The Ringer NBA Show - Ep. 53: Corey Brewer

Episode Date: December 23, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Vernon is joined by Houston Rockets forward Corey Brewer to discuss his transition from back-to-back national championships to bottom of the NBA (4:00), running "the octagon" with the Timberwolves (8:00), returning to Minnesota (12:00), the Rockets' hangover last season (17:00), advice for his younger NBA self (25:00), the best trash talkers in basketball (30:30), Kawhi Leonard's potential with the Spurs (34:00), and his farming abilities at home (38:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Varnett. Join me today is the Houston Rockets Forward Corey Brewer. Hey, Corey. How you doing? All right, so every time I see you, I don't know if anybody's ever told you this. Every time I see you, do you know what I think of? What do people tell you they think of if they think of you? Usually college, right?

Florida. Oh, it's Florida. Right, the Most Outstanding Player. I think of after you guys won the title, the year you won the Most Outstanding Player, there is a YouTube video. People can go look this up. and Noah's going crazy. The announcer has no idea what's going on, right?

And so Noah is yelling, we're going to do it big, we're going to do it big. You don't even know what I'm saying right now, right? And you're in the back going, we know, we know. So now that I've got the opportunity with you right here, I have to know. What was he talking about? What are the Gator Boys doing it big? What does that mean? We just had a good time, man.

We just went back to games, Bill. We were out probably for a lot of nights in a row. A lot of nights. Yeah, we had a lot of fun. But that's what it's all about, man. We had the best college experience in the world. How did you end up at Florida? It came down.

For me, I was going to go to either Tennessee or Florida. And it was tough. When you were a Tennessee guy. Yeah, it was tough decision. So I wanted to stay in state, but once I went to campus and visit, oh, my God, I couldn't turn it down. Why? I had to go. It was just amazing.

Amazing. Amazing. And people were nice. Girls. The girls were nice, of course. But just the campus was a beautiful place. And then coach's style of play was feeling perfect. At what point are you there and you know we got something special going on?

To be honest, when we first got there, I knew me and my roommates were going to be good eventually. Just because we just clicked. It's one of those things. When you meet guys, you're dying. We all became instant best friends. And it was amazing. Me, Torin Green, our friend Joaquin. Who are you cliqued?

Who are you closest with still? We're all pretty close. We're all still pretty close. Oh, really? Yeah, we all still talk. We have messages. We all mess each other. You're all on a group text?

Yeah, group text. The 07-08 champions text? Yeah, we call ourselves the 0-4s. The 0-4s? Yeah, we came into college in 2004. But you knew rather quickly that you guys were going to be a special team. Yeah, we knew we were really special. We used to go at nighttime, all four we used to go, and we used to play one-on-one.

And, like, we just played every day. And who won? Of course, me. You won. I'll get a couple wins because he was bully. He bully balls. Jo Kim get lucky and make some shots. Yeah, I'd like to see the...

I look at Joaquin would make some shots? It once in a while. The jumper's not pretty, Corey. Did you guys tease him? Always. How does it go sideways? It like spins... It spins like the wrong...

Terrible. It's terrible. That's all you can say. That's him. He made a lot of money soon. He did make a lot of money. He has made a lot of money. Now playing with the Knicks.

All right, so now you leave Florida. You're the seventh pick in the draft. And now I'm interested in at what point did you think, all right, this is what I've got to be to have a long career in the NBA? You're like what, the seventh pick overall, right? So are you thinking when you come in, I'm expected to be a star? they drafted me seven. I've got to be one of these all-star level players.

Of course you're a top 10 pick. Of course you're thinking that. But my situation changed drastically after I got drafted after I got drafted. They traded KG and a bunch of guys. And then we brought in a bunch of young guys. Oh, so you thought you were playing with Garnett. Yeah.

You're like, wow, this is the greatest. Yeah, all my interviews is like when I got drafted, I get to play with KG. I get to learn from KG. I can't wait to get it. I can't wait to get there. He gets traded two weeks. that they get drafted.

And I'm playing with, I go and playing with KG. I'm playing with Rashall McCants, Gerald Green, Randy Foy, Sebastian Telford. They're not bad guys, you know. I love the guy. I had a good time playing with him, but it's just, they were young like me. Right, they were young and. They were like second, third year guys.

