July 18, 2023 • 59 mins
Chris sits down with current Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune to talk about meeting at Fordham, Brooklyn pride, the growth of Barclays Center, succeeding Jay Wright, and Mikal Bridges.
Then, Chris is joined by Nova legend Jay Wright to talk about being "best dressed", attitude, building around players' strengths, sacrifice in coaching, building relationships with players, and having a positive attitude.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, what's going on. It's Chris Carrino, radio Voice of
the Brooklyn Nets. This is the Voice of the Nets podcast,
a weekly podcast where we dive into the Nets and
beyond in conversations with a plethora of guests, including players
and coaches. Today it is a Wildcat edition as in
(00:31):
the Villanova Wildcats.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You know, Michel Bridges has.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Become the face of this Nets franchise, and we thought
we would get some perspective on people that have been
very important in his life, people that know him very well.
So we went down to the campus of Villanova University
spent some time with Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune, a
(00:57):
Brooklyn guy who was an assistant coach on that Wildcat
staff when mckel Bridges was red shirting and then developing
as a player, and Kyle Neptune played a big part
in that. Who knows him very well. But Kyle is
a Brooklyn guy who won a state championship with Brooklyn
Friends High school, was their all time leading scorer. His
parents still live in the area go to net game.
(01:19):
So we talked with Kyle Neptune, and of course when
he was an assistant coach, he was on the staff
of the legendary now legendary head coach who helped transform
Villanova into the national powerhouse that it is the coolest
guy in the room always. Jay Wright, two time national
championship head coach with Villanova, who recruited mckael Bridges to
(01:44):
Villanova and still gets emotional talking about it. So we'll
talk with Jay Wright. It's always fun to talk to him,
all right. Kyle Neptune is first head coach at Villanova.
We patched up some of our differences that he that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He left for him.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We were able to get through that, get past that
and had a nice conversation that might visit down to
Villanova and then of course the great Jay Wright. That's
all coming up right here on the Voice of the Nets.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Do you remember the first time we met.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
At that event in the city, New York?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Who is that? How?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Before that is before your first season at Fordham and
Eddie called a great athletic director for him.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, you invited me to the event and I get there.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
He's like you would you mind spending a few minutes
sitting down for an interview with Kyle Neptune And I
was like, yeah, is there any specific.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You want me to ask him.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He goes, no, No, Kyle's going to interview you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So we've remember that.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So now you interviewed me, and now we turned the
tables a little bit. But you got to use some
of your your journalism. The great was that something you
may have aspired to in an alternate universe?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Uh you know what I mean. When I was doing
I was into it. It was enjoyable back in the day,
back in college. So that was a great experience in
the interview of the legend.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
But yeah, maybe in that little world.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
The other thing I bring up is because you did
that was your one year at Fordham, and you changed
the fortunes of the program. You took him out of
a dark place, got them to five hundred, and won
a game in the A ten tournament.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So now it's the end of that year.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm sitting minutes away from going on the air before
Game two of the net Celtics playoff series in twenty
twenty two, and like every NBA guy, I get a
notice on my phone whenever WOJ does anything, and it
said Jay Wright retiring from Billanova. And I remember having
my son who's a Fordum student now too, and sitting
(03:55):
next to me, and I just turned to show them
the phone and we both looked at each other because
we knew the next tweek was going to be pound
up to going to Villanova.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It was not.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I had joked with you that there's no harm between
beause because Keith are going did a great job this
year and you left Fordham in a much better place
than it was before you got there. But we wanted
more like Adam just the year, and it was we
were sad that you were leaving. What was your feelings about,
you know, so quickly leaving and coming back to Villanova
(04:28):
out of that place you really love.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, if I'm being honest, I think it's
still kind of a whirlwin. But that year Fordham was unbelievable,
you know, just just being there, meeting all the people,
of getting ingratiated to that community. It's just a great community.
I think the fan base is awesome. Keith Ergo is
a star as the Fordham faithful I've seen this past year.
(04:54):
You know, I think they have a lot of talented
players over there. I think they're going to be great
and I'm gonna from.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And Keith is part of the Villanova family too with you.
That's how you and you brought him to kind of
be your lead assistant in Florida.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, I mean, I mean it's a little little known
story if you remember, you know, when I first got
the job at Fordham, we didn't hire anyone for like months.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It was myself, Henry Lowe and Rob the Persia on
staff there for legitimately made two months.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And the reason why is because we were recruiting Keith,
were literally recruiting Keith urgo there. Uh and you know,
just because we knew what the type of talent he
was and what he could bring it to a program.
So it's funny that was the biggest piece and we
all knew it, and we were there trying to figure
out ways and show him around. Uh. And he called
(05:50):
coach Cole, we called him, was involved with the entire process.
So Uh, it's it's pretty cool to see now that
he's running the program and they're they're also a great start.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And he got his start as a Villanova video guy
like you did. And he tells a story about talking
to Jay Wright to get the job. Jay tried to
almost talk him out of it. Yeah, because knowing he
was a family guy. Like, are you sure this is
what you want to do with your life? Yeah, because
this is going to be hard. Did you when you
came in and got the job with Jay Right, was
(06:21):
there a similar conversation.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I believe there was, but I was so excited about
there there's nobody talking about it. There was no one
talking about it. I also didn't have a family like
he did at the time, and he was older than
me at the time, so I was like twenty three
years old maybe twenty two at the time, so I
knew different situations. Yeah, I knew I was all in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
By the way, you take over for Ja after a
year at Fordham? Was that ever talked about prior? But
when you were at Villanova, did you get any inkling
from Jay that he wanted you maybe to take over
for him one day?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No? Oh, you know, Nor would that type of conversation happen.
If anyone know coach Right, they would know that conversation
would never happen. We were so singularly focused on just
doing whatever possible to make sure Villanova was in a
good spot daily. You know, the thought of uh success
and play all that stuff that was never.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Discussed and you end up going to Fordham.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I guess the opportunity was great to run a program nearby.
And we're going to talk about your time, you know,
at learning as a coach, and but I want to
go back a little bit. I want to let's jump
back into the origin story of Colm Neptune because you know,
we come here, it's part of the nets and you're
a Brooklyn guy. So take me back to Brooklyn Friends.
(07:46):
All time leading scorer, state champion. What was that When
you think back on that time of your life, what
do you think about?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I mean, first of all, being from Brooklyn, New York,
New York in general, I think every New Yorker has
a certain pride being from New York City. And then
I think every borough has pride being from that borough.
I'm no different. I'm a Brooklyn Night. Very proud to
be from that uh, very proud to be from Brooklyn.
So going to Brooklyn Friends, which is, uh, you know what,
(08:14):
ten minute drive to the Barkleys, maybe you know, it
was a great time to be in Brooklyn. It was,
you know, as as it still is a great neighborhood.
Neighbor grew up in Clinton Hill. Clinton Hill, which is
a ten minute walk to the Barcleys. I remember when
there was nothing there. It was just train tracks.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So that wasn't a part of town you hung out in,
I mean, was it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah? I would pass there a lot because there was
you know, my favorite pizza spot was just around there.
Uh you know we went there to uh you know,
the karate right around the plot like that. That was
a place and there was there was a mall there
at that time too, So that was a place I
was at a lot growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so you barkeleys wouldn't go in there. It's so
way after you were out of high school. But you
were your parents basketball fans. Who did you root for?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
What was yours?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
As a kid? A fan?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I mean, to be honest, I was a Michael Jordan fan,
so like wherever he was at that time, that's that's
what I was rooting for. As in New Yorker, I
was uh supported all the teams playing. I would want
them to win, But I was a Michael Jordan fan.
I don't know if I was ever uh you know,
a die hard of any specific team.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, that's kind of the way it's been the last
couple of decades. I think with kids they gravitate toward players,
sometimes even more than ten teams. I know you're talking
about with Brooklyn. I married a Brooklyn girl. Go yeah,
I had to take her kicking and screaming to New Jersey.
And I interviewed Larry King, and I remember we had
a book. You know, great interviewer. He had a book
(09:51):
that was titled when You're from Brooklyn, Everything else is Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
You're always You're always a Brooklyn guy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, it doesn't leave you. It doesn't leave It doesn't
matter where I'm at. I'm from Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I remember interviewing Shaka King, who was a director who
did a he's a Hollywood director and he from Brooklyn
and he's a season ticket holder and he comes to
a lot of the games. And he talked about though,
growing up in you know where he grew up in.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think like Fort Green in that area or Williamsburg.
I forget where it was, but.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
He he was he wasn't totally gung ho about Barkley
Center coming in in the beginning, and then he went
to his first event because he thought of what's going
to change the neighborhood, gentrification, things like that. But then
he went to his first event there, and he said,
I saw all these people.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I knew he goes.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That never happened to me at the garden, you know,
he was it was part of Now Barkley Center kind of.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Became part of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I don't know how often you get back, but how
did how did you feel about when Barkley Center was
coming in and did you have any worries about what
it was going to do in the neighborhood And have
your fears been alleviated?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And then way, you know, I think that's something that
definitely crossed everyone's mine. It definitely was a change, right
just from the simplest parking to uh, you know, definitely
going to what's going to happen more, just like you said,
what's going to actually happen. But you know, I think
you know now, I think it's a great thing. Like
(11:21):
I remember driving to my parents' house, getting off and
just driving through a neighborhood and I look up and
I'm seeing like a huge building. I'm like, wow, Like
Manhattan looks really close. This is recent, this is within
the last year. Mahaddan was so close and I got
closer and closer. I'm like man, I can't believe the
buildings Manhattan are that big, that that this building is
(11:42):
so And then as I get closer, I'm like, well,
that's that's that's in Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, I'm like whoa.
And it seems like every time I go back, because
my parents live in the same house for the last
thirty five years, so I'm there a good amount I
see something new that's like, whoa, this is pretty cool
that this is here in Brooklyn, five ten minutes from
where I grew up. So I think that's the overall feel.
(12:06):
And you could just see it's only growing by the day.
It seems like, Yeah, as a Brooklyn Knights, especially someone
who's from downtown Brooklyn, it's cool to see where it's
gotten to and where it's going.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
As you said, it's always in you, Brooklyn, It's always
in you.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
But now you go to Lehigh, you end up after
Lehigh going to play overseas. Was that a had you
travel a lot? Was that a fish out of water
kind of thing? Or was it like Brooklyn?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, uh at the time, in uh in those days aau,
you know, you still traveled a lot throughout the United States.
So but you're you know, you're doing stuff so often
you don't have time to leisurely travel, right and the
same with the same with sports right now, Like if
you're in sports, you don't have that much time to
leisurely travel, but you are on the road a lot,
(12:52):
you know, domestically, So I was no different. I wasn't.
I hadn't been that many places out of the country.
So the my short stint of playing over there, getting
to see different cultures was pretty cool, and it's definitely
it was definitely eye opening to me at that age
as well, just seeing that different culture and different way
(13:13):
people live.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Did you have NBA aspirations in college?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I mean, yeah, I was delusional, right, but I think
every basketball player has NBA aspirations out I don't think
you can put in that type of time that it
takes to be successful at that level at the college
level unless you have those aspirations. You know. Again, I
was delusional at the time, didn't know it, but one
(13:36):
I thought until, like you know, my last year, probably
that I had a chance.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Where was the first lead you had a paycheck in?
Because you go play?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I mean I played. I played a couple of games
in a couple of spots as I say, I had
an overseas career. It is probably a little bit of
a fabrication, but you know, going over there and spending
you know, a couple of months in each spot, lithuane Ya,
lat Via, Puerto Rico. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I know a lot of guys that have gone over
and they and they realized at some point, They're like,
my dream wasn't to play basketball professionally. My dream was
to play in the NBA. And they're suddenly getting a
check in Latvia. It's like it's not really fulfilling them with.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Now, what what made coaching all of a sudden inter
your brain?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Well, I came back after bouncing around in between, and
that summer that I was just back and I just
started figuring out what what am I going to do
with my time? I was working out, obviously, but I
started going to camps, started following different people to different
basketball events. Actually, I went to a bunch of uh
(14:45):
when a mentor of my Colli Green, it was a
scout with the Nets, sort of on the path to
being a scout with the Nets at that time when
they were still in New Jersey, and I would, you know,
follow him, uh to the draft workouts and you know
then all different people with different basketball events, and I
was like, yeah, this is the you see the other
side of what those people are doing. And that's where
(15:07):
I kind of got the you know, hunger to just
be around the game in a different form.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And how did you end up connecting at Villanova?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You know, at that time, I know there's a lot
of guys on the roster from New York City, you know,
Corey Fisher, Antonio Panya and before them, Curtis Somethner and
Alan Ray and you know, all those guys in New
York City, basket was very small, so all of that
we were all connected through a couple of different coaches.
(15:37):
And you know, when I came back, I'd started telling
a couple of guys that I'm leaning towards, you know,
trying to get in the business.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And once I told them, uh, they put a couple
of feelers out and honestly, within maybe I would say
six to eight weeks, I was getting a call from
Pat Chambers, who was the associate head coach at Villanova
at the time, saying that there was a spot available
and then want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's like in any kind of work a lot of
times you have to almost leave to come back at
the higher level that you want.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You end up going to Niagara.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, right, so that's where you learned how to be
an assistant coach and recruiting and things like that.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, it was. That was a great opportunity for me.
I was. I was a villain over two years as
a video coordinator and then a pretty big jump for
video coordinator to assistant coach. I was at the time
twenty four twenty five, and you know, I had to
kind of just figure that landscape out of recruiting and
you know, scouting and all that stuff, and it was
(16:39):
a lot for me at the time, but it was
a great opportunity. Joe Mahaleck, who was the head coach
at the time at Niagara, was a great mentor to
me and really helped grow my basketball mind and kind
of gave me help with the landscape and recruiting.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And then that led you back to Villanova right after that.
I don't know if you were involved in the.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Recruiting of Bridges. Were you involved in that recruiting process.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So when I got on staff, I think it was
what twenty I say, twenty thirteen at that time mckel was,
I want to say, just had committed. So but at
that part of my responsibilities. He was committed that summer
and I would we would all go and watch his games,
(17:24):
you know, during during his season. So I went to
a number of his high school games and he would
come to campus to just continue our relationship.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And he grew up right right near Villanova.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah you know what I'm saying. And so the way
we do it here is, you know, we have home
visits and he was already committed, but we had a
home visit with his mom at his house. So that
was like me, Ashley Howard, Baker, Dunleavy, coach Wright was
there honestly, and we had like I remember, I vividly
(17:57):
remember that that visit was all sometime. If anyone's ever
met his mom, you know, she's a bubbly personality, and
you know, obviously seeing their bond is unique as well.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I always say she has her own podcast. I didn't
even think she does. I think she has her own podcast,
and a lot was made. She worked in HR with
the Sixers and big story when he was drafted by
the Sixers originally and then he gets traded, so we
know that story, But what was the.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Net fans of.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The You know, it's funny because talking about what we
were saying before before we got on and I was saying,
I was mad at you for leaving Fordham, but I
was happy because you know, Keith Ergo's worked that well,
so now we can be friends again. But it's almost
like Kevin Durant gets traded from the nets. I think
net fans are a little stunned. But then from the
minute they were introduced to Michael Bridges, they realized, Wow,
(18:49):
you know, we're gonna be okay because this kid's awesome.
It was that a similar feeling when you guys got
it at Villanova. At that young you could tell he's unique.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
And I can't say, like I mean to say that
one hundred knew that he would be the best player
on the team in the NBA and I all saw it.
I couldn't say that, but you saw it pretty early
on that he's a really unique person and a special person.
And then as his as he kind of grew into
his body and his talents, you know, you knew he
(19:19):
was going to be special at Villanova, and you know,
as a basketball coach, especially college basketball, coach, we know
college basketball pretty well. His last year he was remarkable
for us, Like he had a breakout game at the Garden.
I think it was against Gonzaga where he was amazing.
He was dunking down the middle of the lane, he
was scoring every which way he could, he was defending
at a high level, and you were like, all right, well,
(19:41):
this kid has a chance. He's he's going to be
a good NBA player. How good? I didn't know because
I just didn't know that world as well. But you
knew his character and you knew the type of person
he isn't the type of teammate he was, so we
knew he was gonna be special.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
He red shirted his first year. What did what did you?
What did?
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Was it just not having a spot? Like what do
you need to get stronger? What was the purpose of that?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I mean he came into college, I mean, no exaggeration,
maybe six six sixty seven, one sixty five seventy so
just being in practice every day. And at that time
we had a pretty competitive team. He's talking about like
I think Darren Hilly might have been on his early
team Josh Hart at the time, and Josh like as
(20:27):
as you obviously he's down the block the garden, but
like he's like a fiery competitor. He's always been that. Yeah,
Jay Von Pinks that I believe was around. You had
a bunch of fiery dudes and bodies in practice at
that time, you know, And you know that was a
bear just walking on the court for anyone, especially a
(20:47):
high school guy and five and then you put that
on top of But I took Mchel's credit like he
never back down ever. You know, he was always competitive.
I remember just battles between him and Josh hard and
practice daily and those are always fun to me.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And it's it's it can be.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You know, sometimes you worry about a guy that's so
mildmattered and pleasant and right like having that being a
killer on the court.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
No, no, no, no, you never worried about that with him.
He was you walk outside of that ninety four by
fifty feet. He's literally the best person ever. Like he's
someone i'll have a daughter, but if I had one,
I would want him to date. But if you get
him on the court, like he is a nasty competitor
(21:34):
and he does it a different way. He doesn't have
to be boisterous, but he is a nasty competitor. He's
a highly intelligent guy. He's he's doing everything you possibly
do to win the game, whatever that takes, whatever that,
whatever he has to do in that that game, that
that scenario will win that that's what he's gonna do.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
He got reputations be in a defensive minded player, and
he is such an incredible defensive player. When he came
to the nets, all of a sudden, he's scoring and
people are like, Wow, we didn't know we had this
in him. Did Did you see an offensive spark in
him in Villanova?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah? His last year, I mean, he was really good
for us. He took over games. But again I said,
Mchael's you know, he's going to do whatever it takes
to win. So I feel like he thought that. You know,
in his last role, he was in the role of
a defender and they needed him to focus on that.
And I don't think he has a problem playing on
(22:28):
the ball, off the ball, whatever role you need him
to play, he'll do it for the good of the team.
And he was put in the role of a guy
who wanted to be need to be the leading scorer,
and he he's okay with doing that. Role as well.
And obviously he's a gifted defender. He's just uh, he's
unique because he's six sixty sixty seven. But his wings
(22:48):
span and his anticipation, you don't realize that he can
get to things we you know, he I don't know
what his wingspan is has it's easily over seven for.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, he can't. He can't buy shirts off the rack.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
We used to show the store like He'll be like
way over on the other side of the room. You're
like trying to give him in your hand, like you're
going to shake his hand. He didn't get it, like absolutely,
sometimes he would actually shake your hand from.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
The expect their gadget, just showing it just ship's going
for I feel like it's a trait of guys that
have come through this program the last twenty years at
Villanova of they just know their role and they try
and be as doc rivers.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Just to say, a star in your role.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I feel like that's for Jay Wright's thing has been
all those years. So it didn't always translate to guys
that up being lottery picks, you know, I mean, but
it seems like they've become really good pros. When you
look at guys in the league right now coming at
this program?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Is your your tenure here?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Do you see this as sort of a continuation of
Jay Wright and what he's done. What's different? Maybe a
little bit of what Kyle Neptune is going to add.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah, I definitely see this as I would look at
myself as someone who has been mentored by Coach Right,
and he's not gone. He's still a part of our program.
He's a big piece of our program. So I would
definitely look at this as a continuation of what he
kind of instilled here and really helped propel into the
national spotlight. Obviously, you know Rowley Massamino. I think he
(24:24):
would say you kind of stabilized Volanova and put us
on the map. I think I continued through Coach Lap
and now then Coach Right, and now I'm in the
role of being the head coach here. But this is
an entire apparatus of people who are dedicated to Villanova
(24:45):
being in a good spot.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
How did you deal with the pressure last year? You know,
your first year, you're you're replacing a guy who's a
legendary figure at the university.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
How did you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Honestly, I never thought about it that I understood that
that's how everyone would think about it. But I just
made a decision pretty early on like this, I can't
focus on that, Like what that doesn't it's not gonna
help the program, it's not gonna help me personally. So
like I set the focus on the task at hand
and try to win every day and do the best
(25:19):
we could every day to make sure we had the
best season possible.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And it was tough.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
You lost more of the year before in the in
the NCAA Tournament to the Achilles injury, and then you
don't have him coming in early on, and you're you
kind of get off to a slow start last year.
You played well towards the end of the year, but
didn't go to the NCAA Tournament. Uh So when you
think back on that first year, what are the things
(25:46):
that you thought and what do you take into that
experience going into now year two, which I would imagine
you're gonna be a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
More comfortable here coming into this season.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, I mean, you know, just uh, in respect the
last year, like we had, we had some challenges, but
too bad. It's just how basketball goes. The injuries happen
on unforeseen things happen in sports. It's just how it goes.
And you know, I think the job of a coach
and a staff is just to navigate those things and
try to put the team in the best possible situation,
(26:16):
UH to succeed. And you know, I think we put
all in everything into that last year, learned a lot,
and now our new task is to do the same
thing this year, is to put our team in the
best possible situations, be the best thing we can be
by the end of the season.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Before I let you go, I always all my subjects.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I give him a little member Jim Valvano speech of
the SPS never give up.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He's always meant a lot to me in my life.
So you always said there's three things to have a
full day. You need to everybody should laugh, cry, have
their emotions moved every day, you know, and and uh
and think, spend some time in thought. One of you
would say, so, what makes Coln Neptune laugh something recently?
Maybe give me a sense of your said to you.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I think I think everything is uh like I try.
You know, we we take basketball very seriously, and we
take our team and the growth of our team very
seriously here Villanova. But other than that, you know, I
try not to take anything else that seriously, and you
know whatever it is from life and joking around with friends, colleagues,
(27:22):
you know, to watching TV and being funny, Like I
don't take anything else.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
To say, what's What's a funny movie that you'll watch
over and over again.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Coming to America. It's a hilarious movie that I would
watch if I if that's on, like, you know, if
you're just looking through it, you're gonna watch it.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
On the other side of thing, it's not necessarily in
a sad thing. But is there.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Something recently maybe that's that's moved your emotions where you
feel emotional about something or what makes you do that?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
In general?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Are you a crier?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I wouldn't say I'm a crier. Yeah, I mean obviously, uh,
we do a lot of work here with the cancer
research and you know, just just recently, just different people
that have passed, you know, due to different illnesses anytime
that happens. That something said.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
But knowing even with the Jim Balvano thing is having
having been through everything and in that fight with those people,
it it makes you feel like you can go on
and you can get over things, and you see the
courage it took for him to make that speech or
these people to go through life.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But then also on the back end, it also shows
you how great of a life you have. And we
made a point earlier about like us having a challenging seasons,
like that's yeah, that's something that we take very seriously.
But there are a lot of other things in life.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Outside Barkley Center.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
There's the Oculus, the video scoreboard everybody can see when
they come out of the subway, walk around town, come
into the building. If you so many people see it,
if you could put a message up there, something you
want everybody to think about.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
This is the think part. Is there something that a.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Credo that maybe you've lived by that you want that
you want people to think about?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Attitude. I think that's a huge word in our program
and we if we bring it in. We never say
win or go cats or anything. We all say attitude
and it just reminds us that we're in charge of
our own thoughts and we can control how we think
about things and control how we react to things. So
I thanks having a great attitude is very important. Call.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Thanks man, appreciate it. Appreciate it, appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't know if you've ever checked out your Wikipedia page,
if you know what that is. I do, Yeah, you've
never checked. There's one thing I hope you're not going
to go to points in the game.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
And there's like of all the things, you're in the
Hall of Fame, all these championships, you want everything right.
So in your personal category, it basically just says, you know, married,
three kids.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
And the other thing is.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
That you were awarded the best dressed in the late
nineties twice, and Tim Capstraw's runway to the Final four.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Is in my Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, two time Tim Capshraw award Best Dressed.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
It's a great honor because kaeper took that serious in
the day he did, right, Capitain is very serious.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
About that stuff. I hold that as uh.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But this was nineties j right though, This was hostage
a right.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
This was because now everybody would just assume, of course
Jay Writes was the best stressed guy in college. This
is like, you know, telling somebody to buy Amazon stopped
twenty five years ago.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Rapper was ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He was.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Capra also gave me the term. He would come.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
He would watch us practicing and say, you know, you
guys got great program attitude. Great your whole programs just
got an attitude about it. I was thinking, like, that's
a good word, man. I stole that. That's all over Kapper.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We're here at your facility in Illanova, and it's all
I can't get away from it. Ites everywhere that Caepra
had in your book is attitude.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yep. Capra had a big he's.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Looking for royalty.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I think you're right, but it's nice to you to
say that because I'm he's You're an incredibly humble person.
I've never met a more humble person than Tim, and
I'm attracted to people with humility. And he would never
like the fact that you acknowledge that that he gave
me that term.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
He will love that.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
He was a head coach before me. He was a
really young head coach at Wagner. Yeah, and Tom Pacora,
my assistant, was his bet, one of his best friends.
So he'd come and hang out with us and we
would we would grill him in those early years because
we were just getting started at Houfs. He had had
success at Wagner already and It was funny.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Because he was young. He was young, maybe younger than us,
and we're grilling him like he's the old veteran. She's lucky.
We made it, all of us.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Think about he played.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
I don't know if any of us knew we were
doing that. Think we thought kaeper did.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, he was on the Wagner team coached by PJ.
Carlossm right, which Pj was like a twenty four to
twenty five year old. Say that Wagner. The term attitude,
we see it everywhere, but I think people may interpret
it as sort of a bravado, right right. But when
(32:22):
I speak to Kyle Neptune, when I talked to Jay
Hernandez who's now in the net staff, who played for
you at Hastra.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's more. I get the sense.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
It's more of And it's something that I've always lived
by in my life with the challenges and the struggles
that I've gone through, is that we can't control what
happens to us, but we can control our attitude to
exactly that is that the crux of it.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Honestly, you know, Caepri used to use that word, and
John Cheney had used to have these big billboards and
Philadelphia that said winning is an attitude, and you know,
I kept seeing that word. I was like, winning is
that When I'm back in Philly, Caper would say that word.
And we were early years at Hofstra. We did not
have talented guys. When we took over at Hofsta, we
(33:07):
were two hundred and ninety five out of three hundred
and two Division One teams at the time. And the
bad thing was, well, we were two hundred and ninety
five out of three hundred and two. The other bad
thing was everybody from that team was coming back, so
we had all the same guys and we didn't really
have a talented crew. But they were great guys and
(33:29):
they did everything that we asked them to do. And
I was thinking to myself, like, what, you know, we're
losing games, but these guys are playing their butts off,
Like how do I describe this to them? Like what
we're doing is really good here, but we're losing, you know,
and everybody outside saying they stink, but they don't if
someone's giving you their best effort. And they got a
(33:50):
great attitude every day and they're listening and like what
is to be celebrated here, well, their attitude, like every
day they're coming in positive. So I was like that,
this is what our program is about. It's about attitude
that we can control. Like, we're not going to win games.
I can practice these guys for four hours and we're
not gonna win games. But we got to celebrate the
(34:11):
fact that they got a great attitude every day, every game.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
And then that became really the foundation of our program.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
When we started to get good, you know, you'd win
games and you'd realize sometimes something would happen that you
don't have control of and you'd lose, and you say, like,
I'm not going to kill these guys because we lost.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
They they play, We're going to celebrate their attitude.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And that's an extension going back to your days at
Hofstra definitely, because I mean when I talked to Jay
Hernandez recently, he talked about how what you really got
through to guys was to be really good at what
you're good at.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He mentioned when Steede Claxton left and he had to
become the point guard, that you didn't tell him, Hey,
you got to play like Steede Claxton. You just got
to play like Jay Hernandez, and I think that's a
big part of Is that a big part of what
you've tried to build over the years at billing Over.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Yeah, that's a I never really heard it explain that
way to be good at what you're good at, I
don't Jason Hernandez. I mean, we're starting to name people
in my life talking about Tom Record, Tim Capstraw, Speedy Claxton.
I just talked to Speed on the phone before we
got in here. Jason Hernandez, like, I got some pretty
(35:19):
special people. Jason Hernandez kind of figured out that he
was a complete basketball player. He was complete. So I
always looked at it as as funny that he explain
it that I looked at as this guy's a great shooter,
he can run a team too, But just because we
need a point guard, I'm not taking away the fact.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
That he's a great shooter.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
I'm gonna let him be a great shooter and be
a point guard because he can do all these things.
And that's kind of the way I always looked at it, like, like,
let teach players to be complete and use everything they
have right and don't eliminate some part of their game
just because the team needs it more.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
You know, we talked about Michal Bridges earlier.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
He's a great example of that in that I used
to have to tell his mom sometimes like, hey, we
got a lot of talented guys on his team, but.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
He can't stop trying to be great.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Like he's just content we're winning and he's doing all
the little things. But I want him to keep trying
to be great because it's in him there, right. We
want everything that you can be.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I always think of we'll get into mccael now since
we segued into that.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I think the thing that sort of net fans were
stunned when Kevin durank gets traded. But I think from
the first press conference that mckel bridges talked to the media,
I mean we all walked out of there as members
of the media, going, this guy's the life. His first
press conference, but was just about how he was up
(36:53):
there with Cam Johnson. He was kind of his twin,
and I remember him saying, well, you know what we
heard back in the summer that Kevin Durant's name was
being thrown out there.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Figured we're going to be the guys that are going
to camp.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
You know, we kind of got used to the idea
of being in New York. So this isn't really that
much of a shock, right, that's delayed, That's what I mean. Like,
so I think net fans immediately fell in love with
the guy, so I can imagine it was similar to
having him around, even though you saw him in a
much younger amazing I.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Was.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
He was not the prototypical Villanova basketball recruit, Like we
always liked guys that were physically tough.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
And Randy Foy, yeah, Kyle Lowry, yeah, exactly kind of
and he's this.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Little horny Fisher. It was a bull. Even Ryan Archidiaca
was tough bull. Jason Hernandez was was that way for us,
and and he was a tough, strong guard and so
like Kim was like so thin and wiry, and we
were just like and he liked Villanova and his mom
was getting her master's degree at villanover like, this is
(38:06):
kind of too good to be true. It's but his personality,
his mental approach to the game was so unique and refreshing.
We're saying, we thought, you know what, really, all we
got to do with this guy is just get him strong,
because he's got everything else. And we had the best
strength coach in the country. So we're like if, but
(38:28):
you don't know if he was going to buy into that.
You know, you don't know if a player is going
to choose your school. We're basically telling him, like, we
got to bulk you up, man, like you're gonna have
to spend a lot of extra time in the weight room.
And he chose to do that. All the other stuff
was natural to him. I think by his mom's upbringing.
He was so unselfish and had such a great basketball iq.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
How could he be an offensive player? Now with the
nets like they're seeing, we're seeing a rise in his scoring. Right,
he came to the team all of a sudden he's
a go to score were and yet still maintain that
defensive prowess.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Is that going to be hard for him to do?
Speaker 5 (39:08):
He he came to Villanova and with a love for
defense and rebounding and winning. And if you look at
we have a triangle of our core values and defense
is at the bottom of it, that's the foundation, and
then reboundings above that. So usually we have guys that
(39:29):
are good offensively, and we got to teach him the found.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
That he came in.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
It was it was incredible, and that's again part of
our recruiting was like, this guy plays like we want
to play, just physically doesn't have it yet. And it's
it's always been connected to winning for him. And when
he went to the NBA, when he went to the Suns,
it was like they gave him that role and he
(39:53):
loved it. But when there were times when Chris Paul
was out, you know, and they needed scoring, he'd have
some of those twenty nine point thirty point games.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
He did the same thing for us in college. We
had great players.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
We had Ryan Archidiac and Daniel Cheffield, Josh Harror, Chris Jenkins,
Jaylen Brunson played with them. There would be games where
he'd get nine points, seven steals, five assists, But there
would be games when we get in trouble he would
just take over the game and score and give us
(40:25):
whatever we needed. And we always knew it was there,
and it was there when it was always there when
we needed like it was never there was never a
game where it's probably won a national championship where all right,
we're having a bad game.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
We don't get bailed out this game.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
He'd always be there for us, and so I always
knew it was there. What's going to be interesting is
he just has such a love for competing defensively how
he can with the extra minutes and the scoring responsibilities
still will keep that intact. And I think he's going
(41:03):
to figure out a way that late in games he's
going to be still the defensive stopper. It's a crazy comparison,
but like much like Michael Jordan early in the games,
is going to have to be smart and not getting
foul trouble.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
All right, there's a good comparison.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
A little a stretch, however, No, we've been going down
this sort of like the Nets connections to you now,
all these names going down this is your life right right.
I want to say, yeah, PJ was a part of
the Nets family too. Roley Massimino, I know meant a
lot to you. Obviously you started your career with him
in Villanois. But didn't he get off, didn't get off
(41:39):
in the next job. Yes, right after the National championship.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
It was a big part of all of our lives
here in Philly.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
When when coach mass won the National championship in eighty
five and I was a young coach, I was working
in basketball camps at the time. I was not on
the staff. I was a working camp.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
But you're in the building in Lexington, right, I think they.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Won the final four. I was the Division III assistant
the University of Rochester.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
I went to my first coaches convention in Lexington that
year and I had to I went to the semifinal game.
I had to go back on Monday because I was
the intermural director. Also, I had to run intermurals on Monday,
so I was not there for the championship game because
I was running it a floora hockey at the University
of Rochester. But after that he was offered the Nets
(42:28):
job and everybody he actually said he was taking the job,
and everybody at Villanova was crushed. And the next day
he changed his mind and said I can't do it,
and he came back to Villanova and you just think
about how all of our lives would have been changed,
(42:49):
you know, if he made that move. But that was
his connection to the Nets, and everybody in Philly was
distraught thinking that he was going to do that. They
actually had a roast, they roasted him, thinking he was
leaving going to this.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Wow. I heard it was as close as they were
setting up a press conference, yeah and everything. Did you
have any similar doubts when you decided to step down here?
Speaker 2 (43:15):
The community reacted, No, No, I was.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
It's interesting.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
I was never I was probably besides taking the job
at Villanova, I was probably never so sure of a
decision in my career.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
I just feel blessed. I was so clear minded about it.
Everything was in place, the program was good. We had
good young coaches that were prepared to take over as
head coach, not just Kyle. Kyle was the one we
chosen the in, but we had a lot of guys
that were prepared. We had a good young nucleus coming back.
(43:52):
So I thought it was the best thing for everybody,
concluding myself and my family. So and and you know,
this far into it, I still feel really clear headed
about it. I feel at peace. And I love where
our program is here at Villanova. I think is in
good spot. I love where our guys are. You know,
we were talking about the nets, you know, bj being
in personnel, it has been a big part of us.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Like He's had guys come up there and work out
for the nets.
Speaker 5 (44:20):
And I had I had a player at that he
can players, he can evaluate for us, and his words
so well respected here. When you tell guys when you're young,
like look, this is what BJ thinks, it actually helps
guys understand, like this guy won't be as me. He's
a villanova guy and he's respected in the NBA, so
(44:42):
the nets will be good to us.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Not take it roly.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
And you talked about it when you walked away.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
It was a lot about I remember I heard you
talk something about now in your broadcasting career, you're all
of a sudden noticing all these things around how great college,
all like life, things that great about about being screwed up?
I was, can you be as you were as a
coach and have a life.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
I don't think so anymore. I really don't. You know.
Speaker 5 (45:16):
I probably figured it out too late. But and it
was different when I first got into it. When I
first got into coaching, you could there was an off
season where you could relax a little bit. Now it's
the opposite. Now there is no off season. These guys
are going all day. I talked to Colin up to
it all the time, and I'll talk to him for
an hour and I'll always get off the phone just
(45:37):
say God bless you.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
I remember Easter Sunday. I remember Easter Sunday. He was here.
I was at the shore and he had recruits coming in.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
What you said you would be. You would be at masked,
text in guys about stuff, and it's like, what am
I doing?
Speaker 5 (45:53):
My wife would be no, no, I wouldn't even be
saying what I'm doing. My wife would be saying I.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Thought it was normal.
Speaker 5 (46:00):
I've been listening to the priest and I'd be like,
you know what that fits? Come and my wife would
smack me and say, what are you doing? And I've
been thinking, oh, he's making a good point, and I'm
sharing it with my player.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
That's what I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
I didn't even realize it was screwed, ub up.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I do now that's that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Maybe not you're thinking about your your your your kids,
like your kids right, like exactly know, But what is
something what's something now that you do that you couldn't
do back during the day, like your what's your life
like now?
Speaker 6 (46:30):
Or something in the summertimes, like a simple funny thing
like any If I was out at a function anywhere
and I was representing Villanov, I would never have a drink,
you know, like I just did a function.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
The other day.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
I got a cocktail and I'm taking a picture and
I got a cocktail and a picture, and I'd be like, I'm.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Like, shoot, I would never I wouldn't even have one.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
And I wouldn't because you're always thinking like and I
would always tell our players just you got to always remember,
whatever we do, we're representing Villanova University, representing Villanova program him,
And you know, it's one of the prices that come
from all the great blessings we get being a Villanova
basketball player. You know, everything comes with a with a
(47:11):
a sacrifice or a trade a trade off. So we
got to be represent in Villanova all the time, and
now I could be a normal human being.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
So you're telling me that while you're a coach, you
could never hang out with raf.
Speaker 5 (47:25):
No, I had to do it. I did it. Unfortunately,
I did it a lot. I always had to have
a driver, and we always did it late night and
we had we had our specific hangouts here where we
did it kind of in seclusion, but there was it's
kind of like the basketball world gives.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
You a pass. When you were with Wrath, like it
was okay, like Villanov.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
We'd be a local watering hole around here and Villanova
Lumps would see me and I'd have.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
A drink, but it'd be like, ah, but he's with Wrath.
It's all right.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
I'll give you a funny story, did it quick?
Speaker 1 (47:54):
When it involves Capper and Raf and I'm with Eye
and Eagle and it's like a NETS in the playoffs
and Rat's not doing our games anymore because they're doing
it for NBA TV. So in Indiana and we're all
out the NETS crew out to dinner and I insists to.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Me, you know RAFs in town? Do we call him?
Because you know what that means in fact?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So he said, I said, you know what, Capra, I
just started working with Tim Capstraw. I said, Capra has
never hung out with rap so we got to do it.
So we call him and forget it. We have a
big night and Caepra gets you know, it's it's it's hard.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
But the next day he goes Chris as a young
basketball coach. He goes, that was like playing catch up
Mickey Mannle. He said, so yeah, he is the best.
Speaker 5 (48:41):
And the beauty is wraps up at five point thirty
the next morning, show him at treadmill doing what he's
got to do, and you're dying right. He's such a
He's a pro in many facets of his.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Life, as are you.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
And then you've got to do a lot of broadcasting
work with him. I know you've got a little time
constraint here, but I want to get to this because
it gives me a little insight into the person. And
I always asked these of everybody. Another great coach, Jim Balbano.
You know the speech right, the spees never give up
always meant a lot to me in my life. He
said to do three things to have a full life.
Every day you should do three things. Laugh, cry, think,
(49:16):
spend some time in thought. So it makes Jay Wright laugh.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (49:23):
You know what, certain people just their person who's like
Tom Pakora Capstraw, Those guys I can do.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
They just start talking. I just left.
Speaker 5 (49:34):
There's just certain people to me that have like a
wise ass demeanor about them.
Speaker 4 (49:39):
It just it just makes me laugh.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
I've hung out with Tom also, and I the same way.
Speaker 5 (49:45):
We'll be we'll be doing our first broadcast and I'll
be intense and He's like, just grab me, don't worry.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
No one's gonna remember anything you say anyway.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Nobody cares, you know it just he's such a wise
ass like that.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
That wise as mentality makes me laugh.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Right before going on, I'm doing Westwood one. It's Saint
Patrick's day, first out of the tournament.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Rescue.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Right next to me walks by, go rap anywhere any
green today? I got a green underwear, he goes. Before
we did this, you were doing something for our next
content team about mckel bridges, and I learned what kind
of makes you cry in an emotional thing. It was
that you were telling the story about, you know, meeting Michel, Michel.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Telling his mom that he was gonna come to Villanova.
Speaker 5 (50:33):
Yeah, anything anything involves are players and the relationships with
the players. I can get emotional now, like, uh, the
relationships during competition, the relationships during recruiting, during their tough times.
Speaker 4 (50:51):
That always makes me emotional.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
I was far more emotional than people know, like in
locker rooms after games like that. That unique relationship is
so special to me. It's so deep, and I really
don't I try not to talk about it publicly that
much because because number one makes me emotional. Number two
(51:14):
I feel like it's kind of sacred. But those relationships
definitely make me emotional.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
But think about the sacrifices you've made, you talked about
personally when you had to put into coaching. Getting that
is something that people don't always Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 5 (51:30):
Yeah, and that's what that's the only thing I miss, Yeah,
I really don't. I don't miss it. Those deep relationships
where you know like that that guy is trusting his
career and putting it in your hands and you're responsible
for it and he's given it to you.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
That's deep.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I even I even related personally. It's something like when
I have muscular distrophy and what I go through, it
teaches me I have more deeper relationships with my wife,
my son, and my friends because because that's where you
really get a sense of what that person means to you.
(52:11):
When you have other things that are taken away exist. Right,
It's the same thing you sacrifice so much for your
coaching career, but those relationships you're shaping that you never
would have gotten otherwise.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
And you realize when you make a great point, all
the other things that seem important everybody else, you realize,
like that's really not that important. Those relationships are what's
most important. And I think I realized that when I
was coaching. I think I did. But now that I'm
out of it, and people say, do you miss it?
And I'm like no, But every once in a while,
(52:41):
like I can still grab like Eric Dixon and get
into a deep conversation about his life and where he's going.
And in a couple of years, I won't have that
anymore because the guys that I recruited won't be here.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I'll probably miss that the most now.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
And finally, we've we've had a lot to think about.
But you know, Jimmy B's thing was spend some time
in thought. And I would say, you know, outside Barclays
there's an oculus, big digital sign that so many thousands
of people have the can see every day. If you
could put something up there that you want people to
think about, what do you think that might be?
Speaker 5 (53:20):
You know, it's probably my my Uh. People get tired
of hearing it from it, but it's it's it's you.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
Control your attitude.
Speaker 5 (53:30):
I really, I just you know, the people that you
said that make me laugh, they have a great attitude.
Like you just love being around people that have a
great attitude. And and it's it's good for you. It's
healthy for you to have a positive attitude and control it.
But it's really it's a gift to other people. Like
(53:51):
you make other people feel good, they feel good about themselves.
And you know, attitude is just is just what it's about. Man,
it's you know, it's your faith and your attitude. And
and I just feel blessed that I somehow, whether it
was cat Purst, somehow I figured that out because I
(54:11):
get down like everybody, and you lose, you lose a game.
And as a coach, and people don't believe this, but
every coach knows this. When you lose a game, no
matter how good you are, you think we're never gonna
win again.
Speaker 4 (54:23):
You really, you think.
Speaker 5 (54:24):
Like that, I don't know if we can stop this,
like we might never win again. And then you got
to stop yourself and just say, okay, coming in tomorrow,
what's most important here?
Speaker 3 (54:35):
All right?
Speaker 5 (54:35):
Most important here is I'm coming in here with a
clear mind, positive attitude. That's the most important thing I
can do. And then we'll work at everything else.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
And to know that you're the influence you're having and
putting it forward, that was kind Neptune's answer also interesting
about what he would put outside.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
He said, attitude is that right? Yeah, that's clear.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
It makes me feel good.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Well, that could make me cry. Ay right, Thank you
so much, man, I really appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
Thanks all right, take care, all.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Right, My thanks to Kyle Neptune and Jay Wright right
here on the Voice of the Nets.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Remember you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (55:16):
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and you're
feeling a little generous and you like the program, please
leave a review and give us a five star rating.
We really would appreciate that. Thank you so much for
tuning in. You know, it was a thrill for me
to go down to Villanova because as a kid, when
(55:38):
we're so nostalgic, you know, we get older in life,
we get nostalgic about sports. I am always nostalgic about
the Villanova basketball team from nineteen eighty five, the team
that beat Georgetown in that huge upset, because I was
a fan of Villanova back then. For whatever reason. Sometimes
(55:58):
as a kid you become fans of teams. I used
to always love college basketball, and I probably watched it
and loved it more than I did the NBA game
when I was a kid, and I always loved watching
Big Monday and the Big East games on Big Monday,
and I just kind of chose Villanova as my team.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
I had.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
My uncle's brother went to Villanova, and I didn't even
know a lot of people that went to college back
when I was younger, but here he was, you know,
he went to Villanos. I heard of Villanova and I
would watch them on Big Monday, and I was, you know,
guys like John Pinone when I was little, the Bear,
and I followed them throughout that year. When they won
(56:41):
the national championship at Pinkney, the McLean's a great team,
obviously led by Rolly Massimino, and so it was a thrill.
I remember having the the bracket pinned up to my
wall and my room would follow them along as the
tournament went along. So I'm always nostalgic when I think
(57:02):
back of Villanova in those days as a kid rooting
for the Wildcats. Speaking of nostalgia, I went to the movies.
Don't get to the movies a lot, but I actually
went to the theater because I had to see the
last chapter of the Indiana Jones franchise. Because talking about nostalgia.
(57:24):
The first you know. Indiana Jones The Raiders of the
Lost Arc still one of my all time favorite films.
I still think it's the best action adventure film of
all time. It still stands up today if you go
back and watch it.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
Think of that.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Movie and how it influenced all the action adventure movies
that have come forward. And when you want to talk
about a cool customer who has accomplished so much in
their careers, like Jay Wright, I think a Harrison Ford
and how he played that character, one of the great
(58:00):
characters in film history, and never even loses his hat
through all those action sequences. And I don't know if
the new film, this recent film, on its own, really
stands up. But for a guy in his fifties who
has such reverence for the Indiana Jones franchise and the
(58:21):
character and Harrison Ford, it was a fitting end. And
maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I enjoyed it very much.
