The newcomer to Lokomotiv Kuban PBC talks about his first impressions of the club and Krasnodar, his most memorable NBA games, and why he has been following the VTB United league since for more than a year.
- What are your first impressions of the facility, of the guys?
- The facility is amazing. I think this is the best facility outside of the NBA that I've ever been in. The guys, I haven't really been around much, but I feel like we've got a great group and I'm just excited about the season.
- Have you spoken with our new head coach?
- Yes, I met him during my first training session, really brief though, because I was in the middle of my workout and he said we would talk later. So, I just introduced myself and he asked how my travel was and how everything was going and it was really brief.
- How long have you been in Krasnodar already?
- I've been here for, I think today is my fourth day, it's great, it's hot, I didn't know it was hot in Russia, people always say how cold it is, so the weather's been amazing and the city's been great too.
- There's a lot of young players in Loko. Are you okay with this?
- Yeah, I'm fine with it. I feel like I'm still kind of young myself and that means that you're going to be active, you can get up and down and you can run, so it's always a good thing to be young.
- Loko will have to travel a lot, are you used to long trips?
- My team I was on last year [it was Maccabi], we had to travel like crazy, so I'm kind of used to it I guess. I'm sure with our medical staff that we got, we'll be alright and it's not a big deal to me.
- You have experience in the NBA. What was your most remarkable game there?
- My most remarkable game? I'll say when COVID happened we went into the bubble and we had scrimmage games to get us warmed up and I played pretty good in all three of those scrimmage games, so those were my most memorable and remarkable games in my opinion.
- Are you still a fan of Dallas Mavericks?
- I'm a fan of the NBA itself, I like watching all the great players, I like watching Luka, so yeah I'm definitely a fan of Dallas.
- So, what can you say about the result of recent finals?
- I knew Boston would win, Dallas got a game, I thought maybe they would at least get two wins, but I knew Boston would win the championship, they just were the better team on paper and they just looked good all year.
- What did you know about the Russian league before joining?
- I knew about the teams that played in Euroleague and European competition like CSKA and Loko. I started looking at this league last year because two of my close friends played in Yenisei, Jeremiah Martin and XRM [Xavier Rathan-Mayes], so I would always check how they were doing and that got me more engaged with the league. I got the VTB app downloaded on my phone from last year, so yeah, I'm kind of familiar with it.
Share with Friends: