0:01

It's a lesson in each defeat, and it's a lesson

0:03

in each victory. And I think in order for us to take

0:05

strides in the right direction, we had to go through some

0:07

of the stuff we went through this year personally

0:09

for Mika and trade it often to kinda learn a new system

0:11

Nance still figure out a way to survive and thrive. And

0:13

then this team, being able to not only make the playoffs,

0:16

facing two elimination games, but also being

0:18

able to take a team like the

0:20

Suns. Two six games shows you

0:22

the growth that we've taken as a young team.

0:25

The

0:25

playoffs is currently going on as we all know

0:28

and and there's a lot of series.

0:30

Eat sixers. Embiid has been announced

0:32

as Out, which means he's unlikely to play

0:34

in game three. Grisley's Warriors

0:37

series, knotted up at 11I

0:39

still like the Grizzly's. Tilly Brooks is a huge part

0:41

of the team that we back for game four. This Celtic's

0:43

box is a series I'm interested in watching

0:45

and have been watching. The x factor

0:47

in this series is the role players. I

0:50

think the Grant Williams of the world are the

0:52

guys who win these types of

0:53

series. Larry,

0:55

Nance you're welcome to the Polo pot. In

0:57

college? Yeah. I was the man. I was

0:59

the star. Coming to the NBA, like, unless

1:02

you're picking the top ten or lottery, you're not really

1:04

drafted to a team to go get buckets. And

1:06

so for me, it was all about how do I

1:08

get on the court? And having Byron Scott as head

1:10

coach, she was like, hey, look, Larry. If you play hard

1:12

and play defense, that's all I

1:14

ask. And so for me, the best That's what

1:16

got me on the core up.

1:23

Welcome to the hundred and thirty episode of

1:25

Pull Up, that's where the hundred and thirty six

1:27

episodes. As we currently record,

1:30

it is Thursday, May fifth,

1:32

episode released on Friday, May sixth,

1:34

And on this date, May six in nineteen

1:36

eighty five, twelve time NBA star Chris Paul was

1:38

born in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Pains

1:41

me to say this. Haven't

1:43

just lost to the sons, but CP is my guy happy

1:45

for him, happy for his his success. His

1:48

ability to be able to sustain greatness

1:51

for such a long period of time. And it's still at

1:53

the top of his game, shooting, you

1:55

know, down there seventy percent in the fourth quarter

1:57

in the playoffs, get into his spots, mid

2:00

Nance, my stroke, if you will, keep it in the

2:02

midrange live, but also manipulating the game.

2:04

Right? Like being able to take over a game without shooting,

2:07

but also being able to take over a game with your mind is extremely

2:09

important. something that a lot of players can

2:11

study and something that I'm studying myself,

2:13

you know, as I continue to to try

2:15

to evolve as a player. It's one thing to be able to hoop,

2:17

it's another thing to be able to think the game. Strategically

2:20

in the beat one or two steps ahead. I think Devin Booker

2:22

talked about it in the press conference. One of the things

2:24

that's unique about CP is that he's

2:26

always a couple steps ahead. One of

2:29

the the sharper human beings I've

2:31

ever met, not only on the court,

2:33

but also off the court. And it

2:35

was fun to compete against him. I'm gonna go back

2:37

and watch the film obvious and and kinda, you

2:39

know, figure out ways I could have been better, not just,

2:41

you know, making a missing shots, but tempo,

2:44

control, pace, play calling

2:46

strategy. Figuring ways to avoid,

2:48

you know, picking up five thousand, you know,

2:50

twenty minutes, although the last two were very

2:52

questionable. The last one was definitely

2:55

not a foul, but That's for another day.

2:57

Just continue to figure out ways to

3:00

to continue to take steps forward. And

3:02

as the body continues to evolve as

3:04

the body continues to get older. You have

3:06

to think smarter. You have to think harder,

3:09

but also have to work smarter. And

3:11

while working hard, and I think I'm getting to that.

3:13

That point where the game is slowing

3:15

down and you need to continue to study

3:17

the game, watch the game, learn from great players

3:20

in order to take strides in that right direction.

3:22

But CP and I had been friends for a long

3:25

time. I've known him since I

3:27

was twenty years old. I actually

3:29

met him for the first time in person. In

3:31

Carolina at the CP3

3:34

playing guard camp. I went down there

3:36

going into my senior year college. That that was

3:38

after we beat Duke and He basically

3:40

taught us a lot of tricks at the trade and normally, you

3:42

know, superstars and players of that caliber

3:45

aren't as willing to share. But we

3:47

went down to his hometown. We bolded at some of the

3:49

Berlin LACUs. We played

3:51

ones, we played twos, we played threes, but we also

3:53

had specific skill instruction, bar

3:56

handling, pick and roll manipulation, how to set

3:58

up your man off to pick and roll. We watched film

4:00

together. It taught us lot of ins and outs

4:02

of the game. In terms of, you know,

4:04

clever ways it's still the bar from people. Just little

4:06

tricks at the trade. And normally, guys are willing

4:08

to share those types of things, and I kinda showed you

4:10

what type of person he wants. I end up meeting his mom and

4:13

his dad, and it's funny when

4:15

we're playing them into playoffs. His dad

4:17

and my dad actually got to meet for the first time.

4:19

My mom and his mom all got to meet.

4:21

And his dad was telling

4:23

my dad stories about, you know, when he

4:26

first met me, you know, ten years ago back

4:28

in Carolina in their hometown, and how

4:30

he was telling telling everybody, like, this kid's

4:32

gonna make a lot of money. On the court and

4:34

off the court, but he's just a really good human

4:36

being. And my dad was laughing. He was telling

4:38

my dad that we owe them money because he endorsed

4:40

me ten years ago, but it was funny. To

4:42

see kind of life comfortable circle. Right? You know,

4:44

you go to some guy's camp and you end up playing against

4:47

him. And obviously, we'd like to perform better.

4:49

We'd like to win in in

4:51

Nance. But I think the cool part

4:53

about basketball is that win or lose

4:55

you're always learning. And it's a

4:57

lesson

4:57

in each defeat, and it's a lesson in each

4:59

victory. And I

5:00

think In

5:00

order for us to take strides in the right direction, we had

5:02

to go

5:03

through, you know,

5:04

some of the stuff we went through this year, you know,

5:06

personally for me getting traded, having to kinda

5:08

learn new system. Being in a new environment,

5:10

being uncomfortable, and still figure out a

5:12

way to survive and thrive, and then this team,

5:15

starting off so poorly, being able

5:17

to kind of overcome that you know, going through

5:19

injuries, COVID trades, being able to

5:21

not only make the playoffs with facing

5:23

two elimination games against the the

5:25

spurs and the Clippers, but also being able to

5:27

take a team like the Suns, two

5:29

six games, you know, having them on the ropes, you

5:31

know, in a game that we could have won. In game

5:33

six at home with a chance to win it down and stretch

5:36

to to force the game seven shows you the growth that

5:38

we've taken as a as a young team.

5:40

But planning competing against CP with a lot

5:42

of fun. I've learned a lot, and I'm looking forward

5:44

to, you know, rest and recovering and getting ready for next

5:47

season. But it's ironic that he's kind

5:49

of past the torch. Right? Not just in lessons that

5:51

I've learned, you know, as a twenty year old, but

5:53

lessons that he's taught me off the court in terms

5:55

of how to finesse, how to maneuver, how to balance

5:57

my life, how to balance my family. How

5:59

to still go after goals, be ambitious,

6:01

and be successful while understanding the importance

6:03

of taking care of home and also someone I can

6:06

rely on for information. Know,

6:08

as the president of the PA, there's a lot of things that

6:10

I have to ask him. There's a lot of conversations that

6:12

I have behind closed doors to where I'm still

6:14

learning and still trying to evolve. And he's kinda

6:17

passed the torch to me in in that sense.

6:19

So that's been a lot of fun. This is gonna

6:21

be a a fun episode. Obviously, we took a

6:23

week off. I was in the playoffs locked in trying to

6:25

and I wanna give ourselves some time. But stay

6:28

tuned. We're gonna have a Mailbag session

6:30

at the end. We're gonna have a special

6:32

guest Shout out to my dog. We've

6:35

been teammates on two teams. We're gonna have that at

6:37

the end as well. But I'm currently

6:40

back in the Pacific Northwest with

6:42

my family the last week has been

6:44

a lot of fun. It's it's great

6:46

to see my son. He's gotten so big. He's

6:49

fifteen pounds. He was two feet

6:51

one inch in his last doctor's

6:53

appointment, and he's continuing to

6:55

grow. He's making sounds. I contact all those

6:57

things. I'm on the night shift. So I do

6:59

the three AM or the four AM or the five AM or the six

7:01

AM. Whatever time that is for the diaper changes.

7:04

Feedings and so on and so forth so my wife can kinda

7:06

relax and rest in between nursing.

7:09

But it's the greatest gift in the world

7:11

to to be a father and to be able to

7:13

be a present father is is something that I don't take

7:16

for granted. That's what I've been really focusing

7:18

on, you know, handling business with the vineyard. I recently

7:20

put out a Rosé two thousand twenty one

7:22

Pito Noir Rosé. A partnership with Alissa.

7:25

I'm still on sale. And McComb harriers ninety

7:27

one dot com for those that didn't get a bottle in

7:29

that one sum. It's just been working on those

7:31

things and also watching games at night, planning my

7:33

summer schedule figuring out when I'm gonna start working out

7:35

again, figuring out my community endeavors,

7:38

trips that I'm gonna make, things

7:40

of that nature. As I talked about

7:42

before, we end up losing to the Phoenix

7:44

Suns. It was it was an epic battle.

7:46

Very, very highly competitive. It was funny

7:48

because play against a team who we

7:51

kind of simulate. Right? Like William

7:53

Mani are very similar and their

7:54

approach, their coaching strategy, their adjustments,

7:57

their schemes run a lot of the same plays. You

7:59

look at our personnel. We

8:00

got a scoring guard and myself who Nance also facilitate.

8:03

We got a scoring wing and then BIO could also

8:05

facilitate. We got a dominant big in

8:07

JV. Got bench players. We

8:09

got great defenders. We got great wing lift.

8:12

Obviously, we got the young beast in Zayo who's

8:15

still, you know, working his way back. But our teams

8:17

are very similar young, hungry.

8:19

We're probably, you know, not as experienced obviously

8:21

because we didn't go to the finals last year, but

8:24

the way we play, the way we're structured is very

8:26

similar. So it was cool to kinda match up against

8:28

them. And I think having played against

8:30

them and then going back to watch, some of

8:32

the ways they cause problems is their

8:34

pace first of all. They play a a

8:36

fast pace. They move the

8:38

ball to play five mentality, which means

8:40

you shoot you dribble or you pass

8:42

within point five seconds. You make a decision very

8:45

quickly. And I think the spurs kind of emulate that

8:47

as well, but that allows

8:49

you to kinda always be on

8:51

the go, always be on the move, but it also allows you

8:53

to have opportunities to attack closeouts and

8:55

play with an advantage. So I think first

8:57

and foremost, they do that really well. The

8:59

guards are very high usage, but very

9:01

smart. Booker, you know, a lot of picking

9:03

rolls, a lot of triple handoffs, a lot of single

9:06

side tag action, which basically means

9:08

you have a shooter coming out the corner, you got

9:10

a pick and roll going away from the shooter,

9:12

and it puts the defense in a pickle where the

9:14

help side has to either tag the roller. Which

9:17

means he has to bump the roller, the big

9:19

man rolling down the the lane. If he tags

9:21

the roller, the skip passes generally

9:23

open. If he doesn't tag the roller, the

9:26

roller is open. And if the big isn't at the

9:28

level and there's no tag and

9:30

there's no help side, the ball handler generally

9:32

scores. They run a lot of those different types of

9:35

plays. They kinda put you in rotations. They put you

9:37

in positions where you have to think. And then secondly,

9:39

their depth. They're a very deep team.

9:41

Obviously, you know, we end up losing six games.

9:43

Bookers out for a few of them, but they have

9:46

a lot of different guys that are capable of not

9:48

only beating you, but capable of hurting

9:50

you. I think that's very important. They

9:52

got length, they got athleticism, they

9:54

have three points shooting, and they have a

9:56

lot of players who are capable of performing

9:58

outside their roles. McCollum for example.

10:01

Right? You know, a guy who makes a lot of money

10:03

with my agency, very good dude, known for his

10:05

defense, but also can shoot, you know,

10:07

down near forty or or above from three.

10:09

He can attack closeouts. He can hit the midi.

10:11

He can run a pick and roll. End up scoring

10:13

thirty some points in the game. Kinda change the series.

10:17

Couple nights ago, I watched their game.

10:19

Eitan gets in foul trouble. Right? Only plays

10:21

eighteen minutes the entire game. This is a guy who's

10:23

shooting almost seventy percent from the failed

10:25

these breaking records and playoffs for efficiency,

10:28

getting, you know, basically twenty five and

10:30

ten a night, great touch around the basket, a

10:32

lethal pick and pop player for their offense.

10:35

Goes out of foul trouble. Their backup is

10:37

development key. A guy who shot seventy

10:39

plus percent against us in the playoffs, long athletic

10:42

dunk, loud threat, jump hook,

10:44

runs the floor like a deer, or Nance switch one through

10:46

five. He gets in foul trouble. Place

10:48

nine minutes. Enter bismarck

10:50

Biambo, another guy who's played

10:53

a lot of basketball in his career. He's smart.

10:55

He's heavy. He plays different types of roles. They

10:57

signed him earlier in the season, and he kinda changed

11:00

her He changed their debt. Right? They had

11:02

some injuries, some guys were bang, Doug. He

11:04

comes in, plays eighteen minutes. Nine

11:06

points three three rebounds, four four from

11:08

the field. But more importantly was able to switch

11:10

and guard Luca and pick and rolls. I didn't

11:12

even talk about their bench, Cam Johnson, Shamrock,

11:15

Cameron Payne. Those guys who

11:17

have been able to hurt you throughout the season in

11:19

games, have been able to sustain and expand upon

11:21

leads. And then the elephant in the room

11:24

is Deb Booker, arguably the best player in their team,

11:26

MVP candidate can score thirty, but also

11:28

can distribute has become a better defender.

11:31

Big shot maker, big shot taker, Jay Croda

11:33

does all the little things, you know, the glue,

11:35

other team, if you will, some nights he'll take shots, some

11:37

nights he won't, but Google guard, chunk

11:39

the game up, do whatever it takes to win.

11:41

They have a recipe for success.

11:43

They have a recipe for a championship caliber

11:46

team. And I think it shows, and then you got CP,

11:48

the Maestro, the head of everything. So

11:50

It's been fun to watch them. It's been fun to see how they

11:52

pick teams apart. They've been targeting Luka

11:55

a lot throughout this series and just some stats

11:57

for the fans out there who enjoy stats.

12:00

According to Kurt Golds Berry, DOCSIS

12:02

was the screener defender on nineteen ball screens

12:04

in the second half, and the sun's average

12:06

one point eight one points per possession in the second

12:08

half when he bar handler for layman's

12:11

terms, the highest efficiency ever allowed

12:14

by any defender in any half

12:16

over the last three seasons. Talk about

12:18

being smart. They figure out ways

12:20

to target Luca, not just in pick and rolls,

12:23

but in rotations where he's the help guy.

12:25

Right? So he has to he has to close out. Larry

12:27

is gonna talk about this later on the podcast,

12:29

the importance of adjustments, the importance of

12:32

a forward thinking coach, the importance

12:34

of not only being able to put players in actions,

12:36

but being able to put players in actions off

12:38

the ball as opposed to just on the ball. Those are

12:40

things that you see happening with

12:42

good

12:43

coaches. With good teams, with

12:45

good players. They're thinking the game in

12:47

that manner. His Tuesday, stay on on Chris.

12:49

You know, he went fourteen for fourteen in in game

12:52

six. And I think you were guarding

12:54

him on that last possession where he hit his fourteen

12:56

shot. I think it rolled in out or

12:58

rolled in it wasn't a clean make, but

13:00

what were you trying to do in that last possession knowing

13:03

that he was thirteen for

13:04

thirteen? How this can be? What what was

13:06

what was your mindset on that possession? I knew

13:08

it was late shot clock first and foremost, so I just

13:10

wanted to get him a change direction. Generally, as

13:13

a guard, like as a scoring guard, I

13:15

like to get to my comfortable whether that's left

13:17

or right, I got a comfortable elbow I like to get to.

13:20

All those things matter. But as you said

13:22

before, Chris was thirteen of thirteen before

13:25

that shot. He had hit 13A

13:27

lot of shots were at the midrange level, but

13:29

you got to respect the three because late shot

13:31

clock, he likes step back left. Otherwise,

13:34

he likes to go right. So when he step

13:37

back left and hesitated, I had to respect it

13:39

because Scott reports says the

13:41

step back is coming if he's behind a three point line.

13:43

We all know it. He does it. He did it to Luca last

13:45

night. He does it all came long. Late shot

13:47

clock, he loves a step back. So

13:49

the clock is ticking. I'm late shock clock. I'm thinking,

13:51

alright, step back is coming probably left.

13:53

He hesitates and keeps

13:55

going. He drops the ball. So I'm like, okay. He's

13:57

going right. He's

13:58

either gonna be a sidestep or he's just

14:00

gonna raise up. He puts his head down

14:02

on those two dribbles. So I'm thinking, we're in the

14:04

bonus. Maybe he's gonna try to get contact. I

14:06

got five thousand. I got to respect it. Still

14:09

a minute and and some change left in the game.

14:11

So I tried to cut him off, and he puts

14:13

the brakes on and raises up, I get a lake and test

14:15

great move. Change the direction twice. He did the hesitation

14:17

dribble. Change direction. Then he kind of

14:19

stopped and put brakes on. Really good move. He got

14:22

to about ten feet. He got to his right hand, which

14:24

is his comfort spot. Maker, miss Lee, I gotta

14:26

do a better job sending him left once we

14:28

get in between the three point line, but that's on

14:30

me. But that's also him just being vet,

14:32

being able to get to his spots, understanding time

14:34

and score. He got me right where he wanted

14:36

me. I got five thousand. I'm guarding him on

14:39

the island. It's late shot

14:40

clock. I know he has to shoot it, but I don't

14:42

know what shot he's gonna

14:43

take. And I think that's just a credit to him,

14:45

play the you know, he pitched a perfect game.

14:48

Right? He beat us essentially

14:50

the entire series. But you look at the games he really

14:52

beat us in. Right? He scored twenty plus points

14:54

in the fourth quarter. Was that game

14:56

one? Right? We win game

14:58

two. Game three. He

15:00

plays extremely well again. Right?

15:02

Hidden big shots in the fourth quarter kinda orchestrating

15:05

things. We go down. We win game

15:07

four. Go back on the road. He plays

15:09

well again in game five. Then

15:11

we have game six, right, at the crib.

15:14

He pitches a perfect game and we still,

15:16

you know, have a possession down the stretch in which

15:18

I I turn the ball and they trap. I try to fake

15:20

it past and make it past and they I turn the ball over

15:22

and takes us down two possessions. But

15:24

it's the little things that separate greatness. Right?

15:26

Not just no one in the past, but also in the score,

15:28

but also when they get to your spots. And even

15:31

if played that game probably better than I've seen

15:33

anyone do it. Not just because of his

15:35

efficiency. Right? Right? Fourteen or fourteen is wild.

15:37

But he goes fourteen out of fourteen, all tough

15:40

mitties. He got a couple layups in between,

15:42

but let's call it ten tough pullups.

15:45

You get ten tough, highly contested

15:47

pull ups, generally a low

15:50

percentage shot, but that's a high percentage shot for

15:52

him. And I think what players have to understand is

15:54

and the playoffs in order to be successful. You

15:56

have to be at three level score, but you gotta be able

15:58

to score in half court off

16:00

the bounce. Can only run off screens

16:03

for so long. You can only post up for so

16:05

long. You can only get layouts for so long. You have

16:07

to be able to shoot or get to the

16:09

free throw line or both. I think see he kind

16:11

of manipulates. He can get the free throws off of some of

16:13

those plays, getting the bonus, running into

16:15

the big. But is pity is

16:17

why he's gonna be successful. To his

16:19

forties if he wants because that's a shot

16:21

that doesn't go anywhere. He has a great lean. He's

16:23

got great art. Five eleven shooting over

16:26

a guy with A72 wingspan and Herb Jones.

16:28

That kinda tells you, you know, where he's

16:30

at with everything. Moments that

16:32

are still bugging me from this series, misfree

16:35

throws, in game three. I went four

16:37

for eight hundred free throw line, crazy, four

16:39

in Nance legit. We end

16:41

up losing by, you know, call it, six points.

16:43

I hit a three at the buzzer to cut it to three.

16:45

But every point matters in the playoffs. Some

16:48

of the turnovers that I had being able to take care

16:50

of the ball better, being able to put my team in position

16:52

better. Makes or misses, you can't really control

16:54

that. Right? Like, I prepare, I watch

16:56

film, I get into the gym, I do those things.

16:59

You can control free throws, turnovers,

17:02

decision making. Filed Trump on the last

17:04

game. I gotta be on the court. Right? Like,

17:06

regardless of how the game is being called, I

17:08

gotta give ourselves a chance to win. I gotta give

17:10

myself chance to be the best player, and I can't

17:12

do that. If I have to sit for thirty

17:14

seven minutes of real time because I'm in found

17:16

trouble. So that still bothers me to this day

17:19

for sure. And the

17:21

turnover down the stretch. Right? Like, all

17:23

in all, like a lot of stuff happened, but you

17:25

can't turn the ball over, especially

17:28

in the half court. Especially in the

17:30

playoffs, especially in the fourth quarter, especially

17:32

when it's minute left in the game. So those

17:34

are things that, you know, will bother me for

17:36

for a while, but the biggest part is

17:38

that you learn. You learn from it. I watch the film. I

17:40

figure out ways can improve and I'll get better.

17:43

All season training started right when we lost mentally.

17:45

Right? Being able to kind figure out do I become

17:47

a better player? Not just physically, but

17:49

mentally. How do I take that next step

17:51

in terms of being able to run a team, whether I'm playing

17:54

on the ball or off the ball. Being able to control

17:56

a franchise trajectory based on leadership,

17:58

based on being selfless,

18:01

based on being a servant leader

18:04

based on show and tell. Right? Don't just tell

18:06

people what to do. Show them. Go do

18:08

it. Those are things that are really important. In

18:10

my development as a thirty year old father,

18:12

husband, brother,

18:15

teammate, so on so forth. So think

18:17

that's when my process kinda started. I

18:19

got the calendars right here. I'm putting together my schedule

18:21

for travel days, family days,

18:24

weddings, workouts. I speak to

18:26

my PT later. I speak to my stressed coach

18:28

later. Figure out lift days,

18:30

rest days, I'll start boxing

18:32

next week, hot yoga next week, I'll start

18:34

table work, but just wanna kinda give my

18:36

body a week to just be a father you know,

18:39

kinda enjoy being at

18:41

home. But I'm really looking forward to training. I'm

18:43

really looking forward to kinda better myself and

18:45

coming back in a training camp with just

18:48

a renewed focus in energy, but also

18:50

a concentrated focus of energy understanding.

18:52

What I have to do to be successful for eighty

18:54

two games And then what I have to do to be successful

18:57

in the playoffs when the scouting is

18:59

is is more intense, when the traps are

19:01

more intense, when you're more physically

19:04

and mentally fatigued, all those

19:06

things. You look at how we got to the playoffs.

19:08

It was rough. Like, every game was a playoff

19:10

game, the last six games. Playing game,

19:13

against the Spurs. Playing a game against the

19:15

Clippers, then we flagged Phoenix, it was a

19:17

lot. So if we're better in regular

19:19

season, we don't have to go through as much to

19:21

get into the playoffs. The

19:23

playoffs is currently going on as we all know

19:26

and there's a lot of series still

19:29

left to be played. Sun's Mav

19:31

series is currently two o

19:33

in Sun's favor, and I'm not

19:35

gonna really go in-depth about this series because

19:37

I think it's gonna be over relatively

19:39

quickly. Dallas made Riley and

19:41

get game at home, but I think

19:43

that ends fast. Heath Sixers. And

19:46

Beat has been announced as Out, which means

19:48

he's unlikely to play in game three.

19:51

The heat are currently up two o even without

19:53

Kyle Lowry, which kinda shows you how good

19:55

they are as a team, how much depth they have. That

19:57

series will be over relatively quickly. I'm going

19:59

sweep or gentlemen sweep. However,

20:02

the Celtics box is a series I'm interested

20:04

in watching and have been watching out to

20:06

my guy Pat common and I talked to Pat the other

20:08

day. I think the

20:11

x factor in this series is the role players.

20:13

Like, you know what you're gonna get from

20:15

from Jaylen Brown. You know what you're gonna get from Jason

20:17

Tatum? I think the Grant Williams of the

20:19

world are the guys who win these types

20:21

of series Nance you look at Game two, Jaylen

20:24

Brown obviously played really well in the first half,

20:26

scores about twenty five points. He's efficient. He's effective.

20:29

Getting to it. But Grant

20:31

Williams scores twenty one points. Five rebounds

20:33

two assists in thirty five minutes. Go six of nine

20:36

from three is a whopping plus twenty

20:38

two. In the game. Oh, wow. Garden

20:40

Johannes under Coupa, aka the two time

20:42

MVP. He's the guy who can swing

20:44

a series. Robert Williams, Al Wharfert, those

20:46

guys are important. They're gonna play a role. Pietro is gonna

20:49

hit some big shots, but the role player is gonna

20:51

play a huge role in this series. And obviously, the Milwaukee

20:53

Bucks are gonna rely heavily upon

20:55

Nance and Drew holiday with Chris

20:57

Melton being out or ruled out for games

20:59

three and four, Pat Cotton is

21:01

gonna have to play really well. Chris and

21:04

Allan, is gonna have to play really well. And I think

21:06

they will enough to allow them to

21:08

get off this series. I like Bobby Portis,

21:10

a lot I think he's a really, really good player. And I

21:12

think The role players will play a key role in this

21:14

series. Looking at the Grizzly's

21:16

Warriors series, not it up at one one.

21:19

No, Dylan Brooks in game three. He's been to suspended

21:21

by the NBA for his flick and file on

21:25

GP. I think he fractured his

21:27

elbow. This is a nigga made dam and she's gonna be

21:29

out for three to five or four

21:31

to six weeks. Tough, tough situation. But

21:34

I still like the grizzlies. Dylan Brooks is a huge

21:36

part of the team. He'll be back for game four, but

21:38

Salyer Williams is very good. They can go

21:40

small. They can play Tyres Jones. They

21:43

have a lot of different options. Oh,

21:45

and by the way, their point guard just scored forty

21:47

seven points. Living in the paint, getting to

21:49

the free throw line, hitting threes.

21:51

He essentially did whatever he wanted. He went fifteen

21:53

to thirty one, five to twelve from three, twelve to

21:55

thirteen from the line. Grabbed eight boards,

21:57

ditched out eight assists, controlled the game in

22:00

every facet. I don't expect

22:02

the warriors to shoot as poorly as they did from

22:04

beyond the art. The warriors went seven

22:06

of thirty eight from three. That's eighteen percent.

22:08

That's not gonna happen again, especially

22:11

at home. So look for clay tops and a shoe better

22:13

than two or twelve. Look for stuff that shoot better

22:15

than three of eleven. That's difference in the series.

22:17

Right? They'll shoot better, but also a

22:19

guy like Andrew Wiggans will play better. A guy

22:22

like Treymont Green will play better at home.

22:24

A guy like Jordan Poole who's been sensational

22:26

throughout this series is gonna get twenty five

22:28

percent of the cap next year. He's gonna

22:30

destroy the Warriors salary

22:32

cap, but with good reason. Right?

22:34

He's gonna play well at home. Kamingo's

22:36

gonna get more time. Like, they're gonna be able to

22:38

figure things out. To where this series is

22:41

gonna become

22:41

very, very interesting. What's the

22:43

solution with JAW from a defensive standpoint

22:46

for the Warriors? Given the Gary patents

22:48

out, is it as simple as a good ally getting

22:50

healthy, maybe throw in comminga at him a little bit?

22:52

What what would you do as the warriors if you were the

22:54

coach? I think looking at it, Iggalis

22:57

listed us out for for game three. Maybe

22:59

he comes back for game four, but I think sometimes

23:02

your best defense is offense. Although,

23:04

you know, GP is a great defender. He end up getting

23:06

banged up. He misses the game after

23:08

about three minutes into the game. And

23:11

Jack goes nuts, but think the best defense

23:13

in their case is to start Jordan pool. I would

23:15

start Jordan pool, make John have to guard,

23:17

wear him down. He's gonna be able to score still.

23:19

He's gonna be able to finish around the basket. He's gonna

23:21

get you free throw line. But his legs will be heavier.

23:24

His legs will be more tired. It'll be more fatigued

23:26

if they're putting him in picking rolls. If they're gonna

23:28

chase match ups with him the same way

23:31

Phoenix Suns a chase and matches with Luca.

23:33

That's what wears on you mentally and physically

23:35

getting hit by screens, half in a guard, half

23:37

in a chase, the split action, they throw the

23:39

ball into the postage or your mind. They're splitting off

23:41

set Nance screens. I think that's their best

23:43

recipe for him, not scoring forty seven points.

23:45

Does it make him more tired? If he's fresh

23:47

and he's resting on defense the entire game,

23:50

doesn't matter what you do schematically. Every

23:52

now and then I might trap his boss screens, I'm picking

23:54

him up full court. I'm just trying to wear on

23:56

him. I want somebody leaning on him at all times.

23:58

Maybe I go with size and put wiggans on him for a

24:00

little bit for length. Tell him to back up, get a contest,

24:02

keep him out of the paint. You have to mix

24:04

up the looks against players like that.

24:06

Otherwise, they're gonna go get fifty. So

24:08

CJ, looking at looking at who's left in the playoffs,

24:11

We got eight teams left, a lot

24:13

of great players didn't make the playoffs, a lot

24:15

of great players lost in the first round. We

24:17

had a lot of great players left. So what

24:19

I wanna ask you is to rank the

24:21

five best players left

24:23

in the playoffs in some sort

24:26

of order whoever you wanna do it.

24:28

I'll just give you some options for some some

24:30

players to think through. We got

24:32

Nance, Steph, Luca,

24:34

CP, Booker, John,

24:36

Tatum, Draymond, Jimmy,

24:39

and B, bam, Jaylen Brown,

24:42

Drew Holiday, Jordan pool. So a lot of

24:44

options, but I want you to give me your top

24:46

five players left in the

24:48

playoffs. This is tough because there's

24:50

a lot of great talent in this league. There's a

24:52

lot of guys who are impacting winning, but

24:55

I'm gonna go with a

24:57

bit of a bias based on Resume,

25:02

but also who's proven it

25:05

time and time again. Right? Johannes

25:07

just won a championship last year with a fifty

25:09

point double in the closeout game. Right? So

25:11

he has to be on the list. I don't care if he shooting

25:13

thirty percent or thirty five percent in this series

25:15

against the boss in Celtics. He impacts

25:17

winning. More so than a lot of players.

25:19

Right? The rebounding, the points, the assists,

25:22

the defensive help side, the impact of finishing

25:24

around the basket, constantly putting pressure on

25:26

the defense. So I go, Johannes,

25:29

for sure. Question if you want to, but

25:31

I think nobody would question it. Second,

25:34

right now, based on how well guys are

25:36

playing, I gotta put CP in there. I haven't

25:38

played against them, whatever you can call it what you want.

25:41

But in the fourth quarter, like, would you want any

25:43

other point, Garrett, making decisions for you right now point

25:45

in time, like, not just making decisions,

25:47

but dictating the offense, dictating

25:49

the flow, being able to hit a mid

25:51

range shot at three pointer and finish basket.

25:53

Being able to get to the free throw line. Also controlling

25:56

who gets the ball when his book need to touch, when his

25:58

eight need to touch, when do I hit the weak side Cam

26:00

Johnson? I think it's an easy decision

26:02

to put him there based on his performance.

26:04

What he's been able to do, not only in our series,

26:06

but in this series, to help lead them to two o.

26:09

No brainer. I like him beat a lot. I

26:11

think he he has a chance when you beat Pete, but he's currently

26:13

injured, so I'm taking him off the list. Love

26:15

Harden's game. Download two.

26:18

Not putting you in the top five. Bam,

26:20

Jimmy, Draymond, Tatum, Luca.

26:23

All tough. Love Luca's game.

26:26

Huge, Luca fan. I'm

26:29

gonna go tatum. I'm gonna tatum

26:31

mainly because he got one win at

26:34

home. He split. He's he's not going back

26:36

to Milwaukee down o two. He's played

26:38

extremely well. He just beat arguably

26:40

the best player in the NBA and Katie in

26:43

a sweep four. Obviously, he helped, but he

26:45

was the one really checking Katie. He was the

26:47

one release warrant off Nance facilitating showing

26:49

that he's taking strides towards that next

26:51

step, which is I'm arguably the best player

26:53

in the world. Easy decision. Johannes,

26:57

CP, Tatum. That's

26:59

three. Four. I'm gonna

27:02

go Jai. It was between Jai

27:04

and Luca, and I chose Jai mainly

27:06

because he was able to get one game so far. Right?

27:09

He went and did what he was supposed to

27:11

do. He had a chance to win game one.

27:13

No one wants to talk about it. The Memphis Grisley's

27:15

could be up to well, Clay Thompson misses two free

27:17

throws. Clay Thompson makes up for a great

27:19

help side defense job, missed the left hand layup.

27:22

This guy just wins score forty seven points, hit

27:24

five threes. They said he couldn't shoot when he came to the

27:26

league. Makes twelve thirteen free

27:28

throws in the game. He's showing that he's a star.

27:30

He's gonna get a shoot from Nike, presumably.

27:33

One of the next faces of the league athletic.

27:35

He's explosive, led to league and and pain scoring.

27:37

That's a lot of different stuff. I'm done explaining.

27:40

That's jaw. He's number four. Five.

27:42

The Miami Heaters such a good team. It's

27:44

hard to just pick one player and say they're one of the best.

27:47

Jimmy's great all around. That's a lot of different

27:49

stuff. They wanna play off game or two without

27:51

him. Bam is a key player

27:53

in my team. Guards one through five, but I

27:55

think he's a key piece, arguably a

27:57

top ten player in the playoffs. But

28:00

I'm gonna go with

28:03

Booker, the Booker bias. Right?

28:05

You just said for four, you're going between Luca and

28:07

Joss. So Luca doesn't make it I did say I

28:09

was going between Luca and Joss, but it's

28:11

like It's this crossroads. Right?

28:14

CP and book are like peanut

28:16

butter and jelly. Book wasn't the running

28:19

for MVP too. Right? Best

28:21

team in League, most wins. So

28:23

it's like, can I go 1A1B? Right?

28:26

Like, Luca is a very talented player.

28:28

But it's more How

28:31

do I say it? Jerry West, if

28:33

you will? Plumbing up incredible

28:35

numbers, but might get swept.

28:38

Hard hard to argue. Right? Like, it's gonna average

28:40

probably forty points. Basically, a

28:42

forty point triple double, but probably

28:45

gonna get swept. It's hard for me to justify

28:47

it.

28:47

Know you watch a lot of Warriors games, and

28:50

I forgot to ask Steph. You appreciate Steph's game.

28:52

So alright. So what I think are

28:54

we gonna say, Steph? If he's

28:56

not five.

28:58

I said I would go with history, and history

29:01

shows that you know what stuff's gonna do in light of

29:04

the brightest. He's going back home. I think he heard

29:06

exactly what Jeff said when he walked passed him and said, this

29:08

is gonna be fun. John just put forty

29:10

seven up on his team's head. A loud

29:12

forty 71A forty seven in which he made

29:14

someone fall. I can only imagine the type

29:16

of shimmy shaking that we're gonna see on

29:19

Friday. Love Booker two.

29:22

Bookers five a or five b. You could argue

29:25

him or CP. It's one or the other, but hard pick both.

29:27

Luca, I said it before, I love his game, but he's

29:29

probably gonna get a

29:30

slap, maybe a gentleman's sweep. Where are you at

29:32

on on Heliocentric bass a ball? And

29:34

can a team that has a halo central

29:36

player?

29:37

Like, look, can they go far in the playoffs?

29:39

Or is

29:40

that more just a regular season thing? It's

29:42

tough, man. He plays a

29:44

very aesthetically pleasing game. Right?

29:46

Step backs and ones get into

29:48

the cup lot of ISO ball, but long

29:51

possessions, high usage,

29:53

a lot of pick and roll, a lot of matchup finding

29:56

finding guys out, seeking guys out is cool,

29:58

but takes a toll. On one,

30:00

the player that's doing it, but also takes to tell your

30:03

teammates. Catching grenades. I'm not sure when you

30:05

wanna get the There's a lot of stuff that is associated with

30:07

that. And then you want those guys to go guard

30:09

CP book banging

30:12

down low at eight and to catch grenades

30:14

or, you know, get a couple of live pass, get a couple

30:16

of kick out threes, but the touches aren't really

30:18

there. They don't really feel involved in the offense. It's hard

30:20

to win like that. Look at the way the sun's play. They got

30:22

high usage cards, but they still quick

30:24

decisions are being made even when they go find someone.

