When it comes to playing NBA basketball at the highest levels, what you can (and can't) see clearly can be the difference between winning it all and going home empty-handed. This perspective is not lost on veteran Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday, who recently sat down with the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast to talk all things Celtics, sight, and community.
We get into everything from how the new City Edition jerseys look and how the right fit can do wonders for your self-esteem to the importance of visibility and representation for the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Foundation, and even get in a little talk about how soccer and boxing can make one better at other sports and aspects of life.
Join us for a wide-ranging interview with Holiday made possible by Zenni Optical as we get up to speed on what Holiday is seeing with the Celtics this season, as well as the latest Boston news.
CLNS Media is Powered by:
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Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!
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Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!
We get into everything from how the new City Edition jerseys look and how the right fit can do wonders for your self-esteem to the importance of visibility and representation for the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Foundation, and even get in a little talk about how soccer and boxing can make one better at other sports and aspects of life.
Join us for a wide-ranging interview with Holiday made possible by Zenni Optical as we get up to speed on what Holiday is seeing with the Celtics this season, as well as the latest Boston news.
CLNS Media is Powered by:
💰 Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS
Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!
🎫 Gametime - https://gametime.co
Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!
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SportsTranscript
00:00Celtics Lab is brought to you by Price Picks and the Game Time app.
00:06All righty.
00:06Welcome to the Celtics Lab podcast brought to you by Price Picks,
00:09the exclusive fantasy basketball partner of the CLNS Media Network
00:12and Game Time tickets, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
00:16What time is it? It's game time.
00:18I'm your host, Cameron Tepetabai.
00:19I'm joined by Alex Goldberg down in Brooklyn and Dr.
00:22Justin Quinn in Mexico City.
00:24In the second half of today's program, you can enjoy a conversation
00:28between Justin and Drew Holliday, defensive stalwart for Boston Celtics.
00:34We want to shout out Zenny Optics for that.
00:37And you can enjoy that conversation in the second half of the program,
00:40what we call the Celtics Lab, as it were.
00:44In the first half of the program, we are going to talk about the news,
00:46which we like to do here.
00:48And before all that, I'd like to ask Alex
00:50what the latest buzz is with his band Divine Sweater.
00:53He plays bass for that band. They do our intro music.
00:55I believe you have some news to tell the people about.
00:59Yes, just some just some very minor low key news.
01:02We just played a great show at the Sinclair in Boston with the Rex opening
01:06for them. We love Boston.
01:08We're going to be back in Boston in early December.
01:12TBD on our more to come on that.
01:15We've got a fun little show there, as well as another cool thing
01:19happening in New York in December.
01:22But that's that's really about it as far as significant announcements go.
01:27Cool. And Dr.
01:28Justin Quinn helps cover the Celtics for Celtics Wire.
01:31He also lives in Mexico City and is kind of our point person for news
01:35related to NBA expansion and all that buzz.
01:38Dr. Quinn, this is last week's news, but anything you want to tell us
01:42about the possible expansion of the NBA to Mexico City?
01:47Nothing off the top of my head that I haven't covered in a couple of recent
01:50pieces you can find over at Rookie Wire, but I am thinking about the fact that
01:56the new news that we've been hearing about viewership in the league,
02:01they might want to think about expansion to Mexico a bit more than they have,
02:04simply because of the fact that when I started covering the NBA from Mexico
02:09about five years ago, there were only 20 million regular viewers
02:13of the NBA in the country.
02:14There are now 30 in less than five years.
02:16That is very rapid growth, it seems to me.
02:19Might want to look into that a little bit more.
02:22Cool. Yeah.
02:23According to the new news from Turner, TNT still has the rights
02:26to the international broadcast of the game.
02:29I don't know how the split is in Mexico, but that's interesting.
02:32We probably won't get into that here because it's ongoing.
02:36But, you know, whatever.
02:38Before we do the news and then before our conversation with Drew Hall and I,
02:41please consider liking and subscribing to this podcast.
02:44You never miss an episode.
02:45Please tell the algorithms that you like the podcast.
