Latest / Mac & Bone Podcast / Mac & Bone Show - Grayson Allen Interview

Transcript

Mac & Bone Show - Grayson Allen Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: It is the Mac and Bone Show, Sports Radio 92.7
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: WFNZ in the Queen City of Charlotte.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Mac and Bone with you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Hornets Media Days joined by a new member of the Hornets,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: but he knows all about this state. He knows what
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: makes it tick. He knows about the state's love of basketball.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: He is Grayson Allen, now on your Charlotte Hornets. Grayson,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: welcome to the show.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: How are you doing, man?
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm doing great.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So does it mean.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Something to come back to North Carolina after your time
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: at Duke?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Like, was that.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Kind of a cool– I know the most important thing
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: probably is who you're playing with, how do they play,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: how do I fit in.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But, like, in the state of North Carolina, is
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: that a cool thing?
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: No, it's definitely really cool.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: And I come back here every summer too, not to Charlotte, obviously,
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: but to Durham and Duke. And so I definitely still
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: feel connected to the state of North Carolina. So it
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: is cool to be back at kind of like a
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: second home.
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: So initially all the Duke fans are fired up. We
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: got Grayson here, and obviously– the anti-Duke crowd, the anti-Grayson crowd,
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: the UNT fans, they say, oh, we got to root
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: for Grayson now. But how long do you think, though,
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: it'll take to be fully embraced by the fan base
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: once they see what you're about on the NBA court?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: First three? It better be.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, I think this question has
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: come up at every NBA team I've played for now
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: because it always seems to be a split crowd, but...
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: It's kind of the same thing.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I'll go out. I'll play hard. I want us to
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: win and be successful.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: And the way I play is I try to contribute
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: towards that. And I think people who are fans of
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: the team... end up appreciating that. How long it takes them,
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure, but I do think once it's all
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: said and done, they end up appreciating my effort for
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: the team.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It better be quick, man.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: All right, we're all on the same page now. Now,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: when you're on the other teams and they booge at you,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I can't help with that one, but now they got
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: to get your back, and I do feel like, I
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: think the fit is good. You can speak to that,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: but obviously this team loves shooters. They love space in
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the floor. You can attack a little bit of a closeout, too,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: in addition to shoot. Like, do you kind of feel
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that way too? Like this is, this is probably a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: good fit.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I think so.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Um, you know, we have a, we have a team
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: that is extremely deep and talented and we have a
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: lot of guys that can do multiple things. Like even
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: with the, the shooting that we have and we have
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: a lot of elite shooting, we have a lot of
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: guys that do more than just shoot and we're not,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: you don't have a lot of one dimensional guys on
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: the team. So, um, it makes it very fun to
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: play basketball that way. Uh, I know, Since I've gotten here,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Coach Charles has been talking about playing fast, fast, fast,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: kicking the ball up, and they played with an extreme
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: pace last year. But with the skill set of the
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: whole team, the amount of shooting, the amount of different
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: playmakers we have, that speed to the game is so
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: much fun.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: You've been around the league for a long time now.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: How excited should fans be that Charles Lee on the
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: coaching side, Jeff Peterson on the front office side, are
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: in charge of the operation right now?
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've known Charles for... a few years now. Um,
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: I was with him in Milwaukee for two years. Um,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: he's very, very smart coach, uh, very good at connecting
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: to the guys. Um, and I think from, you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: I wasn't around him as a head coach, but from
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: what I saw that last, last year with this team
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: and from what I've seen this summer from being on
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: the team and being on the inside, I think he's
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: a tremendous coach.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: And I think his vision and his.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Outlook for the team is, very well aligned with the
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: team and the roster that they have brought in this summer.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: It's there.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: We as players have got to execute his vision and
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: play well for him.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We're talking with Grayson Alm, now a member of your
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Charlotte Hornets. So, you know, you see my partner in crime,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: where's the Ducat? You know, he's talking to you and
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Khan today. So he's definitely wants you to know. Three
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: members of the Brotherhood all hanging out together, right? Wants
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: you to know he's in the Brotherhood. And I noticed
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: he said something to you when you got here. He
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: shook your hand and said thanks for the championship. And
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I made note, oh, damn, yeah, he couldn't say that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: to Khan, as great as he is. Do you hold
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: that over Khan at all, or is that an un-Brotherhood
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: thing to do, to like say– I got the hardware.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Can you not do that?
