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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 19 hours ago
Transcript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show, Adonalfoyle!
00:10Hey!
00:11Hey!
00:11Hey!
00:13Adonalfoyle!
00:14Thank you for being here, Adonalfoyle!
00:16I couldn't have you guys come into my neighborhood and I don't show up, you know?
00:21Look at you!
00:22I didn't know you were out here!
00:24Don't tell nobody.
00:26What's your address, Adonalfoyle?
00:27No, I'm caught off guard because I just saw you on TV on Check, Please! Bay Area, which
00:35I don't know if you guys know that, it's a KQED show where three people go to restaurants
00:39and it was Festus Azili, it was Trace Jackson Davis, and Adonalfoyle, so I got goosebumps
00:45by an actual restaurateur here.
00:48There you go.
00:49You know, I mean, food is like one of the most important things, I think, besides, you know,
00:53playing basketball at the NBA level because I remember, you know, JJ and I, by the last
00:58few years in the league, we almost went to every restaurant in every city, so food is
01:02a constant part of what we're doing, especially having late night options after a game.
01:07Yeah!
01:08Exactly right!
01:09I think they agree with you here at Jack's Restaurant and Bar.
01:12The food's good, right?
01:13We're all doing good!
01:14No, it's awesome, it's awesome, it's awesome to have you here, we do want to talk a little
01:19Warrior basketball, nine games in, what do you see, what do you think?
01:24Well, I think for me, we know that this team, the way it's built, we want to see what the
01:29Warriors is going to be three, four months from now.
01:31We know we have the pedigree, we have the talent, we have an agent in a cohort that needs
01:37time, so to me, the game plan is a very simple game plan.
01:41How do we endure until the end of the season and ensure that, you know, the guys that we
01:47have play as minimum amount of minutes as possible so that they can be there for the
01:51end, which means that for me, right now, what's happening with Kaminga and the younger guys,
01:57that's the most important thing that you can ask for, is for an opportunity for them to
02:01play, play significant minutes, make as much mistake as they need to make now, and really
02:06get that, just take a player like I think Kaminga.
02:10When you think about a player who developed a game very late, the last thing that comes,
02:15as somebody who has done the same thing, you know, starting the game at 15, the last thing
02:19that comes for a player like that is the tactical ability, the ability to assess, to downshift,
02:24to go from fifth, back down to three, going back up to, you know, to four, that kind of
02:29thing takes a little bit longer.
02:30So you're now seeing him understanding that, you're now seeing him instead of going to A
02:34to B, he may downshift, he may go to a little bit zigzag.
02:37That's the kind of thing that time takes.
02:39And the more time he gets in the flow, the better he's going to be down the stretch.
02:43Is it even harder for Jonathan on a night like last night, where now you have to kind
02:47of be in fifth gear the whole time?
02:49Because now you're not the only guy, but you're kind of the guy.
02:52Is that a tougher adjustment for him without Steph and Jimmy to suddenly get back into
02:57that mode?
02:58It will be, but I think part of the maturity of Jonathan Kaminga is the understanding that
03:03you don't have to be that option.
03:05So what I want him to get into the habit of thinking is that the game is a bit more easier
03:09than you think it is.
03:11And the older you get, the more you understand that simplicity.
03:14So a layup, you take the layup a hundred times if it's available.
03:18You don't take another shot just because they let you take it.
03:21You make them, you put and force your will on the other side.
03:26That's a learned kind of response, right?
03:28Veterans do that better because they understand that when you have somebody in a grind, you
03:32keep your foot and the gas.
03:35You know, you hear Steve Kerr still talking about Jonathan's decision making.
03:40He's come back this year.
03:42It's clearly better.
03:44Like he's clearly finally picking up what Jimmy Butler's talking about, Draymond Green,
03:49Steve Kerr.
03:50It still might need some tightening of the screws, especially when you see a game like
03:54last night where he's in more of a lead role.
03:56But you just referenced kind of your history and picking the game up late.
04:00Like what is the right way to look at his career arc?
04:04Because he's not a rookie, but he's still such a kid at the same time.
04:08So if you think about Steph Curry, right?
04:10Steph has been learning basketball from probably before he was born, right?
04:14So by the time that he's five, you have the skill acquisition and all of the different
04:19and the mindset, right?
04:20That's done.
