点击查看原文：Wemby, Spurs defying early expectations
Wemby, Spurs defying early expectations
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss why the Spurs, despite a .500 record, are defying early expectations this season and might be closer to the top than anyone realizes.
Suggested reading:
Spurs’ Sochan: ‘It’s not like I’m trying to be a (bleep) head. I’m just me.’
Spurs view Gregg Popovich’s statement as encouraging sign
Wembanyama, Spurs see signs of optimism at .500
Peerless in Seattle: How Mitch Johnson became more than just a stand-in for Spurs legend Gregg Popovich
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Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider Holiday Edition. I am your holly jolly host, Mike Finger, joined by our ever-festive panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Tom Orsborn and Jeff McDonald, along with sports editor Nick Talbot.
We’re at that time of year when everybody’s spirits are up. We have a lull provided by the NBA Cup schedule that allows us to take stock of what the local cagers have done and what all of us have done so far this season and look forward to what’s next.
I’m going to start with Jeff, who is the most holly jolly of us all, all the time. Jeff, what do you want to start with, with the San Antonio Spurs, with the holiday season, with whatever? I’m going to leave it up to you right now. Topic number one.
This is my job now? I’m just… You’re the host. This is the spirit of giving, and I’m giving you this opportunity. You’re giving me a new job. Okay. Uh, what do we want to talk about? Uh… Man, you put me on the spot. Um… Okay. Uh, Victor Wembanyama. I’ll help you out. Oh yeah, okay, good topic. Victor Wembanyama says when he takes stock of the holiday season, this lull in the schedule, this uh, the first 26 games of the NBA slate in which the local cagers have gone 13 and 13, he says he looks at the standings and in the spirit of gratitude says that the top is not that far away. The Spurs are in 11th place, but do you agree with him that the top is not that far away?
What I agree with him on is, you know, they’re 13 and 13. They are perfectly average, perfectly mediocre, and that is a huge improvement from last season. Like so far you have to say, this is sort of what you were looking for from this season if you were any sort of realist. Just some sign of life, some sign that this is heading in the right direction. And after 26 games last year they were four and 22. After 26 games this year they’re 13 and 13. It’s hard to argue that that isn’t a clear sign of progress. Um, and yeah, they’re in 11th place in the West. They would be eighth in the East, a little more like solidly in that playing contention. Um, the West is a jumble though, like between five and twelve everybody’s got 13 or 14 wins. And some teams have played more than others and whatnot and have better winning percentages and are better teams. But there’s a logjam in there and the Spurs have put themselves in that logjam. And I think what you can say is they have clearly separated themselves from the absolute dregs of the conference. Like last year they were the dregs of the conference. They’ve clearly, they’re clearly better than those three teams that are below them. And I think that’s a sign of improvement as well. I think anybody that was expecting a bigger leap than that was probably expecting a little too much, but I think we’re seeing some signs of progress that we wanted to see through the first 25, 26 games of this season.
On that note, Jeff McDonald, you provided me with a perfect host segue. That’s my gift to you. To a game that Tom Orsborn covered. The game that was added to the schedule in Portland, Oregon last week where they faced one of those dregs of the Western Conference, and in a game that resembled in many ways many of the games that the Spurs played last year when they were at the bottom of the conference. Things just weren’t going right. They were going to lose to uh, they were on their way to possibly losing to another bad team. Just didn’t know what they were doing in the second half. And yet this time it was the Portland Trail Blazers who played the role of last year’s Spurs and the Spurs showed their gumption, showed their progress, showed their late-game know-how and pulled away to get that victory on the road against an admittedly bad team, Tom. But that’s a game that they probably would not have won a year ago.