So that's my Blockbusters summer movie trip to the actual
theater to see Indiana Jones one last time.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
I want to thank.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
Our engineer, the guy who always makes this sound great,
Isaac Lee. Thanks to our producer Steve Goldberg. My name
is Chris Carino. Thank you so much for tuning in
to the voice of the nets.
Hey, what's going on. It's Chris Carrino, radio Voice of
the Brooklyn Nets. This is the Voice of the Nets podcast,
a weekly podcast where we dive into the Nets and
beyond in conversations with a plethora of guests, including players
and coaches. Today it is a Wildcat edition as in
(00:31):
the Villanova Wildcats.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You know, Michel Bridges has.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Become the face of this Nets franchise, and we thought
we would get some perspective on people that have been
very important in his life, people that know him very well.
So we went down to the campus of Villanova University
spent some time with Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune, a
(00:57):
Brooklyn guy who was an assistant coach on that Wildcat
staff when mckel Bridges was red shirting and then developing
as a player, and Kyle Neptune played a big part
in that. Who knows him very well. But Kyle is
a Brooklyn guy who won a state championship with Brooklyn
Friends High school, was their all time leading scorer. His
parents still live in the area go to net game.
(01:19):
So we talked with Kyle Neptune, and of course when
he was an assistant coach, he was on the staff
of the legendary now legendary head coach who helped transform
Villanova into the national powerhouse that it is the coolest
guy in the room always. Jay Wright, two time national
championship head coach with Villanova, who recruited mckael Bridges to
(01:44):
Villanova and still gets emotional talking about it. So we'll
talk with Jay Wright. It's always fun to talk to him,
all right. Kyle Neptune is first head coach at Villanova.
We patched up some of our differences that he that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He left for him.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We were able to get through that, get past that
and had a nice conversation that might visit down to
Villanova and then of course the great Jay Wright. That's
all coming up right here on the Voice of the Nets.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Do you remember the first time we met.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
At that event in the city, New York?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Who is that? How?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Before that is before your first season at Fordham and
Eddie called a great athletic director for him.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, you invited me to the event and I get there.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
He's like you would you mind spending a few minutes
sitting down for an interview with Kyle Neptune And I
was like, yeah, is there any specific.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You want me to ask him.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He goes, no, No, Kyle's going to interview you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So we've remember that.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So now you interviewed me, and now we turned the
tables a little bit. But you got to use some
of your your journalism. The great was that something you
may have aspired to in an alternate universe?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Uh you know what I mean. When I was doing
I was into it. It was enjoyable back in the day,
back in college. So that was a great experience in
the interview of the legend.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
But yeah, maybe in that little world.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
The other thing I bring up is because you did
that was your one year at Fordham, and you changed
the fortunes of the program. You took him out of
a dark place, got them to five hundred, and won
a game in the A ten tournament.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So now it's the end of that year.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm sitting minutes away from going on the air before
Game two of the net Celtics playoff series in twenty
twenty two, and like every NBA guy, I get a
notice on my phone whenever WOJ does anything, and it
said Jay Wright retiring from Billanova. And I remember having
my son who's a Fordum student now too, and sitting
(03:55):
next to me, and I just turned to show them
the phone and we both looked at each other because
we knew the next tweek was going to be pound
up to going to Villanova.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It was not.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I had joked with you that there's no harm between
beause because Keith are going did a great job this
year and you left Fordham in a much better place
than it was before you got there. But we wanted
more like Adam just the year, and it was we
were sad that you were leaving. What was your feelings about,
you know, so quickly leaving and coming back to Villanova
(04:28):
out of that place you really love.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, if I'm being honest, I think it's
still kind of a whirlwin. But that year Fordham was unbelievable,
you know, just just being there, meeting all the people,
of getting ingratiated to that community. It's just a great community.
I think the fan base is awesome. Keith Ergo is
a star as the Fordham faithful I've seen this past year.
(04:54):
You know, I think they have a lot of talented
players over there. I think they're going to be great
and I'm gonna from.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And Keith is part of the Villanova family too with you.
That's how you and you brought him to kind of
be your lead assistant in Florida.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, I mean, I mean it's a little little known
story if you remember, you know, when I first got
the job at Fordham, we didn't hire anyone for like months.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It was myself, Henry Lowe and Rob the Persia on
staff there for legitimately made two months.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
And the reason why is because we were recruiting Keith,
were literally recruiting Keith urgo there. Uh and you know,
just because we knew what the type of talent he
was and what he could bring it to a program.
So it's funny that was the biggest piece and we
all knew it, and we were there trying to figure
out ways and show him around. Uh. And he called
(05:50):
coach Cole, we called him, was involved with the entire process.
So Uh, it's it's pretty cool to see now that
he's running the program and they're they're also a great start.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And he got his start as a Villanova video guy
like you did. And he tells a story about talking
to Jay Wright to get the job. Jay tried to
almost talk him out of it. Yeah, because knowing he
was a family guy. Like, are you sure this is
what you want to do with your life? Yeah, because
this is going to be hard. Did you when you
came in and got the job with Jay Right, was
(06:21):
there a similar conversation.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I believe there was, but I was so excited about
there there's nobody talking about it. There was no one
talking about it. I also didn't have a family like
he did at the time, and he was older than
me at the time, so I was like twenty three
years old maybe twenty two at the time, so I
knew different situations. Yeah, I knew I was all in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
By the way, you take over for Ja after a
year at Fordham? Was that ever talked about prior? But
when you were at Villanova, did you get any inkling
from Jay that he wanted you maybe to take over
for him one day?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No? Oh, you know, Nor would that type of conversation happen.
If anyone know coach Right, they would know that conversation
would never happen. We were so singularly focused on just
doing whatever possible to make sure Villanova was in a
good spot daily. You know, the thought of uh success
and play all that stuff that was never.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Discussed and you end up going to Fordham.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I guess the opportunity was great to run a program nearby.
And we're going to talk about your time, you know,
at learning as a coach, and but I want to
go back a little bit. I want to let's jump
back into the origin story of Colm Neptune because you know,
we come here, it's part of the nets and you're
a Brooklyn guy. So take me back to Brooklyn Friends.
(07:46):
All time leading scorer, state champion. What was that When
you think back on that time of your life, what
do you think about?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I mean, first of all, being from Brooklyn, New York,
New York in general, I think every New Yorker has
a certain pride being from New York City. And then
I think every borough has pride being from that borough.
I'm no different. I'm a Brooklyn Night. Very proud to
be from that uh, very proud to be from Brooklyn.
So going to Brooklyn Friends, which is, uh, you know what,
(08:14):
ten minute drive to the Barkleys, maybe you know, it
was a great time to be in Brooklyn. It was,
you know, as as it still is a great neighborhood.
Neighbor grew up in Clinton Hill. Clinton Hill, which is
a ten minute walk to the Barcleys. I remember when
there was nothing there. It was just train tracks.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So that wasn't a part of town you hung out in,
I mean, was it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah? I would pass there a lot because there was
you know, my favorite pizza spot was just around there.
Uh you know we went there to uh you know,
the karate right around the plot like that. That was
a place and there was there was a mall there
at that time too, So that was a place I
was at a lot growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so you barkeleys wouldn't go in there. It's so
way after you were out of high school. But you
were your parents basketball fans. Who did you root for?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
What was yours?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
As a kid? A fan?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I mean, to be honest, I was a Michael Jordan fan,
so like wherever he was at that time, that's that's
what I was rooting for. As in New Yorker, I
was uh supported all the teams playing. I would want
them to win, But I was a Michael Jordan fan.
I don't know if I was ever uh you know,
a die hard of any specific team.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, that's kind of the way it's been the last
couple of decades. I think with kids they gravitate toward players,
sometimes even more than ten teams. I know you're talking
about with Brooklyn. I married a Brooklyn girl. Go yeah,
I had to take her kicking and screaming to New Jersey.
And I interviewed Larry King, and I remember we had
a book. You know, great interviewer. He had a book
(09:51):
that was titled when You're from Brooklyn, Everything else is Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
You're always You're always a Brooklyn guy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, it doesn't leave you. It doesn't leave It doesn't
matter where I'm at. I'm from Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I remember interviewing Shaka King, who was a director who
did a he's a Hollywood director and he from Brooklyn
and he's a season ticket holder and he comes to
a lot of the games. And he talked about though,
growing up in you know where he grew up in.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I think like Fort Green in that area or Williamsburg.
I forget where it was, but.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
He he was he wasn't totally gung ho about Barkley
Center coming in in the beginning, and then he went
to his first event because he thought of what's going
to change the neighborhood, gentrification, things like that. But then
he went to his first event there, and he said,
I saw all these people.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I knew he goes.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That never happened to me at the garden, you know,
he was it was part of Now Barkley Center kind of.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Became part of the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I don't know how often you get back, but how
did how did you feel about when Barkley Center was
coming in and did you have any worries about what
it was going to do in the neighborhood And have
your fears been alleviated?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And then way, you know, I think that's something that
definitely crossed everyone's mine. It definitely was a change, right
just from the simplest parking to uh, you know, definitely
going to what's going to happen more, just like you said,
what's going to actually happen. But you know, I think
you know now, I think it's a great thing. Like
(11:21):
I remember driving to my parents' house, getting off and
just driving through a neighborhood and I look up and
I'm seeing like a huge building. I'm like, wow, Like
Manhattan looks really close. This is recent, this is within
the last year. Mahaddan was so close and I got
closer and closer. I'm like man, I can't believe the
buildings Manhattan are that big, that that this building is
(11:42):
so And then as I get closer, I'm like, well,
that's that's that's in Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, I'm like whoa.
And it seems like every time I go back, because
my parents live in the same house for the last
thirty five years, so I'm there a good amount I
see something new that's like, whoa, this is pretty cool
that this is here in Brooklyn, five ten minutes from
where I grew up. So I think that's the overall feel.
(12:06):
And you could just see it's only growing by the day.
It seems like, Yeah, as a Brooklyn Knights, especially someone
who's from downtown Brooklyn, it's cool to see where it's
gotten to and where it's going.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
As you said, it's always in you, Brooklyn, It's always
in you.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
But now you go to Lehigh, you end up after
Lehigh going to play overseas. Was that a had you
travel a lot? Was that a fish out of water
kind of thing? Or was it like Brooklyn?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, uh at the time, in uh in those days aau,
you know, you still traveled a lot throughout the United States.
So but you're you know, you're doing stuff so often
you don't have time to leisurely travel, right and the
same with the same with sports right now, Like if
you're in sports, you don't have that much time to
leisurely travel, but you are on the road a lot,
(12:52):
you know, domestically, So I was no different. I wasn't.
I hadn't been that many places out of the country.
So the my short stint of playing over there, getting
to see different cultures was pretty cool, and it's definitely
it was definitely eye opening to me at that age
as well, just seeing that different culture and different way
(13:13):
people live.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Did you have NBA aspirations in college?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I mean, yeah, I was delusional, right, but I think
every basketball player has NBA aspirations out I don't think
you can put in that type of time that it
takes to be successful at that level at the college
level unless you have those aspirations. You know. Again, I
was delusional at the time, didn't know it, but one
(13:36):
I thought until, like you know, my last year, probably
that I had a chance.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Where was the first lead you had a paycheck in?