30:26

It's quick decision being made. They don't really play

30:29

around and play that that that style

30:31

of ISO search and find into the

30:33

fourth quarter. I'm also gonna do it from the

30:35

start of the game, which is tough. And I'm not saying it's the

30:37

wrong thing to do. I'm just saying as

30:39

a player who watches body

30:41

language, how players are moving, how they're

30:43

filling, Look at Chamberlain Brunson. The

30:45

guy we played and

30:47

look

30:47

it was out. The guy he's I was playing now is

30:49

a difference. Yeah. You know, I'm thinking

30:52

obviously, Luca is brilliant pastor, brilliant

30:54

player. Would it be fun

30:56

to play with a guy like that knowing

30:58

how brilliant he is? Knowing he can find you but

31:01

knowing the ball needs to be in his hands

31:03

the vast majority of the time, whereas like

31:05

you said, the sons, everyone eats

31:07

that the the success of the team isn't necessarily

31:10

dictated by by one

31:11

player. We lost to the sun. Book had

31:13

eleven points, an elimination game.

31:15

Came off the bench in the second half. Steph

31:17

Curry volunteered to come off the bench for the Warriors

31:19

arguably one of the greatest players all time. Like, you

31:22

gotta be willing sacrifice in order to be successful

31:24

in winning this league. Like, in different layers

31:26

and ways in in which you sacrifice. I

31:28

think people enjoy playing with Luca. Absolutely.

31:30

He's hell of a talent. He's he's polishes

31:33

the economy's skill. He's on track to

31:35

become a hall of fame or arguably the greatest

31:37

European player of all time. He's he's

31:39

breaking records, not only Jordan, Kobia

31:41

have broken. But you have to have

31:43

a certain type of skills at the complement that style

31:45

of play. If you're a catch and shoot guy, it's

31:47

great. You're a lap threat, it's great. If you

31:50

need pick and rolls, if you need the ball in your hands,

31:52

it's hard to play against another guy who uses

31:54

straight this to high. It's just the way it works. It's

31:56

the only one basketball.

32:09

Welcome back to the Pull Up Pod. I wanna welcome

32:11

a very very special guest who also happens

32:13

to be from Ohio although he's not from

32:15

the great part of Ohio. Can't know how that

32:17

is. He's from Revere, Ohio. He

32:19

was a two thousand fifteen first round pick

32:22

first round twenty seventh picking it in the

32:24

two thousand fifteen draft to the Lakers. He

32:26

is two time for his team, all MWC twenty

32:29

fourteen, twenty fifteen. MWC defense

32:31

to play the year two thousand fifteen, two

32:34

time, NWC, all defensive team. He

32:36

plays defense two thousand

32:37

fourteen, fifteen. And

32:40

has been my teammate on two different

32:42

teams, ironically, the Portland Trailblazers,

32:45

and now currently for the New

32:47

Orleans Pelicans. Larry,

32:49

Nancy, and you're welcome to the Pull Up

32:51

Pod.

32:51

Sure. I appreciate it, man. That's a heck of

32:53

an intro. Although, let me correct you real

32:55

quick. The good part of Ohio's where

32:58

I'm from. And first of all, Rivera,

33:01

Ohio was the place. Rivera is the high school dog.

33:04

Akron and baby. Akron. Grew up in

33:06

Akron and baby. Come on.

33:08

That's

33:08

how the thing goes. You are where you

33:10

went to school at. Is that how the thing

33:12

goes?

33:13

I mean, Rivera is what?

33:15

Nine minutes from accurate? It's

33:17

just about

33:21

So it's all the same, but I will give you I'll give

33:23

you your flowers ACronism as

33:25

bigger city than Ken. I'm not gonna say it's

33:27

better.

33:27

Big it's better. Yeah. I wanna take

33:29

it back. You talked about our northeast to how,

33:32

you know, background We grew

33:34

up. I was in different fashion

33:36

but similar. Heart work

33:38

in blue color town, had to work for everything we

33:40

have now, small school, unheralded,

33:43

not a lot of college scholarship offers, and we'll

33:46

we'll go into storytelling aspect of it a lot.

33:48

But you were five eleven as a freshman

33:50

in high school, much taller than I was, played

33:53

Point Guard, ended up being six seven

33:55

as a senior. What did you learn

33:58

from your time as Point Guard, you know, at five

34:00

eleven, half to kind of run offense and then evolving,

34:02

getting taller. What did you learn over the course

34:04

of your time as a point guard that has helped to kind of shape

34:06

you and to the type of player you are

34:08

today, understanding the game of basketball? And

34:10

the role you can kind of play as A67

34:12

point forward. You know, for me, the biggest

34:15

thing the biggest thing was was

34:18

honestly was, like, just kind of

34:20

running a team. Like,

34:22

you know, obviously, there's there are there are possessions,

34:24

you know, of course, telling you, but there

34:27

are possessions in a game where if you can get a good

34:29

look early, you know, take it for

34:31

sure. But, you know, game

34:33

management who to get the ball to

34:35

guys need shots here and and and that type

34:37

of that type of thing. But, you know, for

34:39

me, it's really translated to what

34:42

I do now and how I like to play now

34:44

is because, you know,

34:46

we're out there. There are oftentimes, like, you

34:49

know, being on some of these younger teams that have been out with

34:51

the Lakers and Cats. You know, we're team

34:53

will go on a run and we're still you know, we

34:55

got guys still taking quick shots in the shot

34:57

clock and it's like, alright, you know, give me the ball.

35:00

Let's slow it down. Let's make sure we get good

35:02

you know, make sure we get a good look and and,

35:06

you know, make sure we slow this game down, see if we can

35:08

get, you know, see if we can run our offense a little bit

35:10

and get back into the flow of this. But

35:12

for me just, you know, be playing with the ball in

35:14

my hands at a young age. This was important

35:16

just in terms

35:17

of, like, developing a

35:19

level of comfortability with it. Have you always

35:22

thought the game the way you do? You talk

35:24

about young players. I talk a lot

35:26

about identity crisis. Right? A lot of young

35:28

players have an identity crisis. They don't know who

35:30

they are, they're unsure of it, or they have this unrealistic

35:33

expectation of who

35:35

they are as a basketball player and what their

35:37

game actually does on the court.

35:39

At what point did you kind of accept who you were as

35:41

basketball player realizing that I can I

35:43

can maximize my earning

35:44

potential? I can maximize my career, but

35:46

also my performance by figuring out

35:48

my role, my niche. It's so funny.

35:50

Like, over the past, I don't know when

35:53

it was, but the term role player has

35:55

become, like, a dirty word. And,

35:58

yeah, it never made any sense to me. Like,

36:01

you know, you look at any any championship team

36:03

or any team that goes deep in the playoffs and

36:05

you, you know, one consistent thing

36:07

that you got, every one of those teams guys

36:09

that know and accept their role and

36:11

thrive and star in their role. So,

36:14

you know, for me, coming to the NBA, like,

36:17

you know, just like everybody else in college.

36:19

Yeah, I was the man. I was the star.

36:21

I averaged my eighteen and nineteen

36:23

or whatever it was. And you know,

36:26

coming to the NBA, like, it's, you know,

36:28

unless you're picked in the top ten,

36:30

you know, unless you're picking the top ten or lottery,

36:32

you're not really drafted to a team to go get

36:34

buckets. And so for me, it was

36:37

all about it was

36:39

all about how do I get on the court. And

36:41

having Byron Scott as a head coach, she was like,

36:43

hey, look, Larry, if you play hard and play defense,

36:45

that's all I asked. And so

36:48

for me, look, that's that's what got me on the court. I

36:50

played hard. Every single night, every possession,

36:52

and play defense. And so, you know,

36:54

that's what that's what really helped establish

36:56

myself just as

36:58

a you know, just as a

37:00

serviceable player in the NBA from

37:03

that regard. And then once you establish that, then

37:05

you can start expanding and and improving

37:07

your game. But you know, III

37:09

still think it's, you know, the these

37:12

young guys and the term role player, it's

37:14

not a dirty word. know, I'm gonna

37:16

have a very successful long career accepting

37:18

and and and thriving in the role that I was

37:20

given. It's a very humble way of saying I'm gonna

37:22

make over a hundred million dollars playing roles.

37:26

I'll say it I'll say it for you. Kids

37:29

out there are listening, high school,

37:31

middle school, college, even NBA

37:33

guys. Understand that if you buy into your role,

37:36

You have chance to increase your earning potential.

37:38

You have a chance to be more like by teammates, staff,

37:41

other organizations, front office, and you

37:43

also help your team win. And what

37:46

more could you want out of a of a basketball career

37:48

besides winning, taking a lot of money, having

37:50

a role, and being able to take care

37:52

of your family. So understand that and understand

37:55

that. Most teams as we talked about, we've had a lot of conversation

37:57

with our younger players on the importance of

37:59

understanding how to play a role.

38:02

Everybody has a different role to play on each team. We need

38:04

good screen setters. We need guys are gonna defend. We

38:06

need guys are gonna bring energy. We need guys who are

38:08

gonna show up every day in practice. We need guys

38:10

that are not gonna play in games, but are gonna be available

38:12

to help guys rehab, to bring that that

38:14

juice, to bring that good juju. Everybody

38:17

has a role, and I think that's what made our team in New

38:19

Orleans. So unique is that everybody

38:22

accepted roles. Everybody was cool with learning

38:24

on the fly, but also competing. And everybody

38:26

is hungry for more. And I think that's really cool.

38:29

You talked about buying or Scott as a coach. We're gonna

38:31

get into you know, your

38:33

NBA career, the coaches you play for, the

38:35

players you play with. But I wanna take it back

38:38

to high school. Right? I talked

38:40

about this at dinner with Zayo. You

38:43

didn't have a lot of college scholarship offers.

38:45

Your dad, you know, Larry Nance, senior

38:48

was was basically taking drives to kind of

38:50

figure out, like, alright, where's my son gonna go glad he's a

38:52

little on the short end in terms

38:54

of height, but I know he has talent potential

38:57

to grow in blossom. Talk to

38:59

me and the viewers and the listeners about

39:01

your recruiting process, how

39:04

it went, how you ended up at Wyoming,

39:06

and at what point you thought you were gonna go to the

39:08

NBA? Like, I got a chance. So,

39:10

yeah, like you said, I was I was five eleven

39:12

as a freshman. And,

39:15

you know, my gross percame, middle

39:18

of my sophomore year in high school and and

39:20

and so I played freshman basketball,

39:22

my freshman year, I played JV sophomore year.

39:25

And I started I started on JV

39:28

my junior year. And so

39:30

I didn't play a u, not at all. Not

39:33

not a single tournament until going

39:35

from my junior year to my senior year.

39:37

And by that time, I was about 6566

39:41

And, you know, division two offers

39:43

started, you know, division two stick calls started

39:46

coming in, you know, division three, NAI,

39:48

schools. You know, and we, you know, we were

39:50

getting letters from them and taking calls and, you know, because

39:52

that was great. You know, I didn't have any real expectation

39:55

for myself. You know, I wasn't I hadn't been good

39:57

at at sports my whole life. And,

40:00

you know, that summer, I kinda came into my own

40:03

physically little bit, and we started playing

40:05

I'm just a little group of guys. Like, you know,

40:07

this group called the Buckeye Ballers. Right? It's

40:09

just this I know you're laughing because you've never

40:11

heard of them. And I there was a one year

40:14

team. It was just a

40:17

bunch of guys from this area that, you know,

40:19

that just wanted to play. You know, we

40:21

played in the King James classic and up in

40:23

the All Ohio tournament. And

40:25

actually qualified to go play down in

40:27

Orlando at the nationals.

40:30

And it was basically

40:33

just you know, just roll the ball

40:35

out and hoop. And so, you know,

40:37

I started really playing at

40:39

a high level, really playing at a high level.

40:41

And then I remember playing Trey Burke's team

40:44

at in the the Ohio Red Turd.

40:46

And they were there to watch,

40:48

you know, this kid. I think George I

40:50

forget his name. Maybe George McKinnon's Trey

40:54

Burke was there.

40:57

There were there were some high level division where

40:59

they were selling.

41:00

Was Selio in the team? No. Selio was Selio

41:02

was little bit older. Selio is, I think,

41:04

one year older. Two Selio is her

41:06

class.

41:07

It was closed. He he stole my mister basketball.

41:09

That's right. Sally with your class, but, you

41:11

know, some high level D1 players.