Yeah, and to make it even more uh, you know, noteworthy, they did it with Chris Paul in the locker room. Yeah. And um, you know, Devin, uh, Wembanyama and Devin were hunting baskets. Julian came up big in that sense too and then um, Jeremy played great defense on Simmons in the fourth quarter. Um, yeah, they just kept plugging away at it, but that game to me, I’ll always remember it for, you know, being there in the tunnel. Um, I was kind of, I kind of got uh, both myself, uh Mitch, and a member of the PR staff, Jordan, we got kind of mixed up. So we all walked in together to the press room, which uh afforded me an opportunity to be right there before when they came in. Um, I know I’m not explaining that well, but it was just kind of by circumstantial that I was right there when Chris Paul is handing out high fives and handshakes and hugging. I’ve never seen a guy more happy, really. He was, he was probably a little bit of relief, but but also just proud of the guys for doing it without him, you know, for pulling it out as you pointed out, Mike.
You’ve never seen a happier guy post… You’d never see Jeff McDonald act that way after a big… a big triple take. No. He’s just standing back there in the press room congratulating his fellow scribes. Uh, you’ve never seen me on the last day of the season. Oh, yeah. There’s one thing I will tell you about Chris Paul is uh, he’s been in the league a long time. I mean he’s never like been kicked out of the game and had to watch the Spurs come back in Portland in the fourth from the locker room in the fourth quarter. That’s a good point. Yeah, I mean that, that it was something new for the guy and he really was happy. I mean it was… It was his seventh career ejection. That is, that is true. It wasn’t uh, it’s not something that happens a lot. Then he got a tech again the next game. He’s ornery these days. Yep. Uh, just to go back to our last podcast, I believe uh, you know, some of the listeners that we interact with at the games were trying to suggest to us the other day, Jeff, that one of us picked the Spurs to go over two this week. I don’t think anybody did that. I think we all had them one and one. No. We were all correct. That listener was confused. Uh, the second half of the one and one was a game that did not go so well at home in the friendly confines of the Frost Bank Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves. One of the uglier offensive, one of the most offensive offensive performances of the season. Sometimes things just don’t go right and you have a lot of guys missing shots, uh, some sloppy turnover-ish problems. Jeff mentioned to me up on the platform 107 that uh, this was one of those rare games where uh, it was once again Victor Wembanyama just looking for some help, and that hasn’t been the case all year long. He’s gotten all kinds of help all year. This one was just, nothing was going right. And I guess uh, during an 82 game season you’re just going to have one of those, and that was one that just did not go the local cagers’ way.
Yeah, usually when they’re kind of struggling to get out of the gate you can look at it and it’s, oh well Victor’s not shooting it well. He’s going to, he’s going to have a lot of volume. He’s going to shoot the ball a lot and if he’s not making them the offense can look a little ragged. But against Minnesota at halftime he was very nearly on pace for a quadruple double. He was doing everything. And they scored 37 points and were getting punched in the mouth because nobody else was doing squat. And some guys came along in the second half, Harrison Barnes, and I guess Sochan was good throughout. But um, he just didn’t have a lot of help that game. And then he kind of faded at the end too and they ended up getting routed because they couldn’t score. But Minnesota, like that’s how come they were in the Western Conference Finals last year, was that defense. And they weren’t always doing that this year. You know earlier when Anthony Edwards was calling out his own team for being soft and I don’t know if that had an effect or whatever, but they’re playing their tails off defensively and the Spurs were not really prepared for that to me, to my eyes. It just seemed like they got punked basically. The Timberwolves were up in them, up in their jerseys and in the passing lanes and contesting everything and putting pressure on every dribble and the Spurs kind of, kind of whiffed out a little. And I think that’s the main reason they scored whatever, 72 points. We’re going to go viral now with the… Well but you know you have those games where you’re just not… you whiffed out. Yeah, well you’re just not, you go from playing Portland who is not really going to challenge you to a team that is going to hit you in the face and it… it’s a matter of how you respond and I don’t think anybody involved with the Spurs would argue they did not respond very well against the Timberwolves.
Yeah. But that the net result is during this three-day break, one and one at the end of the, at the end of the NBA Cup schedule, um, the Spurs were 13 and 13. And uh, shoot, if you would have suggested that seven or eight weeks ago when the season began, I think uh, like a lot of us here on the podcast would have thought that was exceeding expectations. We were all picking them to finish the season below 500, I believe, in victory totals in the mid-thirties. So this is uh, by definition ahead of schedule. This podcast by the way, I want to mention before we get too far into it, will be the final one until New Year’s Eve. We’re going to take next week off. It’s our first week off of the season. Give everyone a breather. Give the listeners a rest from us, which I think you all deserve. Um, so that being said we’re going to look forward a lot in this podcast. We’re going to look forward to a big East Coast trip coming up to the, to the next section of the schedule. There is some more old business, isn’t there? Like the Roberts Rules of Order, the parliamentary procedure, there’s old business and new business. The last bit of old business to look back at is uh, yet we’re taping this on Tuesday. On Monday we got our first public statement from Gregg Popovich. I think we, some of us had expected this to be coming for a while. Uh, you knew he was going to say something, um, but it was nice to hear, not to hear but to see uh, Gregg Popovich’s personality that definitely, Gregg Popovich definitely had final say in that statement. You could tell it’s him, yeah, that the Spurs released on Monday. First, first public statement since he suffered with the team termed a minor stroke on November 2nd. Um, and uh, you know he said he’s grateful to everyone for reaching out, can’t talk to everybody, um, doing well, feeling well, uh, in his typical self-deprecating joke at the end about how uh, the trainers, the doctors working with him are getting sick of… no one would, no one’s going to be more excited about him returning to the bench than those folks who have learned that he is not so coachable. Um, any surprises, anything noteworthy we need to discuss on that Jeff and Tom?
Well the noteworthy thing was the second graph, um, you know, just saying, uh, suggesting a return to the bench. To me that jumped out right away since there was, you know, some doubt after uh, any kind of a stroke, mild or otherwise. But um, yeah, that jumped out to me.
I don’t think that’s a guarantee yet. I think that, I think that’s encouraging that he would mention that as a, you know, the way the statement is worded it definitely does not say he’s planning to return. He says no one’s more excited about him returning than those folks. I think he wants to, but I mean I think it’s… I probably shouldn’t have said I think he wants to. I think we shouldn’t speculate about anything in this situation. It’s still, he’s still a 75-year-old man who had a stroke. Uh, no, no coach in NBA history has ever coached at his age. That was the case before this, that remains that case. So I think the Spurs will give him time, he will take his time. I don’t believe they will do anything uh, to put him at further risk. But it is encouraging, Jeff, just to hear that voice in print form again.
Yeah, there’s some uncertainty about whether he’s going to return. I think that’s fair to say. I don’t think, but I do think it’s a little bit notable that that little joke or whatever was there because he didn’t have to say it at all. You know that statement would have been fine without it. So if there could be a purpose to at least floating the idea. But like you said it’s, it’s there’s a lot of uncertainty and it’s not… I didn’t want to think how to phrase this. It’s not completely up to him, it’s up to his health if that makes sense. Yeah. Correct.
Yep. So uh, we’ll see. But we’re wishing him well. I want to put that out there too. We’re wishing him well. We are for sure. Hope everything’s, you know, everyone says he’s doing well. We don’t know precisely what that means but hearing that he’s doing well is, you know, better than the alternative. So we wish him well.
Yep. Yep. And uh… And I do think that uh, Mitch Johnson, who Jeff had a really, really, really long, nice nice and… You’re going to say long, right? And nice in the story about in the newspaper last week. Uh, Mitch Johnson’s going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future. We don’t see Pop coming back uh, next week, um, you know, next couple of weeks whatever. But uh, Jeff, that was, that was really, really adequate that story that you did on Mitch. And I thoroughly uh, read it. Um, any highlights you want to share with the folks then? I appreciate you thoroughly reading it. No, it was, it was excellent. The lead anecdote I do think is worth discussing. Uh, you talked to my old friend Dejounte Murray. You did not get my dollar from Dejounte Murray that I’m still owing. But Dejounte, um, this is, I think some people knew this before, but you wrote it quite well. Uh, Mitch sort of just saved Dejounte as a young kid in Seattle.
Yeah, he was, he was one of the guys that helped put, and Dejounte will say this in his own words, helped put Dejounte on a better path than he was. I mean I think a lot of us know Dejounte’s story. He was in and out of juvie like multiple times before he was 16 years old. And um, when he finally decided enough was enough, Mitch Johnson was one of the guys that was around. And he was kind of a family friend, kind of a friend of Dejounte’s uncle. Mitch at that time was out of Stanford and was back in, back in his hometown of Seattle and just kind of in the basketball scene. And he was kind of tapped to like, can you help this kid? And you know, got him on the straight and narrow. Basically started up an entire AAU team just to give Dejounte some focus and structure in his life. And the way Dejounte told the story was we weren’t trying to get to the NBA, we weren’t talking about that. We were just saying like, do the, like talking about doing the right things. Staying off the streets, doing the right things, doing, doing um, you know, honest things with your life and then, and then good things will happen um, in your life, not just basketball. And so Dejounte gives Mitch a lot of credit for basically keeping him out of jail or alive. And um, when the Spurs drafted Dejounte in 2016, um, you know, obviously there were some flags in Dejounte’s background when the Spurs drafted him and anytime you kind of take on a kid like that you’re looking for people that maybe can help him make the transition to the NBA. And Mitch Johnson was the guy that the Spurs brought on at that time simply to be on staff because Dejounte was there. And so that’s how, that’s how Mitch got to San Antonio. Um, he started as an assistant actually in the G League in Austin and then worked his way up. They liked what they saw from him as a coach, not just as a Dejounte whisperer. And he kind of worked his way up through the ranks and all of a sudden here he is filling in for the winningest coach in NBA history while he recovers from illness. So it’s a remarkable story kind of just how Mitch came to be where he is and Dejounte is part of that and it didn’t start as anything besides just trying to help out a family friend.
Yep. And it’s a story of um, well-told by Jeff, a story of not just a guy who got a job because he knew who the point guard… I mean that’s part of it, but also just uh, no matter who you talk to in this league around the Spurs, front office, support staff, what have you, all just overwhelmingly complimentary of Mitch and everything he did with the opportunity he was given, continuing to do that today. I mean that’s another case of he gets the job because Gregg Popovich isn’t able to continue doing it. And what has he done since getting that opportunity? He’s led the Spurs to a record that’s miles and miles ahead of where they were last year. I mean there’s other factors to play into that, but um, still Mitch has done pretty well for himself. Nice success story in a general sense and in a literal sense that the story that ran in the paper last week. Look that up. Look Jeff’s stuff up on expressnews.com. It’s still there online too. Online. Yeah. Um, and maybe it’s a little crass to say, I don’t know, but but Mitch has done, like made some hay with this opportunity.
Yes. Even if, even if, even if and when Pop comes back and retakes the reigns like Mitch Johnson has uh, put himself on the radar for other jobs and he’s already been interviewed for other jobs before this, but now he’s got, I mean you can, he’s got a case he can, and people have seen it with their own eyes now. They’ve seen what it looks like when Mitch Johnson is coaching an NBA basketball team and acting as the head coach and running things. And I think he’s done himself some favors when it comes to future jobs whether it’s with the Spurs or elsewhere. He’s going to, he’s going to get some attention.
Well, um, and I don’t think this is uncouth to say, um, or inappropriate to say, uh, Gregg Popovich is not going to coach until he’s eighty. Like he’s, he’s going to, if this doesn’t lead to his retirement, this health scare lead to his retirement, he’s not going to coach forever. And I think that what Mitch Johnson has done so far is uh, put it in the Spurs’ mind that if they’re going to look outside the organization for somebody it has to be somebody that’s clearly, clearly better than Mitch Johnson because if they go just for some other guy, some other person, uh, like that, your Victor Wembanyamas, your Devin Vassels, your Jeremy Sochans are all going to say, hey we like this guy here, you know. Uh, I think he’s won over a lot of people in that locker room, a lot of people like I said around the organization. So uh, it’s perfectly fine I think to say that he has made himself a viable long-term replacement at some point in this organization.
