00:00 So I want to pick up on that. That's exactly where I wanted to go next. I want to read the quote from
00:04 Tatum in this Goodman article. Again, it says, "I'm never going to be Kevin Garnett. As much as
00:08 people want me to be, that's not who I am. The way I lead, the public may not ever see what I do.
00:13 When I need to, I make sure my voice is heard and I do it in my own way. I'm not going to be out
00:18 there jumping up and down screaming. That's just not my personality. As much as people want to talk
00:23 about it and want me to be that, I'm not changing who I am. I lead in my own way and when I talk,
00:28 everybody in that organization is going to listen. And whatever I say is always for the betterment of
00:33 the team and my teammates know that." Again, he's been asked to talk about this, Keith, for years,
00:41 time and time again by various media, different articles, different podcasts. This is a theme.
00:47 It continually comes up. But the big difference between all of those times before and now is,
00:53 I would argue, you know, like we have fun with the whole heart and soul thing, but Marcus Smartt
00:58 I think really was the de facto captain, obviously, who was the longest tenured member of the team.
01:05 He was this team's leader. He was this team's, you know, the guy that was going to yell and
01:13 shout and be that vocal guy. Now, does that always make you the true leader just because
01:20 you're the loudest guy in the room? Not necessarily, but I do think Marcus Smartt,
01:24 more often than not, was considered both internally and externally the leader of that team.
01:28 He's gone now. So this is more than ever, Evan and I have talked about it, Tatum and Brown's team.
01:34 Is Tatum prepared to lead in, you know, he doesn't, forget us, he doesn't need to do anything
01:40 for us, you know, fans, media, outsiders. Within that room, does he have a leadership style you
01:47 think that does resonate with everybody else that need to listen to him? "New fan group customers
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02:06 I think so. I think what we're going to find out with this team is, do you need that in-your-face
02:18 leader or not? Because you mentioned Marcus, I would say the second guy in the roster who would
02:24 do that is Grant Williams, and he's no longer there either. It's, you know, I always like and
02:28 did too, you know, those are the two guys along with when he was there, Emeigh or Doka, they'd
02:33 scream and yell at you and make you feel bad. And then Al Horford would put his arms around
02:37 your shoulder and be like, "All right, you know, let's move on. Let's go and just kind of get it
02:42 moving." And I think Tatum probably falls more towards the Horford side of things. We know Derek
02:47 White's kind of a quiet leader. Jalen Brown can be loud, but I tend to think that's more towards
02:53 itself than it has ever been towards anybody else. So we're going to see, is there somebody on the
02:57 roster who will, you know, if the need arises, kind of get in somebody's face? And do you even
03:03 need that, right? Those are the other things we're going to find out is, can you get through? Like,
03:08 I don't know, maybe somebody is that guy on the Denver Nuggets, but I don't know who the guy on
03:13 the Nuggets is that was screaming and yelling in teammates' faces either. It seems like they were
03:17 all a little bit more of, "Hey, let's do what we're supposed to do." But that's a long way of
03:22 saying, I think with Tatum, you're right, we're never going to see it. Like, it's never going to
03:26 be on the court where he, you know, is grabbing somebody's jersey and screaming and yelling at
03:32 them. We're never going to see, you know, that even the moments when the media is allowed in
03:36 at the end of a practice and those kind of things. Maybe stories will trickle out, but I think he's
03:42 going to be more of the kind of guy who's going to be like, "All right, here's what we got to do."
03:45 And kind of sit everybody down and let's talk through this and kind of go through it in a way
03:50 where it is, you know, "Hey, but I think it's more than a just, let's build everybody up. I think
03:57 it's going to be in a, I'm holding people accountable kind of way." And it's almost
04:01 kind of like, I look at it as when we were kids, right? You almost wanted, if you knew you screwed
04:06 up, you wanted your parents to scream and yell at you. And it was way worse when they were like,
04:11 you know, "I'm just disappointed in you." Yeah, I'm not mad that we were disappointed.
04:15 Yeah, like that just, that hurts so much worse, you know, than if they yelled at you. So I think
04:20 that's, but I think that's the kind of guy Tatum is. I think he's probably more the kind of,
04:24 you know, leader who is like, "All right, I'm a little disappointed. I'm not happy. Here's what
04:29 we got to do." I guess my concern, Keith, would be, and I don't know how this plays out, and I
04:35 may never know because it would have to be written about by, you know, it's that behind closed doors
04:41 kind of thing. And I'm not even saying it needs to be Tatum. It just needs to be somebody who,
04:47 every once in a while, who isn't the coach, is going to raise his voice in that room. I just
04:54 think you can only have so many, and it doesn't need to be on a daily basis like it felt like
04:59 maybe it was from Marcus or even from Grant. You just can only have, I think, within a team,
05:06 in all this expertise that I have, I just think you can only have so many lead by example guys.
