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From Duke to the NBA Life with Tre Jones · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. I'm your host Chet West,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and alongside me is co host Thad levinead. We're taking
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the show in a slightly different direction this week. We're
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: setting aside the trade deadline talk and the CBA negotiations.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: We're shifting our focus from the front office for the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: player's perspective, and we've got the perfect guests to help
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: us do it. Joining us today is a Minnesota native
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: who is put together quite the basketball resume, both here
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and at home and on the national stage. Trey Jones
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: starred at Apple Valley High School, where he helped lead
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the Eagles to two Minnesota Class four A state championships,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: was named the twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen Minnesota Gatorade
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Player of the Year, and finished his high school career
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: as Minnesota's Mister Basketball and a McDonald's All American. From there,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Trey headed to Duke, where he became the starting point
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: guard for the Duke Blue Devils, playing alongside Zion Williamson,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: are J Barrett, and Cam Reddish. He returned to Duke
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: for his sophomore season and turned it into a huge year,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: averaging over sixteen points and six and a half sists
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: while becoming the twenty twenty ACC Player of the Year
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and ACC Defensive Player of the Year, along with earning
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: All American honors. Trey finished his Duke career as the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: program's all time leader in assists to turnover ratio before
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: being selected forty first overall by the San Antonio Spurs
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty NBA Draft. He's now six seasons
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: into his NBA career and coming off a career year
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with the Chicago Bulls. Trey's impact hasn't been limited to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the basketball court. This past season, he was named the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award winner for October,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: recognized for his work helping raise more than one point
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: one million dollars for cancer research and awareness, while also
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: supporting violence prevention efforts and local businesses throughout Chicago, from
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Apple Valley to Duke to the NBA and making an
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: impact in the communities who's represented along the way. We're
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: really excited to have him with us today. Trey Jones.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Rosters, to Rings.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you, ched. I appreciate that.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: I got to take a breath here. That's a lot
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: of stuff I'll tell you right now.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So, Trey, we had this little tradition on the show
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: here man, we ask everybody to give us kind of
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: their sports origin story, kind of where did the passion start?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: How did you begin this? What's your story?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I think the passion started just in sports in general.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: I grew up. I was the youngest in our family,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: so as early as I can remember, I grew up
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: around sports, whether it's basketball, football, baseball, track practices, all
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: those type of things, but just around the house too,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: Like in my free time, whatever we would pick up,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: it'd be some sort of ball, it different type of things,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: flying all around the house, probably breaking things, pictures on
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: the wall, stuff like that. My mom didn't necessarily like
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: at the time, but whatever. But yeah, that's where I started,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: just with my brothers. Obviously, Tius is almost four years
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: older than me, and so I.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Was kind of always following in his footsteps.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: And then we have another older brother, Jad who when
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: I was growing up, he was already moving on to college,
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: so he wasn't necessarily in the house when I was
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: growing up. But I mean when Tis was growing up,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: when I was a baby, he was doing all the
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: high school sports at the time, so I mean I
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: was being dragged there. There would be no nap time.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: I would be at the gym for nap time, or
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: you know, bedtime might be pushed to like ten pm
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: because we were at his basketball game that night or
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: whatever it was. So I think that's just where my
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: origin starts for for basketball was just you know, countless
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: hours and days and nights just in a gym or
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: in a stadium or a field or whatever it was.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Fandamic trade.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Did you ever get advice from JD or Tias that
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: you ignored at the time, but now that you realized
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: later they were spot on when they told you you
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: just needed to listen.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I was. There was one time Tyas gave me some advice.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: I was, I think a freshman in high school, so
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: he had he had just gotten to college. And I
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: think I was playing video games a lot. Well I
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: know I was playing video games a lot, and it
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: would happen at nighttime, and like I was taking care
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: of my school work, I was taking care of everything
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: in sports and everything, like I wasn't getting in trouble.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: But he just sent me a Texas random night and
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: I was going I had been playing video games probably
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: into like two am, and so it was just this
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: random text he checks in and then he was just like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: make sure you're getting your sleep, like important, whatever you're doing,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: like it'll be there tomorrow at the next day. And
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: at the time, I'm just like, yeah, whatever, like whatever
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: sounds good. I'll get my four hours again tonight, like
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: I gotta get on I gotta get on the PlayStation.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: But looking back, obviously my mom told on me and.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Wanted them to tell me, you know, like tell your
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: brother to get off the game and get some sleep.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: That's fantastic.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure if we asked that question and Tias and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: JD were here right now, they probably have a list
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of things they probably gave you advice on that you
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: didn't listen to.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Right maybe maybe maybe was there.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Did you ever feel the pressure, you know, being Tias's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: younger brother, he went through it all.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Do you ever did that motivate you? Did you ever
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: feel pressure from all that?
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I don't think the pressure necessarily kicked in until I
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: got older. I think when I was I mean, the
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: first time it kind of came up was when I
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: was in elementary school and he was like in the
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: newspaper for the first time and I like went to
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: class the next day and like a bunch of our
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: teachers have the newspaper and we're showing me. And then
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: it kind of just grew from there. So like middle school,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: he was getting a lot of attention nationwide already, and
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: we had like a lot of college coaches coming to
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: watch them. So it's still more locally, but it was
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: kind of just like the pressure of like the teachers
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: knew who I was. They kind of expected me to
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: be like a good kid like your brother, Like your
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: brother never caused any problems, like be a good kid
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: like him. And then it went from that to like
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: performance when I got older, like more out of teachers
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: watching me, more just people expecting me to perform the
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: same way that he did.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: That's a tough fact to follow.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I mean it might have been easier as if your
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: brother wasn't such a model citizen.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Baby in a sense.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but he also showed me the group the blueprint,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: So like without that, I feel I could feel unattainable
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to get to I mean, to come from Apple Valley
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: and go to Duke, Like it could seem like, you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: how is that possible? But I knew it was possible
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: because he did it and I was just like following
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: his footsteps.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Older brothers always feel like they paved the way to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: some degree. Speak from experience, My brother would definitely agree
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: that I paved the way for him perfectly.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Trey Tias is not on the air right now one
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: on one who stats up. He's not here to defend me.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I have to say me.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: You have to say you.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I have to save me.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: He will see if he makes any comments, We'll get.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: Hey Trey to take the listeners. Behind the scenes, you
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: get recruited to go play for legendary coach coach Krzhevsky
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: at Duke, following in Tias's footsteps? How does that recruiting process?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Code?
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: Does coach k come to the house? Is someone else coming?
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: What's going on there?
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: So kind of when I started going through the process,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: we had already had a built up relationship there, So
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: it was less about like the introductory or more just
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: kind of like this is what we see for you,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: like moving forward is kind of how we kind of
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: plan on using you, or like think your future looks
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: like with us whatever.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: With him, it was.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: Kind of more like we didn't there's no relationship there.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: So at first it was just an AAU game, which
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: is a summer game outside of your travel team or
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: your high school team. And I remember he was a
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: freshman going into a sophomore year at the Big at
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: a Big Nike tournament, and he was playing really well,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: and Duke came to his last game of that tournament
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: and you would see like all the college coaches would
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: line up on the sideline and families couldn't sit with them,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: so it was like they would stick out, and obviously
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: coach k walked in like he stuck out a lot. Yeah,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: So it went from that to then them reaching out
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: and sending up calls, and the rules were different then,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: so like I don't know if it was they could
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: reach out to like a college coach or the high
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: school coach at the time, and then I think the
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: players would have to then call the college coach, like
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: they couldn't directly call them until they turned a certain age,
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: and then they could. The communication would open up a
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: little more, and then at a certain point coaches could
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: come into the home and do like in home visits,
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: and then it goes to I think halfway through your
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: junior year, you could start taking official visits and then
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: you kind of make a decision.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: So there were some restrictions around that, did you, And
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: so your recruitment, being that your brother had kind of
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: gone that direction, your recruitment kind of fed off that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to a degree. You kind of committed earlier in the process.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And I probably committed got.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Offered earlier on in the process, could have committed earlier.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: I committed earlier, and I probably should have committed even earlier.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Oh really, But I kind of was playing like a cat.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I kind of played a little game with them. I
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Why, but I was just like I was a sophomore
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: in high school and I kind of wanted to I
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: was just like, I want to make sure it's the
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: right fit for me. Like obviously it's like a prestigious
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: basketball program. I don't want to go there and get
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: lost in the mix or something like that. So I
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: was kind of making sure that I could go there
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: and do what I wanted to do when I got there.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: But that kind of meant me dragging my feet a
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: little bit and entertaining other colleges.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: But when I knew the time was right.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: When you go to Duke, as check mentioned in your
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: illustrious introduction. There you joined an incredible freshman class. Zion Williamson, R.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: J BARRETD.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: Cam rettish yourself. Just curious. You guys were preseason ranked
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: four maybe highering some other lists, but as freshman, that's
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: a lot of pressure put on you guys. Does Duke
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: train you guys from a media standpoint to be able
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: to withstand the scrutiny you guys are going to have
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: over the course of that preseason and season.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they definitely trained you. It's not as crazy as
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: you think, but it's kind of like, I mean, obviously,
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: coach will get up there and he would talk to
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: us every single day before workouts or practice or whatever
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: it is. And I feel like even just listening to
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: how he was talking about some of the media things
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: that he knew that we were hearing, like we are
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: on social media and stuff.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: There's stuff everywhere.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: He would kind of try to train us, like just
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: with how he was kind of relaying the message.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: But then we.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Would work with whoever the PR guy was at the time.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: He would come in and say, look, they might ask
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: about this this week, or there's been this type of
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: buzz going around. This is how we want to answer it,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: or you know, if they want to ask you about
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: something after the game that's personal, like maybe you didn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: play well, but we won. Trying to have us kind
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: of channeled your answer and like kind of change.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: It a little bit about the team and not about.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, make it about the scene, so that a little bit. Yeah,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: it's the time. Yeah, I kind of avoid the question
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: or dance around it. But then he would always kind
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: of say, how, like the media isn't your friend, Like
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: people would be in there to try to Like they're
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: trying to feed their families too, so the better story
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: they can get, like, the better better they're doing at
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: their job, things like that, So helping us kind of
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: understand that side of things. Just because you know, it's
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: your first year in college or first couple of years,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: you don't really think of things like that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: So you're eighteen years old at the time, you get
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: a lot going on in your life, and all of
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: a sudden, you get a microphone in front of your
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: face every time you turn around. It's it's a lot
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: of pressure.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's definitely crazy, and it's I can't imagine now
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: just with I mean all the new things with Nil
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: and kids, getting paid and stuff where I mean when
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: I was there, at least we weren't getting money. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know if you're eighteen with that
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: much money, I don't.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Know, Trey. We're gonna stop you there because we're going
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to touch on that in a little bit.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: But we're going to take a break.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Folks, you'll want to hear what we got when we
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: get back on Rosters to rings, don't go away.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to roster's rings.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: We've got Trey Jones here with us today. We want
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to dig into a few other topics here. Trey, you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: kind of touched on ni L a little bit there
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: before we left the break.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: You know what, what.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: If Trey Jones had ni L? What you played college
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: basketsketball right before NIL? Completely changed the landscape. I actually
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: said to myself before this guy totally got robbed first
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and foremost. You didn't get to play in, you know,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: in the tournament, the NCAA tournament your year because it
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was the COVID shortened season. Basically NIL came in and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the transfer portal both came in a year after your
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: college stay ended. Well, what is you played college basketball
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: right before NIL? Changes that landscape, put yourself back in
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Apple Valley as an eighteen year old recruit. If not
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I own money had been available then the way it
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: is today, you think you would have handled your college
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: justisn't decision differently?