And KG was one of the best players in the league. Yeah, so it was like, now everybody's trying to do the same thing. Everybody wants to be a star. Everybody's fighting a best star. So it was. What were those teams like? We were bad. really bad. It was tough situation.

For me, personally, it was tough going from winning two national championships to winning 12 games at 82, 15 years at 82. So my first three or four years was tough. It was about, then it starts like. Is it possible to be friends when that's all going on? Yeah, of course. I mean, you're all young guys and everybody's trying to make their way in the league. Everybody's probably a little teeny bit resentful of each other at the time.

It's a lot of competition. Right. So it's tough. You're friends, but on the court. You can tell us what it's tough, a little honesty. But you get through it, and lucky for me, I ended up getting, actually got traitors in New York. I got a buyout, and I was able to go to Dallas. Right.

And I think that probably saved my career. Once I got to Dallas, I learned what it's about to be an NBA player. What do you mean saved your career? Man, you go. You thought it was going the wrong way. It wasn't going the wrong way. It just wasn't. I wasn't going.

We're on bad teams. Right. We're on bad teams. Like, dang. Nobody cares. Yeah, nobody cares. Nobody watches the Timberwolves. We went 12 games.

And you blew out the ACL. Yeah. Was it the second year? Second year. So it's like bad teams, you get hurt. It's like, oh, what's going to happen? But when I went to Dallas, you know, getting to play with Dirk was great. Jason Terry and Sean Marion, those guys really was like, I was working my butt off.

And it starts to pay off. Like, you're playing with good players. Then I didn't even play that much, but I learned like this is what it's supposed to be like in the NBA. When you're winning, like, we win the World Championship that year actually would be my arm. So it was good for me. And I worked with Coach Carlis and Coach Gergavits. Coach Gergavits was there. Oh, yeah.

And I was working with Coach Gergavits. Like, we're doing like two days. Like, he was working me hard. So they helped you a ton. Of course. And then I got in a perfect situation. I get to trade to Denver and I get to play with George Carl. Right.

And I was like, okay. Now you're starting to get it. Okay, but when, all right, so at the beginning and you're going through the Minnesota stuff, the original thought was, like at what point do you realize, all right, if I'm to make it in this league, if I'm going to have a long career in this league, this is the kind of player I need to be, this is the role I want to play. Probably my fourth year. Fourth year?

Or my third year, actually. I realize my third year. I actually play well in my third year. I was like 13. But my third, fourth year, like, okay, what can I do? Right. What am I good at? And what did you decide?

I can score a lot in transition. That's it. I had Kevin Love with my team at the time in Ricky, so they were like, like, alipasas. I like led to leave in a pass of breaks. It was like five straight a year. I was in top five, I think, for a lot of years. I'm just going to take off. Yeah, take off.

I'm going to take off running. You guys just throw it. And defensively just create havoc. I was getting still, so it was working out. Right. And then, so now you've molded yourself as this role guy that, you know, and obviously it helps to be on good teams. Once you're on, once you've proven that you can play on a good team, then every,

everything opens up, right? Everything opens up then. Then teams know you're not, like, you're not a bad guy. You're a good guy, and you can help the team. So when you're helping a good team, you're actually your NBA player. Well, your image changes completely, right? Everything changes. When you were, because at the beginning, what do you think people were saying about you?

What do you think the book was on Corey Brewer? Terrible. You thought terrible? No, well, not terrible, but, like, You're not really doing nothing. We were just out there. I felt like we were just out there running around. So I don't know what the book.

You're just running. These are the Timberwolves teams? Yeah, we went in 15 games. I don't know what the book was. Then we tried to run a triangle one year, which. Oh, my God. Come on. We, with our team, there's no way we was going to run the triangle.

But we tried it. It was more like the octagon. You think you guys ran the octagon, huh? Yeah, it wasn't no triangles. The triangle didn't really work out, right? It didn't work for us, no. It was Rambis. Yeah, we had Kurt Rambis.

We had Johnny Flynn to point guard, I think. And he was more a pick-and-roll guy. Like, Johnny needed to play more, like, in a pick-and-roll system, I think. It would help them. But, you do what coach says. So we're in, I think I play well in the triangle. You think you're a good triangle player? You have to figure it out.

You better figure it out. You're going to look really bad, I think. Is it the worst? You're saying this all laughing. No, it's not the way. Is your opinion of the triangle a bleak one? You got to have certain players, I feel like. I feel like if you got certain players,

the triangle is amazing. Yep. You guys didn't have the, you didn't have the squad? You didn't have the squad? We didn't have the right pieces. All right. So after you're on that Dallas team, right? Do you feel like it's a turning point in your career?

Yeah, I feel good now. Yeah. I'm back to winning, you know. Go from not making a playoffs to winning the championship. Oh, man. I'm like, okay, this is what it's like, this is normal now. It was basketball. So then when I went to Denver, it was great.

We made the playoffs. We took the Lakers to seven games, lost first. And then the next year, we actually, like, we had a good team. We were, like, third in the West. We won, like, 58 games. We had a couple winning streaks. George gets coach of the year. Masa gets executive of the year.

Yep. We had a great year. So, play well. So I think I'm going back there, but instead they fired George and my side goes to Toronto. I'm like, oh, man. Uh-oh. Two good years. What's going to happen now?

But luckily, Flip signers, rest in peace. He called and I was able to go back to Minnesota on a nice deal, three-year deal. And then before I left Minnesota, actually, he was letting me get traded. We talked about it and I was able to go to Houston. You asked? We had a conversation. What did you say? That's what I asked.

He said, I want to do right by you because, you know, we had Wiggins and we were young and we basically were rebuilding again. He's like, I know you don't want to. There's nothing like doing that in Minnesota, right? I mean, it's like two degrees and you're losing every night. Yeah, because the year before, we actually, I thought we could have made the playoffs a year before. That's when we had to Kevin Love, Peckovish, Kevin Martin.

Yep. We won like 40 and 42, 41 and 41. We had a chance. We lost a bunch of, we probably lost 15 games about three points or less. Wow. And that's when Coach Adam was there. We just, we couldn't finish games. Like, we should have finished.

I think Peg gets hurt. Yeah. So it was kind of, but we should, we had a good year that year, actually, and we should have made the playoffs. But the next year, you know, Caleb, we traded Caleb. I'm like, we'd go back to rebuild. Jeez. Let me out. Let me out.

Let me out. I didn't even ask to get let out. It was more a mutual agreement. Yeah. He came to me. And he was like, I really don't want you to leave. He's like, you know, if you really want to, you know, I would like you to work with Andrew. But I love you to death, man.

No thanks. It's a better situation. Once you had gotten a taste of the winning. And that really happened full-fledged with Dallas, right? Yeah. What was that locker room like? What is that championship? What was it like to be a part of that, what was going on in Dallas at that time?

And everybody's positive, you know, like a positive, like positive vibe in the locker room. Everybody comes, everybody does their job. Everybody knows their role. Like, everybody's about one goal. You're about trying to win, you know. And you feel like when you come in the game, like you get to the arena, yeah, you feel like you're going to win every game. Right. Like in Minnesota, you know, when I was there in my first few years in league, it was like,

so we don't get beat by 30. Like, that's not, like, that's a tough feeling. It's tough. Especially when you had just. come off of two national titles. Right? You were on one of the great college teams of all time, and now you're walking and losing every night. Every night. Every night. Winning every night to losing every night. Right. So what do you think the biggest lessons you learned in Dallas were, both about what a champion

team is like and also like just for yourself? You got to come to work every day, but you've got to be positive. You know, everything's not going to go right, but you can't get down on yourself. And, you know, you're working for the team. Like, it's not about you. It's about, like, y'all. It's about the team. It's about you trying to win. You have one common goal.

It's no, don't be selfish. You think that's hard? It's not hard when you're on a good team. No, no, no. I mean, just the NBA in general to collect a bunch of guys that are more, that are more apt to worry about the team goal than individual. And I say that because it's a star league, right? see like when it's it's going to be the big showdown between you know lebron versus

kevin durant that they really do push individuality yeah but it depends what you put around those guys you don't have your superstar don't get me wrong we have a lot of super sargly but right you have to have role players to have a good team right can't have well unless you go on the state you can a bunch of superstars but not everybody has it there for superstars on one thing with durand signed there what was your reaction? action? They're going to be tough, man. There really no reactions.

Oh, well. Oh, well? Got to play. Still got to play. But, oh, well, like, if he wants to go there, it's basketball, man. You know, you're going to have a lot of good players no matter what. But still got to go out there and win a game. You do have to go out there and win a game.