02:48You admire our work, that you love our beautiful faces over on YouTube.
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02:56reward us in kind because, you know,
03:00they've got to we've got to move the product.
03:01Anyways, speaking of the product, the Celtics lost to Atlanta
03:05the last time we talked, but then they had a pretty convincing win
03:08in your neck of the woods, Alex, against Brooklyn.
03:10Oh, no, that was a home game, but all the same.
03:13And then they played against Toronto with a squeaky overtime win.
03:18The theme here is that the Celtics defense
03:21and the first half is not so good going into that game in Toronto.
03:24Their first quarter defense was ranked 16th.
03:27Their second quarter defense was ranked 19th.
03:29And then in the third and fourth quarter, they have really, really good defense.
03:34We got this Cavs game coming up.
03:35We're recording Monday evening so we can talk about that a little bit.
03:39But Alex, I'll go to you first.
03:41Quickly, what is your level of concern with this
03:44first half, second half defensive split that we're seeing from the team?
03:47Not tremendously high.
03:49I think the Celtics have kind of throughout this year
03:52been on flip the switch mode when it comes to defensive effort.
03:56And that can get you burned in high stakes games like in the postseason.
04:01But it's clear that they have a level of defensive intensity
04:04that they can ratchet up to when they need to.
04:06And so far, they haven't really been burned a ton
04:10outside of a couple of losses here and there, most of which have been,
04:14you know, in close games against good, better than expected teams.
04:18So I'm not tremendously worried.
04:20What I will say is that this Cavs team that they're about to play,
04:25which is undefeated, is extremely good at scoring in paint.
04:29That's kind of their main thing is that they're monster margin in the paint.
04:35And Boston's paint defense has been their weakest link so far.
04:39So I'll be really fascinated to see what that matchup looks like
04:42on the defensive end.
04:44On the other end, the Cavs give up a lot of threes.
04:48Boston likes to shoot threes.
04:49So this is going to be a fascinating style contrast where
04:54the Cavs are probably going to score a lot in the paint.
04:56Celtics are probably going to score a lot of threes.
04:58And we'll just have to see who wins.
05:02I admire that Alex is giving us his commentary
05:05from what appears to be an emergency situation.
05:08Always something fun happening here in Brooklyn, New York,
05:11directly outside of my window.
05:14Joy's.
05:16Justin, Alex hit the nail on the head.
05:18And against Atlanta or Toronto, rather, excuse me,
05:21they gave up 74 points in the paint.
05:24And I have two things I want to ask you about, Justin.
05:25First, Missoula told us after the game in the press room,
05:30what he even said something to the effect of like,
05:31you're all going to put in your articles that we gave up 74 points in the paint.
05:34But what you don't understand is that was a calculated risk,
05:37which no one called him on this.
05:39But Toronto is the worst three point shooting team in the NBA.
05:42So giving them Jakob Bertholdt in the paint doesn't I don't know if that tracks.
05:47But second,
05:49Nimesh Keita looks awful on defense, but in part in theory,
05:53because Boston is setting up its offense to sacrifice the paint and take away elsewhere.
05:59So with all of that said, based on what you've seen, Justin,
06:02are you buying that this is a calculated tradeoff and Celtics fans just need to live with
06:08this excruciating paint defense or is something else afoot?
06:12I think that it can be in certain situations.
06:14I will not pretend to be smarter at knowing basketball than Joe Missoula,
06:19but the way that you put that, it does sound suspect.
06:23Nene has been great, but the way they have been using him has not been to guard the interior.
06:29In fact, I think you could probably even find some some better fits for that
06:34if you are going to continue using him to move out and switch out to the perimeter at times.
06:39You can play a double big lineup, particularly versus a team like Cleveland.
06:42I think it might actually be effective.
06:44I haven't been a big fan of it so far this year.
06:46It seems like it's been deployed just to play it and kind of help manage minutes.
06:51I would not be surprised, one, if the poor defense thing that we have been seeing,
06:56it's been mostly against subpar opponents, no offense to those teams, but they're not contending.
07:01When they get up for a team they think is going to be dangerous to them,
07:05we haven't really been seeing the same engagement in the first half problems.
07:09I don't think we're going to have that problem when we play against Cleveland.
07:12And I don't think they're going to show us their hand
07:13with how they're going to deal with a team that they've probably been following for a while.
07:17You know, it's kind of obvious they're a good team.
07:19They haven't lost a game yet. That's part of the big attraction.
07:22So I am not super concerned about any of this yet.
07:25As long as they keep flipping the switch in those games when things aren't so high stakes,
07:30and as long as they come and provide the proper level of concern,
07:33effort, and focus for these kinds of games,
07:36for now, because it's a long season, they have earned the right,
07:39I won't get on their case about it.
07:41And to be clear, folks, we are also saying this all in the context of the Boston Celtics
07:47missing their actual best rim protector from last year by a mile in Chris Stapp's Porzingis.
07:54Cameron, am I to understand that you have something of an update on that front?
08:00What I'll say about that is that the team provided an update,
08:03and I'm going to bite my tongue otherwise.
08:06We learned that through, it's a little bit of legalese,
08:10but for a brief moment, Chris Porzingis became a member of the Maine Celtics,
08:15as did Xavier Tillman, so that they could practice with the Maine Celtics.
08:18However, that practice was held in Boston.
08:21And then later, Tillman and Porzingis rejoined the Boston Celtics.
08:27I am not really sure why Tillman would be included in that,
08:31other than maybe he's banged up and we didn't know.
08:35Yes, Justin?
08:36They need an NBA level big for Porzingis to play against.
08:40So that's the thing.
08:41That was my next guess.
08:43Yeah, or like Porzingis and Tillman are always going to play together
08:46and they're practicing, but I don't really buy that one.
08:49So that is the official update.
08:51I do know that a lot of practices have been canceled,
08:54and then we've been told that Porzingis was working out and doing this.
08:58So I suspect he's far along
09:02and they don't want too much attention drawn to it.
09:06Justin and I were talking about off air that, try as I might,
09:09I'm trying to ask good questions postgame, but I'm getting no answers
09:12because the Celtics have just descended into only giving boring,
09:17self-serving answers.
09:19And I think that we are not going to get any meaningful juice on this
09:23until the news is live.
09:25I suspect the news is coming sooner rather than later.
09:29That's what I'll say about that.
09:30I still think that they should just wait till Christmas
09:33with respect to the regular season.
09:35Some people are going to listen to this after that Cavs game,
09:37but I think that game has a lot of juice.
09:39I think that's so exciting.
09:40Honestly, it reminds me of the game back in December of whatever it was,
09:4316, 17, when the Warriors came to town
09:48and Isaiah Thomas and company tried to stop the undefeated Warriors.
09:52I was at that game.
09:53That was a crazy basketball game to watch.
09:57So I love a regular season game.
10:00I love getting up for a regular season game, but at the same time,
10:03I think the Celtics should just play the long game
10:04and Porzingis can practice with Maine until Christmas.
10:07I don't think it's going to be that long, however.
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11:09A couple other bits of news,
11:10and then we'll get to Justin's conversation with Drew Holiday,
11:13who also is a mastermind at giving contrite answers.
11:17So Justin had to think of really interesting questions to get something out of Drew.
11:21I'm really impressed, Justin. But you're the best at what you do.
11:24Why should I say that? They are thinking of tweaking the All-Star game.
11:31The All-Star game that no one tries at.
11:33And so what has been reported by way of Shams as a three-team tournament of All-Stars
11:41plus one team of Rising Stars playing in some sort of tournament
11:45where the winner gets fabulous cash and prizes?
11:50I think that's dumb, is my TLDR there. The formatting of the All-Star game,
11:56East versus West, your favorite players playing a game of basketball,
12:00is only broken because no one tries. And I don't need a light-up court.
12:03I don't need a green ball. I don't need the rule,
12:06the final score rule or whatever that was called.
