
Speaker 3: people that are involved in the ownership group of passionate
Speaker 3: about the game. They're passionate about the club. You know,
Speaker 3: they wear they're hard on this leave ownerships for passionate
Speaker 3: about you know, just winning and losing. You see, you know,
Speaker 3: like majority around and Paul Smith told him so many times,
Speaker 3: you got to chill out man, because he takes losses
Speaker 3: harder than the player, honestly, Like he takes losses so
Speaker 3: hard man, like driving homes dead silence. He's probably depressed
Speaker 3: the next day, and then he's getting better the second
Speaker 3: day and the third day. But it shows that you
Speaker 3: need you need owners like that can and that you know,
Speaker 3: want to do the right thing by their club. And
Speaker 3: sometimes they revercept the mark sometimes they don't, but you
Speaker 3: want that passion. I think you don't see that with
Speaker 3: corporatized type ownership instructus because you don't even know who
Speaker 3: the person is, right, it's all these people that you
Speaker 3: don't really know, don't hear from. Whereas with ownership, I
Speaker 3: think you know fans to really respect someone that's putting
Speaker 3: their hard on their sleeve and sometimes losing money and
Speaker 3: sometimes making mistakes and admitting them. And I think that's
Speaker 3: a cool thing about one in the NBL, and I
Speaker 3: think it's continuing to be a place that I've got
Speaker 3: former teammates in mine and people in the NBA reaching
Speaker 3: out about trying to get shares in different clubs. So
Speaker 3: I think it's see now as a lead, disustainable and
Speaker 3: doing well.
Speaker 1: It's so cool to see the end bike to see
Speaker 1: basketball grow exponentially in Australia over the last tew five
Speaker 1: to ten years, and it's been awesome, I guess. So
Speaker 1: with the technology and everything that's going on, you can
Speaker 1: actually access all these different leagues around the world and
Speaker 1: it allows for Australia to be seen on that world map,
Speaker 1: and it's been so cool to see some big names
Speaker 1: come over here and people like yourself, you know what
Speaker 1: you're saying, you know, asking you about it and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like we're hey, it's legit, Like it's
Speaker 1: not just like some god I'm not going to say cupcake.
Speaker 2: League, but oh gosh, you wouldn't take that too well.
Speaker 1: But it's cool to see a change over the years
Speaker 1: he's been on this podcast, man, and no, but no,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's been so cool to see a change
Speaker 1: over the years. Man, it's been awesome to see what
Speaker 1: they've been able to do with it and bring it
Speaker 1: to the status that it is now. And some news
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. The NBA of playoffs are
Speaker 1: obviously on right now. By the time this comes out,
Speaker 1: there's a question mark whether sorry, the Lakers are going
Speaker 1: to knock the Warriors out your team? And is there
Speaker 1: what's your thoughts on who's gonna win it this year?
Speaker 1: Like do you think it's going to be you know,
Speaker 1: one of those the Lakers like that no one probably
Speaker 1: really expected at the beginning of this kind of playoffs,
Speaker 1: but now are going on a bit of a run,
Speaker 1: or you think someone else will will maybe take the
Speaker 1: top honors.
Speaker 3: You know, I've got the game on right now in
Speaker 3: the background Miami, New York. I never would have picked
Speaker 3: Miami to get this far, and they continue the surprise
Speaker 3: the Lakers. You know, we're halfer and puffing into the plane,
Speaker 3: and you know, they get they get in. It's just
Speaker 3: a hard of call. Boston now down as we speak
Speaker 3: in there, down three two, going back to leave Philly
Speaker 3: for Game six. So it's all out of places I had. Boston.
Speaker 3: I just thought they you know, they looked a bit
Speaker 3: more focused through the regular season after they're lost, but
Speaker 3: they're not looking too good now. I think their coach
Speaker 3: probably a little bit of inexperiences playing as part Warriors.
Speaker 3: Very close to being defeated by the Lakers. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, the Warriors should make a series out of it.
Speaker 3: I thought it'd go seven, but it's hard to call.
Speaker 3: Look my heart, no December. I'd love to see Denver
Speaker 3: get there. Just the season they've had. I think they're
Speaker 3: playing a really good, really enjoyable brand of basketball. But
Speaker 3: the ball moves, you know, Joki is doing his thing.
Speaker 3: They've got a lot of weapons now, a lot, a
Speaker 3: lot of good role players. I think they should get
Speaker 3: that series against Phoenix, but I can't call it. I
Speaker 3: really can't call a different team. And you know, Boston
Speaker 3: was my pick and I thought they get through Philly
Speaker 3: four two four three, and so they might lose that series.
Speaker 3: So this is what you want, though, like as a fan,
Speaker 3: like you want you want parody where you just can't
Speaker 3: call it, like it's boring sometimes obviously being a former Warrior,
Speaker 3: but after I left, you've got the Kdra Warriors, it
Speaker 3: was kind of like, alright, let's just hurry up and
Speaker 3: fast forward to the finals, giving their trophy and move on.
Speaker 3: Not as fun for the average fan, right, it's kind
Speaker 3: of you kind of know what's going to happen, barring injuries.
Speaker 3: So this season I think it's been much much more
Speaker 3: enjoyable because you just you don't know who's gonna win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's but like you said, every team that I
Speaker 1: pecked is like all the ropes at the moment. So
Speaker 1: I'm just like shitting myself. I've got no idea what
Speaker 1: I'm going to get here. We were going for Jock
Speaker 1: at the moment, We're going for the signs with there,
Speaker 1: like you said, they're on the ropes at the moment too,
Speaker 1: So who knows what's going to happen. I'm excited though
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's good to be uncertain of who's going
Speaker 1: to be the winner.
Speaker 2: But we'll get to the very end of this.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I want to ask this because I always like to
Speaker 1: finish on a positive note. You've mentioned them a few times,
Speaker 1: you're kiddos, and you've mentioned how they don't quite understand.
Speaker 1: I guess you know what you've been able to accomplish
Speaker 1: in your life and everything that you've been able to
Speaker 1: do and continuously do.
Speaker 2: How is it being a dad? Like has it totally
Speaker 2: changed your life? And you know.
Speaker 1: That's like the priority, Like everyone talks about this this
Speaker 1: moment you have your first kid and you just you
Speaker 1: never realize how much it affects you. And then talking
Speaker 1: to people, you love your kids more than anything, and
Speaker 1: it's so cool. I think to have that family that
Speaker 1: loves you for who you are, no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: and to have those people in your corner, and it's
Speaker 1: something that everyone I hope experiences in this life. And
Speaker 1: how do you how do you feel now being a
Speaker 1: dad to the kiddos?
Speaker 3: Obviously great, it's not explainable unce you have kids. Really,
Speaker 3: I wish you know, I always had a plan to
Speaker 3: have my kids towards the end of my career so
Speaker 3: that they're not in the helps, you know, the hustle
Speaker 3: muscle of the NBA being created, school and all that.
Speaker 3: So my plan was that by the time I retire,
Speaker 3: I've got three or four more years left in the league,
Speaker 3: let's say professional sports. By the time they starts school,
Speaker 3: I want to be based on base at I don't
Speaker 3: want to top them and changing but now almost not regret,
Speaker 3: but I feel like I would have loved to have
Speaker 3: my kids earlier, just because those days where you having
Speaker 3: a bad day or a bad season or a bad game,
Speaker 3: you come home and that a good ship, Like it's
Speaker 3: really cool, just come home because your dad, right, So
Speaker 3: that's been really cool. Just they're going through their little
Speaker 3: journey of starting school and starting junior sport. So I
Speaker 3: think going to their junior sports bringing out a lot
Speaker 3: of you know, memories for me about when I started
Speaker 3: and the joy that it brings and the ups and
Speaker 3: the downs. And then also just like the two two
Speaker 3: boys are just so completely different, you know, and the
Speaker 3: way they go about things, you know, even from passions,
Speaker 3: and how they react to adversity, is completely different. It's
Speaker 3: kind of amazing. It's like they're not even related at times.
Speaker 3: And that's a beaudea of having kids. And most people
Speaker 3: say that the brothers or brother and sister are always
Speaker 3: a little bit different when they handle him. So I
Speaker 3: enjoyed that, and I'm thankful and lucky and privilege that
Speaker 3: in a postilar in life where I don't need a
Speaker 3: full time nine till five and I can I can
Speaker 3: go and drop my kids off at school and pick
Speaker 3: them up, and I can go to local sporting things.
Speaker 3: And my parents did their best with that but didn't
Speaker 3: have a lot of time for that at times. The
Speaker 3: sport they did, but like a lot of the school activities,
Speaker 3: they just were working right. So I've got to really,
Speaker 3: you know, really, I'm really thankful to be able to
Speaker 3: basically be around them. People said that and make sure
Speaker 3: they grow into respectable young men.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Are they playing basketball at the moment? Are
Speaker 2: they playing other sport?