All right. I want to talk about your team. You guys are like the hottest team in the NBA. Yeah, we're playing where right now. Right? You've won 11 to 12? I think you're third in the West right now. And so I saw you guys, I saw you guys in person last year.

And I remember talking to the guy next to me. I'm like, what is wrong with them? I'm like, everything is all. They just made the damn West Finals. And like they don't even talk to each other going back to the huddle. I'm like, they look like they can't stand playing with you. Like, what is, what happened here? And so just from somebody that was there and on that court,

and you are a guy that, like, smiles all the time. You weren't even smiling. Like, everybody just seemed, I don't know, something was off. Now, when I talked to Morae on the podcast, you know, he kind of said the Tile Lawson thing, you know, they tried to bring him in. It was kind of a square peg in a round hole, and then it didn't work, and then he kept trying, and then obviously they had all the McHale stuff going on, and then there was all the Dwight stuff, and so, I mean, but what happened?

There's a lot going on, just like you said. But how did you guys make the West Finals, and then the next year, look like, almost like you couldn't stand each other, which is weird because a lot of you guys are still on the team and you clearly like each other. But last year it was just like the chemistry just got zapped. I think it's the chemistry thing. I think it was tough. You know, when you try bring Ty, which Ty is a really good player. But for our team, you know, past hard and soul. So it's kind of, I feel like that was a little different move for us. I didn't even consider that. It kind of messes things up if you think about it.

Look how well past playing right now. And he's everybody's guy. Yeah, but it wasn't even a problem with it. You know, Pat was, Pat's great with it. He's great, but, I mean, the rest of you guys. Oh, we were all fine with Ty coming. We just, it's one of those things that doesn't work. Like, it didn't work.

Right. And, like, I think we should, James needs a ball in his hand. So I feel like this year, because then Tony did the right thing. James is a point guard. Right. You know, Pat plays out the ball, and you need a guy that can play without the ball. And, like, Pat's great. fits great beside James.

Right. And James can do his thing. Did you feel bad about the McHale stuff? That was tough for me. Yeah. It was only like 10 games. Like, he didn't even get a chance to turn it around after we went to the West of the Congress finals.

And it does seem like all you guys loved him. Yeah, I love Mike for sure. He drafted me. Right. Oh, that's right. Yeah, so that was my guy. Golly, man. You got a lot of, like, connections throughout your career, huh?

Yeah, so that was my guy. So it was tough when he left. It was tough. And, you know, I like J.B. J.B. He was in Minnesota with me, too, actually. Of course. Yeah, big shots there.

Yeah, it just didn't work. You know, Dwight was a little, I guess, you know, his contrary situation, probably weighing a little bit. They didn't know what he was going to do. And, you know, we kind of slowed. We started slowing down. We played a lot faster the year before. Our offense slowed down.

We weren't guarding anybody. It was just a bad situation for everybody all around. Do you think it was a hangover from the success of the prior year? See, that's why it's all so strange because typically this stuff happens if you got a bunch of new guys on the team or if it's not a good team. But you guys clearly were a really good team, good enough to be in that Western Conference finals. Good enough to come back in that Clippers series, which is totally bananas. Right? But you come back in that, you end up making the West finals.

And then the next year, it's mostly the same guys. It's the same coach. And it just doesn't worry. It's just basketball. Sometimes you don't have a good flow, and we didn't have a good flow at all the whole year last year. We still made the playoffs. It was crazy.

You did still make the playoffs. It was tough to make the playoffs in the West, and I couldn't believe we made it. But we learned from it, I feel like it was good for us. For a guy like James to have such a great year than to come, he still had a good year, but not the year he won it. I think it motivated him.

So I feel like that's why he's putting up with his numbers like he is. Why do you think the Harden Howard thing, didn't work necessarily like it maybe should have. I mean, obviously it was good enough to make the West finals, but it didn't become this devastating duo that I think probably was projected when it was put together. I feel like people probably made too much of it. They try to make more into it than it was. To be honest, I don't know how it didn't work, but it just didn't work.

Is it just not a good fit? It just wasn't a good fit. Right. Yeah, but, you know, Dwight, you know, he likes to. to post up. Dwight wants more post-ups. So for a guy, when you got James, like, James Hardin's the freaking best score in the world, like, it's hard to slow it down and throw it in the post when you...

