Sasha Vujačić | UNTOLD Kobe Stories, 2010 Finals, Clutchest moment EVER? Coming from Civil War 🤯

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Yo, what's good? It's your boy TA first Team All
Defense and today's episode of Out the Mud, we get
blessed with Sasha Voyages, ten year veteran, two time champion.
You know, had a lot of great battles with this guy,
a huge competitor, a guy that overcame a lot to
get into the league. Man, I mean, coming from cities
of wards and just to come always be a champion. Man.

(00:31):
Great episode coming up, but before we get to that,
make sure you head over the Prospects, download the app
and put in the promo code. Mud. Let's get to
the episode.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
You show respect, you get respect, to be disrespect you
get disrespected.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's just all hard great crime.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I got to tell you this album, Yo, what's good?
Is your boy? Tony y'allen Man and I'm here with
my man z bo Zo. How you feeling man, I'm
feeling good. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Got a legend in the building.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Today were on the Outimuther podcast. Today we're getting blessed
with tenured veteran Sasa Vogee, two time champion post have
been a one time but his first time on the podcast. Man,
much love Man, thanks for coming up on.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Thank you, Thank you, thank you. I honored to be
here with two legends. Uh boy jerseys retired.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
That's my first spot. So I'm a rookie. US supposed
to be three rings, but it's only because you guys
got you guys got one. But let's not talk about
that right now or we can get it started. Seriously,
thank you for having me. I'm excited pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
So man, tell us about growing up Slovenia.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, so I was born actually in Yugoslavia. It was
a country before Slovenia became independent, so not many people
know that because you know, in the in the nineties
there was a bad war and us as kids growing
up there, we kind of developed thick skin through that.

(02:25):
But in Slovenia was the let's say, the lightest of all.
But now we have six countries out of it, Serbia, Croatia,
the Neegro Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia. So when we leave where
we come from, we come to states, we're all best friends.
But back in the day, there was just I think
we were too clustered and we didn't see the bigger pictures.

(02:48):
So once it broke down, everybody some people were happy,
some people were not happy. But you learn you paved
the way, not on the easiest way to go, and
understand what the you know, those kind of things bring
to life and you start appreciating life on a different aspect.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
And you said, what, man, So what did the basketball
aspect kicking in? Because I mean, why the country going
through his frenzy or whatnot. It's like, how do you
even have those inspirations to even play the game of basketball.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, that's the way out. So I was a kid
when it happened in the nineties. I was seven years
old when Yugoslavia kind of started falling apart. But in Slovenia,
luckily we didn't feel as much of it, but you
could feel the hate and the hatred with you know,
certain last names that ended on a specific name so
you could say where they come from and stuff. But Serbia, Croatia,

(03:43):
Bosnia especially, we had family all over the world, because
I mean all over Xicgoslavia. So listening to their stories,
knowing that some of my parents' friends, like best friends
growing up with they were fighting against each other, it
was just tough.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
To you know, kind of hand that.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
But then you you learn, and my biggest love from
day one was was basketball. Uh And like I said, basketball,
I played soccer, basketball, volleyball, everything growing up, but basketball.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Was that biggest love.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
There was just something about basketball that maybe was the
way out. Maybe it was something that you imagine of
where the happiness or near vana was finding you.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
So that's what it was.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
But like I said, in Slovenia, we didn't feel much
much of it. It was just you know, going through
through tough times like anywhere else in the world.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
So you you had two choices either.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Be about it or feel sorry for yourself and what's
going on, or just keep going forward.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
That's really out the mud.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
I mean. And a lot of a lot of you know,
people think European players they got it easy, and yeah,
a lot of y'all had a lot of hardships and
you know, just to get over it to this game
to play. Can you explain how you overcome that stereotype.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
You all know that we were from Europe, we all
called the soft Europeans and all this stuff, which is
not a lie. You know, it might look like that sometimes,
the fact of the matter is we are not the
biggest fans of playing defense also, so that kind of
takes away from it, but it's tough, man, Like I
think that the way, you know, for example, from me

(05:24):
having European basketball mindset and learning what it takes to
win here, I got kind of both of them, and
I respect them.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
But we are big on fundamentals.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Back home fundamentals and fighting the adversity, fighting the obstacles,
finding the way. Never ever, ever, anything came easy to
anybody like you guys. You know, I listened to your
first part and I was like, first episode, I was
like wow. And once you go through when the going
gets tough and you kind of wow, I gotta find
the way out. I gotta get to that next level.

(05:56):
Then the similar mindsets connect, you know. So that's I
think that was the biggest, biggest thing for European players
to have a lot of obstacles and fighting, you know,
like everybody else, that game of basketball brought us together
to fight for one common goal, and that might be
to make it in life, to try to do something better.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Who was there? Who was there like to navigate through
like what you're going through, you know war, Who was
the who put the ball in your hand?

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Like I know, I think so. When I was two
years old, my parents got divorced and.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
My stepdad when he came to my life, I was
about six five to six years old. He's I call
him Pops. He did a lot for me from day one.
But I think it all comes from kind of family
and surroundings. So when I was a kid, like my
biggest joy when I was already, like my mom always says,
it's actually funny, she says, he was already playing basketball

(06:53):
in my tummy when I you know, when I was
pregnant and stuff. But there was just something that for me.
You know, my late grandfather was one of my biggest
idols and heroes and somebody that I spent a lot
of time with because my parents were both professional volleyball players.
So once you have that in your life, they understood
what it took to give me the freedom and understanding

(07:15):
that yeah, you have to go to school, you got
to do all these things, but in order to get there,
you got to you know, go abc. There was no
skipping things in life and trying to make it easy.
So basketball was just my my biggest love. So I
don't know, I love at first sight. So it was
just my parents and then had I met a coach
when I was about eight or nine years old, actually

(07:38):
at seven years old and started playing against you know,
older guys and stuff like that and just kind of
getting that experience, because I think that's where European players
we actually gain a lot of experience just by playing
against you know, when you're twelve thirteen years old, you
already playing against adults in they either made it or
didn't make it in Europe in the NBA. So that's

(08:00):
what kind of gives you that mindset of you know,
getting knocked in the face at the age of twelve thirteen,
and then you got to stand up for yourself and
not not not fold, got.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
To keep going, which was my next question to basically,
like you turn pro as seventeen. So by you going
through that stage, it was like easy for you to adapt.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Like so when I was when I was twelve, I said,
we had like a you know with my parents and
my brother and my sister. We were talking about things,
and I said, I want to go to LA and
I want to win with the Lakers at twelve, and
everybody around us. You know, when I said it out loud,
they were laughing in my face.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
You was crazy, Yeah, she's crazy, must be you know,
smoking at the young age, like off was like wow.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
And the funny thing was, like I was, I just
kept going, you know. I would I would dribble the
ball to the to school in the morning. I would
walk to my school obviously, and I would just put
extra work. And if they said you got to put
one hour actual work over everybody else, I'll put two hours.
And it was at that at that age, quantity with
quality was everything. Right then, when I was fourteen, I

(09:10):
had to leave my home to go to town close
like probably two hours from where I was born because
they had a little project of academy what they wanted
to do with younger players. And I was there for
a year and I outgrew that because they were kind
of training you to be the best in Europe.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
But I've had a bigger goal, you know, to go
to NBA.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
And at the age of fifteen, I went to Italy
for two years. Slovenia Federation. They wouldn't give me the
it's called letter of clearance to play to be able
to play in another country, but the coach at the time,
one of the people that discovered me with my parents
was Bogdan Tanovich. He was one of the greatest coaches
and still is at the time and the biggest talent.
He's from Montenegro, but he was a national team coach

(09:57):
in Italy. Like one medals there was known to discovering talent.
So long story short, I was in Italy waiting for
two years and then turned pro as the youngest foreigner
players before me, it was just I think Buddhi Roga,
who we all know give a lot of troubles to
us in the Olympics and World Cup, So that kind

(10:18):
of sums it up before before that big jump to
the States.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, I was five years.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
In Italy before I I you know, I got drafted
by the Lakers and I was supposed to be in
a draft before a year before, but then I saw
there's Tony Allen was not there, so I had to
you know, I had to go for two thousand and
four draft because I kind of had a feeling that
you would have quite a few battles back.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, that's interesting, man, And I was drafted. I take
us through that process, bro, like how many teams you
work out for and so to.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Take you back right now, like I was in Italy
five years, I pulled out in two thousand and three
because it was just like you know, the buyout and
all that stuff, like the I started understanding business side
of basketball at a young age. Like I got stabbed
in the back when I was fifteen by somebody that
I thought is my agent, mentor player you know with me.
So long story short, you learn, right, So two thousand

(11:14):
and three was like, nah, it's not the time yet,
Like I got to go to Europe one more year,
try to dominate, and then I knew where I wanted
to go. So I worked out like you I was
listening when you guys were talking, like I've worked for
every single team. Then we went to Chicago. You know,
I broke my toe in Chicago, actually had a free jeft.