Because you go play?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I mean I played. I played a couple of games
in a couple of spots as I say, I had
an overseas career. It is probably a little bit of
a fabrication, but you know, going over there and spending
you know, a couple of months in each spot, lithuane Ya,
lat Via, Puerto Rico. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I know a lot of guys that have gone over
and they and they realized at some point, They're like,
my dream wasn't to play basketball professionally. My dream was
to play in the NBA. And they're suddenly getting a
check in Latvia. It's like it's not really fulfilling them with.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Now, what what made coaching all of a sudden inter
your brain?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Well, I came back after bouncing around in between, and
that summer that I was just back and I just
started figuring out what what am I going to do
with my time? I was working out, obviously, but I
started going to camps, started following different people to different
basketball events. Actually, I went to a bunch of uh
(14:45):
when a mentor of my Colli Green, it was a
scout with the Nets, sort of on the path to
being a scout with the Nets at that time when
they were still in New Jersey, and I would, you know,
follow him, uh to the draft workouts and you know
then all different people with different basketball events, and I
was like, yeah, this is the you see the other
side of what those people are doing. And that's where
(15:07):
I kind of got the you know, hunger to just
be around the game in a different form.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And how did you end up connecting at Villanova?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You know, at that time, I know there's a lot
of guys on the roster from New York City, you know,
Corey Fisher, Antonio Panya and before them, Curtis Somethner and
Alan Ray and you know, all those guys in New
York City, basket was very small, so all of that
we were all connected through a couple of different coaches.
(15:37):
And you know, when I came back, I'd started telling
a couple of guys that I'm leaning towards, you know,
trying to get in the business.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And once I told them, uh, they put a couple
of feelers out and honestly, within maybe I would say
six to eight weeks, I was getting a call from
Pat Chambers, who was the associate head coach at Villanova
at the time, saying that there was a spot available
and then want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's like in any kind of work a lot of
times you have to almost leave to come back at
the higher level that you want.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You end up going to Niagara.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, right, so that's where you learned how to be
an assistant coach and recruiting and things like that.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, it was. That was a great opportunity for me.
I was. I was a villain over two years as
a video coordinator and then a pretty big jump for
video coordinator to assistant coach. I was at the time
twenty four twenty five, and you know, I had to
kind of just figure that landscape out of recruiting and
you know, scouting and all that stuff, and it was
(16:39):
a lot for me at the time, but it was
a great opportunity. Joe Mahaleck, who was the head coach
at the time at Niagara, was a great mentor to
me and really helped grow my basketball mind and kind
of gave me help with the landscape and recruiting.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And then that led you back to Villanova right after that.
I don't know if you were involved in the.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Recruiting of Bridges. Were you involved in that recruiting process.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
So when I got on staff, I think it was
what twenty I say, twenty thirteen at that time mckel was,
I want to say, just had committed. So but at
that part of my responsibilities. He was committed that summer
and I would we would all go and watch his games,
(17:24):
you know, during during his season. So I went to
a number of his high school games and he would
come to campus to just continue our relationship.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And he grew up right right near Villanova.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah you know what I'm saying. And so the way
we do it here is, you know, we have home
visits and he was already committed, but we had a
home visit with his mom at his house. So that
was like me, Ashley Howard, Baker, Dunleavy, coach Wright was
there honestly, and we had like I remember, I vividly
(17:57):
remember that that visit was all sometime. If anyone's ever
met his mom, you know, she's a bubbly personality, and
you know, obviously seeing their bond is unique as well.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I always say she has her own podcast. I didn't
even think she does. I think she has her own podcast,
and a lot was made. She worked in HR with
the Sixers and big story when he was drafted by
the Sixers originally and then he gets traded, so we
know that story, But what was the.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Net fans of.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The You know, it's funny because talking about what we
were saying before before we got on and I was saying,
I was mad at you for leaving Fordham, but I
was happy because you know, Keith Ergo's worked that well,
so now we can be friends again. But it's almost
like Kevin Durant gets traded from the nets. I think
net fans are a little stunned. But then from the
minute they were introduced to Michael Bridges, they realized, Wow,
(18:49):
you know, we're gonna be okay because this kid's awesome.
It was that a similar feeling when you guys got
it at Villanova. At that young you could tell he's unique.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
And I can't say, like I mean to say that
one hundred knew that he would be the best player
on the team in the NBA and I all saw it.
I couldn't say that, but you saw it pretty early
on that he's a really unique person and a special person.
And then as his as he kind of grew into
his body and his talents, you know, you knew he
(19:19):
was going to be special at Villanova, and you know,
as a basketball coach, especially college basketball, coach, we know
college basketball pretty well. His last year he was remarkable
for us, Like he had a breakout game at the Garden.
I think it was against Gonzaga where he was amazing.
He was dunking down the middle of the lane, he
was scoring every which way he could, he was defending
at a high level, and you were like, all right, well,
(19:41):
this kid has a chance. He's he's going to be
a good NBA player. How good? I didn't know because
I just didn't know that world as well. But you
knew his character and you knew the type of person
he isn't the type of teammate he was, so we
knew he was gonna be special.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
He red shirted his first year. What did what did you?
What did?
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Was it just not having a spot? Like what do
you need to get stronger? What was the purpose of that?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I mean he came into college, I mean, no exaggeration,
maybe six six sixty seven, one sixty five seventy so
just being in practice every day. And at that time
we had a pretty competitive team. He's talking about like
I think Darren Hilly might have been on his early
team Josh Hart at the time, and Josh like as
(20:27):
as you obviously he's down the block the garden, but
like he's like a fiery competitor. He's always been that. Yeah,
Jay Von Pinks that I believe was around. You had
a bunch of fiery dudes and bodies in practice at
that time, you know, And you know that was a
bear just walking on the court for anyone, especially a
(20:47):
high school guy and five and then you put that
on top of But I took Mchel's credit like he
never back down ever. You know, he was always competitive.
I remember just battles between him and Josh hard and
practice daily and those are always fun to me.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And it's it's it can be.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You know, sometimes you worry about a guy that's so
mildmattered and pleasant and right like having that being a
killer on the court.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
No, no, no, no, you never worried about that with him.
He was you walk outside of that ninety four by
fifty feet. He's literally the best person ever. Like he's
someone i'll have a daughter, but if I had one,
I would want him to date. But if you get
him on the court, like he is a nasty competitor
(21:34):
and he does it a different way. He doesn't have
to be boisterous, but he is a nasty competitor. He's
a highly intelligent guy. He's he's doing everything you possibly
do to win the game, whatever that takes, whatever that,
whatever he has to do in that that game, that
that scenario will win that that's what he's gonna do.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
He got reputations be in a defensive minded player, and
he is such an incredible defensive player. When he came
to the nets, all of a sudden, he's scoring and
people are like, Wow, we didn't know we had this
in him. Did Did you see an offensive spark in
him in Villanova?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah? His last year, I mean, he was really good
for us. He took over games. But again I said,
Mchael's you know, he's going to do whatever it takes
to win. So I feel like he thought that. You know,
in his last role, he was in the role of
a defender and they needed him to focus on that.
And I don't think he has a problem playing on
(22:28):
the ball, off the ball, whatever role you need him
to play, he'll do it for the good of the team.
And he was put in the role of a guy
who wanted to be need to be the leading scorer,
and he he's okay with doing that. Role as well.
And obviously he's a gifted defender. He's just uh, he's
unique because he's six sixty sixty seven. But his wings
(22:48):
span and his anticipation, you don't realize that he can
get to things we you know, he I don't know
what his wingspan is has it's easily over seven for.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, he can't. He can't buy shirts off the rack.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
We used to show the store like He'll be like
way over on the other side of the room. You're
like trying to give him in your hand, like you're
going to shake his hand. He didn't get it, like absolutely,
sometimes he would actually shake your hand from.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
The expect their gadget, just showing it just ship's going
for I feel like it's a trait of guys that
have come through this program the last twenty years at
Villanova of they just know their role and they try
and be as doc rivers.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Just to say, a star in your role.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I feel like that's for Jay Wright's thing has been
all those years. So it didn't always translate to guys
that up being lottery picks, you know, I mean, but
it seems like they've become really good pros. When you
look at guys in the league right now coming at
this program?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Is your your tenure here?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Do you see this as sort of a continuation of
Jay Wright and what he's done. What's different? Maybe a
little bit of what Kyle Neptune is going to add.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah, I definitely see this as I would look at
myself as someone who has been mentored by Coach Right,
and he's not gone. He's still a part of our program.
He's a big piece of our program. So I would
definitely look at this as a continuation of what he
kind of instilled here and really helped propel into the
national spotlight. Obviously, you know Rowley Massamino. I think he
(24:24):
would say you kind of stabilized Volanova and put us
on the map. I think I continued through Coach Lap
and now then Coach Right, and now I'm in the
role of being the head coach here. But this is
an entire apparatus of people who are dedicated to Villanova
(24:45):
being in a good spot.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
How did you deal with the pressure last year? You know,
your first year, you're you're replacing a guy who's a
legendary figure at the university.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
How did you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Honestly, I never thought about it that I understood that
that's how everyone would think about it. But I just
made a decision pretty early on like this, I can't
focus on that, Like what that doesn't it's not gonna
help the program, it's not gonna help me personally. So
like I set the focus on the task at hand
and try to win every day and do the best
(25:19):
we could every day to make sure we had the
best season possible.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And it was tough.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
You lost more of the year before in the in
the NCAA Tournament to the Achilles injury, and then you
don't have him coming in early on, and you're you
kind of get off to a slow start last year.
You played well towards the end of the year, but
didn't go to the NCAA Tournament. Uh So when you
think back on that first year, what are the things
(25:46):
that you thought and what do you take into that
experience going into now year two, which I would imagine
you're gonna be a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
More comfortable here coming into this season.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, I mean, you know, just uh, in respect the
last year, like we had, we had some challenges, but
too bad. It's just how basketball goes. The injuries happen
on unforeseen things happen in sports. It's just how it goes.
And you know, I think the job of a coach
and a staff is just to navigate those things and
try to put the team in the best possible situation,
(26:16):
UH to succeed. And you know, I think we put
all in everything into that last year, learned a lot,
and now our new task is to do the same
thing this year, is to put our team in the
best possible situations, be the best thing we can be
by the end of the season.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Before I let you go, I always all my subjects.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I give him a little member Jim Valvano speech of
the SPS never give up.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He's always meant a lot to me in my life.
So you always said there's three things to have a
full day. You need to everybody should laugh, cry, have
their emotions moved every day, you know, and and uh
and think, spend some time in thought. One of you
would say, so, what makes Coln Neptune laugh something recently?
Maybe give me a sense of your said to you.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I think I think everything is uh like I try.
You know, we we take basketball very seriously, and we
take our team and the growth of our team very
seriously here Villanova. But other than that, you know, I
try not to take anything else that seriously, and you
know whatever it is from life and joking around with friends, colleagues,
(27:22):
you know, to watching TV and being funny, Like I
don't take anything else.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
To say, what's What's a funny movie that you'll watch
over and over again.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Coming to America. It's a hilarious movie that I would
watch if I if that's on, like, you know, if
you're just looking through it, you're gonna watch it.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
On the other side of thing, it's not necessarily in
a sad thing. But is there.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Something recently maybe that's that's moved your emotions where you
feel emotional about something or what makes you do that?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
In general?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Are you a crier?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I wouldn't say I'm a crier. Yeah, I mean obviously, uh,
we do a lot of work here with the cancer
research and you know, just just recently, just different people
that have passed, you know, due to different illnesses anytime
that happens. That something said.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
But knowing even with the Jim Balvano thing is having
having been through everything and in that fight with those people,
it it makes you feel like you can go on
and you can get over things, and you see the
courage it took for him to make that speech or
these people to go through life.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But then also on the back end, it also shows
you how great of a life you have. And we
made a point earlier about like us having a challenging seasons,
like that's yeah, that's something that we take very seriously.
But there are a lot of other things in life.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Outside Barkley Center.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
There's the Oculus, the video scoreboard everybody can see when
they come out of the subway, walk around town, come
into the building. If you so many people see it,
if you could put a message up there, something you
want everybody to think about.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
This is the think part. Is there something that a.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Credo that maybe you've lived by that you want that
you want people to think about?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Attitude. I think that's a huge word in our program
and we if we bring it in. We never say
win or go cats or anything. We all say attitude
and it just reminds us that we're in charge of
our own thoughts and we can control how we think
about things and control how we react to things. So
I thanks having a great attitude is very important. Call.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Thanks man, appreciate it. Appreciate it, appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't know if you've ever checked out your Wikipedia page,
if you know what that is. I do, Yeah, you've
never checked. There's one thing I hope you're not going
to go to points in the game.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
And there's like of all the things, you're in the
Hall of Fame, all these championships, you want everything right.