05:12 You know, you need to have someone that when the going gets tough, and I don't mean a five-game
05:17 skid. It could be, you know, at halftime of a game, a particular game, where somebody is going
05:22 to raise their voice and get everyone's attention and provide that sort of, you know, for lack of
05:29 better way of putting it, that fire up moment, that spark. It doesn't need to be a rah-rah speech,
05:36 but it's got to be something that just, like, gets everybody's blood boiling a little bit.
05:40 And I don't know who that guy is on this roster, and it does sort of feel like
05:45 if it is going to be Tatum, it's going to be very, very infrequent. And that's fine.
05:50 If he only raises his voice three times a year, people are sure as hell going to listen when it
05:54 happens. But it's got to be somebody, right? I think so. I'm with you on that. I generally think,
06:03 you know, someone needs to be that guy, and we'll see. You know, maybe that develops into somebody,
06:09 and maybe that's where it goes. But yeah, I think it's, you know, team chemistry is always a very,
06:15 you know, it's like a balancing act, right? It's like, you know, you put too much chlorine in your
06:20 pool, and you know, you're in trouble with that, and everybody's eyes hurt. You don't put enough in,
06:24 and your pool's gross. And you know, I think it's you're constantly kind of tweaking and adjusting,
06:29 and trying to figure out, you know, the right mix. And I think with, and the dog just popped
06:34 her head in here. I think you've got to, you know, go into those things where you've got to figure
06:40 that stuff out, because to your point, yeah, if everybody's just the kind of quiet leader,
06:45 then it's like, who's going to fire these guys up? Who's going to get them going? Especially
06:48 on that night where Tatum's shot isn't falling, and he's not able to kind of get himself going.
06:54 Who's going to get everybody fired up? And on the flip side, if you have too many guys who want to
06:57 scream and yell all the time, we know that never goes well, right? That's when it's like, God,
07:02 would you shut up and just play kind of stuff. And that's going to be interesting. I'll also say,
07:07 too, a very underrated loss, I think, in that locker room is going to be Blake Griffin. If he
07:13 does not return, which all indications are, he's probably not going to. So I think that's another
07:18 loss that they're going to have, because he's another guy who he'd been around for a long time.
07:22 He wasn't afraid to get loud, much like Grant wasn't afraid to, you know, all right, hey, let's,
07:27 you know, I'm going to crack jokes. Let's be funny. And, you know, I'll kind of be the butt
07:32 of the jokes for the team for that. And I think they're going to miss out with Grant, too. Grant's
07:36 the guy they could all kind of pick on if they wanted to. And they did plenty, and he took it
07:41 good naturedly and those kind of things. So, yeah, their chemistry is going to be interesting to
07:46 watch develop throughout the course of this year. Yeah, I just think sometimes when it comes to
07:51 being a leader, your play on the court can mean more than your actual voice in the locker room.
07:57 Whereas like Tatum, you know, is he going to yell and scream at people? No, maybe that's going to
08:01 be more Jalen Brown, or maybe that's going to be Sam Cassell or, you know, somebody on the bench.
08:05 But I think, you know, when they need a spark, it's going to be Tatum demanding the ball and
08:11 going to the basket, going to the free throw line or whatever he's trying to do. And I think Tatum
08:15 is more than capable of doing something like that. So I think when we talk about leadership,
08:20 we often think about the guy in the locker room who's trying to fire everybody up. We don't have
08:25 access to that stuff, so we have no clue what Tatum's like in the locker room. Every once in a
08:29 while, you get a great clip from the Celtics media relations people of, you know, Joe coming in,
08:35 you know, giving a postgame speech, you know, something really quick or, you know, you'll see
08:39 guys interacting. And sometimes you get a little bit of a sense of like the locker room hierarchy.
08:43 But I do think the one thing that we are missing is the on-court stuff that Tatum can do to lead a
08:51 team. You know, that's going to be really important. And I would argue that's more important
08:55 than the stuff that he says in the locker room, because sometimes when you need a guy to go on
08:59 a run in a game, Tatum's as good as anybody at creating a run by himself. And yeah, he's not
09:04 going to have his shots, not going to fall all the time, but more often than not, it's going to.
09:08 And again, he's going to be a guy that can pick the team up just by hitting baskets,
09:12 playing good defense, getting rebounds, pushing the basketball, getting guys involved. Like that's
09:18 just as impactful to me that being a leader than the stuff that you say. And I think Tatum is,
09:24 again, more than capable of doing that kind of stuff on both ends of the floor to get a team
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