(11:34):
I broke my toe, and I was I was limping
when I was not playing, but I couldn't limp on
the court because they would.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Be like, oh, these guys, you know, you know how
it is.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
But working out for every team was for me something
that was kind of tiring, coming from Europe being in Washington,
where my agent at the time had a kind of
station for Pops and myself, and I was like, wow,
we got to go here across the country. You just
go all over and you know, there were a couple

(12:05):
of guys in front of me that I would kind
of smoke in a workout. But that doesn't matter right
now because I wanted to be in LA, which is
kind of crazy. Everybody said, you dumb man, you should
have been like first, like twenty, and I said no,
And the draft night I was there, I'm like.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
No, I know where I want to go.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
I know where I wanted to be, you know, and
besides that playing with Kobe and being in LA and
winning in LA.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Like my goal was go to LA and win in LA.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
So you pretty much had it figured out the draft.
Your agents had already spoke with the Lakers to kind
of put it together.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
They were talking that was one of the biggest interests.
There were teams that, you know, I was nineteen. I
think I just diarded twenty nineteen twenty, and a couple
of teams had an idea of sending me back to
Europe because of the goals. They wanted to do the
core of their franchise to give me more experience and stuff.
And I'm like, no, this is the time that I'm
staying here. I'm going in Lake said at twenty seventh pick,

(13:01):
and they were trying to trade to get it earlier
because you know, the agent said you as a player, like, wait,
they're not complete one hundred percent with you, so you
don't know what's going on. But apparently they couldn't trade
for a higher pick, and I would just be like, Okay,
then let's go twenty seven, which for the agent was
probably not the best thing. But I wanted to be
drafted in the first round. I didn't care about being

(13:22):
the number. I just wanted to go somewhere where I
knew that I can learn and I can actually have
an impact and continue my dream.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
It was at draft.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
I was there.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
I was there. It was stuff.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Man, You're tough because you kind of have an idea.
You don't have a verbal, but you kind of have
a verbal, you know how It is like you got.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
To be they go in here, I'm not going like shit.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Exactly, and then you have five minutes and then your
agent's like you want to go there? They want to
send you to your like no, oh, you want to
go the building for the future. No, No, So I
said no to a couple of like few teams that
probably are pissed me. But you know, I can't, so
my first goal was Then the Lakers came and I was.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Like, damn, what about it? They changed their mind.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
So it's kind of crazy, but you know when when
they started walking towards you with the hats and everything,
I was just like, Okay, that's half a dream is realized.
Like I'm I'm here. I think I was the happiest
kid on the planet. I was like, you know, it
just takes you back from where you come from, what
you had to go through, and that everything makes sense

(14:31):
at the end of the day if you're willing to
put the work in and if you choose the right
path and you see, you know, you push yourself to
go to the next level or nothing given, no nothing, nothing,
never given like nothing.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
You know that's what I'm suffering. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Deep tell us about that process and meeting Phil Jackson,
legendary coach, the late great Kobe Brant and Jeanie Buss
was what was your impressions.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Now, So my rookie year, Rudy t took over the
team because the Lakers just lost against Detroit and PJ
was not there. He was one of the reasons that
I wanted to go to when you know when you
get a like an agent and they give you like
this Q and A, and then you know, who would
you like to meet, like to kind of get to

(15:24):
know you better? And the team's always said, I want
to meet Phil Jackson, like what he did with Chicago
and then with the Lakers. He's just getting incredible. But
I got here and played the whole preseason. Everything went well,
and then a day before season started, Rudy T calls
me aside and he says, hey, you know, I brought
my player from Houston here. I was supposed to back up,

(15:46):
you know, to positions and just kind of get ten
fifteen minutes like just to kind of get a feel
for it. And Rudy T from Janovich coach. He was
our coach in two thousand and four. I don't want
to even say. It doesn't really matter the research. If
I said I'm gonna be I'm gonna doesn't matter. No,

(16:07):
I can't say that right now. Yeah, I don't even
go there.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
You don't even go there and go oh man.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
So anyhow, he said, you know he played for me before,
you're young. You're coming from Europe. I think we're gonna
have a better chance and I was like, I was
not even in the locker room. I already called my
agent and my agent was, uh, you know Kobe's agent
also Rappy Linka. So I'm like, you know, you go crazy,
like calm down. You know you're you're not you might

(16:38):
not be his plan, but you're in the plan of
the franchise.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
And then Cope called me. Kobe was kind of calming
me down.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
I was like, this is crazy and funny fact, one
of the teams that I was supposed to go to
was Boston because Danny Inge and I had a good
workout there and I was like, damn, do I just
kill my dream and just pull the trigger? But he
was just kind of you know that crazy stuff and
that was all happening like people don't know what happens

(17:04):
behind the scenes. And I was like, Okay, I'm going
to work out and I'm going to prove them wrong.
Then he got I think fired after two months. Something
happened with all the respect like you know, good man,
I don't know him, but I didn't like him at all.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
I wanted to where I come from. Man, we're gonna
have problems.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's love, but hey man, yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, So I was like, damn, this guy just outplayed me,
like anyhow. So I was like, you know, just playing
that year at the end of the season more because uh,
Frank Hamlet late Frank Hamlin took over and they were like, oh,
Philly is probably PG just coming back next year, so
let's just play whoever's gonna stay with us and stuff.

(17:50):
But my first time meeting Kobe was just you know,
kind of automatic connection.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
He knew I was.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Coming to the team, and we kind of broke it
down in ten seconds in Italian and that was like
kind of breaking every barrier and the iceberg and we
started talking and then he didn't need much time. He
already Hadola Marrymoma. When we were ina in San Diego,
we were a training camp and you know, you know

(18:17):
how I played, you guys hat it like you probably
hated me because I'm.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Just all in. You know, I was crazy, and Koby
saw that. I didn't care.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
I was like, like, who was this small fucker thing.
He's so tough coming from I was like, I was like,
this moll fucker. He didn't start cursing you out and
splaining your language. I'm like, amen, oh he did.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
He tough?

Speaker 1 (18:41):
What you was, and I'm talking her every time. I
always thought you had an attitude or something that was
that chip on your shoulder always.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
I always said all my life, like I was, just
when I got on a basketball court, I was a
different person. You know, I can, we can be cool
and everything, but I just want to win. I want
to find the way. And Kobe being my big brother
and still is, you know, he's with us and Gigi
also That's why every you know, kind of basketball thing
I do, I make sure that exactly there with us.

(19:11):
Like you know, when you want to ask yourself a
question and Kobe's with us, look at your phone and
you see eight and twenty four, you know he's there,
and then eighteen my number sometimes. So anyhow, long story short,
Kobe was like, I can play with you, and we
just kind of connected and he knew he could count
on me, and that was his biggest thing. You know,

(19:34):
people nobody liked Kobe, Let's be honest, Like everybody was jealous,
hated him because he was different, because he wanted to
get to that level. And once I had that, I
knew that, you know, I had to stay. And then
meeting Genie for the first time, you know, being in
a family business, it's not always easy. But when you know,

(19:54):
I met everybody, doctor Buzz. Then I met Genie. I
remember it was in the old Elsigondo facility and it
was just like, wow, I'm really here. Like that made
me like realize, like and she was always the nicest
and people don't realize that, you know, being the only
female sports owner in you know, in one of the
best franchises.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
She's my big sis.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
So uh, you know, I think we have the best
franchise Boston might be on Bertillia.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Oh no, I knew. I knew I'm opening, but that's
the that's the beauty of it.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
But you know, meeting her and people don't really realize how,
you know, forty five years now, she's been there with
Linda Rambis, who's you know, also very uptime. It's like
if you guys watch Godfather, one of my favorite movies,
you got to you know, the Godfather in Constiliary, that's
who they are, uh And Geny was just since they won,
they've welcomed me to the family and I'm grateful for that.