04:21So most guys tactically, they start developing that skill around college, right?
04:25When you were Jonathan, when you were me, you started at 15.
04:28I was learning all the way through college.
04:30So now you're in the NBA and these guys are really good.
04:33So you have one speed and you want to go 100 miles an hour.
04:36The problem is going 100 miles an hour, you're not as effective.
04:39You have to be able to go 50, then get to 75, and then get to 100 on your own terms when
04:45you think.
04:45But that takes a certain amount of patience, a certain amount of maturity, and that's the
04:50last thing for a guy developing his game with a mindset.
04:54That's the last thing that comes into play.
04:57And beyond the mindset of Jonathan Kaminga and Adonald Foyles here with Willard and Dibs
05:0195-70 game, I'm thinking about the schedule.
05:04And I mentioned to Mark, like the early schedule, a lot of road, a lot of back-to-back, a lot
05:08of difficulty.
05:09As a veteran, how much are you able to just kind of bide your time and understand that you'll
05:15be able to fatten up maybe a little bit later in the year?
05:17Yeah, I mean, the thing that I think Steve has been very good at, and we have a history,
05:22which is to take all the players and play them with being judicious and really have them
05:28there, right?
05:28But you want the young guys to be on fire.
05:31You want them to go out.
05:32You don't mind losing a game.
05:34What you want is to see improvement from game to game.
05:36You want to see improvement in terms of rebounding, in terms of defense, in terms of how you protect
05:40the paint, dive in for loose ball, you know, deflections.
05:43What you want to see is not necessarily the ball is going to fall into the basket.
05:47We know that that's going to come with time.
05:49They're going to shoot better.
05:50But what we want to see is the effort.
05:52And I think defense, when we talk about defense, it's like, that's all effort.
05:57What it requires is you have to sell out and display.
06:01You need to close out to the three-point line knowing that a guy may drive, and then the
06:05other guy have to help.
06:07That's when you say, you know, strength in numbers.
06:09What you're saying is that we all have to be on the same page.
06:11And the more you're on the same page, the easier the game tend to be.
06:14And that takes a little longer for younger guys.
06:16Donald Foyle with us here on Willard and Dibs, 95-7, the game.
06:20We're at the Warriors Summit.
06:21And everybody here at Jack's Restaurant and Bar, I want you to know this.
06:24You know what you're looking at right here?
06:26This is a man who, let me count them up, one, two, three, four, five.
06:31Six times in his career, he played more than 75 games in the NBA season.
06:38Right?
06:39Load management.
06:40Load management.
06:42Like, what a thought, right?
06:43I mean, wow.
06:44Do you need some water, Donald?
06:46Oh, my God.
06:49No, yeah.
06:50Sip a coffee, please.
06:51Something, man.
06:52We know we're not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
06:56But do you, as someone who played in the other NBA, do you kind of buy what Steve Kerr's
07:02been saying lately that it's like floor coverage is different, pace is different.
07:07It is acceptable that these guys need to sit out sometimes for no reason.
07:12Yeah.
07:12So, I mean, I think that one of the things that we don't do a very good job as athlete,
07:17we lie, right?
07:18We don't tell.
07:20We don't tell.
07:21Not athletes do that, too.
07:22We just don't tell people our data.
07:25I remember one time, like, I was playing in a game, and it was against Don Nelson, and
07:31they find out that, you know, they put, like, my fingers were broken.
07:34The both of them were tied together like this.
07:36And Don Nelson sent his players into the game, and he basically told them to just squeeze
07:41that finger all night.
07:43By the time I got out of the game, my finger was this big.
07:46I could not play.
07:47I catch the ball.
07:48The point that I'm making is, is that if you go through an NBA season, it is impossible
07:52to find a player by February that is not hurt.
07:55You just don't know the many injuries they have because we lie about it.
07:59We don't tell you because when we tell you, you're going to try to, like, strategize against
08:02it.
08:03So, we don't have that insight.
08:04The point I'm making is, we do know the older a player gets, the longer you play this
08:10game, it's just diminishing returns.
08:11So, the question becomes, how do you preserve your player the best you can and still being
08:17respectful for the game?
08:18Because when somebody, you know, pays money to go to a game, they should be able to see
08:23the player they go there to see.
08:24Under some extraordinary circumstances, we should take it really seriously that most
08:29people don't get to go to a game every day.
