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Jorge Sierra: NBA players who had to play at least 11 seasons to make their All-Star debut: Mike Conley Vlade Divac Tyson Chandler Kyle Korver Anthony Mason Sam Cassell NORMAN POWELL
Earl Watson: So Jimmy Butler gets on the block. We're on a road trip. We land. Robert Sarver sends me a text. ‘Come to my house immediately.’ It's like two or three in the morning. I'm not trying to go to nobody house in no two in the morning. I'm trying to go home, right? [laughter] I pull up to the house. It's Sarver. It's Ryan McDonough. And Ryan kind of gave me a look like ‘here we go.’ So I sit down and he goes, "We have a trade." And I go, "What's the trade?" I'm first year head coach. I'm always looking for us to get better. I'm now learning if you don't get better, you are obvious tanking, right? So I go, "What's the trade?" He goes, "We have a trade for Devin Booker. We're going to send Devin to Chicago for Jimmy Butler." In that moment I am the biggest Devin Booker advocate, right? Would have been a hell of a team though: Eric Bledsoe, Tyson Chandler, Brandon Knight, Jimmy Butler. It could have changed my entire coaching trajectory, right? Q. But why weren't you rolling? Watson: I’ve seen I really seen a kid who could be one of the greatest players to ever play. And I sat there and I watched the kid work. I'm in the gym with the kid. I think coaches who don't get in the gym with their players, no matter what your position is as a coach, I think you lose imagination. You got to get on the court. You got to be in the workouts. You got to see what a player can actually do and cannot do. So when you get in the game and you draw up a play, you're confident in that play or you develop plays because you see something that you don't see in practice that you might see in an individual session. Right. So in that moment, Chris, and this was the beginning of the end of me in Phoenix. In that moment, Chris, I say, "If you trade Devin Booker, I am resigning tonight." So, we go back and forth. And right now I feel sorry for Ryan McDonough because he is like ‘oh sh*t.’ I’m like I do not want to trade Devin Booker. You can build around him, I don't want to be the coach that traded potentially one of the best two guards, say five to 10 to ever play. I believe he had that potential. He had superstar potential.
Howard is one of 19 players in NBA history with five consecutive first-team All-NBA nods. The only other centers on that list are Shaq and George Mikan. The only other 21st-century players are LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, O'Neal, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant -- who, with the exception of the young Doncic, are acknowledged as top-25 players in NBA history. Critics would contend that Howard so thoroughly dominated the All-NBA voting because of a lesser caliber of competition in that era. This idea has some merit: Though the center landscape wasn't quite as barren during Howard's reign as it would be half a decade later -- the All-NBA centers in 2015-16 were DeAndre Jordan, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond -- the second- and third-team All-NBA centers behind Howard were Amar'e Stoudemire (three times), Yao Ming (twice), Suns-era Shaq, Andrew Bogut, Al Horford, Andrew Bynum and Tyson Chandler. There are good players on that list, but few Hall of Famers.
After his playing days, Tyson Chandler turned to coaching and, since 2021, has worked as a development coach for the Dallas Mavericks, working closely with Luka Doncic. “Luka was one of the best players I’ve ever seen on the court and in practice. Of course, we all see what Luka does in the game, but I’m speaking about practice, because it’s very difficult to impress your peers. Luka does things that I’ve never seen before. That’s difficult. I’ve been around the game for a long time, and there are very few special players that will show you some things that you’ve never seen before. And Luka was one of those players. I would always call him Luka Magic because he reminded me of a European version of Magic Johnson.”
Even though the blockbuster trade that sent Luka to Los Angeles stunned him, Chandler believes it will work out for all involved: “I was just as surprised as the rest of the world with the trade. I think it will end up working out for both sides, you know, in the long run. But I was just surprised, clearly.”
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“Of course, I’m Team USA. So I’m always going to be cheering for Team USA, but even when I played for Team USA, I knew we could get beat tonight, because these guys are really good. And that was when we had the best players in the world on our team. We can’t necessarily say that anymore. I think (Nikola) Jokic is probably the best player in the world. So we no longer have that. Now we have to be the best team. I’m looking forward to when international competition kicks back up because it’s just going to be great basketball,” Tyson Chandler concluded, speaking to Eurohoops.
Kevin Durant: We were supposed to get Tyson Chandler too. We traded for him, but our doctors said something was wrong with his toe, so we rescinded the trade. The next season, Tyson went on to win the championship with Dallas.
Isaiah says the 2011 Dallas Mavericks champion center took him under his wing in Houston, where Chandler instilled the importance of quarterbacking a defense from the center position. Hartenstein shared his past with reporters after training camp on Thursday. “I had to learn it. I feel like, especially coming in as a rookie, I probably wasn’t talking as much as I should. A big guy [who helped me] with that was Tyson Chandler,” Hartenstein said. “I played with him with the Rockets. He taught me how important communication is. Learning from those guys helped me a lot.”
When Lively returned to the Mavericks’ locker room Thursday night, his phone had already been pinged by former Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler. Reminders to keep his head down, to stick to the grind. “Text messages,” Lively said. “I suck at phone calls.”
While the Mavericks spend the weekend in Boston, Chandler has still offered counsel to his pupil from afar. “All he’s telling me to do is the little things, no matter if that’s hitting them on the box-out or being able to talk to my teammates on the backside,” Lively said. “Just doing the little things so that everybody is connected on the court, so we’re not leaving anybody behind.”
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Chandler, working as a volunteer, also attended most of those sessions and has been a regular at the Mavs' home practices throughout the season because he so thoroughly enjoys aiding in Lively's development. Chandler, whose 19-year career was highlighted by the Mavs' championship and a Defensive Player of the Year honor won with the New York Knicks two seasons later, has watched as Lively learned and implemented the dirty-work details of the game that Chandler said took years for him to fully grasp. "I didn't know he'd be this sound as a rookie. I think that's more impressive than anything," Chandler told ESPN after Lively averaged 11.5 points and 11.3 rebounds in four consecutive wins bridging the West semifinals and finals. "He steps into the moment and is not afraid of the moment or second-guessing himself." Kidd, for his part, sees the easy parallels between the two big men.
Michael Scotto: When you came into the league as a second-round pick, did you have a chip on your shoulder? Isaiah Hartenstein: Yeah. It was a frustrating time, especially going into the draft. I was projected a lot higher, and then, on draft night, I got red-flagged for something (an injury) I didn’t have. That was frustrating. I think everything happened for a reason. I think I was put in a situation that maybe at the time I didn’t really get it, but I was blessed to learn from Hall of Famers Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and from a big’s standpoint, I had Nenê to help me a lot and Tyson Chandler who was helping me a lot. At the time, I feel like you don’t really get what’s happening, but I think being consistent and changing my mental approach helped a lot.