October 16, 2024 • 13 mins
Signed to a two-way to contract by the Nets this summer, "Jacky" Cui is looking to build off a strong NBA Summer League debut with Portland. Chris Carrino chats with Cui about his love for Kobe Bryant, his father's street ball stardom in China and more.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I was just admiring your sneakers. Can you hold those
up a little bit? And I guess we get that
in the shot a little bit. What do we got
a little butterflies? You don't have to take them off,
just just kind of pick your leg like this, but
make sure yeah we say this, yeah, a little butterflies.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, because uh, I mean this this nigger is for
the I mean it's the memory for the Kobe and Gigi. Yeah,
because Kobe is my favorite player.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So this memory is like they resting piece. So in
China wrestling piece, you you will be a butterfly. You'll
rebone to it, be a butterfly.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's great. So that's that means And now you're wearing
number eight? Is that for Kobe? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean twenty four is uh, it's
too big for me. I mean number eight is tavy
shout out to the young Hope.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's interesting. You're you're from Hong Kong, right.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm from I'm from Guangxi, but Ganzo.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And to see a young man like you influenced by
Kobe Bryant all the way halfway around the world. I
mean the sport of basketball. The NBA is just global.
It's amazing that the reach that it's had over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, I mean everyone, everyone loves Kobe because he's mental
tough and you know the mamba, Mamba man that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Is and mamba mentality mentality.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, that impressed a lot of young players in China
and try to get us out, so try to work
us all hard to get outside to play outside off season,
so we make a lot of them and the player and
the most half they love Kovie.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It's it's amazing that for everybody thinks that young people
admire UH skills and athleticism, which they do, but to
to admire that aspect of an athlete, that that mental toughness,
I would imagine that's something that your culture values a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It's a lot, it's a lot. In our country, we
training too hard. It is very hard training. And I
can say because we're training maybe more than like two
or three three times a day training. So it's make
us the man that will get harder. And when I
(02:54):
get outside, I'm afraid every hard training and I I do.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I do admire though the work ethic and I you
said something about what you wanted to get from your
experience coming to the United States and playing in the NBA.
One of the things that I read that you mentioned
was that you want the benefit for your national team. Yes, right,
(03:20):
I mean that's a really mature mindset to think, well,
I'm going to go make myself better so I can
be better for my country.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, because you know, China have like one point full
of bad in people, but how many in the NBA.
So there's a very hard decision to let me go through.
I want to go all I wanted to get in
the NBA, but I still have to have the good
(03:51):
skill athlete. And this is a pretty hard thing. This
four years, and to get one player from China, it'll
be a Chinese. You won't play NBA, And I go
a different way to go to the NBA. Someone is
by draft and someone is sunny big contract, by go
(04:12):
from the step to step. I went to the Julia League.
I went to the NBA the NBA draft, but I
get undraft and I walk hard when the draft woke out,
by call on the summer leak and wait for the contract.
I mean, I go a very hard way too.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It is sometimes it's if you're going to be drafted
late in the second round, or you know you're worried
about contracts that sometimes it's almost better to go undrafted
because then you have a choice of where you want
to go. So what led you to come here to Brooklyn?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I mean it's after the Summer League, because I think
I played good. When I play, they walk out in
the Nets. But it didn't have any message. That is
a little bit surprised. And when I get a message
from the Nets because I was playing for their Blazers
(05:13):
and I played. I appreciate my guys in the Blazers
because they very help on me and the coaches love me,
and I love the team too. And when I played
in there and I didn't I didn't see I just
met Sean in the hotel and I say hi, and
I know he's the Nets manager. And after the summer leak,
(05:36):
when I heard about the Nets sent me a message,
I was surprised of this.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, sometimes guys play it cool, you know, they want
to make sure that they don't show a lot of
interests so that other teams don't think they have an interest.
And maybe they did, but I mean it it sounds
like you had a couple other opportunities, but being here
in Brooklyn made sense.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For you, you m yeah, he made like big chance
on me.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, how much as far as you know having ownership
that's Chinese and maybe some other players I know, like
Jeremy Lynn played here. Had that did that influence you
with all coming here?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
He's my I mean, he's my one of the teachers
because I played with him like one season in CBA.
He's our teens import. That's that's a good fer. I
went to his room like a lot of time, like
very often. I went to his room and sit and
(06:37):
gets on whisky and heard about his story in the NBA,
his crazy haircuts and tried to show someone he got
a crazy haircut in the and after when he had
an injured in in in Brooklyn and he said he
went back, he tried to he still want to play basketball.
