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NBA TV will offer nightly studio coverage of the NBA Finals. GameTime Live at the Finals will feature analysts such as Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith of TNT’s iconic Inside the NBA, as well as Grant Hill, Isiah Thomas, Candace Parker, Steve Smith, Brendan Haywood, and Channing Frye.
Brendan Haywood: ‘Then I get the call my agent's like, 'Yo, I got good news and bad news.' He's like, the bad news is you're getting traded from Orlando. The good news is you're getting traded to the Wizards and Michael Jordan made the trade for you.' Oh, okay. Okay, all right. Yes, MJ. At this point we already knew he was coming back. Yeah, so I was like, 'Oh wow, okay,' and so it was just getting a chance to go to the Wizards. I was, like I said, disappointed it wasn't Orlando, but I'm getting a chance to play with Michael Jordan. It’s incredible.’
Brendan Haywood: ‘He didn't want to lose nothing. You can't pay for that. You get to see the best of all time and you get to see what makes him that. Just in practice he just didn't want to lose at all. Question: Was people still fearing MJ? Haywood: Yes. Because you got to realize what time it was. The young dudes in the league that were coming into the league grew up watching MJ kind of like the young guys in this league now getting in there they're stepping out there looking at LeBron like ‘oh my God I'm playing against LeBron’.
Brendan Haywood: My favorite Bron moment? The shot he hit in Chicago. All my career, I heard people say, "He can’t hit a game-winner. He’s scared of the moment." We’re down two. David Blatt draws up the game-winner for J.R. Smith. Bron grabs the clipboard, erases the play, and draws his own. He says, "Deli, take it out. I’m going to fake this way, pop to the corner, and hit the three." He fakes out Jimmy Butler, pops to the corner, hits the three, and wins the game. I’ve never seen anyone draw up their own game-winner like that. That’s elite.
Brendan Haywood: Gil is supposed to zip her up to the top of the key. He's supposed to drive on the weak side. I'm going to come down and pin down screen on Larry because everybody's going to be looking at Gil. Larry's going to pop wide open—Larry's having a great game—but knock down the jumper. Gil catches the ball at the top of the key. Cool. I'm thinking he's going to drive through the middle of the court. Does not. Drives the ball away from Larry, goes to between the mid-post and the baseline, and pulls a jumper up. Iconic shot. A hand in his face. Bow. Game winner. We all rush him, and we’re celebrating in the locker room. I walk over to him and say, "Yo, man, how’d you know to go to the left and not give the ball to Larry?" This man, with all seriousness, looked me in my eyes and said, "Larry was supposed to get the ball?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I just watched the play to the moment. I knew where I was going to get the ball, and I just started figuring out how I was going to get my shot." I said, "Dog, you weren’t even shooting well." He said, "I knew I was going to shoot that one."
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Brendan Haywood: Gilbert gets cut from Team USA for someone like Kirk Hinrich. Oh, no disrespect to Kirk Hinrich, but he's not Gilbert. Gil was like, "Yo, I'm going to give all these dudes buckets when I see them." So, certain coaches were on his hit list—anybody that coached on Team USA was on his hit list. We went to Phoenix, and man, he gave them that work. He even told them, "Hey man, y'all boys are going to be doing wind sprints tonight."
Brendan Haywood on Michael Jordan: 'At 40 years old, he was still in the gym before everyone else'
Brendan Haywood: Playing with Michael Jordan was a blessing. It was wild to think he was both a player and a GM. I’d see guys go out and party with him and think, ‘Y’all realize you’re partying with the boss, right?’ When they asked me to come, I’d just stay in my room and play video games. But MJ showed me why he was the greatest. At 40 years old, he was still in the gym before everyone else, lifting with Tim Grover and getting up shots. His footwork was impeccable. He taught Bobby Simmons, a young player, how to read defenders: ‘When you jab, watch how they react. If they drop this foot, counter this way.’ Everything MJ did was calculated. He wasn’t just guessing—he read body language, anticipated rotations, and always knew his next move. Watching that up close, you realize it’s not by accident. It’s all in the preparation.
Brendan Haywood on Dirk's 'quiet confidence' during the 2011 Finals: "We taking on The Big 3, they ain't no real Big 3. If they really wanted to create Big 3, they would've came and got me."
Brendan Haywood: "The gun situation with Javaris and Gil was the dumbest thing of all time. Two guys let their pride and ego get in the way. First and foremost, it wasn’t even about either one of their money. I think it was JaVale McGee who might have owed Earl Boykins money. Long story short, jokes started getting made like, 'You can’t owe this guy money,' and Javaris was like, 'Yeah, you can’t owe that guy money,' and Gil started talking about how Javaris owes money. Next thing you know, it snowballs out of hand. Javaris is like, 'I’ll shoot you in your knee,' and Gil’s like, 'Oh, you want to talk about guns? I got all the guns.' It escalated from nothing. Then Gil puts a gold Desert Eagle in Javaris’s locker as a joke, and Javaris says, 'I don’t need your gun; I got my own.' It turned into something stupid over a card game."
Throughout NBA history, New York City natives have won a combined 62 championships, far surpassing any other city worldwide, according to HoopsHype’s research. However, 58 of these titles were secured in the 20th century, with only four in the 21st – courtesy of Brendan Haywood, Lamar Odom and Metta World Peace. That tells you all you need to know about New York’s decline as the actual basketball mecca.
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Josiah Johnson: “What are your favorite memories from that 1997 McDonald’s All-American Game and who was the actual top dog in that room full of alphas?” Brendan Haywood: “The top dog as far as personalities, BD (Baron Davis), Baron & Ron Artest.” Josiah Johnson: “East Coast, West Coast!”
Brendan Haywood: “And as far as Ron goes, I don’t think that Ron knew it was an All-Star Game, because Ron only played one way. So, I’ll never forget, we come to the bench and Ron was like, you know you get to talking all fast, like, ‘Yo, son! I was out here playing all hard. I’m playing defense and everything, nobody can give me the ball, son! The next MFer to take a shot and don’t pass me the ball, getting snuffed out! That’s on everything, son!’ I was like, ‘Oh my God! He is crazy!’ They swung that thing to me boy, I damn near handed it to him. I didn’t wanna get snuffed out. He seems sincere. And so that was my Ron Artest moment.
Clutch Points: "David Blatt draws the play up... [LeBron] said, 'Absolutely not,' grabs the clipboard, erases the play... I've never seen somebody draw up their own game winner." Brendan Haywood on LeBron's game winner vs. the Bulls in 2015 😤 (via @fuboSports) pic.twitter.com/EkkGgKPpI0
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