41:14

And I kinda showed up and showed out

41:17

in that tournament and in the game against

41:19

All Ohio Red. So, you know, Western

41:22

Carolina called, and that was my first divisional

41:24

offer. Wafford called,

41:26

that was my the second, you know, d

41:28

one school showed interest. So,

41:31

you know, play the rest of the summer and had just

41:34

it was basically Western Carolina Wafford. Trying

41:38

to think, Bowling Green, Toledo,

41:43

You know, Central Michigan had had interest. But

41:45

as I played out in my senior season, all these schools

41:48

just started dropping out to lead

41:50

a loss of scholarship. Central Michigan law's

41:52

scholarship. Akron

41:54

u and and and dammit, told

41:57

me and my dad to our face that, you know,

41:59

I'm not a good I'm just not a divisional

42:01

player, and I would have paid them

42:04

to go to school with Accruent. But,

42:06

you know, halfway through my senior year college, and

42:08

I wasn't committed anywhere. This

42:11

dude, Larry Shai, who went to I

42:14

think it was Wittenberg. And so he was

42:16

not a head coach at Wyoming. And

42:18

so, you know, he did he had never seen

42:21

me play, never seen me pick up a basketball,

42:23

but some guy called his Ohio was like, hey. Yo.

42:25

This dance kid might

42:27

be pretty good. You know? He's

42:29

bloomed late and, you know, you might wanna

42:32

come take a look. He's like, I got

42:34

a lot of scholarship available. I just took his job,

42:36

cut seven players. So, you know,

42:39

sure. You know, I'm not gonna fly. Ying flew

42:41

out there, didn't watch me pick up a basketball

42:43

now once offered me the

42:45

second he walked in our house just

42:48

basically off of my name really

42:50

and then at looking at my dad and be six eleven.

42:52

My mom being six two and me being, you

42:55

know, six six banking on the fact that, alright,

42:57

this kid's got room to grow. And I

43:00

took a visit out there and and

43:03

at the time that I committed to Wyoming,

43:06

it was that it was them in Bowling

43:08

Green, University, and I did not really wanna

43:10

go there. Although, had

43:12

I gone, it would have been me or Sean Holmes as the

43:14

four and

43:14

five, which would have been tough.

43:18

Would have been tough. Right? And

43:20

then at school, I mean, I played my

43:22

first two years and was okay.

43:24

Yeah. I played my first year, and the average

43:26

maybe four points and got

43:28

spotty minutes. My

43:30

sophomore year I started and

43:33

you know, was average about ten points,

43:35

and then our star player got hurt with the last

43:38

two, three, you know, last two, three weeks of the

43:40

season. You know, and that's when I started

43:42

to really pick it up, you know, sorry, averaging sixteen,

43:45

seventeen, eighteen, you know, twenty

43:47

one points, stuff like that. To pass

43:49

the the the rest of the season and

43:51

actually finish the season on a high note by,

43:53

you know, beating the brakes

43:56

off of Lehigh. Beaten the

43:58

brakes off of the eye. They were missing so

44:01

they were missing some scrub guard that they

44:03

didn't even travel with. I mean, it was crazy.

44:05

They just we beat the brakes

44:07

off, not at our place. So I just

44:09

wanna go on record saying that you

44:11

guys played us without me.

44:12

I'm just saying, we beat the brakes

44:15

off you guys. Was that the I

44:17

don't wanna talk about what turn Not

44:19

the tournament, but was that the It

44:21

was the CVI. You

44:25

beat us in the CVI. We didn't

44:27

just beat

44:27

you. We oh, man. We beat the

44:29

brakes off you too.

44:30

They beat us in the

44:32

Sunday, nine AM loses bracket a.

44:35

You turn the game. It's in the constellation

44:37

bracket. The constellation oxygen

44:40

nine AM game. Hey, look, I don't feel

44:42

bad because you guys didn't have your best player,

44:44

but we didn't have ours either. The same

44:46

thing same thing I told the Suns. Sick

44:50

thing to tell somebody else. But,

44:55

you know, towards the end of eight years, I started to

44:57

really realize, like, alright. I might have a future

44:59

of this thing and, you

45:01

know, had a big summer, big off

45:03

season and came back to my

45:05

junior year. It was was

45:08

tearing the conference apart. You

45:11

know, I think I was averaging eighteen and ten

45:14

And and we only averaged forty points

45:16

a game. So I was scoring half of our points

45:18

and and just, you know, dominating

45:20

games we are playing. And

45:23

so I I had just come off. We went

45:25

to Montana State or we went to Denver,

45:27

Montana State and Utah and UNLV.

45:30

And then that stretch of games, I had thirty

45:33

eight, thirty one, and thirty two.

45:35

And finally, against against

45:37

UNLV was against Christian Wood and me and him.

45:41

Went at it. And after

45:43

that, UNLV game, I won national player

45:45

the week told my parents, my

45:48

coaches, and my girlfriend, current wife's

45:50

that, you know, hey, I'm, you know,

45:53

I think I'm a declare for the draft after this year.

45:55

I'm not coming back to school. You

45:57

know, I'm, yeah, I'm first round pick.

46:00

And the very next game

46:02

against Fresno, Seattle, Mesio. And

46:05

so, obviously, that set me

46:07

back a little bit. Jesus.

46:09

Yeah. Send

46:11

me back a little bit. I didn't, obviously, didn't

46:13

declare for the draft, but rehab that whole summer

46:15

and actually got came back stronger

46:18

and more athletic. So I think

46:21

I'm actually I don't wanna say I'm glad

46:23

that happened, but think it made me a stronger

46:25

person for it.

46:26

That's crazy. I didn't know you. I forgot about

46:28

that injury. It's crazy. We get get hurt so

46:30

often and throughout our

46:31

career, but then we recover so much to kind of

46:34

forget

46:34

Right. About the injuries. It's insane what

46:37

the doctors can do, what the treatment can do, what

46:39

the recovery process is like for us as athletes

46:41

now. But you talked

46:43

about your college career. Right? Four

46:46

points of gain kinda gradually got better and

46:48

began to to kinda dominate figure

46:50

out your role, obviously, double double machine,

46:52

could still facilitate, evolve. Get

46:55

drafted by the Lakers. Go from

46:58

call it Akron, Riviera, Ohio to

47:00

to Wyoming -- Okay. --

47:03

to Los Angeles. What

47:05

was that like for Larry Nance junior? First of

47:07

all, sunny Los Angeles. And then understanding

47:10

that you're getting you're getting drafted, to

47:12

arguably, you know, one of the most decorated franchises

47:15

of all time with the late great

47:17

Kobe Bryant. What

47:19

was that like? What did you kinda learn? From

47:22

that year, that being Kobe's last year,

47:24

may he rest in peace last year as

47:26

as an

47:26

athlete, you know, playing the game of basketball and

47:29

going out with the sixty piece in his last game.

47:31

Right. You know, getting drafted

47:34

to LA was it wasn't

47:36

a big deal to me. Like, obviously, the city

47:38

was getting drafted was great, but the

47:40

city was not a big deal to me because,

47:42

you know, I was I'm

47:44

a homebody. I'm a homebody.

47:46

I stay home and I don't really do the whole

47:49

didn't really do the whole scene. I brought my girlfriend,

47:51

you know, again, current wife with me to Los Angeles,

47:54

and and, you know, we just got an

47:56

apartment, got a dog, and just kinda you

47:58

know, stayed out of the way. And that's that's kinda

48:01

how I've been my whole career. But, you

48:04

know, it was It

48:06

was it was an interesting time. You know, they had

48:09

Julius who was just coming on breaking

48:11

his leg the year before, so he was basically a rookie.

48:15

Yeah. I came in with Danjillo Russell and

48:17

Anthony Brown.

48:19

So that that was my rookie class. Jordan

48:21

Clarkson was also there. It was a

48:23

year before me.

48:25

So we were just

48:27

young, you know, just as

48:29

young inexperienced Nance we

48:32

had Lewill Roy Hibbert

48:34

were my vet, Nick Young, Brandon

48:36

Bass. It it was a it

48:39

was a it was a unique roster makeup.

48:41

And obviously, Coke, But,

48:45

you know, just going about that year, you

48:47

know, on the farewell

48:49

tour with him was it was something

48:51

that I'll never forget, obviously, you know,

48:54

especially, you know, circumstances now,

48:56

of course. But, you know, just the

48:58

way we would play in fill, you know, play in Boston,

49:00

or play in, Oakland,

49:02

some of the best fans in the country, you know,

49:04

Portland and Cleveland and and

49:08

everywhere we played was a home year no

49:10

matter what. And there's, you know, that

49:12

comes with being a Lakers a little bit, but

49:14

it was even more so just because we knew

49:19

we knew everybody knew it was COVID last year.

49:21

And so, you

49:24

know, just the things he the

49:27

things the things he

49:29

had, the things he saw, the things he did,

49:32

the things we got to see and

49:34

do just because that year was impressive.

49:36

But Even though his body couldn't

49:38

do the things he wanted it to still, he

49:42

never lost that competitive that competitive

49:44

fire I actually remember

49:46

we went to Portland. You'll

49:48

love this. You'll love this.

49:51

We went to so we played

49:53

at Portland. And

49:55

you guys I

49:57

mean, I don't know if I beat been

49:59

beat that bad and and be a gay I

50:02

don't know if I get to this point.

50:04

It was I mean, it might have been a

50:06

it might have been a forty five

50:10

forty, forty five, it was brutal. A

50:12

a at the Moto Center. And

50:16

we're sitting in there in the locker room afterwards, like,

50:19

nobody's saying a word. You know, Byron

50:21

and Scott walks in and was like, I

50:24

got nothing. No. I got nothing. That

50:26

was pathetic. And of course,

50:28

you know, Julius, JC,

50:32

Dellow, you know,

50:34

my self. Like, we're all the young guys. Like, everybody

50:36

in there, we're we're we're we're at Kobe's. Right? Like,

50:40

that's what we did. We were Kobe's, like, we're with the

50:42

we're with the legend. And

50:45

he goes, he just,

50:47

you know, these guys, like, I got nothing to say.

50:49

You know what I mean? You got anything to say?

50:51

And COVID just, like, picks his head up, you know,

50:53

in his locker. He's, like, take my

50:55

shoes off. Take my shoes off.

50:58

Yeah. After that shit, like, Take

51:01

take my shoes off. That's it. Leave them here.

51:03

And so we took our we took our babies

51:05

off and put them in the trash can and and

51:07

didn't bring them. Like, we couldn't.

51:10

He told us to take our take take my

51:12

shoes off and put him in his

51:14

throw away because I I'm not

51:16

dealing with that. And I I

51:19

wore a pair of cubbies like once again

51:21

for the rest of my career. Just got that

51:24

hurt. That hurt. That

51:26

hurt. How are

51:27

you, like, come on now?

51:29

How are

51:29

you gonna tell me to take your shoes off? And

51:31

he made it, though, the funny part. You guys looked at

51:33

each other first, like, it'd be serious? Like, take

51:35

my shoes off and, you know, nobody really did anything.

51:37

No. Take my shoes off.

51:40

We took shoes off. I don't know what

51:42

to tell you. It's sick. It was

51:44

sick.

51:46

That's

51:46

sick. But that's that that tells you his mentality, though.

51:48

Like, he was so devastated to stirred

51:50

by the whooping that that we gave y'all

51:53

that he felt like. You feel good saying

51:55

that, don't you? That that that you feel good you

51:57

feel good saying that that we gave

51:58

it. You feel you feel good saying that,

52:00

don't you? He felt like that

52:02

wasn't the mild mentality that we

52:04

more so had the mild mentality than y'all at

52:06

that time. But you guys were a bunch of young pups.

52:08

And I think the more of this

52:10

story is for one,

52:12

Kobe. It's

52:13

Kobe. But for two,

52:16

look

52:16

at that team and with that roster, what you guys have become

52:18

from that, like, learning, you know, as young

52:20

players probably seen the game so different. Now having

52:23

that experience with him

52:24

where, like, you

52:25

guys were probably close to lottery team maybe.

52:28

We we were lottery every year. Yeah. But

52:30

I didn't feel like it because you sold out every

52:32

game. And it was just, like, everywhere

52:34

y'all went, to sell out show.

52:37

The the way team was cheering for you. Like like, you

52:39

were the -- Yeah. -- the finals favorite.