12:10Just make the players try. Incentivize them to try or cancel the thing.
12:14Make it an under-25 All-Star game. I just want to see a competitive basketball game.
12:17Justin, you're on mute.
12:20Is this not that? Honestly? I mean, players get up when they want to compete.
12:26If you can make them compete because they don't want to lose,
12:30which presumably they wouldn't want to lose to up-and-coming non-established players.
12:35Yeah, the thing that everyone is thinking that no one officially is saying is
12:39not losing to the Rising Stars team is enough of an incentive to keep the All-Stars
12:44entertained. I'm willing to buy that theory, but I'm skeptical too.
12:50I'm skeptical. It'll be really embarrassing if it doesn't work.
12:52Alex, any thoughts on that or the expanded possible Sabrina Steph three-point shootout?
12:58Well, first off, the Sabrina Steph three-point shootout is awesome.
13:01And I hope they continue doing that over and over, you know, for the foreseeable future.
13:05That's going to be a blast. With regard to the expanded All-Star game.
13:08Yeah, I mean that idea of like,
13:11you're going to be really motivated to not lose to the Rising Stars team,
13:15works well until the Rising Stars team wins two games and beats everybody,
13:20which could definitely happen if Victor Wyman-Yama decides,
13:23hey, I am actually going to try way harder than everybody out here.
13:28And he's been known to do that from time to time. So I'm with you.
13:33I don't think that this is necessarily the best way to incentivize people to try very hard in the All-Star game.
13:40The reality is that there needs to be something, and I don't have the answer to this,
13:45but there needs to be something materially gained in terms of like the season standings
13:51or the playoffs, some sort of competitive advantage that comes with the All-Star game
13:57that will incentivize people to try, much like how the MLB has home field advantage
14:02dictated by the result of the All-Star game.
14:05Now, I'm not saying that the NBA should do that.
14:07Obviously, that would be throwing things way out of whack.
14:10A team with the best record in the league would have no incentive to chase after that necessarily.
14:15But you have to find some way to provide an actual, meaningful,
14:21competitive advantage for the winning team to try hard in the All-Star game.
14:26And outside of that, I would be very surprised if they can find a gimmick solution that really works there.
14:33Winner gets home court advantage at any round of the postseason except for the finals.
14:38They pick one to use it.
14:39Or the finals. I don't care. They used to do that in baseball.
14:42Yeah. No, they still do it in baseball.
14:44I thought they got rid of that, no? I thought they went to record.
14:47I guess I don't know. This is not a baseball podcast.
14:51So I'm going to sound like a coastal elitist, and I don't mean to here.
14:55Last All-Star game was Indiana. The one before that was Utah.
14:58Then there were some COVID-y ones.
15:02I wonder if going the next one's in San Francisco in February.
15:05I do wonder if being at a place where like players like LeBron famously like arrived the morning of the All-Star game.
15:11I wonder if being in a city that the players are just naturally excited to play in with,
15:16you know, a little more celebrity pop will just be interesting. I had so much fun in Indianapolis.
15:20I don't mean to like throw stones here, but I do wonder if that'll be part of it as well.
15:26Anyways, I'm sure we'll talk about that between now and February.
15:30A little bit more news and then off we go. The Celtics are visiting the White House on Thursday.
15:36It has finally been reported, but also it's usually when they play the Wizards on the road.
15:41So, you know. Lastly, we got to see the new City Edition jerseys and all the associated gear with Action Green.
15:49It is a nod to Boston's place in basketball history with the typography being future-facing.
15:56So it's not just the past, but it's the present and the future.
16:00Future-facing typography. I hadn't ever thought about that. I'm so glad. I'm sorry. I can't even pretend to like it.
16:06That's just the silliest thing I've ever heard of. I love you guys.
16:09I don't think they're as bad as some people think they are,
16:11but they aren't great and telling me that it's future-facing typography.
16:16What does that even mean? Yeah, Bobby Kravitzky from SI and I spent part of the Toronto game going on AI
16:24and seeing if we could write better press releases.