You need rim runners. Yeah, right? You want a guy... Finisher's. Like, you got a bunch of them. Capella, Montres. Yeah, we got the, like, they fit so good around James. Right.

Like, Dwight's a little different. Like, he can't fight. Like, so he can't fault. Dwight, he's been posting up his whole career. Like, he wants the ball. And he's... And he's a little different. had a lot of success.

Yeah, he went to the finals before. Yeah. So it's, it can't, we can't fault the guy. But in our situation right now, we got clinical pellet, come set the screen, get out, go, go, run. That's what you do. You're going to get average double-double easy. Well, speaking of that, you guys get Mike Dantonie. Where are you when you find out that he's going to be your next head coach?

I think I was at home. I was in Houston. And what did you think? I was happy because Antonio, I knew we were going to play faster. But we're going to be a better. We're going to be a better team. How much is it like playing for Carl? Because you guys went fast, and those Denver teams went fast too.

It's a little different because we didn't have a superstar like that in Denver. We just had a bunch of guys that we played together really well. We just played together really well, and the ball is always moving. So it's different. You guys, like James makes things happen. So it's just different. What's the Antonio like? Great guys.

He's a player's coach. He's a good coach. Yeah, a good guy. He comes in and he's talking to you guys about the way you're going to play. Did you ever think that you'd play in a basketball game where you guys attempted 63-pointers? He said we're going to get him up. That is.

Yeah, he said we're going to shoot three. He's NBA record. Yeah, we're shooting three. That's what we do. That's why we never had a game. We're going to shoot three. We've got a chance to get back in the game. When he comes in and he's establishing the way you're going to play

and he says, basically, James is going to have the ball. ball. James is going to be like almost a de facto point guard. When you see it for the first time, do you, could you have foreseen these kind of absurd numbers of the guys putting up? Yeah. Yeah?

You thought, holy mackerel, this guy's going to. He's getting the ball. Let him do this. Then, because then if he, when he's at the point guard, like defenders can't deny him. He doesn't have to work hard to get the ball. If he's just got it. Got the ball already.

So. It tastes stressed up for us. When are you impressed by him? And don't say every night. But like when was the moment where you were like, holy mackerel? Just when you're sitting in the bench, you look up, it's not even like, you don't realize what he's doing until you look up. You're like, oh, man, okay.

In the first half, 18, 99. Oh, man, this is. People don't realize how hard it is to put up those numbers. Yeah, he does. in a full game. Yeah, he doesn't like a quarter, quarter and a half. Like, you look up, oh, 18, 99. That's not a bad night.

How did, you have to guard him in practice, presumably, or have had to. So you faced him more than you faced a lot of different stars. But is he is, is he as hard a guy as there is to guard? Yeah, he's probably one of the hardest guys, guard, just because he knows how he draw fouls, too. How annoying is that? So it's tough. As a defender.

When you're a defender, when the guy is grabbing you and you're getting called the foul or He pump fakes to death or he jumps into you And he can shoot so you kind of want to go for the pump fakes Because he's probably going to knock the three down So if I don't jump Right Then he can drive, he can fit

He's strong So James is tough Who else for you is tough Lebron's tough Um Kevin the Rans is tough Just because Kevin Rans shoots over you He's like seven foot like seven foot guard There's nothing I can do

Right I jumped as high as I can He's got to make it tough on him Those are guys real tough. It's a lot of tough guys in the NBA. Is there somebody you, I think people would say you can be an irritant. You're smiling all the time. You're super high energy.

Not like Beverly irritant, right, where they want to punch you. But you can get under guy's skin, right? By the way you're playing. Tell me a time where you absolutely knew you got under somebody's skin. I have no idea. Somebody, like, has anybody ever really gotten mad at you? Not really? On the court?

Because you're always smiling. If you're always smiling, it's hard to get mad. It's hard to get mad at the guy. If they get mad, I'm just looking, okay, I'm going to keep filing you. I foul every possession. They can't call them all. So what are we going to do? Who taught you to foul every position?

That's the way I've always played. Always. Yeah. I feel like, hey, if I file every possession, you can't call them all. So is it grabbing? No, I'm just... Pushing them? I'm just joking.