52:41

Like, you were the warriors, peak warriors with

52:43

with KD. Like, they were, like, the AWAY

52:46

team watches Steph Curry warm up. Like, the AWAY

52:48

team fan has come early to just watch him shoot from

52:50

Abivir. Like, that's how it was for

52:52

Kobe. You go from playing

52:54

with the Lakers. Right? And we talked about Rolf

52:56

being young, having to kind of play a role. Kobe

52:58

scored six in his last game. Fast forward,

53:00

you get traded to your hometown team. Cavalier's.

53:03

Right? You play a number twenty

53:05

four for, I think, I believe, two games,

53:08

and then you get permission from the NBA to switch to

53:10

to number twenty two. Talk to me about what that feeling

53:13

was like to wear number twenty two, understand that your dad,

53:15

you know, had had the the jury's retired. And

53:17

then the second part is did

53:20

you learn from your time with the Lakers that you kind of carry

53:22

over to Cleveland on your quest

53:25

and go into the finals and play alongside another

53:27

great player could be one of the greatest players all the time

53:29

in the Braun James.

53:31

So, you know, obviously, going home was

53:33

was great. You know, it's not something that

53:35

I expected or

53:38

or even wanted yeah. I had I wasn't

53:40

aware of that yet. It was just I just wanted

53:43

to be happy in LA, but you

53:45

know, getting traded. You know,

53:47

getting getting traded blindsided by

53:49

a trade is never good. Right? It's never

53:51

it never feels good. But the fact that I was

53:53

going home made it made it

53:55

okay. For

53:56

the listeners out there when you say getting traded

53:58

blindly, how

53:59

did you find out you traded? I got a it

54:01

was it was to get Twitter. So

54:02

you got it. You were scrolling on your entire mind. I

54:04

was like, oh, I'm going to Cleveland. I was headed to

54:06

practice or headed to shoot around. I forget which one

54:09

was. I tried to shoot around. And

54:11

just in my car and sat a red light and

54:13

was scrolling to it. It was like, oh, Lakers

54:16

and Cleveland are heavy. You know, there's

54:18

like heavy and trade talks or whatever whatever

54:20

the term was, the world's use. And so

54:22

I'm thinking, like, man, who could that be? And then

54:24

so I'm, like, refresh refresh refresh refresh.

54:27

And sure enough, Jordan Clarks and Larry for,

54:30

you know, Isaiah Thomas Chaining Friday

54:32

at first, and it's like, yo. So

54:34

I shouldn't go to I

54:37

shouldn't go to practice. Hey, I I

54:39

didn't know how to act. I

54:41

did not act. And so, yeah, I found out

54:43

via

54:43

Twitter. That's a sick way to find out. I think

54:46

it is. A lot of fans don't understand

54:49

the the human element of a

54:50

trade. Right? Like, Even when

54:52

you know about

54:53

it, it's still a human elevator

54:55

family, the moving. Like, I try

54:57

to tell people all the time. It's like, imagine you at your

54:59

desk and you get traded. And you gotta

55:02

report in, like, forty eight to seventy two hours.

55:04

Like, family or no family. Like, you gotta

55:06

go. You gotta figure out they're coming with you or not.

55:08

You gotta figure out you're gonna stay. Everything

55:11

changes the funny part. And that's not not the funny

55:13

part, but the funny part is when

55:15

you when they clean out your locker, like we

55:17

play orthotics. Right? So I'm like making

55:20

sure I got orthotics. He's trying to grab certain stuff

55:22

that you're going to need. And I

55:24

I think that the casual fan just doesn't understand

55:26

that. Did you go to practice?

55:29

Yeah. I went in there just so, like, I needed

55:31

some shoes. I needed

55:34

what else I need? Just just stuff, you know,

55:36

things that are in your things that are in your locker, Zachary, but

55:38

we're probably my orthotics and whatnot. But also,

55:40

you know, you know, the training staff in

55:42

there say by to them and the coaches, I like them

55:45

and and all that, you know, teammates stuff just

55:47

to, you know, pop my head in and,

55:49

you know, say what's up. It was

55:52

it was it was definitely an interesting environment.

55:54

Good to Cleveland. You end up going to the finals.

55:57

What were some of the highs and lows

55:59

of that season? Any funny stories you wanna tell?

56:01

First of all. And then secondly, the

56:04

differences and similarities between COB

56:07

and Braun. Obviously, different parts of

56:09

their career, different different times in their career,

56:12

but the aura. I talk about it lot

56:15

with with basketball players. Certain guys

56:17

have the aura. Right? Like, they walk in a room, you

56:19

can fill the presents. Kobe had a crazy

56:21

or a crazy z has it. This Jordan

56:23

has it. There's certain people where if it was like,

56:26

They're like a mythical almost like

56:28

a mythical being. But like in

56:30

in person, like Kobe had it. Braun has it

56:32

at times. What was it like going

56:35

from? One mythical

56:38

being to almost like another in bra.

56:41

I'm just I'm just jumping from unicorn to unicorn.

56:43

Essentially, you know, from one plant to the next.

56:45

Shout to my guy's eye and Williamson. Shout

56:48

out to z. But,

56:52

yeah, no. It was a that season was wild.

56:54

You know, obviously, I started out the season in a

56:56

in a place where we knew we were gonna be in the lottery.

56:59

You know, we we knew it was gonna be.

57:01

probably gonna get another top five pick. Two.

57:05

Alright. Now I'm on the favorite

57:07

to come out of east. And, you

57:10

know, changing your, you know, learning how to

57:12

learning how to win is something that I'm

57:15

so happy for our young guys, trade Jose,

57:18

Herb. Now, like, learning how to win

57:20

when you're young is is is

57:23

super important because we didn't

57:25

know how to win. Right? So me and JC got

57:27

there and and we're watching the way these guys are going

57:29

through shoot around and whatnot, like, why are they

57:31

so serious? Why are they

57:33

laughing Why are they actually

57:35

paying attention? And, you

57:38

know, so that took while to adjust to,

57:40

but, you know, just that year and being

57:42

around like you said, the the aura

57:44

of of

57:46

of Braun was wild. That

57:48

that twenty eighteen playoff run, like, look,

57:51

I'm not I'm not really I'm not want

57:53

to, like, you know, gawk

57:55

over performances and

57:56

whatnot. But that twenty eighteen playoffs that

57:59

that the

57:59

fifty point triple double, that one? It

58:01

it was unbelievable. Yeah. I mean,

58:03

that what he did against the the

58:05

multiple game winners leaving leading

58:07

to the finals against Indiana, game winner

58:10

against Toronto, has gotta be

58:12

an army all time. And then to get to the

58:14

finals, and he had a fifty

58:16

point triple double in the locker room after

58:18

that game was it was about

58:20

as somber as I've I've been in

58:23

a locker room. We all kinda knew

58:26

after after getting one of the finals when

58:28

the block the block charge call

58:31

a guy got overturned that,

58:33

you know, we kinda knew we knew

58:35

that was the series. But no, you're

58:37

right. Just, like, like you said, the the horror

58:40

on those guys, like, Kobe and

58:42

Braun. It's like, yeah, when they walk in and when

58:44

they if you've got your back to the door and they walk

58:46

in that door, you just kinda get the

58:48

urge to turn around and look. Like, something

58:50

tells you, like, you know, there's something that you need to

58:52

check out. And

58:54

Kobe had it all the time. Whether

58:57

it was in the gym, whether it was on the plane, whether it was

58:59

in the locker room all the time.

59:01

And I think he wanted to have that all the time.

59:03

But I also feel like Braun If

59:05

he wanted to have it all the time, he could.

59:08

But he's a little bit more

59:11

personal. He wants to be more personal to

59:13

his teammates and and and that type of stuff. So

59:16

You know? So Brian, he sometimes feels like he'll

59:18

try to turn it off and be, you know,

59:20

be be one of the guys.

59:23

But, you know, which is which is

59:25

you know, great within a lock group setting.

59:27

So we go from Revere

59:29

to Wyoming to

59:30

LA to Cleveland to

59:33

Portland. Expectations,

59:35

right, coming into Portland. A team that had

59:37

made the playoffs. What was it?

59:39

That was eight straight oh, yeah. Made it. Eight

59:41

straight years you know, stable organization,

59:43

a lot of things in place, and then

59:46

becomes not so stable. And

59:48

then We ended up getting traded,

59:50

but you did get to spend some time in Portland.

59:52

What were your thoughts on being in

59:54

Portland? You know? Actually play

59:57

alongside myself, Dane Rokel. You make some

59:59

friends along the way. New Coach and

1:00:01

Nance, we have a lot of volatility.

1:00:04

Neil's fire. lot of things kinda

1:00:06

happen. And then

1:00:08

we get traded in New Orleans, which we'll talk about in a

1:00:10

second. But

1:00:11

briefly, we

1:00:12

have to talk about your time in Portland. Outside of the

1:00:14

wine, any memorable stories

1:00:16

on your time in Portland.

1:00:17

Made some friends out there, you know, I

1:00:19

I like Lake Escrow.

1:00:22

Yeah. I thought the fan base was incredible. You

1:00:24

know, it was I I was looking forward to being

1:00:26

part of a, you know, like you said, they've been a playoffs

1:00:29

for nines straight years or ten straight years.

1:00:32

A stable situation. I was like still looking to get to

1:00:34

a stable situation with a, you know, with a

1:00:36

partner with a GM that had been there for a while.

1:00:39

know, obviously, coach dots have been there for

1:00:41

a while and so I was that's why I was looking

1:00:43

forward to joining and obviously things changed quickly.

1:00:46

I thought the people there was great and the food there

1:00:48

was terrific. And, you know, like you said, I

1:00:50

made I made some

1:00:51

made some good acquaintance as well I was there.

1:00:53

You

1:00:54

have one friend who you're still a teammate with now

1:00:56

and me. Two. Two. Come

1:00:58

on. You can't forget the Snelliken. Yes.

1:01:00

The Snelliken is sick.

1:01:02

Shout of my guy told me Snell, the guy who left

1:01:04

me. Shut out Tony's scam.

1:01:07

Guy who left me at the time I got for the trade,

1:01:09

literally left me. You

1:01:12

get trading. We talked about this offline. I've had

1:01:14

three coaches in the last three years. I went you

1:01:16

know, I was I was seven

1:01:18

for seven. Eight for eight.

1:01:20

I was eight for eight. I had eight straight years with Terry Stott.

1:01:22

It's because Terry shot to my guy, Terry gets fired.

1:01:25

I get Chauncey. I get traded. So I go

1:01:27

from Terry to Chauncey to Willie. Speaking

1:01:29

of the trade, we're in New Orleans now.

1:01:31

We're happy. We're thriving. We're thriving. Harris

1:01:33

out. We're happy. When did you first

1:01:35

learn that you were gonna be traded? Who first notified

1:01:38

you? Pre trade, post

1:01:40

trade, and Expectations

1:01:44

versus reality. I'm a big guy on that. What were

1:01:46

your expectations going into New Orleans and the

1:01:48

reality? But let's first start with who notifies you.

1:01:51

This is a sick setup. Who knows if I'm This is

1:01:53

a sick setup. You just you just

1:01:56

you just threw the

1:01:57

knob. You just made me throw you a knob.

1:01:59

I

1:01:59

guess.

1:01:59

Who notifies you pre and post trade? Just curious

1:02:01

-- Yeah. -- walking through. Alright. So

1:02:04

so alright. We'll say the

1:02:06

trade we'll say the trade just for

1:02:08

a easy number. We'll say the

1:02:10

trade was on the tenth. Right?

1:02:13

I'm lifting weights in

1:02:16

the Portland Weiroo on the

1:02:18

eighth. And so my phone's

1:02:20

just sitting there. I'm lifting weights to it, whatever

1:02:22

I'm doing. Rehabbing. And

1:02:26

you walk past me after practice and just point

1:02:29

on my phone and go, Stay by

1:02:31

your phone. That's

1:02:34

so sick. And so me, I'm paranoid

1:02:37

already because there's rumors. There's all this

1:02:39

stuff. We knew The whole

1:02:41

we we knew, you know, shakeup was probably

1:02:43

gonna be coming. We had had a disappointing

1:02:45

year. We knew shakeup was gonna be coming, but

1:02:48

you know, for you to walk by me and go, hey,

1:02:50

you might wanna stay by your phone

1:02:53

is a sick bar. That is a

1:02:55

sick line. But I think the

1:02:57

fans should know that I was just looking out for your

1:02:59

better interest, understanding that you had a little

1:03:01

baby at home. And

1:03:03

a wife, and that the least I can do is kinda

1:03:06

prepare you the baby and the wife for what

1:03:08

could be occurring in the

1:03:09

future. Yeah. But okay. But what they also

1:03:12

need know is that you were

1:03:14

you didn't tell me anything. You didn't

1:03:16

tell me. Not a not a it's not a thing. You

1:03:18

didn't tell me nothing. You just say, hey, you might wanna

1:03:20

say by your phone. And when I was like, yo, when

1:03:22

I chased you in the locker room, like, yo, what does

1:03:24

that mean? I have a baby in a life.

