Playoff Reactions + Marcin Gortat on the Best Wizards Team, Beef with John and His Famous Screen

C.J. and John react to the latest playoff games, including Anthony Edwards incredible performance against the Suns, where the Suns go from here, Jalen Brunson and Kyrie Irving putting on a show and getting snubbed from Team USA. Plus John's long-time Wizards teammate Marcin Gortat joins the show and they discuss their amazing teams in Washington, the issues in their friendship over the years and how they created the the famous Gortat screen. 

 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome a Point Game with John Wall and CJ. Toldono,
presented by DraftKings. Don't forget DraftKings is your home for
all the action across the NBA and gets you closer
to the game we all love. The crown is yours. Now.
Coming up on today's episode, we will have one of
John's favorite Wizards teammates ever, the Polish Hammer Ladies and
Gentlemen Marching Gretat is going to be joining us here
on Point Game. But first we got to talk to

(00:29):
John here about the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
John, how you feeling, man, I'm great, man, I'm great.
Happy to be back for another episode of playoffs are
being fired. A lot of a lot of good basketball, man.
I've been locked in, man.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So I feel like some of the series are are
you getting heated? And some of them are We're solved
pretty quickly. I'm talking about the Suns Timberwolves. Last night,
the Suns got swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves. I just
want to ask you what are your some of your
first reactions from that series and jumping ahead, do you
think the Timberwolves, potentially who will potentially play the Nuggets,

(01:02):
do you think they will do the same thing against them.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Uh No, I think it'll be a heck of a
serious To be honest, I thought this was gonna be
a great series, you know what I mean. I didn't
think it was gonna be a sweep at all. Shout
out to Tim Woods and their coach, and I hope
he has a speed of recovery and a successful surgery.
But like it goes back to like beating the team
so many times in the regular season doesn't mean thing.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
You.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I mean, Denver loss, uh, Phoenix beat Minnesota, Phoenix be
Minnesota three times three zero don't matter you. I mean,
you make those adjustments, you save your game plans, whatever
you have for your team going into the playoffs. You know,
I felt like they just was they was more hunger
and like they wanted it, you know. I mean like
at third quarter every game it was close, Like Phoenix

(01:45):
had leads, they was in the game, but a third
quarter of Minnesota just went to another level and shout
out man man. Shout out to say their whole team,
but shout the man man. He's very special. Like I
said before, he brings the old school dog and mentality
into the new school. How it is competing at a
high level on both ends of the floor. And uh,
he had that Killerings team.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
You know me he only had nine points in the
first half, shooting the ball bad, and you know he
came out and the second half had thirty one big points.
I mean, so they have forty on the close out game.
I did that before, so I know that feet special.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, and I think we're going to see a lot
more Timberwolves in this in these playoffs. What I did
want to talk about because a lot of people are surprised,
but the Sons not even be able to get one game,
and you know they have a lot on their roster,
right and you can't just trade these guys immediately. I
think what I'm seeing, you know, reports of potentially Vogel
being on the out. So what do you think the

(02:36):
Suns should do in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Huh, It's tough, man, because you went and you got
so much money tied him too, your three main guys,
and don't also forget Grace Allen just got paid for
your seven million. So it's like you got to find
a lot of guys that's willing to take the minimum
to mid level. I mean, hopefully those guys come in
and play a role and give those guys what they
really need to help them get to hump. I mean,
we all know how Brad, KD and d book are

(03:02):
three grade score man that could score at a high level. Yeah.
For me, I always said it. I mean, and not
just because I'm a point guard, but I feel like
they needed a point guard to kind of control their
system and running away. They want to be run. Brad
and d Booker hell of the guards that can create
and make plays for others. But now time take you
put them in pick and roll. They're trying to be aggressive,
trying to be a score you know what I mean,

(03:22):
and trying to facilitate be a scored is not They
can do it. I mean, that's how special and great
they are. But their main goal is to go get buckets. Yeah,
and I feel like they could have did a lot
of more iOS into me and post with KD instead
of trying to run them off lot of pick and rolls.
Just let him attack cat one on one. And you
mean you got enough shooters out there they started double team.
He rotated basketball and try to knock down shots. But

(03:43):
I just think you got to just find some great
glue guys that fit with them that's gonna be willing
to take less money because they don't have the opportunity
to pay nobody in the really real money to be honest,
to complete their team.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, real quickly. You know, with Vogel, do you think
that the coaching change could help or do you try
to run it back with Vogel again?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Ah? I really don't know, you know what I mean.
I've played against coach Vogel when he was with the
Pacers and then uh yeah, you know, I mean he
was with the Lakers, So I really don't know. It's
kind of hard to say because, you know what I mean,
Deep Book is out of lineup a lot, Brad's out
of line up a lot. You made adjustments for trades,
so you know, me trying to never find that camaraderie
and try to figure all that out. I think it
was kind of tough for them. But at the same time,

(04:21):
he might look at it's like, well, what adjustment did
they make in the playoffs? How do you get swept
with a team like that? So I feel like they might.
I'm like, it's gonna be hard to try to move
one of those guys, you know, I mean, like Deep Books,
the franchise. He's being at the Alungs. You're not gonna
get rid of him. It was like KD came there.
You don't want to get a guy get rid of
a guy like KD. He makes it everybody's completely Whoever
he goes to is contending right away, and you feel

(04:43):
you feel Brad in there too. It's like, okay, we
just traded for him as anybody willing to try to
take that big on contract on you know what I mean,
like somebody might not want to do that. And then
he wanted to get back to being healthy, know, I
mean being up and down all year. I know that
kind of was frustrating for him. You look at him
last night being in foul trouble not really finding the rhythm.
That kind of was frustrated for I mean, those big games.
He wants to play well in those moments, Like anybody does.

(05:04):
You want to live up to that moment. So I
feel like the next step is kind of maybe fire
the coach and see can you get and try to
run it back like that. But if you have another
scene like that, somebody definitely has to go.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Fortunately, Okay, moving on to another series, exciting series. The
MAVs and Clippers tied up to two. What are you
thinking there? Harden is having one of the best series
I think we've seen him, and Kawhi has been out
a couple of times. So who do you think is
coming out of this series between the mass and Clippers.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
I still got the MAVs coming out of it, but
I think they just I think he's just different, you know.
I mean because when Kawhi' is daring, even though he
wasn't healthy, Kawhi he's he's a hell of a player, man,
you know, especially it's like one of the best players
in the league when he's fully healthy, top five. But
you could just tell something wasn't right about him, and
it kind of stack of their offense because you watched
the first game, there was a lot of pace, a
lot of ice over between Paul Jordan, James taking their turns,

(05:56):
you know what I mean, those other guys getting open shots.
When he came back game two, they paced kind of
slowed down kawhad and he needed a lot of his iOS.
And then I think game three was the same way.
And yesterday they went right back to James PG. James
Pg's just a lot of pick and rolls a lot
of iOS and like Jamis said, man, it's a lot
of fucking great talent out there, a lot of laite footwork,

(06:16):
a lot of great scoring, man, because they was bucket
for bucket, bucket for a bucket, bucket for bucket. And
I think the biggest thing for both teams is they
stars can't get in foult trouble. Like you've seen in
the games, when Pg's in foul trouble, he can't find
the rhythm is hurting him. And you've seen last game.
Luke was playing okay, deepense throughout the whole playoffs so far,
and then last with three minutes two minutes of game,
James just attacked them. He was barely playing the defense

(06:38):
because he had five fouls. He didn't want to get
fouled out, you know what I mean. So I think
that kind of hurt him. But it's a mitchmatch gaming.
I mean, Jason Kidd got to make adjustments TV. Like
I said before, he held of a coach that make
those adjustments and pick people brain. So I think it's
a hell of a series, you know. I mean, I
know the Clippers are happy they got home court back,
and then they get opportunity to go up through two

(06:58):
and then go close it out in and if not,
Dallas get a chance to go up three two and
have opportunity to close it off on their home court.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Do you think we were just talking about the Suns
with you know, having three big stars on there, and
then we're seeing with the Clippers like they're having some
success with Kawhia he's been out twice this series. Do
you think that this kind of gives I don't know,
some insight going to the offseason that maybe you only
need a couple of stars and you just really fill
out the rest of the roster with some solid role players.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
I was just having this conversation. I was like, for me,
I know a lot of people have a lot of
three stars, but I feel like your third star, like
one of your stars, cannot be ball dominant I mean,
or don't need the ball as much. I mean, because
I think if they all three need the ball, it's
kind of like not enough shots out there, you know
what I mean. But if you got a guy, your
third guy could be like a guy that can go
get twenty on catching shoot or wonder will pull ups

(07:46):
or something like that. Well, I think that help us
a lot more because look at phoenishit. I mean, like
Brad's looking at getting twenty twenty two shots of game,
the books looking at getting twenty two shots of game.
Then you have Katie that's getting twenty to twenty five
shots of game. So now you're taking away probably another
eight shots from KD or another eight shots from D book,
you know what I mean, or another eight shots from Brad.
So like they can't be the prolific scorer that they

(08:08):
used to be in so I think that third guy
got to be a guy that's not a ball dominating
like a hell of a score. He could score the ball,
but not at a hot clip like the other the
main two guys. That's just my being.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, No, we talked about role players a lot on this.
You know, it seems like everyone's always trying to figure
out those first big three and then they kind of,
you know, just put together whoever is available with that.
But we're watching the Nuggets dominant. We're watching I guess
with the Timberwolves. You know, they've had go Barn like
that was like questionable last year, but they figured it out.

(08:38):
A lot of the role players, you know, Daniels McDaniels
and Alexander Like the role players is important Nasried obviously,
so I think the emphasis needs to get on the
role players. Were some of these teams to start competing
next year.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, but I only think it was tough for Minnesota
last year because a lot of people forget they didn't
have Nasreen and Jada man Dame's in the playoffs last year,
you know what I mean. So that was a lot
more pressure on Rudy Gibert to do a lot more,
a lot more pressure on a lot of other guys
that do a lot more. Now you've seen when they
had a complete team going to the playoffs, they got
what they want, you know what I mean. So because
like they have two stars, man, you have cat, you

(09:15):
know what I mean. Rudy Gobert is the third guy,
but he's a defensive guy, lob threat for them. He's
not a guy and he's the ball to dominate or
to impact the game, you know what I mean. Jaya
McDaniels don't need the ball to impact the game. He's
a slasher, knockdown three. He's defender. Mike Conley is a great,
solid point guard, most one of the most underrated point
guards me, I thought throughout my career playing in the league.
He can shoot the ball, he has floaters are both heads,

(09:37):
he don't turn the ball up, he can insist. So
they already got their two stars. So like you just
basically said, you have two stars as dominant, they third
start to impact the game in so many other ways,
and I think that's the route to go on. Like
you said with Demmer, you have Mary, you have Jokis,
two stars, Michael Porter or Aaron Gored. Either way you
want to go is a third guy, but they don't
need the ball and going as a dunker slasher, you

(09:59):
have Michael Porters slash to shoot threes. I mean called well, pope,
hell of it defending knocked out open shots. So I
think more so if you go to a two star
dominant lineup, but your third star is a great role
player and can do what he do in his role,
he'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, okay, I want to go over to the East.
But a couple of those series are sort of lopsided
now and decided, and right of this interesting question with
Jalen Brunson, he's playing out of his mind for the
Necks right now. And Tim Usa had gotten announced about
a week ago. So asking you right now, after what
you've seen with the Knicks, do you think you know
Brunson deserved Team USA over Halliburton or you know, do

(10:37):
you think Haliburton was I mean, sorry, Brunson was snubbed
from Team USA after what he's been doing.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
I don't think they really base it off how you
do it in the regular seas. I mean, like you know,
I mean, Jalen Russell is having a hell of a year.
I mean, crafty, tough guard and make big shots. I'm
not scared of those situations. But it's like the way
he's playing, it's a lot of i O's, a lot
of dribbling, a lot of him into his spots. That's
not how USA basketball is played, you know what I mean.
So I don't know how that would translate. Don't get

(11:05):
me wrong, he probably could make the transition. I'm not
saying he can't. With his team, He's doing what they
need him to do, and that's to be a great
scorer and run the show. But I feel like the
guy that got stubbed out of anybody's kyriery that without
a doubt, like we've seen him when he went to
the what is it? Was it the World Cup a
couple of years ago. Yeah, like we've seen what he
did leading that team there, you know what I mean.
So I feel like that's the most guy that got
snumbed with anybody. But Jayleen Brunston is having a hell

(11:28):
of a year for sure, definitely in the top five conversation.
And uh, he's breaking more and more records. I think
he just bought the record for the most points and
as a nick player in the playoffs and then he
has the most what thirty and ten games or forty
in ten games, whatever it is. So he's having a
big time year. And I think the biggest thing for
them next year it might be, is how do we
do we keep Julius Rendu or what do we do?

(11:49):
You know what I mean, Like that's a situation they
might have to decide on because Josh has to be
on that floor, Oh, Jed and nob he has to
be on the floor. I mean, even Ccenzo has been
great for them. So you never want to just say
what you do with a team just because somebody's out,
you know what I mean? But you know what I mean,
sometimes teams play better, but Julius Reynolds a hell of
a player when he's out there playing, He's an all
star type of player, all day player. So next time

(12:12):
you have to figure out and try to balance. But
I mean, some of these front officers are doing the
hell of a job and they know how to control
those situations.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
All this is just leading up to an interesting offseason.
All right, when we come back here on Point game,
we're gonna be welcome by one of John's former teammates,
Marching Gort Todd will be here on Point. Welcome back
to Point game with John Wallace. You get Toldonno presented
by DraftKings. We are now joined by John's former teammate,

(12:42):
the man who played three hundred and eighty seven games
with him, the Polish Hammer, Marching Gor Todd, Marching. How
you doing man?

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Good? How are you guys?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Thanks for joining us? Where are you joining us from?
Right now?

Speaker 3 (12:55):
I'm in Poland? Right now, I'm in my city, Wooch,
right on the middle of Poland. Actually with a better
weather than I expected. Were supposed to a couple of
days ago we almost had snow, but finally we got
some sun now and yeah, I'm actually working out, working
out hard.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, we were talking about a little bit. I don't
I don't know how much you want to talk about that.
But what are you up to these days? Right now?

Speaker 3 (13:22):
So I'm doing I'm going to try to do a
military challenge soon in a couple of months, I'm gonna,
you know, try to go through a Special Forces training
and try to you know, gain the respect, earned the
respect that I would like to have and and you know,

(13:43):
as a forty years old guy right now, it's not easy.
I got to do a lot of crazy stuff, you know,
a bunch of pull ups, bunch of you know, apps, crunches,
push ups, and I got to be able to run
three kilometers in twelve minutes, which is pretty intense. It's
pretty fast. I got to swim under the water. I
got a sprint hundred one hundred meters in a certain time. Yeah,

(14:05):
it's it's it's it's pretty insane. But listen, I love it.
I enjoyed doing it. I also finish the training for
the for the military medic I'm certified military medic now,
so yeah, I can do some stuff now with the
needles and stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Congratulations, Yeah, my brother, thank you for joining us all
the way from Poland. Uh, I know your people, champion
of your country. I just want to know how like
retirement life is treating you know, like not playing basketball
no more being a retirement life.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know what. Uh, it's been, it's been. It's been weird.
I would say the first year. The first year was
kind of tough. I completely stopped doing UH workouts. I
completely stopped literally stopped UH. For the first time, I
lost my six pack. And that was the time I
was like, okay, listen, this is this is getting serious.

