spursparker9
02-26-2015, 09:22 PM
So one of our assistant coaches, a dude named Mike Egan (nice guy, who cares), starts telling us that we need to push ourselves and really work and develop a refuse-to-lose mentality. Honestly, I don't remember what the freak he said because I was an idiot teenager and geez louize it was 20 years ago, but the gist of what he was getting at was that in order for us to be great, to be TRULY GREAT, we had to do X, Y, and Z. So he turns to me, to make some sort of point, and asks, "Ev, who's your favorite player?"
I think he was looking for me to say someone awesome so he could be like, "See?! That guy is awesome! He works hard!" blah blah blah, but my favorite player growing up was Mark Jackson, so I said Mark Jackson. And Coach Egan just sort of looks at me like, "Mark Jackson?" And I was like, "Yeah." And he was like, "The dude on the Pacers?" It was 1995, so Mark Jax was in the middle of the shitty part of his career, bouncing around from the Clippers to the Pacers to the Nuggs, I don't remember what team he was on at that time. And I just repeated, "yeah" and Coach Egan goes, "Really?" So I started to explain why I loved Mark Jax and Egan just cuts me off and turns to Kobe and goes, "Okay, let's move on. Kobe. Kobe. Kobe. Who's your favorite player?"
And Kobe just kinda sat there for a second thinking, hand on his chin (because this is a VERY serious question for a 16-year-old, your favorite basketball player says A LOT about you) and everyone’s sitting there waiting for a response, including Coach Egan, and Kobe eventually goes, "Hmmm, probably Jalen Rose." And Coach Egan was just like, "Jalen Rose? From Michigan?" He wasn't even angry, just kinda mega-super-bonkers confused. And Kobe was just like "yeah" and Coach Egan shook his head as if to say, "What the freak is wrong with teenagers" and he seemed so defeated and so baffled and he finally turned to this dude Jermaine and asked him the same questch and Jermaine said "Scottie" and Coach Egan was like "YES! Scottie F***ing Pippen! Yes! That guy plays defense! Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose? C’mon,” and that's basically the end of my story.
So whatever, I don’t know if that’s interesting, but I thought I’d share. For the record, this locker room chat happened 20 years ago so my memory is obviously a little fuzzy but the story is probably 94% true. I definitely said Mark Jax and Kobe definitely said Jalen.
http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/700-level/kobes-high-school-point-guard-shares-story-thats-probably-94-true?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo
I think he was looking for me to say someone awesome so he could be like, "See?! That guy is awesome! He works hard!" blah blah blah, but my favorite player growing up was Mark Jackson, so I said Mark Jackson. And Coach Egan just sort of looks at me like, "Mark Jackson?" And I was like, "Yeah." And he was like, "The dude on the Pacers?" It was 1995, so Mark Jax was in the middle of the shitty part of his career, bouncing around from the Clippers to the Pacers to the Nuggs, I don't remember what team he was on at that time. And I just repeated, "yeah" and Coach Egan goes, "Really?" So I started to explain why I loved Mark Jax and Egan just cuts me off and turns to Kobe and goes, "Okay, let's move on. Kobe. Kobe. Kobe. Who's your favorite player?"
And Kobe just kinda sat there for a second thinking, hand on his chin (because this is a VERY serious question for a 16-year-old, your favorite basketball player says A LOT about you) and everyone’s sitting there waiting for a response, including Coach Egan, and Kobe eventually goes, "Hmmm, probably Jalen Rose." And Coach Egan was just like, "Jalen Rose? From Michigan?" He wasn't even angry, just kinda mega-super-bonkers confused. And Kobe was just like "yeah" and Coach Egan shook his head as if to say, "What the freak is wrong with teenagers" and he seemed so defeated and so baffled and he finally turned to this dude Jermaine and asked him the same questch and Jermaine said "Scottie" and Coach Egan was like "YES! Scottie F***ing Pippen! Yes! That guy plays defense! Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose? C’mon,” and that's basically the end of my story.
So whatever, I don’t know if that’s interesting, but I thought I’d share. For the record, this locker room chat happened 20 years ago so my memory is obviously a little fuzzy but the story is probably 94% true. I definitely said Mark Jax and Kobe definitely said Jalen.
http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/700-level/kobes-high-school-point-guard-shares-story-thats-probably-94-true?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo