March 21, 2023 • 27 mins
Robert Williams III and Al Horford give their perspective on fatherhood in this week’s episode. We start out hearing from Rob about the importance of leading by example and being someone his kids can be proud of.
Rob talks about how everything changed when his oldest was born and the difference in his relationship and parenting styles between his daughter and son. He shares how he learned how to juggle the demands of the NBA and being a dad by watching how his teammates prioritize.
The conversation then pivots to talking about the Celtics’ family-first culture and how Brad Stevens sets a tone of prioritizing family moments from the top down.
Al Horford joins the conversation and opens by describing the moment he became a dad when he had his first child seven years into his career. He then comments on how great it is to see the level of joy and commitment younger guys on the team have shown raising their kids.
2:55 – Perspective Changes Raising A Daughter
7:25 – Rob Williams On Being A Role Model, Learning From Teammates
9:57 – Cherishing The Little Moments With A Busy Schedule
15:52 – Celtics’ Family-First Culture
22:03 – Al Horford’s Fatherhood Journey
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Rafters Today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, don't go there, not yet. Will we
talk about it in our podcast The Bust One Boys
is the crazy story, not actortball. It's the crazy thing
to me. It's like where you came from. Yeah, we're
all older than we think. We are always gold lead
Gray baby. All right, we are back for another episode
(00:27):
of You from the Rafters behind the scenes with the
Boston Celtics, myself and Abbey Chin and Abbey. Today's episode
is all about fatherhood and being an NBA player. Unfortunately,
we've got our man Rob Williams here to talk to
us about it. He's got two young kids. Congrats on that, Rob.
What does it mean to you to be a dad?
(00:49):
Very open question here to start, Yeah, really open um?
Is this leading by example? You know, um my actions,
you know, my legacy, Like I don't want my kids
to people to come up and say bad things about
me to my kids, you know, just giving them the
(01:11):
best example that I can that I know of. And uh,
you know you gotta be you gotta be delicate with kids, man,
you gotta be you gotta be soft with them, you know.
So it was a big change for me, my first
child and my daughter too. It was a it was
a big turnaround for me. But um yeah, just the
(01:32):
legacy man, holding your name to a hogh standard. You know,
so when you're gone, like I said, people can come
up to your kids and have them with good things
to say. How different is your childhood? Was your childhood
than the one your kids are? They spoiled? Man, I
was spoiled. Don't get me wrong. You know what parent
doesn't want to spoil their kids, you know. But um,
(01:55):
you know, I did go through a part where part
of the time we had it hard for a little bit.
And thankfully I'm in a position my kids don't get
to see that, thankfully. But like I said, man, it's different,
you know, it's a different day and age. And I
was telling my girlfriend the other day, I kind of
don't want to, you know, all the new game systems
(02:16):
and new stuff that comes out. I kind of don't
want to shower them with that, just because Christmas might
mean less to them, a birthdays might mean less to them,
you know, being able to get all of this stuff
at a young gage. But It's kind of inevitable, man,
when you you know when it's when it's like that,
it's kind of inevitable. But it does make the holiday's tougher.
(02:40):
It makes it so much tougher. Man, it's so much
coming up with a Christmas list after your kids already
have everything. You got that experience too, Red, Yeah, exactly, Rob,
you said, everything changed, Yeah, when when even was born. Yeah,
I can only imagine because I have not gotten there,
but I can only imagine in that moment what's going
(03:02):
through your head. And in that moment, for you, you
had just started your professional career, right, you were two
months in at that point. I think it was early
December obviously, season started in mid to late October at
that time. Yeah, So what did change? First and foremost?
And then secondly, just how did you figure it out
(03:23):
when you've got all of these things going on at once,
where your life is changing, not only from a professional standpoint,
but also changing from like I mean, you gotta change diapers,
you gotta put the babies, like all these different things.
That's so involved. Yeah, it was. I can't say it
happened as soon as she was born, you know what
(03:43):
I'm saying, but maybe like a year after my I
started noticing the disrespect that women get in the world
a lot more, you know, really just me putting myself
back in my you know, younger teenage days and I
(04:04):
got a daughter now something, You're like, she gotta be
a teenager, you know, she got to grow up. And
I know the way that I've seen you know, girls
being treated, and that they kind of softened me up,
you know what I'm saying, And I want my daughter
to have to go through any of this stuff. You know,
Like I said, it didn't happen right away. It was like,
(04:25):
you know, like gradually as I learned, like, all right,
I do have a baby girl, she's not gonna be
she's four already. You know, time flies. So it just
kind of made me put an emphasis on you know,
but there's a lot of a lot of women getting
mistreated terrible in as well. It's so true, and it's
really cool to hear you mentioned that my daughter is seven,
(04:46):
and it is a mind shift just in the words
that you use even when you're talking to her about
empowerment and body image, and there are so many layers
to that. But it's also something that I feel like
I was concerned about while I was pregnant and before
I had her, But it has come naturally to me.
And now once you're in it every day, it's just something.
(05:08):
It's just how you are and how you want to,
Like you said, lead by example for them. Sure, for sure,
even even like the way I talk, like the way
I can talk to the way I might talk to
my son, like like with best friends, like he understands
you know what I'm saying, Like hey, get off the floor.
They come in the room and do this, you know,
(05:29):
like you understand me. With my daughter, I didn't. I
didn't try to tiptoe. But like with my son, it
was it's straight, hard, hard love, you know what I'm saying.
It's my little boy, like you know. But when my daughter,
I kind of tried to like embrace it softly, you know,
like I want to, you know, let you know that
(05:51):
I'm here for you. You know, Um, You're gonna go
through a lot in the world, like you said, But
I wanted her to get the love from home first. Thankfully,
mother does a great job shout out to tell her. Mother.
Mother does a great job of, you know, just empowering her. Lena,
no stuff and mcfidence. Yeah, yeah, you know, just teaching
(06:12):
her honestly, just about the world period, as much as
we can at this at this young guy. So I
gotta keep that going. It sounds like for you it's
kind of been instinctual, right, Like your mind is telling
you to raise your son one way, and your mind
is telling you to raise your daughter maybe a little
bit differently. Yeah. Sounds kind of like a coach in
(06:34):
a way that like coaches have to you have to
coach different people different ways. Yeah, but how did you
settle into like knowing how to navigate the two different routes. Yeah,
so my daughter, my daughter, me and my daughter's mother
were never together, so my daughter didn't live with me.
So I felt like whenever I've seen how I was
(06:58):
always showing her the most love, Like everything was so sensitive,
you know what I'm saying in tune, Like I'm trying
to be soft as I can with her, just show
her all the love that I have for the moment
that I had her. That's a challenge in itself though, too.
It is they going from zero to one hundred and
then it's all on you when she's there. It's so
challenging and she teaches me. Like I said, she teaches
(07:19):
me stuff like it'll be a while I haven't seen her.
She come back and she I try to help her
do something and she you know, pushed me away. She
can do it on her own. So it's just crazy.
I don't need your help. Yeah, But like when my son,
it was, I see him every day. He's getting on
my nerves. It's tough love, you know, Like I know
(07:42):
when I go to sleep, I'm gonna wake up to
see him. You know, Like that's just how it is.
So I feel like I had to. That's the reason
for me taking a different approach because I wasn't around
it a lot. So how nice is it having and
what has it been like to have some role models
within the locker room when you got here, Al, I
think maybe had three kids at that point. He's got
five now kind of examples. Well, yeah, um, it showed
(08:07):
you how to juggle the league, life and your family,
you know. So, um, I'll watch out, like he come
in early, he get his work in. You see him
rushing out and people thinking he rushing just to get
out the gym, but really he rushing because he maybe
(08:27):
has a routine and dropping his kids off at school,
picking them up, you know every day at school, or
he have a routine of game days to come in
and work this certain time he'll go home and spend
time with his son. You know. So watching him and
JT do that helped me learn went to assert you know,
family time, specific family time, how to juggle that with
(08:48):
the league life and just seeing you know, the joy
that they had for their kids. Um. You see ducing
our older son in the locker room every night, playing
one on one. It's it's like a goal. You know,
I can't wait for his es to be running through
that doing that. But lundon love from them. Guys, what
is it like having Hendrix be around in the family
(09:08):
room in there for you it's it's it's a thing
that honestly, I'm ready for him to get older and
like be able to look back and realize like I
actually was in here with these guys. Yeah, you know,
(09:29):
like he he don't understand right now, even like to
be honest, even ducing outs like I know they understand,
you know what I'm saying. But you restaged like fourteen fifteen,
you're looking at pictures of you, Yeah, J T J.
But you like my dad actually had me in there,
you know, so I really ready for him to just
hit the stage. Now it's just all running around eating
(09:52):
everything snacks. You talked about learning how to juggle the league,
life and parenthood that that's something that I want to
concentrate on here, because I don't think everyone out there
really kind of understand until you're on that plane, flying
in and out and getting home at midnight after a
(10:14):
home game. There's only so many hours in a days.
So I mean, I have a dog, and I feel
like I have barely time to talk the dog outside.
So I can only imagine an actual human being that's
depending on me. How have you tried to carve the
right amount of time out and what is the right
amount of time that you have found in your personal life?
(10:36):
So obviously any off day or any day, you know,
just a practice day, but um I try to sow
which there aren't many just to be clear that out there,
games and travel on a game like regular day, we hear,
you know, shoot around. We have to shoot around, say
ten in the morning. Um My son will get up
around seven. I'll sit with him when he gets up,
(11:00):
just because I know I have to leave him like
an aur for shoot around, spend that time with him.
When I get back, maybe spend like two or three
hours with him, take a pregame up. Most of the times,
if he doesn't go to the game, he's down by
the time I get it out or get home. Or
even when he does go to the game, when we
(11:21):
pull up in the house and I'm like, hey, Hendri,
is you ready to get out the car? Turn around?
He knocked out. So any like you said, any rare
off day or any time that we have, you know,
I try to just take him to do something to aquarium,
you know, a little jungle gym, take out dog to
the park. Anything. You just gotta It's so hard to plan.
(11:45):
It's like you don't know until the day before. Like
we don't know our schedules until like you know, the
day before. We may they say we don't have something.
Then we got mandatory film and it throws off, you know,
the whole day. So you gotta just work around it.
Do you really wake up at seven with him when
you can? Yeah, I would go up impressive like seven
every morning. Even when we get back from a road
(12:05):
trip at three o'clock in the morning, I lay, I'm
laying in bed with the kids yelling at me like
five more minutes. I hate the fact that I'm a
life sleeper because I'm always the first to hear him
cry in the morning, and I'll try to like clock
it out. Yeah, I try to just close. WI was
(12:25):
real hard. I'm like, maybe as I put all, try
to hide from the reality that's coming. I spoke to
Al about the same topic, and we're gonna hear from
him later in the episode. But he talked about you
and Jason and the first and foremost that he didn't
(12:46):
have his first child until he was seven years in
the league, so very different scenario from you guys, and
he just couldn't conceptualize how you guys were able to
juggle the two things. That's one thing he said. But
the other thing that really stood out to me is
that he can just when you guys are around your kids,
he can see like the pure joy in your eyes.
How would you describe, Yeah, how it makes you feel
(13:09):
to be around your kids and to be a proud parent.
What is that emotion? It's actually funny because when he
goes to sleep at nighttime, like I'll be on my
phone and I see it. I was just with him
three hours ago before he went to sleep, and I'll
see a picture or something. I'm like, Man, I can't
wait till he wakes up so I can hug him.
(13:30):
But that joy, man is just seeing I think it's
two things for me. It's seeing myself in him, and
it's seeing him learning to do things on his own.
I think that's the most proud he makes me as
his dad's funny him actually small, abody hard, but you're
(13:50):
proud man. You can tell. Even when he learned how
to walk, you know. Um, we first tried to get
him to walk, he'd take a couple of steps and
he would fall and he was just crawled, you know,
the rest of the way. But now like if he falls,
he get back up, you know. And he doesn't know
little things like that, you know. They I'm smiling biggest,
you know, biggest day behind him. But it's it's a
(14:10):
little stuff like that, man. And I think I think
he might be saying dadda, but I don't want to
be the person to tooth that. I'm gonna way till
it's clear. Dada is easier to say than Mama for
the first But the part that I love too, and um,
I don't know if anybody reads the US magazine or something,
(14:34):
but the stars they're just like us. You posted a
video of yourself at a swim class with Hendrick and
getting in the pool, but then you're kind of down,
but you stood up in the pools. Yeah yeah, yeah,
the water was like four feet and my back was hurting,
Like how I had to hold here him low to
(14:54):
the water. I was I was just dog. But they
to be there for those moments, and yeah, yeah it was.
It was his second class. Obviously, those moments a priceless.
It's actually something that like you look at it as
a hassle, like I've been working at all day, I
don't want to go to the swimming class. But once
(15:16):
you like there, you never wanted to in and you
see the smiles on their face, like kids love water.
Yeah he actually they don't. They love it with now
don't realize how dangerous it is, that's the thing. So
he's just jumping in all day here, don't realize if
I'm not right here, like you're gone, buddy. But it
is worth it, though. Do you ever bring him on
(15:36):
road trips? He came to the finals last year. He
was really all he kept to the finals. It was
a long flight and he's coming to Houston. Coming to Houston.
This kind of relates. The last thing that I want
to talk to you about is like the culture here
with the Celtics is it's really family first, Like they
(15:57):
want you to be there for those key moments. State
you know, work comes second for you in particular, you
missed games for your first child being born and for
your second child being born. What what does it mean
to you to be working at a place and playing
for an organization that prioritizes that stuff for you, guys,
that you are able to be there for those moments
(16:18):
and you don't have to worry about how that's gonna
you know, reflect on your work ethic or anything like that. Yeah,
even when even when Brad was coaching, we we all
knew he was real big on stuff like that, Like
it it wasn't even a question with him. You know,
if it was a serious family matter, you know, he
would make you be there. You know, you didn't have
(16:39):
a choice. He even missed a game at one point
for a personal matter. Yeah, it was like, um, we
all is respected that about the whole organization, and you
know it makes you want to give the organization you're all,
you know, to know that they like all right, like
it can be. For instance, Um, Malcolm had like a
(17:02):
couple of weeks you know to this his second child
was born. I thinking, uh, they were already making a
plan on like or you might not be at this trip,
you know, you know, because they respected so much and
it's something that is very respectful. Like I said, it's
a life being brought in or any any family situation,
a family emergency. But it just makes you want to
(17:22):
give the organization, y'all. Man, knowing I care about you
liked up even Luke. Luke left mid game in New York.
He walked back in the locker room. He was like,
was out. He was gonna get a lot of run
that game. Like he went up to damn happens, man,
you never know who he's gonna come click. He's like, well, yeah,
(17:44):
he said the first time out they told him like
right after tip off and then first So he's sitting
there on the bench just like waiting for a chance
to tell someone. He went to Damon and he was like,
I gotta go. Cannot imagine. Well, Rob, congratulations on two
beautiful kids. And Avan Hendricks, and You've been an unbelievable
dad so far. I know I haven't been there to
directly watch it, but I've heard a lot of people
(18:05):
talk about it. So congratulations. We appreciate you coming on
to talk with us about him. We're going to hear
from El Horford talking about the same thing here in
a minute. Thank you, Thanks Rap than Abby. That was
an awesome conversation with I'm so happy that we got
fifteen ish minutes with him, and last night we were
talking at the game. We didn't even know if we
were going to be able to fill that amount of
time with him because he's usually so short winded, but
(18:28):
he was so happy to discuss being a father and
talking about his kids. That was a lot of fun.
That's what I was going to say. You could just
the joy that he has in being a father is
obvious and clear, and that's where his passions are. And
so of course he's going to talk about that and
be willing, and I'm just so grateful for his willingness
to open up about that and tell us a little
(18:49):
bit more about him. I learned so much more about
Rob in that fifteen minutes than I have in the
four seasons that he's been here. Yeah, and honestly sitting
down and just looking at his eyes and he kept
saying it. He was like, yeah, I'm smiling right now,
Like while I'm talking about it, you can just I've
never talked to him about his kids before, and just
having that opportunity to see the word joy, it just
comes to mind, like emitting out from his smile, from
(19:12):
his eyes, you can just see how proud he is
of his daughter. And then even afterward Abby everyone the
camera's turned off, but he was like, yeah, my daughter's
so independent, like she doesn't let me help with anything
she wants to do. You can just see how proud
he is. And that's really what stood out to me.
I don't know if anything else came out of the
conversation for you. I do think we see that inside
(19:32):
TD Garden when from Jason and Deuce running on the
floor as soon as the game is over, and even
Al Horford I see it behind the scenes when his son,
as Rob mentioned Ian comes to join him and going
into the locker room. So you do get glimpses of that.