08:31So, when they do get to go to a game, they should see the most high caliber game.
08:35But I think we could do a job and then say, look, yes, we can worry about Steph Curry.
08:40We can worry about the 14 guys.
08:42But we have to do a mix.
08:44And what we could do is to have more transparency so people know what's happening ahead of time.
08:48Yeah.
08:48And for you, when you played, load management was just guarding Shaquille O'Neal, right?
08:53Exactly.
08:54I mean, literally.
08:54It's like going around and being like, I can't walk.
08:57My knees hurt.
08:58My back hurt.
08:59But you have a back-to-back.
09:00So, get to work.
09:01Yeah, back-to-back.
09:01And the back-to-back involved big country, Patrick Ewing, Kim Olaju.
09:06I mean, Shaq, whatever.
09:08I mean, the only thing is, you probably didn't have to guard one through five.
09:11You're guarding some of these, like, all-time centers.
09:14So, I wonder if there's a solution, though, O'Donnell.
09:16Like, Steve Kerr has come out and said, you know, 72 games would be the sweet spot.
09:20But they're not going to cut games.
09:22So, do teams have no choice but to do it the way they're doing it?
09:26I think that the choice is, and I've had this conversation.
09:29I have been in a high part of the union as the first vice president of the union.
09:35And I have approached players.
09:36There's just too many games in the season.
09:38And the question becomes, like, everybody agreed, management, players, everybody agreed there's too many games.
09:47Nobody wants to give up any money at any games.
09:49Right.
09:50So, you simply can't have it both ways.
09:54If we're agreed that there are too many games, what we have to do is to find a solution and it will take the players and the owners sitting down and really thinking about what is best for the game, the best quality of the game.
10:05You and I could agree that back-to-back games should be limited because they're terrible, right?
10:10Like, by any metric, when you look at a back-to-back game, it's not as good as the first game, right?
10:15So, we should try to limit that as a sports.
10:19So, we have to look at, could we condense the season?
10:22Could we extend it?
10:23So, those are the kind of conversations, but it's not going to happen until people are willing to say, look, for the betterment of the game, we have to make decisions that makes our game more interesting than in a position where we have to say, okay, we need to play games early in order to get more people interested so that we're getting more interested in the end, right?
10:40So, I think, like, what's the number?
10:44I don't know what that number is, but I think that there's a conversation that needs to be had.
10:48It would be as if, it would be like NFL players playing a game four days after they had just played a game.
10:54They would never do that.
10:54You would never play a football game on a Thursday night, would you, Adonald?
10:58The pick is in, by the way.
10:59You would never do that.
11:00It's crazy.
11:02Hey, I think we would all love to hear from you.
11:06And now, by the way, you look great.
11:07Happy 50th birthday earlier this year.
11:10Oh, thank you.
11:12A Donald foil.
11:14A Donald 15th.
11:14Don't tell nobody.
11:16No, I won't tell anyone other than our audience, but just, so, like, while we're talking about age, how realistic do you think this is?
11:23What the Warriors are trying to do with a core at this age?
11:27Man, I think that this is, like, in sports, it's worth it, right?
11:33Realistic, be damned, right?
11:35So, the thing about sports, the thing about Steph Curry, the thing about, you know, what we love about our game is that we go in with the expectation, win or lose, we want to put on a hell of a show.
11:46And if you ask Steph Curry in the next two years, you know, what he wants to do, the thing he would tell you is, like, it's not like he wants to play in the playoff or play in the finals.
11:56Of course he does.
11:57But what he would tell you is that I want a chance to shock the world, right?
12:01Every player at every caliber, that's what you want.
12:04I want to be healthy and give me a chance and let me see what I can do.
12:09Ask that of LeBron.
12:10Ask that of Steph.
12:11Ask that of any great player.
12:13To me, it's like, that is the right.
12:15The next two years, they have two years to see what they can do.
12:18And, boy, it's going to be bumpy.
12:21It's going to be crazy.
12:22I want to see every second of it.
12:25I don't care what you get because that's, at the end of the day, what sports is about is the ride.
12:31Thank you so much for taking a ride over here.
12:33Donald Foyle.
12:36Man.
12:38What a treat to get to talk to you, man.
12:40Thank you so much for doing it.
12:42Thank you so much for doing it.
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