No, you're not. No. You do foul all the time. You got to grab, got to get any advantage you can get when you're a defender because the offense player has advantage always. Right. And then you, so you got to just get the stop and then you've got to take off running. Got to go.

Right. What's different about this team than teams that you have been on in the past? Because like I said, you got the hottest team going. You guys have played really well. You've obviously taken the Dantone's system. Hardin's putting up crazy numbers. and it just feels so much different than last year, right? I think this is like, this is a good feel, just like on the good teams I've been on.

This is a good feel. Everybody likes each other. And it's positive, man. I feel like when you have a positive locker room and a positive atmosphere, the game's easier. I feel like everybody's positive. There's no, like, last year, like, if you shot a shot, it's like, man, I can't miss. You don't want to miss, now if you miss, all right, we're going to shoot the next one. Who cares?

We're scoring 130 anyway. So it makes no. And there is, it's ultimate, like everybody's got a green light. Yeah, he wants you to shoot. If you're open, you got to shoot it. If you don't shoot it, you're messing up the offense. Besides the fact that they're obviously really good three-point shooters. Why have Gordon and Anderson been able to assimilate so well?

Getting so much easy, so many easy shots. They're wide open. Like, James has the ball in his hand, so somebody has to, you got to guard him. And Clint, our bays roll hard, so if you don't tag our bags, we're going to be dunking, so you got to give up something. Yeah. That injury hurts, doesn't it? It hurts, but they say like maybe six weeks, right?

Yeah, six weeks, but luckily we got Neney and Montres. Right. So both those guys can really play, and they'll hold it down until he gets back. Right. Clint's going to be good. Clint's about he's good. Yeah, now when you see young guys in the league, now that you've been around so long, do you look at it?

I'm sure, like, when you're first coming up, it's almost like. like they're my competition or maybe you could resent them, right? You could get compared to your peers, but now that you've been in the league for so long, right? You look at the young guys rather different, right? Is that fair? Yeah, you want the young guys to be good. You know, you try to help them. Well, I try to help.

Yeah. You want them to be good. And Clint, he's going to be one of those good guys. You know when they do the whole, the letter to my younger self, and you've seen all these retirement stuff and everything that's going on, right? But people, like, that's the thing. Now, a lot of these NBA veterans, they'll say, I wish I would have known whatever, right?

What about you? If you could go back and talk to Corey Brewer that came in the league at Minnesota as the seventh pick overall, what would you tell him? Just keep working hard, man. For me, I wish you got to work. Just work hard as you can, get better.

I don't know, man. Just the situation I was in. I don't know what I would tell my younger son. When you lose it, man. Don't go outside and do nothing crazy to yourself. That was like, that's tough question. You were that down? What?

I was depressed. That's what I'm saying. Did you drink? Why? No. He's only going to make it worse. Drink, you really might. You really might.

Do something stupid. It'd be worse. Yeah, it's just, man, you losing every night. Like, I go from winning every night to losing every night. It's cold. I go from sunny Florida to cold. You had like the worst introduction to the NBA. Yeah, man.

Culture shock, everything. Tough introduction. I don't know what I'll tell my anger yourself. Just keep your head up. Keep your head up. What do you tell these young guys that are on the team now? Because they're walking into a winning culture, which is a great place to develop. Tell them how lucky they are, man.

You're in a great situation. Because you know what it's like. Yeah, it can be. It's some bad situations you can get in. You're in a great situation. Work hard. And once you get your chance, you got to take advantage of it. Yeah.

Because you will. Everybody gets a chance. You just got to take advantage of it when you get your chance. All right. We'll be right back with Corey Brewer, but a quick word from our sponsors today. Capital One knows you've got questions about your credit. You may be asking, who's really a charge of my credit score? Or how does my credit actually work? That's why Capital One created the Credit Wise app. So you can check your credit score anytime you want right in the app. And it's free to everyone, Capital One customer or not. In fact, millions of Credit Wise users have improved their score by 20 points or more. So download the app for free today. depends on presence of credit history from TransUnion. Credit-wise is offered by Capital One Bank, USA, N.A. The NBA show also brought to you by Vicerland.

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Watch Deezis and Mero on TV on Vicerland every Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. Go to Vicerland.com to find your channel and check out some free episodes. The brand is strong. You talk about Capella and you think he's going to be really good. Right? What other young guys around the league have you, like, perked up and noticed? And B, he's good. Oh, gosh.

