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Tony Allen: Y'all was working in a in a real hectic environment during that time. It went viral with the Donald Sterling sh*t. Was that kind of hard to deal with? Matt Barnes: To me it didn't matter, TA, because I faced real racism in my life. In my senior year of high school like this dude was [expletive] with my sister and calling her a [n-word] this and spit on her and everything. She was a soft motherf*cker. I had to whoop this dude. And when I got suspended, this is in probably a couple months before I went to UCLA. I got suspended for a week, like midweek when I'm suspended, the KKK comes and like burns crosses and hangs mannequins in the tree like [n-word] die and swastikas everywhere. So I’ve seen like real hateful sh*t. So to hear like a owner talking about black people this and black people that, like I didn't give a [expletive] about what that old senile [expletive] had to say, but obviously the rest of the world did.
Nick Van Exel: Would you want to guard a [expletive] who can score every time in a post or would you want to guard a [expletive] who is going to sometime make a three-point shot on the perimeter? Who you going to want to guard? Zach Randolph: I'm want to guard the three-point shooter. Van Exel: Who you going to want to guard? Tony Allen: I'm going want to guard the three-point shooter. Van Exel: There it is. It's literally that simple. Cuz think about this. You ain't got a double the Joker. Shaq a they don't have to leave off of nobody if Shaq is guarding the Joker. All he got to do is lay contest. Sometimes he's gonna go in, sometimes it's not. But on that other end, Joker can't f*ck with Shaq and Joker is cold. Joker is cold. Don’t y'all get it twisted, Joker is cold. But Joker cannot guard Shaq in the post. Like it's that simple. Allen: You saying two fouls early fourth quarter. That's how it's going. Van Exel: It's that simple. You gonna have to double team and Shaq can do this to Joker. Is Joker going to make 100 percent of the threes? Allen: Well, but if he get hot, Van Exel: OK but in a seven-game series when I'm bam, bam, bam. Allen: Yeah. wear and tear. Van Exel: What's going to happen? Allen: Wear and tear. Yeah, you about that. Van Exel: Z-Bo, you done elbowed a bunch of [expletive] with your right elbow over the shoulder. What's going to happen? Randolph: They gonna give in. Van Exel: That's what I'm saying. So, how many of them threes he gonna be making? Okay. Just say if y'all win two games, game six, how what that jumper going to be looking like? Allen: Going to be a little flat. Going to be a little flat. Going to be a little flat, man. Going to be a little flat. Van Exel: Stop playing! But Joker is cold, but I just got to take Shaq cuz you got to double team the big dog. (…) When people say like I love Draymond Green. Draymond is somebody who people love to hate. You know what I'm saying? If he’s on your team, you love him, right? If you against him, you hate him. Great defender. Draymond, you can't guard Shaq. Draymond couldn't guard Shaq. Come on.
JEFFERSON: "I would agree…. And understand, there is no stopping players in the NBA. That's not a real thing. I told a story a little bit ago about Kobe Bryant; (he) said Tony Allen was the best player to ever guard him. And Kobe averaged 29 (points per game) on Tony Allen. So while OG is a perfect player, in my opinion, to guard Wemby, the size, the consistency, the competitiveness in which he brings, he's still giving up a foot. So it's one of those things that, it's the physicality aspect, and can you maintain that consistently? What I love about OG is that he felt like he should have been on the first team all-defensive team. Well, you know, you get to go out there and prove it on the world's biggest stage. So I always love players with a little bit of an edge that (have) something to prove.”
Tony Allen: "I'm going to tell you what put a little flame to it. I remember this vividly. I'll tell you what put a little flame. Well, put a little flame to it. You're married now and we can speak on this. You're married now. You used to have just the hottest babes in the front court." Chandler Parsons: "Why was that a bad thing?" Tony Allen: "And then it was that was the focus and then you're rehab, you're rehab somewhere in LA. We look up you in Cabo. It was kind of weird and then it was coach, you know coach feels that that's your homeboy. He told the media, you know, we about to sign Chandler Parsons, he the best thing with an IQ like LeBron James. I said, what? Not no kicking it in Cabo at this time of the year. And so the fans and we was expecting, but I'm here to give you your flowers." Zach Randolph: "Yeah, give you your flowers."