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, I don't think. I don't think i'd
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: have left Duke at all. I would have stayed there
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: are four years. Yeah, it was my that was my
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: dream school growing up, and coach K was there and
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: we were super close, and I was close with his
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: family and obviously my now wife Maddie weird dating in college,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: so we're already together in college.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Like it just kind of felt like a perfect situation.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: But I mean it's still hard, Like I still think
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: about if COVID doesn't happen, Like there's still a possibility
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: of me going back for year three because like my thing,
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: if if we went to the tournament and we lost again,
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: Like I wanted to go to Duke to win a
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: championship more than anything, So I felt like not winning,
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: I'm like, there's not really anything to go on to
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: until I win at this level, and so I felt
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: like if we didn't win it that year, I probably
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: would have ended up returning for my third year, and
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: that's without an IL, and so I can only imagine
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: with a IL and all those things at it, like
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: it'll have been for sure for.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: One COVID took away from US Duke possibly getting Trey
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Jones for a third year.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Of basketball.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: And fourth year.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: And fourth year maybe, Yeah, how difficult it would it
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: be in an eighteen year old to separate like the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: best basketball decision from the best financial offer. I mean
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: that can't be an easy choice. Do you do you
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: hear about that now for some of these kids coming up,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: what are your like, what's your take on that?
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, you definitely hear about it, because I
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: mean it's happening everywhere. And then also even if they
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: go to the whatever school that they wanted to go
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: to or that paid them the most, even after one year,
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: it's like back to square one again. New offers are
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: coming in, Like if they had a good year, someone
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: else will probably come in and outbid their current team.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: That's the reason they had a good year kind of
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: So it's I don't know, that's that's crazy. But then
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: there's the other side where it's like you know that
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: money might like do so much for a family like
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: you don't know the situation they're coming from or like
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: what they have, and so I don't know. There's just
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: so many different things that you know, can persuade and everything,
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: But I still think it's like, I don't know. For me,
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: it was always about like the best situation and like
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: the best fit to be in to grow like as
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: a person and as a player, and I feel like
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: that's getting lost now because of the NIOL stuff.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Tray.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: We've had coaches come on and talk about how with
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: the new situation and the transfer portal, they have to
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: re recruit their players almost every year, and the risk
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: is if the player does really well, he wants to
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: go somewhere else because you can make more money. If
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: the player doesn't play well at all, you're getting rid
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: of them. So the guys you're retaining are kind of
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: the guys down the middle. One thing though, that I
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: don't think they talk about a ton is the fact
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: that with NAL, maybe players are staying in college longer
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: and as a result, they're actually developing more before they
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: get to the NBA. Do you look at every draft
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: class since you've been in the NBA and say, Wow,
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: if that guy just could have stayed in college one
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: or two more seasons, maybe they would have had a
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: much better chance of succeeding in the NBA because they
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: have incredible talent, but maybe they just don't have the
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: maturity required to excel in the league.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there definitely are some guys like that every single year,
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: like where it's like maybe staying would have helped as
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: far as yeah, like just growing up, being more mature,
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: things like that. But then I think there's also the
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: flip side where like the game in college I don't
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: think translates to the NBA as much as you would think,
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: and some guys flourish more in an NBA style game.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: So then I think for those type of guys, yes,
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: getting out is better.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Just for their game.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: There's more space kind of just more like freedom of
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: play rather than in college, but just for growing up
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: and maturity and like learning the fundamentals of the games
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: of the game and everything like that, it's definitely way
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: more important to stay in college.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: Trey walk us through that what type of player excels
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: more in the NBA that maybe a little bit put
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: the clamps on in college if it's too restrictive and
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: too structured.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: I think that right there, like just too restricted and
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: too structured, like some guys just don't do well with that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: And in the NBA you do have that and some
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: organs like everyone's different, as you know, but there are
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's just more freedom in the in the
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: NBA as far as like you know, like you're kind
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: of just growing, You're you're just taking care of your stuff,
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: like you plan your your days. You have a lot
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: more free time. You don't have class, you don't have
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: a study call, like, you don't have all these things.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: You have a few hours where you're required.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: To go into the gym and do your work and everything,
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: and then after that it's all up to you. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: then when it comes to playing and stuff, like you
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: have eighty two games in a year, and I mean
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: you'll go a month where you play fourteen games or
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: something like that. So it's like almost every other day
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: you're playing. Then you mix in a couple back to
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: backs and you're and there's not like you don't deep
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: dive into a scouting report as much. You don't sit
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: there with your team for an hour and watch film
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: and then watch a film the next day for an
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: hour on the team that you're playing coming up, like
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: you don't do those things. Sometimes it's like you're just
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: watching like a fifteen minute film clip that morning before
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: you play the team that night. And some guys thrive
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: off of that just because it's not as much thinking,
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: not as much like structure things going on.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: In the long term. Do you think that that extended
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: college stay, let's just suppose nil is causing players to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: stick around in college for a little longer. Do you
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: think that extra time and maturity helps them going into
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the pro game. Are they learning something there or is
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: it the pro game, the pro game that can only
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: teach them that.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: I think it just depends a person. Okay, yeah, I
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: think that's and that's a safe answer, but I think
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: that's honestly, I think some guys will end up learning
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: in college at some point, but I think some guys it's.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Just like they're just not going to pick it up. Regardles.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it might not click and like it is what
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: it is.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Trey, you just touched on something, which you know. My
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: background is more in baseball, and I think baseball players
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: have always thought they're much better athletes than the guys
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: in the NBA. But other than that, there's a lot
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: of similarities and they you know, one of the biggest
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: differences you just shed light on there was, you know,
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: before a baseball game, there's tons of information, there's tons
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: of data, there's advanced scouts and all these things, all
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: these reports that these guys are trying to absorb as
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: best they can. But what you're saying is it sounds
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: like you guys are relying a lot more on trusting
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: your own systems, your natural ability, your team chemistry to
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: win that night's game, rather than necessarily like flooding yourself
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: with all this information about how to exploit the other
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: team's weakness.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say, like when it comes to film
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: and stuff, a lot of it is really on you
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: to like just put time in on watching your own film,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: but also watching like the opponent that you're going to play.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: A lot of times they'll send out a scout to
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: everybody and we all have an app and it'll be
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: the game from the night before that we played, and
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: then the team coming up like their last game or
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: their last three games or something like that, and then
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: it'll be personnel. So it'll be probably five minute clip
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: of player to player, maybe like the top eight or
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: nine guys, and you can watch that at any point
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: in the twenty four to thirty six hours leading up
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: to the game. And then when we go in for
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: like a film the day before or the morning of
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: the game, will have shoot rounds and we'll sit down
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: for film and scout and it'll probably be like a
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: fifteen minute meeting and we'll watch maybe our clips, maybe
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: like five minutes of our clips, and then we'll go
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: onto their player personnel, so it could be their starters
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: for tonight, and maybe like a couple of key guys
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: off the bench or something like that, and they'll run
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: through those guys. They might run through a couple sets,
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: and then that's kind of it, and it's kind of
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, you you should probably do your own homework
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: and try to figure out guys tendencies and things, but
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: they're not gonna try to fledge you too much with
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: too much information.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Now, so I want to take you back to February third,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Talk about a learning experience here.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, so remember that date?