16:27And it does sound, I think a human wrote the press release and probably a human I like very much,
16:32but I don't know. Alex, what are your thoughts?
16:37I just, the classics are so good and I never want to mess with the classic green and whites.
16:44They're just, they're the best jersey in the NBA.
16:47And then they're an iconic look and I feel like if you're going to deviate from that,
16:51it needs to be something like completely out there and like genuinely wacky.
16:57Otherwise to me, it doesn't work.
16:59This feels like a half measure that honestly reminds me of when the Atlanta Hawks decided to go highlighter mode
17:07and I was really bummed out about that because I like the Hawks old school jerseys.
17:12I went to the pro shop and I saw a bunch of the gear.
17:15I don't mind the gear and I actually don't mind the jersey like on a person looking at them normally.
17:24But the lime green on the classic dark green of the parquet just, it looks awful.
17:31Like not to be a traditionalist, like Alex's band Divine Sweater does original music.
17:34They also sometimes do covers of like Fleetwood Mac to bring down the house and it's great,
17:39but it's not, they're not stepping on anyone's toes.
17:43This just feels like the Seattle Seahawks are playing at the TD Garden and it just doesn't work.
17:48So whatever, they do it every year.
17:50Sometimes it's a myth, sometimes it's not.
17:52It's not a tragedy, but I don't think it's going to be remembered among the best alternate jerseys.
17:59However, it's not going to be remembered as one of the worst.
18:02It's got nothing on the shirzies or the-
18:04I love the shirzies.
18:06I love the shirzies, don't even.
18:08I think, I think we just need to get Pete Rogers on the Nike committee for the-
18:13That's the deal right there.
18:15That's it.
18:16It seems like everything Pete does is great.
18:18So we should just let him take over that process.
18:22All right.
18:23Well, Pete, you'll have to come back on the podcast and talk to us about how you would fix these jerseys.
18:27Until then, thank you very much to PrizePix,
18:30who's a Fantasy Festival partner of the SeaLiners Media Network.
18:33Thank you to GameTime, less than tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
18:36Thank you to Divine Sweater and Alex for providing us with our intro music.
18:41Thank you to Dr. Justin Quinn for being my boss over at Celtics Wire.
18:44And thank you to Zenni for helping us get Drew Holiday here on the podcast to talk to Dr.
18:50Justin Quinn about, yes, about glasses, but about so many other things.
18:54So through the magic of editing, you'll be whisked away to Justin's conversation with Drew,
19:01recorded a few days ago, about so many things, actually.
19:04I've seen the transcripts. It's kind of fun.
19:06So until then, thank you very much.
19:07Consider liking and subscribing so you never miss an episode.
19:10And we will be back next week. We're here every week.
19:13Enjoy Drew Holiday. Adios!
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20:35What time is it?
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20:36I'm here with a man who needs no introduction,
20:38but just in case you've been sleeping for the last 20 years,
20:41we're here with Drew Holliday, starting guard for the Boston Celtics.
20:45He's here to talk to us about all kinds of things that are vision-related for the Celtics Lab podcast.
20:52First of all, I want to thank you for coming on.
20:53I really, really appreciate you spending your time with us today, so thank you for that.
20:58Yeah, thank you for having me.
20:59This is going to be a cool interview.
21:03So the first thing I want to talk about is the sponsor who put us in touch with each other, Zeni Optical.
21:11If you watch Celtics games on TV, you are going to see them.
21:16How did this partnership begin in the first place, and why did you say yes?
21:20Yeah, I mean the partnership began, obviously they sponsor our team,
21:25and like you said, you see it everywhere.
21:29One of the coaches, Sam Dallen Bear, or Sam Cassell, wears the glasses all the time,
21:37and I've had conversations with him about it as well.
21:39But seeing it everywhere and then getting to know them more,
21:43the things that they're doing in the community,
21:46how many variations and different type of glasses that they need.
21:50They're very affordable, and they have great products, great frames,
21:54whether it's like sunglasses or you need prescription glasses.