(14:56):
You know. My actually chest was smaller than my than
my stomach, and and I was like, this is this
is this is impossible. I said, we can't do that.
We can't do that. I'll probably gained about fifteen to
eighteen pounds a couple of months after I finished playing basketball.
And I remember the awards that the quote John mentioned

(15:21):
a couple of times. I think it was one or
two times I heard that quote in the interview. He
mentioned that certain players not supposed to finish like that
in this league. And I felt that, you know, I
really felt that I'm going to finish the season with
the Clippers all the way to the end, like I'm
going to finish the season season at least in the
first round of playoffs, and then after the season, I'm

(15:43):
going to go and say, hey, guys, appreciate you, thank
you for everything. This was my fifth last year of
the contract. You know what, I think I'm done, and
I appreciate you, you know, for the opportunity. But now
I didn't get to I didn't end up like that,
you know, just I literally had a funk along the
middle of the season. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, it

(16:05):
was a February fourth, all of a sudden, you're getting
phone call and you know, you got this message, Hey,
appreciate you for your you know, for your service. But
unfortunately we traded, you know, we traded a couple of
guys to Memphis, and and we we traded Ivery Bradley
to Memphis. We're getting two guys back, and we need
one more spot in the team, and because you're the

(16:26):
oldest one in the team, we have to waive you.
So I was like, what the hell, Like, really, I said,
this is how I'm gonna end that in this league.
I'm like, God damn. I was like, all right, I'm like,
I guess it is what it is. So yeah, So
it was a it was a lot of frustration. I
would say, you know, right after I was waived, there

(16:48):
was a lot of frustration. I didn't want to really
do anything for the for the whole year. But like
I said, year year after my retirement, UH, I started
working out. And like I said, I've been doing a
lot of military trains and enjoy it. I'm doing stuff
that I like to do. I joined Washington for one
year as assistant coach. Uh and again it's that's not

(17:11):
something I think I want to do on a daily basis. Uh.
It's tough man like and again like I'm not I'm
not I'm not trying to sugar coat anybody. But like
you know, John Brett me, uh, you know, Trevor Ariza.
We had a bunch of vets in the team, and
you didn't have to tell anybody to work out, Like

(17:33):
you didn't have to tell anybody to go to the
gym and work out. But half of the guys that
we were training, they were they didn't want to work out.
You know. It was like, and I'm the coach who's
supposed to push them. I'm like, this is crazy. I
didn't have a coach. I had none of the coaches
in my career had to push me to work out
like this, this is insane. So yeah, after one year,

(17:54):
I decided that I think I want to do different things.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, I think you know I've heard that is do
you think it's the generation of hoopers right now? Like
who got in the league? That the mentality is different?
Like why do you think that is? Or is this
team specific that you have these players who don't know
almost the common sense the activities you got to be
doing to be successful in the league.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, I think we are missing a lot of vets.
I think every team is supposed to have more vets. Uh,
you know, that's one two. I think there's a lot
of generations of new new coaches and new general managers
that are coming into the league and they allowing the
new young players to do just from the like the

(18:39):
right of the gate as soon as they show up
in the team. They're allowing them to do a lot
of things and they not they should earn it first.
That's one two.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
You know, if you want to build the culture and
the team, I mean you got to act a certain way.
You know you can do you can do different. I
mean again, like I'm going to give example of you know,
and Tony Edwards recently in the in the in the
playoff game. I mean, I understand he's a beast, I
completely do. I mean, he's unbelievable, but you know, the
sign thing that he did, Like, come on, man, I mean,

(19:13):
if a guy like that is doing a move like that,
what do you think is gonna happen with the new
kids coming into this league? You know, I mean as
crazy Ills or as crazy John Walls. He never done that,
you know, and we had enough, we had enough freaking
brain in our head that we will never do stuff
like that, you know. We Hey listen, we were first

(19:35):
to flax. I probably shouldn't. I mean, sure, yeah, we
were definitely flex But come on, man, you can't you know,
if you're allow him got to do. If you're allowing
a guy do stuff like that, I mean, what do
you expect that? You know?

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, like you said, I think you said. I think
just now, it's like it's a lot different. I always
say this, and I never take away from the young
guy and they's super talent. You I mean, he's just
so much different from the game. I felt like, even
if you didn't want to to play no more after that.
I think you should have finished the year off, you know,
I mean, or you should have got one more chance
at it. But it's like they just started to spend
the league so much. If you're not shooting threes or

(20:10):
have a great back to the basket game, they don't
want you in the league no more. Like I remember
I got traded from Indiana, went to the Lakers. I'm like,
he just won defensive played the year he played like
one or two years he was out of it. So
the league is changing.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Yeah, it's it's it's going. It's it's unbelievable. I mean
you have little le right now. I mean, center position
basically in the NBA doesn't exist. I mean you have
I mean you have three freaking centers. You have three
four so you have yolk each and beat h towns
and town towns is a force.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
So you really like the bonus or that's it, like
the town town's playing the four.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
So you know, but John, you know, Luvis just like
forty years old, he's about to be dune, you know.
So you got literally you got literally like three dudes
in the league and the rest of them is just
filling out the spot of the center of the center spot.
You know, like these dudes don't exist in the team.
They are not even they don't even know how to
freaking set a screen though. I mean, you got only

(21:17):
you got. You don't have, you don't have, you don't
have what we had back in the day. I mean,
Jesus Christ, it was me and Nana and then you
gotta go one night you gotta go jocking Noah, Carlos Boozer.
Then next night you go, you know, Zach Randolph, Mark Gasol.
You know, then you have all of a sudden, Lakers
coming in with Paul Gasol and you know, another right

(21:37):
and another big like you had teams that you had,
teams that had two good big man's you know. Now,
oh yeah, it's a it's a guards league right now,
definitely guards league.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
So you recently said, follow the inview about our team.
We had so many weapons. Brad, me, you on the
pick and roll, and nada on the inside. You guys,
Me and Brad run the show. I want you to
spend it a lot more like just talking about.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Oh man, I'm thinking about that, you know, every every
couple of weeks, every couple of months, every time when
I'm watching NBA. I'm thinking about us, man. We I
think we had a special team. I think we really
had a good special team. We were just so freaking unlucky. Man,
I swear got, we were just so freaking unlucky. The

(22:24):
one year, if you won't break your hands into a
freaking ten freaking pieces, we would be in the NBA finals.
I swear got. We had everything that we needed to
be in NBA. Obviously in THEBA Finals, then you got
to play the best basketball of your life. But again,
you know your hand one year, second year, I think

(22:47):
we maybe were missing extra you know, extra role player
of the bench coming off the bench, maybe extra additional
player of the bench. You know. Overall, maybe we could
just just just just play this one each one of
us in the starting lineup, if we could just maybe
one or two percent play better, we also would you know,

(23:10):
get this extra win maybe, you know. But the bottom
line is we had a great team. We had a
great team, and it's it's crazy. I don't want to
throw anybody under the bus, but you know me, John Brett,
we we talk about this in the off seasons and
we always wanted like, hey, bring somebody on the board

(23:30):
that's going to help us to win, you know. And
I mean then all of a sudden you're gaining I mean,
Drew Nicholson and then you know, Chris Humphreys. I mean,
I love these boys, not the same, You're wrong. I
love them, but come on, man, these guys are not
gonna take us to the NBA Championship, you know. And
then we brought Paul Pierce. I think that that was

(23:51):
a great move. I wish we could have maybe another
year with him, but then obviously he went to LA
So we did have a great team. Uh you know,
injuries were the one point, the one you know problem.
And then I will say also, you know, with as

(24:12):
crazy as it sound, you know, I was I couldn't
There was a time I couldn't stand with I mean,
was driving me nuts. He was driving. He was driving
John probably nots even twice or three times even more
than me. But he was a great coach. He was
really good coach man. He was really really good coach,

(24:33):
and he knew what to do with us, how to
get us ready for the game and how to get
us ready for playoffs. If we could take that pressure
from him, where basically he was sitting constantly on a
hot seat, like everybody were mentioning, like, oh dude, you're
gonna be fired. You're gonna be fired. You're gonna be fired.
So if we could take that pressure of him and

(24:55):
let him work and give him maybe another year, maybe
another year, Oh man, I don't know, maybe we would
be in the NBA Finals. Who know.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, I messed coach Randy with me.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Man.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, I just was like you said, every time, like
every year, no matter what we did, like we might
start off bad, we have a team meeting, figure it out.
But he's like he was always on the hot seat,
like no matter how good we was doing and we
won ten in a row, whatever, He's like, Randy, women,
you might get fired after this game, or you might
get fired at that, And it's like you try to
take the pressure off from as much as possible, but
it's like it's still tough because in the back of
your mind, how can I advance my team and how

(25:27):
can I really coach my team or what I want?

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Right?

Speaker 2 (25:30):
I have to be dealing with this all the time.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
So yeah, he was.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
He was getting a lot of fun though. We had
a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
I mean, John, I mean, I mean, think about it,
we were in the playing and we didn't even care
who we're gonna play next because they had to worry
about us. Like they had to worry about us, like
we obviously we were getting ready for big games, you know,
either Bob Boston or you know back then in Chicago. Yeah,
we were getting ready for them. But like for most

(25:57):
of the games, they had to worry about us. Man,
Like we we we were sitting in the plane and like, okay,
what what what are we like ten plus plus ten
wins in the world. Okay, cool, you know, you know
we lost one? Are we going to get another ten? Now?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
You know? So?

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Yeah, we we we were very good, uh, well oiled machine.
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
We were just thinking really so well balanced, you know,
I mean having you and down there having the trail
or having Paul and then me and Brad. I think
we just had a well great balanced team, you know.
I mean, and one thing I said about it, like
we had commodity. We had fun. Like a lot of
teams don't do that, Like they don't hang out together.
They didn't do stuff together. And you can tell which
teams do because they do. They always clicking when you're

(26:41):
going the court, like even if we got off to
a sluggage start. We knew what to do to turn out,
we knew what play to go to. It was just
all about making shots and mission shots. So competing on
our level for us, that was it.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
And you know, just playing together for so long, we
we really developed incredible chemistry. You know. I mean obviously
the screens that we we can we came up. Yeah,
you know what I mentioned. Obviously, right after he said that,
I had like twenty phone calls from Polish media. I
was like, aren't you excited Lebron James spoke about you.

(27:15):
I was like, listen, man, I hope he was speaking
about me like that when I was setting screens on
him because last time I was last time, I remember
he was crying, you know, crying to the ref that
I was setting, you know, moving screens. You know everybody, right,
but listen, uh, you know, you gotta play. You got
to play together, you know, one hundred two hundred, two

(27:36):
hundred and fifty games in order to develop that chemistry,
you know. And and I remember exactly, I remember exactly
when we came up with that move. It was New York.
I remember exactly. I told John. I said, John, just
look what I'm going to do. Come off my back.
You're going to see I'm going to set a screen
on my guy. And and John was just reading. And

(27:56):
again later on, I'm going to LA and I'm saying, shade.
Did you see what I was doing with John?

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable. I'm like, all right, shake you think
you can do the same things, like, yeah, yeah, I'm
gonna do it. Man, Listen, I've been doing this thing
for like five months. Man. This guy couldn't do even
one time. Man, not even one time. I said, listen, man,
I said, you need you. It looks like you have
the frame. I mean you don't have John frame. But

(28:23):
you know, John could post up people and and and
defense centers on the post. But you know, but I mean,
you still have big body, Shade. You should be able
to do that. But nah. He wasn't not even.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Telling somebody before. It's like, even when we was running
pick and roll, or I would drive or in transition,
I knew it. I knew every movie he was doing.
He's stilling in transition all over top. If I'm driving,
I might throw a shovel pass. Like I told you, you
might not be the most athletic guy, but you had
the best finish, all the finishes like a guard reverse
this reverse death.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Right. So it was easy to me.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
I was getting seventy six, sixty seven and six a game.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
I was cool, easily, right, I was and and and
everybody was saying, you know, I remember when people were like, oh,
can you dunk the ball? Said listen, I don't have
to dunk the ball. I mean, of course, if there's
gonna be opportunity, I will, but listen, every bucket is
two points.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Sometimes when you got mad or it was a big play,
you had the Polish hammer come out like Atlanta Series.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Of course, hell yeah, but I mean come on, yeah,
we had yeah. Yeah. It's it's like I said, it's
a unbelievable time. Unbelievable time in Washington and and just
being in the city. We and honestly, we had a
good crowd. We had a good crowd. Uh, it was
a late crowd. I would say.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Every time they were coming right.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Like end of the first quarter, that's showing up the arena.
I was like, come on, man, we're already bowling here.
Come on, it's already plus twenty for us. Man, where
you at? You know, but yeah, we had a good crowd.
We had a good crowd. We had a lot of
good fans, and uh, great city. I mean what else
you need? You know, what else do you need an NBA?
I mean you have a great you know, great team,

(30:05):
good city, good crowd. I mean, shit, you just you
just got a ball and bring bring the results.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
You know, Marchie, you brought up you know at playing
with SGA. You know, you played with him earlier in
his career, but like you went from Steve Nash to John.
I wanted to talk about that transition. Was there anything
that you sort of like learned or like, you know,
interacted with with Steve And you're like, hey, John, I
was doing this with Steve, Like did you take anything
from that Sun's time to John with the Wizards.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Well, let's be honest. I came to songs when I
was kind of on the race. I was kind of
like getting the first minutes as a starter. So that
was the first time I was actually playing the starter minutes.
And playing with Steve was great, But I think the

(30:52):
best me was with John. The best me was with John,
and the best was when we are winning fifty two
fifty five games. A season, that's bottom line. You know,
Steve was playing on one pace. I mean, don't time
me wrong, He's a great player, But Steve was playing
on one pace. John had like three different paces, you know.

(31:14):
I mean when John had when there was there was
the slow pace, fast paced, and it was John pace
and nobody nobody can catch John. You know, when he
take off in the break, I'm like, fuck it, I'm
just gonna stay. I'm not going even around because there's
no need to run, you know. And then obviously, you know,
it was great to see, you know, it was great

(31:36):
to see Steve giving those crazy passes, half court passes
and all kinds of different passes. But you know, seeing
John and the full speed, seeing John dunking on people.
And one thing I told John that, uh, one thing
I haven't seen with Steve was he had to compete
against Russell Westbrook and his prime, Kyrie and his prime,

(32:03):
Derry Crows and his prime. I mean, you literally had
every second game, you had a top point guard Chris
Paul in his prime. You had a top point guard
coming into the building and bowling right and staff right
coming into the building and bowling, and John had to
guard him. You know, I obviously I had every fifth,

(32:27):
sixth game. I had a big man that I had
to guard, you know, and you know, the Marcus was
coming in. Oh Jesus freaking Christ. I mean the Marcus.
You know, the first minute he wants to kick my
ass and he wants to beat me up. I was like, cuz,
come on, man, like, because I'm not afraid of you, man,
like I've been in this league longer than you. Come on,
don't preat me like I'm not afraid. You know, Let's

(32:49):
just play basketball, and then he will kick my ass
in the basketball. So you know, I had every five
six games, I had a tough opponent to the but
John had every second game. And uh, I told him that.
I think it was off the Chicago game where I
was like, John, I admire what you're doing, because there

(33:10):
was I mean, basically, he gave everything he had and
I was a witness of that. Uh, defending d Rose
and then going offense, playing offense. Come on, man, this
is this is insane. Man.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
That's what I was saying. I'm glad you spoke on
that because I was saying that before. And I don't
take nothing away from these guys. But I'm like, it
was no ducking, no smoke, Bro, Like I couldn't go
guard the small ford, I couldn't go guard the power forward,
the shooting guard, like this is my matchup. But I
also had to be the guy that run my team,
make sure everybody's getting their shots when they needed, be
a score when they needed me to so. And I
always asked gard Tal when he first got them, like, Bro,

(33:43):
what you learned from Steve nas Like I need something
like because I never played with a big dab knew
how to run, pick and roll away he did so,
Like I said, once I got to that point and
got learning to knocking down me ray jumpshoy, everything became
easy because I can make every pass the guardtop I
had on the winning brad on the wind and had
Nan and they been a bruiser for us. So it
was so perfect. But Bro, I mean, we memberies in
DC and I'm chasing Stephand and I'm like, god damn, Like, Bro,

(34:08):
I'm about to be tired because I was mad because
the night before he went over eight from three against
the Knicks, and I said, why do you have to
do this? Because you know when you come in in
this game he's not missing.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
He's going to be like John. They will not understand
that unless they're gonna guard the guy and they're gonna
put the hand in his's literally faced and he's still
making swishes, you know what I'm saying. All Right, Well,
I was studying right next to you, you and you're
turning around, like, dude, what the fuck you want me
to do?

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Sometimes you want me to do like you want me
to do?

Speaker 3 (34:41):
What else will me to do? I mean, Jesus Christ, man, like,
we can build a freaking building right front of this guy,
and this guy's gonna shoot over the building, you know,
I mean it was just yeah, it was just almost impossible.
I mean, you know, Stephan is obviously different than Derrick Crows,
you know, I mean, on Derk Crows, you just gotta
take a step back. You are John, then you can

(35:01):
be close to him because you can catch him. But
you know, uh, you know, on the Ross, the same thing.
You know, you take step back. You rather let him,
you let him shoot, than you know, allow him to
take off and just go hard to the rim, you know,
because obviously he's going to jump over you. But with Steph,
Jesus Christ, I mean this is just yeah, insane.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
So I go back to twenty fourteen Game five, were
playing the paces It's when to go Home. We both
we both dominated one by twenty three. Like, discuss that
game because I want to hear your mindset and then
I'm gonna tell you my mindset after word. But that
was a big game for us because like I was
struggling in that series and I feel like we could
have did so much more. But like that's what you
said early on. It's like we just needed to play

(35:43):
a little percent better and we could have won those series.
And I think that was our first time in the playoffs,
my first time, so it was me trying to learn
and how to manage the game the right way.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
So I'm assuming that that that the coach also came
to you and i'll i'll Harrington came to you also
before the game, before the show round and he was
talking to you. So all came to me and he said, hey, man,
we need you. I was like, and I was like,
I'm here, Like I didn't leave anywhere, I didn't go anywhere,

(36:14):
Like what you mean you need me? I said, just
and this is I swear that this is what I said. Ah,
I mean, please just look at the game one game two,
because I didn't get I mean seriously, I had maybe
in the whole game, I had like maybe five to
seven touches, which you know, at that time for me
was kind of like very low. And I'm not talking

(36:36):
about just post up. I'm basically talking all the shots
during the game. I usually averaged between like ten to
eleven shots, a couple of fancy free bounce, couple putbacks,
a couple you know, garbage balls around. But I had
about eleven twelve shots and I was averaging like five
six shots in those two games. I was like, oh, seriously,
I mean, just just just pass me the ball. Just
try to give me the ball. Let let me try

(36:58):
to do something, okay, and then if I go all
for ten, then yeah, you can tell me, hey, where
are you? We need you, okay, But right now you
can't tell me we need you if you're giving me
five shots a game. So I told me, like, yeah,
I spoke with with You're gonna get the first play
of the game. It's gonna go to you, and boom,
and I remember John. I probably I'm thinking John had

(37:20):
the same conversation with Al and probably with with I
know John was you were pissed. You were quiet. Uh,
you were quiet, but it wasn't. It wasn't the quiet
because you were mad at me or Bread or anybody
in the team. You were just med. Just you are
mad like over oll yeah, in yourself. Uh, but I was.

(37:41):
I was the same with me, like we were just
met in the situation there we are in and and
then ship that was the night. Yeah, I know we
went off for me for me, you went off for me.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
It was like both to me, I'm like, bro, I
cannot make a meat range jump shot to float for
nothing in my life, this yeraries. I'm so mad. And
then I was also madcause we should have won game two.
We should have went up two. Oh, but we took
a bad three in transition with a minue and thirty
to go, and I remember we was up three, and
I was like, okay, this is how you learn, like
time management, slow the pace down. So that game was
bothered me when I watched it. Then I'm like, bro,

(38:17):
I'm missing so many easy flow to mid rangers. And
then it's like all right, usually we try to give
you the first one or two possession of the game.
I'm like, all right, we got we need Gord top
to screen, we need go out to be ready to play.
We got to give them one of two touches because
outside that you didn't have no plays ran for you.
You just pick and rolls. You get a ceiling transition
or you get office rebound. So I go into my

(38:37):
mode where I'm not mad at nobody because nobody fault
with me. I'm playing like shit, I'm like, this is
a bullshit. So I called my mam. I talked to her.
She was like, are you gonna play it there? You
just gonna be out there, and I'm like, I'm playing.
I just can't make no damn shots. So I just
close out as gorda walk in shades on headphones, so
I don't say nothing to nobody. I go quiet mode

(38:57):
and we come out and me and Gortal come out there.
We are balling.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
We murdered.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
We murdered that, and we should have The other part
is crazy. We should have won Game six. We was
up twenty three, I mean twenty a half. This from
Paul George came out second half and make like seven
threes in it in the third quarter.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
I mean, this was the series swear because if I'm
not mistaking the round one we beat Chicago. We swept Chicago.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
They got suspending game, that's.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Right, but the for hitting with the he smeck with
the Hey genmy Butler. Right, But but then, uh and
I remember Nana. I mean Nana basically killed Boozer. I
mean he was, yeah, he was completely dominated. But then
we went to Indy and David West the West just

(39:49):
went off.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
I mean when we stole game one, lost Game two.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
And the guy was just I mean he was playing
like a freaking super he was in New Orleans then, yeah,
and he was no, no, he completely dominated the game.
Uh and and and I think Hibbert was, you know
famous zero zero zero zero zero thirty minutes in the
game when he liked freaking zero. Sood came back to play.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
His coach came to the game because he went to Georgetown,
so they all came into the game, and then he
came through is his best game in the series. But
they was like, man, he's not playing well, he's hurting us.
And I remember though, bro, they had one play that
was as the angle pick and roll picking pop and
Dave West is shooting the free throw line jump shine.
They had Paul Georgian and out of the corner, I'm like, bro,
you cannot help.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
So yeah, that was, uh, that was a game. But
you know, I think it was the That was the
first time we play as a team in playoffs. Yeah,
that was the first year. Yeah, it was the first
year because I remember I sealed the contract with that
with that famous performance and in the I I kind of.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Like sealed the contract contract anyway throughout the year. We're
gonna say that because out of the way we was running
picking roll bos like you can't let him go, Like
I need this if you want me to be at
my best, I need a good big that can screen
and catch my passy.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
So and I didn't want to go anywhere else because
I felt comfortable. I knew, I knew what what John
and Brad who they will become, you know, in the
next two three years. So I knew exactly that this
is the place I want to be. I felt good
in Washington. I think the organization was good, and you know,
and I was like, all right, this is it. Like
I don't want to I don't want to move again

(41:28):
somewhere else, you know. And I get to know people, Yeah,
get to know people, and and I knew right away
that uh there was a that was the right fit
for me. So that that was the first playoffs and
and I think we learned a lot. We went next year,
we went into playoffs. I think, you know completely as
a as a better team. But I think that was

(41:48):
the year when when John broke the hand. I think,
ye next year.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
The first player to get first first first quarter. I
didn't know it. I kept playing. We win.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
I mean we talk about then take.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
A shower, like, take a shower, and my ship like
the white muffy hand, it's just swollen. I'm like, I
can't wash my back and walking around they got me
like with a glove on. Remember I didn't even go
to the doctor until like the day before the next game.
I'm like, bro, what now, dude?

Speaker 3 (42:16):
You still you still try to play?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Well? I missed. I couldn't dribble, so I missed game
two three, two three, two three. I missed two three
and four. Remember I can't. I could have played game four,
but they didn't. Uh not my hand to fucking too
late before the game. I was pissed about that. So
we go back to Atlanta. Should have won game I

(42:39):
blocked Schroeder shot. This is when they named trips and
fall our Horverd picks up the ball and scores the
layup at the park. Piers just hit the three in
the corner. I was fucking hot.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Yeah, like I said, there was uh me, dude, we
just need some lockwn a.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Playoffs, some luck and some winning. But you know what,
my we know what. I made that famous post I
made with Dinner Schroder. My post ath we came back
and beat them in twenty seventeen because when he made
that shot, I hover made that shot him and Tim
Hardy was laughing in my face and it was clappy.
I was so hot. So we got revenge on them
and beat them in twenty seventeen. I got a post.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Well, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
I just want to say, like, you guys showing each
other love a lot. It's like, this is awesome to
get old teammates back together. And also, you know, we
talk a lot about how the media can kind of,
you know, just blow things up, and I wanted to
bring up just because I feel like you guys showing
so much love as former teammates. There was some feuding
towards the end, and I wanted to just ask you
guys about the complexities of being teammates for as long

(43:38):
as you guys were, you know, tweets things said, but
you guys squashed that pretty quickly. Can you give a
little bit of context to that, And like, you guys
are obviously in a great place and celebrating this stuff.
So I just wanted to clear up anything.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
So let me speak first if I can, so I'll remember.
I'll remember. I definitely remember the one one case where
John mentioned this and I spoke to him privately, and
I think I think I can say this, this is
nothing crazy. But John had a surgery. I don't remember

(44:10):
was the ankle.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I mean it was my knee. I took a bones
for out.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
So yeah, I think you had. There was a surgery.
I don't remember what part. I think was a knee. Uh,
And there was, and he was out for a couple
of good months. And I think that me as a
leader back then, uh. And obviously you know that I
would say that the number three options in the team
right after John and bred Uh, I think I dropped
the ball as a leader. Also, we didn't even go

(44:37):
to the hospital. We didn't even visit John. We didn't
you know, not not even mentioning driving to the hospital
or going to his house. Fuck, we didn't even send
a freaking message, man, John, how are you doing after surgery?
And I think this is something that it was definitely
on us, definitely on me. I'm not gonna I'm not

(44:57):
gonna point out here, you know, Kelly Uber freaking out
a porter who's twenty years old. I'm talking about me,
who's thirty plus years old to ten year plus veteran
in the league, and I should know better. That's one two.
I think we kind of maybe not separated, but dripped
away from each other, from John when I stopped going out,

(45:21):
basically going out with the rest of the crew because
you know, I was older and I ain't gonna lie.
I need more time to recover. You know. The only
time when me and John we were able to have
you know, the magic juice was only in a plane
a couple of times. But I think there was the
time when I kind of stopped going and not only

(45:44):
with John, but also with Brad. That was the time
when we didn't talk over situations in the game. You know,
if we had any issues in the game or in
a practice, usually you go and say whatever you want, John,
But I knew exact that I can talk to you
only when when you are relaxed, when you are in

(46:05):
common environment, when I can have a drink and you
can have a drink, you can relax and sit down.
Then I knew I can talk to you, and I
knew I can get to your like very deep deep
deep to your brain. I knew exactly that was the
time when I was able to talk to you and
explain you what I see or what should we do? Uh.
And unfortunately we missed those meetings. I maybe not fail,

(46:30):
but like I kind of like couldn't do it anymore
because I was older too. That was thing. And oh man,
rest of the stuff, what was said, what wasn't said,
what was tweet? I would say most of the stuff
was just created by the media, I.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Mean, which they always did for us. You hit it
right on the note bro. The biggest thing was it
was I could have been better. We all could have
been better. But I think it just happened, like you said,
young guys, they kind of like ran with the thing
everybody eat and everybody ran with And I was like, damn. Then,
like you said, I didn't get a message from God.
So that was like that. So then like you know,
you in that mindset and mold you like, damn, I

(47:10):
feel like I'm left out. You get into your emotion,
you don't think, and like you said, I magic juice.
We have a glass of wine, magic juice. On the plane.
That's when we talked and had a lot of great conversations.
And I think like we kind of got away from
that and then we like we still play well. We
still played great, but like when we needed to fix
certain situations, we wasn't fixing like you said, I was older,
Like shit, I need my wrists. I don't care what

(47:31):
y'all doing. I need another two hours of sleep. And
even on the plane, like we got to the point
of the plane, like we would play the music some loud,
you know, Okay, damn, we're not having to talk this day.
We're not having that talk that day. But like the media,
like what we always said, we had so much shit
that goes on in locker room, bro, and we always
keep it to ourselves. We always never wanted it, wanted
it to get out. And that's what family, that's what
a brotherhood is for. So everybody keep trying to put

(47:53):
the media of what me and Gorta have. We are great.
We are brothers. I have a number love and respect
for them. Everybody gonna have some disagreements and agreements a fight,
that's what brother always right.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Remember Remember John when I left, when I when I
left the team, and and and I was traded, and
you know the message to send me. I mean, I mean,
I mean seriously, I had a fucking tears in my eyes, man,
I mean John sent me a you know it wasn't
a good luck you know, and you know it was
you know, this this thing was like a freaking book,

(48:24):
you know what I'm saying. And and yeah, I mean
it was. It was real, real talk and I knew that,
you know, the stuff he sent it to me was real,
and you know I appreciate it. I'll always remember that.
You know what we've done with John. And you know
even today gorted screen, I mean, she this thing would
not exist if I won't have John o' bread, you know,
I mean, bottom line, I mean, John and Brad is

(48:46):
you know fifty percent of my success. The rest fifty
percent is here, you know, and there's here right in
the hammer. But you know that's that's they are fifty
percent of my success. They knew exactly what I'm doing,
they knew how to use it. They had the right body,
they had the right speed, they had the right you know, knowledge,
and you know, and and fuck we had fun, man,

(49:08):
we had fun. But again, listen, at the end of
the year, I mean the fifth year, I will again, John,
I will. I'm gonna put blame. I mean, fuck it,
I'm gonna say it now. But coach didn't help at
this time too. You know, if we had Randy, Randy
will call us right away to the freaking room and
we will sit down and talk to John, will yell

(49:29):
at me, I will yell at John, and we will
and we will squeeze it. And then we will yell at,
yell at us, both both of us, and we will
squeeze this thing. I don't think. I don't think, unfortunately,
that coaching staff help us at that point, you know.
And I always heard only, Yeah, I'm working on it.
I'm working. I'm working. I'm talking to him. I'm working.

(49:51):
I'm like, dude, ain't working shit, ain't working. Man, Like
I'm going to talk to him. No, you don't talk,
You're gonna make things work. So I'm like, listen, I
know John for five years. I'm gonna talk to him.
So yeah, there was time when I was trying to
talk to John. But again, coaches, I don't think coaches
help us back then. They I think they should be
more supportive at that point.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Because I feel like we had a great relationship. Like
like I said, We're gonna agree to disagree sometimes when
we talk. But when I stepped between those four lines,
I'm going to war with whoever my brothers are, whoever
my teammates. Sorry, So if I got a problem with you,
and I might be mad at you right now when
I get go out on and put this jersey z on,
that problem is not the problem. This is how we
both feed and I found this what were planning for
the city of this organization we played for. Like I said,

(50:33):
we had so many great moments. I feel like we
just missed the curves sometimes, like maybe been having a
little bit more depth on the bench sometimes you know
what I mean, like not having injuries. But everybody know
the impact that we had, Like shit, we won seventeen
in the row at home. They feel like we winning
I think we had seventeen No, but Bron fucking made
the bank shot. Remember it was for the five made
the fucking bank.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Oh, you're right about that.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
He practiced made.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
The bank shot.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Man, I'll give a damn that ship. Look, that was
high because we remember play before that he traveled. They
didn't call it travel you right. We supposed to found
him when he caught the ball, but we didn't found
Kevin loved to a hell of a pass.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, that was crazy.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
So yeah, but again, do you remember there was we
had every year, we had twelve appearances that we had
to do, uh, twelve appearances that we had to do
as the NBA players in the community. And one of
the funniest and the coolest thing we had to do.
We had to go to those special Olympic games and

(51:35):
we were coaching and reffing the game. And you know,
one year John was a referee this and then then
second year I was the referee or you know, we.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Were coaching, was getting text out and all that.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
And John John gave me you know teck, I mean
the first quarter, you know, Gord that shut.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Up across the line little across. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
So yeah, so again we it was fun, man, it
was fun and uh and uh, just the crew we had.
It was unbelievable and uh, you know the plane rides
and man, right, guys fun But.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Like you said, I think you said that, like just
because like when we did those twelve things for the community, Damn,
the whole team was showing up, like you. I mean,
it's only supposed to be a certain amount of guys
for a certain ones. But we had so much camaraderie
and enjoyed being around each other and I just talking, joking,
half a glass of wine, playing cards, whatever. We just
enjoyed that, going to team dinner. So we all did everything.