I know that the Spurs, you know, Pop has been, it’s no secret Pop has been the oldest coach in the league for a while now, so they have to be thinking about when Pop, you know, for years they have to have been thinking about when Pop does hang it up, who’s, who are some candidates to replace them. And I know they’ve got a short list of guys they would consider. I don’t know who’s on it. I don’t pretend to know who’s on it. And maybe Mitch Johnson was on it before, um, you know, November 2nd of this year. I don’t know. But I know when we’ve talked about it we’ve played that game. I mean we’ve done this on the podcast for different off-seasons. If Pop doesn’t come back who would, who would the Spurs turn to? I don’t know that we ever mentioned Mitch Johnson as a name. Right. And I think, and maybe that’s the phenomenon that’s happening across the league is he has put himself in that conversation with the way that he has handled this responsibility.
So the Spurs gotta keep him, right? That’s maybe the big, one of the biggest free agent signings. Uh, I don’t know if his contract’s up but you gotta keep him, right?
It’s going to be interesting. It will be interesting if Pop comes back and wants to keep going and Mitch gets offers elsewhere. It would, it would be interesting to see what happens. That is, that’s good stuff. Um, we’re, we’re not going to be uh, like I said we’re not going to talk to you guys next week. Uh, I just want to say, I just want to say that I, like for full disclosure, I, to the readers or listeners out there, I was fully down with doing a Christmas Eve podcast. No, we could have candlelight and bells and cookies and milk. Nobody else wanted to do it. It was only me. Well I’m sure we can make… I’m sure we can make that happen. You can do it by yourself, Jeff. It would be the best Spurs podcast ever. Do it, but just do… it’s a 30-minute Jeff monologue. I would, I would love to hear, I would not love to hear that. But I would love to make him do it. How about I do, how about I do like a 30-minute like Mystery Science Theater of like Christmas Vacation? While I watch it I’ll comment on it, make pithy little comments. You can, you know… Sure. Sure. Someone who will be working next week though while we are not recording a podcast though is Tom Orsborn. He’s on the big East Coast trip that I’m actually a little disappointed I’m not making this year. Uh, to Philadelphia, which Tom loves, then two games in New York on Christmas Day against the Knicks, two days later against the Nets. Jeff will be joining the local cagers before we convene again in Minnesota to see if they’re still saying Timberwolves that just smacked down the Spurs at home. Uh, Tom I’ll start with you. Just what are you looking forward to seeing on this trip? It’s a big national TV opportunity, big spotlight moment for Victor Wembanyama and company. Uh, just give us your preview of the road trip to come.
Yeah, they, I mean it all goes to that Christmas Day game. I mean the marquee, they’re part of the marquee lineup. Um, you know the NBA’s obviously really happy to have Victor in that spotlight. You know, do they live up to it? Uh, you know, twelve o’clock start against at the New York Knicks. That’ll be the centerpiece game of that trip. Uh, Philly, you know, with Embiid’s situation, um, and the, you know, the Sixers struggling like they have been, although they played better of late. I think they’re six and four in the last ten. Um, and uh, if you remember last year Mike, you and I were there for Embiid’s 70-point game. So… Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Victor uh, Victor owes them something I think. Uh, Brooklyn should be a win there. So are we, are we doing the uh, are we doing the prediction here? Is it, is it a six-game prediction?
It’s gotta be six-game. We haven’t mentioned uh, the two before that. It’s Atlanta and Portland at home. That, the Hawks. It’s a double game there because if you, if you beat the Hawks you improve your record and you improve your uh… your draft pick because the Spurs own that unprotected Hawks draft pick this year. Um, and then the three games we mentioned on your part of the road trip, then the Minnesota game that Jeff’s got. So that is two home games, four road games before we uh, before we tape again on the 31st. Uh, if you want to go ahead and give your six-game prediction Tom, if you’re prepared for that, go right ahead.
I think this trip will reflect what we said at the start of the podcast, what they are, a 500 team. So I’m going with three and three.