(06:57):
He shared the experience for me and he because he said,
I'm I'm very open, so outgoing. Yeah, so I'm good
at the communicating in here, so I might he say,
you might need to try the NBA. Don't afraid there's
not that fallow. Then he tell me.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I enjoyed having Jeremy around. I got to know him
a little bit and that period of time when he
exploded on the scene with the Knicks. They call insanity
here in New York. You know, at that time was
just it's still talked about it maybe a two or
three week period, but it was. It was insane. It
(07:40):
was insanity, you know when he was here. I don't
know if you remember that or you that ya Bond
was that news back then?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, of course we know that insanity because but that's
how maybe I like ten years old, ye I was
still young, but we still heard about it because the
order China, you know, the China basketball player all no
Germany and Yaoming and all the players. If you play
(08:10):
in NBA, the China will be the China player and
the peoples will know you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You were with the national team, yes, right, you played
where Kyle Anderson was on that team.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right yeah, he, I mean he was the rookie in
the China team.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I was.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
That was my second years. But uh, when Ki play,
he's an amazing guy because when we played the Serbia
in shin Jen, he went to his hometown in his
old hometown in Shinjin. You know, des John is Guangdong,
the part of the China, So he went back to
(08:47):
his hometown and he had he was born there. No,
his grandpa, grandpa Okay, I think his grandgrandpa and our
grandpa he and was there and the grandpa's picture is
still on there.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh wow. And that's his connection to play team. Yeah,
he's from nearby. I mean we're taking this in Brooklyn.
He's from right across the river in Jersey City.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
With one of the great nicknames of all time. You
know his nickname slow slow Mo.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, And it's amazing because it fits right. He he
looks like he's doing things in slow motion, but he
gets it's so effective.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. That that that is his special That is so special.
It's like no one is that. No one can learn
learn a little bit from him above if just do
like a like a rereathing is you.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
They play at their speed.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You can't inside slow.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And you can't speed them up. They play at their speed.
They get where they're gonna go. Uh. You got a
great personality. I love talking to you. Great smile. I
saw you out there joking around with some of your
like Jalen Martin out there when we're here at media Day,
there's there's a there's a lot of young people on
this net group right now. Even the head coach is young,
(10:06):
and his first experience, I would imagine this is it's work.
It's a business. You want to get better. But it
seems like there's good camaraderie and fun for you as
well here.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
For sure, because I I love to talk with with
the guys in here that I know. Uh, they know,
they know I went to I went to China, so
I'm not I come from China as well, so it's
pretty hard to get here. So they took care of me.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
They took care of me in the locker. They tried
to make me, made me joke, made me not feeling
boring in this team. So I mean, I like, I
love my teammate and the and the coach.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Can you say your whole name for everybody so we
know exactly how we should say it.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Uh, if you under stay in Chinese, My real net
is to you English n is young, but my English
kniin Nhang is Jackie tre Jack. Your dad my name,
my dad is swimming mean and he.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Was a street ball player.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Street ball street ball player and when he he he
was famous than me when when I when I played
what I played when I played before the CBA team,
he was famous than me because he he he's the
legend in the South, the bible basketball player. He until
(11:40):
right now, I think he told to me before thirty
years old. He running like seventeen years every day, running
in the morning and keep playing. And he can dunk
still right fifty years.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Old, really fifty, he's still getting up and duncan.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeahs like one hundred and seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Did you grow up in that watching him play and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah I did. I did, But I didn't know
he's so great when I when I was like twenty,
but before I'm twenty, I didn't know he was so great. Yeah,
I mean he was played the professional team like a
couple of years in NBL in China. His vigo is
(12:29):
like seventeen threes in the game. Wow, that's the game.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
One game.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There's a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's a lot of shots. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So that so when I know that after I turned handy,
that's amazing for me.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
But he did a lot of the street ball stuff,
the fancy stuff behind.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
The back and through the legs and oh yeah yeah,
and he always holding like a one hand one hand
showing the balls anyway, that was like a fake.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We got to get him out here to at fifty,
go out play at ruckers.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I'm like, okay, okay, I mean he played good. Yeah
he pay good, he can still pay.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Uh. Did those skills is that? Are we going to
see those skills from there?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah? I see maybe he played Big three three.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
There you go with ice cube.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, Jackie, great to get to know you. Thank you
so much for doing this. You appreciate good luck here
with the Long Island Nets and the Brooklyn Nets this
year
H m hm.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I was just admiring your sneakers. Can you hold those
up a little bit? And I guess we get that
in the shot a little bit. What do we got
a little butterflies? You don't have to take them off,
just just kind of pick your leg like this, but
make sure yeah we say this, yeah, a little butterflies.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, because uh, I mean this this nigger is for
the I mean it's the memory for the Kobe and Gigi. Yeah,
because Kobe is my favorite player.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So this memory is like they resting piece. So in
China wrestling piece, you you will be a butterfly. You'll
rebone to it, be a butterfly.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's great. So that's that means And now you're wearing
number eight? Is that for Kobe? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean twenty four is uh, it's
too big for me. I mean number eight is tavy
shout out to the young Hope.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's interesting. You're you're from Hong Kong, right.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm from I'm from Guangxi, but Ganzo.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And to see a young man like you influenced by
Kobe Bryant all the way halfway around the world. I
mean the sport of basketball. The NBA is just global.