(52:35):
We all wanted to do it, so it was a
perfect time for that.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Yeah, unfortunately everything ends, uh you know, we we had
a good round.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
But I tell something out. I hope my story end
like yours, because I got I got traded around February too,
from the Clippers back to Houston, So I'm like, hopefully
I can get back in and play a little bit more,
but if not, I'd be fine. But our story kind
of ended the same way. It just ended in February
with the Clippers and.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
And and and I know that you you love LA,
I love l A. We we all wanted to live
in LA and it was like playing in the Clippers
of l A or Lakers will be cool at the
end of the career. And guess what, it did happen.
But but she we didn't want to end up, you know,
the middle of the year like that.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
When I was there. I mean, great organization, great coach
and t and those guys. It just ended in February,
which was tough, but it was like that it made
changes because they needed some more depth in different situations.
So it was cool.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
But yeah, I mean I was I was excited when
you signed with the Clippers. I was like, Wow, that
that's gonna be actually good fit. You know. I was
hoping that. I was actually hoping that you're gonna come
off the bench and you're gonna be like producing as
a six man, you know, because you're gonna have more.
You're gonna you're gonna have the ball in your hands more,
you know. And and I was thinking, like, all right,

(53:56):
he's gonna do that. You know, he's gonna that's that's
basically gonna buy him a nottter you know, a year
or two in the league.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
But damn, yeah, it was tough because we didn't we uh,
we played small balls, So it was kind of like
you know what me like, I was playing My role
is I can go be a score, but I like
to run, pick and roll and get everybody involved. And
we didn't have to, you know what I mean. We had
Nicklas between playing our center at the time, so it
was kind of tough. He's like, all it's five out,
five in. So it was cool.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
So so what so what you're doing now? You you're
playing both for fun.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Or I work out every day. Uh, take care of
my two boys and my step daughter. My oldest son
played soccer in the boxing so he wanted to be
like messy. We got training today at six o'clock in
the backyard. He got a game every Saturday. So what
I be doing, man, taking him to school, raising the boys,
standing out the way, Uh, doing the podcast. Just find other,
like you said, just find the other stuff that I love,

(54:46):
because that's the toughest part is we so used to
being on a routine schedule eight months, nine months. You're
on a team, You're always traveling. Right now I'm just
sitting here like, damn.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
You still you still you still got you still got
these u uh, these dogs.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
The dogs got to be in the backyard right now.
I just got him in the cut because.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
I want how many you got? Now? How many you got? Now?

Speaker 2 (55:06):
I got two King Corsos because I used to have
like six no, no, no, so look I used to
have his killer in my backyard, like with six bulls,
I had kill in my backyard. They never want to
come to my house though. Nobody want to come out.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
They're like, no, I saw that one, the recent one
you got, and I was like, if I come over,
you gotta you gotta tell him to not.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah. I love dogs, man, I love sneakers. You I
love sneakers and I love dogs.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
You're not coming into each house just like yeah, yeah,
I mean this is you really got to bring the
army of people to come into your house. I mean
had a lot.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Of but now only I don't got as many as
I used to, though I cut it down a little
bit to four. I used to have eight, but I
got it at four now.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
So I thought, you're gonna do some Hollywood stuff, like
what movie stuff? You don't want to do it?

Speaker 2 (55:54):
If they come away from some acting, I'll get into
that road, you know. I mean, they got a check
for me.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I ain't doing it.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
They gotta check, you know, check.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
I ain't going to do no active for nothing.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Okay, So the last question that you should be a coach,
you know that, right?

Speaker 2 (56:13):
So you know what you know with.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Your love to basketball, with your love to basketball, and
I know you're watching freaking six games in a row.
Like you know, I could not do this thing because
I would be mad, like, oh my god, there was
a guy in the corner. Why he didn't pass the ball,
why he shot a fade away? I'm like, man, fuck it,
I'm turning to sell watch this, you know. So yeah,

(56:36):
but I know John is watching every game.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Now, splitting my screen to four games. Split my screen
to four games, you know right now the playoffs, So
I only watch one at a time. I think tonight
you might be able to watch two because one of
them on NBA TV. But yeah, like down in the
future though, Bro, I want to be like a gym.
I want to be a GM.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
So Jim more than a coach.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Yeah, like you said, bro, like me, Like you know,
like me, Bro, I'm just so everything I do and
I just like, like, even when I was injured, I'm like,
but what the fuck is he doing? Like I wouldn't
do that or you know, like you watching somebody like
I do this, I wouldn't do that. And I think
for me these young guys now, it's like you got
to force them to work out sometimes unless you just
get a windows special ones that love to be in

(57:15):
a gym and love to do it. And I'm like,
for you to be on the Nbay level and getting
paid like it's nobody should never be forcing you to
come work out.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
So the same thing when I went to Washington, they
you know, I spoke with my agent and he said, Mark,
you're starting from the bottom again, you know, like wait,
I mean for the bottom, Like, oh, well, you're not
going to get you know, whatever the amount you want,
you know, you're getting, you know, one hundred thousand, you know,
one fifty two hundred. I was like, what, like what,
I like, I can't do that?

Speaker 2 (57:44):
He tell me. He tells me it's over there. He said, Bro,
I only could go like once a month, twice a month.
I can't do this every day.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
No, I can't do this every because I coming into
the gym, I'm getting a nice left. You know, I'm
seven thirty in a gym, eat breakfast eight o'clock. I'm
in I'm piping, I'm pump pumping iron in the way room.
You know, my big is coming in nine thirty ten o'clock.
I was like, dude, what the time is practice?

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Yeah, like the.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Practice at thirty. I'm like, where before you are? You
got to Yeah, you gotta give me a good lift
and then let's go. Let's go do some moves, you
know under the basket, Let's get some shots, maybe get
quick one on one, you know, it's like one on one.
I was like, why why are you making those faces? Like, oh,
I ain't gonna play one on one? Like we have
a game in two days. I'm like, so, I'm like

(58:28):
I was playing at the shoot around before the game
that same day one on one, and I was going
the same day later on and I was performing, like
what kind of faces you perform?

Speaker 2 (58:39):
We was performing after three hour practices. Two hours. Yeah,
It's like now practice might be thirty to forty five minutes,
maybe an hour on a good day. So it was
playing that's two hours and then go play forty minutes
in a game.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
I agree, that's that's that's insane. That's why you know
I've seen it. And I told the guys say, hey,
you have passport is a why I said you're gonna
need in China, man, I said, I swear God, you're
gonna need in China next year. I was like, you crazy, man,
dude is in China right now as we speak.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Well, like I said, like some people take it for
granted because, like you said he spoke on earlier, a
lot of teams don't have a lot of vets and
it's like even if the vets planner, they're not playing,
like they could still just teach these young guys how
to be pros, how to get certain things because they
come in now and it's all handy to him. Like
I remember even my rookie haar being there one pick.
I didn't have it handy to me. I had to
earn everything I had. And that's what I respected about it,

(59:31):
because you don't want to come in and feel like
you're bigger and better than everybody, because I mean, it's
already a target on your bet.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Just John, this was the biggest thing you know, have
it controlling YouTube Like you and Bread, I mean, we
knew exactly there's going to be a point of time,
in the point in time that where you guys are
gonna take over like completely. But you know, as soon
as I came to the team, I had it was me, Nanna, Martell, Webster,

(59:57):
Trevor Ariza, I'll hang and uh, and Andrew Miller, Drew Gooden.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Dude, we had like everybody exactly, and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
And we knew exactly that you know, if I say something,
then it's going to support me. If J's gonna say something,
I was going to support him, Trevor is going to
support him. So we were able to control John and
Brett in a good way. I'm saying a good way,
you know. Uh. But then obviously the Vets start leaving.
You know, I'll retired, Martel went to a different team,