Fred VanVleet on being coached by Jerry Stackhouse in G League: Me and Stack almost got the rumbling in that [expletive]. The next day he called me in the office because you gotta think, bro, he got me doing the joint. The whole team got to shoot the free throw. However many free throws you miss, we doing suicides! TA, suicides, bro. Tony Allen: But it's funny to me. I know his character. He just so serious. VanVleet: He's so serious when you talking to him. But me and him had a relationship forever off of just the strength of like I'mma deal with you right here anyway. So, it was damn near perfect, cuz like he called me in the office like, who do you think you are? And I’m like Stack you on some bullsh*t though, dog. I'm like, "No, I wasn't rolling." But I'm like, "You going to have to whoop me cuz no game." So Stack, he'll knuckle up with you. So that part was cool. But it took me probably two or three weeks.
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James Posey: Boston almost didn't even happen, though. For real. That summer I was up and everything. And I didn’t know where I really wanted to go for the most part. So I was mad because, the market was drying down and everything. So it was only just some little change out there for the most part. And I was mad. I was like, you know what? I called my agent. It was that Saturday. I said, man, I'mma just go to Jersey because all I could think about like trying to get my next contract, right? So J-Kidd, Vince, RJ, all you’re doing is running. J-Kidd will get you paid. Boom. I'mma go there, whatever. Right. So I tell Mark, I said, man, f*ck it. I'mma go to Jersey. So I tell him that that Saturday. Then, Eddie House. I ain't know E-House at all. Whatever. Just from afar, whatever. Tony Allen: Shout out E-House. Posey: E-House. Right. And he had already signed there and he was like, "Man, listen. I already been here, been working out, whatever." He said, "Man, listen. I know you don't know me, whatever." This our first conversation, but like if you come here, we going to win! He said, "I know how you play or whatever." Allen: This was in free agency time. Posey: Yes. So, he said, "Man, if you come here, man, we going to win, man. I'm here, dog. I'm trying to tell you, you know, how E-House talks. Allen: Real confident, cocky as hell. Posey: And so, by Sunday, I called Mark back. I said, "Man, I'm going to go to Boston." And he said, "You know what? Sleep on it again." Cuz like I said, Saturday, I already told him I was going to Jersey. Sunday, I told him like, "All right, I'm going to go to Boston." He said, "Sleep on it." Woke up Monday, I'm going to Boston. Then ever since then, I was just locked in. I wasn't thinking about nothing else but winning. Like E-House had talked about. And when I got there, sh*t was business, man. Like I said, not even knowing E-House for him to call me or whatever. I don't even know how he got my number, but he called me… Posey: That sounds like Danny Ainge. Posey: So, I end up signing there.
Tony Allen: Did you see the upcoming of Stephen Curry when you were that early when you got there? Dorell Wright: Not in time, bro. Like I knew he was a good player. I knew I was getting with a point guard that like to share it, could shoot it. One thing that stood out the most was the work ethic. It had been times me and Monta Ellis be like, "Yo, Steph, we got a game tonight." You know, it's an hour after shoot around, cuz me and Monta would go straight from shoot around to a lift all the time, and then you would see Steph through the window still on the court and it's like, "Bro, get some rest, bro." You know, us teaching him like, "Yo, take care of yourself." But he wanted it so bad, where nothing was going to deny that. And he put the time in. He put the hours in. He was a good teammate. We all know Steph is a solid dude. When it happened, I was definitely shocked, but I wasn't surprised because of me seeing when nobody was watching. He was really putting that time and work in. For sure.
Tony Allen: They were saying they were saying you and Jerry Sloan got into it and you were part of the reason of him retiring. Can you speak to the viewers and straighten that on the out? Deron Williams: I think we were both super competitive people. I think first and foremost, so I wanted to win. And like I said, I talked earlier about the animosity that I held, right? I was a guy who didn't know how to deal with emotions. I didn't learn how to deal with emotions growing up, right? You know, went through a lot of sh*t with in my personal life growing up. And so carried a lot of anger with me. And so when the sh*t went down my rookie year, like I kind of always held that against him. Like it always it always bothered me. There was times where we weren't getting along, especially that last year when what happened was Carlos Boozer left, Al Jefferson came in, we had kind of a new team for the first time. Ronnie Brewer trade got traded, and he was my guy.
Deron Williams: I liked playing for coach Avery Johnson. Coach Avery's funny, too… ‘Man! Let me tell you something, man’ Coach Avery was cool, man. He was another one of those like player-coaches, loved the game, smart coach. It was fun playing for Avery. And it's unfortunate because like a lot of people even think I had something to do with him getting fired in Brooklyn. Tony Allen: So that was just your MO. Williams: I became the coach killer. I used to see signs like ‘coach killer’ and all this. I liked Avery. I ain't say nothing to him. I think he was doomed from the start, because the the Russians, from my first year, they started asking me about other coaches and I'm like telling them I like Avery, but they had their mindset on other coaches. They wanted Phil Jackson.
Tony Allen: Shout out Jaylen Brown, MVP candidate. Kevin Garnett: Put him on the list. Nobody had Boston in nothing. Paul Pierce: I got him number two in the East, I got him number two on the MVP list right now.
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Rudy Gay: When I went to San Antonio, I agreed to be a part of something bigger than me. You know what I mean? Tony Allen: As a journeyman, you've got to figure out like, 'How do I adapt?' Was that a hard process and understanding what trade and the business is about? Rudy Gay: Yes, it was. It was because you go from like 20 playing points a game to coming off the bench, it's like... It's different, and it's a fight with what you've got to have with yourself, but at the end of the day, it's like a vision that somebody else had for you. So it's not something that you have a plan for yourself. It's like a plan that's bigger than you. So you have to just fall into line. Now, every time it might not be true every time. It might not be right. But the business is that there are people above you. You could be replaced. So you have to find your spot. And that was the first time I went to San Antonio that I had to find my spot and to find out how I can be productive in that spot.
Tony Allen: That man gave me $1,000 a dunk when he first met me. Zach Randolph: Well, you were trying to dunk, you were athletic? Paul Pierce: He had like five dunks that day. Randolph: He wanted to give you money. Oh, it was the Summer League. Allen: He had just won at the tables. He just won at the tables. He walked in. Pierce: I said ‘I won about 50,000. Allen: He just walked in with the bankroll like, ‘Yeah, I just won at the tables. I need some excitement. I got $1,000. I heard dunk? I said, ‘What? A thousand?’ And you know, November ain't hit yet. It's Summer League. I don't have an NBA dollar. That man said a thousand? I had five dunks in a row. No cap.
Eddy Curry: Telling them no be the hard part. Tony Allen: That's really what you the loyalty part. you be so loyal but as soon as you tell them no… Curry: So soon as you tell them no. So that be my question. When we bring in like a a big ass bank or a big ass company to come talk to the guys, man, tell them the basics, man. How do your rich ass people tell people no? How do your rich ass people deal with telling your family? Like how? Cuz you ain't going to say no. They don't say no, but they do it the right way though.
Tough as Allen was on the basketball court as a defensive stopper in the NBA, it was hard to see him literally plead with the cops to believe his story that he did not personally know the driver and that it was just a ride he took to a guest’s house. “This can’t happen to me, bro. I could have stayed at home, bro. I could have stayed at fu—g home, bro. I could have stayed at home. Didn’t have to come down here. Damn, what the f–k? Damn, bro,” said an emotional and visibly upset Allen.