It's amazing that the reach that it's had over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, I mean everyone, everyone loves Kobe because he's mental
tough and you know the mamba, Mamba man that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Is and mamba mentality mentality.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, that impressed a lot of young players in China
and try to get us out, so try to work
us all hard to get outside to play outside off season,
so we make a lot of them and the player and
the most half they love Kovie.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It's it's amazing that for everybody thinks that young people
admire UH skills and athleticism, which they do, but to
to admire that aspect of an athlete, that that mental toughness,
I would imagine that's something that your culture values a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It's a lot, it's a lot. In our country, we
training too hard. It is very hard training. And I
can say because we're training maybe more than like two
or three three times a day training. So it's make
us the man that will get harder. And when I
(02:54):
get outside, I'm afraid every hard training and I I do.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I do admire though the work ethic and I you
said something about what you wanted to get from your
experience coming to the United States and playing in the NBA.
One of the things that I read that you mentioned
was that you want the benefit for your national team. Yes, right,
(03:20):
I mean that's a really mature mindset to think, well,
I'm going to go make myself better so I can
be better for my country.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, because you know, China have like one point full
of bad in people, but how many in the NBA.
So there's a very hard decision to let me go through.
I want to go all I wanted to get in
the NBA, but I still have to have the good
(03:51):
skill athlete. And this is a pretty hard thing. This
four years, and to get one player from China, it'll
be a Chinese. You won't play NBA, And I go
a different way to go to the NBA. Someone is
by draft and someone is sunny big contract, by go
(04:12):
from the step to step. I went to the Julia League.
I went to the NBA the NBA draft, but I
get undraft and I walk hard when the draft woke out,
by call on the summer leak and wait for the contract.
I mean, I go a very hard way too.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It is sometimes it's if you're going to be drafted
late in the second round, or you know you're worried
about contracts that sometimes it's almost better to go undrafted
because then you have a choice of where you want
to go. So what led you to come here to Brooklyn?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I mean it's after the Summer League, because I think
I played good. When I play, they walk out in
the Nets. But it didn't have any message. That is
a little bit surprised. And when I get a message
from the Nets because I was playing for their Blazers
(05:13):
and I played. I appreciate my guys in the Blazers
because they very help on me and the coaches love me,
and I love the team too. And when I played
in there and I didn't I didn't see I just
met Sean in the hotel and I say hi, and
I know he's the Nets manager. And after the summer leak,
(05:36):
when I heard about the Nets sent me a message,
I was surprised of this.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, sometimes guys play it cool, you know, they want
to make sure that they don't show a lot of
interests so that other teams don't think they have an interest.
And maybe they did, but I mean it it sounds
like you had a couple other opportunities, but being here
in Brooklyn made sense.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For you, you m yeah, he made like big chance
on me.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, how much as far as you know having ownership
that's Chinese and maybe some other players I know, like
Jeremy Lynn played here. Had that did that influence you
with all coming here?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
He's my I mean, he's my one of the teachers
because I played with him like one season in CBA.
He's our teens import. That's that's a good fer. I
went to his room like a lot of time, like
very often. I went to his room and sit and
(06:37):
gets on whisky and heard about his story in the NBA,
his crazy haircuts and tried to show someone he got
a crazy haircut in the and after when he had
an injured in in in Brooklyn and he said he
went back, he tried to he still want to play basketball.
(06:57):
He shared the experience for me and he because he said,
I'm I'm very open, so outgoing. Yeah, so I'm good
at the communicating in here, so I might he say,
you might need to try the NBA. Don't afraid there's
not that fallow. Then he tell me.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I enjoyed having Jeremy around. I got to know him
a little bit and that period of time when he
exploded on the scene with the Knicks. They call insanity
here in New York. You know, at that time was
just it's still talked about it maybe a two or
three week period, but it was. It was insane. It
(07:40):
was insanity, you know when he was here. I don't
know if you remember that or you that ya Bond
was that news back then?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, of course we know that insanity because but that's
how maybe I like ten years old, ye I was
still young, but we still heard about it because the
order China, you know, the China basketball player all no
Germany and Yaoming and all the players. If you play
(08:10):
in NBA, the China will be the China player and
the peoples will know you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You were with the national team, yes, right, you played
where Kyle Anderson was on that team.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right yeah, he, I mean he was the rookie in
the China team.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I was.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
That was my second years. But uh, when Ki play,
he's an amazing guy because when we played the Serbia
in shin Jen, he went to his hometown in his
old hometown in Shinjin. You know, des John is Guangdong,
the part of the China, So he went back to
(08:47):
his hometown and he had he was born there. No,
his grandpa, grandpa Okay, I think his grandgrandpa and our
grandpa he and was there and the grandpa's picture is
still on there.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh wow. And that's his connection to play team. Yeah,
he's from nearby. I mean we're taking this in Brooklyn.
He's from right across the river in Jersey City.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
With one of the great nicknames of all time. You
know his nickname slow slow Mo.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, And it's amazing because it fits right. He he
looks like he's doing things in slow motion, but he
gets it's so effective.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. That that that is his special That is so special.
It's like no one is that. No one can learn
learn a little bit from him above if just do
like a like a rereathing is you.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
They play at their speed.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You can't inside slow.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And you can't speed them up. They play at their speed.
They get where they're gonna go. Uh. You got a
great personality. I love talking to you. Great smile. I
saw you out there joking around with some of your
like Jalen Martin out there when we're here at media Day,
there's there's a there's a lot of young people on
this net group right now. Even the head coach is young,
(10:06):
and his first experience, I would imagine this is it's work.
It's a business. You want to get better. But it
seems like there's good camaraderie and fun for you as
well here.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
For sure, because I I love to talk with with
the guys in here that I know. Uh, they know,
they know I went to I went to China, so
I'm not I come from China as well, so it's
pretty hard to get here. So they took care of me.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
They took care of me in the locker. They tried
to make me, made me joke, made me not feeling
boring in this team. So I mean, I like, I
love my teammate and the and the coach.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Can you say your whole name for everybody so we
know exactly how we should say it.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Uh, if you under stay in Chinese, My real net
is to you English n is young, but my English
kniin Nhang is Jackie tre Jack. Your dad my name,
my dad is swimming mean and he.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Was a street ball player.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Street ball street ball player and when he he he
was famous than me when when I when I played
what I played when I played before the CBA team,
he was famous than me because he he he's the
legend in the South, the bible basketball player. He until
(11:40):
right now, I think he told to me before thirty
years old. He running like seventeen years every day, running
in the morning and keep playing. And he can dunk
still right fifty years.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Old, really fifty, he's still getting up and duncan.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeahs like one hundred and seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Did you grow up in that watching him play and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah I did. I did, But I didn't know
he's so great when I when I was like twenty,
but before I'm twenty, I didn't know he was so great. Yeah,
I mean he was played the professional team like a
couple of years in NBL in China. His vigo is
(12:29):
like seventeen threes in the game. Wow, that's the game.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
One game.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There's a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's a lot of shots. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So that so when I know that after I turned handy,
that's amazing for me.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
But he did a lot of the street ball stuff,
the fancy stuff behind.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
The back and through the legs and oh yeah yeah,
and he always holding like a one hand one hand
showing the balls anyway, that was like a fake.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We got to get him out here to at fifty,
go out play at ruckers.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I'm like, okay, okay, I mean he played good. Yeah
he pay good, he can still pay.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Uh. Did those skills is that? Are we going to
see those skills from there?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah? I see maybe he played Big three three.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
There you go with ice cube.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, Jackie, great to get to know you. Thank you
so much for doing this. You appreciate good luck here
with the Long Island Nets and the Brooklyn Nets this
year
Host
Chris Carrino
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