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: You remember that date? Is that ringing true? Okay?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: So you're part of a massive three team trade involving
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: San Antonio Chicago Sacramento. Seven players, seven draft picks changed hands.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we all see the breaking news alert and
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: immediately start analyzing everything who won the trade? But you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: we don't hear. We rarely hear, like you know what
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: those next few hours actually look like for you the player? Okay,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: how is that trade communicated to you? What happens behind
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the scenes? Take us behind the scenes on that. How
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: much of that are you kind of aware of as
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it's happening versus you just get a call and it's like, Bam,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you're on plane to Chicago.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean some guys, it does happen that quick.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: Some Like for me, I kind of had a heads up,
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: so it was like a couple of days in the
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: works I had got There's just rumors going around Twitter
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: and stuff like that, and they're like, you know, this
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: player is getting traded here, this player or whatever. And
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: my brother actually texts me and he's like, is any
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: of this true? Because if it is, like you're probably
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: on the move then.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Which that shocks me that you guys are having a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: conversation like that, because I'm having a conversation like that
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: with you know, fat about our fantasy football players.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Like you know, real, like, hey, is this true? Is
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: this guy getting traded?
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: And it's almost like you don't have that much more
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: info than we do, probably, I.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: Mean, yeah, it's just kind of like one of those
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: things like you don't really know what's happening until it's done.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: And so he asked me that, and I was like,
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: you know, I haven't really heard anything, but like let
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: me ask my agent or whatever. So I asked him
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: and he's like, I haven't heard too much, but you know,
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: like obviously they're floating it like it could it could
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: be a thing. A couple of hours go by, he
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: calls me back, you know, sounding like they're having some talks,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: but nothing set in stone yet, like we'll find out.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Day goes by, We have a game the next day,
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: go to shoot around. Everything's normal, like see the front office.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: No one says anything. I'm like, oh, like maybe we're good.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: That afternoon, my agent calls, He's like, you know, this
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: might this might happen at any point now, like it's
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: sounding like it's kind of a done deal. And we
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: had a game that night and so I'm like all right,
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: Like I'm supposed to play.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: For the game.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like what am I doing?
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: He's like, no, just go through with the game, like
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: treat everything normal, because what if it doesn't happen, and
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: like it just doesn't happen. So once in the game
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: that night whatever, had my last game in San Antonio.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: Obviously my wife knew that or I really kind of
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: told her what was going on. So she's pretty emotional
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: at the game and everything, like just kind of feeling,
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: you know, this is the last game. So we're taking
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: pictures after the game on the court and stuff like
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: kind of just like you know, it's the last time.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: San Antonio does like a Rodeo road trip. It's called
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: so in February, you go on the road for the
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: whole month because they have the Rodeo in the in
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: the arena. So this was to start the Rodeo road trip.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: So the next day I'm leaving for like a twelve
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: day road trip to go into All Star Break. So
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: I have like two suitcase pack whatever. We fly to Memphis,
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: top bottom five city in the NBA easily.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Really exactly, Oh boy, that I don't think we had
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: a question loaded up like that, But I would like.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: To barbecue questions about Memphis.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: But I will.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: To me it's bottom five. But so flying there and
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: I'm kind of just feeling like, you know, any moment's
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: gonna happen. We get to the hotel and kind of
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: like the day's going on, so I'm like, maybe it's
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: not happening. So I hit up a trainer. I'm like,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: can I get some treatment like whatever, get ready for
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: the game in the while.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: And while I'm.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: Getting a treatment, I get a call and it's from
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: Pop actually, and he's like, there's the worst part of
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: you know, the job whatever, like we're going.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Our separate ways. We're gonna be sending you to Chicago.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: I was like, that's interesting, because I like they that
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: team hadn't come up one time. So I was just
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: like that's nothing I ever thought about. But so got
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: the phone with him, GM called like agent call. So
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: then by the time I got off the phone with everyone,
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: it had gotten out. So then like my phone's blowing up,
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: like teammates are calling and texting coaches like everyone. Because
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: I then would be leaving the next morning because it
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: was too late to leave that night and be leaving
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: the next morning. So yeah, from there, it's just like
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: saying bye to everyone. And then you get on a
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: plane the next morning. I went to Chicago right from
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: landed and went straight to physicals because if you don't
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: pat your physicals, you can't like get traded, Like it
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: blows everything up, So go straight to physicals. Then they
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: brought me to the practice facility and all my stuff
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: was there already, like they made everything super quick. Had
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: to pick a jersey number right there, so all that
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: stuff is happening. Luckily, you had my two suitcases from
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: the road trip that I could just bring with me.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: And then obviously I have a family, so I had
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: the start thinking about like what are we doing with
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: a family, Like am I just going to go and
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: finish out the year because it's like two months, so
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: all those things start coming into play.
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: Then you just mentioned you were surprised to a Chicago
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: when you heard the rumors. What city did you think
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: you were going to? Were you going to go to
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: Sacramento and be part of that side of the deal.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's why I thought originally, just because they were
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: trading their point guard, and I mean it didn't sound
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: like they're getting a point guard back, so I was like, yeah,
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: I guess I'll be going there. They also had DeMar
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: DeRos and at the time who when I was a
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: rookie in San Antonio, he was in San Antonio for
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: his last year, so I got to know him all
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: right as well.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: So I was like, you know, maybe.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: I'll be back with tomorrow for a little bit, try
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: to make a playoff push. Those are the things going
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: on in my head.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: And then I found out going to Chicago.
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: It's emotional for your wife the last night in San Antonio,
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: but she's also thinking in the back of her mind,
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: I've got to think about Sacramento and the possibly moving there.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: Now you're calling her and saying, hey, we're actually going
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: to Chicago. How did that conversation govery.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: You would think it would be like great, like we're
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: going to Chicago. I was like what, but like it
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: didn't matter where, I said, Like, it didn't. It was
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: all bad at that point, like just because we're going
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: to be separated from each other for a little bit
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: and it was like just a news start having to
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: meet new people like all those things. But I mean,
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: it couldn't have been I don't know if it could
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: have been a better city to get traded to, like
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: in that time, because I remember when I like I
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: was feeling like a type of way as well, like
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: I was hurt and like sad that I was leaving
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: the team that drafted me and everything. And then after
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: that day that I traveled to Chicago, then my physicals
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: went to the facility and everything. They had an apartment
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: set up that I went and checked into at night. Then,
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: so then I walk in and I'm like exhausted obviously,
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: like emotionally exhausted as well, and I'm just like whatever,
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: like ready to just be done with the day. And
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: I walk in and it's like thirtieth floor, like a
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: high rise in Chicago, and I'm like like this isn't
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: this isn't too bad as.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: Bad as it could be, right, I mean, I was
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: excited for you. I love Chicago. That was yeah.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: So I was like, you know, this is They're the
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: bright side of this. So then that honestly helped me
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Like I walked in and it was like dark and
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: the city was lit up all the lights, and I
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: was like whatever, it was super cool. So that got
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: me excited again. And it was just only like twenty
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: four hours after and then you know, you just got
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: to roll over them.
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: There I think people have to appreciate this for a second.
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: You know, you guys are professional athletes and you live
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: a wonderful life, but there's really no thing that equates
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: to that in a normal person's life, where you could
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: wake up one day and you're being asked to move
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: to a different place, and on top of it, you're
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: supposed to go someplace and peak perform because they acquired
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: you to help them win. And as you mentioned, you're
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: you're really emotional. You're you're processing some of those emotions
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: for your wife and for your children, and it's tough
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: to be the best version of yourself and all that
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: stuff swimming around in your head. And I'm sure it
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: took you a couple of days to get back to
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: feeling just like your normal self, let alone the star
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: that they want to acquire right now.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: I definitely did, and it was nice because they're still
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: i think, like one or two days left of the
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: trade deadline, and there's rumors that we might be the
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: guys who they traded for might be moved again. So
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: they were telling me, like, you might get moved again,
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: like be patient, whatever. But at the same time, like
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: they had a game that night, so I didn't have
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: to suit up necessarily that night and perform, which was
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: nice because I can't imagine having to do that.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Like just twenty four hours later.
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: But even going in and yeah, like meeting all the
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: coaches and then like I met with Billy Donovan one
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: on one and he's going over like the offense, like
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: all our schemes and how we set up our offense
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: and how we want to play. And then I'm meeting
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: with the other coaches and They're throwing all these defensive
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: terms at me that I've never heard before, and they're
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: like whatever, fifty five games into the season, and I'm
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: just like I don't know what any of this means,
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: like things like all these terms are flying around in
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: my head. I don't know what's going on, but yes
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: it is. It's crazy, like emotionally all the things. And
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: even like I walk in to the arena that night
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: and it's like this is the Chicago Bulls, like red
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: lights everywhere, like you see Michael Jordan's stuff right here. You'
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: like it's just like so historic, which gives you like
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: some motivation, like.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: All right, like we're gonna be.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Good, like the figure it out right here like whatever
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: but it's definitely crazy.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Folks.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: When we get back, we're gonna dig into Tray's Chicago
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Bulls days when we return on Rosters to Rings. Welcome
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: back to Roster's the Rings, Trey. You just put together
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: your best statistical NBA season, averaging more than fourteen points
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: five assists per game.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: What clicked this past year?
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: What worked?
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, probably just building on after I got traded
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: last year. I really liked the style that we were playing.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: We played super fast and billions in still a lot
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: of confidence in me, and so I think just building
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: off of that into the new season. We also had
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: a couple of injuries early in the year, and so
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: it gave me even more of opportunity and I kind
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: of made the most of that and it helped meet
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: throughout the rest of the year. But I think, you know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: our style played, We played really fast, We got up
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: and down, and then just kind of trusting all the
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: work that I had put in at that point, kind
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: of getting out of my head and just just playing
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: the game again like I knew how to play. I
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: think that's all it really was. But I mean, we
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: we came out hot, we were rolling early.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: You know, we just got a little rocky there in
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: the in the middle of the season before we made
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: a bunch of trades. But we had a great group
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: of guys that, you know, we got along really well
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: both on and off the court, and you don't get
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: that a lot at this level where you really have
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: the full group, you know, getting along. There weren't any
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: big egos kind of like messing with the vibes on
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: the team or any anything like that. And I mean when.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Or lost, we all got along really well.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: We go to dinners together on the road and things
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: like that, we were hanging out, we would we'd have
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: a bunch of group chats going on, talking about you know,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: college basketball or I mean Super Bowl, who whose team
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: was winning, like all these all these random things that
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: you would think would be normal on teams, but you don't.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: You know, I say, I look at that as like
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: being the norm. I would assume teammates are doing that
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: all the time. You're describing this to me like it's
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: a kind of a not a normal thing, not a given.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: You would think it's all by I think just because
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: like there's so much turnover year to year or even
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the year, you could take three
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: players out too, like whatever it is that it's kind
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: of hard to put that guard down and kind of
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: get close with new teammates that quick, just because you know,
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: am I going to do this again in the summer?
