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He's one of two people in history to have a resume that looks like this.
The other joins us now.
I had it to Rosi joins the show in Diana, putting you in a kind of an uncomfortable spot, cause I mean, I'm talking about you in the same breath as Jordan.
I'm seeing you and he are the only two people that have that kind of resume.
I don't know if you knew that, but when you hear what goes through your head, I mean, what?
Just reading all those things that he's accomplished.
Ah, we're just lucky we got tow.
Watch him play in this prime.
Um, you know, that's what I'm watching these documentaries and you know, all these behind the scene footage.
I'm just so happy I got to see him play, and I got to appreciate him just for a basketball player.
You know, when I was young and I was, you know, loving the game.
And he came at a time where all you knew about him was he was the best basketball player in the world.
And that to me, was that to me has been the best thing about this thing.
Who is your guy or girl growing up?
Who is the person when you are out?
You know, on the blacktop, in the gym, Wherever you're saying, I'm trying to be this person who was that person?
Well, I think Jordan across the board in the nineties was on everyone's wall.
I mean, I still have the poster that had in high school in my great room here at home, Like, you know, he was the guy that everyone wanted to be like.
And then, you know, you had your home team guy like mine was like, Ben.
Excellent, Eddie Jones, cause I'm a Laker fan.
But I think Jordan across the board, it didn't matter what t you went for.
You are a Jordan fan.
So as you explain, and I think many people dying to feel the same way that you had this idea of who he was.
But now, getting these glimpses behind the scenes as a competitor who has done so many of the same things he has What resonates with you?
What, do you just nod your head and go?
Yeah, I know that I feel that Well, when When you put yourself, um, into that situation and you give everything you have.
You know, people just think it's when you walk into the gym and then you leave.
He's the type of person that carried it with him everywhere.
I mean, everywhere he went, you felt that competitive spirit when he's on the plane, you know, and those things to me resonate.
You know, when I'm in a season, I give everything I have.
It takes it consumes my whole life.
Gino, Auriemma and Seubert obviously you're coaching and teammate a UConn.
They were talking about how they felt that your mindset was similar.
And it does.
It does you when you hear him talk about that singular focus and what is required and that winning has a price, etcetera.
Is that something that you feel reflects who you have been as a competitors?
Oh, yeah.
And now that I can reflect a little bit, being a little bit older and being far into my career, I always said, you know, there's gonna be another Jordan.
There's gonna be another me, but you got to give up your life and watching this he gave up his life to be the best basketball player in the world on.
And that's what you have to do.
You know, in any profession, if you want to be the best, you have to give up your life, and it's not easy.
Was it worth it for you?
Oh, absolutely.
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
You know, there's a lot of things I didn't get to do.
Like my senior prom.
Well, it works out.
Okay in the end.
Now, you told a great story with I think it was on Instagram live with Sue Bird.
About about Jordan and back in the day.
What was a Santa Barbara and a free throw?
And just this speaks to how Jordan is wired.
I wonder if you could sort of share a version of Of what happened with you and him?
Yes.
So he has a camp every year in Santa Barbara.
I don't know if he still has its a fantasy camp for kids, and at the time I was a senior in high school and at the end of camp, you play this little game of horse, you go around, everyone's played horse and then you make a free throw.
And you know, if you knock in the free, throw it and you get a free pair of Jordans which, you know at the time 20 years ago, a pair of shoes was, you know, be all now.
Now they just pass him out in the mail, like, you know, everyone gets a fair.
So, you know, I get up there and I missed the free throw and and I'm just thinking, all right, he's gonna He's going to give you a pair of shoes, probably later in the back or something.
And now he was cold blooded.
He was like, You missed the free throw and you can't have the shoes.
I came back a year later, is a counselor When I was at UConn and the first thing he tells me he goes, Ah a d have a streak that was going and I'm just like this guy won't let it go.
You won't let it go.
I mean, I'm 18 years old and he's getting on me.
I loved it.
So now let me ask you.
So now, Now, as as the older sage vet that you are, Would you do that to somebody the next?
There's a youngster that's going to UConn next year.
She's supposed to be something.
So if she missed the free throw, would you Would you ride in the same way?
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
You know, I think tough love still goes a long way.
Even though we're in this, you know, era of being really nice to everyone and everything.
I think tough love, uh, really hardens even.
You know, he did that with his teammates, which was actually really nice to see.
You can relate to that too, right?
No, absolutely.
It's You know, when you go through these long seasons and you know you're with each other all the time, the people you hate the most sometimes are your teammates.
Those are the people you want to punch in the face.
Mostly, and then you get to take it out on the opponent, right?
Just as a final thought.
They just big, big picture as you watch this.
A guy You whose poster was on the wall?
A guy who, you know, was there something that you something that you took from this that you did not know that you could I don't know, use going forward.
Something like that.
If that makes sense, you know, there's nothing new under the sun.
You know, it's all about hard work, how much you put into it.
Um, and, you know, and he did that every single day, and it showed me.
Even when he played baseball, he was probably the worst dude out that he was in the batting cage, you know, 67 hours a day.
You know, if you really want to do something, you have to put everything into it.
And I mean, the guy who smokes.
I mean stogie, too.
He does that.
He does that.
But then in the end, you take inventory.
You didn't go to prom, but you're on a list with Jordan.
One of two.
That ain't bad.
It's been too long, Guys.
Dying is great to talk to.
You stay.
Well, all right.
Thank you.
Go, Huskies.
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