1:03:26

What does that mean? And I said, you know,

1:03:29

I've got and you said, let you know

1:03:31

when it's done.

1:03:32

You said no. And you said I'll let

1:03:34

you know more later. But

1:03:36

fast forward, how many days of that before the trade?

1:03:39

That was two. Call that two days before the

1:03:41

trade. Who called you the night before

1:03:43

the trade? No.

1:03:44

No. No. I called you the night before the

1:03:46

trade.

1:03:47

Okay. Because I was on because I was on the

1:03:49

phone with Josh Hart. And

1:03:51

me me, Josh, and a bunch

1:03:53

of mutual friends were on a group FaceTime,

1:03:55

and he was, like, they were like, yo, how

1:03:58

how funny would it be if

1:04:00

you got traded for Josh? And

1:04:03

Josh was like, like, well, they all laughed.

1:04:05

And Josh didn't think it was

1:04:06

funny. And I was laughing because I didn't think

1:04:08

it was gonna happen. That

1:04:11

makes sense. You guys proposed that joke and then it

1:04:13

became a reality. It's sick. And so I'm

1:04:15

looking at Josh, like,

1:04:17

why aren't you laughing? And he

1:04:19

he calls me the sides, like, That's

1:04:21

not impossible. You know,

1:04:24

I talked to Grif, that's not impossible. And

1:04:27

so that's what I called you. And

1:04:29

you were like, yeah, you're you

1:04:31

know. You say call

1:04:33

you're probably in this deal. I say call your agent,

1:04:35

you're probably this deal. I'll let you know

1:04:37

when it's done, but I can't I can't mess up the

1:04:39

deal, so I can't give you the term. But I also

1:04:41

wasn't sure who was gonna be in the deal. That's

1:04:43

not my job. No. You're

1:04:45

right. You're right. But contractually, I

1:04:48

knew it was either gonna be once Rocco and

1:04:50

Norm got

1:04:50

traded, I knew it was it was

1:04:52

me. I knew it was me.

1:04:53

When I seen

1:04:54

it really straight

1:04:54

to the Clippers. I said who's in the deal?

1:04:58

No. I knew I knew it wasn't me or you.

1:05:00

I knew it wasn't me or you. But long We didn't have

1:05:02

a date. I knew it was long story short.

1:05:05

Your current teammate in Powell warned

1:05:08

you of the trade,

1:05:10

What did I say? Let's let's let's talk about this,

1:05:12

man. What did I say was gonna happen

1:05:14

when we got to New Orleans? First things

1:05:16

first, she said is gonna be great situation. You

1:05:19

said, there's gonna be there's

1:05:21

obviously all this young talent and and

1:05:23

Big Phil is not even playing yet. But

1:05:26

most

1:05:26

importantly, you said we go

1:05:28

we go and get to these playoffs. And you you

1:05:30

look to me like I was crazy. We were looking at each other Nance

1:05:33

time. I said, I have my I have my New Orleans Pelicans.

1:05:35

How do I think at the

1:05:36

time? We're all was close to having my Pelicans head on.

1:05:38

And I

1:05:39

say, we're gonna go to the playoffs.

1:05:41

And you were like, I'm flying in

1:05:43

Chicago or he was like, I'm in Chicago

1:05:45

about to get Surgery done. I said, well,

1:05:47

how long is the rehab? And you were like,

1:05:50

I don't know, four to six weeks. And I was like,

1:05:52

perfect. You'll be back just in time for the playoffs.

1:05:55

Yes. I that's right. I wasn't Chicago.

1:05:57

Chicago. The the the second

1:05:59

time the second time I found on the trade via

1:06:01

Twitter But

1:06:04

but, yes. Yeah. It was four to six weeks

1:06:06

and you were like, oh, it'd be perfect. Just in time, if

1:06:08

you get get a few games in and be re be

1:06:11

ramped up for play off time. But, yes, I

1:06:13

will say that you were the first to say

1:06:16

the day after we got traded. The

1:06:18

day after we got traded that, yeah, we're we're gonna

1:06:20

go to the playoffs. You said, I'm not here to play

1:06:22

around. Yeah. I'm not here to play around.

1:06:25

I was I was locked down. I told my wife this

1:06:27

ain't thing. I said, look, baby. Can't

1:06:29

take care of business? Be back. But

1:06:32

we did what we're supposed to do. We

1:06:34

we got to the plan, won the plan, got to

1:06:36

the playoffs, competed again to team that. Has

1:06:39

a chance to win a championship. Let's talk

1:06:41

about Willie Green for a second. You've you said you had

1:06:43

eight and seven. Explain to the listeners what eight and

1:06:45

seven means.

1:06:46

So I just with

1:06:49

with losing the suns right here, I just finished

1:06:51

my seventh year as a basketball player.

1:06:54

Willie Green, was my

1:06:56

eighth head coach in those seven years.

1:06:59

I started with Byron Scott then

1:07:01

to Luke Wall. From

1:07:05

Luke, I had Tyrone Lou. T

1:07:08

Lou got fired. I had Larry Drew. Forgot

1:07:11

my Larry Drew. I

1:07:13

like Larry Drews. He was great. From

1:07:15

Larry Drew, John Bela, which

1:07:18

was a saga. After

1:07:21

Beeline, I have JB Bickerstaff. Jeez.

1:07:24

Chauncey Phillips head coach

1:07:26

Willie Green. Eight and

1:07:28

seven. No. I did you have all those coaches. I

1:07:30

just been

1:07:30

trying to find some stability, Doug.

1:07:32

I think you might have found some stability. Word

1:07:35

on the streets.

1:07:36

Word on the streets says I think I might have found

1:07:38

some stability. Willie Green. Impressions

1:07:40

or thoughts of him before he became coach.

1:07:44

Now after we've gone through, you know, last three

1:07:46

months, impressions and thoughts So

1:07:48

what's crazy is I I

1:07:50

had obviously, I'm close

1:07:52

friends with Josh Hart. Right? So I

1:07:55

had we'll call it

1:07:57

insider knowledge of

1:08:00

what was going on in New Orleans,

1:08:02

you know, the past few years and you know,

1:08:04

they said they went from Alvin Gentry to Stan

1:08:06

Bing Dundee and and Willie.

1:08:09

And Josh was, you know, not a happy camper

1:08:11

there for the past two years, and so he was

1:08:14

did have great words

1:08:17

about what was going on. But this

1:08:19

year, you know,

1:08:21

anything negative just stopped. You

1:08:24

know, no negative words came out of his mouth.

1:08:26

You know, he was, you know,

1:08:28

he was whooping and the vibe

1:08:30

seemed great. Obviously, they started rough, but

1:08:32

you know, he he had nothing but positive

1:08:34

things to say about the team, the organization,

1:08:37

you know, willy specifically. And

1:08:40

so when I got

1:08:43

there, I didn't necessarily have any, you

1:08:45

know, I didn't I didn't really have any frequency

1:08:47

of notion of of of what two things.

1:08:49

Obviously, I knew he came from the Bonnie Williams coaching

1:08:52

tree and whatnot. So, you know, you

1:08:54

know what, you

1:08:56

know, you know what that entails, but he

1:08:59

has far exceeded any

1:09:01

kind of notion or expectation

1:09:03

I could have set. You know, there there was a

1:09:05

moment. Yeah. I knew he's a good good coach

1:09:07

you know, but there was a moment in the playoffs.

1:09:11

I think it was game maybe

1:09:13

game four. It was

1:09:15

game four where he

1:09:18

drew up an ETO to

1:09:21

to create their, you know, Chris on defense. You know,

1:09:23

they they try to put him in the corners and try to keep

1:09:25

him out of the action. And

1:09:27

he drove an ATO to have

1:09:29

JV catch the ball at the elbow, and it

1:09:31

was just a simple face cut. Cut

1:09:34

right in front of Chris who had his hands on his

1:09:37

knees the whole possession. And

1:09:40

her cut right in front of you, ran

1:09:42

the plate of infection, her cut right in front of Chris

1:09:45

and one. And I, like, I

1:09:47

played for a lot of coaches. I played for Tyrone Lou

1:09:49

who is Atayo. Right? Like, he is

1:09:51

Atayo king. But,

1:09:53

you know, the the awareness

1:09:55

and ability to do something like that, kinda

1:09:58

on the fly is is rare

1:10:00

I've found. And so that's when I

1:10:02

kinda looked at him, like, Oh,

1:10:05

so you really know what you're doing? Like,

1:10:07

god, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, everybody knows they're

1:10:09

doing, but like there are people that, like, okay.

1:10:12

Like, this guy knows the stuff.

1:10:14

And so he's

1:10:16

been great, but, you know, that for me,

1:10:19

that was kind of the moment where it's

1:10:20

like, Yeah. Okay. I I

1:10:22

like this guy. Yeah. I I'm a big, really

1:10:24

green fan. I actually played against me with the Clippers,

1:10:26

and planning

1:10:29

against somebody, competing against someone and then, like, saying

1:10:31

how they interact with their family, their principles,

1:10:33

their morals, their faith, how they

1:10:35

lead, through good times and bad times,

1:10:37

do they hold themselves accountable? All those little

1:10:39

things, he checks every box, and then he's exactly

1:10:41

who he says he is. Like, he doesn't portray himself.

1:10:44

To be somebody else and then you find out that, like,

1:10:46

he's he's a different type of guy. Like Willie

1:10:48

is authentically himself

1:10:50

every day in a week, but and bad,

1:10:53

indifferent in other. And that's what I

1:10:55

respect most about him because he could have packed it in,

1:10:57

starting off the way they started this season off.

1:10:59

And they said that he was a steady captain

1:11:02

through good times and bad, and that tells you a lot

1:11:05

about somebody, and it tells you a lot about the team and the

1:11:07

players because of how much all respected

1:11:09

him before they got here and obviously how they respect him

1:11:11

now that we've seen it. But I'm a big Willie

1:11:13

Green fan. I like the way he coaches. I like his

1:11:15

style. I like his approach. He's not afraid to challenge

1:11:17

you. Empowers you. Get you

1:11:19

to not just, you know, show up show

1:11:23

up the practices. Like, you you're getting through it

1:11:25

to get better. And I think that's a sign of

1:11:28

of greatness. And I I think the the sky's limit

1:11:30

for our team, sky's limit for this franchise. We

1:11:32

we really green, you know, behind the

1:11:34

helm. And I can't wait for us to continue

1:11:36

to to to build together, like, have a full

1:11:38

training camp.

1:11:39

You know, it's funny we're going through the

1:11:41

playoffs. I was telling my my brother, my wife. I was

1:11:43

like, yeah, we're going through playoffs. Nance sometimes we

1:11:45

would call something that we would look at each other. And I was

1:11:47

like, look, I know a lot of plays that I've learned a

1:11:49

lot through much, but I don't know what he's calling. But

1:11:51

I have no idea. It's just like those little things

1:11:54

where a training camp going

1:11:56

through a full season, going through a full preseason,

1:12:00

we're gonna be really, really,

1:12:02

really special

1:12:04

next year as a team, as a unit, as

1:12:07

a franchise. It's like the sky is the limit

1:12:09

for us. I've already taken forty

1:12:11

five minutes your time, so I won't take up too much more

1:12:13

of your time. Two two last questions before we

1:12:15

go. Favorite

1:12:17

teammates of all time.

1:12:19

Favorite teammates of all time. You can

1:12:21

give me five or ten your choice. Five

1:12:24

or ten Wow. That's a high number. Five

1:12:26

is five is a starting

1:12:27

five. So if you count yourself, take yourself

1:12:29

out, that's five players. Oh, what do we do?

1:12:31

It's like players or like Give me favorite

1:12:33

based on personality, locker

1:12:36

room camaraderie, the jokesters, and then gave

1:12:38

me the best

1:12:39

five. That's

1:12:40

right. Here's what here's here's what I'm gonna do.

1:12:43

I'm gonna take our current locker room out

1:12:45

of the equation. Go. Take me out too.

1:12:47

Okay. Yeah. I know I know it's,

1:12:49

like, you were gonna be in Hey,

1:12:51

Kobe. Right. But take me take

1:12:54

take us out. In

1:12:56

terms of funniest

1:12:59

Kaye Love is in there. Tristan Thompson

1:13:01

is in there. He's he's

1:13:04

a special breed. Nick

1:13:07

Young, Robert Zachary, and

1:13:09

Lou Williams would be my five of

1:13:11

funniest teammates -- Talent.

