Original subtitles

You have this encyclopedia of everything, basketball,

what it takes, how do you balance being Dad and being able to help them?

You don't want to get on they nerves, 'cause they'll tune you out.

-Hundred percent. -That's what having kids is all about.

They will tune you out. I'll definitely be on they nerves a lot.

That's me. I mean, I'm like that.

My son, he's, I don't know how decided he is if he wants

-to keep playing hoops, but… -Yeah.

Sometimes, you know, being a father,

I'll say like, you know, Mateo, you gotta get your elbow in

and create this like, line to the basket.

And because I'm Dad, not, you know,

a former NBA player, he's like,

"Well, that's not the only way you can do it."

-[both laughing] -[theme music]

There's this kind of thought out there that like, that,

you know, it won't be good

to have two small-market teams in the Finals.

-Like, I take offense to that. -[chuckles]

Like, you know, like I,

look, I love big-market legacy names, brands.

I get why Lakers, Knicks, Celtics.

-Yeah, for sure. -Warriors. I get it.

And I love it. And it's great for our game.

But these are two fantastic basketball teams

that are very, very unique.

You know, how do you feel about the small-market comments

and like, where does this come from?

I don't know where it come from,

'cause I mean, listen, I played in Cleveland

-for 11 years. -Right.

And we were a small market, you know, so, you know…

-Until you got there. -Yeah, until I, until I got there,

they became a big market.

But I don't know.

I just think that,

I think it's all about just the storylines.

It's about what people can say on TV

and create these, you know, Superman versus Batman

or DC Comics verse, you know, Marvel.

Like, when it comes to the game of basketball,

it doesn't matter who's representing who.

It's about two great teams.

-Right. -You know, and we talked,

we talked previously in a lot of our episodes about, yes,

you know, we, we praise a lot of individuals and rightfully so.

We have unbelievable individuals in our sport over the years

have done great things and have put themselves in position

to be talked about. I get it.

But one thing we cannot disrespect is great teams.

-Right. -You know,

we can't disrespect the 2003 Detroit Pistons,

you know, with Chauncey, Rip, Teshawn, Ben, Rasheed,

rest of those, like that group, you know, you know,

these… these are teams that's just completely put together.

You know, you can't disrespect, you know, the…

what was it, the 2019 Toronto Raptors, you know,

-with Fred Van Fleet, Kawhi. -Great team.

The guys got injured, but great team.

-But great team. -Yeah.

We know guys get injured. Yeah.

But that's a great freaking team.

You look at that roster like, "That is a great team."

You know, so like, you know, we have this Indiana-OKC situation

and these are two great teams.

And if you are a basketball fan and you really love our game

and you can learn so much from watching the way

both of those teams play.

I understand you have your favorite players,

you have your favorite colors

or whatever the case may be that that drag you to it.

And I understand there is something about that.

But if we're just talking about the purity of the game

and the sport, these are two teams that played the game the right way.

And you love to see it.

You love to see it and even after that,

they fucking earned it.

-Right. -They fucking earned it.

They've been through the trenches and yes,

injuries happen and things of that nature,

but at the end of the day, you still gotta show up and play.

The game is won in between the four lines.

Someone's injured, you can't show up and be like, "Okay, forfeit,

we won because you don't have your player."

You still gotta play. Indiana's been playing great basketball.

OKC's been doing this all year and it'll be a great Finals to watch.

I mean, I'm a… I love the game, so you know, I'll be in attendance.

No shit.

[both laughing]

But I was gonna say like, we want parity, you know,

we don't want it every year to be the same two teams. We want…

That's what we've done with our salary cap and the tax

and revenue sharing, all that stuff.

And I think from a fan perspective, we want that.

We want teams to not all play the same way.

Right, the league has gotten smart

playing such a similar style to take advantage of the analytics numbers.

Here's two teams that have uniqueness, unique defensively

and offensively for OKC,

but also like the Pacers, they play a unique style

that's a look into the future.

For me, I hope there's a lot of fans that are excited about this matchup,

but for me, is there a comment on the nature

of our media nowadays?

Social media,

our networks have talking-head shows where we want to debate.

Right? I'm sure it's less expensive in some ways.

We have these talking-head shows where we gotta debate.

-Right. -You know,

go back to like the NBA on NBC, Bob Costas

doing a small story with the right theme music

and energy that brings the fans into a game in a series

because they're telling this vignette like the Olympics.

But now we don't do as much of that.

We are talking and arguing and if we're gonna do that,

let's talk and argue about the big names.

So it's in a way, I think it's the nature of the media.

Do you feel like there's some truth to that?

How we shove these, I don't know if we can call 'em coastal elites

or the big brands down people's throats,

whereas like we want parity.

There's a story to be told here too.

Yeah, absolutely, and we all have a story, you know,

and there's a lot of stories that can be told

that's on the OKC roster and on the Pacers roster.

-Right. -You know,

and it's like, do the guys that preach our game want to…

do they want to do the homework and take the time to actually tell these stories?

And it doesn't seem that way.

It's just, what can I say, without truth or without knowledge, you know,

or just, this is what I wanna say. and there's no accountability behind it.

And I think that now goes to our fans.

We have to protect our players and protect our product

and also bring an awareness.

I think our game is also about storytelling.

We have to tell the stories of our players,

of how they've gotten there, why they're there, you know,

the journey it took for them to get there.

Like you said, I used to remember watching,

when I was a kid or watching my younger days

before it got to where it is today.

Where before the Finals would start,

there were multiple stories about these guys

that were going into these games.

You would know these stories, you would learn, you would feel a sense of

emotion behind certain guys because the story was told.

It wasn't like, this guy is not a superstar,

so it's gonna be difficult to watch it.

Or is he a superstar?

Like, is the only reason that this team is here

because of this player being injured and if that didn't happen, well,

-like you can't play the "if" game. -Right.

Like, the "if," that is ridiculous.

You know, guys have earned a right to represent their teams

and represent their franchises in the big stage.

And I think the one thing that I know for sure when it comes

to players, before it was like I couldn't be seen

or I wouldn't be heard if I was in a small market.

You know, I had to be in LA, I had to be in New York.

I had to be, you know, in Chicago.

I had to be, you know, in certain markets in order

to be seen, in order to be heard.

Well, that's not the case now.

You know, the case now with social media,

with every single day around-the-clock coverage of our game, good or bad.

You could perform anywhere.

You could perform anywhere and be great anywhere.

So the whole notion of I don't wanna play in a small market

or you shouldn't be in a small market, that is,

that is gone, that is flushed down the toilet.

Because obviously, we are looking now where, you know,

we have the Indiana Pacers

and we have the Oklahoma City Thunder, you know,

and representing the NBA Finals, you know, possibly.

So that is, that narrative is gone.

-We need to teach the game. We need to… -Yep.

We need to talk about the game, but also like just have a better understanding

of storytelling.

I think that just helps our product

and it helps our fans to relate to the players that they,

you know, that they may not outside the market of OKC

or outside the market of Indiana, you know,

maybe don't know a lot of these guys.

You make a great point. I think social media too.

You think of the impact, like, has it made us lazy in a way,

in this storytelling?

Because I can go to Shai's page

and like, you know, see what he wore to the game, what he,

how he works out in the summer.

I think I know him, but I… like, that's not journal…

That's not really knowing him.

Like, what are the ingredients that got him there?

Then also like all the fake stuff on social, like, you know,

we both have teenage boys, like the stuff that they hear

and think is true about the NBA, it's like…

Oh, my goodness.

Absolutely not even in the world of true.

-Right. -It's amazing.

And I think sometimes it's like

there's the misinformation, there's the clickbaity stuff,

maybe we've all gotten a little lazy because I could just go to Hali's page

and see what he's up to, what he's like, quickly scroll.

I know him. Well, we don't really know him.

-We don't know what makes him tick… -Right, right.

So telling those stories in a way…

We do more talking head on the networks.

We do more doom scrolling on social, then there's all the fake news

-and all the clickbaity stuff. -Yep.

So we never really get to like,

where are the cold hard facts or interpretation of this player,

this team, this coach. There's two great coaches.

If these two teams meet in the Finals, these are two really fascinating coaches.

One, a lifer who's been unbelievable

and one is like the youngest,

if not one of the younger coaches in the league

who's been able to manage this young team.

-I think I'm older than him. -I think you are too, my friend.

So like two brilliant coaches, we gotta tell these stories.

-Right? -Let's not take it for granted.

Let's see how they've innovated, how they've kept groups together,

how Indiana has gotten better every year.

Also, neither one of these teams are in the tax?

-Mm-hmm. -Now, obviously, it's… both can go there.

OKC's gonna have tax problems in the future,

but they have all this incredible asset, you know,

war chest to kind of manage that.

So there's so many stories out there

that we can tell, styles make fights, personalities,

like you said, storytelling is everything.

-Right. -It's everything.

That's what gets people passionate about things.

You make a great point there.

And I also wonder like has social media brought us a lot

and also taken a lot away.

Yeah, it has definitely brought us a lot, but it has desensitized us quite a bit,

you know, quite a bit.

And you know, I just hope that, you know, people, you know,

don't take for granted, you know, having the opportunity

to see, you know, two great teams, you know,

play the game the right way.

And you know, I understand like you say,

you have your favorite players and favorite colors,

your favorite franchises,

but you know, when things are earned

and not given, then we all have to sit back and appreciate

-and tell that story. -Right.

[theme music]

Well, shifting gears a little bit,

like let's talk about what the Finals are like, how unique it is.

Like let me throw some things out there

and then I wanna hear you kind of talk on it.

As someone who's got to the conference finals,

I think maybe four times, but never got to the Finals.

I can imagine, and I'd love to hear your perspective on things

like the travel, family, tickets,

scouting, intensity with more rest.

Like there's so many factors

that make this not only the height of the height,

the end of the road.

Two teams that have the one chance at the end of the day to get there,

and then you add all this extra stuff.

The games, the media, the intros.

-Yeah, everything changes. -Start wherever you like.

But tell me a little bit about that and how the NBA Finals are unique.

Yeah, the NBA Finals are unique in one way

because it becomes, you know, you understand

this is the hoorah, this is the last hoorah

for the end of the season.

So you know that you're gonna have family that wants to be a part of it.

You know that the travel is gonna be different.

You know that the hotels is gonna be different

because of the excitement outside of the hotel room.

You know outside of your room, there's gonna be horns

and people yelling, whatever, getting excited.

You know, and you think like,

you know, for me, I've been in…

I played in San Antonio a couple times in the Finals

and being on the River Walk for a couple of those Finals,

the horns and the people yelling and whatever the case may be.

It is like, "Oh, my God, I can't get any sleep."

A couple extra margaritas for every person on the River Walk.

Exactly. A couple extra margaritas for everybody.

So, I think, you can't change too much, you know,

and the only thing that changes is that the games are a little later,

I remember every game starting

at like nine o'clock Eastern Standard Time,

you know which is…

I hate that…

-I hate long days, too. -Like you just waiting all day,

even after a nap, you still have time to sit around in your room

before the first bus or if it's a home game, you're driving to the game.

But you gotta try to keep everything the same

and also like, for me personally,

I never let my family come to a Finals game

unless it was a closeout game.

If we were up, you know, 3-1, or if it was 3-3.

So like game, we went to game seven in 2016 Finals,

my family didn't come until game seven, you know?

You know, and it was just like I had to…

I didn't want to change anything.

I didn't want to change anything.

And, obviously, if we had an opportunity to close out,

you know that final game, if we was about to have our fourth win

and we had an opportunity to do it and the family would be there,

but other than that, I kept them home.

Because I didn't wanna, especially on the road,

I didn't want my family on the road, you know, during the Finals.

And I'm trying to focus on not only myself,

but carrying my team, making sure my teammates is locked in.

And then if something happened in the stands with my family,

it could very easily knock me out of my locked-out zone.

Now I'm, I can't be as locked in if I want to

because, you know, some idiot or whatever,

some fan that says something to my wife or to my kids.

-Sure. -Or said, you know, and…

or my mom is there, they say something to my mom.

So like unless it was the closeout game, my family stayed home.

And that's how I always kept it and it worked for me, you know,

in a couple of my Finals wins.

I see it's a… I mean, a great point about the sacrifice and what it means.

That might be the last time

-you ever go to the Finals. -Right, right, right.

You've been fortunate,

you've won multiple, you've been a bunch of times,

but nothing's guaranteed.

-Right, nothing's guaranteed. -Nothing at all.

Prioritizing the opportunity at hand.

So there's one and then,

so, one, it's like making a decision like that,

you know, to someone, a common person

might be like, "Oh, that's kind of cold, your fam…"

No, I played all year.

I've trained my whole life to try to win a championship.

Making tough decisions like that is important.

No, it is, yeah.

And then on top of that, when they do come to a closeout game,

how do you manage that?

You can imagine, you, obviously, with all your experience,

but what about a young player, the seventh, eighth guy

in the rotation who's like,

family wants to come, hotel rooms, flights, tickets.

-Right, right. -That's a factor.

Right, that's a factor. And I hope that, you know,

that you're with an organization that's like,

"Hey, let us take care of that.

Just tell us, okay, who's all coming, we will handle their flights.

We will make sure that they get their rooms.

We can settle the money and all that stuff after the fact,

but like let us know, let us handle it,

so you could just continue to focus on the job at hand."

For a young guy, like you said, if he's the seventh or eighth guy

and he's playing, he's a big part of the rotation.

You don't need anything that's getting into his mind

that he needs to worry about that can stop him

from being as locked in as possible

to helping his team, you know, win the ultimate.

So, you know, that's the sacrifice.

And you also have to have a very understanding family.

-They have to understand. -Great point.

You know, and I can only speak for mine

and my family has always been understanding

of what I wanted to accomplish in my career,

you know, and it was never no pullback.

It was never no, you know, "I need to be there.

You don't want me." It was always,

"Handle your business and when you want us there,

-we're there and we're ready to support." -Right.

And that was, it made it a lot easier on me.

It made it a lot easier on me to be able to leave.

And the four Finals that I've won, I've been fortunate to,

you know, two of them was the closeouts at home,

so that was much easier.

You know, my two in Miami were,

you know, closeout game five at home versus OKC

and then a closeout game, game seven versus San Antonio.

My third one was a closeout game

in Oakland at the old Oracle Arena,

which was very difficult and challenging,

but the family came to that.

And then the last one was a game five closeout

in Orlando at the bubble.

And, you know, part of my family was there for that.

So that was really cool,

but, yeah, you have to have a understanding group

of people around you that can take the pressure off,

you feeling pressure because you're already getting

so much pressure being a part of the Finals anyways.

You made a great comment about, although it's the Finals,

it's our two-week Super Bowl, essentially.

Yeah, yeah.

Although it's, everything's different.

The intros, the media outside the hotel, the travel,

the rest, you get a little bit more rest in the Finals.

You know, you often get two games, two days between games.

But you want everything to stay the same, right?

Did you talk to your teammates about that

or did you just show that, like I'm keeping it the same?

Yeah, over the years, I definitely talked to them about it.

Like how do you manage your time, because there's idle times.

Like you said, it's two days in between

and there's one day that you fly in just to do media.

Yep.

You know they're, they really just block off the whole court.

And there's tables set up and you're sitting there-

-Like All-Star Weekend. -It's like All-Star Weekend all over again

and it can be annoying, you know, but you…

If I had to give one piece

of advice though, as much as it is annoying,

you know, just take full advantage of it because it's not, like you said,

it's not promised that you can get there every year or multiple years.

You just gotta take full advantage of it,

but also keep the main thing the main thing.

And that's one of the one things that I learned from Pat Riley.

Like he just always was saying like,

"Listen, we are here for a reason, we're here to do a job."

You know, enjoy it, but keep the main thing the main thing.

You know, and if you're able to do that,

I think it gives you even a little bit more, you know,

than if your opponent is not keeping the main thing the main thing, you know?

So that's what I've always kind of tried to keep my guys focused on that,

like we're here to do a job. We're right here.

Yeah.

These are gonna be the hardest possible four games

that we could possibly win in your life.

There's never gonna be a harder time than right now.

So let's just try to keep the main thing the main thing.

Enjoy it, have fun. It's gonna be a little different,

it's gonna be like All-Star Weekend if you've been there.

It's gonna be like, and I've heard NFL guys say that they hate the Super Bowl.

They hate the Super Bowl. There's guys that I've seen that said,

even when they won it, they hated the Super Bowl

because it didn't feel like a, it didn't feel like a game,

it felt like a business.

It felt like it was just like, bring us here,

dog and pony show. You know?

And it didn't feel like a regular game.

And sometimes it could feel that way,

you know, throughout the course of the Finals.

But it's fun. It is very fun.

-Once you're on the floor, it's fun. -Yeah, absolutely.

Those lights are bright and that's when competitors love it the most.

-Yep. -But you bring up a good point.

There's an advantage to be had potentially in managing…

Yeah.

Managing the two days in between, the families,

managing your approach… there's nervous energy

and when you have two days and nervous energy,

sometimes it's the wrong approach.

-For sure. -You can get an advantage

in how you manage your approach to the Finals.

Yep, and you said it right.

It becomes an advantage of how you manage your approach.

Facts, that's a fact.

Tell me a little bit about the Bubble, like the Bubble's the Bubble.

I'd love to hear that, but like playing the Finals in the Bubble.

Yeah.

Are you literally going back to the same hotel

or maybe two different hotels on the same property?

Was the Heat in… No, I think the Heat was in our hotel.

So you're getting on a bus next to their bus and going back

-to the same place and… -Yeah, going back to the same place.

Every morning, you have to get tested in the morning.

You might bump into them in the courtyard when you're eating.

That's another part of like, um,

that's like some, uh, that's like some,

-that's mental warfare. -Right.

-It's another level of being… -No escape.

Yeah, it's no escape. It's like, okay, I've battled this guy.

He's pushed me, he's cursed me out. It's a physical game.

And then when it's time for me to finally relax

and go back and have a glass of wine, I'm bumping into this guy in the elevator.

Right. You gotta ride up with him 40 floors.

Yeah, I gotta ride up 40 floors to get up to my room.

It's another set of mental warfare and it's like,

-who's gonna be the one who… -Blinks.

Who's gonna be the one to fall? Who's gonna blink?

And that was a very challenging, difficult thing

because you just don't want to be around the competition.

-Right. -Until I get on the floor.

You wanna save it for when it counts.

Yeah, You wanna save it for when it counts so that's exactly what it was.

It was so different and challenging for sure.

And you said your family came to that, the whole thing?

No, my family didn't come to the whole thing,

you know, and during the Bubble,

they had to be there at least a week to quarantine

and then they were able to console.

They were there, you know, you had to be there like a week

before they could even see us.

So they're in their rooms for a week to be able to come to a game.

They couldn't come outta their room.

And it was off campus too.

It wasn't even in the property where we were.

They would have to be there for a week to ten days in their rooms.

You know, they have to stay with their parties

that was over there who also came down at the same time.

And so you had to bring 'em in like two weeks beforehand

before the games even started, yes.

And practicing in the Finals. So the media had to quarantine?

Were they there or was that all on Zoom?

No, they were there. The media was there too.

So you had the same on the court media day type stuff

with the media in person?

Yeah, with the media in person.

They only allowed a certain amount of media members in,

so you would do, you would sit down, like I'm sitting down right now

and there would be a camera set up for the people

that was not invited to be there on Zoom.

And then other beat writers 'cause, like, they let the local beat writers in person.

The ones that was quarantined.

And for practice, are you bussing over to the court

or was there other courts in the building?

No, they set up five courts inside of the hotel where we stayed at.

-Ballrooms. -Ballrooms, yep.

They brought in the court and everything.

So you would literally go down, you have your time slot…

and it's funny 'cause after practice, you had to be off.

You'd be walking out of practice and past the team you're about to play.

Even with five courts? Let's talk about you and the Heat.

You guys had your own practice court for the Finals or were you just…

Yeah, we had our own practice court.

Yeah, so once you, once you lost if you didn't advance, then you're gone.

You can leave, you're going back home.

So once it got to us versus the Heat,

you know, there were different rooms, different ballrooms.

So they had their main floor court

and we had ours on the other side of the hotel,

but like I said, you could still bump into a guy, you know,

if I came downstairs for dinner

and I wanted to go to the courtyard where they served food, or whatever,

or if I wanted to go to another restaurant that they had,

I could bump into the guy that I'm about to compete

for a championship with tomorrow night, which is different.

Yeah. Are you kidding me?

That's like you said, that's mental warfare.

Mental warfare, yep. Mental warfare.

How many restaurants were in there though?

Were you sick of the food?

You were there for two months? How long were you there?

I was there for 96 days.

-Three months? -Yeah.

I was there for, I would never forget.

Oh, my goodness. I was there for 96 days

and there was one restaurant where it was outside

that was called Three Bridges.

But that didn't open until after the first six weeks that we was there.