So in your personal category, it basically just says, you know, married,
three kids.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
And the other thing is.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
That you were awarded the best dressed in the late
nineties twice, and Tim Capstraw's runway to the Final four.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Is in my Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, two time Tim Capshraw award Best Dressed.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
It's a great honor because kaeper took that serious in
the day he did, right, Capitain is very serious.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
About that stuff. I hold that as uh.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But this was nineties j right though, This was hostage
a right.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
This was because now everybody would just assume, of course
Jay Writes was the best stressed guy in college. This
is like, you know, telling somebody to buy Amazon stopped
twenty five years ago.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Rapper was ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He was.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Capra also gave me the term. He would come.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
He would watch us practicing and say, you know, you
guys got great program attitude. Great your whole programs just
got an attitude about it. I was thinking, like, that's
a good word, man. I stole that. That's all over Kapper.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We're here at your facility in Illanova, and it's all
I can't get away from it. Ites everywhere that Caepra
had in your book is attitude.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yep. Capra had a big he's.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Looking for royalty.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I think you're right, but it's nice to you to
say that because I'm he's You're an incredibly humble person.
I've never met a more humble person than Tim, and
I'm attracted to people with humility. And he would never
like the fact that you acknowledge that that he gave
me that term.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
He will love that.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
He was a head coach before me. He was a
really young head coach at Wagner. Yeah, and Tom Pacora,
my assistant, was his bet, one of his best friends.
So he'd come and hang out with us and we
would we would grill him in those early years because
we were just getting started at Houfs. He had had
success at Wagner already and It was funny.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Because he was young. He was young, maybe younger than us,
and we're grilling him like he's the old veteran. She's lucky.
We made it, all of us.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Think about he played.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
I don't know if any of us knew we were
doing that. Think we thought kaeper did.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, he was on the Wagner team coached by PJ.
Carlossm right, which Pj was like a twenty four to
twenty five year old. Say that Wagner. The term attitude,
we see it everywhere, but I think people may interpret
it as sort of a bravado, right right. But when
(32:22):
I speak to Kyle Neptune, when I talked to Jay
Hernandez who's now in the net staff, who played for
you at Hastra.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's more. I get the sense.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
It's more of And it's something that I've always lived
by in my life with the challenges and the struggles
that I've gone through, is that we can't control what
happens to us, but we can control our attitude to
exactly that is that the crux of it.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Honestly, you know, Caepri used to use that word, and
John Cheney had used to have these big billboards and
Philadelphia that said winning is an attitude, and you know,
I kept seeing that word. I was like, winning is
that When I'm back in Philly, Caper would say that word.
And we were early years at Hofstra. We did not
have talented guys. When we took over at Hofsta, we
(33:07):
were two hundred and ninety five out of three hundred
and two Division One teams at the time. And the
bad thing was, well, we were two hundred and ninety
five out of three hundred and two. The other bad
thing was everybody from that team was coming back, so
we had all the same guys and we didn't really
have a talented crew. But they were great guys and
(33:29):
they did everything that we asked them to do. And
I was thinking to myself, like, what, you know, we're
losing games, but these guys are playing their butts off,
Like how do I describe this to them? Like what
we're doing is really good here, but we're losing, you know,
and everybody outside saying they stink, but they don't if
someone's giving you their best effort. And they got a
(33:50):
great attitude every day and they're listening and like what
is to be celebrated here, well, their attitude, like every
day they're coming in positive. So I was like that,
this is what our program is about. It's about attitude
that we can control. Like, we're not going to win games.
I can practice these guys for four hours and we're
not gonna win games. But we got to celebrate the
(34:11):
fact that they got a great attitude every day, every game.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
And then that became really the foundation of our program.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
When we started to get good, you know, you'd win
games and you'd realize sometimes something would happen that you
don't have control of and you'd lose, and you say, like,
I'm not going to kill these guys because we lost.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
They they play, We're going to celebrate their attitude.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And that's an extension going back to your days at
Hofstra definitely, because I mean when I talked to Jay
Hernandez recently, he talked about how what you really got
through to guys was to be really good at what
you're good at.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He mentioned when Steede Claxton left and he had to
become the point guard, that you didn't tell him, Hey,
you got to play like Steede Claxton. You just got
to play like Jay Hernandez, and I think that's a
big part of Is that a big part of what
you've tried to build over the years at billing Over.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Yeah, that's a I never really heard it explain that
way to be good at what you're good at, I
don't Jason Hernandez. I mean, we're starting to name people
in my life talking about Tom Record, Tim Capstraw, Speedy Claxton.
I just talked to Speed on the phone before we
got in here. Jason Hernandez, like, I got some pretty
(35:19):
special people. Jason Hernandez kind of figured out that he
was a complete basketball player. He was complete. So I
always looked at it as as funny that he explain
it that I looked at as this guy's a great shooter,
he can run a team too, But just because we
need a point guard, I'm not taking away the fact.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
That he's a great shooter.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
I'm gonna let him be a great shooter and be
a point guard because he can do all these things.
And that's kind of the way I always looked at it, like, like,
let teach players to be complete and use everything they
have right and don't eliminate some part of their game
just because the team needs it more.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
You know, we talked about Michal Bridges earlier.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
He's a great example of that in that I used
to have to tell his mom sometimes like, hey, we
got a lot of talented guys on his team, but.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
He can't stop trying to be great.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Like he's just content we're winning and he's doing all
the little things. But I want him to keep trying
to be great because it's in him there, right. We
want everything that you can be.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I always think of we'll get into mccael now since
we segued into that.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I think the thing that sort of net fans were
stunned when Kevin durank gets traded. But I think from
the first press conference that mckel bridges talked to the media,
I mean we all walked out of there as members
of the media, going, this guy's the life. His first
press conference, but was just about how he was up
(36:53):
there with Cam Johnson. He was kind of his twin,
and I remember him saying, well, you know what we
heard back in the summer that Kevin Durant's name was
being thrown out there.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Figured we're going to be the guys that are going
to camp.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
You know, we kind of got used to the idea
of being in New York. So this isn't really that
much of a shock, right, that's delayed, That's what I mean. Like,
so I think net fans immediately fell in love with
the guy, so I can imagine it was similar to
having him around, even though you saw him in a
much younger amazing I.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Was.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
He was not the prototypical Villanova basketball recruit, Like we
always liked guys that were physically tough.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
And Randy Foy, yeah, Kyle Lowry, yeah, exactly kind of
and he's this.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Little horny Fisher. It was a bull. Even Ryan Archidiaca
was tough bull. Jason Hernandez was was that way for us,
and and he was a tough, strong guard and so
like Kim was like so thin and wiry, and we
were just like and he liked Villanova and his mom
was getting her master's degree at villanover like, this is
(38:06):
kind of too good to be true. It's but his personality,
his mental approach to the game was so unique and refreshing.
We're saying, we thought, you know what, really, all we
got to do with this guy is just get him strong,
because he's got everything else. And we had the best
strength coach in the country. So we're like if, but
(38:28):
you don't know if he was going to buy into that.
You know, you don't know if a player is going
to choose your school. We're basically telling him, like, we
got to bulk you up, man, like you're gonna have
to spend a lot of extra time in the weight room.
And he chose to do that. All the other stuff
was natural to him. I think by his mom's upbringing.
He was so unselfish and had such a great basketball iq.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
How could he be an offensive player? Now with the
nets like they're seeing, we're seeing a rise in his scoring. Right,
he came to the team all of a sudden he's
a go to score were and yet still maintain that
defensive prowess.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Is that going to be hard for him to do?
Speaker 5 (39:08):
He he came to Villanova and with a love for
defense and rebounding and winning. And if you look at
we have a triangle of our core values and defense
is at the bottom of it, that's the foundation, and
then reboundings above that. So usually we have guys that
(39:29):
are good offensively, and we got to teach him the found.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
That he came in.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
It was it was incredible, and that's again part of
our recruiting was like, this guy plays like we want
to play, just physically doesn't have it yet. And it's
it's always been connected to winning for him. And when
he went to the NBA, when he went to the Suns,
it was like they gave him that role and he
(39:53):
loved it. But when there were times when Chris Paul
was out, you know, and they needed scoring, he'd have
some of those twenty nine point thirty point games.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
He did the same thing for us in college. We
had great players.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
We had Ryan Archidiac and Daniel Cheffield, Josh Harror, Chris Jenkins,
Jaylen Brunson played with them. There would be games where
he'd get nine points, seven steals, five assists, But there
would be games when we get in trouble he would
just take over the game and score and give us
(40:25):
whatever we needed. And we always knew it was there,
and it was there when it was always there when
we needed like it was never there was never a
game where it's probably won a national championship where all right,
we're having a bad game.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
We don't get bailed out this game.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
He'd always be there for us, and so I always
knew it was there. What's going to be interesting is
he just has such a love for competing defensively how
he can with the extra minutes and the scoring responsibilities
still will keep that intact. And I think he's going
(41:03):
to figure out a way that late in games he's
going to be still the defensive stopper. It's a crazy comparison,
but like much like Michael Jordan early in the games,
is going to have to be smart and not getting
foul trouble.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
All right, there's a good comparison.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
A little a stretch, however, No, we've been going down
this sort of like the Nets connections to you now,
all these names going down this is your life right right.
I want to say, yeah, PJ was a part of
the Nets family too. Roley Massimino, I know meant a
lot to you. Obviously you started your career with him
in Villanois. But didn't he get off, didn't get off
(41:39):
in the next job. Yes, right after the National championship.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
It was a big part of all of our lives
here in Philly.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
When when coach mass won the National championship in eighty
five and I was a young coach, I was working
in basketball camps at the time. I was not on
the staff. I was a working camp.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
But you're in the building in Lexington, right, I think they.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Won the final four. I was the Division III assistant
the University of Rochester.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
I went to my first coaches convention in Lexington that
year and I had to I went to the semifinal game.
I had to go back on Monday because I was
the intermural director. Also, I had to run intermurals on Monday,
so I was not there for the championship game because
I was running it a floora hockey at the University
of Rochester. But after that he was offered the Nets
(42:28):
job and everybody he actually said he was taking the job,
and everybody at Villanova was crushed. And the next day
he changed his mind and said I can't do it,
and he came back to Villanova and you just think
about how all of our lives would have been changed,
(42:49):
you know, if he made that move. But that was
his connection to the Nets, and everybody in Philly was
distraught thinking that he was going to do that. They
actually had a roast, they roasted him, thinking he was
leaving going to this.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Wow. I heard it was as close as they were
setting up a press conference, yeah and everything. Did you
have any similar doubts when you decided to step down here?
Speaker 2 (43:15):
The community reacted, No, No, I was.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
It's interesting.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
I was never I was probably besides taking the job
at Villanova, I was probably never so sure of a
decision in my career.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
I just feel blessed. I was so clear minded about it.
Everything was in place, the program was good. We had
good young coaches that were prepared to take over as
head coach, not just Kyle. Kyle was the one we
chosen the in, but we had a lot of guys
that were prepared. We had a good young nucleus coming back.
(43:52):
So I thought it was the best thing for everybody,
concluding myself and my family. So and and you know,
this far into it, I still feel really clear headed
about it. I feel at peace. And I love where
our program is here at Villanova. I think is in
good spot. I love where our guys are. You know,
we were talking about the nets, you know, bj being
in personnel, it has been a big part of us.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Like He's had guys come up there and work out
for the nets.