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Am I going to do this again in February? If
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: I get traded? Like you, it's kind of like a
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: repeating thing. But I mean, we had a group that
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: really did that, and I think that kind of talked
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: to the success of both the team that we had
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: for a little bit and then also myself on.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Last year to trade.
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: During your your tenure with the Bulls, you see Billy
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: Donovan leave the team and now he's elsewhere. They go
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: through a whole search this all season for new head coach,
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: Like how closely are you monitoring that? Does the front
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: office get any of the players involved in the process,
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: and and what are you thinking as they're they're listing
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: some of the candidates publicly who they're discussing.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, you hear like stars being part of these
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: processes and stuff. I don't know if that's always true
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: or not, Like I'm not I'm really not sure. I
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: think here it was pretty much on ownership and Bryson
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: who's our new president as well. I think that that
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: they made the decision, and I mean I wasn't necessarily
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: involved in that at all, but.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: I mean it's.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: Definitely a crazy process, Like I've never really been part
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: of that where you know, president GM like kind of
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: all of them, not all of ownership, but most of
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: the front office leaves or is.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Out of there. Yeah, you're just kind of waiting.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: It's like you're just kind of waiting around, like who's
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: gonna who are we gonna go after you hear all
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: the rumors of you know, they're looking at this person,
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: they're whatever. So it's definitely kind of a weird feeling
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: just because like you don't know who you're playing for
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: the next year, Like you're just like, who's my coach
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: going to be? Like the playoffs are still going on,
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: so it's still kind of the season, but you don't
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: have a coach though. So it was definitely nice once
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: it all got done and completed and handled and we
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: were kind of able to turn the page and start
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: planning for the next season.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: How how is the outlook coming for this season? You've
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: gotten to know your new coach a little.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Bit, Yeah, have gotten to know him. He's been here.
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: I don't well, it seemed like a little bit now
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: it's probably only been like six weeks. So yeah, seen
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: him around the gym a lot. We're definitely excited about
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: the new season he had. He was kind of thrown
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: into a crazy situation last year with the with the Blazers,
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: but I mean he.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Did a great job the postseason.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then led them to the Yeah, led them
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: into the into the playoffs. So I mean, I'm super excited.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: Obviously we have similar ties with uh playing in San Antonio.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: I'm playing for Pop and things like that. So yeah,
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: definitely excited for for this coming season.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: I hope he knows that you only play for Hall
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: of Fame coaches.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Like that.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: He is on easy street right now. Uh, Trey, we
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: would be remiss not asking you. We we kind of
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: glossed over earlier. But give us a quick scouting report
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: on coach K and Pop And that's how popular these
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: guys are. They have nicknames that we all know that
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: it's coach k and Pop, Greg Popovich, coach Krzyzewsky. What
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: what was it like playing with these guys. Give us
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: a little insight as to their personalities.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: It was definitely crazy playing for the both of them,
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: uh and back to back. I kind of never imagine
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: that being a thing as a kid growing up. Coach
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: k So I met Coach when I was eleven or twelve.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: That's when he started recruiting my brother, so like slowly
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: built that relationship just from those years on. So by
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: the time I actually got to campus, like we knew
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: each other. He was kind of like a like a
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: grandpather me. Like we knew each other so well. We
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: had conversations about just life like a knew. He had
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: three daughters, one of them that worked with the with
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: our team a lot, and she worked in the building
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: and everything, and she's kind of similar to my mom,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: and so she would help with different things. When I
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: did get to campus, they had the same name and everything,
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: and so like it was like it was it was
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: pretty crazy. But I mean, Coach, you hear about like
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: the military background and all those some probably some crazy stories,
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: and he is a little bit crazy, but he just
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: cares so much about like his plays as people more
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: than anything. And he was always giving us stories every
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: single day to try to like help us out in
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: whatever way he could.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Can you give us one crazy Coach K story, it
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: won't get you in any trouble with Coach K himself.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I don't think any would give me in trouble. Let's see.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: I mean probably just I would say.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: Him removing himself from practice, I'm gonna say, really, it
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: was like middle of the season to walk out. We
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: weren't performing well in games. We had dropped like a
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: couple of bad ones, and we came into practice. We
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: were going at it and some guys got into it,
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: and he called it selfish that guys are getting into
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: it and.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Not focused on the team.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: So he tried he said, practice is over, like, we
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: can try this again tomorrow.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Uh. I was a captain. It was my second year,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: and so.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: The three captains were like, no, we're not ending practice,
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: like we're gonna keep going, we're good whatever, And he
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: was like no, like, get the f out of the gym. Really,
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: Everyone's kind of like, oh, he's serious. But then we're like, no,
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: we're finishing practice, like we're gonna we're gonna finish like whatever.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: So we started playing again and he walked.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: He just walked right out.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: He just walked right out. He left. We finished the practice.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: The assistant coaches jumped in, which like the system.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Was a shire.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: Who's the head coach now? Nolan Smith was there. He's
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: a head coach. I'm at Tennessee State now. So it's
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: like we had.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: Sort of an interesting back up to coach walking out.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: You have two we were hands.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: But yeah, he left. That didn't give us a good
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: feeling coming in the next day, So like there's outside
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: of it, but it ended up. I think he wanted us.
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: I think we made the right decision continuing the practice
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: because then if we would have left, I feel like
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: the punishment.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Would have been way worse.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: How was Pop different, I don't know, because he has
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: a military background too, Like it's very similar.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: I think he was just like the NBA.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Version of Coach k Like Coach was very strict, had
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: his way of doing things, which Pop did too. But
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: I think to a certain extent, because it was the NBA,
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: he knew he was working with a bunch of grown
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: men who some of them made a lot of money,
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: some of them made more than him. Even so it's
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: like he would say things only to a certain extent.