(20:54):
So it was it's not easy, you know, going through
our ups and downs, especially breaking our hearts in two
thousand and eight, but.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
I'm jumping. I just want to get over two thousand
and No.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
But I just want to know before we get to
that talk about some you know, everybody says Kobe got
this work ethic. You know he get up having the morning,
he in full sweats, two workouts before you even come
to the gym. Can you explain to me that part
of his workouts and how was it in practice with you?
Because I saw a few clips used to have some

(21:33):
competitive rap.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
So he probably got up at like four o'clock because
he was in the gym and five.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
I got to the gym at five o'clock, and I'm
like Kobe, like, I'm the rookie.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
I gotta prove myself.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
I gotta do this, I gotta play this, I can't
play defense all that stuff. So it's just like yourself
in the gym and just gonna go at it. But
then when you see Cobe, You're like, Wow, he's a
franchise player. He already won and he wants to keep
going with Kobe with was that, you know, obsession of
being the greatest. I think he achieved to do that
because there was never enough and there was just that

(22:11):
extra mile he wanted to take. And that's why everybody's
talking about mamba mentality. Everybody can find that mamba mentality
within themselves is the hero within you.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
But are you willing to do that? Not many will.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Everybody wants to go like, Okay, I'm going to do
a little bit extra work. I'm gonna you know, they
kind of calculated. But Kobe's obsession with studying the film,
understanding the opponent, the footwork, like going deep into the system,
into trying like trying to understand every single aspect of it.
It's not only outworking you on the basketball court. He's
like mentally outworking you, but just you know, putting a

(22:48):
smile here, like looking at you weird, like I smell
blood right now, Like he gets into your psyche. And
once that happened, we knew we were golden and he
was our leader. He was somebody that you either could
follow or you.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Fall behind and you gone.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
So there were not many that could follow that pace,
that intensity. And like you said, it was we had fights.
Our workouts. Our practices were like fist fights, basically respectful
fist fights, which.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
When we came to a game. We came to a game, we.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Were like, Oh, that's easy, honestly, because once you get
into that system mindset of understanding defense, offense, the balance
of rebounds, and just kind of seeing, then you cover
for your teammates. So there were no fast breaks or
our practices. They were tough, like you were lucky if
you got a fast break, because we all knew where
we wanted to go and the way it was scouted,

(23:45):
you know, having one of the greatest coaches, if not
the greatest in my opinion, as our teacher, coach, leader,
ultimate leader, and it was just like, oh, they know
what they're doing. We better we better follow, we better
go with, we better underst and that.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Motivatingly, Oh, it's incredible.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Like PJ would walk in the room in the in
the gym we would play you know, summer pickup or whatever.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
It was allowed, like everybody yelling. He walks in silence,
like silence just had it.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Like something just happened, Like we are on another level,
Like we went from level two to like five, and
there are two more, so we better play really hard.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
So he's happy about that. It was just something that
I've never seen before in my life.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
I can't, I can't, I can just imagine how you travel.
You get on the bus, get off on the hotel,
we go. I was like the Beatles ran with Coche. No.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Kobe was like he helped me so much just being
a young kid from Europe and understanding. Like like I said,
we connected through the basketball mindset of trying to be
the best and give the best a game of basketball
and playing the right way, which was the most important
thing for us. But he would show me how to

(24:59):
actually study the game, how to see the little things
on the basketball court, like from the footwork, from the
mimics of certain players, what they like they don't like
to do it. Then in the playoffs later on, I
would study specific players I would have to play against
and just became passing on defense and annoying because of it,
because I was going to that different persona kind of

(25:21):
thing that connected and annoyed everybody. So that's why we
didn't like each other until today.

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your game. Another thing, Look, do you think the triangle
offense could work to the in today's game?

Speaker 3 (26:27):
It is one hundred percent, But you know it's not
about triangle offense or not. Like if you look at
the NBA today, everybody's playing the same exact way, and
he's becoming annoying.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
The product that I had a good conversation.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
With someone I'm not gonna name them, but they said,
all the players are running the show right now. They're
getting paid too much. They you know what, that can
be the that can be the case. We can argue
that arguably. But back in the day, MJ said the
perfect quote. I don't know if I'm going to quote
him perfectly right now, but he said, we are making
a big mistake by the time that you know, we're

(27:03):
going to be out of the league, the OG's and stuff.
We are paying for the potential. We're not paying for
the merit of what they are doing. So once you
do that, once you get too comfortable, Yeah, a lot
of people are all overpaid. But God blessed, Like I
always said, any player that gets overpaid, like you don't
know their background, like, let them get as much money.

(27:23):
But the problem with that is if you don't have
the right coaches, the right mindsets, people that want before,
if you don't have people that actually understand basketball or
were there before them, you know, just playing politics and
you know, going from one team to another and just
exchanging you know this big circle, you're not going to
teach them anything. The reason why we were so successful

(27:46):
is because we were different than anybody else. There's no
system that it's even close to the one we had.
But what you need, you need someone to teach that
system properly, and you need a player like Kobe, somebody
that's a franchise player, that's you know for I always said,
m Jane Kobe to go forever. So if you have that,
as players like Zebel, like I guarantee you if you

(28:08):
would have somebody like Kobe, if you would play with
us and you're like scoring thirteen Memphis and killing it,
and you know, with your big booty on that pinch
post and low polls.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Bro, I remember you will.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
That guy was being double team like triple team, Like
I kid you not. I was like he annoyed everybody,
but nobody could guard in one on one.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
He was just that good.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
If you would have been with someone like that that
could actually explain it to you, give it to you
even in the middle of your career, you would adjust
because you wouldn't understand what it means to be on
the basketball court and playing the right way like there
are very few teams right now that are playing the
right way. So when you ask me, I think the
right way playing basketball forget it might be called trying,

(28:50):
or might be called something else.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Like just playing the right way.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
And when you allow players and everybody to get too comfortable,
they're not going to play the right way. Players always
run the league. Always since the beginning, the players were
the important ones. But at least they have they had
people there that they kind of trust.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
It.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Okay, if I want to win, actually better have a
good coach. The coach that has been there, won lost
and wants to give me something not just to survive,
but to actually go on a marathon with me to
help me win a championship. But then again, if that
player doesn't want a championship, if he wants just for
his individual brand to grow on and off the court.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
So you got to find killers. So you got to
find killers. That's what today's game is. It's all like
Myke brand. You know what I'm saying, How can I
beld Mike brand? That's kind of how you don't see it.
That's why you ain't see no back to back championships lately.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
There's no dynasties. But I love it because you understand
that you play for a great franchise and you know,
winning back to back there's nothing like it. And I'm
not taking your two thousand and eighth away you guys want,
but I was always told by the.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
Great you gotta confirm it.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
If you win, you gotta con That's why for me
watching now, there are no back to backs. There are
no like three peats, Like Golden State was the only
team that had a chance, but they still had to
bring players.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
But for my mindset is like, so I got out
of the basketball to understand what's going on, because when
you're in it for too long, you just blindfolded and
you might be able to do the same exact thing.
So watching it from outside, I was just like, wow,
there's so much potential, Like players are so good right now.
There's so much talent.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Crazy.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
The fundamentals might not be at the highest level, but
that's all fault of the youth basketball because the way
you get the players, the way you out he's talented. Okay,
And like I was talking to someone, they're like, you know,
if you want to meet a player right now, it's
actually talented. You got to pay a certain amount to
actually have a meeting with them. I'm like, wait, what
what the young players? You got to actually to have

(30:56):
a meeting with parents and the agent. You gotta you know,
make that you can afford it. I'm like that can't
be hit though. But even though with all that, there's
a lot of potential, like a lot of potential. Unfortunately
it's not being you know, it's not being there right now,
it's not being taken to the next level. But I

(31:19):
think basketball has incredible potential. He just takes one or
two to make it, right.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, get some great talents, like you said, you know,
the actually describe the culture shock, like come from Europe
to come to like one of the biggest markets in
the world, Like, well, how was that?

Speaker 4 (31:34):
It was a shock?

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Like the Beatles, like a rock star group, right.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Like Slovenia has two million people and being here, But
you know, I was lucky because I went through Italy
and in Italy being there, you kind of have to
speak like Italian, you have to speak uh, Slovenian English
and you know, Serbian.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Then and then you come here and you're like wow.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
But I don't blame people that come to LA and
they lose track of what they came here for.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Especially, I can't blame them.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
It's incredible, Like you're a twenty year old and you go,
you know, after the games, you can go party to
any celebrity or any house and just private parties and
stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
But that was the choice for me.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
You know, when I first got here, my parents, my brother,
and my sister, they came with me, and that had
a big role for me. That played a huge role
for me. Without their support, I would always say I
would never be able to be where I'm at a
hundred percent. So that was big. And while we were
in Italy in those five years, another dream was born,

(32:40):
if everything goes well, that we would like to have
a family winery because Pop's fell in love with the
wines in you know, Italian wines are really good. And
then when they came here, you know, first one when
they kind of took away from us.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
But that's okay, that's not a conversation we can have.
It's not going to be that friendly.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
No, But when you guys won that championship in eight
you understand I didn't wear green for a year and.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
That was that was actually my next question, how did
the two thousand and eight championship affect you or didn't
motivate you into going into the next year, because y'all
actually went back back. So yeah, explain that you two eight.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
So my first year that I was on the bench
and they said Sasha is girl's name, you know in
the crowd. I think that was two thousand and six
when we played Phoenix in the playoffs and we had
a lead three to one.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
We lost.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
That's so officially when Kobe said officially, welcome to NBA, Like,
what do you mean, He's like, they finally have a
sign about your name and now you're an NBA.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
I was like wow. I was like, wow, wait.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
It's the same series Kobe was supposed to win MVP.
He didn't get it because of that. Yes, yeah, oh man,
he stopped passing in the final like ohmer.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
So yeah, but but what happened was like to go
back to z question and then following with yours cultural shock. Yeah,
but I was locked in that gym. That's how I
got the nickname. That's how they said, like, he's a
gym rad because I knew that I was not the strongest,
but the way I can, you know, get to it,
I gotta work really hard and my shot is okay,

(34:18):
got to be better. But I want to be like
the guy that can give Kobe minutes at the end
of the game to play defense. So a lot of
times like I would not start games ever I didn't care,
but I wanted to finish games and that was the thing.
So that kind of so either you go Hollywood, you
go into gym and you're like, what else can I
work on? Because if you want, I mean one way

(34:39):
to another, one way or another, Like that's the way
it is. So if you're obsessed with basketball and if
you love it, you will always find something to work.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Like you gotta find something.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
There's some things that you know it's details, but he's
got to be like the craft's got to be perfect,
and it's never perfect. So for me going there was
just like, Okay, I'm locked in. I don't see the noise.
There was a lot of noise in LA and you
can get lost. But then when we got to the finals,
I think that's the year that we played the best basketball.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
We just played the right way.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
We unfortunately didn't have Andrew Biden. People forget about that,
Like Andrew for us was huge on both ends of
the court, and when we lost, it was heartbreaking. I was,
you know, a few of us really cried like crazy.
We had a I think it was Game four when
we had a twenty six or twenty seven point lead

(35:33):
at halftime. You remember that, and you guys came back. Yes,
you guys came back out of nowhere.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, But you guys, I think you guys were ready
that year. We were just young and not experienced enough,
and we didn't understand the magnitude of being in the finals, like.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
Not everybody did.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
But once you take away somebody like Andrew, who was
basically a rem protect, they're like being present.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
It was.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
It was big. And I didn't wear green for a
year of us didn't bro I was.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
All in like purple and gold was uh. But that's
what the showtime did for us. Like when you watch
all old tapes and you see that rivalry that kind
of brought, you know, NBA also to the next level.
Then she in Chicago, but Detroit before. But then I
think the biggest rivalry is Boston l A sod So
that's family, Like Lakers are my family.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
And you know, I was like, I hate them. You
don't hate anybody you gotta be you know, it's a
strong word, but green, Oh my god, yeah, no, it's
it's definitely like right now we're good, like we get
along and everything because we got the last left. But
we're gonna talk about that later.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
But eight was to two thousand and eight was really
really tough.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
You guys actually.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
There.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
But I'll tell you somebody you mentioned him before. Ray
had that crossover on me to kind of close the game,
and I took it very personally. I was like, ooh,
it was misunderstanding on defense. You know, I was trying
to send him one way and anyhow that that kept
playing in my mind for the entire summer. So I
would go I was like, okay, defense is where I

(37:20):
want to focus right now. And I would be locked
in and you know, five am workouts were just helping me,
maybe with confidence, maybe with something, but I just wanted
to get better because we were not good enough to
be champions, and if everything done until now, we don't
win the entire Like career until now, My career actually

(37:41):
from personal point of view, was nothing like That's how
I saw it.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
So I was like, Okay, it's not going to be nothing.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Let's go and it'd be like that, I ain'tnna lie
when you when you when you taste that much success
and you get all the way to the prom and
it's like, damn, I gotta get back there. And I
was here reports that a lot of you guys, I
didn't even take like you know, most guys take a
month off like some of you guys took two three
days off and was back in the gym and a field.

(38:08):
You guys that actually win the championship.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Ye, that gave us, Like to be honest with you,
that gave us that reminder.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
In game seven, when we were going back to back,
we were playing horrible basketball, like not horrible, it was
just gonna make a shot. The emotions were there. But
losing in O eight, we swore like within ourselves and
with everybody around us, we will never feel like that
ever again, because we felt like shit, man, it was bad.

(38:39):
And then that game seven we didn't win because of tactics.
There was one game that everybody stepped up and the
heart prevailed playing at home, knowing how we felt in
the eight when you guys destroyed us by thirty or
something like that Game six.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
It was bad.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
It's not nice. But then I was we were like, wow,
we gotta win. So it didn't matter if you played ten, fifteen,
two minutes, three minutes. You knew that your number at
some point in that game is going to be called.
You're going to be called upon. That's what that wrote exactly.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
That's what happened to be.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
And everybody kind of you know, put their hand in
and then when you put the pieces of the puzzle
together and the puzzle is really strong, it's not going
to break.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
But it seemed because because in two thousand and now
it was like the Magic they had a squad squad
lewis you Keto Turculu White Mirror squad If Courtney Lee
don't miss that layup? Nah man, it goes way shout out.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
But no, listen, I'm saying, I love you, bro.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
We played together. We know we played together in New York.
You know we had a conversation about that. But no way, Bro,
that our.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
Yeah, that's our yeah, that was our Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Impossible, But that tells you the matchups are really important. Also,
right when we knew that that was our run, we
were there. But I got a funny story about hiro
in that in that year. But whenever you want to
get to it, you might like it.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
So look in two thousand and eight, I know you
speak highly on Andrew Bynam not being that right. I
know where this is no. Listen, we got big part
because you know he heard himself shut out big pert.
He tore a c l and he was playing great

(40:40):
defense on she. She was not big score he was.
He was not big defender at the time. He was
our big score. So like he stretched the floor, you
know what I'm saying. He made the right place, set
the right pigs, and got open for the pick and pop.
He actually played three point line and three point line me.

(41:01):
But he was a dominant force war. Yeah, but my
thing is, do you feel like y'all really would have
won we had her? That's my question.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
You guys added another weapon with Wallace, like she was
that weapon that you guys didn't have before. You remember that,
and losing one weapon that was not scoring weapons. It
might have been on defense. Like he actually messed up
my shoulder though, like coming off.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
The pick, I still have like a bone over here
sticking out. I was supposed to have a surgery. But
that's okay.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
No, I honestly think that us losing against you in eight.
There was a Basketball Gods kind of online and they
said it because the work that we really put in
and the way we wanted and you know, bringing bringing
Ron at the time to be with us that and
ten because Ron came yeah instead of uh trap and yeah.

(41:55):
Ron's like, that's one of my favorite teammates. Man, I
love that guy.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yeah, come on to describe run type. He's just some
crazy gap but he's also a good teammates. Just explain it.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
So Ron, Ron, He's like one of my favorite teammates
of all time. Just when he came to us, we
knew exactly what we were getting because he was in
Houston before and we were just going at each other,
like him and Kobe.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
Oh my god. I was like, oh, I love it,
I love it, I love it.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
And Ron thinking that he can actually stop Kobe was
hilarious because we talked about that.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
You know, that's my day.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
But when he got there, like there was a strategy
and I didn't play a couple of games just because
Phil was so instrumental to play mind games with players
that he wanted to make stronger mentally, Like there were
games I would play like thirty seconds and one mistake.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
But he was trying to teacher like when it comes
to him. He was a coach, but he was a teacher.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
So everybody that he counted on he would just poke
a little bit throughout the season. But then Ron came
up to me and he said many times he was like, yo, bro,
you can hoop man, Just go play. You're gonna there
were some players playing on different teams. He's like, just go,
you're gonna score twenty points a game. You're gonna get paid.
Just get paid, man. You already have ring.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
Blah blah blah. And like run, there's not one ring,
it's two rings. He's got to be back to back.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
But having him every practice like he was on defense,
he was beast like when he puts the hand, doown.
You can have a freaking train coming through that hand.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
It's not gonna go.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
And back then there was not like, you know, like
foul because actually when you get fouled, it was like
a real foul, right, and Ron bringing that defensive toughness
and understanding of what how he can fit in was
big for us because he could have gone to La
and be like, Okay, I'm gonna just you know, try
to get my numbers up and everybody's gonna be happy.

(44:00):
He came with understanding, and he takes a big person.
He takes a big player to understand that I'm going
to give up a lot in order to fit in
and give them and win together.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
And he truly made made us, like helped us with
a three point shot in the game seven. That's why
I say a big shot.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
I can't front. I ain't gonna lie. I asked Paul
this every time I said, why you just didn't run
them off the line? Right? Paul always tell me no,
that was part of the skout report. Just close your person,
let them off. But speaking about that game, Bro, you
hit two big ass free throws, and I honestly, truthfully

(44:41):
to I thought you was gonna clank at least.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
One of them.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Mother can do man, you clutch them? Can't do what
was going through your man at the time.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
So as a kid, I always dreamt of the moment
to decide a game on the free throw line all
my life, and the way since I was fourteen, probably
I would not leave the gym if I didn't score
ten feets in a row, eyes open and ten eyes closed.
So that was my routine, right, and Phil knew that.

(45:09):
Coaching Stack knew that. Everybody knew that. When I Ron
was actually in the game before they called time out,
he just made a three point shot run, runs to
Phil and he's like, put Sasha and put Sasha in, Taksasha,
take me out, take me out.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
He wanted to go out.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
So that tells me a team. And so that tells you, like, Okay,
they we knew you guys gonna follow you. Guys just
made two three point shots out of nowhere, like man,
let's be honest, like talking about that ran from the
corner and then you know it was just crazy from
the rebound. So Ron said that, but Phil already wrote
the play and I was in the play. He just
looked at him because you remember Game seven, like everybody

(45:47):
was like, hi, it was crazy, and he turns the
board around and it's like the play for me. And
at that point I was like, Okay, perfect, That's that's
the moment I was waiting for. That's why why I'm here.
That's gonna all make sense at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Field. That's real cold team.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
All my teammates.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
It was all my teammates, and you know, Kobe was
the first one my rookieyear, and then Phil came and
Phil saw that that's why he was I was probably
if you check, like from the period that Phil came
to us till the last championship, he would play me
thirty seconds or forty five seconds games just to teach me,
just to make a point. But he wouldn't do that

(46:28):
if he wouldn't count on me at some point in
the career. And then going to the three throw line,
I was like, this is it. This is the this
is the moment I was waiting for. And a friend
of mine we were having dinner, like a few months ago,
and he said, you know, you don't understand, Like if
I ask you now, give me ten finals in the
past few years, who played or who won, You're not

(46:51):
going to remember. But I'm telling you Boston Southeast Game seven,
everybody knows who made those three throws. And I was like, damn, yes,
that's like to me, it was like, wow, it's monumental
in a way, but it's because my teammates, coaches and
everybody trusted that I was the one that had to
just give a little bit of a you know, hand, use.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
A piece of the puzzle and it was boring. Being
that it was bolling made sense that it made full circle.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
Yeah, it did. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
So you know how when when your number is called,
you either are there for it, but that goes all
to the work that you've done when nobody was watching,
or you can't get lucky at that point, right if
you missed a free thrower, if you missed a shot,
or if you don't everybody says, oh, there's some guys,
great guys.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
They didn't win there.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Yeah, but they probably didn't put that extra work that
somebody else did. So at that point, all the hard
work and everything we believed we should achieve made sense.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Sure. Meanwhile, I have to plan all those seasons with
the Lakers talk to Get probably probably got a little
emotional talk to us about having the league the Lakers
and end up eventually being with the next Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
So, uh, you know when you play for the team
like you played and I played, And also it was
you know that big body. Time I see you, I
remember everybody you can't guard that guy.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Man, they're like that big I'm being nice but saying that,
I'm like, bro, you're crazy, man, Like, how can this
guy score so many points with double team, double team,
and he just can't.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
He was, you know, I kind of can give you
a nickname for a little bit. He was scoring machine
for a moment. But I'm going to keep my nickname
here now. So when I left.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
When I left, I think we were already sad that
Phil would not stay, that the team would, you know,
kind of go different directions. And I was not getting
minutes that I thought I should. At that time in
my career, I was twenty six years old. I wanted
to play, and once you want to play, you're like,
you know, once you win, you're like, come on, I
want to play.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
I know, like just and I didn't play as much.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
So talking to RP at the time, I was, I
don't know, like are we going for another championship or not,
but I need to leave. So I was kind of
mentally prepared because the game of basketball that's the biggest
love to me and the best you know, where I
feel the best. And I thought I was just wasting
time at the time, that there was too much work

(49:29):
to it that I was putting in. And then when
I left, I was I went to Jersey and kind
of second breath, it was great.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
It was amazing.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Then the lockout happened, and then long story shore, I
went to Europe and all that stuff. But once you
play at that level and you know that, once you
compete for championships, once you play for PJ with Kobe,
it's really really hard to find that competitive spirit and

(49:58):
carry it on and finding in other people and then
connecting that level.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
So a lot of things I played on this like
this guy's crazy, and.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
It's almost like where you come from. Yeah, it's almost
like like, Okay, when you get to certain you know,
ball clubs where everybody want to be a piece of puzzle,
you know what I mean. I had that in Memphis,
I had that in Boston, you know what I'm saying.
And when I got to New Orleans, you know, I
didn't see that for everybody. I didn't see like, you know,

(50:29):
everybody want to be a key piece to the puzzle.
You know, you had certain guys just had their own agendas,
you know what I'm saying. And so when you get
to programs like this, it's like, damn, you kind of
appreciate where you came from, and it's like it's hard
to you know, duplicate. But man, I definitely got to
give your flowers. You know what I'm saying. You definitely
put in that work in LA and hitting those shots,

(50:52):
and just I'm coming from where you come from as
a whole bro man up until when not too many
people say they back to back champions, you are definitely the.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
Chance coming from you, guys.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Man Like, appreciate that coming from you guys, Like it's
it's funny because you know, on the basketball court you
kind of hate each other, you want to go at
each other and everything, but you guys understand how much
work you have to put in and when you guys
are today like flowers are giving back because congratulations, it

(51:23):
takes a special kind of mindset to get out of
the mud.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Right.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Uh so you guys are you know, I'm really happy
that this is my first one and that we are
rocking it here.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
No, I mean, ain't we still. I just want to
let you know, I just want to I was going
to give you a flowers that lights hot.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
By the way, that's okay. I'm like, I watched it.
I'm like, why is he beholding that?

Speaker 2 (51:51):
It's the preacher sweat on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Appreciate that. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
I'm straight bro. So now the lockout come and you
spend time overseas and what motivated you to just come back,
because you eventually came back and talk about your experience
in going back and going through that present.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Yeah, there was a lockout happened, and I was told
by someone really close to me in the organization of players,
that is going to be for more than a few months, right,
So I'm not going to say anything right now. But
I got kind of screwed a little bit on purpose
because it was like a month or two, right, and
then the league came back.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
I'm like, it's going to be more than four five months, Yes,
for sure. I'm like, okay, I better go to Europe
because I.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Was getting the offers from Europe and I just wanted
to play at that point. I wanted to play basketball.
I went to nets and I was like, wow, I
can still play the way I want to play. I
just got to be connected with the right teammates and
then we will get something. So I wanted to go
to Europe to win European Championship because I never wanted
Europe that time. And I went to fhis Pilsen, which

(53:03):
was in Turkey and Istanbul, and signed one post one.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Yeah. Uh.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
And funny enough, one of the teams that I was
supposed to go back when the lockout stopped was your
team Memphis.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
You in Memphis there, I can talk. I can talk
about that right now.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
But I was supposed to come back, and you guys were,
you know, planning to make that run and everything, and
I was.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
I was really really close, but some parts.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Of my contract in Turkish there I couldn't leave during
the season, so it was kind of, you know, dilemma.
It was tricky situation, but that was one of my
like Okay. Then at the end of the year, I
was like, okay, what are we doing right now?