(01:00:30):
and then all of a sudden, you know, you only
have two Vets left in the team, and and John
and Brad became, you know, the superstar, super all star
in this in this league. And I was like, all right,
these guys are they on their own now? Like we
can't do anything now, man, But it's all right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
I mean we had great vets, We had fun. You
just named seven eight guys that haven't stablished themself in
his league that if you didn't respect them, you just
wasn't gonna respect anybody. And I feel like we never
could have made it jump to become who you as
as players and to be a better team that can
compete every night against somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
And you know what, the good thing is that we
also changed the culture of the team, because you know,
I mean, as far as I know, when I was
coming to the team, the only thing I heard was
Gilbert and the famous gun in the locker room. Uh,
you know, uh, Andrew Blatchen and Jevelle McGee doing some
crazy stuff. And all of a sudden, we changed the

(01:01:27):
whole team and we build a different culture in the team.
We we we we started becoming you know, we became
a winning team, a playoff team, uh you know, a
decent contender, you know, to a to a winning a championship,
and and we completely changed the culture of the team.
So I mean, hail, we we succeeded. We we we
definitely didn't fail, you know, we we we succeeded.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
I just want to say to close this out, like
we've been posting clips of you and Marching and and Johnny,
you guys, and people are saying underneath are like one
of the most underappreciated duos in the last ten years.
So I love that you guys are getting love. We
saw it on Lebron and JJ's podcast, like the Guard
Center combo is kind of we see it with Jamal
and Jokic right like, and that's what's winning the championship.

(01:02:13):
I just want to show you guys love because people
are saying on our social posts like most Underappreciated Duo.
So Martian, thank you so much for joining the show.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
Appreciate appreciate you guys having.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
You on Point Game.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
So thank you guys. Thanks being brother.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Welcome back to Point Game with John Wall and c Toldno,
presented by Draftkinks. We are now going to play our
classic segment, Bucketer Brig.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
John You ready, you know it all right?

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Just before we before we go on, I'm gonna remind
you that Bucketer Brigg is brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook.
Draftking Sportsbook is your home for all things NBA action,
from player props, the same game parlays. Check out everything
DraftKings Sportsbook has to offer to make your NBA experience
even sweeter. The crown is yours. Okay, let's get into this.
So first one for Bucketter Brick. The Magic are plus

(01:03:03):
one hundred and forty five to win this series. They're
two to two right now, so meaning they're only slight underdogs.
So if you bet one hundred, you could win one
hundred and forty five bucks. So Bucket or Brick, the
Magic are going to win this series against the Cavs.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Oh Man, I say, Bucket, I think they found their rhythm.
I mean, the biggest kid is trying to steal on
the road, you know, I mean, but I think those
young guys found a little rhythm and they're competing at
a high level. So you know, I mean, I love
a coach, Coach Moseley, so I think he's been doing
a great job and I always have respect for him
since he was in Daly, So it's great to see

(01:03:38):
how he changed it around over there and got those
young guys playing in Pilos playing at a hell of
a level for his second year and first year in
the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Do you think that, you know, with the talk of
Donovan Mitchell, I think that the quote or something that
came out said that if they don't make to the finals,
Donovan wants out. Do you think that's affecting their performance
a little bit in the series.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I really don't like to speak on stuff like that
because you never really know what nobody's going through. But
I feel like he's already was trying to leave anyway.
Unless they win the championship, I don't think he's staying.
I think that's what the nois been about all year
and trying to figure out they wanted to trade him
before the dadline or not. Uh So he don't just
walk and you lose them for nothing. So I think

(01:04:18):
it's been tough. But it's been up and down year
for them completely, you know what I mean. They've been
a hot team early on, then Daris Garland got hurt,
then Donald's playing well, then don got hurt and DG
got to playing well. So I think it's just kind
of tough because they're both ball dominant but both great,
you know. I mean, Dono has been doing a lot
a little bit longer than DG as but I think
it's just a tough balance between those two for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Okay, going on, the Lakers are down three to one,
people are always are already talking about whether he should be
doing the off season, So bucket or brick, the Lakers
should move on from Darvin ham Mmm.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
I say Bucky you. I mean, I never want to
see a coach get fired or anything like that, but
I just think and Gil if they get they almost
got swept again. They did a great job of competing
and fighting back the other night, you know, I think
and I didn't close it out, you know, I mean
being back home, those guys missed a lot of shots
last game. I mean, but it's the nature of the game,
making shots and missing shots. The DM Stow came back

(01:05:15):
and played well, but I just feel like they moved
back from Darby. I mean kind of just look at
the the any just giving around. You watch some of
the highlights has been out or Clippers has been out
of gods getting up and walking away from the time out,
or some guys not even been in the time out huddle.
I kind of think that's when you kind of know
you're lost in the locker room.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Yeah, going back to game four, I don't know if
you saw, but the the Nuggets didn't have their shoes
for shoot around.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Yeah. I think they Yeah, I think they let me
be honest, got thing, bro, They out there working on
the game. They trying and get their shots up, but
you can't really be full speed of game speed because
you're in flip flops like you know what I mean.
You don't want to sprain your anchor or have a
serious injury, so you're just basically methodical. But anyway, the
Lakers came out and play well. They competed at the
high level of those guys competing and fought and uh

(01:06:00):
the role player stepped up big.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Okay, all right, going back over to the East, the
Knicks will make the Eastern Conference finals. Bucket Brick who
they played, Knixt they'll play, They'll play the Pacers if
the Pacers end up closing out against the Bucks, so
classic series Knicks Pacers.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
To me, I gotta go Pacers. I think the Pacers will,
So I'll say, interesting, I love the Knicks. They're playing
at a high level. I love the Knicks, but I
think is going to be a tough matchup problem for
him in the next round. But I mean, never know
what Genlen Brunton away, he's playing, playing at the hell
of the level.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
I mean, same with ty We were talking about ty
ree versus Jalen in the in the first half. I
feel like ty Reese is not playing you know, to
his you know best.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Yeah, I don't think he's playing it, playing the way
he's usually happen. I mean, I think last game probably
been his best game of this series in my opinion
from watching. But Turner has been stepping up for them
big time, you know what I mean. It just sucks
for the Bucks because you know, I mean not having
Giannis to start the series and Dame getting hurt and
then I don't know how they Chris Midleton finished the
game yesterday, he sprained his other ankle, and yeah, I
think Pat Bev heard his hip, so you know, I

(01:07:06):
mean he's in a tough spot right now for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Okay, final one. This news broke this morning. Your beloved
Cowboys are re signing Ezekiel Elliott. So Bucket brick, Zeke
Elliott is going to have a positive impact on the
Cowboys this year.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Oh say Bucket, I think he helps the Jim. I
think I wish you would have sign him last year
and kept him as I back up back or you know,
I mean or change it pays back for Tony problem.
I didn't think Tony. Tony Poulter is great. I love him.
I think he's every down back. I think he's a
great change It pays back catching ball at the backfield.
I'm still devastating. We ain't try to get dig Henry.
I mean, I feel like he wanted to be there.

(01:07:43):
But it's a tough year. I mean I think, I
mean what we said we was gonna all in. I
don't think we really went all in. Yeah, but I
hope they have a good year though.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Okay, all right, John, that's been another episode of Point Game.
Anything you want to leave the fans with.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Playoff, Let's watch some great basketball tonight. Hopefully some of
these games are get more competitive. Give mean someone being blowouts,
but I want to see some great games. I felt
like the Phoenix series was the best series in the
first round, and then you have the Clippers and MAVs.
So it has been a good win. So let's get
the show on the road.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Let's do it, all right, This has been Point Game
with CJ. Toldono and John Wall.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Please remember to like, rate, subscribe, share this stuff, drop
us some questions in the podcast reviews. We'll answer an
upcoming episode. This's been Point Game presented by Draft Games,
Pease Gambling Problem called Winning hundred Gambler or in West
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(01:08:46):
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