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: And then it's kind of like, I can't go much
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: further than this.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he couldn't go too far.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: But sometimes there would be times where he did that.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: It was halftime and we weren't playing how we needed
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: to or whatever. He would go there, but it wasn't
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: as often and like he kind of had like just
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: like a goal with the flow more because it was
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: like NBA season as long, like the next game's coming.
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: He would get mad, but he would just be like
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: flush it, like we're just gonna move on to the
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: next thing. But very similar, very similar coaching styles and everything.
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: So you feel as if you pretty much made these
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: guys careers.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: That's what I heard.
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: All right, all right, now we'll move We'll move on
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: to the next topic.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Without me, they're nothing.
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: It's hard, it's hard to really envision what they've accomplished
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: without you will walk us through you you're creating a
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: really nice NBA career here, Like what separates guys who
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: are able to sustain six ten year careers from the
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: guys who maybe only last one or two and and
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: put talent aside for a second. Everyone who makes the
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: NBA is extremely talented. What are the other attributes you've
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: noticed in the players who've excelled beyond that? Like five
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: year window.
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say probably just honestly just being a professional,
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: and like that can mean a lot of things, but
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: like I mean as far as like just showing up
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: every day ready to work, showing up on time or early,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: honestly showing up early.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: They can count on you to be there to be
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: the same you every day.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: Like for me, it's showing up, having good energy and
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: then trying to do whatever I can to help the
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: team win. Like when I first got in the league,
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: I wasn't playing at all, So it's like I would
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: go into game nights. I knew I wasn't getting in,
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: but like, how can I still help the team? Like
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: what can I do? So I mean I would show
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: up to all the film sessions. Young guys would have
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: extra film sessions, So showing up there talking as much
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: as I can, knowing as much as I can, so
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: I can help whoever I need to help. And then
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: when we go on the court, like shoot around, like
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: maybe I'm doing like pick and roll, but I'm not
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: shooting any of the shots because I'm not playing like
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: I'm hitting. At the time, it was the little Marketaldridge,
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: like I'm handling I passed it to him he's taking
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: ten shots in a row right before the game starts,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: Like I'm rebounding the ball so guys can get a couple.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: More shots before the game starts.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: Like maybe little things like that I saw, Like maybe
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: that can just help a little bit. And then it
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: transfers to like coming off the bench playing thirteen minutes
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: a night, which when I first started playing, that felt
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: like a lot, but then when you end up playing
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: a lot, that feels like a little bit. So like
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: I started playing, I'm getting thirteen minutes a night, I
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: feel like it's a lot. I'm getting thirteen minutes. How
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: can I help? I got to make sure that when
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: I when I check in the game, there's I can't
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: waste any possessions like getting warm, getting loose, So I
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: have to stay ready on the side, like make sure
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: my muscles are loose still, like make sure I'm ready
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: to go right away when I get in. Then, like
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know when like taking on a bigger role
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: than it's more responsibility of just staying ready day to
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: day because the game's add up and your body's wearing down.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: It's a long season.
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: And just I don't know, I think it continues to change,
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: especially now I've I've gotten older and kind of more established.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: Now it's definitely changed a little bit, But I think
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: the main thing is still just being a professional, showing
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: up and doing a job every day, and just being
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: someone that they can kind of count on.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: So prior to this past season, you became a free
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: agent for the first time in your career. You finally
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: have some control possibly over where you're gonna play, what
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: criteria kind of you know it was most important to
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: you and that whole entire decision when you had a
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: couple options laid out in front of you.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think I really have that much control.
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but does your agent have more control in that scenario?
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: What is the How does that feel?
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: I feel like kind of like at the same time,
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: like the team still has control.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: And I wanted to come back to Chicago.
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be here, Like loved the two or
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: three months that I had here, like whatever, felt like
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: I was in a good groove. So I was like
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: pushing to come back to Chicago. A couple teams. I mean,
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: you get closer to the let's see with the new rules,
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: I think when the season, when the final game ends
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: of Game seven, of the finals or whatever it is,
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: and the season officially ends, then you can start negotiating
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: with your home team. And then once six pm hits
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: on July or June thirtieth, then it opens up for everyone.
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: So the closer got to June thirtieth, like, then talks
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: begin to pick up with your team. And so I
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: mean like June twenty eighth, June twenty ninth, and I'm like,
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, what are we hearing? Like are we near
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: and getting near a number that we like? So we
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: don't have to kind of test free agency like that?
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: And it wasn't like that, Like obviously they're playing like
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: the hard to get game, like kind of low.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Balling from what we wanted.
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: So then as soon as you can, you start talking
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: to other teams, getting numbers, trying to bring it back
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: to them, trying to raise the number, all those things.
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: And so I mean, for me, I remember I was
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: our oldest daughter. She had dance. She's four years old.
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: So I'm out like her dance, like sitting there, I
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: get a call from him. He's like, yeah, this team
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: offered this amount, and it's sounding like that might be
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: all we can get whatever, But like the like I'm
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: sitting there like, dang, like that's all we can get.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: But then at the same time, like, I mean that's
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: like life change, like.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: I can't like how do you think of it?
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: Like like I could get more but yeah, But then
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: I'm like at the same time, like that's crazy like whatever.
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: So then for me, like I'm like sitting there like
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: shouldn't I just accept that? Like how do I turn
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: that down? Like I always told myself, I'll never turned
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: out a type of money like whatever.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: But he's like, no, just give it a second. I
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: can go up for your agent.
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: So then I'm waiting and then you know, two hours
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: goes by and then another team comes in and he's like,
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: all right, we got the number up about one million
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: a year and it's three years instead or whatever.
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, oh, perfect, Like now we can take it,
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: like but we're not going back to Chicago, but that's okay,
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: Like we got a good number. So then I'm thinking that,
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: and then a couple of hours later he called, well,
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: Chicago actually wants to do the same thing, so now
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: you get to do it.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: So then that's when I felt like I had power.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: I could choose between two things.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Gotcha.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: But up to that point, I feel like I had
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: no power at all in that situation.