But it was just so nice to have to be
able to sit down with Rob and allow him to
(19:53):
open up and give us a little bit more. And
fortunately we had the same opportunity at least I did
to sit down with Alan talk to him about this
exact same topic. We're going to toss to him in
a moment before we do. I just want to remind
everyone out there, if you're listening, rate, subscribe, and review.
If you're watching, please do the same on YouTube. The
audio version will be dropping every Tuesday, the video version
(20:13):
on YouTube every Wednesday, So we're coming at you every
week for twelve weeks. I think we got about six
six or so more I left this season so attime.
We hope everyone is enjoying us so far. But yeah,
I guess I'll come shout out to all the other dads.
Yes on the team. There are a lot a lot.
I think that that is indicative, yes, of this team
and how much older we've it's become and mature. But
(20:37):
there's Luke Cornett and Derek White, and I'm sure I
might be missing more, but it's it's cool to see.
And then also the assistant coaches and having their kids.
Tony Dobbins and his two beautiful daughters are always sidelines,
pregame and then Aaron Miles who has four sons and
he gets them out on the court just to run
(20:57):
whenever he gets the chance, So he's getting get all
the energy out of them, right, Yes, it just speaks
to like what you said with Rob, the priority that
the Celtics place on family, and you can feel that
just being around the team. You make a really good
point though, that there are so many dads on this
team and this team is so mature. Yeah, I think
it's kind of like baked in maturity. You have to
(21:18):
be mature when you have a child and you have
a human being depending on him. I don't know. I
wish I would have asked Rob right here, but would
he be the player in the person that he is
now today if he didn't have a child at twenty one?
Like how did that affect him during that time? But
we'll have to ask him that offline. And one thing
I know is that they'd probably get more sleep, maybe
(21:39):
just a little bit, Maybe just a little bit. But yeah,
I got a chance to catch up with Al about
this exact topic a couple of weeks ago. He said
a lot of similar comments to Rob, but one thing
that stood out that he talked about is. He said,
it's difficult to find time, but there's always time. So
let's toss it over to Al. I got to talk
with him, like I said, just a couple of weeks ago,
and here he is talking about fatherhood and juggling that
(22:01):
with playing in the NBA. How would you describe the
feeling of being a dad. Uh, It's a great feeling
being a dad. It's it's something that that I absolutely love. Um.
You know, I always wanted to be, um, you know,
a dad and have my own family and be able
to you know, mold my kids and um and and
(22:23):
and still you know, the right values in them. So
um uh for me, it's it's just great. It's it's um,
you know, it's one of my favorite things. Um, you know,
just to to be able to to you know, to
lead my family and and just to be there for
them and and um and and you know, just guide them, uh,
(22:45):
you know, in their lives. So I haven't gotten to
that stage yet in my life, but I would imagine
just haven't been around with you guys. The flights, the
late nights getting home, the late nights of work, even
when you're here in Boston, you gotta probably miss birthdays.
I think you just missed one of your kid's birthdays yesterday's. Um, Like,
just how do you juggle that of being able to
(23:06):
be a dad and also be able to take care
of and you're as professional as they come, take care
of your job as well. How do you how do
you juggle those two things? UM? Yeah, I mean it's
you know, it's all about priorities and um, you know,
for me, um, before anything, UM, you know, God is
my priority. God. You know that that's that's really what
(23:28):
I focus on. And then you know, after that, my
family it's something that's that's extremely important to me. And UM,
and and obviously my work and I have to put
in the time and work, and but when I'm at
home and when I have the time, I make sure
that I you know, that I give you know, the
best quality time that I possibly can, you know, to
my to my kids and and to my wife and
(23:51):
uh and and really you know, it's it's kind of
making decisions. It's like doing something you know, for yourself,
or doing something else or spending time I'm you know,
helping you know, for example, my song with this homework,
or um, you know, taking them to a park or um,
you know, just doing things like that or you know,
(24:11):
it's it's bathtime and you got to go do that,
and um and and different things. So for me, it's
really you know, it's really about you know, making them
most of the time. And it's difficult, but you know
there's always time and uh and I and that's that's
the way that I that I approach it. And you
had been in the league for I think it was
like seven or eight years before you had your first child.
(24:32):
How did that moment kind of change your perspective not
only on your career but in life in general. Um. Yeah,
so um, you know it's uh, it gave me a
lot of perspective. Um, but just just very grateful um
to you know, um to be able to to to
(24:52):
be a dad and and then um finding ways to
you know, to to make everything work. But understanding that
you know that I have a job to do and
there's expectations of me and uh and like you said,
I have to be professional um and and go about
it that way. But um, but it was, uh, you know,
(25:13):
just just a good perspective, um, you know, good good
perspective for me, keeping everything you know positive and and
uh and really just uh you know, uh, really enjoying
you know the journey it comes with it, and and
you know, growing a family plane it's it can be challenging.
But uh but uh but um, you know it's been
(25:35):
great for me. You know, my wife has been you
know a huge support for me and and and you
know makes it easier for me to be able to
come out and do what I need to do on
the court. So conversely, we've got Jason has a kid
at nineteen, Rob Williams has a kid at twenty one,
And these two guys have just embraced it since the
(25:56):
very start and somehow been able to juggle both of
these things that that you've kind of spoken about that
it can be a challenge. How have you seen those
two guys in particular navigate those challenges um in the
early portions of their career. Yeah. So the so the
little that I've seen, UM, you know, I've just been
(26:17):
you know blown away you know with uh you know
that how much they love their you know, their sons, uh,
their commitments to being dads um. Uh you know it's
something that you could tell they really enjoy, uh, they
really embrace um and and UM and and they're uh
(26:37):
and and that's like the biggest thing. You know, they're
really caring, they're really taking the time and uh and
just from the interactions that I've had or when I
talk to them and things like that, you know, their
their faces just light up when they talk about you know,
about their kids and um and that's uh, that's pretty special.