22:01But they've just really been great relationally,
22:04and that's one of the things that really attracted me to them is they're great people,
22:07and what they're doing, they're trying to do to help others,
22:11not necessarily for money purposes or anything.
22:14So it's been really cool to kind of get to know them in a partnership kind of way,
22:18but very, very good people.
22:21So there's a couple things I want to touch on that you just mentioned,
22:24but before we dive into that, you thankfully cannot see the vision I have through these glasses.
22:30They are pretty old. They need to be replaced.
22:32I've been kind of lazy about stuff like that since the pandemic.
22:35Probably a lot of us have been. Do you have any favorite frames?
22:39I'm kind of in the market myself, so definitely interesting.
22:43You know, I tell people all the time that these are probably some of my favorite ones,
22:46so I don't wear prescription, but I do wear blue light glasses.
22:50And obviously, probably like yourself, always on the screen or camera, maybe on your phone quite a bit.
22:57We travel so much. We got home at 2 a.m. this morning.
23:00So watching a movie or watching film, being able to go on the bus,
23:06and literally whatever it is, this age, you're always on your phone.
23:11So phone or iPad or something.
23:14This definitely helps me to, I feel like for my eyes to recover, to help me to sleep, which is really, really big.
23:20If you're traveling so much, playing the game, we just had a back to back.
23:24So sleep is huge. But some of my favorite frames, you know, they have great glasses.
23:33They have some that look like a party, some that are super cool.
23:38They have some that are very elegant and you can wear them for any type of formal occasion.
23:47You can wear some with suits. You can wear them.
23:49I think that the variety that Zinni has is something that attracted me to him, too,
23:53because I feel like I'm that type of person where, especially when it comes to food, I love different types of varieties.
24:00Clothes, I love different types of varieties. The same thing with music.
24:04Same thing with movies and TV shows.
24:05So I think that have the option of kind of showing off your style that day,
24:10being able to wear kind of how you feel is something that Zinni has definitely helped me do.
24:18So do you get the same kind of a boost that, you know,
24:22Quinn Snyder has when he's wearing his trademark red lenses?
24:26Yeah. Or like when Jason Tatum has his, you know, he was famous for saying that he feels top five when he gets a haircut.
24:32You get that kind of a thing?
24:34For sure. For sure. I think it's always a confidence boost when you feel good and you know that you look good.
24:42I feel like that's why people get haircuts while we wear the clothes we wear,
24:46while we walk into the game on the runway with our style to try to not only to boost that confidence,
24:54but I think to show the world ourselves, our character, our style that we like,
24:59and be able to show people maybe a little different side of ourselves rather than just being on the basketball court.
25:06So Zinni definitely helps elevate not only my fits, but my style.
25:11And it boosts my confidence. Got anything in mind for the new City Editions?
25:17And what do you think of those new City Editions? I like the City Editions.
25:21I think they're different. They're not too crazy.
25:24I know the green is a little highlighter green, which is very, very different for Boston.
25:31Striking people, they love it or hate it. Yeah.
25:33Yeah. I think Boston is just more classic where you have the parquet, you have the classic Boston green,
25:41like the green that was on the in-season tournament floor.
25:46I feel like it was a lot, but also could be cool because it is a lot.
25:51But I like the jerseys. I like the black with kind of like that highlight, highlighter green.
25:55I think it's different and stylish, but I have to look at the collection.
26:01We have about 90 pairs of glasses in our collection. So with the Zinni collection,
26:07so I have to look through and see if I have some frames that can go with that.
26:12Talking more about your fellow Zinni alum, Sam Cassell.
26:16He is looking at a very different coach's bench this season.
26:19I wanted to see if you could give me kind of any like idea of how he's approaching this season,
26:26what his vision for the team is and like how he's working with the new head coaches,
26:30head coaches, new assistant coaches who are joining him on the roster this year.
26:34Yeah, I just think he's a, you know, he's a veteran in every aspect of it.
26:39He's won on a couple of different levels now as a player and as a coach.
