Kevin Garnett says after a loss to the Lakers early in the season Doc Rivers once demanded $100 from every player, coach, and staff member on the Boston Celtics, and says Rivers then climbed onto a chair and hid the money above the ceiling tiles in the Lakers’ visiting locker room, and told his team they would only get their money back if they got back there for the NBA finals
“It was ’09–’10. We went into ’08, we go home, Conference Finals. ’09, the Lakers win it, and then we match up with the Lakers in ’10. But when we started off the year, we didn’t start off with the greatest start. We play the Lakers in L.A., and Doc comes in and says, ‘I want everybody to give me a hundred dollars.’”
“Why? I’m looking around at people like, ‘Goddamn it.’ I pull out a hundred dollars. Everybody’s pulling out money. Johnny Joe, who’s the equipment manager, goes around, and he’s grabbing all of it.”
“As he’s grabbing it, you see that it’s starting to accumulate. It’s like maybe 30 people in this room, with coaches and players. You got 15 players, then you got seven, eight coaches, then you got your video guys, everybody around, trainers. So all together, it’s like 30 people, and he gets a hundred dollars from every person in here.”
“Long story short, he gets it, and we see it. So he takes a chair, takes the ceiling and removes the ceiling. I’m like, we’re all looking at this before a game, by the way, too. ‘Doc, what are you doing?’”
“He puts the money up there, and then he puts the ceiling back. Comes down, gets out of the chair, and says, ‘We’re coming back to get that money.’ He says, ‘We’re coming back to get that money.’ I said, ‘Hold on.’ Like, we’re in L.A., right? We’re in the Staples Center. I’m like, ‘What?’ So I was thinking, ‘Man, I need to start pushing this ceiling back and seeing what’s up here. He’s putting money up here thinking that it’s going to be here.’”
“So I was up on him, like, ‘Man, stop tripping.’ And he was like, ‘If you don’t believe, get out. Because we’re coming back here. We’re going to be back here, and we’re going to beat this team for the championship. We’re going to get our second ring in here.’”
Mike Bibby revealed he knew his time in the NBA was up the exact second the Atlanta Hawks drafted a rookie point guard, and it happened to be Jeff Teague 💀
Things got so competitive that Bibby straight up threatened to popcorn Teague's car just for pressing him too hard on defense in practice. 😭
Jeff Teague looks back at his wild rookie season and the hilarious reality of trying to steal minutes from his childhood idol. Veterans weren't handing out playing time for free, leading to some unforgettable and fiery clashes on the practice floor.
Jeff Teague: "Nah, we started off, like you always was a dope vet. I got his autograph when I was 10, right? They played in the final four here in Indianapolis."
Jeff Teague: "I'm a rookie and I see Bibby, I'm like, oh shit, like that's Mike Bibby. I watched the Kings, I was a fan. And then when I would come play him, everybody like, hey, the way you going to get on the court is you got to pressure Bibby. You got to make him get a ball up."
Jeff Teague: "So I'm like all right, and LD [Larry Drew], you know how assistant coaches do. Like shit, you want to play? Show them how you play. So I'm pressuring him, he like, 'Hey man, I'm a pop corn your shit, you keep doing that shit.' And I'm like, 'You going to pop corn my car?' He like, 'Don't start that shit, man.'" 😭💀
[ via @straightgamepod / #truetoatlanta ]
Aday Mara tonight
22 PTS
10-10 FG
6 REB
2 AST
1 BLK
0 TO
+17
The #12 overall pick is 15-15 over the last two nights against the Bucks and Pelicans starters.
Minnesota's head coach just launched himself into a mob of his own players at full sprint. P.J. Fleck crowd-surfs after every win, today's was his 100th, and the mania took 15 years to build. It started with the worst thing that can happen to a person.
In February 2011, Fleck's infant son Colt died of a heart condition. Fleck was a 30-year-old receivers coach at the time. He came up with a phrase to get himself out of bed. Row the boat. Your back faces the future, you can't see what's coming, all you control is the oar.
Two years later Western Michigan made him the youngest head coach in the FBS. He went 1-11 his first season and people laughed at the boat stuff. By 2016 the same program went 13-0 and made the Cotton Bowl.
When Minnesota hired him away in 2017, there was a catch. Western Michigan had trademarked "Row the Boat." The school owned the legal rights to the phrase he created for his son. Fleck paid them $50,000 out of his own pocket, structured as a scholarship for a walk-on player, to take the words with him.
Nine years of rowing later, today happened. Minnesota beat #24 Michigan 20-14, took back the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2014, and beat them at home for the first time in 49 years. 51,012 fans stormed the field.
So yes, the man flies into that pile looking slightly unhinged. He knows better than anyone in that locker room that you don't get to choose which days are the good ones. You just keep rowing until one shows up.
Nick Saban tells Rich Eisen about Jalen Hurts deeply entrenched ability to overcome adversity (and don’t miss the shout out Coach gives the Philly Dawgz, lol)
#RollTide#GoBirds