I think that's the biggest thing right there. Um. You know,
they their their dads that want to be involved, they
(26:59):
want to be part of their kids life and uh
and and I think that's the biggest thing. Giving your
kids as much love as you can. Awesome. All right,
well I appreciate it, man, Thank you for doing this
on an off day, and uh hopefully we'll see you
guys back out there for another one tomorrow. All right man,
thank you, all right, man, thank you very much.
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Rafters Today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, don't go there, not yet. Will we
talk about it in our podcast The Bust One Boys
is the crazy story, not actortball. It's the crazy thing
to me. It's like where you came from. Yeah, we're
all older than we think. We are always gold lead
Gray baby. All right, we are back for another episode
(00:27):
of You from the Rafters behind the scenes with the
Boston Celtics, myself and Abbey Chin and Abbey. Today's episode
is all about fatherhood and being an NBA player. Unfortunately,
we've got our man Rob Williams here to talk to
us about it. He's got two young kids. Congrats on that, Rob.
What does it mean to you to be a dad?
(00:49):
Very open question here to start, Yeah, really open um?
Is this leading by example? You know, um my actions,
you know, my legacy, Like I don't want my kids
to people to come up and say bad things about
me to my kids, you know, just giving them the
(01:11):
best example that I can that I know of. And uh,
you know you gotta be you gotta be delicate with kids, man,
you gotta be you gotta be soft with them, you know.
So it was a big change for me, my first
child and my daughter too. It was a it was
a big turnaround for me. But um yeah, just the
(01:32):
legacy man, holding your name to a hogh standard. You know,
so when you're gone, like I said, people can come
up to your kids and have them with good things
to say. How different is your childhood? Was your childhood
than the one your kids are? They spoiled? Man, I
was spoiled. Don't get me wrong. You know what parent
doesn't want to spoil their kids, you know. But um,
(01:55):
you know, I did go through a part where part
of the time we had it hard for a little bit.
And thankfully I'm in a position my kids don't get
to see that, thankfully. But like I said, man, it's different,
you know, it's a different day and age. And I
was telling my girlfriend the other day, I kind of
don't want to, you know, all the new game systems
(02:16):
and new stuff that comes out. I kind of don't
want to shower them with that, just because Christmas might
mean less to them, a birthdays might mean less to them,
you know, being able to get all of this stuff
at a young gage. But It's kind of inevitable, man,
when you you know when it's when it's like that,
it's kind of inevitable. But it does make the holiday's tougher.
(02:40):
It makes it so much tougher. Man, it's so much
coming up with a Christmas list after your kids already
have everything. You got that experience too, Red, Yeah, exactly, Rob,
you said, everything changed, Yeah, when when even was born. Yeah,
I can only imagine because I have not gotten there,
but I can only imagine in that moment what's going
(03:02):
through your head. And in that moment, for you, you
had just started your professional career, right, you were two
months in at that point. I think it was early
December obviously, season started in mid to late October at
that time. Yeah, So what did change? First and foremost?
And then secondly, just how did you figure it out
(03:23):
when you've got all of these things going on at once,
where your life is changing, not only from a professional standpoint,
but also changing from like I mean, you gotta change diapers,
you gotta put the babies, like all these different things.
That's so involved. Yeah, it was. I can't say it
happened as soon as she was born, you know what
(03:43):
I'm saying, but maybe like a year after my I
started noticing the disrespect that women get in the world
a lot more, you know, really just me putting myself
back in my you know, younger teenage days and I
(04:04):
got a daughter now something, You're like, she gotta be
a teenager, you know, she got to grow up. And
I know the way that I've seen you know, girls
being treated, and that they kind of softened me up,
you know what I'm saying, And I want my daughter
to have to go through any of this stuff. You know,
Like I said, it didn't happen right away. It was like,
(04:25):
you know, like gradually as I learned, like, all right,
I do have a baby girl, she's not gonna be
she's four already. You know, time flies. So it just
kind of made me put an emphasis on you know,
but there's a lot of a lot of women getting
mistreated terrible in as well. It's so true, and it's
really cool to hear you mentioned that my daughter is seven,
(04:46):
and it is a mind shift just in the words
that you use even when you're talking to her about
empowerment and body image, and there are so many layers
to that. But it's also something that I feel like
I was concerned about while I was pregnant and before
I had her, But it has come naturally to me.
And now once you're in it every day, it's just something.
(05:08):
It's just how you are and how you want to,
Like you said, lead by example for them. Sure, for sure,
even even like the way I talk, like the way
I can talk to the way I might talk to
my son, like like with best friends, like he understands
you know what I'm saying, Like hey, get off the floor.
They come in the room and do this, you know,
(05:29):
like you understand me. With my daughter, I didn't. I
didn't try to tiptoe. But like with my son, it
was it's straight, hard, hard love, you know what I'm saying.
It's my little boy, like you know. But when my daughter,
I kind of tried to like embrace it softly, you know,
like I want to, you know, let you know that
(05:51):
I'm here for you. You know, Um, You're gonna go
through a lot in the world, like you said, But
I wanted her to get the love from home first. Thankfully,
mother does a great job shout out to tell her. Mother.
Mother does a great job of, you know, just empowering her. Lena,
no stuff and mcfidence. Yeah, yeah, you know, just teaching
(06:12):
her honestly, just about the world period, as much as
we can at this at this young guy. So I
gotta keep that going. It sounds like for you it's
kind of been instinctual, right, Like your mind is telling
you to raise your son one way, and your mind
is telling you to raise your daughter maybe a little
bit differently. Yeah. Sounds kind of like a coach in
(06:34):
a way that like coaches have to you have to
coach different people different ways. Yeah, but how did you
settle into like knowing how to navigate the two different routes. Yeah,
so my daughter, my daughter, me and my daughter's mother
were never together, so my daughter didn't live with me.