26:46He's had a lot of experience coaching in this game as well as playing.
26:50I'm pretty sure some of the younger coaches, I'm not sure if they've seen all that Sam's done playing,
26:55but I know growing up, I've seen, I've watched Sam play.
26:59And then I think the year he retired was the year I came in.
27:03So I might have played against him that season, that 2009, 2010 season.
27:09But I think his approach is a winning mentality, somebody who's also been through winning
27:15and then having to, you know, win again the next year.
27:21And since he's been through it, I think he gives great insight on that.
27:24I think he has a great balance of when to push and push and push,
27:30also when to kind of let off and let us kind of police ourselves.
27:36But you always see him in the huddle talking. You always see him in the huddle talking, yelling at us.
27:41You see him on the bench as doing some wrong yelling at us,
27:43but he does it more in like a OG veteran way where you respect what he says
27:50and whatever he says, you take into consideration every time.
27:54Cool. So I really appreciated the frame that this interview gave us
27:59because visibility can lead you to a lot of places.
28:03When you arrived in Boston, your wife, Lauren, had a post on seeing the human side of the league
28:09that I want to talk to you about. I'm going to read it real quick.
28:11He said, imagine a world where we didn't hide behind the business of things,
28:15where we didn't treat one another like commodities,
28:18and instead we saw each other as valuable pieces of a human community
28:21meant to serve one another in a mosaic of ways.
28:24How does that look in practice from where you sit?
28:26And, you know, how has that influenced the work of you and Lauren's foundation specifically?
28:31Yeah, honestly, I think we try to live by that.
28:35I think we try to treat everyone as humans and try to treat everyone like they're important.
28:42You know, sometimes you don't know what people are going through.
28:43You don't know what they're going through in life,
28:44but treating someone with kindness and respect and treating everyone the same,
28:49it's kind of like that saying, like, be treated, treat others how you'd like to be treated.
28:55My mom used to say that to us all the time. I feel like we try to live that way.
28:59And why can't it be like that in business as well,
29:02where out of the three times I've got traded, two of them, I didn't know about it.
29:09Just kind of random. One was out of a nap.
29:11One, I was on the way to a Dodger game and had no clue.
29:15How come it can't be where you have a relationship with someone
29:18and they tell you in advance or I wouldn't even say give you warning,
29:25but just let you know like, hey, you might be on the chopping block.
29:27You might be traded and that part of the business is also me being mature enough to say,
29:35okay, I will the information that I've gotten.
29:39I'll take it and it is what it is. But thank you for letting me know.
29:43Obviously for me. I had a family. The business side isn't what what hurt me.
29:49It wasn't the actual trade for me personally. It was I mean, I had to uproot my family like that.
29:56I didn't get to Boston until the day of the first day of training camp.
30:00I didn't do the first day of training camp because I wasn't cleared yet.
30:04So, you know, everything just kind of happens and it happens so fast.
30:08And you have people say, well, they pay you a lot of money and they do all this.
30:11It's like, well, okay, there's still a human side to it.
30:14I still have young kids who don't understand that daddy has to leave
30:19or daddy's moving our whole family away from somewhere.
30:23They've been most of their life where the best friends are.
30:26So I think we try to do that. We try to have this mindset,
30:32my wife and I in general, because we want people to feel worthy.
30:37We want them to feel like their dreams can come true.
30:42And that's kind of what we bring to the JLH fund is that we try to give back
30:48because so many people gave to us. There'd be no way I'd be here.
30:52My wife would be here without the people who elevated us and pushed us forward,
30:58who didn't expect anything back. So we try to do the same.
31:03Yeah, I definitely noticed about that. And, you know, your teammate Jalen Brown's work,
31:06you both tend to focus on, you know, visibility of what you guys are doing
31:11and how you guys are doing it, which is different from the typical charity model.
31:14I've asked you about that in the past.
31:17Why is representation and visibility of this kind of work in the community important?
31:26You know, I think that it's big because I think it's important because this is how,
31:35in my opinion, you make the world better.