Three and three. Any, any surprise victories there in there? Any specific victories you think they’re going to pull out?
Oh boy. Or just a general… that three and three overall is fine. I’ll accept that.
Yeah, I’m seeing that, I’m, yeah I’m not seeing any upsets. I’m just going with the three they should win. Um, Portland, I think Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
Okay. Not beating Trae Young and the hated Hawks at home on Thursday?
No.
Coming off the, coming off their uh, their uh, NBA Cup afterglow.
Yeah. Uh, okay. That’s, that’s, that’s a legitimate good prediction there, Tom. Jeff, do you want to weigh in?
Sure. I think I’d go three and three.
Three and three? Yeah. Well, it’s kind of like Tom said, they are what they are. And any long stretch of games is probably going to be where they fall. They get to play some Eastern Conference… they get to play some Eastern Conference teams finally.
That’s true. They’ve only played two of them so far and that was, that’s a low for the West. So um, there are two ways to look at their, there are two ways to look at their record. Uh, they’ve played more home games than I think than anybody and they’re 13 and 13. But they’ve also played fewer games against the purported East than anybody and they’re 13 and 13. So they might be able to fatten up on the East as the schedule goes along but I don’t know about this trip. Like their, that’s about a three and three trip though. Like they’re playing like, they’re playing decent teams Sunday.
To be clear not a three and three trip but a three and three stretch. Three and three stretch, correct. Four road games. Uh, yeah I’ve been, every now and then checking on their schedule strength and it continues to look, it continues to be rated as neutral, like neutral so far, neutral the rest of the way. Um, because exactly what Jeff said. They’re playing good teams so far but they’re playing them at home and then the rest of the way they’re playing more bad teams that are on the road. So… and I don’t know how it works out but a lot of that strength… I mean the strength of schedule is basically based on the winning percentage of the opponents they’ve played. Right. And like some of the teams in the East, I mean in the West, have mediocre records. So it’s going to bring down or make your neutral your strength of schedule, but they’re much better than a team with maybe a better record in the East. Like Denver for instance is probably better than anybody with 13 wins in the East. So… or, you know, so it’s, it’s hard to gauge like, I feel like they played a decent enough schedule and 13 and 13 seems pretty nice.
I agree. Nick Talbot, any prediction for the next six games?
I, I would also say three and three. I think Tom’s reasoning was sound on the games he picked to win and lose. I think that’s the, the three they will probably win and lose. It’s just they are what they, they are what they are. They’re going to lose to the teams they should lose to and win against the teams they should win against.
I think they’re going to beat Atlanta. I’ll put that out there. Are you going to go four and two then? Or are you going to have… No I think they’ll lose one of those other… I think, I think they’ll lose maybe those other… Yeah Brooklyn might be a loss. Um, But it’ll be nice. I was used to say you are what your record are, right Tom? You are what your record is. I thought that was Popeye. They are who we thought they were. I am what I am. Um, by the way Jeff, are you disappointed that uh, another legendary Bill NFL coach is not going to come to rescue your Dallas Cowboys? My Dallas Cowboys? Yeah, your Dallas Cowboys. I’m only a fan of Rowdy. That’s the only member of that team I can get with is Rowdy. I’ll go run it by Rowdy. Uh… Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, and by the way, I’ll just make it a consensus and go three and three for the next six games. What the heck? I do think the Spurs are going to beat the Hawks this Thursday. They need to. They need to. These draft picks they’ve stockpiled for next year at least aren’t looking so hot.
Like Atlanta was… that’s really a black cloud you’re bringing there, like they’ve got all these picks. Atlanta was supposed to be like a chance at a number one pick and they’re flirting with… They’re flirting with making the dang playoffs. They still might be. The Bulls, the Bulls are, you know, bad enough they’re going to be in the bottom ten maybe. And Charlotte isn’t going to make the playoffs. That’s going to be really close. That’s going to be… the Bulls are right where they want to be. You don’t want them so bad that they’re, that they’re trying to be in the top ten. But you don’t want them so good that your, the picks not good. You want them right where they are. Kind of where the picks going to be too. If the season, if the season ended right now I believe they get one of those picks and it would be the Hawks which would be like in the middle of the first round, which is not… Then you, then you put… That’s not what you’re hoping for next year. But it’s not what you’re hoping for. It’s not what you want. Steph Curry on Trae Young will be fun to watch.