Speaker 3: No? Not yet, man, Yeah, the firstborn's kind of I
Speaker 3: think he's anti what what his dad did, kind of
Speaker 3: you know for that phase. But he likes soccer at
Speaker 3: the moment, he's playing soccer at the moment, so put
Speaker 3: the little one in soccer as well. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: get him to do a bunch of different stuff. They
Speaker 3: do jiu jitsu and soccer. At the moment, we'll throw
Speaker 3: him into basketball next year. Four year old's My four
Speaker 3: year old's super athletic and super quartermating. He's been recruited
Speaker 3: by He's already being recruited to play rugby. I'm like,
Speaker 3: he's for you. He's four years old. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, he spoke to your son had rugby pops, Like,
Speaker 3: spoke to your son and he said he wants to
Speaker 3: play rugby. I'm like, he's poor. Like if you asked
Speaker 3: him to do to be a flying man, will be
Speaker 3: like yes. But anyway he is. He's very, very specially aware,
Speaker 3: so that I just had a truckle like recruiting pause
Speaker 3: at four years old, but I haven't done a bunch
Speaker 3: of stuff. I think has been really good for him,
Speaker 3: especially self confidence. I highly recommend that for kids that
Speaker 3: you know, maybe you're struggling a little bit or whatever,
Speaker 3: like awesome, awesome, awesome sport teaches him how to fall
Speaker 3: as well, which can be important for our sports. And
Speaker 3: soccer has been a blessing because it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: six year old has had some issues in his feet,
Speaker 3: like coordination, and he's just really transitioning out of that
Speaker 3: well with soccer because it's just teaching him, you know,
Speaker 3: when he puts the time Anthony and training that he's
Speaker 3: getting better and better. So I hope they'll be basketball.
Speaker 3: Like people get to a point where they realize, unless
Speaker 3: I'm a goalkeeper, soccer is probably not for me. I
Speaker 3: probably need to find something else. But I'm not one
Speaker 3: of those parents it's like you must play basketball, you
Speaker 3: must say this. I'm like, do whatever you want as
Speaker 3: much as you can till probably nine or ten, and
Speaker 3: then we're going to be like, hey, pick one of
Speaker 3: these to go into full time throughout the rest. That's
Speaker 3: kind of my mentality. More you experience, the better it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just I think in the younger, younger years of
Speaker 1: trying to figure out just kind of coordination of your
Speaker 1: body and anything else, like I was the sale played
Speaker 1: soccer and then finally you picked one and kind of
Speaker 1: roll with it similar to yourself, and well, first out,
Speaker 1: what's next for you?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: I know you're doing the Sydney kingk stuff. You're enjoying
Speaker 1: the family time. What other passions are you in at
Speaker 1: the moment.
Speaker 3: I was using a podcast, much like yourself, so I'm
Speaker 3: going to kind of revamp that over the next month
Speaker 3: or two, the process of building what has been almost
Speaker 3: forever a full time studio, so, you know, much like yourself.
Speaker 3: We have a lot of guest lined up that I
Speaker 3: was cognizant. I'm not not having guests on until I'm
Speaker 3: fully professional, so looking forward to that. Still investing in
Speaker 3: a lot of different different businesses and startups and some
Speaker 3: metric capital stuff here in Australia, mainly some stuff in
Speaker 3: the US, and planned hopefully a shootload of poker loft
Speaker 3: playing poker, so that's kind of my vice away from
Speaker 3: you know, everything else in the world. It's kind of
Speaker 3: my version of fishing or surfing or whatever is mine
Speaker 3: is poker because like you get you play poker and
Speaker 3: your your brain's focused on on the now. You don't
Speaker 3: focus about what happened yesterday or ship things on on
Speaker 3: your life or the future. You focused on that, so
Speaker 3: and then swing a lot of time with the family.
Speaker 3: So they're kind of my my main things to keep
Speaker 3: my day going right now, and it's pretty pretty brasy
Speaker 3: for the most.
Speaker 1: Part for sure. Man, Well, well thanks so much for
Speaker 1: coming on. Andrew absolute absolute legend mate. If you haven't heard,
Speaker 1: listen to his podcast Rogue Bugs. Absolutely awesome. He's got
Speaker 1: basketball and everything else he's covering. He's got some exciting
Speaker 1: guests coming up too. He's a he's an absolute legend
Speaker 1: in the Australian sportings fere sporting sphere. And I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: I'm honored to have you on Man, You're You're someone
Speaker 1: I've always enjoyed listening to, enjoyed your journey and over
Speaker 1: the years and and be able to watch you and
Speaker 1: it's a it's an absolute honor to talk to you.
Speaker 1: So I want to say a massive, massive thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on and and hanging out.
Speaker 2: With us filling the a Maicon cock show.
Speaker 3: Nice tell me