So the only place that they allowed us to go to…

-Yes. Something different. -Oh, my.

The only place they allowed us to go to was a restaurant inside the hotel,

was kind of like a little, like a little sports bar,

you know, that was in the hotel.

They opened it up after, after like two weeks

after we had all everybody quarantined.

We would go downstairs and it was like a sports bar.

They had the TV set up, all the games

that was playing in the Bubble, all the regular season games we

had to finish and then the playoffs.

And you would go down there and you could order a little food,

and watch the game just to get out of the room.

And that's all we actually wanted was

to get outta the damn room, you know?

So yeah, it was only like two places.

Of all the things being in a bubble for 96 days,

it just, I'm thinking about the food, like how do you get it?

Just something different all the time

and like how that would play a toll on you.

Oh, man, it played a toll on my body for sure.

When it, 'cause I eat so, I have a set regime

about what I eat, especially during the playoffs.

It was certain quality of food

and certain quality of, you know, produce and greens

and things that I know that have my engine running

that I just, it was not,

-it was not available to you… -Not a part of it.

So you just had to figure it out.

And what about… That's crazy… 96 days… Finals.

-Yeah. -Playing for a ring.

And it's the same garden salad, I dunno.

-Yeah, exactly. -So what about like, shipping stuff in?

Was there something that you remember,

I had to ship in? I don't know. I'm not talking like contraband.

I'm just talking like books or a video.

-Like stuff you like… -Yeah, I took books with me.

I took my video game with me.

But one thing I did ship in, I ordered a wine freezer.

-Okay. Yeah. -Wine fridge.

-And I ordered… -Priorities.

And I ordered a bunch of fucking wine.

-There you go. -I promise you.

It kept you sane.

Yes, I have a photo in my phone that I'll show you one day.

-Yeah. -Of all…

And after I drank the wine, I would just,

I would just sit on and line 'em up on the floor of my room.

-Right? -Side by side.

Keep the cork in a little container.

That's what, that was my priority.

I would get up every single day. I would play my video game.

I would stretch in my room, you know,

I would go down to practice. I would do a little reading,

in my meantime, I would call home, you know,

'cause they wasn't there for, you know, you couldn't,

family couldn't come for like the first six to eight weeks, um…

And then at night, I would open up a bottle of wine, man.

Yes, that was it. That was it.

-It's like Castaway vibes. -Like Castaway vibes. Yeah, man.

And it got to a point where they started allowing us to get out the rooms.

At one point, you were only supposed

to have like one or two guests in your room, like your teammates.

We kind of broke the rule one time

-and like… -Squads up in there.

Yeah, we just squatting in everybody's room and played cards

and it was… one thing about it,

it was definitely a crazy bonding experience because it was just us.

You know, like even when you travel on the road

during the Finals or during the playoffs,

you don't really go to each other's rooms too much.

Everyone has their regimen, whatever the case may be.

But in the Bubble, you had no choice.

It was literally just us.

It was you and your teammates and the coaching staff was there.

It was like, bro, can I… Like, yo, pull up, bro.

-Like… -Yeah.

Come have a glass of wine with me.

-We gotta do something. -Like, we gotta do something.

My kids are not here, my wife is not here.

Like just, "I'm about to pull up to your room.

What you doing?" "Nothing.

Same thing I did yesterday. Same thing."

So it was, it was a mental, mental, mental… Oh, man.

If you couldn't sustain your focus

and your mental waiver a little bit,

then the Bubble was definitely not for you.

-It was not for you. -Well, it's a king's flex

to have a wine cellar in the Bubble.

So kudos to you. Kudos to you for that.

-I needed it. -I bet.

-I'd have been right there with you. -Yeah, for sure.

[theme music]

So, you know, when you talk about having like your,

like five courts in ballrooms, the first thing, right?

Like first of all, that's kind of,

I mean, it's crazy, but it's kind of cool too.

I think about like… you can get reps

whenever you want almost, especially as teams start going home.

-You can. -It's like this little,

although the Bubble must have been, drove you crazy in some ways,

it's like... what an incredible place for like you

to do everything you can to prepare, leave no stone unturned

for the young guys to develop.

Like you're just there to hoop.

Some people say it's like the purest form

of basketball, being in the Bubble,

like this experiment in a way.

And then others are like, "Oh, it's not real."

-At the end of the day, like, you're human beings competing.

It doesn't matter if you're competing on

-the moon or in the Bubble. -For sure.

It was like, I agree with a lot of people say

when it's the purest form of hoops,

like it was just… it was strictly basketball.

Like there's no, you know, we're all like, you know,

have the ability to do whatever we want in life.

We've made a bunch of money,

we have all the access, you know, that was take…

that's gone in the Bubble.

You can't just, you know, oh, I'm gonna go to a restaurant

or I'm about to do this or I have this, you can't do none of that.

Like, everything in the Bubble was strictly about basketball.

And obviously, we was there, you know,

talking about a lot of the off-the-court things

that was going on, you know, social injustice,

the police brutality and stuff, all that, rightfully so.

But when the basketball portion was the focus,

you know, that's all it was.

So you could go downstairs, you know,

you had an opportunity to go downstairs and just work on your game

or, you know, they made these, you know, they brought

weight rooms in where you can go just be

in a weight room or if you want a cold tub, cold plunges,

like you could… but it was strictly, strictly basketball.

And it was all about like, of all my championships I've won,

that level of focus,

like if, how, how long can you maintain your focus

in order to get the job done? Because you have all the…

You have all the reasons if you want to, to get out of focus

because you're so accustomed to a certain lifestyle.

That you like, "The hell with this."

Like, "I don't wanna do this." Like, "Why am I here?"

"I don't wanna be a part of this." Like, this is not what, you know,

I can't get a certain meal, I can't do this.

I can't see my family. I can't lock in on like,

and you can very easily get out of why you're there.

And that, that wasn't, once I got there,

once I got there and I knew the team that we had

and I knew what we was capable of, once I locked in,

I was like, it's, it is survival of the fittest right now.

Like, and, and I'm, and I'm locking in and let's hit it.

That's what I was gonna, that's where it led me was like,

you have everything right there. You have no choice, right? Like…

Like you said, you got the cold tubs and hot tubs

and compression units.

You got a court, you got a weight room.

You just go downstairs.

You don't have to get in the car or do anything.

So you have this all-access,

easy access ability to maximize basketball.

Other than obviously, like you said,

like maybe not all the produce or, but like you got a day.

The challenge comes in that 96 days.

-So… -Yeah, man.

You have it all in front of you,

but the mental approach, the toughness, the resilience.

Maybe talk a little bit about the days when you'd had enough.

Yeah, I mean, that, it crosses your mind every day, Steve.

I'm not even, you know, every day maybe.

It crosses your mind every day because you're like,

this is… "What we doing?"

Like, "What we doing?" Like, "What are we really doing?"

How has life got me here?

Yeah. How am I at this point?

Like my wife is not there. My kids are not there.

You know, FaceTime,

thank you, Steve Jobs, late great, rest his soul, but thank you.

But like, you know, you're not having that, you're not,

you're not having that comfort zone, so, you know,

you're going through the rest of the regular season

and once the postseason start,

you know, we started off with Portland, you know,

and then the second round was verse Houston, you know,

and then the Western Finals was versus Denver, you know,

and it gets to a point as you keep advancing,

-you're like, like, "We're here, y'all." -Yeah.

We're here. The games are gonna keep going.

We're here and we're playing good basketball.

What the fuck else are y'all gonna do?

You're gonna go home. And by the way, the world is still in quarantine.

It's not like we can go home

and now all of a sudden, you can just start doing things.

So why not accomplish something that we all have been wanting to do

before the shutdown anyways.

-Great point. -You know, okay, you'll be in your home.

Yes, you get to see your family and your kids.

You know that's there, you know, that's in the home.

Okay. Yes. I can attest to that. I agree.

But we're here and we have a great team

and there's a Larry O'Brien Trophy to be won.

And we have the ability to do it. Why not?

Why not fucking do it? Like let's do it, I know

this is not what we're accustomed to.

I agree. And it plays with my mind too.

Every day you wake up and it's the same, same, same thing.

But listen, we're here. You lock in, man, let's go get it done.

And then when we get it done,

we can go home and sit in the house and do nothing.

But let's go get it done.

-Yeah. -That was my mindset.

Yeah. And obviously, it shows that you persevered.

You guys got over the line, not all teams did.

Did it also give you life in a weird way?

Like not every team went to the Bubble, did they?

Nah, not every team went to the Bubble.

So, so you start out with, whatever, not the whole league.

You start out with most of the league,

then you get to the playoffs, teams go home

-and after the first round, teams go home. -Right.

So, did it give you life almost

as like Survivor, like teams are heading on out?

No, that point was really cool.

-Yeah. -That you just like

kick someone off a island.

Like if you win, now they, you kick someone off the island

and now it feels like the air is getting a little bit more clear.

Right.

You know, less guys is there to pollute the air or whatever.

I don't need to see his ass in the elevator.

I don't have to see him no more. So they had like three different areas.

Like I think the teams that were ranked higher

got to stay in certain hotels.

And then the teams that were ranked kind lower stayed

-in like these casitas that was… -Hunger Games.

Yeah, it was like Hunger Games for real.

You know, so they had like this whole community and like,

and if you stayed in the hotel, you were not allowed

to go over to where they were staying at.

Because they had they own setup as far as

getting tested every morning, whatever the case may be.

But yeah, as you played teams,

and you beat 'em like, you know, they got a,

they basically was like off the island, so it became like a pride thing.

Like you was like, "Let's get them off the island."

Let's get them outta here. So it's just us.

And it definitely gave you a sense of pride for sure.

And then winning it, what does it look like?

You win a championship in the Bubble

and then you go back to the hotel and you throw a party.

Like what was that like?

Like the one team goes home and cries in their room.

The other team like has a party in the Bubble, like families there.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Like we, yeah, we won it

and yeah, we went back to the room.

I started packing, which was very different.

[both laugh]

I went back to my room and started packing my shit.

-That's amazing. -Like, I started throwing in stuff.

-Lemme get some… -I can't wait. I'm prepared.

I can't wait to get the hell outta here.

And then they had the little after-party at the little outdoor place

and we all went there and celebrated with the family and had drinks.

And it was… it was fun.

You got an opportunity to finally see your family.

Everybody was excited and happy… And shit, we won a championship, so,

I didn't take that for granted. That was a amazing feat.

But I was like, "I'm ready to get that hell outta here.

It's been 96 days. I can not wait to go home."

But in a way, like that celebration will be like…

Obviously, you have a celebration in Miami or Cleveland,

it's gonna be off the chart. It's gonna be exciting.

Like the city's there, but there must be something special about "it's just us."

Yeah, it was.

There's no, like, the extended families and friends and…

-Right. -…guests, and the city and the…

It's just you guys spending that great time together celebrating.

Yeah, because we had built that time…

like you said, you know, that was a culmination of 96 days

with just us, you know, and to be able to, you know,

last and finish it with the Larry O'Brien Trophy,

like you had a sense of like, you know, sentiment.

Like you was like, oh, this is very like… you know, you saw AD crying.

You saw AD crying when we won it, you know, and…

Was he crying 'cause he won because he gets to go home

or because he's like,

"This is enough, I gotta get the hell outta here"?

Oh, my God. It was probably emotions of all of it.

Like everyone's excitement about all of it, you know?

But it was definitely pretty cool, man.

And it's something that obviously, I would never forget,

being a part of the Bubble, us winning it there,

and just being with that group of guys for that amount of time.

It was, it's a very prideful thing for sure.

Thanks for sharing that. 'Cause honestly,

I can't imagine what that would be like.

Yeah, and nobody can, man. It is almost like you had to be there.

I don't think people… you can't fathom what that looks like

unless you've been there, man.

It was like, it was some different,

it was some different shit, that's for sure.

That's amazing. That's great.

[theme music]

Bron, you know what somebody told me that was there, a league person?

He said you made it such a point to be so kind

to all the media people, all the hotel staff

or whatever, that they were like, "I think he kind

of created home-court advantage for himself."

Everybody there in the final was going for you.

He was like, we were all like… everybody was going for you.

Well, I mean, I would like to say I'll take credit

for creating a home-court advantage,

but also I cannot not take credit.

I would just say my mom raised me of a certain way to just

be kind to people, man, no matter the circumstances that you in, so…

Also, you gotta run into those people every day for 96 days.

Yes, for sure. Ain't no telling what they could do

with my food that I would like to eat.

So, nah. But it was great, man, it was a great experience.

It was challenging, it was one of the greatest,

most fucked up experiences of my life.

-I'll just say that. -That's the title of the episode.

Yep!