00:00Karl-Anthony, bonjour, how you doing?
00:02Good, man, good, good.
00:03Bonjour.
00:03Bonjour.
00:04Wait, I gotta start here.
00:05What am I supposed to call you?
00:07Karl-Anthony?
00:07Cat?
00:08I really don't care.
00:10What do your friends call you?
00:13Cat.
00:14They do call you Cat?
00:16Yeah, most of the time.
00:16All right, let's do that.
00:17That's fine with me.
00:18Cool.
00:19I know how you guys, the players, get superstitious.
00:23So am I allowed to say this,
00:25that you guys are one win away from a championship?
00:30I mean, it's written now.
00:31It's a fact, right?
00:32It's a fact.
00:32So we got a lot of work to do, obviously left, but it is true.
00:37We've put ourselves in a position to see our dreams come true.
00:40Do you realize what we're saying here?
00:41I mean, you were down 2-1 in the first round against Atlanta,
00:45and now you're like 3-1 up in the finals.
00:48That sounds crazy, right?
00:50You know, life comes at you quick.
00:52But we kept our head down.
00:54We continue to focus on the mission.
00:56We continue to believe in each other.
00:57And like I said, just we're blessed to be in this spot
01:01where we have a chance to realize our dreams come true.
01:04Tell me about your main job, I guess, in these finals,
01:07your matchup with Wemby.
01:08What's it like so far?
01:10Well, first off, I think everyone in the world,
01:12including France, knows he's tall.
01:13Yeah.
01:14But he's superbly talented, great player.
01:18And, you know, for my job, it's just to make it as difficult as possible
01:20for a great player to score the ball.
01:22You know, I'm going to try to be as neutral as I can be,
01:25but keep in mind that I'm French.
01:26Of course.
01:27I'm curious.
01:27So I'm curious.
01:29Isn't that the kind of challenge you love, though?
01:31Yes.
01:31I mean, when you get to go against the best of the best,
01:34a great talent, a generational talent,
01:36and one of the best talents the NBA has ever seen.
01:38And it is intangibles as well, obviously, with the size.
01:41And it makes it a fun, a fun challenge.
01:44And that's what you play basketball for.
01:45That's what you compete in sports for,
01:47to go against the best of the best.
01:49Everybody's been seeing how physical things get between you two.
01:51Do you feel like maybe it's getting too much?
01:55We're both trying to win the finals.
01:57You're fine with it?
01:57Yeah. So we're just both competing at a high level.
01:59Cool. I get that.
02:00All right. I want to talk about you, Kat, now.
02:02You're 30 years old, right?
02:04Yeah.
02:05Are you happy with the way your career is going?
02:07Yeah. Yeah.
02:08I mean, this is my 11th year in the NBA.
02:11A lot of people, almost 90 plus percent of players,
02:15never get to say that, that they've been in a league for a decade plus.
02:17Definitely.
02:19I'm blessed that my career went the way it did,
02:21because I don't know if I would be in this position if it didn't.
02:24You know, being able to go to Minnesota,
02:26grow my game, be with such an amazing fan base there that welcomed me,
02:29allowed me to grow.
02:30And coming back home, I was the best version of myself,
02:34ready for this opportunity.
02:35And I'm glad I've been able to make the most of it so far.
02:38Does it make it any more special that now you're wearing the jersey
02:41of the franchise you were a fan of growing up?
02:43Yeah, it is. It's crazy.
02:45Like I said, my dad got his first and only tryout with the NBA team,
02:49with the Knicks.
02:50It's so cool.
02:50It's pretty cool to see how proud he is, obviously,
02:54of my NBA career so far, but also to see his name on a Knicks jersey
02:58when he thought he was going to be the first one to do it.
03:00It's very cool.
03:00It's cool to be a hand of the dream and run with it.
03:04All right. I read something about you that we got to talk about.
03:07We're going to educate our viewers in France right now.
03:10Just so you know, we're going to talk about football and NFL.
03:13It's getting bigger and bigger in France these days.
03:16So you grew up in New Jersey, right?
03:18Right outside of New York.
03:20Yeah, yeah.
03:20You're a big Knicks fan. We talked about that.
03:22But I read that you're an Eagles fan.
03:25Yeah, Philadelphia Eagles fan.
03:26And people in France got to know that usually in sports,
03:28New York and Philly don't like each other.
03:29No, they do not.
03:30They do not.
03:31So what happened?
03:32I was young and I was impressionable.
03:35And just to see, you know, obviously the Giants, Eli Mann and Michael Strahan,
03:39Flaxo Burris, great players, you know, for the Jets to also see them play.
03:45Mark Sanchez had an amazing run to the Super Bowl with the team over there.
03:49But I just grew up an Eagles fan.
03:50I love Terrell Owens.
03:51Okay, cool.
03:52My favorite players of all time.
03:53I love Terrell Owens.
03:54And he played for the Eagles and mixed that with kind of the swag
03:57and the, how do you want to say, the showmanship and entertainment
04:02that came of watching Terrell Owens and Michael Vick play with Brian Westbrook
04:05and Brian Dawkins on the other side as well on defense.
04:10They were my favorite team to play with in Madden.
04:12And as I got to watch them play and then they made the Super Bowl,
04:16it was amazing just to be able to watch that team with Dominic McNabb play.
04:20You're a true fan.
04:21Yeah, yeah.
04:22I grew up a big fan of them and to this day I'm always going to be one.
04:26Do they give you shit in the locker room with the Knicks about that?
04:29Nah, nah, nah.
04:30We got some other Knicks, Eagles fans in the locker room.
04:32Alright, one last thing before I let you go, Kat.
04:34I'd like you, if that's okay with you, to listen to something.
04:37It's a French song by a young French rapper that I love.
04:41Have you mentioned me?
04:42When I was there in Paris.
04:43Have you heard about that?
04:43Yeah, Rudy Gobert sent it to me.
04:45He made his laugh.
04:46Can you press play on this?
04:48Yeah.
04:52Yeah, I remember that.
04:54That was fire.
04:54I was excited.
04:56I was there for Fashion Week 2 and I was sitting there with Rudy,
04:58and Rudy was telling me about the song.
05:00And I played it and I said, Rudy, I don't know really what he says,
05:02but I did hear my name and I heard MVP, so that was pretty cool.
05:05Did he translate it for you, Rudy?
05:06A little bit, yeah, but it was a shout out to him, man, for real,
05:09putting me in a song like that, taking his time to show respect in any regards,
05:14especially from France.
05:15It meant a lot, and especially for me growing up, going to,
05:19growing into the French culture and being there every year
05:22and being there for about two weeks a year
05:23and having Rudy as a teammate, obviously, it shows me around,
05:27it shows me the real France.
05:28You know, it's amazing every time I go to Paris
05:31and I get to experience the French culture.
05:33It's amazing now that I even have a more understanding of it,
05:36thanks to Rudy, Gobert.
05:37So, it's a place I love.
05:39I wouldn't mind buying an apartment or a house there.
05:42I keep that in mind.
05:43I love hearing about that.
05:45Thank you so much, Kat, for the time,
05:46and best of luck for the rest of the finals.
05:48Thank you.
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