Speaker 5 (44:20):
And I had I had a player at that he
can players, he can evaluate for us, and his words
so well respected here. When you tell guys when you're young,
like look, this is what BJ thinks, it actually helps
guys understand, like this guy won't be as me. He's
a villanova guy and he's respected in the NBA, so
(44:42):
the nets will be good to us.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Not take it roly.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
And you talked about it when you walked away.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
It was a lot about I remember I heard you
talk something about now in your broadcasting career, you're all
of a sudden noticing all these things around how great college,
all like life, things that great about about being screwed up?
I was, can you be as you were as a
coach and have a life.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
I don't think so anymore. I really don't. You know.
Speaker 5 (45:16):
I probably figured it out too late. But and it
was different when I first got into it. When I
first got into coaching, you could there was an off
season where you could relax a little bit. Now it's
the opposite. Now there is no off season. These guys
are going all day. I talked to Colin up to
it all the time, and I'll talk to him for
an hour and I'll always get off the phone just
(45:37):
say God bless you.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
I remember Easter Sunday. I remember Easter Sunday. He was here.
I was at the shore and he had recruits coming in.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
What you said you would be. You would be at masked,
text in guys about stuff, and it's like, what am
I doing?
Speaker 5 (45:53):
My wife would be no, no, I wouldn't even be
saying what I'm doing. My wife would be saying I.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Thought it was normal.
Speaker 5 (46:00):
I've been listening to the priest and I'd be like,
you know what that fits? Come and my wife would
smack me and say, what are you doing? And I've
been thinking, oh, he's making a good point, and I'm
sharing it with my player.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
That's what I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
I didn't even realize it was screwed, ub up.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I do now that's that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Maybe not you're thinking about your your your your kids,
like your kids right, like exactly know, But what is
something what's something now that you do that you couldn't
do back during the day, like your what's your life
like now?
Speaker 6 (46:30):
Or something in the summertimes, like a simple funny thing
like any If I was out at a function anywhere
and I was representing Villanov, I would never have a drink,
you know, like I just did a function.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
The other day.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
I got a cocktail and I'm taking a picture and
I got a cocktail and a picture, and I'd be like, I'm.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Like, shoot, I would never I wouldn't even have one.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
And I wouldn't because you're always thinking like and I
would always tell our players just you got to always remember,
whatever we do, we're representing Villanova University, representing Villanova program him,
And you know, it's one of the prices that come
from all the great blessings we get being a Villanova
basketball player. You know, everything comes with a with a
(47:11):
a sacrifice or a trade a trade off. So we
got to be represent in Villanova all the time, and
now I could be a normal human being.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
So you're telling me that while you're a coach, you
could never hang out with raf.
Speaker 5 (47:25):
No, I had to do it. I did it. Unfortunately,
I did it a lot. I always had to have
a driver, and we always did it late night and
we had we had our specific hangouts here where we
did it kind of in seclusion, but there was it's
kind of like the basketball world gives.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
You a pass. When you were with Wrath, like it
was okay, like Villanov.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
We'd be a local watering hole around here and Villanova
Lumps would see me and I'd have.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
A drink, but it'd be like, ah, but he's with Wrath.
It's all right.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
I'll give you a funny story, did it quick?
Speaker 1 (47:54):
When it involves Capper and Raf and I'm with Eye
and Eagle and it's like a NETS in the playoffs
and Rat's not doing our games anymore because they're doing
it for NBA TV. So in Indiana and we're all
out the NETS crew out to dinner and I insists to.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Me, you know RAFs in town? Do we call him?
Because you know what that means in fact?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So he said, I said, you know what, Capra, I
just started working with Tim Capstraw. I said, Capra has
never hung out with rap so we got to do it.
So we call him and forget it. We have a
big night and Caepra gets you know, it's it's it's hard.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
But the next day he goes Chris as a young
basketball coach. He goes, that was like playing catch up
Mickey Mannle. He said, so yeah, he is the best.
Speaker 5 (48:41):
And the beauty is wraps up at five point thirty
the next morning, show him at treadmill doing what he's
got to do, and you're dying right. He's such a
He's a pro in many facets of his.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Life, as are you.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
And then you've got to do a lot of broadcasting
work with him. I know you've got a little time
constraint here, but I want to get to this because
it gives me a little insight into the person. And
I always asked these of everybody. Another great coach, Jim Balbano.
You know the speech right, the spees never give up
always meant a lot to me in my life. He
said to do three things to have a full life.
Every day you should do three things. Laugh, cry, think,
(49:16):
spend some time in thought. So it makes Jay Wright laugh.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (49:23):
You know what, certain people just their person who's like
Tom Pakora Capstraw, Those guys I can do.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
They just start talking. I just left.
Speaker 5 (49:34):
There's just certain people to me that have like a
wise ass demeanor about them.
Speaker 4 (49:39):
It just it just makes me laugh.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
I've hung out with Tom also, and I the same way.
Speaker 5 (49:45):
We'll be we'll be doing our first broadcast and I'll
be intense and He's like, just grab me, don't worry.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
No one's gonna remember anything you say anyway.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Nobody cares, you know it just he's such a wise
ass like that.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
That wise as mentality makes me laugh.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Right before going on, I'm doing Westwood one. It's Saint
Patrick's day, first out of the tournament.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Rescue.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Right next to me walks by, go rap anywhere any
green today? I got a green underwear, he goes. Before
we did this, you were doing something for our next
content team about mckel bridges, and I learned what kind
of makes you cry in an emotional thing. It was
that you were telling the story about, you know, meeting Michel, Michel.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Telling his mom that he was gonna come to Villanova.
Speaker 5 (50:33):
Yeah, anything anything involves are players and the relationships with
the players. I can get emotional now, like, uh, the
relationships during competition, the relationships during recruiting, during their tough times.
Speaker 4 (50:51):
That always makes me emotional.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
I was far more emotional than people know, like in
locker rooms after games like that. That unique relationship is
so special to me. It's so deep, and I really
don't I try not to talk about it publicly that
much because because number one makes me emotional. Number two
(51:14):
I feel like it's kind of sacred. But those relationships
definitely make me emotional.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
But think about the sacrifices you've made, you talked about
personally when you had to put into coaching. Getting that
is something that people don't always Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 5 (51:30):
Yeah, and that's what that's the only thing I miss, Yeah,
I really don't. I don't miss it. Those deep relationships
where you know like that that guy is trusting his
career and putting it in your hands and you're responsible
for it and he's given it to you.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
That's deep.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I even I even related personally. It's something like when
I have muscular distrophy and what I go through, it
teaches me I have more deeper relationships with my wife,
my son, and my friends because because that's where you
really get a sense of what that person means to you.
(52:11):
When you have other things that are taken away exist. Right,
It's the same thing you sacrifice so much for your
coaching career, but those relationships you're shaping that you never
would have gotten otherwise.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
And you realize when you make a great point, all
the other things that seem important everybody else, you realize,
like that's really not that important. Those relationships are what's
most important. And I think I realized that when I
was coaching. I think I did. But now that I'm
out of it, and people say, do you miss it?
And I'm like no, But every once in a while,
(52:41):
like I can still grab like Eric Dixon and get
into a deep conversation about his life and where he's going.
And in a couple of years, I won't have that
anymore because the guys that I recruited won't be here.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I'll probably miss that the most now.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
And finally, we've we've had a lot to think about.
But you know, Jimmy B's thing was spend some time
in thought. And I would say, you know, outside Barclays
there's an oculus, big digital sign that so many thousands
of people have the can see every day. If you
could put something up there that you want people to
think about, what do you think that might be?
Speaker 5 (53:20):
You know, it's probably my my Uh. People get tired
of hearing it from it, but it's it's it's you.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
Control your attitude.
Speaker 5 (53:30):
I really, I just you know, the people that you
said that make me laugh, they have a great attitude.
Like you just love being around people that have a
great attitude. And and it's it's good for you. It's
healthy for you to have a positive attitude and control it.
But it's really it's a gift to other people. Like
(53:51):
you make other people feel good, they feel good about themselves.
And you know, attitude is just is just what it's about. Man,
it's you know, it's your faith and your attitude. And
and I just feel blessed that I somehow, whether it
was cat Purst, somehow I figured that out because I
(54:11):
get down like everybody, and you lose, you lose a game.
And as a coach, and people don't believe this, but
every coach knows this. When you lose a game, no
matter how good you are, you think we're never gonna
win again.
Speaker 4 (54:23):
You really, you think.
Speaker 5 (54:24):
Like that, I don't know if we can stop this,
like we might never win again. And then you got
to stop yourself and just say, okay, coming in tomorrow,
what's most important here?
Speaker 3 (54:35):
All right?
Speaker 5 (54:35):
Most important here is I'm coming in here with a
clear mind, positive attitude. That's the most important thing I
can do. And then we'll work at everything else.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
And to know that you're the influence you're having and
putting it forward, that was kind Neptune's answer also interesting
about what he would put outside.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
He said, attitude is that right? Yeah, that's clear.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
It makes me feel good.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Well, that could make me cry. Ay right, Thank you
so much, man, I really appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
Thanks all right, take care, all.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Right, My thanks to Kyle Neptune and Jay Wright right
here on the Voice of the Nets.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Remember you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (55:16):
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and you're
feeling a little generous and you like the program, please
leave a review and give us a five star rating.
We really would appreciate that. Thank you so much for
tuning in. You know, it was a thrill for me
to go down to Villanova because as a kid, when
(55:38):
we're so nostalgic, you know, we get older in life,
we get nostalgic about sports. I am always nostalgic about
the Villanova basketball team from nineteen eighty five, the team
that beat Georgetown in that huge upset, because I was
a fan of Villanova back then. For whatever reason. Sometimes
(55:58):
as a kid you become fans of teams. I used
to always love college basketball, and I probably watched it
and loved it more than I did the NBA game
when I was a kid, and I always loved watching
Big Monday and the Big East games on Big Monday,
and I just kind of chose Villanova as my team.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
I had.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
My uncle's brother went to Villanova, and I didn't even
know a lot of people that went to college back
when I was younger, but here he was, you know,
he went to Villanos. I heard of Villanova and I
would watch them on Big Monday, and I was, you know,
guys like John Pinone when I was little, the Bear,
and I followed them throughout that year. When they won
(56:41):
the national championship at Pinkney, the McLean's a great team,
obviously led by Rolly Massimino, and so it was a thrill.
I remember having the the bracket pinned up to my
wall and my room would follow them along as the
tournament went along. So I'm always nostalgic when I think
(57:02):
back of Villanova in those days as a kid rooting
for the Wildcats. Speaking of nostalgia, I went to the movies.
Don't get to the movies a lot, but I actually
went to the theater because I had to see the
last chapter of the Indiana Jones franchise. Because talking about nostalgia.
(57:24):
The first you know. Indiana Jones The Raiders of the
Lost Arc still one of my all time favorite films.
I still think it's the best action adventure film of
all time. It still stands up today if you go
back and watch it.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
Think of that.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Movie and how it influenced all the action adventure movies
that have come forward. And when you want to talk
about a cool customer who has accomplished so much in
their careers, like Jay Wright, I think a Harrison Ford
and how he played that character, one of the great
(58:00):
characters in film history, and never even loses his hat
through all those action sequences. And I don't know if
the new film, this recent film, on its own, really
stands up. But for a guy in his fifties who
has such reverence for the Indiana Jones franchise and the
(58:21):
character and Harrison Ford, it was a fitting end. And
maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I enjoyed it very much.
So that's my Blockbusters summer movie trip to the actual
theater to see Indiana Jones one last time.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
I want to thank.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
Our engineer, the guy who always makes this sound great,
Isaac Lee. Thanks to our producer Steve Goldberg. My name
is Chris Carino. Thank you so much for tuning in
to the voice of the nets.
Host
Chris Carrino
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