Oh, man. He's going to be. I've never seen a big guy move like he does. Moos, shoots the three. Crosses people over. Yeah, he can really play. We played Devin Booker last night. He's good.

I like Booker. He can really play. He talks a lot. He does. I don't really play that any attention. He does. Nobody talks trash to you? Who's the best?

Who's the best trash talk? Yeah. Low-key trash talker. Like, that people, you know, because everybody knows Dremont on this, you know, barking the whole time. guys that are actually saying things that people would never catch. You don't know. Yes, I really don't know.

Who's talk trash to you? Well, when I first got to leave, like, Kobe used to, you know, when Kobe's kicking your butt, he's letting you know about it. What's he saying? Edd. You can't stop that. Oh, you can't stop it. You can't stop that.

Here comes again. He'd be like, he'd be like, what do you say to this? It's Kobe, though. You're like, I know I can't stop it, man. I'm trying. That's the move, though. You can't stop this. You can't stop it.

Here it comes again. That would be very depressing. I was bad depressing. I like those kind of trash talk, though. Yeah. I like that kind of trash. It's not, it's just. Do you ever talk?

It depends. If you get it going, everybody talks, if they get it going. What's your go-to? I'm similar. You can't stop me. Same move. Same move? I do the same move to break 10 times in a road.

When you see the way you guys are playing and you're shooting all these threes, right? You inevitably will hear the criticism, right? Team that shoots that much, live by the three, die by the three. And so, yeah, it's all fun and they're going to score a lot of points. They're going to win a ton of games. When it comes playoff time, right, you're just inevitably going to have that off night. Why can this work even on the biggest level? And clearly, listen, hey, word for Golden State?

Yeah. The way I got to shoot the ball, I think we're going to shoot good four out of seven games. Huh? I said, we're going to shoot good four out of seven games. Well, I don't even know how many three. You haven't taken that many threes this year, not as compared to the Rockins. No. Huh?

Maybe like 40? Probably taking 40 or 50. Right? I just didn't take some of three days. I don't really have to shoot. I just play my role. It's just fun to be. It's fun to watch right now.

You just watch. Yeah, we're rolling right now. Watch them knock down threes. Yeah, we're rolling. So we're rolling, like, play your roll. You don't. You couldn't care less. He's trying to win, man.

Yeah, you know what? And that's like the best thing you can do, right? Be a winner. That's how you keep getting contracts. Yeah, teams want you. Right. As long as you're positive. I do wonder, man.

You know, the way you were saying how it, like, saved you by being on that Dallas team, How many guys, right, who are just in the league, losing situation. You brought up one earlier in Johnny Flynn. Yeah, that was crazy. I thought Johnny Flynn was going to be ugly. I thought he was going to be amazing. Right?

Yeah. Awesome at Syracuse. High draft pick. He averaged like 14 and 7 his rookie year or something. Right. Crazy numbers is rookie year. Yeah. And then just some guys, you just wonder, right?

Like, is it, do you buy into the whole? like it's your spot as much as it is your talent. Like, okay, so like when I'm saying like, when people bring up is Kauai Leonard or Kauai, if Kauai goes to wherever, Charlotte, right, or whatever. And he's clearly like super talented. He's a great, great player, and he's longest all get out. But part of it is this growth and development within that San Antonio framework

that you've got to believe they've at least maximized. him if not. He was always going to be good. It's not like he's going to be a washout if he goes somewhere else. Coral's always going to be good. He was always going to be good. Right. He's just, he's maxed out.

He's going to max out his potential in San Antonio. You think your career's different if you got drafted to a winner? I'm pretty sure it would have been, for sure. Yeah. In what ways? Just, you know, a better situation. You become a better player. Yeah.

You learn more. You're around better veteran guys. Right. It's just different situations. What do you do for fun? I got two little boys, seven and two. Seven and two. Yeah, so Christmas is huge.

People are going to be listening to this as they're driving for Christmas. Oh, yeah. What they want? What do seven and two want? My two-year-old is all about dinosaurs right now. Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs. So you got a bunch of dinosaurs.