It will be. Hey speaking of Steph Curry and Dejounte to tie it all together, after that conversation following the Pelicans game, the last thing Dejounte said to me on his way out, like I didn’t even ask this question, he just looked at me and he shook his head and he said, man that Steph Curry’s going to be pretty good.
So he’s got, he’s Dejounte Murray approved Steph Curry. Struggling a little bit now, but you know, rookie wall and such, but we see good things.
The unsolicited comments in these interviews that we have with NBA players are often the most interesting. And then uh, I wanted to bring up, I’m not sure I mentioned this last week, but uh, something that the listeners might find uh, a bit compelling is… Finally. Finally we get to the compelling part. When I talked, when I talked to Jeremy Sochan a week or so ago for a column that was on expressnews.com uh, in the Express-News print editions that uh, that I know Jeff read and really dug.
I did. I did. It seemed a little dated when I read it though. Is that right? Yeah. Jeremy kind of came uh, we… I was talking to him about something else, maybe his green hair and uh, kind of on his own he said this is, you know, this is really hard to talk about, but but last year was really difficult. And I know I can hear some of the more grizzled listeners out there kind of groaning and and saying all these kids these days, what they call difficult, you know, people are mean to them on social media, what have you. I get that. But when you’re 20 years old and you feel like the whole world is against you, I just thought that was um, kind of mature for Jeremy to come out and say that last year was difficult. You know the point guard experiment that he went through, he felt like he was really, he told me he was especially bothered by some of the, he said Instagram which struck me as funny. Uh, the Instagram memes of uh, how he didn’t get along with Victor and how he didn’t pass enough to Victor, like that dug at him, um, and it, it put him in kind of a dark place. And uh, for him to come out and say that, you know, that did bother him last year, that he’s over it, that he’s doing better this year. Like he has been, no sarcasm at all, he’s just a true delight to watch, to talk to this year. Just night and day from where he was kind of at the bottom last year. Um, I think, you know Tom had mentioned that Jeremy played well at the end of that Portland game. He was doing it at both ends. That was a great game for him. He’s had a great couple of months even though he broke his thumb and had to sit out for a few weeks. This has been a really good Jeremy Sochan year and when you’re looking at uh, at things to be upbeat about here as we hit this kind of lull in the schedule, I think that the progress of Jeremy Sochan has been a big thing for the Spurs so far.
The, the and the bummer of last year for us was it just stole that guy’s joy. Like as a rookie he was so fun to talk to and fun to be around and funny, loved interviewing him. And then by the middle of the second, second season he wouldn’t even talk to anybody. And it wasn’t because he was mad at us, you know, specifically. He was just mad at the world because he felt like the world was mad at him. And it was just, it was just we kind of missed him, you know on a human level we just missed that, that bright bubbly funny, that big smile. Like we missed that last year and it’s good to have that back.
Yep. Yep. Yep. And you know, leave players alone. I mean you kind of have to. I get it but it’s just like… I can’t imagine being in that situation where… There’s that line of, you know, they make millions of dollars a year and I can say what I want to on social media. Toughen up, I mean, you can’t… still… you still… Yeah. You can choose, you can choose to be a bad human if you want. Like that’s fine, that’s your allowed to, but… Yeah. Yeah. Just chill out. Let Tom, Tom was chuckling there at some… he has something to say.
We get our share of abuse on social media as well. So not, not to that extent, but I have to chuckle at some of the, you know, some of the comments. It’s just so ridiculous and you just think, you know, whatever. If you think that way great. I’ve, I’ve had to notice those kind of… As Bob Hope would say, how do these people bathe? Yeah. I have thought that a lot. But like I, I get the