Speaker 4 (53:51):
And I had to go back again.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
And then I was just in Europe for a little bit,
like trying to figure out and then fil took over
New York and all I wanted to do is just
win just one more.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
I wanted three so bad.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Then coming back to h to New York, it wasn't
easy because there were a couple of teams that were
going for a playoff runs in those two three years.
And you wait and they're trying to trade a player
before the trade deadline, and you practice and you work
alone and you wake up solo. There's no team around you.
It just you know, my brother actually helped me big
time because he would come with me. Uh and then

(54:28):
finding trainers during the season when nobody's here. It was
just not the easiest, but you keep going.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
So I kept going, kept.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Going, shout out broke, kept pushing.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my that's my best friend. He's
he's nine years younger, but he's killing it. So the
thing was when when Phil took over, it was like,
I need to go and New York is gonna make
a team. And then we had a great team. Actually
we were just unlucky with the coaching and uh the unlucky,

(55:00):
let's put it this way.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
But even still even still though as like as a
as an NBA player, like getting the get the chance
to playing school the biggest markets. Yeah, I mean that
had to be a great experience. Can you explain playing
in New.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
York and l a just yeah, people said, people, are
you playing in New York tools Yeah, York in Tarrytown
practice facilities and being it's tough, like.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
The our half gets to the Garden East and Westchester.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Yeah, that's tough, right, very tough. It's different than l
A very different.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
I played with the Clippers, very different.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah, So for me it was I was living my
first year there in white plans and the most depressing
maybe it was the year. I'm not gonna say anything
bad about the white plans, well there's nothing to do,
but it was the weather that year. I was like
depression mode to perfection. I didn't know what the hell

(55:56):
to do, and but we were you know, Phil had
a plan there. But one of the things that I
think Bill learned there later on is but Ginnie told
him when he left, like whenever you take over, got
to have a clean house, because if you don't clean
the house, then you're going to get back stead and

(56:17):
then they're going to be like you know, things and
chapters and everything. So long story short, I was really
excited about New York. It didn't work out the way
we thought it would. Then the second year, I lived
the like ten blocks from the garden and I would
walk to the game.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
So I learned my lesson and it was just just different.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
It was disappointing because there was so much potential, like
having Jokim, Noah KP a young KP Cili. Also we
were great pieces to be put together, but not guided
the way we were supposed to be guided. So that
was frustrating, really frustrating. And then when Phil left, I

(57:03):
was like, I gotta go to Europe and win one.
More like I was just say I gotta win something,
so kind of full circle, like everything else in life.
I signed in Torino, which was first capital of Italy,
and they had a basketball team. Great basketball players went
through the Torino but they never won like in the
past thirty years. And I did the dumbest thing on

(57:24):
the planet.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Man.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
I was like, when I signed with them, I said,
we got three to win Italian Championship, Italian Cup and
europe Cup. So I promise you already. You know that's
a dumb thing. I promised you We're going to win one.
And I landed in Italy. That's why I said, first
two months playing incredible, everybody's happy.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
First bad game, Oh we can't win that. More foward that,
like I was the enemy of the state. Yeah, it
was tough.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
And then the teammates when you go back to Europe,
the teammates that are now in Europe, they never played
in NBA, so they kind of jealous, you know. The
jealousy when somebody doesn't want to pass the ball and
it's just like crazy in our craft how that happens
and people don't really see it? And how is everything
about the rhythm and getting there and understanding And then
long story short, we won Italian Cup, luckily or not luckily.

(58:18):
I had the last second shot to kind of win it,
and I'm like, never again, Man, this is crazy, it's crazy.
But I learned my last never promise over delivered. Just
don't promise, do whatever. And that was learning experience towards
the end of my career to kind of be like, wow,
every day, we're still learning.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Every day.

Speaker 4 (58:38):
Every year there's a learning chapter to be done. At
the end of the end of the journey.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
It's time for the Pigs. We first team aka the
grand Father. You guys already know what to do. Head
over the press picks, download the app and use promo
cod Mud. You get fifty dollars instantly if you play
with the littlest five dollars. Remember now, this is a
skill based game. You either pick more or less. Now
let's get to my picks. So yo, first game of
the week. We got Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

(59:07):
First game of the week, Mavericks and Lakers. Luca returned,
so you already know I'm going more points, in rebounds,
he's returning back home. It's up next two picks. I'm
going with San Antonio, going to the Warriors. We're gonna
pick Jimmy more in rebounds and more in assists. He

(59:30):
always getting it done. My last two picks, I'm going
Denver and Memphis. Memphis going into Denver. Playoff implications is involved,
you know, scene is everything. So I got Jaron Jackson,
more in points and more in rebounds. And those are
your picks with the Grandfather. So make sure you guys
go to the prize picks, download the app, use the

(59:52):
promo cod Mud. Now let's get back to the episode
we talk about, you know a lot of you know
how the game is evolving league today. Obviously our fraternity
were from the NBA family. They say the euro players
are catching up with the Americans. Uh, how do you
see that little argument going on right now? Is the

(01:00:15):
European game and caught up with the American game? You
know it's been out here for a while now. But
you got your top five players who would a lot
of people already say Jokic, Yo, Shay, Luca, Luca, who else?

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
M B. Yeah, he's got to get healthy, man, I
feel bad for him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Yeah, So I'm saying, how do you feel with that?
With that comment, I.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Think the game becoming global is advantage for everybody. You know,
there's never going to be the dream team like back
in the day, but everybody's catching up one step at
a time. For us, speaking for you know, even for
Jannis because he comes from Greek school of basketball, fundamentals
are every understanding the game of basketball, not seeing yourself

(01:01:03):
as an individual on the team, but understanding the concept
of how can I bring the best out of Zebra,
how can I bring the best out of or you
guys bring the best out of me. That's what they
teach you at a young age. And that's the axes
and o's. You can put them aside, but you need
to know fundamentals. You got to respect the game in
order to be respected. And I think that's what us

(01:01:24):
coming from Europe are doing better at the moment. We're
just playing the right way and it opens up the
path towards bigger things in life. One thing you mentioned
in Yannis, you know, I think Yanni's also helped a
lot with loyalty. When he chose Milwaukee back in the day,

(01:01:45):
he could have picked any team. He could have been
another super team and going there. But when they want
the championship, and when he was really he said, no,
I'm staying Milwaukee. Milwaukee is So I was like wow,
and I told him that like he's a he's a friend,
and I played with his brother in New York. He
changed the narrative of how to see the game again,

(01:02:06):
so he brought that back. Yokid winning it also helped
us at that time because everybody was like where can
I jump on?

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
On?

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Which team can I go to win? So I think
they brought back that loyalty to the team and understanding
of no, we got to do it the way, the
tough way, the way that it's supposed to be done.
And now having Luca here, you know we can we
can dream again of you know, ten years ahead, God willing.
But it's all about playing the right way. Sometimes from

(01:02:37):
the path the game will go, you know, like this
bad good bad good. But if you play the game
the right way, and like anything else in life, you
did the right thing, it might take a little longer,
but it's going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
It's going to be.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
It's going to bring you to the point that you
can only dream of that you can be on. But
I think the US still, you know, you use all
the the games in Europe. This year in France it
was insane, Like the Olympics, Serbia was one or two
possessions away from surprising it. But it's not about it's
just because they played the right way and they understan

(01:03:12):
understanding your roles and being on a championship team. You
need to know your roles and you just can't take
anybody anything for granted anymore. Game is evolving.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
It's insane, sure, definitely, and the.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Ones that are dominating are the ones with the most
fundamentals if you look at it like just the way
it is. So if you don't work on your craft,
if you don't work on your fundamentals, you're not gonna
last long because there's gonna be somebody else that's gonna come.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Line.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
What do you guys think, why is the after all
of you are you know, international players coming.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Out like I don't know, we've been influenced by you know,
our culture who dominated the game. You go back from
jaw and to key into Well, I can't you sending
him up to Afrigat. Well, I mean, well, the game
is definitely in our favor. Let's just put it's definitely

(01:04:10):
in our favor. And uh, the guys over there, they
just got that stigma over there that, like you say,
they just some sometimes they soft, they don't play defense,
they just want to shoot and you know, and get
faut and.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
Be like ah, that's terrified, territyped stereotype that you know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
I want nobody keep that on that for the most
I get it. I just think we just got a
lot of skilled guys. We got a lot of talents
out there. That's that's just making making the league move.
And but you get you every once in a while,
like I said, you get your your Greek freaks, you
get your Lucas. Speak of Lukas, what you think.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
Of look incredible? I think that you know, what do
you want me to speak on? What do you want
to talk about?