1:13:14

-- now Now wait. Of

1:13:16

talented now? I mean, my starting

1:13:19

five is on real. Start five. I mean,

1:13:21

talented. I got I mean, I'm hard

1:13:23

to beat. Nance, Kobe,

1:13:27

Braun, K love in

1:13:30

my center. What's the

1:13:31

five?

1:13:32

I gotta I gotta think. Mean,

1:13:34

I gotta think of the bigs I've had. I've had I've had Roy

1:13:36

Hibbert. I had Masgov.

1:13:39

I had Tristan. I had Merck.

1:13:42

Brandon Bass.

1:13:44

Oh, b Bass. I'm

1:13:46

I might say, I'm gonna say Jared Allen.

1:13:47

Forgot you. I had a young deer that. Uh-huh.

1:13:50

Yeah. I had a young deer. And that's a five right

1:13:52

there. It's a

1:13:53

very good five. That's

1:13:54

that's a five

1:13:55

sixty seventy went.

1:13:57

Sixty, seventy, I have I

1:13:59

have Nance Kobe and Brown.

1:14:01

I'm just saying, like, it's only

1:14:03

eighty two games. I

1:14:05

have Kobe, and Brad. Only

1:14:07

eight to ten. He's a bitch. I

1:14:10

I have a six minute of the year on my bench as

1:14:12

well, Jordan Clarkson. Okay. Now now

1:14:15

I I would firmly say a

1:14:17

couple back to Nance might get you. Oh,

1:14:20

stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

1:14:22

If you

1:14:22

go at eighty two and o, it's impossible. I

1:14:24

can go eighty two. No. I also I look. I have

1:14:26

Dilo. I have BI from LA.

1:14:29

I have Lonzo Yeah. Absolutely. --

1:14:31

still API. I have

1:14:33

LABI. You

1:14:36

got me there?

1:14:36

You know, I'll be you know,

1:14:38

my team is solid. Team is very team

1:14:40

mates with some with some

1:14:42

Hoopers. Team is very

1:14:43

solid.

1:14:44

This has been a great podcast. Very informative.

1:14:46

I appreciate you sharing taking so much time.

1:14:48

I know what it's like to be a father. Time

1:14:51

is precious. So thank you. I know you gotta

1:14:53

be exhausted eastern time. I'm exhausted it's

1:14:55

only five

1:14:55

nineteen. Pacific time. Is

1:14:58

this this kid life? This kid

1:15:00

life, this morning, I got I got dead

1:15:02

day at, like, seven AM, talking on

1:15:04

my covers.

1:15:06

Alright. Let's go let's go, baby. Got

1:15:08

up. Went on a little walk. So yeah. It's

1:15:10

it's it's it's about time. It

1:15:13

it's about time for some for some

1:15:15

what? It's for some heritage ninety one

1:15:17

Roset. Hey, Matt

1:15:18

Parro. For some for some heritage Roset.

1:15:20

I'm so glad that I got it on ice already. I'm so tired.

1:15:22

I don't even wanna drink. You're getting the dead

1:15:24

ass. I'm getting a

1:15:29

Yeah. He is. Good morning. He was cool.

1:15:31

He was like, little

1:15:36

bit softer. He just

1:15:38

wanted something to eat. He was cool. But

1:15:41

if he takes too long to get that bottle of his

1:15:43

curbs. But

1:15:44

I'm sure I'm sure I'll see you soon, brother.

1:15:47

Sure. You know, some I'm sure I'll be here shout

1:15:50

out to our guy,

1:15:50

Rocco, on the extension. I'm sure

1:15:52

I'll be here in South Des Plaines. Front.

1:15:55

So Hey, look. That's that's

1:15:57

that's between the powers that be.

1:15:59

When I say the powers that be, that includes

1:16:01

you, sir. So, you know, I'll

1:16:03

be I'll be sitting here on on Nance

1:16:06

Farms and just waiting for a phone

1:16:08

call for you.

1:16:08

Well, Nance Farms will be able to

1:16:10

force some more hay, very soon very

1:16:13

soon. But appreciate you brother, tell tell everyone

1:16:16

I said hello. I think I'll be back in

1:16:18

Ohio in July. I'm gonna try to get back before then,

1:16:20

but I think I might actually do, like,

1:16:22

a little backpack. Give it a go back to school joint

1:16:24

on Saturday or

1:16:26

last Saturday to line. But I'll tap

1:16:28

in with you. If I get my permission slip side,

1:16:30

maybe I'll get there sooner if you know how that

1:16:32

goes. Yeah.

1:16:32

Yeah. We had up some lenses.

1:16:34

Perfect. I appreciate you, brother. Have

1:16:36

a good one. Alright. Sounds good, though. Take it easy.

1:16:47

Wanna get the Mailbag? Mailbag. And

1:16:50

just a reminder to all of

1:16:53

pull up listeners, hit up at pull up

1:16:55

pod on Twitter or Instagram to submit a question

1:16:57

to the show, but we'll not get a

1:16:59

few here. On

1:17:01

Instagram at y dot

1:17:05

hate Meyer writes, what

1:17:07

was Nola's playoff atmosphere like in the

1:17:09

arena compared to other places?

1:17:11

That's a great question. I I kind of told my family

1:17:13

about this. Obviously,

1:17:16

I played in the oracle, the oracle, the

1:17:18

old one in the bay. I've

1:17:20

played in

1:17:21

LA. I played in San Antonio.

1:17:25

I'm trying to think where else I played in Memphis. Obviously,

1:17:28

I played in Portland for quite some time.

1:17:30

And those are all great fan

1:17:32

bases. Obviously, I'm a little biased

1:17:35

towards Portland, you know, out of that list. Memphis,

1:17:37

really good fan base, loud,

1:17:40

proactive, wears the t shirts, throws the

1:17:43

towels, waves the towels. New

1:17:45

Orleans, I describe

1:17:48

it like this to my wife. I said, they know how to

1:17:50

party and they know how to celebrate. And when you give them

1:17:52

something worth celebrating, they

1:17:54

go all out. So the

1:17:57

roars that I was here at the Jose. Jose.

1:18:00

Jose. Like, they go all out and they

1:18:02

fall in love and they fight

1:18:04

for you. So that crowd

1:18:06

was gave me chills. Like, that first that

1:18:08

first playing game I had chills with that first playoff

1:18:10

game at the grid. Like, to see what that arena

1:18:12

has looked like in past years, haven't played

1:18:14

there, to see what that arena has looked like,

1:18:17

you know, throughout the season, and the

1:18:19

comparison, the jump that I made to the playoffs.

1:18:22

It's just a credit to them, and it's it's a special

1:18:24

special atmosphere. And I look forward to seeing, you

1:18:26

know, court's sidekick has already sold out for next season.

1:18:29

I know that, you know, we're gonna have some buzz,

1:18:31

we have some expectations. We're

1:18:33

we're we're gonna get this season started off on the right

1:18:35

foot.

1:18:36

Alright. Eleven up

1:18:38

thirty four on Twitter writes,

1:18:41

how should the NBA address the complaints about

1:18:43

media voting affecting player salary?

1:18:46

Awards, while also ensuring that

1:18:48

high performers can receive increased

1:18:50

salaries, especially younger players achieving

1:18:52

success early. So I think

1:18:55

just just to just to rip off this

1:18:57

question, I think this is reference

1:18:59

to a lot of the conversations in Draymond's

1:19:01

been having them too in his podcast about

1:19:04

the the award voting and and the problems

1:19:06

with it. I think there's problems definitely

1:19:08

associated with the voting and they dream on pointed out

1:19:11

that In nine years, there's

1:19:13

a rookie that, you know, that's in

1:19:15

a league right now that basketball could have

1:19:18

a say in whether or not he gets

1:19:21

first team or second team or whatever case may

1:19:23

be, which could determine whether or not he gets ten,

1:19:25

twenty, thirty million dollar bonuses

1:19:27

or or or money associated

1:19:29

with those types of bonuses in a contract.

1:19:31

So I I think there are some issues there definitely.

1:19:33

I think there should be qualifications. I think

1:19:38

Johnson talked about it online.

1:19:40

He talked about the importance

1:19:42

of the bias that's

1:19:44

that are associated with

1:19:48

with the NBA, specifically the NBA

1:19:50

voting and how, you know, some media,

1:19:53

believe it or not, just don't

1:19:55

like certain players. Eddie Johnson talked

1:19:57

about it. Some play by play. Some

1:19:59

media just don't like players. So they're gonna

1:20:01

have biases. Right? They're not gonna vote you

1:20:03

know, drew him on for a team defensively. And

1:20:06

they're not gonna vote him at all, give him many points

1:20:08

for the team's play here because they may not like him. And

1:20:10

I think there's that human error, that human bias

1:20:12

is associated with this to where they have to make some corrections.

1:20:15

I do think there should be some rules regulations

1:20:17

associated with what it

1:20:19

takes to be able to vote. Right? Like,

1:20:21

you should have to go to live games. Like,

1:20:23

you should have to have basketball knowledge of basketball

1:20:26

history. Like, you should understand

1:20:28

the game, and the way it's played today, not the

1:20:30

way it was played forty years ago because it's different.

1:20:32

So I think there are some things that should be changed.

1:20:35

And that would make the world better. But when you have

1:20:37

human

1:20:37

voting, there's gonna be human error. And there's always

1:20:39

gonna be people that are unhappy, so that's just

1:20:41

the way it works. At c gonzalez

1:20:44

on Instagram

1:20:45

rights, what do you think Antwerp ceiling

1:20:48

is and of course referring to Antwerp

1:20:50

assignments? I don't know what his feeling is because

1:20:52

I don't like to put limitations on people, but he's

1:20:54

special, man. He can dribble, he could shoot,

1:20:57

run a pick and roll. He showed,

1:20:59

you know, flashes

1:21:01

of what he's truly capable of, what extended

1:21:03

minutes, what extended role, with trust, with faith,

1:21:06

with freedom. I'm interested to

1:21:08

see how Chauncey

1:21:10

uses him next year. Right? Like,

1:21:12

Dame is obviously a point guard. Who's

1:21:14

gonna be on the ball? Who's gonna be off the ball? How

1:21:16

he's gonna play and serve in

1:21:18

that role. But with him as a full

1:21:20

time point guard, with the ball in

1:21:22

his hands, skies

1:21:24

whatever sealing is whatever he wants it

1:21:27

to be, depending on the team he's on. With

1:21:29

him as a two guard, I'm not sure what the ceiling

1:21:31

is. Right? Because he's better with the ball and he's obviously

1:21:34

he can catch and shoot, but he's

1:21:36

best and he's shown that he's

1:21:38

best with the ball in his hands. We've seen what

1:21:40

he could do. Honestly

1:21:43

haven't been drinking, I've been in

1:21:45

prime father mode, like serious

1:21:48

father mode, but I did have a drink

1:21:51

before I left. New Orleans

1:21:53

shot to my guy AJ Diggs. We sat down and

1:21:56

chopped it up at chimney

1:21:58

Lemur. How have you say it? On the fifth

1:22:00

floor of the

1:22:02

Four Seasons hotel. And

1:22:05

we had a two thousand sixteen. I'm

1:22:08

gonna probably say this wrong, but it was

1:22:10

a Bordeaux, Saint

1:22:13

Amilion, if you will, Grand

1:22:15

Prix, very, very good product

1:22:18

product of Nance, produced in Nance, some

1:22:20

of the specs on this grand

1:22:22

crew is that it's among the top four percent

1:22:25

of wires in the world. It was definitely in the bold side,

1:22:27

more bold than light. More tenic than

1:22:29

smooth, more dry than sweet,

1:22:31

high acidity, mouth definitely watered.

1:22:34

Oak, tobacco, vanilla, earthy,

1:22:37

more mineral side. You Nance

1:22:39

find a well priced wine for about

1:22:41

fifty bucks depending on the

1:22:44

year, a two thousand ten will probably run

1:22:46

you about fifty one bucks, which isn't bad at

1:22:48

all. So would would highly highly recommend

1:22:50

it. Once again, appreciate everybody

1:22:52

tuning in. As always, make sure you're following

1:22:55

the podcast on Spotify Apple Podcasts, wherever

1:22:57

you get your shows and hit the show

1:22:59

up on social app pull applied on to an Instagram

1:23:01

because we're posting fresh

1:23:02

content. I'll see you as long as it's saying,

1:23:04

no, don't forget to pull up.