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: You talked a little bit about the financial parameters. Is
• 50:53
  Speaker 5: your agent educating you as to what is a fair
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: deal or are you doing your own homework? Are you
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: looking at guys around the league and saying, hey, this
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: guy is a similar role, similar experience, I should get
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: paid like that, Or what homework are you doing to
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: prepare yourself to understand what's fair going into free agency?
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely do my own, but also like having
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: the agency breakdown, like the numbers and like advance matching,
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: all that stuff that like I'm not just going to
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: read or I don't really know of, but like it's
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: what front offices may be looking at or like different
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: things that could help.
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: I don't know how Were there a few players out
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: there that you were you were pegging and saying, hey,
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: I should be in this range based upon my performance
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: and how it compares to specific guys.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: I don't think there were. I don't think I had
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: any comparisons at the time where I was like, that's
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: what I want. But yeah, I don't think I had any.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: But I remember just like the first offer they made
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: like it was like a one year like kind of
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: like a a low ball offer, and I knew based
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: off how I played. And the thing is that like
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: we went over like this is your market, this is
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: kind of where you rank. I knew like it was
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: low for me. But then like I hear that and
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: I'm like, is that, Like is that where we're at?
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: Is that what's happening here?
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: Kind of?
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: And then that's when like I do start comparing, like
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at like, well, these guys make this much.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: But I feel like it's not I'm not necessarily there.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: I'm found somewhere else.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Is that a situation where your agent's come in and
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: kind of saying take it easy, you know, slow down,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: We're not there like calm down, everything's going to be okay,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: or you know, I suppose you know, I don't. Is
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: that kind of what happens?
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: Or he was telling me like it's gonna be fine.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: He's like this always happens. It's the first number that's
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: thrown out, like that's part of it. But it never
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: feels good.
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sure like this sucks to go ciation, so you know,
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: go ahead.
• 53:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Trey. I just will say, like I've negotiated on
• 53:06
  Speaker 5: the other side so many times, and I always aspired
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: to make offers that were fair. You know, obviously it's
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: going to be more favorable to the club side of fair.
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: But like if you ever accepted my first offer, like
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: you could hold your head up high. Like I've never
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: really understood the notion of like offering thirty percent of
• 53:22
  Speaker 5: what I'm prepared to actually pay you and hope that
• 53:24
  Speaker 5: you take it. Because let's say you did take that
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: offer and then all of a sudden you realize later
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: that you shouldn't have taken it. And now, all of
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: a sudden, I've got a player who knows I took
• 53:34
  Speaker 5: advantage of him, and maybe you don't trust your agent anymore.
• 53:37
  Speaker 5: That's not a win for the club. In my opinion,
• 53:40
  Speaker 5: I'm not a huge fan of that negotiation tactic. I
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: think we should treat each other with tremendous respect. Start
• 53:46
  Speaker 5: from a place where your offer to me is fair,
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: my offer to you is fair. Now let's just you know,
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: hammer out the.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Deal, right. I agree.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: I think that I don't know why it's like that either,
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: Like I don't get how it's kind of like just
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: like a known thing that teams are going to low ball,
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: and then agents are going to ask for too much,
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: and it's like then then everyone meets in the middle,
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: and it's like, why don't we just start in the
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: middle and just have like honest, real conversations and kind
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: of just go from there.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, this might be is that a basketball, Is
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: that an NBA thing? Is that a baseball? I mean
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: that Have you heard of teams in base No?
• 54:23
  Speaker 5: I think I think it happens in all professional sports.
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: I think unfortunately, people want to put their name on
• 54:28
  Speaker 5: quote unquote winning a deal, and you know, the agent
• 54:31
  Speaker 5: wants to sign the best possible deal that that type
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: of player's ever signed. The executive wants to sign a
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: great deal that the owner will give him a pat
• 54:39
  Speaker 5: on the back for saving money. But I don't think
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: you're winning that deal. I think if you win it
• 54:43
  Speaker 5: based solely on taking advantage of a player or the
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: agent taking advantage of an executive. People figure that out.
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: And I've always felt, Listen, I want to get the
• 54:52
  Speaker 5: best deal I possibly can, but I don't want to
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: cost anybody their job. I don't want to cost your
• 54:55
  Speaker 5: agent his job because I take advantage of him, or
• 54:58
  Speaker 5: quite frankly, I don't want him to cost me my
• 54:59
  Speaker 5: jo up. Like we're all competitive, but we're not looking
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: to cost each other jobs along the way. I want
• 55:04
  Speaker 5: to treat everyone with the utmost respect. That's the win
• 55:07
  Speaker 5: to me.
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: Right, I agree, And I feel like that, like you said,
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: if the player doesn't feel the type of way, like
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: his family doesn't feel like they want to feel like
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: everyone's on the same page, no one's trying to backdoor
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: them or something like, I feel like it affects the culture,
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: or it can affect the culture of the team and
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: the organization and everything too.
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: Hey, Trey, before we let you go, Tias was generous
• 55:30
  Speaker 5: enough to tell you should sleep more For kids who
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: are going to college and how to play basketball, or
• 55:35
  Speaker 5: kids who are in college and hoping to play in
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: the NBA. What's with the one piece of advice that
• 55:40
  Speaker 5: you would give them the matches what tye As shared
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: with you.
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: I think making the decision that's best for you not
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: necessarily always the highest amount of money or the most
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: material things. It could be the best education, it could
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: be the best code said knows you the best, or
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: something like that. But I think making the best decision
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: that just fits you best.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: And go to school. Have good guess.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: Now that the NAAL money is there, go all four years?
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I go all four Trey, thanks for joining us today.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: This has been an insightful education on your NBA experience.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you joining us here on rosterst Rings.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys for having me. I'll be back again one.
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: Day, I hope.
• 56:34
  Speaker 5: So thanks again to Trey Jones and to all our listeners.
• 56:37
  Speaker 5: Tune in too roster Strings this and every Thursday