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
We actually don't know each other. We know of each other.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
We had different roots kind of taking us to NBA.
But I think five when he first got to the lake,
what was it six years ago?

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
I think Mark Stern or somebody called me and they're like,
what do you think about him? You know, he comes
from the same country. And a couple of them called
me and I said, I'll be honest, like I watched
him play and he might be the only one that
reminds me a little bit more than anybody else of Kobe.
The reason being he plays with a smile, He understands

(01:05:49):
the you know, geometry on the basketball court very well.
He's talented, but there's something in his eyes that when
he plays game of basketball, is just that killer, that
killer thing that he has, like he can smell blood,
you know, like Kobe always said, I can smell blood.
You can see that he you know, he's still young,

(01:06:10):
but I think he's.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Got something of of my big broad there and the
way we got him.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
I think it's also Cobman has something to do with
it because of Niko and RP.

Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
So let's just be honest. But he's special.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
He's definitely special, and I think he's uh if he
stays on the right path, and I think he will,
there's quite a few championships ahead of him.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
That's great. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
That's why.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
I don't know, but I think it's just a matter
of time before you.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
Just a matter of time when the timing is right,
if the timing is there, if it's meant to be,
it's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
You never.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
You know one thing I've learned. You never rush things.
You never force it. You never if things are meant
to happen. If things are meant to be, they will happen.
Just like you know, being here with you guys, it's
really an honor, Like I'm happy that's my first one
with the with the old gis here.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Yeah. So I want I want to I want to
move forward past basketball. I want to talk about that.
Correct me, I from wrong. Now I's going to talk
about alex Xander one.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
Leave, Alexander one, here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
You got a present for us. As the presence you
got for us.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
I got you two thousan here we go. I'll give you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Okay. Yeah, so oh man, thank you, thank you. Shout
out to Alexander. Alexander one, Alexander, shout out Alexander.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Wye appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Guys are and just explain to us, like how did
this all come about?

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
So when we lived in Italy for five years, Bob's
fell in love with the wine making with the idea
of it, and he just you know, the second dream
was born. If we are lucky enough or if we
put good enough working to win a championship and go
to you know, pursue my dream because they were my family.

(01:08:10):
My family was my support from day one, and like
I mentioned before, like without them, I would not be
able to keep my head straight in l A number one.
But it was just after we won the first championship.
Unfortunately we couldn't do it in O eight because you know, whatever,
we lost. But we did it in all ten twenty ten.

(01:08:33):
We pulled the trigger on a property here in Pastor
Robles and my dad's the wine maker.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
He's doing his thing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
My parents leave on a property and we wanted to
do something that resonates and tells the story. So it's
an old world wine made in a new world. It's
that bridge between California and wines and European wines, leaning
more towards European wine. My brother is the CEO, he
runs the show. He's the one that is putting us

(01:09:00):
now globally all.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
Over the place. But it wasn't easy.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Just like you know, anything in life, you do, and
you know, we talked about that before. You got a
couple of different businesses, and it takes time. It takes
time to find the right teammates. It takes time. If
the product is there, you need to believe in it
and you need to know where you want to go.
And we had an idea, he had a vision of
what he wanted to do. And now fifteen years later,
we are, you know, proudly and blessed enough to say

(01:09:26):
that it's number one requested wine here in Kelly or
out of Kelly.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Shout out, shout out to Alexander one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
It's a family thing for next fifty generations. God willing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
But you know what I noticed, Sasha, A lot of
guys TA is in the wine business. A lot of
athletes starting to you know, like you. My man in
New Orleans was at Portland. There's a lot of guys
more mellow, mellow, yep. You know. So it's a lot
of guys. I think that's cool. Man. Maybe all the

(01:09:59):
NBA guys, all the I love took up come out
with one wine bra and the wine too.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
That's you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Just the lead had a special bottle together, it'd be hard.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Like you know, when I was first in NBA, not
many my teammates like wine or when we enjoyed it
like a dinner and stuff like that. But for us,
this is like a family thing. Like we don't have
any employees. It's like you know, talking about the mud
Like I go there every two weeks and we work.

(01:10:36):
We put everything through the process and understanding that with
our hands. Whatever is in there, it went through our hands.
We have professional crew. We are only for harvesting. Have
you ever tried to harvest the grapes? Bro I tried
that when I was still playing. I threw my back out.
I threw my back out. It's impossible. So I was
like three weeks just the bit backspast them.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
It's hard.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
Yeah, but it's a craft that you know, we love
and we want to build for the future.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Nice, Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
So you are now the ambassador for the Lakers. Can
you talk about expanding your road with the Lakers beyond basketball? Now?

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Yeah, I'm you know, like I said before, I had
to get out of the basketball in order to bring
something new back. So being a consultant, I started doing
stuff with the Lakers again years ago, but just recently
as a consultant. So it's an honor to be back
in the family. Like you mentioned Genie before, Genie will

(01:11:37):
forever be my sister Linda. Who if you guys are
looking for one of the best TV shows right now
and you want to understand what Lakers franchise is all about,
and you know through the kind of comic way, watch
the running point. I kid you not laughing, and you
will understand everything. It's one of the best TV shows
right now, the fastest show from Netflix to start the

(01:11:59):
second season. But I just want to be back in basketball.
I think that basketball is something that taught me and
gave me a lot, and I don't want to do
it just because I don't want to run and chase.

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
Places.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
But whatever is meant to be, Like we're I'm starting
the academy, actually the clinic in July for the first time,
where three pillars will be accountability, adversity, and leadership. Because
I went to a couple of high school games and
I was really disappointed. I had friends with kids and
they're like, they're not teaching them the right way. It's
just horrible. So my brother and I we were talking

(01:12:35):
for a while now and we waited for the right opportunities.
So this is the first time I'm even talking about that.
I'm really excited to start this and to give kids
something that I've learned back to them and try to
teach them or at least give them some right paths
towards that mindset of a champion or of a leader.

(01:12:57):
Out of I don't know hundred kids. You're not going
to have a hundred NBA players, but you're going to
find one or two that might go play basketball.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
But our goal is to.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
Give them opportunity to be able to think with their
own hats on the basketball court and they could elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
So yeah, talk about their awards you are about to receive,
and please correct me on how to say it right again,
Premio Merinini.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
Am I closes, Yeah, you're getting there. So you know,
that's why when we played them like there, he was
the one. Actually when Kobe and I would speak on
the basketball court, he would come and listen and we
started speaking Italian.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
They're like, what what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
Knew it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
I knew it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Like they just saying something English on the defensive man.
They get on the offensive man, they speaking a whole
nother thing. Younknew it. I knew it because I'd be
overlaying y'all saying something you go back door someone.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Yeah, I knew it. That's why you allow.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Appreciate you for Claire Man. What I'm saying funny. These
folks have just started. I'm like what, I'm like, what
I know? I don't understand the language, so it was

(01:14:22):
kind of over my head. But I kind ahead because
all of the film I watched, I watched a lot
of film on it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
I know you did.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
I mean you play defense like you watched a lot
of films. I was like, damn, that's the only way
to get to.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
Change the language. There's the language.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
We knew that there are a couple of back doors
at the right time that he was left on the
island there, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:45):
So it's uh Premio Manarini.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
It's one of the most prestigious awards you can get
in Italy. It's called fair play also, so they basically
give it to champions that went to Italy, and Italy
being my second home U and still have strong ties there.
I was actually very honored and grateful that they even

(01:15:07):
considered me to do something like that. I had a conversation.
I found out about that like a week ago, and
I had a conversation. She's an ex volleyball player. She's
also a champion and she runs the show there. So
we had a good conversation to understand better what it's
all about. And I'm looking forward to it that you know,
I'm going to be receiving this in June. Oh actually

(01:15:30):
I'm sorry July, second and third, going there, big guy,
I gotta put a suit on, you know, represent properly.
But it's a big thing. It's a big honor and
I'm I'm very flatters. So shout out to everybody in Italia.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
Yeah, so what's so Whito man?