So I felt like whenever I've seen how I was
(06:58):
always showing her the most love, Like everything was so sensitive,
you know what I'm saying in tune, Like I'm trying
to be soft as I can with her, just show
her all the love that I have for the moment
that I had her. That's a challenge in itself though, too.
It is they going from zero to one hundred and
then it's all on you when she's there. It's so
challenging and she teaches me. Like I said, she teaches
(07:19):
me stuff like it'll be a while I haven't seen her.
She come back and she I try to help her
do something and she you know, pushed me away. She
can do it on her own. So it's just crazy.
I don't need your help. Yeah, But like when my son,
it was, I see him every day. He's getting on
my nerves. It's tough love, you know, Like I know
(07:42):
when I go to sleep, I'm gonna wake up to
see him. You know, Like that's just how it is.
So I feel like I had to. That's the reason
for me taking a different approach because I wasn't around
it a lot. So how nice is it having and
what has it been like to have some role models
within the locker room when you got here, Al, I
think maybe had three kids at that point. He's got
five now kind of examples. Well, yeah, um, it showed
(08:07):
you how to juggle the league, life and your family,
you know. So, um, I'll watch out, like he come
in early, he get his work in. You see him
rushing out and people thinking he rushing just to get
out the gym, but really he rushing because he maybe
(08:27):
has a routine and dropping his kids off at school,
picking them up, you know every day at school, or
he have a routine of game days to come in
and work this certain time he'll go home and spend
time with his son. You know. So watching him and
JT do that helped me learn went to assert you know,
family time, specific family time, how to juggle that with
(08:48):
the league life and just seeing you know, the joy
that they had for their kids. Um. You see ducing
our older son in the locker room every night, playing
one on one. It's it's like a goal. You know,
I can't wait for his es to be running through
that doing that. But lundon love from them. Guys, what
is it like having Hendrix be around in the family
(09:08):
room in there for you it's it's it's a thing
that honestly, I'm ready for him to get older and
like be able to look back and realize like I
actually was in here with these guys. Yeah, you know,
(09:29):
like he he don't understand right now, even like to
be honest, even ducing outs like I know they understand,
you know what I'm saying. But you restaged like fourteen fifteen,
you're looking at pictures of you, Yeah, J T J.
But you like my dad actually had me in there,
you know, so I really ready for him to just
hit the stage. Now it's just all running around eating
(09:52):
everything snacks. You talked about learning how to juggle the league,
life and parenthood that that's something that I want to
concentrate on here, because I don't think everyone out there
really kind of understand until you're on that plane, flying
in and out and getting home at midnight after a
(10:14):
home game. There's only so many hours in a days.
So I mean, I have a dog, and I feel
like I have barely time to talk the dog outside.
So I can only imagine an actual human being that's
depending on me. How have you tried to carve the
right amount of time out and what is the right
amount of time that you have found in your personal life?
(10:36):
So obviously any off day or any day, you know,
just a practice day, but um I try to sow
which there aren't many just to be clear that out there,
games and travel on a game like regular day, we hear,
you know, shoot around. We have to shoot around, say
ten in the morning. Um My son will get up
around seven. I'll sit with him when he gets up,
(11:00):
just because I know I have to leave him like
an aur for shoot around, spend that time with him.
When I get back, maybe spend like two or three
hours with him, take a pregame up. Most of the times,
if he doesn't go to the game, he's down by
the time I get it out or get home. Or
even when he does go to the game, when we
(11:21):
pull up in the house and I'm like, hey, Hendri,
is you ready to get out the car? Turn around?
He knocked out. So any like you said, any rare
off day or any time that we have, you know,
I try to just take him to do something to aquarium,
you know, a little jungle gym, take out dog to
the park. Anything. You just gotta It's so hard to plan.
(11:45):
It's like you don't know until the day before. Like
we don't know our schedules until like you know, the
day before. We may they say we don't have something.
Then we got mandatory film and it throws off, you know,
the whole day. So you gotta just work around it.
Do you really wake up at seven with him when
you can? Yeah, I would go up impressive like seven
every morning. Even when we get back from a road
(12:05):
trip at three o'clock in the morning, I lay, I'm
laying in bed with the kids yelling at me like
five more minutes. I hate the fact that I'm a
life sleeper because I'm always the first to hear him
cry in the morning, and I'll try to like clock
it out. Yeah, I try to just close. WI was
(12:25):
real hard. I'm like, maybe as I put all, try
to hide from the reality that's coming. I spoke to
Al about the same topic, and we're gonna hear from
him later in the episode. But he talked about you
and Jason and the first and foremost that he didn't
(12:46):
have his first child until he was seven years in
the league, so very different scenario from you guys, and
he just couldn't conceptualize how you guys were able to
juggle the two things. That's one thing he said. But
the other thing that really stood out to me is
that he can just when you guys are around your kids,
he can see like the pure joy in your eyes.
How would you describe, Yeah, how it makes you feel
(13:09):
to be around your kids and to be a proud parent.
What is that emotion? It's actually funny because when he
goes to sleep at nighttime, like I'll be on my
phone and I see it. I was just with him
three hours ago before he went to sleep, and I'll
see a picture or something. I'm like, Man, I can't
wait till he wakes up so I can hug him.
(13:30):
But that joy, man is just seeing I think it's
two things for me. It's seeing myself in him, and
it's seeing him learning to do things on his own.