31:37This is my gift or whatever I can do to give back to the world.
31:42And I feel like giving back to your community, giving back to community in general,
31:48helps boost self-esteem, helps boost the economy.
31:52It helps show the younger generation that you can do it.
31:57If you have a dream, your dream can come true.
31:59And there are other people around you that have either similar type dreams or a dream in general.
32:06And you guys can collaborate and help each other out.
32:09I know a lot of times, just like in basketball, it can get very, very competitive.
32:13And it's kind of like you put yourself over your teammates
32:17or you put yourself over that guy that they just drafted to possibly challenge your spot or to take your spot.
32:24And I guess I've just never been like that.
32:26I've always embraced it.
32:27I've always wanted that person to get better because it's going to elevate me as well.
32:31And I feel like that's what community does too.
32:34The more you elevate your community or the more you elevate one person,
32:38that person can elevate another person.
32:40And that's how your community becomes as best as possible.
32:43So we do our best to try to elevate others and expect nothing in return.
32:50But yeah, really just expect nothing in return.
32:55We just want them to be as happy as possible and see people's dreams come true.
32:59Two more points I want to get to before we let you get out of here.
33:02I'll keep them nice and short since you've been so generous with your time already.
33:06Sometimes, you know, even with perfect vision, you can't see everything.
33:11And regarding the so-called stock exchange of you and Derek White,
33:16like how important is peripheral vision and trust for what you can't see on the court?
33:20And how important is having different perspectives on the season important for the Celtics?
33:25Yeah, I think peripheral vision is huge and not only in life,
33:29but especially on the court where you can scan and see a bigger picture.
33:36You can see multiple things happening at once and kind of evaluate the game from that standpoint
33:42and be able to attack where needed.
33:47I think a lot of it is also faith-based where I have so much faith in Derek.
33:54If I don't see something the same way he does and he doesn't see the same thing that I see,
34:03it's always better to have two perspectives.
34:06That way you can tackle something a lot faster.
34:08And I feel like that's kind of how that stock exchange works.
34:12Derek is our leader. He's our point guard.
34:15And I think to be able to lead our team, he has to have a wide vision.
34:19But as well, I've been playing the game for a long time and been a point guard for most of my life.
34:24So having perspective in different ways is always huge.
34:29Very cool. So the last thing I want to talk to you about
34:32was a recent spot I saw of yours where it showed that you used boxing to train,
34:37which I thought was a very Joe Missoula-esque kind of a thing.
34:42I've been boxing before I met Joe, by the way.
34:45Yeah, before I met Joe. But Joe did tell me about that boxing gym.
34:49So how is vision key to boxing?
34:54Vision is huge. Vision helps you with the reaction.
34:59It helps you with timing.
35:01It also helps you with like a bigger picture in terms of, I mean, somebody trying to attack you.
35:08How are they going to attack you? Do they know your strengths and your weaknesses?
35:13Do I know their strengths and weaknesses? Boxing has been good for me.
35:17Not only for conditioning purposes and strength in your shoulders and your core and endurance,
35:25but it's a different challenge. It's a different challenge from basketball.
35:28It's different muscles that I've never used before. It's different mental that I've never used before.
35:33And I think having that vision helps in my sport and what I want to do
35:39and how I want to be the best player and best person that I can be.
35:43So I think having a different perspective on other sports, getting perspective from different sports,
35:49if it's soccer, because my wife is a beast at that,
35:53and me learning soccer based off of watching her play, that's how I learned most about soccer.
35:59It wasn't me asking her all these questions and everything.
36:02It was literally watching her and how she played.
36:05She made the game so much easier for me to learn.
36:10And I'm like, man, so many things in soccer are relatable to basketball.
36:14And that's kind of how she's elevated my game from that.
36:17So, so many different perspectives,
36:20so many different ways that you can look at something and see how things are different,
36:26but yet you can use them in something that you love to do.
36:29Very cool. Well, that's all I have for you.
36:31Thank you for joining us and hope to see you on the court very soon.
36:35Thanks, man. Good talking to you again.