- So the first question we asked everybody,
when you first got to the league,
who was the first person to bust your ass?
- Nobody.
- Nobody? You was locking all that up.
- No, no, no.
And I believe every one of 'em will tell you no,
that's not happening.
- No, no.
- Hey, look, this is the first person to tell
you the opponents gonna tell you no too, though.
- I can't say nobody bust my ass. You know.
Allen Houston gave me the business.
I mean, he really bust my ass, but Allen Houston,
he, he was, you know,
I, I couldn't figure him out at first.
- That jumper.
- 'Cause he had a smooth ass jumper,
and his pace was just, you know, at his own pace.
- Who was the first person that bust your ass
when you got to the NBA?
- I mean, I played against MJ.
- Ooh. Hello.
- He was, I mean at, at 40, 38 or 40,
one of them two, it don't matter, right?
He still put up 40.
You get that chance to play against MJ
as a young boy, go at him.
- Yeah.
- I had my best half and couldn't score in the second.
Man, for real.
- First person that actually bust my ass
was Hakeem Olajuwon.
- Ooh. You got some of that dream.
- Yeah. His footwork, his strength. People don't really
talk a lot about his skillset.
- Yeah.
- He was 6'11, fluent, shooting, pump fakes, mix,
like, I mean, put on the floor,
I mean, and he was strong too.
- It had to be a- first person? It had to be GP.
He was posting up man, you know.
- Coming off screen.
- Talking trash.
- Talk trash.
- He really, at that time doing whatever he want to do.
- Yeah.
- Know what I'm saying? He has the glove.
- He's facilitating all that stuff.
- Yeah, he doing, he doing it all.
- Who was the first person to bust your ass?
- John Stockton.
Yeah. John Stockton. So-
- He was strong as a mother wasn't he?
- And he was dirty.
- Yeah.
- He was dirty.
My first game I played was against Utah,
and so I had a little success picking him up full court
running around and then he got frustrated.
He got mad.
And then so I guess they called time out,
like, drew a play up in the back court,
Karl Malone laid me out, live with a screen.
- Yeah.
- Dropped me, dropped me.
Like I'm like stars and-
- Brick wall.
- Yeah. Yeah.
And so, I got you young fella.
I laid there for like 10 seconds, got up.
But my first game, like I said,
against John Stockton. One of the all time greats.
- My first year I was in Phoenix.
- Mhmm.
- And you know, I went to, to training camp
and Charles Barkley was on the team, right?
One of the first practices, you know,
I go to the lane and I try to dunk on him.
He's like, okay, young fellow, you got heart.
I appreciate that.
He said, you keep that up
you got, you know, you got a chance.
So I was like, yeah, Charles' giving me props.
- So I did it again.
Not this time. Boom, on the floor.
He said, nah, rookie, it ain't that easy at this level.
- Peja Stojakovic.
There's a lot of people may not know him, but-
- That backdoor, where they coming off that-
- Yeah.
- In the corner.
- I hate, in the corner, in the corner, in the corner.
- And he can go either way.
He can either go backdoor or come off the off the big man.
- And the game plan is you have to push up on him.
If you don't, he's a sniper, he's gonna make the three.
So when you do push up on him
they was a team that could pass the ball
with a lot of divide. Jason would,
he would backdoor you every time,
so it was like hard to guard him.
And he would kill me.
He would, he would at least have close to 30 damn
near every time.
- When you first got to the league
who was the first person to bust your ass?
- Ginobili.
You know, we watched him play, you know,
back in the day, he'd be talking,
first of all, he'd be speaking,
you know, in a different language a lot of the time.
Probably talking like I'm, I'm,
he can't mess with me type stuff.
- Yes.
- But they call like angle, like angle, angle, and flat
like in the quarters.
So Ginobili called angle.
He dribbles to half court, like turns his back to me.
First of all, I was like, mad disrespectful,
turn your back to me, but whatever.
Turns his back, comes at me full speed, Euro, layup.
- That's what he do.
- Next play Euro, layup, and one.
And then he seemed to just step back.
It was like seven, nine, he scored about damn near 10
in a row on me, which was like, wow, I didn't play.
Basically, I was coming out.
Coach, Coach was like, yo yeah.
- Like, he do this to everybody.
- Steph Marberry. Star Barry was the first,
hit me with all that, the football carry move joint.
I mean, and it was in preseason.
I'm slated to like, penciled in
to be the starter in Atlanta.
I'm thinking, okay, I'm get off tonight.
I'm coming off summer league, average
of 40, it's my first preseason game.
- Yeah.
- And then I looked over there and Steph was in the lineup.
I said, hold on.
I'm supposed to be going against the backup's backup.
- So it's preseason,
but it's Steph and in the flesh and man, look-
- He ain't take no day off.
- In the first two quarters, it was on.
I think he dropped 25 in two quarters on me.
I had four fouls.
Now why Lenny Wilkins left me in the game
with three fouls is a mystery, but he let me get my lumps.
I didn't start no more games until the spring.
'Cause he just said young fella, you not ready.
- Yeah.
- He's like, that's, that's a NBA point guard right there.
I said, yeah.
And I watched every minute of it too.
And he tore my ass up.