I think that's the most proud he makes me as
his dad's funny him actually small, abody hard, but you're
(13:50):
proud man. You can tell. Even when he learned how
to walk, you know. Um, we first tried to get
him to walk, he'd take a couple of steps and
he would fall and he was just crawled, you know,
the rest of the way. But now like if he falls,
he get back up, you know. And he doesn't know
little things like that, you know. They I'm smiling biggest,
you know, biggest day behind him. But it's it's a
(14:10):
little stuff like that, man. And I think I think
he might be saying dadda, but I don't want to
be the person to tooth that. I'm gonna way till
it's clear. Dada is easier to say than Mama for
the first But the part that I love too, and um,
I don't know if anybody reads the US magazine or something,
(14:34):
but the stars they're just like us. You posted a
video of yourself at a swim class with Hendrick and
getting in the pool, but then you're kind of down,
but you stood up in the pools. Yeah yeah, yeah,
the water was like four feet and my back was hurting,
Like how I had to hold here him low to
(14:54):
the water. I was I was just dog. But they
to be there for those moments, and yeah, yeah it was.
It was his second class. Obviously, those moments a priceless.
It's actually something that like you look at it as
a hassle, like I've been working at all day, I
don't want to go to the swimming class. But once
(15:16):
you like there, you never wanted to in and you
see the smiles on their face, like kids love water.
Yeah he actually they don't. They love it with now
don't realize how dangerous it is, that's the thing. So
he's just jumping in all day here, don't realize if
I'm not right here, like you're gone, buddy. But it
is worth it, though. Do you ever bring him on
(15:36):
road trips? He came to the finals last year. He
was really all he kept to the finals. It was
a long flight and he's coming to Houston. Coming to Houston.
This kind of relates. The last thing that I want
to talk to you about is like the culture here
with the Celtics is it's really family first, Like they
(15:57):
want you to be there for those key moments. State
you know, work comes second for you in particular, you
missed games for your first child being born and for
your second child being born. What what does it mean
to you to be working at a place and playing
for an organization that prioritizes that stuff for you, guys,
that you are able to be there for those moments
(16:18):
and you don't have to worry about how that's gonna
you know, reflect on your work ethic or anything like that. Yeah,
even when even when Brad was coaching, we we all
knew he was real big on stuff like that, Like
it it wasn't even a question with him. You know,
if it was a serious family matter, you know, he
would make you be there. You know, you didn't have
(16:39):
a choice. He even missed a game at one point
for a personal matter. Yeah, it was like, um, we
all is respected that about the whole organization, and you
know it makes you want to give the organization you're all,
you know, to know that they like all right, like
it can be. For instance, Um, Malcolm had like a
(17:02):
couple of weeks you know to this his second child
was born. I thinking, uh, they were already making a
plan on like or you might not be at this trip,
you know, you know, because they respected so much and
it's something that is very respectful. Like I said, it's
a life being brought in or any any family situation,
a family emergency. But it just makes you want to
(17:22):
give the organization, y'all. Man, knowing I care about you
liked up even Luke. Luke left mid game in New York.
He walked back in the locker room. He was like,
was out. He was gonna get a lot of run
that game. Like he went up to damn happens, man,
you never know who he's gonna come click. He's like, well, yeah,
(17:44):
he said the first time out they told him like
right after tip off and then first So he's sitting
there on the bench just like waiting for a chance
to tell someone. He went to Damon and he was like,
I gotta go. Cannot imagine. Well, Rob, congratulations on two
beautiful kids. And Avan Hendricks, and You've been an unbelievable
dad so far. I know I haven't been there to
directly watch it, but I've heard a lot of people
(18:05):
talk about it. So congratulations. We appreciate you coming on
to talk with us about him. We're going to hear
from El Horford talking about the same thing here in
a minute. Thank you, Thanks Rap than Abby. That was
an awesome conversation with I'm so happy that we got
fifteen ish minutes with him, and last night we were
talking at the game. We didn't even know if we
were going to be able to fill that amount of
time with him because he's usually so short winded, but
(18:28):
he was so happy to discuss being a father and
talking about his kids. That was a lot of fun.
That's what I was going to say. You could just
the joy that he has in being a father is
obvious and clear, and that's where his passions are. And
so of course he's going to talk about that and
be willing, and I'm just so grateful for his willingness
to open up about that and tell us a little
(18:49):
bit more about him. I learned so much more about
Rob in that fifteen minutes than I have in the
four seasons that he's been here. Yeah, and honestly sitting
down and just looking at his eyes and he kept
saying it. He was like, yeah, I'm smiling right now,
Like while I'm talking about it, you can just I've
never talked to him about his kids before, and just
having that opportunity to see the word joy, it just
comes to mind, like emitting out from his smile, from
(19:12):
his eyes, you can just see how proud he is
of his daughter. And then even afterward Abby everyone the
camera's turned off, but he was like, yeah, my daughter's
so independent, like she doesn't let me help with anything
she wants to do. You can just see how proud
he is. And that's really what stood out to me.
I don't know if anything else came out of the
conversation for you. I do think we see that inside
(19:32):
TD Garden when from Jason and Deuce running on the
floor as soon as the game is over, and even
Al Horford I see it behind the scenes when his son,
as Rob mentioned Ian comes to join him and going
into the locker room. So you do get glimpses of that.
But it was just so nice to have to be
able to sit down with Rob and allow him to
(19:53):
open up and give us a little bit more. And
fortunately we had the same opportunity at least I did
to sit down with Alan talk to him about this
exact same topic. We're going to toss to him in
a moment before we do. I just want to remind
everyone out there, if you're listening, rate, subscribe, and review.
If you're watching, please do the same on YouTube. The
audio version will be dropping every Tuesday, the video version
(20:13):
on YouTube every Wednesday, So we're coming at you every
week for twelve weeks. I think we got about six
six or so more I left this season so attime.
We hope everyone is enjoying us so far. But yeah,
I guess I'll come shout out to all the other dads.