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: I don't hold it over him at all.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: I think something that I do realize from being there
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: for four years is winning the national championship and getting
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: to that final game and winning it is so damn hard.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of luck involved. There's a lot of
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: skill involved. There's a lot of playing great basketball at
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: the right time involved. I really, really enjoyed watching Khan's
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: team when they were there and I think they had
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: the ability, the talent to do it. You have a
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: couple different bounces of the ball. A shot goes in here.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: One doesn't go in there. It's a completely different story.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: I will never hold that over anybody, especially after my
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: four years and some of the teams that we had
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: that lost way earlier than expected. I had a team
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: that went further than people probably expected.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: That's the way it works.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: What do you think of the current state of the
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: game where all these fifth-year guys are playing now and
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: there's some guys I think that came out with you.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Well, not, not, not quite that old. If we start
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: doing that, we'll have some real issues. Um, I mean,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: it's a completely different landscape of college basketball than when
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: I played. So, um, you know, I almost feel too
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: far removed to even comment on it now, even though
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: it's been, well, this is eight years now. Um, But
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: it just feels that different. And going back to Duke
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: the last few summers and kind of realizing how different
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: the entire landscape of college basketball is.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: It's just.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not the same thing as when I was
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: recruited and went to school and anything. I'm not having
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: the same college experience as those guys.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Do you have NIL envy or are you all right?
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: I ended up good now. There's obviously the thought of like, well,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: what if? I wonder what the 2015 to 2018 NIL
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: market would have been like.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Especially with that championship, you could ask for more. Talking
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: about your college career, You know, it's no secret there
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: was a bunch of controversy that involved you, for instance,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: on the court. And, my Lord, we talked about it
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: on the show nationally. I mean, you turn on ESPN.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: You're young, man, going through that. Did that stuff bother you?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Like the way people kind of all of a sudden
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: you're a villain and you're at Duke, so people.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Already want to get you.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Did that stuff bother you as young as you were
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: or did.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: It really not bother you?
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: No, it definitely bothered me. But I think there's like
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: two parts to it. And I think the one part
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: is that, like, I was not. built, like I, I
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: played like, but I wasn't built like, you know what
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: I mean? Like I didn't have, like, I didn't, I
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: just didn't have it in me not.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: To like care as much.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Um, and I just wasn't, wasn't built to just like
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: play into the hate and use it to fuel me
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: and all those things. And so I think that part
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: bothered me, but another part that bothered me was like,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: I realized that like the stuff that I did was
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: super immature. And so it almost felt like some of
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: the hate was justified and that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Made it tougher to deal with.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Um, nah, I, you know, if you're being objective and
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: looking back on it, the, the level of it was
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: so extreme and not justified, but some of it was. Um,
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: so I, I think a combination of those things bothered me, but, um, Man,
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: some of the games, the atmosphere, because of Duke and
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: because of me being college basketball's most hated, were wild,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: wild to play in looking back at.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Now, did you ever talk to, like, when I think
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: of guys that maybe, I'm not going to use your quote,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: but it was great, but, like, guys that maybe just said, yeah,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: bring it on.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Leitner.
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: J.J.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Redick, to a degree, seemed like he might. Like, did
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: you talk to those guys about dealing with it?
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: I talked to JJ a little bit.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: And me and JJ are different people. That's what I'm saying.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I don't think it helped me very much. Because he
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: was probably like, oh, it's great.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I love JJ. And we've had many conversations.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: But at the time, I don't know if it helped
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: me that much just because he, I think he just
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: loved it.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: And he played into it a little bit more than
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I was able to do at the time.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: That's a good, honest answer.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Now I kind of bone feel bad for when we're criticizing.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, you still did the things, and you just
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: said it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I was like his public defender. If you ever get
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in trouble, this guy's an attorney.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: I used to get so mad at Seth Greenberg because
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: he would ask. He would come on like you were
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: Charles Manson.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like, we're playing basketball.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, there's such a middle line, and there's
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: the one end of the people who acted like I
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: was the worst person in the world, and then there's
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: the other end of the people who acted like I
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: didn't do anything wrong.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: That might have been you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd say,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't see anything.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the reality was somewhere in the middle, but yeah.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: But Greenberg would act like, all right, settle down, Greenberg.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Did they, like, make him talk about it every day,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: or did he want to?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It was just like he was like the designated Grayson
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Allen guy.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It's like maybe, maybe.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: It was bad. Oops, maybe. All right.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Well, hey, your attitude right here, I'm telling you right now,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I'm doubling down. If Tar Heel fans try to not
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: embrace Grayson right away after this attitude he displayed and
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: this growth, all right, we're going to get you.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: We're going to get you.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Hey, man, it was great meeting you. After talking to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: you for so much, meeting you, talking to you.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Thank you, guys.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: We're very pumped to see you on this team. I
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: think it's a great fit. Best of luck this year, man.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Appreciate it.