My seven-year-old, he's... Like, you're talking toys? Yeah, toy dinosaurs? Yeah, toy dinosaurs. All kind of toy dinosaurs. All kind of toy dinosaurs. My seven-year-old, he wanted a football for some reason. So, like, I want to football.

I got him with football and some hover. His dad is Cory Brewer. He wants a football. Do you feel like you're failing if you're in the NBA and your kid wants a football? Nah, because I really don't let him play football. So I let him play football. You don't? Not really.

I really am not. Did you? Yeah, I did. I played everything. I played football, basketball, baseball. And why would you not want him to play football now? Dangerous? It's dangerous, man.

All the hair injuries. He's only six. I'm going to let him play eventually. Just right now it's kind of like... Were you a receiver? Play receiver, yeah. Awesome. I was like, that's pretty good.

I mean, you're gigantic, right? A 6-9 receiver? I wasn't 6-9 at the time. How tall were you in high school? I was like 6-1, 6-2 in my freshman year. I was like 6-4 in my sophomore year when I played. Then I quit out of my sophomore year. You quit football at your sophomore year?

Even though I had a... I was pretty good. And only basketball after that? Yeah, I ran track too. I did high jump, long jump, triple jump, right in the 200 for him. So the 7-year-old wants a football, the 2-year-old wants dinosaurs. Yeah. You've got it easy.

Yeah, it's pretty easy. Does a 7-year-old even play video games? Yeah, he has everything. He's got all the video. He's got everything. He's got everything but a football? Yeah. I think of football somewhere in the house.

Of all things, Corey. He's probably, he's got the headsets for the PlayStation 4 and everything, right? But he doesn't have a football? We got a football, man. He just wants a new one. He wants a new football. What about you? What did you want?

I don't know. I didn't really have. Nothing. You just buy what you want? That's what you do when you're in the NBA, right? What do you buy? You a car guy? No, I don't buy too much.

No? Yeah. You save? Yeah. I don't buy. You don't buy. I got kids. I spend on the kids.

I got family. But you're not watches, cars. You don't care about any of that stuff. No. So you didn't need, and you're impossible to buy four for Christmas. Because you don't even want anything, right? Yeah, my mom gets me socks and underwear. What do you do?

What do you do? Like now, like even when you're on the road. Are you video game guy? Are you movies? Obviously, you got the kids. Yeah, watch the movies. So I watch, you know, watch everything, watch movies, different movies. Netflix? Yeah, Netflix.

You like Netflix? You like Netflix? Any TV shows? Yeah, I watch, um, what I was like Gotham. He was Gotham fan. Yeah? I'm like the Marvel, you know, like Gotham, Supergirl. Is Supergirl good?

It's pretty good. I started watching it. I'm still watching it. Pretty good. Yeah. Big Bang Theory. I watched Big Bang Theory. What else?

It's different stuff like that. I love Criminal Minds. Oh, criminal minds. Yeah. All right, if you weren't a basketball player, what would you be doing? I wasn't a basketball player. Probably, um, I don't know.

I've probably been in Portland, Tennessee, working at a factory or farm. Is that what home, that's what homes like? Yeah, you do farm. Everybody's farm. Can you farm? Can you drive a tractor? Yeah. A combine?

Been driving a tractor that was 7. What? Yeah. You can do it? You think you could. I haven't driven one in a long time, but I'm pretty sure it's. You could be a farmer, though? Yeah, I could be a farmer.

Look at you. How about that? There ain't a lot of NBA games. guys I could say that. There's not a lot of farmers, right? You think if there's anybody on your team that's ever driven a tractor or a combine? On my team? Yeah.

Probably nobody. No way. Yeah, nobody. You think Hardin could drive a tractor? He probably couldn't start. All right, this has been a great season so far for you guys, so I don't think you can, I don't think you can ask for anything more after, like, what, 30 games? Yeah, just keep winning, man.

We're playing well. Keep winning. Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate that. Corey Brewer from the Houston Rockets. It's going to do it for another episode of the Ringer NBA show. If you dig what you're here and go give us a rating and review on iTunes. And we'll talk to you next week.

Everybody have a great, great Christmas. Today's show brought to you by Capital One's Credit Wise app. Capital One created the Credit Wise app so you can check your credit score anytime you want right in the app. It's free to everyone. So download Credit Wise today. Availability depends on presence of credit history from TransUnion. CreditWise is offered by Capital One Bank USANA.