Yes on the team. There are a lot a lot.
I think that that is indicative, yes, of this team
and how much older we've it's become and mature. But
(20:37):
there's Luke Cornett and Derek White, and I'm sure I
might be missing more, but it's it's cool to see.
And then also the assistant coaches and having their kids.
Tony Dobbins and his two beautiful daughters are always sidelines,
pregame and then Aaron Miles who has four sons and
he gets them out on the court just to run
(20:57):
whenever he gets the chance, So he's getting get all
the energy out of them, right, Yes, it just speaks
to like what you said with Rob, the priority that
the Celtics place on family, and you can feel that
just being around the team. You make a really good
point though, that there are so many dads on this
team and this team is so mature. Yeah, I think
it's kind of like baked in maturity. You have to
(21:18):
be mature when you have a child and you have
a human being depending on him. I don't know. I
wish I would have asked Rob right here, but would
he be the player in the person that he is
now today if he didn't have a child at twenty one?
Like how did that affect him during that time? But
we'll have to ask him that offline. And one thing
I know is that they'd probably get more sleep, maybe
(21:39):
just a little bit, Maybe just a little bit. But yeah,
I got a chance to catch up with Al about
this exact topic a couple of weeks ago. He said
a lot of similar comments to Rob, but one thing
that stood out that he talked about is. He said,
it's difficult to find time, but there's always time. So
let's toss it over to Al. I got to talk
with him, like I said, just a couple of weeks ago,
and here he is talking about fatherhood and juggling that
(22:01):
with playing in the NBA. How would you describe the
feeling of being a dad. Uh, It's a great feeling
being a dad. It's it's something that that I absolutely love. Um.
You know, I always wanted to be, um, you know,
a dad and have my own family and be able
to you know, mold my kids and um and and
(22:23):
and still you know, the right values in them. So
um uh for me, it's it's just great. It's it's um,
you know, it's one of my favorite things. Um, you know,
just to to be able to to you know, to
lead my family and and just to be there for
them and and um and and you know, just guide them, uh,
(22:45):
you know, in their lives. So I haven't gotten to
that stage yet in my life, but I would imagine
just haven't been around with you guys. The flights, the
late nights getting home, the late nights of work, even
when you're here in Boston, you gotta probably miss birthdays.
I think you just missed one of your kid's birthdays yesterday's. Um, Like,
just how do you juggle that of being able to
(23:06):
be a dad and also be able to take care
of and you're as professional as they come, take care
of your job as well. How do you how do
you juggle those two things? UM? Yeah, I mean it's
you know, it's all about priorities and um, you know,
for me, um, before anything, UM, you know, God is
my priority. God. You know that that's that's really what
(23:28):
I focus on. And then you know, after that, my
family it's something that's that's extremely important to me. And UM,
and and obviously my work and I have to put
in the time and work, and but when I'm at
home and when I have the time, I make sure
that I you know, that I give you know, the
best quality time that I possibly can, you know, to
my to my kids and and to my wife and
(23:51):
uh and and really you know, it's it's kind of
making decisions. It's like doing something you know, for yourself,
or doing something else or spending time I'm you know,
helping you know, for example, my song with this homework,
or um, you know, taking them to a park or um,
you know, just doing things like that or you know,
(24:11):
it's it's bathtime and you got to go do that,
and um and and different things. So for me, it's
really you know, it's really about you know, making them
most of the time. And it's difficult, but you know
there's always time and uh and I and that's that's
the way that I that I approach it. And you
had been in the league for I think it was
like seven or eight years before you had your first child.
(24:32):
How did that moment kind of change your perspective not
only on your career but in life in general. Um. Yeah,
so um, you know it's uh, it gave me a
lot of perspective. Um, but just just very grateful um
to you know, um to be able to to to
(24:52):
be a dad and and then um finding ways to
you know, to to make everything work. But understanding that
you know that I have a job to do and
there's expectations of me and uh and like you said,
I have to be professional um and and go about
it that way. But um, but it was, uh, you know,
(25:13):
just just a good perspective, um, you know, good good
perspective for me, keeping everything you know positive and and
uh and really just uh you know, uh, really enjoying
you know the journey it comes with it, and and
you know, growing a family plane it's it can be challenging.
But uh but uh but um, you know it's been
(25:35):
great for me. You know, my wife has been you
know a huge support for me and and and you
know makes it easier for me to be able to
come out and do what I need to do on
the court. So conversely, we've got Jason has a kid
at nineteen, Rob Williams has a kid at twenty one,
And these two guys have just embraced it since the
(25:56):
very start and somehow been able to juggle both of
these things that that you've kind of spoken about that
it can be a challenge. How have you seen those
two guys in particular navigate those challenges um in the
early portions of their career. Yeah. So the so the
little that I've seen, UM, you know, I've just been
(26:17):
you know blown away you know with uh you know
that how much they love their you know, their sons, uh,
their commitments to being dads um. Uh you know it's
something that you could tell they really enjoy, uh, they
really embrace um and and UM and and they're uh
(26:37):
and and that's like the biggest thing. You know, they're
really caring, they're really taking the time and uh and
just from the interactions that I've had or when I
talk to them and things like that, you know, their
their faces just light up when they talk about you know,
about their kids and um and that's uh, that's pretty special.
I think that's the biggest thing right there. Um. You know,
they their their dads that want to be involved, they
(26:59):
want to be part of their kids life and uh
and and I think that's the biggest thing. Giving your
kids as much love as you can. Awesome. All right,
well I appreciate it, man, Thank you for doing this
on an off day, and uh hopefully we'll see you
guys back out there for another one tomorrow. All right man,
thank you, all right, man, thank you very much.
Host
Marc D'Amico
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.