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
So shout out to hiter Heroes forever and you know,
one of the best, My guy.

Speaker 4 (01:15:57):
But he's gonna like the story.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
He knows about the story because so we would play Orlando.
I think it was right before the finals, and you know,
you joke with the teammates and stuff like that, and
you know, hello, Elo is like Ello is just funny
as hell.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
So I think they were on the court and they
cleared the court and he knew kid and I were close,
and he goes, Sasha, he do.

Speaker 4 (01:16:21):
Holy like a mother looker and I'm like, come on
out of nowhere. I'm put that on the air now.
But he's like heter oh man, you know, hello, Ello
can get into it like he goes like heavily and
I'm like, come on, like hello, stop it broke, come on,

(01:16:42):
long story, so listen to this, So listen to this.
It was joking, all right. So we played them in
the finals.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
We have the last game and we I don't know
where we went for dinner. Then it's like a dinner
club in Orlando or like you know, for a drink lounge.
It was a day before and on there we Hito
Coquito is my guy, and l O is there and
I'm like, yo, hello, come here man. And he was like,
because they were kind of guarding each other, like what
did you say.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
About Hiro the other day?

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
Hell?

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
I was like no, man, I'm like what did you
say about he?

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
Come on?

Speaker 4 (01:17:17):
Man? And he was like come on, hell, what did
you say?

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
No man, I can't say.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
I'm like, come on, bro. Then he said it and
Hero started laughing like crazy. We just because it was
a joke.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Yeah, he had a good looking guy.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
Man, come on, He's like he's uh, he's uh no,
but to tell you like that, you know, commaradity and
what you had and how we see it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
And Hero could have visitally said you fuck you, you know,
but Hro took it as a you know whatever because
he knew how it was a joke.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
It was whatever, and you know crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
He's not the best looking guy, you know, but he's
not like he's definitely he's not a GQ model, which
he's okay, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
Right, because you got guys like Andre Mario.

Speaker 4 (01:18:17):
Yeah, uh, I think it's the situation that you are
put in. You know a lot of these guys.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
Mario, like not the name names right now, they're probably
not in the right situation or put into the situations
to be able to help and to give back because
like we said before, everybody's playing the same way, so
you know, they're going to be cuts, they're going to
be certain things. But I think if you're putting the
right situation, if you understand what you have to do,

(01:18:48):
especially for Europeans players, if you're like, Okay, this is
your mission, you got to do this, this and this.
But a lot of times, you know, coaches will have
different views or different idea of the player and he
might be six five. You gotta play far forward.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:05):
It's just you got to be really, really blessed and
lucky in order to be in the right situation. And
I always said, if you believe in it, you're going
to find a way to get there. Like for example,
a friend of mine, a really good player, back to
back champion in Europe, Messic, he played against us in
the Olympics. He went from okay See to Charlotte to Phoenix.

(01:19:30):
Right now he's not playing Phoenix. One of the best
European players, like point guard, the you know, crafty with
the ball, kind of combo guard. And I feel bad
for him because I know he took this leap of
I don't know, big step, big step to come here
and prove that he can play. And he can, and
it's just about finding the right situation, the coaching staff,

(01:19:53):
the people that have been there before because he's a champion,
in order to allow you to get there, and a
lot of guys they just don't get the chance. I
don't think he got the I don't think he got
the fair shot. Like but at the end of the day,
with me, I knew where I was going to like,
I knew I'm not going to start. I knew I was,
you know, Kobe's backup in a way, And I had
to understand that giving up everything, like from your game

(01:20:16):
in order to have a couple of things the best
and those guys, they were never in a situation where
there was a championship kind of team the coach would
go and say, hey, we're building this theme right now,
we see you here here or here. They never had that,
and that goes back to playing the same exact way
and just circling around their players that never made it
and they could have easily played.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
But it's tough.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
It's tough.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
Who you who you? Who you like watching now in
today's game? Who you must see TV? If you if
you get a chance to watch the game.

Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
Well, I watched a lot of basketball obviously I kind
of have to, but I also love it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
I think Nicola is incredible. Man, I think wow.

Speaker 3 (01:20:55):
And I told him that two years ago when they one,
I'm like, man, you know you you saved that mindset
of like understanding that basketball can be played the right way?

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
Is he put in the situations where he's you know,
excelling everybody else. Yeah, is he overused at the moment,
probably because you've got to be fresh for the playoffs.
You guys know that he's doing basically everything.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
But I love him, I love Luca.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
I like actually our team, the way we're playing right now,
I think we have a big shot of going really
far with a little bit of luck, playing the right way. Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
I like, I like you honest man, honest is my guy.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
And I think they are you know, him and Little.
They're getting the right the right pieces there right now.
They're getting that momentum. They won the cup right so
and they and I like, like, I like to watch.
I was about to say I was getting I like Jason.
I like data Actually, I like datum a lot. I

(01:21:56):
like what they're doing in Boston. I mean, you know,
I can and say it out loud again. Yeah, I
think uh JT and uh. And the way they play
just a little too much three point shots coming from
a three point shooter. It's just not what I think
is going to give them dead back to back.

Speaker 4 (01:22:16):
But we'll see. But I love watching play. It's hard
to say, man, because they all play the same.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
I got a question we speaking of European players, give.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
Me your all time.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
Five Europeans all time.

Speaker 4 (01:22:32):
Well, I can give you the ones that kind of
paved the way or whatever, but I gotta go with Nicola.
Uh he's probably up there. Uh Rajen was the idol
of many.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
ARVIDOSONII is the first point guard that was still point guard.

Speaker 4 (01:22:48):
It was just incredible, right yeah, was.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
Uh was the one for me coming from Europe, you know,
playing that position and understanding like they they're all knew
in Europe how good he was. But he was one
of the first ones here and again not playing for
the right coach at the time, and it was not
given an opportunity to really shine. Then I think he

(01:23:17):
was first important. Then he went to Jersey, and then
in Jersey he just exploded. But sometimes it's inevitable to
deny the talent or you can just can't see that
tell us a lot. But we had quite a few
Europeans that were that we're going for sure leaving somebody.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
Out right now.

Speaker 3 (01:23:43):
I believe that's pick that out, Like therek was you know,
Paul could played with me. He was, but uh yeah,
Page of course.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
Was actually wait yeah, bro, I'm getting there, like crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
But best five you can't say back five because they're
all different, and for us was like, you know, then
you look, Tony.

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
Did great, Like I'm looking at the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Mons's that's not European, that's not Gentina.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
That's about.

Speaker 4 (01:24:30):
One of the first ones with divas. There were the
first one here with you will know that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
You should know that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
Actually, Dino Roger, you better know Dina Roger. He's a
Celtic legend. Yeah, a big fellow for me, familiar and
there's so many, you know, it's hard to say, but
definitely one that it's changing the game because of the
way he plays his nicola like he just understands the

(01:24:58):
game ten steps ahead of everybody else. So it's, uh,
it's fun to watch him. Talking about the goat is
a really, really tough conversation. I think everybody is the great.
I mean, there are a lot of great players, right
but if you want me to be honest with you
and tell you who my goat is, I can't be.
I'm going to be a little bit biased. Kobe is

(01:25:20):
my is my big brother. I'm going back to that
right now. But when we're talking about basketball, in my opinion, MJ, Kobe,
MJ and Kobe are right here, like this is m
J Coby.

Speaker 4 (01:25:31):
This is the goat for me.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
And everybody else because you can't take it away. Everybody
brought something incredible, so everybody's got in their own. If
Nikola is the European goat, I think it's going to
be the battle between him and Luca in the next
few years.

Speaker 4 (01:25:49):
So let's watch that for part too.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
What's man now that you hear?

Speaker 4 (01:25:57):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
This being your first podcast, Man, you know you gave
us the Alexander Man. We're gonna pops open later. We
want to, we want to, you know, give you out
the mud fresh.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Come on, man, come on, Man after love.

Speaker 4 (01:26:15):
Appreciate it. Appreciate killing killing sir.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
Much love. Man out the mud Man ten your veteran
two time champions Sasha Voyages Man out the Move Pleasure
Faith T shirt. Let's go Loue